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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Step-Mother, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+(#35 in our series by Charlotte M. Yonge)
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+Title: The Young Step-Mother
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: June, 2004  [EBook #5843]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 11, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE YOUNG STEP-MOTHER ***
+
+
+
+
+This Project Gutenberg Etext of The Young Stepmother by Charlotte M Yonge
+was prepared by Sandra Laythorpe, laythorpe@btinternet.com. A web page for
+Charlotte M Yonge will be found at http://www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm.
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG STEP-MOTHER;
+
+or
+
+A CHRONICLE OF MISTAKES.
+
+By CHARLOTTE M YONGE
+
+
+
+
+
+Fail--yet rejoice, because no less
+The failure that makes thy distress
+May teach another full success.
+
+Nor with thy share of work be vexed
+Though incomplete and even perplexed
+It fits exactly to the next.
+                       ADELAIDE A PROCTOR
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+
+'Have you talked it over with her?' said Mr. Ferrars, as his little
+slender wife met him under the beeches that made an avenue of the
+lane leading to Fairmead vicarage.
+
+'Yes!' was the answer, which the vicar was not slow to understand.
+
+'I cannot say I expected much from your conversation, and perhaps we
+ought not to wish it.  We are likely to see with selfish eyes, for
+what shall we do without her?'
+
+'Dear Albinia!  You always taunted me with having married your sister
+as much as yourself.'
+
+'So I shall again, if you cannot give her up with a good grace.'
+
+'If I could have had my own way in disposing of her.'
+
+'Perhaps the hero of your own composition might be less satisfactory
+to her than is Kendal.'
+
+'At least he should be minus the children!'
+
+'I fancy the children are one great attraction.  Do you know how many
+there are?'
+
+'Three; but if Albinia knows their ages she involves them in a
+discreet haze.  I imagine some are in their teens.'
+
+'Impossible, Winifred, he is hardly five-and-thirty.'
+
+'Thirty-eight, he said yesterday, and he married very early.  I asked
+Albinia if her son would be in tail-coats; but she thought I was
+laughing at her, and would not say.  She is quite eager at the notion
+of being governess to the girls.'
+
+'She has wanted scope for her energies,' said Mr. Ferrars.  'Even
+spoiling her nephew, and being my curate, have not afforded field
+enough for her spirit of usefulness.'
+
+'That is what I am afraid of.'
+
+'Of what, Winifred?'
+
+'That it is my fault.  Before our marriage, you and she were the
+whole world to each other; but since I came, I have seen, as you say,
+that the craving for work was strong, and I fear it actuates her more
+than she knows.'
+
+'No such thing.  It is a case of good hearty love.  What, are you
+afraid of that, too?'
+
+'Yes, I am.  I grudge her giving her fresh whole young heart away to
+a man who has no return to make.  His heart is in his first wife's
+grave.  Yes, you may smile, Maurice, as if I were talking romance;
+but only look at him, poor man!  Did you ever see any one so utterly
+broken down?  She can hardly beguile a smile from him.'
+
+'His melancholy is one of his charms in her eyes.'
+
+'So it may be, as a sort of interesting romance.  I am sure I pity
+the poor man heartily, but to see her at three-and-twenty, with her
+sweet face and high spirits, give herself away to a man who looks but
+half alive, and cannot, if he would, return that full first love--have
+the charge of a tribe of children, be spied and commented on by the
+first wife's relations--Maurice, I cannot bear it.'
+
+'It is not what we should have chosen,' said her husband, 'but it has
+a bright side.  Kendal is a most right-minded, superior man, and she
+appreciates him thoroughly.  She has great energy and cheerfulness,
+and if she can comfort him, and rouse him into activity, and be the
+kind mother she will be to his poor children, I do not think we ought
+to grudge her from our own home.'
+
+'You and she have so strong a feeling for motherless children!'
+
+'Thinking of Kendal as I do, I have but one fear for her.'
+
+'I have many--the chief being the grandmother.'
+
+'Mine will make you angry, but it is my only one.  You, who have only
+known her since she has subdued it, have probably never guessed that
+she has that sort of quick sensitive temper--'
+
+'Maurice, Maurice! as if I had not been a most provoking, presuming
+sister-in-law.  As if I had not acted so that if Albinia ever had a
+temper, she must have shown it.'
+
+'I knew you would not believe me, and I really am not afraid of her
+doing any harm by it, if that is what you suspect me of.  No, indeed;
+but I fear it may make her feel any trials of her position more
+acutely than a placid person would.'
+
+'Oho! so you own there will be trials!'
+
+'My dear Winifred, as if I had not sat up till twelve last night
+laying them before Albinia.  How sick the poor child must be of our
+arguments, when there is no real objection, and she is so much
+attached!  Have you heard anything about these connexions of his?
+Did you not write to Mrs. Nugent?  I wish she were at home.'
+
+'I had her answer by this afternoon's post, but there is nothing to
+tell.  Mr. Kendal has only been settled at Bayford Bridge a few
+years, and she never visited any one there, though Mr. Nugent had met
+Mr. Kendal several times before his wife's death, and liked him.
+Emily is charmed to have Albinia for a neighbour.'
+
+'Does she know nothing of the Meadows' family?'
+
+'Nothing but that old Mrs. Meadows lives in the town with one
+unmarried daughter.  She speaks highly of the clergyman.'
+
+'John Dusautoy?  Ay, he is admirable--not that I have done more than
+see him at visitations when he was curate at Lauriston.'
+
+'Is he married?'
+
+'I fancy he is, but I am not sure.  There is one good friend for
+Albinia any way!'
+
+'And now for your investigations.  Did you see Colonel Bury?'
+
+'I did, but he could say little more than we knew.  He says nothing
+could be more exemplary than Kendal's whole conduct in India, he only
+regretted that he kept so much aloof from others, that his principle
+and gentlemanly feeling did not tell as much as could have been
+wished.  He has always been wrapped up in his own pursuits--a perfect
+dictionary of information.'
+
+'We had found out that, though he is so silent.  I should think him a
+most elegant scholar.'
+
+'And a deep one.  He has studied and polished his acquirements to the
+utmost.  I assure you, Winifred, I mean to be proud of my brother-in-law.'
+
+'What did you hear of the first wife?'
+
+'It was an early marriage.  He went home as soon as he had sufficient
+salary, married her, and brought her out.  She was a brilliant dark
+beauty, who became quickly a motherly, housewifely, common-place
+person--I should think there had been a poet's love, never awakened
+from.'
+
+'The very thing that has always struck me when, poor man, he has
+tried to be civil to me.  Here is a man, sensible himself, but who
+has never had the hap to live with sensible women.'
+
+'When their children grew too old for India, she came into some
+little property at Bayford Bridge, which enabled him to retire.
+Colonel Bury came home in the same ship, and saw much of them, liked
+him better and better, and seems to have been rather wearied by her.
+A very good woman, he says, and Kendal most fondly attached; but as
+to comparing her with Miss Ferrars, he could not think of it for a
+moment.  So they settled at Bayford, and there, about two years ago,
+came this terrible visitation of typhus fever.'
+
+'I remember how Colonel Bury used to come and sigh over his friend's
+illness and trouble.'
+
+'He could not help going over it again.  The children all fell ill
+together--the two eldest were twin boys, one puny, the other a very
+fine fellow, and his father's especial pride and delight.  As so
+often happens, the sickly one was spared, the healthy one was taken.'
+
+'Then Albinia will have an invalid on her hands!'
+
+'The Colonel says this Edmund was a particularly promising boy, and
+poor Kendal felt the loss dreadfully.  He sickened after that, and
+his wife was worn out with nursing and grief, and sank under the
+fever at once.  Poor Kendal has never held up his head since; he had
+a terrible relapse.'
+
+'And,' said Winifred, 'he no sooner recovers than he goes and marries
+our Albinia!'
+
+'Two years, my dear.'
+
+'Pray explain to me, Maurice, why, when people become widowed in any
+unusually lamentable way, they always are the first to marry again.'
+
+'Incorrigible.  I meant to make you pity him.'
+
+'I did, till I found I had wasted my pity.  Why could not these
+Meadowses look after his children!  Why must the Colonel bring him
+here?  I believe it was with malice prepense!'
+
+'The Colonel went to see after him, and found him so drooping and
+wretched, that he insisted on bringing him home with him, and old
+Mrs. Meadows and her daughter almost forced him to accept the
+invitation.'
+
+'They little guessed what the Colonel would be at!'
+
+'You will be better now you have the Colonel to abuse,' said her
+husband.
+
+'And pray what do you mean to say to the General?'
+
+'Exactly what I think.'
+
+'And to the aunts?' slyly asked the wife.
+
+'I think I shall leave you all that correspondence.  It will be too
+edifying to see you making common cause with the aunts.'
+
+'That comes of trying to threaten one's husband; and here they come,'
+said Winifred.  'Well, Maurice, what can't be cured must be endured.
+Albinia'a heart is gone, he is a very good man, and spite of India,
+first wife, and melancholy, he does not look amiss!'
+
+Mr. Ferrars smiled at the chary, grudging commendation of the tall,
+handsome man who advanced through the beech-wood, but it was too true
+that his clear olive complexion had not the line of health, that
+there was a world of oppression on his broad brow and deep hazel
+eyes, and that it was a dim, dreamy, reluctant smile that was
+awakened by the voice of the lady who walked by his side, as if
+reverencing his grave mood.
+
+She was rather tall, very graceful, and well made, but her features
+were less handsome than sweet, bright, and sensible.  Her hair was
+nut-brown, in long curled waves; her eyes, deep soft grey, and though
+downcast under the new sympathies, new feelings, and responsibilities
+that crowded on her, the smile and sparkle that lighted them as she
+blushed and nodded to her brother and sister, showed that liveliness
+was the natural expression of that engaging face.
+
+Say what they would, it was evident that Albinia Ferrars had cast in
+her lot with Edmund Kendal, and that her energetic spirit and love of
+children animated her to embrace joyfully the cares which such a
+choice must impose on her.
+
+As might have been perceived by one glance at the figure, step, and
+bearing of Mr. Ferrars, perfectly clerical though they were, he
+belonged to a military family.  His father had been a distinguished
+Peninsular officer, and his brother, older by many years, held a
+command in Canada.  Maurice and Albinia, early left orphans, had,
+with a young cousin, been chiefly under the charge of their aunts,
+Mrs. Annesley and Miss Ferrars, and had found a kind home in their
+house in Mayfair, until Maurice had been ordained to the family
+living of Fairmead, and his sister had gone to live with him there,
+extorting the consent of her elder brother to her spending a more
+real and active life than her aunts' round of society could offer
+her.
+
+The aunts lamented, but they could seldom win their darling to them
+for more than a few weeks at a time, even after their nephew Maurice
+had--as they considered--thrown himself away on a little lively lady
+of Irish parentage, no equal in birth or fortune, in their opinion,
+for the grandson of Lord Belraven.
+
+They had been very friendly to the young wife, but their hopes had
+all the more been fixed on Albinia; and even Winifred could afford
+them some generous pity in the engagement of their favourite niece to
+a retired East India Company's servant--a widower with three
+children.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+
+The equinoctial sun had long set, and the blue haze of March east
+wind had deepened into twilight and darkness when Albinia Kendal
+found herself driving down the steep hilly street of Bayford.  The
+town was not large nor modern enough for gas, and the dark street was
+only lighted here and there by a shop of more pretension; the plate-glass
+of the enterprising draper, with the light veiled by shawls and
+ribbons, the 'purple jars,' green, ruby, and crimson of the chemist;
+and the modest ray of the grocer, revealing busy heads driving
+Saturday-night bargains.
+
+'How well I soon shall know them all,' said Albinia, looking at her
+husband, though she knew she could not see his face, as he leant back
+silently in his corner, and she tried to say no more.  She was sure
+that coming home was painful to him; he had been so willing to put it
+off, and to prolong those pleasant seaside days, when there had been
+such pleasant reading, walking, musing, and a great deal of happy
+silence.
+
+Down the hill, and a little way on level ground--houses on one side,
+something like hedge or shrubbery on the other--a stop--a gate
+opened--a hollow sound beneath the carriage, as though crossing a
+wooden bridge--trees--bright windows--an open door--and light
+streaming from it.
+
+'Here is your home, Albinia,' said that deep musical voice that she
+loved the better for the subdued melancholy of the tones, and the
+suppressed sigh that could not be hidden.
+
+'And my children,' she eagerly said, as he handed her out, and,
+springing to the ground, she hurried to the open door opposite,
+where, in the lamp-light, she saw, moving about in shy curiosity and
+embarrassment, two girls in white frocks and broad scarlet sashes,
+and a boy, who, as she advanced, retreated with his younger sister to
+the fireplace, while the elder one, a pretty, and rather formal
+looking girl of twelve, stood forward.
+
+Albinia held out her arms, saying, 'You are Lucy, I am sure,' and
+eagerly kissed the girl's smiling, bright face.
+
+'Yes, I am Lucy,' was the well-pleased answer, 'I am glad you are
+come.'
+
+'I hope we shall be very good friends,' said Albinia, with the sweet
+smile that few, young or old, could resist.  'And this is Gilbert,'
+as she kissed the blushing cheek of a thin boy of thirteen--'and
+Sophia.'
+
+Sophia, who was eleven, had not stirred to meet her.  She alone
+inherited her father's fine straight profile, and large black eyes,
+but she had the heaviness of feature that sometimes goes with very
+dark complexions.  The white frock did not become her brown neck and
+arms, her thick black hair was arranged in too womanly a manner, and
+her head and face looked too large; moreover, there was no lighting-up
+to answer the greeting, and Albinia was disappointed.
+
+Poor child, she thought, she is feeling deeply that I am an
+interloper, it will be different now her father is coming.
+
+Mr. Kendal was crossing the hall, and as he entered he took the hand
+and kissed the forehead of each of the three, but Sophia stood with
+the same half sullen indifference--it might be shyness, or
+sensibility.
+
+'How much you are grown!' he said, looking at the children with some
+surprise.
+
+In fact, though Albinia knew their ages, they were all on a larger
+scale than she had expected, and looked too old for the children of a
+man of his youthful appearance.  Gilbert had the slight look of rapid
+growth; Lucy, though not so tall, and with a small, clear, bright
+face, had the air of a little woman, and Sophia's face might have
+befitted any age.
+
+'Yes, papa,' said Lucy; 'Gilbert has grown an inch-and-a-half since
+October, for we measured him.'
+
+'Have you been well, Gilbert?' continued Mr. Kendal, anxiously.
+
+'I have the toothache, said Gilbert, piteously.
+
+'Happily, nothing more serious,' thrust in Lucy; 'Mr. Bowles told
+Aunt Maria that he considers Gilbert's health much improved.'
+
+Albinia asked some kind questions about the delinquent tooth, but the
+answers were short; and, to put an end to the general constraint, she
+asked Lucy to show her to her room.
+
+It was a pretty bay-windowed room, and looked cheerful in the
+firelight.  Lucy's tongue was at once unloosed, telling that
+Gilbert's tutor, Mr. Salsted, had insisted on his having his tooth
+extracted, and that he had refused, saying it was quite well; but
+Lucy gave it as her opinion that he much preferred the toothache to
+his lessons.
+
+'Where does Mr. Salsted live?'
+
+'At Tremblam, about two miles off; Gilbert rides the pony over there
+every day, except when he has the toothache, and then he stays at
+home.'
+
+'And what do you do?'
+
+'We went to Miss Belmarche till the end of our quarter, and since
+that we have been at home, or with grandmamma.  Do you _really_ mean
+that we are to study with you?'
+
+'I should like it, my dear.  I have been looking forward very much to
+teaching you and Sophia.'
+
+'Thank you, mamma.'
+
+The word was said with an effort as if it came strangely, but it
+thrilled Albinia's heart, and she kissed Lucy, who clung to her, and
+returned the caress.
+
+'I shall tell Gilbert and Sophy what a dear mamma you are,' she said.
+'Do you know, Sophy says she shall never call you anything but Mrs.
+Kendal; and I know Gilbert means the same.'
+
+'Let them call me whatever suits them best,' said Albinia; 'I had
+rather they waited till they feel that they like to call me as you
+have done--thank you for it, dear Lucy.  You must not fancy I shall
+be at all hurt at your thinking of times past.  I shall want you to
+tell me of them, and of your own dear mother, and what will suit papa
+best.'
+
+Lucy looked highly gratified, and eagerly said, 'I am sure I shall
+love you just like my own mamma.'
+
+'No,' said Albinia, kindly; 'I do not expect that, my dear.  I don't
+ask for any more than you can freely give, dear child.  You must bear
+with having me in that place, and we will try and help each other to
+make your papa comfortable; and, Lucy, you will forgive me, if I am
+impetuous, and make mistakes.'
+
+Lucy's little clear black eyes looked as if nothing like this had
+ever come within her range of observation, and Albinia could
+sympathize with her difficulty of reply.
+
+Mr. Kendal was not in the drawing-room when they re-entered, there
+was only Gilbert nursing his toothache by the fire, and Sophy sitting
+in the middle of the rug, holding up a screen.  She said something
+good-natured to each, but neither responded graciously, and Lucy went
+on talking, showing off the room, the chiffonieres, the ornaments,
+and some pretty Indian ivory carvings.  There was a great ottoman of
+Aunt Maria's work, and a huge cushion with an Arab horseman, that
+Lucy would uncover, whispering, 'Poor mamma worked it,' while Sophy
+visibly winced, and Albinia hurried it into the chintz cover again,
+lest Mr. Kendal should come.  But Lucy had full time to be
+communicative about the household with such a satisfied, capable
+manner, that Albinia asked if she had been keeping house all this
+time.
+
+'No; old Nurse kept the keys, and managed till now; but she went this
+morning.'
+
+Sophy's mouth twitched.
+
+'She was so very fond--' continued Lucy.
+
+'Don't!' burst out Sophy, almost the first word Albinia had heard
+from her; but no more passed, for Mr. Kendal came in, and Lucy's
+conversation instantly was at an end.'
+
+Before him she was almost as silent as the others, and he seldom
+addressed himself to her, only inquiring once after her grandmamma's
+health, and once calling Sophy out of the way when she was standing
+between the fire and--He finished with the gesture of command,
+whether he said 'Your mamma,' none could tell.
+
+It was late, and the meal was not over before bed-time, when Albinia
+lingered to find remedies for Gilbert's toothache, pleased to feel
+herself making a commencement of motherly care, and to meet an
+affectionate glance of thanks from Mr. Kendal's eye.  Gilbert, too,
+thanked her with less shyness than before, and was hopeful about the
+remedy; and with the feeling of having made a beginning, she ran down
+to tell Mr. Kendal that she thought he had hardly done justice to the
+children--they were fine creatures--something so sweet and winning
+about Lucy--she liked Gilbert's countenance--Sophy must have
+something deep and noble in her.
+
+He lifted his head to look at her bright face, and said, 'They are
+very much obliged to you.'
+
+'You must not say that, they are my own.'
+
+'I will not say it again, but as I look at you, and the home to which
+I have brought you, I feel that I have acted selfishly.'
+
+Albinia timidly pressed his hand, 'Work was always what I wished,'
+she said, 'if only I could do anything to lighten your grief and
+care.'
+
+He gave a deep, heavy sigh.  Albinia felt that if he had hoped to
+have lessened the sadness, he had surely found it again at his own
+door.  He roused himself, however, to say, 'This is using you ill,
+Albinia; no one is more sensible of it than I am.'
+
+'I never sought more than you can give,' she murmured; 'I only wish
+to do what I can for you, and you will not let me disturb you.'
+
+'I am very grateful to you,' was his answer; a sad welcome for a
+bride.  'And these poor children will owe everything to you.'
+
+'I wish I may do right by them,' said Albinia, fervently.
+
+'The flower of the flock'--began Mr. Kendal, but he broke off at
+once.
+
+Albinia had told Winifred that she could bear to have his wife's
+memory first with him, and that she knew that she could not
+compensate to him for his loss, but the actual sight of his dejection
+came on her with a chill, and she had to call up all her energies and
+hopes, and, still better, the thought of strength not her own, to
+enable her to look cheerfully on the prospect.  Sleep revived her
+elastic spirits, and with eager curiosity she drew up her blind in
+the morning, for the first view of her new home.
+
+But there was a veil--moisture made the panes resemble ground glass,
+and when she had rubbed that away, and secured a clear corner, her
+range of vision was not much more extensive.  She could only see the
+grey outline of trees and shrubs, obscured by the heavy mist; and on
+the lawn below, a thick cloud that seemed to hang over a dark space
+which she suspected to be a large pond.
+
+'There is very little to be gained by looking out here!' Albinia
+soliloquized.  'It is not doing the place justice to study it on a
+misty, moisty morning.  It looks now as if that fever might have come
+bodily out of the pond.  I'll have no more to say to it till the sun
+has licked up the fog, and made it bright!  Sunday morning--my last
+Sunday without school-teaching I hope!  I famish to begin again--and
+I will make time for that, and the girls too!  I am glad he consents
+to my doing whatever I please in that way!  I hope Mr. Dusautoy will!
+I wish Edmund knew him better--but oh! what a shy man it is!'
+
+With a light step she went down-stairs, and found Mr Kendal waiting
+for her in the dining-room, his face brightening as she entered.
+
+'I am sorry Bayford should wear this heavy cloud to receive you,' he
+said.
+
+'It will soon clear,' she answered, cheerfully.  'Have you heard of
+poor Gilbert this morning?'
+
+'Not yet.'  Then, after a pause, 'I have generally gone to Mrs.
+Meadows after the morning service,' he said, speaking with
+constraint.
+
+'You will take me?' said Albinia.  'I wish it, I assure you.'
+
+It was evidently what he wished her to propose, and he added, 'She
+must never feel herself neglected, and it will be better at once.'
+
+'So much more cordial,' said Albinia.  'Pray let us go!'
+
+They were interrupted by the voices of the girls--not unpleasing
+voices, but loud and unsubdued, and with a slight tone of
+provincialism, which seemed to hurt Mr. Kendal's ears, for he said,
+'I hope you will tune those voices to something less unlike your
+own.'
+
+As he spoke, the sisters appeared in the full and conscious rustling
+of new lilac silk dresses, which seemed to have happily carried off
+all Sophy's sullenness, for she made much more brisk and civil
+answers, and ran across the room in a boisterous manner, when her
+father sent her to see whether Gilbert were up.
+
+There was a great clatter, and Gilbert chased her in, breathless and
+scolding, but the tongues were hushed before papa, and no more was
+heard than that the tooth was better, and had not kept him awake.
+Lucy seemed disposed to make conversation, overwhelming Albinia with
+needless repetitions of 'Mamma dear,' and plunging into what Mrs.
+Bowles and Miss Goldsmith had said of Mr. Dusautoy, and how he kept
+so few servants, and the butcher had no orders last time he called.
+Aunt Maria thought he starved and tyrannized over that poor little
+sickly Mrs. Dusautoy.
+
+Mr. Kendal said not one word, and seemed not to hear.  Albinia felt
+as if she had fallen into a whirlpool of gossip; she looked towards
+him, and hoped to let the conversation drop, but Sophy answered her
+sister, and, at last, when it came to something about what Jane heard
+from Mrs. Osborn's Susan, Albinia gently whispered, 'I do not think
+this entertains your papa, my dear,' and silence sank upon them all.
+
+Albinia's next venture was to ask about that which had been her
+Sunday pleasure from childhood, and she turned to Sophy, and said, 'I
+suppose you have not begun to teach at the school yet!'
+
+Sophy's great eyes expanded, and Lucy said, 'Oh dear mamma! nobody
+does that but Genevieve Durant and the monitors.  Miss Wolte did till
+Mr. Dusautoy came, but she does not approve of him.'
+
+'Lucy, you do not know what you are saying,' said Mr. Kendal, and
+again there was an annihilating silence, which Albinia did not
+attempt to disturb.
+
+At church time, she met the young ladies in the hall, in pink bonnets
+and sea-green mantillas over the lilac silks, all evidently put on
+for the first time in her honour, an honour of which she felt herself
+the less deserving, as, sensible that this was no case for bridal
+display, she wore a quiet dark silk, a Cashmere shawl, and plain
+straw bonnet, trimmed with white.
+
+With manifest wish for reciprocity, Lucy fell into transports over
+the shawl, but gaining nothing by this, Sophy asked if she did not
+like the mantillas?  Albinia could only make civility compatible with
+truth by saying that the colour was pretty, but where was Gilbert?
+He was on a stool before the dining-room fire, looking piteous, and
+pronouncing his tooth far too bad for going to church, and she had
+just time for a fresh administration of camphor before Mr. Kendal
+came forth from his study, and gave her his arm.
+
+The front door opened on a narrow sweep, the river cutting it off
+from the road, and crossed by two wooden bridges, beside each of
+which stood a weeping-willow, budding with fresh spring foliage.
+Opposite were houses of various pretentious, and sheer behind them
+rose the steep hill, with the church nearly at the summit, the noble
+spire tapering high above, and the bells ringing out a cheerful
+chime.  The mist had drawn up, and all was fresh and clear.
+
+'There go Lizzie and Loo!' cried Lucy, 'and the Admiral and Mrs.
+Osborn.  I'll run and tell them papa is come home.'
+
+Sophy was setting off also, but Mr. Kendal stopped them, and lingered
+a moment or two, making an excuse of looking for a needless umbrella,
+but in fact to avoid the general gaze.  As if making a desperate
+plunge, however, and looking up and down the broad street, so as to
+be secure that no acquaintance was near, he emerged with Albinia from
+the gate, and crossed the road as the chime of the bells changed.
+
+'We are late,' he said.  'You will prefer the speediest way, though
+it is somewhat steep.'
+
+The most private way, Albinia understood, and could also perceive
+that the girls would have liked the street which sloped up the hill,
+and thought the lilac and green insulted by being conducted up the
+steep, irregular, and not very clean bye-lane that led directly up
+the ascent, between houses, some meanly modern, some picturesquely
+ancient, with stone steps outside to the upper story, but all with
+far too much of pig-stye about them for beauty or fragrance.  Lucy
+held up her skirts, and daintily picked her way, and Albinia looked
+with kindly eyes at the doors and windows, secretly wondering what
+friends she should find there.
+
+The lane ended in a long flight of more than a hundred shallow steps
+cut out in the soft stone of the hill, with landing-places here and
+there, whence views were seen of the rich meadow-landscape beyond,
+with villages, orchards, and farms, and the blue winding river Baye
+in the midst, woods rising on the opposite side under the soft haze
+of distance.  On the other side, the wall of rock was bordered by
+gardens, with streamers of ivy or periwinkle here and there hanging
+down.
+
+The ascent ended in an old-fashioned stone stile; and here Sophy,
+standing on the step, proclaimed, with unnecessary loudness, that Mr.
+Dusautoy was carrying Mrs. Dusautoy across the churchyard.  This had
+the effect of making a pause, but Albinia saw the rector, a tall,
+powerful man, rather supporting than actually carrying, a little
+fragile form to the low-browed door leading into the chancel on the
+north side.  The church was handsome, though in the late style, and a
+good deal misused by eighteenth-century taste; and Albinia was full
+of admiration as Mr. Kendal conducted her along the flagged path.
+
+She was rather dismayed to find herself mounting the gallery stairs,
+and to emerge into a well-cushioned abode, with the shield-bearing
+angel of the corbel of an arch all to herself, and a very good view
+of the cobwebs over Mr. Dusautoy's sounding-board.  It seemed to suit
+all parties, however, for Lucy and Sophia took possession of the
+forefront, and their father had the inmost corner, where certainly
+nobody could see him.
+
+Just opposite to Albinia was a mural tablet, on which she read what
+revealed to her more of the sorrows of her household than she had
+guessed before:
+
+
+     'To the memory of Lucy, the beloved wife of Edmund Kendal.
+           Died February 18th, 1845, aged 35 years.
+
+      Edmund Meadows Kendal, born January 20th, 1834.
+           Died February 10th, 1845.
+
+      Maria Kendal, born September 5th, 1840.
+           Died September 14th, 1840.
+
+      Sarah Anne Kendal, born October 3rd, 1841.
+           Died November 20th, 1843.
+
+      John Augustus Kendal, born January 4th, 1842.
+           Died July 6th, 1842.
+
+      Anne Maria Kendal, born June 12th, 1844.
+           Died June 19th, 1844.'
+
+
+Then followed, in the original Greek, the words, 'Because I live, ye
+shall live also.'
+
+Four infants! how many hopes laid here!  All the English-born
+children of the family had died in their cradles, and not only did
+compassion for the past affect Albinia, as she thought of her
+husband's world of hidden grief, but a shudder for the future came
+over her, as she remembered having read that such mortality is a test
+of the healthiness of a locality.  What could she think of Willow
+Lawn?  It was with a strong effort that she brought her attention
+back to Him Who controlleth the sickness that destroyeth at noon-day.
+
+But Mr. Dusautoy's deep, powerful intonations roused her wandering
+thoughts, and she was calmed and reassured by the holy Feast, in
+which she joined with her husband.
+
+Mr. Kendal's fine face was calm and placid, as best she loved to look
+upon it, when they came out of church, and she was too happy to
+disturb the quiet by one word.  Lively and animated as she was, there
+was a sort of repose and enjoyment in the species of respect exacted
+by his grave silent demeanour.
+
+If this could only have lasted longer! but he was taking her along an
+irregular street, and too soon she saw a slight colour flit across
+his cheek, and his eyebrows contract, as he unlatched a green door in
+a high wall, and entered a little flagged court, decorated by a stand
+destined for flowers.
+
+Albinia caught the blush, and felt more bashful than she had believed
+was in her nature, but she had a warm-hearted determination that she
+would work down prejudices, and like and be liked by all that
+concerned him and his children.  So she smiled at him, and went
+bravely on into the matted hall and up the narrow stairs, and made a
+laughing sign when he looked back at her ere he tapped at the
+sitting-room door.
+
+It was opened from within before he could turn the handle, and a
+shrill voice, exaggerating those of the girls, showered welcomes with
+such rapidity, that Albinia was seated at the table, and had been
+helped to cold chicken, before she could look round, or make much
+answer to reiterations of 'so very kind.'
+
+It was a small room, loaded with knicknacks and cushions, like a
+repository of every species of female ornamental handiwork in vogue
+for the last half century, and the luncheon-tray in the middle of
+all, ready for six people, for the two girls were there, and though
+Mr. Kendal stood up by the fire, and would not eat, he and his black
+image, reflected backwards and forwards in the looking-glass and in
+the little round mirror, seemed to take up more room than if he had
+been seated.
+
+Mrs. Meadows was slight, shrunken, and gentle-looking, with a sweet
+tone in her voice, great softness of manner, and pretty blue eyes.
+Albinia only wished that she had worn mourning, it would have been so
+much more becoming than bright colours, but that was soon overlooked
+in gratitude for her affectionate reception, and in the warmth of
+feeling excited by her evident fondness and solicitude for Mr.
+Kendal.
+
+Miss Meadows was gaily dressed in youthful fashion, such as evidently
+had set her off to advantage when she had been a bright, dark,
+handsome girl; but her hair was thin, her cheeks haggard, the colour
+hardened, and her forty years apparent, above all, in an
+uncomfortable furrow on the brow and round the mouth; her voice had a
+sharp distressed tone that grated even in her lowest key, and though
+she did not stammer, she could never finish a sentence, but made
+half-a-dozen disjointed commencements whenever she spoke.  Albinia
+pitied her, and thought her nervous, for she was painfully assiduous
+in waiting on every one, scarcely sitting down for a minute before
+she was sure that pepper, or pickle, or new bread, or stale bread, or
+something was wanted, and squeezing round the table to help some one,
+or to ring the bell every third minute, and all in a dress that had a
+teasing stiff silken rustle.  She offered Mr. Kendal everything in
+the shape of food, till he purchased peace by submitting to take a
+hard biscuit, while Albinia was not allowed her glass of water till
+all manner of wines, foreign and domestic, had been tried upon her in
+vain.
+
+Conversation was not easy.  Gilbert was inquired after, and his aunt
+spoke in her shrill, injured note, as she declared that she had done
+her utmost to persuade him to have the tooth extracted, and began a
+history of what the dentist ought to have done five years ago.
+
+His grandmother softly pitied him, saying poor little Gibbie was such
+a delicate boy, and required such careful treatment; and when Albinia
+hoped that he was outgrowing his ill-health, she was amused to find
+that desponding compassion would have been more pleasing.
+
+There had been a transaction about a servant in her behalf: and Miss
+Meadows insisted on hunting up a note, searching all about the room,
+and making her mother and Sophy move from the front of two table-drawers,
+a disturbance which Sophy did not take with such placid looks as did
+her grandmother.
+
+The name of the maid was Eweretta Dobson, at which there was a
+general exclamation.
+
+'I wonder what is the history of the name,' said Albinia; 'it sounds
+like nothing but the diminutive of ewer.  I hope she will not be the
+little pitcher with long ears.'
+
+Mr. Kendal looked as much amused as he ever did, but no one else gave
+the least token of so much as knowing what she meant, and she felt as
+if she had been making a foolish attempt at wit.
+
+'You need not call her so,' was all that Mrs. Meadows said.
+
+'I do not like calling servants by anything but their true names,'
+answered Albinia; 'it does not seem to me treating them with proper
+respect to change their names, as if we thought them too good for
+them.  It is using them like slaves.
+
+Lucy exclaimed, 'Why! grandmamma's Betty is really named
+Philadelphia.'
+
+Albinia laughed, but was disconcerted by finding that she had really
+given annoyance.  'I beg your pardon,' she said.  'It is only a fancy
+of my own.  I am afraid that I have many fancies for my friends to
+bear with.  You see I have so fine a name of my own, that I have a
+fellow-feeling for those under the same affliction; and I believe
+some servants like an alias rather than be teased for their finery,
+so I shall give Miss Eweretta her choice between that and her
+surname.
+
+The old lady looked good-natured, and that matter blew over; but Miss
+Meadows fell into another complication of pros and cons about writing
+for the woman's character, looking miserably harassed whether she
+should write, or Mrs. Kendal, before she had been called upon.
+
+Albinia supposed that Mrs. Wolfe might call in the course of the
+week; but this Miss Meadows did not know, and she embarked in so many
+half speeches, and looked so mysterious and significant at her
+mother, that Albinia began to suspect that some dreadful truth was
+behind.
+
+'Perhaps,' said the old lady, 'perhaps Mrs. Kendal might make it
+understood through you, my dear Maria, that she is ready to receive
+visits.'
+
+'I suppose they must be!' said Albinia.
+
+'You see, my dear, people would be most happy, but they do not know
+whether you have arrived.  You have not appeared at church, as I may
+say.'
+
+'Indeed,' said Albinia, much diverted by her new discoveries in the
+realms of etiquette, 'I was rather in a cupboard, I must allow.
+Ought we to have sailed up the aisle in state in the Grandison
+pattern?  Are you ready?' and she glanced up at her husband, but he
+only half heard.
+
+'No,' said Miss Meadows, fretfully; 'but you have not appeared as a
+bride.  The straw bonnet--you see people cannot tell whether you are
+not incog, as yet--'
+
+To refrain from laughing was impossible.  'My tarn cap,' she
+exclaimed; 'I am invisible in it!  What shall I do?  I fear I shall
+never be producible, for indeed it is my very best, my veritable
+wedding-bonnet!'
+
+Lucy looked as if she thought it not worth while to be married for no
+better a bonnet than that.
+
+'Absurdity!' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+If he would but have given a good hearty laugh, thought Albinia, what
+a consolation it would be! but she considered herself to have had a
+lesson against laughing in that house, and was very glad when he
+proposed going home.  He took a kind, affectionate leave of the old
+lady, who again looked fondly in big face, and rejoiced in his having
+recovered his looks.
+
+As they arrived at home, Lucy announced that she was just going to
+speak to Lizzie Osborn, and Sophy ran after her to a house of about
+the same degree as their own, but dignified as Mount Lodge, because
+it stood on the hill side of the street, while Mr. Kendal's house was
+for more gentility called 'Willow Lawn.'  Gilbert was not to be
+found; but at four o'clock the whole party met at dinner, before the
+evening service.
+
+Gilbert could eat little, and on going back to the fire to roast his
+cheek instead of going to church, was told by his father, 'I cannot
+have this going on.  You must go to Mr. Bowles directly after
+breakfast to-morrow, have the tooth drawn, and then go on to Mr.
+Salsted's.
+
+The tone was one that admitted of no rebellion.  If Mr. Kendal
+interfered little, his authority was absolute where he did interfere,
+and Albinia could only speak a few kind words of encouragement, but
+the boy was vexed and moody, seemed half asleep when they came home,
+and went to bed as soon as tea was over.
+
+Sophy went to bed too, Mr. Kendal went to his study, and Albinia,
+after this day of novelty and excitement, drew her chair to the fire,
+and as Lucy was hanging wearily about, called her to her side, and
+made her talk, believing that there was more use in studying the
+girl's character than even in suggesting some occupation, though that
+was apparently the great want of the whole family on Sunday.
+
+Lucy's first confidence was that Gilbert had not been out alone, but
+with that Archibald Tritton.  Mr. Tritton had a great farm, and was a
+sort of gentleman, and Gilbert was always after that Archy.  She
+thought it 'very undesirable,' and Aunt Maria had talked to him about
+it, but he never listened to Aunt Maria.
+
+Albinia privately thought that it must be a severe penance to listen
+to Aunt Maria, and took Gilbert's part.  She supposed that he must be
+very solitary; it must be a melancholy thing to be a twin left alone.
+
+'And Edmund, dear Edmund, was always so kind and so fond of Gilbert!'
+said Lucy.  'You would not have thought they were twins, Edmund was
+so much the tallest and strongest.  It seemed so odd that Gilbert
+should have got over it, when he did not.  Should you like to hear
+all about it, mamma?'
+
+It was Albinia's great wish to lift that dark veil, and Lucy began,
+with as much seriousness and sadness as could co-exist with the
+satisfaction and importance of having to give such a narration, and
+exciting emotion and pity.  It was remarkable how she managed to make
+herself the heroine of the story, though she had been sent out of the
+house, and had escaped the infection.  She spoke in phrases that
+showed that she had so often told the story as to have a set form,
+caught from her elders, but still it had a deep and intrinsic
+interest for the bride, that made her sit gazing into the fire,
+pressing Lucy's hand, and now and then sighing and shuddering
+slightly as she heard how there had been a bad fever prevailing in
+that lower part of the town, and how the two boys were both unwell
+one damp, hot autumn morning, and Lucy dwelt on the escape it had
+been that she had not kissed them before going to school.  Sophy had
+sickened the same day, and after the tedious three weeks, when father
+and mother were spent with attendance on the three, Edmund, after
+long delirium, had suddenly sunk, just as they had hopes of him; and
+the same message that told Lucy of her brother's death, told her of
+the severe illness of both parents.
+
+The disease had done the work rapidly on the mother's exhausted
+frame, and she was buried a week after her boy.  Lucy had seen the
+procession from the window, and thought it necessary to tell how she
+had cried.
+
+Mr. Kendal's had been a long illness; the first knowledge of his loss
+had caused a relapse, and his recovery had long been doubtful.  As
+soon as the children were able to move, they were sent with Miss
+Meadows to Ramsgate, and Lucy had joined them there.
+
+'The day before I went, I saw papa,' she said.  'I had gone home for
+some things that I was to take, and his room door was open, so he saw
+me on the stairs, and called me, for there was no fear of infection
+then.  Oh, he was so changed! his hair all cut off, and his cheeks
+hollow, and he was quite trembling, as he lay back on pillows in the
+great arm-chair.  You can't think what a shock it was to me to see
+him in such a state.  He held out his arms, and I flung mine round
+his neck, and sobbed and cried.  And he just said, so faintly, "Take
+her away, Maria, I cannot bear it."  I assure you I was quite
+hysterical.'
+
+'You must have wished for more self-command,' said Albinia, disturbed
+by Lucy's evident pleasure in having made a scene.
+
+'Oh, but it was such a shock, and such a thing to see the house all
+empty and forlorn, with the windows open, and everything so still!
+Miss Belmarche cried too, and said she did not wonder my feelings
+overcame me, and _she_ did not see papa.'
+
+'Ah! Lucy,' said Albinia, fervently, 'how we must try to make him
+happy after all that he has gone through!'
+
+'That is what grandmamma said when she got his letter.  "I would be
+glad of anything," she said, "that would bring back a smile to him."
+And Aunt Maria said she had done her best for him, but he must
+consult his own happiness; and so I say.  When people talk to me, I
+say that papa is quite at liberty to consult his own happiness.'
+
+'Thank you.'
+
+Lucy did not understand the tone, and went on patronizing.  'And if
+they say you look younger than they expected, I don't object to that
+at all.  I had rather you were not as old as Aunt Maria, or Miss
+Belmarche.'
+
+'Who thinks me so young?'
+
+'Oh!  Aunt Maria, and grandmamma, and Mrs. Osborn, and all; but I
+don't mind that, it is only Sophy who says you look like a girl.
+Aunt Maria says Sophy has an unmanageable temper.'
+
+'Don't you think you can let me find that out for myself?'
+
+'I thought you wanted me to tell you about everybody.'
+
+'Ah! but tell me of the good in your brother and sister.'
+
+'I don't know how,' said Lucy.  'Gilbert is so tiresome, and so is
+Sophy.  I heard Mary telling Jane, "I'm sure the new missus will have
+a heavy handful of those two."'
+
+'And what of yourself?' said Albinia.
+
+'Oh! I don't know,' said Lucy, modestly.
+
+Mr. Kendal came in, and as Albinia looked at his pensive brow, she
+was oppressed by the thought of his sufferings in that dreary
+convalescence.  At night, when she looked from her window, the fog
+hung white, like mildew over the pond, and she could not reason
+herself out of a spectral haunting fancy that sickness lurked in the
+heavy, misty atmosphere.  She dreamt of it and the four babies,
+started, awoke, and had to recall all her higher trust to enable her
+vigour to chase off the oppressive imagination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+
+Fog greeted Mrs. Kendal's eyes as she rose, and she resolved to make
+an attack on the pond without loss of time.  But Mr. Kendal was
+absorbed nearly all breakfast-time in a letter from India, containing
+a scrap in some uncouth character.  As he finished his last cup of
+tea, he looked up and said, 'A letter from my old friend Penrose, of
+Bombay--an inscription in the Salsette caves.'
+
+'Have you seen the Salsette caves?
+
+'Yes.'
+
+She was longing to hear about them, but his horse was announced.
+
+'You said you would be engaged in the morning while I ride out,
+Albinia?' he said, 'I shall return before luncheon.  Gilbert, you had
+better go at once to Mr. Bowles.  I shall order your pony to be ready
+when you come back.'
+
+There was not a word of remonstrance, though the boy looked very
+disconsolate, and began to murmur the moment his father had gone.
+Albinia, who had regarded protection at a dentist's one of the
+offices of the head of a family, though dismayed at the task, told
+Gilbert that she would come with him in a moment.  The girls
+exclaimed that no one thought of going with him, and fearing she had
+put an affront on his manliness, she asked what he would like, but
+could get no answer, only when Lucy scolded him for lingering, he
+said, 'I thought _she_ was going with me.'
+
+'Amiable,' thought Albinia, as she ran up to put on her bonnet; 'but
+I suppose toothache puts people out of the pale of civilization.  And
+if he is thankless, is not that treating me more like a mother?'
+
+Perhaps he had accepted her escort in hopes of deferring the evil
+hour, for he seemed discomfited to see her so quickly ready, and not
+grateful to his sisters, who hurried them by saying that Mr. Bowles
+would be gone out upon his rounds.
+
+Mr. Bowles was amazed at the sight of Mrs. Kendal, and so elaborate
+in compliments and assurances that Mrs. Bowles would do herself the
+honour of calling, that Albinia, pitying Gilbert, called his
+attention back.
+
+With him the apothecary was peremptory and facetious.  'He had
+expected that he should soon see him after his papa's return!'  And
+with a 'soon be over,' he set him down, and Albinia bravely stood a
+desperate wringing of her hand at the tug of war.  She was glad she
+had come, for the boy suffered a good deal, and was faint, and Mr.
+Bowles pronounced his mouth in no state for a ride to Tremblam.
+
+'I must go,' said Gilbert, as they walked home, 'I wish papa would
+listen to anything.'
+
+'He would not wish you to hurt yourself.'
+
+'When papa says a thing--' began Gilbert.
+
+'Well, Gilbert, you are quite right, and I hope you don't think I
+mean to teach you disobedience.  But I do desire you, on my own
+responsibility, not to go and catch an inflammation in your jaw.
+I'll undertake papa.'
+
+Gilbert at once became quite another creature.  He discoursed so
+much, that she had to make him restore the handkerchief to his mouth;
+he held open the gate, showed her a shoal of minnows, and tried to
+persuade her to come round the garden before going in, but she
+clapped her hands at him, and hunted him back into the warm room,
+much impressed and delighted by his implicit obedience to his father.
+With Lucy and Sophy, his remaining seemed likewise to make a great
+sensation; they looked at Mrs. Kendal and whispered, and were
+evidently curious as to the result of her audacity.  Albinia, who had
+grown up with her brother Maurice and cousin Frederick, was more used
+to boys than to girls, and was already more at ease with her son than
+her daughters.
+
+Gilbert lent a ready hand with hammer and chisel, and boxes were
+opened, to the great delight and admiration of the girls.  They were
+all very happy and busy setting things to rights, but Albinia was in
+difficulty how to bestow her books.  There was an unaccountable
+scarcity both of books and book-cases; none were to be seen except
+that, in a chiffoniere in the drawing-room, there was a row in gilded
+bindings, chiefly Pope, Gray, and the like; and one which Albinia
+took out had pages which stuck together, a little pale blue string,
+faded at the end, and in the garlanded fly-leaf the inscription, 'To
+Miss Lucy Meadows, the reward of good conduct, December 20th, 1822.'
+The book seemed rather surprised at being opened, and Albinia let it
+close itself as Lucy said, 'Those are poor mamma's books, all the
+others are in the study.  Come in, and I'll show you.'
+
+She threw open the door, and Albinia entered.  The study was shaded
+with a mass of laurels that kept out the sun, and made it look chill
+and sad, and the air in it was close.  The round library-table was
+loaded with desks, pocket-books, and papers, the mantelpiece was
+covered with letters, and book-shelves mounted to the ceiling, filled
+with the learned and the poetical of new and old times.
+
+Over the fireplace hung what it needed not Lucy's whisper to point
+out, as 'Poor mamma's picture.'  It represented a very pretty girl,
+with dark eyes, brilliant colour, and small cherry mouth, painted in
+the exaggerated style usually called 'ridiculously like.'
+
+Albinia's first feeling was that there was nothing in herself that
+could atone for the loss of so fair a creature, and the thought
+became more oppressive as she looked at a niche in the wall, holding
+a carved sandal-wood work-box, with a silver watch lying on it.
+
+'Poor Edmund's watch,' said Lucy.  'It was given to him for a reward
+just before he was ill.'
+
+Albinia tried to recover composure by reading the titles of the
+books.  Suddenly, Lucy started and exclaimed, 'Come away.  There he
+is!'
+
+'Why come away?' said Albinia.
+
+'I would not have him find me there for all the world.'
+
+In all her vexation and dismay, Albinia could not help thinking of
+Bluebeard's closet.  Her inclination was to stay where she was, and
+take her chance of losing her head, yet she felt as if she could not
+bear to be found invading a sanctuary of past recollections, and was
+relieved to find that it was a false alarm, though not relieved by
+the announcement that Admiral and Mrs. Osborn and the Miss Osborns
+were in the drawing-room.
+
+'Before luncheon--too bad!' she exclaimed, as she hurried upstairs to
+wash off the dust of unpacking.
+
+Ere she could hurry down, there was another inundation streaming
+across the hall, Mrs. Drury and three Miss Drurys, who, as she
+remembered, when they began to kiss her, were some kind of cousins.
+
+There was talk, but Albinia could not give entire attention; she was
+watching for Mr. Kendal's return, that she might guard Gilbert from
+his displeasure, and the instant she heard him, she sprang up, and
+flew into the hall.  He could not help brightening at the eager
+welcome, but when she told him of Mr. Bowles' opinion, he looked
+graver, and said, 'I fear you must not always attach credit to all
+Gilbert's reports.'
+
+'Mr. Bowles told me himself that he must run no risk of
+inflammation.'
+
+'You saw Mr. Bowles?'
+
+'I went with Gilbert.'
+
+'You?  I never thought of your imposing so unpleasant a task on
+yourself.  I fear the boy has been trespassing on your kindness.'
+
+'No, indeed, he never asked me, but--' with a sort of laugh to hide
+the warmth excited by his pleased, grateful look, 'I thought it all
+in the day's work, only natural--'
+
+She would have given anything to have had time to enjoy his
+epanchement de coeur at those words, bit she was obliged to add,
+'Alas! there's all the world in the drawing-room!'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'Osborns and Drurys.'
+
+'Do you want me?'
+
+'I ran away on the plea of calling you.'
+
+'I'll never do so again,' was her inward addition, as his countenance
+settled into the accustomed fixed look of abstraction, and as an
+unwilling victim he entered the room with her, and the visitors were
+'dreadful enough' to congratulate him.
+
+Albinia knew that it must be so unpleasant to him, that she blushed
+up to the roots of her hair, and could not look at anybody.
+
+When she recovered, the first comers were taking leave, but the
+second set stayed on and on till past luncheon-time, and far past her
+patience, before the room was at last cleared.
+
+Gilbert hurried in, and was received by his father with, 'You are
+very much obliged to her!'
+
+'Indeed I am,' said Gilbert, in a winning, pleasant manner.
+
+'I don't want you to be,' said Albinia, affectionately laying her arm
+on his shoulder.  'And now for luncheon--I pitied you, poor fellow; I
+thought you must have been famished.'
+
+'Anything not to have all the Drurys at luncheon,' said Gilbert,
+confidentially, 'I had begun to wish myself at Tremblam.'
+
+'By the bye,' said Mr. Kendal, waking as he sat down at the bottom of
+the table, 'how was it that the Drurys did not stay to luncheon?'
+
+'Was that what they were waiting for?' exclaimed Albinia.  'Poor
+people, I had no notion of that.'
+
+'They do have luncheon here in general,' said Mr. Kendal, as if not
+knowing exactly how it came to pass.
+
+'O yes,' said Lucy; 'Sarah Anne asked me whether we ate wedding-cake
+every day.'
+
+'Poor Miss Sarah Anne!' said Albinia, laughing.  'But one cannot help
+feeling inhospitable when people come so unconscionably early, and
+cut up all one's morning.'
+
+The door was again besieged by visitors, just as they were all going
+out to make the round of the garden, and it was not till half-past
+four that the succession ceased, and Albinia was left to breathe
+freely, and remember how often Maurice had called her to order for
+intolerance of morning calls.
+
+'And not the only people I cared to see,' she said, 'the Dusautoys
+and Nugents.  But they have too much mercy to call the first day.'
+
+Mr. Kendal looked as if his instinct were drawing him study-wards,
+but Albinia hung on his arm, and made him come into the garden.
+Though devoid of Winifred's gardening tastes, she was dismayed at the
+untended look of the flower-beds.  The laurels were too high, and
+seemed to choke the narrow space, and the turf owed its verdant
+appearance to damp moss.  She had made but few steps before the water
+squished under her feet, and impelled her to exclaim, 'What a pity
+this pond should not be filled up!'
+
+'Filled up!--'
+
+'Yes, it would be so much less damp.  One might drain it off into the
+river, and then we should get rid of the fog.'
+
+And she began actively to demonstrate the convenient slope, and the
+beautiful flower-bed that might be made in its place.  Mr. Kendal
+answered with a few assenting sounds and complacent looks, and
+Albinia, accustomed to a brother with whom to assent was to act,
+believed the matter was in train, and that pond and fever would be
+annihilated.
+
+The garden opened into a meadow with a causeway leading to a canal
+bank, where there was a promising country walk, but the cruel
+visitors had left no time for exploring, and Albinia had to return
+home and hurry up her arrangements before there was space to turn
+round in her room--even then it was not what Winifred could have seen
+without making a face.
+
+Mr. Kendal had read aloud to his wife in the evening during the stay
+at the sea-side, and she was anxious not to let the habit drop.  He
+liked it, and read beautifully, and she thought it good for the
+children.  She therefore begged him to read, catching him on the way
+to his study, and coaxing him to stay no longer than to find a book.
+He brought Schlegel's Philosophy of History.  She feared that it was
+above the young ones, but it was delightful to herself, and the
+custom had better be established before it was perilled by attempts
+to adapt it to the children.  Lucy and Sophy seemed astonished and
+displeased, and their whispers had to be silenced, Gilbert learnt his
+lessons apart.  Albinia rallied her spirits, and insisted to herself
+that she did not feel discouraged.
+
+Monday had gone, or rather Albinia had been robbed of it by
+visitors--now for a vigorous Tuesday.  Her unpacking and her setting
+to rights were not half over, but as the surface was habitable, she
+resolved to finish at her leisure, and sacrifice no more mornings of
+study.
+
+So after she had lingered at the door, to delight Gilbert by admiring
+his pony, she returned to the dining-room, where the girls were
+loading a small table in the window with piles of books and
+exercises, and Lucy was standing, looking all eagerness to show off
+her drawings.
+
+'Yes, my dear, but first we had better read.  I have been talking to
+your papa, and we have settled that on Wednesdays and Fridays we will
+go to church; but on these days we will begin by reading the Psalms
+and Lessons.'
+
+'Oh,' said Lucy, 'we never do that, except when we are at
+grandmamma's.'
+
+'Pray are you too old or too young for it?' said Albinia.
+
+'We did it to please grandmamma,' said Sophy.
+
+'Now you will do it to please me,' said Albinia, 'if for no better
+reason.  Fetch your Bibles and Prayerbooks.'
+
+'We shall never have time for our studies, I assure you, mamma,'
+objected Lucy.
+
+'That is not your concern,' said Albinia, her spirit rising at the
+girls' opposition.  'I wish for obedience.'
+
+Lucy went, Sophy leant against the table like a post.  Albinia
+regretted that the first shot should have been fired for such a
+cause, and sat perplexing herself whether it were worse to give way,
+or to force the girls to read Holy Scripture in such a mood.
+
+Lucy came flying down with the four books in her hands, and began
+officiously opening them before her sister, and exhorting her not to
+give way to sullenness--she ought to like to read the Bible--which of
+course made Sophy look crosser.  The desire to establish her
+authority conquered the scruple about reverence.  Albinia set them to
+read, and suffered for it.  Lucy road flippantly; Sophy in the
+hoarse, dull, dogged voice of a naughty boy.  She did not dare to
+expostulate, lest she should exasperate the tempers that she had
+roused.
+
+'Never mind,' she thought, 'when the institution is fixed, they will
+be more amenable.'
+
+She tried a little examination afterwards, but not one answer was to
+be extracted from Sophy, and Lucy knew far less than the first class
+at Fairmead, and made her replies wide of the mark, with an air of
+satisfaction that nearly overthrew the young step-mother's patience.
+
+When Albinia took her Bible upstairs, she gave Sophy time to say what
+Lucy reported instantly on her entrance.
+
+'Dear me, mamma, here is Sophy declaring that you ought to be a
+charity-schoolmistress.  You wont be angry with her, but it is so
+funny!'
+
+'If you were at my charity school, Lucy,' said Albinia, 'the first
+lesson I should give you would be against telling tales.'
+
+Lucy subsided.
+
+Albinia turned to Sophy.  'My dear,' she said, 'perhaps I pressed
+this on when you were not prepared for it, but I have always been
+used to think of it as a duty.'
+
+Sophy made no answer, but her moody attitude relaxed, and Albinia
+took comfort in the hope that she might have been gracious if she had
+known how to set about it.
+
+'I suppose Miss Belmarche is a Roman Catholic,' she said, wishing to
+account for this wonderful ignorance, and addressing herself to
+Sophy; but Lucy, whom she thought she had effectually put down, was
+up again in a moment like a Jack-in-a-box.
+
+'O yes, but not Genevieve.  Her papa made it his desire that she
+should be brought up a Protestant.  Wasn't it funny?  You know
+Genevieve is Madame Belmarche's grand-daughter, and Mr. Durant was a
+dancing-master.'
+
+'Madame Belmarche's father and brother were guillotined,' continued
+Sophy.
+
+'Ah! then she is an emigrant?'
+
+'Yes.  Miss Belmarche has always kept school here.  Our own mamma,
+and Aunt Maria went to school to her, and Miss Celeste Belmarche
+married Mr. Durant, a dancing-master--she was French teacher in a
+school in London where he taught, and Madame Belmarche did not
+approve, for she and her husband were something very grand in France,
+so they waited and waited ever so long, and when at last they did
+marry, they were quite old, and she died very soon; and they say he
+never was happy again, and pined away till he really did die of
+grief, and so Genevieve came to her grandmamma to be brought up.'
+
+'Poor child!  How old is she?'
+
+'Fifteen,' said Lucy.  'She teaches in the school.  She is not at all
+pretty, and such a queer little thing.'
+
+'Was her father French?'
+
+'No,' said Sophy.
+
+'Yes,' said Lucy.  'You know nothing about it, Sophy.  He was French,
+but of the Protestant French sort, that came to England a great many
+years ago, when they ran away from the Sicilian Vespers, or the Edict
+of Nantes, I don't remember which; only the Spitalfields weavers have
+something to do with it.  However, at any rate Genevieve has got
+something in a drawer up in her own room that she is very secret
+about, and wont show to anybody.'
+
+'I think it is something that somebody was killed with,' said Sophy,
+in a low voice.
+
+'Dear me, if it is, I am sure it is quite wicked to keep it.  I shall
+be quite afraid to go into her room, and you know I slept there all
+the time of the fever.'
+
+'It did not hurt you,' said Sophy.
+
+Albinia had been strongly interested by the touching facts, so
+untouchingly narrated, and by the characteristic account of the
+Huguenot emigration, but it suddenly occurred to her that she was
+promoting gossip, and she returned to business.  Lucy showed off her
+attainments with her usual self-satisfaction.  They were what might
+be expected from a second-rate old-fashioned young ladies' school,
+where nothing was good but the French pronunciation.  She was
+evidently considered a great proficient, and her glib mediocrity was
+even more disheartening than the ungracious carelessness or dulness--
+there was no knowing which--that made her sister figure wretchedly in
+the examination.  However, there was little time--the door-bell rang
+at a quarter to twelve, and Mrs. Wolfe was in the drawing-room.
+
+'I told you so,' whispered Lucy, exultingly.
+
+'This is unbearable,' cried Albinia.  'I shall give notice that I am
+always engaged in the morning.'
+
+She desired each young lady to work a sum in her absence, and left
+them to murmur, if they were so disposed.  Perhaps it was Lucy's
+speech that made her inflict the employment; at any rate, her spirit
+was not as serene as she could have desired.
+
+Mr. Kendal was quite willing that she should henceforth shut her door
+against company in the morning; that is to say, he bowed his head
+assentingly.  She was begging him to take a walk with her, when, at
+another sound of the bell, he made a precipitate retreat into his
+study.  The visitors were the Belmarche family.  The old lady was
+dark and withered, small, yet in look and air, with a certain
+nobility and grandeur that carried Albinia back in a moment to the
+days of hoops and trains, of powder and high-heeled shoes, and made
+her feel that the sweeping courtesy had come straight from the days
+of Marie Antoinette, and that it was an honour and distinction
+conferred by a superior--superior, indeed, in all the dignity of age,
+suffering, and constancy.
+
+Albinia blushed, and took her hand with respect very unlike the
+patronizing airs of Bayford Bridge towards 'poor old Madame
+Belmarche,' and with downcast eyes, and pretty embarrassment, heard
+the stately compliments of the ancien regime.
+
+Miss Belmarche was not such a fine specimen of Sevres porcelain as
+her mother.  She was a brown, dried, small woman, having lost, or
+never possessed, her country's taste in dress, and with a rusty
+bonnet over the tight, frizzly curls of her front, too thin and too
+scantily robed to have any waist, and speaking English too well for
+the piquant grace of her mother's speech.  Poor lady! born an exile,
+she had toiled, and struggled for a whole lifetime to support her
+mother; but though care had worn her down, there was still vivacity
+in her quick little black eyes, and though her teeth were of a
+dreadful colour, her laugh was so full of life and sweetness, that
+Albinia felt drawn towards her in a moment.
+
+Silent and demure, plainly dressed in an old dark merino, and a
+white-ribboned faded bonnet, sat a little figure almost behind her
+grandmother.  Her face had the French want of complexion, but the
+eyes were of the deepest, most lustrous hue of grey, almost as dark
+as the pupils, and with the softness of long dark eyelashes--beautiful
+eyes, full of light and expression--and as she moved towards
+the table, there was a finish and delicacy about the whole form
+and movements, that made her a most pleasing object.
+
+But Albinia could not improve her acquaintance, for in flowed another
+party of visitors, and Madame curtsied herself out again, Albinia
+volunteering that she would soon come to see her, and being answered,
+'You will do me too much honour.'
+
+Another afternoon devoured by visitors!  Every one seemed to have
+come except the persons who would have been most welcome, Mr.
+Dusautoy, and Winifred's friends, the Nugents.
+
+When, at four o'clock, she had shaken hands with the last guest, she
+gave a hearty yawn, jumped up and shook herself, as she exclaimed,
+'There!  There! that is done!  I wonder whether your papa would come
+out now?'
+
+'He is in his study,' said the girls.
+
+Albinia thought of knocking and calling at the door, but somehow it
+seemed impossible, and she decided on promenading past his window to
+show that she was ready for him.  But alas! those evergreens!  She
+could not see in, and probably he could not see out.
+
+'Ha!' cried Lucy, as they pursued their walk into the kitchen garden,
+'here are some asparagus coming up.  Grandmamma always has our first
+asparagus.'
+
+Albinia was delighted to find such an opening.  Out came her knife--
+they would cut the heads and take them up at once; but when the
+tempting white-stalked, pink-tipped bundle had been made up and put
+into a basket, a difficulty arose.
+
+'I'll call the boy to take it,' said Lucy.
+
+'What, when we are going ourselves?' said Albinia.
+
+'Oh! but we can't.'
+
+'Why?  Do you think we shall break down under the weight?'
+
+'O no, but people will stare.'
+
+'Why--what should they stare at?'
+
+'It looks _so_ to carry a basket--'
+
+Albinia burst into one of her merriest peals of laughing.
+
+'Not carry a basket!  My dear, I have looked _so_ all the days of my
+life.  Bayford must endure the spectacle, so it may as well begin at
+once.'
+
+'But, dear mamma--'
+
+'I'm not asking you to carry it.  O no, I only hope you don't think
+it too ungenteel to walk with me.  But the notion of calling a boy
+away from his work, to carry a couple of dozen asparagus when an
+able-bodied woman is going that way herself!'
+
+Albinia was so tickled that she could hardly check herself, even when
+she saw Lucy looking distressed and hurt, and little laughs would
+break out every moment as she beheld the young lady keeping aloof, as
+if ashamed of her company, turning towards the steep church steps,
+willing at least to hide the dreadful sight from the High Street.
+
+Just as they had entered the narrow alley, they heard a hasty tread,
+and almost running over them with his long strides, came Mr.
+Dusautoy.  He brought himself up short, just in time, and exclaimed,
+'I beg your pardon--Mrs. Kendal, I believe.  Could you be kind enough
+to give me a glass of brandy?'
+
+Albinia gave a great start, as well she might.
+
+'I was going to fetch one,' quickly proceeded Mr. Dusautoy, 'but your
+house is nearer.  A poor man--there--just come home--been on the
+tramp for work--quite exhausted--' and he pointed to one of the
+cottages.
+
+'I'll fetch it at once,' cried Albinia.
+
+'Thank you,' he said, as they crossed the street.  'This poor fellow
+has had nothing all day, has walked from Hadminster--just got home,
+sank down quite worn out, and there is nothing in the house but dry
+bread.  His wife wants something nearly as much as he does.'
+
+In the excitement, Albinia utterly forgot all scruples about
+'Bluebeard's closet.'  She hurried into the house, and made but one
+dash, standing before her astonished husband's dreamy eyes,
+exclaiming, 'Pray give me the key of the cellaret; there's a poor man
+just come home, fainting with exhaustion, Mr. Dusautoy wants some
+brandy for him.'
+
+Like a man but half awake, obeying an apparition, Mr. Kendal put his
+hand into his pocket and gave her the key.  She was instantly opening
+the cellaret, seeking among the bottles, and asking questions all the
+time.  She proposed taking a jug of the kitchen-tea then in
+operation, and Mr. Dusautoy caught at the idea, so that poor Lucy
+beheld the dreadful spectacle of the vicar bearing a can full of
+steaming tea, and Mrs. Kendal a small cup with the 'spirituous
+liquor.'  What was the asparagus to this?
+
+Albinia told her to go on to Mrs. Meadows', and that she should soon
+follow.  She intended to have gone the moment that she had carried in
+the cup, leaving Mr. Dusautoy in the cottage, but the poor trembling
+frightened wife needed woman's sympathy and soothing, and she waited
+to comfort her, and to see the pair more able to enjoy the meeting,
+in their tidy, but bare and damp-looking cottage.  She promised broth
+for the morrow, and took her leave, the vicar coming away at the same
+time.
+
+'Thank you,' he said, warmly, as they came out, and turned to mount
+the hill together.
+
+'May I go and call on them again?'
+
+'It will be very kind in you.  Poor Simkins is a steady, good sort of
+fellow, but a clumsy workman, down-hearted, and with poor health, and
+things have been untoward with him.'
+
+'People, who do not prosper in the world are not always the worst,'
+said Albinia.
+
+'No, indeed, and these are grateful, warm-hearted people that you
+will like, if you can get over the poor woman's lackadaisical manner.
+But you are used to all that,' he added, smiling. 'I see you know
+what poor folk are made of.'
+
+'I have been living among them nearly all my days,' said Albinia.  'I
+hope you will give me something to do, I should be quite forlorn
+without it;' and she looked up to his kind, open face, as much at
+home with him as if she had known, him for years.
+
+'Fanny--my wife--shall find work for you,' he said.  'You must excuse
+her calling on you, she is never off the sofa, but--' And what a
+bright look he gave! as much as to say that his wife _on_ the sofa
+was better than any one else _off_.  'I was hoping to call some of
+these afternoons,' he continued, 'but I have had little time, and
+Fanny thought your door was besieged enough already.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Albinia; 'I own I thought it was your kindness in
+leaving me a little breathing time.  And would Mrs. Dusautoy be able
+to see me if I were to call?'
+
+'She would be delighted.  Suppose you were to come in at once.'
+
+'I wish I could, but I must go on to Mrs. Meadows'.  If I were to
+come to-morrow?'
+
+'Any time--any time,' he said.  'She is always at home, and she has
+been much better since we came here.  We were too much in the town at
+Lauriston.'
+
+Mr. Dusautoy, having a year ago come out of the diocese where had
+been Albinia's home, they had many common friends, and plunged into
+'ecclesiastical intelligence,' with a mutual understanding of the
+topics most often under discussion, that made Albinia quite in her
+element.  'A great Newfoundland dog of a man in size, and
+countenance, and kindness,' thought she.  'If his wife be worthy of
+him, I shall reck little of all the rest.'
+
+Her tread the gayer for this resumption of old habits, she proceeded
+to Mrs. Meadows', where the sensation created by her poor little
+basket justified Lucy's remonstrance.  There were regrets, and
+assurances that the girl could have come in a moment, and that she
+need not have troubled herself, and her laughing declarations that it
+was no trouble were disregarded, except that the old lady said, in
+gentle excuse to her daughter, that Mrs. Kendal had always lived in
+the country, where people could do as they pleased.
+
+'I mean to do as I please here,' said Albinia, laughing; but the
+speech was received with silent discomfiture that made her heartily
+regret it.  She disdained to explain it away; she was beginning to
+hold Mrs. and Miss Meadows too cheap to think it worth while.
+
+'Well,' said Mrs. Meadows, as if yielding up the subject, 'things may
+be different from what they were in my time.'
+
+'Oh! mamma--Mrs. Kendal--I am sure--' Albinia let Maria flounder, but
+she only found her way out of the speech with 'Well! and is not it
+the most extraordinary!--Mr. Dusautoy--so rude--'
+
+'I should not wonder if you found me almost as extraordinary as Mr.
+Dusautoy,' said Albinia.
+
+Why would Miss Meadows always nettle her into saying exactly the
+wrong thing, so as to alarm and distress the old lady?  That want of
+comprehension of playfulness was a strangely hard trial.  She turned
+to Mrs. Meadows and tried to reassure her by saying, 'You know I have
+been always in the clerical line myself, so I naturally take the part
+of the parson.'
+
+'Yes, my dear,' said Mrs. Meadows.  'I dare say Mr, Dusautoy is a
+very good man, but I wish he would allow his poor delicate wife more
+butcher's meat, and I don't think it looks well to see the vicarage
+without a man-servant.'
+
+Albinia finally made her escape, and while wondering whether she
+should ever visit that house without tingling with irritation with
+herself and with the inmates, Lucy exclaimed, 'There, you see I was
+right.  Grandmamma and Aunt Maria were surprised when I told them
+that you said you were an able-bodied woman.'
+
+What would not Albinia have given for Winifred to laugh with her?
+What to do now she did not know, so she thought it best not to hear,
+and to ask the way to a carpenter's shop to order some book-shelves.
+
+She was more uncomfortable after she came home, for by the sounds
+when Mr. Kendal next emerged from his study, she found that he had
+locked himself in, to guard against further intrusion.  And when she
+offered to return to him the key of the cellaret, he quietly replied
+that he should prefer her retaining it,--not a formidable answer in
+itself, but one which, coupled with the locking of the door, proved
+to her that she might do anything rather than invade his privacy.
+
+Now Maurice's study was the thoroughfare of the household, the place
+for all parish preparations unpresentable in the drawing-room, and
+Albinia was taken by surprise.  She grew hot and cold.  Had she done
+anything wrong?  Could he care for her if he could lock her out?
+
+'I will not be morbid, I will not be absurd,' said she to herself,
+though the tears stood in her eyes.  'Some men do not like to be
+rushed in upon!  It may be only habit.  It may have been needful
+here.  It is base to take petty offences, and set up doubts.'
+
+And Mr. Kendal's tender manner when they were again together, his
+gentle way of addressing her, and a sort of shy caress, proved that
+he was far from all thought of displeasure; nay, he might be
+repenting of his momentary annoyance, though he said nothing.
+
+Albinia went to inquire after the sick man at her first leisure
+moment, and while talking kindly to the wife, and hearing her
+troubles, was surprised at the forlorn rickety state of the building,
+the broken pavement, damp walls, and door that would not shut,
+because the frame had sunk out of the perpendicular.
+
+'Can't you ask your landlord to do something to the house?'
+
+'It is of no use, ma'am, Mr. Pettilove never will do nothing.
+Perhaps if you would be kind enough to say a word to him, ma'am--'
+
+'Mr. Pettilove, the lawyer?  I'll try if Mr. Kendal can say anything
+to him.  It really is a shame to leave a house in this condition.'
+
+Thanks were so profuse, that she feared that she was supposed to
+possess some power of amelioration.  The poor woman even insisted on
+conducting her up a break-neck staircase to see the broken ceiling,
+whence water often streamed in plentifully from the roof.
+
+Her mind full of designs against the cruel landlord, she speeded up
+the hill, exhilarated by each step she took into the fresh air, to
+the garden-gate, which she was just unhasping when the hearty voice
+of the Vicar was heard behind her.  'Mrs. Kendal!  I told Fanny you
+would come.'
+
+Instead of taking her to the front door he conducted her across a
+sloping lawn towards a French window open to the bright afternoon
+sunshine.
+
+'Here she is, here is Mrs. Kendal!' he said, sending his voice before
+him, as they came in sight of the pretty little drawing-room, where
+through the gay chintz curtains, she saw the clear fire shining upon
+half-a-dozen school girls, ranged opposite to a couch.  'Ah!' as he
+perceived them, 'shall I take her for a turn in the garden while you
+finish your lesson?'
+
+'One moment, if you please.  I did not know it was so late,' and a
+face as bright as all the rest was turned towards the window.
+
+'Ah! give her her scholars, and she never knows how time passes,'
+said Mr. Dusautoy.  'But step this way, and I'll show you the best
+view in Bayford.'  He took her up a step or two, to a little turfed
+mound, where there was a rustic seat commanding the whole exquisite
+view of river, vale, and woodland, with the church tower rising in
+the foreground.  The wind blew pleasantly, chasing the shadows of the
+clouds across the open space.  Albinia was delighted to feel it fan
+her brow, and her eager exclamations contented Mr. Dusautoy.  'Yes,'
+he said, 'it was all Fanny's notion.  She planned it all last summer
+when I took her round the garden.  It is wonderful what an eye she
+has!  I only hope when the dry weather comes, that I shall be able to
+get her up there to enjoy it.'
+
+On coming down they found that Mrs. Dusautoy had dismissed her class,
+and come out to a low, long-backed sloping garden-seat at the window.
+She was very little and slight, a mere doll in proportion to her
+great husband, who could lift her as easily and tenderly as a baby,
+paying her a sort of reverential deference and fond admiration that
+rendered them a beautiful sight, in such full, redoubled measure was
+his fondness repaid by the little, clever, fairy-looking woman, with
+her playful manner, high spirits, keen wit, and the active habits
+that even confirmed invalidism could not destroy.  She had small
+deadly white hands, a fair complexion, that varied more than was good
+for her, pretty, though rather sharp and irregular features, and
+hazel eyes dancing with merriment, and face and figure at some years
+above thirty, would have suited a girl of twenty.  To see Mr.
+Dusautoy bringing her footstools, shawls, and cushions, and to
+remember the accusation of starvation, was almost irresistibly
+ludicrous.
+
+'Now, John, you had better have been giving Mrs. Kendal a chair all
+this time.'
+
+'Mrs. Kendal will excuse,' said Mr. Dusautoy, as he brought her a
+seat.
+
+'Mrs. Kendal has excused,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, bursting into a merry
+fit of laughter.  'Oh, I never heard anything more charming than your
+introduction!  I beg your pardon, but I laughed last evening till I
+was worn out, and waked in the night laughing again.'
+
+It was exhilarating to find that any one laughed at Bayford, and
+Albinia partook of the mirth with all her heart.  'Never was an
+address more gratifying to me!' she said.
+
+'It was like him! so unlike Bayford!  So bold a venture!' continued
+Mrs. Dusautoy amid peals of laughter.
+
+'What is there to laugh at?' said Mr. Dusautoy, putting on a look
+between merriment and simplicity.  'What else could I have done?  I
+should have done the same whoever I had met.'
+
+'Ah! now he is afraid of your taking it as too great a compliment!
+To do him justice I believe he would, but the question is, what
+answer he would have had.'
+
+'Nobody could have refused--' began Albinia.
+
+'Oh!' cried Mrs. Dusautoy.  'Little you know Bayford.
+
+'Fanny!  Fanny! this is too bad.  Madame Belmarche--'
+
+'Would have had nothing but eau sucre!  No, John, decidedly you and
+Simkins fell upon your legs, and you bad better take credit for your
+"admirable sagacity."'.
+
+'I like the people,' said Albinia, 'but they never can be well while
+they live in such a shocking place.  It is quite a disgrace to
+Bayford.'
+
+'It is in a sad state,' said Mr. Dusautoy.
+
+'I know I should like to set my brother upon that Mr. Pettilove, who
+they say will do nothing,' exclaimed Albinia.
+
+The Vicar was going to have said something, but a look from his wife
+checked him.  Albinia was sorry for it, as she detected a look of
+suppressed amusement on Mrs. Dusautoy's face.  'I mean to ask Mr.
+Kendal what can be done,' she said; 'and in the meantime, to descend
+from what we can't do to what we can.  Mr. Dusautoy told me to come
+to you for orders.'
+
+'And I told Mr. Dusautoy that I should give you none.'
+
+'Oh! that is hard.'
+
+'If you could have heard him!  He thought he _had_ got a working lady
+at last, and he would have had no mercy upon you.  One would have
+imagined that Mr. Kendal had brought you here for his sole behoof!'
+
+'Then I shall look to you, Mr. Dusautoy.'
+
+'No, I believe she is quite right,' he said.  'She says you ought to
+undertake nothing till yon have had time to see what leisure you have
+to give us.'
+
+'Nay, I have been used to think the parish my business, home my
+leisure.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, 'but then you were the womankind of the
+clergy, now you are a laywoman.'
+
+'I think you have work at home,' said the Vicar.
+
+'Work, but not work _enough!_' cried Albinia.  'The girls will help
+me; only tell me what I may do.'
+
+'I say, "what you can,"' said Mrs. Dusautoy.  'You see before you a
+single-handed man.  Only two of the ladies here can be called
+coadjutors, one being poor little Genevieve Durant, the other the
+bookseller's daughter, Clarissa Richardson, who made all the rest fly
+off.  All the others do what good they mean to do according to their
+own sweet will, free and independent women, and we can't have any
+district system, so I think you can only do what just comes to hand.'
+
+Most heartily did Albinia undertake all that Mrs. Dusautoy would let
+her husband assign to her.
+
+'Yes, John is a strong temptation,' said the bright little invalid,
+'but you must let Mrs. Kendal find out in a month's time whether she
+has work enough.'
+
+'I could think my wise brother Maurice had been cautioning you,' said
+Albinia, taking leave as of an old friend, for indeed she felt more
+at home with Mrs. Dusautoy than with any acquaintance she had made in
+Bayford.
+
+Albinia told her husband of the state of the cottages, and railed at
+Mr. Pettilove much to her own satisfaction.  Mr. Kendal answered, 'He
+would see about it,' an answer of which Albinia had yet to learn the
+import.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+
+There are some characters so constituted, that of them the old
+proverb, that Love is blind, is perfectly true; they can see no
+imperfection in the mind or body of those dear to them.  There are
+others in whom the strongest affections do not destroy clearness of
+vision, who see their friends on all sides, and perceive their faults
+and foibles, without loving them the less.
+
+Albinia Kendal was a person of the latter description.  It might
+almost be called her temptation, that her mind beheld all that came
+before it in a clear, and a humorous light, such as only a
+disposition overflowing with warm affection and with the energy of
+kindness, could have prevented from bordering upon censoriousness.
+She had imagination, but it was not such as to make an illusion of
+the present, or to interfere with her almost satirical good sense.
+Happily, religion and its earthly manifestation--charity regulated
+her, taught her to fear to judge lest she should be judged,
+strengthened her naturally fond affections, and tempered the keenness
+that disappointment might soon have turned to sourness.  The tongue,
+the temper, and the judgment knew their own tendencies, and a guard
+was set over them; and if the sentinel were ever torpid or deceived,
+repentance paid the penalty.
+
+She had not long seen her husband at home before she had
+involuntarily completed her view of his character.  Nature must have
+designed him for a fellow of a college, where, apart from all cares,
+he might have collected fragments of forgotten authors, and
+immortalized his name by some edition of a Greek Lyric poet, known by
+four poems and a half, and two-thirds of a line quoted somewhere
+else.  In such a controversy, lightened by perpetually polished
+poems, by a fair amount of modern literature, select college
+friendships, and methodical habits, Edmund Kendal would have been in
+his congenial element, lived and died, and had his portrait hung up
+as one of the glories of his college.
+
+But he had been carried off from school, before he had done more than
+prove his unusual capacity.  All his connexions were Indian, and his
+father, who had not seen him since his earliest childhood, offered
+him no choice but an appointment in the civil service.  He had one
+stimulus; he had seen Lucy Meadows in the radiant glory of girlish
+beauty, and had fastened on her all a poet's dreams, deepening and
+becoming more fervid in the recesses of a reserved heart, which did
+not easily admit new sensations.  That stimulus carried him out
+cheerfully to India, and quickened his abilities, so that he exerted
+himself sufficiently to obtain a lucrative situation early in life.
+He married, and his household must have been on the German system,
+all the learning on one side, all the domestic cares on the other.
+The understanding and refinement wanting in his wife, he believed to
+be wanting in all women.  As resident at a small remote native court
+in India, he saw no female society such as could undeceive him; and
+subsequently his Bayford life had not raised his standard of
+womankind.  A perfect gentleman, his superiority was his own work,
+rather than that of station or education, and so he had never missed
+intercourse with really ladylike or cultivated, female minds,
+expected little from wife, or daughters, or neighbours; had a few
+learned friends, but lived within himself.  He had acquired a
+competence too soon, and had the great misfortune of property without
+duties to present themselves obviously.  He had nothing to do but to
+indulge his naturally indolent scholarly tastes, which, directed as
+they had been to Eastern languages, had even less chance of sympathy
+among his neighbours than if they had been classical.  Always
+reserved, and seldom or never meeting with persons who could converse
+with him, he had lapsed into secluded habits, and learnt to shut
+himself up in his study and exclude every one, that he might have at
+least a refuge from the gossip and petty cares that reigned
+everywhere else.  So seldom was anything said worth his attention,
+that he never listened to what was passing, and had learnt to say
+'very well'--'I'll see about it,' without even knowing what was said
+to him.
+
+But though his wife had been no companion, the illusion had never
+died away, he had always loved her devotedly, and her loss had
+shattered all his present rest and comfort; as entirely as the death
+of his son had taken from him hope and companionship.
+
+What a home it must have been, with Lucy reigning over it in her pert
+self-sufficiency, Gilbert and Sophy running riot and squabbling, and
+Maria Meadows coming in on them with her well-meant worries and
+persecutions!
+
+When taken away from the scene of his troubles, his spirits revived;
+afraid to encounter his own household alone, he had thought Albinia
+the cure for everything.  But at home, habit and association had
+proved too strong for her presence--the grief, which he had tried to
+leave behind, had waited ready to meet him on the threshold, and the
+very sense that it was a melancholy welcome added to his depression,
+and made him less able to exert himself.  The old sorrows haunted the
+walls of the house, and above all the study, and tarried not in
+seizing on their unresisting victim.  Melancholy was in his nature,
+his indolence gave it force, and his habits were almost ineffaceable,
+and they were habits of quiet selfishness, formed by a resolute,
+though inert will, and fostered by an adoring wife.  A youth spent in
+India had not given him ideas of responsibilities beyond his own
+family, and his principles, though sound, had not expanded the views
+of duty with which he had started in life.
+
+It was a positive pleasure to Albinia to discover that there had been
+an inefficient clergyman at Bayford before Mr. Dusautoy, and to know
+that during half the time that the present vicar had held the living,
+Mr. Kendal had been absent, so that his influence had had no time to
+work.  She began to understand her line of action.  It must be her
+effort, in all loving patience and gentleness, to raise her husband's
+spirits and rouse his faculties; to make his powers available for the
+good of his fellow-creatures, to make him an active and happy man,
+and to draw him and his children together.  This was truly a task to
+make her heart throb high with hope and energy.  Strong and brave was
+that young heart, and not self-confident--the difficulty made her
+only the more hopeful, because she saw it was her duty.  She was
+secure of her influence with him.  If he did exclude her from his
+study, he left her supreme elsewhere, and though she would have given
+the world that their sovereignty might be a joint one _everywhere_,
+still she allowed much for the morbid inveterate habit of dreading
+disturbance.  When he began by silence and not listening, she could
+always rouse him, and give him animation, and he was so much
+surprised and pleased whenever she entered into any of his pursuits,
+that she had full hope of drawing him out.
+
+One day when the fog, instead of clearing off had turned to violent
+rain, Albinia had been out on parish work, and afterwards enlivening
+old Mrs. Meadows by dutifully spending an hour with her, while Maria
+was nursing a nervous headache--she had been subject to headaches
+ever since...an ominous sigh supplied the rest.
+
+But all the effect of Albinia's bright kindness was undone, when the
+grandmother learnt that Gilbert was gone to his tutor, and would have
+to come home in the rain, and she gave such an account of his
+exceeding delicacy, that Albinia became alarmed, and set off at once
+that she might consult his father about sending for him.
+
+Her opening of the hall door was answered by Mr. Kendal emerging from
+his study.  He was looking restless and anxious, came to meet her,
+and uncloaked her, while he affectionately scolded her for being so
+venturesome.  She told him where she had been, and he smiled, saying,
+'You are a busy spirit!  But you must not be too imprudent.'
+
+'Oh, nothing hurts me.  It is poor Gilbert that I am anxious about.'
+
+'So am I.  Gilbert has not a constitution fit for exposure.  I wish
+he were come home.'
+
+'Could we not send for him?  Suppose we sent a fly.'
+
+He was consenting with a pleased smile, when the door opened, and
+there stood the dripping Gilbert, completely wet through, pale and
+chilled, with his hair plastered down, and his coat stuck all over
+with the horse's short hair.
+
+'You must go to bed at once, Gilbert,' said his father.  'Are you
+cold?'
+
+'Very.  It was such a horrid driving wind, and I rode so fast,' said
+Gilbert; violently shivering, as they helped to pull him out of his
+great coat; he put his hand to his mouth, and said that his face
+ached.  Mr. Kendal was very anxious, and Albinia hurried the boy up
+to bed, and meantime ordered quickly a basin of the soup preparing
+for dinner, warmed some worsted socks at the fire, and ran upstairs
+with them.
+
+He seemed to have no substance in him; he had hardly had energy to
+undress himself, and she found him with his face hidden on the
+pillow, shivering audibly, and actually crying.  She was aghast.
+
+The boys with whom she had been brought up, would never have given
+way so entirely without resistance; but between laughing, cheering,
+scolding, covering him up close, and rubbing his hands with her own,
+she comforted him, so that he could be grateful and cheerful when his
+father himself came up with the soup.  Albinia noticed a sort of
+shudder pass over Mr. Kendal as he entered, and he stood close by
+Gilbert, turning his back on everything else, while he watched the
+boy eat the soup, as if restored by every spoonful.  'That was a good
+thought,' was his comment to his wife, and the look of gratitude
+brought a flush of pleasure into her cheek.
+
+
+Of all the dinners, this was the most pleasant; he was more gentle
+and affectionate, and she made him tell her about the Persian poets,
+and promise to show her some specimens of the Rose Garden of Saadi--she
+had never before been so near having his pursuits opened to her.
+
+'What a favourite Gilbert is!' Lucy said to Sophia, as Albinia
+lighted a candle and went up to his room.
+
+'He makes such a fuss,' said Sophy.  'What is there in being wet
+through to cry about?'
+
+Albinia heard a little shuffle as she opened the door, and Gilbert
+pushed a book under his pillow.  She asked him what he had been
+reading.  'Oh,' he said, 'he had not been doing it long, for the
+flickering of the candle hurt his eyes.'
+
+'Yes, you had better not,' said Albinia, moving the flaring light to
+a less draughty part of the dingy whitewashed attic.  'Or shall I
+read to you?'
+
+'Are you come to stay with me?' cried the boy, raising himself up to
+look after her, as she moved about the room and stood looking from
+the window over the trees at the water meadows, now flooded into a
+lake, and lighted by the beams of a young moon.
+
+'I can stay till your father is ready for tea,' said Albinia, coming
+nearer.  'Let me see whether your hands are hot.'
+
+She found her own hand suddenly clasped, and pressed to his lips, and
+then, as if ashamed, he turned his face away; nor would she betray
+her pleasure in it, but merely said, 'Shall I go on with your book!'
+
+'No,' said he, wearily turning his reddened cheek to the other side.
+'I only took it because it is so horrid lying here thinking.'
+
+'I am very sorry to hear it.  Do you know, Gibbie, that it is said
+there is nothing more lamentable than for a man not to like to have
+his own thoughts for his company,' said she, gaily.
+
+'Ah! but--!' said Gilbert.  'If I lie here alone, I'm always looking
+out there,' and he pointed to the opposite recess.  She looked, but
+saw nothing.  'Don't you know?' he said.
+
+'Edmund?' she asked.
+
+He grasped her hands in both his own.  'Aye!  Ned used to sleep
+there.  I always look for him there.'
+
+'Do you mean that you would rather have another room?  I would manage
+it directly.'
+
+'O no, thank you, I like it for some things.  Take the candle--look
+by the shutter--cut out in the wood.'
+
+The boys' scoring of 'E. & G. K.,' was visible there.
+
+'Papa has taken all be could of Edmund's,' said Gilbert, 'but he
+could not take that!  No, I would not have any other room if you were
+to give me the best in the house.'
+
+'I am sure not!  But, my dear, considering what Edmund was, surely
+they should be gentle, happy thoughts that the room should give you.'
+
+He shuddered, and presently said, 'Do you know what?' and paused;
+then continued, with an effort, getting tight hold of her hand, 'Just
+before Edmund died--he lay out there--I lay here--he sat up all white
+in bed, and he called out, clear and loud, "Mamma, Gilbert"--I saw
+him--and then--he was dead!  And you know mamma did die--and I'm sure
+I shall!'  He had worked himself into a trembling fit, hid his face
+and sobbed.
+
+'But you have not died of the fever.'
+
+'Yes--but I know it means that I shall die young!  I am sure it does!
+It was a call!  I heard Nurse say it was a call!'
+
+What was to be done with such a superstition?  Albinia did not think
+it would be right to argue it away.  It might be in truth a warning
+to him to guard his ways--a voice from the twin-brother, to be with
+him through life.  She knelt down by him, and kissed his forehead.
+
+'Dear Gilbert,' she said, 'we all shall die.'
+
+'Yes, but I shall die young.'
+
+'And if you should.  Those are happy who die young.  How much pain
+your baby-brother and sisters have missed!  How happy Edmund is now!'
+
+'Then you really think it meant that I shall'' he cried, tremblingly.
+'O don't!  I can't die!'
+
+'Your brother called on what he loved best,' said Albinia.  'It may
+mean nothing.  Or rather, it may mean that your dear twin-brother is
+watching for you, I am sure he is, to have you with him, for what
+makes your mortal life, however long, seem as nothing.  It was a call
+to you to be as pure on earth as he is in heaven. O Gilbert, how good
+you should be!'
+
+Gilbert did not know whether it frightened him or soothed him to see
+his superstition treated with respect--neither denied, nor reasoned
+away.  But the ghastliness was not in the mere fear that death might
+not be far off.
+
+The pillow had turned a little on one side--Albinia tried to smooth
+it--the corner of a book peeped out.  It was a translation of The
+Three Musqueteers, one of the worst and most fascinating of Dumas'
+romances.
+
+'You wont tell papa!' cried Gilbert, raising himself, in far more
+real and present terror than he had previously shown.
+
+'How did you get it?  Whose is it?'
+
+'It is my own.  I bought it at Richardson's.  It is very funny.  But
+you wont tell papa?  I never was told not; indeed I was not.'
+
+'Now, Gilbert dear, will you tell me a few things?  I do only wish
+what is good for you.  Why don't you wish that papa should hear of
+this book?'
+
+Gilbert writhed himself.
+
+'You know he would not like it?'
+
+'Then why did you take to reading it?'
+
+'Oh!' cried the boy, 'if you only did know how stupid and how
+miserable it has been!  More than half myself gone, and Sophy always
+glum, and Lucy always plaguing, and Aunt Maria always being a
+torment, you would not wonder at one's doing anything to forget it!'
+
+'Yes, but why do what you knew to be wrong?'
+
+'Nobody told me not.'
+
+'Disobedience to the spirit, then, if not to the letter.  It was not
+the way to be happier, my poor boy, nor nearer to your brother and
+mother.'
+
+'Things didn't use to be stupid when Ned was there!' sobbed Gilbert,
+bursting into a fresh flood of tears.
+
+'Ah!  Gilbert, I grieved most of all for _you_ when first I heard
+your story, before I thought I should ever have anything to do with
+you,' said Albinia, hanging over him fondly.  'I always thought it
+must be so forlorn to be a twin left solitary.  But it is sadder
+still than I knew, if grief has made you put yourself farther from
+him instead of nearer.'
+
+'I shall be good again now that I have you,' said Gilbert, as he
+looked up into that sweet face.
+
+'And you will begin by making a free confession to your father, and
+giving up the book.'
+
+'I don't see what I have to confess.  He would be so angry, and he
+never told me not.  Oh! I cannot tell him.'
+
+She felt that this was not the right way to begin a reformation, and
+yet she feared to press the point, knowing that the one was thought
+severe, the other timid.
+
+'At least you will give up the book,' she said.
+
+'O dear! if you would let me see whether d'Artagnan got to England.
+I must know that!  I'm sure there can't be any harm in that.  Do you
+know what it is about?'
+
+'Yes, I do.  My brother got it by some mistake among some French
+books.  He read some of the droll unobjectionable parts to my sister
+and me, but the rest was so bad, that he threw it into the fire.'
+
+'Then you think it funny?'
+
+'To be sure I do.'
+
+'Do you remember the three duels all at once, and the three valets?
+Oh! what fun it is.  But do let me see if d'Artagnan got the
+diamonds.'
+
+'Yes, he did.  But will this satisfy you, Gilbert?  You know there
+are some exciting pleasures that we must turn our backs on
+resolutely.  I think this book is one of them.  Now you will let me
+take it?  I will tell your father about it in private, and he cannot
+blame you.  Then, if he will give his consent, whenever you can come
+home early, come to my dressing-room, out of your sisters' way, and I
+will read to you the innocent part, so as to get the story out of
+your brain.'
+
+'Very well,' said Gilbert, slowly.  'Yes, if you will not let papa be
+angry with me.  And, oh dear! must you go?'
+
+'I think you had better dress yourself and come down to tea.  There
+is nothing the matter with you now, is there?'
+
+He was delighted with the suggestion, and promised to come directly;
+and Albinia carried off her prize, exceedingly hopeful and puzzled,
+and wondering whether her compromise had been a right one, or a mere
+tampering with temptation--delighted with the confidence and
+affection bestowed on her so freely, but awe-struck by the impression
+which the boy had avowed, and marvelling how it should be treated, so
+as to render it a blessed and salutary restraint, rather than the dim
+superstitious terror that it was at present.  At least there was hope
+of influencing him, his heart was affectionate, his will on the side
+of right, and in consideration of feeble health and timid character,
+she would overlook the fact that he had not made one voluntary open
+confession, and that the partial renunciation had been wrung from him
+as a choice of evils.  She could only feel how much he was to be
+pitied, and how he responded to her affection.
+
+She was crossing the hall next day, when she heard a confusion of
+tongues through the open door of the dining-room, and above all,
+Gilbert's.  'Well, I say there are but two ladies in Bayford.  One is
+Mrs. Kendal, and the other is Genevieve Durant!'
+
+'A dancing-master's daughter!' Lucy's scornful tone was
+unmistakeable, and so was the ensuing high-pitched querulous voice,
+'Well, to be sure, Gilbert might be a little more--a little more
+civil.  Not that I've a word to say against--against your--your
+mamma.  Oh, no!--glad to see--but Gilbert might be more civil.'
+
+'I think so indeed,' said Albinia.  'Good morning, Miss Meadows.  You
+see Gilbert has come home quite alive enough for mischief.'
+
+'Ah! I thought I might be excused.  Mamma was so uneasy--though I
+know you don't admit visitors--my just coming to see--We've been
+always so anxious about Gilbert.  Gibbie dear, where is that flannel
+I gave you for your throat?'
+
+She advanced to put her finger within his neck-tie and feel for it.
+Gilbert stuck his chin down, and snapped with his teeth like a gin.
+Lucy exclaimed, 'Now, Gilbert, I know mamma will say that is wrong.'
+
+'Ah! we are used to Gilbert's tricks.  Always bear with a boy's
+antics,' said Miss Meadows, preventing whatever she thought was
+coming out of Mrs. Kendal's month.  Albinia took the unwise step of
+laughing, for her sympathies were decidedly with resistance both to
+flannels and to the insertion of that hooked finger.
+
+'Mr. Bowles has always said it was a case for great care.  Flannel
+next the skin--no exposure,' continued Miss Meadows, tartly.  'I am
+sure--I know I am the last person to wish to interfere--but so
+delicate--You'll excuse--but my mother was uneasy; and people who go
+out in all weathers--'
+
+'I hope Mrs. Meadows had my note this morning.'
+
+'O yes!  I am perfectly aware.  Thank you.  Yes, I know the rule, but
+you'll excuse--My mother was still anxious--I know you exclude
+visitors in lesson-time.  I'm going.  Only grandmamma would be glad--
+not that she wishes to interfere--but if Gilbert had on his piece of
+flannel--'
+
+'Have you, Gilbert?' said Albinia, becoming tormented.
+
+'I have been flannel all over all my life,' said Gilbert, sulkily,
+'one bit more or less can make no odds.'
+
+'Then you have not that piece? said Albinia.
+
+'Oh, my dear!  Think of that!  New Saxony!  I begged it of Mr.
+Holland.  A new remnant--pink list, and all!  I said it was just what
+I wanted for Master Gilbert.  Mr. Holland is always a civil, feeling
+man.  New Saxony--three shillings the yard--and trimmed with blue
+sarsenet!  Where is it, Gilbert?'
+
+'In a soup dish, with a crop of mustard and cress on it,' said
+Gilbert, with a wicked wink at Albinia, who was unable to resist
+joining in the girls' shout of laughing, but she became alarmed when
+she found that poor Miss Meadows was very near crying, and that her
+incoherency became so lachrymose as to be utterly incomprehensible.
+
+Lucy, ashamed of her laughter, solemnly declared that it was very
+wrong of Gilbert, and she hoped he would not suffer from it, and
+Albinia, trying to become grave, judicial, and conciliatory,
+contrived to pronounce that it was very silly to leave anything off
+in an east wind, and hoping to put an end to the matter, asked Aunt
+Maria to sit down, and judge how they went on with their lessons.
+
+O no, she could not interrupt.  Her mother would want her.  She knew
+Mrs. Kendal never admitted visitors.  She had no doubt she was quite
+right.  She hoped it would be understood.  She would not intrude.  In
+fact, she could neither go nor stay.  She would not resume her seat,
+nor let anything go on, and it was full twenty minutes before a
+series of little vibrating motions and fragmentary phrases had borne
+her out of the house.
+
+'Well!' cried Gilbert, 'I hoped Aunt Maria had left off coming down
+upon us.'
+
+'O, mamma!' exclaimed Lucy, 'you never sent your love to grandmamma.'
+
+'Depend upon it she was waiting for that,' said Gilbert.
+
+I'm sure I wish I had known it,' said Albinia, not in the most
+judicious manner.  'Half-past eleven!'
+
+'Aunt Maria says she can't think how you can find time for church
+when you can't see visitors in the morning,' said Lucy.  'And oh!
+dear mamma, grandmamma says gravy soup was enough to throw Gilbert
+into a fever.'
+
+'At any rate, it did not,' said Albinia.
+
+'Oh! and, dear mamma, Mrs. Osborn is so hurt that you called on Mrs.
+Dusautoy before returning her visit; and Aunt Maria says if you don't
+call to-day you will never get over it, and she says that--'
+
+'What business has Mrs. Osborn to ask whom I called on?' exclaimed
+Albinia, impatiently.
+
+'Because Mrs. Osborn is the leading lady in the town,' said Lucy.
+'She told Miss Goldsmith that she had no notion of not being
+respected.'
+
+'And she can't bear the Dusautoys.  She left off subscribing to
+anything when they came; and he behaved very ill to the Admiral and
+everybody at a vestry-meeting.'
+
+'I shall ask your papa before I am in any hurry to call on the
+Osborns!' cried Albinia.  'I have no desire to be intimate with
+people who treat their clergyman in that way.'
+
+'But Mrs. Osborn is quite the leader!' exclaimed Lucy.  They keep the
+best society here.  So many families in the county come and call on
+them.'
+
+'Very likely--'
+
+'Ah! Mrs. Osborn told Aunt Maria that as the Nugents called on you,
+and you had such connexions, she supposed you would be high.  But you
+wont make me separate from Lizzie, will you?  I suppose Miss Nugent
+is a fashionable young lady.'
+
+'Miss Nugent is five years old.  Don't let us have any more of this
+nonsense.'
+
+'But you wont part me from Lizzie Osborn,' said Lucy, hanging her
+head pathetically on one side.
+
+'I shall talk to your father.  He said, the other day, he did not
+wish you to be so much with her.'
+
+Lucy melted into tears, and Albinia was conscious of having been
+first indiscreet and then sharp, hurt at the comments, feeling
+injured by Lucy's evident habit of reporting whatever she said, and
+at the failure of the attempt to please Mrs. Meadows.  She was so
+uneasy about the Osborn question, that she waylaid Mr. Kendal on his
+return from riding, and laid it before him.
+
+'My dear Albinia,' he said, as if he would fain have avoided the
+appeal, 'you must manage your own visiting affairs your own way.  I
+do not wish to offend my neighbours, nor would I desire to be very
+intimate with any one.  I suppose you must pay them ordinary
+civility, and you know what that amounts to.  As to the leadership in
+society here, she is a noisy woman, full of pretension, and thus
+always arrogates the distinction to herself.  Your claims will
+establish themselves.'
+
+'Oh, you don't imagine me thinking of that!' cried Albinia, laughing.
+'I meant their behaving ill to Mr. Dusautoy.'
+
+'I know nothing about that.  Mr. Dusautoy once called to ask for my
+support for a vestry meeting, but I make it a rule never to meddle
+with parish skirmishes.  I believe there was a very unbecoming scene,
+and that Mr. Dusautoy was in the minority.'
+
+'Ah, Edmund, next time you'll see if a parson's sister can sit
+quietly by to see the parson beaten!'
+
+He smiled, and moved towards his study.
+
+'Then I am to be civil?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'But is it necessary to call to-day?'
+
+'I should suppose not;' and there he was, shut up in his den.
+Albinia went back, between laughing and vexation, and Lucy looked up
+from her exercise to say, 'Does papa say you must call on the
+Osborns?'
+
+It was undignified!  She bit her lip, and felt her false position, as
+with a quiver of the voice she replied, 'We shall make nothing but
+mischief if we talk now.  Go on with your business.'
+
+The sharp, curious eyes did not take themselves off her face.  She
+leant over Sophy, who was copying a house, told her the lines were
+slanting, took the pencil from her hand, and tried to correct them,
+but found herself making them over-black, and shaky.  She had not
+seen such a line since the days of her childhood's ill-temper.  She
+walked to the fireplace and said, 'I am going to call on Mrs. Osborn
+to-day.  Not that your father desires it, but because I have been
+indulging in a wrong feeling.'
+
+'I'm sure you needn't,' cried Gilbert.  'It is very impertinent of
+Mrs. Osborn.  Why, if he is an admiral, she was the daughter of an
+old lieutenant of the Marines, and you are General Sir Maurice
+Ferrars' first cousin.'
+
+'Hush, hush, Gilbert!' said Albinia, blushing and distressed.  'Mrs.
+Osborn's standing in the place entitles her to all attention.  I was
+thinking of nothing of the kind.  It was because I gave way to a
+wrong feeling that I mean to go this afternoon.'
+
+On the Sunday, when Mr. and Mrs. Kendal went to pay their weekly
+visit to Mrs. Meadows, they found the old lady taking a turn in the
+garden.  And as they were passing by the screen of laurels, Gilbert's
+voice was heard very loud, 'That's too bad, Lucy!  Grandmamma, don't
+believe one word of it!'
+
+'Gilbert, you--you are, I'm sure, very rude to your sister.'
+
+'I'll not stand to hear false stories of Mrs. Kendal!'
+
+'What is all this?' said Mr. Kendal, suddenly appearing, and
+discovering Gilbert pirouetting with indignation before Lucy.
+
+Miss Meadows burst out with a shower of half sentences, grandmamma
+begged that no notice might be taken of the children's nonsense, Lucy
+put on an air of injured innocence, and Gilbert was beginning to
+speak, but his father put him aside, saying, 'Tell me what has
+happened, Sophia.  From you I am certain of hearing the exact truth.'
+
+'Only,' growled Sophy, in her hoarse boy's voice, 'Lucy said mamma
+said she would not call on Mrs. Osborn unless you ordered her, and
+when you did, she cried and flew into a tremendous passion.'
+
+'Sophy, what a story,' exclaimed Lucy, but Gilbert was ready to
+corroborate his younger sister's report.
+
+'You know Lucy too well to attach any importance to her
+misrepresentations,' said Mr. Kendal, turning to Mrs. Meadows, 'but I
+know not what amends she can make for this most unprovoked slander.
+Speak, Lucy, have you no apology to make?'
+
+For Lucy, in self-defence, had begun to cry, and her grandmother
+seemed much disposed to do the same.  Miss Meadows had tears in her
+eyes, and incoherencies on her lips.  The distress drove away all
+Albinia's inclination to laugh, and clasping her two hands over her
+husband's arm, she said, 'Don't, Edmund, it is only a misunderstanding
+of what really happened.  I did have a silly fit, you know, so it
+is my fault.'
+
+'I cannot forgive for you as you do for yourself,' said Mr. Kendal,
+with a look that was precious to her, though it might have given a
+pang to the Meadowses.  'I did not imagine that my daughter could be
+so lost to the sense of your kindness and forbearance.  Have you
+nothing to say, Lucy?'
+
+'Poor child! she cannot speak,' said her grandmother.  'You see she
+is very sorry, and Mrs. Kendal is too kind to wish to say any more
+about it.'
+
+'Go home at once, Lucy,' said her father.  'Perhaps solitude may
+bring you to a better state of feeling.  Go!'
+
+Direct resistance to Mr. Kendal was never thought of, and Lucy turned
+to go.  Her aunt chose to accompany her, and though this was a
+decided relief to the company she left, it was not likely to be the
+best thing for the young lady herself.
+
+Mr. Kendal gave his arm to Mrs. Meadows, saying gravely that Lucy
+must not be encouraged in her habit of gossiping and inaccuracy.
+Mrs. Meadows quite agreed with him, it was a very bad habit for a
+girl, she was very sorry for it, she wished she could have attended
+to the dear children better, but she was sure dear Mrs. Kendal would
+make them everything  desirable.  She only hoped that she would
+remember their disadvantages, have patience, and not recollect this
+against poor Lucy.
+
+The warm indignation and championship of her husband and his son were
+what Albinia chiefly wished to recollect; but it was impossible to
+free herself from a sense of pain and injury in the knowledge that
+she lived with a spy who would exaggerate and colour every careless
+word.
+
+Mr. Kendal returned to the subject as they walked home.
+
+'I hope you will talk seriously to Lucy about her intolerable
+gossiping,' he said.  'There is no safety in mentioning any subject
+before her; and Maria Meadows makes her worse.  Some stop must be put
+to it.'
+
+'I should like to wait till next time,' said Albinia.
+
+'What do you mean?'
+
+'Because this is too personal to myself.'
+
+'Nay, your own candour is an example to which Lucy can hardly be
+insensible.  Besides, it is a nuisance which must be abated.'
+
+Albinia could not help thinking that he suffered from it as little as
+most people, and wondering whether it were this which had taught him
+silence.
+
+They met Miss Meadows at their own gate, and she told them that dear
+Lucy was very sorry, and she hoped they would take no more notice of
+a little nonsense that could do no one any harm; she would be more on
+her guard next time.
+
+Mr. Kendal made no answer.  Albinia ventured to ask him whether it
+would not be better to leave it, since her aunt had talked to her.
+
+'No,' he said; 'Maria has no influence whatever with the children.
+She frets them by using too many words about everything.  One quiet
+remonstrance from you would have far more effect.'
+
+Albinia called the culprit and tried to reason with her.  Lucy tried
+at first to battle it off by saying that she had made a mistake, and
+Aunt Maria had said that she should hear no more about it.  'But, my
+dear, I am afraid you must hear more.  It is not that I am hurt, but
+your papa has desired me to talk to you.  You would be frightened to
+hear what he says.'
+
+Lucy chose to hear, and seemed somewhat struck, but she was sure that
+she meant no harm; and she had a great deal to say for herself, so
+voluble and so inconsequent, that argument was breath spent in vain;
+and Albinia was obliged to wind up, as an ultimatum, with warning
+her, that till she should prove herself trustworthy, nothing
+interesting would be talked of before her.
+
+The atmosphere of gossip certainly had done its part in cultivating
+Mr. Kendal's talent for silence.  When Albinia had him all to
+herself, he was like another person, and the long drives to return
+visits in the country were thoroughly enjoyable.  So, too, were the
+walks home from the dinner parties in the town, when the husband and
+wife lingered in the starlight or moonlight, and felt that the weary
+gaiety of the constrained evening was made up for.
+
+Great was the offence they gave by not taking out the carriage!
+
+It was disrespect to Bayford, and one of the airs of which Mrs.
+Kendal was accused.  As granddaughter of a Baron, daughter of one
+General Officer and sister of another, and presented at Court, the
+Bayford ladies were prepared to consider her a fine lady, and when
+they found her peculiarly simple, were the more aggrieved, as if her
+contempt were ironically veiled.  Her walks, her dress, her
+intercourse with the clergy, were all airs, and Lucy spared her none
+of the remarks.  Albinia might say, 'Don't tell me all Aunt Maria
+says,' but it was impossible not to listen; and whether in mirth or
+vexation, she was sure to be harmed by what she heard.
+
+And yet, except for the tale-bearing, Lucy was really giving less
+trouble than her sister, she was quick, observant, and obliging, and
+under Albinia's example, the more salient vulgarities of speech and
+manner were falling off.  There had seldom been any collision, since
+it had become evident that Mrs. Kendal could and would hold her own;
+and that her address and air, even while criticised, were regarded as
+something superior, so that it was a distinction to belong to her.
+How many of poor Albinia'a so-called airs should justly have been
+laid to Lucy's account?
+
+On the other hand, Sophy would attend to a word from her father,
+where she had obstinately opposed her step-mother's wishes, making
+her obedience marked, as if for the very purpose of enforcing the
+contrast.  It was a character that Albinia could not as yet fathom.
+In all occupations and amusements, Sophy followed the lead of her
+elder sister, and in her lessons, her sole object seemed to be to get
+things done with as little trouble as possible, and especially
+without setting her mind to work, and yet in the very effort to
+escape diligence or exertion, she sometimes showed signs of so much
+ability as to excite a longing desire to know of what she would be
+capable when once aroused and interested; but the surly, ungracious
+temper rendered this apparently impossible, and whatever Albinia
+attempted, was sure, as if for the very reason that it came from her,
+to be answered with a redoubling of the growl of that odd hoarse
+voice.
+
+On Lucy's birthday, there was an afternoon party of her young
+friends, including Miss Durant.  Albinia, who, among the girlhood of
+Fairmead and its neighbourhood, had been so acceptable a playmate,
+that her marriage had caused the outcry that 'there would never be
+any fun again without Miss Ferrars,' came out on the lawn with the
+girls, in hopes of setting them to enjoy themselves.  But they looked
+at her almost suspiciously, retained their cold, stiff, company
+manners, and drew apart into giggling knots.  She relieved them of
+her presence, and sitting by the window, watched Genevieve walking up
+and down alone, as if no one cared to join her.  Presently Lucy and
+Lizzie Osborn spoke to her, and she went in.  Albinia went to meet
+her in the hall; she coloured and said, 'She was only come to fetch
+Miss Osborn's cloak.'
+
+Albinia saw her disposing it over Lizzie's shoulders, and then
+running in again.  This time it was for Miss Louisa's cloak, and a
+third time for Miss Drury's shawl, which Albinia chose to take out
+herself, and encountering Sophia, said, 'Next time, you had better
+run on errands yourself instead of sending your guests.'
+
+Sophy gave a black look, and she retreated, but presently the groups
+coalesced, and Maria Drury and Sophy ran out to call Genevieve into
+the midst.  Albinia hoped they were going to play, but soon she
+beheld Genevieve trying to draw back, but evidently imprisoned, there
+was an echo of a laugh that she did not like; the younger girls were
+skipping up in the victim's face in a rude way; she hastily turned
+round as in indignation, one hand raised to her eyes, but it was
+instantly snatched down by Maria Drury, and the pitiless ring closed
+in.  Albinia sprang to her feet, exclaiming aloud, 'They are teasing
+her!' and rushed into the garden, hearing on her way, 'No, we wont
+let you go!--you shall tell us--you shall promise to show us--my papa
+is a magistrate, you know--he'll come and search--Jenny, you shall
+tell!'
+
+Come with me, Genevieve,' said Albinia, standing in the midst of the
+tormentors, and launching a look of wrath around her, as she saw
+tears in the young girl's eyes, and taking her hand, found it
+trembling with agitation.  Fondling it with both her own, she led
+Genevieve away, turning her back upon Lucy and her, 'We were only--'
+
+The poor girl shook more and more, and when they reached the shelter
+of the house, gave way to a tightened, oppressed sob, and at the
+first kind words a shower of tears followed, and she took Albinia's
+hand, and clasped it to her breast in a manner embarrassing to
+English feelings, though perfectly natural and sincere in her.  'Ah!
+si bonne! si bonne! pardonnes-moi, Madame!' she exclaimed, sobbing,
+and probably not knowing that she was speaking French; 'but, oh,
+Madame, you will tell me!  Is it true--can he?'
+
+'Can who?  What do you mean, my dear?'
+
+'The Admiral,' said Genevieve, looking about frightened, and sinking
+her voice to a whisper.  'Miss Louisa said so, that he could send and
+search--'
+
+'Search for what, my dear?'
+
+'For my poor little secret.  Ah, Madame, assuredly I may tell you.
+It is but a French Bible, it belonged to my martyred ancestor,
+Francois Durant, who perished at the St. Barthelemi--it is stained
+with his blood--it has been handed on, from one to the other--it was
+all that Jacques Durant rescued when he fled from the Dragonnades--it
+was given to me by my own dear father on his death-bed, with a charge
+to keep it from my grandmother, and not to speak of it--but to guard
+it as my greatest treasure.  And now--Oh, I am not disobeying him,'
+cried Genevieve, with a fresh burst of tears.  'You can feel for me,
+Madame, you can counsel me.  Can the magistrates come and search,
+unless I confess to those young ladies?'
+
+'Most decidedly not,' said Albinia.  'Set your mind at rest, my poor
+child; whoever threatened you played you a most base, cruel trick.'
+
+'Ah, do not be angry with them, Madame; no doubt they were in sport.
+They could not know how precious that treasure was to me, and they
+will say much in their gaiety of heart.'
+
+'I do not like such gaiety,' said Albinia.  'What, they wished to
+make you confess your secret?'
+
+'Yes.  They had learnt by some means that I keep one of my drawers
+locked, and they had figured to themselves that in it was some relic
+of my Huguenot ancestors.  They thought it was some instrument of
+death, and they said that unless I would tell them the whole, the
+Admiral had the right of search, and, oh! it was foolish of me to
+believe them for a moment, but I only thought that the fright would,
+kill my grandmother.  Oh, you were so good, Madame, I shall never
+forget; no, not to the end of my life, how you rescued me!'
+
+'We did not bring you here to be teased,' said Albinia, caressing
+her.  'I should like to ask your pardon for what they have made you
+undergo.'
+
+'Ah, Madame!' said Genevieve, smiling, 'it is nothing.  I am well
+used to the like, and I heed it little, except when it falls on such
+subjects as these.'
+
+She was easily drawn into telling the full history of her treasure,
+as she had learnt from her father's lips, the Huguenot shot down by
+the persecutors, and the son who had fled into the mountains and
+returned to bury the corpse, and take the prized, blood-stained Bible
+from the breast; the escapes and dangers of the two next generations;
+the few succeeding days of peace; and, finally, the Dragonnade, when
+the children had been snatched from the Durant family, and the father
+and mother had been driven at length to fly in utter destitution, and
+had made their way to England in a wretched, unprovisioned open boat.
+The child for whose sake they fled, was the only one rescued from the
+hands of these enemies, and the tradition of their sufferings had
+been handed on with the faithfully preserved relic, down to the
+slender girl, their sole descendant, and who in early childhood had
+drunk in the tale from the lips of her father.  The child of the
+persecutors and of the persecuted, Genevieve Durant did indeed
+represent strangely the history of her ancestral country; and as
+Albinia said to her, surely it might be hoped that the faith in which
+she had been bred up, united what was true and sound in the religion
+of both Reformed and Romanist.
+
+The words made the brown cheek glow.  'Ah, Madame, did I not say I
+could talk with you?  You, who do not think me a heretic, as my dear
+grandmother's friends do, and who yet can respect my grandmother's
+Church.'
+
+Assuredly little Genevieve was one of the most interesting and
+engaging persons that Albinia had ever met, and she listened
+earnestly to her artless history, and pretty enthusiasms, and the
+story which she could not tell without tears, of her father's care,
+when the reward of her good behaviour had been the reading one verse
+in the quaint black letter of the old French Bible.
+
+The conversation lasted till Gilbert made his appearance, and Albinia
+was glad to find that his greeting to Genevieve was cordial and
+affectionate, and free from all that was unpleasant in his sisters'
+manner, and he joined himself to their company when Albinia proposed
+a walk along the broad causeway through the meadows.  It was one of
+the pleasantest walks that she had taken at Bayford, with both her
+companions so bright and merry, and the scene around in all the
+beauty of spring.  Gilbert, with the courtesy that Albinia's very
+presence had infused into him, gathered a pretty wild bouquet for
+each, and Albinia talked of cowslip-balls, and found that neither
+Gilbert nor Genevieve had ever seen one; then she pitied them, and
+owned that she did not know how to get through a spring without one;
+and Gilbert having of course a pocketful of string, a delicious ball
+was constructed, over which Genevieve went into an inexpressible
+ecstasy.
+
+All the evening, Gilbert devoted himself to Genevieve, though more
+than one of the others tried to attract him, playing off the follies
+of more advanced girlhood, to the vexation of Albinia, who could not
+bear to see him the centre of attention to silly girls, when he ought
+to have been finding his level among boys.
+
+'Gilbert makes himself so ridiculous about Jenny Durant,' said his
+sisters, when he insisted on escorting her home, and thus they
+brought on themselves Albinia's pent-up indignation at their usage of
+their guest.  Lucy argued in unsatisfactory self-defence, but Sophy,
+when shown how ungenerous her conduct had been, crimsoned deeply, and
+though uttering no word of apology, wore a look that gave her step-mother
+for the first time a hope that her sullenness might not be so much
+from want of compunction, as from want of power to express it.
+
+Oh! for a consultation with her brother.  But he and his wife were
+taking a holiday among their kindred in Ireland, and for once Albinia
+could have echoed the aunts' lamentation that Winifred had so many
+relations!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+
+Albinia needed patience to keep alive hope and energy, for a sore
+disappointment awaited her.  Whatever had been her annoyances with
+the girls, she had always been on happy and comfortable terms with
+Gilbert, he had responded to her advances, accommodated himself to
+her wishes, adopted her tastes, and returned her affection.  She had
+early perceived that his father and sisters looked on him as the
+naughty one of the family, but when she saw Lucy's fretting
+interference, and, Sophia's wrangling contempt, she did not wonder
+that an unjust degree of blame had often fallen to his share; and
+under her management, he scarcely ever gave cause for complaint.
+That he was evidently happier and better for her presence, was
+compensation for many a vexation; she loved him with all her heart,
+made fun with him, told legends of the freaks of her brother Maurice
+and cousin Fred, and grudged no trouble for his pleasure.
+
+As long as The Three Musqueteers lasted, he had come constantly to
+her dressing-room, and afterwards she promised to find other pleasant
+reading; but after such excitement, it was not easy to find anything
+that did not appear dry.  As the daughter of a Peninsular man, she
+thought nothing so charming as the Subaltern, and Gilbert seemed to
+enjoy it; but by the time he had heard all her oral traditions of the
+war by way of notes, his attendance began to slacken; he stayed out
+later, and always brought excuses--Mr. Salsted had kept him, he had
+been with a fellow, or his pony had lost a shoe.  Albinia did not
+care to question, the evenings were light and warm, and the one thing
+she desired for him was manly exercise: she thought it much better
+for him to be at play with his fellow-pupils, and she could not
+regret the gain of another hour to her hurried day.
+
+One morning, however, Mr. Kendal called her, and his look was so
+grave and perturbed, that she hardly waited till the door was shut to
+ask in terror, what could be the matter.
+
+'Nothing to alarm you,' he said.  'It is only that I am vexed about
+Gilbert.  I have reason to fear that he is deceiving us again; and I
+want you to help us to recollect on which days he should have been at
+Tremblam.  My dear, do not look so pale!'
+
+For Albinia had turned quite white at hearing that the boy, on whom
+she had fixed her warm affection, had been carrying on a course of
+falsehood; but a moment's hope restored her.  'I did keep him at home
+on Tuesday,' she said, 'it was so very hot, and he had a headache.  I
+thought I might.  You told me not to send him on doubtful days.'
+
+'I hope you may be able to make out that it is right,' said Mr.
+Kendal, 'but I am afraid that Mr. Salsted has too much cause of
+complaint.  It is the old story!'
+
+And so indeed it proved, when Albinia heard what the tutor had come
+to say.  The boy was seldom in time, often altogether missing,
+excusing himself by saying he was kept at home by fears of the
+weather; but Mr. Salsted was certain that his father could not know
+how he disposed of his time, namely, in a low style of sporting with
+young Tritton, the son of a rich farmer or half-gentleman, who was
+the pest of Mr. Salsted's parish.  Ill-learnt, slurred-over lessons,
+with lame excuses, were nothing as compared with this, and the amount
+of petty deceit, subterfuge, and falsehood, was frightful, especially
+when Albinia recollected the tone of thought which the boy had seemed
+to be catching from her.   Unused to duplicity, except from mere
+ignorant, unmanageable school-children, she was excessively shocked,
+and felt as if he must be utterly lost to all good, and had been
+acting a lie from first to last.  After the conviction had broken on
+her, she hardly spoke, while Mr. Kendal was promising to talk to his
+son, threaten him with severe punishment, and keep a strict account
+of his comings and goings, to be compared weekly with Mr. Salsted's
+notes of his arrival.  This settled, the tutor departed, and no
+sooner was he gone, than Albinia, hiding her face in her hands, shed
+tears of bitter grief and disappointment.  'My dearest,' said her
+husband, fondly, 'you must not let my boy's doings grieve you in this
+manner.  You have been doing your utmost for him, if any one could do
+him good, it would be you.'
+
+'O no, surely I must have made some dreadful mistake, to have
+promoted such faults.'
+
+'No, I have long known him not to be trustworthy.  It is an evil of
+long standing.'
+
+'Was it always so?'
+
+'I cannot tell,' said he, sitting down beside her, and shading his
+brow with one hand; 'I have only been aware of it since he has been
+left alone.  When the twins were together, they were led by one soul
+of truth and generosity.  What this poor fellow was separately no one
+could know, while he had his brother to guide and shield him.  The
+first time I noticed the evil was when we were recovering.  Gilbert
+and Sophia were left together, and in one of their quarrels injured some
+papers of mine.  I was very weak, and had little power of self-control;
+I believe I terrified him too much.  There was absolute falsehood,
+and the truth was only known by Sophia's coming forward and confessing
+the whole.  It was ill managed.  I was not equal to dealing with him,
+and whether the mischief began then or earlier, it has gone on ever
+since, breaking out every now and then.  I had hoped that with your
+care--But oh! how different it would have been with his brother!
+Albinia, what would I not give that you had but seen _him!_  Not a
+fault was there; not a moment's grief did he give us, till--O
+what an overthrow of hope!'  And he gave way to an excess of grief
+that quite appalled her, and made her feel herself powerless to comfort.
+She only ventured a few words of peace and hope; but the contrast
+between the brothers, was just then keen agony, and he could not help
+exclaiming how strange it was, that Edmund should be the one to be taken.
+
+'Nay,' he said, 'was not he ripe for better things?  May not poor
+Gilbert have been spared that longer life may train him to be like
+his brother?'
+
+'He never will be like him,' cried Mr. Kendal.  'No! no!  The
+difference is evident in the very countenance and features.'
+
+'Was he like you?'
+
+'They said so, but you could not gather an idea of him from me,' said
+Mr. Kendal, smiling mournfully, as he met her gaze.  'It was the most
+beautiful countenance I ever saw, full of life and joy; and there
+were wonderful expressions in the eyes when he was thinking or
+listening.  He used to read the Greek Testament with me every
+morning, and his questions and remarks rise up before me again.  That
+text--You have seen it in church.'
+
+'Because I live, ye shall live also,' Albinia repeated.
+
+'Yes.  A little before his illness we came to that.  He rested on it,
+as he used to do on anything that struck him, and asked me, "whether
+it meant the life hereafter, or the life that is hidden here?"  We
+went over it with such comments as I could find, but his mind was not
+satisfied; and it must have gone on working on it, for one night,
+when I had been thinking him delirious, he called me, and the light
+shone out of those bright dark eyes of his as he said, joyfully, "It
+is both, papa!  It is hidden here, but it will shine out there," and
+as I did not catch his meaning, he repeated the Greek words.'
+
+'Dear boy!  Some day we shall be glad that the full life and glory
+came so soon.'
+
+He shook his head, the parting was still too recent, and it was the
+first time he had been able to speak of his son.  It was a great
+satisfaction to her that the reserve had once been broken; it seemed
+like compensation for the present trouble, though that was acutely
+felt, and not softened by the curious eyes and leading questions of
+the sisters, when she returned to give what attention she could to
+their interrupted lessons.
+
+Gilbert returned, unsuspicious of the storm, till his father's stern
+gravity, and her depressed, pre-occupied manner, excited his
+attention, and he asked her anxiously whether anything were the
+matter.  A sad gesture replied, and perhaps revealed the state of the
+case, for he became absolutely silent.  Albinia left them together.
+She watched anxiously, and hurried after Mr. Kendal into the study,
+where his manner showed her not to be unwelcome as the sharer of his
+trouble.  'I do not know what to do,' he said, dejectedly.  'I can
+make nothing of him.  It is all prevarication and sulkiness!  I do
+not think he felt one word that I said.'
+
+'People often feel more than they show.'
+
+He groaned.
+
+'Will you go to him?' he presently added.  'Perhaps I grew too angry
+at last, and I believe he loves you.  At least, if he does not, he
+must be more unfeeling than I can think him.  You do not dislike it,
+dearest.'
+
+'O no, no!  If I only knew what would be best for him!'
+
+'He may be more unreserved with you,' said Mr. Kendal; and as he was
+anxious for her to make the attempt, she moved away, though in
+perplexity, and in the revulsion of feeling, with a sort of disgust
+towards the boy who had deceived her so long.
+
+She found him seated on a wheelbarrow by the pond, chucking pebbles
+into the still black water, and disturbing the duckweed on the
+surface.  His colour was gone, and his face was dark and moody, and
+strove not to relax, as she said, 'O Gilbert, how could you?'
+
+He turned sharply away, muttering, 'She is coming to bother, now!'
+
+It cut her to the heart.  'Gilbert!' was all she could exclaim, but
+the tone of pain made him look at her, as if in spite of himself, and
+as he saw the tears he exclaimed in an impatient voice of rude
+consolation, 'There's nothing to take so much to heart.  No one
+thinks anything of it!'
+
+'What would Edmund have thought?' said Albinia; but the appeal came
+too soon, he made an angry gesture and said, 'He was nearly three
+years younger than I am now!  He would not have been kept in these
+abominable leading-strings.'
+
+She was too much shocked to find an answer, and Gilbert went on,
+'Watched and examined wherever I go--not a minute to myself--nothing
+but lessons at Tremblam, and bother at home; driven about hither and
+thither, and not allowed a friend of my own, nor to do one single
+thing!  There's no standing it, and I won't!'
+
+'I am very sorry,' said Albinia, struggling with choking tears.  'It
+has been my great wish to make things pleasant to you.  I hope I have
+not teased or driven you to--'
+
+'Nonsense!' exclaimed Gilbert, disrespectfully indeed, but from the
+bottom of his heart, and breaking at once into a flood of tears.
+'You are the only creature that has been kind to me since I lost my
+mother and Ned, and now they have been and turned you against me
+too;' and he sobbed violently.
+
+'I don't know what you mean, Gilbert.  If I stand in your mother's
+place, I can't be turned against you, any more than she could,' and
+she stroked his brow, which she found so throbbing as to account for
+his paleness.  'You can grieve and hurt me, but you can't prevent me
+from feeling for you, nor for your dear father's grief.'
+
+He declared that people at home knew nothing about boys, and made an
+uproar about nothing.
+
+'Do you call falsehood nothing?'
+
+'Falsehood!  A mere trifle now and then, when I am driven to it by
+being kept so strictly.'
+
+'I don't know how to talk to you, Gilbert,' said Albinia, rising;
+'your conscience knows better than your tongue.'
+
+'Don't go;' and he went off into another paroxysm of crying, as he
+caught hold of her dress; and when he spoke again his mood was
+changed; he was very miserable, nobody cared for him, he did not know
+what to do; he wanted to do right, and to please her, but Archie
+Tritton would not let him alone; he wished he had never seen Archie
+Tritton.  At last, walking up and down with him, she drew from him a
+full confidence, and began to understand how, when health and
+strength had come back to him in greater measure than he had ever
+before enjoyed, the craving for boyish sports had awakened, just
+after he had been deprived of his brother, and was debarred from
+almost every wholesome manner of gratifying it.  To fall in with
+young Tritton was as great a misfortune as could well have befallen a
+boy, with a dreary home, melancholy, reserved father, and wearisome
+aunt.   Tritton was a youth of seventeen, who had newly finished his
+education at an inferior commercial school, and lived on his father's
+farm, giving himself the airs of a sporting character, and fast
+hurrying into dissipation.
+
+He was really good-natured, and Gilbert dwelt on his kindness with
+warmth and gratitude, and on his prowess in all sporting accomplishments
+with a perfect effervescence of admiration.  He evidently patronized
+Gilbert, partly from good-natured pity, and partly as flattered by
+the adherence of a boy of a grade above him; and Gilbert was proud
+of the notice of one who seemed to him a man, and an adept in all
+athletic games.  It was a dangerous intimacy, and her heart sank as
+she found that the pleasures to which he had been introducing Gilbert,
+were not merely the free exercise, the rabbit-shooting and rat-hunting
+of the farm, nor even the village cricket-match, all of which, in
+other company, would have had her full sympathy.  But there had been
+such low and cruel sports that she turned her head away sickened at
+the notion of any one dear to her having been engaged in such amusements,
+and when Gilbert in excuse said that every one did it, she answered
+indignantly, 'My brothers never!'
+
+'It is no use talking about what swells do that hunt and shoot and go
+to school,' answered Gilbert.
+
+'Do you wish you went to school?' asked Albinia.
+
+'I wish I was out of it all!'
+
+He was in a very different frame.  He owned that he knew how wrong it
+had been to deceive, but he seemed to look upon it as a sort of fate;
+he wished he could help it, but could not, he was so much afraid of
+his father that he did not know what he said; Archie Tritton said no
+one could get on without.--There was an utter bewilderment in his
+notions, here and there showing a better tone, but obscured by the
+fancies imbibed from his companion, that the knowledge and practice
+of evil were manly.  At one moment he cried bitterly, and declared
+that he was wretched; at another he defended each particular case
+with all his might, changing and slipping away so that she did not
+know where to take him.  However, the conclusion was far more in pity
+than anger, and after receiving many promises that if she would
+shield him from his father and bear with him, he would abstain from
+all she disapproved, she caressed and soothed the aching head, and
+returned to his father hopeful and encouraged, certain that the evil
+had been chiefly caused by weakness and neglect and believing that
+here was a beginning of repentance.  Since there was sorrow and
+confession, there surely must be reformation.
+
+For a week Gilbert went on steadily, but at the end of that time his
+arrivals at home became irregular, and one day there was another
+great aberration.  On a doubtful day, when it had been decided that
+he might go safely between the showers, he never came to Tremblam at
+all, and Mr. Salsted sent a note to Mr. Kendal to let him know that
+his son had been at the races--village races, managed by the sporting
+farmers of the neighbourhood.  There was a sense of despair, and
+again a talk, bringing at once those ever-ready tears and
+protestations, sorrow genuine, but fruitless.  'It was all Archie's
+fault, he had overtaken him, persuaded him that Mr. Salsted would not
+expect him, promised him that he should see the celebrated
+'Blunderbuss,' Sam Shepherd's horse, that won the race last year.
+Gilbert had gone 'because he could not help it.'
+
+'Not help it!' cried Albinia, looking at him with her clear indignant
+eyes.  'How can you be such a poor creature, Gilbert?'
+
+'It is very hard!' exclaimed Gilbert; 'I must go past Robble's Leigh
+twice every day of my life, and Archie will come out and be at me.'
+
+'That is the very temptation you have to resist,' said Albinia.
+'Fight against it, pray against it, resolve against it; ride fast,
+and don't linger and look after him.'
+
+He looked desponding and miserable.  If she could only have put a
+spirit into him!
+
+'Shall I walk and meet you sometimes before you get to Robbie's
+Leigh!'
+
+His face cleared up, but the cloud returned in a moment.
+
+'What is it?' she asked.  'Only tell me.  You know I wish for nothing
+so much as to help you.'
+
+He did confess that there was nothing he should like better, if
+Archie would not be all the worse another time, whenever he should
+catch him alone.
+
+'But surely, Gilbert, he is not always lying in ambush for you, like
+a cat for a mouse.  You can't be his sole game.'
+
+'No, but he is coming or going, or out with his gun, and he will
+often come part of the way with me, and he is such a droll fellow!'
+
+Albinia thought that there was but one cure.  To leave Gilbert daily
+exposed to the temptation must be wrong, and she laid the case before
+Mr. Kendal with so much earnestness, that he allowed that it would be
+better to send the boy from home; and in the meantime, Albinia
+obtained that Mr. Kendal should ride some way on the Tremblam road
+with his son in the morning, so as to convoy him out of reach of the
+tempter; whilst she tried to meet him in the afternoon, and managed
+so that he should be seldom without the hope of meeting her.
+
+Albinia's likings had taken a current absolutely contrary to all her
+preconceived notions; Sophia, with her sullen truth, was respected,
+but it was not easy to like her even as well as Lucy, who, though
+pert and empty, had much good-nature and good-temper, and was not
+indocile; while Gilbert, in spite of a weak, shallow character,
+habits of deception, and low ungentlemanly tastes, had won her
+affection, and occupied the chief of her time and thoughts; and she
+dreaded the moment of parting with him, as removing the most
+available and agreeable of her young companions.
+
+That moment of parting, though acknowledged to be expedient, did not
+approach.  Gilbert, could not be sent to a public school without risk
+and anxiety which his father did not like, and which would have been
+horror to his grandmother; and Albinia herself did not feel certain
+that he was fit for it, nor that it was her part to enforce it.  She
+wrote to her brother, and found that he likewise thought a tutor
+would be a safe alternative; but then he must be a perfect man in a
+perfect climate, and Mr. Kendal was not the man to make researches.
+Mr. Dusautoy mentioned one clergyman who took pupils, Maurice Ferrars
+another, but there was something against each.  Mr. Kendal wrote four
+letters, and was undecided--a third was heard of, but the locality
+was doubtful, and the plan went off, because Mr. Kendal could not
+make up his mind to go thirty miles to see the place, and talk to a
+stranger.
+
+Albinia found that her power did not extend beyond driving him from
+'I'll see about it,' to 'Yes, by all means.'  Action was a length to
+which he could not be brought.  Mr. Nugent was very anxious that he
+should qualify as a magistrate since a sensible, highly-principled
+man was much wanted counterbalance Admiral Osborn's misdirected,
+restless activity and the lower parts of the town were in a dreadful
+state.  Mrs. Nugent talked to Albinia, and she urged it in vain.  To
+come out of his study, examine felons, contend with the Admiral, and
+to meet all the world at the quarter sessions, was abhorrent to him,
+and he silenced her almost with sternness.
+
+She was really hurt and vexed, and scarcely less so by a discovery
+that she made shortly after.  The hot weather had made the houses
+beneath the hill more close and unwholesome than ever, Simkins's wife
+had fallen into a lingering illness, and Albinia, visiting her
+constantly, was painfully sensible of the dreadful atmosphere in
+which she lived, under the roof, with a window that would not open.
+She offered to have the house improved at her own expense, but was
+told that Mr. Pettilove would raise the rent if anything were laid
+out on it.  She went about talking indignantly of Mr. Pettilove's
+cruelty and rapacity, and when Mr. Dusautoy hinted that Pettilove was
+only agent, she exclaimed that the owner was worse, since ignorance
+alone could be excused.  Who was the wretch?  Some one, no doubt, who
+never came near the place, and only thought of it as money.
+
+'Fanny,' said Mr. Dusautoy, 'I really think we ought to tell her.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, 'I think it would be better.  The houses
+belonged to old Mr. Meadows.'
+
+'Oh, if they are Mrs. Meadows's, I don't wonder at anything.'
+
+'I believe they are Gilbert Kendal's.'
+
+They were very kind; Mr. Dusautoy strode out at the window, and his
+wife would not look at Albinia during the minute's struggle to regain
+her composure, under the mortification that her husband should have
+let her rave so much and so long about what must be in his own power.
+Her only comfort was the hope that he had never heard what she said,
+and she knew that he so extremely disliked a conference with
+Pettilove, that he would consent to anything rather than have a
+discussion.
+
+She was, for the first time in her life, out of spirits.  Gilbert was
+always upon her mind; and the daily walk to meet him was a burthen,
+consuming a great deal of time, and becoming trying on hot summer
+afternoons, the more so as she seldom ventured to rest after it, lest
+dulness should drive Gilbert into mischief, or, if nothing worse,
+into quarrelling with Sophia.  If she could not send him safely out
+fishing, she must be at hand to invent pleasures and occupations for
+him; and the worst of it was, that the girls grudged her attention to
+their brother, and were becoming jealous.  They hated the walk to
+Robble's Leigh, and she knew that it was hard on them that their
+pleasure should be sacrificed, but it was all-important to preserve
+him from evil.  She had wished to keep the tutor-negotiations a
+secret, but they had oozed out, and she found that Mrs. and Miss
+Meadows had been declaring that they had known how it would be--
+whatever people said beforehand, it always came to the, same thing in
+the end, and as to its being necessary, poor dear Gibbie was very
+different before the change at home.
+
+Albinia could not help shedding a few bitter tears.  Why was she to
+be always misjudged, even when she meant the best?  And, oh! how
+hard, well-nigh impossible, to forgive and candidly to believe that,
+in the old lady, at least, it was partiality, and not spite.
+
+In September, Mr. and Mrs. Ferrars returned from their journey.
+Albinia was anxious to see them, for if there was a sense that she
+had fallen short of her confident hopes of doing prosperously, there
+was also a great desire for their sympathy and advice.  But Maurice
+had been too long away from his parish to be able to spare another
+day, and begged that the Kendals would come to Fairmead.  Seeing that
+Albinia's heart was set on it, Mr. Kendal allowed himself to be
+stirred up to appoint a time for driving her over to spend a long day
+at Fairmead.
+
+For her own pleasure and ease of mind, Albinia made a point of taking
+Gilbert, and the girls were to spend the day with their grandmother.
+
+'Pretty old Fairmead!' she cried, as the beech-trees rose before her;
+and she was turning round every minute to point out to Gilbert some
+of the spots of which she had told him, and nodding to the few
+scattered children who were not at school, and who looked up with
+mouths from ear to ear, and flushed cheeks, as they curtsied to 'Miss
+Ferrars.'  The 'Miss Ferrars' life seemed long ago.
+
+They came to the little green gate that led to what had been 'home'
+for the happiest years of Albinia's life, and from the ivy porch
+there was a rush of little Willie and Mary, and close at hand their
+mamma, and Maurice emerging from the school.  It was very joyous and
+natural.  But there were two more figures, not youthful, but of
+decided style and air, and quiet but fashionable dress, and Albinia
+had only time to say quickly to her husband, 'my aunts,' before she
+was fondly embraced.
+
+It was not at all what she had intended.  Mrs. Annesley and Miss
+Ferrars were very kind aunts, and she had much affection for them;
+but there was an end of the hope of the unreserve and confidence that
+she wanted.  She could get plenty of compassion and plenty of advice,
+but her whole object would be to avoid these; and, besides, Mr.
+Kendal had not bargained for strangers.  What would become of his
+opportunity of getting better acquainted with Maurice and Winifred,
+and of all the pleasures that she had promised Gilbert?
+
+At least, however, she was proud that her aunts should see what a
+fine-looking man her husband was, and they were evidently struck with
+his appearance and manner.  Gilbert, too was in very good looks, and
+was altogether a bright, gentlemanly boy, well made, though with the
+air of growing too fast, and with something of uncertainty about his
+expression.
+
+It was quickly explained that the aunts had only decided, two days
+before, on coming to Fairmead at once, some other engagement having
+failed them, and they were delighted to find that they should meet
+their dear Albinia, and be introduced to Mr. Kendal.  Setting off
+before the post came in, Albinia had missed Winifred's note to tell
+her of their arrival.
+
+'And,' said Winifred, as she took Albinia upstairs, 'if I did suspect
+that would be the case, I wont say I regretted it.  I did not wish to
+afford Mr. Kendal the pleasures of anticipation.'
+
+'Perhaps it was better,' said Albinia, smiling, 'especially as I
+suppose they will stay for the next six weeks, so that the days will
+be short before you will be free.'
+
+'And now let me see you, my pretty one,' said Winifred, fondly.  'Are
+you well, are you strong?  No, don't wriggle your head away, I shall
+believe nothing but what I read for myself.'
+
+'Don't believe anything you read without the notes,' said Albinia.
+'I have a great deal to say to you, but I don't expect much
+opportunity thereof.'
+
+Certainly not, for Miss Ferrars was knocking at the door.  She had
+never been able to suppose that the sisters-in-law could be more to
+each other than she was to her own niece.
+
+So it became a regular specimen of a 'long day' spent together by
+relations, who, intending to be very happy, make themselves very
+weary of each other, by discarding ordinary occupations, and reducing
+themselves to needlework and small talk.  Albinia was bent on
+liveliness, and excelled herself in her droll observations; but to
+Winifred, who knew her so well, this brilliancy did not seem like
+perfect ease; it was more like effort than natural spirits.  This was
+no wonder, for not only had the sight of new people thrown Mr. Kendal
+into a severe access of shyness and silence, but he was revolving in
+fear and dread the expediency of asking them to Willow Lawn, and
+considering whether Albinia and propriety could make the effort
+bearable.  Silent he sat, while the aunts talked of their wishes that
+one nephew would marry, and that the other would not, and no one
+presumed to address him, except little Mary, who would keep trotting
+up to him, to make him drink out of her doll's tea-cups.
+
+Mr. Ferrars took pity on him, and took him and Gilbert out to call
+upon Colonel Bury; but this did not lessen his wife's difficulties,
+for there was a general expectation that she would proceed to
+confidences; whereas she would do nothing but praise the Dusautoys,
+ask after all the parishioners of Fairmead one by one, and consult
+about French reading-books and Italian grammars.  Mrs. Annesley began
+a gentle warning against overtaxing her strength, and Miss Ferrars
+enforced it with such vehemence, that Winifred, who had been rather
+on that side, began to take Albinia's part, but perceived, with some
+anxiety, that her sister's attempts to laugh off the admonition
+almost amounted to an admission that she was working very hard.  As
+to the step-daughters, no intelligence was attainable, except that
+Lucy would be pleased with a new crochet pattern, and that Sophy was
+like her father, but not so handsome.
+
+The next division of time passed better.  Albinia walked out at the
+window to meet the gentlemen when they came home, and materially
+relieved Mr. Kendal's mind by saying to him, 'The aunts are settled
+in here till they go to Knutsford.  I hope you don't think--there is
+not the least occasion for asking them to stay with us.'
+
+'Are you sure you do not wish it?' said Mr. Kendal, with great
+kindness, but an evident weight removed.
+
+'Most certain!' she exclaimed, with full sincerity; 'I am not at all
+ready for them.  What should I do with them to entertain?'
+
+'Very well,' said Mr. Kendal, 'you must be the judge.  If there be no
+necessity, I shall be glad to avoid unsettling our habits, and
+probably Bayford would hardly afford much enjoyment to your aunts.'
+
+Albinia glanced in his face, and in that of her brother, with her own
+arch fun.  It was the first time that day that Maurice had seen that
+peculiarly merry look, and he rejoiced, but he was not without fear
+that she was fostering Mr. Kendal's retiring habits more than was
+good for him.  But it was not only on his account that she avoided
+the invitation, she by no means wished to show Bayford to her
+fastidious aunts, and felt as if to keep them satisfied and
+comfortable would be beyond her power.
+
+Set free from this dread, and his familiarity with his brother-in-law
+renewed, Mr. Kendal came out to great advantage at the early dinner.
+Miss Ferrars was well read and used to literary society, and she
+started subjects on which he was at home, and they discussed new
+books and criticised critics, so that his deep reading showed itself,
+and even a grave, quiet tone of satire, such as was seldom developed,
+except under the most favourable circumstances.  He and Aunt Gertrude
+were evidently so well pleased with each other, that Albinia almost
+thought she had been precipitate in letting him off the visit.
+
+Gilbert had, fortunately, a turn for small children, and submitted to
+be led about the garden by little Willie; and as far as moderate
+enjoyment went, the visit was not unsuccessful; but as for what
+Albinia came for, it was unattainable, except for one little space
+alone with her brother.
+
+'I meant to have asked a great deal,' she said, sighing.
+
+'If you, want me, I would contrive to ride over,' said Maurice.
+
+'No, it is not worth that.  But, Maurice, what is to be done when one
+sees one's duty, and yet fails for ever for want of tact and temper!
+Ah, I know what you will say, and I often say it to myself, but
+whatever I propose, I always do either the wrong thing or in the
+wrong way!'
+
+'You fall a hundred times a day, but are raised up again,' said
+Maurice.
+
+'Maurice, tell me one thing.  Is it wrong to do, not the best, but
+only the best one can?'
+
+'It is the wrong common to us all,' said Maurice.
+
+'I used to believe in "whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing
+well."  Now, I do everything ill, rather than do nothing at all.'
+
+'There are only two ways of avoiding that.'
+
+'And they are--?'
+
+'Either doing nothing, or admiring all your own doings.'
+
+'Which do you recommend?' said Albinia, smiling, but not far from
+tears.
+
+'My dear,' said Maurice, 'all I can dare to recommend, is patience
+and self-control.  Don't fret and agitate yourself about what you
+can't do, but do your best to do calmly what you can.  It will be
+made up, depend upon it.'
+
+There was no time for more, but the sound counsel, the sympathy, and
+playfulness had done Albinia wonderful good, and she was almost glad
+there had been no more privacy, or her friends might have guessed
+that she had not quite found a counsellor at home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+
+The Christmas holidays did indeed put an end to the walks to meet
+Gilbert, but only so as to make Albinia feel responsible for him all
+day long, and uneasy whenever he was not accounted for.  She played
+chess with him, found books, and racked her brains to seek amusements
+for him; but knowing all the time that it was hopeless to expect a
+boy of fourteen to be satisfied with them.  One or two boys of his
+age had come home for the holidays, and she tried to be relieved by
+being told that he was going out with Dick Wolfe or Harry Osborn, but
+it was not quite satisfactory, and she began to look fagged and
+unwell, and had lost so much of her playfulness, that even Mr. Kendal
+was alarmed.
+
+Sophia's birthday fell in the last week before Christmas, and it had
+always been the family custom to drink tea with Mrs. Meadows.
+Albinia made the engagement with a sense of virtuous resignation,
+though not feeling well enough for the infliction, but Mr. Kendal put
+a stop to all notion of her going.  She expected to enjoy her quiet
+solitary evening, but the result was beyond her hopes, for as she was
+wishing Gilbert good-bye, she heard the click of the study lock, and
+in came Mr. Kendal.
+
+'I thought you were gone,' she said.
+
+'No.  I did not like to leave you alone for a whole evening.'
+
+If it were only an excuse to himself for avoiding the Meadows' party,
+it was too prettily done for the notion to occur to his wife, and
+never had she spent a happier evening.  He was so unusually tender
+and unreserved, so desirous to make her comfortable, and, what was
+far more to her, growing into so much confidence, that it was even
+better than what she used last year to picture to herself as her
+future life with him.  It even came to what he had probably never
+done for any one.  She spoke of a beautiful old Latin hymn, which she
+had once read with her brother, and had never seen adequately
+translated, and he fetched a manuscript book, where, written out with
+unrivalled neatness, stood a translation of his own, made many years
+ago, full of scholarly polish.  She ventured to ask leave to copy it.
+'I will copy it for you,' he said, 'but it must be for yourself
+alone.'
+
+She was grateful for the concession, and happy in the promise.  She
+begged to turn the page, and it was granted.  There were other
+translations, chiefly from curious oriental sources, and there were
+about twenty original poems, elaborated in the same exquisite manner,
+and with a deep melancholy strain of thought, and power of beautiful
+description, that she thought finer and more touching than almost
+anything she had read.
+
+'And these are all locked up for ever.  No one has seen them.'
+
+'So.  When I was a young lad, my poor father put some lines of mine
+into a newspaper.  That sufficed me,' and he shut the clasped book as
+if repenting of having revealed the contents.
+
+'No, I was not thinking of anything you would dislike with regard to
+those verses.  I don't like to let in the world on things precious,
+but (how could she venture so far!) I was thinking how many powers
+and talents are shut up in that study! and whether they might not
+have been meant for more.  I beg your pardon if I ought not to say
+so.'
+
+'The time is past,' he replied, without displeasure; 'my youth is
+gone, and with it the enterprise and hopefulness that can press
+forward, insensible to annoyance.  You should have married a man with
+freshness and energy more responsive to your own.'
+
+'Oh, Edmund, that is a severe reproach for my impertinent speech.'
+
+'You must not expect too much from me,' he continued.  'I told you
+that I was a broken, grief-stricken man, and you were content to be
+my comforter.'
+
+'Would that I could be so!' exclaimed Albinia, 'but to try
+faithfully, I must say what is on my mind.  Dear Edmund, if you would
+only look out of your books, and see how much good you could do, here
+in your own sphere, how much the right wants strengthening, how much
+evil cries out to be repressed, how sadly your own poor suffer--oh!
+if you once began, you would be so much happier!'
+
+She trembled with earnestness, and with fear of her own audacity, but
+a resounding knock at the door prevented her from even discovering
+whether he were offended.  He started away to secure his book, and
+the two girls came in.  Albinia could hardly believe it late enough
+for their return, but they accounted for having come rather earlier
+by saying that Gilbert had been making himself so ridiculous when he
+had come at last, that grandmamma had sent him home.
+
+'At last!' said Albinia.  'He set off only ten minutes after you, as
+soon as he found that papa was not coming.'
+
+'All I know,' said Lucy, 'is, that he did not come till half-past
+nine, and said he had come from home.'
+
+'And where can he be now?'
+
+'Gone to bed,' growled Sophy.
+
+'I don't know what he has been doing,' said Lucy, who since the
+suspicion of favouritism, had seemed to find especial pleasure in
+bringing forward her brother's faults; 'but he came in laughing like
+a plough-boy, and talking perfect nonsense.  And when Aunt Maria
+spoke to him, he answered quite rudely, that he wasn't going to be
+questioned and called to order, he had enough of petticoat government
+at home.'
+
+'No,' said Sophy, breaking in with ungracious reluctance, as if
+against her will conveying some comfort to her step-mother for the
+sake of truth, 'what he said was, that if he bore with petticoat
+government at home, it was because Mrs. Kendal was pretty and kind,
+and didn't torment him out of his life for nothing, and what he stood
+from her, he would not stand from any other woman.'
+
+'But, Sophy, I am sure he did say Mrs. Kendal knew what she was going
+to say, and said it, and it was worth hearing, and he laughed in Aunt
+Maria's face, and told her not to make so many bites at a cherry.'
+
+'He must have been beside himself,' said Albinia, in a bewilderment
+of consternation, but Mr. Kendal's return put a stop to all, for the
+sisters never told tales before him, and she would not bring the
+subject under his notice until she should be better informed.  His
+suffering was too great, his wrath too stern, to be excited without
+serious cause; but she spent a wakeful, anxious night, revolving all
+imaginable evils into which the boy could have fallen, and perplexing
+herself what measures to take, feeling all the more grieved and bound
+to him by the preference that, even in this dreadful mood, he had
+expressed for her.  She fell into a restless sleep in the morning,
+from which she wakened so late as to have no time to question Gilbert
+before breakfast.  On coming down, she found that he had not made his
+appearance, and had sent word that he had a bad headache, and wanted
+no breakfast.  His father, who had made a visit of inspection, said
+he thought it was passing off, smiling as he observed upon Mrs.
+Meadows's mince-pie suppers and home-made wine.
+
+Lucy said nothing, but glanced knowingly at her sister and at
+Albinia, from neither of whom did she get any response.
+
+Albinia did not dare to take any measures till Mr. Kendal had ridden
+out, and then she went up and knocked at Gilbert's door.  He was
+better, he said, and was getting up, he would be down-stairs
+presently.  She watched for him as he came down, looking still very
+pale and unwell.  She took him into her room, made him sit by the
+fire, and get a little life and warmth into his chilled hands before
+she spoke.  'Yes, Gilbert, I don't wonder you cannot lift up your
+head while so much is on your mind.'
+
+Gilbert started and hid his face.
+
+'Did you think I did not know, and was not grieved?'
+
+'Well,' he cried, peevishly, 'I'm sure I have the most ill-natured
+pair of sisters in the world.'
+
+'Then you meant to deceive us again, Gilbert.'
+
+He had relapsed into the old habit--as usual, a burst of tears and a
+declaration that no one was ever so badly off, and he did not know
+what to do.
+
+'You _do_ know perfectly well what to do, Gilbert.  There is nothing
+for it but to tell me the whole meaning of this terrible affair, and
+I will see whether I can help you.'
+
+It was always the same round, a few words would always bring the
+confession, and that pitiful kind of helpless repentance, which had
+only too often given her hope.
+
+Gilbert assured her that he had fully purposed following his sisters,
+but that on the way he had unluckily fallen in with Archie Tritton
+and a friend, who had driven in to hear a man from London singing
+comic songs at the King's Head, and they had persuaded him to come
+in.  He had been uneasy and tried to get away, but the dread of being
+laughed at about his grandmother's tea had prevailed, and he had been
+supping on oysters and porter, and trying to believe himself a fast
+man, till Archie, who had assured him that he was himself going home
+in 'no time,' had found it expedient to set off, and it had been
+agreed that he should put a bold face on it, and profess that he had
+never intended to do more than come and fetch his sisters home.
+
+That the porter had anything to do with his extraordinary manner to
+his grandmother and aunt, was so shocking a notion, and the very hint
+made him cry so bitterly, and protest so earnestly that he had only
+had one pint, which he did not like, and only drank because he was
+afraid of being teased, that Albinia was ready to believe that he had
+been so elevated by excitement as to forget himself, and continue the
+style of the company he had left.  It was bad enough, and she felt
+almost overpowered by the contemplation of the lamentable weakness of
+the poor boy, of the consequences, and of what was incumbent on her.
+
+She leant back and considered a little while, then sighed heavily,
+and said, 'Gilbert, two things must be done.  You must make an
+apology to your grandmother and aunt, and you must confess the whole
+to your father.'
+
+He gave a sort of howl, as if she were misusing his confidence.
+
+'It must be,' she said.  'If you are really sorry, you will not
+shrink.  I do not believe that it could fail to come to your father's
+knowledge, even if I did not know it was my duty to tell him, and how
+much better to confess it yourself.'
+
+For this, however, Gilbert seemed to have no force; he cried
+piteously, bewailed himself, vowed incoherently that he would never
+do so again, and if she had not pitied him so much, would have made
+her think him contemptible.
+
+She was inexorable as to having the whole told, though dreading the
+confession scarcely less than he did; and he finally made a virtue of
+necessity, and promised to tell, if only she would not desert him,
+declaring, with a fresh flood of tears, that he should never do wrong
+when she was by.  Then came the apology.  It was most necessary, and
+he owned that it would be much better to be able to tell his father
+that his grandmother had forgiven him; but he really had not nerve to
+set out alone, and Albinia, who had begun to dread having him out of
+sight, consented to go and protect him.
+
+He shrank behind her, and she had to bear the flood of Maria's
+surprises and regrets, before she could succeed in saying that he was
+very sorry for yesterday's improper behaviour, and had come to ask
+pardon.
+
+Grandmamma was placable; Gilbert's white face and red eyes were
+pleading enough, and she was distressed at Mrs. Kendal having come
+out, looking pale and tired.  If she had been alone, the only danger
+would have been that the offence would be lost in petting; but Maria
+had been personally wounded, and the jealousy she already felt of the
+step-mother, had been excited to the utmost by Gilbert's foolish
+words.  She was excessively grieved, and a great deal more angry with
+Mrs. Kendal than with Gilbert; and the want of justification for this
+feeling, together with her great excitement, distress, and
+embarrassment, made her attempts to be dry and dignified ludicrously
+abortive.  She really seemed to have lost the power of knowing what
+she said.  She was glad Mrs. Kendal could walk up this morning, since
+she could not come at night.
+
+'It was not my fault,' said Albinia, earnestly; 'Mr. Kendal forbade
+me.  I am sure I wish we had come.'
+
+The old lady would have said something kind about not reproaching
+herself, but Miss Meadows interposed with, 'It was very unlucky, to
+be sure--Mr. Kendal never failed them before, not that she would
+wish--but she had always understood that to let young people run
+about late in the evening by themselves--not that she meant anything,
+but it was very unfortunate--if she had only been aware--Betty should
+have come down to walk up with them.'
+
+Gilbert could not forbear an ashamed smile of intense affront at this
+reproach to his manliness.
+
+'It was exceedingly unfortunate,' said Albinia, trying to repress her
+vexation; 'but Gilbert must learn to have resolution to guard
+himself.  And now that he is come to ask your forgiveness, will you
+not grant it to him?'
+
+'Oh, yes, yes, certainly, I forgive him from my heart.  Yes, Gilbert,
+I do, only you must mind and beware--it is a very shocking thing--low
+company and all that--you've made yourself look as ill--and if you
+knew what a cake Betty had made--almond and citron both--"but it's
+for Master Gilbert," she said, "and I don't grudge"--and then to
+think--oh, dear!'
+
+Albinia tried to express for him some becoming sorrow at having
+disappointed so much kindness, but she brought Miss Meadows down on
+her again.
+
+'Oh, yes--she grudged nothing--but she never expected to meet with
+gratitude--she was quite prepared--' and she swallowed and almost
+sobbed, 'there had been changes.  She was ready to make every excuse-
+-she was sure she had done her best--but she understood--she didn't
+want to be assured.  It always happened so--she knew her homely ways
+were not what Mrs. Kendal had been used to--and she didn't wonder--
+she only hoped the dear children--' and she was absolutely crying.
+
+'My dear Maria,' said her mother, soothingly, 'you have worked
+yourself into such a state, that you don't know what you are saying.
+You must not let Mrs. Kendal think that we don't know that she is
+leading the dear children to all that is right and kind towards as.'
+
+'Oh, no, I don't accuse any one.  Only if they like to put me down
+under their feet and trample on me, they are welcome.  That's all I
+have to say.'
+
+Albinia was too much annoyed to be amused, and said, as she rose to
+take leave, 'I think it would be better for Gilbert, as well as for
+ourselves, if we were to say no more till some more cool and
+reasonable moment.'
+
+'I am as cool as possible,' said Miss Meadows, convulsively clutching
+her hand; 'I'm not excited.  Don't excite yourself, Mrs. Kendal--it
+is very bad for you.  Tell her not, Mamma--oh! no, don't be excited--
+I mean nothing--I forgive poor dear Gibbie whatever little matters--I
+know there was excuse--boys with unsettled homes--but pray don't go
+and excite yourself--you see how cool I am--'
+
+And she pursued Albinia to the garden-gate, recommending her at every
+step not to be excited, for she was as cool as possible, trembling
+and stammering all the time, with flushed cheeks, and tears in her
+eyes.
+
+'I wonder who she thinks is excited?' exclaimed Albinia, as they
+finally turned their backs on her.
+
+It was hardly in human nature to help making the observation, but it
+was not prudent.  Gilbert took licence to laugh, and say, 'Aunt Maria
+is beside herself.'
+
+'I never heard anything so absurd or unjust!' cried Albinia, too much
+irritated to remember anything but the sympathy of her auditor.  'If
+I am to be treated in this manner, I have done striving to please
+them.  Due respect shall be shown, but as to intimacy and
+confidence--'
+
+'I'm glad you see it so at last!' cried Gilbert.  'Aunt Maria has
+been the plague of my life, and I'm glad I told her a bit of my
+mind!'
+
+What was Albinia's consternation!  Her moment's petulance had undone
+her morning's work.
+
+'Gilbert,' she said, 'we are both speaking very wrongly.  I
+especially, who ought to have helped you.'
+
+Spite of all succeeding humility the outburst had been fatal, and
+argue and plead as she might, she could not restore the boy to
+anything like the half satisfactory state of penitence in which she
+had led him from home.  The giving way to her worse nature had
+awakened his, and though he still allowed that she should prepare the
+way for his confession to his father, all real sense of his
+outrageous conduct towards his aunt was gone.
+
+Disheartened and worn out, Albinia did not feel equal even to going
+to take off her walking things, but sat down in the drawing-room on
+the sofa, and tried to silence the girls' questions and chatter, by
+desiring Lucy to read aloud.
+
+By-and-by Mr. Kendal was heard returning, and she rose to arrest him
+in the hall.  Her looks began the story, for he exclaimed, 'My dear
+Albinia, what is the matter?'
+
+'Oh, Edmund, I have such things to tell you!  I have been doing so
+wrong.'
+
+She was almost sobbing, and he spoke fondly.  'No, Albinia, I can
+hardly believe that.  Something has vexed you, and you must take time
+to compose yourself.'
+
+He led her up to her own room, tried to soothe her, and would not
+listen to a word till she should be calm.  After lying still for a
+little while, she thought she had recovered, but the very word
+'Gilbert' brought such an expression of anxiety and sternness over
+his brow as overcame her again, and she could not speak without so
+much emotion that he silenced her; and finding that she could neither
+leave the subject, nor mention it without violent agitation, he said
+he would leave her for a little while, and perhaps she might sleep,
+and then be better able to speak to him.  Still she held him, and
+begged that he would say nothing to Gilbert till he had heard her,
+and to pacify her he yielded, passed his promise, and quitted her
+with a kiss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+
+There was a messenger at Fairmead Parsonage by sunrise the next
+morning, and by twelve o'clock Mr. and Mrs. Ferrars were at Willow
+Lawn.
+
+Mr. Kendal's grave brow and depressed manner did not reassure
+Winifred as he met her in the hall, although his words were, 'I hope
+she is doing well.'
+
+He said no more, for the drawing-room door was moving to and fro, as
+if uneasy on the hinges, and as he made a step towards it, it
+disclosed a lady with black eyes and pinched features, whom he
+presented as 'Miss Meadows.'
+
+'Well, now--I think--since more efficient--since I leave Mrs. Kendal
+to better--only pray tell her--my love and my mother's--if I could
+have been of any use--or shall I remain?--could I be of any service,
+Edmund?--I would not intrude when--but in the house--if I could be of
+any further use.'
+
+'Of none, thank you,' said Mr. Kendal, 'unless you would be kind
+enough to take home the girls.'
+
+'Oh, papa!' cried Lucy, I've got the keys.  You wont be able to get
+on at all without me.  Sophy may go, but I could not be spared.'
+
+'Let it be as you will,' said Mr. Kendal; 'I only desire quiet, and
+that you should not inconvenience Mrs. Ferrars.'
+
+'You will help me, will you not!' said Winifred, smiling, though she
+did not augur well from this opening scene.  'May I go soon to
+Albinia?'
+
+'Presently, I hope,' said Mr. Kendal, with an uneasy glance towards
+Miss Meadows, 'she has seen no one as yet, and she is so determined
+that you cannot come till after Christmas, that she does not expect
+you.'
+
+Miss Meadows began one of her tangled skeins of words, the most
+tangible of which was excitement; and Mr. Kendal, knowing by long
+experience that the only chance of a conclusion was to let her run
+herself down, held his tongue, and she finally departed.
+
+Then he breathed more freely, and said he would go and prepare
+Albinia to see her sister, desiring Lucy to show Mrs. Ferrars to her
+room, and to take care not to talk upon the stairs.
+
+This, Lucy, who was in high glory, obeyed by walking upon creaking
+tip-toe, apparently borrowed from her aunt, and whispering at a
+wonderful rate about her eagerness to see dear, dear mamma, and the
+darling little brother.
+
+The spare room did not look expectant of guests, and felt still less
+so.  It struck Winifred as very like the mouth of a well, and the
+paper showed patches of ancient damp.  One maid was hastily laying
+the fire, the other shaking out the curtains, in the endeavour to
+render it habitable, and Lucy began saying, 'I must apologize.  If
+papa had only given us notice that we were to have the pleasure of
+seeing you,' and then she dashed at the maid in all the pleasure of
+authority.  'Eweretta, go and bring up Mrs. Ferrars's trunks
+directly, and some water, and some towels.'
+
+Winifred thought the greatest mercy to the hunted maid would be to
+withdraw as soon as she had hastily thrown off bonnet and cloak, and
+Lucy followed her into the passage, repeating that papa was so absent
+and forgetful, that it was very inconvenient in making arrangements.
+Whatever was ordinarily repressed in her, was repaying itself with
+interest in the pleasure of acting as mistress of the house.
+
+Mrs. Ferrars beheld Gilbert sitting listlessly on the deep window-seat
+at the end of the passage, resting his head on his hand.
+
+'Well!' exclaimed Lucy, 'if he is not there still!  He has hardly
+stirred since breakfast!  Come and speak to Mrs. Ferrars, Gilbert.
+Or,' and she simpered, 'shall it be Aunt Winifred?'
+
+'As you please,' said Mrs. Ferrars, advancing towards her old
+acquaintance, whom she would hardly have recognised, so different was
+the pale, downcast, slouching figure, from the bright, handsome lad
+she remembered.
+
+'How cold your hand is!' she exclaimed; 'you should not sit in this
+cold passage.'
+
+'As I have been telling him all this morning,' said Lucy.
+
+'How is she?' whispered the boy, rousing himself to look imploringly
+in Winifred's face.
+
+'Your father seems satisfied about her.'
+
+At that moment a door at some distance was opened, and Gilbert seemed
+to thrill all over as for the moment ere it closed a baby's cry was
+heard.  He turned his face away, and rested it on the window.  'My
+brother! my brother!' he murmured, but at that moment his father
+turned the corner of the passage, saying that Albinia had heard their
+arrival, and was very eager to see her sister.
+
+Still Winifred could not leave the boy without saying, 'You can make
+Gilbert happy about her, can you not?  He is waiting here, watching
+anxiously for news of her.'
+
+'Gilbert himself best knows whether he has a right to be made happy,'
+said Mr. Kendal, gravely.  'I promised to ask no questions till she
+is able to explain, but I much fear that he has been causing her
+great grief and distress.'
+
+He fixed his eyes on his son, and Winifred, in the belief that she
+was better out of their way, hurried to Albinia's room, and was seen
+very little all the rest of the day.
+
+She was spared, however, to walk to church the next morning with her
+husband, Lucy showing them the way, and being quiet and agreeable
+when repressed by Mr. Ferrars's presence.  After church, Mr. Dusautoy
+overtook them to inquire after Mrs. Kendal, and to make a kind
+proposal of exchanging Sunday duty.  He undertook to drive the ponies
+home on the morrow, begged for credentials for the clerk, and
+messages for Willie and Mary, and seemed highly pleased with the
+prospect of the holiday, as he called it, only entreating that Mrs.
+Ferrars would be so kind as to look in on 'Fanny,' if Mrs. Kendal
+could spare her.
+
+'I thought,' said Winifred to her husband, 'that you would rather
+have exchanged a Sunday when Albinia is better able to enjoy you?'
+
+'That may yet be, but poor Kendal is so much depressed, that I do not
+like to leave him.'
+
+'I have no patience with him!' cried Winifred; 'he does not seem to
+take the slightest pleasure in his baby, and he will hardly let poor
+Albinia do so either!  Do you know, Maurice, it is as bad as I ever
+feared it would be.  No, don't stop me, I must have it out.  I always
+said he had no business to victimize her, and I am sure of it now!  I
+believe this gloom of his has broken down her own dear sunny spirits!
+There she is--so unlike herself--so anxious and fidgety about her
+baby--will hardly take any one's word for his being as healthy and
+stout a child as I ever saw!  And then, every other moment, she is
+restless about that boy--always asking where he is, or what he is
+doing.  I don't see how she is ever to get well, while it goes on in
+this way!  Mr. Kendal told me that Gilbert had been worrying and
+distressing her; and as to those girls, the eldest of them is
+intolerable with her airs, and the youngest--I asked her if she liked
+babies, and she growled, "No."  Lucy said Gilbert was waiting in the
+passage for news of mamma, and she grunted, "All sham!" and that's
+the whole I have heard of her!  He is bad enough in himself, but with
+such a train!  My poor Albinia!  If they are not the death of her, it
+will be lucky!'
+
+'Well done, Winifred!'
+
+'But, Maurice,' said his impetuous wife, in a curiously altered tone,
+'are not you very unhappy about Albinia?'
+
+'I shall leave you to find that out for me.'
+
+'Then you are not?'
+
+'I think Kendal thoroughly values and appreciates her, and is very
+uncomfortable without her.'
+
+'I suppose so.  People do miss a maid-of-all-work.  I should not so
+much mind it, if she had been only _his_ slave, but to be so to all
+those disagreeable children of his too!  And with so little effect.
+Why can't he send them all to school?'
+
+'Propose that to Albinia.'
+
+'She did want the boy to go somewhere.  I should not care where, so
+it were out of her way.  What creatures they must be for her to have
+produced no more effect on them!'
+
+'Poor Albinia!  I am afraid it is a hard task: but these are still
+early days, and we see things at a disadvantage.  We shall be able to
+judge whether there be really too great a strain on her spirits, and
+if so, I would talk to Kendal.'
+
+'And I wonder what is to come of that.  It seems to me like what John
+Smith calls singing psalms to a dead horse.'
+
+'John Smith!  I am glad you mentioned him; I shall desire Dusautoy to
+bring him here on Monday.'
+
+'What! as poor Albinia would say, you can't exist a week without John
+Smith.'
+
+'Even so.  I want him to lay out a plan for draining the garden.
+That pond is intolerable.  I suspect that all, yourself included,
+will become far more good-tempered in consequence.'
+
+'A capital measure, but do you mean that Edmund Kendal is going to
+let you and John Smith drain his pond under his very nose, and never
+find it out?  I did not imagine him quite come to that.'
+
+'Not _quite_,' said Maurice; 'it is with his free consent, and I
+believe he will be very glad to have it done without any trouble to
+himself.  He said that Albinia _thought it damp_, and when I put a
+few sanatory facts before him, thanked me heartily, and seemed quite
+relieved.  If they had only been in Sanscrit, they would have made
+the greater impression.'
+
+'One comfort is, Maurice, that however provoking you are at first,
+you generally prove yourself reasonable at last, I am glad you are
+not Mr. Kendal.'
+
+'Ah! it will have a fine effect on you to spend your Christmas-day
+tete-a-tete with him.'
+
+Mrs. Ferrars's views underwent various modifications, like all hasty
+yet candid judgments.  She took Mr. Kendal into favour when she found
+him placidly submitting to Miss Meadows's showers of words, in order
+to prevent her gaining access to his wife.
+
+'Maria Meadows is a very well-meaning person,' he said afterwards;
+'but I know of no worse infliction in a sick-room.'
+
+'I wonder,' thought Winifred, 'whether he married to get rid of her.
+I should have thought it justifiable had it been any one but
+Albinia!'
+
+The call on Mrs. Dusautoy was consoling.  It was delightful to find
+how Albinia was loved and valued at the vicarage.  Mrs. Dusautoy
+began by sending her as a message, John's first exclamation on
+hearing of the event.  'Then she will never be of any more use.'  In
+fact, she said, it was much to him like having a curate disabled, and
+she believed he could only be consoled by the hopes of a pattern
+christening, and of a nursery for his school-girls; but there
+Winifred shook her head, Fairmead had a prior claim, and Albinia had
+long had her eye upon a scholar of her own.
+
+'I told John that she would! and he must bear it as he can,' laughed
+Mrs. Dusautoy; and she went on more seriously to say that her
+gratitude was beyond expression, not merely for the actual help,
+though that was much, but for the sympathy, the first encouragement
+they had met among their richer parishioners, and she spoke of the
+refreshment of the mirthfulness and playful manner, so as to convince
+Winifred that they had neither died away nor been everywhere wasted.
+
+Winifred had no amenable patient.  Weak and depressed as Albinia was,
+her restlessness and air of anxiety could not be appeased.  There was
+a look of being constantly on the watch, and once, when her door was
+ajar, before Winifred was aware she exerted her voice to call
+Gilbert!
+
+Pushing the door just wide enough to enter, and treading almost
+noiselessly, he came forward, looking from side to side as with a
+sense of guilt.  She stretched out her hand and smiled, and he obeyed
+the movement that asked him to bend and kiss her, but still durst not
+speak.
+
+'Let me have the baby,' she said.
+
+Mrs. Ferrars laid it beside her, and held aloof.  Gilbert's eyes were
+fixed intently on it.
+
+'Yes, Gilbert,' Albinia said, 'I know what you will feel for him.  He
+can't be what you once had--but oh, Gilbert, you will do all that an
+elder brother can to make him like Edmund!'
+
+Gilbert wrung her fingers, and ventured to stoop down to kiss the
+little red forehead.  The tears were running down his cheeks, and he
+could not speak.
+
+'If your father might only say the same of him! that he never grieved
+him!' said Albinia; 'but oh, Gilbert--example,' and then, pausing and
+gazing searchingly in his face, 'You have not told papa.'
+
+'No,' whispered Gilbert.
+
+'Winifred,' said Albinia, 'would you be so kind as to ask papa to
+come?'
+
+Winifred was forced to obey, though feeling much to blame as Mr.
+Kendal rose with a sigh of uneasiness.  Gilbert still stood with his
+hand clasped in Albinia's, and she held it while her weak voice made
+the full confession for him, and assured his father of his shame and
+sorrow.  There needed no such assurance, his whole demeanour had been
+sorrow all these dreary days, and Mr. Kendal could not but forgive,
+though his eye spoke deep grief.
+
+'I could not refuse pardon thus asked,' he said.  'Oh, Gilbert, that
+I could hope this were the beginning of a new course!'
+
+Albinia looked from Gilbert to his little brother, and back again to
+Gilbert.
+
+'It _shall_ be,' she said, and Gilbert's resolution was perhaps the
+more sincere that he spoke no word.
+
+'Poor boy,' said Albinia, half to herself and half aloud, 'I think I
+feel more strong to love and to help him!'
+
+That interview was a dangerous experiment, and she suffered for it.
+As her brother said, instead of having too little life, she had too
+much, and could not let herself rest; she had never cultivated the
+art of being still, and when she was weak, she could not be calm.
+
+Still the strength of her constitution staved off the nervous fever
+of her spirits, and though she was not at all a comfortable patient,
+she made a certain degree of progress, so that though it was not easy
+to call her better, she was not quite so ill, and grew less
+irrational in her solicitude, and more open to other ideas.  'Do you
+know, Winifred,' she said one day, 'I have been thinking myself at
+Fairmead till I almost believed I heard John Smith's voice under the
+window.'
+
+Winifred was obliged to look out at the window to hide her smile.
+Maurice, who was standing on the lawn with the very John Smith,
+beckoned to her, and she went down to hear his plans.  He was wanted
+at home the next day, and asked whether she thought he had better
+take Gilbert with him.  'It is the wisest thing that has been said
+yet!' exclaimed she.  'Now I shall have a chance for Albinia!' and
+accordingly, Mr. Kendal having given a gracious and grateful consent,
+Albinia was informed; but Winifred thought her almost perverse when a
+perturbed look came over her, and she said, 'It is very kind in
+Maurice, but I must speak to him.'
+
+He was struck by the worn, restless expression of her features, so
+unlike the calm contented repose of a young mother, and when she
+spoke to him, her first word was of Gilbert.  'Maurice, it is so
+kind, I know you will make him happy--but oh! take care--he is so
+delicate--indeed, he is--don't let him get wet through.'
+
+Maurice promised, but Albinia resumed with minutiae of directions,
+ending with, 'Oh! if he should get hurt or into any mischief, what
+should we do?  Pray, take care, Maurice, you are not used to such
+delicate boys.'
+
+'My dear, I think you may rely on me.'
+
+'Yes, but you will not be too strict with him--' and more was
+following, when her brother said, 'I promise you to make him my
+special charge.  I like the boy very much.  I think you may be
+reasonable, and trust him with me, without so much agitation.  You
+have not let me see my own nephew yet.'
+
+Albinia looked with her wistful piteous face at her brother as he
+took in his arms her noble-looking fair infant.
+
+'You are a great fellow indeed, sir,' said his uncle.  'Now if I were
+your mamma, I would be proud of you, rather than--'
+
+'I am afraid!' said Albinia, in a sudden low whisper.
+
+He looked at her anxiously.
+
+'Let me have him,' she said; then as Maurice bent over her, and she
+hastily gathered the babe into her arms, she whispered in quick, low,
+faint accents, 'Do you know how many children have been born in this
+house?'
+
+Mr. Ferrars understood her, he too had seen the catalogue in the
+church, and guessed that the phantoms of her boy's dead brethren
+dwelt on her imagination, forbidding her to rejoice in him hopefully.
+He tried to say something encouraging of the child's appearance, but
+she would not let him go on.  'I know,' she said, 'he is so now--
+but--' then catching her breath again and speaking very low, 'his
+father does not dare look at him--I see that he is sorry for me--
+Oh, Maurice, it will come, and I shall be able to do nothing!'
+
+Maurice felt his lip quivering as his sister's voice became choked--the
+sister to whom he had once been the whole world, and who still could
+pour out her inmost heart more freely to him than to any other.  But
+it was a time for grave authority, and though he spoke gently, it was
+almost sternly.
+
+'Albinia, this is not right.  It is not thankful or trustful.  No, do
+not cry, but listen to me.  Your child is as likely to do well as any
+child in the world, but nothing is so likely to do him harm as your
+want of composure.'
+
+'I tell myself so,' said Albinia, 'but there is no helping it.'
+
+'Yes, there is.  Make it your duty to keep yourself still, and not be
+troubled about what may or may not happen, but be glad of the present
+pleasure.'
+
+'Don't you think I am?' said Albinia, half smiling; 'so glad, that I
+grow frightened at myself, and--' As if fain to leave the subject,
+she added, 'And it is what you don't understand, Maurice, but he
+can't be the first to Edmund as he is to me--never--and when I get
+almost jealous for him, I think of Gilbert and the girls--and oh!
+there is so much to do for them--they want a mother so much--and
+Winifred wont let me see them, or tell me about them!'
+
+She had grown piteous and incoherent, and a glance from Winifred told
+him, 'this is always the way.'
+
+'My dear,' he said, 'you will never be fit to attend to them if you
+do not use this present time rightly.  You may hurt your health, and
+still more certainly, you will go to work fretfully and impetuously.
+If you have a busy life, the more reason to learn to be tranquil.
+Calm is forced on you now, and if you give way to useless nervous
+brooding over the work you are obliged to lay aside for a time, you
+have no right to hope that you will either have judgment or temper
+for your tasks.'
+
+'But how am I to keep from thinking, Maurice?  The weaker I am, the
+more I think.'
+
+'Are you dutiful as to what Winifred there thinks wisest?  Ah!
+Albinia, you want to learn, as poor Queen Anne of Austria did, that
+docility in illness may be self-resignation into higher Hands.
+Perhaps you despise it, but it is no mean exercise of strength and
+resolution to be still.'
+
+Albinia looked at him as if receiving a new idea.
+
+'And,' he added, bending nearer her face, and speaking lower, 'when
+you pray, let them be hearty faithful prayers that God's hand may be
+over your child--your children, not half-hearted faithless ones, that
+He may work out your will in them.'
+
+'Oh, Maurice, how did you know?  But you are not going?  I have so
+much to talk over with you.'
+
+'Yes, I must go; and you must be still.  Indeed I will watch over
+Gilbert as though he were mine.  Yes, even more.  Don't speak again,
+Albinia, I desire you will not.  Good-bye.'
+
+That lecture had been the most wholesome treatment she had yet
+received; she ceased to give way without effort to restless thoughts
+and cares, and was much less refractory.
+
+When at last Lucy and Sophia were admitted, Winifred found perils
+that she had not anticipated.  Lucy was indeed supremely and
+girlishly happy: but it was Sophy whose eye Albinia sought with
+anxiety, and that eye was averted.  Her cheek was cold like that of a
+doll when Albinia touched it eagerly with her lips; and when Lucy
+admonished her to kiss the dear little brother, she fairly turned and
+ran out of the room.
+
+'Poor Sophy!' said Lucy.  'Never mind her, mamma, but she is odder
+than ever, since baby has been born.  When Eweretta came up and told
+us, she hid her face and cried; and when grandmamma wanted to make us
+promise to love him with all our hearts, and not make any difference,
+she would only say, "I wont!"'
+
+'We will leave him to take care of that, Lucy,' said Albinia.  But
+though she spoke cheerfully, Winifred was not surprised, after a
+little interval, to hear sounds like stifled weeping.
+
+Almost every home subject was so dangerous, that whenever Mrs.
+Ferrars wanted to make cheerful, innocent conversation, she began to
+talk of her visit to Ireland and the beautiful Galway coast, and the
+O'Mores of Ballymakilty, till Albinia grew quite sick of the names of
+the whole clan of thirty-six cousins, and thought, with her aunts,
+that Winifred was too Irish.  Yet, at any other time, the histories
+would have made her sometimes laugh, and sometimes cry, but the world
+was sadly out of joint with her.
+
+There was a sudden change when, for the first time her eye rested on
+the lawn, and she beheld the work of drainage.  The light glanced in
+her eye, the colour rose on her cheek, and she exclaimed, 'How kind
+of Edmund!'
+
+Winifred must needs give her husband his share.  'Ah! you would never
+have had it done without Maurice.'
+
+'Yes,' said Albinia, 'Edmund has been out of the way of such things,
+but he consented, you know.'  Then as her eyes grew liquid, 'A duck
+pond is a funny subject for sentiment, but oh! if you knew what that
+place has been to my imagination from the first, and how the wreaths
+of mist have wound themselves into spectres in my dreams, and
+stretched out white shrouds now for one, now for the other!' and she
+shuddered.
+
+'And you have gone through all this and never spoken.  No wonder your
+nerves and spirits were tried.'
+
+'I did speak at first,' said Albinia; 'but I thought Edmund did not
+hear, or thought it nonsense, and so did I at times.  But you see he
+did attend; he always does, you see, at the right time.  It was only
+my impatience.'
+
+'I suspect Maurice and John Smith had more to do with it,' said
+Winifred.
+
+'Well, we wont quarrel about that,' said Albinia.  'I only know that
+whoever brought it about has taken the heaviest weight off my mind
+that has been there yet.'
+
+In truth, the terror, half real, half imaginary, had been a sorer
+burthen than all the positive cares for those unruly children, or
+their silent, melancholy father; and the relief told in all ways--
+above all, in the peace with which she began to regard her child.
+Still she would provoke Winifred by bestowing all her gratitude on
+Mr. Kendal, who began to be persuaded that he had made an heroic
+exertion.
+
+Winifred had been somewhat scandalized by discovering Albinia's
+deficiencies in the furniture development.  She was too active and
+stirring, and too fond of out-of-door occupation, to regard interior
+decoration as one of the domestic graces, 'her nest was rather that
+of the ostrich than the chaffinch,' as Winifred told her on the
+discovery that her morning-room had been used for no other purpose
+than as a deposit for all the books, wedding presents, lumber, etc.,
+which she had never had leisure to arrange.
+
+'You might be more civil,' answered Albinia.  'Remember that the
+ringdove never made half such a fuss about her nest as the magpie.'
+
+'Well, I am glad you have found some likeness in yourself to a dove,'
+rejoined Winifred.
+
+Mrs. Ferrars set vigorously to work with Lucy, and rendered the room
+so pretty and pleasant, that Lucy pronounced that it must be called
+nothing but the boudoir, for it was a perfect little bijou.
+
+Albinia was laid on the sofa by the sparkling fire, by her side the
+little cot, and in her hand a most happy affectionate letter from
+Gilbert, detailing the Fairmead Christmas festivities.  She felt the
+invigoration of change of room, admired and was grateful for
+Winifred's work, and looked so fair and bright, so tranquil and so
+contented, that her sister and husband could not help pausing to
+contemplate her as an absolutely new creature in a state of
+quiescence.
+
+It did not last long, and Mrs. Ferrars felt herself the unwilling
+culprit.  Attracted by sounds in the hall, she found the two girls
+receiving from the hands of Genevieve Durant a pretty basket choicely
+adorned with sprays of myrtle, saying mamma would be much obliged,
+and they would take it up at once; Genevieve should take home her
+basket, and down plunged their hands regardless of the garniture.
+
+Genevieve's disappointed look caught Winifred's attention, and
+springing forward she exclaimed, 'You shall come to Mrs. Kendal
+yourself, my dear.  She must see your pretty basket,' and yourself,
+she could have added, as she met the grateful glitter of the dark
+eyes.
+
+Lucy remonstrated that mamma had seen no one yet, not even Aunt
+Maria, but Mrs. Ferrars would not listen, and treading airily, yet
+with reverence that would have befitted a royal palace, Genevieve was
+ushered upstairs, and with heartfelt sweetness, and timid grace,
+presented her etrennes.
+
+Under the fragrant sprays lay a small white-paper parcel, tied with
+narrow blue satin bows, such as no English fingers could accomplish,
+and within was a little frock-body, exquisitely embroidered, with a
+breastplate of actual point lace in a pattern like frostwork on the
+windows.  It was such work as Madame Belmarche had learnt in a
+convent in times of history, and poor little Genevieve had almost
+worn out her black eyes on this piece of homage to her dear Mrs.
+Kendal, grieving only that she had not been able to add the length of
+robe needed to complete her gift.
+
+Albinia's kiss was recompense beyond her dreams, and she fairly cried
+for joy when she was told that she should come and help to dress the
+babe in it for his christening.  Mrs. Ferrars would walk out with her
+at once to buy a sufficiency of cambric for the mighty skirts.
+
+That visit was indeed nothing but pleasure, but Mrs. Ferrars had not
+calculated on contingencies and family punctilios.  She forgot that
+it would be a mortal offence to let in any one rather than Miss Meadows;
+but the rest of the family were so well aware of it, that when she
+returned she heard a perfect sparrow's-nest of voices--Lucy's pert
+and eager, Miss Meadows's injured and shrill, and Albinia's, alas!
+thin and loud, half sarcasm, half fret.
+
+There sat Aunt Maria fidgeting in the arm-chair; Lucy stood by the
+fire; Albinia's countenance sadly different from what it had been in
+the morning--weary, impatient, and excited, all that it ought not to
+be!
+
+Winifred would have cleared the room at once, but this was not easy,
+and poor Albinia was so far gone as to be determined on finishing
+that endless thing, an altercation, so all three began explaining and
+appealing at once.
+
+It seemed that Mrs. Osborn was requiting Mrs. Kendal's neglect in not
+having inquired after her when the Admiral's sister's husband died,
+by the omission of inquiries at present; whereat Albinia laughed a
+feeble, overdone giggle, and observed that she believed Mrs. Osborn
+knew all that passed in Willow Lawn better than the inmates; and Lucy
+deposed that Sophy and Loo were together every day, though Sophy knew
+mamma did not like it.  Miss Meadows said if reparation were not
+made, the Osborns had expressed their intention of omitting Lucy and
+Sophy from their Twelfth-day party.
+
+To this Albinia pettishly replied that the girls were to go to no
+Christmas parties without her; Miss Meadows had taken it very much to
+heart, and Lucy was declaiming against mamma making any condescension
+to Mrs. Osborn, or herself being supposed to care for 'the Osborn's
+parties,' where the boys were so rude and vulgar, the girls so
+boisterous, and the dancing a mere romp.  Sophy might like it, but
+she never did!
+
+Miss Meadows was hurt by her niece's defection, and had come to 'Oh,
+very well,' and 'things were altered,' and 'people used to be
+grateful to old friends, but there were changes.'  And thereby Lucy
+grew personal as to the manners of the Osborns, while Albinia
+defended herself against the being grand or exclusive, but it was her
+duty to do what she thought right for the children!  Yes, Miss
+Meadows was quite aware--only grandmamma was so nervous about poor
+dear Gibbie missing his Christmas dinner for the first time--being
+absent--Mrs. Ferrars would take great care, but damp stockings and
+all--
+
+Winifred endeavoured to stem the tide of words, but in vain, between
+the meandering incoherency of the one, and the nervous rapidity of
+the other, and they had both set off again on this fresh score, when
+in despair she ran downstairs, rapped at the study door, and cried,
+'Mr. Kendal, Mr. Kendal, will you not come!  I can't get Miss Meadows
+out of Albinia's room.'
+
+Forth came Mr. Kendal, walked straight upstairs, and stood in full
+majesty on the threshold.  Holding out his hand to Maria with grave
+courtesy, he thanked her for coming to see his wife, but at the same
+time handed her down, saw her out safely at the hall door, and Lucy
+into the drawing-room.
+
+It was a pity that he had not returned to Albinia's room, for she was
+too much excited to be composed without authority.  First, she
+scolded Winifred; 'it was the thing she most wished to avoid, that he
+should fancy her teased by anything the Meadowses could say,' and she
+laughed, and protested she never was vexed, such absurdity did not
+hurt her in the least.
+
+'It has tired you, though,' said Winifred.  'Lie quite down and
+sleep.'
+
+Of course, however, Albinia would not believe that she was tired, and
+began to talk of the Osborns and their party--she was annoyed at the
+being thought too fine.  'If it were not such a penance, and if you
+would not be gone home, I really would ask you to take the girls,
+Winifred.'
+
+'I shall not be gone home.'
+
+'Yes, you will.  I am well, and every one wants you.'
+
+'Did you not hear Willie's complimentary message, that he is never
+naughty now, because Gilbert makes him so happy?'
+
+'But, Winifred, the penny club!  The people must have their things.'
+
+'They can wait, or--'
+
+'It is very well for us to talk of waiting,' cried Albinia, 'but how
+should we like a frosty night without cloaks, or blankets, or fire?
+I did not think it of you, Winifred.  It is the first winter I have
+been away from my poor old dames, and I did think you would have
+cared for them.'
+
+And thereupon her overwrought spirits gave way in a flood of tears,
+as she angrily averted her face from her sister, who could have cried
+too, not at the injustice, but with compassion and perplexity lest
+there should be an equally violent reaction either of remorse or of
+mirth.
+
+It must be confessed that Albinia was very much the creature of
+health.  Never having been ill before, the depression had been so new
+that it broke her completely down; convalescence made her fractious.
+
+Recovery, however, filled her with such an ecstasy of animal spirits
+that her time seemed to be entirely passed in happiness or in sleep,
+and cares appeared to have lost all power.  It was so sudden a change
+that Winifred was startled, though it was a very pleasant one, and
+she did not reflect that this was as far from the calm, self-restrained,
+meditative tranquillity enjoined by Maurice, as had been the previous
+restless, querulous state.  Both were body more than mind, but Mrs.
+Ferrars was much more ready to be merry with Albinia than to moralize
+about her.  And it was droll that the penny club was one of the first
+stages in her revival.
+
+'Oh, mamma,' cried Lucy, flying in, 'Mr. Dusautoy is at the door.
+There is such a to do.  All the women have been getting gin with
+their penny club tickets, and Mrs. Brock has been stealing the money,
+and Mr. Dusautoy wants to know if you paid up three-and-fourpence for
+the Hancock children.'
+
+Albinia instantly invited Mr. Dusautoy to explain in person, and he
+entered, hearty and pleasant as ever, but in great haste, for he had
+left his Fanny keeping the peace between five angry women, while he
+came out to collect evidence.
+
+The Bayford clothing-club payments were collected by Mrs. Brock, the
+sexton's wife, and distributed by tickets to be produced at the
+various shops in the town.  Mrs. Brock had detected some women
+exchanging their tickets for gin, and the offending parties
+retaliated by accusing her of embezzling the subscriptions, both
+parties launching into the usual amount of personalities and
+exaggerations.
+
+Albinia's testimony cleared Mrs. Brock as to the three-and-fourpence,
+but she 'snuffed the battle from afar,' and rushed into a scheme of
+taking the clothing-club into her own hands, collecting the pence,
+having the goods from London, and selling them herself--she would
+propose it on the very first opportunity to the Dusautoys.  Winifred
+asked if she had not a good deal on her hands already.
+
+'My dear, I have the work in me of a young giant.'
+
+'And will Mr. Kendal like it?'
+
+'He would never find it out unless I told him, and very possibly not
+then.  Six months hence, perhaps, he may tell me he is glad that Lucy
+is inclined to useful pursuits, and that _is_ approval, Winifred,
+much more than if I went and worried him about every little petty
+woman's matter.'
+
+'Every one to her taste,' thought Winifred, who had begun to regard
+Mr. and Mrs. Kendal in the same relation as the king and queen at
+chess.
+
+The day before the christening, Mr. Ferrars brought back Gilbert and
+his own little Willie.
+
+Through all the interchange of greetings, Gilbert would hardly let go
+Albinia's hand, and the moment her attention was free, he earnestly
+whispered, 'May I see my brother?'
+
+She took him upstairs at once.  'Let me look a little while,' he
+said, hanging over the child with a sort of hungry fondness and
+curiosity.  'My brother! my brother!' he repeated.  'It has rung in
+my ears every morning that I can say my brother once more, till I
+have feared it was a dream.'
+
+It was the sympathy Albinia cared for, come back again!  'I hope he
+will be a good brother to you,' she said.
+
+'He must be good! he can't help it!  He has you!' said Gilbert.
+'See, he is opening his eyes--oh! how blue!  May I touch him?'
+
+'To be sure you may.  He is not sugar,' said Albinia, laughing.
+'There--make an arm; you may have him if you like.  Your left arm,
+you awkward man.  Yes, that is right.  You will do quite as well as
+I, who never touched a baby till Willie was born.  There, sir, how do
+you like your brother Gilbert?'
+
+Gilbert held him reverently, and gave him back with a sigh when he
+seemed to have satiated his gaze and touch, and convinced himself
+that his new possession was substantial.  'I say,' he added
+wistfully, 'did you think _that_ name would bring ill-luck?
+
+She knew the name he meant, and answered, 'No, but your father could
+not have borne it.  Besides, Gibbie, we would not think him _instead_
+of Edmund.  No, he shall learn, to look up to his other brother as
+you do, and look to meeting and knowing him some day.'
+
+Gilbert shivered at this, and made no opposition to her carrying him
+downstairs to his uncle, and then Gilbert hurried off for the basket
+of snowdrops that he had gathered early, from a favourite spot at
+Fairmead.  That short absence seemed to have added double force to
+his affection; he could hardly bear to be away from her, and every
+moment when he could gain her ear, poured histories of the delights
+of Fairmead, where Mr. Ferrars had devoted himself to his amusement,
+and had made him happier than perhaps he had ever been in his life--
+he had had a taste of shooting, of skating, of snowballing--he had
+been useful and important in the village feasts, had dined twice at
+Colonel Bury's, and felt himself many degrees nearer manhood.
+
+To hear of her old haunts and friends from such enthusiastic lips,
+delighted Albinia, and her felicity with her baby, with Mr. Kendal,
+with her brother and his little son, was one of the brightest things
+in all the world--the fresh young loving bloom of her matronhood was
+even sweeter and more beautiful than her girlish days.
+
+Poor little frail, blighted Mrs. Dusautoy!  Winifred could not help
+wondering if the contrast pained her, when in all the glory of her
+motherly thankfulness, Albinia carried her beautiful newly-christened
+Maurice Ferrars Kendal to the vicarage to show him off, lying so
+open-chested and dignified, in Genevieve's pretty work, with a sort
+of manly serenity already dawning on his baby brow.
+
+Winifred need not have pitied the little lady.  She would not have
+changed with Mrs. Kendal--no, not for that perfect health,
+usefulness, value--nor even for such a baby as that.  No, indeed!
+She loved--she rejoiced in all her friend's sweet and precious
+gifts--but Mrs. Dusautoy had one gift that she prized above all.
+
+Even grandmamma and Aunt Maria did justice to Master Maurice's
+attractions, at least in public, though it came round that Miss
+Meadows did not admire fat children, and when he had once been seen
+in Lucy's arms, an alarm arose that Mrs. Kendal would allow the girls
+to carry him about, till his weight made them crooked, but Albinia
+was too joyous to take their displeasure to heart, and it only served
+her for something to laugh at.
+
+They had a very happy christening party, chiefly juvenile, in honour
+of little Willie and of Francis and Emily Nugent.  Albinia was so
+radiantly lively and good-natured, and her assistants, Winifred,
+Maurice, and Mr. Dusautoy, so kind, so droll, so inventive, that even
+Aunt Maria forgot herself in enjoyment and novelty, and was like a
+different person.  Mr. Kendal looked at her with a pleased sad
+wonder, and told his wife it reminded him of what she had been when
+she was nearly the prettiest girl at Bayford.  Gilbert devoted
+himself as usual to making Genevieve feel welcome; and she had
+likewise Willie Ferrars and Francis Nugent at her feet.  Neither
+urchin would sit two inches away from her all the evening, and in all
+games she was obliged to obviate jealousies by being partner to both
+at once.  Where there was no one to oppress her, she came out with
+all her natural grace and vivacity, and people of a larger growth
+than her little admirers were charmed with her.
+
+Lucy was obliging, ready, and useful, and looked very pretty, the
+only blot was the heavy dulness of poor Sophy, who seemed resolved to
+take pleasure in nothing.  Winifred varied in opinion whether her
+moodiness arose from ill-health, or from jealousy of her little
+brother.  This latter Albinia would not believe, especially as she
+saw that little Maurice's blue eyes were magnets that held the silent
+Sophy fast, but surly denials silenced her interrogations as to
+illness, and made her content to acquiesce in Lucy's explanation that
+Sophy was only cross because the Osborns and Drurys were not asked.
+
+Albinia did her duty handsomely by the two families a day or two
+after, for whatever reports might come round, they were always ready
+to receive her advances, and she only took notice of what she saw,
+instead of what she heard.  Her brother helped Mr. Kendal through the
+party, and Winifred made a discovery that excited her more than
+Albinia thought warranted by any fact relating to the horde of Irish
+cousins.
+
+'Only think, Albinia, I have found out that poor Ellen O'More is Mr.
+Goldsmith's sister!'
+
+'Indeed!  But I am afraid I don't remember which Ellen O'More is.
+You know I never undertake to recollect any but your real cousins out
+of the thirty-six.'
+
+'For shame, Albinia, I have so often told you about Ellen.  I'm sure
+you can't forget.  Her husband is my sister's brother-in-law's
+cousin.'
+
+'Oh, Winifred, Winifred!'
+
+'But I tell you, her husband is the third son of old Mr. O'More of
+Ballymakilty, and was in the army.'
+
+'Oh! the half-pay officer with the twelve children in the cottage on
+the estate.'
+
+'There now, I did think you would care when I told you of a soldier,
+a Waterloo man too, and you only call him a half-pay officer!'
+
+'I do remember,' said Albinia, taking a little pity, 'that you used
+to be sorry for his good little English wife.'
+
+'Of course.  I knew she had married him very imprudently, but she has
+struggled gallantly with ill-health, and poverty, and Irish
+recklessness.  I quite venerate her, and it seems these Goldsmiths
+had so far cast her off that they had no notion of the extent of her
+troubles.'
+
+'Just like them,' said Albinia.  'Is that the reason you wish me to
+make the most of the connexion?  Let me see, my sister-in-law's
+sister's wife--no, husband's brother's uncle, eh?'
+
+'I don't want you to do anything,' said Winifred, a little hurt,
+'only if you had seen Ellen's patient face you would be interested in
+her.'
+
+'Well, I am interested, you know I am, Winifred.  I hope you
+interested our respected banker, which would be more to the purpose.'
+
+'I think I did,' said Winifred; 'at least he said "poor Ellen" once
+or twice.  I don't want him to do anything for the captain, you might
+give him a thousand pounds and he would never be the better for it:
+but that fourth, boy, Ulick, is without exception the nicest fellow I
+ever saw in my life--so devoted to his mother, so much more
+considerate and self-denying than any of the others, and very clever.
+Maurice examined him and was quite astonished.  We did get him sent
+to St. Columba for the present, but whether they will keep him there
+no one can guess, and it is the greatest pity he should run to waste.
+I told Mr. Goldsmith all this, and I really think he seemed to
+attend.  I wonder if it will work.'
+
+Albinia was by this time anxious that it should take effect, and they
+agreed that an old bachelor banker and his sister, both past sixty,
+were the very people to adopt a promising nephew.
+
+What had become of the multitude of things which Albinia had to
+discuss with her brother?  The floodtide of bliss had floated her
+over all the stumbling-blocks and shoals that the ebb had disclosed,
+and she had absolutely forgotten all the perplexities that had seemed
+so trying.  Even when she sought a private interview to talk to him
+about Gilbert, it was in full security of hearing the praises of her
+darling.
+
+'A nice boy, a very nice boy,' returned Maurice; 'most amiable and
+intelligent, and particularly engaging, from his feeling being so
+much on the surface.'
+
+'Nothing can be more sincere and genuine,' she cried, as if this fell
+a little flat.
+
+'Certainly not, at the time.'
+
+'Always!' exclaimed Albinia.  'You must not distrust him because he
+is not like you or Fred, and has never been hardened and taught
+reserve by rude boys.  Nothing was ever more real than his affection,
+poor dear boy,' and the tears thrilled to her eyes.
+
+'No, and it is much to his credit.  His love and gratitude to you are
+quite touching, poor fellow; but the worst of it is that I am afraid
+he is very timid, both physically and morally.'
+
+Often as she had experienced this truth, the soldier's daughter could
+not bear to avow it, and she answered hastily, 'He has never been
+braced or trained; he was always ill till within the last few years--
+coddling at first, neglect afterwards, he has it all to learn, and it
+is too late for school.'
+
+'Yes, he is too old to be laughed at or bullied out of cowardice.
+Indeed, I doubt whether there ever would have been substance enough
+for much wear and tear.'
+
+'I know you have a turn for riotous, obstinate boys!  You want Willie
+to be another Fred,' said Albinia, like an old hen, ruffling up her
+feathers.  'You think a boy can't be good for anything unless he is a
+universal plague!'
+
+'I wonder what you will do with your own son,' said Maurice, amused,
+'since you take Gilbert's part so fiercely.'
+
+'I trust my boy will never be as much to be pitied as his brother,'
+said Albinia, with tenderness that accused her petulance.  'At least
+he can never be a lonely twin with that sore spot in his heart.  Oh,
+Maurice, how can any one help dealing gently with my poor Gibbie?'
+
+'Gentle dealing is the very thing he wants,' said Mr. Ferrars; 'and I
+am thinking how to find it for him.  How did his going to Traversham
+fail?'
+
+'I don't know; Edmund did not like to send him without having seen
+Traversham, and I could not go.  But I don't think there is any need
+for his going away.  His father has been quite enough tormented about
+it, and I can manage him very well now.  He is always good and happy
+with me.  I mean to try to ride with him, and I have promised to
+teach him music, and we shall garden.  Never fear, I will employ him
+and keep him out of mischief--it is all pleasure to me.'
+
+'And pray what are your daughters and baby to do, while you are
+galloping after Gilbert?'
+
+'Oh! I'll manage.  We can all do things together.  Come, Maurice, I
+wont have Edmund teased, and I can't bear parting with any of them,
+or think that any strange man can treat Gibbie as I should.'
+
+Maurice was edified by his sister's warm-hearted weakness, but not at
+all inclined to let 'Edmund' escape a 'teasing.'
+
+Mr. Kendal's first impulse always was to find a sufficient plea for
+doing nothing.  If Gilbert was to go to India, it was not worth while
+to give him a classical education.
+
+'Is he to go to India?  Albinia had not told me so.'
+
+'I thought she was aware of it; but possibly I may not have mentioned
+it.  It has been an understood thing ever since I came home.  He will
+have a good deal of the property in this place, but he had better
+have seen something of the world.  Bayford is no place for a man to
+settle down in too young.'
+
+'Certainly,' said Mr. Ferrars, repressing a smile.  'Then are you
+thinking of sending him to Haileybury?'
+
+He was pronounced too young, besides, it was explained that his
+destination in India was unfixed.  On going home it had been a kind
+of promise that one of the twin brothers should have an appointment
+in the civil service, the other should enter the bank of Kendal and
+Kendal, and the survivor was unconsciously suspended between these
+alternatives, while the doubt served as a convenient protection to
+his father from making up his mind to prepare him for either of these
+or for anything else.
+
+The prompt Ferrars temper could bear it no longer, and Maurice spoke
+out.  'I'll tell you what, Kendal, it is time to attend to your own
+concerns.  If you choose to let your son run to ruin, because you
+will not exert yourself to remove him from temptation, I shall not
+stand by to see my sister worn out with making efforts to save him.
+She is willing and devoted, she fancies she could work day and night
+to preserve him, and she does it with all her heart; but it is not
+woman's work, she cannot do it, and it is not fit to leave it to her.
+When Gilbert has broken her heart as well as yours, and left an evil
+example to his brother, then you will feel what it is to have kept a
+lad whom you know to be well disposed, but weak as water, in the very
+midst of contamination, and to have left your young, inexperienced
+wife to struggle alone to save him.  If you are unwarned by the
+experience of last autumn and winter, I could not pity you, whatever
+might happen.'
+
+Maurice, who had run on the longer because Mr. Kendal did not answer
+immediately, was shocked at his own impetuosity; but a rattling peal
+of thunder was not more than was requisite.
+
+'I believe you are right,' Mr. Kendal said.  'I was to blame for
+leaving him so entirely to Albinia; but she is very fond of him, and
+is one who will never be induced to spare herself, and there were
+considerations.  However, she shall be relieved at once.  What do you
+recommend?'
+
+Mr. Ferrars actually made Mr. Kendal promise to set out for
+Traversham with him next morning, thirty miles by the railway, to
+inspect Mr. Downton and his pupils.
+
+Albinia had just sense enough not to object, though the discovery of
+the Indian plans was such a blow to her that she could not be
+consoled by all her husband's representations of the advantages
+Gilbert would derive there, and of his belief that the Kendal
+constitution always derived strength from a hot climate, and that to
+himself going to India seemed going home.  She took refuge in the
+hope that between the two Indian stools Gilbert might fall upon one
+of the professions which she thought alone worthy of man's attention,
+the clerical or the military.
+
+Under Maurice's escort, Mr. Kendal greatly enjoyed his expedition;
+liked Traversham, was satisfied with the looks of the pupils, and
+very much pleased with the tutor, whom he even begged to come to
+Bayford for a conference with Mrs. Kendal, and this was received by
+her as no small kindness.  She was delighted with Mr. Downton, and
+felt as if Gilbert could be safely trusted in his charge; nor was
+Gilbert himself reluctant.  He was glad to escape from his tempter,
+and to begin a new life, and though he hung about Mrs. Kendal, and
+implored her to write often, and always tell him about his little
+brother--nay, though he cried like a child at the last, yet still he
+was happy and satisfied to go, and to break the painful fetters which
+had held him so long.
+
+And though Albinia likewise shed some parting tears, she could not
+but own that she was glad to have him in trustworthy hands; and as to
+the additional time thus gained, it was disposed of in a million of
+bright plans for every one's service--daughters, baby, parish,
+school, classes, clubs, neighbours.  It almost made Winifred giddy to
+hear how much she had undertaken, and yet with what zest she talked
+and acted.
+
+'There's your victim, Winifred,' said Maurice, as they drove away,
+and looked back at Albinia, scandalizing Bayford by standing in the
+open gateway, her face all smiles of cheerful parting, the sun and
+wind making merry with her chestnut curls, her baby in one arm, the
+other held up to wave her farewell.
+
+'That child will catch cold,' began Winifred, turning to sign her to
+go in.  'Well,' she continued, 'after all, I believe some people like
+an idol that sits quiet to be worshipped!  To be sure she must want
+to beat him sometimes, as the Africans do their gods.  But, on the
+whole, her sentiment of reverence is satisfied, and she likes the
+acting for herself, and reigning absolute.  Yes, she is quite
+happy--why do you look doubtful?  Don't you admire her?'
+
+'From my heart.'
+
+'Then why do you doubt?  Do you expect her to do anything?'
+
+'A little too much of everything.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+
+Yes!  Albinia was excessively happy.  Her naturally high spirits were
+enhanced by the enjoyment of recovery, and reaction, from her former
+depression.  Since the great stroke of the drainage, every one looked
+better, and her pride in her babe was without a drawback.  He seemed
+to have inherited her vigour and superabundance of life, and 'that
+first wondrous spring to all but babes unknown,' was in him unusually
+rapid, so that he was a marvel of fair stateliness, size, strength,
+and intelligence, so unlike the little blighted buds which had been
+wont to fade at Willow Lawn, that his father watched him with silent,
+wondering affection, and his eldest sister was unmerciful in her
+descriptions of his progress; while even Sophia had not been proof
+against his smiles, and was proud to be allowed to carry him about
+and fondle him.
+
+Neither was Mr. Kendal's reserve the trial that it had once been.
+After having become habituated to it as a necessary idiosyncrasy, she
+had become rather proud of his lofty inaccessibility.  Besides, her
+brother's visit, her recovery, and the renewed hope and joy in this
+promising child, had not been without effect in rousing him from his
+apathy.  He was less inclined to shun his fellow-creatures, had
+become friendly with the Vicar, and had even let Albinia take him
+into Mrs. Dusautoy's drawing-room, where he had been fairly happy.
+Having once begun taking his wife out in the carriage, he found this
+much more agreeable than his solitary ride, and was in the condition
+to which Albinia had once imagined it possible to bring him, in which
+gentle means and wholesome influence might lead him imperceptibly out
+of his morbid habits of self-absorption.
+
+Unfortunately, in the flush of blitheness and whirl of activity,
+Albinia failed to perceive the relative importance of objects, and he
+had taught her to believe herself so little necessary to him that she
+had not learnt to make her pursuits and occupations subservient to
+his convenience.  As long as the drive took place regularly, all was
+well, but he caught a severe cold, which lasted even to the setting
+in of the east winds, the yearly misery of a man who hardly granted
+that India was over-hot.  Though Albinia had removed much listing,
+and opened various doors and windows, he made no complaints, but did
+his best to keep the obnoxious fresh air out of his study, and seldom
+crossed the threshold thereof but with a shiver.
+
+His favourite atmosphere was quite enough to account for a return of
+the old mood, but Albinia had no time to perceive that it might have
+been prevented, or at least mitigated.
+
+Few even of the wisest women are fit for authority and liberty so
+little restrained, and happily it seldom falls to the lot of such as
+have not previously been chastened by a life-long affliction.  But
+Mrs. Kendal, at twenty-four, with the consequence conferred by
+marriage, and by her superiority of manners and birth, was left as
+unchecked and almost as irresponsible as if she had been single or a
+widow, and was solely guided by the impulses of her own character,
+noble and highly principled, but like most zealous dispositions,
+without balance and without repose.
+
+Ballast had been given at first by bashfulness, disappointment, and
+anxiety, but she had been freed from her troubles with Gilbert, had
+gained confidence in herself, and had taken her position at Bayford.
+She was beloved, esteemed, and trusted in her own set, and though
+elsewhere she might not be liked, yet she was deferred to, could not
+easily be quarrelled with, so that she met with little opposition,
+and did not care for such as she did meet.  In fact, very few persons
+had so much of their own way as Mrs. Kendal.
+
+She was generally in her nursery at a much earlier hour than an
+old-established nurse would have tolerated, but the little Susan,
+promoted from Fairmead school and nursery, was trained in energetic
+habits.  In passing the doors of the young ladies' rooms, Albinia
+gave a call which she had taught them not to resist, for, like all
+strong persons, she thought 'early to rise' the only way to health,
+wealth, or wisdom.  Much work had been despatched before breakfast,
+after which, on two days in the week, Albinia and Lucy went to
+church.  Sophy never volunteered to accompany them, and Albinia was
+the less inclined to press her, because her attitudes and attention
+on Sunday were far from satisfactory.  On Tuesday and Thursday
+Albinia had a class at school, and so, likewise, had Lucy, who kept a
+jealous watch over every stray necklace and curl, and had begun
+thoroughly to enjoy the importance and bustle of charity.  She was a
+useful assistant in the penny club and lending library, which
+occupied Albinia on other mornings in the week, until the hour when
+she came in for the girls' studies.  After luncheon, she enjoyed the
+company of little Maurice, who indeed pervaded all her home doings
+and thoughts, for she had a great gift of doing everything at once.
+
+A sharp constitutional walk was taken in the afternoon.  She thought
+no one could look drooping or dejected but from the air of the
+valley, and that no cure was equal to rushing straight up one hill
+and on to the next, always walking rapidly, with a springy buoyant
+step, and surprised at any one who lagged behind.  Parochial cares,
+visits, singing classes, lessons to Sunday-school teachers, &c.,
+filled up the rest of the day.  She had an endless number of
+'excellent plans,' on which she always acted instantly, and which
+kept her in a state of perpetual haste.  Poor Mrs. Dusautoy had
+almost learnt to dread her flashing into the room, full of some
+parish matter, and flashing out again before the invalid felt as if
+the subject had been fairly entered on, or her sitting down to
+impress some project with overpowering eagerness that generally
+carried away the Vicar into grateful consent and admiring approval,
+while his wife was feeling doubtful, suspecting her hesitation of
+being ungracious, or blaming herself for not liking the little she
+could do to be taken out of her hands.
+
+There was nothing more hateful to Albinia than dawdling.  She left
+the girls' choice of employments, but insisted on their being
+veritably occupied, and many a time did she encounter a killing
+glance from Sophia for attacking her listless, moody position in her
+chair, or saying, in clear, alert tones, 'My dear, when you read,
+read, when you work, work.  When you fix your eye in that way, you
+are doing neither.'
+
+Lucy's brisk, active disposition, and great good-humour, had
+responded to this treatment; she had been obliging, instead of
+officious; repeated checks had improved her taste; her love of petty
+bustle was directed to better objects, and though nothing could make
+her intellectual or deep, she was a really pleasant assistant and
+companion, and no one, except grandmamma, who thought her perfect
+before, could fail to perceive how much more lady-like her tones,
+manners, and appearance had become.
+
+The results with Sophy had been directly the reverse.  At first she
+had followed her sister's lead, except that she was always sincere,
+and often sulky; but the more Lucy had yielded to Albinia's moulding,
+the more had Sophy diverged from her, as if out of the very spirit of
+contradiction.  Her intervals of childish nonsense had well nigh
+disappeared; her indifference to lessons was greater than ever,
+though she devoured every book that came in her way in a silent, but
+absorbed manner, a good deal like her father.  Tales and stories were
+not often within her reach, but her appetite seemed to be universal,
+and Albinia saw her reading old-fashioned standard poetry--such as
+she had never herself assailed--and books of history, travels, or
+metaphysics.  She wondered whether the girl derived any pleasure from
+them, or whether they were only a shield for doing nothing; but no
+inquiry produced an answer, and if Sophy remembered anything of them,
+it was not with the memory used in lesson-time.  The attachment to
+Louisa Osborn was pertinacious and unaccountable in a person who
+could have so little in common with that young lady, and there was
+nothing comfortable about her except her fondness for her little
+brother, and that really seemed to be against her will.  Her voice
+was less hoarse and gruff since the pond had been no more, and she
+had acquired an expression, so suffering, so concentrated, so
+thoughtful, that, together with her heavy black eyebrows, large face,
+profuse black hair, and unlustrous eyes, it gave her almost a
+dwarfish air, increased by her awkward deportment, which concealed
+that she was in reality tall, and on a large scale.  She looked to so
+little advantage in bright delicate colours, that Albinia was often
+incurring her displeasure, and risking that of Lucy, by the deep
+blues and sober browns which alone looked fit to be seen with those
+beetle brows and sallow features.  Her face looked many years older
+than that of her fair, fresh, rosy stepmother; nay, her father's
+clear olive complexion and handsome countenance had hardly so aged an
+aspect; and Gilbert, when he came home at Midsummer, declared that
+Sophy had grown as old as grandmamma.
+
+The compliment could not be returned; Gilbert was much more boy-like
+in a good sense.  He had brought home an excellent character, and
+showed it in every look and gesture.  His father was pleased to have
+him again, took the trouble to talk to him, and received such
+sensible answers, that the habit of conversing was actually
+established, and the dinners were enlivened, instead of oppressed, by
+his presence.  Towards his sisters he had become courteous, he was
+fairly amiable to Aunt Maria, very attentive to grandmamma,
+overflowing with affection to Mrs. Kendal, and as to little Maurice,
+he almost adored him, and awakened a reciprocity which was the
+delight of his heart.
+
+At Midsummer came the grand penny-club distribution, the triumph for
+which Albinia had so long been preparing.  One of Mrs. Dusautoy's
+hints as to Bayford tradesmen had been overruled, and goods had been
+ordered from a house in London, after Albinia and Lucy had made an
+incredible agitation over their patterns of calico and flannel.  Mr.
+Kendal was just aware that there was a prodigious commotion, but he
+knew that all ladies were subject to linen-drapery epidemics, and
+Albinia's took a more endurable form than a pull on his purse for the
+sweetest silk in the world, and above all, it neither came into his
+study nor even into his house.
+
+It was a grand spectacle, when Mr. Dusautoy looked in on Mrs. Kendal
+and her staff, armed with their yard-wands.
+
+A pile of calico was heaped in wild masses like avalanches in one
+corner, rapidly diminishing under the measurements of Gilbert, who
+looked as if he took thorough good-natured delight in the frolic.
+Brown, inodorous materials for petticoats, blouses, and trowsers were
+dealt out by the dextrous hands of Genevieve, a mountain of lilac
+print was folded off by Clarissa Richardson, Lucy was presiding
+joyously over the various blue, buff, brown, and pink Sunday frocks,
+the schoolmistress helping with the other goods, the customers--some
+pleased with novelty, or hoping to get more for their money, others
+suspicious of the gentry, and secretly resentful for favourite
+dealers, but, except the desperate grumblers, satisfied with the
+quality and quantity of the wares--and extremely taken with the
+sellers, especially with Gilbert's wit, and with Miss Durant's ready,
+lively persuasions, varied to each one's taste, and extracting a
+smile and 'thank you, Miss,' from the surliest.  And the presiding
+figure, with the light on her sunny hair, and good-natured, unfailing
+interest in her countenance, was at her central table, calculating,
+giving advice, considering of complaints, measuring, folding--here,
+there, and everywhere--always bright, lively, forbearing, however
+complaining or unreasonable her clients might be.
+
+Mr. Dusautoy went home to tell his Fanny that Mrs. Kendal was worth
+her weight in gold; and the workers toiled till luncheon, when
+Albinia took them home for food and wine, to restore them for the
+labours of the afternoon.
+
+'What have you been about all the morning, Sophy?  Yes, I see your
+translation--very well--I wish you would come up and help this
+afternoon, Miss Richardson is looking so pale and tired that I want
+to relieve her.'
+
+'I can't,' said Sophy,
+
+'I don't order you, but you are losing a great deal of fun.  Suppose
+you came to look on, at least.'
+
+'I hate poor people.'
+
+'I hope you will change your mind some day, but yon must do something
+this afternoon.  You had better take a walk with Susan and baby; I
+told her to go by the meadows to Horton.'
+
+'I don't want to walk.'
+
+'Have you anything to do instead?  No, I thought not, and it is not
+at all hot to signify.--It will do you much more good.  Yes, you must
+go.'
+
+In the course of the summer an old Indian friend was staying at
+Fairmead Park, and Colonel Bury wrote to beg for a week's visit from
+the whole Kendal family.  Even Sophy vouchsafed to be pleased, and
+Lucy threw all her ardour into the completion of a blue braided cape,
+which was to add immensely to little Maurice's charms; she declared
+that she should work at it the whole of the last evening, while Mr.
+and Mrs. Kendal were at the dinner that old Mr. and Mrs. Bowles
+annually inflicted on themselves and their neighbours, a dinner which
+it would have been as cruel to refuse as it was irksome to accept.
+
+There was a great similarity in those Bayford parties, inasmuch as
+the same cook dressed them all, and the same waiters waited at them,
+and the same guests met each other, and the principal variety on this
+occasion was, that the Osborns did not come, because the Admiral was
+in London.
+
+The ladies had left the dining-room, when Albinia's ear caught a
+sound of hurried opening of doors, and sound of steps, and saw Mrs.
+and Miss Bowles look as if they heard something unexpected.  She
+paused, and forgot the end of what she was saying.  The room door was
+pushed a little way open, but then seemed to hesitate.  Miss Bowles
+hastened forward, and opening it, admitted a voice that made Albinia
+hurry breathlessly from the other side of the room, and push so that
+the door yielded, and she saw it had been Mr. Dusautoy who had been
+holding it while there was some kind of consultation round Gilbert.
+The instant he saw her, he exclaimed, 'Come to the baby, Sophy has
+fallen down with him.'
+
+People pressed about her, trying to speak cheeringly, but she
+understood nothing but that her husband and Mr. Bowles were gone on,
+and she had a sense that there had been hardness and cruelty in
+hesitating to summon her.  Without knowing that a shawl was thrown
+round her, or seeing Mr. Dusautoy's offered arm, she clutched
+Gilbert's wrist in her hand, and flew down the street.
+
+The gates and front door were open, and there was a throng of people
+in the hall.  Lucy caught hold of her with a sobbing, 'Oh, Mamma!'
+but she only framed the words with her lips--'where?'
+
+They pointed to the study.  The door was shut, but Albinia broke from
+Lucy, and pushed through it, in too much haste to dwell on the
+sickening doubt what it might conceal.
+
+Two figures stood under the window.  Mr. Kendal, who was holding the
+little inanimate form in his arms for the doctor to examine, looking up
+as she entered, cast on her a look of mute, pleading, despairing agony,
+that was as the bitterness of death.  She sprang forward herself to
+clasp her child, and her husband yielded him in broken-hearted pity,
+but at that moment the little limbs moved, the features worked, the
+eyes unclosed, and clinging tightly to her, as she strained him to
+her bosom, the little fellow proclaimed himself alive by lusty roars,
+more welcome than any music.  Partly stunned, and far more terrified,
+he had been in a sort of swoon, without breath to cry, till recalled
+to himself by feeling his mother's arms around him.  Every attempt
+of Mr. Bowles to ascertain whether he were uninjured produced such
+a fresh panic and renewal of screams, that she begged that he might
+be left to her.  Mr. Kendal took the doctor away, and gradually the
+terror subsided, though the long convulsive sobs still quivered up
+through the little frame, and as the twilight darkened on her, she
+had time to realize the past alarm, and rejoice in trembling over the
+treasure still her own.
+
+The opening of the door and the gleaming of a light had nearly
+brought on a fresh access of crying, but it was his father who
+entered, and Maurice knew the low deep sweetness of his voice, and
+was hushed.  'I believe there is no harm done,' Albinia said; and the
+smile that she fain would have made reassuring gave way as her eyes
+filled with tears, on feeling the trembling of the strong arm that
+was put round her, when Mr. Kendal bent to look into the child's
+eyes.
+
+'I thought my blight had fallen on you,' was all he said.
+
+'Oh! the thankfulness--' she said; but she could not go on, she must
+stifle all that swelled within her, for the babe felt each throb of
+her beating heart; and she could barely keep from bursting into tears
+as his father kissed him; then, as he marked the still sobbing
+breath, said, 'Bowles must see him again.'
+
+'I don't know how to make him cry again!  I suppose he must be looked
+at, but indeed I think him safe.--See, this little bruise on his
+forehead is the only mark I can find.  What was it?  How did it
+happen?'
+
+'Sophia thought proper to take him herself from the nursery to show
+him to Mrs. Osborn.  In crossing the street, she was frightened by a
+party of men coming out of a public-house in Tibbs's Alley, and in
+avoiding them, slipped down and struck the child's head against a
+gate-post.  He was perfectly insensible when I took him--I thought
+him gone.  Albinia, you must let Bowles see him again!'
+
+'Is any one there?' she said.
+
+'Every one, I think,' he replied, looking oppressed--'Maria, and Mrs.
+Osborn, and Dusautoy--but I will call Bowles.'
+
+Apparently the little boy had escaped entirely unhurt, but the
+surgeon still spoke of the morrow, and he was so startled and
+restless, that Albinia feared to move, and felt the dark study a
+refuge from the voices and sounds that she feared to encounter, lest
+they should again occasion the dreadful screaming.  'Oh, if they
+would only go home!' she said.
+
+'I will send them,' said Mr. Kendal; and presently she heard sounds
+of leave-taking, and he came back, as if he had been dispersing a
+riot, announcing that the house was clear.
+
+Gilbert and Lucy were watching at the foot of the stairs, the one
+pale, and casting anxious, imploring looks at her; the other with
+eyes red and swollen with crying, neither venturing near till she
+spoke to them, when they advanced noiselessly to look at their little
+brother, and it was not till they had caught his eye and made him
+smile, that Lucy bethought herself of saying she had known nothing of
+his adventure, and Albinia, thus recalled to the thought of the
+culprit, asked where Sophy was.
+
+'In her own room,' said Mr. Kendal.  'I could not bear the sight of
+her obduracy.  Even her aunt was shocked at her want of feeling.'
+
+Low as he spoke, the sternness of his voice frightened the baby, and
+she was obliged to run away to the nursery, where she listened to the
+contrition of the little nursemaid, who had never suspected Miss
+Sophy's intention of taking him out of the house.
+
+'And indeed, ma'am,' she said, 'there is not one of us servants who
+dares cross Miss Sophy.'
+
+It was long before Albinia ventured to lay him in his cot, and longer
+still before she could feel any security that if she ceased her low,
+monotonous lullaby, the little fellow would not wake again in terror,
+but the thankfulness and prayer, that, as she grew more calm, gained
+fuller possession of her heart, made her recur the more to pity and
+forgiveness for the poor girl who had caused the alarm.  Yet there
+was strong indignation likewise, and she could not easily resolve on
+meeting the hard defiance and sullen indifference which would wound
+her more than ever.  She was much inclined to leave Sophy to herself
+till morning, but suspecting that this would be vindictive, she
+unclasped the arm that Lucy had wound round her waist, whispered to
+her to go on singing, and moved to Sophy's door.  It was fastened,
+but before she could call, it was thrown violently back, and Sophy
+stood straight up before her, striving for her usual rigidity, but
+shaking from head to foot; and though there were no signs of tears,
+she looked with wistful terror at her step-mother's face, and her
+lips moved as if she wished to speak.
+
+'Baby is gone quietly to sleep,' began Albinia in a low voice,
+beginning in displeasure; but as she spoke, the harshness of Sophy's
+face gave way, she sank down on the floor, and fell into the most
+overpowering fit of weeping that Albinia had ever witnessed.
+Kneeling beside her, she would have drawn the girl close to her, but
+a sharp cry of pain startled her, and she found the right arm, from
+elbow to wrist, all one purple bruise, the skin grazed, and the blood
+starting.
+
+'My poor child! how you have hurt yourself!'
+
+Sophy turned away pettishly.
+
+'Let me look!  I am sure it must be very bad.  Have you done anything
+to it?'
+
+'No, never mind.  Go back to baby.'
+
+'Baby does not want me.  You shall come and see how comfortably he is
+asleep, if you will leave off crying, and let me see that poor arm.
+Did you hurt it in the fall?'
+
+'The corner of the wall,' said Sophy.  'Oh! did it not hurt him?' but
+then, just as it seemed that she was sinking on that kind breast in
+exhaustion, she collected herself, and pushing Albinia off,
+exclaimed, 'I did it, I took him out, I fell down with him, I hurt
+his head, I've killed him, or made him an idiot for life.  I did.'
+
+'Who said so?' cried Albinia, transfixed.
+
+'Aunt Maria said so.  She said I did not feel.  Oh, if I could only
+die before he grows up to let one see it.  Why wont you begin to hate
+me?'
+
+'My dear,' said Albinia, consoled on hearing the authority, 'people
+often say angry things when they are shocked.  Your aunt had not seen
+Mr. Bowles, and we all think he was not in the least hurt, only
+terribly frightened.  Dear, dear child, I am more distressed for you
+than for him!'
+
+Sophy could hold out no longer, she let her head drop on the kind
+shoulder, and seemed to collapse, with burning brow, throbbing
+pulses, and sobs as deep and convulsive as had been those of her
+little brother.  Hastily calling Lucy, who was frightened, subdued,
+and helpful, Albinia undressed the poor child, put her to bed, and
+applied lily leaves and spirits to her arm.  The smart seemed to
+refresh her, but there had been a violent strain, as well as bruise,
+and each touch visibly gave severe pain, though she never complained.
+Lucy insisted on hearing exactly how the accident had happened, and
+pressed her with questions, which Albinia would have shunned in her
+present condition, and it was thus elicited that she had taken
+Maurice across the street to how him to Mrs. Osborn.  He had resented
+the strange place, and strange people, and had cried so much that she
+was obliged to run home with him at once.  A knot of bawling men came
+reeling out of one of the many beer shops in Tibbs's Alley, and in
+her haste to avoid them, she tripped, close to the gate-post of
+Willow Lawn, and fell, with only time to interpose her arm between
+Maurice's head and the sharp corner.  She was lifted up at once, in
+the horror of seeing him neither cry nor move, for, in fact, he had
+been almost stifled under her weight, and all had since been to her a
+frightful phantom dream.  Albinia was infinitely relieved by this
+history, showing that Maurice could hardly have received any real
+injury, and in her declarations that Sophy's presence of mind had
+saved him, was forgetting to whom the accident was owing.  Lucy
+wanted to know why her sister could have taken him out of the house
+at all, but Albinia could not bear to have this pressed at such a
+moment, and sent the inquirer down to order some tea, which she
+shared with Sophy, and then was forced to bid her good-night, without
+drawing out any further confessions.  But when the girl raised
+herself to receive her kiss, it was the first real embrace that had
+passed between them.
+
+In the very early morning, Albinia was in the nursery, and found her
+little boy bright and healthy.  As she left him in glad hope and
+gratitude, Sophy's door was pushed ajar, and her wan face peeped out.
+'My dear child, you have not been asleep all night!' exclaimed
+Albinia, after having satisfied her about the baby.
+
+'No.'
+
+'Does your arm hurt you?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Does your head ache?'
+
+'Rather.'
+
+But they were not the old sulky answers, and she seemed glad to have
+her arm freely bathed, her brow cooled, her tossed bed composed, and
+her window opened, so that she might make a fresh attempt at closing
+her weary eyes.
+
+She was evidently far too much shaken to be fit for the intended
+expedition, even if her father had not decreed that she should be
+deprived of it.  Albinia had never seen him so much incensed, for
+nothing makes a man so angry as to have been alarmed; and he was
+doubly annoyed when he found that she thought Sophy too unwell to be
+left, as he intended, to solitary confinement.
+
+He would gladly have given up the visit, for his repugnance to
+society was in full force on the eve of a party; but Albinia, by
+representing that it would be wrong to disappoint Colonel Bury, and
+very hard on the unoffending Gilbert and Lucy, succeeded in
+prevailing on him to accept his melancholy destiny, and to allow her
+to remain at home with Sophy and the baby--one of the greatest
+sacrifices he or she had yet made.  He was exceedingly vexed, and
+therefore the less disposed to be lenient.  The more Albinia told him
+of Sophy's unhappiness, the more he hoped it would do her good, and
+he could not be induced to see her, nor to send her any message of
+forgiveness, for in truth it was less the baby's accident that he
+resented, than the eighteen months of surly resistance to the baby's
+mother, and at present he was more unrelenting than the generous,
+forgiving spirit of his wife could understand, though she tried to
+believe it manly severity and firmness.
+
+'It would be time to pardon,' he said, 'when pardon was asked.'
+
+And Albinia could not say that it had been asked, except by misery.
+
+'She has the best advocate in you,' said Mr. Kendal, affectionately,
+'and if there be any feeling in her, such forbearance cannot fail to
+bring it out.  I am more grieved than I can tell you at your present
+disappointment, but it shall not happen again.  If you can bring her
+to a better mind, I shall be the more satisfied in sending her from
+home.'
+
+'Edmund! you do not think of it!'
+
+'My mind is made up.  Do you think I have not watched your patient
+care, and the manner in which it has been repaid?  You have
+sufficient occupation without being the slave of those children's
+misconduct.'
+
+'Sophy would be miserable.  Oh! you must not!  She is the last girl
+in the world fit to be sent to school.'
+
+'I will not have you made miserable at home.  This has been a long
+trial, and nothing has softened her.'
+
+'Suppose this was the very thing.'
+
+'If it were, what is past should not go unrequited, and the change
+will teach her what she has rejected.  Hush, dearest, it is not that
+I do not think that you have done all for her that tenderness or good
+sense could devise, but your time is too much occupied, and I cannot
+see you overtasked by this poor child's headstrong temper.  It is
+decided, Albinia; say no more.'
+
+'I have failed,' thought Albinia, as he left the room.  'He decides
+that I have failed in bringing up his children.  What have I done?
+Have I been mistaken? have I been careless? have I not prayed enough?
+Oh! my poor, poor Sophy!  What will she do among strange girls?  Oh!
+how wretched, how harsh, how misunderstood she will be!  She will
+grow worse and worse, and just when I do think I might have begun to
+get at her!  And it is for my sake!  For me that her father is set
+against her, and is driving her out from her home!  Oh! what shall I
+do?  Winifred will promote it, because they all think I am doing too
+much!  I wonder what put that in Edmund's head?  But when he speaks
+in that way, I have no hope!'
+
+Mr. Kendal's anger took a direction with which she better sympathized
+when he walked down Tibbs's Alley, and counted the nine beer shops,
+which had never dawned on his imagination, and which so greatly
+shocked it, that he went straight to the astonished Pettilove, and
+gave him a severe reprimand for allowing the houses to be made dens
+of iniquity and disorder.
+
+He was at home in time to meet the doctor, and hear that Maurice had
+suffered not the smallest damage; and then to make another
+ineffectual attempt to persuade Albinia to consign Sophy to
+imprisonment with Aunt Maria; after which he drove off very much
+against his will with Lucy and Gilbert, both declaring that they did
+not care a rush to go to Fairmead under the present circumstances.
+
+Albinia had a sad, sore sense of failure, and almost of guilt, as she
+lingered on the door-step after seeing them set off.  The education
+of 'Edmund's children' had been a cherished vision, and it had
+resulted so differently from her expectations, that her heart sank.
+With Gilbert there was indeed no lack of love and confidence, but
+there was a sad lurking sense of his want of force of character, and
+she had avowedly been insufficient to preserve him from temptation;
+Lucy, whom externally she had the most altered, was not of a nature
+accordant enough with her own for her to believe the effects deep or
+permanent; and Sophia--poor Sophia!  Had what was kindly called
+forbearance been really neglect and want of moral courage?  Would a
+gentler, less eager person have won instead of repelling confidence?
+Had her multiplicity of occupations made her give but divided
+attention to the more important home duty.  Alas! alas! she only knew
+that her husband thought his daughter beyond her management, and for
+that very reason she would have given worlds to retain the uncouth,
+perverse girl under her charge.
+
+She stood loitering, for the sound of the river and the shade of the
+willows were pleasant on the glowing July day, and having made all
+her arrangements for going from home, she had no pressing employment,
+and thus she waited, musing as she seldom allowed herself time to do,
+and thinking over each phase of her conduct towards Sophy, in the
+endeavour to detect the mistake; and throughout came, not exactly
+answering her query, but throwing a light upon it, her brother's
+warning, that if she did not resign herself to rest quietly when rest
+was forced upon her, she would work amiss when she did work.
+
+Just then came a swinging of the gate, a step on the walk, and Miss
+Meadows made her appearance.  A message had been sent up in the
+morning, but grandmamma was so nervous, that Maria had trotted down
+in the heat so satisfy her.
+
+Albinia was surprised to find that womanhood had thrown all their
+instincts on the baby's side, and was gratified by the first truly
+kind fellow-feeling they had shown her.  She took Maria into the
+morning room, where she had left Sophy lying on the sofa, and ran up
+to fetch Maurice from the nursery.
+
+When she came down, having left the nurse adorning him, she found
+that she had acted cruelly.  Sophy was standing up with her hardest
+face on, listening to her aunt's well-meant rebukes on her want of
+feeling, and hopes that she did regret the having endangered her
+brother, and deprived 'her dear mamma of the party of pleasure at
+Fairmead; but Aunt Maria knew it was of no use to talk to Sophy,
+none--!'
+
+'Pray don't, Aunt Maria,' said Albinia, gently drawing Sophy down on
+the sofa again; 'this poor child is in no state to be scolded.'
+
+'You are a great deal too good to her, Mrs. Kendal--after such
+wilfulness as last night--carrying the dear baby out in the street--I
+never heard of such a thing--But what made you do it, Sophy, wont you
+tell me that?  No, I know you won't; no one ever can get a word from
+her.  Ah! that sulky disposition--it is a very nasty temper--can't
+you break through it, Sophy, and confess it all to your dear mamma?
+You would be so much better.  But I know it is of no use, poor child,
+it is just like her father.'
+
+Albinia was growing very angry, and it was well that Maurice's merry
+crowings were heard approaching.  Miss Meadows was delighted to see
+him, but as he had a great aversion to her, the interview was not
+prolonged, since he could not be persuaded to keep the peace by being
+held up to watch a buzzing fly, as much out of sight of her as
+possible, wrinkling up his nose, and preparing to cry whenever he
+caught sight of her white bonnet and pink roses.
+
+Miss Meadows bethought her that grandmamma was anxious, so she only
+waited to give an invitation to tea, but merely to Mrs. Kendal; she
+would say nothing about Sophy since disgrace--well-merited--if they
+could only see some feeling.
+
+'Thank you,' said Albinia, 'some evening perhaps I may come, since
+yon are so kind, but I don't think I can leave this poor twisted arm
+to itself.'
+
+Miss Meadows evaporated in hopes that Sophy would be sensible of--and
+assurances that Mrs. Kendal was a great deal too--with finally,
+'Good-bye, Sophy, I wish I could have told grandmamma that you had
+shown some feeling.'
+
+'I believe,' said Albinia, 'that you would only be too glad if you
+knew how.'
+
+Sophy gasped.
+
+Albinia could not help feeling indignant at the misjudged
+persecution; and yet it seemed to render the poor child more entirely
+her own, since all the world besides had turned against her.  'Kiss
+her, Maurice,' she said, holding the little fellow towards her.  That
+scratched arm of hers has spared your small brains from more than you
+guess.'
+
+Sophy's first impulse was to hide her face, but he thought it was bo-peep,
+caught hold of her fingers, and laughed; then came to a sudden surprised
+stop, and looked up to his mother, when the countenance behind the
+screen proved sad instead of laughing.
+
+'Ah! baby, you had better have done with me,' Sophy said, bitterly;
+'you are the only one that does not hate me yet, and you don't know
+what I have done to you.'
+
+'I know some one else that cares for you, my poor Sophy,' said
+Albinia, 'and who would do anything to make you feel it without
+distressing you.  If you knew how I wish I knew what to do for you!'
+
+'It is no use,' said Sophy, moodily; 'I was born to be a misery to
+myself and every one else.'
+
+'What has put such a fancy in your head, my dear?' said Albinia,
+nearly smiling.
+
+'Grandmamma's Betty said so, she used to call me Peter Grievous, and
+I know it is so.  It is of no good to bother yourself about me.  It
+can't be helped, and there's an end of it.'
+
+'There is not an end of it, indeed!' cried Albinia.  'Why, Sophy, do
+you suppose I could bear to leave you so?'
+
+'I'm sure I don't see why not.'
+
+'Why not?' continued Albinia, in her bright, tender voice.  'Why,
+because I must love you with all my heart.  You are your own dear
+papa's child, and this little man's sister.  Yes, and you are
+yourself, my poor, sad, lonely child, who does not know how to bring
+out the thoughts that prey on her, and who thinks it very hard to
+have a stranger instead of her own mother.  I know I should have felt
+so.'
+
+'But I have behaved so ill to you,' cried Sophy, as if bent on
+repelling the proffered affection.  'I would not like you, and I did
+not like you.  Never! and I have gone against you every way I could.'
+
+'And now I love you because you are sorry for it.'
+
+'I'm not'--Sophy had begun, but the words turned into 'Am I?'
+
+'I think you are,' and with the sweetest of tearful smiles, she put
+an arm round the no longer resisting Sophy, and laying her cheek
+against the little brother's, she kissed first one and then the
+other.
+
+'I can't think why you are so,' said Sophy, still struggling against
+the undeserved love, though far more feebly.  'I shall never deserve
+it.'
+
+'See if you don't, when we pull together instead of contrary ways.'
+
+'But,' cried Sophy, with a sudden start from her, as if remembering a
+mortal offence, 'you drained the pond!'
+
+'I own I earnestly wished it to be drained; but had you any reason
+for regretting it, my dear?'
+
+'Ah! you did not know,' said Sophy.  'He and I used to be always
+there.'
+
+'He--?'
+
+'Why, will you make me say it?' cried Sophy.  'Edmund!  I mean
+Edmund!  We always called it his pond.  He made the little quay for
+his boats--he used to catch the minnows there.  I could go and stand
+by it, and think he was coming out to play; and now you have had it
+dried up, and his dear little minnows are all dead,' and she burst
+into a passion of tears, that made Maurice cry till Albinia hastily
+carried him off and returned.
+
+'My dear, I am sorry it seemed so unkind.  I do not think we could
+have let the pond stay, for it was making the house unhealthy; but if
+we had talked over it together, it need not have appeared so very
+cruel and spiteful.'
+
+'I don't believe you are spiteful,' said Sophy, 'though I sometimes
+think so.'
+
+The filial compliment was highly gratifying.
+
+'And now, Sophy,' she said, 'that I have told you why we were obliged
+to have the pond drained, will you tell me what you wanted with baby
+at Mrs. Osborn's?'
+
+'I will tell,' said Sophy, 'but you wont like it.'
+
+'I like anything better than concealment.'
+
+'Mrs. Osborn said she never saw him.  She said you kept him close,
+and that nobody was good enough to touch him; so I promised I would
+bring him over, and I kept my word.  I know it was wrong--and--I did
+not think you would ever forgive me.'
+
+'But how could you do it?'
+
+'Mrs. Osborn and all used to be so kind to us when there was nobody
+else.  I wont cast them off because we are too fine and grand for
+them.'
+
+'I never thought of that.  I only was afraid of your getting into
+silly ways, and your papa did not wish us to be intimate there.  And
+now you see he was right, for good friends would not have led you to
+such disobedience--and by stealth, too, what I should have thought
+you would most have hated.'
+
+Albinia had been far from intending these last words to have been
+taken as they were.  Sophy hid her face, and cried piteously with an
+utter self-abandonment of grief, that Albinia could scarcely
+understand; but at last she extracted some broken words.  'False!
+shabby! yes--Oh! I have been false!  Oh! Edmund! Edmund! Edmund! the
+only thing I thought I still was!  I thought I was true!  Oh, by
+stealth!  Why couldn't I die when I tried, when Edmund did?'
+
+'And has life been a blank ever since?'
+
+'Off and on,' said Sophy.  'Well, why not?  I am sure papa is
+melancholy enough.  I don't like people that are always making fun, I
+can't see any sense in it.'
+
+'Some sorts of merriment are sad, and hollow, and wrong, indeed,'
+said Albinia, 'but not all, I hope.  You know there is so much love
+and mercy all round us, that it is unthankful not to have a cheerful
+spirit.  I wish I could give you one, Sophy.'
+
+Sophy shook her head.  'I can't understand about mercy and love, when
+Edmund was all I cared for.'
+
+'But, Sophy, if life is so sad and hard to you, don't you see the
+mercy that took Edmund away to perfect joy?  Remember, not cutting
+you off from him, but keeping him safe for you.'
+
+'No, no,' cried Sophy, 'I have never been good since he went.  I have
+got worse and worse, but I did think I was true still, that that one
+thing was left me--but now--' The sense of having acted a deception
+seemed to produce grief under which the stubborn pride was melting
+away, and it was most affecting to see the child weeping over the
+lost jewel of truth, which she seemed to feel the last link with the
+remarkable boy whose impress had been left so strongly on all
+connected with him.
+
+'My dear, the truth is in you still, or you could not grieve thus
+over your failure,' said Albinia.  'I know you erred, because it did
+not occur to you that it was not acting openly by me; but oh! Sophy,
+there is something that would bring you nearer to Edmund than hard
+truth in your own strength.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean,' said Sophy.
+
+'Did you ever think what Edmund is about now?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Sophy.
+
+'I only know that the one thing which is carried with us to the other
+world is love, Sophy, and love that becomes greater than we can yet
+imagine.  If you would think of Him who redeemed and saved your dear
+Edmund, and who is his happiness, his exceeding great reward, your
+heart would warm, and, oh! what hope and peace would come!'
+
+'Edmund was good,' said Sophy, in a tone as if to mark the hopeless
+gulf between.
+
+'And you are sorry.  All human goodness begins from sorrow.  It had
+even to be promised first for baby at his christening, you know.  Oh,
+Sophy, God's blessing can make all these tears come to joy.'
+
+Albinia's own tears were flowing so fast, that she broke off to hide
+them in her own room, her heart panting with hope, and yet with grief
+and pity for the piteous disclosure of so dreary a girlhood.  After
+all, childhood, if not the happiest, is the saddest period of
+life--pains, griefs, petty tyrannies, neglects, and terrors have
+not the alleviation of the experience that 'this also shall pass
+away;' time moves with a tardier pace, and in the narrower sphere
+of interests, there is less to distract the attention from the load
+of grievances.  Hereditary low spirits, a precocious mind, a reserved
+temper, a motherless home, the loss of her only congenial companion,
+and the long-enduring effect of her illness upon her health, had all
+conspired to weigh down the poor girl, and bring on an almost morbid
+state of gloomy discontent.  Her father's second marriage, by
+enlivening the house, had rendered her peculiarities even more
+painful to herself and others, and the cultivation of mind that was
+forced upon her, made her more averse to the trifling and
+playfulness, which, while she was younger, had sometimes brightened
+and softened her.  And this was the girl whom her father had resolved
+upon sending to the selfish, inconsiderate, frivolous world of
+school-girls, just when the first opening had been made, the first
+real insight gained into her feelings, the first appearance of having
+touched her heart!  Albinia felt baffled, disappointed, almost
+despairing.  His stern decree, once made, was, she knew, well-nigh
+unalterable; and though resolved to use her utmost influence, she
+doubted its power after having seen that look of decision.  Nay, she
+tried to think he might be right.  There might be those who would
+manage Sophy better.  Eighteen months had been a fair trial, and she
+had failed.  She prayed earnestly for whatever might be best for the
+child, and for herself, that she might take it patiently and
+submissively.
+
+Sophy felt the heat of the day a good deal, but towards the evening
+she revived, and seemed so much cheered and refreshed by her tea,
+that, as the sound of the church bell came sweetly down in the soft
+air, Albinia said, 'Sophy, I am going to take advantage of my holiday
+and go to the evening service.  I suppose you had rather not come?'
+
+'I think I will,' returned Sophy, somewhat glumly, but Albinia hailed
+the answer joyfully, as the first shamefaced effort of a reserved
+character wishing to make a new beginning, and she took care that no
+remark, not even a look, should rouse the sullen sensitiveness that
+could so easily be driven back for ever.
+
+Slowly they crept up the steps on the shady side of the hill,
+watching how, beyond the long shadow it cast over the town and the
+meadows, the trees revelled in the sunset light, and windows
+glittered like great diamonds, where in the ordinary daylight the
+distance was too great for distinct vision.
+
+The church was cool and quiet, and there was something in Sophy's
+countenance and reverent attitude that seemed as if she were
+consecrating a newly-formed resolution; her eye was often raised, as
+though in spite of herself, to the name of the brother whose short
+life seemed inseparably interwoven with all the higher aspirations of
+his home.
+
+In the midst of the Thanksgiving, a sudden movement attracted
+Albinia, and she saw Sophy resting her head, and looking excessively
+pale.  She put her arm round her, and would have led her out, but
+could not persuade her to move, and by the time the Blessing was
+given, the power was gone, and she had almost fainted away, when a
+tall strong form stooped over her, and Mr. Dusautoy gathered her up
+in his arms, and bore her off as if she had been a baby, to the open
+window of his own drawing-room.
+
+'Put me down!  The floor, please!' said Sophy, feebly, for all her
+remaining faculties were absorbed in dislike to the mode of
+conveyance.
+
+'Yes, flat on the floor,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, rising with full energy,
+and laying a cushion under Sophy's head, reaching a scent-bottle, and
+sending her husband for cold water and sal volatile; with readiness
+that astonished Albinia, unused to illness, and especially to faintings,
+and remorseful at having taken Sophy out.  'Was it the pain of her arm
+that had overcome her?'
+
+'No,' said Sophy, 'it was only my back.'
+
+'Indeed! you never told me you had hurt your back;' and Albinia began
+describing the fall, and declaring there must be a sprain.
+
+'Oh, no,' said Sophy, 'kneeling always does it.'
+
+'Does what, my dear?' said Albinia, sitting on the floor by her, and
+looking up to Mrs. Dusautoy, exceedingly frightened.
+
+'Makes me feel sick,' said Sophy; 'I thought it would go off, as it
+always does, it didn't; but it is better now.'
+
+'No, don't get up yet,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, as she was trying to
+move; 'I would offer you the sofa, it would be more hospitable, but I
+think the floor is the most comfortable place.'
+
+'Thank you, _much_,' said Sophy, with an emphasis.
+
+'Do you ever lie down on it when you are tired?' asked the lady,
+looking anxiously at Sophy.
+
+'I always wish I might.'
+
+Albinia was surprised at the interrogations that followed; she did
+not understand what Mrs. Dusautoy was aiming at, in the close
+questioning, which to her amazement did not seem to offend, but
+rather to be gratifying by the curious divination of all sensations.
+It made Albinia feel as if she had been carrying on a deliberate
+system of torture, when she heard of a pain in the back, hardly ever
+ceasing, aggravated by sitting upright, growing severe with the least
+fatigue, and unless favoured by day, becoming so bad at night as to
+take away many hours of sleep.
+
+'Oh! Sophy, Sophy,' she cried, with tears in her eyes, 'how could you
+go on so?  Why did you never tell me?'
+
+'I did not like,' began Sophy, 'I was used to it.'
+
+Oh, that barrier!  Albinia was in uncontrollable distress, that the
+girl should have chosen to undergo so much suffering rather than
+bestow any confidence.  Sophy stole her hand into hers, and said in
+her odd, short way, 'Never mind, it did not signify.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, 'those things are just what one does get
+so much used to, that it seems much easier to bear them than to speak
+about them.'
+
+'But to let oneself be so driven about,' cried Albinia.  'Oh! Sophy,
+you will never do so again!  If I had ever guessed--'
+
+'Please hush!  Never mind!' said Sophy, almost crossly, and getting
+up from the floor quickly, as though resolved to be well.
+
+'I have never minded long enough,' sighed Albinia.  'What shall I do,
+Mrs. Dusautoy?  What do you think it is?'
+
+This was the last question Mrs. Dusautoy wished to be asked in
+Sophy's presence.  She had little doubt that it was spine complaint
+like her own, but she had not intended to let her perceive the
+impression, till after having seen Mrs. Kendal alone.  However,
+Albinia's impetuosity disconcerted all precautions, and Sophy's two
+great black eyes were rounded with suppressed terror, as if expecting
+her doom.  'I think that a doctor ought to answer that question,'
+Mrs. Dusautoy began.
+
+'Yes, yes,' exclaimed Albinia, 'but I never had any faith in old Mr.
+Bowles, I had rather go to a thorough good man at once.'
+
+'Yes, certainly, by all means.'
+
+'And then to whom!  I will write to my Aunt Mary.  It seems exactly
+like you.  Do you think it is the spine?'
+
+'I am afraid so.  But, my dear,' holding out her hand caressingly to
+Sophy, 'you need not be frightened--you need not look at me as an
+example of what you will come to--I am only an example of what comes
+of never speaking of one's ailments.'
+
+'And of having no mother to find them out!' cried Albinia.
+
+'Indeed,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, anxious to console and encourage, as
+well as to talk the young step-mother out of her self-reproach, 'I do
+not think that if I had been my good aunt's own child, she would have
+been more likely to find out that anything was amiss.  It was the
+fashion to be strong and healthy in that house, and I was never
+really ill--but I came as a little stunted, dwining cockney, and so I
+was considered ever after--never quite comfortable, often forgetting
+myself in enjoyment, paying for it afterwards, but quite used to it.
+We all thought it was "only Fanny," and part of my London breeding.
+Yes, we thought so in good faith, even after the largest half of my
+life had been spent in Yorkshire.'
+
+'And what brought it to a crisis?  Did they go on neglecting you?'
+exclaimed Albinia.
+
+'Why, my dear,' said the little lady, a glow lighting on her cheek,
+and a smile awakening, 'my uncle took a new curate, whom it was the
+family custom to call "the good-natured giant," and whose approach
+put all of us young ladies in a state of great excitement.  It was
+all in character with his good-nature, you know, to think of dragging
+the poor little shrimp up the hill to church, and I believe he did
+not know how she would get on without his strong arm; for do you
+know, when he had the curacy of Lauriston given him, he chose to
+carry the starveling off with him, instead of any of those fine,
+handsome prosperous girls.  Dear Mary and Bessie! how good they were,
+and how kind and proud for me!  I never could complain of not having
+sisters.'
+
+'Well, and Mr. Dusautoy made you have advice?'
+
+'Not he!  Why, we all believed it cockneyism, you know, and besides,
+I was so happy and so well, that when we went to Scotland, I fairly
+walked myself off my legs, and ended the honeymoon laid up in a
+little inn on Loch Katrine, where John used regularly to knock his
+head whenever he came into the room.  It was a fortnight before I
+could get to Edinburgh, and the journey made me as bad as ever.  So
+the doctors were called in, and poor John learnt what a crooked stick
+he had chosen; but they all said that if I had been taken in hand as
+a child, most likely I should have been a sound woman.  The worst of
+it was, that I was so thoroughly knocked up that I could not bear the
+motion of a carriage; besides, I suppose the doctors wanted a little
+amusement out of me, for they would not hear of my going home.  So
+poor John had to go to Lauriston by himself, and those were the
+longest, dreariest six months I ever spent in my life, though Bessie
+was so good as to come and take care of me.  But at last, when I had
+nearly made up my mind to defy the whole doctorhood, they gave leave,
+and between water and steam, John brought me to Lauriston, and ever
+since that, I don't see that a backbone would have made us a bit
+happier.'
+
+Sophy had been intently reading Mrs. Dusautoy's face all through the
+narration, from under her thick black eyelashes, and at the end she
+drew a sigh of relief, and seemed to catch the smile of glad
+gratitude and affection.  There was a precedent, which afforded
+incredible food to the tumultuous cravings of a heart that had been
+sinking in sullen gloom under the consciousness of an unpleasing
+exterior.  The possibility of a 'good-natured giant' was far more
+present to her mind than the present probability of future suffering
+and restraint.
+
+Ever rapid and eager, Albinia could think of nothing but immediate
+measures for Sophy's good, and the satisfaction of her own
+conscience.  She could not bear even to wait for Mr. Kendal's return,
+but, as her aunts were still in London, she resolved on carrying
+Sophy to their house on the following day for the best advice.  It
+was already late, and she knelt at the table to dash off two notes to
+put into the post-office as she went home.  One to Mrs. Annesley, to
+announce her coming with Sophy, baby, and Susan, the other as
+follows:--
+
+
+                                           'July 10th, 9 p.m.
+'Dearest Edmund,
+
+'I find I have been cruelly neglectful.  I have hunted and driven
+that poor child about till it has brought on spine complaint.  The
+only thing I can do, is to take her to have the best advice without
+loss of time, so I am going to-morrow to my aunt's.  It would take
+too long to write and ask your leave.  You must forgive this, as
+indeed each word I have to say is, forgive!  She is so generous and
+kind!  You know I meant to do my best, but they were right, I was too
+young.
+
+                                            'Forgive yours,
+                                                        'A. K.'
+
+
+The Dusautoys were somewhat taken by surprise, but they knew too well
+the need of promptitude to dissuade her; and Sophia herself sat
+aghast at the commotion, excited by the habitual discomfort of which
+she had thought so little.  The vicar, when he found Mrs. Kendal in
+earnest, offered to go with them and protect them; but Albinia was a
+veteran in independent railway travelling, and was rather affronted
+by being treated as a helpless female.  Mrs. Dusautoy, better aware
+of what the journey might be to one at least of the travellers, gave
+advice, and lent air cushions, and Albinia bade her good night with
+an almost sobbing 'thank you,' and an entreaty that if Mr. Kendal
+came home before them, she would tell him all about it.
+
+At home, she instantly sent the stupefied Sophy to bed, astonished
+the little nurse, ordered down boxes and bags, and spent half the
+night in packing, glad to be stirring and to tire herself into
+sleeping, for her remorse and her anticipations were so painful,
+that, but for fatigue, her bed would have been no resting-place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+
+Winifred Ferrars was surprised by Mr. Kendal's walking into her
+garden, with a perturbed countenance, begging her to help him to make
+out what could be the meaning of a note which he had just received.
+He was afraid that there was much amiss with the baby, and heartily
+wished that he had not been persuaded to leave home; but poor Albinia
+wrote in so much distress, that he could not understand her letter.
+
+More accustomed to Albinia's epistolary habits, Winifred exclaimed at
+the first glance, 'What can you mean?  There is not one word of the
+little one!  It is only Sophy!'
+
+The immediate clearing of his face was not complimentary to poor
+Sophy, as he said, 'Can you be quite sure?  I had begun to hope that
+Albinia might at least have the comfort of seeing this little fellow
+healthy; but let me see--she says nursed and--and danced--is it? this
+poor child--'
+
+'No, no; it is hunted and driven; that's the way she always _will_
+make her _h_'s; besides, what nonsense the other would be.'
+
+'This poor child--' repeated Mr. Kendal, 'Going up to London for
+advice.  She would hardly do that with Sophia.'
+
+'Who ever heard of a baby of six months old having a spine
+complaint?' cried Mrs. Ferrars almost angrily.
+
+'I have lost one in that way,' he replied.
+
+A dead silence ensued, till Winifred, to her great relief, spied the
+feminine pronoun, but could not fully satisfy Mr. Kendal that the ups
+and downs were insufficient for the word _him_; and each scrawl was
+discussed as though it had been a cuneiform inscription, until he had
+been nearly argued into believing in the lesser evil.  He then was
+persuaded that the Meadowses had been harassing and frightening
+Albinia into this startling measure.  It was so contrary to his own
+nature, that he hardly believed that it had actually taken place, and
+that she must be in London by this time, but at any rate, he must
+join her there, and know the worst.  He would take the whole party to
+an hotel, if it were too great a liberty to quarter themselves upon
+Mrs. Annesley.
+
+Winifred was as much surprised as if the chess-king had taken a
+knight's move, but she encouraged his resolution, assured him of a
+welcome at what the cousinhood were wont to call the Family Office,
+and undertook the charge of Gilbert and Lucy.  The sorrowful, almost
+supplicating tone of his wife's letter, would have sufficed to bring
+him to her, even without his disquietude for his child, whichever of
+them it might be; and though Albinia's merry blue-eyed boy had
+brought a renewed spring of hope and life, his crashed spirits
+trembled at the least alarm.
+
+Thus, though the cheerful Winifred had convinced his reason, his
+gloomy anticipations revived before he reached London; and with the
+stern composure of one accustomed to bend to the heaviest blows, he
+knocked at Mrs. Annesley's door.  He was told that Mrs. Kendal was
+out; but on further inquiry, learnt that Sophy was in the drawing-room,
+where he found her curled up in the corner of the sofa, reading
+intently.
+
+She sprang to her feet with a cry of surprise, but did not approach,
+though he held out his arms, saying in a voice husky with anxiety,
+'Is the baby well, Sophia?'
+
+'Yes,' she cried, 'quite well; he is out in the carriage with them.'
+Then shrinking as he was stooping to kiss her, she reddened,
+reddening deeply, 'Papa, I did very wrong; I was sly and disobedient,
+and I might have killed him.'
+
+'Do not let us speak of that now, my dear, I want to hear of--' and
+again he would have drawn her into his embrace, but she held out her
+hand, with her repelling gesture, and burst forth in her rude
+honesty, 'I can't be forgiven only because I am ill.  Hear all about
+it, papa, and then say you forgive me if you can.  I always was cross
+to mamma, because I was determined I would be; and I did not think
+she had any business with us.  The more she was kind, the more I did
+not like it; and I thought it was mean in Gilbert and Lucy to be fond
+of her.  No! I have not done yet!  I grew naughtier and naughtier,
+till at last I have been false and sly, and--have done this to baby--
+and I would not have cared then--if--if she would not have been--oh!
+so good!'
+
+Sophy made no farther resistance to the arm that was thrown round
+her, as her father said, 'So good, that she has overcome evil with
+good.  My child, how should I not forgive when you are sensible of
+your mistake, and when she has so freely forgiven?'
+
+Sophy did not speak, but she pressed his arm closer round her, and
+laid her cheek gratefully on his shoulder.  She only wished it could
+last for ever; but he soon lifted her, that he might look anxiously
+at her face, while he said, 'And what is all this, my dear!  I am
+afraid you are not well.'
+
+Her energies were recalled; and, squeezing his hand, she said, 'Mind,
+you will not let them say it was mamma's fault.'
+
+'Who is accusing her, my dear?'  What is the matter?'
+
+'It is only my back,' said Sophy; 'there always was a stupid pain
+there; but grandmamma's Betty said I made a fuss, and that it was all
+laziness, and I would not let any one say so again, and I never told
+of it, and it went on till the other night I grew faint at church,
+and Mrs. Dusautoy put mamma in such a fright, that we all came here
+yesterday; and there came a doctor this morning, who says my spine is
+not straight, and that I must lie on my back for a long time; but
+never mind, papa, it will be very comfortable to lie still and read,
+and I shall not be cross now,' she added reassuringly, as his grasp
+pressed her close, with a start of dismay.
+
+'My dear, I am afraid you hardly know what you may have to go
+through, but I am glad you meet it bravely.'
+
+'But you wont let them say mamma did it?'
+
+'Who should say so?'
+
+'Aunt Maria will, and mamma _will_ go and say so herself,' cried
+Sophy; 'she _will_ say it was taking walks and carrying baby, and
+it's not true.  I told the doctor how my back ached long before baby
+came or she either, and he said that most likely the weakness had
+been left by the fever.  So if it is any one's mismanagement, it is
+Aunt Maria's, and if you wont tell her so, I will.'
+
+'Gently, Sophy, that would hardly be grateful, after the pains that
+she has taken with you, and the care she meant to give.'
+
+'Her care was all worry,' said Sophy, 'and it will be very lucky if I
+don't tell her so, if she says her provoking things to mamma.  But
+you wont believe them, papa.'
+
+'Most certainly not.'
+
+'Yes, you must tell her to be happy again,' continued Sophy; 'I
+cannot bear to see her looking sorrowful!  Last night, when she
+fancied me asleep, she cried--oh! till it made me miserable!  And
+to-day I heard Miss Ferrars say to Mrs. Annesley, that her fine spirits
+were quite gone.  You know it is very silly, for I am the last
+person in all the world she ought to cry for.'
+
+'She has an infinite treasure of love,' said Mr. Kendal, 'and we have
+done very little that we should be blessed with it.'
+
+'There, they are come home!' exclaimed Sophy, starting up as sounds
+were heard on the stairs, and almost at the same moment Albinia was
+in the room, overflowing with contrition, gladness, and anxiety; but
+something of sweetness in the first hasty greeting made the trust
+overcome all the rest; and, understanding his uppermost wish, she
+stepped back to the staircase, and in another second had put Maurice
+into his arms, blooming and contented, and with a wide-mouthed smile
+for his papa.  Mr. Kendal held him fondly through all the hospitable
+welcomes of the aunts, and his own explanations; but to Albinia it
+was all confusion, and almost annoyance, till she could take him
+upstairs, and tell her own story.
+
+'I am afraid you have been very much alarmed,' were his first words.
+
+'I have done everything wrong from beginning to end,' said Albinia.
+'Oh, Edmund, I am so glad you are come!  Now you will see the doctor,
+and know whether it was as bad as all the rest to bring her to
+London.'
+
+'My dearest, you must calm yourself, and try to explain.  You know I
+understand nothing yet, except from your resolute little advocate
+downstairs, and your own note, which I could scarcely make out,
+except that you were in great trouble.'
+
+'Ah, that note; I wrote it in one of my impetuous fits.  Maurice used
+to say I ran frantic, and grew irrational, and so I did not know what
+I was saying to you; and I brought that poor patient girl up here in
+all the heat, and the journey hurt her so much, that I don't know how
+we shall ever get her home again.  Oh, Edmund, I am the worst wife
+and mother in the world; and I undertook it all with such foolish
+confidence.'
+
+Mr. Kendal liked her impetuous fits as little as her brother did, and
+was not so much used to them; but he dealt with her in his quiet,
+straightforward way.  'You are exaggerating now, Albinia, and I do
+not wonder at it, for you have had a great deal to startle and to try
+you.  Walking up and down is only heating and agitating you more; sit
+down here, and let me hear what gave you this alarm.'
+
+The grave affection of his manner restrained her, and his presence
+soothed the flutter of spirits; though she still devoted herself with
+a sort of wilfulness to bear all the blame, until he said, 'This is
+foolish, Albinia; it is of no use to look at anything but the simple
+truth.  This affection of the spine must be constitutional, and if
+neglect have aggravated the evil, it must date from a much earlier
+period than since she has been under your charge.  If any one be to
+blame, it is myself, for the apathy that prevented me from placing
+the poor things under proper care, but I was hardly then aware that
+Maria's solicitude is always in the wrong place.'
+
+'But everybody declares that it was always visible, and that no one
+could look at her without seeing that she was crooked.'
+
+'Apres le coup,' said Mr. Kendal.  'I grant you that a person of more
+experience might perhaps have detected what was amiss sooner than you
+did, but you have only to regret the ignorance you shared with us
+all; and you did your utmost according to your judgment.'
+
+'And a cruel utmost it was,' said Albinia; 'it is frightful to think
+what I inflicted, and she endured in silence, because I had not
+treated her so that she could bear to speak to me.'
+
+'That is over now,' said Mr. Kendal, 'you have conquered her at last.
+Pride could not hold out against such sweetness.'
+
+'It is her generosity,' said Albinia; 'I always knew she was the best
+of them all, if one could but get at her.'
+
+'What have you done to her?  I never heard her say half so much as
+she voluntarily said to me just now.'
+
+'Poor dear!  I believe the key of her heart was lost when Edmund
+died, and so all within was starved,' said Albinia.  'Yes,' as his
+eyes were suddenly raised and fixed on her, 'I got to that at last.
+No one has ever understood her, since she lost her brother.'
+
+'She has a certain likeness to him.  I knew she was his favourite
+sister; but such a child as she was--'
+
+'Children have deeper souls than you give them credit for,' said
+Albinia.  'Yes, Edmund, you and Sophy are very much alike!  You had
+your study, and poor Sophy enclosed herself in a perpetual cocoon of
+study atmosphere, and so you never found each other out till to-day.'
+
+Perhaps it was the influence of the frantic fit that caused her to
+make so direct a thrust; but Mr. Kendal was not offended.  There was
+a good deal in the mere absence from habitual scenes and
+associations; he always left a great deal of reserve behind him at
+Bayford.
+
+'You may be right, Albinia,' he said; 'I sometimes think that amongst
+us you are like the old poet's "star confined into a tomb."'
+
+Such a compliment was a pretty reward for her temerity.
+
+Returning to business, she found that her journey was treated as more
+judicious than she deserved.  The consequences had justified her
+decision.  Mr. Kendal knew it was the right thing to be done, and was
+glad to have been spared the dreadful task of making up his mind to
+it.  He sat down of his own accord to write a note to Winifred,
+beginning, 'Albinia was right, as she always is,' and though his wife
+interlined, 'Albinia had no right to be right, for she was
+inconsiderate, as she always is,' she looked so brilliantly pretty
+and bright, and was so full of sunny liveliness, that she occasioned
+one of the very few disputes between her good aunts.  Miss Ferrars
+declared that poor Albinia was quite revived by the return to her old
+home, and absence of care, while Mrs. Annesley insisted on giving the
+credit to Mr. Kendal.  They were perfectly agreed in unwillingness to
+part with their guests; and as the doctor wished to see more of his
+patient, the visit was prolonged, to the enjoyment of all parties.
+
+Sophy had received her sentence so easily, that it was suspected that
+she did not realize the tedium of confinement, and was relieved by
+being allowed to be inactive.  Until she should go home, she might do
+whatever did not fatigue her; but most sights, and even the motion of
+the carriage, were so fatiguing, that she was much more inclined to
+remain at home and revel in the delightful world of books.  The kind,
+unobtrusive petting; the absence of customary irritations; the quiet
+high-bred tone of the family, so acted upon her, as to render her
+something as agreeably new to herself as to other people.  The glum
+mask was cast aside, she responded amiably to kindness and attention,
+allowed herself to be drawn into conversation, and developed much
+more intelligence and depth than even Albinia had given her credit
+for.
+
+One day, when Miss Ferrars was showing Mr. Kendal some illustrations
+of Indian scenery, a question arose upon the date of the native
+sovereign to whom the buildings were ascribed.  Mr. Kendal could not
+recollect; but Sophia, looking up, quietly pronounced the date, and
+gave her reasons for it.  Miss Ferrars asked how she could have
+learnt so much on an out-of-the-way topic.
+
+'I read a book of the History of India, up in the loft,' said Sophy.
+
+'That book!' exclaimed her father; 'I wish you joy!  I never could
+get through it!  It is the driest chronicle I ever read--a mere book
+of reference.  What could induce you to read that?'
+
+'I would read anything about India;' and her tone, though low and
+subdued, betrayed such enthusiasm as could find nothing dry, and this
+in a girl who had read aloud the reign of Edward III. with stolid
+indifference!
+
+'Well, I think I can promise you more interesting reading about India
+when we go home,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+The colour rose on Sophy's cheek.  Books out of papa's study!  Could
+the world offer a greater privilege?'  She could scarcely pronounce,
+'Thank you.'
+
+'Very faithful to her birth-place,' said Miss Ferrars; 'but she must
+have been very young when she came home.'
+
+'About five years old, I believe,' said her father.  'You surely can
+remember nothing of Talloon.'
+
+'I don't know,' said Sophy, mournfully; 'I used--'
+
+'I thought Indian children usually lost their eastern recollections
+very early,' said Miss Ferrars; 'I never heard of one who could
+remember the sound of Hindostanee a year after coming home.'
+
+Mr. Kendal, entertained and gratified, turned to his daughter; and,
+by way of experiment, began a short sentence in Hindostanee; but the
+first sound brought a glow to her cheeks, and, with a hurried
+gesture, she murmured, 'Please don't, papa.'
+
+Albinia saw that feelings were here concerned which must not be
+played on in public; and she hastily plunged into the discussion, and
+drew it away from Sophy.  Following her up-stairs at bed-time, she
+contrived to win from her an explanation.
+
+Edmund had been seven years old at the time of the return to England.
+Fondly attached to some of the Hindoo servants, and with unusual
+intelligence and observation, the gorgeous scenery and oriental
+habits of his first home had dwelt vividly in his imagination, and he
+had always considered himself as only taken to England for a time, to
+return again to India.  Thus, he had been fond of romancing of the
+past and of the future, and had never let his little sister's
+recollections fade entirely away.  His father had likewise thought
+that it would save future trouble to keep up the boys' knowledge of
+the language, which would by-and-by be so important to them.
+Gilbert's health had caused his studies to be often intermitted, but
+Edmund had constantly received instructions in the Indian languages,
+and whatever he learnt had been imparted to Sophia.  It was piteous
+to discover how much time the poor forlorn little girl had spent
+sitting on the floor in the loft, poring over old grammars, and
+phrase-books, and translations of missionary or government school-books
+there accumulated--anything that related to India, or that
+seemed to carry on what she had done with Edmund: and she had
+acquired just enough to give her a keen appetite for all the higher
+class of lore, which she knew to reside in the unapproachable study.
+Those few familiar words from her father had overcome her, because, a
+trivial greeting in themselves, they had been a kind of password
+between her and her brother.
+
+Mr. Kendal was greatly touched, and very remorseful for having left
+such a heart to pine in solitude, while he was absorbed in his own
+lonely grief; and Albinia ventured to say, 'I believe the greatest
+pleasure you could give her would be to help her to keep up the
+language.'
+
+He smiled, but said, 'Of what possible use could it be to her?'
+
+'I was not thinking of future use.  It would be of immense present
+use to her to do anything with you, and I can see that nothing would
+gratify her so much.  Besides, I have been trying to think of all the
+new things I could set her to do.  She must have lessons to fill up
+the day, and I want to make fresh beginnings, and not go back to the
+blots and scars of our old misunderstandings.'
+
+'You want me to teach her Sanscrit because you cannot teach her
+Italian.'
+
+'Exactly so,' said Albinia; 'and the Italian will spring all the
+better from the venerable root, when we have forgotten how cross we
+used to be to each other over our relative pronouns.'
+
+'But there is hardly anything which I could let her read in those
+languages.'
+
+'Very likely not; but you can pick out what there is.  Do you
+remember the fable of the treasure that was to be gained by digging
+under the apple-tree, and which turned out not to be gold, but the
+fruit, the consequence of digging?  Now, I want you to dig Sophy; a
+Sanscrit, or a Hindostanee, or a Persian treasure will do equally
+well as a pretext.  If she had announced a taste for the differential
+calculus, I should have said the same.  Only dig her, as Maurice dug
+me apropos to Homer. I wouldn't bother you, only you see no one else
+could either do it, or be the same to Sophy.'
+
+'We will see how it is,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+With which Albinia was obliged to be content; but in the meantime she
+saw the two making daily progress in intimacy, and Mr. Kendal
+beginning to take a pride in his daughter's understanding and
+information, which he ascribed to Albinia, in spite of all her
+disclaimers.  It was as if she had evoked the spirit of his lost son,
+which had lain hidden under the sullen demeanour of the girl, devoid
+indeed of many of Edmund's charms, but yet with the same sterling
+qualities, and with resemblance enough to afford infinite and
+unexpected joy and compensation.
+
+Mr. Kendal enjoyed his stay in town.  He visited libraries, saw
+pictures, and heard music, with the new zest of having a wife able to
+enter into his tastes.  He met old friends, and did not shrink
+immoderately from those of his wife; nay, he found them extremely
+agreeable, and was pleased to see Albinia welcomed.  Indeed, his
+sojourn in her former sphere served to make him wonder that she could
+be contented with Bayford, and to find her, of the whole party, by
+far the most ready to return home.  Both he himself and Sophy had an
+unavowed dread of the influence of Willow Lawn; but Albinia had a
+spring of spirits, independent of place, and though happy, was
+craving for her duties, anxious to have the journey over, and afraid
+that London was making her little Maurice pale.
+
+Miss Meadows was the first person whom they saw at Willow Lawn.  Two
+letters had passed, both so conventionally civil, that her state of
+mind could not be gathered from them, but her first tones proved that
+coherence was more than ever wanting, and no one attempted to
+understand anything she said, while she enfolded Sophy in an agitated
+embrace, and marshalled them to the drawing-room, where the chief of
+the apologies were spent upon Sophy's new couch, which had been sent
+down the day before by the luggage-train, and which she and Eweretta
+had attempted to put together in an impossible way, failing which,
+they had called in the carpenter, who had made it worse.
+
+It was an untold advantage that she had to take the initiative in
+excuses.  Sophy was so meek with weariness, that she took pretty well
+all the kind fidgeting that could not be averted from her, and Miss
+Meadows's discourse chiefly tended to assurances that Mrs. Kendal was
+right, and grandmamma was nervous--and poor Mr. Bowles--it could not
+be expected--with hints of the wonderful commotion the sudden flight
+to London had excited at Bayford.  As soon as Mr. Kendal quitted the
+room, these hints were converted into something between
+expostulation, condolence, and congratulation.
+
+It was so very fortunate--so very lucky that dear Mr. Kendal had come
+home with her, for--she had said she would let Mrs. Kendal hear, if
+only that she might be on her guard--people were so ill-natured--
+there never was such a place for gossip--not that she heard it from
+any one but Mrs. Drury, who really now had driven in--not that
+she believed it, but to ascertain.--For Mrs. Drury had been
+told--mentioning no names--oh, no! for fear of making mischief--she
+had been told that Mrs. Kendal had actually been into Mr. Kendal's study,
+which was always kept locked up, and there she had found something
+which had distressed her so much that she had gone to Mr. Dusautoy,
+and by his advice had fled from home to the protection of her brother
+in Canada.
+
+'Without waiting for Bluebeard's asking for the key!  Oh, Maria!'
+cried Albinia, in a fit of laughter, while Sophia sat up on the sofa
+in speechless indignation.
+
+'You may laugh, Mrs. Kendal, if you please,' said Maria, with tart
+dignity; 'I have told you nothing but the truth.  I should have
+thought for my part, but that's of no consequence, it was as well to
+be on one's guard in a nest of vipers, for Edmund's sake, if not for
+your own.'  And as this last speech convulsed Albinia, and rendered
+her incapable of reply, Miss Meadows became pathetic.  'I am sure the
+pains I have taken to trace out and contradict--and so nervous as
+grandmamma has been--"I'm sure, Mrs. Drury," said I, "that though
+Edmund Kendal does lock his study door, nobody ever thought anything-
+-the housemaids go in to clean it--and I've been in myself when the
+whitewashers were about the house--I'm sure Mrs. Kendal is a most
+amiable young woman, and you wouldn't raise reports."  "No," she
+said, "but Mrs. Osborn was positive that Mrs. Kendal was nearly an
+hour shut up alone in the study the night of Sophy's accident--and so
+sudden," she said, "the carriage being sent for--not a servant knew
+of it--and then," she said, "it was always the talk among the girls,
+that Mr. Kendal kept his study a forbidden place."'
+
+'Then,' said Sophia, slowly, as she looked full at her aunt, 'it was
+the Osborns who dared to say such wicked things.'
+
+'There now, I never meant you to be there.  You ought to be gone to
+bed, child.  It is not a thing for you to know anything about.'
+
+'I only want to know whether it was the Osborns who invented these
+stories,' said Sophy.
+
+'My dear,' exclaimed Albinia, 'what can it signify?  They are only a
+very good joke.  I did not think there had been so much imagination
+in Bayford.'  And off she went laughing again.
+
+'They are very wicked,' said Sophy, 'Aunt Maria, I will know if it
+was Mrs. Osborn who told the story.'
+
+Sophy's _will_ was too potent for Miss Meadows, and the admission was
+extracted in a burst of other odds and ends, in the midst of which
+Albinia beheld Sophy cross the room with a deliberate, determined
+step.  Flying after her, she found her in the hall, wrapping herself
+up.
+
+'Sophy, what is this?  What are you about?'
+
+'Let me alone,' said Sophy, straining against her detaining hand, 'I
+do not know when I shall recover again, and I will go at once to tell
+the Osborns that I have done with them.  I stuck to them because I
+thought they were my mother's friends; I did not guess that they
+would make an unworthy use of my friendship, and invent wicked
+stories of my father and you.'
+
+'Please don't make me laugh, Sophy, for I don't want to affront you.
+Yes, it is generous feeling; I don't wonder you are angry; but indeed
+silly nonsense like this is not worth it.  It will die away of
+itself, it must be dead already, now they have seen we have not run
+away to Canada.  Your heroics only make it more ridiculous.'
+
+'I must tell Loo never to come here with her hypocrisy,' repeated
+Sophy, standing still, but not yielding an inch.
+
+Miss Meadows pursued them at the same moment with broken
+protestations that they must forget it, she never meant to make
+mischief, &c., and the confusion was becoming worse confounded when
+Mr. Kendal emerged from the study, demanding what was the matter, to
+the great discomfiture of Maria, who began hushing Sophy, and making
+signs to Albinia that it would be dangerous for him to know anything
+about it.
+
+But Albinia was already exclaiming, 'Here's a champion wanting to do
+battle with Louisa Osborn in our cause.  Oh, Edmund! our neighbours
+could find no way of accounting for my taking French leave, but by
+supposing that I took advantage of being shut in there, while poor
+little Maurice was squalling so furiously, to rifle your secrets, and
+detect something  so shocking, that away I was fleeing to William in
+Canada.'
+
+'Obliging,' quietly said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Now, dear Edmund--I know--for my sake--for everything's sake,
+remember you are a family man, don't take any notice.'
+
+'I certainly shall take no notice of such folly,' said Mr. Kendal,
+'and I wish that no one else should.  What are you about, Sophia?'
+
+'Tell mamma to let me go, papa,' she exclaimed, 'I must and will tell
+Louisa that I hate her baseness and hypocrisy, and then I'll never
+speak to her again.  Why will mamma laugh?  It is very wicked of
+them.'
+
+'Wrong in them, but laughing is the only way to treat it,' said Mr.
+Kendal.  'Go back to your sofa and forget it.  Your aunt and I have
+heard Bayford reports before.'
+
+Sophy obeyed unwillingly, she was far too much incensed to forget.
+On her aunt's taking leave, and Mr. Kendal offering his escort up the
+hill, she rose up again, and would have perpetrated a denunciation by
+letter, had not Albinia seriously argued with her, and finding
+ridicule, expediency, and Christian forgiveness all fail of hitting
+the mark, said, 'I don't know with what face you could attack Louisa,
+when you helped her to persecute poor Genevieve because you thought
+she had an instrument of torture in her drawer.'
+
+'It was not I who said that,' said Sophy, blushing.
+
+'You took part with those who did.  And poor Genevieve was a much
+more defenceless victim than papa or myself.'
+
+'I would not do so now.'
+
+'It does not take much individual blackness of heart to work up a
+fine promising slander.  A surmise made in jest is repeated in
+earnest, and all the other tale-bearers think they are telling simple
+facts.  Depend upon it, the story did not get off from the Osborns by
+any means as it came back to Aunt Maria.'
+
+'I should like to know.'
+
+'Don't let us make it any worse; and above all, do not let us tell
+Lucy.'
+
+'Oh, no!' said Sophy, emphatically.
+
+To Albinia's surprise no innuendo from Mrs. or Miss Meadows ever
+referred to her management having caused Sophy's misfortune, and she
+secretly attributed this silence to Mr. Kendal's having escorted his
+sister-in-law to her own house.
+
+Sophy's chief abode became the morning-room, and she seemed very
+happy and tranquil there--shrinking from visitors, but grateful for
+the kindness of parents, brother and sister.
+
+Mr. Kendal, finding her really eager to learn of him, began teaching
+her Persian, and was astonished at her promptness and intelligence.
+He took increasing pleasure in her company, gave her books to read,
+and would sometimes tell the others not to stay at home for her sake,
+as he should be 'about the house.'
+
+He really gave up much time to her, and used to carry her, when the
+weather served, to a couch in the garden, for she could not bear the
+motion of wheels, and was forbidden to attempt walking, though she
+was to be in the air as much as possible, so that Albinia spent more
+time at home.  The charge of Sophy was evidently her business, and
+after talking the matter over with Mrs. Dusautoy, she resigned,
+though not without a pang, the offices she had undertaken in the time
+of her superfluous activity, and limited herself to occasional
+superintendence, instead of undertaking constant employment in the
+parish.  Though she felt grieved and humiliated, Willow Lawn throve
+the better for it, and so did her own mind, yes, and even her temper,
+which was far less often driven by over-haste into quick censure, or
+unconsidered reply.
+
+Her mistakes about Sophia had been a lesson against one-sided
+government.  At first, running into the other extreme, she was ready
+to imagine that all the past ill-humour had been the effect of her
+neglect and cruelty; and Sophy's amiability almost warranted the
+notion.  The poor girl herself had promised 'never to be cross
+again,' and fancied all temptation was over, since she had 'found out
+mamma,' and papa was so kind to her.  But all on a sudden, down came
+the cloud again.  Nobody could detect any reason.  Affronts abounded-
+-not received with an explosion that would have been combated,
+laughed at, and disposed of, but treated with silence, and each
+sinking down to be added to the weight of cruel injuries.  There was
+no complaint; Sophy obeyed all orders with her old form of dismal
+submission, but everything proposed to her was distasteful, and her
+answers were in the ancient surly style.  If attempts were made to
+probe the malady, her reserve was impenetrable--nothing was the
+matter, she wanted nothing, was vexed at nothing.  She pursued her
+usual occupations, but as if they were hardships; she was sullen
+towards her mamma, snappishly brief with her aunt and sister, and so
+ungracious and indifferent even with her father, that Albinia
+trembled lest he might withdraw the attention so improperly received.
+When this dreary state of things had lasted more than a week, he did
+tell her that if she were tired of the lessons, it was not worth
+while to proceed; but that he had hoped for more perseverance.
+
+The fear of losing these, her great pride and pleasure, overcame her.
+She maintained her grim composure till he had left her, but then fell
+into a violent fit of crying, in which Albinia found her, and which
+dissolved the reserve into complaints that every one was very cruel
+and unkind, and she was the most miserable girl in all the world;
+papa was going to take away from her the only one thing that made it
+tolerable!
+
+Reasoning was of no use; to try to show her that it was her own
+behaviour that had annoyed him, only made her mamma appear equally
+hard-hearted, and she continued wretched all the rest of the day,
+refusing consolation, and only so far improved that avowed discontent
+was better than sullenness.  The next morning, she found out that it
+was not the world that was in league against her, but that she had
+fallen into the condition which she had thought past for ever.  This
+was worst of all, and her disappointment and dejection lasted not
+only all that long day, but all the next, making her receive all
+kindnesses with a broken-down, woebegone manner, and reply to all
+cheerful encouragements with despair about anything ever making her
+good.  Albinia tried to put her in mind of the Source of all
+goodness; but any visible acceptance of personal applications of
+religious teaching had not yet been accomplished.
+
+Gradually all cleared up again, and things went well till for some
+fresh trivial cause or no cause, the whole process was repeated--
+sulking, injured innocence, and bitter repentance.  This time, Mr.
+Kendal pronounced, 'This is low spirits, far more than temper,' and
+he thenceforth dealt with these moods with a tender consideration
+that Albinia admired, though she thought at times that to treat them
+more like temper than spirits might be better for Sophy; but it was
+evident that the poor child herself had at present little if any
+power either of averting such an access, or of shaking it off.  The
+danger of her father's treatment seemed to be, that the humours would
+be acquiesced in, like changes in the weather, and that she might be
+encouraged neither to repent, nor to struggle; while her captivity
+made her much more liable to the tedium and sinking of heart that
+predisposed her to them.
+
+There seemed to be nothing to be done but to bear patiently with them
+while they lasted, to console the victim afterwards, lead her to
+prayer and resolute efforts, and above all to pray for her, as well
+as to avoid occasions of bringing them on; but this was not possible,
+since no one could live without occasional contradiction, and Sophy
+could sometimes bear a strong remonstrance or great disappointment,
+when at others a hint, or an almost imperceptible vexation, destroyed
+her peace for days.
+
+Mr. Kendal bore patiently with her variations, and did his best to
+amuse away her gloom.  It was wonderful how much of his own was gone,
+and how much more alive he was.  He had set himself to attack the
+five public-houses and seven beer-shops in Tibbs's Alley, and since
+his eyes had been once opened, it seemed as if the disorders became
+more flagrant every day.  At last, he pounced on a misdemeanour which
+he took care should come before the magistrates, and he was much
+annoyed to find the case dismissed for want of evidence.  One Sunday
+he beheld the end of a fray begun during service-time; he caused an
+information to be laid, and went himself to the petty sessions to
+represent the case, but the result was a nominal penalty.  The
+Admiral was a seeker of popularity, and though owning that the town
+was in a shocking state, and making great promises when talked to on
+general points, yet he could never make up his mind to punish any
+'poor fellow,' unless he himself were in a passion, when he would go
+any length.  The other magistrates would not interfere; and all the
+satisfaction Mr. Kendal obtained was being told how much he was
+wanted on the bench.
+
+One of the few respectable Tibbs's Alleyites told him that it was of
+no use to complain, for the publicans boasted of their impunity,
+snapped their fingers at him, and drank Admiral Osborn's health as
+their friend.  The consequence was, that Mr. Kendal took a
+magnanimous resolution, ordered a copy of Burn's Justice, and at the
+September Quarter Sessions actually rode over to Hadminster, and took
+the oaths.
+
+On the whole, the expectation was more formidable than the reality.
+However much he disliked applying himself to business, no one
+understood it better.  The value of his good sense, judgment, and
+acuteness was speedily felt.  Mr. Nugent, the chairman, depended on
+him as his ally, and often as his adviser; and as he was thus made to
+feel himself of weight and importance, his aversion subsided, and he
+almost learnt to look forward to a chat with Mr. Nugent; or whether
+he looked forward to it or not, there could be no doubt that he
+enjoyed it.  Though still shy, grave, silent, and inert, there was a
+great alteration in him since the time when he had had no friends, no
+interests, no pursuits beyond his study; and there was every reason
+to think that, in spite of the many severe shocks to his mauvaise
+honte, he was a much happier man.
+
+His wife could not regret that his magisterial proceedings led to a
+coolness with the Osborns, augmented by a vestry-meeting, at which
+Mr. Dusautoy had begged him to be present.  The Admiral and his party
+surpassed themselves in their virulence against whatever the vicar
+proposed, until they fairly roused Mr. Kendal's ire, and 'he came out
+upon them all like a lion;' and with force appearing the greater from
+being so seldom exerted, he represented Mr. Dusautoy's conduct in
+appropriate terms, showing full appreciation of his merits, and
+holding up their own course before them in its true light, till they
+had nothing to say for themselves.  It was the vicar's first visible
+victory.  The increased congregation showed how much way he had made
+with the poor, and Mr. Kendal taking his part openly, drew over many
+of the tradespeople, who had begun to feel the influence of his
+hearty nature and consistent uprightness, and had become used to what
+had at first appeared innovations.  Mr. Dusautoy, in thanking Mr.
+Kendal, begged him to allow himself to be nominated his churchwarden
+next Easter, and having consented while his blood was up, there was
+no danger that, however he might dislike the prospect, he would
+falter when the time should come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+
+It was 'a green Yule,' a Christmas like an April day, and even the
+lengthening days and strengthening cold of January attaining to
+nothing more than three slight hoar-frosts, each quickly melting into
+mud, and the last concluding in rain and fog.
+
+'What would Willow Lawn have been without the drainage?' Albinia
+often thought when she paddled down the wet streets, and saw the
+fields flooded.  The damp had such an effect upon Sophy's throat,
+temper, and whole nervous system, that her moods had few intervals,
+and Albinia wrote to the surgeon a detail of her symptoms, asking if
+she had not better be removed into a more favourable air.  But he
+pronounced that the injury of the transport would outbalance the
+casual evils of the bad weather, and as the rain and fog mitigated,
+she improved; but there were others on whom the heavy moist air had a
+more fatal effect.
+
+One morning, Mr. Kendal saw his wife descending the picturesque
+rugged stone staircase that led outside the house to the upper
+stories of the old block of buildings under the hill, nearly opposite
+to Willow Lawn.  She came towards him with tears still in her eyes as
+she said, 'Poor Mrs. Simkins has just lost her little girl, and I am
+afraid the two boys are sickening.'
+
+'What do you mean?  Is the fever there again?' exclaimed Mr. Kendal
+in the utmost consternation.
+
+'Did you not know it?  Lucy has been very anxious about the child,
+who was in her class.'
+
+'You have not taken Lucy to a house with a fever!'
+
+'No, I thought it safer not, though she wanted very much to go.'
+
+'But you have been going yourself!'
+
+'It was a low, lingering fever.  I had not thought it infectious, and
+even now I believe it is only one of those that run through an
+over-crowded family.  The only wonder is, that they are ever well in
+such a place.  Dear Edmund, don't be angry; it is what I used to do
+continually at Fairmead.  I never caught anything; and there is
+plenty of chloride of lime, and all that.  I never imagined you would
+disapprove.'
+
+'It is the very place where the fever began before!' said Mr. Kendal,
+almost under his breath.
+
+Instead of going into the house, he made her turn into the garden,
+where little Maurice was being promenaded in the sun.  He stretched
+out from his nurse's arms to go to them, and Albinia was going
+towards him, but her husband held her fast, and said, 'I beg you will
+not take the child till you have changed your dress.'
+
+Albinia was quite subdued, alarmed at the effect on him.
+
+'You must go away at once,' he said presently.  'How soon can you be
+ready?  You had better take Lucy and Maurice at once to your
+brother's.  They will excuse the liberty when they know the cause.'
+
+'And pray what is to become of poor Sophy?'
+
+'Never going out, there may be the less risk for her.  I will take
+care of her myself.'
+
+'As if I was going to endure that!' cried Albinia.  'No, no, Edmund,
+I am not likely to run away from you and Sophy!  You may send Lucy
+off, if you like, but certainly not me, or if you do I shall come
+back the same evening.'
+
+'I should be much happier if you were gone.'
+
+'Thank you, but what should I be?  No, if it were to be caught here,
+which I don't believe, now the pond is gone, it would be of no use to
+send me away, after I have been into the house with it.'
+
+Her resolution and Sophy's need prevailed, and most unwillingly Mr.
+Kendal gave up the point.  She was persuaded that he was acting on a
+panic, the less to be wondered at after all he had suffered.  She
+thought the chief danger was from the effect of his fears, and would
+fain have persuaded him to remain at Fairmead with Lucy, but she was
+not prepared to hear him insist on likewise removing Maurice.  She
+had promised not to enter the sick room again, and pleaded that the
+little boy need never be taken into the street--that the fever was
+not likely to come across the running stream--that the Fairmead
+nursery was full enough already.
+
+Mr. Kendal was inexorable.  'I hope you may never see what I have
+seen,' he said gravely, and Albinia was silenced.
+
+A man who had lost so many children might be allowed to be morbidly
+jealous of the health of the rest.  But it was a cruel stroke to her
+to be obliged to part with her noble little boy, just when his daily
+advances in walking and talking made him more charming than ever.
+Her eyes were full of tears, and she struggled to choke back some
+pettish rebellious words.
+
+'You do not like to trust him with Susan,' said Mr. Kendal; 'you had
+better come with him.'
+
+'No,' said Albinia, 'I ought to stay here, and if you judge it right,
+Maurice must go.  I'll go and speak to Susan.'
+
+And away she ran, for she had no power just then to speak in a wifely
+manner.  It was not easy to respect a man in a panic so extremely
+inconvenient.
+
+He was resolved on an immediate start, and the next few hours were
+spent in busy preparation, and in watching lest the excited Lucy
+should frighten her sister.  Albinia tried to persuade Mr. Kendal at
+least to sleep at Fairmead that night, and after watching him drive
+off, she hurried, dashing away the tears that would gather again and
+again in her eyes, to hold council with the Dusautoys on the best
+means of stopping the course of the malady, by depriving it of its
+victims.
+
+She had a quiet snug evening with Sophy, whom she had so much
+interested in the destitution of the sick children as to set her to
+work at some night-gear for them, and she afterwards sat long over
+the fire trying to read to silence the longing after the little soft
+cheek that had never yet been laid to rest without her caress, and
+foreboding that Mr. Kendal would return from his dark solitary drive
+with his spirits at the lowest ebb.
+
+So late that she had begun to hope that Winifred had obeyed her
+behest and detained him, she heard his step, and before she could run
+to meet him, he had already shut himself into the study.
+
+She was at the door in a moment; she feared he had thought her
+self-willed in the morning, and she was the more bent on rousing him.
+She knocked--she opened the door.  He had thrown himself into his
+arm-chair, and was bending over the dreary, smouldering, sulky log and
+white ashes, and his face, as he raised his head, was as if the whole
+load of care and sorrow had suddenly descended again.
+
+'I am sorry you sat up,' was of course his beginning, conveying
+anything but welcome; but she knew that this only meant that he was
+in a state of depression.  She took hold of his hand, chilled with
+holding the reins, told him of the good fire in the morning-room, and
+fairly drew him up-stairs.
+
+There the lamp burnt brightly, and the red fire cast a merry glow
+over the shining chintz curtains, and the two chairs drawn so cosily
+towards the fire, the kettle puffing on the hearth, and Albinia's
+choice little bed-room set of tea-china ready on the small table.
+The cheerfulness seemed visibly to diffuse itself over his face, but
+he still struggled to cherish his gloom, 'Thank you, but I would not
+have had you take all this trouble, my dear.'
+
+'It would be a great deal more trouble if you caught a bad cold.  I
+meant you to sleep at Fairmead.'
+
+'Yes, they pressed me very kindly, but I could not bear not to come
+home.'
+
+'And how did Maurice comport himself?'
+
+'He talked to the horse and then went to sleep, and he was not at all
+shy with his aunt after the first.  He watched the children, but had
+not begun to play with them.  Still I think he will be quite happy
+with Lucy there, and I hope it will not be for long.'
+
+It was a favourable sign that Mr. Kendal communicated all these
+particulars without being plied with questions, and Albinia went on
+with the more spirit.
+
+'No, I hope it may not be for long.  We have been holding a great
+council against the enemy, and I do hope that we have really done
+something.  No, you need not be afraid, I have not been there again,
+but we have been routing out the nucleus, and hope we may starve out
+the fever for want of victims.  You never saw such a swarm as we had
+to turn out.  There were twenty-three people to be considered for.'
+
+'Twenty-three!  Have you turned out the whole block?'
+
+'No, I wish we had; but that would have been seventy-five.  This is
+only from those two tenements with one door!'
+
+'Impossible!'
+
+'I should have thought so; but the lawful inhabitants make up
+sixteen, and there were seven lodgers.'
+
+Mr. Kendal gave a kind of groan, and asked what she had done; she
+detailed the measures.
+
+'Twenty-three people in those two houses, and seventy-five in the
+whole block of building?'
+
+'Too true.  And if you could only see the rooms!  The windows that
+wont open; the roofs that open too much; the dirt on the staircases,
+and, oh! the horrible smells!'
+
+'It shall not go on,' said Mr. Kendal.  'I will look over the place.'
+
+'Not till the fever is out of it,' hastily interposed Albinia.
+
+He made a sign of assent, and went on:  'I will certainly talk to
+Pettilove, and have the place repaired, if it be at my own expense.'
+
+Albinia lifted up her eyes, not understanding at whose expense it
+should be.
+
+'The fact is,' continued Mr. Kendal, 'that there has been little to
+induce me to take interest in the property.  Old Mr. Meadows was, as
+you know, a successful solicitor, and purchased these various town
+tenements bit by bit, and then settled them very strictly on his
+grandson.  He charged the property with life incomes to his widow and
+daughters, and to me; but the land is in the hands of trustees until
+my son's majority, and Pettilove is the only surviving trustee.'
+
+The burning colour mantled in Albinia's face, and almost inaudibly
+she said, 'I beg your pardon, Edmund; I have done you moat grievous
+injustice.  I thought you _would_ not see--'
+
+'You did not think unjustly, my dear.  I ought to have paid more
+attention to the state of affairs, and have kept Pettilove in order.
+But I knew nothing of English affairs, and was glad to be spared the
+unpleasant charge.  The consequence of leaving a man like that
+irresponsible never occurred to me.  His whole conscience in the
+matter is to have a large sum to put into Gilbert's hands when he
+comes of age.  Why, he upholds those dens of iniquity in Tibbs's
+Alley on that very ground!'
+
+'Poor Gilbert!  I am afraid a large sum so collected is not likely to
+do him much good! and at one-and-twenty--! But that is one notion of
+faithfulness!'
+
+Albinia was much happier after that conversation.  She could better
+endure to regret her own injustice than to believe her husband the
+cruel landlord; and it was no small advance that he had afforded her
+an explanation which once he would have deemed beyond the reach of
+female capacity.
+
+In spite of the lack of little Maurice's bright presence, which, to
+Albinia's great delight, his father missed as much as she did, the
+period of quarantine sped by cheerfully.  Sophy had not a single
+sullen fit the whole time, and Albinia having persuaded Mr. Kendal
+that it would be a sanatory measure to whitewash the study ceiling, he
+was absolutely forced to turn out of it and live in the morning-room,
+with all his books piled up in the dining-room.  And on that
+great occasion Albinia abstracted two fusty, faded, green canvas
+blinds from the windows, carried them off with a pair of tongs, and
+pushed them into a bonfire in the garden, persuaded they were the
+last relics of the old fever.  She had the laurels cut, the curtains
+changed, the windows cleaned, and altogether made the room so much
+lighter, that when Mr. Kendal again took possession, he did not look
+at all sure whether he liked it; and though he was courteously
+grateful, he did not avail himself of the den half so much as when it
+had more congenial gloom.  But then he had the morning-room as a
+resort, and it was one of Albinia's bargains with herself, that as
+far as her own influence could prevent it, neither he nor Sophy
+should ever render it a literal boudoir.
+
+The sense of snugness that the small numbers produced was one great
+charm, and made Mr. Kendal come unusually far out of his shell.  His
+chief sanatory precaution was to take Albinia out for a drive or walk
+every day, and these expeditions were greatly enjoyed.
+
+One day, after a visit from her old nurse, Sophy received Albinia
+with the words,--
+
+'Oh, mamma,' she said, 'old nurse has been telling me such things.  I
+shall never be cross with Aunt Maria again.  It is such a sad story,
+just like one in a book, if she was but that kind of person.'
+
+'Aunt Maria!  I remember Mrs. Dusautoy once saying she gave her the
+idea of happiness shattered, but--'
+
+'Did she?' exclaimed Sophy.  'I never thought Aunt Maria could have
+done anything but fidget everybody that came near her; but old nurse
+says a gentleman was once in love with her, and a very handsome young
+gentleman too.  Old Mr. Pringle's nephew it was, a very fine young
+officer in the army.  I want you to ask papa if it is true.  Nurse
+says that he wrote to make an offer for her, very handsomely, but
+grandpapa did not choose that both his daughters should go quite
+away; so he locked the letter up, and said no, and never told her,
+and she thought the captain had been trifling and playing her false,
+and pined and fretted, till she got into this nervous way, and fairly
+wore herself out, nurse says, and came to be what she is now, instead
+of the prettiest young lady in the town!  And then, mamma, when
+grandpapa died, she found the letter in his papers, and one inside
+for her, that had never been given to her; and by that time there was
+no hope, for Captain Pringle had gone out with his regiment, and
+married a rich young lady in the Indies!  Oh, mamma! you see she
+really is deserted, and it is all man's treachery that has broken her
+heart.  I thought people always died or went into convents--I don't
+mean that Aunt Maria could have done that, but I did not think that
+way of hers was a broken heart!'
+
+'If she has had such troubles, it should indeed make us try to be
+very forbearing with her,' said Albinia.
+
+'Will you ask papa about it?' entreated Sophy.
+
+'Yes, certainly; but you must not make sure whether he will think it
+right to tell us.  Poor Aunt Maria; I do think some part of it must
+be true!'
+
+'But, mamma, is that really like deserted love?'
+
+'My dear, I don't think I ever saw deserted love,' said Albinia,
+rather amused.  'I suppose troubles of any kind, if not--I mean, I
+suppose, vexations--make people show their want of spirits in the way
+most accordant with their natural dispositions, and so your poor aunt
+has grown querulous and anxious.'
+
+'If she has such a real grand reason for being unhappy, I shall not
+be cross about it now, except--'
+
+Sophy gave a sigh, and Albinia bade her good night.
+
+Mr. Kendal had never heard the story before, but he remembered many
+circumstances in corroboration.  He knew that Mr. Pringle had a
+nephew in the army, he recollected that he had made a figure in
+Maria's letters to India; and that he had subsequently married a lady
+in the Mauritius, and settled down on her father's estate.  He
+testified also to the bright gay youth of poor Maria, and his
+surprise at the premature loss of beauty and spirits; and from his
+knowledge of old Mr. Meadows, he believed him capable of such an act
+of domestic tyranny.  Maria had always been looked upon as a mere
+child, and if her father did not choose to part with her, he would
+think it for her good, and his own peace, for her not to be aware of
+the proposal.  He was much struck, for he had not suspected his
+sister-in-law to be capable of such permanent feeling.
+
+'There was little to help her in driving it away,' said Albinia.
+'Few occupations or interests, and very little change, to prevent it
+from preying on her spirits.'
+
+'True,' said Mr. Kendal; 'a narrow education and limited sphere are
+sad evils in such cases.'
+
+'Do you think anything can be a cure for disappointment?' asked
+Sophy, in such a solemn, earnest tone, that Albinia was disposed to
+laugh; but she knew that this would be a dire offence, and was much
+surprised that Sophy had so far broken through her reserve, as to
+mingle in their conversation on such a subject.
+
+'Occupation,' said Mr. Kendal, but speaking rather as if from duty
+than from conviction.  'There are many sources of happiness, even if
+shipwreck have been made on one venture.  Your aunt had few resources
+to which to turn her mind.  Every pursuit or study is a help stored
+up against the vacuity which renders every care more corroding.'
+
+'Well!' said Sophy, in her blunt, downright way, 'I think it would
+take all the spirit out of everything.'
+
+'I hope you will never be tried,' said Mr. Kendal, with a mournful
+smile, as if he did not choose to confess that she had divined too
+rightly the probable effect of trouble upon her own temperament.
+
+'I suppose,' said Albinia, 'that the real cure can be but one thing
+for that, as for any other trouble.  I mean, "Thy will be done."  I
+don't suppose anything else would give energy to turn to other
+duties.  But it would be more to the purpose to resolve to be more
+considerate to poor Maria.'
+
+'I shall never be impatient with her again,' said Sophy.
+
+And though at first the discovery of so romantic a cause for poor
+Miss Meadows's fretfulness dignified it in Sophy's eyes, yet it did
+not prove sufficient to make it tolerable when she tormented the
+window-blinds, teased the fire, was shocked at Sophy's favourite
+studies, or insisting on her wishing to see Maria Drury.  Nay, the
+bathos often rendered her petty unconscious provocations the more
+harassing, and Sophy often felt, in an agony of self-reproach, that
+she ought to have known herself too well to expect to show
+forbearance with any one when she was under the influence of ill-temper.
+
+In Easter week Mr. Ferrars brought Lucy and Maurice home, and Gilbert
+came for a short holiday.
+
+Gilbert was pleased when he was called to go over the empty houses
+with his father, Mr. Ferrars, and a mason.
+
+Back they came, horrified at the dreadful disrepair, at the narrow
+area into which such numbers were crowded, and still more at the ill
+odours which Mr. Ferrars and the mason had gallantly investigated,
+till they detected the absence of drains, as well as convinced
+themselves that mending roofs, floors, or windows, would be a mere
+mockery unless the whole were pulled down.
+
+Mr. Ferrars was more than ever thankful to be a country parson, and
+mused on the retribution that the miasma, fostered by the avarice of
+the grandfather and the neglect of the father, had brought on the
+family.  Dives cannot always scorn Lazarus without suffering even in
+this life.
+
+Gilbert, in the glory of castle-building, was talking eagerly of the
+thorough renovation that should take place, the sweep that should be
+made of all the old tenements, and the wide healthy streets and model
+cottages that should give a new aspect to the town.
+
+Mr. Kendal prepared for the encounter with Pettilove, and his son
+begged to go with him, to which he consented, saying that it was time
+Gilbert should have an opinion in a matter that affected him so
+nearly.
+
+Gilbert's opinion of the interview was thus announced on his return:
+'If there ever was a brute in the world, it is that Pettilove!'
+
+'Then he wont consent to do anything?'
+
+'No, indeed!  Say what my father or I would to him, it was all of not
+the slightest use.  He smiled, and made little intolerable nods, and
+regretted--but there were the settlements, and his late lamented
+partner!  A parcel of stuff.  Not so much as a broken window will he
+mend!  He says he is not authorized!'
+
+'Quite true,' said Mr. Kendal.  'The man is warranted in his
+proceedings, and thinks them his duty, though I believe he has a
+satisfaction in the power of thwarting me.'
+
+'I'm sure he has!' cried Gilbert.  'I am sure there was spite in his
+grin when he pulled out that horrid old parchment, with the lines a
+yard long, and read us out the abominable old crabbed writing, all
+about the houses, messuages, and tenements thereupon, and a lot of
+lawyer's jargon.  I'm sure I thought it was left to Peter Pettilove
+himself.  And when I came to understand it, one would have thought it
+took my father to be the worst enemy we had in the world, bent on
+cheating us!'
+
+'That is the assumption on which settlements are drawn up, Gilbert,'
+said his father.
+
+'Can nothing be done, then?' said Albinia.
+
+'Thus much,' said Mr. Kendal.  'Pettilove will not object to our
+putting the houses somewhat in repair, as, in fact, that will be
+making a present to Gilbert; but he will not spend a farthing on them
+of the trust, except to hinder their absolute falling, nor will he
+make any regulation on the number of lodgers.  As to taking them
+down, that is, as I always supposed, out of the question, though I
+think the trustees might have stretched a point, being certain of
+both my wishes and Gilbert's.'
+
+'Don't you think,' said Mr. Ferrars, looking up from his book, 'that
+a sanatory commission might be got to over-ride Gilbert's guardian?'
+
+'My guardian! do not call him so!' muttered Gilbert.
+
+'I am afraid,' said Mr. Kendal, 'that unless your commission emulated
+of Albinia and Dusautoy they would have little perception of the
+evils.  Our local authorities are obtuse in such matters.'
+
+'Agitate! agitate!' murmured Mr. Ferrars, going on with his book.
+
+'Well,' said Albinia, 'at least there is one beer-shop less in
+Tibbs's Alley.  And if there are tolerable seasons, I daresay paint,
+whitewash, and windows to open, may keep the place moderately
+wholesome till--Are you sixteen yet, Gilbert?  Five years.'
+
+'Yes, and then--'
+
+Gilbert came and sat down beside her, and they built a scheme for the
+almshouses so much wanted.  Gilbert was sure the accumulation would
+easily cover the expense, and Albinia had many an old woman, who it
+was hoped might live to enjoy the intended paradise there.
+
+'Yes, yes, I promise,' cried Gilbert, warming with the subject, 'the
+first thing I shall do--'
+
+'No, don't promise,' said Albinia.  'Do it from your heart, or not at
+all.'
+
+'No, don't promise, Gilbert,' said Sophy.
+
+'Why not, Sophy?' he said good-humouredly.
+
+'Because you are just what you feel at the moment,' said Sophy.
+
+'You don't think I should keep it?'
+
+'No.'
+
+The grave answer fell like lead, and Albinia told her she was not
+kind or just to her brother.  But she still looked steadily at him,
+and answered, 'I cannot help it.  What is truth, is truth, and
+Gilbert cares only for what he sees at the moment.'
+
+'What is truth need not always be fully uttered,' said Albinia.  'I
+hope you may find it untrue.'
+
+But Sophy's words would recur, and weigh on her painfully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+
+The summer had just begun, when notice was given that a Confirmation
+would take place in the autumn; and Lucy's name was one of the first
+sent in to Mr. Dusautoy.  His plan was to collect his candidates in
+weekly classes of a few at a time, and likewise to see as much as he
+could of them in private.
+
+'Oh! mamma!' exclaimed Lucy, returning from her first class, 'Mr.
+Dusautoy has given us each a paper, where we are to set down our
+christening days, and our godfathers and godmothers.  And only think,
+I had not the least notion when I was christened.  I could tell
+nothing but that Mr. Wenlock was my godfather!  It made me feel quite
+foolish not to know my godmothers.'
+
+'We were in no situation to have things done in order,' said Mr.
+Kendal, gravely.  'If I recollect rightly, one of your godmothers was
+Captain Lee's pretty young wife, who died a few weeks after.'
+
+'And the other?' said Lucy.
+
+'Your mother, I believe,' he said.
+
+Lucy employed herself in filling up her paper, and exclaimed, 'Now I
+do not know the date!  Can you tell me that, papa?'
+
+'It was the Christmas-day next after your birth,' he said.  'I
+remember that, for we took you to spend Christmas at the nearest
+station of troops, and the chaplain christened you.'
+
+Lucy wrote down the particulars, and exclaimed, 'What an old baby I
+must have been!  Six months old!  And I wonder when Sophy was
+christened.  I never knew who any of her godfathers and godmothers
+were.  Did you, Sophy?'
+
+'No--' she was looking up at her father.
+
+A sudden flush of colour came over his face, and he left the room in
+haste.
+
+'Why, Sophy!' exclaimed Lucy, 'one would think you had not been
+christened at all!'
+
+Even the light Lucy was alarmed at the sound of her own words.  The
+same idea had thrilled across Albinia; but on turning her eyes on
+Sophy, she saw a countenance flushed, anxious, but full rather of
+trembling hope than of dismay.
+
+In a few seconds Mr. Kendal came back with a thick red pocket-book in
+his hand, and produced the certificate of the private baptism of
+Sophia, daughter of Edmund and Lucy Kendal, at Talloon, March 17th,
+1838.
+
+Sophy's face had more disappointment in it than satisfaction.
+
+'I can explain the circumstances to you now,' said her father.  'At
+Talloon we were almost out of reach of any chaplains, and, as you
+know, were almost the only English.  We always intended to take you
+to the nearest station, as had been done with Lucy, but your dear
+mother was never well enough to bear the journey; and when our next
+little one was born, it was so plain that he could not live, that I
+sent in haste to beg that the chaplain would come to us.  It was then
+that you were both baptized, and before the week was over, he buried
+little Henry.  It was the first of our troubles.  We never again had
+health or spirits for any festive occasion while we continued in
+India, and thus the ceremony was never completed.  In fact, I take
+shame to myself for having entirely forgotten that you had never been
+received into the congregation.'
+
+'Then I have told a falsehood whenever I said the Catechism!' burst
+out Sophy.  Lucy would have laughed, and Albinia could almost have
+been amused at the turn her displeasure had taken.
+
+'It was not your fault,' said Mr. Kendal, quietly.
+
+He evidently wished the subject to be at an end, excepting that in
+silence he laid before Albinia's eyes the certificate of the baptism
+of the twin-brothers, not long after the first arrival in India.  He
+then put the book in his pocket, and began, as usual, to read aloud.
+
+'Oh, don't go, mamma,' said Sophy, when she had been carried to her
+own room at bed-time, and made ready for the night.
+
+Albinia was only too glad to linger, in the hope to be admitted into
+some of the recesses of that untransparent nature, and by way of
+assistance, said, 'I was not at all prepared for this discovery.'
+
+Sophy drew a long sigh, and said, 'If I had never been christened, I
+should have thought there was some hope for me.'
+
+'That would have been too dreadful.  How could you imagine your papa
+capable--?'
+
+'I thought I had found out why I am so horrid! exclaimed Sophy.  'Oh,
+if I could only make a fresh beginning!  Mamma, do pray give me a
+Prayer Book.'
+
+Albinia gave it to her, and she hastily turned the pages to the Order
+for Private Baptism.
+
+'At least I have not made the promises and vows!' she said, as if her
+stern conscientiousness obtained some relief.
+
+'Not formally made them,' said Albinia; 'but you cannot have a right
+to the baptismal blessings, except on those conditions.'
+
+'Mamma, then I never had the sign of the cross on my forehead!  It
+does not feel blest!'  And then, hastily and low, she muttered,' Oh!
+is that why I never could bear the cross in all my life!'
+
+'Nay, my poor Sophy, yon must not think of it like a spell.  Many
+bear the cross no better, who have had it marked on their brows.'
+
+'Can it be done now?' cried Sophy, eagerly.
+
+'Certainly; I think it ought to be done.  We will see what your
+father says.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, beg him, pray him!' exclaimed Sophy.  'I know it will
+make me begin to be good!  I can't bear not to be one of those marked
+and sealed.  Oh! and, mamma, you will be my godmother?  Can't you?
+If the gleams of goodness and brightness do find me out, they are
+always from you.'
+
+'I think I might be, dear child,' said Albinia, 'but Mr. Dusautoy
+must tell us whether I may.  But, indeed, I am afraid to see you
+reckon too much on this.  The essential, the regenerating grace, is
+yours already, and can save you from yourself, and Confirmation adds
+the rest--but you must not think of any of these like a charm, which
+will save you all further trouble with yourself.  They do not kill
+the faults, but they enable you to deal with them.  Even baptism
+itself, you know, has destroyed the guilt of past sin, but does not
+hinder subsequent temptation.'
+
+Albinia hardly knew how far Sophy attended to this caution, for all
+she said was to reiterate the entreaty that the omitted ceremony
+might be supplied.
+
+Mr. Kendal gave a ready consent, as soon as he was told that Sophy so
+ardently wished for it--so willing, indeed, that Albinia was
+surprised, until he went on to say, 'No one need be aware of the
+matter beyond ourselves.  Your brother and sister would, I have no
+doubt, act as sponsors.  Nay, if Ferrars would officiate, we need
+hardly mention it even to Dusautoy.  It could take place in your
+sitting-room.'
+
+'But, Edmund!' began Albinia, aghast, 'would that be the right thing?
+I hardly think Maurice would consent.'
+
+'You are not imagining anything so preposterous or inexpedient as to
+wish to bring Sophia forward in church,' said Mr. Kendal; 'even if
+she were physically capable of it, I should not choose to expose her
+to anything so painful or undesirable.'
+
+'I am afraid, then,' said Albinia, 'that it will not be done at all.
+It is not receiving her into the congregation to have this service
+read before half-a-dozen people in my sitting-room.'
+
+'Better not have it done at all, then,' said Mr. Kendal.  'It is not
+essential.  I will not have her made a spectacle.'
+
+'Will you only consult Mr. Dusautoy?'
+
+'I do not wish Mr. Dusautoy to interfere in my family regulations.  I
+mean, that I have a great respect for him, but as a clergyman, and
+one wedded to form, he would not take into account the great evil of
+making a public display, and attracting attention to a girl of her
+age, station, and disposition.  And, in fact,' added Mr. Kendal, with
+the same scrupulous candour as his daughter always showed, 'for the
+sake of my own position, and the effect of example, I should not wish
+this unfortunate omission to be known.'
+
+'I suspect,' said Albinia, 'that the example of repairing it would
+speak volumes of good.'
+
+'It is mere absurdity to speak of it!' said Mr. Kendal.  'The poor
+child is not to leave her couch yet for weeks.'
+
+Sophy was told in the morning that the question was under
+consideration, and Lucy was strictly forbidden to mention the
+subject.
+
+When next Mr. Kendal came to read with Sophy, she said imploringly,
+'Papa, have you thought?'
+
+'Yes,' he said, 'I have done so; but your mamma thinks, and, on
+examination of the subject, I perceive she is right, that the service
+has no meaning unless it take place in the church.'
+
+'Yes,' said Sophy; 'but you know I am to be allowed to go about in
+July.'
+
+'You will hardly be equal to any fatigue even then, I fear, my dear;
+and you would find this publicity extremely trying and unpleasant.'
+
+'It would not last ten minutes,' said Sophy, 'and I am sure I should
+not care!  I should have something else to think about.  Oh! papa,
+when my forehead aches with surliness, it does feel so unblest, so
+uncrossed!' and she put her hand over it, 'and all the books and
+hymns seem not to belong to me.  I think I shall be able to keep off
+the tempers when I have a right in the cross.'
+
+'Ah! my child, I am afraid the tempers are a part of your physical
+constitution,' he returned, mournfully.
+
+'You mean that I am like you, papa,' said Sophy.  'I think I might at
+least learn to be really like you, and if I must feel miserable, not
+to be unkind and sulky!  And then I should leave off even the being
+unhappy about nothing.'
+
+Her eyes brightened, but her father shook his head sadly, and said,
+'You would not be like me, my dear, if depression never made you
+selfish.  But,' he added, with an effort, 'you will not suffer so
+much from low spirits when you are in better health, and able to move
+about.'
+
+'Oh, no!' exclaimed Sophy; 'I often feel so sick of lying here, that
+I feel as if I never could be sulky if only I might walk about, and
+go from one room to another when I please!  But papa, you will let me
+be admitted into the Church when I am able, will you not?'
+
+'It shall be well weighed, Sophy.'
+
+Sophy knew her father too well, and had too much reticence to say any
+more.  He was certainly meditating deeply, and reading too, indeed he
+would almost have appeared to have a fit of the study, but for little
+Maurice, a tyrannical little gentleman, who domineered over the
+entire household, and would have been grievously spoilt, if his
+mother had not taken all the crossing the stout little will upon
+herself.  He had a gallant pair of legs, and the disposition of a
+young Centaur, he seemed to divide the world into things that could
+be ridden on, and that could not; and when he bounced at the study
+door, with 'Papa! gee! gee!' and lifted up his round, rosy face, and
+despotic blue eyes, Mr. Kendal's foot was at his service, and the
+study was brown no longer.
+
+The result of Mr. Kendal's meditations was an invitation to his wife
+to drive with him to Fairmead.
+
+That was a most enjoyable drive, the weather too hot and sunny,
+perhaps, for Albinia's preferences, but thoroughly penetrating, and
+giving energy to, her East-Indian husband, and making the whole
+country radiant with sunny beauty--the waving hay-fields falling
+before the mower's scythe, the ranks of hay-makers tossing the
+fragrant grass, the growing corn softly waving in the summer breeze,
+the river blue with reflected sky, the hedges glowing with stately
+fox-gloves, or with blushing wreaths of eglantine.  And how cool,
+fresh, and fair was the beech-avenue at Fairmead.
+
+Yet though Albinia came to it with the fond tenderness of old
+association, it was not with the regretful clinging of the first
+visit, when it seemed to her the natural home to which she still
+really belonged.  Nor had she the least thought about producing an
+impression of her own happiness, and scarcely any whether 'Edmund'
+would be amused and at ease, though knowing he had a stranger to
+encounter in the person of Winifred's sister, Mary Reid.
+
+That was not a long day.  It was only too short, though Mr. and Mrs.
+Kendal stayed three hours longer than on the last occasion.  Mr.
+Kendal faced Mary Reid without flinching, and she, having been
+previously informed that Albinia's husband was the most silent and
+shy man in existence, began to doubt her sister's veracity.  And
+Albinia, instead of dealing out a shower of fireworks, to hide what,
+if not gloom, was at least twilight, was now 'temperately bright,'
+talking naturally of what most concerned her with the sprightliness
+of her happy temper, but without effort; and gratifying Winifred by a
+great deal more notice of the new niece and namesake than she had
+ever bestowed on either of her predecessors in their infant days.
+Moreover, Lucy's two long visits had made Mrs. Ferrars feel a strong
+interest in her, and, with a sort of maternal affection, she inquired
+after the cuttings of the myrtle which she had given her.
+
+'Ah!' said Albinia, 'I never honoured gardening so much.'
+
+'I know you would never respect it in me.'
+
+'As you know, I love a walk with an object, and never could abide
+breaking my back, pottering over a pink with a stem that wont support
+it, and a calyx that wont hold it.'
+
+'And Lucy converted you when I could not!'
+
+'If you had known my longing for some wholesome occupation for her,
+such as could hurt neither herself nor any one else, and the pleasure
+of seeing her engrossed by anything innocent, making it so easy to
+gratify her.  Why, a new geranium is a constant fund of ecstasy, and
+I do not believe she was ever so grateful to her father in her life
+as when he gave her a forcing-frame.  Anything is a blessing that
+makes people contented at home, and takes them out of themselves.'
+
+'Lucy is a very nice, pleasant inmate; her ready obligingness and
+facility of adapting herself make her very agreeable.'
+
+'Yes,' said Albinia, 'she is the "very woman," taking her complexion
+from things around, and so she will go smoothly through the world,
+and be always preferred to my poor turbid, deep-souled Sophy.'
+
+'Are you going to be very angry with me?'
+
+'Ah! you do not know Sophy!  Poor, dear child!  I do so long that she
+could have--if it were but one day, one hour, of real, free, glowing
+happiness!  I think it would sweeten and open her heart wonderfully
+just to have known it!  If I could but see any chance of it, but I am
+afraid her health will always be against her, and oh! that dreadful
+sense of depression!  Do you know, Winifred, I do think love would be
+the best chance.  Now, don't laugh; I do assure you there is no
+reason Sophy should not be very handsome.'
+
+'Quite as handsome as the owl's children, my dear.'
+
+'Well, the owls are the only young birds fit to be seen.  But I tell
+you, Sophy's profile is as regular as her father's, and animation
+makes her eyes beautiful, and she has grown immensely since she has
+been lying down, so that she will come out without that
+disproportioned look.  If her eyebrows were rather less marked, and
+her complexion--but that will clear.'
+
+'Yes, we will make her a beauty when we are about it.'
+
+'And, after all, affection is the great charm, and if she were
+attached, it would, be so intensely--and happiness would develop so
+much that is glorious, only hidden down so deep.'
+
+'I hope you may find her a male Albinia,' said Winifred, a little
+wickedly, 'but take care.  It might be kill or cure, and I fancy when
+sunshine is attracted by shadow, it is more often as it was in your
+case than vice versa.'
+
+'Take care!' repeated Albinia, affronted.  'You don't fancy I am
+going beyond a vague wish, do you?'
+
+'And rather a premature one.  How old is Sophy?'
+
+'Towards fourteen, but years older in thought and in suffering.'
+
+Albinia did not hear the result of the conference with her brother
+till she had resumed her seat in the carriage, after having been
+surprised by Mr. Kendal handing in three tall theological tomes.
+They both had much to think over as they drove home in the
+lengthening shadows.  Albinia was greatly concerned that Winifred's
+health had become affected, and that her ordinary home duties were
+beyond her strength.  Albinia had formerly thought Fairmead parsonage
+did not give her enough to do, but now she saw the gap that she had
+left; and she had fallen into a maze of musings over schemes for
+helping Winifred, before Mr. Kendal spoke, telling her that he had
+resolved that Sophia's admission into the Church should take place as
+soon as she was equal to the exertion.
+
+Albinia asked if she should speak to Mr. Dusautoy, but the manliness
+of Mr. Kendal's character revolted from putting off a confession upon
+his wife; so he went to church the next morning, and saw the vicar
+afterwards.
+
+Mr. Dusautoy's first thought was gratitude for the effort that the
+resolution must have cost both Mr. Kendal and his daughter; his next,
+how to make the occasion as little trying to their feelings as was
+consistent with his duty and theirs.  He saw Sophy, and tried to draw
+her out, but, though far from sullen, she did not reply freely.
+However, he was satisfied, and he wished her, likewise, to consider
+herself under preparation for Confirmation in the autumn.  She did
+all that he wished quietly and earnestly, but without much remark,
+her confidence only came forth when her feelings were strongly
+stirred, and it was remarkable that throughout this time of
+preparation there was not the remotest shadow of ill-temper.
+
+Mr. Kendal insisted that her London doctor should come to see her at
+the year's end.  The improvement had not been all that had been
+hoped, but it was decided that though several hours of each day must
+still be spent on her back, she might move about, join the meals, and
+do whatever she could without over-fatigue.  It seemed a great
+release, but it was a shock to find how very little she could do at
+first, now that she had lost the habit of exertion, and of disregard
+of her discomforts.  She had quite shot up to more than the ordinary
+woman's height, and was much taller than her sister--but this hardly
+gave the advantage Albinia had hoped, for she had a weak, overgrown
+look, and could not help stooping.  A number of people in a room, or
+even the sitting upright during a morning call, seemed quite to
+overcome and exhaust her: but still the return to ordinary life was
+such great enjoyment, that she endured all with good temper.
+
+But now the church-going was possible, a fit of exceeding dread came
+upon her.  Albinia found her with the tears silently rolling down her
+cheeks, almost as if she were unconscious of them.
+
+'Oh, mamma, I can never do it!  I know what I am.  I can't let them
+say I will keep all the commandments always!  It will not be true!'
+
+'It will be true that you have the steadfast purpose, my dear.'
+
+'How can it be steadfast when I know I can't?'
+
+It was the old story, and all had to be argued through again how the
+obligation was already incurred at her baptism, and how it was
+needful that she should be sworn to her own side of the great
+covenant--how the power would be given, and the grace supplied, but
+that the will and purpose to obey was required--and then Sophy
+recurred to that blessing of the cross for which she longed so
+earnestly, and which again Albinia feared she was regarding in the
+light of a talisman.
+
+Mr. Ferrars was to be her godfather.  Mr. Kendal had wished Aunt
+Winifred, as Lucy called her, to be the godmother, but Sophy had
+begged earnestly for Mrs. Dusautoy, whose kindness had made a great
+impression.
+
+There was not much liking between Mrs. Ferrars and Sophy.  Perhaps
+Sophy had been fretted and angered by her quick, decided ways, and
+rather disgusted by the enthusiasm of her brother and sister about
+Fairmead; and she was not gratified by hearing that Winifred was to
+accompany her husband in order to try the experiment of a short
+absence from cares and children.
+
+Albinia, on the contrary, was highly pleased to have Winifred to
+nurse, and desirous of showing off Sophy's reformation.  Winifred
+arrived late in the day, with an invalid look, and a great
+inclination to pine for her baby.  She was so much tired, that
+Albinia took her upstairs very soon, and put her to bed, sitting with
+her almost all the evening, hoping that downstairs all was going on
+well.
+
+The next morning, too, went off very well.  Mr. Ferrars sought a
+private talk with his old godchild, and though Sophy scarcely
+answered, she liked his kind, frank, affectionate manner, and showed
+such feeling as he wished, so that he fully credited all that his
+sister thought of her.
+
+Otherwise, Sophy was kept quiet, to gave her strength and collect her
+thoughts.
+
+At seven o'clock in the evening, there was not a formidable
+congregation.  Miss Meadows, who had been informed as late as could
+save offence, had treated it as a freak of Mrs. Kendal, resented the
+injunction of secrecy, and would neither be present herself, nor let
+her mother come out.  Genevieve, three old men, and a child or two,
+were the whole number present.  The daily service at Bayford was an
+offering made in faith by the vicar, for as yet there was very little
+attendance.  'But,' said Mr. Dusautoy, 'it is the worship of God, not
+an entertainment to please man--it is all nonsense to talk of its
+answering or not answering.'
+
+Mr. Kendal was in a state of far greater suffering from shame than
+his daughter, as indeed he deserved, but he endured it with a
+gallant, almost touching resignation.  He was the only witness of her
+baptism, and it seemed like a confession, when he had to reply to the
+questions, by whom, and with what words this child had been baptized,
+when she stood beside him overtopping her little godmother.  She
+stood with tightly-locked hands, and ebbing colour, which came back
+in a flood when Mr. Dusautoy took her by the hand, and said, 'We
+receive this child into the congregation,' and when he traced the
+cross on her brow, she stood tremblingly, her lips squeezed close
+together, and after she returned to her place no one saw her face.
+
+Albinia, with her brother and Lucy, were at home by the short cut
+before the carriage could return.  She met Sophy at the hall-door,
+kissed her, and said, 'Now, my dear, you had better lie down, and be
+quite quiet;' then followed Winifred into the drawing-room, and took
+her shawl and bonnet from her, lingering for a happy twilight
+conversation.  Lucy came down, and went to water her flowers, and
+by-and-by tea was brought, the gentlemen came in from their walk, and
+Mr. Kendal asked whether Sophy was tired.  Albinia went up to see.
+She found her on her couch in the morning room, and told her that tea
+was ready.  There was something not promising in the voice that
+replied; and she said,
+
+'No, don't move, my dear, I will bring it to you; you are tired.'
+
+'No--I'll go down, thank you.'  It was the gruff voice!
+
+'Indeed you had much better not, my dear.  It is only an hour to
+bed-time, and you would only tire yourself for nothing.'
+
+'I'll go.'
+
+'You are tired, Sophy,' said her father. 'You had better lie down
+while you have your tea.'
+
+'No, thank you,' growled Sophy, as though hurt by being told to lie
+down before company.
+
+Her father put a sofa-cushion behind her, but though she mumbled some
+acknowledgment, it was so surly, that Mrs. Ferrars looked up in
+surprise, and she would not lean back till fatigue gained the
+ascendancy.  Mr. Kendal asking her, got little in reply but such a
+grunt, that Mrs. Ferrars longed to shake her, but her father fetched
+a footstool, and put it under her feet, and grew a little abstracted
+in his talk, as if watching her, and his eye had something of the old
+habitual melancholy.
+
+So it went on.  The night's rest did not carry off the temper.  Sophy
+was monosyllabic, displeased if not attended to, but receiving
+attention like an affront, wanting nothing, but offended if it were
+not offered.  Albinia was exceedingly grieved.  She had some
+suspicion that Sophy might have been hurt by her going to Mrs.
+Ferrars instead of to her on their return from church, and made an
+attempt at an apology, but this was snubbed like an additional
+affront, and she could only bide the time, and be greatly
+disappointed at such an exhibition before the guests.
+
+Winifred looked on, forbearing to hurt Albinia's feelings by remarks,
+but in private compensating by little outbreaks with her husband,
+teasing him about his hopeful goddaughter, laughing at Albinia's
+infatuation, and railing at Mr. Kendal's endurance of the ill-humour,
+which she declared he promoted.
+
+Maurice, as usual, was provoking.  He had no notion of giving up his
+godchild, he said, and he had no doubt that Edmund Kendal could
+manage his own child his own way.
+
+'Because of his great success in that line.'
+
+'He is not what he was.  He uses his sense and principle now, and
+when they are fairly brought to bear, I know no one whom I would more
+entirely trust.'
+
+'Well! it will be great good luck if I do not fall foul of Miss Sophy
+one of these days, if no one else will!'
+
+Winifred was slightly irritable herself from weakness, and on the
+last morning of her stay she could bear the sight no longer.  Sophy
+had twice been surly to Lucy's good offices, had given Albinia a look
+like thunder, and answered her father with a sulky displeasure that
+made Mrs. Ferrars exclaim, as soon as he had left the room, 'I should
+never allow a child of mine to peak to her father in that manner!'
+
+Sophy swelled.  She did not think Mrs. Ferrars had any right to
+interfere between her and her father.  Her silence provoked Winifred
+to continue, 'I wonder if you have any compunction for having spoilt
+all your--all Mrs. Kendal's enjoyment of our visit.'
+
+'I am not of consequence enough to spoil any one's pleasure.'
+
+That was the last effort.  Albinia came into the room, with little
+Maurice holding her hand, and flourishing a whip.  He trotted up to
+the sofa, and began instantly to 'whip sister Sophy;' serve her
+right, if I had but the whip, thought Mrs. Ferrars, as his mother
+hurried to snatch him off.  Leaning over Sophy's averted face, she
+saw a tear under her eyelashes, but took no notice.
+
+Three seconds after, Sophy reared herself up, and with a rigid face
+and slow step walked out of the room.
+
+'Have you said anything to her?' asked Albinia.
+
+'I could not help it,' said Winifred, narrating what had past. 'Have
+I done wrong?'
+
+'Edmund cannot bear to have anything harsh said to her in these
+moods, especially about her behaviour to himself.  He thinks she
+cannot help it--but it may be well that she should know how it
+appears to other people, for I cannot bear to see his patient
+kindness spurned.  Only, you know, she values it in her heart.  I am
+afraid we shall have a terrible agony now.'
+
+Albinia was right.  It was the worst agony poor Sophy had ever
+undergone.  She had been all this time ignorant that it was a cross
+fit, only imagining herself cruelly neglected and cast aside for the
+sake of Mrs. Ferrars; but the wakening time had either arrived, or
+had been brought by that reproach, and she beheld her conduct in the
+most abhorrent light.  After having desired to be pledged to her
+share of the covenant, and earnestly longed to bear the cross, to be
+sworn in as soldier and servant, to have put her neck under the yoke
+of her old master ere the cross had dried upon her brow, to have been
+meanly jealous, ungrateful, disrespectful, vindictive!! oh! misery,
+misery! hopeless misery!  She would take no word of comfort when
+Albinia tried to persuade her that it had been partly the reaction of
+a mind wrought up to an occasion very simple in its externals, and of
+a body fatigued by exertion; and then in warm-hearted candour
+professed that she herself had been thoughtless in neglecting Sophy
+for Winifred.  Still less comfort would she take in her father's free
+forgiveness, and his sad entreaties that she would not treat these
+fits of low spirits as a crime, for they were not her fault, but that
+of her constitution.
+
+'Then one can't help being hateful and wicked!  Nothing is of any
+use!  I had rather you had told me I was mad!' said poor Sophy.
+
+She was so spent and exhausted with weeping, that she could not come
+down--indeed, between grief and nervousness she would not eat; and
+Albinia found Mr. Kendal mournfully persuading her, when a stern
+command would have done more good.  Albinia spoke it: 'Sophy, you
+have put your father to a great deal of pain already; if you are
+really grieving over it, you will not hurt him more by making
+yourself ill.'
+
+The strong will came into action on the right side, and Sophy sat up,
+took what was offered, but what was she that they should care for
+her, when she had spoilt mamma's pleasure?  Better go and be happy
+with Mrs. Ferrars.
+
+Sophy's next visitor came up with a manly tread, and she almost
+feared that she had made herself ill enough for the doctor; but it
+was Mr. Ferrars, with a kind face of pitying sympathy.
+
+'May I come to wish my godchild good-bye?' he said.
+
+Sophy did not speak, and he looked compassionately at the prone
+dejection of the whole figure, and the pale, sallow face, so
+piteously mournful.  He took her hand, and began to tell her of the
+godfather's present, that he had brought her--a little book of
+devotions intended for the time when she should be confirmed.  Sophy
+uttered a feeble 'thank you,' but a hopeless one.
+
+'Ah! you are feeling as if nothing would do you any good,' said Mr.
+Ferrars.
+
+'Papa says so!' she answered.
+
+'Not quite,' said Mr. Ferrars.  'He knows that your low spirits are
+the effect of temperament and health, and that you are not able to
+prevent yourself from feeling unhappy and aggrieved.  And perhaps you
+reckoned on too much sensible effect from Church ordinances.  Now
+joy, help, all these blessings are seldom revealed to our
+consciousness, but are matters of faith; and you must be content to
+work on in faith in the dark, before you feel comfort.  I cannot but
+hope that if you will struggle, even when you are hurt and annoyed,
+to avoid the expression of vexation, the morbid temper will wear out,
+and you will both be tempted and suffer less, as you grow older.
+And, Sophy--forgive me for asking--do you pray in this unhappy
+state?'
+
+'I cannot.  It is not true.'
+
+'Make it true.  Take some verse of a Psalm.  Shall I mark you some?
+Repeat them, even if you seem to yourself not to feel them.  There is
+a holy power that will work on you at last; and when you can truly
+pray, the dark hour will pass.'
+
+'Mark them,' said Sophy.
+
+There was some space, while she gave him the book, and he showed her
+the verses.  Then he rose to go.
+
+'I wish I had not spoilt the visit,' she said, wistfully, at last.
+
+'We shall see you again, and we shall know each other better,' he
+said, kindly.  'You are my godchild now, Sophy, and you know that I
+must remember you constantly in prayer.'
+
+'Yes,' she faintly said.
+
+'And will you promise me to try my remedy?  I think it will soften
+your heart to the graces of the Blessed Comforter.  And even if all
+seems gloom within, look out, see others happy, try to rejoice with
+them, and peace will come in!  Now, goodbye, my dear godchild, and
+the God of Peace bless you, and give you rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+
+Mr. Dusautoy had given notice of the day of the Confirmation, when
+Mr. Kendal called his wife.
+
+'I wonder,' he said, 'my dear, whether Sophia can spare you to take a
+walk with me before church.'
+
+Sophy, who was well aware that a walk with him was the greatest and
+rarest treat to his wife, gave gracious permission, and in a few
+minutes they were walking by the bright canal-side, under the calm
+evening sunshine and deep blue sky of early autumn.
+
+Mr. Kendal said not a word, and Albinia, leaning on his arm,
+listened, as it were, to the stillness, or rather to the sounds that
+marked it--the gurgling of the little streams let off into the
+water-courses in the meadows; the occasional plunge of the rat from
+the banks, the sounds from the town, softened by distance, and the
+far-off cawings of the rooks, which she could just see wheeling about
+as little black specks over the plantations of Woodside, or watching
+the swallows assembling for departure sitting in long ranks, like an
+ornament along the roof of a neighbouring barn.
+
+Long, long it was before Mr. Kendal broke silence, but when at length
+he did speak, his words amazed her extremely.
+
+'Albinia, poor Sophia's admission into the Church has not been the
+only neglect.  I have never been confirmed.  I intend to speak to
+Dusautoy this evening, but I thought you would wish to know it
+first.'
+
+'Thank you.  I suppose you went out to India too young.'
+
+'Poor Maria says truly that no one thought of these things in our
+day, at least so far as we were concerned.  I must explain to you,
+Albinia, how it is that I see things very differently now from the
+light in which I once viewed them.  I was sent home from India, at
+six years old, to correspondents and relations to whom I was a
+burthen.  I was placed at a private school, where the treatment was
+of the harsh style so common in those days.  The boys always had more
+tasks than they could accomplish, and were kept employed by being
+always in arrears with their lessons.  This pressed less heavily upon
+me than on most; but though I seldom incurred punishment, there was a
+sort of hard distrust of me, I believe because the master could not
+easily overwhelm me with work, so as to have me in his power.  I know
+I was often unjustly treated, and I never was popular.'
+
+'Yes, I can imagine you extremely miserable.'
+
+'You can understand my resolution that my boys should not be sent to
+England to be homeless, and how I judged all schools by my own
+experience.  I stayed there too late, till I was beyond both
+tormentors and masters, and was left to an unlimited appetite for
+books, chiefly poetry.  Our religious instruction was a nullity, and
+I am only surprised that the results were not worse.  India was not
+likely to supply what education had omitted.  Looking back on old
+journals and the like, I am astonished to see how unsettled my
+notions were--my sublimity, which was really ignorant childishness,
+and yet my perfect unconsciousness of my want of Christianity.'
+
+'I dare say you cannot believe it was yourself, any more than I can.
+What brought other thoughts!'
+
+'Practical obligations made me somewhat less dreamy, and my dear boy,
+Edmund, did much for me, but all so insensibly, that I can remember
+no marked change.  I do not know whether you will understand me, when
+I say that I had attained to somewhat of what I should call personal
+religion, such as we often find apart from the Church.'
+
+'But, Edmund, you always were a Churchman.'
+
+'I was; but I viewed the Church merely as an establishment--human,
+not divine.  I had learnt faith from Holy Scripture, from my boy,
+from the infants who passed away so quickly, and I better understood
+how to direct the devotional tendencies that I had never been
+without, but the sacramental system had never dawned on my
+comprehension, nor the real meaning of Christian fellowship.  Thence
+my isolation.'
+
+'You had never fairly seen the Church.'
+
+'Never.  It might have made a great difference to me if Dusautoy had
+been here at the time of my trouble.  When he did come, I had sunk
+into a state whence I could not rouse myself to understand his
+principles.  I can hardly describe how intolerable my life had
+become.  I was almost resolved on returning to India.  I believe I
+should have done so if you had not come to my rescue.'
+
+'What would you have done with the children?'
+
+'To say the truth I had idolized their brother to such an exclusive
+degree, that I could not turn to the others when he was taken from
+me.  I deserved to lose him; and since I have seen this unfortunate
+strain of melancholy developed in poor Sophia, who so much resembles
+him, I have been the more reconciled to his having been removed.  I
+never understood what the others might be until you drew them out.'
+
+Albinia paused, afraid to press his reserve too far; and the next
+thing she said was, 'I think I understand your distinction between
+personal religion and sacramental truth.  It explains what has often
+puzzled me about good devout people who did not belong to the Church.
+The Visible Church cannot save without this individual personal
+religion but without having recourse to the Church, there is--' she
+could not find the word.
+
+'There is a loss of external aid,' he said; 'nay, of much more.
+There is no certainty of receiving the benefits linked by Divine
+Power to her ordinances.  Faith, in fact, while acknowledging the
+great Object of Faith, refuses or neglects to exercise herself upon
+the very subjects which He has set before her; and, in effect, would
+accept Him on her terms, not on His own.'
+
+'It was not refusal on your part,' said Albinia.
+
+'No, it was rather indifference and imaginary superiority.  But I
+have read and thought much of late, and see more clearly.  If I
+thought of this rite of Confirmation at all, it was only as a means
+of impressing young minds.  I now see every evidence that it is the
+completion of Baptismal grace, and without, like poor Sophia,
+expecting that effects would ever have been perceptible, I think that
+had I known how to seek after the Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly
+Strength, I might have given way less to the infirmities of my
+character, and have been less wilfully insensible to obvious duties.'
+
+'Then you have made up your mind?'
+
+'Yes.  I shall speak to Mr. Dusautoy at once.'
+
+'And,' she said, feeling for his sensitive shyness, 'no one else need
+know it--at least--'
+
+'I should not wish to conceal it from the children,' he answered,
+with his scrupulous candour.  He was supine when thought more ill of
+than he deserved, but he always defended himself from undeserved
+credit.
+
+'Whom do you think I have for a candidate?' said Mr. Dusautoy that
+evening.
+
+'Another now!  I thought you were talking to Mr. Kendal about the
+onslaught on the Pringle pew.'
+
+'What do you think of my churchwarden himself?'
+
+'You don't mean that he has never been confirmed!'
+
+'So he tells me. He went out to India young, and was never in the way
+of such things.  Well, it will be a great example.'
+
+'Take care what you do.  He will never endure having it talked of.'
+
+'I think he has made up his mind, and is above all nonsense.  I am
+sure it is well that I need not examine him.  I should soon get
+beyond my depth.'
+
+'And what good did his depth ever do to him,' indignantly cried Mrs.
+Dusautoy, 'till that dear good wife of his took him in hand?  Don't
+you remember what a log he was when first we came--how I used to say
+he gave you subscriptions to get rid of you.'
+
+'Well, well, Fanny, what's the use of recollecting all our foolish
+first impressions.  I always told you he was the most able man in the
+parish.'
+
+'Fanny' laughed merrily at this piece of sagacity, as she said 'Ay,
+the most able and the least practicable; and the best of it is, that
+his wife has not the most distant idea that she has been the making
+of him.  She nearly quarrelled with me for hinting it.  She would
+have it that "Edmund" had it all in him, and had only recovered his
+health and spirits.'
+
+And, indeed, it was no wonder she was happy.  This step taken of free
+will by Mr. Kendal, was an evidence not only of a powerful reasoning
+intellect bowed to an act of simple faith but of a victory over the
+false shame that had always been a part of his nature.  Nor did it
+apparently cost him as much as his consent to Sophy's admission into
+the Church; the first effort had been the greatest, and he was now
+too much taken up with deep thoughts of devotion to be sensitive as
+to the eyes and remarks of the world.  The very resolution to bend in
+faithful obedience to a rite usually belonging to early youth and not
+obviously enforced to human reason, nor made an express condition of
+salvation, was as a pledge that he would strive to walk for the
+future in the path of self-denying obedience.  Who that saw the manly
+well-knit form kneeling among the slight youthful ones around, and
+the thoughtful, sorrow-marked brow bowed down beneath the Apostolic
+hand, could doubt that such faith and such humble obedience would
+surely be endowed with a full measure of the Spirit of Ghostly Might,
+to lead him on in his battle with himself?  Those young ones needed
+the 'sevenfold veil between them and the fires of youth,' but surely
+the freshening and renewing came most blessedly to the man weary
+already with sin and woe, and tired out alike with himself and the
+world, because he had lived to himself alone.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+
+Old Mr. Pringle never stirred beyond his parlour, and was invisible
+to every one, except his housekeeper and doctor, but his tall,
+square, curtained pew was jealously locked up, and was a grievance to
+the vicar, who having been foiled in several attempts, was meditating
+a fresh one, if, as he told his wife, he could bring his churchwarden
+up to the scratch, when one Sunday morning the congregation was
+electrified by the sound of a creak and a shake, and beheld a stout
+hale sunburnt gentleman, fighting with the disused door, and finally
+gaining the victory by strength of hand, admitting himself and a boy
+among the dust and the cobwebs.
+
+Had Mr. Pringle, or rather his housekeeper, made a virtue of
+necessity? and if so, who could it be?
+
+Albinia hailed the event as a fertile source of conjecture which
+might stave off dangerous subjects in the Sunday call, but there was
+no opportunity for any discussion, for Maria was popping about,
+settling and unsettling everything and everybody, in a state of
+greater confusion than ever, inextricably entangling her inquiries
+for Sophy with her explanations about the rheumatism which had kept
+grandmamma from church, and jumping up to pull down the Venetian
+blind, which descended awry, and went up worse.  The lines got into
+such a hopeless complication, that Albinia came to help her, while
+Mr. Kendal stood dutifully by the fire, in the sentry-like manner in
+which he always passed that hour, bending now and then to listen and
+respond to some meek remark of old Mrs. Meadows, and now and then
+originating one.  As to assisting Maria in any pother, he well knew
+that would be a vain act of chivalry, and he generally contrived to
+be insensible to her turmoils.
+
+'Who could that have been in old Pringle's seat?' he presently began,
+appropriating Albinia's cherished morsel of gossip; but he was not
+allowed to enjoy it, for Miss Meadows broke out,
+
+'Oh, Edmund! this blind, I beg your pardon, but if you would help--'
+
+He was obliged to move to the window, and nervously clutching his
+arm, she whispered, 'You'll excuse it, I know, but don't mention it--
+not a word to mamma.'  Mr. Kendal looked at Albinia to gather what
+could be this dreadful subject, but the next words made it no longer
+doubtful.  'Ah, you were away, there's no use in explaining--but not
+a word of Sam Pringle.  It would only make her uneasy--' she gasped
+in a floundering whisper, stopping suddenly short, for at that moment
+the stranger and his son were entering the garden, so near them, that
+they might have seen the three pairs of eyes levelled on them,
+through the wide open end of the unfortunate blind, which was now in
+the shape of a fan.
+
+Albinia's cheeks glowed with sympathy, and she longed for the power
+of helping her, marvelling how a being so nervously restless and
+devoid of self-command could pass through a scene likely to be so
+trying.  The bell sounded, and the loud hearty tones of a manly voice
+were heard.  Albinia looked to see whether her help were needed, but
+Miss Meadows's whole face was brightened, and moving across the room
+with unusually even steps, she leant on the arm of her mother's
+chair, saying, 'Mamma, it is Captain Pringle.  You remember Samuel
+Pringle?  He settled in the Mauritius, you know, and he was at church
+this morning with his little boy.'
+
+There was something piteous in the searching look of inquiry that
+Mrs. Meadows cast at her daughter's face, but Maria had put it aside
+with an attempt at a smile, as 'Captain Pringle' was announced.
+
+He trod hard, and spoke loud, and his curly grizzled hair was thrown
+back from a bronzed open face, full of broad heartiness, as he walked
+in with outstretched hand, exclaiming, 'Well, and how do you do?'
+shaking with all his might the hand that Maria held out.  'And how
+are you, Mrs. Meadows?  You see I could not help coming back to see
+old friends.'
+
+'Old friends are always welcome, sir,' said the old lady, warmly.
+'My son, Mr. Kendal, sir--Mrs. Kendal,' she added, with a becoming
+old-fashioned movement of introduction.
+
+'Very glad to meet you,' said the captain, extending to each such a
+hearty shake of the hand, that Albinia suspected he was taking her on
+trust for Maria's sister.
+
+'Your little boy?' asked Mrs. Meadows.
+
+'Ay--Arthur, come and make the most of yourself, my man,' said he,
+thumping the shy boy on the back to give him courage.  'I've brought
+him home for his schooling--quite time, you see, though what on earth
+I'm to do without him--'
+
+The boy looked miserable at the words.  'Ay, ay,' continued his
+father, 'you'll do well enough.  I'm not afraid for you, master, but
+that you'll be happy as your father was before you, when once you
+have fellows to play with you.  Here is Mr. Kendal will tell you so.'
+
+It was an unfortunate appeal, but Mr. Kendal made the best of it,
+saying that his boy was very happy at his tutor's.
+
+'A private tutor, eh?' said the rough captain, 'I'd not thought of
+that--neither home nor school.  I had rather do it thoroughly, and
+trust to numbers to choose friends from, and be licked into shape.'
+
+Poor little Arthur looked as if the process would be severe; and by
+way of consolation, Mrs. Meadows suggested, a piece of cake.  Maria
+moved to ring the bell.  It was the first time she had stirred since
+the visitor came in, and he getting up at the same time, that she
+might not trouble herself, their eyes met.  'I'm very glad to see you
+again,' he exclaimed, catching hold of her hand for another shake;
+'but, bless me! you are sadly altered! I'm sorry to see you looking
+so ill.'
+
+'We all grow old, you know,' said Maria, endeavouring to smile, but
+half strangled by a tear, and looking at that moment as she might
+have done long ago.  'You find many changes.'
+
+'I hope you find Mr. Pringle pretty well,' said Albinia, thinking
+this might be a relief, and accordingly, the kind-hearted captain
+began, ruefully to describe the sad alterations that time had
+wrought.  Then he explained that he had had little correspondence
+with home, and had only landed three days since, so that he was
+ignorant of all Bayford tidings, and began asking after a multitude
+of old friends and acquaintance.
+
+The Kendals thought all would go on the better in their absence, and
+escaped from the record of deaths and marriages, each observing to
+the other as they left the house, that there could be little doubt
+that nurse's story was true, but both amazed by the effect on Maria,
+who had never been seen before to sit so long quiet in her chair.
+Was his wife alive?  Albinia thought not, but could not be certain.
+His presence was evidently happiness to Miss Meadows, but would this
+last?  Would this renewal soothe her, or only make her more restless
+and unhappy?
+
+Albinia found that Sophy's imagination bad been quicker than her own.
+Lucy had brought home the great news of the stranger, and she had
+leapt at once to the conclusion that it must be the hero of nurse's
+story, but she had had the resolution to keep the secret from her
+sister, who was found reproaching her with making mysteries.  When
+Lucy heard that it was Captain Pringle, she was quite provoked.
+
+'Only Mr. Pringle's nephew?' she said, disdainfully.  'What was the
+use of making a fuss?  I thought it was some one interesting!'
+
+Sophy was able to walk to church in the evening, but was made to go
+in to rest at the vicarage before returning home.  While this was
+being discussed before the porch, Albinia felt a pressure on her arm,
+and looking round, saw Maria Meadows.
+
+'Can you spare me a few moments?' she said; and Albinia turned aside
+with her to the flagged terrace path between the churchyard and
+vicarage garden, in the light of a half-moon.
+
+'You were so kind this morning,' began Maria, 'that I thought--you
+see it is very awkward--not that I have any idea--but if you would
+speak to Edmund--I know he is not in the habit--morning visits and--'
+
+'Do you wish him to call?  He had been thinking of it.'
+
+Maria would have been unbounded in her gratitude, but catching
+herself up, she disclaimed all personal interest--only she said
+Edmund knew nothing of anything that had passed--if he did, he would
+see they would feel--
+
+'I think,' said Albinia, kindly, 'that we do know that you had some
+troubles on that score.  Old nurse said something to Sophy, but no
+other creature knows it.'
+
+'Ah!' exclaimed Maria, 'that is what comes of trusting any one.  I
+was so ill when I found out how it had been, that I could not keep it
+from nurse, but from mamma I did--my poor father being just gone and
+all--I could not have had her know how much I felt it--the discovery
+I mean--and it is what I wish her never to do.  But oh! Mrs. Kendal,
+think what it was to find out that when I had been thinking he had
+been only trifling with me all those years, to find that he had been
+so unkindly treated.  There was his own dear letter to me never
+unsealed; and there was another to my father saying in a proud-spirited
+way that he did not know what he had done to be so served, and he
+wished I might find happiness, for I would never find one that loved
+me as well.  I who had turned against him in my heart!'
+
+'It was cruel indeed!  And you kept it from your mother!' said
+Albinia, beginning to honour her.
+
+'My poor father was just gone, you know, and I could not be grieving
+her with what was passed and over, and letting her know that my
+father had broken my heart, as indeed I think he did, though he meant
+it all for the best.  But oh! I thought it hard when Lucy had married
+the handsomest man in the country, and gone out to India, without a
+word against it, that I might not please myself, because I was papa's
+favourite.'
+
+'It was very hard not to be made aware of his intentions.'
+
+'Yea,' said Maria; 'for it gave me such a bitter, restless feeling
+against him--though I ought to have known him better than to think he
+would give one minute's pain he could help; and then when I knew the
+truth, the bitterness all went to poor papa's memory, and yet perhaps
+he never meant to be unkind either.'
+
+Albinia said some kind words, and Maria went on:
+
+'But what I wanted to say was this--Please don't let mamma suspect
+one bit about it; and next, if Edmund would not mind showing him a
+little attention.  Do you think he would, my dear?  I do so wish that
+he should not think we were hurt by his marriage, and you see, two
+lone women can do nothing to make it agreeable; besides that, it
+would not be proper.'
+
+'Is his wife living?'
+
+'My dear, I could not make up my tongue to ask--the poor dear boy
+there and all--but it is all the same.  I hope she is, for I would
+not see him unhappy, and you don't imagine I have any folly in my
+head--oh, no! for I know what a fright the fret and the wear of this
+have made me; and besides, I never could leave mamma.  So I trust his
+wife is living to make him happy, and I shall be more at peace now I
+have seen him again, since he turned his horse at Bobble's Leigh, and
+said I should soon hear from him again.'
+
+'Indeed I think you will be happier.  There is something very
+soothing in taking up old feelings and laying them to rest.  I hope
+even now there is less pain than pleasure.'
+
+'I can't help it,' said Maria.  'I do hope it is not wrong; but his
+very voice has got the old tone in it, as if it were the old lullaby
+that my poor heart has been beating for all these years.'
+
+Who would have thought of Maria speaking poetically?  But her words
+did indeed seem to be the truth.  In spite of the embarrassment of
+her situation and the flutter of her feelings, she was in a state of
+composure unexampled.  Albinia had just gratified her greatly by a
+few words on Captain Pringle's evident good-nature, when a tread came
+behind them.
+
+'Ha! you here?' exclaimed the loud honest voice.
+
+'We were taking a turn in the moonlight,' said Albinia.  'A beautiful
+night.'
+
+'Beautiful!  Arthur and I have been a bit of the way home with old
+Goldsmith.  There's an evergreen, to be sure; and now--are you bound
+homewards, Maria?'
+
+Maria clung to Albinia's arm.  Perhaps in the days of the last
+parting, she had been less careful to be with a chaperon.
+
+'Ah! I forgot,' said the captain; 'your way lies the other side of
+the hill.  I had very nearly walked into Willow Lawn this morning,
+only luckily I bethought me of asking.'
+
+'I hope you will yet walk into Willow Lawn,' said Albinia.
+
+'Ah! thank you; I should like to see the old place.  I dare say it
+may be transmogrified now, but I think I could find my way blindfold
+about the old garden.  I say, Maria, do you remember that jolly
+tea-party on the lawn, when the frog made one too many?'
+
+'That I do--' Maria could not utter more, and Albinia said she was
+afraid he would miss a great deal.
+
+'I reckoned on that when I came home.  Changes everywhere; but after
+the one great change,' he added, mournfully, 'the others tell less.
+One has the less heart to care for an old tree or an old path.'
+
+Albinia felt sure he could mean only one great change, but they were
+now at Mrs. Meadows's door, and Maria wished them good night, giving
+a most grateful squeeze of the hand to Mrs. Kendal.
+
+'Where are you bound now?' asked the captain.
+
+'Back to the vicarage, to take up my husband and the girls,' said
+Albinia, 'but good night.  I am not afraid.'
+
+The captain, however, chose to continue a squire of dames, and walked
+at her side, presently giving utterance to a sound of commiseration.
+'Ah! well, poor Maria, I never thought to see her so altered.  Why,
+she had the prettiest bloom--I dare say you remember--but, I beg your
+pardon, somehow I thought you were her _elder_ sister.'
+
+'Mr. Kendal's first wife was,' said Albinia, pitying the poor man;
+but Captain Pringle was not a man for awkwardness, and the short
+whistle with which he received her answer set her off laughing.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' he said, recovering himself; 'but you see I am
+all astray, like a man buried and dug up again, so no wonder I make
+strange blunders; and my poor uncle is grown so childish, that he
+does not know one person from another, and began by telling me Maria
+Meadows had married and gone out to India.  I had not had a letter
+these seven years, so I thought it was high time to bring my boy
+home, and renew old times, though how I am ever to go back without
+him--'
+
+'Is be your only one?'
+
+'Yes.  I lost his mother when he was six years old, and we have been
+all the world to each other since, till I began to think I was
+spoiling him outright, and it was time he should see what Old England
+was made of.'
+
+Albinia had something like a discovery to impart now; but she hated
+the sense of speculating on the poor man's intentions.  He talked so
+much, that he saved her trouble in replying, and presently resumed
+the subject of Maria's looks.
+
+'She has had a harassed life, I fear,' said Albinia.
+
+'Eh! old Meadows was a terrible old tyrant, I believe; but she was
+his pet.  I thought he refused her nothing--but there's no trusting
+such a Turk!  Oh! ah! I dare say,' as if replying to something
+within.  And then having come to the vicarage wicket, Albinia took
+leave of him and ran indoors, answering the astonished queries as to
+how she had been employed, 'Walking home with Aunt Maria and Captain
+Pringle !'
+
+It was rather a relief at such a juncture that Lucy's curious eyes
+should be removed.  Mr. Ferrars came to talk his wife's state over
+with his sister.  Her children were too much for Winifred, and he
+wished to borrow Lucy for a few weeks, till a governess could be
+found for them.
+
+It struck Albinia that this would be an excellent thing for Genevieve
+Durant, and she at once contrived to ask her to tea, and privately
+propound the plan.
+
+Genevieve faltered much of thanks, and said that Madame was very
+good; but the next morning a note was brought in, which caused a
+sudden change of countenance:
+
+
+'My dear Madame,
+
+'I was so overwhelmed with your kindness last night, and so
+unwilling to appear ungrateful, that perhaps I left you under a
+false impression.  I entreat you not to enter on the subject with
+my grandmamma or my aunt.  They would grieve to prevent what they
+would think for my advantage, and would, I am but too sure, make
+any sacrifice on my account; but they are no  longer young, and
+though my aunt does not perceive it, I know that the real work of
+the school depends on me, and that she could not support the
+fatigue if left unassisted.  They need their little Genevieve,
+likewise, to amuse them in their evenings; and, forgive me, madame,
+I could not, without ingratitude, forsake them now.  Thus, though
+with the utmost sense of your kindness, I must beg of you to pardon
+me, and not to think me ungrateful if I decline the situation so
+kindly offered to me by Mr. Ferrars, thanking you ten thousand times
+for your too partial recommendation, and entreating you to pardon
+
+                         'Your most grateful and humble servant,
+                                        GENEVIEVE CELESTE DURANT.'
+
+
+'There!' said Albinia, tossing the note to her brother, who was the
+only person present excepting Gilbert.
+
+'Poor Albinia,' he said, 'it is hard to be disappointed in a bit of
+patronage.'
+
+'I never meant it as patronage,' said Albinia, slightly hurt.  'I
+thought it would help you, and rescue her from that school.  There
+will she spend the best years of her life in giving a second-rate
+education to third-rate girls, not one of whose parents can
+appreciate her, till she will grow as wizened and as wooden as
+Mademoiselle herself.'
+
+'Happily,' said Mr. Ferrars, 'there are worse things than being spent
+in one's duty.  She may be doing an important work in her sphere.'
+
+'So does a horse in a mill,' exclaimed Albinia; 'but you would not
+put a hunter there.  Yes, yes, I know, education, and these girls
+wanting right teaching; but she, poor child, has been but half
+educated herself, and has not time to improve herself.  If she does
+good, it is by force of sheer goodness, for they all look down upon
+her, as much as vulgarity can upon refinement.'
+
+'I told her so,', exclaimed Gilbert; 'I told her it was the only way
+to teach them what she was worth.'
+
+'What did you know of the matter?' asked Albinia; and the colour
+mounted in the boy's face as he muttered, 'She was overcome when she
+came down, she said you had been so kind, and we were obliged to walk
+up and down before she could compose herself, for she did not want
+the old ladies to know anything about it.'
+
+'And did she not wish to go?'
+
+'No, though I did the best I could.  I told her what a jolly place it
+was, and that the children would be a perfect holiday to her.  And I
+showed her it would not be like going away, for she might come over
+here whenever she pleased; and when I have my horse, I would come and
+bring her word of the old ladies once a week.'
+
+'Inducements, indeed!' said Mr. Ferrars.  'And she could not be
+incited by any of these?'
+
+'No,' said Gilbert, 'she would not hear of leaving the old women.
+She was only afraid it would vex Mrs. Kendal, and she could not bear
+not to take the advice of so kind a friend, she said.  You are not
+going to be angry with her,' he added.
+
+'No,' said Albinia, 'one cannot but honour her motives, though I
+think she is mistaken; and I am sorry for her; but she knows better
+than to be afraid of me.'
+
+With which assurance Gilbert quitted the room, and the next moment,
+hearing the front door, she exclaimed, 'I do believe he is gone to
+tell her how I took the announcement.'
+
+Maurice gave a significant 'Hem!' to which his sister replied,
+'Nonsense!'
+
+'Very romantic consolations and confidences.'
+
+'Not at all.  They have been used to each other all their lives, and
+he used to be the only person who knew how to behave to her, so no
+wonder they are great friends.  As to anything else, she is nineteen,
+and he not sixteen.'
+
+'One great use of going to school is to save lads from that silly
+pastime.  I advise you to look to these moonlight escortings!'
+
+'One would think you were an old dowager, Maurice.  I suppose Colonel
+Bury may not escort Miss Mary.'
+
+'Ah, Albinia, you are a very naughty child still.'
+
+'Of course, when you are here to keep me in order, I wish I never
+were so at other times when it is not so safe.'
+
+Mr. Kendal was kind and civil to Captain Pringle, and though the
+boisterous manner seemed to affect him like a thunderstorm, Maria
+imagined they were delighted with one another.
+
+Maria was strangely serene and happy; her querulous, nervous manner
+smoothed away, as if rest had come to her at last; and even if the
+renewed intercourse were only to result in a friendship, there was
+hope that the troubled spirit had found repose now that
+misunderstandings were over, and the sore sense of ill-usage
+appeased.
+
+Yet Albinia was startled when one day Mr. Kendal summoned her,
+saying, 'It is all over, she has refused him!'
+
+'Impossible; she could only have left half her sentence unsaid.'
+
+'Too certain.  She will not leave her mother.'
+
+'Is that all?'
+
+'Of course it is.  He told me the whole affair, and certainly Mr.
+Meadows was greatly to blame.  He let Maria give this man every
+encouragement, believing his property larger, and his expectations
+more secure than was the case; and when the proposal was made, having
+discovered his mistake, he sent a peremptory refusal, giving him
+reason to suppose her a party to the rejection.  Captain Pringle
+sailed in anger; but it appears that his return has revived his
+former feelings, and that he has found out that poor Maria was a
+greater sufferer than himself.'
+
+'Why does he come to you?'
+
+'To consult me.  He wishes me to persuade poor old Mrs. Meadows to go
+out to the Mauritius, which is clearly impossible, but Maria must not
+be sacrificed again.  Would the Drurys make her comfortable?  Or
+could she not live alone with her maid?'
+
+'She might live here.'
+
+'Albinia!  Think a little.'
+
+'I can think of nothing else.  Let her have the morning room, and
+Sophy's little room, and Lucy and I would do our best for her.'
+
+'No, that is out of the question.  I would not impose such charge
+upon you on any consideration!'
+
+Albinia's face became humble and remorseful.  'Yes,' she said,
+'perhaps I am too impatient and flighty.'
+
+'That was not what I meant,' he said; 'but I do not think it right
+that a person with no claims of relationship should be made a burthen
+on you.'
+
+'No claims, Edmund,' said she, softly.  'In whose place have you put
+me?'
+
+He was silent: then said, 'No, it must not be, my kind Albinia.  She
+is a very good old lady, but Sophy and she would clash, and I cannot
+expose the child to such a trial.'
+
+'I dare say you are right,' pensively said Albinia, perceiving that
+her plan had been inconsiderate, and that it would require the
+wisdom, tact, and gentleness of a model woman to deal with such
+discordant elements.  'What are you going to do?' as he took up his
+hat.  'Are you going to see Maria?  May I come with you?'
+
+'If you please; but do not mention this notion.  There is no
+necessity for such a tax on you; and such arrangement should never be
+rashly made.'
+
+He asked whether Miss Meadows could see him, and awaited her alone in
+the dining-room, somewhat to the surprise of his wife; but either he
+felt that there was a long arrear of kindness owing, or feared to
+trust Albinia's impulsive generosity.
+
+Meantime Albinia found the poor old lady in much uneasiness and
+distress.  Her daughter fancied it right to keep her in ignorance of
+the crisis; but Maria was not the woman to conceal her feelings, and
+her nervous misery had revealed all that she most wished to hide.
+Too timid to take her confidence by storm, her mother had only
+exchanged surmises and observations with Betty, and was in a troubled
+condition of affectionate curiosity and anxiety.  Albinia was a
+welcome visitor since it was a great relief to hear what had really
+taken place and to know that Mr. Kendal was with Maria.
+
+'Ah! that is kind,' she said; 'but he must tell her not to think of
+me.  I am an old woman, good for nothing but to be put out of the
+way, and she has gone through quite enough!  You will not let her
+give it up!  Tell her I have not many more years to live, and
+anything is good enough for me.'
+
+'That would hardly comfort her,' said Albinia, affectionately; 'but
+indeed, dear grandmamma, I hope we shall convince her that we can do
+something to supply her place.'
+
+'Ah! my dear, you are very kind, but nobody can be like a daughter!
+But don't tell Maria so--poor dear love--she may never have another
+chance.  Such a beautiful place out there, and Mr. Pringle's property
+must come to him at last!  Bless me, what will Sarah Drury say?  And
+such a good attentive man--besides, she never would hear of any one
+else--her poor papa never knew--Oh! she must have him! it is all
+nonsense to think of me!  I only wish I was dead out of the way!'
+
+There was a strong mixture of unselfish love, and fear of solitude;
+of the triumph of marrying a daughter, and dread of separation; of
+affection, and of implanted worldliness; touching Albinia at one
+moment, and paining her at another; but she soothed and caressed the
+old lady, and was a willing listener to what was meant for a history
+of the former transaction; but as it started from old Mr. Pringle's
+grandfather, it had only proceeded as far as the wedding of the
+Captain's father and mother, when it was broken off by Mr. Kendal's
+entrance.
+
+'Oh! my dear Mr. Kendal, and what does poor Maria say?  It is so kind
+in you.  I hope you have taken her in hand, and told her it is quite
+another thing now, and her poor dear papa would think so.  She must
+not let this opportunity pass, for she may never have another.  Did
+you tell her so?'
+
+'I told her that, under the circumstances, she has no alternative but
+to accept Captain Pringle.'
+
+'Oh! thank you.  And does she?'
+
+'She has given me leave to send him to her.'
+
+'I am so much obliged.  I knew that nobody but you could settle it
+for her, poor dear girl; she is so young and inexperienced, and one
+is so much at a loss without a gentleman.  But this is very kind; I
+did not expect it in you, Mr. Kendal.  And will you see Mr.
+Pettilove, and do all that is proper about settlements, as her poor
+dear papa would have done.  Poor Pettilove, he was once very much in
+love with Maria!'
+
+In this mood of triumph and felicity, the old lady was left to
+herself and her daughter.  Albinia, on the way home, begged to hear
+how Mr. Kendal had managed Maria; and found that he had simply told
+her, in an authoritative tone, that after all that had passed, she
+had no choice but to accept Captain Pringle, and that he had added a
+promise, equally vague and reassuring, of being a son to Mrs.
+Meadows.  Such injunctions from such a quarter had infused new life
+into Maria; and in the course of the afternoon, Albinia met the
+Captain with the mother and daughter, one on each arm, Maria in
+recovered bloom and brilliancy, and Mrs. Meadows's rheumatism
+forgotten in the glory of exhibiting her daughter engaged.
+
+For form's sake, secrecy had been mentioned; but the world of Bayford
+had known of the engagement a fortnight before took place.  Sophy had
+been questioned upon it by Mary Wolfe two hours ere she was
+officially informed, and was sore with the recollection of her own
+ungracious professions of ignorance.
+
+'So it is true,' she said.  'I don't mind, since Arthur is not a
+girl.'
+
+Mr. Kendal laughed so heartily, that Sophy looked to Albinia for
+explanation; but even on the repetition of her words, she failed to
+perceive anything ridiculous in them.
+
+'Why, mamma,' she said, impressively, 'if you had been like Aunt
+Maria, I should--' she paused and panted for sufficient strength of
+phrase--'I should have run away and begged!  Papa laughs, but I am
+sure he remembers when grandmamma and Aunt Maria wanted to come and
+live here!'
+
+He looked as if he remembered it only too well.
+
+'Well, papa,' pursued Sophy, 'we heard the maids saying that they
+knew it would not do, for all Mr. Kendal was so still and steady, for
+Miss Meadows would worret the life out of a lead pincushion.'
+
+'Hem!' said Mr. Kendal.  'Albinia, do you think after all we are
+doing Captain Pringle any kindness?'
+
+'He is the best judge.'
+
+'Nay, he may think himself bound in honour and compassion--he may be
+returning to an old ideal.'
+
+'People like Captain Pringle are not apt to have ideals,' said
+Albinia; 'nor do I think Maria will be so trying.  Do you remember
+that creeper of Lucy's, all tendrils and catching leaves, which used
+to lie sprawling about, entangling everything till she gave it a
+prop, when it instantly found its proper development, and offered no
+further molestation?'
+
+All was not, however, smooth water as yet.  The Captain invaded Mr.
+Kendal the next morning in despair at Maria having recurred to the
+impossibility of leaving her mother, and wanting him to wait till he
+could reside in England.  This could not be till his son was grown
+up, and ten years were a serious delay.  Mr. Kendal suspected her of
+a latent hope that the Captain would end by remaining at home; but he
+was a man sense and determination, who would have thought it
+unjustifiable weakness to sacrifice his son's interests and his own
+usefulness.  He would promise, that if all were alive and well, he
+would bring Maria back in ten or twelve years' time; but he would not
+sooner relinquish his duties, and he was very reluctant to become
+engaged on such terms.
+
+'No one less silly than poor Maria would have thought of such a
+proposal,' was Mr. Kendal's comment afterwards to his wife.  'Twelve
+years!  No one would be able to live with her by that time!'
+
+'I cannot help respecting the unselfishness,' said Albinia.
+
+'One sided unselfishness,' quoth Mr. Kendal.  'I am sick of the whole
+business, I wish I had never interfered.  I cannot get an hour to
+myself.'
+
+He might be excused for the complaint on that day of negotiations and
+counter-negotiations, which gave no one any rest, especially after
+Mrs. Drury arrived with all the rights of a relation, set on making
+it evident, that whoever was to be charged with Mrs. Meadows, it was
+not herself; and enforcing that nothing could be more comfortable
+than that Lucy Kendal should set up housekeeping with her dear
+grandmamma.  Every one gave advice, and nobody took it; Mrs. Meadows
+cried, Maria grew hysterical, the Captain took up his hat and walked
+out of the house; and Albinia thought it would be very good in him
+ever to venture into it again.
+
+The next morning Mr. Kendal ordered his horse early, and hastened his
+breakfast; told Albinia not to wait dinner for him, and rode off by
+one gate, without looking behind him, as the other opened to admit
+Captain Pringle.  She marvelled whither he had fled, and thought
+herself fortunate in having only two fruitless discussions in his
+absence.  Not till eight o'clock did he make his appearance, and then
+it was in an unhearing, unseeing mood, so that nothing could be
+extracted, except that he did not want any dinner; and it was not
+till late in the evening that he abruptly announced, 'Lucy is coming
+home on Wednesday.  Colonel Bury will bring her to Woodside.'
+
+What? have you heard from Maurice?'
+
+'No; I have been at Fairmead.'
+
+You!  To-day!  How was Winifred?'
+
+'Better--I believe.'
+
+'How does she like the governess?'
+
+'I did not hear.'
+
+Gradually something oozed out about Lucy having been happy and
+valuable, and after Sophy had gone to bed, he inquired how the
+courtship was going on?
+
+'Worse than ever,' Albinia said.
+
+'I suppose it must end in this?'
+
+'In what!'
+
+'If there is no more satisfactory arrangement, I suppose we must
+receive Mrs. Meadows.'
+
+If Albinia could but have heard what a scolding her brother was
+undergoing from his vivacious wife!
+
+'As if poor Albinia had not enough on her hands!  Of all inmates in
+the world!  When Mr. Kendal himself did not like it!  Well!  Maurice
+would certainly have advised Sinbad to request the honour of taking
+the Old Man of the Sea for a promenade a cheval.  There was an end of
+Albinia.  There would never be any room in her house, and she would
+never be able to come from home.  And after having seen her worked to
+death, he to advise--'
+
+'I did not advise, I only listened.  What he came for was to silence
+his conscience and his wife by saying, "Your brother thinks it out of
+the question."  Now to this my conscience would not consent.'
+
+'More shame for it, then!'
+
+'I could not say I thought these two people's happiness should be
+sacrificed, or the poor old woman left desolate.  Albinia has spirits
+and energy for a worse infliction, and Edmund Kendal himself is the
+better for every shock to his secluded habits.  If it is a step I
+would never dare advise, still less would I dare dissuade.'
+
+'Well! I thought Mr. Kendal at least had more sense.'
+
+'Ay, nothing is so provoking as to see others more unselfish than
+ourselves.'
+
+'All I have to say,' concluded Mrs. Ferrars, walking off, 'is, I wish
+there was a law against people going and marrying two wives.'
+
+Albinia was in no haste to profit by her husband's consent to her
+proposal.  The more she revolved it, the more she foresaw the
+discomfort for all parties.  She made every effort to devise the
+'more satisfactory arrangement,' but nothing would occur.  The Drurys
+would not help, and the poor old lady could not be left alone.  Her
+maid Betty, who had become necessary to her comfort, was not a
+trustworthy person, and could not be relied on, either for honesty,
+or for not leaving her mistress too long alone; and when the notion
+was broached of boarding Mrs. Meadows with some family in the place,
+the conviction arose, that when she had grandchildren, there was no
+reason for leaving her to strangers.
+
+Finally, the proposal was made, and as instantly rejected by Maria.
+It was very kind, but her mother could never be happy at Willow Lawn,
+never; and the tone betrayed some injury at such a thing being
+thought possible.  But just as the Kendals had begun to rejoice at
+having cleared their conscience at so slight a cost, Captain Pringle
+and Miss Meadows made their appearance, and Maria presently requested
+that Mrs. Kendal would allow her to say a few words.
+
+'I am afraid you thought me very rude and ungrateful,' she began,
+'but the truth was, I did not think dear mamma would ever bear to
+live here, my poor dear sister and all; but since that, I have been
+talking it over with the dear Captain--thinks that since you are so
+kind, and dear Edmund--more than I could ever have dared to expect--
+that I could not do better than just to sound mamma.'
+
+There was still another vicissitude. Mrs. Meadows would not hear of
+being thrust on any one, and was certain that Maria had extorted an
+invitation; she would never be a burden upon any one; young people
+liked company and amusement, and she was an old woman in every one's
+way; she wished she were in her coffin with poor dear Mr. Meadows,
+who would have settled it all.  Maria fell back into the depths of
+despair, and all was lugubrious, till Mr. Kendal, in the most tender
+and gentle manner, expressed his hopes that Mrs. Meadows would
+consider the matter, telling her that his wife and children would
+esteem it a great privilege to attend on her, and that he should be
+very grateful if she would allow them to try to supply Maria's place.
+And Albinia, in her coaxing tone, described the arrangement; how the
+old furniture should stand in the sitting-room, and how Lucy would
+attend to her carpet-work, and what nice walks the sunny garden would
+afford, and how pleasant it would be not to have the long hill
+between them, till grandmamma forgot all her scruples in the
+fascination of that sweet face and caressing manner, she owned that
+poor old Willow Lawn always was like home, and finally promised to
+come.  Before the evening was over the wedding-day was fixed.
+
+What Sophy briefly termed 'the fuss about Aunt Maria,' had been so
+tedious, that it almost dispelled all poetical ideas of courtship.
+If Captain Pringle had been drowned at sea, and Aunt Maria pined
+herself into her grave, it would have been much more proper and
+affecting.
+
+Sophy heard of the arrangement without remark, and quietly listened
+to Albinia's explanation that she was not to be sent up to the
+attics, but was to inhabit the spare room, which was large enough to
+serve her for a sitting-room.  But in the evening Mr. Kendal happened
+in her absence to take up the book which she had been reading, and
+did not perceive at once on her entrance that she wanted it.  When he
+did so, he yielded it with a few kind words of apology, but this
+vexation had been sufficient to bring down the thunder-cloud which
+had been lowering since the morning.  There were no signs of
+clearance the next day; but Albinia had too much upon her hands to
+watch the symptoms, and was busy making measurements for the
+furniture in the morning-room when Mr. Kendal came in.
+
+'I have been thinking,' he said, 'that it is a pity to disturb this
+room.  I dare say Mrs. Meadows would prefer that below-stairs.  It
+used to be her parlour, where she always sat when I first knew the
+house.'
+
+'The dining-room?  How could we spare that?'
+
+'No, the study.'
+
+Albinia remained transfixed.
+
+'We could put the books here and in the dining-room,' he continued,
+'until next spring, when, as your brother said, we can build a new
+wing on the drawing-room side.'
+
+'And what is to become of you?' she continued.
+
+'Perhaps you will admit me here,' he said, smiling, for he was
+pleased with himself.  'Turn me out when I am in the way.'
+
+'Oh! Edmund, how delightful!  See, we shall put your high desk under
+the window, and your chair in your own corner.  This will be the
+pleasantest place in the house, with you and your books!  Dear
+Winifred! she did me one of her greatest services when she made me
+keep this room habitable!'
+
+'And I think Sophy will not object to give up her present little room
+for my dressing-room.  Shall you, my dear?' said he, anxious to judge
+of her temper by her reply.
+
+'I don't care,' she said; 'I don't want any difference made to please
+me; I think that weak.'
+
+'Sophy!' began Albinia, indignantly, but Mr. Kendal stopped her, and
+made her come down, to consider of the proposal in the study.
+
+That study, once an oppressive rival to the bride, now not merely
+vanquished, but absolutely abandoned by its former captive!
+
+'Don't say anything to her,' said Mr. Kendal, as they went
+downstairs.  'Of course her spirits are one consideration, but were
+it otherwise, I could not see you give up your private room.'
+
+'It is very kind in you, but indeed I can spare mine better than you
+can,' said Albinia.  'I am afraid you will never feel out of the
+whirl.'
+
+'Yours would be a loss to us all,' said Mr. Kendal.  'The more
+inmates there are in a house, the more needful to have them well
+assorted.'
+
+'Just so; and that makes me afraid--'
+
+'Of me?  No, Albinia, I will try not to be a check on your spirits.'
+
+'You!  Oh! I meant that we should disturb you.'
+
+'You never disturb me, Albinia; and it is not what it was when the
+children's voices were untrained and unsubdued.'
+
+'I can't say much for Master Maurice's voice.'
+
+He smiled, he had never yet found those joyous notes de trop, and he
+continued, 'Your room is of value and use to us all; mine has been of
+little benefit to me, and none to any one else.  I wish I could as
+easily leave behind me all the habits I have fostered there.'
+
+'Edmund, it is too good!  When poor Sophy recovers her senses she
+will feel it, for I believe that morning room would have been a great
+loss to her.'
+
+'It was too much to ask in her present state.  I should have come to
+the same conclusion without her showing how much this plan cost her,
+for nothing can be plainer than that while she continues subject to
+these attacks, she must have some retreat.'
+
+'Yet,' ventured Albinia, 'if you think solitude did you no good, do
+you think letting these fits have their swing is good for Sophy?'
+
+'I _cannot_ drive her about!  They must not be harshly treated,' he
+answered quickly.  'Resistance can only come from within; compulsion
+is worse than useless.  Poor child, it is piteous to watch that state
+of dull misery!  On other grounds, I am convinced this is the best
+plan.  The communication with the offices will prevent that maid from
+being always on the stairs.  Mrs. Meadows will have her own visitors
+more easily, and will get out of doors sooner, and I think she will
+be better pleased.'
+
+'Yes, it will be a much better plan for every one but Mr. Kendal
+himself,' said Albinia; 'and if he can be happy with us, we shall be
+all the happier.  So this was the old sitting-room!'  'Yes, I knew
+them first here,' he said.  'It used to be cheerful then, and I dare
+say you can make it the same again.  We must dismantle it before Mrs.
+Meadows or Maria come to see it, or it will remind them of nothing
+but the days when I was recovering, and anything but grateful for
+their attention.  Yes,' he added, 'poor Mrs. Meadows bore most gently
+and tenderly with a long course of moroseness.  I am glad to have it
+in my power to make any sort of amends, though it is chiefly through
+you.'
+
+Albinia might well be very happy!  It was her moment of triumph, and
+whatever might be her fears for the future, and uneasiness at Sophy's
+discontent, nothing could take away the pleasure of finding herself
+deliberately preferred to the study.
+
+Sophy did not fail to make another protest, and when told that 'it
+was not solely on her account,' the shame of having fancied herself
+so important, rendered her ill-humour still more painful and
+deplorable.  It was vain to consult her about the arrangements, she
+would not care about anything, except that by some remarkable effect
+of her perverse condition, she had been seized with a penchant for
+maize colour and blue for the bridesmaids, and was deeply offended
+when Albinia represented that they would look like a procession of
+macaws, and her aunt declared that Sophy herself would be the most
+sacrificed by such colours.  She made herself so grim that Maria
+broke up the consultation by saying good-humouredly, 'Yes, we will
+settle it when Lucy comes home.'
+
+'Yes,' muttered Sophy, 'Lucy is ready for any sort of nonsense.'
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Kendal went to Woodside to meet Lucy, hoping that
+solitude would be beneficial.  Albinia grieved at the manifestations
+of these, her sullen fits, if only because they made Lucy feel
+herself superior.  In truth, Lucy was superior in temper, amiability,
+and all the qualities that smooth the course of life, and it was very
+pleasant to greet her pretty bright face, so full of animation.
+
+'Dear grandmamma going to live with us?  Oh, how nice!  I can always
+take care of her when you are busy, mamma.'
+
+That accommodating spirit was absolute refreshment, and long before
+Albinia reached home the task of keeping the household contented
+seemed many degrees easier.
+
+A grand wedding was 'expected,' so all the Bayford flys were bespoken
+three deep, a cake was ordered from Gunter, and so many invitations
+sent out, that Albinia speculated how all were to come alive out of
+the little dining-room.
+
+And Mr. Kendal the presiding gentleman!
+
+He had hardly seemed aware of his impending fate till the last
+evening, when, as the family were separating at night, he sighed
+disconsolately, and said, 'I am as bad as you are, Sophy.'
+
+It awoke her first comfortable smile.
+
+Experience had, however, shown him that such occasions might be
+survived, and he was less to be pitied than his daughter, who felt as
+if she and her great brown face would be the mark of all beholders.
+Poor Sophy! all scenes were to her like daguerreotypes in a bad
+light, she saw nothing but herself distorted!
+
+And yet she was glad that the period of anticipation had consumed
+itself and its own horrors, and found herself not insensible to the
+excitement of the occasion.  Lucy was joyous beyond description,
+looking very pretty, and solicitously decorating her sister, while
+both bestowed the utmost rapture on their step-mother's appearance.
+
+Having learnt at last what Bayford esteemed a compliment, she had
+commissioned her London aunts to send her what she called 'an
+unexceptionable garment,' and so well did they fulfil their orders,
+that not only did her little son scream, 'Mamma, pretty, pretty!' and
+Gilbert stand transfixed with admiration, but it called forth Mr.
+Kendal's first personal remark, 'Albinia, you look remarkably well;'
+and Mrs. Meadows reckoned among the honours done to her Maria, that
+Mrs. Kendal wore a beautiful silk dress, and a lace bonnet, sent down
+on purpose from London!
+
+Maria Meadows made a very nice bride, leaning on her brother-in-law,
+and not more agitated than became her well.  The haggard restless
+look had long been gone, repose had taken away the lean sharpness of
+countenance, the really pretty features had fair play, and she was
+astonishingly like her niece Lucy, and did not look much older.  Her
+bridegroom was so beaming and benignant, that it might fairly be
+hoped that even if force of habit should bring back fretfulness, he
+had a stock of happiness sufficient for both.  The chairs were jammed
+so tight round the table, that it was by a desperate struggle that
+people took their seats, and Mr. Dusautoy's conversation was a series
+of apologies for being unable to keep his elbows out of his
+neighbours' way while carving, and poor Sophy, whose back was not two
+feet from the fire, was soon obliged to retreat.  She had gained the
+door before any one perceived her, and then her brother and sister
+both followed; Albinia was obliged to leave her to their care, being
+in the innermost recesses, where moving was impossible.
+
+There was not much the matter, she only wanted rest, and Gilbert
+undertook to see her safely home.
+
+'I shall be heartily glad to get away,' he said.  'There is no
+breathing in there, and they'll begin talking the most intolerable
+nonsense presently.  Besides, I want to be at home to take baby down
+to the gate to halloo at the four white horses from the King's Head.
+Come along, Sophy.'
+
+'Mind you don't make her walk too fast,' said the careful Lucy, 'and
+take care how you take off your muslin, Sophy, you had better go to
+the nursery for help.'
+
+Gilbert did not seem inclined to hurry his sister as they came near
+Madame Belmarche's.  He lingered, and presently said, 'Should you be
+too tired to come in here for a moment? it was an intolerable shame
+that none of them were asked.'
+
+'Mamma did beg for Genevieve, but there was so little room, and the
+Drurys did not like it.  Mrs. Drury said it would only be giving her
+a taste for things above her station.'
+
+'Then Mrs. Drury should never come out of the scullery.  I am sure
+she looks as if her station was to black the kettles!' cried Gilbert,
+with some domestic confusion in his indignation.  'Didn't she look
+like a housekeeper with her mistress's things on by mistake?'
+
+'She did not look like mamma, certainly,' said Sophy.  'Mamma looked
+no more aware that she had on those pretty things than if she had
+been in her old grey--'
+
+'Mamma--yes--Mrs. Drury might try seventy years to look like mamma,
+or Genevieve either!  Put Genevieve into satin or into brown holland,
+you couldn't help her looking ten times more the lady than Mrs. Drury
+ever will!  But come in, I have got a bit of the cake for them here,
+and they will like to see you all figged out, as they have missed all
+the rest of the show.  Aunt Maria might have cared for her old
+mistress!'
+
+Sophy wished to be amiable, and refrained from objecting.
+
+It was a holiday in honour of cette chere eleve of five-and-twenty
+years since, and the present pupils were from their several homes
+watching for the first apparition of the four greys from the King's
+Head, with the eight white satin rosettes at their eight ears.
+
+Madame Belmarche and her daughter were discovered in the parlour,
+cooking with a stew pan over the fire a concoction which Sophy
+guessed to be a conserve of the rose-leaves yearly begged of the
+pupils, which were chiefly useful as serving to be boiled up at any
+leisure moment, to make a cosmetic for Mademoiselle's complexion.
+She had diligently used it these forty-five years, but the effect was
+not encouraging, as brown, wrinkled, with her frizzled front awry,
+with not stainless white apron, and a long pewter spoon, she turned
+round to confront the visitors in their wedding finery.
+
+But what Frenchwoman ever was disconcerted?  Away went the spoon,
+forward she sprang, both hands outstretched, and her little black
+eyes twinkling with pleasure.  'Ah! but this is goodness itself,'
+said she, in the English wherein she flattered herself no French
+idiom appeared.  'You are come to let us participate in your
+rejoicing.  Let me but summon Genevieve, the poor child is at every
+free moment trying to perfectionnate her music in the school-room.'
+
+Madame Belmarche had arisen to receive the guests with her dignified
+courtesy and heartfelt felicitations, which were not over when
+Genevieve tripped in, all freshness and grace, with her neat little
+collar, and the dainty black apron that so prettily marked her
+slender waist.  One moment, and she had arranged a resting-place for
+Sophy, and as she understood Gilbert's errand, quickly produced from
+a corner-cupboard a plate, on which he handed it to the two other
+ladies, who meanwhile paid their compliments in the most perfect
+style.
+
+The history of the morning was discussed, and Madame Belmarche
+described her sister's wedding, and the curiosity which she had
+shared with the bride for the first sight of 'le futur,' when the two
+sisters had been brought from their convent for the marriage.
+
+'But how could she get to like him?' cried Sophy.
+
+'My sister was too well brought up a young girl to acknowledge a
+preference,' replied Madame Belmarche.  'Ah! my dear, you are
+English; you do not understand these things.'
+
+'No,' said Sophy, 'I can't understand how people can marry without
+loving.  How miserable they must be!'
+
+'On the contrary, my dear, especially if one continued to live with
+one's mother.  It is far better to earn the friendship and esteem of
+a husband than to see his love grow cold.'
+
+'And was your sister happy?' asked Sophy, abruptly.
+
+'Ah, my dear, never were husband and wife more attached.  My
+brother-in-law joined the army of the Prince de Conde, and never was
+seen after the day of Valmy; and my sister pined away and died of
+grief.  My daughter and granddaughter go to the Catholic burying-ground
+at Hadminster on her fete day, to dress her grave with immortelles.'
+
+Now Sophy knew why the strip of garden grew so many of the grey-leaved,
+woolly-stemmed, little yellow-and-white everlasting flowers.  Good
+madame began to regret having saddened her on this day of joy.
+
+'Oh! no,' said Sophy, 'I like sad things best.'
+
+'Mais, non, my child, that is not the way to go through life,' said
+the old lady, affectionately.  'Look at me; how could I have lived
+had I not always turned to the bright side?  Do not think of sorrow,
+it, is always near enough.'
+
+This conversation had made an impression on Sophy, who took the first
+opportunity of expressing her indignation at the system of mariages
+de convenance.
+
+'And, mamma, she said if people began with love, it always grew cold.
+Now, has not papa loved you better and better every day?'
+
+Albinia could not be displeased, though it made her blush, and she
+could not answer such a home push.  'We don't quite mean the same
+things,' she said evasively.  'Madame is thinking of passion
+independent of esteem or confidence.  But, Sophy, this is enough even
+for a wedding-day.  Let us leave it off with our finery, and resume
+daily life.'
+
+'Only tell me one thing, mamma.'
+
+'Well?'
+
+She paused and brought it out with an effort.  It had evidently
+occupied her for a long time.  'Mamma, must not every one with
+feeling be in love once in their life?'
+
+'Well done, reserve!' thought Albinia--'but she is only a child,
+after all; not a blush, only those great eyes seeming ready to devour
+my answer.  What ought it to be?  Whatever it is, she will brood on
+it till her time comes.  I must begin, or I shall grow nervous: "Dear
+Sophy, these are not things good to think upon.  There is quite
+enough to occupy a Christian woman's heart and soul without that--no
+need for her feelings to shrivel up for want of exercise.  No, I
+don't believe in the passion once in the life being a fate, and pray
+don't you, my Sophy, or you may make yourself very silly, or very
+unhappy, or both."'
+
+Sophy drew up her head, and her brown skin glowed.  Albinia feared
+that she had said the wrong thing, and affronted her, but it was all
+working in the dark.
+
+At any rate the sullenness was dissipated, and there were no tokens
+of a recurrence.  Sophy set herself to find ways of making amends for
+the past, and as soon as she had begun to do little services for
+grandmamma, she seemed to have forgotten her gloomy anticipations,
+even while some of them were partly realized.  For as it would be
+more than justice to human nature to say that Mrs. Meadows's
+residence at Willow Lawn was a perfect success, so it would be less
+than justice to call it a failure.
+
+To put the darker side first.  Grandmamma's interest in life was to
+know the proceedings of the whole household, and comment on each.
+Now Albinia could endure housewifely advice, some espionage on her
+servants, and even counsel about her child; but she could not away
+with the anxiety that would never leave Sophy alone, tried to force
+her sociability, and regretted all extra studies, unable to perceive
+the delicate treatment her disposition needed.  And Sophy, in the
+intolerance of early girlhood, was wretched at hearing poor
+grandmamma's petty views, and narrow, ignorant prejudices.  She might
+resolve to be filial and agreeable, but too often found herself just
+achieving a moody, disgusted silence, or else bursting out with some
+true but unbecoming reproof.
+
+On the whole, all did well.  Mrs. Meadows was happy; she enjoyed the
+animation of the larger party, liked their cheerful faces, grew fond
+of Maurice, and daily more dependent on Lucy and Mrs. Kendal.
+Probably she had never before had so much of her own way, and her
+gentle placid nature was left to rest, instead of being constantly
+worried.  Her son-in-law was kind and gracious, though few words
+passed between them, and he gave her a sense of protection.  Indeed,
+his patience and good-humour were exemplary; he never complained even
+when he was driven from the dining-room by the table-cloth, to find
+Maurice rioting in the morning-room, and a music lesson in the
+drawing-room, or still worse, when he heard the Drurys everywhere;
+and he probably would have submitted quietly for the rest of his
+life, had not Albinia insisted on bringing forward the plan of
+building.
+
+When Captain and Mrs. Pringle returned to Bayford to take leave, they
+found grandmamma so thoroughly at home, that Maria could find no
+words to express her gratitude.  Maria herself could hardly have been
+recognised, she had grown so like her husband in look and manner!  If
+her sentences did not always come to their legitimate development,
+they no longer seemed blown away by a frosty wind, but pushed aside
+by fresh kindly impulses, and her pride in the Captain, and the rest
+in his support, had set her at peace with all the world and with
+herself.  A comfortable, comely, happy matron was she, and even her
+few weeks beyond the precincts of Bayford had done something to
+enlarge her mind.
+
+It was as if her education had newly begun.  The fixed aim, and the
+union with a practical man, had opened her faculties, not deficient
+in themselves, but contracted and nipped by the circumstances which
+she had not known how to turn to good account.  Such a fresh stage in
+middle life comes to some few, like the midsummer shoot to repair the
+foliage that has suffered a spring blight; but it cannot be reckoned on,
+and Mrs. Pringle would have been a more effective and self-possessed
+woman, a better companion to her husband, and with more root in herself,
+had Maria Meadows learnt to tune her nerves and her temper in the
+overthrow of her early hopes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+
+Maurice Ferrars was a born architect, with such a love of brick and
+mortar, that it was meritorious in him not to have overbuilt Fairmead
+parsonage.  With the sense of giving him an agreeable holiday, his
+sister wrote to him in February that Gilbert's little attic was at
+his service if he would come and give his counsel as to the building
+project.
+
+Mr. Kendal disliked the trouble and disturbance as much as Maurice
+loved it; but he quite approved and submitted, provided they asked
+him no questions; he gave them free leave to ruin him, and set out to
+take Sophy for a drive, leaving the brother and sister to their
+calculations.  Of ruin, there was not much danger, Mr. Kendal had a
+handsome income, and had always lived within it; and Albinia's
+fortune had not appeared to her a reason for increased expense, so
+there was a sufficient sum in hand to enable Mr. Ferrars to plan with
+freedom.
+
+A new drawing-room, looking southwards, with bedrooms over it, was
+the matter of necessity; and Albinia wished for a bay-window, and
+would like to indulge Lucy by a conservatory, filling up the angle to
+the east with glass doors opening into the drawing-room and hall.
+Maurice drew, and she admired, and thought all so delightful, that
+she began to be taken with scruples as to luxury.
+
+'No,' said Maurice, 'these are not mere luxuries.  You have full
+means, and it is a duty to keep your household fairly comfortable and
+at ease.  Crowded as you are with rather incongruous elements, you
+are bound to give them space enough not to clash.'
+
+'They don't clash, except poor Sophy.  Gilbert and Lucy are elements
+of union, with more plaster of Paris than stone in their nature.'
+
+'Pray, has Kendal made up his mind what to do with Gilbert?'
+
+'I have heard nothing lately; I hope he is grown too old for India.'
+
+'Gilbert is rather too well off for his good,' said Mr. Ferrars; 'the
+benefit of a profession is not evident enough.'
+
+'I know what I wish!  If he could but be Mr. Dusautoy's curate, in
+five or six years' time, what glorious things we might do with the
+parish!'
+
+'Eh! is that his wish?'
+
+'I have sometimes hoped that his mind is taking that turn.  He is
+ready to help in anything for the poor people.  Once he told me he
+never wished to look beyond Bayford for happiness or occupation; but
+I did not like to draw him out, because of his father's plans.  Why,
+what have you drawn?  The alms-houses?'
+
+'I could do no other when I was improving Gilbert's house for him.'
+
+'That would be the real improvement!  How pretty!  I will keep them
+for him.'
+
+The second post came in, bringing a letter from Gilbert to his
+father, and Albinia was so much surprised, that her brother asked
+whether Gilbert were one of the boys who only write to their father
+with a reason.
+
+'He can write more freely to me,' said Albinia; 'and it comes to the
+same thing.  I am not in the least afraid of anything wrong, but
+perhaps he may be making some proposal for the future.  I want to
+know how he is.  Fancy his being so foolish as to go out bathing.  I
+am afraid of his colds.'
+
+Many times during the consultation did Mr. Ferrars detect Albinia's
+eye stealing wistfully towards that 'E. Kendal, Esq.;' and when the
+proper owner came in, he was evidently as much struck, for he paused,
+as if in dread of opening the letter.  Her eyes were on his
+countenance as he read, and did not gather much consolation.  'I am
+afraid this is serious,' at last he said.
+
+'His cold?' exclaimed Albinia.
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Kendal, reading aloud sentence by sentence, with
+gravity and consideration.
+
+
+'I do not wish to alarm Mrs. Kendal, and therefore address myself at once
+to you, for I do not think it right to keep you in ignorance that I have
+had some of the old symptoms.  I do not wish to make any one uneasy about
+me, and I may have made light of the cold I caught a month since; but I
+cannot conceal from myself that I have much painful cough, an inclination
+to shortness of breath, and pain in the back and shoulders, especially
+after long reading or writing.  I thought it right to speak to Mr.
+Downton, but people in high health can understand nothing short of a
+raging fever; however, at last he called in the parish surgeon, a stupid,
+ignorant fellow, who understands my case no more than his horse, and
+treats me with hyoscyamus, as if it were a mere throat-cough.  I thought
+it my duty to speak openly, since, though I am quite aware that
+circumstances make little difference in constitutional cases, I know you
+and dear Mrs. Kendal will wish that all possible means should be used,
+and I think it--'
+
+
+Mr. Kendal broke down, and handed the letter to his wife, who
+proceeded,
+
+
+'I think it best you should be prepared for the worst, as I wish and
+endeavour to be; and truly I see so much trial and disappointment in the
+course of life before me, that it would hardly be the worst to me,
+except--'
+
+
+That sentence finished Albinia's voice, and stealing her hand into
+her husband's, she read on in silence,
+
+
+'for the additional sorrow to you, and my grief at bringing pain to my
+more than mother, but she has long known of the presentiment that has
+always hung over me, and will be the better prepared for its realization.
+If it would be any satisfaction to you, I could easily take a ticket,
+and go up to London to see any physician you would prefer.  I could go
+with Price, who is going for his sister's birthday, and I could sleep
+at his father's house; but, in that case, I should want three pounds
+journey money, and I should be very glad if you would be so kind as to
+let me have a sovereign in advance of my allowance, as Price knows of
+a capital secondhand bow and arrows.  With my best love to all,
+                                   'Your affectionate son,
+                                               'GILBERT KENDAL.'
+
+
+Albinia held the letter to her brother, to whom she looked for
+something cheering, but, behold! a smile was gaining uncontrollably
+on the muscles of his cheeks, though his lips strove hard to keep
+closely shut.  She would not look at him, and turning to her husband,
+exclaimed, 'We will take him to London ourselves!'
+
+'I am afraid that would be inconvenient,' observed Maurice.
+
+'That would not signify,' continued Albinia; 'I must hear myself what
+is thought of him, and how I am to nurse him.  Oh! taking it in time,
+dear Edmund, we need not be so much afraid!  Maurice will not mind
+making his visit another time.'
+
+'I only meant inconvenient to the birthday party,' drily said her
+brother.
+
+'Maurice!' cried she, 'you don't know the boy!'
+
+'I have no doubt that he has a cold.'
+
+'And I know there is a great deal more the matter!' cried Albinia.
+'We have let him go away to be neglected and badly treated!  My poor,
+dear boy!  Edmund, I will fetch him home to-morrow.'
+
+'You had better send me,' said Maurice, mischievously, for he saw he
+was diminishing Mr. Kendal's alarm, and had a brotherly love of
+teasing Albinia, and seeing how pretty she looked with her eyes
+flashing through wrathful tears, and her foot patting impetuously on
+the carpet.
+
+'You!' she cried; 'you don't believe in him!  You fancy all boys are
+made of iron and steel--you would only laugh at him--you made us send
+him there--I wish--'
+
+'Gently, gently, my dear Albinia,' said her husband, dismayed at her
+vehemence, just when it most amused her brother.  'You cannot expect
+Maurice to feel exactly as we do, and I confess that I have much hope
+that this alarm may be more than adequate.'
+
+'He thinks it all a scheme!' said Albinia, in a tone of great injury.
+
+'No, indeed, Albinia,' answered her brother, seriously, 'I fully
+believe that Gilbert imagines all that he tells you, but you cannot
+suppose that either the tutor or doctor could fail to see if he were
+so very ill.'
+
+'Certainly not,' assented Mr. Kendal.
+
+'And low spirits are more apt to accompany a slight ailment, than
+such an illness as you apprehend.'
+
+'I believe you are right,' said Mr. Kendal.  'Where is the letter?'
+
+Albinia did not like it to come under discussion, but could not
+withhold it, and as she read it again, she felt that neither Maurice
+nor her cousin Fred could have written the like, but she was only the
+more impelled to do battle, and when she came to the unlucky
+conclusion, she exclaimed, 'I am sure that was an afterthought.  I
+dare say Price asked him while he was writing.'
+
+'What's this?' asked Mr. Kendal, coming to the 'presentiment.'
+
+She hesitated, afraid both of him and of Maurice, but there was no
+alternative.  'Poor Gilbert!' she said.  'It was a cry or call from
+his brother just at last.  It has left a very deep impression.'
+
+'Indeed!' said his father, much moved.  'Yes.  Edmund gave a cry such
+as was not to be forgotten,' and the sigh told how it had haunted his
+own pillow; 'but I had not thought that Gilbert was in a condition to
+notice it.  Did he mention it to you?'
+
+'Yes, not long after I came, he thinks it was a call, and I have
+never known exactly how to deal with it.'
+
+'It is a case for very tender handling,' said Maurice.
+
+'I should have desired him never to think of it again,' said Mr.
+Kendal, decidedly.  'Mere nonsense to dwell on it.  Their names were
+always in Edmund's mouth, and it was nothing but accident.  You
+should have told him so, Albinia.'
+
+And he walked out of the room.
+
+'Ah! it will prey upon him now,' said Albinia.
+
+'Yes, I thought he only spoke of driving it away because it was what
+he would like to be able to do.  But things do not prey on people of
+his age as they do on younger ones.'
+
+'I wonder if I did right,' said Albinia.  'I never liked to ask you,
+though I wished it.  I could not bear to treat it as a fancy.  How
+was I to know, if it may not have been intended to do him good?  And
+you see his father says it was very remarkable.'
+
+'Do you imagine that it dwells much upon his mind?'
+
+'Not when he is well--not when it would do him good,' said Albinia;
+'it rather haunts him the instant he is unwell.'
+
+'He makes it a superstition, then, poor boy!  You thought me hard on
+him, Albinia; but really I could not help being angry with him for so
+lamentably frightening his father and you.'
+
+'Let us see how he is before you find fault with him,' said Albinia.
+
+'You're as bad as if you were his mother, or worse!' exclaimed
+Maurice.
+
+'Oh! Maurice, I can't help it!  He had no one to care for him till I
+came, and he is such a very dear fellow--he wants me so much!'
+
+Mr. Ferrars agreed to go with Mr. Kendal to Traversham.  He thought
+his father would be encouraged by his presence, and he was not devoid
+of curiosity.  Albinia would not hear of staying at home; in fact,
+Maurice suspected her of being afraid to trust Gilbert to his mercy.
+
+With a trembling heart she left the train at the little Traversham
+station, making resolutions neither to be too angry with the
+negligent tutor, nor to show Gilbert how much importance she attached
+to his illness.
+
+As they walked into the village, they heard a merry clamour of
+tongue, and presently met five or six boys, and, a few paces behind
+them, Mr. Downton.
+
+'Ah!' he exclaimed, 'I am glad you are come.  I would have written
+yesterday, but that I found your boy had done so.  I shall be very
+glad to have him cheered up about himself.  I will turn back with
+you.  You go on, Price.  They are setting out for one of Hullah's
+classes, so we shall have the house clear.'
+
+'I hope there is not much amiss?' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'A tedious cold,' said the tutor; 'but the doctor assures me that
+there is nothing wrong with his chest, and I do believe he would not
+cough half so much, if he were not always watching himself.'
+
+'Who has been attending him?'
+
+'Lee, the union doctor, a very good man, with a large family,'
+(Albinia could have beaten him).  'Indeed,' he continued perceiving
+some dissatisfied looks, 'I think you will find that a little change
+is all that he wants.'
+
+'I hope you can give a good account of him in other respects?' said
+Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Oh! yes, in every way; he is the most good-natured lad in the world,
+and quite the small boys' friend.  Perhaps he has been a little more
+sentimental of late, but that may be only from being rather out of
+order.  I'll call him.'
+
+The last words were spoken as they entered the parsonage, where
+opening a door, he said, 'Here, Kendal, here's a new prescription for
+you.'
+
+Albinia had a momentary view of a tabby-cat and kitten, a volume of
+poetry, a wiry-haired terrier, and Gilbert, all lying promiscuously
+on the hearth-rug, before the two last leaped up, the one to bark,
+and the other to come forward with outstretched hand, and glad
+countenance.
+
+He looked flushed and languid, but the roaring fire and close room
+might account for that, and though, when the subject was mentioned,
+he gave a short uncomfortable cough, Albinia's mind was so far
+relieved, that she was in doubt with whom to be angry, and prepared
+to stand on the defensive, should her brother think him too well.
+
+The gentlemen went away together, and Gilbert, grasping her hand,
+gave way to one of his effusions of affection--'So kind to come to
+him--he knew he had her to trust to, whatever happened'--and he leant
+his cheek on his hand in a melancholy mood.
+
+'Don't be so piteous, Gibbie,' she said.  'You were quite right to
+tell us you were not well, only you need not have been so very
+doleful, I don't like papa to be frightened.'
+
+'I thought it was no use to go on in this way,' said Gilbert, with a
+cough: 'it was the old thing over again, and nobody would believe I
+had anything the matter with me.'
+
+And he commenced a formidable catalogue of symptoms which satisfied
+her that Maurice would think him fully justified.  Just at a point
+where it was not easy to know what next to say, the kitten began to
+play tricks with her mother's tail, and a happy diversion was made;
+Gilbert began to exhibit the various drolleries of the animals, to
+explain the friendship between dog and cat, and to leave off coughing
+as he related anecdotes of their sagacity; and finally, when the
+gentlemen returned, laughing was the first sound they heard, and Mrs.
+Kendal was found sitting on the floor at play with the livestock.
+
+They had come to fetch her to see the church and schools, and on
+going out, she found that Mr. Ferrars had moved and carried that
+Gilbert should be taken home at once, and, on the way, be shown to a
+physician at the county town.  From this she gathered that Maurice
+was compassionate, and though, of course, he would make no such
+admission, she had reason afterwards to believe that he had shown Mr.
+Downton that the pupil's health ought to have met with a shade more
+attention.
+
+With Gilbert wrapped up to the tip of his nose, they set off, and
+found the doctor at home.  Nothing could have been more satisfactory
+to Albinia, for it gave her a triumph over her brother, without too
+much anxiety for the future.  The physician detected the injury to
+the lungs left by an attack that the boy had suffered from in his
+first English winter, and had scarcely outgrown when Albinia first
+knew him.  The recent cold had so far renewed the evil, that though
+no disease actually existed, the cough must be watched, and exposure
+avoided; in fact, a licence for petting to any extent was bestowed,
+and therewith every hope of recovery.
+
+Albinia and her son sat in their corners of the carriage in secret
+satisfaction, while Mr. Kendal related the doctor's opinion to Mr.
+Ferrars, but one of them, at least, was unprepared for the summing-up.
+'Under the circumstances, Gilbert is most fortunate.  A few years
+in his native climate will quite set him up.'
+
+'Oh! but he is too old for Haileybury,' burst out Albinia, in her
+consternation.
+
+'Nearly old enough for John Kendal's bank, eh, Gilbert?'
+
+'Oh!' cried Albinia, 'pray don't let us talk of that while poor
+Gilbert is so ill.'
+
+'Hm!' said Mr. Kendal with interrogative surprise, almost
+displeasure, and no more was said.
+
+Albinia felt guilty, as she remembered that she had no more intended
+to betray her dislike to the scheme, than to gratify Gilbert by
+calling him 'so ill.'  Aristocratic and military, she had no love for
+the monied interest, and had so sedulously impressed on her friends
+that Mr. Kendal had been in the Civil Service, and quite unconnected
+with the bank, that Mr. Ferrars had told her she thought his
+respectability depended on it, and she was ashamed that her brother
+should hear her give way again so foolishly to the weakness.
+
+Gilbert became the most talkative as they drew near home, and was the
+first to spring out and open the hall door, displaying his two
+sisters harnessed tandem-fashion with packthread, and driven at full
+speed by little Maurice, armed with the veritable carriage whip!  The
+next moment it was thrown down, with a rapturous shout, and Maurice
+was lost to everything but his brother!
+
+'Oh! girls, how could you let him serve you so?' began the horrified
+Albinia.  'Sophy will be laid up for a week!'
+
+'Never mind,' said Sophy, dropping on a chair.  'Poor little fellow,
+he wished it so much!'
+
+'I tried to stop her, mamma,' said Lucy, 'but she will do as Maurice
+pleases.'
+
+'See, this is the way they will spoil my boy, the instant my back is
+turned!' said Albinia.  'What's the use of all I can do with him, if
+every one else will go and be his bond-slave!  I do believe Sophy
+would let him kill her, if he asked her!'
+
+'It is no real kindness,' said Mr. Kendal.  'Their good-nature ought
+not to go beyond reason.'
+
+The elder Maurice could hardly help shrugging his shoulders.  Well
+did he know that Mr. Kendal would have joined the team if such had
+been the will of that sovereign in scarlet merino, who stood with one
+hand in Gilbert's, and the whip in the other.
+
+'Come here, Maurice,' quoth Albinia; 'put down the whip,' and she
+extracted it from his grasp, with grave resolution, against which he
+made no struggle, gave it to Lucy to be put away, and seated him on
+her knee.  'Now listen, Maurice; poor sister Sophy is tired, and you
+are never to make a horse of her.  Do you hear?'
+
+'Yes,' said Maurice, fidgeting.
+
+'Mind, if ever you make a horse of Sophy, mamma will put you into the
+black cupboard.  You understand?'
+
+'Sophy shan't be horse,' said Maurice.  'Sophy naughty, lazy horse.
+Boy has Gibbie--'
+
+'There's gratitude,' said Mr. Ferrars, as 'Boy' slid off his mamma's
+knee, stood on tiptoe to pull the door open, and ran after Gilbert to
+grandmamma's room.
+
+'Yes,' said Albinia, 'no one is grateful for services beyond all
+reason.  So, Sophy, mind, into the cupboard he goes, the very next
+time you are so silly as to be a horse.'
+
+'To punish which of them?' asked her brother.
+
+'Sophy knows,' said Albinia.
+
+Sophy was too miserable to smile.  Sarah Anne Drury had been calling,
+and on hearing of Gilbert's indisposition, had favoured them with
+'mamma's remarks,' and when Mrs. Kendal was blamed, Sophy had
+indignantly told Sarah Anne that she knew nothing about it, and had
+no business to interfere.  Then followed the accusation, that Mrs.
+Kendal had set the whole family against their old friends, and Sophy
+had found all her own besetting sins charged upon her step-mother.
+
+'My dear!' said Albinia, 'don't you know that if a royal tiger were
+to eat up your cousin John in India, the Drurys would say Mrs. Kendal
+always let the tigers run about loose!  Nor am I sure that your
+faults are not my fault.  I helped you to be more exclusive and
+intolerant, and I am sure I tried your temper, when I did not know
+what was the matter with you--'
+
+'No--no,' said the choked voice.  It would have been an immense
+comfort to cry, or even to be able to return the kiss; but she was a
+great deal too wretched to be capable of any demonstration;
+physically exhausted by being driven about by Maurice; mentally worn
+out by the attempts to be amiable, which had degenerated into
+wrangling, full of remorse for having made light of her brother's
+illness, and, for that reason, persuaded that she was to be punished
+by seeing it become fatal.  Not a word of all this did she say, but,
+dejected and silent, she spent the evening in a lonely corner of the
+drawing-room, while her brother, in the full pleasure of returning
+home, and greatly enjoying his invalid privileges, was discussing the
+projected improvements.
+
+Talking at last brought back his cough with real violence, and he was
+sent to bed; Albinia went up with him to see that his fire burnt.  He
+set Mr. Ferrars's drawing of the alms-houses over his mantelshelf.
+'I shall nail it up to-morrow,' he said.  'I always wanted a picture
+here, and that's a jolly one to look to.'
+
+'It would be a beautiful beginning,' she said.  'I think your life
+would go the better for it, Gibbie.'
+
+'I suppose old nurse would be too grand for one,' he said, 'but I
+should like to have her so near!  And you must mind and keep old Mrs.
+Baker out of the Union for it.  And that famous old blind sailor!  I
+shall put him up a bench to sit in the sun, and spin his yarns on,
+and tell him to think himself at Greenwich.'
+
+Albinia went down, only afraid that his being so very good was a
+dangerous symptom.
+
+Sophy was far from well in the morning, and Albinia kept her
+upstairs, and sent her godfather to make her a visit.  He always did
+her good; he knew how to probe deeply, and help her to speak, and he
+gave her advice with more experience than his sister, and more
+encouragement than her father.
+
+Sophy said little, but her eyes had a softened look.
+
+'One good thing about Sophy,' said he afterwards to his sister, 'is,
+that she will never talk her feelings to death.'
+
+'That reserve is my great pain.  I don't get at the real being once
+in six months.'
+
+'So much the better for people living together.'
+
+'Well, I was thinking that you and I are a great deal more intimate
+and confidential when we meet now, than we used to be when we were
+always together.'
+
+'People can't be often confidential from the innermost when they live
+together,' said Maurice.
+
+'Since I have been a Kendal, such has been my experience.'
+
+'It was the same before, only we concealed it by an upper surface of
+chatter,' said Maurice.  '"As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth a man the
+countenance of his friend;" but if the mutual sharpening went on
+without intermission, both irons would wear away, and no work would
+be done.  Aren't you coming with me?  Edmund is going to drive me to
+Woodside to meet the pony-carriage from home.'
+
+'I wish I could; but you see what happens when I go out pleasuring!'
+
+'Well, you can take one element of mischief with you--that imp,
+Maurice.'
+
+'Ye--es.  Papa would like it, if you do.'
+
+'I should like you to come on worse terms.'
+
+'Very well, then; and Sophy is safe; I had already asked Genevieve to
+come and read to her this afternoon.  If Gilbert can spare me, I will
+go.'
+
+Gilbert did not want her, and begged Lucy not to think of staying
+indoors on his account.  He was presently left in solitary possession
+of the drawing-room, whereupon he rose, settled his brown locks at
+the glass, arranged his tie, brushed his cuffs, leisurely walked
+upstairs, and tapped at the door of the morning-room, meekly asking,
+'May I come in?' with a cough at each end of the sentence.
+
+'Oh! Gilbert!' cried his anxious sister, starting up.  'Are you come
+to see me?' and she would have wheeled round her father's arm-chair
+for him, but Genevieve was beforehand with her, and he sank into it,
+saying pathetically, 'Ah! thank you, Miss Durant; you are come to a
+perfect hospital.  Oh! this is too much,' as she further gave him a
+footstool.  'Oh! no, thank you, Sophy,' for she would have handed
+Genevieve her own pillow for his further support; 'this is
+delightful!' reclining pathetically in his chair.  'This is not like
+Traversham.'
+
+'Where they would not believe he was ill!' said Sophy.
+
+'I hope he does not look so very ill,' said Genevieve, cheerfully,
+but this rather hurt the feelings of both; the one said, 'Oh! but he
+is terribly pale,' the other coughed, and said, 'Looks are
+deceitful.'
+
+'That is the very reason,' said Genevieve.  'You don't look deceitful
+enough to be so ill--so ill as Miss Sophie fears; now you are at
+home, and well cared for, you will soon be well.'
+
+'Care would have prevented it all,' said Sophy.
+
+'And not brought me home!' said Gilbert.  'Home is home on any terms.
+No one there had the least idea a fellow could ever be unwell or out
+of spirits!'
+
+'Ah! you must have been ill,' cried his sister, 'you who never used
+to be miserable!'
+
+Gilbert gave a sigh.  'They were such mere boys,' he said.
+
+'Monsieur votre Precepteur?' asked Genevieve.
+
+'Ah! he was otherwise occupied!'
+
+'There is some mystery beneath,' said Genevieve, turning to Sophy,
+who exclaimed abruptly, 'Oh! is he in love?'
+
+'Sophy goes to the point,' said Gilbert, smiling, the picture of
+languid comfort; 'but I own there are suspicious circumstances.  He
+always has a photograph in his pocket, and Price has seen him looking
+at it.'
+
+'Ah! depend upon it, Miss Sophy, it is all a romance of these young
+gentlemen,' said Genevieve, turning to her with a droll provoking air
+of confidence; 'ce pauvre Monsieur had the portrait of his sister!'
+
+'Catch me carrying Sophy's face in my waistcoat pocket, cried
+Gilbert, forgetting his languor.
+
+'Speak for yourself, Mr. Gilbert,' laughed Genevieve.
+
+'And he writes letters every day, and wont let any of us put them
+into the post for him; but we know the direction begins with Miss--'
+
+'Oh! the curious boys!' cried Genevieve.  'If I could only hint to
+this poor tutor to let them read Miss Downton on one!'
+
+'I assure you,' cried Gilbert, 'Price has laid a bet that she's an
+heiress with forty thousand pounds and red hair.'
+
+'Mr. Price is an impertinent!  I hope you will inform me how he looks
+when he is the loser.'
+
+'But he has seen her!  He met Mr. Downton last Christmas in Regent
+Street, in a swell carriage, with a lady with such carrots, he
+thought her bonnet was on fire; and Mr. Downton never saw Price,
+though he bowed to him, and you know nobody would marry a woman with
+red hair unless she was an heiress.'
+
+'Miss Sophy,' whispered Genevieve, 'prepare for a red-haired
+sister-in-law.  I predict that every one of the pupils of the respectable
+Mr. Downton will marry ladies with lively chestnut locks.'
+
+'What, you think me so mercenary, Genevieve?' said Gilbert.
+
+'I only hope to see this school-boy logic well revenged!' said
+Genevieve.  'Mrs. Price shall have locks of orange red, and for Mrs.
+Gilbert Kendal--ah! we will content ourselves with her having a paler
+shade--sandy gold.'
+
+'No,' said Gilbert, speaking slowly, turning round his eyes.  'I
+could tell you what Mrs. G. Kendal's hair will be--'
+
+Genevieve let this drop, and said, 'You do not want me: good-bye,
+Miss Sophie.'
+
+'Going! why, you came to read to me, Genevieve,' exclaimed Sophy.
+
+'Ah! I beg your pardon, I have been interrupting you all this time,'
+cried Gilbert; 'I never meant to disturb you.  Pray let me listen.'
+
+And Genevieve read while Gilbert resumed his reclining attitude, with
+half-closed eyes, listening to the sweet intonations and pretty
+refined accent of the ancien regime.
+
+Sophy enjoyed this exceedingly, she made it her especial occupation
+to take care of Gilbert, and enter into his fireside amusements.
+This indisposition had drawn the two nearer together, and essentially
+unlike as they were, their two characters seemed to be fitting well
+one into the other.  His sentiment accorded with her strain of
+romance, and they read poetry and had discussions as they sat over
+the fire, growing constantly into greater intimacy and confidence.
+Sophy waited on him, and watched him perpetually, and her assiduity
+was imparting a softness and warmth quite new to her, while the
+constant occupation kept affronts and vexations out of her sight, and
+made her amiable.
+
+Gilbert's health improved, though with vicissitudes that enforced the
+necessity of prudence.  Rash when well, and desponding at each
+renewal of illness, he was not easy to manage, but he was always so
+gentle, grateful, and obliging, that he endeared himself to the whole
+household.  It was no novelty for him to be devoted to his step-mother
+and his little brother, but he was likewise very kind to Lucy,
+and spent much time in helping in her pursuits; he was becoming
+companionable to his father, and could play at chess sufficiently
+well to be a worthy antagonist in Mr. Kendal's scientific and
+interminable games.  He would likewise play at backgammon with
+grandmamma, and could entertain her for hours together by listening
+to her long stories of the old Bayford world.  He was a favourite in
+her little society, and would often take a hand at cards to make up a
+rubber, nay, even when not absolutely required, he was very apt to
+bestow his countenance upon the little parties, where he had the
+pleasure of being treated as a great man, and which, at least, had
+the advantage of making a variation in his imprisonment during the
+east winds.
+
+Madame Belmarche and her daughter and grandchild were sometimes of
+the party, and on these occasions, Sophy always claimed Genevieve,
+and usually succeeded in carrying her off when Gilbert would often
+join them.  Their books and prints were a great treat to her; Gilbert
+had a beautiful illustrated copy of Longfellow's poems, and the
+engravings and 'Evangeline' were their enjoyment; Gilbert regularly
+proffering the loan of the book, and she as regularly refusing it,
+and turning a deaf ear to gentle insinuations of the pleasure of
+knowing that an book of his was in her hands.  Gilbert had never had
+much of the schoolboy manner, and he was adopting a gentle, pathetic
+tone, at which Albinia was apt to laugh, but in her absence was often
+verged upon tendresse, especially with Genevieve.  She, however, by
+her perfect simplicity and lively banter, always nipped the bud of
+his sentiment, she had known him from a child, and never lost the
+sense of being his elder, treating him somewhat as a boy to be played
+with.  Perfectly aware of her own position, her demeanour, frank and
+gracious as it was, had something in it which kept in check other
+Bayford youths less gentlemanlike than Gilbert Kendal.  If she never
+forgot that she was dancing-master's daughter, she never let any one
+else forget that she was a lady.
+
+When the building began, Gilbert had a wholesome occupation, saving
+his father some trouble and--not quite so much expense by overlooking
+the workmen.  Mr. Kendal was glad to be spared giving orders and
+speaking to people, and would always rather be overcharged than be at
+the pains of bargaining or inquiring.  'It was Gilbert's own house,'
+he said, 'and it was good for the boy to take an interest in it, and
+not to be too much interfered with.'  So the bay window and the
+conservatory were some degrees grander than Mr. Ferrars had proposed
+but all was excused by the pleasure and experience they afforded
+Gilbert, and it was very droll to see Maurice following him about
+after the workmen, watching them most knowingly, and deep in mischief
+at every opportunity.  Once he had been up to his knees in a tempting
+blancmanger-like lake of lime, many times had he hammered or cut his
+fingers, and once his legs had gone through the new drawing-room
+ceiling, where he hung by the petticoats screaming till rescued by
+his brother.  The room was under these auspices finished, and was a
+very successful affair--the conservatory, in which the hall
+terminated, and into which a side door of the drawing-room opened,
+gave a bright fragrant, flowery air to the whole house; and the low
+fireplace and comfortable fan-shaped fender made the room very
+cheerful.  Fresh delicately-tinted furniture, chosen con amore by the
+London aunts, had made the apartment very unlike old Willow-Lawn, and
+Albinia had so much enjoyed setting it off to the best advantage,
+that she sent word to Winifred that she was really becoming a
+furniture fancier.
+
+It was a very pretty paper, and some choice prints hung on it, but
+Albinia and Sophy had laid violent hands on all the best-looking
+books, and kept them for the equipment of one of the walls.  The rest
+were disposed, for Mr. Kendal's delectation, in the old drawing-room,
+henceforth to be named the library.  Lucy thought it sounded better,
+and he was quite as willing as Albinia was that the name of study
+should be extinct.  Meantime Mr. Downton had verified the boys'
+prediction by writing to announce that he was about to marry and give
+up pupils.
+
+Gilbert was past seventeen, and it was time to decide on his
+profession.  Albinia had virtuously abstained from any hint adverse
+to the house of Kendal and Kendal, for she knew it hurt her husband's
+feelings to hear any disparagement of the country where he had spent
+some of his happiest years.  He was fond of his cousins, and knew
+that they would give his son a safe and happy home, and he believed
+that the climate was exactly what his health needed.
+
+Sophy fired at the idea.  Her constant study of the subject and her
+vivid imagination had taken the place of memory, which could supply
+nothing but the glow of colouring and the dazzling haze which
+enveloped all the forms that she would fain believe that she
+remembered.  She and her father would discuss Indian scenery as if
+they had been only absent from it a year, she envied Gilbert his
+return thither, but owned that it was the next thing to going
+herself, and was already beginning to amass a hoard of English gifts
+for the old ayahs and bearers who still lived in her recollection, in
+preparation for the visit which on his first holiday her brother must
+pay to her birthplace and first home.
+
+Gilbert, however, took no part in this enthusiasm, he made no
+opposition, but showed no alacrity; and at last his father asked
+Albinia whether she knew of any objection on his part, or any design
+which he might be unwilling to put forward.  With a beating heart she
+avowed her cherished scheme.
+
+'Is this his own proposal?' asked Mr. Kendal.
+
+'No; he has never spoken of it, but your plan has always seemed so
+decided that perhaps he thinks he has no choice.'
+
+'That is not what I wish,' said his father.  'If his inclinations be
+otherwise, he has only to speak, and I will consider.'
+
+'Shall I sound him?' suggested Albinia, dreading the timidity that
+always stood between the boy and his father.
+
+'Do not inspire him with the wish and then imagine it his own,' said
+Mr. Kendal; and then thinking he had spoken sternly, added 'I know
+you would be the last to wish him to take holy orders inconsiderately,
+but you have such power over him, that I question whether he would
+know his wishes from yours.'
+
+Albinia began to disavow the desire of actuating him.
+
+'You would not intend it, but he would catch the desire from you, and
+I own I would rather he were not inspired with it.  If he now should
+express it, I should fear it was the unconscious effort to escape
+from India.  If it had been his brother Edmund, I would have made any
+sacrifice, but I do not think Gilbert has the energy or force of
+character I should wish to see in a clergyman, nor do I feel willing
+to risk him at the university.'
+
+'Oh! Edmund, why will you distrust Oxford?  Why will you not believe
+what I know through Maurice and his friends?'
+
+'If my poor boy had either the disposition or the discipline of your
+brother, I should not feel the same doubt.'
+
+'Maurice had no discipline except at school and when William licked
+him,' cried Albinia.  'You know he was but eleven years old when my
+father died, and my aunts spoilt us without mitigation.'
+
+'I said the disposition,' repeated Mr. Kendal; 'I can see nothing in
+Gilbert marking him for a clergyman, and I think him susceptible to
+the temptations that you cannot deny to exist at any college.  Nor
+would I desire to see him fixed here, until he has seen something of
+life and of business, for which this bank affords the greatest
+facilities with the least amount of temptation.  He would also be
+doing something for his own support; and with the life-interests upon
+his property, he must be dependent on his own exertions, unless I
+were to do more for him than would be right by the other children.'
+
+'Then I am to say nothing to him?'
+
+'I will speak to him myself.  He is quite old enough to understand
+his prospects and decide for himself.'
+
+'But, Edmund,' cried Albinia, with sudden vehemence, 'you are not
+sacrificing Gilbert for Maurice's sake?'
+
+She had more nearly displeased him than she had ever done before,
+though he looked up quietly, saying, 'Certainly not.  I am not
+sacrificing Gilbert, and I should do the same if Maurice were not in
+existence.'
+
+She was too much ashamed of her foolish fancy to say more, and she
+cooled into candour sufficient to perceive that he was wise in
+distrusting her tact where her preference was so strong.  But she
+foresaw that Gilbert would shrink and falter before his father, and
+that the conference would lead to no discovery of his views, and she
+was not surprised when her husband told her that he could not
+understand the boy, and believed that the truth was, that he would
+like to do nothing at all.  It had ended by Mr. Kendal, in a sort of
+despair, undertaking to write to his cousin John for a statement of
+what would be required, after which the decision was to be made.
+
+Meantime Mr. Kendal advised Gilbert to attend to arithmetic and
+book-keeping, and offered to instruct him in his long-forgotten
+Hindostanee.  Sophy learnt all these with all her heart, but Gilbert
+always had a pain in his chest if he sat still at any kind of study!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+
+Colonel Bury was the most open-hearted old bachelor in the country.
+His imagination never could conceive the possibility of everybody not
+being glad to meet everybody, his house could never be too full, his
+dinner-parties of 'a few friends' overflowed the dining-room, and his
+'nobody' meant always at least six bodies.  Every season was fertile
+in occasions of gathering old and young together to be made happy,
+and little Mary Ferrars, at five years old, had told her mamma that
+'the Colonel's parties made her quite dissipated.'
+
+One bright summer day, his beaming face appeared at Willow-Lawn with
+a peremptory invitation.  His nephew and heir had newly married a
+friend of Albinia's girlhood, and was about to pay his wedding visit.
+Too happy to keep his guests to himself, the Colonel had fixed the
+next Thursday for a fete, and wanted all the world to come to it--the
+Kendals, every one of them--if they could only sleep there--but
+Albinia brought him to confession that he had promised to lodge five
+people more than the house would hold; and the aunts were at the
+parsonage, where nobody ventured to crowd their servants.
+
+But there was a moon--and though Mr. Kendal would not allow that she
+was the harvest moon, the hospitable Colonel dilated on her as if she
+had been bed, board, and lodging, and he did not find much difficulty
+in his persuasions.
+
+Few invitations ever gave more delight; Albinia appreciated a holiday
+to the utmost, and the whole family was happy at Sophy's chance of at
+length seeing Fairmead, and taking part in a little gaiety.  And if
+Mr. Kendal's expectations of pleasure were less high, he submitted
+very well, smiled benignantly at the felicity around him, and was not
+once seen to shudder.
+
+Sarah Anne Drury had been invited to enliven grandmamma, and every
+one augured a beautiful day and perfect enjoyment.  The morning was
+beautiful, but alas! Sophy was hors de combat, far too unwell to
+think of making one of the party.  She bore the disappointment
+magnanimously, and even the pity.  Every one was sorry, and Gilbert
+wanted her to go and wait at Fairmead Parsonage for the chance of
+improving, promising to come and fetch her for any part of the
+entertainment; and her father told her that he had looked to her as
+his chief companion while the gay people were taking their pleasure.
+No one was uncomfortably generous enough to offer to stay at home
+with her; but Lucy suggested asking Genevieve to come and take care
+of her.
+
+'Nay,' said Sophy, 'it would be much better if she were to go in my
+stead.'
+
+Gilbert and Lucy both uttered an exclamation; and Sophy added, 'She
+would have so much more enjoyment than I could!  Oh, it would quite
+make up for my missing it!'
+
+'My dear,' said grandmamma, 'you don't know what you are talking of.
+It would be taking such a liberty.'
+
+'There need be no scruples on that score,' said Albinia; 'the Colonel
+would only thank me if I brought him half Bayford.'
+
+'Then,' cried Sophy, 'you think we may ask her?  Oh, I should like to
+run up myself;'--and a look of congratulation and gratitude passed
+between her and her brother.
+
+'No, indeed, you must not, let me go,' said Lucy, 'I'll just finish
+this cup of tea--'
+
+'My dear, my dear,' interposed Mrs. Meadows, 'pray consider.  She is
+a very good little girl in her way, but it is only giving her a taste
+for things out of her station'
+
+'Oh! don't say that, dear grandmamma,' interposed Albinia, 'one good
+festival does carry one so much better through days of toil!'
+
+'Ah, well! my dear, you will do as you think proper; but considering
+who the poor child is, I should call it no kindness to bring her
+forward in company.'
+
+Something passed between the indignant Gilbert and Sophy about French
+counts and marquises, but Lucy managed much better.  'Dear me,
+grandmamma, nobody wishes to bring her forward.  She will only play
+with the children, and see the fireworks, and no one will speak to
+her.'
+
+Albinia averted further discussion till grandmamma had left the
+breakfast-table, when all four appealed with one voice to Mr. Kendal,
+who saw no objection, whereupon Lucy ran off, while Albinia finished
+her arrangements for the well-being of grandmamma, Sophy, and
+Maurice, who were as difficult to manage as the fox, goose, and
+cabbage.   At every turn she encountered Gilbert, touching up his
+toilette at each glass, and seriously consulting her and Sophy upon
+the choice between lilac and lemon-coloured gloves, and upon the bows
+of his fringed neck-tie.
+
+'My dear Gilbert,' said Albinia, on the fifth anxious alternative,
+'it is of no use.  No living creature will be the wiser, and do what
+you will, you will never look half so well as your father.'
+
+Gilbert flung aside, muttering something about 'fit to be seen,' but
+just then Lucy hurried in.  'Oh! mamma, she wont go--she is very much
+obliged, but she can't go.'
+
+'Can't! she must,' cried Albinia and Gilbert together.
+
+'She says you are very kind, but that she cannot.  I said everything
+I could; I told her she should wear Sophy's muslin mantle, or my
+second best polka.'
+
+'No doubt you went and made a great favour of it,' said Gilbert.
+
+'No, I assure you I did not; I persuaded her with all my might; I
+said mamma wished it, and we all wished it; and I am sure she would
+really have been very glad if she could have gone.'
+
+'It can't be the school, it is holiday time,' said Gilbert.  'I'll go
+and see what is the matter.'
+
+'No, I will go,' said Albinia, 'I will ask the old ladies to luncheon
+here, and that will make her happy, and make it easier for Sophy to
+get on with Sarah Anne Drury.'
+
+Lucy had seen Genevieve alone; Albinia took her by storm before
+Madame Belmarche, whose little black eyes sparkled as she assured
+Mrs. Kendal that the child merited that and every other pleasure; and
+when Genevieve attempted to whisper objections, silenced her with an
+embrace, saying, 'Ah! my love, where is your gratitude to Madame?
+Have no fears for us.  Your pleasure will be ours for months to
+come.'
+
+The liquid sweetness of Genevieve's eyes spoke of no want of
+gratitude, and with glee which she no longer strove to repress, she
+tripped away to equip herself, and Albinia heard her clear young
+voice upstairs, singing away the burthen of some queer old French
+ditty.
+
+Albinia found Gilbert and Sophy in disgrace with Lucy for having
+gathered the choicest flowers, which they were eagerly making up into
+bouquets.  Genevieve's was ready before she arrived in the prettiest
+tremor of gratitude and anticipation, and presented to her by
+Gilbert, whilst Sophy looked on, and blushed crimson, face, neck, and
+all, as Genevieve smelt and admired the white roses that had so
+cruelly been reft from Lucy's beloved tree.
+
+With every advantage of pretty features, good complexion, and nice
+figure, the English Lucy, in her blue-and-white checked silk, worked
+muslin mantle, and white chip bonnet with blue ribbons, was eclipsed
+by the small swarthy French girl, in that very old black silk dress,
+and white trimmed coarse straw bonnet, just enlivened by little pink
+bows at the neck and wrists.  It had long been acknowledged that
+Genevieve was unrivalled in the art of tying bows, and those pink
+ones were paragons, redolent of all her own fresh sprightly archness
+and refinement.  Albinia herself was the best representative of
+English good looks, and never had she been more brilliant, her rich
+chestnut hair waving so prettily on the rounded contour of her happy
+face, her fair cheek tinted with such a healthy fresh bloom, her grey
+eyes laughing with merry softness, her whole person so alert and
+elastic with exuberant life and enjoyment, that grandmamma was as
+happy in watching her as if she had been her own daughter, and
+stroked down the broad flounces of her changeable silk, and admired
+her black lace, as if she felt the whole family exalted by Mrs.
+Kendal's appearance.
+
+It was a merry journey, through the meadows and corn-fields, laughing
+in the summer sunshine, and in due time they saw the flag upon
+Fairmead steeple, and Albinia nodded to curtseying old friends at the
+cottage doors.  The lodge gate swung open wide, and the well-known
+striped marquee was seen among the trees in the distance, as they
+went up the carriage road; but at the little iron gate leading to the
+shrubbery there was a halt; Mr. Ferrars called to the carriage to
+stop, and opened the door.  At the same moment Albinia gave a cry of
+wonder, and exclaimed, 'Why, Fred? is William here?'
+
+'No; at Montreal, but very well,' was the answer, with a hearty shake
+of the hand.
+
+'Edmund, it is Fred Ferrars,' said Albinia.  'Why, Maurice, you never
+told us.'
+
+'He took us by surprise yesterday.'
+
+'Yes; I landed yesterday morning, went to the Family Office, found
+Belraven was nowhere, and the aunts at Fairmead, and so came on
+here,' explained Fred, as be finished shaking hands with all the
+party, and walked on beside Albinia.  He was tall, fresh-coloured, a
+good deal like her, with a long fair moustache, and light, handsome
+figure; and Lucy, though rather disconcerted at Genevieve being taken
+for one of themselves, began eagerly to whisper her conviction that
+he was Lord Belraven's brother, mamma's first cousin, captain in the
+25th Lancers, and aide-de-camp to General Ferrars.
+
+It was the first meeting since an awkward parting.  The only son of a
+foolish second marriage, and early left an orphan, Frederick Ferrars
+bad grown up under the good aunts' charge, somewhat neglected by his
+half-brother, by many years his senior.  He was little older than
+Albinia, and a merry, bantering affection had always subsisted
+between them, till he had begun to give it the air of something more
+than friendship.  Albinia was, however, of a nature to seek for
+something of depth and repose, on which to rely for support and
+anchorage.  Fred's vivacious disposition had never for a moment won
+her serious attachment; she was 'very fond of him,' but no more; her
+heart was set on sharing her brother's life as a country pastor.  She
+went to Fairmead, Fred was carried off by the General to Canada, and
+she presently heard of his hopeless attachment to a lovely Yankee,
+whom he met on board the steamer.  All this was now cast behind the
+seven most eventful years of Albinia's life; and in the dignity of
+her matronhood, she looked more than ever on 'poor Fred' as a boy,
+and was delighted to see him again, and to hear of her brother
+William.
+
+A few steps brought them to the shade of the large cedar-tree, where
+was seated Winifred, and Mrs. Annesley was with her.  The greetings
+had hardly been exchanged before the Colonel came upon them in all
+his glory, with his pretty shy bride niece on his arm, looking very
+like the Alice Percy of the old times, when Fred used to tease the
+two girls.
+
+Genevieve was made heartily welcome, and Sophia's absence deplored,
+and then the Colonel carried off the younger ones to the archery,
+giving his arm to the much-flattered Lucy, and followed by Gilbert
+and Genevieve, with Willie and Mary adhering to them closely, and
+their governess in sight.
+
+Mr. Ferrars and Mr. Kendal fell into one of their discussions, and
+paced up and down the shady walk, while Albinia sat, in the complete
+contentment, between Alice and Winifred, with Fred Ferrars on the
+turf at their feet, living over again the bygone days, laughing over
+ancient jokes, resuscitating past scrapes, tracing the lot of old
+companions, or telling mischievous anecdotes of each other, for the
+very purpose of being contradicted.  They were much too light-hearted
+to note the lapse of time, till Maurice came to take his wife home,
+thinking she had had fatigue enough.  Mrs. Annesley went with her,
+and Albinia, on looking for her husband, was told that he had fallen
+in with some old Indian acquaintances; and Charles Bury presently
+came to find his wife, and conduct the party to luncheon.  There was
+no formal meal, but a perpetual refection laid out in the dining-room,
+for relays of guests.  Fred took care of Albinia and here they met
+Miss Ferrars, who had been with one of her old friends, to whom she
+was delighted to exhibit her nephew and niece in their prime of
+good looks.
+
+'But I must go,' said Albinia; 'having found the provisions, I must
+secure that Mr. Kendal and the children are not famished.'
+
+Fred came with her, and she turned down the long alley leading to the
+archery-ground.  He felt old times so far renewed as to resume their
+habits of confidence, and began, 'I suppose the General has not told
+you what has brought me home?'
+
+'He has not so much as told me you were coming.'
+
+'Ay, ay, of course you know how he treats those things.'
+
+'Oh--h!' said Albinia, perfectly understanding.
+
+'But,' continued Frederick, eagerly, 'even he confesses that she is
+the very sweetest--I mean,' as Albinia smiled at this evident
+embellishment, 'even he has not a word of objection to make except
+the old story about married officers.'
+
+'And who is _she_, Fred?'
+
+'Oh, mamma, there you are!' and Lucy joined them as they emerged on
+the bowling-green, where stood the two bright targets, and the groups
+of archers, whose shafts, for the most part, flew far and wide.
+
+'Where are the rest, my dear? are they shooting?'
+
+'Yes; Gilbert has been teaching Genevieve--there, she is shooting
+now.'
+
+The little light figure stood in advance.  Gilbert held her arrows,
+and another gentleman appeared to be counselling her.  There seemed
+to be general exultation when one of her arrows touched the white
+ring outside the target.
+
+'That has been her best shot,' said Lucy.  'I am sure I would not
+shoot in public unless I knew how!'
+
+'Do you not like shooting?' asked Captain Ferrars; and Lucy smiled,
+and lost her discontented air.
+
+'It hurts my fingers, she said; 'and I have always so much to do in
+the garden.'
+
+Albinia asked if she had had anything to eat.
+
+'Oh, yes; the Colonel asked Gilbert to carve in the tent there, for
+the children and governesses,' said Lucy, 'he and Genevieve were very
+busy there, but I found I was not of much use so, I came away with
+the Miss Bartons to look at the flowers, but now they are shooting,
+and I could not think what had become of you.'
+
+And Lucy bestowed her company on Albinia and the Captain, reducing
+him to dashing, disconnected talk, till they met Mr. Kendal,
+searching for them in the same fear that they were starving, and
+anxious to introduce his wife to his Indian friends.  When at the end
+of the path, Albinia looked round, the Lancer had disappeared, and
+Lucy was walking by her father, trying to look serenely amused by a
+discussion on the annexation of the Punjaub.
+
+The afternoon was spent in pleasant loitering, chiefly with Miss
+Ferrars, who asked much after Sophy, lamented greatly over Winifred's
+delicate health, and was very anxious to know what could have brought
+Fred home, being much afraid it was some fresh foolish attachment.
+
+Ominous notes were heard from the band, and the Colonel came to tell
+them that there was to be dancing till it was dark enough for the
+fireworks, his little Alice had promised him her first country-dance.
+Fred Ferrars emerged again with a half-laughing, half-imploring, 'For
+the sake of old times, Albinia!  We've been partners before!'
+
+'You'll take care of Lucy,' said Albinia, turning to her aunt; but
+Mr. Winthrop had already taken pity on her, and Albinia was led off
+by her cousin to her place in the fast lengthening rank.  How she
+enjoyed it!  She had cared little for London balls after the first
+novelty, but these Fairmead dances on the turf had always had an
+Arcadian charm to her fancy, and were the more delightful after so
+long an interval, in the renewal of the old scene, and the
+recognition of so many familiar faces.
+
+With bounding step and laughing lips, she flew down the middle, more
+exhilarated every moment, exchanging merry scraps of talk with her
+partner or bright fragments as she poussetted with pair after pair;
+and when the dance was over, with glowing complexion and eyes still
+dancing, she took Fred's arm, and heard the renewal of his broken
+story--the praise of his Emily, the fairest of Canadians, whom even
+the General could not dislike, though, thorough soldier as he was, he
+would fain have had all military men as devoid of encumbrances as
+himself, and thought an officer's wife one of the most misplaced
+articles in the world.  Poor Fred had been in love so often, that he
+laboured under the great vexation of not being able to persuade any
+of his friends to regard his passion seriously, but Albinia was quite
+sisterly enough to believe him this time, and give full sympathy to
+his hopes and fears.  Far less wealth had fallen to his lot than to
+that of his cousins, and his marriage must depend on what his brother
+would 'do for him,' a point on which he tried to be sanguine, and
+Albinia encouraged him against probability, for Lord Belraven was
+never liberal towards his relations, and had lately married an
+expensive wife, with whom he lived chiefly abroad.
+
+This topic was not exhausted when Fred fell a prey to the Colonel,
+who insisted on his dancing again, and Albinia telling him to do his
+duty, he turned towards a group that had coalesced round Miss
+Ferrars, consisting of Lucy, Gilbert, Genevieve, and the children
+from the parsonage, and at once bore off the little Frenchwoman,
+leaving more than one countenance blank.  Lucy and Willie did their
+best for mutual consolation, while Albinia undertook to preside over
+her niece and a still smaller partner in red velvet, in a quadrille.
+It was amusing to watch the puzzled downright motions of the sturdy
+little bluff King Hal, and the earnest precision of the prim little
+damsel, and Albinia hovering round, now handing one, now pointing to
+the other, keeping lightly out of every one's way, and far more
+playful than either of the small performers in this solemn
+undertaking.  As it concluded she found that Mr. Kendal had been
+watching her, with much entertainment, and she was glad to take his
+arm, and assure herself that he had not been miserable, but had been
+down to the parsonage, where he had read the newspaper in peace, and
+had enjoyed a cup of tea in quiet with Winifred and Mrs. Annesley.
+
+The dancing had been transferred to the tent, which presented a very
+pretty scene from without, looking through the drooping festoons of
+evergreens at the lamps and the figures flitting to and fro in their
+measured movements, while the shrubs and dark foliage of the trees
+fell into gloom around; and above, the sky assumed the deep tranquil
+blue of night, the pale bright stars shining out one by one.  The
+Kendals were alone in the terrace, far enough from the gay tumult to
+be sensible of the contrast.
+
+'How beautiful!' said Albinia: 'it is like a poem.'
+
+'I was just thinking so,' he answered.
+
+'This is the best part of all,' she said, feeling, though hardly
+expressing to herself the repose of his lofty, silent serenity,
+standing aloof from gaiety and noise.  She could have compared him
+and her lively cousin to the evening stillness contrasted with the
+mirthful scene in the tent; and though her nature seemed to belong to
+the busy world, her best enjoyment lay with what calmed and raised
+her above herself; and she was perfectly happy, standing still with
+her arm upon that of her silent husband.
+
+'These things are well imagined,' said he.  'The freedom and absence
+of formality give space for being alone and quiet.'
+
+'Yes,' said Albinia, saucily, 'when that is what you go into society
+for.'
+
+'You have me there,' he said, smiling; 'but I must own how much I
+enjoyed coming back from the parsonage by myself.  I am glad we
+brought that little Genevieve; she seems to be so perfectly in her
+element.  I saw her amusing a set of little children in the
+prettiest, most animated way; and afterwards, when the young people
+were playing at some game, her gestures were so sprightly and
+graceful, that no one could look at the English girls beside her.
+Indeed I think she was making quite a sensation; your cousin seemed
+to admire her very much.  If she were but in another station, she
+would shine anywhere.'
+
+'How much you have seen, Edmund!'
+
+'I have been a spectator, you an actor,' he said, smiling.
+
+Her quiescence did not long continue, for the poor people had begun
+to assemble on the gravel road before the front door to see the
+fireworks, and she hurried away to renew her acquaintance with her
+village friends, guessing at them in the dark, asking after old
+mothers and daughters at service, inquiring the names of new babies,
+and whether the old ones were at school, and excusing herself for
+having become 'quite a stranger.'
+
+In the midst--whish--hiss, with steady swiftness, up shot in the dark
+purple air the first rocket, bursting and scattering a rain of stars.
+There was an audible gasp in the surrounding homely world, a few
+little cries, and a big boy clutched tight hold of her arm, saying,
+'I be afeard.'  She was explaining away his alarms, when she heard
+her brother's voice, and found her arm drawn into his.
+
+'Here you are, then,' he said; 'I thought I heard your voice.'
+
+'Oh! Maurice, I have hardly seen you.  Let us have a nice quiet turn
+in the park together.'
+
+He resisted, saying, 'I don't approve of parents and guardians losing
+themselves.  What have you done with all your children?'
+
+'What have you done with yours?' retorted she.
+
+'I left Willie and Mary at the window with their governess, I came to
+see that these other children of mine were orderly.'
+
+'Most proper, prudential, and exemplary Maurice!' his sister laughed.
+'Now I have an equally hearty belief in my children being somewhere,
+sure to turn up when wanted.  Come, I want to get out from the trees
+to look for Colonel Bury's harvest moon, for I believe she is an
+imposition.'
+
+'No, I'm not coming.  You, don't understand your duties.  Your young
+ladies ought always to know where to find you, and you where to find
+them.'
+
+'Oh! Maurice, what must you have suffered before you imported
+Winifred to chaperon me!'
+
+'You are in so mad a mood that I shall attempt only one moral maxim,
+and that is, that no one should set up for a chaperon, till she has
+retired from business on her own account.'
+
+'That's a stroke at my dancing with poor Fred, but it was his only
+chance of speaking to me.'
+
+'Not particularly at the dancing.'
+
+'Well, then--'
+
+'You'll see, by-and-bye.  It was not your fault if those girls were
+not in all sorts of predicaments.'
+
+'I believe you think life is made up of predicaments.  And I want to
+hear whether William has written to you anything about poor Fred.'
+
+'Only that he is more mad than ever, and that he let him go, thinking
+that there is no chance of Belraven helping him, but that it may wear
+itself out on the journey.'
+
+A revolving circle shedding festoons of purple and crimson jets of
+fire made all their talk interjectional, and they had by this time
+reached the terrace, where all the company were assembled, the open
+windows at regular intervals casting bewildering lights on the heads
+and shoulders in front of them.  Then out burst a grand wheat-sheaf
+of yellow flame with crimson ears and beards, by whose light Albinia
+recognised Gilbert standing close to her in the shadow, and asked him
+where the rest where.'
+
+'I can't tell; Lucy and my father were here just now.'
+
+'Are you feeling the chill, Gilbert?' asked Albinia, struck by
+something in his tone.  'You had better look from the window.'
+
+He neither moved nor made answer, but a great illumination of Colonel
+Bury's coat-of-arms, with Roman candles and Chinese trees at the four
+corners, engrossed every eye, and flashing on every face, enabled
+Albinia to join Mr. Kendal, who was with Lucy and Miss Ferrars.  No
+one knew where Genevieve was, but Albinia was confident that she
+could take good care of herself, and was not too uneasy to enjoy the
+grand representation of Windsor Castle, and the finale of interlaced
+ciphers amidst a multitude of little fretful sputtering tongues of
+flame.  Then it was, amid good nights, donning of shawls, and
+announcing of carriages, that Captain Ferrars and Miss Durant made
+their appearance together, having been 'looking everywhere for Mrs.
+Kendal,' and it was not in the nature of a brother not to look a
+little arch, though Albinia returned him as resolute and satisfied a
+glance as could express 'Well, what of that?'
+
+In consideration of the night air, Mr. Kendal put Gilbert inside the
+carriage, and mounted the box, to revel in the pleasures of silence.
+The four within talked incessantly and compared adventures.  Lucy had
+been gratified by being patronized by Miss Ferrars, and likewise had
+much to say of the smaller fry, and went into raptures about many a
+'dear little thing,' none of whom would, however, stand a comparison
+with Maurice; Gilbert was critical upon every one's beauty; and
+Genevieve was more animated than all, telling anecdotes with great
+piquancy, and rehearsing the comical Yankee stories she had heard
+from Captain Ferrars.  She had enjoyed with the zest and intensity of
+a peculiarly congenial temperament, and she seemed not to be able to
+cease from working off her excitement in repetitions of her thanks,
+and in discussing the endless delights the day had afforded.
+
+But the day had begun early, and the way was long, so remarks became
+scanty, and answers were brief and went astray, and Albinia thought
+she was travelling for ever to Montreal, when she was startled by a
+pettish exclamation from Lucy, 'Is that all!  It was not worth while
+to wake me only to see the moon.'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Genevieve, 'but I thought Mrs. Kendal
+wished to see it rise.'
+
+'Thank you, Genevieve,' said Albinia, opening her sleepy eyes; 'she
+is as little worth seeing as a moon can well be, a waning moon does
+well to keep untimely hours.'
+
+'Why do you think she is so much more beautiful in the crescent, Mrs.
+Kendal?' said Genevieve, in the most wakeful manner.
+
+'I'm sure I don't know,' said Albinia, subsiding into her corner.
+
+'Is it from the situation of the mountains in the moon?' continued
+the pertinacious damsel.
+
+'In Africa!' said Albinia, well-nigh asleep, but Genevieve's laugh
+roused her again, partly because she thought it less mannerly than
+accorded with the girl's usual politeness.  No mere sleep was allowed
+her; an astronomical passion seemed to have possessed the young lady,
+and she dashed into the tides, and the causes of the harvest-moon,
+and volcanoes, and thunderbolts, and Lord Rosse's telescope, forcing
+her tired friend to reply by direct appeals, till Albinia almost
+wished her in the moon herself; and was rejoiced when in the dim
+greyness of the early summer dawn, the carriage drew up at Madame
+Belmarche's house.  As the light from the weary maid's candle flashed
+on Genevieve's face, it revealed such a glow of deep crimson on each
+brown cheek, that Albinia perceived that the excitement must have
+been almost fever, and went to bed speculating on the strange effects
+of a touch of gaiety on the hereditary French nature, startling her
+at once from her graceful propriety and humility of demeanour, into
+such extraordinary obtrusive talkativeness.
+
+She heard more the next morning that vexed her.  Lucy was seriously
+of opinion that Genevieve had not been sufficiently retiring.  She
+herself had heedfully kept under the wing of Mary's governess, mamma,
+or Miss Ferrars, and nobody had paid her any particular attention;
+but Genevieve had been with Gilbert half the day, had had all the
+gentlemen round her at the archery and in the games, had no end of
+partners in the dances, and had walked about in the dark with Captain
+Ferrars.  Lucy was sure she was taken for her sister, and whenever
+she had told people the truth, they had said how pretty she was.
+
+'You are jealous, Lucy,' Sophy said.
+
+Lucy protested that it was quite the reverse.  She was glad poor
+little Jenny should meet with any notice, there was no cause for
+jealousy of _her_, and she threw back her head in conscious beauty;
+'only she was sorry for Jenny, for they were quite turning her head,
+and laughing at her all the time.'
+
+Albinia's candour burst out as usual, 'Say no more about it, my dear;
+it was a mistake from beginning to end.  I was too much taken up with
+my own diversion to attend to you, and now you are punishing me for
+it.  I left you to take care of yourselves, and exposed poor little
+Genevieve to unkind remarks.'
+
+'I don't know what I said,' began Lucy.  'I don't mean to blame her;
+it was just as she always is with Gilbert, so very French.'
+
+That word settled it--Lucy pronounced it with ineffable pity and
+contempt--she was far less able to forgive another for being
+attractive, than for trying to attract.
+
+Sophy looked excessively hurt and grieved, and in private asked her
+step-mother what she thought of Genevieve's behaviour.
+
+'My dear, I cannot tell; I think she was off her guard with
+excitement; but all was very new to her, and there was every excuse.
+I was too happy to be wise, so no wonder she was.'
+
+'And do you think Captain Ferrars was laughing at her?  I wish you
+would tell her, mamma.  Gilbert says he is a fine, flourishing
+officer in moustaches, who, he is sure, flirts with and breaks the
+heart of every girl he meets.  If he is right, mamma, it would cure
+Genevieve to tell her so, and you would not mind it, though he is
+your cousin.'
+
+'Poor Fred!' said Albinia.  'I am sorry Gilbert conceived such a
+notion.  But Genevieve's heart is too sensible to break in that way,
+even if Fred wished it, and I can acquit him of such savage
+intentions.  I never should have seen any harm in all that Genevieve
+did last night if she had not talked us to death coming home!  Still
+I think she was off her balance, and I own I am disappointed.  But we
+don't know what it is to be born French!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+
+'Mrs. Kendal, dear Madame, a great favour, could you spare me a few
+moments?'
+
+A blushing face was raised with such an expression of contrite
+timidity, that Albinia felt sure that the poor little Frenchwoman had
+recovered from her brief intoxication, and wanted to apologize and be
+comforted, so she said kindly,
+
+'I was wishing to see you, my dear; I was afraid the day had been too
+much for you; I was certain you were feverish.'
+
+'Ah! you were so good to make excuses for me.  I am so ashamed when I
+think how tedious, how disagreeable I must have been.  It was why I
+wished to speak to you.'
+
+'Never mind apologies, my dear; I have felt and done the like many a
+time--it is the worst of enjoying oneself.'
+
+'Oh! that was not all--I could not help it--enjoyment--no!' stammered
+Genevieve.  'If you would be kind enough to come this way.'
+
+She opened her grandmother's back gate, the entrance to a slip of
+garden smothered in laurels, and led the way to a small green arbour,
+containing a round table, transformed by calico hangings into what
+the embroidered inscription called 'Autel a l'Amour filial et
+maternel,' bearing a plaster vase full of fresh flowers, but ere
+Albinia had time to admire this achievement of French sentiment,
+Genevieve exclaimed, clasping her hands, 'Oh, madame, pardon me, you
+who are so good!  You will tell no one, you will bring on him no
+trouble, but you will tell him it is too foolish--you will give him
+back his billet, and forbid him ever to send another.'
+
+Spite of the confidence about Emily, spite of all unreason, such was
+the family opinion of Fred's propensity to fall in love, that
+Albinia's first suspicion lighted upon him, but as her eye fell on
+the pink envelope the handwriting concerned her even more nearly.
+
+'Gilbert!' she cried.  'My dear, what is this?  Do you wish me to
+read it?'
+
+'Yes, for I cannot.'  Genevieve turned away, as in his best hand, and
+bad it was, Albinia read the commencement--
+
+
+"My hope, my joy, my Genevieve!"
+
+
+In mute astonishment Albinia looked up, and met Genevieve's eyes.
+'Oh, madame, you are displeased with me!' she cried in despair,
+misinterpreting the look, 'but indeed I could not help it.'
+
+'My dear child,' said Albinia, affectionately putting her arm round
+her waist, and drawing her down on the seat beside her, 'indeed I am
+not displeased with you; you are doing the very best thing possible
+by us all.  Think I am your sister, and tell me what is the meaning
+of all this, and then I will try to help you.'
+
+'Oh, madame, you are too good,' said Genevieve, weeping; and kindly
+holding the trembling hand, Albinia finished the letter, herself.
+'Silly boy!  Genevieve, dear girl, you must set my mind at rest; this
+is too childish--this is not the kind of thing that would touch your
+affections, I am sure.'
+
+'Oh! pour cela non,' said Genevieve.  'Oh! no; I am grateful to Mr.
+Gilbert Kendal, for, even as a little boy, he was always kind to me,
+but for the rest--he is so young, madame, even if I could forget--'
+
+'I see,' said Albinia.  'I am sure that you are much too good and
+sensible at your age to waste a moment's thought or pain on such a
+foolish boy, as he certainly is, Genevieve, though not so foolish in
+liking you, whatever he may be in the way of expressing it.  Though
+of course--' Albinia had floundered into a dreadful bewilderment
+between her sense of Genevieve's merits and of the incompatibility of
+their station, and she plunged out by asking, 'And how long has this
+been going on?'
+
+Genevieve hesitated.  'To speak the truth, madame, I have long seen
+that, like many other youths, he would be--very attentive if one were
+not guarded; but I had known him so long, that perhaps I did not soon
+enough begin, to treat him en jeune homme.
+
+'And this is his first letter?'
+
+'Oh! yes, madame.'
+
+'He complains that you will not hear him?  Do you dislike to tell me
+if anything had passed previously?'
+
+'Thursday,' was slightly whispered.
+
+'Thursday! ah! now I begin to understand the cause of your being
+suddenly moon-struck.'
+
+'Ah! madame, pardon me!'
+
+'I see--it was the only way to avoid a tete-a-tete!' said Albinia.
+'Well done, Genevieve.  What had he been saying to you, my dear?'
+
+Poor Genevieve cast about for a word, and finally faltered out, 'Des
+sottises, Madame.'
+
+'That I can well believe,' said Albinia.  'Well, my dear--'
+
+'I think,' pursued Genevieve, 'that he was vexed because I would not
+let him absorb me exclusively at Fairmead; and began to reproach me,
+and protest--'
+
+'And like a wise woman you waked the sleeping dragon,' said Albinia.
+'Was this all?'
+
+'No, madame; so little had passed, that I hoped it was only the
+excitement, and that he would forget; but on Saturday he met me in
+the flagged path, and oh! he said a great deal, though I did my best
+to convince him that he could only make himself be laughed at.  I
+hoped even then that he was silenced, and that I need not mention it,
+but I see he has been watching me, and I dare not go out alone lest I
+should meet him.  He called this morning, and not seeing me left this
+note.'
+
+'Do your grandmother and aunt know?'
+
+'Oh, no!  I would far rather not tell them.  Need I?  Oh! madame,
+surely you can speak to him, and no one need ever hear of it?'
+implored Genevieve.  'You have promised me that no one shall be
+told!'
+
+'No one shall, my dear.  I hope soon to tell you that he is heartily
+ashamed of having teased you.  No one need be ashamed of thinking you
+very dear and good--you can't help being loveable, but Master Gibbie
+has no right to tell you so, and we'll put an end to it.  He will
+soon be in India out of your way.  Good-bye!'
+
+Albinia kissed the confused and blushing maiden, and walked away,
+provoked, yet diverted.
+
+She found Gilbert alone, and was not slow in coming to the point,
+endeavouring to model her treatment on that of her brother, the
+General, towards his aide-de-camp in the like predicaments.
+
+'Gilbert, I want to speak to you. I am afraid you have been making
+yourself troublesome to Miss Durant.  You are old enough to know
+better than to write such a note as this.'
+
+He was all one blush, made an inarticulate exclamation, and burst
+out, 'That abominable treacherous old wooden doll of a mademoiselle.'
+
+'No, Miss Belmarche knows nothing of it.  No one ever shall if you
+will promise to drive this nonsense out of your head.'
+
+'Nonsense!  Mrs. Kendal!' with a gesture of misery.
+
+'Gilbert, you are making yourself absurd.'
+
+He turned about, and would have marched out of the room, but she
+pursued him. 'You must listen to me.  It is not fit that you should
+carry on this silly importunity.  It is exceedingly distressing to
+her, and might lead to very unpleasant and hurtful remarks.'  Seeing
+him look sullen, she took breath, and considered.  'She came to me in
+great trouble, and begged me to restore your letter, and tell you
+never to repeat the liberty.'
+
+He struck his hand on his brow, crying vehemently, 'Cruel girl!  She
+little knows me--you little know me, if you think I am to be silenced
+thus.  I tell you I will never cease!  I am not bound by your pride,
+which has sneered down and crushed the loveliest--'
+
+'Not mine,' said Albinia, disconcerted at his unexpected violence.
+
+'Yes!' he exclaimed.  'I know you could patronize! but a step beyond,
+and it is all the same with you as with the rest--you despise the
+jewel without the setting.'
+
+'No,' said Albinia, 'so far from depreciating her, I want to convince
+you that it is an insult to pursue her in this ridiculous underhand
+way.'
+
+'You do me no justice,' said Gilbert loftily; 'you little understand
+what you are pleased to make game of,' and with one of his sudden
+alternations, he dropped into a chair, calling himself the most
+miserable fellow in the world, unpitied where he would gladly offer
+his life, and his tenderest feelings derided, and he was so nearly
+ready to cry, that Albinia pitied him, and said, 'I'll laugh no more
+if I can help it, Gibbie, but indeed you are too young for all this
+misery to be real.  I don't mean that you are pretending, but only
+that this is your own fancy.'
+
+'Fancy!' said the boy solemnly.  'The happiness of my life is at
+stake.  She shall be the sharer of all that is mine, the moment my
+property is in my own hands.'
+
+'And do you think so high-minded a girl would listen to you, and take
+advantage of a fancy in a boy so much younger, and of a different
+class?'
+
+'It would be ecstasy to raise her, and lay all at her feet!'
+
+'So it might, if it were worthy of her to accept it.  Gilbert, if you
+knew what love is, you would never wish her to lower herself by
+encouraging you now.  She would be called artful--designing--'
+
+'If she loved me--' he said disconsolately.
+
+'I wish I could bring you to see how unlikely it is that a sensible,
+superior woman could really attach herself to a mere lad.  An
+unprincipled person might pretend it for the sake of your property--a
+silly one might like you because you are good-looking and well-mannered;
+but neither would be Genevieve.'
+
+'There is no use in saying any more,' he said, rising in offended
+dignity.
+
+'I cannot let you go till you have given me your word never to
+obtrude your folly on Miss Durant again.'
+
+'Have you anything else to ask me?' cried Gilbert in a melodramatic
+tone.
+
+'Yes, how would you like your father to know of this?  It is her
+secret, and I shall keep it, unless you are so selfish as to continue
+the pursuit, and if so, I must have recourse to his authority.'
+
+'Oh!  Mrs. Kendal,' he said, actually weeping, 'you have always
+pitied me hitherto.'
+
+'A man should not ask for pity,' said Albinia; 'but I am sorry for
+you, for she is an admirable person, and I see you are very unhappy;
+but I will do all I can to help you, and you will get over it, if you
+are reasonable.  Now understand me, I will and must protect
+Genevieve, and I shall appeal to your father unless you promise me to
+desist from this persecution.'
+
+The debate might have been endless, if Mr. Kendal had not been heard
+coming in.  'You promise?' she said.  'Yes,' was the faint reply, in
+nervous terror of immediate reference to his father; and they hurried
+different ways, trying to look unconcerned.
+
+'Never mind,' said Albinia to herself.  'Was not Fred quite as bad
+about me, and look at him now!  Yes, Gilbert must go to India, it
+will cure him, or if it should not, his affection will be
+respectable, and worth consideration.  If he were but older, and this
+were the genuine article, I would fight for him, but--'
+
+And she sat down to write a loving note to Genevieve.  Her sanguine
+disposition made her trust that all would blow over, but her
+experience of the cheerful buoyant Ferrars temperament was no guide
+to the morbid Kendal disposition, Gilbert lay on the grass limp and
+doleful till the fall of the dew, when he betook himself to a sofa;
+and in the morning turned up his eyes reproachfully at her instead of
+eating his breakfast.
+
+About eleven o'clock the Fairmead pony-carriage stopped at the door,
+containing Mr. Ferrars, the Captain, Aunt Gertrude, and little
+Willie.  Albinia, her husband, and Lucy, were soon in the drawing-room
+welcoming them; and Lucy fetched her little brother, who had
+been vociferous for three days about Cousin Fred, the real soldier,
+but now, struck with awe at the mighty personage, stood by his mamma,
+profoundly silent, and staring.  He was ungracious to his aunt, and
+still more so to Willie, the latter of whom was despatched under
+Lucy's charge to find Gilbert, but they came back unsuccessful.  Nor
+did Sophy make her appearance; she was reported to be reading to
+grandmamma--Mrs. Meadows preferred to Miss Ferrars! there was more in
+this than Albinia could make out, and she sat uneasily till she could
+exchange a few words with Lucy.  'My dear, what is become of the
+other two?'
+
+'I am sure I don't know what is the matter with them,' said Lucy.
+'Gilbert is gone out--nobody knows where--and when I told Sophy who
+was here, she said Captain Ferrars was an empty-headed coxcomb, and
+she did not want to see him!'
+
+'Oh! the geese!' murmured Albinia to herself, till the comical
+suspicion crossed her mind that Gilbert was jealous, and that Sophy
+was afraid of falling a victim to the redoubtable lady killer.
+
+Luncheon-time produced Sophy, grave and silent, but no Gilbert, and
+Mr. Kendal, receiving no satisfactory account of his absence, said,
+'Very strange,' and looked annoyed.
+
+Captain Ferrars seemed to have expected to see his bright little
+partner of Thursday, for he inquired for her, and Willie imparted the
+information that Fred had taken her for Sophy all the time!  Fred
+laughed, and owned it, but asked if she were not really the
+governess?  'A governess,' said Albinia, 'but not ours,' and an
+explanation followed, during which Sophy blushed violently, and held
+up her head as if she had an iron bar in her neck.
+
+'A pity,' said the Lancer, when he had heard who she was, and under
+his moustache he murmured to Albinia, 'She is rather in Emily's
+style.'
+
+'Oh, Fred,' thought Albinia, 'after all, it may be lucky that you
+aren't going to stay here!'
+
+When Albinia was alone with her brother, she could not help saying,
+'Maurice, you were right to scold me; I reproached you with thinking
+life made up of predicaments.  I think mine is made of blunders!'
+
+'Ah! I saw you were harassed to-day,' said her brother kindly.
+
+'Whenever one is happy, one does something wrong!'
+
+'I guess--'
+
+'You are generous not to say you warned me months ago.  Mind, it is
+no fault of hers, she is behaving beautifully; but oh! the absurdity,
+and the worst of it is, I have promised not to tell Edmund.'
+
+'Then don't tell me.  You have a judgment quite good enough for use.'
+
+'No, I have not.  I have only sense, and that only serves me for what
+other people ought to do.'
+
+'Then ask Albinia what Mrs. Kendal ought to do.'
+
+Gilbert came in soon after their departure, with an odd, dishevelled,
+abstracted look, and muttering something inaudible about not knowing
+the time.  His depression absolutely courted notice, but as a slight
+cough would at any time reduce him to despair, he obtained no
+particular observation, except from Sophy, who made much of him,
+flushed at Genevieve's name, and looked reproachful, that it was
+evident that she was his confidante.  Several times did Albinia try
+to lead her to enter on the subject, but she set up her screen of
+silence.  It was disappointing, for Albinia had believed better
+things of her sense, and hardly made allowance for the different
+aspect of the love-sorrows of seventeen, viewed from fifteen or
+twenty-six--vexatious, too, to be treated with dry reserve, and
+probably viewed as a rock in the course of true love; and provoking
+to see perpetual tete-a-tetes that could hardly fail to fill Sophy's
+romantic head with folly.
+
+At the end of another week, Albinia received the following note:--
+
+
+'Dear and most kind Madame,
+
+'I would not trouble you again, but this is the third within four days.  I
+returned the two former ones to himself, but he continues to write.  May I
+ask your permission to speak to my relatives, for I feel that I ought to
+hide this no longer from them, and that we must take some measures for
+ending it.  He does me the honour to wait near the house, and I never dare
+go out, since--for I will confess all to you, madame--he met me by the
+river on Monday.  I am beginning to fear that his assiduities have been
+observed, and I should be much obliged if you would tell me how to act.
+Your kind perseverance in your goodness towards me is my greatest comfort,
+and I hope that you will still continue it, for indeed it is most
+unwillingly that I am a cause of perplexity and vexation to you.
+Entreating your pardon,
+
+                        'Your most faithful and obliged servant,
+                                             Genevieve Celeste Durant.'
+
+
+What was to be done?  That broken pledge overpowered Albinia with a
+personal sense of shame, and though it set her free to tell all to
+her husband, she shrank from provoking his stern displeasure towards
+his son, and feared he might involve Genevieve in his anger.  She
+dashed off a note to her poor little friend, telling her to do as she
+thought fit by her aunt and grandmother, and then sought another
+interview with the reluctant Gilbert, to whom she returned the
+letter, saying, 'Oh, Gilbert, at least I thought you would keep your
+word.'
+
+'I think,' he said, angrily, trying for dignity, though bewrayed by
+his restless eyes and hands--'I think it is too much to accuse me
+of--of--when I never said--What word did I ever give?'
+
+'You promised never to persecute her again.'
+
+'There may be two opinions as to what persecution means,' said
+Gilbert.
+
+'I little thought of subterfuges.  I trusted you.'
+
+'Mrs. Kendal! hear me,' he passionately cried.  'You knew not the
+misery you imposed.  To live so near, and not a word, not a look!  I
+bore it as long as I could; but when Sophy would not so much as take
+one message, human nature could not endure.'
+
+'Well, if you cannot restrain yourself like a rational creature, some
+means must be taken to free Miss Durant from a pursuit so injurious
+and disagreeable to her.'
+
+'Ay,' he cried, 'you have filled her with your own prejudices, and
+inspired her with such a dread of the hateful fences of society, that
+she does not dare to confess--'
+
+'For shame, Gilbert, you are accusing her of acting a part.'
+
+'No!' he exclaimed, 'all I say is, that she has been so thrust down
+and forced back, that she cannot venture to avow her feelings even to
+herself!'
+
+'Oh!' said Albinia, 'you conceited person!'
+
+'Well!' cried the boy, so much nettled by her sarcasm that he did not
+know what he said, 'I think--considering--considering our situations,
+I might be worth her consideration!'
+
+'Who put that in your head?' asked Albinia.  'You are too much a
+gentleman for it to have come there of its own accord.'
+
+He blushed excessively, and retracted.  'No, no!  I did not mean
+that!  No, I only mean I have no fair play--she will not even think.
+Oh! if I had but been born in the same station of life!'
+
+Gilbert making entrechats with a little fiddle!  It had nearly
+overthrown her gravity, and she made no direct answer, only saying,
+'Well, Gilbert, these talks are useless.  I only thought it right to
+give you notice that you have released me from my engagement not to
+make your father aware of your folly.'
+
+He went into an agony of entreaties, and proffers of promises, but no
+more treaties of secrecy could he obtain, she would only say that she
+should not speak immediately, she should wait and see how things
+turned out.  By which she meant, how soon it might be hoped that he
+would be safe in the Calcutta bank, where she heartily wished him.
+
+She sought a conference with Genevieve, and took her out walking in
+the meadows, for the poor child really needed change and exercise,
+the fear of Gilbert had made her imprison herself within the little
+garden, till she looked sallow and worn.  She said that her
+grandmother and aunt had decided that she should go in a couple of
+days to the Convent at Hadminster, to remain there till Mr. Gilbert
+went to India--the superior was an old friend of her aunt, and
+Genevieve had often been there, and knew all the nuns.
+
+Albinia was startled by this project.  'My dear, I had much rather
+send you to stay at my brother's, or--anywhere.  Are you sure you are
+not running into temptation?'
+
+'Not of that kind,' said Genevieve.  'The priest, Mr. O'Hara, is a
+good-natured old gentleman, not in the least disposed to trouble
+himself about my conversion.'
+
+'And the sisters?'
+
+'Good old ladies, they have always been very kind to me, and petted
+me exceedingly when I was a little child, but for the rest--' still
+seeing Albinia's anxious look--'Oh! they would not think of it; I
+don't believe they could argue; they are not like the new-fashioned
+Roman Catholics of whom you are thinking, madame.'
+
+'And are there no enthusiastic young novices?'
+
+'I should think no one would ever be a novice there,' said Genevieve.
+
+'You seem to be bent on destroying all the romance of convents,
+Genevieve!'
+
+'I never thought of anything romantic connected with the reverend
+mothers,' rejoined Genevieve, 'and yet when I recollect how they came
+to Hadminster, I think you will be interested.  You know the family
+at Hadminster Hall in the last century were Roman Catholics, and a
+daughter had professed at a convent in France.  At the time of the
+revolution, her brother, the esquire, wrote to offer her an asylum at
+his house.  The day of her arrival was fixed--behold! a stage-coach
+draws up to the door--black veils inside--black veils clustered on
+the roof--a black veil beside the coachman, on the box--eighteen nuns
+alight, and the poor old infirm abbess is lifted out.  They had not
+even figured to themselves that the invitation could be to one
+without the whole sisterhood!'
+
+'And what did the esquire do with the good ladies?'
+
+'He took them as a gift from Providence, he raised a subscription
+among his friends, and they were lodged in the house at Hadminster,
+where something like a sisterhood had striven to exist ever since the
+days of James II.'
+
+'Are any of these sisters living still?'
+
+'Only poor old Mother Therese, who was a little pensionnaire when
+they came, and now is blind, and never quits her bed.  There are only
+seven sisters at present, and none of them are less than five-and-forty.'
+
+'And what shall you do there, Genevieve?'
+
+'If they have any pupils from the town, perhaps I may help to teach
+them French.  And I shall have plenty of time for my music.  Oh!
+madame, would you lend me a little of your music to copy?'
+
+'With all my heart.  Any books?'
+
+'Oh! that would be the greatest kindness of all!  And if it were not
+presuming too much, if madame would let me take the pattern of that
+beautiful point lace that she sometimes wears in the evening, then I
+should make myself welcome!'
+
+'And put out your eyes, my dear!  But you may turn out my whole
+lace-drawer if you think anything there will be a pleasure to the old
+ladies.'
+
+'Ah! you do not guess the pleasure, madame.  Needlework and
+embroidery is their excitement and delight.  They will ask me closely
+about all I have seen and done for months past, and the history of
+the day at Fairmead will be a fete in itself.'
+
+'Well! my dear, it is very right of you; and I do feel very thankful
+to you for treating the matter thus.  Pray tell your grandmamma and
+aunt to pardon the sad revolution we have made in their comfort, and
+that I hope it will soon be over!'
+
+Genevieve took no leave.  Albinia sent her a goodly parcel of books
+and work-patterns, and she returned an affectionate note; but did not
+attempt to see Lucy and Sophy.
+
+The next Indian mail brought the expected letter, giving an exact
+account of the acquirements and habits that would be required of
+Gilbert, with a promise of a home where he would be treated as a son,
+and of admission to the firm after due probation.  The letter was so
+sensible and affectionate, that Mr. Kendal congratulated his son upon
+such an advantageous outset in life.
+
+Gilbert made slight reply, but the next morning Sophy sought Albinia
+out, and with some hesitation began to tell her that Gilbert was very
+anxious that she would intercede with papa not to send him to
+Calcutta.
+
+'You now, Sophy!' cried Albinia.  'You who used to think nothing
+equal to India!'
+
+'I wish it were I,' said Sophy, 'but you know--'
+
+'Well,' said Albinia, coldly.
+
+Sophy was too shy to begin on that tack, and dashed off on another.
+
+'Oh, mamma, he is so wretched.  He can't bear to thwart papa, but he
+says it would break his heart to go so far away, and that he knows it
+would kill him to be confined to a desk in that climate.'
+
+'You know papa thinks that nothing would confirm his health so much
+as a few years without an English winter.'
+
+'One's own instinct--' began Sophy; then breaking off, she added,
+'Mamma, you never were for the bank.'
+
+'I used not to see the expediency, and I did not like the parting;
+but now I understand your father's wishes, and the sort of allegiance
+he feels towards India, so that Gilbert's reluctance will be a great
+mortification to him.'
+
+'So it will,' said Sophy, mournfully, 'I am sure it is to me.  I
+always looked forward to Gilbert's going to Talloon, and seeing the
+dear old bearer, and taking all my presents there, but you see, of
+course, mamma, he cannot bear to go--'
+
+'Sophy, dear,' said Albinia, 'you have been thinking me a very
+hard-hearted woman this last month.  I have been longing to have it out.'
+
+'Not hard-hearted,' said Sophy, looking down, 'only I had always
+thought you different from other people.'
+
+'And you considered that I was worldly, and not romantic enough.  Is
+that it, Sophy?'
+
+'I thought you knew how to value her for herself, so good and so
+admirable--a lady in everything--with such perfect manners.  I
+thought you would have been pleased and proud that Gilbert's choice
+was so much nobler than beauty, or rank, or fashion could make it,'
+said Sophy, growing enthusiastic as she went on.
+
+'Well, my dear, perhaps I am.'
+
+'But, mamma, you have done all you could to separate them: you have
+shut Genevieve up in a convent, and you want to banish him.'
+
+'It sounds very grand, and worthy of a cruel step-dame,' said
+Albinia; 'but, my dear, though I do think Genevieve in herself an
+admirable creature, worthy of any one's love, what am I to think of
+the way Gilbert has taken to show his admiration?'
+
+'And is it not very hard,' cried Sophy, 'that even you, who own all
+her excellences, should turn against him, and give in to all this
+miserable conventionality, that wants riches and station, and
+trumpery worldly things, and crushes down true love in two young
+hearts?'
+
+'Sophy dear, I am afraid the love is not proved to be true in the one
+heart, and I am sure there is none in the other!'
+
+'Mamma!  'Tis her self-command--'
+
+'Nonsense!  His attentions are nothing but distress to her!  Sensible
+grown-up young women are not apt to be flattered by importunity from
+silly boys.  Has he told you otherwise?'
+
+'He thinks--he hopes, at least--and I am sure--it is all stifled by
+her sense of duty, and fear of offending you, or appearing
+mercenary.'
+
+'All delusion!' said Albinia; 'there's not a spark of consciousness
+about her!  I see you don't like to believe it, but it is my great
+comfort.  Think how she would suffer if she did love him!  Nay,
+think, before you are angry with me for not promoting it, how it
+would bring them into trouble and disgrace with all the world, even
+if your father consented.  Have you once thought how it would appear
+to him?'
+
+'You can persuade papa to anything !'
+
+'Sophy! you ought to know your father better than to say that!' cried
+Albinia, as if it had been disrespect to him.
+
+'Then you think he would never allow it!  You really think that such
+a creature as Genevieve, as perfect a lady as ever existed, must
+always be a victim to these hateful rules about station.'
+
+'No,' said Albinia, 'certainly not; but if she were in the very same
+rank, if all else were suitable, Gilbert's age would make the pursuit
+ridiculous.'
+
+'Only three years younger,' sighed Sophy.  'But if they were the same
+age?  Do you mean that no one ever ought to marry, if they love ever
+so much, where the station is different?'
+
+'No, but that they must not do so lightly, but try the love first to
+see whether it be worth the sacrifice.  If an attachment last through
+many years of adverse circumstances, I think the happiness of the
+people has been shown to depend on each other, but I don't think it
+safe to disregard disparities till there has been some test that the
+love is the right stuff, or else they may produce ill-temper,
+regrets, and unhappiness, all the rest of their lives.'
+
+'If Gilbert went on for years, mamma?'
+
+'I did not say that, Sophy.'
+
+'Suppose,' continued the eager girl, 'he went out to Calcutta, and
+worked these five years, and was made a partner.  Then he would be
+two-and-twenty, nobody could call him too young, and he would come
+home, and ask papa's consent, and you--'
+
+'I _should_ call that constancy,' said Albinia.
+
+'And he would take her out to Calcutta, and have no Drurys and
+Osborns to bother her!  Oh!  It would be beautiful!  I would watch
+over her while he was gone!  I'll go and tell him!'
+
+'Stop, Sophy, not from me--that would never do.  I don't think papa
+would think twenty-two such a great age--'
+
+'But he would have loved her five years!' said Sophy.  'And you said
+yourself that would be constancy!'
+
+'True, but, Sophy, I have known a youth who sailed broken-hearted,
+and met a lady "just in the style" of the former one, on board the
+steamer--'
+
+Sophy made a gesture of impatient disdain, and repeated, 'Do you
+allow me to tell Gilbert that this is the way?'
+
+'Not from me.  I hold out no hope.  I don't believe Genevieve cares
+for him, and I don't know whether his father would consent--' but
+seeing Sophy's look of disappointment, 'I see no harm in your
+suggesting it, for it is his only chance with either of them, and
+would be the proof that his affection was good for something.'
+
+'And you think her worth it?'
+
+'I think her worth anything in the world--the more for her behaviour
+in this matter.  I only doubt if Gilbert have any conception how much
+she is worth.'
+
+Away went Sophy in a glow that made her almost handsome, while
+Albinia, as usual, wondered at her own imprudence.
+
+At luncheon Sophy avoided her eye, and looked crestfallen, and when
+afterwards she gave a mute inquiring address, shook her head
+impatiently.  It was plain that she had failed, and was too much
+pained and shamed by his poorness of spirit to be able as yet to
+speak of it.
+
+Next came Gilbert, who pursued Albinia to the morning-room to entreat
+her interference in his behalf, appealing piteously to her kindness;
+but she was obdurate.  If any remonstrance were offered to his
+father, it must be by himself.
+
+Gilbert fell into a state of misery, threw himself about upon the
+chairs, and muttered in the fretfulness of childish despair something
+about its being very hard, when he was owner of half the town, to be
+sent into exile--it was like jealousy of his growing up and being
+master.
+
+'Take care, Gilbert!' said Albinia, with a flash of her eye that he
+felt to his backbone.
+
+'I don't mean it,' cried Gilbert, springing towards her in
+supplication.  'I've heard it said, that's all, and was as angry as
+you, but when a fellow is beside himself with misery at being driven
+away from all he loves--not a friend to help him--how can he keep
+from thinking all sorts of things?'
+
+'I wonder what people dare to say it!' cried Albinia wrathfully; but
+he did not heed, he was picturing his own future misfortunes--toil--
+climate--fevers--choleras--Thugs--coups de soleil--genuine dread and
+repugnance working him up to positive agony.
+
+'Gilbert,' said Albinia, 'this is trumpery self-torture!  You know
+this is a mere farrago that you have conjured up.  Your father would
+neither thrust you into danger, nor compel you to do anything to
+which you had a reasonable aversion.  Go and be a man about it in one
+way or the other!  Either accept or refuse, but don't make these
+childish lamentations.  They are cowardly!  I should be ashamed of
+little Maurice if he behaved so!'
+
+'And you will not speak a word for me!'
+
+'No!  Speak for yourself!' and she left the room.
+
+Days passed on, till she began to think that, after all, Gilbert
+preferred Calcutta, cholera, Thugs, and all, to facing his father;
+but at last, he must have taken heart from his extremity, for Mr.
+Kendal said, with less vexation than she had anticipated, 'So our
+plans are overthrown.  Gilbert tells me he has an invincible dislike
+to Calcutta.  Had you any such idea?'
+
+'Not till your cousin's letter arrived.  What did you say to him?'
+
+'He was so much afraid of vexing me that I was obliged to encourage
+him to speak freely, and I found that he had always had a strong
+distaste to and dread of India.  I told him I wished he had made me
+aware of it sooner, and desired to know what profession he really
+preferred.  He spoke of Oxford and the Bar, and so I suppose it must
+be.  I do not wonder that he wishes to follow his Traversham friends,
+and as they are a good set, I hope there may not be much temptation.
+I see you are not satisfied, Albinia, yet your wishes were one of my
+motives.'
+
+'Thank you--once I should,' said Albinia; 'but, Edmund, I see how
+wrong it was to have concealed anything from you;' and thereupon she
+informed him of Gilbert's passion for Genevieve Durant, which
+astonished him greatly, though he took it far less seriously than she
+had expected, and was not displeased at having been kept in ignorance
+and spared the trouble of taking notice of it, and thus giving it
+importance.
+
+'It will pass off,' he said.  'She has too much sense and principle
+to encourage him, and if you can get her out of Bayford for a few
+years he will be glad to have it forgotten.'
+
+'Poor Genevieve!  She must break up her grandmother's home after
+all!'
+
+'It will be a great advantage to her.  You used to say that it would
+be most desirable for her to see more of the world.  Away from this
+place she might marry well.'
+
+'Any one's son but yours,' said Albinia, smiling.
+
+'The connexion would be worse here than anywhere else; but I was not
+thinking of any one in our rank of life.  There are many superior men
+in trade with whom she might be very happy.'
+
+'Poor child!' sighed Albinia.  'I cannot feel that it is fair that
+she should be banished for Gilbert's faults; and I am sorry for the
+school; you cannot think how much the tone was improving.'
+
+'If it could be done without hurting her feelings, I should gladly
+give her a year at some superior finishing school, which might either
+qualify her for a governess, or enable her to make this one more
+profitable.'
+
+'Oh! thank you!' cried Albinia; 'yet I doubt.  However, her services
+would be quite equivalent in any school to the lessons she wants.
+I'll write to Mrs. Elwood--' and she was absorbed in the register-office
+in her brain, when Mr. Kendal continued--
+
+'This is quite unexpected.  I could not have supposed the boy so
+foolish!  However, if you please, I will speak to him, tell him that
+I was unaware of his folly, and insist on his giving it up.'
+
+'I should be very glad if you would.'
+
+Gilbert was called, and the result was more satisfactory than Albinia
+thought that Genevieve deserved.  His frenzy had tended to wear
+itself out, and he had been so dreadfully alarmed about India and his
+father, that in his relief, gratitude, and fear of being sent out, he
+was ready to promise anything.  Before his father he could go into no
+rhapsodies, and could only be miserably confused.
+
+'Personally,' said Mr. Kendal, 'it is creditable that you should be
+attracted by such estimable qualities, but these are not the sole
+consideration.  Equality of station is almost as great a requisite as
+these for producing comfort or respectability, and nothing but your
+youth and ignorance could excuse your besetting any young woman with
+importunities which she had shown to be disagreeable to her.'
+
+There was no outcry of despair, only a melancholy muttering.  Then
+Mr. Kendal pronounced his decree in terms more explicit than those in
+which Albinia had exacted the promise.  He said nothing about
+persecution, nor was he unreasonable enough to command an instant
+immolation of the passion; he only insisted that Gilbert should pay
+no marked attention, and attempt no unsanctioned or underhand
+communication.  Unless he thought he had sufficient self-command to
+abstain, his father must take 'further measures.'
+
+As if fearing that this must mean 'Kendal and Kendal,' he raised his
+head, and with a deep sigh undertook for his own self-command.  Mr.
+Kendal laid his hand on his shoulder with kind pity, told him he was
+doing right, and that while he acted openly and obediently, he should
+always meet with sympathy and consideration.
+
+Two difficult points remained--the disposing of the young people.
+Gilbert was still over young for the university, as well as very
+backward and ill-prepared, and the obstinate remains of the cough
+made his father unwilling to send him from home.  And his presence
+made Genevieve's absence necessary.
+
+The place had begun to loom in the distance.  A former governess of
+Albinia's, who would have done almost anything to please her, had
+lately been left a widow, and established herself in a suburb of
+London, with a small party of pupils.  She had just begun to feel the
+need of an additional teacher, and should gladly receive Genevieve,
+provided she fulfilled certain requisites, of which, luckily, French
+pronunciation stood the foremost.  The terms were left to Albinia,
+who could scarcely believe her good fortune, and went in haste to
+discuss the matter with the Belmarches.
+
+It almost consoled her for what she had been exceedingly ashamed to
+announce, the change of purpose with regard to Gilbert, which was a
+sentence of banishment to the object of his folly.  Nothing pained
+her more than the great courtesy and kindness of the two old ladies
+to whom it was such a cruel stroke, they evidently felt for her, and
+appeared to catch at Mrs. Elwood's offer, and when Albinia proposed
+that her salary should be a share in the instructions of the masters,
+agreed that this was the very thing they had felt it their duty to
+provide for her, if they had been able to bring themselves to part
+with her.
+
+'So,' said good Madame Belmarche, smiling sadly, 'you see it has been
+for the dear child's real good that our weakness has been conquered.'
+
+Genevieve was written to, and consented to everything, and when Mr.
+Kendal took Gilbert away to visit an old friend, his wife called for
+Genevieve at the convent to bring her home.  Albinia could not divest
+herself of some curiosity and excitement in driving up to the
+old-fashioned red brick house, with two tall wings projecting towards
+the street, and the front door in the centre between them, with steps
+down to it.  She had not been without hopes of a parlour with a
+grille, or at least that a lay sister would open the door; but she
+saw nothing but a very ordinary-looking old maid-servant, and close
+behind her was Genevieve, with her little box, quite ready--no excuse
+for seeing anything or anybody else.
+
+If Genevieve were sad at the proposal of leaving home and going among
+strangers, she took care to hide all that could pain Mrs. Kendal, and
+her cheerful French spirit really enjoyed the prospect of new scenes,
+and bounded with enterprise at the hope of a new life and fresh field
+of exertion.
+
+'Perhaps, after all,' she said, smiling, 'they may make of me
+something really useful and valuable, and it will all be owing to
+you, dear madame.  Drawing and Italian!  When I can teach them, I
+shall be able to make grandmamma easy for life!'
+
+Genevieve skipped out of the carriage and into her aunt's arms, as if
+alive only to the present delight of being at home again.  It was a
+contrast to Sophy's dolorous visage.  Poor Sophy! she was living in a
+perpetual strife with the outward tokens of sulkiness, forcing
+herself against the grain to make civil answers, and pretend to be
+interested when she felt wretched and morose.  That Gilbert, after so
+many ravings, should have relinquished, from mere cowardice, that one
+hope of earning Genevieve by honourable exertion, had absolutely
+lowered her trust in the exalting power of love, and her sense of
+justice revolted against the decision that visited the follies of the
+guilty upon the innocent.  She was yearning over her friend with all
+her heart, pained at the separation, and longing fervently to make
+some demonstration, but the greater her wish, the worse was her
+reserve.  She spent all her money upon a beautiful book as a parting
+gift, and kept it beside her, missing occasion after occasion of
+presenting it, and falling at each into a perfect agony behind that
+impalpable, yet impassable, barrier of embarrassment.
+
+It was not till the very last evening, when Genevieve had actually
+wished her good-bye and left the house, that she grew desperate.  She
+hastily put on bonnet and cloak, and pursued Genevieve up the street,
+overtaking her at last, and causing her to look round close to her
+own door.
+
+'My dear Miss Sophy,' cried Genevieve, 'what is the matter?  You are
+quite overcome.'
+
+'This book--' said Sophy--it was all she could say.
+
+'Love--yes,' said Genevieve.  'Admiration--no.'
+
+'You shall not say that,' cried Sophy.  'I have found what is really
+dignified and disinterested, and you must let me admire you, Jenny,
+it makes me comfortable.'
+
+Genevieve smiled.  'I would not commit an egoism,' she said; but if
+the sense of admiration do you good, I wish it had a worthier cause.'
+
+'There's no one to admire but you,' said Sophy.  'I think it very
+unfair to send you away, and though it is nobody's fault, I hate good
+sense and the way of the world!'
+
+'Oh! do not talk so.  I am only overwhelmed with wonder at the
+goodness I have experienced.   If it had happened with any other
+family, oh! how differently I should have been judged!  Oh! when I
+think of Mrs. Kendal, I am ready to weep with gratitude!'
+
+'Yes, mamma is mamma, and not like any one else, but even she is
+obliged to be rational, and do the injustice, whatever she feels,'
+said Sophy.
+
+'Oh! not injustice--kindness!  I shall be able to earn more for
+grandmamma!'
+
+'It is injustice!' said Sophy, 'not hers, perhaps, but of the world!
+It makes me so angry, to think that you--you should never do anything
+but wear yourself out in drudging over tiresome little children--'
+
+'Little children are my brothers and sisters, as I never had any,'
+said Genevieve.  'Oh!  I always loved them, they make a home wherever
+they are.  I am thankful that my vocation is among them.'
+
+In dread of a token from Gilbert, Genevieve would not notice it, but
+pursued, 'You must come in and rest--you must have my aunt's salts.'
+
+'No--no--' said Sophy, 'not there--' as Genevieve would have taken
+her to the little parlour, but opening the door of the school-room,
+she sank breathless into a sitting position on the carpetless boards.
+
+Genevieve shut the door, and kneeling down, found Sophy's arms thrown
+round her, pressing her almost to strangulation.
+
+'Oh! I wanted to do it--I never could.  wont you have the book,
+Genevieve?  It is my keepsake--only I could not give it because--'
+
+'Is it your keepsake, indeed, dear Miss Sophy?' said Genevieve.  'Oh!
+if it is yours--how I shall value it--but it is too beautiful--'
+
+'Nothing is too beautiful for you, Genevieve,' said Sophy fervently.
+
+'And it is your gift!  But I am frightened--it must have cost--!'
+began Genevieve, still a little on her guard.  'Dear, dear Miss
+Sophy, forgive me if I do seem ungrateful, but indeed I ought to
+ask--if--if it is all your own gift?'
+
+'Mine? yes!' said Sophy, on the borders of offence.  'I know what you
+mean, Genevieve, but you may trust me.  I would not take you in.'
+
+Genevieve was blushing intensely, but taking courage she bestowed a
+shower of ardent embraces and expressions of gratitude, mingled with
+excuses for her precaution.  'Oh! it was so very kind in Miss Sophy,'
+she said; 'it would be such a comfort to remember, she had feared she
+too was angry with her.'
+
+'Angry? oh, no!' cried Sophy, her heart quite unlocked; 'but the more
+I loved and admired, the more I could not speak.  And if they drive
+you to be a governess?  If you had a situation like what we read of?'
+
+'Perhaps I shall not,' said Genevieve, laughing.  'Every one has been
+so good to me hitherto!  And then I am not reduced from anything
+grander.  I shall always have the children, you know.'
+
+'How I should hate them!' quoth Sophy.
+
+'They are my pleasure.  Besides I have always thought it a blessing
+that my business in life, though so humble, should be what may do
+direct good.  If only I do not set them a bad example, or teach them
+any harm.'
+
+'Not much danger of that,' said Sophy, smiling.  'Well, I can't
+believe it will be your lot all your life.  You will find some one
+who will know how to love you.'
+
+'No,' said Genevieve, 'I am not in a position for marriage--grandmamma
+has often told me so!'
+
+'Things sometimes happen,' pursued Sophy.  'Mamma said if Gilbert had
+been older, or even if--if he had been in earnest and steady enough
+to work for you in India, then it might--And surely if Gilbert could
+care for you--people higher and deeper than he would like you better
+still.'
+
+'Hush,' said Genevieve; 'they would only see the objections more
+strongly.  No, do not put these things in my head.  I know that
+unless a teacher hold her business as her mission, and put all other
+schemes out of her mind, she will work with an absent, distracted,
+half-hearted attention, and fail of the task that the good God has
+committed to her.'
+
+'Then you would never even wish--'
+
+'It would be seeking pomps and vanities to wish,' said Genevieve; 'a
+school-room is a good safe cloister, probably less dull than the
+convent.  If I wish at all, it will be that I may be well shut up
+there, for I know that in spite of myself my manners are different
+from your English ones.  I cannot make them otherwise, and that
+amuses people; and I cannot help liking to please, and so I become
+excited.  I enjoy society so much that it is not safe for me!  So
+don't be sorry, dear Sophy, it is a fit penance for the vanity that
+elated me too much that evening at Fairmead!'
+
+Mademoiselle Belmarche was here attracted by the voices.  Sophy
+started up from the ground, made some unintelligible excuse, and
+while Mademoiselle was confounded with admiration at the sight of the
+book, inflicted another boa-constrictor embrace, and hurried away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+
+Planets hostile to the tender passion must have been in the
+ascendant, for the result of Captain Ferrars's pursuit of his brother
+to Italy was the wholesome certainty that his own slender portion was
+all he had to reckon upon.  Before returning to Canada, he came to
+Bayford to pour out his troubles to his cousin, and to induce her, if
+he could induce no one else, to advise his immediate marriage.  It
+was the first time he had been really engaged, and his affection had
+not only stood three months' absence, but had so much elevated his
+shatter-brained though frank and honest temperament, that Albinia
+conceived a high opinion of 'Emily,' and did her best to persuade him
+to be patient, and wait for promotion.
+
+Sophy likewise approved of him this time, perhaps because he was so
+opposite a specimen of the genus lover from that presented by her
+brother.  Gilbert had not been able to help enjoying himself while
+from home, but his spirits sank on his return; he lay about on the
+grass in doleful dejection, studied little but L. E. L., lost
+appetite, and reproachfully fondled his cough; but Albinia was now
+more compassionate than Sophy, whom she was obliged to rebuke for an
+unsisterly disregard toward his woes.
+
+'I can't help it,' said Sophy; 'I can't believe in him now!'
+
+'Yes, you ought to believe that he is really unhappy, and be more
+gentle and considerate with him.'
+
+'If it had been earnest, he would have sacrificed himself instead of
+Genevieve.'
+
+'Ah! Sophy, some day you will learn to make excuses for other people,
+and not be so intolerant.'
+
+'I never make excuses.'
+
+'Except for Maurice,' said Albinia.  'If you viewed other people as
+you do him, your judgments would be gentler.'
+
+Sophy's conscientiousness, like her romance, was hard, high, and
+strict; but while she had as little mercy on herself as on others,
+and while there were some soft spots in her adamantine judgment,
+there was hope that these would spread, and, without lowering her
+tone, make her more merciful.
+
+She corresponded constantly with Genevieve, who seemed very happily
+placed; Mrs. Elwood was delighted with her, and she with Mrs. Elwood;
+and her lively letters showed no signs of pining for home.  Sophy
+felt as if it were a duty to her friend, to do what in her lay to
+prevent the two old ladies from being dull, and spent an hour with
+them every week, not herself contributing much to their amusement,
+but pleasing them by the attention, and hearing much that was very
+curious of their old-world recollections.
+
+Ever since that unlucky penny-club-day, when she had declared that
+she hated poor people, she had been let alone on that subject; and
+though principle had made her use her needle in their behalf, shyness
+and reserve had kept her back from all intercourse with them; but in
+her wish to compensate for Genevieve's absence, she volunteered to
+take charge of her vacant Sunday-school class, and obtained leave to
+have the girls at home on the afternoons for an hour and a half.
+This was enough for one who worked as she did, making a conscience of
+every word, and toiling to prepare her lessons, writing out her
+questions beforehand, and begging for advice upon them.
+
+'My dear,' said Albinia, 'you must alter this--you see this question
+does not grow out of the last answer.'
+
+'Yes,' said Sophy, 'that must have been what puzzled them last
+Sunday: they want connexion.'
+
+'Nothing like logic to teach one to be simple,' said Albinia.
+
+'I can't see the use of all this trouble,' put in Lucy.  'Why can't
+you ask them just what comes into your head, as I always do?'
+
+'Suppose mistakes came into my head.'
+
+'Oh! they would not find it out if they did!  I declare!--what's
+this--Persian?  Are you going to teach them Persian?'
+
+'No; it is Greek.  You see it is a piece of a Psalm, a quotation
+rather different in the New Testament.  I wrote it down to ask papa
+what it is in Hebrew.'
+
+'By-the-bye, Sophy,' continued Lucy, 'how could you let Susan Price
+come to church with lace sleeves--absolute lace sleeves!'
+
+'Had she?'
+
+'There--you never see anything!  Mamma, would not it be more sensible
+to keep their dress in order, than to go poking into Hebrew, which
+can't be of use to any one?'
+
+There was more reason than might appear in what Lucy said: the girls
+of her class were more orderly, and fonder of her than Sophy's of the
+grave young lady whose earnestness oppressed them, and whose shyness
+looked dislike and pride.  As to finding fault with their dress, she
+privately told Albinia that she could not commit such a discourtesy,
+and was answered that no one but Mrs. Dusautoy need interfere.
+
+'I will go and ask Mrs. Dusautoy what she wishes,' said Albinia.  'I
+should be glad if she would modify Lucy's sumptuary laws.  To fall
+foul of every trifle only makes the girls think of their, dress.'
+
+Albinia found Mrs. Dusautoy busied in writing notes on mourning
+paper.
+
+'Here is a note I had written to you,' she said.  'I am sending over
+to Hadminster to see if any of the curates can take the services
+to-morrow.'
+
+Albinia looked at the note while Mrs. Dusautoy wrote on hurriedly.
+She read that there could be no daily services at present, the Vicar
+having been summoned to Paris by the sudden death of Mrs. Cavendish
+Dusautoy.  As the image of a well-endowed widow, always trying to
+force her way into higher society, arose before Albinia, she could
+hardly wait till the letter was despatched, to break out in
+amazement,
+
+'Was she a relation of yours?  Even the name never made me think of
+it!'
+
+'It is a pity she cannot have the gratification of hearing it, poor
+woman,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, 'but it is a fact that she did poor
+George Dusautoy the honour to marry him.'
+
+'Mr. Dusautoy's brother?'
+
+'Ay--he was a young surgeon, just set up in practice, exactly like
+John--nay, some people thought him still finer-looking.  She was a
+Miss Greenaway Cavendish, a stock-broker's heiress of a certain age.'
+
+'Oh!' expressively cried Albinia.
+
+'You may say so,' returned Mrs. Dusautoy.  'She made him put away his
+profession, and set up for taste and elegant idleness.'
+
+'And he submitted?'
+
+'There was a great deal of the meek giant in him, and he believed
+implicitly in the honour she had done him.  It would have been very
+touching, if it had not been so provoking, to see how patiently and
+humbly that fine young man gave up all that would have made him
+happy, to bend to her caprices and pretensions.'
+
+'Did you ever see them together?'
+
+'No, I never saw her at all, and him only once.  I never knew John
+really savage but once, and that was at her not letting him come to
+our wedding; but she did give him leave of absence for one fortnight,
+when we were at Lauriston.  How happy the brothers were!  It did one
+good to hear their great voices about the house; and they were like
+boys on a stolen frolic, when John took him to prescribe for some of
+our poor people.  He used to talk of bringing us his little son--the
+one pleasure of his life--but he never was allowed.  Oh, how I used
+to long to stir up a mutiny!' cried Mrs. Dusautoy, quite unknowing
+that she ruled her own lion with a leash of silk.  'If she had
+appreciated him, it would have been bearable; but to her he was no
+more than the handsome young doctor, whom she had made a gentleman,
+and not a very good piece of work of it either!  Little she recked of
+the great loving heart that had thrown itself away on her, and the
+patience that bore with her; and she tried to hinder all the liberal
+bountiful actions that were all he cared to do with his means!  I
+wish the boy may remember him!'
+
+'How long has he been dead?'
+
+'These ten years.  He was drowned in a lake storm in Switzerland--people
+clung to him, and he could not swim.  It was John's one great grief--he
+cannot mention him even now.  And really,' she added, smiling, 'I do
+believe he has brought himself to fancy it was a very happy marriage.
+She has always been very civil; but she has been chiefly abroad, and
+never would take his advice about sending her boy to school.'
+
+'What becomes of him now?'
+
+'He is our charge.  She was on the way home from Italy, when she was
+taken ill at Paris, and died at the end of the week.'
+
+'How old is he?'
+
+'About nineteen, I fancy.  He must have had an odd sort of education;
+but if he is a nice lad, it will be a great pleasure to John to have
+something young about the house.'
+
+'I was thinking that Mr. Dusautoy hardly wanted more cares.'
+
+'So have I,' said her friend, smiling, 'and I have been laying a plot
+against him.  You see, he is as strong as a lion, and never yet was
+too tired to sleep; but it is rather a tempting of Providence to keep
+3589 people and fourteen services in a week resting upon one man!'
+
+'Exactly what his churchwarden has preached to him.'
+
+'Moreover, he cannot be in two places at once, let alone half-a-dozen.
+Now, my Lancashire people have written in quest of a title for holy
+orders for a young man who has just gone through Cambridge with
+great credit, and it strikes me that he might at once help John,
+and cram Master Algernon.'
+
+'And Gilbert!' cried Albinia.  'Oh, if you will import a tutor for
+Gilbert, we shall be for ever beholden to you!'
+
+'I had thought of him.  I have no doubt that he is much better taught
+than Algernon; but I am not afraid of this poor fellow bringing home
+bad habits, and they will be good companions.  I reckon upon you and
+Mr. Kendal as great auxiliaries, and I don't think John will be able
+to withstand our united forces.'
+
+On the way home, on emerging from the alley, Albinia encountered
+Gilbert, just parting with another youth, who walked off quickly on
+the Tremblam road, while she inquired who it was.
+
+'That?' said Gilbert; 'oh! that was young Tritton.  He has been away
+learning farming in Scotland.  We speak when we meet, for old
+acquaintance sake and that.'
+
+The Bayford mind was diverted from the romance of Genevieve, by the
+enormous fortune of the Vicar's nephew, whose capital was in their
+mouths and imaginations swelled into his yearly income.  Swarms of
+cards of inquiry were left at the vicarage; and Mrs. Meadows and Lucy
+enjoyed the reflected dignity of being able to say that Mrs. Kendal
+was continually there.  And so she was, for Mrs. Dusautoy was
+drooping, though more in body than visibly in spirit, and needed both
+companionship and assistance in supporting the charge left by her
+absent Atlas.
+
+He was not gone a moment longer than necessary, and took her by
+surprise at last, while Albinia and Sophy were sitting on the lawn
+with her, when she welcomed the nephew and the Vicar, holding out a
+hand to each, and thanked them for taking care of 'Fanny.'  'Here,
+Algernon,' he continued, 'here are two of our best friends, Mrs.
+Kendal and Miss Sophy.'
+
+There was a stiff bow from a stiff altitude.  The youth was on the
+gigantic Dusautoy scale, looking taller even than his uncle, from his
+manner of holding himself with his chin somewhat elevated.  He had a
+good ruddy sun-burnt complexion, shining brown hair, and regular
+features; and Albinia could respond heartily to the good Vicar's
+exclamation, as he followed her down to the gate for the sake of
+saying,
+
+'Well-grown lad, isn't that?  And a very good-hearted fellow too,
+poor boy--the very picture of his dear father.  Well, and how has
+Fanny been?'
+
+He stayed to be reassured that his return was all his Fanny wanted,
+and then hurried back to her, while Albinia and Sophy pursued their
+way down the hill.
+
+'News for grandmamma.  We must give her a particular description of
+the hero.'
+
+'How ugly he thought me!' said Sophy, quaintly.
+
+'My dear, I believe that is the first thing you think of when you
+meet a stranger!'
+
+'I saw it this time,' returned Sophy.  'His chin went up in the air
+at once.  He set me down for Mrs. Kendal, and you for Miss Sophy.'
+
+'Nonsense,' said Albinia, for the inveterate youthfulness of her
+bright complexion and sunny hair was almost a sore subject with her.
+'Your always fancying that every one is disgusted with you, is as
+silly as if you imagined yourself transcendently beautiful.  It is
+mere self-occupation, and helps to make you blunt and shy.'
+
+'Mamma,' said Sophy, 'tell me one thing.  Did you ever think yourself
+pretty?'
+
+'I have thought myself looking so, under favourable circumstances,
+but that's all.  You are as far from ugliness as I am, and have as
+little need to think of it.  As far as features go, there's the
+making of a much handsomer woman in you than in me.'
+
+Sophy laughed.  A certain yearning for personal beauty was a curious
+part of her character, and she would have been ashamed to own the
+pleasure those few words had given her, or how much serenity and
+forbearance they were worth; and her good-humour was put to the proof
+that evening, for grandmamma had a tea-party, bent on extracting the
+full description of the great Algernon Greenaway Cavendish Dusautoy,
+Esquire.  Lucy's first sight was less at her ease.  Elizabeth Osborn,
+with whom she kept up a fitful intimacy, summoned her mysteriously
+into her garden, to show her a peep-hole through a little dusty
+window in the tool-house, whence could be descried the vicarage
+garden, and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy, as, with a cigar in his mouth,
+and his hands in his pockets,
+
+
+    'Stately stept he east the wa', and stately stept he west.'
+
+
+Lucy was so much amused, that she could not help reporting it at
+home, where Gilbert forgot his sorrows, in building up a mischievous
+romance in honour of the hole in the 'sweet and lovely wall.'
+
+But the parents' feud did not seem likely to hold out.  A hundred
+thousand pounds on one side of the wall, and three single daughters
+on the other, Mrs. Osborn was not the woman to trust to the 'wall's
+hole;' and so Mr. Dusautoy's enemy laid down her colours; and he was
+too kind-hearted to trace her sudden politeness to the source.
+
+Mr. Dusautoy acceded to the scheme devised by his wife, and measures
+were at once taken for engaging the curate.  When Albinia went to
+talk the matter over at the parsonage, Lucy accompanied her; but the
+object of her curiosity was not in the room; and when she had heard
+that he was fond of drawing, and that his horses were to be kept at
+the King's Head stables, the conversation drifted away, and she grew
+restless, and begged Mrs. Dusautoy to allow her to replenish the
+faded bouquets on the table.  No sooner was she in the garden, than
+Mrs. Dusautoy put on an arch look, and lowering her voice, said,
+
+'Oh! it is such fun!  He does despise us so immensely.'
+
+'Despise--you?'
+
+'He is a good, boy, faithful to his training.  Now his poor mother's
+axioms were, that the English are vulgar, country English more
+vulgar, Fanny Dusautoy the most vulgar!  I wish we always as heartily
+accepted what we are taught.'
+
+'He must be intolerable.'
+
+'No, he is very condescending and patronizing to the savages.  He
+really is fond of his uncle; and John is so much hurt it I notice his
+peculiarities, that I have been dying to have my laugh out.'
+
+'Can Mr. Dusautoy bear with pretension?'
+
+'It is not pretension, only calm faith in the lessons of his youth.
+Look,' she added, becoming less personal at Lucy's re-entrance, and
+pointing to a small highly-varnished oil-painting of a red terra
+cotta vase, holding a rose, a rhododendron before it, and half a
+water-melon grinning behind, newly severed by a knife.
+
+'Is that what people bring home from Italy now-a-days?' said Albinia.
+
+'That is an original production.'
+
+'Did Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy do that?' cried Lucy.
+
+'Genre is his style,' was the reply.  'His mother was resolved he
+should be an amateur, and I give his master great credit.'
+
+'Especially for that not being a Madonna,' said Albinia.  'I
+congratulate you on his having so safe an amusement.'
+
+'Yes; it disposes of him and of the spare room.  He cannot exist
+without an atelier.'
+
+Just then the Vicar entered.
+
+'Ah! Algernon's picture,' began he, who had never been known to look
+at one, except the fat cattle in the Illustrated News.  'What do you
+think of it?  Has he not made a good hand of the pitcher?'
+
+Albinia gratified him by owning that the pitcher was round; and Lucy
+was in perfect rapture at the 'dear little spots' in the
+rhododendron.
+
+'A poor way of spending a lad's time,' said the uncle; 'but it is
+better than nothing; and I call the knife very good: I declare you
+might take it up,' and he squeezed up his eyes to enhance the
+illusion.
+
+A slow and wide opening of the door admitted the lofty presence of
+Algernon Cavendish Dusautoy, with another small picture in his hand.
+Becoming aware of the visitors, he saluted them with a dignified
+movement of his head, and erecting his chin, gazed at them over it.
+
+'So you have brought us another picture, Algernon,' said his uncle.
+'Mrs. Kendal has just been admiring your red jar.'
+
+'Have you a taste for art?' demanded Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy, turning
+to her with magnificent suavity.
+
+'I used to be very fond of drawing.'
+
+'Genre is my style,' he pursued, almost overthrowing her gravity by
+the original of his aunt's imitation.  'I took lessons of old
+Barbouille--excellent master.  Truth and nature, those were his
+maxims; and from the moment I heard them, I said, "This is my man."
+We used positively to live in the Borghese.  There!' as he walked
+backwards, after adjusting his production in the best light.
+
+'A snipe,' said Albinia.
+
+'A snipe that I killed in the Pontine marshes.'
+
+'There is very good shooting about Anxur,' said Albinia.
+
+'You have been at Rome?'  He permitted himself a little animation at
+discovering any one within the pale of civilization.
+
+'For one fortnight in the course of a galloping tour with my two
+brothers,' said Albinia.  'All the Continent in one long vacation!'
+
+'That was much to be regretted.  It is my maxim to go through every
+museum thoroughly.'
+
+'I can't regret,' said Albinia.  'I should be very sorry to give up
+my bright indistinct haze of glorious memories, though I was too
+young to appreciate all I saw.'
+
+'For my part, I have grown up among works of art.  My whole existence
+has been moulded on them, and I feel an inexpressible void without
+them.  I shall be most happy to introduce you into my atelier, and
+show you my notes on the various Musees.  I preserved them merely as
+a trifling memorial; but many connoisseurs have told me that I ought
+to print them as a Catalogue raisonnee, for private circulation, of
+course.  I should be sorry to interfere with Murray, but on the whole
+I decided otherwise: I should be so much bored with applications.'
+
+Mrs. Dusautoy's wicked glance had so nearly demolished the restraint
+on her friend's dimples, that she turned her back on her, and
+commended the finish of a solitary downy feather that lay detached
+beside the bird.
+
+'My maxim is truth to nature, at any cost of pains,' said the youth,
+not exactly gratified, for homage was his native element, but
+graciously proceeding to point out the merits of the composition.
+
+Albinia's composure could endure no more, and she took her leave, Mr.
+Dusautoy coming down the hill with her to repeat, and this time
+somewhat wistfully,
+
+'A fine lad, is he not, poor fellow?'
+
+With perfect sincerity, she could praise his good looks.
+
+'He has had a quantity of sad stuff thrust on him by the people who
+have been about his poor mother,' said Mr. Dusautoy.  'She could
+never bear to part with him, and no wonder, poor thing; and she must
+have let a very odd sort of people get about her abroad--they've
+flattered that poor lad to the top of his bent, you see, but he's a
+very good boy for all that, very warm-hearted.'
+
+'He must be very amiable for his mother to have been able to manage
+him all this while.'
+
+'Just what I say!' cried the Vicar, his honest face clearing.  'Many
+youths would have run into all that is bad, brought up in that way;
+but only consider what disadvantages he has had!  When we get him to
+see his real standing a little better--I say, could not you let us
+have your young people to come up this evening, have a little music,
+and make it lively?  I suppose Fanny and I are growing old, though I
+never thought so before.  Will you come, Lucy, there's a good girl,
+and bring your brother and sister?  The lads must be capital
+friends.'
+
+Lucy promised with sparkling eyes, and the Vicar strode off, saying
+he should depend on the three.
+
+Gilbert 'supposed he was in for it,' but 'did not see the use of it,'
+he was sick of the name of 'that polysyllable,' and 'should see
+enough of him when Mr. Hope came, worse luck.'
+
+The result of the evening was, that Lacy was enraptured at the
+discovery that this most accomplished hero sang Italian songs to the
+loveliest guitar in the world, and was very much offended with Sophy
+for wishing to know whether mamma really thought him so very clever.
+
+Immediately after the Ordination arrived Mr. Hope, a very youthful,
+small, and delicate-looking man, whom Mr. Dusautoy could have lifted
+as easily as his own Fanny, with short sight, timid nature, scholarly
+habits, weak nerves, and an inaudible voice.
+
+Of great intellect, having read deeply, and reading still more
+deeply, he had the utmost dread of ladies, and not even his
+countrywoman, Mrs. Dusautoy, could draw him out.  He threw his whole
+soul into the work, winning the hearts of the infant-school and the
+old women, but discomfiting the congregation by the weakness of his
+voice, and the length and depth of his sermons.  There was one in
+especial which very few heard, and no one entered into except Sophy,
+who held an hour's argument over it with her father, till they
+arrived at such lengthy names of heresies, that poor grandmamma asked
+if it were right to talk Persian on a Sunday evening.
+
+He conscientiously tutored his two pupils, but there was no common
+ground between him and them.  Excepting his extra intellect, there
+was no boyhood in him.  A town-bred scholar, a straight
+constitutional upon a clean road was his wildest dream of exercise;
+he had never mounted a horse, did not know a chicken from a
+partridge, except on the table, was too short-sighted for pictures,
+and esteemed no music except Gregorians.
+
+The two youths were far more alive to his deficiencies than to his
+endowments: Algernon contemned him for being a book-seller's son,
+with nothing to live on but his fellowship and curacy, and Gilbert
+looked down on his ignorance of every matter of common life, and
+excessive bashfulness.  Mr. Dusautoy would have had less satisfaction
+in the growing intimacy between the lads, had he known that it had
+been cemented by inveigling poor Mr. Hope into a marsh in search of
+cotton-grass, which, at Gilbert's instigation, Algernon avouched to
+be a new sort of Indian corn, grown in Italy for feeding silkworms.
+
+An intimacy there was, rather from constant intercourse than from
+positive liking.  Gilbert saw through and disdained young Dusautoy's
+dulness and self-consequence; but good-natured, kindly, and
+unoccupied, he had no objection to associate with him, showing him
+English ways, trying to hinder him from needlessly exposing himself,
+and secretly amused with his pretension.  Algernon, with his fine
+horses, expensive appointments, and lofty air, was neither a
+discreditable nor unpleasing companion.  Mr. Kendal had given his son
+a horse, which, without costing the guineas that Algernon had
+'refused' for each of his steeds, was a very respectable-looking
+animal, and the two young gentlemen, starting on their daily ride,
+were a grand spectacle for more than little Maurice.
+
+Gilbert had suffered some eclipse.  Once he had been the grand parti,
+the only indisputable gentleman, but now Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy had
+entirely surpassed him both in self-assertion and in the grounds for
+it.  His incipient dandyisms faded into insignificance beside the
+splendours of the heir of thousands; and he, who among all his faults
+had never numbered conceit or forwardness, had little chance beside
+such an implicit believer in his own greatness.
+
+Nor was Bayford likely to diminish that faith.  The non-adorers might
+be easily enumerated--his uncle and aunt, his tutor, his groom, Mr.
+and Mrs. Kendal, Gilbert and Sophy; the rest all believed in him as
+thoroughly as he did in himself.  His wealth was undoubted, his
+accomplishments were rated at his own advertisement, and his
+magnanimous condescension was esteemed at full value.  Really
+handsome, good-natured and sociable, he delighted to instruct his
+worshippers by his maxims, and to bend graciously to their homage.
+The young ladies had but one cynosure!  Few eyes were there that did
+not pursue his every movement, few hearts that did not bound at his
+approach, few tongues that did not chronicle his daily comings and
+goings.
+
+'It would save much trouble,' said Albinia, 'if a court circular
+could be put into the Bayford paper.'
+
+The Kendals were the only persons whom Algernon regarded as in any
+way on a footing with him.  Finding that the lady was a Ferrars, and
+had been in Italy, he regarded her as fit company, and whenever they
+met, favoured her with the chief and choicest of his maxims, little
+knowing how she and his aunt presumed to discuss him in private.
+
+Without being ill-disposed, he had been exceedingly ill taught; his
+mother, the child of a grasping vulgar father, had little religious
+impression, and that little had not been fostered by the lax habits
+of a self-expatriated Englishwoman, and very soon after his arrival
+at Bayford his disregard of ordinary English proprieties had made
+itself apparent.  On the first Sunday he went to church in the
+morning, but spent the evening in pacing the garden with a cigar; and
+on the afternoon of that day week his aunt was startled by the sound
+of horse's hoofs on the road.  Mr. Dusautoy was at school, and she
+started up, met the young gentleman, and asked him what strange
+mistake could have been made.  He made her a slight bow, and loftily
+said he was always accustomed to ride at that hour!  'But not on
+Sunday!' she exclaimed.  He was not aware of any objection.  She told
+him his uncle would be much displeased, he replied politely that he
+would account to his uncle for his conduct, begged her pardon, but he
+could not keep his horse waiting.
+
+Mrs. Dusautoy went back, fairly cried at the thought of her husband's
+vexation, and the scandal to the whole town.
+
+The Vicar was, of course, intensely annoyed, though he still could
+make excuses for the poor boy, and laid all to the score of ignorance
+and foreign education.  He made Algernon clearly understand that the
+Sunday ride must not be repeated.  Algernon mumbled something about
+compromising his uncle and offending English prejudices, by which he
+reserved to himself the belief that he yielded out of magnanimity,
+not because he could not help it; but he could not forgive his aunt
+for her peremptory opposition; he became unpleasantly sullen and
+morose as regularly as the Sunday came round, and revenged himself by
+pacing the verandah with his cigar, or practising anything but sacred
+music on his key-bugle in his painting-room.
+
+The youth was really fond of his uncle, but he had imbibed all his
+mother's contempt for her sister-in-law.  Used to be wheedled by an
+idolizing mother, and to reign over her court of parasites, he had no
+notion of obeying, and a direct command or opposition roused his
+sullen temper of passive resistance.  When he found 'that little
+nobody of a Mrs. John Dusautoy' so far from being a flatterer, or an
+adorer of his perfections, inclined to laugh at him, and bent on
+keeping him in order, all the enmity of which he was capable arose in
+his mind, and though in general good-natured and not aggressive, he
+had a decided pleasure in doing what she disapproved, and thus
+asserting the dignity of a Greenaway Cavendish Dusautoy.
+
+The atelier was a happy invention.  Certainly wearisome noises, and
+an aroma of Havannahs would now and then proceed therefrom, but he
+was employed there the chief part of the day, and fortunately his
+pictures were of small size, and took an infinite quantity of labour,
+so that they could not speedily outrun all the Vicarage walls.
+
+He favoured the University of Oxford by going up with Gilbert for
+matriculation, when, to the surprise of Mr. Hope, he was not plucked.
+They were to begin their residence at the Easter term.  Mrs. Dusautoy
+did not confess even to Albinia how much she looked forward to
+Easter.
+
+In early spring, a sudden and short illness took away Madame
+Belmarche's brave spirit to its rest, after sixty years of exile and
+poverty, cheerfully borne.
+
+There had been no time to summon Genevieve, and her aunt would not
+send for her, but decided on breaking up the school, which could no
+longer be carried on, and going to live in the Hadminster convent.
+And thus, as Mr. Kendal hoped, all danger of renewed intercourse
+between his son and Genevieve ended.  Gilbert looked pale and
+wretched, and Sophy hoped it was with compunction at having banished
+Genevieve at such a moment, but not a word was said--and that page of
+early romance was turned!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+
+It was a beautiful July afternoon, the air musical with midsummer
+hum, the flowers basking in the sunshine, the turf cool and green in
+the shade, and the breeze redolent of indescribable freshness and
+sweetness compounded of all fragrant odours, the present legacy of a
+past day's shower.  Like the flowers themselves, Albinia was feeling
+the delicious repose of refreshed nature, as in her pretty pink
+muslin, her white drapery folded round her, and her bright hair
+unbonnetted, she sat reclining in a low garden chair, at the door of
+the conservatory, a little pale, a little weak, but with a sweet
+happy languor, a soft tender bloom.
+
+There was a step in the conservatory, and before she could turn
+round, her brother Maurice bent over her, and kissed her.
+
+'Maurice! you have come after all!'
+
+'Yes, the school inspection is put off.  How are you?' as he sat down
+on the grass by her side.
+
+'Oh, quite well!  What a delicious afternoon we shall have!  Edmund
+will be at home directly.  Mrs. Meadows has absolutely let Gilbert
+take her to drink tea at the Drurys!  Only I am sorry Sophy should
+miss you, for she was so good about going, because Lucy wanted to do
+something to her fernery.  Of course you are come for Sunday, and the
+christening?'
+
+'Yes,--that is, to throw myself on Dusautoy's mercy.'
+
+'We will send Mr. Hope to Fairmead,' said Albinia, 'and see whether
+Winifred can make him speak.  We can't spare the Vicar, for he is our
+godfather, and you must christen the little maiden.'
+
+'I thought the three elder ones were to be sponsors.'
+
+'Gilbert is shy,' said Albinia, 'afraid of the responsibility, and
+perhaps he is almost too near, the very next to ourselves.  His
+father would have preferred Mr. Dusautoy from the first, and only
+yielded to my wish.  I wish you had come two minutes sooner, she was
+being paraded under that wall, but now she is gone in asleep.'
+
+'Her father writes grand things of her.'
+
+'Does he?' said Albinia, colouring and smiling at what could not be
+heard too often; 'he is tolerably satisfied with the young woman!
+And he thinks her like Edmund, and so she must be, for she is just
+like him.  She will have such beautiful eyes.  It is very good of her
+to take after him, since Maurice won't!'
+
+'And she is to be another Albinia.'
+
+'I represented the confusion, and how I always meant my daughter to
+be Winifred, but there's no doing anything with him!  It is only to
+be a second name.  A. W. K.!  Think if she should marry a Mr. Ward!'
+
+'No, she would not be awkward, if she were so a-warded.'
+
+'It wont spell, Maurice,' cried Albinia, laughing as their nonsense,
+as usual, rose to the surface, 'but how is Winifred?'
+
+'As well as could be hoped under the affliction of not being able to
+come and keep you in order.'
+
+'She fancied me according to the former pattern,' said Albinia,
+smiling, 'I could have shown her a better specimen, not that it was
+any merit, for there were no worries, and Edmund was so happy, that
+it was pleasure enough to watch him.'
+
+'I was coming every day to judge for myself, but I thought things
+could not be very bad, while he wrote such flourishing accounts.'
+
+'No, there were no more ponds!' said Albinia, 'and grandmamma happily
+was quite well, cured, I believe, by the excitement.  Lucy took care
+of her, and Sophy read to me--how we have enjoyed those readings!
+Oh! and Aunt Gertrude has found a delightful situation for Genevieve,
+a barrister's family, with lots of little children--eighty pounds a
+year, and quite ready to value her, so she is off my mind.'
+
+'Maurice, boy! come here,' she called, as she caught sight of a
+creature prancing astride on one stick, and waving another.  On
+perceiving a visitor, the urchin came careering up, bouncing full
+tilt upon her, and clasping her round with both his stalwart arms.
+'Gently, gently, boy,' she said, bending down, and looking with proud
+delight at her brother, as she held between her hands a face much
+like her own, as fair and freshly tinted, but with a peculiar
+squareness of contour, large blue eyes, with dark fringes, brimming
+over with mischief and fun, a bold, broad brow, and thick, light
+curls.  There was a spring and vigour as of perpetual irrepressible
+life about the whole being, and the moment he had accepted his
+uncle's kiss, he poised his lance, and exclaimed, 'You are Bonaparte,
+I'm the Duke!'
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr. Ferrars, at once seizing a wand, and bestriding
+the nearest bench.  Two or three charges rendered the boy so
+uproarious, that presently he was ordered off, and to use the old
+apple tree as Bonaparte.
+
+'What a stout fellow!' said Mr. Ferrars, as he went off at a plunging
+gallop, 'I should have taken him for at least five years old!'
+
+'So he might be,' said Albinia, 'for strength and spirit--he is
+utterly fearless, and never cries, much as he knocks himself about!
+He will do anything but learn.  The rogue! he once knew all his
+letters, but no sooner did he find they were the work of life, than
+he forgot every one, and was never so obstreperous as when called
+upon to say them.  I gave up the point, but I foresee some fine
+scenes.'
+
+'His minding no one but you is an old story.  I hope at least the
+exception continues.'
+
+'I have avoided testing it.  I want all my forces for a decisive
+battle.  I never heard of such a masterful imp,' she continued, with
+much more exultation than anxiety, 'his sisters have no chance with
+him, he rules them like a young Turk.  There's the pony!  Sophy will
+let him have it as a right, and it is the work of my life to see that
+she is not defrauded of her rides.'
+
+'You don't mean that that child rides anything but a stick.'
+
+'One would think he had been born in boots and spurs.  Legitimately
+he only rides with some one leading the pony, but I have my
+suspicions that by some preternatural means he has been on the pony's
+back, and round the yard alone, and that papa prudentially concealed
+it from me!'
+
+'I confess I should not like it,' said her brother gravely.
+
+'Oh! I don't mind that kind of thing.  A real boy can't be hurt, and
+I don't care how wild he runs, so long as he is obedient and
+truthful.  And true I think he is to the backbone, and I know he is
+reverend.  We had such a disturbance because he would not say his
+prayers.'
+
+'Proof positive!'
+
+'Yes, it was,' said Albinia.  'It did not seem to him orthodox
+without me, and when he was let into my room again, it was the
+prettiest sight!  When he had been told of his little sister, all he
+said was that he did not want little girls--girls were stupid--'
+
+'Ah! that came of your premature introduction to my Albinia,'
+
+'Not at all.  It was partly as William's own nephew, and partly
+because pleasure was expected from him.  But when he actually saw the
+little thing, that sturdy face grew so very soft and sweet, and when
+we told him he was her protector, he put both his hands tight
+together, and said, "I'll be so good!"  When he is with her, another
+child seems to shine out under the bluff pickle he generally is--he
+walks so quietly, and thinks it such an honour to touch her.'
+
+'She will be his best tutor,' said Maurice, smiling, but breaking
+off--
+
+A sudden shriek of deadly terror rang out over the garden from the
+river!  A second or two sufficed to show them Lucy at the other end
+of the foot-bridge, that led across the canal to the towing-path.
+She did not look round, till Albinia, clutching her, demanded, 'Where
+is he?'
+
+Unable to speak, Lucy pointed down the towing-path, along which a
+horse was seen rushing wildly--a figure pursuing it.  'It was hitched
+up here--he must have scrambled up by the gate!  Oh! mamma! mamma!
+He has run after him, but oh!'
+
+Mr. Ferrars gave Lucy's arm a squeeze, a hint not to augment the
+horror.  Something he said of 'Let me--and you had better--' but
+Albinia heard nothing, and was only bent on pressing forward.
+
+The canal and path took a wide sweep round the meadow, and the horse
+was still in sight, galloping at full speed, with a small heap on its
+back, as they trusted, but the rapid motion, and their eyes strained
+and misty with alarm, caused an agony of uncertainty.
+
+Albinia pointed across the meadows in anguish at not being able to
+make herself understood, and hoarsely said, 'The gate!'
+
+Mr. Ferrars caught her meaning, and the next moment had leaped over
+the gutter, and splashed into the water meadow, but in utter
+hopelessness of being beforehand with the runaway steed!  How could
+that gate be other than fatal?  The horse was nearing it--the pursuer
+far behind--Mr. Ferrars not half way over the fields.
+
+There was a loud cry from Lucy.--'He is caught! caught!'
+
+A loud shout came back, was caught up, and sent on by both the
+pursuers, 'All right!'
+
+Albinia had stood in an almost annihilation of conscious feeling.
+Even when her brother strode back to her repeating 'All safe, thanks
+be to God,' she neither spoke nor relaxed that intensity of watching.
+A few seconds more, and she sprang forward again as the horse was led
+up by a young man at his side; and on his back, laughing and
+chattering, sat Master Maurice.  Algernon Dusautoy strode a few steps
+behind, somewhat aggrieved, but that no one saw.
+
+The elder Maurice lifted down the younger one, who, as he was clasped
+by his mother, exclaimed, 'Oh! mamma, Bamfylde went so fast!  I am to
+ride home again!  He said so--he's my cousin!'
+
+Albinia scarcely heard; her brother however had turned to thank the
+stranger for her, and exclaimed, 'I should say you were an O'More.'
+
+'I'm Ulick, from the Loughside Lodge,' was the answer.  'Is cousin
+Winifred here?'
+
+'No, this is my sister, Mrs. Kendal, but--'
+
+Albinia held out her hand, and grasped his; 'I can't--Maurice,
+speak,' she said.
+
+The little Maurice persisted in his demand to be remounted for the
+twelve yards to their own gate, but nobody heard him; his uncle was
+saying a few words of explanation to the stranger, and Algernon
+Dusautoy was enunciating something intended as a gracious reception
+of the apologies which no one was making.  All Albinia thought of was
+that the little unruly hand was warm and struggling, prisoned in her
+own; all her brother cared for was to have her safely at home.  He
+led her across the bridge, and into the garden, where they met Mr.
+Kendal, who had taken alarm from her absence; Lucy ran up with her
+story, and almost at the same moment, Albinia, springing to him,
+murmured, 'Oh! Edmund, the great mercy--Maurice;' but there she found
+herself making a hoarse shriek; with a mingled sense of fright and
+shame, she smothered it, but there was an agony of suffocation, she
+felt her husband's arms round her, heard his voice, and her boy's
+scream of terror--felt them all unable to help her, and sank into
+unconsciousness.
+
+Mr. Ferrars helped Mr. Kendal to carry his wife's inanimate form to
+her room.  They used all means of restoration, but it was a long,
+heavy swoon, and a slow, painful revival.  Mr. Kendal would have been
+in utter despair at hearing that the doctor was out, but for his
+brother, with his ready resources and cheerful encouragement; and
+finally, she lifted her eyelids, and as she felt the presence of her
+two dearest guardians, whispered, 'Where is he?'
+
+Lucy reported that he was with Susan, and Albinia, after hearing her
+husband again assure her that he was quite safe, lay still from
+exhaustion, but so calm, that her brother thought them best alone,
+and drew Lucy away.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour Mr. Kendal came down, saying that she
+was quietly asleep, and he had left the nurse with her.  He had yet
+to hear the story, and when he understood that the child had been
+madly careering along the towing-path, on the back of young
+Dusautoy's most spirited hunter, and had been only stopped when the
+horse was just about to leap the tall gate, he was completely
+overcome.  When he spoke again, it was with the abrupt exclamation,
+'That child!  Lucy, bring him down!'
+
+In marched the boy, full of life and mischief, though with a large
+red spot beneath each eye.
+
+'Maurice!'  Gilbert had often heard that tone, but Maurice never, and
+he tossed back his head with an innocent look of fearless wonder.
+'Maurice, I find you have been a very naughty, disobedient boy.  When
+you rode the pony round the yard, did not I order you never to do so
+again?'
+
+'I did not do it again,' boldly rejoined Maurice.
+
+'Speak the truth, sir.  What do you mean by denying what you have
+done?' exclaimed his father, angrily.
+
+'I didn't ride the pony,' indignantly cried the child, 'I rode a
+horse, saddled and bridled!'
+
+'Don't answer me in that way!' thundered Mr. Kendal, and much
+incensed by the nice distinction, and not appreciating the sincerity
+of it, he gave the child a shake, rough enough to bring the red into
+his face, but not a tear.  'You knew it was very wrong, and you were
+as near as possible breaking your neck.  You have frightened your
+mamma, so as to make her very ill, and I am sorry to find you most
+mischievous and unruly, not to be trusted out of sight.  Now, listen
+to me, I shall punish you very severely if you act in this
+disobedient way again.'
+
+Papa angry, was a novel spectacle, at which Maurice looked as
+innocently and steadily as ever, so completely without fear or
+contrition, that he provoked a stern, 'Do you hear me, sir?' and
+another shake.  Maurice flushed, and his chest heaved, though he did
+not sob, and his father, uncomfortable at such sharp dealing with so
+young a child, set him aside, with the words, 'There now, recollect
+what I have told you!' and walked to the window, where he stood
+silent for some seconds, while the boy stood with rounded shoulders,
+perplexed eye, and finger on his pouting lip, and Mr. Ferrars,
+newspaper in hand, watched him under his eyelids, and speculated what
+would be the best sort of mediation, or whether the young gentleman
+yet deserved it.  He knew that his own Willie would have been a mere
+quaking, sobbing mass of terror, under such a shake, and he would
+like to have been sure whether that sturdy silence were obstinacy or
+fortitude.
+
+The sound of the door-bell made Mr. Kendal turn round, and laying his
+hand on the little fellow's fair head, he said, 'There, Maurice,
+we'll say no more about it if you will be a good boy.  Run away now,
+but don't go into your mamma's room.'
+
+Maurice looked up, tossed his curls out of his eyes, shook himself,
+felt the place on his arm where the grip of the hand had been, and
+galloped off like the young colt that he was.
+
+Albinia awoke, refreshed, though still shaken and feeble, and
+surprised to find that dinner was going on downstairs.  Her own meal
+presently put such new force into her, that she felt able to speak
+Maurice's name without bursting into tears, and longing to see both
+her little ones beside her, she told the nurse to fetch the boy, but
+received for answer, 'No, Master Maurice said he would not come,' and
+the manner conveyed that it had been defiantly said.  Master Maurice
+was no favourite in the nursery, and he was still less so, when his
+mamma, disregarding all mandates, set out to seek him.  Already she
+heard from the stairs the wrangling with Susan that accompanied all
+his toilettes, and she found him the picture of firm, solid fairness,
+in his little robe de nuit, growling through the combing of his
+tangled locks.  Though ordinarily scornful of caresses, he sprang to
+her and hugged her, as she sat down on a low chair, and he knelt in
+her lap, whispering with his head on her shoulder, and his arms round
+her neck, 'Mamma, were you dead?'
+
+'No, Maurice,' she answered with something of a sob, 'or I should not
+have my dear, dear little boy throttling me now!  But why would you
+not come down to me?'
+
+'Papa said I must not.'
+
+Oh, that was quite right, my boy;' and though she unclasped the tight
+arms, she drew him nestling into her bosom.  'Oh, Maurice, it has
+been a terrible day!  Does my little boy know how good the great God
+has been to him, and how near he was never seeing mamma nor his
+little sister again.'
+
+Her great object was to make him thankful for his preservation, but
+with a child, knowing nothing of death and heedless of fear, this was
+very difficult.  The rapid motion had been delightful excitement, or
+if there had been any alarm, it was forgotten in the triumph.  She
+had to change her note, and represent how the poor horse might have
+run into the river, or against a post!  Maurice looked serious, and
+then she came to the high moral tone--mounting strangers' horses
+without leave--would papa, would Gilbert, think of such a thing?  The
+full lip was put out, as though under conviction, and he hung his
+head.  'You wont do it again?' said she.
+
+'No.'
+
+She told him to say his prayers, guiding the confession and
+thanksgiving that she feared he did not fully follow.  As he rose up,
+and saw the tears on her cheeks, he whispered, 'Mamma, did it make
+you _so_?'
+
+Cause and effect were a great puzzle to him, but that swoon was the
+only thing that brought home to him that he had been guilty of
+something enormous, and when she owned that his danger had been the
+occasion, he stood and looked; then, standing bolt upright, with
+clasped hands, and rosy feet pressed close together, he said, with a
+long breath, 'I'll never get on Bamfylde again till I'm a big boy.'
+
+As he spoke, Mr. Kendal pushed open the half-closed door, and
+Albinia, looking up, said, 'Here's a boy who knows he has done wrong,
+papa.'
+
+Never was more welcome excuse for lifting the gallant child to his
+breast, and lavishing caresses that would have been tender but for
+the strong spirit of riot which turned them into a game at romps, cut
+short by Mr. Kendal, as soon as the noise grew very outrageous.
+'That's enough to-night; good night.'  And when they each had kissed
+the monkey face tossing about among the clothes, Maurice might have
+heard more pride than pain in the 'I never saw such a boy!' with
+which they shut the door.
+
+'This is not prudent!' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Do you think I could have rested till I had seen him? and he said
+you had told him not to come down.'
+
+'I would have brought him to you.  You are looking very ill; you had
+better go to bed at once.'
+
+'No, I should not sleep.  Pray let me grow quiet first.  Now you know
+you trust Maurice,--old Maurice, and I'll lie on the sofa like any
+mouse, if you'll bring him up and let him talk.  You know it will be
+an interesting novelty for you to talk, and me to listen! and he has
+not seen the baby.'
+
+Albinia gained her point, but Mr. Kendal and Lucy first tucked her up
+upon the sofa, till she cried out, 'You have swathed me hand and
+foot.  How am I to show off that little Awk?'
+
+'I'll take care of that,' said Mr. Kendal; and so he did, fully doing
+the honours of the little daughter, who had already fastened on his
+heart.
+
+'But,' cried Albinia, breaking into the midst, 'who or what are we,
+ungrateful monsters, never to have thought of the man who caught that
+dreadful horse!'
+
+'You shall see him as soon as you are strong enough,' said Mr.
+Kendal; 'your brother and I have been with him.'
+
+'Oh, I am glad; I could not rest if he had not been thanked.  And can
+anything be done for him?  What is he?  I thought he was a
+gentleman.'
+
+Maurice smiled, and Mr. Kendal answered, 'Yes, he is Mr. Goldsmith's
+nephew, and I am pleased to find that he is a connexion of your
+brother.'
+
+'One of the O'Mores,' cried Albinia.  'Oh, Maurice, is it really one
+of Winifred's O'Mores?'
+
+'Even so,' replied Mr. Ferrars; the very last person I should have
+expected to meet on the banks of the Baye!  It was that clever son of
+the captain's for whose education Mr. Goldsmith paid, and it seems
+had sent for, to consider of his future destination.  He only arrived
+yesterday.'
+
+'A very fine young man,' said Mr. Kendal. 'I was particularly pleased
+with his manner, and it was an act of great presence of mind and
+dexterity.'
+
+'It is all a maze and mystery to me,' said Albinia; 'do tell me all
+about it.  I can't make out how the horse came there.'
+
+'I understood that young Dusautoy was calling here,' said Mr. Kendal;
+'I wondered at even his coolness in coming in by that way, and at
+your letting him in.'
+
+'I saw nothing of him,' said Albinia.  'Perhaps he was looking for
+Gilbert.'
+
+'No,' said Lucy, looking up from her work, with a slight blush, and
+demure voice of secret importance; 'he had only stepped in for a
+minute, to bring me a new fern.'
+
+'Indeed,' said her father; 'I was not aware that he took interest in
+your fernery.'
+
+'He knows everything about ferns,' said Lucy.  'Mrs. Cavendish
+Dusautoy once had a conservatory filled with the rarest specimens,
+and he has given me a great many directions how to manage them.'
+
+'Oh! if he could get you to listen to his maxims, I don't wonder at
+anything,' exclaimed Albinia.
+
+'He had only just come in with the Adiantium, and was telling me how
+hydraulic power directed a stream of water near the roots among his
+mother's Fuci,' said Lucy, rather hurt.  'He had fastened up his
+horse quite securely, and nobody could have guessed that Maurice
+could have opened that gate to cross the bridge, far less have
+climbed up the rail to the horse's back.  I never shall forget my
+fright, when we heard the creature's feet, and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy
+began to run after it directly.'
+
+'As foolish a thing as he could have done,' said Mr. Kendal, not
+impressed with Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy's condescension in giving
+chase.  'It was well poor little Maurice was not abandoned to your
+discretion, and his resources.'
+
+'It seems,' continued Mr. Ferrars, 'that young O'More was taking a
+walk on the towing-path, and was just so far off as to see, without
+being able to prevent it, this little monkey scramble from the gate
+upon the horse's neck.  How it was that he did not go down between, I
+can't guess; the beast gave a violent start, as well it might, jerked
+the reins loose, and set off full gallop.  Seeing the child clinging
+on like a young panther, he dashed across the meadow, to cut him off
+at the turn of the river; and it was a great feat of swiftness, I
+assure you, to run so lightly through those marshy meadows, so as to
+get the start of the runaway; then he crept up under cover of the
+hedge, so as not to startle the horse, and had hold of the bridle,
+just as he paused before leaping the gate!  He said he could hardly
+believe his eyes when he saw the urchin safe, and looking more
+excited than terrified.'
+
+'Yes, he was exceedingly struck with Maurice's spirit,' said Mr.
+Kendal, who, when the fright and anger were over, could begin to be
+proud of the exploit.
+
+'They fraternized at once,' said Mr. Ferrars.  'Maurice imparted that
+his name was Maurice Ferrars Kendal, and Ulick, in all good faith and
+Irish simplicity, discovered that they were cousins!'
+
+'Oh! Edmund, he must come to the christening dinner!'
+
+'Mind,' said Maurice, 'you, know he is not even my wife's cousin;
+only nephew to her second cousin's husband.'
+
+'For shame, Maurice, cousin is that cousinly does!'
+
+'Very well, only don't tell the aunts that Winifred saddled all the
+O'Mores upon you.'
+
+'Not an O'More but should be welcome for his sake!'
+
+'Nor an Irishman,' said Mr. Ferrars.
+
+Albinia suffered so much from the shock, that she could not make her
+appearance till noon on the following day.  Then, after sitting a
+little while in the old study, to hear that grandmamma had not been
+able to sleep all night for thinking of Maurice's danger, and being
+told some terrible stories of accidents with horses, she felt one
+duty done, and moved on to the drawing-room in search of her brother.
+
+She found herself breaking upon a tete-a-tete.  A sweet, full voice,
+with strong cadences, was saying something about duty and advice, and
+she would have retreated, but her brother and the stranger both
+sprang up, and made her understand that she was by no means to go
+away.  No introduction was wanted; she grasped the hand that was
+extended to her, and would have said something if she could, but she
+found herself not strong enough to keep from tears, and only said, 'I
+wish little Maurice were not gone out with his brother, but you will
+dine with us, and see him to-morrow.'
+
+'With the greatest pleasure, if my uncle and aunt will spare me.'
+
+'They must,' said Albinia, 'you must come to meet your old friend and
+_cousin_,' she added, mischievously glancing at Maurice, but he did
+not look inclined to disavow the relationship, and the youth was not
+a person whom any one would wish to keep at a distance.  He seemed
+about nineteen or twenty years of age, not tall, but well made, and
+with an air of great ease and agility, rather lounging and careless,
+yet alert in a moment.  The cast of his features at once betrayed his
+country, by the rounded temples, with the free wavy hair; the
+circular form of the eyebrow; the fully opened dark blue eye, looking
+almost black when shaded; the short nose, and the well-cut chin and
+lips, with their outlines of sweetness and of fun, all thoroughly
+Irish, but of the best style, and with a good deal of thought and
+mind on the brow, and determination in the mouth.  Albinia had
+scarcely a minute, however, for observation, for he seemed agitated,
+and in haste to take leave, nor did her brother press him to remain,
+since she was still looking very white and red, and too fragile for
+anything but rest.  With another squeeze of the hand she let him go,
+while he, with murmured thanks, and head bent in enthusiastic honour
+to the warm kindness of one so sweet and graceful, took leave.  Mr.
+Ferrars followed him into the hall, leaving the door open, so that
+she heard the words, 'Good-bye, Ulick; I'll do my best for you.  All
+I can say is, that I respect you.'
+
+'Don't respect me too soon,' he answered; 'maybe you'll have to
+change your mind.  The situation may like me no better than I the
+situation.'
+
+'No, what you will, you can do; I trust to your perseverance.'
+
+'As my poor mother does!  Well, with patience the snail got to Rome,
+and if it is to lighten her load, I must bear it.  Many thanks, Mr.
+Ferrars.  Good morning.'
+
+'Good morning; only, Ulick, excuse me, but let me give you a hint; if
+the situation is to like you, you must mind your Irish.'
+
+'Then you must not warm my heart with your kindness,' was the answer.
+'No, no, never fear, when I'm not with any one who has seen
+Ballymakilty, I can speak English so that I could not be known for a
+Galway man.  Not that I'm ashamed of my country,' he added; and the
+next moment the door shut behind him.
+
+'How could you scold him for his Irish?' exclaimed Albinia, as her
+brother re-entered; 'it sounds so pretty and characteristic.'
+
+'I fear Mr. Goldsmith may think it too characteristic!'
+
+'I am sure Edmund might well call him prepossessing.  I hope Mr.
+Goldsmith is going to do something handsome for him!'
+
+'Poor lad!  Mr. Goldsmith considers that he has purchased him for a
+permanent fixture on a high stool.  It is a sad disappointment, for
+he had been doing his utmost to prepare himself for college, and he
+has so far distinguished himself at school, that I see that a very
+little help would soon enable him to maintain himself at the
+University.  I could have found it in my heart to give it to him
+myself; it would please Winifred.'
+
+'Oh, let us help; I am sure Edmund would be glad.'
+
+'No, no, this is better for all.  Remember this is the Goldsmith's
+only measure of conciliation towards their sister since her marriage,
+and it ought not to be interfered with.  Poor Ulick says he knows
+this is the readiest chance of being of any use to his family, and
+that his mother has often said she should be happy if she could but
+see one of the six launched in a way to be independent!  There are
+those three eldest, little better than squireens, never doing a thing
+but loafing about with their guns.  I used to long for a horse-whip
+to lay about them, till they spoke to me, and then not one of the
+rogues but won my heart with his fun and good-nature.'
+
+'Then I suppose it is a great thing to have one in the way of
+money-making.'
+
+'Hem!  The Celtic blood is all in commotion!  This boy's business was
+to ask my candid opinion whether there were anything ungentlemanlike
+in a clerkship in a bank.  It was well it was not you!'
+
+'Now, Maurice, don't you know how glad I should have been if Gilbert
+would have been as wise!'
+
+'Yes, you have some common sense after all, which is more than Ulick
+attributes to his kith and kin.  When I had proved the respectability
+of banking to his conviction, I'll not say satisfaction, he made me
+promise to write to his father.  He is making up his mind to what is
+not only a great vexation to himself, and very irksome employment,
+but he knows he shall be looked down upon as having lost caste with
+all his family!'
+
+'It really is heroism!' cried Albinia.
+
+'It is,' said Mr. Ferrars; 'he does not trust himself to face the
+clan, and means to get into harness at once, so as to clench his
+resolution, and relieve his parents from his maintenance
+immediately.'
+
+'Is he to live with that formal Miss Goldsmith?'
+
+'No.  In solitary lodgings, after that noisy family and easy home!  I
+can't think how he will stand it.  I should not wonder if the
+Galwegian was too strong after all.'
+
+'We must do all we can for him,' cried Albinia; 'Edmund likes him
+already.  Can't he dine with us every Sunday?'
+
+'I know you will be kind,' said Mr. Ferrars.  'Only see how things
+turn out before you commit yourself.  Ah!  I have said the unlucky
+word which always makes you fly off!'
+
+There was little fear that Ulick O'More would not win his way with
+Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, recommended as he was, and with considerable
+attractions in the frankness and brightness of his manner.  He was a
+very pleasant addition to the party who dined at Willow Lawn, after
+the christening.  No one had time to listen to Mr. Cavendish
+Dusautoy's maxims, and he retired rather sullenly, to lean against
+the mantelpiece, and marvel why the Kendals should invite an Irish
+banker's clerk to meet _him_.  Gilbert likewise commented on the
+guest with a muttered observation on his sisters' taste; 'Last year
+it was all the Polysyllable, now it would be all the Irishman!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+
+There was a war of supremacy in the Kendal household.  Albinia and
+her son were Greek to Greek, and if physical force were on her side,
+her own tenderness was against her.  As to allies, Maurice had by far
+the majority of the household; the much-tormented Susan was her
+mistress's sole supporter;  Mr. Kendal and Sophy might own it
+inexpedient to foster his outrecuidance, but they so loved to do his
+bidding, so hated to thwart him, and so grieved at his being
+punished, that they were little better than Gilbert, Lucy,
+grandmamma, or any of the maids or men.
+
+The moral sense was not yet stirred, and the boy seemed to be trying
+the force of his will like the strength of his limbs.  Even as he
+delighted to lift a weight the moment he saw that it was heavy, so a
+command was to him a challenge to see how much he would undergo
+rather than obey, but his resistance was so open, gay, and free, that
+it could hardly be called obstinacy, and he gloried in disappointing
+punishment.  The dark closet lost all terror for him; he stood there
+blowing the horn through his hand, content to follow an imaginary
+chase, and when untimely sent to bed, he stole Susan's scissors, and
+cut a range of stables in the sheets.  The short, sharp infliction of
+pain answered best, but his father, though he could give a shake when
+angry, could _not_ strike when cool, and Albinia was forced to turn
+executioner, though with such tears and trembling that her culprit
+looked up reassuringly, saying, 'Never mind, mamma, I shan't!'  He
+did, however, _mind_ her tears, they bore in upon him the sense of
+guilt; and after each transgression, he could not be at peace till he
+had marched up to her, holding out his hand for the blow, and making
+up his face not to wince, and then would cling round her neck to feel
+himself pardoned.  Justice came to him in a most fair and motherly
+shape!  The brightest, the merriest of all his playmates was mamma;
+he loved her passionately, and could endure no cloud between himself
+and her, so that he was slowly learning that submission to her was
+peace and pleasure, and rebellion mere pain to both.  She established
+ten minutes of daily lessons, but even she could not reach beyond the
+capture of his restless person, his mind was out of reach, and keen
+as he was in everything else, towards "a + b = ab" he was an
+unmitigated dunce.  Nor did he obey any one who did not use authority
+and force of will, and though perfectly simple and sincere, he was
+too young to restrain himself without the assistance of the
+controlling power, so that in his mother's absence he was tyrannical
+and violent, and she never liked to have him out of her sight, and
+never was so sure that he was deep in mischief as when she had not
+heard his voice for a quarter of an hour.
+
+'Albinia,' said Mr. Kendal, one relenting autumn day, when November
+strove to look like April, 'I thought of walking to pay Farmer Graves
+for the corn.  Will you come with me?'
+
+'Delightful, I want to see what Maurice will say to the turkey-cock.'
+
+'Is it not too far for him?'
+
+'He would run quite as many miles in the garden,' said Albinia, who
+would have walked in dread of a court of justice on her return, had
+not the scarlet hose been safely prancing on the road before her.
+
+'This way, then,' said Mr. Kendal; 'I must get this draft changed at
+the bank.  Come, Maurice, you will see a friend there.'
+
+'Do you know, Edmund,' said Albinia, as they set forth, 'my
+conscience smites me as to that youth; I think we have neglected
+him.'
+
+'I cannot see what more we could have done.  If his uncle does not
+bring him forward in society, we cannot interfere.'
+
+'It must be a forlorn condition,' said Albinia; 'he is above the
+other clerks, and he seems to be voted below the Bayford Elite, since
+the Polysyllable has made it so very refined!  One never meets him
+anywhere now it is too dark to walk after the banking hours.  Cannot
+we ask him to come in some evening?'
+
+'We cannot have our evenings broken up,' said Mr. Kendal.  'I should
+be glad to show him any kindness, but his uncle seems to have ruled
+it that he is to be considered more as his clerk than as one of his
+family, and I doubt if it would be doing him any service to
+interfere.'
+
+They were now at the respectable old freestone building, with
+'Goldsmith' inscribed on the iron window-blinds, and a venerable date
+carved over the door.  Inside, those blinds came high, and let in but
+little light over the tall desks, at which were placed the black-horsehair
+perches of the clerks, old Mr. Goldsmith himself occupying a lower
+throne, more accessible to the clients.  One of the high stools stood
+empty, and Albinia making inquiry, Mr. Goldsmith answered, with a dry,
+dissatisfied cough, that More, as he called him, had struck work, and
+gone home with a headache.
+
+'Indeed,' said Albinia, 'I am sorry to hear it.  Mr. Hope said he
+thought him not looking well.'
+
+'He has complained of headache a good deal lately,' said Mr.
+Goldsmith.  'Young men don't find it easy to settle to business.'
+
+Albinia's heart smote her for not having thought more of her son's
+rescuer, and she revolved what could or what might have been done.
+It really was not easy to show him attention, considering Gilbert's
+prejudice against his accent, and Mr. Kendal's dislike to an
+interrupted evening, and all she could devise was a future call on
+Miss Goldsmith.  But for Maurice, it would have been a silent walk,
+and though her mind was a little diverted by his gallant attempt to
+bestride the largest pig in the farm-yard, she was sure Mr. Kendal
+was musing on the same topic, and was not surprised when, as they
+returned, he exclaimed, 'I have a great mind to go and see after that
+poor lad.'
+
+'This way, then,' said Albinia, turning down a narrow muddy street
+parallel with the river.
+
+'Impossible!' said Mr. Kendal; 'he can never live at the Wharves?'
+
+'Yes,' said Albinia; 'he told me that he lodged with an old servant
+of the Goldsmiths, Pratt's wife, at the Lower Wharf.'
+
+She pointed to the name of Pratt over a shop-window in a house that
+had once seen better days, but which looked so forlorn, that Mr.
+Kendal would not look the slatternly maid in the face while so absurd
+a question was asked as whether Mr. O'More lived there.
+
+The girl, without further ceremony, took them up a dark stair, and
+opened the door of a twilight room, where Albinia's first glimpse
+showed her the young man with his head bent down on his arms on the
+table, as close as possible to the forlorn, black fire, of the grim,
+dull, sulky coal of the county, which had filled the room with smoke
+and blacks.  The window, opened to clear it, only admitted the sickly
+scent of decaying weed from the river to compete with the perfume of
+the cobbler's stock-in-trade.  Ulick started up pale and astonished,
+and Mr. Kendal, struck with consternation, chiefly thought of taking
+away his wife and child from the infected atmosphere, and made signs
+to Albinia not to sit down; but she was eagerly compassionate.
+
+'It was nothing,' said Ulick, 'only his head was rather worse than
+usual, and he thought it time to give in when the threes put
+lapwings' feathers in their caps just like the fives.'
+
+'Are you subject to these headaches?'
+
+'It is only home-sickness,' he said.  'I'll have got over it soon.'
+
+'I must come and see after you, my good friend,' said Mr. Kendal,
+with suppressed impatience and anxiety.  'I shall return in a moment
+or two, but I am sure you are not well enough for so many visitors
+taking you by surprise.  Come.'
+
+He was so peremptory, that Albinia found herself on the staircase
+before she knew what she was about.  The fever panic had seized Mr.
+Kendal in full force; he believed typhus was in the air, and insisted
+on her taking Maurice home at once, while he went himself to fetch
+Mr. Bowles.  She did not in the least credit fever to be in the chill
+touch of that lizard hand, and believed that she could have been the
+best doctor; but there was no arguing while he was under this alarm,
+and she knew that she might be thankful not to be ordered to observe
+a quarantine.
+
+When Mr. Kendal returned home he looked much discomposed, though his
+first words were, 'Thank Heaven, it is no fever!  Albinia, we must
+look after that poor lad; he is positively poisoned by that
+pestiferous river and bad living!  Bowles said he was sure he was not
+eating meat enough.  I dare say that greasy woman gives him nothing
+fit to eat!  Albinia, you must talk to him--find out whether old
+Goldsmith gives him a decent salary!'
+
+'He ought not to be in those lodgings another day.  I suppose Miss
+Goldsmith had no notion what they were.  I fancy she never saw the
+Lower Wharf in her life.'
+
+'I never did till to-day,' said Mr. Kendal.  'It was all of a piece--
+the whole street--the room--the furniture--why the paper was coming
+off the walls!  What could they be dreaming of!  And there he was,
+trying to read a little edition of Prodentius, printed at Salamanca,
+which he picked up at a bookstall at Galway.  It must have belonged
+to some priest educated in Spain.  He says any Latin book was
+invaluable to him.  He is infinitely too good for his situation, and
+the Goldsmiths are neglecting him infamously.  Look out some rooms
+fit for him, Albinia.'
+
+'I will try.  Let me see--if I could only recollect any; but Mr. Hope
+has the only really nice ones in the place.'
+
+'Somewhere he must be, if it is in this house.'
+
+'There is poor old Madame Belmarche's still empty, with Bridget
+keeping it.  I wish he could have rooms there.'
+
+'Well, why not?  Pettilove told me it must be let as two tenements.
+If the old woman could take half, a lodger would pay her rent,' said
+Mr. Kendal, promptly.  'You had better propose it.'
+
+'And the Goldsmiths?' asked Albinia.
+
+'I will show him the Lower Wharf.'
+
+The next afternoon Mr. Kendal desired his wife to go to the Bank and
+borrow young O'More for her walking companion.
+
+'Really I don't know whether I have the impudence.'
+
+'I will come and do it for you.  You will do best alone with the lad;
+I want you to get into his confidence, and find out whether old
+Goldsmith treats him properly.  I declare, but that I know John
+Kendal so well, this would be enough to make me rejoice that Gilbert
+is not thrown on the world!'
+
+Albinia knew herself to be so tactless, that she saw little hope
+other doing anything but setting him against his relations; but her
+husband was in no frame to hear objections, so she made none, and
+only trusted she should not be very foolish.  At least, the walk
+would be a positive physical benefit to the slave of the desk.
+
+Ulick O'More was at his post, and said his head was well, but his
+hair stuck up as if his fingers had been many times run through it;
+he was much thinner, and the wearied countenance, whitened
+complexion, and spiritless sunken eyes, were a sad contrast to the
+glowing freshness and life that had distinguished him in the summer.
+
+Mr. Kendal told the Banker that it had been decided that his nephew
+needed exercise, and that Mrs. Kendal would be glad of his company in
+a long walk.  Mr. Goldsmith seemed rather surprised, but consented,
+whereupon the young clerk lighted up into animation, and bounded out
+of his prison house, with a springy step learnt upon mountain
+heather.  Mr. Kendal only waited to hear whither they were bound.
+
+'Oh! as far as we can go on the Woodside road,' said Albinia.  'I
+think the prescription I used to inflict on poor Sophy will not be
+thrown away here.  I always fancy there is a whiff of sea air upon
+the hill there.'
+
+Ulick smiled at such a fond delusion, bred up as he had been upon the
+wildest sea-coast, exposed to the full sweep of the Atlantic storm!
+She set him off upon his own scenery, to the destruction of his
+laborious English, as he dwelt on the glories of his beloved rocks
+rent by fierce sea winds and waves into fantastic, grotesque, or
+lovely shapes, with fiords of exquisite blue sea between, the variety
+of which had been to him as the gentle foliage of tamer countries.
+Not a tree stood near the 'town' of Ballymakilty, but the wild crags,
+the sparkling waters, the broad open hills, and the bogs, with their
+intensely purple horizon, held fast upon his heart; and he told of
+white sands, reported to be haunted by mermaids, and crevices of rock
+where the tide roared, and gave rise to legends of sea monsters, and
+giants turned to stone.  He was becoming confidential and intimate
+when, in a lowered voice, he mentioned the Banshee's crag, where the
+shrouded messenger of doom never failed to bewail each dying child of
+the O'More, and where his own old nurse had actually beheld her
+keening for the uncle who was killed among the Caffres.  Albinia
+began to know how she ought to respect the O'Mores.
+
+They were skirting the side of the hill, with a dip of green
+meadow-land below them, rising on the other side into coppices.  The
+twang of the horn, and the babbling cry of the hounds, reminded Albinia
+that the hunting season had begun, and looking over a gate, she
+watched the parti-coloured forms of the dogs glancing among the
+brushwood opposite, and an occasional red coat gleaming out through
+the hedge above.  Just then the cry ceased, the dogs became silent,
+and scattered hither and thither bewildered.  Ulick looked eagerly,
+then suddenly vaulted over the gate, went forward a few steps, looked
+again, pointed towards some dark object which she could barely
+discern, put his finger in his ear, and uttered an unearthly screech,
+incomprehensible to her, but well understood by the huntsman, and
+through him by the dogs, which at once simultaneously dashed in one
+direction, and came pouring into the meadow over towards him, down
+went their heads, up went their curved tails, the clatter and rushing
+of hoofs, and the apparition of red coats, showed the hunters all
+going round the copse, while at the same moment, away with winged
+steps bounded her companion, flying headlong like the wind, so as to
+meet the hunt.
+
+
+          'Ask me not what the lady feels,
+           Left in that dreadful hour alone,'
+
+
+laughed Albinia to herself.  'Well done, speed!  Edmund might be
+satisfied there's not much amiss!  Through the hedge--over the
+meadow--a flying leap over the stream--it is more like a bird than a
+man--up again.  Does he mean to follow the hunt all the rest of the
+way?  Rather Irish, I must say!  And I do believe they will all come
+down this lane!  I must walk on; it wont do to be overtaken here
+between these high hedges.  Ah!  I thought he was too much of a
+gentleman to leave me--here he comes.  How much in his way I must be!
+I never saw such a runner; not a bit does he slacken for the hill--and
+what bright cheeks and eyes!  What good it must have done him!'
+
+'I beg ten thousand pardons!' cried he, as he came up, scarcely out
+of breath.  'I declare I forgot you, I could not help it, when I saw
+them at a check !'
+
+'You feel for the hunter as I do for the fox,' said Albinia.  'Is
+yours one of the great hunting neighbourhoods?'
+
+'That it is!' he cried.  'My grandfather had the grand stud!  He and
+his seven sons were out three times in the week, and there was a
+mount for whoever wanted it!'
+
+'And this generation is not behind the last?'
+
+'Ah! and why would it be?' exclaimed the boy, the last remnant of
+English pronunciation forsaking him.  'My Uncle Connel has the best
+mare on this side the bridge of Athlone!  I mean that side.'
+
+'And how is it with you?' asked Albinia.
+
+'We've got no horses--that is, except my father's mare, and the colt,
+and Fir Darrig--the swish-tailed pony--and the blind donkey that
+brings in the turf.  So we younger ones mostly go hunting on foot;
+and after all I believe that's the best sport.  Bryan always comes in
+before any of the horses, and we all think it a shame if we don't!'
+
+'I see where you learnt the swiftness of foot that was so useful last
+July,' said Albinia.
+
+'That? oh! but Bryan would have been up long before me,' said Ulick.
+'He'd have made for the lock, not the gate!  You should see what
+sport we have when the fox takes to the Corrig Dearg up among the
+rocks--and little Rosie upon Fir Darrig, with her hair upon the wind,
+and her colour like the morning cloud, glancing in and out among the
+rocks like the fairy of the glen.  There are those that think her the
+best part of the hunt; they say the English officers at Ochlochtimore
+would never think it worth coming out but for her.  I don't believe
+that, you know,' he added, laughing, 'though I like to fetch a rise
+out of Ulick at the great house by telling him of it.'
+
+'How old is she?'
+
+'Fifteen last April, and she is like an April wind, when it comes
+warm and frolicking over the sea!  So wild and free, and yet so
+gentle and soft!  Ellen and Mary are grave and steady, and work hard-
+-every stitch of my stockings was poor Mary's knitting, except what
+poor old Peggy would send up for a compliment; but Rosie--I don't
+think she does a thing but sing, and ride, and row the boat, and keep
+the house alive!  My mother shakes her head, but I don't know what
+she'll say when she gets my aunt's letter.  My Aunt Goldsmith purses
+up her lips, and says, "I'll write to advise my sister to send her
+daughters to some good school."  Ellen, maybe, might bear one, but
+ah! the thought of little Rosie in a good school!'
+
+'Like her brother Ulick in a good bank, eh?'
+
+'Why,' he cried, 'they always called me the steady Englishman!'
+
+Albinia laughed, but at that moment the sounds of the hunt again
+occupied them, and all were interpreted by Ulick with the keenest
+interest, but he would not run away again, though she exhorted him
+not to regard her.  Presently it swept on out of hearing, and by-and-bye
+they reached the summit of the hill, and looked forth on the dark
+pine plantations on the opposite undulation, standing out in black
+relief against a sky golden with a pale, pure, pearly November sunset,
+a 'daffodil sky' flecked with tiny fleeces of soft bright-yellow light,
+reminding Albinia of Fouque's beautiful dream of Aslauga's golden
+hair showing the gates of Heaven to her devoted knight.  She looked
+for her companion's sympathy in her admiration, but the woods seemed
+to oppress him, and his panting sigh showed how real a thing was _he-men_.
+
+'Oh! my poor sun!' he broke out, 'I pity you for having to go down
+before your time into these black, stifling woods that rise up to
+smother you like giants--and not into your own broad, cool Atlantic,
+laughing up your own sparkles of light.'
+
+'We inland people can hardly appreciate your longing for space.'
+
+'It's a very prison,' said Ulick; 'the horizon is choked all round,
+and one can't breathe in these staid stiff hedges and enclosures!'
+And he threw out his arms and flapped them over his breast with a
+gesture of constraint.
+
+'You seem no friend to cultivation.'
+
+'Why, your meadows would be pretty things if they were a little
+greener,' said Ulick; 'but one gets tired of them, and of those
+straight lines of ploughed field.  There's no sense of liberty; it is
+like the man whose prison walls closed in upon him!'  And he gave
+another weary sigh, his step lost elasticity, and he moved on
+heavily.
+
+'You are tired; I have brought you too far.'
+
+'Tired by a bit of a step like this?' cried the boy, disdainfully, as
+he straightened himself, and resumed his brisk tread.  But it did not
+last.
+
+'I had forgotten that you had not been well,' she said.
+
+'Pshaw!' muttered Ulick; then resumed, 'Aye, Mr. Kendal brought in
+the doctor upon me--very kind of him--but I do assure you 'tis
+nothing but home sickness; I was nearly as bad when I went to St.
+Columba, but I got over it then, and I will again!'
+
+'It may be so in part,' said Albinia, kindly; 'but let me be
+impertinent, Ulick, for my sister Winifred told me to look after you;
+surely you give it every provocation.  Such a change of habits is
+enough to make any one ill.  Should you not ask your uncle for a
+holiday, and go home for a little while?'
+
+'Don't name it, I beg of you,' cried the poor lad in an agitated
+voice, 'it would only bring it all over again!  I've promised my
+mother to do my part, and with His help I _will_!  Let the columns
+run out to all eternity, and the figures crook themselves as
+spitefully as they will, I've vowed to myself not to stir till I've
+got the better of the villains!'
+
+'Ah!' said Albinia, 'they have blackened your eyes like the bruises
+of material antagonists!  Yes, it is a gallant battle, but indeed you
+must give yourself all the help you can, for it would be doing your
+mother no good to fall ill.'
+
+'I've no fears,' said Ulick; 'I know very well what is the matter
+with me, and that if I don't give way, it will go off in time.
+You've given it a good shove with your kindness, Mrs. Kendal,' he
+added, with deep emotion in his sensitive voice; 'only you must not
+talk of my going home, or you'll undo all you have done.'
+
+'Then I won't; we must try to make you a home here.  And in the first
+place, those lodgings of yours; you can never be comfortable in
+them.'
+
+'Ah! you saw my fire smoking.  I never shall learn to make a coal
+fire burn.'
+
+'Not only that,' said Albinia, 'but you might easily find rooms much
+better furnished, and fitter for you.'
+
+'I do assure you,' exclaimed Ulick, 'you scarcely saw it!  Why, I
+don't think there's a room at the big house in better order, or so
+good!'
+
+'At least,' said Albinia, repressing her deduction as to the big
+house of Ballymakilty, 'you have no particular love for the
+locality--the river smell--the stock of good leather, &c.'
+
+'It's all Bayford and town smell together,' said Ulick; 'I never
+thought one part worse than another, begging your pardon, Mrs.
+Kendal.'
+
+'And I am sure,' she continued, 'that woman can never make your meals
+comfortable.  Yes, I see I am right, and I assure you hard head-work
+needs good living, and you will never be a match for the rogues in
+black and white without good beef-steaks.  Now confess whether she
+gives you dinners of old shoe-leather.'
+
+'A man can't sit down to dinner by himself,' cried Ulick,
+impatiently.  'Tea with a book are all that is bearable.'
+
+'And you never go out--never see any one.'
+
+'I dine at my uncle's every Sunday,' said Ulick.
+
+'Is that all the variety you have?'
+
+'Why, my uncle told me he would not have me getting into what he
+calls idle company.  I've dined once at the vicarage, and drunk tea
+twice with Mr. Hope, but it is no use thinking of it--I couldn't
+afford it, and that's the truth.'
+
+'Have you any books?  What can you find to do all the evening?'
+
+'I have a few that bear reading pretty often, and Mr. Hope as lent me
+some.  I've been trying to keep up my Greek, and then I do believe
+there's some way of simplifying those accounts by logarithms, if I
+could but work it out.  But my mother told me to walk, and I assure
+you I do take a constitutional as soon as I come out at half-past
+four every day.'
+
+'Well, I have designs, and mind you don't traverse them, or I shall
+have to report you at home.  I have a lodging in my eye for you, away
+from the river, and a nice clean, tidy Irishwoman to keep you in
+order, make your fires, and cram you, if you wont eat, and see if she
+does not make a man of you--'
+
+'Stop, stop, Mrs. Kendal!' cried Ulick, distressed.  'You are very
+kind, but it can't be.'
+
+'Excuse me, it is economy of the wrong sort to live in a gutter, and
+catch agues and fevers.  Only think, if it was my boy Gilbert, should
+I not be obliged to any one that would tyrannize over him for his
+good!  Besides, what I propose is not at all beyond such means as Mr.
+Kendal tells me are the least Mr. Goldsmith ought to give you.  Do
+you dislike going into particulars with me?  You know I am used to
+think for Gilbert, and I am a sort of cousin.'
+
+'You are kindness itself,' said Ulick; 'and there! I suppose I must
+go to the bottom of it, and it is no news that pence are not plenty
+among the O'Mores, though it is no fault of my uncle.  See there what
+my poor dear mother says.'
+
+He drew a letter from his pocket, and gave a page to her.
+
+
+'I miss you sorely, my boy,' it said; 'I know the more what a support
+and friend you have been to me now that you are so far away; but all
+is made up to me in knowing you to be among my own people, and the
+instrument of reconciliation with my brother, as you well know how
+great has been the pain of the estrangement caused by my own pride
+and wilfulness.  I cannot tell you how glad I am that he approves of
+you, and that you are beginning to get used to the work that was my
+own poor father's for so long.  Bred up as you have been, my mountain
+lad, I scarcely dared to hope that you would be able to sit down
+quietly to it, with all our hopes of making you a scholar so suddenly
+frustrated; but I might have put faith in your loving heart and sense
+of duty to carry you through anything.  I feel as if a load were off
+my mind since you and Bryan are so happily launched.  The boy has not
+once applied for money since he joined; and if you write to him, pray
+beg him to be careful, for it would well-nigh drive your father mad
+to be pressed any more--the poor mare has been sold at a dead loss
+and the Carrick-humbug quarry company pays no dividends, so how we
+are to meet the Christmas bills I cannot guess.  But, as you
+remember, we have won over worse times, and now Providence has been
+so good to you and Bryan, what have I to do but be thankful and hope
+the best.'
+
+
+Ulick watched her face, and gave her another note, saying mournfully,
+'You see they all, but my mother, think, that if I am dragging our
+family honour through the mire, I've got something by it.  Poor
+Bryan, he knows no better--he's younger than me by two years.'
+
+The young ensign made a piteous confession of the first debt he had
+been able to contract, for twenty pounds, with a promise that if his
+brother would help him out of this one scrape, he would never run
+into another.
+
+'I am very sorry for you, Ulick,' said Albinia, 'and I hate to advise
+you to be selfish, but it really is quite impossible for you to be
+paymaster for all your brothers' debts.'
+
+'If it were Connel, I know it would be of no use,' said Ulick.  'But
+Bryan--you see he has got a start--they gave him a commission, and he
+is the finest fellow of us all, and knows what his word is, and keeps
+it!  Maybe, if I get on, I may be able to save, and help him to his
+next step, and then if Redmond could get to college, my mother would
+be a happy woman, and all thanks to my uncle.'
+
+'Then it is this twenty pounds that is pinching you now?  Is that
+it?'
+
+'You see my uncle said he would give me enough to keep me as a
+gentleman and his nephew, but not enough to keep all the family, as
+he said.  After my Christmas quarter I shall be up in the world
+again, and then there will be time to think of the woman you spoke
+of--a Connaught woman, did you say?'
+
+When Albinia reported this dialogue to her husband, he was much moved
+by this simple self-abnegation.
+
+'There is nothing for it,' he said, 'but to bring him here till
+Christmas, and by that time we will take care that the new lodgings
+are cheap enough for him.  He must not be left to the mercy of old
+Goldsmith and his sister!'
+
+Even Albinia was astonished, but Mr. Kendal carried out his
+intentions, and went in quest of his new friend; while no one thought
+of objecting except grandmamma.
+
+'I suppose, my dear,' she said, 'that you know what Mr. Goldsmith
+means to do for this young man.'
+
+'I am sure I don't,' said Albinia.
+
+'Really!  Ah! well, I'm an old woman, and I may be wrong, but my poor
+dear Mr. Meadows would never encourage a banker's clerk about the
+house unless he knew what were his expectations.  Irish too!  If
+there was a thing Mr. Meadows disliked more than another, it was an
+Irishman!  He said they were all adventurers.'
+
+However, Ulick's first evening at Willow Lawn was on what he called
+'a headache day.'  He could not have taken a better measure for
+overcoming grandmamma's objections.  Poor dear Mr. Meadows' worldly
+wisdom was not sufficiently native to her to withstand the sight of
+anything so pale and suffering, especially as he did not rebel
+against answering her close examination, which concluded in her
+pronouncing these intermitting attacks to be agueish, and prescribing
+quinine.  To take medicines is an effectual way of gaining an old
+lady's love.  Ulick was soon established in her mind as 'a very
+pretty behaved young gentleman.'
+
+In the evenings, when Mr. Kendal read aloud, Ulick listened, and
+enjoyed it from the corner where he sheltered his eyes from the
+light.  He was told that he ought to go to bed quickly, but after the
+ladies were in their rooms, a long buzzing murmur was heard in the
+passage, and judicious peeping revealed the two gentlemen, each,
+candle in hand, the one with his back against the wall at the top of
+the stairs, the other leaning upon the balusters three steps below,
+and there they stayed, till the clock struck one, and Ulick's candle
+burnt out.
+
+'What could you be talking about?' asked the aggrieved Albinia.
+
+'Prometheus Vinctus,' composedly returned Mr. Kendal.
+
+Ulick's eagerness in collecting every crumb of scholarship was a
+great bond of union; but there was still more in the bright, open,
+demonstrative nature of the youth, which had a great attraction for
+the reserved, serious Mr. Kendal, and scarcely a day had passed
+before they were on terms of intimacy, almost like an elder and
+younger brother.  Admitted into the family as a connexion, Ulick at
+once viewed the girls as cousins, and treated them with the same easy
+grace of good-natured familiarity as if they had been any of the
+nineteen Miss O'Mores around Ballymakilty.
+
+'How is your head now?' asked Mr. Kendal.  'You are late this
+evening.'
+
+'Yes,' said Ulick, entering the drawing-room, which was ruddy with
+firelight, and fragrant with the breath of the conservatory, and
+leaning over an arm-chair, as he tried to rub the aching out of his
+brow; 'there were some accounts to finish up and my additions came
+out different every time.'
+
+'A sure sign that you ought to have left off.'
+
+'I was just going to have told my uncle I was good for nothing to-day,
+when I heard old Johns mumbling something to him about Mr. More
+being unwell, and looking up, I saw that cold grey eye twinkling at
+me, as much as to say he was proud to see how soon an Irishman could
+be beaten.  So what could I do but give him look for look, and go on
+with eight and seven, and five and two, as unconcerned as he was.'
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Kendal, 'you know I think that your uncle's apparent
+indifference may be his fashion of being your best friend.'
+
+'I'd take it like sunshine in May from a stranger, and be proud to
+disappoint him,' said Ulick, 'but to call himself my uncle, and use
+my mother's own eyes to look at me that way, that's the stroke! and
+to think that I'm only striving to harden myself by force of habit to
+be exactly like him!  I'd rather enlist to-morrow, if that would not
+be his greatest triumph!' he cried, pressing his hands hard on his
+temple.  'It is very childish, but I could forgive him anything but
+using my mother's eyes that way!'
+
+'You will yet rejoice in the likeness,' said Mr. Kendal.  'You must
+believe in more than you can trace, and when your perseverance has
+conquered his esteem, the rest will follow.'
+
+'Follow?  The rest, as you call it, would go before at home,' sighed
+Ulick, wearily.  'Esteem is like fame! what I want begins without it,
+and lives as well with or without it!'
+
+'Perhaps,' said his friend, 'Mr. Goldsmith would think it weakness to
+show preference to a relation before it was earned.'
+
+'Ah then,' cried Ulick, in a quaint Irish tone, 'Heaven have mercy on
+the little children!'
+
+'Yes, the doctrine can only be consistently held by a solitary man.'
+
+'Where would we be but for inconsistency?' exclaimed Ulick.
+
+'I do not like to hear you talk in that manner,' said Sophy.
+'Inconsistency is mere weakness.'
+
+'Ah! then you are the dangerous character,' said Ulick, with a droll
+gesture of sheltering himself behind the chair.
+
+'I did not call myself consistent, I wish I were,' she said, gravely.
+
+'How she must love the French!' returned Ulick, confidentially
+turning to her father.
+
+'Not at all, I detest them.'
+
+'Then you are inconsistent, for they're the very models of
+uncompromising consistency.'
+
+'Yes, to bad principles,' said Sophy.
+
+'Robespierre was a prime specimen of consistency to good principle!'
+
+Sophy turned to her father, and with an odd dubious look, asked him,
+'Is be teasing me?'
+
+'He'd be proud to have the honour,' Ulick made answer, so that Mr.
+Kendal's smile grew broad.  It was the funniest thing to see Ulick
+sporting with Sophy's gravity, constraining her to playfulness, with
+something of the compulsion exercised by a large frolicsome puppy
+upon a sober old dog of less size and strength.
+
+'I do not like to see powers wasted on paradox,' she said, even as
+the grave senior might roll up his lip and snarl.
+
+'I'm in earnest, Sophy,' pursued Ulick, changing his note to
+eagerness.  'La grande nation herself finds that logic was her bane.
+Consistency was never made for man!  Why where would this world be if
+it did not go two ways at once?'
+
+Sophy did laugh at this Irish version of the centripetal and
+centrifugal forces, but she held out.  'The earth describes a circle;
+I like straight lines.'
+
+'Much we shall have of the right direction, unless we are content to
+turn right about face,' said Ulick.  'The best path of life is but a
+herring-bone pattern.'
+
+'What does he know of herring-boning?' asked Mrs. Kendal, coming in
+at the moment, with a white cashmere cloak folded picturesquely over
+her delicate blue silk.  Ulick in a moment assumed a less careless
+attitude, as he answered--
+
+'I found my poetical illustration on the motion of the earth too much
+for her, so I descended to the herring-bone as more suited to her
+capacity.'
+
+'There he is, mamma,' said Sophy, 'pleading that consistency is the
+most ruinous thing in the world.'
+
+'I thought as much,' said Albinia.  'Prometheus and his kin do most
+abound when Ulick's head is worst, and papa is in greatest danger of
+being late.'
+
+Mr. Kendal turned round, looked at the time-piece, and marched off.
+
+'But mamma!' continued Sophy, driving straight at her point, 'what do
+you think of consistency?'
+
+'Oh, mamma!' cried Lucy, coming into the room in a flutter of white;
+'there you are in your beautiful blue!  Have you really put it on for
+the Drurys?'
+
+Sophy bit her lip, neither pleased at the interruption, nor at the
+taste.
+
+'Have you a graduated scale of dresses for all your friends, Lucy?
+asked Ulick.
+
+'Everybody has, I suppose,' said Lucy.
+
+'Ah! then I shall know how to judge how I stand in your favour.  I
+never knew so well what the garb of friendship meant.'
+
+'You must know which way her scale goes,' said Albinia, laughing at
+Sophy's evident affront at the frivolous turn the conversation had
+taken.
+
+'That needs no asking,' quoth Ulick, 'Unadorned, adorned the most for
+the nearest the hearth.'
+
+'That's all conceit,' said Lucy.  'Maybe familiarity breeds
+contempt.'
+
+'No, no, when young ladies despise, they use a precision that says,
+"'Tis myself I care for, and not you."'
+
+'What an observer!' cried Lucy.  'Now then, interpret my dress to-night!'
+
+'How can you, Lucy!' muttered the scandalized Sophy.
+
+'Well, Sophy, as you will have him to torment with philosophy this
+whole evening, I think you might give him a little respite,' said
+Lucy, good-humouredly.  'I want to know what my dress reveals to
+him!' and drawing up her head, where two coral pins contrasted with
+her dark braids, and spreading out her full white skirts and cerise
+trimmings, she threw her figure into an attitude, and darted a merry
+challenge from her lively black eyes, while Ulick availed himself of
+the permission to look critically, and Sophy sank back disgusted.
+
+'Miss Kendal can, when she is inclined, produce as much effect with
+her beams of the second order as with all her splendours displayed.'
+
+'Stuff,' said Lucy.
+
+'Stuff indeed,' more sincerely murmured Sophy.
+
+'Say something in earnest,' said Lucy.  'You professed to tell what I
+thought of the people.'
+
+'I hope you'll never put on such new white gloves where I'm the party
+chiefly concerned.'
+
+'What do you mean?'
+
+'They are a great deal too unexceptionable.'
+
+If there were something coquettish in the manner of these two, it did
+not give Albinia much concern.  It was in him 'only Irish;' and Fred
+Ferrars had made her believe that it was rather a sign of the absence
+of love than of its presence.  She saw much more respect and interest
+in his mischievous attacks on Sophy's gravity, and though Lucy both
+pitied him and liked chattering with him, it was all the while under
+the secret protest that he was only a banker's clerk.
+
+Sophy was glad of the presence of a third person to obviate the
+perils of her evenings with grandmamma, and she beheld the trio set
+off to their dinner-party, without the usual dread of being betrayed
+into wrangling.  Mr. O'More devoted himself to the old lady's
+entertainment, he amused her with droll stories, and played
+backgammon with her.  Then she composed herself to her knitting, and
+desired them not to mind her, she liked to hear young people talk
+cheerfully; whereupon Sophy, by way of light and cheerful
+conversation, renewed the battle of consistency with a whole
+broadside of heavy metal.
+
+When the diners-out came home, they found the war raging as hotly as
+ever; a great many historical facts and wise sayings having been
+fired off on both sides, and neither having found out that each meant
+the same thing.
+
+However, the hours had gone imperceptibly past them, which could not
+be said for the others.  The half-yearly dinners at Mr. Drury's were
+Albinia's dread nearly as much as Mr. Kendal's aversion.  He was
+certain, whatever he might intend, to fall into a fit of absence, and
+she was almost equally sure to hear something unpleasant, and to
+regret her own reply.  On the whole, however, Mr. Kendal came away on
+this evening the least dissatisfied, for Mr. Goldsmith had asked him
+with some solicitude, whether he thought 'that lad, young More,'
+positively unwell; and had gone the length of expressing that he
+seemed to be fairly sharp, and stuck to his work.  Mr. Kendal seized
+the moment for telling his opinion, of Ulick, and though Mr.
+Goldsmith coughed and looked dry and almost contemptuous, he was
+perceptibly gratified, and replied with a maxim evidently intended
+both as an excuse for himself and as a warning to the Kendals, that
+young men were always spoilt by being made too much of--in his
+younger days--&c.
+
+Lucy, meantime, was undergoing the broad banter of her unrefined
+cousins on the subject of the Irish clerk.  A very little grace in
+the perpetration would have made it grateful to her vanity, but this
+was far too broad raillery, and made her hold up her head with
+protestations of her perfect indifference, to which her cousins
+manifested incredulity, visiting on her with some petty spite their
+small jealousies of her higher pretensions, and of the attention
+which had been paid to her by Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy.
+
+'Not that he will ever look at you again, Lucy, you need not flatter
+yourself,' said the amiable Sarah Anne.  'Harry Wolfe writes that he
+was flirting with a beautiful young lady who came to see Oxford, and
+that he is spending quantities of money.'
+
+'It is nothing to me, I am sure,' retorted Lucy.  'Besides, Gilbert
+says no such thing.'
+
+'Gilbert! oh, no!' exclaimed Miss Drury; 'why, he is just as bad
+himself.  Papa said, from what Mrs. Wolfe told him, he would not take
+500 pounds to pay Mr. Gilbert's bills.'
+
+Albinia had been hearing much the same story from Mrs. Drury, though
+not so much exaggerated, and administered with more condolence.  She
+did not absolutely believe, and yet she could not utterly disbelieve,
+so the result was a letter to Gilbert, with an anxious exhortation to
+be careful, and not to be deluded into foolish expenditure in
+imitation of the Polysyllable; and as no special answer was returned,
+she dismissed the whole from her mind as a Drury allegation.
+
+The horse chanced to be lame, so that Gilbert could not be met at
+Hadminster on his return from Oxford, but much earlier than the
+omnibus usually lumbered into Bayford, he astonished Sophy, who was
+lying on the sofa in the morning-room, by marching in with a free and
+easy step, and a loose coat of the most novel device.
+
+'No one else at home?' he asked.
+
+'Only grandmamma.  We did not think the omnibus would come in so
+soon, but I suppose you took a fly, as there were three of you.'
+
+'As if we were going to stand six miles of bus with the Wolfe cub!
+No, Dusautoy brought his horse down with him, and I took a fly!' said
+Gilbert.  'Well, and what's the matter with Captain; has the Irishman
+been riding him?'
+
+Sophy bit her lip to prevent an angry answer, and was glad that
+Maurice rushed in, fall of uproarious joy.  'Hollo! boy, how you
+grow!  What have you got there?'
+
+'It's my new pop-gun, that Ulick made me, I'll shoot you,' cried
+Maurice, retiring to a suitable distance.
+
+'I declare the child has caught the brogue!  Is the fellow here
+still?'
+
+'What fellow?' coldly asked Sophy.
+
+'Why, this pet of my father's.'
+
+'Bang!' cried Maurice, and a pellet passed perilously close to
+Gilbert's eyes.
+
+'Don't, child.  Pray is this banker's clerk one of our fixtures,
+Sophy?'
+
+'I don't know why you despise him, unless it is because it is what
+you ought to be yourself,' Sophy was provoked into retorting.
+
+'Apparently my father has a monomania for the article.'  Gilbert
+intended to speak with provoking coolness; but another fraternal
+pellet hit him fall in the nose, and the accompanying shout of glee
+was too much for an already irritated temper.  With passion most
+unusual in him, he caught hold of the child, and exclaiming, 'You
+little imp, what do you mean by it?' he wrenched the weapon out of
+his hand, and dashed it into the fire, in the midst of an energetic
+'For shame!' from his sister.  Maurice, with a furious 'Naughty
+Gilbert,' struck at him with both his little fists clenched, and then
+precipitated himself over the fender to snatch his treasure from the
+grate, but was instantly captured and pulled back, struggling,
+kicking, and fighting with all his might, till, to the equal relief
+of both brothers, Sophy held up the pop-gun in the tongs, one end
+still tinged with a red glow, smoky, blackened, and perfumed.
+Maurice made one bound, she lowered it into his grasp as the last red
+spark died out, and he clasped it as Siegfried did the magic sword!
+
+'There, Maurice, I didn't mean it,' said Gilbert, heartily ashamed
+and sorry; 'kiss and make it up, and then put on your hat, and we'll
+come up to old Smith's and get such a jolly one!'
+
+The forgiving child had already given the kiss, glad to atone for his
+aggressions, but then was absorbed in rubbing the charred wood,
+amazed that while so much black came off on his fingers, the effect
+on the weapon was not proportionate, and then tried another shot in a
+safer direction.  'Come,' said Gilbert, 'put that black affair into
+the fire, and come along.'
+
+'No!' said Maurice; 'it is my dear gun that Ulick made me, and it
+shan't be burnt.'
+
+'What, not if I give you a famous one--like a real one, with a stock
+and barrel?' said Gilbert, anxious to be freed from the tokens of his
+ebullition.
+
+'No! no!' still stoutly said the constant Maurice.  'I don't want new
+guns; I've got my dear old one, and I'll keep him to the end of his
+days and mine!' and he crossed his arms over it.
+
+'That's right, Maurice,' said Sophy; 'stick to old friends that have
+borne wounds in your service!'
+
+'Well, it's his concern if he likes such a trumpery old thing,' said
+Gilbert.  'Come here, boy; you don't bear malice!  Come and have a
+ride on my back.'
+
+The practical lesson, 'don't shoot at your brother's nose,' would
+never have been impressed, had not mamma, on coming in, found Maurice
+and his pop-gun nearly equally black, and by gradual unfolding of
+cause and effect, learnt his forgotten offence.  She reminded him of
+ancient promises never to aim at human creatures, assured him that
+Gilbert was very kind not to have burnt it outright; and to the great
+displeasure, and temporary relief of all the family, sequestrated the
+weapon for the rest of the evening.
+
+Sophy told her in confidence that Gilbert had been the most to blame,
+which she took as merely an instance of Sophy's blindness to
+Maurice's errors; for the explosion had so completely worked off the
+Oxford dash, that he was perfectly meek and amiable.  Considering the
+antecedents, such a contrast to himself as young O'More could hardly
+fail to be an eyesore, walking tame about the home, and specially
+recommended to his friendship; but so good-natured was he, and so
+attractive was the Irishman, that it took much influence from
+Algernon Dusautoy to keep up a thriving aversion.  Albinia marvelled
+at the power exercised over Gilbert by one whose intellect and
+pretensions he openly contemned, but perceived that obstinacy and
+undoubting self-satisfaction overmastered his superior intelligence
+and principle, and that while perceiving all the follies of the
+Polysyllable, Gilbert had a strange propensity for his company, and
+therein always resumed the fast man, disdainful of the clerk.  He did
+not like Ulick better for being the immediate cause of the removal of
+the last traces of the Belmarche family from their old abode, which
+had been renovated by pretty shamrock chintz furniture, the pride of
+the two Irish hearts.  Indeed it was to be feared that Bridget would
+assist in the perpetuation of those rolling R's which caused Mr.
+Goldsmith's brow to contract whenever his nephew careered along upon
+one.
+
+His departure from Willow Lawn was to take place at Christmas.  The
+Ferrars party were coming to keep the two consecutive birthdays of
+Sophy and Maurice at Bayford, would take him back for Christmas-day
+to Fairmead, and on his return he would take possession of his new
+rooms.
+
+Maurice's fete was to serve as the occasion of paying off civilities
+to a miscellaneous young party; but as grandmamma's feelings would
+have been hurt, had not Sophy's been equally distinguished, it was
+arranged that Mrs. Nugent should then bring her eldest girl to meet
+the Ferrarses at an early tea.
+
+Just as Albinia had descended to await her guests, Gilbert came down,
+and presently said, with would-be indifference, 'Oh, by-the-by,
+Dusautoy said he would look in.'
+
+'The Polysyllable!' cried Albinia, thunderstruck; 'what possessed you
+to ask him, when you knew I sacrificed Mr. Dusautoy rather than have
+him to spoil it all?'
+
+'I didn't ask him exactly,' replied Gilbert; 'it was old Bowles, who
+met us, and tried to nail us to eat our mutton with him, as he called
+it.  I had my answer, and Dusautoy got off by saying he was engaged
+to us, and desired me to tell you he would make his excuses in
+person.'
+
+'He can make no excuse for downright falsehood.'
+
+'Hem!' quoth Gilbert.  'You wouldn't have him done into drinking old
+Bowles's surgery champagne.'
+
+'One comfort is that he wont get any dinner,' said Albinia,
+vindictively.  'I hope he'll be ravenously hungry.'
+
+'He may not come after all,' said Gilbert; and Albinia, laying hold
+of that hope, had nearly forgotten the threatened disaster, as her
+party appeared by instalments, and Winifred owned to her that Sophy
+had grown better-looking than could have been expected.  Her eyes had
+brightened, the cloudy brown of her cheeks was enlivened, she held
+herself better, and the less childish dress was much to her
+advantage.  But above all, the moody look of suffering was gone, and
+her face had something of the grave sweetness and regular beauty of
+that of her father.
+
+'Seventeen,' said Mrs. Ferrars; 'by the time she is seventy, she may
+be a remarkably handsome woman!'
+
+The tea-drinking was in lively operation, when after a thundering
+knock, Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy was ushered in, with the air of a
+prince honouring the banquet of his vassals, saying, 'I told Kendal I
+should presume on your hospitality, I beg you will make no difference
+on my account.'
+
+Of which gracious permission Albinia was resolved to avail herself.
+She left all the insincerity to her husband, and would by no means
+allow grandmamma to abdicate the warm corner.  She suspected that he
+wanted an introduction to Mrs. Nugent, and was resolved to defeat
+this object, unless he should condescend to make the request, so she
+was well satisfied to see him wedged in between papa and Sophy, while
+a prodigious quantity of Irish talk was going on between Mrs. Nugent
+and Mr. O'More, with contributions of satire from Mr. Ferrars which
+kept every one laughing except little Nora Nugent and Mary Ferrars,
+who were deep in the preliminaries of an eternal friendship, and held
+the ends of each other's crackers like a pair of doves.  Lucy,
+however, was ill at ease at the obscurity which shrouded the
+illustrious guest, and in her anxiety, gave so little attention to
+her two neighbours, that Willie Ferrars, affronted at some neglect,
+exclaimed, 'Why, Lucy, what makes you screw your eyes about so! you
+can't attend to any one.'
+
+'It is because Polly Silly is there,' shouted Master Maurice from his
+throne beside his mamma.
+
+To the infinite relief of the half-choked Albinia, little Mary
+Ferrars, with whom her cousin had been carrying on a direful warfare
+all day, fitted on the cap, shook her head gravely at him, and after
+an appealing look of indignation, first at his mamma, then at her
+own, was overheard confiding to Nora Nugent that Maurice was a very
+naughty boy--she was sorry to say, a regular spoilt child.
+
+'But how should you hinder Miss Kendal from attending?'
+
+'I'll tell you, darling.  Poor Lucy! she is very fond of me, and I
+dare say she wanted me to sit next to her, but you know she will have
+me for three days, and I have you only this one evening.  I'll go and
+speak to her after tea, when we go into the drawing-room, and then
+she wont mind.'
+
+Lucy, after an agony of blushes, had somewhat recovered on finding
+that no one seemed to apply her brother's speech, and when the
+benevolent Mary made her way to her, and thrust a hand into hers,
+only a feeble pressure replied to these romantic blandishments, so
+anxious was she to carry to Mrs. Kendal the information that Mr.
+Cavendish Dusautoy had been so obliging as to desire his servant to
+bring his guitar and key-bugle.
+
+'We are much obliged,' said Albinia, 'but look at that face!' and she
+turned Lucy towards Willie's open-mouthed, dismayed countenance.  You
+must tell him the company are not sufficiently advanced in musical
+science.'
+
+'But mamma, it would gratify him!'
+
+'Very likely'--and without listening further, Albinia turned to
+Willie, who had all day been insisting that papa should introduce her
+to the new game of the Showman.
+
+Infinitely delighted to be relieved from the fear of the guitar,
+Willie hunted all who would play into another room; whence they were
+to be summoned, one by one, back to the drawing-room by the showman,
+Mr. Ferrars, who shrugged his shoulders at the task, but undertook
+it, and first called for Mrs. Kendal.
+
+She found him stationed before the red curtains, which were closely
+drawn, and her husband and the three elder ladies sitting by as
+audience.
+
+'Pray, madam, may I ask what animal you would desire to have
+exhibited to you, out of the vast resources that my menagerie
+contains.  Choose freely, I undertake that whatever you may select,
+you shall not be disappointed.'
+
+'What, not if I were to ask for a black spider monkey?' said Albinia,
+to whom it was very charming to be playing with Maurice again.
+
+Mr. Kendal looked up in entertained curiosity, Mrs. Nugent smiled as
+if she thought the showman's task impossible, and Winifred stretched
+out to gain a full view.
+
+'A black spider monkey,' he said, slowly.  'Allow me to ask, madam,
+if you are acquainted with the character of the beast?'
+
+'It doesn't scratch, does it?' said she, quickly.
+
+'That is for you to answer.'
+
+'I never knew it do so.  It does chatter a great deal, but it never
+scratched that I knew of.'
+
+'Nor I,' said the showman, 'since it was young.  Do you think age
+renders it graver and steadier?'
+
+'Not a bit.  It is always frisky and troublesome, and I never knew it
+get a bit better as it grew older.'
+
+Winifred laughed outright.  Mr. Kendal's lips were parted by his
+smile.  'I wonder what sort of a mother it would make?' said the
+showman.
+
+'All animals are good mothers, of course.'
+
+'I meant, is it a good disciplinarian?'
+
+'If you mean cuffing its young one for playing exactly the same
+tricks as itself.'
+
+'Exactly; and what would be the effect of letting it and its young
+one loose in a great scholar's study?'
+
+'There wouldn't be much study left.'
+
+'And would it be for his good?'
+
+'Really, Mr. Showman, you ask very odd questions.  Shall we try?'
+said Albinia, with a skip backward, so as to lay her hand on the
+shoulder of her own great scholar, while the showman drew back the
+curtain, observing--'I wish, ma'am, I could show "it and its young
+one" together, but the young specimen is unfortunately asleep.
+Behold the original black spider monkey!'
+
+There stood the monkey, with sunny brown locks round the laughing
+glowing face, and one white paw still lying on the scholar's
+shoulder--while his face made no assurance needful that it was very
+good for him!  The mirror concealed behind the curtains was the
+menagerie!  Albinia clapped her hands with delight, and pronounced it
+the most perfect of games.
+
+'And now let us have Willie,' said Mrs. Ferrars; 'it will conduce to
+the harmony of the next room.'
+
+Willie, already initiated, hoped to puzzle papa as a platypus
+ornithoryncus, but was driven to allow that it was a nondescript
+animal, neither fish, flesh, nor good red-herring, useless, and very
+fond of grubbing in the mud; and if it were not at Botany Bay, it
+ought to be!  The laughter that hailed his defence of its nose as
+'well, nothing particular,' precipitated the drawing up of the
+curtain and his apparition in the glass: and then Nora Nugent being
+called, the inseparable Mary accompanied her, arm-in-arm, simpering
+an announcement that they liked nothing so well as a pair of dear
+little love-birds.
+
+Oh, unpitying papa! to draw from the unsuspicious Nora the admission
+that they were very dull little birds, of no shape at all, who always
+sat hunched up in a corner without any fun, and people said their
+love was all stupidity and pretence; in fact, if she had one she
+should call it Silly Polly or Polly Silly!
+
+To silence Willie's exultation in his sister's discomfiture, he was
+sent to fetch Lucy, whose impersonation of an argus pheasant would
+not have answered well but for a suggestion of Albinia, that she was
+eyes all over for any delinquency in school.  Ulick O'More, owning
+with a sigh that he should like to see no beast better than a snipe,
+gave rise to much ingenuity by being led to describe it as of a class
+migratory, hard to catch, food for powder, given to long bills.
+There he guessed something, and stood on the defensive, but could not
+deny that its element was bogs, but that it had been seen skimming
+over water meadows, and finding sustenance in banks, whereupon the
+curtain rose.  Ulick rushed upon the battles of his nation, and was
+only reduced to quiescence by the entrance of Sophy, who expressed a
+desire to see a coral worm, apparently perplexing the showman, who,
+to gain time, hemmed, and said, 'A very unusual species, ma'am,'
+which set all the younger ones in a double giggle, such as confused
+Sophy, to find herself standing up, with every one looking at her,
+and listening for her words.  'I thought you undertook for any
+impossibility in earth air or water.'
+
+'Well, ma'am, do you take me for a mere mountebank?  But when ladies
+and gentlemen take such unusual fancies--and for an animal that--you
+would not aver that it is often found from home?'
+
+'Never, I should say.'
+
+'Nor that it is accessible?'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'And why is it so, ma'am?'
+
+'Why,' said Sophy, bewildered into forgetting her natural history,
+'it lives at the bottom of the sea; that's one thing.'
+
+'Where Truth lives,' said a voice behind.
+
+'I beg to differ,' observed Albinia.  'Truth is a fresh water fish at
+the bottom of a well; besides, I thought coral worms were always
+close to the surface.'
+
+'But below it--not in everybody's view,' said Sophy--an answer which
+seemed much to the satisfaction of the audience, but the showman
+insisted on knowing why, and whether it did not conceal itself.  'It
+makes stony caves for itself, out of sight,' said Sophy, almost
+doubting whether she spoke correctly.  'Well, surely it does so.'
+
+'Most surely,' said an acclamation so general that she did not like
+it.  If she had been younger, she would have turned sulky upon the
+spot, and Mr. Ferrars almost doubted whether to bring ont his final
+query.  'Pray, ma'am, do you think this creature out of reach in its
+self-made cave, at the bottom--no, below the surface of the sea,
+would be popular enough to repay the cost of procuring it.'
+
+'Ah! that's too bad,' burst out the Hibernian tones.  'Why, is not
+the best of everything hidden away from the common eye?  Out of
+sight--stony cave--It is the secret worker that lays the true solid
+foundation, raises the new realms, and forms the precious jewels.'
+The torrent of r's was irresistible!
+
+'Police! order!' cried the showman.  'An Irish mob has got in, and
+there's an end of everything.'  So up went the curtain, and the polyp
+appeared, becoming rapidly red coral as she perceived what the
+exhibition was, and why the politeness of the Green Isle revolted
+from her proclaiming her own unpopularity.  But all she did was to
+turn gruffly aside, and say, 'It is lucky there are no more ladies to
+come, Mr. Showman, or the mob would turn everything to a compliment.'
+
+Gilbert's curiosity was directed to the Laughing Jackass, and with
+too much truth he admitted that it took its tone from whatever it
+associated with, and caught every note, from the song of the lark to
+the bray of the donkey; then laughed good-humouredly when the
+character was fitted upon himself.
+
+'That is all, is it not?' asked the showman.  'I may retire into
+private life.'
+
+'Oh no,' cried Willie; 'you have forgotten Mr. Dusautoy.'
+
+'I was afraid you had,' said Lucy, 'or you could not have left him to
+the last.'
+
+'I am tempted to abdicate,' said Mr. Ferrars.
+
+'No,' Albinia said.  'He must have his share, and no one but you can
+do it.  Where can he be? the pause becomes awful!'
+
+'Willie is making suggestions,' said Gilbert; 'his imagination would
+never stretch farther than a lion.  It's what he thinks himself and
+no mistake.'
+
+'He is big enough to be the elephant,' said little Mary.
+
+'The half-reasoning!' said Ulick, softly; 'and I can answer for his
+trunk, I saw it come off the omnibus.'
+
+'Ladies and gentlemen, if you persist in such disorderly conduct, the
+exhibition will close,' cried the showman, waving his wand as Willie
+trumpeted Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy in, and on the demand what animal he
+wanted to see, twitched him as Flibbertigibbet did the giant warder,
+and caused him to respond--'The Giraffe.'
+
+'Has it not another name, sir?  A short or a long one, more or less
+syllables!'
+
+'Camelopard.  A polysyllabic word, certainly,' said Algernon, looking
+with a puzzled expression at the laughers behind; and almost
+imagining it possible that he could have made an error, he repeated,
+'Camel-le-o-pard.  Yes, it is a polysyllable'--as, indeed, he had
+added an unnecessary syllable.
+
+'Most assuredly,' said the showman, looking daggers at his
+suffocating sister.  'May I ask you to describe the creature?'
+
+'Seventeen feet from the crown to the hoof, but falls off behind,'
+said the accurate Mr. Dusautoy; 'beautiful tawny colour.'
+
+'Nearly as good as a Lion,' added Gilbert; but Algernon, fancying the
+game was by way of giving useful instruction to the children, went on
+in full swing.  'Handsomely mottled with darker brown; a ruminating
+animal; so gentle that in spite of its size, none of my little
+friends need be alarmed at its vicinity.  Inhabits the African
+deserts, but may be bred in more temperate latitudes.  I myself saw
+an individual in the Jardin des Plantes, which was popularly said
+never to bend its neck to the ground, but I consider this a vulgar
+delusion, for on offering it food, it mildly inclined its head.'
+
+'Let us hope the present specimen is equally condescending,' said Mr.
+Ferrars.
+
+'Eh! what! I see myself!' said Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy, with a tone so
+inappreciably grand in mystification, that the showman had no choice
+but to share the universal convulsion of laughter, while Willie
+rolling on the floor with ecstasy, shouted, 'Yes, it is you that are
+the thing with such a long name that it can't bend its head to the
+ground!'
+
+'But too good-natured to be annoyed at folly,' said Mr. Ferrars,
+perceiving that it was no sport to him.
+
+'This is the way my mischievous uncle has served us all in turn,'
+said Lucy, advancing; 'we have all been shown up, and there was mamma
+a monkey, and I an argus pheasant--'
+
+'Ah! I see,' said the gentleman.  'These are your rural pastimes of
+the season.  Yes, I can take my share in good part, just as I have
+pelted the masks at the Carnival.'
+
+'Even a giraffe can bend his head and do at Rome as Rome does,'
+murmured Ulick.  But instead of heeding the audacious Irishman,
+Algernon patronized the showman by thanks for his exhibition; and
+then sitting down by Lucy, asked if he had ever told her of the
+tricks that he and il Principe Odorico Moretti used to play at Ems on
+the old Baron Sprawlowsky, while Mr. Ferrars, leaning over his
+sister's chair, said aside, 'I beg your pardon, Albinia; I should not
+have yielded to Willie.  This "rural pastime" is only in season en
+famille.'
+
+'Never mind, it served him right.'
+
+'It may have served him right, but had we the right to serve him?'
+
+'I forgive your prudence for the sake of your folly.  Could not
+Oxford have lessened his pomposity?'
+
+'It comes too late,' said Maurice.
+
+Before Ulick went to bed his pen and ink had depicted the entire
+caravan.  The love-birds were pressed up together, with the
+individual features of the two young ladies, and completely little
+parrots; the snipe ran along the bars of the cage, looking exactly
+like all the O'Mores.  The monkey showed nothing but the hands, but
+one held Maurice, and the other was clenched as if to cuff him, and
+grandest of all was, as in duty bound, Camelopardelis giraffa, thrown
+somewhat backwards, with such a majestic form, such a stalking
+attitude, loftily ruminating face, and legs so like the Cavendish
+Dusautoy's last new pair of trousers, that Albinia could not help
+reserving it for the private delectation of his Aunt Fanny.
+
+'It and its young one,' said Mr. Kendal, as he looked at her
+portrait; and the name delighted him so much, that he for some time
+applied it with a smile whenever his wife gave him cause to remember
+how much there was of the monkey in her composition.
+
+It was the merriest Christmas ever known at Willow Lawn, and the
+first time there had been anything of the atmosphere of family frolic
+and fun.  The lighting up of Sophy was one great ingredient; hitherto
+mirth had been merely endured by her, whereas now, improved health
+and spirits had made her take her share, amuse others and be amused,
+and cease to be hurt by the jarring of chance words.  Lucy was lively
+as usual, but rather more excited than Albinia altogether liked; she
+was doubly particular about her dress; more disdainful of the common
+herd, and had a general air of exaltation that made Albinia rejoice
+when the Polysyllable, the horses, the key-bugle, and genre painting
+disappeared from the Bayford horizon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+
+If the end of the vacation were a relief on Lucy's account, Albinia
+would gladly have lengthened it on Gilbert's.  Letters from his tutor
+had disquieted his father; there had been an expostulation followed
+by promises, and afterwards one of the usual scenes of argument,
+complaint, excuse, lamentation, and wish to amend; but lastly, a
+murmur that it was no use to talk to a father who had never been at
+the University, and did not know what was expected of a man.
+
+The aspect of Oxford had changed in Albinia's eyes since the days of
+her brother.  Alma Mater had been a vision of pealing bells, chanting
+voices, cloistered shades, bright waters--the source of her most
+cherished thoughts, the abode of youth walking in the old paths of
+pleasantness and peace; and she knew that to faithful hearts, old
+Oxford was still the same.  But to her present anxious gaze it had
+become a field of snares and temptations, whither she had been the
+means of sending one, unguarded and unstable.
+
+Once under the influence of a good sound-hearted friend, he might
+have been easily led right, but his intimacy with young Dusautoy
+seemed to cancel all hope of this, and to be like a rope about his
+neck, drawing him into the same career, and keeping aloof all better
+influences.  Algernon, with his pride, pomposity, and false
+refinement, was more likely to run into ostentations expenditure,
+than into coarse dissipation, and it might still be hoped that the
+two youths would drag through without public disgrace; but this was
+felt to be a very poor hope by those who felt each sin to be a fatal
+blot, and trembled at the self-indulgent way of life that might be a
+more fatal injury than even the ban of the authorities.
+
+She saw that the anxiety pressed heavily on Mr. Kendal, and though
+both shrank from giving their uneasiness force by putting it into
+words, each felt that it was ever-present with the other.  Mr. Kendal
+was deeply grieving over the effects, for the former state of
+ignorance and apathy of the evils of which he had only recently
+become fully sensible.  Living for himself alone, without cognizance
+of his membership in one great universal system, he had needed the
+sense of churchmanship to make him act up to his duties as father,
+neighbour, citizen, and man of property; and when aroused, he found
+that the time of his inaction had bound him about with fetters.  A
+tone of mind had grown up in his family from which only Sophy had
+been entirely freed; seeds of ineradicable evil had been sown,
+mischiefs had grown by neglect, abuses been established by custom;
+and his own personal disadvantages, his mauvaise honte, his reserved,
+apparently proud manner, his slowness of speech, dislike to
+interruption, and over-vehemence when excited, had so much increased
+upon him, as, in spite of his efforts, to be serious hindrances.
+Kind, liberal, painstaking, and conscientious as he had become, he
+was still looked upon as hard, stern, and tyrannical.  His ten years
+of inertness had strewn his path with thorns and briars, even beyond
+his own household; and when he looked back to his neglect of his son,
+he felt that even the worst consequences would be but just
+retribution.
+
+Once such feelings would have wrapt him in morbid gloom; now he
+strove against his disposition to sit inert and hidden, he did his
+work manfully, and endeavoured not to let his want of spirits sadden
+the household.
+
+Nor was he insensible to the cheerful healthy atmosphere of animation
+which had diffused itself there; and the bright discussions of the
+trifling interests of the day.  Ulick O'More was also a care to him,
+which did him a great deal of good.
+
+That young gentleman now lived at his lodgings, but was equally at
+home at Willow Lawn, and his knock at the library door, when he
+wished to change a book, usually led to some 'Prometheus' discussion,
+and sometimes to a walk, if Mr. Kendal thought him looking pale; or
+to dining and to spending the evening.
+
+His scrapes were peculiar.  He had thoroughly mastered his work, and
+his active mind wanted farther scope, so that he threw himself with
+avidity into deeper studies, and once fell into horrible disgrace for
+being detected with a little Plato on his desk.  Mr. Goldsmith nearly
+gave him up in despair, and pronounced that he would never make a man
+of business.  He made matters worse by replying that this was the
+best chance of his not being a man of speculation.  If he were
+allowed to think of nothing but money, he should speculate for the
+sake of something to do!
+
+Before Mr. Goldsmith had half recovered the shock, Mr. Dusautoy and
+Mr. Hope laid violent hands upon young O'More for the evening school
+twice a week, which almost equally discomposed his aunt.  She had
+never got over the first blow of Mr. Dusautoy's innovations, and felt
+as if her nephew had gone over to the enemy.  She was doubly
+ungracious at the Sunday dinner, and venomously critical of the
+choir's chanting, Mr. Hope's voice, and the Vicar's sermons.
+
+The worst scrape came in March.  The Willow Lawn ladies were in the
+lower end of the garden, which, towards the river, was separated from
+the lane that continued Tibb's Alley, by a low wall surmounted by
+spikes, and with a disused wicket, always locked, and nearly
+concealed by a growth of laurels; when out brake a horrible
+hullabaloo in that region of evil report, the shouts and yells coming
+nearer, and becoming so distinct that they were about to retreat,
+when suddenly a dark figure leapt over the gate, and into the garden,
+amid a storm of outcries.  As he disappeared among the laurels,
+Albinia caught up Maurice, Lucy screamed and prepared to fly, and
+Sophy started forward, exclaiming, 'It is Ulick, mamma; his face is
+bleeding!'  But as he emerged, she retreated, for she had a nervous
+terror of the canine race, and in his hand, at arm's length he held
+by the neck a yellow dog, a black pot dangling from its tail.
+
+'Take care,' he shouted, as Albinia set down Maurice, and was running
+up to him; 'he may be mad.'
+
+Maurice was caught up again, Lucy shrieked, and Sophy, tottering
+against an apple-tree, faintly said, 'He has bitten you!'
+
+'No, not he; it was only a stone,' said Ulick, as best he might, with
+a fast bleeding upper lip.  'They were hunting the poor beast to
+death--I believe he's no more mad than I am--only with the fright--
+but best make sure.'
+
+'Fetch some milk, Lucy,' said Albinia.  'Take Maurice with you.  No,
+don't take the poor thing down to the river, he'll only think you are
+going to drown him.  Go, Maurice dear.'
+
+Maurice safe, Albinia was able to find ready expedients after Sir
+Fowell Buxton's celebrated example.  She brought Ulick the gardener's
+thick gauntlets from the tool-house, and supplied him with her knife,
+with which he set the poor creature free from the instrument of
+torture, and then let him loose, with a pan of milk before him, in
+the old-fashioned summer-house, through the window of which he could
+observe his motions, and if he looked dangerous, shoot him.
+
+Nothing could look less dangerous; the poor creature sank down on the
+floor and moaned, licked its hind leg, and then dragged itself as if
+famished to the milk, lapped a little eagerly, but lay down again
+whining, as if in pain.  Ulick and Albinia called to it, and it
+looked up and tried to wag its tail, whining appealingly.  'My poor
+brute!' he cried, 'they've treated you worse than a heathen.  That's
+all--let me see what I can do for you.'
+
+'Yes, but yourself, Ulick,' said Albinia, as in his haste he took
+down his handkerchief from his mouth; 'I do believe your lip is cut
+through!  You had better attend to that first.'
+
+'No, no, thank you,' said Ulick, eagerly, 'they've broken the poor
+wretch's leg!' and he was the next moment sitting on the summer-house
+floor, lifting up the animal tenderly, regardless of her
+expostulation that the injured, frightened creature might not know
+its friends.  But she did it injustice; it wagged its stumpy tail,
+and licked his fingers.
+
+She offered to fetch rag for his surgery, and he farther begged for
+some slight bits of wood to serve as splints, he and his brothers had
+been dog-doctors before.  As she hurried into the house, Sophy, who
+had sunk on a sofa in the drawing-room, looking deadly pale, called
+out, 'Is he bitten?'
+
+'No, no,' cried Albinia, hurrying on, 'the dog is all safe.  It has
+only got a broken leg.'
+
+Maurice, with whom Lucy had all this time been fighting, came out
+with her to see the rest of the adventure; and thought it very cruel
+that he was not permitted to touch the patient, which bore the
+operation with affecting fortitude and gratitude, and was then
+consigned to a basket lined with hay, and left in the summer-house,
+Mr. Kendal being known to have an almost eastern repugnance to dogs.
+
+Then Ulick had leisure to be conducted to the morning-room, and be
+rendered a less ghastly spectacle, by some very uncomfortable
+sticking-plaster moustaches, which hardly permitted him to narrate
+his battle distinctly.  He thought the boys, even of Tibb's Alley,
+would hardly have ventured any violence after he had interfered, but
+for some young men who aught to have known better; he fancied he had
+seen young Tritton of Robbles Leigh, and he was sure of an insolent
+groom whom Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy, to the great vexation of his
+uncle, had recently sent down with a horse to the King's Head.  They
+had stimulated the boys to a shout of Paddy and a shower of stones,
+and Ulick expected credit for great discretion, in having fled
+instead of fought.  'Ah! if Brian and Connel had but been there,
+wouldn't we have put them to the rout?'
+
+Nothing would then serve him but going back to Tibb's Alley to trace
+the dog's history, and meantime Lucy, from the end of the passage,
+beckoned to Albinia, and whispered mysteriously that 'Sophy would not
+have any one know it for the world--but,' said Lucy, 'I found her
+absolutely fainting away on the sofa, only she would not let me call
+you, and ordered that no one should know anything about it.  But,
+mamma, there was a red-hot knitting-needle sticking out of the fire,
+and I am quite sure that she meant if Ulick was bitten, to burn out
+the place.'
+
+Albinia believed Sophy capable of both the resolution and its
+consequence; but she agreed with Lucy that no notice should be taken,
+and would not seem aware that Sophy was much paler than usual.
+
+The dog, as well as Ulick could make out, was a waif or stray,
+belonging to a gipsy deported that morning by the police, and on whom
+its master's sins had been visited.  So without scruple he carried
+the basket home to his lodgings, and on the way, had the misfortune
+to encounter his uncle, while shirtfront, coat, and waistcoat were
+fresh from the muddy and bloody fray, and his visage in the height of
+disfigurement.
+
+Mr. Goldsmith looked on the whole affair as an insult to every
+Goldsmith of past ages!  A mere street row!  He ordered Mr. More to
+his lodgings, and said be should hear from him to-morrow.  Ulick came
+down to Willow Lawn in the dark, almost considering himself as
+dismissed, not knowing whether to be glad or sorry; and wanting to
+consult Mr. Kendal whether it would be possible to work his way at
+college as Mr. Hope had done, or even wondering whether he might
+venture to beg for a recommendation to 'Kendal and Kendal.'
+
+Mr. Kendal was so strongly affected, that he took up his hat and went
+straight to Mr. Goldsmith, 'to put the matter before him in a true
+light.'
+
+True light or false, it was intolerable in the banker's eyes, and it
+took a great deal of eloquence to persuade him that his nephew was
+worth a second trial.  Fighting in Tibb's Alley over a gipsy's dog,
+and coming back looking like a ruffian!  Mr. Goldsmith wished him no
+harm, but it would be a disgrace to the concern to keep him on, and
+Miss Goldsmith, whom Mr. Kendal heartily wished to gag, chimed in
+with her old predictions of the consequences of her poor sister's
+foolish marriage.  The final argument, was Mr. Kendal's declaration
+of the testimonials with which he would at once send him out to
+Calcutta, to take the situation once offered to his own son.  No
+sooner did Mr. Goldsmith hear that his nephew had an alternative,
+than he promised to be lenient, and finally dispatched a letter to
+U. More, Esquire, with a very serious rebuke, but a promise that his
+conduct should be overlooked, provided the scandal were not repeated,
+and he should not present himself at the bank till his face should be
+fit to be seen.
+
+Mr. Kendal mounted him the next morning on Gilbert's horse, and sent
+him to Fairmead.  The dog was left in charge of Bridget, who treated
+it with abundant kindness, but failed to obtain the exclusive
+affection which the poor thing lavished upon its rescuer.  By the
+time Ulick came home, it had arrived at limping upon three legs, and
+was bent on following him wherever he went.  Disreputable and
+heinously ugly it was, of tawny currish yellow (whence it was known
+as the Orange-man), with a bull-dog countenance; and the legs that
+did not limp were bandy.  Albinia called it the Tripod, but somehow
+it settled into the title of Hyder Ali, to which it was said to
+'answer' the most readily, though it would in fact answer anything
+from Ulick, and nothing from any one else..
+
+Ever at his heels, the 'brazen Tripod' contrived to establish an
+entrance at Willow Lawn; scratched till Mr. Kendal would interrupt a
+'Prometheus talk' to let him in at the library door; and gradually
+made it a matter of course to come into the drawing-room, and repose
+upon Sophy's flounces.
+
+This was by way of compensation for his misadventures elsewhere.  He
+was always bringing Ulick into trouble; shut or tie him up as he
+might, he was sure to reappear when least wanted.  He had been at
+church, he had been in Miss Goldsmith's drawing-room, he had been
+found times without number curled up under Ulick's desk.  Mr.
+Goldsmith growled hints about hanging him, and old Mr. Johns, who
+really was fond of his bright young fellow clerk, gave grave counsel;
+but Ulick only loved his protege the better, and after having
+exhausted an Irish vocabulary of expostulation, succeeded in
+prevailing on him to come no farther than the street; except on very
+wet days, when he would sometimes be found on the mat in the entry,
+looking deplorably beseeching, and bringing on his master an irate,
+'Here's that dog again!'
+
+'Would that no one fell into worse scrapes,' sighed Mr. Dusautoy,
+when he heard of Ulick's disasters with Hyder Ali, and it was a sigh
+that the house of Kendal re-echoed.
+
+Nobody could be surprised when, towards the long vacation, tidings
+came to Bayford, that after long forbearance on the part of the
+authorities, the insubordination and riotous conduct of the two young
+men could be endured no longer.  It appeared that young Dusautoy,
+with his weak head and obstinate will, had never attempted to bend to
+rules, but had taken every reproof as an insult and defiance.  Young
+men had not been wanting who were ready to take advantage of his
+lavish expenditure, and to excite his disdain for authorities.  They
+had promoted the only wit he did understand, broad practical jokes
+and mischief; and had led him into the riot and gambling to which he
+was not naturally prone.  Gilbert Kendal, with more sense and
+principle, had been led on by the contagion around him, and at last
+an outrageous wine party had brought matters to a crisis.  The most
+guilty were the most cunning, and the only two to whom the affair
+could actually be brought home, were Dusautoy and Kendal.  The
+sentence was rustication, and the tutor wrote to Mr. Dusautoy, as the
+least immediately affected, to ask him to convey the intelligence to
+Mr. Kendal.
+
+The vicar was not a man to shrink from any task, however painful, but
+he felt it the more deeply, as, in spite of his partiality, he was
+forced to look on his own favourite Algernon as the misleader of
+Gilbert; and when he overtook the sisters on his melancholy way down
+the hill, he consulted them how their father would bear it.
+
+'Oh! I don't know,' said Lucy; 'he'll be terribly angry.  I should
+not wonder if he sent Gilbert straight off to India; should you,
+Sophy?'
+
+'I hope he will do nothing in haste,' exclaimed Mr. Dusautoy.  'I do
+believe if those two lads were but separated, or even out of such
+company, they would both do very well.'
+
+'Yes,' exclaimed Lucy; 'and, after all, they are such absurd
+regulations, treating men like schoolboys, wanting them to keep such
+regular troublesome hours.  Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy told me that there
+was no enduring the having everything enforced.'
+
+'If things had been enforced on poor Algernon earlier, this might
+never have been,' sighed his uncle.
+
+'I'm sure I don't see why papa should mind it so much,' continued
+Lucy.  'Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy told me his friend Lord Reginald
+Raymond had been rusticated twice, and expelled at last.'
+
+'What do you think of it, Sophy?' asked the vicar, anxiously.
+
+'I don't feel as if any of us could ever look up again,' she answered
+very low.
+
+'Why, no; not that exactly.  It is not quite the right way to take
+these things, Sophy,' said Mr. Dusautoy.  'Boys may be very foolish
+and wrong-headed, without disgracing their family.'
+
+Sophy did not answer--it was all too fresh and sore, and she did not
+find much consolation in the number of youths whom Lucy reckoned up
+as having incurred the like penalty.  When they entered the house,
+and Mr. Dusautoy knocked at the library door, she followed Lucy into
+the garden, without knowing where she was going, and threw herself
+down upon the grass, miserable at the pain which was being inflicted
+upon her father, and with a hardened resentful feeling, between
+contempt and anger, against the brother, who, for very weakness,
+could so dishonour and grieve him.  She clenched her hand in the
+intensity of her passionate thoughts and impulses, and sat like a
+statue, while Lucy, from time to time, between the tying up of
+flowers and watering of annuals, came up with inconsistent
+exhortations not to be so unhappy--for it was not expulsion--it was
+sure to be unjust--nobody would think the worse of them because young
+men were foolish--all men of spirit did get into scrapes--
+
+It was lucky for Lucy that all this passed by Sophy's ear as unheeded
+as the babbling of the brook.  She did not move, till roused by Ulick
+O'More, coming up from the bridge, telling that he had met some Irish
+haymakers in the meadows, and saying he wanted to beg a frock for one
+of their children.
+
+'I think I can find you one,' said Lucy, 'if you will wait a minute;
+but don't go in, Mr. Dusautoy is there.'
+
+'Is anything the matter?' he exclaimed.
+
+'Every one must soon know,' said Lucy; 'it is of no use to keep it
+back, Sophy.  Only my brother and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy have got
+into a scrape about a wine party, and are going to be rusticated.
+But wait, I'll fetch the frock.'
+
+Sophy had almost run away while her sister spoke, but the kind look
+of consternation and pity on Ulick's face deterred her, he in
+soliloquy repeated, as if confounded by the greatness of the
+misfortune, 'Poor Gilbert!'
+
+'Poor Gilbert!' burst from Sophy in irritation at misplaced sympathy;
+'I thought it would be papa and mamma you cared for!'
+
+'With reason,' returned Ulick, 'but I was thinking how it must break
+his heart to have pained such as they.'
+
+'I wish he would feel it thus,' exclaimed Sophy; 'but he never will!'
+
+'Oh! banish that notion, Sophy,' cried Ulick, recoiling at the
+indignation in her dark eyes, 'next to grieving my mother, I declare
+nothing could crush me like meeting a look such as that from a sister
+of mine.'
+
+'How can I help it?' she said, reserve breaking down in her
+vehemence, 'when I think how much papa has suffered--how much Gilbert
+has to make up to him--how mamma took him for her own--how they have
+borne with him, and set their happiness on him, and yielded to his
+fancies, only for him to disappoint them so cruelly, and just because
+he can't say No!  I hope he wont come home; I shall never know how to
+speak to him !'
+
+'But all that makes it so much the worse for him,' said Ulick, in a
+tone of amazement.
+
+'Yes, you can't understand,' she answered; 'if he had had one spark
+of feeling like you, he would rather have died than have gone on as
+he has done.'
+
+'Surely many a man may be overtaken in a fault, and never be wrong at
+heart,' said Ulick.  'There's many a worse sin than what the world
+sets a blot upon, and I believe that is just why homes were made.'
+
+Lucy came back with the frock, and Ulick, thanking her, sped away;
+while Sophy slowly went upstairs and hid herself on her couch.  For a
+woman to find a man thinking her over-hard and severe, is sure either
+to harden or to soften her very decidedly, and it was a hard struggle
+which would be the effect.  There was an inclination at first to
+attribute his surprise to the lax notions and foolish fondness of his
+home, where no doubt far worse disorders than Gilbert's were treated
+as mere matters of course.  But such strong pity for the offender did
+not seem to accord with this; and the more she thought, the more sure
+she became that it was the fresh charity and sweetness of an innocent
+spirit, 'believing all things,' and separating the fault from the
+offender.  His words had fallen on her ear in a sense beyond what he
+meant.  Pride and uncharitable resentment might be worse sins than
+mere weakness and excess.  She thought of the elder son in the
+parable, who, unknowing of his brother's temptation and sorrow,
+closed his heart against his return; and if her tears would have
+come, she would have wept that she could not bring herself to look on
+Gilbert otherwise than as the troubler of her father's peace.
+
+When her mother at last came upstairs, she only ventured to ask
+gently, 'How does papa bear it?'
+
+'It did not come without preparation,' was the answer; 'and at first
+we were occupied with comforting Mr. Dusautoy, who takes to himself
+all the shame his nephew will not feel, for having drawn poor Gilbert
+into such a set.'
+
+'And papa?' still asked Sophy.
+
+'He is very quiet, and it is not easy to tell.  I believe it was a
+great mistake, though not of his making, to send Gilbert to Oxford at
+all, and I doubt whether he will ever go back again.
+
+'Oh, mamma, not conquer this, and live it down!' cried Sophy; but
+then changing, she sighed and said, 'If he would--'
+
+'Yes, a great deal depends upon how he may take this, and what
+becomes of Algernon Dusautoy; though I suppose there is no lack of
+other tempters.  Your papa has even spoken of India again; he still
+thinks he would be more guarded there, but all depends on the spirit
+in which we find him.  One thing I hope, that I shall leave it all to
+his father's judgment, and not say one word.'
+
+The next post brought a penitent letter from Gilbert, submitting
+completely to his father; only begging that he might not see any one
+at home until he should have redeemed his character, and promising to
+work very hard and deny himself all relaxation if he might only go to
+a tutor at a distance.
+
+This did not at all accord with Mr. Kendal's views.  He had an
+unavowed distrust of Gilbert's letters, he did not fancy a tutor thus
+selected, and believed the boy to be physically incapable of the
+proposed amount of study.  So he wrote a very grave but merciful
+summons to Willow Lawn.
+
+Albinia went to meet the delinquent at Hadminster, and was struck by
+the different deportment of the two youths.  Algernon Dusautoy, whose
+servant had met him, sauntered up to her as if nothing had happened,
+carelessly hoped all were well at Bayford, and, in spite of her
+exceeding coldness, talked on with perfect ease upon the chances of a
+war with Russia, and had given her three or four maxims, before
+Gilbert came up with the luggage van, with a bag in his hand, and a
+hurried bewildered manner, unable to meet her eye.  He handed her
+into the carriage, seated himself beside her, and drove off without
+one unnecessary word, while Algernon, mounting his horse, waved them
+a disengaged farewell, and cantered on.  Albinia heard a heavy sigh,
+and saw her companion very wan and sorrowful, dejection in every
+feature, in the whole stoop of his figure, and in the nervous twitch
+of his hands.  The contrast gave an additional impulse to her love
+and pity, and the first words she said were, 'Your father is quite
+ready to forgive.'
+
+'I knew he would be so,' he answered, hardly able to command his
+voice; 'I knew you would all be a great deal too kind to me, and that
+is the worst of all.'
+
+'No, Gilbert, not if it gives you resolution to resist the next
+time.'
+
+He groaned; and it was not long before she drew from him a sincere
+avowal of his follies and repentance.  He had been led on by
+assurances that 'every one' did the like, by fear of betraying his
+own timidity, by absurd dread of being disdained as slow; all this
+working on his natural indolence and love of excitement, had combined
+to involve him in habits which had brought on him this disgrace.  It
+was a hopeful sign that he admitted its justice, and accused no one
+of partiality; the reprimand had told upon him, and he was too
+completely struck down even to attempt to justify himself;
+exceedingly afraid of his father, and only longing to hide himself.
+Such was his utter despair, that Albinia had no scruples in
+encouraging him, and assuring him with all her heart, that if taken
+rightly, the shock that brought him to his senses, might be the
+blessing of his life.  He did not take comfort readily, though
+soothed by her kindness; he could not get over his excessive dread of
+his father, and each attempt at reassurance fell short.  At last it
+came out that the very core of his misery was this, that he had found
+himself for part of the journey, in the same train with Miss Durant
+and two or three children.  He could not tell her where he was going
+nor why, and he had leant back in the carriage, and watched her on
+the platform by stealth, as she moved about, 'lovelier and more
+graceful than ever!' but how could he present himself to her in his
+disgrace and misery?  'Oh, Mrs. Kendal, I forgive my father, but my
+life was blighted when I was cut off from her!'
+
+'No, Gilbert, you are wrong.  There is no blighting in a worthy,
+disinterested attachment.  To be able to love and respect such a
+woman is a good substantial quality in you, and ought to make you a
+higher and better man.'
+
+Gilbert turned round a face of extreme amazement.  'I thought,' he
+said, 'I thought you--' and went no farther.
+
+'I respect your feeling for her more than when it was two years
+younger,' she said; 'I should respect it doubly if instead of making
+you ashamed, it had saved you from the need of shame.'
+
+'Do you give me any hope?' cried Gilbert, his face gleaming into
+sudden eager brightness.
+
+'Things have not become more suitable,' said Albinia; and his look
+lapsed again into despondency; but she added, 'Each step towards real
+manhood, force of character, and steadiness, would give you weight
+which might make your choice worth your father's consideration, and
+you worth that of Genevieve.'
+
+'Oh! would you but have told me so before!'
+
+'It was evident to your own senses,' said Albinia; and she thought of
+the suggestion that Sophy had made.
+
+'Too late! too late!' sighed Gilbert.
+
+'No, never too late!  You have had a warning; you are very young, and
+it cannot be too late for winning a character, and redeeming the
+time!'
+
+'And you tell me I may love her!' repeated Gilbert, so intoxicated
+with the words, that she became afraid of them.
+
+'I do not tell you that you may importune her, or disobey your
+father.  I only tell you that to look up and work and deny yourself,
+in honour of one so truly noble, is one of the best and most saving
+of secondary motives.  I shall honour you, Gilbert, if you do so use
+it as to raise and support you, though of course I cannot promise
+that she can be earned by it, and even that motive will not do alone,
+however powerful you may think it.'
+
+Neither of them said more, but Gilbert sighed heavily several times,
+and would willingly have checked their homeward speed.  He grew pale
+as they entered the town, and groaned as the gates swung back, and
+they rattled over the wooden bridge.  It was about four o'clock, and
+he said, hurriedly, as with a sort of hope, 'I suppose they are all
+out.'
+
+He was answered by a whoop of ecstasy, and before he was well out of
+the carriage, he was seized by the joyous Maurice, shouting that he
+had been for a ride with papa, without a leading rein.  Happy age for
+both, too young to know more than that the beloved playfellow was at
+home again!
+
+Little Albinia studied her brother till the small memory came back,
+and she made her pretty signs for the well-remembered dancing in his
+arms.  From such greetings, Gilbert's wounded spirit could not
+shrink, much as he dreaded all others; and, carrying the baby and
+preceded by Maurice, while he again muttered that of course no one
+was at home, he went upstairs.
+
+Albinia meantime tapped at the library door.  She knew Mr. Kendal to
+be there, yearning to forgive, but thinking it right to have his
+pardon sought; and she went in to tell him of his son's keen remorse,
+and deadly fear.  Displeased and mournful, Mr. Kendal sighed.  'He
+has little to fear from me, would he but believe so!  He ought to
+have come to me, but--'
+
+That 'but' meant repentance for over-sternness in times past.
+
+'Let me send him to you.'
+
+'I will come,' said Mr. Kendal, willing to spare his son the terror
+of presenting himself.
+
+There was a pretty sight in the morning-room.  Gilbert was on the
+floor with the two children, Maurice intent on showing how nearly
+little Albinia could run alone, and between ordering and coaxing,
+drawing her gently on; her beautiful brown eyes opened very seriously
+to the great undertaking, and her round soft hands, with a mixture of
+confidence and timidity, trusted within the sturdy ones of her small
+elder, while Gilbert knelt on one knee, and stretched out a
+protecting arm, really to grasp the little one, if the more childish
+brother should fail her, and his countenance, lighted up with
+interest and affection, was far more prepossessing than when so
+lately it had been, full of cowering, almost abject apprehension.
+
+Was it a sort of instinctive feeling that the little sister would be
+his best shelter, that made him gather the child into his arms, and
+hold her before his deeply blushing face as he rose from the floor?
+She merrily called out, 'Papa!'  Maurice loudly began to recount her
+exploits, and thus passed the salutation, at the end of which Gilbert
+found that his father was taking the little one from him, and giving
+her to her mother, who carried her away, calling Maurice with her.
+
+'Have you nothing to say to me?' said Mr. Kendal, after waiting for
+some moments; but as Gilbert only looked up to him with a piteous,
+scared, uncertain glance, be added; 'You need not fear me; I believe
+you have erred more from weakness than from evil inclinations, and I
+trust in the sincerity of your repentance.'
+
+These kind words softened Gilbert; he assured his father of his
+thanks for his kindness, no one could grieve more deeply, or be more
+anxious to atone in any possible manner for what he had unwittingly
+done.
+
+'I believe you, Gilbert,' said his father; 'but you well know that
+the only way of atoning for the past, as well as of avoiding such
+wretchedness and disgrace for the future, is to show greater
+firmness.'
+
+'I know it is,' said Gilbert, sorrowfully.
+
+'I cannot look into your heart,' added Mr. Kendal.  'I can only hope
+and believe that your grief for the sin is as deep, or deeper, than
+that for the public stigma, for which comparatively, I care little.'
+
+Gilbert exclaimed that so indeed it was, and this was no more than
+the truth.  Out of sight of temptation, and in that pure atmosphere,
+the loud revel and coarse witticisms that had led him on, were only
+loathsome and disgusting, and made him miserable in the recollection.
+
+'I am ready to submit to anything,' he added, fervently.  'As long as
+you forgive me, I am ready to bear anything.'
+
+'I forgive you from my heart,' said Mr. Kendal, warmly.  'I only wish
+to consider what may be most expedient for you.  I should scarcely
+like to send you back to Oxford to retrieve your character, unless I
+were sure that you would be more resolute in resisting temptation.
+No, do not reply; your actions during this time of penance will be a
+far more satisfactory answer than any promises.  I had thought of
+again applying to your cousin John, to take you into his bank, though
+you could not now go on such terms as you might have done when there
+was no error in the background, and I still sometimes question
+whether it be not the safer method.'
+
+'Whatever you please,' said Gilbert; 'I deserve it all.'
+
+'Nay, do not look upon my decision, whatever it may be, as
+punishment, but only as springing from my desire for your real
+welfare.  I will write to your cousin and ask whether he still has a
+vacancy, but without absolutely proposing you to him, and we will
+look on the coming months as a period of probation, during which we
+may judge what may be the wisest course.  I will only ask one other
+question, Gilbert, and you need not be afraid to answer me fully and
+freely.  Have you any debts at Oxford?'
+
+'A few,' stammered Gilbert, with a great effort.
+
+'Can you tell me to whom, and the amount?'
+
+He tried to recollect as well as he could, while completely
+frightened and confused by the gravity with which his father was
+jotting them down in his pocket-book.
+
+'Well, Gilbert,' he concluded, 'you have dealt candidly with me, and
+you shall never have cause to regret having done so.  And now we will
+only feel that you are at home, and dwell no longer on the cause that
+has brought you.  Come out, and see what we have been doing in the
+meadow.'
+
+Gilbert seemed more overthrown and broken down by kindness than by
+reproof.  He hardly exerted himself even to play with Maurice, or to
+amuse his grandmother; and though his sisters treated him as usual,
+he never once lifted up his eyes to meet Sophy's glance, and scarcely
+used his voice.
+
+Nothing could be more disarming than such genuine sorrow; and Sophy,
+pardoning him with all her heart, and mourning for her past want of
+charity, watched him, longing to do something for his comfort, and to
+evince her tenderness; but only succeeded in encumbering every petty
+service or word of intercourse with a weight of sad consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+
+'I had almost written to ask your pardon,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, as
+Albinia entered her drawing-room on the afternoon following.  'I
+should like by way of experiment to know what _would_ put that boy
+out of countenance.  He listened with placid graciousness to his
+uncle's lecture, and then gave us to understand that he was obliged
+for his solicitude, and that there was a great deal of jealousy and
+misrepresentation at Oxford; but he thought it best always to submit
+to authorities, however unreasonable.  And this morning, after
+amiably paying his respects to me, he said he was going to inquire
+for Gilbert.  I intimated that Willow Lawn was the last place where
+he would be welcome, but he was far above attending to me.  Did
+Gilbert see him?'
+
+'Gilbert was in the garden with us when we were told he was in the
+house.  Poor fellow, he shuddered, and looked as if he wanted me to
+guard him, so I sent him out walking with Maurice while I went in,
+and found Lucy entertaining the gentleman.  I made myself as cold and
+inhospitable as I could, but I am afraid he rather relishes a
+dignified retenue.'
+
+'Poor boy!  I wonder what on earth is to be done with him.  I never
+before knew what John's love and patience were.'
+
+'Do you think he will remain here?'
+
+'I cannot tell; we talk of tutors, but John is really, I believe,
+happier for having him here, and besides one can be sure the worst he
+is doing is painting a lobster.  However, much would depend on what
+you and Mr. Kendal thought.  If he and Gilbert were doing harm to
+each other, everything must give way.'
+
+'If people of that age will not keep themselves out of harm's way,
+nobody can do it for them,' said Albinia, 'and as long as Gilbert
+continues in his present mood, there is more real separation in
+voluntarily holding aloof, than if they were sent far apart, only to
+come together again at college.'
+
+Gilbert did continue in the same mood.  The tender cherishing of his
+home restored his spirits; but he was much subdued, and deeply
+grateful, as he manifested by the most eager and affectionate
+courtesy, such as made him almost the servant of everybody, without
+any personal aim or object, except to work up his deficient studies,
+and to avoid young Dusautoy.  He seemed to cling to his family as his
+protectors, and to follow the occupations least likely to lead to a
+meeting with the Polysyllable; he was often at church in the week,
+rode with his father, went parish visiting with the ladies, and was
+responsible when Maurice fished for minnows in the meadows.  Nothing
+could be more sincerely desirous to atone for the past and enter on a
+different course, and no conduct could be more truly humble or
+endearing.
+
+The imaginary disdain of Ulick O'More was entirely gone, and
+perceiving that the Irishman's delicacy was keeping him away from
+Willow Lawn, Gilbert himself met him and brought him home, in the
+delight of having heard of a naval cadetship having been offered to
+his brother, and full of such eager joy as longed for sympathy.
+
+'Happy fellow!' Gilbert murmured to himself.
+
+Younger in years, more childish in character, poor Gilbert had
+managed to make his spirit world-worn and weary, compared with the
+fresh manly heart of the Irishman, all centered in the kindred
+'points of Heaven and home,' and enjoying keenly, for the very reason
+that he bent dutifully with all his might to a humble and uncongenial
+task.
+
+Yet somehow, admire and esteem as he would, there arose no intimacy
+or friendship between Gilbert and Ulick; their manners were frank and
+easy, but there was no spontaneous approach, no real congeniality,
+nor exchange of mind and sympathy as between Ulick and Mr. Kendal.
+Albinia had a theory that the friendship was too much watched to
+take; Sophy hated herself for the recurring conviction that 'Gilbert
+was not the kind of stuff,' though she felt day by day how far he
+excelled her in humility, gentleness, and sweet temper.
+
+When the Goldsmiths gave their annual dinner-party, Albinia felt a
+sudden glow at the unexpected sight of Ulick O'More.
+
+'I am only deputy for the Orange man,' he said; 'it is Hyder Ali who
+ought to be dining here!  Yes, it is his doing, I'd back him against
+any detective!'
+
+'What heroism have you been acting together?'
+
+'We had just given Farmer Martin L120 in notes, when as he went out,
+we heard little Hyder growling and giving tongue, and a fellow
+swearing as if he was at the fair of Monyveagh, and the farmer
+hallooing thieves.  I found little Hyder had nailed the rascal fast
+by the leg, just as he had the notes out of the farmer's pouch.  I
+collared him, Johns ran for the police, and the rascal is fast.'
+
+'What a shame to cheat Mr. Kendal of the committal.'
+
+'The policeman said he was gone out, so we had the villain up to the
+Admiral with the greater satisfaction, as he was a lodger in one of
+the Admiral's pet public-houses in Tibb's Alley.'
+
+'Ah, when Gilbert is of age,' said Albinia, 'woe to Tibb's!  So you
+are a testimonial to the Tripod?'
+
+'So I suspect, for I found an invitation when I came home, I would
+have run down to tell you, but I had been kept late, and one takes
+some getting up for polite society.'
+
+There was a great deal of talk about Hyder's exploit, and some
+disposition to make Mr. O'More the hero of the day; but this was
+quickly nipped by his uncle's dry shortness, and the superciliousness
+with which Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy turned the conversation to the
+provision of pistols, couriers, and guards, for travelling through
+the Abruzzi.  The polysyllabic courage, and false alarms on such a
+scale, completely eclipsed a real pick-pocket, caught by a gipsy's
+cur and a banker's clerk.
+
+Not that Ulick perceived any disregard until later in the evening,
+when the young Kendals arrived, and of course he wanted each and all
+to hear of his Tripod's achievement.  He met with ready attention
+from Sophy and Gilbert, who pronounced that as the cat was to
+Whittington, so was Hyder to O'More; but when in his overflowing he
+proceeded to Lucy, she had neither eyes nor ears for him, and when
+the vicar told her Mr. O'More was speaking to her, she turned with an
+air of petulance, so that he felt obliged to beg her pardon and
+retreat.
+
+The Bayford parties never lasted later than a few minutes after ten,
+but when once Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy and Miss Kendal had possession
+of the piano and guitar, there was no conclusion.  Song succeeded
+song, they wanted nothing save their own harmony, and hardly waited
+for Miss Goldsmith's sleepy thanks.  The vicar hated late hours, and
+the Kendals felt every song a trespass upon their hosts, but the
+musicians had their backs to the world, and gave no interval, so that
+it was eleven o'clock before Mr. Kendal, in desperation, laid his
+hand on his daughter, and barbarously carried her off.
+
+The flirtation was so palpable, that Albinia mused on the means of
+repressing it; but she believed that to remonstrate, would only be to
+give Lucy pleasure, and held her peace till a passion for riding
+seized upon the young lady.  The old pony had hard service between
+Sophy's needs and Maurice's exactions, but Lucy's soul soared far
+above ponies, and fastened upon Gilbert's steed.
+
+'And pray what is Gilbert to ride?'
+
+'Oh! papa does not always want Captain, or Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy
+would lend him Bamfylde.'
+
+'Thank you,' returned Gilbert, satirically.
+
+Next morning Lucy, radiant with smiles, announced that all was
+settled.  Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy's Lady Elmira would be brought down
+for her to try this afternoon, so Gilbert might keep his own horse
+and come too, which permission he received with a long whistle and
+glance at Mrs. Kendal, and then walked out of the room.
+
+'How disobliging!' said Lucy.  'Well then, Sophy, you must make your
+old hat look as well as you can, for I suppose it will not quite do
+to go without anyone.'
+
+Sophy, like her brother, looked at Mrs. Kendal, and with an eye of
+indignant appeal and entreaty, while Albinia's countenance was so
+full of displeasure, that Lucy continued earnestly, 'O, mamma, you
+can't object.  You used to go out riding with papa when he was at
+Colonel Bury's.'
+
+'Well, Lucy!' exclaimed her sister, 'I did not think even you capable
+of such a comparison.'
+
+'It's all the same,' said Lucy tartly, blushing a good deal.
+
+Sophy leapt up to look at her, and Albinia trying to be calm and
+judicious, demanded, 'What is the same as what?'
+
+'Why, Algernon and _me_,' was the equally precise reply.
+
+In stately horror, Sophy rose and seriously marched away, leaving, by
+her look and manner, a species of awe upon both parties, and some
+seconds passed ere, with crimson blushes, Albania ventured to invite
+the dreaded admission, by demanding, 'Now, Lucy, will you be so good
+as to tell me the meaning of this extraordinary allusion?'
+
+'Why, to be sure--I know it was very different.  Papa was so old, and
+_there were us_,' faltered Lucy, 'but I meant, you would know how it
+all is--how those things--'
+
+'Stop, Lucy, am I to understand by those things, that you wish me to
+believe you and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy are on the game terms as--No,
+I can't say it.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean,' said Lucy, growing frightened, 'I never
+thought there could be such an uproar about my just going out
+riding.'
+
+'You have led me to infer so much more, that it becomes my duty to
+have an explanation, at least,' she added, thinking this sounded
+cold, 'I should have hoped you would have given me your confidence.'
+
+'O, but you always would make game of him!' cried Lucy.
+
+'Not now; this is much too serious, if you have been led to believe
+that his attentions are not as I supposed, because you are the only
+girl about here whom he thinks worthy of his notice.'
+
+'It's a great deal more,' said Lucy, with more feeling and less
+vanity than had yet been apparent.
+
+'And what has he been making you think, my poor child?' said Albinia.
+'I know it is very distressing, but it would be more right and safe
+if I knew what it amounts to.'
+
+'Not much after all,' said Lucy, her tone implying the reverse, and
+though her cheeks were crimson, not averse to the triumph of the
+avowal, nor enduring as much embarrassment as her auditor, 'only he
+made me sure of it--he said--(now, mamma, you have made me, so I
+must) that he had changed his opinion of English beauty--you know,
+mamma.  And another time he said he had wandered Europe over to--to
+find loveliness on the banks of the Baye.  Wasn't it absurd?  And he
+says he does not think it half so much that a woman should be
+accomplished herself, as that she should be able to appreciate other
+people's talents--and once he said the Principessa Bianca di Moretti
+would be very much disappointed.'
+
+'Well, my dear,' said Albinia, kindly putting her arm round Lucy's
+waist, 'perhaps by themselves the things did not so much require to
+be told.  I can hardly blame you, and I wish I had been more on my
+guard, and helped you more.  Only if he seems to care so little about
+disappointing this lady might he not do the same by you?'
+
+'But she's an Italian, and a Roman Catholic,' exclaimed Lucy.
+
+Albinia could not help smiling, and Lucy, perceiving that this was
+hardly a valid excuse for her utter indifference towards her
+Grandison's Clementina, continued, 'I mean--of course there was
+nothing in it.'
+
+'Very possibly; but how would it be, if by-and-by he told somebody
+that Miss Kendal would be very much disappointed?'
+
+'O, mamma,' cried Lucy, hastily detaching herself, 'you don't know!'
+
+'I cannot tell, my poor Lucy,' said Albinia.  'I fear there must be
+grief and trouble any way, if you let yourself attend to him, for you
+know, even if he were in earnest, it would not be right to think of a
+person who has shown so little wish to be good.'
+
+Lucy stood for a few moments before the sense reached her mind, then
+she dropped into a chair, and exclaimed,
+
+'I see how it is!  You'll treat him as grandpapa treated Captain
+Pringle, but I shall break my heart, quite!' and she burst into
+tears.
+
+'My dear, your father and I will do our best for your happiness, and
+we would never use concealment.  Whatever we do shall be as Christian
+people working together, not as tyrants with a silly girl.'
+
+Lucy was pleased, and let Albinia take her hand.
+
+'Then I will write to decline the horse.  It would be far too
+marked.'
+
+'But oh, mamma! you wont keep him away!'
+
+'I shall not alter our habits unless I see cause.  He is much too
+young for us to think seriously of what he may have said; and I
+entreat you to put it out of your mind, for it would be very sad for
+you to fix your thoughts on him, and then find him not in earnest,
+and even if he were, you know it would be wrong to let affection grow
+up where there is no real dependence upon a person's goodness.'
+
+The kindness soothed Lucy, and though she shed some tears, she did
+not resist the decision.   Indeed she was sensible of that calm
+determination of manner, which all the family had learnt to mean that
+the measures thus taken were unalterable, whereas the impetuous
+impulses often were reversed.
+
+Many a woman's will is like the tide, ever fretting at the verge of
+the boundary, but afraid to overpass it, and only tempting the utmost
+limit in the certainty of the recall, and Lucy perhaps felt a kind of
+protection in the curb, even while she treated it as an injury.  She
+liked to be the object of solicitude, and was pleased with Albinia's
+extra kindness, while, perhaps, there was some excitement in the
+belief that Algernon was missing her, so she was particularly
+amenable, and not much out of spirits.
+
+The original Meadows character, and Bayford breeding, had for a time
+been surmounted by Albinia's influence and training; but so ingrain
+was the old disposition, that a touch would at once re-awaken it, and
+the poor girl was in a neutral state, coloured by whichever
+impression had been most recent.  Albinia's hopes of prevailing in
+the end increased when Mrs. Dusautoy told her, with a look of
+intelligence, that Algernon was going to stay with a connexion of his
+mother, a Mr. Greenaway, with six daughters, very stylish young
+ladies.
+
+Six stylish young ladies!  Albinia could have embraced them all, and
+actually conferred a cordial nod on Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy when she
+met him on the way home.
+
+But as she entered the house, so ominous a tone summoned her to the
+library, that she needed not to be told that Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy
+had been there.
+
+'I told him,' said Mr. Kendal, 'that he was too young for me to
+entertain his proposal, and I intimated that he had character to
+redeem before presenting himself in such capacity.'
+
+'I hope you made the refusal evident to his intellect.'
+
+'He drove me to be more explicit than I intended.  I think he was
+astonished.  He stared at me for full three minutes before he could
+believe in the refusal.  Poor lad, it must be real attachment, there
+could be no other inducement.'
+
+'And Lucy is exceedingly pretty.'
+
+Mr. Kendal glanced at the portrait over the mantelpiece smiled sadly,
+and shook his head.
+
+'Poor dear,' continued Albinia, 'what a commotion there will be in
+her head; but she has behaved so well hitherto, that I hope we may
+steer her safely through, above all, if one of the six cousins will
+but catch him in the rebound!  Have you spoken to her?'
+
+'Is it necessary?'
+
+'So asked her grandfather,' said Albinia, smiling, as he, a little
+out of countenance, muttered something of 'foolish affair--mere
+child--and turn her head--'
+
+'That's done!' said Albinia, 'we have only to try to get it straight.
+Besides, it would hardly be just to let her think he had meant
+nothing, and I have promised to deal openly with her, otherwise we
+can hardly hope for plain dealing from her.'
+
+'And you think it will be a serious disappointment?'
+
+'She is highly flattered by his attention, but I don't know how deep
+it may have gone.'
+
+'I wish people would let one's daughters alone!' exclaimed Mr.
+Kendal.  'You will talk to her then, Albinia, and don't let her think
+me more harsh than you can help, and come and tell me how she bears
+it.'
+
+'Won't you speak to her yourself?'
+
+'Do you think I must?' he said, reluctantly; 'you know so much better
+how to manage her.'
+
+'I think you must do this, dear Edmund,' she said, between decision
+and entreaty.  'She knows that I dislike the man, and may fancy it my
+doing it she only hears it at second hand.  If you speak, there will
+be no appeal, and besides there are moments when the really nearest
+should have no go-betweens.'
+
+'We were not very near without you,' he said.  'If it were Sophy, I
+should know better what to be about.'
+
+'Sophy would not put you in such a fix.'
+
+'So I have fancied--' he paused, smiling, while she waited in eager
+curiosity, such as made him finish as if ashamed.  'I have thought
+our likings much the same.  Have you never observed what I mean?'
+
+'Oh! I never observe anything.  I did not find out Maurice and
+Winifred till he told me.  Who do you think it is?  I always thought
+love would be the making of Sophy.  I see she is another being.  What
+is your guess, Mr. Hope?'
+
+Mr. Kendal made a face of astonishment at such an improbable guess,
+and was driven into exclaiming, 'How could any one help thinking of
+O'More?'
+
+'Oh! only too delightful!' cried Albinia.  'Why didn't I think of
+it--but then his way is so free and cousinly with us all.'
+
+'There may be nothing in it,' said Mr. Kendal; 'and under present
+circumstances it would hardly be desirable.'
+
+'If old Mr. Goldsmith acts as he ought,' continued Albinia, 'we
+should never lose our Sophy--and what a son we should have! he has so
+exactly the bright temper that she needs.'
+
+'Well, well, that is all in the clouds,' said Mr. Kendal.  'I wish
+the present were equally satisfactory.'
+
+'Ah, I had better call poor Lucy.'
+
+'Come back with her, pray,' called Mr. Kendal, nervously.
+
+Albinia regretted her superfluous gossip when Lucy appeared with eyes
+so sparkling, and cheeks so flushed, that it was plain that she had
+been in all the miseries of suspense.  Her countenance glowed with
+feeling, that lifted her beyond her ordinary doll-like prettiness.
+Albinia's heart sank with compassion as she held her hand, and her
+father stood as if struck by something more like the vision or his
+youth than he had been prepared for; each feeling that something
+genuine was present, and respecting it accordingly.
+
+'Lucy,' said Mr. Kendal, tenderly, 'I see I need not tell you why I
+have sent for you.  You are very young, my dear, and you must trust
+us to care for your happiness.'
+
+'Yes.'  Lucy looked up wistfully.
+
+'This gentleman has some qualities such as may make him shine in the
+eyes of a young lady; but it is our duty to look farther, and I am
+afraid I know nothing of him that could justify me in trusting him
+with anything so precious to me.'
+
+Lucy's face became full of consternation, her hand lay unnerved in
+Albinia'a pressure, and Mr. Kendal turned his eyes from her to his
+wife, as he proceeded,
+
+'I have seen so much wretchedness caused by want of religious
+principle, that even where the morals appeared unblemished, I should
+feel no confidence where I saw no evidence of religion, and I should
+consider it as positively wrong to sanction an engagement with such a
+person.  Now you must perceive that we have every means of forming an
+opinion of this young man, and that he has given us no reason to
+think he would show the unselfish care for your welfare that we
+should wish to secure.'
+
+Albinia tried to make it comprehensible.  'You know, my dear, we have
+always seen him resolved on his own way, and not caring how he may
+inconvenience his uncle and aunt.  We know his temper is not always
+amiable, and differently as you see him, you must let us judge.'
+
+Wrenching her hand away, Lucy burst into tears.  Her father looked at
+Albinia, as if she ought to have saved him this infliction, and she
+began a little whispering about not distressing papa, which checked
+the sobs, and enabled him to say, 'There, that's right, my dear, I
+see you are willing to submit patiently to our judgment, and I
+believe you will find it for the best.  We will do all in our power
+to help you, and make you happy,' and bending down he kissed her, and
+left her to his wife.
+
+In such family scenes, logic is less useful than the power of coming
+to a friendly conclusion; Lucy's awe of her father was a great
+assistance, she was touched with his unwonted softness, and did not
+apprehend how total was the rejection.  But what he was spared, was
+reserved for Albinia.  There was a lamentable scene of sobbing and
+weeping, beyond all argument, and only ending in physical exhaustion,
+which laid her on the bed all the rest of the day.
+
+Gilbert and Sophy could not but be aware of the cause of her
+distress.  The former thought it a great waste.
+
+'Tell Lucy,' he said, 'that if she wishes to be miserable for life,
+she has found the best way!  He is a thorough-bred tyrant at heart,
+pig-headed, and obstinate, and with the very worst temper I ever came
+across.  Not a soul can he feel for, nor admire but himself.  His
+wife will be a perfect slave.  I declare I would as soon sell her to
+Legree.'
+
+Sophy's views of the gentleman were not more favourable, but she was
+in terror lest Lucy should have a permanently broken heart, after the
+precedent of Aunt Maria.  And on poor Sophy fell the misfortune of
+being driven up by grandmamma's inquiries, to own that the proposal
+had been rejected.
+
+Shade of poor dear Mr. Meadows, didst thou not stand aghast!  Five
+thousand a year refused!  Grandmamma would have had a fit if she had
+not conceived a conviction, that imparted a look of shrewdness to her
+mild, simple old face.  Of course Mr. Kendal was only holding off
+till the young man was a little older.  He could have no intention of
+letting his daughter miss such a match, and dear Lucy would have her
+carriage, and be presented at court.
+
+Sophy argued vehemently against this, and poor grandmamma, who had
+with difficulty been taught worldly wisdom as a duty, and always
+thought herself good when she talked prudently, began to cry.  Sophy,
+quite overcome, was equally distressing with her apologies; Albinia
+found them both in tears, and Sophy was placed on the sick-list by
+one of her peculiar headaches of self-reproach.
+
+It was a time of great perplexity.  Lucy cried incessantly, bursting
+out at every trifle, but making no complaints, and submitting so
+meekly, that the others were almost as unhappy as herself.
+
+She was first cheered by the long promised visit from Mrs. Annesley
+and Miss Ferrars.  Albinia had now no fears of showing off home or
+children, and it was a great success.
+
+The little Awk was in high beauty, and graciously winning, and
+Maurice's likeness to his Uncle William enchanted the aunts, though
+they were shocked at his mamma's indifference to his constant
+imperilling of life and limb, and grievously discomfited his sisters
+by adducing children who talked French and read history, whereas he
+could not read d-o-g without spelling, and had peculiar views as to b
+and d, p and q. However, if he could not read he could ride, and Mrs.
+Annesley scarcely knew the extent of the favour she conferred, when
+she commissioned Gilbert to procure for him a pony as his private
+property.
+
+Miss Ferrars had not expected one of the thirty-six O'Mores to turn
+up here.  She gave some good advice about hasty intimacies, and as it
+was received with a defence of the gentility of the O'Mores, the two
+good ladies agreed that dear Albinia was quite a child still, not fit
+for the care of those girls, and it would be only acting kindly to
+take Lucy to Brighton, and show her something of the world, or
+Albinia would surely let her fall a prey to that Irish clerk.
+
+They liked Lucy's pretty face and obliging ways, and were fond of
+having a young lady in their house; they saw her looking ill and
+depressed, and thought sea air would be good for her, and though Lucy
+fancied herself past caring for gaiety, and was very sorry to leave
+home and mamma, she was not insensible to the refreshment of her
+wardrobe, and the excitement and honour of the invitation.  At night
+she cried lamentably, and clung round Albinia'a neck, sobbing, 'Oh,
+mamma, what will become of me without you?' but in the morning she
+went off in very fair spirits, and Albinia augured hopefully that
+soon her type of perfection would be no longer Polysyllabic.  Her
+first letters were deplorable, but they soon became cheerful, as her
+mornings were occupied by lessons in music and drawing, and her
+evenings in quiet parties among the friends whom the aunts met at
+Brighton.  Aunt Gertrude wrote to announce that her charge had
+recovered her looks and was much admired, and this was corroborated
+by the prosperous complacency of Lucy's style.  Albinia was more
+relieved than surprised when the letters dwindled in length and
+number, well knowing that the Family Office was not favourable to
+leisure; and devoid of the epistolary gift herself, she always
+wondered more at people's writing than at their silence, and scarcely
+reciprocated Lucy's effusions by the hurried notes which she enclosed
+in the well-filled envelopes of Gilbert and Sophy, who, like their
+father, could cover any amount of sheets of paper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+
+'There!' cried Ulick O'More, 'I may wish you all good-bye.  There's
+an end of it.'
+
+Mr. Kendal stood aghast.
+
+'He's insulted my father and my family,' cried Ulick, 'and does he
+think I'll write another cipher for him?'
+
+'Your uncle?'
+
+'Don't call him my uncle.  I wish I'd never set eyes on his wooden
+old face, to put the family name and honour in the power of such as
+he.'
+
+'What has he done to you?'
+
+'He has offered to take me as his partner,' cried Ulick, with
+flashing eyes; and as an outcry arose, not in sympathy with his
+resentment, he continued vehemently, 'Stay, you have not heard!
+'Twas on condition I'd alter my name, leave out the O that has come
+down to me from them that were kings and princes before his
+grandfathers broke stones on the road.'
+
+'He offered to take you into partnership,' repeated Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Do you think I could listen to such terms!' cried the indignant lad.
+'Give up the O!  Why, I would never be able to face my brothers!'
+
+'But, Ulick--'
+
+'Don't talk to me, Mr. Kendal; I wouldn't sell my name if you were to
+argue to me like Plato, nor if his bank were the Bank of England.  I
+might as well be an Englishman at once.'
+
+'Then this was the insult?'
+
+'And enough too, but it wasn't all.  When I answered, speaking as
+coolly, I assure you, as I'm doing this minute, what does he do, but
+call it a folly, and taunt us for a crew of Irish beggars!  Beggars
+we may be, but we'll not be bought by him.'
+
+'Well, this must have been an unexpected reception of such a
+proposal.'
+
+'You may say that!  The English think everything may be bought with
+money!  I'd have overlooked his ignorance, poor old gentleman, if he
+would not have gone and spoken of my O as vulgar.  Vulgar!  So when I
+began to tell him how it began from Tigearnach, the O'More of
+Ballymakilty, that was Tanist of Connaught, in the time of King Mac
+Murrough, and that killed Phadrig the O'Donoghoe in single combat at
+the fight of Shoch-knockmorty, and bit off his nose, calling it a
+sweet morsel of revenge, what does he do but tell me I was mad, and
+that he would have none of my nonsensical tales of the savage Irish.
+So I said I couldn't stand to hear my family insulted, and then--would
+you believe it? he would have it that it was I that was insolent,
+and when I was not going to apologize for what I had borne from him,
+he said he had always known how it would be trying to deal with one
+of our family, no better than making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
+"And I'm obliged for the compliment," said I, quite coolly and politely,
+"but no Irish pig would sell his ear for a purse;" and so I came away,
+quite civilly and reasonably.  Aye, I see what you would do, Mr. Kendal,
+but I beg with all my heart you won't.  There are some things a gentleman
+should not put up with, and I'll not take it well of you if you call it
+my duty to hear my father and his family abused.  I'll despise myself
+if I could.  _You_ don't--' cried he, turning round to Albinia.
+
+'Oh, no, but I think you should try to understand Mr. Goldsmith's
+point of view.'
+
+'I understand it only too well, if that would do any good.  Point of
+view--why, 'tis the farmyard cock's point of view, strutting on the
+top of that bank of his own, and patronizing the free pheasant out in
+the woods.  More fool I for ever letting him clip my wings, but he's
+seen the last of me.  No, don't ask me to make it up.  It can't be
+done--'
+
+'What can be done to the boy?' asked Albinia; 'how can he be brought
+to hear reason?'
+
+'Leave him alone,' Mr. Kendal said, aside; while Ulick in a torrent
+of eager cadences protested his perfect sanity and reason, and Mr.
+Kendal quietly left the room, again to start on a peace-making
+mission, but it was unpromising, for Mr. Goldsmith began by declaring
+he would not hear a single word in favour of the ungrateful young
+dog.
+
+Mr. Kendal gathered that young O'More had become so valuable, and
+that cold and indifferent as Mr. Goldsmith appeared, he had been
+growing so fond and so proud of his nephew, as actually to resolve on
+giving him a share of the business, and dividing the inheritance
+which had hitherto been destined to a certain Andrew Goldsmith,
+brought up in a relation's office at Bristol.  Surprised at his own
+graciousness, and anticipating transports of gratitude, his dismay
+and indignation at the reception of his proposal were extreme,
+especially as he had no conception of the offence he had given
+regarding the unfortunate O as a badge of Hibernianism and vulgarity.
+'I put it to you, Mr. Kendal, as a sensible man, whether it would not
+be enough to destroy the credit of the bank to connect it with such a
+name as that, looking like an Irish haymaker's.  I should be ashamed
+of every note I issued.'
+
+'It is unlucky,' said Mr. Kendal, 'and a difficulty the lad could
+hardly appreciate, since it is a good old name, and the O is a
+special mark of nobility.'
+
+'And what has a banker to do with nobility?  Pretty sort of nobility
+too, at that dog-kennel of theirs in Ireland, and his father, a mere
+adventurer if ever there lived one!  But I swore when he carried off
+poor Ellen that his speculation should do him no good, and I've kept
+my word.  I wish I hadn't been fool enough to meddle with one of the
+concern!  No, no, 'tis no use arguing, Mr. Kendal, I have done with
+him!  I would not make him a partner, not if he offered to change his
+name to John Smith!  I never thought to meet with such ingratitude,
+but it runs in the breed!  I might have known better than to make
+much of one of the crew.  Yet it is a pity too, we have not had such
+a clear-headed, trustworthy fellow about the place since young Bowles
+died; he has a good deal of the Goldsmith in him when you set him to
+work, and makes his figures just like my poor father.  I thought it
+was his writing the other day till I looked at the date.  Clever lad,
+very, but it runs in the blood.  I shall send for Andrew Goldsmith.'
+
+One secret of Mr. Kendal's power was that he never interrupted, but
+let people run themselves down and contradict themselves; and all he
+observed was, 'However it may end, you have done a great deal for
+him.  Even if you parted now, he would be able to find a situation.'
+
+'Why--yes,' said Mr. Goldsmith, 'the lad knew nothing serviceable
+when he came, we had an infinity of maggots about algebra and
+logarithms to drive out of his head; but now he really is nearly as
+good an accountant as old Johns.'
+
+'You would be sorry to part with him, and I cannot help hoping this
+may be made up.'
+
+'You don't bring me any message!  I've said I'll listen to nothing.'
+
+'No; the poor boy's feelings are far too much wounded,' said Mr.
+Kendal.  'Whether rightly or wrongly, he fancies that his father and
+family have been slightingly spoken of, and he is exceedingly hurt.'
+
+'His father!  I'm sure I did not say a tenth part of what the fellow
+richly deserves.  If the young gentleman is so touchy, he had better
+go back to Ireland again.'
+
+Nothing more favourable could Mr. Kendal obtain, though he thought
+Mr. Goldsmith uneasy, and perhaps impressed by the independence of
+his nephew's attitude.
+
+It was an arduous office for a peace-maker, where neither party could
+comprehend the feelings of the other, but on his return he found that
+Ulick had stormed himself into comparative tranquillity, and was
+listening the better to the womankind, because they had paid due
+honour to the amiable ancestral Tigearnach and all his guttural
+posterity, whose savage exploits and bloody catastrophes acted as
+such a sedative, that by the time he had come down to Uncle Bryan of
+the Kaffir war, he actually owned that as to the mighty 'O,' Mr.
+Goldsmith might have erred in sheer ignorance.
+
+'After all,' said Albinia, 'U. O'More is rather personal in writing
+to a creditor'
+
+'It might be worse,' said Ulick, laughing, 'if my name was John.  I.
+O'More would be a dangerous confession.  But I'll not be come round
+even by your fun, Mrs. Kendal, I'll not part with my father's name.'
+
+'No, that would be base,' said Sophy.
+
+'Who would wish to persuade you?' added Albinia.  'I am sure you are
+right in refusing with your feelings; I only want you to forgive your
+uncle, and not to break with him.'
+
+'I'd forgive him his ignorance, but my mother herself could not wish
+me to forgive what he said of my father.'
+
+'And how if he thinks this explosion needs forgiveness?'
+
+'He must do without it,' said Ulick.  'No, I was cool, I assure you,
+cool and collected, but it was not fit for me to stand by and hear my
+father insulted.'
+
+Albinia closed the difficult discussion by observing that it was time
+to dress, and Sophy followed her from the room burning with indignant
+sympathy.  'It would be meanly subservient to ask pardon for
+defending a father whom he thought maligned,' said Albinia, and Sophy
+took exception at the word 'thought.'
+
+'Ah! of course _he_ cannot be deceived!' said Albinia--but no sooner
+were the words spoken than she was half-startled, half-charmed by
+finding they had evoked a glow of colour.
+
+'How do you think it will end?' asked Sophy.
+
+'I can hardly fancy he will not be forgiven, and yet--it might be
+better.'
+
+'Yes, I do think he would get on faster in India,' said Sophy
+eagerly; 'he could do just as Gilbert might have done.'
+
+Was it possible for Albinia to have kept out of her eyes a
+significant glance, or to have disarmed her lips of a merry smile of
+amused encouragement!  How she had looked she knew not, but the red
+deepened on Sophy's whole face, and after one inquiring gaze from the
+eyes they were cast down, and an ineffable brightness came over the
+expression, softening and embellishing.
+
+'What have I done?' thought Albinia.  'Never mind--it must have been
+all there, or it would not have been wakened so easily--if he goes
+they will have a scene first.'
+
+But when Mr. Kendal came back he only advised Ulick to go to his desk
+as usual the next day, as if nothing had happened.
+
+And Ulick owned that, turn out as things might, he could not quit his
+work in the first ardour of his resentment, and with a great exertion
+of Christian forgiveness, he finally promised not to give notice of
+his retirement unless his uncle should repeat the offence.  This time
+Albinia durst not look at Sophy.
+
+Rather according to his friend's hopes than his own, he was able to
+report at the close of the next day, that he had not 'had a word from
+his uncle, except a nod;' and thus the days passed on, Andrew
+Goldsmith did not appear, and it became evident that he was to remain
+on sufferance as a clerk.  Nor did Albinia and Sophy venture to renew
+the subject between themselves.  At first there was consciousness in
+their silence; soon their minds were otherwise engrossed.
+
+Mrs. Meadows was suddenly stricken with paralysis, and was thought to
+be dying.  She recovered partial consciousness in the course of the
+next day, but was constantly moaning the name of her eldest and
+favourite granddaughter, and when telegraph and express train brought
+home the startled and trembling Lucy, she was led at once to the sick
+bed--where at her name there was the first gleam of anything like
+pleasure.
+
+'And where have you been, my dear, this long time?'
+
+'I've been at--at Brighton, dear grandmamma,' said Lucy, so much
+agitated as scarcely to be able to recall the name, or utter the
+words.
+
+'And--I say, my dear love,' said Mrs. Meadows, earnestly and
+mysteriously, 'have you seen _him_?'
+
+Poor Lucy turned scarlet with distress and confusion, but she was
+held fast, and grandmamma pursued, 'I'm sure he has not his equal for
+handsomeness and stateliness, and there must have been a pair of
+you.'
+
+'Dear grandmamma, we must let Lucy go and take off her things; she
+shall come back presently, but she has had a long journey,'
+interposed Albinia, seeing her ready to sink into the earth.
+
+But Mrs. Meadows had roused into eagerness, and would not let her go.
+'I hope you danced with him, dear,' she went on; 'and it's all
+nonsense about his being high and silent.  Your papa is bent on it,
+and you'll live like a princess in India.'
+
+'She takes you for your mother--she means papa, whispered Albinia,
+not without a secret flash at once of indignation at perceiving how
+his first love had been wasted, yet of exultation in finding that no
+one but herself had known how to love him; but poor Lucy, completely
+and helplessly overcome, could only exclaim in a faltering voice:
+'Oh, grandmamma, don't--' and Albinia was forced to disengage her,
+support her out of the room, and leaving her to her sister, hasten
+back to soothe the old lady, who had been terrified by her emotion.
+It had been a great mistake to bring her in abruptly, when tired with
+her journey, and not fully aware what awaited her.  But there was at
+that time reason to think all would soon be over, and Albinia was
+startled and confused.
+
+Albinia had hitherto been the only efficient nurse of the family.
+Sophy's presence seemed to stir up instincts of the old wrangling
+habits, and the invalid was always fretful when left to her, so that
+to her own exceeding distress she was kept almost entirely out of the
+sick room.
+
+Lucy, on the other hand, was extremely valuable there, her bright
+manner and unfailing chatter always amused if needful, and her light
+step and tender hand made her useful, and highly appreciated by the
+regular nurse.
+
+For the first few days, they watched in awe for the last dread
+summons, but gradually it was impossible not to become in a manner
+habituated to the suspense, so that common things resumed their
+interest, and though Sophy was pained by the incongruity, it could
+not have been otherwise without the spirits and health giving way
+under the strain.  Nothing could be more trying than to have the mind
+wrought up to hourly anticipation of the last parting, and then the
+delay, without the reaction of recovery, the spirit beyond all reach
+of intercourse, and the mortal frame languishing and drooping.  Mr.
+Kendal had from the first contemplated the possibility of the long
+duration of such lingering, and did his utmost to promote such
+enlivenment and change for the attendants as was consistent with
+their care of the sufferer.  They never dared to be all beyond call
+at once, since a very little agitation might easily suffice to bring
+on a fatal attack, and Albinia and Lucy were forced to share the
+hours of exercise and employment between them, and often Albinia
+could not leave the house and garden at all.
+
+Gilbert was an excellent auxiliary, and would devote many an hour to
+the cheering of the poor shattered mind.  His entrance seldom failed
+to break the thread of melancholy murmurs, and he had exactly the
+gentle, bright attentive manner best fitted to rouse and enliven.
+Nothing could be more irreproachable, than his conduct, and his
+consideration and gentleness so much endeared him, that he had never
+been so much at peace.  All he dreaded was the leaving what was truly
+to him the sanctuary of home, he feared alike temptation and the
+effort of resistance and could not bear to go away when his
+grandmother was in so precarious a state, and he could so much
+lighten Mrs. Kendal's cares both by being with her, and by watching
+over Maurice.  His parents were almost equally afraid of trusting him
+in the world; and the embodiment of the militia for the county
+offered a quasi profession, which would keep him at home and yet give
+him employment.  He was very anxious to be allowed to apply for a
+commission, and pleaded so earnestly and humbly that it would be his
+best hope of avoiding his former errors, that Mr. Kendal yielded,
+though with doubt whether it would be well to confine him to so
+narrow a sphere.  Meantime the corps was quartered at Bayford, and
+filled the streets with awkward louts in red jackets, who were
+inveterate in mistaking the right for the left, Gilbert had a certain
+shy pride in his soldiership, and Maurice stepped like a young Field
+Marshal when he saw his brother saluted.
+
+Nothing had so much decided this step as the finding that young
+Dusautoy was to return to his college after Easter.  He was at the
+Vicarage again, marking his haughty avoidance of the Kendal family,
+and to their great joy, Lucy did not appear distressed, she was
+completely absorbed in her grandmother, and shrank from all allusion
+to her lover.  Had the small flutter of vanity been cured by a
+glimpse beyond her own corner of the world?
+
+But soon Albinia became sensible of an alteration in Gilbert.  He had
+no sooner settled completely into his new employment, than a certain
+restless dissatisfaction seemed to have possessed him.  He was
+fastidious at his meals, grumbled at his horse, scolded the groom,
+had fits of petulance towards his brother, and almost neglected Mrs.
+Meadows.  No one could wonder at a youth growing weary of such
+attendance, but his tenderness and amiability had been his best
+points, and it was grievous to find them failing.  Albinia would have
+charged the alteration on his brother officers, if they had not been
+a very steady and humdrum set, whose society Gilbert certainly did
+not prefer.  She was more uneasy at finding that he sometimes saw
+Algernon Dusautoy, though for Lucy's sake, he always avoided bringing
+his name forward.
+
+A woman was ill in the bargeman's cottage by the towing-path, and
+Albinia had walked to see her.  As she came down-stairs, she heard
+voices, and beheld Mr. Hope evidently on the same errand with
+herself, talking to Gilbert.  She caught the words, ere she could
+safely descend the rickety staircase, Gilbert was saying,
+
+'Oh! some happy pair from the High Street!'
+
+'I beg your pardon,' said Mr. Hope, 'I am so blind, I really took it
+for your sister, but our shopkeepers' daughters do dress so!'
+
+Albinia looking in the same direction, beheld in a walk that skirted
+the meadow towards the wood, two figures, of which only one was
+clearly visible, it was nearly a quarter of a mile off, but there was
+something about it that made her exclaim, 'Why, that's Mr. Cavendish
+Dusautoy! whom can he be walking with?'
+
+Gilbert started violently at hearing her behind him, and a word or
+two of greeting passed with Mr. Hope, then there was some spying at
+the pair, but they were getting further off, and disappeared in the
+wood, while Gilbert, screwing up his eyes, and stammering, declared
+he did not know; it might be, he did not think any one could be
+recognised at such a distance; and then saying that he had fallen in
+with Mr. Hope by chance, he hastened on.  The curate made a brief
+visit, and walked home with her, examining her on her impression that
+the gentleman was young Dusautoy, and finally consulting her on the
+expediency of mentioning the suspicion to the vicar, in case he
+should be deluding some foolish tradesman's daughter.  Albinia
+strongly advised his doing so; she had much faith in her own keen
+eyesight, and could not mistake the majestic mien of Algernon; she
+thought the vicar ought at once to be warned, but felt relieved that
+it was not her part to speak.
+
+She was very glad when Mr. Hope took an opportunity of telling her
+that young Dusautoy was going to the Greenaways in a day or two.
+
+As to Gilbert, it was as if this departure had relieved him from an
+incubus; he was in better spirits from that moment, and returned to
+his habits of kindness to both grandmamma and Maurice.
+
+The manifold duties of head sick-nurse, governess, and housekeeper,
+were apt to clash, and valiant and unwearied as Albinia was, she was
+obliged perforce to leave the children more to others than she would
+have preferred.  Little Albinia was all docility and sweetness, and
+already did such wonders with her ivory letters, that the exulting
+Sophy tried to abash Maurice by auguring that she would be the first
+to read; to which, undaunted, he replied, 'She'll never be a boy!'
+Nevertheless Maurice was developing a species of conscience,
+rendering him trustworthy and obedient out of sight, better, in fact,
+alone with his own honour and his mother's commands, than with any
+authority that he could defy.  He knew when his father meant to be
+obeyed, and Gilbert managed him easily; but he warred with Lucy,
+ruled Sophy, and had no chivalry for any one but little Albinia, nor
+obedience except for his mother, and was a terror to maid-servants
+and elder children.  With much of promise, he was anything but an
+agreeable child, and whilst no one but herself ever punished,
+contradicted, or complained of him, Albinia had a task that would
+have made her very uneasy, had not her mind been too fresh and strong
+for over-sense of responsibility.  Each immediate duty in its turn
+was sufficient for her.
+
+Maurice's shadow-like pursuit of Gilbert often took him off her
+hands.  It might sometimes be troublesome to the elder brother, and
+now and then rewarded with a petulant rebuff, but Maurice was only
+the more pertinacious, and on the whole his allegiance was requited
+with ardent affection and unbounded indulgence.  Nay, once when
+Maurice and his pony, one or both, were swept on by the whole hunt,
+and obliged to follow the hounds, Gilbert in his anxiety took leaps
+that he shuddered to remember, while the urchin sat the first
+gallantly, and though he fell into the next ditch, scrambled up on
+the instant, and was borne by his spirited pony over two more, amid
+universal applause.  Mr. Nugent himself rode home with the brothers
+to tell the story; papa and mamma were too much elated at his prowess
+to scold.
+
+The eventful year 1854 had begun, and General Ferrars was summoned
+from Canada to a command in the East.  On his arrival in England, he
+wrote to his brother and sister to meet him in London, and the aunts,
+delighted to gather their children once more round them, sent
+pressing invitations, only regretting that there was not room enough
+in the Family Office for the younger branches.
+
+Mr. Ferrars' first measure was to ride to Willow Lawn.  Knocking at
+the door of his sister's morning-room, he found Maurice with a
+pouting lip, back rounded, and legs twisted, standing upon his
+elbows, which were planted upon the table on either side of a calico
+spelling-book.  Mr. Kendal stood up straight before the fire, looking
+distressed and perplexed, and Albinia sat by, a little worn, a little
+irritable, and with the expression of a wilful victim.
+
+All greeted the new-comer warmly, and Maurice exclaimed, 'Mamma, I
+may have a holiday now!'
+
+'Not till you have learnt your spelling.'  There was some sharpness
+in the tone, and Maurice's shoulder-blades looked sulky.
+
+'In consideration of his uncle,' began Mr. Kendal, but she put her
+hand on the boy, saying, 'You know we agreed there were to be no
+holidays for a week, because we did not use the last properly.'
+
+He moved off disconsolately, and his father said, 'I hope you are
+come to arrange the journey to London.  Is Winifred coming with you?'
+
+'No; a hurry and confusion, and the good aunts would be too much for
+her, you will be the only one for inspection.'
+
+'Yes, take him with you, Maurice,' said Albinia, 'he must see
+William.'
+
+'You must be the exhibitor, then,' her brother replied.
+
+'Now, Maurice, I know what you are come for, but you ought to know
+better than to persuade me, when you know there are six good reasons
+against my going.'
+
+'I know of one worth all the six.'
+
+'Yes,' said Mr. Kendal; 'I have been telling her that she is
+convincing me that I did wrong in allowing her to burthen herself
+with this charge.'
+
+'That's nothing to the purpose,' said Albinia; 'having undertaken it,
+when you all saw the necessity, I cannot forsake it now--'
+
+'If Mrs. Meadows were in the same condition as she was in two months
+ago, there might be a doubt,' said Mr. Kendal; but she is less
+dependent on your attention, and Lucy and Gilbert are most anxious to
+devote themselves to her in your absence.'
+
+'I know they all wish to be kind, but if anything went wrong, I
+should never forgive myself!'
+
+'Not if you went out for pleasure alone,' said her brother; 'but
+relationship has demands.'
+
+'Of course,' she said, petulantly, 'if Edmund is resolved, I must go,
+but that does not convince me that it is right to leave everything to
+run riot here.'
+
+Mr. Kendal looked serious, and Mr. Ferrars feared that the winter
+cares had so far told on her temper, that perplexity made her wilful
+in self-sacrifice.  There was a pause, but just as she began to
+perceive she had said something wrong, the lesser Maurice burst out
+in exultation,
+
+'There, it is not indestructible!'
+
+'What mischief have you been about?'  The question was needless, for
+the table was strewn with snips of calico.
+
+'This nasty spelling-book!  Lucy said it was called indestructible,
+because nobody could destroy it, but I've taken my new knife to it.
+And see there!'
+
+'And now can you make another?' said his uncle.
+
+'I don't want _to_.'
+
+'Nor _one_ either, sir,' said Mr. Kendal.  'What shall we have to
+tell Uncle William about you!  I'm afraid you are one of the chief
+causes of mamma not knowing how to go to London.'
+
+Maurice did not appear on the way to penitence, but his mother said,
+'Bring me your knife.'
+
+He hung down his head, and obeyed without a word.  She closed it, and
+laid it on the mantel-shelf, which served as a sort of pound for
+properties in sequestration.
+
+'Now, then, go,' she said, 'you are too naughty for me to attend to
+you.'
+
+'But when will you, mamma?' laying a hand on her dress.
+
+'I don't know.  Go away now.'
+
+He slowly obeyed, and as the door shut, she said, 'There!' in a tone
+as if her view was established.
+
+'You must send him to Fairmead,' said the uncle.
+
+'To "terrify" Winifred?  No, no, I know better than that; Gilbert can
+look after him.  I don't so much care about that.'
+
+The admission was eagerly hailed, and objection after objection
+removed, and having recovered her good humour, she was candid, and
+owned how much she wished to go.  'I really want to make acquaintance
+with William.  I've never seen him since I came to my senses, and
+have only taken him on trust from you.'
+
+'I wish equally that he should see you,' said her brother.  'It would
+be good for him, and I doubt whether he has any conception what you
+are like.'
+
+'I'd better stay at home, to leave you and Edmund to depict for his
+benefit a model impossible idol--the normal woman.'
+
+Maurice looked at her, and shook his head.
+
+'No--it would be rather--it and its young one, eh?'
+
+Maurice took both her hands.  'I should not like to tell William what
+I shall believe if you do not come.'
+
+'Well, what--'
+
+'That Edmund is right, and you have been overtasked till you are
+careful and troubled about many things.'
+
+'Only too much bent on generous self-devotion,' said Mr. Kendal,
+eagerly; 'too unselfish to cast the balance of duties.'
+
+'Hush, Edmund,' said Albinia.  'I don't deserve fine words.  I
+honestly believe I want to do what is right, but I can't be sure what
+it is, and I have made quite fuss enough, so you two shall decide,
+and then I shall be made right anyway.  Only do it from your
+consciences.'
+
+They looked at each other, taken aback by the sudden surrender.  Mr.
+Ferrars waited, and her husband said, 'She ought to see her brother.
+She needs the change, and there is no sufficient cause to detain
+her.'
+
+'She must be content sometimes to trust,' said Mr. Ferrars.
+
+'Aye, and all that will go wrong, when my back is turned.'
+
+'Let it,' said her brother.  'The right which depends on a single
+human eye is not good for much.  Let the weeds grow, or you can't
+pull them up.'
+
+'Let the mice play, that the cat may catch them,' said Albinia,
+striving to hide her care.  'One good effect is, that Edmund has not
+begun to groan.'
+
+Indeed, in his anxiety that she should consent to enjoy herself, he
+had not had time to shrink from the introduction.
+
+Outside the door they found Maurice waiting, his spelling learnt from
+a fragment of the indestructible spelling-book, and the question
+followed, 'Now, mamma, you wont say I'm too naughty for you to go to
+London and see Uncle William?'
+
+'No, my little boy, I mean to trust you, and tell Uncle William that
+my young soldier is learning the soldier's first duty--obedience.'
+
+'And may I have my knife, mamma?'
+
+Papa had settled that question by himself taking it off the chimney-piece
+and restoring it.  If mamma wished the penance to have been longer,
+she neither looked it nor said it.
+
+The young people received the decision with acclamation, and the two
+elder ones vied with one another in attempts to set her mind at rest
+by undertaking everything, and promising for themselves and the
+children perfect regularity and harmony.  Sophy, with a bluntness
+that King Lear would have highly disapproved, said, 'She was glad
+mamma was going, but she knew they should be all at sixes and sevens.
+She would do her best, and very bad it would be.'
+
+'Not if you don't make up your mind beforehand that it must be bad,'
+said her uncle.
+
+Sophy smiled, she was much less impervious to cheerful auguries, and
+spoke with gladness of the pleasure it would give her friend
+Genevieve to see Mrs. Kendal.
+
+Mr. Ferrars had a short interview with Ulick, and was amused by
+observing that little Maurice had learnt as much Irish as Ulick had
+dropped.  After the passing fever about his O had subsided, he was
+parting with some of his ultra-nationality.  The whirr of his R's and
+his Irish idioms were far less perceptible, and though a word of
+attack on his country would put him on his mettle, and bring out the
+Kelt in full force, yet in his reasonable state, his good sense and
+love of order showed an evident development, and instead of
+contending that Galway was the most perfect county in the world, he
+only said it might yet be so.
+
+'Isn't he a noble fellow?' cried Albinia, warmly.
+
+'Yes,' said her brother; 'I doubt whether all the O'Mores put
+together have ever made such a conquest as he has.'
+
+'It was fun to see how the aunts were dismayed to find one of the
+horde in full force here.  I believe it was as a measure of
+precaution that they took Lucy away.  I was very glad for Lucy to go,
+but hers was not exactly the danger.'
+
+'Ha!' said Maurice; and Albinia blushed.  Whereupon he said
+interrogatively, 'Hem?' which made her laugh so consciously that he
+added, 'Don't you go and be romantic about either of your young
+ladies, or there will be a general burning of fingers.'
+
+'If you knew all our secrets, Maurice, you would think me a model of
+prudence and forbearance.'
+
+'Ho!' was his next interjection, 'so much the worse.  For my own
+part, I don't expect prudence will come to you naturally till the
+little Awk has a lover.'
+
+'Won't it come any other way?'
+
+'Yes, in _one_ way,' he said, gravely.
+
+'And that way is not easily found by those who have neither humility
+nor patience,' she said, sadly, 'who rush on their own will.'
+
+'Nay, Albinia, it is being sought, I do believe; and remember the
+lines--
+
+
+  "Thine own mild energy bestow,
+   And deepen while thou bidst it flow,
+   More calm our stream of love."'
+
+
+Forced to resign herself to her holiday, Albinia did so with a good
+grace, in imitation of her brother, who assured her that he had
+brought a bottle of Lethe, and had therein drowned wife, children,
+and parish.  Mr. Kendal's spirits, as usual, rose higher every mile
+from Bayford, and they were a very lively party when they arrived in
+Mayfair.
+
+The good aunts were delighted to have round them all those whom they
+called their children; all except Fred, whom the new arrangements had
+sent to rejoin his regiment in Ireland.
+
+Sinewy, spare, and wiry, with keen gray eyes under straight brows,
+narrow temples, a sunburnt face, and alert, upright bearing and quick
+step, William Ferrars was every inch a soldier; but nothing so much
+struck Mr. and Mrs. Kendal as the likeness to their little Maurice,
+though it consisted more in air and gesture than in feature.  His
+speech was brief and to the point, softened into delicately-polished
+courtesy towards womankind, in the condescension of strength to
+weakness--the quality he evidently thought their chief characteristic.
+
+Albinia was amused as she watched him with grown-up eyes, and
+compared present with past impressions.  She could now imagine that
+she had been an inconvenient charge to a young soldier brother, and
+that he had been glad to make her over to the aunts, only petting and
+indulging her as a child; looking down on her fancies, and smiling at
+her sauciness when she was an enthusiastic maiden--treatment which
+she had so much resented, that she had direfully offended Maurice by
+pronouncing William a mere martinet, when she was hurt at his neither
+reading the Curse of Kehama, nor entering into her plans for Fairmead
+school.
+
+Having herself become a worker, she could better appreciate a man who
+had seen and acted instead of reading, recollected herself as an
+emanation of conceit, and felt shy and anxious, even more for her
+husband than for herself.  How would the scholar and the soldier fare
+together? and could she and Maurice keep them from wearying of each
+other?  She had little trust in her own fascinations, though she saw
+the General's eye approvingly fixed on her, and believing herself to
+be a more pleasing object in her womanly bloom than in her unformed
+girlhood.
+
+'How does the Montreal affair go on?' she asked.
+
+'What affair?'
+
+'Fred and Miss Kinnaird.'
+
+'I am sorry to say he has not put it out of his head.'
+
+'Surely she is a very nice person.'
+
+'Pshaw!  He has no right to think of a wife these dozen years.'
+
+'Not even think?  When he is not to have one at any rate till he is a
+field officer!'
+
+'And he is a fool to have one then.  A mere encumbrance to himself
+and the entire corps.'
+
+'Yes, I know,' said Albinia, 'she always gets the best cabin.'
+
+'And that is no place for her!  No man, as I have told Fred over and
+over again, ought to drag a woman into hardships for which she is not
+fitted, and where she interferes with his effectiveness and the
+comfort of every one else.'
+
+The identical lecture of twelve years since, when he had feared
+Albinia's becoming this inconvenient appendage!  If he had repeated
+it on all like occasions, she did not wonder that it had wearied his
+aide-de-camp.
+
+'Perhaps,' she said, 'the backwoods may have fitted Miss Emily for
+the life; and I can't but be glad of Fred's having been steady to
+anything.'
+
+Considering this speech like the Kehama days, the General went on to
+dilate on the damage that marriage was to the 'service,' removing the
+best officers, first from the mess, and then from the army.
+
+'What a pity William was born too late to be a Knight of St. John!'
+said Albinia.
+
+All laughed, but she doubted whether he were pleased, for he
+addressed himself to one of the aunts, while Maurice spoke to her in
+an under tone--'I believe he is quite right.  Homes are better for
+the individual man, but not for the service.  How remarkably the
+analogy holds with this other service!'
+
+'You mean what St. Paul says of the married and unmarried?'
+
+'I always think he and his sayings are the most living lessons I know
+on the requirements of the other army.'
+
+Albinia mused on the insensible change in Maurice.  He had not
+embraced his profession entirely by choice.  It had always been
+understood that one of the younger branches must take the family
+living; and as Fred had spurned study, he had been bred up to
+consider it as his fate, and if he had ever had other wishes, he had
+entirely accepted his destiny, and sincerely turned to his vocation.
+The knowledge that he must be a clergyman had ruled him and formed
+him from his youth, and acting through him on his sister, had
+rendered her more than the accomplished, prosperous young lady her
+aunts meant to have made her.  Yet, even up to a year or two after
+his Ordination, there had been a sense of sacrifice; he loved
+sporting, and even balls, and it had been an effort to renounce them.
+He had avoided coming to London because his keen enjoyment of society
+tended to make him discontented with his narrow sphere; she had even
+known him to hesitate to ride with the staff at a review, lest he
+should make himself liable to repinings.  And now how entirely had
+all this passed away, not merely by outgrowing the enterprising
+temper and boyish habits, nor by contentment in a happy home, but by
+the sufficiency and rest of his service, the engrossment in the
+charge from his great Captain.  Without being himself aware of it, he
+had ceased to distrust a holiday, because it was no longer a
+temptation; and his animation and mirth were the more free, because
+self-regulation was so thoroughly established, that restraint was no
+longer felt.
+
+Mrs. Annesley was talking of the little Kendals, who she had ruled
+should be at Fairmead.
+
+'No,' said Maurice, 'Albinia thought her son too mighty for Winifred.
+Our laudable efforts at cousinly friendship usually produce war-whoops
+that bring the two mammas each to snatch her own offspring from the
+fray, with a scolding for the sake of appearances though believing the
+other the only guilty party.'
+
+'Now, Maurice,' cried Albinia, 'you confess how fond Mary is of
+setting people to rights.'
+
+'Well--when Maurice bullies Alby.'
+
+'Aye, you talk of the mammas, and you only want to make out poor
+Maurice the aggressor.'
+
+'Never mind, they will work in better than if they were fabulous
+children.  Ah, you are going to contend that yours is a fabulous
+child.  Take care I don't come on you with the indestructible--'
+
+'Take care I don't come on you with Mary's lessons to Colonel Bury on
+the game-law.'
+
+'Does it not do one good to see those two quarrelling just like old
+times?' exclaimed one aunt to the other.
+
+'And William looking on as contemptuous as ever?' said Albinia.
+
+'Not at all.  I rejoice to have this week with you.  I should like to
+see your boy.  Maurice says he is a thorough young soldier.'
+
+Mr. Kendal looked pleased.
+
+The man of study had a penchant for the man of action, and the
+brothers-in-law were drawing together.  Mars, the great geographical
+master, was but opening his gloomy school on the Turkish soil, and
+the world was discovering its ignorance beyond the Pinnock's
+Catechisms of its youth.  Maurice treated Mr. Kendal as a dictionary,
+and his stores of Byzantine, Othman, and Austrian lore, chimed in
+with the perceptions of the General, who, going by military maps,
+described plans of operations which Mr. Kendal could hardly believe
+he had not found in history, while he could as little credit that Mr.
+Kendal had neither studied tactics, nor seen the spots of which he
+could tell such serviceable minutiae.
+
+They had their heads together over the map the whole evening, and the
+next morning, when the General began to ask questions about Turkish,
+his sister was proud to hear her husband answering with the
+directness and precision dear to a military man.
+
+'That's an uncommonly learned man, Albinia's husband,' began the
+General, as soon as he had started with his brother on a round of
+errands.
+
+'I never met a man of more profound and universal knowledge.'
+
+'I don't see that he is so grave and unlike other people.  Fred
+reported that he was silence itself, and she might as well have
+married Hamlet's ghost.'
+
+'Fred saw him at a party,' said Maurice; then remembering that this
+might not be explanatory, he added, 'He shines most when at ease, and
+every year since his marriage has improved and enlivened him.'
+
+'I am satisfied.  I hardly knew how to judge, though I did not think
+myself called upon to remonstrate against the marriage, as the aunts
+wished.  I knew I might depend on you, and I thought it high time
+that she should be settled.'
+
+'I have been constantly admiring her discernment, for I own that at
+first his reserve stood very much in my way, but since she has raised
+his spirits, and taught him to exert himself, he has been a most
+valuable brother to me.
+
+'Then you think her happy?  I was surprised to see her such a fine-looking
+woman; my aunts had croaked so much about his children and his mother,
+that I thought she would be worn to a shadow.'
+
+'Very happy.  She has casual troubles, and a great deal of work, but
+that is what she is made for.'
+
+'How does she get on with his children?'
+
+'Hearty love for them has carried her through the first difficulties,
+which appalled me, for they had been greatly mismanaged.  I am afraid
+that she has not been able to undo some of the past evil; and with
+all her good intentions, I am sometimes afraid whether she is old
+enough to deal with grown-up young people.'
+
+'You don't mean that Kendal's children are grown up?  I should think
+him younger than I am.'
+
+'He is so, but civil servants marry early, and not always wisely; and
+the son is about twenty.  Poor Albinia dotes on him, and has done
+more for him than ever his father did; but the lad is weak and tender
+every way, with no stamina, moral or physical, and with just enough
+property to do him harm.  He has been at Oxford and has failed, and
+now he is in the militia, but what can be expected of a boy in a
+country town, with nothing to do?  I did not like his looks last
+week, and I don't think his being there, always idle, is good for
+that little manly scamp of Albinia's own.'
+
+'Why don't they put him into the service?'
+
+'He is too old.'
+
+'Not too old for the cavalry!'
+
+'He can ride, certainly, and is a tall, good-looking fellow; but I
+should not have thought him the stuff to make a dragoon.  He has
+always been puling and delicate, unfit for school, wanting force.'
+
+'Wanting discipline,' said the General.  'I have seen a year in a
+good regiment make an excellent officer of that very stamp of
+youngster, just wanting a mould to give him substance.'
+
+'The regiment should be a very good one,' said Mr. Ferrars; 'he would
+be only too easily drawn in by the bad style of subaltern.'
+
+'Put him into the 25th Lancers,' said the General, 'and set Fred to
+look after him.  Rattlepate as he is, he can take excellent care of a
+lad to whom he takes a fancy, and if Albinia asked him, he would do
+it with all his heart.'
+
+'I wish you would propose it, though I am afraid his father will
+never consent.  I would do a great deal to get him away before he has
+led little Maurice into harm.'
+
+'This consideration moved the Rector of Fairmead himself to broach
+the subject, but neither Mr. Kendal nor Albinia could think of
+venturing their fragile son in the army, though assured that there
+was little chance that the 25th Lancers would be summoned to the
+east, and they would only hold out hopes of little Maurice by and by.
+
+Albinia's martial ardour was revived as she listened with greater
+grasp of comprehension to subjects familiar in her girlhood.  She
+again met old friends of her father, the lingering glories of the
+Peninsula and Waterloo, who liked her for her own sake as well as for
+her father's, while Maurice looked on, amused by her husband's silent
+pride in her, and her hourly progress in the regard of the General,
+who began to talk of making a long visit to Fairmead, after what he
+expected would be a slight demonstration on the Danube.  He even
+began to regret the briefness of the time that he could spend in
+their society.
+
+Much was crowded into that week, but Albinia contrived to find an
+hour for a call on her little French friend, to whom she had already
+forwarded the parcels she had brought from home--a great barm-brack
+from Biddy, and a store of delicate convent confections from
+Hadminster.
+
+She was set down at a sober old house in the lawyers' quarter of the
+world, and conducted to a pretty, though rather littered drawing-room,
+where she found a delicate-looking young mamma, and various small
+children.
+
+'I'm so glad,' said little Mrs. Rainsforth, 'that you have been able
+to come; it will be such a pleasure to dear Miss Durant; and while
+one of the children was sent to summon the governess, the lady
+continued, nervously but warmly, 'I hope you will think Miss Durant
+looking well; I am afraid she shuts herself up too much.  I'm sure
+she is the greatest comfort, the greatest blessing to us.'
+
+Albinia's reply was prevented by a rush of children, followed by the
+dear little trim, slight figure.  There was no fear that Genevieve
+did not look well or happy.  Her olive complexion was healthy; her
+dark eyes lustrous with gladness; her smile frank and unquelled; her
+movements full of elastic life.
+
+She led the way to the back parlour, dingy by nature, but bearing
+living evidence to the charm which she infused into any room.
+Scratched table, desks, copybooks, and worn grammars, had more the
+air of a comfortable occupation than of the shabby haunt of irksome
+taskwork.  There were flowers in the window, and the children's
+treasures were arranged with taste.  Genevieve loved her school-room,
+and showed off its little advantages with pretty exultation.  If Mrs.
+Kendal could only see how well it looked with the curtains down,
+after tea!
+
+And then came the long, long talk over home affairs, and the history
+of half the population of Bayford, Genevieve making inquiries, and
+drinking in the answers as if she could not make enough of her
+enjoyment.
+
+Not till all the rest had been discussed, did she say, with dropped
+eyelids, and a little blush, 'Is Mr. Gilbert Kendal quite strong?'
+
+'Thank you, he has been much better this winter, and so useful and
+kind in nursing grandmamma!'
+
+'Yes, he was always kind.'
+
+'He was going to beg me to remember him to you, but he broke off, and
+said you would not care.'
+
+'I care for all goodness towards me,' answered Genevieve, lifting her
+eyes with a flash of inquiry.
+
+'I am afraid he is as bad as ever, poor fellow,' said Albinia, with a
+little smile and sigh; 'but he has behaved very well.  I must tell
+you that you were in the same train with him on his journey from
+Oxford, and he was ashamed to meet your eye.'
+
+'Ah, I remember well.  I thought I saw him.  I was bringing George
+and Fanny from a visit to their aunts, and I was sure it must be Mr.
+Gilbert.'
+
+'As prudent as ever, Genevieve.'
+
+'It would not have been right,' she said, blushing; 'but it was such
+a treat to see a Bayford face, that I had nearly sprung out of the
+waiting-room to speak to him at the first impulse.'
+
+'My poor little exile!' said Albinia.
+
+'No, that is not my name.  Call me my aunt's bread-winner.  That's my
+pride!  I mean my cause of thankfulness.  I could not have earned
+half so much at home.'
+
+'I hope indeed you have a home here.'
+
+'That I have,' she fervently answered.  'Oh, without being a homeless
+orphan, one does not learn what kind hearts there are.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Rainsforth seemed only to fear that they should not be good enough to
+me.'
+
+'Do you mean that you found it a little oppressive?'
+
+'Fi donc, Madame!  Yet I must own that with her timid uneasy way, and
+his so perfect courtesy, they did alarm me a little at first.  I
+pitied them, for I saw them so resolved not to let me feel myself de
+trop, that I knew I was in their way.'
+
+'Did not that vex you?'
+
+'Why, I suppose they set their inconvenience against the needs of
+their children, and my concern was to do my duty, and be as little
+troublesome as possible.  They pressed me to spend my evenings with
+them, but I thought that would be too hard on them, so I told them I
+preferred the last hours alone, and I do not come in unless there are
+others to prevent their being tete-a-tete.'
+
+'Very wise.  And do you not find it lonely?'
+
+'It is my time for reading--my time for letters--my time for being at
+home!' cried Genevieve.  'Now however that I hope I am no longer a
+weight on them, Mrs. Rainsforth will sometimes ask me to come and
+sing to him, or read aloud, when he comes home so tired that he
+cannot speak, and her voice is weak.  Alas! they are both so fragile,
+so delicate.'
+
+Her soul was evidently with them and with her charges, of whom there
+was so much to say, that the carriage came all too soon to hurry
+Albinia away from the sight of that buoyant sweetness and capacity of
+happiness.
+
+She was rather startled by Miss Ferrars saying, 'By-the-by, Albinia,
+how was it that you never told us of the development of the Infant
+prodigy?
+
+'I don't know what you mean, Aunt Gertrude.'
+
+'Don't you remember that boy, that Mrs. Dusautoy Cavendish's son,
+whom that poor little companion of hers used to call l'Enfant
+prodigue.  I did not know he was a neighbour of yours, as I find from
+Lucy.'
+
+'What did Lucy tell you about him?  She did not meet him!' cried
+Albinia, endeavouring not to betray her alarm.  'I mean, did she meet
+him?'
+
+'Indeed,' said Miss Ferrars, 'you should have warned us if you had
+any objection, my dear.'
+
+'Well, but what did happen?'
+
+'Oh, nothing alarming, I assure you.  They met at a ball at Brighton;
+Lucy introduced him, and said he was your vicar's nephew; they danced
+together.  I think only once.'
+
+'I wish you had mentioned it.  When did it happen?'
+
+'I can hardly tell.  I think she had been about a fortnight with us,
+but she seemed so indifferent that I should never have thought it
+worth mentioning.  I remember my sister thought of asking him to a
+little evening party of ours, and Lucy dissuading her.  Now, really,
+Albinia, don't look as if we had been betraying our trust.  You never
+gave us any reason to think--'
+
+'No, no.  I beg your pardon, dear aunt.  I hope there's no harm done.
+If I could have thought of his turning up, I would--But I hope it is
+all right.'
+
+Such good accounts came from both homes, and the General was so
+unwilling to part with his brother and sister, that he persuaded them
+to accompany him to Southampton for embarkation.  They all felt that
+these last days, precious now, might be doubly precious by-and-by,
+and alone with them and free from the kindly scrutiny of the good
+aunts, William expanded and evinced more warm fraternal feeling than
+he had ever manifested.  He surprised his sister by thanking her
+warmly for having come to meet him.  'I am glad to have been with
+you, Albinia; I am glad to have seen your husband.  I have told
+Maurice that I am heartily rejoiced to see you in such excellent
+hands.'
+
+'You must come and see the children, and know him better.'
+
+'I hope so, when this affair is over, and I expect it will be soon
+settled.  Anyway, I am glad we have been together.  If we meet again,
+we will try to see more of one another.'
+
+He had said much more to his brother, expressing regret that he had
+been so much separated from his sister.  Thorough soldier as he was,
+and ardent for active service, the sight of her and her husband had
+renewed gentler thoughts, and he was so far growing old that the idea
+of home and rest came invitingly before him.  He was softened at the
+parting, and when he wrung their hands for the last time on the deck
+of the steamer, they were glad that his last words were, 'God bless
+you.'
+
+There had been some uncertainty as to the time of his sailing, and
+Fairmead and Bayford had been told that unless their travellers
+arrived by the last reasonable train on Friday, they were not to be
+expected till the same time on Saturday, Maurice having concocted a
+scheme for crossing by several junction lines, so as to save waiting;
+but they had not reckoned on the discourtesies of two rival companies
+whose lines met at the same station, and the southern train was only
+in time to hear the parting snort of the engine that it professed to
+catch.
+
+The Ferrars' nature, above all when sore with farewells, was not made
+to submit to having time wasted by treacherous trains on a cold
+wintry day, and at a small new station, with an apology for a
+waiting-room, no bookstall, and nothing to eat but greasy gingerbread
+and hard apples.
+
+Maurice relieved his feelings by heartily rowing all the officials,
+but he could obtain no redress, as he knew full well the whole time,
+nor would any train pick them up for full three hours.
+
+So indignant was he, that amusement rendered Albinia patient,
+especially when he took to striding up and down the platform,
+devising cases in which the delay might be actionable, and
+vituperating the placability of Mr. Kendal, who having wrapt up his
+wife in plaids and seated her on the top of the luggage, had set his
+back to the wall, and was lost to the present world in a book.
+
+'Never mind, Maurice,' said Albinia; 'in any other circumstances we
+should think three hours of each other a great boon.'
+
+'If anything could be an aggravation, it would be to see Albinia
+philosophical.'
+
+'You make me so on the principle of the Helots and Spartans.'
+
+It was possible to get to Hadminster by half-past seven, and on to
+Bayford by nine o'clock, but Fairmead lay further from the line, and
+the next train did not stop at the nearest station, so Maurice agreed
+to sleep at Bayford that night; and this settled, set out with his
+sister to explore the neighbourhood for eatables and church
+architecture.  They made an ineffectual attempt to rouse Mr. Kendal
+to go with them, but he was far too deep in his book, and only
+muttered something about looking after the luggage.  They found a
+stale loaf of bread, and a hideous church, but it was a merry walk,
+and brought them back in their liveliest mood, which lasted even to
+pronouncing it 'great fun' that the Hadminster flies were all at a
+ball, and that the omnibus must convey them home by the full
+moonlight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+
+Slowly the omnibus rumbled over the wooden bridge, and then with a
+sudden impulse it thundered up to the front door.
+
+Albinia jumped out, and caught Sophy in her arms, exclaiming, 'And
+how are you all, my dear?'
+
+'We had quite given you up,' Gilbert was saying.  'The fire is in the
+library,' he added, as Mr. Kendal was opening the drawing-room door,
+and closing it in haste at the sight of a pale, uninviting patch of
+moonlight, and the rush of a blast of cold wind.
+
+'And how is grandmamma? and the children?  My Sophy, you don't look
+well, and where's Lucy?'
+
+Ere she could receive an answer, down jumped, two steps at a time, a
+half-dressed figure, all white stout legs and arms which were
+speedily hugging mamma.
+
+'There's my man!' said Mr. Kendal, 'a good boy, I know.'
+
+'No!' cried the bold voice.
+
+'No?' (incredulously) what have you been doing?'
+
+'I broke the conservatory with the marble dog, and--' he looked at
+Gilbert.
+
+'There's my brave boy,' said Mr. Kendal, who had suffered so much
+from his elder son's equivocation as to be ready to overlook anything
+for the sake of truth.  'Here, Uncle Maurice, shake hands with your
+godson, who always tells truth.'
+
+The urchin folded his arms on his bosom, and looked like a young
+Bonaparte.
+
+'Where's your hand? said his uncle.  'Wont you give it to me?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'He will be wiser to-morrow, if you are so good as to try him again,'
+said Albinia, who knew nothing did him more harm than creating a
+commotion by his caprices; 'he is up too late, and fractious with
+sleepiness.  Go to bed now, my dear.'
+
+'I shall not be wiser to-morrow,' quoth the child, marching out of
+the room in defiance.
+
+'Monkey! what's the matter now?' exclaimed Albinia; 'I suppose you
+have all been spoiling him.  But what's become of Lucy?'
+
+'Gilbert said she was at the Dusautoys,' replied Sophy; 'but if you
+would but come to grandmamma!  She found out that you were expected,
+and she is in such a state that we have not known what to do.'
+
+'I'll come, only, Sophy dear, please order tea and something to eat.
+Your uncle looks ravenous.'
+
+She broke off, as there advanced into the room a being like Lucy, but
+covered with streams and spatters of flowing sable tears, like a
+heraldic decoration, over face, neck, and dress.
+
+All unconscious, she came with outstretched hands and words of
+welcome, but an astonished cry of 'Lucy!' met her, and casting her
+eyes on her dress, she screamed, 'Oh goodness! it's ink!'
+
+'Where can you have been? what have you been doing?'
+
+'I--don't know--Oh! it was the great inkstand, and not the scent--Oh!
+it is all over me!  It's in my hair!' shuddering.  'Oh, dear! oh
+dear! I shall never get it out!' and off she rushed, followed by
+Gilbert, and was soon heard calling the maids to bring hot water to
+her room.
+
+'What is all this?' asked Mr. Kendal.
+
+'I do not know,' mournfully answered Sophy.
+
+Albinia left the library, and taking a candle, went into the empty
+drawing-room.  The moonlight shone white upon the table, and showed
+the large cut-glass ink-bottle in a pool of its own contents; and the
+sofa-cover had black spots and stains as if it had partaken of the
+libation.
+
+Sophy saw, and stood like a statue.
+
+'You know nothing, I am sure,' said Albinia.
+
+'Nothing!' repeated Sophy, with a blank look of wretchedness.
+
+'If you please, ma'am,' said the nurse at the door, 'could you be
+kind enough to come to Mrs. Meadows, she will be quieter when she has
+seen you?'
+
+'Sophy dear, we must leave it now,' said Albinia.  'You must see to
+their tea, they have had nothing since breakfast.'
+
+She hastened to the sick room, where she found Mrs. Meadows in a
+painful state of agitation and excitement.  The nurse said that until
+this evening, she had been as usual, but finding that Mrs. Kendal was
+expected, she had been very restless; Miss Kendal was out, and
+neither Miss Sophy nor Mr. Gilbert could soothe her.
+
+She eagerly grasped the hand of Albinia who bent down to kiss her,
+and asked how she had been.
+
+'Oh! my dear, very unwell, very.  They should not leave me to myself
+so long, my dear.  I thought you would never come back,' and she
+began to cry, and say, 'no one cared for an old woman.'
+
+Albinia assured her that she was not going away, and restrained her
+own eager and bewildered feelings to tranquillize her, by prosing on
+in the lengthy manner which always soothed the poor old lady.  It was
+a great penance, in her anxiety to investigate the mysteries that
+seemed to swarm in the house, but at last she was able to leave the
+bedside, though not till she had been twice summoned to tea.
+
+Sophy, lividly pale, was presiding with trembling hands; Gilbert,
+flushed and nervous, waiting on every one, and trying to be lively
+and at ease, but secret distress was equally traceable in each.
+
+She durst only ask after the children, and heard that her little
+namesake had been as usual as good and sweet as child could be.  And
+Maurice?
+
+'He's a famous fellow, went on capitally,' said Gilbert.
+
+'Yes, till yesterday,' hoarsely gasped Sophy, sincerity wrenching out
+the protest by force.
+
+'Ah, what has he been doing to the conservatory?'
+
+'He let the little marble dog down from the morning-room window with
+my netting silk; it fell, and made a great hole,' said Sophy.
+
+'What, as a form of dawdling at his lessons?'
+
+'Yes, but he has not been at all tiresome about them except to-day
+and yesterday.'
+
+'And he has told the exact truth,' said Mr. Kendal, 'his gallant
+confession has earned the little cannon I promised him.'
+
+'I believe,' said Albinia, 'that it would be greater merit in Maurice
+to learn forbearance than to speak truth and be praised for it.  I
+have never seen his truth really tried.'
+
+'I value truth above all other qualities,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'So do I,' said Albinia, 'and it is my greatest joy in that little
+fellow; but some time or other it must cost him something, or it will
+not be tested.'
+
+Mr. Kendal did not like this, and repeated that he must have his
+cannon.  Albinia fancied that she heard something like a groan from
+Gilbert.
+
+When they broke up for the night, she threw her arm round Sophy as
+they went upstairs, saying, 'My poor dear, you look half dead.  Have
+things been going very wrong?'
+
+'Only these two days,' said Sophy, 'and I don't know that they have
+either.  I am glad you are come!'
+
+'What kind of things?' said Albinia, following her into her room.
+
+'Don't ask,' at first began Sophy, but then, frowning as if she could
+hardly speak, she added, 'I mean, I don't know whether it is my own
+horrid way, or that there is really an atmosphere of something I
+don't make out.'
+
+'Didn't you tell me Lucy was at the Vicarage?' said Albinia,
+suddenly.
+
+'Gilbert said yes, when I asked if she could be with the Dusautoys,'
+said Sophy, 'when grandmamma wanted her and she did not come.  Mamma,
+please don't think of what I said, for very likely it is only that I
+am cross, because of being left alone with grandmamma so long this
+evening, and then Maurice being slow at his lessons.'
+
+'You are not cross, Sophy; you are worn out, and perplexed, and
+unhappy.'
+
+'Oh! not now you are come home,' and Sophy laid her head on her
+shoulder and cried with relief and exhaustion.  Albinia caressed her,
+saying,
+
+'My trust, my mainstay, my poor Sophy!  There, go to bed and sleep,
+and don't think of it now.  Only first tell me one thing, is that
+Algernon at home?'
+
+'No!' said Sophy, vehemently, 'certainly not!'
+
+Albinia breathed more freely.
+
+'Everybody,' said Sophy, collecting herself, 'has gone on well,
+Gilbert and Lucy have been as kind as could be, and Maurice very
+good, but yesterday morning he went on in his foolish way at lessons,
+and Gilbert took him out riding before he had finished them.  They
+came in very late, and I think Maurice must have been overtired, for
+he was so idle this morning, that I threatened to tell, and put him
+in mind of the cannon papa promised him; but somehow I must have
+managed badly for he only grew more defiant, and ended by letting the
+marble dog out of window, so that it went through the roof of the
+conservatory.'
+
+'Yes, of course it was your fault, or the marble dog's,' said
+Albinia, smiling, and stroking her fondly.  'Ah! we ought to have
+come home at the fixed time, and not left you to their mercy; but one
+could not hurry away from William, when he was so much more sorry to
+leave us than we ever expected.'
+
+'Oh! mamma, don't talk so!  We were so glad.  If only we could help
+being such a nuisance!'
+
+Albinia contrived to laugh, and withdrew, intending to make a visit
+of inquiry to Lucy, but she could not refuse herself the refreshment
+of a kiss to the little darling who could have no guile to hide, no
+wrong to confess.  She had never so much realized the value of the
+certainty of innocence as when she hung over the crib, and thought
+that when those dark fringed lids were lifted, the eyes would flash
+with delight at meeting her, without one drawback.
+
+Suddenly a loud roar burst from the little room next to Gilbert's, in
+which Maurice had lately been installed.  She hurried swiftly in that
+direction, but a passage and some steps lay between, and Gilbert had
+been beforehand with her.
+
+She heard the words, 'I don't care!  I don't care if it is manly!  I
+will tell; I can't bear this!' then as his brother seemed to be
+hushing him, he burst out again, 'I wouldn't have minded if papa
+wouldn't give me the cannon, but he will, and that's as bad as
+telling a lie!'  I can't sleep if you wont let me off my promise!'
+
+Trembling from head to foot, her voice low and quivering with
+concentrated, incredulous wrath, Albinia advanced.  'Are you teaching
+my child falsehood?' she said; and Gilbert felt as if her look were
+worse to him than a thousand deaths.
+
+'O mamma! mamma!  Gilbert! let me tell her,' cried the child; and
+Albinia, throwing herself on her knees, clasped him in her arms, as
+though snatching him from the demon of deceit.
+
+'Tell all, Maurice,' said Gilbert, folding his arms; 'it is to your
+credit, if you would believe so.  I shall be glad to have this misery
+ended any way!  It was all for the sake of others.'
+
+'Mamma,' Maurice said, in the midst of these mutterings of his
+unhappy brother, 'I can't have the cannon without papa knowing it
+all.  I couldn't shake hands with Uncle Maurice for telling the
+truth, for I had not told it.'
+
+'And what is it, my boy?' tell me now, no one can hinder you.'
+
+'I scratched and fought him--Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy--I kicked down
+the decanter of wine.  They told me it was manly not to tell, and I
+promised.'
+
+He was crying with the exceeding pain and distress of a child whose
+tears were rare, and Albinia rocked him in her arms.
+
+Gilbert cautiously shut the door, and said sadly, 'Maurice behaved
+nobly, if he would only believe so.  You would be proud of your son
+if you had seen him.  They wanted to make him drink wine, and he was
+fighting them off.'
+
+'And where were you, Gilbert, you to whom I trusted him?'
+
+'I could not help it,' said Gilbert; then as her lip curled with
+contempt, and her eye spoke disappointment, he cast himself on the
+ground, exclaiming, 'Oh, if you knew how I have been mixed up with
+others, and what I have gone through, you would pity me.  Oh,
+Maurice, don't cry, when I would give worlds to be like you.  Why do
+you let him cry? why don't you tell him what a brave noble boy he
+is?'
+
+'I don't know what to think or believe,' said Albinia, coldly, but
+returning vehemently to her child, she continued, 'Maurice, my dear,
+no one is angry with you!  You, at least, I can depend on.  Tell me
+where you have been, and what they have been doing to you.'
+
+Even with Gilbert's explanations, she could hardly understand
+Maurice's narrative, but she gathered that on Thursday, the brothers
+had ridden out, and were about to turn homewards, when Archie
+Tritton, of whom to her vexation Maurice spoke familiarly, had told
+Gilbert that a friend was waiting for him at the inn connected with
+the training stables, three miles farther on.  Gilbert had demurred,
+but was told the matter would brook no delay, and yielded on being
+pressed.  He tried to suppress the friend's name, but Maurice had
+called him Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy.
+
+While Gilbert was engaged with him, Tritton had introduced Maurice to
+the horses and stable boys, whose trade had inspired him with such
+emulation, that he broke off in the midst of his confession to ask
+whether he could be a jockey and also a gentleman.  All this had
+detained them till so late, that they had been drawn into staying to
+dinner.  Maurice had gone on very happily, secure that he was right
+in Gilbert's hands, and only laying up a few curious words for
+explanation; but when he was asked to drink wine, he stoutly answered
+that mamma did not allow it.
+
+Idle mischief prompted Dusautoy and Tritton to set themselves to
+overpower his resistance.  Gilbert's feeble remonstrances were
+treated as a jest, and Algernon, who could brook no opposition, swore
+that he would conquer the little prig.  Maurice found himself
+pinioned by strong arms, but determined and spirited, he made a
+vigorous struggle, and so judiciously aimed a furious kick, that Mr.
+Cavendish Dusautoy staggered back, stumbling against the table, and
+causing a general overthrow.
+
+The victory was with Maurice, but warned as he had often been against
+using his natural weapons, he thought himself guilty of a great
+crime.  The others, including, alas! Gilbert, strove to persuade him
+it was a joke, and, above all, to bind him to silence, for Tritton
+and Dusautoy would never have ventured so far, could they have
+imagined the possibility of such terms as those on which he lived
+with his parents.  They attacked the poor child on the score of his
+manly aspirations, telling him it was babyish to tell mamma and
+sisters everything, a practice fit for girls, not for boys or men.
+These assurances extracted a pledge of secrecy, which was kept as
+long as his mother was absent, and only rendered him reckless by the
+sense that he had forfeited the prize of good conduct; but the sight
+of her renewed the instinct of confidence, and his father's reliance
+on his truth so acted on his sense of honour, that he could not hold
+his peace.
+
+'May I tell papa? and will he let me have the cannon?' he finished.
+
+'You shall certainly tell him, my dear, dear little boy, and we will
+see what he says about the cannon,' she said, fervently kissing him.
+'It will be some comfort for him to hear how you have behaved, my
+precious little man.  I thank God with all my heart that He has saved
+you from putting anything before truth.  I little thought I was
+leaving you to a tempter!'
+
+The child did not fully understand her.  His was a very simple
+nature, and he was tired out by conflicting emotions.  His breast was
+relieved, and his mother caressed him; he cared for nothing more, and
+drawing her hand so as to rest his cheek on it, he looked up in her
+face with soft weary happiness in his eyes, then let the lids sink
+over them, and fell peacefully asleep, while the others talked on.
+'At least you will do me the poor justice of believing it was not
+willingly,' said Gilbert.
+
+'I wish you would not talk to me,' she answered, averting her face
+and speaking low as if to cut the heart; 'I don't want to reproach
+you, and I can't speak to you properly.'
+
+'If you would only hear me, my only friend and helper!  But it was
+all that was wanting!  I have forfeited even your toleration!  I
+wonder why I was born!'
+
+He was taking up his light to depart, but Albinia's fear of her own
+temper made her suspect that she had spoken vindictively, and she
+said, 'What can I do, Gilbert?  Here is this poor child, whom I
+trusted to you, who can never again be ignorant of the sound of evil
+words, and only owes it to God's mercy on his brave spirit that this
+has not been the beginning of destruction.  I feel as if you had been
+trying to snatch away his soul!'
+
+'And will you, can you not credit,' said Gilbert, nearly inaudibly,
+'that I did not act by my free will?  I had no notion that any such
+thing could befall him, and would never have let them try to silence
+him, but to shield others.'
+
+'Others!  Yes, Archie Tritton and Algernon Dusautoy!  I know what
+your free-will is in their hands, and yet I thought you cared for
+your brother enough to guard him, if not yourself.'
+
+'If you knew the coercion,' muttered Gilbert.  'I protest, as I would
+to my dying day, that I had no intention of going near the stables
+when I set out, and would never have consented could I have helped
+it.'
+
+'And why could not you help it?'
+
+Gilbert gasped.  'Tritton brought me a message from Dusautoy,
+insisting on my meeting him there.  It was too late to take Maurice
+home, and I could not send him with Archie.  I expected only to
+exchange a few words at the door.  It was Tritton who took Maurice
+away to the stables.'
+
+'I hear, but I do not see the compulsion, only the extraordinary
+weakness that leads you everywhere after those men.'
+
+'I must tell you, I suppose,' groaned Gilbert; 'I can bear anything
+but this.  There's a miserable money entanglement that lays me under
+a certain obligation to Dusautoy.'
+
+'Your father believed you had told him of all your debts,' she said,
+in a tone of increased scorn and disappointment.
+
+'I did--I mean--Oh!  Mrs. Kendal, believe me, I intended to have told
+him the utmost farthing--I thought I had done so--but this was a
+thing--Dusautoy had persuaded me into half consenting to have some
+wine with him from a cheating Portuguese--then ordered more than ever
+I knew of, and the man went and became bankrupt, and sent in a great
+abominable bill that I no more owned, nor had reason to expect than
+my horse.'
+
+'So you preferred intriguing with this man to applying openly to your
+father?'
+
+'It was no doing of mine.  It was forced upon me, and, in fact, the
+account was mixed up with his.  It was the most evil hour of my life
+when I consented.  I've not had a moment's peace or happiness since,
+and it was the promise of the bill receipted that led me to this
+place.'
+
+'And why was this place chosen for the meeting?  You and Mr.
+Cavendish Dusautoy live only too near one another.'
+
+'He is not at the Vicarage,' faltered Gilbert.
+
+Albinia suddenly grew pale with apprehension.  'Gilbert,' she said,
+'there is only one thing that could make this business worse;' and as
+she saw his change of countenance, she continued, 'Then it is so, and
+Lucy is his object.'
+
+'He did not speak, but his face was that of a convicted traitor, and
+fresh perceptions crowded on her, as she exclaimed, horror struck,
+'The ink!  Yes, when you said she was with the Dusautoys!  I
+understand!  He has been in hiding, he has been here!  And this
+expedition was to arrange a clandestine meeting between them under
+your father's own roof!  You conniving! you who said you would sooner
+see your sister sold to Legree!'
+
+'It is all true,' said Gilbert, moodily, his elbows on the table and
+his face in his hands,  'and if the utmost misery for weeks past
+could be any atonement, it would be mine.  But at least I have done
+nothing willingly to bring them together.  I have only gone on in the
+hope and trust that I was some protection to poor Lucy.'
+
+'Fine protection,' sighed Albinia.  'And how has it been? how does it
+stand?'
+
+'Why, they met at Brighton, I believe.  She used to walk on the chain
+pier before breakfast, and he met her there.  If he chooses, he can
+make any one do what he likes, because he does not understand no for
+an answer.  Then when she came home, he used to meet her on the
+bridge, when you sent her out for a turn in the evening, and
+sometimes she would make me take her out walking to meet him.  Don't
+you see how utterly miserable it was for me; when they had
+volunteered this help all out of kindness, it was impossible for me
+to speak to you.'
+
+Albinia made a sound of contempt, and said, 'Go on.'
+
+'That time when you and Mr. Hope saw them, Lucy was frightened, and
+they had a quarrel, he went away, and I hoped and trusted it had died
+out.  I heard no more till yesterday, when I was dragged into giving
+him this meeting.  It seems that he had only just discovered your
+absence, and wanted to take the opportunity of seeing her.  I was in
+hopes you would have come back; I assured him you would; but he chose
+to watch, till evening, and then Lucy was to meet him in the
+conservatory.  Poor Lucy, you must not be very angry with her, for
+she was much averse to it, and I enclosed a letter from her to forbid
+him to come.  I thought all was safe, till I actually heard their
+voices, and grandmamma got into an agitation, and Sophy was running
+about wild to find Lucy.  When you came home, papa's opening the door
+frightened Lucy, and it seems that Dusautoy thought that she was
+going to faint and scream, and laid hold of the ink instead of the
+eau-de-cologne.  There!  I believe the ink would have betrayed it
+without me.  Now you have heard everything, Mrs. Kendal, and can
+believe there is not a more wretched and miserable creature breathing
+than I am.'
+
+Albinia slowly rose, and put her hand to her brow, as though confused
+with the tissue of deceit and double dealing.
+
+'Oh!  Mrs. Kendal, will you not speak to me?'  I solemnly declare
+that I have told you all.'
+
+'I am thinking of your father.'
+
+With a gesture of acquiescent anguish and despair, he let her pass,
+held open the door, and closed it softly, so as not to awaken the
+happy sleeper.
+
+'Good night,' she said, coldly, and turned away, but his mournful,
+resigned 'Good night,' was so utterly broken down that her heart was
+touched, and turning she said, 'Good night, Gilbert, I am sorry for
+you; I believe it is weakness and not wickedness.'
+
+She held out her hand, but instead of being shaken, it was pressed to
+his lips, and the fingers were wet with his tears.
+
+Feeling as though the bad dreams of a night had taken shape and life,
+Albinia stood by the fire in her sitting-room the next morning,
+trying to rally her judgment, and equally dreading the sight of those
+who had caused her grief, and of those who would share the shock she
+had last night experienced.
+
+The first knock announced one whom she did not expect--Gilbert,
+wretchedly pale from a sleepless night, and his voice scarcely
+audible.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' he said; 'but I thought I might have led you to
+be hard on Lucy: I do believe it was against her will.'
+
+Before she could answer, the door flew wide, and in rushed Maurice,
+shouting, 'Good morning, mamma;' and at his voice Mr. Kendal's
+dressing-room door was pushed back, and he called, 'Here, Maurice.'
+
+As the boy ran forward, he was met and lifted to his father's breast,
+while, with a fervency he little understood, though he never forgot
+it, the words were uttered,
+
+'God bless you, Maurice, and give you grace to go on to withstand
+temptation, and speak the truth from your heart!'
+
+Maurice was impressed for a moment, then he recurred to his leading
+thought--
+
+'May I have the cannon, papa?  I did kick--I broke the bottle, but
+may I have the cannon?'
+
+'Maurice, you are too young to understand the value of your
+resistance.  Listen to me, my boy, for you must never forget this:
+you have been taken among persons who, I trust, will never be your
+companions.'
+
+'Oh!' interrupted Maurice, 'must I never be a jockey?'
+
+'No, Maurice.  Horses are perverted to bad purposes by thoughtless
+men, and you must keep aloof from such.  You were not to blame, for
+you refused to do what you knew to be wrong, and did not know it was
+an improper place for you.'
+
+'Gilbert took me,' said Maurice, puzzled at the gravity, which
+convinced him that some one was in fault, and of course it must be
+himself.
+
+'Gilbert did very wrong,' said Mr. Kendal, 'and henceforth you must
+learn that you must trust to your own conscience, and no longer
+believe that all your brother tells you is right.'
+
+Maurice gazed in inquiry, and perceiving his brother's downcast air,
+ran to his mother, crying, 'Is papa angry?'
+
+'Yes,' said Gilbert, willing to spare her the pain of a reply, 'he is
+justly angry with me for having exposed you to temptation.  Oh,
+Maurice, if I had been made such as you, it would have been better
+for us all!'
+
+It was the first perception that a grown person could do wrong, and
+that person his dear Gilbert.  As if the grave countenances were
+insupportable, he gave a long-drawn breath, hid his face on his
+mother's knee, and burst into an agony of weeping.  He was lifted on
+her lap in a moment, father and mother both comforting him with
+assurances that he was a very good boy, and that papa was much
+pleased with him, Mr. Kendal even putting the cannon into his hand,
+as a tangible evidence of favour; but the child thrust aside the toy,
+and sliding down, took hold of his brother's languid, dejected hand,
+and cried, with a sob and stamp of his foot,
+
+'You shan't say you are naughty: I wont let you!'
+
+Alas! it was a vain repulsion of the truth that this is a wicked
+world.  Gilbert only put him back, saying,
+
+'You had better go away from me, Maurice: you cannot understand what
+I have done.  Pray Heaven yon may never know what I feel!'
+
+Maurice did but cling the tighter, and though Mr. Kendal had not yet
+addressed the culprit, he respected the force of that innocent love
+too much to interfere.  The bell rang, and they went down, Maurice
+still holding by his brother, and when his uncle met them, it was
+touching to see the generous little fellow hanging back, and not
+giving his own hand till he had seen Gilbert receive the ordinary
+greeting.
+
+Though Mr. Ferrars had been told nothing, he could not but be aware
+of the symptoms of a family crisis--the gravity of some, and the
+pale, jaded looks of others.  Lucy was not one of these; she came
+down with little Albinia in her arms, and began to talk rather
+airily, excusing herself for not having come down in the evening
+because that 'horrid ink' had got into her hair, and tittering a
+little over the absurdity of her having picked up the inkstand in the
+dark.  Not a word of response did she meet, and her gaiety died away
+in vague alarm.  Sophy, the most innocent, looked wretched, and
+Maurice absolutely began to cry again, at the failure of some
+manoeuvre to make his father speak to Gilbert.
+
+His tears broke up the breakfast-party.  His mother led him away to
+reason with him, that, sad as it was, it was better that people
+should be grieved when they had transgressed, as the only hope of
+their forgiveness and improvement.  Maurice wanted her to reverse the
+declaration that Gilbert had done wrong; but, alas! this could not
+be, and she was obliged to send him out with his little sister,
+hoping that he would work off his grief by exercise.  It was mournful
+to see the first shadow of the penalty of sin falling on the Eden of
+his childhood!
+
+With an aching heart, she went in search of Lucy, who had taken
+sanctuary in Mrs. Meadows's room, and was not easily withdrawn from
+thence to a tete-a-tete.  Fearful of falsehood, Albinia began by
+telling her she knew all, and how little she had expected such a
+requital of trust.
+
+Lucy exclaimed that it had not been her fault, she had always wanted
+to tell, and gradually Albinia drew from her the whole avowal, half
+shamefaced, half exultant.
+
+She had never dreamt of meeting Algernon at Brighton--it was quite by
+chance that she came upon him at the officers' ball when he was
+staying with Captain Greenaway.  He asked her to dance, and she had
+said yes, all on a sudden, without thinking, and then she fancied he
+would go away; she begged him not to come again, but whenever she
+went out on the chain-pier before breakfast, there he was.
+
+Why did she go thither?  She hung her head.  Mrs. Annesley had
+desired her to walk; she could not help it; she was afraid to write
+and tell what was going on--besides, he would come, though she told
+him she would not see him; and she could not bear to make him
+unhappy.  Then, when she came home, she had been in hopes it was all
+over, but she had been very unhappy, and had been on the point of
+telling all about it many times, when mamma looked at her kindly; but
+then he came to the Vicarage, and he would wait for her at the
+bridge, and write notes to her, and she could not stop it; but she
+had always told him it was no use, she never would be engaged to him
+without papa's consent.  She had only promised that she would not
+marry any one else, only because he was so very desperate, and she
+was afraid to break it off entirely, lest he should go and marry the
+Principessa Bianca, a foreigner and Papist, which would be so
+shocking for him and his uncle.  Gilbert could testify how grieved
+she was to have any secrets from mamma; but Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy
+was so dreadful when she talked of telling, that she did not know
+what would happen.
+
+When he went away, and she thought it was all over--mamma might
+recollect how hard it was for her to keep up, and what a force she
+put upon herself--but she would rather have pined to death than have
+said one word to bring him back, and was quite shocked when Gilbert
+gave her his note, to beg her to let him see her that evening, before
+the party returned; she said, with all her might, that he must not
+come, and when he did, she was begging him all the time to go away,
+and she was so dreadfully frightened when they actually came, that
+she had all but gone into hysterics, or fainted away, and that was
+the way he came to throw the ink at her--she was so very much
+shocked, and so would he be--and really she felt the misfortune to
+the beautiful new sofa-cover as a most serious calamity and
+aggravation of her offence.
+
+It was not easy to know how to answer; Albinia was scornful of the
+sofa-cover, and yet it was hard to lay hold of a tangible subject on
+which to show Lucy her error, except in the concealment, which, by
+her own showing, she had lamented the whole time.  She had always
+said no, but, unluckily, her noes were of the kind that might easily
+be made to mean yes, and she evidently had been led on partly by her
+own heart, partly by the force of the stronger will, though her
+better principles had filled her with scruples and misgivings at
+every stage.  She had been often on the point of telling all, and
+asking forgiveness; and here it painfully crossed Albinia, that if
+she herself had been less hurried, and less disposed to take
+everything for granted, a little tenderness might have led to a
+voluntary confession.
+
+Still Lucy defended herself by the compulsion exercised on her, and
+she would hear none of the conclusions Albinia drew therefrom; she
+would not see that the man who drove her to a course of disobedience
+and subterfuge could be no fit guide, and fired up at a word of
+censure, declaring that she knew that mamma had always hated him, and
+that now he was absent, she would not hear him blamed.  The one drop
+of true love made her difficult to deal with, for the heart was
+really made over to the tyrant, and Albinia did not feel herself
+sufficiently guiltless of negligence and imprudence to rebuke her
+with a comfortable conscience.
+
+Mr. Kendal had been obliged to attend to some justice business--
+better for him, perhaps, than acting as domestic magistrate--and
+meanwhile the Vicar of Fairmead found himself forgotten.  He wanted
+to be at home, yet did not like to leave his sister in unexplained
+trouble, though not sure whether he might not be better absent.
+
+Time passed on, he finished the newspaper, and wrote letters, and
+then, seeing no one, he had gone into the hall to send for a
+conveyance, when Gilbert, coming in from the militia parade, became
+the recipient of his farewells, but apparently with so little
+comprehension, that he broke off, struck by the dejected countenance,
+and wandering eye.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' Gilbert said, passing his hand over his brow, 'I
+did not hear.'
+
+'I was only asking you to tell my sister that I would not disturb
+her, and leaving my good-byes with you.'
+
+'You are not going?'
+
+'Thank you; I think my wife will grow anxious.'
+
+'I had hoped'--Gilbert sighed and paused--'I had thought that
+perhaps--'
+
+The wretchedness of his tone drove away Mr. Ferrars's purpose of
+immediate departure, and returning to the drawing-room he said, 'If
+there were any way in which I could be of use.'
+
+'Then you do not know?' said Gilbert, veiling his face with his hand,
+as he leant on the mantel-shelf.
+
+'I know nothing.  I could only see that something was amiss.  I was
+wishing to know whether my presence or absence would be best for you
+all.'
+
+'Oh! don't go!' cried Gilbert.  Nobody must go who can be any comfort
+to Mrs. Kendal.'
+
+A few kind words drew forth the whole piteous history that lay so
+heavily on his heart.  Reserves were all over now; and irregularly
+and incoherently he laid open his griefs and errors, his gradual
+absorption into the society with which he had once broken, and the
+inextricable complication of mischief in which he had been involved
+by his debt.
+
+'Yet,' he said, 'all the time I longed from my heart to do well.  It
+was the very thing that led me into this scrape.  I thought if the
+man applied to my father, as he threatened, that I should be
+suspected of having concealed this on purpose, and be sent to India,
+and I was so happy, and thought myself so safe here.  I did believe
+that home and Mrs. Kendal would have sheltered me, but my destiny
+must needs hunt me out here, and alienate even her!'
+
+'The way to find the Devil behind the Cross, is to cower beneath it
+in weak idolatry, instead of grasping it in courageous faith,' said
+Mr. Ferrars.  'Such faith would have made you trust yourself
+implicitly to your father.  Then you would either have gone forth in
+humble acceptance of the punishment, or else have stayed at home,
+free, pardoned, and guarded; but, as it was, no wonder temptation
+followed you, and you had no force to resist it.'
+
+'And so all is lost!  Even dear little Maurice can never be trusted
+to me again!  And his mother, who would, if she could, be still
+merciful and pitying as an angel, she cannot forget to what I exposed
+him!  She will never be the same to me again!  Yet I could lay down
+my life for any of them!'
+
+Mr. Ferrars watched the drooping figure, crouching on his chairs,
+elbows on knees, head bowed on the supporting hands, and face hidden,
+and, listening to the meek, affectionate hopelessness of the tone, he
+understood the fond love and compassion that had often surprised him
+in his sister, but he longed to read whether this were penitence
+towards God, or remorse towards man.
+
+'Miserable indeed, Gilbert,' he said, 'but if all were irretrievably
+offended, there still is One who can abundantly pardon, where
+repentance is true.'
+
+'I thought'--cried Gilbert--'I thought it had been true before!  If
+pain, and shame, and abhorrence could so render it, I know it was
+when I came home.  And then it was comparative happiness; I thought I
+was forgiven, I found joy and peace where they are promised'--the
+burning tears dropped between his fingers--but it was all delusion;
+not prayers nor sacraments can shield me--I am doomed, and all I ask
+is to be out of the way of ruining Maurice!'
+
+'This is mere despair,' said Mr. Ferrars.  'I cannot but believe your
+contrition was sincere; but steadfast courage was what you needed,
+and you failed in the one trial that may have been sent you to
+strengthen and prove you.  The effects have been terrible, but there
+is every hope that you may retrieve your error, and win back the
+sense of forgiveness.'
+
+'If I could dare to hope so--but I cannot presume to take home to
+myself those assurances, when I know that I only resolve, that I may
+have resolutions to break.'
+
+'Have you ever laid all this personally before Mr. Dusautoy?'
+
+'No; I have thought of it, but, mixed up as this is with his nephew
+and my sister, it is impossible!  But you are a clergyman, Mr.
+Ferrars!' he added, eagerly.
+
+Mr. Ferrars thought, and then said,
+
+'If you wish it, Gilbert, I will gladly do what I can for you.  I
+believe that I may rightly do so.'
+
+His face gleamed for a moment with the light of grateful gladness, as
+if at the first ray of comfort, and then he said, 'I am sure none was
+ever more grieved and wearied with the burden of sin--if that be
+all.'
+
+'I think,' said Mr. Ferrars, 'that it might be better to give time to
+collect yourself, examine the past, separate the sorrow for the sin
+from the disgrace of the consequences, and then look earnestly at the
+sole ground of hope.  How would it be to come for a couple of nights
+to Fairmead, at the end of next week?'
+
+Gilbert gratefully caught at the invitation; and Mr. Ferrars gave him
+some advice as to his reading and self-discipline, speaking to him as
+gently and tenderly as Albinia herself.  Both lingered in case the
+other should have more to say, but at last Gilbert stood up, saying,
+
+'I would thankfully go to Calcutta now, but the situation is filled
+up, and my father said John Kendal had been enough trifled with.  If
+I saw any fresh opening, where I should be safe from hurting
+Maurice!'
+
+'There is no reason you and your brother should not be a blessing to
+each other.'
+
+'Yes, there is.  Till I lived at home, I did not know how impossible
+it is to keep clear of old acquaintance.  They are good-natured
+fellows--that Tritton and the like--and after all that has come and
+gone, one would be a brute to cut them entirely, and Maurice is
+always after me, and has been more about with them than his mother
+knows.  Even if I were very different, I should be a link, and though
+it might be no great harm if Maurice were a tame mamma's boy--you
+see, being the fellow he is, up to anything for a lark, and frantic
+about horses--I could never keep him from them.  There's no such
+great harm in themselves--hearty, good-natured fellows they are--but
+there's a worse lot that they meet, and Maurice will go all lengths
+whenever he begins.  Now, so little as he is now, if I were once
+gone, he would never run into their way, and they would never get a
+hold of him.'
+
+Mr. Ferrars had unconsciously screwed up his face with dismay, but he
+relaxed it, and spoke kindly.
+
+'You are right.  It was a mistake to stay at home.  Perhaps your
+regiment may be stationed elsewhere.'
+
+'I don't know how long it may be called out.  If it were but possible
+to make a fresh beginning.'
+
+'Did you hear of my brother's suggestion?'
+
+'I wish--but it is useless to talk about that.  I could not presume
+to ask my father for a commission--Heaven knows when I shall dare to
+speak to him!'
+
+'You have not personally asked his pardon after full confession.'
+
+'N-o--Mrs. Kendal knows all.'
+
+'Did you ever do such a thing in your life?'
+
+'You don't know what my father is.'
+
+'Neither do you, Gilbert.  Let that be the first token of sincerity.'
+
+Without leaving space for another word, Mr. Ferrars went through the
+conservatory into the garden, where, meeting the children, he took
+the little one in his arms, and sent Maurice to fetch his mamma.
+Albinia came down, looking so much heated and harassed, that he was
+grieved to leave her.
+
+'Oh, Maurice, I am sorry!  You always come in for some catastrophe,'
+she said, trying to smile.  'You have had a most forlorn morning.'
+
+'Gilbert has been with me,' he said.  'He has told me all, my dear,
+and I think it hopeful: I like him better than I ever did before.'
+
+'Poor feather, the breath of your lips has blown him the other way,'
+said Albinia, too unhappy for consolation.
+
+'Well, it seems to me that you have done more for him than I ever
+quite believed.  I did not expect such sound, genuine religious
+feeling.'
+
+'He always had plenty of religious sentiment,' said Albinia, sadly.
+
+'I have asked him to come to us next week.  Will you tell Edmund so?'
+
+'Yes.  He will be thankful to you for taking him in hand.  Poor boy,
+I know how attractive his penitence is, but I have quite left off
+building on it.'
+
+Mr. Ferrars defended him no longer.  He could not help being much
+moved by the youth's self-abasement, but that might be only because
+it was new to him, and he did not even try to recommend him to her
+mercy; he knew her own heart might be trusted to relent, and it would
+not hurt Gilbert in the end to be made to feel the full weight of his
+offence.
+
+'I must go,' he said, 'though I am sorry to leave you in perplexity.
+I am afraid I can do nothing for you.'
+
+'Nothing--but feel kindly to Gilbert,' said Albinia.  'I can't do so
+yet.  I don't feel as if I ever could again, when I think what he was
+doing with Maurice.  Yes, and how easily he could have brought poor
+Lucy to her senses, if he had been good for anything!  Oh! Maurice,
+this is sickening work!  You should be grateful to me for not
+scolding you for having taken me from home!'
+
+'I do not repent,' said her brother.  'The explosion is better than
+the subterranean mining.'
+
+'It may be,' said Albinia, 'and I need not boast of the good I did at
+home!  My poor, poor Lucy!  A little discreet kindness and
+watchfulness on my part would have made all the difference!  It was
+all my running my own way with my eyes shut, but then, I had always
+lived with trustworthy people.  Well, I wont keep you listening to my
+maundering, when Winifred wants you.  Oh! why did that Polysyllable
+ever come near the place?'
+
+Mr. Ferrars said the kindest and most cheering things he could
+devise, and drove away, not much afraid of her being unforgiving.
+
+He was disposed to stake all his hopes of the young man on the issue
+of his advice to make a direct avowal to his father.  And Gilbert
+made the effort, though rather in desperation than resolution,
+knowing that his condition could not be worse, and seeing no hope
+save in Mr. Ferrars' counsel.  He was the first to seek Mr. Kendal,
+and dreadful to him as was the unaltering melancholy displeasure of
+the fixed look, the steadily penetrating deep dark eyes, and the
+subdued sternness of the voice, he made his confession fully, without
+reserve or palliation.
+
+It was more than Mr. Kendal had expected, and more, perhaps, than he
+absolutely trusted, for Gilbert had not hitherto inspired faith in
+his protestations that he spoke the whole truth and nothing but the
+truth, nor had he always the power of doing so when overpowered by
+fright.  The manner in which his father laid hold of any inadvertent
+discrepancy, treating it as a wilful prevarication, was terror and
+agony; and well as he knew it to be the meed of past equivocation, he
+felt it cruel to torture him by implied suspicion.  Yet how could it
+be otherwise, when he had been introducing his little brother to his
+own corrupters, and conniving at his sister's clandestine
+correspondence with a man whom he knew to be worthless?'
+
+The grave words that he obtained at last, scarcely amounted to
+pardon; they implied that he had done irreparable mischief and acted
+disgracefully, and such forgiveness as was granted was only made
+conditional on there being no farther reserves.
+
+Alas! even with all tender love and compassion, no earthly parent can
+forgive as does the Heavenly Father.  None but the Omniscient can
+test the fulness of the confession, nor the sincerity of 'Father, I
+have sinned against Heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to
+be called Thy son.'  This interview only sent the son away more
+crushed and overwhelmed, and yearning towards the more deeply
+offended, and yet more compassionate Father.
+
+Mr. Kendal, after this interview, so far relaxed his displeasure as
+to occasionally address Gilbert when they met at luncheon after this
+deplorable morning, while towards Lucy he observed a complete
+silence.  It was not at first that she perceived this, and even then
+it struck more deeply on Sophia than it did on her.
+
+Mr. Kendal shrank from inflicting pain on the good vicar, and it was
+decided that the wives should be the channel through which the
+information should be imparted.  Albinia took the children, sending
+them to play in the garden while she talked to Mrs. Dusautoy.  She
+found that keen little lady had some shrewd suspicions, but had
+discovered nothing defined enough to act upon, and was relieved to
+have the matter opened at last.
+
+As to the ink, no mortal could help laughing over it; even Albinia,
+who had been feeling as if she could never laugh again, was suddenly
+struck by the absurdity, and gave way to a paroxysm of merriment.
+
+'Properly managed, I do think it might put an end to the whole
+affair,' said Mrs. Dusautoy.  'He could not stand being laughed at.'
+
+'I'm afraid he never will believe that he can be laughed at.'
+
+'Yes, that is unlucky,' said Mrs. Dusautoy, gravely; but recollecting
+that she was not complimentary, she added, 'You must not think we
+undervalue Lucy.  John is very fond of her, and the only objection
+is, that it would require a person of more age and weight to deal
+with Algernon.'
+
+'Never mind speeches,' sighed Albinia; 'we know too well that nothing
+could be worse for either.  Can't you give him a tutor and send him
+to travel.'
+
+'I'll talk to John; but unluckily he is of age next month, and
+there's an end of our power.  And John would never keep him away from
+hence, for he thinks it his only chance.'
+
+'I suppose we must do something with Lucy.  Heigh-ho!  People used
+not to be always falling in love in my time, except Fred, and that
+was in a rational way; that could be got rid of!'
+
+The effect of the intelligence on the vicar was to make him set out
+at once to the livery-stables in quest of his nephew, but he found
+that the young gentleman had that morning started for London, whither
+he proposed to follow him on the Monday.  Lucy cried incessantly, in
+the fear that the gentle-hearted vicar might have some truculent
+intentions towards his nephew, and was so languid and unhappy that no
+one had the heart to scold her; and comforting her was still more
+impossible.
+
+Mr. Kendal used to stride away from the sight of her swollen eyes,
+and ask Albinia why she did not tell her that the only good thing
+that could happen to her would be, that she should never see nor hear
+of the fellow again.
+
+Why he did not tell her so himself was a different question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+
+'Well, Albinia,' said Mr. Kendal, after seeing Mr. Dusautoy on his
+return from London.
+
+There was such a look of deprecation about him, that she exclaimed,
+'One would really think you had been accepting this charming son-in-law.'
+
+'Suppose I had,' he said, rather quaintly; then, as he saw her hands
+held up, 'conditionally, you understand, entirely conditionally.
+What could I do, when Dusautoy entreated me, with tears in his eyes,
+not to deprive him of the only chance of saving his nephew?'
+
+'Umph,' was the most innocent sound Albinia could persuade herself to
+make.
+
+'Besides,' continued Mr. Kendal, 'it will be better to have the
+affair open and avowed than to have all this secret plotting going on
+without being able to prevent it.  I can always withhold my consent
+if he should not improve, and Dusautoy declares nothing would be such
+an incentive.'
+
+'May it prove so!'
+
+'You see,' he pursued, 'as his uncle says, nothing can be worse than
+driving him to these resorts, and when he is once of age, there's an
+end of all power over him to hinder his running straight to ruin.
+Now, when he is living at the Vicarage, we shall have far more
+opportunity of knowing how he is going on, and putting a check on
+their intercourse, if he be unsatisfactory.'
+
+'If we can.'
+
+'After all, the young man has done nothing that need blight his
+future life.  He has had great disadvantages, and his steady
+attachment is much in his favour.  His uncle tells me he promises to
+become all that we could wish, and, in that case, I do not see that I
+have the right to refuse the offer, when things have gone so far--
+conditionally, of course.'  He dwelt on that saving clause like a
+salve for his misgivings.
+
+'And what is to become of Gilbert and Maurice, with him always about
+the house?' exclaimed Albinia.
+
+'We will take care he is not too much here.  He will soon be at
+Oxford.  Indeed, my dear, I am sorry you disapprove.  I should have
+been as glad to avoid the connexion as you could be, but I do not
+think I had any alternative, when Mr. Dusautoy pressed me so warmly,
+and only asked that he should be taken on probation; and besides,
+when poor Lucy's affections are so decidedly involved.'
+
+Albinia perceived that there had been temper in her tone, and could
+object no further, since it was too late, and as she could not
+believe that her husband had been weak, she endeavoured to acquiesce
+in his reasoning, and it was a strong argument that they should see
+Lucy bright again.
+
+'I suppose,' he said, 'that you would prefer that I should announce
+my decision to her myself!'
+
+It was a more welcome task than spreading gloom over her countenance,
+but she entered in great trepidation, prepared to sink under some
+stern mandate, and there was nothing at first to undeceive her, for
+her father was resolved to atone for his concession by sparing her no
+preliminary thunders, and began by depicting her indiscretion and
+deceit, as well as the folly of attaching herself to a man without
+other recommendations than figure and fortune.
+
+How much Lucy heard was uncertain; she leant on a chair with drooping
+head and averted face, trembling, and suppressing a sob, apparently
+too much frightened to attend.  Just when the exordium was over, and
+'Therefore I lay my commands on you' might have been expected, it
+turned into, 'However, upon Mr. Dusautoy's kind representation, I
+have resolved to give the young man a trial, and provided he
+convinces me by his conduct that I may safely entrust your happiness
+to him, I have told his uncle that I will not withhold my sanction.'
+
+With a shriek of irrepressible feeling, Lucy looked from father to
+mother, and clasped her hands, unable to trust her ears.
+
+'Yes, Lucy,' said Albinia, 'your father consents, on condition that
+nothing further happens to excite his doubts of Mr. Cavendish
+Dusautoy.  It rests with yourself now, it is not too late.  After all
+that has passed, you would incur much deserved censure if you put an
+end to the affair; but even that would be better, far better, than
+entering into an engagement with a man without sound principle.'
+
+'Your mother is quite right, Lucy,' said Mr. Kendal.  'This is the
+only time.  Gratified vanity has led you too far, and you have acted
+as I hoped no child of mine would ever act, but you have not
+forfeited our tenderest care.  You are not engaged to this man, and
+no word of yours would be broken.  If you hesitate to commit yourself
+to him, you have only to speak, and we would gladly at once do
+everything that could conduce to make you happy.'
+
+'You don't want me to give him up!' cried Lucy.  'Oh! mamma, did not
+he say he had consented?'
+
+'I said it rested with yourself Lucy.  Do not answer me now.  Come to
+me at six o'clock, and tell me, after full reflection, whether I am
+to consider you as ready to pledge yourself to this young man.'
+
+It was all that could be done.  Albinia had a dim hope that the sense
+of responsibility, and dread of that hard will and selfish temper,
+might so rise upon Lucy as to startle her, but then, as Mr. Kendal
+observed, if she should decide against him, she would have used him
+so extremely ill, that they should feel nothing but shame.
+
+'Yes,' said Albinia, 'but it would be better to be ashamed of a
+girl's folly, than to see her made miserable for life.  Poor Lucy! if
+she decide against him, she will become a woman at once, if not, I'm
+afraid it will be the prediction about Marie Antoinette over again--
+very gay, and coming right through trial.'
+
+They were obliged to tell Sophy of the state of things.  She stood up
+straight, and said, slowly and clearly, 'I do not like the world at
+all.'
+
+'I don't quite see what you mean.'
+
+'Every one does what can't be helped, and it is not _the_ thing.'
+
+'Explain yourself, Sophy,' said her father, amused.
+
+'I don't think Lucy ought to be making the decision at all,' said
+Sophy.  She did that long ago, when first, she attended to what he
+said to her.  If she does not take him now, it will be swearing to
+her neighbour, and disappointing him, because it is to her own
+hindrance.'
+
+'Yes, Sophy; but I believe it is better to incur the sin of breaking
+a promise, than to go on when the fulfilment involves not only
+suffering, but mischief.  Lucy has repeatedly declared there was no
+engagement.'
+
+'I know it could not be helped; but Mr. Dusautoy ought not to have
+asked papa.'
+
+'Nor papa to have consented, my Suleiman ben Daood,' said Mr. Kendal.
+'Ah! Sophy, we all have very clear, straightforward views at eighteen
+of what other people ought to do.'
+
+'Papa--I never meant--I did not think I was saying anything wrong.
+I only said I did not like the world.'
+
+'And I heartily agree with you, Sophy, and if I had lived in it as
+short a time as you have, perhaps "considerations" would not affect
+my judgment.'
+
+'I am always telling Sophy she will be more merciful as she grows
+older,' said Albinia.
+
+'If it were only being more merciful, it would be very well,' said
+Mr. Kendal; 'but one also becomes less thorough-going, because
+practice is more painful than theory, and one remembers consequences
+that have made themselves felt.  It is just as well that there should
+be young people to put us in mind what our flights once were.'
+
+Albinia and Sophy left Lucy to herself; they both wished to avoid the
+useless 'What shall I do?' and they thought that, driven back on her
+own resources, even _her_ own mind might give her better counsel than
+the seven watchmen aloft in a high tower.
+
+She came down looking exceedingly pale. Mr. Kendal regarded her
+anxiously, and held his hand out to her kindly.
+
+'Papa,' she said, simply, 'I can't give it up.  I do love him.'
+
+'Very well, my dear,' he answered, 'there is no more to be said than
+that I trust he will merit your affection and make you happy.'
+
+Good Mr. Dusautoy was as happy as a king; he took Lucy in his arms,
+and kissed her as if she had been his child, and with her hands
+folded in his own, he told her how she was to teach his dear Algernon
+to be everything that was good, and to lead him right by her
+influence.  She answered with caresses and promises, and whoever had
+watched her eye, would have seen it in a happy day-dream of
+Algernon's perfection, and his uncle thanking her for it.
+
+She had expected that grandmamma would have been very happy; but
+marriage had, with the poor old lady, led to so much separation, that
+her weakened faculties took the alarm, and she received the tidings
+by crying bitterly, and declaring that every one was going away and
+leaving her.  Lucy assured her over and over again that she was never
+going to desert her, and as Mr. Kendal had made it a condition that
+Algernon should finish his Oxford career respectably, there was
+little chance that poor Mrs. Meadows would survive until the
+marriage.
+
+All along Gilbert made no remark.  Though he had been left out of the
+family conclaves, and his opinion not asked, he submitted with the
+utmost meekness, as one who knew that he had forfeited all right to
+be treated as son and heir.  The more he was concerned at the
+engagement, the greater stigma he would place on his own connivance;
+so he said nothing, and only devoted himself to his grandmother, as
+though the attendance upon her were a refuge and relief.  More gentle
+and patient than ever, he soothed her fretfulness, invented pleasures
+for her, and rendered her so placid and contented, that her health
+began to improve.
+
+Not for a moment did he seem to forget his error; and Albinia's
+resolution to separate Maurice from him, could not hold when he
+himself silently assumed the mournful necessity, and put the child
+from him when clamorous for rides, till there was an appeal to papa
+and mamma.  Mr. Kendal gave one look of inquiry at Albinia, and she
+began some matter-of-course about Gilbert being so kind--whereupon
+the brothers were together as before.  When Albinia visited her
+little boy at night, she found that Gilbert had been talking to him
+of his eldest brother, and she heard more of Edmund's habits and
+tastes from the little fellow who had never seen him, than from
+either the twin-brother or the sister who had loved him so devotedly.
+It was as if Gilbert knew that he could be doing Maurice no harm when
+leading him to think of Edmund, and perhaps he felt some intrinsic
+resemblance in the deep loving strength of the two natures.
+
+The invitation to Fairmead spared him the pain and shame of Algernon
+Dusautoy's first reception as Lucy's accepted lover.  He went early
+on Saturday morning, and young Dusautoy, arriving in the evening, was
+first ushered into the library; while Albinia did her best to soothe
+the excited nerves and fluttering spirits of Lucy, who was
+exceedingly ashamed to meet him again under the eyes of others, after
+such a course of stolen interviews, and what she had been told of her
+influence doing him good only alarmed her the more.
+
+Well she might, for if ever character resembled that of the iron pot
+borne down the stream in company with the earthen one, it was the
+object of her choice.  Poor pipkin that Gilbert was, the contact had
+cost him a smashing blow, and for all clay of the more fragile mould,
+the best hope was to give the invulnerable material a wide berth.
+Talk of influence!  Mr. Dusautoy might as well hope that a Wedgwood
+cream-jug would guide a copper cauldron and keep verdigris aloof.
+
+His attraction for Lucy had always been a mystery to her family, who
+perhaps hardly did justice to the magnetism of mere force of purpose.
+Better training might have ennobled into resolution that which was
+now doggedness and obstinacy, and, even in that shape, the real
+element of strength had a tendency to work upon softer natures.  Thus
+it had acted in different ways with the Vicar, with Gilbert, and with
+Lucy; each had fallen under the power of his determination, with more
+or less of their own consent, and with Lucy the surrender was
+complete; she no sooner sat beside Algernon than she was completely
+his possession, and his complacent self-satisfaction was reflected on
+her face in a manner that told her parents that she was their own no
+longer, but given up to a stronger master.
+
+Albinia liked neither to see nor to think about it, and kept aloof as
+much as she could, dividing herself between grandmamma and the
+children.  On Tuesday morning, during Maurice's lessons, there was a
+knock at the sitting-room door.  She expected Gilbert, but was
+delighted to see her brother.
+
+'I thought you were much too busy to come near us?'
+
+'So I am; I can't stay; so if Kendal be not forthcoming you must give
+this fellow a holiday.'
+
+'He is gone to Hadminster, so--'
+
+'Where's Gilbert?' broke in little Maurice.
+
+'He went to his room to dress to go up to parade,' said Mr. Ferrars,
+and off rushed the boy without waiting for permission.
+
+Albinia sighed, and said, 'It is a perfect passion.'
+
+'Don't mourn over it.  Love is too good a thing to be lamented over,
+and this may turn into a blessing.'
+
+'I used to be proud of it.'
+
+'So you shall be still.  I am very much pleased with that poor lad.'
+
+She would not raise her eyes, she was weary of hoping for Gilbert,
+and his last offence had touched her where she had never been touched
+before.
+
+'Whatever faults he has,' Mr. Ferrars said, 'I am much mistaken if
+his humility, love, and contrition be not genuine, and what more can
+the best have?'
+
+'Sincerity!' said Albinia, hopelessly.  'There's no truth in him!'
+
+'You should discriminate between deliberate self-interested
+deception, and failure in truth for want of moral courage.  Both are
+bad enough, but the latter is not "loving a lie," not such a ruinous
+taint and evidence of corruption as the former.'
+
+'It is curious to hear you repeating my old excuses for him,' said
+Albinia, 'now that he has cast his glamour over you.'
+
+'Not wrongly,' said her brother.  'He is in earnest; there is no
+acting about him.'
+
+'Yes, that I believe; I know he loves us with all his heart, poor
+boy, especially Maurice and me, and I think he had rather go right
+than wrong, if he could only be let alone.  But, oh! it is all
+"unstable as water."  Am I unkind, Maurice?  I know how it would be
+if I let him talk to me for ten minutes, or look at me with those
+pleading brown eyes of his!'
+
+Mr. Ferrars knew it well, and why she was steeled against him, but he
+put this aside, saying that he was come to speak of the future, not
+of the past, and that he wanted Edmund to reconsider William's
+advice.  He told her what Gilbert had said of the difficulty of
+breaking off old connexions, and the danger to Maurice from his
+acquaintance.  An exchange into another corps of militia might be for
+the worse, the occupation was uncertain, and Mr. Ferrars believed
+that a higher position, companions of a better stamp, and the
+protection of a man of lively manners, quick sympathy, and sound
+principle, like their cousin Fred, might be the opening of a new
+life.  He had found Gilbert most desirous of such a step, regarding
+it as his only hope, but thinking it so offensively presumptuous to
+propose it to his father under present circumstances, his Oxford
+terms thrown away, and himself disgraced both there and at home, that
+the matter would hardly have been brought forward had not Mr. Ferrars
+undertaken to press it, under the strong conviction that remaining at
+home would be destruction, above all, with young Dusautoy making part
+of the family.
+
+'I declare,' said Mr. Ferrars, 'he looked so much at home in the
+drawing-room, and welcomed Gilbert with such an air of patronage,
+that I could have found it in my heart to have knocked him down!'
+
+It was a treat to hear Maurice speak so unguardedly, and Albinia
+laughed, and asked whether he thought it very wrong to hope that the
+Polysyllable would yet do something flagrant enough to open Lucy's
+eyes.
+
+'I'll allow you to hope that _if_ he should, her eyes _may_ be
+opened,' said Maurice.
+
+Albinia began a vehement vindication for their having tolerated the
+engagement, in the midst of which her brother was obliged to depart,
+amused at her betrayal of her own sentiments by warfare against what
+he had never said.
+
+She had treated his counsel as chimerical, but when she repeated it
+to her husband, she thought better of it, since, alas! it had become
+her great object to part those two loving brothers.  Mr. Kendal first
+asked where the 25th Lancers were, then spoke of expense, and
+inquired what she knew of the cost of commissions, and of her
+cousin's means.  All she could answer for was, that Fred's portion
+was much smaller than Gilbert's inheritance, but at least she knew
+how to learn what was wanted, and if her friends, the old Generals,
+were to be trusted, she ought to have no lack of interest at the
+Horse Guards.
+
+Gilbert was taken into counsel, and showed so much right spirit and
+good sense, that the discussion was friendly and unreserved.  It
+ended in the father and son resorting to Pettilove's office to
+ascertain the amount of ready money in his hands, and what income
+Gilbert would receive on coming of age.  The investigation somewhat
+disappointed the youth, who had never thoroughly credited what his
+father told him of the necessity of his exerting himself for his own
+maintenance, nor understood how heavy a drain on his property were
+the life-interests of his father and grandmother, and the settlement
+on his aunt.  By-and-by, he might be comparatively a rich man, but at
+first his present allowance would be little more than doubled, and
+the receipts would be considerably diminished by an alteration of
+existing system of rents, such as had so long been planned.  It was
+plain that the almshouses were the unsubstantial fabric of a dream,
+but no one now dared to refer to them, and Mr. Kendal desired Albinia
+to write to consult her cousin.
+
+Captain Ferrars was so much flattered at her asking his protection
+for anything, that he would have promised to patronize Cousin Slender
+himself for her sake.  He praised the Colonel and lauded the mess to
+the skies, and economy being his present hobby, he represented
+himself as living upon nothing, and saving his pay.  He further gave
+notice of impending retirements, and advised that the application
+should be made without loss of time, lamenting grievously himself
+that there was no chance for the 25th, of a touch at the Russians.
+
+Something in his letter put every one into a hurry, and a
+correspondence began, which resulted in Gilbert's being summoned to
+Sandhurst for an examination, which he passed creditably.  The
+purchase-money was deposited, and the household was daily thrown into
+a state of excitement by the arrival of official-looking envelopes,
+which turned out to contain solicitations from tailors and
+outfitters, bordered with portraits of camp-beds and portable baths,
+until, at last, when the real document appeared, Gilbert tossed it
+aside as from 'another tailor:' but Albinia knew the article too well
+to mistake it, and when the long blue cover was opened, it proved to
+convey more than they had reckoned upon.
+
+Gilbert Kendal held a commission in the 25th Lancers, and the corps
+was under immediate orders for the East.  The number of officers
+being deficient, he was to join the headquarters at Cork, without
+going to the depot, and would thence sail with a stated minimum of
+baggage.
+
+Albinia could not look up.  She knew her husband had not intended
+thus to risk the last of his eldest-born sons; and though her
+soldier-spirit might have swelled with exultation had her own brave
+boy been concerned, she dreaded the sight of quailing or dismay in
+Gilbert.
+
+'Going really to fight the Russians,' shouted Maurice, as the meaning
+reached him.  'Oh! Gibbie, if I was but a man to go with you!'
+
+'You will do your duty, my boy,' said his father.
+
+'By God's help,' was the reverent answer which emboldened Albinia to
+look up at him, as he stood with Maurice clinging by both hands to
+him.  She had done him injustice, and her heart bounded at the sight
+of the flush on his cheek, the light in his eyes, and the expression
+on his lips, making his face finer and more manly than she had ever
+seen it, as if the grave necessity, and the awe of the unseen
+glorious danger, were fixing and elevating his wandering purpose.  To
+have no choice was a blessing to an infirm will, and to be inevitably
+out of his own power braced him and gave him rest.  She held out her
+hand to him, and there was a grasp of inexpressible feeling, the
+first renewal of their old terms of sympathy and confidence.
+
+There was no time to be lost; Mr. Kendal would go to London with him
+by the last train that day, to fit him out as speedily as possible,
+before he started for Cork.
+
+Every one felt dizzy, and there was no space for aught but action.
+Perhaps Albinia was glad of the hurry, she could not talk to Gilbert
+till she had learnt to put faith in him, and she would rather do him
+substantial kindnesses than be made the sharer of feelings that had
+too often proved like the growth of the seed which found no depth of
+earth.
+
+She ran about for him, worked for him, contrived for him, and gave
+him directions; she could not, or would not, perceive his yearning
+for an effusion of penitent tenderness.  He looked wistfully at her
+when he was setting out to take leave at the Vicarage, but she had
+absorbed herself in flannel shirts, and would not meet his eye, nor
+did he venture to make the request that she would come with him.
+
+Indeed, confidences there could be but few, for Maurice and Albinia
+hung on either side of him, so that he could hardly move, but he
+resisted all attempt to free him even from the little girl, who was
+hardly out of his arms for ten minutes together.  It was only from
+her broken words that her mother understood that from the vicarage he
+had gone to the church.  Poor little Albinia did not like it at all.
+'Why was brother Edmund up in the church, and why did Gilbert cry?'
+
+Maurice angrily enunciated, 'Men never cry,' but not a word of the
+visit to the church came from him.
+
+Algernon Dusautoy had wisely absented himself, and the two sisters
+devoted themselves to the tasks in hand.  Sophy worked as hard as did
+Mrs. Kendal, and spoke even less, and Lucy took care of Mrs. Meadows,
+whose nerves were painfully excited by the bustle in the house.  It
+had been agreed that she should not hear of her grandson's intention
+till the last moment, and then he went in, putting on a cheerful
+manner, to bid her good-bye, only disclosing that he was going to
+London, but little as she could understand, there was an instinct
+about her that could not be deceived, and she began to cry helplessly
+and violently.
+
+Mrs. Kendal and Lucy were summoned in haste; Gilbert lingered, trying
+to help them to restore her to composure.  But time ran short; his
+father called him, and they hardly knew that they had received his
+last hurried embrace, nor that he was really gone, till they heard
+Maurice shouting like a Red Indian, as he careered about in the
+garden, his only resource against tears; and Sophy came in very
+still, very pale, and incapable of uttering a word or shedding a
+tear.  Albinia was much concerned, for she could not bear to have
+sent him away without a more real adieu, and word of blessing and
+good augury; it made her feel herself truly unforgiving, and perhaps
+turned her heart back to him more fully and fondly than any exchange
+of sentiment would have done.  But she had not much time to dwell on
+this omission, for poor Mrs. Meadows missed him sorely, and after two
+days' constant fretting after him, another paralytic stroke renewed
+the immediate danger, so that by the time Mr. Kendal returned from
+London she was again hovering between life and death.
+
+Mr. Kendal, to his great joy, met Frederick Ferrars at the 'Family
+Office.'  The changes in the regiment had given him his majority, and
+he had flashed over from Ireland to make his preparations for the
+campaign.  His counsel had been most valuable in Gilbert's equipment,
+especially in the knotty question of horses, and he had shown himself
+so amiable and rational that Mr. Kendal was quite delighted, and
+rejoiced in committing Gilbert to his care.  He had assumed the trust
+in a paternal manner, and, infected by his brilliant happiness and
+hopefulness, Gilbert had gone off to Ireland in excellent spirits.
+
+'Another thing conduced to cheer him,' said Mr. Kendal afterwards to
+his wife, with a tone that caused her to exclaim, 'You don't mean
+that he saw Genevieve?'
+
+'You are right.  We came upon her in Rivington's shop, while we were
+looking for the smallest Bible.  I saw who it was chiefly by his
+change of colour, and I confess I kept out of the way.  The whole did
+not last five minutes; she had her pupils with her, and soon went
+away; but he thanked me, and took heart from that moment.  Poor boy,
+who would have thought the impression would have been so lasting?'
+
+'Well, by the time he is a field-officer, even William will let him
+please himself,' said Albinia, lightly, because her heart was too
+full for her to speak seriously.
+
+She tried, by a kind letter, to atone for the omitted farewell, and
+it seemed to cheer and delight Gilbert.  He wrote from Cork as if he
+had imbibed fresh hope and enterprise from his new companions, he
+liked them all, and could not say enough of the kindness of Major
+Ferrars.  Everything went smoothly, and in the happiest frame he
+sailed from Cork, and was heard of again at Malta and Gallipoli,
+direfully sea-sick, but reviving to write most amusing long
+descriptive letters, and when he reached the camp at Yarna, he
+reported as gratefully of General Ferrars as the General did kindly
+of him.
+
+Those letters were the chief pleasures in a harassing spring and
+summer.  It was well that practice had trained Sophia in the
+qualities of a nurse, for Lucy was seldom available when Algernon
+Dusautoy was at home; she was sure to be riding with him, or sitting
+for her picture, or the good Vicar, afraid of her overworking
+herself, insisted on her spending the evening at the vicarage.
+
+She yielded, but not with an easy conscience, to judge by her
+numerous apologies, and when Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy returned to
+Oxford, she devoted herself with great assiduity to the invalid.
+Her natural gifts were far more efficient than Sophy's laboriously-earned
+gentleness, and her wonderful talent for prattling about nothing had
+a revivifying influence, sparing much of the plaintive weariness which
+accompanied that mournful descent of life's hill.
+
+Albinia had reckoned on a rational Lucy until the Oxford term should
+be over.  She might have anticipated a failure in the responsions,
+(who, in connexion with the Polysyllable, could mention being plucked
+for the little-go?) but it was more than she did expect that his
+rejection would send him home in sullen resentment resolved to punish
+Oxford by the withdrawal of his august name.  He had been quizzed by
+the young, reprimanded by the old, plucked by the middle-aged, and he
+returned with his mouth, full of sentences against blind, benighted
+bigotry, and the futility of classical study, and of declamations, as
+an injured orphan, against his uncle's disregard of the intentions of
+his dear deceased parent, in keeping him from Bonn, Jena, Heidelberg,
+or any other of the outlandish universities whose guttural names he
+showered on the meek Vicar's desponding head.
+
+He was twenty-one, and could not be sent whither he would not go.
+His uncle's resource was Mr. Kendal, who strongly hoped that the link
+was about to snap, when, summoning the gentleman to the library, he
+gave him to understand that he should consider a refusal to resume
+his studies as tantamount to a dissolution of the engagement.  A long
+speech ensued about dear mothers, amiable daughters, classics,
+languages, and foreign tours.  That was all the account Mr. Kendal
+could give his wife of the dialogue, and she could only infer that
+Algernon's harangue had sent him into such a fit of abstraction, that
+he really could not tell the drift of it.  However, he was clear that
+he had himself given no alternative between returning to Oxford and
+resigning Lucy.
+
+That same evening, Lucy, all blushes and tears, faltered out that she
+was very unwilling, she could not bear to leave them all, nor dear
+grandmamma, but dear Algernon had prevailed on her to say next
+August!
+
+When indignant astonishment permitted Albinia to speak, she reminded
+Lucy that a respectable career at Oxford had been the condition.
+
+'I know,' said Lucy, 'but dear Algernon convinced papa of the
+unreasonableness of such a stipulation under the circumstances.'
+
+Albinia felt the ground cut away under her feet, and all she could
+attempt was a dry answer.  'We shall see what papa says; but you,
+Lucy, how can you think of marrying with your grandmamma in this
+state, and Gilbert in that camp of cholera--'
+
+'I told Algernon it was not to be thought of,' said Lucy, her tears
+flowing fast.  But I don't know what to do, no one can tell how long
+it may go on, and we have no right to trifle with his feelings.'
+
+'If he had any feelings for you, he would not ask it.'
+
+'No, mamma, indeed!' cried Lucy, earnestly; 'it was his feeling for
+me; he said I was looking quite languid and emaciated, and that he
+could not allow my--good looks and vivacity to be diminished by my
+attendance in a sick chamber.  I told him never to mind, for it did
+not hurt me; but he said it was incumbent on him to take thought for
+me, and that he could not present me to his friends if I were not in
+full bloom of beauty; yes, indeed, he said so; and then he said it
+would be the right season for Italy.'
+
+'It is impossible you can think of going so far away!  Oh, Lucy! you
+should not have consented.'
+
+'I could not help it,' said Lucy, sobbing.  'I could not bear to
+contradict him, but please, mamma, let papa settle it for me.  I
+don't want to go away; I told him I never would, I told him I had
+promised never to leave dear grandmamma; but you see he is so
+resolute, and he cannot bear to be without me.  Oh! do get him to put
+it off--only if he is angry and goes to Italy without me, I know I
+shall die!'
+
+'We will take care of you, my dear.  I am sure we shall be able to
+show him how impossible a gay wedding would be at present; and I do
+not think he can press it,' said Albinia, moved into soothing the
+present distress, and relieved to find that there was no
+heartlessness on Lucy's side.
+
+What a grand power is sheer obstinacy!  It has all the momentum of a
+stone, or cannon-ball, or any other object set in motion without
+inconvenient sensations to obstruct its course!
+
+Algernon Dusautoy had decided on being married in August, and taking
+his obedient pupil-wife through a course of lectures on the
+continental galleries of art; and his determined singleness of aim
+prevailed against the united objections and opposition of four
+people, each of double or quadruple his wisdom and weight.
+
+His first great advantage was, that, as Albinia surmised, Mr. Kendal
+could not recal the finale of their interview, and having lost the
+thread of the rigmarole, did not know to what his silence had been
+supposed to assent.  Next, Algernon conquered his uncle by
+representing Lucy as on the road to an atrophy, and persuading him
+that he should be much safer on the Continent with a wife than
+without one: and though the two ladies were harder to deal with in
+themselves, they were obliged to stand by the decision of their
+lords.  Above all, he made way by his sincere habit of taking for
+granted whatever he wished, and by his magnanimous oblivion of
+remonstrance and denial; so that every day one party or the other
+found that assumed, as fixed in his favour, which had the day before
+been most strenuously refused.
+
+'If you consented to this, I thought I could not refuse that.'
+
+'I consent!  I told him it was the last thing I could think of.'
+
+'Well, I own I was surprised, but he told me you had readily come
+into his views.'
+
+Such was the usual tenor of consultations between the authorities,
+until their marvel at themselves and each other came to a height when
+they found themselves preparing for the wedding on the very day
+originally chosen by Algernon.
+
+Mr. Kendal's letter to Gilbert was an absolute apology.  Gilbert in
+Turkey was a very different person from Gilbert at Bayford, and had
+assumed in his father's mind the natural rights of son and heir; he
+seemed happy and valued, and the heat of the climate, pestiferous to
+so many, seemed but to give his Indian constitution the vigour it
+needed.  When his comrades were laid up, or going away for better
+air, much duty was falling on him, and he was doing it with hearty
+good-will and effectiveness.  Already the rapid changes had made him
+a lieutenant, and he wrote in the highest spirits.  Moreover, he had
+fallen in with Bryan O'More, and had been able to do him sundry
+kindnesses, the report of which brought Ulick to Willow Lawn in an
+overflow of gratitude.
+
+It was a strange state of affairs there.  Albinia was ashamed of the
+plea of 'could not help it,' and yet that was the only one to rest
+on; the adherence to promises alone gave a sense of duty, and when or
+how the promises had been given was not clear.
+
+Besides, no one could be certain even about poor Lucy's present
+satisfaction; she sometimes seemed like a little bird fluttering
+under the fascination of a snake.  She was evidently half afraid of
+Algernon, and would breathe more freely when he was not at hand; but
+then a restlessness would come on if he did not appear as soon as she
+expected, as if she dreaded having offended him.  She had violent
+bursts of remorseful tears, and great outpourings of fondness towards
+every one at home, and she positively did look ill enough to justify
+Algernon in saying that the present condition of matters was hurtful
+to her.  Still she could not endure a word that remotely tended
+towards advising her to break off the engagement, or even to retard
+the wedding, and her admiration of her intended was unabated.
+
+Indeed, his affection could not be doubted; he liked her adoration of
+all his performances, and he regarded her with beneficent protection,
+as a piece of property; he made her magnificent presents, and
+conceded to her that the wedding tour should not be beyond Clifton,
+whence they would return to Willow Lawn, and judge ere deciding on
+going abroad.
+
+He said that it would be 'de bon ton' to have the marriage strictly
+private.  Even he saw the incongruity of festivity alongside of that
+chamber of decay and death; and besides, he had conceived such a
+distaste to the Drury family, that he had signified to Lucy that they
+must not make part of the spectacle.
+
+Albinia and Sophy thought this so impertinent, that they manfully
+fought the battles of the Drurys, but without prevailing; Albinia
+took her revenge, by observing that this being the case, it was
+impossible to ask her brother and little Mary, whose well-sounding
+names she knew Algernon ambitionated for the benefit of the county
+paper.
+
+Always doing what was most contrary to the theories with which she
+started in life, Albinia found herself taking the middle course that
+she contemned.  She was marrying her first daughter with an aching,
+foreboding heart, unable either to approve or to prevent, and obliged
+to console and cheer just when she would have imagined herself
+insisting upon a rupture at all costs.
+
+Sophy had said from the first that her sister could not go back.  She
+expected her to be unhappy, and believed it the penalty of the
+wrongdoings in consenting to the clandestine correspondence; and
+treated her with melancholy kindness as a victim under sentence.  She
+was very affectionate, but not at all consoling when Lucy was sad,
+and she was impatient and gloomy when the trousseau, or any of the
+privileges of a fiancee brought a renewal of gaiety and importance.
+A broken heart and ruined fortunes were the least of the consequences
+she augured, and she went about the house as if she had realized them
+both herself.
+
+The wedding-day came, and grandmamma was torpid and only half
+conscious, so that all could venture to leave her.  The bride was not
+allowed to see her, lest the agitation should overwhelm both; for the
+poor girl was indeed looking like the victim her sister thought her,
+pale as death, with red rings round her extinguished eyes, and
+trembling from head to foot, the more at the apprehension that
+Algernon would think her a fright.
+
+After all that lavender and sal-volatile could do for her, she was
+such a spectacle, that when her father came to fetch her he was
+shocked, and said, tenderly, 'Lucy, my child, this must not be.  Say
+one word, and all shall be over, and you shall never hear a word of
+reproach.'
+
+But Lucy only cast a frightened glance around, and rising up with the
+accents of perfect sincerity, said, 'No, papa; I am quite ready; I am
+quite happy.  I was only silly.'
+
+Her mind was evidently made up, and it was past Albinia's divination
+whether her agitation were composed of fear of the future and remorse
+for the past, or whether it were mere love of home and hurry of
+spirits, exaggerated by belief that a bride ought to weep.  Probably
+it was a compound of all, and the whole of her reply perfect truth,
+especially the final clause.
+
+So they married her, poor child, very much as if they had been
+attending her to the block.  Sophy's view of the case had infected
+them all beyond being dispelled by the stately complacency of the
+bridegroom, or the radiant joy and affection of his uncle.
+
+They put her into a carriage, watched her away, and turned back to
+the task which she had left them, dreading the effects of her
+absence.  She was missed, but less than they feared; the faculties
+had become too feeble for such strong emotion as had followed
+Gilbert's departure; and the void was chiefly perceptible by the
+plaintive and exacting clinging to Albinia, who had less and less
+time to herself and her children, and was somewhat uneasy as to the
+consequences as regarded Maurice.  While Gilbert was at home, the
+child had been under some supervision; but now his independent and
+unruly spirit was left almost uncontrolled, except by his own
+intermittent young conscience, his father indulged him, and endured
+from him what would have been borne from no one else; and Sophy was
+his willing slave, unable to exact obedience, and never complaining,
+save under the most stringent necessity or sense of duty.  He was too
+young for school, and there was nothing to be done but to go on, from
+day to day, in the trust that no harm could eventually ensue in
+consequence of so absolute a duty as the care of the sufferer; and
+that while the boy's truth and generosity were sound, though he might
+be a torment, his character might be all the stronger afterwards for
+that very indocility.
+
+It was not satisfactory, and many mothers would have been miserable;
+but it was not in Albinia's nature to be miserable when her hands
+were full, and she was doing her best.  She had heard her brother say
+that when good people gave their children sound principles and spoilt
+them, they gave the children the trouble of self-conquest instead of
+doing it for them.  She had great faith in Maurice's undertaking this
+task in due time; and while she felt that she still had her hand on
+the rein she must be content to leave it loose for a while.
+
+Besides, when his father and sisters, and, least of all, herself, did
+not find him a plague, did it much matter if other people did?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+
+Exulting peals rang out from the Bayford tower, and as Mr. and Mrs.
+Cavendish Dusautoy alighted from their carriage at Willow Lawn, the
+cry of the vicar and of the assembled household was, 'Have you heard
+that Sebastopol is taken?'
+
+'Any news of Gilbert?' was Lucy's demand.
+
+'No, the cavalry were not landed, so he had nothing to do with it.'
+
+'I say, uncle,' said Algernon, 'shall I send up a sovereign to those
+ringers?'
+
+'Eh! poor fellows, they will he very glad of it, thank you; only I
+must take care they don't drink it up.  I'm sure they must be tired
+enough; they've been at it ever since the telegraph came in!'
+
+'There!' exclaimed Algernon; 'Barton must have telegraphed from the
+station when we set out!'
+
+'You?  Did you think the bells were ringing for _you_,' exclaimed his
+uncle, 'when there's a great battle won, and Sebastopol taken?'
+
+'Telegraphs are always lies!' quoth Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy, tersely,
+'I don't believe anything has happened at all!' and he re-pocketed
+the sovereign.
+
+Meantime Lucy was in a rapture of embracing.  She was spread out with
+stiff silk flounces and velvet mantle, so as to emulate her husband's
+importance, and her chains and bracelets clattered so much, that Mr.
+Kendal could not help saying, 'You should have taken lessons of your
+Ayah, to learn how to manage your bangles.'
+
+'Oh! papa,' said she, with a newly-learnt little laugh, 'I could not
+help it; Louise could not find room for them in my dressing-case.'
+
+They were not, however, lost upon the whole of the family.
+Grandmamma's dim eyes lighted when she recognised her favourite
+grand-daughter in such gorgeous array, and that any one should have
+come back again was so new and delightful, that it constantly
+recurred as a fresh surprise and pleasure.
+
+All were glad to have her again--their own Lucy, as she still was,
+though somewhat of the grandiose style and self-consequence of her
+husband had overlaid the original nature.  She was as good-natured
+and obliging as ever, and though beginning by conferring her favours
+as condescensions, she soon would forget that she was the great Mrs.
+Cavendish Dusautoy, and quickly become the eager, helpful Lucy.  She
+was in very good looks, and bright and happy, admiring Algernon,
+rejoicing to obey his behests, and enhancing his dignity and her own
+by her discourses upon his talents and importance.  How far she was
+at ease with him, Albinia sometimes doubted; there now and then was
+an air of greater freedom when he left the room, and some of her
+favourite old household avocations were tenderly resumed by stealth,
+as though she feared he might think them unworthy of his wife.
+
+She gave her spare time to the invalid, who was revived by her
+presence as by a sunbeam; and Albinia, in her relief and gratitude,
+did her utmost to keep Algernon happy and contented.  She resigned a
+room to him as an atelier, and let the little Awk be captured to have
+her likeness taken, she promoted the guitar and key-bugle, and
+abstained from resenting his strictures on her dinners.
+
+Such a guest reduced Mr. Kendal to absolute silence, but she did not
+think he suffered much therefrom, and he was often relieved, for all
+the neighbourhood asked the young couple to dinner.  Mrs. Cavendish
+Dusautoy's toilette was as good as a play to the oldest and youngest
+inhabitants of the house, her little sister used to stand by the
+dressing-table with her small fingers straightened to sustain a
+column of rings threaded on them, and her arm weighed down with
+bracelets, and grandmamma's happiest moments were when she was raised
+up to contemplate the costly robes, jewelled neck, and garlanded head
+of her darling.
+
+When it turned out that Sebastopol was anything but taken, Mr.
+Cavendish Dusautoy's incredulity was a precious confirmation of his
+esteem for his own sagacity, more especially as Ulick O'More and
+Maurice had worn out the little brass piece of ordnance in firing
+feux de joie.
+
+'But,' said Maurice, 'papa always said it was not true.  Now you only
+said so when you found the bells were ringing for that, and not for
+you.'
+
+Maurice's observations were not always convenient.  Algernon, with
+much pomp, had caused a horse to be led to the door, for which he had
+lately paid eighty guineas, and he was expatiating on its merits,
+when Maurice broke out, 'That's Macheath, the horse that Archie
+Tritton bought of Mr. Nugent's coachman for twenty pounds.'
+
+'Hush, Maurice!' said his father, 'you know nothing of it; and Mr.
+Cavendish Dusautoy pursued, 'It was bred at Lord Lewthorp's, and sold
+because it was too tall for its companion.  Laing was on the point of
+sending it to Tattersalls, where he was secure of a hundred, but he
+was willing to oblige me, as we had had transactions before.'
+
+'Papa!' cried Maurice, 'I know it is Macheath, for Mr. Tritton showed
+him to Gilbert and me, when he had just got him, and said he was a
+showy beast, but incurably lame, so he should get what he could for
+him from Laing.  Now, James, isn't it?' he called to the servant who
+was sedulously turning away a grinning face, but just muttered,
+'Same, sir.'
+
+Mr. Kendal charitably looked the other way, and Algernon muttered
+some species of imprecation.
+
+Thenceforth Maurice took every occasion of inquiring what had become
+of Macheath, whether Laing had refunded the price, and what had been
+done to him for telling stories.
+
+If the boy began in innocence, he went on in mischief; he was just
+old enough to be a most aggravating compound of simplicity and
+malice.  He was fully aware that Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy was held
+cheap by his own favourites, and had been partly the cause of his
+dear Gilbert's troubles, and his sharp wits and daring nature were
+excited to the utmost by the solemn irritation that he produced.  Not
+only was it irresistibly droll to tease one so destitute of fun, but
+he had the strongest desire to see how angry it was possible to make
+the big brother-in-law, of whom every one seemed in awe.
+
+First, he had recourse to the old term Polysyllable, and when Lucy
+remonstrated, he answered, 'I've a right to call my brother what I
+please.'
+
+'You know how angry mamma would be to hear you.'
+
+'Mamma calls him the Polysyllable herself,' said Maurice, looking
+full at his victim.
+
+Lucy, who would have given the world to hinder this epithet from
+coming to her husband's knowledge, began explaining something about
+Gilbert's nonsense before he knew him, and how it had been long
+disused.
+
+'That's not true, Lucy,' quoth the tormentor.  'I heard mamma tell
+Sophy herself this morning to write for some fish-sauce, because she
+said that Polysyllable was so fanciful about his dinner.'
+
+Lucy was ready to cry, and Algernon, endeavouring to recal his usual
+dignity, exclaimed, 'If Mrs. Kendal--I mean, Mrs. Kendal has it in
+her power to take liberties, but if I find you repeating such again,
+you little imp, it shall be at your risk.'
+
+'What will you do to me?' asked the sturdy varlet.
+
+'Dear Maurice, I hope you'll never know!  Pray don't try!' cried
+Lucy; but if she had had any knowledge of character, she would have
+seen that she had only provoked the little Berserkar's curiosity, and
+had made him determined on proving the undefined threat.  So the
+unfortunate Algernon seldom descended the stairs without two childish
+faces being protruded from the balusters of the nursery-flight over-head,
+pursuing him with hissing whispers of 'Polysyllable' and 'Polly-silly,'
+and if he ventured on indignant gestures, Maurice returned them with
+nutcracker grimaces and provoking assurances to his little sister that
+he could not hurt her.
+
+Algernon could not complain without making himself ridiculous, and
+Albinia was too much engaged to keep watch over her son, so that the
+persecution daily became more intolerable, and barren indications of
+wrath were so diverting to the little monkey, that the presence of
+the heads of the family was the sole security from his tricks.  Poor
+Lucy was the chief sufferer, unable to restrain her brother, and
+enduring the brunt of her husband's irritation, with the great
+disappointment of being unable to make him happy at her home, and
+fearing every day that he would fulfil his threat of not staying
+another week in the house with that intolerable child, for the sake
+of any one's grandmother.
+
+Tidings came, however, that completely sobered Maurice, and made them
+unable to think of moving.  It was the first rumour of the charge of
+Balaklava, with the report that the 25th Lancers were cut to pieces.
+In spite of Algernon's reiteration that telegraphs were lies, all the
+household would have been glad to lose the sense of existence during
+the time of suspense.  Albinia's heart was wrung as she thought of
+the cold hurried manner of the last farewell, and every look she cast
+at her husband's calm melancholy face, seemed to be asking pardon
+that his son was not safe in India.
+
+Late that evening the maid came hurriedly in with a packet of papers.
+'A telegraph, ma'am, come express from Hadminster.'
+
+It was to Mrs Kendal from one of her friends at the Horse Guards.
+She did not know how she found courage to turn her eyes on it, but
+her shriek was not of sorrow.
+
+'Major the Honourable F. Ferrars, severely wounded--right arm
+amputated.'
+
+'Lieutenant Gilbert Kendal, slightly wounded--contusion, rib broken.'
+
+She saw the light of thankfulness break upon Mr. Kendal's face, and
+the next moment flew up to her boy's bed-side.  He started up, half
+asleep, but crying out, Mamma, where's Gibbie?'
+
+'Safe, safe!  Maurice dearest, safe; only slightly wounded!  Oh,
+Maurice, God has been very good to us!'
+
+He flung his arms round her neck, as she knelt beside his crib in the
+dark, and thus Mr. Kendal found the mother and son.  As he bent to
+kiss them, Maurice exclaimed, with a sort of anger, 'Oh, mamma, why
+have I got a bullet in my throat?'
+
+Albinia laughed a little hysterically, as if she had the like bullet.
+
+'It was very kind of Lord H----,' fervently exclaimed Mr. Kendal;
+'you must write to thank him, Albinia.  Gilbert may be considered
+safe while he is laid up.  Perhaps he may be sent home.  What should
+you say to that, Maurice?'
+
+'Oh! I wouldn't come home to lose the fun,' said Maurice.  'Oh,
+mamma, let me get up to tell Awkey, and run up to Ulick!  Gilbert
+will be the colonel when I'm a cornet!  Oh!  I must get up!'
+
+His outspoken childish joy seemed to relieve Albinia's swelling
+heart, too full for the expression of thankfulness, and the
+excitement was too much even for the boy, for he burst into
+passionate sobs when forbidden to get up and waken his little sister.
+
+The sobering came in Mr. Kendal's mention of Fred.  Albinia was
+obliged to ask what had happened to him, and was shocked at having
+overlooked so terrible a misfortune; but Maurice seemed to be quite
+satisfied.  'You know, mamma, it said they were cut to pieces.  Can't
+they make him a wooden arm?' evidently thinking he could be repaired
+as easily as the creatures in his sister's Noah's Ark.  Even Algernon
+showed a heartiness and fellow-feeling that seemed to make him more
+like one of the family.  Moreover, he was so much elevated at the
+receipt of a telegraph direct from the fountain-head, that he rode
+about the next day over all the neighbourhood with the tidings and
+comported himself as though he had private access to all Lord
+Raglan's secrets.
+
+The unwonted emotion tamed Maurice for several days, and his
+behaviour was the better for his daily rides with papa to Hadminster,
+to forestall the second post.  At last, on his return, his voice rang
+through the house.  'Mamma, where are you?  The letter is come, and
+Gilbert shot two Russians, and saved Cousin Fred!'
+
+'I opened your letter, Albinia,' said Mr. Kendal; and, as she took it
+from him, he said, 'Thank God, I never dared hope for such a day as
+this!'
+
+He shut himself into the library, while Albinia was sharing with
+Sophy the precious letter, but with a moment's disappointment at
+finding it not from Gilbert, but from her brother William.
+
+'Before you receive this,' he wrote, 'you will have heard of the
+affair of to-day, and that our two lads have come out of it better
+than some others.  There are but nine officers living, and only four
+unhurt out of the 25th Lancers, and Fred's escape is entirely owing
+to your son.'
+
+Then followed a brief narrative of the events of Balaklava, that
+fatal charge so well described as 'magnifique mais pas la guerre,' a
+history that seemed like a dream in connexion with the timid Gilbert.
+His individual story was thus:--He safely rode the 'half a league'
+forward, but when more than half way back, his horse was struck to
+the ground by a splinter of the same shell that overthrew Major
+Ferrars, at a few paces' distance from him.  Quickly disengaging
+himself from his horse, Gilbert ran to assist his friend, and
+succeeded in extricating him from his horse, and supporting him
+through the remainder of the terrible space commanded by the
+batteries.  Fred, unable to move without aid, and to whom each step
+was agony, had entreated Gilbert to relinquish his hold, and not
+peril himself for a life already past rescue; but Gilbert had not
+seemed to hear, and when several of the enemy came riding down on
+them, he had used his revolver with such effect, as to lay two of the
+number prostrate, and deter the rest from repeating the attack.
+
+'All this I heard from Fred,' continued the General; 'he is in his
+usual spirits, and tells me that he feels quite jolly since his arm
+has been off, and he has been in his own bed, but I fear he has a
+good deal to suffer, for his right side is terribly lacerated, and I
+shall be glad when the next few days are over.  He desires me to say
+with his love that the best turn you ever did him was putting young
+Kendal into the 25th.  Tell your husband that I congratulate him on
+his son's conduct, and am afraid that his promotion without purchase
+is only too certain.  Gilbert's only message was his love.  Speaking
+seems to give him pain, and he is altogether more prostrated than so
+slight a wound accounts for; but when I saw him, he had just been
+told of the death of his colonel and several of his brother officers,
+among them young Wynne, who shared his tent; and he was completely
+overcome.  There is, however, no cause for uneasiness; he had not
+even been aware that he was hurt, until he fainted while Fred was
+under the surgeon's hands, and was then found to have an ugly
+contusion of the chest, and a fracture of the uppermost rib on the
+left side.  A few days' rest will set all that to rights, and I
+expect to see him on horseback before we can ship poor Fred for
+Scutari.  In the meantime they are both in Fred's tent, which is
+fairly comfortable.'
+
+Albinia understood whence came Gilbert's heroism.  He had charged at
+first, as he had hunted with Maurice, because there was no doing
+otherwise, and in the critical moment the warm heart had done the
+rest, and equalled constitutional courage: but then, she saw the
+gentle tender spirit sinking under the slight injury, and far more at
+the suffering of his friend, the deadly havoc among his comrades, and
+his own share in the carnage.  The General coolly mentioned the two
+enemies who had fallen by his pistol, and Maurice shouted about them
+as if they had been two rabbits, but she knew enough of Gilbert to be
+sure that what he might do in the exigency of self-defence, would
+shock and sicken him in recollection.  Poor Fred! how little would
+she once have believed that his frightful wound could be a secondary
+matter with her, only enhancing her gratitude on account of another.
+
+That was a happy evening; Maurice was sent to ask Ulick to dinner,
+and at dessert drank the healths of his soldier relatives, among whom
+Mr. Kendal with a smile at Ulick, included Bryan O'More.
+
+In the universal good-will of her triumph, Albinia having read her
+precious letter to every one, resolved to let the Drurys hear it,
+before forwarding it to Fairmead.  Lucy's neglect of that family was
+becoming flagrant, and Albinia was resolved to take her to make the
+call.  Therefore, after promulgating her intentions too decidedly for
+Algernon to oppose them, she set out with Lucy in the most virtuous
+state of mind.  Maurice was to ride out with his father, and Sophy
+was taking care of grandmamma, so she made her expedition with an
+easy mind, and absolutely enjoyed the change of scenery.
+
+The war had drawn every one nearer together, and Mrs. Drury was
+really anxious about Gilbert, and grateful for the intelligence.  Nor
+did Lucy meet with anything unpleasant.  Mrs. Cavendish Dusautoy, in
+waist-deep flounces, a Paris bonnet, and her husband's dignity,
+impressed her cousins, and whatever use they might make of their
+tongues, it was not till after she was gone.
+
+As the carriage stopped at the door, Sophy came out with such a
+perturbed an expression, as seemed to prelude fatal tidings; and Lucy
+was pausing to listen, when she was hastily summoned by her husband.
+
+'Oh! mamma, he has struck Maurice such a blow!' cried Sophy.
+
+'Algernon? where's Maurice? is he hurt?'
+
+'He is in the library with papa.'
+
+She was there in a moment.  Maurice sat on his father's knee,
+listening to Pope's Homer, leaning against him, with eye, cheek, and
+nose exceedingly swelled and reddened; but these were symptoms of
+which she had seen enough in past days not to be greatly terrified,
+even while she exclaimed aghast.
+
+'Aye!' said Mr. Kendal, sternly.  'What do you think of young
+Dusautoy's handiwork?'
+
+'What could you have done to him, Maurice?'
+
+'I painted his image.'
+
+'The children got into the painting-room,' said Mr. Kendal, 'and did
+some mischief; Maurice ought to have known better, but that was no
+excuse for his violence.  I do not know what would have been the
+consequence, if poor little Albinia's screams had not alarmed me.  I
+found Algernon striking him with his doubled fist.'
+
+'But I gave him a dig in the nose,' cried Maurice, in exultation; 'I
+pulled ever so much hair out of his whiskers.  I had it just now.'
+
+'This sounds very sad,' said Albinia, interrupting the search for the
+trophy.  'What were you doing in the painting-room?  You know you had
+no business there.'
+
+'Why, mamma, little Awk wanted me to look at the pictures that Lucy
+shows her.  And then, don't you know his image? the little white bare
+boy pulling the thorn out of his foot.  Awkey said he was naughty not
+to have his clothes on, and so I thought it would be such fun to make
+a militiaman of him, and so the paints were all about, and so I gave
+him a red coat and black trousers.'
+
+'Oh, Maurice, Maurice, how could you?'
+
+'I couldn't help it, mamma!  I did so want to see what Algernon would
+do!'
+
+'Well.'
+
+'So he came up and caught us.  And wasn't he in a jolly good rage?
+that's all.  He stamped, and called me names, and got hold of me to
+shake me, but I know I kicked him well, and I had quite a handful out
+of his whisker; but you see poor little Awkey is only a girl, and
+couldn't help squalling, so papa came up.'
+
+'And in time!' said Mr. Kendal; 'he reeled against me, almost
+stunned, and was hardly himself for some moments.  His nose bled
+violently.  That fellow's fist might knock down an ox.'
+
+'But he didn't knock _me_ down,' said Maurice.  'You told me he did
+not, papa.'
+
+'That's all he thinks of!' said Mr. Kendal, in admiration.
+
+'Not a cry nor a tear from first to last.  I told Sophy to let me
+know when Bowles came.'
+
+'For a black eye?' cried the hard-hearted mother, laughing.  'You
+should have seen what Maurice and Fred used to do to each other.'
+
+'Oh, tell me, mamma,' cried Maurice, eagerly.
+
+'Not now, master,' she said, not thinking his pugnacity in need of
+such respectable examples.  'It would be more to the purpose to ask
+Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy's pardon for such very bad behaviour.'
+
+Mr. Kendal looked at her in indignant surprise.  'Ours is not the
+side for the apology,' he said.  'If Dusautoy has a spark of proper
+feeling, he must excuse himself for such a brutal assault.'
+
+'I am afraid Maurice provoked it; I hope my little boy is sorry for
+having been so mischievous, and sees that he deserves--'
+
+Mr. Kendal silenced her by an impatient gesture, and feeling that
+anything was better than the discussion before the boy, she tried to
+speak indifferently, and not succeeding, left the room, much annoyed
+that alarm and indignation had led the indulgent father to pet and
+coax the spirit that only wanted to be taken down, and as if her
+discipline had received its first real shock.
+
+Mr. Kendal followed her upstairs, no less vexed.  'Albinia, this is
+absurd,' he said.  'I will not have the child punished, or made to
+ask pardon for being shamefully struck.'
+
+'It was shameful enough,' said Albinia; 'but, after all, I can't
+wonder that Algernon was in a passion; Maurice did behave very ill,
+and it would be much better for him if you would not make him more
+impudent than he is already.'
+
+'I did not expect you to take part against your own child, when he
+has been so severely maltreated,' said he, with such unreasonable
+displeasure, that almost thinking it play, she laughed and said, 'You
+are as bad as the mothers of the school-children, when they wont have
+them beaten.'
+
+He gave a look as if loth to trust his ears, walked into his room,
+and shut the door.  The thrill of horror came over her that this was
+the first quarrel.  She had been saucy when he was serious, and had
+offended him.  She sprang to the door, knocked and called, and was in
+agony at the moment's delay ere he returned, with his face still
+stern and set.  Pleading and earnest she raised her eyes, and
+surrendered unconditionally.  'Dear Edmund, don't be vexed with me, I
+should not have said it.'
+
+'Never mind,' he said, affectionately; 'I do not wish to interfere
+with your authority, but it would be impossible to punish a child who
+has suffered so severely; and I neither choose that Dusautoy should
+be made to think himself the injured party, nor that Maurice should
+be put to the pain of apologizing for an offence, which the other
+party has taken on himself to cancel with interest.'
+
+Albinia was too much demolished to recollect her two arguments, that
+pride on their side would only serve to make Algernon prouder, and
+that she did not believe that asking pardon would be so bitter a pill
+to Maurice as his father supposed.  She could only feel thankful to
+have been forgiven for her own offence.
+
+When they met at dinner, all were formal, Algernon stiff and haughty,
+ashamed, but too grand to betray himself, and Lucy restless and
+uneasy, her eyes looking as if she had been crying.  When Maurice
+came in at dessert, the fourth part of his countenance emulating the
+unlucky cast in gorgeous hues of crimson and violet, Algernon was
+startled, and turning to Albinia, muttered something about 'never
+having intended,' and 'having had no idea.'
+
+He might have said more, if Mr. Kendal, with Maurice on his knee, had
+not looked as if he expected it; and that look sealed Albinia's lips
+against expressing regret for the provocation; but Maurice exclaimed,
+'Never mind, Algernon, it was all fair, and it doesn't hurt now.  I
+wouldn't have touched your image, but that I wanted to know what you
+would do to me.  Shake hands; people always do when they've had a
+good mill.'
+
+Mr. Kendal looked across the table to his wife in a state of
+unbounded exultation in his generous boy, and Albinia felt infinitely
+relieved and grateful.  Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy took the firm young
+paw, and said with an attempt at condescension, 'Very well, Maurice,
+the subject shall be mentioned no more, since you have received a
+severer lesson than I intended, and appear sensible of your error.'
+
+'It wasn't you that made me so,' began Maurice, with defiant eye; but
+with a strong sense of 'let well alone,' his father cut him short
+with, 'That's enough, my man, you've said all that can be wished,'
+lifted him again on his knee, and stopped his mouth with almonds and
+raisins.
+
+The subject was mentioned no more; Lucy considered peace as
+proclaimed, and herself relieved from the necessity of such an
+unprecedented deed as preferring an accusation against Maurice, and
+Albinia, unaware of the previous persecution, did not trace that
+Maurice considered himself as challenged to prove, that experience of
+his brother-in-law's fist did not suffice to make him cease from his
+'fun.'
+
+Two days after, Algernon was coming in from riding, when a simple
+voice upon the stairs observed, 'Here's such a pretty picture!'
+
+'Eh! what?' said Algernon; and Maurice held it near to him as he
+stood taking off his great coat.
+
+'Such a pretty picture, but you mustn't have it!  No, it is Ulick's.'
+
+'Heavens and earth!' thundered Algernon, as he gathered up the
+meaning.  'Who has dared--?  Give it me--or--' and as soon as he was
+freed from the sleeves, he snatched at the paper, but the boy had
+already sprung up to the first landing, and waving his treasure,
+shouted, 'No, it's not for you, I'll not give you Ulick's picture.'
+
+'Ulick !' cried Algernon, in redoubled fury.  'You're put up to this!
+Give it me this instant, or it shall be the worse for you;' but ere
+he could stride up the first flight, Maurice's last leg was
+disappearing round the corner above, and the next moment the
+exhibition was repeated overhead in the gallery.  Thither did
+Algernon rush headlong, following the scampering pattering feet, till
+the door of Maurice's little room was slammed in his face.  Bursting
+it open, he found the chamber empty, but there was a shout of elvish
+laughter outside, and a cry of dismay coming up from the garden,
+impelled him to mount the rickety deal-table below the deep sunk
+dormer window, when thrusting out his head and shoulders, he beheld
+his wife and her parents gazing up in terror from the lawn.  No
+wonder, for there was a narrow ledge of leading without, upon which
+Maurice had suddenly appeared, running with unwavering steps till in
+a moment he stooped down, and popped through the similar window of
+Gilbert's room.
+
+While still too dizzy with horror to feel secure that the child was
+indeed safe within, those below were startled by a frantic shout from
+Algernon: 'Let me out!  I say, the imp has locked me in!  Let me
+out!'
+
+Albinia flew into the house and upstairs.   Maurice was flourishing
+the key, and executing a war-dance before the captive's door, with a
+chant alternating of war-whoops, 'Promise not to hurt it, and I'll
+let you out!' and 'Pity poor prisoners in a foreign land!'
+
+She called to him to desist, but he was too wild to be checked by her
+voice, and as she advanced to capture him, he shot like an arrow to
+the other end of the passage, and down the back-stairs.  She promised
+speedy rescue, and hurried down, hoping to seize the culprit in the
+hall, but he had whipped out at the back-door, and was making for the
+garden gate, when his father hastened down the path to meet him, and
+seeing his retreat cut off, he plunged into the bushes, and sprang
+like a cat up a cockspur-thorn, too slender for ascent by a heavier
+weight, and thence grinned and waved his hand to his prisoner at the
+window.
+
+'Maurice,' called his father, 'what does this mean?'
+
+'I only want to take home Ulick's picture.  Then I'll let him out.'
+
+'What picture?'
+
+'That's my secret.'
+
+'This is not play, Maurice,' said Albinia.  'Attend to papa.'
+
+The boy swung the light shrub about with him in a manner fearful to
+behold, and looked irresolute.  Lucy put in her cry, 'You very
+naughty child, give up the key this moment,' and above, Algernon
+bawled appeals to Mr. Kendal, and threats to Maurice.
+
+'Silence!' said Mr. Kendal, sternly.  'Maurice, this must not be.
+Come down, and give me the key of your room.'
+
+'I will, papa,' said Maurice, in a reasonable voice.  'Only please
+promise not to let Algernon have Ulick's picture, for I got it
+without his knowing it.'
+
+'I promise,' said Mr. Kendal.  'Let us put an end to this.'
+
+Maurice came down, and brought the key to his father, and while Lucy
+hastened to release her husband, Mr. Kendal seized the boy, finding
+him already about again to take flight.
+
+'Papa, let me take home Ulick's picture before he gets out,' said
+Maurice, finding the grasp too strong for him; but Mr. Kendal had
+taken the picture out of his hand, and looked at it with changed
+countenance.
+
+It depicted the famous drawing-room scene, in its native element, the
+moon squinting through inky clouds at Lucy swooning on the sofa,
+while the lofty presence of the Polysyllable discharged the fluid
+from the inkstand.
+
+'Did Mr. O'More give you this?' asked Mr. Kendal.
+
+'No, it tumbled out of his paper-case.  You know he said I might go
+to his rooms and get the Illustrated News with the picture of
+Balaklava, and so the newspaper knocked the paper-case down, and all
+the things tumbled out, so I picked this up, and thought I would see
+what Algernon would say to it, and then put it back again.  Let me
+have it, papa, if he catches me, he'll tear it to smithereens.'
+
+'Don't talk Irish, sir,' said his father.  'I see where your
+impertinence comes from, and I will put a stop to it.'
+
+Maurice gave back a step, amazed at his father's unwonted anger, but
+far greater wrath was descending in the person of Mr. Cavendish
+Dusautoy, who came striding across the lawn, and planting himself
+before his father-in-law, demanded, 'I beg to know, sir, if it is
+your desire that I should be deliberately insulted in this house?'
+
+'No one can be more concerned than I am at what has occurred.'
+
+'Very well, sir; then I require that this intolerable child be
+soundly flogged, that beggarly Irishman kicked out, and that infamous
+libel destroyed!'
+
+'Oh, papa,' cried Maurice, 'you promised me the picture should be
+safe!'
+
+'I promise you, you impudent brat,' cried Algernon, 'that you shall
+learn what it is to insult your elders!  You shall be flogged till
+you repent it!'
+
+'You will allow me to judge of the discipline of my own family,' said
+Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Ay! I knew how it would be!  You encourage that child in every sort
+of unbearable impudence; but I have endured it long enough, and I
+give you warning that I do not remain another night under this roof
+unless I see the impertinence flogged out of him.'
+
+'Papa never whips me,' interposed Maurice.  'You must ask mamma.'
+
+Mr. Kendal bit his lips, and Albinia could have smiled, but their
+sense of the ludicrous inflamed Algernon, and like one beside
+himself, he swung round, and declaring he should ask his uncle if
+that were proper treatment, he marched across the lawn, while Mr.
+Kendal exclaimed, 'More childish than Maurice!'
+
+'Oh, mamma, what shall I do?' was Lucy's woful cry, as she turned
+back, finding herself unable to keep up with his huge step, and her
+calls disregarded.
+
+'My dear,' said Albinia, affectionately, 'you had better compose
+yourself and follow him.  His uncle will bring him to reason, and
+then you can tell him how sorry we are.'
+
+'You may assure him,' said Mr. Kendal, 'that I am as much hurt as he
+can be, that such an improper use should have been made of O'More's
+intimacy here, and I mean to mark my sense of it.'
+
+'And,' said Lucy, 'I don't think anything would pacify him so much as
+Maurice being only a little beaten, not to hurt him, you know.'
+
+'If Maurice be punished, it shall not be in revenge,' said Mr.
+Kendal.
+
+'I'm afraid nothing else will do,' said Lucy, wringing her hands.
+'He has really declared that he will not sleep another night here
+unless Maurice is punished; and whatever he says, he'll do, and I
+know it would kill me to go away in this manner.'
+
+Her father confidently averred that he would do no such thing, but
+she cried so much as to move Maurice into exclaiming, 'Look here,
+Lucy, I'll come up with you, and let him give me one good punch, and
+then we shall all be comfortable again.'
+
+'I don't know about the punching,' said Albinia; 'but I think the
+least you can do, Maurice, is to go and ask his forgiveness for
+having been so very naughty.  You were not thinking what you were
+about when you locked him in.'
+
+This measure was adopted, Mr. Kendal accompanying Lucy and the boy,
+while Albinia went in search of Sophy, whom she found in grandmamma's
+room, looking very pale.  'Well?' was the inquiry, and she told what
+had passed.
+
+'I hope Maurice will be punished,' said Sophy; so unwonted a
+sentiment, that Albinia quite started, though it was decidedly her
+own opinion.
+
+'That meddling with papers was very bad,' she said, with an
+extenuating smile.
+
+'Fun is a perfect demon when it becomes master,' said Sophy.  It was
+plain that it was not Maurice that she was thinking of, but the
+caricature.  Her sister should have been sacred from derision.
+
+'We must remember,' she said, 'that it was only through Maurice's
+meddling that we became aware of the existence of this precious work.
+It is not as if ho had shown it to any one.
+
+'How many of the O'Mores have made game of it?' asked Sophy,
+bitterly.  'No, I am glad I know of it, I shall not be deceived any
+more.'
+
+With these words she withdrew, evidently resolved to put an end to
+the subject.  Her face was like iron, and Albinia grieved for the
+deep resentment that the man whom she had ventured to think of as
+devoted to herself, had made game of her sister.  Poor Sophy, to her
+that tryste had been a subject of unmitigated affliction and shame,
+and it was a cruel wound that Ulick O'More should, of all men, have
+turned it into ridicule.  What would be the effect on her?
+
+In process of time Mr. Kendal returned.  'Albinia,' he said, 'this is
+a most unfortunate affair.  He is perfectly impracticable, insists on
+starting for Paris to-morrow, and I verily believe he will.'
+
+'Poor Lucy.'
+
+'She is in such distress, that I could not bear to look at her, but
+he will not attend to her, nor to his uncle and aunt.  Mrs. Dusautoy
+proposed that they should come to the vicarage, where there would be
+no danger of collisions with Maurice; but his mind can admit no idea
+but that he has been insulted, and that we encourage it, and he
+thinks his dignity concerned in resenting it.'
+
+'Not much dignity in being driven off the field by a child of six
+years old.'
+
+'So his aunt told him, but he mixes it up with O'More, and insists on
+my complaining to Mr. Goldsmith, and getting the lad dismissed for a
+libellous caricaturist, as he calls it.  Now, little as I should have
+expected such conduct from O'More, it could not be made a ground of
+complaint to his uncle.'
+
+'I should think not.  No one with more wit than Algernon would have
+dreamt of it!  But if Ulick came and apologized?  Ah! but I forgot!
+Mr. Goldsmith sent him to London this morning.  Well, it may be
+better that he should be out of the way of Algernon in his present
+mood.'
+
+'Humph!' said Mr. Kendal.  'It is the first time I ever allowed a
+stranger to be intimate in my family, and it shall be the last.  I
+never imagined him aware of the circumstance.'
+
+'Nor I; I am sure none of us mentioned it.'
+
+'Maurice told him, I suppose.  It is well that we should be aware who
+has instigated the child's impertinence.  I shall keep him as much as
+possible with me; he must be cured of Irish brogue and Irish coolness
+before they are confirmed.'
+
+Mr. Kendal's conscience was evidently relieved by transferring to the
+Irishman the imputation of fostering Maurice's malpractices.
+
+They were interrupted by Lucy's arrival.  She was come to take leave
+of home, for her lord was not to be dissuaded from going to London by
+the evening's train.  The greater the consternation, the sweeter his
+revenge.  Never able to see more than one side of a question, he
+could not perceive how impossible it was for the Kendals to fulfil
+his condition with regard to Ulick O'More, and he sullenly adhered to
+his obstinate determination.  Lucy was in an agony of grief, and
+perhaps the most painful blow was the perception how little he was
+swayed by consideration for her.  Her maid packed, while her parents
+tried to console her.  It was easier when she bewailed the terrors of
+the voyage, and the uncertainty of hearing of dear grandmamma and
+dear Gilbert, than when she sobbed about Algernon having no feeling
+for her.  It might be only too true, but her wifely submission ought
+not to have acknowledged it, and they would not hear when they could
+not comfort; and so they were forced to launch her on the world, with
+a tyrant instead of a guide, and dreading the effect of dissipation
+on her levity of mind, as much as they grieved for her feeble spirit.
+It was a piteous parting--a mournful departure for a bride--a heavy
+penalty for vanity and weakness.
+
+Unfortunately the result is to an action as the lens through which it
+is viewed, and the turpitude of the deed seems to increase or
+diminish according to the effect it produces.
+
+Had it been in Algernon Dusautoy's nature to receive the joke
+good-humouredly, it might have been regarded as an audacious exercise of
+wit, and have been quickly forgotten, but when it had actually made a
+breach between him and his wife's family, and driven him from Bayford
+when everything conspired to make his departure unfeelingly cruel,
+the caricature was regarded as a serious insult and an abuse of
+intimacy.  Even Mr. Kendal was not superior to this view, feeling the
+offence with all the sensitiveness of a hot-tempered man, a proud
+reserved guardian of the sanctities of home, and of a father who had
+seen his daughter's weakest and most faulty action turned into
+ridicule, and he seemed to feel himself bound to atone for not going
+to all the lengths to which Algernon would have impelled him, by
+showing the utmost displeasure within the bounds of common sense.
+
+Albinia, better appreciating the irresistibly ludicrous aspect of the
+adventure, argued that the sketch harmlessly shut up in a paper-case
+showed no great amount of insolence, and that considering how the
+discovery had been made, it ought not to be visited.  She thought the
+drawing had better be restored without remarks by the same hand that
+had abstracted it; but Mr. Kendal sternly declared this was
+impossible, and Sophy's countenance seconded him.
+
+'Well, then,' said Albinia, 'put it into my hands.  I'm a bad manager
+in general, but I can promise that Ulick will come down so shocked
+and concerned, that you will not have the heart not to forgive him.'
+
+'The question is not of forgiveness,' said Sophy, in the most rigid
+of voices, as she saw yielding in her father's face; if any one had
+to forgive, it was poor Lucy and Algernon.  All we have to do, is to
+be on our guard for the future.'
+
+'Sophy is right,' said Mr. Kendal; 'intimacy must be over with one
+who has so little discretion or good taste.'
+
+'Then after his saving Maurice, he is to be given up, because he
+quizzed the Polysyllable?' cried Albinia.
+
+'I do not give him up,' said Mr. Kendal.  'I highly esteem his good
+qualities, and should be happy to do him a service, but I cannot have
+my family at the mercy of his wit, nor my child taught disrespect.
+We have been unwisely familiar, and must retreat.'
+
+'And what do you mean us to do?' exclaimed Albinia.  'Are we to cut
+him systematically?'
+
+'I do not know what course you may adopt,' said Mr. Kendal, in a tone
+whose grave precision rebuked her half petulant, half facetious
+inquiry.  'I have told you that I do not mean to do anything
+extravagant, nor to discontinue ordinary civilities, but I think you
+will find that our former habits are not resumed.'
+
+'And Maurice must not be always with him,' said Sophy.
+
+'Certainly not; I shall keep the boy with myself.'
+
+It was with the greatest effort that Albinia held her tongue.  To
+have Sophy not only making common cause against her, but inciting her
+father to interfere about Maurice, was well-nigh intolerable, and she
+only endured it by sealing her lips as with a bar of iron.
+
+By-and-by came the reflection that if poor Sophy had a secret cause
+of bitterness, it was she herself who had given those thoughts
+substance and consciousness, and she quickly forgave every one save
+herself and Algernon.
+
+As to her little traitor son, she took him seriously in hand at
+bedtime, and argued the whole transaction with him, representing the
+dreadful consequences of meddling with people's private papers under
+trust.  Here was poor Lucy taken away from home, and papa made very
+angry with Ulick, because Maurice had been meddlesome and
+mischievous; and though he had not been beaten for it, he would find
+it a worse punishment not to be trusted another time, nor allowed to
+be with Ulick.
+
+Maurice turned round with mouth open at hearing of papa's anger with
+Ulick, and the accusation of having brought his friend into trouble.
+
+'Why, Maurice, you remember how unhappy we were, Gilbert and all.  It
+was because it was sadly wrong of Gilbert and Lucy to have let
+Algernon in without papa's knowing it, and it was not right or
+friendly in Ulick to laugh at what was so wrong, and grieved us all
+so much.'
+
+'It was such fun,' said Maurice.
+
+'Yes, Maurice; but fun is no excuse for doing what is unkind and
+mischievous.  Ulick would not have been amused if he had cared as
+much for us as we thought he did, but, after all, his drawing the
+picture would have done no harm but for a little boy, whom he
+trusted, never thinking that an unkind wish to tease, would betray
+this foolish action, and set his best friends against him.'
+
+'I did not know I should,' said Maurice, winking hard.
+
+'No; you did not know you were doing what, if you were older, would
+have been dishonourable.'
+
+That word was too much!  First he hid his face from his mother, and
+cried out fiercely, 'I've not--I've not been that and clenched his
+fist.  'Don't say it, mamma.'
+
+'If you had known what you were doing, it would have been
+dishonourable,' she repeated, gravely.  'It will be a long time
+before you earn trust and confidence again.'
+
+There was a great struggle with his tears.  She had punished him, and
+almost more than she could bear to see, but she knew the conquest
+must be secured, and she tried, while she caressed him, to make him
+look at the real cause of his lapse; he declared that it was 'such
+fun' to provoke Algernon, and a little more brought out a confession
+of the whole course of persecution, the child's voice becoming quite
+triumphant as he told of the success of his tricks, and his mother,
+though appalled at their audacity, with great difficulty hindering
+herself from manifesting her amusement.
+
+She did not wonder at Algernon's having found it intolerable, and
+though angry with him for having made himself such fair game, she set
+to work to impress upon Maurice his own errors, and the hatefulness
+of practical jokes, and she succeeded so far as to leave him crying
+himself to sleep, completely subdued, while she felt as if all the
+tears ought to have been shed by herself for her want of vigilance.
+
+Conflicting duties! how hard to strike the balance!  She had readily
+given up her own pleasures for the care of Mrs. Meadows, but when it
+came to her son's training, it was another question.
+
+She much wished to see the note with which Mr. Kendal returned the
+unfortunate sketch, but one of the points on which he was sensitive,
+was the sacredness of his correspondence, and all that she heard was,
+that Ulick had answered 'not at all as Mr. Kendal had expected; he
+was nothing but an Irishman, after all.'  But at last she obtained a
+sight of the note.
+
+
+                                       'Bayford, Nov. 20th, 1854.
+'Dear Sir,
+
+'I was much astonished at the contents of your letter of this
+morning, and greatly concerned that Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy should
+have done so much honour to any production of mine, as to alter his
+arrangements on that account.
+
+'As the scrawl in question was not meant to meet the eye of any
+living being, I should, for my own part, have considered it proper to
+take no notice of what was betrayed by mere accident.  I should have
+considered it more conducive to confidence between gentlemen.  I
+fully acquiesce in what you say of the cessation of our former terms
+of acquaintance, and with many thanks for past kindness, believe me,
+
+                                      'Your obedient servant,
+                                            'U. O'MORE.'
+
+
+Nothing was more evidently written in a passion at the invasion of
+these private papers, and Albinia, though she had always feared he
+might consider himself the aggrieved party, had hardly expected so
+much proud irritation and so little regret.  Mr. Kendal called him
+'foolish boy,' and tried to put the matter aside, but he was much
+hurt, and Ulick put himself decidedly in the wrong by passing in the
+street with a formal bow, when Mr. Kendal, according to his purpose
+of ordinary civility without an open rupture, would have shaken
+hands.
+
+Sophy looked white, stern, and cold, but said not a word; she
+deepened her father's displeasure quite sufficiently by her
+countenance.  His was grave disappointment in a youth whom he found
+less grateful than he thought he had a right to expect; hers was the
+rankling of what she deemed an insult to her sister, and the
+festering of a wound of which she was ashamed.  She meant to bear it
+well, but it made her very hard and rigid, and even the children
+could hardly extract a smile from her.  She seemed to have made a
+determination to do all that Lucy or herself had ever done, and more
+too, and listened to no entreaties to spare herself.  Commands were
+met with sullen resignation, entreaties were unavailing, and both in
+the sickroom and the parish, she insisted on working beyond her
+powers.  It was a nightly battle to send her to bed, and Albinia
+suspected that she did not sleep.  Meantime Lucy had sailed, and was
+presently heard of in a whirl of excitement that shortened her
+letters, and made them joyous and self-important.
+
+'Ah!' said Sophy, 'she will soon forget that she ever had a home.'
+
+'Poor dear!  Wait till trouble comes, and she will remember it only
+too sadly,' sighed Albinia.
+
+'Trouble is certain enough,' said Sophy; 'but I don't think what we
+deserve does us much good.'
+
+Sophy could see nothing but the most ungentle and gloomy aspects.
+Gilbert had not yet written, and she was convinced that he was either
+very ill, or had only recovered to be killed at Inkermann, and she
+would only sigh at the Gazette that announced Lieutenant Gilbert
+Kendal's promotion to be Captain, and Major the Honourable Frederick
+Ferrars to be Lieutenant-Colonel.
+
+The day after, however, came the long expected letter from the
+captain himself.  It was to Mrs. Kendal, and she detected a shade of
+disappointment on her husband's face, so she would have handed it to
+him at once, but he said, 'No, the person to whom the letter is
+addressed, should always be the first to read it.'
+
+The letter began with Gilbert's happiness in those from home, which
+he called the greatest pleasure he had ever known.  He feared he had
+caused uneasiness by not writing sooner, but it had been out of his
+power while Fred Ferrars was in danger.  Then followed the account of
+the severe illness from which Fred was scarcely beginning to rally,
+though that morning, on hearing that he was to be sent home as soon
+as he could move, he had talked about Canada and Emily.  Gilbert said
+that not only time but strength had been wanting for writing, for
+attendance on Fred had been all that he could attempt, since moving
+produced so much pain and loss of breath, that he had been forced to
+be absolutely still whenever he was not wanted, but he was now much
+better.  'Though,' he continued, 'I do not now mind telling you that
+I had thought myself gone.  You, who have known all my feelings, and
+have borne with them so kindly, will understand the effect upon me,
+when on the night previous to the 25th, I distinctly heard my own
+name, in Edmund's voice, at the head of my bed, just as he used to
+call me when he had finished his lessons, and wanted me to come out
+with him.  As I started up, I heard it again outside the tent.  I ran
+to the door, but of course there was nothing, nor did poor Wynne hear
+anything.  I lay awake for some time, but slept at last, and had
+forgotten all by morning.  It did not even occur to me when I saw the
+pleasant race they had cut out for us, nor through the whole affair.
+Do not ask me to describe it, the scene haunts me enough.  When I
+found that I had not come off unhurt, and it seemed as if I could not
+ask for one of our fellows but to hear he was dead or dying, poor
+Wynne among them, then the voice seemed a summons.  I was thoroughly
+done up, and could not even speak when General Ferrars came to me; I
+only wanted to be let alone to die in peace.  I fancy I slept, for
+the next thing I heard was the Major's voice asking for some water,
+too feebly to wake the fellow who had been left in charge.  I got up,
+and found him in a state of high fever and great pain, and from that
+time to the present, I have hardly thought of the circumstance, and
+know not why I have now written it to you.  Did my danger actually
+bring Edmund nearer, or did its presence act on my imagination?  Be
+that as it may, I think, after the first impression of awe and
+terror, the having heard the dear old voice braced me, and gave me a
+sense of being near home and less lonely.  Not that my hurt has been
+for an instant dangerous, and I am mending every day; if it were
+warmer I should get on faster, but I cannot stir into the air without
+bringing on cough.  Tell Ulick O'More that we entertained his brother
+at tea last evening, we were obliged to desire him to bring his own
+cup, and he produced the shell of a land tortoise; it was very like
+the fox and the crane.  Poor fellow, it was the first good meal he
+had for weeks, and I was glad he came in for some famous bread that
+the General had sent us in.  He made us much more merry than was
+convenient to either of us, not being in condition for laughing.  He
+is a fine lad, and liked by all.'  Then came a break, and the letter
+closed with such tidings of Inkermann as had reached the invalid's
+tent.
+
+A few lines from General Ferrars spoke of the improvement in both
+patients, adding that Fred had had a hard struggle for his life, and
+had only been saved, by Gilbert's unremitting care by day and night.
+
+Heroism had not transformed Gilbert, and Albinia's old fondness
+glowed with double ardour as she mused over his history of the
+battle-eve.  His father attributed the impression to a mind full of
+presage and excitement, acted upon by strong memory; but woman-like,
+Albinia preferred the belief that the one twin might have been an
+actual messenger to cheer and strengthen the other for the coming
+trial.  Sophy only said, 'Gilbert's fancies as usual.'
+
+'This was not like fancy,' said Albinia.  'This is an unkind way of
+taking it.'
+
+'It is common sense,' she bluntly answered.  'I don't see why he
+should think that Edmund has nothing better to do than to call him.
+It would be childish.'
+
+Albinia did not reply, disturbed by this display of jealousy and
+harshness, as if every bud of tenderness had been dried up and
+withered, and poor Sophy only wanted to run counter to any obvious
+sentiment.
+
+Albinia was grateful for the message which gave her an excuse for
+seeking Ulick out, and endeavouring to conciliate him.  Mr. Kendal
+made no objection, and expressed a hope that he might have become
+reasonable.  She therefore contrived to waylay him in the November
+darkness, holding out her hand so that he took it at unawares, as if
+not recollecting that he was offended, but in the midst his grasp
+relaxed, and his head went up.
+
+'I have a message for you from Gilbert about your brother Bryan,' she
+said, and he could not defend himself from manifesting eager
+interest, as she told of the tea-party; but that over, it was in
+stiff formal English that he said, 'I hope you had a good account.'
+
+It struck a chill, and she answered, almost imploringly, 'Gilbert is
+much better, thank you.'
+
+'I am glad to hear it;' and he was going to bow and pass on, when she
+exclaimed,
+
+'Ulick, why are we strangers?'
+
+'It was agreed on all hands that things past could not be undone,' he
+frigidly replied.
+
+'Too true,' she said; 'but I do not think you know how sorry we are
+for my poor little boy's foolish trick.'
+
+'I owe no displeasure to Maurice.  He knew no more what he was doing
+than if he had been a gust of wind; but if the wind had borne a
+private paper to my feet, I would never have acted on the contents.'
+
+'Unhappily,' said Albinia, 'some revelations, though received against
+our will, cannot help being felt.  We saw the drawing before we knew
+how he came by it, and you cannot wonder that it gave pain to find
+that a scene so distressing to us should have furnished you with
+amusement.  It was absurd in itself, but we had hoped it was a
+secret, and it wounded us because we thought you would have been
+tender of our feelings.'
+
+'You don't mean that it was fact!' cried Ulick, stopping suddenly;
+and as her silence replied, he continued, 'I give you my word and
+honour that I never imagined there was a word of truth in the farrago
+old Biddy told me, and I'll not deny that I did scrawl the scene down
+as the very picture of a bit of slander.  I only wonder I'd not
+brought it to yourself.'
+
+'Pray let me hear what she told you.'
+
+'Oh! she said they two had been colloguing together by moonlight, and
+you came home in the midst, and Miss Kendal fainted away, so he
+catches up the ink and throws it over her instead of water, and you
+and Mr. Kendal came in and were mad entirely; and Mr. Kendal
+threatened to brain him with the poker if he did not quit it that
+instant, and sent Gilbert for a soldier for opening the door to him,
+but you and Lucy went down on your bare knees to get him to relent.'
+
+'Well, I own the poker does throw an air of improbability over the
+whole.  Minus that and the knees, I am afraid it is only too true.
+I suppose it got abroad through the servants.'
+
+'It was an unlucky goose-quill that lay so handy,' exclaimed Ulick;
+'but you may credit me, no eye but my own ever saw the scrawl, nor
+would have seen it.'
+
+'Then, Ulick, if we all own that something is to be regretted, why do
+we stand aloof, and persist in quarrelling?'
+
+'I want no quarrel,' said Ulick, stiffly.  'Mr. Kendal intimated to
+me that he did not wish for my company, and I'm not the man to force
+it.'
+
+'Oh, Ulick, this is not what I hoped from you!'
+
+'I'll tell you what, Mrs. Kendal, you could talk over the Giant's
+Causeway if you had a mind,' said Ulick, with much agitation; 'but
+you must not talk over me, for your own judgment would be against it.
+You know what I am, and what I came of, and what have I in the world
+except the honour of a gentleman?  Mr. Kendal and yourself have been
+my kindest friends, and I'll be grateful to my dying day; but if Mr.
+Kendal thinks I can submit tamely when he resents what he never ought
+to have noticed, why, then, what have I to do but to show him the
+difference?  If his kindness was to me as a gentleman and his equal,
+I love and bless him for it, but if it be a patronizing of the poor
+clerk, why, then, I owe it to myself and my people to show that I can
+stand alone, without cringing, and being thankful for affronts.'
+
+'Did it ever occur to you to think whether pride be a sin?'
+
+''Tis not pride!' cried Ulick.  It is my duty to my family and my
+name.  You'd say yourself, as you allowed before now, that it would
+be mere meanness and servility to swallow insults for one's own
+profit; and if I were to say "you're welcome, with many thanks, to
+shuffle over my private papers, and call myself to account," I'd
+better have given up my name at once, for I'd have left the gentleman
+behind me.'
+
+'I do believe it is solely for the O'Mores that you are making a duty
+of implacability!'
+
+'It is a duty not to run from one's word, and debase oneself for
+one's own advantage.'
+
+'One would think some wonderful advantage was held out to you.'
+
+'The pleasantest hours of my life,' murmured he sadly, under his
+breath.
+
+'Well, Ulick,' she said, holding out her hand, 'I'm not quite
+dissatisfied; I think some day even an O'More will see that there is
+no exception from the law of forgiveness in their special favour, and
+that you will not be able to go on resenting what we have suffered
+from the young of the spider-monkey.'
+
+Even this allusion produced no outward effect; he only shook hands
+gravely, saying, 'I never did otherwise than forgive, and regret the
+consequences: I am very thankful for all your past kindness.'
+
+Worse than the Giant's Causeway, thought Albinia as she parted from
+him.  Nothing is so hopeless as that sort of forgiveness, because it
+satisfies the conscience.
+
+Mr. Kendal predicted that, the Keltic dignity having been asserted,
+good sense and principle would restore things to a rational footing.
+What this meant might be uncertain, but he certainly missed
+Prometheus, and found Maurice a poor substitute.  Indulgence itself
+could hardly hold out in unmitigated intercourse with an obstreperous
+dunce not seven years old, and Maurice, deprived of Gilbert, cut off
+from Ulick, with mamma busy, and Sophy out of spirits, underwent more
+snubbing than had ever yet fallen to his lot.  Not that he was much
+concerned thereat; and Mr. Kendal would resume his book after a
+lecture upon good manners, and then be roused to find his library a
+gigantic cobweb, strings tied to every leg of table or chair, and
+Maurice and the little Awk enacting spider and fly, heedless of the
+unwilling flies who might suffer by their trap.  Such being the case,
+his magnanimity was the less amazing when he said, 'Albinia, there is
+no reason that O'More should not eat his Christmas dinner here.'
+
+'Very well.  I trust he will not think it needful still to be
+self-denying.'
+
+'It is not our part to press advances which are repelled,' said
+Sophy.
+
+'Indeed, Sophy,' said her father, smiling, 'I see nothing attractive
+in the attitude of rocks rent asunder.'
+
+The undesigned allusion must have gone deep, for she coloured to a
+purple crimson, and said in a freezing tone, 'I thought you
+considered that to take him up again would be a direct insult to Lucy
+and her husband.'
+
+'They do not show much consideration for us,' said Mr. Kendal.  'How
+long ago was the date of her last letter?'
+
+'Nearly three weeks,' said Albinia.  'Poor child, how could she write
+with the catalogue raisonnee of the Louvre to learn by heart?'
+
+The Dusautoys yearly gave a Christmas tea-party to the teachers in
+the Sunday-school, who had of late become more numerous, as Mr.
+Dusautoy's influence had had more time to tell.  Mrs. Kendal was
+reckoned on as one of the chief supporters of the gaiety of the
+evening, but on this occasion she was forced to send Sophia alone.
+
+Sophy regarded it as a duty and a penance, and submitted the more
+readily because it was so distasteful.  It was, however, more than
+she had reckoned on to find that the party had been extended to the
+male teachers, an exceedingly good and lugubrious-looking youth
+lately apprenticed to Mr. Bowles, and Ulick O'More.  It was the first
+time she had met the latter since his offence.  She avoided seeing
+him as long as possible, though all his movements seemed to thrill
+her, and so confused the conversation which she was trying to keep
+up, that she found herself saying that Genevieve Durant had lost an
+arm, and that Gilbert would spend Christmas in London.
+
+She felt him coming nearer; she knew he was passing the Miss
+Northover in the purple silk and red neck-ribbon; she heard him
+exchanging a few civil words with the sister with the hair strained
+off her face; she knew he was coming; she grew more eager in her
+fears for Mr. Rainsforth's chest.
+
+Tea was announced.  Sophy held back in the general move, Ulick made a
+step nearer, their eyes met, and if ever eyes spoke, hers ordered him
+to keep his distance, while he glanced affront for affront, bowed and
+stepped back.
+
+Sophy sat by Miss Jane Northover, and endeavoured to make her talk.
+Anything would have been better than the echoes of the sprightliness
+at the lower end of the table, where Ulick was talking what he would
+have called blarney to Miss Susan Northover and Miss Mary Anne
+Higgins, both at once, till he excited them into a perpetual giggle.
+Mr. Dusautoy was delighted, and evidently thought this brilliant
+success; Mrs. Dusautoy was less at her ease--the mirth was less sober
+and more exclusive than she had intended; and Sophy, finding nothing
+could be made of Miss Jane, turned round to her other neighbour, Mr.
+Hope, and asked his opinion of the Whewell and Brewster controversy
+on the Plurality of Worlds.
+
+Mr. Hope had rather a good opinion of Miss Sophia, and as she had
+never molested him, could talk to her, so he straightway became
+engrossed in the logical and theological aspects of the theory; and
+Mrs. Dusautoy could hardly suppress her smile at this unconscious
+ponderous attempt at a counter flirtation, with Saturn and Jupiter as
+weapons for light skirmishing.
+
+Ulick received the invitation to dinner, and did not accept it.  He
+said he had an engagement--Albinia wondered what it could be, and had
+reason afterwards to think that he had the silent young apothecary to
+a Christmas dinner in his own rooms--an act of charity at least, if
+not of forgiveness.  Mr. Johns, the senior clerk, whose health had
+long been failing, was about to retire, and this announcement was
+followed by the appearance of a smart, keen-looking young man of six
+or seven-and-twenty, whom Miss Goldsmith paraded as her cousin, Mr.
+Andrew Goldsmith, and it was generally expected that he would be
+taken into partnership, and undertake old John's work, but in a
+fortnight he disappeared, and young O'More was promoted to the vacant
+post with an increase of salary.  It was mortifying only to be
+informed through Mr. Dusautoy, instead of by the lad himself.
+
+The Eastern letters were the chief comfort.  First came tidings that
+Gilbert, not having yet recovered his contusion, was to accompany
+Colonel Ferrars to Scutari, and then after a longer interval came a
+brief and joyous note--Gilbert was coming home!  On his voyage from
+the Crimea he had caught cold, and this had brought on severe
+inflammation on the injured chest, which had laid him by for many
+days at Scutari.  The colonel had become the stronger of the two, in
+spite of a fragment of shell lodged so deeply in the side, that the
+medical board advised his going to London for its removal.  Both were
+ordered home together with six months' leave, and Gilbert's note
+overflowed with glad messages to all, including Algernon, of whose
+departure he was still in ignorance.
+
+Mr. Kendal knew not whether he was most gratified or discomfited by
+the insinuating ringer who touched his hat, hoping for due notice of
+the captain's arrival in time to welcome him with a peal of bells.
+Indeed, Bayford was so excited about its hero, that there were
+symptoms of plans for a grand reception with speeches, cheers, and
+triumphal arches, which caused Sophy to say she hoped that he would
+come suddenly without any notice, so as to put a stop to all that
+nonsense; while Albinia could not help nourishing a strange vague
+expectation that his return would be the beginning of better days.
+
+At last, Sophia, with a touch of the old penny club fever, toiled
+over the school clothing wilfully and unnecessarily for two hours,
+kept up till evening without owning to the pain in her back, but
+finally returned so faint and dizzy that she was forced to be carried
+helpless to her room, and the next day could barely drag herself to
+the couch in the morning-room, where she lay quite prostrated, and
+grieved at increasing instead of lessening her mother's cares.
+
+'Oh, mamma, don't stay with me.  You are much too busy.'
+
+'No, I am not.  The children are out, and grandmamma asleep, and I am
+going to write to Lucy, but there's no hurry.  Let me cool your
+forehead a little longer.'
+
+'How I hate being another bother!'
+
+'I like you much better so, than when you would not let me speak to
+you, my poor child.'
+
+'I could not,' she said, stifling her voice on the cushion, and
+averting her head; but in a few moments she made a great effort, and
+said, 'You think me unforgiving, mamma.  It was not entirely that.
+It was hating myself for an old fancy, a mere mistake.  I have got
+over it; and I will not be in error again.'
+
+'Sophy dear, if you find strength in pride, it will only wound
+yourself.'
+
+'I do not think I am proud,' said Sophy, quietly.  'I may have been
+headstrong, but I despise myself too much for pride.'
+
+'Are you sure it was mere fancy?  It was an idea that occurred to
+more than to you.'
+
+'Hush!' cried Sophy.  'Had it been so, could he have ridiculed Lucy?
+Could he have flown out so against papa?  No; that caricature
+undeceived me, and I am thankful.  He treated us as cousins--no
+more--he would act in the same manner by any of the Miss O'Mores of
+Ballymakilty, nay, by Jane Northover herself.  We did not allow for
+Irish manner.'
+
+'If so, he had no right to do so.  I shall never wish to see him here
+again.'
+
+'No, mamma, he did not know the folly he had to deal with.  Next time
+I meet him, I shall know how to be really indifferent.  Now, this is
+the last time we will mention the subject!'
+
+Albinia obeyed, but still hoped.  It was well that hope remained, for
+her task was heavier than ever; Mrs. Meadows was feebler, but more
+restless and wakeful, asking twenty times in an hour for Mrs. Kendal.
+The doctors thought it impossible that she should hold out another
+fortnight, but she lived on from day to day, and at times Albinia
+hardly could be absent from her for ten minutes together.  Sophy was
+so completely knocked up that she could barely creep about the house,
+and was forbidden the sick-room; but she was softened and gentle, and
+was once more a companion to her father, while eagerly looking
+forward to devoting herself to Gilbert.
+
+A letter with the Malta post-mark was eagerly opened, as the
+harbinger of his speedy arrival.
+
+
+                                        'Royal Hotel, Malta,
+                                            February 10th, 1855.
+
+'Dearest Mrs. Kendal,
+
+'I am afraid you will all be much disappointed, though your grief
+cannot equal mine at the Doctor's cruel decree.  We arrived here the
+day before yesterday, but I had been so ill all the voyage with pain
+in the side and cough, that there was no choice but to land, and call
+in Dr.----, who tells me that my broken rib has damaged my lungs so
+much, that I must keep perfectly quiet, and not think of going home
+till warm weather.  If I am well enough to join by that time, I shall
+not see you at all unless you and my father could come out.  Am I
+nourishing too wild a hope in thinking it possible?  Since Lucy has
+been so kind as to promise never to leave grandmamma, I cannot help
+hoping you might be spared.  I do not think my proposal is selfish,
+since my poor grandmother is so little conscious of your cares; and
+Ferrars insists on remaining with me till he sees me in your hands,
+though they say that the splinter must be extracted in London, and
+every week he remains here is so much suffering, besides delaying his
+expedition to Canada.  I have entreated him to hasten on, but he will
+not hear of it.  He is like a brother or a father to me, and nurses
+me most tenderly, when he ought to be nursed himself.  We are
+famishing for letters.  I suppose all ours have gone up to Balaklava,
+and thence will be sent to England.  If we were but there!  We are
+both much better for the quiet of these two days, and are to move
+to-morrow to a lodging that a friend of Fred's has taken for us at
+Bormola, so as to be out of the Babel of these streets--we stipulated
+that it should be large enough to take in you and my father.  I wish
+Sophy and the children would come too--it would do them all the good
+in the world; and Maurice would go crazy among the big guns; I am
+only afraid we should have him enlisting as a drummer.  The happy
+pair would be very glad to have the house to themselves, and would
+persuade themselves that it was another honeymoon.
+
+'Good-bye.  Instead of looking for a letter, I shall come down to
+meet you at the Quarantine harbour.  Love to all.
+
+                                      'Your most affectionate
+                                           'GILBERT KENDAL.'
+
+
+How differently Gilbert wrote when really ill, from his desponding
+style when he only fancied himself so, thought Albinia, as, perplexed
+and grieved, she handed the letter to her husband, and opened the
+enclosure, written in the laboured, ill-formed characters of a left-hand
+not yet accustomed to doing the offices of both.
+
+
+'Dear Albinia,
+
+'Come, if possible.  His heart is set upon it, though he does not
+realize his condition, and I cannot bear to tell him.  Only the
+utmost care can save him.  I am doing my best for him, but my nursing
+is as left-handed as my writing.
+
+                                           'Ever yours,
+                                               'F.F.'
+
+
+His wife's look of horror was Mr. Kendal's preparation for this
+emphatic summons, perhaps a shock less sudden to him than to her, for
+he had not been without misgivings ever since he had heard of the
+situation of the injury.  He read and spoke not, till the silence
+became intolerable, and she burst out almost with a scream, 'Oh!
+Edmund, I knew not what I did when I took grandmamma into this
+house!'
+
+'This is very perplexing,' he said, his feelings so intense that he
+dared only speak of acting; 'I must set out to-night.'
+
+'Order me to come with you,' she said breathlessly.  'That will
+cancel everything else.'
+
+'Would Mrs. Drury take charge of her aunt?' said he, with a moment's
+hesitation; and Albinia felt it implied his impression that they were
+bound by her repeated promises never to quit the invalid, but she
+only spoke the more vehemently--
+
+'Mrs Drury?  She might--she would, under the circumstances.  She
+could not refuse.  If you desire me to come, I should not be doing
+wrong; and grandmamma might never even miss me.  Surely--oh surely, a
+young life, full of hope and promise, that may yet be saved, is not
+to be set against what cannot be prolonged more than a few weeks.'
+
+'As to that,' said Mr. Kendal, in the deliberate tone which denoted
+dissatisfaction, 'though of course it would be the greatest blessing
+to have you with us, I think you may trust Gilbert to my care.  And
+we must consider poor Sophia.'
+
+'She could not bear to be considered.'
+
+'No; but it would be leaving her in a most distressing position, when
+she is far from well, and with most uncongenial assistants.  You see,
+poor Gilbert reckons on Lucy being here, which would make it very
+different.  But think of poor Sophia in the event of Mrs. Meadows not
+surviving till our return!'
+
+'You are right!  It would half kill her!  My promise was sacred; I
+was a wretch to think of breaking it.  But when I think of my boy--my
+Gilbert pining for me, and I deserting him--'
+
+'For the sake of duty,' said her husband.  'Let us do right, and
+trust that all will be overruled for the best.  I shall go with an
+easier mind if I leave you with the other children, and I can be the
+sooner with him.'
+
+'I could travel as fast.'
+
+'I may soon bring him home to you.  Or you might bring the others to
+join us in the south of France.  You will all need change.'
+
+The decision was made, and her judgment acquiesced, though she could
+hardly have cast the balance for herself.  She urged no more, even
+when relentings came over her husband at the thought of the trials to
+which he was leaving her, and of those which he should meet in
+solitude; yet not without a certain secret desire to make himself
+sufficient for the care and contentment of his own son.  He cast
+about for all possible helpers for her, but could devise nothing
+except a note entreating her brother to be with her as much as
+possible, and commending her to the Dusautoys.  It was a less decided
+kindness that he ordered Maurice's pony to be turned out to grass, so
+as to prevent rides in solitude, thinking the boy too young to be
+trusted, and warned by the example of Gilbert's temptations.
+
+Going up to the bank to obtain a supply of gold, he found young
+O'More there without his uncle.  The tidings of Gilbert's danger had
+spread throughout the town, and one heart at least was softened.
+Ulick wrung the hand that lately he would not touch, and Mr. Kendal
+forgot his wrath as he replied to the warm-hearted inquiry for
+particulars.
+
+'Then Mrs. Kendal cannot go with you?'
+
+'No, it is impossible.  There is no one able to take charge of Mrs.
+Meadows.'
+
+'Ah! and Mrs. Cavendish Dusautoy is gone!  I grieve for the hour when
+my pen got the better of me.  Mr. Kendal, this is worse than I
+thought.  Your son will never forgive me when he knows I'm at the
+bottom of his disappointment.'
+
+'There is something to forgive on all hands,' said Mr. Kendal.  'That
+meddlesome boy of mine has caused worse results than we could have
+contemplated.  I believe it has been a lesson to him.'
+
+'I know it has to some one else,' said Ulick.  'I wish I could do
+anything!  It would be the greatest comfort you could give me to tell
+me of a thing I could do for Gilbert or any of you.  If you'd send me
+to find Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy, and tell him 'twas all my fault, and
+bring them back--'
+
+'Rather too wild a project, thank you,' said Mr. Kendal, smiling.
+'No; the only thing you could do, would be--if that boy of mine have
+not completely forfeited your kindness--'
+
+'Maurice!  Ah! how I have missed the rogue.'
+
+'Poor little fellow, I am afraid he may be a burthen to himself and
+every one else.  It would be a great relief if you could be kind
+enough now and then to give him the pleasure of a walk.'
+
+Maurice did not attend greatly to papa's permission to go out with
+Mr. O'More.  Either it was clogged with too many conditions of
+discretion, and too many reminiscences of the past; or Maurice's mind
+was too much bent on the thought of his brother.  Both children
+haunted the packing up, entreating to send out impossible presents.
+Maurice could hardly be persuaded out of contributing a perilous-looking
+boomerang, which he argued had some sense in it; while he scoffed at the
+little Awk, who stood kissing and almost crying over the china
+countenance of her favourite doll, entreating that papa would take
+dear Miss Jenny because Gibbie loved her the best of all, and always
+put her to sleep on his knees.  At last matters were compromised by
+Sophy, who roused herself to do one of the few things for which she
+had strength, engrossing them by cutting out in paper an interminable
+hunt with horses and dogs adhering together by the noses and tails,
+which, when brilliantly painted according to their united taste, they
+might safely imagine giving pleasure to Gilbert, while, at any rate,
+it would do no harm in papa's pocket-book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+
+The day after Mr. Kendal's departure, Mrs. Meadows had another
+attack, but a fortnight still passed before the long long task was
+over and the weary spirit set free.  There had been no real
+consciousness and no one could speak of regret; of anything but
+relief and thankfulness that release had come at last, when Albinia
+had redeemed her pledge and knew she should no more hear of the
+dreary 'very bad night,' nor be greeted by the low, restless moan.
+The long good-night was come, and, on the whole, there was peace and
+absence of self-condemnation in looking back on the past connexion.
+Forbearance and unselfishness were recompensed by the calm tenderness
+with which she could regard one who at the outset had appeared likely
+to cause nothing but frets and misunderstandings.
+
+Had she and Sophy been left to themselves, there would have been
+nothing to break upon this frame of mind, but early the next day
+arrived Mr. and Mrs. Drury, upsetting all her arrangements, implying
+that it had been presumptuous to exert any authority without
+relationship.  It did seem hard that the claims of kindred should be
+only recollected in order to unsettle her plans, and offend her
+unostentatious tastes.
+
+Averse both to the proposals, and to the discussion, she felt
+unprotected and forlorn, but her spirit revived as she heard her
+brother's voice in the hall, and she hastened to put herself in his
+hands.  He declined doing battle, he said it would be better to yield
+than to argue, and leave a grudge for ever.  'It will not vex
+Edmund,' he said, 'and though you and Sophy may be pained by
+incongruities, they will hurt you less than disputing.'
+
+She felt that he was right, and by yielding the main points he
+contrived amicably to persuade Mr. Drury out of the numerous
+invitations and grand luncheon as well as to adhere to the day that
+she had originally fixed for the funeral, after which he hoped to
+take her and the young ones home with him and give her the thorough
+change and rest of which the over-energy of her manner betrayed the
+need.
+
+Not that she consented.  She could not bear not to meet her letters
+at once; or suppose Edmund and Gilbert should return to an empty,
+unaired house, and she thought herself selfish, when it might do so
+much good to Sophy, &c., &c., &c.--till Mr. Ferrars, going home for a
+night, agreed with Winifred, that domineering would be the only way
+to deal with her.
+
+On his return he found Albinia on the stairs, and boxes and trunks
+carried down after her.  Running to him, she exclaimed, abruptly, 'I
+am going to Malta, Maurice, to-morrow evening!'
+
+'Has Edmund sent for you?'
+
+'Not exactly--he did not know--but Gilbert is dying, and wretched at
+my not coming.  I never wished him good-by--he thinks I did not
+forgive him.  Don't say a word--I shall go.'
+
+He held her trembling hands, and said, 'This is not the way to be
+able to go.  Come in here, sit down and tell me.'
+
+'It is no use to argue.  It is my duty now,' said Albinia; but she
+let him lead her into the room, where Sophy was changing the bright
+border of a travelling-cloak to crape, and Maurice stood watching, as
+if stunned.
+
+'It is settled,' continued she, rapidly.  'Sophy and the children go
+to the vicarage.  Yes, I know, you are very kind, but Maurice would
+be troublesome, and Winifred is not well enough, and the Dusautoys
+wish it.'
+
+'Yes, that may be the best plan, as I shall be absent.'
+
+She turned round, startled.
+
+'I cannot let you go alone.'
+
+'Nonsense--Winifred--Sunday--Lent--I don't want any one.  Nothing
+could happen to me.'
+
+Mr. Ferrars caught Sophy's eye beaming with sudden relief and
+gratitude, and repeated, 'If you go, I must take you.'
+
+'I can't wait for Sunday,' she said.
+
+'What have you heard?'
+
+She produced the letter, and read parts of it.  The whole stood
+thus:--
+
+
+                                               'Bormola,
+                                       11 p.m., February 28th, 1855.
+'Dearest Albinia,
+
+'I hope all has gone fairly well with you in my absence, and that
+Sophia is well again.  Could I have foreseen the condition of affairs
+here, I doubt whether I could have resolved on leaving you at home,
+though you may be spared much by not being with us.  I landed at noon
+to-day, and was met in the harbour by your cousin, who had come off
+in a boat in hopes of finding you on board.  He did his best to
+prepare me for Gilbert's appearance, but I was more shocked than I
+can express.  There can no longer be any doubt that it is a case of
+rapid decline, brought on by exposure, and, aggravated by the injury
+at Balaklava.  Colonel Ferrars fancies that Gilbert's exertions on
+his behalf in the early part of his illness may have done harm, by
+preventing the broken bone from uniting, and causing it to press on
+the lungs; but knowing the constitutional tendency, we need not dwell
+on secondary causes, and there is no one to whom we owe a deeper debt
+of gratitude than to your cousin, for his most assiduous and
+affectionate attendance at a time when he is very little equal to
+exertion.  They are like brothers together, and I am sure nothing has
+been wanting to Gilbert that he could devise for his comfort.  They
+are in a tolerably commodious airy lodging, where I found Gilbert
+propped up with cushions on a large chair by the window, flushed with
+eager watching.  Poor fellow, to see how his countenance fell when he
+found I was alone, was the most cutting reproach I ever received in
+my life.  He was so completely overcome, that he could not restrain
+his tears, though he strove hard to command himself in this fear of
+wounding my feelings; but there are moments when the truth will have
+its way, and you have been more to him than his father has ever been.
+May it be granted that he may yet know how I feel towards him!  His
+first impression was that you had never forgiven him for his
+unfortunate adventure with Maurice, and could never feel towards him
+as before; and though I trust I have removed this idea, perhaps such
+a letter as you can write might set his heart at rest.  Ferrars says
+that hitherto his spirits have kept up wonderfully, though latterly
+he had been evidently aware of his condition, but he has been very
+much depressed this evening, probably from the reaction of excited
+expectation.  On learning the cause of Lucy's desertion, he seemed to
+consider that his participation in the transactions of that night had
+recoiled upon himself, and deprived him of your presence.  It was
+very painful to see how he took it.  He was eager to be told of the
+children, and the only time I saw him brighten was when I gave him
+their messages.  I am writing while I hope he sleeps.  I am glad to
+be here to relieve the Colonel, who for several nights past has slept
+on the floor, in his room, not thinking the Maltese servant
+trustworthy.  He looks very ill and suffering, but seems to have no
+thought but for Gilbert, and will not hear of leaving him; and, in
+truth, they cling together so affectionately, that I could not bear
+to urge their parting, even were Fred more fit to travel home alone.
+I will close my letter to-morrow after the doctor's visit.'
+
+
+The conclusion was even more desponding; the physician had spoken of
+the case as hopeless, and likely to terminate rapidly; and Gilbert,
+who was always at the worst in the morning, had shown no symptom that
+could lead his father to retract his first impression.
+
+Mr. Ferrars saw that it would be useless and cruel to endeavour to
+detain his sister, and only doubted whether in her precipitation, she
+might not cross and miss her husband in a still sadder journey
+homeward, and this made him the more resolved to be her escort.  When
+she dissuaded him vehemently as though she were bent on doing
+something desperate, he replied that he was anxious about Fred, and
+if she and her husband were engrossed by their son, he should be of
+service in bringing him home; and this somewhat reconciled her to
+what was so much to her benefit.  Only she gave notice that he must
+not prevent her from travelling day and night, to which he made no
+answer, while Sophy hoarsely said that but for knowing herself to be
+a mere impediment, she should have insisted on going, and her uncle
+must not keep mamma back.  Then Maurice imitatively broke out,
+'Mamma, take me to Gilbert, I wont be a plague, I promise you.'  He
+was scarcely silenced before Mr. Dusautoy came striding in to urge on
+her that Fanny and himself should be much happier if he were
+permitted to conduct Mrs. Kendal to Malta (the fact being that Fanny
+was persuaded that Mr. Ferrars would obviate such necessity).
+Albinia almost laughed, as she had declared that she had set all the
+parsons in the country in commotion, and Mr. Dusautoy was obliged to
+limit his good offices to the care of the children, and the
+responsibility of the Fairmead Sunday services.
+
+The good hard-worked brother had hardly time to eat his luncheon,
+before he started to inform his wife, and prepare for his journey.
+Winifred was a very good sister on an emergency; she had not once
+growled since poor Mrs. Meadows had been really ill; and though she
+had been feeding on hopes of Albinia's visit, and was far from
+strong, she quashed her husband's misgivings, and cheerily strove to
+convince him that he would be wanted by no one, least of all by
+herself.  A slight vituperation of the polysyllabic pair was all the
+relief she permitted herself, and who could blame her for that, when
+even Mr. Dusautoy called the one 'that foolish fellow,' and the other
+'poor dear Lucy?'
+
+Albinia and Sophy safe over the fire that evening, after their
+sorrowful tasks unable to turn to anything else, wondering how and
+when they should meet again, and their words coming slowly, and with
+long intervals of silence.
+
+'Dear child,' said Albinia, 'promise me to take care of yourself, and
+to let Mrs. Dusautoy judge what you can do.'
+
+'I'm not worth taking care of,' muttered Sophy.
+
+'We think you worth our anxiety,' said Albinia, tenderly.
+
+'I will not make it worse for you,' meekly replied Sophy.  'I don't
+think I'm cross now, I could not be--'
+
+'No, indeed you are not, my dear.  We have leant on each other, and
+when we come home, you will make our welcome.'
+
+'The children will.'
+
+'Ah! I think Maurice will behave well.  He is very much subdued.  I
+told him he was to do no lessons, and he fairly burst out crying.'
+
+'Oh, mamma!' exclaimed Sophy, hurt, indignant, and nearly ready to
+follow his example.
+
+'I do not think he has mastery over himself, so as to help being
+unruly and idle, when he is chained to a spelling-book.  I would not
+for the world set him and you to worry each other for an hour a day,
+and I shall start afresh with him all the better, when he knows what
+absence of lessons is, and has forgotten all the old associations.'
+
+'How could you make him cry?' said Sophy, in reproach.
+
+'I believe the tears only wanted an excuse.  I _did_ put it on his
+naughtiness, which usually would have elated him; but his heart was
+so full as to make even a long holiday a punishment.  That boy often
+shows me what a thorough Kendal he is; things sink into him as they
+never did into us at the same age, when my aunts used to think I had
+no feeling.  Oh, Sophy! how will you comfort him?'
+
+'His will be an unstained sorrow,' said Sophy, from the depths of her
+heart.  'O, mamma, only tell Gilbert what you know I feel--no, you
+don't, no one can, but what I would not give, to change all I have
+felt towards him?  If I had been like Edmund, and prized his
+gentleness and sweetness, and the humility that was the best worth of
+all, how different it would be!  But I was proud of despising where
+truth was wanting.'
+
+'I should have thought I should have done the same,' said Albinia;
+but there was no keeping from loving Gibbie.  Besides, he was
+sincere, except when he was afraid, and he was miserable when he was
+deceiving.'
+
+'Yes, after you came,' said Sophy; 'but I believe I helped him to
+think truth disagreeable.  I showed my scorn for his want of
+boldness, instead of helping him.  Think of my having fancied _he_
+had no courage.'
+
+'Kindness taught him courage,' said Albinia.  'It might perhaps have
+earlier taught him moral courage.  If you and he could have leant
+against each other, and been fused together, you would have made
+something like what Edmund was, I suppose.'
+
+'I drove him off,' cried Sophy.  'I was no sister to him.  Will you
+bring me his forgiveness?'
+
+'Indeed I will; and you may feel sure of it already, dearest.  It
+will make you gentler all your life.'
+
+'No, I shall grow harder and harsher the longer I live, and the fewer
+I have to love me in spite of myself.'
+
+'I think not,' said Albinia.  'Humility will make your severity more
+gentle, and you will soften, and win love and esteem.'
+
+She looked up, but cried, 'I shall never make up to Gilbert nor to
+grandmamma!'
+
+Albinia felt it almost as hard to leave her as the two little ones.
+
+When once on her journey, and feeling each moment an advance towards
+the goal, Albinia was less unhappy than she could have thought
+possible; she trusted to her brother, and enjoyed the absence of
+responsibility, and while he let her go on, could give her mind to
+what pleased and interested him, and he, who was an excellent
+courier, so managed that there were few detentions to overthrow her
+equanimity on the way to Marseilles.
+
+But when the Vectis came in sight of the rocky isle, with its white
+stony heights, the heart-sickness of apprehension grew over her, and
+she saw, as in a mist, the noble crescent-shaped harbour, the stately
+ramparts, mighty batteries, the lofty terraces of flat-roofed
+dwellings, apparently rather hewn out of, than built on, the dazzling
+white stone, between the intense blue of the sky above and of the sea
+below.  Her eye roamed as in a dream over the crowds of gay boats
+with white awnings, and the motley crowds of English and natives, the
+boatmen screaming and fighting for the luggage, and beggars
+plaintively whining out their entreaties for small coins.  Her
+brother Maurice had been at Malta as a little boy, and remembered the
+habits of the place enough, as soon as they had set foot on shore, to
+secure a brown-skinned loiterer, in Phrygian cap, loose trousers, and
+crimson sash, to act as guide and porter.
+
+Along the Strada San Giovanni, a street of stairs, shut in by high
+stone walls, with doors opening on either side, they went not as fast
+as Albinia's quivering limbs would fain have moved, yet too fast when
+her breath came thick with anxiety--down again by the stone stairs
+called 'Nix Mangiare' (nothing to eat), from the incessant cry of the
+beggars that haunt them--then again in a boat, which carried them
+amid a strange world of shipping to the bottom of the dockyard creek,
+where, again landing, she was told she had but to ascend, and she
+would be at Bormola.
+
+She could have paused, in dread; and she leant heavily on her
+brother's arm when they presently turned up a lane, no broader than a
+passage, with low stone steps at irregular intervals.  They were
+come!
+
+The summons at the door was answered by a dark-visaged Maltese, and
+while Maurice was putting the question whether Colonel Ferrars and
+Captain Kendal lived here, a figure appeared on the stairs, and
+beckoned, ascending noiselessly with languid steps and slippered
+feet, and leading the way into a slightly furnished room, with green
+balcony and striped blind.  There he turned and held out his hand;
+but Albinia hardly recognised him till he said, 'I thought I heard
+your voice, Maurice;' and then the low subdued tone, together with
+the gaunt wasted form, haggard aged face, the long beard, and worn
+undress uniform, with the armless sleeve, made her so realize his
+sufferings, that, clasping his remaining hand in both her own, she
+could utter nothing but, 'Oh! Fred! Fred!'
+
+He looked at her brother with such inquiry, perplexity, and
+compassion, that almost in despair Maurice exclaimed, 'We are not too
+late!'
+
+'No, thank God!' said Frederick.  'We did hope you might come!  Sit
+down, Albinia; I'll--'
+
+'Edmund!  Is he there!' she said, scarcely alive to what was passing,
+and casting another expressively sorrowful look at Maurice, Fred
+answered, 'Yes, I will tell him: I will see if you can come in.'
+
+'Stay,' said Mr. Ferrars; 'she should compose herself, or she will
+only hurt herself and Gilbert.'
+
+'I don't know,' murmured Fred, hastily leaving them.
+
+Maurice understood that Gilbert was even then summoned by one who
+would brook no delays; but Albinia, too much agitated to notice
+slight indications, was about to follow, when her brother took her
+hand, and checked her like a child.  'Wait a minute, my dear, he will
+soon come back.'
+
+'Where's Edmund?  Why mayn't I go to Gilbert?' she said, still
+bewildered.
+
+'Fred is gone to tell them.  Sit down, my dear; take off your bonnet,
+you are heated, you will be better able to go to him, if you are
+quiet.'
+
+She passively submitted to be placed on a chair, and to remove her
+bonnet; and seeing some dressing apparatus through an open door,
+Maurice brought her some cold water to refresh her burning face.  She
+looked up with a smile, herself again.  'There thank you, Maurice: I
+wont be foolish now.'
+
+'God support you, my dear!' said her brother, for the longer the
+Colonel tarried, the worse were his forebodings.
+
+'Perhaps the doctor is there,' she proceeded.  'That will be well.
+Ask him everything, Maurice.  But oh! did you ever see any one so
+much altered as poor Fred!  He looks twenty years older!  Ah! I am
+quite good now!  I may go now!' she cried, as the door opened.
+
+But as Frederick returned, there was that written on his brow, which
+lifted her out of the childishness of her agitation.
+
+'My dear Albinia,' he said in a trembling voice, 'Mr. Kendal cannot
+leave him to come to you.  He has been much worse since last night,'
+and as her face showed that she was gathering his meaning, he pursued
+in a lower and more awe-struck tone: 'We think he is sensible, but we
+cannot tell.  It could not hurt him for you to come in, and perhaps
+he may know you, but are you able to bear it?  Is she, Maurice?'
+
+'Yes, I am,' she answered; and the calm firmness of her tone proved
+that she was a woman again.  Her hand shook less than did that of her
+cousin, as silently and reverently he took it, and led her into
+another room on the same floor.
+
+There, in the subdued light, she saw her husband, seated on the bed,
+holding in his arms his son, who lay lifted up and supported upon his
+breast, with head resting on his shoulder, and eyes closed.  There
+was no greeting, no sound save the long, heavily drawn, gasping
+breaths.  Mr. Kendal raised his eyes to her; she silently knelt down
+and took the wasted hand that lay helplessly on the coverlet, but it
+moved feebly from her as though harassed by the touch.
+
+'Gilbert, dear boy,' said his father, earnestly, 'she is come!  Speak
+to him, Albinia.'
+
+She hardly knew her own voice as she said, 'Gilbert, Gibbie dear,
+here I am.'
+
+Those large brown eyes were shown for a few moments beneath the heavy
+lids, and met hers.  The mouth, hitherto only gasping for air,
+endeavoured to form a word; the hand sought hers.  She kissed him,
+and his eyes opened wide and brightened, while he said, 'I think it
+is pardon now.'
+
+'Pardon indeed!' said his father, with a greater look of relief than
+Albinia understood, 'you are resting in His Merits.'
+
+Gilbert's look brightened, and he said, 'I know it now.'
+
+'Thank God,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+His eyes closed, and Fred whispered to the father, 'Maurice is here
+too.'
+
+Again the light woke in the eye, with almost a smile, the look that
+always welcomed the little brother; and Albinia grieved to say, 'Not
+little Maurice, though he longed to come; it is my brother.'  But the
+air of eagerness did not pass away, and he seemed satisfied when Mr.
+Ferrars came in.  It was as a priest, speaking words not his own; and
+Albinia and Fred knelt with him.  At the close of each prayer or
+psalm, Gilbert signed imploringly for more, even like our mighty
+dying queen; and at each short pause, the distressed agonized
+expression would again contract the brow, though in the sound of the
+holy words all was peace.  The Psalm of the Good Shepherd with the
+Rod and Staff in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, recurred so
+strongly to Maurice, that he repeated it like a cadence after each
+penitential supplication, every time bringing a look of peace to the
+countenance of the sufferer.
+
+They must have remained long thus, Fred had grown exhausted with
+kneeling and had been forced to sit on the floor, and Maurice's voice
+waxed low and hoarse; yet he durst not pause, though doubting whether
+Gilbert could follow the meaning.  At length the eyes were again
+raised.  With a start as of haste, Gilbert looked full at Albinia,
+and said, 'Thank you.  Tell Maurice--' He could not finish, and there
+was an agony for breath, then as his father raised him, he contrived
+to say, 'Father--mother--kiss me; it is forgiven!'
+
+Another look brought Fred to press his hand, and he smiled his
+thanks.
+
+There were a few more terrible minutes, from which they would fain
+have led away Albinia, but suddenly his brow grew smooth, his eyes
+were eagerly fixed as on something before him, and as if replying to
+a call, he said, 'Yes!' with a start and a quiver of all his limbs,
+and then--
+
+The first words were Mr. Kendal's.  'Edmund has come for him!'
+
+It was to the rest as if the father had been in some manner conscious
+of the presence of the one twin-brother, and, were resigning the
+other to his charge, for he calmly kissed the forehead, closed the
+eyes, laid down the form, he had so long held in his arms, and after
+a few moments on his knees, with his face hidden, in his hands, he
+rose with composure, and said to his wife, 'I am glad you were in
+time.'
+
+Had he given way, Albinia would have been strong, but there was no
+need to support to counteract the force of disappointment and grief,
+acting upon overwrought spirits, and a fatigued, exhausted frame.
+Were these half-conscious looks and broken words all she had come
+for, all she should ever have of Gilbert?  This was the moment's
+predominant sensation; she was past thinking; and though she still
+controlled herself, she cast a wild, piteous eye on her husband, and
+as he lifted her up, she sank on his breast, not fainting, not
+sobbing, but utterly prostrated, and needing all his support as he
+led her out, and laid her on a couch in the next room, speaking
+softly as if hoping his voice would restore her.  'We had some faint
+hope of you; we knew you would wish it, so you see all is ready.  But
+you have done too much, my dear: Maurice should not have let you
+travel so fast.'
+
+'No, no,' said Albinia, catching her breath.  'Oh! not to have come
+sooner!' and she gave way to a violent burst of tears, during which
+he fondled and soothed her till she suddenly said, 'I did not come
+here to behave in this way!  I came to help you!  Edmund, what shall
+I do?' and she would have started up.
+
+'Only lie still, and let me take care of you,' said he.  'Nothing
+could be to me like your coming,' and she was forced to believe his
+glistening eyes and voice of tenderness.
+
+'Can you keep quiet a little while,' said Mr. Kendal, wistfully,
+'while I go to speak to your brother?  It was very good in him to
+come!  Don't speak; I will come back directly.'
+
+She did lie still, for she was too much spent to move, and the
+silence was good for her; for if the overwhelming sensation of grief
+would sweep over her, on the other hand, there was the remembrance of
+the look of peace, and the perception that her husband was not as yet
+so struck to the earth as she had feared.  He was not long in
+returning, bringing some coffee for her and for himself, and speaking
+with the same dreamy serenity, though looking excessively pale.
+'Your brother told me to give you this,' he said.  'I am glad the
+colonel is under such care, for he is terribly distressed and not at
+all fit to bear it.  I could not make him go to bed all last night.'
+
+'You were up all last night, and many nights before,' said Albinia;
+'and all alone!  Oh! why was I not here to help!'
+
+'Fred was a great comfort,' said Mr. Kendal.  'I cannot describe my
+gratitude to him.  And dearest--' He paused, and added with
+hesitation, 'I do not now regret the having come out alone.  After
+the first disappointment, I think that my boy and I learnt to know
+each other better.  If he had left me nothing but the recollection
+that I had been too severe and unsympathizing to win his confidence,
+I hardly know how I could have borne it.'
+
+'He was able to talk to you, then?' cried Albinia.  'That was what I
+always wished!  Yes, it _was_ right, so it came right.  I had got
+between you as I ought not to have done, and it was well you should
+have him to yourself.'
+
+'Not as you ought not,' he fondly answered.  'You always were his
+better angel, and you came at last as a messenger of peace.  There
+was relief and hope from the moment that he knew you.'
+
+He told her what could scarcely have passed his lips save in those
+earlier hours of affliction.  It had been a time of grievous mental
+distress.  Neither natural temperament nor previous life had been
+such as to arm poor Gilbert to meet the King of Terrors; and as day
+by day he felt the cold grasp tightening on him, he had fluttered
+like a bird in the snare of the fowler, physically affrighted at the
+death-pang, shrinking from the lonely entrance into the unknown
+future, and despairing of the acceptableness of his own repentance.
+He believed that he had too often relapsed, and he could not take
+heart to grasp the hope of mercy and rest in the great atonement.
+The last Communion had been melancholy, the contrite spirit unable to
+lift itself up, and apparently only sunk the lower by the weight of
+love and gratitude, deepening the sense of how much had been
+disregarded.  There had since been a few hopeful gleams, but dimmed
+by bodily suffering and terror; and doubly mournful had been the
+weary hours of the night and morning, while he lay gasping away his
+life upon his father's breast.  Having at first taken the absence of
+his stepmother as a sign that she had not forgiven him, he had only
+laid aside this notion for a more morbid fancy that the deprivation
+was a token of wrath from above; and there could be little doubt that
+her final appearance was hailed as a seal of pardon not merely from
+her.  Her brother, who had raised him up after his last fall, was
+likewise the person above all others to bring the message of mercy to
+speed him to the Unseen, where, as his look and gesture had persuaded
+his father, his brother, or some yet more blessed one, had received
+and welcomed the frail and trembling spirit.
+
+That last farewell, that dawn of peace, so long prayed for, so
+ardently desired, had given Mr. Kendal such thankfulness and relief
+as sustained him, and enabled him to support his wife, who knew not
+how to meet her first home grief; whereas to him sorrow had long been
+a household guest more familiar than joy; and he was more at rest
+about his son than he had been for many a year.  He could dwell on
+him together with Edmund, instead of connecting him with shame,
+grief, and pain; though how little could he have borne to think that
+thus it would end, when in the springtime of his manhood he had
+rejoiced over his beautiful twin boys.
+
+He knew his son better than heretofore.  After the first day's
+disappointment, Gilbert had found him all-sufficient, and had rested
+on his tenderness.  All sternness had ceased on one side, all
+concealment on the other, and the sweetness of both characters had
+had full scope.  Gilbert's ardent love of home had shown itself in
+every word, and his last exertion, had been to write a long letter to
+his little brother, which had been completed and despatched by a
+private hand a few days previously.  He had desired that Maurice
+should have his sword, and mentioned the books which he wished his
+sisters to share, talking of Sophy as one whom he honoured much, and
+wished he had known better; but much pained by hearing nothing from
+Lucy, and lamenting his share in her union with Algernon.  He had
+said something about his wish that the almshouses should be built,
+but his father had turned away the subject, knowing that in case of
+his dying intestate and unmarried, the property was settled on the
+sisters, and seeing little chance of any such work being carried out
+with the co-operation of Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy.  Latterly he had
+spoken of Genevieve Durant; he knew better how unworthy of her he had
+been, and how harassing his pursuit must have appeared, but he could
+not help entreating that her pardon might be asked in his name, that
+she might hear that he had loved her to the last, and above all, that
+his father would never lose sight of her; and Mr. Kendal's promise to
+regard her as the next thing to his daughters had been requited with
+a look of the utmost gratitude and affection.
+
+This was the substance of what Mr. Kendal told his wife as they sat
+together, unwitting of the lapse of time, and shrinking from any
+interruption that might mar their present peace and renew the sense
+of bereavement.
+
+Mr. Ferrars was the first to knock at the door.  He had been doing
+his utmost to spare both them and Fred, who needed all his care.
+These four months of mutual dependence had been even more endearing
+than the rescue of Fred's life on the battlefield; and he declared
+that Gilbert had done him more good than any one else.  They had been
+so thrown together as to make the 'religious sentiment' of the
+younger tell upon the warm though thoughtless heart of the elder.
+They had been most fondly attached; and in his present state, reduced
+by wounds and exhausted by watching, Fred was more overpowered than
+those more closely concerned.  He could hardly speak collectedly when
+an officer of the garrison called to consult him with regard to a
+military funeral, and it was for this that Maurice was obliged to
+refer to the father.  There were indeed none of his regiment in the
+island, but there was a universal desire in the garrison to do honour
+to the distinguished young officer, for whom great interest had been
+felt and the compliment brought a glow of exultation to Mr. Kendal's
+face, as he expressed his warm thanks, but desired that the decision
+might rest with Fred himself, as his son's lieutenant-colonel.
+
+Maurice felt himself fully justified in his expedition when he found
+that all devolved on him, even writing to Sophy, and making the most
+necessary arrangements; for the colonel was incapable of exertion,
+Albinia was prostrated by the shock, and Mr. Kendal appeared to be
+lulled into a strange calm by the effects of the excessive bodily
+weariness consequent on the exhausting attendance of the last few
+days.  They all depended upon Mr. Ferrars, and recognised his
+presence as an infinite comfort.
+
+In the morning Albinia came forth like one who had been knocked down
+and shattered, weary and gentle, and with the tears ever welling into
+her eyes, above all when she endeavoured to write to Sophy; and she
+showed her ordinary earnestness only when she entreated to see her
+boy once more.  Her husband took her to look on the countenance
+settled into the expression of unearthly peace, but she was not
+satisfied; it was not her own Gilbert, boyish, sensitive, dependent,
+and shrinking.  The pale brow, the marked manly features, the lower
+ones concealed by the brown moustache, belonged to the hero who had
+dared the deadly ride and borne his friend through the storm of shot
+and shell; the noble, settled, steadfast face was the face of a
+stranger, and gave her a thrill of disappointment.  She gloried in
+the later Gilbert, but the last she had seen of him whom she loved
+for his weakness, had been when she had not heeded his farewell.
+
+It made the pang the less when evening came and he was carried to his
+resting-place.  They would have persuaded Frederick to spare himself,
+but as the only officer of the same corps, as well as for the sake of
+many closer ties, he would not hear of being absent, and made his
+cousin Maurice do his best to restore the smart soldierly air which
+he for the first time thought of regretting.
+
+Gilbert's horse had perished at Balaklava, but his cap, sword, and
+spurs, were laid on the coffin, and from her shaded window Albinia
+watched it borne between the files of soldiers with arms reversed;
+and the procession of officers whose bright array contrasted with the
+colonel's war-worn dress, ghastly cheek, and empty sleeve, tokens of
+the reality of war amid its pageantry, as all moved slowly away to
+the deep tones of the solemn Dead March, music well befitting the
+calm grandeur of the face she had seen, and leaving her heart
+throbbing with the deep exulting awe and pathos of a soldier's
+funeral.  She knelt alone, and followed the burial service in the
+stillness of the room overlooking the broad expanse of blue sea and
+sky; and by-and-by, through the window came the sound of the volley
+fired over the grave, the farewell of the army to the soldier at
+rest, his battles ended.
+
+'There was peace, and there was glory; but she could not divest
+herself of a sense of unreality.  She could not feel as if it were
+really and truly Gilbert, and she were mourning for him.  All was
+like a dream--that solemn military spectacle--the serene, grave
+sunshine on the fortress-harbour stretching its mailed arms into the
+sea--the roofs of the knightly old monastic city rising in steps from
+the bay crowded with white sails--and even those around her were
+different, her husband pale and still, as in a region above common
+life, and her cousin like another man, without his characteristic
+joyousness and insouciance.  She could hardly induce herself, in her
+drowsy state, to believe that all was indeed veritable and tangible.
+
+There was nothing to detain them at Malta, and Mr. Ferrars, who
+arranged everything, thought the calm of a sea-voyage would be better
+for them all than the bustle and fatigue of a land journey.
+
+'Kendal himself does not care about getting home,' he said to Fred,
+who was afraid this was determined on his account.  'I fear many
+annoyances are in store for him.  His son-in-law will not be pleasant
+to deal with about the property.'
+
+With an exclamation Fred started from the chairs on which he had been
+resting, and dived into his sabre-tasch which hung from the wall.  'I
+never liked to begin about it,' he said, 'but I ought to have given
+them this.  It was done when he was so bad at Scutari.  One night he
+worked himself into a fever lest he should not live till his
+birthday, and said a great deal about this Dusautoy making himself an
+annoyance, perhaps insisting on a sale and turning his father out.
+Nothing pacified him till, the very day he was of age, we got the
+vice-consul to draw up what he wanted, and witness it, and so did I
+and the doctor, and here it is.  Afterwards he warned me to say
+nothing of it when Mr. Kendal came, for he said if the other fellow
+made a row, it would be better his father should be able to say he
+had known nothing of the matter.'
+
+'Does he make his father his heir?'
+
+'That's the whole of it.  He said his sisters would see it was the
+only way to get things even, and I was to tell Albinia something
+about building cottages or almshouses.  Ay, "his father was to do
+what ought to have been done."'
+
+'Well, there's the best deed of poor Gilbert's life!'
+
+'Thank you,' mumbled Fred, hall drolly, half gravely.
+
+'Ay, Kendal and Albinia will do more good with that property than you
+have thought of in all your life, sir.'
+
+'Their future and my past,' laughed Fred, adding more gravely, 'Scamp
+as I am, there's more responsibility coming on me now, and I have
+gone through some preparation for it.  If I can get out to Canada--'
+
+'You will not lessen your responsibilities,' said Maurice, smiling,
+'nor your competency to meet them.'
+
+'I _trust_ not,' said Fred.
+
+Mr. Ferrars read in his countenance far more than was implied by
+those words.  The General, by treating him as a boy, had kept him
+one, and perhaps his levity had been prolonged by the rejection of
+his first love; but a really steady attachment had settled his
+character, and he had been undergoing much training through his own
+sufferings, Gilbert's illness, and the sense of the new position that
+awaited him as commanding officer; and for the first time Maurice,
+who had always been very fond of him, felt that he was talking to a
+high-principled and right-minded man instead of the family pet and
+laughing-stock.
+
+'I suppose,' he said, 'that you cannot have heard often from Montreal
+since you have been in the East.'
+
+'No.  If my letters are anywhere, it is at the Family Office.  I
+desired them to be forwarded thither from head-quarters, not
+expecting to be detained here.  But,' cried Fred with animation,
+'what think you of the General actually writing to Mr. Kinnaird from
+Balaklava?'
+
+'It would have been too bad if he had not.'
+
+'I believe he did so solely to make me sleep, but it is the first
+time he has deigned to treat the affair as anything but a delusion,
+and he can't retract now.  Since that, poor Gilbert has made a scrap
+or two of mine presentable, and there's all that I have been able to
+accomplish; but I hope it may have set her mind at rest.'
+
+'Shall I be secretary?'
+
+'Thank you, I think not.  She would only worry herself about what is
+before me; and if the doctors let me off easy, I had rather report of
+myself in person.'
+
+His eyes danced, and Maurice thought his unselfishness deserved a
+reward.
+
+'My poor Gilbert's last secret,' said Mr. Kendal, as he laid before
+his wife the brief document by which his son had designated him as
+his sole heir and executor.  'A gift to you, and a trust to me.'
+
+Albinia looked up for explanation.
+
+'While he intrusts his sisters to my justice, he tacitly commends to
+me the works which you wished to see accomplished.'
+
+'The almshouses!  The improvements!  Do you mean to undertake them?'
+
+'It shall be my most sacred duty.'
+
+'Oh! that we could have planned it with him!'
+
+'Perhaps I value this the more from the certainty that it is
+spontaneous,' said Mr. Kendal.  'It showed great consideration and
+forethought, that he said nothing of his intention to me.  Had he
+mentioned it, I should have thought it right to suggest his leaving
+his sisters their share; and yet, as we are situated with young
+Dusautoy, it would have been awkward to have interfered.  He did well
+and wisely to be silent.'
+
+'You don't expect Algernon to be discontented.  Impossible, at such a
+time, and so well off as he is!'
+
+'I wish it may be impossible.'
+
+'What do you mean, to do?'
+
+'As far as I can see at present, I shall do this.  I fear neither the
+mode of acquisition nor the management of that property was such as
+to bring a blessing, and I believe my poor boy has made it over to me
+in order to free his sisters from the necessity of winking at
+oppression and iniquity.  Had it gone to them, matters must have been
+let alone till Sophia came of age, and even then, all improvements
+must have depended on Algernon's consent.  The land and houses we
+will keep, and sufficient ready money for the building and repairs;
+and to this, Sophia, at least, will gladly agree.  The rest--
+something under twenty thousand, if I remember correctly--is the
+girls' right.  I will settle Lucy's share on her so as to be out of
+her husband's power, and Sophia shall have hers when she comes of
+age.'
+
+'I am sure that will take from Algernon all power of grumbling,
+though I cannot believe that even he could complain.'
+
+'You approve, then?'
+
+'How can yon ask?  It is the first thing that has seemed like
+happiness, if it did not make one long for him to talk it over!'  The
+wound was still very recent, and her spirits very tender, and the
+more she felt the blessing of the association with Gilbert in the
+work of love, the more she wept, though not altogether in sorrow.
+
+Mortified at having come so much overworked and weakened, as to
+occasion only trouble and anxiety, she yielded resignedly when
+forbidden to wear out strength and spirits by a visit to the burial-ground
+before her embarkation.  She must content herself with Maurice's
+description of the locality, and carry away in her eye only the general
+picture of the sapphire ocean and white rock fortress of the holy
+warriors vowed to tenderness and heroism, as the last resting-place
+of her cherished Gilbert, when 'out of weakness he had been made strong'
+in penitence and love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+
+Had Sophia's wishes been consulted, she would have preferred nursing
+her sorrows at home; but no choice had been left, and at the vicarage
+the fatherly kindness of Mr. Dusautoy, and the considerate let-alone
+system of his wife, kept her at ease and not far from cheerful,
+albeit neither the simplicity of the one nor the keenness of the
+other was calculated to draw her into unreserve: comfort was in the
+children.
+
+The children clung to her as if she made their home, little Albinia
+preferring her even to Uncle John, as he had insisted on being called
+ever since Lucy had become his niece, and Maurice invoking caresses,
+the bestowal of which was his mother's rare privilege.  The boy was
+dull and listless, and though riot and mirth could be only too easily
+excited, his wildest shouts and most frantic gesticulations were like
+efforts to throw off a load at his heart.  Time hung heavy on his
+hands, and he would lie rolling and kicking drearily on the floor,
+watching with some envy his little sister as she spelt her way
+prosperously through 'Little Charles,' or daintily and distinctly
+repeated her hymns.  'Nothing to do' was the burthen of his song, and
+with masculine perverseness he disdained every occupation suggested
+to him.  Sophy might boast of his obedience and quiescence, but Mrs.
+Dusautoy pitied all parties, and wondered when he would be disposed
+of at school.
+
+Permission to open letters had been left with Sophy, who with silent
+resignation followed the details of poor Gilbert's rapid decay.  At
+last came the parcel by the private hand, containing a small packet
+for each of the family.  Sophy received a silver Maltese Cross, and
+little Albinia a perfumy rose-leaf bracelet.  There was a Russian
+grape-shot for Maurice, and with it a letter.
+
+With childish secrecy, he refused to let any one look at so much as
+the envelope, and ran away with it, shouting 'It's mine.'  Sophy was
+grieved that it should be treated like a toy, and fearing that, while
+playing at importance, he would lose or destroy it, without coming to
+a knowledge of the contents, she durst not betray her solicitude,
+lest she should give a stimulus to his wilfulness and precipitate its
+fate.  However, when he had galloped about enough, he called
+imperatively, 'Sophy;' and she found him lying on his back on the
+grass, the black cat an unwilling prisoner on his chest.
+
+'You may read it to Smut and me,' he said.
+
+It bore date the day after his father's arrival, but it had evidently
+been continued at many different times; and as the handwriting became
+more feeble, the style grew more earnest, so that, but for her
+hoarse, indifferent voice, Sophy could hardly have accomplished the
+reading.
+
+
+'My dear Maurice,
+
+'Many, many thanks to you and dear little Awkey for your present.  I
+have set it up like a picture, and much do I like to look at it, and
+guess who chose the colours and who are the hunters.  I am sure the
+fat man in the red coat is the admiral.  It makes the place seem like
+home to see what tells so plainly of you and baby.
+
+'Kiss my little Awk for me, and thank her for wanting to send me Miss
+Jenny, dear little maid; I like to think of it.  You will not let her
+quite forget me.  You must show her my name if it is put up in
+church, like Edmund's and all the little ones'; and you will
+sometimes tell her about dear old Ned on a Sunday evening when you
+are both very good.
+
+'I think you know that you and she will never again run out into the
+hall to pull Gibbie almost down between you.  Perhaps by the time you
+read this, you will be the only son, with all the comfort and hope of
+the house resting upon you.  My poor Maurice, I know what it is to be
+told so, and only to feel that one has no brother; but at least it
+cannot be to you as it was with me, when it was as if half myself
+were gone, and all my stronger, better, braver self.
+
+'My father has been reading to me the Rich Man and Lazarus.  Maurice,
+when you read of him and the five brethren, think of me, and how I
+pray that I may not have left seeds of temptation for you.  In the
+time of my loneliness, Tritton was good-natured, but I ought to have
+avoided him; and that to which he introduced me has been the bane of
+my life.  Nothing gives me such anguish as to think I have made you
+acquainted with that set.  Keep out of their way!  Never go near
+those pigeon-shootings and donkey-races; they seem good fun, but it
+is disobedience to go, and the things that happen there are like the
+stings of venomous creatures; the poison was left to fester even when
+your mother seemed to have cured me.  Neither now nor when you are
+older resort to such things or such people.  Next time you meet
+Tritton and Shaw tell them I desired to be remembered to them; after
+that have nothing to do with them; touch your hat and pass on.  They
+meant it in good nature, and thought no harm, but they were my worst
+enemies; they led me astray, and taught me deception as a matter of
+course.  Oh! Maurice, never think it manly to have the smallest
+reserve with your parents.  I would give worlds to have sooner known
+that truth would have been freedom and rest.  Thank Heaven, your
+faults are not my faults. If you go wrong, it will be with a high
+hand, but you would wring hearts that can ill bear further grief and
+disappointment.  Oh! that I were more worthy to pray that you may use
+your strength and spirit the right way; then you will be gladness to
+our father and mother, and when you lie down to die, you will be
+happier than I am.
+
+'I want to tell you more, but it hurts me to write long.  If I could
+only see you--not only in my dreams.  I wake, and my heart sickens
+with longing for a sight of my brave boy's merry face, till I almost
+feel as if it would make me well; but it is a blessing past hope to
+have my father with me, and know him as I have never done before.
+Give little Albinia these beads, with my love, and be a better
+brother to her than I was to poor Lucy.
+
+'Good-by, Maurice.  No one can tell what you have been to me since
+your mother put you into my arms, and I felt I had a brother again.
+God bless you and cancel all evil you may have caught from me.  Papa
+will give you my sword.  Perhaps you will wear it one day, and under
+my colonel.  I have never been so happy as in the time it was mine.
+When you look at it, always say this to yourself: "Fear God, and fear
+nothing else."  O that I had done so!
+
+'Let your dear, dear mother be happy in you: it will be the only way
+to make her forgive me in her heart.  Good-by, my own dear, brave
+boy.
+
+                                 'Your most affectionate brother,
+                                                 'G. KENDAL.'
+
+
+'I say, Smut,' quoth Maurice, 'I think you and our Tabby would make
+two famous horses for Awkey's little cart.  I shall take you home and
+harness you.'
+
+Sophy sat breathless at his indifference.  'You mustn't,' she said in
+hasty anger; 'Smut is not yours.'
+
+'Well, Jack said that our Tabby had two kittens up in the loft; I
+think they'll make better ponies.  I shall go and try them!'
+
+'Don't plague the kittens.'
+
+'I'll not plague them; I'll only make ponies of them.  Give me the
+letter.'
+
+'No, not to play with the cats.  I thought you would have cared about
+such a letter!'
+
+'You have no right to keep it!  It is mine; give it me!' cried
+Maurice, passionately.
+
+'Promise to take real care of it.'
+
+He only tore it from her, and was gone.
+
+'I'm a fool to expect anything from such a child,' she thought.
+
+At two o'clock the Vicar hurried into the bank.  'Good morning, Mr.
+Goldsmith, I beg your pardon; I wanted to ask if Mr. O'More has seen
+little Maurice Kendal.'
+
+'Not since yesterday--what's the matter?'
+
+'The child is not come in to dinner.  He is nowhere at home or at
+Willow Lawn.'
+
+'Ha!' cried Ulick.  'Can he be gone to see his pony at Hobbs's!'
+
+'No, it has been sent to Fairmead.  Then you have no notion where the
+child can be?  Sophy is nearly distracted.  She saw him last about
+ten o'clock, bent on harnessing some kittens, but he's not in the
+hay-loft!'
+
+'He may be gone to the toy-shop after the harness.  Or has anyone
+looked in the church-tower--he was longing to go up it, and if the
+door were open--'
+
+'The very thing!' cried the Vicar.  'I'll go this moment.'
+
+'Or there's old Peter, the sailor,' called Ulick; 'if he wanted any
+tackle fitted, he might go to him.'
+
+'You had better go yourself, More,' said Mr. Goldsmith.  'One would
+not wish to keep poor Miss Kendal in suspense, though I dare say the
+boy is safe enough.'
+
+Mr. Goldsmith was thanked, and Ulick hurried out, Hyder Ali leaping
+up in amazement at his master being loose at that time of day.
+
+Everybody had thought the child was with somebody else till dinner-time,
+and the state of the vicarage was one of dire alarm and self-reproach.
+Sophy was seeking and calling in every possible place, and had just
+brought herself to own the message of remembrance in Gilbert's letter,
+thinking it possible Maurice might have gone to deliver it at Robbles
+Leigh; and Mr. Hope had undertaken to go thither in quest of him.  Ulick
+and Mr. Dusautoy, equally disappointed by the tower and the sailor,
+went again to Willow Lawn to interrogate the servants.  The gardener's
+boy had heard Maurice scolding and the cat squalling, and the cook had
+heard his step in the house.  They hurried into his little room--he
+was not there, but the drawers had been disturbed.
+
+'He may be gone to Fairmead!' cried the Vicar.
+
+'How?' said Ulick.  'Ha!  Hyder, sir!' holding up a little shoe.
+'Seek!  That's my fine doggie--they only call you a mongrel because
+you have all the canine virtues united.  See what you can do as
+sleuth hound.  Ha!  We'll nose him out for you in no time, Mr.
+Dusautoy!'
+
+After sniffing round the drawers, the yellow tripod made an ungainly
+descent of the stairs, his nose down all the way, then across the
+hall and out at the gate; but when, after poking about, the animal
+set off on the turnpike-road, the Vicar demurred.
+
+'Stay; the poor dog only wants to get you out for a walk.  He is
+making for the Hadminster road.'
+
+'And why wouldn't he, if the child is nowhere in Bayford?
+
+'I can't answer it to his mother wasting time in this way.  You may
+do as you like.  I shall go to the training-stables, where he has
+once been, if not on to Fairmead.  I can't see Sophy till he is
+found!'
+
+'I shall abide by my little Orangeman,' said Ulick; and they parted.
+
+Hyder Ali pursued his way in the March dust, while Ulick eagerly
+scanned for the traces of a child's foot.  Four miles did the dog go
+on, evidently following a scent, but Ulick's mind misgave him as
+Hadminster church-tower rose before him, and the dog took the ascent
+to the station.
+
+Ulick made his way in as a train stood panting before the platform.
+He had a glimpse of a square face and curly hair at the window of a
+second-class carriage.
+
+'Maurice, come back!' he cried.  'Here, guard! this little boy must
+come back!'
+
+'Go on!' shouted Maurice.  'I've got my ticket.  'No one can stop me.
+I'm going to Malta!'  and he tried to get to the other side of a
+stout traveller, who defended his legs from him, and said, 'Ha!
+Running away from school, young master!  Here's your usher.'
+
+'No, I'm not running away!  I'm not at school!  I'm Maurice Kendal!
+I'm going to my brother at Malta!'
+
+'He is the son of Mr. Kendal of Bayford,' said Ulick to the
+station-master,' his parents are from home, and there will be dreadful
+distress if he goes in this way.  Maurice, your sister has troubles
+enough already.'
+
+'I've my ticket, and can't be stopped.'
+
+But even as he spoke, the stout traveller picked him up by the
+collar, and dropped him like a puppy dog into Ulick's arms, just as
+the train was getting into motion; and a head protruded from every
+window to see the truant, who was pommelling Ulick in a violent fury,
+and roaring, 'Let me go; I will go to Gilbert!'
+
+'Behave like a man,' said Ulick; 'don't disgrace yourself in that
+way.'
+
+The boy coloured, and choking with passion and disappointment, and
+straining against Ulick's hold of his shoulder.
+
+'Indeed, sir,' said the station-master, 'if we had recognised the
+young gentleman, we would have made more inquiries, but he asked so
+readily for his ticket, not seeming at a loss, and we have so many
+young travellers, that we thought of nothing amiss.  Will you have a
+fly, sir?'
+
+'I'm not going home,' said the boy, undaunted.
+
+'You must submit, Maurice.  You do not wish to make poor Sophy
+miserable.'
+
+'I must go to Malta,' the boy persisted.  'Gilbert says it would make
+him well to see me.  I know my way; I saw it in the map, and I've a
+roll, and the end of a cold tongue, and a clean shirt, and my own
+sovereign, and four shillings, and a half-crown, and a half-penny in
+my pocket; and I'm going!'
+
+'But, Maurice, this gentleman will tell you that your whole sovereign
+would not carry you a quarter of the way to Malta.'
+
+The station-master gave so formidable a description of the
+impossibilities of the route, that the hardy little fellow's look of
+decision relaxed into dejection, his muscles lost their tension, and
+he struggled hard with his tears.
+
+He followed Ulick to the carriage, and hid his face in a corner,
+while orders were given to stop at the post-office in case there were
+fresh letters.  There was one for Miss Kendal, in Mr. Ferrars'
+writing, and with black borders.  Ulick felt too surely what it must
+be, and hardly could bear to address Maurice, who had shrunk from him
+with some remains of passion, but hearing suppressed sobs, he put his
+hand on him and said, 'My poor little man.'
+
+'Get away,' said Maurice, shaking him off.  'Why did you come and
+bother?'
+
+'I came because it would have almost killed your sister and mother
+for you to be lost.  If you had seen Sophy's face, Maurice!'
+
+'I don't care.  Now I shall never see Gilbert again, and he did want
+me so!' Maurice hid his face, and his frame shook with sobs.
+
+'Yes,' said Ulick, 'every one knew he wanted you; but if it had been
+possible for you to go, your mamma would have taken you.  If your
+uncle had to take care of her how could you go alone?'
+
+'I'd have got there somehow,' cried Maurice.  'I'd have seen and
+heard Gilbert.  He's written me a letter to say he wants to see me,
+and I can't even make that out!'
+
+'Has not your sister read it to you!'
+
+'I hate Sophy's reading!' cried Maurice.  'It makes it all grumpy,
+like her.  Take it, Ulick--you read it.'
+
+That rich, sensitive, modulated voice brought out the meaning of the
+letter, though there were places where Ulick had nearly broken down;
+and Maurice pressed against him with the large tears in his eyes, and
+was some minutes without speaking.
+
+'He does not think of your coming; he does not expect you, dear boy,'
+said Ulick.  'It is a precious letter to have.  I hope you will keep
+it and read it often, and heed it too.'
+
+'I can't read it,' said Maurice, ruefully.  'If I could, I shouldn't
+mind.'
+
+'You soon will.  You see how he tells you you are to be a comfort;
+and if you are a good boy, you'll quickly leave the dunce behind.'
+
+'I can't,' said Maurice.  'Mamma said I should not do a bit of a
+lesson with Sophy, or I should tease her heart out.  Would it come
+quite out?'
+
+'Well, I think you've gone hard to try to-day,' said Ulick.
+
+'Mamma said my being able to read would be a comfort, and papa says
+he never saw such an ignorant boy! so what's the use of minding
+Gilbert's letter?  It wont let me.'
+
+'What wont let you?'
+
+'Fun!' said Maurice, with a sob.
+
+'He is a rogue!' cried Ulick, vehemently; 'but a stout heart and good
+will can get him under yet.  Think of what your brother says of
+making your father and mother happy!'
+
+'If I could do something to please them very, very much!  Oh! if I
+could but learn to read all at once.'
+
+'You can read--anybody can read!' said Ulick, pulling a book out of
+his pocket.  'There! try.'
+
+There was some laughing over this; and then Maurice leant out of
+window, and grew sleepy.  They had descended into the wide basin of
+alluvial land through which the Baye dawdled its meandering course,
+and were just about to cross the first bridge about two miles from
+Bayford, when Maurice shouted, 'There's Sophy!--how funny.'
+
+It was a tall figure, in deep mourning, slowly moving along the
+towing-path, intently gazing into the river; but so strange was it to
+see Sophy so far from home, that Ulick paused a moment ere calling to
+the driver to stop.
+
+As he hastily wrenched open the door, she raised up her face, and he
+was shocked.  She looked as if she had lived years of sorrow, and
+even Maurice was struck with consternation.
+
+'Sophy!  Sophy!' he cried, hanging round her.  'I wouldn't have gone
+without telling you, if I had thought you would mind it.  Speak to
+me, Sophy!'
+
+She could say nothing save a hoarse 'Where?' as with both arms she
+pressed him as if she could never let him go again.
+
+'In the train--intending to go to Malta,' said Ulick.
+
+'I didn't know I could not; I didn't mean to vex you, Sophy,'
+continued the child.  'I'm come home now, and I wont try again.'
+
+'Oh! Maurice, what would have become of you?'  She held out her hand
+to Ulick, the first time for months.
+
+'And we've got a letter for you, proceeded Maurice.
+
+Ulick would fain have withheld it, but he had not the choice.  She
+caught at it, still holding Maurice fast, and ere he could propose
+her opening it in the carriage while he walked home she had torn it
+open, and the same moment she had sunk down, seated on the path, with
+an arm round her brother.  'Oh! Maurice, it is well you are here!
+You would not have found them--it is over!'
+
+She had found one brother to lose the other; but the relief of
+Maurice's safety had so softened the blow, that her tears gushed
+forth freely.
+
+The sense of Ulick's presence restrained her, but raising her head,
+she missed him, and felt lonely, desolate, deserted, almost fainting,
+and in a strange place.
+
+'Is he dead?' said Maurice, in a solemn low voice, and she wept
+helplessly, while the little fellow stood sustaining her weight like
+a small pillar, perplexed and dismayed.
+
+'Are you poorly, Sophy?  What shall I do?' said he, as she almost
+fell back, but a stronger arm held her up.
+
+'Lean on me, dear Sophy,' said Ulick, who had returned, bringing some
+water from a small house near at hand, and supported her and soothed
+her like a brother.
+
+The mists cleared away, the sense of desertion was gone, and she
+rose, but could not stand without his arm, and he almost lifted her
+into the carriage, where her appealing eye and helpless gesture made
+him follow her, and take Maurice on his knee.  No one spoke; Maurice
+nestled close to his friend; awe-struck but weighed down by weariness
+and excitement.  The blow had in reality been given when he was
+forced to relinquish the hope of seeing his brother again, and the
+actual certainty of his death fell with less comparative force.
+Perhaps he did not enter into the fact enough to ask for particulars.
+After a short space Sophy recovered herself enough to take out the
+letter, and read it over with greater comprehension.
+
+'They were come!' she said.
+
+'In time.  I am glad.'
+
+'In time to bring him peace, my uncle says!  He knew mamma.  I could
+never have borne it if I had deprived him of her!'
+
+'Nor I,' said Ulick, from his heart.  'Did one but know the upshot of
+one's idle follies!'
+
+Sophy looked towards Maurice.
+
+'Asleep!' said Ulick.  'No wonder.  He has walked four miles!  He has
+a heart that might have been born in Ireland;' and as he looked at
+the fair young face softened and sweetened by sleep, 'What an infant
+it is to have even fancied such an undertaking!'
+
+'Poor child!' sighed Sophy.  'He will never be the same!'
+
+'Nay, grief at that age does not check the spirits for life.'
+
+'You have never known,' said Sophy.
+
+'No; our number has never yet been broken; but for this little man, I
+trust that the sense of duty may be deepened, and with it his love to
+you all; and surely that is not what will quench the blithe temper.'
+
+'May it be so!' said Sophy.  'He may have enough of his mother in him
+to be happy.'
+
+'I must think that the recollection of so loving a brother, and his
+pride in him for a hero, may make the stream flow more deeply, but
+not more darkly.'
+
+'There never was a cloud between them,' said Sophy.
+
+'Clouds are all past and gone now between those who can with him
+"take part in that thanksgiving lay,"' answered Ulick, kindly.
+
+'Yes,' said Sophy.  'My uncle says it was peace at last!  Oh! if
+humbleness and penitence could win it, one might be sure it would be
+his.'
+
+'True,' said Ulick.  'It was a beautiful thing to find the loving
+sweetness and kindness refined into self-devotion and patience, and
+growing into something brighter and purer as it came near the last.
+It will be a precious recollection.'
+
+'To those who have no self-reproach,' sighed Sophy; and after a pause
+she abruptly resumed, 'You once blamed me for being hard with him.
+Nothing was more true.'
+
+'Impossible--when could I have presumed?'
+
+'When?  You remember.  After Oxford.'
+
+'Oh! you should not have let what I said dwell with you.  I was a
+very raw Irishman then, and thought it barbarity to look cold on a
+little indiscretion, but I have learnt to think differently,' and he
+sighed.  'The severity that leads to repentance is truer affection
+than is shown by making light of foolishness.'
+
+'If it had been affection and not wounded pride.'
+
+'The dross has been refined away, if there were any,' said Ulick.
+'You will be able to love him better now than ever you did in life.'
+
+His comprehension met her half way, and gave her more relief and
+soothing than anything she had experienced for months.  There was
+that response and intercommunion of spirit for which her nature had
+yearned the more because of the inability to express the craving; the
+very turn of the dark blue eyes, and the inflexions of the voice, did
+not merely convey pity, but an entering into the very core of her
+sorrow, namely, that she had never loved her brother enough, nor
+forgiven him for not being his fellow-twin.  Whatever he said tended
+to reveal to her that there had been more justice, rectitude,
+sisterly feeling, and wholesome training than she had given herself
+credit for, and, above all, that Gilbert had loved her all the time.
+She was induced to dwell on the exalting and touching circumstances
+of his last redeeming year, and her tears streamed calmly and softly,
+not with the harshness that had hitherto marred her grief.  Neither
+could have believed that there had been so long and marked a
+separation in feeling, or that Ulick O'More had not always been one
+with the Kendal family.  It was all too soon that the conversation
+ended, and Maurice wakened suddenly at the vicarage wicket.  Mrs.
+Dusautoy herself came to meet them as the little boy was lifted out.
+She had never been seen on her own feet so far from the house before!
+But no one ever knew the terror she had suffered, when of all her
+three charges not one was safe but the little Albinia, whose 'poor
+Maurice' and 'all gone' were as trying as her alternations of
+merriment.  The vicar, the curate, the parish clerk, the servants of
+the two establishments, and four policemen, were all gone different
+ways; and poor Mrs. Dusautoy's day had been spent in hearing the
+results of their fruitless researches, or in worse presages, in
+which, as it now appeared, the river had played its part.
+
+She kissed Maurice, and he did not rebel!  She kissed Sophy, and
+could have shaken off Ulick's hand, but he only waited to hold up
+Hyder Ali as the real finder, before he ran off to desire the school-bell
+to be rung--the signal for announcing a discovery.  It was well
+that Maurice was too much stunned and fatigued to be sensible what a
+commotion he had excited, or he might have thought it good fun.
+
+The tidings from Malta came in almost as something secondary.  The
+case had been too hopeless for anything else to be looked for, and
+when Mrs. Dusautoy consigned her charge to a couch, with entreaties
+to her not to move, there was calm tenderness in Sophy's voice as she
+told what needed to be told, and did not shrink from sympathy.  She
+was grateful and gentle, and lay all the rest of the day, sad and
+physically worn out, but quietly mournful, and no longer dwelling on
+the painful side of past transactions, her remorse had given way to
+resigned acquiescence, and desolation to a sense that there was one
+who understood her.  The sweet tones, and, above all, those two
+words, '_dear_ Sophy,' would come chiming back from some involuntary
+echo, and the turbid depths were at peace.
+
+When Mr. Dusautoy came to her side, and held out his hand, his honest
+eyes brimming over, there was no repulsion in her manner of saying
+affectionately, 'You have had a great deal of trouble for my naughty
+little brother.'  So different was her whole tone, that her kind
+friends thought how much better for some minds was any certainty than
+suspense.  She bethought herself of sending to the Drurys, and showed
+rather gratification than her ordinary impatience at the manifold
+reports of the general sympathy, and of Bayford's grief for its hero.
+The poison was gone from her mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+
+The Family Office had been asked to receive the whole party on their
+return.  Mr. Kendal had business in London, and could not bear to
+part with the colonel till he had seen him safely lodged, and heard
+the surgeon's opinion.
+
+Mr. Ferrars was laying himself out to guard his brother-in-law from
+being oppressed by the sympathetic welcome of the good aunts; but
+though the good ladies never failed in kindness, all the excess was
+directed into a different channel; Albinia herself was but secondary
+to the wounded hero, for whom alone they had eyes and ears.  They
+would hardly let him stand erect for a moment; easy-chairs and
+couches were offered, soup and wine, biscuits and coffee were
+suggested, and questions were crowded on him, while he, poor fellow,
+wistfully gazed at the oft-directed pile of foreign letters on the
+side-table, and in pure desperation became too fatigued to go down to
+luncheon.
+
+When the others returned, he was standing on the rug, curling his
+moustaches.  There was a glow of colour on his hollow cheek, and his
+eyes danced; he put out his hand, and catching Albinia's with boyish
+playfulness, he squeezed it triumphantly, with the words, 'Albinia,
+she's a brick!'
+
+They went their several ways, Fred to rest, Maurice to make an
+appointment for him with the doctor, and Albinia to Genevieve, whom
+Mr. Kendal regarded like his son's widow, forgetting that the
+attachment had been neither sanctioned nor returned.  He could not
+rest without seeing her, and delivering that last message, but he was
+glad to have the way prepared by his wife, and proposed to call for
+her when his law business should be over.
+
+Albinia sent in her card, and asked whether Miss Durant were at
+liberty.  Genevieve came hurrying to her with outstretched hands:
+'Dear Mrs. Kendal, this is kind!' and led her to the back drawing-room,
+where they were with one impulse enfolded in each other's tearful
+embrace.
+
+'Oh! madame, how much you have suffered!'
+
+'You know all?' said Albinia.
+
+'O no, very little.  My aunt knows little of Bayford now, and her
+sight is too weak for much writing.'
+
+Genevieve pushed back her hair; she looked ill and heavy-eyed, with
+the extinguished air that sorrow gave her.  Gilbert had distressed,
+perplexed her, and driven her from home, but what could be
+remembered, save the warm affection he had lavished on her, and the
+pain she had inflicted?  Uneasiness and sorrow, necessarily unavowed,
+had preyed on the poor girl for weeks in secret; and even now she
+hardly presumed to give way, relief, almost luxury, as it was to be
+pressed in those kind arms, and suffered to weep freely for the
+champion of her younger days.  When she had heard how he had thought
+of her to the last, her emotion grew less controllable; and Albinia
+was touched by the idea that there had all along been a stifled
+preference.  Embellished as Gilbert now was, she could not but wish
+to believe that his affection had not been wasted; and his constancy
+might well be touching in one of the heroes of the six hundred.  At
+least, Genevieve had a most earnest and loving appetite for every
+detail, and though the afternoon was nearly gone, neither felt as if
+half an hour had passed when admittance was asked for Mr. Kendal.
+
+It was a trying moment, but Genevieve was too simple, genuine, and
+grateful to pause in selfish embarrassment.  Had she toyed with
+Gilbert's affection, she could not have met his father with such
+maidenly modesty, and sweet sympathy and respect in her blushing
+cheek and downcast, tearful eyes.
+
+He took her hand, speaking in the kindest tone of his mellow voice:
+'My dear, Mrs. Kendal has told you what brings us here, and how much
+we feel for and with you.'
+
+'So kind in you,' said Genevieve, faltering.
+
+'Poor child, she has suffered grievously for want of fuller tidings,'
+said Albinia; 'she has been keeping her sorrow pent up all this
+time.'
+
+'She has acted, as she has done throughout, most consistently,' said
+Mr. Kendal.  'My dear, though it was inexpedient to show my
+sentiments, I always respected my son for having placed his
+affections so worthily, and though circumstances were unfortunately
+adverse, I cannot thank you enough for your course of action and the
+influence you exercised.'
+
+'I never did,' murmured Genevieve.
+
+'Not perhaps consciously; but unswerving rectitude of conduct is one
+of the strongest earthly influences.  He was sensible of it.  He bade
+me tell you that whenever higher and better thoughts came to him, you
+were connected with them; and when to his surprise, poor boy, he
+found that he was thought to have distinguished himself, his first
+thought was that it might be a step to your esteem.  He desired me to
+thank you for all that you have been to him, to entreat you to pardon
+the annoyance of which he was the occasion, and to beg you to wear
+this for his sake, if you could think of his presumption with
+forgiveness and toleration.  Those were his words; but I trust you do
+not retain displeasure, for though, perhaps, foolishly and
+obtrusively expressed, it was sincere and lasting affection.'
+
+'Oh, sir!' exclaimed Genevieve, 'do not speak thus!  What can I feel
+save that it will be my tenderest and deepest pride to have been so
+regarded.  Oh! that I could thank him! but,' clasping her hands
+together, 'I cannot even thank you.'
+
+'The best way to gratify us,' he said, 'will be always to remember
+that you have a home at Willow Lawn, and a daughter's place in our
+hearts.  Think of me like a father, Genevieve;' and he kissed her
+drooping forehead.
+
+'Oh! Mr. Kendal, this is goodness.'
+
+He turned to Albinia to suggest, 'It must be intolerable to be here
+at present.  Speak to Mrs. Rainsforth, let us take her home, if it be
+but for a week.'
+
+Leaving him to make the proposition to Genevieve, Albinia gained
+admittance to the other drawing-room, which she found all over little
+children, and their mother looking unequal to dispensing with their
+deputy.  She said she had feared Miss Durant was looking ill, and had
+something weighing on her spirits, though she was always so cheerful
+and helpful, but baby had not been well, and Mr. Rainsforth was not
+at all strong, and her views had evidently taken no wider range.
+
+Albinia began to think her proposal cruel, and prefaced it by a few
+words on the state of the case.  The little bit of romance touched
+the kind heart.  Mrs. Rainsforth was shocked to think of the grief
+the governess must have suffered in secret while aiding to bear her
+burdens, and was resolved on letting her have this respite, going
+eagerly to assure her that she could well be spared; baby was better,
+and papa was better, and the children would be good.
+
+But Genevieve knew too well how necessary she was, and had been
+telling Mr. Kendal of the poor little mother's anxieties with her
+many delicate children, and her husband's failing health.  She could
+not leave them with a safe conscience; and she would not show how she
+longed after quiet, the country, and her aunt.  She stood firm, and
+Albinia could not say that she was not right.  Mrs. Rainsforth was
+distressed, though much relieved, and was only pacified by the
+engagement that Miss Durant should, when it was practicable, spend a
+long holiday with her friends.
+
+'At home!' said Mr. Kendal, and the responsive look of mournful
+gratitude from beneath the black dewy eyelashes dispelled all marvel
+at his son's enduring attachment.
+
+He was wonderfully patient when Mrs. Rainsforth could not be content
+without Mrs. Kendal's maternal and medical opinion of the baby, on
+the road to and from the nursery consulting her on all the
+Mediterranean climates, and telling her what each doctor had said of
+Mr. Rainsforth's lungs, in the course of which Miss Durant and her
+romance were put as entirely out of the little lady's mind as if she
+had never existed.
+
+The next day the Kendals set their faces homewards, leaving Maurice
+till the surgeon's work should be done, and Fred, as the aunts fondly
+hoped, to be their nursling.
+
+But, behold!  Sunday and Monday Colonel Fred spent in bed, smiling
+incessantly; Tuesday and Wednesday on the sofa; Thursday in going
+about London; Friday he was off to Liverpool; Saturday had sailed for
+Canada.
+
+Albinia was coming nearer to the home that was pulling her by the
+heart-strings.  Hadminster was past, and she had heard the welcome
+wards, 'All well,' from the servant who brought the carriage; but how
+much more there was to know than Sophy's detailed letters could
+convey--Sophy, whose sincerity, though one of the most trustworthy
+things in the world, was never quite to be relied on as to her own
+health or Maurice's conduct.
+
+At the gate there was a little chestnut curled being in a short black
+frock, struggling to pull the heavy gate open with her plump arms,
+and standing for one moment with her back to it, screaming 'Mamma!
+Papa!' then jumping and clapping her hands in ecstasy and oblivion
+that the swing of the gate might demolish her small person between it
+and the horse.  But there was no time for fright.  Sophy caught her
+and secured the gate together; and the first glimpse assured Albinia
+that the hard gloom was absent.  And there was Maurice, leaning
+against the iron rail of the hall steps; but he hardly moved, and his
+face was so strangely white and set, that Albinia caught him in her
+arms, crying, 'Are you well, my boy?  Sophy, is he well?'
+
+'Quite well,' said Sophy; but the boy had wriggled himself loose,
+stood but for an instant to receive his father's kiss, and had hold
+of the sword.  The long cavalry sabre was almost as tall as himself,
+and he stood with both arms clasped round it; but no sooner did he
+feel their eyes upon him, than he turned about and ran upstairs.
+
+It was not gracious, but they excused it; they had their little
+Albinia comfortably and childishly happy, as yet without those
+troublesome Kendal feelings that always demonstrated themselves in
+some perverse manner.
+
+And Sophy stood among them--that brighter, better Sophy who had so
+long been obscured, happy to have them at home; talking and asking
+questions eagerly about the journey, and describing the kindness of
+the Dusautoys and the goodness of the children.
+
+'Have you heard from Lucy?' asked Mr. Kendal, as Albinia went in
+pursuit of her little boy.
+
+'Yes--poor Lucy?'
+
+'Is there no letter from him?'
+
+'Not for you, papa.'
+
+'What?  Did he write to his uncle?'
+
+'No, papa--he wrote to me and to Mr. Pettilove.  Cannot he be
+stopped, papa?  Can he do any harm?  Mr. Dusautoy and Mr. Pettilove
+think he can.'
+
+'You mean that he wishes to question the will?  You may be quite
+secure, my dear.  Nothing can be more safe.'
+
+'Oh, papa!  I am so very glad.  Not to be able to hinder him was so
+dreadful, when he wanted to pit Lucy and me against you.  I could
+never have looked at you.  I should always have felt that you had
+something to forgive me.'
+
+'I could not well have confounded you with Algernon, my dear,' said
+Mr. Kendal.  'What did Pettilove mean?  Do you know?'
+
+'Not exactly; something about grandpapa's old settlement; which
+frightened the Vicar, though Mrs. Dusautoy said that it was only that
+he fancied nobody could do anything right without his help.  Mr.
+Dusautoy is more angry with Algernon than I thought he could be with
+anybody.'
+
+'No one but Algernon would have ever thought of it,' said Mr. Kendal.
+'I am sorry he has molested you, my dear.  Have you any objection to
+let me see his letter?'
+
+'I kept it for you, papa, and a copy of my answer.  I thought though
+I am not of age, perhaps my saying I would have nothing to do with it
+might do some good.'
+
+Algernon magniloquently condoled with his sister-in-law on the
+injustice from which she and her sister had suffered, in consequence
+of the adverse influence which surrounded her brother, and generously
+informed her that she had a champion to defeat the machinations
+against their rights.  He had little doubt of the futility of the
+document, and had written to the legal adviser of the late Mr.
+Meadows to inquire whether the will of that gentleman did not bar any
+power on the part of his grandson to dispose of the property.  She
+might rely on him not to rest until she should be put in possession
+of the estate, unless it should prove to have been her grandfathers
+intention, in case of the present melancholy occurrence, that the
+elder sister should be the sole inheritrix, and he congratulated her
+on having such a protector, since, under the unfortunate
+circumstances, the sisters would have had no one to uphold their
+cause against their natural guardian.
+
+Sophy's answer was--
+
+
+'Dear Algernon,
+
+'I prefer my _natural guardian_ to any other whatever.  I shall for
+my part owe you no thanks for attempting to frustrate my dear
+brother's wishes, and to raise an unbecoming dissension.  I desire
+that no use of my name may be made, and you may rest assured that I
+should find nothing so difficult to forgive as any such interference
+in my behalf.
+
+                                           'Yours truly,
+                                              'SOPHIA KENDAL.'
+
+
+'Certainly,' said Mr. Kendal, 'no family ill-will is complete unless
+money matters be brought in to aggravate it.'
+
+'Do you think I did right, and spoke strongly enough, papa?'
+
+'Quite strongly enough,' said Mr. Kendal, suppressing a smile.  'I
+hope you wrote kindly to Lucy at the same time.'
+
+'One could not help that, papa; but I did say a great deal about the
+outrageous impropriety of raising the question, because I thought
+Algernon might be ashamed.'
+
+'Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt,' said Mr. Kendal.
+'Your grandfather's acquisitions have brought us little but evil
+hitherto, and now I fear that our dear Gilbert's endeavour to break
+the net which bound us into that system of iniquity and oppression,
+may cause alienation from poor Lucy.  Sophy, you must allow no
+apparent coldness or neglect on her part to keep you from writing
+often and affectionately.'
+
+Maurice here came down with his mother, and as soon as there was a
+moment's pause, laid hold of the first book he met with, and began:--
+
+
+'I do not see the justness of the analogy to which Onuphrio refers,
+but there are many parts of that vision on which I should wish to
+hear the explanations of Philalethes.'
+
+
+All broke out in amazement, 'Why, Maurice, has Mrs. Dusautoy been
+making a scholar of you?'
+
+'Oh! Maurice, was this your secret?' cried Sophy.
+
+He had hidden his face in his mother's lap, and when she raised it
+struggled to keep it down, and she felt him sobbing and panting for
+breath.  Mr. Kendal stroked his hair, and they tried to soothe him,
+but he started up abruptly.
+
+'I don't mean ever to be a plague again!  So I did it.  But there--
+when Ulick said it would be a comfort, you are all going to cry
+again, papa and all, and that's worse!' and stamping his foot
+passionately, he would have rushed out of the room, but was held fast
+in his father's arms, and indeed tears were flowing fast from eyes
+that his brother's death had left dry.
+
+'My child! my dear child!' said Mr. Kendal, 'it is comfort.  No one
+can rule you as by God's grace you can rule yourself, and your
+endeavours to do this are the greatest blessing I can ask.'
+
+One more kiss from his mother, and she let him go.  He did not know
+how to deal with emotion in himself, and hated the sight of it in
+others; so that it was better to let him burst away from them, while
+with one voice they admired, rejoiced, and interrogated Sophy.
+
+'I know now,' she said, the rosy glow mantling in her cheek; 'it must
+have been Mr. O'More.'
+
+'Ah! has he been with you?' said her father.
+
+'Only once,' said Sophy, her colour deepening; 'but Maurice has been
+in a great hurry every day to go to him, and I saw there was some
+secret.  One day, Susan asked me to prevent Master Maurice from
+teaching baby such ugly words, that she could not sleep--not bad
+words, but she thought they were Latin.  So I watched, and I heard
+Maurice singing out some of the legend of Hiawatha, and insisting on
+poor little Awkey telling him what m-i-s-h-e-n-a-h-m-a, spelt.  Poor
+little Awk stared, as well she might, and obediently made the utmost
+efforts to say after him, Mishenahma, king of fishes, but he was
+terribly discomposed at getting nothing but Niffey-ninny, king of
+fithes.  I went to her rescue, and asked what they were about; but
+Maurice thundered down on me all the Delawares and Mohawks, and the
+Choctaws and Cameches; and baby squeaked after him as well as she
+could, till I fairly stopped my ears.  I thought Ulick must be
+reading the legend to him.  Now I see he must have been teaching him
+to read it.'
+
+'Can it be possible?' said Mr. Kendal.  'He could not read words of
+five letters without spelling.'
+
+'He always could do much more when he pleased than when he did not
+please,' said Albinia.  'I believe the impulse to use his
+understanding was all that was wanting, and I am very glad the
+impulse came from such a motive.'
+
+Mr. Kendal ordained that Maurice's reward should be learning Latin
+from himself, a perilous trial; but it proved that Mr. Kendal was
+really a good teacher for a child of spirit and courage, and Maurice
+had early come to the age when boys do better with man than with
+woman.  He liked the honour and the awe of papa's tutorship, and
+learnt so well, that his father never believed in his past dunceship;
+but over studies that he did not deem sufficiently masculine, he
+could be as troublesome as ever, his attention absent, and his
+restlessness most wearisome.  To an ordinary eye, he was little
+changed; but his mother felt that the great victory of the will had
+been gained, and that his _self_ was endeavouring to get the better
+of the spirit of insubordination and mischief.  Night after night she
+found him sleeping with the Balaklava sword by his side, and his hand
+clasped over it; and he always crept out of the way of Crimean news,
+though that he gathered up the facts was plain when he committed his
+sovereign to Ulick, with a request that it might be devoted to the
+comforts preparing to be sent to the 25th Lancers.
+
+Ulick wished him to consult his mother, but this he repelled.  He
+could not endure the sight of a tear in her eye, and she could not
+restrain them when that chord was touched.  It was a propensity she
+much disliked, the more because she thought it looked like
+affectation beside Sophy, whose feelings never took that course, but
+the more ill-timed the tears, the more they would come, at the most
+common-place condolence or remote allusion.  It was the effect of the
+long strain on her powers, and the severe shock coming suddenly after
+so much pressure and fatigue; moreover, her habits had been so long
+disorganized that her time seemed blank, and she could not rouse
+herself from a feeling of languor and depression.  Then Gilbert had
+been always on her mind, whether at home or absent; and it did not
+seem at first as if she had enough to fill up time or thoughts--she
+absolutely found herself doing nothing, because there was nothing she
+cared to do.
+
+Mr. Kendal's first object was the fulfilment of Gilbert's wishes; but
+Albinia soon felt how much easier it is for women and boys to make
+schemes, than for men to bring them to effect, and how rash it is
+hastily to condemn those who tolerate abuses.
+
+The whole was carefully looked over with a surveyor, and it was only
+then understood how complicated were the tenures, and how varied the
+covenants of the numerous small tenements which old Mr. Meadows had
+amassed.  It was not possible to be free of the legal difficulties
+under at least a year, and plans of drainage might be impeded for
+want of other people's consent.  Even if all had been smooth, the
+sacrifice of income, by destroying Tibb's Alley, and reducing the
+number of cottages, would be considerable.  Meantime, the inspection
+had brought to light worse iniquities and greater wretchedness than
+Mr. Kendal had imagined, and his eagerness to set to work was
+tenfold.  His table was heaped with sanitary reports, and his fits of
+abstraction were over the components of bad air or builder's
+estimates.
+
+It only depended on Ulick to have resumed his intimacy at Willow
+Lawn; but the habit once broken was not resumed.  He was often there,
+but never without invitation; and he was not always to be had.  He
+had less leisure, he was senior clerk, and the junior was dull and
+untrained; and he often had work to do far into the evening.  He
+looked bright and well, as though possessed of a sense of being
+valuable in his own place, more conducive to happiness than even
+congeniality of employment; and Sophy, though now and then
+disappointed at his non-appearance, always had a good reason for it,
+and continued to justify Mr. Dusautoy's boast that the air of the
+hill had made another woman of her.
+
+Visiting cards had, of course, come in numbers to Willow Lawn, but
+Albinia seemed to have caught her husband's aversions, and it would
+be dangerous to say how long it was before she lashed herself into
+setting off for a round of calls.
+
+Nothing surprised her more than Miss Goldsmith's reception.
+Conscious of her neglect, she expected the stiff manner to be more
+formal than ever; but the welcome was almost warm, and there was
+something caressing in her fears that Miss Kendal would be tired.
+Mr. Goldsmith was not quite well, there were threatenings of gout,
+and his sister had persuaded him to visit the relations at Bristol
+next week; everything might safely be trusted to young More, and
+therewith came such praise of his steadiness and ability, that
+Albinia did not know which way to look when all was ascribed to Mr.
+Kendal's great kindness to him.
+
+It was too palpable to be altogether pleasant.  Sophia Kendal was
+heiress enough to be a very desirable connexion for the bank.
+Albinia was afraid she should see through the lady's graciousness,
+and took her leave in haste; but Sophy only said, 'Do you remember,
+mamma, when the Goldsmiths thought we unsettled him?'
+
+Before Albinia had disarmed her reply of the irony on the tip of her
+tongue, the omnibus came lumbering round the corner, and a voice
+proceeded from the rear, the door flew open, and there was a rapid
+exit.
+
+Face and voice, light step, and gay bearing, all were Fred--the empty
+sleeve, the sole resemblance to the shattered convalescent of a few
+weeks back.
+
+'There, Albinia!  I said you should see her first.  You haven't got
+any change, have you?' the last being addressed either to Albinia,
+the omnibus conductor, or a lady, who made a tender of two shillings,
+while Albinia ordered the luggage on to Willow Lawn, though something
+was faintly said about the inn.
+
+'And there!' cried Fred, with an emphatic twist of his moustache,
+'isn't she all I ever told you?'
+
+'The last thing was a brick,' said Albinia, laughing, as she looked
+at the smiling, confiding, animated face, not the less pleasant for a
+French Canadian grace that recalled Genevieve.
+
+'The right article for building a hut, I hope,' she said, merrily.
+
+'But how and when could you have come?'
+
+'This morning, from Liverpool.  We did not mean to storm you in this
+manner; we meant to have settled ourselves at the inn, and walked
+down; Emily was very particular about it.'
+
+'But you see, when he saw you, he forgot all my lectures!' said
+Emily, taking his welcome for granted.
+
+'Very proper of him!  But, Fred, I don't quite believe it yet.  How
+long is it since we parted?'
+
+'Six weeks; just enough to go to Canada and back, with a fortnight in
+the middle to spare.'
+
+'And pray how long has Mrs. Fred existed?'
+
+'Three weeks and two days;' and turning half round to give her the
+benefit of his words, 'it was on purely philanthropic principles,
+because I could not tie my own necktie.'
+
+'Now could I,' said Emily pleadingly to Sophy--'now could I let him
+go back again alone, when he came so helpless, and looking so
+dreadfully ill?'
+
+'And what are you going to do?' asked Albinia.  'You can't join
+again.'
+
+'Join! why not?  Here's a hand for a horse, and an arm for a wife,
+and the rest will be done much better for me than ever it was
+before.'
+
+'But with her? and at Sebastopol!'
+
+'That's the very thing'' cried the colonel, again turning about.
+'Nothing will serve her but to show how a backwoodsman's daughter can
+live in a hut.'
+
+'And what will the general say?'
+
+'The general,' cried Emily, 'will endure me better as a fact than as
+a prospect; and we will teach him that a lady is not all made of
+nerves and of fancies!  See what he will say if we let him into our
+paradise!'
+
+Fred brightened, though Albinia's inquiry had for a moment taken him
+a little aback.  The one being whom he dreaded was General Ferrars,
+for whom he cared a thousand times more than for his own elder
+brother, and he was soon speculating, with his usual insouciance, as
+to how his announcement might have been received by his lordship, and
+whether the aunts would look at them as they went through London.
+
+Mr. Kendal met them at the gate, amazed at the avalanche of luggage,
+but well pleased, for he had grown very fond of Fred, and had been
+very anxious about him, thinking him broken and enfeebled for life,
+and hardly expecting him to return from his mad expedition.  He was
+slow to believe his eyes and ears when he beheld a hale, handsome,
+vigorous man, full of life and activity, but his welcome and
+congratulations were of the warmest.  He could far better stand a
+sudden inroad than if he had had to meditate for a week on
+entertaining the bride.  Not that the bride wanted entertainment,
+except waiting upon her husband, who let himself be many degrees less
+handy than at Malta, for the pleasure of her attentions.
+
+Perhaps the person least gratified was Maurice; for the child shrank
+with shy reverence from him whom his brother had saved, and would as
+soon have thought of making a plaything of Gilbert's sword as of
+having fun with the survivor.  The sight of such a merry man was a
+shock, and he abruptly repelled all attempts at playing with him, and
+kept apart with a big book on a chair before him, a Kendalism for
+which he amply compensated when familiarity had diminished his awe.
+
+Mr. Kendal, though little disposed to exert himself to talk, liked to
+watch his wife reviving into animation, and Sophy taking a full share
+in the glee with which Emily enjoyed turning the laugh against the
+good-natured soldier.  In the midst of their flush of joy there was a
+tender consideration about the young couple, such as to hinder their
+tone from jarring.  Indeed, it was less consideration than fellow-feeling,
+for Gilbert Kendal had become enshrined in the depths of Fred's heart;
+while to Emily the visit was well-nigh a pilgrimage.  All her hero-worship
+was directed to the youth who had guarded her soldier's life, nursed
+him in his sickness, and, as he averred, inspired him with serious
+thoughts.  Poor, failing, timid, penitent Gilbert was to her a very
+St. George, and every relic of him was viewed with reverence; she
+composed a countenance for him from his father's fine features, and
+fitted the fragments of his history into an ideal, till Sophy, after
+being surprised and gratified, began to view Gilbert through a like
+halo, and to rank him with his twin brother.  Friendship was a new and
+agreeable phase of life to Sophy, who found a suitable companion in
+such an open-hearted person, simpler in nature, and fresher than herself,
+free from English commonplaces, though older and of more standing.
+She expanded and brightened wonderfully, and Emily, imagining her a
+female Gilbert, was devoted to her, and thought her a marvel of learning,
+depth, goodness, and humility, the more striking for her tinge of grave
+pensiveness.
+
+'Why, Albinia,' said the colonel, 'didn't I hear that it was your
+handsome daughter who is married?'
+
+'Yes, poor Lucy was always called our pretty one.'
+
+'More admired than her sister?  Why, she never could have had a
+countenance!'
+
+'Yes,' said Albinia, highly gratified by the opinion of such a
+connoisseur.  'I always told Winifred that Sophy was the beauty, but
+she has only lately had health or animation to set her off'
+
+'I declare, when we overtook you in the street, she looked a perfect
+Spanish princess, in her black robes and great shady hat.  You ought
+always to keep her in black.  Ha!  Emily, what are you smiling at?'
+
+His wife looked up into his face with mischievous shyness in her
+eyes, as if she wanted him to say what would be a liberty in her.
+Somebody else had overtaken the ladies nearly at the same moment, and
+Albinia exulted in perceiving that the embellishment had been
+observed by others besides herself.  She did not look so severe but
+that Fred was encouraged to repeat, 'Only lately had health or
+animation?  When Irish winds blow this way, I fancy--But what will
+the aunts say?'
+
+'They are not Sophy's aunts, whatever they are to you.'
+
+'What will Kendal say? which is more to the purpose.'
+
+'Oh! he saw it first; he will be delighted; but you must not say a
+word to him, for it can't come to anything just now.'
+
+Albinia was thus confirmed in her anticipations, and the bridal pair,
+only wishing everybody to be as happy as themselves, took the matter
+up with such vivid interest and amusement, that she was rather afraid
+of a manifestation such as to shock either her husband or the parties
+themselves; but Fred was too much of a gentleman, and Emily too
+considerate, for anything perilously marked.  Only she thought Emily
+need not have been so decided in making room for Ulick next to Sophy,
+when they were all looking out at the young moon at the conservatory-door
+that evening.
+
+And then Emily took her husband's arm, and insisted on going down the
+garden to be introduced to English nightingales; and though she was
+told they never had come there in the memory of man, she was bent on
+doing as she would be done by, and drew him alone the silvered paths,
+among the black shadows of the trees; and Ulick asked Sophy if she
+wished to go too.  She looked as if she should like it very much; he
+fetched a couple of cloaks ont of the hall, put her into one, and ran
+after Mrs. Ferrars with the other.
+
+'Well!' thought Albinia, as she stood at the conservatory-door, 'how
+much more boldness and tact some people have than others!  If I had
+lived a hundred years, I should not have managed it so well!'
+
+'What's become of them?' said Mr. Kendal, as she went back to the
+drawing-room.
+
+'Gone to listen for nightingales!'
+
+'Nightingales!  How could you let them go into the river-fog?'
+
+'Emily was bent upon it; she is too much of a bride not to have her
+way.'
+
+'Umph!  I wonder Sophy was so foolish.'
+
+They came back in a quarter of an hour.  No nightingales; and Fred
+was indulging in reminiscences of bull-frogs; the two ladies were
+rapturous on the effect of the moonbeams in the ripple of the waters,
+and the soft furry white mist rising over the meadows.  Ulick
+shivered, and leant over the fire to breathe a drier air, bantering
+the ladies for their admiration, and declaring that Mrs. Ferrars had
+taken the moan of an imprisoned house-dog for the nightingale, which
+he disdainfully imitated with buzz, zizz, and guggle, assuring her
+she had had no loss; but he looked rather white and chilled.  Sophy
+whispered something to her papa, who rang the bell, and ordered in
+wine and hot water.
+
+'There, Emily,' said Albinia, when he had taken his leave; 'what
+shall we say to your nightingales, if Mr. O'More catches his ague
+again?'
+
+'Oh, there are moments when people don't catch agues,' said Fred.
+'He would be a poor fellow to catch an ague after all that, though,
+by-the-bye, it is not a place to go to at night without a cigar.'
+
+Albinia was on thorns, lest Sophy should be offended; but though her
+cheeks lighted up, and she was certainly aware of some part of their
+meaning, either she did not believe in the possibility of any one
+bantering her, or else the assumption was more agreeable than the
+presumption was disagreeable.  She endured with droll puzzled
+dignity, when Fred teased her anxiety the next day to know whether
+Mr. O'More had felt any ill effects; and it really appeared as if she
+liked him better for what might have been expected to be a dire
+affront; but then he was a man whose manner enabled to do and say
+whatever he pleased.
+
+Emily never durst enter on the subject with her, but had more than
+one confidential little gossip with Albinia, and repeatedly declared
+that she hoped to be in England when 'it' took place.  Indeed that
+week's visit made them all so intimate, that it was not easy to
+believe how recent was the acquaintance.
+
+The aunts had been so much disappointed at Fred's desertion, so much
+discomfited at his recovery contrary to all predictions, and so much
+annoyed at his marriage, that it took all their kindness, and his
+Crimean fame, to make them invite him and his colonial wife to the
+Family Office, to be present at the royal distribution of medals.
+However, the good ladies did their duty; and Emily and Sophy parted
+with promises of letters.
+
+The beginning of the correspondence was as full a description of the
+presentation of the medals as could be given by a person who only saw
+one figure wherever she went, and to whom the great incident of the
+day was, that the gracious and kindhearted Queen had herself fastened
+the left-handed colonel's medal as well as Emily could have done it
+herself!  There was another medal, with two clasps, that came to
+Bayford, and which was looked at in pensive but not unhappy silence.
+'You shall have it some day, Maurice, but not now,' said Mr. Kendal,
+and all felt that now meant his own lifetime.  It was placed where
+Gilbert would well have liked to see it, beside his brother Edmund's
+watch.
+
+Emily made Mrs. Annesley and Miss Ferrars more fond of her in three
+days, than eleven years had made them of Winifred; too fond, indeed,
+for they fell to preaching to Fred upon the horrors of Sebastopol,
+till they persuaded him that he was a selfish wretch, and brought him
+to decree that she should stay with them during his absence.  But, as
+Emily observed, that was not what she left home for; she demolished
+his arguments with a small amount of playing at petulance, and
+triumphantly departed for the East, leaving Aunt Mary crying over her
+as a predestined victim.
+
+The last thing Fred did before sailing, was to send Albinia a letter
+from his brother, that she might see 'how very kind and cordial
+Belraven was,' besides something that concerned her more nearly.
+
+Lord Belraven was civil when it cost him nothing, and had lately
+regarded his inconvenient younger brother with favour, as bringing
+him distinction, and having gained two steps without purchase,
+removed, too, by his present rank, and the pension for his wound,
+from being likely to become chargeable to him; so he had written such
+brotherly congratulations, that good honest Fred was quite affected.
+He was even discursive enough to mention some connexions of the young
+man who had been with Fred in the Crimea, a Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy, a
+very good sort of fellow, who gave excellent dinners, and was a
+pleasant yachting companion.  His wife was said to be very pretty and
+pleasing, but she had arrived at Genoa very unwell, had been since
+confined, and was not yet able to see any one.  It was said to be the
+effect of her distress for the death of her brother, and the
+estrangement from her family, who had behaved very ill about his
+property.  Had not Albinia Ferrars married into that family?
+
+Albinia knew enough of her noble relative to be aware that good
+dinners and obsequiousness were the way to his esteem, and Algernon's
+was the sort of arrogance that would stoop to adore a coronet.  All
+this was nothing, however, to the idea of Lucy, ill in that strange
+place, with no one to care for her but her hard master.  Albinia
+sometimes thought of going to find her out at Genoa; but this was too
+utterly wild and impossible, and nothing could be done but to write
+letters of affectionate inquiry, enclosing them to Lord Belraven.
+
+Algernon's answer was solemn, and as brief as he could make anything.
+He was astonished that the event bad escaped the notice of the circle
+at Bayford, since he believed it had appeared in all the principal
+European newspapers; and his time had been so fully occupied, that he
+had imagined that intimation sufficient, since it was evident from
+the tone of the recent correspondence, that the family of Bayford
+were inclined to drop future intercourse.  He was obliged for the
+inquiries for Lucy, and was happy to say she was recovering
+favourably, though the late unfortunate events, and the agitation
+caused by letters from home, had affected her so seriously, that they
+had been detained at Genoa for nearly four months to his great
+inconvenience, instead of pushing on to Florence and Rome.  It had
+been some compensation that he had become extremely intimate with
+that most agreeable and superior person, Lord Belraven, who had
+consented to become sponsor to his son.
+
+Lucy wrote to Albinia.  Poor thing, the letter was the most
+childishly expressed, and the least childishly felt, she had ever
+written; its whole aspect was weak and wobegone; yet there was less
+self-pity, and more endeavour to make the best of it, than before.
+She had the dearest little baby in the world; but he was very
+delicate, and she wished mamma would send out an English nurse, for
+she could not bear that Italian woman--her black eyes looked so
+fierce, and she was sure it was not safe to have those immense pins
+in her hair.  Expense was nothing, but she should never be happy till
+she had an Englishwoman about him, especially now that she was
+getting better, and Algernon would want her to come out again with
+him.  Dear Algernon, he had lost the Easter at Rome for her sake, but
+perhaps it was a good thing, for he was often out in Lord Belraven's
+yacht, and she could be quiet with baby.  She did wish baby to have
+had her dear brothers' names, but Algernon would not consent.  Next
+Tuesday he was to be christened; and then followed a string of mighty
+names, long enough for a Spanish princess, beginning with Belraven!!!
+
+Lucy Dusautoy's dreary condition in the midst of all that wealth
+could give, was a contrast to Emily Ferrars' buoyant delight in the
+burrow which was her first married home, and proved a paradise to
+many a stray officer, aye, maybe, to Lieutenant-General Sir William
+Ferrars himself.  Her letters were charming, especially a detail of
+Fred meeting Bryan O'More coming out of the trenches, grim, hungry,
+and tired, having recently kicked a newly alighted shell down from
+the parapet, with the cool words, 'Be off with you, you ugly baste
+you;' of his wolfish appetite after having been long reduced to
+simple rations, though he kept a curly black lamb loose about his
+hut, because he hadn't the heart to kill it; and it served him for
+bed if not for board, all his rugs and blankets having flown off in
+the hurricane, or been given to the wounded; he had been quite
+affronted at the suggestion that a Galway pig was as well lodged as
+himself--it was an insult to any respectable Irish animal!
+
+Albinia sent Maurice to summon Ulick to enjoy the letter in store for
+him.  He looked grave and embarrassed, and did not light up as usual
+at Bryan's praises.  He said that his aunt, who had written to him on
+business, had given a bad account of Mr. Goldsmith, but Albinia
+hardly thought this accounted for his preoccupation, and was
+considering how to probe it, when her brother Maurice opened the
+door.  'Ulick O'More! that's right; the very man I was in search of!'
+
+'How's Winifred, Maurice?'
+
+'Getting on wonderfully well.  I really think she is going to make a
+start, after all! and she is in such spirits herself.'
+
+'And the boy?'
+
+'Oh, a thumping great fellow!  I promise you he'll be a match for
+your Maurice.'
+
+'I do believe it is to reward Winifred for sparing you in the spring
+when we wanted you so much!  Come, sit down, and wait for Edmund.'
+
+'No; I've not a moment to stay.  I'm to meet Bury again at Woodside
+at six o'clock, he drove me there, and I walked on, looking in at
+your lodgings by the way, Ulick.'
+
+'I'm not there now.  I am keeping guard at the bank.'
+
+'So they told me.  Well, I hope your guard is not too strict for you
+to come over to Fairmead on Sunday; we want you to do our boy the
+kindness to be his godfather!'
+
+Sophy blushed with approving gratitude.
+
+'I don't consider that it will be a sinecure--he squalls in such a
+characteristic manner that I am convinced he will rival his cousin
+here in all amiable and amenable qualities; so I consider it
+particularly desirable that he should be well provided with great
+disciplinarians.'
+
+'You certainly could not find any one more accomplished in teaching
+dunces to read,' said Albinia.
+
+'When their mammas have taught them already!' added Ulick, laughing.
+'Thank you; but you know I can't sleep out; Hyder Ali and I are
+responsible for a big chest of sovereigns, and all the rest of it.'
+
+'Nor could I lodge you at present; so we are agreed.  My proposition
+is that you should drive my sister over on Sunday morning.  My wife
+is wearying for a sight of her; and she has not been at Fairmead on a
+Sunday since she left it, eh, Albinia?'
+
+'I suppose for such a purpose it is not wrong to use the horse,' she
+said, her eyes sparkling.
+
+'And you might put my friend Maurice between you, if you can't go out
+pleasuring without him.'
+
+'I scorn you, sir; Maurice is as good as gold; I shall leave him at
+home, I think, to prove that I can--'
+
+'That's the reward of merit!' exclaimed Sophy.
+
+'She expects my children to corrupt him!' quoth Mr. Ferrars.
+
+'For shame, Maurice; that's on purpose to make me bring him.  Well,
+we'll see what papa says, and if he thinks the new black horse strong
+enough, or to be trusted with Mr. O'More.'
+
+'I only wish 'twas a jaunting car!' cried Ulick.
+
+'And what's the boy's name to be?  Not Belraven, I conclude, like my
+unfortunate grandson--Maurice, I hope.'
+
+'No; the precedent of his namesake would be too dangerous.  I believe
+he is to be Edmund Ulick.  Don't take it as too personal, Ulick, for
+it was the name of our mutual connexion.'
+
+'I take the personal part though, Maurice; and thank you, said
+Albinia, and Mr. Ferrars looked more happy and joyous than any time
+since his wife's health had begun to fail.  Always cheerful, and
+almost always taking matters up in the most lively point of view, it
+was only by comparison that want of spirits in him could be detected;
+and it was chiefly by the vanishing of a certain careworn, anxious
+expression about his eyes, and by the ring of his merry laugh, that
+Albinia knew that he thought better of his wife's state than for the
+last five or six years.
+
+Albinia and Ulick drove off at six o'clock on a lovely summer Sunday
+morning, with Maurice between them in a royal state of felicity.
+That long fresh drive, past summer hay-fields sleeping in their
+silver bath of dew, and villages tardily awakening to the well-earned
+Sunday rest, was not the least pleasant part of the day; and yet it
+was completely happy, not even clouded by one outbreak of Master
+Maurice.  Luckily for him, Mary had a small class, who absorbed her
+superabundant love of rule; and little Alby was a fair-haired,
+apple-cheeked maiden of five, who awoke both admiration and chivalry,
+and managed to coquet with him and Ulick both at once, so that Willie
+had no disrespect to his sisters to resent.
+
+He was exemplary at church, well-behaved at dinner, and so little on
+his mamma's mind, that she had a delightful renewal of her
+acquaintance with the Sunday-school, and a leisurable gossip with
+Mrs. Reid and the two Miss Reids, collectively and individually; but
+the best of all was a long quiet tete-a-tete with Winifred.
+
+After the evening service, Mr. Ferrars himself carried his newly-christened
+boy back to the mother, and paused that his sister might come with him,
+and they might feel like the old times, when the three had been alone
+together.
+
+'Yes,' said Winifred, when he had left them, 'it is very pretty
+playing at it; but one cannot be the same.'
+
+'Nor would one exactly wish it,' said Albinia; 'though I think you
+are going to be more the same.'
+
+'Perhaps,' said Winifred; 'the worst of being ill is that it does
+wear one's husband so!  When he came in, and tried to make me fancy
+we were gone back to Willie's time, I could not help thinking how
+different you both looked.'
+
+'Well, so much the better and more respectable,' said Albinia.  'You
+know I always wanted to grow old; I don't want to stop short like
+your sister Anne, who looks as much the child of the house as ever.
+
+'I wish you had as few cares as Anne.  Look; I declare that's a grey
+hair!'
+
+'I know.  I like it; now Sophy is growing young, and I'm growing old,
+it is all correct.'
+
+'Old, indeed!' ejaculated Winifred, looking at her fair fresh
+complexion and bright features; 'don't try for that, when even Edmund
+is not grey.'
+
+'Yes he is,' said Albinia, gravely; 'Malta sowed many white threads
+in his black head, and worry about those buildings has brought more.'
+
+'Worry; I'm very sorry to hear of it.'
+
+'Yes; the tenures are so troublesome, and everybody is so
+cantankerous.  If he wanted to set up some pernicious manufacture, it
+could not be worse!  The Osbornes, after having lived with Tibb's
+Alley close to them all their lives, object to the almshouses!  Mr.
+Baron wont have the new drains carried through his little strip of
+land.  The Town Council think we are going to poison the water; and
+Pettilove, and everybody else who owns a wretched tenement, that we
+shall increase the wants of their tenants, and lower their rents.  If
+it be carried through, it will be by that sheer force in going his
+own way that Edmund can exert when he chooses.'
+
+'And he will?'
+
+'O, yes, no fear of that; he goes on, avoiding seeing or hearing what
+he has not to act upon; but worse than all are the people themselves;
+Tibb's Alley all has notice to quit, but none of them can be got rid
+of till Martinmas, and some not till Lady-day, and the beer-house
+people are in such a rage!  The turn-out of the public-houses come
+and roar at our gate on Saturday nights; and they write up things on
+the wall against him! and one day they threw over into the garden
+what little Awkey called a poor dear dead pussy.  I believe they tell
+them all sorts of absurd things about his tyranny; poor creatures.'
+
+'Can't you get it stopped?'
+
+'Edmund wont summon any one, because he thinks it would do more harm
+than good.  He says it will pass off; but it grieves him more than he
+shows: he thinks he could once have made himself more popular: but I
+don't know, it is a horrid set.'
+
+'I thought you said he was in good spirits.'
+
+'And so he is: he never gets depressed and unwilling to be spoken to.
+He is ready to take interest in everything; and always so busy!  When
+I remember how he never seemed to be obliged to attend to anything, I
+laugh at the contrast; and yet he goes about it all so gravely and
+slowly, that it never seems like a change.'
+
+In this and other home talk nearly an hour had passed, when Mr.
+Ferrars returned.  'Are you come to tell me to go?' said Albinia.
+
+'Not particularly,' he said, in a tone that made her laugh.
+
+'No, no,' said Winifred.  'I want a great deal more of her.  Where
+have you been?'
+
+'I have been to see old Wilks; Ulick walked down with me.  By-the-bye,
+Albinia, what nonsense has Fred's wife been talking to his brother?'
+
+'Emily does not talk nonsense!' fired up Albinia, colouring,
+nevertheless.
+
+'The worse for her, then!  However, it seems Bryan has disturbed this
+poor fellow very much, by congratulating him on his prospects at
+Willow Lawn.'
+
+'Oh! that is what made him so distant and cautious, is it?' laughed
+Albinia.  'I think Mrs. Emily might as well not have betrayed it.'
+
+'Betrayed!  What could have passed?'
+
+'Oh!  Emily and Fred saw it as plain as I did.  Why, it does not do
+credit to your discernment, Maurice; papa found it out long ago, and
+told me.'
+
+'Kendal did?'
+
+'Yes, that he did, and did not mind the notion at all; rather liked
+it, in fact.'
+
+'Well!' said Mr. Ferrars, in a different tone, 'it is a very queer
+business!  I certainly did not think the lad showed any symptoms.  He
+said he had heard gossip about it before, and had tried to be
+careful; his aunt talked to him once, but, as he said, it would be
+nothing but the rankest treason to think of such a thing, on the
+terms on which he is treated.'
+
+'Ay, that's it!' said Albinia; 'he acts most perfectly.'
+
+'Perfectly indeed, if that were acting,' said Mr. Ferrars.
+
+'And what made him speak to you?' asked Winifred.
+
+'He wanted to consult me.  He said it was very hard on him, for all
+the pleasure he had came from his intercourse with Willow Lawn; and
+he could not bear to keep at a distance, because it looked as if he
+bad not forgotten the old folly about the caricature; but he was
+afraid of the report coming to your ears or Mr. Kendal's, because you
+would think it so wrong and shameful an abuse of your kindness.'
+
+'And that's his whole concern?'
+
+'So he told me.'
+
+'And what advice did you give him?'
+
+'I told him Bayford was bent on gossip, and no one heeded it less
+than my respected brother and sister.'
+
+'That was famous of you, Maurice.  I was afraid you would have put it
+upon his honour and the state of his own heart.'
+
+'Sooth to say, I did not think his heart appeared very ticklish.'
+
+'Oh!  Maurice, Maurice!  But you've not been there to see the hot
+fits and the cold fits!  It is a very fine thermometer whether he
+says Sophy or Miss Kendal.'
+
+'And you say Edmund perceived this?'
+
+'Much you would trust my unassisted 'cuteness!  I tell you he did,
+and that it will make him happier than anything.'
+
+'Very well; then my advice will have done no harm.  I did not think
+there had been so much self-control in an Irishman.'
+
+'Had he not better say, so much blindness in the rector of Fairmead?'
+laughed Albinia.
+
+'And pray what course is the affair to take?'
+
+'The present, I suppose.  Some catastrophe will occur at last to
+prove to him that we honour him, and don't view it as outrageous
+presumption; and then--oh! there can be no doubt that he will have a
+share in the bank; and Sophy may buy toleration for his round O.
+After all, he has the best of it as to ancestry, and we Kendals need
+not turn up our noses at banking.'
+
+'I think he will be too proud to address her, except on equality as
+to money matters.'
+
+'Pride is sometimes quelled and love free,' said Albinia.  'No, no;
+content yourself with having given the best advice in the world, with
+your eyes fast shut!'
+
+And Albinia went home in high spirits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+
+Not long afterwards, Ulick O'More was summoned to Bristol, where his
+uncle had become suddenly worse; but he had only reached Hadminster
+when a telegraph met him with the news of Mr. Goldsmith's death, and
+orders to remain at his post.
+
+He came to the Kendals in the evening in great grief; he had really
+come to love and esteem his uncle, and he was very unhappy at having
+lost the chance of a reconciliation for his mother.  As her chief
+friend and confidant, he knew that she regarded the alienation of her
+own family as the punishment of her disobedient marriage, and that
+his own appointment had been valued chiefly as an opening towards
+fraternal feeling, and reproached himself for not having made more
+direct efforts to induce his uncle to enter into personal intercourse
+with her.
+
+'If I had only ventured it before he went to Bristol,' he said; 'I
+was a fool not to have done so; and there, the Goldsmiths detest the
+very name of us!  Why could they not have telegraphed for me?  I
+might have heard what would have done my mother's heart good for the
+rest of her life.  I am sure my poor uncle wanted to ease his mind!'
+
+'May he not have sent some communication direct to her?'
+
+'I trust he did!  I have long thought he only kept her aloof from
+habit, and felt kindly towards her all the time.'
+
+'And never could persuade himself to make a move towards her until
+too late,' said Albinia.
+
+'Yes.  Nothing comes home to one more than the words, "Agree with
+thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in the way with him."  If
+once one comes to think there's creditable pride in holding out,
+there's no end to it, or else too much end.'
+
+'Mr. Goldsmith was persevering in the example his father had set
+him,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Ay! my mother never blamed either, and I'm afraid, if the truth were
+told, my father was hot enough too, though it would all have been
+bygones with him long ago, if they would have let it.  But I was
+thinking just then of my own foolishness last winter, when I would
+not grant you it was pride, Mrs. Kendal, for fear I should have to
+repent of it.'
+
+'What has brought you to see that it was?' asked she.
+
+'One comes to a better mind when the fit is off,' he said.  'I hope I
+will not be as bad next time.'
+
+'I hope we shall never give you a next time,' said Albinia; 'for
+neither party is comfortable, perched on a high horse.'
+
+'And you see,' continued Ulick, 'it is hard for us to give up our
+pride, because it is the only thing we've got of our own, and has
+been meat, drink, and clothing to us for many a year.'
+
+'So no wonder you make the most of it.'
+
+'True; I think a very high born and very rich man might be humble,'
+said Ulick, so meditatively that they laughed; but Sophy said,
+
+'No, that is not a paradox; the real difficulty is not in willingly
+yielding, but in taking what we cannot help.'
+
+'Well,' said Ulick, 'I hope it is not pride not to intend working
+under Andrew Goldsmith.'
+
+'Do you consider that as your fate?' asked Albinia.
+
+'Never my fate,' said Ulick, quickly; 'hardly even my alternative,
+for he would like to put up a notice, "No Irish need apply."  We had
+enough of each other last winter.'
+
+'And do you suppose,' said Mr. Kendal, 'that Mr. Goldsmith has left
+your position exactly the same?'
+
+'I've no reason to think otherwise.  I refused all connexion with the
+bank if it was to interfere with my name.  I don't think it unlikely
+that he may have left me a small compliment in the way of shares; but
+if so, I shall sell them, and make them keep me at Oxford.  I'm not
+too old yet!'
+
+'Then the work of these four years is wasted,' said Mr. Kendal,
+gravely.
+
+'No, indeed,' cried Ulick; 'not if it takes me where I've always
+longed to be!  Or, if not, I flatter myself I'm accountant enough to
+be an agent in my own country.'
+
+'Anything to get away from here,' said Albinia, with a shade of
+asperity, provoked by the spirit of enterprise in his voice.
+
+'After all, it is a bit of a place,' said Ulick; 'and the office
+parlour is not just a paradise!  Then 'tis all on such a narrow
+scale, too little to absorb one, and too much to let one do anything
+else; I see how larger transactions might be engrossing, but this is
+mere cramping and worrying; I know I could do better for my family in
+the end than by what I can screw out of my salary now; and if it is
+no longer to give my poor mother a sense of expiation, as she calls
+it, why, then, the cage-door is open.'
+
+His eyes glittered, and Sophy exclaimed, 'Yes; and now the training
+is over, it has made you fitter to fly.'
+
+'It has,' he said; 'and I'm thankful for it.  Without being here, I
+would never have learnt application--nor some better things, I hope.'
+
+They scarcely saw him again till after the funeral, when late in the
+day he came into the drawing-room, and saying that his aunt was
+pretty well and composed, he knelt down on the floor with the little
+Awk, and silently built up a tower with her wooden bricks.  His hand
+trembled nervously at first, but gradually steadied as the elevation
+became critical; and a smile of interest lighted his face as he
+became absorbed in raising the structure to the last brick, holding
+back the eager child with one hand lest she should overthrow it.
+Completion, triumph, a shock, a downfall!
+
+'Well,' cried the elder Albinia, unable to submit to the suspense.
+
+'Telle est la vie,' answered Ulick, smiling sadly as he passed his
+hand over his brow.
+
+'It's too bad of him,' broke out Mrs. Kendal.
+
+'I thought you were prepared,' said Sophy, severely, disappointed to
+see him so much discomposed.
+
+'How should I be prepared,' said he, petulantly, 'for the whole
+concern, house, and bank, and all the rest of it?'
+
+'Left to you?' was the cry.
+
+'Every bit of it, and an annuity apiece charged on it to my mother
+and aunt for their lives!  My aunt told me how it came about.  It was
+all that fellow Andrew's fault.'
+
+'Or misfortune,' murmured Albinia.
+
+'My poor uncle had made a will in Andrew's favour long before my
+time, and at Bristol he wanted to make some arrangement for my mother
+and for me; but it seems Mr. Andrew took exception at me--would not
+promise to continue me on, nor to give me a share in the business,
+and at last my uncle was so much disgusted, that be sent for a lawyer
+and cut Andrew out of his will altogether.  My aunt says he went on
+asking for me, and it was Andrew's fault that they wrote instead of
+telegraphing.  You can't think what kind messages he sent to me;' and
+Ulick's eyes filled with tears.  'My poor uncle, away from home, and
+with that selfish fellow.'
+
+'Did he send any message to your mother?'
+
+'Yes! he told my aunt to write to her that he was sorry they had been
+strangers so long, and that--I'd been like a son to him.  I'm sure I
+wish I had been.  I dare say he would have let me if I had not flown
+out about my O.  I could have saved changing it without making such
+an intolerable row, and then he might have died more at peace with
+the world.'
+
+'At peace with you at least he did.'
+
+'I trust so.  But if I could only have been by his side, and felt
+myself a comfort, and thanked him with all my heart.  Maybe he would
+have listened to me, and not have sown ill-will between Andrew and
+me, by giving neither what we would like.'
+
+'Do you expect us to be sorry?'
+
+'Nay, I came to be helped out of my ingratitude and discontent at
+finding the cage-door shut, and myself chained to the oar; for as
+things are left, I could not get it off my hands without giving up my
+mother's interests and my aunt's.  Besides, my poor uncle left me an
+entreaty to keep things up creditably like himself, and do justice by
+the bank.  It is as if, poor man, it was an idol that he had been
+high priest to, and wanted me to be the same--ay, and sacrifice too.'
+
+'Nay, there are two ways of working, two kinds of sacrifice; and
+besides, you are still working for your mother.'
+
+'So I am, but without the hope she had before.  To be sure, it would
+be affluence at home, or would be if she could have it in her own
+hands.  Little Redmond shall have the best of educations!  And we
+must mind there is something in advance by the time Bryan wants to
+purchase his company.'
+
+Albinia asked how his aunt liked the arrangement.  It seemed that
+Andrew had offended her nearly as much as her brother, and that she
+was clinging to Ulick as her great comfort and support; he did not
+like to stay long away from her, but he had rushed down to Willow
+Lawn to avoid the jealous congratulations of the cousinhood.
+
+'You will hardly keep from glad people,' said Albinia.  'You must
+shut yourself up if you cannot be congratulated.  How rejoiced Mr.
+Dusautoy will be!'
+
+'Whatever is, is best,' sighed Ulick.  'I shall mind less when the
+first is past!  I must go and entertain all these people at dinner!'
+and he groaned.  'Good evening.  Heigh ho!  I wonder if our Banshee
+will think me worth keening for?'
+
+'I hope she will have no occasion yet,' said Albinia, as he shut the
+door; 'but she will be a very foolish Banshee if she does not, for
+she will hardly find such another O'More!  Well, Sophy, my dear.'
+
+'We should have missed him,' said Sophy, as grave as a judge.
+
+Albinia's heart beat high with the hope that Ulick would soon
+perceive sufficient consolation for remaining at Bayford, but of
+course he could make no demonstration while Miss Goldsmith continued
+with him.  She made herself very dependent on him, and he devoted his
+evenings to her solace.  He had few leisure moments, for the
+settlement of his affairs occupied him, and full attention was most
+important to establish confidence at this critical juncture, when it
+might be feared that his youth, his nation, and Andrew Goldsmith's
+murmurs might tell against him.  Mr. Kendal set the example of
+putting all his summer rents into his hands, and used his influence
+to inspire trust; and fortunately the world had become so much
+accustomed to transacting affairs with him, that the country business
+seemed by no means inclined to fall away.  Still there was much hard
+work and some perplexity, the Bristol connexion made themselves
+troublesome, and the ordinary business was the heavier from the
+clerks being both so young and inexperienced that he was obliged to
+exercise close supervision.  It was guessed, too, that he was not
+happy about the effect of the influx of wealth at home, and that he
+feared it would only add to the number of horses and debts.
+
+He soon looked terribly fagged and harassed, and owned that he envied
+Mr. Hope, who had just received the promise of a district church, in
+course of building under Colonel Bury's auspices, about four miles
+from Fairmead.  To work his way through the University and take Holy
+Orders had been Ulick's ambition; he would gladly have endured
+privation for such an object, and it did seem hard that such
+aspirations should be so absolutely frustrated, and himself forced
+into the stream of uncongenial, unintellectual toil, in so obscure
+and uninviting a sphere.  The resignation of all lingering hope of
+escape, and the effort to be contented, cost him more than even his
+original breaking in; and Mr. Kendal one day found him sitting in his
+little office parlour unable to think or to speak under a terrible
+visitation of his autumnal tormentor, brow-ague.
+
+This made Mr. Kendal take to serious expostulation.  It was
+impossible to go on in this way; why did he not send for a brother to
+help him?
+
+Ulick could not restrain a smile at the fruitlessness of thinking of
+assistance of this kind from his elder brothers, and as to little
+Redmond, the only younger one still to be disposed of, he hoped to do
+better things for him.
+
+'Then send for a sister.'
+
+He hoped he might bring Rose over when his aunt was gone, but he
+could not shut those two up together at any price.
+
+Then,' said Mr. Kendal, rather angrily, 'get an experienced,
+trustworthy clerk, so as to be able to go from home, or give yourself
+some relaxation.'
+
+'Yes, I inquired about such a person, but there's the salary; and
+where would be the chance of getting Redmond to school?'
+
+'I think your father might see to that.'
+
+Ulick had no answer to make to this.  The legacy to Mrs. O'More might
+nearly as well have been thrown into the sea.
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Kendal, walking about the room, 'why don't you keep
+a horse?'
+
+'As a less costly animal than brother, sister, or clerk?' said Ulick,
+laughing.
+
+'Your health will prove more costly than all the rest if you do not
+take care.'
+
+'Well, my aunt told me it would be respectable and promote confidence
+if I lived like a gentleman and kept my horse.  I'll see about it,'
+said Ulick, in a more persuadable tone.
+
+The seeing about it resulted in the arrival of a genuine product of
+county Galway, a long-legged, raw-boned hunter, with a wild,
+frightened eye, quivering, suspicious-looking ears, and an ill-omened
+name compounded of kill and of kick, which Maurice alone endeavoured
+to pronounce; also an outside car, very nearly as good as new.  This
+last exceeded Ulick's commission, but it had been such a bargain,
+that Connel had not been able to resist it, indeed it cost more in
+coming over than the original price; but Ulick nearly danced round
+it, promising Mrs. and Miss Kendal that when new cushioned and new
+painted they would find it beat everything.
+
+He was not quite so envious of Mr. Hope when he devoted the early
+morning hours to Killye-kickye, as the incorrect world called his
+steed, and, if the truth must be told, he first began to realize the
+advantages of wealth, when he set his name down among the subscribers
+to the hounds.
+
+Nor was this the only subscription to which he was glad to set his
+name; there were others where Mr. Dusautoy wanted funds, and Mr.
+Kendal's difficulties were lessened by having another lord of the
+soil on his side.  Some exchanges brought land enough within their
+power to make drainage feasible, and Ulick started the idea that it
+would be better to locate the almshouses at the top of the hill, on
+the site of Madame Belmarche's old house, than to place them where
+Tibb's Alley at present was, close to the river, and far from church.
+
+Mr. Kendal's plans were unpopular, and two or three untoward
+circumstances combined to lead to his being regarded as a tyrant.  He
+could not do things gently, and had not a conciliating manner.  Had
+he been more free spoken, real oppression would have been better
+endured than benefits against people's will.  He interfered to
+prevent some Sunday trading; and some of the Tibb's Alley tenants who
+ought to have gone at midsummer, chose to stay on and set him at
+defiance till they had to be forcibly ejected; whereupon Ulick O'More
+showed that he was not thoroughly Anglicised by demanding if, under
+such circumstances, it was safe to keep the window shutters unclosed
+at night, Mr. Kendal's head was such a beautiful mark under the lamp.
+
+If not a mark for a pistol, he was one for the disaffected blackguard
+papers, which made up a pathetic case of a helpless widow with her
+bed taken away from under her, ending with certain vague
+denunciations which were read with roars of applause at the last beer
+shop which could not be cleared till Christmas, while the closing of
+the rest sent herds thither; and papers were nightly read;
+representing the Nabob expelling the industrious from the beloved
+cottages of their ancestors, by turns, to swell his own overgrown
+garden, or to found a convent, whence, as a disguised Jesuit, he
+meant to convert all Bayford to popery.
+
+As Albinia wrote to Genevieve, they were in a state of siege, for
+only in the middle of the day did Mr. Kendal allow the womankind to
+venture out without an escort, the evening was disturbed by howlings
+at the gate, and all sorts of petty acts of spite were committed in
+the garden, such as injuring trees, stealing fruit, and carrying off
+the children's rabbits.  Let that be as it might, Genevieve owned
+herself glad to come to hospitable Willow Lawn, though sorry for the
+cause.
+
+Poor Mr. Rainsforth, after vainly striving to recruit his health at
+Torquay during the vacation, had been sentenced to give up his
+profession, and ordered to Madeira, and Genevieve was upon the world
+again.
+
+The Kendals claimed her promise of a long visit, or rather that she
+should come home, and take time and choice in making any fresh
+engagement, nay, that she should not even inquire for a situation
+till after Christmas.  And after staying to the last moment when she
+could help the Rainsforths, she proposed to spend a day or two with
+her aunt at the convent, and then come to her friends at Bayford.
+
+Mr. Kendal drove his ladies to fetch her.  He had lately indulged the
+household with a large comfortable open carriage with two horses, a
+rival to Mr. O'More's notable car, where he used to drive in an easy
+lounging fashion on one side, with Hyder Ali to balance him on the
+other.
+
+This was a grand shopping day, an endless business, and as the autumn
+day began to close in, even Mr. Kendal's model patience was nearly
+exhausted before they called for their little friend.  There was
+something very sweet and appropriate in her appearance; her dress,
+without presuming to share their mourning, did not insult it by gay
+colouring; it was a quiet dark violet and white checked silk, a black
+mantle, and black velvet bonnet with a few green leaves to the lilac
+flowers, and the face when at rest was softly pensive, but ready to
+respond with cheerful smiles and grateful looks.  She had become more
+English, and had dropped much foreign accent and idiom, but without
+losing her characteristic grace and power of disembarrassing those to
+whom she spoke, and in a few moments even Sophy had lost all sense of
+meeting under awkward or melancholy circumstances, and was talking
+eagerly to her dear old sympathizing friend.
+
+There was a great exchange of tidings; Genevieve had much to tell of
+her dear Rainsforths, the many vicissitudes of anxiety in which she
+had shared, and of the children's ways of taking the parting; and of
+the dear little Fanny who seemed to have carried away so large a
+piece of her susceptible heart, that Sophy could not help breaking
+out, 'Well, I do think it is very hard to make yourself a bit of a
+mother's heart, only to have it torn out again.'
+
+Albinia smiled, and said, 'After all, Sophy, happiness in this world
+is in such loving, only we don't find it out till the rent has been
+made.'
+
+'And some people can get fond of anything,' said Sophy.
+
+'I'm sure,' said Genevieve, 'every one is so kind to me I can't help
+it.'
+
+'I was not blaming you,' said Sophy.  'People are the better for it,
+but I cannot like except where I esteem, and that does not often
+come.'
+
+'Oh! don't you think so?' cried Genevieve.
+
+'I don't mean moderate approval.  That may extend far, and with it
+good-will, but there is a deep, concentrated feeling which I don't
+believe those who like every one can ever have, and that is life.'
+
+Perhaps the deepening twilight favoured the utterance of her
+feelings, for, as they were descending a hill, she said, 'Mamma, that
+was the place where Maurice was brought back to me.'
+
+She had before passed it in silence, but in the dark she was not
+afraid of betraying the expression that the thrill of exquisite
+recollection brought to her countenance; and leaning back in her
+corner indulged in listening to the narration, as Albinia, unaware of
+the special point of the episode, related Maurice's desperate
+enterprise, going on to dilate on the benefit of having Mr. O'More at
+the bank rather than Andrew Goldsmith.
+
+'Ah!' said Genevieve, 'it is he who wants to pull down our dear old
+house.  I shall quarrel with him.'
+
+'Genevieve making common cause with the obstructives of Bayford, as
+if he had not enemies enough!'
+
+'What's that light in the sky?' exclaimed Sophy, starting up to speak
+to her father on the driving seat.
+
+'A bonfire,' said Mr. Kendal.  'If we had remembered that it was the
+5th of November, we would not have stayed out so late.'  The next
+moment he drew up the horses, exclaiming, 'Mr. Hope, will you have a
+lift?'
+
+Mr. Hope, rather to the ladies' surprise, took the vacant place
+beside Sophy, instead of climbing up to the box.  He had been to see
+his intended parish, and was an enviable man, for he was as proud of
+it as if it had been an intended wife, and Albinia, who knew it for a
+slice of dreary heath, was entertained with his raptures.  Church,
+schools, and parsonage, each in their way were perfection or at least
+promised to be, and he had never been so much elevated or so
+communicative.  The speechless little curate seemed to have vanished.
+
+The road, as may be remembered, did not run parallel with the curve
+of the river, but cutting straight across, entered Bayford over the
+hill, passing a small open bit of waste land, where stood a few
+cottages, the outskirts of the town.
+
+Suddenly coming from an overshadowed lane upon this common, a glare
+of light flashed on them, showing them each other's faces, and
+casting the shadow of the carriage into full relief.  The horses
+shied violently, and they beheld an enormous bonfire raised on a
+little knoll about twenty yards in front of them, surrounded by a
+dense crowd, making every species of hideous noise.
+
+Mr. Kendal checked the horses' start, and Mr. Hope sprang to their
+heads.  They were young and scarcely trustworthy, their restless
+movements showed alarm, and it was impossible to turn them without
+both disturbing the crowd and giving them a fuller view of the object
+of their terror.  Mr. Kendal came down, and reconnoitring for a
+moment, said, 'You had better get out while we try to lead them
+round, we will go home by Squash Lane.'
+
+Just then a brilliant glow of white flame, and a tremendous roar of
+applause, put the horses in such an agony, that they would have been
+too much for Mr. Hope, had not Mr. Kendal started to his assistance,
+and a man standing by likewise caught the rein.  He was a respectable
+carpenter who lived on the heath, and touching his hat as he
+recognised them, said, 'Sir, if the ladies would come into my house,
+and you too, sir.  The people are going on in an odd sort of way, and
+Mrs. Kendal would be frightened.  I'll take care of the carriage.'
+
+Mr. Kendal went to the side of the carriage, and asked the ladies if
+they were alarmed.
+
+'O no!' answered Albinia, 'it is great fun;' and as the horses
+fidgeted again, 'it feels like a review.'
+
+'You had better get out,' he said; 'I must try to back the horses
+till I can turn them without running over any one.  Will you go into
+the house?  You did not expect to find Bayford so riotous,' he added
+with a smile, as he assisted Genevieve out.
+
+'You are not going to get up again,' said Albinia, catching hold of
+him, and in her dread of his committing himself to the mercy of the
+horses, returning unmeaning thanks to the carpenter's urgent requests
+that she would take refuge in his house.
+
+In fact, the scene was new and entertaining, and on the farther side
+of the road, sheltered by the carriage, the party were entirely apart
+from the throng, which was too much absorbed to notice them, only a
+few heads turning at the rattling of the harness, and the ladies were
+amused at the bright flame, and the dark figures glancing in and out
+of the light, the shouts of delight and the merry faces.
+
+'There's Guy Fawkes,' cried Albinia, as a procession of scarecrows
+were home on chairs amid thunders of acclamation; 'but whom have they
+besides?  Here are some new characters.'
+
+'Most lugubrious looking,' said Genevieve.  'I cannot make out the
+shouts.'
+
+'It is the Nabob,' said Mr. Kendal.  'Perhaps you do not know that is
+my alias.  This is my execution.'
+
+The carpenter implored them to come in, and Mr. Hope added his
+entreaties, but Mr. Kendal would not leave the horses, and the ladies
+would not leave him; and they all stood still while his effigy was
+paraded round the knoll, the mark of every squib, the object of every
+invective that the rabble could roar out at the top of their voices.
+Jesuits and Papists; Englishmen treated like blackamoor slaves in the
+Indies; honest folk driven out of house and home; such was the
+burthen of the cries that assailed the grim representative carried
+aloft, while the real man stood unmoved as a statue, his tall,
+powerful figure unstirred, his long driving-whip resting against his
+shoulder without betraying the slightest motion, neither firm lip nor
+steady eye changing.  Genevieve, with tears in her eyes, exclaimed,
+'Oh! this is madness!  Will no one tell them how wicked they are?'
+
+'Never mind, my dear,' said Mr. Kendal, pressing the hand that in her
+fervour she had laid on his arm, 'they will come to their senses in
+time.  No, Mr. Hope, I beg you will not interfere, they are in no
+state for it; they have done no harm as yet.'
+
+'I wonder what the police are about?' cried Albinia, indignantly.
+
+'They are too few to do any good,' said Mr. Kendal.  'It may be
+better that they are not incensing the mob.  It will all go off
+quietly when this explosion has relieved their feelings.'
+
+They felt as if there were something grand in this perfectly
+dispassionate reception of the outrage, and they stood awed and
+silenced, Sophy leaning on him.
+
+'It will soon be over now,' he said, 'they are poking up the name to
+receive me.'
+
+'Hark! what's that?'
+
+The mob came swaying back, and a rich voice swelled above all the
+din, 'Boys, boys, is it burning your friends you are?  Then, for the
+first time, Mr. Kendal started, and muttered, 'foolish lad! is he
+here?'
+
+Confused cries rose again, but the other voice gained the mastery.
+
+'So you call that undertaker-looking figure there Mr. Kendal.  Small
+credit to your taste.  You want to burn him.  What for?'
+
+'For being a Nabob and a tyrant,' was the shout.
+
+'Much you know of Nabobs!  No; I'll tell you what it's for.  It is
+because his son got his death fighting for his queen and his country
+a year ago, and on his death-bed bade him do his best to drive the
+fever from your doors, and shelter you and save you from the Union in
+your old age.  Is that a thing to burn him for?'
+
+'We want no Irish papists here!' shouted a blackguard voice.
+
+'Serve him with the same sauce.'
+
+'I never was a papist,' was the indignant reply.  'No more was he;
+but I've said that the place shan't disgrace itself, and--'
+
+'I'm with you,' shouted another above all the howls of the mob.
+'Gilbert Kendal was as kind-hearted a chap as ever lived, and I'll
+see no wrong done to his father.'
+
+Tremendous uproar ensued; then the well-known tones pealed out again,
+'I've given my word to save his likeness.  Come on, boys.  Hurrah for
+Kendal!'
+
+The war-cry was echoed by a body of voices, there was a furious melee
+and a charge towards the Nabob, who rocked and toppled down, while
+stragglers came pressed backwards on all sides.
+
+'Here, Hope, take care of them.  Stay with them,' said Mr. Kendal,
+putting the whip into the curate's hand, and striding towards the
+nucleus of the fray, through the throng who were driven backwards.
+
+'O'More,' he called, 'what's all this?  Give over!  Are you mad?' and
+then catching up, and setting on his legs, a little fallen boy, 'Go
+home; get out of all this mischief.  What are you doing?  Take home
+that child,' to a gaping girl with a baby.  'O'More, I say, I'll
+commit every man of you if you don't give over.'
+
+He was recognised, and those who had little appetite for the skirmish
+gave back from him; but the more reckless and daring small fry began
+shrieking, 'The Nabob!' and letting off crackers and squibs, through
+which he advanced upon the knot of positive combatants, who were
+exchanging blows over his prostrate image in front of the fire.
+
+One he caught by the collar, in the act of aiming a blow.  The fist
+was instantly levelled at him, with the cry, 'You rascal! what do you
+mean by it?'  But the fierce struggle failed to shake off the
+powerful grasp; and at the command, 'Don't be such a fool!' Ulick
+burst out, 'Murder! 'tis himself!' and in the surprise was dragged
+some paces before recovering his perceptions.
+
+The cry of police had at the same instant produced a universal
+scattering, and five policemen, coming on the ground, found scarcely
+any one to separate or capture.  Mr. Kendal relaxed his hold, saying,
+'You are my prisoner.'
+
+'I didn't think you'd been so strong,' said Ulick, shaking himself,
+and looking bewildered.  'Where's the effigy?'
+
+'What's that to you.  Come away, like a rational being.'
+
+'Ha! what's that?' as a frightful, agonizing shriek rent the air, and
+a pillar of flame came rushing across the now open space.  It was a
+child, one mass of fire, and flying, in its anguish, from all who
+would have seized it.  One moment of horror, and it had vanished!
+The next, Genevieve's voice was heard crying, 'Bring me something
+more to press on it.'  She had contrived to cross its path with her
+large carriage rug, and was kneeling over it, forcing down the rug to
+smother the flames.  Mr. Hope brought her a shawl, and they all stood
+round in silent awe.
+
+'The poor child will be stifled,' said Albinia, kneeling down to help
+to unfold its face.
+
+Poor little face, distorted with terror and agony!  One of the
+policemen recognised it as the child of the public-house in Tibb's
+Alley.  There were moans, but no one dared to uncover the limbs; and
+the policeman and Mr. Hope proposed carrying it at once to Mr.
+Bowles, and then home.  Mr. Kendal desired that it should be laid on
+the seat of the carriage, which he would drive gently to the
+doctor's.  Genevieve got in to watch over the poor little boy, and
+the others walked on by the side, passed the battle-field, now
+entirely deserted, too much shocked for aught but conjectures on his
+injuries, and the cause of the misfortune.  Either he must have been
+pushed in on the fire by the runaway rabble, or have trod upon some
+of the scattered combustibles.
+
+Mr. Bowles desired that the child should be taken home at once,
+promising to follow instantly; so at the entrance of Tibb's Alley,
+the carriage stopped, and Mr. Hope lifted out the poor little wailing
+bundle.  Albinia was following, but a decided prohibition from her
+husband checked her.  'I would not have either of you go to that
+house on any account.  Tell them to send to us for whatever they
+want, but that is enough.'
+
+There was no gainsaying such a command, but as they reached the door
+of Willow Lawn, Mr. Kendal exclaimed, 'Where is Miss Durant?'
+
+'She is gone with the little boy,' said Sophy.  'She told me she
+hoped you would not be displeased.  Mr. Hope will take care of her,
+and she will soon come in.'
+
+'Every one is mad to-night!' cried Mr. Kendal.  'In such a place as
+that!  I will go for her directly.'
+
+'Pray don't,' said Albinia, 'no one could speak a rude word to her on
+such an errand.  She and Mr. Hope will be much more secure from
+incivility without you.'
+
+'I believe it may be so, but I wish--'
+
+His wish was broken off, for his little Albinia, screaming, 'Papa!
+papa!' clung to him in a transport of caresses, which Maurice
+explained by saying, 'Little Awkey has been crying, mamma, she
+thought they were burning papa in the bonnie.'
+
+'Papa not burnt!' cried little Awkey, patting his cheeks, and laying
+her head on his shoulders alternately, as he held her to his breast.
+'Naughty people wanted to make a fire, but they sha'n't burn papa or
+poor Guy Fawkes, or any of the good men.'
+
+'And where were you, Ulick?' cried Maurice, in an imperious, injured
+way.  'You said once, perhaps you would take me to see the fire; and
+I went up to the bank, and they said you were gone, and it was
+glaring so in the sky, and I did so want to go.'
+
+'I am glad you stayed away, my man,' said Albinia.
+
+'I did want to go,' said Maurice; 'and I ran up to the top of the
+street, and there was Mr. Tritton; and he said if I liked a lark, he
+would take care of me; but--' and there he stopped short, and the
+colour came into his face.
+
+Albinia threw her arm round him, and kissed him, saying, 'My trusty
+boy! and so you came home?'
+
+'Yes; and there was Awkey crying about their burning papa, and she
+would not go up to the garret-window to see the fire, nor do
+anything.'
+
+'Why, what is the sword here for?' exclaimed Sophy, finding it on the
+stairs.
+
+'Because then Awkey was not so afraid.'
+
+For once, Maurice had been exemplary, keeping from the tempting
+uproar, and devoting himself to soothing his little sister.  It was
+worth all the vexations of the evening; but he went on to ask if
+Ulick could not take him now, if the fire was not out yet,
+
+'Not exactly,' said Mr. Kendal, drily.
+
+'I beg your pardon, Mr. Kendal,' said Ulick, who had apparently only
+just resumed the use of speech; 'don't know what I may have done when
+you collared me, but I'd no more notion of its being you than the
+Lord Lieutenant.'
+
+'And pray what took you there?' asked Mr. Kendal.  'The surprise was
+quite as great to me.'
+
+'Why,' said Ulick, 'one of the little lads of my Sunday class gave me
+a hint the other day that those brutes meant to have a pretty go to-night,
+and that Jackson was getting up a figure of the Nabob to break
+their spite upon.  So I told my little fellow to give a hint to a few
+more of the right sort, and we'd go up together and not let the
+rascals have their own way.'
+
+'Upon my word, I wonder what the Vicar will say to the use you make
+of his Sunday-school.  Pretty work for his model teacher.'
+
+'What better could the boys be taught than to fight for the good
+cause?  Why, no one is a scratch the worse for it.  And do you think
+we could sit by and see our best friend used worse than a dog?'
+
+'Why not give notice to the police?'
+
+'And would you have me hinder a fight?' cried Ulick, in the most
+Irish of all his voices.
+
+'Oh! very well, if you like--only there will be a run on the bank
+to-morrow.'
+
+'What has Ulick been doing, Sophy?' asked Maurice.
+
+'Only what you would have done had you been older, Maurice,' she
+said, in a hurt voice; 'defending papa's effigy, for which he does
+not seem to meet with much gratitude.'
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Kendal, who all the time had had more gratitude in
+his eyes than on his tongue, 'if the burning had had the same
+consequence as melting one's waxen effigy was thought to have, it
+might have been worth while to interfere, but I should have thought
+it more dignified in a respectable substantial householder to let
+those foolish fellows have their swing.'
+
+'More dignified maybe,' smiled Albinia, 'but less like an O'More.'
+
+'No, you are not going,' said Mr. Kendal; 'I shall not release my
+prisoner just yet.'
+
+'You carried off all the honour of the day,' said Ulick.  'I had no
+notion you had such an arm.  Why, you swung me round like a tom-cat,
+or--' and he exemplified the exploit upon Maurice, and was well
+buffeted.
+
+'That's a little Irish blarney to propitiate me,' laughed Mr. Kendal,
+who certainly was in unusual spirits after his execution and rescue
+by proxy, but you wont escape prison fare.'
+
+'There's no doubt who was the heroine of the day,' added Sophy.  'How
+one envies her!'
+
+'What! your little governess friend?' said Ulick.  'Yes; she did show
+superior wit, when the rest of the world stood gaping round.'
+
+'It was admirable--just like Genevieve's tenderness and dexterity,'
+said Albinia.  'I dare say she is doing everything for the poor
+little fellow.'
+
+'Yes, admirable,' said Mr. Kendal; 'but you all behaved very
+creditably, ladies.'
+
+'Ay,' said Albinia; 'not to scream is what a man thinks the climax of
+excellence in a woman.'
+
+'It is generally all that is required,' said Mr. Kendal.  I don't
+know what I should have done if poor Lucy had been there.'
+
+Thereupon the ladies went upstairs, Maurice following Sophy to
+extract a full account of the skirmish.  The imp probably had an
+instinct that she would think more of what redounded to Ulick
+O'More's glory than of what would be edifying to his own infant mind.
+It was doubtful how long it would be before Guy Fawkes would arrive
+at his proper standing in the little Awk's opinion, after the honour
+of an auto-da-fe in company with papa.
+
+Mr. Hope escorted Genevieve home, and was kept to dinner.  They
+narrated that they had found the public-house open, and the bar full
+of noisy runaways.
+
+The burns were dreadful, but the surgeon did not think they would be
+fatal, and the child had held Genevieve's hand throughout the
+dressing, and seemed so unwilling to part with her, that she had
+promised to come again the next day, and had been thanked gratefully.
+There seemed no positive want of comforts, and there was every hope
+that all would do well.
+
+Genevieve looked pale after the scene she had gone through, and could
+not readily persuade herself to eat, still less rally her spirits to
+talk; but she managed to avoid observation at dinner-time, and
+afterwards a rest on the sofa restored her.  She evidently felt, as
+she said, that this was coming home, and her exquisite gift of tact
+making her perceive that she was to be at ease and on an equality,
+she assumed her position without giving her friends the embarrassment
+of installing her, and Mr. Hope was in such a state of transparent
+admiration, that Albinia could not help two or three times
+noiselessly clapping her hands under the table, and secretly thanking
+the rioters and their tag-rag and bob-tail for having provided a home
+for little Genevieve Durant.
+
+There was indeed a pang as she thought of Gilbert; but she believed
+that Genevieve's heart had never been really touched, and was still
+fresh and open.  She thought she might make Mr. Kendal and Sophy
+equally magnanimous.  Perhaps by that time Sophy would be too happy
+to have leisure to be hurt, and she had little fear but that Mr.
+Kendal's good sense would conquer his jealousy for his son, though it
+might cost him something.
+
+Two lovers to befriend at once!  Two desirable attachments to foster!
+There was glory!  Not that Albinia fulfilled her mission to a great
+extent; shamefacedness always restrained her, and she had not Emily's
+gift for making opportunities.  Indeed, when she did her best, so
+perversely bashful were the parties, that the wrong pairs resorted
+together, the two who could talk being driven into conversation by
+the silence of the others.
+
+Of Mr. Hope's sentiments there could be no doubt.  He was fairly
+carried off his feet by the absorption of the passion, which was
+doubly engrossing because all ladies had hitherto appeared to him as
+beings with whom conversation was an impossible duty; but after all
+he had heard of Miss Durant, he might as a judicious man select her
+for an excellent parsoness, and as a young man fall vehemently in
+love.  Nothing could be more evident to the lookers-on, but Albinia
+could not satisfy herself whether Genevieve had any suspicion.
+
+She was not very young, knew something of the world, and was acute
+and observing; but on the other hand, she had made it a principle
+never to admit the thought of courtship, and she might not be
+sufficiently acquainted with the habits of the individual to be
+sensible of the symptomatic alteration.
+
+She had begged the Dusautoys to make her leisure profitable, and
+spent much of her time upon the schools, on her little patient in
+Tibb's Alley, and in going about among the poor; she visited her old
+shopkeeper friends, and drank tea with them much oftener than
+gratified Mr. Kendal, talking so openly of the pleasure of seeing
+them again, that Albinia sometimes thought the blood of the O'Mores
+was a little chafed.
+
+'There,' said Genevieve, completing a housewife, filled with needles
+ready threaded, 'I wonder whether the omnibus is too protestant to
+leave a parcel at the convent?'
+
+'I don't think its scruples of conscience would withstand sixpence,'
+said Albinia.
+
+'You might post it for less than that,' said Sophy.
+
+'Don't you know,' said Ulick O'More, who was playing with the little
+Awk in the window, 'that the feminine mind loves expedients?  It
+would be less commonplace to confide the parcel to the conductor,
+than merely let him receive it as guard of the mail bag and servant
+of the public.'
+
+'Exactly,' laughed Genevieve.  'Think of the moral influence of being
+selected as bearer of a token of tenderness to my aunt on her fete,
+instead of being treated as a mere machine, devoid of human
+sympathies.'
+
+'Sophy, where were we reading of a nation which gives the simplest
+transaction the air of a little romance?' said Ulick.
+
+'And I have heard of a nation which denudes every action of
+sentiment, and leaves you the tree without the leaves,' was
+Genevieve's retort.
+
+'That misses fire, Miss Durant; my nation does everything by the
+soul, nothing by mechanism.'
+
+'When they _do_ do it.'
+
+'That's a defiance.  You must deprive the conductor of the moral
+influence, whether as man or machine, and entrust the parcel to me.'
+
+'That would be like chartering a steamer to send home a Chinese
+puzzle.'
+
+'No, indeed; I must go to Hadminster.  Bear me witness, Sophy, Miss
+Goldsmith wants me to talk to the house agent.'
+
+'Mind, if you miss St. Leocadia's day, you will miss my aunt's fete.'
+
+Mr. O'More succeeded in carrying off the little parcel.  The next
+morning, as the ladies were descending the hill, a hurried step came
+after them, and the curate said in an abrupt rapid manner, 'I beg
+your pardon, I was going to Hadminster; could I do anything for you?'
+
+'Nothing, thank you,' said Albinia, at whom he looked.
+
+'Did I not hear--Miss Durant had some work to send her aunt to-day?'
+
+'How did you know that, Mr. Hope?' exclaimed Genevieve.
+
+'I heard something pass, when some one was admiring your work,' he
+said, not looking at her.  'And this--I think--is St. Leocadia's
+day.'
+
+'I am very much obliged to you for remembering it, but I have sent my
+little parcel otherwise, so I need not trouble you.'
+
+'Ah! how stupid in me!  I am very sorry.  I beg your pardon,' and he
+hurried off, looking as if very sorry were not a mere matter of
+course.
+
+'Poor man,' thought Albinia, 'I dare say he has reckoned on it all
+this time, and hunted out St. Leocadia in Alban Butler, and then
+tried to screw up his courage all yesterday.  Ulick has managed to
+traverse a romance, but perhaps it is just as well, for what would be
+the effect on the public of Mr. Hope in _that_ coat being seen
+ringing at the convent door?'
+
+'Well, Miss Durant,' said Ulick, entering the drawing-room in the
+winter twilight, 'here is evidence for you!'
+
+'You have actually penetrated the convent, and seen my aunt?
+Impossible! and yet this pencilled note is her own dear writing!'
+
+'You don't mean that you really were let in?' cried Sophy.
+
+'I entered quite legitimately, I assure you.  It was all luck.  I'd
+just been putting up at the Crown, when what should I see in a sort
+of a trance, staring right into the inn-yard, but as jolly-looking a
+priest as ever held a station.  "An' it's long since I've seen the
+like of you," says he aloud to himself.  "Is it the car?" says I.
+"Sure it is," says he.  "I've not laid my eyes on so iligant a
+vehicle since I left County Tyrone."'
+
+'Mr. O'Hara!' exclaimed Genevieve.
+
+'"And I'm mistaken if you're not the master of it," he goes on,
+taking the measure of me all over,' continued Ulick, putting on his
+drollest brogue.  'You see he had too much manners to say that such a
+personable young gentleman, speaking such correct English, could be
+no other than an Irishman, so I made my bow, and said the car and I
+were both from County Galway, and we were straight as good friends as
+if we'd hunted together at Ballymakilty.  To be sure, he was a little
+taken aback when he found I was one of the Protestant branch, of the
+O'Mores, but a countryman is a countryman in a barbarous land, and he
+asked me to call upon him, and offered to do me any service in his
+power.'
+
+'I am sure he would.  He is the kindest old gentleman I know,'
+exclaimed Genevieve.  'He always used to bring me barleysugar-drops
+when I was a little girl, and it was he who found out our poor old
+Biddy in distress at Hadminster, and sent her to live with us.'
+
+'Indeed!  Then I owe him another debt of gratitude--in fact, he told
+me that one of his flock, meaning Biddy, had spoken to him honourably
+of me.  "Well," said I, "the greatest service you could do me, sir,
+would be to introduce me to Mademoiselle Belmarche; I have a young
+lady's commission for her."  "From my little Genevieve," he said,
+"the darling that she is.  Did you leave the child well?"  And so
+when I said it was a present for her saint's day, and that your heart
+was set on it--'
+
+'But, Mr. O'More, I never did set my heart on your seeing her.'
+
+'Well, well, you would have done it if you'd known there had been any
+chance of it, besides, your heart was set on her getting the work,
+and how could I make sure of that unless I gave it into her own hand?
+I wouldn't have put it into Mr. O'Hara's snuffy pocket to hinder
+myself from being bankrupt'
+
+'Then he took you in?'
+
+'So he did, like an honest Irishman as he was.  He rang at the bell
+and spoke to the portress, and had me into the parlour and sent up
+for the lady; and I have seldom spent a pleasanter hall-hour.
+Mademoiselle Belmarche bade me tell you that she would write fuller
+thanks to you another day, and that her eyes would thank you every
+night.'
+
+'Was her cold gone?  Did she seem well, the dear aunt?'
+
+Genevieve was really grateful, and had many questions to ask about
+her aunt, which met with detailed answers.
+
+'By-the-by,' said Ulick,' I met Mr. Hope in the street as I was
+coming away, I offered him a lift, but he said he was not coming home
+till late.  I wonder what he is doing.'
+
+Albinia and Sophy exchanged glances, and had almost said, 'Poor Mr.
+Hope!'  It was very hard that the good fortune and mere good nature
+of an indifferent person should push him where the quiet curate so
+much wished to be.  Albinia would have liked to have had either a
+little impudence or a little tact to enable her to give a hint to
+Ulick to be less officious.
+
+St. Leocadia's feast was the 9th of December.  Three days after,
+Genevieve received a letter which made her change countenance, and
+hurry to her own room, whence she did not emerge till luncheon-time.
+
+In the late afternoon, there was a knock at the drawing-room door,
+and Mr. Dusautoy said, 'Can I speak with you a minute, Mrs. Kendal?'
+
+Dreading ill news of Lucy, she hurried to the morning-room with him.
+
+'Fanny said I had better speak to you.  This poor fellow is in a
+dreadful state.'
+
+'Algernon!'
+
+'No, indeed.  Poor Hope!  What has possessed the girl?'
+
+'Genevieve has not refused him?'
+
+'Did you not know it?  I found him in his rooms as white as a sheet!
+I asked what was the matter, he begged me to let him go away for one
+Sunday, and find him a substitute.  I saw how it was, and at the
+first word he broke down and told me.'
+
+'Was this to-day?'
+
+'Yes.  What can the silly little puss be thinking of to put an
+excellent fellow like that to so much pain?  Going about it in such
+an admirable way, too, writing to old Mamselle first, and getting a
+letter from her which he sends with his own, and promising to
+guarantee her fifty pounds a year out of his own pocket.  'I should
+like to know what that little Jenny means by it.  I gave her credit
+for more sense.'
+
+'Perhaps she thinks, under the circumstances of her coming here,
+within the year--'
+
+'Ah! very proper, very pretty of her; I never thought of that; I
+suppose I have your permission to tell Hope?'
+
+'I believe all the town knew it,' said Albinia.
+
+'Yes; he need not be downhearted, he has only to be patient, and he
+will like her the better for it.  After all, though he is as good a
+man as breathes, he cannot be Gilbert, and it will be a great relief
+to him.  I'll tell him to put all his fancies about O'More out of his
+head.'
+
+'Most decidedly,' said Albinia; 'nothing can be greater nonsense.
+Tell him by no means to go away, for when she finds that our feelings
+are not hurt, and has become used to the idea, I have every hope that
+she will be able to form a new--'
+
+'Ay; ay; poor Gilbert would have wished it himself.  It is very good
+of you, Mrs. Kendal; I'll put the poor fellow in spirits again.'
+
+'Did you hear whether she gave any reasons?'
+
+'Oh! I don't know--something about her birth and station; but that's
+stuff--she's a perfect lady, and much more.'
+
+'And he is only a bookseller's son.'
+
+'True, and though it might be awkward to have the parson's father-in-law
+cutting capers if he lived in the same town, yet being dead these
+fifteen or eighteen years, where's the damage?'
+
+'Was that all?'
+
+'I fancy that she said she never meant to marry, but that's all
+nonsense; she is the very girl that ought, and I hope you will talk
+to her and bring her to reason.  There's not a couple in the whole
+place that I should be so glad to marry as those two.'
+
+Albinia endeavoured to discuss the matter with Genevieve that night
+when they went upstairs.  It was not easy to do, for Genevieve seemed
+resolved to wish her good-night outside her door, but she made her
+entrance, and putting her arm round her little friend's waist, said,
+'Am I very much in your way, my dear?  I thought you might want a
+little help, or at least a little talk.'
+
+'Oh! Mrs. Kendal, I hoped you did not know!' and her eyes filled with
+tears.
+
+Mr. Dusautoy told me, my dear; poor Mr. Hope's distress betrayed him,
+and Mr. Dusautoy was anxious I should--'
+
+Genevieve did not let her finish, but exclaiming, 'I did not expect
+this from you, madame,' gave way to a shower of tears.
+
+'My dear child, do we not all feel you the more one with ourselves
+for this reluctance?' said Albinia, caressing her fondly.  'It shall
+not be forced upon you any more till you can bear it.'
+
+'Till!' exclaimed Genevieve, alarmed.  'Oh! do not say that!  Do not
+hold out false hopes! I never shall!'
+
+'I do not think you are a fair judge as yet, my dear.'
+
+'I think I am,' said Genevieve, slowly, 'I must not let you love me
+on false pretences, dearest Mrs. Kendal.  I do not think it is all
+for--for his sake--but indeed, though I must esteem Mr. Hope, I do
+not believe I could ever feel for him as--' then breaking off.  'I
+pray you, with all my heart, dearest friend, never to speak to me of
+marriage.  I am the little governess, and while Heaven gives me
+strength to work for my aunt, and you let me call this my home, I am
+content, I am blessed.  Oh! do not disturb and unsettle me!'
+
+So imploringly did she speak, that she obliterated all thought of the
+prudent arguments with which Albinia had come stored.  It was no time
+for them; there was no possibility of endeavouring to dethrone the
+memory of her own Gilbert, and her impulse was far more to agree that
+no one else could ever be loved, than to argue in favour of a new
+attachment.  She was proud of Gilbert for being thus recollected, and
+doubly pleased with the widowed heart; nor was it till the first
+effect of Genevieve's tears had passed off that she began to reflect
+that the idea might become familiar, and that romance having been
+abundantly satisfied by the constancy of the Lancer, sober esteem
+might be the basis of very happy married affection.
+
+Mr. Hope did not go away, but he shrank into himself, and grew more
+timid than ever, and it was through the Dusautoys that Albinia learnt
+that he was much consoled, and intended to wait patiently.  He had
+written to Mdlle. Belmarche, who had been extremely disappointed, and
+continued to believe that so excellent and well brought up a young
+girl as her niece would not resist her wishes with regard to a young
+pastor so respectable.
+
+Sophy, when made aware of what was going on, did not smile or shed a
+tear, only a strange whiteness came across her face.  She made a
+commonplace remark with visible effort, nor was she quite herself for
+some time.  It was as if the reference to her brother had stirred up
+the old wound.  Genevieve seemed to have been impelled to manifest
+her determination of resuming her occupation, she wrote letters
+vigorously, answered advertisements, and in spite of the united
+protest of her friends, advertised herself as a young person of
+French extraction, but a member of the Church of England, accustomed
+to tuition, and competent to instruct in French, Italian, music, and
+all the ordinary branches of education.  Address, G. C. D., Mr.
+Richardson's, bookseller, Bayford.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+
+Miss Goldsmith went to spend Christmas with an old friend, leaving
+Ulick more liberty than he had enjoyed for a long time.  He used it a
+good deal at Willow Lawn, and was there of course on Christmas-day.
+After dinner the decoration of the church was under discussion.  The
+Bayford neighbourhood was unpropitious to holly, and Sophy and
+Genevieve had hardly ever seen any, except that Genevieve remembered
+the sooty bits sold in London.  Something passed about sending for a
+specimen from Fairmead, but Albinia said that would not answer, for
+her brother's children were in despair at the absence of berries, and
+had ransacked Colonel Bury's plantations in vain.
+
+The next day, about twilight, Albinia and Sophy were arranging some
+Christmas gifts for the old women, in the morning-room; Genevieve was
+to come and help them on her return from the child in Tibb's Alley.
+
+'Oh, here she comes, up the garden,' said Sophy, who was by the
+window.
+
+Presently Albinia heard a strange sound as of tightened breath, and
+looking up saw Sophy deathly pale, with her eyes fixed on the window.
+In terror she flew to her side, but Sophy spoke not, she only
+clutched her hand with fingers cold and tight as iron, and gazed with
+dilated eyes.  Albinia looked--
+
+Ulick had come from the house--there was a scarlet-berried spray in
+Genevieve's hand, which she was trying to make him take again--his
+face was all pleading and imploring--she turned hastily from him, and
+they saw her cheek glowing with crimson--she tried to force back the
+holly spray--but her hand was caught--he was kissing it.  No, she had
+rent it away--she had fled in through the conservatory--they heard
+the doors--she had rushed up to her own room.
+
+Sophy's grasp grew more rigid--she panted for breath.
+
+'My child! my child!' said Albinia, throwing her arms round her,
+expecting her to faint.  'Oh! could I have imagined such treason?'
+Her eyes flashed, and her frame quivered with indignation.  'He shall
+never come into this house again!'
+
+'Mamma! hush!' said Sophy, releasing herself from her embrace, and
+keeping her body upright, though obliged to seat herself on the
+nearest chair.  'It is not treason,' she said slowly, as though her
+mouth were parched.
+
+'Contemptible fickleness!' burst out Albinia, but Sophy implored
+silence by a gesture.
+
+'No,' she said; 'it was a dream, a degrading, humiliating dream; but
+it is over.'
+
+'There is no degradation except to the base trifler I once thought
+better things of.'
+
+'He has not trifled,' said Sophy.  'Wait! hush!'
+
+There was a composure about her that awed Albinia, who stood watching
+in suspense while she went to the bed-room, drank some water, cooled
+her brow, pushed back her hair, and sitting down again in the same
+collected manner, which gave her almost a look of majesty, she said,
+'Promise me, mamma, that all shall go on as if this folly had never
+crossed our minds.'
+
+'I can't!  I can't, Sophy!' said Albinia in the greatest agitation.
+'I can't _unknow_ that you have been shamefully used.'
+
+'Then you will lead papa to break his promise to Genevieve, and lower
+me not only in my own eyes, but in those of every one.'
+
+'He little knew that he was bringing her here to destroy his
+daughter's happiness.  So that was why she held off from Mr. Hope,'
+cried Albinia, burning with such indignation, that on some one she
+must expend it, but a tirade against the artfulness of the little
+French witch was cut off short by an authoritative--
+
+'Don't, mamma!  You are unjust!  How can she help being loveable!'
+
+'He had no business to know whether she was or not.'
+
+'You are wrong, mamma.  The absurdity was in thinking I ever was so.'
+
+'Very little absurd,' said Albinia, twining her arms round Sophy.
+
+'Don't make me silly,' hastily said Sophy, her voice trembling for a
+moment; 'I want to tell you all about it, and you will see that no
+one is to blame.  The perception has been growing on me for a long
+time, but I was weak enough to indulge in the dream.  It was very
+sweet!'  There again she struggled not to break down, gained the
+victory, and went on, 'I don't think I should have dared to imagine
+it myself, but I saw others thought it, who knew more; I knew the
+incredible was sometimes true, and every little kindness he did--Oh!
+how foolish! as if he could help doing kindnesses!  My better sense
+told me he did not really distinguish me; but there was something
+that _would_ feed upon every word and look.  Then last year I was
+wakened by the caricature business.  That opened my eyes, for no one
+who had _that_ in him would have turned my sister into derision.  I
+was sullen then and proud, and when--when humanity and compassion
+brought him to me in my distress--oh! why--why could not I have been
+reasonable, and not have selfishly fed on what I thought was
+revived?'
+
+'He had no right--' began Albinia, fiercely.
+
+'He could neither help saving Maurice, nor speaking comfort and
+support when he found me exhausted and sinking.  It was I who was the
+foolish creature--I hate myself!  Well, you know how it has been--I
+liked to believe it was _the thing_--I knew he cared less for me
+than--but I thought it was always so between men and women, and that
+I would not have petty distrusts.  But when she came, I saw what the
+true--true feeling is--I saw that he felt when she came into the
+room--I saw how he heard her words and missed mine--I saw--' Sophy
+collected herself, and spoke quietly and distinctly, 'I saw his love,
+and that it had never been for me.'
+
+There was a pause; Albinia could not bear to look, speak, or move.
+Sophy's words carried conviction that swept away her sand castle.
+
+'Now, mamma,' said Sophy, earnestly, 'you own that he has not been
+false or fickle.'
+
+'If he has not, he has disregarded the choicest jewel that lay in his
+way,' said Albinia with some sharpness.
+
+'But he has not been that,' persisted Sophy.
+
+'Well--no; I suppose not.'
+
+'And no one can be less to blame than Genevieve.'
+
+'Little flirt, I've no patience with her.'
+
+'She can't help her manners,' repeated Sophy, 'I feel them so much
+more charming than mine every moment.  She will make him so happy.'
+
+'What are you talking of, Sophy?  He must be mad if he is in earnest.
+A man of his family pride!  His father will never listen to it for a
+moment.'
+
+'I don't know what his father may do,' said Sophy; 'but I know what I
+pray and entreat we may do, and that is, do our utmost to make this
+come to good.'
+
+'Sophy, don't ask it.  I could not, I know you could not.'
+
+'There is no loss of esteem.  I honour him as I always did,' said
+Sophy.  'Yes, the more since I see it was all for papa and the right,
+all unselfish, on that 5th of November.  Some day I shall have worn
+out the selfishness.'
+
+She kept her hand tightly pressed on her heart as she spoke, and
+Albinia exclaimed, 'You shall not see it; you overrate your strength;
+it is my business to prevent you!'
+
+'Think, mamma,' said Sophy, rising in her earnestness.  'Here is a
+homeless orphan, whom you have taught to love you, whom papa has
+brought here as to a home, and for Gilbert's sake.  Is it fair--
+innocent, exemplary as she is--to turn against her because she is
+engaging and I am not, to cut her off from us, drive her away to the
+first situation that offers, be it what it may, and with that thought
+aching and throbbing in her heart?  Oh, mamma! would that be mercy or
+justice?'
+
+'You are not asking to have it encouraged in the very house with
+you?'
+
+'I do not see how else it is to be,' said Sophy.
+
+'Let him go after her, if there's anything in it but Irish folly and
+French coquetry--'
+
+'How, mamma?  Where?  When she is a governess in some strange place?
+How could he leave his business?  How could she attend to him?  Oh,
+mamma! you used to be kind: how can you wish to put two people you
+love so much to such misery?'
+
+'Because I can't put one whom I love better than both, and who
+deserves it, to greater misery,' said Albinia, embracing her.
+
+'Then do not put me to the misery of being ungenerous, and the shame
+of having my folly suspected.'
+
+Albinia would have argued still, but the children came in, Sophy went
+away, and there was no possibility of a tete-a-tete.  How strange it
+was to have such a tumult of feeling within, and know that the same
+must be tenfold multiplied in the hearts of those two girls, and yet
+go through all the domestic conventionalities, each wearing a mask of
+commonplace ease, as though nothing had happened!
+
+Genevieve had, Albinia suspected, been crying excessively; for there
+was that effaced annihilated appearance that tears produced on her,
+but otherwise she did her part in answering her host, who was very
+fond of her, and always made her an object of attention.  Albinia
+found herself betraying more abstraction, she was so anxiously
+watching Sophy, who acquitted herself best of all, had kept tears
+from her eyes, talked more than usual, and looked brilliant, with a
+bright colour dyeing her cheeks.  She was evidently sustained by
+eagerness to obtain her generous purpose, and did not yet realize the
+price.
+
+The spray of holly was lying as if it had been tossed in vexation
+upon the marble slab in the hall.  Albinia, from the stairs, saw
+Sophy take it up, and waited to see what she would do with it.  The
+Sophy she had once known would have dashed it into the flames, and
+then have repented.  No! Sophy held it tenderly, and looked at the
+glossy leaves and coral fruit with no angry eye; she even raised it
+to her lips, but it was to pierce with one of the long prickles till
+her brow drew together at the smart, and the blood started.  Then she
+began to mount the stairs, and meeting Albinia, said quietly, 'I was
+going to take this to Genevieve's room, it is empty now, but perhaps
+you had better take care of it for her, out of sight.  It will be her
+greatest treasure to-morrow.'
+
+Mr. Kendal read aloud as usual, but who of his audience attended?
+Certainly not Albinia.  She sat with her head bent over her work,
+revolving the history of these last two years, and trying to collect
+herself after the sudden shock, and the angry feelings of
+disappointment that surged within, in much need of an object of
+wrath.  Alas! who could that object be but that blind, warm-hearted,
+impulsive Mistress Albinia Kendal?
+
+She saw plain enough, now it was too late, that there had not been a
+shadow of sentiment in that lively confiding Irishman, used to
+intimacy with a herd of cousins, and viewing all connexions as
+cousins.  She remembered his conversation with her brother and her
+brother's impression; she thought of the unloverlike dread of ague in
+Emily's moonlight walk; she recalled the many occasions when she had
+thought him remiss, and she could not but acquit him of any designed
+flirtation, any dangerous tenderness, or what Mdlle. Belmarche would
+call legerete.  He could not be reserved--he was naturally free and
+open--and how could she have put such a construction on his
+frankness, when Sophy herself had long been gradually arriving at a
+conviction of the truth!  It was a comfort at least to remember that
+it had not been the fabrication of her own brain, she had respectable
+authority for the idea, and she trusted to its prompter to
+participate in her indignation, argue Ulick out of so poor a match,
+and at least put a decided veto upon Sophy's Spartan magnanimity--
+Sophy's health and feelings being the subject, she sometimes thought,
+which concerned him above all.
+
+Ah! but the evil had not been his doing.  He had but gossiped out a
+pleasant conjecture to his wife as a trustworthy help-meet.  What
+business had she to go and telegraph that conjecture, with her
+significant eyes, to the very last person who ought to have shared
+it, and then to have kept up the mischief by believing it herself,
+and acting, looking, and arranging, as on a certainty implied, though
+not expressed?  Mrs. Osborne or Mrs. Drury might have spoken more
+broadly, they could not have acted worse, thought she to herself.
+
+The notion might never have been suggested; Sophy might have simply
+enjoyed these years of intimacy, and even if her heart had been
+touched, it would have been unconsciously, and the pain and shame of
+unrequited affection have merely been a slight sense of neglect, a
+small dreariness, lost in eagerness for the happiness of both
+friends.  Now, two years of love that she had been allowed to imagine
+returned and sanctioned, and love with the depth and force of Sophy's
+whole nature--the shame of having loved unasked, the misery of having
+lived in a delusion--how would they act upon a being of her morbid
+tendency, frail constitution, and proud spirit?  As Albinia thought
+of the passive endurance of last year's estrangement, her heart sank
+within her!  Illness--brain-fever--permanent ill-health and crushed
+spirits--nay, death itself she augured--and all--all her own fault!
+The last and best of Edmund's children so cruelly and deeply wounded,
+and by her folly!  She longed to throw herself at his feet and ask
+his pardon, but it was Sophy's secret as well as hers, and how could
+womanhood betray that unrequited love?  At least she thought, for
+noble Sophy's sake, she would not raise a finger to hinder the
+marriage, but as to forwarding it, or promoting the courtship under
+Sophy's very eyes--that would be like murdering her outright, and she
+would join Mr. Kendal with all her might in removing their daughter
+from the trying spectacle.  Talk of Aunt Maria!  This trouble was ten
+thousand times worse!
+
+Albinia began to watch the timepiece, longing to have the evening
+over, that she might prepare Mr. Kendal.  It ended at last, and
+Genevieve took up her candle, bade good-night, and disappeared.
+Sophy lingered, till coming forward to her father as he stood by the
+fire, she said, 'Papa, did you not promise Gilbert that Genevieve
+should be as another daughter?'
+
+'I wish she would be, my dear,' said Mr. Kendal; 'but she is too
+independent, and your mamma thinks she would consider it as a mere
+farce to call her little Albinia's governess, but if you can persuade
+her--'
+
+'What I want you to do, papa, is to promise that she shall be married
+from this house, as her home, and that you will fit her out as you
+did Lucy.'
+
+'Ha!  Is she beginning to relent?'
+
+'No, papa.  It will be Ulick O'More.'
+
+'You don't mean it!' exclaimed Mr. Kendal, more taken by surprise
+than perhaps he had ever been, and looking at his wife, who was
+standing dismayed, yet admiring the gallant girl who had forestalled
+her precautions.  Obliged to speak, she said, 'I am afraid so, Sophy
+and I witnessed a scene to-day.'
+
+'Afraid?' said Mr. Kendal; 'I see no reason to be afraid, if Ulick
+likes it.  They are two of the most agreeable and best people that
+ever fell in my way, and I shall be delighted if they can arrange it,
+for they are perfectly suited to each other.'
+
+'But such a match!' exclaimed Albinia.
+
+'As to that, a sensible, economical wife will be worth more to him
+than an expensive one, with however large a fortune.  And for the
+family pride, I am glad the lad has more sense than I feared; he has
+a full right to please himself, having won the place he has, and he
+may make his father consent.  He wants a wife--nothing else will keep
+him from running headlong into speculation, for want of something to
+do.  Yes, I see what you are thinking of, my dear, but you know we
+could not wish her, as you said yourself, never to form another
+attachment.'
+
+'But _here_!' sighed Albinia, the ground knocked away from under her,
+yet still clinging to the last possible form of murmur.
+
+'It will cost us something,' said Mr. Kendal, 'but no more than we
+will cheerfully bear, for the sake of one who has such claims upon
+us; and it will be amply repaid by having such a pair of friends
+settled close to us.'
+
+'Then you will, papa?' said Sophy.
+
+'Will do what, my dear?'
+
+'Treat her as--as you did Lucy, papa.'
+
+'And with much more pleasure, and far more hope, than when we fitted
+out poor Lucy,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+Sophy thanked him, and said 'Good-night;' and the look which
+accompanied her kiss to her step-mother was a binding over to secrecy
+and non-interference.
+
+'Is she gone?' said Mr. Kendal, who had been musing after his last
+words.  'Gone to tell her friend, I suppose?  I wanted to ask what
+this scene was.'
+
+'Oh!' said Albinia, 'it was in the garden--we saw it from the
+window--only he brought her a bit of holly, and was trying to kiss
+her hand.'
+
+'Strong premises, certainly.  How did she receive the advance?'
+
+'She would not listen, but made her escape.'
+
+'Then matters are not in such a state of progress as for me to
+congratulate her?  I suppose that you ladies are the best judges
+whether he may not meet with the same fate as poor Hope?'
+
+'Sophy seems to take it for granted that he will not.'
+
+'Irishman as he is, he must be pretty secure of his ground before
+coming to such strong measures.  Well! I hope we may hear no more of
+brow-ague.  But--' with sudden recollection--'I thought, Albinia,
+you fancied he had some inclination for Sophy?'
+
+Was it not a good wife to suppress the 'You did'?  If she could
+merrily have said, 'You told me so,' it would have been all very
+well, but her mood would admit of nothing but a grave and guarded
+answer--'We did fancy so, but I am convinced it was entirely without
+reason.'
+
+That superior smile at her lively imagination was more than human
+nature could bear, without the poor relief of an entreaty that he
+would not sit meditating, and go to sleep in his chair.
+
+Albinia thought she had recovered equanimity during her night's rest,
+but in the midst of her morning toilette, Sophy hurried in,
+exclaiming, 'She'll go away!  She is writing letters and packing!'
+and she answered, 'Well, what do you want me to do?  You don't
+imagine that I can rush into her room and lay hands on her?  She will
+not go upon a wishing-carpet.  It will be time to interfere when we
+know more of the matter.'
+
+Sophy looked blank, and vanished, and Albinia felt excessively vexed
+at having visited on the chief sufferer her universal crossness with
+all mankind.  She knew she had only spoken common sense, but that
+made it doubly hateful; and yet she could not but wish Miss Durant
+anywhere out of sight, and Mr. O'More on the top of the Hill of
+Howth.
+
+At breakfast, Sophy's looks betrayed nothing to the uninitiated,
+though Albinia detected a feverish restlessness and covert
+impatience, and judged that her sleep had been little.  Genevieve's
+had perhaps been less, for she was very sallow, with sunken eyes, and
+her face looked half its usual size; but Albinia could not easily
+have compassion on the poor little unwitting traitress, even when she
+began, 'Dear Mrs. Kendal, will you excuse me if I take a sudden
+leave?  I find it will answer best for me to accept Mrs. Elwood's
+invitation; I can then present myself to any lady who may wish to see
+me, and, as I promised my aunt another visit, I had better go to
+Hadminster by the three o'clock omnibus.'
+
+Albinia was thankful for the loud opposition which drowned the faint
+reluctance of her own; Mr. Kendal insisting that she should not leave
+them; little Awk coaxing her; and Maurice exclaiming, 'If the ladies
+want her, let them come after her!  One always goes to see a horse.'
+
+'I'm not so well worth the trouble, Maurice.'
+
+'I know Ulick O'More _would_ come in to see you when all the piebalds
+for the show were going by!'
+
+'Some day you will come to the same good taste,' said his father, to
+lessen the general confusion.
+
+'See a lady instead of a piebald?  Never!' cried Maurice with
+indignation, that made the most preoccupied laugh; under cover of
+which Genevieve effected a retreat.  Sophy looked imploringly at
+Albinia--Albinia was moving, but not with alacrity, and Mr. Kendal
+was saying, 'I do not understand all this,' when, scarcely pausing to
+knock, Ulick opened the door, cheeks and eyes betraying scarcely
+repressed eagerness.
+
+'What--where,' he stammered, as if even his words were startled away;
+'is not Miss Durant well?'
+
+'She was here just this moment,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'I will go and see for her,' said Sophy.  'Come, children.'
+
+Whether Sophy's powers over herself or over Genevieve would avail,
+was an anxious marvel, but it did not last a moment, for Maurice came
+clattering down to say that Genevieve was gone out into the town.  In
+such a moment!  She must have snatched up her bonnet, and fled one
+way while Ulick entered by the other.  He made one step forward,
+exclaiming, 'Where is she gone?' then pausing, broke out, 'Mrs.
+Kendal, you must make her give me a hearing, or I shall go mad!'
+
+'A hearing?' repeated Mrs. Kendal, with slight malice.
+
+'Yes; why, don't you know?'
+
+'So your time has come, Ulick, has it?' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Well, and I were worse than an old ledger if it had not, when she
+was before me!  Make her listen to me, Mrs. Kendal, if she do not, I
+shall never do any more good in this world!'
+
+'I should have thought,' said Albinia, 'that an Irishman would be at
+no loss for making opportunities.'
+
+'You don't know, Mrs. Kendal; she is so fenced in with scruples,
+humility--I know not what--that she will not so much as hear me out.
+I'm not such a blockhead as to think myself worthy of her, but I do
+think, if she would only listen to me, I might stand a chance: and
+she runs off, as if she thought it a sin to hear a word from my
+mouth!'
+
+'It is very honourable to her,' said Mr. Kendal.
+
+'Very honourable to her,' replied Ulick, 'but cruelly hard upon me.'
+
+'I think, too,' continued Mr. Kendal, stimulated thereto by his
+lady's severely prudent looks, 'that you ought--granting Miss Durant
+to be, as I well know her to be, one of the most excellent persons
+who ever lived--still to count the cost of opening such an affair.
+It is not fair upon a woman to bring her into a situation where
+disappointments may arise which neither may be able to bear.'
+
+'Do you mean my family, Mr. Kendal?  Trust me for getting consent
+from home.  You will write my father a letter, saying what you said
+just now; Mrs. Kendal will write another to my mother; and I'll just
+let them see my heart is set on it, and they'll not hold out.'
+
+'Could you bear to see her--looked down on?' said Albinia.
+
+'Ha!' he cried, with flashing eyes.  'No, believe me, Mrs. Kendal,
+the O'Mores have too much gentle blood to do like that, even if she
+were one whom any one could scorn.  Why, what is my mother herself
+but a Goldsmith by birth, and I'd like to see who would cast it up to
+any of the family that she was not as noble as an O'More!  And
+Genevieve herself--isn't every look and every movement full of the
+purest gentility her fathers' land can show?'
+
+'I dare say, once accepted, the O'Mores would heartily receive her;
+but here, in this place, there are some might think it told against
+you, and might make her uncomfortable.'
+
+'What care I?  I've lived and thriven under Bayford scorn many a day.
+And for her--Oh! I defy anything so base to wound a heart so high as
+hers, and with me to protect her!'
+
+'And you can afford it?' said Mr. Kendal.  'Remember she has her aunt
+to maintain.'
+
+'I can,' said Ulick.  'I have gone over it all again and again; and
+recalling his man-of-business nature, he demonstrated that even at
+present he was well able to support Mdlle. Belmarche, as well as to
+begin housekeeping, and that there was every reason to believe that
+his wider and more intelligent system of management would continue to
+increase his income.'
+
+'Well, Ulick,' said Mr. Kendal at last, 'I wish you success with all
+my heart, and esteem you for a choice so entirely founded upon the
+qualities most certain to ensure happiness.'
+
+'You don't mean to say that she has not the most glorious eyes, the
+most enchanting figure!' exclaimed Ulick, affronted at the compliment
+that seemed to aver that Genevieve's external charms were not equal
+to her sterling merit.
+
+Mr. Kendal and Albinia laughed; and the former excused himself, not
+quite to the lover's satisfaction, by declaring the lady much more
+attractive than many regularly handsome people; but he added, that
+what he meant was, that he was sure the attachment was built upon a
+sound foundation.  Then he entreated that Mrs. Kendal would persuade
+her to listen to him, for she had fled from him ever since his
+betrayal of his sentiments till he was half crazed, and had been
+walking up and down his room all night.  He should do something
+distracted, if not relieved from suspense before night!  And Mr.
+Kendal got rid of him in the midst of his transports, and turning to
+Albinia said, 'We must settle this as fast as possible, or he will
+lose his head, and get into a scrape.'
+
+'I do not like such wild behaviour.  It is not dignified.'
+
+'It is only temperament,' said Mr. Kendal.  'Will you speak to her?'
+
+'Yes, whenever she comes in.'
+
+'I suspect she has gone out on purpose.  Could you not go to find her
+at the school, or wherever she is likely to be?'
+
+'I don't know where to find her.  I cannot give up the children's
+lessons.  Nothing hurts Maurice so much as irregularity.'
+
+He made no answer, but his look of disappointment excited her to
+observe to herself that she supposed he expected her to run all over
+the town without ordering dinner first, and she wondered how he would
+like that!
+
+Presently she heard him go out at the front door, and felt some
+contrition.
+
+She had not the heart to seek Sophy to report progress, and did not
+see her till about eleven o'clock, when she came in hastily with her
+bonnet on, asking, 'Well, mamma?'
+
+'Where have you been, Sophy?'
+
+'To school,' she said.  'Has anything happened?'
+
+'We have had it out, and I am to speak to her when she comes in,'
+said Albinia, glad as perhaps was Sophy of the enigmatical form to
+which Maurice's presence restrained the communication.
+
+Sophy went away, but presently returning and taking up her work, but
+with eyes that betrayed how she was listening; but there was so
+entire an apparent absence of personal suffering, that Albinia began
+to discharge the weight from her mind, and believe that the sentiment
+had been altogether imaginary even on Sophy's side, and the whole a
+marvellous figment of her own.
+
+At last, Mr. Kendal's foot was heard; Sophy started up, and sat down
+again.  He came upstairs, and his face was all smiles.
+
+'Well,' he said, 'I don't think she will go by the three o'clock
+omnibus.'
+
+'You have spoken to her?' cried Albinia in compunction.
+
+'Has Maurice finished?  Then go out, my boy, for the present.'
+
+'Well?' said Albinia, interrogatively, and Sophy laid down her work
+and crossed one hand over the other on her knees, and leant back as
+though to hinder visible tremor.
+
+'Yes,' he said, going on with what had been deferred till Maurice was
+gone.  'I thought it hard on him--and as I was going to speak to
+Edwards, I asked if she were at the Union, where I found her, taking
+leave of the old women, and giving them little packets of snuff, and
+small presents, chiefly her own work, I am sure.  I took her with me
+into the fields, and persuaded her at last to talk it over with me.
+Poor little thing!  I never saw a more high-minded, conscientious
+spirit: she was very unhappy about it, and said she knew it was all
+her unfortunate manner, she wished to be guarded, but a little
+excitement and conversation always turned her head, and she entreated
+me not to hinder her going back to a school-room, out of the way of
+every one.  I told her that she must not blame herself for being more
+than usually agreeable; but she would not listen, and I could hardly
+bring her to attend to what I said of young O'More.  Poor girl!  I
+believe she was running away from her own heart.'
+
+'You have prevented her?' cried Sophy.
+
+'At least I have induced her to hear his arguments.  I told her my
+opinion of him, which was hardly needed, and what I thought might
+have more weight--that he has earned the right to please himself, and
+that I believed she would be better for him than riches.  She
+repeated several times "Not now," and "Not here;" and I found that
+she was shocked at the idea of the subject being brought before us.
+I was obliged to tell her that nothing would gratify any of us so
+much, and that this was the time to fulfil her promise of considering
+me as a father.'
+
+'Oh, thank you,' murmured Sophy.
+
+'So finally I convinced her that she owed Ulick a hearing, and I
+think she felt that to hear was to yield.  She had certainly been
+feeling that flight was the only measure, and between her dread of
+entrapping him and of hurting our feelings, had persuaded herself it
+was her duty.  The last thing she did was to catch hold of me as I
+was going, and ask if he knew what her father was.'
+
+'I dare say it has been the first thing she has said to him,' said
+Albinia.  'She is a noble little creature!  But what have you done
+with them now?'
+
+'I brought him to her in the parsonage garden.  I believe they are
+walking in the lanes,' said Mr. Kendal, much gratified with his
+morning's work.
+
+'She deserves him,' said Sophy; and then her eyes became set, as if
+looking into far distance.
+
+The walk in the lanes had not ended by luncheon-time, and an
+afternoon loaded with callers was oppressive, but Sophy kept up well.
+At last, in the twilight, the door was heard to open, and Genevieve
+came in alone.  They listened, and knew she must have run up to her
+own room.  What did it portend?  Albinia must be the one to go and
+see, so after a due interval, she went up and knocked.  Genevieve
+opened the door, and threw herself into her arms.  'Dear Mrs. Kendal!
+Oh! have I done wrong?  I am so very happy, and I cannot help it!'
+
+Albinia kissed her, and assured her she had done nothing to repent
+of.
+
+'I am so glad you think so.  I never dreamt such happiness could be
+meant for me, and I am afraid lest I should have been selfish and
+wrong, and bring trouble on him.'
+
+'We have been all saying you deserve him.'
+
+'Oh no--no--so good, so noble, so heroic as he is.  How could he
+think of the poor little French teacher!  And he will pay my aunt's
+fifty pounds!  I told him all, and he knew it before, and yet he
+loves me!  Oh! why are people so very good to me?'
+
+'I could easily find an answer to that question,' said Albinia.
+'Where is he, my dear?'
+
+'He is gone home.  I would not come into the town with him.  It is
+nothing, you know; no one must hear of it, for he must be free unless
+his parents consent--and I know they never can,' she said, shaking
+her head, sadly, 'but even then I shall have one secret of happiness-
+-I shall know what has been!  But oh! Mrs. Kendal, let me go away--'
+
+'Go away now?' exclaimed Albinia.
+
+'Yes--it cannot be--here, in this house!  Oh! it is outraging your
+kindness.'
+
+'No,' said Albinia; 'it is but letting us fulfil a very precious
+charge.'
+
+Genevieve's tears flowed as she said, 'Such goodness!  Mr. Kendal
+spoke to me in this way in the morning, when he was more kind and
+patient than I can express.  But tell me, dearest madame, tell me
+candidly, is my remaining here the cause of any secret pain to him?'
+
+With regard to him, Albinia could answer sincerely that it was a
+gratification; and Genevieve owned that she should be glad to await
+the letters from Ireland, which she tried to persuade herself she
+believed would put an end to everything, except the precious
+remembrance.
+
+Sophy here came in with some tea.  She had recollected that Genevieve
+had wandered all day without any bodily sustenance.
+
+There was great sweetness in the quiet, grave manner in which she
+bent over her friend and kissed her brow.  All she said was, 'Papa
+had goes to fetch him to dinner.  Genevieve, you must let me do your
+hair.'
+
+It was in Genevieve's eyes an astonishing fancy, and Albinia said,
+'Come away now, my dear; she must have a thorough rest after such a
+day.'
+
+Genevieve looked too much excited for rest, but that was the more
+reason for leaving her to herself; and besides, it was so
+uncomfortable not to be able to be kind enough.
+
+However, when people are happy, a little kindness goes a great way,
+and there was a subdued lustre like a glory in her eyes when she came
+downstairs, with the holly leaves and berries glistening in her hair,
+the first ornament she had ever worn there.
+
+'It was Sophy's doing,' she said.  'Naughty girl; she tried to take
+me by surprise.  She would not let me look in the glass, but I
+guessed--and oh! she was wounding her poor hands so sadly.'
+
+I must thank her,' said Ulick, looking ecstatic.  'Why does she not
+come down?'
+
+As she did not appear, Albinia went up, doubtful if it were wise, yet
+too uneasy not to go in quest of her.
+
+It was startling to have so faint an answer on knocking, and on
+entering the room, she saw Sophy lying on her bed, upon her back,
+with her arms by her sides, and with a ghastly whiteness on her
+features.
+
+Scarcely a pulse could be felt, and her hands were icy cold, her
+voice sank to nothing, her eyelids scarcely raised, as if the strain
+of the day had exhausted all vital warmth or energy, and her purpose
+accomplished, annihilation was succeeding.  Much terrified, Albinia
+would have hurried in search of remedies, but she raised her hand
+imploringly, and murmured, 'Please don't.  I'm not faint--I'm not
+ill.  If you would only let me be still.'
+
+Albinia teased her so far as to cover her with warmed shawls, and
+force on her a stimulant.  She shut her eyes, but presently opened
+them to say, 'Please go.'
+
+She was so often unable to appear at dinner, that no observation was
+made; and it was to be feared that her absence was chiefly regretted
+by the lovers, because it prevented them from sitting on the same
+side of the table.
+
+Always frank and unrestrained, Ulick made his felicity so apparent,
+that Albinia had no toleration for him, and not much for the
+amusement it afforded Mr. Kendal.  She would have approved of her
+husband much more if he had put her into a great quandary by anxious
+inquiries what was the matter with his daughter, instead of that
+careless, 'O you are going up to Sophy; I hope she will be able to
+come down to tea,' when she left him on guard over the children and
+the lovers.
+
+'So it is with woman's martyrdoms,' said she to herself as she walked
+upstairs, chewing the cud of all the commonplaces by which women
+have, of late years, flattered themselves, and been flattered; 'but
+at any rate I'll have her out of sight of all their absurdity.  It is
+enough to kill her!'
+
+Sophy hardly stirred at her entrance, but there was less ghastliness
+about her, and as Albinia sat down she did not remove her hand, and
+turned slightly round, so as to lose that strange corpse-like
+attitude of repose.
+
+'You are not so cold, dearest,' said Albinia.  'Have you slept?'
+
+'I think not.'
+
+'Are you better?  Have you been comfortable?'
+
+'Oh yes.'  Then, with a pause, 'Yes--it was like being nothing!'
+
+'You were not faint, I hope?'
+
+'No--only lying still.  Don't you know the comfort of not thinking or
+feeling?'
+
+'Yes; this has been far too much for you.  You have done enough now,
+my generous Sophy.'
+
+'Not generous; one can't give away what one never had.'
+
+'I think it more gracious to yield without jealousy or bitterness--'
+
+'Only not quite base,' said Sophy.  Then presently, turning on her
+pillow as though more willing to converse, she said, 'I am glad it
+was not last year.'
+
+'We had troubles enough then!'
+
+'Not for that--because I should have been base then, and hated myself
+for it all the time.'
+
+'That you never could have been!' cried Albinia.  'But, my dear, you
+must let me contrive for you; I would not betray you for all the
+world, but the sight of these two is more than you ought to undergo.
+I will not send Genevieve away, but you must go from home.'
+
+'I don't think I shall be cross,' said poor Sophy, simply; 'I should
+be ashamed.'
+
+'Cross!  It is I who am cross, because I am to blame; but, dearest,
+think if you are keeping up out of pride; that will never, never do.'
+
+'I do not believe it is pride,' said Sophy, meekly; 'at least, I hope
+not.  I feel humiliated enough, and I think it may be a sort of
+shame, as well as consideration for them, that would make me wish
+that no difference should be made.  Do you not think we may let
+things go on?' she said, in so humble a manner, that it brought
+Albinia's tears, and a kiss was the only answer.  'Please tell me,'
+said Sophy; 'for I don't want to deceive myself.'
+
+'I am sure I am no judge,' cried Albinia, 'after the dreadful
+mischief I have done.'
+
+'The mischief was in me,' said Sophy, 'or you could not have done it.
+I saw it all when I was lying awake last night, and how it began, or
+rather it was before I can remember exactly.  I always had craving
+after something--a yearning for something to fix myself on--and after
+I grew to read and look out into the world, I thought it must be
+that.  And when I knew I was ugly and disagreeable, I brooded and
+brooded, and only in my better moments tried to be satisfied with you
+and papa and the children.'
+
+'And the All-satisfying, Sophy dear.'
+
+'I tried--I did--but it was duty--not heart.  I used to fancy what
+might be, if I shot out into beauty and grace--not admiration, but to
+have that one thing to lean on.  You see it was all worldly, and only
+submissive by fits--generally it was cross repining, yielding because
+I could not help it--and so, when the fancy came the throne was ready
+made, empty, swept, and garnished, for the idol.  I wont talk of all
+that time; but I don't believe even Genevieve, though she knows she
+may, can dwell upon the thought as I did, in just the way to bring
+punishment.  And so I thought, by-and-by, at the caricature time,
+that I was punished.  I looked into the fallacy, when I had got over
+the temper and the pride, and I saw it all clear, and owned I was
+rightly served, for it had been an earthly aim, and an idol worship.
+Well, the foolish hope came back again, but indeed, indeed, I think I
+was the better for all the chastening; I had seen grandmamma die, I
+was fresh from hearing of Gilbert, and I did feel as I never had done
+before, that God was first.  I don't believe that feeling had passed,
+though the folly came back, and made me feel glad to love all the
+world.  There were--gleams of religions thought'--she spoke with
+difficulty, but her face had a strange beauty--'that taught me how,
+if I was more good--there could be a fulness of joy that all the rest
+flowed out from.  And so when misgivings came, and I saw at times how
+little he could care for me--oh! it was pain enough, but not the
+worst sort.  And yet I don't know--' She turned away and hid her face
+on the pillow.  It was agony, though still, as she had said, not the
+worst, untempered by faith or resignation.  What a history of that
+apparently cold, sullen, impassive spirit! what an unlocking of pent-up
+mysteries!
+
+'It has been blessed to you,' said Albinia, affectionately.  'My
+dear, we always thought your character one that wanted the softening
+of such--an attachment.  Perhaps that made me wrongly eager for it,
+and ready to imagine where I ought not; I think it did soften you;
+but if you had not conquered what was earthly and exaggerated in it,
+how it would be hardening and poisoning you now!'
+
+'I hope I may have,' sighed Sophy, as if she were doubtful.
+
+'Then will you not listen to me?  You have done nobly so far, and I
+know your feelings will be right in the main; but do you think you
+can bear the perpetual irritation of being neglected, and seeing--what
+I _must_ call rather a parade of his preference?'
+
+'I think it would be the best cure,' said Sophy; 'it would make me
+feel it real, and I could be glad to see him--them--so happy--'
+
+'I don't know how to judge!  I don't know whether it be right for you
+to have him always before your mind.'
+
+'He would be so all the more while I was away with nothing to do,'
+said Sophy; 'fancy might be worse than fact.  You don't know how I
+used to forget the nonsense when he had been ten minutes in the room,
+because it was just starved out.  Now, when it will be a sin, I
+believe that strength will be given me to root it out;' her look grew
+determined, but she gasped for breath.
+
+'And your bodily strength, my dear?'
+
+'If I should be ill, then it would be natural to go away,' said
+Sophy, smiling; 'but I don't think I shall be.  This is only the end
+of my fever to see it settled.  Now I am thankful, and my heart has
+left off throbbing when I am still.  I shall be all right to-morrow.'
+
+'I hope so; but you must spare yourself.'
+
+'Besides,' she added, 'one of the worst parts has been that, in the
+fancy that a change was to come, I have gone about everything in an
+unsettled way; and now I want to begin again at my duties, my
+readings and parish matters, as my life's work, steadily and in
+earnest.'
+
+'Not violently, not to drive care away.'
+
+'I have tried that once, and will not again.  You shall arrange for
+me, and I will do just as you tell me;' and she raised her eyes with
+the most deep and earnest gaze of confiding love that had ever
+greeted Albinia from any of the three.  I'll try not to grieve you,
+for you are too sorry for me;' and she threw her arms round her neck.
+'Oh, mamma! nothing is so bad when you help me to bear it!'
+
+Tears fell fast at this precious effusion from the deep, sincere
+heart, at the moment when Albinia herself was most guilty in her own
+eyes.  Embraces were her only answer, and how fervent!
+
+'And, mamma,' whispered Sophy, 'if you could only let me have some
+small part of teaching little Albinia.'
+
+A trotting of small feet and a call of mamma was heard.  The little
+maiden was come with her good-nights, and in one moment Albinia had
+lifted her into her sister's arms, where she was devoured with
+kisses, returning them with interest, and with many a fondling 'Poor
+Sophy,' and 'Dear Sophy.'
+
+When the last fond good-night had passed, and the little one had gone
+away to her nest, Sophy said in a soft, natural, unconstrained voice,
+'I am very sleepy.  If you will be so kind as to send up my tea, I
+will go to bed.  Thank you; goodnight.'
+
+That was the redrawing of the curtain of reserve, the resignation of
+sentiment, the resumption of common life.  The romance of Sophia
+Kendal's early life had ended when she wounded her fingers in
+wreathing Genevieve's hair.  Her next romance might be on behalf of
+her beautiful little sister.
+
+Albinia was cured of her fretfulness towards the new order of events,
+and her admiration of Sophy carried her through all that was yet to
+come.  It was the easier since Sophy did not insist on unreasonable
+self-martyrdoms, and in her gratitude for being allowed her purpose
+in the main, was submissive in detail, and had mercy on her own
+powers of endurance, not inflicting the sight of the lovers on
+herself more than was needful, and not struggling with the languor
+that was a good reason for remaining much upstairs.  She worked and
+read, but without overdoing anything, and wisely undertook a French
+translation, as likely to occupy her attention without forcing her to
+over-exert her powers.  Not that she said so; she carefully avoided
+all reference to her feelings; and Albinia could almost have deemed
+the whole a dream, excepting for the occasional detection of a
+mournful fixed gaze, which was instantaneously winked away as soon as
+Sophy herself became aware of it.
+
+Her trouble, though of a kind proverbially the most hardening and
+exacerbating, had an entirely contrary tendency on her.  The rigidity
+and harsh judgment which had betokened her states of morbid
+depression since she had outgrown the sulky form, had passed away,
+and she had been right in predicting that she should not be cross,
+for she had become sweet and gentle towards all.  Her voice was
+pitched more softly, and though she looked ill, and had lost the
+bloom which had once given her a sort of beauty, her eyes had a meek
+softness that made them finer than when they wore the stern, steady
+glance that used to make poor Gilbert quail.  Her strength came not
+from pride, but from Grace; and to her, disappointment was more
+softening than even the prosperous affection that Albinia had
+imagined.  It was love; not earthly but heavenly.
+
+If her father had been less busy, her pale cheek might have alarmed
+him; but he was very much taken up with builders and estimates, with
+persuading some of the superfluous population to emigrate, and
+arranging where they should go, and while she kept the family hours
+and habits, he did not notice lesser indications of flagging spirits,
+or if he did, he was wise, and thought the cause had better not be
+put into words.
+
+Albinia had brought herself to give fair sympathy to the lovers; and
+when once she had begun it was easy to go on, not as ardently as if
+she had never indulged in her folly, but enough to gratify two such
+happy and grateful people, who wanted no one but each other, and
+agreed in nothing better than in thinking her a sort of guardian
+angel to them both.
+
+Genevieve had assuredly never given her heart to Gilbert, and it was
+ready in all the freshness of maidenly bliss to meet the manly ardour
+of Ulick O'More.  He was almost overpoweringly demonstrative and
+eager, now and then making game of himself, but yet not able to help
+rushing down to Willow Lawn ten or twelve times a day, just to
+satisfy himself that his treasure was there, and if he could not meet
+with her, catching hold of Mr. or Mrs. Kendal to rave till they drove
+him back to his business.  Such glee danced in his eyes, there was
+such suppressed joyousness in his countenance, and his step was so
+much nearer a dance than a walk, that his very air well-nigh betrayed
+what was to be an absolute secret, till there had been an answer from
+Ballymakilty, until which time Genevieve would not rest in the hope
+of a happy future, nor give up her fears that she had not brought
+pain upon him.
+
+In he came at last, so exulting and so grateful, that it was a shock
+to discover that 'the kindest letter and fullest consent in the
+world,' meant his father's 'supposing he would do as he pleased; as
+long as he asked for nothing, it was no concern of his.'  It was
+discovered, by Ulick's delight, that he had expected to have a
+battle, and Albinia was scandalized, but Mr. Kendal told her it
+somewhat depended on what manner of father it was, whether an
+independent son could defer implicitly to his judgment; and though
+principle might withhold Ulick from flat disobedience, he might not
+scruple at extorting reluctant consent.  Besides his mother, whom he
+honoured far more really, had written, not without disappointment,
+but with full confidence in his ability to judge for himself.
+
+Mr. Kendal and Mr. Ferrars both wrote warmly in Genevieve's praise,
+and certainly her footing at Willow Lawn was the one point d'appui in
+bringing round the O'More family; so that as Ulick truly said, 'It
+was Mrs. Kendal whom he had to thank for the blessing of his life.'
+Had poor Miss Goldsmith's description of Miss Durant's birth,
+parentage, and education been the only one that had reached
+Ballymakilty, a prohibition would assuredly have been issued; but he
+was left sufficiently free to satisfy his own conscience, and before
+Genevieve had surmounted half her scruples, the whole town was
+ringing with the news, though no one could guess how it had got wind.
+To be sure the Dusautoys had been put into a state of rapture, and
+poor Mr. Hope had had the fatal stroke administered to him.  He
+looked so like a ghost that Mr. Dusautoy contrived to release him at
+once, whereupon he went to try the most unwholesome curacy he could
+find, with serious intentions of exchanging his living for it; but he
+fortunately became so severely and helplessly ill there, that he was
+pretty well cured of his mental fever, and quite content to go to his
+heath, and do his work there like the humble and earnest man that he
+was, perhaps all the better for having been personally taught
+something more than could be gained from books and colleges.
+
+Miss Goldsmith was the most to be pitied.  She would not hear a word
+from her nephew, refused to go near Willow Lawn, packed up her goods
+and went to Bath, where Ulick promised the much distressed Genevieve
+that she would yet relent.  Genevieve was somewhat consoled by the
+increasing cordiality of the Irish letters, and was carried along by
+the extreme delight and triumph of her good old aunt.  By some
+wonderful exertion of Irish faculties, Ulick succeeded in bringing
+mademoiselle to Bayford in his jaunting car, when she laughed, wept,
+sobbed, and embraced, in a bewilderment of transport; pronounced the
+trousseau worthy of an angel of the ancien regime; warned Genevieve
+against expecting amour to continue instead of amitie, and carried
+home conversation for the nuns for the rest of their lives.
+
+That trousseau was Sophy's special charge, and most jealous was she
+that it should in no respect fall short of that outfit of Lucy's for
+which she had cared so little.  A hard task it was to make Genevieve
+accept what Lucy had exacted, but Sophy held the purse-strings, wrote
+the orders, and had her own way.
+
+She and her little sister were the only available bridesmaids, since
+Rose O'More was not allowed to come.  Having made up her mind to this
+from the first, when the subject came forward, her open, cheerful
+look and manner were meant to show that she was not afraid, and that
+her wish was real.  Freely resigning him, why should she not be glad
+to join in calling down the blessing?
+
+The wedding was fixed for Easter week, which fell early, and Albinia
+cast about for some excuse for taking her away afterwards.  An
+opportune occasion offered.  Sir William Ferrars wrote from the East
+to propose the Kendals meeting him in Italy, and travelling home
+together, he was longing, he said, to see something of his sister,
+and he should enjoy sight-seeing ten times as much with a clever man
+like her husband to tell him all about it.
+
+Mr. Ferrars strongly seconded the project!  Clever fellow, not a word
+did he say; but did not he know the secrets of that household as well
+or better than the inmates themselves?'
+
+Now that Tibb's Alley was deserted, and plans fixed, architect and
+clerk of the works chosen, March winds ready for building and
+underground work to begin at once, what could be more prudent than
+for the inhabitants of Willow Lawn to remove far from the disturbance
+of ancient drains and no drains, and betake themselves to a purer
+atmosphere?  Mr. Kendal was of no use as a superintendent, and needed
+no persuasion to flee from the chance of typhus.
+
+As to the children, the time had come early when Maurice's whole
+nature cried out for school.  He was much improved, and there was
+that real principle within him which made it not unsafe to launch him
+in a world where he might meet with more useful trials than those of
+home.  Child as he was, his propensities were too much limited by the
+bounds of the town-house and garden, and the society of his sisters,
+one too old and one too young to serve as tomboys.  He needed to meet
+his match, and work his way; Albinia felt that school had become his
+element, and Mr. Kendal only wanted to make his education the reverse
+of Gilbert's; so he ran nearly frantic between the real jacket and
+the promise of going to school with Willie.  He knew not, though his
+mother mourned over, the coming heart-sickness and mother-sickness of
+the first night, the first Sunday, the first trouble.  It was sure to
+be very severe in one of such strong and affectionate feeling, but it
+must come sooner or later, and the better that it should be conquered
+while home was still a paradise.  Fairmead was not so far from his
+destination but that his uncle would keep an eye on him; and Winifred
+held out a hope that if the tour lasted long enough, he should bring
+out both boys to spend their holidays with them.  A very good
+Winifred!
+
+Albinia the Less was to become a traveller, for the good reason that
+nobody could or would go without her.  They were to go direct to
+Lucy, who was at Naples with a second boy, and pining for home faces
+and home comforts--the inducement which perhaps worked most strongly
+to make Sophy like the journey, for since her delusion had been
+swept, away, a doubly deep and intense feeling had sprung up towards
+her own only sister, whose foibles had been forgotten in long
+separation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+
+The Lake of Lucerne lay blue and dark in the shade of the mountains,
+on whose summits the evening sunshine was fast mounting, peak after
+peak falling into purple shadow.
+
+There was a small inlet where a stream rushed down between the hills,
+and on the green slope stood a chalet, the rich red of the roof
+contrasting with the green pasture.  A little boat was moored to a
+stump near the land, and in it sat Sophia Kendal, her hat by her
+side, listening to and answering merrily the chatter of Maurice, who
+tumbled about in the boat, often causing it severe shocks, while he
+inspected the cut of the small sail which she was making for the
+miniature specimen, which he often tried in the clear cold water.
+
+Farther off, a little up the hill-side, Willie Ferrars was holding
+the hand of the chestnut-curled, black-eyed fairy, 'little Awk,' who
+was impressing him by her fluency in two languages at once, according
+as she chattered to him in English, or in French to a picturesque
+peasant, her great ally, who was mowing his flowery crop of hay,
+glancing like an illumination, with an under-current of brilliant
+blossoms among the grass.
+
+Wandering with slow conversational pace up and down the beach of the
+lake, were Mr. Kendal and Sir William Ferrars, conversing as usual;
+the soldier, with quick alert comprehension, wide observation, and
+clearness of mind, which jumped to the very points to which the
+scholar's deeply-read and long-digested arguments were bringing him
+more slowly.
+
+On a projecting point sat Albinia, her fair hair shaded under her
+dark hat, beneath which her English complexion glowed fresh and
+youthful, as with flat tin box by her side, and block sketch-book on
+her knee, she mixed and she painted, and tried to catch those purples
+and those blues with unabated ardour.  Suddenly a great trailing
+frond of mountain fern came over the brim of her hat from behind.
+'Oh, Maurice, don't!'  Then, looking up and laughing, 'Oh, it is you,
+is it?  I knew Maurice would do, whichever it might be; but see, the
+other is quite out of mischief.'
+
+'Unless he should upset Sophy into the lake.'
+
+'He can't do that, the rope is too short.  But is not he very much
+improved?  He has quite lost his imperious manner towards her.'
+
+'Nothing like school for making a boy behave himself to his sisters.'
+
+'Exactly, as I learnt by experience long ago.  I am glad William did
+not see him till he had learnt to be agreeable.  How he does admire
+him!'
+
+'You'll never make anything of that sketch; the mountain is
+humpbacked, and the face of that precipice is exactly like Colonel
+Bury;' and he caught up a pencil to help out the resemblance with
+nostril and eyebrow.
+
+'For shame, to be so mischievieous; such a great boy as you.'
+
+'Well, we all came out here to be great boys, didn't we?  I am sure
+you look a dozen years younger than when I last saw you, Mrs.
+Grandmother.  By-the-by, it was a bold stroke to encumber yourself
+with that brat; what's become of him?'
+
+'Susan has taken him in asleep.  You see, Maurice, I really could not
+help it, the poor little thing was so sickly, and had never thriven;
+but when they were a little while in bracing air, Lucy was longing to
+have him in England, and his father, who never believes in anything
+but what he likes, _would_ not see it, and what with those Italian
+servants, and Algernon hunting Lucy about as he does, it would have
+been the death of him.  Susan, good creature, had taken to him of her
+own accord the moment we came to Naples, and could not have borne to
+leave him, and you know the Awk is almost off her hands now, and
+Sophy, who first proposed it, or I am sure I should never have
+ventured, is delighted to do anything for either of them, and always
+has her little sister in her room.  As to papa, he was very good, and
+the child is very little in his way, and has been quite well ever
+since we have been in this delicious air.'
+
+'How did you get Lucy to consent?'
+
+'Poor dear, it was a melancholy business; but she had so often been
+in alarm about him, and had suffered so much from having to leave him
+with people she did not trust, that she caught at the proposal before
+she fairly contemplated what the parting would be; and when she did,
+Algernon was too glad to be relieved from him not to keep her up to
+it, but it wont do to think of it, she has her baby, who is
+healthier, and if they remain abroad, I suspect we shall keep little
+Ralph altogether; he is a dear little fellow, and Sophy has so taken
+possession of Albinia, that I should be quite lost if I did not set
+up a private child.
+
+'What do you call him?  I thought his name was Belraven.'
+
+'I could not possibly call him so; and his aunts, by way of adding to
+the aviary, made him Ralph the Raven, so I mean it to stick by him; I
+believe papa has forgotten the other dreadful fact, for I caught him
+giving his name as Ralph Cavendish Dusautoy.  How the dear vicar of
+Bayford will devour him! and what work I shall have to keep him from
+being spoilt!'
+
+'Then you think they will remain abroad?'
+
+'Algernon hates England; and all his habits are foreign.'
+
+'Did he make himself tolerably agreeable?'
+
+'He really did.  One could bear to be patronized by one's host better
+than by one's guest, and he was in wholesome awe of William.
+Besides, he is really at home in Italy, and knows his way about so
+well, that he was not a bad Cicerone.  I am sure Sophy could never
+have done either Vesuvius or Pompeii without his arrangements; and as
+long as he had a victim for his catalogue raisonnee, he was very
+placable and obliging.  That was all extracts, so it really was not
+so bad.'
+
+'So you were satisfied?'
+
+'He has a bad lot about him, that's the worst--Polish counts,
+disreputable artists and poets, any one who has a spurious sort of
+fame, and knows how to flatter him.  Edmund was terribly disgusted.'
+
+'Very bad for his wife.'
+
+'You see, she is a thorough-going mother, and no linguist.  She
+really is improved, and I like her more really than ever I could,
+poor dear.  I believe her head was once quite turned, and that he
+influenced her entirely, and made her forget everything else; but she
+has a heart, though not much of a head, and sorrow and illness and
+children have brought it out, and she is what a 'very woman' becomes,
+I suppose, if there be any good in her, an abstract wife and mother.'
+
+'Was it not dangerous to take away her child?'
+
+'There was another, you know, and it was to save his life.  The
+duties clashed, and were destroying all comfort.'
+
+'How does he behave to her?'
+
+'I believe she has all the love he has to spare; he is proud of her,
+and dresses her up, and has endless portraits of her.  Luckily she
+keeps her beauty.  She is more refined, and has more expression; one
+could sometimes cry to watch her, and he likes to have her with him,
+and to discourse to her, but without the slightest perception or
+consideration of what she would prefer, and with no notion of
+sacrificing anything for her or the children.  I know she is afraid
+of him; I have seen her tremble if there were any chance of his being
+annoyed; and she would not object to any plan of his if it were to
+cost her life.  I believe it would be misery to her, but I think she
+would resist--ay, she _did_ resist, and in vain, for the sake of her
+child.'
+
+'Does her affection hold out, do you think?'
+
+'Oh, yes, the spaniel and walnut-tree love, which is in us all, and
+doubly in the very woman.  It is very beautiful.  She is so proud of
+him and of her gilded slavery, and so unconsciously submissive and
+patient; but it is a harder life, I guess, than we can see.  I am
+sure it must be, for every bit of personal vanity and levity is worn
+out of her; she only goes out to satisfy him; dresses to please his
+eye, and talks, with her eye seeking round for him, in dread of being
+rebuked for mistakes or bad French.  And for the rest, her joy is to
+be left in peace with little Algernon upon her lap.  Yes, I hope
+living in all womanly virtues may be training and compensation, but
+the saddest part of the affair is that he does not think it
+fashionable to be religious, and she has not moral courage to make
+open resistance.'
+
+'May it come,' fervently.
+
+'It is strange, how much more real and good a creature she is now,
+than when at home in the midst of all external observances.  Yet it
+cannot be right! she surely ought to make more stand, but it is too,
+too literally being afraid to say her soul is her own, for she is
+unhappy.  She does the utmost she can without offending him, and
+feels it as she never did before.'
+
+'There is no judging,' said Maurice, as his sister looked at him with
+eyes full of sorrowful yearning.  'No one can tell where are the
+boundaries of the two duties.  Poor girl! she has put herself into a
+state of temptation and trial; but she may be shielded by her
+exercise of so much that is simply good, and her womanly qualities
+may become not idolatry, but a training in reaching higher.'
+
+'May it be so, indeed!' said Albinia.  'Oh, Maurice! how I once
+disdained being told I was too young, and how true it was!  What
+visions I had about those three, and what failures have resulted!'
+
+'Your visions may have vanished, but you did your work faithfully,
+and it has not been fruitless.'
+
+'Ay, in shipwrecked lives.  Mischiefs wherever I meant to do best!
+Why, I let even my own Maurice grow unmanageable while I was nursing
+poor grandmamma.  The voluntary duty choked the natural one, and
+yet--'
+
+'And yet,' interrupted her brother, 'that was no error.'
+
+'Oh, no!  I would not have done it for anything.'
+
+'Nor do I think the boy the worse for it.  I may venture now on
+saying he was intolerable, and it hastened school, but though your
+rein was loose, you never let it fall; and maybe, the self-conquest
+was the best thing for him.  If you had neglected him wilfully for
+your own pleasure, nothing but harm could have been expected.  As you
+were absorbed by a sacred act of duty, I believe it will all be made
+up to you in your son.'
+
+'Oh, Maurice, if I might trust so!  I believe I am doubly set on that
+boy doing well, because his father must not, _must_ not have another
+pang!'
+
+'I think he knows that.  I do not imagine that he will never be
+carried astray by high spirits; but I am sure that he has the
+strength, honour, and sweetness that are the elements of greatness!'
+
+'Nothing we did so changed him as the loss of his brother.  Oh,
+Maurice! there was my most earnest wish to do right, and my most
+fatal mistake!'
+
+'And greatest success.  Gilbert owed everything to you.'
+
+'Had I but silenced my foolish pride, he might have been safe in
+India now.'
+
+'We do not know how safe he might be.  I did indeed think it a pity
+your influence led the other way, but things might have been far
+worse; if you made some blunders, your love and your earnestness were
+working on that susceptible nature, and what better hope can we wish
+to have than what rested with us at Malta? what better influence than
+has remained with Maurice or with Fred?'
+
+Albinia had not yet learnt to talk calmly of Gilbert's last hours, so
+she put this aside, and smiling through her tears, said, 'Ah! when
+Emily writes to Sophy, that their boy is to have his name, since they
+can wish nothing better for him than to be like him.'
+
+'The past vision always a little above what is visible?'
+
+'Hardly, Emily and Fred are as proud of each other as two peacocks,
+and well they may be, for--stoop down, 'tis an intense secret; but do
+you know the effect of their Sebastopol den?'
+
+'Eh?'
+
+'Lieutenant-General Sir William Ferrars is going out in quest of
+Emily's younger sister.'
+
+'You ridiculous child!  That's a trick of yours.'
+
+'No, indeed.  William was surprised into a moment of confidence,
+walking home in the moonlight from the Coliseum.  En vrai militaire,
+he has begun at the right end, and written to Mr. Kinnaird to ask
+leave to come and try his luck; and cool as he looks, I believe he
+would rather prepare for Inkermann.'
+
+'Well! if he be not making a fool of himself at his time of life, I
+am sure I am very glad!'
+
+'Time of life!  He's but three years older than Edmund.  If you are
+not more respectful, we shall have to go out to Canada to countenance
+him.'
+
+'I shall be rejoiced to see him with a home, and finding life beyond
+his profession; but I had rather he had known more of her.'
+
+'That's what he never would do.  He cannot talk to a young lady.  Why
+he admires Lucy a great deal more than Sophy!'
+
+'Well, judging by the recent brides, I think if it had been me, I
+should have gone in search of Mrs. Ulick O'More's younger sister.'
+
+'Ah! I wanted particularly to hear of your visit at the bank.  You
+had luncheon there, I think. How do they get on?'
+
+'It is the most charming menage in the world.  She looks very
+graceful and elegant, and keeps him in great order, and is just the
+wife he wanted--a little sauciness and piquancy to spur him up at one
+time, and restrain him at another, with the real ballast that both
+have, makes such a perfect compound, that it is only too delightful
+to see anything so happy and so good in this world.  They both seem
+to have such vivid enjoyment of life.'
+
+'Pray, has any one called on Genevieve? though she could dispense
+with it.'
+
+'Oh, yes; Bryan O'More spent a fortnight there.  And see what a
+moustache will do!  The Osbornes, Drurys, Wolfes, and Co., all dubbed
+themselves dear Mrs. O'More's dearest friends.  I found a circle of
+them round her, and when I observed that Bryan was not half such a
+handsome fellow as his brother, you should see how I was scorned.'
+
+'I hope Bryan may not play his father's game again.  Do you know how
+she was received in Ireland?'
+
+'The whole clan adore her!  Ulick, with, his Anglo-Saxon
+truthfulness, got into serious scrapes for endeavouring to disabuse
+them of the notion that she was sole heiress of the ancient
+marquisate of Durant.  I believe Connel was ready to call Ulick out
+for disrespect to his own wife.'
+
+'And was she happy there!'
+
+'Very much amused, and treated like a queen; charmed with his mother,
+and great friends with Rose.  They have brought Redmond home to lick
+him into shape, and I believe Rose is to come and be tamed.'
+
+'Always Ulick's wish,' said Albinia, as her eye fixed upon Sophy.
+
+And her brother, with perhaps too obvious a connexion of ideas, said,
+'Is _she_ quite strong?'
+
+'Very well,' said Albinia.  'I am glad we brought her.  The sight of
+beauty has been like a new existence.  I saw it on her brow, in
+calmness and rest, the first evening of the Bay of Naples.  It has
+seemed to soothe and elevate her, though all in her own silent way;
+but watch her as she sits with her face to those mountains, hear her
+voice, and you will feel that the presence of grandeur and beauty is
+repose and happiness to her; and I think the remembrance will always
+be so, even in work-a-day Bayford.'
+
+'Yes, because remembrance of such glory connects with hope of future
+glory.'
+
+'And it is a rest from human frets and passions.  She has taken to
+botany, too, and I am glad, for I think those studies that draw one
+off from men's works and thoughts, do most good to the weary,
+self-occupied brain.  And the children are a delight to her!'
+
+'Sophy is your greatest work.'
+
+'Not mine!' cried Albinia.  'The noblest by nature, the dearest, the
+most generous.'
+
+'Great qualities; but they would have been only wretched self-preying
+torments, but for the softening of your affection,' said Maurice.
+
+'Dear, dear friend and sister and child in one,' cried Albinia.  And
+then meeting her brother's eyes, she said, 'Yes, you know to the full
+how noble she is, and how--'
+
+'I can guess how imprudent a young step-mother can be,' said Maurice,
+smiling.
+
+'It is very strange.  I don't, know how to be thankful enough for it;
+but really her spirits have been more equal, her temper more even
+than ever it had been, and that just when I thought my folly had been
+most ruinous.'
+
+'Yes, Albinia.  After all, it is more than man can hope or expect to
+make no blunders; but I do verily believe that while an earnest will
+saves us, by God's grace, from wilful sins, the effects of the
+inadvertences that teach us our secret faults will not be fatal, and
+while we are indeed honestly and faithfully doing our best, though we
+are truly unprofitable servants, that our lapses through infirmity
+will be compensated, both in the training of our own character and
+the results upon others.'
+
+'If we are indeed faithfully doing our best,' repeated Albinia.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
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