initial commit of ebook 6331HEADmain

12 files changed, 73595 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/6331-8.txt b/6331-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..122be03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,24456 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Pillars of the House, Vol. I (of 2), by
+Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Pillars of the House, Vol. I (of 2)
+       or, Under Wode, Under Rode
+
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2002  [eBook #6331]
+This revision first posted: January 20, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE, VOL. I
+(OF 2)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Sandra Laythorpe and revised by Clare Graham and Marc
+D'Hooghe (http://www.freeliterature.org) using page images generously made
+available by the Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work.
+      Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44721
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE;
+
+Or,
+
+Under Wode, Under Rode.
+
+by
+
+CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+Author of 'The Heir of Redclyffe,' etc.
+
+In Two Volumes.
+
+VOL I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Macmillan and Co.
+1875.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS TO VOL. I.
+
+        I. THE BIRTH-DAY GIFT
+       II. THE PIC-NIC
+      III. FORTUNATUS' PURSE
+       IV. TWILIGHT AND DAWN
+        V. WORKING FOR BREAD
+       VI. THE CACIQUE
+      VII. THE CHESS-PLAYER'S BATTLE
+     VIII. THE HOME
+       IX. THE THIRTEEN
+        X. THE FAMILY COBWEB ON THE MOVE
+       XI. THE CHORAL FESTIVAL
+      XII. GIANT DESPAIR'S CASTLE
+     XIII. PEGASUS IN HARNESS
+      XIV. WHAT IT MAY LEAD TO
+       XV. WHAT IT LED TO
+      XVI. THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT
+     XVII. MIDSUMMER SUN
+    XVIII. BY THE RIVER
+      XIX. THE HOUSE WITHOUT PILLARS
+       XX. VALE LESTON
+      XXI. A KETTLE OF FISH
+     XXII. THE REAL THING AND NO MISTAKE
+    XXIII. SMOKE-JACK ALLEY
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE;
+
+OR,
+
+UNDER WODE, UNDER RODE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BIRTH-DAY GIFT.
+
+     'O I've got a plum-cake, and a feast let us make,
+        Come, school-fellows, come at my call;
+      I assure you 'tis nice, and we'll all have a slice,
+        Here's more than enough for us all.'
+                                    _Jane Taylor._
+
+
+'It is come! Felix, it is come!'
+
+So cried, shouted, shrieked a chorus, as a street door was torn open
+to admit four boys, with their leathern straps of books over their
+shoulders. They set up a responsive yell of 'Jolly! Jolly!' which
+being caught up and re-echoed by at least five voices within, caused
+a considerable volume of sound in the narrow entry and narrower
+staircase, up which might be seen a sort of pyramid of children.
+
+'Where is it?' asked the tallest of the four arrivals, as he soberly
+hung up his hat.
+
+'Mamma has got it in the drawing-room, and Papa has been in ever since
+dinner,' was the universal cry from two fine complexioned, handsome
+girls, from a much smaller girl and boy, and from a creature rolling on
+the stairs, whose sex and speech seemed as yet uncertain.
+
+'And where's Cherry?' was the further question; 'is she there too?'
+
+'Yes, but--' as he laid his hand on the door--'don't open the letter
+there. Get Cherry, and we'll settle what to do with it.'
+
+'O Felix, I've a stunning notion!'
+
+'Felix, promise to do what I want!'
+
+'Felix, do pray buy me some Turkish delight!'
+
+'Felix, I do want the big spotty horse.'
+
+Such shouts and insinuations, all deserving the epithet of the first,
+pursued Felix as he entered a room, small, and with all the contents
+faded and worn, but with an air of having been once tasteful, and
+still made the best of. Contents we say advisedly, meaning not merely
+the furniture but the inmates, namely, the pale wan fragile mother,
+working, but with the baby on her knee, and looking as if care and toil
+had brought her to skin and bone, though still with sweet eyes and a
+lovely smile; the father, tall and picturesque, with straight handsome
+features, but with a hectic colour, wasted cheek, and lustrous eye,
+that were sad earnests of the future. He was still under forty, his
+wife some years less; and elder than either in its expression of wasted
+suffering was the countenance of the little girl of thirteen years old
+who lay on the sofa, with pencil, paper, and book, her face with her
+mother's features exaggerated into a look at once keen and patient, all
+three forming a sad contrast to the solid exuberant health on the other
+side the door.
+
+Truly the boy who entered was a picture of sturdy English vigour,
+stout-limbed, rosy faced, clear eyed, open, and straightforward
+looking, perhaps a little clumsy with the clumsiness of sixteen,
+especially when conscience required tearing spirits to be subdued to
+the endurance of the feeble. It was, however, a bright congratulating
+look that met him from the trio. The little girl started up: 'Your
+sovereign's come, Felix!'
+
+The father showed his transparent-looking white teeth in a merry laugh.
+'Here are the galleons, you boy named in a lucky hour! How many times
+have you spent them in fancy?'
+
+The mother held up the letter, addressed to Master Felix Chester
+Underwood, No. 8, St. Oswald's Buildings, Bexley, and smiled as she
+said, 'Is it all right, my boy?'
+
+'They want me to open it outside, Mamma!--Come, White-heart, we want
+you at the council.'
+
+And putting his arm round his little sister Geraldine's waist, while
+she took up her small crutch, Felix disappeared with her, the mother
+looking wistfully after them, the father giving something between a
+laugh and a sigh.
+
+'Then you decide against speaking to him,' said Mrs. Underwood.
+
+'Poor children, yes. A little happiness will do them a great deal more
+good than the pound would do to us. The drops that will fill their
+little cup will but be lost in our sea.'
+
+'Yes, I like what comes from Vale Leston to be still a festive matter,'
+said Mrs. Underwood; 'and at least we are sure the dear boy will never
+spend it selfishly. It only struck me whether he would not enjoy
+finding himself able to throw something into the common stock.'
+
+'_He_ would, honest lad,' said Mr. Underwood; 'but, Mamma, you are very
+hard-hearted towards the rabble. Even if this one pound would provide
+all the shoes and port wine that are pressing on the maternal mind, the
+stimulus of a day's treat would be much more wholesome.'
+
+'But not for you,' said his wife.
+
+'Yes, for me. If the boy includes us old folks in his festivity, it
+will be as good as a week's port wine. You doubt, my sweet Enid. Has
+not our long honeymoon at Vale Leston helped us all this time?' Her
+name was Mary, but having once declared her to be a woman made of the
+same stuff as Enid, he had made it his pet title for her.
+
+Mrs. Underwood's thoughts went far away into the long ago of Vale
+Leston. She could hardly believe that nine years only had passed since
+that seven-years' honeymoon. She was a woman of the fewest possible
+words, and her husband generally answered her face instead of her voice.
+
+Vale Leston had promised to be an ample provision when Edward Underwood
+had resigned his fellowship to marry the Rector's niece and adopted
+daughter, his own distant cousin, with the assurance of being presented
+to the living hereafter, and acting in the meantime as curate. It
+was a family living, always held conjointly with a tolerably good
+estate, enough to qualify the owner for the dangerous position of
+'squarson,' as no doubt many a clerical Underwood had been ever since
+their branch had grown out from the stem of the elder line, which had
+now disappeared. These comfortable quarters had seemed a matter of
+certainty, until the uncle died suddenly and with a flaw in his will,
+so that the undesirable nephew and heir-at-law whom he had desired to
+exclude, a rich dissipated man, son to a brother older than the father
+of the favourite niece, had stepped in, and differing _in toto_ from
+Edward Underwood, had made his own son take orders for the sake of the
+living, and it had been the effort of the young wife ever since not to
+disobey her husband by showing that it had been to her the being driven
+out of paradise.
+
+        ASSISTANT CURACY.--A Priest of Catholic opinions is needed
+        at a town parish. Resident Rector and three Curates. Daily
+        Prayers. Choral Service on Sundays and Holy-days. Weekly
+        Communion.--Apply to P.C.B., St. Oswald's Rectory, Bexley.
+
+Every one knows the sort of advertisement which had brought Mr.
+Underwood to Bexley, as a place which would accord with the doctrines
+and practices dear to him. Indeed, apart from the advertisement,
+Bexley had a fame. A great rubrical war had there been fought out by
+the Rector of St. Oswald's, and when he had become a colonial Bishop,
+his successor was reported to have carried on his work; and the beauty
+of the restored church, and the exquisite services, were so generally
+talked of, that Mr. Underwood thought himself fortunate in obtaining
+the appointment. Mr. Bevan too, the Rector, was an exceedingly
+courteous, kindly-mannered man, talking in a soft low voice in the most
+affectionate and considerate manner, and with good taste and judgment
+that exceedingly struck and pleased the new curate. It was the more
+surprise to him to find the congregations thin, and a general languor
+and indifference about the people who attended the church. There was
+also a good deal of opposition in the parish, some old sullen seceders
+who went to a neighbouring proprietary chapel, many more of erratic
+tastes haunted the places of worship of the numerous sects, who swarmed
+in the town, and many more were living in a state of town heathenism.
+
+It was not long before the perception of the cause began to grow upon
+Mr. Underwood. The machinery was perfect, but the spring was failing;
+the salt was there, but where was the savour? The discourses he heard
+from his rector were in one point of view faultless, but the old
+Scottish word 'fushionless' would rise into his thoughts whenever
+they ended, and something of effect and point was sure to fail; they
+were bodies without souls, and might well satisfy a certain excellent
+solicitor, who always praised them as 'just the right medium, sober,
+moderate, and unexciting.'
+
+In the first pleasure of a strong, active, and enterprising man, at
+finding his plans unopposed by authority, Mr. Underwood had been
+delighted with his rector's ready consent to whatever he undertook,
+and was the last person to perceive that Mr. Bevan, though objecting
+to nothing, let all the rough and tough work lapse upon his curates,
+and took nothing but the graceful representative part. Even then,
+Mr. Underwood had something to say in his defence; Mr. Bevan was
+valetudinarian in his habits, and besides--he was in the midst of a
+courtship--after his marriage he would give his mind to his parish.
+
+For Mr. Bevan, hitherto a confirmed and rather precise and luxurious
+bachelor, to the general surprise, married a certain Lady Price, the
+young widow of an old admiral, and with her began a new _régime._
+
+My Lady, as every one called her, since she retained her title and
+name, was by no means desirous of altering the ornamental arrangements
+in church, which she regarded with pride; but she was doubly anxious
+to guard her husband's health; and she also had the sharpest eye to
+the main chance. Hitherto, whatever had been the disappointments and
+shortcomings at the Rectory, there had been free-handed expenditure,
+and no stint either in charity or the expenses connected with the
+service; but Lady Price had no notion of taking on her uncalled-for
+outlay. The parish must do its part, and it was called on to do so
+in modes that did not add to the Rector's popularity. Moreover, the
+arrangements were on the principle of getting as much as possible out
+of everybody, and no official failed to feel the pinch. The Rector
+was as bland, gentle, and obliging as ever; but he seldom transacted
+any affairs that he could help; and in the six years that had elapsed
+since the marriage, every person connected with the church had changed,
+except Mr. Underwood.
+
+Yet, perhaps, as senior curate, he had felt the alteration most
+heavily. He had to be, or to refuse to be, my Lady's instrument in her
+various appeals; he came in for her indignation at wastefulness, and
+at the unauthorised demands on the Rector; he had to feel what it was
+to have no longer unlimited resources of broth and wine to fall back
+upon at the Rectory; he had to supply the shortcomings of the new staff
+brought in on lower terms--and all this, moreover, when his own health
+and vigour were beginning to fail.
+
+Lady Price did not like him or his family. They were poor, and she
+distrusted the poor; and what was worse, she knew they were better
+born and better bred than herself, and had higher aims. Gentle Mrs.
+Underwood, absorbed in household cares, no more thought of rivalry
+with her than with the Queen; but the soft movement, the low voice,
+the quiet sweep of the worn garments, were a constant vexation to my
+Lady, who having once pronounced the curate's wife affected, held to
+her opinion. With Mr. Underwood she had had a fight or two, and had not
+conquered, and now they were on terms of perfect respect and civility
+on his side, and of distance and politeness on hers. She might talk of
+him half contemptuously but she never durst show herself otherwise than
+civil, though she was always longing to bring in some more deferential
+person in his place; and, whenever illness interfered with his duties,
+she spoke largely to her friends of the impropriety of a man's
+undertaking what he could not perform.
+
+One of her reductions had been the economising the third curate, while
+making the second be always a neophyte, who received his title for
+Orders, and remained his two years upon a small stipend.
+
+The change last Easter, which had substituted a deacon for a priest,
+had fallen heavily on Mr. Underwood, and would have been heavier still,
+but that the new comer, Charles Audley, had attached himself warmly
+to him. The young man was the son of a family of rank and connection,
+and Lady Price's vanity was flattered by obtaining his assistance;
+but her vexation was proportionably excited by his preference for the
+Underwood household, where, in truth--with all its poverty--he found
+the only atmosphere thoroughly congenial to him in all the parish of
+St. Oswald's.
+
+Speedily comprehending the state of things, he put his vigorous young
+shoulder to the wheel, and, full of affectionate love and admiration
+for Mr. Underwood, spared himself nothing in the hope of saving him
+fatigue or exertion, quietly gave up his own holidays, was always at
+his post, and had hitherto so far lightened Mr. Underwood's toil, that
+he was undoubtedly getting through this summer better than the last,
+for his bodily frame had long been affected by the increased amount of
+toil in an ungenial atmosphere, and every access of cold weather had
+told on him in throat and chest attacks, which, with characteristic
+buoyancy, he would not believe serious. He never deemed himself aught
+but 'better,' and the invalid habits that crept on him by stealth,
+always seemed to his brave spirit consequent on a day's extra fatigue,
+or the last attention to a departing cough. Alas! when every day's
+fatigue was extra, the cough always depart_ing_, never depart_ed_.
+
+Yet, though it had become a standing order in the house, that for
+an hour after papa came in from his rounds, no one of the children
+should be in the drawing-room, except poor little lame Geraldine,
+who was permanently established there; and that afterwards, even on
+strong compulsion, they should only come in one by one, as quietly as
+possible, he never ceased to apologise to them for their banishment
+when he felt it needful, and when he was at ease, would renew the
+merriment that sometimes cost him dear.
+
+The children had, for the most part, inherited that precious heirloom
+of contentment and elasticity, and were as happy in nooks and corners
+in bed-room, nursery, staircase or kitchen, as they could have been in
+extensive play-rooms and gardens.
+
+See them in full council upon the expenditure of the annual gift that
+an old admiral at Vale Leston, who was godfather to Felix, was wont to
+send the boy on his birth-day--that third of July, which had seemed
+so bright, when birth-days had begun in the family, that no name save
+Felix could adequately express his parent's feelings.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Underwood had fancies as to nomenclature; and that
+staircase-full of children rejoiced in eccentric appellations. To begin
+at the bottom--here sat on a hassock, her back against the wall, her
+sharp old fairy's face uplifted, little Geraldine, otherwise Cherry,
+a title that had suited her round rosiness well, till after the first
+winter at Bexley, when the miseries of a diseased ankle-joint had
+set in, and paled her into the tender aliases of White-heart, or
+Sweet-heart. She was, as might be plainly seen in her grey eyes, a
+clever child; and teaching her was a great delight to her father, and
+often interested him when he was unequal to anything else. Her dark
+eyebrows frowned with anxiety as she lifted up her little pointed
+chin to watch sturdy frank-faced Felix, who with elaborate slowness
+dealt with the envelope, tasting slowly of the excitement it created,
+and edging away from the baluster, on which, causing it to contribute
+frightful creaks to the general Babel, were perched numbers 4, 6,
+7, and 8, to wit, Edgar, Clement, Fulbert, and Lancelot, all three
+handsome, blue-eyed, fair-faced lads. Indeed Edgar was remarkable, even
+among this decidedly fine-looking family. He had a peculiarly delicate
+contour of feature and complexion, though perfectly healthy; and there
+was something of the same expression, half keen, half dreamy, as in
+Geraldine, his junior by one year; while the grace of all the attitudes
+of his slender lissome figure showed to advantage beside Felix's more
+sturdy form, and deliberate or downright movements; while Clement was
+paler, slighter, and with rather infantine features, and shining wavy
+brown hair, that nothing ever seemed to ruffle, looked so much as if
+he ought to have been a girl, that Tina, short for Clementina, was his
+school name. Fulbert, stout, square, fat-cheeked, and permanently rough
+and dusty, looked as if he hardly belonged to the rest.
+
+The four eldest were day-scholars at the city grammar-school; but
+Lancelot, a bright-faced little fellow in knickerbockers, was a pupil
+of whoever would or could teach him at home, as was the little girl
+who was clinging to his leg, and whose name of Robina seemed to have
+moulded her into some curious likeness to a robin-redbreast, with her
+brown soft hair, rosy cheeks, bright merry eyes, plump form, and quick
+loving audacity. Above her sat a girl of fifteen, with the family
+features in their prettiest development--the chiseled straight profile,
+the clear white roseately tinted skin, the large well-opened azure
+eyes, the profuse glossy hair, the long, slender, graceful limbs, and
+that pretty head leant against the knees of her own very counterpart;
+for these were Wilmet and Alda, the twin girls who had succeeded Felix,
+and whose beauty had been the marvel of Vale Leston, their shabby dress
+the scorn of the day school at Bexley. And forming the apex of the
+pyramid, perched astride on the very shoulders of much-enduring Wilmet,
+was three years old Angela--Baby Bernard being quiescent in a cradle
+near mamma. N.B. Mrs. Underwood, though her girls had such masculine
+names, had made so strong a protest against their being called by
+boyish abbreviations, that only in one case had nature been too strong
+for her, and Robina had turned into Bobbie. Wilmet's second name being
+Ursula, she was apt to be known as W. W.
+
+'Make haste, Felix, you intolerable boy! don't be so slow!' cried Alda.
+
+'Is there a letter?' inquired Wilmet.
+
+'Yes, more's the pity!' said Felix. 'Now I shall have to answer it.'
+
+'I'll do that, if you'll give me what's inside,' said Edgar.
+
+'Is it there?' exclaimed Cherry, in a tone of doubt, that sent an
+electric thrill of dismay through the audience; Lance nearly toppling
+over, to the horror of the adjacent sisters, and the grave rebuke of
+Clement.
+
+'If it should be a sell!' gasped Fulbert.
+
+'Suppose it were,' said Felix gravely.
+
+'Then,' said Edgar, 'you can disown the old rogue Chester.'
+
+'What stuff!' interposed Clement.
+
+'I'd cut him out of my will on the spot,' persisted Edgar.
+
+'But it is all right,' said Cherry, looking with quiet certainty into
+her brother's face; and he nodded and coloured at the same time.
+
+'But it is not a pretty one,' said little Robina. 'Last year it was
+green, and before that red; and this is nasty stupid black and white,
+and all thin crackling paper.'
+
+Felix laughed, and held up the document.
+
+'What!' cried Fulbert. 'Five! Why, 'tisn't only five shillings! the
+horrid old cheat!'
+
+'It's a five-pound note!' screamed Cherry. 'I saw one when Papa went to
+the bank! O Felix, Felix!'
+
+A five-pound note! It seemed to take away the breath of those who knew
+what it meant, and then an exulting shout broke forth.
+
+'Well,' said Edgar solemnly, 'old Chester is a brick! Three cheers for
+him!'
+
+Which cheers having been perpetrated with due vociferation, the cry
+began, 'O Felix, what will you do with it?'
+
+'Buy a pony!' cried Fulbert.
+
+'A rocking-horse,' chirped Robina.
+
+'Punch every week,' shouted Lance.
+
+'A knife apiece,' said Fulbert.
+
+'How can you all be so selfish?' pronounced Clement. 'Now a harmonium
+would be good to us all.'
+
+'Then get some cotton, for our ears into the bargain, if Tina is to
+play on it,' said Edgar.
+
+'I shall take the note to mother,' said the owner.
+
+'Oh!' screamed all but Wilmet and Cherry, 'that's as bad as not having
+it at all!'
+
+Maybe Felix thought so, for it was with a certain gravity and solemnity
+of demeanour that he entered the drawing-room, causing his father to
+exclaim, 'How now? No slip between cup and lip? Not infelix, Felix?'
+
+'No, papa, but it's _this;_ and I thought I ought to bring it.'
+
+The dew at once was in the mother's eyes, as she sprang up and kissed
+the boy's brow, saying, 'Felix, dear, don't show it to me. You were
+meant to be happy with it. Go and be so.'
+
+'Stay,' said Mr. Underwood, 'Felix will really enjoy helping us to this
+extent more than any private expenditure. Is it not so, my boy? Well
+then, I propose that the sovereign of old prescriptive right should
+go to his _menus plaisirs_, and the rest to something needful; but he
+shall say to what. Said I well, old fellow?'
+
+'Oh, thank you, thank you!' cried Felix ardently.
+
+'Thank me for permission to do as you will with your own?' smiled Mr.
+Underwood.
+
+'You will choose, then, Felix?' said his mother wistfully, her desires
+divided between port wine for Papa, and pale ale for Geraldine.
+
+'Yes, mamma,' was the prompt answer. 'Then, please, let Wilmet and Alda
+be rigged out fresh for Sundays.'
+
+'Wilmet and Alda!' exclaimed Mamma.
+
+'Yes, I should like that better than anything, please,' said the boy.
+'All our fellows say they would be the prettiest girls in all Bexley,
+if they were properly dressed; and those horrid girls at Miss Pearson's
+lead them a life about those old black hats.'
+
+'Poor dears! I have found Alda crying when she was dressing for
+church,' mused Mrs. Underwood; 'and though I have scolded her, I could
+have cried too, to think how unlike their girlhood is to mine.'
+
+'And if you went to fetch them home from school, you would know how bad
+it is, Mamma,' said Felix. 'Wilmet does not mind it, but Alda cries,
+and the sneaking girls do it the more; and they are girls, so one can't
+lick them; and they have not all got brothers.'
+
+'To be licked instead!' said Mr. Underwood, unable to help being amused.
+
+'Well, yes, Papa; and so you see it would be no end of a comfort to
+make them look like the rest.'
+
+'By all means, Felix. The ladies can tell how far your benefaction will
+go; but as far as it can accomplish, the twins shall be resplendent.
+Now then, back to your anxious clients. Only tell me first how my kind
+old friend the Admiral is.'
+
+'Here's his letter, Father; I quite forgot to read it.'
+
+'Some day, I hope, you will know him enough to care for him personally.
+Now you may be off.--Nay, Enid, love, your daughters could not have
+lived much longer without clothes to their backs.'
+
+'Oh, yes, it must have been done,' sighed the poor mother; 'but I
+fancied Felix would have thought of you first.'
+
+'He thought of troubles much more felt than any of mine. Poor children!
+the hard apprenticeship will serve them all their lives.'
+
+Meantime Felix returned with the words, 'Hurrah! we are to have the
+sovereign just as usual; and all the rest is to go to turn out Wilmet
+and Alda like respectable young females.--Hollo, now!'
+
+For Alda had precipitated herself down-stairs, to throttle him with her
+embraces; while Cherry cried out, 'That's right! Oh, do get those dear
+white hats you told me about;' but the public, even there a many-headed
+monster thing, was less content.
+
+'What, all in girls' trumpery?' 'That's the stupidest sell I ever heard
+of!' 'Oh, I did so want a pony!' were the cries of the boys.
+
+Even Robina was so far infected as to cry, 'I wanted a ride.'
+
+And Wilmet reproachfully exclaimed, 'O Felix, you should have got
+something for Papa. Don't you know, Mr. Rugg said he ought to have a
+respirator. It is a great shame.'
+
+'I don't think he would have let me, Wilmet,' said Felix, looking up;
+'and I never thought of it. Besides, I can't have those girls making
+asses of themselves at you.'
+
+'Oh no, don't listen to Wilmet!' cried Alda. 'You are the very best
+brother in all the world! Now we shall be fit to be seen at the break
+up. I don't think I could have played my piece if I knew every one was
+looking at my horrid old alpaca.'
+
+'And there'll be hats for Cherry and Bobbie too!' entreated Wilmet.
+
+'Oh, don't put it into their heads!' gasped Alda.
+
+'No, I'll have you two fit to be seen first,' said Felix.
+
+'Well, it's a horrid shame,' grumbled Fulbert; 'we have always all gone
+shares in Felix's birth-day tip.'
+
+'So you do now,' said Felix; 'there's the pound all the same as usual.'
+
+That pound was always being spent in imagination; and the voices broke
+out again.
+
+'Oh, then Papa can have the respirator!'
+
+'Felix, the rocking-horse!'
+
+'Felix, do get us three little cannon to make a jolly row every
+birth-day!'
+
+'Felix, do you know that Charlie Froggatt says he would sell that big
+Newfoundland for a pound? and that would be among us all.'
+
+'Nonsense, Fulbert! a big dog is always eating; but there is a
+concertina at Lake's.'
+
+'Tina--tina--concertina! But, I say, Fee, there's White-heart been
+wishing her heart out all the time for a real good paint-box.'
+
+'Oh, never mind that, Ed; no one would care for one but you and me; and
+the little ones would spoil all the paints.'
+
+'Yes, resumed Wilmet, from her throne, 'it would be the worry of one's
+life to keep the little ones off them; and baby would be poisoned to a
+dead certainty. Now the respirator--'
+
+'Now the concertina--'
+
+'Now Punch--'
+
+'Now the dog--'
+
+'Now the rocking-horse--'
+
+'Now the cannon--'
+
+'I'll tell you what,' said Felix, 'I've settled how it is to be. We'll
+get John Harper's van, and all go out to the Castle, with a jolly cold
+dinner--yes, you, Cherry, and all; Ed and I will carry you--and dine on
+the grass, and--'
+
+A chorus of shouts interrupted him, all ecstatic, and rendered more
+emphatic by the stamping of feet.
+
+'And Angela will go!' added Wilmet.
+
+'And Papa,' entreated Cherry.
+
+'And Mamma too, if she will,' said Felix.
+
+'And Mr. Audley,' pronounced Robina, echoed by Clement and Angela. 'Mr.
+Audley must go!'
+
+'Mr. Audley!' grunted Felix. 'I want nobody but ourselves.'
+
+'Yes, and if he went we could not stay jolly late. My Lady would make
+no end of a row if both curates cut the evening prayers.'
+
+'For shame, Edgar!' cried the three elder girls.
+
+While Wilmet added, 'We could not stay late, because of Papa and the
+little ones. But I don't want Mr. Audley, either.'
+
+'No, no! Papa and he will talk to each other, and be of no use,' said
+Geraldine. 'Oh, how delicious! Will the wild-roses be out? When shall
+it be, Felix?'
+
+'Well, the first fine day after school breaks up, I should say.'
+
+'Hurrah! hurrah!'
+
+And there was another dance, in the midst of which Mr. Underwood opened
+the door, to ask what honourable member was receiving such deafening
+cheers.
+
+'Here! here he is, Papa!' cried Alda. 'He is going to take us all out
+to a pic-nic in the Castle woods; and won't you come, Papa?'
+
+'O Papa, you will come!' said Felix. And the whole staircase bawled in
+accordance.
+
+'Come! to be sure I will!' said his father; 'and only too glad to be
+asked! I trust we shall prove to have found the way to get the maximum
+of pleasure out of Admiral Chester's gift.'
+
+'If Mamma will go,' said Felix. 'I wonder what the van will cost, and
+what will be left for the dinner.'
+
+'Oh, let us two cook the whole dinner,' entreated the twins.
+
+'Wait now,' said Felix. 'I didn't know it was so late, Father.' And he
+carefully helped his father on with his coat; and as a church bell made
+itself heard, set forth with him.
+
+When the service was musical, Felix and his two next brothers both
+formed part of the choir; and though this was not the case on this
+evening, Felix knew that his mother was easier when he or Wilmet could
+watch over Papa's wraps.
+
+And Mamma herself, with one at least of the twins, was busy enough in
+giving the lesser ones their supper, and disposing of them in bed, so
+that the discreet alone might remain to the later tea-drinking.
+
+And 'Sibby' must be made a sharer of the good news in her lower region,
+though she was sure to disbelieve in Alda and Wilmet's amateur cookery.
+
+Sibby was Wilmet's foster-mother. Poor thing! Mr. Underwood had found
+her in dire need in the workhouse, a child herself of seventeen, with
+a new-born babe, fresh from the discovery that the soldier-husband, as
+she thought, and who had at least 'gone before the praste with her,'
+and brought her from her Kilkenny home, was previously husband to
+another woman. She was tenderly cared for by Mr. Underwood's mother,
+who was then alive, and keeping house for the whole party at the
+Rectory; and having come into the Vale Leston nursery, she never left
+it. Her own child died in teething, and she clung so passionately to
+her nursling, that Mrs. Underwood had no heart to separate them, Roman
+Catholic though she was, and difficult to dispose of. She was not the
+usual talking merry Irishwoman; if ever she had been such, her heart
+was broken; and she was always meek, quiet, subdued, and attentive;
+forgetful sometimes, but tender and trustworthy to the last degree with
+the children.
+
+She had held fast to the family in their reverses, and no more thought
+of not sharing their lot than one of their children. Indeed, it would
+not have been much more possible to send her out to shift for herself
+in England; and her own people seemed to have vanished in the famine,
+for her letters, with her savings, came back from the dead-letter
+office. She put her shoulder to the burthen, and, with one small scrub
+under her, got through an amazing amount of work: and though her great
+deep liquid brown eyes looked as pathetic as ever, she certainly was
+in far better spirits than when she sat in the nursery. To be sure,
+she was a much better nurse than she was a cook; but as both could not
+be had, Mrs. Underwood was content and thankful to have a servant so
+entirely one with themselves in interests and affections; and who had
+the further perfection of never wanting any society but the children's;
+shrinking from English gossips, and never showing a weakness, save for
+Irish tramps. Moreover, she was a prodigious knitter; and it was her
+boast that not one of the six young gentlemen had yet worn stocking or
+sock, but what came from her needles, and had been re-footed by her to
+the last extremity of wear.
+
+Meantime, Felix and Clement walked with their father to the church.
+There it was, that handsome church; the evening sun in slanting beams
+coming through the gorgeous west window to the illuminated walls, and
+the rich inlaid marble and alabaster of the chancel mellowed by the
+pure evening light. The east window, done before glass-painting had
+improved, was tame and ill-executed, and there was, even ćsthetically,
+a strange unsatisfactory feeling in looking at the heavy, though
+handsome, incrustations and arcades of dark marble that formed the
+reredos. It was all very correct; but it wanted life.
+
+Mr. Bevan was not there, he had gone out to dinner, and the
+congregation consisted of some young ladies, old men, and three little
+children. Mr. Audley read all, save the Absolution and the Lessons; and
+the responses sounded low and feeble in the great church, though there
+was one voice among them glad and hearty in dedicating and entrusting
+the new year of his life with its unknown burthen.
+
+Felix had heard sayings and seen looks which, boldly as his sanguine
+spirit resisted them, would hang in a heavy boding cloud over his mind,
+and were already casting a grave shadow there.
+
+And if the thought of his fivefold gift swelled the fervour of his
+'Amen' to the General Thanksgiving, there was another deep heartfelt
+Amen, which breathed forth earnest gratitude for the possession of such
+a first-born son.
+
+'That is a very good boy,' the father could not help saying to Mr.
+Audley, as, on quitting the churchyard, Felix exclaiming, 'Papa, may I
+just get it changed and ask about the van?' darted across the street,
+with Clement, into a large grocer's shop nearly opposite, where a brisk
+evening traffic was going on in the long daylight of hot July; and he
+could not but tell of the birth-day gift, and how it was to be spent.
+'_Res angusta domi_,' he said, with a smile, 'is a thing to be thankful
+for, when it has such effects upon a lad.'
+
+'You must add a small taste of example to the prescription,' said Mr.
+Audley. 'Is this all the birth-day present Felix has had?'
+
+'Well, I believe Cherry gave him one of her original designs; but
+birth-days are too numerous for us to stand presents.'
+
+The other curate half sighed. He was a great contrast--a much smaller
+man than his senior, slight, slim, and pale, but with no look of
+ill-health about him; brown eyed and haired, and with the indefinable
+look about all his appointments and dress, that showed he had lived
+in unconscious luxury and refinement all his days. His thoughts went
+back to a home, where the only perplexity was how to deal with an
+absolute glut of presents, and to his own actual doubts what to send
+that youngest sister, who would feel slighted if Charlie sent nothing,
+but really could not want anything; a book she would not read, a jewel
+could seldom get a turn of being worn, a trinket would only be fresh
+lumber for her room. Then he revolved the possibilities of making Felix
+a present, without silencing his father's confidences, and felt that
+it could not be done in any direct manner at present; nay, that it
+could hardly add to the radiant happiness of the boy, who rushed across
+the road, almost under the nose of the railway-omnibus horses, and
+exclaimed--
+
+'He will let us have it for nothing, Father! He says it would be hiring
+it out, and he can't do that: but he would esteem it a great favour
+if we would go in it, and not pay anything, except just a shilling to
+Harris for a pint of beer. Won't it be jolly, Father?'
+
+'Spicy would be more appropriate,' said Mr. Underwood, laughing, as the
+vehicle in question drew up at the shop door, with Mr. Harper's name
+and all his groceries inscribed in gold letters upon the awning.
+
+'I'm so glad I thought of Harper's,' continued Felix. 'I asked him
+instead of Buff, because I knew Mamma would want it to be covered. Now
+there's lots of room; and we boys will walk up all the hills.'
+
+'I hope there is room for me, Felix,' suggested Mr. Audley.
+
+'Or,' suggested Mr. Underwood, 'you might, like John Gilpin, "ride on
+horseback after we."'
+
+'Felix looks non-content,' said Mr. Audley. 'I am afraid I was not in
+his programme. Speak out--let us have it.'
+
+'Why,' said Felix, looking down, 'our little ones all wanted to have
+you; but then we thought we should all be obliged to come home too
+soon, unless you took the service for Papa.'
+
+'He certainly ought not to go to church after it,' said Mr. Audley;
+'but I can settle that by riding home in good time. What's the day?'
+
+'The day after the girls' break-up, if you please,' said Felix, still
+not perfectly happy, but unable to help himself; and manifesting quite
+enough reluctance to make his father ask, as soon as they had parted,
+what made him so ungracious.
+
+'Only, Papa,' said Felix frankly, 'that we know that you and he will
+get into some Church talk, and then you'll be of no use; and we wanted
+to have it all to ourselves.'
+
+'Take care, Felix,' said Mr. Underwood; 'large families are apt to get
+into a state of savage exclusiveness.'
+
+Felix had to bear the drawback, and the groans it caused from Wilmet,
+Edgar, and Fulbert: the rest decidedly rejoiced. And Mr. Underwood
+privately confided the objection to his friend, observing merrily that
+they would bind themselves by a promise not to talk shop throughout the
+expedition.
+
+It was a brilliantly happy week. Pretty hats, bound with dark blue
+velvet, and fresh black silk jackets, were squeezed out of the four
+pounds, with the help of a few shillings out of the intended hire of
+the van, and were the glory of the whole family, both of those who were
+to wear them and those who were not.
+
+On Saturday evening, just as the four elder young people were about
+to sally forth to do the marketing for their pic-nic, a great hamper
+made its appearance in the passage, addressed to F. C. Underwood,
+Esq., and with nothing to pay. Only there was a note fastened to the
+side, saying, 'Dear Felix, pray let the spicy van find room for my
+contribution to your pic-nic. I told my mother to send me what was
+proper from home.--C. S. A.'
+
+Mrs. Underwood was dragged out to superintend the unpacking, which
+she greatly advised should be merely a surface investigation. That
+was quite enough, however, to assure her that for Felix to lay in any
+provision, except the tea and the bread she had already promised, would
+be entirely superfluous. The girls were disappointed of their cookery;
+but derived consolation from the long walk with the brothers, in which
+a cake of good carmine and a lump of gamboge were purchased for Cherry,
+and two penny dolls for Robina and Angela. What would become of the
+rest of the pound?
+
+On Sunday, the offertory was, as usual on ordinary occasions, rather
+scanty; but there was one half-sovereign; and Mr. Underwood was
+convinced that it had come from under the one white surplice that had
+still remained on the choir boys' bench.
+
+He stayed in the vestry after the others to count and take care of
+the offerings, and as he took up the gold, he could not but look at
+his son, who was waiting for him, and who flushed all over as he met
+his eye. 'Yes, Papa, I wanted to tell you--I did grudge it at first,'
+he said hoarsely. 'I knew it was the tithe; but it seemed so much
+away from them all. I settled that two shillings was the tenth of my
+own share, and I would give that to-day; and then came Mr. Harper's
+kindness about the van; and next, when I was thinking how I could
+save the tenth part without stinting everybody, came all Mr. Audley's
+hamper. It is very strange and happy, Papa, and I have still something
+left.'
+
+'I believe,' said Mr. Underwood, 'that you will find the considering
+the tithe as not your own, is the safest way of keeping poverty from
+grinding you, or wealth from spoiling you.'
+
+And very affectionately he leant on his son's shoulder all the way
+home; while Mr. Audley was at luncheon at the Rectory with my Lady, and
+her twelve years old daughter.
+
+'Mamma,' said Miss Price, 'did you see the Underwoods in new hats?'
+
+'Of course I did, my dear. They were quite conspicuous enough; but when
+people make a great deal of their poverty, they always do break out in
+the most unexpected ways.'
+
+'They are pretty girls,' said the Rector, rather dreamily, 'and I
+suppose they must have new clothes sometimes.'
+
+'You will always find,' proceeded Lady Price without regard, 'that
+people of that sort have a wonderful eye to the becoming--nothing
+economical for them! I am sorry for Mr. Underwood, his wife is bringing
+up a set of fine ladies, who will trust to their pretty looks, and be
+quite above doing anything for themselves.'
+
+'Do you think Wilmet and Alda Underwood so very pretty, Mr. Audley?'
+inquired Miss Price, turning her precocious eyes upon him.
+
+'Remarkably so,' Mr. Audley replied, with a courteous setting-down tone
+that was the only thing that ever approached to subduing Miss Price,
+and which set her pouting without an answer.
+
+'It is a great misfortune to girls in that station of life to have that
+painted-doll sort of beauty,' added my Lady; 'and what was it I heard
+about a pic-nic party?'
+
+'No party, my dear,' replied the Rector, 'only a little fresh air for
+the family--a day in Centry Park. Felix spends his birth-day present
+from his godfather in taking them.'
+
+'Ah! I always was sure they had rich friends, though they keep it so
+close. Never let me hear of their poverty after this.'
+
+Answers only rendered it worse, so my Lady had it her own way, and not
+being known to the public in St. Oswald's Buildings, did not trouble
+them much. Yet there was a certain deference to public opinion there,
+when Alda was heard pouting, 'Felix, why did you go to that horrid
+Harper? Just fancy Miss Price seeing us!'
+
+'Who cares for a stuck-up thing like Miss Price?' growled Felix.
+
+'I don't care for her,' said Edgar; 'but it is just as well to have
+some notion of things, and Felix hasn't a grain. Why, all the fellows
+will be asking which of us is pepper, and which Souchong? I wouldn't
+have Froggatt or Bruce see me in it at no price.'
+
+'Very well, stay at home, then,' said Felix.
+
+'You could have had the waggonet from the Fortinbras Arms,' said Alda.
+
+'Ay--for all my money, and not for love.'
+
+'For shame, Alda,' said her twin sister; 'how can you be so ridiculous!'
+
+'You know yourself, Wilmet, it is quite true; if any of the girls see
+us, we shall be labelled "The Groceries."'
+
+'Get inside far enough, and they will not see you.'
+
+'Ay, but there'll be that disgusting little Bobbie and Lance sitting in
+the front, making no end of row,' said Edgar; 'and the whole place will
+know that Mr. Underwood and his family are going out for a spree in old
+Harper's van! Pah! I shall walk.'
+
+'So shall I,' said Alda, 'at least till we are out of the town; but
+that won't do any good if those children will make themselves so
+horridly conspicuous. Could not we have the thing to meet us somewhere
+out of town, Felix?'
+
+'And how would you get Cherry there, or Mamma? Or Baby?--No, no, if you
+are too genteel for the van, you may walk.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE PIC-NIC.
+
+     'There, on a slope of orchard, Francis laid
+      A damask napkin, wrought with horse and hound;
+      Brought out a dusky loaf that smelt of home,
+      And, half-cut down, a pasty costly made,
+      Where quail and pigeon, lark and leveret lay,
+      Like fossils of the rock, with golden yolks
+      Imbedded and injellied; last, with these
+      A flask of cider from his father's vats,
+      Prime which I knew;--and so we sat and ate.'
+                                                _Tennyson._
+
+
+No. 8, St. Oswald's Buildings was a roomy house, which owed its
+cheapness to its situation, this being neither in the genteel nor the
+busy part of Bexley. It was tall and red, and possessed a good many
+rooms, and it looked out into a narrow street, the opposite side of
+which consisted of the long wall of a brewery, which was joined farther
+on to that of the stable-yard of the Fortinbras Arms, the principal
+hotel, which had been much frequented in old posting days, and
+therefore had offices on a large scale. Only their side, however, was
+presented to St. Oswald's Buildings, the front, with its arched 'porte
+cochčre,' being in the High Street, as it was still called, though it
+was a good deal outshone by the newer part of the town.
+
+The next-door neighbours of No. 8 were on the one hand a carpenter's
+yard, the view of which was charming to the children, and the noises
+not _too_ obnoxious to their parents; and on the other the Rectory
+garden, which separated them from the churchyard, now of course
+disused. It had no entrance towards their lane; and to reach the
+church, it was necessary to turn the corner of the wall, and go in
+through the south porch, which opened close upon the High Street.
+
+In this old street lay the two buildings that chiefly concerned the
+young Underwoods, _i.e._ the two schools. That for boys was an old
+foundation, which had fallen into decay, and had been reformed and
+revivified in nineteenth-century fashion, to suit the requirements
+of the town. The place, though in the south of England, had become
+noted as a pottery, owing partly to the possession of large fields
+of a peculiar clay, which was so bad for vegetable growth, as to
+proclaim its destiny to become pots and pans, partly to its convenient
+neighbourhood to the rising seaport of Dearport, which was only an hour
+from it by railway. The old St. Oswald's school had been moulded under
+the influence of new comers, who had upset the rules of the founder,
+and arranged the terms on the broadest principles of liberality,
+bringing, instead of the drowsy old clerical master, a very brisk
+and lively young layman, who had a knack of conveying instruction of
+multifarious kinds such as had never occurred to his predecessor.
+
+Mr. Underwood had a certain liking for the man, and when tolerably
+well, enjoyed the breaking a lance with him over his many crude
+heterodoxies; but he did not love the school, and as long as he was
+able had taught his boys himself, and likewise taken a few day-pupils
+of the upper ranks, who were preparing for public schools. But when his
+failure of health rendered this impracticable, the positive evil of
+idleness was, he felt, greater than any possible ones that might arise
+from either the teaching or the associations of the town school, and he
+trusted to home influence to counteract any such dangers. Or perhaps
+more truly he dreaded lest his own reluctance might partly come from
+prejudice in favour of gentlemen and public schools; and he believed
+that where a course seemed of absolute necessity, Providence became
+a guard in its seeming perils. Indeed, that which he disapproved in
+Mr. Ryder's school was more of omission than commission. It was that
+secularity was the system, rather than the substance of that secularity.
+
+So Felix and Edgar went to school, and were in due time followed by
+Clement and Fulbert; and their bright wits, and the educated atmosphere
+of their home, made their career brilliant and successful. Mr. Ryder
+was greatly pleased to have got the sons of a man whom he could not but
+admire and respect, and was anxious that the boys should be the means
+of conquering the antiquated prejudices in favour of exclusiveness at
+school.
+
+Felix and Edgar were neck and neck, carrying off all the prizes of
+the highest form but one--Felix, those that depended on industry and
+accuracy; Edgar, those that could be gained by readiness and dexterity.
+Both were to be promoted to the upper form; and Mr. Ryder called upon
+their father in great enjoyment of their triumph, and likewise to
+communicate his confident certainty that they would do him and Bexley
+credit by obtaining the most notable scholarships of the University.
+Mr. Underwood was not a little delighted, grateful for the cordial
+sympathy, and he fully agreed that his own lads had benefited by the
+clear vigorous teaching they had received; but though he smiled and
+allowed that they had taken no harm, he said good-humouredly that 'Of
+course, he must consider _that_ as the proof of his own powers of
+counteraction.'
+
+'Exactly so,' said the schoolmaster. 'All we wish is, that each home
+should exercise its powers of counteraction. We do the teaching, you
+form the opinions.'
+
+'Oh! are we parents still to be allowed to form the opinions?'
+
+'If you _will_. Your house is your castle, and the dungeons there may
+be what you will.'
+
+'Well, I cannot have a quarrel with you to-day, Ryder! As long as I
+can show up my boys as tokens of God's blessing on their home, you are
+welcome to them as instances of wits well sharpened by thorough good
+instruction.'
+
+Mrs. Underwood had likewise had a congratulatory visit that was very
+gratifying. The girls' school, a big old red house, standing back from
+the road at the quietest end of the town, was kept by two daughters of
+a former clergyman, well educated and conscientious women, whom she
+esteemed highly, and who gave a real good grounding to all who came
+under their hands, going on the opposite principle to Mr. Ryder's, and
+trying to supply that which the homes lacked.
+
+And they did often succeed in supplying it, though their scholars came
+from a class where there was much to subdue; and just at present their
+difficulties had been much increased by their having been honoured
+by the education of Miss Price. Seven governesses in succession had
+proved incapable of bearing with Lady Price; and the young lady had
+in consequence been sent to Miss Pearson's, not without an endeavour
+on her mother's part to obtain an abatement in terms in honour of the
+_éclat_ of her rank.
+
+There her airs proved so infectious, that, as Miss Pearson said, the
+only assistance she had in lessening their evil influence was the
+perfect lady-likeness of the Underwood twins, and the warm affection
+that Wilmet inspired. Alda headed a sort of counter party against
+Caroline Price, which went on the principle of requiting scorn with
+scorn; but Wilmet's motherly nature made her the centre of attraction
+to all the weak and young, and her uprightness bore many besides
+herself through the temptation to little arts. Both sisters had prizes,
+Alda's the first and best; and Miss Pearson further offered to let
+Wilmet pay for her own studies and those of a sister, by becoming
+teacher to the youngest class, and supervisor during the mid-day
+recreation, herself and her sister dining at school.
+
+It was a handsome offer for such a young beginner, and the mother's
+eyes filled with tears of pleasure; and yet there was a but--
+
+'Not come home to dinner!' cried the children. 'Can't it be Alda
+instead of Wilmet? We do always want Wilmet so, and Alda would do just
+as well at school.'
+
+Alda too was surprised; for was not she more regular and more forward
+than her twin sister, who was always the one to be kept at home when
+any little emergency made Mamma want the aid of an elder daughter?
+And the mother would almost have asked that Alda might be the chosen
+governess pupil, if Mr. Underwood had not said, 'No, my dear, Miss
+Pearson must have her own choice. It is a great kindness, and must be
+accepted as such. I suppose Robina must be the new scholar. My little
+pupil will not leave me.'
+
+Geraldine only heard of the alternative, to say, 'I'll be nobody's
+pupil but yours, Papa.'
+
+While Robina was proportionably exalted by her preferment, and took to
+teasing every one in the house to hear her spelling and her tables,
+that she might not fulfil Edgar's prediction by going down to the
+bottom of the baby-class; and up and down the stairs she ran, chanting
+in a sing-song measure--
+
+     'Twenty pence are one and eightpence,
+      Thirty pence are two and sixpence,'
+
+and so on, till her father said, smiling, 'Compensations again, Mother:
+the less you teach them the more they are willing to learn.' The mother
+shook her head, and said the theory was more comfortable than safe, and
+that she did not find Lancelot an instance of it.
+
+But there was a general sense of having earned the holiday, when the
+grocery van came to the door, on a morning of glorious sunshine. Edgar
+and Alda, true to their promise, had walked on so far ahead as to
+avoid being seen in the town in connection with it; and Fulbert had
+started with them to exhale his impatience, but then had turned back
+half-way, that he might not lose the delicious spectacle of the packing
+of the vehicle. A grand pack it was: first, the precious hamper; then a
+long sofa-cushion, laid along the bottom; then Geraldine lifted in by
+Sibby and Felix, and folded up with shawls, and propped with cushions
+by Mamma, whose imagination foresaw more shaking than did the more
+youthful anticipation; then Mamma herself, not with 'little baby,' but
+with Angela on her lap, and Angela's feet in all manner of unexpected
+places; then a roll of umbrellas and wraps; then Wilmet, Fulbert,
+Lance, and Robina--nowhere in particular; and lastly Papa, making room
+for Clement between himself and the good-humoured lad of a driver, who
+had not long ago been a member of the choir; while Felix, whom nothing
+could tire on that day, dived rapidly down a complication of alleys,
+declaring he should be up with the walkers long before they were
+overtaken by the van.
+
+Next appeared Mr. Audley, with his pretty chestnut horse, offering
+in the plenitude of his good-nature to give Lance a ride, whereupon
+vociferous '_me toos_' resounded from within the curtains; and the
+matter was compounded on ride and tie principles, in which the
+Underwood juniors got all the ride, and Mr. Audley all the _tie_--if
+that consisted in walking and holding the bridle.
+
+By the time the very long and dull suburbs of Bexley were passed, with
+their interminable villas and rows of little ten-pound houses--the
+children's daily _country_ walk, poor things!--the two elder boys and
+their sister were overtaken, the latter now very glad to condescend to
+the van.
+
+'Oh, how nice to get beyond our tiresome old tether!' she said,
+arranging herself a peep-hole between the curtains. 'I am so sick of
+all those dusty black beeches, and formal evergreens. How can you stare
+at them so, Cherry?'
+
+But Geraldine was in a quiet trance of delight; she had never spoken a
+word since she had first found a chink in the awning, but had watched
+with avid eyes the moving panorama of houses, gardens, trees, flowers,
+carriages, horses, passengers, nursemaids, perambulators, and children.
+It was all a perfect feast to the long-imprisoned eyes, and the more
+charming from the dreamy silence in which she gazed. When Felix came up
+to the slit through which the bright eyes gleamed, and asked whether
+she were comfortable and liked it, her answer was a long-drawn gasp
+from the wells of infinite satisfaction, such as set him calculating
+how many drives in a Bath-chair the remnant of his birth-day gift would
+yet produce.
+
+But there were greater delights; corn-fields touched with amber, woods
+sloping up hills, deep lanes edged with luxuriant ferns, greenery that
+drove the young folk half mad with delight, and made them scream to
+be let out and gather--gather to their hearts' content. Only Mamma
+recommended not tiring themselves, but trusting that Centry Park would
+afford even superior flowers to those they passed.
+
+They reached the lodge-gate at last. They were known, for the Castle
+had been long untenanted, and they, like other inhabitants of Bexley,
+had from time to time enjoyed themselves in the Park; but to-day there
+was a shadow of demur. The gentleman who was going to buy the place was
+looking over it--but surely--
+
+Horror began to spread over the inmates of the van.
+
+'But did you come by appointment, sir?' added the gatekeeper's wife,
+coming out; 'the gentleman's name is Mr. Underwood.'
+
+Mr. Underwood was obliged to disclaim any appointment; but he looked
+round at the children's blank faces, and saw lips quivering, and eyes
+gazing wistfully into the paradise of green shade, and added, 'If the
+gentleman has not actually bought it, he could not object. We do not
+wish to go near the house.'
+
+Maybe Mr. Audley, who was standing near the gate, added another more
+substantial argument, for 'Oh, certainly, sir,' at once followed; and
+the van was allowed to turn down a gravelled road, which skirted an
+extensive plantation.
+
+Every one now left it, except Mrs. Underwood, Cherry, and Angela; and
+the children began to rush and roll in wild delight on the grassy
+slope, and to fill their hands with the heather and ling, shrieking
+with delight. Wilmet had enough to do to watch over Angela in her
+toddling, tumbling felicity; while Felix, weighted with Robina on his
+back, Edgar, Fulbert, Clement, and Lance, ran in and out among the
+turf; and Alda, demurely walking by her papa, opined that it was 'very
+odd that the gentleman's name should be Underwood.'
+
+'Less odd than if it was Upperwood,' said her father, as if to throw
+aside the subject; and then, after a few moments' thought, and an odd
+little smile, as if at some thought within himself, he began to hand
+in flowers to Cherry, and to play with little Angela. Mr. Audley had
+gone to put up his horse at the village inn, and did not join the party
+again till they had reached what the children called Pic-nic Hollow--a
+spot where a bank suddenly rose above a bright dimpling stream with a
+bed of rock, the wood opening an exquisite vista under its beech trees
+beyond, and a keeper's lodge standing conveniently for the boiling of
+kettles.
+
+Here the van was disposed of, the horses taken out and provided with
+food, Cherry carried to a mossy throne under a glorious beech-tree,
+and the hampers unpacked by Mamma and Wilmet, among much capering and
+dancing of the rest of the family, and numerous rejected volunteers of
+assistance. Felix and Alda were allowed to spread the table-cloth and
+place the dishes, but Edgar was only entreated to keep the rest out of
+the way.
+
+Meanwhile, Geraldine sat under the silvery bole of her beech-tree,
+looking up through its delicate light green leaves to the blue sky,
+not even wanting to speak, lest anything should break that perfection
+of enjoyment. Her father watched the little pale absorbed countenance,
+and as Mr. Audley came up, touched him to direct his attention to the
+child's expression; but the outcry of welcome with which the rest
+greeted the new-comer was too much for even Cherry's trance, and
+she was a merry child at once, hungry with unwonted appetite, and
+so relishing her share of the magnificent standing-pie, that Mrs.
+Underwood reproved herself for thinking what the poor child would be if
+she had such fare and such air daily, instead of ill-dressed mutton in
+the oppressive smoke-laden atmosphere.
+
+And meantime, Lance was crowing like a cock, and the other boys were
+laughing at Robina for her utter ignorance of the white-fleshed biped
+she was eating.
+
+'No, Clem, chickens have got feathers and wings, and their long necks
+hang down! This can't be one of them.'
+
+'Perhaps it is a robin-redbreast,' said Felix.
+
+'No, nobody kills robin-redbreasts, because they covered the poor
+little children with leaves.'
+
+'Will you cover me with leaves, if I am lost, Bobbie?' said Mr. Audley;
+but as soon as she found that his attention was gained, she returned to
+the charge.
+
+'Please, did it come from your own home? and what is it, really?'
+
+'Why, Bobbie, I am hardly prepared to say whether it is a Hamburg or
+a Houdan, or a more unambitious Dorking. Cannot you eat in comfort
+without being certified?'
+
+'The species will be enough for her without the varieties,' said her
+father. 'You have given us a new experience, you see, Audley, and we
+may make a curious study of contrasts--not of Audley and myself, Mother
+dear, but of the two Underwoods who seem to be in this place together
+to-day.'
+
+'Who is it?' was of course the cry; and the inquiry was in Mrs.
+Underwood's eyes, though it did not pass her quiet lips. It was to her
+that he answered, 'Yes, my dear--Tom; I have little doubt that it is
+he. He was a very rich man when last I heard of him.'
+
+'Is that the man at Vale Leston?' whispered Alda to Felix. 'Oh, I hope
+he is not coming here to insult us.'
+
+'Bosh!' said Felix; 'that man's name is Fulbert. Listen, if you want to
+hear.'
+
+'Twenty years ago,' continued Mr. Underwood, 'I thought myself a
+prodigiously fine fellow--with my arms full of prizes at Harrow,
+and my Trinity scholarship--and could just, in the plenitude of my
+presumption, extend a little conceited patronage to that unlucky dunce,
+Tom Underwood, the lag of every form, and thankful for a high stool at
+old Kedge's. And now my children view a cold fowl as an unprecedented
+monster, while his might, I imagine, revel in '_pâtés de foie gras_.'
+
+'O Papa, but we like you so much better as you are!' cried Geraldine.
+
+'Eh, Cherry!' said Mr. Underwood, 'what say you? Shouldn't you like me
+better if I were buying that king beech-tree, and all the rest of it?'
+
+Cherry edged nearer, mastered his hand, and looked up in his face with
+a whole soul of negation in her wistful eyes. 'No, no, no--just as you
+are,' she whispered.
+
+Some mood of curiosity had come over him, and he turned an
+interrogative look elsewhere.
+
+Alda spoke. 'Of course, it would be horrid not to be a clergyman; but
+it is a great shame.'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, 'it can't be a shame for this cousin Tom to
+have earned a fortune fairly--if he has; but'--and she pressed her
+hands tightly together as she looked at the thin worn faces of her
+parents--'one can't help wishing. Why do things always go hard and
+wrong?' and the tears dimmed her bright eyes.
+
+'Because--they _don't_,' said her father, with a half-serious
+quaintness that vexed her, and forced her to turn away to let the tear
+drop.
+
+Clement said, in his calm voice, 'How can you be all so repining and
+foolish!'
+
+And Mr. Underwood, almost in lazy mischief, pursued his experiment.
+'Eh, Felix, you are the party most concerned--what say you?'
+
+'Most concerned?' Felix looked up surprised, then recollected himself.
+'I don't care,' he said, with an appearance of gruff sullenness;
+but his father could not content himself without continuing in a
+semi-teasing tone, 'Don't care--eh? Why, this Centry Underwood once
+belonged to our family--that's the reason Tom is after it. If I had
+not scouted old Kedge, you would be prancing about here, a Harrovian,
+counting the partridges.'
+
+'Don't!' broke in Felix, with a growl.
+
+'Never fear, Fee,' cried Edgar, with his hand on his brother's
+shoulder; 'if one man got on in life, another may. If one only was
+grown up, and had the start----' and his blue eyes sparkled.
+
+'I did not know Care's clutch had been so tight,' sighed Mr. Underwood,
+half to himself, half to his wife. 'It is not safe, my gentle Enid, to
+try such experiments. Eh!' rousing himself, 'what's that? Have the mob
+there a right to any sentiments?'
+
+'Only,' cried Clement, shouting with laughter, 'Lance thought you were
+wanted to hold a high stool for Jack Ketch.'
+
+'For a green goose!' shouted Lance, indignantly.
+
+'Oh!' cried Robina, in the tone of one who had made a scientific
+discovery, 'did the goose have a high stool to lay the golden eggs?'
+
+'A most pertinent question, Bobbie, and much more reasonable than
+mine,' said Mr. Underwood; while his colleague gravely answered, 'Yes,
+Bobbie, golden eggs are almost always laid by geese on high stools.'
+
+'I've got a picture of one! It has got a long neck and long legs,'
+quoth Bobbie.
+
+'It is only a flamingo, you little goose yourself,' cried Clement.
+
+'Here is the golden egg of the present,' said Mr. Underwood,
+replenishing the boy's plate with that delicious pie. 'What's that
+beverage, Wilmet? Any horrible brew of your own?'
+
+'No; it is out of Mr. Audley's hamper.'
+
+'The universal hamper. It is like the fairy gifts that produced
+unlimited eatables. I dreaded cowslip wine or periwinkle broth.'
+
+'No, no, Papa,' sighed Alda, 'we only once made cowslip tea at Vale
+Leston.'
+
+'Vale Leston is prohibited for the day.--Master Felix Chester
+Underwood, your good health; and the same to the new Underwood of
+Centry Underwood.'
+
+'Shall we see him, Papa?' asked Alda.
+
+'If either party desires the gratification, no doubt it will come
+about.'
+
+'Shall not you call on him, Papa?'
+
+'Certainly not before he comes. Mother, some of the wonderful
+bottle--ay, you covetous miser of a woman, or I'll make a libation of
+it all. Audley, it must have wrung your father's butler's heart to have
+thrown away this port on a pic-nic. What did you tell him to delude
+him?'
+
+'Only what was true--that I was to meet a gentleman who was a judge of
+the article.'
+
+'For shame!' he answered, laughing. 'What right had you to know that I
+knew the taste of Cape from Roriz?'
+
+But his evident enjoyment of the 'good creature' was no small pleasure
+to the provider, though it was almost choking to meet the glistening
+glance of Mrs. Underwood's grateful eyes, knowing, as she did, that
+there were three more such bottles in the straw at the bottom of
+the hamper. And when baby Angela had clasped her fat hands, and, as
+'youngest at the board,' 'inclined the head and pronounced the solemn
+word,' her father added, '_Gratias Deo_, and _Grazie a lei_. We must
+renew our childhood's training, dear Mary--make our bow and curtesy,
+and say "Thank you for our good dinner."'
+
+'Thank Felix for our pleasant day,' said Mr. Audley. 'Come, boys, have
+a swing! there's a branch too good not to be used; and Ful has already
+hung himself up like a two-toed sloth.'
+
+Then began the real festivity--the swinging, the flower and fern
+hunting, the drawing, the racing and shouting, the merry calls and
+exchange of gay foolish talk and raillery.
+
+Mr. Underwood lay back on a slope of moss, with a plaid beneath him,
+and a cushion under his head, and said that the Elysian fields must
+have been a prevision of this beech-wood. Mrs. Underwood, with Felix
+and Wilmet, tied up the plates, knives, and forks; and then the
+mother, taking Angela with her, went to negotiate kettle-boiling at
+the cottage. Geraldine would fain have sketched, but the glory and the
+beauty, and the very lassitude of delight and novelty, made her eyes
+swim with a delicious mist; and Edgar, who had begun when she did,
+threw down his pencil as soon as he saw Felix at liberty, and the two
+boys rushed away into the wood for a good tearing scramble and climb,
+like creatures intoxicated with the freedom of the greenwood.
+
+After a time they came back, dropping armfuls of loose-strife,
+meadow-sweet, blue vetch, and honey-suckle over delighted Cherry;
+and falling down by her side, coats off, all gasp and laughter, and
+breathless narrative of exploits and adventures, which somehow died
+away into the sleepiness due to their previous five-mile walk. Felix
+went quite off, lying flat on his back, with his head on Cherry's
+little spreading lilac cotton frock, and his mouth wide open, much
+tempting Edgar to pop in a pebble; and this being prevented by tender
+Cherry in vehement dumb show, Edgar consoled himself by a decidedly
+uncomplimentary caricature of him as Giant Blunderbore (a name derived
+from Fee, Fa, Fum) gaping for hasty pudding.
+
+'That's a horrid shame!' remonstrated Geraldine. 'Dear old Fee, when
+the whole treat is owing to him!'
+
+'It is a tidy little lark for a Blunderbore to have thought of,' said
+Edgar. ''Tis a good sort of giant after all, poor fellow!'
+
+'Poor!' said Cherry indignantly. 'Oh, you mean what Papa said--that he
+is the greatest loser of us all. I wonder what made him talk in that
+way? He never did before.'
+
+'I am sorry for _him_,' said Edgar, indicating his brother. 'He is
+famous stuff for a landlord and member of parliament--plenty of wits
+and brains--only he wants to be put on a shelf to be got at. Wherever
+he is, he'll go on there! Now, a start is all I want! Give me my one
+step--and then--O Gerald, some day I'll lift you all up!'
+
+'What's that?' said Felix, waking as the enthusiastic voice was raised.
+'Edgar lifting us all! What a bounce we should all come down with!'
+
+'We were talking of what Papa said at dinner,' explained Cherry. 'What
+did you think about it, Fee?'
+
+'I didn't think at all, I wished he hadn't,' said Felix, stretching
+himself.
+
+'Why not?' said Cherry, a little ruffled at even Felix wishing Papa had
+not.
+
+'There's no use having things put into one's head.'
+
+'O Felix, you don't want to change?' cried Cherry.
+
+'No,' he said; but it was a 'no' in a tone she did not understand. The
+change he saw that hardship was working was that from which he recoiled.
+
+'That's like you, Blunderbore,' said Edgar. 'Now, the very reason I am
+glad not to be born a great swell, but only a poor gentleman, is that
+so much is open to one; and if one does anything great, it is all the
+greater and more credit.'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, sitting up; 'when you have once got a scholarship,
+there will be the whole world before you.'
+
+'Papa got a scholarship,' said Cherry.
+
+'Oh yes!' said Edgar; 'but every one knows what happens to a man that
+takes Orders and marries young; and he had the most extraordinary
+ill-luck besides! Now, as Ryder says, any man with brains can shine.
+And I am only doubting whether to take to scholarship or art! I love
+art more than anything, and it is the speediest.'
+
+The conversation was broken, for just then Wilmet was seen peering
+about with an anxious, careful eye.
+
+'What is it, my deputy Partlet?' asked her father. 'Which of your brood
+are you looking for?'
+
+'I can't see Robina,' said Wilmet anxiously. 'She was swinging just
+now, but neither she nor Lance is with the big boys.'
+
+'Flown up higher,' said Mr. Underwood, pretending to spy among the
+branches. 'Flapsy, come down! Bobbie, where are you?'
+
+A voice answered him; and in another moment Robina and Lance stood in
+the glade, and with them a girl newly come to her teens, whom they
+pulled forward, crying, 'She says she's our cousin!'
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr. Underwood: 'I am sure you are very much obliged to
+her.'
+
+'I am Mary Alda Underwood,' said the girl abruptly; 'and I'm sure there
+must be a very naughty boy here. He had put these poor little things up
+a tree, and run away.'
+
+'No, no! He only put us up because Tina bothered about it!' screamed
+Lance and Robina at once; 'he wasn't naughty. We were being monkeys.'
+
+'Black spider-monkeys,' added Robina.
+
+'And I swung about like a real one, Father,' said Lance, 'and was
+trying to get Bobbie down, only she grew afraid.'
+
+'It was ten feet from the ground,' said Mary Alda, impressively, 'and
+they had lost their way; but they told me who they were. I'm come down
+with my father to see the place.'
+
+Mr. Underwood heartily shook hands with her, thanked her, and asked
+where her father was.
+
+'Gone out with the man to see a farm two miles off,' she said. 'He told
+me I might stay in the house, or roam where I liked, and I saw you all
+looking so happy; I've been watching you this long time.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Mr. Underwood, 'till you captured two of us! Well, we
+are obliged for the introduction, especially if you are to be our
+neighbour.'
+
+'And my cousins will be friends with me,' continued Mary Alda. 'I'm all
+alone, you know.'
+
+'No, I did not know,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Are you the only child?'
+
+'Yes,' she said, looking wistfully at the groups around her; 'and it is
+very horrid--oh dear! who is that pretty one? No, there's another of
+them!'
+
+Mr. Underwood laughed heartily. 'I suppose you mean Wilmet and
+Alda,' he said. 'Come, girls, and see your new cousin--Mary, did you
+say?--Your name backward, Alda Mary.'
+
+'Mary,' she repeated. 'Papa calls me Mary, but Mamma wants it to be
+Marilda all in one word, because she says it is more distinguished; but
+I like a sensible name like other people.'
+
+Mr. Underwood was much amused. He felt he had found a character in
+his newly-discovered cousin. She was Underwood all over in his eyes,
+used to the characteristic family features, although entirely devoid
+of that delicacy and refinement of form and complexion that was so
+remarkable in himself and in most of his children, who were all, except
+poor little Cherry, a good deal alike, and most of them handsome.
+There was a sort of clumsiness in the shape of every outline, and a
+coarseness in the colouring, that made her like a bad drawing of one of
+his own girls; the eyes were larger, the red of the cheeks was redder,
+the lips were thicker, the teeth were irregular; the figure, instead
+of being what the French call _élancé_, was short, high-shouldered,
+and thick-set, and the head looked too large. She was over-dressed,
+too, with a smart hat and spangled feather, a womanly silk mantle and
+much-trimmed skirt, from which a heavy quilling had detached itself,
+and was trailing on the ground; her hands were ungloved, and showed
+red stumpy fingers, but her face had a bright open honest heartiness
+of expression, and a sort of resolute straightforwardness, that
+attracted and pleased him; and, moreover, there was something in the
+family likeness, grotesque as it was, that could not but arouse a
+fellow-feeling in his warm and open heart, which neither neglect nor
+misfortune had ever chilled.
+
+'I think I should have known you,' he said, smiling. 'Here! let me
+introduce you; here is our little lame white-hearted Cherry, and the
+twins, as like as two peas. Wilmet, Alda--here!'
+
+'Shall I mend your frock?' was Wilmet's first greeting, as she put her
+hand in her pocket, and produced a little housewife.
+
+'Oh, thank you! You've got a needle and thread! What fun!'
+
+'The little ones are very apt to tear themselves, so I like to have it
+ready.'
+
+'How delicious! And you mend for them? I wish I had any one to mend
+for. Please show me, and let me do it. I tried to tear the nasty thing
+off, but it would not come. I wish Mamma would let me wear sensible
+print like yours.'
+
+'Are you laughing at us?' said Wilmet rather bluntly.
+
+'No, indeed, not a bit,' said Marilda, or Mary Alda, eagerly. 'If you
+only knew how tiresome it all is.'
+
+'What is?'
+
+'Why, being fine--having a governess, and talking French, and learning
+to dance, and coming down into the drawing-room. Then Grandmamma Kedge
+tells me how she used to run about in pattens, and feed the chickens,
+and scrub the floor, and I do so wish I was her. Can you scrub, and do
+those nice things?'
+
+'Not a floor,' said Wilmet; 'and we live in the town.'
+
+'So have we done till now; but Papa is going to get this place, because
+he says it is family property; and I hope he will, for they will
+never be able to screw me up here as they do at home. I say, which is
+Fulbert? Won't your father punish him?'
+
+'Oh, no! You should not have told, Marilda. We never tell Papa of
+little tricks of the boys.'
+
+'But the little darling might have broken her neck.'
+
+'Oh! life in a large family is made up of _might haves_,' said Alda.
+
+'Why, I do declare there's a smaller still! What a little duck!' and
+she pounced upon Angela.
+
+'We have a smaller than that,' said Wilmet--'Bernard, only we left him
+at home.'
+
+'Tell me all your names!' cried Marilda, delighted.
+
+She was perfectly happy, and chattered on in great delight in her
+downright voice, as much at ease as if she had known them all her life.
+She shared their tea, and wanted Mr. Underwood to come and see her
+father at the house; but as she could not promise his early return, and
+it was necessary to get the van under weigh before five, this could not
+be.
+
+However, she would not leave them till they were all packed into the
+van, and then only parted with repeated kisses and auguries of many
+future meetings; so that the children looked down a vista of unlimited
+enjoyment of Centry Park. Edgar, little gentleman as he was, saw her as
+far back on the way as he could venture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FORTUNATUS' PURSE.
+
+     'Out, base mechanical churl!'--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Weeks went on, and nothing more was heard of 'Marilda' except the
+wishes and wonderings of the children. Alda decided that she was one
+of the heartless fine ladies one heard of in books--and no wonder,
+when her father was in trade, and she looked so vulgar; while Wilmet
+contended against her finery, and Cherry transferred the heartlessness
+to her cruel father and mother, and Robina never ceased to watch for
+her from the window, even when Felix and Edgar for very weariness had
+prohibited the subject from being ever mentioned, and further checked
+it by declaring that Marilda looked like a cow.
+
+There was plenty besides to think of; and the late summer and early
+autumn rolled cheerily away. The wonderful remnant of Felix's birth-day
+gift was partly applied to the hire of a chair for Geraldine upon every
+favourable evening; and as the boys themselves were always ready to
+act as horses, they obtained it on moderate terms, which made the sum
+hold out in a marvellous manner. And not only were these drives delight
+unimaginable to the little maid, but the frequent breaths of pure air
+seemed to give her vigour; she ate more, smiled more, and moved with
+less pain and difficulty, so that the thought of a partial recovery
+began to seem far less impossible.
+
+The children trooping about her, she used to be drawn to the nearest
+bit of greensward, tree, or copse, and there would occupy herself
+with the attempt to sketch, often in company with Edgar; and with a
+few hints from her father, would be busied for days after with the
+finishing them, or sometimes the idealizing them, and filling them with
+the personages she had read of in books of history or fiction. She was
+a sensitive little body, who found it hard not to be fretful, when told
+that it was very ill-natured to object to having her paints daubed over
+her drawings by Lance, Robina, and Angel--an accusation often brought
+against her by rough, kindly Sibby, and sometimes even by Wilmet in an
+extremity; while Mamma's subdued entreaty, that she would do something
+to please the little ones, if it could be without mischief to herself,
+always humiliated her more than anything else, and made her ready to
+leave all to their mercy, save for deference to Edgar, and gratitude to
+Felix. Robina would look on soberly enough in admiration; but Lance's
+notions of art were comic, and Fulbert's were arbitrary, and both were
+imperiously carried out with due contempt for the inferior sex, and
+were sure to infect both the little sisters.
+
+Then, of course, so many holiday boys were hard to keep in order.
+Clement had a strong propensity in that direction; he was a grave,
+quiet boy, without much sense of the absurd, and was generally the
+victim of Edgar's wit; but, on the other hand, he was much in the
+habit of objecting to anything Edgar or Fulbert proposed, and thereby
+giving forbidden or doubtful amusements double zest. He was never _in_
+mischief, and yet he was never an element of peace.
+
+All this, however, was mitigated when the holidays ended, and Lance
+was allowed to follow his brothers to school, while Bobbie importantly
+trotted in the wake of her sisters. Mamma and Cherry felt it no small
+comfort to have no one at home who did not sleep away two or three of
+the morning hours; and the lessons that the little girl delighted to
+prepare for her father went on in peace--the arithmetic, the French,
+the Latin, and even the verses of Greek Testament, that he always said
+rested him.
+
+And he was 'quite well,' he said himself; and though his wife never
+confirmed this reply, he was everywhere as usual--in church, in schools
+of all kinds, in parish meetings, by sick-beds, or in cottages, as
+bright and as popular as ever, perhaps the more so that he was more
+transparently thin, and every stranger started at the sound of his
+cough; though the Bexley people had grown weary of repeating the same
+augury for four or five years, and began, like 'my Lady,' to call it
+'constitutional.'
+
+So came the autumn Ember Week; and Mr. Audley had to go to receive
+Priests' Orders, and afterwards to spend the next fortnight with his
+parents, who complained that they had not seen him once since he had
+settled at Bexley. The last week was the break-up of summer weather,
+and Mr. Bevan caught cold, and was rheumatic; there were two funerals
+on wet and windy days, and when Mr. Audley, on Lady Price's entreating
+summons, wrenched himself from a murmuring home, and, starting by an
+early train, arrived half through the St. Michael's Day Service, it was
+to see Mr. Underwood looking indeed like some ethereal ascetic saint,
+with his bright eyes and wasted features, and to hear him preach in
+extempore--as was his custom--a sermon on the blessedness of angel
+helps, which in its intense fervour, almost rapture, was to many as if
+it came from a white-winged angel himself. Mr. Audley glided into his
+own place, and met Felix's look of relief. The sermon was finished,
+and the blessing given; but before he could descend the steps, the
+cough had come on, and with it severe hćmorrhage. They had to send
+one startled boy for Mrs. Underwood, and another for the doctor, and
+it was an hour before he could be taken home in a chair. No one ever
+forgot that sermon, for it was the last he ever preached. He was very
+ill indeed for several days, but still hopeful and cheerful; and as the
+weather mended, and the calm brightness of October set in, he rallied,
+and came downstairs again, not looking many degrees more wan and hectic
+than before, with a mind as alert as usual, and his kind heart much
+gratified by the many attentions of his parishioners during his illness.
+
+During the worst, Mrs. Underwood had been obliged to keep one of the
+elder girls at home--Wilmet at first, both by her own desire and that
+of Alda; but it was soon made a special matter of entreaty by Miss
+Pearson, that the substitution might not take place; the little class
+was always naughty under Alda, and something the same effect seemed to
+be produced on Angela and Bernard. They made so much less disturbance
+when entrusted to Cherry, that the mother often sent Alda to sit by
+papa, even though she knew he liked nothing so well as to have his
+little pupil's soft voice repeating to him the Latin hymns she loved to
+learn on purpose. Alda read or sang to him very prettily, and they were
+very happy together; but then Wilmet could do that as well, and also
+mind the babies, or do invalid cookery, and supplement Sibby's defects,
+and set the mother free for the one occupation she cared for most--the
+constant watching of that wasted countenance.
+
+But all was better. He had been able to collect his children for
+their evening's Bible lesson and Sunday Catechism, and to resume the
+preparation of Edgar and Geraldine for their Confirmation, though it
+was at least a year distant, and even had spoken of sending for others
+of his catechumens. Wilmet and Alda were both at school, the two
+babies out with Sibby, Mamma at work, Papa dreaming over a Comment on
+the Epistle to the Philippians, which was very near his heart, and he
+always called his holiday work, and Geraldine reading on her little
+couch when there was a sharp ring at the bell, and after an interval,
+the girl who daily came in to help, announced 'Lady Price.'
+
+Even my Lady had been startled and softened by the reality of Mr.
+Underwood's illness, and remorseful for having coddled her husband at
+his expense; she had sent many enquiries, some dainties, and a good
+many recipes; and she had made no objection to Mr. Bevan's frequent and
+affectionate visits, nor even to his making it obvious that however
+little his senior curate might do that winter, he would not accept his
+resignation for the present.
+
+It was enough to make Mr. Underwood feel absolutely warm and grateful
+to his old tormentor, as he rose, not without some effort, held out
+his hand to her, and cheerily answered her inquiries for his cough.
+She even discussed the berries in the hedges, and the prospects of a
+mild winter, in a friendly, hesitating tone; and actually commended Mr.
+Underwood's last pupil-teacher, before she began--'I am afraid I am
+come upon a disagreeable business.'
+
+Mr. Underwood expected to hear of his own inefficiency; or perhaps
+that Mr. Audley had adopted some habit my Lady disapproved, or that
+the schoolmaster was misbehaving, or that some Christmas dole was
+to be curtailed, and that he would have to announce it because Mr.
+Bevan would not. He was not prepared to hear, 'Are you aware that--in
+short--perhaps you can explain it, but has not your son Felix been
+spending a good deal of money--for him, I mean--lately?'
+
+'Felix had a present from his godfather,' said Mr. Underwood, not at
+all moved, so secure was he that this must be an exaggeration.
+
+'Last summer, I heard of that. It was laid out on a pic-nic,' said Lady
+Price, severely.
+
+'It was intended to be so spent,' said the curate; 'but people were
+so good-natured, that very little actually went that way, and the
+remainder was left in his own hands.'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Underwood, but I am afraid that remainder has been made to
+cover a good deal of which you do not know!'
+
+Mrs. Underwood flushed, and would have started forward. Her husband
+looked at her with a reassuring smile. My Lady, evidently angered
+at their blindness, went on, 'It is a painful duty, Mr. Underwood,
+especially in your present state; but I think it due to you, as the
+father of a family, to state what I have learned.'
+
+'Thank you. What is it?'
+
+'Have you reckoned the number of times the chair has been hired?'
+and as he shook his head, 'That alone would amount to more than a
+pound. Besides which, your daughters have been provided with books and
+music--fruit has been bought--all amiable ways of spending money, no
+doubt; but the question is, how was it procured?'
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr. Underwood, still pausing.
+
+'And,' added the lady, 'the means can, I am afraid, be hardly doubted,
+though possibly the boy may have done it in ignorance. Indeed, one of
+his sisters allowed as much.'
+
+'What did she allow, Lady Price?'
+
+'That--that it was won at play, Mr. Underwood. You know Mr. Froggatt
+gives his boy an absurd amount of pocket-money, and when she was taxed
+with this, your daughter--Alda is her name, I believe--allowed that--'
+
+'Papa, Papa!' breathlessly broke out Cherry, who had been forgotten
+on her little sofa all this time, but now dashed forward, stumping
+impetuously with her crutch--'Papa, it's all Alda, how can she be so
+horrid?'
+
+'What is it, my dear?' said Mr. Underwood. 'You can explain it, I see.
+Tell Lady Price what you mean, Geraldine,' he added gravely, to compose
+the child, who was sobbing with excitement and indignation.
+
+'O Lady Price!' she cried, facing about with her hair over her face,
+'he earned it--he earned every bit of it! How could any one think he
+did not?'
+
+'Earned it? What does that mean, little girl?' said Lady Price, still
+severely. 'If he did the boy's exercises for him--'
+
+'No, no, no,' interrupted Geraldine, 'it was old Mr. Froggatt. He asked
+Felix to look over the papers he had to print for the boys' work at the
+Grammar School, because it is all Latin and Greek, and Charles Froggatt
+is so careless and inaccurate, that he can't be trusted.'
+
+The faces of the father and mother had entirely cleared; but Lady Price
+coughed drily, saying, 'And you did not know of this arrangement?'
+
+Geraldine's eyes began to twinkle with tears. 'I don't know what Felix
+will say to me for telling now,' she said.
+
+'It must have come to light some time, though concealment is always a
+proof of shame,' began Lady Price in a consoling tone that filled the
+little lame girl with a fresh passion, drawing up her head.
+
+'Shame! Nobody's ashamed! Only Mamma and Felix and Wilmet never will
+bear that Papa should know how terribly we do want things sometimes.'
+
+And Geraldine, overpowered by her own unguarded words, ran into her
+mother's arms, and hid her face on her shoulder.
+
+'Thank you, Lady Price,' said Mr. Underwood gravely. 'I am glad my
+little girl has been able to satisfy you that Felix has honestly earned
+whatever he may have spent.'
+
+'If you are satisfied,' returned the lady, 'it is not my affair; but I
+must say I should like to know of such transactions among my children.'
+
+'Sometimes one is glad to have a boy to be perfectly trusted,' said Mr.
+Underwood.
+
+'But you will speak to him?'
+
+'Certainly I shall.'
+
+Lady Price felt that she must go, and rose up with an endeavour to
+retract. 'Well, it is a relief to Mr. Bevan and me to find your son not
+consciously in fault, for it would have been a most serious thing. And
+in such a matter as this, of course you can do as _you_ please.'
+
+To this Mr. Underwood made no reply, as none was necessary, but only
+saw her out to the door in that extremely polite manner that always
+made her feel smallest; and then he dropped into his chair again, with
+a curl of the lip, and the murmur, 'Not consciously!'
+
+'O Papa, Papa!' cried Cherry.
+
+'Dear Felix!' said the mother, with tears in her eyes; 'but what can
+Alda have been saying?'
+
+Cherry was about to speak again, but her father gently put her aside.
+'A little quietness now, if you please, my dear; and send Felix to me
+when he comes in. Let me have him alone, but don't say anything to him.'
+
+There was no need to send Felix to his father, for he came in of his
+own accord, radiant, with a paper containing a report of a public
+meeting on Church matters that his father had been wishing to see.
+
+'Thanks, my boy,' said Mr. Underwood; 'where does this come from?'
+
+'From Froggatt's, father. It was only fourpence.'
+
+'But, Felix, repeated fourpences must exhaust even that Fortunatus'
+purse of Admiral Chester's.'
+
+Felix coloured. 'Yes, Papa, I wanted to tell you; but I waited till you
+were better.'
+
+'You will hardly find a better time than the present,' said Mr
+Underwood.
+
+'It is only this,' said Felix, with a little hesitation. 'You
+know there's a good deal of printing to be done for the school
+sometimes--the questions in Latin and Greek and Algebra, and even
+when Mr. Ryder does have the proofs, it wants some one who really
+understands to see that the corrections are properly done. Old Smith
+used to do it, by real force of Chinese accuracy, but he has been ill
+for some time, and Mr. Froggatt can't see to do it himself, and Charlie
+won't, and can't be trusted either. So one day, when I was reading in
+the shop, Mr. Froggatt asked me to see if a thing was right; and it
+went on: he asked me after a time to take anything I liked, and I did
+get some school books we all wanted; but after that, just when you
+were ill, I could not help telling him I had rather have the money. O
+Father!' cried the boy, struck by a certain look of distress, 'did I do
+wrong?'
+
+'Not in the least, my boy. Go on; what does he give you?'
+
+'Exactly at the rate he gave Smith for doing the same work,' said
+Felix: 'it always was an extra for being so troublesome. It was seven
+shillings last week--generally it comes to three or four and sixpence.'
+
+'And when do you do it?'
+
+'I run in after I come out of school for half an hour. Last Saturday
+I corrected a sheet of the Pursuivant, because Mr. Froggatt had to go
+out, and that made it more. And, Father, Mr. Froggatt says that poor
+old Smith will never be fit for work again.'
+
+'Then I suppose these welcome earnings of yours will end when he has a
+successor?'
+
+Felix came nearer. 'Papa,' he said, 'Mr. Froggatt told me that if
+Charlie would only have taken to the work, he would have done without
+another man in Smith's place, and got him gradually into editing the
+paper too. He said he wished I was not a gentleman's son, for if I
+had not been so I should have suited him exactly, and should be worth
+a guinea a week even now. And, Father, do not you really think I had
+better take it?'
+
+'You, Felix!' Mr. Underwood was exceedingly startled for the moment.
+
+'You see,' said Felix rather grimly, leaning his head on the
+mantelshelf, and looking into the fire, 'any other way I can only be an
+expense for years upon years, even if I did get a scholarship.'
+
+His face was crimson, and his teeth set. Mr. Underwood lay back in his
+chair for some seconds; then said in a low voice, 'I see you know all
+about it, Felix; and that I am going to leave you as heavy a burthen as
+ever lad took on willing shoulders.'
+
+Felix knew well enough, but his father had never uttered a word of
+despondency to him before, and he could only go on gazing steadfastly
+into the fire with an inarticulate moan.
+
+Mr. Underwood opened the first leaf of a volume of St. Augustine,
+beside him, a relic of former days, the family shield and motto
+within--namely, a cross potent, or crutch-shaped, and the old English
+motto, 'Under Wode, Under Rode.'
+
+'Under wood, under rood,' he repeated. 'It was once but sing-song to
+me. Now what a sermon! The load is the Cross. Bear thy cross, and thy
+cross will bear thee, like little Geraldine's cross potent--Rod and
+Rood, Cross and Crutch--all the same etymologically and veritably.'
+
+'Don't call them a burthen, pray!' said Felix, with a sense both of
+deprecation and of being unable to turn to the point.
+
+'My boy, I am afraid I was thinking more of myself than of you. I am
+an ungrateful fool; and when a crutch is offered to me, I take hold of
+it as a log instead of a rood. I did not know how much pride there was
+left in me till I found what a bitter pill this is!'
+
+Felix was more crimson than ever. 'Ought I not--' he began.
+
+'The _ought_ is not on your side, Felix. It is not all folly, I hope;
+but I had thought you would have been a better parson than your father.'
+
+There were tears in the boy's eyes now. 'There are the others; I may be
+able to help them.'
+
+'And,' added Mr. Underwood, 'I know that to be a really poor priest,
+there should be no one dependent on one, or it becomes, "Put me into
+one of the priest's offices, that I may eat a piece of bread." It is
+lowering! Yes, you are right. Even suppose you could be educated,
+by the time you were ordained, you would still have half these poor
+children on your hands, and it would only be my own story over again,
+and beginning younger. You are right, Felix; but I never saw the
+impossibility so fully before. I am glad some inward doubt held me back
+from the impulse to dedicate my first-born.'
+
+'It shall be one of the others instead,' said Felix in his throat.
+
+Mr. Underwood smiled a little, and put his finger on the verse in his
+beloved Epistle--'Look not every man on his own things but every man
+also on the things of others.'
+
+'You really wish this. Do you consider what it involves?' he said.
+
+'I think I do,' said Felix in a stifled voice.
+
+'This is not as if it were a great publisher,' continued Mr. Underwood,
+'with whom there would be no loss of position or real society; but a
+little bookseller in a country town is a mere tradesman, and though a
+man like Audley may take you up from time to time, it will never be on
+an absolute equality; and it will be more and more forgotten who you
+were. You will have to live in yourself and your home, _depending_ on
+no one else.'
+
+'I can stand that,' said Felix, smiling. 'Father, indeed I thought of
+all that. Of course I don't like it, but I don't see how it is to be
+helped.'
+
+'Sit down, Felix: let us go over it again. I suppose you don't know
+what our subsistence is at present.'
+
+'I know you have Ł250 a year from Mr. Bevan.'
+
+'Yes, I had Ł200 at first, and he added the Ł50 when the third curate
+was given up. That goes with me, of course, if not before. On the other
+hand, my poor good uncle, the wisest thing he ever did, made me insure
+my life for Ł5000, so there will be Ł150 a year to depend on, besides
+what we had of our own, only Ł2,350 left of it now. I have had to
+break into it for the doctor's bills, but at least there are no debts.
+Thank God, we have been saved from debt! I think,' he continued, 'that
+probably it will have to be brought down to twenty-two hundred before
+you have done with me. On the whole, then, there will be about Ł180 a
+year for you all to live upon. Are you understanding, Felix?'
+
+For the boy's anxious look had gone out of his face, and given place to
+a stunned expression which was only dispelled with a sudden start by
+his father's inquiry. 'Yes, yes,' he said recalling himself.
+
+'I have left it all absolutely to your mother,' said Mr. Underwood.
+'She will depend more and more on you, Felix; and I have made up my
+mind to expect that no help will come to you but from yourselves.
+Except that I hope some of you may be educated by clergy orphan
+schools, but you are too old for that now. Felix, I believe it may be
+right, but it is very sore to break off your education.'
+
+'I shall try to keep it up,' said Felix, 'in case anything should ever
+turn up.'
+
+'A guinea a week!' said Mr. Underwood, thoughtfully. 'It would make you
+all not much worse off than you are now, when I am out of the way. And
+yet--' A violent cough came on. 'We must wait, Felix,' he said, when he
+had recovered himself. 'I must have time to think; I will speak to you
+to-morrow.'
+
+Felix left him, very grave and subdued. He buried himself in his tasks
+for the next day, hardly looked up or smiled at little Bernard's most
+earnest attempts at a game of play, and had not a word for even Cherry,
+only when Wilmet begged anxiously to know if he thought Papa worse, he
+answered that he believed not particularly so.
+
+Alda was sent to carry some tea to her father that evening. As she
+set it down on the table before him, he said gently, 'My dear, I want
+to know what has been passing among you and your school-fellows about
+Felix.'
+
+'Oh, nothing, Papa,' said Alda rather hastily. 'Some nonsense or other
+is always going on.'
+
+'Very true, no doubt; nor do I wish to be informed of general nonsense,
+but of that which concerns you. What have you been saying or hearing
+said about Felix?'
+
+'Oh, it's nonsense, Papa. Some of the girls will say anything
+disagreeable.'
+
+'You need not have any scruples on Felix's account, Alda; I know
+exactly what he has done. I want you to tell me what is being said--or
+you have allowed to be said--about it.'
+
+'That horrible Miss Price!' was all the answer he got.
+
+He sat upright--laid on Alda's wrist a long bony burning hand, whose
+clasp she did not forget for weeks, and forcing her to look at him,
+said, 'Did you allow it to be believed that your brother Felix was a
+gambler?'
+
+'Papa! I never said so!' cried Alda, beginning to sob.
+
+'Command yourself, Alda; I am not fit for a scene, and I may not be
+able to speak to you many times again.'
+
+These words--far more new and startling to Alda than to her
+brother--appalled her into quietness.
+
+'What did you say, Alda? or was it the deceit of silence?'
+
+She hung her head, but spoke at last.
+
+'I only said boys had ways and means! They did tease and plague so.
+I do believe Carry Price counts every grape that goes into this
+house--and they would know how I got my new music--and little Robina
+would tell--and then came something about Mr. Froggatt; and if they
+knew--'
+
+'If they knew what?'
+
+'Papa, you have no idea how nasty some of them are.'
+
+'My poor child, I am afraid I have some idea by seeing how nasty they
+are making you! Gambling more creditable than honest labour!'
+
+Alda had it on the tip of her tongue to say winning things was not
+gambling, but she knew that argument would be choked down; and she also
+knew that though she had spoken truth as to her words, she had allowed
+remarks to pass without protest, on the luck and licence that the model
+boy allowed himself, and she was bitterly displeased with the treachery
+of Miss Price.
+
+'These old rags of folly don't look pretty on other folk,' he sighed
+pleasantly. 'Alda, listen to me. What I have heard to-day gives me more
+fears for you than for any one of my children. Did you ever hear that
+false shame leads to true shame? Never shuffle again! Remember, nothing
+is mean that is not sin, and an acted falsehood like this is sin and
+shame both--while your brother's deed is an honour.'
+
+Alda was obliged to go away murmuring within herself, 'That's all true:
+it is very good of Felix, and I should not have equivocated, I know;
+but those stupid girls, how is one to live with them?'
+
+Felix was not quite dressed the next morning when his mother came to
+the door of the attic that he shared with Edgar and Fulbert.
+
+'He wants to speak to you before church, Felix. It has been a very bad
+night, and the sooner this is settled the better.'
+
+'O Mother, I am very sorry--'
+
+'It can't be helped, my dear boy. I think it will really be a great
+relief to him.'
+
+'And you, Mother, do you mind?'
+
+'Dear Felix, all _minding_, except to have you all well, and fed and
+clothed, was worn out of me years ago. I can't feel anything in it but
+that it will keep you by me, my dear good helpful boy.'
+
+Felix's heart leapt up, as it had not done for many a long day; but it
+soon sank again. The children had never been admitted to their father's
+room in the early morning, and Felix thought he must be suddenly worse
+when he saw him in bed propped by pillows, pale and wearied; but the
+usual bright smile made him like himself.
+
+'All right, old fellow,' he said brightly. 'Don't come up to me. I'm
+_incog._ till I'm up and dressed. Are you in the same mind?'
+
+'Yes, Father.'
+
+'Then ask Mr. Froggatt to do me the favour of coming to speak to me any
+time after eleven o'clock that may suit him. I must understand what he
+offers you. The nonsense is conquered, Felix; more shame for me that it
+has followed me so far; but the sense remains. I must try to be sure
+that this sacrifice of yours is a right one to be accepted. Any way, my
+boy, I thank and bless you for it, and God will bless such a beginning.
+There's the bell, be off,' he concluded.
+
+And, Papa,' blurted out Felix suddenly, 'would you _please_ be
+photographed. I have the money for it. _Pray--_'
+
+Mr. Underwood smiled. 'Very well, Felix; that is, if I am ever capable
+of getting up all the stairs to Coleman's sky-parlour.'
+
+'Oh, thank you!' and Felix ran away.
+
+Mr. Froggatt came in due time. He was an elderly portly man, well
+shaven and smooth-faced, intensely respectable, having been brought
+up to inherit an old hereditary business as bookseller, stationer,
+and publisher of a weekly local paper, long before Bexley had broken
+out into its present burning fever of furnaces. He was a very good
+religious man, as Mr. Underwood well knew, having been his great
+comforter through several family troubles, which had left him and his
+wife alone with one surviving and woefully spoilt son, who hated the
+trade, and had set his heart upon being a farmer--chiefly with a view
+to hunting. Mr. Froggatt was conscious of having been too indulgent,
+but the mother and son were against him; and the superior tone of
+education that the son had received at the reformed grammar school had
+only set him above the business, instead of, as had been intended,
+rendering him more useful in it.
+
+Good Mr. Froggatt, an old-fashioned tradesman, with a profound feeling
+for a real gentleman, was a good deal shocked at receiving Mr.
+Underwood's message. He kept a reading-room, and was on terms of a
+certain intimacy with its frequenters, such as had quite warranted his
+first requests for Felix's good-natured help; and it had been really
+as a sort of jesting compliment that he had told the young gentleman
+that he wished he would take Smith's place, little expecting to see how
+earnestly the words were caught up, how the boy asked whether he really
+meant it; and when, on further consideration, he allowed that it might
+be possible, begging him to wait till his father could be spoken to.
+
+Poor as he was, Mr. Underwood had never lost general respect. Something
+there was in his fine presence and gentlemanly demeanour, and still
+more in his showing no false shame, making no pretensions, and never
+having a debt. Doctors' bills had pressed him heavily, but he had
+sacrificed part of his small capital rather than not pay his way; and
+thus no one guessed at the straits of the household. Mr. Froggatt had
+never supposed he would entertain for a moment the idea of letting his
+eldest son, a fine clever and studious lad, undertake a little country
+business, and yet the old bookseller had come to wish it very much on
+his own account. As he explained to Mr. Underwood, he loved his old
+business, and knew that with more education he should have been able
+to make more of it. His elder son had died just as intelligence and
+energy were opening up plans that would have made both the shop and the
+newspaper valuable and beneficial; while Charles's desertion left them
+to decline with his father's declining years, and in danger of being
+supplanted by some brisk new light. Felix Underwood was indeed very
+young, but he had already proved his power of usefulness, and a very
+few years would make him capable of being a right hand to the old man,
+and he might in time make a position for himself. Mr. Froggatt would
+otherwise ere long be forced by his own infirmity, to dispose of the
+business at a disadvantage, and this would, he confessed, go to his
+heart. Mr. Underwood felt greatly reconciled to the project. There was
+real usefulness in the work, great means of influencing men for good,
+and though there would be much of mechanical employment, for which it
+was a pity to give up the boy's education, yet it was a stepping-stone
+to something better, and it gave present and increasing means of
+maintenance. There was less temptation in this way of life than in
+almost any that could be devised, and it would give Mrs. Underwood the
+comfort of a home with him. The great difficulty for the future was,
+that Felix was never likely to have capital enough to purchase, or
+become partner in, the business; but Mr. Froggatt explained that if he
+gained experience in the editing of the Pursuivant, he would be always
+able to obtain profitable employment, and that it was possible that
+he might eventually take the business, and pay an annual sum out of
+the profits to the Froggatt family, unless, indeed, something should
+turn up which would keep him in his natural station. Such was the hope
+lurking in the father's heart, even while he thankfully closed with the
+offer; and Felix was put in the way of studying book-keeping till the
+New Year, when he was to enter upon his duties and his salary.
+
+Mr. Audley was greatly troubled. It was with incredulous vivacity that
+he inquired of Mr. Underwood if it were indeed true that Felix had
+accepted such prospects.
+
+'Quite true,' said Mr. Underwood. 'You need not argue it with me,
+Audley; my own mind has said all you could say seven times over.'
+
+'I should not venture on interference; but could you not let me try to
+do--something?'
+
+'And welcome, my dear fellow: there are so many to be done for, that it
+is well one can do for himself.'
+
+'But Felix--Felix out of them all!'
+
+'As the voice I want to silence has said a thousand times! No; Felix
+seems capable of this, and it is not right to withhold him, and throw
+his education upon the kind friends who might be helping the other
+boys--boys whom I could not trust to fend for themselves and others, as
+I can that dear lad.'
+
+'What he might be--'
+
+'Who knows whether he may not be a greater blessing in this work than
+in that which we should have chosen for him? He may be a leaven for
+good--among the men we have never been able to reach! My dear Audley,
+don't be a greater ass about it than I was at first!'
+
+For the young curate really could not speak at first for a rush of
+emotion.
+
+'It is not only for Felix's sake,' said he, smiling at last, 'but the
+way you take it.'
+
+'And now, I am going to ask you to do something for me,' added Mr.
+Underwood. 'I have left this magnificent estate of mine entirely to my
+wife, appointing her sole guardian to my children. But I have begun
+to think how much has been taken out of her by that shock of leaving
+Vale Leston, and by that wonderful resolute patience that--that I shall
+never be able to thank her for. I scarcely dare to let her know that I
+see it. And when I look on to the winter that is before her,' he added,
+much less calmly, 'I think she may not be long after me. I must add a
+guardian. Once we had many good friends. We have them still, I hope,
+but I cannot lay this on them. Our cousin Tom Underwood does not seem
+disposed to notice us, and his care might not be of the right kind. Our
+only other relation is Fulbert Underwood.'
+
+'Who drove you from Vale Leston?'
+
+'Who did what he had every right to do with his own,' said Mr.
+Underwood. 'But he is not the style of man to be asked, even if I could
+saddle him with the charge. Probably twelve children to bring up on
+seven thousand pounds--a problem never put before us at Cambridge.'
+
+'Do you honour me by--' asked the younger man, much agitated.
+
+'Not by asking you to solve that problem! But let me add your name.
+What I want is a guardian, who will not violently break up the home and
+disperse the children. I believe Felix will be a competent young head
+if he is allowed, and I want you to be an elder brother to him, and let
+him act.'
+
+'You cannot give me greater comfort.'
+
+'Only, Audley, this must be on one condition. Never let this
+guardianship interfere with any higher work that you may be called to.
+If I thought it would bind you down to Bexley, or even to England, I
+should refrain from this request as a temptation. Mind, you are only
+asked to act in case the children should lose their mother, and then
+only to enable Felix to be what I believe he can and will be. Or, as it
+may be right to add, if he should fail them, you will know what to do.'
+
+'I do not think he will.'
+
+'Nor I. But there are ways of failing besides the worst. However, I do
+not greatly fear this illness of mine taking root in them. It has not
+been in the family before; and I am nearly sure that I know when I took
+the infection, four or five years ago, from a poor man in Smoke-jack
+Alley, who would let no one lift him but me. They are healthy young
+things, all but dear little Cherry, and I hope they have spirits to
+keep care from making them otherwise. You will say a kind word to my
+little Cherry sometimes, Audley. Poor little woman, I am afraid it may
+fall sorely on her, she is of rather too highly strung a composition,
+and perhaps I have not acted so much for her good as my own pleasure,
+in the companionship we have had together.'
+
+So the will was altered, though without the knowledge of anyone but
+Mrs. Underwood and the witnesses; and Mr. Audley felt himself bound
+to remonstrate no further against Felix's fate, however much he might
+deplore it.
+
+Nobody was so unhappy about it as Edgar. The boy was incredulous at
+first, then hotly indignant. Then he got a burnt stick, and after
+shutting himself up in his attic for an hour, was found lying on the
+floor, before an awful outline on the whitewash.
+
+'What is it, old fellow?' asked Felix. 'What a horrid mess!'
+
+'I see,' said Lance. 'It is Friday grinning at the savages.'
+
+'Or a scarecrow on the back of a ditch,' said Felix. 'Come, Ed, tell us
+what it is meant for.'
+
+Edgar was impenetrable; but having watched the others out of the house,
+he dragged Geraldine up to see--something--
+
+'Oh!' she cried. 'You've done it!'
+
+'To be sure! You know it?'
+
+'It is Achilles on the rampart, shouting at the Trojans! O Edgar--how
+brave he looks--how his hair flies! Some day you will get him in his
+god-like beauty!'
+
+'Do you think he has not got any of it, Cherry?' said Edgar, gazing
+wistfully. 'I did see it all, but it didn't come out--and now--'
+
+'I see what you mean,' said Cherry, screwing up her eyes; 'it is in him
+to be glorious--a kind of lightning look.'
+
+'Yes, yes; that's what I meant. All majesty and wrath, but no strain. O
+Cherry--to have such things in my head, and not get them out! Don't you
+know what it is?' as he rolled and flung himself about.
+
+'Oh, yes!' said Cherry from her heart. 'Oh! I should so like to do one
+touch to his face, but he's so big! You did him on a chair, and I could
+not stand on one.'
+
+'I'll lift you up. I'll hold you,' cried Edgar.
+
+The passion for drawing must have been very strong in the two children;
+for Geraldine was most perilously, and not without pain, raised to a
+chair, where, with Edgar's arms round her waist, she actually worked
+for ten minutes at Achilles' face, but his arm she declined. 'It is not
+right, Eddy! look--that muscle in his elbow can never be so!'
+
+'I can't see the back of mine, but you can,' said Edgar, lifting her
+down, and proceeding to take off his coat and roll up his shirt-sleeve.
+
+'That's the way. Oh! but it is not such an angle as that.'
+
+'Achilles' muscles must have stood out more than mine, you know. I'll
+get a look at Blunderbore's. O Cherry, if I were but older--I know I
+could--I'd save Felix from this horrible thing! I feel to want to roar
+at old Froggy, like this fellow at the Trojans.'
+
+'Perhaps some day you will save him.'
+
+'Yes; but then he will have done it. Just fancy, Gerald, if _that_
+picture was as it ought to be--as you and I see it!'
+
+'It would be as grand as the world ever saw,' said the little girl,
+gazing through her eye-lashes at the dim strokes in the twilight. 'O
+Edgar, many a great man has begun in a garret!'
+
+'If it would not be so long hence! Oh! must you go down?'
+
+'I heard some one calling. You will be a great artist, I know, Edgar!'
+
+It was pleasanter than the other criticism, at bed-time.
+
+'Hollo! Man Friday does not look quite so frightful!' said Felix.
+
+'I'm sure I won't have him over my bed,' said Fulbert, proceeding to
+rub him out; and though, for the moment, Achilles was saved by violent
+measures of Edgar's, yet before the end of the next day, Fulbert and
+Lance had made him black from head to foot, all but the whites of his
+eyes and his teeth; Robina and Angela had peeped in, and emulated the
+terror of the Trojans, or the savages; and Sibby had fallen on the
+young gentleman for being 'so bold' as to draw a frightful phooka
+upon their walls, just to frighten the darlints. Indeed, it was long
+before Angela could be got past the door at night without shuddering,
+although Achilles had been obliterated by every possible method that
+Felix, Clement, or Sibby could devise, and some silent tears of Cherry
+had bewailed the conclusion of this effort of high art, the outline of
+which, in more moderate proportions, was cherished in that portfolio of
+hers.
+
+Another work of art--the photograph--was safely accomplished. The
+photographer caught at the idea, declaring that he had been so often
+asked for Mr. Underwood's carte, that he had often thought of begging
+to take it gratis. And he not only insisted on so doing, but he came
+down from his studio, and took Mr. Underwood in his own chair, under
+his own window--producing a likeness which, at first sight, shocked
+every one by its faithful record of the ravages of disease, unlightened
+by the fair colouring and lustrous beaming eyes, but which, by-and-by,
+grew upon the gazer, as full of a certain majesty of unearthly beauty
+of countenance.
+
+The autumn was mild, and Mr. Underwood rallied in some measure, so as
+sometimes even to get to church at mid-day services on warm days.
+
+It was on St. Andrew's Day that he was slowly walking home, leaning
+on Felix's arm, with the two elder girls close behind him, when Alda
+suddenly touched Wilmet's arm, exclaiming, 'There's Marilda Underwood!'
+
+There indeed was the apparition of Centry Park, riding a pretty pony,
+beside a large and heavily-bearded personage. The recognition was
+instantaneous; Marilda was speaking to her companion, and at the same
+moment he drew up, and exclaiming, 'Edward! bless me!' was off his
+horse in a moment, and was wringing those unsubstantial fingers in a
+crushing grasp. There was not much to be seen of Mr. Underwood, for
+he was muffled up in a scarf to the very eyes, but they looked out of
+their hollow caves, clear, blue, and bright, and smiling as ever, and
+something like an answer came out of the middle of the folds.
+
+'These yours? How d'ye do!--How d'ye do!--Mary, you don't get off till
+we come to the door!--Yes, I'll come in with you! Bless me! bless me!
+Mary has been at me ever so many times about you, but we've been had
+abroad for masters and trash, and I left it till we were settled here.'
+
+It was not many steps to the door, and there Wilmet flew on to prepare
+her mother and the room, while Alda stood by as her cousin was assisted
+from her horse by the groom, and the new-comer followed in silence,
+while Felix helped his father up the steps, and unwound his wraps,
+after which he turned round, and with his own sunny look held out his
+hand, saying, 'How are you, Tom? I'm glad to see you--How d'ye do, Mary
+Alda? we are old friends.--Call your mother, one of you.'
+
+The mother was at hand, and they entered the drawing-room, where, as
+the clergyman sank back into his arm-chair, the merchant gazed with
+increasing consternation at his wasted figure and features.
+
+'How long has this been going on?' he asked, pointing to him and
+turning to Mrs. Underwood, but as usual her husband answered for her.
+
+'How long have I been on the sick list? Only since the end of
+September, and I am better now than a month ago.'
+
+'Better! Have you had advice?'
+
+'Enough to know how useless it is.'
+
+'Some trumpery Union doctor. I'll have Williams down before you are a
+day older.'
+
+'Stay, Tom. Thank you, most warmly, but you see yourself the best
+advice in the world could tell us no more than we know already. Are you
+really master of old Centry Underwood? I congratulate you.'
+
+'Ay. I'm glad the place should come back to the old name. Mrs.
+Underwood and myself both felt it a kind of duty, otherwise it went
+against the grain with her, and I'm afraid she'll never take to the
+place. 'Twas that kept us abroad so long, though not from want of
+wishes from Mary and myself. The girl fell in love with yours at first
+sight.'
+
+'To be sure I did,' said the young lady. 'Do let me see the little
+ones, and your baby.'
+
+'Take your cousin to see them in the dining-room, Alda,' said the
+mother; the order that Alda had been apprehending, for the dining-room
+was by many degrees more shabby than the drawing-room; however, she
+could only obey, explaining by the way that little Bernard, being
+nearly two years old, was hardly regarded as a baby now.
+
+Wilmet was in effect making him and Angela presentable as to the hands,
+face, hair, and pinafore, and appeared carrying the one and leading the
+other, who never having closely inspected any one in a riding-habit
+before, hung back, whispering to know whether 'that man was a woman.'
+
+Marilda was in raptures, loving nothing so well as small children, and
+very seldom enjoying such an opportunity as the present; and the two
+babies had almost the whole of the conversation adapted to them, till
+Alda made an effort.
+
+'So you have been on the Continent?'
+
+'Oh yes; it was such a horrid bore. Mamma would go. She said I must
+have French masters, and more polish, but I don't like French polish. I
+hope I'm just as English as I was before.'
+
+'That is undeniable,' said Felix, laughing.
+
+'Didn't you care for it? Oh! I should like it so much!' cried Alda.
+
+'Like it? What, to hear French people chattering and gabbling all round
+one, and be always scolded for not being like them! There was a poor
+dog at the hotel that had been left behind by some English people, and
+could not bear the French voices, always snarled at them. I was just
+like him, and I got Papa to buy him and bring him home, and I always
+call him John Bull.'
+
+'But wasn't it nice seeing places, and churches, and pictures?' asked
+Geraldine.
+
+'That was the most disgusting of all, to be bothered with staring at
+the stupid things. Mamma with her Murray standing still at them all,
+and making me read it out just like a lesson, and write it after, which
+was worse! And then the great bare shiny rooms with nothing to do. The
+only thing I liked was looking at a jolly little old woman that sold
+hot chestnuts out in the street below. Such dear little children in
+round caps came to her! Just like that,'--endeavouring to convert her
+pocket-handkerchief into the like head-gear for Robina.
+
+'I have always so wanted to come here,' she continued, 'only I am
+afraid Mamma won't like the place. She says it's dull, and there's no
+good society. Is there?'
+
+'I am sure we don't know,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Lots of people are coming to stay with us for Christmas,' added
+Marilda, 'and you must all of you come and have all the fun with us.'
+
+'Oh, thank you! how charming!' cried Alda. 'If Papa will but be well
+enough; he is so much better now.'
+
+'He must come for change of air,' said Marilda. 'You can't think how
+pleased my father was to hear I had met you. He talked all the way home
+of how clever your father was, and how wickedly Cousin Fulbert at Vale
+Leston had served him, and he promised me when I came here I should
+have you with me very often. I would have written to tell you, only I
+do so hate writing. This is much better.'
+
+Marilda seemed to have perfectly established herself among them before
+the summons came to her; and as the children herded to the door, her
+father turned round and looked at the boys inquiringly. 'There,' said
+Mr. Underwood, 'this is Felix, and this is Edgar, sixteen and fourteen.'
+
+'Bless me, what a number, and as much alike as a flock of sheep,'
+again exclaimed the cousin. 'One or two more or less would not make
+much odds--eh, Edward?--Mary, what kissing all round?--D'ye know them
+all?--I'll look in to-morrow or next day, and you'll give me your
+answer, Edward.'
+
+They were off, and at Mr. Underwood's sign Felix followed him into
+the sitting-room, to the great excitement of the exterior population,
+who unanimously accepted Alda's view, that one of them was going to
+be adopted. Their notion was not so much out as such speculations
+generally are, for Mr. Underwood was no sooner alone with Felix and
+his mother, than he said, 'You are in request, Felix; here's another
+offer for one of you--the very thing I once missed. What say you to a
+clerkship at Kedge Brothers?'
+
+'For one of us, did you say, Father?'
+
+'Yes; the answer I am to give to-morrow is as to which. You have the
+first choice.'
+
+'Do you wish me to take it, Father?'
+
+'I wish you to think. Perhaps this is the last time I shall have any
+decision to make for you, and I had rather you should make your own
+choice; nor, indeed, am I sure of my own wishes.'
+
+'Then,' said Felix decidedly, 'I am sure I had better not. Edgar would
+not, and must not, go to my work; there would be nothing coming in for
+ever so long, and it would be a shame to throw old Froggy over.'
+
+'I rather expected this, Felix. I told Tom you were in a manner
+provided for, but when he found you had a turn for business, he was the
+more anxious to get you.'
+
+'I've got no turn that I know of,' said Felix, rather gloomily; 'but we
+can't all of us set up for gentlemen, and Edgar is the one of us all
+that ought to have the very best! Such a fellow as he is! He is sure
+of the prize this time, you know! I only don't think this good enough
+for him! He ought to go to the University. And maybe when Mr. Underwood
+sees--'
+
+'Not impossible,' said the sanguine father, smiling; 'and, at any
+rate, to get put in the way of prosperity early may make his talents
+available. It is odd that his first name should be Thomas. Besides,
+I do not think your mother could get on without you. And, Felix,' he
+lowered his voice, 'I believe that this is providential. Not only as
+securing his maintenance, but as taking him from Ryder. Some things
+have turned up lately when he has been reading with me, that have
+dismayed me. Do you know what I mean?'
+
+'A little,' said Felix gravely.
+
+'I know Ryder would be too honourable consciously to meddle with a
+boy's faith; but the worst of it is, he does not know what is meddling,
+and he likes Edgar, and talks eagerly to him. And the boy enjoys it.'
+
+'He does,' said Felix, 'but he knows enough to be on his guard. There
+can't be any harm done.'
+
+'Not yet! Not but what can be counteracted, if--Felix, you cannot
+guess how much easier it makes it to me to go, that Edgar will not be
+left in Ryder's hands. As to the younger ones, such things do not come
+down to the lower forms. And they will be eligible for clergy orphans.
+Audley spoke of a choristership for Clement in the clergy-house at
+Whittingtonia. Was there ever such a raising up of friends and helpers?
+I am glad to have seen Tom Underwood, hearty, kindly--sure to be always
+a good friend to you all. What did you think of the girl, Felix?'
+
+'She is a jolly sort of girl,' said Felix; 'not like ours, you know,
+Father, but not half a bad fellow.'
+
+Mr. Underwood smiled thoughtfully, and asked, 'Have you seen enough of
+her to judge how she is brought up?'
+
+It was treating his son so much more as a friend than as a boy, that
+Felix looked up surprised. 'I should think her mother wanted to make
+her no end of a swell,' he said, 'and that it would not take.'
+
+Mr. Underwood lent back thoughtfully. In truth, his cousin had, in his
+outburst of affection and remorse at long unconscious neglect, declared
+his intention of taking home one of the girls to be as a sister to his
+Mary, and then, evidently bethinking himself of some influence at home,
+had half taken back his words, and talked of doing something, bringing
+his wife to see about it, &c.
+
+And when Mr. and Mrs. Underwood were again alone, they discussed the
+probabilities, and considered whether if the offer were made they would
+accept it. Mr. Underwood had only seen his cousin's wife once, in his
+prosperous days, when he had been at the wedding, and his impression
+was not that of perfect refinement. There was reason to think from the
+words of her husband and daughter that there was a good deal of the
+_nouveau riche_ about her, and Mrs. Underwood did not know how to think
+of trusting a daughter in a worldly, perhaps irreligious, household.
+But Mr. Underwood was a good deal touched by his cousin's warmth and
+regret; he believed that the family kept up religious habits; he
+thought that Providence had brought him friends in this last hour, and
+his affectionate sanguine spirit would not hesitate in accepting the
+kindness that provided for another of the children he was leaving. She
+trusted him as sure to know best; and, after her usual mode, said no
+more, except 'Wilmet would be safest there.'
+
+'You could spare her least.'
+
+'Yes, indeed, it would be losing my right hand; but poor Alda--'
+
+'Poor Alda! but consider if there is not worse evil in keeping her
+among girls who hurt her, if they do not Wilmet. Beauty and wounded
+vanity are dangerous in a place like this.'
+
+'Dangerous anywhere!'
+
+'Less so in a great house, with that good honest Mary Alda, and Tom,
+who will look after her in the main, than here, or as a governess, with
+an inferior education.'
+
+'It may be so. I know I can spare her better than her sister.'
+
+'Wilmet is doing something for herself too--as Alda cannot, it seems.
+Justice settles the point, dearest, as it did between the boys--that
+is, if we have the offer.'
+
+Perhaps the mother still had a lurking hope that the offer would not be
+made. Her instinct was to keep all her brood round her; but, silent and
+deferential woman that she was, she said nothing, and resolved to be
+thankful for what so eased her husband's mind.
+
+The handsome carriage tore up to the door, and violet velvet and
+feathers descended, Mary Alda sprang after, and then came her father,
+and hampers on hampers of game, wine, and fruits ensued; while Marilda
+seized on Alda, and turned of herself into the dining-room, bearing a
+box of sweets. 'Where are the little ones? Little Bobbie, here; and all
+the rest.'
+
+Not many calls were needful to bring a flock to share the feast, with
+cries of joy; but Marilda was not yet satisfied.
+
+'Where's the other of you?' she said to Alda. 'I don't know you well
+apart yet.'
+
+'Wilmet's in the kitchen,' thrust in Lancelot, 'ironing the collars for
+Sunday.'
+
+'Lance!' uttered Alda indignantly.
+
+'Oh! what fun! do let me go down and see! I should so like to iron.'
+
+'But, Marilda--your Mamma--'
+
+'Oh nonsense, come along, show me the way. That's right, Robins, only
+your hands are so sticky. What, down here!--Oh, Wilmet, how d'ye do?
+what delicious work! do you always do it?'
+
+'Generally, if Sibby is busy.'
+
+'Do let me try.'
+
+And she did try for ten minutes, at the end of which the mother's voice
+was heard calling for Edgar, who, turning crimson, went upstairs,
+leaving the others standing about the tidy kitchen, fresh sanded for
+Saturday.
+
+'What, not you!' said Marilda, pausing in her smoothing operations, and
+looking at Felix.
+
+'No,' said he. 'I have got my work.'
+
+'Oh! don't talk of it,' said Alda. 'I can't bear it. I didn't think he
+was in earnest, or that Papa would let him.'
+
+Marilda turned full round. 'What, you won't go and be my father's
+clerk, and be one of Kedge and Underwood, and make a fortune?'
+
+Felix shook his head.
+
+'And what is your work instead?'
+
+'Printing,' said Felix stoutly. 'It gives present payment, and we can't
+do without it.'
+
+Both Marilda's hands seized on his. 'I like you!' she said. 'I wish I
+were you.'
+
+They all laughed, and Felix coloured, more abashed than pleased.
+Lance--to make up for his ignominious rescue at their last
+meeting--performed a wonderful progress, holding on by his fingers and
+toes along the ledge of the dresser; and Marilda, setting her back (a
+broad one) against the ironing-board, went on talking.
+
+'And do you know what besides?' looking round, and seeing they did
+not. 'One of you girls is to come and live with me, and be my sister.
+I wanted to have this little darling Angela to pet, but Mamma wouldn't
+have her, and I did so beg for Geraldine, to let her have a sofa and a
+pony-carriage! I do want something to nurse! But Mamma won't hear of
+anybody but one of you two great ones, to learn and do everything with
+me; and that's not half the use.'
+
+'But is it really?' cried Alda.
+
+'Yes, indeed! You'll be had up for her to choose from--that is, if she
+can. How exactly alike you are!'
+
+'She won't choose me,' said Wilmet. 'Hark, there's Edgar coming down.'
+
+Edgar ran in, with orders to the twins to go into the drawing-room.
+Wilmet hung back. 'I will not be the one,' she said resolutely. 'Let
+Alda go alone.'
+
+'No,' said Felix, 'it is what you are told that you've got to do now.
+Never mind about the rest! Let us all come out of this place.' And it
+was he who took off his sister's ironing apron as they went up to the
+dining-room together, while Marilda cried eagerly, 'Well, Edgar?'
+
+'Well,' said Edgar, not in the enchanted voice she expected; 'it is
+very good of your father, and what must be must.'
+
+'Don't you like it?' said Marilda, half hurt; and Edgar, always a boy
+of ready courtesy, answered, 'Yes, yes, I'm no end of grateful. I'll
+get rich, and go abroad, and buy pictures. Only I did hope to paint
+them.'
+
+'Paint pictures!' cried Marilda. 'What, rather than be a merchant! Do
+such stupid useless things, only to bother people with having to stare
+at them, when you could be making money?'
+
+'There's no reason one should not make money with pictures,' said
+Edgar; 'but I'd rather make delight! But it can't be helped, and I am
+very glad to have done with this horrid place.'
+
+Meantime Wilmet and Alda found themselves before a large, florid,
+much-dressed lady, with a most good-natured face, who greeted them with
+'Good morning, my dears! Just as Marilda told me, so much alike as to
+be quite romantic. Well, no doubt it is a pity to separate between you,
+but my Marilda will be a true sister. She has spoken of nothing else.
+Are you willing, either of you, my dears?'
+
+'Ay!' chimed in Mr. Thomas Underwood; 'we'll make you happy whichever
+it is! You shall be in all respects like our own child; Mary would see
+to that, if we didn't.'
+
+'As to choice,' said the lady, 'there's none that I can see--pretty
+genteel girls both, that will do us credit, unless it is their own
+fault. Excellent governess, London masters--you may be assured
+everything shall be done for her.'
+
+'Shall we toss up which it shall be?' laughed her husband.
+
+'No,' said Mr. Underwood gently. 'We think that this one,' laying his
+hand on Alda's arm, 'will value these advantages, and is not quite such
+a home-bird as her sister. I hope you will find a grateful good child
+in Alda Mary, and a kind sister to Mary Alda.'
+
+The tears came into Alda's eyes, as her father seemed thus making her
+over; a great rush of affection for all at home, and contempt for Mary
+Alda in comparison with her own twin, seemed to take away any elation,
+as Mr. and Mrs. Tom Underwood kissed her, and welcomed her, and
+declared they should like to take her home at once.
+
+'You shall have her soon,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Let me keep her for
+Christmas Day.'
+
+And for Christmas Day he did keep her, though at the bottom of Alda's
+heart there were strong hopes of invitations to join the festivities
+at Centry Underwood. Indeed, such a party was insisted on by Marilda,
+one that was to include all the little ones, and make them happier than
+ever they had been in their lives. It was to be on Twelfth Day, but
+Mrs. Underwood hinted to the twins that they had better not talk to the
+younger ones about it, for she scarcely believed they would go. She
+had never before spoken out that conviction which had long crushed her
+down, and Wilmet's whole soul seemed for the moment scared away by this
+fresh intimation of the condition in which their father stood; while
+Alda vehemently repeated the old declaration that he was better. He
+said he was better. Alas! such a better as it always was.
+
+'How well you ought to be!' said Mr. Audley one day at the reiteration,
+'better every day!'
+
+'Yes, and best of all at last!' was the reply, with a sweet smile.
+
+For he was very happy. The partial provision for the four eldest
+children, two by their own exertions, two through friends, had
+evidently been received by him as an earnest of protection and aid
+for the rest, even to the babe whom he scarcely expected ever to
+see in this world. He said it would be ungrateful not to trust, and
+he did trust with all his heart, cheered as it was by the tardy
+cordiality of his cousin, and the indefinable love of kindred that
+was thus gratified. Thomas Underwood poured in good things of
+all kinds on the invalid and his house, fulfilled his promise of
+calling in further advice, and would have franked half the family
+to Torquay--Nice--Madeira--if the doctors had given the slightest
+encouragement. It could be of little ultimate avail; but the wine
+and soup did give support and refreshment bodily, and produced much
+gratitude and thankfulness mentally, besides lightening some of Mrs.
+Underwood's present cares.
+
+No one was more anxious to help than Mr. Ryder; he had been assiduous
+in his inquiries and offers of service ever since the attack at
+Michaelmas; and it was evident that he really venerated the Curate,
+while he was a severe and contemptuous judge of the Rector. But when,
+after a brilliant examination, he became aware that he was to lose
+both the elder Underwoods at once, his mortification was great; he
+came to call, and Mr. Underwood had again to undergo an expostulation
+on Felix's prospects, and an offer of keeping him free of expense.
+The school-fee was a mere trifle, but Mr. Ryder would willingly have
+boarded and lodged the boy himself--for the benefit of his authority,
+as he said, over younger boarders.
+
+'I am afraid,' said Mr. Underwood, kind and grateful as usual, 'that
+there are too many younger boarders here for Felix to be spared. No,
+thank you; I am sincerely obliged to you, but the hard cash is a
+necessary consideration.'
+
+'And you can sacrifice such a boy's prospects--'
+
+'Bread and cheese _must_ be earned, even at the cost of prospects. He
+cannot afford to wait to make his labour skilled.'
+
+'Forgive me, Mr. Underwood, but I cannot think it is right to throw
+away his abilities.'
+
+'You can allow that it is a less wrong than to leave the rest to debt
+or starvation.'
+
+'You should trust--'
+
+'I do trust; but I can do so better when I humble what is nothing
+but pride and vanity in me, after all. I was foolish enough about it
+at first, but I am quite content now that my boy should do his duty,
+without being curious as to where it is to be done.'
+
+'You will tell me a schoolmaster's vanity is concerned; and I allow it
+is, for I looked to your sons to raise the reputation of the school;
+but perhaps it is only put off a little longer. Will you let me have
+Clement or Fulbert, on the terms I proposed for Felix?'
+
+'No, Ryder; with many, many thanks, much feeling of your generous
+kindness--it cannot be.'
+
+'You do not trust me.' This was said with as much indignation as could
+be shown to a man in Mr. Underwood's condition.
+
+'No. Your very kindness would make the tone I regret in you more
+perilous. Do not think Felix ungrateful, Ryder; the desire is mine--and
+remember, it is that of a man who is dying, and who really loves and
+values you greatly. It is that the younger boys should, as soon as may
+be, go to schools where older systems prevail.'
+
+Mr. Ryder was exceedingly mortified, and though he tried hard to
+conceal the full extent of his annoyance, he could not help saying,
+'You know how I respect your motives; but let me say that I doubt your
+finding any place where the ideas you deprecate are not to be found.
+And--pardon me--may not the finding their progress obstructed by your
+scruples, the more indispose your sons to them?'
+
+'I hope not,' said Mr. Underwood, calmly. 'I hope it may show them
+how strong the approach of death makes that faith--nay, rather
+assurance--with which your party are tampering.'
+
+'You are not doing me justice, Mr. Underwood. You know that my faith
+and hope are at the core the same as your own. All our question is what
+outworks are untenable.' Again he spoke hotly, but Mr. Underwood's
+gentleness seemed to silence him.
+
+'And that there should be any such question proves--alas!--the utter
+difference between our belief. Ryder, you are a young man, and as I
+believe and trust verily in earnest; and some day, I think, you will
+understand what faith is. Meantime, your uncertainties are doing more
+mischief than you understand--they pervade all your teaching more than
+you know. I dread what they may do to such as have not your moral
+sense to restrain them and bring them back, as I pray--I hope ever to
+pray--it may be with you. Thank you for all your kindness, actual and
+intended, to my boys.'
+
+Then rising from his chair, while Mr. Ryder remained uncertain how
+to speak, he signed to him to remain still while he sought in his
+book-case and returned with a small old copy of Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy
+Living and Dying;' then sitting down again, wrote the schoolmaster's
+name in it, above his own 'Under-wode, Under-rode' stamp. 'Keep it,
+Ryder! I do not say that you will care for it now, but some day I think
+you will, and if I am allowed to know of it, it will be joy.'
+
+Mr. Ryder could only wring the hand that held it out to him, and with a
+great effort say, 'Thank you.' He saw that Mr. Underwood was too much
+tired to prolong the conversation; but he wrote a note of warm thanks
+that evening, promising to do whatever lay in his power for the boys,
+that their father would not think dangerous for them; and he added,
+that whatever he should for the future think or say, such an example
+as he had now seen was a strong weight on its own side. It was warmly
+and tenderly put, and like everything that befell him, gratified Mr.
+Underwood.
+
+A very happy man he had been, as he sincerely told those who would have
+grieved over him, and not without some remorse.
+
+'Yes,' as he said to Mr. Audley, who watched him like a son, 'it is
+indeed the Lord who hath led me all my life through. I never had a want
+or a care unfulfilled till nine years ago. Then, just as I had become
+sluggish and mechanical in fixed habits of easy country work, came
+this thorough change, break, and rousing. I tell you, I can never be
+thankful enough for the mercy. Not to leave them all provided for, as
+the saying is, would I go back to be such a priest as I was becoming.
+Happy--yes, I have been much happier here, since no choice was left me
+but working up to my strength.'
+
+'And beyond it,' said Mr. Audley, sadly.
+
+'If so--well; so much the better!' he said. 'It is a blessing to be
+allowed to be spent in that service. And for the children, I wish only
+for work and goodness for them--and for that I may well trust my good
+Master.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+TWILIGHT AND DAWN.
+
+     'Two Angels, one of Life and one of Death,
+      Passed o'er the village as the morning broke;
+      The dawn was on their faces; and beneath
+      The sombre houses capped with plumes of smoke.'
+                                             _Longfellow._
+
+
+'Don't, Ful!'
+
+'That's nothing to you, Clem.'
+
+'I say, this won't do. I must have some light.'
+
+'Indeed, Ed, we must not light a candle before five o'clock.'
+
+'Pish!'
+
+'Oh please, Edgar, don't stir the fire. If you knew how few coals there
+are!'
+
+'Stuff!'
+
+'No, I won't have it done if Wilmet says not;' and Felix reared up in
+the gloom, and struggled with his brother.
+
+'Felix--Edgar--Oh, don't.'
+
+'Hsh--sh-- Now you girls are worse than all, screaming in that way.'
+A few moments' silence of shame. It had been a weary, long, wet day,
+a trial under any circumstances to eleven people under seventeen, on
+the 4th of January, and the more oppressive in St. Oswald's Buildings,
+because not only had their father been in a much more suffering state
+for some days past, but their mother, who had hoped to keep up for some
+weeks longer, had for the last two days been quite unlike herself. In
+the sick-room she was as tender and vigilant as ever in her silent
+way, but towards her children a strange fretful impatience had set in,
+almost a jealousy of their coming near their father, and an intolerance
+of the least interruption from them even for the most necessary cause.
+Moreover, the one friend and helper who had never failed them before,
+Mr. Audley, had not been seen since he had looked in before early
+service; and altogether the wretchedness and perplexity of that day
+had been such, that it was no wonder that even Felix and Wilmet had
+scarcely spirits or temper for the only task that seemed at present
+left them, the hindering their juniors from making themselves obnoxious.
+
+'Wilmet, do you think we shall go to the party at Centry Park?'
+reiterated Fulbert.
+
+'Do hold your tongue about that. I don't believe there's the least
+chance,' said Alda fretfully.
+
+'And I don't know how you can think of such a thing,' added Cherry.
+
+'I want to see Cousin Marilda's Christmas tree,' whined Robina.
+
+'Do ask Mamma again,' entreated another voice.
+
+'I shall do no such thing,' said Wilmet, with absolute crossness in her
+tone.
+
+Robina began to cry.
+
+'Come here, Bobbie,' said Cherry's voice in the dark end of the room;
+'I'll tell you a story.'
+
+'I know all Cherry's stories, and they're rubbish,' said Fulbert.
+
+'This is quite a new one. There was once a little match-girl--'
+
+'Bosh! I know that little brute, and I hate her,' broke in Fulbert.
+
+'Hold your tongue,' said Clement; 'but--'
+
+'Oh no, don't let us have the match-girl,' cried several voices.
+
+'Why can't you be good? There was once an old giant that lived in a
+cave--'
+
+'I hate old giants,' said Cherry's critical public; and her voice grew
+melancholy.
+
+'But this one had but one eye. Come, _do_ listen; papa told me. He was
+in an island--' but the voice grew mournful, and was broken by a cry.
+
+'Oh! Fulbert hurt me!'
+
+'Fulbert, for shame! What is it, Angel dear?'
+
+'I only laid hold of her pudding arm,' growled Fulbert. 'Oh! I say,
+Felix, that's too bad!'
+
+'Hold your row, I say,' said Felix, after his application of fist law.
+'Hollo! what's that?' and he sprang to his feet with Angela in his
+arms, as the door was opened by a hand groping, and Mr. Audley's voice
+said, 'Darkness visible.'
+
+There was a general scrambling up all over the floor, and Edgar rushed
+across to light a candle. Wilmet alone had not stirred, as Bernard lay
+asleep across her lap. The flash of the match revealed a mass of light
+disordered heads, and likewise a black figure in the door-way.
+
+'Here is a kind helper for you, Wilmet,' said Mr. Audley, 'from St.
+Faith's, at Dearport. You must call her Sister Constance.'
+
+Wilmet did rise now, in some consternation, lifting her little brother,
+whose hand was still in the locks, the tangling of which had been his
+solace. There was a sweet warm kiss on her brow, and her lost net was
+picked up, her hair coiled into it by a pair of ready tender hands, but
+she faltered, 'Oh, thank you. Does Mamma know?'
+
+'She was there when I got a sort of consent from your father,' said Mr.
+Audley.
+
+'She has not said a word,' said Alda, half resentfully. 'We have hardly
+been in all day except just to fetch and carry.'
+
+'Never mind,' said the Sister, 'it is much better that she did not
+think about it. Now, my dear, don't! I won't have anything done for me.
+You don't know how we Sisters sleep on nothing when we do sleep.'
+
+'But you'll have some tea,' said Alda, the only smooth-haired one of
+the party.
+
+'When you do, perhaps, thank you. Will you come to me, my dear?'
+relieving Felix from Angela. 'What is your name?' and the child, though
+ordinarily very shy, clung to her at once; while she, moving over to
+Cherry, found her in tears, shook up her cushion, arranged her rug,
+and made her comfortable in a moment. A sense came over them all that
+they had among them a head on whom they might rest their cares; and as
+the black bonnet and veil were taken off, and they saw a sweet fair
+motherly face beaming on them from the white plain-bordered cap, they
+gathered round with an outpouring of confidence, small and great, while
+Mr. Audley went upstairs to announce what he had done. He presently
+returned, saying, 'All right! Perhaps you had better come up at once.'
+
+There they sat, on either side of the hearth, he pillowed up and in a
+dressing-gown, more entirely the sick man than he had ever before given
+up himself to be. Mrs. Underwood rose, and with tears in her eyes,
+mutely held out her hand, while her husband at once recognised Sister
+Constance as Lady Herbert Somerville, the wife of the late rector of
+Dearport. He had last met her when, some six or seven years before,
+he had been invited to preach at festivals at Dearport, and had seen
+her the sunbeam of her house. He knew that her husband, who was a
+connection of Mr. Audley's, had since died of the same malady as his
+own, and had left her, a childless widow, together with all else he had
+to leave, to the Sisterhood they had already founded in the seaport
+town. But his greeting was, 'This is _very_ good in you; but surely it
+must be too painful for you.'
+
+'The Superior saw how much I wished it,' she said.
+
+'You are like Alexandrine de la Ferronays,' he said, remembering her
+love for tending a consumptive priest for her husband's sake.
+
+'I am always wishing that I were!' she said.
+
+So they perfectly understood each other; and poor Mrs. Underwood, who
+had, in her new and extraordinary petulance, fiercely resisted the
+doctor's recommendation of a nurse, found herself implicitly relying
+on and trusting Sister Constance with a wonderful sense of relief--a
+relief perhaps still greater to the patient himself, who had silently
+endured more discomforts, and made more exertions than she knew, rather
+than tire her or vex her by employing even son or daughter, and who was
+besides set free from some amount of anxiety.
+
+Indeed the widow had too perfect a sympathy to interfere with the
+wife's only comfort. When it could safely be done, she left the two
+alone together, and applied herself to winning the hearts and soothing
+the spirits of the poor children downstairs, and suggesting and
+compounding new nourishing delicacies.
+
+She even persuaded Mrs. Underwood to go to the next room for a night's
+rest while she sat up, and learnt--what the silent wife had never told
+any one--how trying the nights were even to that spirit! At first the
+patient liked to talk, and drew out much of the hidden treasure of
+her spirit respecting her husband, who, though ailing for years, had
+finally passed away with only the immediate warning of a week--the
+final cause being harass from the difficulties from those above and
+below him that beset an earnest clergyman of his way of thinking.
+
+What struck her, as it did all, was Mr. Underwood's perfect absence of
+all care, and conviction that all the burthen was taken off his hands.
+Her own husband had, as she could not help telling him, found it hard
+to resign himself to leaving his plans half carried out to instruments
+which he had but half formed. He had wished with all his might to
+live, and though he had resigned himself dutifully, it had been with a
+real struggle, and a longing for continued service rather than rest,
+a hope that he should more efficiently serve, and much difficulty in
+refraining from laying all about him under injunctions for the future.
+
+Mr. Underwood half smiled. 'I am neither head nor principal,' he said.
+'Plans have been over long ago. I am only tired out, too tired to think
+about what is to follow. If I live three days longer I shall have just
+had my forty years in the wilderness, and though it has blossomed like
+a rose, I am glad to be near the rest.'
+
+And then he asked for the Midnight Office; and afterwards came
+fitful sleep, half dreamy, half broken by the wanderings of slight
+feverishness and great weakness; but she thought her attendance would
+not be very brief, and agreed mentally with what Mr. Audley had
+told her, that the doctor said that the end might yet be many weeks
+away. When in the dark winter's morning the wife crept back again to
+her post, and all that could be done in those early hours had been
+effected, Sister Constance went to the half-past seven o'clock service
+with Felix and Clement, imparting to them on the road that the Superior
+of St. Faith's was expecting to receive some of the least of the
+children in the course of the day, to remain there for the present.
+
+Both boys declared it would be an infinite relief, but they doubted
+exceedingly whether either father or mother would consent to lose sight
+of them, since the former never failed to see each child, and give it
+a smile and kiss, if no more. If they were to be sent, Felix supposed
+there was no one but himself to take them; nobody with whom they would
+be happy could be spared, nor did he show any repugnance to the notion
+of acting _pčre de famille_ to three babies on the railway.
+
+It was quickly settled. Mr. Underwood at once confessed the exceeding
+kindness, and declared it to be much better for everybody. 'Do you not
+feel it so, Mother?'
+
+She bent her head in assent, as she did to all he said.
+
+'Having them back will be good for you,' he added persuasively;
+and again she tried to give a look of response. So they were
+brought--Robina, Angela, and Bernard--and each stood for a moment on
+a chair at his bed-side. The two little ones he merely kissed and
+blessed; but to Robina he said a few more words about being good, and
+minding Mamma and Felix.
+
+'Oh yes, papa! And they'll have a Christmas tree! and I'll save all my
+bon-bons to make your cough well.'
+
+He watched wistfully as the bright heads passed out of sight, and the
+long struggling cough and gasping that followed had all the pangs of
+parting to add to their burthen. Half the family escorted Felix and his
+charge to the station; and in the quiet that followed, Sister Constance
+had a good sleep on Wilmet's bed, as much, she said, as she ever
+required; and she came from it all freshness and brightness, making the
+dinner-time very charming to all the diminished party, though Wilmet
+felt greatly lost without the little ones; and afterwards she earned
+the warmest gratitude from Edgar and Geraldine by looking over their
+drawings and giving them some valuable hints--nay, she even devised
+the new and delightful occupation of ship-building for those three
+inconvenient subjects, Clement, Fulbert, and Lancelot. Upstairs or
+down, all was gentle cheerfulness and patience wherever she went.
+
+Felix came home about five o'clock, and his mother was persuaded
+to go to lie down while he amused his father with the account of
+the children's exemplary behaviour, and of their kind welcome at
+St. Faith's, where he had been kept to dine, feeling, as he said,
+'uncommonly queer' at first, but at last deciding, to the great
+diversion of his father, that the sisters were a set of jolly old
+girls, but not one equal to '_our_ Sister Constance.' Then he had
+seen the church, and was almost bewildered with the beauty of the
+decorations; and Mr. Underwood, though saying little, evidently much
+enjoyed his boy's refreshment and pleasure. He certainly seemed no
+worse, and Mr. Audley was allowed, what he had often asked before, to
+sit up with him.
+
+But there was much to render it a long, anxious, restless night of
+a sort of semi-consciousness, and murmuring talk, as if he fancied
+himself at Vale Leston again. However, when Felix crept in, about four
+o'clock in the morning, anxious at the sounds he heard, he found him
+asleep, and this lasted for two or three hours; he woke refreshed, and
+presently said, 'Epiphany! put back the curtain, that I may see the
+bright and morning star.'
+
+The morning star was shining in the delicate dawn full in view, and he
+looked at it with quiet pleasure. 'Mother,' he said, then recollecting
+himself; 'ah, she is resting! Thank you, Audley.'
+
+At that moment a little cry through the thin wall made him start and
+flush.
+
+'Is it so?' he murmured; 'thank God! That is well!' But his chest
+heaved grievously as he panted with anxiety, and his two watchers
+hesitated what to do, until the door was slightly opened, and before
+the intended sign could be made to Felix, the breathless exclamation,
+'How? what?' brought Sibby's half-scared mournful countenance forward.
+
+'How is she, Sibby? don't fear to say,' he said, more collectedly.
+
+'Nicely, sir, as well as can be expected; but--'
+
+'The baby? Alive--I heard--'
+
+'Yes, sir; that is--O Sir, it is two; and it would be a mere mercy if
+they are taken, as they look like to be--twins, and coming like this!'
+Perhaps Sibby was a little more lamentable, because, instead of looking
+shocked, he clasped his hands in eager thanksgiving, as he looked
+upwards.
+
+Sister Constance followed at the same moment, saying in a far more
+encouraging voice, 'She is doing very well.'
+
+'It is another great mercy,' he said. 'Much better than longer waiting
+on me. Will these Twelfth-day gifts live? Or do I take them with me? At
+least, let me baptize them--now at once,' he spoke earnestly. 'My full
+twelve, and one over, and on Twelfth-day.'
+
+Sister Constance had better hopes of the babes than Sibby, but this
+wish of his was one not to be withstood for a moment; and she went to
+make ready, while Mr. Audley went down for the little Parian font,
+and Felix and Sibby arranged the pillows and coverings. Mr. Underwood
+looked very bright and thankful. 'Birth-day gifts,' he said, 'what are
+they? You have not told me, Sibby.'
+
+'Boy and girl, sir,' she said, 'poor little dears!'
+
+'Jealous for your old twins, Sibby?' he said, smiling.
+
+'Ah! sir, they came in a better time.'
+
+'Better for them, no doubt; but this is the best for these,' he
+answered brightly. 'See, Sibby, can't you be thankful, like me, that
+your mistress is sheltered from what would try her? I can bear it all
+better without her to see.'
+
+Sibby's only reply was a gush of tears, and presently all was made
+ready; Geraldine was quietly helped into the room by Edgar, and placed
+in her usual station by the pillow, and the boys stood against the
+wall, while the two babes, tiny and scarcely animate things, were
+carried, each by one of the elder pair; and the father, as whitely
+robed as if he had been in his surplice, held out his hands, and smiled
+with his kindly lips and clear shining blue eyes full of welcome.
+
+'Has your mother any wishes about names?' he asked. 'Wilmet--what--?'
+
+'No, Papa, I think not;' but her eyes were brimming over with tears,
+and it was plain that something was suppressed.
+
+'My dear, let me hear; I am not to be hurt by such things.'
+
+'It is--it is only--she did say, when we came for them, that we were
+the children of joy--these are the children of sorrow,' murmured
+Wilmet, uttering the words with difficulty.
+
+'I thought so,' he said; then after a brief pause, 'Now, Audley--'
+
+For Mr. Audley said all the previous prayers, though with a voice as
+hard to control as Wilmet's had been. Then Wilmet held her charge close
+to her father, for, almost inappreciable as the weight was, he could
+only venture to lay one arm round that grasshopper burthen, as with his
+long thin fingers he dashed the water. 'Theodore Benjamin, I baptize
+thee.' Alda brought the other. 'Stella Eudora.' Then the two hands were
+folded over his face, and they all knelt round till he moved and smiled.
+
+'Give them to me again,' he said.
+
+It was for the father's kiss and blessing now.
+
+'They look life-like,' he said. 'You will keep them. Now mind me.
+Charge _her_ never to think of them as children of sorrow, but of joy.
+She will remember how nearly you were called Theodore, Felix. Take him
+as God's gift and mine--may he be a son of your right hand to you.'
+
+The boy did take the babe, and with a deep resolve in his heart, that
+his duty to these helpless ones should be his first thought on earth.
+He did not speak it, but his father saw the steadfast wistful gaze, and
+it was enough.
+
+Alda ventured to ask, 'Is Eudora a gift too, Papa?'
+
+'Yes. A happy gift. For so she is! Let her be a little Epiphany Star to
+you all! Tell Mother that I call them a double joy, a double comfort!
+Poor little maid!' and he kissed her again, 'will no one welcome her,
+but the father who is leaving her?'
+
+'O Papa! You know how we will love them,' sobbed Wilmet.
+
+'I think I do, my dear;' and he smoothed the glossy hair; 'but with
+love comes joy, you know.'
+
+'It is very hard now,' broke from the poor girl.
+
+'Very,' he said tenderly; 'but it will if you make the burthen a
+blessing--the cross a crutch--eh, my Cherry? Now, a kiss each, and go,
+I am tired.'
+
+He was tired, but not apparently worse.
+
+Edgar and his three juniors started off directly after church in quest
+of ice where they might behold skating, and practise sliding; and
+Wilmet, with a view to quiet, actually ventured on the extravagance of
+providing them with a shilling, that they might forage for themselves,
+instead of coming home to dinner.
+
+She regretted Edgar's absence, however, for when Mr. Bevan came in to
+hold the Epiphany Feast in the sick chamber, her father asked for Edgar
+and Geraldine, and looked disappointed that the boy was gone. But he
+murmured, 'Maybe it is best!' and when the little girl came in, flushed
+and awe-struck, he took her hand, and said, 'May not I have this little
+one--my last pupil--to share the feast with me? Willing and desirous,'
+he smiled as he held her, and she coloured intensely, with tears in her
+eyes.
+
+There could be no denial, and his judgment at such a moment could only
+be accepted by the Rector; and the child herself durst not say one word
+of her alarm and awe. Papa knew. And never could she forget that he
+held her hand all the time that she leant--for she could not kneel--by
+his bed. Her elder brother and sisters were there too, and he kissed
+and blessed each tenderly afterwards, and Sister Constance too knelt
+and asked his blessing. Then he thanked Mr. Bevan warmly, and called it
+a most true day of brightness. They heard him whispering to himself,
+'Arise, shine, for thy Light is come;' and the peaceful enjoyment
+seemed so to soothe him, that he was not, as usual, eager to get up.
+
+It was only towards the early dusk that a restlessness came on, and an
+increase of the distress and oppression of breath, which he thought
+might be more bearable in his chair; and Mr. Audley, who had just come
+in, began with Felix to dress him, and prepare to move him. But just as
+they were helping him towards the chair, there was a sort of choke, a
+gasping struggle, his head fell on Felix's shoulder, the boy in terror
+managed to stretch out a hand and rang the bell; but in that second
+felt that there was a strange convulsive shudder, and--
+
+'Felix!' Mr. Audley's low voice sounded strange and far away. 'I do
+believe--'
+
+The figure was entirely prone as they lifted it back to the bed. They
+needed not the exclamation of Sibby to reveal the truth. It _was_ only
+an exclamation, it would have been a shriek if Felix had not grasped
+her wrist with a peremptory grasp. But that bell had been enough; there
+had been a sound of dismay in the very tinkle, and Sister Constance was
+in the doorway.
+
+'Felix,' she said, understanding all, 'you must go to her. She
+heard--she is calling you. You cannot conceal it; be as quick and quiet
+as you can,' she added, as the stunned boy went past her, only hearing,
+and that as through a tempest, the feeble voice calling his name. He
+stood by the bed-side; his mother looked into his white face, and held
+out her hands; then as he bent down, clasped both round his neck. 'He
+trusted you,' she said.
+
+He sank on his knees as she relaxed her grasp, and hid her head beneath
+the clothes. A few holy words of commendation of the soul departed
+sounded from the other room; then at Sister Constance's touch of his
+hand, he quitted the room.
+
+Presently after, Felix was sitting in the large arm-chair in the
+dining-room, with his sister Geraldine on his lap, his arms round her,
+her arms tightly clasped round his neck, her hair hanging loosely
+down over his shoulder, her head against him, his face over her, as
+he rocked himself backwards and forwards with her, each straining the
+other closer, as though the mechanical action and motion could allay
+the pain. The table was all over baby-things, which numerous neighbours
+had sent in on the first news of the twins that morning, and which
+the girls had been inspecting; but no one--nothing else was to be
+seen--when Mr. Thomas Underwood, on his way from the station, finding
+his knock unheard, and the door ajar, found his way to the room.
+
+'What is this? How is your father?'
+
+Felix raised his face, still deeply flushed, and rising, placed his
+sister in the chair.
+
+'What, worse! You don't say so,' said Mr. Underwood, advancing.
+
+'He is gone!' said Felix, steadily, but in an unnatural voice. 'Quite
+suddenly. Not very long ago,' he began, but he felt unable to guess for
+what space of time he had been rocking Cherry there.
+
+'Dead! Edward Underwood! Bless me!' said Mr. Underwood, taking off his
+hat, passing his hand over his forehead, and standing horror-struck. 'I
+had no idea! You never sent over to say he was worse.'
+
+'He was not; it came on just now,' said Felix, holding by the
+mantelpiece.
+
+He groaned. 'Poor Edward! Well,' and he was forced to put his
+handkerchief to his eyes. He spoke more gently after that. 'Well, this
+is a sudden thing, but better than lingering on. Your poor mother,
+would she like to see me?'
+
+'She was confined last night.'
+
+'Bless me! bless me! What a state of things! Have you got any one to be
+with you?'
+
+'Yes; a lady from Dearport,' said Felix.
+
+'Humph. Which are you? not _my_ boy?'
+
+'No, I am Felix. Oh, poor Edgar!' he added, still bewildered.
+
+And it was at this moment that trampling steps were heard, making Felix
+spring forward with an instinct to silence them; but at the threshold
+the sight of his face brought conviction to Edgar; and with a loud
+uncontrollable cry, tired and hungry as he was, he seemed to collapse
+into his brother's arms, and fainted away.
+
+'_My_ poor boy!' exclaimed his cousin, coming to Felix's help, and
+himself lifting Edgar to the sofa. Of the other boys, Clement ran for
+water, Fulbert rushed out of sight, and Lancelot laid his head on a
+chair choking with tears.
+
+Felix and Clement were, poor children! used enough to illness to
+attend to their brother with a collectedness that amazed their cousin;
+and without calling for help, Edgar came shuddering and trembling
+to himself, and then burst into silent but agonising sobs, very
+painful to witness. He was always--boy as he was--the most easily
+and entirely overthrown by anything that affected him strongly; and
+Mr. Thomas Underwood was so much struck and touched by his exceeding
+grief, especially now that he looked on him as his own property, that
+after putting in some disjointed sentences of 'There--there--You'll
+always have a father in me--Don't, my boy--I tell you, you are my son
+now,'--which to Felix's mind made it more intolerable, he said, 'I'll
+take him home now--it will be all the better for him and for every one,
+poor lad! So many--'
+
+'The three younger ones were sent to Dearport yesterday,' said Felix;
+'but Edgar--'
+
+'To Dearport! Eh! To whom?'
+
+'The Sisters,' said Felix.
+
+A gruff sound followed. 'Come, come, my dear lad, 'tis bad enough, but
+I'll do my best to make up to you. It will be much the best way for
+you to come out of this,' he added, glancing round the dreary fireless
+room, which his entrance had reminded Felix to darken.
+
+'Thank you,' began Felix, not in the least supposing Edgar could go;
+'but now--'
+
+'It is not like a stranger,' added his relation. 'Be a sensible lad.
+One out of the way is something under the circumstances. Stay--whom can
+I see? I will give orders for you,' he added.
+
+'Mr. Audley and Sister Constance are seeing about things, thank you,'
+said Felix. 'I'll fetch Mr. Audley,' he added, as another trying grunt
+at the other name fell on his ear, and he put his arm round Geraldine,
+and helped her away.
+
+Mr. Audley came, having just parted with the doctor, who had explained
+the sudden termination as what he had of late not thought improbable,
+and further shown that it had been most merciful, since there might
+otherwise have been weeks, if not months, of much severer suffering. He
+had just looked in at the wife, but she had hardly noticed him, and he
+saw no dangerous symptoms about her, except an almost torpid calmness.
+
+Mr. Thomas Underwood saw Mr. Bevan, and made it clearly understood that
+he made himself responsible for all expenses, including mourning for
+the whole family. He even offered to have the funeral at Vale Leston,
+'if it were only to shame Fulbert Underwood;' but the wife was in no
+state to be asked, and the children shrank from the removal, so it was
+decided that Edward Underwood should sleep among those for whom he had
+spent his life, and where his children's lot for the present would be
+cast.
+
+The cousin carried Edgar back to Centry with him; the boy seemed too
+unhappy not to be restless, and as if he were ready to do anything to
+leave his misery behind him.
+
+The others remained with their preparations, and with such consolation
+as the exceeding sympathy and kindness of the whole town could afford
+them. Their mother remained in the same state, except when roused by
+an effort; and then there was an attention and presence of mind about
+her that gave anxiety lest excitement should be bringing feverishness;
+but she always fell back into her usual state of silence, such that it
+could be hardly told whether it were torpid or not.
+
+They looked out that half-finished comment on the Epistle to the
+Philippians. It stopped at the words--'Yea, and if I be offered upon
+the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you
+all.'
+
+Mr. Audley took those words for his text on the Sunday, and, not
+without breaking down more than once, read as much of the comment as
+there was time for, as the happy-hearted message of the late pastor,
+for whom indeed there were many tears shed. It seemed to suit with
+that solemn peace and nobleness that seemed like the 'likeness of the
+Resurrection face,' bringing back all the beauty of his countenance as
+he lay robed in his surplice, with a thorny but bright-fruited cross of
+holly on his breast, when his children looked their last, ere parting
+with what remained of that loved and loving father.
+
+Poor little Geraldine spent that worst hour of her life sitting by her
+mother's bed. She had been helped by Felix to that Feast which had been
+spread for the mourners in the church in early morning; but afterwards
+she was forced to remain at home, while the white-robed choir, the
+brother clergy of all the neighbourhood, and the greater part of the
+parish met their pastor for the last time in the church.
+
+There the first part of the service took place; and then--Cherry could
+just fancy she could hear the dim echo of the _Dies Irć_, as it was
+sung on the way to the cemetery. It was a very aching heart, poor
+child! full of the dull agony of a longing that she knew could never be
+satisfied again, the intense craving for her father.
+
+She missed him more really than any of them, she had been so much his
+companion; and she was the more solitary from the absence of Edgar,
+who had always been her chief partner in her pursuits. His departure
+had seemed like a defection; and yet she had reproached herself for so
+feeling it when he had run upstairs, on arriving with Mr. Underwood,
+looking paler, more scared and miserable, than any of them; and he
+was sobbing so much when he took his place in the procession, that
+Wilmet had made Felix take Alda, that she might support him. None of
+his mother's steady reserve and resolute stillness had descended to
+him, he was all sensibility and nervousness; and Geraldine, though
+without saying this to herself, felt as if 'poor Edgar' might really
+have been nearly killed by the last few days of sadness, he could bear
+depression so little. She could hardly have gone through them but for
+Sister Constance's kindness, and that rocking process from Felix,
+which she and he called 'being his great baby.' And now, when her
+mother looked up at her, held out a hand, and called her Papa's dear
+little Cherry, drawing her to lay her cheek by hers on the pillow,
+there was much soothing in it, though therewith the little girl felt
+a painful doubt and longing to know whether her mother knew what was
+passing; and even while perfectly aware that she must not be talked to
+nor disturbed, was half grieved, half angry, at her dropping off into
+a slumber, and awakening only upon little Stella's behalf. Those few
+words to Geraldine had been the only sign that day of perception of any
+existence in the world save that of the twins.
+
+So the time went by, and the little bustle of return was heard; Sister
+Constance came in, kissed Geraldine, and helped her down that she might
+be with Edgar, who was to return with the cousin, whispering to her
+by the way that it had been very beautiful. It was a day of bright
+sunshine, high wind, and scant sparkling feathery stars of snow, that
+sat for a moment shining in their pure perfectness of regularity on the
+black, and then vanished. 'So like himself,' Sister Constance said.
+
+Geraldine found her four elders and the three little boys all together
+in the dining-room; and while Wilmet anxiously asked after Mother,
+the others, in a sort of sad elation, told of the crowds present,
+the number of clergy--Mr. Ryder, too, came home from his holiday on
+purpose--the sobbing people, and the wreaths of camellias and of holly,
+that loving hands had made, and laid upon the coffin. And then the last
+hymn had been so sweet and beautiful, they all seemed refreshed and
+comforted except Edgar, who, coming fresh back to the desolation of the
+house, was in another paroxysm of grief.
+
+'But, Edgar,' said Alda timidly, 'you like being there, don't you?'
+
+'As if one could like anything now!'
+
+'Well! but, Eddy dear, you know what I mean. It is not bad being there.'
+
+'Not so bad as being at home. Oh!' and a terrible fit of sobbing came
+on, which made the other children stand round rather appalled; while
+Felix, hesitating, said,
+
+'It is no good going on in this way, Edgar. Father would say it was not
+right; and you are upsetting poor little Cherry.'
+
+'It is worse for him, because he has been away,' said Cherry, fondling
+him.
+
+'Yes,' said Edgar between his sobs 'It did not seem _so_ there.'
+
+'And are they kind?'
+
+'Oh, yes. Marilda let me sit in the school-room, and I had books,
+and things to copy; such an angel, Cherry, I'll bring it to you next
+time--my copy, I mean.'
+
+Here there was a summons from the other room for Felix.
+
+'Yes,' said Edgar, a good deal re-invigorated by having something
+to tell; 'I suppose they are going to tell him what is settled. Mr.
+Underwood wrote to the man at Vale Leston, and he won't do anything for
+us; but they are going to try for the Clergy Orphan for one of you two
+little boys.'
+
+'Oh!' there was a great gasp.
+
+'And about me?' asked Alda.
+
+'You are to come when we all go to London--to meet us at the station.
+There's a new governess coming, and you will start both together with
+her; and I think you'll beat Marilda, for she knows nothing, and won't
+learn.'
+
+'I hope she won't be jealous.'
+
+'I don't think it is in her! She's very jolly.'
+
+'But I can't go till Mamma is better.'
+
+Wilmet felt they were falling into a gossiping kind of way that jarred
+on her, and was glad of a summons upstairs.
+
+Mr. Thomas Underwood saw Alda before he returned home, told her she was
+his other daughter, and should join them on their way to London; and he
+further made arrangements about the christening, contingent, of course,
+on the mother's consent, and on the possibility of taking the very
+small delicate babies to the church. He made very extensive promises of
+patronage for the future, with a full and open heart, and looked as if
+he should like to adopt the whole family on the spot.
+
+        For the convenience of our readers we subjoin the first page of
+        the family Bible.
+
+        Edward Fulbert Underwood married August 1st, 1837--Mary Wilmet
+        Underwood.
+
+    Felix Chester  .  .  .  born, July  3rd, 1838.
+    Wilmet Ursula }
+    Alda Mary     }.  .  .    "   Aug. 11th, 1839.
+    Thomas Edgar.  .  .  .    "   Oct. 6th, 1840.
+    Geraldine.  .  .  .  .    "   Oct. 25th, 1841.
+    Edward Clement .  .  .    "   Nov. 23rd, 1842.
+    Fulbert James  .  .  .    "   Jan. 9th, 1844.
+    Lancelot Oswald.  .  .    "   May  16th, 1846.
+    Robina Elizabeth  .  .    "   Feb. 20th, 1848.
+    Angela Margaret.  .  .    "   Sept. 29th, 1851.
+    Bernard  .  .  .  .  .    "   Dec. 1st, 1852.
+    Stella Eudora    }
+    Theodore Benjamin}.  .    "   Jan. 6th, 1854.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WORKING FOR BREAD.
+
+    'Parson's lass 'ant nowt, an' she weant 'a nowt when 'e's dead;
+     Mun be a guvness, lad, or summut, an' addle her bread.'
+                                                   _Tennyson_.
+
+
+'Tell, little one,' said Mr. Rugg, the doctor, as he found Geraldine
+on the landing-place outside her mother's room, and spoke to her in
+a voice that to her reluctant ears, as well as to those of Sister
+Constance, who followed him, sounded all the more vulgar because it was
+low, wheedling, and confidential; 'you are always about the house, you
+know everything--what accident has your mamma met with?'
+
+Cherry's face grew set.
+
+'She has, then,' said the doctor, looking at Sister Constance. 'I
+thought so. Now, be a good child, and tell us all about it.'
+
+'I cannot,' she said.
+
+'Come, don't be silly and sulk. No one will punish you; we know it was
+an accident; out with it.'
+
+'My dear,' said Sister Constance, 'this is a pity. Much may depend on
+your speaking.'
+
+Cherry began to cry very piteously, though still silently.
+
+'Yes, yes, we see you are sorry,' said Mr. Rugg, 'but there's nothing
+for it now but to let us hear the truth.'
+
+She shook her head violently, and brow and neck turned crimson.
+
+Mr. Rugg grew angered, and tried a sharper tone. 'Miss Geraldine, this
+is regular naughtiness. Let me hear directly.'
+
+The flush became purple, and something like 'I won't' came from behind
+the handkerchief.
+
+'Leave her to me, if you please,' said Sister Constance gently; 'I
+think she will tell me what is right to be told.'
+
+'As you please, Lady Somerville,' said Mr. Rugg, who, since he had
+discovered her title, was always barbarously misusing it; 'but the
+thing must be told. It is doing Mrs. Underwood a serious injury to let
+childish naughtiness conceal the truth.'
+
+Constance put her arm round the little girl, a tiny weight for thirteen
+years old, and took her into the room where she had last seen her
+father. She was sobbing violently, not without passion, and the more
+distressingly because she carefully stifled every sound, and the poor
+little frame seemed as if it would be rent to pieces. 'Cherry, dear
+child, don't,' said Constance, sitting down and gathering her into her
+arms; 'do try and calm yourself, and think--'
+
+'He--he--I won't tell him!' sobbed the child. 'He's a bad man--he tells
+stories. He said he would not hurt me--when he knew he should most
+terribly. Papa said it was very wrong. Papa was quite angry--he called
+it deceiving, he did! I won't tell him!'
+
+'My dear child, is there anything to tell? Don't think about him, think
+about what is good for your mother.'
+
+'She told me not,' sobbed Cherry, but not with the anger there had been
+before. 'No, no, don't ask me; she told me not.'
+
+'Your mother? My dear little girl, whatever it is, you ought to say
+it. Your dear mother seems to be too ill and confused to recollect
+everything herself, and if it is not known whether she has been hurt,
+how can anything be done for her?'
+
+Cherry sat upon her friend's lap, and with a very heaving chest said,
+'If Felix says I ought--then I will. Papa said we should mind Felix--
+like him.'
+
+'I will call Felix,' said Sister Constance.
+
+Mr. Rugg looked very impatient of the delay; but Felix, who had just
+come in to dinner, was summoned. He came at once, and was soon standing
+by Geraldine's chair.
+
+'Yes, Geraldine, I think you ought to tell,' he said, as the loyal
+little thing gazed up at her new monarch. 'What did happen?'
+
+'It was on the day after New Year's Day,' said Geraldine, now speaking
+very fast. 'You were all at church, and she came out of--this room
+with Bernard in her arms--and called to me that I might come and sit
+with--him, because she was going down to the kitchen to make some
+beef-tea. And just then she put her foot into a loop of whip-cord, and
+fell. She could not save herself at all, because of Bernard; but she
+went backwards--against the steps.'
+
+'Did she seem hurt at the time?'
+
+'I did not think so. She pulled herself up by the baluster before I
+could get up to help her, and she never let Bernard go all the time--he
+did not even scream. She only said, "Now mind, Cherry, do not say one
+word of this to Papa or anybody else," and she told me she wasn't hurt.
+Oh! was she really?' as the Sister left the room.
+
+'I wonder whose the string was,' said Felix vindictively.
+
+'Oh, never mind! He'll be so sorry! Oh! I hope she won't be very much
+vexed at my telling!'
+
+'She will not mind now!' said Felix; 'it was only not to frighten Papa.'
+
+And Felix had his little sister in that one position where she felt
+a sort of comfort--like a baby in his arms to be rocked--when Sister
+Constance returned with the doctor. He spoke without either the anger
+or the persuasive tone now, and Cherry could bear it better, though she
+slipped off her brother's lap instantly, and stood up in dignity.
+
+'So your Mamma told you to conceal this mishap. That is some excuse.
+Now, tell me, how far did she fall?'
+
+'Not more than four steps, I am sure--I think three.'
+
+'And backwards?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Do you think she struck her head?'
+
+'Yes, the back of it.'
+
+'Ah! And she spoke and moved at once, not like one stunned?'
+
+'Oh no, not at all. She got up and made the beef-tea.'
+
+'The 2nd of January! That must have been about the time you began to
+observe that change of manner--the irritability your sister remarked,'
+said the doctor, turning to Felix.
+
+He nodded, angry as he had been with Alda for remarking it.
+
+All that the doctor further said was, that he must have another
+examination now that he knew a little more about the case; and he went
+away with Sister Constance, saying to her, 'Mrs. Underwood is a lady of
+wonderful fortitude and resolution, and really they are the worst kind
+of patients.'
+
+It was now more than a fortnight since that 6th of January which
+saw the birth of the twins and the death of their father, and Mrs.
+Underwood still lay quiet and almost torpid in her bed, seldom
+speaking, hardly ever originating anything, and apparently taking no
+interest whatsoever in anything outside her room; and yet there was no
+symptom unfavourable to her recovery to be detected. Within the last
+day or two they had tried to rouse her; papers had been brought to her
+to sign, and she did so obediently, but she did not follow the subject:
+she did not refuse, but did not second, any proposal for her beginning
+to sit up; and this was the more remarkable, as, being a woman of much
+health and energy in her quiet way, she had always recovered rapidly,
+and filled her place in the family alarmingly soon. The nurse had begun
+to suspect that besides the torpor of mind there was some weakness of
+limb; and with the new lights acquired, Mr. Rugg had no difficulty in
+coming to the conclusion that there was a slight concussion of the
+spine, causing excitement at first, and now more serious consequences;
+and though he did not apprehend present danger, he thought complete
+recovery very doubtful.
+
+'So they are almost worse than orphans,' said Sister Constance, when
+the Curate went down from reading to the invalid, and she could tell
+him the verdict.
+
+'Do they know?'
+
+'The fact? There is no need to lay the future on the shoulders of the
+present.'
+
+'A very dark present. I feel as if a great bright sun, warming and
+invigorating, had gone out of my life. Yet I knew him but two years.'
+
+'I can understand it, though I knew him but two days.'
+
+'I hope he may have been the making of me,' sighed Mr. Audley. 'He
+ought to be.'
+
+'I think he has been,' said she, smiling. 'There is some difference
+between you and the boyish young deacon that came here two years ago.'
+
+'Who thought life without shooting barely endurable by the help of
+croquet! I trust so! He was very patient and tolerant--made holidays
+for me that first summer which it cuts me to recollect.'
+
+'To live and share in a great sorrow does make a great step in life,'
+said Constance, thoughtfully looking at the much graver and more
+earnest brow of her husband's young cousin; 'and you were a comfort to
+them all as no one else could be.'
+
+'Must you go?' he said. 'I wanted to consult you. I am thinking of
+giving up my present lodgings to this Mowbray Smith, who is coming as
+curate, and coming here.'
+
+'Here! My dear Charles!'
+
+'I thought I had heard legends of twelve foot square?'
+
+'Not with thirteen children. Besides, we were seasoned!'
+
+'Stay; you don't understand. There are three rooms on this floor. Poor
+Mrs. Underwood will hardly want to occupy these two just yet. I take
+them, and put in some furniture--live to myself, but let them board and
+lodge me. They may as well have what is to be made by it as any one
+else.'
+
+'But can they? And, forgive me, Charles, are you prepared for the
+cookery here? Really, some of those children have appetites so small,
+that I can't bear to see them at dinner.'
+
+'That's the very point. They all say the invaluable Sibby is as good a
+nurse as she is bad as a cook. Now, if they have no help, Wilmet _must_
+stay at home to look after her mother and the twins; and that is not
+fit for such a young girl. Now, my coming might enable them to get some
+one who knows the use of meat and fires, and would send upstairs the
+only woman who would undertake such a charge as that must be.'
+
+'I don't like to say a word against it. It seems excellent for them.'
+
+'I would not live with them, but I should be there to help. I could
+keep Felix up in his Latin, and--'
+
+'Only one suggestion more, Charles. If you do not stay here long?'
+
+'Well--if not, every week I am here is so much tided over; and just at
+this time the charge must be heaviest. Those boys may be disposed of
+after a time.'
+
+'I wish we could keep those two little girls at St. Faith's, but there
+is no place yet for children of their class. I am wanted there this
+day week, and I cannot say but that I shall be glad to leave you here.
+Only, I recollect your mother's feelings.'
+
+'Mothers must draw in the horns of their feelings when their sons are
+ordained,' he said, laughing. 'I shall consult that notable person,
+Wilmet.'
+
+Wilmet started and blushed with pleasure. It would be so much less
+dreary; and, poor girl! she was feeling as if she were half rent
+asunder at the thought of Alda's going. So good for Felix, too. Only
+she must ask Mamma. And she did ask Mamma, and, to her great pleasure,
+Mrs. Underwood listened, and said, 'It is very kind.'
+
+'And shall it be, Mamma?'
+
+'I shall like for you to have some one in the house. Yes, my dear, I
+think--' then she paused. 'My dear, you and Sibby and Sister Constance
+had better talk it over. I do not seem able to consider it. But Sister
+Constance will tell you. My dear Wilmet, I am afraid you must have a
+great deal laid on you.'
+
+'Oh, never mind, Mamma; I like doing things. Besides, you are so much
+better.'
+
+'I'll try to help you more,' added Mrs. Underwood wistfully. 'Which
+room did you say?'
+
+And she listened, and even made a few suggestions, as Wilmet explained
+how she thought of making a sitting-room upstairs, and giving the two
+downstairs front ones to Mr. Audley, using the back room for the boys
+and children; she was altogether so much more open to comprehension,
+and ready to speak, that Wilmet was full of hope and assurance that she
+was really mending.
+
+When Sister Constance came in, the readiness to converse continued.
+She consulted her friend on the scheme, and its expedience for Mr.
+Audley, saying that she feared he would be uncomfortable; but she could
+not reject so great a help for her children. She had even thought of
+the advantage of keeping Sibby upstairs to attend on the babies and
+herself--work not fit to rest entirely on Wilmet, though the good girl
+had fully counted on giving up her work at school.
+
+It was evident that the examination by the doctor and Wilmet's
+consultation had thoroughly roused her, and she was as clear-headed
+as ever. Indeed, it seemed to Sister Constance that she was a little
+excited, and in that mood in which the most silent and reserved people
+suddenly become the most unreserved.
+
+She was asked at last what Mr. Rugg thought of her, and Sister
+Constance in reply asked whether she remembered her accident. She
+thought a little. 'Why--yes--I believe I did slip on the stairs; but it
+did not hurt me, and I forgot it. Does he think anything of it?'
+
+'I think he fears you gave yourself a shock.'
+
+'Not unlikely,' she said in an indifferent tone, and did not speak
+again for some minutes; then said, 'Yes, I see! I am thankful it did
+not tell on me sooner,' and her look brought the tears into Constance's
+eyes.
+
+'It told more than you did,' said Constance, endeavouring at a smile.
+
+'Not on the babies,' she said; 'and he never knew it, so there is no
+harm done! Thank God!'
+
+She lay a little longer, and Constance thought her going into her usual
+state of torpor; but she roused herself to say, 'Would you kindly look
+into that desk? You will find a green book.'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Please tear out the leaves, and burn it for me. I would not have one
+of the children see it on any account.'
+
+Constance began to obey, and saw that it was a diary. 'Are you sure it
+ought to be done?' she asked. 'Might it not be better to wait till you
+are better?'
+
+'I cannot tell that I shall be much less helpless. I know how things
+like this go,' she said.
+
+Constance was still reluctant, and Mrs. Underwood added, 'I will tell
+you. It is nothing good, I assure you. When we drove from the door at
+Vale Leston, the home of all our lives, _he_ turned to me and said,
+"Now, Mary, that page is shut for ever. Let us never speak a word to
+make the children or ourselves feel turned out of paradise." And I
+never did; but, oh! I wrote it. There are pages on pages of repinings
+there--I could not let them see it!'
+
+'Nay, but you were resigned.'
+
+'Resigned! What of that? I held my tongue! It was all I could do! I
+never knew things could be worse till I saw it was killing him, and
+then all I could do was still to keep silence.'
+
+There was an agony in her voice that Constance had never heard there
+before.
+
+'Silence was, no doubt--as things were--an exceeding kindness to him,'
+said Constance, 'and one that must have cost you much.'
+
+'Once--once, so tenderly, with tears in his eyes, he did beg me as a
+favour not to complain, or talk of Fulbert Underwood! I did not; but
+I never _could_ be the companion I was before to him. He was always
+happy, he did believe me so; but I could often only smile. If I talked,
+it could only have been of his health and our cares.'
+
+'You kept him happy by taking the weight so entirely to yourself.'
+
+'Perhaps; if he had only known how miserable it made me, we might have
+moved to a healthier place; but after that one time, I never could vex
+him or trust myself. To hear him console me and grieve for me, was
+worst of all.'
+
+Constance began to see how the whole woman, brought up to affluence,
+had been suddenly crushed by the change; and almost the more so for
+her husband's high and cheerful resolution, which had forced back
+her feelings into herself. Her powers had barely sufficed for the
+cares of her household and her numerous family, and her endurance had
+consisted in 'suffering, and being still.' No murmur had escaped, but
+only by force of silence. She had not weakened his energies by word
+or look of repining; but while his physical life was worn out by toil
+and hardship, her mental life had almost been extinguished in care,
+drudgery, and self-control; and all his sweetness, tenderness, and
+cheerfulness had not been able to do more than just to enable her to
+hold out, without manifesting her suffering. Enid had been a very
+suitable name for her; though without a Geraint in any respect to blame
+for what she underwent, she had borne all in the same silent and almost
+hopeless spirit, and with the same unfailing calm temper: but outside
+her own house, she had never loved nor taken real interest in anything
+since the day she drove from the door of Vale Leston; she had merely
+forced herself to seem to do so, rather than disappoint her eager
+husband and children.
+
+And now, how much of her torpor had been collapse, how much the effect
+of the accident, could not be guessed. She herself was greatly roused
+for the present, dwelt on the necessity of trying to get up the next
+day, and was altogether in a state excitable enough to make the Sister
+anxious.
+
+Other troubles too there were that evening, which made all feel that
+even though Mr. Audley was to live to himself, his presence in the
+house would be no small comfort.
+
+Fulbert, never the most manageable of the party, had procured a piece
+of wood from the good-natured carpenter, and was making a sparrow-trap
+on an improved plan, when Wilmet, impatient to have the room clear
+for Mr. Audley to come for the final decision--as he was to do in the
+evening--anxious to clear away the intolerable litter, and with more
+anxiety for Fulbert's holiday task than for the sparrows, ordered him
+to bed--ten minutes too early, and in too peremptory a tone.
+
+Fulbert did not stir.
+
+'Fulbert, I say, clear up that litter, and go to bed.'
+
+'Don't you hear, Fulbert?' said Felix, looking up from his book.
+
+Fulbert gave a pull to the newspaper that was spread under his works on
+the table, and sent all his chips and saw-dust on the ground.
+
+'O Fulbert! how naughty!' broke out Alda.
+
+'Fulbert, are you going to mind?' asked Wilmet. 'Please remember.'
+
+'I shall go in proper time,' growled Fulbert.
+
+'That is not the way to speak to your sister,' interposed Felix, with
+authority.
+
+Fulbert eyed him defiantly all over.
+
+Felix rose up from his chair, full of wrath and indignation. There
+was quite difference enough in their size and strength to give him
+the complete mastery, for Fulbert was only ten years old; but Wilmet,
+dreading nothing so much as a scuffle and outcry, sprang up, imploring,
+'O Felix! remember, Mamma is wide awake to-night. Let him alone--pray,
+let him alone.'
+
+Felix was thoroughly angry, and kept his hands off with exceeding
+difficulty. 'Little sneak,' he said; 'he chooses to take advantage.'
+
+'He always was a sneak; his nose is the shape of it,' said Edgar.
+
+As Felix and Wilmet had the sense to let this amiable observation drop,
+Edgar contented himself with making some physiognomical outlines of
+sneaks' noses on a slate; and silence prevailed till the church clock
+struck the half-hour, when Clement got up, and taking the slate, where
+he had been solacing himself with imitating Edgar's caricatures, he was
+about to make it an impromptu dust-pan, and went down on his knees to
+sweep up Fulbert's malicious litter, but was rewarded with a vicious
+kick on the cheek. It was under the table, out of sight; and Clement,
+like a true son of his mother, made no sign, but went off to bed like a
+Spartan.
+
+'Fulbert,' said Lance, rising to follow his example, 'it is time now.'
+
+He still sat on; and Felix, in intolerable wrath and vexation, found
+himself making such deep bites into a pencil, that he threw it from him
+with shame, just as Mr. Audley's bell sounded, and he ran down to let
+him in.
+
+'Now, Ful,' said Wilmet coaxingly, 'please go--or Mr. Audley will see.'
+
+'Let him.'
+
+Mr. Audley was there in a moment, and the next, Alda, in all the ruffle
+of offended dignity, was telling him that Fulbert was in one of his
+tempers, and would attend to nobody. Fulbert's back looked it. It
+evidently intended to remain in that obstinate curve till midnight.
+
+'I am sorry,' said Mr. Audley, 'I thought no one would have added to
+the distress of the house! What is it, Fulbert?' he added, laying his
+hand on his shoulder, and signing to Alda to hold her peace.
+
+'They bother,' said Fulbert, in the sulky tone; but still, as he
+regarded the new-comer as less of an enemy than the rest--'I'd have
+gone at half-past eight if they would let a fellow alone.'
+
+'Then the fellow had better give them no right to bother,' said
+Mr. Audley. 'Come, Fulbert, no ship can sail unless the crew obey.
+No mutiny. Here's your captain ready to shake hands and wish you
+good-night.'
+
+Fulbert could not face Mr. Audley's determined look, but he was not
+conquered. He took up his tools and his trap, gave a final puff to
+spread his sawdust farther, and marched off without a single good-night.
+
+'He has the worst temper of us all,' cried Alda.
+
+'You should be very cautious of provoking him,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+'I am afraid it was my fault,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'Nonsense,' said Felix; 'he is an obstinate little dog. I wish I was
+licking him. I hope he is not pitching into Clem!'
+
+'Clem is the biggest,' said Alda.
+
+'Yes, but he is much the meekest,' added Wilmet.
+
+'Tina's meek sauce is aggravation, itself,' observed Edgar. 'I should
+hope he was catching it!'
+
+'He is certainly not slow to put in his oar,' said Mr. Audley; 'did you
+hear of his performance in the vestry the other day?'
+
+'No. I hope he did not make an unusual ass of himself,' said Felix.
+
+'He and Mowbray Smith had last Tuesday's Evensong nearly to themselves,
+when Master Clem not only assisted Smith in putting on his hood, but
+expressed his doubts as to the correctness of it (never, of course,
+having seen any bachelor's but Oxford or Cambridge), and further gave
+him some good advice as to his manner of intoning.'
+
+'I hope he won't go on in that way at St. Matthew's!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'It is lucky he is going so soon,' said Mr. Audley. 'I doubt if Mowbray
+Smith will ever get over it!'
+
+'Regular snob that he is,' said Edgar; 'just one of my Lady's sort!
+What did he do? Go crying to her?'
+
+'O Edgar!' remonstrated Wilmet.
+
+'Well, Mettie, if even our spiritual pastors will be snobs, one must
+have the relief of expressing one's opinion now and then.'
+
+'I should say it was better to keep any such fact out of one's mind as
+much as might be,' said Mr. Audley, feeling himself unable to deny what
+had been so broadly expressed.
+
+'And we, at any rate, had better drop talking of snobs,' said Felix.
+
+'Hollo, Felix! I am sure you for one would not be a snob if you had
+turned chimney-sweeper, and let Tom Underwood nail me to his office;
+he'll never make one of me!'
+
+'I trust so,' said Felix; 'but it is not the way to keep from it to
+throw about the word at other folks.'
+
+'What's that?' cried Alda. 'Really, that boy must be falling upon some
+of them.'
+
+It was Lance, in great deshabille, who, opening a crack of the door,
+called cautiously, 'Wilmet, please come here.'
+
+Wilmet hastily obeyed, saying anxiously, as the door was shut, 'Never
+mind, dear Lance, he's in a horrid mood; but do bear it, and not make
+Felix more in a rage.'
+
+'Bosh about Ful,' said Lance unceremoniously. 'It is Cherry; she is
+crying so upstairs, and Clem and I can't get a word out of her.'
+
+Cherry, though older than the boys, had to precede them in vanishing
+for the night, as her undressing was a long operation dependent
+upon Sibby. Wilmet ran up in haste, and did indeed find poor little
+Geraldine with her face smothered under the clothes in an agony of
+weeping, very serious for so frail a little creature.
+
+'Cherry! Cherry, dear, don't! Are you feeling solitary? Are you missing
+_him?_ Oh, don't! Yes, dear, 'tis so sad; but we all do love you so.'
+
+Wilmet would have kissed and fondled her, but the child almost thrust
+her away.
+
+'Not that. Oh, not that! I wish it was.'
+
+'My dear Cherry, you can't have been naughty!'
+
+'Yes, yes! indeed I have. And now--'
+
+'I can't think--O Cherry, if you would only tell me what you mean!'
+cried Wilmet, aghast.
+
+And with agonised sobs, Cherry whispered, 'Mr. Rugg--O Mettie--such
+things as I said about him to Sister Constance--I made sure I had
+forgiven--long ago--and now--now, after _that_.'
+
+If Wilmet had not known how deeply both Geraldine and her father had
+resented what Mr. Rugg had meant as a little friendly gloss to save
+terror before a painful operation, she would have been utterly at a
+loss. And now, she found herself incapable by any argument or caress of
+soothing her sister's sense of heinous offence; for that rite, of which
+she had partaken with her father, had required charity with all men,
+and now she found she had been deceitful--she hated Mr. Rugg all the
+time. Oh, what should she do! how could she be so wicked!
+
+Wilmet tried to tell her that she had not known how it was at the time,
+but this seemed no comfort; and it was plain that that day's solemnity
+had lessened the inequality between the two girls so much, that for
+Wilmet to console her as a child was vain; and indeed, her invalid
+state and constant companionship with her father had rendered her
+religious feeling much more excitable, and more developed, than were as
+yet Wilmet's; and meantime, this piteous sobbing and weeping was doing
+great bodily harm.
+
+Wilmet at last, hearing a door open as if the nurse were taking Sister
+Constance's place, ran down to take counsel with that kind friend on
+the way. She whispered her trouble on the stairs, and the Sister was
+soon kneeling over the little bed; but her comfort was not persuading
+the child to think less of the fault, but promising that she should
+tell all to Mr. Audley to-morrow.
+
+Nay, seeing that even this was too long hence for the 'weary soul, and
+burdened sore,' to look forward to--indeed, that the preparation for
+the interview would be sleep-destroying--she said, 'Then you shall see
+him at once, my dear.'
+
+Wilmet opened her eyes in dismay. That little attic, bare of all but
+beds, was her thought; but Sister Constance, ever an effective woman,
+had the little black frock, the shoes and stockings, on in no time, and
+throwing a shawl over all, actually gathered the small light frame up
+into her arms, and carried her down to the fire in the room now vacated
+by the nurses and babies. And there she fetched Mr. Audley to her. 'It
+will not do,' she whispered on the way to Wilmet, 'to treat her as a
+child _now_.'
+
+'He always made so much of her,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'Yes; and now she is a Communicant.'
+
+They left her to Mr. Audley, and presently, when the door opened
+again, it was he who was carrying her upstairs again; and when Sister
+Constance had taken possession of her, she whispered, 'Yes, thank you.
+He says I may come on Sunday, and I think it is forgiven. I shall say
+a prayer about charity always now!' And with a deep sigh, the worn-out
+little penitent lay down to her sleep.
+
+'O Mr. Audley, it is plain we cannot do without you,' sighed Wilmet, as
+she came down, not without tears in her eyes.
+
+And then came the conference upon ways and means, rooms and attendance.
+Mr. Audley had parted with his horse and groom in the autumn, observing
+that they ate their heads off; and the terms he now proposed for
+lodging, board, and attendance were what Felix and Wilmet would have
+known to be wondrously liberal but for their inexperience, especially
+as he meant to send in some, at least, of the furniture. He was to have
+his meals, at his own times, in his sitting-room; and Sister Constance
+had a person in her eye at Dearport, who was likely to do well in the
+kitchen, and not quarrel with Sibby.
+
+Wilmet had made up her mind that she must remain at home all day, and
+had even told Miss Pearson so; but that good lady had refused to accept
+her resignation, and had come to Mr. Bevan about it; and now both the
+Sister and the Curate united in telling her that she ought not, as long
+as it was possible, to give up this means of improving herself, as well
+as lessening the family burthen. To give up her education now would be
+to sink into a housewifely drudge, who would hardly be able to maintain
+herself when the younger ones would be getting out into the world; and
+as Geraldine must stay at home to be a companion to her mother, there
+was no need for her being also always in attendance, while Sibby was
+equal to the charge. Indeed, Mrs. Underwood herself had said something
+that showed her to contemplate Wilmet's remaining at school.
+
+'You must,' said Felix decidedly. 'Why, you might as well turn
+nursery-girl at once.'
+
+'I should like it,' said Wilmet. 'I shall be miserable at
+school--always thinking something is going wrong. And Cherry can never
+bear with the babies! Oh! please don't tell me I must.'
+
+'I tell you to begin,' said Sister Constance. 'You can always give it
+up if you feel that the need lies at home; but I think the few hours'
+change every day--for duty's sake, mind--will give you vigour not to be
+worn down by the home cares.'
+
+'But Cherry will have them always! She who cares for books and drawing
+so much more than I!'
+
+'Yes; but if you go on learning, you can teach her,' said Sister
+Constance.
+
+'Oh!' cried Wilmet; 'Cherry knows more than I do.'
+
+'Little Cherry is the cleverest of us all,' added Felix.
+
+'Still,' said the Sister, 'the mere going over your work with you
+will give her change and interest. I do feel strongly convinced, dear
+Wilmet, that to shut yourself up with her, without gathering anything
+from elsewhere, would be very bad for both.'
+
+'We must see how Mamma is, and how Cherry gets on,' was all that Wilmet
+would say, but the arrangement was made, and was to take effect in ten
+days' time, when Mr. Mowbray Smith was coming to be second curate, and
+Sister Constance must change places with the three absent children, and
+Alda would be gone to her adopted home.
+
+Then Mr. Audley took leave; and as Felix went to the front door with
+him, he said, 'Forgive me, Felix; but I am a younger brother myself,
+and I do hope you do not mean to assert your authority by licking.'
+
+Felix coloured a little; and though he spoke respectfully, it was with
+some little annoyance. 'There is nothing else that does with Fulbert.'
+
+'Stay, Felix; I am not questioning that he may be the sort of boy for
+whom flogging may be good from some one.'
+
+'He is!' said Felix. 'He never will behave himself till he has felt his
+master! It has been so at school; and once, even my father made himself
+quite ill for a week with having to flog Fulbert for disobedience. It
+settled him; but he is not like the others--Clem and Lance are not any
+trouble; but--I know it will come to it sooner or later; Ful will never
+mind me or Wilmet till I have done it once.'
+
+'And when his strength is equal to yours?'
+
+'Then I hope he will have more sense.'
+
+'Yes, Felix; but what if by forcing him into dogged submission by your
+bodily strength you have lost his confidence, and have no moral power
+over him? Things that can be borne from a father come very differently
+from a brother.'
+
+Felix was quite crimson now. 'But what shall I do, Mr. Audley, when he
+defies Wilmet, and teases Cherry and the little ones?'
+
+'Try all you can with his better sense, but don't anger him by tones of
+authority. What you think needful rule may seem to him domineering. And
+if necessary, call me. My blows will not leave the after rankling that
+yours will, even if they are necessary.'
+
+Felix sighed. He was not desirous of beating his brother in the main;
+but being unhappily master of the house, he was unwilling not to be so
+entirely. He wished Mr. Audley good-night, not in his most perfectly
+cordial tone.
+
+However, the next morning he had brought himself to thank Mr. Audley.
+
+'Thank you, Felix,' said the Curate; 'it is a great relief to me. I was
+afraid you thought you were going to bring a meddling fellow in upon
+you.'
+
+Felix coloured, and with an effort--for which Mr. Audley liked him the
+better--said, 'I know I shall always deserve what advice you give me,
+and I hope another time I may take it better than the last.'
+
+Soon after, one train carried away four of the young Underwoods to
+begin life elsewhere. The Thomas Underwoods had desired that Alda and
+Edgar should meet them at the station, and at Felix's entreaty had
+also undertaken to convoy Clement, who, thanks to Mr. Audley, was
+to be a chorister, and live in the clergy-house at St. Matthew's,
+Whittingtonia. It would have been Fulbert, only unluckily he had
+no ear, and so he was left at home, while Lady Price, Mrs. Thomas
+Underwood, and all the ladies they could enlist in their service,
+canvassed desperately, and made the cards of 'Fulbert James and
+Lancelot Oswald, sons of the Rev. Edward Fulbert Underwood, THIRTEEN
+children,' a weariness to every friend of a subscriber to clergy-orphan
+schools. Robina was not quite old enough to stand for the like
+election; but Sister Constance had negotiated with a lady who had
+devoted herself to educating children of better birth than means, and
+the little girl was to be dropped at the nearest station to her school
+at Catsacre. It had all been settled in a wonderfully short time, by
+Sister Constance and Mr. Audley, with full though helpless acquiescence
+from Mrs. Underwood. They felt it well to lessen the crowd of children
+in the house, and the responsibilities of the elder ones, and acted at
+once.
+
+As to Alda, she was too miserable at home not to be ready to follow
+Edgar, though she had at first implored to stay and help Wilmet till
+their mother was about again; but the Thomas Underwoods were unwilling
+to consent to this--and after all, Alda was more apt to cry than to
+be of much real use. Sister Constance saw that she was only another
+weight on her sister's hands, and that, terrible as the wrench would be
+between the twins, Wilmet would be freer when it was once over. Poor
+Wilmet! she had felt as if she could hardly have lived over these weeks
+save for fondling the younger twins, and waiting on her mother. She was
+almost passive, and ran up and downstairs, or prepared the wardrobes
+of the departing children, just as she was bidden, all in one quiet
+maze of grief. The tears seemed to be always in her eyes, very often
+dropping, and yet they never hindered her, and she never uttered a word
+of deprecation or complaint; only she could not eat, and a kiss would
+bring down a whole shower; and at night, the two sisters would hold
+each other tight, and cry and kiss themselves to sleep.
+
+So had come the last day--the last for all four. Robina, who had only
+just come back from St. Faith's, was grave, puzzled, and awestruck,
+clinging chiefly to Lancelot, and exchanging confidences in corners
+with him, in which they were probably much less childish than they
+showed themselves to the outer world. Clement was very grave and
+unhappy; but seemed to be most distressed at parting with Harry Lamb,
+a favourite school-fellow of his own quiet stamp, with whom he spent
+all available time. Alda and Wilmet were hand in hand at every possible
+moment, and if possible cheek to cheek--each felt as if herself was cut
+in two.
+
+Then Edgar, who had only come home for that farewell Sunday, had
+another of his paroxysms of sorrow at the changes at home, which he
+contrived to forget when at Centry. All that was becoming in a manner
+usual to the others was a shock to him, and he was so very miserable
+the whole day, that he treated every attempt of the others to cheer
+him as a mere token of their hardness of heart. He went in to see his
+mother, and was so overcome at finding her no better, that he rushed
+away, and threw himself on a sofa as if he was going to faint; and when
+at church he saw his father's place filled up he fell into such a fit
+of sobbing, that half-a-dozen smelling-bottles were handed across the
+seats.
+
+However, he had recovered himself on Monday morning, and made it his
+particular request that nobody would come bothering to the station,
+to make them look like Fulbert's canvassing-card of the thirteen
+children--and as the mention of it always affronted Fulbert deeply, it
+was plain that _he_ would be no good company. However, Felix had been
+allowed an hour from his business for that very purpose, and he simply
+said, 'Nonsense, Edgar, I shall take Robin down.' Wilmet submitted,
+though with a great pang. She had no assurance that she should not
+break down, and a crying match at the station--oh no! It might make
+Bobbie roar all the way.
+
+So Alda clung round her neck and Geraldine's in their own little
+parlour, and wished her mother good-bye, scarcely knowing whether it
+were with a full understanding how many were parted from the wing that
+now seemed unable to shelter them; and then Wilmet went up and quietly
+lay down by her mother on her bed, feeling as if there was nothing she
+cared for in all life, and as if youth, hope, and happiness were gone
+away from her for ever, and she were as much widowed as her mother. She
+was even past crying--she could do nothing but lie still. But then her
+mother's hand came out and stroked her; and presently one of the babies
+cried, and Wilmet was walking up and down the room with it, and all
+activity with her outward senses, though her heart felt dead. Meantime,
+the luggage went in the omnibus, the four children walked up together
+only escorted by Felix, and were passed on their way by the prancing
+and thundering carriage from Centry.
+
+But the sense of usefulness that came gave strength and energy to Felix
+and Wilmet Underwood as the first excitement passed away, and they
+better understood their tasks.
+
+Of the absent ones they heard good accounts. Alda was altogether one
+with her cousin's family, and seemed to be completely on an equality
+with Marilda; and Edgar had been sent by Thomas Underwood to acquire
+modern languages under the care of an Englishman who took private
+pupils at Louvaine, whence Edgar despatched most amusing letters and
+clever sketches. Clement was in great favour, both musically and
+morally, at St. Matthew's; and little Robina was reported to have
+bewailed her home with floods of nightly tears, but to have soon
+settled down into the bonnie little pet of the elder girls.
+
+Except for the separation, the cloud had hardly fallen on these, but
+their departure had made a great hole in the hitherto unbroken family;
+and while Felix and Wilmet, by the loss of their contemporaries, seemed
+placed at a point far away from the others, Geraldine was conscious of
+much loneliness. The twins had always consorted together, and regarded
+her as a mere child, and her chief companions had been her father and
+Edgar, so that she seemed left at an equal distance both from the elder
+and younger party.
+
+Then the world around her was so busy, and she could do so little. She
+slept in a little inner room beyond the large nursery, where Wilmet
+kept guard over Angela and Bernard; and long before six o'clock, she
+always heard the call pass between the eldest brother and sister; and
+knew that as soon as he was dressed, Felix--it must out--was cleaning
+the family boots, including those of the lodger, who probably supposed
+that nature did it, and never knew how much his young landlord had done
+before joining him in his early walk to St. Oswald's.
+
+Meantime Wilmet conducted the toilette of the two little children, and
+gave the assistance that Cherry needed, as well as discharging some of
+the lighter tasks of the housemaid; leaving the heavier ones to Sibby
+and Martha, a stout, willing, strong young woman, whom Sister Constance
+had happily found for them, and who was disqualified, by a loutish
+manner and horrible squint, from the places to which her capabilities
+might have raised her.
+
+Then Wilmet helped her sister downstairs, and a visit was paid to the
+mother and the twins, who were Sibby's charge for the night. Mrs.
+Underwood was still in the same state. It was indeed possible to
+rouse her, but at the expense of much suffering and excitement; and
+in general, she was merely tender, placid, and content, mechanically
+busied about her babies, and responding to what was said, but entirely
+incapable of any exertion of body, and as inactive in mind as in limb.
+Wilmet attended to her while Sibby went to her breakfast, returning
+with that of her mistress in time to send Wilmet down to preside at
+the family meal, a genuine Irish dish of stir-about--for which all had
+inherited a taste from their father's Irish mother. Only Cherry was too
+delicate for such food, and was rather ashamed of her cup of tea and
+slice of bread.
+
+However, this was one of the few times when she could hope she was
+useful; for when Felix was gone to the printing-office, the boys to
+the grammar-school, and Wilmet, first to the kitchen, and then to Miss
+Pearson's, she remained with bowl and cloth to wash up in her own
+peculiarly slow and dainty way, never breaking but always dreaming,
+while Angela carried them one by one, first to her, then to the kitchen.
+
+'Now Cherry.'
+
+Mr. Audley's door opened, he would step forward and take the well-worn
+books in one hand, and hold the doors open with the other as Cherry
+tardily hopped in, and perched herself by the table. Her confirmation
+studies had been left in his charge; and then followed a little Greek,
+some Latin, a page or two of French, the revision of an exercise, and
+some help in Euclid and fractions--all studies begun with her father,
+and both congenial and useful to her, as the occupation that (next
+to drawing) best prevented her from feeling the dreary loneliness of
+her days; for though he could seldom give her more than an hour, the
+preparation--after he had helped her upstairs--occupied her during the
+whole period of tranquillity while the younger children slept. Angela
+appeared first, and did some small lessons, cat-and-dog readings, and
+easy hymns, then was generally content to sit on the floor in Mamma's
+room, admiring or amusing the twins. Then Cherry, according to her
+sense of duty, drew or worked. There was a horrible never-ending
+still-beginning basket of mending in the family, which Wilmet
+replenished every Saturday; and though Mrs. Underwood's instinct for
+piecing and darning had revived as soon as she was taken out of bed,
+her work now always needed a certain revision to secure the boys from
+the catastrophe of which Wilmet often dreamt--appearing in public in
+ragged shirt-sleeves! Geraldine knew that every stitch she left undone
+would have to be put in by her sister in late evening or early morning,
+and therefore often wrenched herself from the pencil and paints that
+best beguiled her thoughts from the heart-ache for her father, and the
+craving for Edgar, or the mere craving for light, air, liberty, and
+usefulness. Her only excuse to her own conscience for allowing herself
+her chief pleasure was, that it was her way of helping an old woman
+who kept a stall of small wares on market days, and could sometimes
+dispose of little pictures on domestic and Scriptural subjects, if
+highly coloured, glazed with gum, and bound with bright paper--pickings
+and stealings, as Felix called them, gleaned from advertisements and
+packing-boxes at Mr. Froggatt's; but these did not allow much scope for
+the dreams of her fancy.
+
+Nor had she much choice when Bernard once awoke and came down, in all
+the unreasoning tyranny of two years old, when it was an even chance
+whether he would peaceably look at the old scrap-book, play with
+Angela, or visit Mamma; or be uproarious, and either coalesce with
+Angela in daring mischief, fight a battle-royal with her, or be violent
+with and jealous of the twins. The urchin had found out that when once
+Cherry's crutch was out of her reach she could not get at him; and he
+had ridden off upon it so often, before committing any of his worst
+misdemeanours, that Cherry always lay down on it to secure it. After
+all, he was a fine, affectionate, impetuous little fellow, but with a
+very high, proud, unmanageable will; and she was very fond and proud of
+him; but never more so than when he slept till dinner-time.
+
+That was the hour which brought Felix home to help Sibby to carry his
+mother into the sitting-room, pay a little court to the babies, and
+enliven Cherry with any chance scrap of news or occupation. Best of all
+were the proofs of that unfinished comment on the Epistle to Philippi,
+which was being printed by subscription of the congregation, and the
+clergy of the diocese. It always did Mrs. Underwood good to have these
+read aloud to her by her little daughter, and _she_ could sometimes
+find a clue to the understanding of sentences that had puzzled even Mr.
+Audley.
+
+The two school-boys never appeared till dinner was imminent; and
+then--one unuttered wish of poor Cherry was that Mr. Audley could have
+dined with them; but he kept to his own hours, and they were late.
+
+Whereby dinners on five days of the week were apt to be something on
+this fashion. Bell-ringing--Felix helping Geraldine to her seat, Angela
+trotting after; a large dish of broth, with meat and rice, and another
+of mashed potato; no sign of the boys; Angela lisping Grace; Sibby
+waiting with a tray.
+
+Felix filled a soup-plate for his mother, and a basin for Bernard. 'We
+must begin, I suppose,' and he helped his sisters and himself.
+
+'Here, Angel, push over your plate; I'll cut that.--How did you get on
+to-day?'
+
+'Very well; the only mistake I made I found out before Smith saw it. I
+know all the stationery and steel pens apart now, and haven't made a
+mistake for a week. Yesterday Bartlett junior came in, he stood like
+a post before Mr. Froggatt till he caught sight of me, and then he
+shouted out, "O Blunderbore, you know! What is it that Collis wants?"'
+
+'And did you?'
+
+'When he said it was a horrid sum-book all little a's and b's.--What
+have you been doing, Cherry?'
+
+'I have begun an abstract of the first Punic--'
+
+The door flew open with a bounce, and two hot, wild-locked boys, dust
+everywhere except in their merry blue eyes, burst in, and tumbled
+on their chairs. 'I say--isn't it a horrid sell? we ain't to have a
+holiday for Squire's wedding.--Come, Fee, give us some grub.'
+
+'You have not said Grace,' said Cherry.
+
+Lance, abashed, stood up and bowed; Fulbert looked grim, and mumbled
+something.
+
+'You have not washed your hands,' added Felix.
+
+'Bosh! What's the good?' said Fulbert.
+
+'They'll be as jolly dirty again directly,' said Lance.
+
+'But you would be more decent company in the meantime,' said Felix.
+
+At that moment there was a splash in his plate, a skip-jack made of the
+breast-bone of a chicken had alighted there with a leap.
+
+'There's Felix's master come after him,' cried Fulbert, and Lance went
+off into choking laughter.
+
+'Boys, how can you?' broke out Cherry.
+
+'Look at Blunderbore fishing out his master!' was Fulbert's answer.
+
+     'The frog is in the bog,
+      And Felix is squeamish,'
+
+chanted Lance.
+
+'Bad rhyme, Lance,' said Felix, who could bear these things much better
+from the younger than the elder. Indeed, he scarcely durst notice them
+in Fulbert, lest he should be betrayed into violence by letting out his
+temper.
+
+'I say!' cried Lance, struck by a new idea, 'what prime stuff it is
+for making a fort!' and he began to scrape the more solid parts of his
+plateful to one side.
+
+'Oh, I say, isn't it?' echoed Fulbert: 'but I've eaten up the best part
+of my castle;' and he grasped at the ladle.
+
+'No, I thank you,' said Felix, putting it on the other side. 'While I
+am here, you don't play tricks with that.'
+
+Fulbert swallowed a spoonful in a passion, but a bright thought struck
+Lance, who always cared much more for fun than for food. '_I say_,
+we'll empty it all into one, and eat it down.'
+
+'You horrid boys!' plaintively exclaimed Cherry, almost crying--for
+this return to savage life was perfect misery to her. 'I can't bear it.'
+
+'I will not have Cherry tormented,' said Felix, beginning to be very
+irate.
+
+'We ain't doing anything to Cherry,' said Lance, amazed.
+
+'Don't you know it spoils Cherry's appetite to see you so disgusting?'
+
+'Then she'll have the more next time,' said Fulbert. 'Get along,
+Captain--you've splashed my face!'
+
+'Hurrah! the red-hot shot! The rice is the cannon-balls! Where's some
+bread?'
+
+'O Lance!' entreated Cherry; 'no waste--think of Wilmet and the bills.'
+
+'We'll eat it every bit up,' asseverated Lance; but Fulbert growled,
+'If you bother any more, I shall crumble the whole lot out at window.'
+
+'It is wicked to waste bread,' lisped Angela, and Martha at that moment
+appeared to fetch the tureen for the kitchen dinner.
+
+'Can't you eat any more, Cherry?' asked Felix gloomily.
+
+'Not a bit, thank you,' she said.
+
+'We've not done!' shouted the boys, seizing on her scarcely-tasted and
+half-cold plate.
+
+'You must finish after. Come, Cherry!' Then, as they left the room, and
+she laid her head on his shoulder--'Little ruffians!' he said under his
+breath.
+
+'Oh, never mind, Felix. I don't--at least I ought not to mind--they
+don't mean it.'
+
+'Lance does not, but I think Fulbert does. He'll make me thrash him
+within two inches of his life, before he has done. And then there's no
+one to take me in hand for it. It is horridly bad for them, too, to
+live just like young bears.'
+
+But he smoothed his brow as he came into the room where his mother was,
+and amused her till his time was up.
+
+Mr. Froggatt had explained to his father long ago, that Felix's work
+would not be that of a clerk in a great publishing house, but veritably
+that belonging to the country bookseller and printer, and that he must
+go through all the details, so as to be thoroughly conversant with
+them. The morning's work was at the printing-house, the afternoon's
+at the shop. The mechanical drudgery and intense accuracy needed in
+the first were wearisome enough; and moreover, he had to make his way
+with a crusty old foreman who was incredulous of any young gentleman's
+capabilities, and hard of being convinced that he would or could be
+useful; but old Smith's contempt was far less disagreeable to him
+than the subdued dislike he met with from Redstone, the assistant in
+the shop, a sharp, half-educated young man, who had aspired to the
+very post of confidence for which Felix was training--and being far
+less aware of his own utter unfitness for it than was Mr. Froggatt,
+regarded the lad as an interloper; and though he durst not treat him
+with incivility, was anxious to expose any deficiency or failure on
+his part. Having a good deal of quickness and dexterity, he could
+act as a reporter, draw up articles of a certain description for the
+newspaper, and had, since the death of Mr. Froggatt's eldest son, been
+absolutely necessary to him in carrying on the business; and now, it
+was a matter of delicate discretion on the master's part to avoid
+hurting the feelings of the assistant, whom a little more would have
+made his tyrant, and a dread of the appearance of favouritism made
+it needful to keep Felix thoroughly in a subordinate post, till real
+superiority of mind and education should assert itself over elder years
+and mere familiarity with detail. This reserved ill-will of Redstone's
+had much increased the natural discomfort of appearing behind the
+counter to former acquaintance, and had rendered the learning the
+duties there doubly troublesome and confusing; though, in recalling the
+day's doings, there was some amusement in contrasting the behaviour of
+different people, some--of whom Mr. Ryder was the type--speaking to
+him freely in his own person, others leaving him as an unrecognized
+shop-boy; and a third favouring him with a horrid little furtive nod,
+which he liked least of all. But though awkward and embarrassed at
+first, use soon hardened him, and made the customers indifferent, so
+that by the spring he had begun to be useful, and to feel no particular
+excitement about it.
+
+The worst of his business was that it kept him so late, that he had
+but a very short evening, and no time for exercise. He was on his feet
+most of the day, but indoors, and his recreation chiefly consisted
+in choir-practice twice a week. Not that he missed more positive
+amusement; the cares of life and Edgar's departure seemed to have taken
+the boyish element of frolic out of him; and left him gravely cheerful
+indeed, but with no greater desire of entertainment than could find
+vent in home conversation, or playing with the little ones.
+
+Wilmet and the two boys were at liberty full two hours before him. The
+latter generally stayed out as long as light and hunger permitted.
+Mr. Audley continually stumbled on them playing at marbles, racing
+headlong in teams of pack-thread harness with their fellows, upsetting
+the nerves of quiet folk--staring contentedly at such shows as required
+no outlay, or discontentedly at the outside of those that demanded the
+pennies they never had. They were thorough little street-boys; and all
+that he could do for them was to enforce their coming in at reasonable
+hours, and, much to their sister's relief, cause their daily lessons to
+be prepared in his room. Otherwise their places in their classes would
+have been much less creditable.
+
+Wilmet's return was always Geraldine's great relief, for the afternoon
+of trying to amuse her mother, and keep the peace between the children,
+was almost more than she was equal to; though, on fine days, Sibby
+always took out the two elder babies, with an alternate twin, for an
+hour's air, and Mr. Audley daily visited the invalid. Mr. Bevan did so
+twice a week, with a gentle sympathising tone and manner that was more
+beneficial than Lady Price's occasional endeavours to make her 'rouse
+herself.' Miss Pearson and a few humbler friends now and then looked
+in, but Mrs. Underwood had been little known. With so large a family,
+and such straitened means, the part of the active clergyman's wife was
+impossible to her; she had shrunk from society, and most people knew
+nothing more of her than that the faded lady-like figure they used to
+see among her little flock at church, was Mrs. Underwood.
+
+Wilmet's coming home was always a comfort; and though to her it was
+running from toil to care, the change was life to her. To have been
+either only the teacher or only the housewife might have weighed over
+heavily on her; but the two tasks together seemed to lighten each
+other. She had a real taste and talent for teaching, and she and
+her little class were devoted to one another, while the elder girls
+loved her much better since Alda had been away. The being with them,
+and sharing their recreation in the middle of the day, was no doubt
+the best thing to hinder her from becoming worn by the depressing
+atmosphere around her mother. She always brought home spirits and
+vigour for whatever lay before her, brightening her mother's face,
+dispelling squabbles between Angela and Bernard, and taking a load of
+care from Geraldine.
+
+There was sure to be some anecdote to enliven the home-keepers, or some
+question to ask Cherry, whose grammar and arithmetic stood on firmer
+foundations than any at Miss Pearson's, and who was always pleased to
+help Wilmet. The evening hours were the happiest of the day, only they
+always ended too soon for Cherry, who was ordered up by Sibby as soon
+as her mother was put to bed, and had, in consequence, a weary length
+of wakeful solitude and darkness--only enlivened by the reflection from
+the gas below--while Felix and Wilmet sat downstairs, she with her
+mending, and he either reading, or talking to her.
+
+On Saturday, which she always spent at home, and in very active
+employment in the capacities of nurse, housemaid, or even a slight
+taste of the cook and laundress, the evening topic was always the
+accounts--the two young heads anxiously casting the balance--proud and
+pleased if there were even a shilling below the mark, but serious and
+sad under such a communication as, 'There's mutton gone up another
+half-penny;' or, 'Wilmet, I really am afraid those boots of mine cannot
+be mended again;' or again, 'See what Lance has managed to do to this
+jacket. If one only could send boys to school in sacking!'
+
+'Are not there a few pence to spare for the chair for Cherry? She will
+certainly get ill, if she never goes out now spring is coming on.'
+
+'Indeed, Felix, I don't know how! If there is a penny over, it is
+wanted towards shoes for Bernard; and Cherry begs me, with tears in her
+eyes, not to let her be an expense!'
+
+Poor Geraldine! the costing anything, and the sense of uselessness,
+were becoming, by the help of her nightly wakefulness, a most terrible
+oppression on her spirits. Her father was right. His room had been a
+hot-bed to a naturally sensitive and precocious character, and the
+change that had come over her as time carried her farther and farther
+away from him, affected her more and more.
+
+Her brother and sister, busy all day, and scarcely ever at home, hardly
+knew what was becoming a sore perplexity to Mr. Audley.
+
+A young tutor, not yet twenty-six, could not exactly tell what to do
+with a girl not fourteen, who fell into floods of tears on the smallest
+excuse.
+
+'No, no, Cherry--that is not the nominative.'
+
+The voice faltered, struggled to go on, and melted away behind the
+handkerchief. Then--'O Mr. Audley, I am so sorry--'
+
+'That's exactly what I don't want you to be, Cherry.'
+
+'Oh, but it was so careless,' and there was another flood.
+
+Or, 'Don't you see, Cherry, you should not have put the negative sign
+to that equation. My dear Cherry, what have I said?'
+
+'Oh, oh--nothing. Only I did think--'
+
+'We shall have you a perfect Niobe, if you go on at this rate, Cherry.
+Really, we must not have these lessons, if they excite you so much.'
+
+'Oh! that would be the worst punishment of all!' and the weeping
+became so piteously violent, that the Curate looked on in distressed
+helplessness.
+
+'I know it is very tiresome of me; I would help it, if I could--indeed
+I would.' And she cried the more because she _had_ cried.
+
+Or, as he came in from the town, he would hear ominous sounds, that his
+kind heart would not let him neglect, and would find Cherry sitting on
+the landing-place in a paroxysm of weeping. She always crept out of her
+mother's room on these occasions, for the sight of tears distressed
+and excited Mrs. Underwood; and the poor child, quite unable, in her
+hysterical condition, to drag herself alone up that steep stair,
+had no alternative but to sit, on what Mr. Audley called her stool
+of repentance, outside the door, till she had sobbed herself into
+exhaustion and calm--or till either Sibby scolded her, or he heard her
+confession.
+
+She had been 'so cross' to Bernard, or to Angel--or, once or twice,
+even to Mamma. She had made an impatient answer when interrupted in her
+lessons or in a dream over a drawing; she had been reluctant to exert
+herself when wanted. She had scolded fretfully--or snatched things away
+angrily, when the little ones were troublesome; and every offence of
+this sort was bewailed with an anguish of tears; that, by weakening her
+spirits and temper, really rendered the recurrence more frequent. 'The
+one thing they trust to me, I fail in!'
+
+He was very kind to her. He did not yield to the mannish loathing
+for girlish tears that began to seize on him, after the first two or
+three occasions. He thought and studied--tried comfort, and fancied it
+relaxed her--tried rebuke, and that made it worse; tried the showing
+her François de Sales' admirable counsel to Philothée, to be '_doux
+envers soi_,' and saw she appreciated and admired it; but she was not
+an atom more _douce envers soi_ when she had next spoken peevishly.
+
+At last he fairly set off by the train, to lay the case before Sister
+Constance.
+
+'What is to be done, when a child never does anything but cry?'
+
+Sister Constance listened to the symptoms, and promptly answered, 'Give
+her a glass of port wine every day, before you let her out of your
+room.'
+
+'If I can!'
+
+'Tell her they are _my_ orders. Does she eat?'
+
+'I imagine not. I heard Felix reproaching her with a ghoul's dinner of
+a grain of rice.'
+
+'Does she sleep?'
+
+'She has told me a great deal of midnight meditation on her own
+deficiencies.'
+
+'She must be taken out of doors somehow or other! It is of no use to
+reason with her; the tears are not temper, or anything else! Poor
+Charlie! it is an odd capacity for you to come out in, but I suppose no
+one else can attend to her.'
+
+'No, poor child, she is rather worse than motherless! Well--I will find
+some excuse for taking her out for a drive now and then; I don't know
+how to speak to the others about having the chair for her, for they are
+barely scraping on.'
+
+'Poor children! Well, this year is probably the worst. Either they will
+get their heads above water, or there will be a crisis. But they _do_
+scrape?'
+
+'Yes. At Lady-day there was great jubilation, for the rent was paid,
+the taxes were ready, there was not a debt; and there was seven-pence
+over, with which Felix wanted to give Cherry a drive; but Wilmet, who
+is horribly prudent, insisted that it must go to mend Fulbert's broken
+window.'
+
+'Well--poor Wilmet! one can't blame her. How does she treat Cherry's
+tears?'
+
+'I don't think she has much pity for them. Felix does much better
+with Cherry; he rocks her and pets her; though, indeed, she hardly
+ever breaks down when he is there; but even his Sundays are a good
+deal taken up--and I always hunt him out for a walk on the Sunday
+afternoons.'
+
+'Is he still in the choir and teaching at the Sunday school?'
+
+'Yes--though it is not Mowbray Smith's fault.'
+
+'What, is your colleague what you apprehended?'
+
+'My Lady could not have found a curate more to her mind, or more imbued
+with her dislike to all that bears the name of Underwood. I own it
+is hard to have one's predecessor flung constantly in one's teeth,
+and by the very people who were the greatest thorns to dear Underwood
+himself. Then Clem, who _is_ a born prig, though a very good boy, gave
+some of his little interfering bits of advice before he went away, and
+it has all been set down to Felix's account! One Sunday, Smith made a
+complaint of Felix having the biggest boys in the school. It was the
+consequence of his having taken them whenever his father could not,
+till it came to his having them entirely. He always took great pains
+with them, and there was a fellow-feeling between him and them that
+could hardly be with an older person. I said all this--too strongly,
+most likely--and the Rector put in a mild word, as to his goodness in
+coming at all. Smith thought there was nothing wonderful in liking what
+ministered to his conceit; and at last it came out that a baker's boy
+had met Felix and Smith consecutively in the street, and only touched
+his hat to one, and that the wrong one.'
+
+'I should have been only thankful that he touched his hat to anybody.'
+
+'That is the very remark by which I put my foot in it; but my Lady was
+horrified, and the consequence was, that it fell to me to advise Felix
+to resign the class. I never hated a piece of work so much in my life,
+for he had worked the lads well, and we both knew that there would be
+an end of them. Moreover, Felix has some of the true Briton about him,
+and he stood out--would give up the class if the Rector ordered him,
+but would relinquish Sunday-school altogether in that case; and the two
+girls were furious; but, after one Sunday, he came to me, said that
+he found hostility poisoned his teaching, gave up, and accepted the
+younger ones.'
+
+'Of course the boys deserted.'
+
+'Which has not softened Smith, though it has made him tolerate Felix
+in the choir. His voice is of very little use at present; but he is
+such an influence, that we should be glad of him if he could not sing a
+note, and he clings to it with all his heart. I believe music is about
+the only pleasure he has, and it excites his mother too much to have
+any at home. We have little Lance in the choir now, with a voice like a
+thrush in a dewy morning.'
+
+Mr. Audley acted on the port-wine prescription, to the horror and
+dismay of Cherry, who only submitted with any shadow of philosophy on
+being told that the more she cried the more necessary she rendered it;
+but on the Saturday, Sister Constance suddenly knocked at Mr. Audley's
+door. She had been talking the matter over with the Superior; and the
+result was, that she had set off on a mission to see for herself, and
+if she thought it expedient, to bring Geraldine back with her. She
+had chosen Saturday as the time for seeing Wilmet, and was prepared
+to overlook that the stairs were a Lodore of soap, this being Sibby's
+cleaning day, while Wilmet kept guard over the mother and the twins.
+
+Geraldine was in the sitting-room, writing a Latin exercise, with a
+great pucker in her forehead whenever Angela looked up from her wooden
+bricks to speak to her. And though the sharp little pinched face was
+all one beam of joy as the visitor came in, Sister Constance saw at
+once that the child's health had deteriorated in these last months.
+She sat down, and with Angela on her lap, questioned anxiously. Cherry
+had no complaints--she always was like this in the spring. How was her
+foot? As usual, a falter. Was it _really?_ Well, yes, she thought so.
+And then, as the motherly eyes looked into hers, there came a burst of
+the ready tears; and 'Oh, _please_ don't talk about it--_please_ don't
+ask.'
+
+'I know what you are afraid of,' said Sister Constance, remembering her
+horror of the Bexley medical attendant, 'but is it right to conceal
+this, my dear child?'
+
+'I don't think I do,' said Cherry pitifully. 'You know Sibby _does_ it
+every night, and it only aches a little more now. And if they did find
+it out, then they would have _him_, and there would be a doctor's bill,
+and, oh! that would be dreadful!'
+
+Sister Constance saw that the question of right or wrong would be
+infinitely too much for Geraldine, and drew off her mind from it to
+tell of the good accounts of Robina from Catsacre, and Clement from
+Whittingtonia; but when presently Wilmet was so far free as to come in
+with _only_ the boy-baby in her arms, and take the guest up to take off
+her bonnet, it was the time for entering on the subject.
+
+'Cherry? do you think her looking ill? She always is poorly in the
+spring, you know.'
+
+'I do not like what I hear of her appetite, or her sleep, or her
+spirits.'
+
+'Oh! but Cherry is always fanciful, you know. Please, please don't put
+things in her head.'
+
+'What kind of things do you mean?'
+
+'Fancying herself worse, I mean, or wanting things. You know we must be
+so careful, and Mamma and the babies--'
+
+'My dear, I know you have many to care for, and it is hard to strike
+the balance; but somehow your voice sounds to me as if Geraldine were
+the one you most willingly set aside.'
+
+Wilmet did not like this, and said, a little bit hastily, 'I am sure
+Geraldine has everything we can give her. If she complains, it is very
+wrong of her.'
+
+'She has not said one word of complaint. Her grief and fear is only of
+being a burden on you. What brought me here was, that Mr. Audley was
+anxious about her.'
+
+Wilmet was silent, a little abashed.
+
+'Did you know that her ankle is painful again?'
+
+'Sister Constance,' said Wilmet, 'I don't think you or Mr. Audley know
+how soon Cherry fancies all sorts of things. She does get into whiny
+states, and is regularly tiresome; and the more you notice her, the
+worse she is. I know Mamma thought so.'
+
+'My dear, a mother can venture on wholesome neglect when a sister's
+neglect is not wholesome. I am not accusing you of neglect, mind; only
+you want experience and sympathy to judge of a thing with a frame like
+Cherry's. Now, I will tell you what I want to do. I am come to take her
+back with me, and get her treated by our kind doctor for a month or so,
+and the sea air and rest will send her back, most likely, in a much
+more cheery state.'
+
+'Indeed!' cried Wilmet, startled; 'it is very good, but how could we do
+without her? Mamma and the children! If she could only wait till the
+holidays.'
+
+'Let her only hear you say that, Wilmet, and it will do her more good
+than anything.'
+
+'What--that she is of use? Poor little thing, she tries to be; but if
+Marilda could have had her way, and taken her instead of Alda, it would
+have been much better for her and all. Ah! there's Felix. May I call
+him in?'
+
+Felix, dashing up to wash his hands, smooth his hair, and dress himself
+for the reading-room work instead of the printing-office, had much
+rather these operations had been performed before he was called to the
+consultation in the nursery; but he agreed instantly and solicitously,
+knowing much better than Wilmet what the dinners were to Cherry, and
+talking of her much more tenderly.
+
+'Yes, poor little dear, she always breaks down more or less in the
+spring; but I thought she would mend when we could get her out more,'
+he said. 'Do you think her really so unwell, Sister Constance?'
+
+'Oh, no, no!' cried Wilmet, fearfully.
+
+'Not very unwell, but only so that I long to put her under our good
+doctor, who comes to any one in our house, and who is such a fatherly
+old gentleman, that she would not go through the misery the thought of
+Mr. Rugg seems to cause her.'
+
+'Dr. Lee?' asked Felix. 'Tom Underwood sent him to see my father once.
+I remember my father liked him, but called it waste for himself, only
+longed for his opinion on Cherry. Thank you, I am sure it is the
+greatest kindness.'
+
+'But, Felix, how can she before the holidays?' cried Wilmet.
+
+'Well, Mamma does not want her before dinner; and as to the kids, why
+can't you take Angel to school with you? Oh, yes, Miss Pearson will let
+you. Then Mr. Audley, or Mr. Bevan, is always up in the afternoon, and
+you come home by four.'
+
+'Perhaps I could earlier on days when the girls go out walking,' said
+Wilmet. 'If it is to do Cherry good, I don't like to prevent it.'
+
+Wilmet had evidently got all her household into their niches, and the
+disarrangement puzzled her. A wonderful girl she was to contrive as she
+did, and carry out her rule; but Sister Constance feared that a little
+dryness might be growing on her in consequence, and that, like many
+maidens of fifteen or sixteen, while she was devoted to the little, she
+was impatient of the intermediate.
+
+So when they went down, and Cherry heard of the scheme, and implored
+against it in nervous fear of leaving home and dread of new faces,
+Wilmet, having made up her practical mind that the going was necessary,
+only made light of that value at home which was Cherry's one comfort,
+and which made herself feel it so hard to part with her, that this very
+want of tact was all unselfishness.
+
+Felix was much more comfortable to Cherry when he made playful faces
+at the bear-garden that the dining-room would become without her,
+and showed plainly that he at least would miss her dreadfully. Still
+she nourished a hope that Mamma would say she should not go; but
+Mamma always submitted to the decrees of authority, and Wilmet and
+Felix were her authorities now. Sister Constance felt no misgiving
+lest Wilmet were hardening, when she heard the sweet discretion and
+cheerful tenderness with which she propounded the arrangement to the
+sick mother, without giving her the worry of decision, yet still
+deferentially enough to keep her in her place as the head of the family.
+
+Yet it was with unnecessarily bracing severity that Wilmet observed
+to Geraldine, 'Now, don't you go crying, and asking questions, and
+worrying Mamma.'
+
+'I suppose no person can be everything at once, far less a girl of
+fifteen,' thought Sister Constance, as she drove up to the station in
+the omnibus with Cherry, who was too miserable and bewildered to cry
+now; not that she was afraid of either the Sister or the Sisterhood,
+but only because she had never left home in her life, and felt exactly
+like a callow nestling shoved out on the ground with a broken wing.
+
+In two months more the omnibus was setting her down again, much nearer
+plumpness, with a brighter face and stronger spirits. She had been very
+full of enjoyment at St. Faith's. She had the visitor's room, with
+delightful sacred prints and photographs, and a window looking out on
+the sea--a sight enough to fascinate her for hours. She had been out
+every fine day on the shore; she had sat in the pleasant community-room
+with the kind Sisters, who talked to her as a woman, not a baby; she
+had plenty of books; one of the Sisters had given her daily drawing
+lessons, and another had read Tasso with her; she had been to the
+lovely oratory constantly, and to the beautiful church on Sunday, and
+had helped to make the wreaths for the great May holidays; she had made
+many new friends, and among them the doctor, who, if he had hurt her,
+had never deceived her, and had really made her more comfortable than
+she had ever been for the last five years, putting her in the way of
+such self-management as might very possibly avert some of that dreadful
+liability to be cross.
+
+But with all this, and all her gratitude, Geraldine's longing had been
+for home. She was very happy, and it was doing her a great deal of
+good; but Mamma, and Felix, and Wilmet, and Sibby, and the babies, were
+tugging at her heart, and would not let it go out from them. She was
+always dreaming that Felix's heels were coming through his stockings,
+that Mamma was calling and nobody coming, or that Bernard was cutting
+off the heads of the twins with the blunt scissors. And when Dr. Lee's
+course of treatment was over, and Felix had a holiday to come and fetch
+her home, it is not easy to say which was happiest. For she was so glad
+to be at home amid the dear faces, troubling and troublous as they
+often were, and so comfortable in the old wheel-ruts of care and toil,
+that it really seemed as if a new epoch of joy had begun. Felix openly
+professed how sorely he had missed her, and she clung to his arm with
+exulting mutual delight; but it was almost more triumphant pleasure to
+be embraced by Wilmet with the words: 'Dear, dear Cherry, there you are
+at last. You can't think how we have all wanted you! I never knew how
+useful you are.'
+
+'I suppose,' said Felix quaintly, 'the world would rather miss its
+axis, and yet that does not move.'
+
+'Yes, it does,' said Cherry, 'it wobbles. I suppose Wilmet says
+rotates, just about as much as I am going to do now I have got back
+into my own dear sphere again.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE CACIQUE.
+
+     'Devouring flames resistless glow,
+      And blazing rafters downward go,
+      And never halloo, "Heads below!"
+      Nor notice give at all.'
+                 _Rejected Addresses._
+
+
+It was a warm night in September, and Wilmet had laid herself down in
+bed in her nursery with a careful, but not an oppressed heart. About
+many matters she was happier than before. Her mother had revived in
+some degree, could walk from her bed-room to the sitting-room, and
+took more interest in what was passing; and this the hopeful spirits
+of the children interpreted into signs of recovery. Geraldine's health
+and spirits had evidently taken a start for the better. Fulbert,
+too, was off her mind--safe gone to a clergy orphan foundation; and
+though Lancelot had not yet been elected, owing, Mr. Audley imagined,
+to Lady Price's talk about their fine friends, Wilmet could not be
+sorry, he was such a little fellow, and the house would be so dull
+without his unfailing merriment and oddities. And though there had
+been sore disappointment that Mrs. Thomas Underwood had chosen to go
+to Brighton instead of coming home, there was the promise of a visit
+from Alda before Christmas to feed upon. Little Robina had come home
+for the summer holidays, well, happy, and improved, and crying only in
+a satisfactory way on returning to school. Moreover, Wilmet's finances
+had been pleasantly increased by an unexpected present of five pounds
+at the end of the half year from Miss Pearson, and the promise of the
+like for the next; increasing as her usefulness increased; and she
+was also allowed to bring Angela to school with her. The balance of
+accounts at Midsummer had been satisfactory, and Felix had proudly
+pronounced her to be a brick of a housekeeper. And thus altogether
+Wilmet did not feel that the weight of care was so heavy and hopeless
+as when it first descended upon her; and she went to bed as usual,
+feeling how true her father's words of encouragement and hope had been,
+how kind friends were, how dear a brother Felix was, and above all,
+how there is verily a Father of the fatherless. And so she fell fast
+asleep, but was ere long waked by a voice from the inner room where
+Cherry slept with the door open.
+
+'Wilmet, Wilmet, what is it?'
+
+Then she saw that the room was aglow with red light from the window,
+and heard a loud distant hubbub. Hurrying out of bed, she flew to the
+window of Cherry's room, and drew up the blind. 'O Wilmet, is it fire?'
+
+'Yes,' low and awe-struck, said Wilmet. 'Not here. No. There's nothing
+to be frightened at Cherry. It is out--out there. I think it must be
+the Fortinbras Arms. Oh, what a sight!'
+
+'It is dreadful!' said Cherry, shrinking trembling to the foot of her
+little bed, whence she could see the window. 'How plain one can see
+everything in the room! Oh! the terrible red glow in the windows! I
+wonder if all the people are safe. Wilmet, do call Felix.'
+
+'I will,' said Wilmet, proceeding in search of her clothes; but her
+hands shook so that she could hardly put them on. They longed for Felix
+as a protection, and yet Cherry could hardly bear to let her sister go
+out of sight.
+
+'I only hope Mamma does not hear,' said Wilmet.
+
+'How lucky her room looks out the other way! but, oh! Wilmet, don't
+fires spread?'
+
+'Felix and Mr. Audley will see about us in time, if there is any fear
+of that,' said Wilmet, trembling a good deal as she wrapped a shawl
+round Cherry, who sat in a heap on her bed, gazing fascinated at the
+red sky and roofs. Felix slept at the back of the house; her knock did
+not waken him, but her entrance startled both him and Lance.
+
+'Felix, the Fortinbras Arms is on fire.--Hush, Lance; take care; the
+little ones and Mamma! O Felix, do come to our room.'
+
+They followed her there in a few seconds, but they had only glanced
+from the window before they simultaneously rushed away, to the
+increased dismay of their sisters, to whom their manly instinct of
+rushing into the fray had not occurred.
+
+'I'll go down. I'll try to catch them,' said Wilmet; and she too was
+gone before Cherry could call to her. She found that Felix and Mr.
+Audley were in the act of undoing the front door, and this gave her
+just time to fly down with the entreaty that Felix would not leave
+them. It was a great deal more to ask of him than she knew.
+
+'To the end of the street I must go, Wilmet,' he said.
+
+'Oh! but Cherry is so frightened! and if Mamma wakes,' she said,
+gasping.
+
+'It is all quiet in her room,' said Felix.
+
+'Tell Cherry there is no danger at all here _now_,' said Mr. Audley;
+'but if it makes her happier you may dress her. Don't disturb your
+mother. If needful, we will carry her out in her bed; but I do not
+think it will be.'
+
+'We can only see out in the street,' added Felix, opening the door as
+he spoke; and that moment out flew Lance, before anybody had thought of
+stopping him, and the necessity of pursuing the little fellow into the
+throng, and keeping him out of danger, made both Felix and Mr. Audley
+dash after him; while Wilmet, abashed at the men hurrying by, could
+not even gaze from the door, but fled upstairs in terror lest the two
+little ones should be awake and crying at the appalling red light and
+the din, which seemed to her one continuous roar of 'Fire! fire!'
+
+To her great relief, they were still asleep, but Cherry was in a
+chilled agony of trembling prayer for the 'poor people,' and the
+sisters crouched up together shivering in each other's arms as
+they watched the rush of flames streaming up into the sky over the
+brew-house opposite to them.
+
+Presently Wilmet heard feet again downstairs. 'Cherry dear, I must go
+down, they may want me. Indeed, I don't think there is real danger as
+long as that brew-house is safe.'
+
+There was a scuffle of feet that frightened her very much. She
+remembered it last Michaelmas when her father was brought home from
+church, and as she stood on the stairs--one choking petition in her
+heart, 'Let it not be Felix!' she saw that the figure, whatever it was,
+was carried by Mr. Audley and a strange man. And so great a horror
+came over her, that, regardless of her toilette, and the hair that had
+fallen over the jacket on her shoulders, she dropped at once among them
+as they were bearing the senseless form into Mr. Audley's bed-room,
+with a low but piteous cry, 'Felix! Felix! oh, what has happened?'
+
+'It is not Felix, my dear,' said Mr. Audley; 'he is safe--he is gone
+for the doctor. This poor boy has fallen from a window. You can help
+us, Wilmet; call Martha, and get some water made hot. The fire is
+getting under.'
+
+Wilmet needed no second hint. She was up, reassuring Cherry at one
+moment; then breaking into Martha's heavy slumbers, impressing upon her
+the necessity of not shrieking; then downstairs again, reviving the
+dying kitchen fire, and finding that, as usual, there was some water
+not yet cold. For, as she now saw, it was not yet one o'clock. She
+durst not go to her mother's room, where ready means of heating food
+were always to be found. As she brought the jug to the door, Felix came
+in with Mr. Rugg, who, living in a street out of sight, and having ears
+for no sound but his own night-bell, had been ready at once to obey the
+call. Felix told his sister the little he knew.
+
+'It was a terrible sight. Just as we got to that one big window--a
+passage one, I believe, which looks out into this street--we saw this
+poor boy and a black man up on the sill, with all the glare of light
+behind them, screaming out for help.'
+
+'But where was everybody?'
+
+'In the High Street, round the corner. Crowds there; and here in our
+street only ourselves and a few men that hurried up after us. Mr.
+Audley shouted to them that we would get a ladder, but whether they
+could not hold on any more, or they thought we were going quite away--O
+Wilmet! I didn't see; but there was the most horrible thump and crash
+on the pavement.'
+
+'What! down from that window?'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, leaning against the wall, and looking very pale.
+'And there was that good black man, he had got the boy in his arms, as
+if he had wound himself round to keep him from harm.'
+
+'Oh! And he?'
+
+'Killed--quite killed. Don't ask me about it, Wilmet. It is much too
+dreadful to hear of;' and he shuddered all over. 'But this boy's head
+was safe at least, and as there seemed no one to attend to anything,
+Mr. Audley said he would bring him here, and I went for Mr. Rugg.'
+
+'And where's Lance? Did he go with you?'
+
+'Lance! Is not he in? I never saw or thought of him, I must go and
+seek for him,' exclaimed Felix, darting off in haste and alarm at the
+thought of little nine-year-old Lance alone among the midnight crowd,
+just as Mr. Audley opened the door to try to find a messenger to Mr.
+Rugg's surgery. He paused to tell Wilmet that it was a lad about
+Felix's age, moaning some word that sounded like Diego, and with a
+broken leg and ribs; and then, as Martha was in attendance, she felt
+herself obliged to return to Cherry, whom indeed she could not leave
+again, for though the fire had sunk, and only thick clouds of smoke
+showed the play of the engines, the effects of the terror were not
+so quickly over in the tender little frame, which was in a quivering
+hysterical state, so deadly cold, that Wilmet was frightened, and went
+once more down to warm some flannel, and get some hot drink for her.
+She intended tea, but meeting Mr. Audley again, he sent up a glass of
+wine. Even with this in hot water, Cherry could hardly be warmed again,
+and Wilmet lay down, clasping her round, and not daring to let her know
+of her own continued anxiety about the two brothers. At last, however,
+when the red light had almost faded quite away, the cautious steps were
+heard coming up the stairs, and Felix called into the room in a low
+voice--
+
+'All right, Wilmet.'
+
+'Oh! come in,' the sisters called. 'Where did you find him, Fee? Is he
+safe?'
+
+'O Cherry, you never saw such a lark!' cried Lance in a gusty whisper.
+'Wouldn't Fulbert have given his ears to have seen it? To see the
+engines pouring down, and the great hose twining about like jolly old
+sea-serpents spouting.'
+
+'Hush, Lance; how can you? How could you! Does Mr. Audley know he is
+safe?'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, 'he opened the door, and said he might have known
+Lance was too much of a _gamin_ to come to grief.'
+
+'What's a _gamin?_' said Lance.
+
+'A street ragamuffin at Paris,' said Wilmet. 'But really, Lance, it was
+a terrible thing to do.'
+
+'And where do you think I found him?' said Felix. 'In between little
+Jacky Brown and that big old coal-heaver who was so impudent about the
+blanket-club, hanging like a monkey upon the rails of the terrace, and
+hallooing as loud as they.'
+
+''Twas the coal-heaver that helped me up,' said Lance. 'He's a jolly
+good fellow, I can tell you. He said, "You be one of Parson Underwood's
+little chaps, baint you? A rare honest gentleman of the right sort war
+he--he war!" and he pulled down another boy and put me up instead, and
+told me all about the great fire at Stubbs's factory. You can't think
+what fun it was. Roar, roar, up went the flame. Swish, wish, went the
+water--such a bellowing--such great clouds of smoke!'
+
+'Was everybody saved?' whispered Cherry's tremulous murmur.
+
+There was a silence; then Lance said, 'Weren't they?' and Cherry had
+another shuddering fit.
+
+'Who?' Wilmet asked.
+
+'Poor Mr. Jones's youngest child and his nursemaid were in an attic
+room where nobody could get at them,' said Felix in a hurried and
+awe-struck voice, causing Cherry to renew that agony of trembling
+and sobbing so convulsive and painful that her elder brother and
+sister could only devote themselves to soothing her, till at last
+she lay still again in Wilmet's arms, with only a few long gasps
+coming quivering up through her frame. Then Wilmet implored Felix to
+go away and make Lance go to bed, and finding this the only means of
+reducing the little excited fellow to quiet, he went. And though all
+were sure they should not sleep, they overslept themselves far into
+Sunday morning, except Wilmet, who was wakened by the clamours of the
+undisturbed Angela and Bernard, and succeeded in dressing them without
+disturbing the other three.
+
+Very tired and stiff, and very anxious she felt, but she was obliged to
+go down as soon as she was dressed, since she always took charge of her
+mother before breakfast on Sunday while Sibby went to mass. It was so
+late that she could only listen in vain at the top of the stairs before
+she went into the room, where she found Sibby very indignant at having
+missed all the excitement of the night past. 'As if she could not have
+been trusted not to have wakened the mistress. She believed they would
+have let her alone till they all were burnt in their beds!'
+
+It was not till breakfast, which took place unusually late, that Wilmet
+heard much. Felix and Lance had just come downstairs, rather ashamed of
+having overslept themselves, and Mr. Audley came in and begged for a
+cup of tea.
+
+He told them that the father and uncle of the boy had arrived. They
+were American merchants or speculators of some kind, he thought, named
+Travis, and they had gone on business to Dearport the day before,
+meaning to dine there, and return by the mail train in the night, and
+leaving the boy with the black servant in the unfortunate hotel.
+
+On arriving, at about three o'clock, not long after Felix had brought
+Lance home, they had telegraphed to Dearport for a doctor and nurse,
+who were momentarily expected to arrive. The patient was only half
+conscious, and though he knew his father, continued to murmur for
+Diego. Martha was sitting with him whenever she could, for his father
+did not seem to understand nursing, and it would be a great relief when
+a properly-trained person arrived.
+
+She came, and so did the doctor, but not till close upon church-time,
+and little but stray reports from the sick-room reached the population
+upstairs all that day, as Mr. Audley, whenever he was not at church,
+was obliged to be in attendance on his strange guests. All that reached
+the anxious and excited young people was the tidings of the patient
+being not unlikely to do well, though he was in great pain and high
+fever, and continually calling for the poor negro who had saved his
+life at the expense of his own.
+
+This was the last bulletin when the household parted to go their
+several ways on Monday morning, not to be all collected again and free
+to speak till seven o'clock in the evening, when they met round the
+table for tea.
+
+'Mamma looks cheery,' said Felix, coming into the little back room
+where Wilmet was spreading bread and butter.
+
+'Yes,' said Wilmet, 'I think she has cared to hear about the fire. So
+many people have come in and talked, that it has enlivened her.'
+
+'And how is the boy?'
+
+'A little better, Martha heard; but he keeps on talking of Diego, and
+seems not to care about any one else.'
+
+'No wonder. His father must be an unmitigated brute,' said Felix.
+'He came to the inquest, and talked just as if it had been an old
+Newfoundland dog; I really think he cared rather less than if it had
+been.'
+
+'Tell us about the inquest, Felix,' said Lance. 'I wish they'd have
+wanted me there.'
+
+'I don't see why, Lance,' said Felix gravely; 'it was a terrible thing
+to see poor Mr. Jones hardly able to speak for grief, and the mother of
+that poor young nurse went on sobbing as if her heart was breaking.'
+
+'Nobody knows the cause of the fire, do they?' asked Cherry. 'Lady
+Price said it was the gas.'
+
+'No; no one knows. Way, the waiter, saw a glare under the door of
+the great assembly-room as he was going up very late to bed, and
+the instant he opened the door the flame seemed to rush out at him.
+I suppose a draught was all it wanted. He saw this poor Diego safe
+downstairs once, but he must have gone back to save his young master,
+and got cut off in coming back. Poor fellow! he is a Mexican negro,
+belonging to an estate that came to Mr. Travis's wife, and he has
+always clung to her and her son just like a faithful dog.'
+
+'But he could not be a slave in England,' said Cherry eagerly.
+
+'No; but as this Travis said, his one instinct was the boy: he did not
+know how to get rid of him, he said, and I do believe he thinks it a
+lucky chance.'
+
+'I wish it had been he!' said Lance.
+
+'Sibby has asked leave to go to the burial,' added Wilmet.
+
+'I hope you gave it,' said Felix. 'Mr. Macnamara came and asked if he
+were not a Roman Catholic, and those two Travises laughed a little
+offensively, and said they guessed he was so, as much as a nigger was
+anything; and the Papists were welcome to his black carcase, only they
+would not be charged for any flummery. "I won't be made a fool of about
+a nigger," one said. And then, I was so glad, Mr. Audley begged to know
+when the funeral would be, and said he would go anywhere to do honour
+to faithfulness unto death.'
+
+'Well done, Mr. Audley!' cried Lance. 'Won't we go too, Fee?'
+
+'It will be at nine to-morrow,' said Felix; at which Lance made a face,
+since of course he would be in school at the time.
+
+'Maybe I shall have to go,' added Felix; 'for only think, as my good
+luck would have it, Redstone went on Saturday night to see his mother
+or somebody, and only came back this morning; and Mr. Froggatt himself
+was "out at his box," as he calls it, so he told me this morning to
+write the account of the fire for the paper, and he would pay me for it
+extra, as he does Redstone.'
+
+'Well, and have you done it?'
+
+'I was pretty much at sea at first, till I recollected the letter I
+began to Edgar yesterday night, and by following that, I made what I
+thought was a decent piece of business of it.'
+
+'Oh, did you put in the way they threw the things out at window at
+Jessop's without looking what they were?' cried Lance; 'and the jolly
+smash the jugs and basins made, and when their house was never on fire
+at all: and how the coal-heaver said "Hold hard, frail trade there!"'
+
+'Well,' said Felix quaintly, 'I put it in a different form, you see. I
+said the inhabitants of the adjacent houses hurled their furniture from
+the windows with more precipitation than attention to the fragility
+of the articles. And, after all, that intolerable ass, Redstone, has
+corrected fire every time into "the devouring element," and made "the
+faithful black" into "the African of sable integument, but heart of
+precious ore."'
+
+'Now, Felix!'
+
+'Bald, sir, bald,' he said, with such a face. '"Yes, Mr. Underwood,"
+even good old Froggy said, when he saw me looking rather blue, "you and
+I may know what good taste and simplicity is, but if we sent out the
+Pursuivant with no mouth-filling words in it, we should be cut out with
+some low paper in no time among the farmers and mechanics."'
+
+'Is he so led by Mr. Redstone?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'Not exactly; but I believe there's nothing he dreads more than
+Redstone's getting offended and saying that I am no use, as he would
+any day if he could. O, Mr. Audley, are you coming to stay?'
+
+'Will you have a cup of tea?' said Wilmet.
+
+'Thank you, yes; I've got to dine with these fellows at the Railway
+Hotel at eight, but I wanted to speak to you first, Wilmet,' said Mr.
+Audley, sitting down as if he were weary of his day.
+
+'How is the boy?'
+
+'Better. He has been quite sensible ever since he woke at twelve
+o'clock to-day, only he was dreadfully upset about poor Diego--about
+whom his father told him very abruptly--without the least notion he
+would feel it so much.'
+
+'I wish I had the kicking of that father,' observed Felix, driving the
+knife hard into the loaf.
+
+'He is not altogether such a bad fellow,' said Mr. Audley thoughtfully.
+
+'Not for an American, perhaps.'
+
+'He is not an American at all. He was born and bred in my own country,
+and took me by surprise by calculating that I was one of the Audleys
+of Wrightstone Court, and wanting to know whether my father were Sir
+Robert or Sir Robert's son. Then he guessed that I might have heard
+of his father, if I was not too young, and by-and-by it dawned on me
+that whenever there is any complication about business matters, or any
+one is in bad circumstances, my father always vituperates one Travis,
+who, it seems, was a solicitor greatly trusted by all the country
+round, till he died, some twenty years ago, and it appeared that he
+had ruined everybody, himself included. These men are his sons. They
+went out to America, and got up in the world. They told me the whole
+story of how they had knocked about everywhere, last evening, but I
+was too sleepy to enter into it much, though I daresay it was curious
+enough; successful speculations and hair's-breadth escapes seemed to
+come very thick one upon another, but all I am clear about is that
+this poor boy, Fernando's mother was a Mexican heiress, they--one of
+them, I mean--managed to marry; her father English, but her mother old
+Spanish blood allied to the old Caciques, he says; whether it is a
+boast I don't know, but the boy looks like it--such a handsome fellow;
+delicate straight profile, slender limbs, beautifully made, inky-black
+hair and brows, pure olive skin--the two doctors were both in raptures.
+Well, they thought affairs in Mexico insecure, so they sold the poor
+woman's estate and carried her off to Texas. No; was it? I really can't
+remember where; but, at any rate, Diego stuck to her wherever she
+went, and when she died, to her child; nursed him like an old woman,
+and-- In short, it was that touching negro love that one sometimes
+hears of. Now they seem to have grown very rich--the American
+Vice-Consul, who came over this morning from Dearport, knew all about
+them--and they came home partly on business, and partly to leave
+Fernando to be made into an English gentleman, who, Mr. Travis says, if
+he has money to spend, does whip creation. He's English enough for that
+still. Well, they have got a telegram that makes them both want to sail
+by the next steamer.'
+
+'That's a blessing. But the boy?'
+
+'He cannot be moved for weeks. It is not only the fractures, but the
+jar of the fall. He may get quite over it, but must lie quite still on
+his back. So here he is, a fixture, by your leave, my lady housekeeper.'
+
+'It is your room, Mr. Audley,' said Wilmet. 'But can his father really
+mean to leave him alone so very ill, poor boy?'
+
+'Well, as his father truly says, he is no good to him, but rather the
+reverse; and as the Travis mind seems rather impressed by finding an
+Audley here, I am to be left in charge of him now, and to find a tutor
+for him when he gets better. So we are in for that!'
+
+'But what is to become of you?' asked Wilmet. 'The nurse has got the
+little back study.'
+
+'I have got a room at Bolland's to sleep in, thank you,' he answered;
+'and I have been representing the inconvenience to the house of this
+long illness, so that the Travises, who are liberal enough--'
+
+'I thought them horrid misers,' said Felix.
+
+'That was only the American conscience as to negroes. In other matters
+they are ready to throw money about with both hands; so I hope I have
+made a good bargain for you, Wilmet. You are to have five guineas a
+week, and provide for boy and nurse, all but wine and beer, ice and
+fruit.'
+
+'Five guineas!' murmured Wilmet, quite overpowered at the munificent
+sum.
+
+'I am afraid you will not find it go as far as you expect, for he will
+want a good deal of dainty catering.'
+
+'And your room should be deducted,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Not at all. Mrs. Bolland said she did not take lodgers, but should
+esteem it a favour if I would sleep there while her son is away. It is
+all safe, I think. He has given me orders on his London banker, and
+they say here at the bank that they are all right. It is a strange
+charge,' he added thoughtfully; 'we little thought what we were taking
+on ourselves when we picked up that poor fellow, Felix; and I cannot
+help thinking it will turn out well, there was something so noble about
+the poor lad's face as he lay insensible.'
+
+It was about three weeks later, that one Sunday evening, when Mr.
+Audley came in from church, Felix followed him to his sitting-room, and
+began with unusual formality. 'I think I ought to speak to you, sir.'
+
+'What's the matter?'
+
+'About Lance, and him in there. I have had such a queer talk with
+_him!_'
+
+'As how?'
+
+'Why he wanted us to stop from church, asked me to let off the poor
+little coon; and when I said we couldn't, because we were in the
+choir, wanted to know what we were paid, then why we did it at all;
+and so it turned out that he thinks churches only meant for women and
+psalm-singing niggers and Methodists, and has never been inside one in
+his life, never saw the sense of it, wanted to know why I went.'
+
+'What did you tell him?'
+
+'I don't know; I was so taken aback. I said something about our duty
+to God, and it's being all we had to get us through life; but I know I
+made a dreadful mess of it, and the bell rang, and I got away. But he
+seems a sheer heathen, and there's Lance in and out all day.'
+
+'Yes, Felix, I am afraid it is true that the poor lad has been brought
+up with no religion at all--a blank sheet, as his father called him.'
+
+'Wasn't his father English?'
+
+'Yes; but he had lived a roving, godless life. I began, when I found
+the boy must stay here, by asking whether he were of his father's or
+his mother's communion, and in return heard a burst of exultation that
+he had never let a priest into his house. His father-in-law had warned
+him against it, and he had carried his wife out of their reach long
+before the child's birth; he has not even been baptized, but you see,
+Felix, I could not act like Abraham to the idolater in the Talmud.'
+
+Felix did not speak, but knocked one foot against the other in
+vexation, feeling that it was his house after all, and that Mr. Audley
+should not have turned this young heathen loose into it to corrupt his
+brother, without consulting him.
+
+'I told Travis,' continued the Curate, 'that if I undertook the charge
+as he wished, it must be as a priest myself, and I must try to put
+some religion into him. And, to my surprise, he said he left it to
+me. Fernando was old enough to judge, and if he were to be an English
+squire, he must conform to old-country ways; besides, I was another
+sort of parson from Yankee Methodists and Shakers or Popish priests--he
+knew the English clergy well enough, of the right sort.'
+
+'So he is to learn religion to make him a squire?'
+
+'I was thankful enough to find no obstruction.'
+
+'And have you begun?' asked Felix moodily.
+
+'Why--no. He has been too ill and too reserved. I have attempted
+nothing but daily saying a short prayer for him in his hearing, hoping
+he would remark on it. But you know the pain is still very absorbing at
+times, and it leaves him exhausted; and besides, I fancy he has a good
+deal of tropical languor about him, and does not notice much. Nothing
+but Lance has roused him at all.'
+
+'I would never have let Lance in there by himself, if I had known,'
+said Felix. 'He is quite bewitched.'
+
+'It would have been difficult to prevent it. Nor do I think that much
+harm can be done. I believe I ought to have told you, Felix; but I
+did not like denouncing my poor sick guest among the children, or its
+getting round all the town and to my Lady. After all, Lance is a very
+little fellow; it is not as if Edgar or Clem were at home.'
+
+'I suppose it cannot be helped,' sighed Felix; 'but my father--' and as
+he recollected the desire to take his brothers away from Mr. Ryder, he
+felt as if his chosen guardian had been false to his trust, out of pity
+and enthusiasm.
+
+'Your father would have known how to treat him,' sighed Mr. Audley.
+'At any rate, Felix, we must not forget the duties of hospitality and
+kindness; and I hope you will not roughly forbid Lance to go near him,
+without seeing whether the poor fellow is not really inoffensive.'
+
+'I'll see about it,' was all that Felix could get himself to say; for
+much as he loved Mr. Audley, he could not easily brook interference
+with his brothers, and little Lance, so loyal to himself, and so droll
+without a grain of malice, was very near to his heart. 'A young Pagan,'
+as he thought to himself, 'teaching him all the blackguard tricks and
+words he has learnt at all the low schools in north or south!' and all
+the most objectionable scenes he had met with in American stories, from
+'Uncle Tom' onwards, began to rise before his eyes. 'A pretty thing to
+do in a fit of beneficence! I'll order Lance to keep away, and if he
+dares disobey, I'll lick him well to show him who is master.'
+
+So he felt, as he swung himself upstairs, and halted with some
+intention of pouring out his vexed spirit to Wilmet, because Mr. Audley
+had no business to make it a secret; but Wilmet was putting her mother
+to bed, and he went on upstairs. There he found all the doors open, and
+heard a murmuring sound of voices in Geraldine's room. In a mood to be
+glad of any excuse for finding fault, he strode across the nursery,
+where Angela and Bernard slept, and saw that Lance, who ought to have
+gone at once to bed on coming in, was standing in his sister's window,
+trying to read in the ray of gas-light that came up from a lamp at the
+brewhouse door.
+
+'Go to bed, Lance,' he said; 'if you have not learnt your lessons in
+proper time, you must wake early, or take the consequences. I won't
+have it done on Sunday night.'
+
+Lance started round angrily, and Cherry cried, 'O Felix, it is no such
+thing! Only would you tell us where to find about the king and his
+priests that defeated the enemy by singing the "mercy endureth for
+ever" psalm?'
+
+'In the Bible!' said Felix, as if sure it was a blunder. 'There's no
+such story.'
+
+'Indeed there is,' cried Lance, 'for Papa (the word low and reverently)
+took out his blue poly-something Bible and read it out in the sermon.
+Don't you remember, Fee, a hot day in the summer, when he preached all
+about those wild robbers--horrid fellows with long spears--coming up in
+the desert to make a regular smash of the Jews?'
+
+'Lance!' cried Cherry.
+
+'Well, he did not say that, of course, but they wanted to; and how
+the king sent out the priests without a fighting man, only all in
+white, praising God in the beauty of holiness, and singing, "His mercy
+endureth for ever." I saw him read that, though he told us all the rest
+without book; how all the enemy began to quarrel, and all killed one
+another, and the Jews had nothing to do but to pick up the spoil, and
+sing another psalm coming back.'
+
+'I remember now,' said Felix, in a very different tone. 'It was
+Jehoshaphat, Lancey boy. I'll find it for you in the book of
+Chronicles. Did you want it for anything?'
+
+Lance made an uneasy movement.
+
+'It was to show poor Fernando Travis, wasn't it?' said Cherry; and as
+Lance wriggled again, she added, 'He seems to have been taught nothing
+good.'
+
+'Now, Cherry,' broke out Lance, 'I told you to say not a word.'
+
+'I know a little about it, Lance,' said Felix, sitting down on the
+window-seat and lifting Lance on his knee, as he said, in a tone very
+unlike his intended expostulation, 'You must not let him do you harm,
+Lance.'
+
+'He wouldn't; but he does not know anything about anything,' said the
+little boy. 'They never taught him to say his prayers, nor sing hymns,
+nor chant, and he thinks it is only good for niggers. So I told him
+that singing psalms once beat an army, and he laughed; and I thought
+Cherry was sure to know where it was--but girls will always tell.'
+
+'Indeed you never told me not,' said Cherry, humbly.
+
+'She has done no harm,' said Felix. 'Mr. Audley has just been talking
+to me about that poor boy. He really is as untaught as that little
+scamp at the potteries that we tried to teach.'
+
+'He's a stunning good fellow,' broke in Lance; 'he has seen an
+alligator, and ridden mustangs.'
+
+'Never mind that now, Lance; I dare say he is very amusing, but--'
+
+'Don't hinder me from going to him,' broke in the younger boy
+vehemently.
+
+'If,' said Felix gravely, 'you can be quite sure my father would not
+mind it.'
+
+Lance was nestling close up to him in the dark, and he was surprised to
+find that round face wet with tears. 'Papa would not let him lie dull
+and moped all day long,' he said. 'O Fee, I can't keep away; I am so
+sorry for him. When that terrible cramp comes, it is of no use to say
+those sort of things to him.'
+
+'What sort of things?'
+
+'Oh, you know; verses such as Papa used to have said to him. They
+weren't a bit of good. No, not though I did get the book Papa marked
+for Cherry.'
+
+'You did!' gasped Cherry, who little thought that sacred possession of
+hers was even known to Master Lance.
+
+'You'd have done it yourself, Cherry,' said the little boy, 'if you
+had only seen how bad he was; he got quite white, and had great drops
+on his forehead, and panted so, and would not let out a bit of a cry,
+only now and then a groan; and so I ran to get the verse Papa used to
+say over and over to you when your foot was bad. And I'm sure it was
+the right one, but--but--it did him no good, for, oh! he didn't know
+who our Saviour is;' and the little fellow clung to his brother in a
+passion of tears, while Felix felt a pang at the contrast.
+
+'Have you been telling him, Lancey?' he asked.
+
+'I wanted him to ask Mr. Audley, but he said he was a parson, and his
+father said that there would be no parsons if men were not fools. Now,
+Fee, I've told you, but don't keep me away.'
+
+'It would be hard on a poor sick fellow,' said Felix, thoroughly
+softened. 'Only, Lance, you know I can't be with you; will you promise
+to go away if ever you think Papa would wish it?'
+
+'Oh yes; one has to do that, you know, when our own fellows get
+blackguardly,' said little Lance, freely; whereat Cherry shuddered
+somewhat. 'And, Fee,' he added, 'if you would only come and make him
+understand about things.'
+
+'Mr. Audley must do that,' said Felix; 'I can't.'
+
+'You teach the boys in the Sunday-school,' said Lance. 'And he'd mind
+you, Blunderbore. He says you are the grandest and most splendiferous
+fellow he ever did set eyes on, and that he feels something like, when
+you've just looked in and spoken to him.'
+
+'You little ass, he was chaffing you.'
+
+'No, no, _indeed_ he wasn't. I told him all about it, because he liked
+your face so much. And he _does_ care so very much when you look in.
+Oh! _do, do_, Fee; he is so jolly, and it is so lonely and horrid for
+him, and I do so want Papa for him;' and the child cried silently, but
+Felix felt the long deep sobs, and as Geraldine, much moved, said,
+'Dear little Lancey,' he carried him over to her as she sat up in bed,
+and she kissed and fondled him, and murmured in his ear, 'Dear Lance,
+I'm sure he'll get good. We will get Mr. Audley to talk to him, you
+know, and we will say a prayer every day for him.'
+
+Lance, beginning to recover, put his arms round Cherry's neck, gave her
+a tremendous hug, released himself from his brother's arms, and ran off
+to bed. Felix remained a few moments, while Cherry exclaimed, 'Oh! the
+dear good little fellow!'
+
+'Better than any of us,' said Felix. 'I was quite savage with Mr.
+Audley when I found out about it. I must go down and tell him. I never
+thought all that was in the little chap! I'm glad he came to you,
+Cherry. Good-night.'
+
+'And you will try to teach this poor boy, Felix?'
+
+'I don't say that. I don't in the least know how; but I shall not dare
+to hinder Lance, now I see how he goes on.'
+
+On his way down he heard voices in the sitting-room, where, in fact,
+Mr. Audley had joined Wilmet, to explain to her how vexed he was to
+have so much annoyed Felix, and perhaps also something of his own
+annoyance at the manner in which Felix took it. Wilmet, partly from
+her 'growing on the sunny side of the wall,' partly from her early
+authority, was in some ways older than her brother, and could see that
+there was in him a shade of boyish jealousy of his prerogative; and
+as she sat, in her pretty modest gravity, with her fair hair and her
+Sunday frock, she was softly but earnestly telling Mr. Audley that she
+was sure Felix would not mind long, and that he was very sorry for
+the poor boy _really_, only he was so anxious about Lance, and he did
+like to be consulted. Both looked up, startled, as Felix opened the
+door, and they saw that his eyes were full of tears. He came up to Mr.
+Audley, and said, 'I beg your pardon, sir; I'd no business to grumble,
+and that little fellow has been--'
+
+'Beforehand with us?' asked Mr. Audley, as Felix broke down. 'The nurse
+has been just telling me how he sat on his bed saying bits of psalms
+and verses to him when he had that bad fit of cramp, "so pretty," she
+said; but I was afraid it must have been rather like a spell.'
+
+Felix told his story, feeling it too much not to make it lame, and with
+the tearfulness trembling in his voice and eyes all the time.
+
+'Our little _gamin_ has the most of the good Samaritan in him,' said
+Mr. Audley. ''Tis not quite the end I should have begun at, but perhaps
+it may work the better.'
+
+'Dear little boy, that he should have remembered that sermon!'
+exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'I am afraid it is more than I do,' said Felix; 'all last summer the
+more I tried to listen, the more I saw how he was changing. Do you
+remember it, Wilmet?'
+
+'Yes; the text was, "The joy of the Lord is your strength," and he
+said how praising God, and going on thinking about His goodness and
+thankfulness, was the way to make our adversaries dissolve before us,
+and never trouble us at all, just like the bands of the Moabites and
+Ammonites before Jehoshaphat.'
+
+'I recollect it well, and how I thought it such a likeness of himself,'
+said Mr. Audley; 'he was walking over his troubles, scarcely seeing
+them, as if they could not dim the shine of his armour while he went on
+looking up and being thankful. I fancy little Lance has a good deal of
+that kind of bright fearless way.'
+
+'He has,' said Felix in a grave thoughtful tone that made the Curate
+look at him and sigh to think how early care and grief had come to make
+that joyous buoyancy scarce possible to the elder boy, little more than
+seventeen though he was.
+
+'He is _very_ idle, though,' added Wilmet; 'such caricatures as there
+are all over his books! Edgar's were bad enough, but Lance puts
+pig-tails and cocked hats to all Edgar's.'
+
+So Lance's visits to the sick stranger remained unobstructed. He had
+no notion of teaching him; but the foreign boy in his languor and
+helplessness curiously fascinated him, perhaps from the very contrast
+of the passive, indolent, tropical nature with his own mercurial
+temperament. The Spaniard, or perhaps the old Mexican, seemed to
+predominate in Fernando, as far as could be guessed in one so weak and
+helpless. He seemed very quiet and inanimate, seldom wanting or seeking
+diversion, but content to lie still, with half-closed eyes; his manner
+was reserved, and with something of courteous dignity, especially when
+Lady Price came to visit him; and the Yankeeisms that sometimes dropped
+from his tongue did not agree with the polish of the tone, and still
+less with the imperious manner in which he sometimes addressed the
+nurse. He seemed, though not clever, to be tolerably well cultivated;
+he had been at the schools of whatever cities his father had resided
+in, and his knowledge of languages was of course extensive.
+
+However, he never talked freely to Mr. Audley. He had bitterly resented
+that gentleman's interference, one day when he was peremptorily
+commanding the nurse to place him in a position that had been
+forbidden, and the endeavour to control him had made him fearfully
+angry. There was a stormy outbreak of violent language, only checked
+by a severe rebuke, for which he did not forgive the Curate; he was
+coldly civil, and accepted the attentions he could not dispense with in
+a grave formal manner that would have been sulky in an English lad, but
+had something of the dreary grandeur of the Spanish Don from that dark
+lordly visage, and made Mr. Audley half provoked, half pitying, speak
+of him always as his Cacique. He only expanded a little even to Lance,
+though the little boy waited on him assiduously, chattering about
+school doings, illustrating them on a slate, singing to him, acting
+Blondin, exhibiting whatever he could lay his hands on, including the
+twins, whom he bore down one after the other, to the great wrath of
+Sibby, not to say of little Stella herself, while Theodore took the
+exhibition with perfect serenity.
+
+As to Felix, he was, as Lance said, the subject of the sick lad's
+fervent admiration. Perhaps the open, fair, cheerful, though grave
+countenance, fresh complexion, and strong, steadfast, upright bearing
+had something to do with the strange adoration that in his silent way
+Fernando paid to the youth, who looked in from time to time, bringing
+a sort of air of refreshment with his good-natured shy smile, even
+when he least knew what to say. Or else it was little Lance's fervent
+affection for Felix which had conduced to the erection of the elder
+brother into the idol of Fernando's fancy; and his briefest visit was
+the event of the long autumnal days spent in the uncurtained iron bed
+in the corner of the low room. The worship, silent though it was, was
+manifest enough to become embarrassing and ridiculous to the subject
+of it, whose sense of duty and compassion was always at war with his
+reluctance to expose himself to it. Not another word passed on any
+religious subject. Mr. Audley was not forgiven enough to venture on the
+attempt; the Rector was shy and frightened about it, and could make no
+beginning; and Mr. Mowbray Smith, who found great fault with them for
+their neglect, had been fairly stared down by the great black eyes,
+which, when the heavy lids were uplifted, proved to be of an immense
+size and force; and Felix was so sure that it could not be his business
+while three clergymen were going in and out that he had never done more
+than describe the weather, or retail any fresh bit of London news that
+had come down to the office.
+
+At last, however, one November day, he found Fernando sitting up in
+bed, and Lance, perched on the table, talking so earnestly as not to
+perceive his entrance, until Fernando broke upon his words: 'There!
+it's no use!'
+
+'Yes, it is,' cried Lance, jumping down. 'O Fee, I am glad you are
+come; I want you to tell him the rights of it.'
+
+'The rights of what, Lance?'
+
+'Tell him that it is all the devil's doing, and the men he has got on
+his side; and that it was the very thing our Saviour came for to set us
+free, only everybody won't,' said Lance clinging to his brother's hand,
+and looking up in his face.
+
+'That's about right, Lance,' said Felix; 'but I don't quite know what
+you are talking about.'
+
+'Just this,' said Fernando. 'Lance goes on about God being merciful and
+good and powerful--Almighty, as he says; but whatever women may tell a
+little chap like that, nobody can think so that has seen the things I
+have, down in the West, with my own eyes.'
+
+'Felix!' cried Lance, 'say it. You know and believe just as I do, as
+everybody good does, men and all.'
+
+'Yes, indeed!' said Felix with all his heart.
+
+'Then tell me how it can be,' said Fernando.
+
+Felix stood startled and perplexed, feeling the awful magnitude and
+importance of the question, but also feeling his own incompetence to
+deal with it; and likewise that Wilmet was keeping the tea waiting for
+him. He much wished to say, 'Keep it for Mr. Audley,' but he feared to
+choke the dawning of faith, and he likewise feared the appearance of
+hesitation.
+
+'Nobody can really explain it,' he said, 'but that's no wonder. One
+cannot explain a thunderstorm, but one knows that it is.'
+
+'That's electricity,' said Fernando.
+
+'And what's electricity?'
+
+'A fluid that--'
+
+'Yes; that's another word. But you can't get any further. God made
+electricity, or whatever it is, and when you talk about explaining it,
+you only get to something that _is_. You know it _is_, and you can't
+get any further,' he repeated.
+
+'Well, that's true; though science goes beyond you in America.'
+
+'But no searching finds out _all_ about God!' said Felix reverently.
+'All we know is that He is so infinitely great and wise, that of course
+we cannot understand why all He does is right, any more than a private
+soldier understands his general's orders.'
+
+'And _you--you_,' said Fernando, 'are content to say you don't
+understand.'
+
+'Why not?' said Felix.
+
+There was a silence. Fernando seemed to be thinking; Lance gazed from
+one to the other, as if disappointed that his brother was not more
+explicit.
+
+'And how do you know it is true?' added Fernando. 'I mean, what Lance
+has been telling me! What makes you sure of it, if you are?'
+
+'_If_ I am?' cried Felix, startled into indignation. 'To be sure I am!'
+
+'But how?'
+
+'I _know_ it!' said Felix.
+
+'How?'
+
+'The Bible!' gasped Lance impatiently.
+
+'Ay; so you have said for ever,' broke in Fernando; 'but what
+authenticates that?'
+
+'The whole course of history,' said Felix. 'There is a great chain of
+evidence, I know, but I never got it up. I can't tell it you, Fernando;
+I never wanted it, never even tried to think about the proofs. It is
+all too sure.'
+
+'But wouldn't a Mahometan say that?' said Fernando.
+
+'If he did, look at the Life of our Lord and of Mahomet together, and
+see which must be the true Prophet--the Way, the Life, the Truth.'
+
+'That one could do,' said Fernando thoughtfully. 'I say,' as Felix made
+a movement as if he thought the subject concluded, 'I want to know one
+thing more. Lance says it is believing all this that makes you--any one
+I mean--good.'
+
+'I don't know what else should,' said Felix, smiling a little; the
+question seemed to him so absurd.
+
+'Is it really what makes you go and slave away at that old boss's of
+yours?'
+
+'Why, that's necessity and my duty,' said Felix.
+
+'And is it what makes this little coon come and spend all his
+play-hours on a poor fellow with a broken leg? I've been at many
+schools, and never saw the fellow who would do that.'
+
+'Oh! you are such fun!' cried Lance.
+
+'All that is right comes from God first and last,' said Felix gravely.
+
+'And you--you that are no child--you believe all that Lance tells me
+you do, and think it makes you what you are!'
+
+'I believe it; yes, of course. And believing it should make me much
+better than I am! I hope it will in time.'
+
+'Ah!' sighed Fernando. 'I never heard anything like it since my father
+said he'd take the cow-hide to poor old Diego, if he caught him
+teaching me nigger-cant.'
+
+They left him.
+
+'Poor fellow!' sighed Felix; 'what have you been telling him, Lance?'
+
+'Oh, I don't know; only why things were good and bad,' was Lance's
+lucid answer; and he was then intent on detailing the stories he had
+heard from Fernando. He had been in the worst days of Southern slavery
+ere its extinction, on the skirts of the deadly warfare with the Red
+Indians; and the poor lad had really known of horrors that curdled the
+blood of Wilmet and Geraldine, and made the latter lie awake or dream
+dreadful dreams all night.
+
+But the next day, Mr. Audley was startled to hear the two friends in
+the midst of an altercation. When Lance had come in for his mid-day
+recreation, Fernando had produced five shillings, desiring him to go
+and purchase a Bible for him; but Lance, who had conceived the idea
+that the Scriptures ought not to be touched by an unchristened hand,
+flatly refused, offering, however, to read from his own. Now Lance's
+reading was at that peculiar school-boy stage which seems calculated to
+combine the utmost possible noise with the least possible distinctness;
+and though he had good gifts of ear and voice, and his reciting and
+singing were both above the average, the moment a book was before him,
+he roared his sentences between his teeth in horrible monotony. And as
+he began with the first chapter of St. Matthew, and was not perfectly
+able to cope with all the names, Fernando could bear it no longer, and
+insisted on having the book itself. Lance shook his head and refused;
+and matters were in this stage when Mr. Audley, not liking the echoes
+of the voices, opened the door. 'What is it?' he asked anxiously.
+
+'Nothing,' replied Fernando, proudly trying to swallow his vexation.
+
+'Lance!' said Mr. Audley rather severely; but just then, seeing what
+book the child was holding tight under his arm, he decided to follow
+him out of the room and interrogate.
+
+'What was it, Lance?'
+
+'He ought not to touch a Bible--he sha'n't have mine,' said Lance
+resentfully.
+
+'Was he doing anything wrong with it?'
+
+'Oh no! But he ought not to have it before he is christened, and I
+would have read to him.'
+
+Mr. Audley knew what Lance's reading was, and smiled. 'Was that all,
+Lance? I like your guardianship of the Bible, my boy; but it was not
+given only to those who are Christians already, or how could any one
+learn?'
+
+'He sha'n't touch mine, though,' said Lance, with an odd sturdiness;
+stumping upstairs with his treasure, a little brown sixpenny S. P. C.
+K. book, but in which his father had written his name on his last
+birth-day but one.
+
+Mr. Audley only waited to take down a New Testament, and present
+himself at Fernando's bedside, observing gladly that there was much
+more wistfulness than offence about his expression.
+
+'It was a scruple on the young man's part,' said Mr. Audley, smiling,
+though full of anxiety; 'he meant no unkindness.'
+
+'I know he did not,' said Fernando quietly, but gazing at the purple
+book in the clergyman's hands.
+
+'Did you want this?' said Mr. Audley; 'or can I find anything in it for
+you?'
+
+'Thank you;' and there was a pause. The offended manner towards Mr.
+Audley had been subsiding of late into friendliness under his constant
+attentions, and Fernando's desire for an answer prevailed at last.
+'Felix told me to read the Life of Christ,' he said, not irreverently,
+'and that it would show me He must be True.'
+
+'I hope and trust that so it may be,' said Mr. Audley, more moved than
+he could bear to show, but with fervour in his voice far beyond his
+words.
+
+'Felix,' said Fernando, resting on the name, 'Felix does seem as if he
+must be right, Mr. Audley; can it be really as he says--and Lance--that
+their belief makes them like what they are?'
+
+'Most assuredly.'
+
+'And you don't say so only because you are a minister?' asked the boy
+distrustfully.
+
+'I say so because I know it. I knew that it is the Christian faith that
+makes all goodness, long before I was a minister.'
+
+'But I have seen plenty of Christians that were not in the least like
+Felix Underwood.'
+
+'So have I; but in proportion as they live up to their faith, they have
+what is best in him.'
+
+'I should like to be like him,' mused Fernando; 'I never saw such a
+fellow. He, and little Lance too, seem to belong to something bright
+and strong, that seems inside and outside, and I can't lay hold of what
+it is.'
+
+'One day you will, my dear boy,' said Mr. Audley. 'Let me try to help
+you.'
+
+Fernando scarcely answered, save by half a smile, and a long sigh of
+relief: but when Mr. Audley put his hand over the long brown fingers,
+they closed upon it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE CHESS-PLAYER'S BATTLE.
+
+     'Dost thou believe, he said, that Grace
+        Itself can reach this grief?
+      With a feeble voice and a woeful eye--
+      "Lord, I believe," was the sinner's reply,
+      "Help Thou mine unbelief."'
+                                    _Southey._
+
+
+By the beginning of the Christmas holidays, Fernando Travis was able
+to lie on a couch in Mr. Audley's sitting-room. His recovery was even
+tardier than had been expected, partly from the shock, and partly from
+the want of vigour of the tropical constitution: and he still seemed to
+be a great way from walking, though there was no reason to fear that
+the power would not return. His father wrote, preparing for a journey
+to Oregon, and seemed perfectly satisfied, and he was becoming very
+much at home with his host.
+
+He was much interested in that which he was learning from Mr. Audley,
+and imbibing from the young Underwoods. The wandering life he had
+hitherto led, without any tenderness save from the poor old negro,
+without time to make friends, and often exposed to the perception of
+some of the darkest sides of human life, in the terrible lawlessness
+of the Mexican frontier, had hitherto made him dull, dreary, and
+indifferent, with little perception that there could be anything
+better; but first the kindness and then the faith he saw at Bexley, had
+awakened new perceptions and sensations. His whole soul was opening
+to perceive what the love of God and man might be; and the sense of
+a great void, and longing to have it satisfied, seemed to fill him
+with a constant craving for the revelation of that inner world, whose
+existence had just dawned upon him.
+
+After a little hesitation, Mr. Audley decided on reading with Geraldine
+in his presence after he had come into the sitting-room, explaining
+to her how he thought it might be helpful. She did not much like it,
+but acquiesced: she used to hop in with her sweet smile, shy greeting,
+and hand extended to the invalid, who used to lie looking at her
+through his long eyelashes, and listening to her low voice reading or
+answering, as if she were no earthly creature; but the two were far too
+much in awe of one another to go any further; and he got on much better
+with Wilmet, when she looked in on him now and then with cheery voice
+and good-natured care.
+
+Then Fulbert and Robina came home; and the former was half suspicious,
+half jealous, of Lance's preoccupation with what he chose to denominate
+'a black Yankee nigger.' He avoided the room himself, and kept Lance
+from it as much as was in his power; and one day Lance appeared with
+a black eye, of which he concealed the cause so entirely, that Felix,
+always afraid of his _gamin_ tendencies, entreated Fulbert, as a
+friend, to ease his mind by telling him it was not given in a street
+row.
+
+'I did it,' said Fulbert; 'he was so cocky about his Yankee that I
+could not stand it.'
+
+'Why shouldn't he be kind to a poor sick fellow?'
+
+'He has no business to be always bothering about Fernando
+here--Fernando there--Fernando for ever. I shall have him coming up to
+school a regular spoon, and just not know what to do with him.'
+
+'Well, Fulbert, I think if you had a broken leg you'd wish some one
+to speak to you. At any rate, I can't have Lance bullied for his good
+nature; I was very near doing it myself once, but I was shamed out of
+it.'
+
+'Were you--were you, indeed?' cried Fulbert, delighted at this
+confession of human nature; and Felix could not help laughing. And that
+laugh did much to bring him down from the don to the brother. At any
+rate, Fulbert ceased his persecution in aught but word.
+
+Robina, always Lance's companion, followed him devotedly, and only hung
+about the stairs forlorn when he went to Fernando without her; or if
+admitted, she was quite content to sit serenely happy in her beloved
+Lance's presence, expecting neither notice nor amusement, only watching
+their occupation of playing at draughts. Sometimes, however, Lance
+would fall to playing with her, and they would roll on the floor, a
+tumbling mass of legs, arms, and laughter, to the intense diversion of
+Fernando, to whom little girls were beings of an unknown order.
+
+So came on Christmas, with the anniversaries so sweet and so sad, and
+the eve of holly-dressing, when a bundle of bright sprays was left
+by some kind friend at No. 8, and Lance and Bobbie were vehement to
+introduce Fernando to English holly and English decking.
+
+Geraldine suggested that they had better wait for either Mr. Audley
+or Wilmet to come in, but for this they had no patience, and ran down
+with their arms full of the branches, and their tongues going with the
+description of the night's carols, singing them with their sweet young
+voices as they moved about the room. Fernando knew now what Christmas
+meant, but the joy and exhilaration of the two children seemed to him
+strange for such a bygone event. He asked them if they would have any
+treat.
+
+'Oh no! except, perhaps, Mr. Audley said he should drink tea one day,'
+said Robina. And then she broke out again, 'Hark! the herald angels,'
+like a little silver bell.
+
+Suddenly there was a cry of dismay. She had been standing on a chair
+over the mantelpiece, sticking holly into the ornaments, behind and
+under which, in true man's fashion, a good many papers and letters had
+accumulated. One of these papers--by some unlucky movement--fell, and
+by a sudden waft of air floated irrevocably into the hottest place in
+the fire.
+
+'O dear! oh dear!' wailed Robina.
+
+'That's a pretty go,' cried Lancelot.
+
+'That comes of your open fires,' observed Fernando.
+
+'What was it?' asked Lance.
+
+'I don't know. I think it was a list of names! Oh! how vexed he'll be,
+and Wilmet; for she told me never to get on a chair over the fender,
+and I forgot.' Bobbie's round face was puckering for a cry.
+
+'No, no, don't cry, Bob; I told you to get up, and I'll say so,' said
+Lance, smothering her in his arms after the wont of consoling brothers.
+
+'I dare say he'll not miss it,' said Fernando good-naturedly; 'he very
+seldom meddles with those things.'
+
+Bobbie's great round grey eyes came out over Lance's shoulder, and
+flashed amazement and wrath at him. 'I'm not going to tell stories,'
+she said stoutly.
+
+'No,' said Lance, equally scandalized; 'I thought you had learnt
+better, Fernando.'
+
+Robina, be it observed, was ignorant of Fernando's untaught state.
+
+'I only said you could hold your tongue,' was of course Fernando's
+rejoinder.
+
+'That's just as bad,' was the little girl's response.
+
+'But, Lance, you held your tongue about your black eye.'
+
+'That's my affair, and _nobody else's_,' said Lance, flushing up and
+looking cross at the allusion.
+
+'And Fulbert told!' added Robina.
+
+'Will they punish you?' asked Fernando.
+
+'I think Wilmet will, because it was disobedience! I don't think she'll
+let me have any butter at tea,' Bobbie nearly sobbed. 'Mr. Audley won't
+punish! But he'll look--' and she quite cried now.
+
+'And do you like that better than not telling?' said Fernando, still
+curious.
+
+She looked up, amazed again. 'I must! I don't like it! But I couldn't
+ever have a happy Christmas if I didn't tell! I wish they would come
+that I might have it over.'
+
+The street door opened at the moment, and Mr. Audley and Wilmet came in
+together from Lady Price's convocation of the parish staff. Fernando
+heard the sobbing confession in the passage, and Lance's assurance
+that he had been art and part in the disobedience, and Wilmet gravely
+blaming the child, and Mr. Audley telling her not to think so much
+about the loss as the transgression; and then the door was shut, and he
+heard no more, till Mr. Audley came in, examined the chimney-piece, and
+performed the elegy of the list in a long low whistle.
+
+'Is much harm done?' Fernando asked.
+
+'Not much; only I must go and get another list made out, and I am
+afraid I shall not be able to come in again before church.'
+
+'I hope they have not punished her.'
+
+'Wilmet recommended not taking the prize prayer-book to church, and
+she acquiesced with tears in her eyes. A good child's repentance is a
+beautiful thing--
+
+         "O happy in repentance' school
+          So early taught and tried."'
+
+These last words were said to himself as he picked up his various
+goods, and added, 'I must get some tea at the Rectory. I am sorry to
+leave you, but I hope one of them will come down.'
+
+They did not, except that they peeped in for a moment to wish him
+good-night, and regretted that they had not known him to be alone.
+
+As Felix was going out to begin the Christmas Feast in the darkness of
+morning, he looked in as he usually did, since Mr. Audley, sleeping out
+of the house, never came in till after early church. The nurse, who
+still slept in the room, was gone to dress; there was only a flickering
+night-light, and the room looked very desolate and forlorn, still more
+so the voice that called out to him, 'Felix! oh, Felix! is that you?'
+
+'Yes. A happy Christmas to you,' said Felix.
+
+'Happy--!' there was a sort of groan.
+
+'Why, what's the matter? have you had a bad night? Aren't you so well?'
+
+'I don't know. Come here; I must speak to you.'
+
+Felix was, as usual, in a great haste, but the tone startled him.
+
+'Felix, I can't stand this any longer. I must let you know what a
+frightful, intolerable wretch I've been. I tried to teach Lance to bet.'
+
+'Fernando!' He was so choked with indignation, he could not say more.
+
+'He wouldn't do it. Not after he understood it. It seems he tried it
+with another little boy at school, and one of the bigger ones boxed his
+ears and rowed him.'
+
+'Ay; Bruce promised me to look after him.'
+
+'So he refused. He told me he was on his honour to you not to stay if I
+did anything your father would have disapproved. He did leave me once,
+when I would not leave off.'
+
+'But how could you?'
+
+'I was so bored--so intolerably dull--and it is the only thing on earth
+that one cares to do.'
+
+'But Lance had nothing to stake.'
+
+'I could lend him! Ah! you don't know what betting is; why, we all
+do it--women, boys and all!' His voice became excited, and Felix in
+consternation broke in--
+
+'When did you do this?'
+
+'Oh! weeks ago. Before I was out of bed. When I found my dice in my
+purse; but I have not tried it since, with him!'
+
+'With whom, then?'
+
+'Why--don't fall on him--with Fulbert. He knew what it meant. Now,
+Felix, don't come on him for it. Come on me as much as you please. I've
+been a traitor to you. I see it now.'
+
+'Anything but that!' sighed Felix, too much appalled for immediate
+forgiving, dejected as was the voice that spoke to him.
+
+'Yes, yes, I know! I see. The worst thing I could do,' said Fernando,
+turning his face in on the pillow, in so broken-hearted a manner that
+Felix's kindness and generosity were roused.
+
+'Stay, don't be so downcast,' he said. 'There's no harm done with
+Lance, and you being so sorry will undo it with Fulbert! I do thank you
+for telling me, _really_, only it upset me at first.'
+
+'Upset! Yes, you'll be more so when you hear the rest,' said Fernando,
+raising his head again. 'Do you know who set that inn on fire?'
+
+'Nobody does.'
+
+'Well, I did.'
+
+'Nonsense! You've had a bad night! You don't know what you are
+talking about,' said Felix, anxiously laying hold of one of the hot
+hands--perceiving that his own Christmas Day must begin with mercy, not
+sacrifice, and beginning to hope the first self-accusation was also
+delirious.
+
+'Tell me. Didn't the fire begin in the ball-room? Somebody told me so.'
+
+'Yes, the waiter saw it there.'
+
+'Then I did it; I threw the end of a cigar among the flummery in the
+grate,' cried Fernando, falling back from the attitude into which he
+had raised himself, with a gesture of despair.
+
+'Nobody can blame you.'
+
+'Stay. It was after father and uncle had gone! I was smoking at the
+window of our room, and the landlord came in and ordered me not,
+because some ladies in the next room objected. He told me I might come
+down to the coffee-room; but I had never heard of such meddling, and I
+jawed him well; but he made me give in somehow. Only when I saw that
+big ball-room all along the side of the building, I just took a turn in
+it with my cigar to spite him. Poor Diego came up and begged me not,
+but you know the way one does with a nigger. Oh!'
+
+Felix did not know; but the voice broke down in such misery and horror,
+that his soul seemed to sink within him. 'Have you had this on your
+mind all this time?' he asked kindly.
+
+'No, no. It didn't come to me. I think I've been a block or a stone.
+The dear faithful fellow, that loved me as no one ever did. I've been
+feeling the kiss he gave me at the window all to-night. And then I've
+been falling--falling--falling in his black arms--down--down to hell
+itself. Not that he is there; but I murdered him, you know--and some
+one else besides, wasn't there?'
+
+'This is like delirium, really, Fernando,' said Felix, putting his arms
+round him to lay him down, as he raised himself on his elbow. 'I must
+call some one if you seem so ill.'
+
+'I wish it was illness,' said Fernando with a shudder. 'Oh! don't
+go--don't let me go--if you can bear to touch me--when you know all!'
+
+'There can't be any worse to know. You had better not talk.'
+
+'I must! I must tell you all I really am; though you will never let
+your brothers come near me, or the little angels--your sisters. I'd
+not have dared look at them myself if I had known it, but things never
+seemed so to me before.'
+
+Felix shivered at the thought of what he was to hear, but he gave
+himself up to listen kindly, and to his relief he gathered from the
+incoherent words that there was no great stain of crime, as he had
+feared; but that the boy had come to open his eyes to the evils of the
+life in which he had shared according to his age, and saw them in their
+foulness, and with an agonised sense of shame and pollution. Felix
+could not help asking whether this had long dwelt on his thoughts.
+
+'No,' he said, 'that's the wonder! I thought myself a nice,
+gentlemanly, honourable fellow. Oh!' with a groan. 'Fancy that! I never
+thought of recollecting these things, or what they have made me. Only,
+somehow, when those children seemed so shocked at my advising them
+to hold their tongues about their bit of mischief--I thought first
+what fools you all were to be so scrupulous; and then I recollected
+the lots of things I have concealed, till I began to think, Is this
+honour--would it seem so to Lance--or Felix? And then came down on me
+the thought of what you believe, of God seeing it all, and laying it up
+against one for judgment; and I _know_--I _know_ it is true!' and there
+came another heavy groan, and the great eyes shone in the twilight in
+terror.
+
+'If you know that is true,' said Felix, steadfastly and tenderly, 'you
+know something else too. You know Whom He sent into the world for our
+pardon for these things.'
+
+There was a tightening of the grasp as if in acquiescence and comfort;
+but the nurse came back to tidy the room, and still Fernando clung to
+Felix, and would not let him go. She opened the shutters, and then
+both she and Felix were dismayed to see how ill and spent her patient
+looked; for she had slept soundly through his night of silent anguish
+and remorse--misery that, as Felix saw by his face, was pressing on him
+still with intolerable weight.
+
+By the time the woman had finished Mr. Audley came in, and seeing at
+once that Felix's absence was accounted for by Fernando's appearance,
+he stepped up at once to the bed, full of solicitude. Felix hardly knew
+whether to reply or escape; but Fernando's heart was too full for his
+words not to come at once.
+
+'No, I am not worse, but I see it all now.--Tell him, Felix; I cannot
+say it again.'
+
+'Fernando thinks--' Felix found he could hardly speak the words
+either--'Fernando is afraid that it was an accident of his own--'
+
+'Don't say an accident. It was passion and spite,' broke in Fernando.
+
+'That caused the fire at the Fortinbras Arms,' Felix was obliged to
+finish.
+
+'Not on purpose!' exclaimed Mr. Audley.
+
+'Almost as much as if it had been,' said Fernando. 'I smoked to spite
+the landlord for interfering, and threw away the end too angry to
+heed where. There!' he added grimly; 'Felix won't tell me how many I
+murdered besides my poor old black. How many?'
+
+'Do not speak in that way, my poor boy,' said Mr. Audley. 'At least,
+this is better than the weight you have had on your mind so long.'
+
+'How many?' repeated Fernando.
+
+'Two more lives were lost,' said Mr. Audley gently, 'Mr. Jones's
+baby and its nurse. But you must not use harder words than are just,
+Fernando. It was a terrible result, but consequences do not make the
+evil.'
+
+He made a kind of murmur; then turning round, uneasily said, 'That is
+not all; I have seen myself, Mr. Audley.'
+
+Mr. Audley looked at Felix, who spoke with some difficulty and
+perplexity. 'He has been very unhappy all night. He thinks things wrong
+that he never thought about before.'
+
+Mr. Audley felt exceedingly hopeful at those words; but he was alarmed
+at the physical effect on his patient, and felt that the present
+excitement was mischievous. 'I understand in part,' he said. 'But it
+seems to me that he is too restless and uncomfortable to think or
+understand now. It may be that he may yet see the joy of to-day; but no
+more talk now. Have you had your breakfast?'
+
+He shook his head, but Felix had to go away, and breakfast and dressing
+restored Fernando to a more tranquil state. He slept, too, wearied out,
+when he was placed on his couch; while Felix was at Christmas service,
+singing, as he had never sung before,--
+
+     'Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
+      God and sinners reconciled.'
+
+Oh! was the poor young stranger seeing the way to that reconciliation?
+and when Lancelot's sweet clear young notes rose up in all their
+purity, and the rosy honest face looked upwards with an expression
+elevated by the music, Felix could not help thinking that the boy had
+verily sung those words of truth and hope into the poor dark lonely
+heart. Kindness, steadfastness, truth, in that merry-hearted child
+had been doing their work; and when Lance marched away with the other
+lesser choristers, the elder brother felt as if the younger had been
+the more worthy to 'draw near in faith.'
+
+Fernando was more like himself when Felix came in, but he was a good
+deal shaken, and listened to the conventional Christmas greeting like
+mockery, shrinking from the sisters, when they looked in on him, with
+what they thought a fresh access of shyness, but which was a feeling of
+terrible shame beside the innocence he ascribed to them.
+
+'I wish I could help that poor boy,' sighed Wilmet. 'He does look so
+very miserable!'
+
+And Geraldine's eyes swam in tears as she thought of the loneliness
+of his Christmas, and without that Christmas joy that even her
+mother's dulled spirit could feel--the joy that bore them through the
+recollections of this time last year.
+
+Lance's desire to cheer took the more material form of acting as
+Fernando's special waiter at the consumption of the turkey, which Mr.
+Audley had insisted on having from home, and eating in company with the
+rest, to whom it was a 'new experience,' being only a faint remembrance
+even to Felix and Wilmet; but Fernando had no appetite, and even the
+sight of his little friend gave him a pang.
+
+'Do you want any one to stay with you?' asked Lance. 'If Cherry _would_
+do--for Felix said he would take Fulbert and me out for a jolly long
+walk, to see the icicles at Bold's Hatch.'
+
+'No, I want no one. You are better without me.'
+
+'I'll stay if you _do_ want it,' said Lance, very reluctantly. 'I
+don't like your not having one bit of Christmas. Shall I sing you one
+Christmas hymn before I go?' And Lance broke into the 'Herald Angels'
+again.
+
+     'Mild He lays His glory by,
+      Born that man no more may die;
+      Born to raise the sons of earth,
+      Born to give them second birth.'
+
+Fernando's face was bathed in tears; he held out his arms, and to
+little Lance's great amazement, somewhat to his vexation, he held him
+fast and kissed him.
+
+'What did you do that for?' he asked in a gruff astonished voice.
+
+'Never mind!' said Fernando. 'Only I think I see what this day can be!
+Now go.'
+
+Presently Mr. Audley came softly in. The lad's face was turned in to
+his cushion, his handkerchief over it; and as the young priest stood
+watching him, what could be done but pray for the poor struggling soul?
+At last he turned round, and looked up.
+
+'I saw it again,' he said with a sigh.
+
+'Saw what?'
+
+'What you all mean. It touched me, and seemed true and real when Lance
+was singing. What was it--"Born to save the sons of earth"? Oh! but
+such as I am, and at my age, too!'
+
+And with a few words from Mr. Audley, there came such a disburthening
+of self-accusation as before to Felix. It seemed as if the terrible
+effects of his wilfulness at the inn--horrified as he was at them--were
+less oppressive to his conscience than his treachery to his host in his
+endeavour to gamble with the little boys. He had found a pair of dice
+in his purse when looking for the price of a Bible, and the sight had
+awakened the vehement hereditary Mexican passion for betting, the bane
+of his mother's race. His father, as a clever man of the world, hated
+and prohibited the practice; but Fernando had what could easily become
+a frenzy for that excitement of the lazy south, and even while he had
+seen it in its consequences, the intense craving for the amusement had
+mastered him more than once, when loathing the dulness and weariness
+of his confinement, and shrinking from the doctrines he feared to
+accept. He knew it was dishonourable--yet he had given way; and he
+felt like one utterly stained, unpardonable, hopeless: but there was
+less exaggeration in his state of mind than in the early morning; and
+when Mr. Audley dwelt on the Hope of sinners, his eyes glistened and
+brightened; and at the further words that held out to him the assurance
+that all these sins might be washed away, and he himself enabled to
+begin a new life, his looks shone responsively; but he shook his head
+soon--'It went away from him,' he said; poor boy! 'it was too great and
+good to be true.'
+
+Then Mr. Audley put prayer before him as a means of clinging even
+blindly to the Cross that he was barely beginning to grasp, and the
+boy promised. He would do anything they would, could he but hope to be
+freed from the horrible weight of sense of hopeless pollution that had
+come upon him.
+
+For some days he did not seem able to read anything but the Gospels and
+the Baptismal Service; and at length, after a long silence, he said,
+'Mr. Audley, if your sermon is finished, can you listen to me? May I be
+baptized?'
+
+Then indeed the Curate's heart bounded, but he had to keep himself
+restrained. The father's consent he had secured beforehand, but he
+thought Fernando ought to write to him; and it was also needful to
+consult the Rector as to the length of actual preparation and probation.
+
+Then, when the question came, 'Can I indeed be like Felix and Lancelot'
+the reply had to be cautious. 'You will be as entirely pardoned, as
+entirely belonging to the holiness within and without, as they; but
+how far you will have the consciousness, I cannot tell; and it is very
+probable that your temptations may be harder. Guilt may be forgiven,
+while habits retain their power; and they have been guarded, taught
+self-restraint, and had an example before them in their father, such as
+very few have been blessed with.'
+
+Fernando sighed long and sadly, and said, 'Then you do not think it
+will make much difference.'
+
+'The difference between life and death! But you must expect to have to
+believe rather than _feel_. But go on, and it will all be clear.'
+
+The Rector was at first anxious to wait for definite sanction from
+the father; but as Mr. Audley was sure of the permission he had
+received, and no letter could be had for several months, he agreed to
+examine the lad, and write to the Bishop--a new Bishop, who had been
+appointed within the last year, and who was coming in the spring for a
+Confirmation.
+
+Mr. Bevan was really delighted with the catechumen, and wrote warmly of
+him. The reply was, that if the Baptism could take place the day before
+the Confirmation, which was to be in a month's time, the Bishop himself
+would like to be present, and the youth could be confirmed the next
+day. There was much that was convenient in this, for it gave time for
+Fernando to make progress in moving about. He had made a start within
+the last week or two, was trying to use crutches, and had been out on
+fine days in a chair; and once or twice Lady Price had taken him for
+a drive, though she had never thought of doing so by Geraldine. The
+doctor said that change of air would probably quite restore his health;
+and he had only to wait to be a little less dependent before he was to
+go to a tutor, an old friend of the Audley family.
+
+Everything promised well; but one wet afternoon, in the interim between
+the end of Lance's and that of Fulbert's holidays, Mr. Audley, while
+coming down from a visit to Mrs. Underwood, fancied he heard an ominous
+rattle, and opening the door suddenly, found Fernando and Fulbert
+eagerly throwing the dice and with several shillings before them.
+
+Both started violently as he entered, and Fulbert put his arm and hand
+round as if to hide the whole affair; while Fernando tried to look
+composed.
+
+All that the Curate said in his surprise was one sharp sentence.
+'Fernando Travis, if you are to renounce the devil, you will have to
+begin by throwing those dice into the fire.'
+
+Fernando's eyes looked furious, and he swept the dice and the money
+into his pocket--all but three shillings. Fulbert stole out of the room
+quietly. No doubt these were his winnings, which he did not dare to
+touch.
+
+Mr. Audley took up a book and waited, fully expecting that sorrow would
+follow; but Fernando did not speak; and when at length he did on some
+indifferent matter, it was in his ordinary tone. Well, there must be
+patience. No doubt repentance would come at night! No; the evening
+passed on, and Fernando was ready for all their usual occupations.
+Perhaps it would come with Felix, or in the dawn after a troubled
+night. Alas! no. And moreover, Felix, to whom it was necessary to
+speak, was exceedingly angry and vexed, and utterly incredulous of
+there being any good in the character that could be so fickle, if not
+deceitful and hypocritical. His own resolute temper had no power of
+comprehending the unmanliness of erring against the better will; he
+was absolutely incapable of understanding the horrible lassitude and
+craving for excitement that must have tempted Fernando, and he was
+hard and even ashamed of himself for having ever believed in the lad's
+sincerity.
+
+This anger too made him speak with such a threatening tone to Fulbert,
+as to rouse the doggedness of the boy's nature. All that could be got
+out of Fulbert was that 'his going there was all Felix's doing,' and he
+would not manifest any sign of regret, such as would be any security
+against his introducing the practice among the clergy orphans, or
+continuing it all his life. He was not a boy given to confidences, and
+neither Wilmet nor Cherry could get him beyond his glum declaration
+that it was Felix's fault, he only wanted to keep out of the fellow's
+way. They could only take comfort in believing that he was really
+ashamed, and that he suffered enough within to be a warning against the
+vice itself.
+
+As to Fernando, he made no sign, he went on as if nothing had happened;
+and nothing was observable about him, but that he showed himself
+intensely weary of his present mode of life, put on at times the
+manners that were either those of the Spanish Don or of the Indian
+Cacique, and seemed to shrink from the prospect of the English tutor.
+Yet he continued his preparation for baptism, and Mr. Bevan was
+satisfied with him; but Mr. Audley was perplexed and unhappy over the
+reserve that had sprung up between them, and could not decide whether
+to make another attempt or leave the lad to himself.
+
+One afternoon, only ten days from the time fixed for the Bishop's
+visit, Mr. Audley returned from a clerical meeting to find an
+unexpected visitor in the room--namely, Alfred Travis, Fernando's
+uncle, a more Americanized and rougher person than his brother. He rose
+as he entered. 'Good morning, Mr. Audley; you have taken good care of
+your charge. He is fit to start with me to-morrow. See a surgeon in
+town--then to Liverpool--'
+
+'Indeed!' Mr. Audley caught a deprecating look from Fernando. 'Do you
+come from his father?'
+
+'Well--yes and no. His father is still in the Oregon; but he and I have
+always been one--and opening the boy's letters, and finding him ready
+to move, I thought, as I had business in England, I'd come and fetch
+him, and just settle any claim the fellow at yonder hotel may have
+cheek enough to set up, since Fernan was green enough to let it out.'
+
+'May I ask if you have any authority from his father?'
+
+'Authority! Bless you! William will be glad to see his boy; we don't go
+by authority between brothers.'
+
+'Because,' continued Mr. Audley, 'I heard from your brother that he
+wished Fernando to remain with me to receive an English education.'
+
+'All sentiment and stuff! He knew better before we had sailed! An
+English squire in this wretched old country, forsooth! when the new
+republic is before him! No, no, Mr. Audley, I'll be open with you. I
+saw what you were up to when I got your letter, and Fernan--Got his
+lesson very well, he had. And when I came down, a friend in London gave
+me another hint. It won't do, I can assure you. That style of thing is
+all very well for you spruce parsons of good family, as you call it in
+the old country; but we are not going to have a rising young fellow
+like this, with a prospect of what would buy out all your squires and
+baronets in the old country, beslobbered and befooled with a lot of
+Puseyite cant. You've had your turn of him; it is time he should come
+and be a man again.'
+
+Mr. Audley was dizzy with consternation. Fernando was no child. He was
+full sixteen, and he was so far recovered that his health formed no
+reason for detaining him. If he chose to go with his uncle, he _must_.
+If not--what then? He looked at Fernando, who sat uneasily.
+
+'You hear what your uncle says?' he asked.
+
+'I told him,' said Fernando, 'I must wait for a fortnight.' He spoke
+with eyes cast down, but not irresolutely.
+
+His uncle broke out--He knew what that meant; it was only that he might
+be flattered by the Bishop and all the ladies, and made a greater fool
+of than ever. No, no, he must be out again by May, and he should just
+have time to take Fernan to one of the gay boarding-houses at Saratoga,
+and leave him there to enjoy himself.
+
+'I have letters from my father,' said Fernando, looking up to Mr.
+Audley, 'before he went to Oregon. He said nothing.'
+
+'Do you wish to stay?' said Mr. Audley, feeling that all depended on
+that, and trying to hide the whirl of anxiety and disappointment he
+felt.
+
+The answer was not what he expected. Fernando sat upright in his chair,
+looked up to him and then at his uncle, and said low but resolutely, 'I
+will stay.'
+
+'Then you shall stay,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+'You have worked upon him, I see, Sir, with your old-world prejudiced
+superstition,' said Alfred Travis, evidently under the delusion that he
+was keeping his temper. 'A proper fool my brother was to leave him to
+you. But you do it at your peril. I shall see if there's power even in
+this old country to keep a boy from his own relations. You'll see me
+again, Fernan. You had better make ready.'
+
+The words were not unaccompanied with expletives such as had never been
+personally uttered to Charles Audley before, and that brought the hot
+colour to his cheek. When he looked round, Fernando's face was covered
+with his hands. 'Oh! Mr. Audley,' he cried, as his uncle hastily shut
+the door, 'is he going to send for the police?'
+
+'I do not believe he can do any such thing,' said Mr. Audley, seeing
+that Fernando was in great nervous agitation. 'I have authority from
+your father, he has none; and you are old enough to make your own
+decision. You really mean and wish to stay?' he added.
+
+'I told him so from the first,' said Fernando.
+
+'Then he has no power to force you away.'
+
+Fernando was silent. Then he said, 'If I could have gone after my
+Baptism.'
+
+'Would you have wished that?' said Mr. Audley, somewhat disappointed.
+
+The tears were now on the long black lashes.
+
+'Oh, don't think me ungrateful, or-- But this English life does come
+over me as intolerably dull and slow. No life nor go in it. Sometimes
+I feel sick of it; and going back to books and all, after what I
+have been used to. If my uncle could wait for my Baptism, or,' more
+hesitating, 'if I could be baptized at once. Men do lead Christian
+lives out there. I would try to keep from evil, Mr. Audley. I see your
+face! Is this another temptation of the devil?'
+
+'I think it is an attempt of his,' said Mr. Audley, sadly. 'Even here
+you have not been able to abstain entirely from giving way to your old
+passion, when you had little temptation, and felt your honour bound.
+What will it be when you have comparatively no restraint?'
+
+'I am resolved not to go unbaptized,' said Fernando. 'I said so from
+the first, but he will not wait! Yet if my father sends for me, I must
+go.'
+
+'Then it will be your duty, and you will have more right to look for
+help. Besides, a summons from your father could not come for three or
+four months, and in that time you would have had time to gain something
+in Christian practice and training.'
+
+'Oh, there is the bell! Must you go, Mr. Audley? He will come back!'
+
+'I wish I could stay, but Smith is gone to Dearport, and I do not know
+whether the Rector is in. Besides, this must be your own doing, Fernan,
+not mine. I shall pray for you, that you well know. Pray for yourself,
+for this is a real crisis of life. God bless you, my dear boy.' He laid
+his hand on the head, and Fernando looked up gratefully, then said,
+'You never did that before. May Lance come to me, if he has not gone?'
+
+'I will call him,' said Mr. Audley, seeing that he really dreaded being
+alone. The little boy was on the stairs with something in his hand. 'Go
+in to Fernan,' he was told; 'he wants you. What have you got there?'
+
+'This queer drawing. Cherry found it in an old portfolio, and has been
+copying it.'
+
+It was Retzsch's outline of the chess-player, and it almost startled
+Mr. Audley by its appropriateness. He went out to Evensong, and never
+was more glad to get back to reinforce the feeble garrison.
+
+Lance opened the front door to him. 'I'm so glad you are come!' he
+said. 'Mr. Bruce is there.'
+
+'Not the uncle?'
+
+'No, only Mr. Bruce.'
+
+Mr. Bruce was a lawyer, and a very respectable man, in whom Mr. Audley
+felt confidence. He rose at the clergyman's entrance, and asked to
+speak to him in another room, so he was taken into the little back
+dining-room, and began--'This is a very unpleasant business, Mr.
+Audley; this gentleman is very much annoyed, and persuaded that he has
+a right to carry off his nephew; but as I told him, it all turns upon
+the father's expressions. Have you any written authority from him?'
+
+Mr. Audley had more than one letter, thanking him, and expressing full
+satisfaction in the proposed arrangements for Fernando; and this Mr.
+Bruce thought was full justification, together with the youth's own
+decided wishes. The words were likewise clear, by which William Travis
+had given consent to his son's Baptism, but there was no witness of
+them. Mr. Bruce explained that Alfred Travis, who seemed to regard
+Fernando as the common property of the brothers, had come to him in
+what he gently termed 'a great state of excitement,' complaining of
+a Puseyite plot. He had evidently taken umbrage at the tone of the
+letters he had opened for his brother, and had been further prejudiced
+by some Dearport timber-merchant he had met at Liverpool, who had told
+him how the parson had got hold of his nephew, and related a farrago of
+gossip about St. Oswald's. He was furious at the opposition, and could
+not understand that law in the old country was powerless in this case,
+because he was neither father nor guardian. In fact he seemed to be
+master of his brother; and Mr. Bruce told Mr. Audley that it was quite
+to be considered whether though law was on his side now, the father
+might not be brought over to the brother's side, be very angry at the
+detention of the boy, and refuse the payment, which, while he was in
+America, could not be forced from him. Of that Mr. Audley could happily
+afford to run the risk; and Mr. Bruce said he had also set before the
+young gentleman that he might have to suffer much displeasure from
+his father for his present refusal, although his right to make it was
+incontestable. To this Fernando had likewise made up his mind; and Mr.
+Bruce, who had never seen him before, thought he looked utterly unfit
+for a long journey and sea voyage, so that the uncle had taken nothing
+by his application to the law.
+
+Fernando was flushed and panting, but more resolute, for resentment at
+the attempt at force had come to back him up, and rouse the spirit of
+resistance. Not half an hour had elapsed before there was another ring
+at the door. The uncle and lawyer were come together now. It was to
+make a last offer to Fernando; Mr. Alfred Travis offered to take him up
+to London the next day, and there to have advice as to the safety of
+the voyage, in the meantime letting him be baptized, if nothing else
+would satisfy him, but by some London clergyman--not one of the Bexley
+set whom the uncle regarded with such aversion.
+
+Fernando drew himself up, and stood, leaning on the end of the sofa.
+'Thank you, uncle,' he said, 'I cannot. I am obeying my father now, and
+I will not leave those to whom he trusted me.'
+
+There followed a volley of abuse of his English obstinacy and Spanish
+pride and canting conceit, which made Mr. Bruce stand aghast, and
+Fernando look up with burning cheeks and eyes glowing like hot coals;
+but with the Indian impassibility he did not speak till Alfred Travis
+had threatened him not only with his father's displeasure, but with
+being cast off by both, and left to his English friends' charity.
+
+'My father will not!' said Fernando. 'If he sends for me I will come.'
+But there his strength suddenly collapsed, and he was forced to sit
+down and lean back.
+
+'Well, Fernan,' said his uncle, suddenly withdrawing his attempt when
+he found it vain, 'you seem hardly in marching order, so I'm off by the
+night train; but if you change your mind in the next week, write to
+me at Peter Brown's--you know--and I'll run down. I will save you the
+coming out by yourself. Good-bye.'
+
+Mr. Bruce tarried one moment to aver that he was unprepared for his
+client's violence, and that he thought the nephew had done quite right.
+
+The door was shut, and Mr. Audley came back holding out his hand, but
+Fernando did not take it. He was occupied in supporting himself by
+the furniture from the sofa to the fire-place, where, holding by the
+mantelpiece with one hand, he took his dice from his pocket with the
+other, and threw them into the reddest depth. Then he held the hand to
+Mr. Audley, who wrung it, and said, 'It has been a hard fight, my boy.'
+
+Fernando laid his weary head on his shoulder, and said, 'If my father
+is not poisoned against me!'
+
+'Do not fear that, Fernando. You are where he left you. You have given
+up something for the sake of your new Lord and Master; you will have
+his armour another time.'
+
+Fernando let himself be helped to sit down, and sighed. He was
+thoroughly worn out, and his victory was not such as to enliven his
+spirits. He took up the drawing that lay on the table, and gazed on it
+in a sort of dreamy fascination.
+
+'You have checked him this time,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+'Here or there, I will never bet again,' said Fernan solemnly. 'God
+help me to keep the resolution! It is the one thing that I care for,
+and I know I should have begun the first day I was away from you.'
+
+'I think that with those tastes you cannot make too strong a resolution
+against it,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+Their dinner was brought in, but Fernando had no appetite. He soon
+returned to his chess-player, and seemed to be playing over the game,
+but he was too much tired for talk, and soon went to bed; where after
+a short sleep feverishness set in, bringing something approaching to
+delirium. The nurse had gone a fortnight previously; but as he was
+still too helpless to have no one within call, Felix slept on the bed
+in the corner of the room.
+
+When he came down the opening of the door was greeted by 'Don't let him
+come! Is Mr. Audley there?'
+
+'Yes, he is not gone.'
+
+Then he knew Felix, but soon began again to talk of the game at chess,
+evidently mixing up his uncle with the personage with the long feather.
+
+'He has been checked once. I've taken one piece of his. He is gone now.
+Will he come back after my Baptism? No; I shall go to him.'
+
+This lasted till past midnight, when, as they were deliberating
+whether to send for Mr. Rugg, he fell soundly asleep, and awoke in the
+morning depressed, but composed and peaceful; and this state of things
+continued. The encounter with his uncle, and the deliberate choice, had
+apparently given some shock to his nerves; and whenever night recurred,
+there came two or three hours of misery, and apparently of temptation
+and terror. It took different forms. Sometimes it was half in
+sleep--the acting over again of one or two horrible scenes that he had
+partly witnessed in the Southern States, when an emancipator had been
+hunted down, and the slaves who had listened to him savagely punished.
+In spite of his Spanish blood, the horror had been ineffaceable;
+and his imagination connected it with the crowd of terrors that had
+revealed themselves to his awakened conscience. He seemed to think that
+if he lost in the awful game of life, he should be handed over to that
+terrible slave-master; and there were times when Diego's fate, and his
+own lapses, so fastened on his mind, as to make him despair of ever
+being allowed to quit that slave-master's dominions; and that again
+joined with alarm lest his uncle should return and claim him.
+
+Sometimes, likewise, the old wandering life, with the flashes of
+rollicking mirth and excitement, rather glimpsed at and looked forward
+to than really tasted, would become so alluring a contrast to the flat
+and tasteless--nay, as it seemed to him, tedious and toilsome--future
+sketched out for him; and the restraints and constant watchfulness of
+a Christian's life appeared so distressing a bondage, that his soul
+seemed to revolt against it, and he would talk of following his uncle
+at once to London while yet it was time, and writing to him the next
+morning. This state was sure to be followed by a passion of remorse,
+and sheer delirious terror lest he should be given up to the enemy,
+who seemed now to assume to his fancy the form of his uncle. A great
+deal was no doubt delirious, and this betrayed the struggles which he
+had been for weeks fighting out in silence and apparent impassiveness;
+but it was impossible not to feel that therewith was manifested the
+wrestling with the Prince of Darkness, ere his subject should escape
+from his territory, and claim the ransom of his manumission. Mr.
+Audley--after the second night--would not let Felix remain, but took
+the watch entirely on himself, and fought the battle with the foe
+by prayer and psalm. Sleep used to come before morning; and by day
+Fernando was himself again, very subdued and quiet, and, in fact,
+having lost a good deal of ground as to health.
+
+Strange to say, the greatest pleasure he had at this time was sitting
+in the upstairs parlour. The custom had begun in consequence of his
+nervous shuddering at being left alone lest his uncle should return,
+and Felix and Geraldine had then proposed taking him to their mother,
+who was rather interested than annoyed by his presence, and indeed
+all her gentle motherly instinct was drawn out by his feebleness and
+lameness; she talked to him kindly and quite rationally, and he was
+wonderfully impressed and soothed by her tenderness. It was so utterly
+unlike anything he had ever even seen, that he watched her with a sort
+of awe; while Cherry worked, read aloud, or drew, and felt proud of
+being able to fetch what was beyond the capacity of her little errand
+boy, Bernard.
+
+The children, too, entertained him; he was a little afraid of Bernard's
+roughness, but delighted in watching him, and he and little Stella
+were intensely admiring friends. She always knew him, cooed at him,
+and preferred the gold of his watch-chain to all things in nature or
+art. Then when Wilmet, Angela, and Lance came home, and family chatter
+began, the weary anxious brain rested; and even in that room, so sad
+to most eyes, Fernando began to realise what Christian peace and
+cheerfulness could be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HOME.
+
+     'Within those walls each fluttering guest
+      Is gently lured to one safe nest;
+      Without, 'tis moaning and unrest.'
+                                    _Keble._
+
+
+A great delight came to Wilmet and Geraldine the day of the Bishop's
+visit, no other than Alda's being able to spend a week with them. Miss
+Pearson spared Wilmet that whole afternoon, that she might go up to
+meet her at the station, whither she was escorted by a maid going down
+to Centry.
+
+There she was, in her pretty black silk, with violet trimmings, looking
+thoroughly the grown young lady, but clinging tight to her twin in an
+overflow of confused happiness, even while they stood together to get
+their first glance of the Bishop, who came down by the same train, and
+was met by Mr. Bevan with the carriage.
+
+'I'm glad it is so nice and warm; it is better for Fernan, and Cherry
+can go!' said Wilmet, ready for joy about everything.
+
+'Nice and warm! 'Tis much colder than in London,' said Alda, with a
+shiver. 'Has Cherry kept well this winter?'
+
+'Quite well. She walks much better. And Marilda?'
+
+'Oh, Marilda is always well. Rude health, her mother calls it. What do
+you think she has sent you, Wilmet? A darling little watch! just like
+this of mine!'
+
+'O Alda, you should not have let her. It is too much. Fernan wanted to
+give Lance a watch, but Felix would not let him.'
+
+'Yes, but he is not like Uncle Thomas, and it makes you like me.'
+
+'That we shall never be quite again,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'Oh! a little setting off, and trimming up! I've brought down lots of
+things. Aunt Mary said I might. What is this youth like, Wilmet--is he
+a boy or a young man?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Wilmet; 'he is younger than Felix, if that helps
+you.'
+
+'Well, Americans are old of their age. I have met some at Mr. Roper's.
+Oh, and do you know, Mrs. Roper told Aunt Mary that these Travises
+are quite millionaires, and that this youth's mother was a prodigious
+Mexican heiress. Aunt Mary wants to ask him to Kensington Palace
+Gardens, when he comes up to town! I'm glad I am in time for the
+christening. Doesn't he have godfathers and godmothers?'
+
+'Yes; he would have nobody but Felix and Mr. Audley, and Lady Price
+chose to be his godmother; indeed, there was nobody else.'
+
+'You could not well be, certainly,' laughed Alda. 'Oh! and I've brought
+a dress down. I thought some of us might be asked to the Rectory in the
+evening.'
+
+'My dear Alda, as if such a thing ever happened!'
+
+'Ah! you see I have been so long away as to forget my Lady's manners.'
+
+'Mr. Audley is going, and Fernan was asked, but he is not anything like
+well enough. So when Mamma and the little ones go to bed, we are to
+come down and spend the evening with him.'
+
+'Fancy, Wilmet, I have quite been preparing Marilda for her
+Confirmation. She had hardly been taught anything, and never could have
+answered the questions if she had not come to me. She is always asking
+me what Papa said about this and that; and it is quite awkward, she
+will carry out everything so literally, poor dear girl.'
+
+'She must be very good.'
+
+'Oh! to be sure she is! But just fancy, she keeps a tithe of her
+pocket-money to give to the Offertory so scrupulously; she would really
+not buy something she wanted because it would have been just a shilling
+into her tenth. I'm so glad she is confirmed. I never knew what to
+do at church before. I couldn't go home by myself, and now a servant
+always waits for us. Oh! how fast the poor hotel is building again! It
+will brighten our street a little! Dear me, I did not know how dingy it
+was!'
+
+Nothing could look dingy where two such fair bright faces were; but
+Alda's became awe-struck and anxious as she went up to her mother's
+room. Indeed Mrs. Underwood looked up at her rather confused, and
+scarcely knowing the fashionable young lady, and it was only when the
+plumed hat was laid aside, and the two heads laid together, their
+fair locks mingling, that she knew she had her elder twins again, and
+stroked their faces with quiet delight.
+
+There was scarcely more than time to kiss the little ones, and contend
+with Stella's shyness, before first Lance hurried in and then Felix,
+excused from his work two hours earlier. He could only just run up and
+dress before he convoyed Geraldine to church, she having the first turn
+of the chair, helped her to her seat near the Font, and then came back
+for Fernando, who was under his special charge.
+
+Fernando sat looking very pale, and with the set expression of the
+mouth that always made Cherry think of Indians at the stake. His little
+new prayer-book was in his hand, and he was grasping it nervously,
+but he said nothing, as Felix helped him up and Lance held his crutch
+for him. It was his first entrance into a place of worship. They had
+intended to have accustomed him a little to the sights and sounds, but
+the weather and his ailment had prevented them. He was drawn to the
+porch, and there Felix partly lifted him out and up the step, while
+Lance took his hat for him, and as they were both wanted for the choir
+procession that was to usher the Bishop into church, they had to leave
+him in his place under Geraldine's protection.
+
+He had not in the least realised the effect of the interior of a
+church. St. Oswald's was a very grand old building, with a deep
+chancel a good deal raised, seen along a vista of heavy columns and
+arched vaults, lighted from the clerestory, and with a magnificent
+chancel-arch. The season was Lent, and the colouring of the decorations
+was therefore grave, but all the richer, and the light coming strongly
+in from the west window immediately over the children's heads, made
+the contrast of the bright sunlight and of the soft depths of mystery
+more striking, and, to an eye to which everything ecclesiastical was
+absolutely new, the effect was almost overwhelming. That solemnity and
+sanctity of long centuries, the peaceful hush, the grave beauty and
+grandeur, almost made him afraid to breathe, and Cherry sat by his side
+with her expressive face composed into the serious but happy look that
+accorded with the whole scene.
+
+He durst not move or speak. His was a silent passive nature, except
+when under strong stimulus, and Cherry respected his silence a great
+deal too much to break upon it by any information. She was half sorry
+when the noise of steps showed that the congregation were beginning
+to drop in, chiefly of the other young Confirmation candidates. Then
+presently Alda came, and whispered to her that Wilmet could not leave
+Mamma; and presently after, Lady Price bustled in with her daughter,
+looked severely at Alda under the impression that she was Wilmet
+very improperly tricked out, and pressed Fernando's hand before
+going on to her own place. Then came the low swell of the organ,
+another new sensation to one who had only heard opera music; then the
+approaching sound of the voices. Geraldine gave him the book open at
+the processional psalm, and the white-clad choir passed by, one of the
+first pair of choristers being Lance, singing with all his might, and
+that merry monkey-face full of a child's beautiful happy reverence. And
+again could be recognised Felix, Mr. Audley, Mr. Bevan, all whom the
+poor sick stranger had come to love best, all to his present perception
+glorified and beautiful. They had told him it would be all faith and no
+sight, but he seemed to find himself absolutely within that brighter
+better sphere to which they belonged, to see them walking in it in
+their white robes, to hear their songs of praise, and to know whence
+came that atmosphere that they carried about with them, and that he had
+felt when it was a riddle to him.
+
+And so the early parts of the service passed by him, not so much
+attended to or understood as filling him with a kind of dreamy
+rapturous trance, as the echoes of the new home, to which he, with all
+his heavy sense of past stain and present evil propensity, was gaining
+admission and adoption. For the first time he was really sensible of
+the _happiness_ of his choice, and felt the compensation for what he
+gave up.
+
+When the Second Lesson was ended, and the clergy and the choir, in
+their surplices, moved down to encircle the Font, it was as if they
+came to gather him in among them. Felix came and helped him up. He
+could stand now with one support, and this was his young godfather's
+right arm, to which he held tightly, but without any nervous
+convulsiveness--he was too happy for that now--during the prayers that
+entreated for his being safely gathered into the Ark, and the Gospel of
+admission into the Kingdom. He had an impulse to loose his clasp and
+stand alone at the beginning of the vows, but he could not; he had not
+withdrawn his hand before he was forced again to lean his weight upon
+the steady arm beside him.
+
+Nothing had been able to persuade Lady Price that she was not to make
+all the vows as for an infant, but luckily nobody heard her except her
+husband and the other sponsors, for it was a full, clear, steadfast
+voice that made reply, 'I renounce them all!' and as the dark deep
+eyes gazed far away into the west window, and Felix felt the shudder
+through the whole frame, he knew the force of that renunciation; and
+how it gave up that one excitement that the lad really cared for. And
+when that final and carefully-guarded vow of obedience was uttered,
+the pressure on his arm seemed to show that the moral was felt of that
+moment's endeavour to stand alone.
+
+The sound of prayer, save in his own chamber, was so entirely new,
+that no doubt the force of the petitions was infinitely enhanced, and
+the entreaty for the death of the old Adam had a definite application
+to those old habits and tastes that at times exerted their force. The
+right hand was ready and untrembling when the Rector took it; the
+stream of water glittered as it fell on the awe-struck brow and jetty
+hair, and the eyes shone out with a deep resolute lustre as 'Ferdinand
+Audley' was baptized into the Holy Name, and sworn a faithful soldier
+and servant.
+
+He had begged to be baptized by the English version of his name; the
+Spanish one had grown up by a sort of accident, and had always been
+regretted by his father. He had wished much to take the name of Felix,
+but they were so certain that this would not be approved, that they
+had persuaded him out of it. He was soon set down again by Geraldine's
+side; and she put out her hand and squeezed his hard, looking up into
+his face with tearful eyes of welcome.
+
+When the last sounds of the voluntary had died away, and the
+congregation had gone, she ventured again to look up at him and say, 'I
+am so glad!'
+
+'Why did you never tell me it was like this?' he said. 'I should never
+have hung back one moment. Now nothing can touch me, since I belong to
+_this_.'
+
+'Nothing can _really_,' said Geraldine softly. 'Above all, when it is
+sealed to us to-morrow.'
+
+Then there came a movement from the vestry, and the Rector and Mr.
+Audley were seen following the Bishop, who came down to where the two
+lame children still sat together, and putting his hand upon Ferdinand's
+head with the hair still wet, gave him his blessing before he spoke
+further. It was only a word or two of congratulation, but such as to go
+very deep; and then, seeing that the boy looked not excited, but worn
+and wearied, he added, 'You are going home to rest. I shall see you
+to-morrow after the confirmation;' and then he shook hands with him and
+with Geraldine, asking if she were the little girl of whom he had been
+told.
+
+'She is very young,' said Mr. Bevan, strongly impressed with the
+littleness of the figure; 'but she has been a Communicant for more than
+a year, and she is--a very good child.'
+
+'I can believe so,' said the Bishop, smiling to her. 'I have heard of
+your father, my dear, and of your brother.'
+
+Cherry coloured rosy red, but was much too shy to speak; and the Rector
+and Bishop went away, leaving only Mr. Audley.
+
+'Are you very much tired, Fernan?'
+
+'I don't know,' he half smiled.
+
+'I think he is; he is too happy to know it,' said Geraldine. 'Please
+let him go home first.'
+
+So Mr. Audley helped him out to the chair, where Felix, Alda, and Lance
+were waiting; and he said, 'Thank you,' and held out his hand, while
+Lance eagerly shook it, saying, 'Now it is right at last; and here's
+Alda--isn't she a stunner?'
+
+'I thought it was Wilmet,' said Fernan; and Alda went into church to
+keep Cherry company, thinking how curiously blind the male sex were not
+to distinguish between her dress and poor dear Wilmet's.
+
+Mr. Audley was more than satisfied, he was surprised and comforted. He
+had prepared to meet either disappointment or excitement in his charge;
+he found neither--only a perfect placid content, as of one who had
+found his home and was at rest. The boy was too much tired, after his
+many bad nights and the day's exertion, to say or think much; all he
+did say was, 'I shall mind nothing now that I know what it is to be one
+of you.'
+
+Mr. Audley tried to remember that there must be a reaction, but he
+could not bring himself to fear or to warn, or do anything but enjoy
+the happiest day of his three years' ministry.
+
+He had to go to the Rectory dinner-party, and leave his neophyte to
+the tendance of the Underwoods. Felix sat with his friend in a great
+calm silence, while the rest were taken up by the counter-attraction
+upstairs, where Alda was unpacking an unrivalled store of presents from
+herself and Marilda, useful and ornamental, such as seemed a perfect
+_embarras de richesses_ to the homely, scantily-endowed children. That
+little gold watch was the prize and wonder of all. It was the first
+in the family, except that Felix wore his father's, and Alda knew
+how an elder girl was scorned at school if she had none; but Wilmet,
+though very happy with hers, smiled, and would not agree to having
+met with disrespect for want of it. Then there were drawing-books
+for Cherry, and a knife of endless blades for Lance, and toys for
+the little ones; and dresses--a suit for Wilmet like Alda's plainest
+Sunday one, and Alda's last year's silk for Geraldine, and some
+charming little cashmere pelisses--Aunt Mary's special present to the
+two babies--things that would lengthen Wilmet's purse for many a day
+to come; and a writing-case for Felix; and all the absent remembered,
+too. Uncle Thomas had given Alda a five-pound note to buy presents,
+and Marilda had sent every one something besides, mostly of such a
+matter-of-fact useful type that Alda stood and laughed at them. And
+Mrs. Underwood was pleased with the exhibition, and smiled and admired,
+only her attention was tired out at last, and she was taken early to
+her own room.
+
+The elder ones went down to sit round the fire in Mr. Audley's room,
+where Ferdinand insisted on leaving his sofa to Geraldine, and betaking
+himself to the easy-chair, where he leant back, content and happy to
+watch the others through his eye-lashes. Alda was a little on her
+company manners at the first, but all the others were at perfect
+ease, as they sat in the dim light. Felix on the floor by Cherry, who
+delighted in a chance of playing fondling tricks with his hair and
+fingers; the twins in Mr. Audley's big chair, where they could lean
+against each other; and Lance cross-legged on the hearth-rug roasting
+chestnuts, of which a fellow chorister had given him a pocketful, and
+feeding every one in turn.
+
+Geraldine gave a sigh to the wish that poor dear Edgar were there.
+
+'He is very happy!' said Alda.
+
+'Oh yes, but I wish he had not missed being here to-morrow. I wonder
+when he will come home.'
+
+'I cannot guess; Aunt Mary wants to go down the Rhine next summer (only
+she is not quite sure it is not the Rhone), and if so, I suppose he
+would join us there.'
+
+'It is a whole year since we have set eyes on him,' said Felix.
+
+'But I believe he writes more to Cherry than anybody, does not he?'
+
+'Oh yes, and sends me lovely photographs to copy. Such a beauty of
+himself! Have you seen it?'
+
+'I should think I had! They have set it up in a little gold frame on
+the drawing-room table, and everybody stands and says how handsome it
+is; and Aunt Mary explains all about him till I am tired of hearing it.'
+
+'And Clem?'
+
+'Oh, Clem came to luncheon yesterday. He is very much grown, and looks
+uncommonly demure, and as much disposed to set everybody to rights as
+ever.'
+
+But Alda did not enter much more into particulars; she led away the
+conversation to the sights she had seen in their summer tour; and as
+she had a good deal of descriptive power, she made her narratives so
+interesting that time slipped quickly past, and the young company was
+as much surprised as Mr. Audley was when he came home and found them
+all there, not yet gone to bed. They were greatly ashamed, and afraid
+they had done Ferdinand harm, and all were secretly very anxious about
+the night; but, though the wakeful habit and night feverishness were
+not at once to be broken through, yet the last impression was the
+strongest, and the long-drawn aisle, the 'dim religious light,' and
+the white procession, were now the recurring images, all joyful, all
+restful, truly as if the bird had escaped out of the snare of the
+fowler. Real sleep came sooner than usual, and Fernan rose quite equal
+to the fatigue of the coming day, the Confirmation day, when again
+Geraldine had to sit beside him--this newly admitted to the universal
+brotherhood, instead of being beside that dear Edgar of her own, for
+whom her whole heart craved, as she thought how their preparation had
+begun together beside her father's chair.
+
+Their place was now as near the choir as possible, and they were
+brought in as before, very early, so that Fernan gazed with the same
+eager, unsated eyes into the chancel and at the altar, admitted as he
+was farther into his true home.
+
+The church was filled with candidates from the villages round as
+well as from the town, and the Litany preceded the rite which was to
+seal the young champions ere the strife. The Bishop came down to the
+two lame children, and laid his hands on the two bent heads, ere he
+gave his final brief address, exhorting the young people to guard
+preciously, and preserve by many a faithful Eucharist, that mark which
+had sealed them to the Day of Redemption, through all this world's long
+hot trial and conflict.
+
+There was holiday at both schools, and Felix had been spared to take
+his place in the choir, but Mr. Froggatt could not do without him
+afterwards, as the presence of so many of the country clergy in the
+town was sure to fill the reading-room and shop; and he was obliged
+to hurry off as soon as he came out of church. Now, the Bishop had
+the evening before asked Lady Price 'whether that son of poor Mr.
+Underwood's' were present among the numerous smart folk who thronged
+her drawing-room, to which my lady had replied, 'No; he was a nice,
+gentlemanly youth certainly, but, considering all things, and how sadly
+he had lowered himself, she thought it better not. In fact, some might
+not be so well pleased to meet him.'
+
+The Bishop took the opportunity of trying to learn from the next person
+he fell in with, namely, Mr. Ryder, how Felix had lowered himself;
+and received an answer that showed a good deal of the schoolmaster's
+disappointment, but certainly did not show any sense of Felix's
+degradation. And what he said was afterwards amplified by Mr. Audley,
+whom the Bishop took apart, and questioned with much interest upon
+both Ferdinand Travis and the Underwood family, of whom he had only
+heard, when, immediately after his appointment, his vote for the orphan
+school had been solicited for the two boys, and he had been asked to
+subscribe to the Comment on the Philippians. Mr. Audley felt that he
+had a sympathizing listener, and was not slow to tell the whole story
+of the family--what the father had been, what Felix now was, and how
+his influence and that of little Lancelot had told upon their young
+inmate. The Bishop listened with emotion, and said, 'I must see that
+boy! Is the mother in a state in which she would like a call from me?'
+but there an interruption had come; and when the country clergy came in
+the morning, Mr. Audley had thought it fittest not to swell the numbers
+unnecessarily, and had kept himself out of the way, and tried to keep
+his fellow-curate.
+
+So he had seen no more of the Bishop, until, some little time after he
+and Fernan had lunched, and were, it must be confessed, making up for
+their unrestful nights by having both dropped asleep, one on his chair,
+the other on the sofa, there came a ring to the door, and Lance, who
+had a strong turn for opening it, found himself face to face with the
+same tall grey-haired gentleman at whom he had gazed in the rochet and
+lawn-sleeves. He stood gazing up open-mouthed.
+
+'I think I have seen you in the choir, and heard you too,' said the
+Bishop, kindly taking Lance's paw, which might have been cleaner had he
+known what awaited it. 'Mr. Audley lives here, I think.'
+
+Lance was for once without a word to say for himself, though his
+mouth remained open. All he did was unceremoniously to throw wide Mr.
+Audley's door, and bolt upstairs, leaving his Lordship to usher himself
+in, while Mr. Audley started up, and Ferdinand would have done the
+same, had he been able, before he was forbidden.
+
+There was a kindly talk upon his health and plans, how he was to
+remain at Bexley till after Easter and his first Communion, and then
+Mr. Audley would take him up to London to be inspected by a first-rate
+surgeon before going down to the tutor's. The tutor proved to be an
+old school-fellow and great friend of the Bishop; and what Fernan
+heard of him from both the friend and pupil would have much diminished
+his dread, even if he had not been in full force of the feeling that
+whatever served to bind him more closely to the new world of blessing
+within the Church must be good and comfortable.
+
+This visit over, the Bishop asked whether Mrs. Underwood would like
+to be visited, and Mr. Audley went up to ascertain. She was a woman
+who never was happy or at rest in an untidy room, or in disordered
+garments, and all was in as fair order as it could be with the old
+furniture, that all Wilmet's mending could not preserve from the verge
+of rags. Her widow's cap and soft shawl were as neat as possible, and
+so were the little ones in their brown-holland, Theodore sitting at her
+feet, and Stella on Wilmet's lap, where she was being kept out of the
+way of the more advanced amusement of a feast of wooden tea-things,
+carried on in a corner between Angela and Bernard, under Lance's
+somewhat embarrassing patronage.
+
+Alda sprang up, stared about in consternation at the utter unlikeness
+to the drawing-room in Kensington Palace Gardens, and exclaimed, 'Oh!
+if Sibby had only come to take the children out! Take them away, Lance.'
+
+'Sibby will come presently, or I will take them to her,' whispered
+Wilmet. 'I should like them just to have his blessing.'
+
+'So many,' sighed Alda; but meantime Mr. Audley had seen that all was
+right at the first _coup d'oeil_, had bent over Mrs. Underwood, told
+her that the Bishop wished to call upon her, and asked her leave to
+bring him up; and she smiled, looked pleased, and said, 'He is very
+kind. That is for your Papa, my dears. You must talk to him, you know.'
+
+The Bishop came up almost immediately, and the perfect tranquillity and
+absence of flutter fully showed poor Mrs. Underwood's old high-bred
+instinct. She was really gratified when he sat down by her, after
+greeting the three girls, and held out his hands to make friends with
+the lesser ones, whom their sisters led up, Angela submissive and
+pretty behaved, Bernard trying to hide his face, and Stella in Wilmet's
+arms staring to the widest extent of eyes. The sisters had their
+wish--the fatherless babes received the pastoral blessing; and the
+Bishop said a few kind words of real sympathy that made Mrs. Underwood
+look up at him affectionately and say, 'Indeed I have much to be
+thankful for. My children are very good to me.'
+
+'I am sure they are,' said the Bishop. 'I cannot tell you how much I
+respect your eldest son.'
+
+The colour rose in the pale face. 'He is a very dear boy,' she said.
+
+'I should like to see him before I go. Is he at home?'
+
+'Lance shall run and call him,' said Alda; but the Bishop had asked
+where he was, and Wilmet had, not unblushingly, for she was red with
+pleasure, but shamelessly, answered that he was at Mr. Froggatt's,
+offering to send Lance in search of him.
+
+'I had rather he would show me the way,' said the Bishop. 'Will you, my
+boy?'
+
+The way to Mr. Froggatt's was not very long, but it was long enough to
+overcome Lance's never very large amount of bashfulness; and he had
+made reply that he went to the Grammar School, and was in the second
+form, that he liked singing in the choir better than--no, not than
+_anything_--anything except--except what? Oh a jolly good snow-balling,
+or a game at hockey. Did he like the school? Pretty well, on the whole;
+but he did not suppose he should stay there long, his brother at the
+Clergy Orphan said there was such a lot of cads, and that he was always
+grubbing his nose among them; but now, 'do you really think now that
+cads are always such bad fellows?'
+
+His Lordship was too much diverted to be easily able to speak, but he
+observed that it depended on what was meant by a cad.
+
+'That's just it!' exclaimed Lance. 'I'm sure some that he calls cads
+are as good fellows as any going.'
+
+'And what does your eldest brother say?'
+
+'Felix! Oh! he does not mind, as long as one does not get into a real
+scrape.'
+
+'And then?'
+
+'Oh, then he minds so much that one can't do it, you know.'
+
+'What, does he punish you?'
+
+'N--no--he never licks any of us now--but he is so horridly sorry--and
+it bothers him so,' said Lance. 'Here's old Froggatt's,' he concluded,
+stopping at the glass door. 'My eyes! what a sight of parsons!' (Lance
+had pretty well forgotten whom he was talking to.) 'There, that's
+Felix--no, no, not that one serving Mr. Burrowes, that's Redstone;
+Felix is out there, getting out the sermon paper for that fat one, and
+that's old Froggy himself, bowing away. Shall I go and call Felix? I
+suppose he will not mind this time.'
+
+'No, thank you, I will go in myself. Good-bye, my little guide, and
+thank you.'
+
+And Lance, when his hand came out of the Bishop's, found something
+in it, which proved to be a tiny Prayer-book, and moreover a
+half-sovereign. He would have looked up and thanked, but the Bishop and
+that 'fat one' were absorbed in conversation on the step; and when he
+turned over the leaves of the little blue morocco book, with its inlaid
+red cross, he found full in his face, in the first page, the words,
+'Lancelot Underwood, March 15th, 1855,' and then followed an initial,
+and a name that utterly defeated Lance's powers, so that perceiving the
+shop to be far too densely full of parsons for him to have a chance
+there, he galloped off at full speed to Cherry, who happily could
+interpret the contracted Latin by the name of the See, and was not
+_quite_ so much astonished as Lance, though even more gratified.
+
+Meantime, the Bishop had made his way to the bowing Mr. Froggatt, and
+asked to speak with him in his private room, where he mentioned his
+kindness to young Underwood, and was answered by a gratified disclaimer
+of having done anything that was not of great advantage to himself.
+The good man seemed divided between desire to do justice to Felix and
+not to stand in his light, and alarm lest he should have to lose an
+assistant whom he had always known to be above his mark, and who was
+growing more valuable every month; and he was greatly relieved and
+delighted when the Bishop only rejoiced at his character of Felix, and
+complimented the Pursuivant by being glad that a paper of such good
+principles should be likely to have such a youth on its staff; it had
+been well for the lad to meet with so good a friend. Mr. Froggatt could
+not be denied an eulogium on the father, for whose sake he had first
+noticed the son; and when the Bishop had expressed his sorrow at never
+having known so bright a light as all described the late Curate to have
+been, he courteously regretted the interruption on a busy day, but he
+begged just to see the young man. He had little time himself, 'but if
+he could be spared to walk up to the station--'
+
+Mr. Froggatt bustled out with great alacrity, and taking the charge of
+the customer on himself, announced, for the benefit of all who might be
+within earshot: 'Mr. Underwood, his Lordship wishes to speak with you.
+He wishes you to walk up to the station with him. You had better go out
+by the private door.'
+
+Felix was red up to the ears. His eight years' seniority to Lance were
+eight times eight more shyness and embarrassment, but he could only
+obey; and at his first greeting his hand was taken--'hoped to have seen
+you sooner,' the Bishop said; 'but you had always escaped me in the
+vestry.'
+
+'I had to go to help my sister, my Lord,' said Felix.
+
+'And your friend,' said the Bishop. 'That is a good work that has been
+done in your house.'
+
+Felix coloured more, not knowing what to say.
+
+'I wish to see you,' continued the Bishop, 'partly to tell you how much
+I honour you for the step you have taken. I wish there were more who
+would understand the true uprightness and dutifulness of thinking no
+shame of any honest employment. I am afraid you do sometimes meet with
+what may be trying,' he added, no doubt remembering Lady Price's tone.
+
+'I do not care now, not much. I did at first,' said Felix.
+
+'No one whose approval is worth having can consider yours really a loss
+of position. You are in a profession every one respects, and you seem
+to have great means of influence likely to be open to you.'
+
+'So my father said, when he consented,' said Felix.
+
+'I shall always regret having just missed knowing your father. Some
+passages in that book of his struck me greatly. But what I wished to
+say was to ask whether there is any way in which I can be useful to you
+in the education of any of the younger ones, or--'
+
+'Thank you, my Lord,' said Felix. 'I think you kindly voted for my
+brothers last year for the Clergy Orphan school. Only one got in, and
+if you would vote again for little Lancelot--'
+
+'My droll little companion, who Mr. Audley tells me did so much for
+that poor young American.'
+
+'Indeed he did,' said Felix. 'I doubt if any of us would have got at
+him but for Lance, who did not mean anything but good-nature all the
+time.'
+
+'He is just the boy I want for our Cathedral school.' And then he
+went on to explain that a great reformation was going on. There was
+a foundation-school attached to the Cathedral, with exhibitions at
+the University, to which the Cathedral choristers had the first
+claim. There had been, of course, a period of decay, but an excellent
+Precentor had been just appointed, who would act as head master; and
+the singing-boys would be kept on free of expense after their voices
+became unavailable, provided that by such time they had passed a
+certain examination. Such a voice as Lance's was sure to recommend
+him; and besides, the Bishop said with a smile, he wanted to raise the
+character of the school, and he thought there was the stuff _here_ that
+would do so.
+
+Felix could only be thankful and rejoiced; but it was a pang to think
+of Lance being as entirely separated from home as was Clement; with
+no regular holidays, and always most needed at his post at the great
+festivals. There was something in his tone that made the Bishop say,
+'You do not like to part with him?'
+
+'No, my Lord; but I am glad it should be so. My father was not happy
+about--things here, and charged me to get my brothers away when I
+could.'
+
+'And as to holidays, you are near at hand, and most of the choir are
+of our own town. I think he may generally be spared for a good term at
+each holiday time. The organist is very considerate in giving leave of
+absence, even if he should turn out to have a dangerously good voice
+for solos. I will let you know when to send him up for examination,
+which he will pass easily. Good-bye. You must write to me if there is
+anything for me to do for you. One month more, and your father would
+have been one of my clergy, remember.'
+
+Felix went back, flushed with gratification, and yet, to a certain
+degree, with confusion, and not exactly liking the prospect of being
+interrogated as to what the Bishop had said to him: indeed, he never
+told the whole of it to any one but Cherry. Somehow, though Wilmet was
+his counsellor and mainstay, Geraldine was the sharer of all those
+confidences that came spontaneously out of the full but reserved heart.
+
+Besides, Wilmet was at present in such a trance of enjoyment of her
+twin sister, that she seemed scarcely able to enter into anything else.
+She went through her duties as usual, but with an effort to shake off
+her absorption in the thought of having Alda at home; and every moment
+she was not in sight of her darling seemed a cruel diminution of her
+one poor fortnight. Indeed it was _tęte-ŕ-tętes_ that her exclusive
+tenderness craved above all; and she was often disappointed that Alda
+should be willing to go and visit Fernan Travis when they might have
+had a quarter of an hour together alone. How much more selfish she must
+have grown than Alda in this last half year!
+
+Alda's talk was indeed full of interest, and gave a much better notion
+of her way of life than her letters did. She seemed to have been
+fully adopted as a daughter of the house, and to enjoy all the same
+privileges as Marilda; indeed, she had a good deal more credit with
+all varieties of teachers, since she learnt rapidly and eagerly; and
+Marilda, while encouraging her successes, without a shade of jealousy,
+made no attempt to conquer her own clumsiness and tardiness. Even 'Aunt
+Mary,' as Alda called Mrs. Thomas Underwood, often had recourse to Alda
+for sympathy in her endeavours to be tasteful, and continually held her
+up as an example to Marilda.
+
+'And poor dear good woman,' said Alda, 'she has such a respect for
+Underwood breeding and our education, that I believe I could persuade
+her into anything by telling her it was what she calls "_comifo_."
+Even when she was going to get the boudoir done with apple-green
+picked out with mauve, enough to set one's teeth on edge, and Marilda
+would do nothing but laugh, she let me persuade her into a lovely pale
+sea-green.'
+
+'Is not sea-green too delicate for her?' asked Cherry.
+
+'Why, it was very wicked of Edgar, to be sure, but he said that it
+was to suit the nymph reining in the porpoises. He made a sketch, and
+Marilda was delighted with it; she really is the most good-natured
+creature in the world.'
+
+'She must be!' ejaculated Wilmet; 'but surely she ought not to like
+laughing at her mother.'
+
+'Oh, everybody laughs at Aunt Mary, and she hardly ever finds it out,
+and when she does, she does not mind! Even old Mrs. Kedge, her mother,
+does nothing but laugh at her for trying to be fine. Old Granny is not
+a bit by way of being a lady, you know; she lives in a little house in
+the city with one maid, and I believe she rubs her own tables. I am
+sure she goes about in omnibuses, though she has lots of money; and
+Marilda is so fond of her, and so like her, only not so clever and
+shrewd.'
+
+'But why does she live in such a small way?'
+
+'Because she never was used to anything else, and does not like it. She
+hates grand servants, and never will come to Kensington Palace Gardens;
+but she really is good-natured. She told Clement to drop in on her
+whenever he likes, and bring any of his friends; and she always gives
+them a superb piece of plum-cake, and once she took them to the Tower,
+and once to the Zoological Gardens, for she thinks that she cannot do
+enough to make up to them for being bred up to be little monks, with
+cords and sandals, and everything popish.'
+
+'You don't let her think so?'
+
+'Well, really when she has got a thing into her head nothing will
+uproot it; and, after all, they do carry things very far there, and
+Clement goes on so that I don't wonder.'
+
+'Goes on how?'
+
+'Why, just fancy, the other day when Uncle Thomas fetched him in his
+brougham because I was coming home, there he sat at luncheon and would
+not eat a scrap of meat.'
+
+'Ah! it was a Wednesday in Lent,' said Cherry.
+
+'Only a Wednesday, you know; and _there_, with four or five strange
+people, too. One of them asked if he was a Catholic, and of course
+Clement looked very wise, and greatly pleased, and said, "Yes, he
+was;" and that brought down Aunt Mary with her heavy artillery. "Bless
+me, Clement, you don't say so. Is Mr. Fulmort really gone over?"
+"Yes," said Clem. (I know he did it on purpose.) "He is gone over to
+preach at St. Peter's." And then one of the gentlemen asked if Clem
+meant Mr. Fulmort of St. Matthew's, Whittingtonia, and when he said
+"Yes, he lived in the clergy house," he began regularly to play him
+off, asking the most absurd questions about fasts and feasts and
+vigils and decorations, and Clem answered them all in his prim little
+self-sufficient way, just as if he thought he was on the high-road to
+be St. Clement the Martyr, till I was ready to run away.'
+
+'Couldn't you have given him a hint?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'My dear, have you lived twelve years with Clem without knowing that
+hints are lost on him?'
+
+'Dear Clem, he is a very good steady-hearted little fellow,' said
+Cherry. 'It was very nice of him.'
+
+'Well, I only hope he'll never come to luncheon again in Lent. There
+are times and seasons for everything, and certainly not for display!
+And to make it worse, Marilda is the most literal-minded girl. Fasting
+was quite a new mind to her, for she never realises what she does
+not see; and she got Clem into a corner, where I heard him going on,
+nothing loth, about days of abstinence, out of Mr. Fulmort's last
+catechizing, I should think; and ended by asking what Cousin Edward
+did, so that I fully expected that I should find her eating nothing,
+and that I should be called to account.'
+
+'And what did you tell her then?'
+
+'Oh, you know I could say quite truly that he did not.'
+
+'I don't think that was quite fair,' said Wilmet gravely. 'You know it
+was only because he really could not.'
+
+'You don't know how glad I was to have an answer that would hinder the
+horrid commotion we should have had if Marilda had taken to fasting.
+And, after all, you _know_, Papa would have said minding her mother was
+her first duty.'
+
+'Why did not you tell her that?'
+
+'I have, dozens of times; but you know there are mothers and mothers,
+and nobody can always mind Aunt Mary, good soul! Marilda has just made
+herself, with her own good rough plain sense. I wish she was a man,
+she would be a capital merchant like her father; but it is hard to be
+a great heiress, with nothing she really likes to do. She is always
+longing to come down to Centry, and tramp about the lanes among the
+cottages.'
+
+'Oh! I wish they would!'
+
+'I don't think Aunt Mary will ever let them, she hates the country; and
+though she likes to have a place for the name of the thing, she does
+not want to live there, especially where there are so many of us; and
+then, Felix's situation!'
+
+'For shame, Alda!'
+
+'Well, I did not say anything myself. It is only Aunt Mary--it is very
+foolish of people, but, you see, they _will_. As to Marilda, I believe
+she would like to stand behind the counter with him this minute.'
+
+'Marilda is the oddest and best girl I ever heard of!'
+
+'You may say that. And so ignorant she was! She had a great
+velvet-and-gold Church Service, and hardly guessed there was any Bible
+or Prayer-Book besides. I am sure Felix cannot have had more work to
+teach that youth than I have had with Marilda. Such a jumble as she had
+picked up! She really had only little baby prayers to say, till she saw
+my book.'
+
+'What a blessing you must be to her!' said Wilmet, fondly looking at
+her sister.
+
+'Well, I do hope so. You must know she was regularly struck with dear
+Papa. I am sure he is the first saint in her calendar, and everything
+is--"What did Cousin Edward say?" And when once she has made up her
+mind that a thing is right, she will blunder on through fire and water,
+but she will do it.'
+
+'Then,' said Cherry, 'she ought to try and learn, and not to be awkward
+because of obedience.'
+
+Alda burst out laughing. 'People can only do what they can. Marilda
+trying to be graceful would be worse than Marilda floundering her own
+way. But she really is the best and kindest girl living, and she gets
+on much better for having me to keep her out of scrapes.'
+
+Wilmet went to bed that night thankful to have Alda's head on the
+pillow beside her, and most thankful for the tokens that she watched
+among her brothers and sisters, which showed how much her father's
+influence was extending beyond his short life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE THIRTEEN.
+
+      'They closed around the fire,
+      And all in turn essayed to paint
+      The rival merits of their saint;
+       A theme that ne'er can tire
+      A holy maid, for be it known
+      That their saint's honour is their own.'
+                                          _Scott._
+
+
+The thirteen Underwoods did not meet again in the same house for many
+a long day, and when they did, it was on a grey misty morning in the
+Christmas week of the year following; and the blinds were down, and
+the notes of the knell clashing out overhead, as the door was opened
+to Edgar, Alda, and Clement, as they arrived together, having been
+summoned late on the previous night by a telegram with tidings that
+their mother had been struck by a paralysis. They knew what to expect
+when Felix, with one of the little ones on his arm, came quietly down
+the stairs and admitted them. All they had to ask, was 'when,' and
+'how;' and to hear, that the long living death had ended in peaceful
+insensibility at last. Then they followed him upstairs to the room
+where the others sat, hushed, over their pen or their books, where
+Wilmet, her eyes gushing with quiet tears, held Alda in her embrace,
+and Geraldine, after her first eager kiss, gazed wistfully at Edgar as
+though there must be comfort in the very sight of him, if she could
+only feel it; while the very little ones opened their puzzled eyes on
+the new-comers as strangers.
+
+And so they were: Clement had indeed been at home in September, but
+Alda not for a year and three-quarters, nor Edgar since he first left
+it three years before. The absence of the two latter was not by their
+own choice; a doctor who had ordered Mrs. Thomas Underwood to spend
+the summer months, year after year, at Spa was partly the cause; and
+moreover, during the autumn and winter of 1856 Bexley had been a
+perfect field of epidemics. Measles and whooping-cough had run riot in
+the schools, and lingered in the streets and alleys of the potteries,
+fastening on many who thought themselves secured by former attacks;
+and there had been a good many deaths, in especial Clement's chief
+friend, Harry Lamb. Nobody, excepting the invalid mother, throughout
+the Underwood household, had escaped one or other disorder; and both
+fell to the lot of the four little ones, and likewise of Mr. Audley,
+who was infinitely disgusted at himself, and at the guarded childhood
+for which he thus paid the penalty pretty severely. When matters
+were at the worst, and Felix was laid up, and Wilmet found herself
+succumbing, she had written in desperation to Sister Constance, whose
+presence in the house had made the next three weeks a time of very
+pleasant recollections. Finally she had carried off Geraldine, Angela,
+and Bernard, to the convalescent rooms at St. Faith's, where their
+happiness had been such that the favourite sport of the little ones
+had ever since been the acting of Sisters of Mercy nursing sick dolls.
+The quarantine had been indefinitely prolonged for the protégés of
+Kensington Palace Gardens; for the three at school, though kept away
+till all infection was thought to be over, had perversely caught the
+maladies as soon as they came home for the summer holidays; and indeed
+the whole town and neighbouring villages were so full of contagion,
+that Mrs. Thomas Underwood had not far to seek for a plea for avoiding
+Centry.
+
+All this time, from day to day, the poor mother had been growing more
+feeble, and it had been fully purposed that on Edgar's return at
+Christmas, on the completion of his studies at Louvaine, he and Alda
+should make some stay at home; but the brother and sister were both
+so useful and ornamental that their adopted home could not spare them
+until after a series of Christmas entertainments; and Clement had been
+in like manner detained until the festival services at St. Matthew's no
+longer required him. Indeed, when he had been at home in the autumn, he
+had been scarcely recognized.
+
+For the last week, however, Mrs. Underwood had been much clearer in
+mind, had enjoyed the presence of her holiday children, and had for a
+short time even given hopes that her constitution might yet rally, and
+her dormant faculties revive. She had even talked to Mr. Audley and
+Geraldine at different times as though she had some such presentiment
+herself, and had made some exertions which proved much increased
+activity of brain. Alas! though their coming had thus been rendered
+very happy, the brightening had been but the symptom and precursor of
+a sudden attack of paralysis, whence there was no symptom of recovery,
+and which in a few hours ended in death.
+
+For the present, the hopes that had been entertained gave poignancy
+to the sudden disappointment and grief, and the home children could
+not acquiesce in the dispensation with the same quiet reasonableness
+as those who had been so long separated from them as not to miss
+the gentle countenance, or the 'sweet toils, sweet cares, for ever
+gone.' Indeed Wilmet was physically much exhausted by her long hours
+of anxiety, and went about pale-cheeked and tear-stained, quietly
+attending to all that was needful, but with the tears continually
+dropping; while Geraldine was fit for nothing but to lie still, unable
+to think, but feeling soothed as long as she could lay her hand upon
+Edgar and feel that he was near.
+
+So the whole thirteen were together again; and in the hush of the
+orphaned house there was a certain wonder and curiosity in their mutual
+examination and comparison with one another and with the beings with
+whom they had parted three years ago, at the period of their first
+separation. All were at a time of life when such an interval could
+not fail to make a vast alteration in externals. Even Geraldine had
+gained in strength, and though still white, and with features too
+large for her face, startlingly searching grey eyes, and brows that
+looked strangely thick, dark, and straight, in contrast with the
+pencilled arches belonging to all the rest, she was less weird and
+elfin-like than when she had been three inches shorter, and dressed
+more childishly. As Edgar said, she was less Riquet with a tuft than
+the good fairy godmother, and her twin sisters might have been her
+princess-wards, so far did they tower above her--straight as fir-trees,
+oval faced, regular featured, fair skinned, blue eyed, and bright
+haired. During those long dreary hours, Edgar often beguiled the
+time with sketches of them, and the outlines--whether of chiselled
+profiles, shapely heads, or Cupid's-bow lips--were still almost exactly
+similar; yet it had become impossible to mistake one twin for the
+other, even when Alda had dressed the tresses on Wilmet's passive head
+in perfect conformity with her own. Looking at their figures, Alda's
+air of fashion made her appear the eldest, and Wilmet might have been
+a girl in the school-room; but comparing their faces, Wilmet's placid
+recollected countenance, and the soberness that sat so well on her
+white smooth forehead and steady blue eyes, might have befitted many
+more years than eighteen. There were not nearly so many lights and
+shades in her looks as in those of Alda and Geraldine. The one had both
+more smiles and more frowns, the other more gleams of joy and of pain;
+each was more animated and sensitive, but neither gave the same sense
+of confidence and repose.
+
+As usually happens when the parents are of the same family, the
+inventory of the features of one of the progeny served for almost all
+the rest. The differences were only in degree, and the prime specimens
+were without doubt the two elder twins and Edgar, with like promise of
+little Bernard and Stella.
+
+Edgar had grown very tall, and had inherited his father's advantages
+of grace and elegance of figure, to which was added a certain
+distinguished ease of carriage, and ready graciousness, too simple
+to be called either conceit or presumption, but which looked as if
+he were used to be admired and to confer favours. Athletics had been
+the fashion with him and his English companions, and his complexion
+was embrowned by sun and wind, his form upright and vigorous; and
+by force of contrast it was now perceived that Felix seemed to have
+almost ceased growing for the last three years, and that his in-door
+occupations had given his broad square shoulders a kind of slouch,
+and kept his colouring as pink and white as that of his sisters. Like
+Wilmet, he had something staid and responsible about him, that, even
+more than his fringe of light brown whiskers, gave the appearance of
+full-grown manhood; so that the first impression of all the new-comers
+was how completely he had left the boy behind him, making it an effort
+of memory to believe him only nineteen and a half. But they all knew
+him for their head, and leant themselves against him. And in the
+meantime, Edgar's appearance was a perfect feast of enjoyment, not
+only to little loving Geraldine, but to sage Felix. They recreated
+themselves with gazing at him, and when left alone together would
+discuss his charms in low confidential murmurs, quite aware that Wilmet
+would think them very silly; but Edgar was the great romance of both.
+
+Edgar observed that Clement had done all the growth for both himself
+and Felix, and was doing his best to be a light of the Church by
+resembling nothing but an altar-taper. When they all repaired to the
+back of the cupboard door in Mr. Audley's room to be measured, his head
+was found far above Edgar's mark at fourteen, and therewith he was lank
+and thin, not yet accustomed to the length of his own legs and arms,
+and seeming as if he was not meant to be seen undraped by his surplice.
+His features and face were of the family type, but a little smaller,
+and with much less of the bright rosy tinting; indeed, when not excited
+he was decidedly pale, and his eyes and hair were a little lighter than
+those of the rest. It was a refined, delicate, thoughtful face, pretty
+rather than handsome, and its only fault was a certain melancholy
+superciliousness or benignant pity for every one who did not belong to
+the flock of St. Matthew's.
+
+Regular features are always what most easily lose individuality, and
+become those of the owner's class; and if Clement was all chorister,
+Fulbert and Lancelot were all school-boy. The two little fellows were
+a long way apart in height, though there were only two years between
+them; for Lance was on a much smaller scale, but equally full of ruddy
+health and superabundant vigour; and while Fulbert was the more rough
+and independent, his countenance had not the fun and sweetness that
+rendered Lance's so winning. Their looks were repeated in Robina, who
+was much too square and sturdy for any attempt at beauty, and was
+comically like a boy and like her brothers, but with much frank honesty
+and determination in her big grey darkly-lashed eyes. Angela was one of
+the most altered of all; for her plump cherub cheeks had melted away
+under the glow of measles, and the whooping process had lengthened
+and narrowed her small person into a demure little thread-paper of
+six years old, omnivorous of books, a pet and pickle at school, and
+a romp at home--the sworn ally, offensive and defensive, of stout,
+rough-pated, unruly Bernard. Stella was the loveliest little bit of
+painted porcelain imaginable, quite capable of being his companion, and
+a perfect little fairy, for beauty, gracefulness, and quickness of all
+kinds. Alda was delighted with her pretty caressing ways and admiration
+of the wonderful new sister. She was of quieter, more docile mood than
+these two, though aspiring to their companionship; for it was startling
+to see how far she had left Theodore behind. He was still in arms,
+and speechless, a little pale inanimate creature, taking very little
+notice, and making no sound except a sort of low musical cooing of
+pleasure, and a sad whining moan of unhappiness, which always recurred
+when he was not in the arms of Sibby, Wilmet, or Felix. It was only
+when Felix held out his arms to take him that the sound of pleasure was
+heard; and once on that firm knee, with his shining head against that
+kind heart, he was satisfied, and Felix had accustomed himself to all
+sorts of occupations with his little brother in his left arm. Even at
+night, there was no rest for Theodore, unless Felix took him into his
+room. So often did the little fretting moan summon him, that soon the
+crib took up his regular abode beside his bed.
+
+But Felix, though of course spared from the shop, could not be
+dispensed with from the printing-house, where he was sub-editor; and in
+his absence Theodore was always less contented; and his tearless moan
+went to his sister's heart, for the poor little fellow had been wont
+to lie day and night in his mother's bosom, and she had been as uneasy
+without him as he now was without her. All her other babes had grown
+past her helpless instinctive tenderness, and Theodore's continued
+passiveness had been hitherto an advantage, which had always been
+called his 'goodness and affection.'
+
+Alda was the first to comment on the wonderful interval between the
+twins, when Wilmet accounted for it by Theodore's having been quite
+kept back for his mother's sake, and likewise by his having been more
+reduced by measles and whooping-cough than Stella had been; but to
+fresh observers it was impossible to think that all was thus explained,
+and Edgar and Alda discussed it in a low voice when they found
+themselves alone.
+
+'The fact is plain,' said Edgar; 'but I suppose nothing can be done,
+and I see no use in forcing it on poor Wilmet.'
+
+'I don't understand such blindness.'
+
+'Not real blindness--certainly not on Felix's part. He knows that
+load is on his back for life. Heigh-ho! a stout old Atlas we have
+in Blunderbore; I wonder how long I shall be in plucking the golden
+apples, and taking a share.'
+
+'I thought it was Atlas that gathered the apples.'
+
+'Don't spoil a good simile with superfluous exactness, Alda! It is base
+enough to compare the gardens of the Hesperides to a merchant's office!
+I wonder how many years it will take to get out of the drudgery, and
+have some power of enjoying life and relieving Felix. One could tear
+one's hair to see him tied down by this large family till all his best
+days are gone.'
+
+'Some of the others may get off his hands, and help.'
+
+'Not they! Clem is too highly spiritualized to care for anything so
+material as his own flesh and blood; and it is not their fault if
+little Lance does not follow in his wake. Then if Ful has any brains,
+he is not come to the use of them; he is only less obnoxious than Tina
+in that he _is_ a boy and not a church candle, but boys are certainly a
+mistake.'
+
+If ever the mature age of seventeen could be excused for so regarding
+boyhood, it was under such circumstances. All were too old for any
+outbreaks, such as brought Angela and Bernard to disgrace, and
+disturbed the hush of those four sad days; but the actual loss had
+been so long previous, that the pressure of present grief was not so
+crushing as to prevent want of employment and confinement in that small
+silent house from being other than most irksome and tedious.
+
+Clement would have done very well alone; he went to church, read, told
+Angela stories, and discoursed to Cherry on the ways of St. Matthew's;
+but, unfortunately, there was something about him that always incited
+the other boys to sparring, nor was he always guiltless of being the
+aggressor, for there was no keeping him in mind that comparisons are
+odious.
+
+Church music might seem a suitable subject, but the London chorister
+could not abstain from criticising St. Oswald's and contemning the
+old-fashioned practices of the Cathedral, which of course Lance
+considered himself bound to defend, till the very names of Gregorians
+and Anglicans became terrible to Cherry as the watchwords of a
+wrangling match. Fulbert, meantime, made no secret of his contempt for
+both brothers as mere choristers instead of school-boys, and exalted
+himself whenever he detected their ignorance of any choice _morceau_ of
+slang; while their superior knowledge on any other point was viewed as
+showing the new-fangled girlish nonsense of their education.
+
+This Lance did not mind; but he was very sensitive as to the dignity
+of his Cathedral, and the perfections of his chosen friend, one Bill
+Harewood; and Fulbert was not slow to use the latter engine for
+'getting a rise' out of him, while Clement as often, though with less
+design, offended by disparagement of his choir; nor could Edgar refuse
+himself the diversion of tormenting Clement by ironical questions and
+remarks on his standard of perfection, which mode of torture enchanted
+Fulbert, whenever he understood it. Thus these four brothers contrived
+to inflict a good amount of teasing on one another, all the more
+wearing and worrying because deprived of its only tolerable seasoning,
+mirth.
+
+Clement had indeed a refuge in Mr. Audley's room, where he could find
+books, and willing ears for Mr. Fulmort's doings; but he availed
+himself of it less than might have been expected. Whether from
+inclination to his brothers' society, desire to do them good, or innate
+pugnacity, he was generally in the thick of the conflict; and before
+long he confided to Felix that he was seriously uneasy about Edgar's
+opinions.
+
+'He is only chaffing you,' said Felix.
+
+'Chaff, _now!_' said Clement.
+
+'Well, Clem, you know you are enough to provoke a saint, you bore so
+intolerably about St. Matthew's.'
+
+The much disgusted Clement retired into himself, but Felix was not
+satisfied at heart.
+
+_One_ was lacking on the cold misty New Year's morning, when even
+Geraldine could not be withheld from the Communion Feast of the living
+and departed. Each felt the disappointment when they found themselves
+only six instead of seven; but it was Clement who, as the boys were
+waiting for breakfast afterwards, began--
+
+'Have not you been confirmed, Edgar?'
+
+'How should I?'
+
+'I am sure there are plenty of foreign Confirmations. I see them in the
+"British Catholic."'
+
+'Foreign parts isn't all one,' said Edgar; and the younger boys
+sniggled.
+
+'If one took any trouble,' persisted Clement.
+
+'Yes, but _one_,' dwelling with emphasis on the awkward impersonal,
+'_one_ may have scruples about committing an act of schism by
+encouraging an intruding bishop performing episcopal functions in
+another man's diocese. Has not your spiritual father taught you that
+much, Tina?'
+
+'I--I must find out about that,' said Clement thoughtfully; 'but, at
+any rate, the Lent Confirmations are coming on in London, and if I were
+to speak to the Vicar, I have no doubt he would gladly prepare you.'
+
+'Nor I,' answered Edgar.
+
+'Then shall I?' eagerly asked Clement.
+
+'Not at present, thank you.'
+
+Clement stood blank and open mouthed, and Fulbert laughed, secure that
+the joke, whatever it might be, was against him.
+
+'Of course,' burst out Lance, 'Edgar does not want you to speak for
+him, Clem; he has got a tongue of his own, and a clergyman too, I
+suppose.'
+
+Clement proceeded to a disquisition, topographical and censorial, upon
+the parish and district to which Edgar might be relegated, and finally
+exclaimed, 'Yes, he is not much amiss. He has some notions. He dines
+with us sometimes. You can go to him, Edgar, and I'll get the Vicar to
+speak to him.'
+
+'Thank you, I had rather be excused.'
+
+'You cannot miss another Confirmation.'
+
+'I can't say I am fond of pledges, especially when no one can tell how
+much or how little they mean.'
+
+Whether this were in earnest, or a mere thrust in return for Clement's
+pertinacity, was undecided, for Wilmet came in, looking so sad and
+depressed that the brothers felt rebuked for the tone in which they had
+been speaking.
+
+Mr. Thomas Underwood soon arrived, having come to Centry the night
+before; and after a few words had passed between him and Edgar, the
+latter announced his intention of returning with him to London that
+evening.
+
+'Very well,' said Felix, much disappointed at this repetition of
+Edgar's willingness to hurry from the house of mourning, 'but we have
+had very little of you; Clement must go on the day after Twelfth Day,
+and we shall have more room. It will be a great blow to Cherry.'
+
+'Poor little Cherry! I'll come when I can see her in greater peace, but
+I must buckle to with the beginning of the year, Fee.'
+
+There was no further disputing the point, but Edgar was always a great
+loss. To every one except Clement he was so gentle and considerate that
+it was impossible not to think that the strange things reported of him
+were not first evoked and then exaggerated by the zeal of the model
+chorister: and indeed he led Geraldine to that inference when he went
+to her in the sitting-room, where, as before, she had to remain at home.
+
+'My Cherry, I find I must go back with old Tom. Don't be vexed, my
+White-heart, I am not going back to Belgium, you know: I can often run
+down, but my work ought to begin with the year.'
+
+'You cannot even stay over the Epiphany!'
+
+'Well, I would have made an effort, but I am really wanted; and then
+if I am long with that light of the church, Tina, he will get me into
+everybody's black books. Never mind, old girl. I'll be for ever running
+down. Is any one going to stay with you?'
+
+'Bernard is coming presently; I must try to make him recollect
+something about it.'
+
+'You don't mean that child Angel is going.'
+
+'She wishes it, and it seems right.'
+
+'Right to leave a black spot in her memory! If children could but
+believe people were sublimated away!'
+
+'Children can believe in the Resurrection of the body as well as we,'
+said Cherry reverently.
+
+'Better, too, by a long chalk,' he muttered; then perceiving her
+dismayed expression, he added, 'No, no--I'm not talking to Tina, only
+he has put me in the humour in which there is nothing he could not make
+me dispute--even my Cherry being the sweetest morsel in the world.
+There, good-bye for the present, only don't afflict that poor little
+Bernard and yourself into _too_ great wretchedness, out of a sense of
+duty.'
+
+'No, I do not really grieve,' said Cherry. 'Tears come for
+thankfulness. The real sorrow came long ago; we grew up in it, and it
+is over now.'
+
+'Right, little one. The mortal coil was very heavy and painful these
+last years, and no one can help being relieved that the end has come.
+It is the conventionalities that are needlessly distressing. What
+earthly purpose can it serve, save the amusement of the maids and
+children of Bexley, that nine of us should present ourselves a pitiful
+spectacle all the way up to the cemetery in veils and hat-bands?'
+
+'Don't talk so, Edgar; you do not know how it jars, though I know you
+mean no disrespect.'
+
+'Well, it must be a blessed thing to end by drowning or blowing up, to
+save one's friends trouble.'
+
+'Edgar, indeed I cannot bear this! Recollect what a treasure that dear
+shattered earthen vessel has held. What a wonderful life of patient
+silent resignation it was!'
+
+'Indeed it was,' said Edgar, suddenly softened. 'No lips could tell
+what the resolution must have been that carried her through those
+years, never murmuring. What must she not have spared my father! Such
+devotion is the true woman's heritage.'
+
+Cherry was soothed as she saw the dew on his eye-lashes, but just then
+Felix came in to fetch him, and, stooping down, kissed her, and said
+in his low and tender but strong voice, 'We leave her with _him_, dear
+child. Recollect--
+
+     '"The heart may ache, but may not burst;
+       Heaven will not leave thee, nor forsake."'
+
+Much as Geraldine had longed for Edgar, his words brought vague
+yearning and distress, while Felix's very tone gave support. How could
+Edgar say patient silent self-devotion was not to be found except in
+woman?
+
+So the worn-out body that once had been bright smiling Mary Underwood
+was borne to the church she had not entered since she had knelt there
+with her husband; and then she was laid beside him in the hill-side
+cemetery, the graves marked by the simple cross, for which there had
+been long anxious saving, the last contribution having been a quarter
+of the Bishop's gift to Lancelot. The inscription was on the edges of
+the steps, from which the cross rose--
+
+           _UNDER WODE, UNDER RODE._
+
+             EDWARD FULBERT UNDERWOOD,
+
+         Nine Years Curate of this Parish,
+
+                  Epiphany, 1855,
+
+                      AGED 40.
+
+        'Thy Rod and Thy Staff comfort me.'
+
+There was room enough for the name of Mary Wilmet, his wife, to be
+added at the base of the Rood, that Cross which they had borne, the one
+so valiantly, the other so meekly, during their 'forty years in the
+wilderness.'
+
+Many persons were present out of respect not only to the former Curate,
+but to his hard-working son and daughter, and not only the daughter's
+holly-wreath, but one of camellias sent by Sister Constance, lay upon
+the pall. When the mourners had turned away, Mr. Audley saw a slender
+lad standing by, waiting till the grave was smoothed to lay on it
+a wreath of delicate white roses and ferns. There was no mistaking
+the clear olive face; and indeed Mr. Audley had kept up a regular
+correspondence with Ferdinand Travis, and knew that the vows made two
+years ago had been so far persevered in, and without molestation from
+father or uncle. He had written an account of Mrs. Underwood's death,
+but had received no answer.
+
+'This is kind, Ferdinand,' he said; 'it will gratify them.'
+
+'May I see any of them?' the youth asked.
+
+'Felix and Lance will be most glad.'
+
+'I only received your letter yesterday evening. Dr. White forwarded it
+to me in London, and I persuaded my father to let me come down.'
+
+'You are with your father?'
+
+'Yes; he came home about a fortnight ago. I was going to write to you.
+O Mr. Audley, if you are not in haste, can you tell me whether I can
+see my dear Diego's grave?'
+
+'The Roman Catholic burial-ground is on the other side of the town. I
+think you will have to go to Mr. Macnamara for admittance. Come home
+with me first, Fernan.'
+
+'Home!' he said warmly. 'Yes, it has always seemed so to me! I have
+dreamt so often of her gentle loving face and tender weak voice. She
+was very kind to me;' and he raised his hat reverently, as he placed
+the flowers upon the now completed grave. 'I saw that all were here
+except the little ones and Geraldine,' he added. 'How is she?'
+
+'As well as usual. Wilmet is a good deal worn and downcast, but all are
+calm and cheerful. The loss cannot be like what that of their father
+was.'
+
+'Will they go on as they are doing now?'
+
+'I trust so. I am going down to the family consultation. The London
+cousin is there.'
+
+'Then perhaps I had better not come in,' said Ferdinand, looking rather
+blank. 'Shall I go down to Mr. Macnamara first?'
+
+'Had you rather go alone, or shall I send Lance to show you the way?'
+
+'Dear little Lance, pray let me have him!'
+
+'It is a longish walk. Is your lameness quite gone?'
+
+'Oh yes, I can walk a couple of miles very well, and when I give out it
+is not my leg, but my back. They say it is the old jar to the spine,
+and that it will wear off when I have done growing, if I get plenty of
+air and riding. This will not be too much for me, but I must be in time
+for the 3.30 train, I promised my father.'
+
+'Is he here alone?'
+
+'Yes, my uncle is in Brazil. My father is here for a month, and is very
+kind; he seems very fairly satisfied with me; and he wants me to get
+prepared for the commission in the Life Guards.'
+
+'The Life Guards!'
+
+'You see he is bent on my being an English gentleman, but he has some
+dislike to the University, fancies it too old-world or something; and,
+honestly, I cannot wish it myself. I can't take much to books, and Dr.
+White says I have begun too late, and shall never make much of them.'
+
+'If you went into the Guards, my brother might be a friend to you.'
+
+'My back is not fit for the infantry,' said Ferdinand, 'but I can ride
+anything; I always could. I care for nothing so much as horses.'
+
+'Then why not some other cavalry regiment?'
+
+'Well, my father knows a man with a son in the Life Guards, who has
+persuaded him that it is the thing, and I don't greatly care.'
+
+'Is he prepared for the expensiveness?'
+
+'I fancy it is the recommendation,' said Ferdinand, smiling with a
+little shame; 'but if you really see reason for some other choice
+perhaps you would represent it to him. I think he would attend to you
+in person.'
+
+'Have you positively no choice, Fernan?'
+
+'I never like the bother of consideration,' said Ferdinand; 'and
+in London I might have more chance of seeing you and other friends
+sometimes. I do know that it is not all my father supposes, but
+he thinks it is all my ignorance, and I have not much right to be
+particular.'
+
+'Only take care that horses do not become your temptation,' said Mr.
+Audley.
+
+'I know,' gravely replied Ferdinand. 'The fact is,' he added, as they
+turned down the street, 'that I do not want to go counter to my father
+if I can help it. I have not been able to avoid vexing him, and this is
+of no great consequence. I can exchange, if it should not suit me.'
+
+'I believe you are right,' said the Curate; 'but I will inquire and
+write to you before the application is made. Wait, and I will send out
+Lance. But ought you not to call at the Rectory?'
+
+'I will do so as I return,' said Ferdinand; and as Mr. Audley entered
+the house, he thought that the making the Cacique into an English
+gentleman seemed to have been attained as far as accent, mind, and
+manner went, and the air and gesture had always been natural in him.
+His tone rather than his words were conclusive to the Curate that his
+heart had never swerved from the purpose with which he had stood at the
+Font; but the languor and indolence of the voice indicated that the
+tropical indifference was far from conquered, and it was an anxious
+question whether the life destined for him might not be exceptionally
+perilous to his peculiar temperament of nonchalance and excitability.
+
+Consideration was not possible just then, for when Mr. Audley opened
+the door, he found that he had been impatiently waited for, and barely
+time was allowed to him to send Lance to Ferdinand Travis, before he
+was summoned to immediate conference with Thomas Underwood, who, on
+coming in, had assumed the management of affairs, and on calling for
+the will, was rather displeased with Felix's protest against doing
+anything without Mr. Audley, whom he knew to have been named guardian
+by his father. The cousin seemed unable to credit the statement; and
+Wilmet had just found the long envelope with the black seal, exactly
+as it had lain in the desk, which had never been disturbed since the
+business on their father's death had been finished.
+
+There was the old will made long before, leaving whatever there was
+to leave unconditionally to the wife, with the sole guardianship of
+the children; and there was the codicil dated the 16th of October,
+1854, appointing Charles Somerville Audley, clerk, to the guardianship
+in case of the death of the mother, while they should all, or any of
+them, be under twenty-one, and directing that in that contingency the
+property should be placed in his hands as trustee, the interest to be
+employed for their maintenance, and the capital to be divided equally
+among them, each receiving his or her share on coming of age. All
+this was in Edward Underwood's own handwriting, and his signature was
+attested by the Rector and the doctor.
+
+Thomas Underwood was more 'put out,' than the management of such an
+insignificant sum seemed to warrant. He was no doubt disappointed of
+his cousin's confidence, as well as of some liberal (if domineering)
+intentions; and he was only half appeased when Edgar pointed to
+the date, and showed that the arrangement had been made before the
+renewal of intercourse. 'It was hardly fair to thrust a charge upon a
+stranger when there was a relation to act. Poor Edward, he ought to
+have trusted,' he said. There was genuine kindness of heart in the
+desire to confer benefits, though perhaps in rather an overbearing
+spirit, as well as disappointment and hurt feeling that his cousin had
+acquiesced in his neglect without an appeal. However, after asking
+whether Mr. Audley meant to act, and hearing of his decided intention
+of doing so, he proceeded to state his own plans for them. The present
+state of things could not continue, and he proposed that Wilmet and
+Geraldine should go as half boarders to some school, to be prepared for
+governesses. Felix--could he write short-hand? 'Oh yes; but--' Then
+he knew of a capital opening for him; a few years, and he would be on
+the way to prosperity: the little ones might be boarded with their old
+nurse till fit for some clergy orphan schools; if the means would not
+provide for all, there need be no difficulty made on that score.
+
+Mr. Audley saw Felix's start of dismay and glance at him, but knowing
+as he did that the lad was always more himself when not interfered
+with, and allowed to act for himself, he only said, 'It is very kind in
+you, sir, but I think Felix should be consulted.'
+
+'It is impossible!' began Felix hastily.
+
+'Impossible! It is quite impossible, I would have you to understand,
+that a lot of children like you should keep house together, and on such
+an income as that. Quite preposterous.'
+
+'As for that,' said Felix, still unsubmissively, 'it is only what we
+have been doing, except for the name of the thing, for the last three
+years on the same means.'
+
+'You don't mean to tell me that you have kept things going on such
+means without a debt?'
+
+'Of course we have! We never let a bill run,' said Felix, slightly
+indignant.
+
+'Now mind, I'm not insulting you, Felix, but I know what the women are
+and what they tell us. Are you sure of that? No debts--honour bright?'
+
+'None at all!' said Felix, with an endeavour at calmness, but glowing
+hotly. 'I help my sister make up her books every Saturday night. We
+always pay ready money.'
+
+'Humph,' said Mr. Underwood, still only half convinced. 'Living must be
+cheap at Bexley.'
+
+'You had better explain a little, Felix,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+Felix did bring himself to say, 'I am sub-editor now, and get Ł100 a
+year, besides being paid for any article I write. Wilmet has Ł25 a year
+and her dinner, and Angela's at school, so there are only five of us
+constantly dining at home, and with Mr. Audley's two guineas a week we
+can do very well.'
+
+'What, you lodge here?'
+
+'Did not you know that?' said Felix, surprised.
+
+Mr. Underwood gave a whistle, and the Curate felt his cheeks growing
+redder and redder, as he perceived that seven-and-twenty was not
+considered as so _very_ much older than eighteen. Edgar understood and
+smiled, but Felix only thought he was suspected of making a good thing
+of his lodger, and was beginning something awkward about, 'It is all
+kindness,' when Mr. Audley broke in--
+
+'Of course nothing is settled yet, but--but I believe I shall change
+my quarters. A smaller house would be better for them; but I think the
+children should keep together. Indeed, my dear friend said he chiefly
+appointed me that Felix might be kept at their head.'
+
+Thereupon Mr. Underwood began to expostulate against the sacrifice of
+position and talent that Felix was making for the sake of bearing the
+burthen of a family that would have pressed heavily on a man double his
+age. It was what Felix already knew, much better than when at sixteen
+he had made his first venture. He had experienced the effects of change
+of station, as well as of exertion, drudgery, and of the home hardship
+that no one except Mr. Audley had tried to sweeten. He saw how Edgar
+had acquired the nameless air and style that he was losing, how even
+Clement viewed him as left behind; and, on the other hand, he knew
+that with his own trained and tested ability and application, and his
+kinsman's patronage, there was every reasonable chance of his regaining
+a gentleman's position, away from that half-jealous, half-conceited
+foreman, who made every day a trial to him, and looked at him with an
+evil eye as a supplanter in the post of confidence. But therewith he
+thought of his father's words, that to him he left this heavy burthen;
+and he thought what it would be to have no central home, no place of
+holiday-meeting, no rallying-point for the boys and girls, and to cast
+off the little ones to hired service. This alternative never seriously
+occurred to him, for were they not all bound to him by the cords of
+love, and most closely the weakest and most helpless? Yet his first
+reply did not convey the weight of his determination. It was only
+'Geraldine is too delicate.'
+
+'Well, well, good advice and treatment might make a change. Or, if she
+be fit for nothing else, would not that Sisterhood at Dearport take her
+on reasonable terms? Not that I can away with such nonsense, but your
+father had his fancies.'
+
+'My father wished us not to break up the home.'
+
+'That was all very well when your poor mother was alive. You have been
+a good son to her, but it is impossible that you and your sister, mere
+children as you are, should set up housekeeping by yourselves. Mr.
+Audley must see it cannot be suffered; it is the bounden duty of your
+friends to interfere.'
+
+Mr. Audley did not speak. He knew that Felix could reckon on his
+support; and, moreover, that the youth would show himself to greater
+advantage when not interfered with. So after pausing to see whether his
+guardian would speak, Felix said, 'Of course we are in Mr. Audley's
+power, but he knows that we have made some trial, and except in name,
+we have really stood alone for these three years. Wilmet can quite
+manage the house, and it would be misery for ever to us all to have no
+home. In short--' and Felix's face burnt, his voice choked, and his
+eyes brimmed over with hot indignant tears, as he concluded, 'it shall
+never be done with my good will.'
+
+'And under the circumstances,' said Mr. Audley, 'I think Felix is
+right.'
+
+'Very well,' said Thomas Underwood, much displeased. 'I have no power
+here, and if you and that lad think he can take charge of a house and a
+dozen children, you must have it your own way. Only, when they have all
+gone to rack and ruin, and he is sick of being a little tradesman in a
+country town, he will remember what I said.'
+
+Felix forced back his resentful feelings, and contrived to say, 'Yes,
+sir, I know it is a great disadvantage, and that you only wish for our
+good; but I do not think anything would be so bad for the children as
+to be all cast about the world, with no place to go to, and becoming
+strangers to one another; and since there is this way of keeping them
+together, it seems right.'
+
+The steadiness of his manner struck Mr. Underwood, and the reply was
+not unkind.
+
+'You are a good boy at bottom, Felix, and mean well, and I am only
+sorry not to be able to hinder you from throwing yourself away for life
+by trying to do what is morally impossible, in a foolish spirit of
+independence. Do not interrupt. I warn you that I am not to be appealed
+to for getting you out of the difficulties you are plunging into; but
+of course your brother and sister will be mine, as before; and as I
+promised myself to do the same by your mother as by your father--my
+near cousins both--here is to cover necessary expenses.'
+
+It was a cheque for Ł150, the same as he had given on the former
+occasion; and though Felix had rather not have taken it, he had
+little choice, and he brought himself to return cold but respectful
+thanks; and Mr. Underwood did not manifest any more displeasure, but
+showed himself very kind at the meal that was spread in Mr. Audley's
+sitting-room, and even invited Wilmet to accompany Alda, when she
+joined the family in a week's time at Brighton, so as to have sea air
+for the remainder of her holidays.
+
+Nothing could be more reluctant than was Wilmet at first, but there was
+a chorus of persuasions and promises; and the thought of being a little
+longer in Alda's presence made her waver and almost consent.
+
+Ferdinand Travis came in, but had only time for a greeting and a hasty
+meal, before Mr. Underwood's carriage came round; and, nothing loth,
+he gave a lift to the Mexican millionaire to the station with him
+and Edgar. So, for the last time, had all the thirteen been at home
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE FAMILY COBWEB ON THE MOVE.
+
+     'Oh! the auld house, the auld house,
+        What though the rooms were wee;
+      Oh! kind hearts were dwelling there,
+        And bairnies full of glee.'
+                           _Lady Nairn._
+
+
+Every one except Edgar would, it was hoped, stay at home till after the
+Epiphany, that most marked anniversary of birth and death.
+
+Clement at first declared it impossible, for St. Matthew's could not
+dispense with him on the great day; and Fulbert grinned, and nudged
+Lance at his crest-fallen looks, when he received full leave of absence
+for the next three weeks.
+
+But Lance was bursting with reverse troubles. The same post had
+brought him a note from his organist; and that 'stupid old Dean,' as
+he irreverently called him, had maliciously demanded 'How beautiful
+are the feet,' with the chorus following, and nobody in the choir was
+available to execute the solo but Lance. He had sung it once or twice
+before; and if he had the music, and would practise at home, he need
+only come up by the earliest train on the Epiphany morning; if not, he
+must arrive in time for a practice on the 5th; he would be wanted at
+both the festival and Sunday services, but might return as early as he
+pleased on Monday the 9th.
+
+Lance did not receive the summons in an exemplary spirit. It is not
+certain that he did not bite it. He rolled on the floor, and contorted
+himself in convulsions of vexation; he 'bothered' the Dean, he
+'bothered' the Precentor, he 'bothered' the Organist, he 'bothered'
+Shapcote's sore throat, he 'bothered' Harewood's wool-gathering wits,
+he 'bothered' his own voice, and thereby caused Clement to rebuke him
+for foolish murmurs instead of joy in his gift.
+
+'A fine gift to rejoice in, to make one be whipped off by an old fogey,
+when one most wants to be at home! I thank my stars I can't sing!' said
+Fulbert.
+
+'I should thank mine if Bill Harewood had any sense,' said Lance,
+sitting up in a heap on the floor. 'He can go quite high enough when he
+pleases; only, unluckily, a goose of a jackdaw must needs get into the
+cathedral just as Bill had got to sing the solo in "As pants the hart;"
+and there he stood staring with his mouth wide open--and no wonder, for
+it was sitting on the old stone-king's head! Wasn't Miles in a rage;
+and didn't he vow he'd never trust a solo to Harewood again if he knew
+it! Oh, I say, Wilmet--Fee, I know! Do let me bring Bill back with me
+on Monday morning; and he could go by the six o'clock train. Oh, jolly!'
+
+'But is he really a nice boy, Lance?' asked Wilmet, doubtfully.
+
+'Oh, isn't he just? You'll see! His father is a Vicar-choral, you know,
+lives in our precincts; his private door just opposite ours, and 'tis
+the most delicious house you ever saw! You may make as much row as you
+please, and nobody minds!'
+
+'I know who Mr. Harewood is. Librarian too, is he not?' said Felix. 'I
+have heard people laughing about his good-natured wife.'
+
+'Aren't they the people who were so kind to you last year, Lance,'
+asked Cherry, 'when you could not come home because of the measles?'
+
+'Of course. Do let me bring him, Fee,' entreated Lance; 'he is no end
+of a chap--captain of our form almost always--and such a brick at
+cricket! I told him I'd show him the potteries, and your press, and our
+organ, and everything--and it is such a chance when we are all at home!
+I shall get the fellows to believe now that my sisters beat all theirs
+to shivers.'
+
+'Can you withstand that flattering compliment, Wilmet?' said Felix,
+laughing. 'I can't!'
+
+'He is very welcome,' said Wilmet; 'only, Lance, he must not stay the
+night, for there really is not room for another mouse.'
+
+The little girls had heard so much about Bill Harewood, that
+they were much excited; but their sympathy kindly compensated
+for the lack of that of the elder brothers. Fulbert pronounced
+that a cathedral chorister could never be any great shakes; and
+Clement could not forgive one who had been frivolous enough to be
+distracted by a jackdaw; but Lance, trusting to his friend's personal
+attractions to overcome all prejudice, trotted blithely off to the
+organist-schoolmaster, to beg the loan of the music, and received a
+promise of a practice in church in the evening. Meantime, he begged
+Clement to play the accompaniment for him on the old piano. Neither
+boy knew that it had been scarcely opened since their father's hand
+had last lingered fondly upon it. Music had been found to excite their
+mother to tears; Geraldine resembled Fulbert in unmusicalness, and
+Wilmet had depended on school, the brothers on their choir-practice,
+so that the sound was like a new thing in the house; nor was any one
+prepared either for the superiority of Clement's playing, or for
+the exceeding beauty and sweetness of Lance's singing. No one who
+appreciated the rare quality of his high notes wondered that he was
+indispensable; Geraldine could hardly believe that the clear exquisite
+proclamation, that came floating as from an angel voice, could really
+come from the little, slight, grubby, dusty urchin, who stood with
+clasped hands and uplifted face; and Clement himself--though deferring
+the communication till Lance was absent, lest it should make him
+vain--confided to Wilmet that they had no such voice at St Matthew's,
+and it was a shame to waste him on Anglicans.
+
+Wilmet hardly entered into this enormity. She had made a discovery
+which interested her infinitely more. Little Theodore, hitherto so
+inanimate, had sat up, listened, looked with a dawning of expression
+in the eyes that had hitherto been clear and meaningless as blue
+porcelain, and as the music ceased, his inarticulate hummings continued
+the same tune. Could it be that the key to the dormant senses was
+found? His eyes turned to the piano, and his finger pointed to it
+as soon as he found himself in the room with it, and the airs he
+heard were continually reproduced in his murmuring sounds; that 'How
+beautiful!' which had first awakened the gleam--his own birth-day
+anthem--being sure to recur at sight of Lance; while a doleful Irish
+croon, Sibby's regular lullaby, always served for her, and the 'Hardy
+Norseman' for Felix, who had sometimes whistled it to him. Wilmet spent
+every available moment in awaking the smile on the little waxen face
+that had never responded before; it seemed to be just the cheering hope
+she needed to revive her spirits, only she was almost ready to renounce
+her journey with Alda for the sake of cultivating the new-found faculty.
+
+No one would permit this; and indeed, so far from waiting to be
+exhibited to Lance's friend, the two sisters received their _billet de
+route_ on the very day he was expected; and there was no appeal, since
+a housekeeper was to travel from Centry, who would take charge of them
+to London, whence they would go down with Mr. Underwood. Poor Wilmet
+was much dismayed at leaving Geraldine to what they both regarded as
+the unprecedented invasion of a strange boy; indeed, the whole charge
+made Cherry's heart quail, though she said little of her fears, knowing
+the importance of Wilmet's having and enjoying her holiday; and Mr.
+Audley promised extra aid in keeping order among the boys.
+
+But as they came in that evening from the practice at the church, to
+which Clement had insisted on their coming to hear Lance, Mr. Audley
+beckoned Felix to his room with the words, 'There's a thing I want to
+talk over with you.'
+
+Felix recollected those ominous words to Mr. Underwood, and stood
+warming his hands in dread of what might be coming. It was all he
+feared.
+
+'I wanted to say--I wanted to tell you--' began Mr. Audley. 'I would
+not have chosen this time, but that I think it may save Wilmet
+something to be able to tell her friends that the present arrangement
+is to cease.'
+
+'Wilmet!' exclaimed Felix; then bethinking himself. 'Was _that_ what
+Tom Underwood meant? But you will not trouble yourself about such
+rubbish.'
+
+'Well, you see,' began the Curate, with heightening colour, 'it can't
+be denied that your sister _has_ grown up, and that things are changed.'
+
+'Mrs. Froggatt _did_ ask me if you were going on here,' said Felix,
+still unconvinced; 'but can't we leave people to be _stoopid_ without
+interfering with us?'
+
+'Felix, you ought to be a better protector to your sisters. You would
+not like to have my Lady remonstrating--nay, maybe writing to my
+mother: she is quite capable of it.'
+
+Felix's cheeks were in a flame. 'If people would mind their own
+business,' he said; 'but if they _will_ have it so--'
+
+'They are right, Felix,' said the Curate quietly; 'appearances must be
+carefully heeded, and by you almost more than by any one. Your slowness
+to understand me makes me almost doubtful about my further design.'
+
+'Not going away altogether!'
+
+'Not immediately; but things stand thus--Dr. White, my old tutor, you
+know, and Fernan's, is nearly sure of the new Bishopric in Australia,
+and he wants me.'
+
+Felix hardly repressed a groan.
+
+'Any way I should not go immediately; but when your father spoke to me
+about the guardianship, he made me promise not to let it stand in the
+way of any other call. I fancied he had mission work in his mind, and
+it disposes me the more to think I ought not to hold back; but while
+your dear mother lived, I would not have gone.'
+
+'Yes, you have been very good to us,' was all Felix could say. 'But
+when?'
+
+'Not for some time; but I am not going this moment. Three months'
+notice Mr. Bevan must have, and if he requires it, six; I must spend
+some time at home, and very like shall not be off till you are of
+age--certainly not if I find there is any difficulty in handing the
+management of things over to you. How long I remain with you must
+depend on circumstances. How much notice must you give before leaving
+this house?'
+
+'I do not know--half a year, I fancy. You think we ought to give it up?
+I suppose it is too large for us now.'
+
+'And you could take no lodger but one of the old-lady type.'
+
+'Horrid!' said Felix. 'Well, we will see; but it will be a great stroke
+on poor Cherry--she can remember nothing before this house.'
+
+'It will be very good for her to have no old associations to sit
+brooding over.'
+
+'My poor little Cherry! If I saw how to cheer up her life; but without
+your lessons it will be more dreary for her than ever!'
+
+'Give her all you can to do, and do not be over-careful to keep your
+anxieties from her knowledge. She is very much of a woman, and if you
+leave her too much to herself, she will grow more introspective.'
+
+'Wilmet and I have always wanted to shelter her; she never seems fit
+for trouble, and she is so young!'
+
+'Compared with you two venerable people!' said Mr. Audley, smiling.
+'But her mind is not young, and to treat her as a child is the way to
+make her prey upon herself. I wish her talent could be more cultivated;
+but meantime nothing is better for her than the care of Bernard and
+Stella. I hope you will not be in a hurry to promote them out of her
+hands.'
+
+'Very well; but she will miss you sorely.'
+
+'I hope to see her brightened before I am really gone, and I am not
+going to decamp from this house till some natural break comes. To do
+that would be absurd!'
+
+There was a silence; and then Felix said with a sigh, 'Yes, a smaller
+house, and one servant. I will speak to Wilmet.'
+
+'Perhaps you had better, so that she may have an answer in case she is
+attacked.'
+
+Wilmet was aghast at first, but a hint from Alda made her acquiesce,
+not with blushing consciousness, but with the perception that the way
+of the world was against the retention of the lodger; and sorry as she
+was to lose Mr. Audley, her housewifely mind was not consoled, but
+distracted, by calculations on the difference of expenditure. Again she
+tried to beg herself off from her visit, in the dread that Felix would
+go and take some impracticable house in her absence--some place with
+thin walls, no cupboards, and no coal-hole; and she was only pacified
+by his solemn promise to decide on no house without her. She went away
+in an avalanche of kisses and tears, leaving Geraldine with a basketful
+of written instructions for every possible contingency, at which the
+anxious maiden sat gazing anxiously, trying to store her mind with its
+onerous directions.
+
+'Shall I give you a piece of advice, Cherry?' said the Curate, as he
+saw the dark eye-brows drawn together.
+
+'Oh, do!' she earnestly said.
+
+'Put all that in the fire!'
+
+'Mr. Audley!'
+
+'And go by the light of nature! You have just as many senses as Wilmet,
+and almost as much experience; and as to oppressing yourself with the
+determination to do the _very_ thing she would have done under all
+circumstances, it is a delusion. People must act according to their own
+nature, not some one else's.'
+
+'Certainly,' said Geraldine, smiling. 'I could never walk stately in
+and say, "Now, boys!"--and much they would care for it if I did.'
+
+'It seems to be a case for "Now, boys!" at this moment,' said Mr.
+Audley; 'what can all that row be?'
+
+'Oh, it must be that dreadful strange boy, Lance's friend,' sighed
+Geraldine, almost turning pale. Then, trying to cheer up, 'But it is
+only for the day, and Lance wished it so much.'
+
+As she spoke, the shout of 'Cherry, here's Bill!' came nearer, and the
+whole of the younger half of the family tumbled promiscuously into the
+room, introducing the visitor in the midst of them. To the elders,
+'no end of a chap' appeared, as Mr. Audley said, to mean all ends of
+shock hair, and freckles up to the eyes; but when Fulbert and Lance had
+whirled him out again to see the lions of Bexley, Robina and Angela
+were overheard respectfully pronouncing that he was nice and spotty
+like the dear little frogs in the strawberry-beds at Catsacre, and that
+his hair was just the colour Cherry painted that of all the very best
+people in her 'holy pictures.'
+
+The object of their admiration was seen no more till the middle of
+dinner, when all three appeared, immoderately dusty; and no wonder,
+for the organist had employed them to climb, sweep fashion, into the
+biggest organ-pipe to investigate the cause of a bronchial affection of
+long standing, which turned out to be a dead bat caught in a tenacious
+cobweb.
+
+Shortly after, the guest was found assisting Angela in a tableau, where
+a pen-wiper doll in nun's costume was enacting the exorcism of the said
+bat, in a cave built of wooden bricks.
+
+Clement was undecided whether to condemn or admire; and Geraldine, to
+whom Edgar had lent some volumes of Ruskin, meditated on the grotesque.
+
+Before there had been time for the fanciful sport to become rough
+comedy, Lance had called off his friend to see the potteries; and to
+poor Cherry's horror, she found that Robina had been swept off in the
+torrent of boyhood. Clement, pitying her despair and self-reproach,
+magnanimously offered to follow, and either bring the little maid back,
+or keep her out of harm's way; and for some time Cherry reposed in the
+conviction that 'Tina was as good as a girl any day.'
+
+But at about a quarter to six, a little tap came to Mr. Audley's door,
+and Angela stood there, saying, with a most serious face, 'Please, Mr.
+Audley, Cherry wants to know whether you don't think something must
+have happened.' And going upstairs, he found the poor young deputy in a
+nervous agony of despair at the non-return of any of the party, quite
+certain that some catastrophe had befallen them, and divided between
+self-reproach and dread of the consequences.
+
+'The very first day Wilmet had gone!' as she said.
+
+It was almost time for Harewood's train, which made it all the more
+strange. Mr. Audley tried to reassure her by the probability that the
+whole party were convoying him to the station, and would appear when
+he was gone; but time confuted this pleasing hypothesis, and Cherry's
+misery was renewed. She even almost hinted a wish that Mr. Audley would
+go out and look for them.
+
+'And then,' he said, smiling, 'in an hour's time you would be sending
+Felix to look for me. No, no, Cherry, these waiting times are often
+hard, no doubt; but, as I fear you are one of those destined to "abide
+by the tents" instead of going out to battle, you had better learn to
+do your watching composedly.'
+
+'O Mr. Audley! how can I? I know it must be very wrong, but how can I
+not care?' And verily the nervous sensitive girl was quivering with
+suspense.
+
+'"He will not be afraid of any evil tidings, for his heart standeth
+fast and believeth in the Lord,"' answered Mr. Audley. 'I see that does
+not tell you _how_ not to be afraid; but I imagine that a few trusting
+ejaculations in the heart, and then resolute attention to something
+else, may be found a help.'
+
+Cherry would have sighed that attention was the most impossible thing
+in the world; but before she had time to do so, Mr. Audley had begun to
+expound to her his Australian scheme. It excited her extremely; and as
+a year and a half seemed an immense period of time to her imagination,
+the dread of losing him was not so immediate as to damp her enthusiasm.
+They had discussed his plans for nearly an hour before Cherry started
+at the sound of the door, and then it was only Felix who entered. He
+was irate, but not at all alarmed; and presently the welcome clatter of
+steps approached, and in dashed the whole crew, mired up to the eyes,
+but in as towering spirits as ever.
+
+Their delay had, it appeared, been caused by a long walk that ensued
+upon the visit to the potteries, and a wild venture of Will Harewood
+upon impracticable ice, which had made him acquainted with the depths
+of a horse-pond. There was none of the dignity of danger, for the
+depths were shallows and the water only rose to his waist; but the mud
+was above his ankles, and he had floundered out with some difficulty.
+He wanted to walk back with no more ceremony than a water-dog; but
+the Underwoods had made common cause against him, and had dragged him
+to a cottage, where he had the pleasing alternative of an old woman's
+blankets and petticoats while his garments were drying. He was as
+nearly angry as a Harewood could be, Lance observed, declaring that
+they should never have got him into the cottage without fighting him,
+if Tina had not been so tall, and if Robin had not nearly cried; while
+he, throwing off all responsibility, ascribed all his lateness to
+his friend's 'maggots.' No more trains stopped at Bexley till after
+midnight; but as to his absence causing any uneasiness at home, he
+laughed at the notion, and was corroborated by Lance in averring that
+they had too much sense; listening with undisguised amazement to the
+elaborate explanations and apologies about Robina, which Clement was
+scrupulously pouring forth to his brother and sister, saying that he
+would have brought her home at once, but that he really did not like to
+trust those boys alone.
+
+Whereat Lance held up his hands with a dumb show of amazement that
+convulsed Fulbert, Bill Harewood, and Robina herself, with agonies of
+half-suppressed merriment. The boy had come in, prepared to be grave
+and quiet, as knowing how lately affliction had come to the family,
+and having been warned by Lance, that 'as to going on as we do in the
+precincts, why it would make Cherry jump out of her skin.'
+
+But by some extraordinary influence--whether it were the oddity of
+William Harewood's face, or the novelty of his perfect _insouciance_
+in the household whither care had come only too early--some infection
+seized on the young Underwoods, and before the end of the evening meal,
+if the 'goings on' were not equal to those in the precincts, they were,
+at any rate, not far short of it.
+
+Lance presently incited his friend to show 'how he had mesmerized
+Lucy.' Clement made a horrified protest; and Geraldine looked alarmed
+at her eldest brother, who began, 'Indeed, Lance, we can have nothing
+of that sort here.'
+
+'But, Felix, I do assure you there is no harm.'
+
+'Upon my word and honour, there's not a spice of anything the
+Archbishop of Canterbury could stick at,' added Will Harewood.
+
+'It is impossible there should not be harm,' interposed Clement; but
+the boys, including Fulbert, were in such fits of laughter, that Felix
+began to suspect the seriousness of the performance; and when Lance
+sprang at him, exclaiming, 'I'll go to Mr. Audley! Fee--Cherry--will
+you be satisfied if Mr. Audley says we may?' Felix and Cherry both
+consented; and Lance rushed off to make the appeal, and returned not
+only with full sanction, but with Mr. Audley himself, come to see
+the operation. This perfectly satisfied Felix, who even consented,
+on the entreaty of his brothers, to become the first subject; and
+Cherry knew that where the Curate and Felix had no scruples, she need
+have none; but, for all that, she was more than half frightened and
+uncomfortable--above all, when Clement, amid shouts of mirth from the
+three schoolboys, indignantly marched away to shut himself up in his
+cold bedroom.
+
+By-and-by, after some unseen preparation--all the more mystifying
+because carried on in the kitchen, where Sibby always used to keep
+Theodore in a cradle till Felix was ready for him--Will Harewood caused
+Felix to stand exactly opposite to him and to the spectators, with a
+dinner-plate in his hand, and under injunctions to imitate the operator
+exactly. Armed with another plate, William rubbed his own finger
+first on the under side of the plate, and then, after some passes and
+flourishes, on his own forehead, entirely without effect so far as he
+himself was concerned; but his victim, standing meekly good-natured
+and unconscious, was seen by the ecstatic audience to be, at each
+pass, painting his own face with the soot from a flame over which his
+plate had been previously held. The shrieks of amusement redoubled at
+the perplexity they occasioned him, till they penetrated the upper
+rooms; and suddenly a cry of horror made all turn to the door and see a
+little white bare-footed figure standing there, transfixed with fright,
+which increased tenfold when Felix hurried towards it, not yet aware
+of the condition of his visage, until a universal shout warned him of
+it; while Lance, darting in pursuit, picked up Bernard, and by his
+wonderful caressing arts, and partly by his special gift of coaxing,
+partly as the object of the little fellow's most fervent adoration,
+made the scattered senses take in that it was 'all play,' and even
+carried back the little white bundle, heart throbbing and eyes staring,
+but still secure in his arms, to admire Felix all black, and then to be
+further relieved by beholding the restoration of the natural hue at the
+pump below stairs.
+
+Then amid Sibby's scoldings and assurances that the child would catch
+his death of cold, Bernard was borne upstairs again by Felix, who found
+Clement in the nursery comforting the little girls, and preventing
+them from following the example of their valiant pioneer. Felix, now
+thoroughly entering into the spirit of the joke, entertained for a
+moment the hope of entrapping Clement; but of course Bernard could not
+be silenced from his bold and rather doubtful proclamation, that 'The
+funny boy made Felix black his own face, and I wasn't afraid.'
+
+'Naughty boy!' commented Stella. 'Poor Fee!'--and she reared up to kiss
+him, and stroke the cheeks that had suffered such an indignity.
+
+'What! It was only a trick?' said Clement slowly, as if half mystified.
+
+'Of course,' said Felix; 'could not you trust to that?'
+
+'I don't know. Cathedrals are very lax, and it had a questionable name.'
+
+'O Clem! if it had not been in you before, I should wish you had never
+gone to St. Matthew's. Come down now, don't let us disturb the little
+ones any longer.--Good-night, Angel; good-night, little Star; we'll not
+make a row to wake you again.'
+
+Clement, in a severe mood, followed Felix downstairs; but some
+wonderful spirit of frolic was on all the young people that night--a
+reaction, perhaps, from the melancholy that had so long necessarily
+reigned in that house, for though the fun was less loud, it was quite
+as merry: a course of riddles was going on; and Clement, who really
+was used to a great deal of mirth among the staff of St. Matthew's,
+absolutely unbent, and gloried in showing that even more conundrums
+were known there than by the house of Harewood. He was not strong
+in guessing them; but then Will Harewood made such undaunted and
+extraordinary shots at everything proposed, that the spirit of repartee
+was fairly awakened, and Cherry's bright delicate wit began to play,
+so that no one knew how to believe in the lateness of the hour, and
+still less that this was the same house that grave Wilmet had left that
+morning.
+
+'Poor dear little Cherry!' said Felix to Mr. Audley, after helping her
+upstairs, 'she is quite spent with laughing; indeed my jaws ache, and
+she is ready to cry, as if it had been unfeeling.'
+
+'Don't let her fancy that. We certainly were surprised into it
+to-night; but I only wish for her sake--for all your sakes--that you
+could keep the house merrier.'
+
+Felix sighed. He too felt as if he had been betrayed into unbecoming
+levity; and though he would not dispute, his heart had only become the
+heavier. However, he did not forget; and when Cherry again breathed
+a little sigh as to what Wilmet would think of their first day, he
+stoutly averred that there was no use in drooping, and no harm in
+liveliness, and that no one had ever been so full of joyousness as
+their father.
+
+She owned it. 'But--'
+
+And that _but_ meant the effects of the three years that she had spent
+as the companion of her mother's mournful widowhood, and of the cares
+of life on her elder brother and sister.
+
+It was true, as Mr. Audley said, that the associations of the rooms
+were not good for her spirits in her many lonely hours and confined
+life; and this reconciled Felix more than anything else to the proposed
+change. He was keeping his promise to Wilmet of not seeking a house
+till her return, when Mr. and Mrs. Froggatt, whose minds had been much
+relieved by hearing that the lodger would consult the proprieties,
+communicated to him their own scheme of taking up their residence at
+a village named Marshlands, about two miles from Bexley, where they
+already spent great part of the summer in a pleasant cottage and
+garden which they had bought and adorned. Mr. Froggatt would drive
+in to attend to the business every day, but the charge of the house
+was the difficulty, as they did not wish to let the rooms; and they
+now proposed that the young Underwoods should inhabit them rent-free,
+merely keeping a bedroom and little parlour behind the shop for Mr.
+Froggatt, and providing firing in them. With much more diffidence, at
+his wife's earnest suggestion, the kindly modest old man asked whether
+Miss Underwood would object to his coming in to take a piece of bread
+and cheese when he was there in the middle of the day.
+
+It was an excellent offer, and Felix had no hesitation in gratefully
+closing with it, even without consulting Wilmet. Her reply showed that
+a great weight was taken off her mind; and she was only longing to be
+at home again, contriving for the move, which was to take place at
+Lady Day. She was burning to study the new rooms; nevertheless, as by
+kind Marilda's contrivance, she was taking lessons in German every day
+from a superior Fraulein who had once been her cousin's governess, and
+was further allowed to inspect the working of a good school, her stay
+was extended, by Miss Pearson's entreaty, a full fortnight beyond what
+had been intended. Nor had anything gone wrong in her absence. Even
+the overlooking of the boys' linen, which she had believed impossible
+without her, was safely carried on by Cherry, and all were sent off in
+sound condition. No catastrophe occurred; and the continual occupation
+and responsibility drove away all the low spirits that so often had
+tried the home-keeping girl. She _did_ enjoy those _tęte-ŕ-tęte_
+evenings, when Felix opened to her more than he had ever done before;
+and yet it was an immense relief to have the day fixed for Wilmet's
+return, and how much more to have her walking into the room with all
+the children clinging about her in incoherent ecstacy, which had not
+subsided enough for much comprehension when Felix came joyously in.
+'Hurrah, Wilmet! Mr. Froggatt sent me home a couple of hours before
+time!'
+
+'How very good! I met him in the street just now. Really, he is the
+kindest old gentleman in the world!'
+
+'I believe you dazzled him, Mettie; he says he did not know you till
+you spoke to him, and if he had realised what a beautiful and majestic
+young lady you were, he should hardly have ventured to propose your
+taking up your abode under his humble roof.'
+
+'That must be the effect of living with Alda,' said Wilmet merrily;
+'but, oh! I am glad to be at home again!'
+
+'And I never was so glad of anything in my life,' said Geraldine
+eagerly.
+
+'I am longing to go over the house, and know what to do about
+furniture,' continued Wilmet.
+
+'There! now W. W. is herself again!' said Felix.
+
+'Mrs. Froggatt came and called on me,' said Geraldine. 'She talked of
+leaving us the larger things that will not go into the cottage.'
+
+'Which is well,' said Felix; 'for how much of ours will survive the
+shock of removing is doubtful.'
+
+'All the things that came from Vale Leston are quite solid,' said
+Wilmet, bristling up.
+
+'That carpet is solid darn,' said Felix. 'We tried one evening, and
+found that though the pattern of rose-leaves is a tradition, no one
+younger than Clem could remember having seen either design or colour.'
+
+'You should not laugh at it, Felix,' said Wilmet, a little hurt; for
+indeed her mother's needle and her own were too well acquainted with
+the carpet for her to like to hear it contemned.
+
+Felix and Cherry both felt somewhat called to order, as if their
+mistress had come home again; and Cherry was the first to break silence
+by inquiring after Wilmet's studies at Brighton.
+
+'Oh yes,' said Wilmet, 'I do hope I am improved. That was all Marilda's
+kindness. She quite understood how I missed everybody and everything;
+and at last, one day, when I was wishing I could pronounce German like
+Alda, and that Alda had time to give me some lessons--'
+
+'Alda hasn't time?'
+
+'Oh, you don't know how useful she is! She writes all the notes.
+Marilda devised getting this Fraulein--such a good-natured woman! and
+when she heard what I wanted, she got leave for me to come every day to
+study the working of the school. I do believe I shall teach much better
+now, if only I were not so ignorant. I never had any notion before how
+little I knew!'
+
+However, Wilmet's value had really risen so much in consequence of
+these instructions, that Miss Pearson arranged that she should lay the
+French and German foundations, and prepare the scholars, and should
+receive half a sovereign a half year from each girl whom she thus
+instructed, being the moiety of 'extra.' Moreover, the head teacher
+talked of retiring, and her succession was promised to Wilmet--a
+brilliant prospect, that the sight of Alda's grandeur did not make her
+contemn.
+
+Wilmet's anxious mind was well satisfied by her inspection of the new
+quarters, which, among other conveniences, had that of shortening
+by ten minutes her walk to school. The family apartments were all
+upstairs, the space below being entirely taken up by the business, and
+the kitchens were under ground. The chief sitting-room upstairs was
+unfortunately towards the street, and had a northern aspect; it was a
+spacious room, with three large windows filled with boxes of flowers,
+and contained a big table and two sofas, which, with the carpet and
+curtains, would remain well covered up. Folding-doors led into a
+smaller room, with a south window towards the little garden, where Mrs.
+Froggatt generally sat, and which had been used for the dining-room.
+There were two bedrooms besides on the same floor, one of which would
+remain untouched for Mr. Froggatt; and above these, there was a large
+nursery, and more rooms than had been ever furnished. Rent, rates,
+taxes, and repairs, all off her mind! Wilmet felt as if prosperity
+were setting in; and she was the first to make the audacious statement
+that they need not part with Martha, and indeed, that the house could
+not be kept in order, nor dinners cooked fit for Mr. Froggatt, by
+Sibby single-handed. And Cherry made up her mind that they were like a
+family of caterpillars moving their cobweb tent; Angela, seeing such an
+establishment of young tortoise-shells, in their polished black, under
+their family web, had asked, 'Which was their brother Felix?' and the
+name was adopted.
+
+So a time of much business and excitement set in; and the lengthening
+spring evenings were no sinecure to Wilmet, as the flitting day
+approached, being rather hurried on by the old bookseller, who wanted
+to be at Marshlands in time to admire his hyacinths and sow his
+annuals. Mr. Audley would take rooms at the Fortinbras Arms for the
+remainder of his stay at Bexley; and indeed, there was a good deal to
+break the old habit of constantly depending on him, for his brother's
+young wife was slowly dying in London, and the whole family seemed
+instinctively to turn to him for comfort and advice, so that he was
+obliged to be continually going backwards and forwards.
+
+On the 24th of March, when he came down by an afternoon train, he found
+the house door open, the steps scattered with straw; and after looking
+in and seeing his own parlour intact, and with a cheerful fire, he
+pursued his way upstairs, and there found the sitting-room bare except
+for a sort of island consisting of the sofa, on which Geraldine lay
+rolled in cloaks and shawls, trying to amuse the twins by a feeble
+attempt to sing
+
+     'Weel may the boatie row,'
+
+while making paper boats for Stella to drag by strings upon the smooth
+boards.
+
+'Eh, Cherry, are you the Last Man, or the Last Rose of Summer?'
+
+'The last of the caterpillars,' said Cherry, smiling, but with effort.
+'Do you see Stella's fleet--just thirteen?'
+
+'Making omens, foolish child!' but though Stella was eagerly pointing
+and explaining, 'Tat Tella's boat--tat Tedo's--tat brother's--tat
+Angel,' and so on, the word _foolish_ was not directed to the little
+one, but to the grey eyes heavy with unshed tears, that rested
+wistfully upon a wreck that had caught upon a nail and lay rent and
+ragged.
+
+'Pray don't look which it is,' said she.
+
+'Certainly not; I hate auguries.'
+
+'Do you think there is nothing in them?'
+
+'I think there is nothing in this room but what ought to be in mine.
+Do you expect me to stand discussing superstition in this horrible raw
+emptiness? Here,' picking up Theodore, 'I'll come back for you.'
+
+'Oh no, thank you, let me get down by myself; he cannot be left alone
+in a room.'
+
+'Come, Stella, and take care of him.'
+
+'That's worse; she leads him into mischief. We are fox, goose, and
+cabbage. Please give me my crutch; Wilmet put it out of reach because
+she said I was destroying myself.'
+
+'You are tired to death.'
+
+'Oh no; but one can't sit still when so much is going on. Oh, how
+delicious!' as after an interval she arrived, and found Mr. Audley
+winding up a musical-box, which Theodore was greeting with its own
+tunes, and Stella with a dance and chant of 'Sing box--sing box;' and
+then the two sat listening to the long cycle of tunes which would hold
+Theodore entranced for any length of time.
+
+After a short inquiry and a reply as to the sister-in-law's state,
+and a few words on the progress of the flitting, there was a silence
+while Mr. Audley read the letters that had come for him in his absence,
+and Cherry's face became more and more pensive. At last, when Mr.
+Audley laid down his letters, and leant against the chimney-piece, she
+ventured to say, 'Is it wrong?'
+
+'Is what wrong?' said the Curate, who had quite forgotten the subject.
+
+'To care about omens.'
+
+'That depends. To accept them is sometimes necessary; to look out for
+them is generally foolish and often wrong.'
+
+'Sometimes necessary?' said Cherry eagerly.
+
+'Sometimes experience seems to show that in good Providence a merciful
+preparation is sent not so much to lead to anticipations, as to bring
+the mind into keeping with what is coming, and, as it were, attune it.'
+
+'So that little things may be constantly types of great future ones?'
+
+'My dear Cherry, I said _not_ constantly.'
+
+'Just let me tell you. Sibby says that the very day we all came into
+this poor old house, just as the omnibus stopped, there was the knell
+ringing overhead, and a funeral coming up the street. She knew it was
+a token, and burst out crying; and dear Mamma, who you know never shed
+tears, turned as white as a corpse, as if she was struck to the heart.'
+
+'And your father?'
+
+'Oh! Sibby said he just stood in the doorway, lifted his hat as the
+funeral passed, and then well-nigh carried Mamma, with the baby (that
+was Fulbert) in her arms, over the threshold, and smiled at her,
+saying, "Well, mother, what better than to have found our home till
+death!" So you see he did believe in it.'
+
+'I see he wanted to cheer her spirits, not by saying "stuff and
+nonsense," but reminding her that there are worse things than death.
+Have you an omen on your mind, Cherry? Have it out; don't let it sink
+in.'
+
+'Only _please_ don't laugh at me. Indeed, it was not my own doing, but
+Stella's fancy to have a boat for each of us, when she was launching
+them; and I could not help recollecting how we are all starting out and
+away from our first home.'
+
+'Stella's was not a _very_ perilous ocean.'
+
+'That was a comfort at first; and Stella tried to draw all the thirteen
+lines together, but they tangled, and one thread broke, and that boat
+was left behind; and one poor crooked ill-made thing fell over, and was
+left at home because hindering all the rest, and even Stella knew that
+was me, and--' her voice quivered, 'one was caught on a nail, and torn
+into a wreck! Now, can I help thinking, though you'll just call them
+newspaper-boats, dragged by a baby on a dry dusty floor?'
+
+'Watched by a weary fanciful damsel,' said Mr. Audley, sitting down
+by her, 'who does not know a bit more than she did before, that all
+are launching on a sea, and if it _is_ a rougher one, there's a better
+Guiding Star than Stella Eudora to lead them, and they have compasses
+of their own--ay, and a Pilot. And if there are times when He seems to
+be asleep in the ship--why, even the owner of the unseaworthy boat left
+at home can show the Light, and pray on till the others are roused to
+awaken Him.'
+
+'I wish there had not been that wreck,' she sighed.
+
+'What seems a wreck need not be really one,' said Mr. Audley. 'It may
+be the very way of returning to the right course. And by and by we
+shall see our Master standing on the shore in the morning light.'
+
+At that moment there was a sound at the door--Felix had accompanied
+Cherry's chair, to bring her and Theodore to the new home. There
+was too much haste for the wistful last looks she intended: she
+was deposited in the chair with Theodore on her knee, Stella
+trotting after, with Felix and Mr. Audley, who was coming to see the
+inauguration. St. Oswald's Buildings were left behind, and she was
+drawn up to the green private door, beside the shop window; Wilmet
+hurried down and took Theodore from her; Felix helped her out, and
+up the narrow steep staircase, which certainly was _not_ a gain, but
+when landed in the drawing-room, the space seemed to her magnificent.
+And their own furniture, the two or three cherished portraits brought
+from Vale Leston, their father's chair, their mother's sofa, the silk
+patchwork table-cover that had been the girl's birth-day present to
+Mamma, the bookcase with Papa's precious books, made it seem home-like.
+
+'The mantelpiece is just the same!' cried Cherry, delighted, as she
+recognised all the old ornaments.
+
+The next moment her delight was great at the flower-stands, which Mr.
+Froggatt had kindly left full of primulas, squills, and crocuses;
+and when she looked out from the back room into the little garden,
+where Mr. Froggatt's horticultural tastes had long found their sole
+occupation, and saw turf, green laurels, and bunches of snowdrops and
+crocuses, she forgot all Stella's launch!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CHORAL FESTIVAL.
+
+        'And with ornaments and banners,
+         As becomes gintale good manners,
+    We made the loveliest Tay room upon Shannon shore.'
+                                                  _Thackeray._
+
+
+'Of course, after _this_,' said Lady Price, 'Miss Underwood did not
+expect to be visited.'
+
+Otherwise the gain was great. The amusement of looking out of window
+into the High Street was alone a perpetual feast to the little ones,
+and saved Geraldine worlds of anxiety; and the garden where they
+could be turned out to play was prized as it only could be by those
+who had never had any outlet before. It was a pleasant little long
+narrow nook, between the printing-house on the west, and such another
+garden on the east, a like slip, with a wall masked by ivy and lilacs,
+and overshadowed by a horse-chestnut meeting it on the south. It was
+not smoky, and was quite quiet, save for the drone and stamp of the
+steam-press; there was grass, a gum-cistus and some flower-beds in the
+centre, and a gravel-walk all round, bordered by narrow edgings of
+flowers, and with fruit trees against the printing-house wall, and a
+Banksia and Wisteria against that of the house. Mr. Froggatt was quite
+touched at the reverence with which Angela and Stella regarded even
+the daisies that had eluded his perpetual spud; and when he found out
+the delight it was to Cherry to live with flowers for the first time
+in her life, he seldom failed to send her a bunch of violets or some
+other spring beauty as soon as he arrived in the morning, and kept the
+windows constantly supplied with plants.
+
+The old bookseller was at first very much afraid of his new inmates.
+To Felix he was used, but he looked on the sisters as ladies, and to
+ladies except on business-terms he was much less accustomed than to
+gentlemen. Besides, being a thorough gentleman himself at heart, he had
+so much delicacy as to be afraid of hurting their feelings by seeming
+at home in his own house; and he avoided being there at luncheon for a
+whole week, until one afternoon Felix ran up to say that he was sure
+Mr. Froggatt had a cold, and would be glad if a cup of tea appeared
+in his parlour. Gratitude brought him in to face the enemy; and after
+he had been kept at home for a day or two by the cold, his wife's
+injunctions and Felix's entreaties brought him to the dinner.
+
+It happened to be one of Wilmet's favourite economical stews; but
+these were always popular in the family, though chiefly composed of
+scraps, pot-liquor, rice, and vegetables; and both for its excellence
+and prudence it commanded Mr. Froggatt's unqualified approbation. All
+that distressed his kind heart was to see no liquor but water, except
+Cherry's thimbleful of port; he could _not_ enjoy his glass of porter,
+and shook his head--perhaps not without reason--when he found that
+his young assistant's diet was on no more generous scale, and was not
+satisfied by Felix's laughing argument that it was impossible to be
+_more_ than perfectly healthy and strong. 'False economy,' said the old
+man in private; but Felix was not to be persuaded into what he believed
+to be an unnecessary drain on the family-finances, and was still more
+stout against the hint that if Redstone discovered this prudential
+abstinence, it might make him 'disagreeable.' Felix had gone his way
+regardless of far too many sneers for poverty and so-called meanness to
+make any concession on their account, though the veiled jealousy and
+guarded insolence of that smart 'gent' the foreman had been for the
+last three years the greatest thorn in his side. And at least he made
+this advance, that the errand-boy cleaned the shoes!
+
+Geraldine, though shy at first from the utter seclusion in which she
+had lived, put forth a pretty bashful graciousness that perfectly
+enchanted Mr. Froggatt, who was besides much touched by her patient
+helplessness. He became something between her grandfather and her
+knight, loading her with flowers, giving her the run of the circulating
+library, and whenever it was fine enough, taking her for a mile or two
+in his low basket-carriage either before or after his day's business
+in the shop. It was not exactly like being with her only other friend,
+Mr. Audley; but he was a thoroughly kind, polite, and by no means
+unlettered old man; and Geraldine enjoyed and was grateful, while the
+children were his darlings, and were encouraged to take all manner of
+liberties with him.
+
+Among the advantages of the change was the having Felix always at hand;
+and though she really did not see him oftener in the course of the day
+than at St. Oswald's Buildings, still the knowing him to be within
+reach gave great contentment to Cherry. The only disadvantage was that
+he lost his four daily walks to and fro, and hardly ever had sufficient
+fresh air and exercise. He was indeed on his feet for the most of the
+day, but not exerting his muscles; and all taste for the active sports
+in which his kind old master begged him to join seemed to have passed
+away from him when care fell upon him. He tried not to hold his head
+above the young men of his adopted rank, many of whom had been his
+school-fellows; but, except with the members of the choir and choral
+society, he had no common ground, and there were none with whom he
+could form a friendship. Thus he never had any real relaxation, except
+music, and his Sunday walks, besides his evenings with his sisters
+and of play with the children. It was not a natural life for a youth,
+but it seemed to suit with his disposition; for though not given to
+outbursts of animal spirits, he was always full of a certain strong and
+supporting cheerfulness.
+
+Indeed, though they did not like to own it to themselves, the young
+people had left behind them much of the mournfulness of the widowed
+household, which had borne down their youthful spirits; and though the
+three elders could never be as those who had grown up without care
+or grief, yet their sunshine could beam forth once more, and helped
+them through the parting with their best friend. For Mr. Audley's
+sister-in-law died in the beginning of June, and his father entreated
+him to go abroad with his brother, so that he was hurried away directly
+after midsummer, after having left his books in Felix's charge, and
+provided for the reception of the dividends in his absence.
+
+His successor was a quiet amiable young Mr. Bisset, not at all
+disinclined to cultivate Felix as a link with the tradesfolk; only he
+had brought with him a mother, a very nice, prim, gentle-mannered,
+black-eyed lady, who viewed all damsels of small means as perilous to
+her son. Had she been aware that Bexley contained anything so white
+and carnation, so blue-eyed and straight-featured, so stately, and so
+penniless as Wilmet Underwood, he would never have taken the Curacy.
+She was a kind woman, who would have taken infinite pains to serve the
+orphan girls; and she often called on them; but when the Rector's wife
+had told her that such a set had been made at Mr. Audley that he could
+bear it no longer, it was but a natural instinct to cherish her son's
+bashfulness.
+
+That autumn Wilmet came home elevated by the news that the head teacher
+was going to retire at Christmas, and that she was to be promoted to
+her place of forty pounds a year. Her successor was coming immediately
+to be trained, being in fact the daughter of Miss Pearson's sister,
+who had married an officer in the army. She had been dead about three
+years, and the girl had been living in London with her father, now on
+half pay, and had attended a day-school until he married again, and
+finding his means inadequate to his expenses, and his wife and daughter
+by no means comfortable together, he suddenly flitted to Jersey to
+retrench, and made over his daughter of seventeen to her aunts to be
+prepared for governess-ship.
+
+This was the account Miss Pearson and Miss Maria gave to Wilmet, and
+Wilmet repeated to Geraldine, who watched with some interest for the
+first report of the new-comer.
+
+'She is rather a nice-looking little thing,' was the first report, 'but
+I don't know whether we shall get on together.'
+
+The next was, 'Miss Maria has been begging me to try to draw her out.
+They are quite distressed about her, she is so stiff and cold in her
+ways with them, and they think she cries in her own room.'
+
+'Poor thing, how forlorn she must be! Cannot _you_ comfort her, Mettie?'
+
+'She will have nothing to say to me! She is civil and dry, just as she
+is to them.'
+
+'I think she can talk,' said Angela.
+
+'How do you know anything about it, little one?' said Wilmet.
+
+'I heard her talking away to Lizzie Bruce in the arbour at dinner-time.
+Her face looked quite different then from what it does in school.'
+
+'Then I hope she is settling down to be happier,' said Wilmet
+thoughtfully; but, having watched Angela out of hearing, she added,
+'Not that I think Lizzie Bruce a good friend; she is rather a weak
+girl, and is flattered by Carry Price making a distinction between her
+and some of the others.'
+
+'When is Carry Price ever going to leave school?'
+
+'When she can play Mendelssohn well enough to satisfy Mr. Bevan. I
+wonder Lady Price does keep her on here; but in the meantime we can
+only make the best of her.'
+
+A day or two later, Wilmet and Angela came in from school eager,
+indignant, and victorious.
+
+'You _did_ manage it well!' the younger was saying. 'I was so glad
+you saw for yourself.--Just fancy, Cherry, there were Carry Price and
+Lizzie Bruce turning out all the most secret corners of Miss Knevett's
+work-box, laughing at them, and asking horrid impertinent questions,
+and she was almost crying.'
+
+'And you fetched Wilmet?'
+
+'She was sitting out in the garden, showing some of the little ones how
+to do their crochet--it was the play-time after dinner--and I just went
+to her and whispered in her ear, so she strolled quietly by the window.'
+
+'Yes,' added Wilmet, 'and before I came to it, Edith was saying to Jane
+Martin, on purpose for me to hear, that she thought it would be a good
+thing if Miss Underwood would look into the school-room. So Angel was
+not getting into a scrape.'
+
+'I should not have minded if I had,' said Angel; 'it was such a shame,
+and she looks such a dear--'
+
+'There she was,' said Wilmet, 'her fingers shaking, and her eyes full
+of tears, trying to do some work, while Carry Price went on in her
+scoffing voice, laughing over all the little treasures and jewels, and
+asking who gave them to her, and what they cost. All I could do was to
+put my hand on her shoulder and say I saw she did not like it; and then
+Lizzie Bruce looked ashamed, but Miss Price bristled up, and declared
+that Miss Knevett had unlocked the box herself. Then the poor child
+burst out that she had only said she would show her Maltese cross; she
+had never asked them to turn everything out, and meddle with it; and
+Carry tossed her head, just like my Lady, and said, "Oh, very well,
+they did not want to see her trumpery, since she was so cross about
+it. I suppose you mean to show the things one by one to the little
+girls! A fine exhibition!" She cried out, "Exhibit! I don't mean to
+exhibit at all; I only showed it to you as my friend!" Whereupon Carry
+Price flounced off with, "As if I were going to make a friend of an
+underteacher!" and she went into a tremendous fit of crying, like what
+you used to have, Cherry, except that it was more passionate!'
+
+'I'm sure I never had anything like that to cry for. What did you do
+with her? How lucky she had you!'
+
+'Why, when she went on sobbing, "I'll not stay here," "I won't be
+insulted." "I'll tell my aunts," my great object was to get her
+upstairs, and to silence her, for I was sure Miss Pearson would
+dislike nothing so much as having a regular complaint from her about
+Carry; and, besides that, all the girls, who pity her now, would be
+turned against her, and think her a mischief-maker. I did get her up
+at last, and, oh dear! what a scene we had! Poor thing, I suppose she
+has been a spoilt child, going to a lady's fashionable institute, as
+she calls it, where she was a great girl, and rather looked up to, for
+the indulgences she got from her father--very proud, too, of being
+a major's daughter. Then came the step-mother; what things she said
+about her, to be sure! No end of misery, and disputes--whose fault,
+I am sure I don't know; then a crisis of debts. She says it was all
+Mrs. Knevett's extravagance; but Miss Pearson told me before that she
+thought it had been going on a long time; and at last, when the father
+and his wife and her child go off to Jersey, this poor girl is turned
+over to the aunts she never saw since her mother died, twelve years
+ago.'
+
+'I dare say it is the best thing for her.'
+
+'If she can only think so; but she fancies the being a teacher the most
+horrid thing in the world.'
+
+'Oh, Wilmet!' interrupted Angela; 'why, you like teaching: and Robin
+means to be a real governess, and so do I, if I am not a Sister!'
+
+'Me too,' called out Stella.
+
+'But you see this unlucky girl can't understand that teaching may be
+a real way of doing good; she fancies it a degradation. She says she
+and her friends at her institute hated and despised the teachers, and
+played all manner of tricks upon them.'
+
+'How foolish the teachers must have been!'
+
+'She did say something about their being low and mean. She did me the
+favour to say not like me, and that she was quite shocked to find I was
+one of this dreadful race. It was quite amazing to her when I told her
+how Robina's dear Miss Lyveson keeps school without necessity, only
+to be useful. You may imagine what it is to her to be plunged all on
+a sudden into this unhappy class. She began by trying to take her old
+place as an officer's daughter, and to consort with the girls; but I
+think if she and Carry Price were left to one another, she would very
+soon sink as low as any of the poor hounded teachers she describes.'
+
+'She must be very silly and conceited.'
+
+'No, I think she is sensible, and loving too, at the bottom,' said
+Wilmet, 'only every one is strange here: I think she will understand
+better soon; and in the meantime, she has quite forgiven me for being
+a teacher. She clung about me, and called me all sorts of pretty
+names--her only friend, and so forth.'
+
+'Perhaps she can forgive you for being a teacher, in consideration of
+your being a twin,' said Cherry.
+
+'There, Cherry, you understand her better already than I do! I'll bring
+her to you, I have not time for such a friendship.'
+
+'Poor thing! I should like to try to comfort her, if she is strange and
+dreary; but I think she must be rather a goose. What's her name?'
+
+'Alice; but in school Miss Pearson is very particular about having her
+called Miss Knevett. We have exchanged Christian names in private, of
+course.'
+
+'You horrid old prosy thing of four U's,' said Geraldine. 'You are
+sitting up there, you great fair creature, you, for the poor child to
+worship and adore, and not reciprocating a bit!'
+
+'Of course,' said Wilmet, 'if she can't be happy without being petted,
+I must pet her, and let her be nonsensical about me; but I think it is
+all great stuff, and that you will suit her much better than I ever
+shall.'
+
+'Do you never mean to have a friend, Mettie?'
+
+'Oh no, I haven't time; besides, I've got Alda.'
+
+Geraldine had, however, many dreams about the charms of friendship. She
+read of it in the books that Felix selected for her; and Robina had
+a vehement affection for a schoolfellow whose hair and whose _carte_
+she treasured, and to whom she would have written daily during the
+holidays but for the cost of stamps. The equality and freedom of the
+letters she received always made Cherry long for the like. Since Edgar
+had left her, she had never been on those equal terms with any one;
+Wilmet was more like mother or aunt than sister; and though Felix had
+a certain air of confidence and ease when with her, and made her his
+chief playfellow, he could not meet all her tastes or all her needs;
+and there was a sort of craving within her for intimacy with a creature
+of her own species.
+
+And though Wilmet's description of Alice Knevett did not sound
+particularly wise, Cherry, in her humility, deemed her the more secure
+of being on her own level, not so sensible and intolerant of little
+dreams, fancies, and delusions as those two sensible people, the twin
+sisters. So she watched impatiently for the introduction; and at last
+Wilmet said, 'Well, she is coming to tea to-morrow evening. Little
+ridiculous chit, she bridled and doubted, but as you were an invalid,
+she supposed she might, only it was not what she had been used to, and
+Papa "might object."'
+
+'What? To the shop? Well, I really think she had better not come! I'll
+have nobody here that thinks it a favour, and looks down on Felix.'
+
+'My dear, if she contrives to look down on Felix after she has seen
+him, she will deserve anything you please. Just now, I believe the
+foolishness is in her school, and not in herself.'
+
+Nevertheless, Geraldine's eagerness underwent a great revulsion.
+Instead of looking forward to the visit, she expected it with dread,
+and dislike to the pert, conceited, flippant Londoner, who despised her
+noble brother, and aspired to the notice of Carry Price. Her nervous
+shrinking from strangers--the effect of her secluded life--increased on
+her every moment of that dull wet afternoon; her feet grew cold, her
+cheeks hot, and she could hardly find temper or patience for the many
+appeals of Bernard and Stella for her attention.
+
+Her foolish little heart was palpitating as if a house-breaker were
+entering instead of Wilmet, conducting a dainty cloud of fresh lilac
+muslin, out of which appeared a shining black head, and a smiling
+sparkling face, with so much life and play about the mouth and eyes
+that there was no studying their form or colour, and it was only after
+a certain effort that it could be realised that Alice Knevett was a
+glowing brunette, with a saucy little nose, _retroussé_, though very
+pretty, a tiny mouth full of small pearls, and eyes of black diamond.
+
+In spite of her gracious manner, and evident consciousness of her own
+condescension, the winsomeness of the dancing eyes fascinated Cherry at
+once. Indeed, the simplicity and transparency of her little dignities
+disarmed all displeasure, they were so childish; and they vanished in a
+moment in a game at play with Bernard and Stella. When Wilmet brought
+out Geraldine's portfolio, her admiration was enthusiastic if not
+critical.
+
+A sketch of Wilmet and Alda enchanted her; she had never seen anything
+so lovely or so well done.
+
+'No, no,' said Cherry, rather shocked, 'you must have seen the Royal
+Academy.'
+
+'Oh, but I am sure this ought to be in the Royal Academy; I never saw
+anything there that I liked half so much. How clever you must be!'
+
+Cherry could not but laugh at the extravagant compliment. 'My brother
+Edgar draws much better than that,' she said, producing a capital
+water-colour of a group of Flemish market-women.
+
+'I shall always like yours best. Oh! and what is this?'
+
+'I did not know it was there,' said Cherry, colouring, and trying to
+take it away.
+
+'Oh, let me look. What! Is it a storm, or a regatta, or fishing boats?
+What is that odd light? What is written under? "The waves of this
+troublesome world." Why, that is in the Bible, is not it?'
+
+'Thirteen boats, Cherry,' said Wilmet; 'is that a device of your own?'
+
+'What, not copied? Oh dear! I wish I was so clever!'
+
+'It is the sea of this life, isn't it?' said Angela, coming up. 'Is it
+ourselves, Cherry, all making for the golden light of Heaven, and the
+star of faith guiding them?'
+
+'She reads it like a book,' exclaimed Alice. 'And those two close
+together--that means love, I suppose!'
+
+'Love and help, the weak and the strong,' said Geraldine, in her
+earnest dreamy voice.
+
+'Do pray make a picture of my boat on a nice smooth sea of light; I
+don't like rocks and breakers, such as you have done there.'
+
+'There always must be a last long wave,' said Cherry.
+
+'Oh, but don't let us think about horrid things. I like the summer sea.
+Aren't there some verses--
+
+     '"Youth at the prow, and pleasure at the helm?"'
+
+'That would not be a pleasant augury,' said Cherry. 'Do you know what
+this is meant for, bad as it is? Longfellow's verses--'
+
+'The phantom host that beleaguered the walls of Prague? How can you
+draw such things?'
+
+'So I say,' observed Wilmet.
+
+'They come and haunt me, and I feel as if I must.'
+
+'Who is this kneeling on the wall? He looks like a knight watching his
+armour.'
+
+'So he is,' said Cherry.
+
+'But there is nothing about him in the poem. Did you make him for
+yourself?'
+
+'Why, he is Ferdinand Travis!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'What, is it a real man? I thought it was somebody in a story.'
+
+'I see!' said Angela quietly. 'He is watching his armour the night
+before he was baptized.'
+
+For the child had never forgotten the adult baptism, though she had
+been little more than four years old at the time; but she was one of
+those little ones to whom allegory seems a natural element, with which
+they have more affinity than with the material world.
+
+However, the mention of Ferdinand Travis led to the history of the fire
+at the hotel, and of his recovery; Alice declared that 'everything
+nice' seemed to happen at Bexley, and was laughed at for her peculiar
+ideas of niceness; but there was something in the feminine prattle
+that was wonderfully new and charming to Geraldine, while, on the
+other hand, the visitor was conscious of a stimulus and charm that she
+had never previously experienced; and the eager tongues never flagged
+till Felix came in. He had evidently taken pains with his toilette,
+in honour of the unusual event; and the measured grave politeness of
+his manners renewed Alice's scared punctilious dignity of demeanour,
+and entire consciousness that she was a major's daughter and he a
+bookseller.
+
+But Felix had brought in some exciting Eastern news; and Alice put on
+an _air capable_, as one connected with India and the army, but she
+soon found out the deficiency of her geography, and was grateful for
+the full clear explanations, while her _amour propre_ was gratified
+by finding that her familiarity with a few Indian terms was valuable.
+Before the end of the evening all were at ease, and she was singing
+with Felix and Wilmet at the old piano.
+
+No sooner had the door shut on her when the maid came to fetch her,
+than a storm fell on Wilmet.
+
+'So that's what you call rather nice-looking?'
+
+'Well, she is under-sized and very brown, but I did think you would
+have allowed that she was rather pretty.'
+
+'Rather!' exclaimed Cherry indignantly.
+
+'That's what it is to be a handsome woman!' said Felix.
+
+'Do you mean to say that you think her anything remarkable?' said
+Wilmet.
+
+'Say no more, my dear W. W.,' laughed Felix. 'I never understood
+before why negroes don't admire white people.'
+
+'I am sure I don't know what you are talking about,' said Wilmet,
+betaking herself to her darning with great good-humour. 'Alice Knevett
+is prettier than I thought she was when she was all tears and airs; but
+I can't see any remarkable beauty to rave about.'
+
+'No, _you_ can't,' said Geraldine merrily. 'You look much too high over
+her head, but you see I don't; and such a little sparkling diamond
+beetle is a real treat to me.'
+
+And Geraldine often enjoyed the treat.
+
+In a very short time the green door and steep stairs were as familiar
+to Alice as to the Underwoods themselves; for her aunts were thankful
+to have her happy and safe, and she was rapturously fond of Geraldine,
+reflecting and responding to most of her sentiments. Most of the
+Underwoods had the faculty of imprinting themselves upon the characters
+of their friends, by taking it for granted that they felt alike; and
+Alice Knevett had not spent six weeks at Bexley before she had come
+to think it incredible that she had thought either teaching or the
+Underwoods beneath her. She was taking pains to do her work well,
+and enjoying it, and was being moulded into a capital subordinate
+to Wilmet; while with Geraldine she read and talked over her books,
+obtained illustrations for the poetry she wrote out in her album,
+and brought in a wholesome air of chatter, which made Cherry much
+more girl-like than she had ever been before. It was an importation
+of something external, something lively and interesting, which was
+very refreshing to all; and even Felix, in his grave politeness and
+attention to his sister's friend, manifested that so far from being in
+his way, as they had feared, he found her a very agreeable element when
+she joined the home party or the Sunday walk.
+
+Indeed, there was a certain tendency to expansion about the life of the
+young people; the pinch of poverty was less griping than previously,
+and their natural spirits rose. In January Lance was allowed to bring
+his friend Harewood to a concert of the choral society; and on the
+following evening Alice Knevett came to tea, and there was a series of
+wonderful charades, chiefly got up by Clement and Robina, and of comic
+songs by Lance and Bill Harewood--all with such success, that Alice
+declared that she had never seen anything so delightful in all her
+experience of London Christmases!
+
+The young people really seemed to have recovered elasticity enough that
+year to think of modest treats and holidays as they had never ventured
+to do since that memorable sixteenth birth-day of Felix's. Here was
+his twenty-first not very far off; and when it was announced that this
+identical 3rd of July had been fixed on for a grand choral meeting
+at the Cathedral, at which the choir of Bexley was to assist, there
+was such a spirit of enterprise abroad in the family, that Geraldine
+suggested that Wilmet might take Robina to see the Cathedral and hear
+Lance.
+
+'Lance will be just what will not be heard,' said Felix. 'They will
+not show off their solos; but the Robin ought to have the pleasure, if
+possible; and as I go in two capacities, press and choir, I hope we can
+manage it for her.'
+
+He came in full early for the evening. 'All right,' he said. 'Two
+tickets are come for the Pursuivant, and Mr. Froggatt says he would not
+go at any price; and besides, each of the choir may take a friend--so
+that's three.'
+
+'Am I to be reporter or friend?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'Reporter, I think, for you will have to do audience.'
+
+'Nay, Cherry ought to be the gentleman connected with the press,' said
+Wilmet, for in fact Geraldine did sometimes do copying and correcting
+work for her brother; 'and, indeed, I do not see why she should not. We
+could go home directly after morning service, and leave you there.'
+
+'Oh no, impossible,' said Geraldine, 'it would never do; it would only
+spoil everybody's pleasure, and be too much for me.'
+
+'I think you are wise,' said Felix; and somehow it struck her with a
+prick that he had rather the proposal had not been made. 'There is sure
+to be a great crush, and I may be obliged to be with the choir.'
+
+'I am quite able to take care of her, I can always lift her,' said
+Wilmet, surprised.
+
+'I would not go on any account,' protested Cherry. 'I should be like
+the old woman in that Servian proverb, who paid five dollars to go to
+the fair, and would have paid ten to be safe at home again.'
+
+'There might be no getting a bench fit for you to sit upon,' added
+Felix, who, as a gentleman of the press, was not devoid of experience.
+'I could not be easy about you, my dear; it is much safer not.'
+
+'Perhaps so,' owned Wilmet, disappointed; 'but Angel is too little for
+such a long day, and Cherry is so much stronger, that I thought--'
+
+'Oh, but could not Alice Knevett go?' put in Cherry.
+
+'A very good suggestion,' said Felix. 'She hardly ever has any
+amusements. Well thought of, White-heart!'
+
+I believe he thought of it from the first, felt Geraldine, angry with
+herself that this conviction gave a prick like the point of a needle.
+She threw her energies into the scheme, and was begging Wilmet to go
+and make the proposal, when there was a sudden peal of the bell, a
+headlong trampling rush, a dash open of the door--Theodore began to hum
+the anthem 'How beautiful,' the other three small ones hailed 'Lance'
+at the top of their voices, and his arms were round the neck of the
+first sister who came in his way.
+
+'What, Lance! how came you here?'
+
+'Our organ is tuning up its pipes--man comes to-morrow--Prayers in the
+Lady Chapel and not choral, and it's a holiday at school, so I got
+off by the 5.20, and need not go back till the 6.10 to-morrow. We are
+practising our throats out to lead you all on the 3rd. You know you are
+coming, the whole kit of you.'
+
+'Do we?' said Wilmet. 'It is only for the last ten minutes that we have
+known that any of us were coming.'
+
+'All right; that's what I'm come about. Robina must be got home.'
+
+'She will be come. She comes on the 1st.'
+
+'That's right; then there's to be a great spread in Bishop's Meads
+between services. Everybody sends provisions, and asks their friends;
+but Cherry is to go and rest at the Harewoods'. The governor will get
+her in through the library into the north transept as quiet as a lamb,
+no squash at all. It is only along the cloister--a hop, step, and jump;
+and Miles has promised me the snuggest little seat for her. Then the
+Harewood sofa--'
+
+'It is too much, Lance,' began Cherry. 'Mrs. Harewood--'
+
+'Don't be absurd; she wishes it with all her heart. She won't want a
+ticket if Mr. Harewood smuggles her in, but I can get as many as you
+want. How many--Wilmet, Cherry, Robin, Angel, and Miss Knevett. She'll
+come, won't she?'
+
+'We were thinking of going to ask her.'
+
+'I'll do it; I've brought my own ticket for a friend for her; here it
+is, with L. O. U. in the corner. I'll run down with it before any one
+else cuts in.'
+
+'Hold hard,' said Felix; 'we shall not get her if you set about it in
+that wild way!'
+
+'Oh, but I'll promise Wilmet shall take her in tow, and if anything
+will pacify the old girls, that will.'
+
+'You had better let me come with you,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Look sharp then. Is it a practising night? Yes, that's well; Miles is
+in a state of mind at the short notice, and has crammed me choke-full
+of messages; he says it will save his coming down; come along, then, W.
+W., and soft-sawder the venerable aunts.'
+
+No more of this operation was necessary than the assurance that
+Miss Underwood was going, and that Mrs. Harewood would be a sort of
+chaperon. Alice Knevett was happy and grateful; and if anything were
+wanting to the universal enthusiasm of anticipation, it was supplied
+by Lance. The boy, with his musical talent, thorough trustworthiness
+and frank joyous manners, was a favourite with the organist, and was
+well versed in the programme; and his eagerness, and fulness of detail,
+were enough to infect every one. Geraldine thought it was great proof
+of his unspoilableness, that he took quite as much pleasure in bringing
+them to these services, where he would be but a unit in the hundreds,
+as if it had been one of the anthems, of which every one said, 'Have
+you heard little Underwood?' In the charm of the general welcome
+and the congratulation on Lance's arrangement, Geraldine had quite
+forgotten both her alarms and her tiny pang of surprise at not having
+been Felix's prime thought. Lance, by dint of a judicious mixture of
+hectoring and coaxing, obtained leave for Angela to be of the party,
+though against Wilmet's judgment; and Bernard and Stella were to spend
+the day with Mrs. Froggatt, which they regarded as an expedition quite
+as magnificent as that to St. Mary's Minster.
+
+Mr. Froggatt was almost as eager about this pleasure for 'his young
+people,' as he called them, as they could be. He came in early to drive
+Geraldine to the station, and looked with grandfatherly complacency at
+the four sisters, who had ventured on the extravagance of white piqué
+and black ribbons, and in their freshness looked as well-dressed as any
+lady in the land.
+
+He entertained Cherry all the way with his admiration of Wilmet's
+beauty and industry, and when arrived at the station, waited there with
+her till first the three girls came up with Alice Knevett, white with
+pink ribbons, and then the choir arrived, marching with the banner
+with the rood of St. Oswald before them, each with a blue satin bow
+in his button-hole, and the bag with his surplice under his arm, the
+organist, the schoolmaster, and the two curates, bringing up the rear.
+Mr. Bevan, my Lady, and Miss Price, whirled up in the carriage, the
+omnibus discharged the friends of the choir, and two waggon loads of
+musical talent from the villages came lumbering and cheering in! The
+very train roared and shrieked in with a sound of cheering from its
+vertebrć, and banners were projecting from the windows, amid nodding
+heads and waving handkerchiefs of all colours; the porters ran about
+distracted; and Geraldine began to be alarmed, and to think of the old
+woman of Servia, but behold, Felix had her on one side, Mr. Froggatt on
+the other, a solid guard held open the door, and protected her from the
+rush, and before she well knew what they were doing with her, she was
+lying on the seat of the carriage, with her sisters and Alice all in a
+row in front of her; the recently crowded platform was empty of all but
+a stray porter, the stationmaster, and Mr. Froggatt kissing his hand,
+and promising to come and fetch her on her return.
+
+The train seemed hardly to have attained its full speed before it
+slackened again, and another merry load was disposed of within its
+joints. Another start, another arrival; and before the motion was over,
+a flash of sunny looks had glanced before the sisters' eyes. There was
+Lance, perfectly radiant, under his square trencher cap--hair, eyes,
+cheeks, blue bow, boots, and all, seeming to sparkle with delight as he
+snatched open the door. 'Hurrah! there they are. Give her out to me,
+Wilmet!' (as if she had been a parcel).
+
+'Stay, wait for Felix. You can't---'
+
+Felix rushed up from his colleagues of the choir, and Geraldine was set
+on her foot and crutch. 'Come along! I've got Ball's chair for you, and
+Bill Harewood is sitting in it for fear any one should bone it. Where's
+your ticket?'
+
+'Lance, take care! Don't take her faster than she can go!' as he
+whisked her over the platform; and Wilmet was impeded by the seeking
+for Alice's parasol and Angela's cloak. They were quite out of sight
+when Lance had dragged Cherry through the crowd at the door, and
+brought her to the wheeled chair just in time to find Bill Harewood
+glaring out of it like the red planet Mars, and asseverating that he
+_was_ the lame young lady it was hired for.
+
+In went Geraldine, imploring to wait for Wilmet, but all in vain; off
+went the chair, owner and escort alike in haste, and she was swept
+along, with Lance and Will with a hand holding either side of the
+chair, imparting breathless scraps of information, and exchanging
+remarks: 'There goes the Archdeacon.' 'The Thorpe choir is not come,
+and Miles is mad about it.' 'That's the Town Hall.' 'There's where Jack
+licked a cad for bullying.' 'There's a cannon-ball of Oliver Cromwell's
+sticking out of that wall.' 'That's the only shop fit to get gingerbeer
+at!' 'That old horse in that cab was in the Crimea.' 'We come last in
+the procession, and if you see a fellow like a sheep in spectacles,
+that's Shapcote.' 'Hurrah! what a stunning lot! where is it from?'
+'Bembury? My eyes, if that big fellow doesn't mean to bawl us all down.
+Down that way--that's the palace. Whose carriage is it stopping there?
+Now, here's the Close.'
+
+'Is that the Cathedral? Oh!'
+
+'You may well say so! No, not that way.' And on rattled poor amazed
+Geraldine through an archway, under some lime trees, round a corner,
+round another corner, to another arched doorway, with big doors studded
+with nails, with a little door for use cut out of one of the big ones.
+
+'You must get out here,' said Lance, 'we are close by,' and he helped
+her out, and paid and thanked the man with the chair. 'Here's our
+domain,' he continued, as he introduced Cherry through the open doorway
+into a small flagged court, with two houses, grey and old-fashioned,
+forming one side, and on the other an equally old long low building
+with narrow latticed arched windows. Opposite to the entrance was a
+handsome buttressed Gothic-looking edifice, behind which rose the gable
+of the north transept of the Cathedral, beautiful with a rose window,
+and farther back, far, far above, the noble tower.
+
+Already everything was very wonderful to Geraldine. 'That's our
+kennel,' said Lance, pointing to the low buildings to the right.
+'School's behind; but we boarders are put up in one of the old monks'
+dormitories, between court and cloister.'
+
+'Is it really?' exclaimed Geraldine.
+
+'So my father says,' said Will. 'Here's our door.' Another stone-arched
+passage, almost dark, with doors opening on either side, seemed common
+to both houses; and Will was inviting them to enter, but Lance held
+back. 'No time,' he said; 'better call your father.'
+
+'The others,' sighed Geraldine.
+
+'Bother the others! That's right: here he is!'
+
+'Halloo, Father!' cried Will; 'we've got Cherry.'
+
+'By which unceremonious designation I imagine you to mean to introduce
+Miss Underwood,' said a figure, appearing from beneath the archway,
+in trencher cap, surplice, and hood, with white hair, and a sort
+of precision and blandness that did not at all agree with Cherry's
+preconceived notions of the Harewood household. 'I am very glad to
+see you. My ladies, as usual, are unready. Will you have a glass of
+wine? No?--What do you say, Lancelot?--Very well, we will take you in
+at once. You will not object to waiting there, and this is the quiet
+time.--Boys, you ought to be with the choir.'
+
+'Oceans of time, Dad,' coolly answered Will; 'none of the fellows up
+there are under weigh.'
+
+Mr. Harewood offered his arm, but perceived that Cherry preferred Lance
+and her crutch; advancing to the door opposite that by which they had
+entered, he unlocked it, and Geraldine found herself passing through a
+beauteous old lofty chamber, with a groined Tudor roof, all fans, and
+pendants, and shields; tall windows stained with armorial bearings,
+parchment charters and blazoned genealogies against the walls, and
+screens upon screens loaded with tomes of all ages, writing-tables and
+chairs here and there, and glass-topped tables containing illuminations
+and seals. 'Here is my paradise,' said the librarian, smiling.
+
+'I think it must be,' said Geraldine, with a long breath of wonder and
+admiration.
+
+'Ah! would you not like to have a good look, Cherry?' said Lance.
+'That's Richard Coeur de Lion's seal in there.'
+
+'Don't begin about it--don't set him on,' whispered Willie, with a
+sign of his head towards his father, who was fitting the key into the
+opposite door, 'or we shall all stay here for the rest of the day.'
+
+This low door open, Mr. Harewood and the boys bared their heads as they
+entered, and Geraldine felt the strange solemn sensation of finding
+herself in a building of vast height and majesty, full of a wonderful
+stillness, as though the confusion of sounds she had been in so
+recently were far, far off.
+
+'Where now, Lancelot?' asked Mr. Harewood, in a hushed voice; 'do you
+want me any further?'
+
+'No, thank you, sir; I'll just take her across the choir to Mr. Miles,
+and then join the rest of us at the vestry.'
+
+'Good-bye for the present, then,' said Mr. Harewood kindly. 'You are in
+safe hands. Your brother comes round every one. _I_ could not do this.'
+
+Through the side-screen, into the grandly beautiful choir, arching high
+above, with stall-work and graceful canopies below, and rich glass
+casting down beams of coloured light--all for 'glory and for beauty,'
+thought Geraldine.
+
+'You must not stop; you must look when you are settled. That's my
+side,' pointing to one of the choristers' desks. 'It will be only we
+that sing in here; the congregation is in the nave--a perfect sea
+of chairs. I'll come for you when it is over. Here is Mr. Miles. My
+sister, sir.'
+
+A pale gentleman in spectacles, with a surplice and beautiful blue
+hood, was here addressed. He too greeted Geraldine, very shyly but
+kindly, and she found herself expected to ascend some alarming-looking
+stone steps. The organ was on the choir-screen, and to the organist's
+little private gallery was she to ascend. It was a difficult matter,
+and she had in her trepidation despairingly recognised the difference
+between Lance's good will and Felix's practised strength; but at last
+she was landed in an admirable little cushioned nook, hidden by two
+tall painted carved canopies--exactly over the Dean's head, her brother
+told her--and where, as she sat sideways, she could see through the
+quatrefoils into the choir on the right hand, and the nave on the left.
+'Delightful! Oh, thank you; how kind! If I am only not keeping any one
+out.'
+
+'No,' said Lance, smiling, and whispering lower than ever, 'he has no
+one belonging to him. He hates women. Never a petticoat was here before
+in his reign. Have you a book?'
+
+'They are robing, Underwood,' said the misogynist in the organ-loft;
+and Lance hurried away, leaving Geraldine alone, palpitating a good
+deal, but almost enjoying the solitude, in the vast structure, where
+the sanctity of a thousand years of worship seemed to fill the very
+air, as she gazed at the white vaultings and bosses carved with emblems
+above, at the vista of clustered columns terminating in the great
+jewelled west window, or at the crown-like loveliness that encompassed
+the sanctuary. All was still, except a deep low tone of the organ now
+and then. Mr. Miles looked in after the first, to hope she did not
+_feel_ it uncomfortably, and to assure her that though she was too near
+his organ, she need not fear its putting forth its full powers; it
+was to be kept in subordination, and only guide the voices. This was
+great attention from a woman-hater, and Geraldine ventured to reiterate
+her thanks; at which he smiled, and said, 'When one has such a boy as
+your brother, there is pleasure in doing anything he wishes. You are
+musical?'
+
+'I never was able to learn to play.'
+
+'But you can read music?'
+
+'Oh yes,' for she had often copied it.
+
+So he brought her whole sheets of music, and put her in the way of
+following and understanding, perceiving, as he went, that she was full
+of intelligence and perception.
+
+When he went back to his post, a few groups, looking very small, were
+creeping in by transept doors--by favour, like herself: then a little
+white figure flitted across to the desks, opened and marked the books,
+took up something, and disappeared; and in another moment Lance, in his
+broad white folds, was at her side. 'Here's the music. Oh, you have it!
+I've seen Fee,' he whispered; 'they are at Mrs. Harewood's, all right!'
+and he was gone.
+
+Here she sat, her attention divided between the sacred impressions of
+the place, its exceeding beauty, and the advance of the multitude into
+the nave, as the doors were open, and they surged up the space left in
+the central aisle, and occupied the ranks of chairs prepared for them.
+Then came a long pause; she scanned each row in search of her sisters,
+and only was confused by the host of heads; felt lost and lonely, and
+turned her eyes and mind to the silent grandeur to the east, rather
+than the throng to the west.
+
+At last there came the sweet floating sound of the chant, growing in
+power like the ocean swell as it approached, and the first bright
+banner appeared beneath the lofty pointed archway; and the double white
+file came flowing on like a snowy glacier, the chant becoming clear
+and high as the singers of each parish marched along to their places,
+each ranked under a bright banner with the symbol of their church's
+dedication. St. Oswald's rood helped Geraldine to make out that of
+Bexley better than their faces, though she did make out her eldest
+brother's fair face, and trace him to his seat. The cathedral singers
+came at last, and that kenspeckle red head of Will Harewood's directed
+her to the less conspicuous locks belonging to Lance, whose own clear
+thrush-like note she could catch as he passed beneath the screen. Then
+came the long train of parish clergy, the canons, the Dean, and lastly
+the Bishop, the sight of whom recalled so much.
+
+The unsurpliced contribution had meantime been ushered in by the side
+doors, and filled seats in the rear of the others, so as to add their
+voices without marring the general effect--the perfection of which
+Geraldine enjoyed--of the white-robed multitude that seemed to fill the
+whole chancel.
+
+The sight seemed to inspire her whole soul with a strange yearning joy,
+as though she were beholding a faint earthly reflex of the great vision
+of the Beloved Disciple; and far more was it so at the sound, which
+realised in a measure the words, 'As the voice of mighty waters, and as
+the voice of thunder.'
+
+These were the very words that had been selected for the Second Lesson,
+and the First consisted of those verses in which we hear of David's
+commencement of the continual chant of psalms at the sanctuary; and
+both, unwonted as they were, gave a wonderful thrill to the audience,
+as though opening to them a new comprehension of their office as
+singers of the sanctuary.
+
+There is no need to dwell on the wonderful and touching exhilaration
+derived from the harmony of vast numbers with one voice attuned to
+praise. It is a sensation which is so nearly a foretaste of eternity,
+that participation alone can give the most distant perception thereof.
+To the entirely unprepared and highly sensitive Geraldine it was most
+overpowering, all the more because she was entirely out of sight, and
+without power of taking part by either gesture or posture--she was
+passive and had no vent for her emotion.
+
+Lance, who made his way to her round through the transept the moment
+he had disrobed, found her pale, panting, tearful, and trembling, with
+burning cheeks, so that his exaltation turned to alarm. 'Are you done
+up, Cherry? It is too hot up here? I'll try to find Felix or Wilmet,
+which?'
+
+'Neither! I am quite well, only--O Lance, I did not know anything could
+be so heavenly. There seemed to be the sweeping of angels' wings all
+round and over me, and Papa's voice quite clear.'
+
+'I know,' said Lance; 'it always does come in that Te Deum.'
+
+The sister and brother were silent, not yet able for the critical
+discussion of single points; only, as he put his arm round her to help
+her to rise, she said, with a sigh, 'O Lance, it is a great thing to
+be one of them! Thank you. I think this is the greatest day of all my
+life.'
+
+The getting her down, what with Lance's inexperience and want of
+height and strength, was anxious work; and just as it had been safely
+accomplished, the rest of their party were seen roaming the aisle in
+distress and perplexity. Geraldine was very glad of Felix's substantial
+arm, but she had rather he had omitted that rebuke for venturesomeness
+in dealing with her, which would have affronted Fulbert, but never
+seemed to trouble Lance, who was only triumphant in his success; and
+her perfect contentment charmed away the vexation which really arose
+from a slight sense of having neglected her.
+
+The others had been perfectly happy in their several ways, and made
+eager comments on their way to the house of Harewood, whither Lance
+piloted them--this time by the front way, through the garden, which
+lay behind the close--entering, in spite of the mannerly demurs of the
+elder ones, through the open door, into a hall whence a voice of hearty
+greeting at once ensued. 'Here you are at last; and how's the poor
+darling your sister? not over-tired?'
+
+And Cherry, before she was aware, found herself kissed, and almost
+snatched away from Felix, to be deposited on a sofa; and while the like
+kisses were bestowed on the two little girls, and hospitable offers
+showered on all, she was amused by perceiving that good Mrs. Harewood
+was endowed with exactly the same grotesque order of ugliness as her
+son William; but she was even more engaging, from an indescribably
+droll mixture of heedlessness, blundering, and tender motherliness.
+
+'There, now, you'll just leave her to me, the poor dear; and Lance will
+take you down to the Mead, and find Papa and the girls for you.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, I could not think of your staying. Now pray--'
+
+'Now prays' were to no purpose; Mrs. Harewood professed only to want an
+excuse for staying at home--she did not want to be done up with running
+after her girls to the four ends of the Mead, when it was a long step
+for her to begin with. Off with them.
+
+So when Wilmet was satisfied that Geraldine was comfortable, the five
+moved off--Felix and Alice, Angel in Wilmet's hand, and Lance's and
+Robina's tongues wagging so fast that the wonder was how either caught
+a word of what the other was saying.
+
+Meanwhile, Mrs. Harewood, tossing her bonnet and gloves aside, in
+perfect indifference to the exposure of the curious structure of
+red and grey hair she thus revealed, lavished meats and drinks upon
+her guest, waiting on her with such kindness, that in spite of all
+weariness and craving for quiet after these deep and wonderful
+impressions, it was impossible not to enjoy that warmth of heart.
+There was exactly the tender motherliness that even Wilmet and Sister
+Constance could not give.
+
+It was charming to hear how fond Mrs. Harewood was of Lance, and how
+the having such a companion had made it possible to keep her Willie
+at the cathedral school, where the mixture of lads was great, but the
+master first-rate. He thought highly of the promise of both; 'but, to
+tell the truth,' said Mrs. Harewood, as she sat and fanned herself with
+her husband's trencher cap, looking more than ever like a frog in a
+strawberry bed, 'though my Willie is the cleverest boy in the school,
+little good his cleverness would have done him, and he would have been
+harum-scarum Bill more than ever, if it were not for Lance. So say his
+father and brother Jack; so that they will not be for his going to a
+public school unless Lance were sure of it too.'
+
+'Will not they be able to stay on here?'
+
+Mrs. Harewood explained that the year that the barristers--choristers
+she meant--were sixteen, when their voices were usually unserviceable,
+they, together with those of like age in the school, were subjected to
+an examination, and the foremost scholar obtained an exhibition, in
+virtue of which he could remain free of expense for another two years,
+and then could try for one of the Minsterham scholarships at one of the
+colleges at Cambridge. Those who failed, either had to pay like the
+ordinary schoolboys, or left the school.
+
+Dear Mrs. Harewood was a perfect Malaprop, and puzzled Geraldine by
+continually calling the present occasion the rural meeting, and other
+like slips, uncommonly comical in a well-educated woman with the words
+she knew best.
+
+All this, and a great deal more--about the shy woman-hating organist,
+and the unluckiness of the dissenter--no, precentor--having a sick
+wife, and the legal difficulties that prevented building a better house
+for the boarders than the queer long room where they lodged, between
+the cloister and the Bailey--the proper name of the little court by
+which Geraldine had come--was poured out; and kind as it was, there was
+a certain sense of having been talked to death.
+
+A whole flood of Harewoods, Underwoods, and untold numbers besides,
+swept into the room as the bell began to ring for Evensong. Most
+sincere were Cherry's entreaties that she might be left alone. She
+could not go back to her coign of vantage, 'it had been too beautiful
+for her to bear more,' she said; and she severally declined offers of
+companionship from three female Harewoods and two sisters, telling
+Wilmet at last that all she wanted was to be still and alone.
+
+Alone she was, but not still, for there was nothing to hinder the
+magnificent volume of sound that surged around the Cathedral from
+coming to her; and she could trace the service all along--in chant,
+pealing mighty Amens, with the hush between, in anthem, and in jubilant
+hymn. She was more calmly happy than in the oppressive grandeur of the
+morning, as she lay there, in the cool drawing-room, with the open
+window veiled by loose sprays of untrimmed roses, and sacred prints
+looking down from the walls.
+
+The solitude lasted rather too long, when she had heard the hum and
+buzz of the host pouring out of the Cathedral, and still no one came.
+They were to go home by the 5.10 train, and every time she counted the
+chimes she became more alarmed lest they should be too late. Minutes
+dragged on. Five! It was five! Was she forgotten? Should she be only
+missed and remembered at the station, too late? Tired, nervous, unused
+to oblivion, she found tears in her eyes, and was too sorrowful and
+angry with her own impatience even to think of the old woman of Servia.
+Hark! a trampling? Had they remembered her? But oh, it would be late
+for the train!
+
+In burst Lance, in his cap and little short quaint black gown.
+
+'O Lance, I shall be too late!'
+
+'You don't go by this train.'
+
+'Oh dear! oh dear! Mr. Froggatt was to meet me;' and the tears started
+from her eyes. 'How could Felix forget?'
+
+'Never mind, there's sure to be a fly or something.'
+
+'Yes, but Mr. Froggatt waiting!'
+
+'Never mind,' repeated Lance, ''tis a fine evening to air the old boss.'
+
+'Don't, Lance; you none of you have any proper regard for Mr.
+Froggatt;' which, as far as Lance was concerned, was unjust, and it was
+well for Cherry that it was not addressed to either of the brothers who
+better deserved it.
+
+What Lance did was to execute one of his peculiar summersaults, and
+then, making up a dismal face, to say, 'Alas! I commiserate the
+venerable citizen disappointed of the pleasure of driving my Lady
+Geraldine home from the wash as well as hisself.'
+
+She was past even appreciating the bathos. 'It is no laughing matter,'
+she said; 'it is so uncivil, when he is so kind. I can't imagine what
+Felix is thinking of?'
+
+'Croquet,' said Lance briefly; then seeing the flushed, quivering,
+mortified face, he added, 'Wilmet has not forgotten you one bit,
+Cherry; but Alice Knevett and Robin did so want to see the fun in the
+mead--there's running in sacks, and all sorts of games--that there's no
+getting any one away; and the W's are in charge, and can't leave them
+to their own devices, so she said perhaps you would be more rested by
+lying still than rattling home.'
+
+'Oh, I dare say Wilmet is as sorry as anybody,' said Cherry rather
+querulously, for the needle point was pricking her again.
+
+'And as to your dear old Froggy,' continued Lance, 'she says he told
+her he did not in the least expect you back by this train, and if you
+did not come by it, he'll stay in town for the 8.50.'
+
+'How very good of him!' said Cherry, beginning to be consoled. 'And
+Felix at croquet!'
+
+'Alice is teaching him. You never did see such a joke as old
+Blunderbore screwing up his eyes at the balls, and making at them with
+his mallet like a sledge-hammer. He and Alice and Robin and that Bisset
+curate are playing against Bill, two of the girls, and Shapcote--Bexley
+against Minsterham; and little Bobbie's a real out-and-outer. She'll
+make her side win by sheer cool generalship.'
+
+'And poor little Angel?' The needle point was a pang now.
+
+'Oh, Angel is happier than ever she was in her life. The Bishop's
+daughter has a turn for little kids, and has got all the small ones
+together in the pleached alley, playing at all manner of things.'
+
+'Run back, Lance, to the fun. I shall do very well,' said poor
+Geraldine.
+
+'I should think so, when I get you so often!' scornfully ejaculated
+Lancelot, drawing a dilapidated brioche from under the sofa, and
+squatting on it, with his dancing eyes close to her sad ones.
+
+An effusion of spirits prompted her to lay her hands on his shoulders,
+kiss him on each cheek, and cry, 'O Lance, you are the very sweetest
+boy!'
+
+'Sweetest treble, you mean,' said Lance quaintly; 'if you had only
+heard me! You should see how the old ladies in the stalls peep and
+whisper, and how Bill Harewood opens his mouth rather wider than it
+will go, and they think it is he.'
+
+'Not for fun, Lance?'
+
+'Well, I believe all their jaws are hung on looser than other people's.
+But I say, ain't you dying of thirst?'
+
+'Perhaps Mrs. Harewood will give us some tea when she comes in.'
+
+'If you trust to that--'
+
+'O Lance!' she cried, alarmed at seeing him coolly ring the bell.
+
+'Bless you, she's forgotten all about you and tea and everything! They
+are drinking it by the gallon in the tents; and by and by she'll roll
+in, ready to cry that you've had none, and mad with herself and me for
+giving you none; and the fire will be out, and the kettle will boil
+about ten minutes after you are off by the train. We'll have some this
+minute.'
+
+'But, Lance--'
+
+'But, Cherry, ain't I a walking Sahara with roaring at the tip-top of
+my voice to lead the clod-hoppers? How they did bellow! I owe it as a
+duty to the Chapter to wet my whistle.'
+
+'One comfort is, nobody knows your coolness. Nobody comes for all your
+ringing.'
+
+'Reason good! Every living soul in the house is in the Bishop's meadow,
+barring the old cat; I _seen_ 'em with their cap-strings flying. But
+that's nothing. I know where Mother Harewood keeps her tea and sugar;'
+and he pounced on a tea-caddy of Indian aspect.
+
+'Lance, if you did that to Mettie--'
+
+'Exactly so. I don't;' and he ran out of the room, while Cherry sat
+up on her sofa, her petulance quite banished between amusement and
+desperation at such proceedings in a strange house. He came back
+presently, with two cups, saucers, and plates, apparently picked up at
+hap-hazard, as no two were alike. 'My dear Lance, where have you been?'
+
+'In the kitchen. Such a jolly arched old hole. Bill and I have done no
+end of Welsh rabbits there. Once when we were melting some lead, Bill
+let it drop into the pudding, and the Pater got it at dinner, and said
+it was the heaviest morsel he ever had to digest.'
+
+'But wasn't it poison?'
+
+'I suppose not, for you see he isn't dead. Another time, when we were
+melting glue, we upset a whole lot of fat, and the chimney caught fire;
+and wasn't that a go? Bill got a pistol out of Jack's room, and fired
+it up the chimney to bring the soot down; and down it came with a
+vengeance! He was regularly singed, and I do think the place would have
+been burned if it had not been too old! All the Shapcotes ran out into
+the court, hallooing Fire! and the engine came, but there was nothing
+for it to do. Oh, the face Wilmet would make to see that kitchen.
+Kettle's biling--I must run.'
+
+He came back with an enormous metal tea-pot in one hand, and a boiling
+kettle in the other, a cloud of vapour about his head.
+
+'You appear in a cloud, like a Greek divinity,' said Cherry, beginning
+to enter into the humour of the thing.
+
+'Bringing nectar and ambrosia,' said Lance, depositing the kettle amid
+the furbelows of paper in the grate, and proceeding to brew the tea.
+'Excuse the small trifles of milk and cream; and as to bread, I can't
+find it, but here are the cakes you had for luncheon, shunted off into
+the passage window. Sugar, Cherry? Fingers were made before tongs. Now
+I call this jolly.'
+
+'I only hope this isn't a great liberty.'
+
+'If you fired off a cannon under Mrs. Harewood's nose, she would not
+call it a liberty.'
+
+'So it appears. But Mr. Harewood does not look--like that.'
+
+'Oh, he's well broken in. He is the pink of orderliness in his own
+study and the library, but as long as no one meddles there, he minds
+nothing. It just keeps him alive; but I believe the Shapcotes think
+this house a mild lunatic asylum.'
+
+'Who are the Shapcotes?'
+
+'He's registrar. They live in the other half of this place--the old
+infirmary, Mr. Harewood calls it. Such a contrast! He is a tremendous
+old Turk in his house, and she is a little mincing woman; and they've
+made Gus--he's one of us, you know--a horrid sneak, and think it's all
+my bad company and Bill's. By-the-by, Cherry, Gus Shapcote asked me if
+my senior wasn't spoony about--'
+
+'I hope you told him to mind his own business!' cried Geraldine, with a
+great start of indignation.
+
+'I told him he was a sheep,' said Lance. 'But, I say, Cherry, I want to
+know what you think of it.'
+
+'Think? I'm not so ready to think nonsense!'
+
+'Well, when the old giant was getting some tea for _her_, I saw two
+ladies look at one another and wink.'
+
+'Abominably ill-mannered,' she cried, growing ruddier than the cherry.
+
+'But had you any notion of it?'
+
+'Impossible!' she said breathlessly. 'He is only kind and civil to her,
+as he is to everybody. Think how young he is!'
+
+'I'm sure I never thought old Blunderbore much younger than Methuselah.
+Twenty-one! Isn't it about the age one does such things?'
+
+'Not when one has twelve brothers and sisters on one's back,' sighed
+Geraldine. 'Poor Felix! No, there can't be anything in it. Don't let us
+think of foolish nonsense this wonderful day. What a glorious hymn that
+was!'
+
+Lance laid his head lovingly on the sofa-cushion, and discussed
+the enjoyment of the day with his skilled appreciation of music.
+Geraldine's receptive power was not inferior to his own, though she had
+none of that of expression, nor of the science in which he was trained.
+He was like another being from the merry rattle he was at other times;
+and she had more glimpses than she ever had before of the high nature
+and deep enthusiasm that were growing in him.
+
+'Hark! there's somebody coming,' she cried, starting.
+
+'Let him come. Oh, it is the Pater.--Here is some capital tea, Mr.
+Harewood. Have some? I'll get a cup.'
+
+'You are taking care of your sister. That is right. A good colonist
+you would make.--Come in, Lee,' said Mr. Harewood, who, to Cherry's
+increased consternation, was followed by another clergyman. 'We are
+better off than I dared to expect, thanks to this young gentleman. Miss
+Geraldine Underwood--Mr. Lee.--You knew her father, I think.'
+
+'Not poor Underwood of Bexley? Indeed! I knew him. I always wished I
+could have seen more of him,' said Mr. Lee, coming up and heartily
+shaking hands with Cherry, and asking whether she was staying there, &c.
+
+Meantime Lance had fetched a blue china soup-plate, a white cup and
+pink spotted saucer; another plate labelled 'Nursery,' and a coffee-cup
+and saucer, one brown and the other blue; and as tidily as if he had
+been lady of the house or parlour-maid, presented his provisions, Mr.
+Harewood accepting with a certain quiet amusement. His remarkable
+trim neatness of appearance, and old-school precision of manner, made
+his quiet humorous acquiescence in the wild ways of his household all
+the more droll. After a little clerical talk, that reminded Cherry
+of the old times when she used to lie on her couch, supposed not to
+understand, but dreamily taking in much more than any one knew--it
+appeared that Mr. Lee wanted to see something in the Library, and Mr.
+Harewood asked her whether she would like to come and see Coeur de
+Lion's seal.
+
+She was fully rested, and greatly pleased. Lance's arm was quite
+sufficient now, and she studied the Cathedral and its precincts in a
+superexcellent manner. Mr. Harewood, who had spent almost his whole
+life under its shadow, and knew the history of almost every stone or
+quarry of glass, was the best of lionizers, and gave her much attention
+when he perceived how intelligent and appreciative she was. He showed
+her the plan of the old conventual buildings, and she began to unravel
+the labyrinth through which she had been hurried. The Close and Deanery
+were modernized, but he valued the quaint old corner where he lived
+for its genuine age. The old house now divided between him and Mr.
+Shapcote had been the infirmary; and the long narrow building opposite,
+between the Bailey and the cloister, had been the lodgings either of
+lay-brothers or servants. There being few boarders at the Cathedral
+school, they had always been lodged in the long narrow room, with
+the second master in a little closet shut off from them. Cherry was
+favoured with a glance at Lance's little corner, with the old-fashioned
+black oak bedstead, solid but unsteady table and stool, the equally
+old press, and the book-case he had made himself with boards begged
+from his friend the carpenter. A photograph and drawing or two, and a
+bat, completed the plenishing. She thought it very uncomfortable, but
+Lance called it his castle; and Mr. Harewood, pointing to the washing
+apparatus, related that in his day the cock in the Bailey was the only
+provision for such purposes. The boys were safely locked in at eight
+every night when the curfew rang, and the Bailey door was shut, there
+being no other access to their rooms, except by the Cathedral, through
+the Library, and the private door that led into the passage common to
+the Harewoods and Shapcotes.
+
+The loveliness of the Cloister, the noble vault of the Chapter-house,
+the various beauties and wonders of the Cathedral, and lastly the
+curiosities of the Library--where Mr. Harewood enthroned her in his own
+chair, unlocked the cases, brought her the treasures, and turned over
+the illuminated manuscripts for her as if she had been a princess--made
+Geraldine forget time, weariness, and anxiety, until, as the summer sun
+was at last taking leave, a voice called at the window, 'Here she is!
+I thought Papa would have her here!' and the freckled face of a Miss
+Harewood was seen peering in.
+
+There the truants were, eager, hurried, afraid for the train, full of
+compunction for the long abandonment: Alice, most apologetic; Wilmet,
+most quiet; Felix, most attentive; Robina, still ecstatic; and Angela,
+tired out--there they all were. It was all one hasty scramble to the
+crowded station, and then one merry discussion and comparison of notes
+all the way home; Geraldine maintaining that she had enjoyed herself
+the best of all; and Alice incredulous of the pleasure of sitting in
+a musty old library with an old gentleman of at least sixty; while
+Felix was so much delighted to find that she had been so happy, that he
+almost believed that the delay had been solely out of consideration for
+her.
+
+Mr. Froggatt was safe at the station in his basket, full of delight
+at the enjoyment of his young people, and of anecdotes of Bernard and
+Stella; and Geraldine found herself safely deposited at home, but with
+one last private apology from Wilmet as she was putting her to bed.
+'I did not know how to help it,' she said; 'Alice was so wild with
+delight, that I could not get her away; and Felix was enjoying his
+holiday so thoroughly, I knew that you would be sorry it should be
+shortened.'
+
+'Indeed I am very glad you stayed. It would be too bad to encumber you.'
+
+'I wanted to come and see after you, but I had promised Miss Pearson
+not to lose sight of Alice. And then Lance offered to take care of you.'
+
+'O Wilmet, I never half knew what a dear boy Lance is! What boy would
+have come, when all that was going on, to stay with a lame cross
+thing like me? And how nice for him to have such kind friends as the
+Harewoods!'
+
+'They seem very fond of him,' said Wilmet; 'but I wish he had taken up
+with the Shapcotes. I never saw such a house. It is enough to ruin all
+sense of order! But they were very kind to us; and if you were well
+off, it was all right. I never saw Felix look so like his bright old
+self as to-day; and it is his birth-day, after all.'
+
+So Wilmet was innocent of all suspicions--wise experienced Wilmet!
+That was enough to make Cherry forget that little thorn of jealousy,
+especially as things subsided into their usual course, and she had no
+more food for conjecture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+GIANT DESPAIR'S CASTLE.
+
+
+     'Who haplesse and eke hopelesse all in vaine,
+      Did to him pace sad battle to darrayne;
+      Disarmd, disgraste, and inwardly dismayde,
+      And eke so faint in every ioynt and vayne,
+      Through that fraile fountaine which him feeble made.'
+                                                     _Spenser._
+
+
+Felix's majority made no immediate difference. His thirteenth part of
+his father's small property remained with the rest, at any rate until
+his guardian should return from his travels in the East; but in the
+course of the winter his kind old godfather, Admiral Chester, died, and
+having no nearer relation, left him the result of his small savings out
+of his pay, which would, the lawyer wrote, amount to about a thousand
+pounds; but there was a good deal of business to be transacted, and it
+would be long before the sum was made over to him.
+
+Wilmet and Geraldine thought it a perfect fortune, leading to the
+University, and release from trade; and they looked rather crestfallen
+when they heard that it only meant Ł30 per annum in the funds, or
+Ł50 in some risky investment. Mr. Froggatt's wish was that he should
+purchase such a share in the business as would really give him standing
+there; but Wilmet heard this with regret; she did not like his thus
+binding himself absolutely down to trade.
+
+'You are thinking for Alda,' said Felix, smiling. 'You are considering
+how Froggatt and Underwood will sound in her ears.'
+
+'In mine, too, Felix; I _do_ not like it.'
+
+'I would willingly endure it to become Redstone's master,' said Felix,
+quietly.
+
+'Is he still so vexatious?' asked Geraldine; for not above once in six
+months did Felix speak of any trials from his companions in business.
+
+'Not actively so; but things might be better done, and much ill blood
+saved. I cannot share W. W.'s peculiar pride in preferring to be an
+assistant instead of a partner.'
+
+'Then this is what you mean to do with it?'
+
+'Wait till it comes,' he said, oracularly. 'Seriously, though, I don't
+want to tie it all up. The boys may want a start in life.'
+
+Neither sister thought of observing that the legacy was to one, not
+to all. Everybody regarded what belonged to Felix as common property;
+and the 'boys' were far enough into their teens to begin to make their
+future an anxious consideration. Clement was just seventeen, and though
+he had outgrown his voice, was lingering on as a sort of adopted child
+at St. Matthew's, helping in the parish school, and reading under one
+of the clergy in preparation for standing for a scholarship. He tried
+for one in the autumn, but failed, so much to his surprise and disgust,
+that he thought hostility to St. Matthew's must be at the bottom of his
+rejection; and came home with somewhat of his martyr-like complacency
+at Christmas, meaning to read so hard as to force his way in spite
+of prejudice. He was very tall, fair, and slight; and his features
+were the more infantine from a certain melancholy baby-like gravity,
+which music alone dispersed. He really played beautifully, and being
+entrusted with the organ during the schoolmaster's Christmas holidays,
+made practising his chief recreation. That Lance would often follow him
+into church for a study, and always made one of the group round the
+piano when Alice Knevett came to sing with them, was a great grievance
+to Fulbert, who never loved music, and hated it as a rival for Lance's
+attention.
+
+These two were generally the closest companions, and were alike in
+having more boyishness, restlessness, and enterprise than their
+brothers. This winter their ambition was to be at all the meets within
+five miles, follow up the hunt, and be able to report the fox's death
+at the end of the day. Indeed, their appetite for whatever bore the
+name of sport was as ravenous as it was indiscriminate; and their
+rapturous communications could not be checked by Clement's manifest
+contempt, or the discouraging indifference of the rest--all but Robina,
+who loved whatever Lance loved, and was ready to go to a meet, if
+Wilmet had not interfered with a high hand.
+
+Before long Felix wished that his authority over the male part of the
+family were as well established as that in her department.
+
+One hunting day the two brothers came in splashed up to the eyes,
+recounting how they had found a boy of about their own age in a ditch,
+bruised and stunned, but not seriously hurt; how with consolation and
+schoolboy surgery they had cheered him, and found he was Harry Collis,
+whom they had known as a school-fellow at Bexley; how they had helped
+him home to Marshlands Hall, and had been amazed at the dreariness and
+want of all home comfort at the place, so that they did not like to
+leave him till his father came home; and how Captain Collis had not
+only thanked them warmly, but had asked them over to come and shoot
+rabbits the next day.
+
+There was nothing to blame them for, but Felix had much rather it had
+never happened. Captain Collis was one of a race of squires who had
+never been very reputable, and had not risen greatly above the farmer.
+He had been in the army, and had the bearing of a gentleman; but ever
+since his wife's death, he had lived an unsatisfactory sort of life
+at the Hall, always forward in sport, but not well thought of, and
+believed to be a good deal in debt. His only child, this Harry Collis,
+had been sent somewhat fitfully to the St. Oswald's Grammar School,
+and had been rather a favourite companion of Lance's; but separation
+had put an end to the intimacy, and this renewal was not at all to the
+taste of their eldest brother.
+
+'It can't be helped this time,' he said, when he heard of the
+invitation; 'I suppose you must go to-morrow, but I don't fancy the
+concern.'
+
+Fulbert's bristles began to rise, but Lance chatted gaily on. 'But,
+Fee, you never saw such a place! Stables for nine hunters. Only think!
+And a horse entered for the Derby! We are to see him to-morrow. It is
+the jolliest place.'
+
+'Nine hunters!' moralized Clement; 'they cost as much as three times
+nine orphans.'
+
+'And they are worth a dozen times as much as the nasty little beggars!'
+said Fulbert.
+
+On which Angela put in the trite remark that the orphans had souls.
+
+'Precious rum ones,' muttered Fulbert; and in the clamour thus raised
+the subject dropped; but when next morning, in the openness of his
+heart, Lance invited Clement to go with them to share the untold joys
+of rabbit-shooting, he met with a decisive reply. 'Certainly not! I
+should think your Dean would be surprised at you.'
+
+'Oh, the Dean is a kind old chap,' answered Lance, off-hand; 'whenever
+he has us to sing at a party, he tips us all round, thanks us, and
+tells us to enjoy ourselves in the supper-room, like a gentleman, as he
+is.'
+
+'Do you know what this Collis's character is?'
+
+'Hang his character! I want his rabbits.'
+
+And Lance was off with Fulbert; while Clement remained, to make
+Geraldine unhappy with his opinion of the temptations of Marshlands
+Hall, returning to the charge when Felix came in before dinner.
+
+'Yes,' said Felix briefly, 'Mr. Froggatt has been telling me. It must
+be stopped.'
+
+'Have you heard of the mischief that--'
+
+'Don't be such a girl, Tina. I am going to do the thing, and there is
+no use in keeping on about it.'
+
+Felix had not called Clement Tina since he had been head of the family,
+and irritability in him was a token of great perplexity; for indeed his
+hardest task always was the dealing with Fulbert; and he was besides
+very sorry to balk the poor boys of one of their few chances of manly
+amusement.
+
+He would have waited to utter his prohibition till the excitement
+should have worked off, but he knew that Clement would never hold
+his peace through the narrative of their adventures; so, as they had
+not come in when his work was over, he took Theodore on his arm, and
+retreated to the little parlour behind the shop, where he lay in wait,
+reading, and mechanically whistling tunes to Theodore, till he heard
+the bell, and went to open the door.
+
+The gas showed them rosy, merry, glorious, and bespattered, one
+waving a couple of rabbits, and the other of pheasants, and trying to
+tickle Theodore's cheeks with the long tails of the latter, of course
+frightening him into a fretful wail.
+
+'Take Theodore upstairs, if you please, Lance,' said Felix, 'and then
+come down; I want you.'
+
+'The Captain was going to dine at Bowstead's,' said Fulbert, 'so he
+drove us in his dog-cart. If the frost holds, we are to go out and
+skate on Monday.'
+
+Felix employed himself in putting away his papers, without answering.
+
+'I had very good luck,' continued Fulbert, 'four out of six; wonderful
+for so new a hand, the Captain said.'
+
+'Such a lovely animal you never saw,' said Lance, swinging himself
+downstairs. 'You must walk out and see it, Fee, for you'll have it in
+the Pursuivant some Saturday.'
+
+'Lance, I am very sorry,' said Felix, standing upright, with his back
+to the exhausted grate. 'Just attend to me, both of you.'
+
+'Oh!' said Lance, hastily, 'I know there's a lot of old women's gossip
+about Collis; but nobody minds such stuff. Harry is as good a lad as
+ever stepped; and there was no harm to be seen about the place;--was
+there, Ful?'
+
+'The old Frog has been croaking,' hoarsely muttered Fulbert.
+
+Boys of sixteen and fourteen were incapable of coercion by a youth
+of one-and-twenty, and the only appeal must be to conscience and
+reason; so Felix went on speaking, though he had seen from the first
+that Fulbert's antagonism rendered him stolid, deaf, and blind; and
+Lancelot's flushed cheeks, angry eyes, impatient attempts to interrupt,
+and scornful gestures told of scarcely-repressed passion.
+
+'You may have seen no harm, I find no fault' (Fulbert scowled); 'but
+if I had known what I do now I should not have let you go to-day. My
+father would rather have cut off his right hand than have allowed you
+to begin an acquaintance which has been ruinous to almost all the young
+men who have been in that set.'
+
+'But we are not young men,' cried Lance; 'it is only for the holidays;
+and we only want a little fun with poor Harry, he is so lonely--and
+just to go out rabbiting and skating. It is very hard we can't be
+let alone the first time anything worth doing has turned up in this
+abominable slow place.'
+
+'It is very hard, Lance. No one is more concerned than I; but if this
+intimacy once begins, there is no guessing where it will lead; and I do
+not speak without grounds. Listen--'
+
+'If it comes from old Frog, you may as well shut up,' said Lance.
+'There's been no peace at Marshlands since he took that cottage--a
+regular old nuisance and mischief-maker, spiting the Captain because
+one of the dogs killed his old cock, and bothering Charlie to no end
+about him.'
+
+'I have heard from others as well,' said Felix; and he briefly
+mentioned some facts as to the scandals of the dissipated household,
+some of the imputations under which Captain Collis lay, and named two
+or three of the young men whose unsatisfactory conduct was ascribed to
+his influence.
+
+He saw that both lads were startled, and wound up with saying,
+'Therefore it is not without reason that I desire that you do not go
+there again.'
+
+With which words, he opened the door, turned off the gas, and walked
+upstairs, hearing on the way a growl of Fulbert's--'That's what comes
+of being cad to a stupid brute of an old tradesman;' and likewise a
+bouncing, rolling, and tumbling, and a very unchorister-like expletive
+from Lance; but he hurried up, like the conclave from the vault at
+Lindisfarn, only with a sinking heart, and looks that made his sisters
+say how tired he must be. The boys were seen no more, but sent word by
+Bernard that they were wet through, they should not dress, but should
+get some supper in the kitchen, and go to bed.
+
+On Sunday Lance had recovered himself and his temper, but in the
+evening he made another attempt upon Felix in private. His heart was
+greatly set upon Marshlands, and he argued that there was no evil at
+all in what they had been doing, and entreated Felix to be content with
+the promise both were willing to make, to take no share in anything
+doubtful--not even to play at billiards, or cards--if that would
+satisfy him, said Lance, 'but we will promise anything you please
+against playing, or betting, or--'
+
+'I know, Lance, you once made such a promise, and kept it. I trust you
+entirely. But before, it would have been cruel to keep you from that
+sick boy; now this would be mere running into temptation for your own
+amusement.'
+
+'Harry is not much better off than Fernan was,' said Lancelot,
+wistfully.
+
+'Poor fellow! very likely not; but it would be more certain harm to
+yourself than good to him. Any way, no respectable person would choose
+to be intimate there, or to let their boys resort there; and it is my
+duty not to consent.'
+
+'Ful is in such an awful way,' said Lance, disconsolately. 'Fee, you
+don't know how hard it is, you always were such a muff.'
+
+'That is true,' said Felix, not at all offended; 'and I had my father
+and Edgar; but indeed, Lance, nothing ever was so hard to me to do as
+this. I cannot say how sorry I am.'
+
+'You do really order me not?' said Lance, looking straight up at him.
+
+'I do. I forbid you to go into Captain Collis's grounds, or to do more
+than exchange a greeting, if you meet him.'
+
+'I will not. There's my word and honour for it, since--since you are so
+intolerably led by the nose by old Frog;' and Lance flung away, with
+the remains of his passion worked up afresh, and was as glum as his
+nature allowed the rest of the evening; but Felix, though much annoyed,
+saw that the boy had set up voluntarily two barriers between himself
+and his tempted will--in the command and the promise.
+
+But the command that was a guard to the one, was a goad to the other;
+for Fulbert had never accepted his eldest brother's authority, and
+could not brook interference. Still his school character was good, and
+there was a certain worth about him, which made him sometimes withdraw
+his resistance, though never submit; and Felix had some hope that it
+would be so in the present case, when, while speeding to church in the
+dark winter Monday morning, he overheard Lance say to Clement, 'I say,
+Clem, 'tis a jolly stinging frost. If you'll take your skates and give
+us a lesson, we'll be off for the lake at Centry.'
+
+One of the Whittingtonian curates had taken the boys to the ice in the
+parks, and taught them so effectively, that Clement was one of the best
+skaters in Bexley; but he was too much inclined to the nayward not to
+reply, 'I have to practise that anthem for Wednesday.'
+
+'Oh, bother the practice!'
+
+(Which Felix mentally echoed.)
+
+'I can play that anthem, if that's all,' said Lance; 'and I believe you
+know it perfectly well. Now, Clem, don't be savage; I think, if you
+will come, we _might_ put that other thing out of Ful's head.'
+
+'Well, if you think it is to be of use--'
+
+'That's right! Thank you,' cried Lance. 'And you won't jaw us all the
+way? He can't stand that, you know.'
+
+Clement winced; but in compensation, apparently, for this forbidden
+lecture, he observed, 'I am glad you at least take it properly, Lance,
+though it would be worse in you than in him, considering your--'
+
+'Bother it!' unceremoniously broke in Lance; and the words of wisdom
+were silenced.
+
+Lance did his best to organise his party, but it was a failure; Fulbert
+said he had made an engagement, and would not break it; he was not
+bound to toady old Froggy, nor in bondage to any old fogeys of a dean
+and chapter; and he walked off the faster for Clement's protest,
+leaving Lance to roll on the floor and climb the balusters backwards
+to exhale his desire to follow. He was too much upset even to follow
+Clement to the organ, or to settle to the drawing which Cherry was
+teaching him, and was a great torment to himself and his sisters till
+dinner-time, when Clement had done his organ and his Greek, and was
+ready for a rush for the ice; and Robina went joyously with them.
+'Between two young ladies one can't well run into harm's way,' said
+Lance.
+
+So things went on for a fortnight. Fulbert never shuffled, he went
+openly to Marshlands Hall; and though not boasting of his expeditions,
+did not treat them as a secret. Wilmet and Geraldine each tried
+persuasion, but were silenced rudely; and Felix, unable to enforce his
+authority, held his tongue, but was very unhappy, both for the present
+and for the future. He did not believe much harm was doing now, but the
+temptation would increase with every vacation as the boys came nearer
+to manhood; and he seemed to have lost all influence and moral power
+over Fulbert.
+
+Good old Mrs. Froggatt gave a small children's party, to which, with
+many apologies, she invited the lesser Underwoods, under charge of
+Wilmet. They were to sleep at the cottage, and Wilmet having offered to
+help in dressing the Christmas-tree, they set out early in the day to
+walk, escorted by the three brothers. That the trio did not return to
+tea did not alarm Felix and Geraldine, who suspected that the dislike
+the two elder expressed to the whole house of Froggatt had melted
+before the pleasure of working at the tree.
+
+The evening was taken up in the discussion of a letter of Edgar's, more
+than usually discontented with his employment; and another of Alda's,
+who had been laid under orders to write to her eldest brother, and
+desire him to remonstrate with Edgar on his inattention, laziness, and
+pleasure-seeking. The anxiety had long been growing up; Felix had come
+to write his difficult letter by the light of Geraldine's sympathy,
+and they were weighing what should be said, when the door-bell rang,
+some sounds puzzled them, and just as Felix was getting up to see what
+was the matter, Fulbert put his head in at the door, and said, low but
+earnestly, 'Step here, Felix, please.'
+
+He thought there must have been some terrible accident; but when from
+the top of the stairs he beheld Clement's aspect under the gas in
+the passage, and heard the thick tones in which he was holding forth
+according to instinct, his consternation was almost greater than at any
+injury. Fulbert looked pale and astounded. 'I can't get him upstairs,'
+he said.
+
+However, sense enough remained to Clement to give effect to his eldest
+brother's stern words, 'Be quiet, and come up;' and they dragged him
+stumbling upstairs without more words.
+
+'Where's Lance?' then asked Felix.
+
+'Stayed at the Froggatts'. I wish he hadn't. He will walk home
+by-and-by.'
+
+'Now, Ful, run and tell Cherry that nobody is hurt. Do not let her get
+frightened.'
+
+Felix spoke resolutely, but he felt so full of dismay and horror,
+that he hardly knew what he was doing till Fulbert had returned, and
+repressing all poor Clement's broken moralities, they had deposited him
+safely in bed, and shut the door on him. Then Fulbert gazed up at Felix
+with eyes full of regret and consternation, and he gathered breath to
+enter his own room, and say, 'What is the meaning of this?'
+
+'His head must be ridiculously weak; or there was some beastly trick.
+Nobody else was the least queer!'
+
+'Marshlands Hall?'
+
+'Well, he had gone on at me so, that when Lance let himself be
+persuaded into staying to hang up the lamps, it struck me what a lark
+it would be to take Tina across the Hall lands, and then tell him he
+had been on the enemy's ground. So I told him of the old chantry that
+is turned into a barn, and of course he must go and see it, and take
+sketches of the windows for his clergy. While he was doing it, up comes
+young Jackman. You know young Jackman at the Potteries--a regular
+clever fellow that knows everything?'
+
+'Yes, I know him.'
+
+'Well, they got into early pointed, and late pointed, and billets and
+dog-tooths, and all the rest, and Clem went on like a house on fire;
+and by that time we had got to the big pond, where Collis and half
+a dozen more were, and he had got his skates, and I believe he did
+surprise them; they called it first rate.'
+
+'Did he know where he was?'
+
+'Not at the beginning of the skating. I only wanted to get him down
+from his altitudes, and never thought it would come to this. You
+believe that, Felix?'
+
+'Yes, I do. Go on.'
+
+'It was fine moonlight, and we stayed on ever so long, while Jackman
+and Clem and two more danced a quadrille on the ice; and when it was
+over everybody was horribly cold, and Captain Collis said we must all
+come in and have something hot; and Jackman said he was going to drive
+home to dinner at eight, and would take us, but every one got talking,
+and it was half-past eight before we started. It was all in such a
+scramble, that I had no notion there was anything amiss till Clem began
+to talk on the way home.'
+
+'What were they drinking?'
+
+'Various things--brandy-and-water chiefly. I don't like it, and had
+some ale; but I was playing with Harry's puppies, and not much noticing
+Clem.'
+
+'Do you think it was a trick?'
+
+'I can't tell. He is so innocent, he would have no notion how stiff to
+make it. If any one meant mischief, it was Jackman; and I did think
+once or twice he had found out Tina, and was playing him off. On the
+way home, when I was trying to hinder poor Clem from falling off, he
+went on chaffing so, that I longed to jump off, and lay the whip about
+his ears.'
+
+'Poor Clem!' said Felix, more grieved and shocked than angry, and not
+insensible to Fulbert's being even more appalled, and quite frightened
+out of his sulkiness.
+
+'It is a bad business,' he sighed. 'It was all Lance's fault for
+letting himself be lugged into that baby party.'
+
+Even this was a great admission, and Felix would not blight it by a
+word.
+
+'It is well the girls are not at home,' was all he said.
+
+'I only told Cherry that Clem wasn't well. I can't face her; I shall go
+to bed. I would not have had this happen for the world.'
+
+'I shall say nothing to her,' said Felix, dejectedly, turning to leave
+the room, under a horrible sense of disgrace and stain on the whole
+family; but at the door he was caught hold of by Fulbert, who looked up
+at him with a face quite unlike anything he had ever seen in the lad.
+
+'Felix, I never was so sorry in my life. I wish you would give me a
+good rowing.'
+
+Felix half smiled. 'I could not,' he said. 'You did not know what you
+were doing. Good-night.'
+
+Fulbert gazed after him as he went downstairs, and went back, with a
+groan, to his own room.
+
+Felix had never before felt so hopeful about Fulbert; but still he was
+too much overset to talk to Cherry, and hurried her off to bed, soon
+following her example, for he had not the heart to see Lance that night.
+
+Of course, the first hours of the morning had to be spent in attending
+on the victim, whose misery, mental and bodily, was extreme, and was
+aggravated by his engagement to the organ. Lance could supply his place
+there, and was sent off to do so, but looking as subdued and guilty as
+if he had been making Fulbert's confession instead of hearing it, and
+stumbling uncomfortably over the explanation that Clement was not well,
+and that Felix could not leave him.
+
+For there was a fragility about Clement's long lank frame that made any
+shock to it very severe, and he was ill enough to alarm his happily
+inexperienced brothers, and greatly increase Fulbert's penitence; but
+by the time Mr. Froggatt drove the sisters home, and Wilmet wondered
+that she could not go out for a night without some one being ill, he
+had arrived at a state which she could be left to attribute to Mrs.
+Froggatt's innocent mince-pies.
+
+He burrowed under his blankets, and feigned sleep and discomfort beyond
+speech, whenever she came into the room, begging only that the light
+might be kept out, and that nobody would speak to him. He was too
+utterly miserable for anger with Fulbert, but only showed a sort of
+broken-hearted forgiveness, which made Fulbert say in desperation to
+Lance, 'I wish you would just fall upon me. I shall not be myself again
+till I've been blown up!'
+
+'I suppose you are doing it for yourself, and that is worse,' said
+Lance.
+
+'And you know it was all your doing, for going to that disgusting old
+Philistine's tea and cake.'
+
+'What, you and Clem wanted me to lead you about, like two dogs in a
+string?' said Lance.
+
+'No; Tina would have kept the baby-bunting out of harm's way.'
+
+'More likely he would have bored me into going. Poor Tina! I should
+almost like to hear him jaw again! After all, you and he never
+promised, and I did.'
+
+'I wish I had,' said Fulbert; 'I am awfully afraid they are getting
+hold of it in the town.'
+
+'So am I. Mowbray Smith looked me all over, and asked me after Clement,
+when I met him just now in the street, as if he had some malice in his
+head.'
+
+'What did you tell him?'
+
+'I said he was in a state of collapse, and that serious fears were
+entertained for his life and reason; and then he warned me against the
+nineteenth-century manners, and I thanked him and made a bow, and now I
+suppose he is gone to tell my Lady.'
+
+When Felix was free in the evening, he found Clement dressed, and
+sitting over the fire in his room--so well indeed, that he might have
+been downstairs, but that he shrank from every one; and that fire had
+been the fruit of such persevering battles of Wilmet and Sibby with the
+smoke and soot, that it would have been a waste of good labour to have
+deserted it.
+
+'Well, Clem, you are better?'
+
+'Yes, thank you.'
+
+'Head-ache gone?'
+
+'Nearly,' with a heavy sigh.
+
+Felix drew an ancient straw-bottomed chair in front of the fire
+backwards, placed himself astride on it, laid his arms on the top
+and his forehead on them, and in this imposing Mentorial attitude
+began, 'After all, Clem, I don't see that you need be so desperately
+broken-hearted. It was mere innocence and ignorance. Water-drinkers at
+home are really not on a level with other people. I always have to be
+very guarded when I have to dine with the other reporters.'
+
+'No,' said Clement, sadly; 'I do not regard the disgrace as the sin so
+much as the punishment.'
+
+It was more sensible than Felix had expected. He was conscious of not
+understanding Clement, who always seemed to him like a girl, but if
+treated like one, was sure to show himself in an unexpected light.
+
+'You did not know where you were going?'
+
+'Not at first. I found out long before I came off the ice; and then,
+like an absurd fool as I was, I thought myself showing how to deal
+courteously and hold one's own with such people.'
+
+'You are getting to the bottom of it,' said Felix.
+
+'I have been thinking it over all day,' said Clement, mournfully. 'I
+see that such a fall could only be the consequence of long-continued
+error. Have I not been very conceited and uncharitable of late, Felix?'
+
+'Not more than usual,' said Felix, intending to speak kindly.
+
+'I see. I have been treating my advantages as if they were merits,
+condemning others, and lording it over them. Long ago I was warned that
+my danger was spiritual pride, but self-complacency blinded me.' And he
+hid his face and groaned.
+
+Felix was surprised. He could not thus have discussed himself, even
+with his father; but he perceived that if Clement had no one else
+to preach to he would preach to himself, and that this anatomical
+examination was done in genuine sorrow.
+
+'No humility!' continued Clement. 'That is what has brought me to this.
+If I had distrusted and watched myself, I should have perceived when
+I grew inflated by their flattery, and never--egregious fool that I
+was--have thought I was showing that one of our St. Matthew's choir
+could meet worldly men on their own ground.'
+
+Felix was glad that his posture enabled him to conceal a smile; but
+perhaps Clement guessed at it, for he exclaimed, 'A fit consequence, to
+have made myself contemptible to everybody!'
+
+'Come, Clem, that is too strong. Your censorious way was bad for
+yourself, and obnoxious to us all, and it was very silly to go to that
+place after what you had heard.'
+
+'After telling Lance it was unworthy of a servant of the sanctuary,'
+moaned Clement.
+
+'Very silly indeed,' continued the elder brother, 'very wrong; but as
+to what happened there, it is not reasonable to look at it as more than
+an accident. It will be forgotten in a week by all but Fulbert and
+yourself, and you will most likely be the wiser for it all your lives.
+I never got on so well with Ful before, or saw him really sorry.'
+
+Clement only answered by a disconsolate noise; and Felix was becoming
+a little impatient, thinking the penitence overstrained, when he broke
+silence with, 'You must let me go up to St. Matthew's!'
+
+'Really, Clement, it is hardly right to let you be always living upon
+Mr. Fulmort now your occupation is ended, and it would be braver not to
+run away.'
+
+'I do not mean _that!_' cried Clement. 'I will not stay there. I would
+not burthen them; but see the Vicar I _must!_ I will go third class,
+and walk from the station.'
+
+'The fare of an omnibus will not quite break our backs,' said Felix,
+smiling. 'If this is needful to settle your mind, you had better go.'
+
+'You do not know what this is to me,' said Clement, earnestly; 'I
+wish you did.' Then perceiving the recurrence to his old propensity,
+he sighed pitifully and hung his head, adding, 'It is of no use till
+Saturday, the Vicar is gone to his sisters.'
+
+'Very well, you can get a return ticket on Saturday--that is, if the
+organist is come back.'
+
+'Lance must play; I am not worthy.'
+
+'You have no right to break an engagement for fancies about your own
+worthiness,' said Felix. 'Rouse yourself up, and don't exaggerate the
+thing, to alarm all the girls, and make them suspicious.'
+
+'They ought to know. I felt myself a wicked hypocrite when Wilmet
+_would_ come and read me the Psalms, and yet I could not tell her. Tell
+them, Felix; I cannot bear it without.'
+
+'No, I shall not. You have no right to grieve and disgust them just
+because you "cannot bear it without." Cannot you bear up, instead of
+drooping and bemoaning in this way? It is not manly.'
+
+'Manliness is the great temptation of this world.'
+
+'You idiot!' Felix, in his provocation, broke out; then getting himself
+in hand again, 'Don't you know the difference between true and false
+manliness?'
+
+'I know men of the world make the distinction,' said Clement; 'I am not
+meaning any censure, Felix. Circumstances have given you a different
+standard.'
+
+Felix interrupted rather hotly: 'Only my father's. I have heard him
+say, that if one is not a man before one is a parson, one brings the
+ministry into contempt. The things the boys call you Tina for are not
+what make a good clergyman.'
+
+'I don't feel as if I could presume to seek the priesthood after that.'
+
+'Stuff and nonsense!' cried Felix. 'If no one was ordained who had ever
+made a fool of himself and repented, we should be badly off for clergy.
+You were conceited and provoking, and have let yourself be led into a
+nasty scrape--that's the long and short of the matter; but it is only
+hugging your own self-importance to sit honing and moaning up here.
+Come down, and behave like a reasonable being.'
+
+'Let me stay here to-night, Felix, I _do_ need it,' said Clement, with
+tears in his eyes; 'if I am alone now, I think I can bring myself to
+bear up outwardly as you wish.'
+
+The affected tone had vanished, and Felix rose, and kindly put his
+hand on his shoulder, and said, 'Do, Clem. You know it is not only my
+worldliness--mere man of business as I am--that bids us to hide grief
+within, and "anoint the head and wash the face."'
+
+Just then an exulting shout rang through the house, many feet scuttled
+upstairs, knocks hailed upon the door, and many voices shouted, 'Mr.
+Audley! Felix, Clem, Mr. Audley!'
+
+'Won't you come, Clem?'
+
+'Not to-night; I could not.'
+
+Clement shut the door, and Felix hastened down among the dancing
+exulting little ones. 'I thought you were at Rome!' he said, as the
+hands met in an eager grasp.
+
+'I was there on Christmas Day; but Dr. White's appointment is settled,
+and he wants me to go out with him in June. My brother is gone on to
+London, and I must join him there on Saturday.'
+
+'I am glad it is to-day instead of yesterday,' said Wilmet. 'We were
+all out but Felix and Cherry, and poor Clement was so ill.'
+
+'Clement ill? Is he better?'
+
+'He will be all right to-morrow,' said Felix.
+
+Mr. Audley detected a desire to elude inquiry, as well as a meaning
+look between the two younger boys, and he thought care sat heavier on
+the brow of the young master of the house than when they had parted
+eighteen months before.
+
+His travels were related, his photographs admired, his lodging arranged
+in Mr. Froggatt's room, and after the general good-night, he drew his
+chair in to the fire, and prepared for a talk with his ex-ward.
+
+'You look anxious, Felix. Have things gone on pretty well?'
+
+'Pretty fairly, thank you, till just now, when there is rather an ugly
+scrape,'--and he proceeded to disburthen his mind of last night's
+misadventure; when it must be confessed that the narrative of Clement's
+overweening security having had a fall provoked a smile from his
+guardian, and an observation that it might do him a great deal of good.
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, 'if his friends do not let him make much of his
+penitence, and think it very fine to have so important a thing to
+repent of.'
+
+'I don't think they will do that. You must not take Clement as exactly
+the fruit of their teaching.'
+
+'There's no humbug about him, at least,' said Felix. 'He is really cut
+up exceedingly. Indeed all I have been doing was to get him to moderate
+his dolefulness. I believe he thinks me a sort of heathen.'
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Audley, laughing, 'you don't seem to have taken the
+line of the model head of the family.'
+
+'The poor boys were both so wretched, that one could not say a word
+to make it worse,' said Felix. 'This satisfies me that Fulbert is all
+right in that way. He would not have been so shocked if he had ever
+seen anything like it before; but though he is very sorry now, I am
+afraid it will not cut the connection with those Collises.'
+
+'You do not find him easier to manage?'
+
+'No; that is the worst. He is not half a bad boy--nay, what is called a
+well-principled boy--only it is his principle not to mind me. I do not
+know whether I am donnish with him, or if I bullied him too much when
+he was little; but he is always counter to me. Then he is one of those
+boys who want an out-of-door life, and on whom the being shut up in a
+town falls hard. The giving up sporting is real privation to him and to
+Lance, and much the hardest on him, for he does not care for music or
+drawing, or anything of that sort.'
+
+'How old is he?'
+
+'Just sixteen.'
+
+'Suppose I were to take him out to Australia?'
+
+'Fulbert!'
+
+'Yes; I always intended to take one if I went, but I waited till
+my return to see about it, and I thought Clement was of a more
+inconvenient age; but you must judge.'
+
+'Poor Tina!' said Felix, smiling, 'he would hardly do in a colony. He
+is heart and soul a clergyman, and whether he will ever be more of a
+man I don't know; but I don't think he could rough it as a missionary.'
+
+'Is he going to get a scholarship?'
+
+'He has tried at Corpus, and failed. He is full young, and I suppose he
+ought to go to a tutor. I am afraid he learnt more music than classics
+up at that place.'
+
+'Can the tutoring be managed?'
+
+'I suppose a hundred out of that thousand will do it.'
+
+'Is that thousand to go like the famous birth-day five?'
+
+'Five hundred is to be put into the business; but the rest I meant to
+keep in reserve for such things as this.'
+
+'If all are to be helped at this rate, your reserve will soon come to
+an end.'
+
+'Perhaps so; but I have always looked on Clement as my own substitute.
+Indeed, I held that hope out to my father, when it distressed him that
+I should give it up. So Clem is pretty well settled, thank you. Besides
+I am not afraid of his not going on well here; but I do believe Fulbert
+will do the better for being more independent, only it seems to me too
+much to let you undertake for us.'
+
+'They are all my charge,' said Mr. Audley; 'and as I am leaving you
+the whole burthen of the rest, and my poor little godson is not likely
+to want such care, you need have no scruple. One of the Somervilles is
+going out to a Government office at Albertstown, and perhaps may put me
+in the way of doing something for him.'
+
+Felix mused a moment, then said, 'The only doubt in my mind would be
+whether, if it suited you equally, it might not be an opening for
+Edgar.'
+
+'Edgar! Surely he is off your hands?'
+
+'I am greatly afraid his present work will not last. He always hated
+it, and I believe he always had some fancy that he could persuade Tom
+Underwood into making a gentleman of him at once, sending him to the
+University or the like, and they petted and admired him enough to
+confirm the notion. Mrs. Underwood makes him escort her to all her
+parties; and you know what a brilliant fellow he is--sure to be wanted
+for all manner of diversions, concerts, private theatricals, and what
+not; and you can fancy how the counting-house looks to him after. Tom
+Underwood declares he requires nothing of him but what he would of his
+own son; and I believe it is true; but work is work with him, and he
+will not be trifled with. Here is a letter about it, one of many, I
+was trying to answer last night; only this affair of poor Clem's upset
+everything.'
+
+'Six brothers are no sinecure, Felix.'
+
+'They are wonderfully little trouble,' said Felix, standing on their
+defence. 'They are all good sound-hearted boys; and as to Lance,
+there's no saying the comfort that little fellow always is. He has that
+peculiar pleasantness about him--like my father and Edgar--that one
+feels the moment he is in the house; and he is so steady, with all his
+spirits. The other two both say all this could not have happened with
+him.'
+
+'High testimony.'
+
+'Yes, as both are inclined to look down on him. But think of that boy's
+consideration. He has never once asked me for pocket-money since he
+went to the Cathedral. He gets something when the Dean and Canons have
+the boys to sing, and makes that cover all little expenses.'
+
+'What do you mean to do with him?'
+
+'If he gets the scholarship, a year and a half hence, he will stay on
+two years free of expense. Unluckily, he says that young Harewood is
+cleverer than he, and always just before him: but I have some hope in
+the hare-brains of Master Bill. If he do not get it--well, we must see,
+but it will go hard if Lance cannot be kept on to be educated properly.'
+
+Mr. Audley took the letters, and presently broke into an indignant
+exclamation; to which Felix replied--
+
+'The work is not good enough for him, that is the fact.'
+
+'If you are weak about any one, Felix, it is Edgar. I have no patience
+with him. His work not _good_ enough, forsooth, considering what yours
+is!'
+
+'Mine has much more interest and variety; and he is capable of much
+more than I am.'
+
+'Then let him show it, instead of living in the lap of luxury, and
+murmuring at a few hours at the desk.'
+
+'I ascribe that to his temperament, which certainly has a good deal of
+the artist; that desk-work is peculiarly irksome.'
+
+'Very likely; but it is his plain duty to conquer his dislike. No,
+Felix; I wish I could take him away with me, for I am afraid he will be
+a source of trouble.'
+
+'Never! Edgar is too considerate.'
+
+'But he is exactly what Australia is over-stocked with already--a
+discontented clerk. If he be spoilt by luxury here, do you think he
+would bear with a rude colony? No. Fulbert is a gruff, obstinate boy,
+but not idle and self-indulgent; and I am not afraid to undertake him,
+but I should be of Edgar.'
+
+Felix had flushed up a good deal, for his love for Edgar was less
+paternal and more sensitively keen than that for any of the others; but
+he was more reasonable, and had more control of temper now, than when
+Mr. Audley had last crossed him; and he made answer, 'I believe you are
+right, and that Edgar could not be happy in a colony. Any way, you are
+most kind to Fulbert. But I am afraid I must go now, or Theodore will
+wake.'
+
+'Do you still have him at night?'
+
+'He is not happy with any one else. You have not seen him yet? I am
+sure he is improving! There's his voice! Good-night.' And Felix hurried
+away, leaving Mr. Audley feeling that though here and there the young
+pillar of the house might be mistaken, the daily unselfishness of his
+life was a beautiful thing, and likewise impressed by his grave air of
+manly resolution and deliberation.
+
+By the morning, Clement had recovered his tone, so as not to obtrude
+his penitence or to be much more subdued in manner than usual. Mr.
+Audley made him bring his books to the dining-room after breakfast, and
+the examination quite exonerated the authorities at Oxford from any
+prejudice except against inaccuracy, and showed that a thorough course
+of study was needful before he could even matriculate; and Clement in
+his present lowliness was not incredulous of any deficiency at St.
+Matthew's, but was only meek and mournful.
+
+'What shall I do?' he asked. 'Perhaps some school would take me to
+teach and study at the same time. Or I might get an organist's place,
+and read so that I might be ordained as a literate at last. It would
+come when I was fit, I suppose.'
+
+Mr. Audley only said he would inquire, and talk to Felix; and Clement
+pleased him by answering that he could not bear to be an expense to
+Felix. The good principle in the boys was quite to be traced, when
+presently after it was necessary to put Fulbert to a severe trial. On
+going to pay his respects at the Rectory, Mr. Audley found Mr. Mowbray
+Smith there, and after some preliminaries, he was asked whether he knew
+how the young Underwoods had been going on of late; of course, though,
+it would be concealed from him: but it was right, &c. Then Mr. Bevan
+feebly suggested that he did not believe there was any truth in it, and
+was sharply silenced; and Miss Caroline observed that she was always
+sure that Clement Underwood was a great humbug; whereupon, between the
+mother, daughter and curate, the popular version of the Marshlands
+Hall affair was narrated--or rather versions, for all were beautifully
+entangled and contradictory.
+
+Some one had been in the street, and had seen poor Clement's exit from
+young Jackman's dog-cart, and reported indiscriminately that it was
+'young Underwood.' Lance had not been able to put a sufficiently bold
+face on his morning's report of Clement's indisposition and Felix's
+absence; and this, together with the boys' hunting propensities, and
+Fulbert's visits to Marshlands, had all been concocted into a very
+serious accusation of the whole of the brothers, including Felix, of
+having entered into a dangerous friendship with Captain Collis, and
+underhand enjoying the dissipations of the Hall, which had been the
+bane of many a young man of Bexley.
+
+There were different measures of indignation. Miss Price expected a
+grand series of denunciations--to Mr. Froggatt--to Miss Pearson, 'whose
+niece was always there--most imprudent;'--nay, perhaps to the Dean, and
+to the Vicar of St. Matthew's. The least excitement she expected, was
+Felix Underwood's expulsion from the choir.
+
+Lady Price merely believed it all, and thought the friends ought to
+interfere, and save the poor young things while there was time for any
+of them. She would never mention it so as to injure them, but nothing
+else could be expected.
+
+Mr. Mowbray Smith supposed there must be some exaggeration, but he
+had been surprised at Lancelot's manner, and he did not think Felix's
+absence accounted for; he did seem steady--but-- And there was
+something unnatural in the way of life at St. Matthew's, that would
+make him never trust a lad from thence.
+
+Yes; and even Mr. Bevan did not like St. Matthew's (because it was not
+slack or easy), and he too could believe anything of Clement. No doubt
+poor Felix found those great brothers getting too much for him.
+
+Mr. Audley was standing by the window. He saw Fulbert with Lance and
+little Bernard going down the street, and by one of the sudden dashes
+that had often puzzled the Rectory, he flew out at the door, and the
+next moment had his hand on Fulbert's shoulder.
+
+'Fulbert, they have made a terrible scandal of this affair at
+Marshlands Hall. They fancy Felix had something to do with it.'
+
+'Felix! I should like to punch their heads.'
+
+'You can do better. You can contradict it.'
+
+'But, Sir--'
+
+However, Fulbert, while still following to plead with Mr. Audley, found
+himself where he never recollected to have been in his life before,
+among the cushions, arm-chairs, and tables covered with knick-knacks,
+of the Rectory drawing-room. Mr. Bevan in an easy-chair; Mr. Smith
+standing before the fire; Lady Price at work, looking supercilious; and
+her daughter writing notes at a davenport.
+
+Mr. Bevan half rose and held out his hand, the others contented
+themselves with a nod, while the big, stout lad stood rather like a
+great dog under the same circumstances, very angry with everybody, and
+chiefly with Mr. Audley--to whom, nevertheless, he trusted for getting
+him safe out again.
+
+'Fulbert,' said Mr. Audley, 'Mr. Bevan would be better satisfied if he
+could hear what intimacy there has been between your brothers and the
+Collises.'
+
+'None at all,' said Fulbert, bluntly.
+
+'My boy,' said the gentle Rector, deprecatingly, 'nobody ever suspected
+your eldest brother.'
+
+'I should think not!' exclaimed Fulbert, with angry eyes. 'All he ever
+did was to warn us against going. More fools not to mind him!'
+
+'Then,' said my Lady, 'it has been the insubordination and wilfulness
+of you younger boys that has nearly involved him in so grave an
+imputation.'
+
+'Of nobody's but mine,' returned Fulbert. 'The others would have
+nothing to do with it.'
+
+'That cannot be the literal fact,' said Mr. Smith, in a low voice, to
+Lady Price. 'There were certainly two of them.'
+
+Fulbert heard, and turning to the Rector, as if he thought every one
+else beneath his notice, said, 'The long and short of it is this:
+Lance and I picked young Collis out of a ditch, and took him home.
+Then Captain Collis asked us rabbit-shooting. Lance never went again,
+because Felix did not choose it. I did; and, just by way of a joke, I
+took Clement there without his knowing what place it was. We fell in
+with them skating, and went into the house, the day before yesterday.
+That is,' said Fulbert, concluding as he had begun, 'the long and short
+of it. Whatever happened was my fault, and no one else's.'
+
+'A very honest confession!' said kind Mr. Bevan, pleased to have
+something to praise.
+
+'And I hope it will act as a warning,' said Lady Price.
+
+'But,' said Mr. Smith, partly incited by Carry's looks, 'it was true
+that you--two of you were brought home by young Jackman.'
+
+'Yes,' said Fulbert, growing crimson, 'he drove Clement and me home!'
+
+'And,' said Mr. Audley, 'it was Clement's great distress that kept
+Felix at home the next morning.'
+
+'Yes,' said Fulbert, 'there was nobody else but me, and Clem could
+hardly bear the sight of me, because I had led him into it. We thought
+no one in the house would know it--and I don't believe they do.'
+
+'Ah!' said Lady Price, 'it is false kindness to attempt concealment.'
+
+'From lawful authority it is,' said Mr. Audley; 'but in this case it
+was only from children and servants. However, Fulbert, I think you have
+fully satisfied Mr. Bevan as to the amount of intercourse between your
+brothers and Marshlands.'
+
+'Entirely,' said Mr. Bevan; 'in fact, you may assure your brother that
+I never believed anything to his discredit.'
+
+'I shall say nothing about it,' said Fulbert, not choosing to see the
+hand held out to him. 'I should be ashamed!--May I go now, Sir?' to Mr.
+Audley; and with an odd sort of circular bow, he made his escape; and
+Mr. Audley, having remained long enough to ascertain that the worst
+that could be said of him was that he was a cub, and that it was a
+terrible thing to see so many great hulking lads growing up under no
+control, took his leave, and presently came on the three boys again,
+consulting at the ironmonger's window over the knife on which Bernard
+was to spend a half-crown that Mrs. Froggatt had given him.
+
+'Can Lance and Bernard settle that? I want you a moment, Fulbert. Not
+to confront the Rectory again,' he added, smiling. 'It was a horrid
+bore for you, but there was no helping it.'
+
+'I suppose not,' said Fulbert, gloomily, as if he did not forgive the
+unpleasant moments.
+
+'It was not about that I wanted to speak to you, though,' said Mr.
+Audley. 'I wanted to know whether you have any plans or wishes for the
+future.'
+
+'I?' said Fulbert, looking up blank.
+
+'Yes, you. You are growing up, Fulbert.'
+
+'I suppose I must take what I can get,' said Fulbert, in the same
+sulky, passive voice.
+
+'That may be a wise determination; but have you really no choice?'
+
+'Well, when I was a little chap, and knew no better, I used to think I
+would be a soldier or a farmer--but that's all nonsense; and I suppose
+I must have some abominable little clerkship,' said Fulbert, with a
+certain steadiness for all the growl of his tone.
+
+'Well, Fulbert, have you a mind to try whether the other side of the
+world would suit you better?'
+
+Fulbert looked up. 'You don't mean that you would take me out?'
+
+'Yes, I do, if you are inclined to come and try for work at
+Albertstown.'
+
+Fulbert, instead of answering, quickened his pace to a walking run,
+dashed on, nearly upsetting half a dozen people, and was only checked
+by a collision with a perambulator. Then he stood still till Mr. Audley
+came up to him, and then again muttered under his breath, 'Go out to
+Albertstown!'
+
+They walked on a little way, and then the boy said, 'Say it again,
+please.'
+
+Mr. Audley did say it again, in more detail; and Fulbert this time
+exclaimed, 'It is the very thing! Thank you, Mr. Audley;' and his face
+clearing into a frank, open look, he added, 'I'll try to do my best
+there. I wonder I never thought of it before. I would have worked my
+way out as a cabin-boy if I had. Where is Lance? Does Felix know?'
+
+There was no sentiment about Fulbert. He jumped at the offer as
+instinctively as a young swallow would prepare to migrate, seemed to
+brighten all over, and shake off his dull, defiant mood, and gave
+no sign of feeling about brother or sister--except that he said he
+believed Felix would get on better without him; and that he told Lance
+that they would have splendid fun together when he was big enough to
+come out and ride a buck-jumper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+PEGASUS IN HARNESS.
+
+     'Fear not on that rugged high-way
+        Life may want its lawful zest,
+      Sunny glens are on the mountain,
+        Where the weary heart may rest.'
+                               _Charles Gavan Duffy._
+
+
+There was much relief and comfort in that visit of Mr. Audley's. For
+one thing, Geraldine was able to pour out all her troubles, as she had
+been used to do ever since her father had left her in his charge--her
+repentance for the stirrings of her naturally fretful, plaintive
+temper, for her fits of impatience and her hard judgments, and, what
+surprised him chiefly, for jealousy.
+
+'Yes,' she repeated, at his word of surprise, 'I am jealous!'
+
+'Indeed!'
+
+'I never knew it till the choral festival. I used to be very fond of
+her, but--I'm sure it is jealousy; I don't like to see her more eagerly
+attended to than myself. Not that there is anything to complain of. He
+never neglected me in his life.'
+
+Mr. Audley smiled. 'People would tell you it is the natural lot of
+sisters.'
+
+Then she saw that he knew all about it; for, in fact, Felix had, rather
+to the general surprise, observed that the Miss Pearsons would like
+to meet Mr. Audley, and the trio had spent a musical evening with the
+Underwood party.
+
+'Oh,' she cried, 'is it all my own horridness? Or is it really--'
+
+'My own horridness or my own discernment?' said he, taking the words
+out of her mouth. 'My dear, such an affair as this would be generally
+the family jest.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'It is just as well it should not be so here,' continued Mr. Audley,
+'for nonsense is not always a cure, and the talk would be mischievous;
+besides, I think both are unconscious.'
+
+'He is, I believe,' said Cherry.
+
+'At any rate, he is more than ordinarily full of sense and
+self-control, and may safely be trusted to do nothing imprudent. She
+is pretty and attractive, and of course he likes to be with her; but
+I should think it very unlikely it would go farther. Has any one else
+observed it?'
+
+'Not Wilmet, only Lance.'
+
+'And has not made fun of it? That speaks well for Master Lance's
+discretion. Yet you all feel the weight of life too heavily. I had
+rather have found you amused by these little prepossessions, than
+weighing them seriously, and wearing yourself to fritters.'
+
+'I _will_ try not to mind, but I can't help being afraid for him! It
+must be very wrong to be almost turned against her because he likes
+her; and yet, what is all very well as my friend does not seem enough
+for Felix.'
+
+'Nor will it be. My dear Cherry, such things come on and go off twenty
+times in a man's life. You will treat the symptoms more lightly before
+you have done with your seven brothers. Meantime, don't fret your
+conscience over fancies, unless you have spoken or acted unkindly or
+fretfully.'
+
+'O Mr. Audley, what shall I do when you are quite gone? All this time I
+have felt as if I were without my pilot.'
+
+Mr. Audley, too, had been thinking this over, and wished to put her
+more formally under the spiritual charge of Mr. Willoughby of St.
+Faith's, feeling that the morbid and sensitive nature needed external
+support, and that it was not right to deprive it of what the Church
+sanctions.
+
+Her only doubt was Felix's approval. His nature did not readily accept
+progress beyond that to which he had been bred up; and in border
+lands like these, an unfavourable medium made much difference to the
+clearness of the sight. Clement's contempt for what had satisfied his
+father annoyed him; and his mind was self-reliant, his soul accustomed
+to find its requirements met by the system around him, and his
+character averse to intermeddling; so that it was against the grain
+with him that spiritual guidance should be sought outside the family,
+or, at any rate, outside the parish. He thought such direction weakened
+the nature; and Mr. Audley, after warning him against taking the
+disease for the effect of the remedy, had to laugh at him as a British
+householder. After all, he yielded, because he thought Mr. Audley had
+a certain right over Geraldine, and that it was proper to defer to his
+judgment; while his guardian trusted to a sight of St. Matthew's for
+the overthrowal of the prejudices that Clement had managed to excite.
+
+Before leaving England, Mr. Audley was resolved that little Theodore
+should be shown to some London physician. The child was five years
+old, but looked no more than three. He could totter in an uncertain
+run, and understood a few simple sentences, but came no nearer to
+language than the appropriation of a musical sound to every one whom
+he knew. There was nothing unpleasant about him, except his constant
+purring and humming; he was perfectly docile, loved music, and could
+be amused by simple recurring games. His affections seemed to have
+gone out chiefly to Felix and to Sibby; and as to his twin-sister, he
+seemed lost without her, and she seemed to view him as the complement
+of herself--like a sort of left hand, giving him things to hold in his
+feeble grasp, saying her lessons to him, and talking as if to a doll.
+There was something sad in the very resemblance; for their eyes were of
+the same shade of deep blue, their long soft hair of the same flaxen
+tint, their faces equally fair; but while hers was all colour, light,
+and life, his was pale and vacant, and scarcely ever stirred into
+expression.
+
+Mr. Audley thought it right to ascertain whether treatment could be of
+any use; and finding that his father's London house was only occupied
+by his brother the Captain, he arranged that Felix should come up to
+town with the child and Sibby, when the law business could be arranged,
+and there would be an opportunity of his seeing something of the world.
+
+He had never had a holiday before, and Mr. Froggatt rivalled his
+guardian in his desire that it should not be too short. The first call
+was by appointment on the doctor. He was not used to have patients like
+Theodore brought by youths of Felix's age, and was touched by the care
+and tenderness of the young man, as he tried to overcome the alarm that
+was rendering the little one impracticable, when it was desirable to
+exhibit his slender store of accomplishments. His nearest approach to
+his natural state was when perched on his brother's knee, with his back
+to the strange faces, listening as Felix whistled the tunes he loved
+best.
+
+After all, little was gained by the consultation, except the assurance
+that the poor little fellow was as well situated as was possible. A few
+directions for treatment and discipline were given, but very little
+hope was held out of any important change for the better.
+
+The verdict disappointed Felix to an extent that surprised Mr.
+Audley, who had better understood the hopelessness of the case. Of
+all the family, Felix had the most of the parental instinct for the
+most helpless; and while he warmly thanked his friend, he looked so
+mournfully at the child who clung to him, that Mr. Audley said in a
+voice of sympathy, 'It is a burthen, but one that will never bring the
+sting of sin.'
+
+'Not a burthen,' said Felix. 'No; as my father said when he gave him to
+me, he is the Gift of God, the son of my right hand. May it always be
+able to work for you!' he murmured, as he bent his head over the little
+one.
+
+'And I think the gift will bring a blessing!' said Mr. Audley.
+
+Theodore was sent home with Sibby, thus restoring Stella to herself,
+for she had been greatly lost without her speechless companion; but
+Felix remained in London for a week of business and pleasure. Captain
+Audley was very good-natured and friendly, and abetted his brother
+in all his arrangements for showing Felix as much of life as was
+possible in a week, assuring him that every new experience was a duty
+to the Pursuivant--a plea that Felix, with his lover-like devotion
+to every detail of his paper, admitted with a smile. Edgar was of
+almost all their expeditions, and dined with them nearly every day.
+That young gentleman's peculiar pleasantness had very nearly averted
+the remonstrances with which his brother and his guardian had come up
+armed. There he was, finding his work real, and not a royal road to
+immediate wealth, idling, lounging, and gratifying his taste for art
+and music; and when his employer stormed and threatened, listening
+with aggravating coolness, and even sweetness, merely hinting that
+his occupation was a mistake; and living all the time as a son of
+the house, with a handsome allowance, and free access to society
+and amusement. Thus, when Mr. Audley talked to him, he smiled with
+a certain resignation, and observed that he was concerned for poor
+old Tom, to have been unlucky enough to have drawn such a fellow as
+himself. Probably it was a judgment on him for not having come forward
+sooner, when he _might_ have had Felix! And when Mr. Audley upheld
+Felix as an example of hearty sacrifice of taste and inclination, it
+was to obtain an enthusiastic response. Nobody breathed equal to dear
+old Fee, and it was the most ardent desire of Edgar's heart to take
+some of the burthen from his shoulders! When it was hinted that such an
+allowance as Tom Underwood gave afforded the opportunity, Edgar smiled
+between melancholy and scorn, saying, 'Times must have altered since
+your time, Mr. Audley.--No, I forgot. Expense is the rule in our line.
+Swells can do as they please.'
+
+However, there things rested; Mr. Underwood treated him exactly like an
+idle son, storming at him sometimes, but really both fond and proud of
+him, and very gracious to Felix, whom he invited once to a very dull
+and dazzling dinner, and once sent to the opera with his ladies.
+
+Felix's Sunday was chiefly spent at St. Matthew's, which he was
+very glad to see without Tina's spectacles. He was amazed to find
+so much more good sense and reality than the effect on Clement had
+led him to expect; and Mr. Fulmort, who struck him as one of the
+most practical-looking men he had ever seen, spoke in high terms of
+Clement's steadiness and wish to do right; but added, 'I am afraid we
+have rather spoilt him. He came up to us so unlike the kind of boy we
+generally get, that we may have made rather too much of him at first.'
+
+Felix smiled. 'Perhaps we had knocked him about, and made too little of
+him at home,' he said.
+
+'Besides, _esprit de corps_ in so small a place as this is apt to
+become so concentrated as not to be many removes from egotism. I
+daresay we have been a terrible bore to you.'
+
+Felix laughed. 'We have always been very grateful to you, Sir.'
+
+'I understand. I am glad he is going farther a-field. He will be much
+improved by seeing other places, and having his exclusiveness and
+conceit shaken out of him; but we shall always regard him as the child
+of the house, and I only hope he may end by working among us.'
+
+'Poor fellow! Conceit has been pretty well shaken out for the present,'
+said Felix.
+
+'I hope it may last. He was rather hurt at my not making his misfortune
+of more importance: but it seems to have been accident, all except the
+priggish self-confidence that led to it.'
+
+Felix increased much in cordiality towards Mr. Fulmort, and at the same
+time mounted many stages in Clement's estimation on the discovery that,
+however behindhand his ecclesiastical advantages might be, the Vicar
+was exceedingly impressed by his excellence.
+
+A day or two after Felix's arrival, Ferdinand Travis was first
+encountered riding a spirited horse in the park, looking remarkably
+handsome, though still of the small-limbed slender make that recalled
+his Indian blood. His delight in the meeting was extreme, and he seemed
+to be as simple and good as ever. He was in deep mourning, having newly
+heard of his father having been killed in an American railway accident;
+and though his uncle seemed proud of him, and continued his liberal
+allowance, the loss and blank were greatly felt--all the more that
+he had not found it easy to make friends among his brother officers
+in the Life Guards. His foreign air was somehow uncongenial; he had
+no vivacity or cleverness, and being little inclined to some of the
+amusements of his contemporaries, and on his guard against others, he
+seemed to find his life rather dull and weary. He did not seem to have
+anything to love except his horses, especially the creature he was
+then riding, Brown Murad. He had obtained it after such competition,
+that he viewed the purchase as an achievement; while Felix heard the
+amount with an incredulous shudder, and marvelled at Mr. Audley's not
+regarding it as wildly preposterous. It was a dangerous position; and
+though Mr. Audley certified himself, through his soldier brother, that
+Travis was steadiness itself--neither betted, gamed, nor ran into
+debt--yet while he seemed personally acquainted with all the horses
+that ran, and apparently entered into no literature but the 'Racing
+Calendar,' it was impossible not to be anxious about him, even though
+he seemed perfectly happy to be allowed to be with his two godfathers,
+and followed them everywhere, from the Houses of Parliament to St.
+Matthew's.
+
+This was not the last expedition Felix had to make to London that
+spring. After many appointments of the time, and as many delays, a
+telegram suddenly summoned him in the beginning of May to bring Fulbert
+up to London, when the business would be wound up, and Captain Audley
+would take his brother and the boy in his yacht to Alexandria, there to
+join the overland passengers.
+
+So Fulbert's farewells were made in the utmost haste, and mixed up
+with Wilmet's solicitous directions for his proper use of all her
+preparations for his comfort on the voyage; and Lance could only be
+seen for the brief moments of halt at the Minsterham Station, during
+which neither spoke three words, but Lance hung on the step till the
+train was in motion, and then was snatched back, and well shaken and
+reprimanded, by a guard; while Fulbert leant out after him at even
+greater peril of his life, long after the last wave of the trencher cap
+had ceased to be visible.
+
+Felix believed that this parting was more felt than that with all the
+other eleven; and while Fulbert subsided into his corner, the elder
+brother felt much oppressed by the sense that it was his duty to give
+some good advice, together with great perplexity what it should be,
+how it should be expressed, and whether it would be endured. He would
+have been thankful for some of Clement's propensity for preaching when
+he found himself _tęte-ŕ-tęte_ with Fulbert in a cab; but while he was
+still considering of the right end by which to take this difficult
+subject, he was startled by his beginning, 'Felix, I say, I'm glad you
+are going to get shut of me.'
+
+'I believe it is for your good,' said Felix.
+
+'You'll get on better without me,' repeated Fulbert; then, with an
+effort, 'Look here. It isn't that I don't know you're a brick and all
+that, but somehow nothing riles me like your meddling with me.'
+
+'I know it,' answered Felix. 'I wish I could have helped it; but what
+could be done, when there was nobody else?'
+
+'Ay,' responded Fulbert, 'I know I have been a sulky, nasty brute to
+you, and I should do it again; and yet I wish I hadn't.'
+
+'I should be as bad myself if I were a junior,' was the moral
+reflection Felix produced for his brother's benefit. 'Only, Ful, if you
+try that on with Mr. Audley out there, you'll come to grief.'
+
+'I don't mean to,' said Fulbert.
+
+'And you'll keep in mind what my father meant us to be, Ful--that we
+have got to live so as to meet him again.'
+
+Fulbert nodded his head emphatically.
+
+'It is his name you have to keep unstained in the new country,' added
+Felix, the fresh thought rising to his lips; but it was met by a gush
+of feeling that quite astonished him.
+
+'Ay, and yours, Felix! I do--I do want to be a help, and not a drag to
+you. I _really_ don't think so much of any of them--not even Lance--as
+of you. I _hope_ I shouldn't have been better to my father than I have
+been to you; and when--when I'm out there, I do hope to show--that I do
+care.'
+
+The boy was fighting with very hard sobs, and for all the frightful
+faces he made the tears were running down his cheeks. Felix's eyes were
+overflowing too, but with much of sudden comfort and thankfulness.
+
+'I always knew you were a good fellow, Ful,' he said, with his hand on
+his brother's knee; 'and I think you'll keep so, with Mr. Audley to
+keep you up to things, and show you how to be helped.'
+
+All after this was bustle and hurry. Fulbert had to be sent alone to
+take leave of Alda, while his brother and Mr. Audley transacted their
+business. Edgar came back with him; and after some hurried rushings out
+in search of necessaries forgotten, the last farewells were spoken, and
+Fulbert, with the two Audley brothers, was out of sight; while Felix,
+after drawing a long, deep sigh, looked at his watch, and spoke of
+going to see Alda.
+
+'Don't run your head into a hornet's nest,' said Edgar; 'it's all up
+with me there. Come this way, and I'll tell you all about it.'
+
+'All up with you!'
+
+'There are limits to human endurance, and Tom and I have over-passed
+each other's. I don't blame him, poor man; he wanted raw material to
+serve as an importer of hides and tallow, but you, the genuine article,
+were bespoken, and my father was not in a state for the pleading of
+personal predilections.'
+
+'What is it now?'
+
+'Only a set of etchings from Atalanta in Caledon. That was the straw
+that broke the camel's back,' said Edgar, so coolly as to make Felix
+exclaim--
+
+'How much or how little do you mean?'
+
+'Separated on account of irreconcilable incompatibility.'
+
+'Impossible!'
+
+'Possible, because true.'
+
+'Why did you not tell before Mr. Audley was gone?'
+
+'It would have been bad taste to obtrude one's own little affairs, and
+leave him with vexatious intelligence to ruminate on his voyage. Nay,
+who knows but that he might have thought it his duty to wait to compose
+matters, and so a bright light might have been lost to the Antipodes.'
+
+'You actually mean me to understand that you have broken with Tom
+Underwood!'
+
+'The etchings were the text of an awful row, in which the old gentleman
+exposed himself more than I am willing to repeat, and called on me to
+choose between his hides and tallow and what he was pleased to call my
+tomfoolery.'
+
+Felix groaned.
+
+'Exactly so. You are conscious that his demand was not only tyrannical
+but impracticable. One can't change the conditions of one's nature.'
+
+'Are you absolutely dismissed?'
+
+'Nothing can be more so.'
+
+'And what do you mean to do?' demanded Felix, stung, though to a
+certain degree reassured, by his tranquillity.
+
+'Study art.'
+
+'And live--?'
+
+'On my own two hundred. You will advance it? I only want sixteen months
+of years of discretion, and then I'll pay it back with more than
+interest.'
+
+'I must know more first,' said Felix. 'I must understand what terms
+you are on with Tom Underwood, and whether you have any reasonable or
+definite plans.'
+
+'Spoken like an acting partner! Well, come to Renville, he will satisfy
+you as to my plans. I am to be his pupil; he teaches at the South
+Kensington Museum, and is respectability itself. In fact, he requires
+my responsible brother to be presented to him. Come along.'
+
+'Stay, Edgar. I do not think it right by Tom Underwood to see any one
+before him. I shall go to him before anything else is done.'
+
+'Do not delude yourself with the hope of patching up matters like
+Audley last winter, losing me five months of time and old Tom of
+temper.'
+
+'How long ago was this?'
+
+'The crisis was yesterday. I was just packing to come home when Fulbert
+burst upon the scene.'
+
+Nothing could be worse news, yet Edgar's perfect self-possession
+greatly disarmed Felix. Never having thought his brother and the work
+well suited, he was the less disposed to anger, especially as the
+yoke of patronage was trying to his character; but he persisted in
+seeing Thomas Underwood before taking any steps for Edgar's future
+career, feeling that this was only due to the cousin to whom his
+father had entrusted the lad. So Edgar, with a shrug, piloted him to
+the Metropolitan Railway, and then to the counting-house where, in the
+depths of the City, Kedge and Underwood dealt for the produce of the
+corrals of South America.
+
+Edgar, as he entered the office full of clerks, nodded to their
+bald-headed middle-aged senior in a half-patronizing manner. 'Don't be
+afraid, Mr. Spooner; I'm not coming back on your hands, whatever this
+good brother of mine may intend. Is the Governor in?'
+
+'Mr. Underwood is in his room, Mr. Edgar,' was the very severe answer;
+'but after this most serious annoyance, I would not answer for the
+consequences.'
+
+'Wouldn't you indeed?' said Edgar quietly, in a nonchalant tone that
+made the younger lads bend down to sniggle behind their desks, while he
+moved on to the staircase.
+
+Mr. Spooner and he were visibly old foes; but the senior devoured his
+wrath so far as to come forward and offer a chair to Felix, repeating,
+however, 'Mr. Underwood is very seriously annoyed.'
+
+Before Felix could attempt an answer, Edgar had re-descended, newspaper
+in hand. 'Go up, Felix,' he said, threw himself into the chair,
+and proceeded to read the paper; while Felix obeyed, and found the
+principal standing at his door, ready to meet him.
+
+'What, Felix Underwood! Glad to see you. This intolerable affair can't
+have brought you up already, though?'
+
+'No, Sir; I was telegraphed for late last night, to bring up my brother
+Fulbert to start with Mr. Audley.'
+
+'Oh, ay. Well, I hope he'll have a better bargain of him than I've had
+in Edgar. You've heard his impudence?'
+
+'I am exceedingly sorry--'
+
+Then Mr. Underwood broke out with his account of Edgar's folly and
+ingratitude, after all the care and expense of his education. He had
+taken up with a set of geniuses for friends, was always rehearsing for
+amateur performances with them, keeping untimely hours; and coming
+late to the office, to cast up accounts, or copy invoices in his
+sleep, make caricatures on his blotting-paper, or still worse, become
+'besotted' with some design for a drawing or series of drawings, and
+in the frenzy of execution know no more what was said to him than a
+post. Finally, 'the ladies' being as mad as himself, as Mr. Underwood
+said, had asked him to draw for a bazaar, and in his frenzy of genius
+over the etchings he had entirely forgotten an important message, and
+then said he could not help it. On being told that if so he was not fit
+for his profession, he merely replied, 'Exactly so, the experiment had
+been unsuccessful;' and when his meekness had brought down a furious
+tempest of wrath, and threats of dismissal, he had responded, 'with his
+intolerable cool insolence,' that 'this would be best for all parties.'
+
+'This is the offence?' anxiously asked Felix.
+
+'Offence? What greater offence would you have?'
+
+'Certainly nothing can be much worse as to business,' said Felix.
+'But when he told me what had happened, I was afraid that he might be
+running into temptation.'
+
+'Oh! as to that, there's no harm in the lad--Spooner allows that--
+nothing low about him.'
+
+'And his friends?'
+
+'How should I know? Raffs those fellows always are, sure to bring him
+to the dogs!'
+
+'Did you ever hear of an artist named Renville?'
+
+'Ay?' meditatively. 'He was the master the girls had at one time,
+wasn't he?'
+
+'Then he is respectable? I ask because Edgar wants to study under him.'
+
+'Eh! what?' demanded Mr. Underwood, in manifest astonishment. 'Is the
+lad gone crazy?'
+
+'I thought you had dismissed him, Sir.'
+
+'Well, well,' said Mr. Underwood, taken aback, 'I told him only what he
+deserved, and he chose to take it as final. I thought you were come to
+speak for him.'
+
+'You are very kind, Sir, but I doubt whether he would resume his work
+here, or indeed if it would not be an abuse of your kindness to induce
+him.'
+
+'Eh! what?' again exclaimed Thomas. 'You give in to his ungrateful
+folly! Felix Underwood, I thought you at least were reasonable!'
+
+The imperious passionate manner, rather than the actual words,
+made Felix side the more with the wayward genius, and feel that
+having sacrificed himself for the good of the family, he might save
+his brother from the gloomy office and piles of ledgers and bills
+below-stairs. 'Sir,' he said, 'I am sorry Edgar has not been better
+fitted to return the timely help you have given us, but I am afraid
+that such unwilling work as his could never be of service to you.'
+
+'Why on earth should it be unwilling? Better men than he have sat
+at a desk before now! I've no patience with young men's intolerable
+conceit. There have I done everything for this young fellow, and he
+is unwilling, _unwilling_ indeed, to give his mind to the simplest
+business for six hours a day.'
+
+'It is wrong,' said Felix, 'but his powers lie in such a different
+line.'
+
+'Fiddling and daubing! Pah! If anything could be more incomprehensible
+than his not being able to cast up an account or take a message; it is
+your backing him up!'
+
+'I am afraid he is too old for coercion.'
+
+'No coercion like having not a penny in the world. Pray, how is he to
+live?'
+
+'His own means will help him through his studies.'
+
+'His own--Ł200! About as much as he has made ducks and drakes of in a
+year. Besides, he is not of age.'
+
+'No; but I have something of my own to advance for him.'
+
+Wherewith there began a fresh storm. Thomas Underwood was greatly
+mortified at the desertion of one brother, and still more at the
+acquiescence of the other. He would no doubt have been ready to
+retain the handsome engaging youth, grumbling and enduring, as a sort
+of expensive luxury; and in his wrath, disappointment, and sense of
+ingratitude at finding that his restive protégé was not to be driven
+back to him, he became so abusive, that Felix could hardly keep his
+tongue or temper in check; but when he declared that if any support
+were given to Edgar's lunatic project, the whole family except Alda
+should be left to their own resources for the rest of their lives, it
+was with quiet determination that the reply was made, with studied,
+though difficult, respectfulness:--
+
+'Sir, we are much obliged for what you have done for us, but we hope
+to be able to work for ourselves and for one another without becoming
+dependent. You cannot suppose that such a consideration would affect
+my opinion respecting Edgar.' (N.B.--If Mr. Underwood _had_ supposed
+it, he felt as if it were impossible, as all his cousin Edward's
+high spirit glowed in that young man's eyes, and strengthened the
+studiously calm voice.) 'I think,' continued Felix, 'that no one can
+be doing right whose work is not thorough. If Edgar cannot or will not
+apply himself in earnest to your business, he will be doing better by
+studying art with a will than in pretending to work here, and abusing
+your forbearance. That would be so improper towards you, and so wrong
+in him, that it would be simply unjustifiable in me to try to persuade
+you into allowing it.'
+
+Somehow, Mr. Underwood had not at all expected such a reply; and as
+luckily want of breath had forced him to wait and really hear it, a
+sensation came over him of old times when Edward Underwood had argued
+with him; and it was with much less heat that he returned, with an
+effort at irony, 'And so you take the bread out of the mouths of the
+others to support my fine gentleman in his absurd nonsense?'
+
+'No, Sir; what I advance is entirely my own.'
+
+'Oh, ay; didn't I hear something about a legacy?'
+
+'Yes, from Admiral Chester. A thousand pounds. It has only just been
+paid to me.'
+
+'That you may throw it away on this young scamp's fancies?'
+
+'No, Sir, I hope not. Half of it goes into the business at Bexley. We
+sign the deed of partnership next week. It will make a great difference
+to me. The rest is ready for emergencies.'
+
+'Tomfooleries,' muttered Mr. Underwood. 'Pray, what are the plans for
+this making a new Michael Angelo? Am I expected to give him the run of
+my house? I shall do no such thing!'
+
+'No, Sir, it would not be proper to ask it. This Renville takes pupils
+for the Royal Academy, and Edgar would board and lodge there; but I
+hope you will still be good enough to allow him to call on Alda, and
+not let him be entirely left to himself. He is much to blame, but it is
+not as if he had run into bad dissipation.'
+
+'That's true,' said Mr. Underwood. 'A terrible disappointment that
+young dog has been to me, Felix Underwood; but as you put it, there's
+an honesty in the thing! Where is my fine gentleman?'
+
+'Downstairs, Sir.'
+
+Mr. Underwood breathed through a mysterious tube, and Edgar appeared,
+with his usual easy grace, and with a sharp glance at Felix as if to
+inquire whether there were to be any attack on his newly-found liberty.
+
+'Look here, Edgar,' was the address. 'Your brother--a much better one
+than you deserve--'
+
+'Thrue for you,' muttered Edgar between his teeth.
+
+'--Says what has some sense in it, that "nothing is so ruinous as doing
+things by halves," and that you ought to be ashamed of hanging about
+here doing nothing--'
+
+A quick glance passed between the brothers.
+
+'--So he is for letting you have your way; and if he chooses to
+support you, and you choose to rob him--for I think it nothing less
+than robbery--why there--I can't help it. So I put it to you for the
+last time: will you buckle steadily to your work here like a rational
+being, or cast yourself loose to live as a beggarly artist on what your
+brother can give you by pinching the rest?'
+
+'Thank you, Sir; I hope the sooner to help him to feed the rest, by
+taking the plunge you think so desperate,' said Edgar, with more
+gravity than usual.
+
+'Oh, indeed!' sneered Mr. Underwood. 'Remember, not a farthing of mine
+goes to such folly! I don't understand it! I thought once you'd have
+been as good as a son to me,' he added in a very different tone, as he
+looked at the fine young man in whom he yearned to take pride.
+
+'I wish I could, Sir,' said Edgar, with real feeling. 'I wish you had
+hit upon any one of us but my unlucky self. You've been very good to
+me, but what a man can't do, he can't; and if I gave in now, it would
+only be the same over again. But we don't part in anger, Uncle,' he
+continued, with a trembling of voice.
+
+'Anger?! No, my boy. I'm only vexed at the whole thing; but I don't
+want to lose sight of you altogether. You'll stay with us till you've
+found decent lodgings, and you'll be welcome to look in on a Sunday.'
+Mr. Underwood spoke in a tone between asking and granting a favour.
+
+'Thank you, Sir, with all my heart,' said Edgar.
+
+'And you'll come to dine and sleep?' he added to Felix. 'You've not
+seen your sister.'
+
+'No, thank you, Sir, I cannot to-day; I must be at home tonight.'
+
+They shook hands cordially; but as Edgar crossed the counting-house,
+he paused to open his own desk and pocket some of the contents, saying
+lightly as he did so, 'There's promotion in store for some of you
+youngsters--I congratulate you, Mr. Spooner; you're free of a burthen
+to your spirit.'
+
+'Indeed, Mr. Edgar, I'm very sorry if--'
+
+'Don't throw away your sorrow, Mr. Spooner; I was foredoomed your soul
+to cross, and I bear no malice to you for having been crossed. Shake
+hands, and wish me success as a painter.'
+
+'I wish you success, Mr. Edgar; but it will not be met with in any
+profession without application and regularity.'
+
+Edgar forbore from any reply but a low and deferential bow, such as to
+provoke another smothered laugh from the other young clerks, to whom
+Felix suspected, as he looked round, the favoured kinsman was subject
+of jealousy, admiration, or imitation, according to character. However,
+Edgar shook hands with each, with some little word of infinite but
+gracious superiority, and on coming out exclaimed, 'Ban, ban, Caliban!
+You who are emancipated from a Redstone, congratulate me!'
+
+Felix neither observed on the vast difference between the excellent
+confidential Spooner and pettily jealous Redstone, nor on the extremely
+dissimilar mode of emancipation. He was more occupied with the
+momentous responsibility of having assisted to cut his brother loose
+from the protection to which his father had confided him. Mr. Audley's
+warning that he was inclined to be weak where Edgar was concerned,
+came before him. Yet the life of luxury and unfulfilled duties was
+in his eyes such a wrongful course, that he felt justified in having
+put an end to it; and his heart warmed with hope and exultation as
+he recollected how Etty's success had been owing to his brother's
+aid, and felt himself putting Edgar's foot on the first round of the
+ladder, and freeing his ascent from all that had hitherto trammelled
+it. Such bright visions haunted him when talking was impossible on
+the omnibus, outside which Edgar had exalted him--he did not well
+know why till on descending at Charing Cross, he found he was to have
+an interview with Mr. Renville, who was copying a picture in the
+National Gallery, and whom he found, to his great relief, to be no wild
+Bohemian, but a simple painstaking business-like man, who had married
+a German hausfrau, and lodged a few art students with unexceptionable
+references. Knowing Edgar already, he had measured his powers, and
+assured Felix that his talent was undoubted, though whether that talent
+amounted to genius could only be decided when the preliminary studies
+were accomplished; but even if it were not of the very highest order,
+(a supposition that rather hurt Felix's feelings,) the less aspiring
+walks of the profession would afford sufficient security of maintenance
+to justify the expense of the study. He talked with sense and coolness;
+and his charges, though falling severely on such funds as were at the
+disposal of the young pillar of the house, were, Edgar declared, and
+Felix could well believe, very moderate. The time was to be further
+decided after reference to Mrs. Renville.
+
+'Will you not come home first?' asked Felix, as they descended the
+steps.
+
+'Not in the character of the discarded! Who knows the effect it might
+have on old Froggy? By-the-by, I hope this advance does not make any
+difference to the terms of your bondage.'
+
+'Nothing important.'
+
+'Draw bills to any amount on the R.A. of the future!'
+
+The light hopeful tone contrasted with Clement's grave thankfulness,
+and sorrow at being an expense; but Felix really preferred it, as far
+less embarrassing.
+
+'Could you come down in a month's time?' he continued. 'Lance is to be
+confirmed at the Cathedral, and it might be an opportunity for you.'
+
+'I cannot lose this month's work at the Academy, it is the most
+important in the year.'
+
+'It might be arranged for you to come down for the day. You could see
+any one you pleased here.'
+
+'Has Tina excited you to consign me to the Whittingtonian Fathers?'
+
+'No.' Felix had almost rested there, but presently added, gravely, 'I
+constantly feel the impossibility of getting through this world and
+keeping straight without help--the help that is provided for us,' he
+added, lamely enough.
+
+'Dear old Blunderbore,' said Edgar, affectionately; 'what comes
+naturally to you, No. 1, letter A, in a flock of girls and boys, can't
+be the same when one has got out into this wicked world. Go on in your
+own groove, and leave me to my aberrations. Don't vex yourself, old
+fellow. A popular journalist must have got far enough to know that men
+don't concern themselves about these little affairs in one another.'
+
+'Brothers do.'
+
+'Not unless they partake of the sister. Come! You have had no
+sustenance since breakfast at six o'clock, have you? Come in here, and
+learn what soup means.'
+
+'There's no time. The train is at five.'
+
+'Time! You don't mean to walk?'
+
+'I do; and get something to eat at the station.'
+
+'I declare, Fee, your unsophistication would be refreshing if it were
+not a disgrace to your profession. Why are you not reporter to the
+"Teetotal Times?" No wonder if the Pursuivant has a flavour of weak
+tea!'
+
+Felix smiled rather sadly, aware that this was meant to lead him
+away from the last subject. He perceived that the door between his
+favourite brother's soul and his own was closed, and that knocking
+would only cause it to be bolted and barred. It might be true, as Mr.
+Audley had told him, that Edgar's was not so much real scepticism as
+the talk of the day, and the regarding the doubts of deeper thinkers
+as a dispensation from all irksome claims; but this was poor solace,
+while his brother rattled on: 'My dear Blunderbore, the hasty-pudding
+on which you characteristically breakfast is a delusion as to economy.
+Renville's little Frau will keep us better and at less expense than
+ever Wilmet conceived. You wrap yourself in your virtue, and refuse to
+spend a couple of shillings, as deeming it robbery of the fry at home.
+You wear out at least a shilling's worth of boot leather, pay twopence
+for a roll and fourpence for a more villainous compound called coffee;
+come home in a state of inanition, cram down a quartern loaf and a
+quarter of a pound of rancid butter, washed down with weak tea; and if
+self-satisfaction and exhaustion combined are soporific, it is only
+to leave you a prey to night-mare. Then, to say nothing of poorness
+of blood producing paucity of ideas, it is fearful to think of the
+doctor's bill you are laying up!'
+
+'Nonsense, Edgar; I am in perfect health.'
+
+Edgar went off into a learned dissertation on the qualities of food and
+liquor, and the expedience of enriching the blood, and giving substance
+to the constitution. He was, in fact, much more robust and athletic, as
+well as much taller, than his brother, who looked like one who led an
+indoor life without cultivating his strength, but had no token of lack
+of health or activity. Always of small appetite, he did not care how
+long he fasted, and was so much used to be on his feet, that the long
+walk through the streets seemed to fatigue him less than Edgar, who
+nevertheless kept with him, as finding real pleasure in his company.
+
+The only pauses were at the sight of an accordion in a shop window
+labelled at so low a price, that Felix ventured on it for Theodore; and
+again when Edgar insisted on stuffing his pockets with bon-bons for the
+babes, as antidotes, he said, to the Blunderbore diet.
+
+'I beg to observe, it was not Blunderbore that lived on hasty-pudding.
+That was the Welsh giant,' said Felix.
+
+'Ay! Blunderbore had three heads, and was buried up to the neck,
+completing the resemblance! Well, some day I'll give you all a hoist,
+old fellow, and then you'll be immortalized for having developed the
+President of the Royal Academy out of his slough of hides and tallow.'
+
+Felix went home through the summer twilight, tired and heavy-hearted,
+to find Wilmet sitting up over a supper not much less rigorously frugal
+than Edgar had foretold. Telling Wilmet was perhaps the worst of it
+to Felix. True, she forbore to reprove or lament when she understood
+that the deed was actually accomplished, and saw that he was fatigued
+and out of spirits; but her 'Indeed! Oh! Felix!' and her involuntary
+gesture and attitude of dismay, went as far as a volume of reproach and
+evil augury. He was weary beyond vindicating himself or Edgar; but the
+next morning, when Wilmet and Angela had started for school, there was
+a sense that the cat was away, and Geraldine looking up under her long
+black eyelashes, whispered, 'Oh! it is so nice in you to have let him
+loose, dear Fee! It was such cruel waste to pin him down there!'
+
+'It was mockery for him to pretend to work there against the grain, and
+live in all that ease and luxury,' said Felix, greatly appreciating
+her sympathy. 'That must be so clearly wrong, that the more I think it
+over, the more I trust I did right in not trying to make it up again,
+as Mr. Audley did.'
+
+'It was only a pity he did!' said Cherry; 'but of course it was for
+your sake, that you might not have him thrown back on your hands.'
+
+'And for Edgar's own protection too,' said Felix; 'but I cannot think
+lazy insufficient work, and constant amusement, otherwise than so
+unworthy, that I am sure Mr. Audley would think it more honest and
+right to put an end to them, even at some risk.'
+
+'Risk!' said the little sister, ruffling up her feathers; 'he is sure
+to succeed, and you know it.'
+
+'I did only mean risk in that sense,' said Felix, gravely; 'but I hope
+he is safely and satisfactorily placed. Renville seems an excellent
+person, and more trustworthy perhaps because he only commits himself to
+Edgar's capability.
+
+'Capability!' contemptuously repeated Cherry. 'No one but you and I
+really understand what Edgar can do!'
+
+'I could have shaken the fellow for his coldness,' said Felix, smiling;
+'but no doubt it was right of him, and Edgar will soon show--'
+
+'That he will! Only look at the beauty and freedom of this outline,' as
+she opened her portfolio.
+
+'Don't beguile me, Cherry; I can't stay. I've all yesterday's work to
+make up.'
+
+'Here are all the proofs, ready. Only just look at the sentence I
+marked for you. O Felix, how lucky Edgar has you for a brother, to save
+him from being blighted and crushed!'
+
+'Is that head yours or his? Yours! I should say he was lucky to have
+such an unenvious sister. You would draw as well as he if you only had
+the teaching.'
+
+'Oh no, don't say that! It spoils his! Though I do wish my drawing
+could be of some use.'
+
+'Never mind about use. You are our pleasure,' as he saw her
+dissatisfied; 'besides, what would _Pur_ (the household abbreviation of
+Pursuivant) do without the sub?'
+
+This was much pleasanter! Cherry smiled at his kiss, and he ran
+downstairs, exulting--like herself--in their artist brother's future
+fame.
+
+When he returned to the sitting-room in the evening twilight, the
+first voice he heard, through Theodore's humming, was Wilmet's, as in
+mitigation--'I daresay he is well educated, and not vulgar.'
+
+'Oh! but the sound of it!' cried Alice Knevett's voice. 'A mere
+tradesman!'
+
+'Who is the unfortunate?' asked Felix, coming forward.
+
+'O Mr. Underwood, how you do steal upon one! Yes, I'm furious! Here's
+my old friend Florence Spelman--the dearest girl in the world, and so
+pretty--gone and engaged herself to young Schneider, of Schneider and
+Co., on the tailor's advertisements, you know! It is one of the first
+houses in London, and he's very rich and handsome and all that; but
+isn't it dreadful? All her friends will have to drop her! And I was so
+fond of her.'
+
+'Is it trade itself, or the kind of trade, that outrages your
+feelings?' asked Felix, in a tone of raillery.
+
+'Oh, a tailor is too horrible! As if all trade wasn't bad enough,' said
+Alice, laughing; then recollecting herself she turned, blushing and
+confused, to Cherry--'At least--I mean--your brother makes one forget.
+He isn't in the least like _that!_'
+
+'I never wish to forget anything he is!' said Cherry, proudly looking
+up to him.
+
+'Ah! you don't know what is in my pocket!' said Felix, leaning his back
+against the mantleshelf.
+
+'Oh! what!' cried Alice and Geraldine both together; while Wilmet
+looked at him as if she wished to put him in mind of the presence of a
+stranger.
+
+'Guess!' he said.
+
+'Somebody has left you a fortune! Oh! delightful!' cried Alice,
+clasping her hands.
+
+'Mr. Thomas Underwood will take Edgar's art study on himself,'
+exclaimed the more moderate Geraldine.
+
+'You burn, Cherry. It comes from that quarter. Here's a letter by the
+evening's post to offer me, if I have not closed with Mr. Froggatt, to
+invest in Kedge and Underwood's concern, and begin with Ł300 a year as
+clerk.'
+
+'It can't be possible,' said Wilmet, the only one to speak, as the
+other two girls looked rather blank.
+
+'Just so far that the deed of partnership here is not signed.'
+
+'What is the business?' asked Alice.
+
+'He is a South American merchant, and deals with Rio for hides and
+tallow, if you prefer that to books and stationery,' said Felix, in a
+would-be light tone.
+
+'Oh, but a South American merchant! That sounds quite delightful!'
+cried Alice. 'And you'll have to live in dear, dear London! How I envy
+you!'
+
+'That must be the effect you had upon him, Felix!' said Cherry, proudly.
+
+'Well, I thought I had been a specimen of the obstinate,' observed
+Felix. 'Here is his letter.'
+
+He gave it as of right to Wilmet; but other eyes remarked the address
+to F. C. Underwood, Esquire, an unusual thing, since, as Mr. Froggatt
+had never aspired to the squirehood, Felix made all his brothers and
+sisters write only the Mister, and thus entirely deprived himself of
+the pleasure of Alda's correspondence.
+
+'Where will you live? Oh! you'll let me come and stay with you
+sometimes!' cried Alice.
+
+Felix smiled as he answered, 'I'm afraid our house is not built yet.'
+
+'Miss Pearson's maid for Miss Alice,' said Martha, at the door.
+
+'Oh dear, how tiresome! but you'll tell me all about it to-morrow. How
+horrid it will be here when you are all gone!'
+
+'We are not gone yet,' said Wilmet, repressively. 'And if you please,
+Alice, do not talk of this.'
+
+'No,' said Felix, 'it must be entirely a family matter. I know we can
+trust to you.'
+
+'Thank you! I'm so glad I was there! It is so nice to have a secret of
+yours--and this is a beauty! Why, you'll be a great man with a house in
+London, just like Mr. Underwood of Centry.'
+
+'Pleasing ambition,' Cherry could not help muttering, with an ironical
+smile, as Alice laughed and nodded herself away.
+
+'Ready sympathy is a pleasant thing,' returned Felix.
+
+'You don't mean that you think this feasible?' said Wilmet, with a
+negative inflection in her voice.
+
+'I think it ought to be considered before it is absolutely too late.'
+
+Both were surprised, having always thought that he considered his
+destiny as fixed; and as Geraldine looked on while the other two
+discussed pounds, shillings, and pence, it was plain to her that he had
+an inclination to the change. The probability of rising, the benefit
+of lodging Edgar, the nearness to Alda, the probable openings for the
+younger lads, were advantages; but against these Wilmet set the heavy
+London house-rent, rates and taxes--from which they were free--the
+expense of living, the loss of her present situation, the dangers of
+deterioration of health. As to Edgar, his habits must be formed, he
+was already in a respectable family, and Lance and Bernard ought not
+to be risked for his sake. In fact Wilmet looked on London with a sage
+country girl's prudent horror of the great and wicked capital; and
+when that experienced man of the world, Felix, tried to prove that she
+did it injustice, he was met with a volley of alarming anecdotes. He
+hinted that ladies' schools might need teachers there, but was met by
+the difficulty of forming a new connection; and when he suggested that
+Cherry's talent might be cultivated, Wilmet hotly exclaimed, 'She could
+never go about to classes and schools of art!'
+
+'Not alone, certainly,' said Cherry, wistfully.
+
+'Edgar is as good as nobody, and I should be of no use in places like
+that,' added Wilmet.
+
+'I'm afraid you don't look very chaperonish,' said Felix, contemplating
+the fair exquisitely-moulded face, the more Grecian for the youthful
+severity that curved the lip and fixed the eye. 'If we could only turn
+her inside out, Cherry, she would be a dozen duennas in one!'
+
+'And then the Pursuivant. You would not like to desert poor Pur,' added
+Cherry.
+
+'I could do that better in town in some ways.'
+
+'Mr. Underwood would think that as bad as Edgar's drawing,' said
+Wilmet. 'No, no, Felix, you have learnt one business thoroughly, and
+it would be foolish to begin a fresh one now. Besides, how about Mr.
+Froggatt?'
+
+'Of course I should do nothing in such haste as to inconvenience
+Mr. Froggatt,' said Felix; 'and no one is more anxious for our real
+benefit, if this were possible.'
+
+'But you see it won't do,' reiterated Wilmet.
+
+'Perhaps not,' he answered, with more of a sigh than his sisters
+expected.
+
+Rather nettled, Wilmet set to work with pencil and paper to calculate
+expenses; Geraldine looked up at Felix, who had taken up a book, and
+began to whistle, 'For a' that, an' a' that.'
+
+Presently Wilmet, by way of making assurance sure, went off for her
+account-book; when he looked up and said,' How should you have liked
+this, Cherry?'
+
+'I don't know. I've not thought. Did you?'
+
+'I hadn't time before our Pallas Athene settled it; and I believe she
+is right, if she would not lay it in quite so hard. It only seemed
+a pity to lose our last chance of a lift in life without at least
+considering it.'
+
+'I thought you did not care about lifts in life.'
+
+'I ought not. But when it is brought home that we have slipped down
+two degrees in the social scale, it is tempting to step up one again!
+However, it plainly cannot be.'
+
+Yet when Wilmet mustered her irrefragable figures to prove how much
+poorer they would be in London than on their present income at Bexley,
+he would not go into details, saying that he wanted to hear no more
+about it, in a tone that a little hurt her. He was so uniformly gentle
+and gracious, that what would have passed unnoticed in most brothers,
+was noticed anxiously in him; and as Wilmet darned his shirt sleeve,
+a glistening came between her eyes and her needle, as she felt the
+requital of her prudence rather hard. Must all men pant to be out in
+the world, and be angry with women for withholding them?
+
+Nor was Geraldine devoid of the old prick, when she thought of the
+degrees in the social scale in connection with the words about
+tradesmen and merchants.
+
+Wilmet was not quite happy without knowing that the letter of refusal
+was written, and was more vexed than she liked to show when Felix
+laughed at her for supposing he could have made time to write it on a
+busy Saturday, even if there had been any London post to send it by.
+Poor Alice Knevett got a considerable snubbing for bursting in to ask
+the decision, and lamenting over it when she had heard it; but she
+stood her ground with a certain pertinacity of her own: and so late in
+the evening, that Wilmet had gone up to put Stella to bed, Felix came
+up with the letter in his hand. It was so carefully expressed, that
+Cherry could not help saying saucily that it was worthy of the editor
+of the Pursuivant; while Alice, much impressed by the long words,
+enthusiastically broke out, 'It is a most beautiful letter, only it
+ought to have said just the other thing!'
+
+'Why, what would you have done without Cherry?' said Felix.
+
+'I'd have come to stay with her! And it is such a pity! A merchant is
+a gentleman, and I am sure you could get to be anything--a member of
+parliament, or a baronet, or--' as if her imagination could not go
+farther; but she looked up at him with a dew of eagerness glistening
+in her bright hazel eyes. 'I was telling Cherry it does seem such a
+dreadful horrible pity that you should be nailed down in this little
+hole of a place for life.'
+
+Felix smiled--a man's superior, gratified, but half melancholy
+smile--as he answered, 'At any rate, you won't lose the pleasures of
+imagination or of pity.'
+
+'But I want to see you have the spirit to try,' cried Alice, eagerly.
+'I know you could.'
+
+'It would not be right,' said Felix, sitting down by her, and in full
+earnest gentleness and gravity setting before her the reasons that
+Cherry had hardly thought it worth while really to explain--namely, the
+impossibility of their being able to pay their way and meet the needful
+expenses, and the evils of the young, inexperienced household residing
+in London, resigning security for dependence.
+
+Alice, flattered by being treated as a sensible person, said, 'Yes,'
+and 'I see,' at all the proper places; then drew a sigh, saying, 'It is
+very good in you.'
+
+'I knew you would see it in the right light,' replied Felix.
+
+'Oh!' but the sigh recurred. 'I can't help being sorry, you know.'
+
+'There is nothing to be sorry for,' he said gratefully. 'I was
+disappointed at first myself; but for sheer usefulness to one's
+neighbour, I believe that this present position, if I have sense
+to make use of it rightly, is as good as any; and the mere
+desire of station and promotion is--when one comes to look at it
+properly--nonsense after all.'
+
+She opened her eyes in amazement, and made a little exclamation.
+
+'They may be well when they come,' said Felix in answer; 'but I have
+thought it over well to-night, and I see that to do anything doubtfully
+right for their sake would be a risk for all that I have no right to
+run.'
+
+Alice hung her head, overcome by the pure air of the region where he
+was lifting her; and in a sort of shyness at the serious tone in which
+he had spoken, he added, smiling,
+
+'Then you'll forgive the "sound of it."'
+
+'O Mr. Underwood,' she said, in the simplest and most earnest voice
+that Cherry had ever heard from her, 'I'm ashamed to recollect that
+nonsense!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+WHAT IT MAY LEAD TO.
+
+        'I never was so berhymed since I was an Irish rat, which I can
+        scarcely remember.'--_As You Like It_.
+
+     'Dim memories haunt the child,
+      Of lives in other beings led--
+        Other, and yet the same.'--_Keble_.
+
+
+In the autumn Alda made a visit at home. She had, as usual, gone with
+Mr. and Mrs. Underwood to their German baths, and had there fallen in
+with a merry set of her intimates in London, who had persuaded her to
+join them in an expedition to the Tyrol, which lasted till the end of
+September. On her return, she was dropped at Bexley, where her sisters
+were greatly edified by her sketch-book, a perfect journal in clever
+scenes and groups, like the 'Voyage en zig-zag.' Two of the gentlemen
+seemed always in waiting on the graceful outline that did duty for
+Alda; and indeed, she gave Wilmet to understand that only the skill
+that played them off one against the other had averted an offer from
+each, hundreds of miles from home, when it would have been so very
+inconvenient! Every morning Wilmet considered how her dinner would
+appear if one or both should suddenly drop in to pursue his courtship.
+
+Even Felix, though he had pooh-poohed the mysterious whisper from
+his sisters, was startled at the apparition of a picturesque figure;
+in Tyrolese hat, green knickerbockers, belt, knapsack, loose velvet
+coat, and fair moustache, marching full into the shop; and while the
+customers who were making it a rendezvous gazed in doubt between
+gamekeepers and stage banditti, holding out a hand too fair and dainty
+for either character, and exclaiming, 'How are you, Mr. Froggatt!
+Hollo, Felix!'
+
+Mr. Froggatt was amazed beyond measure, and it was only on hearing the
+ring of the mirthful laugh that he exclaimed, 'Mr. Edgar! This is an
+alteration! You will find the young ladies up-stairs.'
+
+Felix was disengaged at the moment, and could take him through the
+parlour, too glad to have him there at all to utter the faintest wish
+that he would have rung at the private door; and he ushered him into
+the drawing-room with the words, 'Here's the artist who has begun with
+himself;' and then retreated.
+
+'Edgar! oh, you wonderful boy!' cried happy Geraldine, as he threw his
+arms round her; while Alda asked:
+
+'Is that the _thing_ now, Edgar?'
+
+'Quite _comifo_,' he answered. 'Ha, little ones, have you forgotten me?'
+
+'Stella says you're the clarionet in the brass band,' said Bernard.
+'What have you got in that pack?'
+
+'Munitions of war!' he answered, unstrapping his bag, and producing
+packets of French bon-bons, bought on his way home, from the sketching
+tour Mr. Renville always made with sundry of his pupils in early
+autumn. 'Gobble them up, little mice, before the cat comes home.'
+
+Stella paused with a dutiful 'May I?' and Cherry had to interfere
+between the little maiden's scruples, Bernard's omnivorous inclination,
+and Theodore's terror at any new article of food; while Alda and Edgar
+exchanged eager question and answer:
+
+'You've been at home. You've seen them all?'
+
+'I dined there on Sunday--might do so any day; they can't do without
+me, that's a fact.'
+
+'Nor me, I imagine,' said Alda. 'I suppose I am to go back with you?'
+
+'So Madam proposed; but the fact is, that Molly has done uncommonly
+well without you this time.'
+
+'What do you mean?' asked Alda, sharply.
+
+'What think you of a friend of Cherry?'
+
+'I haven't got any friends.'
+
+'Think again! Not the great convert, the Cacique of all the Mexicos?'
+
+'Ferdinand Travis! You don't mean it?'
+
+'_I_ don't; but the elders mean it, and the youngers will do it.'
+
+'Do tell me! I can't understand,' cried Alda, much excited. 'We have
+never met him.'
+
+'The uncle or father--which?'
+
+'The uncle.'
+
+'Well, the uncle has been in England, and fraternized with our governor
+at Peter Brown's; there was a banqueting all round, and his nephew was
+carried at his chariot wheels. If I am not much mistaken, gold and
+timber jingled to silver and bullock-hide, and concluded a prospective
+union in the persons of my nephew and my daughter. I'm sorry. I have
+long been persuaded that a very small effort on the part of our
+respected Blunderbore might have redeemed the family fortunes in the
+person of Polly.'
+
+'How could you think of anything so absurd?' said Alda. 'As if my uncle
+would consent!'
+
+'If Tom has any sentiment, it is for my father and the name of
+Underwood,' said Edgar. 'You remember he was sorely disappointed that
+Felix would not step into my shoes.'
+
+'And very angry and hurt,' said Alda, 'as well he might be.'
+
+'Yes; but that anger proved the vastness of his good intentions.
+Besides there's something about our old giant--steadiness and breeding,
+I believe--that uniformly makes Tom knock under to him; and there's a
+peculiar affinity of good sense between him and Marilda, that ought to
+have ripened under favourable circumstances.'
+
+'And is he really cut out?' said Alda. 'I don't know how to believe
+this! How far has it gone?'
+
+'Hanger on and oyster in love,' promptly answered Edgar. 'Honest
+Polly has the most comical look of anxious coyness on her jolly face,
+and holds her elbows squarer than ever; and a few paces off stands
+Montezuma, magnificent and melancholic;' and Edgar assumed the posture.
+
+'Melancholy, no wonder,' said the conscious beauty; 'Edgar, he must be
+over head and ears in debt.'
+
+'So it struck me; but he must have managed it uncommon quietly, for
+they call him the Mexican Muff; he's hand and glove with all their
+holinesses up at Clement's shop, and the wildest orgie he has been
+detected at was their magic-lantern.'
+
+'Then it is real goodness that draws them together!' exclaimed Cherry,
+looking up from her presidency over the comfits.
+
+'Goodness and a balance,' said Edgar.
+
+'Did you know,' said Cherry, 'that as soon as he came of age, he paid
+the Insurance all the money for the Fortinbras Arms? The agents were
+quite overwhelmed, and wanted to put it in the Pursuivant.'
+
+She was cut short by the return of Wilmet and Angela, accompanied by
+Miss Knevett. The effect of Edgar's appearance was startling. Alice
+gave a little scream of surprise, Angela crept behind her sisters, and
+Wilmet stood for a moment like a stag at gaze; then, as he said, 'Well,
+Mettie, are you going to send for the police?' exclaimed, 'You, Edgar!
+What a figure you have made of yourself!'
+
+'See how our eldest crushes me!' said Edgar. 'Such a face as yours,
+Mettie, ought not to be wedded to the commonplace.'
+
+'I suppose it is like German artists,' said Wilmet, trying to resign
+herself.
+
+'It is such a beautiful becoming dress,' whispered Alice to Geraldine;
+while Edgar rattled on--'No wonder there is a deterioration in taste
+from living in the very tents of the Philistines. Why, Cherry, how do
+you bear existence surrounded by such colours as these?'
+
+'The paper?' asked Wilmet, surprised. 'It is rather a large pattern, to
+be sure.'
+
+'I call it cruelty to animals to shut Cherry up among the eternal
+abortive efforts of that gilded trellis to close upon those blue
+dahlias, crimson lilacs, and laburnums growing upwards, tied with huge
+ragged magenta ribbons. They would wear out my brain.'
+
+'Well, I think when you remember our old paper, you might be thankful!'
+said Wilmet.
+
+'Precisely what I do, and am not thankful. What our paper may have been
+in its earlier stages of existence, I am not prepared to say; but since
+I can remember, that hateful thing, the pattern, could only be traced
+by curious researches in dark corners, and the wall presented every
+_nuance_ of purplish salmon or warm apricot.'
+
+'Dear old paper!' cried Cherry. 'Yes; wasn't it soft, deepening off in
+clouds and bars, sunsets and storm-clouds, to make stories about?'
+
+'Where it was most faded and grimy,' said Wilmet. 'It is all
+affectation not to be glad to have clean walls.'
+
+'Clean!' cried Edgar, in horror. 'Defend me from the clean! Bare, bald,
+and frigid, with hard lines breaking up and frittering your background.
+If walls are ornamented at all, it should not be in a poor material
+like paper, but rich silk or woollen tapestry hangings.'
+
+'We couldn't have tapestry now,' said Alice, in a puzzled voice.
+
+'Then,
+
+     '"Comrades, take warning by my fall,
+       And have it strong or not at all."'
+
+'Not walls,' laughed Cherry.
+
+'Let them be of natural, or, at any rate, uniform tint; and cover them
+with your own designs of some character and purpose, not patterns
+bought by the yard.'
+
+'Oh! I see what you would be at,' said Wilmet quaintly. 'You are
+bewailing the loss of your great Man Friday.'
+
+'Achilles, I beg your pardon.'
+
+'He never would come out,' said Angela; 'he came through the whitewash
+after the measles.'
+
+'I wonder what the present inhabitants think of him,' said Cherry. 'One
+comfort is, if he is a bogy now, they may show him some day as an early
+effort of Sir Edgar Underwood, President of the Royal Academy.'
+
+'Oh dear! I must go!' cried Alice. 'I only came to fetch a pattern for
+Aunt Maria, and she is waiting for it; but you are all so delightful
+here.'
+
+'What pretty little thing have you picked up there?' asked Edgar, as
+she went.
+
+'Have we not told you of Miss Pearson's niece?'
+
+'You should take her likeness, Cherry, as a relief from the classically
+severe.'
+
+Cherry opened her portfolio, and showed two or three water-coloured
+drawings of the graceful little head and piquant features. Edgar
+criticised, and promised a lesson; and the sitter, nothing loth, though
+rather coy, was caught. She blushed and smiled, and took exception at
+little personalities, and laughed her forgiveness, going through a play
+of countenance very perplexing to the pupil, but much relished by the
+master, as he called up the pout and smile by turns, and played with
+her little airs.
+
+He took Alda back on Monday, but promised to come home for Christmas,
+and kept his word. Perhaps the Renville _wirthschaft_ afforded less
+contrast with home than did the Underwood _ménage_; and, in spite of
+the Philistine furniture, the rooms in the High Street agreed better
+with his tastes than the old house in St. Oswald's Buildings. He was
+above objecting to the shop; and whereas Clement carefully avoided
+the public precincts, he was often there, hunting up books, reading
+newspapers, gossiping with Mr. Froggatt or with Redstone, and always
+ensuring himself a welcome by the free bright sweetness of his manner
+and his amusing talk.
+
+It was a prosperous winter; Felix, as partner and acknowledged editor,
+was in a more comfortable position both as to income and authority.
+Other matters were going well. Fulbert, to the general surprise,
+turned out a capital letter-writer, and sent home excellent accounts
+of himself, working heartily in a situation in the post-office, which
+Mr. Audley's Somerville interest had managed to secure for him.
+Moreover, all close scholarships had not been abolished, and Felix's
+opportunities in the newspaper line had enabled him to discover one at
+St. Cadoc's, a small college at Cambridge, to be competed for by the
+natives of the county where Clement had fortunately been born. A letter
+to the parish clerk of Vale Leston, to ask for the baptismal register
+of Edward Clement Underwood, produced a reply from a well-remembered
+old Abednego Tripp, who declared himself 'horned and rejoiced' at
+hearing from Master Felix, and at being able to do anything for one of
+the Reverend Mr. Edward's sons. The competition was not very severe;
+Clement obtained the scholarship, and therewith his maintenance for
+three years to come; and he was at the same time able to exercise a
+bit of patronage on his sisters' behalf, more gratifying to his own
+feelings than theirs. Mr. Fulmort's unmarried sisters had lived in
+the country with a former governess, until on the death of the elder,
+the survivor decided on employing her very considerable fortune in
+establishing a school where girls of small means might be prepared
+for becoming first-rate governesses, with special openings for the
+daughters of poor clergy and of missionaries.
+
+One of the first families thought of was that of the favourite
+chorister; so Angela, now ten years old, was nominated at once,
+to the relief of Wilmet, who did not think her romping intimacies
+with the girls at Miss Pearson's very desirable. Moreover, after a
+correspondence between Miss Fulmort and Miss Lyveson, it was decided
+that Robina should be transferred to the new school at Brompton with
+her sister, partly by way of infusing a trustworthy element, and partly
+that her studies might be perfected by London masters. Robina, whose
+allegiance to Miss Lyveson was most devoted, was greatly grieved, but
+she was a reasonable, womanly little being, aware that governess-ship
+was her profession, and resolute to qualify herself; so though she
+came home with tell-tale spots under her eyes, she replied to all
+condolences with, 'I know it's right, what must be must;' and her
+spirits rose when Lance came home, bound only to return during the
+holidays on two or three special days when his voice was indispensable
+at the cathedral.
+
+Edgar and he together kept the house in continual merriment, so that
+the sober pillars of the house found themselves carried along, they
+knew not whither.
+
+'I have had a serious application,' said Felix one evening. 'A solemn
+knock came to the office door, and an anxious voice came in--"Please,
+brother, I want to speak to you." There stood the little Star! I
+thought at least she had broken the chandelier, but no such thing. It
+was, "Please, brother, mayn't I have a birth-day?"'
+
+'Poor little darling!' cried some voices.
+
+'What could have put it into her head?' said Wilmet.
+
+'She said all little girls had birth-days, and Ellen Bruce had told
+Angel all about the dance in honour of hers.'
+
+'Ah!' said Wilmet, 'we'll have Angel out of the way of that kind of
+chatter.'
+
+'Poor little maid! of course I had to quench her,' said Felix, 'as far
+as her own day was concerned. I told her more about it than she had
+ever heard, but then she took me aback by saying Father was happy, and
+she thought he would like her to be happy.'
+
+'You didn't consent!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'I represented that it was Theodore's birth-day as well, and that
+strangers would make him miserable. She was really very good, and I
+want you just to consider whether we could not do something--of course
+on a different day--but in the course of the holidays, by way of treat.
+Surely you could invite some of Miss Pearson's pupils.'
+
+'I don't like to begin, Felix,' said Wilmet; 'there would be
+reciprocity, and no one knows where it might lead to.'
+
+'A few white muslin frocks--eh, W. W.? I think we could stand them.'
+
+'That is not all I mean,' said Wilmet; 'it is the sort of style of
+thing. It would be all very well to have a few little girls here, but
+they would all ask us again, and I could not answer for what might
+happen at their homes.'
+
+'It is out!' said Edgar. 'Now we know the sort of style of thing it
+might lead to. Minerva under a mistletoe bough.'
+
+'Hurrah!' burst out Lance, in convulsions of mirth, which infected
+Felix and Cherry; while Wilmet, as simple as she was discreet, blushed
+up to the tips of her ears, and tried to defend herself.
+
+'They tell me of doings at their parties that are what I should not
+like for our little girls, and I don't think you would, Felix.'
+
+'Forfeits, to wit?' asked Edgar. 'Or cards, or waltzing. You may as
+well be explicit, Mettie.'
+
+'No, no,' said Felix, 'Mettie shall not be teased: she is right in the
+main.' But his _tone_ was that he always used when her prudence was too
+much for him.
+
+'And the family refinement is to be secured by sitting in ashes all
+Christmas,' said Edgar. 'Slightly unchristian, it strikes me.'
+
+'But,' continued Felix, 'out of these domestic ashes, we _must_ get up
+some sport for the children. I stand committed to Stella.'
+
+'Shall I get Bill Harewood, and do Box and Cox?' suggested Lance.
+
+'Might we not get up something they could take part in themselves?'
+said Cherry; 'Cinderella, or some such little play?--Edgar, you know
+how to manage such things.'
+
+'Wilmet doesn't know where they would lead to,' gravely responded Edgar.
+
+'To Lance's going off with a circus,' said Felix.
+
+'I always had a great mind to do so,' responded Lance. 'To sing comic
+songs on one leg on a spotted horse's back, and go about day and night
+in a yellow van drawn by elephants--I call that life!'
+
+'Secure a berth for me as scene-painter!' cried Edgar. 'See how I'd
+draw a house by the very outline of Mazeppa outside!'
+
+'And Felix will print all our advertisements gratis!'
+
+'Oh!' broke in Cherry; 'I have a notion. Couldn't we make a play of the
+conjuror in disguise? It is Dr. Knowall in German popular tales, Robin
+the Conjuror in English.'
+
+'Nothing foolish, I hope?' seriously asked Wilmet.
+
+'Oh no. Don't you recollect? The story is, that a set of thieves steal
+a jewel, a man comes shamming conjuror and offering to find it for the
+owner, intending to trust to chance, and feast at her expense as long
+as he is not found out.'
+
+'I remember!' exclaimed Lance; 'you used to tell us the story. Somebody
+suspects him, and brings a creature shut up in a covered dish to ask
+him to tell what it was--and it happens to be a robin; so when he cries
+out, "Oh, poor Robin!" thinking himself done for, out hops the bird,
+and the enemy is sold.'
+
+'Yes; and then he counts his dinners every day, and the thieves who
+have come to look on think he is counting them, and throw themselves on
+his mercy.'
+
+'It has capabilities,' said Edgar.
+
+'But the moral!' said Wilmet.
+
+'What! Not the lesson against dealing with conjurors?' demanded Edgar.
+'I'll undertake to arm your pupils against spirit-rapping for ever.'
+
+'In that point of view--' said Wilmet doubtfully.
+
+'In that point of view,' said Felix, laughing, 'it has my vote.'
+
+'I don't like deception to succeed,' said Wilmet; 'but at least there's
+none of the worst sort of nonsense.'
+
+Lance leapt up and performed a _pas seul_, insisting that Bill Harewood
+must come and be a robber; and Edgar and Cherry instantly had their
+heads together as playwrights and managers.
+
+'Never mind, Wilmet,' said Felix at their bed-room doors that night.
+'Remember, Father never was a man for all work and no play.'
+
+'I don't mind play, but I don't know what this may lead to;' then,
+as Felix laughed merrily at the repetition, she followed him into
+his room, saying, 'I mean, I have no trust in Edgar's discretion, or
+Lance's either, and all sorts of things may be put into the children's
+heads.'
+
+'You can't keep children's heads a blank,' said Felix; 'and Edgar's
+good taste ought to be trusted in his own home, for his own sisters.
+Even you might stretch a few points to keep him happy and occupied with
+Cherry. Besides, I believe we do live a duller life than can be really
+good for any one. It can't be right to shut up all these young things
+all their holidays without any pleasure.'
+
+'I thought,' said Wilmet, her eyes growing moist, 'it was pleasure
+enough to be all at home together.'
+
+'So it is, to staid old fogies like you and me,' said Felix, kissing
+her; 'but the young ones want a lark now and then, and I confess I
+should be immensely disappointed if this fun didn't come off. No, no,
+W. W., I can't have you an old cat; you are much too young and
+pretty.'
+
+The levity of this conclusion shocked Wilmet beyond remonstrance. Was
+Felix falling from his height of superiority, or was her strictness
+wearisome?
+
+Meantime, Geraldine's brain was ringing with doggrel rhymes, and
+whirling with stage contrivances, in the delight of doing something
+with Edgar, whether versifying or drawing; and as Felix said, to keep
+him happy at home for Christmas was no small gain, even though it
+brought a painful realisation that their feast was not his feast.
+
+Geraldine suffered in silence, for a word from her was always put
+down by some tender jest, avowing as much inferiority in goodness as
+superiority in intellect. As to Clement, Edgar's sport was to startle
+him with jokes, dilemmas, and irreverences, and then to decline
+discussion on the ground that he never argued with _sisters_, and that
+Clement would understand when he went to Cambridge. Otherwise, the
+subject was avoided at home; but Edgar consorted a good deal with Mr.
+Ryder, calling him the only person in the town, except Cherry, who
+knew the use of a tongue; and one day, when Felix was assisting his
+old master in a search through old newspapers in the reading-room, Mr.
+Ryder said, 'By-the-by, your brother Edgar has a good deal more of the
+talk of the day than you can be prepared for.'
+
+'I am afraid so, sir,' said Felix; 'but he does not put it forth much
+at home.'
+
+'So I hoped. It would have startled your father a good deal; but I
+believe myself acting in the spirit of his wishes in letting him talk
+out his crudities.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' said Felix, not quite knowing how to take this.
+
+'It is a phase to be passed through,' said Mr. Ryder. 'Indeed, a good
+deal of it is fashion and vanity.'
+
+'Mr. Audley thinks so,' replied Felix. 'He said he thought poor Edgar
+did not think enough to have real doubt, but that he considered other
+people's a dispensation from attending to the subject at all.'
+
+'Exactly,' said Mr. Ryder, 'except so far as repeating what he has
+caught up seems to him knowing, and according to the spirit of the
+time, fit to dazzle us down here. Whatever may deepen him will probably
+change all that--I do not say into what you or your father would wish;
+but what is jargon now will pass away into something more real, for
+better or--'
+
+'For worse?' asked Felix anxiously, as he paused.
+
+'I do not say so,' returned Mr. Ryder. 'Perhaps what I chiefly wished
+at this moment was to clear myself in your eyes of treachery to your
+father.'
+
+'No, sir, that I never could suspect.'
+
+But the conversation might well leave heaviness behind it. Was it come
+to Edgar's views being such as to startle Mr. Ryder! who, for that
+matter, had of late shown much less laxity of opinion than in his
+younger and more argumentative days; and there was little comfort in
+supposing that these were not real honest doubts at all, only apologies
+for general carelessness and irreligion.
+
+Yet with even this trouble in the recess of the heart, this was the
+merriest winter the Underwood household had known since their father's
+time.
+
+Edgar chose to frame the play upon the Italian form of the story, where
+the impostor is a starveling poet, nicknamed Signor Topo, or Master
+Ratton, because his poverty had brought him to live in a hay-loft. This
+character he assumed, and no doubt it fitted him better than either the
+English cobbler or the German doctor; besides, as he said, sham court
+costume is always the easiest to contrive: but Cherry was by no means
+prepared to find the Rat-like poet the secret admirer of a daughter of
+the Serene Highness who owned the jewel.
+
+'Such a monstrous interpolation,' quoth Geraldine.
+
+'Interpolations are the beauty of the thing. It would be as flat as a
+pancake without.'
+
+'And Wilmet won't like it.'
+
+'Wilmet must be brought to the level of ordinary human nature.'
+
+'I don't feel as if this were using her well. You know she expressly
+consented to this "because there was no nonsense in it."'
+
+'_I.e._ if it had been Cinderella, it would have been improper; if the
+Sleeping Beauty, highly scandalous. Eh, Chérie?'
+
+'You know I think Mettie _does_ carry her scruples pretty far,' said
+Geraldine, trying not to laugh, 'but I won't be a party to cheating
+her; and if this young princess is to come in, she must be told of it.'
+
+'Or she will take out her Gorgon's head in the midst, and petrify
+her subjects! Maybe it will be safest to prepare her. You see, such
+discipline reigns here, that a poor Bohemian like me doesn't know where
+to be.'
+
+Accordingly, Edgar said in his airy way, 'O Mettie, by-the-by, we have
+put in a part for little Miss Knevett.'
+
+'Indeed! I thought it was to be all among ourselves. Have you spoken to
+her?'
+
+'Of course; and she is in the ecstatic state of preparation of spangles
+and coronets.'
+
+'I wish you had spoken before. It would be hard to disappoint her now.
+What is she to be?'
+
+'Nothing less than heroine. There must be some sort of conventional
+catastrophe, or the whole concern falls flat.'
+
+'I don't see why it should not fall flat,' said Wilmet, with a sober
+air that drove Cherry into an uncontrollable convulsion of laughter;
+'it would amuse the children just as well.'
+
+'The children of six, maybe,' said Edgar gravely, 'but hardly the
+children of sixteen. Have you no mercy on them, my venerable sister?'
+
+Wilmet had arrived at such a pass of resignation as to perceive that
+'a fuss' on her part might be more mischievous than any 'nonsense' in
+which Edgar was likely to indulge in public, especially with Geraldine
+as his coadjutor. She tried to obtain some reassurance that there was
+'nothing more silly than needful in this play of yours.'
+
+'No, indeed. There is just a little mock courtship; but as that is the
+case with nine-tenths of the stories in the world, I don't think you
+gain much by turning it out.'
+
+'I did hope for once in a way we ourselves might be quit of it.'
+
+'It is hard on you,' said Cherry, smiling; 'but it would make a great
+uproar to disturb all now.'
+
+'At any rate, I have found the old receipt for tea-cakes,' responded
+Wilmet, whose mind was almost as much preoccupied with the
+entertainment of the body as her sister's with that of the mind.
+
+She had relented so far as to invite two little girls and their widowed
+mother, from whom there was no danger of reciprocities; Lance had
+prevailed to have Will Harewood as one of the robbers; and the Miss
+Pearsons were coming to behold their niece; besides which, Stella
+having imparted the great secret to Mr. Froggatt, Felix found the
+good old gentleman and his wife burning to have an invitation. Thus
+the party would be the largest Wilmet had ever contemplated; and the
+mysteries of tea and supper were so congenial to her housewifely soul,
+that she did not distress herself about the frequent rehearsals in Miss
+Pearson's empty school-room, the transformations of garments under the
+needles of Cherry and Robina, nor even the wildness and ecstacy of
+all the children from Lance downwards, all bursting with secrets, and
+letting them out at every corner of their grinning mouths.
+
+It must soon be over, and Felix seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly;
+and Wilmet could tolerate a great deal when either Felix or Alda
+enjoyed. He was much too busy with Christmas accounts to undertake any
+part that needed learning; but he was pressed into the service as a
+courtier, only with a dispensation from either speaking or rehearsing;
+while Wilmet utterly scouted any idea of taking any share in the drama,
+having enough to do in her own character.
+
+And in that character she was left alone to entertain the guests, for
+even Cherry was in request as prompter and assistant dresser--nay,
+with the assistance of Theodore's accordion, formed the whole band of
+musicians at the ball which opened the performance, and which required
+the entire _corps dramatique_. Robina, as the Elderly Princess,
+demonstratively dropped her bracelet, with a ruby about as big as a
+pigeon's egg (being the stopper of a scent-bottle), and after the
+dancers had taken some trouble not to step on it, they retired, and it
+was stolen by the gang of robbers, cloaked up to their corked eyebrows
+and moustaches.
+
+Then appeared in his loft--supplied with straw culled from packages at
+the printing-house--the poet, well got up in his knickerbockers and
+velvet smoking-cap, scarf and guitar, soliloquising in burlesque rhyme
+on his fallen state and hopeless admiration, and looking very handsome
+and disconsolate, until startled by the cry behind the scenes--
+
+     'O yes! O yes! O yes!
+      By command of her Highness!
+      Lost, stolen, or strayed,
+      Gone to the dogs or mislaid,
+      Her Highness's splendid ruby.
+      Whoso finds it--wit or booby,
+      Tinker, tailor, soldier, lord--
+      Let him ask what he will, he shall have his reward.'
+
+Thereupon the poet, communicating his designs in a stage soliloquy,
+disguised himself in a tow wig and beard, and a railway rug turned up
+with yellow calico; and the scene shifting to the palace, he introduced
+himself to the Elderly Princess as the greatest of spiritualists--so
+great, that--
+
+     'Detective police are an ignorant fable;
+      No detective can equal a walnut-wood table.'
+
+But he required as a medium a maiden fair and lovely, but with a
+heart as yet untouched, otherwise the spirits might be offended. The
+only lady who was available was, of course, the youthful princess
+Fiordespina, whose alarm and reluctance had been contrived so as to be
+highly flattering to the disguised poet.
+
+The dinner scenes, at which the robbers presented themselves in turn,
+and imagined that they heard themselves counted, went off in due order;
+also the test, when the courtiers tried to pose the spiritualist with
+making him divine what they brought him in a covered dish, and were
+disconcerted by his sighing out,
+
+     'Alas! alas! see envy batten
+      On the unhappy Master Ratton!'
+
+while the rat leaped out from beneath the lid!
+
+Then came the avowal by the robber: but the conclusion was so far
+varied, that the jewel having been judiciously hidden, the poet made
+use of his voice and his guitar to throw the Lady Fiordespina into a
+mesmeric sleep before the court, and then to cause a table to rap out
+the letters, which she interpreted so as to lead to the spot.
+
+It was the prettiest scene of all, his music and song were so graceful;
+and in spite of some suppressed giggling, the attitude and countenance
+of Fiordespina were so very pretty in her trance. Nothing more was left
+save the restoration of the ruby, the claiming of the reward, and the
+final tableau, in which Ratton and Fiordespina, in their native good
+mien, had their hands joined by the benignant Elderly Princess; while,
+to the equal amusement and confusion of all, good old Mrs. Froggatt
+fairly burst out crying with excitement and admiration!
+
+Mrs. Vincent, the young widow, was likewise enchanted, and so was Miss
+Maria Pearson; but Wilmet could not quite fathom the tone of the elder
+and graver sister, or decide whether it were her own dissatisfaction
+that made her think Miss Pearson had not expected to see such a _role_
+bestowed upon her niece.
+
+The doors between the drawing-room and the theatre were opened again;
+the boys handed round negus and lemonade; and Felix, standing over
+Cherry, said, 'Lance's circus speculation would not be a bad one.
+There's plenty of dramatic talent in the family.'
+
+'Did you like it, Felix?'
+
+'I could tell exactly which parts were yours and which Edgar's,' was
+the ambiguous answer, as he turned to secure the Princess Fiordespina
+for the dance that was to crown the performance.
+
+'O Mr. Underwood! Oh yes, thank you! but--'
+
+'Is it part of the programme that wizard and medium should dance
+together?'
+
+'Oh no! Only it seems so funny to think of your dancing.'
+
+'What, you thought a stationer must be stationary?'
+
+'O Mr. Underwood, what a shocking pun!' and she was led off sparkling
+with pretty laughter; while the Conjuror, muttering,
+
+     'The gouty oak began to move
+        And flounder into hornpipes,'
+
+turned graciously on little Susie Vincent, and scared as much as he
+elevated her, by claiming her as his partner.
+
+Will Harewood, dashing across the room, and looking earnestly with his
+bold and now flushed face up to Wilmet, blurted out, 'Miss Underwood,
+now please, let me dance with you.'
+
+'Thank you,' she said graciously; 'but I believe I must play for them.'
+
+'I'll do that,' said Clement, over her head.
+
+'The Dead March in Saul?' murmured Edgar.
+
+'Nonsense!' broke out Mrs. Vincent, starting up; 'what am I good for
+but to play?'
+
+So Clement, who thought he had found an escape, was reduced to the
+necessity of asking the other little Vincent; and Wilmet's smile of
+consent so elated Bill Harewood, that he could not help flying across
+to that very happy and well-matched pair, the Elderly Princess and
+First Robber, to tell them, 'I've got her.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'Why, your sister.'
+
+'You've never been and made up to Wilmet!' said Lance, as if this
+instance of valour crowned his merits.
+
+'Yes, I have; and she will. You see there ain't another gentleman out
+of the family except the old Froggy, and the little one has got him.
+Well, I always wished beyond anything to dance with Miss Underwood!'
+
+'Did you?' said Robina. 'I never should have thought of that.'
+
+'Most likely not,' said Bill; 'but she is the most beautiful woman I
+ever did or shall see in all my life;' and he flew back to her side.
+
+'Is she?' said Robina, altogether amazed.
+
+'Well, perhaps,' said Lance; 'you know one might go a long way without
+finding any one so handsome.'
+
+'Then I wish people wouldn't say so. It seems making our Wilmet common,
+like any other girl, to care for her being pretty.'
+
+'So Froggy's dancing with Stella,' observed Lance. 'I declare I'll try
+if Mrs. Frog won't stand up with me. Some one ought. You'll not mind
+waiting, Bobbie. It is not often one has the chance to dance with a cap
+like that.'
+
+Bobbie resigned herself amicably; and Lance, with his bright arch face,
+made his bow and half polite, half saucy addresses to Mrs. Froggatt in
+her magnificent head-gear, making her laugh herself almost to tears
+again as she declined. He held the Miss Pearsons in greater awe, and
+ventured on neither; so that Robina had him for Sir Roger de Coverley,
+where the sole contretemps arose from Angel and Bear being in such
+boisterous spirits that Wilmet decreed that they must not be partners
+again. Of the rest, some had a good deal of dancing-master experience;
+Mrs. Harewood's impromptu merry-makings had afforded plenty of practice
+to the two choristers; even Clement had had a certain school-feast
+training; and Felix, with a good ear, ready eye, and natural ease
+of movement, acquitted himself to Miss Knevett's eagerly expressed
+admiration.
+
+'Take care, Master Ratton will be jealous,' said Edgar, as he claimed
+her for the next dance, a quadrille.
+
+'Jealous! oh no! Some people one never thinks of complimenting.'
+
+Cherry caught the words, and wondered what they meant.
+
+A few more dances, and then came Wilmet's anxiously contrived supper.
+
+'I say,' observed Will Harewood to Lance, 'why can't we have things
+like this at home?'
+
+''Tisn't their nature to,' judiciously responded Lance.
+
+'This cream is quite up to the grub we get after a crack let-off in
+the Close,' added Will; for requisitions for their voices at private
+concerts had made the choir connoisseurs in the relics of feasts.
+
+'Better, I should say,' returned Lance. 'Mettie doesn't make it of
+soap, or arsenic, or verdigris, like old Twopenny.'
+
+'What! you don't mean that she made it herself?'
+
+'Of course! who else should?'
+
+'My eyes! And to see her looking like that!' Then, with a deep sigh,
+'If I could only book her for my wife on the spot!'
+
+Whence it may be inferred, that Stella's birth-day party was not only a
+brilliant success, but might, in Wilmet's phrase, 'lead to something.'
+All it seemed to have led to at present was a discovery on the part of
+the good Miss Pearsons, that the household they had been wont to pity
+as small orphan children, now contained three fine young men.
+
+At least Geraldine connected this with the desire they expressed that
+Alice might enjoy the same opportunities as Robina of giving her
+acquirements a final polish, up to diploma pitch. A correspondence
+commenced, resulting in Miss Knevett being engaged as teacher,
+being remunerated by lessons in languages and accomplishments. The
+arrangement gave universal satisfaction; Cherry could not detect any
+regret on the part of Felix; Alice would still spend her holidays
+with her aunts; and the sense that her departure was near made the
+intercourse between the two houses more frequent and familiar than it
+had ever yet been.
+
+One evening Cherry, while looking up a quotation for Felix in
+Southey's '_Doctor_,' lit on his quaint theory of the human soul
+having previously migrated through successive stages of vegetable and
+animal life, and still retaining something characteristic from each
+transmigration. Her brothers were a good deal tickled with the idea;
+and Lance exclaimed, 'I know who must have been rhubarb, queen-wasp,
+and a hen-harrier.'
+
+'Oh, that's too bad!' cried Robina.
+
+'Why a hen-harrier?' asked Felix, recognising, like almost all the
+others.
+
+'One of the birds of prey where the female is bigger than her mate,'
+drily observed Edgar.
+
+'Besides,' said Cherry, 'recollect the hen-harrier's countenance in
+pictures, with beady eyes, and a puffed supercilious smile about the
+beak.'
+
+'Why, that's Lady Price!' chimed in Alice, making the discovery at last.
+
+Lengthily and gravely Edgar uttered the words, 'Puzzle-monkey, praying
+mantis, sacred stork, howler.'
+
+Lance and Robin roared with merriment, and after one glance at
+Clement's half virtuous, half offended countenance, Felix and Cherry
+fell into like convulsions; while Alice exclaimed, 'But who is it?'
+and Angel shouted the sufficiently evident answer, 'Clement, oh! the
+howler, the black preaching monkey in a natural surplice!'
+
+'I can't think how you do it!' exclaimed Alice.
+
+'I object to the mantis,' Cherry struggled to say. 'Nasty hypocritical
+creature that eats things up.'
+
+'Praying for its living, eh, Cherry?' said wicked Edgar. 'If you had
+ever seen the long thin animal, with head back, hands joined, and pious
+attitude, you couldn't doubt.'
+
+And as he spoke he sketched his mischievous likeness, at which
+the mirth grew more furious; while Cherry, always the most easily
+excited, uttered in a strangled voice, 'A parsnip, a barn-door hen, a
+dilapidated Guernsey cow, an old mother whale.'
+
+'O Cherry, Cherry, you've immortalized yourself!' shouted Lance. 'How
+did you hit off the parsnip? the very thing that had stumped me.'
+
+'The colour, and the odd sort of sweetness,' said Cherry.
+
+'Won't we have fun with it when I go back!' cried Lance.--'Not tell?
+Nonsense! Why, no one will enjoy it like Mother Harewood herself.'
+
+'Only don't say I made it. There, Edgar has got one.'
+
+'Touch-me-not balsam, blister-fly, bantam-cock (full strut), black
+terrier.'
+
+He did not caricature this time except with the muscles of his face,
+and with these he contrived to put on four different aspects, each
+so exactly like Mr. Mowbray Smith that not even Alice required the
+proclamation of the name; and Wilmet gravely said, 'I do not think this
+is a proper sort of game. It must be ill-natured or irreverent.'
+
+'That depends,' said Geraldine, now thoroughly in the swing.--'Here!
+Hawthornden apple-tree, stickleback, goldfinch, beaver.'
+
+     'The hardy Norseman's house of yore
+        Was on the foaming wave,'
+
+sang out Lance, recalling Theodore's substitute for Felix's name.
+
+'Exactly like--figures, tastes, and all,' said Edgar, scanning Felix's
+clear, bright, fresh face, glossy hair, and rather short figure, at
+once trim and sturdy. 'The goldfinch hit him off exactly, but I don't
+see the force of the apple-tree.'
+
+'You would,' said Cherry, 'if you were properly acquainted with our
+three trees and their individualities. The Hawthornden is a resolute
+looking fellow, but it indulges in the loveliest pink and white
+blossoms, and waxen, delicate, peachy fruit.'
+
+'Uncommonly sour! Thank you, Cherry,' said Felix.
+
+'Not in a pie,' suggested Alice.
+
+'Properly treated and sweetened, eh?' asked he, smiling on her.
+
+'But why is Felix like a stickleback?' said Angela.
+
+'Don't you know?' said Cherry; 'a beautiful bright little fish, and the
+good male one swims up and down taking care of the nest.'
+
+'I do like the beaver,' allowed Wilmet. 'It always was my favourite
+beast.'
+
+'It hits off the respectable householder element,' added Edgar. 'Three
+flaps of his broad tail rule beaverdom like Jupiter's nod.'
+
+'I have one,' interposed Robina.--'Bella-donna lily, working bee,
+menura--'
+
+'Hold hard!' called Lance; 'is a menura fish, flesh, or fowl?'
+
+'Fowl: the lyre-tailed pheasant, that makes a shelter for its nest with
+its own tail.'
+
+'Decided liar tale,' muttered Edgar.
+
+'Go on, Bobbie,' Felix encouraged her. 'The pheasant suits both the
+twins as well as the bella-donna. Any more?'
+
+'Perhaps the leading stag of the herd.'
+
+'Don't make us like that proud, cowardly, tyrannical beast,' exclaimed
+Wilmet.
+
+'I have seen you look exactly like one,' said Geraldine. 'That and the
+pheasant both give the notion of your neck.'
+
+'Such a set of trumpery gaudy things!' grumbled Wilmet. 'Nothing but
+the bee is tolerable.'
+
+'I did think of a speckled Hamburg hen, and a nice quiet she-goat,'
+said Robina; 'but they are all dowdy, and would not suit Alda.'
+
+'There's something in the theory,' said Edgar. 'That bella-donna
+approves itself perfectly--so delicate and stately, and yet so
+essentially unpoetical.'
+
+'That Mettie takes as a compliment,' said Felix, 'only she would rather
+have been a potato, or a cabbage.'
+
+'Now,' said Cherry, 'you will all know--bell-heather, the grasshopper,
+the lark, and the squirrel.'
+
+'Is this the lark's crest, or the squirrel's tail?' said Felix, giving
+an elder brother's pull to the boy's highest wave of hair.
+
+'Or the grasshopper's leap?' cried Lance, springing on him for a bout
+of buffeting and skirmishing; in the midst of which Alice was heard
+wondering how the riddles, as she thought them, were either made or
+guessed.
+
+'They come,' said Geraldine. 'I am only afraid we shall fall into a
+trick of making them for everybody.'
+
+'I wonder what you would make for me.'
+
+Geraldine had it on her tongue's end that Alice would be difficult, for
+want of anything distinctive; but Felix and Edgar were both jotting
+something down, and Robina was beforehand with either--'Scarlet
+pimpernel, tortoiseshell butterfly, budgerigar, marmoset.'
+
+No one answered, for Felix had pushed a slip of paper over to Alice,
+on which she read--'"Forget-me-not, ladybird, linnet, kitten." I don't
+think I ever saw a linnet. Isn't it a little brown bird?'
+
+'With a rich glow of red, and a beautiful song,' said Felix, smiling;
+and the red glowed redder on her cheek, as she said, laughing, 'Kitten
+for mischief, eh? For shame, Mr. Underwood!--What, another! Dear me, I
+shall not know myself!'
+
+This had been slipped into her hand; and Cherry suspected that her
+exclamation had been a mistake of which she was conscious, as the
+colour deepened on her already blushing cheeks, and her eyes were
+cast down, while a demure smile played on her lips. The incautious
+exclamation had betrayed her, and the young ones clamoured to hear
+Edgar's view of her transmigration; but there was a little coy struggle
+of 'Oh no, she wouldn't, and she couldn't.'
+
+     'She smiled and blushed, and oft did say
+          Her pretty oath by yea or nay.'
+
+And in the midst came the message that the maid was arrived to take
+her home; and this being a cross stiff personage, who might never be
+kept waiting, she had to hurry away; and had no sooner gone than Angela
+burst out with, 'Here it is! I've got it! Listen to it: "Say, Lady--"'
+
+'Stay, Angela,' interrupted Felix. 'You have no business with that.'
+
+'Not Edgar's fun!' she exclaimed. 'Why, where is he?'
+
+'Surely he is not going home with her!' said Wilmet in some dismay.
+
+'Oh, but it is such fun,' went on Angela, 'only I can't make it out.
+You read it, Lance.'
+
+'Did she give it you?' said Felix.
+
+'No, I whipped it up when she dropped it. There's something about
+Ratton in it.'
+
+Felix quietly took the paper out of her hand, folded it, and put it
+into an envelope. 'You take it back to her the first thing to-morrow,'
+he said. 'Now go to bed.'
+
+Angela durst not oppose that tone, so unusually serious and
+authoritative; but she contrived to prolong her good-nights, and the
+putting away of her goods, with a kind of half droll, half sullen
+resignation; and just as Wilmet was hurrying her off, Edgar returned.
+He always spoilt Angela a little, and she sprang to him with a kind of
+droll pout. 'You'll not be cross, Edgar. You'll let us hear Alice's
+transmigrations. Look! here's Felix bottled them up in an envelope, and
+won't let us peep at them! But you'll let me hear. You won't order me
+off to bed.'
+
+Cherry fancied she saw a disconcerted look on his face when he saw the
+envelope held up to him; but if so, it instantly gave place to the
+mischievous entertainment of defeating a lesson on discretion.--'The
+heads of the family must assert themselves sometimes, my dear, even
+about nothing,' he said consolingly.
+
+'Indeed,' said Wilmet, bristling in defence of Felix, 'of course we
+knew it was nothing. It was only very ill-mannered and wrong of Angela
+to go prying into what was not meant to be shown.'
+
+'I'm sure,' said Edgar most ungratefully, 'it might be posted on the
+church door for what I care, except for its intrinsic vileness.'
+
+'Oh, let's have it! let's have it!' burst out Lance and Robina, who had
+been burning with curiosity all the time.
+
+'Don't let us have them murdered, whatever they are,' said Edgar,
+taking them into his own hand. 'Pity the sorrows of a poor wretch
+seduced into one of your horrid _jeux d'esprit_--a lady's excuse for
+fishing for compliments that sound more than they mean. Here goes,
+then:--
+
+     'Say, Lady, what existence past
+        Thine essence hath enfolded;
+      What humble antecedent cast
+        Thy present self hath moulded.
+
+      'The hawthorn bush, with blossom white
+        Veiling her branches pricking;
+      The painted lady, fluttering light,
+        The rash pursuer tricking.
+
+      'Grass paraquit, who loves to sit
+        In clustering rows and chat on;
+      Caressing, purring, traitor kit,
+        Fatal to Master Ratton.
+
+'There, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are satisfied,' he concluded,
+letting his performance float into the fire; 'the metaphors, to say the
+least, are startling, but that is the fault of the game.'
+
+'I don't enter into it all,' said Cherry.
+
+'Not likely another of the grass paraquits would, my dear,' said Edgar.
+
+'And it is exactly what Robin made her,' said Angela; 'both that and
+the butterfly; and Felix, the kitten. You didn't borrow of course. How
+funny!'
+
+'But I didn't make her inconstant,' said Robin; 'that is not fair.'
+
+'Not when you made her a butterfly, and the shepherd's weather-glass
+too!'
+
+'I never thought of that, only their being both bright, dark, sparkling
+things; and Felix has the forget-me-not, by way of antidote.'
+
+'I do not think such things are wise,' pronounced Wilmet. 'And,
+by-the-by, Edgar, it has always been the custom that nobody should walk
+home with Alice. Miss Pearson would not like it, and it would make a
+talk.'
+
+Edgar laughed. 'Dear W. W., let it not trouble you! What it may lead
+to is a bugbear to you. You can't think how much younger and more
+agreeable you will be when you have learnt that there can be passages
+that lead to nothing.'
+
+Geraldine went to bed uncomfortable and perplexed. Before she was
+dressed in the morning, Alice darted in. 'Cherry, I'm so vexed; I
+dropped that paper. Do you think it is here?'
+
+'No; Angel picked it up, and Edgar read us the verses, and then threw
+them into the fire.'
+
+'Burnt them!'
+
+'Yes; he said the worst of such games was that they force one to pay
+compliments that may be taken to mean more than they do.'
+
+Cherry spoke under a stern sense of virtue doing a service to Alice;
+and when the quick answer came, 'He didn't say that, I'm sure it was
+Wilmet,' she asseverated, 'Indeed he did. I don't confuse in that way.
+It is a very good warning not to dwell on what gentlemen may say in
+mere play.'
+
+'Who told you I did?' said Alice sharply. 'You've no business to say
+such things!'
+
+Happily there was an interruption. Cherry felt as if she had had a
+taste of the claws; but she feared she had been malicious, and she was
+penitent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+WHAT IT LED TO.
+
+     'Then out and spak the popinjay.'
+                                      _Old Ballad._
+
+
+Geraldine was hard at work on a drawing. Edgar's teaching had improved
+her so much that, under a sore longing to obtain some good studies, she
+had ventured to place in the shop one of her best imaginary groups, and
+to her surprise and delight, it had brought her in fifteen shillings,
+and an order for a companion.
+
+Vistas of hope began to rise before her, only obscured by her
+consciousness of the want of knowledge and skill. It took some
+resolution not to attend exclusively to her art, and she was forced to
+make it a rule never to touch a pencil till the lessons of Bernard and
+Stella were both over for the day.
+
+They were finished, the children in the garden, and Cherry was in that
+world of joy and something like inspiration known to spirits imbued
+with any of the constructive poetry of art, always endeavouring to
+fulfil an ideal, never indeed satisfying themselves, but never so at
+rest as in the effort.
+
+Presently she was startled by a step on the stairs. Nothing short
+of the Fall of Delhi had ever been known to bring Felix upstairs in
+business hours; and he was especially bound to his work at present,
+since Mr. Froggatt was detained at home by a serious attack of
+rheumatism. She looked up amazed at the eager question, 'Is there a
+letter from Alda?'
+
+'I believe there is, waiting for Wilmet. What is the matter?'
+
+'The most astonishing thing. Here is Ferdinand Travis writing to tell
+me of his engagement to Alda.'
+
+'To Alda?'
+
+'To Alda! I looked twice to be sure that there was no confusion between
+the names, but it is my sister Alda beyond a doubt. He would not ask
+my consent if it were Marilda. Here's the letter, as good and nice as
+possible, dear good fellow.'
+
+'Then what Edgar told us must have been pure imagination.'
+
+'Not the old folks' wishes, most likely. For the rest, Edgar can make a
+good story. One can't wonder at the preference, and there's no denying
+that it is a brilliant chance for Alda.'
+
+'And what a blessing that he should be so good!'
+
+'Infinite! No one could be so welcome! How pleased Mr. Audley will be!
+But I must go, and try not to look too much disposed to stand on the
+counter and crow.'
+
+Whatever Felix did below, upstairs Cherry found drawing impossible.
+Ferdinand a brother! The pleasure was enhanced by the affectionate
+simplicity of his letter, the outcome of so good a heart, greatly in
+love, but very conscientious, and utterly unpresuming on his wealth,
+but showing all his old affection and reverence for Felix. What a
+delightful wonder that Alda should bring in a connection so faithful to
+Felix!
+
+Yet, what would not Cherry have given to be as unsuspicious as Felix
+or Wilmet? Why would misgivings come into her head such as never
+troubled theirs? Why must she be haunted by Alda's intimations about
+her travelling companions, and her manner, half scornful, half nettled,
+when Edgar described the terms on which Mr. Travis stood?
+
+She read Ferdinand's letter a second time, and was convinced that he
+looked at the whole with such artless seriousness as to preclude all
+notion of his having been consciously playing fast and loose; but she
+was ready to torture herself for the involuntary doubt whether her own
+sister were equally to be trusted.
+
+However, when Wilmet came home, her genuine wholesome overflow of
+undoubting rapture could not but sweep Cherry along in the tide.
+Ferdinand combined the apparently impossible advantages of being
+thoroughly one of themselves, and yet of being able to give Alda
+the luxuries to which she had become accustomed; and Wilmet's joy
+was beyond expression. The contrast between the twins--one admired,
+praised, followed, esteemed, as one of the brightest ornaments of
+London society; the other toiling in an obscure poverty-stricken home,
+a teacher in a small third-class school, her beauty unheeded or viewed
+as a real disadvantage--all this never occurred for one moment to
+Wilmet, she only felt elevated in her sister.
+
+Two days passed before more letters were received, and these came
+by the first instead of the second post, before breakfast was
+over. Four--besides one unheeded, being only in Robina's childish
+handwriting--Alda to Wilmet, Thomas Underwood and Ferdinand both to
+Felix, Edgar to Geraldine. There was a simultaneous opening of the
+letters, then a general starting and looking into one another's eyes,
+and Geraldine faintly murmured,
+
+'Then it was really _so!_'
+
+'So? what do you mean?' broke forth Wilmet. 'These selfish people are
+treating my poor Alda most cruelly among them; and Felix must go and
+fetch her home to be married from her own brother's house as she ought
+to be.'
+
+'I shall have to fetch her home,' said Felix thoughtfully; 'but I wish
+I were quite clear that she has been dealing kindly by Marilda.'
+
+'You are not believing that man Thomas rather than your own sister!'
+cried Wilmet. 'If Alda does happen to be prettier than his daughter,
+she can't help it. I'm sure I should be glad enough not to be pretty,
+but it is a trial, and one must do the best one can.'
+
+'That is just what I fear Alda has been doing,' said Felix between his
+teeth, as he frowned over his letter.
+
+'Read her letter, poor dear girl,' cried Wilmet, 'and see if you
+aren't ashamed of such a judgment! No. Some is only meant for me; but
+listen--"Your letter of sisterly joy has come on troubled waters. I
+always knew I was the poor relation upon sufferance, but I have been
+taught to feel it now." She does not know how she could bear it, but
+for the security of Ferdinand's strength; and they will not let her
+see him--say she must give him up or them--Mrs. Underwood's violence
+inconceivable, and all because of a chimerical fancy.'
+
+'What does Ferdinand himself say?' asked Cherry, as Wilmet looked on
+for further selections.
+
+'He says,' said Felix, reading, 'that our greeting was especially
+welcome, from the contrast to what he met with from Mr. Underwood.
+The angry opposition took him by surprise, having always thought they
+regarded Alda as a daughter; but of course nothing makes any difference
+to him, and he would much rather come to us for her than to a stranger.
+His uncle is at New Orleans, and he is writing to him; he is afraid
+they ought to wait for the answer, though there can be no doubt about
+it, and he owes him no obedience.--Now, Cherry, there is just time for
+Edgar's account before we go our several ways.'
+
+'O Felix,' cried Wilmet, 'aren't you going to fetch her home, poor
+dear?'
+
+'Not possible to-day, Mettie. I shall have much ado to get away
+to-morrow. Don't be so unhappy, you know she _could_ come alone or with
+Edgar, if it were so very dreadful; or if you are so fierce, you had
+better go yourself and encounter "Man Thomas."'
+
+Wilmet looked so much hurt, that Geraldine thought to defend Felix by
+reading aloud at once.
+
+        'Ma Chérie
+
+        'Such a bear-garden never was seen! Madame furious, Tom
+        abusive, Alda injured innocence, Montezuma heroism, and poor
+        Polly magnanimous--though the less said about her, the soonest
+        mended. I saw when I went back that the crisis could not be
+        far off. The fact is, that our dear sister cannot see any one
+        else treated as "an object," and has so persuaded herself that
+        she is the proverbial maltreated poor relation, as to think
+        everything fair.'
+
+'Geraldine!' exclaimed Wilmet, 'how can you read? Felix, how can you
+listen to such things about your own sister?'
+
+'It is only what she said herself,' said Felix drily. 'Go on, Cherry.'
+
+        'It must be owned that it was hard, when for once Polly had
+        fallen in with something alike palatable to self and parents,
+        and able to swallow her broad visage! If Madame had had any
+        wit, she would have kept Alda away till the fish was hooked,
+        when, it is my belief, he would have had no eyes for aught
+        beyond; but the good creature is too sure of the charms of
+        her own goose, to dread the admission of any swan whatsoever
+        to her pond. While the Cacique being yet uncommitted, small
+        blame to him if he saw the differ, especially as he attaches
+        to Alda all the sanctity of Bexley, which is to him at the
+        least what St. Matthew's is to Clem. To have been reared on
+        the other--or indeed any side of the Atlantic, our intended
+        brother-in-law is curiously simple. He accepted the intimation
+        that Alda's face is her fortune with superb indifference;
+        whether it will be the same with his uncle, remains to be
+        seen; and I am afraid he is a good deal dependent on him, his
+        mother's Mexican property having been speculated away. I don't
+        like the look of the business; but if any one can do any good
+        it is Marilda herself. Tom is in a towering rage, and his wife
+        worse--neither perceiving that the noise they make is small
+        mercy to their daughter. She looks all manner of colours, but
+        stands out gallantly that she is glad, and that all is as it
+        should be; and I believe that, left to herself, she will set
+        things straight. Felix had better keep out of the fray except
+        upon compulsion.'
+
+'Here is compulsion,' said Felix. 'Tom Underwood summons me; I can't
+say I like the errand.'
+
+'You ought not to let yourself be led by Edgar's unkind joking way!'
+
+'We ought to be off now, at any rate,' said Felix, glad to close
+the discussion. 'I'll write to get Fernan to meet me at the station
+to-morrow.'
+
+Accordingly, when he arrived, there was Ferdinand Travis driving a
+magnificent horse, the whole turn-out very far from looking like a
+connection of Froggatt and Underwood. He had certainly developed into a
+splendidly handsome fellow, though still lithe and slight rather than
+robust, and his dignified bearing giving the idea of greater height
+than his inches testified to. His greeting was warmly affectionate,
+with all his old wishful reverence towards his young godfather, and
+even with a sort of doubt of his thinking him worthy of his sister.
+As to the disturbance created by the avowal of the object of his
+attentions, he seemed amazed at it, and entirely unconscious of any
+supposed change on his part.
+
+'I knew my uncle wished me to be an intimate with the family,' he said,
+'and I was rejoiced to fall in with any one who bore your name, and
+knew how to appreciate you; but I had reason to think that--that there
+were other views--for--' and here the olive cheeks grew crimson, and he
+stammered himself into a hopeless entanglement, whence Felix recalled
+him charitably to an account of the explosion as it had affected
+himself.
+
+It appeared that his proposal had not been mentioned to the family till
+Felix's answer had been received, Ferdinand feeling that no one ought
+to hear of it before the eldest brother. The lovers had met that night
+at a ball, and their consultation over the letters had taken place in
+the conservatory, where they had been surprised, and partly overheard,
+by Mrs. Underwood. When Ferdinand arrived the next morning, he was
+received with denunciations of underhand ways, and his explanation only
+made matters worse. A thunderstorm about ingratitude and treachery was
+launched forth, and he was told that the connection was so contrary to
+any intentions of his uncle, that Mr. Underwood could not hear of it,
+and that Alda must renounce it entirely, on peril of being cast off by
+the family. That Ferdinand regarded her brother as the true head of her
+house, was only additionally provoking; and Mr. Underwood had given him
+warning, which he only hinted at to Felix, that the engagement could
+not be carried on with impunity.
+
+Therewith they reached Kensington Palace Gardens, and being in a
+measure forbidden the house, Ferdinand drove about waiting for Felix,
+who on giving his name, found himself ushered into the room where the
+whole party were finishing breakfast.
+
+Alda, looking meek and pensive, but very lovely, exquisitely dressed
+in white and blue ribbons, flew into his arms as if her protector
+were come; Mr. Underwood, without getting up, acknowledged him by a
+grunt, and hand held out; Marilda came round, and put a cold hand into
+his, clasping it tight; and her mother greeted him with, 'So, Felix
+Underwood, you are come up about this unlucky business?'
+
+'There is no reason it should be anything but a very happy one,' said
+Marilda stoutly. 'Come, Mamma, we had better leave Papa and Felix;' and
+she set the example, but Mrs. Underwood did not stir.
+
+'You hear the dear girl!' she said. 'It ought to go to Alda's heart!'
+
+'It is of no use talking before the ladies,' said Mr. Underwood,
+getting up. 'That is, unless you have the good sense to join with me
+in telling Alda that she must give up this wild affair. The fellow has
+next to nothing of his own, and his uncle would see him at Jericho
+before he consented to a match like this!'
+
+'I am hardly prepared to do that, Sir,' said Felix, as Alda clung to
+his arm, and looked appealingly in his face, 'unless the objection were
+more personal.'
+
+'Objection!' burst forth the lady of the house, 'when he has been
+making his way underhand--deceiving us all along.'
+
+'Alda, my dear,' said Felix in her ear, 'don't you think you had better
+go upstairs?'
+
+But Alda seemed as little disposed as Mrs. Underwood to quit the scene
+of conflict. 'O Felix, I don't know what she means, nor what we have
+been doing, for them all to turn against me.'
+
+'Don't tell me, Miss Innocence,' retorted Mrs. Underwood, the
+artificial polish giving way, and the native scolding Polly Kedge
+breaking out in a storm of words. 'Wasn't the young man doing just as
+his uncle meant him, and my poor dear girl fancying him as I never
+saw her do any one before, till you came home with your sly, artful
+ways--you that owed us the very clothes on your back?'
+
+'Hush, Mary!' ejaculated her husband; but he might as well have tried
+to stop a torrent.
+
+'Ay, I know. She comes round every man of you with her smooth tongue
+and pretty face, till you--you are ready to take her part against your
+own child, Underwood. When my poor girl's laid in her coffin, then you
+will know what a serpent you've been fostering.'
+
+To Felix's surprise and annoyance, Alda must needs answer: 'I'm sure
+it's very hard! If people will look at me, I can't help it; and I've as
+much right to be spoken to as Marilda. She that has got everything, and
+poor me--'
+
+Luckily her tears stopped her voice.
+
+'Come along, Felix,' said the master of the house, opening the door;
+and he, perceiving that escape alone could put an end to this most
+humiliating scene, whispered again his recommendation to Alda to go to
+her room, and saw her hurrying up the stairs before his kinsman shut
+the door of his private room with a bounce, exclaiming, 'There! Now we
+are out of the way of the women's tongues, we can hear ourselves speak.
+I am afraid it is an awkward business, Felix Underwood.'
+
+'I am afraid it is, Sir.'
+
+'And the ladies make it worse by making such a din about it,' said Tom,
+who after all was an Underwood, and whose better breeding had come to
+the perception how these ravings compromised his daughter's dignity.
+'How far any one is to blame, I can't tell. The truth is, that it
+would have been very satisfactory to Alfred Travis and to me both if
+the lad and my girl could have made it up together, and they seemed
+ready enough to like each other. My girl has got rather a turn for your
+new-fashioned sort of saints, and he seemed just her style. Everything
+does go contrary at times; and when your sister came home, with her
+pretty face and way, my wife declares now she saw a change from the
+first, but to tell the truth I never did, and I doubt her doing so;
+but you may guess how amazed we were when she came on them whispering
+together, and it came out that he had been writing to you to sanction
+his proposing for Alda, as if he were ashamed to come to me, who had
+always been a father to her.'
+
+'He meant no slight to you, Sir,' said Felix, eagerly; 'but you know we
+were his first acquaintance, and he had a feeling that an elder brother
+came nearest. I am sure he felt no shame; he was conscious of no change
+of intention.'
+
+'Well, well, he is a little bit of an ass. Between ourselves, Felix,
+I don't blame him half as much as Alda. The girl is sharp enough; she
+has swarms of lovers; men come about her like wasps to a lump of sugar;
+and there's Ł5,000 ready for her the day she marries; but when there
+was one my poor Mary liked for once, we liked for her, and was in the
+way of liking her--Mary, who has shared everything with her like a
+sister--she might have let him alone. Indeed, her aunt gave her a hint,
+but it only served to make her carry it on on the sly.'
+
+Felix wished he had not known of Alda's hearing Edgar's report. He
+could only say sadly, 'If so, she is quite indefensible.'
+
+What would Wilmet have thought of his fight with 'Man Thomas?'
+
+'Of course,' proceeded that gentleman, 'we know the less we say of
+that part of the story the better. Some day, Mary will know she's well
+rid of a coxcombical foreign-looking fellow. She can afford to look
+farther; but for your sister, this is the maddest thing in the world.
+William Travis made a regular mull with his wife's fortune, and depend
+on it, the young man has next to nothing, and would come to beggary if
+he offended his uncle. There is nothing for it but for them to give one
+another up!'
+
+'I do not think there is much chance of their doing so,' replied Felix.
+
+'Not as they are now, in the height and fury of the thing; but you are
+a sensible lad, Felix; you will do your best to show them the utter
+folly of the thing.'
+
+'We do not know whether Ferdinand can afford it yet,' said Felix.
+
+'Don't delude yourself with fancying Alfred Travis will swallow
+this! Not he! Why, he's set on that young Spanish don making a great
+match--hardly thought my Mary's hundred thousand good enough.'
+
+'Very likely he will refuse consent,' returned Felix; 'but, in the
+meantime, I see nothing to be done but for Alda to go home with me and
+wait.'
+
+'To very little purpose,' ejaculated Mr. Underwood, 'except that maybe
+a taste of your way of life may bring her to her senses, and serve her
+right. I must say,' he added, 'it is hard that both this boy and girl
+should be thrown back on your hands for no fault of yours. I wish I
+could help it, but you see there wouldn't be a moment's peace if Alda
+stayed here without giving him up.'
+
+'It is not fit that she should,' said Felix.
+
+'I like the girl, too; indeed, she's almost like my own,' continued Mr.
+Underwood; 'the house will be dull without her, and I believe those
+pretty young women can't help flirting, and think one another's beaux
+fair game. Eh? Well, we'll send for her and put it to her--will she
+give up Travis and stay here, or hold him to it and go home with you?'
+
+Felix could make no objection, though he had no question what the
+decision would be; so the bell was rung, Alda was summoned, and soon
+appeared with burning cheeks and moist eyes.
+
+'Now, Alda,' said her adopted uncle, 'your brother and I have talked
+it over, and I am ready to overlook what has gone by--that is, if your
+aunt will--and to let all be as it was before, on this one condition,
+that you break off this foolish concern. Listen to me. You will find
+that he has little enough to call his own, and his uncle can cut off
+his allowance any day. It is mere insanity to think he will consent to
+such a match as you would be; and you would be doing the best thing for
+the young man and yourself to tell him it is all nonsense, and you've
+thought better of it.'
+
+'O Uncle, I couldn't do that!'
+
+'If not--you have the choice--I can't abet what Travis never intended,
+your aunt couldn't stand it either. There's nothing for it but that you
+should leave this house. Choose between us and him!'
+
+'That can't help being done, Uncle,' said Alda, with streaming eyes
+and a choked voice. 'You have been very good to me, but he must come
+first;' and she moved towards Felix, who put his arm round her kindly,
+and kissed her, saying,
+
+'Then, Alda, I will leave you to prepare; I must go and see the
+children and Edgar. I will come back for you in time for the half-past
+five train.'
+
+Alda's tears flowed too fast again for words, and she turned to leave
+the room.
+
+'I shall see you again,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Can I give you a lift
+anywhere, Felix?'
+
+'No, thank you, Sir; Travis is waiting for me.'
+
+'Ay, ay, very fine with his thorough-bred; but when his allowance is
+docked, how is he to live on his pay?'
+
+The brougham had long been waiting for Tom Underwood, and he left them
+together. Alda hung on her brother. 'O Felix, is it not dreadful?'
+
+'I thought him very kind and forgiving,' said Felix.
+
+'Is that what you call forgiving? And oh! if you could hear Aunt Mary!
+You little think what I have gone through!'
+
+'It will be over soon,' said Felix, kindly. 'You are going home, you
+know, and Wilmet is wild to have you.'
+
+'But, Felix, you don't think they mean to do more than frighten me?
+Ferdinand must have a real right to his own father's money; and
+besides, he can't properly object to me; Uncle Tom promised me my
+Ł5,000 whatever happened!'
+
+'I cannot stay to discuss that now, Alda,' said Felix. 'I have a great
+deal to do, and Fernan is waiting for me. I shall come back in time.'
+
+'Oh, I wish I could come with you now! Dear Fernan! Tell him I have
+borne it all for his sake, but it is such an age since I saw him!'
+
+'No doubt he will meet us at the station,' said Felix, escaping at
+last, and finding Ferdinand not many yards off in the road outside.
+
+'Well, Fernan, to Brompton, if you please. Mr. Underwood is really much
+kinder than I expected; but as things stand, you can't carry it on in
+their house, so Alda comes home with me to-night.'
+
+'Then the dear girl is really banished for my sake! I mean, no place is
+like Bexley to me. But it is very noble of her!' exclaimed Ferdinand,
+curiously divided between regard for Felix and sense of Alda's
+sacrifice.
+
+'It is the proper place in which for her to wait for your uncle's
+answer,' said Felix; 'but indeed, Fernan, it is a question whether we
+ought to let you risk all your prospects.'
+
+Ferdinand's vehement demand what Felix took him for, and equally eager
+protest that his uncle must know he had no right to withhold the means
+that were in all equity due to him, lasted through all the brief
+transit to the farther end of Brompton, where a great old house and
+grounds, once quite in the country, had been adapted and revivified by
+Miss Fulmort.
+
+'Might I not come in and see the little girls?' asked Ferdinand,
+wistfully.
+
+'I should _rather suppose_ not,' said Felix, smiling. 'Life-Guardsmen
+are not exactly the visitors expected in establishments for young
+ladies. You had better not wait for me; I cannot give the children less
+than an hour.'
+
+'I would wait if it were ten hours.'
+
+'But how about your horse? He isn't in love!'
+
+Ferdinand would not, however, be denied; and when at length a
+rendezvous was agreed on, Felix, free of the dashing equipage, of which
+he was, to tell the truth, slightly ashamed, rang at the gates, arrived
+at the house door, announced himself as Mr. Underwood, asked to see his
+sisters; and after a long labyrinth of matted passages, found himself
+in a pretty countrified room, where a wiry, elderly, sensible lady,
+with grey hair and a keen face, gave him a friendly reception, drew a
+favourable, but not enthusiastic, picture of Robina's steadiness and
+industry, and said that Angela was a more difficult character. By this
+time Robina came into the room with her hat on, eagerly, but with her
+face flushed and her eyes rather frightened, and as she received her
+brother's kiss, she said, 'The little ones are not come in yet.--May I
+take my brother into the garden, Miss Fennimore?'
+
+Permission was given, and Robina held his hand with an unusually tight
+grasp as she led him to the wide, square, walled garden, with a broad
+gravel-walk around an old-fashioned bowling-green. He thought the round
+face looked anxious and perplexed, and was rather uneasy as he began by
+saying, 'I hope not to lose Angel. Do you always walk so early in the
+day?'
+
+'On Herr Müller's days, because he only comes in the afternoon,' said
+Robina; 'but I am rather glad; I wanted to speak to you, Felix.'
+
+'Is anything wrong?' said Felix, seeing that the child's face had
+become crimson, and hearing effort in her voice. 'You are happy here?
+Don't be afraid to tell me anything, my dear. Remember, there is no one
+so bound to watch over you.'
+
+'I know,' said Robina, looking up into those kind eyes. 'I want to tell
+you--' but she panted, and he encouraged her by putting his other hand
+over hers caressingly. 'Edgar comes every Sunday,' came out at last.
+
+'And what of that? Isn't it a pleasure?'
+
+'It--it would be--but he and Alice ought not to send each other notes
+and messages.'
+
+'What?' very low.
+
+'Indeed they do; and I can't tell what to do.'
+
+'What sort of notes and messages?' asked Felix, in a half reproving
+voice, as though he thought the solemnity of thirteen was taking alarm
+needlessly.
+
+'O Felix, love notes,' half whispered the girl, hanging her burning
+head.
+
+'Nonsense, child; you have misunderstood some joke.'
+
+'No,' said Robina, looking full in his face with sturdy offended
+dignity. 'They both were in earnest when they told me about it.'
+
+'About what?' said he, still severely, as he sat down on a bench,
+unheeding February damp.
+
+'About--' she was not far from tears, as she faltered out, 'their
+engagement.'
+
+'Theirs!' he wrung the hand that he still retained; 'Edgar and--'
+
+'And Alice Knevett,' said Robin. 'I would not promise not to tell. I
+hope it is not treachery!'
+
+'How long?' asked Felix, hoarsely.
+
+'Ever since the holidays. They used to walk together when Miss Pearson
+thought she was with us, but none of us ever knew it then.'
+
+'You are certain? Remember, this is a graver matter than perhaps you
+understand.'
+
+'I think I do understand, and it is that which makes me so unhappy;
+but, _indeed_, it can't be fancy. I have seen her ring, emerald and
+amethyst, for Edgar and Alice, and the locket with their hairs twisted
+together. The very first Sunday we were here, he gave me a note for
+her, and when I told him it was not allowed, he tried quizzing me at
+first, and at last told me I was a silly child who did not know what
+was proper between engaged people. So I said,' continued Robina, with
+dignity, 'that I could allow much to be proper in that case, but I
+wanted to know whether this was only kept from me because I was a baby,
+and was known to you and the grown-up people.'
+
+'Right, Robin,' muttered Felix, feeling that she needed encouragement.
+
+'Then he laughed at me more than ever about expecting things to be
+proclaimed on the market-cross, and tried to puzzle me out of my
+senses, till I could only stick to one thing, that I couldn't take
+his notes unless somebody knew. And after all I found the thing in my
+jacket pocket. He must have put it in when I was not looking.'
+
+'And what did you do with it?'
+
+'Oh! the dreadful thing! I felt as if it would bite me all the week
+long, but I didn't think it would be honourable to tear it or burn it,
+and I kept it. Luckily Alice didn't ask if I had a note, only whether
+he had said anything; and when she found I knew, she told me all about
+it, and said all sorts of things about my being unkind and mean to
+stand out, but I never promised to keep the secret.'
+
+'Are you still keeping this note?'
+
+'No. I gave it back to Edgar on Sunday, and told him to play no such
+tricks. I thought he would have been in a rage, but he was--oh! so
+provoking! just as if he didn't care for a little spite in a naughty
+child.'
+
+'Then is this intercourse checked?'
+
+'No, that's the worst of it. When I would not, they took to Angel.
+You know she got very fond of Edgar in the winter, and was always
+running after him and waiting on him. So she did what he told her quite
+innocently at first, till I found out what was going on, and tried
+to stop her; but she doesn't care for me as she does for Edgar, and
+thinks it grand to be in all their secrets, when I am too cross. And
+then there's a class that goes to the South Kensington Museum, and
+Alice is one of them, and Edgar is about there. I'm sure Miss Fulmort
+ought not to be deceived as they are doing; it's all nonsense about
+schoolmistresses being designed by nature to be hoodwinked. It makes me
+so miserable, I don't know what to do; and when I heard you were come,
+it was as if you had been sent on purpose to help me.'
+
+'Poor child!' said Felix, with a heavy sigh. 'You have kept this all to
+yourself.'
+
+'I could not tell any one. I could have told Miss Lyveson, because she
+is one's friend; but it would only be being a tell-tale and informer
+here. And one's own brother, too! And I could not write, for they look
+over all the letters that are not to fathers and mothers.'
+
+'They must make an exception for me!' said Felix, in an indignant tone.
+
+'I knew you would say so. O Felix, tell them so! I do feel like having
+Papa now I have you.'
+
+'If you only had!' sighed Felix. 'My poor Bob, it is a grievous
+business, but you have been very upright and considerate, as far as I
+can see.'
+
+'I'm so glad you don't want me to have told!' she said, with a sigh of
+relief, as unlike his as that of one who throws off a burden is to that
+of him who takes it up.
+
+'Not if it can be helped. It would be a mischievous and cruel exposure,
+and would be hard on one who has been led into it,' he said, with
+breaks and pauses, half for breath, half for considering. 'It is most
+reckless, most unjustifiable, in Edgar!' He knit his brows, so that she
+gazed at him in awe and wonder, as having something in his countenance
+that she did not comprehend. Then, after a silence, he said, 'Robin, I
+will speak to Edgar, and if you do not find that this is stopped after
+_one_ communication, which of course there must be, write to me. These
+ladies must make an exception in favour of such as we are!'
+
+'O Felix, it is so nice to hold you and feel you! Only I wish I had not
+had to grieve you so much!'
+
+'Dishonourable conduct is not what I was prepared for!' he said,
+setting his teeth.
+
+'And will you speak to Angel? I hear them coming in,' said Robina.
+
+'Yes. Let me have her alone at first. Come back in ten minutes' time.'
+
+He was still sitting on the bench, with his elbows on his knees, and
+his hands over his brow, when Angela came towards him. She was of the
+same long-limbed make as Clement, was nearly as tall as the square
+sturdy Robina nearly three years older, and had Clement's small, almost
+baby mould of features, relieved only by such arch deep blue eyes as
+shone in Edgar's face. She looked such a mere child, that when her
+step and exclamation caused Felix to raise his head, it seemed absurd
+to imagine her to be knowingly engaged as go-between in a clandestine
+correspondence; and with a sort of pity and compunction for the blame
+he had intended, he held out his arms to her.
+
+'O Felix, how cold you are! Your face is like marble. Now if I was to
+sit there, in this weather, wouldn't they be at me like wild cats?'
+
+Thus reminded, Felix rose, and certainly shivered after the exercise of
+his privilege. 'Are you happy here, Angel?' he asked in a constrained
+tone.
+
+'Yes, it is jollier than Miss Pearson's. There are more girls, and we
+do have such fun!'
+
+'I hope you are good and steady, and very careful of all the rules.'
+
+Angela fidgeted, as if she didn't like the style of the conversation.
+
+'You know,' he continued, 'there may be rules that you may not see the
+use of, but that must be obeyed for all that.'
+
+'What a tiresome dry old Blunderbore you are!' broke out Angela, with
+ill-assured sauciness; 'this isn't the way Edgar goes on when he comes
+to see us.'
+
+Felix could not check a sort of groan or grunt; and Angela, whose
+pertness was defensive, quailed a little. She had driven him out of the
+due sequence of his discourse, but he resumed it. 'Angel, I must tell
+you; if anybody asks you to break rules--by giving letters--you must
+not.'
+
+Angela kicked pebbles about.
+
+'Have you ever been asked to do so?'
+
+She hung her head, and a pout came over her face.
+
+'Angel,' he said, in a voice from the sadness of his heart, 'I will
+not ask any questions, in case you have made promises not to betray
+secrets; but you must never make such promises again. Tell me you will
+never do--this thing again.'
+
+She was silent.
+
+'Angela!' he said, reprovingly.
+
+'I don't know why I should promise you more than Edgar,' broke out
+Angela, petulantly. 'He is my brother too, and he isn't cross; and I
+love him, and _will_ keep his secret.'
+
+Between this flat defiance of his authority, and his scruple about
+interfering with the child's sense of honour, Felix was in no slight
+perplexity even as to this interview with his little sister. His
+disclaimer came first. 'I ask about no one's secret,' he said; 'but,
+Angel, I must have you understand this. If you break the rules that
+forbid the giving of notes from any person outside the school, it will
+be doing more harm than you can understand. I shall put a stop to it at
+once, and most likely you will be sent away in disgrace.'
+
+She was somewhat awed, but she did not speak.
+
+'Whatever any one may say to you,' said Felix, 'recollect that it is
+dishonesty and treachery to do anything underhand, and the greatest
+possible mischief to those you wish to be kind to. Don't you see, it is
+no kindness to help any one to do wrong?'
+
+She began to cry. 'They don't want to do wrong. It is very nasty and
+mean of Bobbie to have told.'
+
+'You will know some day how good and trustworthy it is in Bobbie,' said
+her elder brother. 'You cannot understand the rights and wrongs in such
+a manner as this, at your age, Angel.' (To tell the child this was a
+mistake, if he had but known it.) 'You must be satisfied with knowing
+that whatever breaks rules and must be kept secret is necessarily
+disobedient and deceitful, and may have terrible consequences. Do you
+believe me? Then give me your word to have no more to do with it.'
+
+She muttered something among her tears like 'I won't,' and Felix was
+satisfied, for the exaction of promises had necessarily been the
+chief mode of government with the two youthful pillars of the house,
+who spent so much time apart from their dominions; and it was almost
+unprecedented that such a promise was not observed.
+
+Robina was lingering near, and as they joined her Felix found that his
+time was up. He was taken back to the drawing-room, where he found
+himself in presence of the lady he had seen, and of a much younger
+smaller person, with a slight cast in her eye, and a peculiar jerking
+manner such as he could well believe would frighten away a young girl's
+confidence. When he made his request for free correspondence from his
+little sisters, there was no demur; only Miss Fulmort said, half vexed,
+'It ought to have been mentioned before; she did not know why the
+children had not told her.' And then she made a point of ascertaining
+Felix's individual address; for she said, 'A great deal of undesirable
+stuff may be scribbled to brothers and sisters.'
+
+Felix possessed no card, unless such might be reckoned the announcement
+of photographs and stationery, &c., which was wont to be put up
+with parcels for strangers; and when he tried to write 'Mr. F. C.
+Underwood,' the shivering chill so affected his fingers that he could
+hardly guide the pencil. He took leave, and soon found the assiduous
+Ferdinand, who presently asked, shyly, 'What the little ones thought of
+it?'
+
+Felix bethought himself. 'Really, Fernan, it was put out of my head;
+and, moreover, perhaps it had better not be known more widely than
+needful.'
+
+'You do not doubt--'
+
+All the ground that had been gone over before was argued out once again
+by the eager Mexican before they reached the National Gallery, the
+appointed place of meeting with Edgar. He was not within, but without,
+and, throwing away his cigar, hailed them as Fernan drew up his horse.
+
+'At last! The storm must have been pitiless, to judge by the effects!
+You are blue with cold, Felix.'
+
+'Ferdinand, thank you,' said Felix, getting out. 'I am sorry, but I
+must have Edgar alone a little while.'
+
+'Look here, Travis,' said Edgar, seeing his blank look, 'we'll give you
+the honour of giving us a spread. You go on and order it at ----'s, and
+I'll walk this fellow there. Curry soup that will astonish him, and
+warm the cockles of his heart, mind.'
+
+Ferdinand nodded, and drove off, perfectly satisfied with this
+compensation.
+
+'Let's see if we can walk a little life into you,' said Edgar, taking
+his brother's arm. 'Bless thy five wits, Tom's a cold! Was it Madame! I
+always thought she could not be many generations from Billingsgate.'
+
+'I have been to Brompton.'
+
+'That tragical hoarseness would lead me to conclude something. Eh!
+has that Robin been chirping out her fancies? And do you mean to
+say that you are struck all of a heap by the awful discovery of a
+boarding-school mystery?'
+
+'It is naturally distressing to find you acting such a part.'
+
+'Then I am afraid you have a good deal to go through in the course
+of your life. If every little flirtation on the part of your
+"_Geschwister_" is to produce this effect, there won't be much left of
+you by the time it comes to Stella.'
+
+'What meaning do you attach to the words "little flirtation?"'
+
+'When the head of the family puts the question in that solemn tone, how
+is it to be answered? Bless me, Blunderbore, such a countenance can
+only proceed from being smitten yourself! To be sure, when there was
+only one girl you ever spoke to, it was no wonder. Poor old fellow! I'd
+never have poached on your manor, but how was I to imagine a pillar of
+the house giving way to such levities?'
+
+'This is mere bravado, Edgar,' was the grave answer, in a tone not
+disconcerted, but full of repression, and with a pale but steady
+countenance. 'Gloss it over as you will, a correspondence such as you
+have begun is unjustifiable. It risks damaging for ever the prospects,
+at once not only of--of the object--but those of your little sisters.'
+
+'O Felicissimo mio, how green a spot is Bexley! As though secrets and
+mysteries were not the elixir of life to the boarding-school.'
+
+'Have you ever considered what a discovery must involve?'
+
+'I need not, it seems, since you had not the sense to box that
+child's ears for a meddlesome tell-tale. Did the scene equal Madame's
+performance?'
+
+'You do not imagine that I mentioned it.'
+
+'Oh! The revered prop of the state soars so far above my head that I
+did not know what he might regard as his duty.'
+
+'You shall know it now, Edgar. There are two choices. If you are really
+engaged to this young lady' (Edgar made a nod of impatient scornful
+acquiescence, but certainly of acquiescence), 'then ask her honourably
+from her friends, and let whatever you do be open! Otherwise, give
+it up as an impossible imprudence, but drop all attempt at what is
+clandestine. Unless you do one or other of these, I warn you that I
+shall speak to Miss Pearson.'
+
+'If you were a reasonable and experienced paterfamilias, instead of
+only a poor conscientious over-harassed prig of a boy, with more
+brothers and sisters than he knows what to do with, I'll tell you, in
+candid unprejudice, what you would do. Just let it alone! There are as
+many of such little affairs going as there are midges in a sunbeam;
+and they never do any one any harm, unless the higher powers make an
+unadvised hubbub.'
+
+'Am I to understand that as an avowal that you know yourself to be
+trifling?'
+
+'I know nothing about it. I don't live in the heroics, like some of my
+friends. In the rural seclusion of Bexley I saw a pretty lively girl,
+who, not to put too fine a point upon it, made quite as much up to the
+romantic young artist as ever the young artist did to her. Of course,
+there was an exchange of prettinesses, and life on either side became
+a blank when she was immured at Brompton, and the only solace left was
+the notes that so outrage your and Bobbie's united sense of propriety.'
+
+'And what is to follow?'
+
+'Is it to lead to?' he corrected, with a mimicry of Wilmet's tone.
+'That depends. If you make the explosion, I shall have to rise to the
+occasion--keep the slip-knot ready and patent, and as soon as I get my
+head above water, have a wife and family on my back to keep me down,
+and hinder me from coming to your rescue. If not--why, it will take
+its chance, and we shall have a reasonable chance of trying whether
+we get tired of one another--the best thing that could happen to
+us, by-the-by--though she is such a saucy little darling, that were
+that picture of mine painted, I should be fool enough to marry her
+to-morrow.'
+
+'And why--may I ask--seeing these things so clearly, did you draw the
+poor child into an engagement?'
+
+Edgar shrugged his shoulders. 'You had better ask why she drew me.
+If you didn't know it before, my dear Felix, "'Tis human natur to be
+fools."'
+
+'Allowing it to be folly, you do not mean to persist?'
+
+'As if a poor fellow must always have a meaning! Life is not worth
+having if one is to be always so awfully in earnest.'
+
+'I have the misfortune to be in earnest,' said Felix, with the
+formality of one past patience, but resolved to keep his temper in
+hand, 'when I warn you, that if I find that this intercourse is
+continued, unless you choose to ask her properly of her father, it will
+be my duty to let Miss Pearson know.'
+
+'So be it,' was the answer, in a tone of half mocking, half
+compassionate submission, that was more provoking than all, except
+for the sudden change to the gay kindliness that followed, as Edgar
+threw aside his own affairs, to laugh over Ferdinand Travis's honest
+simplicity of adoration of Alda and all her household, declaring that
+it had been as much for his delight, as to be rid of him, that he
+himself had devised that commission of the luncheon. 'What a spread it
+will be!' Edgar chuckled to himself; 'and how it will be thrown away on
+the present company! not that there ever was a man who wanted it more!'
+he added, as he saw how white his brother's face was. 'You've been and
+got a chill!'
+
+Felix did not deny it; and if his unsophisticated palate did not
+appreciate all that Ferdinand had ordered on the principle that
+nothing could be too good for him either in his individual capacity or
+as Alda's brother, he at least submitted to what his two companions
+required of him in the way of hot soup, and _even_ of one glass of
+wine, before he grew restive, and insisted on carrying the head that
+their solicitude had succeeded in rendering heated and flushed to
+burning pitch, to do the business in the City that always sprang up
+whenever any one had to go to town.
+
+Edgar bade him adieu; and the faithful Ferdinand drove him wherever
+he had to go, and finally to Kensington Palace Gardens, where he
+was ushered into the drawing-room, to find Marilda, resolved upon
+unconsciousness, but only succeeding in a kind of obstreperous
+cordiality and good will, which, together with the hot room, made
+him quite dizzy; and his answers were so much at random, that he
+sent Fulbert to an examination at Cambridge, and Clement prospecting
+in Australia. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Underwood made their appearance;
+but when Felix spoke of getting a cab, Marilda said the carriage was
+ordered. Then Alda was explicit about the boxes that were to follow,
+but on the whole she was behaving very prettily and unobtrusively.
+Marilda kissed her warmly, and detained Felix a moment to say, 'This
+will blow over, and then she will come back, unless things have settled
+themselves better. If I can do any good, write to me.'
+
+So Alda quitted her adopted home; but the change might be lightened
+to her by being handed out of the carriage at the station by a
+military-looking figure, who announced that he wanted to see a fellow
+at Aldershot, and meant to dine there. It was not his fault that he got
+out at Farnborough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT.
+
+     'Peace, brother, be not exquisite,
+      To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
+      For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
+      What need a man forestall his date of grief?'
+                                                _Milton._
+
+
+Wilmet was so devoted to Alda and her hopes and fears, that she let
+Felix escape with less reproof than usual, for the cold that sat
+heavily upon him after the last day's chill. He did not give way to it.
+There might have been some temptation to sit over the fire if Geraldine
+had been alone there; but Alda, when Wilmet was out of reach, engrossed
+Cherry's ears with descriptions of her feelings, and cravings for
+sympathy in her suspense, treating every other subject as futile, and
+the interruption of the children's lessons as an insult. No one might
+talk of anybody but Ferdinand; and Cherry did not wonder that Felix
+looked wearied and harassed, and always betrayed some anxiety to come
+first into possession of the morning post. One day, nearly a fortnight
+after his visit to London, he called Wilmet away from the breakfast
+table into the sitting-room: 'Wilmet,' he said, 'I must go and see Miss
+Pearson before school hours.'
+
+'You! Is there anything the matter with Alice?' asked Wilmet, startled
+at his tone.
+
+'Had they--had you--any notion of anything between her and Edgar?'
+
+'No! Miss Pearson has taken to saying, "My dear, your brothers are
+quite grown into young men," and I thought she did not like the play.'
+
+'Ah! that play! It threw them together!'
+
+'Is it really so? I suppose nothing is too foolish and provoking for
+Edgar!'
+
+'The fact of admiration is not wonderful,' said Felix, rather in a
+tone of defence; 'but the worst of it is, that he has been trying to
+communicate with her through those poor girls at school.'
+
+Wilmet's horror was surpassing; and when she found that he had known
+it all this fortnight, she was so indignant, that to his reply that it
+was not fair to leave both parties the chance of acting honourably, she
+replied with scorn for his weakness in expecting anything from Edgar,
+and exposing the children to the chance of expulsion, which might be
+a lasting blight, such as merely in thought put her into a perfect
+agony. Nevertheless, angry and excited as she was, she flew at him
+when he gave her the letters, and was off to Miss Pearson's--'Go there
+without breakfast, in the sleet, sitting and still with that bad cold
+not half gone!' and she dragged him back reluctantly to the other room,
+where, ignominiously ordering off Bernard and Stella to finish their
+stir-about elsewhere, she insisted on his breakfasting while she told
+the story. She was far too loyal to blame him except _tęte-ŕ-tęte_, but
+she burst on him now and then.
+
+'You are not eating, Felix!'
+
+'A cup of tea, then, please, Cherry. No one can swallow stir-about in
+hot haste but Wilmet herself.' He spoke good-humouredly, but with a
+force upon himself that Cherry detected; and she further saw that he
+took nothing but that one cup and a fragment of bread, and then hurried
+off, saying that he must catch Miss Pearson for the little girls' sake.
+
+The letters he had left were Robina's and another enfolding it
+containing these words:
+
+        Dear Sir,
+
+        According to my promise, I have refrained from opening this
+        letter, though I own that the discovery of the purpose for
+        which free correspondence was asked, has been no small
+        amazement to me. In the first shock, I will not trust myself
+        to say more, until after consultation with my brother; but you
+        shall hear from me again respecting your sisters.
+
+                        I remain, your obedient servant,
+                                                    B. M. FULMORT.
+
+
+The letter within was--
+
+        My Dear Felix,
+
+        It has all come out. There is a dreadful uproar, and nobody
+        will believe me. If only Miss Lyveson was here! This was the
+        way. Edgar came yesterday and took us for a long walk in
+        Kensington Gardens, and afterwards I saw Angela going towards
+        Alice Knevett's room; and as we are not allowed to run into
+        other people's bedrooms, I stopped her and put her in mind
+        of what you said; but she began to cry and struggle with me,
+        and Alice came out, and made a fuss to get the note Angel had
+        for her, till I got into a passion, and spoke so loud that
+        Miss Fennimore came out upon us. Angel did not know what she
+        was about by that time, and cried, saying that I was unkind,
+        and was hurting her; and Alice took her part, accusing me of
+        tyrannizing and being jealous, so that I faced round and told
+        all on the spot. Miss Fennimore took us all straight down
+        to Miss Fulmort, and it was a dreadful business. They are
+        frightfully angry with us all, and me the most, for having told
+        you instead of them. They cannot understand the difference
+        between you and any common brother. They think I have not told
+        the whole truth, and it is very hard. Nobody ever distrusted
+        me before. We are just living on sufferance till Mr. Fulmort
+        comes to see about it, and then I think we shall be sent away.
+        I hope so, for I know my own dear Miss Lyveson will believe
+        me and take me back to justice and confidence. Here the girls
+        are as angry with me for telling as the ladies are for not
+        telling; they have no idea of such loyalty and love as we had
+        at Catsacre. There is a report that Miss Pearson has been sent
+        for. If we are sent home with her, it will be a horrid shame
+        and injustice; but I shall not be able to be sorry one bit, for
+        I know you will stand by me.
+
+                     Dear, dear brother Felix,
+                                   Your affectionate Sister,
+                                                         BOBBIE.
+
+
+When the three sisters had made out all that could be understood,
+Geraldine owned herself less amazed than Wilmet; and Alda laughed
+at both for not being aware that Edgar was a universal flirt. All
+that surprised her was his having let it proceed to such dangerous
+extremities; but of course that was the girl's own fault--he would give
+it up when it came to the point.
+
+'Why should you expect Edgar to be more inconstant than Ferdinand?'
+asked Cherry.
+
+Both twins turned on her, and told her she was a child and knew nothing
+about it--their favourite way of annihilating her; and then Alda, in
+her excitement, walked with Wilmet to the school, leaving Cherry, as
+usual, to wash up the breakfast things. She felt a conviction that
+all this accounted for the weary oppressed look, broken by occasional
+starts of vivacity, which ever since Felix's day in London had been
+laid to the score of the cold he had brought home.
+
+She was glad she was still alone, when Felix looked in for a moment
+to say, 'Miss Maria goes up by the 11.30 train. I am going to send a
+letter by her, and I think she will save Robin. Angel is so mere a
+child, that it matters less.'
+
+'How can they all be so unjust?'
+
+'They have not had time to know the child.'
+
+'I did not mean Robina, but you.'
+
+'I don't mind that,' he said, with a smile, 'though I am glad there is
+one lady who does not scold me;' and he bent down to kiss her.
+
+'Did the Miss Pearsons?'
+
+'They allowed that I meant to act for the best, and you know what that
+means. However,' he added,' they are earnest to save the little girls,
+which is more to the purpose. Wilmet or I would have gone up, but Miss
+Maria thinks she can do better than either, and I believe they are
+more likely to trust an old schoolmistress, who is the injured party
+besides. I must write my letter. Shall I help you into the other room?'
+
+'No, thank you; I have the lessons here, for they tease Alda. If you
+would only send Theodore to me as you go.'
+
+'Does Alda never help you?'
+
+'Only by criticising my French pronunciation. She is much too restless.
+O Felix, what a cough! You have made your throat worse.'
+
+'It is only this black east wind.'
+
+'You ought to stay upstairs and be taken care of. Can't you, and let
+Redstone call if you are wanted?'
+
+'I _am_ wanted. It is quite as warm in the office as here, when the
+door is shut. What I want is, only to be twenty years older. Good-bye.'
+
+Cherry's ponderings were divided between that sigh and the possible
+sighs of the wind if that door were not shut, until her own door was
+opened by Felix's hand, to admit a little figure still in petticoats,
+with the loose flaxen curls, tottering feet, limp white fingers,
+and vacant blue eyes, whom she daily put through a few exercises to
+train his almost useless fingers and tongue. The sight of this, Alda
+declared, made her ill, though the little boy was as docile as he was
+helpless; but it was quite true that to nerves and ears not inured from
+the first, Theodore's humming and his concertina were a trial from
+their perpetuity.
+
+Late that evening came a message to beg Mr. and Miss Underwood would
+step up; and they stepped, though the east wind was blacker than
+ever. They found that in great tribulation Miss Maria had brought
+Alice Knevett home, and sent her to bed all tears and exhaustion, but
+that Robina and Angela were forgiven--a word so offensive to Felix as
+relating to the former, that he sorely lamented that prudence forbade
+their removal, but was somewhat consoled by a letter that Miss Maria
+brought him from the Vicar of St. Matthew's, who had had a private
+investigation of the whole subject. He wrote to Felix that his sister
+was new to the management of the girls, and was a good deal annoyed at
+the secrecy observed towards herself, not making full allowance for
+Robina's exceptional circumstances; but that, for his own part, he was
+convinced of the girl's genuine uprightness and unselfish forbearance;
+and though he feared her position must be unpleasant just now, he
+thought it would be for the good of all if she had the patience to
+live it down, and earn the good opinion he was sure she deserved.
+Miss Maria reported that Miss Fennimore had been brought round by his
+opinion, though Miss Fulmort remained persuaded that Robina had 'come
+over him' in some way; and while yielding to his stringent desire that,
+as he said, 'one of the worthiest of her girls should not be unjustly
+expelled,' only let the child herself know that she was tolerated in
+consideration of her youth, her orphanhood, and her relationship to
+Clement. Poor Robin! No one could help grieving for the tempest that
+had fallen on her guiltless head, and hope that all would result in
+her final good; but the sorrows of an absent school-girl could hardly
+occupy even her dearest friends, in the full and present crisis of two
+love affairs.
+
+For Edgar and Major Knevett both arrived, the lover as dispassionate as
+the father was the reverse. Edgar did, however, as he had undertaken,
+rise to the position. He joked at it a little in private, to the
+annoyance and perplexity of Cherry, and even of Felix; but he was
+perfectly steady in maintaining his perfect right to address Miss
+Knevett, in avowing his engagement, and in standing by it.
+
+To Major Knevett, the affair appeared outrageous impudence on the
+part of a beggarly young painter out of a country bookseller's shop,
+encouraged by the egregious folly of the aunts. What was said of
+clergyman's sons and good old family went for absolutely nothing; and
+Edgar's quiet assurance of success in his profession was scoffed at
+with incredulity not altogether unpardonable. In the encounter that
+Felix had the misfortune to witness, since it took place in his own
+office-parlour, he could not help thinking that Edgar, with his perfect
+temper, unfailing courtesy, calm self-respect, and steady sense of
+honour towards the young lady, showed himself the true gentleman in
+contrast with the swaggering little Major, who seemed to expect that
+he could bluster the young man out of his presumption, and was quite
+unprepared for Edgar's cool analysis of his threats. But instead of,
+like Tom Underwood, cooling down into moderation and kindness so soon
+as his bolt was shot, the finding it fall short only chafed him the
+more, and rendered him the more inveterate against all conciliation.
+
+There was an appeal all round to Felix, but he was not so practicable
+as the universal compliments to his good sense showed to be expected.
+He had expressed his opinion that it was a rash engagement, hitherto
+improperly carried on; but he could not be brought to advise his
+brother to break it off on his side while the lady held to it on hers.
+It might be best to give it up by mutual consent; but as long as one
+party was bound, so was the other; and he thoroughly sided with Edgar
+in not being threatened out of it whilst Alice persisted. Still more
+flatly did he refuse Miss Pearson's entreaty that he would see the
+wilful girl, and persuade her how hopeless was her resistance, and
+how little prospect of the attachment being prosperous. Nothing but
+despair and perplexity could have prompted the good aunts to try such
+a resource, but they were at their wits' end. They really loved their
+niece, and they dreaded the tender mercies of her father, who had
+indeed petted Alice as a young child, but had made her mother suffer
+greatly from his temper. If she would yield, they hoped to procure for
+her a home at York, with their brother's widow, and to save her from
+a residence in Jersey with the step-mother; but Alice, upheld by a
+secret commerce of notes ingeniously conveyed, felt herself a heroine
+of constancy, and kept up her spirits by little irritations to whoever
+tried to deal with her. She could deftly insinuate, on the one hand,
+that her aunts had always preached up the Underwood perfections; and
+on the other, hint to her father that if her home had still remained
+what it was, she should never have looked out of it; and whenever he
+flew into a rage, or used violent language, she would look up under her
+eye-lids and whisper something about 'real gentlemen.' Those thorns and
+claws that had figured in the scale of her transmigration were giving a
+good many little scratches, which did her feelings some good, but her
+cause none at all, by the vexation they produced. 'If she could only
+be made to understand,' said poor Miss Pearson, 'how little she gains
+by irritating her father, and that he is really a very dreadful person
+when he is thoroughly offended! Poor child! my heart aches for her.'
+
+So Wilmet was turned in upon her, and before she could utter a word was
+hugged and kissed all over because she was the very image of darling
+Edgar, and his dear violet eyes were exactly the same colour.
+
+Unsentimental Wilmet extricated herself, saying, 'Eyes can't be violet
+coloured. Don't let us go into that silly talk, Alice; things are too
+serious now.'
+
+'You are come to help me and be a dear!' cried Alice, clasping her
+hands. 'How does he look? the dear boy!'
+
+'The same as usual,' said Wilmet, coolly. 'But, Alice, if you think
+that I am come to--'
+
+'Does he--really and truly? I saw him out of the little passage window,
+and I thought he looked quite thin! And Lizzie Bruce said Mrs. Hartley
+asked who that handsome young man was who looked so delicate.'
+
+'He is particularly strong and healthy. Alice, I want to set it all
+before you as a reasonable being--'
+
+'Only do tell me; has he got his appetite? For you know he is used to
+live where everything is _recherché_, and when one's out of spirits
+_things_ do make a difference--'
+
+Was that the claw in the velvet paw?
+
+'He eats three times as much as Felix any day,' said Wilmet, with a
+certain remembrance of the startling nudity of the bone of yesterday's
+leg of mutton. 'He is doing very well. You need not be afraid for him;
+but it seems to me that you should consider whether it can be right--'
+
+'Come, Wilmet, you were my first friend; you can't help being kind to
+me.'
+
+'I want to show you true kindness.'
+
+'True kindness means something horridly cross! Now don't, Wilmet. I get
+ever so much kindness as it is! I know what you are going to say. It is
+very naughty of people to like each other when neither of them has got
+a sixpence; but if they can't help it, what then? Must they leave off
+liking, eh?'
+
+'They ought to try to prevent their liking from leading to disobedience
+and concealment.'
+
+'Ah! but if they can't?'
+
+'People always can.'
+
+'Were you ever tried?' asked Alice, slyly, for all the simplicity.
+
+'I hope never to be, if deceiving my friends and making others deceive
+is to be the consequence.'
+
+'Well, luckily there isn't much chance,' crept out of the demure lips.
+It was intended as the thorn beneath the may-flower, but it was no
+such thing. Wilmet was quite ready to accept the improbability as very
+fortunate.
+
+'That has nothing to do with it,' she said. 'The question is, what it
+is right to do now. It seems hard for me to say so, being your friend
+and his sister--'
+
+'Oh, never mind that. People's sisters never do like the girls they are
+fond of.'
+
+Decidedly Wilmet could not get on. Her mouth was stopped either by
+a little rapture about Edgar, or a little velvet-pawed scratch to
+herself, whenever she tried in earnest to set the matter before Alice;
+and when, being a determined person, she at last talked on through
+all that Alice tried to thrust in, and delivered her mind of the
+remonstrance she had carefully thought over, and balanced between
+kindness, prudence, and duty, and all the time with the conviction that
+not one word was heeded! If it was not English malice it was French
+_malice_ that pointed the replies and sent Wilmet away as much provoked
+as pitying, and not at all inclined to be examined by Edgar on her
+interview, and let him gather that she had not had the best of it. Poor
+Alice! what were these little triumphs of a sharp tongue in comparison
+with the harm she did herself by exacerbating whoever tried to argue
+with her? There was one person she did profess to wish to see, namely,
+Geraldine; but the flying rheumatic pains, excited by the black east
+wind with sleet upon its blast, could not be trifled with; and Major
+Knevett's wrath put an effectual stop to Alice's entering the house
+during the Saturday and Sunday of his stay at Bexley. Perhaps Cherry
+was not sorry. She could not have pleaded against Edgar, in spite of
+her disapprobation of both; and moreover, the thought at the bottom of
+her heart was, 'How could any one who had been the object of such tones
+of the one brother's voice be won by the showy graces of the other?
+Edgar could easily have thrown off a disappointment; but Felix came
+first--and oh! can he shake it off in the same light way?'
+
+She had not the comfort of talking it over. Felix made no sign, and
+Edgar's line was to treat the whole complication as a matter of
+pleasantry, pretending that he had only gone into it to please Felix!
+and yet, as came to their knowledge, privately exchanging billets and
+catch-words with Alice, while he openly declared his engagement and
+resolution to work his way up and lay his laurels at her feet.
+
+He went away the very same morning as Major Knevett carried off his
+daughter to Jersey, audaciously following them to the station, where he
+exchanged a grasp of the hand with her in the very sight of the 'grey
+tyrant father,' who actually gnashed his teeth, in his inability either
+to knock him down or give him in charge.
+
+There was no time to breathe between the departure of this pair of
+lovers and the arrival of Alda's splendid Life-Guardsman, who, horses
+and all, took up his abode at the Fortinbras Arms, and spent his
+days in felicity with Alda. A very demonstrative pair they were. To
+Geraldine, often unwillingly _en tiers_, they seemed to spend their
+time chiefly in sitting hand in hand, playing with one another's rings
+and dangles, of which each seemed to possess an inexhaustible variety.
+Ferdinand's dressing-case and its contents were exquisite in their way,
+and were something between an amusement and a horror to Wilmet, who
+could not understand Felix's regard for so extravagant and wasteful
+a person, who gave away sovereigns where half-crowns would have been
+more wholesome, half-crowns instead of shillings, shillings instead of
+pence, and who moreover was devoted to horse-flesh. His own favourite
+steed, Brown Murad, had been secured at a fabulous price; and the
+possession of him seemed to be the crowning triumph over a certain
+millionaire baronet in the same corps, evidently his rival. What was
+even more alarming was that every detail about races and horses in
+training was at his fingers' ends, so that he put Felix up to a good
+deal of knowledge useful to the racing articles in the Pursuivant; but
+he declared that he never betted. His was a perilous position, homeless
+and friendless as he stood; and this rendered him doubly grateful for
+the brotherly welcome he received. Yet the days would have been long to
+any but lovers, in spite of the rides and walks, one even to Minsterham
+to see Lance. Ferdinand liked to recur to the old remembrances of his
+convalescence; but in these Alda had no part, and they seemed to jar on
+her. She might sometimes seem half fretted by his impetuous southern
+love, but she could not bear a particle of his attention to be bestowed
+on aught save herself; and when Geraldine would have utilised his fine
+straight profile as an artistic study, the monopoly was so unpleasing
+that the portrait had to be dropped. The odd thing was that Alda
+should have a lover whose most congenial spirit was Clement. He was a
+great frequenter of St. Matthew's, and had no interest save in kindred
+subjects. Felix always found them alike difficult to converse with,
+from a want of any breadth of sympathy with subjects past or present,
+such as would have occupied him even without the exigencies of his
+profession. They seemed to talk, not church, but shop, as if they did
+not look beyond proximate ecclesiastical details, which they discussed
+in technical terms startling to the uninitiated; and yet Felix trusted
+that Clement's soul was a good deal deeper and wider than his tongue,
+and that Ferdinand's, if narrow, was thoroughly resolute, finding in
+his enthusiasm for these details a counterpoise for the temptations of
+his position.
+
+His seemed to be a nature that would alternate between apathetic
+indolence and strong craving for excitement. He could go on for
+days with a patient, almost silent, round of mechanical occupations
+performed well, nigh in his sleep, and then, when once stirred up
+became possessed with a vehement restlessness, as if there were still a
+little about him of the panther of the wilderness.
+
+At first he awaited his letter from his uncle much more philosophically
+than did Alda, but when it tarried still, he became so eager that he
+made two journeys to London to meet the mail, and pestered every one
+with calculations as to time and space.
+
+The letter came, and was all that every one else had expected. Alfred
+Travis had always detested the family into which his nephew had been
+thrown by his accident, and the tidings that the heiress had been
+rejected for the sake of one of these designing girls could not be
+welcome. So he gave notice that nothing more could be expected from him
+if his nephew stooped thus low. This, however, did not much concern
+Ferdinand. He curled his black moustache, and quietly said his uncle
+would not find that game answer. The affairs of the brothers had always
+been mixed together, and Ferdinand had been content to leave the whole
+in his uncle's hands, only drawing for his own handsome allowance; but
+the foundation had been his mother's fortune, and he had only to claim
+his own share of the capital, and disentangle it from the rest, either
+to bring his uncle to terms at once, or to be able to dispense with
+his consent. The delay was vexatious, but it could be but brief; and
+in the meantime Bexley was felicity. Yes, in spite of the warning he
+received at the Rectory, which my Lady followed up by a remonstrance
+to Felix--over the counter, for in vain he tried to get her into
+the office. He could only tell her that he much regretted Edgar's
+conduct, but as to Alda, there was no disobedience, and the young man's
+character was high. He was just as impracticably courteous as his
+father, and Lady Price shrugged her shoulders and _hoped_. 'For, Felix
+Underwood,' she said, 'I am convinced that _after all_ you are a very
+well-meaning young man.'
+
+This was her farewell, for Mr. Bevan had been more ailing than usual,
+and had obtained permission to leave his parish for a year, to be spent
+partly in the south of France, partly at the German baths.
+
+Well was it for those who could get away! Never had the spring been
+sourer; Easter came so early as itself to seem untimely, and the
+Wednesday of its week was bleakness itself, as Lance and Robina stood
+on the top of the viaduct over the railway, looking over the parapet
+at the long perspective of rails and electric wires, their faces
+screwed up, and reddened in unnatural places by the bitter blast. Felix
+had asked at breakfast if any one would be the bearer of a note to
+Marshlands; Lance had not very willingly volunteered, because no one
+else would; then Robina joined him, and they had proceeded through the
+town without a syllable from either of the usually lively tongues, till
+as they stood from force of habit watching for a train, the following
+colloquy took place, Robina being the first speaker.
+
+'What is it?'
+
+'What is what?'
+
+'What is the matter?'
+
+'What is the matter with what?'
+
+'With it all?'
+
+There came a laugh, but Robina returned to the charge. 'Well, but what
+is it? Is it east wind?'
+
+'Something detestable--whatever it is,' grunted Lance.
+
+'You've found it so too,' said Robina; for Lance had only come home
+after evening cathedral the day before.
+
+'Haven't I, though!'
+
+He said no more, being a boy of much reserve as to his private
+troubles; and Robina presently said,--
+
+'I say, Lance, did Alda use to be nice, or is it love?'
+
+'Never nice, like Wilmet or Cherry.'
+
+'I am sure,' proceeded the girl, 'I thought love was the most beautiful
+and romantic thing--too nice to be talked about, for fear it should
+turn one's head; but here it seems to be really nothing but plague and
+bother and crossness.'
+
+'Poor Bob!' said Lance, 'you got the worst of it up at Brompton.'
+
+'I got it every way,' said Robina. 'There was Edgar treating me like a
+little contemptible baby, and Alice sometimes coaxing me and sometimes
+spiting me, and Angel poisoned against me; and when I thought I must
+be acting for the best in telling Felix, somehow that turned out
+altogether horrid.'
+
+'I suppose a girl must be telling some one,' said Lance; 'and if it was
+to be done, Felix was the right one.'
+
+'So I made sure,' said poor Robin; 'but Miss Fulmort and Miss Fennimore
+seemed to think it no better than if I had told you. They say I am
+forgiven, but I hate their forgiveness. I've done nothing wrong, and
+yet they don't like or trust me; and they seem to grudge me all my
+marks and prizes. "For proficiency, not for conduct," they say, in that
+hard cold voice. And then the girls nod and whisper. Angel and all,
+think me a nasty spiteful marplot. Alice set half of them against me
+before she went!'
+
+'Poor Bob. And you can't have a good set to, and punch their heads all
+round! That's the way to have it out, and get comfortable and friendly.'
+
+'For choir boys? O Lance!'
+
+'Choir boys aint girls, I thank my stars.'
+
+'Well,' continued Robina, glad to pour out her troubles, even for such
+counsel as this, 'when I came home last week, I _did_ think it would be
+made up.'
+
+'Well,' said Lance, as Robin grew rather choky, and drew the back of a
+woolly glove across her eyes, not much to their benefit.
+
+'Clem looks black, because he says his sisters were meant to raise the
+tone of the school.'
+
+'Confound the tone of the school! I know what _that_ is! But who cares
+for Tina?'
+
+'Then Wilmet says I ought to have asked leave to write to her, and she
+could have managed it quietly, and kept everybody out of a scrape.'
+
+'Whew--w--w--' whistled Lance; but at the melancholy tone, he
+absolutely took his red hand out of its comfortable nest in his pocket,
+to draw his sister's arm into his. It was well, for her voice was far
+more trembling now. 'I could bear it all if it were not for Felix
+himself. I know he is angry with me, but he won't talk, nor tell me
+how; he only said, "We both meant to act for the best; but it is a
+painful affair, and we had better not discuss it," and then he began to
+whistle to Theodore. If any one did know how I hate being told I meant
+to act for the best!'
+
+'Something is come over Felix,' said Lance. 'I never knew him give such
+a jaw as he has to me. To be sure, he was set on to it.'
+
+'Set on?'
+
+'Yes, by Wilmet for one! You should have seen the way she was in--as if
+I hadn't a right to do what I please with my own money.'
+
+'What?'
+
+'My violin! Ferdinand Travis tipped me when he rode over to the
+Cathedral, and by good luck it was the day before the auction at old
+Spicer's. Bill and I went in to see the fun; and by all that is lucky,
+there was a violin routed out of an old cupboard. Nobody bid against me
+but Godwin, the broker, and it was knocked down to me for twenty-two
+and six. Bill lent me the half-crown; and Poulter, our lay vicar, who
+is at a music-shop, says 'tis a real bargain, he's mad to have missed
+it himself; but he showed me how to put my fingers on it, and I can
+play Mendelssohn's "Hirtenlied." You shall hear by-and-by, Robin. Well;
+Wilmet comes on it when she was unpacking my shirts. I'm sure I wish
+she'd let me unpack them myself, instead of poking her nose there; and
+if she wasn't in a way! Wasting my money, when I ought to be saving it
+up to buy a watch; and wasting my time and all the rest of it--till one
+would think 'twas old Scratch himself I'd brought home!'
+
+'Oh don't, Lance. And did she set on Felix?'
+
+'Ay; and then, you know, our new Precentor, Beccles, isn't one quarter
+the man Nixon was; and he has been and written a letter to Fee that any
+schoolmaster in creation should be licked for writing, to go and pison
+a poor chap's home--all about those cards.'
+
+'What cards?'
+
+'The pack Jones found in the middle of the north transept ten days ago.'
+
+'Of the Cathedral! How shocking! But why should he write to Felix?'
+
+'Because the big-wigs make sure some one out of the Bailey must have
+dropped them, getting into the town through the Cathedral at night.'
+
+'But they don't suspect you?'
+
+'No; but Beccles got into an awful way, and swears--'
+
+'You don't mean really swears!'
+
+'No, no--stuff--vows--that unless he gets to the bottom of it, not one
+of us shall have the good-conduct prize. Now I did think I might have
+had that--though I'm not a church candle like Tina--for I never was
+_had up_ for anything; and it is precious hard lines! Such a beauty,
+Robin, the Bishop gives it--all the Cathedral music, bound in red
+morocco; and this beggar hinders us all this very last chance! And
+then, he is dirty enough to write and tell Felix to get out of me who
+has been getting out through the Cathedral, and dropping the cards.'
+
+'Do you know?'
+
+'Hold your tongue; I thought you had a little sense! Felix had that; he
+saw I could not tell him, and said it must be as I pleased about that;
+but then he rowed me, as he never did before, for wasting time, and not
+mugging for the exhibition--as if that was any use.'
+
+'Why shouldn't you get the exhibition?'
+
+'Put that out of your head,' said Lance, angrily; 'Harewood is sure
+of that! A fellow that construes by nature--looks at a sentence, and
+spots the nominative in a moment--makes verses--rale, superior, iligant
+articles.'
+
+'But I thought he wasn't always accurate. Can't you catch him out? O
+Lance, don't look so fierce! I only said so because he can't want the
+exhibition as much as you. He can go to some other school, or be paid
+for.'
+
+'Not conveniently,' said Lance; 'they are not at all well off, and
+Jack helps them. Besides, I wouldn't get the thing in a sneaking way;
+and besides, Bill could no more make a mull in construing out of
+carelessness than I could a false note--it's against nature. I can't
+beat him, except in arithmetic. My birth-day comes at such an unlucky
+time. I should get another year if I'd only been born in July instead
+of June! I might be second, for Shapcote is only dogged by his father;
+but that's no good for the exhibition: and then there's an end of
+Cathedral and all!'
+
+'What should you do then, Lance?'
+
+'Whatever costs least! I'd as lief work my way out to Fulbert, if this
+is to go on.'
+
+'Oh, don't! don't do that, whatever you do!' cried Robina, clinging to
+his arm.
+
+'I don't see why not, if everybody is to be as savage as a bear when
+one comes home. One always trusted to Felix to see sense, if nobody
+else did; but what with his jawing one about the exhibition, and Wilmet
+about the tin and every spot on one's clothes, and Alda growling at
+whatever one does in the parlour, I'm sure I wish I'd stayed at Bexley.'
+
+The boy and girl had never before been tried by want of sympathy,
+and what seemed to them injustice, when they had thus descended into
+the perturbed atmosphere of what they were used to regard as a happy
+home. There was a long mutual communication of grievances--irritable
+speeches--inattention from their elders--fancies and complaints of
+Alda's enforced peremptorily by Wilmet--appeals to Felix either quashed
+or unheeded; the strange thing was, in how short a time so much had
+managed to go wrong with them, except that they added the vexations of
+the last quarter to the present discomfort, real or fancied; and though
+they were both good children, each had the strong feeling that there
+was not as much encouragement as usual to goodness, and that it could
+not have been much worse if they had been seriously to blame. One had
+expected to be caressed for her endurance in a good cause; the other
+had not expected to be severely rebuked for what he scarcely viewed
+as faults. It was the first time this younger half of the family had
+ever suffered anything approaching to neglect or injustice from their
+seniors, and the moment was perilous. The discussion was forming their
+discontents into a dangerously avowed state, if it had the beneficial
+effect of raising their spirits by force of sympathy. At any rate, they
+were in no gloomy mood when they reached the tidy little villa, with
+its beds of open-hearted crocuses defying the cold wind, and admitting
+the sun to the utmost depths of their purple and golden bosoms, as they
+laughed their cheery greeting.
+
+No less cheerful was the welcome from kind old Mrs. Froggatt, who
+met them at the door. 'Master Lancelot, Miss Robina, this is an
+unlooked-for pleasure, to be sure! My dear Miss Robina!' as the girl
+gave her hearty embrace.
+
+They were the prime favourites next to Felix, and were the more gladly
+hailed that Mr. Froggatt was anxious about the business on which they
+came, and had been trying to get leave from his wife to peril his
+rheumatics by coming in to Bexley about it. They must stay to luncheon;
+and while Mr. Froggatt went off to answer his note, they were made much
+of over the fire, in the way that had of late become so abhorrent to
+Bernard, with difficulty avoiding a pre-luncheon or nooning of cake and
+wine within an hour of the meal of the day.
+
+'And how is Mr. Underwood?' asked Mrs. Froggatt, when Robina had
+been divested of her wraps, placed close to the fire, screened and
+footstooled, and when Lance had transferred the big white cat from the
+arm-chair to his own knee.
+
+'Oh, very well, thank you,' said Robina, rather surprised that the
+lengthy catechism on the family health did not as usual start from
+'poor dear Miss Geraldine.'
+
+'He was looking so thin, and had such a cough, I was quite concerned
+when he walked out here on Good Friday afternoon,' continued Mrs.
+Froggatt. 'I hope he is taking care.'
+
+'Wilmet is always at him about it,' said Lance.
+
+'That is right. And I hope he minds to keep the office-door shut. It is
+such a draughty place! Does he wear flannel, do you know, my dear?'
+
+'I think so,' said Robina. 'Sister Constance told Wilmet he ought, when
+he had that long cough after the measles.'
+
+'Ay. You know--you'll excuse me, my dears, a cough is not to be trifled
+with in your dear family.'
+
+'You should write to the clerk of the weather-office, Mrs. Froggatt,'
+said Lance, rather gruffly.
+
+And as Mrs. Froggatt was not good at understanding jokes, but was
+always ready to accept Mr. Lance's, she thought he meant Admiral
+Fitzroy; and much explanation and banter followed, which the children
+made the louder from dread of the subject. Mrs. Froggatt was by no
+means the cultivated person her husband was; but, being of a good old
+plain farmer stock, she was quite as unassuming, and her manners with
+the young Underwoods were a good deal like those of a superior old
+housekeeper, only perhaps less authoritative and familiar; but she was
+not to be kept away from the subject of her real anxiety. 'I wish I
+could see your sister, and speak to her; he ought to have some advice
+rather than let it run on in this way. I'm sure Mr. Froggatt would be
+willing to do anything. It has been a great concern to him to have to
+leave such a heavy charge to him this spring, and with all the family
+cares on his head too, at his age. Miss Alda's wedding put off too--is
+it? And is the young gentleman here still?'
+
+'No; his leave was over last Monday,' said Robina, 'a week after I came
+home.'
+
+'I should like to have seen him! Your brother says he is grown up such
+a fine-looking young man, and quite got over his lameness. A handsome
+couple they will be! I did see them ride through the place, but Miss
+Alda didn't see me.'
+
+'You saw his horse?' broke in Lance, who considered Brown Murad as a
+superior specimen to either of the lovers; and Mrs. Froggatt, whose
+father had bred horses, and whose son was much more addicted to them
+than was for his good, was a much more intelligent auditor of the
+perfections now dilated on than could have been expected.
+
+Yet nothing could keep off the dreaded subject, and even at table,
+Lance's disappointing deficiency in schoolboy voracity became the cause
+of a lamentation over his brother's small appetite, and an examination
+of Robina, resulting in her allowing that Felix seldom gave himself
+time to do more than snatch a crust of bread in the middle of the day,
+and did not always make up for it at tea-time. Mr. Froggatt shook his
+head and looked distressed, and his good lady went on discoursing about
+the basin of soup she always used to keep prepared for him, evidently
+longing, though not quite daring, to send a lecture to Wilmet on taking
+care of her brother. But what made more impression on both the children
+was, that after they had been into Mr. Froggatt's little conservatory
+with him, and had received into their charge a basket of camellias,
+violets, and calycanthus, with a pot of jonquils in the middle for
+Geraldine, the old gentleman said, as he bade them good-bye, 'Tell your
+sister, that if she thinks a day or two of laying by would be good
+for your brother, I should be ready and glad to change places with
+him. A little change might take away his cough; and I don't like his
+looks--no, I don't. He ought to be careful;' this to himself, with a
+long sigh.
+
+Then the children got out into the garden, and with the natural
+impatience of the evil omen, exclaimed at the same moment--
+
+     'Croak, croak, croak, went the frogs,'
+
+and
+
+     'Were there ever such a pair of good old coddles!'
+
+But then they walked on for a full quarter of a mile before either said
+another word; and then it was, 'You don't think Felix looking ill, do
+you, Lance?'
+
+'I never thought about his looks at all,' said Lance.
+
+'No more did I,' said Robina; 'but he does cough; I hear him through
+the wall in the morning. Do you think there is anything in it, Lance?'
+
+'How long has it been going on?'
+
+'Ever since he came up to London. He got a chill in our garden when I
+was telling him about--' said Robina, stopping short of what she hated
+to mention.
+
+'Then that's it!' said Lance, turning round with a face of one who had
+made a great discovery.
+
+'It? What is the matter with him?'
+
+'Yes,' said Lance. 'Hold your tongue, Robina; but Cherry and I thought
+long ago that he fancied that little Knevett himself. Then I made sure
+it was all a mistake; but now, depend upon it, that's what he is so cut
+up about!'
+
+It carried conviction to the hearer, perhaps because it fitted in with
+a girl's love of romance. 'Then that's why he won't talk to me!'
+
+'Of course!'
+
+And then they began putting together all the tokens of inclination
+which their small experience and large imagination could suggest, till
+they had pretty well decided the point in their own belief, and had
+amused themselves considerably; but the anxiety came back again.
+
+'Do people get over such things, Lance? There was Ophelia, and there
+was Wilfred in "Rokeby"--only she was a woman, and he was pipy. Did you
+ever know of anybody really and truly?'
+
+Lance meditated, but his experience reached no farther than the
+surgeon's assistant at Minsterham, who was reported to be continually
+in love, but who did not look greatly the worse for it.
+
+And then Robina suggested that she did not remember that either Wilfred
+or Ophelia had a cough.
+
+'But my father had,' said Lance in the depths of his throat. 'Don't you
+know, Robin, it was hard work and trouble and poverty that--_did it?_'
+
+'Was it?' awe-struck, for she had been so young as to have no clear
+ideas.
+
+'I've heard it told often enough. My Lady cut off the third curate; and
+that--and all the rest of it--helped to bring on the decline.'
+
+'But, Lance! At least, that wasn't--love.'
+
+'Nonsense, Robin! Don't you see, whatever takes the heart and spirit
+out of a man, makes him ready for illness to get hold of?' Lance
+plucked desperately at the hazels in the hedge, and his eyes were full
+of tears.
+
+'O Lance, Lance, what can we do?'
+
+'I don't know! I'd let him pitch into me from morning till night if
+that would do him any good!'
+
+'I'm sure I am very sorry I grumbled. We'll give Wilmet Mr. Froggatt's
+message, and see what she thinks.'
+
+Poor children! their consternation was such, that they must judge by
+their own eyes of Felix without loss of time; so they both marched into
+the shop with Mr. Froggatt's note, and there felt half baffled to see
+Felix looking much as usual, very busy trying to content a lady with
+nursery literature, and casting a glance at Robin as if she had no
+business there.
+
+Wilmet received Mr. Froggatt's message without excitement. She
+thought it would be a very good thing, but she did not believe Felix
+would consent; and Alda broke out, 'Then we should have Mr. Froggatt
+inflicted on us all the evening!'
+
+Nor did Felix consent. He said it was very kind, but his cold was
+almost gone, and he did not need it. Moreover he had his private
+doubts whether Alda would be decently gracious to Mr. Froggatt; and
+Wilmet, whose one object in life was to keep her sister contented and
+happy at home, could press nothing so disagreeable to her. Altogether,
+the reception of their hints at home was so prosaically placid, that
+they were both rather ashamed of the alarm into which they had worked
+themselves up. Even when Robina privately asked Cherry whether she
+thought Felix looking well, the answer was eager.
+
+'Oh, very--very well! He looked pulled down when his cold was bad, but
+he is quite well now.'
+
+'Mrs. Froggatt thought--'
+
+'Oh, you've been talking to Mrs. Froggatt! She thinks nothing so kind
+as to say one is looking poorly. I said, "How well you are looking,
+Mrs. Froggatt," one day, and I assure you she only swallowed it by an
+act of Christian forgiveness. She is fondest of Felix, so of course he
+looks the worst.'
+
+Robina got no more out of Geraldine, whose fears at that moment were
+in the form of utterly denying themselves. Commonplace life greatly
+reassured the two young things, and of the alarm there chiefly remained
+a certain shame at their own former discontent, and doubly tender
+feeling towards their fatherly elder brother. Now that they guessed
+something to be amiss with him, they had no irritation for him--and
+indeed he gave them no cause for any; the discomfort was partly indeed
+occasioned by the lack of his usual quiet mirth, but far more by Alda's
+fastidiousness, and Wilmet's vigilance lest she should be annoyed. This
+caused restrictions that weighed more heavily on the younger ones than
+on Lance and Robina, and had the effect of making Angela and Bernard
+rebellious. They had neither the principle nor the consideration of
+their two seniors; to them every one seemed simply 'cross,' and against
+this crossness there was a constant struggle, either of disobedience or
+of grumble.
+
+Both were at rather an insubordinate age. Angela, having begun school
+life with getting into a scrape greater than she understood, had
+acquired a naughty-girl reputation, of the kind that tempts the young
+mind to live up to it; and her high spirits, boisterous nature, and
+'don't care' system made her irrepressible by any one but Wilmet,
+whose resolute hand might be murmured at, but was never relaxed. While
+Bernard, hitherto very fairly amenable to Cherry, and a capital little
+scholar, became infected with the spirit of riot and insubordination.
+Whatever fastidiousness the children took for fine-ladyism in Alda they
+treated unmercifully, and resented in their own fashion her complaints,
+and Wilmet's enforcement of regard to her tastes; nor was Lance always
+blameless in the tricks played upon her.
+
+It was strange to see the difference made by one incongruous element. A
+few sneers at Cherry's pronunciation, an injudicious laugh when she was
+rebuking, and a general habit of making light of her, on Alda's part,
+upset all Bernard's habits of deference to the sister who had taught
+him all he knew. His lessons grew into daily battles--miseries to
+himself and far greater miseries to his teacher, and sufficient misery
+to the spectator to induce her to do that which the other sisters could
+scarcely have brought themselves to do on any provocation, namely
+to complain to Felix, and by-and-by make a representation, for the
+general good, she said, that it was a mere farce to leave the boy under
+Cherry's management.
+
+Cherry, with bitter tears, was forced to own that she could no longer
+keep him in order nor make him learn, and there was no alternative but
+to send him to Mr. Ryder's. He had no voice nor ear, so that he could
+not follow in Lance's steps; and for the present, Bexley was the only
+resource.
+
+Of course Cherry charged the whole of this upon her poor little self;
+and some amount of the trouble certainly was due to her incapacity
+not to show in voice and manner when she was under fret, anxiety, or
+depression; and now, poor child! all three at once had come upon her.
+Whether Alda's conversation or the children's naughtiness fretted
+her most, it would be hard to tell; she was in a continual state
+of unuttered, vague, and therefore most wearing anxiety on Felix's
+account, and the physical discomfort of the ungenial spring told on
+her whole frame and spirits. Alda's talk, when good-humoured, opened
+such vistas of brightness, amusement, conversation, and above all of
+beautiful scenes, that they awoke longings and cravings that Cherry
+had hardly known before. The weariness of the grinding monotony of
+home seemed to have infected her. She knew it for discontent, and was
+the more miserable over her want of power to control it, because of
+the terror that hung over her lest repinings might bring on them all
+the judicial punishment of a terrible break-up of the home she loved,
+even while the tedium of the daily round oppressed her. Alternate
+plaintiveness and weary sharpness of course aggravated both Alda and
+Bernard, and they knew nothing of the repentant wretchedness that
+rather weakened than strengthened her.
+
+Little Stella's unfailing docility and sweetness were her great solace.
+Even Alda was exceedingly fond of Stella, and would have spoilt her
+if the child had not been singularly firm in her intense love and
+loyalty to the heads of the family. Angel and Bear were too rough for
+her, and alarmed her sense of duty; but Lance was her hero; and the
+happiest moments of those holidays were spent in a certain loft above
+a warehouse in the court of the printing-office, only attainable by
+a long ladder. Here, secure that none but favoured ears could hear,
+Lance practised on his beloved violin, at every hour he could steal,
+emulating too often Mother Hubbard's dog 'fiddling to mice,' but
+his audience often including his three younger sisters. He had had
+scarcely any hints, but his was the nature that could pick music out of
+anything; and Angela, much more than Robin, was ecstatic in all that
+concerned the sixth sense, and watched and criticised with rapture,
+wanted to learn, and pouted at being told that it was not fit for a
+woman. Among those stacks of paper in the dusty loft, with the stamp
+and thud of the press close at hand, it was possible to forget, in
+creating sounds and longing to fulfil the dream of the spirit, that
+Alda was exacting and trying, Wilmet blind to the annoyances she
+caused, Cherry striving hard, and not always successfully, with the
+fretfulness of anxiety, and Felix--they durst not think in what state.
+That loft and that violin made their fairy-land, and one that rendered
+it most unusually hard for Lance to learn his holiday task.
+
+'I'll tell you what, Lance,' said Robina at last, when he had vainly
+been trying to repeat it to her, with his eye on a sheet of music all
+the time, 'you can't do two things at once. If I were you, I would lock
+up that violin till the summer examination is over.'
+
+He turned on her quite angrily. 'Very fine talking! Lock up all the
+pleasure I have in life! Thank you!'
+
+'I'm quite sure you'll never get the exhibition if you have your head
+in this.'
+
+'I shan't get the exhibition any way.'
+
+'But if you do your utmost for it?'
+
+'I shall do my utmost!'
+
+'You can't if you have these tunes always running in your head, and are
+always wild to be picking them out.'
+
+'Well, Robin, I sometimes think I should do more good with music than
+anything else.'
+
+'Maybe,' said Robina, a sensible little woman; 'but you'll do no good
+by half and half. If you don't do well in the examination, Felix will
+be horribly vexed, and you'll always hate the thought of it.'
+
+'I tell you I shall be as dull as ditch-water, and as stupid as
+Shapcote, if I don't have any pleasure.'
+
+'I only don't want you to be stupider.'
+
+Lance chucked up a pen-wiper and caught it.
+
+'The fact is,' said Robina, 'all we've got to do is our best. If we
+don't, it is wrong in us, and it makes us more a weight on Felix; and
+I think it is our real duty to keep everything out of the way that
+hinders us, if it is ever so nice.'
+
+'Is that Cock Robin, or Parson Rook with his little book?' said Lance,
+throwing the pen-wiper in her face.
+
+But the week after, when Robina was at school again, she was called to
+receive a letter which had something hard in it.
+
+'Did you leave a key behind you?' she was asked a little suspiciously,
+for there was nothing about it in the brief note.
+
+'No, Miss Fennimore; but my brother has sent it to me to keep for him.
+It is the key of his violin-case, and he is not going to touch it till
+he is past his examination.'
+
+From that time Miss Fennimore entertained a better opinion of Robina
+Underwood; but little recked Robina. She only felt secure that after
+this act of heroism Lance could not but gain the exhibition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+MIDSUMMER SUN.
+
+     'For Phoebus' awful self encountered him
+      Amid the battle throng invisible,
+      In thickest darkness shrouded all his face;
+      He stood behind, and with extended palm
+      Dealt on Patroclus' neck and shoulder broad
+      A mighty buffet.'
+                             _Iliad, Book_ xvi. (_Earl of Derby._)
+
+
+Warmer weather came at last, and brought Mr. Froggatt back to his daily
+work, lifting a weight of responsibility from his young partner's
+shoulders.
+
+The cough mended too, but did not entirely cease; and when June came
+in with an unusual access of summer heat, there were those who felt it
+as trying as the sharp wind had been. One evening, when the home party
+had been sitting in the garden, and the fall of the dew sent Cherry
+indoors, Felix, as usual, gave her his arm, and lifted her step by
+step up the stairs. She felt, all over her frame, that what used to be
+almost nothing to the boy was a severe exertion to the man.
+
+'You should not do it!' she said, as they both stood resting at the
+top, he leaning back against the wall, and wiping his forehead, where
+the big blue V of the veins stood out prominently.
+
+'Having so often carried the calf--I should be able to carry--the cow,'
+he said, the smile not disguising the panting of his voice.
+
+'You are to be at the agricultural meeting at Dearport to-morrow. I
+wish you would just go and see Dr. Lee.'
+
+'I think I shall.' And there they were interrupted.
+
+Poor Geraldine! What worlds of apprehension were founded on that quiet
+assent, his first intimation that he believed himself unwell! She
+kept absolute silence. She could not have uttered her terrors for ten
+thousand worlds.
+
+She was on her couch under the apple-tree, in the late afternoon,
+trying to force her thoughts out of miserable possibilities, when she
+saw Felix come out of the house, flushed, heated, dusty, tired; but
+somehow she gathered hope from his air, as he threw himself down on the
+grass by her side, saying, 'Mr. Froggatt sent me out to cool.'
+
+'Stella, dear,' to the little one, who had her story-book at hand, 'run
+and ask Sibby to bring Felix out a cup of tea.' Then she tried to guess
+at his face, but durst not look at him fully. 'Are you very tired?'
+
+'Rather! That place was a mere oven of roaring! Well, Cherry,' pulling
+off his neck-tie, and settling himself, with an elbow on her couch, and
+his back against the tree, 'there's nothing amiss with my lungs.'
+
+She shuddered all over, and almost bounded; then put her hand tenderly
+on his shoulder.
+
+'Your doctor is a clever man, I can see,' he continued. 'He seemed to
+guess about me directly. He sounded my chest, and says it is all right
+now, but that there had been a little damage; he thought the long cough
+I had after the measles had left traces that this winter has told upon.'
+
+'Ah!' A great gasp.
+
+'But there's no active disease--none at all; nor likely, if I can shake
+off this remnant of cough, and get into condition before the winter.'
+
+Cherry sighed again at the white hand, and the net-work of blue veins
+on both it and the temple that was propped against it. 'You must
+_indeed!_' she wistfully said.
+
+'I _must_,' said Felix, sighing too, as with little mind for the
+struggle. 'I've brought home a detestable bottle of cod-liver oil on
+the spot, and am to take to all the good living I can swallow. Won't
+that delight Mr. Froggatt's good old soul? Then the worst of it is that
+I am to go away to some sea place for the hottest of the weather.'
+
+'Oh, I'm so glad!'
+
+'He taxed me with not taking food enough; and when I allowed that I had
+no turn for eating, insisted on this sea plan: but he laughed me to
+scorn when I asked whether I might not get a room at Dearport, and run
+backwards and forwards. "Ay," he said, "you have a good deal on your
+mind;" and I fell into the trap, and told him my partner had been ill,
+and we had a great deal to work up. And he went on to ask if I had not
+the charge of the family, and was not apt to get anxious about them;
+and he turned round on me, and ordered me to get a thorough holiday,
+and turn my back on everybody and everything; for there's nothing the
+matter with me but overwork and harass--' Something that did not amount
+to _and_ finished the sentence.
+
+'O Felix, I know, I have felt,' she said, the tears standing in her
+eyes, and the colour rushing into her face at this first venture.
+
+'Have you--little foolish thing?' he answered, but shifting hand and
+elbow so that nothing of his face could be seen but a bit of brow and
+temple, and that was crimson to the roots of his hair. 'Don't take it
+for more than it ever was,' he muttered.
+
+'It was enough to hurt you grievously,' whispered the sister.
+
+'It ought not,' he said. 'It was only the putting out of a vain foolish
+hope I had no right to indulge. Eh, Cherry!' as she made a little
+sound, 'tell me one thing; was it all imagination and folly that
+she--she could have--liked me?' He bent his head with almost as much
+suppressed emotion as if it had been a matter of present hope.
+
+'Certainly not,' said Cherry. 'She liked your--your attentions; and I
+thought sometimes you were quite pulling her up to your level. If no
+one else--'
+
+'I did not imagine it was visible,' he interrupted. 'I tried to be very
+guarded, but one does not know--'
+
+'You were. Somehow one feels more than one sees.'
+
+'And you thought she did? Then at least I was not quite a fool! I
+fancied that there was response enough to what seems to have shown in
+spite of me to warrant the dream that if ever a time came--!'
+
+'If she had had depth enough!'
+
+'But, of course,' said Felix in a tone of defence, 'she never really
+knew; he guessed still less.'
+
+'No, I am sure he never guessed. There is that comfort,' said Cherry.
+
+'It is the greatest I have had all along,' said Felix. 'For the rest,
+it was no wonder.'
+
+'No,' said Cherry; 'but it all managed to fall in the very hardest way
+on you. No wonder it was too much for you!'
+
+'It is odd,' mused Felix, 'how this one dream has seemed to take all
+the heart and soul out of one; there seemed no elasticity to meet other
+things. I must say all this doctor's advice has been seeming an amazing
+amount of trouble for what is not very well worth having in the end.'
+
+'O Felix, Felix you will--'
+
+'My Chérie, you don't think I'd drop off the coach while you are in it
+if I can help it, to say nothing of the rest! I suppose every one has
+something of the sort in his turn, and I'll take good care not to be
+let in for it again. Thank you, Cherry,' he added presently, and now
+looking at her, 'I am very glad to have had this out with you. I think
+I can make a fresh start now. What, silly little thing! crying, when I
+thought I had brought you good news!'
+
+'You are quite sure you have told me all Dr. Lee said?' she demanded,
+holding his hands tight, and gazing into the face, which certainly,
+with the still heightened colour, looked both delicate and weary. 'You
+have been so much worse than you told!'
+
+'No, indeed, I have felt very little but weariness and want of energy;
+but I am better now than I have felt for weeks. And what is more,
+Cherry, I don't feel like getting worse. I mean to set myself to live
+to get through the work my father left me.'
+
+'Taking care of all of us! Is that all you care to live for, Felix?'
+
+'All, just now. Don't look shocked, Cherry. You know it is all very
+fresh' ('Five months--poor Felix!' thought she), 'and there is the
+continual pain of knowing how wretched those people make the poor
+child. When she is happier, perhaps the shade will lighten. Don't be
+afraid, you dear little thing' (he was answering her piteous eyes),
+'there's plenty of time to recover it. I suppose I am really very young
+still.'
+
+'Not quite three and twenty! Oh, Felix! I am sure God will give you
+back happiness, you are so good and patient! Where will you go, and
+when?'
+
+'How I wish you could go with me! Dr. Lee said he should like to send
+me to Switzerland; but as he might as well have said the moon, he said
+any sea place would do. Rest and good air are all that signifies; so I
+thought of Ewmouth, and then I might see Vale Leston again. I believe
+you want it as much as I. You are a little washed-out rag.'
+
+'I shall be all right when I know you are better.' Then as Sibby
+brought out the tea, and Stella the toast she had insisted on making,
+he began to look at his short-hand notes. 'Never mind those. You are
+to rest, you know.--Stella, little one, run to the office, and if Mr.
+Froggatt is not busy, get him to come and have some tea.'
+
+This was always a mission to Stella's taste; and Mr. Froggatt was
+soon installed in the only basket-chair that would hold him, and was
+professing his relief and satisfaction that Mr. Underwood had been wise
+enough to take advice at last. He had better go any day, the sooner the
+better; and even his desire to take the newspaper work with him would
+have been overruled, but for the simple fact that there was nobody else
+capable of it, in the present state of Mr. Froggatt's eyes.
+
+Alda had been lying down in her own room. Her cup of tea--an
+institution that for any one else Wilmet would have deemed sinful
+waste--had been rung for, when she saw from the window that Mr.
+Froggatt was one of the party in the garden; and whereas Sibby did not
+choose to hear or attend to her whims, she came down full of wrath and
+indignation, as soon as she saw that Cherry was left alone under her
+tree, and Wilmet coming out to her with the step of one who was glad
+her day's work was over.
+
+'Really, Sibby's inattention was shameful! Not choosing to bring the
+tea upstairs when it was rung for!'
+
+'You forget how much Sibby has to do, Alda.'
+
+'You have quite spoilt Sibby. I would not have such a servant on any
+account. I'm sure I don't know why the tea was so early, either. Cherry
+ordered it, I believe.'
+
+'Yes,' said Cherry, 'because Felix came in so hot and tired.'
+
+'He could have waited, I suppose,' began Alda; but Wilmet was asking
+anxiously, 'Is he so very tired? Where is he? I was afraid he would be
+knocked up, he looked so pale when he set off.'
+
+'He is gone to write out his notes,' said Cherry; 'I think he is rested
+now. And, Mettie,' she added, knowing that he had rather not have to
+begin the subject again, 'I am glad to say he has been to see Dr. Lee.
+And he says that his lungs are all safe, only he must be careful, and
+go away for a change.'
+
+'Just as I say,' exclaimed Alda; 'no one can be well, living in such a
+hole! When are we to go?'
+
+'My dear Alda,' said Wilmet, 'you forget. No one can possibly go but
+Felix; and it will be hard enough to manage for him.'
+
+'Then I do think it is very selfish in him,' said Alda, 'when every one
+of us wants change! I'm as languid as possible; and look at Cherry.'
+
+Felix selfish! Even Wilmet could not stand that, and answered with her
+most severely gentle manner, 'Nothing but necessity will induce Felix
+to do so. I beg you will say nothing of the sort again.'
+
+Cherry was alarmed lest Wilmet might not be convinced of the necessity,
+and might think more of present pounds than future health; but in fact,
+Wilmet was as much relieved as Cherry herself by the medical opinion,
+for she had charged the failure of health entirely to the constitution
+instead of the heart, and moreover never was troubled with misgivings
+and heart-sinkings for the future. So, as for a needful and infallible
+cure, she set herself to arrange, writing again to Abednego Tripp,
+the Vale Leston clerk, whose possession of a market boat kept him
+conversant with Ewmouth, and who recommended rooms in the house of a
+former servant at the Rectory who had married a sailor.
+
+Felix only waited to put his business in train, and make over Theodore
+to the care of Clement, who had just come home from Cambridge. The
+quantity of work and bustle had not been beneficial, and his sisters
+did not feel at all happy in sending him off by himself; while Alda
+was inclined to think the time a particularly cruel one, just as all
+the most unquiet spirits of the household would be coming home for the
+holidays, and his authority would be most wanted.
+
+However, Wilmet was free first of all, and she was a more efficient
+guardian of the peace than ever Felix could be downstairs. Lance was
+to come on the evening of the 26th of June, after the examination for
+the exhibition, which, as he had told every one, he was quite sure not
+to gain. And then what was to be done with him, small and boyish as he
+still was?
+
+The question was sighed over on that day by the three sisters as
+they sat endeavouring to be cool, and looking out at the glowing
+street where the few passengers seemed to be crawling like flies on a
+window-pane.
+
+Presently a rather hesitating knock at the door was followed by the
+entrance of Mr. Froggatt, ushering in no other than Mr. Harewood.
+
+In the moment of shaking hands, Cherry had foreboded enough to set her
+pulses throbbing so violently as to deafen her ears. Lance had failed,
+had run away in despair, to go to Fulbert rather than be a burthen;
+Felix would go in search of him--break a blood-vessel--and--
+
+Nay--what was it? Lance? It really was Lance! Was not Wilmet talking
+of going? Mr. Harewood saying something about trains? She made a
+great effort to clear her senses, and the first thing she really
+distinguished was Wilmet saying, 'Thank you, I will put a few things
+together.'
+
+Then she hurried away, and Cherry found Mr. Froggatt standing over her,
+saying kindly, 'Dear Miss Geraldine, don't be alarmed. There is often
+no bad result.'
+
+'How was it? I don't understand,' said Alda.
+
+Mr. Harewood owned himself not perfectly informed, but he feared the
+trouble had been in great part occasioned by his own poor boy William's
+carelessness. The two boys had strolled out the evening before, along
+the bank of the river, and had compared the copies of verses which
+were to be shown up at the examination. Afterwards they had bathed,
+and Will had left his verses meantime in the hollow of a tree, never
+remembering them till he found himself in his place in the Cathedral on
+the very morning of the examination. When he came out, not only did his
+duties as senior chorister chain him to the spot, but he had put off to
+the last moment the fair copying of his algebraic exercises, and his
+chance of the exhibition was as good as lost (the very loop-hole that
+Robina had predicted his carelessness would make), had not Lance, whose
+preparations were all made, as soon as he understood the difficulty,
+dashed headlong off, bare-headed as he stood at the school door,
+without waiting to fetch his cap, and laid the verses on his rival's
+desk just in time for them to be shown up. He had been absent about
+twenty minutes, and had scarcely been missed; but when his turn came,
+a few moments later, to bring his papers to the examiners, as soon as
+he stood up, he staggered, gazed round, cried out, and fell forward
+on his desk insensible. A doctor, who like Mr. Harewood himself had
+been present to hear a son's performance, had helped to raise him,
+and pronounced it to be a case of sun-stroke; nor, when, half an hour
+later, the librarian set off to fetch his sister, had there been any
+sign of consciousness.
+
+Mr. Harewood tried to be calm, but he was evidently in great distress;
+and Mr. Froggatt could not restrain large tears from dropping.
+
+As to Cherry, she could only tremble, unable to speak or cry; and Mr.
+Froggatt called out to Alda to do something for her, when Alda said she
+would call Wilmet, which made Cherry burst out with 'Don't, don't!' and
+shudder the more with tearless sobs; but happily, Clement coming down,
+fetched her remedies, and did more by whispering a few kind words of
+hope and comfort.
+
+He was going with Wilmet, who was as usual the self-possessed one; and
+while passively allowing Mr. Froggatt to give her biscuits and even
+wine, she left her few parting directions. 'Alda, take care of them
+all.--Stella, try to keep Tedo happy.--Cherry, don't give way and fancy
+things.--Above all, don't write to Felix! He must not be hurried home
+without necessity. I could telegraph if there was--' and there her
+steady voice faltered, she drew down her veil and turned to walk to the
+station, Clement carrying her bag, and Mr. Froggatt accompanying them
+to the train.
+
+Very little was said on the way, before they reached the town whose
+last associations were so joyous. Mr. Harewood would have given Wilmet
+his arm, dreading the tidings that might meet her; but she was walking
+straight on, with head erect, as though neither needing nor seeking
+support.
+
+They reached the low wicket-door of the Bailey, and as they entered the
+little court and passed the window, they saw that people were still
+standing about the bed in the corner. Everything was open, to admit
+such air as might stir that sultry heat. Some one came to the door, and
+said, 'No change.'
+
+Then Wilmet and Clement advanced to the narrow old dark oak bed,
+and Mrs. Harewood made way for them, fresh tears starting at their
+presence. There he lay, their bright agile boy, with eyes half closed
+and fixed, and circled half way down his cheeks with livid purple, like
+bruises, the purple lips emitting a heavy breath, his crest of sunny
+hair hanging dank with the melting of the ice on his head.
+
+Clement's lips trembled, and he dropped on his knees, hiding his
+face and stifling his sobs in his hands. Wilmet, after looking for
+permission to a gentleman at the foot of the bed, whom she took for the
+doctor, laid her hand on the helpless fingers, and bent to kiss the
+brow, saying softly and steadily, 'Lance, dear Lancey!'
+
+The eyelids moved, the hand closed, there was a struggling stifled
+utterance: 'Wilmet, Wilmet, bring me back! Oh, bring me back!'
+
+She looked up, and read in the watchers' faces that they were glad.
+'Yes, dear Lance,' she said, in her soft steady voice, 'I am here. You
+will soon be better.'
+
+He clung to her, as if blindly struggling with some terrible
+oppression, and the effort ended in violent sickness, exhausting him
+into unconsciousness again; but just then the real doctor came in,
+having been summoned by a message at the first symptom of change from
+the state of stupor. At the same time the Cathedral bell began to
+ring for evening prayer, and Lance at once was roused to endeavour to
+obey it, and when he was gently held back, murmured on about finding
+the places, and seeing Bill was not late. Mr. Harewood had to go, but
+whispered that he would ask the prayers of the congregation. It was
+comfortable to remember that Lance was thought of there, when, as the
+deep roll of the organ vibrated round the building, psalm, chant,
+anthem, and response came thronging thick and confusedly on those
+unconscious lips.
+
+Dr. Manby, however, told Wilmet not to be too much alarmed at this
+delirium, for the most immediate danger had passed when the lethargy
+had given way, and that though fever was probably setting in, there
+was fair hope that so healthy a boy would be able to struggle through
+it without permanent harm. There was a gentleness and consideration in
+his manner quite new to her after her dealings with Mr. Rugg, and she
+felt at the same time that he was not concealing the truth from her.
+She told how it was with her eldest brother, asking whether he ought to
+be sent for; and it was a great lightening of present fear to be told
+that there was now no need for haste, and that any change for the worse
+would give full time to bring him; moreover, that new faces were to be
+avoided. Should a nurse be sent from the hospital? Wilmet raised her
+steady sensible eyes, and said she could manage, she was well used to
+nursing.
+
+'I see you are,' he answered, well satisfied, since there were besides
+the Precentor's housekeeper, who was used to act as matron to the
+boarding choir-boys, and apparently an unlimited power of Harewoods.
+
+As to the place, Lance had at first been carried to his own bed, and
+even if there had been a regular infirmary, he was in no state to bear
+being moved. The other boys' goods had been removed, and they all were
+going home that evening; so that it was as cool and as quiet a place
+as could be had, since there was no doubt that the sounds from the
+Cathedral would be hushed for so critical a case.
+
+Indeed, just as Dr. Manby had said this, both the Dean and the
+Precentor were seen coming through the Bailey on the way out of church
+to ask after the patient; and the former promised Wilmet that the bells
+and organ should both be silenced, and that the daily service should be
+in the Lady Chapel.
+
+It appeared there had been little but the instrumental music that
+evening, and strangers who had heard the praises of the Minsterham
+choir must have been disappointed; for the psalms so entirely overcame
+the senior chorister that he could do nothing but sob, and at last was
+fain to stuff half the sleeve of his surplice into his mouth to hinder
+a howl such as the least of the boys actually burst out with. Most of
+the other lads were far past singing, and even two or three of the
+men; and such voices as did uplift themselves were none of the best or
+clearest.
+
+That poor senior chorister--he crept back after his father into the
+room. It was his first entrance, for he had been kept all day at the
+examination, with what power of attention may be guessed; and when
+some half-recognition of him set the sufferer off into wanderings
+that showed habitual vigilance over his carelessness, he was so much
+distressed that he rushed out, and was heard crying so piteously in
+the court, that his mother went out to hush and comfort him. Never
+strong, the shock, anxiety, and exertion had so worn her out, that her
+family would not let her come back; but their attention to the nurses
+did not relax--they were viewed as guests both by Mr. Beccles and
+the Harewoods; and when it was found that neither would come away to
+another house to dine, a little table was prepared in the court, close
+to the door, and the sister and brother, coaxed one by one, and made to
+eat and drink; while, as Clement could not bear to go home, a note was
+written, the delivery of which to the sisters Mr. Beccles undertook to
+secure. All the evening, Mr. Harewood or his eldest son, the engineer
+captain, the same whom Wilmet had taken for the doctor, sat at the
+other end of the room; while Lance lay, sometimes babbling school tasks
+mixed with anthems and hymns, sometimes in something between sleep and
+torpor, but always moaning and fevered.
+
+This strange temporary infirmary, of which Wilmet was made free,
+consisted of two long narrow rooms, each with a row of quaint black oak
+beds and presses, between the double row of narrow lattice windows,
+looking into the court on one side, and the cloister on the other.
+There was a smaller room dividing these two chambers, and opening
+into both, which the under-master had vacated, and where the matron
+installed Miss Underwood's little bag.
+
+Clement was a good deal impressed with the place, in the grand quiet
+shadow of the old Cathedral; and the room itself told much of his
+brother's daily life, in his own little section of it. The deep
+window-seat and old oak chest were loaded with piles of 'Punch,' sheets
+of music, school-books, and grotesque sketches; bat, hockey-stick, and
+fishing-rod were in the corner; trencher cap and little black gown
+hung on their peg on the white-washed walls, and pinned beside them
+lists of the week's music, school-work, &c. In the corner by the press
+was a little rough deal table, covered with an old white shawl that
+Clement remembered as his mother's; and on it lay Lance's old brown
+Bible, the Prayer-book given him by the Bishop, 'Steps to the Altar,'
+and Ken's Manual; over it hung the photograph of his father, and next
+above, an illumination of Cherry's, 'The joy of the Lord is your
+strength;' while above was a little print of the Good Shepherd. Nor
+was it a small testimony to the boy who had been senior in the room,
+that Clement found one or two other such little tables, evidently for
+private prayer. He had never believed such things could be out of St.
+Matthew's, nor where the books were not more of his own exclusive type
+than were Lance's; and perhaps there was some repentance for harsh
+judgment in his spirit as he knelt on by that little table long after
+Mr. Harewood, near midnight, had read a few prayers and gone to his
+house.
+
+When Clement stood up, his sister made him lie down, as well as his
+long legs would permit, on one of the other beds, where he soon fell
+asleep; while she sat on, where she could see the spire rising aloft
+into the pale blue of the summer night's sky, while the perfect
+stillness was only broken by the quarterly chiming of the clock,
+re-echoed from its fellow in the town-hall. Every window and door
+was open, but the air was heated and oppressive till the early dewy
+coolness before dawn crept in, making her bend over Lance to cover him
+less slightly. Then she met his eyes, heavy and blood-shot, but with
+himself in them.
+
+'Wilmet, is that you?' he said, in a wondering tone.
+
+'Yes, here I am, dear Lance.'
+
+'Is it night or morning?'
+
+'Morning. There, it is striking three-quarters past two.'
+
+'Oh!' a long sigh. 'I'm so thirsty!'
+
+She brought some drink; but as he tried to raise his head, the
+distressing sickness returned in full force, and in the midst the
+gasping cry, 'My head, my head!'
+
+'Some more ice, Clem,' said Wilmet; but Clement looked up from the
+ice-pail in despair, for all was melted; and she could only steep
+handkerchiefs in the water and in eau-de-cologne, and lay them on the
+head, while Clement wondered if he could find a shop; but where was
+the use at three in the morning? and poor Lance rolled round wearily,
+sighing, 'Oh, I did not know one's head could ache so!'
+
+Just then a step crossed the court, and a low voice said, 'Is he awake?
+I have brought some more ice.'
+
+'O Jack, thank you!' faintly breathed Lance.
+
+'Thank you!' fervently added Wilmet; 'we did not know what to do for
+some more!'
+
+'I thought you must want some by this time. I have a little ice-machine
+for Indian use,' he added, as Clement looked at him like a sort of
+wizard.
+
+He was small, sandy, and freckled after the Harewood fashion, and
+was besides dried up by Eastern suns; but one who brought such
+succour could not fail to be half celestial in the sister's eyes; and
+as he said, 'You are getting better,' her response was fervent in
+its quietness, though poor Lance, conscious only of oppression and
+suffering, merely replied with a groan, and seemed to be dozing again
+into torpor in the relief the ice had given.
+
+Clement and Captain Harewood besought Wilmet to rest--the latter
+declaring himself to be too much of an East Indian to sleep at dawn;
+and she consented to lie down in the little room, where she had enough
+of wakeful slumber to strengthen her for the heat of the day, when the
+fever ran high, and all the most trying symptoms returned.
+
+The doctor continued to forbid despondency, building much on the
+lucid interval in the cool of the morning, and ascribing much of the
+excitement of brain to the excessive, almost despairing, study that
+Lance had been attempting in the last weeks before the examination.
+There had, too, been a concert given by one of the great ladies of the
+Close, for which there had been a good deal of practice, harassed by
+certain amateur humours; and the constant repetition of one poor little
+shallow song in the delirious murmur greatly pained the Precentor, and
+made him indulge in murmurs that boded ill to the ladies' chances with
+the choir-boys. The sultry weather was likewise a great enemy, and
+could hardly be mitigated by the continual fanning kept up chiefly by
+poor Bill Harewood, who seemed to have no comfort except in working the
+fan till he was ready to drop, and his brother or Clement took it from
+him.
+
+Mrs. Harewood was quite knocked up, and her daughters were curiously
+inefficient people. Their father came and went all day; but the
+serviceable person was the engineer, with his experience of
+sun-strokes, his devices for coolness, and his cheerful words, stilling
+the torrent of rambling restlessness, so that Wilmet depended upon him
+as much as on the doctor himself.
+
+On Saturday, the third day of the fever, which had rather increased
+than diminished, Wilmet begged Clement to go home for the night, to
+carry a report to the sisters, and fetch some things she wanted. He
+lingered, grieving and reluctant; while the heated atmosphere was like
+a solid weight on the sufferer, who lay, now and then murmuring some
+distressed phrase, as though labouring with some forgotten task; and
+Wilmet shunned touching the pulse again lest the reckoning should be
+higher than the last, and strove to construct a message conveying the
+hope that seemed to faint in the burthen of the day, insisting, above
+all, that guarded accounts should be sent to Felix, keeping carefully
+to Dr. Manby's report.
+
+'I can be here before nine,' said Clement; 'I wish I could help going.
+I feel as if something must happen!'
+
+'A thunderstorm,' said Captain Harewood in a reproving voice, as he
+plied the fan, with heat-drops on his brow; 'a thunderstorm, which will
+prove the best doctor. Take care, you will miss the train.'
+
+Clement stooped to kiss the unconscious face, as though he had never
+prized his little brother before, and as some association of the touch
+of the lips awoke the murmur, 'Mamma, Mamma!' he sped away with eyes
+full of tears.
+
+Before he could have reached the station, the storm was coming--great
+rounded masses of cloud, with silver-foamed edges and red lurid
+caverns, began to climb slowly up the sky, distant grumbles of thunder
+came gradually nearer, a few fitful gusts of wind came like sirocco,
+adding to the stifling heat, and were followed by exceeding stillness,
+broken by the first few big drops of rain, the visible flashes, and the
+nearer peals of thunder, till a sudden glare and boom overhead startled
+Lance into a frightened bewildered state, that so occupied Wilmet that
+she hardly heard the roaring, pattering hail-drops on the roofs and
+pavements; but when a sweet fresh wind blew away the hail, the weary
+head was more at rest, the slumber more tranquil, the breathing freer
+and softer than it had been since that Wednesday.
+
+Some two hours later she saw him looking at her with a sort of
+perplexed smile; and the first words upon his tongue were, 'Is Bill
+first?'
+
+'Nothing is settled till the Bishop comes home,' Captain Harewood
+answered.
+
+'What time is it?' then asked Lance.
+
+'Half-past eight.'
+
+'It seems always half dark, said the boy, dreamily, 'and yet there's no
+curfew.'
+
+'They have been so kind as not to ring the bells,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Not ring the bells!' repeated Lance, in a feeble voice of amazement.
+
+'No, nor play the organ,' said Wilmet; 'you have had to be so quiet,
+you know.'
+
+'No organ! and for me!' repeated Lance, impressed almost as if the
+'unchanging sun his daily course' had 'refused to run;' but it rather
+frightened him, for he added, 'Am I very ill, then?'
+
+'Not now, I hope,' said Wilmet, tenderly, and possessing herself of his
+wrist; 'you are so much better to-night.'
+
+He looked wistfully into her face. 'What's the matter with me?' he
+said. 'What does make my head go on in this dreadful way?'
+
+'Dear Lance! It was that running in the hot sun.'
+
+'Oh!' (a sort of sigh of discovery) 'I hope he had the verses.'
+
+'Yes, indeed you gave them.'
+
+'Then he must be first,' said Lance; and then, as his thankful nurses
+were preparing to give him some nourishment, he spoke again. 'Mettie,
+please come here;' and as she bent over him, 'is this being very
+ill?--like dying, I mean.'
+
+'Not now, dearest,' said Wilmet, kissing him. 'You must be through with
+the worst, thank God.'
+
+He asked no more, for his voice was low and faint, the pain and
+dizziness still considerable; and the being fed without raising himself
+occupied him till the doctor came for his evening visit, and confirmed
+the sister's comfort in his improvement. She sat gazing as he fell
+asleep again, till Captain Harewood reminded her that her letter to
+Ewmouth must be sent before the mail closed. She turned to the window,
+where still lay her anxiously-worded bulletin, not yet closed; but as
+she took the pen, the blinding tears fell thick and soft as the summer
+rain outside.
+
+'This will be a happy ending,' said John Harewood, as he saw her
+silently striving to clear her sight.
+
+'Would you be so very kind as to write it for me?' she answered,
+pointing to the paper, with a lovely smile through her tears. 'He will
+believe it all the more.'
+
+And as he took the pen, she retreated in quiet swiftness to her little
+room; but came back as he finished the few freshly hopeful lines; then
+going to the door with him, looked up with the same sweet tremulous
+smile. 'Thank you! What thankfulness it is! What a merciful rain this
+is! If you knew the relief it is to send this report to Felix! You
+cannot guess what this dear little fellow is to him.'
+
+'I think I can, a little,' said John Harewood, with his heart in his
+voice; and Wilmet smiled again, her stately but usually rather severe
+beauty wonderfully softened and sweetened by emotion.
+
+The improvement continued when Clement arrived on the Sunday morning;
+and though fevered, confused, and beset by odd fancies, especially
+about the silence of the Cathedral, Lance knew his brother, smiled at
+him, and returned his greeting. Clement had a more cheerful task than
+usual in what seemed to be his day's work--answering inquiries at the
+door, and taking in presents of fruit. All the Chapter and half the
+town seemed to call, or send, at least once a day; and little boys used
+to hang about the court, too shy to come to the door, but waiting to
+collect tidings from the attendants, and mutually using strong measures
+upon one another when either was betrayed into noise.
+
+Clement called his sister aside to ask whether she could spare him,
+since she had the help of the matron and the Harewoods. 'I should be
+very glad to stay,' he averred, 'but somebody is really wanted at home.'
+
+Wilmet had not been so much accustomed to consider Clement in the light
+of 'somebody,' as greatly to care whether he went or stayed, and only
+said, 'I can get on very well. No one is of so much use as Captain
+Harewood.'
+
+'Just so,' said Clement; 'and I think I am doing more good at home.
+Imagine my finding all the windows open in that pouring rain, and
+Cherry sitting shivering.'
+
+'Very foolish of Cherry,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Poor Cherry! she could not help herself, and was only thankful when I
+had the courage to shut them in Alda's face. Then they don't know what
+to do with Theodore.'
+
+'Poor Tedo--that's the worst of it!'
+
+'You see he is used to a man's hand and voice. He is very good with me,
+but Sibby has had dreadful work with him every night till I came home.
+And, Wilmet, couldn't you send a message who is to be mistress while
+you are away?'
+
+'Alda, of course.'
+
+'Alda doesn't seem to understand, and she will not let Cherry tell her.'
+
+'Cherry always does bother Alda. I can't help it, Clem, they must rub
+on somehow; and if you can make Theodore happy, the rest does not so
+much signify.'
+
+Not signify! Clement did not know whether he was standing on his
+head or his heels, and never guessed that not only was she too much
+absorbed in the present thoroughly to realise the absent, but that she
+would not venture to send orders based on his report, which in her
+secret soul she qualified by his love of importance and interference.
+However, he went away, and was not seen again all the ensuing week--the
+early part of which was very trying, for the fever recurred regularly
+about noon and midnight, and always brought rambling, which since
+that conversation with Wilmet, had taken the turn of talking about
+being buried in a surplice, and of continually recurring to the 134th
+Psalm, which, it was now remembered, Lance had shortly before taken
+part in, over the grave of an old lay-vicar, who, boy and man, had
+served the Cathedral for nearly sixty years. Often, too, the poor
+little fellow seemed struggling with some sense of demerit--whether
+positive disgrace, or suspicion, or the general Christian feeling of
+unworthiness, Wilmet and John Harewood could never make out; and they
+did not choose to speak of these wanderings either to Will or to Mr.
+Beccles. In the intervals of consciousness, the thought of danger and
+death seemed to be lost in the weakness of exhaustion, and the dread of
+whatever brought back the pain, from which there was no respite except
+in cool air and perfect quiet. The least movement intensified it, and
+brought on the sickness that showed the brain to be still affected; and
+still worse was any endeavour to attend to the shortest and simplest
+devotions, when Mr. Harewood attempted them. Yet all the time there was
+amendment; the fever was every day less severe, the intervals longer,
+the sleep calmer, the doctor more securely hopeful; and by the end of a
+week from the time of the accident, recovery was beginning sensibly to
+set in.
+
+Clement, meanwhile, did not appear; nor was he seen till the ensuing
+Monday, when he stood on the threshold of the open door at the Bailey,
+bewildered at the emptiness of the bed where he had last seen his
+brother--till a weak voice said, 'Here, Clem,' and he saw on another of
+the little old beds a small figure, in a loose soft white silk Indian
+_robe de chambre_, the face shrunken into nothing but overhanging brow
+and purple haloed eyes, though the eyes themselves were smiling welcome
+in all their native blueness and clearness, and two thin white hands
+were held out.
+
+'Out of bed, Lance! That is getting on!'
+
+'Yes. They thought I should be cooler, and sleep better for it.'
+
+'And are you all alone?' said Clement, hanging over him.
+
+'The maids are about somewhere. Wilmet is gone to the Cathedral, while
+Jack got me up.'
+
+'Then you must be a great deal better.'
+
+'Oh yes; I haven't had any of that horrid fever since Friday.'
+
+'And the pain?'
+
+'Better, if I lie quite still and it is not hot, but I couldn't stand a
+bit when I tried. I hardly know how Jack carried me here.'
+
+'You are little and light enough,' said Clement; 'but I'll help to
+carry you back. I am sorry not to have been here more, Lance, but I was
+so much wanted at home.'
+
+'Thank you, I didn't want any one. Jack is such a fellow; and
+Wilmet--somehow, Clem, I never seem to have cared enough about W. W.'
+
+'Nor I, till I saw what home is like without her,' muttered Clement.
+
+'And isn't she beautiful, too?' added Lance; 'it is quite nice to lie
+and look at her at work. Don't you think her much better looking than
+Alda?'
+
+'If handsome is that handsome does,' said Clement. 'You wouldn't like
+me to stay with you instead of Mettie, old chap?'
+
+The helplessly alarmed look of illness came into Lance's eyes. 'Oh no,
+no; I couldn't spare Wilmet yet. She doesn't want to go?'
+
+'No; I have said nothing to her; but Cherry is not well, and everything
+is at sixes and sevens; but there, never mind,' as the tears started
+into the sick boy's eyes, 'we'll manage; I should not have said
+anything about it.'
+
+'Please don't,' said Lance. 'If she ought to go, let her, and don't
+tell me. I can't help it, Clem; I'm afraid to think if it ought to be,
+or I should make my head rage, and I should begin to talk nonsense
+again, and that's worst of all.'
+
+'Do you know when you are talking nonsense?' said Clement, surprised,
+and eager to lead off from the subject he felt he ought not to have
+broached.
+
+'Oh, yes, I know that it is not the right thing, and the right thing
+won't come; and the worst of it is,' lowering his already feeble voice,
+'saying one's prayers is hardest of all; I can't remember what I know
+best. I couldn't so much as go through the Magnificat if you were to
+shoot me.'
+
+'But holloa! They don't generally come out of the Cathedral this way,
+do they?'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'The Bishop! Ay, and the Dean! Speaking to Wilmet. I believe they are
+coming here. Lie still, Lance.'
+
+'I must,' he acquiesced, after half raising himself and falling back.
+'Oh, can it be about the prize? Some of that stuff on my forehead,
+please, Clem.'
+
+Wilmet came in first, ascertained that all was ready, put an arranging
+touch to Lance's pillows, and ushered in the two dignitaries, who shook
+his languid hand, and asked after him kindly.
+
+'You have put the Chapter into great difficulties by disabling yourself
+and Harewood,' said the Bishop. 'What! did you not know that the poor
+fellow entirely broke down?' as the eager eyes inquired.
+
+'Nobody would tell me anything about it,' said Lance.
+
+'It could not be helped,' continued the Bishop, 'but the examiners said
+they felt it a great cruelty when they saw how utterly astray distress
+rendered him. However, his papers and yours were both so good--his
+verses especially, and your arithmetic--that it was impossible to
+reject them, so the decision was put off till my return on Saturday.'
+
+'We think,' said the Dean, who was very old, very gentle, and very
+slow of speech--'we think, my little fellow, that though there is no
+doubt that Shapcote did best in the examination, and ought to have the
+exhibition, yet under the peculiar circumstances, you and Harewood can
+be retained as choir scholars for another year, so as to try again.
+You don't look sixteen, I'm sure, and we should be sorry to lose your
+voice.'
+
+'I'm only just turned sixteen,' said Lance, 'only on the 14th of June.
+Thank you, sir;--thank you, my Lord;' and his face beamed joy, though
+his words faltered.
+
+'Moreover,' proceeded the Bishop, 'I have the greatest pleasure in
+giving the good-conduct prize where, so far as I am able to judge, it
+has been well deserved.'
+
+A perilous flush of joy overspread the pale face; he started up on his
+elbows, and his eyes danced rapture, as some one at the door handed
+in the beautiful red morocco quarto of the Cathedral music; and the
+Bishop, with a fatherly hand making him lie down again, laid the book
+beside him, as he gasped out something like thanks.
+
+'We are quite convinced that you have deserved it,' repeated the Dean,
+again shaking hands with him, and then taking leave; but the Bishop
+remained, talking kindly to Clement about Cambridge, and inquiring for
+Felix; while Wilmet helped Lance's feeble fingers to turn the thick
+creamy pages on which he durst not fix his eyes.
+
+Presently the Bishop sat down again, and said, 'I have acted on my
+own judgment in giving you this, my boy. I have seen enough of our
+choir these six years to know that what caused so much displeasure was
+certainly not to be laid to your charge.'
+
+Lance made an uneasy movement, became alarmingly red, and said in a
+choked voice, 'I don't know but what it might, my Lord.'
+
+'You mean that you knew of this custom of getting out at night through
+the Cathedral?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord; I found out the way.'
+
+There was a silence.
+
+Then the Bishop said, 'After this, I can only leave it to your own
+conscience whether you ought to keep this book; but I think you would
+do wisely to let me know, remembering that I have no authority in the
+school.'
+
+Lance brightened, and he answered, 'My Lord, I did get out once, but
+only once, and I don't think I did wrong. It was a long time ago--in
+the autumn.'
+
+'Last autumn! Was it not then that there was a report of a chorister
+in his shirt sleeves being seen at the Green Man at eleven o'clock at
+night?'
+
+'That was I, my Lord.'
+
+Clement was ready to start forward, under the impression that Lance
+was talking his 'nonsense;' but the Bishop said, 'You were named, but
+nobody believed it for a moment.'
+
+'One of our little fellows was very ill, my Lord,' said Lance,
+excitement restoring something of his natural briskness. 'We thought he
+was going to have the cholera, and I went to get something for him. The
+chemists' shops were shut, so I went in there.'
+
+'May I ask the question,' said the Bishop, rather as if taking a
+liberty, 'why did you not call up Mr. Stokes?'
+
+'We couldn't, my Lord, for it was all Mr. Shapcote's swans' eggs.
+He caught them--three of our least fellows, I mean--jumping at the
+branches that hung over the river wall, and he blackguar--abused them
+so that they got into a rage and vowed he shouldn't have a plum left
+on the tree. We seniors knew nothing about it; but they got over the
+wall at dark, and one ate eighty-five and the other eighty-one; but,
+little Dick--one of them, I mean--could only get down nineteen, and
+brought the rest in his pockets. It was the first time such a thing
+had happened, and it put me in a proper rage. The little one was the
+one I found out first; and I thought he was sulky, so I licked him
+till he howled, so that I was afraid I'd done him some dreadful harm,
+like a regular brute; and when I found it was his inside instead of
+his outside, I was so glad, I could have done anything for him. But we
+couldn't call Stokes, or the poor little chap would have suffered for
+it three times over.'
+
+'That would have been hard measure! And did your remedy succeed?'
+
+'Yes; I think a good deal was fright. He went to sleep on the brandy,
+and was all right next day.'
+
+'And the gentlemen with the eighty-five and eighty-one suffered no
+inconvenience, of course?' said his Lordship, much amused. 'May I hear
+how you got out?'
+
+'With Mr. Harewood's key,' said Lance. 'He used to keep it on a nail
+inside the study door, which opens into the passage leading into this
+court, and is never locked.'
+
+'That is the key of the Cathedral library.'
+
+'Yes, my lord; it unlocks the outer door, and the door into the north
+transept.'
+
+'And after that--'
+
+'You can shoot the bolt on the inside of the little side-door at the
+west front, and climb over the railing.'
+
+'Boys are animals not to be kept in, that is certain! So you were
+pioneer! But you had nothing to do with those cards?'
+
+'No, my Lord. But I ought not to have told how I got out, for there
+were some who would do it afterwards. However, those cards were none of
+ours.'
+
+'Whose were they?'
+
+'Walter Shapcote's, my Lord. He is gone now, so it does not signify.'
+
+'That nephew Mr. Shapcote had in his office?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord; he had got the command of poor Gus, because he had lent
+him money for some debt that Gus was afraid to let his father know of,
+and made him get the key, and let him out and in.'
+
+'You all knew of this?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord; but poor Gus was sure that his father would be so
+dreadful, that we durst not let out a word. Mr. Shapcote makes every
+soul afraid of him.'
+
+'The young man is gone?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord, to London.'
+
+'And there is no danger of the like with Gus?'
+
+'Oh no, my Lord. He's too like a sheep! and now his debt is paid--after
+the last concert--he's sure not to get into the same scrape again.'
+
+'Thank you very sincerely,' said the Bishop. 'It is a great relief to
+me to know all this; and it is safe with me. I am only afraid I have
+made you talk more than is good for you.'
+
+'And may I keep this, my Lord?' he wistfully asked.
+
+'Indeed you may, my dear boy. If you have transgressed the letter of
+discipline, you have kept the spirit of charity. I am glad to keep
+_you_, as well as your voice. But I have tired you out.'
+
+And laying a hand of blessing on his brow, the Bishop took leave,
+Wilmet going to the door with him, to answer his fears that the
+interview had been too much for her patient, with assurances that the
+relief and gratification must do good in the end.
+
+He told her that the threat of the withholding of the prize had not
+been made by his authority, and that he had much regretted it. Just as
+the tidings of the sun-stroke and its cause had reached him, he had
+been with Mr. Nixon, the former Precentor, who had spoken warmly of
+Lance, saying that the whole tone of the boys had improved since his
+coming, though he was too much of a pickle ever to get the credit.
+Wilmet's pleasure was great; but before she could get back, Lance was
+nervously calling for her. The excitement was still great, his head
+was aching violently, and yet he could not leave off eager talking,
+which, as feverishness came on, began to degenerate into such rambling
+as terribly frightened Clement lest a relapse should be coming on. He
+wanted to hurry off to the doctor at once; but Wilmet, well knowing
+he would not be at home, repressed him, and quietly said she had some
+draughts ready, and knew what to do. While she was out of sight,
+preparing them, a great alarm came over the patient lest she should
+have left him; and all the rest of those noonday hours were spent in
+a continual restless desire to keep her in view, hold her hand, and
+elicit her assurances that she was not going home, nor going to leave
+him--no, not on any account. The very presence of his brother seemed to
+increase the uneasiness; and in the deepest humiliation and despair,
+Clement allowed himself to be invited away by Captain Harewood to see
+the process of ice-making, and be so far comforted that the Bishop's
+visit was probably far more likely to have done the mischief than his
+own rash suggestion, and that there was no reason to fear it would
+last many hours. In fact, Lance was recovering favourably, and had had
+few drawbacks. 'So I tell everybody,' said John Harewood, 'especially
+poor Bill, who is still ready to break his heart every time Lance has
+a headache, and would chatter him to death when he is better. And
+that's the way with them all! There seems no one that can be tender and
+reasonable both at once, except your sister.'
+
+Clement did full justice to that tenderness, when, out of sight
+himself, he had watched Wilmet's soothing firmness and patient
+reassuring softness, at last calming the feverish agitation into
+a sleep, which he was allowed to see for himself was gentle and
+wholesome. Only then--towards four o'clock--could Captain Harewood
+persuade her to let him keep guard, while she went to take the food
+that had been long waiting for her, and over which she could hear
+Clement's penitent explanation of his own unlucky proposal.
+
+'I thought he seemed so well--able to get up and all; and they _do_
+think me a good nurse at St. Matthew's. I nursed Fred Somers almost
+entirely when he had the scarlet fever.' (Wilmet looked as if she
+pitied St. Matthew's.) 'But of course I see now that it is out of the
+question.'
+
+'Entirely so,' said Wilmet, too kind to remind him of the
+qualifications he had evinced.
+
+'And you cannot guess when he can come home?'
+
+'Not in the least. Even if he could be moved, think of the noisiness of
+our house!'
+
+Clement groaned. 'It was very wrong in me to speak to him before you,
+Wilmet,' he said; 'but I should be thankful if you could tell me what
+is to be done! Cherry was thoroughly chilled that evening of the
+thunderstorm, and has been very poorly ever since.'
+
+'She always feels changes of weather.'
+
+'That's what Alda tells you. She won't believe there is anything the
+matter; but poor Cherry has had rheumatic pain all over her, and her
+bad ankle seems to have a bit of bone coming out. Sibby thinks so. Now,
+ought she not to have her doctor?'
+
+'Well! if--I wish I could be quite sure! It is such an unlucky thing
+that she has that dislike to Mr. Rugg.'
+
+'Wilmet! You are as bad as Alda!'
+
+'Clement,' she answered gently, 'you do not know what it is to have to
+reckon the expense. There is Felix's journey; and what this illness may
+cost, I cannot guess; and now Cherry! It is not that I grudge it; but I
+don't see what is to become of any of us if we spend unnecessarily--or
+necessarily either, for that matter.'
+
+'I thought her doctor didn't charge.'
+
+'He did not when she was at St. Faith's, but at home it is a different
+thing; but, of course, if it be really needful it cannot be helped.'
+
+'And you couldn't come home and see--even for one hour?'
+
+'Not yet, most certainly.'
+
+'I think I had better write to Sister Constance!'
+
+'If you really do find it impossible to get on, and Cherry is more
+than just ailing, and--and fractious' (the word came out at last); 'I
+don't like always calling for help, it seems presuming on kindness, and
+Robina will be helpful when she comes home; but no doubt Alda does not
+know what to do,' she added, in a deliberating tone.
+
+'Then you authorize me?'
+
+'I don't know what you mean by authorizing.'
+
+'Only that Alda will neither do anything herself, nor let any one else
+do it.'
+
+'Poor Alda! It is a hard time for her, and she is not used to it. I am
+afraid she is out of her element among you all. Don't be vexed, Clem;
+you all ought to make allowances for her.'
+
+'I make allowances from morning to night,' said Clement. 'I wonder how
+many Travis will have to make!'
+
+Wilmet had finished her hasty meal, and wanted to get back to her
+patient, so she only protested by a reproving look and shake of the
+head; while Clement stood disconcerted, but less surprised than if he
+had not been familiar with the part of the family Cassandra.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BY THE RIVER.
+
+     'And Lancelot look'd, and was perplext in mind;
+      And being weak in body, said no more.'
+                                             _Tennyson._
+
+
+It was a lovely afternoon, and the sun shone outside the green tracery
+of a hornbeam alley in the Deanery garden, leading from the cloister
+to the river. Here lay Lancelot, on the long cushion of a sofa, while
+Wilmet sat stitching at the last of the set of collars that would
+always bring so many recollections. For this was a Saturday afternoon,
+and on the Monday Lance was to go to Ewmouth to join Felix, who was
+to have his holiday extended another month on that account. Alda, who
+had had a quarter's allowance from her uncle, had made this possible;
+and Wilmet was doubly gratified by its having been her twin's gift and
+thought.
+
+Wilmet would of course go home, and she found herself almost regretting
+the close of a time that had of late been very pleasant. She had not
+felt, as Geraldine would have done, the romance of living in the old
+monastic buildings, in the calm shadow of the grand old minster;
+yet something of the soothing of the great solemn quiet rested upon
+the spirit that had--since six years old--never known freedom from
+responsibility, and--since fifteen--had borne the burthen of household
+economies and of school teaching. It was a strange novelty to have
+meals provided without care of her own, no shortcomings of servants to
+make up, no claimant for her attention save a solitary patient, and
+that one with Lance's temper. Wilmet had undergone a good deal from
+Alda's clashes with the rest, even Felix's was only a temper well in
+hand, and alternate fretfulness and penitence were regarded by her
+as part and parcel of Geraldine's ailments; so that it was almost a
+surprise that her present convalescent never visited his discomforts
+upon her, but was always patient and good-humoured, smiling whenever
+he could, like his father before him, as if, according to the pretty
+Spanish saying, the sun had shone on his cradle at his birth. His
+unselfish nature had made him a little uneasy when with cooler senses
+he remembered Clement's hint, while love and instinct alike made him
+feel utterly unable to dispense with his motherly sister; but when she
+had assured him that nothing could make him leave him as yet, and when
+Sister Constance was known to be at Bexley, he threw it from his mind,
+and was perfectly happy and contented.
+
+He could still exert no attention, could neither read nor be read to,
+nor occupy himself in any way; but he was amused by talk around him,
+and companionship was never lacking. Wilmet, whose forte had never been
+conversation, found herself in a stream of small talk with inquiring
+friends of all degrees in the hierarchy; but was most at her ease when
+the female Harewoods were prattling good-humoured inconsequent chatter,
+Willie lying on the grass murmuring with Lance, or John lured into
+stories of Indian surveying adventures in the cause of the Ordnance
+Map. And when she was carried off to have her meals with the family,
+she had put herself so entirely at the mercy of circumstances, that she
+never seemed scandalised by their crazy unpunctuality, their wonderful
+free and easy ways, and customs of putting things to every use but
+the right, did not censure Grace or Lucy for dawdling and gossiping
+whole mornings away, and took it naturally when their mother inquired
+after her eldest brother by the alternate names of Festus and Frank,
+and when she mentioned Lance's disaster as his _coup d'état_. And here
+was the last of these pleasant afternoons, full of still sweet sounds,
+midsummer hum above, the soft ripple of the water close by, the cawing
+of the rooks in the Close--all such peace, that her heart quailed as
+she looked forward to the din of the High Street at Bexley, and she
+strangled a sigh half way up her throat.
+
+The click of the cloister door was heard, and Lance awoke from a
+doze, saying, 'Is that Bill?--You've not been here since morning, you
+vagabone.'
+
+'See what I've got for you,' said Bill. 'What do you say for that, now?'
+
+For Lance, with sparkling eyes, was rising to his feet. 'Hurrah! Robin
+herself! O Robin a Bobbin, isn't this jolly?' and Robina was entangled
+in that wonderful embrace peculiar to their own two selves, too
+ecstatic for a word between them, though as she received her sister's
+kiss, she spoke rather pleadingly--'Cherry and Sister Constance said I
+might, Wilmet; and Mrs. Harewood was so very kind as to send Willie to
+fetch me to spend Sunday. Do you mind, Wilmet?'
+
+'Mind! Of course she doesn't,' said Lance. 'I was hungry to see you,
+Bob.'
+
+'It was very kind in Mrs. Harewood,' said Wilmet. 'I must go and thank
+her. Only, first, how is Cherry?'
+
+'Much better. She has been out for a drive with Mr. Froggatt. It will
+be all right now you are coming home, Mettie! Oh! and Dr. Lee is
+delighted to hear of Lance's going to Ewmouth to make Felix stay longer
+there. Oh! if ever anything was so delightful as this place! only I
+must see your prize, Lancey.'
+
+As the two children linked their arms round one another's waists to
+walk along the alley, all-sufficient to one another, maybe there shot
+a little pang across Wilmet's breast. No one had raptures for her. She
+was Felix's housekeeper, and represented mother to all; but since Alda
+had been taken from her, she had ceased to be any one's perfect equal
+and delight. She might be valued, but only like air, or bread, or any
+other necessary of life, but she was foremost with no one. Lance had
+been everything to her, and she to Lance, for full four weeks; but
+she should never awaken the look on his face she had seen for Robin.
+Such thoughts as these had never troubled her before; it had been
+quite enough to know herself indispensable to all, and there was no
+time for sentiment; but this strange time of nursing had inspired a
+new sensation of yearning, a softness and melancholy, that she strove
+against vainly as weak and unnatural.
+
+The change had not been unperceived by Lance; for as his little sister,
+looking at his sunken cheeks, and feeling his thin bony hand, poured
+out her pity, he answered, 'I've had rather a jolly time of it of
+late; Mettie is so delicious, you can't think how her very voice and
+eyes seemed to do me good. I'm sure that the bella-donna lily, cold
+hard painted thing, was a mistake; she must have been something much
+sweeter. What do you think of a honeysuckle? That's bright red and
+white, and its leaves come out when nothing else does.'
+
+'But it trails about, and doesn't stand alone.'
+
+'It has got a good stout hard stem, that can make a bush of its own
+when it hasn't anything to twine upon. I say, Robin, that's just what
+you women-folk should be, always ready to twine, and yet able to stick
+up for yourselves when you've got nothing to hang upon.'
+
+'Well, if Wilmet was the honeysuckle, I'm sure Alda wasn't. O Lance,
+it has been so horrid coming home without any one I wanted, and all
+so queer and uncomfortable. I would as soon have been at school, or
+sooner, for there I had home to think about.'
+
+'The last holidays weren't first-rate,' said Lance.
+
+'No; but then I'd got you!'
+
+'I wish Dr. Manby would prescribe you to come with me,' said Lance.
+
+'It's something to have this little sight! And here! I wanted to give
+this back, Lance.'
+
+'Ah!' as he took the key of the violin-case, 'we'll take a look at her,
+Robin, to see if she's quite well; but I couldn't make her speak, it
+would be like sticking daggers through my head.'
+
+'Poor little key! I looked at it so often when you were so bad, and
+grieved to think you had missed all that pleasure. Only it was a
+comfort to know you had been so good about it.'
+
+'I am glad you took it, Robin; I know I should have grown idle if I had
+had it. Depend on it, 'twas that gave me this year of grace and the
+Bishop's prize.'
+
+'Oh! come and show me that! I hope it is not packed up.'
+
+'No; I wanted to take it to show Felix, but Mettie says it is too big,
+and would come to grief. What prizes have you, Robin?'
+
+'Three. General good marks, catechism, and history--beautiful books.'
+
+'Then the avenging harpies have forgiven you?'
+
+'Pretty well; and they were very kind when you were ill, and the girls
+are much nicer; I am glad we stayed on, except for Angel's sake. Do you
+know, Lance, I really am afraid she is going in for naughtiness.'
+
+'Give a dog an ill name--' quoted Lance. 'Is that it?'
+
+'I do believe it is that! She is such a Tom-boy! Fancy! One afternoon,
+there was an awful uproar, and her class were all found playing at
+races, some riding astride with handkerchiefs round the forms, which
+they had named after the real horses; and the others pretending to bet
+on them, with their books in their hands, shouting out at the top of
+their voices.'
+
+'Go it, Angel,' said Lance, laughing; 'that's the way Clem's sisters
+improve the tone of the school.'
+
+Robina still looked distressed, but that was soon forgotten in visiting
+Lance's quarters, and admiring his books, peeping respectfully at his
+silent violin, and being lionised as far as his strength would permit.
+They were hand in hand the whole evening, till he was sent to bed, and
+his sisters were claimed by the Harewoods.
+
+The Cathedral was resuming its usual voices on the Sunday morning; and
+when the early bell brought Wilmet from her room, she found Lance up
+and dressed, his little black gown on, and his trencher cap in his hand.
+
+'That's nice!' he said in admiration, as she advanced in her fresh
+white piqué and blue ribbons. 'O Mettie, I'm so glad this isn't my last
+time here!' and he added, as she bent over him and kissed him, not
+quite able to speak, 'Please, Mettie, I beg your pardon for all the
+times I have been tiresome or cross.'
+
+'My dear little boy--' She broke down, and finished with another
+kiss, for Robina was at hand, shy in her thankfulness, and clinging
+to Lance's hand; but as Will Harewood followed, grave and subdued,
+Lance went up to him, and put his arm into his. Mr. Harewood, the
+Captain, and Lucy, were all likewise there; but the greetings were
+silent, and then Mr. Harewood led them all through the library, and was
+followed by the two boys to the sacristy; for though the celebration
+was not choral, all those of the choir who were present were always
+robed. Wilmet hardly liked not to keep her boy beside her, but she
+could not be sorry when she saw the two friends once more heading the
+little procession together; and with such happy grave faces, though so
+different: one broad, ruddy, sandy; the other fair, wasted, delicate,
+the hollow cheeks scarcely more coloured than the white linen, and yet
+with a pure fresh air of bright hope and recovery.
+
+The Cathedral was nobly and calmly beautiful in the summer morning;
+the sunbeams high up in the slender brilliant windows that crowned the
+east, and the voice sounding low and solemn in the distance at the
+Altar. To Wilmet and Robina it was a great deal more than the joyous
+festival they had last shared in there, even though then they had
+exulted in their brother's jubilant notes; and now he scarcely breathed
+a faint response, left his book unopened, and knelt in the dreamy
+passiveness of one incapable of actions of the mind, but too simply
+happy and thankful to doubt of his welcome. In his place, Clement
+would have distressed himself and his advisers over this inability
+to perform his usual mental exercises of devotion; but Lance never
+seemed to question but that he ought to lay himself before the Altar
+in thankfulness as soon as he was able, as certain of being welcomed
+there, as by the kind hands that shook his in the sacristy.
+
+He came to breakfast afterwards at the Harewoods', to put an end to his
+invalid ways; but the clatter soon was too much for him; and he spent
+the chief part of the day lying on his bed, able now to follow dreamily
+the echoes from the minster, the full glories of which his sisters
+were enjoying. There was afterwards a rush of his choir mates to shake
+hands with him; and little Dick Graeme, a delicate, sallow, black-eyed
+boy, in whom Wilmet believed she recognised the hero of the swans'
+eggs, could not be got rid of the whole day. He lived at a farm three
+miles off, and had been sent in to take his part on the Sunday; indeed,
+he had often been at the door to inquire, but had only been allowed
+momentary glimpses of Lance, whom he followed about like a little dog,
+till at last, late in the evening, the proposal was started of walking
+him down to the river, along which lay the path leading to his home.
+
+It was a charming summer evening when they set forth; the three
+Underwoods, the two Harewood brothers, and little Graeme, slowly moving
+along, Robina in ecstasies with the loose-strife and forget-me-nots,
+and the boys absorbed in fish and water-rats, till Bill, holding Robin
+a little back, pointed to a pollard, and told her in a low hoarse
+voice, 'That was where I left those verses.'
+
+'There!' Robina tried to measure with her eye the distance, which
+looked immense for such a run. She could not speak; but little Dick
+turned--
+
+'Ay, 'twas a jolly run in the time. Spyers and I tried it, and both got
+blown; but nobody runs like Underwood.'
+
+'Well, it does look a goodish distance,' said Lance. 'And Robin, do you
+know, it all came of this fellow being too good a poet. He thought it
+was the Tiber, you know.'
+
+'The subject was the Tiber, wasn't it?'
+
+'Ay; and Bill here got to spouting about Horace Cocles till he didn't
+know, nor I either, whether we were heathen Romans or not. It was a
+mercy he didn't go home in Cocles' costume.'
+
+Bill did not laugh. He seemed to forget everything, bystanders and all,
+and threw his arm round his friend's neck. 'O Lancey, don't say a word
+more. If you only could guess what--what this month has been like to
+me! And now to see you standing here, like your dear old self again!
+Oh! if I could only--' and he broke off and rushed away behind the
+tree, where they heard him sobbing.
+
+Lance shrugged his shoulders. 'Poor old Bill! he _will_ treat himself
+as if he did it on purpose, but he'll be better now he's had it out.
+But d'ye see, I can't go no farther now. So you, Dick, be off. Spare
+the feelings of your dutiful parents, and get home in Christianable
+time.'
+
+'I say, please Underwood, may I have the bed by yours next half?'
+
+'That's not as it pleases Underwood, but Mrs. Drake; but look here,
+Graeme, there's a little brat of a new treble coming into our
+dormitory. You stand his friend, and speak to Harewood if Bolt takes to
+bullying him.'
+
+'But you'll be back?' said the child, his face all consternation.
+
+'I hope so; but for fear of accidents, you know. Good night, Dick, and
+thank your mater for those stunning raspberries.'
+
+'That's a good dodge,' said Will Harewood, emerging, 'to keep the
+little ape from bullying the little one himself. But you will be able
+to come back, Lance; 'tis as dull as ditch-water without you.'
+
+'I shall be glad enough to come back,' said Lance, 'and make the most
+of this year. I didn't know how I cared for this place. There's nothing
+like it!' and he leant against a tree, looking back at the Cathedral,
+where the sunbeams were 'weaving a parting crown' for the tall tower,
+and the soft grey of the exquisite stone-work of the chapter-house
+contrasted with the fresh green of the trees, rising up from the
+sparkling river and emerald meadows. Presently he burst out, 'You
+beautiful old thing, and did you hush your grand glorious old voice
+only for me? I should like to be your own, and to serve you for ever!'
+
+The other two felt a little awed at the outburst, and possibly Lance a
+little ashamed, for he suddenly started from his tree trunk, crying,
+'I'm sure we ought to go home. However, there are Jack and Mettie on
+beyond ever so far.' And he elevated his voice in a coo-ee, after what
+he believed to be Australian fashion; but his weakness prevailed, and
+he laughed at his own want of power to shout much above his breath.
+'You do it, Bill.'
+
+'Not I! Coo-ee indeed? 'Tis coo-coo there, river and moonlight and all.'
+
+At one and the same moment, Lance exclaimed, 'Jack and Mettie! Thunder
+and ages!' and Robina, 'For shame, Willie!' while that personage cut
+a caper, at once expressive of affirmation and amusement at their
+surprise.
+
+'After all,' sagaciously observed Lance, 'I'm not so much surprised. I
+think I've made a pretty good Cupid.'
+
+'You believe it, then?' cried Robina.
+
+'Bless you,' affirmed Willie, 'we've been roasting Jack about it for
+the last fortnight--only the pater was so awfully afraid of your
+sister's hearing it, that he said any one who breathed the ghost of a
+joke near her should be shipped off to old Aunt Grace that instant.'
+
+'Well, they have my consent and blessing,' said Lance.
+
+'Amen,' responded his friend.
+
+'Ho!' continued Lance, 'that's the meaning of old W. W. being so jolly.
+I wondered whether it was only that I thought so because I had nothing
+to do but to look at her.'
+
+'Oh, you know she is a real true beauty and no mistake,' said Bill,
+beginning to feel a personal pride in her; 'there's Miles raving about
+her, and every one runs about saying, "Have you seen little Underwood's
+handsome sister?" Half the folks that came to ask after you did it to
+get a look at her; and if she stayed a week longer, she might have a
+dozen offers, only luckily Jack cut in first.'
+
+'Well, I'm glad she is even with Alda,' was Lance's next sentiment.
+
+'That's the one that is booked for the Red Indian you converted, ain't
+it?' asked Bill. 'Fact, Robina; we heard a new fellow was coming who
+had converted a Cherokee, and that the Bishop had christened him in
+his war paint and feathers. Mrs. Shapcote sent out invitations to a
+missionary tea in honour of him.'
+
+'What, of the Cherokee?'
+
+'No, no, of the little brute of a missionary chap, and we made up our
+minds to tar and feather him before he converted us; but long before
+we had found out which of the new trebles was the model Christian, old
+Shapcote had caught us two pitching into one another, because I said
+Bexley was a snobbish place full of pots and pans.'
+
+'And that founded your friendship?'
+
+'No, not quite, for we had a worse fight because I shut his Bible up in
+his face when he tried to look over the Lessons in the Cathedral.'
+
+'Why, you all do,' said Robina.
+
+'Yes, now; but before Nixon came we were a horrid set of little
+ruffians. Do you remember, Lance, how Roper offered you a bull's-eye in
+the Cathedral, and thrashed you afterwards because you wouldn't have
+it?'
+
+'O Lance! but that was persecution!' cried Robina. 'Who would have
+thought you went through things like that?'
+
+'Ay,' said Bill, 'you believed in the little cherub chorister boys,
+that sing and look out of their great violet eyes, till they die of
+declines.'
+
+'Ah!' said Lance, who was leaning on his arm rather wearily, 'Jack will
+do for himself if he tells Wilmet her eyes are violet; it is like a red
+rag to a bull.'
+
+'Yes,' said Robina, 'she says nobody ever had eyes the colour of
+violets, and they would be hideous if they were.'
+
+'I have seen them,' said Willie, gravely.
+
+'Oh! where?' cried Robina. 'Darker blue than Edgar's?'
+
+'It's generally only one at a time.'
+
+'After a cricket match, eh?' suggested Lance.
+
+'But, depend upon it,' said Bill, while Robina was recovering her
+laughing disgust, 'he may tell her her eyes are any colour he pleases
+by this time.'
+
+'How do you know that?' sharply protested Robin; 'as if she would care
+for him more than for all of us, who can't spare her either!'
+
+'I thought you were thick and plenty up the country?'
+
+'Not of that sort,' said Lance.
+
+'I don't believe it,' insisted Robina; 'why, she had never seen him a
+few weeks ago; she can't have had time to get to like him.'
+
+'That's your simplicity,' said Bill. 'Now ain't that oracular--I mean
+ocular--demonstration? There they are, very moral of people making
+fools of themselves in books.'
+
+'I wish they'd have done with it, then,' sighed Lance; 'my legs won't
+hold out much longer.'
+
+'Yes, you must go in,' said Robin, bringing her sturdy shoulders for
+his other arm to rest on.
+
+'But those two?' said Lance. 'Some one must stay to make it
+respectable. Don't laugh, you vagabond, you shake up the marrow of my
+bones; I'm her brother, and bound to see to her.'
+
+'I'll stay out with Willie if that will make it right,' said Robina;
+'only you must go to bed, and you have to be up so early too.'
+
+So they saw him to the Bailey door, beyond which he declined further
+assistance, saying he could tumble into bed alone, and leaving them to
+their pleasant task of making propriety.
+
+It was made after this sort. Bill delivered himself of a deep sigh, and
+observed, 'Well! if she's done for, I suppose I must take up with you;
+and after all, you're the jolliest.'
+
+'I shall never be _jolie_, like Wilmet, if that's what you mean,' said
+Robina, not quite understanding whether it were jest or earnest.
+
+'Well, if you ain't a regular stunner like her, it doesn't much matter.
+I never _did_ see a face that I liked better than your round one, and I
+know I shall like it more and more. Won't you have me, Robina, one of
+these days?'
+
+'O Willie! oughtn't one to wait till we are old enough to think about
+it?'
+
+'I don't see why. I shall always be thinking I'm working for you, and I
+don't see why you shouldn't think the same of me. Won't you?' again he
+repeated. 'At least, of course I shall do all the work for you.'
+
+'Oh no! I should not like that. I had rather be doing something for
+you, Willie. Look here, I am learning all I can now, and when I go
+out--'
+
+'Go out?'
+
+'For a governess.'
+
+'Murther! I'll hinder that!'
+
+'But, Willie, you can't make a fortune in five years, and I shall go
+out at eighteen. I think I shall begin the fortune soonest;' and she
+laughed merrily.
+
+'Mother didn't make a fortune.'
+
+'I didn't mean that exactly; but I'm learning all the superior
+branches, and if I got a hundred a year! Think of that, Will! If I went
+on with that till you are a clergyman and have a living, how nice it
+would be! There would be plenty to give away; and if we were poor, I
+would take girls to teach.'
+
+'Do you think I shall ever let you do all the work that way?' said
+Will, strong in boyhood's infinite possibilities. 'I don't know how
+it's to be, but I'll keep you out of slaving, though you're a dear girl
+to think of it. Any way, Robin, you and I will hold together--always.'
+
+'I am sure I shall never like anybody half so much,' said Robin.
+
+'Shall we break a sixpence and keep the halves? That's the thing, ain't
+it? I believe I've got one--or fourpence, which is all the same.'
+
+'No, no,' said Robina, backing; 'I don't think Mettie would like it. It
+doesn't seem right.'
+
+'But aren't you in earnest, Robin?'
+
+'Oh yes, indeed, indeed I am;' from the depths of a very earnest
+childish heart that little knew to what it pledged itself.
+
+'And so am I! I'll never care for any one else, Robina--never.'
+
+'Nor I, William. Here they come!'
+
+The other two had not got near so far, though Captain Harewood was
+talking, and Wilmet listening, as would never have been the case
+without the influence Willie asserted; but the special charm that
+enchained Wilmet was entirely unapprehended by her, till just as the
+first star brightened, and the hues faded from the landscape, she
+bethought her of her patient, and perceived that he had gone in. 'How
+late it must be! I must go and see after him. I hope he is equal to the
+journey.'
+
+'I will come and bring you an account of him on my way home, if I may.'
+
+'Oh, thank you; but it is taxing your goodness too--too much.'
+
+'Cannot you believe how glad I am to have a good excuse?' and the
+tone gave Wilmet a sudden thrill, so that she answered not; and he
+continued, 'I am going to beg leave to be sometimes at Bexley.'
+
+'When Felix is at home,' faltered Wilmet.
+
+'I can hardly afford to wait. My time at home is so short. I shall, _I_
+hope, make friends with him to-morrow, and perhaps you will neither of
+you forbid me to come again. I am asking nothing now, only opportunity
+to try to make you--'
+
+'Oh, don't!' hurriedly broke in Wilmet, standing still in consternation.
+
+'Nay,' he said in a pleading voice, 'I know it would be presumption to
+think so short an acquaintance could suffice, but you see I have so
+little time, and all I want is leave to use it in coming to see you.'
+
+'Oh, don't!' she repeated. 'Indeed you had better not. It would be
+only pain. I couldn't! and I can't have Felix worried;' and there was
+a startled sob in her voice; but he answered with the strength and
+sweetness that had upheld her in Lance's most suffering moments.
+
+'I would not distress you or Felix for more than words can utter! I
+would not have breathed a hint of this most earnest wish of my heart
+till you had had some preparation, if it were not so impossible
+otherwise to have any chance of being with you and striving--'
+
+'Please,' entreated Wilmet, 'that is just what should be avoided; it
+can never come to anything, and the sooner it is stopped the better.'
+
+'Why should it never come to anything?' he asked, encouraged by
+detecting tears in her voice.
+
+'Because you know--no, you don't know, or you never could think of such
+a thing--how wrong and impossible it would be for me!'
+
+'No, I don't know. That is what I want to have the opportunity of
+knowing.'
+
+'I can tell you before,' she answered, faintly. 'Oh, if you would but
+take my word for it, it would save so much--'
+
+'No, that I cannot do,' he repeated. 'I must see for myself your
+preciousness at home.'
+
+She broke in again. 'Please, please, I'm saying what I ought not; but
+it is to hinder distress. Don't want to let us get to like each other
+any better, for as yet it can't be more than what could be got over,
+and it is only making pain to let it grow.'
+
+'That I deny. So far as I am concerned, the thing is done. If you
+wanted to save me that pain, you should have turned me out the moment I
+saw you call the boy back to life. A month like this is not so easily
+got over.'
+
+Wilmet drooped her head, and made no answer.
+
+'So, since you see,' he continued, 'you will spare me nothing by
+holding me aloof, will you not let me come and gladden myself while
+I may in your presence? And then when my time is up it may be more
+possible to judge--' (there was a faint 'Oh no,' but he heeded it not)
+'--whether you can bear such an ugly fellow enough to let him look to
+the time when home claims may be less pressing. I look for no answer. I
+only want to be able to ask for one three months hence, and I shall beg
+your brother to put it into my power so to do.'
+
+'Ah! but to have Felix disturbed and worried is just what must not be.
+It has made him ill already; and if he thought--'
+
+'I promise not to harass him,' said Captain Harewood, gently. 'You may
+trust me to take care that what I shall say will not cause him any very
+trying perplexity.'
+
+'If you knew--' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'I hope to know,' he replied. 'I do know enough already to be
+aware that you stand in no common relation to the rest; and if you
+have my heart, Wilmet, it must follow that somehow I share in your
+self-devotion. Do not fear my trying to make you less yourself. I want
+not to take you away from your burthens, but to share them.'
+
+'Yes, you--that is your goodness; but would it be right in us?' she
+faltered.
+
+'Leave your brother and me to judge of that,' he said.
+
+They were already at the Bailey door, in the shadow of the buildings,
+the flood of moonlight lying on the tower above, and one little
+mysterious lamp under the deep brow of the archway of the passage.
+No more passed but one 'good-night' from each; he had not even seen
+her face, under her shady hat; while she hastened to her little room,
+glad to ascertain that Lance was fast asleep, and with a rush of new
+sensations bursting on her, against which she was strengthening all the
+dykes of her resolute nature. 'He--he--that it should be he! how good!
+how generous! how kind! Oh, it would be so happy! It _will_ make me
+happy that he only just thought of it; but it won't do, it is no use.
+I'm not in love with him; I won't be, I'm not, I'm not!'
+
+And as ardently as Wilmet had ever prayed for Lance's life and reason
+by that little bed, did she beseech not to be tempted to desert her
+duties; and all night she lay between sleep and waking, ever repeating
+to herself. 'I'm not in love, I'm not, I'm not!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE HOUSE WITHOUT PILLARS.
+
+     'And who save she could soothe the boy,
+      Or turn his tears to tears of joy?'
+                             _Samuel Rogers._
+
+
+Lance's train was at six o'clock, and that by which the sisters were
+to return to Bexley so little later, that they would await it at the
+station, so the household was betimes more or less afoot. There was
+a frenzied scramble of maids and young ladies in hasty toilette; yet
+breakfast was only forthcoming by personal exertion on the part of the
+Captain, who made the coffee, boiled the eggs, and sent his brother
+foraging into the kitchen. Then a message came that mother must see
+the sweet girl to bid her good-bye; and Wilmet was dragged up to find
+the paddy good-natured face in bed, in an immense frilled nightcap,
+whence two horn-like curl-papers protruded. She was kissed, cried over,
+and told she was the dearest girl, and Jack the best boy, in the four
+kingdoms; and while her head was turning round between dizziness at all
+that this cordiality implied, and a governess's confusion whether these
+were the four kingdoms of Ireland, or England, Ireland, Scotland, and
+Wales, a demand followed for the darling boy; but when she had gravely
+told the Captain that his mother wanted him, the result was to send him
+down laughing. 'No, no, I'm not the only darling boy in the world! 'Tis
+you, Lance. You know the way.'
+
+Between finding her in bed, and being powerfully embraced, Lance's
+sense of decorum brought him down with his blanched cheeks so rosy red,
+that the family were choking with suppressed mirth when the omnibus
+called for the luggage, and the party set forth to walk to the station,
+Lance in a grass hat, enfolded by the Captain's hands in an ample
+puggery, and provided with a natty blue umbrella, presented by the
+Librarian, 'as a shield against the far-darting Apollo.'
+
+'If this had been in my day,' he said, 'some wit would have produced
+a neat epigram on Phoebus playing his old tricks out of jealousy of
+Will's verses; but dainty feats of scholarship are gone out of date.
+Well, Patroclus, when we have you back again, I think we shall none of
+us mourn over the effects of your generous action.'
+
+Wilmet was near enough to hear, and colour. She had imagined the last
+night's conversation unknown to all; but Underwood reticence was so
+incapable of guessing at Harewood communicativeness, that it never
+entered her brain to suspect the topic of conversation between the
+three juniors as they walked up the drowsy street.
+
+Thanks to the difficulties of getting under weigh from the Harewood
+house, there was barely time for John and Lance to take their places,
+while Mr. Harewood got their tickets, and they were whirled off,
+leaving the others to promenade the platform, just then a complete
+solitude.
+
+Mr. Harewood, with the attention of the old school, backed by something
+warmer, gave Wilmet his arm. He and his son John never seemed to belong
+to so ramshackle a household as the rest, and he was so gentle and
+fatherly, that when Wilmet found him aware of all, it was a relief to
+tell her objections without being answered by a lover. After all, she
+could only repeat that leaving home was so impossible for her, that, as
+she murmured, 'He had better not get to like me any more, it would be
+such a pity for him.'
+
+'That,' said Mr. Harewood, with his air of old-fashioned gallantry,
+'depends on the esteem in which wealth or merit is held.'
+
+'And station,' said Wilmet, in an undertone.
+
+'For that, my dear, one would be a fool not to honour you and your
+brother; besides, it may make you more at ease to hear that my father
+was an apparitor, and I went to Oxford as a servitor, so that in birth
+you have the advantage of us. Of course, I do not mean that every one
+does not in the abstract prefer prosperous matches; but John has a fair
+independent competence, and can afford to do as he pleases; and, for my
+part, I should be very sorry if this were not what he pleased.'
+
+'You are so very kind, but surely if--even if--it must be such long
+waiting, and you would not like that for him.'
+
+'Let us arrive at the _if_ before we settle about the waiting,' said
+Mr. Harewood. 'In truth, I have long looked on John as so much the most
+sensible person in my house, that all I feel called on to do is to hope
+for his success. I know both you and he will be wise enough not to be
+either selfish or unselfish in the wrong place.'
+
+Wilmet did not quite understand, but she carried away the conviction
+that she need have no scruple as to the parents' cordial approbation;
+and she had had her cure from yesterday's sense of want of individual
+affection. As to the future? Of course it swelled her heart to think
+of such love and generous kindness; but she tried to believe that she
+was as much touched by the goodness of the father as by that of the
+son, and she would be on her guard against herself unless she saw some
+reasonable hope that home would ever dispense with her. Dear Wilmet;
+would she not at any other time have thought it an outrage to think of
+such a possibility? At any rate, she thought, nobody but Felix need
+ever know.
+
+Little guessed she, as Robina sat opposite, kept silent by the presence
+of two stout old females, that the child was revolving the question
+whether she might tell Cherry. She knew that Wilmet would not like
+her affairs to be discussed without her own permission; but it seemed
+unfair that when all the Harewoods were open-mouthed, her own sister
+should know nothing. After all, much would depend on the chances of a
+_tęte-ŕ-tęte_.
+
+At the station stood Clement: 'That's right! I thought you would come
+by this train. What a comfort! How is Lance?'
+
+'Almost well. How are you getting on?'
+
+'You will soon see for yourself,' in an ominous tone.
+
+Just then she was accosted by Mr. Ryder, who was waiting for his own
+train; and after courteous and anxious inquiries, said, 'I was thinking
+of writing to your eldest brother, but perhaps a word from you would do
+as well.'
+
+'About Bernard?'
+
+'Why, yes, I don't quite see my way about him. He is a sharp little
+fellow, and very well taught; in fact, he can afford to do nothing but
+waste time. Somehow, a boy will now and then seem to come into school
+with the wrong foot foremost.'
+
+'Has he fallen in with idle boys?'
+
+'So I fear. I placed him in a form high for his age, but where the lags
+have got hold of him, and make him think idleness the _thing_. So I
+gather. I conclude he is not to remain here?'
+
+'Do you mean that you wish him to be taken away?' asked Wilmet, in
+consternation.
+
+'No, no; don't understand it in that sense,' said Mr. Ryder, anxiously.
+'I only meant that he is doing no good here, and that possibly a
+change, or the stimulus of preparing for an examination, might rouse
+him. Good-bye.'
+
+And there Mr. Ryder had to rush off to secure his seat.
+
+'Oh! good morning, Miss Underwood!' This was from Mr. Mowbray Smith,
+a few steps beyond the station. 'I am glad to see you back. So your
+patient is gone to join your eldest brother? But we shall have you here
+on Sunday? Then there's the less occasion to name it; but some notice
+should be taken of the behaviour yesterday evening.'
+
+'It was very sad,' interposed Clement; 'but when once set off by the
+christening, they could not stop themselves.'
+
+'Scarcely a valid excuse,' said Mr. Smith, severely, as he made his
+parting bow. 'You know this was not all.'
+
+Clement shrugged his shoulders, exclaiming, 'So he made that into a
+personality! You must know there was an unusually squalling baby,
+whose godmother went on giving its name as Huggeny; and there was a
+five minutes' exchange of "What?" on Mr. Smith's side, and Huggeny
+on hers, till a whisper came all along--forwarded from the mother, I
+suppose--"Same as they does their 'air;" and then Mr. Smith looked more
+mystified than ever; some one suggested, "Same as the Empress of the
+French."'
+
+'Something might be excused on such provocation,' owned Wilmet,
+laughing.
+
+'If that had been all,' said Clement; 'but Angel and Bernard choose to
+go and sit by themselves, and I could see, from Felix's place in the
+choir, that they were tittering long after. I shook my head, but Nares
+must needs make up an odious imitation; and Bernard not only touches
+Angel to make her look, but grins impudently at me. I found myself
+growing burning hot with shame, and whenever they looked at me their
+heads went down and their shoulders worked.'
+
+'Naughty children,' said Wilmet, but with more than usual lenience to
+the combined effects of Huggeny and of Clement's severe countenance
+in producing one of those paroxysms of giggle that seem invincible in
+proportion to their unbecomingness. The door was reached and instantly
+opened, Stella springing into her arms in ecstasy. 'Sister's come!--O
+Sister, Sister, Sister, don't ever go away any more.'
+
+There was a great deal of confused kissing and embracing as she made
+her way upstairs. 'But oh, my Tedo, what has happened?' for she beheld
+a fine sample of Bill Harewood's violet eye.
+
+'It was Bernard's stick went into his eye when we were playing at
+hockey,' said Stella. 'He did cry terribly, but Sister Constance put
+such nice stuff--'
+
+'Sister Constance! oh, thank you! but hockey in the garden?'
+
+'I thought it rather a remarkable proceeding,' quietly observed the
+Sister.
+
+'I must hear more about it,' said Wilmet. 'My poor dear little man,
+can't he let Sister go for one instant?--Cherry dear, how are you?'
+
+'All right now you are come. But dear little Lance, how is he looking?'
+
+'Not much worse than you do, my Cherry,' said Wilmet, as she saw that
+the wizened old fairy look was come back. 'You have been worse than I
+knew.'
+
+'Oh, I am all right now; and I have had such a treat of Sister
+Constance.'
+
+'I want to take her back with me,' said the Sister. 'Dr. Lee would like
+to have her under his eye; and if you can spare her, I would write
+to-day, and she could go with me to-morrow.'
+
+'It is very kind; it might be better for her.'
+
+'Of course,' interrupted Alda, 'it is good for any one to be away from
+this horrid smell of baked earth, and all these riotous children.'
+
+'Ah!' said Wilmet; 'didn't I see the shade of the lamp in the
+landing-place broken? How was that?'
+
+'Oh! the children, of course,' said Alda.
+
+But neither child spoke; and Wilmet perceived that only the twins were
+in the room, both hanging upon her, while she swallowed her hurried
+second breakfast.
+
+'No one will tell,' said Clement. 'It was done the day I went over to
+Minsterham. I did all I could to find out.'
+
+'Yes; and made them more obstinate than before,' said Alda.
+
+Another catastrophe here suddenly struck Wilmet, namely, a long and
+very badly-mended rent in Stella's spotted pink frock, which, to say
+the truth, did not look as if it were Monday morning.
+
+'Yes,' said Stella, 'I did try to mend it as well as I could, Sister,
+but there wasn't another work-a-day frock clean.'
+
+'Your mending!' exclaimed Wilmet; 'but how did you tear it?'
+
+'When I tumbled into the brambles, and was lost.'
+
+'Lost, my dear? What does she mean?'
+
+'It is quite true,' said Cherry. 'Angela and Bernard took her out
+fishing to Ball's hatch on Saturday, and lost her, only luckily we did
+not know anything about it till she was safe at home again, dear little
+darling!'
+
+'But, Stella, how was it?' cried the horrified Wilmet, clasping her the
+closer.
+
+'I could not bear to see the poor worms,' said Stella. 'Bear would cut
+them up to stick on his hook, so I got away out of sight of them, and
+gathered the dear little wild roses and honeysuckles; and when I wanted
+to find them again I couldn't, and nobody heard me when I called, and a
+robin looked at me, and I thought he wanted to bury me, and I ran away,
+and a great bush caught hold of me and scratched my legs, and tore out
+a great piece of the rim of my hat; and just then a good lady came
+by, and helped me up and to look for them, but we could not see them
+anywhere; so she took me to her house--such a dear little house all
+over roses--and she mended my hat, and I mended my frock, and she gave
+me some tea and plum-cake, and two dear little ponies came to the door,
+and a carriage, and she brought me home.'
+
+'Who was she?'
+
+'Miss Crabbe; she is new to the place,' said Cherry. 'Mr. Froggatt said
+she had only been once in the shop before. Tell Sister how you told her
+about yourself, Stella.'
+
+'She asked my name,' said the child, 'and she said it was a very funny
+one, and she could not understand it; and then she wanted to know whose
+little girl I was, and I said, "Brother Felix's;" and then she said,
+"Have you no papa or mamma?" So I told her I hadn't a papa or mamma,
+but a father and mother up in heaven; and she said, "I should think
+so, poor little dear, if there is no one to take more care of you."
+I really did think she wanted to take me and keep me for an adopted
+child, so I told her that I had lots of dear good brothers and sisters
+that wanted me very much indeed, and I must go home to H. Froggatt and
+F. C. Underwood, High Street, Bexley.'
+
+'I fancy,' said Cherry, 'that she thought Mr. Froggatt was Stella's
+grandfather, for she made him quite a speech about the neglect of the
+child--"such a nice-mannered little girl," she said; but she would not
+come in, nor let Alda be called.'
+
+'Nor should I have gone down if Mr. Froggatt had thought proper to call
+me,' said Alda. 'Imagine me in his office!'
+
+'I can't imagine not going anywhere to thank the person that brought
+home my little Star,' said Wilmet, holding her arm close round the
+child, and kissing her repeatedly. 'But what became of the other two?'
+
+'I went out after them,' said Clement, 'and found them rushing wildly
+about after her, afraid to come home. To do them justice, I believe
+they were almost out of their minds, thinking she must have tumbled
+into the river.'
+
+'Oh, indeed,' said Alda. 'That's your account of it.'
+
+'Yes,' said Cherry eagerly, 'all that pretending not to care, and that
+it was a trick of Stella's, was nothing but reaction. And then, you
+know, Clem, you _did_ improve the occasion.'
+
+'There!' exclaimed Alda,' you see how it is, Wilmet; nothing but
+vindication of those two intolerable children! Now, just come, Wilmet,
+and see if they are to be backed up in this.'
+
+But as Wilmet, perfectly bewildered, and feeling no hope of
+comprehension among so many, followed Alda from the room and up the
+stairs, Stella came plunging after, with a cry, 'Alda, Alda, don't hurt
+them!' just as from a housemaid's closet half way up, Alda was bringing
+to light a basin containing a dozen tadpoles twirling their shadowy
+tails.
+
+'Now, Wilmet,' she solemnly said, 'do you approve of all those horrid
+brutes swimming in my bath?'
+
+'They aren't in the well, I hope,' said Wilmet.
+
+'How can you be so absurd, Wilmet? That's the way those children showed
+their sorrow that Clement talks about. I'll never believe but he helped
+them.'
+
+'To weep them?' said a voice above; and Angela's face was seen looking
+out of her bush of hair over the balusters of the top storey. 'They
+_are_ just like black heraldic tears.'
+
+'You don't mean that they put them in?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'What else should I mean?'
+
+'And didn't she squall?' shouted Bernard; and then came a duet--
+
+     'Dame, dame, what makes your ducks to squall,
+      Duck to squall, duck to squall, duck to squall?
+      Meeting o' pollywogs! Meeting wi' pollywogs!'
+
+'Hush, children, this is shocking,' said Wilmet, in the low impressive
+voice by which she could always still a tumult. 'How could you take
+advantage of my absence to do this?'
+
+'Because Alda deserved it,' cried Angela, bouncing downstairs. 'There,
+Alda! I said I should tell of you if you told of us.'
+
+'Angela, that is not the way to speak to your elder sister.'
+
+'She isn't like an elder sister!' exclaimed Angel. 'Stella would be
+ashamed to do like her, eating up the strawberries Mr. Froggatt brought
+for poor Cherry when she was ill.'
+
+'I'm sure you had your share!' retorted Alda.
+
+'You _would_ have them in for dessert, and you helped us; only Sister
+Constance and Clem left all theirs for Cherry, and then you went by
+yourself and ate them all up.'
+
+The very fact of shouting out such a charge showed a state of
+insubordination such as might make Wilmet's hair stand on end, and she
+simply disbelieved so childish an accusation against her own equal in
+age. 'You should not say such things, Angela,' she answered, in her low
+tone of reproof; 'there must be a mistake.'
+
+'I am afraid it is quite true,' said Clement's quiet voice, as he stood
+arrested on his way by the block upon the landing-place.
+
+'The children make such an uproar,' said the exasperated Alda. 'I'm
+sure I thought Geraldine's had been taken long before, and in this
+parching weather fruit is quite a necessity to me.'
+
+Wilmet was too much aghast at the admission to speak. It was a strange
+tangle: Clement standing straight and still on the landing-place;
+Wilmet, with Theodore humming to himself, as innocent of the fray as
+the tadpoles that Stella was cherishing in the cupboard door-way; Alda,
+flushed and angry; and on the upper flight, Angela and Bernard dancing
+and roaming in vehement excitement between anger and alarm. 'Well that
+Lance was not in this hubbub!' thought deafened and amazed Wilmet.
+
+'What has this to do with the tadpoles?' she asked, in an endeavour to
+comprehend.
+
+'We said she should be served out,' sung Bernard, 'with a
+polly--polly--polly-wog bath.'
+
+'But, Bernard, hush!--Angel! don't you see it was no business of yours
+if Alda did forget?'
+
+She was unprepared for the outbreak this brought on her. 'You, too,
+Wilmet! Every one backs up those children in their behaviour to me!
+Lady Herbert Somerville, and Clement, and all! If only Ferdinand saw
+it!'
+
+'Just step up, Wilmet,' said Clement gently, 'and see whether the
+children are in league with me.'
+
+He followed Wilmet up to the door of the barrack, an attic that he
+shared with Lance and Bernard, and showed the long beam that crossed it
+pasted with a series of little figures cut out in paper, representing
+a procession in elaborate vestments; and at the end a long-backed
+individual kneeling before the chair of a confessor, who bore a painful
+resemblance to the Vicar of St. Matthew's.
+
+'We only wanted to make Tina feel at home,' giggled Angela.
+
+'It would be no matter,' pursued Clement, 'if it were merely quizzing
+myself. I am used to that; but this is trenching on sacred ground.'
+
+'Bless me, your old white beam!' exclaimed Angela, with an affected
+start.
+
+'It is exceedingly improper and irreverent,' said Wilmet. 'I am ashamed
+that such a thing should have been done in this house.'
+
+'Really,' said Alda, 'it seems to me very droll and clever, with no
+harm in it at all; only people like Clement never can take a joke.'
+
+'You can't mean to justify such a one as this,' said Wilmet; but, to
+her still greater astonishment, Alda broke out,
+
+'There! You are turning against me! You are taking Clement's part,
+though you didn't care what they did to me--not if it had been snakes
+and adders!'
+
+This, decidedly in Mrs. Thomas Underwood's style, elicited a peal of
+laughter from the two naughty children, and the corners of Clement's
+mouth relaxed, bringing Alda to a gush of tears. 'You never used to be
+like this to me, Wilmet.'
+
+'I never saw you like this, dear Alda,' said Wilmet, low and gently,
+but in decided repression. 'Come into our room, and let me try to
+understand.'
+
+So began a morning of mutual complaints, as if everybody were against
+everybody, agreeing in nothing but in appealing to the elder sister.
+First, there was Alda's story. Never had there been such a miserable
+time--with Geraldine interfering, fussy, fretful, fault-finding;
+Clement intolerable in primness and conceit, only making the children
+worse when he pretended to keep them in order, and making such a
+fuss about Geraldine, when nothing ailed her but change of weather;
+incurring the expense of the Dearport doctor, and bringing down the
+Sister upon them; so awkward to have her in the drawing-room in that
+dress, but Sisters always thrust themselves into families. She hoped
+she had shown my Lady that she was not to be overawed by a title--such
+affectation, not using it! No consideration for her; the servants
+regularly spoilt, both of them; Martha a vulgar insolent creature, and
+Sibby disgustingly familiar and slovenly, no good at all, not even
+to keep Theodore out of the way. At which Theodore, knowing no more
+than his own name and Alda's displeasure, set up a dismal howl; and as
+Wilmet chose to coax and fondle him into silence instead of scolding
+and turning him out, Alda went off in a huff, muttering about asylums
+and proper places; and Wilmet descended to the kitchen, the little weak
+hand clasped tight into hers.
+
+A sore sight awaited her below; the bills of this month for luxuries
+of sinful extravagance in her economical eyes! Chicken and asparagus,
+ducks and peas, even in the height of their season, were enormities
+to such housekeeping as hers, and had raised the sum total to four
+times the amount that her foreboding soul had dreaded. It exceeded her
+present supplies, and was a grave addition to the expenses of the two
+illnesses, that were serious enough already.
+
+Martha was eloquent, not to say defiant, in self-defence. 'You see,
+Miss Underwood, if I'd been let alone, or Miss Cherry had been the
+one to take my orders from, which we could have made it out to your
+satisfaction; but with Miss Halder, which expects everything to be
+just like what it was in the fammerly up in London, which it stands to
+reason as it can't; which she hasn't got no more notion than a baby of
+prices, nor seasons, nor nothink; which is very determined, too, which
+won't suffer a word from nobody; which if you hadn't been coming home,
+Miss Underwood, I'd have given warning, which have always given you
+satisfaction.'
+
+Wilmet's satisfaction was not increased when she encountered Sibby.
+'Ah, my darling Missie dear, ye're the jewel that's been longed for!
+The whole house has been mad entirely, and lost widout you; the
+children rampaging and playing pranks, and Miss Cherry dwining and
+pining to a skeleton, so that but for Master Clem and that holy woman,
+the Sisther, 'tis scarce alive ye'd have found her. Miss Alda, she's
+the very wonder of the worruld for jealousy and unfeelingness. I up and
+told her at last there was well-nigh as much differ between you and
+she, as between Stella and this blessed lamb that she spites; for if
+you have not carried off all the wit and understanding, sure 'tis you
+that has got all the heart, and the head, and the hands.'
+
+'And the partial old nursey, Sibby! You see I had no time nor thought
+but for poor Lance, and Alda was so new to it.'
+
+'Ah, Missie dear, you were always the one to vindicate her, but 'tis
+no use! Newness! 'Twasn't newness that makes her turn the back of her
+hand to this darling innocent, till he cries if he's left a moment with
+her.--Ay, my precious, what would have become of you and me but for
+Masther Clem?--I tell you, Miss Wilmet, I never thought that long boy
+the aquil of his brothers till I saw him in time of need. Yer father
+himself--Heaven be his bed!--couldn't have been tenderer with Theodore
+nor Miss Cherry, by night or by day, an' never a cross word when he was
+bothered past his life with Miss Alda's ugliness an' the children's
+boldness.'
+
+'Oh, those children! What is come to them, Sibby?'
+
+'Only funning and merriment, Missie dear. They'd never have had to be
+faulted if Miss Alda had let Miss Cherry deal with them; but she could
+neither rule them herself, nor bear to see them ruled; and though she
+was like a mad cow if they played their pranks on her, she backs them
+up if Miss Cherry, or Master Clem, or even the Sisther, do but say a
+word to them, so 'tis no wonder if the poor dears have been a bit off
+their heads, but they'll be as quiet as doves now ye're back again. Oh,
+Missie dear, my own child, but it's you that are the light of my eyes,
+looking the blooming beauty that you are.'
+
+The foster-mother's genuine compliment could not lighten the load that
+had grown every moment heavier, and more compunctious for the deaf ear
+she had turned to Clement. Wilmet said a word or two of apology to
+him when she met him on the stairs, loaded with books to study in the
+garden.
+
+'Never mind,' he magnanimously answered, 'it is all right now you are
+come, and it was impossible before. Only, please do say something warm
+to Sister Constance, for Alda is barely civil to her.'
+
+'I am very sorry; I did not think Alda had that sort of prejudice,'
+said Wilmet, whose instinct of defence of Alda had wonderfully
+diminished.
+
+'The chief prejudice came of my sending for her,' said Clement.
+
+'Besides, Sister Constance spoke out very sharply about the
+strawberries; and when we had a couple of chickens, and Alda scolded
+me for helping her to a leg instead of a wing, Sister Constance said,
+"Oh, I supposed you had them on Geraldine's account;" and she gives the
+children leave to do anything Sister Constance objects to. These things
+are hardly their fault. But, I say, Mettie, now you are come, and it
+is all right, do you think I might go to St. Matthew's? The Vicar and
+Mr. Sterling are alone, while the other curates are holiday-making, and
+they say I could really be of some use to them, and they would give me
+some help with this reading for my examination. Somers is there too,
+and I have not seen him since Christmas.'
+
+'Indeed,' said Wilmet, 'no one has deserved a holiday more than you,
+Clement! You have done your best.'
+
+This--almost the first home praise or thanks that had fallen to his
+lot--elicited that real grace of humility for which poor self-conscious
+Clement really strove. 'I have tried, Mettie,' he said, with tears in
+his eyes; 'but it was not as if it had been one of the others. There
+must be something very wrong about me, to make me so disagreeable.'
+
+'You have gained two hearts,' said Wilmet, 'Sibby's and this little
+fellow's.'
+
+For Theodore had attached himself limpet fashion to Clement, who with
+difficulty piled his books so as to leave a hand free for him.
+
+'He had better come with me,' said Wilmet; 'your reading must have been
+dreadfully interrupted.'
+
+'It has, rather,' said Clement, whose examination was in alarming
+proximity; 'but I don't mind him, I can work to his tunes as well as
+Felix can; and all is right now you are come.'
+
+That was the burthen of every one's song. It came next from Cherry,
+whom she found in her own room; 'There was so much bustle in the
+sitting-room,' she said.
+
+'My dear, you have gone through a great deal!'
+
+'"There's nae luck about the house when our gude man's awa',"' said
+Cherry. 'Clem played and whistled that so often, that Alda begged never
+to hear it again; but unluckily Tedo had caught it, and I don't think
+she quite believes he doesn't hum it on purpose! But now, how delicious
+it is to have got at least our gude woman! And, oh dear! Wilmet, I beg
+your pardon; but you do look so lovely, I can't help telling you so! or
+is it the pleasure of seeing you?'
+
+'My poor Cherry! I did not think half enough about you.'
+
+'That would have done no good. Most of this rose out of my own
+crossness and horridness. If I could only be anxious without being
+peevish!'
+
+'Now, Cherry, don't waste time in telling me it was your own fault; I
+know all about that! I really want to understand how it has all been
+with Alda and Clement. I am afraid Alda has not been behaving nicely.'
+
+To hear Wilmet allow Alda to be other than impeccable so amazed Cherry,
+that she could scarcely answer. 'O Mettie, I never knew what you and
+Felix must be. I have so often thought of a house divided against
+itself, one against two, and two against three. We have been all _to
+wrongs_, and Clem and I have said we would not be a party; and yet we
+could not help it, for we always had to stand up together! Then Angel
+and Bear were against every one, and Alda set them against Clem, and
+fancied he did against her, which was not true. I should have minded
+nothing if Alda had not been so angry at Clement's sending for Sister
+Constance. You did give him leave, though?'
+
+'Yes, and I should have done so much more decidedly if I had known.'
+
+At that moment Sister Constance knocked at the door, with her work in
+her hand, and Wilmet inferred that this was the refuge from Alda and
+the drawing-room. To Cherry's surprise, Wilmet, instead of ignoring
+everything unsatisfactory, began at once, 'Please come in, Sister
+Constance; I wanted to thank you, and tell you how sorry and ashamed I
+am! I am afraid you have not been treated as--'
+
+'Don't say any more, my dear,' as the tears were in her eyes; 'don't
+think about it.'
+
+'I ought to think!' said Wilmet. 'I have been trying to understand
+things ever since I came home; but everybody except Cherry and Clem
+blames everybody, and they only blame themselves! I can't understand
+the rights of anything!'
+
+'My dear,' said Sister Constance, 'I think it would be impossible to
+go into the details of all that has happened. Shall I tell you how it
+seemed to me?'
+
+'Pray do!'
+
+'I thought that the authority of an elder reared in so different a
+school necessarily was producing a few collisions. There was some
+ignorance, and a good deal of dislike of interference, and the younger
+ones would not have been human not to take advantage of it; but it
+is over now you are come home, and I strongly recommend an act of
+oblivion.'
+
+'Oh! I don't want to punish the poor children,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Oblivion, I said, not only amnesty;' and as she did not see perfect
+comprehension in Wilmet's face, she added, 'I mean, not only that
+the children should be forgiven, but that their elders should not go
+hunting for causes, and thinking how this or that could have been
+prevented.'
+
+'I suppose not,' said Wilmet. 'It is all plain enough;' and the sigh
+that followed quite amazed Cherry, who smiled up in her face, saying,
+'Plain enough that we can't do without you.'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, kissing Cherry's uplifted face ere leaving the room;
+but it was with such an effort at a responding smile, that Cherry
+exclaimed, 'Oh dear! how dreadfully we have vexed her!' And Sister
+Constance thought the more.
+
+Yet again Wilmet had to hear another testimony to the anarchy in her
+absence. Those formidable bills had obliged her to apply to Alda for an
+advance of the sum she had offered for Lance's journey; and this, after
+some petulance and faltering, elicited that some old forgotten London
+bills had come down and swamped this Midsummer quarter's allowance, so
+that the promise must stand over till--till Michaelmas; or it might
+be that Ferdinand's matters were arranged, and then what would such
+a paltry sum be? Wilmet turned away in shame and disgust at having
+trusted for a moment to such offers. She could only do what she had
+never done before--apply to Mr. Froggatt for an advance on Felix's
+account: and she detained him after dinner for the purpose.
+
+He was as kind as possible, assuring her that he should have been hurt
+if she had not come to him. And then, in his blandest way, he thought
+it right to hint that 'Young people were sometimes a little unguarded.'
+She was prepared for the story of the loss of Stella, but she was not
+prepared to hear of a gossipping intercourse over the newly arrived
+Punches, &c., carried on in the early morning with Redstone, not only
+by Bernard but Angela. She was but eleven years old, so it was no worse
+than the taste of childish underhand coquetry and giggling; there was
+no fear of its continuance after Felix's return, and, indeed, good old
+Mr. Froggatt had kept guard by coming in two hours earlier ever since
+the discovery; but the propensity dismayed Wilmet more than all that
+had yet happened, and on this head she thought it right to reprove
+Angela seriously.
+
+'Dear me, Wilmet, you are always telling us not to think ourselves
+above our station. Mr. Redstone is just as fit to speak to as Felix was
+before he was a partner.'
+
+'Should you like Felix to have found you gossipping in the
+reading-room?'
+
+'Well,' said audacious Angela, 'half the fun in things is the chance of
+being caught.'
+
+'My dear, you don't know what you are saying,' replied Wilmet
+dejectedly, as if exhausted beyond the power of working out her
+reproof! and Angela had to fight hard against any softening, telling
+Bernard that W. W. was a tremendous old maid, who had no notion of a
+lark.
+
+Robina, who stood in the peculiar position of neither accusing nor
+being accused, would not add her voice to the chorus of welcome, and
+did not wonder that every hour wore off something from the radiance
+of the beautiful bloom brought from the Bailey. Indeed, the unusual
+gravity and reserve of the younger sister struck Cherry's observant
+eyes, and made her think at first that she had been much pained by
+having to part with Lance in his weak half-recovered state; but when at
+tea-time the whole history of the illness was inquired into in detail
+by the assembled family, the downcast eyes and cheeks with which Robin
+encountered every mention of Captain Harewood's good offices led to the
+inference that she had in her excitement forgotten the bounds where the
+brook and river meet, and was in an anguish of shame; Wilmet meantime
+looking flushed with the fag of her vexatious day, and speaking
+plentifully of this same Captain, proving to herself all the while that
+she was doing so with ordinary gratitude and composure.
+
+Robina was quartered upon Geraldine in the holiday crowding of the
+house; and somewhere about four o'clock on the summer morning, Cherry,
+wakening as usual, and reaching for her book, heard a voice from the
+corner asking if she wanted anything. 'No, thank you, Bobbie. Go to
+sleep again.'
+
+'I can't; I've been thinking about it all night. I think he's coming
+to-day.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'Captain Harewood. He promised to come and tell us how Lance and Felix
+are.'
+
+'I am very glad; but Wilmet never said so.'
+
+'No, but--O Cherry, I wish we could contrive some nice quiet place, but
+nothing is ever quiet in this house.'
+
+'No,' said Geraldine, who was but too well aware of the fact, 'though I
+can't imagine that any Harewood can be distressed on that score.'
+
+'Oh, but--' said Robina, to whom the communication began to feel so
+momentous, that she could not help toying round it before coming
+to the point--'I know; at least, I am sure he will want to see her
+particularly.'
+
+'You Robin, what have you got into your head?' said Cherry, trying to
+misunderstand, but feeling a foreboding throb of consternation.
+
+'It is not my head. Willie told me.' And as she detected a sigh of
+relief, 'And it is no nonsense of his either. He did it on Sunday
+evening by the river-side.'
+
+'He did it?' repeated Geraldine, willing to take a moment's refuge in
+the confusion of antecedents, though too well aware what must be coming.
+
+'You know what I mean. He--Jack--John--Captain Harewood, had it out
+with her when we were all walking together.'
+
+'My dear, impossible!'
+
+'I mean, we were out of hearing, but we saw them at it, and walked up
+and down till Lance got tired out, and Willie and I stayed to make it
+proper.'
+
+Geraldine relieved herself by a little laugh, and said, in a superior
+tone of elderly wisdom, 'But, my dear, there might be a walk even
+without what you call doing it.'
+
+'Yes,' reiterated Robina; 'but I know, for the Captain shut himself up
+with Mr. Harewood when we came in, and Bill heard his father telling
+his mother about it at night through the wall.'
+
+'For shame, Robin!'
+
+'Oh! he told them long ago that he could hear, and they don't care;
+besides, Mrs. Harewood told him _himself_ when he went in to wish her
+good morning, and she kissed me and Lance too about it, and said they
+hadn't their equals. And poor Mettie thinks no one knows of it but
+their two selves, and maybe Mr. Harewood!'
+
+'But, Robin, I don't know how to understand it. I think she would have
+told Alda, at least.'
+
+'Perhaps she has to-night,' said Robina; 'but, you see, she didn't
+accept him.'
+
+'Oh! then it doesn't signify.'
+
+'Not out and out, I mean; and it is only because of us. At least, we
+are sure she likes him.'
+
+'We! You and Willie!'
+
+'And Lance. He saw it all the time he was getting well. Besides, the
+Captain told his father that she wouldn't listen to him, and would have
+hindered his going to Felix if Lance had been fit to travel alone.'
+
+'Then it is not an engagement now?'
+
+'No, she won't let it be.'
+
+'And he is coming to-day?'
+
+'Yes, after he has seen Felix. O Cherry! he is so nice, kind and
+bright, like all the Harewoods, and not ridiculous; and Lance does like
+him so!'
+
+'Does Wilmet?'
+
+'We are almost sure. As Lance says, she has never looked so bright, or
+so sweet, or so pretty. Do you think it is love, Cherry?'
+
+'We shall see,' said Cherry. 'If she tells us nothing, we can judge;
+and if--if--'
+
+Her voice died away into contemplation; and after waiting in vain for
+more, Robina somewhat resentfully decided that 'she had fallen asleep
+in her very face.'
+
+No more was said till dressing-time, when there were a few speculations
+whether Alda knew; and Cherry could not help auguring that something
+had opened Wilmet's eyes to her twin's possible deficiencies. Sister
+Constance came, and seeing her patient's paleness, accused the sisters
+of untimely bedroom colloquies; and as they pleaded guilty, Robin was
+struck by the air of fixed resolution on Cherry's thin white face.
+
+There was no sign of any confidence having been made to Alda. Wilmet
+plunged into her long-deferred holiday task of inspecting the family
+linen; and when she came back with a deep basket, an announcement that
+every one must mend and adapt, and portions of darning and piecing
+for Geraldine and Robina, they began to feel as if the morning's
+conversation was a dream.
+
+But just as dinner was near its close, there were steps on the stairs;
+the drawing-room door was opened and shut, and Sibby, unnecessarily
+coming through the folding leaves, announced over the head of Clement,
+'Captain Harewood.'
+
+'Come to tell about Lance!' cried Angela, leaping up, and followed
+by Bernard, Alda, and even Mr. Froggatt; indeed, in the existing
+connection of chairs, tables, and doors, a clearance of that side of
+the table was needful before any one else could stir. Wilmet moved
+after them, and Clement was heard exclaiming, 'You are pinning me down,
+Bobbie!'
+
+'I know! Oh, shut the door! There are more than enough there already.'
+
+'True,' said Sister Constance, signing to Clement to obey. 'I meant to
+go to my room, but Cherry wants to hear of her brothers.'
+
+'No, she doesn't!' cried Robina. 'At least-- Oh! will nobody get the
+others out, and leave them to themselves!'
+
+'Why, Bobbie, what nonsense is this?' said Clement. 'One would think
+you took them for Ferdinand and Alda.'
+
+'It is all the same!--Stella, you run out to the garden--by that door,
+you child!' And then it all came out to the two fresh auditors, who
+listened with conviction. 'And now,' concluded Robina, 'there is not
+a place where he can so much as speak to her! What shall we do to get
+them away?'
+
+'You do not know yet that she wishes it,' said Sister Constance, who
+had been a wife before she was a Sister, and saw that it was matronly
+tact and tenderness that the crisis needed; 'but I'll tell you what you
+can safely and naturally do. Go in and fetch Cherry's folding chair,
+and call the children to carry her appurtenances down to the garden.
+That will make a break, and Wilmet can take advantage of it if she sees
+fit.'
+
+'Alda is worse than ten children,' said Clement; 'she has an inordinate
+appetite for captains in the absence of her own.'
+
+'It can't be helped. Better do too little than too much.'
+
+And finding Robina shy and giggling, and Clement shy and irresolute,
+Sister Constance herself made the diversion by opening the door, when
+Wilmet's nervous look and manner was confirmation strong. 'Lady Herbert
+Somerville--Captain Harewood,' was Alda's formal introduction in her
+bad taste; while the Sister, after shaking hands, bade Bernard take
+Geraldine's chair to the lawn.
+
+'Oh, are we to go out?' said Alda. 'A good move. Of all things I detest
+in summer, a town house is the worst. I'll just fetch a hat, I want
+to show my pet view.--Our brothers are always fighting about their
+churches, Captain Harewood.'
+
+The thing was done; Mr. Froggatt was already gone, and as Alda's
+trappings were never quickly adjusted, it needed very little
+contrivance to leave a not unwilling pair on one side of the doors, and
+cut off the rest. Robina, too much excited to stand still, flew about
+the stairs till Alda appeared in a tiny hat fluttering with velvet
+tails.
+
+'Are they gone out?'
+
+'Yes;' for quite enough to constitute a 'they' were gone; and when Alda
+reached them, they sedulously set themselves to detain her, and thereby
+betrayed the reason.
+
+'Nonsense! How absurd! That horrid little fright of a red-haired man!
+No doubt poor dear Wilmet only wants me to go and put an end to it.'
+
+Strictly speaking, this was self-assertion. She had not the assurance
+to intrude, and she contented herself with keeping Cherry on thorns
+by threatening to go in, and declaring that the whole must be untrue,
+since Wilmet had not told her.
+
+Time went on very slowly; and at last Wilmet, about four o'clock, was
+seen advancing, with Theodore in one hand and her great basket of
+mending in the other. And before Alda had time to rise from her chair,
+Robina darted across the grass, with flaming cheeks and low, hurried,
+frightened confession--'Wilmet, please, it is honest to tell you;
+Willie Harewood knows, and told me, and I couldn't help it; I told them
+to keep away.'
+
+'It always happens so,' said Wilmet, less discomposed than Robina
+expected, though she had evidently been shedding tears. 'Not that there
+is anything to tell.'
+
+'Nothing!' cried Robina, looking blank.
+
+'Of course not. He came to bring me a note from Felix. I hope no one
+knows but those three.'
+
+'And Sister Constance.'
+
+'Then take care no one does.'
+
+'But, O Wilmet, please! You have not put an end to it all?'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet. 'They will not let me, though I think it would have
+been wiser. I do not know how it is to be, except that it is utterly
+impossible for the present.'
+
+With this much from the fountain-head, Robina was forced to content
+herself; and she had tact enough not to join the trio under the tree,
+but to betake herself to Clement, who had gone off with his books.
+
+'So,' said Alda lightly, 'you have cheated us of another view of your
+conquest, Mettie.'
+
+'He wanted to catch the 3.45 train,' said Wilmet gravely.
+
+'You must have been very unmerciful to despatch him so soon. I thought
+you must want me to come to your rescue, but those romantic children
+wouldn't let me.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Wilmet.
+
+'My dear! You don't mean that you are smitten? Well! I can't flatter
+you as to his beauty. And yet, after all, situated as you are, it is
+a catch--that is, if he has anything but his pay; but of course he
+hasn't.'
+
+'Yes,' said Wilmet abstractedly, 'his father told me he had--what did
+he call it?--"a fair independent competence of his own." Oh! they are
+so kind!'
+
+'Then, O Wilmet, is it really so?' asked Geraldine, with eager eyes,
+clasped hands, and quivering frame, infinitely fuller of visible
+emotion than either of the handsome twins.
+
+'I--don't know.'
+
+'My dear Wilmet,' cried Alda, excited, 'you can't surely have anything
+better in view!'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, even now keeping herself blind to the offensiveness
+of Alda's suggestion; 'but as it is utterly impossible for me to think
+of--leaving home, I did think it would have been wiser to put a stop to
+it while there wa--is time,' and the tears began to gather again.
+
+'And have you?
+
+'They won't let me.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'_He_--and his father, and Felix,' said Wilmet, speaking steadily, but
+the tears rolling down her cheeks.
+
+'Felix! Oh, what does he say?'
+
+'You may see;' and she held out a letter, which Alda and Cherry read
+together, while she rested her elbow on her knee, her brow on her hand,
+and let fall the tears, which with her were always soft, free, and
+healthy outlets of emotion, not disabling, but rather relieving.
+
+        Mrs. Pettigrew's Lodgings, North Beach, East Ewmouth, 20th
+        July, 10 P.M.
+
+        MY DEAREST WILMET,
+
+        What I have heard to-day is a great satisfaction. I had hardly
+        hoped that you could have been brought within the reach of
+        any one so worthy of you. My only fear is that you are too
+        scrupulous and self-sacrificing to contemplate fairly, and
+        without prejudice, what is best for us all. You will imagine
+        yourself blinded by inclination, and not attend to common
+        sense. Harewood tells me he trusts you have no objection on
+        personal grounds. (I hope this does not sound as if he were
+        presuming; if so, it is my fault. Remember, I am more used
+        to writing 'summaries for the week' than letters on delicate
+        subjects.) But at any rate, my Mettie, I see there is much
+        worth and weight in his affection, and that you could not
+        manage to snub him as entirely as you wanted to do. (Didn't
+        you?) Now, it seems to me, that if you two are really drawn to
+        one another, both being such as you are, it is the call of a
+        Voice that you have no right to reject or stifle. I do not mean
+        by this that anything immediate need take place; but granting
+        your preference, I think it would be wrong not to avow it, or
+        to refuse, because you scruple to keep him waiting while you
+        may be necessary at home. If you imagine that by such rejection
+        you would be doing better for the children and me, I beg leave
+        to tell you it is a generous blunder. Remember that, as things
+        have turned out, I am quite as much the only dependence for the
+        others as I was seven years ago. I felt this painfully in the
+        spring, when I was doubtful what turn my health would take; and
+        the comfort of knowing you would all have such a man to look
+        to would be unspeakable--indeed, he has already lightened me
+        of much care and anxiety. Do not take this as pressing you.
+        Between this and the end of his leave, there will be time for
+        consideration. Nothing need be done in haste, least of all the
+        crushing your liking under the delusion of serving us. So do
+        not forbid him the house; and unless your objection be on any
+        other score, do not make up your mind till you have seen me. I
+        should of course have been with you instead of writing, if it
+        were not for Lance. Till I saw the dear little fellow, I had
+        no notion how very ill he has been. The five hours' journey
+        had quite knocked him up, and he was fit for nothing but his
+        bed when he came; but he revived in the evening. I only hope
+        I shall take as good care of him as the first-rate nurses he
+        describes so enthusiastically. That month must have been worth
+        years of common acquaintance. I wish I knew what more to say to
+        show you how glad I am of this day's work, and to persuade you
+        to see matters as I do.
+
+                               Ever your loving brother,
+                                              F. C. UNDERWOOD.
+
+        P.S.--Lance is quite himself this morning, and was up to watch
+        us bathing before six o'clock.
+
+'Oh! what did Captain Harewood say of Felix?' was Cherry's cry, almost
+with shame and pain at not having asked before.
+
+'You know, he had never seen him,' said Wilmet; 'but he said he did
+not seem to him in the least unwell--and he watched carefully, as I
+had begged him. He said he struck him as naturally delicate-looking;
+but that those blue veins in his temples do not show, and he has no
+cough at all, nor any difficulty in swimming, or walking up a steep
+cliff. He made me laugh, for he said he hardly believed his eyes when
+Lance tumbled himself out of the train on something so little bigger or
+older than himself. He says the way we all talk of "my eldest brother"
+made him expect something taller than Clement, and more imposing than
+the senior verger; but he understood it all when he saw him and Lance
+together. They have two very nice rooms; and Felix has put Lance into
+the bedroom, which is luckily cool, and sleeps on a sofa bed in the
+parlour; and the landlady will do anything for them.'
+
+'But how is it to be?' broke in Alda crossly. 'You and Felix seem to
+be encouraging him to come dangling here, when we all agreed that
+Ferdinand must keep away in Felix's absence, though matters are in such
+a different state.'
+
+'So I told him, dear Alda,' gently said Wilmet; 'but he declared he
+would bring his sisters, or poor Mrs. Harewood herself, if nothing else
+would satisfy me: and what could I do, after all their kindness?'
+
+'Umph!' muttered Alda; 'they are a queer set.'
+
+'Now, Alda,' said Wilmet earnestly, 'you must not talk without knowing.
+Till I went there, I never understood how much goodness and principle
+there could be without my stiffness and particularity. I know I have
+often been very unnecessarily disagreeable and disapproving, and I hope
+I am shaken out of it in time.'
+
+'Dear Mettie, no one is like you,' cried Cherry, with a little
+effusion, stretching out her hand, and laying it on her sister's
+shoulder. 'Oh, if we had not all been so vile while you were away!'
+
+'It would not have made any difference, my dear! It would be impossible
+to leave Felix without help. And think of Theodore!'
+
+Alda muttered something, that no one would hear, about asylums; and
+the tell-tale tears coming again, Wilmet sprang up, and bending down
+to kiss Cherry, declared in her most authoritative voice that nothing
+should be said to the younger children, nor to any one out of the
+house; then picked up the tea-cups, and carried them in.
+
+Excitements were, however, not yet over for the day. A telegram was put
+into Alda's hands, containing the words--
+
+        'A.T. is an unmitigated brute. I sail for N.Y. to-night. All
+        will be right when I come back.'
+
+The mysterious hint restored Alda at once to all the privileges of the
+reigning heroine!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+VALE LESTON.
+
+     'The way to make thy son rich is to fill
+      His mind with rest before his trunk with riches;
+      For wealth without contentment climbs a hill,
+      To feel those tempests that fly over ditches,
+      But if thy son can make ten pounds his measure,
+      Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.'
+                                             _George Herbert._
+
+
+'I say, Felix, you've not told me about Vale Leston.'
+
+The two brothers were established under the lee of an old boat, beneath
+the deep shadow of the red earth cliffs, festooned with ivy, wild
+clematis, everlasting pea, thrift, and samphire. Not far off, niched
+beneath the same cliff, were two or three cottage lodging-houses,
+two-storied, with rough grey slate roofs, glaring white walls, and
+green shutters to the windows that looked out over the shingly beach to
+the lazily rippling summer sea.
+
+Ewmouth was a lazy place. Felix had felt half asleep through the
+earlier days of his stay, and Lance seemed to be lulled into a
+continual doze whenever he was unoccupied, and that was almost always.
+It had grieved his elder brother to see this naturally vivacious
+being so inert and content with inaction, only strolling about a
+little in early morning and late evening, and languid and weary, if
+not actually suffering, during the heat and glare of the day. He was
+now, with his air-pillow and a railway rug, lying on the beach, beside
+Felix, who with his safety ink-stand planted in the sand, was at work
+condensing the parliamentary debates for the Pursuivant, and was glad
+to perceive that he was so far alive as to be leaning on his elbow,
+slowly shovelling the sand or smaller pebbles with the frail tenement
+of a late crab; and it was another good sign to hear his voice in a
+voluntary inquiry about Vale Leston.
+
+'I have not been there yet.'
+
+'Not there?'
+
+'No. Old Abednego Tripp comes over here every market day, and he's the
+only person I wanted to see.'
+
+'I thought you came here because you wanted to see the place?'
+
+'Yes; but I was not up to the walk when I came here; and while you were
+ill I never durst go out of reach of the telegraph, and latterly I
+waited for you. After all, I have not much mind to it. I don't see the
+good of setting oneself a coveting one's neighbour's house.'
+
+'It wouldn't be my house, any way,' said Lance quaintly. 'How far is
+it?'
+
+'Rather more than three miles. We'll get a boat some day and do it.'
+
+'That will be jolly!' and after shovelling a little longer, Lance
+added, 'How came we to be turned out?'
+
+'That's just what I can't tell. I was only seven, you know, and my
+father never would talk of it. Sibby used to revile the mane nagur,
+Misther Fulbert, till it was current in the nursery that he was a black
+man who expelled us _vi et armis_. One day, my father found four or
+five of us in a row slashing at an old black doll, by way of killing
+Misther Fulbert, and prohibited such executions. I think, too, that he
+quashed an attempt to call our own Fulbert by his other name.'
+
+'I wonder what the nagur did?'
+
+'By the light of maturer nature, I imagine that he may have succeeded
+as heir-at-law, and that his _maneness_ may have consisted in not
+giving the living to my father; but I cannot tell. It always seemed my
+father's great desire to put it out of our minds. I remember before we
+left the place his catching me in a furious rage with some one who told
+me my pony was to be sold. He carried me off, and told me it was all
+true; and we were going away, and he trusted to me to be brave and make
+it as little hard to Mamma and the little girls as could be. He said
+the place had belonged to old Uncle Underwood, and that we had no right
+to stay there after his death. That was all the explanation he gave me,
+first or last; and I don't think we thought much about it after the
+neck of the change was broken.'
+
+'You remember it, though.'
+
+'I believe I know every step of the house and garden. I have never
+ceased to dream of them; and I am as much afraid of disturbing old
+impressions as of reviving wishes.'
+
+'Holloa! what's up?' exclaimed Lance, as the landlady was seen coming
+in quest of them. 'I thought I saw a tidy little tiger going in there
+just now.'
+
+'A note from Mr. Staples, if you please, Sir, and they wait for an
+answer.'
+
+'I didn't know you had any acquaintance here.'
+
+'Mr. Staples is the solicitor who did the business about Admiral
+Chester's legacy. He is retired now, and only holds some county office.
+He found me out last week, I believe, from some letters of mine going
+wool-gathering to the other F. Underwood. He called and said he knew my
+father, and was very civil and friendly. He sent to inquire after you
+the day you came. This is what he says:--
+
+        MY DEAR MR. FELIX UNDERWOOD,
+
+        Your relative at Vale Leston wishes me to dine with him
+        to-morrow evening. If you and your brother would like to
+        accompany me on the drive, meet me at six o'clock on the top of
+        the cliff. If you would prefer to return earlier than I do, I
+        can direct you to a boatman to take you down by the river.
+
+                                  Believe me, yours truly,
+                                                       C. STAPLES.
+
+
+'Hurrah! that's not half a bad fellow for an attorney,' cried Lance.
+
+'Shall not you be tired? Will it not be too hot for you?'
+
+'Not a bit of it. He,' indicating the sun, 'can only get at me asquint
+by that time, and I'm a match for him with my blue umbrella. Come, fire
+away, you tardy Norseman. Say we are good for it. Fancy boating back!'
+
+And Lance whistled a few bars of 'The Hardy Norseman,' the liveliest
+thing he had done since his illness.
+
+At the appointed hour, the brothers were standing on the top of the
+cliff, with a broad estuary before them; on the opposite side of which
+lay the town of Ewmouth at the foot of the old castle, with fresh
+modern fortifications towards the sea. The town, with its church towers
+and gas chimneys, sloped away from it; vessels thronged the harbour;
+and a long weird-looking thready suspension-bridge spanned the broad
+tide-river to East Ewmouth, the village fast growing into a suburb.
+There had not been more than time to point out the details to Lance
+before a waggonet drove up from one of the roads that branched among
+pleasant 'villa residences;' and in it appeared a white-haired but
+hearty-looking gentleman, prepossessing and merry, very unlike Lance's
+notion of attorneys, who shook hands with them warmly, and took care to
+put the boy under the shade of the driving-seat.
+
+It was a pretty drive, through rich meadows, shut in by the sloping
+wooded hills which gradually closed nearer; and by-and-by over the
+shoulder of one looked a very tall church tower, whereat Felix started
+with a thrill of responsive recognition, and suddenly faltered in the
+political discussion Mr. Staples had started, but dropped at once,
+looking at the young man's face with kindly interest.
+
+At the same time road and river both made a sudden turn into a much
+narrower and wilder valley, the hills beyond more rough and rocky; but
+the river still broad and smooth, and crossed by a handsome high-backed
+five-arched bridge, the centre arch grandly high and broad, the other
+two rapidly diminishing on either side. Over this the carriage turned;
+and from the crown Lance beheld an almost collegiate-looking mass of
+grey building, enclosing sunny lawns and flower-beds, and surrounded
+by park-like grounds and trees, all sloping towards the river, and
+backed by steep hills of wood and moorland, whence a little brook
+danced with much impetus down to the calm steady main stream of Ewe.
+The church and remnants of the old priory occupied the forefront of a
+sort of peninsula, the sweep of the Ewe on the south and east, and the
+little lively Leston on the north. There was slope enough to raise the
+buildings beyond damp, and display the flower-beds beautifully as they
+lay falling away from the house. The churchyard lay furthest north,
+skirted by the two rivers, and the east end with the lovely floriated
+window of the Lady Chapel rising some thirty yards from the bank of
+the Ewe, the outline a little broken by an immense willow tree that
+wept its fountain-like foliage into the river. The south transept was
+cloistered, and joined to the building beyond, a long low grey house
+with one row of windows above the sloping roof of the cloister, and
+this again connected with a big family mansion, built of the same grey
+stone with the rest, but in the style of the seventeenth century, and a
+good deal modernized upon that. A great plate-glass window looked out
+on the river in the east front, which projected nearly as far as did
+the Lady Chapel, the space between being, as before said, laid out in a
+formal parterre, with stone steps leading down to the river.
+
+'Oh, what a place! what a place!' shouted Lance, starting up in the
+carriage. 'It's like the minster, and the jolly old river besides! Two
+of them! Oh! what fishing there must be!'
+
+'I did not know it was really so beautiful,' said Felix in a low voice.
+
+'You remember it?' said Mr. Staples.--'I suppose you can't?' to Lance.
+
+'Oh no! I wasn't born! More's the pity! Do the salmon come up here,
+Sir?'
+
+'Yes, since the fisheries have been protected; but young Mr. Underwood
+is a great fisherman, and I fear it is not easy to get a card.'
+
+'Oh, I wasn't thinking about leave, Sir, thank you. I've got no tackle
+nor anything; but I _am_ glad _we_ have salmon,' said Lance, as though
+he had acquired an accession of dignity.
+
+Descending from the bridge, they were in a road skirting the river,
+and on which presently opened the lodge gates of the Rectory. Here Mr.
+Staples got out, telling his servant to drive the young gentlemen round
+to the village.
+
+'I say, Felix,' said Lance, as they were whirled on along the lane
+which swept round the long wall overhung by trees, 'that old party must
+know all about it.'
+
+'Most likely,' said Felix; 'but if there had been any good in my
+hearing, my father could have told me himself. How well I remember his
+giving me my first ride along this lane! Do you smell the bean field? I
+don't believe I have thought of the scent since.'
+
+Felix seemed absorbed in the pleasures of recognition; and Lance,
+amazed at the beauty and what seemed to him the splendour of the
+place, looked up at his brother with a kind of romantic feeling for a
+disinherited knight, as he contrasted the scene with the counter and
+printing-office.
+
+The lane led to the village street, a very pretty one sloping upwards,
+and lying on each side of the Leston, which rippled along as clear as
+crystal, crossed every here and there by foot-bridges, some wooden,
+some a single stone; while the cottages on the opposite side were
+perched on a high shelf or terrace, and were approached by charming
+irregular flights of stairs with low walls or balustrades. Over the
+rail of one, smoking a pipe in summer evening enjoyment, was seen
+Abednego Tripp, with long nose, brown parchment cheeks, and lank hair
+not yet grey--one of the genuine almost extinct species of parish
+clerk. As the carriage stopped, he began to descend, keys in hand, for
+the church was a lion, and many carriages did stop there; but it was
+not till Felix jumped out and hailed him that he knew who were his
+visitors.
+
+'Bless me, if it is not Master Felix after all! I did think you was
+never coming, Sir. And this is the young gentleman as has been so ill.
+You're kindly welcome, Sir. I think he'd favour poor Master Eddard if
+he didn't look so nesh.'
+
+'I shall get well here,' said Lance. 'If it is not my native air, it
+ought to be.'
+
+'Will you come and rest a bit, Sir? or would you like to go to the
+church?'
+
+'The church,' they said. Felix first explained what he knew would give
+pleasure--that they had come depending on him for a cup of tea, and
+a cast in his boat which was wont to convey the marketables of Vale
+Leston twice a week to Ewmouth.
+
+Abednego sped up his stairs like a lamp-lighter, to cause his
+grand-daughter to make preparations, and was speedily down again,
+delighted to hear Felix prove his memory by inquiries after the
+inhabitants of the old dwellings.
+
+'Ha! the Miss Hepburns!' said Felix, looking at a tall narrow house
+completely embowered in trailing roses, and with the rails of the
+bridge of entrance wreathed with clematis. 'Are they there still?'
+
+'Oh yes, Sir, all the four on 'em; and a sight of good they does to the
+poor!'
+
+'I wonder whether I ought to call?' said Felix; 'they used to be very
+kind to me.'
+
+'What, is that Rob's godmother, that never gave her anything but that
+queer name?' asked Lance.
+
+'I shouldn't think they were rich,' said Felix. 'I fancy they used
+to be very fond of my mother, and made her promise that the next
+girl should be named for one of them. There was Miss Bridget, and
+Miss Martha, and something else as bad, and Robina was the least
+objectionable of the lot. I think they used to write to my mother; but
+it is late in the day for calling.'
+
+'Here comes Miss Bridget,' said the clerk, as there appeared in sight
+a tall, rigid, angular figure, with a big brown hat and long straight
+cloak, and a decidedly charity-looking basket in her hand.
+
+Felix stepped forward with his hand to his hat. 'Miss Hepburn, I
+believe. I must introduce myself--Felix Underwood.'
+
+The lady's first move had been a startled shy drawing herself up and
+into herself, at being addressed by a stranger. Then she looked up with
+an amazed 'Felix Underwood! Little Felix!' and as he smiled and bowed,
+she fumbled and put out a hesitating hand.
+
+'Yes. Tripp did tell us something--something of your being at Ewmouth,
+but we were not sure.'
+
+'We had not been able to come over before,' said Felix, thinking she
+meant to imply that he ought to have called. 'We came for health and
+have not been equal to the walk.'
+
+'Oh, indeed. Nothing infectious, I hope?'
+
+'Oh no,' he said, explaining in a few words the total want of
+connection between his case and Lance's.
+
+'I am glad. I'll--I'll tell my sisters. I'm glad to have seen you.'
+
+There was something faltering and ill-assured in her manner, and in a
+moment she turned back with 'Mr. Underwood, where are you stopping?'
+
+He answered; and with 'I'll tell my sisters,' she parted with them
+again.
+
+'That's Miss Bridget,' commented old Tripp. 'She's the one as allys
+says, "I'll tell my sisters." They do say as Miss Isabella, she be the
+master on 'em all.'
+
+Felix and Lance smiled to one another the assurance that every family
+had its Wilmet; but while the younger brother shrugged his shoulders,
+the elder felt a certain chill in the contrast with those days of old,
+when the sugar-plums and picture-books of the whole sisterhood were all
+at his service, and bethought him that times were changed.
+
+They entered the churchyard by a little side-gate. The church was a
+grand pile of every style of architecture that had prevailed since the
+Cistercians had settled in Vale Leston, and of every defacement that
+the alternate neglect and good-will of the Underwoods could perpetrate.
+The grand tower at the west end was, however, past their power to
+spoil, and they had not done much damage to the exterior, except in a
+window or buttress here and there. But within! The brothers, used to
+the heavy correctness of the St. Oswald's restoration, stood aghast
+when Abednego admitted them by the door of excommunication, straight
+into the chancel, magnificently deep, but with the meanest of rails,
+a reredos where Moses and Aaron kept guard over the Commandments in
+black and gold, and walls bristling with genii and angels of all
+descriptions, weeping over Underwoods of different generations. Lance
+stood open-mouthed before a namesake of his own, whose huge monumental
+slab was upborne by the exertions of a kind of Tartarean cherub, solely
+consisting of a skull and a pair of bats' wings!
+
+'My stars! where did that brute come from?' muttered Lance under his
+breath. 'He's got no trifle of a piece of work!'
+
+However, Felix had taken in that the chancel had respectable
+poppy-headed benches, though the lower part of the church was
+completely 'emparoked in pues,' such as surprised Lance out of all
+bounds when he withdrew his eyes from the white marble death's head.
+
+'My stars!' again he said, 'this is what I've heard of, but never saw.'
+
+'Ay, Sir,' said Mr. Tripp, 'every one that come here do be crying out
+upon the pews; and to be sure, I see the folk sleepin' in them as is
+shameful!'
+
+Well he might, for his place was the lowest in a lofty three-decker,
+against one pier of the chancel arch, surmounted by a golden angel
+blowing a trumpet, and with lettering round the sounding-board,
+recording it to have been the gift of the Reverend Lancelot Underwood,
+Rector and Vicar of this parish--the owner of the mural slab before
+mentioned. That angel recalled to Felix that the sight of it had been
+his great pleasure in going to church, only marred by the fact that he
+was out of sight of it in the chancel.
+
+'Why, you weren't in the choir then?' said Lance.
+
+'Choir! no, Sir,' said the clerk. 'They sits in the gallery. The
+chancel is for Mr. Underwood's family--the Rector, Sir. They seats was
+just put up instead of the red baize pew before old Mr. Underwood as
+was then died, and your poor papa went away. And that there font was
+put, as 'tis there, just when the twin young ladies was christened.'
+
+'Where was I christened, then?'
+
+'In the bowl as we used to have on the Communion, Sir.'
+
+It was plain how far Edward Underwood had dared to work at renovation,
+and that nothing had since been done. The Lady-chapel, with a wonderful
+ceiling of Tudor fans and pendants, was full of benches and ragged
+leaves of books for such Sunday schooling as took place there, the
+national school having been built half a mile off, that the children
+might not be obnoxious to the Rectory. The church was a good way behind
+the ordinary churches of 1861, and struck the two brothers the more
+from the system in which they had been brought up.
+
+'What a state Clem would be in!' uttered Lance, as they came out.
+
+'It is of no use to think about it,' said Felix. 'Let us enjoy the
+beautiful exterior.'
+
+'Ay, Sir,' said old Tripp, 'parties do be saying as how it is a mortial
+pity to see such a church go to wrack; and I do believe the Squire
+wouldn't be so hard to move if it warn't for the Passon--that's young
+Mr. Fulbert, the vicar.'
+
+'I don't understand all these rectors and vicars,' said Lance. 'I
+thought they never hung out together.'
+
+'Why, you see, Master Lancelot, as how this is what they calls a lay
+rectory, as goes like a landed estate from father to son, without there
+being any call for 'em to be clergy; and the Vicar, he is just put in
+to do Passon's work, only he gets his situation for life, like I do,
+not like them curates.'
+
+'I see,' said Felix; 'and the rectors have generally taken Holy Orders,
+and presented themselves to the vicarage.'
+
+'Yes, Sir, that's how it ought to be; only this here Squire--not being
+no Passon, though Rector he be--he puts in a gentleman to keep it warm
+till his son, young Mr. Fulbert, our Vicar as is, was growed up, and
+hard work they say it was to get him to bend his mind to 't; nor he'd
+not have done it at last, but for his father's paying of his bills,
+and giving consent to his marrying Miss Shaw. And since that, bless
+you, Sir, the curates have done nothing but change, change, change,
+till 'tis enough to ruin a good clerk. You knows what that is, Master
+Felix, you that be one of the cloth.' (For Felix allowed himself no
+unprofessional coats.)
+
+'It is only the cloth, Mr. Tripp; don't you see I sport a blue tie? I
+am a bookseller.'
+
+'A bookseller!' The old man recoiled. 'You'll not be passing your jokes
+on me, Sir. A book-writer--I understands.'
+
+'No, a bookseller in earnest. I have a share in a very good business at
+Bexley; I've been at it ever since I was sixteen.'
+
+The old clerk was quite overcome; he leant upon a headstone and stared
+at Felix without speaking, and then it was a sort of soliloquy. 'To
+think of poor dear Master Eddard's son being come to that! and he
+looking a dozen times more like a clergyman and a gentleman than ever
+this young Mr. Fulbert will!'
+
+'Never mind, Mr. Tripp,' said Felix; 'there's one of us on the way to
+be a clergyman--Edward Clement, you know, that I wrote to you about;
+and maybe this fellow too. Don't look so angry with me. I was obliged
+to do the best I could to bring in something for the thirteen of us.'
+
+'And we're as proud of him as can be!' added Lance, affectionately and
+indignantly.
+
+'Ah, well,' said the old aristocrat, 'that may be, for you never
+knew them he came of. There was my old Lady Geraldine, as was his
+great-grandmother, who gave a new coat or new gown to every poor body
+in the parish at Christmas, and as much roast beef as they could eat;
+and wore a shawl as come from the Injies and cost two hundred pounds!
+She _was_ a lady! Bless me, what would she have said to see the day--'
+
+'That she was glad to have a great-grandson good for something,'
+stoutly answered Lance. 'I declare, Mr. Tripp, you'd have liked him
+better if he had come a begging!'
+
+'So I do,' said Felix; 'and what's more, Mr. Tripp is going to refuse
+me because he is too fine to sit down to tea with a tradesman!'
+
+'No, no, sir,' said old Tripp, with tears in his eyes. 'You'll not go
+for to say that. If it was the last morsel I had, I'd be proud to share
+it with one of Master Eddard's sons; but I can't but think as how we
+rung the bells and drunk your health when you was born, just as we did
+for the Prince of Wales, and how proud poor Master Eddard looked. No
+doubt he was spared the knowing of it.'
+
+'No,' said Felix, 'it was settled with his full consent.'
+
+Abednego seemed more distressed than ever. 'Poor Master Eddard! he must
+have been brought very low. Such a gentleman as he was! Never spoke a
+proud or rude word, Sir, but used to hold up his head like the first
+lord in the land, and fire and colour up and start like one of young
+Mr. Fulbert's thoroughbreds if any one said an impudent word.'
+
+'That no one ever ventured,' said Felix. 'He was as much respected at
+Bexley--yes, and is still--as ever he could be here. I wish you could
+see my brother Edgar, he is more like him than either of us. Ah, here's
+the old garden gate, I wish we could go into the shrubbery.'
+
+Tripp was rather for trying it. He said the gardeners would be gone
+home, and the elder master at dinner--the younger, with his wife,
+was absent; but Felix could not bear the sense of spying, though he
+did not withhold Lance from a rush into the garden paths, where he
+did not discover much. Then they looked into the eddy at the meeting
+of the waters; and turning back to Tripp's neatest of kitchens, were
+there regaled upon shrimps, rashers hissing from the fire, and the
+peculiar native species of hot-buttered cake, which Felix recollected
+as viewed in the nursery as the _ne plus ultra_ of excellence, probably
+because it was an almost prohibited dainty. Lance was in his element,
+delighting himself and Miss Kerenhappuch Tripp by assisting her to
+toast, to butter, and even to wash up, calling Felix to witness that he
+always helped Cherry in the holidays; when just as they were rising to
+seek the boat, Mr. Staples came climbing up the steps.
+
+'I thought I should find you here,' he said. 'Mr. Underwood very much
+wishes you would come and spend the rest of the evening with him.'
+
+'The old humbug!' burst out Lance. 'You won't go, will you, Felix?'
+
+Felix thought a moment, then walked with Mr. Staples to the corner
+of the narrow ledge in front of the cottage. 'Mr. Staples,' he said,
+'I know nothing about it. I trust to you to tell me whether this man
+treated my father so that I ought not to accept attention from him.'
+
+'Hm? ha? I should not say so. He treated him unkindly, ungenerously,
+but he hardly knew how much so, and he had the letter of the law on his
+side. I verily believe he regrets it, and that your father, being what
+he was, would be the last to wish you to hold aloof.'
+
+'Most likely,' said Felix. 'I am sure he forgave whatever there was to
+forgive.'
+
+'It is not my doing, I assure you. He spoke of your letters that had
+gone astray, and that led to more, till when he found you were in the
+village, he said he should like to see you. He is breaking up; his son
+has given him a good deal of trouble, and I believe he is altogether
+concerned for what has passed.'
+
+'And he will not suppose we want anything from him?' said Felix, with
+something of the almost unavoidable pride of independent poverty.
+
+'Certainly not. I have guarded against that.'
+
+'Then I suppose we must.--That is, how is your head? are you too much
+tired, Lance?'
+
+'No,' said Lance, almost sulkily; for he was much inclined to make
+fatigue a plea for escaping the 'mane nagur' and enjoying the boat, and
+was rather unreasonably disposed to think it all a plot on the part of
+Mr. Staples for spoiling the evening. Felix might have been equally
+glad of the excuse, but he believed his father would have thought
+this act of conciliation a duty, and followed Mr. Staples across
+the churchyard, where all the little boys in the place seemed to be
+playing marbles on the flagged paths. Its neglected state was a painful
+contrast to the exquisitely laid-out shrubbery, as trim as gardeners
+could make it, and improved and altered beyond Felix's recognition.
+
+Entering the house, Mr. Staples led the way to the dining-room,
+where there was a large empty table in the middle of the room, and
+in the deep bay of the window a smaller one, laid out with wine and
+dessert, where sat 'old Fulbert.' Having always heard him so called,
+the brothers were surprised to find him no more than elderly. He must
+have been originally a thorough florid handsome Underwood, and had the
+remains of military bearing, though with an air of feebleness and want
+of health, and a good deal of asthmatic oppression on his breath. He
+did not rise, but held out his hand, saying, 'Good evening. Thank you
+for coming to see a sick man.'
+
+'I am sorry to see you so unwell, Sir.'
+
+'Thank you, I'm on the mend. Sit down. Take a glass of wine--claret?'
+
+Felix accepted, wondering if his father would regard it as an act of
+pardon.
+
+'And you?'
+
+'No thank you, Sir.'
+
+'No wine? You are the one that has been so ill? No objection to melon,
+eh?'
+
+And Lancelot, whose illness had left a strong hankering for fruit, was
+considerably appeased by the first cut into the cool buff flesh.
+
+'Is he the next brother to you?'
+
+'Oh no. There are three brothers and three sisters between us.'
+
+'And what are they doing? There were one or two with Tom Underwood.
+Didn't the young fellow offend him and turn out idle?'
+
+'Not that, Sir,' said Felix, his colour rising: 'but he had no turn
+for a clerkship, and a good deal for art. He is studying at the Royal
+Academy; but there never was any quarrel; he is often at Thomas
+Underwood's.'
+
+'And the rest?'
+
+'One has the Ewshire Scholarship at St. Cadoc's; and there's one in
+Australia.'
+
+'And this lad--what's his name?'
+
+'Lancelot. He is in the choir school at Minsterham Cathedral, and hopes
+to get a scholarship.'
+
+'Is that all of you?'
+
+'Two more boys, quite little, and the six girls.'
+
+'Any of them able to do anything for themselves?'
+
+'The eldest is a teacher in a school at Bexley,' said Felix, not
+delighted with the cross-examination; 'and Alda, the one that lived
+with the Tom Underwoods, is engaged to a man of good fortune. Then two
+of the younger ones are at schools, where an allowance is made for poor
+clergymen's daughters.'
+
+'How long has your mother been dead?'
+
+'Four years and a half.'
+
+'And you have managed all single-handed?'
+
+'With my eldest sister's help, Sir.'
+
+'Taken to the press, have you?' (Mr. Staples must have made the best of
+his vocation.) 'What's your paper?'
+
+'The Bexley Pursuivant. Most likely you never heard of it. It is only
+a little county paper;' and then feeling that to stop there was a
+subterfuge, he added, 'Our main business is the retail trade.'
+
+Mr. Underwood was chiefly intent on the next question, the politics of
+the paper, though he said he need hardly ask. 'All you young stuck-up
+fellows run in one team--all destructives.'
+
+'No, no, Sir,' broke in Mr. Staples eagerly. 'Mr. Felix is staunch to
+the back-bone.'
+
+Felix was never more tempted to deny his principles than when he found
+them brought forward as a recommendation; but he could only explain
+that the Pursuivant was an old established county gentleman's style
+of paper, in the agricultural interest. Whereupon the Squire mounted
+his political hobby in such sort and with such abusive violence,
+especially as to the local representatives of the adverse party, that
+Felix could not help feeling that if such were indeed the opinions of
+his own side, he should certainly be on the other. One good effect was
+the sparing him any more personal catechizing. Mr. Underwood shouted
+himself weary, without requiring any reply save what Mr. Staple's local
+knowledge supplied; and when the carriage was announced, the guests
+were dismissed with a hearty shake of the hands, and invitation to call
+again--'It was a comfort to talk of public matters to a young man of
+sense;' and Lance found a sovereign in his hand. He was not sure that
+he was obliged.
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Staples, rubbing his hands with satisfaction as they
+drove off, 'what do you think of the Squire?'
+
+'He talks very loud,' said Felix, who had for some time been watching
+the increase of Lance's head-ache, and now was trying to give him a
+rest on shoulder and arm.
+
+Mr. Staples gave what help he could towards making the tired boy
+comfortable, and then returned to the subject in all their minds. 'So
+your father never told you those particulars?'
+
+'No; I think it was his great object not to dwell on them, nor let us
+look back with regret or anger.'
+
+'Just like him. I never saw such a case, never! I'll show you a
+remarkable letter of his. But, first, you ought to understand the way
+the matter stood. To begin with the relationship.'
+
+'I know nothing about them, only that my father and mother were
+second cousins; but I don't even know to which of them my great-uncle
+Underwood was really uncle.'
+
+'To your mother. He had very strong feelings as to the duty of the head
+of a family, and made his house a home for all that needed it. When
+Miss Mary was sent home an orphan from India--James's, his favourite
+brother's, child--he asked his cousin's widow, Mrs. Edward Underwood,
+to bring her boy, superintend the house, and look after the little
+girl; and she was glad enough, for the captain had died of his wounds
+at Waterloo, and she had little but her widow's pension.'
+
+'I know,' said Felix. 'Then whose son is the Squire?'
+
+'The son of Lancelot, who was the second brother, between the Reverend
+Fulbert (your great-uncle) and James, your mother's father. So he was
+heir-at-law, but he was a wildish sort of lad, unfit to take Holy
+Orders; and there came to be an understanding that if his uncle would
+buy his commission and purchase his steps, he would not look for the
+Rectory and the estate. On that understanding your father took Orders
+and married; but on old Mr. Underwood's death there was only a draught
+of a will, which he had not been in a state to execute, leaving a
+handsome legacy to Fulbert, but the whole property to your father and
+mother. It seemed a matter of course that, as the only compensation,
+Fulbert should have presented his cousin Edward to the vicarage--Ł400 a
+year; but as ill-luck would have it, he took offence at some sermon--a
+Lent one about self-indulgence, I believe it was--swore he wouldn't
+have a Puseyite parson preaching at him, and went into such a rage,
+that it is thought to be partly by way of getting off giving him the
+living, and getting it held for his son.'
+
+'I see,' said Felix.
+
+'It was a dirty trick; and I was a younger man at the time, and it
+struck me that if your father chose to try the case, the testator's
+intentions being clear, and instructions in his own hand extant, it was
+ten to one it might be given in his favour. I even took a counsel's
+opinion, thinking that at any rate an intimation that the case was to
+be tried before possession was given up, might bring Fulbert to terms
+with regard to the living.'
+
+'And he would not?'
+
+'No. I should like to show you his letter. Would you do me the honour
+of dining with me to-morrow?'
+
+Felix was obliged to mutter something about ladies and no dress-coats;
+but this was silenced, and he made a promise contingent on Lance's
+fitness. He was puzzled by the relations in which Mr. Staples seemed to
+stand with the lay-rector; but he found that they were not of business,
+only that elections, and county affairs, brought them together, and
+that Mr. Underwood was regarded with a sort of compassion by the men
+of his own standing, who used to go and visit him whenever they could
+be secure of not encountering the cold welcome and ill-breeding of his
+daughter-in-law--the grievance of his life.
+
+'Did you see any one you remembered?' further asked Mr. Staples.
+
+'One of the Miss Hepburns, who did not seem very well to know whether
+to acknowledge me or not.'
+
+'Ha, ha!' chuckled Mr. Staples. 'Queer old girls they are. Very high.
+Very good to the poor. All the good that is done in Vale Leston is by
+them; but anything between a swell and a pauper don't exist for them.
+They're as poor as Job, and their pride is all they have, so they make
+the most of it.'
+
+So, after all, the day had not been quite without mortification, and
+Felix felt it a little more than he thought it was worth.
+
+Lance was a good deal excited by the sight of his ancestral home. He
+had an eye for scenery, and longed to bask in it again; boating seemed
+delightful; and he was amazed, not to say elated, by the grandeur
+of the house, which exceeded any--save Centry Park--in his limited
+experience. His mind was set on explorations there, and on the whole
+history; while Felix, to whom all was less new and more sorrowful, was
+inclined to hang back from any unwise awakening of unsettling regrets;
+but there was no declining Mr. Staples' kindness, and he had much
+desire to see the letter. So the two youths put on their Sunday coats,
+assisted one another's ties, and looked each other well over before
+encountering the formidable mass of ladies Felix had seen in church,
+and about whom he was far more shy than Lance, who had seen a good deal
+more of the species at Minsterham.
+
+It turned out very pleasant; the frank good-natured mother and
+daughters made themselves very agreeable; and though no one was as
+pretty as Alice Knevett, they were all so far superior to her in manner
+and cultivation that the mixing with them could not fail to soften
+any sting of disappointment that might remain. Lance was made much of
+as an invalid, and very much liked the privileges that did not hinder
+an evening game of croquet, since Mr. Staples evidently intended his
+conference with Felix to be _tęte-ŕ-tęte_.
+
+It took place in a pleasant little study, fitted with green morocco and
+walnut, that spoke well for the solicitor's taste and prosperity, and
+looking out on the pretty lawn, with the long shadows of the trees, the
+croquet players flitting about, and the sea glittering in the distance.
+
+The letter was ready, folded up lengthwise and docketed, business
+fashion; but when opened, the familiar handwriting seemed to bring back
+the father, even to the sound of his voice.
+
+                                                Vale Leston Rectory,
+                                                         18th January.
+
+        MY DEAR STAPLES,
+
+        My wife and I feel greatly obliged to you for your good-will
+        and zeal on our behalf, and have not for a moment justified
+        your dread of being thought officious. In other circumstances,
+        I might be tempted to fight the battle; but it is impossible
+        for several reasons. Were we the losers, we should be
+        totally unable to pay the costs, and a load either of debt
+        or obligation would be a burthen we have no right to assume.
+        Moreover, the uncertainty of our position pending the decision
+        would be as mischievous to myself as to the parishioners. It
+        would destroy any fitness to be their Vicar, whether we gained
+        or not. The holding the Rectory is in itself an abuse; and
+        now that the grapes are sour, I am glad not to encounter the
+        question of conscience, and so shall not adopt any means--to
+        my mind doubtful--for bringing it on myself. This being the
+        case, you will see that the idea of alarming Fulbert Underwood
+        falls to the ground. Supposing he were coerced into the
+        compromise, what a pleasing pair--squire and parson--would
+        be the result! No, my kind friend, be content to see things
+        remain as they are. We carry with us the certainty of our good
+        uncle's kindness, and the non-fulfilment of his intentions
+        is clearly providential. I have heard of a promising curacy,
+        where I shall get the training I need after feeling my wilful
+        way as I have done here. My wife, being the expectant heiress
+        and lay-rectoress, shall write to satisfy you that she is not
+        suffering from my coercion.
+
+                                 Yours, most sincerely obliged,
+                                                    E. F. UNDERWOOD.
+
+
+And on another sheet followed:--
+
+        DEAR MR. STAPLES,
+
+        I think my husband is quite right, and that to go to law would
+        only make things much worse. It is very kind in you, but I
+        really do not care about anything so long as I have my husband
+        and children, and can feel that my dear uncle meant all that
+        was kind. Indeed, I really think my husband enjoys the prospect
+        of a new and more active kind of work. He is sure to be happy
+        anywhere, and as long as that is the case, all will be right;
+        and he says that it will be much better for the children not to
+        grow up in luxury.
+
+                                     With many warm thanks,
+                                            Yours very truly,
+                                                  M. W. UNDERWOOD.
+
+
+'May I copy them?' asked Felix, looking up with his eyes fuller of
+tears than suited his reserved disposition.
+
+His father's letter, full of his constant brave cheerfulness in
+self-abnegation, had not overcome him like the few words that brought
+back the lovely young mamma he now remembered at Vale Leston, but
+whom he had too soon known only as the patient, over-tasked, drudging
+mother, and latterly in the faded helpless invalid. How little she had
+guessed the life that was before her!
+
+Mr. Staples readily supplied him with the materials, adding, 'I will
+take care you have the letters by-and-by. I value them too much to part
+with them in my lifetime.' And presently he interrupted Felix's writing
+by saying, 'I much wished to have seen Mr. and Mrs. Edward Underwood
+again, but it seemed to me that they were unwilling to keep up a
+correspondence.'
+
+'They were so busy,' said Felix.
+
+'No doubt; and I thought they might feel a visit an intrusion.
+Otherwise, I often thought of running down from Town.'
+
+'My father would have been very glad.'
+
+'I did wish to have seen him again--and your mother, almost a child as
+she was even at that time, with her flock of pretty children. I shall
+never forget her--the beauty and darling of all the neighbourhood, as
+she used to be. All we young men used to rave about her long before
+she was out.' Mr. Staples smiled at some recollection, and added, 'I
+never spoke to her four times in my life; but I was as bad as any of
+them--presumptuous as you may think it.'
+
+'I am glad you did not see her again,' burst from Felix, the tears
+starting forth as he copied her hopeful words. 'She altered sadly.'
+
+'Ah! indeed.'
+
+The concerned tone forced Felix to add, 'It came so much more heavily
+on her than on any of us, care and work and years of seeing my father's
+health failing; and in the last week of his life she had a fall, that
+brought on softening of the brain.'
+
+Somehow, the whole had never struck him as so piteous before as in the
+contrast with her youthful brightness, and when he saw Mr. Staples
+greatly affected. He could only write on through a mist of tears,
+while the solicitor walked about the room, blowing his nose violently,
+and muttering sentences never developed; till at last he came behind
+Felix's chair, and laying his hand on his shoulder, said, 'After all,
+it will come round. You are next heir.'
+
+'Heir? There's Fulbert Underwood!' exclaimed Felix.
+
+'True; but he's been some years married, and there's no sign of a
+family. Depend upon it, we shall see Vale Leston come back yet.'
+
+'It would make no difference now,' muttered Felix, as he traced his
+mother's fearless lines; nay, if he had a personal thought, it was of
+what he might have ventured towards Alice Knevett.
+
+'Not to them,' said Mr. Staples, 'but a good deal to you, my young
+friend.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Staples,' said Felix, smiling, 'aren't you doing our best to
+unsettle a young man in business?'
+
+'Well, well, you are too reasonable. A contingency--only a contingency.
+But I should like to show you.' And he hastily sketched a pedigree that
+had at least the advantage of showing Felix his relationships.
+
+Rev. Lancelot.
+    |_____________________________________________2
+    |                                             |
+    |                                             |
+Rev. Fulbert.                                  Lancelot.
+    |                                             |
+    |               2            3                |               2
+Rev. Fulbert.____Lancelot.____James U.          Lancelot._______Thomas.
+d. 1843.            |            |                |               |
+                    |            |                |               |
+                 Fulbert.    Mary Wilmet.      Thomas.       Rev. Edward.
+                    |       m. Edward U.    m. Mary Kedge.  m. Mary Wilmet
+                    |            |                |            Underwood.
+                ev. Fulbert.     |                |
+                            Felix, &c.       Mary Alda
+                                              Underwood.
+
+'There! Through your mother you stand next in the line--are
+heir-at-law, you see. May I live to see that day! That's all.'
+
+The thought did not affect Felix much at the moment. He was too full of
+what might have been, and the 'contingency' was such a remote one! So
+after answering to the best of his ability whether any of his sisters
+were like his mother, he was glad to get out, and forget it all in
+croquet. His musical capacities were discovered too; but the attempt
+to profit by them proved quite too much for Lance, to whose brain the
+notes of the piano were absolute and severe pain.
+
+A formal little note came on the ensuing morning, in which 'the Misses
+Hepburn'--in the third person--requested the favour of the company of
+Mr. Felix Underwood and his brother at luncheon. Felix felt a little
+stung. He could recollect warm passages between the ladies and his
+mother, and had been their pet long enough to wonder at this cold
+reception, and question whether it were not more dignified to reject
+advances made in such a manner; but his heart yearned towards those
+who had been kind to him in his youth, and he believed that his mother
+would have wished him to renew the intercourse, and therefore decided
+upon going; but it was too hot and sunny a day for Lance to walk, and
+Felix so entirely expected the visit to be wearisome and disagreeable,
+if not mortifying, that he could only resolve on it as a duty, and
+would not expose his brother to it.
+
+So he plodded off alone, and a curious visit he had. It was not easy
+for him to guess at the sacredness of those traditions of gentility and
+superiority that the 'Misses Hepburn' held--not so much for their own
+sakes as in faithful loyalty to the parents many years dead, and to
+the family duty that imposed a certain careful exclusiveness on them
+in deference to the noble lineage they could reckon, and the head of
+the house, whom none of them had ever seen. He could not have guessed
+the warm feeling towards 'dear Mary' that had struggled so hard with
+the sense of duty, and had gained the victory over the soreness at the
+dropping of correspondence, and the idea that it was a dereliction to
+bend to one 'who had lowered himself,' as Mrs. Fulbert Underwood said
+he had.
+
+What he saw was a tiny drawing-room, full of flowers and gimcracks, and
+fuller of four tall angular women, in dark dresses in the rear of the
+fashion, and sandy hair. They had decided in council, or rather Miss
+Isabella had decided for them, that since he was to be received, they
+would remember only his gentle blood; and therefore they shook hands
+with him, and the difference of the clasp alone could have shown the
+difference of character--the patronising, the nervous, the tenderly
+agitated, the hearty.
+
+He found them better informed than the Squire had been as to the
+condition of the family--at least, so he presumed from the text of
+their inquiries. Not a word did they say of his own employment--it
+was to be treated as a thing not to be spoken of; but the welfare of
+the others was inquired after, and especially of Robina--who was the
+name-child of the eldest sister, the gentlest of the set, and the most
+in the background, quiet and tearful--pleased to hear that her godchild
+was at school, and as Felix emphatically said 'a very good girl,'
+anxious that he should take charge of 'a little token' for her.
+
+The little token turned out to be 'Ministering Children'; and this gave
+Felix a further hint, which prepared him for the tone in which some of
+his information was received, when he had only mentioned Geraldine as
+gone for health's sake to the St. Faith's Sisterhood.
+
+The ladies looked at one another, Miss Isabella cleared her throat, and
+he knew a warning was coming; so he quickly said, 'One of the ladies,
+a clergyman's widow, was very kind to my father in his illness, and is
+really the best friend we have left in England.'
+
+'Your dear father was too much inclined to those specious doctrines
+that are only too fascinating to youth. I hope you do not outrun him.'
+
+'I hope not,' said Felix, very sincerely; and he then succeeded in
+interesting his monitor by speaking of Fulbert, and using him as a
+bridge to lead to an account of Mr. Audley's Australian doings.
+
+It was altogether a stiff uncomfortable visit; the very politeness
+of the good ladies made Felix feel that they viewed his position as
+altered, and he could not but feel a strong hope that he should never
+again have to make this offering at the shrine of ancient friendship.
+
+On coming home in the evening, Felix found a note on the table.
+
+'Croquet to wit?' asked Lance, as Felix tried to read it by the almost
+vanished twilight.
+
+'What's this?'
+
+        'We hope you and your brother will join us in a pic-nic at
+        Kitt's Head on Saturday.
+
+        'Having discharged my ladies' commission, I proceed to that
+        which I have authority from your relation for intimating
+        to you--namely, that failing heirs of his own son, he has
+        entailed the Vale Leston property upon you, thus rendering its
+        alienation by the Reverend Fulbert impossible. I believe the
+        arrangement was made within the last week. Congratulations
+        would hardly be suitable, but I cannot refuse myself the
+        pleasure of saying how sincerely I rejoice.'
+
+'What--what?' cried Lance, jumping up. 'You to have that splendiferous
+river, and the salmons, and all. Won't you get a magnificent organ for
+that church?'
+
+'My dear Lance, don't you see that all this means is, that if young
+Fulbert has no children, I shall come after him.'
+
+'Oh, he won't! I'm sure he won't. Things always do come right. Oh, what
+a _coup d'état_ mine was after all! Things always do come right. You,
+that were born to it! Didn't old Tripp say how they had had the bells
+rung for you? I should like to set them going this minute!'
+
+'They should be on your own cap, then!' said Felix, laughing and yet
+sharing in a castle or two--how Cherry should have a pony-carriage! how
+Clement should be turned loose upon the Church! how Lance should pursue
+the salmon at home and the humanities at the University! how Bernard
+should have a real good gentleman's education!--but Felix soon brought
+himself back again. 'Remember, Lance, not a word of this at home or
+anywhere else.'
+
+'Not tell any one?' cried the boy, crest-fallen.
+
+'Don't you see, Lance, besides the impropriety of talking of what
+involves two deaths, it would be the most senseless thing in the world
+to let this make the least difference. Old Fulbert may change his mind,
+or young Fulbert have a son; at any rate, he is not five-and-thirty,
+and just as likely as not to outlive me.'
+
+'Fee! Fee! you are quite well, you wretched Norseman!'
+
+'Oh! I didn't mean _that;_ but anybody may outlive anybody for that
+matter. Anyway, there's no chance of any of these schemes coming to
+pass while we are young enough to care, even if they ever do; and if
+they unsettle us now, it would be unmitigated damage.'
+
+'I see that,' said Lance; 'but as, by good luck, I'm No. 8, it can't do
+me much harm to think about it, and I don't see why the others should
+not.'
+
+'Do you think some of them would be content to go on as we are doing,
+with this in their heads? And if any one in the town knew it, whatever
+I might do, people would think I was getting above my business. I doubt
+whether even Froggy himself would have the same reliance on me.'
+
+'Then shan't you even tell Wilmet and Cherry?'
+
+'I hope not. I don't think Wilmet could keep it from Alda, or Cherry
+from Edgar; and just imagine what it would be to have it come round
+through Kensington Palace Gardens that we were reckoning on it!
+Besides, it will make no earthly difference to anybody, unless, maybe,
+to Edgar's son.'
+
+The mention of such a being brought Felix somehow to a sudden silence;
+and in the meantime supper and a candle were brought in, revealing a
+thick letter from Geraldine, which had at first escaped notice. There
+were two enclosures; but as Felix read her writing, he broke out with
+an exclamation of consternation that startled Lance.
+
+'Hollo! What is it?' And as he received no answer--'Wilmet's not
+given up Jack? Eh? Nor Cherry fallen in love next? Clem hasn't turned
+bare-footed friar?' crowding together the wildest suggestions he could
+think of to force answer.
+
+'Hush! That dear child--'
+
+'She doesn't want to be a sister? You'll tell her you'd see her at
+Jericho first!'
+
+'No. It is about her foot.'
+
+'Not worse?'
+
+'No; but, dear little thing, she wants to have it taken off, because
+she fancies if she was more effective, it might be one difficulty out
+of Wilmet's way!'
+
+'She's a blessed little brick! But would it be so?'
+
+'Well, I remember in the time of the measles, the last time I ever let
+that fellow Rugg come near her, he thought proper to tell somebody in
+her hearing that if she was in a fit state of health, it would be the
+only remedy. She wasn't, and it was quite uncalled for; and it put the
+poor little thing in such an agony, that at last Sibby came and wrapped
+me up in a blanket to sit by her, and talk very big about nobody being
+able to do it without my leave, and my not intending to consent to any
+such thing. I thought she had forgotten all about it, but it seems that
+she has not; and she imagines that, as she says, "with a cork foot that
+I could stand upon, instead of always keeping this one up in fear of
+hurting it, I could get about the house with only a stick, and be of
+some use, and then dear Mettie's happiness might not be so far off."'
+
+'And what does Mettie say?'
+
+'She knows nothing; Cherry implores me not to tell her, for she says
+that it would be impossible for Mettie to come and nurse her, and she
+would rather have Sister Constance than any one.'
+
+'Than Mettie! Deluded child!' cried Lance.
+
+'Her great wish is to have it done now at St. Faith's. She told Clement
+before she left home, because she thought they would insist on some
+one at home knowing; but "Don't think me very sly," she says; "I would
+not tell Sister Constance what was in my head till I came here, for
+fear she should think it her duty to speak to Wilmet; and now, they
+will not hear of it without your knowing. I did wish to have surprised
+you all! About the cost I have thought. You know Dr. Lee attends me
+for nothing while I am here, and I told you that Sister Constance has
+sent up all my book of illustrations of Queen Isabel, and some of the
+water-coloured drawings, to her sister, Lady Liddesdale, and how much
+she has been getting for them--quite enough to set me up with a foot
+that will not be half such a nuisance as this old dead-alive one, which
+has never let me have any peace these twelve years. I am trying to be
+good; but indeed I feel as if it might be wrong to try to be rid of my
+cross. So I abide by your decision, dear Felix. You are my king, and I
+put myself in your hands; only you must not be anxious. You should have
+known nothing if I could have helped it."'
+
+'Go on,' grunted Lance, with his face hidden, as Felix paused.
+
+'That's all; but here are notes from Sister Constance and Dr. Lee.'
+
+The Sister's explanation was, that it had been entirely Geraldine's own
+thought, and that her willingness and eagerness made a great difference
+in such a nature as hers. She told Felix not to think of coming--the
+fewer the better; and he could come in a few hours in case of need.
+It was advisable that the decision should be made quickly, since to
+nervous sensitiveness like Cherry's the very effort to bear suspense
+reacted on the bodily frame. 'If you know what I mean,' concluded
+Sister Constance, 'heroism is likely to carry the little creature
+through what would be far more trying if this were proposed to her for
+her own sake.'
+
+And Dr. Lee's letter gave the medical view, decidedly inclining to the
+opinion that the probabilities were in favour of the operation, and
+that the conditions were never likely to be more promising than at
+present.
+
+'Dear child! I wish I were there!'
+
+'Can't we go?'
+
+'What, you? Think of the train.'
+
+Lance shook his head. 'Couldn't I stay by myself, and you run up?'
+
+'I don't think I can help it.'
+
+But the excitement of the evening broke Lance's sleep, and the next day
+he was quite ill; while Felix not only saw that he must not be left,
+but perceived after the first that Sister Constance's warning ought to
+be respected, and that an arrival would only agitate Cherry's nerves.
+So he wrote his sanction with a very heavy heart, betraying as little
+emotion as was consistent with the tenderness so essential to support
+brave but fragile little Geraldine.
+
+The anxiety seemed to have swallowed up the recollection of Mr.
+Staples' message; indeed, it was not willingly that Felix answered his
+note, and made a half engagement to the pic-nic.
+
+Felix was struck by seeing how much, under the circumstances, Lance
+missed the daily service to which he had been used all his life.
+
+'I didn't mind it at first,' said the chorister, 'it seemed a part of
+the holiday; but somehow the day seems all stupid and astray without
+it.'
+
+But there was no church with it to be heard of; and indeed one attempt
+on Sunday at East Ewmouth resulted in Lance's collapsing into some
+of his most distressing symptoms, caused, as he declared, by the
+overpowering might and untuneableness of the singing, but quite bad
+enough to make Felix resolve against permitting further experiments,
+and thus walk off by himself on the next Wednesday forenoon when he
+heard the bell.
+
+There was a long lecture that he had not bargained for; and when he
+came out with a slightly impatient impulse, the first thing he saw was
+a blue umbrella, a white hat, and a hand waving a paper. In silence
+Felix read--
+
+        'Constance Somerville to Felix Underwood.--11.30. Favourably
+        over. No cause for anxiety.'
+
+They were rather grave and awe-struck, and scarcely spoke all the way
+home--indeed, Felix was chiefly thinking how to get Lance home out
+of the sun without hurrying or over-heating him; but after dinner
+came a reaction; the boy went frantic with admiration of a beautiful
+yacht that was standing into the bay; and Felix, with his letter to
+Sister Constance to write, one to Australia to finish, and his leading
+articles to draw up, was forced to command peace in something of the
+old rough-and-ready style; and even when Lance vanished, he was to be
+heard singing scraps of comic songs in the distance.
+
+By-and-by he came in carrying a board taller than himself. 'Please your
+Majesty, I'll be as mute as a mole; but I must do this here, for Mrs.
+Pettigrew is baking.'
+
+'What in the name of wonder have you got there?' asked Felix, as
+Lance proceeded to lay his board on the sofa (his day--and Felix's
+night--bed) and place on it a white and soppy mass.
+
+'A little dab out, as Sibby calls it,' said Lance. 'It's my puggery.
+Ever since it fell overboard it has been a disgrace to human nature, so
+I have been washing it, and now I've got an iron heating.'
+
+'What a mess you will make of it!' observed Felix, with a grimace of
+disgust, as Lance returned again from the kitchen, holding the iron
+scientifically near his cheek.
+
+'That's all you know about it! Why, I've ironed dozens of
+pocket-handkerchiefs--at least, not dozens, but my own, dozens of
+times--in the Harewood tubs.'
+
+'I thought the Chapter washed you?'
+
+'So it does, in reason; but last spring there was a doom on my
+pocket-handkerchiefs. The Harewood puppy ate up one; one dropped into
+the canal; I tied up a fellow that had got a cut with one, and the
+beggar never returned it; and two or three more went I don't know how.
+I knew W. W. would be in a dreadful state if I asked for a fresh lot,
+so I used to wash out the last two by turns, till I got some tip and
+bought some fresh ones--such jolly ones, all over acrobats and British
+flags; and after all, didn't I catch it? Wilmet was no end of disgusted
+to miss her little stupid speckotty ones, vowed these weren't decent
+for the Cathedral, and boned them all for Theodore! Now, hush! or I
+shall come to grief!'
+
+Felix held his pen suspended to watch the dexterity that reduced the
+crude mass to smooth muslin, which in its expanded state looked as
+impracticable as before.
+
+'Now, do you mean to get Mrs. Pettigrew to put it on in those elegant
+festoons?'
+
+'You just mind your leader, Blunderbore! A man who has had women to do
+for him all his life is a pitiable being!'
+
+And Lance, according to instructions obtained from John Harewood,
+wreathed his hat triumphantly in the white drapery, and completed
+Felix's surprise and amusement by producing a needle and thread, and
+setting to work on various needful repairs of his own buttons and his
+brother's, over which he shook his head in amusement as he chuckled at
+the decay which had befallen the garments of so neat a personage as
+Felix, and which had been very distressing to himself.
+
+'Ah! thank you. I never knew what Robinson Crusoe felt like before!'
+said Felix, as Lance came on a wrist-band minus button.
+
+'Robinson Crusoe! You'd soon have been like Man Friday before he caught
+him.'
+
+'But doesn't the matron mend for you?'
+
+'She pretends; but I should like to see her face if one brought her
+a chance thing to do. My eyes! if that isn't old Staples! I must
+absquattilate.'
+
+Which after all he had no time to effect, with all his works, before
+their friend came to ask whether they were relieved about their sister,
+and was amused at the handy little schoolboy's ingenious preparations.
+'After all, I find it is to be more of an affair than I expected; I
+thought it was to be only ourselves and the Brandons, but they are the
+kind of people who always pick up every one.'
+
+'Does that yacht belong here?' eagerly asked Lance.
+
+'That! It is the Kittiwake--Captain Audley's.'
+
+'Ha! That's what Fulbert went to Alexandria in! What fun!'
+
+'He is the son of Sir Robert Audley. Do you know him?'
+
+'His brother was my father's fellow-curate,' said Felix, 'and is our
+guardian and kindest friend. I have seen this one in London. Will he be
+at this pic-nic?'
+
+'Not likely. He is shy and uncertain, very hearty and friendly when
+you do meet him, but reluctant to go into society, and often taking
+no notice one day, when he has seemed like one's best friend the day
+before. They say he has never got over the loss of his wife; but I
+don't like such manners.'
+
+'Does he live here, then?'
+
+'He rents the little Tudor cottage under the cliff year by year, for
+the sake of his yachting--for he won't go near the regular stations.
+He's got his boy at school at Stoneborough, and stays here all the
+winter.'
+
+When the brothers were walking part of the way back with their visitor,
+they met the gentleman in question, with three boys after him, and
+he was evidently in a cordial mood; for after shaking hands with Mr.
+Staples, he exclaimed, 'I am sure I ought to know you!'
+
+'Felix Underwood,' said the owner of that name.
+
+'_Indeed!_ Not staying with your worthy relations?'
+
+'No, I am down here with my brother, who has been laid up by a
+sun-stroke, and wanted sea air.'
+
+'I wish I had been at home' said the Captain, who had taken a great
+fancy to Felix when they had been together in London two years
+before; 'but I've been giving my boy and his cousins, the two young
+Somervilles, a trip to the Hebrides; and now, just as I am come home, I
+fall upon Mrs. Brandon, hounding me out to an abominable pic-nic, and
+my youngsters are wild to go. Are you in for it? I believe we shall go
+round to the cove in the yacht. Can I take you two?'
+
+Felix gladly accepted, aware that their transport was a difficulty
+to the Stapleses, and that the Kittiwake would be felicity to Lance,
+who had fraternized with the boys, and went off with them to see the
+vessel. He returned brimful of delight and fatigue, only just in time
+to tumble into bed as fast as possible, and Felix was thus able to get
+his work off his mind by midnight.
+
+The morning's letters set them quite at rest. Sister Constance and
+Clement both wrote: Geraldine had been calm and resolute from the
+time Felix's consent arrived, and doubt was over; and Clement, though
+tender, and striving hard to be firm, had been chiefly useful in
+calling out her words of encouragement. He had spent the time of the
+operation in the oratory, and there had been so entirely overcome by
+the tidings that all was safely over, that he was hardly fit to go to
+Cherry when he was sent for; and that was not soon, for the effect of
+chloroform on her had indeed been to annihilate pain, but only half
+to make her unconscious, for she went on talking to Felix about the
+expedience all the time, ever repeating the old motto, 'Under Wode,
+Under Rode;' and the trance had lasted for a good while, though when
+once over, she remembered nothing of it, and was only so rejoiced and
+thankful, that it was difficult to keep her calm enough. She sent her
+brothers her love, and entreated them not to say a word at home. Lady
+Liddesdale had contrived the sale of the book of illustrations--a work
+that had been Cherry's delight of many years; so that she could feel
+that she herself had earned what would cover the expense incurred, all
+but the medical attendance, freely given to an inmate of St. Faith's.
+'Tell Felix I am as happy as a queen,' was the final message; 'tell him
+to give thanks for me.'
+
+Felix's voice trembled, shook, and gave way, as he read; and at last he
+sprang up, and walked about the room, saying that no one ever had such
+brothers and sisters as himself. There was something almost oppressive
+in the relief from so much anxiety, and it was some time before he
+roused his ordinary senses to say, 'Well! we must finish breakfast, or
+we shan't be ready for the Captain. How round the world is! Those boys
+must be Sister Constance's nephews--Lady Liddesdale's sons.'
+
+'Those boys,' said Lance. 'What, Sum and Frank? Well, I did think it
+queer that the sailors on board the Kittiwake called every one My Lord.'
+
+'Sum, I imagine, must mean Lord Somerville. What did you think of them?'
+
+'Nicish chaps of eleven and twelve. Nothing like such swells as Tom
+Bruce! The little one wanted to know where I was at school, and his
+senior snubbed him; so I supposed he saw by the looks of me that I
+wasn't upper-crust public school; and when I said I was a choir-boy,
+the other--Charlie Audley--said, "Oh, then you're one of the awful lot
+my father always jaws about when he's out of sorts!" I told him I was
+very sorry, and it wasn't my fault, but yours; and then we got on like
+a house on fire.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A KETTLE OF FISH.
+
+     'Our Pursuivant at arms will show
+      Both why we came and when we go.'
+                                    _Scott._
+
+
+The place of the pic-nic was a good way off, being the point of the
+promontory that shut in the mouth of the river, a great crag, with
+a long reef of rocks running out into the sea, playfully called the
+Kitten's Tail; though the antiquarians always deposed that the head
+had nothing to do with cats or kits, but with the disposition to erect
+chapels to St. Christopher on the points of land where they might first
+greet the mariners' eyes. Beneath this crag, sheltered by the first
+and larger joints of the Kitten's Tail, was a delightful sandy nook,
+where appeared a multitude of smart hats, male and female, a great many
+strangers even to Captain Audley, who would fain have recognised none
+of them. In a strong access of his almost morbid silence, he devoted
+himself to Felix, and kept aloof from almost every one. Even at the
+dinner, spread on a very sloping bit of beach, pic-nic exigencies
+enabled him to be nearly _tęte-ŕ-tęte_ with Felix, who found himself
+almost back to back to a lady in a brilliant foreign pheasant's plume,
+with glass dew-drops at the points.
+
+In a pause of their own conversation, they heard the inquiry, 'Do you
+know who that boy is--that fair delicate-looking lad just opposite,
+with the white muslin round his hat?'
+
+'Oh--that!' answered the pheasant lady; 'that is young Lord Somerville,
+son to the Marquess of Liddesdale. He and his brother, Lord Francis,
+have been out yachting with Captain Audley.'
+
+The Captain smiled as he looked at the boys. 'Ay,' he observed, with a
+flash of his bright dark eyes,' he has the advantage over Sum.'
+
+For Lance had resumed his lark-like air, and it was perhaps the more
+striking from the fragility and transparency that remained about his
+looks; and he was full of animation, as he, with a reinforcement of
+boys, clustered round a merry sunny-faced girl, full of joyous drollery.
+
+'Very queer and eccentric--quite a bear,' was the next thing they
+heard; whereat Captain Audley nodded and smiled to Felix. After the
+general turmoil caused by the change of courses had subsided, that
+penetrating voice was heard again. 'Yes, we came home sooner than we
+had intended. The fact was, we found that old Mr. Underwood was being
+beset by some of those relations. You remember? Oh, yes; they have sunk
+very low--got into trade, absolutely got into trade! One of them a mere
+common singing-boy. Mr. Underwood is getting aged--quite past--and we
+did not know what advantage might be taken of him.'
+
+'Your turn now,' murmured Captain Audley, with a look of diversion
+calculated to allay the wounded flush on his neighbour's cheek.
+
+'Do you mean Mr. Edward Underwood's sons?' said a voice on the other
+side. 'I always understood them to be very respectable and well
+conducted.'
+
+'Oh, very likely! Only I do happen to know that one of them has been
+a great trouble and vexation to Tom Underwood; and we didn't want the
+same over again with the poor old Squire.'
+
+'Did I understand you that any of them were here?' added the other
+voice; 'for I had just been struck by the likeness of that boy
+opposite, talking to my sister, to poor Mr. Edward Underwood, as I
+remember him.'
+
+'Oh no, Mrs. Rivers; I assure you that's young Lord Somerville!'
+
+Captain Audley made an effort, rather difficult in his Turkish
+position, to crane his head beyond the interposing figures, recognised
+and bowed to the speaker, who greeted him by name, and thus diminished
+the flow of Mrs. Fulbert Underwood's conversation by her awe of the
+high and mighty bear whom she scarcely knew by sight. He had no taste
+for scenes, and did not put either her or Felix to pain by mentioning
+his name; but when the last act of the meal was over, and people began
+to move, he made his way in the direction of the inquiring voice. 'Mrs.
+Rivers, let me introduce Mr. Felix Underwood.'
+
+'I am very happy--' and there was a cordial smile and a hand held out.
+'Are you here for long? My father would be so much pleased to see you.'
+
+It was a rather worn pale face; but the ease and sweetness of manner,
+and the perfect fitness of the dress, made a whole that gave Felix a
+sense of the most perfect lady he had met with, except his mother and
+Sister Constance.
+
+'I am at Ewmouth, with one of my brothers who has been ill.'
+
+'Lord Somerville?' and all three burst out laughing. 'My sister has
+found him out, I see. She and your little boy are old friends, Captain
+Audley.'
+
+'Yes, you have been very kind to him. But I am as much surprised to see
+you here as you can be to see my friend. Are you from home?'
+
+'We go back this evening. We slept at the Crewes' last night. My
+husband had business there; and when they asked us to this pic-nic,
+it was a good opportunity for Gertrude to learn the beauties of her
+county.'
+
+'Which she seems to be doing under full escort,' laughed Captain
+Audley, as the young lady and the young boy flock were seen descending
+to the rocks.
+
+'She has a strong taste for little boys,' said the elder sister. 'You
+have the Somerville boys here, haven't you, though?'
+
+'Yes; there had been scarlatina or something or other in their school,
+and their mother was afraid of them among their sisters, till I had
+purified them by a sea voyage.'
+
+Probably Mrs. Fulbert never found out her mistake; for Lord Somerville
+reported that he had never been so pitched into in his life as by an
+old girl in a 'stunning tile,' who found him washing out an empty
+pie-dish for the benefit of some maritime monsters that he wanted to
+carry home to his sisters; but that when Lance came up, she was as meek
+as a mouse. Certainly, the two boys were little sturdy fellows, burnt
+lobster-like up to the roots of their bleached and rough hair; and
+their costumes were more adapted to the deck of the Kittiwake in all
+weathers, than to genteel society. Their sisters were in an aquarium
+fever, and their sport all through their expedition had been researches
+for what they had learnt in Scotland to call 'beasts;' and now the
+collection was to be completed from the mouth of the Ewe, and the
+scrambling and tumbling it involved were enchanting.
+
+Kate Staples, who usually considered Lance her charge, was not sorry
+to see a croquet player disposed of among his own congeners; for the
+game seemed such a necessary of life, that it was actually prepared for
+on the sands, to the extreme contempt of the anemone hunters. 'Play at
+croquet, forsooth, when rocks aren't to be had to scramble on every
+day!' And scramble ecstatically they did, up and over slippery stone
+and rock festooned with olive weed, peeping into pools of crystal
+clearness, and admiring rosy fans of weed, and jewel-like actinias
+embellished by the magic beauty of intense clear brightness. The boys
+took off shoes and stockings, turned up trousers, and scrambled and
+paddled like creatures to the manner born.
+
+'O dear! I wish I might!' sighed the young lady.
+
+'Why don't you?' said Charlie Audley. 'Kate and Em and Annie always
+do--don't they, Frank?'
+
+'Of course they do, or how would they ever get on!'
+
+'Come along then, Miss Gertrude,' said Charlie. 'You can't think how
+jolly it is!'
+
+And soon another pair of little white feet were dancing on the rocks.
+'Oh dear! what a blunder of civilisation it is to wear shoes at all!
+How delicious a hold one gets!'
+
+'I can't think why people do wear them! They never are anything but a
+bother,' said Lance.
+
+'To play at foot-ball with,' suggested Somerville from the top of a
+rock.
+
+'But women don't,' said Gertrude.
+
+'_I_ think women do it, and make us, that they may have something to
+worrit about,' said Frank. 'Damp stockings are the bother of creation
+till one goes to school; and then, isn't it jolly!'
+
+'Except the chilblains,' called out Charlie.
+
+'I believe,' said Lance, 'chilblains come of shoes.'
+
+'No, they can't,' argued Charlie, 'for one has them on one's hands.'
+
+'Well,' said Gertrude, 'let's form ourselves into a society for the
+suppression of shoes and stockings!'
+
+'Hurrah!' cried Lance. 'I know one person at least that it would be a
+blessing to.'
+
+The question was, how the five bold reformers were to begin. Frank
+suggested drowning all the present stock, and pretended to be about to
+begin, but was of course prevented by a scream.
+
+'Public opinion must be prepared first,' said Lance.
+
+'And that,' said Gertrude, 'we'd better do by a great example! Here,
+we'll show what can be done. Why shouldn't we get out to the end of the
+Kitten's Tail?'
+
+'One can't to the end,' said Charlie; 'there's a place big enough for a
+gig to go through, half way out.'
+
+'And about the tide?' said Lance.
+
+'Tide,' said Charlie, looking at his watch--'tide wouldn't think of
+playing us such a dirty trick as turning for an hour and a half.'
+
+'And the jolliest beasts of all always live in places like that,' added
+Somerville. 'Come on, President of the Society for the Suppression of
+Shoeses--to the front!'
+
+On moved the august Society, now scrambling to a dry flat, now
+threading a _mauvais pas_, clinging to festoons of sea-weed; the three
+little boys climbed like monkeys or sailors; but Lance, agile as he
+was, had not had the same amount of training, and felt besides that it
+was requisite to be ready to give a helping hand to Miss Gertrude. She
+got on very well, being full of lightness and springiness, only she was
+a little inclined to be adventurous, and to chatter at critical moments.
+
+'We must have got out a quarter of a mile.'
+
+'Oh no, not that!'
+
+'No? I'm sure it is! How small they look on the beach! I wonder if they
+can see us! Hark! they're singing--'
+
+'"Drink to me only with thine eyes;" that's Felix's crack glee,' said
+Lance; 'what fun for him!'
+
+'This is much better fun!' cried the general voice. 'They'll never see
+us if we wave now!'
+
+'No, no; don't let's wave now! Wait till we get to the farthest point.'
+
+'And there we'll plant our ensign!'
+
+'What shall we do for a flag? We haven't got the Britisher here!'
+
+'No; it must be the flag of the SSSS's.'
+
+'That ought to be a bit of bare skin.'
+
+'No, no--a pair of feet--motto, "Off, vile lendings!"'
+
+'I say, I don't think you can get any farther,' interposed Somerville.
+'I've been on four rocks farther, and I'm sure you will never get back
+again if you go on.'
+
+'Oh, that's base! I'm sure this one isn't so hard.'
+
+She was creeping along a ledge, holding the sea-weed with one hand and
+Lance by the other.
+
+'I really don't think it passable,' he said; 'there's scarcely the
+width of one's foot beyond.'
+
+'Hurrah!' shouted Frank. 'Here's the father of all the Daisianas!'
+
+'Oh! oh! he's my cousin. I must see him!' cried Gertrude, with a
+scramble and a laugh, which ended in a sudden slip--luckily, not into
+the open sea, but into a very steep-sided bath-like pool; and Lance,
+whom of course she gripped hard, was pulled after her, both over head
+and ears; and though they scrambled on their feet in a moment, there
+they stood up to their shoulders in water.
+
+'Get the Daisiana now you are there!' shouted Frank.
+
+'How are we ever to get out?' said Gertrude, looking up the walls, six
+feet at least on the lowest side.
+
+'If we had a rope,' said Charlie.
+
+'Make signals--call,' said Somerville, all suiting the action to the
+word. 'No, they don't hear! they are all singing away. You, Franky,
+you're too little to be any good, make the best of your way to call
+somebody.'
+
+'The tide will come in!' said Frank. 'Mamma and Aunt Emmie were once
+shut in by the tide, and Uncle Edwin. And there was a fellow who was
+quite drowned--dead--and that was why I was named Francis.'
+
+'That's what you may call a cheering reminiscence at a happy moment,'
+said Lance, recollecting that he was far more nearly a man than any one
+present, and instinctively feeling the need of brightening all into
+cheerful activity, for the girl looked thoroughly frightened. 'Yes,
+Lord Frank, the best thing you can do is to go for somebody; but we'll
+be out long first. Can't we make a rope? Have you a sash or anything,
+Miss Gertrude? Don't fear, we'll soon be out.'
+
+Happily she had both a sash and a broad ribbon round her hat; and Lance
+tore off his puggery.
+
+'I can do it best,' called Charlie. 'I know all the sailors' knots.'
+
+'It will never bear,' said Gertrude.
+
+'Oh yes, it will. You'll not trust your whole weight to it. Is it done?'
+
+'Besides, how can they draw me up?'
+
+'We'd best get behind that rock, Sum,' suggested Charlie, 'then she
+won't pull us in.'
+
+Charlie's sailor experience was very useful; and he shouted advice to
+Lance, who was tying the extemporary rope round Gertrude, not very
+easily, owing to the material, and to its being done under water.
+
+'Now, then, you do your best at climbing--here,' he said. 'They'll pull
+you; and look! There, first my knee--yes--now my shoulder--now--' And
+standing for a moment on his shoulder, Gertrude was really able with a
+desperate grapple to surmount the wall of her prison, and scramble out
+beside the two cousins, whose pulls had been very helpful.
+
+Lance's clambering was a harder matter, for he did not venture to trust
+much to the rope, though the girl's strength was added to that of the
+two boys; and it was a severe climb up the scarcely indented, slippery,
+moist, slimy rock, where his hands and feet could hardly find any hold;
+and when at length he reached the top, he was so panting and dizzy,
+that Somerville at first held him to hinder his slipping backward into
+the sea. No one could get at King or Queen Daisiana, so it was left
+in its glory; while the young people struggled back over rocks that
+seemed much steeper, and pools far deeper, than in their advance; Lance
+still trying to be helpful, but with a mazed sense of the same sort of
+desperate effort with which he had run back with Bill's verses; for not
+only had his small strength been overtaxed, but the immersion in water
+was affecting his head.
+
+Lord Francis had made much quicker progress; and boy as he was,
+showed his breeding by not rushing open-mouthed on the party with his
+intelligence, but seeking the Captain, who was smoking the pipe of
+solitude upon a rock apart. He at once sent Frank to the servants, who
+were enjoying the relics of the feast, to fetch some wine, and tell
+the boat's crew to make ready at once, and then went off himself to
+seek Mrs. Rivers. Felix, who had spied the little messenger speeding
+up to the Captain, was already on his way to the rocks, and reached
+the party in good time; for draggled, drenched, and with clinging
+garments, they were so slow in getting on, that it was no delusion
+that the water was higher, and the rocks lower; and even Gertrude had
+neither breath nor spirits to gabble when that grave anxious face met
+her, and a strong careful hand lifted and helped, first her, then
+Lance, up and down every difficulty; and when she perceived how the
+new-comer avoided point-blank looking at the bare ankles that had
+sometimes to make long stretches, a burning red came up into her face,
+half of shame, half of indignation at being made ashamed. And after
+all, when the place where her hose and shoon had been left was reached,
+the niched shelf in the rock turned out to have been surrounded by the
+tide, so that they were quite unattainable either by herself or the
+little boys; and Felix, putting the arm by which Lance had held by
+him over Somerville's shoulder told them to go on before, and himself
+made two long strides and a scramble before he could reach the boots
+and stockings, and give them to the young lady, unable to help looking
+nearly as grave and vexed as if it had been Angela herself; indeed, he
+was vexed, for he had an ideal of the young ladyhood of his mother's
+old native region, and did not like it to be disturbed. He moved away
+far enough for her to think he had left her to her fate, till she was
+on her feet and coming on, and then there he was again, in a moment
+the attentive squire. Revived by her short rest, and on less perilous
+ground, she glanced at his face in readiness to disperse her discomfort
+with something saucy, but somehow it would not do; and she was tamely
+conducted to terra firma, where her sister saluted her with 'O Daisy!
+what a child you are to have charge of!'
+
+That restored her enough to answer, 'I'm quite delighted something
+should have happened under your keeping! No harm done. Salt water never
+gives cold.'
+
+'I don't mind it for you,' said the elder sister; 'you have not been
+ill.--But indeed, Mr. Underwood, I am very sorry,' she added. 'What
+will be best for your brother?'
+
+'Here!' said Captain Audley, taking from Frank a flask of sherry, and
+over-ruling the objection made by the brothers that stimulants were
+forbidden. He further insisted on taking Lance at once to his own berth
+on board the yacht while Mrs. Rivers meant to conduct her sister to the
+preventive house.
+
+'So,' said Lance, rather ruefully, as he shook hands, 'there ends the
+SSSS.'
+
+'Not at all! Its use is proved. We should have been cooked by this time
+in the Daisiana cauldron, if we had had great cumbrous boots on.'
+
+It was a valiant effort, and she cast a glance out of the corner of
+her eye at the elder brother, but it had not relaxed a muscle of his
+grave anxious face, which was in truth chiefly bent on watching Lance's
+involuntary shiverings; and she again turned crimson, perhaps from her
+share of the chill, and was dragged off, muttering, 'What intolerable
+folks guardian brothers are! Henry Ward was a mild specimen compared to
+this one!'
+
+About noon on the following day, Mrs. Pettigrew's little girl abruptly
+opened the parlour door, and with 'Please, ye're wanted,' turned in a
+tall, thin, grey-haired, spectacled gentleman, who, as Lance started up
+from the sofa, exclaimed, 'Don't disturb yourself; I came to thank you,
+and inquire after you after the adventure my mad-cap daughter led you
+into.'
+
+'I hope she is all right,' said Lance, solicitously.
+
+'As right as Daisiana himself; more so than I fear you are. Let me see
+you comfortable. Lie down again, pray.'
+
+'Oh, I don't care about lying down, thank you, Sir; I only sleep for
+want of something to do;' but though he did not put his feet up, he was
+feeling far too languid not to relax his bolt-upright attitude, and
+lean back on his pillows.
+
+'That will do. Bad head-ache?'
+
+'It is nearly gone off now, thank you, Sir; it was bad all night, but
+it is much better since I have been asleep.'
+
+'Let me see,' laying his left hand on the wrist that hung over the edge
+of the sofa. 'Ay, I hope that wicked little siren has done no great
+damage. Pulled you below, true mermaid fashion--eh?'
+
+'I meant to have pulled her out.'
+
+'Instead of which she made a lad into a ladder to climb out on.' Which
+bad pun served the purpose of making the boy laugh enough to be at
+his ease. 'She is much indebted, and so am I. I like to meet an old
+friend's son. Are you alone?'
+
+'My brother is only gone to the post-office. He will be in before long;
+but it saves a post to take the letters before twelve, and he ought to
+be out as much as he can.'
+
+'Is he here on his own account, or yours?'
+
+'He came down first, before I was ill. It was bother and overwork and
+a cough. Everything always does come to worry him, whenever he ought
+to have rest or pleasure.' And Lance, who was thoroughly weary and
+dispirited, was nearly ready to cry.
+
+'Even when he goes out for a pic-nic, young ladies must needs drown
+themselves!'
+
+This made Lance smile; but he added, with a quivering lip, 'He would
+not go to bed till I could go to sleep last night, and that was not
+till past two, and he looks quite done up this morning.'
+
+'Is any one attending you?'
+
+'Dr. Manby did at Minsterham--nobody here.'
+
+'What's been amiss with you--fever?'
+
+'Plenty of fever, but it was from sun-stroke.'
+
+'Ah! you boys have thinner skulls than we used to have! How long ago?'
+
+'Seven weeks yesterday,' said Lance, wearily.
+
+'And you are sadly weary of weakness?'
+
+'I don't mind that so much;' and the kindness of face, voice, and
+gesture, made the poor boy's eyes overflow; 'but I'm no good, and I
+can't tell whether I ever shall be again!'
+
+'It is a great deal too soon to trouble yourself about that.'
+
+'That's what they all tell me!' cried Lance, impatiently, and the tears
+rushed forth again. 'Manby only laughs, and tells me I shall be a Solon
+yet if I don't vex myself; and how can I tell whether he means it?'
+
+'Well, dear boy, have it all out; I promise to mean whatever I say.'
+
+'You are a doctor then, Sir?'
+
+'What! the boy doesn't know me, as sure as my name's Dick May!'
+
+'Oh!' cried Lance, 'that was what I heard Felix saying to Captain
+Audley--that he did so wish Dr. May could look at me!'
+
+'That's all right, then. Come, then, what is weighing on you--weakness?'
+
+'Just not weakness,' said Lance. 'I didn't care so much when I could
+scarcely get about; but now I can walk any distance, and still I have
+not a bit more sense!'
+
+'Is your memory gone?'
+
+'I don't think so; only, if I fix my mind to recollect, and it doesn't
+come by chance, I'm all abroad, and perfectly senseless and idiotic!'
+
+'And it brings on pain?'
+
+'Yes, if I try five minutes together.'
+
+'You don't try to read or write?'
+
+'I can't--and--' then came the tears again--'music is just like red-hot
+hammers to me.' There was a great fight with sobs, rather puzzling to
+one who did not know what music was to the chorister. 'And what is to
+be the end of it?'
+
+'That rest and patience will make you as well as ever.'
+
+'Do you really think so? But, Sir, I have a little brother seven and a
+half years old, with no understanding at all--not able to speak; and if
+there were two of us on Felix's hands like _that!_ If I could only be
+put away somewhere, so that Felix should not have the burthen of me!'
+
+'My poor little fellow! Is this what is preying on you all this time?'
+
+'Not always--only when I am doing nothing, and that is most times,' he
+said, dejectedly; but the Doctor smiled.
+
+'Then you may take the very anxiety as a proof that your brain is
+recovering. You cannot expect to shake off the effects quickly; but if
+you are only patient with yourself, you will do perfectly well. Are you
+a son of the clergy?'
+
+'No, I am a chorister at Minsterham. I have another year there, when I
+can go back, if ever--'
+
+'Don't say _if_ ever! You will, if you only will keep from fretting and
+hurrying, and will accept that beautiful motto of the Underwoods.'
+
+Lance smiled responsively, and said more cheerfully, 'You are quite
+sure, Sir?'
+
+'As sure as any man can be, that there is no reason to anticipate what
+you dread. It is quite possible that you may be more or less liable
+to bad head-aches, and find it needful to avoid exposure to summer
+sunshine; but I should think you as likely to do your work in the world
+as any one I ever saw.'
+
+The light on Lance's face did not wholly spring from this reply. With
+'There's Felix!' he had bounded out of the room the next moment, and
+his incautious voice could be heard through the window--'Fee, Fee,
+here's her father! that brick of a Miss Gertrude's, I mean. He's
+as jolly as he ought to be, and knew all our people. But just--I
+say--how's Cherry?'
+
+'All well; here's a note from the dear little thing herself,' said
+Felix; and in another moment, with his bag strapped over his shoulder,
+he had brought the bright sedateness of his face into the little
+parlour. 'Dr. May! how very kind in you!'
+
+'Not kindness, but common propriety, to come and see how much mischief
+my naughty child had done.'
+
+'I don't think there's any real mischief,' said the elder brother,
+looking at the much-refreshed face.
+
+'I think not, and so am free to be glad of the catastrophe that has
+brought me in the way of an old friend. Yes, I may say so, for I must
+have known you!'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, 'we used to watch for you when you came to my uncle.
+You always had some fun with us.'
+
+'I remember a pair of twins, who were an irresistible attraction. I
+hope they have grown up accordingly. You look as if you ought to have
+pretty sisters.'
+
+Felix laughed, and said the twins were reckoned as very pretty.
+
+'How many of you are there--was it not thirteen? Did not those boys get
+the clergy-orphan?'
+
+'One did, thank you. He is on a farm in Australia now, and I am
+thinking whether to try for little Bernard; but I am afraid his case
+would be a stale one, being of seven years' standing.'
+
+'If you want it done, my daughter, Mrs. Rivers, is a dragon of
+diplomacy in canvassing; but why not send him to Stoneborough? Cheviot
+takes a selection of cleric's sons at Ł30, and we would have an eye to
+him.'
+
+'Thank you, if we can only manage it; but I must see what my sister
+says--our financier.'
+
+'One of those little apple-blossom twins? Let me look at you. Do you
+mean to tell me that this fellow has been the whole stand-by of that
+long family these seven years?' he added, turning to Lance.
+
+'To be sure he has!' cried Lance, eagerly.
+
+'Lance!' said Felix, rather indignantly. 'You forget Wilmet. And Thomas
+Underwood entirely educated two of us.'
+
+'And,' said the Doctor, looking oddly but searchingly from one to the
+other, 'you've been the bundle of sticks in the fable. Never gone
+together by the ears? Ah!' as both brothers burst out laughing at the
+question, 'I'd not have asked if I had not seen how you could answer.
+I've seen what makes me so afraid of brothers in authority that it does
+me good to look at you two.'
+
+Felix looked up. The Stoneborough murder case was about two years old,
+and of course he had to study and condense the details, and had come on
+the names of Dr. May and his son in the evidence.
+
+The further words met his sudden conjecture. 'Ay, boys, you little know
+what you may be spared by home peace and confidence! Well, and what may
+you be doing, Felix? Your bag looks as if you had turned postman to the
+district.'
+
+'There's my chief business, Sir, coupled with bookselling and
+stationery,' said Felix, as he pushed across a copy of the Pursuivant
+that lay on the table. 'I have been well paid from the first, and am in
+partnership now, so we have got along very well.'
+
+'Ay, ay! Very good trade, I should think? You must send me your paper,
+Felix; I want one I can trust to lie about the house.'
+
+'You will find it very stupid and local, Sir.'
+
+It was curious how what from Mr. Staples was answered with an effort,
+seemed from Dr. May to draw out confidence. One point was, that Mr.
+Staples never seemed sure how to treat him, and often betrayed a fear
+of hurting his feelings; while with Dr. May he was himself and nothing
+else. The Doctor stayed to share their dinner, such as it was in
+consideration of their being lodgers as didn't give trouble--_i.e._
+some plain boiled fish, fresh indeed, but of queer name and quality,
+and without sauce, and some steak not distantly related to an old shoe;
+but both seemed to think so little about it, that the Doctor, who was
+always mourning over the daintiness of the present day, approved them
+all the more.
+
+Just as they had finished, Captain Audley came in with his boys, on
+their way to start off the Somervilles by the train, and it was agreed
+that when he took his son back to school at Stoneborough, Felix and
+Lance should come with him and spend the day.
+
+And a pleasant day it was, as pleasant as the unsettled wanderings of
+a long day in a strange place could be, and memorable for one curious
+fact--namely, that for the first time in her life Gertrude May was shy!
+
+Not with Lance. She had a good deal of pastime with him in the cool
+garden, while Felix was being walked over the school-yards in the
+sun; and they were excellent friends, though Ethel certainly had a
+certain repugnance to the discovery of how big a boy it was with whom
+Gertrude had danced bare-footed on the rocks. Of course Ethel was the
+kindly mistress of the house as usual, but she was worn and strained
+in spirits just then, and disinclined to exert herself beyond the
+needful welcome to her father's guests. So she let them all go out,
+and went on with her own occupations, thinking that it was well that
+Daisy should take her part in entertaining guests, since 'that boy' was
+evidently a thorough little gentleman; and then shrinking a little as
+she heard their voices over Aubrey's museum, including the Coombe Hole
+curiosities.
+
+No, it was not towards Lance that Daisy was shy; but when all sat
+round the dinner-table, she was unusually silent, and listened to
+the conversation far more than was her wont, though it was chiefly
+political. When Felix spoke to her, she absolutely coloured rosy red
+and faltered, unable to conquer the shamefacedness that their encounter
+had left her; and when the party had taken leave, and she was standing
+in the twilight, Ethel, to her great surprise, found the child quietly
+crying.
+
+'Nothing!' she said, angry at being detected.
+
+'It can't be nothing.'
+
+'Yes, it is. Only I do so hate--hate myself for being a tom-boy!'
+
+'One often does go on with that a little too long; and then comes the
+horrible feel.'
+
+'And that it should have happened with him of all people in the world!'
+
+'Ah, Daisy, I wish I had come out with you!'
+
+'Fudge, Ethel! Not to-day. Do you think I care about that boy? I should
+think not! But--but--I wanted to think him a nasty prig, but I can't!'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'Why, that eldest brother. When he found me scrambling about with
+my stockings off, he didn't speak, but he looked, as Richard might,
+surprised and sorry. I thought it was impertinent--at least I wanted
+to, but-- And now he'll always think me--nasty!'
+
+'My dear, if one must have a lesson of that kind, it is as well it
+should be from some one that one is never likely to see or hear of
+again.'
+
+'Oh! but not from the very best and noblest of people one ever will
+hear of. Yes, Ethel, I'm not gone mad! That boy has been telling me
+all about his brother; and indeed I never did hear or know about any
+one who was a real hero in a quiet way! No; whenever I hear of a hero,
+I shall think of Mr. Underwood. And, oh dear, that I should have made
+such a goose of myself!'
+
+It was quite unaffected--a spark of real reverence had lighted at last
+on Gertrude's mind. 'To turn tradesman for the sake of one's brothers
+and sisters, that I do call heroic!' she said; and maintained his
+cause, even to putting down F.U. as her 'favourite hero' in lists of
+likes and dislikes.
+
+But there was no great chance of Gertrude again encountering her hero;
+for the morning after their day at Stoneborough, Lance was beginning
+to experiment on his powers by skimming newspapers, especially the
+Pursuivant, because he knew it before, all but the last local items,
+that could only be added at the moment of going to press. Suddenly he
+broke out, 'Holloa! you never told me this! Mowbray Smith _has_ put his
+foot in it this time.'
+
+'What?' said Felix, pausing in the act of opening an envelope from Mr.
+Froggatt.
+
+'Pocketing the coal and school money--ay, and the alms.'
+
+'Eh? Impossible! Let me look.'
+
+'There. A letter signed "Scrutator." There's a great deal more than
+I can read, all about under-paid curates and sycophants. My Lady is
+catching it, I should say! It must be true, or Froggy would not have
+put it in.'
+
+'He never admitted that!' said Felix, tearing open his letter. 'He is
+in utter dismay, asks whether I could have seen the thing, tells me to
+telegraph yes or no, that he may know whether to speak to Redstone.
+What's this about tribute to my father?'
+
+'Here! "Once it was deemed well that the ecclesiastical staff should be
+by birth and character, if not by pecuniary fortune, above suspicion;
+but the universal application of the general screw system has warned
+off all who had a predilection for an unfettered tongue, and we all
+know what hands accompany one in chains."'
+
+'Libellous!' cried Felix, running his eye over the article. 'It looks
+as if it had strayed out of the Dearport Hermes. I'd not have had this
+happen for ten thousand pounds! Clap-trap about fat rectors and starved
+curates! Jackman's writing, I'd lay any wager!'
+
+'You don't think he did it?'
+
+'Smith? Muddled his accounts! Nothing more likely; charges like this
+are not got up without some grounds of some sort; but as to intentional
+fraud, that's utter nonsense. Well, I'm off to the station, and I hope
+in half an hour's time Master Redstone will be quaking.'
+
+Ten days of the holiday still remained; and Captain Audley, with boat
+and yacht, greatly added to its pleasures, which both brothers were
+able thoroughly to enjoy, living almost entirely out of doors, and
+valuing each hour as they became fewer.
+
+This matter, however, made Felix very uneasy. He wrote to the curate,
+offering all the amends in his power, and undertaking that if Mr. Smith
+would send him an explanatory letter, he would back it up with a strong
+leading-article; and he waited anxiously for further intelligence.
+
+Mr. Froggatt's letter came first. Redstone, fond of dabbling in
+editorship, had taken reproof in great dudgeon, affecting great
+surprise at being blamed for inserting a letter from a respectable
+gentleman without submitting it to Mr. Froggatt, who had entirely
+dropped the editorship, or delaying it to another issue by sending
+it to Ewmouth. The respectable gentleman was young Jackman, who was
+no doubt delighted to have such a firebrand to cast. It was a great
+grief and annoyance to Mr. Froggatt, who had always steered clear of
+personalities, and been inoffensive if sometimes dull; and both assault
+and defence were distressing to him--_i.e._ if defence were possible,
+for he seemed doubtful whether silence would not lead to the least
+scandal. Even Wilmet wrote: 'Every one seems to think Mr. Smith is to
+blame; and he is so huffy, that it looks only too much as if he were
+afraid of inquiry.'
+
+This was too true a character of his replies. That intended for the
+paper had not a line of real defence, but was a mere tirade on the
+dignity of his office, and the impudence of the charges. Felix dashed
+it away, enraged at its useless folly; nor was the private one more
+satisfactory. It was but a half acceptance of Felix's total disclaimer;
+and the resentful wording made it difficult to discern whether the
+imputation were _bonâ fide_, regarded as not worth refuting, or whether
+indignation were made an excuse for denial instead of proof. A separate
+sheet seemed to have been added. 'The whole is to be subjected to
+the scrutiny of a parish meeting on Tuesday, when, though the minute
+accuracy of a professional accountant is not to be expected of one
+whose province is not to serve tables, it will be evident that only
+malignity to the Church could have devised the attack to which your
+paper has given currency.'
+
+'Well,' broke out Lance, as Felix with a voice of ineffable disgust
+read the final sentence, 'if that is not being a knave, it is very like
+a long-eared animal!'
+
+'I'll tell you what, Lance, they'll take him between their teeth, and
+worry him till there's not an inch left whole of him. Jackman and his
+pack will tear him down; and even Bruce and Jones, and our own good old
+Froggy, will give him up when they see his books won't balance.'
+
+'Serve him right!' cried Lance. 'What fun to see his airs taken down,
+when he's served with the sauce he's so fond of for other people! I
+only wish they'd got my Lady too!'
+
+'I must go home, that's all,' said Felix. 'If I got there on Wednesday,
+I might see if I could not get his accounts into presentable order.'
+
+'What?'
+
+'If I don't, I am afraid no one else will.'
+
+'He will not let you.'
+
+'I think I can make him.'
+
+'But such a cur as he has always been to you!'
+
+'I don't think he will object now. I know he can't do the thing
+himself; and if little Bisset could, depend upon it his mother would
+not let him stir a finger for fear of being implicated. Now I do know
+the ways of those accounts. I've done them with my father and with Mr.
+Audley. Any way, I must be at home for the meeting. Imagine Redstone
+reporting it! But you can stay out the week, and come home in the
+yacht.'
+
+For Captain Audley had promised to take the brothers round to Dearport;
+but Lance could not bear to be left behind; and it ended in their
+walking up to the Tudor cottage to make their excuses, when the
+good-natured captain declared that he could put to sea that very night
+and land them at Dearport in good time.
+
+So after a hurried grateful farewell to the Staples family, the holiday
+closed with a voyage that both were able to enjoy to the utmost before
+they sailed into the harbour at Dearport, and walked up to St. Faith's.
+Captain Audley, who had not seen Sister Constance since her husband's
+death, had an access of shyness and would not encounter the 'Lady
+Abbess,' as he called her; but his last words to Felix were a promise
+that if Bernard went to Stoneborough, he would have him out now and
+then for a holiday with his own boy.
+
+There had been time to send notice to Geraldine, and her brothers had
+hoped to have taken her home with them; but though she looked clear and
+bright, she was not out of the doctor's hands, and was under orders to
+stay another week. The sight of her brothers made her very homesick,
+in spite of being the spoilt child of the Sisterhood, in the pleasant
+matted room, with its sea view, its prints, and photographs; but then
+she wanted to have her way prepared with Wilmet. Her vision had been
+to walk in imposingly, and take them all by surprise; but that notion
+had vanished as the time drew nearer, and she found that her new art
+required practice, while the dread of making a sensation grew upon her.
+She was ashamed of having even thought of compensating for Wilmet's
+absence, and entreated Felix to communicate the fact, without a word of
+the presumption that had nerved her courage.
+
+The three looked over one another, as if each had undergone much since
+the last meeting; but the sight of Felix greatly relieved Cherry. He
+was sunburnt and vigorous, and his voice had resumed its depth of quiet
+content, instead of having that unconsciously weary sound of patience
+and exertion that had often gone to her heart. Lance, whom she had not
+seen since Easter, had assumed a look of rapid growth; his features had
+lost their childish form, and were disproportionate; and his complexion
+still had the fitful colouring of convalescence; but his eyes were
+dancing, and his talk ecstatic as to Vale Leston and the Kittiwake,
+where he was ready, at that moment, to become a cabin-boy.
+
+'O Cherry! Cherry! you never dreamt of anything so delicious as that
+night's fishing!'
+
+'That, I will answer for, she never did,' said Felix. 'When I saw the
+exquisite delight it afforded, not only to this Lance but to Captain
+Audley, to fill the boat with slimy, flapping, uncomfortable, dying
+fishes, I felt that I was never made for a gentleman.'
+
+'Do you mean that you didn't like it?' exclaimed Lance, turning round
+aghast.
+
+'I should have been much happier balancing the books.'
+
+'And he wasn't even sick!' said Lance, holding up his hands.
+
+'He hadn't that excuse,' laughed Cherry. 'However, midnight fishing is
+not indispensable! I should like to have seen how he looked at Vale
+Leston.'
+
+Lance was in great hopes that Felix would betray the possibilities, and
+mayhap but for his presence, prudence might have evaporated beneath the
+warm breath of Cherry's sympathy; but the answer was only a discreet
+laugh and reply, 'Like a man who wanted his sister! I wish I could just
+fill your eyes with the loveliness of it, Cherry;' and in the midst of
+his description, in came Sister Constance, bringing with her Sister
+Emmeline (sister in blood as well as religion,) wanting to hear about
+the nephews, and the Kitten's Tail adventure, and amused to find Lance
+a little shy about it--certainly not disposed to dwell on it with his
+usual unceremonious drollery of narrative. They would not let Felix
+go without an inspection by Dr. Lee, which was perfectly satisfactory
+as to the rally of the constitution from the depression that had
+threatened disease, though it was impressed both on him and on Cherry
+that he must be careful next winter, and never neglect a cold; and with
+this promise the brothers took the train, and in half an hour were
+at home--rather an empty home, for the schools were all in operation
+again, and Wilmet was not at liberty for some little time after their
+arrival.
+
+When she did come in, she was disappointed not to find Geraldine, and
+that Felix had become so absorbed in the business that had brought
+him home, that he only sent in word that he was obliged to go into
+the town, and tea must not wait for him. Lance remained, but the
+burthen of two secrets rendered him uncommunicative, when Wilmet tried
+to understand the cause of Cherry's delay at St. Faith's; and Alda
+was curious about Vale Leston and Mrs. Fulbert, whom she had seen at
+Kensington Palace Gardens. It did not take much acumen to exclaim,
+'Still no children! Then there must be a chance for us!'
+
+'That is not likely,' said Wilmet: 'it must be all in their own power;
+and the Vicar must be quite a young man. Is he not, Lance?'
+
+'How should I know?'
+
+'Didn't you see him?'
+
+'I saw his wife, and that was enough.'
+
+'About five-and-thirty,' said Alda. 'Of course it will all go to Uncle
+Tom. Money always goes to money.'
+
+'How flushed you are, Lance!' said Wilmet. 'Are you tired?'
+
+'Rather. I am going out into the garden.'
+
+There, however, he was pursued by Bernard with a war-whoop, and by
+Theodore with his concertina; and Stella presently reported that he was
+gone up to bed.
+
+'And I am afraid his room is very hot and noisy,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'He is only tired and cross after his two nights at sea,' said Alda.
+
+'Lance cross!'
+
+'My dear Wilmet, it is very bad taste in families always to maintain
+each other's impeccability!'
+
+Alda was still the only person capable of defeating Wilmet, and she
+managed to render her very uncomfortable before the end of the evening,
+when hours passed and still Felix did not come in; and Alda suggested,
+in the intervals of yawning, that Wilmet would soon learn how green it
+was to sit up, now that Felix had got out of leading-strings, and set
+up bachelor habits.
+
+At first, Wilmet was highly indignant; but when Alda persisted that
+she was rather glad to see Felix like other young men, and that Wilmet
+would know better when she was married, and then yawned herself off to
+bed, there was a sense of great discomfort to accompany the solitary
+vigil, which not only involved fancies of possible accidents, but was
+harassed by this assault on faith in the virtue and sincerity of man.
+Could it really be the part of a wise woman to wink at being deceived
+as an inferior creature, with impossible expectations of truth and
+purity? Yet Alda knew the world!
+
+How much heart-sickness was darned into Lance's impossible heel before
+the clock chimed two! A step, and not a policeman's, came along the
+pavement and paused at the door, as, while the bell was cautiously
+pulled, down she flew!
+
+'My dear Mettie, I am so sorry, so ashamed, of not having sent home
+to tell you; but if I had made the least move, it might have upset
+everything!'
+
+'What _have_ you been about?'
+
+'Going over Mowbray Smith's accounts.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'I am very sorry! How tired you must be! I was vexed not to be able to
+give you notice, but you know what poor Smith is.'
+
+'I don't know why you had to do it all, and at this time of night,'
+said Wilmet, still a little hurt.
+
+'It is the only chance for him to-morrow at the meeting to have his
+accounts clear; so I called under the plea of seeing about the letter
+in Pur, and with much ado got him to realise a little more of his
+position, and let me look at the books. That was at five.'
+
+'And you have been at it ever since? O Felix!' as he stretched his arms
+and gave a vast yawn.
+
+'Ay! If I had shown any consciousness of the time, he would have shut
+up at once; and he would not let me take them home to do to-morrow
+morning.'
+
+'It _is_ to-morrow morning!'
+
+'So it is! I must make haste, for I must try to see Mr. Ryder and Jones
+before the meeting. Good-night, dear old W. W. I meant to have had
+other talk.'
+
+'But oh! you must have some supper!'
+
+'I've had it--sumptuous! Stilton cheese!'
+
+So Wilmet's faith in masculine nature rebounded as high as Alda had
+striven to sink it!
+
+Patience was a good deal needed the next day; for Felix had to rush
+away from breakfast, and never appeared at all at dinner. He had to
+be present at the very stormy meeting, though only to take notes, and
+thus had the annoyance of seeing Mr. Smith destroying his own cause
+by his incapacity to understand the statement so carefully drawn up,
+until Mr. Ryder (on whom the enemy had reckoned as a champion) took
+the papers out of the helpless hand, comprehended Felix's figures at a
+glance, and set them lucidly forth, such as they were; but even then
+there were blots which there were plenty of persons ready to hit. The
+truth was, that between Lady Price's economies, and the unwillingness
+to call vestry-meetings, moneys intended for one purpose had been used
+for another, and articles not within the denomination of charities had
+been charged on funds raised for that exclusive object.
+
+The assembly comprised the usual variety: the malicious foes of
+religion, headed by Jackman; the more numerous enemies, not of what
+they supposed religion, but of the Church; the adversaries, not of
+the Church, but of the Curate; and the few loyally unwilling to
+condemn a clergyman, but disgusted at the affair, and staggered by his
+management. Perhaps the rabid and ribald violence of the hostile party
+did Mr. Smith good with the respectable; and there were many, too,
+whose dictum was--'Felix Underwood says it is all right!' At any rate,
+though the Bishop was memorialized, it was in a much better spirit than
+had been likely at first; and it was not to be done without notice to
+the Rector. And when this was over, every one, as usual, went to their
+rendezvous at 'Froggatt's,' either to discuss or inquire; and the
+release of both partners on that summer evening was later than ever it
+had been before.
+
+But then what a welcome upstairs! what a clamour of happy tongues!
+what an ecstatic humming of The Hardy Norseman! what a clinging to
+and climbing on him! If he had the cares, he had much of the joys, of
+the goodman of the house! But presently he missed the voice usually
+blithest of all, and asked for Lance.
+
+'He was here a little while ago,' said Wilmet, 'drinking his tea. He
+must have gone up to bed.'
+
+'No,' said Bernard; 'I've just been up to the barrack, and he isn't
+there.'
+
+'You've not let him sleep in the attic!' exclaimed Felix. 'Why, under
+the leads it is like an oven!'
+
+'I am very sorry,' said Wilmet, 'but I could not see how to help it.
+Your room is worse, with the glare of the setting sun; and so is
+Cherry's at this time of the evening.'
+
+'Then he must have Mr. Froggatt's.'
+
+'I thought,' said Alda, 'that you never took liberties with Mr.
+Froggatt?'
+
+'Nonsense!' said Felix. 'There are only two bedrooms in this house fit
+for that boy in his present state--yours and Mr. Froggatt's. Which
+shall we have, Wilmet?'
+
+'Mr. Froggatt's,' she answered at once. 'If you will not have another
+cup, I'll get it ready for him at once.'
+
+'I've just done. I'll come and help you. But where can the boy be? In
+the garden?'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, taking a survey from the window.
+
+'I have hardly seen him all day,' added Alda. 'I suppose he has
+pursuits of his own.'
+
+'Pursuits!' said Felix, looking really anxious; 'poor little chap, he
+can't do without constant care and quiet!'
+
+Wilmet made no answer, but rose and left the room; Alda muttered
+something about his looking quite well, which Felix did not stay to
+hear, following his sister out with a word about looking for him. At
+the same moment a little soft hand was thrust into his, and Stella, as
+soon as the door was shut, said, 'Please, I know where Lance is, but
+it's a secret.'
+
+'Not from me, I hope?' said Felix, catching her up in his arms.
+
+'I _think_ not,' said Stella meditatively. 'He only told me not to let
+Bear and Tedo know, because they make a row. He is only up over the
+back warehouse, where he used to play the fiddle to us last Easter.'
+
+'The only cool quiet place he could find!' said Felix, with more of a
+look of reproach than he had ever given Wilmet.
+
+It went to her heart. 'I did not know what to do,' she said meekly. 'I
+wanted very much to go into the barrack ourselves, but Alda said it
+would kill her; and you know it has always been a sore subject that we
+would not let her have Mr. Froggatt's room. I ought not to have given
+way.'
+
+'Alda's selfishness is a great power,' muttered Felix; and Wilmet was
+too much ashamed to contradict him, except by 'She is vexed because she
+has not heard from Ferdinand,' as they hastily made their way to the
+warehouse, which, being on the north side of higher buildings, never
+did get scorched through.
+
+Felix went up a step-ladder, Wilmet following; and there, sure enough,
+was Lance, lying in a nest of paper shavings, with head on his
+air-pillow. 'Oh, you've unearthed me, have you? I wish you'd let me
+stay here all night!' he said, with some weary fretfulness; but the
+next moment burst into a peal of laughter, as Wilmet's head appeared
+above the floor. 'Pallas Athene ascends! Oh! what a place it would be
+to act a play--only then all the fry would find it out! I hope they
+haven't! I told the Star not to tell!'
+
+'My poor dear Lance, is this the only quiet place you could find? and
+you let us all neglect you, and never complained!' exclaimed Wilmet,
+kissing his hot forehead.
+
+'Why, it's only my stupidity,' said Lance, wearily but gratefully; 'and
+you can't make places quiet or cool! If you would just let me sleep
+here!'
+
+'No; but you shall have Mr. Froggatt's room. He will not want it now.
+Come along, Lance, we'll bring your things down. The barrack is a great
+deal too hot for you to go into!'
+
+He did not make any resistance; but as they landed from the ladder,
+threw his arm round Wilmet, and leant against her with a sort of
+lazy mischievous tenderness, as he said, 'Isn't the Froggery wanted
+for--somebody else?' and tried to look up in her face.
+
+'Ferdinand always goes to the Fortinbras Arms,' answered Wilmet, with
+admirable composure.
+
+'Oh! that's a precedent,' said Lance, ostentatiously winking at Felix,
+who was very glad the ice was broken. 'When is he coming, Mettie?'
+
+'I think Alda hoped he might have run down to-night, on hearing of your
+return.'
+
+There they paused while entering the house and going upstairs; but no
+sooner were they in the barrack, which was certainly insufferably hot,
+than Lance returned to the charge.
+
+'But when is _he_ coming? Not Fernan--he's an old story!'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, walking up to Wilmet to fold together the corners
+of the sheets they were stripping from Lance's bed, and looking into
+her eyes so archly as to bring up an incarnadine blush, 'I want
+particularly to improve my acquaintance, if you don't.--What shall we
+do, Lance?'
+
+'Advertise in Pur,' suggested Lance. 'The editor returned. Young men
+may apply!'
+
+'Don't, boys!' exclaimed Wilmet, in tones belonging to bygone days,
+when neither she nor Felix had been too serious to tease or be teased.
+'He is much better than you,' she added, with a pretty confused
+petulance, when Felix put on a pleading inquisitive face. 'When he
+found we didn't like it, he went away to visit his uncle.'
+
+'Better than we! There, Lance!' said Felix, in a gratified provoking
+tone of discovery.
+
+'In one sense,' said Wilmet, walking down before him.
+
+'I am very glad you have found it out,' added Felix, as they entered
+Mr. Froggatt's cool well-blinded bedroom, the only well-furnished one
+in the house.
+
+'It is no laughing matter,' said Wilmet seriously.
+
+'That's well,' was the dry answer.
+
+But there Felix perceived that she was on the verge of tears, and he
+kindly and quietly helped her to despatch her arrangements for Lance
+before any more was said; only as they turned to bid the tired boy
+good-night, he said, 'Where does the uncle live? I shall telegraph
+to-morrow, you cruel person!'
+
+'Hush! silly boy--good-night,' said Wilmet, with a quivering voice;
+then, as she shut the door, 'Please don't go on this way, Felix--I
+wouldn't have had it happen for any consideration.'
+
+'I suppose not,' said Felix, as they returned to the twilight garden;
+'but as it has--Why, my Mettie, dear!' as she pressed close to him, and
+hid her face on his shoulder, with a strong craving for the help and
+sympathy from which the motherless girl had hitherto been debarred.
+
+'O Felix! I wish he would not be so good and kind! I wish you would not
+try to make me give in!'
+
+'My dear girl!' said Felix, with his arm round her. 'You know I would
+not if I did not see that you had given in!'
+
+'No, I haven't!' she cried. 'Why should you want to persuade me? Isn't
+it very cruel and hard to let him give all himself to one that can't
+come to him? He will have to go out and live all dreary and lonely
+for years and years, and come home to find nothing but a stupid old
+worn-out drudge, with all these pretty looks gone off! Felix, be
+reasonable, _please!_ Can't you see that I ought not to let things go
+that way?'
+
+'Do you mean,' said Felix, 'that you would be quite content to put an
+end to all this--let Harewood go away believing you indifferent, and
+never see him again?'
+
+'Felix, why do you--?' with tears in her eyes.
+
+'Because I am quite sure that the consideration you want to show him
+would be no kindness. The pain of having his affection thrown over'
+(he spoke with a spasm in the throat) 'would be greater than you would
+_like_ to inflict, if you were forced by truth to own you did not care
+for him; and if he be what I think, the carrying away security of your
+feeling for him will be gladness enough. And as for the looks, I have
+a better opinion of yours than to think they won't wear! Any way,
+dearest, it seems to me that you have won the heart of a good man,
+and that if you like him, it is your duty to give him the comfort of
+knowing it without thinking about to-morrows.'
+
+'But I know so much more would come if I did just allow that much! And
+I might get to wish to leave you all,' she said in an appalled voice.
+'And there seems to me not the slightest chance. You see Alda and
+Cherry never will get on together; and Cherry seems glad of an excuse
+to stay from home. I thought she would have cared to come back when you
+did.'
+
+'Poor Cherry!' said Felix, hesitating, with a little of her own nervous
+awe of broaching the subject.
+
+'You don't mean that there is anything seriously amiss?' she cried,
+startled.
+
+'Wilmet, do you remember what Rugg said would be the very best thing
+for that poor child?'
+
+She stood still, dismayed and angered. 'They aren't tormenting the poor
+little thing about that?'
+
+'It is not their doing.'
+
+'It can't have become necessary! Sister Constance would have told me!
+Felix say she is not worse!'
+
+'No, much better. But, Wilmet, what we could not bear to think of, she
+thought of for herself, and begged to have it done.'
+
+'Then I must go to her.'
+
+'There is no occasion. She knew you could not be spared. It was done
+on the 10th, and she will soon walk better than she has done all these
+years.'
+
+'Done! without our knowledge?'
+
+'She wished to spare us all, but that was not allowed. I was written
+to, and told that her strong desire was such a favourable condition,
+that I had better consent, so as not to protract the strain of spirits.
+She made a point of no one else knowing except Clement.'
+
+'Ah!' Wilmet spoke as if under a weight, 'that was the day Clement went
+down to Dearport, and came home so late! How could Sister Constance
+consent not to tell me?'
+
+'You must forgive her, for it was the little one's desire. Of course we
+should have been fetched if anything had gone wrong; but she has done
+perfectly well; and there she is, very happy, and so full of fun, that
+the Sisters say she keeps them all alive.'
+
+'Done? I cannot fancy it!' said Wilmet. 'Do you know, I believe it has
+been my bugbear for years past to think I might have to persuade her to
+this?'
+
+'To tell you the truth, so it has to me.'
+
+'Little nervous timid thing, I can't even understand her thinking of
+it!'
+
+'She wanted me not to tell you, but I would not promise. She could not
+rest without trying not to be an obstacle to--'
+
+Wilmet interrupted with a cry of pain.
+
+'Isn't it a noble little thing?'
+
+'But it is so silly!' broke out Wilmet, not choosing her words amid her
+tears.
+
+'So she thinks now, poor child: she is quite ashamed of the
+presumptuous notion that _did_ brace and carry her through.'
+
+'I don't like her to be disappointed,' said Wilmet; 'but it is quite
+ridiculous.'
+
+'Only comfort her a little, Mettie dear, for she is very much afraid
+you will think she has taken a great liberty with your property.'
+
+'I only wish I could kiss her this moment!'
+
+'Well, run down by the train to-morrow. They would all be delighted.'
+
+'No, no, Felix, impossible. Think of the cost!'
+
+'Half a crown! Sinful waste!' said Felix, in a tone of alarming levity.
+
+'Felix, if you only knew what the housekeeping mounted up in that
+unhappy month that I was away! I did not like to tell you before, but--'
+
+'Well!' at the dreadful pause.
+
+'I had to get fifteen pounds from Mr. Froggatt's; and Alda finds, after
+all, that she cannot advance the money for Lance's journey.'
+
+'So you are pinching it out by pence, my poor W. W.!'
+
+'Nothing extra must be done till this is made up.'
+
+'Yet it seems needful that Bernard should go to school. I wrote about--'
+
+'No,' she resolutely interrupted. 'Bernard must wait over this year.
+Thirty pounds. Utterly out of the question!'
+
+Her tone gave Felix an unusual sense of chill penury, and brought Vale
+Leston before his eyes. He laughed rather bitterly, saying, 'Perhaps
+some day neither thirty pence nor thirty pounds may have so direful a
+sound!'
+
+'I never mean to learn to waste.'
+
+'You may have to learn to spend.'
+
+'That's enough to set me against it!' she exclaimed, with a good deal
+of pain; and he found how nearly he had broken his resolution, and how
+her application of his words to herself had saved him. He followed the
+lead.
+
+'Nay; you were glad of Alda's prosperity?'
+
+'Oh yes; but poor Alda has been hindered from being like one of us,'
+she said. 'We have fought it out together. And I should not mind so
+much if _he_ were poor, like us, and had to wait on his own account.'
+
+'I appreciate that,' said Felix; 'but at least you will let the poor
+fellow come and judge for himself?'
+
+'If--if only, Felix, you will promise not to try to tempt me into
+deserting you all, when I know it would be wrong.'
+
+'If I will promise you not to cut my own throat, eh? Come, W. W., put
+out of your head "what it may lead to," confess that you are afraid of
+getting connected with such a mad harum-scarum set!'
+
+'It isn't,' broke out Wilmet. 'I never saw any one so thoughtful and
+considerate. They are all so kind and warm-hearted, that I grew quite
+ashamed of my own fidgetiness; and he--he always knew the right thing
+at the right time. You can't think how his look seemed to hold me up,
+when poor Lance was moaning and talking nonsense!'
+
+Having thus let herself out as she had never dared, nor indeed been
+tempted to do, since the first dawn of the courtship, Wilmet at last
+relieved herself of some of the vast sense of emotion that she had been
+forcing back for the last month. Hitherto the mistress of the house
+had seemed older than the master; but now the elder brother took the
+place of both parents--ay, and of sister--as, all her fencing over,
+she poured out her heart, and let him sympathize, cheer, soothe, and
+encourage, more by kind tones than actual words. The harvest-moon
+shone over the house-tops, as a month before she had shone by the
+river-side; and the Pillars of the House walked up and down till Alda
+grew desperate, and sallied out to tell them that it was past eleven.
+
+It was only such snatches of time that Felix could give to home
+affairs, for his hands were full of arrears of business, and the
+excitement respecting Mr. Smith necessarily occupied him. Pending the
+arrival of letters from the Rector, every tongue was in commotion, and
+the reading-room was a focus of debate and centre of intelligence.
+So many letters, either in assault or defence, were addressed to the
+editor of the Pursuivant, that only a supplement as big as the _Times_
+could have contained them. Every poor person who had not had every
+demand supplied from the charities was running about, adding to the
+grievance at every encounter with tender-hearted lady or justice-loving
+gentleman, whose blood boiled over into a letter for the Pursuivant,
+which, when sifted and refused, was transferred to the Dearport Hermes,
+or Erms, as most of its supporters termed it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE REAL THING AND NO MISTAKE.
+
+     'With asses all his time he spent,
+      Their club's perpetual president,
+      He caught their manners, looks, and airs--
+      An ass in everything but ears.'
+                                       _Gay._
+
+
+The master of the house was unable to contribute much more than his
+name to the propriety of the arrival of the suitors, and this made
+Wilmet the more determined that Geraldine should precede them. Nor,
+since the half-crown must be disbursed on an escort for her, did the
+housewifely conscience object to the expedition; for Wilmet could not
+but long to thank the Superior and Sister Constance, and to obtain
+Dr. Lee's advice as to future management. Her coming was great joy
+to Cherry, who had dreaded the meeting almost with a sense of guilt,
+though still hoping Felix had been silent on her motive; and Wilmet did
+not betray him, but only treated her sister with a mixture of almost
+shy tenderness and reverence. Nor did Cherry dare to ask a question
+as to Wilmet's own affairs, nor even about Ferdinand Travis, lest she
+should seem to be leading in that direction. However, Wilmet, in a
+persuasive tone, communicated that Ferdinand had been long without
+writing, and though Cherry tried to be sorry for Alda, her spirit
+quailed at the state of temper her sister evidently meant to prepare
+her for.
+
+But fate was more kind than she expected. That very Saturday brought
+both gentlemen, and by the same train. They made each other out as they
+were leaving their bags at the Fortinbras Arms, and arrived together
+in marked contrast--the tall, dark, regular-featured, soft-eyed
+Life-guardsman, and the little sandy freckled sun-dried engineer;
+and thus two courtships had to be carried on in the two rooms, only
+supplemented by the narrow parallelogram of a garden! For Ferdinand
+Travis was back again, rather amused at the family astonishment at the
+rapidity of his journey to America, which to his Transatlantic notions
+of travel was as nothing, and indeed had been chiefly performed in a
+big steamer, where he could smoke to his heart's content.
+
+For the first few days there was a good deal of restraint: Wilmet was
+more shy than in the unconscious days of Bexley; while John Harewood
+was devoid of his family's assurance and bonhomie, and so thoroughly
+modest and diffident as to risk nothing by precipitation in begging
+for a decision. Felix, inexperienced, and strongly sensible of his
+office as guardian of his sister's dignity, would not hint at the
+result of his investigations into Wilmet's sentiments; and it was to
+Geraldine that Captain Harewood's attentions were chiefly paid. Knowing
+Alda's resolute monopoly of her Cacique, Cherry at first held back,
+and restrained her keen enjoyment of real conversation; but she found
+Wilmet thankful to have the talk done for her, and content to sit at
+work, listening almost in silence, but proud that her Captain should
+be interested in her sister, and pleased to see Cherry's expressive
+face flash and sparkle all over for him. While Wilmet was at Miss
+Pearson's, Cherry was his chief resource; they read, drew, and talked,
+and in that half-hour's out-of-door exercise, which Dr. Lee had so
+strongly enjoined, his arm was at her service. They were soon on the
+borders of confidence, though never quite plunging over them. Perhaps
+the broad open-mouthed raillery at his home made the gentle reticence
+of the Underwoods the more agreeable to him; at any rate, he did not
+try to break through it, nor to presume beyond the step he had gained.
+Alda, who could best perhaps have acted as helper, had her own affairs
+to attend to; and they were evidently unsatisfactory, for Ferdinand
+was more than ever the silent melancholy Don, and she was to domestic
+eyes visibly cross, and her half-year at home had rendered her much
+less capable of concealing ill-humour. Something was owing to wear and
+suspense, together with the effects of the summer heat and confined
+monotonous life without change or luxury; but much was chargeable on
+the manifestations of temper to which she had given way in the home
+circle. She told Wilmet the trouble, which Ferdinand wished to have
+kept from open discussion till he had received a final statement of his
+means to lay before Felix. He had received no remittances since the
+spring, and on demanding his own share of the capital and investments,
+had found it, instead of the lion's, a ridiculously small portion. The
+whole fortunes of the house of Travis had been built on his mother's
+inheritance; but the accounts laid before him represented all the
+unprosperous speculations undertaken by his father, William, while the
+small ventures of his Uncle Alfred had, alongside of them, swelled into
+the huge wealth of which Ferdinand had been bred to believe himself
+the heir! So palpably outrageous was this representation, that he
+had persuaded himself that personal investigation on the spot would
+clear it up, or perhaps more truly, his blood was up, and he could not
+bear to be inactive. He had rushed over to New York, and of course he
+had been baffled. Exposure was of no use where sympathy was for the
+lucky rather than the duped and luckless, and where the Anglicised
+Life-guardsman could expect it least of all--at a time, too, when all
+business affairs were convulsed by the uncertainties of civil war. Alda
+could not believe at first that he had done his utmost, and seemed to
+have reproached him with weakness and mismanagement; but by her own
+account she had roused the innate lion. He would not tell her what
+had passed in the interview with his uncle, but he had shuddered over
+the remembrance; and when she upbraided him with not having gone far
+enough, he terrified her by the fierceness with which he had turned
+upon her, bidding her never recur to what she knew nothing about, and
+muttering to himself, 'Far enough--thank God I went no further, or
+I should not be here now!' and then falling into deep gloom. He had
+certainly made Alda afraid of him, and she burst into tears as she told
+Wilmet, declaring herself the most miserable girl in the world.
+
+'No, that you can't be, Alda, while he is so good and true.'
+
+'But he says he must sell out! Think of that! Never was anybody so
+taken in as I have been!'
+
+'Don't talk so, Alda. It is just as if you had engaged yourself to a
+Life-guardsman and nothing else.'
+
+'I wonder how you would like to be buried in some horrid wild place in
+America, where you would never see anybody!'
+
+'One would not want to see anybody but him.'
+
+'That's your nonsense! How tired of it one would be!'
+
+'There would be no time. It would be so nice to do everything for him
+oneself!'
+
+'In some horrid uncivilized place, with no servants! I'm not going
+to be a drudge. It is all very well for you, who like it, and have
+no notion of society, but for me--! And there he is furious to take
+me out. Men grow so wild and rough too in such places. You never saw
+anything blaze like his eyes!'
+
+'I don't understand you. Could not you trust yourself anywhere with
+him?'
+
+'You have no right to say such things,' pouted Alda, 'only because I
+have a little common prudence. Some one must have it!'
+
+There was no denying that life in the far west would be a foolish thing
+either for or with Alda; and Felix thought so when Ferdinand came to
+him for consultation over the letters that made it finally clear that
+Alfred Travis had appropriated everything available but half a block
+of unreclaimed land on the wrong side of America, and a few thousands
+invested in Peter Brown's firm; and what was worse, the sudden failure
+of the supplies had occasioned serious debts. Ferdinand's own plan was
+to clear these off with the price of his commission, and take Alda out
+with him to rule in American luxury over the unbounded resources of the
+magnificent land, the very name and scent of which had awakened in him
+his old prairie-land instincts, and her absolute refusal and even alarm
+at his enjoyment had greatly mortified him. 'She should not even have
+to rough it,' he said. 'I could make her like a queen out there, if she
+would only believe it.'
+
+Felix could not but think Alda might be wise, though it was not pretty
+wisdom. Go out alone and make the fortune? Ferdinand did not seem to
+think the separation possible. He said he would rather go to work in
+Peter Brown's office, where he had already a hold; and his familiarity
+with Spanish would secure him usefulness and promotion, and five or six
+years would bring him into a position to marry. He did not look fit for
+desk-work in London, but his mind was made up to any privation, so that
+he could be in reach of Alda, and hope to give her what he had once
+thought easily within his grasp.
+
+Hearing this, Felix propounded an old longing of his--namely, to
+make the Pursuivant a daily paper, and use means for promptitude
+of intelligence, such as might neutralize the unpopularity it was
+incurring on behalf of Mr. Smith. Rumours of a rival paper were afloat;
+but if Ferdinand would throw in his capital, and undertake the joint
+editorship and proprietorship, the hold that the Pursuivant already
+had warranted quite success enough to permit an immediate marriage.
+There would be no need to be concerned with the shop; they might take a
+cottage in the country, and he need not ride in so often as every day.
+In fact, it was his capital rather than his personal assistance that
+was wanted. He caught at the notion. He was too Transatlantic to have
+any dignities to stand upon, and he said almost with tears in his eyes
+that he could never be so happy as in working with Felix; and he went
+off to the Fortinbras Arms, only lamenting that it was too late to tell
+Alda; while Felix, on his side, could not help knocking at Geraldine's
+door. Within he found another auditor, Wilmet, who still always
+helped Cherry to bed. 'It will be the making of the Pursuivant,' he
+said. How often I have sighed, "If I had but capital, or Mr. Froggatt
+enterprise!"'
+
+'Ah, Felicissimo mio, that Pursuivant is as dear to you as any brother
+or sister of us all!'
+
+'So it ought to be, for it has been the making of us.--Come Cherry,
+confess that you had rather see Pur triumph, than--'
+
+'Than you at Vale Leston,' said Cherry, not knowing what a bolt she
+shot. 'It would be grand to steal a march on the enemy!'
+
+'And safe?' asked Wilmet.
+
+Felix demonstrated to the comprehending ears of his sisters the
+circulation that he could securely reckon upon.
+
+'There would be an immense deal more to do,' said Cherry; but at that
+he smiled, full of vigour.
+
+'True; but we should have a larger staff. There would be Fernan--'
+
+'For the racing articles,' said Cherry dryly.
+
+'And a good deal besides, which only needs application; and that he
+has.'
+
+'He has great resolution,' said Cherry, 'but he always seems to me a
+sort of Christian panther of the wilderness; and you seem to be getting
+him into a cage.'
+
+'Not such a cage as Peter Brown's office; and besides it is only when
+he is lashed up that the panther leaps about his den. Generally he is
+a quiet determined animal, with the practical Yankee element strong in
+him. It may be true, as Edgar says, that he does not see an inch on
+either side of his nose, but that only makes him go right away in the
+line he does see. I know he will work well.'
+
+'If Alda--' said Cherry.
+
+'Oh, she will be willing. A cottage in the country! Besides, it is the
+only reasonable possibility.'
+
+'I should think it would satisfy her,' said Wilmet.
+
+'And then--'
+
+Everybody understood that 'And then.' It was Alda's pretension to be
+at the head of the family that was the chief obstacle to Wilmet's
+abdicating that post. Without her, Geraldine, stronger and less lame,
+might undertake the charge of the comparatively few permanently at
+home. _Might_ indeed hardly expressed the amount of uncertainty as to
+her capability; and yet but for that 'And then,' Wilmet would hardly
+have yielded as she did the next day.
+
+Stella had a blackberry fever. Possibly Wilmet's frugal regimen
+engendered a hankering for fruit, or it might have been the mere love
+of enterprise that rendered her eagerly desirous of an expedition to a
+lane where splendid blackberries were reported to grow. Since the day
+she had been lost, she had never been allowed to go out with Bernard;
+but in Lance she had acquired a much more complaisant play-fellow,
+who not only promised his escort to the lane, but the purchase of the
+sugar, and aid in the concoction of the jam; but he durst not venture
+till late in the day, and thereupon John Harewood suggested, 'Would not
+your sister be at liberty by that time?'
+
+'Lance can take care of me,' said Stella; but in her eyes the whole
+romance of the expedition was destroyed by his acquiescence. 'We'll
+catch her as she comes out, and make her go with us.'
+
+'Among all the girls?' laughed Cherry; and Captain Harewood coloured,
+shook his head, and shuddered.
+
+'The girls won't hurt me,' said Lance, 'not if there were twenty
+hundred. I'll bring her from the very teeth of them. Jack may wait
+round the corner if he likes.'
+
+The party waited, till their patience was worn to a thread, for the
+opening of the tall olive door, until Lance valiantly resolved on a
+single-handed assault, and had just mounted the steps, when it suddenly
+opened, and he found himself obstructing the path of a swarm of little
+girls and big, who all stared, most giggled, and some greeted him. To
+the least of these he confided that he wanted his sister, when she
+innocently piloted him to the school-room, where Wilmet, with her hat
+on, was keeping guard over three victims detained by unfinished tasks.
+Every one gazed at him as if he had been a sort of Actćon; but nothing
+daunted, he answered his sister's anxious exclamation. 'Nothing is the
+matter; but we are going for a walk, and want you.--Miss Maria,' he
+cried, as the sound of the unfeminine step and voice brought in one of
+the heads, '_please_ do let off these impositions, we do so want her!'
+
+'What, you here! This is an invasion!' she added good-humouredly. 'Am I
+to take it as a convalescent's privilege?'
+
+'Thank you, Ma'am,' said Lance, bowing with his audacious sweetness;
+'and please let me have Wilmet. I'd do the impositions myself, only I
+don't know French.'
+
+The victims tittered uncontrollably, and Miss Maria laughed, as one
+who, like her neighbours, descried why Wilmet was in request. 'I will
+attend to these exercises, Miss Underwood,' she said. 'You must not
+lose this fine evening for the idleness of these young ladies.'
+
+'Indeed, Ma'am!' began Wilmet, in a blaze of colour. 'I never thought
+of such a thing.'
+
+'I daresay not, my dear,' said Miss Maria; 'but now you had better do
+it. I wish you a pleasant walk.'
+
+'Lance, how could you?' broke out Wilmet, as they descended the steps.
+'I never was so ashamed in my life.'
+
+'Never mind. We are going to get blackberries at Mile End Lane, and I
+shall lose Stella to a dead certainty if you don't come and look after
+her.'
+
+'My dear Lance, I can't go all that way without their knowing it at
+home.'
+
+'Oh! that's all settled with Cherry.'
+
+'And where's Alda?'
+
+'Off somewhere with her Don. Come, W. W., or who knows whether Stel and
+I shall ever come home?'
+
+By this time they had reached the corner where Captain Harewood and
+Stella were lying perdu, and Wilmet made no more resistance, only
+keeping the little girl's not altogether willing hand till they came to
+the stile leading to the field and woodland, and then Stella's durance
+ended, and her adventures with Lance became as free as though no grave
+'sister' had been near.
+
+Perhaps, since Wilmet had perceived that surrender was her fate, she
+was willing that the summons should be over and a mutual understanding
+reached, so as to waste no more of the time already so short. However
+that might be, though the talk began with Lance's health and Cherry's
+talents, there was a tendency towards topics closer still; nor did she
+start aside, but rather listened pensively as to a strain that touched
+her quiet soul more deeply than she showed in word or gesture.
+
+The blackberry lane was deep and hollow, the brambles outstretching
+their arching wreaths, laden with heavy clusters of shining fruit,
+glossy black, scarlet or green, sometimes with a lingering pearly
+flower. A step-ladder stile led down into it from the field, and on the
+topmost step, her back against the rail, sat Wilmet. On the lowest,
+turned at right angles to the first, was John Harewood, looking up to
+her; while scrambling on the bank, contending with the brambles, were
+the younger ones; Lance, unable to help now and then sending a furtive
+glance through the tangle.
+
+It was a pretty sight. Sitting aloft, Wilmet was framed by an archway
+of meeting branches, with nothing but the pale opal of the evening
+sky behind the beautifully shaped head and shoulders, and the clear
+cut features, drooping just enough to enhance her own peculiar modest
+dignity, and give it a soft graciousness that had once been wanting.
+Her dress was the same in which Captain Harewood had first seen her--a
+plain black hat, a pale fawn-coloured skirt, and a loose open jacket
+over a white cambric vest and sleeves, only that now there had been
+a budding forth of dainty fresh knots of rose-coloured ribbon at the
+throat and down the front, as though a slight sensibility to the
+vanities as well as the cares of life had begun to dawn on the grave
+young house-mother.
+
+Leaning back against the rough rail to assist the hand of the climber,
+John Harewood looked up with as much worship in his countenance as ever
+good man feels for the being he loves in all her maiden glory. Thus
+they had been for some moments, only broken by the children's distant
+calls, till the fervent words broke from him, 'May I not speak now?'
+
+No word of reply sounded, but the delicate lips quivered and parted;
+the eyes were cast down, and seemed to swim in a soft mist of
+brightness; the queenly head bent, and the roseate tint on the cheek
+deepened and spread, while something came over the face that caused the
+low glad exclamation, 'You sweetest, I do believe you can love me!'
+
+A tremulous smile, a glitter of tears on the eye-lashes--a whisper,
+'You won't let me be able to help it!'
+
+Then the hands were clasped, and no words but 'Thank you' would come to
+the young man's lips; and then, and the sound reminded him, he bowed
+his head, adding, 'Thank God!'
+
+'Thank God!' echoed Wilmet softly. 'For indeed,' she added, as she let
+her eyes fully meet his ardent gaze, 'I know you will help me to do
+whatever may be His Will.'
+
+'He helping me,' said John Harewood; and there was a reverent silence
+of untold peace and bliss, first interrupted by his long sigh of
+infinite relief and joy; and then, as he looked and looked with all
+his soul in his eyes, an exclamation, almost in spite of himself, 'You
+beautiful creature, you are mine indeed!'
+
+Her colour deepened, but her lips moved into an odd little smile, out
+of which came the words, 'Isn't that rather foolish?'
+
+'I couldn't help it--I beg your pardon,' said he, reddening. 'You do
+look so lovely! but indeed it is not the externals only, but what looks
+through.'
+
+'And that is what makes me afraid,' said Wilmet, as the dew gathered on
+her eye-lashes. 'I don't think I'm so nice as you take me for.'
+
+'Probably you don't,' he said, smiling.
+
+'But just hear me,' she said, laying her hand on his, as if to silence
+him. 'You ought to know what all the others would tell you if they
+were not too kind. I know they all feel me strict, and managing, and
+domineering! Yes, it makes you laugh, but I really am. I don't think
+you would have liked me at all if you had not seen me out of my usual
+life, with only Lance--' and as all she said only made him press her
+hand the closer--'You see, I've always had to do _things_. Ever since I
+was a little girl I have had to keep order, great boys and all, and I
+know it has made me disagreeable;' then, in answer to some sound more
+incredulously negative than words, 'Yes indeed! Felix and all go to
+Cherry with whatever comes very near them. She hasn't been hardened and
+sharpened and dried up like me, and wasn't stupid to begin with.'
+
+'Cherry is very clever, but she is--not--'
+
+'Now don't. I know how it is. I know I'm horribly pretty, and I've been
+a wonder always for keeping the house going, and doing for them all,
+and so you fancy me everything charming; but I do so wish you could
+really know, as my brothers do, how it takes out of one all that is
+nice and sweet, and that people like.'
+
+'People?' said John, smiling; but seeing that a mirthful even though
+a loving answer was not what she wanted, he gravely said, 'I do
+understand, dearest, that you have had to be too much of an authority
+to be altogether the companion and confidante that Geraldine is free to
+be, but perhaps I feel that this renders you more wholly and altogether
+my own.'
+
+'Oh!'--a strange half sob--'do you know, I had just begun to know how
+solitary I was when Lance was so happy to get Robina, when you--'
+
+'And if I told you all, you would know that I was feeling a certain
+loneliness at home, and that if you had asked my sisters, they would
+have said that Jack was not the harmonious element he appeared.
+There--there's a pleasing prospect!'
+
+'But you'll not let me be masterful?' said Wilmet earnestly.
+
+'Just as much as is good for me--for us,' he said, smiling. Then after
+a moment's silence, he took out of his pocket a little box, and making
+a table of her lap, took out a ring of twined ruby and diamonds, such
+as could not but startle the instincts of Wilmet's soul.
+
+'Oh, it is a great deal too beautiful! Please, I couldn't--'
+
+'You must. It was my mother's.'
+
+'Then she cannot like to part with it.'
+
+'Did you not know that she died when I was five years old? Look!' and
+he showed where within the lid of the box was written, 'For my Little
+Johnny's Wife. August 1839. L. H.'
+
+'Ought you not to keep it till--' faltered Wilmet, growing crimson as
+she found what she was saying.
+
+'No,' he said decidedly, 'not after this. When I spoke to my father
+that Sunday evening, he unlocked his desk and gave me this, which I had
+not seen since I remember playing with it on my mother's bed. You will
+wear it, dearest. You will let me have the pleasure of knowing you have
+it on.'
+
+The answer was the drawing off of her glove; and he fitted it on, but
+it was rather loose. 'I am afraid it will want a guard,' he said.
+
+'I'll ask Felix whether I may take one of Mamma's,' she said. For the
+shapely notable fingers had never worn a ring before this almost sacred
+pledge; and the few jewels either too valuable or not valuable enough
+for the parents to have parted with in times of need had never been
+touched.
+
+'Do,' he said; 'I shall like that. The year 1839. Was not that the year
+a certain little girl was born?'
+
+'The month. Our birth-day is on the 19th.' And the coincidence gave all
+the foolish delight such facts do under the circumstances.
+
+'Was this long before she died?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'The last day of that August. You never saw her brass in the cloister?'
+
+'No; I never guessed that you were not Mrs. Harewood's son, though I
+wondered at your being so unlike the rest.'
+
+'She has been kindness itself,' he warmly said. 'My father did well
+both for himself and me in marrying.'
+
+'Tell me of your own mother,' said Wilmet, looking from the sparkling
+stones to the initials. 'L.-- What was her name?'
+
+'Lucy. Lucy Oglandby. My father was tutor at Oglandby Hall. There was
+a long attachment, through much opposition; and even when he was made
+priest-vicar after waiting six years, her father could not consent.
+After six years more, when her health was failing, he gave a sort of
+sanction on his death-bed. The rest of the family contrived to get her
+fortune so tied up that after her death it was of no use to any one
+till I came of age. She only lived seven years after her marriage, and
+then the Oglandbys wanted to take possession of me, and I fancy that
+drove my father into marrying.'
+
+'Was it with them you went to stay?'
+
+'Yes, my father makes a point of it; and they have a turn for
+patronizing me, if I would turn my back on home.'
+
+'Now I understand better,' said Wilmet.
+
+'You understand how much you were wanting to me,' he said, rightly
+interpreting the words. 'After five years' absence, while my sisters
+were growing up, you can perceive that dear, fond, and hearty as
+our house is, it did not fulfil all that perhaps I had been rather
+unreasonable in expecting. O Wilmet, this time of leave would have been
+very different if you had not come to the precincts!'
+
+And so they fell back on the exquisite time present, which neither
+wished to disturb by looking beyond; and perhaps John felt as though
+his bird had scarcely perched, and any endeavours to hold it might make
+it flutter loose, while she was too glad of the calm and repose to
+renew the struggle between conflicting claims.
+
+At last, with basket laden with dark fruit, and lips vying with the
+babes in the wood, Stella was launched on them by Lance, when his
+sense of time overpowered his half shy, half diverted respect for
+their bliss. He was very curious, but had to be satisfied with Captain
+Harewood's manner of tossing Stella over the stile, and bright look at
+himself.
+
+They did not get into the town till the chimes of half-past seven were
+pealing. Captain Harewood hurried into the hotel, to prepare for the
+evening; and Wilmet was mounting the stairs, still under the spell of
+her newly-found joy, when she was startled by Alda's voice in a key of
+querulous anger.
+
+'Exactly like you, always laying out for attention.'
+
+'What's this?' said Wilmet, as she saw Alda in her habit, standing
+with her back to the open door, and Geraldine leaning on the table,
+trembling and tearful, crimson and burning even to passion in her
+panting reply, 'I don't know--except that he helped me in from the
+garden.'
+
+'That's what I say,' retorted Alda. 'She is always putting herself
+forward, to be interesting, and get waited on. All affectation. I don't
+know such a flirt anywhere.'
+
+'Hush, Alda! you are insulting Cherry,' said Wilmet, in her tone of
+command.
+
+'Take care of yourself, Wilmet,' cried Alda; 'it is the way she goes on
+all day with Captain Harewood--reading poetry, and drawing, and all.'
+
+'Captain Harewood knows,' said Wilmet, coming to the support of the
+quivering Geraldine, 'that the kinder he is to Cherry the better I like
+it.'
+
+'Oh, if you do, it is your own concern. I only spoke for your sake.'
+And Alda marched off, while Wilmet's strong tender arms helped
+Cherry into her own room, and tended her through one of those gusts,
+part repentant, part hysterical, which had belonged to her earlier
+girlhood, though the present was now enhanced by the tumult of insulted
+maidenliness. Formerly, Wilmet had not treated these attacks on the
+soft system, but now all her bracing severity was gone. Greatly
+incensed with Alda, she gave her whole self to sympathy with the
+victim, showing herself so ineffably sweet and loving, that Cherry felt
+a thrill of delicious surprise; and as her eye lit on the glittering
+ring, a little ecstatic cry, still slightly hysterical, welcomed the
+token.
+
+'O Wilmet, oh! You have! You have--'
+
+'To be sure I have,' answered Wilmet, not in the least heeding what she
+said, in her anxiety to calm her sister. 'It is all right, if only you
+will not go and be silly about it.'
+
+The woman was so much more than her words, that their odd simplicity,
+coming from the grand-looking figure bending over her in tender
+solicitude, touched Cherry the more, and she threw her arms round her
+sister's neck, whispering, 'Oh! I am so glad!'
+
+Poor Wilmet! At that moment all her gladness had gone into a weight
+like lead on her heart, though it only made her more gentle. 'Dear
+Cherry,' she softly said, 'don't talk of anything to upset you. Will
+you be good and lie quite still while I take off my things, and then
+I'll come and dress you? You must not be knocked up to-night.'
+
+'Oh! I had much rather stay here!'
+
+'No indeed! John would be so disappointed. He does like you so much,
+and I always depend on you to make it pleasant for him. You can't send
+word that Alda has been scolding you.'
+
+'Oh dear! why can't I behave decently to her the moment we are alone
+together?'
+
+'Don't begin on that, for pity's sake, or you'll get crying again,'
+broke out Wilmet, in her natural voice. ''Tis she can't behave properly
+to anybody--that's all; so don't think any more about anything, like a
+good child, but lie still till I come back.'
+
+So up went Wilmet, not rejoicing in her room-mate, whom she found, as
+usual, all injured innocence and self-justification.
+
+'You have been petting Cherry all this time! She is quite spoilt among
+you! It is quite true what I said, though she didn't like it. In
+society, I never saw a more arrant flirt, with her pathetic ill-used
+airs. Why, Ferdinand actually found fault to-day with my manner to her!'
+
+Save for the effects, Wilmet was glad to hear it. 'Well, Alda, it is
+not always kind.'
+
+'I only don't fuss and coax her; I see through her better than you do.
+She is the sharp one. As I told Ferdinand, it is I who have reason to
+complain of his manner to her, only I know it is not his fault. If
+there were no other objection to this preposterous scheme of Felix's,
+she would be a reason against it.'
+
+'For shame, Alda! You don't consider what you are saying of your
+sister.'
+
+'I do!' said Alda. 'I have been more in the world than you, Wilmet,
+and I know what comes of sticking oneself down close to one's family,
+especially when there is that sort of spoilt invalid, backed up in all
+kinds of unreasonable expectations. I advise you to take care, Wilmet;
+you don't know what goes on in your absence. I should not wonder if it
+never came to an engagement after all.'
+
+At that moment Felix's step and knock were at the door. Wilmet went to
+it, and both her hands were clasped in her brother's. 'My Wilmet, my
+dear, this is well!'
+
+Then Alda turned from her glass and understood. 'What? He has spoken? O
+Wilmet, and you never told me!'
+
+'I had not time.'
+
+'And what a splendid ring! but it is not a proper engaged-ring. You
+can't wear it.'
+
+'I must! He wishes it. It was his mother's.--Felix, may I have one of
+Mamma's for a guard?'
+
+'May you!' said Felix, smiling.
+
+'I should like you to give it to me. Come in.'
+
+He came to inspect the unlocking of the ponderous old inlaid
+dressing-case, with velvet-lined compartments mostly empty, or only
+with little labelled papers of first curls, down as far as 'Edward
+Clement, 1842,' after which stern reality had absorbed sentiment--a
+sad declension from the blue enamel shrine with a pearl cypher, where
+Felix's downy flax reposed.
+
+To do Alda justice, there was no greed in her nature, and she even
+offered Wilmet a turquoise hoop of her own, instead of a little
+battered ring of three plaited strands of gold, which their mother
+had worn till her widowhood, and they believed to be the ring of her
+betrothal. And when Wilmet suggested that the locket would delight
+Cherry, Alda's ready assent inspired the hope that she felt some
+compunction for her jealous unkindness.
+
+The locket did prove a soothing charm, coupled with the little
+consultation as to the ribbon, and the capture of a smooth brown lock
+of the present to add to the original. And as the manly fingers dealt
+with the hasp, and the kind smile welcomed her pleasure, Cherry's heart
+felt that while she had her Felix, Alda need little comprehend her
+craving for attention from any one.
+
+Yet her greeting to John Harewood was shy, tame, and frightened,
+compared with Alda's pretty graceful cordiality, as she told him that
+she was delighted, and envied Lance his powers of diplomacy. In fact,
+it was Alda who kept up the conversation, and made things pleasant,
+with the ease of society; while Felix was shy, Wilmet longed for
+silence, and Ferdinand looked like a picture of Spanish melancholy,
+such as had almost infected the whole table.
+
+'I believe I must ask you to bestow a little time on me,' he said, as
+soon as the meal was over; and Alda made it evident that she meant to
+be in the conclave, which took place in the back drawing-room. It was
+at once made evident that the Pursuivant proposal was abhorrent to her;
+not that she behaved to Felix, nor indeed did she ever do so to any of
+his sex, as she permitted herself to do to Geraldine, but she showed
+great displeasure at the idea having been started.
+
+'Things are unfortunate enough already,' she said, with something like
+Wilmet's dignity; 'but I should never forgive such hopeless ruin to
+dear Ferdinand's prospects.'
+
+'Have I not told you that no prospect is anything to me if you can only
+be mine?'
+
+'We know all that,' said Alda, drawing herself away rather sharply from
+the caressing hand, 'and therefore I must think for you, and I will not
+be the means of lowering your position in life.'
+
+'Alda, dearest!' cried Ferdinand, glancing at Felix in such genuine
+distress as made him interfere in pity.
+
+'We understand about position, Ferdinand; and you and Alda have been
+able to observe how far life is enjoyable in this lowered position.'
+
+'Felix,' said Alda, who had evidently wound herself up for this crisis,
+'you know very well that you stand quite out of common rules; but I am
+sure you can see that however valuable your work may be, it would be
+wrong to draw Ferdinand to the same level.'
+
+'As for that,' said Ferdinand moodily, yet with the air of a banished
+prince, 'Felix knows what my father was; and if I knew that my
+grandfather was an honest man, it would be well. A stray wanderer, cast
+up at your door, has no right to talk of levels.'
+
+'You are not to talk,' said Alda, more affectionately. 'You are too
+generous to be allowed to think.'
+
+'In plain English, Alda,' said her brother, 'the objection is yours.'
+
+'I cannot see him sacrifice himself for my sake,' said Alda.
+
+'As though it could be a sacrifice!' exclaimed Ferdinand, 'when it
+opens the way to make you my own at once, my peerless beauty! If you--'
+
+'Come, we have had all this over before,' said Alda, shrinking a little
+petulantly as he hovered over her, speaking with the fervour of his
+Mexican nature, and his eyes glowing with eagerness; 'if you will not
+have common sense, I must.'
+
+'Common sense! It is not common sense I want! It is love!'
+
+'If you doubt my affection--' said Alda, with dignity, drawing back.
+
+'No! no! no! I never was so profane. Only it drives me frantic to hear
+you so coolly willing to keep us apart for--'
+
+'Because my affection is less selfish and narrow than yours,' said
+Alda, raising her voice as his became like a roll of distant thunder.
+'I tell you, I will not be the means of binding you to a petty
+provincial paper, that may give an immediate pittance, but will lead to
+nothing. Would that be love worth having? I appeal to Felix, his scheme
+though it was.'
+
+Felix was a very uncomfortable third party, especially as Alda's appeal
+implied a certain accusation of himself. 'I own,' he said, 'that
+this situation is not likely to lead to promotion, but it would be
+competence. Ferdinand would be satisfied, but you--'
+
+'I, who know what he is used to, cannot be satisfied for him.'
+
+'As if you--' gasped the lover; but Alda would not let him go on.
+
+'No,' she said, 'we must be patient. For him to remain in the
+Life-guards would be madness; but a few years at Mr. Brown's, with the
+interest he already has in the business, will open a career to him.'
+
+'And I can run down every Sunday,' said Ferdinand. 'It is her
+determination; I suppose she is right, Felix, but I wish-- If I could
+wish her otherwise, she should be less prudent!'
+
+'I cannot see that she has any right to ask it of you,' indignantly
+exclaimed Felix.
+
+But he found this was putting his head into a hornet's nest. Ferdinand
+would not have contested her right to send him down among the lions,
+and would never have given her back her troth, like Knight Des Lorges.
+No, he hotly contended that Alda had a perfect right to make her own
+terms, and still more hotly, though most inconsistently, that to work
+at Peter Brown's was his own free choice.
+
+It was incontestable that a South American merchant's career offered
+more possibilities of rising into opulence and consideration than the
+proprietorship of a country paper; and though Felix privately doubted
+whether desk-work would suit Ferdinand half as well as the work where
+he himself could have contributed wits, he could say no more. Ferdinand
+was greatly disappointed; but there was no sacrifice that he would not
+make, and persist in with his silent Spanish perseverance, for Alda's
+sake. Indeed, he could not bear not to begin at once. He would return
+at once to his regiment, send in his papers, and dispose of his horses
+and equipments, making arrangements with Peter Brown to enter his
+house. He seemed to be in a fever till the matter was in train, and was
+entirely past remonstrance. And Felix recognised that the lovers must
+act for themselves, and could only feel thoroughly vexed with Alda, and
+equally vexed with himself for the consternation with which he thought
+of having her at home three years longer!
+
+It was the next evening; and not only had Alda's own lover departed,
+but Captain Harewood was missing, and with him Lance, and the only
+explanation was from Bernard, that they were gone to Minsterham. No
+doubt Wilmet was sensible of a blank when she came home, though she
+would not allow it, and stoutly defended her Captain's right of going
+where and when he pleased without notice. She had to fight his battles,
+till late in the evening he walked in. 'Here we are! It is later than I
+expected.'
+
+'Where's Lance?'
+
+'He came in with me. Gone to his room, then.--Here, Geraldine, this
+little gentleman requests the honour of your leaning on him.'
+
+'Oh, what a beauty! What a dear little ivory monster! Turbaned head,
+serpent's tail, and such a fascinating face!'
+
+'Is the cane the right length? I measured yours.'
+
+'You don't mean that he is for me? So smooth and so steady! Where does
+he come from?'
+
+'From Benares--I bought him at the great fair; and from the moment I
+saw you, it was plain that in the eternal fitness of things he was
+destined to you.'
+
+'To make a Pagan of her,' said Felix. 'See her worshipping her little
+idol!'
+
+'Not my idol, but my prop and companion for life.'
+
+'Your Lord Gerald,' laughed Felix, as she walked triumphantly round the
+room, perhaps her first unnecessary promenade since she was seven years
+old.
+
+'This is just the time I didn't expect you,' said Wilmet; 'is the seven
+o'clock train put on again?'
+
+'We didn't come by the train.' And Felix and Cherry smiled at one
+another as they detected that Wilmet's economical soul was vexed. 'I
+wanted Lance to see his doctor again, and the railway seems so bad for
+his head, that I drove.'
+
+'How very kind!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'I am afraid I have not managed it well. I would not make an
+appointment, lest it should be a glaring day; so Manby was out, and we
+could only leave a message before going to the precincts. Lance was in
+wild spirits, and the boys gave him such an uproarious welcome, that
+old Canon Burley sent in to know what was the matter, and was told it
+was only little Underwood come back. He dined with us, but I am afraid
+I was off guard, for I never thought of his going and taking a place in
+the Cathedral.'
+
+'I should think not!' said Wilmet, 'except that it is in the nature of
+boys to be provoking, even about Church-going. Then it has knocked him
+up.'
+
+'He was forced to come out in the Psalms; and Poulter, one of the
+lay-vicars, got anxious about him, and went after him when the Lesson
+began, found him with his head down on the table in the sacristy, and
+thought he had fainted, but he was only crying and entirely done up.
+Manby came just as Poulter brought him in, and gave him a proper good
+lecture.'
+
+'A very good thing,' said Wilmet, 'if one could only get him to believe
+there is any need of care when his head is not actually painful. What
+did Mr. Manby think of him?'
+
+'He says he is as well as could reasonably be hoped--quite recovered
+from the fever; but the sun-stroke was as severe as any he has seen
+in England, and coming on the top of all that overwork, both study
+and music, it has left an amount of irritability and excitability of
+brain that must not be trifled with. He made poor Lance confess all the
+little experiments he has been trying on himself, and ordered him to
+leave off whatever he is about at the first threatening of dizziness or
+pain.'
+
+'Then there's not much chance of his going back?'
+
+'Not before Christmas at soonest. One would think the poor little
+fellow must have been aware of that; but the verdict cut him up very
+much. I thought he had better be quiet till the heat of the day was
+past, so he lay on my bed till six o'clock, and then he said he was
+better; but he hardly spoke all the way home.'
+
+Wilmet went at once to see after him, and found him already in bed; but
+whether sleepy, suffering, or sorrowful, she could not make out, for
+he hid his eyes from the candle, and only muttered 'No, thank you,' in
+reply to whatever she offered, till she yielded to his evident longing
+for darkness and silence.
+
+He was up and about in the morning; but when at noon Bernard rushed in
+from school, he was neither in the drawing-room, garden, nor office,
+and the door of his--or rather Mr. Froggatt's--bed-room was locked.
+Bernard bounced at it, calling, 'Let me in, I say; I'll not make a row.'
+
+'There aren't any more of you?' parleyed Lance.
+
+'No! Let me in, I say!'--kicking at the panels--'I must speak to you!'
+
+'I'm coming; hold your din!' And Lance revealed himself without coat or
+boots.
+
+'Holloa--how dark! You were never asleep? I came, because one can never
+catch you without a string of girls and babies after you.'
+
+'Cut on,' said Lance resignedly, shaking up his horse-hair pillow:
+while Bernard seated himself on the table, and in the half-light of the
+shuttered room, began to disentangle some knotted twine.
+
+'Did you come here to do that?' said Lance, wanting to finish his nap,
+and chiefly restrained by the trouble of the thing from kicking the
+intruder out.
+
+'Only, I say, Lance, have you any tin?'
+
+'Not the valley of a brass farthing!' (The last pence of the Vale
+Leston sovereign had gone into Stella's jam.)
+
+'Wouldn't Felix give you some?'
+
+'I don't know.' (Very gruffly.)
+
+'I wish you'd ask.'
+
+'You have as many tongues as I.'
+
+'Well, you see Felix is not half a bad fellow for one's governor, but
+he doesn't know what's what; and Sims says he'll go to him if I don't
+come down with something before to-morrow.'
+
+'Sims! Sims in Smoke-jack Alley? Is that your sort?' demanded Lance, in
+ineffable disgust.
+
+'He's been keeping a dog for me,' said Bernard sulkily.
+
+'A dog!' Lance sat up in astonishment immeasurable.
+
+'Yes. It's the thing, and no mistake,' said Bernard eagerly. 'His name
+is Stingo; only we are not quite sure whether he is a bull-terrier or a
+short-haired King Charles.'
+
+Lance dropped back, wriggling in suppressed convulsions, as he
+demanded, 'Where did you steal this unmistakeable animal?'
+
+'I bought him,' said Bernard, with a certain magnificence intended to
+be overawing.
+
+'Then where did you steal the money?'
+
+'Travis,' said Bernard, who considered Christian names unworthy of
+male lips. 'He always used to tip me a sovereign; and Ben Bowyer, the
+dog-fancier, said Stingo was worth thirty shillings any day, only he
+let me have him for eight and six, because he wanted to sell off his
+stock.'
+
+'I thought as much. And Sims keeps him for you?'
+
+'At ninepence a week; but the brute is at me for ever, and says it is
+twelve weeks.'
+
+'Pray, how were you to raise ninepence a week? By waiting on Providence
+or turning coach-wheels?'
+
+'I had some then; and Froggy sometimes gives one half-a-crown, but the
+old beast hasn't lately, just because I wanted it--nor Travis either,
+bad luck to him!' quoth this grateful young man. 'I put them all off,
+making sure of him; and now he's cut, and never tipped me at all! It's
+an abominable sell, and they are all at me.'
+
+'All! what more? Have it out,' grunted Lance, with a sound of bodily
+pain in his tone such as would have silenced any one above ten years
+old, and a bored contemptuous manner that would have crushed any
+attempt at confidence--if he had been the right person to confess to.
+
+Nevertheless, Bernard mumbled, 'Shooting-gallery. And Mother Goldie
+vowed she would lug me up to Wilmet if I don't fork out!'
+
+'Mother Goldie! You little disgusting ape! You've been tucking in what
+you owed in pies and tarts!' cried Lance, who was too constitutionally
+heedless of the palate to have any charity for its temptations.
+
+'It's all Wilmet's fault,' said Bernard. 'She never gives one anything
+fit to eat. There was that beastly lamp out there went and got broke,
+and what does she do but crib it out of our grub! Now, Lance, was any
+living soul served like that before? She gave us only that beastly
+stir-about at breakfast,' (Bernard worked his single adjective hard,)
+'no butter nor sugar at tea, and no pudding, except when there's that
+beastly mess of rice.'
+
+'I'm sure I've seen pudding.'
+
+'Oh! she came round when Felix came home. She knew he wouldn't stand
+it. Alda used to buy marmalade and anchovy on her own hook, so I don't
+see why I shouldn't.'
+
+'Alda didn't go on tick, I suppose.'
+
+'Serve Wilmet right if we all did. I don't believe there's a beggar so
+badly fed. Nares says--'
+
+'You unnatural little sneak, you haven't been and gone and complained
+to him!'
+
+'No; but all the town is crying out upon her shabbiness. They say it is
+a perfect shame how little butcher's meat she gets. Nares's mother and
+sisters do nothing but laugh at it, and Nares says nothing will make us
+comfortable but a bankruptcy. Hollo!'
+
+For a well-aimed swing of the bolster laid him sprawling on the floor.
+
+'Take that for mentioning such a word!'
+
+'My eyes, Lance, is it swearing?' said Bernard, with a little
+affectation of innocence. 'How you have been and bumped my knees;' and
+he sat on the floor, pulling up his trousers to gain a view; 'there'll
+be a bruise as big as half-a-crown! Well, but Nares says it was a real
+blessing to them; for before it old Nares was always in a rage, and his
+mother boohooing; and now it is over they live like fighting-cocks,
+on champagne, and lobster-salad, and mulli--what's his name?--first
+chop; and the women dress in silks and velvets and feathers, no end of
+swells! and they say it is regular stoopid to pinch like that, for no
+one will believe we ain't going to smash while she is such a screw!'
+
+'If you weren't nothing but a little donkey,' said Lance, sitting
+coiled up with his head on his knee, grimly contemplating him, 'you'd
+be a show specimen of precocious depravity.'
+
+'I declare,' persisted Bernard, 'Nares says it is coming as sure as
+fate; for his governor, and Jackman, and Collis are going to stump up
+the old Pursuivant with their new Bexley Tribune, and Redstone is to be
+sub-editor.'
+
+'The black-hearted rascal!' cried Lance, bounding on his feet in a
+rage. 'He ought to be kicked out of the shop this instant!'
+
+'Now don't, Lance,' entreated Bernard, 'for Nares will pitch into me
+for telling. He says they've got an opening through the Pur backing up
+that mean beggar Smith; and Collis and Jackman will find the cash, and
+Nares's father is to be editor, and they vow Froggatt and Underwood
+will be beat out of the field.'
+
+'Catch them,' said Lance, and he stood leaning against the solid old
+carved bed-post in silence, till Bernard returned to the insolvency at
+present far more pressing.
+
+'Won't you help me about Stingo?' he said.
+
+'Do you want me to send him to the dog-show, ticketted "The Real Animal
+and no mistake"?'
+
+'Don't, Lance,' said the boy peevishly. 'I thought you were
+good-natured, and would lend me some tin, or at least stop the
+blackguard from being such a baboon. He's found out that Travis has
+cut, and he says he'll come to Felix this very day,' ended he, not far
+from crying.
+
+'I can't anyhow, to-day, Bear,' said Lance, more kindly. 'My head is
+very bad, and you've not mended it.'
+
+'It was well enough when you broke my knees,' grumbled Bernard. 'Come,
+Lance, you used to be a fellow to help one.'
+
+'I can't, I tell you,' said Lance, hastily throwing himself back on
+the bed, and shutting his eyes. 'It isn't that I won't, but I can't. I
+couldn't walk straight down the street for giddiness; and if I did, I
+don't suppose I could talk sense.'
+
+Bernard was startled by the tone as well as the words; but he had not
+arrived at much pity for any one but himself, and he whined, 'But
+what shall I do, then?' repeating it dolefully, as Lance lay for some
+moments silent and with closed eyes.
+
+'Bother!' he broke out angrily at last. 'Look here. Tell the
+blackguard--let me see--I don't well know what I'm saying. Tell him
+you've spoken to me--no, to your brother--mind, you needn't say
+which--and that he'll come and see about it. Now give me that bolster,
+and take yourself off. Tell them I want no dinner, and don't let any
+one come! Get along, and shut the door.'
+
+Bernard could extract no more, and departed as the dinner-bell rang,
+leaving him without energy even to lock the door. Presently Felix was
+standing anxiously over him; but he reiterated that he could not bear
+to think of food, and only wanted to be left alone; but just as his
+brother was leaving him, he said, 'Fee, do you know that Redstone is
+going over to the enemy?'
+
+'The opposition paper? Nothing more likely. How did you hear?'
+
+'Bear picked it up. I say, wasn't that little beggar to have gone to
+Stoneborough?'
+
+'Not possible, Lance; I've gone into it with Wilmet. She is in trouble
+about household expenses, as it is; and with this rival paper on our
+hands, I can't undertake anything extra. Has he been bothering you? I'm
+very sorry, but we must keep him here.'
+
+Lance shut his eyes without reply; but no sooner was he left alone
+than he rolled over, gave vent to a heavy groan from the bottom of his
+heart, and clenched his hands as he lay. Then followed some heavy sobs,
+and a few great tears; but gradually a look of purpose and hope came
+over his face, and he slept. He was lying between sleeping and waking,
+when a quiet step and cautious knock made him call out, 'Come in, Jack.'
+
+'Your sister wants to know if you are better, and ready for some tea.'
+
+'Thank you, I'm mending. Is Wilmet come home?'
+
+'Yes, but only to become the prey of an ancient female.'
+
+'Mrs. Bisset! Come to inspect you!'
+
+'She won't, then! Shall I get you some tea?'
+
+'No, thank you. But, I say, Jack, do you see my big box that we brought
+home yesterday? Would you just dig into it for me?'
+
+John Harewood applied himself to disentangle a frightful knot,
+observing, 'This looks like Bill's handiwork.'
+
+'Ay! Bill put all my traps together when our other fellows came back.'
+
+'Together indeed!' said the Captain, looking at the heterogeneous
+collection.
+
+'There's nothing to hurt,' said Lance. 'Do you see a green box?'
+
+'A fiddle-case, you boy?'
+
+'A violin-case,' said Lance, with dignity. 'Give it me.' And taking out
+his purse, he produced its only contents--namely, the key--tried to
+sit up to unlock his treasure, but was forced by giddiness to lie back
+again with a gasp, and hold out the key to his friend.
+
+'Come, I should think a fiddle the last thing you could want just now,'
+said John.
+
+'Just so. I'm afraid it is. Only, just let me see if she is all right.
+Ay!' and then, after a gaze, a fond touch or two, an irrepressible sigh
+strangled in the midst, 'lock her up again! You ain't by any chance
+going home to-morrow?'
+
+'Do you want anything?'
+
+'Why, when I got her at old Spicer's sale for twenty-two and sixpence,
+Poulter was beside himself at my luck, and said she was worth double
+that any day, and he would give it me if I got tired of her. Now, if
+I'd only known yesterday, I could have done it myself; but I can't go,
+and I can't write--but if you could but send or take it to Poulter, and
+get the money for me!'
+
+'Do you feel bound to give Poulter the refusal? for if it is really a
+good instrument, it ought to be worth more than that.'
+
+'Poulter has been very good to me. He taught me to play on it,' said
+Lance; 'that is, he showed me a little; but Robin made me lock it up
+and give her the key all last spring, for fear of hindering my mugging;
+and I can't touch her now, so she has been very little use to me. I
+promised Poulter, and I think he should have her. Besides, I want the
+money slick at once. It's no good sticking it in a window to wait for
+some one to give what it is worth.'
+
+John marvelled what need of money could have come upon the boy in
+the last twenty-four hours, but he was too discreet a friend to take
+advantage of necessity to ask questions, and said, 'The fact was, I was
+thinking of running up to town to get a sewing-machine for your sister,
+but if I start by the earlier train, I can see Poulter on the way, and
+if he does not want it himself, he can tell me where to dispose of it
+to the best advantage.'
+
+'Only it must be ready money,' said Lance; it must be owned with
+scarcely the alacrity of gratitude John deserved. 'If it didn't make
+much difference, I wish Poulter could have her, for then I should
+sometimes see her and handle her again, and I think he would use her
+well.'
+
+'Very well, I'll tell him.'
+
+'And don't tell any one here,' added Lance. 'You don't go and tell W.
+W. everything, do you?' he added, wistful and perplexed.
+
+'Not other people's secrets,' said John. 'Now I am going to fetch you
+some food; you are looking quite faint, you have had nothing since
+yesterday's dinner.'
+
+Poor Lance! when John was gone, he turned with another groan, once more
+took the violin in his arms, laid it on his shoulder, and made the
+motions of playing, then kissed it, and whispering, 'Poulter will be
+good to you, my pretty. It's not for that little beggar of a Bear! It's
+for Felix, for Felix--' and then at a sound of steps, hastily replaced
+it, shut the box, and fell back again, dizzy and exhausted.
+
+The next day, he betook himself to a refuge more impregnable to Bernard
+than even Mr. Froggatt's bed-room, namely the office, which suited his
+sociable nature, and where he was always welcome. He found employment
+there, too, in cutting out extracts from newspapers, labelling library
+books, and packing parcels, and sometimes also, it must be owned, in
+drawing caricatures of the figures he spied through the chinks of the
+door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+SMOKE-JACK ALLEY.
+
+        _Launce._ It is no matter if the ty'd were lost, for it is the
+        unkindest ty'd that ever man ty'd.
+
+        _Panthino._ What's the unkindest ty'd?
+
+        _Launce._ Why, he that's ty'd here--Crab, my
+        dog.--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+John Harewood returned, bringing with him what Alda took for a
+dressing-case, and Cherry for a drawing-box, but which proved to
+contain a wonderful genie to save the well-worn fingers many a prick.
+To Lance he first administered the magical words, 'All right,' and then
+making an opportunity, he put five sovereigns into his hand. Lance's
+first impulse was, however, not to thank, but to exclaim, 'Then Poulter
+has not got it?'
+
+No, Poulter's conscience had forbidden him to purchase 'little
+Underwood's' treasure at what he knew to be so much beneath its value;
+but he had given Captain Harewood his best advice and recommendations,
+and by that means the violin had been taken at a London shop, still at
+a price beneath his estimate, but the utmost that could be expected
+where ready money was the point. Lance ought to have been delighted,
+and his native politeness made him repeat, 'Thank you;' but he could
+not quite keep down his regret--'Now I shall never see or hear her
+again.'
+
+However, the next day, when Bernard flew upon him at twelve o'clock,
+asseverating that there was shade all the way, he allowed himself to be
+persuaded, prudently carrying with him only ten shillings, and trusting
+to his blue umbrella rather than to Bernard's shade, which could hardly
+have been obtained by sidling against the walls.
+
+Bernard did not seem to have enjoyed much more of Stingo's society than
+Lance of his violin's--the produce of the same bounty. He confessed
+that he had only ventured on taking the dog out three times in a
+string, and on one of these occasions he had broken loose after a cat,
+on another had fought with Nares's dog, and on the third had snapped at
+Angela.
+
+'You didn't take Angel into these places!'
+
+'No, she came to meet me.'
+
+'That's a sign of grace; but, Bear, I can't stand these diggings at
+all. I've a great mind to turn back.'
+
+'You won't!' cried Bernard. 'You must have been here often when you
+were a grammar-school fellow.'
+
+'Not we! This is a cut below us! Fulbert would never have been caught
+here!'
+
+'But you are going to get me out of this fix?'
+
+'Haven't I said I will? only hold your tongue, and let me alone to
+manage the rascal. If you open your mouth, I've done with it.'
+
+Bernard was forced to acquiesce, though Lance's manner vexed and
+irritated him. Popular and valuable as Lance had been with the
+choristers, he was not dealing as well with his brother, perhaps partly
+because he was more consciously trying to influence him; and likewise
+because the state of his health and his prospects so far affected
+his manner, that though never ill-humoured, it had lost some of the
+easy careless sweetness of high spirits, and assumed an ironical
+tone, exasperating to a child who could not brook ridicule. He was
+ashamed and dismayed at the place where Bernard was leading him, so
+low and disreputable that the boys of his time had never haunted it,
+and his own _gamin_ propensities had never extended so far. It was a
+tumble-down quarter; the houses, deplorable hovels, run up hastily for
+the workmen at the potteries, and every third or fourth a beer-shop;
+and in the midst dwelt Mr. Sims, a maimed poacher, who kept a large
+live-stock with which to trade on the sporting tastes of the youth of
+Bexley.
+
+Probably he was gratified to see that 'my brother' meant nothing
+more imposing than the chorister; but Lance had so cultivated his
+opportunities at Dick Graeme's home, as to be more knowing on the
+subject than Felix would have been. Indeed, it did not take much
+science to estimate the value of the 'real animal,' whose market price
+seemed to have fallen considerably. Lance, as he looked at the pied,
+bandy-legged, long-nosed cur, felt it impossible to set his cost
+against his keep, nor was he designed by nature for driving bargains;
+but Sims' expectations were founded on the probable, and the debt was
+annulled for three-and-sixpence and Stingo himself. Much civility was
+expended on Lance; dogs, rabbits, and other curiosities were exhibited,
+and an invitation given to come with the other young gents to admire
+the favourite terrier's exploits upon a cage of rats shortly expected,
+admission free.
+
+'You will come, won't you?' cried Bernard eagerly, as they went out.
+
+'What? To all the vilest sports in the place!'
+
+'But Lance, you told me about the rat hunt at Mr. Graeme's.'
+
+'What? Turning out the barn, with Mr. Graeme himself, and Bill, and all
+the rest? Do you think that's like letting a lot of wretched beasts out
+of a trap to be snapped up by a cur of a dog, with no end of drinking
+foul-mouthed blackguards betting on him?'
+
+'You are always so savage, Lance; and now you've gone and paid away all
+the money.'
+
+'What more?'
+
+'There's the shooting-gallery, you see.'
+
+Lance did see a public-house called the Flying Stag, where Bernard had
+contrived to incur a debt of a few shillings under Nares's patronage.
+While inquiring after the amount, he saw Mr. Mowbray Smith coming along
+the alley, and was more amused than shocked at the amazement his own
+presence there would cause the Curate; but just then he perceived that
+men were standing scowling at their doors, and slovenly women thronging
+out like ants when their hill is disturbed: and asking an explanation
+from the damsel in ear-rings who attended to him, he heard that 'the
+chaps are determined that that there Smith shall not have the impudence
+to show his face here again, for a hypocrite, defrauding of the poor.
+You'd best be away, young gents, there will be a fracaw!'
+
+'A row!' cried Bernard, between excitement and alarm. 'Shall we stay
+and see it? Won't Smith spy us?'
+
+Lance deigned no reply, but seeing the rough-looking men gathering as
+if to obstruct the Curate's way, he shot across the street to shake
+hands with him.
+
+'You! I am sorry to see you!' said Mr. Smith severely: at which Lance
+gave what under other circumstances would have been an impudent smile,
+and asked, 'Have you anywhere here to go?'
+
+'I am just come away from a sick man. But you know how wrong it is to
+bring your little brother here. Take him away,' he added, trying to
+prevent them from joining him, and at the same time a voice shouted,
+'Let him alone, young gents, he aint your sort;' and a hissing and
+hooting broke out all round, 'A parson as ought to have his gown pulled
+over his head!' 'What's gone of the coals?' 'How about the blankets?'
+
+Bernard got a tight grip, out of sight, of Lance's coat; Mr. Smith grew
+red and bit his lips; but Lance walked close to him, and as they began
+to be jostled, took his arm, holding the blue sun-shade over both their
+heads. Unsavoury missiles began to fly; but a woman screeched, 'Bad
+luck to ye, ye vagabone! ye've ruinated the young gentleman's purty
+blue umberella!'
+
+'Down with it, young chap,' called another, 'or ye'll be served with
+the same sauce!'
+
+'Serve un right too!' was the rejoinder. ''Tis they Underwoods, as
+never stands up for poor men's rights, and is all for the tyrants.'
+(All this full of abusive epithets.)
+
+'Who said that?' broke out Lance, beginning hastily to close his
+umbrella, and trying to wrench his arm from Mr. Smith; 'I'm ready for
+him.'
+
+But Mr. Smith, with an angry 'Are you mad?' held him fast; and his
+struggles provoked a good-humoured laugh at the little champion, still
+so white and slight.
+
+'No, no,' said a big powerful man, collaring a great lad who had been
+thrusting forward at Lance's defiance, 'we don't have no mills with
+natomies like you! Go home and mind yer own business. Your father was
+another guess sort of parson, and I'll not see a finger laid on you. Be
+off, till we've given that other bad lot a bit of our mind.'
+
+'Not I!' growled Lance. 'I'll have it out with that rascal
+there.--Nonsense, Mr. Smith; I can, I say--and I will!'
+
+But the big man and Mr. Smith were perfectly in accordance this time;
+and without a word between them, the impulse of the coal-heaver's
+weight somehow opened a path, where, shoved by the one, and dragged by
+the other, Lance was at the corner--then round it--the crowd followed
+no farther.
+
+'A plucky little chap that!' quoth the coal-heaver to Mr. Smith. 'You
+may thank your stars that he's his father's son, or it would have been
+the worse for you! And if ever you show the face of you here again, you
+know what to expect.'
+
+'I expect nothing but what I am willing to receive in my Master's
+service,' said Mr. Smith, firmly meeting his eyes. 'Meantime, thank you
+for the help you have given me with these boys. Good morning. You will
+judge me more fairly another time.'
+
+The man added another contemptuous oath to those with which he had
+freely laden his discourse; but Lance paused a moment to say, 'Thank
+you too, you meant it well; but I wish you'd have let me have it out
+with that foul-mouthed cad.'
+
+'Wait till ye're a match for him, and welcome,' said the man. 'Bless
+ye! what could that fist do with Black Bill?'
+
+'For shame, boys! come away,' said the infinitely disgusted Curate;
+and not a word was spoken down the first street; Bernard was still
+trembling with excitement, and Lance, conscious perhaps that though his
+interference had answered his purpose, he had been betrayed into what
+he now saw to have been absurd.
+
+At last the Curate spoke, his naturally harsh voice wavering a little
+between reproach and acknowledgment. 'I am very sorry for all this,
+Lancelot Underwood. I believe you joined me out of a kind and generous
+feeling, of which I am sensible; otherwise, I should feel it my duty to
+report to your brother where I met you.'
+
+'You are quite welcome,' said Lance, coolly.
+
+'And I must say,' continued Mr. Smith, 'that if your whole training,
+as well as your recent severe illness, do not withhold you from such
+associations, at least I entreat you to pause before leading your
+little brother into them.'
+
+Lance made no answer, except to halt at a public drinking fountain,
+to wash away the damage his umbrella had sustained; and there, with a
+serious 'Take care!' the Curate left the brothers.
+
+'Catch me going to his help again!' exclaimed Bernard, entirely
+unconscious that his own gratitude to Lance was on a par with Mr.
+Smith's. 'He may get out of the next row as he can!'
+
+'Ah! Bear! You see how you are corrupting my innocent youth!'
+
+'A meddling donkey! I wish he had a rotten egg in each eye! Now it will
+all come out.'
+
+'What will?'
+
+'Where we have been.'
+
+'That's the best thing that could happen.'
+
+'You don't mean that you mean to let it out?'
+
+'If you expect me to tell lies for you, you are out there.'
+
+'But, Lance, Lance,' in an agony, 'you wouldn't be such a sneak, when I
+trusted you?'
+
+Lance laughed. The bare idea of betrayal seemed so absurd, that he
+scarcely thought it worth removing.
+
+The two were slackening their pace as they saw Felix at the
+carriage-door of a lady customer; and Lance said gravely, 'I'll see to
+Mother Goldie; but now, Bear, that you are out of this scrape, I give
+you fair warning, that if I find you grubbing your nose into that sort
+of thing again, I'll put a stop to it, one way or another.'
+
+'I'm not a bit worse than the rest. All the other fellows do it.'
+
+'Oh, I suppose, if you think Stingo the right thing in dogs, you think
+Nares the right thing in fellows!'
+
+At that moment the customer drove off, and Felix having spied the blue
+sun-shade, tarried at the door to administer a remonstrance to Lance
+on being so foolish as to venture into the noon-day sun. He was not
+able to come in to dinner till it was half over, and then it was with a
+merry look and question, 'What's this, boys, about Mowbray Smith being
+mobbed in Smoke-jack Alley and your making in to the rescue?'
+
+'Oh,' said Lance, 'there was an attempt at getting up a shindy, but it
+was of the meanest description. No one knew how to set about it. There
+was only one Irishman there, and he was a woman.' (This with a wink to
+Sibby.)
+
+'And you didn't offer to fight big Ben Blake?'
+
+'Ben Blake, on the contrary, elbowed us all safe out, because my father
+was another guess sort of parson!'
+
+'And there was a horrible little cad making faces,' exclaimed Bernard,
+unable to resist claiming part of the glory, 'and I was just going to
+have pitched into him----'
+
+'What--you saw the row getting up, and went to stand by Smith?' said
+Felix.
+
+'Yes,' said Bernard boldly; 'and nobody durst lay a finger on him when
+we were on each side of him!'
+
+At which everybody burst out laughing, including Mr. Froggatt, and
+Lance most of all. 'Who was it, then,' he struggled to say gravely,
+'that pulled so hard at the back of my coat? I suppose it must have
+been some little cad. I thought it had been you.'
+
+'Well, it was time to hold you back, when you were going to fight that
+great lout!'
+
+'For my part,' said Lance, 'I think it must have been Smith and I that
+were holding the Great Bear back by his tail from fighting big Ben
+Blake. Eh?'
+
+Bernard, never able to bear being laughed at, looked intensely sulky;
+and a true description of the affair being asked by Mr. Froggatt,
+Lance gave it, exactly enough, but with so much of the comic side
+that every one was in fits of merriment, all of which, in his present
+mood, the younger boy imagined to be aimed at him. He was too full of
+angry self-consequence really to attend, so as to see how entirely
+disconnected with himself the laughter was; all he cared for was that
+Lance should not betray him; and to assure himself on this head, it
+must be confessed that he hovered on the upper stairs out of sight,
+while Felix was lingering on the lower to say to Lance, 'Of course it
+was only Smith's affair that took you into Smoke-jack Alley?'
+
+'Not exactly,' said Lance.
+
+Bernard trembled with resentment and alarm.
+
+'I don't want to ask questions, but you know it is not a nice place for
+yourself or for Bernard.'
+
+'My dear governor, I know that as well or better than you do, and it
+won't be my fault if I go there again.'
+
+'Don't let it be anybody's fault,' returned Felix, and vanished through
+the office door; while Lance, sighing wearily, was heard repairing
+to his refuge in his own room, and Bernard grimly and moodily swung
+himself down-stairs, on his way to afternoon school, believing himself
+a much aggrieved party. Here was Lance, whom he had believed a
+fellow-inhabitant of the Alsatia of boyhood, turned into one of those
+natural enemies, moral police, who wanted to do him good! True, Lance
+had helped him out of his scrape, and guarded his secret; but Bernard
+could not forgive either his own alarm, or the 'not exactly;' and the
+terms of confidence so evident between him and Felix seemed to place
+them in the same hateful category. Worse than all, Lance had laughed
+at him, and Bernard was far too proud and self-important not to feel
+every joke like so many nettle-stings. He had expected an easy careless
+helper; he had found what he could not comprehend, whether boy or man,
+but at any rate a thing with that intolerable possession, a conscience,
+and a strong purpose of keeping him out of mischief.
+
+To detect which purpose was to be resolved on thwarting it. Nor, it
+must be allowed, was Lance's management perfect. He wanted to make
+himself a companion such as would content the boy instead of the
+Nareses; but to cross the interval of amusement between sixteen and ten
+required condescension, that could not but be perceived and rejected,
+nor did he perceive that ridicule was an engine most fatal in dealing
+with Bernard. Of course nothing like all this passed through the
+boy's mind. Lance simply saw that his little brother was getting into
+mischief, and tried to play with him to keep him out of it, but was
+neither well nor happy enough to do so naturally, and therefore did not
+succeed. Yet if he had abstained from showing Bernard a picture in the
+style of Punch, of the real animal and no mistake, and Bernard himself
+pointing to Felix and observing that the governor didn't know what's
+what, he might have prevailed to prevent the boy from eluding him and
+going to Mr. Sims' rat-hunt.
+
+Of all this Felix knew nothing. He still had much lee-way to make up,
+in consequence of his absence, and the excitement in the town told upon
+the business.
+
+Mr. Bevan's reply had been a timid endeavour at peace-making which
+foes called shuffling, and friends could only call weakness, so that
+it added to the general exasperation. Then came the Archdeacon's
+investigation, which elucidated the Curate's moral integrity, but
+showed how money subscribed for charity had gone in the church
+expenses, that ought to have been otherwise provided for. It was
+allowed that the Rector had been only to blame in leaving the whole
+administration to the Curate under his wife's dominion, and as the lady
+could not be put forward, Mr. Smith was left to bear the whole brunt of
+the storm.
+
+His obsequiousness to Lady Price had alienated his brother clergy, and
+his fellow-curate allowed himself to be kept aloof by his mother, in a
+manner that became ungenerous. Half petulant, and wholly ungracious, as
+Mr. Smith's manner was in receiving assistance, only strong principle
+could lead any one to befriend him; and his few advisers found it
+difficult to hinder him from making a public exposure of 'my Lady,' or
+from throwing up his work suddenly and leaving the town, which would of
+course have been fatal to his prospects.
+
+The Pursuivant had a difficult course to steer. Mr. Froggatt would
+fain have ignored the strife altogether, but the original note of
+defiance having been sounded by his trumpet, this was not possible,
+and the border line between justice and partizanship was not easy
+to keep. Whether the young editor did keep it was a question. To
+Mr. Smith, he seemed a tame, lukewarm supporter; to Mr. Froggatt, a
+dangerously conscientious and incautious champion; and the vociferous
+public despised the dull propriety, and narrow partizanship, of the
+old country paper. Finally, on the first Saturday in October, there
+appeared the first sheet of the Bexley Tribune, with a cutting article
+on bloated dignitaries and blood-sucking parasites, and an equally
+personal review of all the Proudie literature. On the Monday morning
+one hundred and twenty-nine Pursuivants remained on hand. Redstone
+took the trouble to count them, and to look into the office to ask Mr.
+Underwood where they should be stowed away.
+
+'I wish he was smothered in them, the malicious brute!' said Lance,
+grinding his teeth, when Felix had given a summary answer. 'What a
+blessing to see the ugly back of him on the 1st of November!'
+
+'I'm not so sure of that,' said Felix, as he sorted the letters of the
+Sunday post.
+
+'Do you think he can do us any harm?'
+
+'No; but he seems a specimen of an article hard to supply at the same
+price.'
+
+'Are those answers to your advertisement?'
+
+'Yes, and very unpromising.'
+
+Lance came to look them over with him, and to put aside those worth
+showing to Mr. Froggatt; but it seemed that an assistant suitable
+in appearance and intelligence was so costly as to alarm their
+old-fashioned notions. He must be efficient, for Mr. Froggatt was
+equal to little exertion, and never came in on bad days; and to give
+an increased salary when the paper was struggling with a rival was
+serious; yet the only moderate proposal was from a father at Dearport,
+who wanted his son boarded, lodged, and treated as one of the family.
+
+'That is impossible,' said Felix, 'unless the Froggatts would do it.'
+
+'Eighteen!' said Lance. 'I'm sixteen, and up to the ways of the place!
+Why don't you set me to work before I have eaten my head off?'
+
+'It would not do for you afterwards,' said Felix; 'I don't like your
+rushing out to serve.'
+
+'But really, Felix, I mean it. I can do all Redstone does, except
+lifting some of the weights; and I am as old as you when you began.'
+
+'No, no, Lance; your line is cut out for you.'
+
+'It was,' said Lance, 'but I'm off it, and no good as I am; and if you
+could save Redstone's salary, you might send Bear to Stoneborough,
+instead of letting him stay here and go to the dogs.'
+
+'Ah!' groaned Felix, 'it is hard that all this should come to upset his
+chances!'
+
+'Are you really afraid those rascals can do us much harm?'
+
+'We have a sound county circulation beyond their reach, but every
+copy they sell is so much out of our pockets; and there are so many
+people possessed with a love of the low and scurrilous, as well as so
+many who differ in politics, that it must thrive unless they stultify
+themselves. Don't look so appalled, Lancey boy; we aint coming to
+grief, only it will be a close shave at home this winter.'
+
+'Then, Felix, let me help! You don't know the comfort it would be.'
+
+'Not so loud,' said Felix, stepping into the shop. Lance stood
+thoughtful, then hearing more footsteps, ran out, and found two or
+three boys come for school materials, and some maids waiting to change
+volumes for their ladies. He gave his ready help; and there ensued
+a lull, for it was a wet day, such as to make Mr. Froggatt's coming
+doubtful. Felix took a second survey of the applications.
+
+'Now, Fee, do think about this; I am in earnest.'
+
+'So am I, Lance; I am very thankful to you, but it is not to be thought
+of.'
+
+'Why not? Am I too small? For that's mending. There's one good thing in
+being ill, it sets one growing. My thick go-to-meeting trousers that I
+left at Minsterham, are gone up to my ankles; I must ask Wilmet if Clem
+hasn't left a pair that have got too seedy for Cambridge.'
+
+'It is not that, Lance, but the disadvantage it might be to you in
+after-life.'
+
+'If I took to it for good?'
+
+'No, no, Lance; one is enough.'
+
+'Stay. Don't shut me up that way. Recollect what this horrid
+donothingness is doing for me. I am losing all chance of the
+exhibition, and they can't keep me on at the Cathedral without, for my
+voice has got like an old crow's; and besides, if I can't read, what's
+the good of standing for scholarships?'
+
+'You will feel very differently when your head is stronger. Besides, if
+there should be anything in what we were told at Ewmouth, it would be a
+pity to get more involved with trade.'
+
+'I thought that was never to be spoken of.'
+
+'And this is my first time. Don't take it as a licence.'
+
+'I could see the sense of that, if it were you,' said Lance, 'but not
+for No. 5.'
+
+'No. 1 would have his place and work found for him, but No. 5 might not
+find it easy to turn to something else.'
+
+'Well!' said Lance, considering, 'you said that possibility was not
+to make any difference to us. Wouldn't it be making the wrong sort
+of difference to let it keep a great lout like me in idleness while
+Bernard is going to the bad?'
+
+'What do you mean about Bernard?' said Felix, now thoroughly roused.
+'Is it worse than you and Fulbert were in your _gamin_ days?'
+
+'I am afraid so,' said Lance. 'Ful took better care of himself than he
+seemed to do, and his friends were decent fellows, not like the lot
+that have hooked in poor little Bear.'
+
+'I suppose it was some scrape of his that took you into Smoke-jack
+Alley. I thought you would get him out best without me.'
+
+'The little dog, he was always after me when I didn't want him, but now
+I can't get at him. In short, there's nothing for it but cutting the
+connection between him and Jem Nares.'
+
+'Just tell me how far it goes. What has he been doing with him?'
+
+'Taking him to see rat-killing at Sims' in Smoke-jack Alley.'
+
+'You couldn't hinder it?'
+
+'No. Indeed, Felix, I did my best,' and the tears sprang into the boy's
+eyes; 'I did all but go after him, for I knew that would be worse than
+no good.'
+
+'You need not apologize to me,' said Felix, laying down his pen; 'I
+have been very wrong. Between this business of Smith's and all the rest
+of it, I have hardly known which way to turn. I knew that I had not
+taken the right line with Fulbert, and interference made him worse, and
+I thought you had taken Bear in hand. Why, Lancey, I never meant to
+upset you. You have done all you could.'
+
+'I _did_ think I was good for that,' said Lance ruefully, 'after all
+our old swells at Minsterham said about influence on the choir and
+bosh. That when it comes to one's own brother--'
+
+The tears were almost girl-like, and Felix's comfort was in the tone
+that suited them. 'Indeed, Lance, you may be doing him more good than
+you know. I thank you with all my heart; you are a much more real help
+and comfort to us all than you guess.'
+
+'That's what you say to Cherry!' said Lance, impatiently. 'Now I can be
+real help, if you would only let me, and then Bernard could go out of
+the way of these fellows.'
+
+'That he shall do, if I have to dip into the Chester legacy again.'
+
+'Better take my way,' said Lance, reviving; 'a young man with good
+references only wants board and lodging.'
+
+'It is not possible, Lance. It would not be respectful to the Bishop
+or the Dean, who have strained a point to keep you. There--I hear Mr.
+Kenyon's voice in the shop. I must go.'
+
+'Only one thing, Felix. Will you hear what Jack Harewood says to it?'
+
+To this Felix readily assented. He was hurried and harassed nearly
+to the extent of his time and capacity; he could not pause to give
+full consideration to his young brother's project, and was glad that
+the ungracious task of silencing it should be imposed on one less
+immediately interested.
+
+John Harewood was always at Wilmet's side after four o'clock. Before
+that time he sometimes went to his home; he often spent the afternoon
+with Geraldine, but he was not usually about the house in the morning.
+So Lance, in a fever of impatience, wandered till he hunted him down
+writing letters in the coffee-room at the Fortinbras Arms.
+
+'Jack, I say, come and have a walk.'
+
+'Pleasant weather!'
+
+'You want to be watered, after all that parching in India. It isn't
+raining now, and such a jolly cool day!'
+
+'Jollier for you than a finer day, mayhap,' said the good-natured
+soldier, who greatly commiserated Lance's enforced idleness, and only
+wondered at his not making it a greater misery to every one else. He
+also understood what the inured ears of the family never guessed, since
+Lance never complained, the distress of Theodore's constant hum and
+concertina to sensitive ears and excited nerves; and had observed that
+Lance had flagged ever since the journey to Minsterham, with less of
+vigour and more of sharpness. Sure that something was preying on the
+boy, he deferred his least important letters, to splash away with him
+in mud and mist, and hear him explain his views, with the fullness
+often more possible towards friend than family.
+
+John was greatly surprised, but did not make any crushing objection,
+and listened with thorough sympathy. He doubted, however, whether Lance
+would be doing any real good, and not only throwing more, instead of
+less work upon Felix. Sensibly enough the boy went into the matter.
+He said that when Felix began, the staff had also consisted of Mr.
+Froggatt, Redstone, a lad called Stubbs, and a boy. Now Felix did much
+more than Mr. Froggatt had then done, and Stubbs was a useful piece
+of mechanism without a head, and Lance believed himself quite able to
+fill the place Felix had taken at the same age; indeed, he had far less
+either to learn or to overcome, and though his arithmetical powers were
+still in abeyance, he had rather excelled in that line at the Cathedral
+school.
+
+'I know, of course,' said Lance, 'that a man from a London house would
+be of more use; but there's this awful salary, and he would never care
+to look after Felix.'
+
+'I allow that; but even if you can be of much present use, is it not at
+the expense of greater usefulness by-and-by?'
+
+'I am sick of that! Edgar and Clem both mean to be of use by-and-by,
+and what comes of it? Edgar has spent Felix's two hundred pounds that
+he borrowed, and now has got his own, all to repay when he is a great
+painter. And he is six years older than I am! Now if I earned my guinea
+a week, as Felix did, it would be real good now, and I should be
+learning the trade for the future.'
+
+'That's the question. First, would the guinea a week make so much
+appreciable difference?'
+
+'Is that all you know about it, Jack? First, I should be earning my
+keep, not eating my head off; and then Bernard might be sent safe off
+to school.'
+
+'You don't mean to say that otherwise he could not?'
+
+'It has been a terribly costly year. There's Edgar. Then Clem couldn't
+settle in at Cambridge for nothing; there's been Alda turned back
+on Felix's hands; there's been illness, and goodness knows what the
+doctors may charge; and there's Felix's outing and mine!'
+
+John answered by opening his pocket-book and showing Dr. Manby's
+account receipted.
+
+'O Jack! You don't mean--'
+
+'Considering that Will was the sole cause of the doctor being wanted at
+all, we could only wish to bear the damages.'
+
+'I hope you have told Wilmet. It would be a ton weight off her mind.'
+
+'I hope she would think the Chapter did it; but if you think she is
+anxious, let her know that it is all right.'
+
+'You are a brick, John! But Felix himself said it would be a close
+shave. I wish I could throttle that Bexley Tribune, and all its dirty
+supporters!'
+
+'Do you know, Lance, I am very much struck with your brother's--ay, and
+old Froggatt's conduct in this matter.'
+
+Lance flushed with pleasure. 'Go ahead, Jack!'
+
+'Of course, for a paper to keep its politics is nothing; but to take up
+the cause of an unpopular man, whose slights have been marked--'
+
+'Who has been a malicious little cad,' chimed in the chorister.
+
+'To take up his cause, simply as a matter of justice, and therewith of
+the Church, without truckling to public opinion, at absolute risk and
+loss, seems to me generosity and principle quite out of the common way.'
+
+'You're about right there,' said Lance, intensely gratified; 'and
+doesn't it make one burn to help the old fellow?'
+
+'Quite true. The question is, which way to help him; and while I grant
+you that the being idle at home just now is a terrible trial, whether
+it might not be better to be patient under it, than to disqualify
+yourself for a line in which you might do more--that is if it does
+disqualify you.'
+
+'What line do you mean?' said Lance.
+
+'Scholarship, the University.'
+
+'That wasn't what I wanted most,' said Lance; 'and as for that, I'm
+disqualified enough by all this waste of time.'
+
+'What was your wish, then?'
+
+'I'll tell you,' said Lance, with lowered voice. 'When I used to lie
+catching notes of the chanting, and knowing that the organ was quiet
+for me, I used to feel that if I got well, I must give up my life
+to it, and study music in full earnest, so as to be a real lift to
+people's praise, perhaps in our own Cathedral. I thought maybe I could
+get in as a lay-vicar when my year is up, and work at harmony under
+Miles, and take a musical degree. But then came that day when the organ
+seemed to be crushing and grinding my head to bits--and of all Psalms
+in the world it was the forty-second! and Manby telling me on my life
+not to try to do anything for I can't tell how long.'
+
+'Was that the reason you sold your violin?'
+
+'No, of course not; except that it was a sin and a shame to keep it for
+no good, when I thought a pound might pull that little ape Bernard out
+of the mire. And I've been asking questions, and find it would take
+huge time and cost to study music so as to be worth anything; and here
+am I, a great lout, not doing that or any other good on the face of the
+earth--as much worse than Theodore as I am bigger. So if I can help
+Felix, when he is fighting the fight in the Pursuivant for God's honour
+and good and right, wouldn't that be a sort of service?'
+
+'So undertaken,' said John, with a huskiness in his voice. 'Well,
+Lance, I will talk it over with Felix, if you like.'
+
+For John Harewood, not having any strong musical bias, did not greatly
+appreciate the career that Lance had chalked out for himself; and
+while thrilled by the boy's devotional feeling, thought it tinged
+by enthusiasm, and had seen enough of Cathedral singing-men to have
+no wish to see him among them. If the loss of time was to prevent
+a University career, he thought book-selling under Felix's eye the
+preferable occupation.
+
+Discussion was, however, deferred by the arrival of a home friend, who
+had sought him out at the hotel; and Lance had to go home without him,
+and wear through the day between dawdling, drawing, and playing with
+Stella, as best he might, till after school-hours; when, eager to turn
+to the account of his wardrobe these moments when Wilmet was free from
+her Captain, he drew her into his room.
+
+Presently after, Felix heard the most amazing noises to which his
+family had ever treated him, and thankful that the wet day had reduced
+the denizens of the reading-room to one deaf old gentleman, he hurried
+upstairs, and beheld through the open door of Mr. Froggatt's room,
+Bernard raving, roaring, dancing, and stamping, in an over-mastering
+passion, and tearing some paper up with teeth and hands. Just then
+Lance grasped his collar, and tried in vain to rescue the paper; but
+he fought with fists, bites, and kicks, like something frantic, until
+Felix, with a bound forward, suddenly captured him, and dragged him
+back, still tearing and crunching the paper.
+
+'For shame! Be quiet! You are heard all over the place.--Shut the door.'
+
+The door was shut by Wilmet, while Bernard stood quailing under the
+stern face, strong hand, and tone of displeasure in which Felix
+demanded, 'What is the meaning of this?'
+
+'That Bernard refuses to wear Lance's outgrown clothes,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Do you mean that this is the cause of this disgraceful outbreak?'
+
+'I--I don't see why--' growled Bernard, 'why I should wear everybody's
+beastly old things.'
+
+'It is right you should hear the whole, Felix,' said Wilmet. 'When
+I showed him that Lance would have some still shabbier clothes of
+Clement's altered for him, he said if Lance chose to be a snob, he
+would not. Lance answered that it was a choice between that and
+petticoats; and then he fell into this extraordinary state, when I can
+only hope he did not know what he was saying or doing.'
+
+'He was drawing me,' bellowed Bernard, 'drawing me in his brute of a
+book!' and he was so infuriated, that words never before heard by his
+sister followed, as he quivered and stamped even under Felix's grasp,
+which at length forced him into desisting; but the command, 'Go up
+to your room this instant,' could only be carried out by main force,
+amid tremendous kicking and struggling, Felix carrying him, and Wilmet
+following to unfasten the hands that clutched at the rail; while Lance
+stood aghast at one door, and Cherry in an agony at another, and Stella
+crept into a corner, and hid her face in terror.
+
+'Well, we never had the like of this before!' said Felix, coming down,
+having locked him in, and heard him begin to bounce about the barrack,
+like prisoners in the breaking-out frenzy. 'Can it be all about the
+clothes?'
+
+'I don't think you know what a grievance the having to take to old ones
+has always been to him, poor little boy!' said Cherry, very nearly
+crying, for Bernard was so much her own child, that in spite of his
+having cast her off, she was in full instinct of defence; 'and he
+dislikes Lance's most of all, because of the Cathedral peculiarities.'
+
+'Ah! you have always humoured him by taking off that chorister's
+frill,' said Wilmet; 'but there _could_ be no objection to those
+trousers. They were almost new when Fulbert left them, and Lance has
+only had them for best one winter.'
+
+Felix could not help laughing. 'Long had she worn, and now Belinda
+wears,' he quoted. 'My dear Mettie, the effect is better than the
+detail. You should spare us the pedigree, however respectable.'
+
+'Well, I said nothing about it,' said Wilmet. 'Was it what you said
+about petticoats, Lance?'
+
+'Lance does tease and aggravate that child unbearably!' exclaimed
+Cherry, too much vexed not to be relieved to turn her blame upon
+somebody; 'and it is very unkind of him, for he knows Bernard cannot
+bear to be laughed at.'
+
+'Hush! Cherry,' said Wilmet; 'if Lance did, he didn't mean it. It has
+been quite too much--'
+
+'Indeed it has, said Felix. 'You had better lie down at once, Lance.'
+
+A good deal more than Bernard's outbreak had gone to the pain and
+dizziness that prevented Lance from even attempting to reply to
+Cherry's accusation, but made him turn quietly back into his room;
+while Felix was obliged to hurry downstairs again; and Alda made her
+frequent remark that 'those boys were really unbearable.'
+
+'Poor Lance! it was not his fault,' said Wilmet.
+
+'You don't know, Wilmet!' said Cherry indignantly. 'I did hope that
+when he came home, my poor little Bernard might get better managed--he
+used to be so fond of him; but he has done nothing but worry and laugh
+at him, and I don't at all wonder it has come to this. I shall go up
+and see about the poor little fellow.'
+
+'Do you mean to let her go and pet him after such outrageous
+naughtiness?' asked Alda, as Cherry moved to begin the difficult ascent.
+
+'I should not do it myself,' said Wilmet; 'but I daresay she will do
+him good.'
+
+Alda held up her hands in wonder. How many quarrels might have been
+going on at that moment, if three of the family at least had not
+exercised the forbearance she so little understood.
+
+Cherry and her Lord Gerald mounted the attic stairs. It was for the
+first time in her life, and she was so imperfect in the geography of
+the upper floor, that she had to open one or two doors before she found
+'the barrack,' with Bernard lying kicking his heels fiercely at the
+beam across the low room. The amazing presence of Geraldine suspended
+this occupation. 'How did you come here?' he gasped.
+
+'I came to see you, Bear. My poor Bear! I am so sorry!' said Cherry,
+sitting down on one of the beds; 'how could you go on so?'
+
+There was rebuke and pain in her voice, and Bernard resented it.
+'They've no business to bait me,' he said. 'I've no peace in my life!'
+
+'But that doesn't make it right to fly into such dreadful passions.'
+
+'I wouldn't do it if they'd let me alone. I don't see why I should be
+the one to wear every one's nasty old clothes.'
+
+'Why, Felix and Clement couldn't well wear yours!'
+
+'It was all Lance's doing. Lance has bothered me out of existence ever
+since he came home.'
+
+'But you should try to bear it, if he _is_ a little cross and tiresome.
+You know he is not at all well yet, and all this has quite knocked him
+up.'
+
+'I'm glad of it!' said Bernard viciously. 'Served him right for setting
+Wilmet on, and then drawing his abominable pictures; as if it wasn't
+enough to have spoilt all my pleasure, and sold Stingo!'
+
+'What was Stingo?'
+
+'Oh, just a dog--'
+
+'A dog!'
+
+'Yes, my dog; and Lance went and sold him, and then drew a beastly
+picture of him and me.'
+
+'But, Bernard, how could you have a dog?'
+
+'Oh, I bought him with some money Travis gave me, and a cad down in the
+town kept him for me; but then Travis didn't give me any more--'
+
+'But, Bernard, you must have known you ought not. Did you get into
+debt?'
+
+'Ay, just for a few shillings; and the brute threatened me so that I
+just asked Lance--'
+
+'Was he such a dangerous dog? O Bear!'
+
+'No, no--the man that kept him. I thought Lance would tackle him
+without making a row.'
+
+'And did he?'
+
+'Ay. He said he hadn't got a penny, and he kept me waiting ever so
+long; but I fancy he got it from Harewood. He might as well have let me
+keep Stingo!'
+
+Cherry's views of the relations between Lance and Bernard had begun
+to adjust themselves, and she began to reason on the impropriety of
+keeping the dog; but she soon perceived that this was only ranging
+herself on the side of the enemy, and exciting the obduracy of her
+favourite, who was determined to be a victim. In truth, Bernard was
+not repentant enough to treat her with confidence, and his world was
+so entirely beyond her knowledge, that she did not possess the threads
+that would have led to it. All that she did perceive was, that much of
+Bernard's irritation was at the endeavour to keep him out of mischief,
+and that her own gentle persuasions were almost as distasteful as
+Lance's jests. She sat on, arguing, talking, entreating, till it had
+long been quite dark; and Wilmet at last came up to say that she must
+not stay any longer in the cold, and to ask Bernard whether he would
+say he was sorry.
+
+'I didn't want her to come here bothering,' was Bernard's grateful
+remark.
+
+'Well, I advise you to take care you are in a better mood before Felix
+comes,' said Wilmet.--'Come, Cherry, it is not safe for you to go down
+alone.'
+
+Cherry could only entreat, 'Do, Bear, do,' and try to kiss the averted
+cheek.
+
+She did not know that as soon as the door was shut on him and the
+little flicker of gas, Bernard fell into an anguish of sobs and tears,
+the work of her persevering love, softening and lessening the obstinate
+pride so far that the next visitors met with a much better reception
+than they might have done. The first came stumbling up with a weary
+step, and pushed open the door, saying, 'Here, Bear, don't bear malice.
+I'm awfully sorry I ever drew that thing! I'll never do you again. So
+shake hands, and have done with it.'
+
+'All right,' returned Bernard, outstretching his hand as one who felt
+that amends were made him, but could not receive them graciously; and
+Lance's weary and confused senses were satisfied. He never perceived
+hard lumps of offence unless he ran his head very hard against them,
+and even now little guessed the amount of annoyance his raillery had
+given.
+
+And next came a quick, resolute tread that made the little fellow
+shiver with apprehension, never guessing at his brother's self-debate
+whether obstinate impenitence ought not to bring the rod, and wondering
+recollection of his own displeasure when Mr. Audley recommended its
+disuse in the fatherless household. Felix held by the spirit rather
+than the letter, and had decided that unless he found submission,
+signal punishment must ensue.
+
+It was an immense relief to him to detect by eye and ear that the child
+had been crying, and to be able to say that seeing that he was sorry
+made it possible to attend to Lance's kind entreaty not to be hard upon
+him. Absolute words of penitence Felix did not try to exact; but after
+a few words of sympathy, which Bernard had by no means expected, on the
+hardship of the second-hand wardrobe, and a reminder of the necessity,
+he proceeded to rebuke for the passionate behaviour, and above all
+for the language Bernard had used; expressing to the full how much it
+had shocked and appalled him, by showing what sort of associates the
+boy must have chosen since he had learnt such words at all, and what
+a shame and disgrace he felt it that one of the brothers should ever
+have uttered them. And Bernard--who had learnt that Satanic primer
+with a certain shame and repugnance, under the strong desire to show
+himself neither girl, muff, nor choir-boy, and certainly would never
+in his right senses have betrayed his proficiency at home--was a good
+deal impressed, and finally began to cry again, and to promise to cure
+himself.
+
+Believed to have thus fulfilled the least pleasing of all his duties,
+Felix went down to his long-delayed evening meal, and therewith to a
+family council. Lance was gone to bed, and his proposal was the more
+freely discussed, as well as his relations with Bernard.
+
+'That boy must go at once to Stoneborough,' said Felix. 'I shall write
+to Dr. Cheviot to-night.'
+
+Wilmet sighed. 'I suppose I ought not to have objected,' she said; 'but
+I did think Lance would have kept him in order.'
+
+'He has tried,' said Felix.
+
+'O Felix!' cried Cherry, turning to him with tears in her eyes, 'I am
+afraid I was unjust to Lance just now, and I am so sorry! Do you know,
+the naughty little fellow had been keeping a dog and got into debt; and
+Lance paid all--I can't think how!'
+
+'That I believe I can tell,' said John Harewood, 'though I am afraid it
+is a breach of confidence. He sold his violin.'
+
+'That violin that I was so angry with him for buying!' said Wilmet.
+'Well, he is a dear little fellow!'
+
+'And I scolded him for being unkind!' cried Cherry, in despair. 'Oh, is
+he asleep? I should like to beg his pardon,' and her hand clasped Lord
+Gerald.
+
+'About the worst thing you could do to the poor boy, Cherry,' said
+Felix, 'when he is only lying there trying to get his head quiet enough
+to let him sleep.'
+
+'Nor must you betray me,' added John, smiling at poor
+conscience-stricken Cherry.
+
+'And it is a mercy the fiddle is gone!' said Alda. 'I used to hear him
+playing it somewhere among the out-houses in the spring, and it was
+enough to distract one, added to Theodore's dronings.'
+
+'It must have been like parting with a bit of his life,' sighed Cherry;
+'and yet Bernard would not mind him, and they _did_ quarrel!'
+
+'Boys who deal well with juniors at school do sometimes fail with
+little brothers,' said John. 'Besides, I observe that where there is
+pride there is always a distaste and dread of those who have much power
+of ridicule.'
+
+'I suspect, too,' said Felix, 'that Lance has made the turn in life
+when one gets superfluously earnest, and nothing so upsets influence. I
+have felt it myself.'
+
+'So all this trouble and vexation has been weighing on the dear little
+fellow,' said Wilmet. 'No wonder he is not half so well as when he came
+home!'
+
+'No,' said Felix; 'I wonder whether the Froggatts would let him come to
+them for a week or two, or whether it would be too dull to be good for
+him.'
+
+'If his mind were settled about the future, it would be rest rather
+than dullness,' said John; 'but I think a good deal of his trouble is
+caused by Manby's verdict, and for that perhaps the best cure would be
+letting him have his wish.'
+
+'You, John!' exclaimed Felix; 'I thought you would have put that out of
+his head!'
+
+'On the contrary, he made me think there was a good deal in his
+arguments. First, as regards you, would he be of any real use?'
+
+'Never mind that,' said Felix. 'I heard something to-day that would
+make it practicable; but I can't have that boy wasted.'
+
+'The point is, what is waste? Now his strongest aptitude never was for
+classical work; and if he is not to touch a Latin book till Christmas,
+and then only cautiously, I do not see what chance he would have, even
+if Will were out of the way.'
+
+'And if not at Minsterham, so much the less anywhere else,' said
+Wilmet. 'Besides, it might be a dreadful risk if his head were to be
+overstrained.'
+
+'And in the meantime, the being kept here doing nothing, and vexing
+himself, is wearing his spirits, and hurting him more than any light
+occupation, especially what he felt to be a labour of love.'
+
+'That is quite true again,' said Felix. 'I quite believe he would be
+much happier if he began working with me to-morrow; but it might be
+letting a mere fit of impatience and despondency fix him for life in an
+uncongenial business.'
+
+'I thought you preferred it!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'Oh yes,' said Felix, with a sort of half contempt in his tone; 'but
+these boys of ours are a different sort of stuff, and we have seen that
+it will never answer to pin them down to plod.'
+
+'Lance would never be like Edgar!' exclaimed Wilmet; 'as if Edgar ever
+thought of doing anything so unselfish in his life!'
+
+'O Wilmet! indeed he _thought!_' cried Cherry.
+
+'Yes, but always of five or six years hence!' said Wilmet.
+
+'Lance is very like Edgar,' said Felix. 'He has what I believe belongs
+to the artist temperament; and that he is the bravest, the most
+uncomplaining little fellow I ever came across, and probably would
+never break off what he had begun, makes me the more anxious not to let
+this access of generosity--ay, and tedium--lead to taking any decided
+step while he is so young.'
+
+'When you come to artist temperament, I don't understand,' said Wilmet.
+'Lance doesn't even draw anything like Cherry or Edgar--much good does
+that do! and as to his music, it would not be much of a living.'
+
+'I believe he thinks that the alternative,' said John.
+
+'For goodness' sake!' cried Alda, 'he doesn't want to get taken on
+in London! To have him singing and fiddling in public would be worse
+than anything. You put that out of his head, I hope, John. Even if he
+changed his name--'
+
+'It never was in his head,' said John. 'He never thought of anything
+but his old line--Cathedral music: and the sacrifice to him is of that,
+not of the chance of the University.'
+
+'That's not so bad,' said Alda, 'because it is a great chance whether
+any one ever heard of it.'
+
+'But I doubt if it be a very desirable life, as things are at present
+constituted,' said John. 'I am not sure that it is not better to give
+the musical talent freely for that service, than to make it one's trade
+and livelihood.'
+
+'I think you are right there,' said Felix. 'I suppose there is always
+some degree of disenchantment.'
+
+'What did you say made his notion practicable?' said Wilmet.
+
+'I've had Mr. Lamb with me this evening--'
+
+'Mr. Bruce's managing clerk,' explained Wilmet to the Captain. 'Does he
+want you to have Ernest?'
+
+'Yes. He has missed the exhibition from the grammar-school; and as he
+can't go to Oxford, fancies (deluded youth!) that he will get more
+reading in this line than any other. He is ready to give a premium with
+him, and spoke what Mr. Froggatt would call very handsomely about our
+house being one where he could trust him. I believe Mr. Froggatt will
+be gratified, and accept him.'
+
+'Ernest Lamb--Serious mutton,' repeated Cherry; 'doesn't he look very
+heavy?'
+
+'Yes; he is bookish without being quick. I don't expect he will be of
+much use just yet, but he is as steady as old Time; and though he and
+Lance would neither of them do alone, yet together I think we could get
+on.'
+
+'Then,' said John, 'does it not seem to you, Wilmet, that it would be
+a greater positive benefit to accept Lance's offer for the present--on
+trial, as one may say--than to leave him to the depression that is
+certainly doing him harm?'
+
+'And if Lance was there,' said Wilmet, 'I should have some comfort that
+Felix would be properly looked after.'
+
+'Whatever happens,' said Felix, 'I shall send Lance out to Marshlands
+for a fortnight, and see if he is in the same mind when he comes back.
+After all, it depends on Mr. Froggatt: and he will be afraid people
+will say we have turned in the whole Grammar-school behind the counter.
+I wonder if Lance is safe not to laugh in the old ladies' faces when
+they ask--What number of what magazine, how many years ago, had a
+receipt for washing anti-macassars?'
+
+By which they knew him to be very much exhilarated.
+
+That fortnight at Marshlands was not wasted. Lance had faculties
+for never being dull. He pottered about with Mr. or Mrs. Froggatt,
+fed their chickens, gathered their apples and nuts, petted their
+cats, tried to teach words to their parrot and tricks to their dogs,
+played cribbage and back-gammon with them in the evening, never had a
+head-ache, never was at a loss or upon their hands, gained their hearts
+completely, and came home wonderfully benefited by the respite from
+noise and harass, and quite decided to stand by his proposal, to which
+the partners, with some hesitation, had finally acceded.
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE, VOL. I (OF
+2)***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 6331-8.txt or 6331-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs6/3/3/6331
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/6331-8.zip b/6331-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58a8f0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331-8.zip
diff --git a/6331-h.zip b/6331-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de90e23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331-h.zip
diff --git a/6331-h/6331-h.htm b/6331-h/6331-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50d3ee9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331-h/6331-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,24667 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Pillars of the House, Vol. I (of 2), by Charlotte M. Yonge</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .51em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .49em;
+}
+
+.p2       {margin-top: 2em;}
+.p4       {margin-top: 4em;}
+.p6       {margin-top: 6em;}
+
+hr {
+    width: 33%;
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+hr.tb   {width: 45%;}
+hr.chap {width: 65%}
+hr.full {width: 95%;}
+
+hr.r5  {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;}
+hr.r65 {width: 65%; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 3em;}
+
+table {
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+}
+
+    .tdl      {text-align: left;}
+    .tdr      {text-align: right;}
+    .tdc      {text-align: center;}
+
+
+.blockquot {
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+a:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; }
+
+v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; }
+
+.center   {text-align: center;}
+
+.right   {text-align: right;}
+
+.caption  {font-weight: bold;}
+
+/* Images */
+.figcenter   {
+    margin: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figleft {
+    float: left;
+    clear: left;
+    margin-left: 0;
+    margin-bottom: 1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 1em;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figright {
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    margin-bottom:
+    1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 0;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+    hr.pg   { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Pillars of the House, Vol. I (of 2), by
+Charlotte M. Yonge</h1>
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+<p>Title: The Pillars of the House, Vol. I (of 2)</p>
+<p>       or, Under Wode, Under Rode</p>
+<p>Author: Charlotte M. Yonge</p>
+<p>Release Date: November 26, 2002  [eBook #6331]<br />
+This revision first posted: January 20, 2014</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE, VOL. I (OF 2)***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Sandra Laythorpe<br />
+    and revised by Clare Graham and Marc D'Hooghe<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.freeliterature.org">http://www.freeliterature.org</a>)<br />
+    using page images generously made available by<br />
+    the Google Books Library Project<br />
+    (<a href="http://books.google.com">http://books.google.com</a>)<br />
+    <br />
+    HTML version prepared by Clare Graham and Marc D'Hooghe</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work.<br />
+      <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44721/44721-h/44721-h.htm">Volume II</a>: see http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44721/44721-h/44721-h.htm
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE;</h1>
+
+<h4>OR,</h4>
+
+<h4>UNDER WODE, UNDER RODE.</h4>
+
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2>CHARLOTTE M. YONGE</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF 'THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE,' ETC.</h4>
+
+
+<h4><i>IN TWO VOLUMES.</i></h4>
+
+<h4>VOL I.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h5>London:</h5>
+
+<h5>MACMILLAN AND CO.</h5>
+
+<h5>1875.</h5>
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<h5>CONTENTS TO VOL. I.</h5>
+
+<div class="center" style="font-size: 0.8em;">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">I.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">THE BIRTH-DAY GIFT</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">II.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE PIC-NIC</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">III.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">FORTUNATUS' PURSE</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">IV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">TWILIGHT AND DAWN</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">V.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">WORKING FOR BREAD</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">VI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">THE CACIQUE</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">VII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE CHESS-PLAYER'S BATTLE</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">VIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">THE HOME</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">IX.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE THIRTEEN</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">X.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">THE FAMILY COBWEB ON THE MOVE</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">THE CHORAL FESTIVAL</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">GIANT DESPAIR'S CASTLE</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">PEGASUS IN HARNESS</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XIV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">WHAT IT MAY LEAD TO</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XV.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">WHAT IT LED TO</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XVI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XVII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">MIDSUMMER SUN</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XVIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">BY THE RIVER</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XIX.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">THE HOUSE WITHOUT PILLARS</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XX.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">VALE LESTON</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XXI.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">A KETTLE OF FISH</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XXII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE REAL THING AND NO MISTAKE</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">XXIII.</td><td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">SMOKE-JACK ALLEY</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE BIRTH-DAY GIFT.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 27%;">
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'O I've got a plum-cake, and a feast let us make,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Come, school-fellows, come at my call;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I assure you 'tis nice, and we'll all have a slice,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Here's more than enough for us all.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 18em;"><i>Jane Taylor.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>'It is come! Felix, it is come!'</p>
+
+<p>So cried, shouted, shrieked a chorus, as a street door was torn open
+to admit four boys, with their leathern straps of books over their
+shoulders. They set up a responsive yell of 'Jolly! Jolly!' which
+being caught up and re-echoed by at least five voices within, caused
+a considerable volume of sound in the narrow entry and narrower
+staircase, up which might be seen a sort of pyramid of children.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is it?' asked the tallest of the four arrivals, as he soberly
+hung up his hat.</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma has got it in the drawing-room, and Papa has been in ever since
+dinner,' was the universal cry from two fine complexioned, handsome
+girls, from a much smaller girl and boy, and from a creature rolling on
+the stairs, whose sex and speech seemed as yet uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>'And where's Cherry?' was the further question; 'is she there too?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but&mdash;' as he laid his hand on the door&mdash;'don't open the letter
+there. Get Cherry, and we'll settle what to do with it.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix, I've a stunning notion!'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, promise to do what I want!'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, do pray buy me some Turkish delight!'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, I do want the big spotty horse.'</p>
+
+<p>Such shouts and insinuations, all deserving the epithet of the first,
+pursued Felix as he entered a room, small, and with all the contents
+faded and worn, but with an air of having been once tasteful, and
+still made the best of. Contents we say advisedly, meaning not merely
+the furniture but the inmates, namely, the pale wan fragile mother,
+working, but with the baby on her knee, and looking as if care and toil
+had brought her to skin and bone, though still with sweet eyes and a
+lovely smile; the father, tall and picturesque, with straight handsome
+features, but with a hectic colour, wasted cheek, and lustrous eye,
+that were sad earnests of the future. He was still under forty, his
+wife some years less; and elder than either in its expression of wasted
+suffering was the countenance of the little girl of thirteen years old
+who lay on the sofa, with pencil, paper, and book, her face with her
+mother's features exaggerated into a look at once keen and patient, all
+three forming a sad contrast to the solid exuberant health on the other
+side the door.</p>
+
+<p>Truly the boy who entered was a picture of sturdy English vigour,
+stout-limbed, rosy faced, clear eyed, open, and straightforward
+looking, perhaps a little clumsy with the clumsiness of sixteen,
+especially when conscience required tearing spirits to be subdued to
+the endurance of the feeble. It was, however, a bright congratulating
+look that met him from the trio. The little girl started up: 'Your
+sovereign's come, Felix!'</p>
+
+<p>The father showed his transparent-looking white teeth in a merry laugh.
+'Here are the galleons, you boy named in a lucky hour! How many times
+have you spent them in fancy?'</p>
+
+<p>The mother held up the letter, addressed to Master Felix Chester
+Underwood, No. 8, St. Oswald's Buildings, Bexley, and smiled as she
+said, 'Is it all right, my boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'They want me to open it outside, Mamma!&mdash;Come, White-heart, we want
+you at the council.'</p>
+
+<p>And putting his arm round his little sister Geraldine's waist, while
+she took up her small crutch, Felix disappeared with her, the mother
+looking wistfully after them, the father giving something between a
+laugh and a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>'Then you decide against speaking to him,' said Mrs. Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor children, yes. A little happiness will do them a great deal more
+good than the pound would do to us. The drops that will fill their
+little cup will but be lost in our sea.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I like what comes from Vale Leston to be still a festive matter,'
+said Mrs. Underwood; 'and at least we are sure the dear boy will never
+spend it selfishly. It only struck me whether he would not enjoy
+finding himself able to throw something into the common stock.'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>He</i> would, honest lad,' said Mr. Underwood; 'but, Mamma, you are very
+hard-hearted towards the rabble. Even if this one pound would provide
+all the shoes and port wine that are pressing on the maternal mind, the
+stimulus of a day's treat would be much more wholesome.'</p>
+
+<p>'But not for you,' said his wife.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, for me. If the boy includes us old folks in his festivity, it
+will be as good as a week's port wine. You doubt, my sweet Enid. Has
+not our long honeymoon at Vale Leston helped us all this time?' Her
+name was Mary, but having once declared her to be a woman made of the
+same stuff as Enid, he had made it his pet title for her.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Underwood's thoughts went far away into the long ago of Vale
+Leston. She could hardly believe that nine years only had passed since
+that seven-years' honeymoon. She was a woman of the fewest possible
+words, and her husband generally answered her face instead of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>Vale Leston had promised to be an ample provision when Edward Underwood
+had resigned his fellowship to marry the Rector's niece and adopted
+daughter, his own distant cousin, with the assurance of being presented
+to the living hereafter, and acting in the meantime as curate. It
+was a family living, always held conjointly with a tolerably good
+estate, enough to qualify the owner for the dangerous position of
+'squarson,' as no doubt many a clerical Underwood had been ever since
+their branch had grown out from the stem of the elder line, which had
+now disappeared. These comfortable quarters had seemed a matter of
+certainty, until the uncle died suddenly and with a flaw in his will,
+so that the undesirable nephew and heir-at-law whom he had desired to
+exclude, a rich dissipated man, son to a brother older than the father
+of the favourite niece, had stepped in, and differing <i>in toto</i> from
+Edward Underwood, had made his own son take orders for the sake of the
+living, and it had been the effort of the young wife ever since not to
+disobey her husband by showing that it had been to her the being driven
+out of paradise.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>ASSISTANT CURACY.&mdash;A Priest of Catholic opinions is needed
+at a town parish. Resident Rector and three Curates. Daily
+Prayers. Choral Service on Sundays and Holy-days. Weekly
+Communion.&mdash;Apply to P.C.B., St. Oswald's Rectory, Bexley.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Every one knows the sort of advertisement which had brought Mr.
+Underwood to Bexley, as a place which would accord with the doctrines
+and practices dear to him. Indeed, apart from the advertisement,
+Bexley had a fame. A great rubrical war had there been fought out by
+the Rector of St. Oswald's, and when he had become a colonial Bishop,
+his successor was reported to have carried on his work; and the beauty
+of the restored church, and the exquisite services, were so generally
+talked of, that Mr. Underwood thought himself fortunate in obtaining
+the appointment. Mr. Bevan too, the Rector, was an exceedingly
+courteous, kindly-mannered man, talking in a soft low voice in the most
+affectionate and considerate manner, and with good taste and judgment
+that exceedingly struck and pleased the new curate. It was the more
+surprise to him to find the congregations thin, and a general languor
+and indifference about the people who attended the church. There was
+also a good deal of opposition in the parish, some old sullen seceders
+who went to a neighbouring proprietary chapel, many more of erratic
+tastes haunted the places of worship of the numerous sects, who swarmed
+in the town, and many more were living in a state of town heathenism.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before the perception of the cause began to grow upon
+Mr. Underwood. The machinery was perfect, but the spring was failing;
+the salt was there, but where was the savour? The discourses he heard
+from his rector were in one point of view faultless, but the old
+Scottish word 'fushionless' would rise into his thoughts whenever
+they ended, and something of effect and point was sure to fail; they
+were bodies without souls, and might well satisfy a certain excellent
+solicitor, who always praised them as 'just the right medium, sober,
+moderate, and unexciting.'</p>
+
+<p>In the first pleasure of a strong, active, and enterprising man, at
+finding his plans unopposed by authority, Mr. Underwood had been
+delighted with his rector's ready consent to whatever he undertook,
+and was the last person to perceive that Mr. Bevan, though objecting
+to nothing, let all the rough and tough work lapse upon his curates,
+and took nothing but the graceful representative part. Even then,
+Mr. Underwood had something to say in his defence; Mr. Bevan was
+valetudinarian in his habits, and besides&mdash;he was in the midst of a
+courtship&mdash;after his marriage he would give his mind to his parish.</p>
+
+<p>For Mr. Bevan, hitherto a confirmed and rather precise and luxurious
+bachelor, to the general surprise, married a certain Lady Price, the
+young widow of an old admiral, and with her began a new <i>régime.</i></p>
+
+<p>My Lady, as every one called her, since she retained her title and
+name, was by no means desirous of altering the ornamental arrangements
+in church, which she regarded with pride; but she was doubly anxious
+to guard her husband's health; and she also had the sharpest eye to
+the main chance. Hitherto, whatever had been the disappointments and
+shortcomings at the Rectory, there had been free-handed expenditure,
+and no stint either in charity or the expenses connected with the
+service; but Lady Price had no notion of taking on her uncalled-for
+outlay. The parish must do its part, and it was called on to do so
+in modes that did not add to the Rector's popularity. Moreover, the
+arrangements were on the principle of getting as much as possible out
+of everybody, and no official failed to feel the pinch. The Rector
+was as bland, gentle, and obliging as ever; but he seldom transacted
+any affairs that he could help; and in the six years that had elapsed
+since the marriage, every person connected with the church had changed,
+except Mr. Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, perhaps, as senior curate, he had felt the alteration most
+heavily. He had to be, or to refuse to be, my Lady's instrument in her
+various appeals; he came in for her indignation at wastefulness, and
+at the unauthorised demands on the Rector; he had to feel what it was
+to have no longer unlimited resources of broth and wine to fall back
+upon at the Rectory; he had to supply the shortcomings of the new staff
+brought in on lower terms&mdash;and all this, moreover, when his own health
+and vigour were beginning to fail.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Price did not like him or his family. They were poor, and she
+distrusted the poor; and what was worse, she knew they were better
+born and better bred than herself, and had higher aims. Gentle Mrs.
+Underwood, absorbed in household cares, no more thought of rivalry
+with her than with the Queen; but the soft movement, the low voice,
+the quiet sweep of the worn garments, were a constant vexation to my
+Lady, who having once pronounced the curate's wife affected, held to
+her opinion. With Mr. Underwood she had had a fight or two, and had not
+conquered, and now they were on terms of perfect respect and civility
+on his side, and of distance and politeness on hers. She might talk of
+him half contemptuously but she never durst show herself otherwise than
+civil, though she was always longing to bring in some more deferential
+person in his place; and, whenever illness interfered with his duties,
+she spoke largely to her friends of the impropriety of a man's
+undertaking what he could not perform.</p>
+
+<p>One of her reductions had been the economising the third curate, while
+making the second be always a neophyte, who received his title for
+Orders, and remained his two years upon a small stipend.</p>
+
+<p>The change last Easter, which had substituted a deacon for a priest,
+had fallen heavily on Mr. Underwood, and would have been heavier still,
+but that the new comer, Charles Audley, had attached himself warmly
+to him. The young man was the son of a family of rank and connection,
+and Lady Price's vanity was flattered by obtaining his assistance;
+but her vexation was proportionably excited by his preference for the
+Underwood household, where, in truth&mdash;with all its poverty&mdash;he found
+the only atmosphere thoroughly congenial to him in all the parish of
+St. Oswald's.</p>
+
+<p>Speedily comprehending the state of things, he put his vigorous young
+shoulder to the wheel, and, full of affectionate love and admiration
+for Mr. Underwood, spared himself nothing in the hope of saving him
+fatigue or exertion, quietly gave up his own holidays, was always at
+his post, and had hitherto so far lightened Mr. Underwood's toil, that
+he was undoubtedly getting through this summer better than the last,
+for his bodily frame had long been affected by the increased amount of
+toil in an ungenial atmosphere, and every access of cold weather had
+told on him in throat and chest attacks, which, with characteristic
+buoyancy, he would not believe serious. He never deemed himself aught
+but 'better,' and the invalid habits that crept on him by stealth,
+always seemed to his brave spirit consequent on a day's extra fatigue,
+or the last attention to a departing cough. Alas! when every day's
+fatigue was extra, the cough always depart<i>ing</i>, never depart<i>ed</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, though it had become a standing order in the house, that for
+an hour after papa came in from his rounds, no one of the children
+should be in the drawing-room, except poor little lame Geraldine,
+who was permanently established there; and that afterwards, even on
+strong compulsion, they should only come in one by one, as quietly as
+possible, he never ceased to apologise to them for their banishment
+when he felt it needful, and when he was at ease, would renew the
+merriment that sometimes cost him dear.</p>
+
+<p>The children had, for the most part, inherited that precious heirloom
+of contentment and elasticity, and were as happy in nooks and corners
+in bed-room, nursery, staircase or kitchen, as they could have been in
+extensive play-rooms and gardens.</p>
+
+<p>See them in full council upon the expenditure of the annual gift that
+an old admiral at Vale Leston, who was godfather to Felix, was wont to
+send the boy on his birth-day&mdash;that third of July, which had seemed
+so bright, when birth-days had begun in the family, that no name save
+Felix could adequately express his parent's feelings.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Underwood had fancies as to nomenclature; and that
+staircase-full of children rejoiced in eccentric appellations. To begin
+at the bottom&mdash;here sat on a hassock, her back against the wall, her
+sharp old fairy's face uplifted, little Geraldine, otherwise Cherry,
+a title that had suited her round rosiness well, till after the first
+winter at Bexley, when the miseries of a diseased ankle-joint had
+set in, and paled her into the tender aliases of White-heart, or
+Sweet-heart. She was, as might be plainly seen in her grey eyes, a
+clever child; and teaching her was a great delight to her father, and
+often interested him when he was unequal to anything else. Her dark
+eyebrows frowned with anxiety as she lifted up her little pointed
+chin to watch sturdy frank-faced Felix, who with elaborate slowness
+dealt with the envelope, tasting slowly of the excitement it created,
+and edging away from the baluster, on which, causing it to contribute
+frightful creaks to the general Babel, were perched numbers 4, 6,
+7, and 8, to wit, Edgar, Clement, Fulbert, and Lancelot, all three
+handsome, blue-eyed, fair-faced lads. Indeed Edgar was remarkable, even
+among this decidedly fine-looking family. He had a peculiarly delicate
+contour of feature and complexion, though perfectly healthy; and there
+was something of the same expression, half keen, half dreamy, as in
+Geraldine, his junior by one year; while the grace of all the attitudes
+of his slender lissome figure showed to advantage beside Felix's more
+sturdy form, and deliberate or downright movements; while Clement was
+paler, slighter, and with rather infantine features, and shining wavy
+brown hair, that nothing ever seemed to ruffle, looked so much as if
+he ought to have been a girl, that Tina, short for Clementina, was his
+school name. Fulbert, stout, square, fat-cheeked, and permanently rough
+and dusty, looked as if he hardly belonged to the rest.</p>
+
+<p>The four eldest were day-scholars at the city grammar-school; but
+Lancelot, a bright-faced little fellow in knickerbockers, was a pupil
+of whoever would or could teach him at home, as was the little girl
+who was clinging to his leg, and whose name of Robina seemed to have
+moulded her into some curious likeness to a robin-redbreast, with her
+brown soft hair, rosy cheeks, bright merry eyes, plump form, and quick
+loving audacity. Above her sat a girl of fifteen, with the family
+features in their prettiest development&mdash;the chiseled straight profile,
+the clear white roseately tinted skin, the large well-opened azure
+eyes, the profuse glossy hair, the long, slender, graceful limbs, and
+that pretty head leant against the knees of her own very counterpart;
+for these were Wilmet and Alda, the twin girls who had succeeded Felix,
+and whose beauty had been the marvel of Vale Leston, their shabby dress
+the scorn of the day school at Bexley. And forming the apex of the
+pyramid, perched astride on the very shoulders of much-enduring Wilmet,
+was three years old Angela&mdash;Baby Bernard being quiescent in a cradle
+near mamma. N.B. Mrs. Underwood, though her girls had such masculine
+names, had made so strong a protest against their being called by
+boyish abbreviations, that only in one case had nature been too strong
+for her, and Robina had turned into Bobbie. Wilmet's second name being
+Ursula, she was apt to be known as W. W.</p>
+
+<p>'Make haste, Felix, you intolerable boy! don't be so slow!' cried Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Is there a letter?' inquired Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, more's the pity!' said Felix. 'Now I shall have to answer it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll do that, if you'll give me what's inside,' said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'Is it there?' exclaimed Cherry, in a tone of doubt, that sent an
+electric thrill of dismay through the audience; Lance nearly toppling
+over, to the horror of the adjacent sisters, and the grave rebuke of
+Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'If it should be a sell!' gasped Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'Suppose it were,' said Felix gravely.</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said Edgar, 'you can disown the old rogue Chester.'</p>
+
+<p>'What stuff!' interposed Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'I'd cut him out of my will on the spot,' persisted Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'But it is all right,' said Cherry, looking with quiet certainty into
+her brother's face; and he nodded and coloured at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>'But it is not a pretty one,' said little Robina. 'Last year it was
+green, and before that red; and this is nasty stupid black and white,
+and all thin crackling paper.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix laughed, and held up the document.</p>
+
+<p>'What!' cried Fulbert. 'Five! Why, 'tisn't only five shillings! the
+horrid old cheat!'</p>
+
+<p>'It's a five-pound note!' screamed Cherry. 'I saw one when Papa went to
+the bank! O Felix, Felix!'</p>
+
+<p>A five-pound note! It seemed to take away the breath of those who knew
+what it meant, and then an exulting shout broke forth.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Edgar solemnly, 'old Chester is a brick! Three cheers for
+him!'</p>
+
+<p>Which cheers having been perpetrated with due vociferation, the cry
+began, 'O Felix, what will you do with it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Buy a pony!' cried Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'A rocking-horse,' chirped Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'Punch every week,' shouted Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'A knife apiece,' said Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'How can you all be so selfish?' pronounced Clement. 'Now a harmonium
+would be good to us all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then get some cotton, for our ears into the bargain, if Tina is to
+play on it,' said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall take the note to mother,' said the owner.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' screamed all but Wilmet and Cherry, 'that's as bad as not having
+it at all!'</p>
+
+<p>Maybe Felix thought so, for it was with a certain gravity and solemnity
+of demeanour that he entered the drawing-room, causing his father to
+exclaim, 'How now? No slip between cup and lip? Not infelix, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, papa, but it's <i>this;</i> and I thought I ought to bring it.'</p>
+
+<p>The dew at once was in the mother's eyes, as she sprang up and kissed
+the boy's brow, saying, 'Felix, dear, don't show it to me. You were
+meant to be happy with it. Go and be so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay,' said Mr. Underwood, 'Felix will really enjoy helping us to this
+extent more than any private expenditure. Is it not so, my boy? Well
+then, I propose that the sovereign of old prescriptive right should
+go to his <i>menus plaisirs</i>, and the rest to something needful; but he
+shall say to what. Said I well, old fellow?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you, thank you!' cried Felix ardently.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank me for permission to do as you will with your own?' smiled Mr.
+Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>'You will choose, then, Felix?' said his mother wistfully, her desires
+divided between port wine for Papa, and pale ale for Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, mamma,' was the prompt answer. 'Then, please, let Wilmet and Alda
+be rigged out fresh for Sundays.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet and Alda!' exclaimed Mamma.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I should like that better than anything, please,' said the boy.
+'All our fellows say they would be the prettiest girls in all Bexley,
+if they were properly dressed; and those horrid girls at Miss Pearson's
+lead them a life about those old black hats.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor dears! I have found Alda crying when she was dressing for
+church,' mused Mrs. Underwood; 'and though I have scolded her, I could
+have cried too, to think how unlike their girlhood is to mine.'</p>
+
+<p>'And if you went to fetch them home from school, you would know how bad
+it is, Mamma,' said Felix. 'Wilmet does not mind it, but Alda cries,
+and the sneaking girls do it the more; and they are girls, so one can't
+lick them; and they have not all got brothers.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be licked instead!' said Mr. Underwood, unable to help being amused.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, yes, Papa; and so you see it would be no end of a comfort to
+make them look like the rest.'</p>
+
+<p>'By all means, Felix. The ladies can tell how far your benefaction will
+go; but as far as it can accomplish, the twins shall be resplendent.
+Now then, back to your anxious clients. Only tell me first how my kind
+old friend the Admiral is.'</p>
+
+<p>'Here's his letter, Father; I quite forgot to read it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Some day, I hope, you will know him enough to care for him personally.
+Now you may be off.&mdash;Nay, Enid, love, your daughters could not have
+lived much longer without clothes to their backs.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes, it must have been done,' sighed the poor mother; 'but I
+fancied Felix would have thought of you first.'</p>
+
+<p>'He thought of troubles much more felt than any of mine. Poor children!
+the hard apprenticeship will serve them all their lives.'</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Felix returned with the words, 'Hurrah! we are to have the
+sovereign just as usual; and all the rest is to go to turn out Wilmet
+and Alda like respectable young females.&mdash;Hollo, now!'</p>
+
+<p>For Alda had precipitated herself down-stairs, to throttle him with her
+embraces; while Cherry cried out, 'That's right! Oh, do get those dear
+white hats you told me about;' but the public, even there a many-headed
+monster thing, was less content.</p>
+
+<p>'What, all in girls' trumpery?' 'That's the stupidest sell I ever heard
+of!' 'Oh, I did so want a pony!' were the cries of the boys.</p>
+
+<p>Even Robina was so far infected as to cry, 'I wanted a ride.'</p>
+
+<p>And Wilmet reproachfully exclaimed, 'O Felix, you should have got
+something for Papa. Don't you know, Mr. Rugg said he ought to have a
+respirator. It is a great shame.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think he would have let me, Wilmet,' said Felix, looking up;
+'and I never thought of it. Besides, I can't have those girls making
+asses of themselves at you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, don't listen to Wilmet!' cried Alda. 'You are the very best
+brother in all the world! Now we shall be fit to be seen at the break
+up. I don't think I could have played my piece if I knew every one was
+looking at my horrid old alpaca.'</p>
+
+<p>'And there'll be hats for Cherry and Bobbie too!' entreated Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't put it into their heads!' gasped Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'No, I'll have you two fit to be seen first,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it's a horrid shame,' grumbled Fulbert; 'we have always all gone
+shares in Felix's birth-day tip.'</p>
+
+<p>'So you do now,' said Felix; 'there's the pound all the same as usual.'</p>
+
+<p>That pound was always being spent in imagination; and the voices broke
+out again.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, then Papa can have the respirator!'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, the rocking-horse!'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, do get us three little cannon to make a jolly row every
+birth-day!'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, do you know that Charlie Froggatt says he would sell that big
+Newfoundland for a pound? and that would be among us all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Fulbert! a big dog is always eating; but there is a
+concertina at Lake's.'</p>
+
+<p>'Tina&mdash;tina&mdash;concertina! But, I say, Fee, there's White-heart been
+wishing her heart out all the time for a real good paint-box.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind that, Ed; no one would care for one but you and me; and
+the little ones would spoil all the paints.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, resumed Wilmet, from her throne, 'it would be the worry of one's
+life to keep the little ones off them; and baby would be poisoned to a
+dead certainty. Now the respirator&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Now the concertina&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Now Punch&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Now the dog&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Now the rocking-horse&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Now the cannon&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell you what,' said Felix, 'I've settled how it is to be. We'll
+get John Harper's van, and all go out to the Castle, with a jolly cold
+dinner&mdash;yes, you, Cherry, and all; Ed and I will carry you&mdash;and dine on
+the grass, and&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>A chorus of shouts interrupted him, all ecstatic, and rendered more
+emphatic by the stamping of feet.</p>
+
+<p>'And Angela will go!' added Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'And Papa,' entreated Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'And Mamma too, if she will,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'And Mr. Audley,' pronounced Robina, echoed by Clement and Angela. 'Mr.
+Audley must go!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Audley!' grunted Felix. 'I want nobody but ourselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and if he went we could not stay jolly late. My Lady would make
+no end of a row if both curates cut the evening prayers.'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame, Edgar!' cried the three elder girls.</p>
+
+<p>While Wilmet added, 'We could not stay late, because of Papa and the
+little ones. But I don't want Mr. Audley, either.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no! Papa and he will talk to each other, and be of no use,' said
+Geraldine. 'Oh, how delicious! Will the wild-roses be out? When shall
+it be, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, the first fine day after school breaks up, I should say.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hurrah! hurrah!'</p>
+
+<p>And there was another dance, in the midst of which Mr. Underwood opened
+the door, to ask what honourable member was receiving such deafening
+cheers.</p>
+
+<p>'Here! here he is, Papa!' cried Alda. 'He is going to take us all out
+to a pic-nic in the Castle woods; and won't you come, Papa?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Papa, you will come!' said Felix. And the whole staircase bawled in
+accordance.</p>
+
+<p>'Come! to be sure I will!' said his father; 'and only too glad to be
+asked! I trust we shall prove to have found the way to get the maximum
+of pleasure out of Admiral Chester's gift.'</p>
+
+<p>'If Mamma will go,' said Felix. 'I wonder what the van will cost, and
+what will be left for the dinner.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, let us two cook the whole dinner,' entreated the twins.</p>
+
+<p>'Wait now,' said Felix. 'I didn't know it was so late, Father.' And he
+carefully helped his father on with his coat; and as a church bell made
+itself heard, set forth with him.</p>
+
+<p>When the service was musical, Felix and his two next brothers both
+formed part of the choir; and though this was not the case on this
+evening, Felix knew that his mother was easier when he or Wilmet could
+watch over Papa's wraps.</p>
+
+<p>And Mamma herself, with one at least of the twins, was busy enough in
+giving the lesser ones their supper, and disposing of them in bed, so
+that the discreet alone might remain to the later tea-drinking.</p>
+
+<p>And 'Sibby' must be made a sharer of the good news in her lower region,
+though she was sure to disbelieve in Alda and Wilmet's amateur cookery.</p>
+
+<p>Sibby was Wilmet's foster-mother. Poor thing! Mr. Underwood had found
+her in dire need in the workhouse, a child herself of seventeen, with
+a new-born babe, fresh from the discovery that the soldier-husband, as
+she thought, and who had at least 'gone before the praste with her,'
+and brought her from her Kilkenny home, was previously husband to
+another woman. She was tenderly cared for by Mr. Underwood's mother,
+who was then alive, and keeping house for the whole party at the
+Rectory; and having come into the Vale Leston nursery, she never left
+it. Her own child died in teething, and she clung so passionately to
+her nursling, that Mrs. Underwood had no heart to separate them, Roman
+Catholic though she was, and difficult to dispose of. She was not the
+usual talking merry Irishwoman; if ever she had been such, her heart
+was broken; and she was always meek, quiet, subdued, and attentive;
+forgetful sometimes, but tender and trustworthy to the last degree with
+the children.</p>
+
+<p>She had held fast to the family in their reverses, and no more thought
+of not sharing their lot than one of their children. Indeed, it would
+not have been much more possible to send her out to shift for herself
+in England; and her own people seemed to have vanished in the famine,
+for her letters, with her savings, came back from the dead-letter
+office. She put her shoulder to the burthen, and, with one small scrub
+under her, got through an amazing amount of work: and though her great
+deep liquid brown eyes looked as pathetic as ever, she certainly was
+in far better spirits than when she sat in the nursery. To be sure,
+she was a much better nurse than she was a cook; but as both could not
+be had, Mrs. Underwood was content and thankful to have a servant so
+entirely one with themselves in interests and affections; and who had
+the further perfection of never wanting any society but the children's;
+shrinking from English gossips, and never showing a weakness, save for
+Irish tramps. Moreover, she was a prodigious knitter; and it was her
+boast that not one of the six young gentlemen had yet worn stocking or
+sock, but what came from her needles, and had been re-footed by her to
+the last extremity of wear.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, Felix and Clement walked with their father to the church.
+There it was, that handsome church; the evening sun in slanting beams
+coming through the gorgeous west window to the illuminated walls, and
+the rich inlaid marble and alabaster of the chancel mellowed by the
+pure evening light. The east window, done before glass-painting had
+improved, was tame and ill-executed, and there was, even ćsthetically,
+a strange unsatisfactory feeling in looking at the heavy, though
+handsome, incrustations and arcades of dark marble that formed the
+reredos. It was all very correct; but it wanted life.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bevan was not there, he had gone out to dinner, and the
+congregation consisted of some young ladies, old men, and three little
+children. Mr. Audley read all, save the Absolution and the Lessons; and
+the responses sounded low and feeble in the great church, though there
+was one voice among them glad and hearty in dedicating and entrusting
+the new year of his life with its unknown burthen.</p>
+
+<p>Felix had heard sayings and seen looks which, boldly as his sanguine
+spirit resisted them, would hang in a heavy boding cloud over his mind,
+and were already casting a grave shadow there.</p>
+
+<p>And if the thought of his fivefold gift swelled the fervour of his
+'Amen' to the General Thanksgiving, there was another deep heartfelt
+Amen, which breathed forth earnest gratitude for the possession of such
+a first-born son.</p>
+
+<p>'That is a very good boy,' the father could not help saying to Mr.
+Audley, as, on quitting the churchyard, Felix exclaiming, 'Papa, may I
+just get it changed and ask about the van?' darted across the street,
+with Clement, into a large grocer's shop nearly opposite, where a brisk
+evening traffic was going on in the long daylight of hot July; and he
+could not but tell of the birth-day gift, and how it was to be spent.
+'<i>Res angusta domi</i>,' he said, with a smile, 'is a thing to be thankful
+for, when it has such effects upon a lad.'</p>
+
+<p>'You must add a small taste of example to the prescription,' said Mr.
+Audley. 'Is this all the birth-day present Felix has had?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I believe Cherry gave him one of her original designs; but
+birth-days are too numerous for us to stand presents.'</p>
+
+<p>The other curate half sighed. He was a great contrast&mdash;a much smaller
+man than his senior, slight, slim, and pale, but with no look of
+ill-health about him; brown eyed and haired, and with the indefinable
+look about all his appointments and dress, that showed he had lived
+in unconscious luxury and refinement all his days. His thoughts went
+back to a home, where the only perplexity was how to deal with an
+absolute glut of presents, and to his own actual doubts what to send
+that youngest sister, who would feel slighted if Charlie sent nothing,
+but really could not want anything; a book she would not read, a jewel
+could seldom get a turn of being worn, a trinket would only be fresh
+lumber for her room. Then he revolved the possibilities of making Felix
+a present, without silencing his father's confidences, and felt that
+it could not be done in any direct manner at present; nay, that it
+could hardly add to the radiant happiness of the boy, who rushed across
+the road, almost under the nose of the railway-omnibus horses, and
+exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'He will let us have it for nothing, Father! He says it would be hiring
+it out, and he can't do that: but he would esteem it a great favour
+if we would go in it, and not pay anything, except just a shilling to
+Harris for a pint of beer. Won't it be jolly, Father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Spicy would be more appropriate,' said Mr. Underwood, laughing, as the
+vehicle in question drew up at the shop door, with Mr. Harper's name
+and all his groceries inscribed in gold letters upon the awning.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm so glad I thought of Harper's,' continued Felix. 'I asked him
+instead of Buff, because I knew Mamma would want it to be covered. Now
+there's lots of room; and we boys will walk up all the hills.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope there is room for me, Felix,' suggested Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'Or,' suggested Mr. Underwood, 'you might, like John Gilpin, "ride on
+horseback after we."'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix looks non-content,' said Mr. Audley. 'I am afraid I was not in
+his programme. Speak out&mdash;let us have it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why,' said Felix, looking down, 'our little ones all wanted to have
+you; but then we thought we should all be obliged to come home too
+soon, unless you took the service for Papa.'</p>
+
+<p>'He certainly ought not to go to church after it,' said Mr. Audley;
+'but I can settle that by riding home in good time. What's the day?'</p>
+
+<p>'The day after the girls' break-up, if you please,' said Felix, still
+not perfectly happy, but unable to help himself; and manifesting quite
+enough reluctance to make his father ask, as soon as they had parted,
+what made him so ungracious.</p>
+
+<p>'Only, Papa,' said Felix frankly, 'that we know that you and he will
+get into some Church talk, and then you'll be of no use; and we wanted
+to have it all to ourselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Take care, Felix,' said Mr. Underwood; 'large families are apt to get
+into a state of savage exclusiveness.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix had to bear the drawback, and the groans it caused from Wilmet,
+Edgar, and Fulbert: the rest decidedly rejoiced. And Mr. Underwood
+privately confided the objection to his friend, observing merrily that
+they would bind themselves by a promise not to talk shop throughout the
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>It was a brilliantly happy week. Pretty hats, bound with dark blue
+velvet, and fresh black silk jackets, were squeezed out of the four
+pounds, with the help of a few shillings out of the intended hire of
+the van, and were the glory of the whole family, both of those who were
+to wear them and those who were not.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday evening, just as the four elder young people were about
+to sally forth to do the marketing for their pic-nic, a great hamper
+made its appearance in the passage, addressed to F. C. Underwood,
+Esq., and with nothing to pay. Only there was a note fastened to the
+side, saying, 'Dear Felix, pray let the spicy van find room for my
+contribution to your pic-nic. I told my mother to send me what was
+proper from home.&mdash;C. S. A.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Underwood was dragged out to superintend the unpacking, which
+she greatly advised should be merely a surface investigation. That
+was quite enough, however, to assure her that for Felix to lay in any
+provision, except the tea and the bread she had already promised, would
+be entirely superfluous. The girls were disappointed of their cookery;
+but derived consolation from the long walk with the brothers, in which
+a cake of good carmine and a lump of gamboge were purchased for Cherry,
+and two penny dolls for Robina and Angela. What would become of the
+rest of the pound?</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday, the offertory was, as usual on ordinary occasions, rather
+scanty; but there was one half-sovereign; and Mr. Underwood was
+convinced that it had come from under the one white surplice that had
+still remained on the choir boys' bench.</p>
+
+<p>He stayed in the vestry after the others to count and take care of
+the offerings, and as he took up the gold, he could not but look at
+his son, who was waiting for him, and who flushed all over as he met
+his eye. 'Yes, Papa, I wanted to tell you&mdash;I did grudge it at first,'
+he said hoarsely. 'I knew it was the tithe; but it seemed so much
+away from them all. I settled that two shillings was the tenth of my
+own share, and I would give that to-day; and then came Mr. Harper's
+kindness about the van; and next, when I was thinking how I could
+save the tenth part without stinting everybody, came all Mr. Audley's
+hamper. It is very strange and happy, Papa, and I have still something
+left.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe,' said Mr. Underwood, 'that you will find the considering
+the tithe as not your own, is the safest way of keeping poverty from
+grinding you, or wealth from spoiling you.'</p>
+
+<p>And very affectionately he leant on his son's shoulder all the way
+home; while Mr. Audley was at luncheon at the Rectory with my Lady, and
+her twelve years old daughter.</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma,' said Miss Price, 'did you see the Underwoods in new hats?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course I did, my dear. They were quite conspicuous enough; but when
+people make a great deal of their poverty, they always do break out in
+the most unexpected ways.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are pretty girls,' said the Rector, rather dreamily, 'and I
+suppose they must have new clothes sometimes.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will always find,' proceeded Lady Price without regard, 'that
+people of that sort have a wonderful eye to the becoming&mdash;nothing
+economical for them! I am sorry for Mr. Underwood, his wife is bringing
+up a set of fine ladies, who will trust to their pretty looks, and be
+quite above doing anything for themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think Wilmet and Alda Underwood so very pretty, Mr. Audley?'
+inquired Miss Price, turning her precocious eyes upon him.</p>
+
+<p>'Remarkably so,' Mr. Audley replied, with a courteous setting-down tone
+that was the only thing that ever approached to subduing Miss Price,
+and which set her pouting without an answer.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a great misfortune to girls in that station of life to have that
+painted-doll sort of beauty,' added my Lady; 'and what was it I heard
+about a pic-nic party?'</p>
+
+<p>'No party, my dear,' replied the Rector, 'only a little fresh air for
+the family&mdash;a day in Centry Park. Felix spends his birth-day present
+from his godfather in taking them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! I always was sure they had rich friends, though they keep it so
+close. Never let me hear of their poverty after this.'</p>
+
+<p>Answers only rendered it worse, so my Lady had it her own way, and not
+being known to the public in St. Oswald's Buildings, did not trouble
+them much. Yet there was a certain deference to public opinion there,
+when Alda was heard pouting, 'Felix, why did you go to that horrid
+Harper? Just fancy Miss Price seeing us!'</p>
+
+<p>'Who cares for a stuck-up thing like Miss Price?' growled Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't care for her,' said Edgar; 'but it is just as well to have
+some notion of things, and Felix hasn't a grain. Why, all the fellows
+will be asking which of us is pepper, and which Souchong? I wouldn't
+have Froggatt or Bruce see me in it at no price.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, stay at home, then,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'You could have had the waggonet from the Fortinbras Arms,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay&mdash;for all my money, and not for love.'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame, Alda,' said her twin sister; 'how can you be so ridiculous!'</p>
+
+<p>'You know yourself, Wilmet, it is quite true; if any of the girls see
+us, we shall be labelled "The Groceries."'</p>
+
+<p>'Get inside far enough, and they will not see you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, but there'll be that disgusting little Bobbie and Lance sitting in
+the front, making no end of row,' said Edgar; 'and the whole place will
+know that Mr. Underwood and his family are going out for a spree in old
+Harper's van! Pah! I shall walk.'</p>
+
+<p>'So shall I,' said Alda, 'at least till we are out of the town; but
+that won't do any good if those children will make themselves so
+horridly conspicuous. Could not we have the thing to meet us somewhere
+out of town, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'And how would you get Cherry there, or Mamma? Or Baby?&mdash;No, no, if you
+are too genteel for the van, you may walk.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE PIC-NIC.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 30%;">
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'There, on a slope of orchard, Francis laid</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A damask napkin, wrought with horse and hound;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Brought out a dusky loaf that smelt of home,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And, half-cut down, a pasty costly made,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Where quail and pigeon, lark and leveret lay,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Like fossils of the rock, with golden yolks</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Imbedded and injellied; last, with these</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A flask of cider from his father's vats,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Prime which I knew;&mdash;and so we sat and ate.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 15em;"><i>Tennyson.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>No. 8, St. Oswald's Buildings was a roomy house, which owed its
+cheapness to its situation, this being neither in the genteel nor the
+busy part of Bexley. It was tall and red, and possessed a good many
+rooms, and it looked out into a narrow street, the opposite side of
+which consisted of the long wall of a brewery, which was joined farther
+on to that of the stable-yard of the Fortinbras Arms, the principal
+hotel, which had been much frequented in old posting days, and
+therefore had offices on a large scale. Only their side, however, was
+presented to St. Oswald's Buildings, the front, with its arched 'porte
+cochčre,' being in the High Street, as it was still called, though it
+was a good deal outshone by the newer part of the town.</p>
+
+<p>The next-door neighbours of No. 8 were on the one hand a carpenter's
+yard, the view of which was charming to the children, and the noises
+not <i>too</i> obnoxious to their parents; and on the other the Rectory
+garden, which separated them from the churchyard, now of course
+disused. It had no entrance towards their lane; and to reach the
+church, it was necessary to turn the corner of the wall, and go in
+through the south porch, which opened close upon the High Street.</p>
+
+<p>In this old street lay the two buildings that chiefly concerned the
+young Underwoods, <i>i.e.</i> the two schools. That for boys was an old
+foundation, which had fallen into decay, and had been reformed and
+revivified in nineteenth-century fashion, to suit the requirements
+of the town. The place, though in the south of England, had become
+noted as a pottery, owing partly to the possession of large fields
+of a peculiar clay, which was so bad for vegetable growth, as to
+proclaim its destiny to become pots and pans, partly to its convenient
+neighbourhood to the rising seaport of Dearport, which was only an hour
+from it by railway. The old St. Oswald's school had been moulded under
+the influence of new comers, who had upset the rules of the founder,
+and arranged the terms on the broadest principles of liberality,
+bringing, instead of the drowsy old clerical master, a very brisk
+and lively young layman, who had a knack of conveying instruction of
+multifarious kinds such as had never occurred to his predecessor.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood had a certain liking for the man, and when tolerably
+well, enjoyed the breaking a lance with him over his many crude
+heterodoxies; but he did not love the school, and as long as he was
+able had taught his boys himself, and likewise taken a few day-pupils
+of the upper ranks, who were preparing for public schools. But when his
+failure of health rendered this impracticable, the positive evil of
+idleness was, he felt, greater than any possible ones that might arise
+from either the teaching or the associations of the town school, and he
+trusted to home influence to counteract any such dangers. Or perhaps
+more truly he dreaded lest his own reluctance might partly come from
+prejudice in favour of gentlemen and public schools; and he believed
+that where a course seemed of absolute necessity, Providence became
+a guard in its seeming perils. Indeed, that which he disapproved in
+Mr. Ryder's school was more of omission than commission. It was that
+secularity was the system, rather than the substance of that secularity.</p>
+
+<p>So Felix and Edgar went to school, and were in due time followed by
+Clement and Fulbert; and their bright wits, and the educated atmosphere
+of their home, made their career brilliant and successful. Mr. Ryder
+was greatly pleased to have got the sons of a man whom he could not but
+admire and respect, and was anxious that the boys should be the means
+of conquering the antiquated prejudices in favour of exclusiveness at
+school.</p>
+
+<p>Felix and Edgar were neck and neck, carrying off all the prizes of
+the highest form but one&mdash;Felix, those that depended on industry and
+accuracy; Edgar, those that could be gained by readiness and dexterity.
+Both were to be promoted to the upper form; and Mr. Ryder called upon
+their father in great enjoyment of their triumph, and likewise to
+communicate his confident certainty that they would do him and Bexley
+credit by obtaining the most notable scholarships of the University.
+Mr. Underwood was not a little delighted, grateful for the cordial
+sympathy, and he fully agreed that his own lads had benefited by the
+clear vigorous teaching they had received; but though he smiled and
+allowed that they had taken no harm, he said good-humouredly that 'Of
+course, he must consider <i>that</i> as the proof of his own powers of
+counteraction.'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly so,' said the schoolmaster. 'All we wish is, that each home
+should exercise its powers of counteraction. We do the teaching, you
+form the opinions.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! are we parents still to be allowed to form the opinions?'</p>
+
+<p>'If you <i>will</i>. Your house is your castle, and the dungeons there may
+be what you will.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I cannot have a quarrel with you to-day, Ryder! As long as I
+can show up my boys as tokens of God's blessing on their home, you are
+welcome to them as instances of wits well sharpened by thorough good
+instruction.'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Underwood had likewise had a congratulatory visit that was very
+gratifying. The girls' school, a big old red house, standing back from
+the road at the quietest end of the town, was kept by two daughters of
+a former clergyman, well educated and conscientious women, whom she
+esteemed highly, and who gave a real good grounding to all who came
+under their hands, going on the opposite principle to Mr. Ryder's, and
+trying to supply that which the homes lacked.</p>
+
+<p>And they did often succeed in supplying it, though their scholars came
+from a class where there was much to subdue; and just at present their
+difficulties had been much increased by their having been honoured
+by the education of Miss Price. Seven governesses in succession had
+proved incapable of bearing with Lady Price; and the young lady had
+in consequence been sent to Miss Pearson's, not without an endeavour
+on her mother's part to obtain an abatement in terms in honour of the
+<i>éclat</i> of her rank.</p>
+
+<p>There her airs proved so infectious, that, as Miss Pearson said, the
+only assistance she had in lessening their evil influence was the
+perfect lady-likeness of the Underwood twins, and the warm affection
+that Wilmet inspired. Alda headed a sort of counter party against
+Caroline Price, which went on the principle of requiting scorn with
+scorn; but Wilmet's motherly nature made her the centre of attraction
+to all the weak and young, and her uprightness bore many besides
+herself through the temptation to little arts. Both sisters had prizes,
+Alda's the first and best; and Miss Pearson further offered to let
+Wilmet pay for her own studies and those of a sister, by becoming
+teacher to the youngest class, and supervisor during the mid-day
+recreation, herself and her sister dining at school.</p>
+
+<p>It was a handsome offer for such a young beginner, and the mother's
+eyes filled with tears of pleasure; and yet there was a but&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Not come home to dinner!' cried the children. 'Can't it be Alda
+instead of Wilmet? We do always want Wilmet so, and Alda would do just
+as well at school.'</p>
+
+<p>Alda too was surprised; for was not she more regular and more forward
+than her twin sister, who was always the one to be kept at home when
+any little emergency made Mamma want the aid of an elder daughter?
+And the mother would almost have asked that Alda might be the chosen
+governess pupil, if Mr. Underwood had not said, 'No, my dear, Miss
+Pearson must have her own choice. It is a great kindness, and must be
+accepted as such. I suppose Robina must be the new scholar. My little
+pupil will not leave me.'</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine only heard of the alternative, to say, 'I'll be nobody's
+pupil but yours, Papa.'</p>
+
+<p>While Robina was proportionably exalted by her preferment, and took to
+teasing every one in the house to hear her spelling and her tables,
+that she might not fulfil Edgar's prediction by going down to the
+bottom of the baby-class; and up and down the stairs she ran, chanting
+in a sing-song measure&mdash;</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 25%;">
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Twenty pence are one and eightpence,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thirty pence are two and sixpence,'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>and so on, till her father said, smiling, 'Compensations again, Mother:
+the less you teach them the more they are willing to learn.' The mother
+shook her head, and said the theory was more comfortable than safe, and
+that she did not find Lancelot an instance of it.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a general sense of having earned the holiday, when the
+grocery van came to the door, on a morning of glorious sunshine. Edgar
+and Alda, true to their promise, had walked on so far ahead as to
+avoid being seen in the town in connection with it; and Fulbert had
+started with them to exhale his impatience, but then had turned back
+half-way, that he might not lose the delicious spectacle of the packing
+of the vehicle. A grand pack it was: first, the precious hamper; then a
+long sofa-cushion, laid along the bottom; then Geraldine lifted in by
+Sibby and Felix, and folded up with shawls, and propped with cushions
+by Mamma, whose imagination foresaw more shaking than did the more
+youthful anticipation; then Mamma herself, not with 'little baby,' but
+with Angela on her lap, and Angela's feet in all manner of unexpected
+places; then a roll of umbrellas and wraps; then Wilmet, Fulbert,
+Lance, and Robina&mdash;nowhere in particular; and lastly Papa, making room
+for Clement between himself and the good-humoured lad of a driver, who
+had not long ago been a member of the choir; while Felix, whom nothing
+could tire on that day, dived rapidly down a complication of alleys,
+declaring he should be up with the walkers long before they were
+overtaken by the van.</p>
+
+<p>Next appeared Mr. Audley, with his pretty chestnut horse, offering
+in the plenitude of his good-nature to give Lance a ride, whereupon
+vociferous '<i>me toos</i>' resounded from within the curtains; and the
+matter was compounded on ride and tie principles, in which the
+Underwood juniors got all the ride, and Mr. Audley all the <i>tie</i>&mdash;if
+that consisted in walking and holding the bridle.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the very long and dull suburbs of Bexley were passed, with
+their interminable villas and rows of little ten-pound houses&mdash;the
+children's daily <i>country</i> walk, poor things!&mdash;the two elder boys and
+their sister were overtaken, the latter now very glad to condescend to
+the van.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, how nice to get beyond our tiresome old tether!' she said,
+arranging herself a peep-hole between the curtains. 'I am so sick of
+all those dusty black beeches, and formal evergreens. How can you stare
+at them so, Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>But Geraldine was in a quiet trance of delight; she had never spoken a
+word since she had first found a chink in the awning, but had watched
+with avid eyes the moving panorama of houses, gardens, trees, flowers,
+carriages, horses, passengers, nursemaids, perambulators, and children.
+It was all a perfect feast to the long-imprisoned eyes, and the more
+charming from the dreamy silence in which she gazed. When Felix came up
+to the slit through which the bright eyes gleamed, and asked whether
+she were comfortable and liked it, her answer was a long-drawn gasp
+from the wells of infinite satisfaction, such as set him calculating
+how many drives in a Bath-chair the remnant of his birth-day gift would
+yet produce.</p>
+
+<p>But there were greater delights; corn-fields touched with amber, woods
+sloping up hills, deep lanes edged with luxuriant ferns, greenery that
+drove the young folk half mad with delight, and made them scream to
+be let out and gather&mdash;gather to their hearts' content. Only Mamma
+recommended not tiring themselves, but trusting that Centry Park would
+afford even superior flowers to those they passed.</p>
+
+<p>They reached the lodge-gate at last. They were known, for the Castle
+had been long untenanted, and they, like other inhabitants of Bexley,
+had from time to time enjoyed themselves in the Park; but to-day there
+was a shadow of demur. The gentleman who was going to buy the place was
+looking over it&mdash;but surely&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Horror began to spread over the inmates of the van.</p>
+
+<p>'But did you come by appointment, sir?' added the gatekeeper's wife,
+coming out; 'the gentleman's name is Mr. Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood was obliged to disclaim any appointment; but he looked
+round at the children's blank faces, and saw lips quivering, and eyes
+gazing wistfully into the paradise of green shade, and added, 'If the
+gentleman has not actually bought it, he could not object. We do not
+wish to go near the house.'</p>
+
+<p>Maybe Mr. Audley, who was standing near the gate, added another more
+substantial argument, for 'Oh, certainly, sir,' at once followed; and
+the van was allowed to turn down a gravelled road, which skirted an
+extensive plantation.</p>
+
+<p>Every one now left it, except Mrs. Underwood, Cherry, and Angela; and
+the children began to rush and roll in wild delight on the grassy
+slope, and to fill their hands with the heather and ling, shrieking
+with delight. Wilmet had enough to do to watch over Angela in her
+toddling, tumbling felicity; while Felix, weighted with Robina on his
+back, Edgar, Fulbert, Clement, and Lance, ran in and out among the
+turf; and Alda, demurely walking by her papa, opined that it was 'very
+odd that the gentleman's name should be Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'Less odd than if it was Upperwood,' said her father, as if to throw
+aside the subject; and then, after a few moments' thought, and an odd
+little smile, as if at some thought within himself, he began to hand
+in flowers to Cherry, and to play with little Angela. Mr. Audley had
+gone to put up his horse at the village inn, and did not join the party
+again till they had reached what the children called Pic-nic Hollow&mdash;a
+spot where a bank suddenly rose above a bright dimpling stream with a
+bed of rock, the wood opening an exquisite vista under its beech trees
+beyond, and a keeper's lodge standing conveniently for the boiling of
+kettles.</p>
+
+<p>Here the van was disposed of, the horses taken out and provided with
+food, Cherry carried to a mossy throne under a glorious beech-tree,
+and the hampers unpacked by Mamma and Wilmet, among much capering and
+dancing of the rest of the family, and numerous rejected volunteers of
+assistance. Felix and Alda were allowed to spread the table-cloth and
+place the dishes, but Edgar was only entreated to keep the rest out of
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Geraldine sat under the silvery bole of her beech-tree,
+looking up through its delicate light green leaves to the blue sky,
+not even wanting to speak, lest anything should break that perfection
+of enjoyment. Her father watched the little pale absorbed countenance,
+and as Mr. Audley came up, touched him to direct his attention to the
+child's expression; but the outcry of welcome with which the rest
+greeted the new-comer was too much for even Cherry's trance, and
+she was a merry child at once, hungry with unwonted appetite, and
+so relishing her share of the magnificent standing-pie, that Mrs.
+Underwood reproved herself for thinking what the poor child would be if
+she had such fare and such air daily, instead of ill-dressed mutton in
+the oppressive smoke-laden atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>And meantime, Lance was crowing like a cock, and the other boys were
+laughing at Robina for her utter ignorance of the white-fleshed biped
+she was eating.</p>
+
+<p>'No, Clem, chickens have got feathers and wings, and their long necks
+hang down! This can't be one of them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps it is a robin-redbreast,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'No, nobody kills robin-redbreasts, because they covered the poor
+little children with leaves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you cover me with leaves, if I am lost, Bobbie?' said Mr. Audley;
+but as soon as she found that his attention was gained, she returned to
+the charge.</p>
+
+<p>'Please, did it come from your own home? and what is it, really?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, Bobbie, I am hardly prepared to say whether it is a Hamburg or
+a Houdan, or a more unambitious Dorking. Cannot you eat in comfort
+without being certified?'</p>
+
+<p>'The species will be enough for her without the varieties,' said her
+father. 'You have given us a new experience, you see, Audley, and we
+may make a curious study of contrasts&mdash;not of Audley and myself, Mother
+dear, but of the two Underwoods who seem to be in this place together
+to-day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is it?' was of course the cry; and the inquiry was in Mrs.
+Underwood's eyes, though it did not pass her quiet lips. It was to her
+that he answered, 'Yes, my dear&mdash;Tom; I have little doubt that it is
+he. He was a very rich man when last I heard of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that the man at Vale Leston?' whispered Alda to Felix. 'Oh, I hope
+he is not coming here to insult us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bosh!' said Felix; 'that man's name is Fulbert. Listen, if you want to
+hear.'</p>
+
+<p>'Twenty years ago,' continued Mr. Underwood, 'I thought myself a
+prodigiously fine fellow&mdash;with my arms full of prizes at Harrow,
+and my Trinity scholarship&mdash;and could just, in the plenitude of my
+presumption, extend a little conceited patronage to that unlucky dunce,
+Tom Underwood, the lag of every form, and thankful for a high stool at
+old Kedge's. And now my children view a cold fowl as an unprecedented
+monster, while his might, I imagine, revel in '<i>pâtés de foie gras</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Papa, but we like you so much better as you are!' cried Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'Eh, Cherry!' said Mr. Underwood, 'what say you? Shouldn't you like me
+better if I were buying that king beech-tree, and all the rest of it?'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry edged nearer, mastered his hand, and looked up in his face with
+a whole soul of negation in her wistful eyes. 'No, no, no&mdash;just as you
+are,' she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Some mood of curiosity had come over him, and he turned an
+interrogative look elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Alda spoke. 'Of course, it would be horrid not to be a clergyman; but
+it is a great shame.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Wilmet, 'it can't be a shame for this cousin Tom to
+have earned a fortune fairly&mdash;if he has; but'&mdash;and she pressed her
+hands tightly together as she looked at the thin worn faces of her
+parents&mdash;'one can't help wishing. Why do things always go hard and
+wrong?' and the tears dimmed her bright eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Because&mdash;they <i>don't</i>,' said her father, with a half-serious
+quaintness that vexed her, and forced her to turn away to let the tear
+drop.</p>
+
+<p>Clement said, in his calm voice, 'How can you be all so repining and
+foolish!'</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Underwood, almost in lazy mischief, pursued his experiment.
+'Eh, Felix, you are the party most concerned&mdash;what say you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Most concerned?' Felix looked up surprised, then recollected himself.
+'I don't care,' he said, with an appearance of gruff sullenness;
+but his father could not content himself without continuing in a
+semi-teasing tone, 'Don't care&mdash;eh? Why, this Centry Underwood once
+belonged to our family&mdash;that's the reason Tom is after it. If I had
+not scouted old Kedge, you would be prancing about here, a Harrovian,
+counting the partridges.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't!' broke in Felix, with a growl.</p>
+
+<p>'Never fear, Fee,' cried Edgar, with his hand on his brother's
+shoulder; 'if one man got on in life, another may. If one only was
+grown up, and had the start&mdash;&mdash;' and his blue eyes sparkled.</p>
+
+<p>'I did not know Care's clutch had been so tight,' sighed Mr. Underwood,
+half to himself, half to his wife. 'It is not safe, my gentle Enid, to
+try such experiments. Eh!' rousing himself, 'what's that? Have the mob
+there a right to any sentiments?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only,' cried Clement, shouting with laughter, 'Lance thought you were
+wanted to hold a high stool for Jack Ketch.'</p>
+
+<p>'For a green goose!' shouted Lance, indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' cried Robina, in the tone of one who had made a scientific
+discovery, 'did the goose have a high stool to lay the golden eggs?'</p>
+
+<p>'A most pertinent question, Bobbie, and much more reasonable than
+mine,' said Mr. Underwood; while his colleague gravely answered, 'Yes,
+Bobbie, golden eggs are almost always laid by geese on high stools.'</p>
+
+<p>'I've got a picture of one! It has got a long neck and long legs,'
+quoth Bobbie.</p>
+
+<p>'It is only a flamingo, you little goose yourself,' cried Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'Here is the golden egg of the present,' said Mr. Underwood,
+replenishing the boy's plate with that delicious pie. 'What's that
+beverage, Wilmet? Any horrible brew of your own?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; it is out of Mr. Audley's hamper.'</p>
+
+<p>'The universal hamper. It is like the fairy gifts that produced
+unlimited eatables. I dreaded cowslip wine or periwinkle broth.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Papa,' sighed Alda, 'we only once made cowslip tea at Vale
+Leston.'</p>
+
+<p>'Vale Leston is prohibited for the day.&mdash;Master Felix Chester
+Underwood, your good health; and the same to the new Underwood of
+Centry Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall we see him, Papa?' asked Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'If either party desires the gratification, no doubt it will come
+about.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall not you call on him, Papa?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not before he comes. Mother, some of the wonderful
+bottle&mdash;ay, you covetous miser of a woman, or I'll make a libation of
+it all. Audley, it must have wrung your father's butler's heart to have
+thrown away this port on a pic-nic. What did you tell him to delude
+him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only what was true&mdash;that I was to meet a gentleman who was a judge of
+the article.'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame!' he answered, laughing. 'What right had you to know that I
+knew the taste of Cape from Roriz?'</p>
+
+<p>But his evident enjoyment of the 'good creature' was no small pleasure
+to the provider, though it was almost choking to meet the glistening
+glance of Mrs. Underwood's grateful eyes, knowing, as she did, that
+there were three more such bottles in the straw at the bottom of
+the hamper. And when baby Angela had clasped her fat hands, and, as
+'youngest at the board,' 'inclined the head and pronounced the solemn
+word,' her father added, '<i>Gratias Deo</i>, and <i>Grazie a lei</i>. We must
+renew our childhood's training, dear Mary&mdash;make our bow and curtesy,
+and say "Thank you for our good dinner."'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank Felix for our pleasant day,' said Mr. Audley. 'Come, boys, have
+a swing! there's a branch too good not to be used; and Ful has already
+hung himself up like a two-toed sloth.'</p>
+
+<p>Then began the real festivity&mdash;the swinging, the flower and fern
+hunting, the drawing, the racing and shouting, the merry calls and
+exchange of gay foolish talk and raillery.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood lay back on a slope of moss, with a plaid beneath him,
+and a cushion under his head, and said that the Elysian fields must
+have been a prevision of this beech-wood. Mrs. Underwood, with Felix
+and Wilmet, tied up the plates, knives, and forks; and then the
+mother, taking Angela with her, went to negotiate kettle-boiling at
+the cottage. Geraldine would fain have sketched, but the glory and the
+beauty, and the very lassitude of delight and novelty, made her eyes
+swim with a delicious mist; and Edgar, who had begun when she did,
+threw down his pencil as soon as he saw Felix at liberty, and the two
+boys rushed away into the wood for a good tearing scramble and climb,
+like creatures intoxicated with the freedom of the greenwood.</p>
+
+<p>After a time they came back, dropping armfuls of loose-strife,
+meadow-sweet, blue vetch, and honey-suckle over delighted Cherry;
+and falling down by her side, coats off, all gasp and laughter, and
+breathless narrative of exploits and adventures, which somehow died
+away into the sleepiness due to their previous five-mile walk. Felix
+went quite off, lying flat on his back, with his head on Cherry's
+little spreading lilac cotton frock, and his mouth wide open, much
+tempting Edgar to pop in a pebble; and this being prevented by tender
+Cherry in vehement dumb show, Edgar consoled himself by a decidedly
+uncomplimentary caricature of him as Giant Blunderbore (a name derived
+from Fee, Fa, Fum) gaping for hasty pudding.</p>
+
+<p>'That's a horrid shame!' remonstrated Geraldine. 'Dear old Fee, when
+the whole treat is owing to him!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is a tidy little lark for a Blunderbore to have thought of,' said
+Edgar. ''Tis a good sort of giant after all, poor fellow!'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor!' said Cherry indignantly. 'Oh, you mean what Papa said&mdash;that he
+is the greatest loser of us all. I wonder what made him talk in that
+way? He never did before.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry for <i>him</i>,' said Edgar, indicating his brother. 'He is
+famous stuff for a landlord and member of parliament&mdash;plenty of wits
+and brains&mdash;only he wants to be put on a shelf to be got at. Wherever
+he is, he'll go on there! Now, a start is all I want! Give me my one
+step&mdash;and then&mdash;O Gerald, some day I'll lift you all up!'</p>
+
+<p>'What's that?' said Felix, waking as the enthusiastic voice was raised.
+'Edgar lifting us all! What a bounce we should all come down with!'</p>
+
+<p>'We were talking of what Papa said at dinner,' explained Cherry. 'What
+did you think about it, Fee?'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't think at all, I wished he hadn't,' said Felix, stretching
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>'Why not?' said Cherry, a little ruffled at even Felix wishing Papa had
+not.</p>
+
+<p>'There's no use having things put into one's head.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix, you don't want to change?' cried Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' he said; but it was a 'no' in a tone she did not understand. The
+change he saw that hardship was working was that from which he recoiled.</p>
+
+<p>'That's like you, Blunderbore,' said Edgar. 'Now, the very reason I am
+glad not to be born a great swell, but only a poor gentleman, is that
+so much is open to one; and if one does anything great, it is all the
+greater and more credit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Felix, sitting up; 'when you have once got a scholarship,
+there will be the whole world before you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Papa got a scholarship,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes!' said Edgar; 'but every one knows what happens to a man that
+takes Orders and marries young; and he had the most extraordinary
+ill-luck besides! Now, as Ryder says, any man with brains can shine.
+And I am only doubting whether to take to scholarship or art! I love
+art more than anything, and it is the speediest.'</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was broken, for just then Wilmet was seen peering
+about with an anxious, careful eye.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it, my deputy Partlet?' asked her father. 'Which of your brood
+are you looking for?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't see Robina,' said Wilmet anxiously. 'She was swinging just
+now, but neither she nor Lance is with the big boys.'</p>
+
+<p>'Flown up higher,' said Mr. Underwood, pretending to spy among the
+branches. 'Flapsy, come down! Bobbie, where are you?'</p>
+
+<p>A voice answered him; and in another moment Robina and Lance stood in
+the glade, and with them a girl newly come to her teens, whom they
+pulled forward, crying, 'She says she's our cousin!'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' said Mr. Underwood: 'I am sure you are very much obliged to
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am Mary Alda Underwood,' said the girl abruptly; 'and I'm sure there
+must be a very naughty boy here. He had put these poor little things up
+a tree, and run away.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no! He only put us up because Tina bothered about it!' screamed
+Lance and Robina at once; 'he wasn't naughty. We were being monkeys.'</p>
+
+<p>'Black spider-monkeys,' added Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'And I swung about like a real one, Father,' said Lance, 'and was
+trying to get Bobbie down, only she grew afraid.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was ten feet from the ground,' said Mary Alda, impressively, 'and
+they had lost their way; but they told me who they were. I'm come down
+with my father to see the place.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood heartily shook hands with her, thanked her, and asked
+where her father was.</p>
+
+<p>'Gone out with the man to see a farm two miles off,' she said. 'He told
+me I might stay in the house, or roam where I liked, and I saw you all
+looking so happy; I've been watching you this long time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!' said Mr. Underwood, 'till you captured two of us! Well, we
+are obliged for the introduction, especially if you are to be our
+neighbour.'</p>
+
+<p>'And my cousins will be friends with me,' continued Mary Alda. 'I'm all
+alone, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I did not know,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Are you the only child?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' she said, looking wistfully at the groups around her; 'and it is
+very horrid&mdash;oh dear! who is that pretty one? No, there's another of
+them!'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood laughed heartily. 'I suppose you mean Wilmet and
+Alda,' he said. 'Come, girls, and see your new cousin&mdash;Mary, did you
+say?&mdash;Your name backward, Alda Mary.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mary,' she repeated. 'Papa calls me Mary, but Mamma wants it to be
+Marilda all in one word, because she says it is more distinguished; but
+I like a sensible name like other people.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood was much amused. He felt he had found a character in
+his newly-discovered cousin. She was Underwood all over in his eyes,
+used to the characteristic family features, although entirely devoid
+of that delicacy and refinement of form and complexion that was so
+remarkable in himself and in most of his children, who were all, except
+poor little Cherry, a good deal alike, and most of them handsome.
+There was a sort of clumsiness in the shape of every outline, and a
+coarseness in the colouring, that made her like a bad drawing of one of
+his own girls; the eyes were larger, the red of the cheeks was redder,
+the lips were thicker, the teeth were irregular; the figure, instead
+of being what the French call <i>élancé</i>, was short, high-shouldered,
+and thick-set, and the head looked too large. She was over-dressed,
+too, with a smart hat and spangled feather, a womanly silk mantle and
+much-trimmed skirt, from which a heavy quilling had detached itself,
+and was trailing on the ground; her hands were ungloved, and showed
+red stumpy fingers, but her face had a bright open honest heartiness
+of expression, and a sort of resolute straightforwardness, that
+attracted and pleased him; and, moreover, there was something in the
+family likeness, grotesque as it was, that could not but arouse a
+fellow-feeling in his warm and open heart, which neither neglect nor
+misfortune had ever chilled.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I should have known you,' he said, smiling. 'Here! let me
+introduce you; here is our little lame white-hearted Cherry, and the
+twins, as like as two peas. Wilmet, Alda&mdash;here!'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall I mend your frock?' was Wilmet's first greeting, as she put her
+hand in her pocket, and produced a little housewife.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you! You've got a needle and thread! What fun!'</p>
+
+<p>'The little ones are very apt to tear themselves, so I like to have it
+ready.'</p>
+
+<p>'How delicious! And you mend for them? I wish I had any one to mend
+for. Please show me, and let me do it. I tried to tear the nasty thing
+off, but it would not come. I wish Mamma would let me wear sensible
+print like yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you laughing at us?' said Wilmet rather bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed, not a bit,' said Marilda, or Mary Alda, eagerly. 'If you
+only knew how tiresome it all is.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, being fine&mdash;having a governess, and talking French, and learning
+to dance, and coming down into the drawing-room. Then Grandmamma Kedge
+tells me how she used to run about in pattens, and feed the chickens,
+and scrub the floor, and I do so wish I was her. Can you scrub, and do
+those nice things?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not a floor,' said Wilmet; 'and we live in the town.'</p>
+
+<p>'So have we done till now; but Papa is going to get this place, because
+he says it is family property; and I hope he will, for they will
+never be able to screw me up here as they do at home. I say, which is
+Fulbert? Won't your father punish him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no! You should not have told, Marilda. We never tell Papa of
+little tricks of the boys.'</p>
+
+<p>'But the little darling might have broken her neck.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! life in a large family is made up of <i>might haves</i>,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, I do declare there's a smaller still! What a little duck!' and
+she pounced upon Angela.</p>
+
+<p>'We have a smaller than that,' said Wilmet&mdash;'Bernard, only we left him
+at home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Tell me all your names!' cried Marilda, delighted.</p>
+
+<p>She was perfectly happy, and chattered on in great delight in her
+downright voice, as much at ease as if she had known them all her life.
+She shared their tea, and wanted Mr. Underwood to come and see her
+father at the house; but as she could not promise his early return, and
+it was necessary to get the van under weigh before five, this could not
+be.</p>
+
+<p>However, she would not leave them till they were all packed into the
+van, and then only parted with repeated kisses and auguries of many
+future meetings; so that the children looked down a vista of unlimited
+enjoyment of Centry Park. Edgar, little gentleman as he was, saw her as
+far back on the way as he could venture.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>FORTUNATUS' PURSE.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Out, base mechanical churl!'&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>Weeks went on, and nothing more was heard of 'Marilda' except the
+wishes and wonderings of the children. Alda decided that she was one
+of the heartless fine ladies one heard of in books&mdash;and no wonder,
+when her father was in trade, and she looked so vulgar; while Wilmet
+contended against her finery, and Cherry transferred the heartlessness
+to her cruel father and mother, and Robina never ceased to watch for
+her from the window, even when Felix and Edgar for very weariness had
+prohibited the subject from being ever mentioned, and further checked
+it by declaring that Marilda looked like a cow.</p>
+
+<p>There was plenty besides to think of; and the late summer and early
+autumn rolled cheerily away. The wonderful remnant of Felix's birth-day
+gift was partly applied to the hire of a chair for Geraldine upon every
+favourable evening; and as the boys themselves were always ready to
+act as horses, they obtained it on moderate terms, which made the sum
+hold out in a marvellous manner. And not only were these drives delight
+unimaginable to the little maid, but the frequent breaths of pure air
+seemed to give her vigour; she ate more, smiled more, and moved with
+less pain and difficulty, so that the thought of a partial recovery
+began to seem far less impossible.</p>
+
+<p>The children trooping about her, she used to be drawn to the nearest
+bit of greensward, tree, or copse, and there would occupy herself
+with the attempt to sketch, often in company with Edgar; and with a
+few hints from her father, would be busied for days after with the
+finishing them, or sometimes the idealizing them, and filling them with
+the personages she had read of in books of history or fiction. She was
+a sensitive little body, who found it hard not to be fretful, when told
+that it was very ill-natured to object to having her paints daubed over
+her drawings by Lance, Robina, and Angel&mdash;an accusation often brought
+against her by rough, kindly Sibby, and sometimes even by Wilmet in an
+extremity; while Mamma's subdued entreaty, that she would do something
+to please the little ones, if it could be without mischief to herself,
+always humiliated her more than anything else, and made her ready to
+leave all to their mercy, save for deference to Edgar, and gratitude to
+Felix. Robina would look on soberly enough in admiration; but Lance's
+notions of art were comic, and Fulbert's were arbitrary, and both were
+imperiously carried out with due contempt for the inferior sex, and
+were sure to infect both the little sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Then, of course, so many holiday boys were hard to keep in order.
+Clement had a strong propensity in that direction; he was a grave,
+quiet boy, without much sense of the absurd, and was generally the
+victim of Edgar's wit; but, on the other hand, he was much in the
+habit of objecting to anything Edgar or Fulbert proposed, and thereby
+giving forbidden or doubtful amusements double zest. He was never <i>in</i>
+mischief, and yet he was never an element of peace.</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, was mitigated when the holidays ended, and Lance
+was allowed to follow his brothers to school, while Bobbie importantly
+trotted in the wake of her sisters. Mamma and Cherry felt it no small
+comfort to have no one at home who did not sleep away two or three of
+the morning hours; and the lessons that the little girl delighted to
+prepare for her father went on in peace&mdash;the arithmetic, the French,
+the Latin, and even the verses of Greek Testament, that he always said
+rested him.</p>
+
+<p>And he was 'quite well,' he said himself; and though his wife never
+confirmed this reply, he was everywhere as usual&mdash;in church, in schools
+of all kinds, in parish meetings, by sick-beds, or in cottages, as
+bright and as popular as ever, perhaps the more so that he was more
+transparently thin, and every stranger started at the sound of his
+cough; though the Bexley people had grown weary of repeating the same
+augury for four or five years, and began, like 'my Lady,' to call it
+'constitutional.'</p>
+
+<p>So came the autumn Ember Week; and Mr. Audley had to go to receive
+Priests' Orders, and afterwards to spend the next fortnight with his
+parents, who complained that they had not seen him once since he had
+settled at Bexley. The last week was the break-up of summer weather,
+and Mr. Bevan caught cold, and was rheumatic; there were two funerals
+on wet and windy days, and when Mr. Audley, on Lady Price's entreating
+summons, wrenched himself from a murmuring home, and, starting by an
+early train, arrived half through the St. Michael's Day Service, it was
+to see Mr. Underwood looking indeed like some ethereal ascetic saint,
+with his bright eyes and wasted features, and to hear him preach in
+extempore&mdash;as was his custom&mdash;a sermon on the blessedness of angel
+helps, which in its intense fervour, almost rapture, was to many as if
+it came from a white-winged angel himself. Mr. Audley glided into his
+own place, and met Felix's look of relief. The sermon was finished,
+and the blessing given; but before he could descend the steps, the
+cough had come on, and with it severe hćmorrhage. They had to send
+one startled boy for Mrs. Underwood, and another for the doctor, and
+it was an hour before he could be taken home in a chair. No one ever
+forgot that sermon, for it was the last he ever preached. He was very
+ill indeed for several days, but still hopeful and cheerful; and as the
+weather mended, and the calm brightness of October set in, he rallied,
+and came downstairs again, not looking many degrees more wan and hectic
+than before, with a mind as alert as usual, and his kind heart much
+gratified by the many attentions of his parishioners during his illness.</p>
+
+<p>During the worst, Mrs. Underwood had been obliged to keep one of the
+elder girls at home&mdash;Wilmet at first, both by her own desire and that
+of Alda; but it was soon made a special matter of entreaty by Miss
+Pearson, that the substitution might not take place; the little class
+was always naughty under Alda, and something the same effect seemed to
+be produced on Angela and Bernard. They made so much less disturbance
+when entrusted to Cherry, that the mother often sent Alda to sit by
+papa, even though she knew he liked nothing so well as to have his
+little pupil's soft voice repeating to him the Latin hymns she loved to
+learn on purpose. Alda read or sang to him very prettily, and they were
+very happy together; but then Wilmet could do that as well, and also
+mind the babies, or do invalid cookery, and supplement Sibby's defects,
+and set the mother free for the one occupation she cared for most&mdash;the
+constant watching of that wasted countenance.</p>
+
+<p>But all was better. He had been able to collect his children for
+their evening's Bible lesson and Sunday Catechism, and to resume the
+preparation of Edgar and Geraldine for their Confirmation, though it
+was at least a year distant, and even had spoken of sending for others
+of his catechumens. Wilmet and Alda were both at school, the two
+babies out with Sibby, Mamma at work, Papa dreaming over a Comment on
+the Epistle to the Philippians, which was very near his heart, and he
+always called his holiday work, and Geraldine reading on her little
+couch when there was a sharp ring at the bell, and after an interval,
+the girl who daily came in to help, announced 'Lady Price.'</p>
+
+<p>Even my Lady had been startled and softened by the reality of Mr.
+Underwood's illness, and remorseful for having coddled her husband at
+his expense; she had sent many enquiries, some dainties, and a good
+many recipes; and she had made no objection to Mr. Bevan's frequent and
+affectionate visits, nor even to his making it obvious that however
+little his senior curate might do that winter, he would not accept his
+resignation for the present.</p>
+
+<p>It was enough to make Mr. Underwood feel absolutely warm and grateful
+to his old tormentor, as he rose, not without some effort, held out
+his hand to her, and cheerily answered her inquiries for his cough.
+She even discussed the berries in the hedges, and the prospects of a
+mild winter, in a friendly, hesitating tone; and actually commended Mr.
+Underwood's last pupil-teacher, before she began&mdash;'I am afraid I am
+come upon a disagreeable business.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood expected to hear of his own inefficiency; or perhaps
+that Mr. Audley had adopted some habit my Lady disapproved, or that
+the schoolmaster was misbehaving, or that some Christmas dole was
+to be curtailed, and that he would have to announce it because Mr.
+Bevan would not. He was not prepared to hear, 'Are you aware that&mdash;in
+short&mdash;perhaps you can explain it, but has not your son Felix been
+spending a good deal of money&mdash;for him, I mean&mdash;lately?'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix had a present from his godfather,' said Mr. Underwood, not at
+all moved, so secure was he that this must be an exaggeration.</p>
+
+<p>'Last summer, I heard of that. It was laid out on a pic-nic,' said Lady
+Price, severely.</p>
+
+<p>'It was intended to be so spent,' said the curate; 'but people were
+so good-natured, that very little actually went that way, and the
+remainder was left in his own hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Mr. Underwood, but I am afraid that remainder has been made to
+cover a good deal of which you do not know!'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Underwood flushed, and would have started forward. Her husband
+looked at her with a reassuring smile. My Lady, evidently angered
+at their blindness, went on, 'It is a painful duty, Mr. Underwood,
+especially in your present state; but I think it due to you, as the
+father of a family, to state what I have learned.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you. What is it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you reckoned the number of times the chair has been hired?'
+and as he shook his head, 'That alone would amount to more than a
+pound. Besides which, your daughters have been provided with books and
+music&mdash;fruit has been bought&mdash;all amiable ways of spending money, no
+doubt; but the question is, how was it procured?'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' said Mr. Underwood, still pausing.</p>
+
+<p>'And,' added the lady, 'the means can, I am afraid, be hardly doubted,
+though possibly the boy may have done it in ignorance. Indeed, one of
+his sisters allowed as much.'</p>
+
+<p>'What did she allow, Lady Price?'</p>
+
+<p>'That&mdash;that it was won at play, Mr. Underwood. You know Mr. Froggatt
+gives his boy an absurd amount of pocket-money, and when she was taxed
+with this, your daughter&mdash;Alda is her name, I believe&mdash;allowed that&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Papa, Papa!' breathlessly broke out Cherry, who had been forgotten
+on her little sofa all this time, but now dashed forward, stumping
+impetuously with her crutch&mdash;'Papa, it's all Alda, how can she be so
+horrid?'</p>
+
+<p>'What is it, my dear?' said Mr. Underwood. 'You can explain it, I see.
+Tell Lady Price what you mean, Geraldine,' he added gravely, to compose
+the child, who was sobbing with excitement and indignation.</p>
+
+<p>'O Lady Price!' she cried, facing about with her hair over her face,
+'he earned it&mdash;he earned every bit of it! How could any one think he
+did not?'</p>
+
+<p>'Earned it? What does that mean, little girl?' said Lady Price, still
+severely. 'If he did the boy's exercises for him&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, no,' interrupted Geraldine, 'it was old Mr. Froggatt. He asked
+Felix to look over the papers he had to print for the boys' work at the
+Grammar School, because it is all Latin and Greek, and Charles Froggatt
+is so careless and inaccurate, that he can't be trusted.'</p>
+
+<p>The faces of the father and mother had entirely cleared; but Lady Price
+coughed drily, saying, 'And you did not know of this arrangement?'</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's eyes began to twinkle with tears. 'I don't know what Felix
+will say to me for telling now,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>'It must have come to light some time, though concealment is always a
+proof of shame,' began Lady Price in a consoling tone that filled the
+little lame girl with a fresh passion, drawing up her head.</p>
+
+<p>'Shame! Nobody's ashamed! Only Mamma and Felix and Wilmet never will
+bear that Papa should know how terribly we do want things sometimes.'</p>
+
+<p>And Geraldine, overpowered by her own unguarded words, ran into her
+mother's arms, and hid her face on her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Lady Price,' said Mr. Underwood gravely. 'I am glad my
+little girl has been able to satisfy you that Felix has honestly earned
+whatever he may have spent.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you are satisfied,' returned the lady, 'it is not my affair; but I
+must say I should like to know of such transactions among my children.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sometimes one is glad to have a boy to be perfectly trusted,' said Mr.
+Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>'But you will speak to him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly I shall.'</p>
+
+<p>Lady Price felt that she must go, and rose up with an endeavour to
+retract. 'Well, it is a relief to Mr. Bevan and me to find your son not
+consciously in fault, for it would have been a most serious thing. And
+in such a matter as this, of course you can do as <i>you</i> please.'</p>
+
+<p>To this Mr. Underwood made no reply, as none was necessary, but only
+saw her out to the door in that extremely polite manner that always
+made her feel smallest; and then he dropped into his chair again, with
+a curl of the lip, and the murmur, 'Not consciously!'</p>
+
+<p>'O Papa, Papa!' cried Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Felix!' said the mother, with tears in her eyes; 'but what can
+Alda have been saying?'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry was about to speak again, but her father gently put her aside.
+'A little quietness now, if you please, my dear; and send Felix to me
+when he comes in. Let me have him alone, but don't say anything to him.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no need to send Felix to his father, for he came in of his
+own accord, radiant, with a paper containing a report of a public
+meeting on Church matters that his father had been wishing to see.</p>
+
+<p>'Thanks, my boy,' said Mr. Underwood; 'where does this come from?'</p>
+
+<p>'From Froggatt's, father. It was only fourpence.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Felix, repeated fourpences must exhaust even that Fortunatus'
+purse of Admiral Chester's.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix coloured. 'Yes, Papa, I wanted to tell you; but I waited till you
+were better.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will hardly find a better time than the present,' said Mr
+Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>'It is only this,' said Felix, with a little hesitation. 'You
+know there's a good deal of printing to be done for the school
+sometimes&mdash;the questions in Latin and Greek and Algebra, and even
+when Mr. Ryder does have the proofs, it wants some one who really
+understands to see that the corrections are properly done. Old Smith
+used to do it, by real force of Chinese accuracy, but he has been ill
+for some time, and Mr. Froggatt can't see to do it himself, and Charlie
+won't, and can't be trusted either. So one day, when I was reading in
+the shop, Mr. Froggatt asked me to see if a thing was right; and it
+went on: he asked me after a time to take anything I liked, and I did
+get some school books we all wanted; but after that, just when you
+were ill, I could not help telling him I had rather have the money. O
+Father!' cried the boy, struck by a certain look of distress, 'did I do
+wrong?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not in the least, my boy. Go on; what does he give you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly at the rate he gave Smith for doing the same work,' said
+Felix: 'it always was an extra for being so troublesome. It was seven
+shillings last week&mdash;generally it comes to three or four and sixpence.'</p>
+
+<p>'And when do you do it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I run in after I come out of school for half an hour. Last Saturday
+I corrected a sheet of the Pursuivant, because Mr. Froggatt had to go
+out, and that made it more. And, Father, Mr. Froggatt says that poor
+old Smith will never be fit for work again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I suppose these welcome earnings of yours will end when he has a
+successor?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix came nearer. 'Papa,' he said, 'Mr. Froggatt told me that if
+Charlie would only have taken to the work, he would have done without
+another man in Smith's place, and got him gradually into editing the
+paper too. He said he wished I was not a gentleman's son, for if I
+had not been so I should have suited him exactly, and should be worth
+a guinea a week even now. And, Father, do not you really think I had
+better take it?'</p>
+
+<p>'You, Felix!' Mr. Underwood was exceedingly startled for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>'You see,' said Felix rather grimly, leaning his head on the
+mantelshelf, and looking into the fire, 'any other way I can only be an
+expense for years upon years, even if I did get a scholarship.'</p>
+
+<p>His face was crimson, and his teeth set. Mr. Underwood lay back in his
+chair for some seconds; then said in a low voice, 'I see you know all
+about it, Felix; and that I am going to leave you as heavy a burthen as
+ever lad took on willing shoulders.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix knew well enough, but his father had never uttered a word of
+despondency to him before, and he could only go on gazing steadfastly
+into the fire with an inarticulate moan.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood opened the first leaf of a volume of St. Augustine,
+beside him, a relic of former days, the family shield and motto
+within&mdash;namely, a cross potent, or crutch-shaped, and the old English
+motto, 'Under Wode, Under Rode.'</p>
+
+<p>'Under wood, under rood,' he repeated. 'It was once but sing-song to
+me. Now what a sermon! The load is the Cross. Bear thy cross, and thy
+cross will bear thee, like little Geraldine's cross potent&mdash;Rod and
+Rood, Cross and Crutch&mdash;all the same etymologically and veritably.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't call them a burthen, pray!' said Felix, with a sense both of
+deprecation and of being unable to turn to the point.</p>
+
+<p>'My boy, I am afraid I was thinking more of myself than of you. I am
+an ungrateful fool; and when a crutch is offered to me, I take hold of
+it as a log instead of a rood. I did not know how much pride there was
+left in me till I found what a bitter pill this is!'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was more crimson than ever. 'Ought I not&mdash;' he began.</p>
+
+<p>'The <i>ought</i> is not on your side, Felix. It is not all folly, I hope;
+but I had thought you would have been a better parson than your father.'</p>
+
+<p>There were tears in the boy's eyes now. 'There are the others; I may be
+able to help them.'</p>
+
+<p>'And,' added Mr. Underwood, 'I know that to be a really poor priest,
+there should be no one dependent on one, or it becomes, "Put me into
+one of the priest's offices, that I may eat a piece of bread." It is
+lowering! Yes, you are right. Even suppose you could be educated,
+by the time you were ordained, you would still have half these poor
+children on your hands, and it would only be my own story over again,
+and beginning younger. You are right, Felix; but I never saw the
+impossibility so fully before. I am glad some inward doubt held me back
+from the impulse to dedicate my first-born.'</p>
+
+<p>'It shall be one of the others instead,' said Felix in his throat.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood smiled a little, and put his finger on the verse in his
+beloved Epistle&mdash;'Look not every man on his own things but every man
+also on the things of others.'</p>
+
+<p>'You really wish this. Do you consider what it involves?' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I do,' said Felix in a stifled voice.</p>
+
+<p>'This is not as if it were a great publisher,' continued Mr. Underwood,
+'with whom there would be no loss of position or real society; but a
+little bookseller in a country town is a mere tradesman, and though a
+man like Audley may take you up from time to time, it will never be on
+an absolute equality; and it will be more and more forgotten who you
+were. You will have to live in yourself and your home, <i>depending</i> on
+no one else.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can stand that,' said Felix, smiling. 'Father, indeed I thought of
+all that. Of course I don't like it, but I don't see how it is to be
+helped.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sit down, Felix: let us go over it again. I suppose you don't know
+what our subsistence is at present.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know you have Ł250 a year from Mr. Bevan.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I had Ł200 at first, and he added the Ł50 when the third curate
+was given up. That goes with me, of course, if not before. On the other
+hand, my poor good uncle, the wisest thing he ever did, made me insure
+my life for Ł5000, so there will be Ł150 a year to depend on, besides
+what we had of our own, only Ł2,350 left of it now. I have had to
+break into it for the doctor's bills, but at least there are no debts.
+Thank God, we have been saved from debt! I think,' he continued, 'that
+probably it will have to be brought down to twenty-two hundred before
+you have done with me. On the whole, then, there will be about Ł180 a
+year for you all to live upon. Are you understanding, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>For the boy's anxious look had gone out of his face, and given place to
+a stunned expression which was only dispelled with a sudden start by
+his father's inquiry. 'Yes, yes,' he said recalling himself.</p>
+
+<p>'I have left it all absolutely to your mother,' said Mr. Underwood.
+'She will depend more and more on you, Felix; and I have made up my
+mind to expect that no help will come to you but from yourselves.
+Except that I hope some of you may be educated by clergy orphan
+schools, but you are too old for that now. Felix, I believe it may be
+right, but it is very sore to break off your education.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall try to keep it up,' said Felix, 'in case anything should ever
+turn up.'</p>
+
+<p>'A guinea a week!' said Mr. Underwood, thoughtfully. 'It would make you
+all not much worse off than you are now, when I am out of the way. And
+yet&mdash;' A violent cough came on. 'We must wait, Felix,' he said, when he
+had recovered himself. 'I must have time to think; I will speak to you
+to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix left him, very grave and subdued. He buried himself in his tasks
+for the next day, hardly looked up or smiled at little Bernard's most
+earnest attempts at a game of play, and had not a word for even Cherry,
+only when Wilmet begged anxiously to know if he thought Papa worse, he
+answered that he believed not particularly so.</p>
+
+<p>Alda was sent to carry some tea to her father that evening. As she
+set it down on the table before him, he said gently, 'My dear, I want
+to know what has been passing among you and your school-fellows about
+Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, nothing, Papa,' said Alda rather hastily. 'Some nonsense or other
+is always going on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very true, no doubt; nor do I wish to be informed of general nonsense,
+but of that which concerns you. What have you been saying or hearing
+said about Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it's nonsense, Papa. Some of the girls will say anything
+disagreeable.'</p>
+
+<p>'You need not have any scruples on Felix's account, Alda; I know
+exactly what he has done. I want you to tell me what is being said&mdash;or
+you have allowed to be said&mdash;about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'That horrible Miss Price!' was all the answer he got.</p>
+
+<p>He sat upright&mdash;laid on Alda's wrist a long bony burning hand, whose
+clasp she did not forget for weeks, and forcing her to look at him,
+said, 'Did you allow it to be believed that your brother Felix was a
+gambler?'</p>
+
+<p>'Papa! I never said so!' cried Alda, beginning to sob.</p>
+
+<p>'Command yourself, Alda; I am not fit for a scene, and I may not be
+able to speak to you many times again.'</p>
+
+<p>These words&mdash;far more new and startling to Alda than to her
+brother&mdash;appalled her into quietness.</p>
+
+<p>'What did you say, Alda? or was it the deceit of silence?'</p>
+
+<p>She hung her head, but spoke at last.</p>
+
+<p>'I only said boys had ways and means! They did tease and plague so.
+I do believe Carry Price counts every grape that goes into this
+house&mdash;and they would know how I got my new music&mdash;and little Robina
+would tell&mdash;and then came something about Mr. Froggatt; and if they
+knew&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'If they knew what?'</p>
+
+<p>'Papa, you have no idea how nasty some of them are.'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor child, I am afraid I have some idea by seeing how nasty they
+are making you! Gambling more creditable than honest labour!'</p>
+
+<p>Alda had it on the tip of her tongue to say winning things was not
+gambling, but she knew that argument would be choked down; and she also
+knew that though she had spoken truth as to her words, she had allowed
+remarks to pass without protest, on the luck and licence that the model
+boy allowed himself, and she was bitterly displeased with the treachery
+of Miss Price.</p>
+
+<p>'These old rags of folly don't look pretty on other folk,' he sighed
+pleasantly. 'Alda, listen to me. What I have heard to-day gives me more
+fears for you than for any one of my children. Did you ever hear that
+false shame leads to true shame? Never shuffle again! Remember, nothing
+is mean that is not sin, and an acted falsehood like this is sin and
+shame both&mdash;while your brother's deed is an honour.'</p>
+
+<p>Alda was obliged to go away murmuring within herself, 'That's all true:
+it is very good of Felix, and I should not have equivocated, I know;
+but those stupid girls, how is one to live with them?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was not quite dressed the next morning when his mother came to
+the door of the attic that he shared with Edgar and Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'He wants to speak to you before church, Felix. It has been a very bad
+night, and the sooner this is settled the better.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Mother, I am very sorry&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'It can't be helped, my dear boy. I think it will really be a great
+relief to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you, Mother, do you mind?'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Felix, all <i>minding</i>, except to have you all well, and fed and
+clothed, was worn out of me years ago. I can't feel anything in it but
+that it will keep you by me, my dear good helpful boy.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix's heart leapt up, as it had not done for many a long day; but it
+soon sank again. The children had never been admitted to their father's
+room in the early morning, and Felix thought he must be suddenly worse
+when he saw him in bed propped by pillows, pale and wearied; but the
+usual bright smile made him like himself.</p>
+
+<p>'All right, old fellow,' he said brightly. 'Don't come up to me. I'm
+<i>incog.</i> till I'm up and dressed. Are you in the same mind?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Father.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then ask Mr. Froggatt to do me the favour of coming to speak to me any
+time after eleven o'clock that may suit him. I must understand what he
+offers you. The nonsense is conquered, Felix; more shame for me that it
+has followed me so far; but the sense remains. I must try to be sure
+that this sacrifice of yours is a right one to be accepted. Any way, my
+boy, I thank and bless you for it, and God will bless such a beginning.
+There's the bell, be off,' he concluded.</p>
+
+<p>And, Papa,' blurted out Felix suddenly, 'would you <i>please</i> be
+photographed. I have the money for it. <i>Pray&mdash;</i>'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood smiled. 'Very well, Felix; that is, if I am ever capable
+of getting up all the stairs to Coleman's sky-parlour.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you!' and Felix ran away.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Froggatt came in due time. He was an elderly portly man, well
+shaven and smooth-faced, intensely respectable, having been brought
+up to inherit an old hereditary business as bookseller, stationer,
+and publisher of a weekly local paper, long before Bexley had broken
+out into its present burning fever of furnaces. He was a very good
+religious man, as Mr. Underwood well knew, having been his great
+comforter through several family troubles, which had left him and his
+wife alone with one surviving and woefully spoilt son, who hated the
+trade, and had set his heart upon being a farmer&mdash;chiefly with a view
+to hunting. Mr. Froggatt was conscious of having been too indulgent,
+but the mother and son were against him; and the superior tone of
+education that the son had received at the reformed grammar school had
+only set him above the business, instead of, as had been intended,
+rendering him more useful in it.</p>
+
+<p>Good Mr. Froggatt, an old-fashioned tradesman, with a profound feeling
+for a real gentleman, was a good deal shocked at receiving Mr.
+Underwood's message. He kept a reading-room, and was on terms of a
+certain intimacy with its frequenters, such as had quite warranted his
+first requests for Felix's good-natured help; and it had been really
+as a sort of jesting compliment that he had told the young gentleman
+that he wished he would take Smith's place, little expecting to see how
+earnestly the words were caught up, how the boy asked whether he really
+meant it; and when, on further consideration, he allowed that it might
+be possible, begging him to wait till his father could be spoken to.</p>
+
+<p>Poor as he was, Mr. Underwood had never lost general respect. Something
+there was in his fine presence and gentlemanly demeanour, and still
+more in his showing no false shame, making no pretensions, and never
+having a debt. Doctors' bills had pressed him heavily, but he had
+sacrificed part of his small capital rather than not pay his way; and
+thus no one guessed at the straits of the household. Mr. Froggatt had
+never supposed he would entertain for a moment the idea of letting his
+eldest son, a fine clever and studious lad, undertake a little country
+business, and yet the old bookseller had come to wish it very much on
+his own account. As he explained to Mr. Underwood, he loved his old
+business, and knew that with more education he should have been able
+to make more of it. His elder son had died just as intelligence and
+energy were opening up plans that would have made both the shop and the
+newspaper valuable and beneficial; while Charles's desertion left them
+to decline with his father's declining years, and in danger of being
+supplanted by some brisk new light. Felix Underwood was indeed very
+young, but he had already proved his power of usefulness, and a very
+few years would make him capable of being a right hand to the old man,
+and he might in time make a position for himself. Mr. Froggatt would
+otherwise ere long be forced by his own infirmity, to dispose of the
+business at a disadvantage, and this would, he confessed, go to his
+heart. Mr. Underwood felt greatly reconciled to the project. There was
+real usefulness in the work, great means of influencing men for good,
+and though there would be much of mechanical employment, for which it
+was a pity to give up the boy's education, yet it was a stepping-stone
+to something better, and it gave present and increasing means of
+maintenance. There was less temptation in this way of life than in
+almost any that could be devised, and it would give Mrs. Underwood the
+comfort of a home with him. The great difficulty for the future was,
+that Felix was never likely to have capital enough to purchase, or
+become partner in, the business; but Mr. Froggatt explained that if he
+gained experience in the editing of the Pursuivant, he would be always
+able to obtain profitable employment, and that it was possible that
+he might eventually take the business, and pay an annual sum out of
+the profits to the Froggatt family, unless, indeed, something should
+turn up which would keep him in his natural station. Such was the hope
+lurking in the father's heart, even while he thankfully closed with the
+offer; and Felix was put in the way of studying book-keeping till the
+New Year, when he was to enter upon his duties and his salary.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley was greatly troubled. It was with incredulous vivacity that
+he inquired of Mr. Underwood if it were indeed true that Felix had
+accepted such prospects.</p>
+
+<p>'Quite true,' said Mr. Underwood. 'You need not argue it with me,
+Audley; my own mind has said all you could say seven times over.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should not venture on interference; but could you not let me try to
+do&mdash;something?'</p>
+
+<p>'And welcome, my dear fellow: there are so many to be done for, that it
+is well one can do for himself.'</p>
+
+<p>'But Felix&mdash;Felix out of them all!'</p>
+
+<p>'As the voice I want to silence has said a thousand times! No; Felix
+seems capable of this, and it is not right to withhold him, and throw
+his education upon the kind friends who might be helping the other
+boys&mdash;boys whom I could not trust to fend for themselves and others, as
+I can that dear lad.'</p>
+
+<p>'What he might be&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Who knows whether he may not be a greater blessing in this work than
+in that which we should have chosen for him? He may be a leaven for
+good&mdash;among the men we have never been able to reach! My dear Audley,
+don't be a greater ass about it than I was at first!'</p>
+
+<p>For the young curate really could not speak at first for a rush of
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not only for Felix's sake,' said he, smiling at last, 'but the
+way you take it.'</p>
+
+<p>'And now, I am going to ask you to do something for me,' added Mr.
+Underwood. 'I have left this magnificent estate of mine entirely to my
+wife, appointing her sole guardian to my children. But I have begun
+to think how much has been taken out of her by that shock of leaving
+Vale Leston, and by that wonderful resolute patience that&mdash;that I shall
+never be able to thank her for. I scarcely dare to let her know that I
+see it. And when I look on to the winter that is before her,' he added,
+much less calmly, 'I think she may not be long after me. I must add a
+guardian. Once we had many good friends. We have them still, I hope,
+but I cannot lay this on them. Our cousin Tom Underwood does not seem
+disposed to notice us, and his care might not be of the right kind. Our
+only other relation is Fulbert Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who drove you from Vale Leston?'</p>
+
+<p>'Who did what he had every right to do with his own,' said Mr.
+Underwood. 'But he is not the style of man to be asked, even if I could
+saddle him with the charge. Probably twelve children to bring up on
+seven thousand pounds&mdash;a problem never put before us at Cambridge.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you honour me by&mdash;' asked the younger man, much agitated.</p>
+
+<p>'Not by asking you to solve that problem! But let me add your name.
+What I want is a guardian, who will not violently break up the home and
+disperse the children. I believe Felix will be a competent young head
+if he is allowed, and I want you to be an elder brother to him, and let
+him act.'</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot give me greater comfort.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only, Audley, this must be on one condition. Never let this
+guardianship interfere with any higher work that you may be called to.
+If I thought it would bind you down to Bexley, or even to England, I
+should refrain from this request as a temptation. Mind, you are only
+asked to act in case the children should lose their mother, and then
+only to enable Felix to be what I believe he can and will be. Or, as it
+may be right to add, if he should fail them, you will know what to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think he will.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor I. But there are ways of failing besides the worst. However, I do
+not greatly fear this illness of mine taking root in them. It has not
+been in the family before; and I am nearly sure that I know when I took
+the infection, four or five years ago, from a poor man in Smoke-jack
+Alley, who would let no one lift him but me. They are healthy young
+things, all but dear little Cherry, and I hope they have spirits to
+keep care from making them otherwise. You will say a kind word to my
+little Cherry sometimes, Audley. Poor little woman, I am afraid it may
+fall sorely on her, she is of rather too highly strung a composition,
+and perhaps I have not acted so much for her good as my own pleasure,
+in the companionship we have had together.'</p>
+
+<p>So the will was altered, though without the knowledge of anyone but
+Mrs. Underwood and the witnesses; and Mr. Audley felt himself bound
+to remonstrate no further against Felix's fate, however much he might
+deplore it.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody was so unhappy about it as Edgar. The boy was incredulous at
+first, then hotly indignant. Then he got a burnt stick, and after
+shutting himself up in his attic for an hour, was found lying on the
+floor, before an awful outline on the whitewash.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it, old fellow?' asked Felix. 'What a horrid mess!'</p>
+
+<p>'I see,' said Lance. 'It is Friday grinning at the savages.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or a scarecrow on the back of a ditch,' said Felix. 'Come, Ed, tell us
+what it is meant for.'</p>
+
+<p>Edgar was impenetrable; but having watched the others out of the house,
+he dragged Geraldine up to see&mdash;something&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' she cried. 'You've done it!'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure! You know it?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is Achilles on the rampart, shouting at the Trojans! O Edgar&mdash;how
+brave he looks&mdash;how his hair flies! Some day you will get him in his
+god-like beauty!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think he has not got any of it, Cherry?' said Edgar, gazing
+wistfully. 'I did see it all, but it didn't come out&mdash;and now&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I see what you mean,' said Cherry, screwing up her eyes; 'it is in him
+to be glorious&mdash;a kind of lightning look.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes; that's what I meant. All majesty and wrath, but no strain. O
+Cherry&mdash;to have such things in my head, and not get them out! Don't you
+know what it is?' as he rolled and flung himself about.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes!' said Cherry from her heart. 'Oh! I should so like to do one
+touch to his face, but he's so big! You did him on a chair, and I could
+not stand on one.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll lift you up. I'll hold you,' cried Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>The passion for drawing must have been very strong in the two children;
+for Geraldine was most perilously, and not without pain, raised to a
+chair, where, with Edgar's arms round her waist, she actually worked
+for ten minutes at Achilles' face, but his arm she declined. 'It is not
+right, Eddy! look&mdash;that muscle in his elbow can never be so!'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't see the back of mine, but you can,' said Edgar, lifting her
+down, and proceeding to take off his coat and roll up his shirt-sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>'That's the way. Oh! but it is not such an angle as that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Achilles' muscles must have stood out more than mine, you know. I'll
+get a look at Blunderbore's. O Cherry, if I were but older&mdash;I know I
+could&mdash;I'd save Felix from this horrible thing! I feel to want to roar
+at old Froggy, like this fellow at the Trojans.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps some day you will save him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but then he will have done it. Just fancy, Gerald, if <i>that</i>
+picture was as it ought to be&mdash;as you and I see it!'</p>
+
+<p>'It would be as grand as the world ever saw,' said the little girl,
+gazing through her eye-lashes at the dim strokes in the twilight. 'O
+Edgar, many a great man has begun in a garret!'</p>
+
+<p>'If it would not be so long hence! Oh! must you go down?'</p>
+
+<p>'I heard some one calling. You will be a great artist, I know, Edgar!'</p>
+
+<p>It was pleasanter than the other criticism, at bed-time.</p>
+
+<p>'Hollo! Man Friday does not look quite so frightful!' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure I won't have him over my bed,' said Fulbert, proceeding to
+rub him out; and though, for the moment, Achilles was saved by violent
+measures of Edgar's, yet before the end of the next day, Fulbert and
+Lance had made him black from head to foot, all but the whites of his
+eyes and his teeth; Robina and Angela had peeped in, and emulated the
+terror of the Trojans, or the savages; and Sibby had fallen on the
+young gentleman for being 'so bold' as to draw a frightful phooka
+upon their walls, just to frighten the darlints. Indeed, it was long
+before Angela could be got past the door at night without shuddering,
+although Achilles had been obliterated by every possible method that
+Felix, Clement, or Sibby could devise, and some silent tears of Cherry
+had bewailed the conclusion of this effort of high art, the outline of
+which, in more moderate proportions, was cherished in that portfolio of
+hers.</p>
+
+<p>Another work of art&mdash;the photograph&mdash;was safely accomplished. The
+photographer caught at the idea, declaring that he had been so often
+asked for Mr. Underwood's carte, that he had often thought of begging
+to take it gratis. And he not only insisted on so doing, but he came
+down from his studio, and took Mr. Underwood in his own chair, under
+his own window&mdash;producing a likeness which, at first sight, shocked
+every one by its faithful record of the ravages of disease, unlightened
+by the fair colouring and lustrous beaming eyes, but which, by-and-by,
+grew upon the gazer, as full of a certain majesty of unearthly beauty
+of countenance.</p>
+
+<p>The autumn was mild, and Mr. Underwood rallied in some measure, so as
+sometimes even to get to church at mid-day services on warm days.</p>
+
+<p>It was on St. Andrew's Day that he was slowly walking home, leaning
+on Felix's arm, with the two elder girls close behind him, when Alda
+suddenly touched Wilmet's arm, exclaiming, 'There's Marilda Underwood!'</p>
+
+<p>There indeed was the apparition of Centry Park, riding a pretty pony,
+beside a large and heavily-bearded personage. The recognition was
+instantaneous; Marilda was speaking to her companion, and at the same
+moment he drew up, and exclaiming, 'Edward! bless me!' was off his
+horse in a moment, and was wringing those unsubstantial fingers in a
+crushing grasp. There was not much to be seen of Mr. Underwood, for
+he was muffled up in a scarf to the very eyes, but they looked out of
+their hollow caves, clear, blue, and bright, and smiling as ever, and
+something like an answer came out of the middle of the folds.</p>
+
+<p>'These yours? How d'ye do!&mdash;How d'ye do!&mdash;Mary, you don't get off till
+we come to the door!&mdash;Yes, I'll come in with you! Bless me! bless me!
+Mary has been at me ever so many times about you, but we've been had
+abroad for masters and trash, and I left it till we were settled here.'</p>
+
+<p>It was not many steps to the door, and there Wilmet flew on to prepare
+her mother and the room, while Alda stood by as her cousin was assisted
+from her horse by the groom, and the new-comer followed in silence,
+while Felix helped his father up the steps, and unwound his wraps,
+after which he turned round, and with his own sunny look held out his
+hand, saying, 'How are you, Tom? I'm glad to see you&mdash;How d'ye do, Mary
+Alda? we are old friends.&mdash;Call your mother, one of you.'</p>
+
+<p>The mother was at hand, and they entered the drawing-room, where, as
+the clergyman sank back into his arm-chair, the merchant gazed with
+increasing consternation at his wasted figure and features.</p>
+
+<p>'How long has this been going on?' he asked, pointing to him and
+turning to Mrs. Underwood, but as usual her husband answered for her.</p>
+
+<p>'How long have I been on the sick list? Only since the end of
+September, and I am better now than a month ago.'</p>
+
+<p>'Better! Have you had advice?'</p>
+
+<p>'Enough to know how useless it is.'</p>
+
+<p>'Some trumpery Union doctor. I'll have Williams down before you are a
+day older.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay, Tom. Thank you, most warmly, but you see yourself the best
+advice in the world could tell us no more than we know already. Are you
+really master of old Centry Underwood? I congratulate you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay. I'm glad the place should come back to the old name. Mrs.
+Underwood and myself both felt it a kind of duty, otherwise it went
+against the grain with her, and I'm afraid she'll never take to the
+place. 'Twas that kept us abroad so long, though not from want of
+wishes from Mary and myself. The girl fell in love with yours at first
+sight.'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure I did,' said the young lady. 'Do let me see the little
+ones, and your baby.'</p>
+
+<p>'Take your cousin to see them in the dining-room, Alda,' said the
+mother; the order that Alda had been apprehending, for the dining-room
+was by many degrees more shabby than the drawing-room; however, she
+could only obey, explaining by the way that little Bernard, being
+nearly two years old, was hardly regarded as a baby now.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet was in effect making him and Angela presentable as to the hands,
+face, hair, and pinafore, and appeared carrying the one and leading the
+other, who never having closely inspected any one in a riding-habit
+before, hung back, whispering to know whether 'that man was a woman.'</p>
+
+<p>Marilda was in raptures, loving nothing so well as small children, and
+very seldom enjoying such an opportunity as the present; and the two
+babies had almost the whole of the conversation adapted to them, till
+Alda made an effort.</p>
+
+<p>'So you have been on the Continent?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; it was such a horrid bore. Mamma would go. She said I must
+have French masters, and more polish, but I don't like French polish. I
+hope I'm just as English as I was before.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is undeniable,' said Felix, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'Didn't you care for it? Oh! I should like it so much!' cried Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Like it? What, to hear French people chattering and gabbling all round
+one, and be always scolded for not being like them! There was a poor
+dog at the hotel that had been left behind by some English people, and
+could not bear the French voices, always snarled at them. I was just
+like him, and I got Papa to buy him and bring him home, and I always
+call him John Bull.'</p>
+
+<p>'But wasn't it nice seeing places, and churches, and pictures?' asked
+Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'That was the most disgusting of all, to be bothered with staring at
+the stupid things. Mamma with her Murray standing still at them all,
+and making me read it out just like a lesson, and write it after, which
+was worse! And then the great bare shiny rooms with nothing to do. The
+only thing I liked was looking at a jolly little old woman that sold
+hot chestnuts out in the street below. Such dear little children in
+round caps came to her! Just like that,'&mdash;endeavouring to convert her
+pocket-handkerchief into the like head-gear for Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'I have always so wanted to come here,' she continued, 'only I am
+afraid Mamma won't like the place. She says it's dull, and there's no
+good society. Is there?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure we don't know,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Lots of people are coming to stay with us for Christmas,' added
+Marilda, 'and you must all of you come and have all the fun with us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you! how charming!' cried Alda. 'If Papa will but be well
+enough; he is so much better now.'</p>
+
+<p>'He must come for change of air,' said Marilda. 'You can't think how
+pleased my father was to hear I had met you. He talked all the way home
+of how clever your father was, and how wickedly Cousin Fulbert at Vale
+Leston had served him, and he promised me when I came here I should
+have you with me very often. I would have written to tell you, only I
+do so hate writing. This is much better.'</p>
+
+<p>Marilda seemed to have perfectly established herself among them before
+the summons came to her; and as the children herded to the door, her
+father turned round and looked at the boys inquiringly. 'There,' said
+Mr. Underwood, 'this is Felix, and this is Edgar, sixteen and fourteen.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bless me, what a number, and as much alike as a flock of sheep,'
+again exclaimed the cousin. 'One or two more or less would not make
+much odds&mdash;eh, Edward?&mdash;Mary, what kissing all round?&mdash;D'ye know them
+all?&mdash;I'll look in to-morrow or next day, and you'll give me your
+answer, Edward.'</p>
+
+<p>They were off, and at Mr. Underwood's sign Felix followed him into
+the sitting-room, to the great excitement of the exterior population,
+who unanimously accepted Alda's view, that one of them was going to
+be adopted. Their notion was not so much out as such speculations
+generally are, for Mr. Underwood was no sooner alone with Felix and
+his mother, than he said, 'You are in request, Felix; here's another
+offer for one of you&mdash;the very thing I once missed. What say you to a
+clerkship at Kedge Brothers?'</p>
+
+<p>'For one of us, did you say, Father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; the answer I am to give to-morrow is as to which. You have the
+first choice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you wish me to take it, Father?'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you to think. Perhaps this is the last time I shall have any
+decision to make for you, and I had rather you should make your own
+choice; nor, indeed, am I sure of my own wishes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said Felix decidedly, 'I am sure I had better not. Edgar would
+not, and must not, go to my work; there would be nothing coming in for
+ever so long, and it would be a shame to throw old Froggy over.'</p>
+
+<p>'I rather expected this, Felix. I told Tom you were in a manner
+provided for, but when he found you had a turn for business, he was the
+more anxious to get you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I've got no turn that I know of,' said Felix, rather gloomily; 'but we
+can't all of us set up for gentlemen, and Edgar is the one of us all
+that ought to have the very best! Such a fellow as he is! He is sure
+of the prize this time, you know! I only don't think this good enough
+for him! He ought to go to the University. And maybe when Mr. Underwood
+sees&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Not impossible,' said the sanguine father, smiling; 'and, at any
+rate, to get put in the way of prosperity early may make his talents
+available. It is odd that his first name should be Thomas. Besides,
+I do not think your mother could get on without you. And, Felix,' he
+lowered his voice, 'I believe that this is providential. Not only as
+securing his maintenance, but as taking him from Ryder. Some things
+have turned up lately when he has been reading with me, that have
+dismayed me. Do you know what I mean?'</p>
+
+<p>'A little,' said Felix gravely.</p>
+
+<p>'I know Ryder would be too honourable consciously to meddle with a
+boy's faith; but the worst of it is, he does not know what is meddling,
+and he likes Edgar, and talks eagerly to him. And the boy enjoys it.'</p>
+
+<p>'He does,' said Felix, 'but he knows enough to be on his guard. There
+can't be any harm done.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not yet! Not but what can be counteracted, if&mdash;Felix, you cannot
+guess how much easier it makes it to me to go, that Edgar will not be
+left in Ryder's hands. As to the younger ones, such things do not come
+down to the lower forms. And they will be eligible for clergy orphans.
+Audley spoke of a choristership for Clement in the clergy-house at
+Whittingtonia. Was there ever such a raising up of friends and helpers?
+I am glad to have seen Tom Underwood, hearty, kindly&mdash;sure to be always
+a good friend to you all. What did you think of the girl, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'She is a jolly sort of girl,' said Felix; 'not like ours, you know,
+Father, but not half a bad fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood smiled thoughtfully, and asked, 'Have you seen enough of
+her to judge how she is brought up?'</p>
+
+<p>It was treating his son so much more as a friend than as a boy, that
+Felix looked up surprised. 'I should think her mother wanted to make
+her no end of a swell,' he said, 'and that it would not take.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood lent back thoughtfully. In truth, his cousin had, in his
+outburst of affection and remorse at long unconscious neglect, declared
+his intention of taking home one of the girls to be as a sister to his
+Mary, and then, evidently bethinking himself of some influence at home,
+had half taken back his words, and talked of doing something, bringing
+his wife to see about it, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>And when Mr. and Mrs. Underwood were again alone, they discussed the
+probabilities, and considered whether if the offer were made they would
+accept it. Mr. Underwood had only seen his cousin's wife once, in his
+prosperous days, when he had been at the wedding, and his impression
+was not that of perfect refinement. There was reason to think from the
+words of her husband and daughter that there was a good deal of the
+<i>nouveau riche</i> about her, and Mrs. Underwood did not know how to think
+of trusting a daughter in a worldly, perhaps irreligious, household.
+But Mr. Underwood was a good deal touched by his cousin's warmth and
+regret; he believed that the family kept up religious habits; he
+thought that Providence had brought him friends in this last hour, and
+his affectionate sanguine spirit would not hesitate in accepting the
+kindness that provided for another of the children he was leaving. She
+trusted him as sure to know best; and, after her usual mode, said no
+more, except 'Wilmet would be safest there.'</p>
+
+<p>'You could spare her least.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed, it would be losing my right hand; but poor Alda&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Alda! but consider if there is not worse evil in keeping her
+among girls who hurt her, if they do not Wilmet. Beauty and wounded
+vanity are dangerous in a place like this.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dangerous anywhere!'</p>
+
+<p>'Less so in a great house, with that good honest Mary Alda, and Tom,
+who will look after her in the main, than here, or as a governess, with
+an inferior education.'</p>
+
+<p>'It may be so. I know I can spare her better than her sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet is doing something for herself too&mdash;as Alda cannot, it seems.
+Justice settles the point, dearest, as it did between the boys&mdash;that
+is, if we have the offer.'</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the mother still had a lurking hope that the offer would not be
+made. Her instinct was to keep all her brood round her; but, silent and
+deferential woman that she was, she said nothing, and resolved to be
+thankful for what so eased her husband's mind.</p>
+
+<p>The handsome carriage tore up to the door, and violet velvet and
+feathers descended, Mary Alda sprang after, and then came her father,
+and hampers on hampers of game, wine, and fruits ensued; while Marilda
+seized on Alda, and turned of herself into the dining-room, bearing a
+box of sweets. 'Where are the little ones? Little Bobbie, here; and all
+the rest.'</p>
+
+<p>Not many calls were needful to bring a flock to share the feast, with
+cries of joy; but Marilda was not yet satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>'Where's the other of you?' she said to Alda. 'I don't know you well
+apart yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet's in the kitchen,' thrust in Lancelot, 'ironing the collars for
+Sunday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance!' uttered Alda indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! what fun! do let me go down and see! I should so like to iron.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Marilda&mdash;your Mamma&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh nonsense, come along, show me the way. That's right, Robins, only
+your hands are so sticky. What, down here!&mdash;Oh, Wilmet, how d'ye do?
+what delicious work! do you always do it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Generally, if Sibby is busy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do let me try.'</p>
+
+<p>And she did try for ten minutes, at the end of which the mother's voice
+was heard calling for Edgar, who, turning crimson, went upstairs,
+leaving the others standing about the tidy kitchen, fresh sanded for
+Saturday.</p>
+
+<p>'What, not you!' said Marilda, pausing in her smoothing operations, and
+looking at Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said he. 'I have got my work.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! don't talk of it,' said Alda. 'I can't bear it. I didn't think he
+was in earnest, or that Papa would let him.'</p>
+
+<p>Marilda turned full round. 'What, you won't go and be my father's
+clerk, and be one of Kedge and Underwood, and make a fortune?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>'And what is your work instead?'</p>
+
+<p>'Printing,' said Felix stoutly. 'It gives present payment, and we can't
+do without it.'</p>
+
+<p>Both Marilda's hands seized on his. 'I like you!' she said. 'I wish I
+were you.'</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed, and Felix coloured, more abashed than pleased.
+Lance&mdash;to make up for his ignominious rescue at their last
+meeting&mdash;performed a wonderful progress, holding on by his fingers and
+toes along the ledge of the dresser; and Marilda, setting her back (a
+broad one) against the ironing-board, went on talking.</p>
+
+<p>'And do you know what besides?' looking round, and seeing they did
+not. 'One of you girls is to come and live with me, and be my sister.
+I wanted to have this little darling Angela to pet, but Mamma wouldn't
+have her, and I did so beg for Geraldine, to let her have a sofa and a
+pony-carriage! I do want something to nurse! But Mamma won't hear of
+anybody but one of you two great ones, to learn and do everything with
+me; and that's not half the use.'</p>
+
+<p>'But is it really?' cried Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed! You'll be had up for her to choose from&mdash;that is, if she
+can. How exactly alike you are!'</p>
+
+<p>'She won't choose me,' said Wilmet. 'Hark, there's Edgar coming down.'</p>
+
+<p>Edgar ran in, with orders to the twins to go into the drawing-room.
+Wilmet hung back. 'I will not be the one,' she said resolutely. 'Let
+Alda go alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Felix, 'it is what you are told that you've got to do now.
+Never mind about the rest! Let us all come out of this place.' And it
+was he who took off his sister's ironing apron as they went up to the
+dining-room together, while Marilda cried eagerly, 'Well, Edgar?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Edgar, not in the enchanted voice she expected; 'it is
+very good of your father, and what must be must.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you like it?' said Marilda, half hurt; and Edgar, always a boy
+of ready courtesy, answered, 'Yes, yes, I'm no end of grateful. I'll
+get rich, and go abroad, and buy pictures. Only I did hope to paint
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Paint pictures!' cried Marilda. 'What, rather than be a merchant! Do
+such stupid useless things, only to bother people with having to stare
+at them, when you could be making money?'</p>
+
+<p>'There's no reason one should not make money with pictures,' said
+Edgar; 'but I'd rather make delight! But it can't be helped, and I am
+very glad to have done with this horrid place.'</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Wilmet and Alda found themselves before a large, florid,
+much-dressed lady, with a most good-natured face, who greeted them with
+'Good morning, my dears! Just as Marilda told me, so much alike as to
+be quite romantic. Well, no doubt it is a pity to separate between you,
+but my Marilda will be a true sister. She has spoken of nothing else.
+Are you willing, either of you, my dears?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay!' chimed in Mr. Thomas Underwood; 'we'll make you happy whichever
+it is! You shall be in all respects like our own child; Mary would see
+to that, if we didn't.'</p>
+
+<p>'As to choice,' said the lady, 'there's none that I can see&mdash;pretty
+genteel girls both, that will do us credit, unless it is their own
+fault. Excellent governess, London masters&mdash;you may be assured
+everything shall be done for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall we toss up which it shall be?' laughed her husband.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Mr. Underwood gently. 'We think that this one,' laying his
+hand on Alda's arm, 'will value these advantages, and is not quite such
+a home-bird as her sister. I hope you will find a grateful good child
+in Alda Mary, and a kind sister to Mary Alda.'</p>
+
+<p>The tears came into Alda's eyes, as her father seemed thus making her
+over; a great rush of affection for all at home, and contempt for Mary
+Alda in comparison with her own twin, seemed to take away any elation,
+as Mr. and Mrs. Tom Underwood kissed her, and welcomed her, and
+declared they should like to take her home at once.</p>
+
+<p>'You shall have her soon,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Let me keep her for
+Christmas Day.'</p>
+
+<p>And for Christmas Day he did keep her, though at the bottom of Alda's
+heart there were strong hopes of invitations to join the festivities
+at Centry Underwood. Indeed, such a party was insisted on by Marilda,
+one that was to include all the little ones, and make them happier than
+ever they had been in their lives. It was to be on Twelfth Day, but
+Mrs. Underwood hinted to the twins that they had better not talk to the
+younger ones about it, for she scarcely believed they would go. She
+had never before spoken out that conviction which had long crushed her
+down, and Wilmet's whole soul seemed for the moment scared away by this
+fresh intimation of the condition in which their father stood; while
+Alda vehemently repeated the old declaration that he was better. He
+said he was better. Alas! such a better as it always was.</p>
+
+<p>'How well you ought to be!' said Mr. Audley one day at the reiteration,
+'better every day!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and best of all at last!' was the reply, with a sweet smile.</p>
+
+<p>For he was very happy. The partial provision for the four eldest
+children, two by their own exertions, two through friends, had
+evidently been received by him as an earnest of protection and aid
+for the rest, even to the babe whom he scarcely expected ever to
+see in this world. He said it would be ungrateful not to trust, and
+he did trust with all his heart, cheered as it was by the tardy
+cordiality of his cousin, and the indefinable love of kindred that
+was thus gratified. Thomas Underwood poured in good things of
+all kinds on the invalid and his house, fulfilled his promise of
+calling in further advice, and would have franked half the family
+to Torquay&mdash;Nice&mdash;Madeira&mdash;if the doctors had given the slightest
+encouragement. It could be of little ultimate avail; but the wine
+and soup did give support and refreshment bodily, and produced much
+gratitude and thankfulness mentally, besides lightening some of Mrs.
+Underwood's present cares.</p>
+
+<p>No one was more anxious to help than Mr. Ryder; he had been assiduous
+in his inquiries and offers of service ever since the attack at
+Michaelmas; and it was evident that he really venerated the Curate,
+while he was a severe and contemptuous judge of the Rector. But when,
+after a brilliant examination, he became aware that he was to lose
+both the elder Underwoods at once, his mortification was great; he
+came to call, and Mr. Underwood had again to undergo an expostulation
+on Felix's prospects, and an offer of keeping him free of expense.
+The school-fee was a mere trifle, but Mr. Ryder would willingly have
+boarded and lodged the boy himself&mdash;for the benefit of his authority,
+as he said, over younger boarders.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid,' said Mr. Underwood, kind and grateful as usual, 'that
+there are too many younger boarders here for Felix to be spared. No,
+thank you; I am sincerely obliged to you, but the hard cash is a
+necessary consideration.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you can sacrifice such a boy's prospects&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Bread and cheese <i>must</i> be earned, even at the cost of prospects. He
+cannot afford to wait to make his labour skilled.'</p>
+
+<p>'Forgive me, Mr. Underwood, but I cannot think it is right to throw
+away his abilities.'</p>
+
+<p>'You can allow that it is a less wrong than to leave the rest to debt
+or starvation.'</p>
+
+<p>'You should trust&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I do trust; but I can do so better when I humble what is nothing
+but pride and vanity in me, after all. I was foolish enough about it
+at first, but I am quite content now that my boy should do his duty,
+without being curious as to where it is to be done.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will tell me a schoolmaster's vanity is concerned; and I allow it
+is, for I looked to your sons to raise the reputation of the school;
+but perhaps it is only put off a little longer. Will you let me have
+Clement or Fulbert, on the terms I proposed for Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Ryder; with many, many thanks, much feeling of your generous
+kindness&mdash;it cannot be.'</p>
+
+<p>'You do not trust me.' This was said with as much indignation as could
+be shown to a man in Mr. Underwood's condition.</p>
+
+<p>'No. Your very kindness would make the tone I regret in you more
+perilous. Do not think Felix ungrateful, Ryder; the desire is mine&mdash;and
+remember, it is that of a man who is dying, and who really loves and
+values you greatly. It is that the younger boys should, as soon as may
+be, go to schools where older systems prevail.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ryder was exceedingly mortified, and though he tried hard to
+conceal the full extent of his annoyance, he could not help saying,
+'You know how I respect your motives; but let me say that I doubt your
+finding any place where the ideas you deprecate are not to be found.
+And&mdash;pardon me&mdash;may not the finding their progress obstructed by your
+scruples, the more indispose your sons to them?'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope not,' said Mr. Underwood, calmly. 'I hope it may show them
+how strong the approach of death makes that faith&mdash;nay, rather
+assurance&mdash;with which your party are tampering.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are not doing me justice, Mr. Underwood. You know that my faith
+and hope are at the core the same as your own. All our question is what
+outworks are untenable.' Again he spoke hotly, but Mr. Underwood's
+gentleness seemed to silence him.</p>
+
+<p>'And that there should be any such question proves&mdash;alas!&mdash;the utter
+difference between our belief. Ryder, you are a young man, and as I
+believe and trust verily in earnest; and some day, I think, you will
+understand what faith is. Meantime, your uncertainties are doing more
+mischief than you understand&mdash;they pervade all your teaching more than
+you know. I dread what they may do to such as have not your moral
+sense to restrain them and bring them back, as I pray&mdash;I hope ever to
+pray&mdash;it may be with you. Thank you for all your kindness, actual and
+intended, to my boys.'</p>
+
+<p>Then rising from his chair, while Mr. Ryder remained uncertain how
+to speak, he signed to him to remain still while he sought in his
+book-case and returned with a small old copy of Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy
+Living and Dying;' then sitting down again, wrote the schoolmaster's
+name in it, above his own 'Under-wode, Under-rode' stamp. 'Keep it,
+Ryder! I do not say that you will care for it now, but some day I think
+you will, and if I am allowed to know of it, it will be joy.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ryder could only wring the hand that held it out to him, and with a
+great effort say, 'Thank you.' He saw that Mr. Underwood was too much
+tired to prolong the conversation; but he wrote a note of warm thanks
+that evening, promising to do whatever lay in his power for the boys,
+that their father would not think dangerous for them; and he added,
+that whatever he should for the future think or say, such an example
+as he had now seen was a strong weight on its own side. It was warmly
+and tenderly put, and like everything that befell him, gratified Mr.
+Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>A very happy man he had been, as he sincerely told those who would have
+grieved over him, and not without some remorse.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' as he said to Mr. Audley, who watched him like a son, 'it is
+indeed the Lord who hath led me all my life through. I never had a want
+or a care unfulfilled till nine years ago. Then, just as I had become
+sluggish and mechanical in fixed habits of easy country work, came
+this thorough change, break, and rousing. I tell you, I can never be
+thankful enough for the mercy. Not to leave them all provided for, as
+the saying is, would I go back to be such a priest as I was becoming.
+Happy&mdash;yes, I have been much happier here, since no choice was left me
+but working up to my strength.'</p>
+
+<p>'And beyond it,' said Mr. Audley, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>'If so&mdash;well; so much the better!' he said. 'It is a blessing to be
+allowed to be spent in that service. And for the children, I wish only
+for work and goodness for them&mdash;and for that I may well trust my good
+Master.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>TWILIGHT AND DAWN.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Two Angels, one of Life and one of Death,<br />
+Passed o'er the village as the morning broke;<br />
+The dawn was on their faces; and beneath<br />
+The sombre houses capped with plumes of smoke.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 40%;"><i>Longfellow.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>'Don't, Ful!'</p>
+
+<p>'That's nothing to you, Clem.'</p>
+
+<p>'I say, this won't do. I must have some light.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Ed, we must not light a candle before five o'clock.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pish!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh please, Edgar, don't stir the fire. If you knew how few coals there
+are!'</p>
+
+<p>'Stuff!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I won't have it done if Wilmet says not;' and Felix reared up in
+the gloom, and struggled with his brother.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix&mdash;Edgar&mdash;Oh, don't.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hsh&mdash;sh&mdash; Now you girls are worse than all, screaming in that way.'
+A few moments' silence of shame. It had been a weary, long, wet day,
+a trial under any circumstances to eleven people under seventeen, on
+the 4th of January, and the more oppressive in St. Oswald's Buildings,
+because not only had their father been in a much more suffering state
+for some days past, but their mother, who had hoped to keep up for some
+weeks longer, had for the last two days been quite unlike herself. In
+the sick-room she was as tender and vigilant as ever in her silent
+way, but towards her children a strange fretful impatience had set in,
+almost a jealousy of their coming near their father, and an intolerance
+of the least interruption from them even for the most necessary cause.
+Moreover, the one friend and helper who had never failed them before,
+Mr. Audley, had not been seen since he had looked in before early
+service; and altogether the wretchedness and perplexity of that day
+had been such, that it was no wonder that even Felix and Wilmet had
+scarcely spirits or temper for the only task that seemed at present
+left them, the hindering their juniors from making themselves obnoxious.</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet, do you think we shall go to the party at Centry Park?'
+reiterated Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'Do hold your tongue about that. I don't believe there's the least
+chance,' said Alda fretfully.</p>
+
+<p>'And I don't know how you can think of such a thing,' added Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'I want to see Cousin Marilda's Christmas tree,' whined Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'Do ask Mamma again,' entreated another voice.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall do no such thing,' said Wilmet, with absolute crossness in her
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>Robina began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>'Come here, Bobbie,' said Cherry's voice in the dark end of the room;
+'I'll tell you a story.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know all Cherry's stories, and they're rubbish,' said Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'This is quite a new one. There was once a little match-girl&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Bosh! I know that little brute, and I hate her,' broke in Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'Hold your tongue,' said Clement; 'but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, don't let us have the match-girl,' cried several voices.</p>
+
+<p>'Why can't you be good? There was once an old giant that lived in a
+cave&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I hate old giants,' said Cherry's critical public; and her voice grew
+melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>'But this one had but one eye. Come, <i>do</i> listen; papa told me. He was
+in an island&mdash;' but the voice grew mournful, and was broken by a cry.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! Fulbert hurt me!'</p>
+
+<p>'Fulbert, for shame! What is it, Angel dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'I only laid hold of her pudding arm,' growled Fulbert. 'Oh! I say,
+Felix, that's too bad!'</p>
+
+<p>'Hold your row, I say,' said Felix, after his application of fist law.
+'Hollo! what's that?' and he sprang to his feet with Angela in his
+arms, as the door was opened by a hand groping, and Mr. Audley's voice
+said, 'Darkness visible.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a general scrambling up all over the floor, and Edgar rushed
+across to light a candle. Wilmet alone had not stirred, as Bernard lay
+asleep across her lap. The flash of the match revealed a mass of light
+disordered heads, and likewise a black figure in the door-way.</p>
+
+<p>'Here is a kind helper for you, Wilmet,' said Mr. Audley, 'from St.
+Faith's, at Dearport. You must call her Sister Constance.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet did rise now, in some consternation, lifting her little brother,
+whose hand was still in the locks, the tangling of which had been his
+solace. There was a sweet warm kiss on her brow, and her lost net was
+picked up, her hair coiled into it by a pair of ready tender hands, but
+she faltered, 'Oh, thank you. Does Mamma know?'</p>
+
+<p>'She was there when I got a sort of consent from your father,' said Mr.
+Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'She has not said a word,' said Alda, half resentfully. 'We have hardly
+been in all day except just to fetch and carry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind,' said the Sister, 'it is much better that she did not
+think about it. Now, my dear, don't! I won't have anything done for me.
+You don't know how we Sisters sleep on nothing when we do sleep.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you'll have some tea,' said Alda, the only smooth-haired one of
+the party.</p>
+
+<p>'When you do, perhaps, thank you. Will you come to me, my dear?'
+relieving Felix from Angela. 'What is your name?' and the child, though
+ordinarily very shy, clung to her at once; while she, moving over to
+Cherry, found her in tears, shook up her cushion, arranged her rug,
+and made her comfortable in a moment. A sense came over them all that
+they had among them a head on whom they might rest their cares; and as
+the black bonnet and veil were taken off, and they saw a sweet fair
+motherly face beaming on them from the white plain-bordered cap, they
+gathered round with an outpouring of confidence, small and great, while
+Mr. Audley went upstairs to announce what he had done. He presently
+returned, saying, 'All right! Perhaps you had better come up at once.'</p>
+
+<p>There they sat, on either side of the hearth, he pillowed up and in a
+dressing-gown, more entirely the sick man than he had ever before given
+up himself to be. Mrs. Underwood rose, and with tears in her eyes,
+mutely held out her hand, while her husband at once recognised Sister
+Constance as Lady Herbert Somerville, the wife of the late rector of
+Dearport. He had last met her when, some six or seven years before,
+he had been invited to preach at festivals at Dearport, and had seen
+her the sunbeam of her house. He knew that her husband, who was a
+connection of Mr. Audley's, had since died of the same malady as his
+own, and had left her, a childless widow, together with all else he had
+to leave, to the Sisterhood they had already founded in the seaport
+town. But his greeting was, 'This is <i>very</i> good in you; but surely it
+must be too painful for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'The Superior saw how much I wished it,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>'You are like Alexandrine de la Ferronays,' he said, remembering her
+love for tending a consumptive priest for her husband's sake.</p>
+
+<p>'I am always wishing that I were!' she said.</p>
+
+<p>So they perfectly understood each other; and poor Mrs. Underwood, who
+had, in her new and extraordinary petulance, fiercely resisted the
+doctor's recommendation of a nurse, found herself implicitly relying
+on and trusting Sister Constance with a wonderful sense of relief&mdash;a
+relief perhaps still greater to the patient himself, who had silently
+endured more discomforts, and made more exertions than she knew, rather
+than tire her or vex her by employing even son or daughter, and who was
+besides set free from some amount of anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed the widow had too perfect a sympathy to interfere with the
+wife's only comfort. When it could safely be done, she left the two
+alone together, and applied herself to winning the hearts and soothing
+the spirits of the poor children downstairs, and suggesting and
+compounding new nourishing delicacies.</p>
+
+<p>She even persuaded Mrs. Underwood to go to the next room for a night's
+rest while she sat up, and learnt&mdash;what the silent wife had never told
+any one&mdash;how trying the nights were even to that spirit! At first the
+patient liked to talk, and drew out much of the hidden treasure of
+her spirit respecting her husband, who, though ailing for years, had
+finally passed away with only the immediate warning of a week&mdash;the
+final cause being harass from the difficulties from those above and
+below him that beset an earnest clergyman of his way of thinking.</p>
+
+<p>What struck her, as it did all, was Mr. Underwood's perfect absence of
+all care, and conviction that all the burthen was taken off his hands.
+Her own husband had, as she could not help telling him, found it hard
+to resign himself to leaving his plans half carried out to instruments
+which he had but half formed. He had wished with all his might to
+live, and though he had resigned himself dutifully, it had been with a
+real struggle, and a longing for continued service rather than rest,
+a hope that he should more efficiently serve, and much difficulty in
+refraining from laying all about him under injunctions for the future.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood half smiled. 'I am neither head nor principal,' he said.
+'Plans have been over long ago. I am only tired out, too tired to think
+about what is to follow. If I live three days longer I shall have just
+had my forty years in the wilderness, and though it has blossomed like
+a rose, I am glad to be near the rest.'</p>
+
+<p>And then he asked for the Midnight Office; and afterwards came
+fitful sleep, half dreamy, half broken by the wanderings of slight
+feverishness and great weakness; but she thought her attendance would
+not be very brief, and agreed mentally with what Mr. Audley had
+told her, that the doctor said that the end might yet be many weeks
+away. When in the dark winter's morning the wife crept back again to
+her post, and all that could be done in those early hours had been
+effected, Sister Constance went to the half-past seven o'clock service
+with Felix and Clement, imparting to them on the road that the Superior
+of St. Faith's was expecting to receive some of the least of the
+children in the course of the day, to remain there for the present.</p>
+
+<p>Both boys declared it would be an infinite relief, but they doubted
+exceedingly whether either father or mother would consent to lose sight
+of them, since the former never failed to see each child, and give it
+a smile and kiss, if no more. If they were to be sent, Felix supposed
+there was no one but himself to take them; nobody with whom they would
+be happy could be spared, nor did he show any repugnance to the notion
+of acting <i>pčre de famille</i> to three babies on the railway.</p>
+
+<p>It was quickly settled. Mr. Underwood at once confessed the exceeding
+kindness, and declared it to be much better for everybody. 'Do you not
+feel it so, Mother?'</p>
+
+<p>She bent her head in assent, as she did to all he said.</p>
+
+<p>'Having them back will be good for you,' he added persuasively;
+and again she tried to give a look of response. So they were
+brought&mdash;Robina, Angela, and Bernard&mdash;and each stood for a moment on
+a chair at his bed-side. The two little ones he merely kissed and
+blessed; but to Robina he said a few more words about being good, and
+minding Mamma and Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, papa! And they'll have a Christmas tree! and I'll save all my
+bon-bons to make your cough well.'</p>
+
+<p>He watched wistfully as the bright heads passed out of sight, and the
+long struggling cough and gasping that followed had all the pangs of
+parting to add to their burthen. Half the family escorted Felix and his
+charge to the station; and in the quiet that followed, Sister Constance
+had a good sleep on Wilmet's bed, as much, she said, as she ever
+required; and she came from it all freshness and brightness, making the
+dinner-time very charming to all the diminished party, though Wilmet
+felt greatly lost without the little ones; and afterwards she earned
+the warmest gratitude from Edgar and Geraldine by looking over their
+drawings and giving them some valuable hints&mdash;nay, she even devised
+the new and delightful occupation of ship-building for those three
+inconvenient subjects, Clement, Fulbert, and Lancelot. Upstairs or
+down, all was gentle cheerfulness and patience wherever she went.</p>
+
+<p>Felix came home about five o'clock, and his mother was persuaded
+to go to lie down while he amused his father with the account of
+the children's exemplary behaviour, and of their kind welcome at
+St. Faith's, where he had been kept to dine, feeling, as he said,
+'uncommonly queer' at first, but at last deciding, to the great
+diversion of his father, that the sisters were a set of jolly old
+girls, but not one equal to '<i>our</i> Sister Constance.' Then he had
+seen the church, and was almost bewildered with the beauty of the
+decorations; and Mr. Underwood, though saying little, evidently much
+enjoyed his boy's refreshment and pleasure. He certainly seemed no
+worse, and Mr. Audley was allowed, what he had often asked before, to
+sit up with him.</p>
+
+<p>But there was much to render it a long, anxious, restless night of
+a sort of semi-consciousness, and murmuring talk, as if he fancied
+himself at Vale Leston again. However, when Felix crept in, about four
+o'clock in the morning, anxious at the sounds he heard, he found him
+asleep, and this lasted for two or three hours; he woke refreshed, and
+presently said, 'Epiphany! put back the curtain, that I may see the
+bright and morning star.'</p>
+
+<p>The morning star was shining in the delicate dawn full in view, and he
+looked at it with quiet pleasure. 'Mother,' he said, then recollecting
+himself; 'ah, she is resting! Thank you, Audley.'</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a little cry through the thin wall made him start and
+flush.</p>
+
+<p>'Is it so?' he murmured; 'thank God! That is well!' But his chest
+heaved grievously as he panted with anxiety, and his two watchers
+hesitated what to do, until the door was slightly opened, and before
+the intended sign could be made to Felix, the breathless exclamation,
+'How? what?' brought Sibby's half-scared mournful countenance forward.</p>
+
+<p>'How is she, Sibby? don't fear to say,' he said, more collectedly.</p>
+
+<p>'Nicely, sir, as well as can be expected; but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'The baby? Alive&mdash;I heard&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, sir; that is&mdash;O Sir, it is two; and it would be a mere mercy if
+they are taken, as they look like to be&mdash;twins, and coming like this!'
+Perhaps Sibby was a little more lamentable, because, instead of looking
+shocked, he clasped his hands in eager thanksgiving, as he looked
+upwards.</p>
+
+<p>Sister Constance followed at the same moment, saying in a far more
+encouraging voice, 'She is doing very well.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is another great mercy,' he said. 'Much better than longer waiting
+on me. Will these Twelfth-day gifts live? Or do I take them with me? At
+least, let me baptize them&mdash;now at once,' he spoke earnestly. 'My full
+twelve, and one over, and on Twelfth-day.'</p>
+
+<p>Sister Constance had better hopes of the babes than Sibby, but this
+wish of his was one not to be withstood for a moment; and she went to
+make ready, while Mr. Audley went down for the little Parian font,
+and Felix and Sibby arranged the pillows and coverings. Mr. Underwood
+looked very bright and thankful. 'Birth-day gifts,' he said, 'what are
+they? You have not told me, Sibby.'</p>
+
+<p>'Boy and girl, sir,' she said, 'poor little dears!'</p>
+
+<p>'Jealous for your old twins, Sibby?' he said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! sir, they came in a better time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Better for them, no doubt; but this is the best for these,' he
+answered brightly. 'See, Sibby, can't you be thankful, like me, that
+your mistress is sheltered from what would try her? I can bear it all
+better without her to see.'</p>
+
+<p>Sibby's only reply was a gush of tears, and presently all was made
+ready; Geraldine was quietly helped into the room by Edgar, and placed
+in her usual station by the pillow, and the boys stood against the
+wall, while the two babes, tiny and scarcely animate things, were
+carried, each by one of the elder pair; and the father, as whitely
+robed as if he had been in his surplice, held out his hands, and smiled
+with his kindly lips and clear shining blue eyes full of welcome.</p>
+
+<p>'Has your mother any wishes about names?' he asked. 'Wilmet&mdash;what&mdash;?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Papa, I think not;' but her eyes were brimming over with tears,
+and it was plain that something was suppressed.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, let me hear; I am not to be hurt by such things.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is&mdash;it is only&mdash;she did say, when we came for them, that we were
+the children of joy&mdash;these are the children of sorrow,' murmured
+Wilmet, uttering the words with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought so,' he said; then after a brief pause, 'Now, Audley&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>For Mr. Audley said all the previous prayers, though with a voice as
+hard to control as Wilmet's had been. Then Wilmet held her charge close
+to her father, for, almost inappreciable as the weight was, he could
+only venture to lay one arm round that grasshopper burthen, as with his
+long thin fingers he dashed the water. 'Theodore Benjamin, I baptize
+thee.' Alda brought the other. 'Stella Eudora.' Then the two hands were
+folded over his face, and they all knelt round till he moved and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>'Give them to me again,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>It was for the father's kiss and blessing now.</p>
+
+<p>'They look life-like,' he said. 'You will keep them. Now mind me.
+Charge <i>her</i> never to think of them as children of sorrow, but of joy.
+She will remember how nearly you were called Theodore, Felix. Take him
+as God's gift and mine&mdash;may he be a son of your right hand to you.'</p>
+
+<p>The boy did take the babe, and with a deep resolve in his heart, that
+his duty to these helpless ones should be his first thought on earth.
+He did not speak it, but his father saw the steadfast wistful gaze, and
+it was enough.</p>
+
+<p>Alda ventured to ask, 'Is Eudora a gift too, Papa?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. A happy gift. For so she is! Let her be a little Epiphany Star to
+you all! Tell Mother that I call them a double joy, a double comfort!
+Poor little maid!' and he kissed her again, 'will no one welcome her,
+but the father who is leaving her?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Papa! You know how we will love them,' sobbed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I do, my dear;' and he smoothed the glossy hair; 'but with
+love comes joy, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very hard now,' broke from the poor girl.</p>
+
+<p>'Very,' he said tenderly; 'but it will if you make the burthen a
+blessing&mdash;the cross a crutch&mdash;eh, my Cherry? Now, a kiss each, and go,
+I am tired.'</p>
+
+<p>He was tired, but not apparently worse.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar and his three juniors started off directly after church in quest
+of ice where they might behold skating, and practise sliding; and
+Wilmet, with a view to quiet, actually ventured on the extravagance of
+providing them with a shilling, that they might forage for themselves,
+instead of coming home to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>She regretted Edgar's absence, however, for when Mr. Bevan came in to
+hold the Epiphany Feast in the sick chamber, her father asked for Edgar
+and Geraldine, and looked disappointed that the boy was gone. But he
+murmured, 'Maybe it is best!' and when the little girl came in, flushed
+and awe-struck, he took her hand, and said, 'May not I have this little
+one&mdash;my last pupil&mdash;to share the feast with me? Willing and desirous,'
+he smiled as he held her, and she coloured intensely, with tears in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There could be no denial, and his judgment at such a moment could only
+be accepted by the Rector; and the child herself durst not say one word
+of her alarm and awe. Papa knew. And never could she forget that he
+held her hand all the time that she leant&mdash;for she could not kneel&mdash;by
+his bed. Her elder brother and sisters were there too, and he kissed
+and blessed each tenderly afterwards, and Sister Constance too knelt
+and asked his blessing. Then he thanked Mr. Bevan warmly, and called it
+a most true day of brightness. They heard him whispering to himself,
+'Arise, shine, for thy Light is come;' and the peaceful enjoyment
+seemed so to soothe him, that he was not, as usual, eager to get up.</p>
+
+<p>It was only towards the early dusk that a restlessness came on, and an
+increase of the distress and oppression of breath, which he thought
+might be more bearable in his chair; and Mr. Audley, who had just come
+in, began with Felix to dress him, and prepare to move him. But just as
+they were helping him towards the chair, there was a sort of choke, a
+gasping struggle, his head fell on Felix's shoulder, the boy in terror
+managed to stretch out a hand and rang the bell; but in that second
+felt that there was a strange convulsive shudder, and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Felix!' Mr. Audley's low voice sounded strange and far away. 'I do
+believe&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>The figure was entirely prone as they lifted it back to the bed. They
+needed not the exclamation of Sibby to reveal the truth. It <i>was</i> only
+an exclamation, it would have been a shriek if Felix had not grasped
+her wrist with a peremptory grasp. But that bell had been enough; there
+had been a sound of dismay in the very tinkle, and Sister Constance was
+in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix,' she said, understanding all, 'you must go to her. She
+heard&mdash;she is calling you. You cannot conceal it; be as quick and quiet
+as you can,' she added, as the stunned boy went past her, only hearing,
+and that as through a tempest, the feeble voice calling his name. He
+stood by the bed-side; his mother looked into his white face, and held
+out her hands; then as he bent down, clasped both round his neck. 'He
+trusted you,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>He sank on his knees as she relaxed her grasp, and hid her head beneath
+the clothes. A few holy words of commendation of the soul departed
+sounded from the other room; then at Sister Constance's touch of his
+hand, he quitted the room.</p>
+
+<p>Presently after, Felix was sitting in the large arm-chair in the
+dining-room, with his sister Geraldine on his lap, his arms round her,
+her arms tightly clasped round his neck, her hair hanging loosely
+down over his shoulder, her head against him, his face over her, as
+he rocked himself backwards and forwards with her, each straining the
+other closer, as though the mechanical action and motion could allay
+the pain. The table was all over baby-things, which numerous neighbours
+had sent in on the first news of the twins that morning, and which
+the girls had been inspecting; but no one&mdash;nothing else was to be
+seen&mdash;when Mr. Thomas Underwood, on his way from the station, finding
+his knock unheard, and the door ajar, found his way to the room.</p>
+
+<p>'What is this? How is your father?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix raised his face, still deeply flushed, and rising, placed his
+sister in the chair.</p>
+
+<p>'What, worse! You don't say so,' said Mr. Underwood, advancing.</p>
+
+<p>'He is gone!' said Felix, steadily, but in an unnatural voice. 'Quite
+suddenly. Not very long ago,' he began, but he felt unable to guess for
+what space of time he had been rocking Cherry there.</p>
+
+<p>'Dead! Edward Underwood! Bless me!' said Mr. Underwood, taking off his
+hat, passing his hand over his forehead, and standing horror-struck. 'I
+had no idea! You never sent over to say he was worse.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was not; it came on just now,' said Felix, holding by the
+mantelpiece.</p>
+
+<p>He groaned. 'Poor Edward! Well,' and he was forced to put his
+handkerchief to his eyes. He spoke more gently after that. 'Well, this
+is a sudden thing, but better than lingering on. Your poor mother,
+would she like to see me?'</p>
+
+<p>'She was confined last night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bless me! bless me! What a state of things! Have you got any one to be
+with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; a lady from Dearport,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Humph. Which are you? not <i>my</i> boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I am Felix. Oh, poor Edgar!' he added, still bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>And it was at this moment that trampling steps were heard, making Felix
+spring forward with an instinct to silence them; but at the threshold
+the sight of his face brought conviction to Edgar; and with a loud
+uncontrollable cry, tired and hungry as he was, he seemed to collapse
+into his brother's arms, and fainted away.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>My</i> poor boy!' exclaimed his cousin, coming to Felix's help, and
+himself lifting Edgar to the sofa. Of the other boys, Clement ran for
+water, Fulbert rushed out of sight, and Lancelot laid his head on a
+chair choking with tears.</p>
+
+<p>Felix and Clement were, poor children! used enough to illness to
+attend to their brother with a collectedness that amazed their cousin;
+and without calling for help, Edgar came shuddering and trembling
+to himself, and then burst into silent but agonising sobs, very
+painful to witness. He was always&mdash;boy as he was&mdash;the most easily
+and entirely overthrown by anything that affected him strongly; and
+Mr. Thomas Underwood was so much struck and touched by his exceeding
+grief, especially now that he looked on him as his own property, that
+after putting in some disjointed sentences of 'There&mdash;there&mdash;You'll
+always have a father in me&mdash;Don't, my boy&mdash;I tell you, you are my son
+now,'&mdash;which to Felix's mind made it more intolerable, he said, 'I'll
+take him home now&mdash;it will be all the better for him and for every one,
+poor lad! So many&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'The three younger ones were sent to Dearport yesterday,' said Felix;
+'but Edgar&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'To Dearport! Eh! To whom?'</p>
+
+<p>'The Sisters,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>A gruff sound followed. 'Come, come, my dear lad, 'tis bad enough, but
+I'll do my best to make up to you. It will be much the best way for
+you to come out of this,' he added, glancing round the dreary fireless
+room, which his entrance had reminded Felix to darken.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you,' began Felix, not in the least supposing Edgar could go;
+'but now&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not like a stranger,' added his relation. 'Be a sensible lad.
+One out of the way is something under the circumstances. Stay&mdash;whom can
+I see? I will give orders for you,' he added.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Audley and Sister Constance are seeing about things, thank you,'
+said Felix. 'I'll fetch Mr. Audley,' he added, as another trying grunt
+at the other name fell on his ear, and he put his arm round Geraldine,
+and helped her away.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley came, having just parted with the doctor, who had explained
+the sudden termination as what he had of late not thought improbable,
+and further shown that it had been most merciful, since there might
+otherwise have been weeks, if not months, of much severer suffering. He
+had just looked in at the wife, but she had hardly noticed him, and he
+saw no dangerous symptoms about her, except an almost torpid calmness.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Thomas Underwood saw Mr. Bevan, and made it clearly understood that
+he made himself responsible for all expenses, including mourning for
+the whole family. He even offered to have the funeral at Vale Leston,
+'if it were only to shame Fulbert Underwood;' but the wife was in no
+state to be asked, and the children shrank from the removal, so it was
+decided that Edward Underwood should sleep among those for whom he had
+spent his life, and where his children's lot for the present would be
+cast.</p>
+
+<p>The cousin carried Edgar back to Centry with him; the boy seemed too
+unhappy not to be restless, and as if he were ready to do anything to
+leave his misery behind him.</p>
+
+<p>The others remained with their preparations, and with such consolation
+as the exceeding sympathy and kindness of the whole town could afford
+them. Their mother remained in the same state, except when roused by
+an effort; and then there was an attention and presence of mind about
+her that gave anxiety lest excitement should be bringing feverishness;
+but she always fell back into her usual state of silence, such that it
+could be hardly told whether it were torpid or not.</p>
+
+<p>They looked out that half-finished comment on the Epistle to the
+Philippians. It stopped at the words&mdash;'Yea, and if I be offered upon
+the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you
+all.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley took those words for his text on the Sunday, and, not
+without breaking down more than once, read as much of the comment as
+there was time for, as the happy-hearted message of the late pastor,
+for whom indeed there were many tears shed. It seemed to suit with
+that solemn peace and nobleness that seemed like the 'likeness of the
+Resurrection face,' bringing back all the beauty of his countenance as
+he lay robed in his surplice, with a thorny but bright-fruited cross of
+holly on his breast, when his children looked their last, ere parting
+with what remained of that loved and loving father.</p>
+
+<p>Poor little Geraldine spent that worst hour of her life sitting by her
+mother's bed. She had been helped by Felix to that Feast which had been
+spread for the mourners in the church in early morning; but afterwards
+she was forced to remain at home, while the white-robed choir, the
+brother clergy of all the neighbourhood, and the greater part of the
+parish met their pastor for the last time in the church.</p>
+
+<p>There the first part of the service took place; and then&mdash;Cherry could
+just fancy she could hear the dim echo of the <i>Dies Irć</i>, as it was
+sung on the way to the cemetery. It was a very aching heart, poor
+child! full of the dull agony of a longing that she knew could never be
+satisfied again, the intense craving for her father.</p>
+
+<p>She missed him more really than any of them, she had been so much his
+companion; and she was the more solitary from the absence of Edgar,
+who had always been her chief partner in her pursuits. His departure
+had seemed like a defection; and yet she had reproached herself for so
+feeling it when he had run upstairs, on arriving with Mr. Underwood,
+looking paler, more scared and miserable, than any of them; and he
+was sobbing so much when he took his place in the procession, that
+Wilmet had made Felix take Alda, that she might support him. None of
+his mother's steady reserve and resolute stillness had descended to
+him, he was all sensibility and nervousness; and Geraldine, though
+without saying this to herself, felt as if 'poor Edgar' might really
+have been nearly killed by the last few days of sadness, he could bear
+depression so little. She could hardly have gone through them but for
+Sister Constance's kindness, and that rocking process from Felix,
+which she and he called 'being his great baby.' And now, when her
+mother looked up at her, held out a hand, and called her Papa's dear
+little Cherry, drawing her to lay her cheek by hers on the pillow,
+there was much soothing in it, though therewith the little girl felt
+a painful doubt and longing to know whether her mother knew what was
+passing; and even while perfectly aware that she must not be talked to
+nor disturbed, was half grieved, half angry, at her dropping off into
+a slumber, and awakening only upon little Stella's behalf. Those few
+words to Geraldine had been the only sign that day of perception of any
+existence in the world save that of the twins.</p>
+
+<p>So the time went by, and the little bustle of return was heard; Sister
+Constance came in, kissed Geraldine, and helped her down that she might
+be with Edgar, who was to return with the cousin, whispering to her
+by the way that it had been very beautiful. It was a day of bright
+sunshine, high wind, and scant sparkling feathery stars of snow, that
+sat for a moment shining in their pure perfectness of regularity on the
+black, and then vanished. 'So like himself,' Sister Constance said.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine found her four elders and the three little boys all together
+in the dining-room; and while Wilmet anxiously asked after Mother,
+the others, in a sort of sad elation, told of the crowds present,
+the number of clergy&mdash;Mr. Ryder, too, came home from his holiday on
+purpose&mdash;the sobbing people, and the wreaths of camellias and of holly,
+that loving hands had made, and laid upon the coffin. And then the last
+hymn had been so sweet and beautiful, they all seemed refreshed and
+comforted except Edgar, who, coming fresh back to the desolation of the
+house, was in another paroxysm of grief.</p>
+
+<p>'But, Edgar,' said Alda timidly, 'you like being there, don't you?'</p>
+
+<p>'As if one could like anything now!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well! but, Eddy dear, you know what I mean. It is not bad being there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not so bad as being at home. Oh!' and a terrible fit of sobbing came
+on, which made the other children stand round rather appalled; while
+Felix, hesitating, said,</p>
+
+<p>'It is no good going on in this way, Edgar. Father would say it was not
+right; and you are upsetting poor little Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is worse for him, because he has been away,' said Cherry, fondling
+him.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Edgar between his sobs 'It did not seem <i>so</i> there.'</p>
+
+<p>'And are they kind?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes. Marilda let me sit in the school-room, and I had books,
+and things to copy; such an angel, Cherry, I'll bring it to you next
+time&mdash;my copy, I mean.'</p>
+
+<p>Here there was a summons from the other room for Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Edgar, a good deal re-invigorated by having something
+to tell; 'I suppose they are going to tell him what is settled. Mr.
+Underwood wrote to the man at Vale Leston, and he won't do anything for
+us; but they are going to try for the Clergy Orphan for one of you two
+little boys.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' there was a great gasp.</p>
+
+<p>'And about me?' asked Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'You are to come when we all go to London&mdash;to meet us at the station.
+There's a new governess coming, and you will start both together with
+her; and I think you'll beat Marilda, for she knows nothing, and won't
+learn.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope she won't be jealous.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think it is in her! She's very jolly.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I can't go till Mamma is better.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet felt they were falling into a gossiping kind of way that jarred
+on her, and was glad of a summons upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Thomas Underwood saw Alda before he returned home, told her she was
+his other daughter, and should join them on their way to London; and he
+further made arrangements about the christening, contingent, of course,
+on the mother's consent, and on the possibility of taking the very
+small delicate babies to the church. He made very extensive promises of
+patronage for the future, with a full and open heart, and looked as if
+he should like to adopt the whole family on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>For the convenience of our readers we subjoin the first page of
+the family Bible.</p>
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/fam_bible.jpg" width="550" alt="family bible" />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>WORKING FOR BREAD.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 25%;">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Parson's lass 'ant nowt, an' she weant 'a nowt when 'e's dead;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Mun be a guvness, lad, or summut, an' addle her bread.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 40%;"><i>Tennyson</i>.</span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>'Tell, little one,' said Mr. Rugg, the doctor, as he found Geraldine
+on the landing-place outside her mother's room, and spoke to her in
+a voice that to her reluctant ears, as well as to those of Sister
+Constance, who followed him, sounded all the more vulgar because it was
+low, wheedling, and confidential; 'you are always about the house, you
+know everything&mdash;what accident has your mamma met with?'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry's face grew set.</p>
+
+<p>'She has, then,' said the doctor, looking at Sister Constance. 'I
+thought so. Now, be a good child, and tell us all about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, don't be silly and sulk. No one will punish you; we know it was
+an accident; out with it.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear,' said Sister Constance, 'this is a pity. Much may depend on
+your speaking.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry began to cry very piteously, though still silently.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes, we see you are sorry,' said Mr. Rugg, 'but there's nothing
+for it now but to let us hear the truth.'</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head violently, and brow and neck turned crimson.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rugg grew angered, and tried a sharper tone. 'Miss Geraldine, this
+is regular naughtiness. Let me hear directly.'</p>
+
+<p>The flush became purple, and something like 'I won't' came from behind
+the handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>'Leave her to me, if you please,' said Sister Constance gently; 'I
+think she will tell me what is right to be told.'</p>
+
+<p>'As you please, Lady Somerville,' said Mr. Rugg, who, since he had
+discovered her title, was always barbarously misusing it; 'but the
+thing must be told. It is doing Mrs. Underwood a serious injury to let
+childish naughtiness conceal the truth.'</p>
+
+<p>Constance put her arm round the little girl, a tiny weight for thirteen
+years old, and took her into the room where she had last seen her
+father. She was sobbing violently, not without passion, and the more
+distressingly because she carefully stifled every sound, and the poor
+little frame seemed as if it would be rent to pieces. 'Cherry, dear
+child, don't,' said Constance, sitting down and gathering her into her
+arms; 'do try and calm yourself, and think&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'He&mdash;he&mdash;I won't tell him!' sobbed the child. 'He's a bad man&mdash;he tells
+stories. He said he would not hurt me&mdash;when he knew he should most
+terribly. Papa said it was very wrong. Papa was quite angry&mdash;he called
+it deceiving, he did! I won't tell him!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear child, is there anything to tell? Don't think about him, think
+about what is good for your mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'She told me not,' sobbed Cherry, but not with the anger there had been
+before. 'No, no, don't ask me; she told me not.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your mother? My dear little girl, whatever it is, you ought to say
+it. Your dear mother seems to be too ill and confused to recollect
+everything herself, and if it is not known whether she has been hurt,
+how can anything be done for her?'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry sat upon her friend's lap, and with a very heaving chest said,
+'If Felix says I ought&mdash;then I will. Papa said we should mind Felix&mdash;
+like him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will call Felix,' said Sister Constance.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rugg looked very impatient of the delay; but Felix, who had just
+come in to dinner, was summoned. He came at once, and was soon standing
+by Geraldine's chair.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Geraldine, I think you ought to tell,' he said, as the loyal
+little thing gazed up at her new monarch. 'What did happen?'</p>
+
+<p>'It was on the day after New Year's Day,' said Geraldine, now speaking
+very fast. 'You were all at church, and she came out of&mdash;this room
+with Bernard in her arms&mdash;and called to me that I might come and sit
+with&mdash;him, because she was going down to the kitchen to make some
+beef-tea. And just then she put her foot into a loop of whip-cord, and
+fell. She could not save herself at all, because of Bernard; but she
+went backwards&mdash;against the steps.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did she seem hurt at the time?'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not think so. She pulled herself up by the baluster before I
+could get up to help her, and she never let Bernard go all the time&mdash;he
+did not even scream. She only said, "Now mind, Cherry, do not say one
+word of this to Papa or anybody else," and she told me she wasn't hurt.
+Oh! was she really?' as the Sister left the room.</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder whose the string was,' said Felix vindictively.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind! He'll be so sorry! Oh! I hope she won't be very much
+vexed at my telling!'</p>
+
+<p>'She will not mind now!' said Felix; 'it was only not to frighten Papa.'</p>
+
+<p>And Felix had his little sister in that one position where she felt
+a sort of comfort&mdash;like a baby in his arms to be rocked&mdash;when Sister
+Constance returned with the doctor. He spoke without either the anger
+or the persuasive tone now, and Cherry could bear it better, though she
+slipped off her brother's lap instantly, and stood up in dignity.</p>
+
+<p>'So your Mamma told you to conceal this mishap. That is some excuse.
+Now, tell me, how far did she fall?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not more than four steps, I am sure&mdash;I think three.'</p>
+
+<p>'And backwards?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think she struck her head?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, the back of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! And she spoke and moved at once, not like one stunned?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, not at all. She got up and made the beef-tea.'</p>
+
+<p>'The 2nd of January! That must have been about the time you began to
+observe that change of manner&mdash;the irritability your sister remarked,'
+said the doctor, turning to Felix.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, angry as he had been with Alda for remarking it.</p>
+
+<p>All that the doctor further said was, that he must have another
+examination now that he knew a little more about the case; and he went
+away with Sister Constance, saying to her, 'Mrs. Underwood is a lady of
+wonderful fortitude and resolution, and really they are the worst kind
+of patients.'</p>
+
+<p>It was now more than a fortnight since that 6th of January which
+saw the birth of the twins and the death of their father, and Mrs.
+Underwood still lay quiet and almost torpid in her bed, seldom
+speaking, hardly ever originating anything, and apparently taking no
+interest whatsoever in anything outside her room; and yet there was no
+symptom unfavourable to her recovery to be detected. Within the last
+day or two they had tried to rouse her; papers had been brought to her
+to sign, and she did so obediently, but she did not follow the subject:
+she did not refuse, but did not second, any proposal for her beginning
+to sit up; and this was the more remarkable, as, being a woman of much
+health and energy in her quiet way, she had always recovered rapidly,
+and filled her place in the family alarmingly soon. The nurse had begun
+to suspect that besides the torpor of mind there was some weakness of
+limb; and with the new lights acquired, Mr. Rugg had no difficulty in
+coming to the conclusion that there was a slight concussion of the
+spine, causing excitement at first, and now more serious consequences;
+and though he did not apprehend present danger, he thought complete
+recovery very doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>'So they are almost worse than orphans,' said Sister Constance, when
+the Curate went down from reading to the invalid, and she could tell
+him the verdict.</p>
+
+<p>'Do they know?'</p>
+
+<p>'The fact? There is no need to lay the future on the shoulders of the
+present.'</p>
+
+<p>'A very dark present. I feel as if a great bright sun, warming and
+invigorating, had gone out of my life. Yet I knew him but two years.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can understand it, though I knew him but two days.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope he may have been the making of me,' sighed Mr. Audley. 'He
+ought to be.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think he has been,' said she, smiling. 'There is some difference
+between you and the boyish young deacon that came here two years ago.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who thought life without shooting barely endurable by the help of
+croquet! I trust so! He was very patient and tolerant&mdash;made holidays
+for me that first summer which it cuts me to recollect.'</p>
+
+<p>'To live and share in a great sorrow does make a great step in life,'
+said Constance, thoughtfully looking at the much graver and more
+earnest brow of her husband's young cousin; 'and you were a comfort to
+them all as no one else could be.'</p>
+
+<p>'Must you go?' he said. 'I wanted to consult you. I am thinking of
+giving up my present lodgings to this Mowbray Smith, who is coming as
+curate, and coming here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Here! My dear Charles!'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought I had heard legends of twelve foot square?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not with thirteen children. Besides, we were seasoned!'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay; you don't understand. There are three rooms on this floor. Poor
+Mrs. Underwood will hardly want to occupy these two just yet. I take
+them, and put in some furniture&mdash;live to myself, but let them board and
+lodge me. They may as well have what is to be made by it as any one
+else.'</p>
+
+<p>'But can they? And, forgive me, Charles, are you prepared for the
+cookery here? Really, some of those children have appetites so small,
+that I can't bear to see them at dinner.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's the very point. They all say the invaluable Sibby is as good a
+nurse as she is bad as a cook. Now, if they have no help, Wilmet <i>must</i>
+stay at home to look after her mother and the twins; and that is not
+fit for such a young girl. Now, my coming might enable them to get some
+one who knows the use of meat and fires, and would send upstairs the
+only woman who would undertake such a charge as that must be.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't like to say a word against it. It seems excellent for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'I would not live with them, but I should be there to help. I could
+keep Felix up in his Latin, and&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Only one suggestion more, Charles. If you do not stay here long?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well&mdash;if not, every week I am here is so much tided over; and just at
+this time the charge must be heaviest. Those boys may be disposed of
+after a time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish we could keep those two little girls at St. Faith's, but there
+is no place yet for children of their class. I am wanted there this
+day week, and I cannot say but that I shall be glad to leave you here.
+Only, I recollect your mother's feelings.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mothers must draw in the horns of their feelings when their sons are
+ordained,' he said, laughing. 'I shall consult that notable person,
+Wilmet.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet started and blushed with pleasure. It would be so much less
+dreary; and, poor girl! she was feeling as if she were half rent
+asunder at the thought of Alda's going. So good for Felix, too. Only
+she must ask Mamma. And she did ask Mamma, and, to her great pleasure,
+Mrs. Underwood listened, and said, 'It is very kind.'</p>
+
+<p>'And shall it be, Mamma?'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall like for you to have some one in the house. Yes, my dear, I
+think&mdash;' then she paused. 'My dear, you and Sibby and Sister Constance
+had better talk it over. I do not seem able to consider it. But Sister
+Constance will tell you. My dear Wilmet, I am afraid you must have a
+great deal laid on you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind, Mamma; I like doing things. Besides, you are so much
+better.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll try to help you more,' added Mrs. Underwood wistfully. 'Which
+room did you say?'</p>
+
+<p>And she listened, and even made a few suggestions, as Wilmet explained
+how she thought of making a sitting-room upstairs, and giving the two
+downstairs front ones to Mr. Audley, using the back room for the boys
+and children; she was altogether so much more open to comprehension,
+and ready to speak, that Wilmet was full of hope and assurance that she
+was really mending.</p>
+
+<p>When Sister Constance came in, the readiness to converse continued.
+She consulted her friend on the scheme, and its expedience for Mr.
+Audley, saying that she feared he would be uncomfortable; but she could
+not reject so great a help for her children. She had even thought of
+the advantage of keeping Sibby upstairs to attend on the babies and
+herself&mdash;work not fit to rest entirely on Wilmet, though the good girl
+had fully counted on giving up her work at school.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that the examination by the doctor and Wilmet's
+consultation had thoroughly roused her, and she was as clear-headed
+as ever. Indeed, it seemed to Sister Constance that she was a little
+excited, and in that mood in which the most silent and reserved people
+suddenly become the most unreserved.</p>
+
+<p>She was asked at last what Mr. Rugg thought of her, and Sister
+Constance in reply asked whether she remembered her accident. She
+thought a little. 'Why&mdash;yes&mdash;I believe I did slip on the stairs; but it
+did not hurt me, and I forgot it. Does he think anything of it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think he fears you gave yourself a shock.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not unlikely,' she said in an indifferent tone, and did not speak
+again for some minutes; then said, 'Yes, I see! I am thankful it did
+not tell on me sooner,' and her look brought the tears into Constance's
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'It told more than you did,' said Constance, endeavouring at a smile.</p>
+
+<p>'Not on the babies,' she said; 'and he never knew it, so there is no
+harm done! Thank God!'</p>
+
+<p>She lay a little longer, and Constance thought her going into her usual
+state of torpor; but she roused herself to say, 'Would you kindly look
+into that desk? You will find a green book.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Please tear out the leaves, and burn it for me. I would not have one
+of the children see it on any account.'</p>
+
+<p>Constance began to obey, and saw that it was a diary. 'Are you sure it
+ought to be done?' she asked. 'Might it not be better to wait till you
+are better?'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot tell that I shall be much less helpless. I know how things
+like this go,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>Constance was still reluctant, and Mrs. Underwood added, 'I will tell
+you. It is nothing good, I assure you. When we drove from the door at
+Vale Leston, the home of all our lives, <i>he</i> turned to me and said,
+"Now, Mary, that page is shut for ever. Let us never speak a word to
+make the children or ourselves feel turned out of paradise." And I
+never did; but, oh! I wrote it. There are pages on pages of repinings
+there&mdash;I could not let them see it!'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, but you were resigned.'</p>
+
+<p>'Resigned! What of that? I held my tongue! It was all I could do! I
+never knew things could be worse till I saw it was killing him, and
+then all I could do was still to keep silence.'</p>
+
+<p>There was an agony in her voice that Constance had never heard there
+before.</p>
+
+<p>'Silence was, no doubt&mdash;as things were&mdash;an exceeding kindness to him,'
+said Constance, 'and one that must have cost you much.'</p>
+
+<p>'Once&mdash;once, so tenderly, with tears in his eyes, he did beg me as a
+favour not to complain, or talk of Fulbert Underwood! I did not; but
+I never <i>could</i> be the companion I was before to him. He was always
+happy, he did believe me so; but I could often only smile. If I talked,
+it could only have been of his health and our cares.'</p>
+
+<p>'You kept him happy by taking the weight so entirely to yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps; if he had only known how miserable it made me, we might have
+moved to a healthier place; but after that one time, I never could vex
+him or trust myself. To hear him console me and grieve for me, was
+worst of all.'</p>
+
+<p>Constance began to see how the whole woman, brought up to affluence,
+had been suddenly crushed by the change; and almost the more so for
+her husband's high and cheerful resolution, which had forced back
+her feelings into herself. Her powers had barely sufficed for the
+cares of her household and her numerous family, and her endurance had
+consisted in 'suffering, and being still.' No murmur had escaped, but
+only by force of silence. She had not weakened his energies by word
+or look of repining; but while his physical life was worn out by toil
+and hardship, her mental life had almost been extinguished in care,
+drudgery, and self-control; and all his sweetness, tenderness, and
+cheerfulness had not been able to do more than just to enable her to
+hold out, without manifesting her suffering. Enid had been a very
+suitable name for her; though without a Geraint in any respect to blame
+for what she underwent, she had borne all in the same silent and almost
+hopeless spirit, and with the same unfailing calm temper: but outside
+her own house, she had never loved nor taken real interest in anything
+since the day she drove from the door of Vale Leston; she had merely
+forced herself to seem to do so, rather than disappoint her eager
+husband and children.</p>
+
+<p>And now, how much of her torpor had been collapse, how much the effect
+of the accident, could not be guessed. She herself was greatly roused
+for the present, dwelt on the necessity of trying to get up the next
+day, and was altogether in a state excitable enough to make the Sister
+anxious.</p>
+
+<p>Other troubles too there were that evening, which made all feel that
+even though Mr. Audley was to live to himself, his presence in the
+house would be no small comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert, never the most manageable of the party, had procured a piece
+of wood from the good-natured carpenter, and was making a sparrow-trap
+on an improved plan, when Wilmet, impatient to have the room clear
+for Mr. Audley to come for the final decision&mdash;as he was to do in the
+evening&mdash;anxious to clear away the intolerable litter, and with more
+anxiety for Fulbert's holiday task than for the sparrows, ordered him
+to bed&mdash;ten minutes too early, and in too peremptory a tone.</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert did not stir.</p>
+
+<p>'Fulbert, I say, clear up that litter, and go to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you hear, Fulbert?' said Felix, looking up from his book.</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert gave a pull to the newspaper that was spread under his works on
+the table, and sent all his chips and saw-dust on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>'O Fulbert! how naughty!' broke out Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Fulbert, are you going to mind?' asked Wilmet. 'Please remember.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall go in proper time,' growled Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'That is not the way to speak to your sister,' interposed Felix, with
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert eyed him defiantly all over.</p>
+
+<p>Felix rose up from his chair, full of wrath and indignation. There
+was quite difference enough in their size and strength to give him
+the complete mastery, for Fulbert was only ten years old; but Wilmet,
+dreading nothing so much as a scuffle and outcry, sprang up, imploring,
+'O Felix! remember, Mamma is wide awake to-night. Let him alone&mdash;pray,
+let him alone.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was thoroughly angry, and kept his hands off with exceeding
+difficulty. 'Little sneak,' he said; 'he chooses to take advantage.'</p>
+
+<p>'He always was a sneak; his nose is the shape of it,' said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>As Felix and Wilmet had the sense to let this amiable observation drop,
+Edgar contented himself with making some physiognomical outlines of
+sneaks' noses on a slate; and silence prevailed till the church clock
+struck the half-hour, when Clement got up, and taking the slate, where
+he had been solacing himself with imitating Edgar's caricatures, he was
+about to make it an impromptu dust-pan, and went down on his knees to
+sweep up Fulbert's malicious litter, but was rewarded with a vicious
+kick on the cheek. It was under the table, out of sight; and Clement,
+like a true son of his mother, made no sign, but went off to bed like a
+Spartan.</p>
+
+<p>'Fulbert,' said Lance, rising to follow his example, 'it is time now.'</p>
+
+<p>He still sat on; and Felix, in intolerable wrath and vexation, found
+himself making such deep bites into a pencil, that he threw it from him
+with shame, just as Mr. Audley's bell sounded, and he ran down to let
+him in.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Ful,' said Wilmet coaxingly, 'please go&mdash;or Mr. Audley will see.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let him.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley was there in a moment, and the next, Alda, in all the ruffle
+of offended dignity, was telling him that Fulbert was in one of his
+tempers, and would attend to nobody. Fulbert's back looked it. It
+evidently intended to remain in that obstinate curve till midnight.</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry,' said Mr. Audley, 'I thought no one would have added to
+the distress of the house! What is it, Fulbert?' he added, laying his
+hand on his shoulder, and signing to Alda to hold her peace.</p>
+
+<p>'They bother,' said Fulbert, in the sulky tone; but still, as he
+regarded the new-comer as less of an enemy than the rest&mdash;'I'd have
+gone at half-past eight if they would let a fellow alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then the fellow had better give them no right to bother,' said
+Mr. Audley. 'Come, Fulbert, no ship can sail unless the crew obey.
+No mutiny. Here's your captain ready to shake hands and wish you
+good-night.'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert could not face Mr. Audley's determined look, but he was not
+conquered. He took up his tools and his trap, gave a final puff to
+spread his sawdust farther, and marched off without a single good-night.</p>
+
+<p>'He has the worst temper of us all,' cried Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'You should be very cautious of provoking him,' said Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid it was my fault,' sighed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense,' said Felix; 'he is an obstinate little dog. I wish I was
+licking him. I hope he is not pitching into Clem!'</p>
+
+<p>'Clem is the biggest,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but he is much the meekest,' added Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Tina's meek sauce is aggravation, itself,' observed Edgar. 'I should
+hope he was catching it!'</p>
+
+<p>'He is certainly not slow to put in his oar,' said Mr. Audley; 'did you
+hear of his performance in the vestry the other day?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. I hope he did not make an unusual ass of himself,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'He and Mowbray Smith had last Tuesday's Evensong nearly to themselves,
+when Master Clem not only assisted Smith in putting on his hood, but
+expressed his doubts as to the correctness of it (never, of course,
+having seen any bachelor's but Oxford or Cambridge), and further gave
+him some good advice as to his manner of intoning.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope he won't go on in that way at St. Matthew's!' exclaimed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'It is lucky he is going so soon,' said Mr. Audley. 'I doubt if Mowbray
+Smith will ever get over it!'</p>
+
+<p>'Regular snob that he is,' said Edgar; 'just one of my Lady's sort!
+What did he do? Go crying to her?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Edgar!' remonstrated Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Mettie, if even our spiritual pastors will be snobs, one must
+have the relief of expressing one's opinion now and then.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should say it was better to keep any such fact out of one's mind as
+much as might be,' said Mr. Audley, feeling himself unable to deny what
+had been so broadly expressed.</p>
+
+<p>'And we, at any rate, had better drop talking of snobs,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Hollo, Felix! I am sure you for one would not be a snob if you had
+turned chimney-sweeper, and let Tom Underwood nail me to his office;
+he'll never make one of me!'</p>
+
+<p>'I trust so,' said Felix; 'but it is not the way to keep from it to
+throw about the word at other folks.'</p>
+
+<p>'What's that?' cried Alda. 'Really, that boy must be falling upon some
+of them.'</p>
+
+<p>It was Lance, in great deshabille, who, opening a crack of the door,
+called cautiously, 'Wilmet, please come here.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet hastily obeyed, saying anxiously, as the door was shut, 'Never
+mind, dear Lance, he's in a horrid mood; but do bear it, and not make
+Felix more in a rage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bosh about Ful,' said Lance unceremoniously. 'It is Cherry; she is
+crying so upstairs, and Clem and I can't get a word out of her.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry, though older than the boys, had to precede them in vanishing
+for the night, as her undressing was a long operation dependent
+upon Sibby. Wilmet ran up in haste, and did indeed find poor little
+Geraldine with her face smothered under the clothes in an agony of
+weeping, very serious for so frail a little creature.</p>
+
+<p>'Cherry! Cherry, dear, don't! Are you feeling solitary? Are you missing
+<i>him?</i> Oh, don't! Yes, dear, 'tis so sad; but we all do love you so.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet would have kissed and fondled her, but the child almost thrust
+her away.</p>
+
+<p>'Not that. Oh, not that! I wish it was.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Cherry, you can't have been naughty!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes! indeed I have. And now&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't think&mdash;O Cherry, if you would only tell me what you mean!'
+cried Wilmet, aghast.</p>
+
+<p>And with agonised sobs, Cherry whispered, 'Mr. Rugg&mdash;O Mettie&mdash;such
+things as I said about him to Sister Constance&mdash;I made sure I had
+forgiven&mdash;long ago&mdash;and now&mdash;now, after <i>that</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>If Wilmet had not known how deeply both Geraldine and her father had
+resented what Mr. Rugg had meant as a little friendly gloss to save
+terror before a painful operation, she would have been utterly at a
+loss. And now, she found herself incapable by any argument or caress of
+soothing her sister's sense of heinous offence; for that rite, of which
+she had partaken with her father, had required charity with all men,
+and now she found she had been deceitful&mdash;she hated Mr. Rugg all the
+time. Oh, what should she do! how could she be so wicked!</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet tried to tell her that she had not known how it was at the time,
+but this seemed no comfort; and it was plain that that day's solemnity
+had lessened the inequality between the two girls so much, that for
+Wilmet to console her as a child was vain; and indeed, her invalid
+state and constant companionship with her father had rendered her
+religious feeling much more excitable, and more developed, than were as
+yet Wilmet's; and meantime, this piteous sobbing and weeping was doing
+great bodily harm.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet at last, hearing a door open as if the nurse were taking Sister
+Constance's place, ran down to take counsel with that kind friend on
+the way. She whispered her trouble on the stairs, and the Sister was
+soon kneeling over the little bed; but her comfort was not persuading
+the child to think less of the fault, but promising that she should
+tell all to Mr. Audley to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Nay, seeing that even this was too long hence for the 'weary soul, and
+burdened sore,' to look forward to&mdash;indeed, that the preparation for
+the interview would be sleep-destroying&mdash;she said, 'Then you shall see
+him at once, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet opened her eyes in dismay. That little attic, bare of all but
+beds, was her thought; but Sister Constance, ever an effective woman,
+had the little black frock, the shoes and stockings, on in no time, and
+throwing a shawl over all, actually gathered the small light frame up
+into her arms, and carried her down to the fire in the room now vacated
+by the nurses and babies. And there she fetched Mr. Audley to her. 'It
+will not do,' she whispered on the way to Wilmet, 'to treat her as a
+child <i>now</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'He always made so much of her,' sighed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; and now she is a Communicant.'</p>
+
+<p>They left her to Mr. Audley, and presently, when the door opened
+again, it was he who was carrying her upstairs again; and when Sister
+Constance had taken possession of her, she whispered, 'Yes, thank you.
+He says I may come on Sunday, and I think it is forgiven. I shall say
+a prayer about charity always now!' And with a deep sigh, the worn-out
+little penitent lay down to her sleep.</p>
+
+<p>'O Mr. Audley, it is plain we cannot do without you,' sighed Wilmet, as
+she came down, not without tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>And then came the conference upon ways and means, rooms and attendance.
+Mr. Audley had parted with his horse and groom in the autumn, observing
+that they ate their heads off; and the terms he now proposed for
+lodging, board, and attendance were what Felix and Wilmet would have
+known to be wondrously liberal but for their inexperience, especially
+as he meant to send in some, at least, of the furniture. He was to have
+his meals, at his own times, in his sitting-room; and Sister Constance
+had a person in her eye at Dearport, who was likely to do well in the
+kitchen, and not quarrel with Sibby.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet had made up her mind that she must remain at home all day, and
+had even told Miss Pearson so; but that good lady had refused to accept
+her resignation, and had come to Mr. Bevan about it; and now both the
+Sister and the Curate united in telling her that she ought not, as long
+as it was possible, to give up this means of improving herself, as well
+as lessening the family burthen. To give up her education now would be
+to sink into a housewifely drudge, who would hardly be able to maintain
+herself when the younger ones would be getting out into the world; and
+as Geraldine must stay at home to be a companion to her mother, there
+was no need for her being also always in attendance, while Sibby was
+equal to the charge. Indeed, Mrs. Underwood herself had said something
+that showed her to contemplate Wilmet's remaining at school.</p>
+
+<p>'You must,' said Felix decidedly. 'Why, you might as well turn
+nursery-girl at once.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should like it,' said Wilmet. 'I shall be miserable at
+school&mdash;always thinking something is going wrong. And Cherry can never
+bear with the babies! Oh! please don't tell me I must.'</p>
+
+<p>'I tell you to begin,' said Sister Constance. 'You can always give it
+up if you feel that the need lies at home; but I think the few hours'
+change every day&mdash;for duty's sake, mind&mdash;will give you vigour not to be
+worn down by the home cares.'</p>
+
+<p>'But Cherry will have them always! She who cares for books and drawing
+so much more than I!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but if you go on learning, you can teach her,' said Sister
+Constance.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' cried Wilmet; 'Cherry knows more than I do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Little Cherry is the cleverest of us all,' added Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Still,' said the Sister, 'the mere going over your work with you
+will give her change and interest. I do feel strongly convinced, dear
+Wilmet, that to shut yourself up with her, without gathering anything
+from elsewhere, would be very bad for both.'</p>
+
+<p>'We must see how Mamma is, and how Cherry gets on,' was all that Wilmet
+would say, but the arrangement was made, and was to take effect in ten
+days' time, when Mr. Mowbray Smith was coming to be second curate, and
+Sister Constance must change places with the three absent children, and
+Alda would be gone to her adopted home.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mr. Audley took leave; and as Felix went to the front door with
+him, he said, 'Forgive me, Felix; but I am a younger brother myself,
+and I do hope you do not mean to assert your authority by licking.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix coloured a little; and though he spoke respectfully, it was with
+some little annoyance. 'There is nothing else that does with Fulbert.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay, Felix; I am not questioning that he may be the sort of boy for
+whom flogging may be good from some one.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is!' said Felix. 'He never will behave himself till he has felt his
+master! It has been so at school; and once, even my father made himself
+quite ill for a week with having to flog Fulbert for disobedience. It
+settled him; but he is not like the others&mdash;Clem and Lance are not any
+trouble; but&mdash;I know it will come to it sooner or later; Ful will never
+mind me or Wilmet till I have done it once.'</p>
+
+<p>'And when his strength is equal to yours?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I hope he will have more sense.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Felix; but what if by forcing him into dogged submission by your
+bodily strength you have lost his confidence, and have no moral power
+over him? Things that can be borne from a father come very differently
+from a brother.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was quite crimson now. 'But what shall I do, Mr. Audley, when he
+defies Wilmet, and teases Cherry and the little ones?'</p>
+
+<p>'Try all you can with his better sense, but don't anger him by tones of
+authority. What you think needful rule may seem to him domineering. And
+if necessary, call me. My blows will not leave the after rankling that
+yours will, even if they are necessary.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix sighed. He was not desirous of beating his brother in the main;
+but being unhappily master of the house, he was unwilling not to be so
+entirely. He wished Mr. Audley good-night, not in his most perfectly
+cordial tone.</p>
+
+<p>However, the next morning he had brought himself to thank Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Felix,' said the Curate; 'it is a great relief to me. I was
+afraid you thought you were going to bring a meddling fellow in upon
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix coloured, and with an effort&mdash;for which Mr. Audley liked him the
+better&mdash;said, 'I know I shall always deserve what advice you give me,
+and I hope another time I may take it better than the last.'</p>
+
+<p>Soon after, one train carried away four of the young Underwoods to
+begin life elsewhere. The Thomas Underwoods had desired that Alda and
+Edgar should meet them at the station, and at Felix's entreaty had
+also undertaken to convoy Clement, who, thanks to Mr. Audley, was
+to be a chorister, and live in the clergy-house at St. Matthew's,
+Whittingtonia. It would have been Fulbert, only unluckily he had
+no ear, and so he was left at home, while Lady Price, Mrs. Thomas
+Underwood, and all the ladies they could enlist in their service,
+canvassed desperately, and made the cards of 'Fulbert James and
+Lancelot Oswald, sons of the Rev. Edward Fulbert Underwood, THIRTEEN
+children,' a weariness to every friend of a subscriber to clergy-orphan
+schools. Robina was not quite old enough to stand for the like
+election; but Sister Constance had negotiated with a lady who had
+devoted herself to educating children of better birth than means, and
+the little girl was to be dropped at the nearest station to her school
+at Catsacre. It had all been settled in a wonderfully short time, by
+Sister Constance and Mr. Audley, with full though helpless acquiescence
+from Mrs. Underwood. They felt it well to lessen the crowd of children
+in the house, and the responsibilities of the elder ones, and acted at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>As to Alda, she was too miserable at home not to be ready to follow
+Edgar, though she had at first implored to stay and help Wilmet till
+their mother was about again; but the Thomas Underwoods were unwilling
+to consent to this&mdash;and after all, Alda was more apt to cry than to
+be of much real use. Sister Constance saw that she was only another
+weight on her sister's hands, and that, terrible as the wrench would be
+between the twins, Wilmet would be freer when it was once over. Poor
+Wilmet! she had felt as if she could hardly have lived over these weeks
+save for fondling the younger twins, and waiting on her mother. She was
+almost passive, and ran up and downstairs, or prepared the wardrobes
+of the departing children, just as she was bidden, all in one quiet
+maze of grief. The tears seemed to be always in her eyes, very often
+dropping, and yet they never hindered her, and she never uttered a word
+of deprecation or complaint; only she could not eat, and a kiss would
+bring down a whole shower; and at night, the two sisters would hold
+each other tight, and cry and kiss themselves to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>So had come the last day&mdash;the last for all four. Robina, who had only
+just come back from St. Faith's, was grave, puzzled, and awestruck,
+clinging chiefly to Lancelot, and exchanging confidences in corners
+with him, in which they were probably much less childish than they
+showed themselves to the outer world. Clement was very grave and
+unhappy; but seemed to be most distressed at parting with Harry Lamb,
+a favourite school-fellow of his own quiet stamp, with whom he spent
+all available time. Alda and Wilmet were hand in hand at every possible
+moment, and if possible cheek to cheek&mdash;each felt as if herself was cut
+in two.</p>
+
+<p>Then Edgar, who had only come home for that farewell Sunday, had
+another of his paroxysms of sorrow at the changes at home, which he
+contrived to forget when at Centry. All that was becoming in a manner
+usual to the others was a shock to him, and he was so very miserable
+the whole day, that he treated every attempt of the others to cheer
+him as a mere token of their hardness of heart. He went in to see his
+mother, and was so overcome at finding her no better, that he rushed
+away, and threw himself on a sofa as if he was going to faint; and when
+at church he saw his father's place filled up he fell into such a fit
+of sobbing, that half-a-dozen smelling-bottles were handed across the
+seats.</p>
+
+<p>However, he had recovered himself on Monday morning, and made it his
+particular request that nobody would come bothering to the station,
+to make them look like Fulbert's canvassing-card of the thirteen
+children&mdash;and as the mention of it always affronted Fulbert deeply, it
+was plain that <i>he</i> would be no good company. However, Felix had been
+allowed an hour from his business for that very purpose, and he simply
+said, 'Nonsense, Edgar, I shall take Robin down.' Wilmet submitted,
+though with a great pang. She had no assurance that she should not
+break down, and a crying match at the station&mdash;oh no! It might make
+Bobbie roar all the way.</p>
+
+<p>So Alda clung round her neck and Geraldine's in their own little
+parlour, and wished her mother good-bye, scarcely knowing whether it
+were with a full understanding how many were parted from the wing that
+now seemed unable to shelter them; and then Wilmet went up and quietly
+lay down by her mother on her bed, feeling as if there was nothing she
+cared for in all life, and as if youth, hope, and happiness were gone
+away from her for ever, and she were as much widowed as her mother. She
+was even past crying&mdash;she could do nothing but lie still. But then her
+mother's hand came out and stroked her; and presently one of the babies
+cried, and Wilmet was walking up and down the room with it, and all
+activity with her outward senses, though her heart felt dead. Meantime,
+the luggage went in the omnibus, the four children walked up together
+only escorted by Felix, and were passed on their way by the prancing
+and thundering carriage from Centry.</p>
+
+<p>But the sense of usefulness that came gave strength and energy to Felix
+and Wilmet Underwood as the first excitement passed away, and they
+better understood their tasks.</p>
+
+<p>Of the absent ones they heard good accounts. Alda was altogether one
+with her cousin's family, and seemed to be completely on an equality
+with Marilda; and Edgar had been sent by Thomas Underwood to acquire
+modern languages under the care of an Englishman who took private
+pupils at Louvaine, whence Edgar despatched most amusing letters and
+clever sketches. Clement was in great favour, both musically and
+morally, at St. Matthew's; and little Robina was reported to have
+bewailed her home with floods of nightly tears, but to have soon
+settled down into the bonnie little pet of the elder girls.</p>
+
+<p>Except for the separation, the cloud had hardly fallen on these, but
+their departure had made a great hole in the hitherto unbroken family;
+and while Felix and Wilmet, by the loss of their contemporaries, seemed
+placed at a point far away from the others, Geraldine was conscious of
+much loneliness. The twins had always consorted together, and regarded
+her as a mere child, and her chief companions had been her father and
+Edgar, so that she seemed left at an equal distance both from the elder
+and younger party.</p>
+
+<p>Then the world around her was so busy, and she could do so little. She
+slept in a little inner room beyond the large nursery, where Wilmet
+kept guard over Angela and Bernard; and long before six o'clock, she
+always heard the call pass between the eldest brother and sister; and
+knew that as soon as he was dressed, Felix&mdash;it must out&mdash;was cleaning
+the family boots, including those of the lodger, who probably supposed
+that nature did it, and never knew how much his young landlord had done
+before joining him in his early walk to St. Oswald's.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Wilmet conducted the toilette of the two little children, and
+gave the assistance that Cherry needed, as well as discharging some of
+the lighter tasks of the housemaid; leaving the heavier ones to Sibby
+and Martha, a stout, willing, strong young woman, whom Sister Constance
+had happily found for them, and who was disqualified, by a loutish
+manner and horrible squint, from the places to which her capabilities
+might have raised her.</p>
+
+<p>Then Wilmet helped her sister downstairs, and a visit was paid to the
+mother and the twins, who were Sibby's charge for the night. Mrs.
+Underwood was still in the same state. It was indeed possible to
+rouse her, but at the expense of much suffering and excitement; and
+in general, she was merely tender, placid, and content, mechanically
+busied about her babies, and responding to what was said, but entirely
+incapable of any exertion of body, and as inactive in mind as in limb.
+Wilmet attended to her while Sibby went to her breakfast, returning
+with that of her mistress in time to send Wilmet down to preside at
+the family meal, a genuine Irish dish of stir-about&mdash;for which all had
+inherited a taste from their father's Irish mother. Only Cherry was too
+delicate for such food, and was rather ashamed of her cup of tea and
+slice of bread.</p>
+
+<p>However, this was one of the few times when she could hope she was
+useful; for when Felix was gone to the printing-office, the boys to
+the grammar-school, and Wilmet, first to the kitchen, and then to Miss
+Pearson's, she remained with bowl and cloth to wash up in her own
+peculiarly slow and dainty way, never breaking but always dreaming,
+while Angela carried them one by one, first to her, then to the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>'Now Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley's door opened, he would step forward and take the well-worn
+books in one hand, and hold the doors open with the other as Cherry
+tardily hopped in, and perched herself by the table. Her confirmation
+studies had been left in his charge; and then followed a little Greek,
+some Latin, a page or two of French, the revision of an exercise, and
+some help in Euclid and fractions&mdash;all studies begun with her father,
+and both congenial and useful to her, as the occupation that (next
+to drawing) best prevented her from feeling the dreary loneliness of
+her days; for though he could seldom give her more than an hour, the
+preparation&mdash;after he had helped her upstairs&mdash;occupied her during the
+whole period of tranquillity while the younger children slept. Angela
+appeared first, and did some small lessons, cat-and-dog readings, and
+easy hymns, then was generally content to sit on the floor in Mamma's
+room, admiring or amusing the twins. Then Cherry, according to her
+sense of duty, drew or worked. There was a horrible never-ending
+still-beginning basket of mending in the family, which Wilmet
+replenished every Saturday; and though Mrs. Underwood's instinct for
+piecing and darning had revived as soon as she was taken out of bed,
+her work now always needed a certain revision to secure the boys from
+the catastrophe of which Wilmet often dreamt&mdash;appearing in public in
+ragged shirt-sleeves! Geraldine knew that every stitch she left undone
+would have to be put in by her sister in late evening or early morning,
+and therefore often wrenched herself from the pencil and paints that
+best beguiled her thoughts from the heart-ache for her father, and the
+craving for Edgar, or the mere craving for light, air, liberty, and
+usefulness. Her only excuse to her own conscience for allowing herself
+her chief pleasure was, that it was her way of helping an old woman
+who kept a stall of small wares on market days, and could sometimes
+dispose of little pictures on domestic and Scriptural subjects, if
+highly coloured, glazed with gum, and bound with bright paper&mdash;pickings
+and stealings, as Felix called them, gleaned from advertisements and
+packing-boxes at Mr. Froggatt's; but these did not allow much scope for
+the dreams of her fancy.</p>
+
+<p>Nor had she much choice when Bernard once awoke and came down, in all
+the unreasoning tyranny of two years old, when it was an even chance
+whether he would peaceably look at the old scrap-book, play with
+Angela, or visit Mamma; or be uproarious, and either coalesce with
+Angela in daring mischief, fight a battle-royal with her, or be violent
+with and jealous of the twins. The urchin had found out that when once
+Cherry's crutch was out of her reach she could not get at him; and he
+had ridden off upon it so often, before committing any of his worst
+misdemeanours, that Cherry always lay down on it to secure it. After
+all, he was a fine, affectionate, impetuous little fellow, but with a
+very high, proud, unmanageable will; and she was very fond and proud of
+him; but never more so than when he slept till dinner-time.</p>
+
+<p>That was the hour which brought Felix home to help Sibby to carry his
+mother into the sitting-room, pay a little court to the babies, and
+enliven Cherry with any chance scrap of news or occupation. Best of all
+were the proofs of that unfinished comment on the Epistle to Philippi,
+which was being printed by subscription of the congregation, and the
+clergy of the diocese. It always did Mrs. Underwood good to have these
+read aloud to her by her little daughter, and <i>she</i> could sometimes
+find a clue to the understanding of sentences that had puzzled even Mr.
+Audley.</p>
+
+<p>The two school-boys never appeared till dinner was imminent; and
+then&mdash;one unuttered wish of poor Cherry was that Mr. Audley could have
+dined with them; but he kept to his own hours, and they were late.</p>
+
+<p>Whereby dinners on five days of the week were apt to be something on
+this fashion. Bell-ringing&mdash;Felix helping Geraldine to her seat, Angela
+trotting after; a large dish of broth, with meat and rice, and another
+of mashed potato; no sign of the boys; Angela lisping Grace; Sibby
+waiting with a tray.</p>
+
+<p>Felix filled a soup-plate for his mother, and a basin for Bernard. 'We
+must begin, I suppose,' and he helped his sisters and himself.</p>
+
+<p>'Here, Angel, push over your plate; I'll cut that.&mdash;How did you get on
+to-day?'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well; the only mistake I made I found out before Smith saw it. I
+know all the stationery and steel pens apart now, and haven't made a
+mistake for a week. Yesterday Bartlett junior came in, he stood like
+a post before Mr. Froggatt till he caught sight of me, and then he
+shouted out, "O Blunderbore, you know! What is it that Collis wants?"'</p>
+
+<p>'And did you?'</p>
+
+<p>'When he said it was a horrid sum-book all little a's and b's.&mdash;What
+have you been doing, Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have begun an abstract of the first Punic&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>The door flew open with a bounce, and two hot, wild-locked boys, dust
+everywhere except in their merry blue eyes, burst in, and tumbled
+on their chairs. 'I say&mdash;isn't it a horrid sell? we ain't to have a
+holiday for Squire's wedding.&mdash;Come, Fee, give us some grub.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have not said Grace,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>Lance, abashed, stood up and bowed; Fulbert looked grim, and mumbled
+something.</p>
+
+<p>'You have not washed your hands,' added Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Bosh! What's the good?' said Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'They'll be as jolly dirty again directly,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'But you would be more decent company in the meantime,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment there was a splash in his plate, a skip-jack made of the
+breast-bone of a chicken had alighted there with a leap.</p>
+
+<p>'There's Felix's master come after him,' cried Fulbert, and Lance went
+off into choking laughter.</p>
+
+<p>'Boys, how can you?' broke out Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Look at Blunderbore fishing out his master!' was Fulbert's answer.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 5em;">
+'The frog is in the bog,<br />
+And Felix is squeamish,'<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>chanted Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Bad rhyme, Lance,' said Felix, who could bear these things much better
+from the younger than the elder. Indeed, he scarcely durst notice them
+in Fulbert, lest he should be betrayed into violence by letting out his
+temper.</p>
+
+<p>'I say!' cried Lance, struck by a new idea, 'what prime stuff it is
+for making a fort!' and he began to scrape the more solid parts of his
+plateful to one side.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I say, isn't it?' echoed Fulbert: 'but I've eaten up the best part
+of my castle;' and he grasped at the ladle.</p>
+
+<p>'No, I thank you,' said Felix, putting it on the other side. 'While I
+am here, you don't play tricks with that.'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert swallowed a spoonful in a passion, but a bright thought struck
+Lance, who always cared much more for fun than for food. '<i>I say</i>,
+we'll empty it all into one, and eat it down.'</p>
+
+<p>'You horrid boys!' plaintively exclaimed Cherry, almost crying&mdash;for
+this return to savage life was perfect misery to her. 'I can't bear it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will not have Cherry tormented,' said Felix, beginning to be very
+irate.</p>
+
+<p>'We ain't doing anything to Cherry,' said Lance, amazed.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you know it spoils Cherry's appetite to see you so disgusting?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then she'll have the more next time,' said Fulbert. 'Get along,
+Captain&mdash;you've splashed my face!'</p>
+
+<p>'Hurrah! the red-hot shot! The rice is the cannon-balls! Where's some
+bread?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Lance!' entreated Cherry; 'no waste&mdash;think of Wilmet and the bills.'</p>
+
+<p>'We'll eat it every bit up,' asseverated Lance; but Fulbert growled,
+'If you bother any more, I shall crumble the whole lot out at window.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is wicked to waste bread,' lisped Angela, and Martha at that moment
+appeared to fetch the tureen for the kitchen dinner.</p>
+
+<p>'Can't you eat any more, Cherry?' asked Felix gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>'Not a bit, thank you,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>'We've not done!' shouted the boys, seizing on her scarcely-tasted and
+half-cold plate.</p>
+
+<p>'You must finish after. Come, Cherry!' Then, as they left the room, and
+she laid her head on his shoulder&mdash;'Little ruffians!' he said under his
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind, Felix. I don't&mdash;at least I ought not to mind&mdash;they
+don't mean it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance does not, but I think Fulbert does. He'll make me thrash him
+within two inches of his life, before he has done. And then there's no
+one to take me in hand for it. It is horridly bad for them, too, to
+live just like young bears.'</p>
+
+<p>But he smoothed his brow as he came into the room where his mother was,
+and amused her till his time was up.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Froggatt had explained to his father long ago, that Felix's work
+would not be that of a clerk in a great publishing house, but veritably
+that belonging to the country bookseller and printer, and that he must
+go through all the details, so as to be thoroughly conversant with
+them. The morning's work was at the printing-house, the afternoon's
+at the shop. The mechanical drudgery and intense accuracy needed in
+the first were wearisome enough; and moreover, he had to make his way
+with a crusty old foreman who was incredulous of any young gentleman's
+capabilities, and hard of being convinced that he would or could be
+useful; but old Smith's contempt was far less disagreeable to him
+than the subdued dislike he met with from Redstone, the assistant in
+the shop, a sharp, half-educated young man, who had aspired to the
+very post of confidence for which Felix was training&mdash;and being far
+less aware of his own utter unfitness for it than was Mr. Froggatt,
+regarded the lad as an interloper; and though he durst not treat him
+with incivility, was anxious to expose any deficiency or failure on
+his part. Having a good deal of quickness and dexterity, he could
+act as a reporter, draw up articles of a certain description for the
+newspaper, and had, since the death of Mr. Froggatt's eldest son, been
+absolutely necessary to him in carrying on the business; and now, it
+was a matter of delicate discretion on the master's part to avoid
+hurting the feelings of the assistant, whom a little more would have
+made his tyrant, and a dread of the appearance of favouritism made
+it needful to keep Felix thoroughly in a subordinate post, till real
+superiority of mind and education should assert itself over elder years
+and mere familiarity with detail. This reserved ill-will of Redstone's
+had much increased the natural discomfort of appearing behind the
+counter to former acquaintance, and had rendered the learning the
+duties there doubly troublesome and confusing; though, in recalling the
+day's doings, there was some amusement in contrasting the behaviour of
+different people, some&mdash;of whom Mr. Ryder was the type&mdash;speaking to
+him freely in his own person, others leaving him as an unrecognized
+shop-boy; and a third favouring him with a horrid little furtive nod,
+which he liked least of all. But though awkward and embarrassed at
+first, use soon hardened him, and made the customers indifferent, so
+that by the spring he had begun to be useful, and to feel no particular
+excitement about it.</p>
+
+<p>The worst of his business was that it kept him so late, that he had
+but a very short evening, and no time for exercise. He was on his feet
+most of the day, but indoors, and his recreation chiefly consisted
+in choir-practice twice a week. Not that he missed more positive
+amusement; the cares of life and Edgar's departure seemed to have taken
+the boyish element of frolic out of him; and left him gravely cheerful
+indeed, but with no greater desire of entertainment than could find
+vent in home conversation, or playing with the little ones.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet and the two boys were at liberty full two hours before him. The
+latter generally stayed out as long as light and hunger permitted.
+Mr. Audley continually stumbled on them playing at marbles, racing
+headlong in teams of pack-thread harness with their fellows, upsetting
+the nerves of quiet folk&mdash;staring contentedly at such shows as required
+no outlay, or discontentedly at the outside of those that demanded the
+pennies they never had. They were thorough little street-boys; and all
+that he could do for them was to enforce their coming in at reasonable
+hours, and, much to their sister's relief, cause their daily lessons to
+be prepared in his room. Otherwise their places in their classes would
+have been much less creditable.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet's return was always Geraldine's great relief, for the afternoon
+of trying to amuse her mother, and keep the peace between the children,
+was almost more than she was equal to; though, on fine days, Sibby
+always took out the two elder babies, with an alternate twin, for an
+hour's air, and Mr. Audley daily visited the invalid. Mr. Bevan did so
+twice a week, with a gentle sympathising tone and manner that was more
+beneficial than Lady Price's occasional endeavours to make her 'rouse
+herself.' Miss Pearson and a few humbler friends now and then looked
+in, but Mrs. Underwood had been little known. With so large a family,
+and such straitened means, the part of the active clergyman's wife was
+impossible to her; she had shrunk from society, and most people knew
+nothing more of her than that the faded lady-like figure they used to
+see among her little flock at church, was Mrs. Underwood.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet's coming home was always a comfort; and though to her it was
+running from toil to care, the change was life to her. To have been
+either only the teacher or only the housewife might have weighed over
+heavily on her; but the two tasks together seemed to lighten each
+other. She had a real taste and talent for teaching, and she and
+her little class were devoted to one another, while the elder girls
+loved her much better since Alda had been away. The being with them,
+and sharing their recreation in the middle of the day, was no doubt
+the best thing to hinder her from becoming worn by the depressing
+atmosphere around her mother. She always brought home spirits and
+vigour for whatever lay before her, brightening her mother's face,
+dispelling squabbles between Angela and Bernard, and taking a load of
+care from Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>There was sure to be some anecdote to enliven the home-keepers, or some
+question to ask Cherry, whose grammar and arithmetic stood on firmer
+foundations than any at Miss Pearson's, and who was always pleased to
+help Wilmet. The evening hours were the happiest of the day, only they
+always ended too soon for Cherry, who was ordered up by Sibby as soon
+as her mother was put to bed, and had, in consequence, a weary length
+of wakeful solitude and darkness&mdash;only enlivened by the reflection from
+the gas below&mdash;while Felix and Wilmet sat downstairs, she with her
+mending, and he either reading, or talking to her.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday, which she always spent at home, and in very active
+employment in the capacities of nurse, housemaid, or even a slight
+taste of the cook and laundress, the evening topic was always the
+accounts&mdash;the two young heads anxiously casting the balance&mdash;proud and
+pleased if there were even a shilling below the mark, but serious and
+sad under such a communication as, 'There's mutton gone up another
+half-penny;' or, 'Wilmet, I really am afraid those boots of mine cannot
+be mended again;' or again, 'See what Lance has managed to do to this
+jacket. If one only could send boys to school in sacking!'</p>
+
+<p>'Are not there a few pence to spare for the chair for Cherry? She will
+certainly get ill, if she never goes out now spring is coming on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Felix, I don't know how! If there is a penny over, it is
+wanted towards shoes for Bernard; and Cherry begs me, with tears in her
+eyes, not to let her be an expense!'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Geraldine! the costing anything, and the sense of uselessness,
+were becoming, by the help of her nightly wakefulness, a most terrible
+oppression on her spirits. Her father was right. His room had been a
+hot-bed to a naturally sensitive and precocious character, and the
+change that had come over her as time carried her farther and farther
+away from him, affected her more and more.</p>
+
+<p>Her brother and sister, busy all day, and scarcely ever at home, hardly
+knew what was becoming a sore perplexity to Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>A young tutor, not yet twenty-six, could not exactly tell what to do
+with a girl not fourteen, who fell into floods of tears on the smallest
+excuse.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Cherry&mdash;that is not the nominative.'</p>
+
+<p>The voice faltered, struggled to go on, and melted away behind the
+handkerchief. Then&mdash;'O Mr. Audley, I am so sorry&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'That's exactly what I don't want you to be, Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but it was so careless,' and there was another flood.</p>
+
+<p>Or, 'Don't you see, Cherry, you should not have put the negative sign
+to that equation. My dear Cherry, what have I said?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, oh&mdash;nothing. Only I did think&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'We shall have you a perfect Niobe, if you go on at this rate, Cherry.
+Really, we must not have these lessons, if they excite you so much.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! that would be the worst punishment of all!' and the weeping
+became so piteously violent, that the Curate looked on in distressed
+helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>'I know it is very tiresome of me; I would help it, if I could&mdash;indeed
+I would.' And she cried the more because she <i>had</i> cried.</p>
+
+<p>Or, as he came in from the town, he would hear ominous sounds, that his
+kind heart would not let him neglect, and would find Cherry sitting on
+the landing-place in a paroxysm of weeping. She always crept out of her
+mother's room on these occasions, for the sight of tears distressed
+and excited Mrs. Underwood; and the poor child, quite unable, in her
+hysterical condition, to drag herself alone up that steep stair,
+had no alternative but to sit, on what Mr. Audley called her stool
+of repentance, outside the door, till she had sobbed herself into
+exhaustion and calm&mdash;or till either Sibby scolded her, or he heard her
+confession.</p>
+
+<p>She had been 'so cross' to Bernard, or to Angel&mdash;or, once or twice,
+even to Mamma. She had made an impatient answer when interrupted in her
+lessons or in a dream over a drawing; she had been reluctant to exert
+herself when wanted. She had scolded fretfully&mdash;or snatched things away
+angrily, when the little ones were troublesome; and every offence of
+this sort was bewailed with an anguish of tears; that, by weakening her
+spirits and temper, really rendered the recurrence more frequent. 'The
+one thing they trust to me, I fail in!'</p>
+
+<p>He was very kind to her. He did not yield to the mannish loathing
+for girlish tears that began to seize on him, after the first two or
+three occasions. He thought and studied&mdash;tried comfort, and fancied it
+relaxed her&mdash;tried rebuke, and that made it worse; tried the showing
+her François de Sales' admirable counsel to Philothée, to be '<i>doux
+envers soi</i>,' and saw she appreciated and admired it; but she was not
+an atom more <i>douce envers soi</i> when she had next spoken peevishly.</p>
+
+<p>At last he fairly set off by the train, to lay the case before Sister
+Constance.</p>
+
+<p>'What is to be done, when a child never does anything but cry?'</p>
+
+<p>Sister Constance listened to the symptoms, and promptly answered, 'Give
+her a glass of port wine every day, before you let her out of your
+room.'</p>
+
+<p>'If I can!'</p>
+
+<p>'Tell her they are <i>my</i> orders. Does she eat?'</p>
+
+<p>'I imagine not. I heard Felix reproaching her with a ghoul's dinner of
+a grain of rice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does she sleep?'</p>
+
+<p>'She has told me a great deal of midnight meditation on her own
+deficiencies.'</p>
+
+<p>'She must be taken out of doors somehow or other! It is of no use to
+reason with her; the tears are not temper, or anything else! Poor
+Charlie! it is an odd capacity for you to come out in, but I suppose no
+one else can attend to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, poor child, she is rather worse than motherless! Well&mdash;I will find
+some excuse for taking her out for a drive now and then; I don't know
+how to speak to the others about having the chair for her, for they are
+barely scraping on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor children! Well, this year is probably the worst. Either they will
+get their heads above water, or there will be a crisis. But they <i>do</i>
+scrape?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. At Lady-day there was great jubilation, for the rent was paid,
+the taxes were ready, there was not a debt; and there was seven-pence
+over, with which Felix wanted to give Cherry a drive; but Wilmet, who
+is horribly prudent, insisted that it must go to mend Fulbert's broken
+window.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well&mdash;poor Wilmet! one can't blame her. How does she treat Cherry's
+tears?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think she has much pity for them. Felix does much better
+with Cherry; he rocks her and pets her; though, indeed, she hardly
+ever breaks down when he is there; but even his Sundays are a good
+deal taken up&mdash;and I always hunt him out for a walk on the Sunday
+afternoons.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he still in the choir and teaching at the Sunday school?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes&mdash;though it is not Mowbray Smith's fault.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, is your colleague what you apprehended?'</p>
+
+<p>'My Lady could not have found a curate more to her mind, or more imbued
+with her dislike to all that bears the name of Underwood. I own it
+is hard to have one's predecessor flung constantly in one's teeth,
+and by the very people who were the greatest thorns to dear Underwood
+himself. Then Clem, who <i>is</i> a born prig, though a very good boy, gave
+some of his little interfering bits of advice before he went away, and
+it has all been set down to Felix's account! One Sunday, Smith made a
+complaint of Felix having the biggest boys in the school. It was the
+consequence of his having taken them whenever his father could not,
+till it came to his having them entirely. He always took great pains
+with them, and there was a fellow-feeling between him and them that
+could hardly be with an older person. I said all this&mdash;too strongly,
+most likely&mdash;and the Rector put in a mild word, as to his goodness in
+coming at all. Smith thought there was nothing wonderful in liking what
+ministered to his conceit; and at last it came out that a baker's boy
+had met Felix and Smith consecutively in the street, and only touched
+his hat to one, and that the wrong one.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should have been only thankful that he touched his hat to anybody.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is the very remark by which I put my foot in it; but my Lady was
+horrified, and the consequence was, that it fell to me to advise Felix
+to resign the class. I never hated a piece of work so much in my life,
+for he had worked the lads well, and we both knew that there would be
+an end of them. Moreover, Felix has some of the true Briton about him,
+and he stood out&mdash;would give up the class if the Rector ordered him,
+but would relinquish Sunday-school altogether in that case; and the two
+girls were furious; but, after one Sunday, he came to me, said that
+he found hostility poisoned his teaching, gave up, and accepted the
+younger ones.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course the boys deserted.'</p>
+
+<p>'Which has not softened Smith, though it has made him tolerate Felix
+in the choir. His voice is of very little use at present; but he is
+such an influence, that we should be glad of him if he could not sing a
+note, and he clings to it with all his heart. I believe music is about
+the only pleasure he has, and it excites his mother too much to have
+any at home. We have little Lance in the choir now, with a voice like a
+thrush in a dewy morning.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley acted on the port-wine prescription, to the horror and
+dismay of Cherry, who only submitted with any shadow of philosophy on
+being told that the more she cried the more necessary she rendered it;
+but on the Saturday, Sister Constance suddenly knocked at Mr. Audley's
+door. She had been talking the matter over with the Superior; and the
+result was, that she had set off on a mission to see for herself, and
+if she thought it expedient, to bring Geraldine back with her. She
+had chosen Saturday as the time for seeing Wilmet, and was prepared
+to overlook that the stairs were a Lodore of soap, this being Sibby's
+cleaning day, while Wilmet kept guard over the mother and the twins.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine was in the sitting-room, writing a Latin exercise, with a
+great pucker in her forehead whenever Angela looked up from her wooden
+bricks to speak to her. And though the sharp little pinched face was
+all one beam of joy as the visitor came in, Sister Constance saw at
+once that the child's health had deteriorated in these last months.
+She sat down, and with Angela on her lap, questioned anxiously. Cherry
+had no complaints&mdash;she always was like this in the spring. How was her
+foot? As usual, a falter. Was it <i>really?</i> Well, yes, she thought so.
+And then, as the motherly eyes looked into hers, there came a burst of
+the ready tears; and 'Oh, <i>please</i> don't talk about it&mdash;<i>please</i> don't
+ask.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know what you are afraid of,' said Sister Constance, remembering her
+horror of the Bexley medical attendant, 'but is it right to conceal
+this, my dear child?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think I do,' said Cherry pitifully. 'You know Sibby <i>does</i> it
+every night, and it only aches a little more now. And if they did find
+it out, then they would have <i>him</i>, and there would be a doctor's bill,
+and, oh! that would be dreadful!'</p>
+
+<p>Sister Constance saw that the question of right or wrong would be
+infinitely too much for Geraldine, and drew off her mind from it to
+tell of the good accounts of Robina from Catsacre, and Clement from
+Whittingtonia; but when presently Wilmet was so far free as to come in
+with <i>only</i> the boy-baby in her arms, and take the guest up to take off
+her bonnet, it was the time for entering on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>'Cherry? do you think her looking ill? She always is poorly in the
+spring, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not like what I hear of her appetite, or her sleep, or her
+spirits.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but Cherry is always fanciful, you know. Please, please don't put
+things in her head.'</p>
+
+<p>'What kind of things do you mean?'</p>
+
+<p>'Fancying herself worse, I mean, or wanting things. You know we must be
+so careful, and Mamma and the babies&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, I know you have many to care for, and it is hard to strike
+the balance; but somehow your voice sounds to me as if Geraldine were
+the one you most willingly set aside.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet did not like this, and said, a little bit hastily, 'I am sure
+Geraldine has everything we can give her. If she complains, it is very
+wrong of her.'</p>
+
+<p>'She has not said one word of complaint. Her grief and fear is only of
+being a burden on you. What brought me here was, that Mr. Audley was
+anxious about her.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet was silent, a little abashed.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you know that her ankle is painful again?'</p>
+
+<p>'Sister Constance,' said Wilmet, 'I don't think you or Mr. Audley know
+how soon Cherry fancies all sorts of things. She does get into whiny
+states, and is regularly tiresome; and the more you notice her, the
+worse she is. I know Mamma thought so.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, a mother can venture on wholesome neglect when a sister's
+neglect is not wholesome. I am not accusing you of neglect, mind; only
+you want experience and sympathy to judge of a thing with a frame like
+Cherry's. Now, I will tell you what I want to do. I am come to take her
+back with me, and get her treated by our kind doctor for a month or so,
+and the sea air and rest will send her back, most likely, in a much
+more cheery state.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!' cried Wilmet, startled; 'it is very good, but how could we do
+without her? Mamma and the children! If she could only wait till the
+holidays.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let her only hear you say that, Wilmet, and it will do her more good
+than anything.'</p>
+
+<p>'What&mdash;that she is of use? Poor little thing, she tries to be; but if
+Marilda could have had her way, and taken her instead of Alda, it would
+have been much better for her and all. Ah! there's Felix. May I call
+him in?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix, dashing up to wash his hands, smooth his hair, and dress himself
+for the reading-room work instead of the printing-office, had much
+rather these operations had been performed before he was called to the
+consultation in the nursery; but he agreed instantly and solicitously,
+knowing much better than Wilmet what the dinners were to Cherry, and
+talking of her much more tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, poor little dear, she always breaks down more or less in the
+spring; but I thought she would mend when we could get her out more,'
+he said. 'Do you think her really so unwell, Sister Constance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, no, no!' cried Wilmet, fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Not very unwell, but only so that I long to put her under our good
+doctor, who comes to any one in our house, and who is such a fatherly
+old gentleman, that she would not go through the misery the thought of
+Mr. Rugg seems to cause her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dr. Lee?' asked Felix. 'Tom Underwood sent him to see my father once.
+I remember my father liked him, but called it waste for himself, only
+longed for his opinion on Cherry. Thank you, I am sure it is the
+greatest kindness.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Felix, how can she before the holidays?' cried Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Mamma does not want her before dinner; and as to the kids, why
+can't you take Angel to school with you? Oh, yes, Miss Pearson will let
+you. Then Mr. Audley, or Mr. Bevan, is always up in the afternoon, and
+you come home by four.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps I could earlier on days when the girls go out walking,' said
+Wilmet. 'If it is to do Cherry good, I don't like to prevent it.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet had evidently got all her household into their niches, and the
+disarrangement puzzled her. A wonderful girl she was to contrive as she
+did, and carry out her rule; but Sister Constance feared that a little
+dryness might be growing on her in consequence, and that, like many
+maidens of fifteen or sixteen, while she was devoted to the little, she
+was impatient of the intermediate.</p>
+
+<p>So when they went down, and Cherry heard of the scheme, and implored
+against it in nervous fear of leaving home and dread of new faces,
+Wilmet, having made up her practical mind that the going was necessary,
+only made light of that value at home which was Cherry's one comfort,
+and which made herself feel it so hard to part with her, that this very
+want of tact was all unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>Felix was much more comfortable to Cherry when he made playful faces
+at the bear-garden that the dining-room would become without her,
+and showed plainly that he at least would miss her dreadfully. Still
+she nourished a hope that Mamma would say she should not go; but
+Mamma always submitted to the decrees of authority, and Wilmet and
+Felix were her authorities now. Sister Constance felt no misgiving
+lest Wilmet were hardening, when she heard the sweet discretion and
+cheerful tenderness with which she propounded the arrangement to the
+sick mother, without giving her the worry of decision, yet still
+deferentially enough to keep her in her place as the head of the family.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it was with unnecessarily bracing severity that Wilmet observed
+to Geraldine, 'Now, don't you go crying, and asking questions, and
+worrying Mamma.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose no person can be everything at once, far less a girl of
+fifteen,' thought Sister Constance, as she drove up to the station in
+the omnibus with Cherry, who was too miserable and bewildered to cry
+now; not that she was afraid of either the Sister or the Sisterhood,
+but only because she had never left home in her life, and felt exactly
+like a callow nestling shoved out on the ground with a broken wing.</p>
+
+<p>In two months more the omnibus was setting her down again, much nearer
+plumpness, with a brighter face and stronger spirits. She had been very
+full of enjoyment at St. Faith's. She had the visitor's room, with
+delightful sacred prints and photographs, and a window looking out on
+the sea&mdash;a sight enough to fascinate her for hours. She had been out
+every fine day on the shore; she had sat in the pleasant community-room
+with the kind Sisters, who talked to her as a woman, not a baby; she
+had plenty of books; one of the Sisters had given her daily drawing
+lessons, and another had read Tasso with her; she had been to the
+lovely oratory constantly, and to the beautiful church on Sunday, and
+had helped to make the wreaths for the great May holidays; she had made
+many new friends, and among them the doctor, who, if he had hurt her,
+had never deceived her, and had really made her more comfortable than
+she had ever been for the last five years, putting her in the way of
+such self-management as might very possibly avert some of that dreadful
+liability to be cross.</p>
+
+<p>But with all this, and all her gratitude, Geraldine's longing had been
+for home. She was very happy, and it was doing her a great deal of
+good; but Mamma, and Felix, and Wilmet, and Sibby, and the babies, were
+tugging at her heart, and would not let it go out from them. She was
+always dreaming that Felix's heels were coming through his stockings,
+that Mamma was calling and nobody coming, or that Bernard was cutting
+off the heads of the twins with the blunt scissors. And when Dr. Lee's
+course of treatment was over, and Felix had a holiday to come and fetch
+her home, it is not easy to say which was happiest. For she was so glad
+to be at home amid the dear faces, troubling and troublous as they
+often were, and so comfortable in the old wheel-ruts of care and toil,
+that it really seemed as if a new epoch of joy had begun. Felix openly
+professed how sorely he had missed her, and she clung to his arm with
+exulting mutual delight; but it was almost more triumphant pleasure to
+be embraced by Wilmet with the words: 'Dear, dear Cherry, there you are
+at last. You can't think how we have all wanted you! I never knew how
+useful you are.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose,' said Felix quaintly, 'the world would rather miss its
+axis, and yet that does not move.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it does,' said Cherry, 'it wobbles. I suppose Wilmet says
+rotates, just about as much as I am going to do now I have got back
+into my own dear sphere again.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE CACIQUE.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 40%;">
+'Devouring flames resistless glow,<br />
+And blazing rafters downward go,<br />
+And never halloo, "Heads below!"<br />
+Nor notice give at all.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 30%;"><i>Rejected Addresses.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>It was a warm night in September, and Wilmet had laid herself down in
+bed in her nursery with a careful, but not an oppressed heart. About
+many matters she was happier than before. Her mother had revived in
+some degree, could walk from her bed-room to the sitting-room, and
+took more interest in what was passing; and this the hopeful spirits
+of the children interpreted into signs of recovery. Geraldine's health
+and spirits had evidently taken a start for the better. Fulbert,
+too, was off her mind&mdash;safe gone to a clergy orphan foundation; and
+though Lancelot had not yet been elected, owing, Mr. Audley imagined,
+to Lady Price's talk about their fine friends, Wilmet could not be
+sorry, he was such a little fellow, and the house would be so dull
+without his unfailing merriment and oddities. And though there had
+been sore disappointment that Mrs. Thomas Underwood had chosen to go
+to Brighton instead of coming home, there was the promise of a visit
+from Alda before Christmas to feed upon. Little Robina had come home
+for the summer holidays, well, happy, and improved, and crying only in
+a satisfactory way on returning to school. Moreover, Wilmet's finances
+had been pleasantly increased by an unexpected present of five pounds
+at the end of the half year from Miss Pearson, and the promise of the
+like for the next; increasing as her usefulness increased; and she
+was also allowed to bring Angela to school with her. The balance of
+accounts at Midsummer had been satisfactory, and Felix had proudly
+pronounced her to be a brick of a housekeeper. And thus altogether
+Wilmet did not feel that the weight of care was so heavy and hopeless
+as when it first descended upon her; and she went to bed as usual,
+feeling how true her father's words of encouragement and hope had been,
+how kind friends were, how dear a brother Felix was, and above all,
+how there is verily a Father of the fatherless. And so she fell fast
+asleep, but was ere long waked by a voice from the inner room where
+Cherry slept with the door open.</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet, Wilmet, what is it?'</p>
+
+<p>Then she saw that the room was aglow with red light from the window,
+and heard a loud distant hubbub. Hurrying out of bed, she flew to the
+window of Cherry's room, and drew up the blind. 'O Wilmet, is it fire?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' low and awe-struck, said Wilmet. 'Not here. No. There's nothing
+to be frightened at Cherry. It is out&mdash;out there. I think it must be
+the Fortinbras Arms. Oh, what a sight!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is dreadful!' said Cherry, shrinking trembling to the foot of her
+little bed, whence she could see the window. 'How plain one can see
+everything in the room! Oh! the terrible red glow in the windows! I
+wonder if all the people are safe. Wilmet, do call Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will,' said Wilmet, proceeding in search of her clothes; but her
+hands shook so that she could hardly put them on. They longed for Felix
+as a protection, and yet Cherry could hardly bear to let her sister go
+out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>'I only hope Mamma does not hear,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'How lucky her room looks out the other way! but, oh! Wilmet, don't
+fires spread?'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix and Mr. Audley will see about us in time, if there is any fear
+of that,' said Wilmet, trembling a good deal as she wrapped a shawl
+round Cherry, who sat in a heap on her bed, gazing fascinated at the
+red sky and roofs. Felix slept at the back of the house; her knock did
+not waken him, but her entrance startled both him and Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, the Fortinbras Arms is on fire.&mdash;Hush, Lance; take care; the
+little ones and Mamma! O Felix, do come to our room.'</p>
+
+<p>They followed her there in a few seconds, but they had only glanced
+from the window before they simultaneously rushed away, to the
+increased dismay of their sisters, to whom their manly instinct of
+rushing into the fray had not occurred.</p>
+
+<p>'I'll go down. I'll try to catch them,' said Wilmet; and she too was
+gone before Cherry could call to her. She found that Felix and Mr.
+Audley were in the act of undoing the front door, and this gave her
+just time to fly down with the entreaty that Felix would not leave
+them. It was a great deal more to ask of him than she knew.</p>
+
+<p>'To the end of the street I must go, Wilmet,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but Cherry is so frightened! and if Mamma wakes,' she said,
+gasping.</p>
+
+<p>'It is all quiet in her room,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Tell Cherry there is no danger at all here <i>now</i>,' said Mr. Audley;
+'but if it makes her happier you may dress her. Don't disturb your
+mother. If needful, we will carry her out in her bed; but I do not
+think it will be.'</p>
+
+<p>'We can only see out in the street,' added Felix, opening the door as
+he spoke; and that moment out flew Lance, before anybody had thought of
+stopping him, and the necessity of pursuing the little fellow into the
+throng, and keeping him out of danger, made both Felix and Mr. Audley
+dash after him; while Wilmet, abashed at the men hurrying by, could
+not even gaze from the door, but fled upstairs in terror lest the two
+little ones should be awake and crying at the appalling red light and
+the din, which seemed to her one continuous roar of 'Fire! fire!'</p>
+
+<p>To her great relief, they were still asleep, but Cherry was in a
+chilled agony of trembling prayer for the 'poor people,' and the
+sisters crouched up together shivering in each other's arms as
+they watched the rush of flames streaming up into the sky over the
+brew-house opposite to them.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Wilmet heard feet again downstairs. 'Cherry dear, I must go
+down, they may want me. Indeed, I don't think there is real danger as
+long as that brew-house is safe.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a scuffle of feet that frightened her very much. She
+remembered it last Michaelmas when her father was brought home from
+church, and as she stood on the stairs&mdash;one choking petition in her
+heart, 'Let it not be Felix!' she saw that the figure, whatever it was,
+was carried by Mr. Audley and a strange man. And so great a horror
+came over her, that, regardless of her toilette, and the hair that had
+fallen over the jacket on her shoulders, she dropped at once among them
+as they were bearing the senseless form into Mr. Audley's bed-room,
+with a low but piteous cry, 'Felix! Felix! oh, what has happened?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not Felix, my dear,' said Mr. Audley; 'he is safe&mdash;he is gone
+for the doctor. This poor boy has fallen from a window. You can help
+us, Wilmet; call Martha, and get some water made hot. The fire is
+getting under.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet needed no second hint. She was up, reassuring Cherry at one
+moment; then breaking into Martha's heavy slumbers, impressing upon her
+the necessity of not shrieking; then downstairs again, reviving the
+dying kitchen fire, and finding that, as usual, there was some water
+not yet cold. For, as she now saw, it was not yet one o'clock. She
+durst not go to her mother's room, where ready means of heating food
+were always to be found. As she brought the jug to the door, Felix came
+in with Mr. Rugg, who, living in a street out of sight, and having ears
+for no sound but his own night-bell, had been ready at once to obey the
+call. Felix told his sister the little he knew.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a terrible sight. Just as we got to that one big window&mdash;a
+passage one, I believe, which looks out into this street&mdash;we saw this
+poor boy and a black man up on the sill, with all the glare of light
+behind them, screaming out for help.'</p>
+
+<p>'But where was everybody?'</p>
+
+<p>'In the High Street, round the corner. Crowds there; and here in our
+street only ourselves and a few men that hurried up after us. Mr.
+Audley shouted to them that we would get a ladder, but whether they
+could not hold on any more, or they thought we were going quite away&mdash;O
+Wilmet! I didn't see; but there was the most horrible thump and crash
+on the pavement.'</p>
+
+<p>'What! down from that window?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Felix, leaning against the wall, and looking very pale.
+'And there was that good black man, he had got the boy in his arms, as
+if he had wound himself round to keep him from harm.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! And he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Killed&mdash;quite killed. Don't ask me about it, Wilmet. It is much too
+dreadful to hear of;' and he shuddered all over. 'But this boy's head
+was safe at least, and as there seemed no one to attend to anything,
+Mr. Audley said he would bring him here, and I went for Mr. Rugg.'</p>
+
+<p>'And where's Lance? Did he go with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance! Is not he in? I never saw or thought of him, I must go and
+seek for him,' exclaimed Felix, darting off in haste and alarm at the
+thought of little nine-year-old Lance alone among the midnight crowd,
+just as Mr. Audley opened the door to try to find a messenger to Mr.
+Rugg's surgery. He paused to tell Wilmet that it was a lad about
+Felix's age, moaning some word that sounded like Diego, and with a
+broken leg and ribs; and then, as Martha was in attendance, she felt
+herself obliged to return to Cherry, whom indeed she could not leave
+again, for though the fire had sunk, and only thick clouds of smoke
+showed the play of the engines, the effects of the terror were not
+so quickly over in the tender little frame, which was in a quivering
+hysterical state, so deadly cold, that Wilmet was frightened, and went
+once more down to warm some flannel, and get some hot drink for her.
+She intended tea, but meeting Mr. Audley again, he sent up a glass of
+wine. Even with this in hot water, Cherry could hardly be warmed again,
+and Wilmet lay down, clasping her round, and not daring to let her know
+of her own continued anxiety about the two brothers. At last, however,
+when the red light had almost faded quite away, the cautious steps were
+heard coming up the stairs, and Felix called into the room in a low
+voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'All right, Wilmet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! come in,' the sisters called. 'Where did you find him, Fee? Is he
+safe?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Cherry, you never saw such a lark!' cried Lance in a gusty whisper.
+'Wouldn't Fulbert have given his ears to have seen it? To see the
+engines pouring down, and the great hose twining about like jolly old
+sea-serpents spouting.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush, Lance; how can you? How could you! Does Mr. Audley know he is
+safe?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Felix, 'he opened the door, and said he might have known
+Lance was too much of a <i>gamin</i> to come to grief.'</p>
+
+<p>'What's a <i>gamin?</i>' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'A street ragamuffin at Paris,' said Wilmet. 'But really, Lance, it was
+a terrible thing to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'And where do you think I found him?' said Felix. 'In between little
+Jacky Brown and that big old coal-heaver who was so impudent about the
+blanket-club, hanging like a monkey upon the rails of the terrace, and
+hallooing as loud as they.'</p>
+
+<p>''Twas the coal-heaver that helped me up,' said Lance. 'He's a jolly
+good fellow, I can tell you. He said, "You be one of Parson Underwood's
+little chaps, baint you? A rare honest gentleman of the right sort war
+he&mdash;he war!" and he pulled down another boy and put me up instead, and
+told me all about the great fire at Stubbs's factory. You can't think
+what fun it was. Roar, roar, up went the flame. Swish, wish, went the
+water&mdash;such a bellowing&mdash;such great clouds of smoke!'</p>
+
+<p>'Was everybody saved?' whispered Cherry's tremulous murmur.</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence; then Lance said, 'Weren't they?' and Cherry had
+another shuddering fit.</p>
+
+<p>'Who?' Wilmet asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Mr. Jones's youngest child and his nursemaid were in an attic
+room where nobody could get at them,' said Felix in a hurried and
+awe-struck voice, causing Cherry to renew that agony of trembling
+and sobbing so convulsive and painful that her elder brother and
+sister could only devote themselves to soothing her, till at last
+she lay still again in Wilmet's arms, with only a few long gasps
+coming quivering up through her frame. Then Wilmet implored Felix to
+go away and make Lance go to bed, and finding this the only means of
+reducing the little excited fellow to quiet, he went. And though all
+were sure they should not sleep, they overslept themselves far into
+Sunday morning, except Wilmet, who was wakened by the clamours of the
+undisturbed Angela and Bernard, and succeeded in dressing them without
+disturbing the other three.</p>
+
+<p>Very tired and stiff, and very anxious she felt, but she was obliged to
+go down as soon as she was dressed, since she always took charge of her
+mother before breakfast on Sunday while Sibby went to mass. It was so
+late that she could only listen in vain at the top of the stairs before
+she went into the room, where she found Sibby very indignant at having
+missed all the excitement of the night past. 'As if she could not have
+been trusted not to have wakened the mistress. She believed they would
+have let her alone till they all were burnt in their beds!'</p>
+
+<p>It was not till breakfast, which took place unusually late, that Wilmet
+heard much. Felix and Lance had just come downstairs, rather ashamed of
+having overslept themselves, and Mr. Audley came in and begged for a
+cup of tea.</p>
+
+<p>He told them that the father and uncle of the boy had arrived. They
+were American merchants or speculators of some kind, he thought, named
+Travis, and they had gone on business to Dearport the day before,
+meaning to dine there, and return by the mail train in the night, and
+leaving the boy with the black servant in the unfortunate hotel.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving, at about three o'clock, not long after Felix had brought
+Lance home, they had telegraphed to Dearport for a doctor and nurse,
+who were momentarily expected to arrive. The patient was only half
+conscious, and though he knew his father, continued to murmur for
+Diego. Martha was sitting with him whenever she could, for his father
+did not seem to understand nursing, and it would be a great relief when
+a properly-trained person arrived.</p>
+
+<p>She came, and so did the doctor, but not till close upon church-time,
+and little but stray reports from the sick-room reached the population
+upstairs all that day, as Mr. Audley, whenever he was not at church,
+was obliged to be in attendance on his strange guests. All that reached
+the anxious and excited young people was the tidings of the patient
+being not unlikely to do well, though he was in great pain and high
+fever, and continually calling for the poor negro who had saved his
+life at the expense of his own.</p>
+
+<p>This was the last bulletin when the household parted to go their
+several ways on Monday morning, not to be all collected again and free
+to speak till seven o'clock in the evening, when they met round the
+table for tea.</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma looks cheery,' said Felix, coming into the little back room
+where Wilmet was spreading bread and butter.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Wilmet, 'I think she has cared to hear about the fire. So
+many people have come in and talked, that it has enlivened her.'</p>
+
+<p>'And how is the boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'A little better, Martha heard; but he keeps on talking of Diego, and
+seems not to care about any one else.'</p>
+
+<p>'No wonder. His father must be an unmitigated brute,' said Felix.
+'He came to the inquest, and talked just as if it had been an old
+Newfoundland dog; I really think he cared rather less than if it had
+been.'</p>
+
+<p>'Tell us about the inquest, Felix,' said Lance. 'I wish they'd have
+wanted me there.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't see why, Lance,' said Felix gravely; 'it was a terrible thing
+to see poor Mr. Jones hardly able to speak for grief, and the mother of
+that poor young nurse went on sobbing as if her heart was breaking.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nobody knows the cause of the fire, do they?' asked Cherry. 'Lady
+Price said it was the gas.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; no one knows. Way, the waiter, saw a glare under the door of
+the great assembly-room as he was going up very late to bed, and
+the instant he opened the door the flame seemed to rush out at him.
+I suppose a draught was all it wanted. He saw this poor Diego safe
+downstairs once, but he must have gone back to save his young master,
+and got cut off in coming back. Poor fellow! he is a Mexican negro,
+belonging to an estate that came to Mr. Travis's wife, and he has
+always clung to her and her son just like a faithful dog.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he could not be a slave in England,' said Cherry eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'No; but as this Travis said, his one instinct was the boy: he did not
+know how to get rid of him, he said, and I do believe he thinks it a
+lucky chance.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish it had been he!' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Sibby has asked leave to go to the burial,' added Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you gave it,' said Felix. 'Mr. Macnamara came and asked if he
+were not a Roman Catholic, and those two Travises laughed a little
+offensively, and said they guessed he was so, as much as a nigger was
+anything; and the Papists were welcome to his black carcase, only they
+would not be charged for any flummery. "I won't be made a fool of about
+a nigger," one said. And then, I was so glad, Mr. Audley begged to know
+when the funeral would be, and said he would go anywhere to do honour
+to faithfulness unto death.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well done, Mr. Audley!' cried Lance. 'Won't we go too, Fee?'</p>
+
+<p>'It will be at nine to-morrow,' said Felix; at which Lance made a face,
+since of course he would be in school at the time.</p>
+
+<p>'Maybe I shall have to go,' added Felix; 'for only think, as my good
+luck would have it, Redstone went on Saturday night to see his mother
+or somebody, and only came back this morning; and Mr. Froggatt himself
+was "out at his box," as he calls it, so he told me this morning to
+write the account of the fire for the paper, and he would pay me for it
+extra, as he does Redstone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, and have you done it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was pretty much at sea at first, till I recollected the letter I
+began to Edgar yesterday night, and by following that, I made what I
+thought was a decent piece of business of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, did you put in the way they threw the things out at window at
+Jessop's without looking what they were?' cried Lance; 'and the jolly
+smash the jugs and basins made, and when their house was never on fire
+at all: and how the coal-heaver said "Hold hard, frail trade there!"'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Felix quaintly, 'I put it in a different form, you see. I
+said the inhabitants of the adjacent houses hurled their furniture from
+the windows with more precipitation than attention to the fragility
+of the articles. And, after all, that intolerable ass, Redstone, has
+corrected fire every time into "the devouring element," and made "the
+faithful black" into "the African of sable integument, but heart of
+precious ore."'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Felix!'</p>
+
+<p>'Bald, sir, bald,' he said, with such a face. '"Yes, Mr. Underwood,"
+even good old Froggy said, when he saw me looking rather blue, "you and
+I may know what good taste and simplicity is, but if we sent out the
+Pursuivant with no mouth-filling words in it, we should be cut out with
+some low paper in no time among the farmers and mechanics."'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he so led by Mr. Redstone?' asked Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Not exactly; but I believe there's nothing he dreads more than
+Redstone's getting offended and saying that I am no use, as he would
+any day if he could. O, Mr. Audley, are you coming to stay?'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you have a cup of tea?' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, yes; I've got to dine with these fellows at the Railway
+Hotel at eight, but I wanted to speak to you first, Wilmet,' said Mr.
+Audley, sitting down as if he were weary of his day.</p>
+
+<p>'How is the boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Better. He has been quite sensible ever since he woke at twelve
+o'clock to-day, only he was dreadfully upset about poor Diego&mdash;about
+whom his father told him very abruptly&mdash;without the least notion he
+would feel it so much.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I had the kicking of that father,' observed Felix, driving the
+knife hard into the loaf.</p>
+
+<p>'He is not altogether such a bad fellow,' said Mr. Audley thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Not for an American, perhaps.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is not an American at all. He was born and bred in my own country,
+and took me by surprise by calculating that I was one of the Audleys
+of Wrightstone Court, and wanting to know whether my father were Sir
+Robert or Sir Robert's son. Then he guessed that I might have heard
+of his father, if I was not too young, and by-and-by it dawned on me
+that whenever there is any complication about business matters, or any
+one is in bad circumstances, my father always vituperates one Travis,
+who, it seems, was a solicitor greatly trusted by all the country
+round, till he died, some twenty years ago, and it appeared that he
+had ruined everybody, himself included. These men are his sons. They
+went out to America, and got up in the world. They told me the whole
+story of how they had knocked about everywhere, last evening, but I
+was too sleepy to enter into it much, though I daresay it was curious
+enough; successful speculations and hair's-breadth escapes seemed to
+come very thick one upon another, but all I am clear about is that
+this poor boy, Fernando's mother was a Mexican heiress, they&mdash;one of
+them, I mean&mdash;managed to marry; her father English, but her mother old
+Spanish blood allied to the old Caciques, he says; whether it is a
+boast I don't know, but the boy looks like it&mdash;such a handsome fellow;
+delicate straight profile, slender limbs, beautifully made, inky-black
+hair and brows, pure olive skin&mdash;the two doctors were both in raptures.
+Well, they thought affairs in Mexico insecure, so they sold the poor
+woman's estate and carried her off to Texas. No; was it? I really can't
+remember where; but, at any rate, Diego stuck to her wherever she went,
+and when she died, to her child; nursed him like an old woman, and&mdash; In
+short, it was that touching negro love that one sometimes hears of. Now
+they seem to have grown very rich&mdash;the American Vice-Consul, who came
+over this morning from Dearport, knew all about them&mdash;and they came
+home partly on business, and partly to leave Fernando to be made into
+an English gentleman, who, Mr. Travis says, if he has money to spend,
+does whip creation. He's English enough for that still. Well, they have
+got a telegram that makes them both want to sail by the next steamer.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's a blessing. But the boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'He cannot be moved for weeks. It is not only the fractures, but the
+jar of the fall. He may get quite over it, but must lie quite still on
+his back. So here he is, a fixture, by your leave, my lady housekeeper.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is your room, Mr. Audley,' said Wilmet. 'But can his father really
+mean to leave him alone so very ill, poor boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, as his father truly says, he is no good to him, but rather the
+reverse; and as the Travis mind seems rather impressed by finding an
+Audley here, I am to be left in charge of him now, and to find a tutor
+for him when he gets better. So we are in for that!'</p>
+
+<p>'But what is to become of you?' asked Wilmet. 'The nurse has got the
+little back study.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have got a room at Bolland's to sleep in, thank you,' he answered;
+'and I have been representing the inconvenience to the house of this
+long illness, so that the Travises, who are liberal enough&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought them horrid misers,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'That was only the American conscience as to negroes. In other matters
+they are ready to throw money about with both hands; so I hope I have
+made a good bargain for you, Wilmet. You are to have five guineas a
+week, and provide for boy and nurse, all but wine and beer, ice and
+fruit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Five guineas!' murmured Wilmet, quite overpowered at the munificent
+sum.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid you will not find it go as far as you expect, for he will
+want a good deal of dainty catering.'</p>
+
+<p>'And your room should be deducted,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Not at all. Mrs. Bolland said she did not take lodgers, but should
+esteem it a favour if I would sleep there while her son is away. It is
+all safe, I think. He has given me orders on his London banker, and
+they say here at the bank that they are all right. It is a strange
+charge,' he added thoughtfully; 'we little thought what we were taking
+on ourselves when we picked up that poor fellow, Felix; and I cannot
+help thinking it will turn out well, there was something so noble about
+the poor lad's face as he lay insensible.'</p>
+
+<p>It was about three weeks later, that one Sunday evening, when Mr.
+Audley came in from church, Felix followed him to his sitting-room, and
+began with unusual formality. 'I think I ought to speak to you, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'What's the matter?'</p>
+
+<p>'About Lance, and him in there. I have had such a queer talk with
+<i>him!</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'As how?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why he wanted us to stop from church, asked me to let off the poor
+little coon; and when I said we couldn't, because we were in the
+choir, wanted to know what we were paid, then why we did it at all;
+and so it turned out that he thinks churches only meant for women and
+psalm-singing niggers and Methodists, and has never been inside one in
+his life, never saw the sense of it, wanted to know why I went.'</p>
+
+<p>'What did you tell him?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know; I was so taken aback. I said something about our duty
+to God, and it's being all we had to get us through life; but I know I
+made a dreadful mess of it, and the bell rang, and I got away. But he
+seems a sheer heathen, and there's Lance in and out all day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Felix, I am afraid it is true that the poor lad has been brought
+up with no religion at all&mdash;a blank sheet, as his father called him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wasn't his father English?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but he had lived a roving, godless life. I began, when I found
+the boy must stay here, by asking whether he were of his father's or
+his mother's communion, and in return heard a burst of exultation that
+he had never let a priest into his house. His father-in-law had warned
+him against it, and he had carried his wife out of their reach long
+before the child's birth; he has not even been baptized, but you see,
+Felix, I could not act like Abraham to the idolater in the Talmud.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix did not speak, but knocked one foot against the other in
+vexation, feeling that it was his house after all, and that Mr. Audley
+should not have turned this young heathen loose into it to corrupt his
+brother, without consulting him.</p>
+
+<p>'I told Travis,' continued the Curate, 'that if I undertook the charge
+as he wished, it must be as a priest myself, and I must try to put
+some religion into him. And, to my surprise, he said he left it to
+me. Fernando was old enough to judge, and if he were to be an English
+squire, he must conform to old-country ways; besides, I was another
+sort of parson from Yankee Methodists and Shakers or Popish priests&mdash;he
+knew the English clergy well enough, of the right sort.'</p>
+
+<p>'So he is to learn religion to make him a squire?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was thankful enough to find no obstruction.'</p>
+
+<p>'And have you begun?' asked Felix moodily.</p>
+
+<p>'Why&mdash;no. He has been too ill and too reserved. I have attempted
+nothing but daily saying a short prayer for him in his hearing, hoping
+he would remark on it. But you know the pain is still very absorbing at
+times, and it leaves him exhausted; and besides, I fancy he has a good
+deal of tropical languor about him, and does not notice much. Nothing
+but Lance has roused him at all.'</p>
+
+<p>'I would never have let Lance in there by himself, if I had known,'
+said Felix. 'He is quite bewitched.'</p>
+
+<p>'It would have been difficult to prevent it. Nor do I think that much
+harm can be done. I believe I ought to have told you, Felix; but I
+did not like denouncing my poor sick guest among the children, or its
+getting round all the town and to my Lady. After all, Lance is a very
+little fellow; it is not as if Edgar or Clem were at home.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it cannot be helped,' sighed Felix; 'but my father&mdash;' and as
+he recollected the desire to take his brothers away from Mr. Ryder, he
+felt as if his chosen guardian had been false to his trust, out of pity
+and enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>'Your father would have known how to treat him,' sighed Mr. Audley.
+'At any rate, Felix, we must not forget the duties of hospitality and
+kindness; and I hope you will not roughly forbid Lance to go near him,
+without seeing whether the poor fellow is not really inoffensive.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll see about it,' was all that Felix could get himself to say; for
+much as he loved Mr. Audley, he could not easily brook interference
+with his brothers, and little Lance, so loyal to himself, and so droll
+without a grain of malice, was very near to his heart. 'A young Pagan,'
+as he thought to himself, 'teaching him all the blackguard tricks and
+words he has learnt at all the low schools in north or south!' and all
+the most objectionable scenes he had met with in American stories, from
+'Uncle Tom' onwards, began to rise before his eyes. 'A pretty thing to
+do in a fit of beneficence! I'll order Lance to keep away, and if he
+dares disobey, I'll lick him well to show him who is master.'</p>
+
+<p>So he felt, as he swung himself upstairs, and halted with some
+intention of pouring out his vexed spirit to Wilmet, because Mr. Audley
+had no business to make it a secret; but Wilmet was putting her mother
+to bed, and he went on upstairs. There he found all the doors open, and
+heard a murmuring sound of voices in Geraldine's room. In a mood to be
+glad of any excuse for finding fault, he strode across the nursery,
+where Angela and Bernard slept, and saw that Lance, who ought to have
+gone at once to bed on coming in, was standing in his sister's window,
+trying to read in the ray of gas-light that came up from a lamp at the
+brewhouse door.</p>
+
+<p>'Go to bed, Lance,' he said; 'if you have not learnt your lessons in
+proper time, you must wake early, or take the consequences. I won't
+have it done on Sunday night.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance started round angrily, and Cherry cried, 'O Felix, it is no such
+thing! Only would you tell us where to find about the king and his
+priests that defeated the enemy by singing the "mercy endureth for
+ever" psalm?'</p>
+
+<p>'In the Bible!' said Felix, as if sure it was a blunder. 'There's no
+such story.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed there is,' cried Lance, 'for Papa (the word low and reverently)
+took out his blue poly-something Bible and read it out in the sermon.
+Don't you remember, Fee, a hot day in the summer, when he preached all
+about those wild robbers&mdash;horrid fellows with long spears&mdash;coming up in
+the desert to make a regular smash of the Jews?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance!' cried Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, he did not say that, of course, but they wanted to; and how
+the king sent out the priests without a fighting man, only all in
+white, praising God in the beauty of holiness, and singing, "His mercy
+endureth for ever." I saw him read that, though he told us all the rest
+without book; how all the enemy began to quarrel, and all killed one
+another, and the Jews had nothing to do but to pick up the spoil, and
+sing another psalm coming back.'</p>
+
+<p>'I remember now,' said Felix, in a very different tone. 'It was
+Jehoshaphat, Lancey boy. I'll find it for you in the book of
+Chronicles. Did you want it for anything?'</p>
+
+<p>Lance made an uneasy movement.</p>
+
+<p>'It was to show poor Fernando Travis, wasn't it?' said Cherry; and as
+Lance wriggled again, she added, 'He seems to have been taught nothing
+good.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Cherry,' broke out Lance, 'I told you to say not a word.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know a little about it, Lance,' said Felix, sitting down on the
+window-seat and lifting Lance on his knee, as he said, in a tone very
+unlike his intended expostulation, 'You must not let him do you harm,
+Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>'He wouldn't; but he does not know anything about anything,' said the
+little boy. 'They never taught him to say his prayers, nor sing hymns,
+nor chant, and he thinks it is only good for niggers. So I told him
+that singing psalms once beat an army, and he laughed; and I thought
+Cherry was sure to know where it was&mdash;but girls will always tell.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed you never told me not,' said Cherry, humbly.</p>
+
+<p>'She has done no harm,' said Felix. 'Mr. Audley has just been talking
+to me about that poor boy. He really is as untaught as that little
+scamp at the potteries that we tried to teach.'</p>
+
+<p>'He's a stunning good fellow,' broke in Lance; 'he has seen an
+alligator, and ridden mustangs.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind that now, Lance; I dare say he is very amusing, but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't hinder me from going to him,' broke in the younger boy
+vehemently.</p>
+
+<p>'If,' said Felix gravely, 'you can be quite sure my father would not
+mind it.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance was nestling close up to him in the dark, and he was surprised to
+find that round face wet with tears. 'Papa would not let him lie dull
+and moped all day long,' he said. 'O Fee, I can't keep away; I am so
+sorry for him. When that terrible cramp comes, it is of no use to say
+those sort of things to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'What sort of things?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you know; verses such as Papa used to have said to him. They
+weren't a bit of good. No, not though I did get the book Papa marked
+for Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>'You did!' gasped Cherry, who little thought that sacred possession of
+hers was even known to Master Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'You'd have done it yourself, Cherry,' said the little boy, 'if you
+had only seen how bad he was; he got quite white, and had great drops
+on his forehead, and panted so, and would not let out a bit of a cry,
+only now and then a groan; and so I ran to get the verse Papa used to
+say over and over to you when your foot was bad. And I'm sure it was
+the right one, but&mdash;but&mdash;it did him no good, for, oh! he didn't know
+who our Saviour is;' and the little fellow clung to his brother in a
+passion of tears, while Felix felt a pang at the contrast.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you been telling him, Lancey?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'I wanted him to ask Mr. Audley, but he said he was a parson, and his
+father said that there would be no parsons if men were not fools. Now,
+Fee, I've told you, but don't keep me away.'</p>
+
+<p>'It would be hard on a poor sick fellow,' said Felix, thoroughly
+softened. 'Only, Lance, you know I can't be with you; will you promise
+to go away if ever you think Papa would wish it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; one has to do that, you know, when our own fellows get
+blackguardly,' said little Lance, freely; whereat Cherry shuddered
+somewhat. 'And, Fee,' he added, 'if you would only come and make him
+understand about things.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Audley must do that,' said Felix; 'I can't.'</p>
+
+<p>'You teach the boys in the Sunday-school,' said Lance. 'And he'd mind
+you, Blunderbore. He says you are the grandest and most splendiferous
+fellow he ever did set eyes on, and that he feels something like, when
+you've just looked in and spoken to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'You little ass, he was chaffing you.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, <i>indeed</i> he wasn't. I told him all about it, because he liked
+your face so much. And he <i>does</i> care so very much when you look in.
+Oh! <i>do, do</i>, Fee; he is so jolly, and it is so lonely and horrid for
+him, and I do so want Papa for him;' and the child cried silently, but
+Felix felt the long deep sobs, and as Geraldine, much moved, said,
+'Dear little Lancey,' he carried him over to her as she sat up in bed,
+and she kissed and fondled him, and murmured in his ear, 'Dear Lance,
+I'm sure he'll get good. We will get Mr. Audley to talk to him, you
+know, and we will say a prayer every day for him.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance, beginning to recover, put his arms round Cherry's neck, gave her
+a tremendous hug, released himself from his brother's arms, and ran off
+to bed. Felix remained a few moments, while Cherry exclaimed, 'Oh! the
+dear good little fellow!'</p>
+
+<p>'Better than any of us,' said Felix. 'I was quite savage with Mr.
+Audley when I found out about it. I must go down and tell him. I never
+thought all that was in the little chap! I'm glad he came to you,
+Cherry. Good-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you will try to teach this poor boy, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't say that. I don't in the least know how; but I shall not dare
+to hinder Lance, now I see how he goes on.'</p>
+
+<p>On his way down he heard voices in the sitting-room, where, in fact,
+Mr. Audley had joined Wilmet, to explain to her how vexed he was to
+have so much annoyed Felix, and perhaps also something of his own
+annoyance at the manner in which Felix took it. Wilmet, partly from
+her 'growing on the sunny side of the wall,' partly from her early
+authority, was in some ways older than her brother, and could see that
+there was in him a shade of boyish jealousy of his prerogative; and
+as she sat, in her pretty modest gravity, with her fair hair and her
+Sunday frock, she was softly but earnestly telling Mr. Audley that she
+was sure Felix would not mind long, and that he was very sorry for
+the poor boy <i>really</i>, only he was so anxious about Lance, and he did
+like to be consulted. Both looked up, startled, as Felix opened the
+door, and they saw that his eyes were full of tears. He came up to Mr.
+Audley, and said, 'I beg your pardon, sir; I'd no business to grumble,
+and that little fellow has been&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Beforehand with us?' asked Mr. Audley, as Felix broke down. 'The nurse
+has been just telling me how he sat on his bed saying bits of psalms
+and verses to him when he had that bad fit of cramp, "so pretty," she
+said; but I was afraid it must have been rather like a spell.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix told his story, feeling it too much not to make it lame, and with
+the tearfulness trembling in his voice and eyes all the time.</p>
+
+<p>'Our little <i>gamin</i> has the most of the good Samaritan in him,' said
+Mr. Audley. ''Tis not quite the end I should have begun at, but perhaps
+it may work the better.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear little boy, that he should have remembered that sermon!'
+exclaimed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid it is more than I do,' said Felix; 'all last summer the
+more I tried to listen, the more I saw how he was changing. Do you
+remember it, Wilmet?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; the text was, "The joy of the Lord is your strength," and he
+said how praising God, and going on thinking about His goodness and
+thankfulness, was the way to make our adversaries dissolve before us,
+and never trouble us at all, just like the bands of the Moabites and
+Ammonites before Jehoshaphat.'</p>
+
+<p>'I recollect it well, and how I thought it such a likeness of himself,'
+said Mr. Audley; 'he was walking over his troubles, scarcely seeing
+them, as if they could not dim the shine of his armour while he went on
+looking up and being thankful. I fancy little Lance has a good deal of
+that kind of bright fearless way.'</p>
+
+<p>'He has,' said Felix in a grave thoughtful tone that made the Curate
+look at him and sigh to think how early care and grief had come to make
+that joyous buoyancy scarce possible to the elder boy, little more than
+seventeen though he was.</p>
+
+<p>'He is <i>very</i> idle, though,' added Wilmet; 'such caricatures as there
+are all over his books! Edgar's were bad enough, but Lance puts
+pig-tails and cocked hats to all Edgar's.'</p>
+
+<p>So Lance's visits to the sick stranger remained unobstructed. He had
+no notion of teaching him; but the foreign boy in his languor and
+helplessness curiously fascinated him, perhaps from the very contrast
+of the passive, indolent, tropical nature with his own mercurial
+temperament. The Spaniard, or perhaps the old Mexican, seemed to
+predominate in Fernando, as far as could be guessed in one so weak and
+helpless. He seemed very quiet and inanimate, seldom wanting or seeking
+diversion, but content to lie still, with half-closed eyes; his manner
+was reserved, and with something of courteous dignity, especially when
+Lady Price came to visit him; and the Yankeeisms that sometimes dropped
+from his tongue did not agree with the polish of the tone, and still
+less with the imperious manner in which he sometimes addressed the
+nurse. He seemed, though not clever, to be tolerably well cultivated;
+he had been at the schools of whatever cities his father had resided
+in, and his knowledge of languages was of course extensive.</p>
+
+<p>However, he never talked freely to Mr. Audley. He had bitterly resented
+that gentleman's interference, one day when he was peremptorily
+commanding the nurse to place him in a position that had been
+forbidden, and the endeavour to control him had made him fearfully
+angry. There was a stormy outbreak of violent language, only checked
+by a severe rebuke, for which he did not forgive the Curate; he was
+coldly civil, and accepted the attentions he could not dispense with in
+a grave formal manner that would have been sulky in an English lad, but
+had something of the dreary grandeur of the Spanish Don from that dark
+lordly visage, and made Mr. Audley half provoked, half pitying, speak
+of him always as his Cacique. He only expanded a little even to Lance,
+though the little boy waited on him assiduously, chattering about
+school doings, illustrating them on a slate, singing to him, acting
+Blondin, exhibiting whatever he could lay his hands on, including the
+twins, whom he bore down one after the other, to the great wrath of
+Sibby, not to say of little Stella herself, while Theodore took the
+exhibition with perfect serenity.</p>
+
+<p>As to Felix, he was, as Lance said, the subject of the sick lad's
+fervent admiration. Perhaps the open, fair, cheerful, though grave
+countenance, fresh complexion, and strong, steadfast, upright bearing
+had something to do with the strange adoration that in his silent way
+Fernando paid to the youth, who looked in from time to time, bringing
+a sort of air of refreshment with his good-natured shy smile, even
+when he least knew what to say. Or else it was little Lance's fervent
+affection for Felix which had conduced to the erection of the elder
+brother into the idol of Fernando's fancy; and his briefest visit was
+the event of the long autumnal days spent in the uncurtained iron bed
+in the corner of the low room. The worship, silent though it was, was
+manifest enough to become embarrassing and ridiculous to the subject
+of it, whose sense of duty and compassion was always at war with his
+reluctance to expose himself to it. Not another word passed on any
+religious subject. Mr. Audley was not forgiven enough to venture on the
+attempt; the Rector was shy and frightened about it, and could make no
+beginning; and Mr. Mowbray Smith, who found great fault with them for
+their neglect, had been fairly stared down by the great black eyes,
+which, when the heavy lids were uplifted, proved to be of an immense
+size and force; and Felix was so sure that it could not be his business
+while three clergymen were going in and out that he had never done more
+than describe the weather, or retail any fresh bit of London news that
+had come down to the office.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, one November day, he found Fernando sitting up in
+bed, and Lance, perched on the table, talking so earnestly as not to
+perceive his entrance, until Fernando broke upon his words: 'There!
+it's no use!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it is,' cried Lance, jumping down. 'O Fee, I am glad you are
+come; I want you to tell him the rights of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'The rights of what, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Tell him that it is all the devil's doing, and the men he has got on
+his side; and that it was the very thing our Saviour came for to set us
+free, only everybody won't,' said Lance clinging to his brother's hand,
+and looking up in his face.</p>
+
+<p>'That's about right, Lance,' said Felix; 'but I don't quite know what
+you are talking about.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just this,' said Fernando. 'Lance goes on about God being merciful and
+good and powerful&mdash;Almighty, as he says; but whatever women may tell a
+little chap like that, nobody can think so that has seen the things I
+have, down in the West, with my own eyes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix!' cried Lance, 'say it. You know and believe just as I do, as
+everybody good does, men and all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed!' said Felix with all his heart.</p>
+
+<p>'Then tell me how it can be,' said Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>Felix stood startled and perplexed, feeling the awful magnitude and
+importance of the question, but also feeling his own incompetence to
+deal with it; and likewise that Wilmet was keeping the tea waiting for
+him. He much wished to say, 'Keep it for Mr. Audley,' but he feared to
+choke the dawning of faith, and he likewise feared the appearance of
+hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>'Nobody can really explain it,' he said, 'but that's no wonder. One
+cannot explain a thunderstorm, but one knows that it is.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's electricity,' said Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>'And what's electricity?'</p>
+
+<p>'A fluid that&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; that's another word. But you can't get any further. God made
+electricity, or whatever it is, and when you talk about explaining it,
+you only get to something that <i>is</i>. You know it <i>is</i>, and you can't
+get any further,' he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, that's true; though science goes beyond you in America.'</p>
+
+<p>'But no searching finds out <i>all</i> about God!' said Felix reverently.
+'All we know is that He is so infinitely great and wise, that of course
+we cannot understand why all He does is right, any more than a private
+soldier understands his general's orders.'</p>
+
+<p>'And <i>you&mdash;you</i>,' said Fernando, 'are content to say you don't
+understand.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not?' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence. Fernando seemed to be thinking; Lance gazed from
+one to the other, as if disappointed that his brother was not more
+explicit.</p>
+
+<p>'And how do you know it is true?' added Fernando. 'I mean, what Lance
+has been telling me! What makes you sure of it, if you are?'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>If</i> I am?' cried Felix, startled into indignation. 'To be sure I am!'</p>
+
+<p>'But how?'</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>know</i> it!' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'How?'</p>
+
+<p>'The Bible!' gasped Lance impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay; so you have said for ever,' broke in Fernando; 'but what
+authenticates that?'</p>
+
+<p>'The whole course of history,' said Felix. 'There is a great chain of
+evidence, I know, but I never got it up. I can't tell it you, Fernando;
+I never wanted it, never even tried to think about the proofs. It is
+all too sure.'</p>
+
+<p>'But wouldn't a Mahometan say that?' said Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>'If he did, look at the Life of our Lord and of Mahomet together, and
+see which must be the true Prophet&mdash;the Way, the Life, the Truth.'</p>
+
+<p>'That one could do,' said Fernando thoughtfully. 'I say,' as Felix made
+a movement as if he thought the subject concluded, 'I want to know one
+thing more. Lance says it is believing all this that makes you&mdash;any one
+I mean&mdash;good.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know what else should,' said Felix, smiling a little; the
+question seemed to him so absurd.</p>
+
+<p>'Is it really what makes you go and slave away at that old boss's of
+yours?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, that's necessity and my duty,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'And is it what makes this little coon come and spend all his
+play-hours on a poor fellow with a broken leg? I've been at many
+schools, and never saw the fellow who would do that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! you are such fun!' cried Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'All that is right comes from God first and last,' said Felix gravely.</p>
+
+<p>'And you&mdash;you that are no child&mdash;you believe all that Lance tells me
+you do, and think it makes you what you are!'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe it; yes, of course. And believing it should make me much
+better than I am! I hope it will in time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' sighed Fernando. 'I never heard anything like it since my father
+said he'd take the cow-hide to poor old Diego, if he caught him
+teaching me nigger-cant.'</p>
+
+<p>They left him.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor fellow!' sighed Felix; 'what have you been telling him, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I don't know; only why things were good and bad,' was Lance's
+lucid answer; and he was then intent on detailing the stories he had
+heard from Fernando. He had been in the worst days of Southern slavery
+ere its extinction, on the skirts of the deadly warfare with the Red
+Indians; and the poor lad had really known of horrors that curdled the
+blood of Wilmet and Geraldine, and made the latter lie awake or dream
+dreadful dreams all night.</p>
+
+<p>But the next day, Mr. Audley was startled to hear the two friends in
+the midst of an altercation. When Lance had come in for his mid-day
+recreation, Fernando had produced five shillings, desiring him to go
+and purchase a Bible for him; but Lance, who had conceived the idea
+that the Scriptures ought not to be touched by an unchristened hand,
+flatly refused, offering, however, to read from his own. Now Lance's
+reading was at that peculiar school-boy stage which seems calculated to
+combine the utmost possible noise with the least possible distinctness;
+and though he had good gifts of ear and voice, and his reciting and
+singing were both above the average, the moment a book was before him,
+he roared his sentences between his teeth in horrible monotony. And as
+he began with the first chapter of St. Matthew, and was not perfectly
+able to cope with all the names, Fernando could bear it no longer, and
+insisted on having the book itself. Lance shook his head and refused;
+and matters were in this stage when Mr. Audley, not liking the echoes
+of the voices, opened the door. 'What is it?' he asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing,' replied Fernando, proudly trying to swallow his vexation.</p>
+
+<p>'Lance!' said Mr. Audley rather severely; but just then, seeing what
+book the child was holding tight under his arm, he decided to follow
+him out of the room and interrogate.</p>
+
+<p>'What was it, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'He ought not to touch a Bible&mdash;he sha'n't have mine,' said Lance
+resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Was he doing anything wrong with it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! But he ought not to have it before he is christened, and I
+would have read to him.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley knew what Lance's reading was, and smiled. 'Was that all,
+Lance? I like your guardianship of the Bible, my boy; but it was not
+given only to those who are Christians already, or how could any one
+learn?'</p>
+
+<p>'He sha'n't touch mine, though,' said Lance, with an odd sturdiness;
+stumping upstairs with his treasure, a little brown sixpenny S. P. C. K.
+book, but in which his father had written his name on his last
+birth-day but one.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley only waited to take down a New Testament, and present
+himself at Fernando's bedside, observing gladly that there was much
+more wistfulness than offence about his expression.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a scruple on the young man's part,' said Mr. Audley, smiling,
+though full of anxiety; 'he meant no unkindness.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know he did not,' said Fernando quietly, but gazing at the purple
+book in the clergyman's hands.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you want this?' said Mr. Audley; 'or can I find anything in it for
+you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you;' and there was a pause. The offended manner towards Mr.
+Audley had been subsiding of late into friendliness under his constant
+attentions, and Fernando's desire for an answer prevailed at last.
+'Felix told me to read the Life of Christ,' he said, not irreverently,
+'and that it would show me He must be True.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope and trust that so it may be,' said Mr. Audley, more moved than
+he could bear to show, but with fervour in his voice far beyond his
+words.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix,' said Fernando, resting on the name, 'Felix does seem as if he
+must be right, Mr. Audley; can it be really as he says&mdash;and Lance&mdash;that
+their belief makes them like what they are?'</p>
+
+<p>'Most assuredly.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you don't say so only because you are a minister?' asked the boy
+distrustfully.</p>
+
+<p>'I say so because I know it. I knew that it is the Christian faith that
+makes all goodness, long before I was a minister.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I have seen plenty of Christians that were not in the least like
+Felix Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'So have I; but in proportion as they live up to their faith, they have
+what is best in him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to be like him,' mused Fernando; 'I never saw such a
+fellow. He, and little Lance too, seem to belong to something bright
+and strong, that seems inside and outside, and I can't lay hold of what
+it is.'</p>
+
+<p>'One day you will, my dear boy,' said Mr. Audley. 'Let me try to help
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>Fernando scarcely answered, save by half a smile, and a long sigh of
+relief: but when Mr. Audley put his hand over the long brown fingers,
+they closed upon it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE CHESS-PLAYER'S BATTLE.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Dost thou believe, he said, that Grace<br />
+<span style="margin-left:2em;">Itself can reach this grief?</span><br />
+With a feeble voice and a woeful eye&mdash;<br />
+"Lord, I believe," was the sinner's reply,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Help Thou mine unbelief."'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 40%;"><i>Southey.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>By the beginning of the Christmas holidays, Fernando Travis was able
+to lie on a couch in Mr. Audley's sitting-room. His recovery was even
+tardier than had been expected, partly from the shock, and partly from
+the want of vigour of the tropical constitution: and he still seemed to
+be a great way from walking, though there was no reason to fear that
+the power would not return. His father wrote, preparing for a journey
+to Oregon, and seemed perfectly satisfied, and he was becoming very
+much at home with his host.</p>
+
+<p>He was much interested in that which he was learning from Mr. Audley,
+and imbibing from the young Underwoods. The wandering life he had
+hitherto led, without any tenderness save from the poor old negro,
+without time to make friends, and often exposed to the perception of
+some of the darkest sides of human life, in the terrible lawlessness
+of the Mexican frontier, had hitherto made him dull, dreary, and
+indifferent, with little perception that there could be anything
+better; but first the kindness and then the faith he saw at Bexley, had
+awakened new perceptions and sensations. His whole soul was opening
+to perceive what the love of God and man might be; and the sense of
+a great void, and longing to have it satisfied, seemed to fill him
+with a constant craving for the revelation of that inner world, whose
+existence had just dawned upon him.</p>
+
+<p>After a little hesitation, Mr. Audley decided on reading with Geraldine
+in his presence after he had come into the sitting-room, explaining
+to her how he thought it might be helpful. She did not much like it,
+but acquiesced: she used to hop in with her sweet smile, shy greeting,
+and hand extended to the invalid, who used to lie looking at her
+through his long eyelashes, and listening to her low voice reading or
+answering, as if she were no earthly creature; but the two were far too
+much in awe of one another to go any further; and he got on much better
+with Wilmet, when she looked in on him now and then with cheery voice
+and good-natured care.</p>
+
+<p>Then Fulbert and Robina came home; and the former was half suspicious,
+half jealous, of Lance's preoccupation with what he chose to denominate
+'a black Yankee nigger.' He avoided the room himself, and kept Lance
+from it as much as was in his power; and one day Lance appeared with
+a black eye, of which he concealed the cause so entirely, that Felix,
+always afraid of his <i>gamin</i> tendencies, entreated Fulbert, as a
+friend, to ease his mind by telling him it was not given in a street
+row.</p>
+
+<p>'I did it,' said Fulbert; 'he was so cocky about his Yankee that I
+could not stand it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why shouldn't he be kind to a poor sick fellow?'</p>
+
+<p>'He has no business to be always bothering about Fernando
+here&mdash;Fernando there&mdash;Fernando for ever. I shall have him coming up to
+school a regular spoon, and just not know what to do with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Fulbert, I think if you had a broken leg you'd wish some one
+to speak to you. At any rate, I can't have Lance bullied for his good
+nature; I was very near doing it myself once, but I was shamed out of
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Were you&mdash;were you, indeed?' cried Fulbert, delighted at this
+confession of human nature; and Felix could not help laughing. And that
+laugh did much to bring him down from the don to the brother. At any
+rate, Fulbert ceased his persecution in aught but word.</p>
+
+<p>Robina, always Lance's companion, followed him devotedly, and only hung
+about the stairs forlorn when he went to Fernando without her; or if
+admitted, she was quite content to sit serenely happy in her beloved
+Lance's presence, expecting neither notice nor amusement, only watching
+their occupation of playing at draughts. Sometimes, however, Lance
+would fall to playing with her, and they would roll on the floor, a
+tumbling mass of legs, arms, and laughter, to the intense diversion of
+Fernando, to whom little girls were beings of an unknown order.</p>
+
+<p>So came on Christmas, with the anniversaries so sweet and so sad, and
+the eve of holly-dressing, when a bundle of bright sprays was left
+by some kind friend at No. 8, and Lance and Bobbie were vehement to
+introduce Fernando to English holly and English decking.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine suggested that they had better wait for either Mr. Audley
+or Wilmet to come in, but for this they had no patience, and ran down
+with their arms full of the branches, and their tongues going with the
+description of the night's carols, singing them with their sweet young
+voices as they moved about the room. Fernando knew now what Christmas
+meant, but the joy and exhilaration of the two children seemed to him
+strange for such a bygone event. He asked them if they would have any
+treat.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! except, perhaps, Mr. Audley said he should drink tea one day,'
+said Robina. And then she broke out again, 'Hark! the herald angels,'
+like a little silver bell.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a cry of dismay. She had been standing on a chair
+over the mantelpiece, sticking holly into the ornaments, behind and
+under which, in true man's fashion, a good many papers and letters had
+accumulated. One of these papers&mdash;by some unlucky movement&mdash;fell, and
+by a sudden waft of air floated irrevocably into the hottest place in
+the fire.</p>
+
+<p>'O dear! oh dear!' wailed Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'That's a pretty go,' cried Lancelot.</p>
+
+<p>'That comes of your open fires,' observed Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>'What was it?' asked Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know. I think it was a list of names! Oh! how vexed he'll be,
+and Wilmet; for she told me never to get on a chair over the fender,
+and I forgot.' Bobbie's round face was puckering for a cry.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, don't cry, Bob; I told you to get up, and I'll say so,' said
+Lance, smothering her in his arms after the wont of consoling brothers.</p>
+
+<p>'I dare say he'll not miss it,' said Fernando good-naturedly; 'he very
+seldom meddles with those things.'</p>
+
+<p>Bobbie's great round grey eyes came out over Lance's shoulder, and
+flashed amazement and wrath at him. 'I'm not going to tell stories,'
+she said stoutly.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Lance, equally scandalized; 'I thought you had learnt
+better, Fernando.'</p>
+
+<p>Robina, be it observed, was ignorant of Fernando's untaught state.</p>
+
+<p>'I only said you could hold your tongue,' was of course Fernando's
+rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>'That's just as bad,' was the little girl's response.</p>
+
+<p>'But, Lance, you held your tongue about your black eye.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's my affair, and <i>nobody else's</i>,' said Lance, flushing up and
+looking cross at the allusion.</p>
+
+<p>'And Fulbert told!' added Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'Will they punish you?' asked Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>'I think Wilmet will, because it was disobedience! I don't think she'll
+let me have any butter at tea,' Bobbie nearly sobbed. 'Mr. Audley won't
+punish! But he'll look&mdash;' and she quite cried now.</p>
+
+<p>'And do you like that better than not telling?' said Fernando, still
+curious.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up, amazed again. 'I must! I don't like it! But I couldn't
+ever have a happy Christmas if I didn't tell! I wish they would come
+that I might have it over.'</p>
+
+<p>The street door opened at the moment, and Mr. Audley and Wilmet came in
+together from Lady Price's convocation of the parish staff. Fernando
+heard the sobbing confession in the passage, and Lance's assurance
+that he had been art and part in the disobedience, and Wilmet gravely
+blaming the child, and Mr. Audley telling her not to think so much
+about the loss as the transgression; and then the door was shut, and he
+heard no more, till Mr. Audley came in, examined the chimney-piece, and
+performed the elegy of the list in a long low whistle.</p>
+
+<p>'Is much harm done?' Fernando asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Not much; only I must go and get another list made out, and I am
+afraid I shall not be able to come in again before church.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope they have not punished her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet recommended not taking the prize prayer-book to church, and
+she acquiesced with tears in her eyes. A good child's repentance is a
+beautiful thing&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">"O happy in repentance' school</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">So early taught and tried."'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>These last words were said to himself as he picked up his various
+goods, and added, 'I must get some tea at the Rectory. I am sorry to
+leave you, but I hope one of them will come down.'</p>
+
+<p>They did not, except that they peeped in for a moment to wish him
+good-night, and regretted that they had not known him to be alone.</p>
+
+<p>As Felix was going out to begin the Christmas Feast in the darkness of
+morning, he looked in as he usually did, since Mr. Audley, sleeping out
+of the house, never came in till after early church. The nurse, who
+still slept in the room, was gone to dress; there was only a flickering
+night-light, and the room looked very desolate and forlorn, still more
+so the voice that called out to him, 'Felix! oh, Felix! is that you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. A happy Christmas to you,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Happy&mdash;!' there was a sort of groan.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, what's the matter? have you had a bad night? Aren't you so well?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know. Come here; I must speak to you.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was, as usual, in a great haste, but the tone startled him.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, I can't stand this any longer. I must let you know what a
+frightful, intolerable wretch I've been. I tried to teach Lance to bet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fernando!' He was so choked with indignation, he could not say more.</p>
+
+<p>'He wouldn't do it. Not after he understood it. It seems he tried it
+with another little boy at school, and one of the bigger ones boxed his
+ears and rowed him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay; Bruce promised me to look after him.'</p>
+
+<p>'So he refused. He told me he was on his honour to you not to stay if I
+did anything your father would have disapproved. He did leave me once,
+when I would not leave off.'</p>
+
+<p>'But how could you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I was so bored&mdash;so intolerably dull&mdash;and it is the only thing on earth
+that one cares to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'But Lance had nothing to stake.'</p>
+
+<p>'I could lend him! Ah! you don't know what betting is; why, we all
+do it&mdash;women, boys and all!' His voice became excited, and Felix in
+consternation broke in&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'When did you do this?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! weeks ago. Before I was out of bed. When I found my dice in my
+purse; but I have not tried it since, with him!'</p>
+
+<p>'With whom, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why&mdash;don't fall on him&mdash;with Fulbert. He knew what it meant. Now,
+Felix, don't come on him for it. Come on me as much as you please. I've
+been a traitor to you. I see it now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Anything but that!' sighed Felix, too much appalled for immediate
+forgiving, dejected as was the voice that spoke to him.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, yes, I know! I see. The worst thing I could do,' said Fernando,
+turning his face in on the pillow, in so broken-hearted a manner that
+Felix's kindness and generosity were roused.</p>
+
+<p>'Stay, don't be so downcast,' he said. 'There's no harm done with
+Lance, and you being so sorry will undo it with Fulbert! I do thank you
+for telling me, <i>really</i>, only it upset me at first.'</p>
+
+<p>'Upset! Yes, you'll be more so when you hear the rest,' said Fernando,
+raising his head again. 'Do you know who set that inn on fire?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nobody does.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I did.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense! You've had a bad night! You don't know what you are
+talking about,' said Felix, anxiously laying hold of one of the hot
+hands&mdash;perceiving that his own Christmas Day must begin with mercy, not
+sacrifice, and beginning to hope the first self-accusation was also
+delirious.</p>
+
+<p>'Tell me. Didn't the fire begin in the ball-room? Somebody told me so.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, the waiter saw it there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I did it; I threw the end of a cigar among the flummery in the
+grate,' cried Fernando, falling back from the attitude into which he
+had raised himself, with a gesture of despair.</p>
+
+<p>'Nobody can blame you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay. It was after father and uncle had gone! I was smoking at the
+window of our room, and the landlord came in and ordered me not,
+because some ladies in the next room objected. He told me I might come
+down to the coffee-room; but I had never heard of such meddling, and I
+jawed him well; but he made me give in somehow. Only when I saw that
+big ball-room all along the side of the building, I just took a turn in
+it with my cigar to spite him. Poor Diego came up and begged me not,
+but you know the way one does with a nigger. Oh!'</p>
+
+<p>Felix did not know; but the voice broke down in such misery and horror,
+that his soul seemed to sink within him. 'Have you had this on your
+mind all this time?' he asked kindly.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no. It didn't come to me. I think I've been a block or a stone.
+The dear faithful fellow, that loved me as no one ever did. I've been
+feeling the kiss he gave me at the window all to-night. And then I've
+been falling&mdash;falling&mdash;falling in his black arms&mdash;down&mdash;down to hell
+itself. Not that he is there; but I murdered him, you know&mdash;and some
+one else besides, wasn't there?'</p>
+
+<p>'This is like delirium, really, Fernando,' said Felix, putting his arms
+round him to lay him down, as he raised himself on his elbow. 'I must
+call some one if you seem so ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish it was illness,' said Fernando with a shudder. 'Oh! don't
+go&mdash;don't let me go&mdash;if you can bear to touch me&mdash;when you know all!'</p>
+
+<p>'There can't be any worse to know. You had better not talk.'</p>
+
+<p>'I must! I must tell you all I really am; though you will never let
+your brothers come near me, or the little angels&mdash;your sisters. I'd
+not have dared look at them myself if I had known it, but things never
+seemed so to me before.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix shivered at the thought of what he was to hear, but he gave
+himself up to listen kindly, and to his relief he gathered from the
+incoherent words that there was no great stain of crime, as he had
+feared; but that the boy had come to open his eyes to the evils of the
+life in which he had shared according to his age, and saw them in their
+foulness, and with an agonised sense of shame and pollution. Felix
+could not help asking whether this had long dwelt on his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' he said, 'that's the wonder! I thought myself a nice,
+gentlemanly, honourable fellow. Oh!' with a groan. 'Fancy that! I never
+thought of recollecting these things, or what they have made me. Only,
+somehow, when those children seemed so shocked at my advising them
+to hold their tongues about their bit of mischief&mdash;I thought first
+what fools you all were to be so scrupulous; and then I recollected
+the lots of things I have concealed, till I began to think, Is this
+honour&mdash;would it seem so to Lance&mdash;or Felix? And then came down on me
+the thought of what you believe, of God seeing it all, and laying it up
+against one for judgment; and I <i>know</i>&mdash;I <i>know</i> it is true!' and there
+came another heavy groan, and the great eyes shone in the twilight in
+terror.</p>
+
+<p>'If you know that is true,' said Felix, steadfastly and tenderly, 'you
+know something else too. You know Whom He sent into the world for our
+pardon for these things.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a tightening of the grasp as if in acquiescence and comfort;
+but the nurse came back to tidy the room, and still Fernando clung to
+Felix, and would not let him go. She opened the shutters, and then
+both she and Felix were dismayed to see how ill and spent her patient
+looked; for she had slept soundly through his night of silent anguish
+and remorse&mdash;misery that, as Felix saw by his face, was pressing on him
+still with intolerable weight.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the woman had finished Mr. Audley came in, and seeing at
+once that Felix's absence was accounted for by Fernando's appearance,
+he stepped up at once to the bed, full of solicitude. Felix hardly knew
+whether to reply or escape; but Fernando's heart was too full for his
+words not to come at once.</p>
+
+<p>'No, I am not worse, but I see it all now.&mdash;Tell him, Felix; I cannot
+say it again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fernando thinks&mdash;' Felix found he could hardly speak the words
+either&mdash;'Fernando is afraid that it was an accident of his own&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't say an accident. It was passion and spite,' broke in Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>'That caused the fire at the Fortinbras Arms,' Felix was obliged to
+finish.</p>
+
+<p>'Not on purpose!' exclaimed Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'Almost as much as if it had been,' said Fernando. 'I smoked to spite
+the landlord for interfering, and threw away the end too angry to
+heed where. There!' he added grimly; 'Felix won't tell me how many I
+murdered besides my poor old black. How many?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not speak in that way, my poor boy,' said Mr. Audley. 'At least,
+this is better than the weight you have had on your mind so long.'</p>
+
+<p>'How many?' repeated Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>'Two more lives were lost,' said Mr. Audley gently, 'Mr. Jones's
+baby and its nurse. But you must not use harder words than are just,
+Fernando. It was a terrible result, but consequences do not make the
+evil.'</p>
+
+<p>He made a kind of murmur; then turning round, uneasily said, 'That is
+not all; I have seen myself, Mr. Audley.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley looked at Felix, who spoke with some difficulty and
+perplexity. 'He has been very unhappy all night. He thinks things wrong
+that he never thought about before.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley felt exceedingly hopeful at those words; but he was alarmed
+at the physical effect on his patient, and felt that the present
+excitement was mischievous. 'I understand in part,' he said. 'But it
+seems to me that he is too restless and uncomfortable to think or
+understand now. It may be that he may yet see the joy of to-day; but no
+more talk now. Have you had your breakfast?'</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head, but Felix had to go away, and breakfast and dressing
+restored Fernando to a more tranquil state. He slept, too, wearied out,
+when he was placed on his couch; while Felix was at Christmas service,
+singing, as he had never sung before,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Peace on earth, and mercy mild,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">God and sinners reconciled.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Oh! was the poor young stranger seeing the way to that reconciliation?
+and when Lancelot's sweet clear young notes rose up in all their
+purity, and the rosy honest face looked upwards with an expression
+elevated by the music, Felix could not help thinking that the boy had
+verily sung those words of truth and hope into the poor dark lonely
+heart. Kindness, steadfastness, truth, in that merry-hearted child
+had been doing their work; and when Lance marched away with the other
+lesser choristers, the elder brother felt as if the younger had been
+the more worthy to 'draw near in faith.'</p>
+
+<p>Fernando was more like himself when Felix came in, but he was a good
+deal shaken, and listened to the conventional Christmas greeting like
+mockery, shrinking from the sisters, when they looked in on him, with
+what they thought a fresh access of shyness, but which was a feeling of
+terrible shame beside the innocence he ascribed to them.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I could help that poor boy,' sighed Wilmet. 'He does look so
+very miserable!'</p>
+
+<p>And Geraldine's eyes swam in tears as she thought of the loneliness
+of his Christmas, and without that Christmas joy that even her
+mother's dulled spirit could feel&mdash;the joy that bore them through the
+recollections of this time last year.</p>
+
+<p>Lance's desire to cheer took the more material form of acting as
+Fernando's special waiter at the consumption of the turkey, which Mr.
+Audley had insisted on having from home, and eating in company with the
+rest, to whom it was a 'new experience,' being only a faint remembrance
+even to Felix and Wilmet; but Fernando had no appetite, and even the
+sight of his little friend gave him a pang.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you want any one to stay with you?' asked Lance. 'If Cherry <i>would</i>
+do&mdash;for Felix said he would take Fulbert and me out for a jolly long
+walk, to see the icicles at Bold's Hatch.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I want no one. You are better without me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll stay if you <i>do</i> want it,' said Lance, very reluctantly. 'I
+don't like your not having one bit of Christmas. Shall I sing you one
+Christmas hymn before I go?' And Lance broke into the 'Herald Angels'
+again.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Mild He lays His glory by,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Born that man no more may die;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Born to raise the sons of earth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Born to give them second birth.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Fernando's face was bathed in tears; he held out his arms, and to
+little Lance's great amazement, somewhat to his vexation, he held him
+fast and kissed him.</p>
+
+<p>'What did you do that for?' he asked in a gruff astonished voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind!' said Fernando. 'Only I think I see what this day can be!
+Now go.'</p>
+
+<p>Presently Mr. Audley came softly in. The lad's face was turned in to
+his cushion, his handkerchief over it; and as the young priest stood
+watching him, what could be done but pray for the poor struggling soul?
+At last he turned round, and looked up.</p>
+
+<p>'I saw it again,' he said with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>'Saw what?'</p>
+
+<p>'What you all mean. It touched me, and seemed true and real when Lance
+was singing. What was it&mdash;"Born to save the sons of earth"? Oh! but
+such as I am, and at my age, too!'</p>
+
+<p>And with a few words from Mr. Audley, there came such a disburthening
+of self-accusation as before to Felix. It seemed as if the terrible
+effects of his wilfulness at the inn&mdash;horrified as he was at them&mdash;were
+less oppressive to his conscience than his treachery to his host in his
+endeavour to gamble with the little boys. He had found a pair of dice
+in his purse when looking for the price of a Bible, and the sight had
+awakened the vehement hereditary Mexican passion for betting, the bane
+of his mother's race. His father, as a clever man of the world, hated
+and prohibited the practice; but Fernando had what could easily become
+a frenzy for that excitement of the lazy south, and even while he had
+seen it in its consequences, the intense craving for the amusement had
+mastered him more than once, when loathing the dulness and weariness
+of his confinement, and shrinking from the doctrines he feared to
+accept. He knew it was dishonourable&mdash;yet he had given way; and he
+felt like one utterly stained, unpardonable, hopeless: but there was
+less exaggeration in his state of mind than in the early morning; and
+when Mr. Audley dwelt on the Hope of sinners, his eyes glistened and
+brightened; and at the further words that held out to him the assurance
+that all these sins might be washed away, and he himself enabled to
+begin a new life, his looks shone responsively; but he shook his head
+soon&mdash;'It went away from him,' he said; poor boy! 'it was too great and
+good to be true.'</p>
+
+<p>Then Mr. Audley put prayer before him as a means of clinging even
+blindly to the Cross that he was barely beginning to grasp, and the
+boy promised. He would do anything they would, could he but hope to be
+freed from the horrible weight of sense of hopeless pollution that had
+come upon him.</p>
+
+<p>For some days he did not seem able to read anything but the Gospels and
+the Baptismal Service; and at length, after a long silence, he said,
+'Mr. Audley, if your sermon is finished, can you listen to me? May I be
+baptized?'</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed the Curate's heart bounded, but he had to keep himself
+restrained. The father's consent he had secured beforehand, but he
+thought Fernando ought to write to him; and it was also needful to
+consult the Rector as to the length of actual preparation and probation.</p>
+
+<p>Then, when the question came, 'Can I indeed be like Felix and Lancelot'
+the reply had to be cautious. 'You will be as entirely pardoned, as
+entirely belonging to the holiness within and without, as they; but
+how far you will have the consciousness, I cannot tell; and it is very
+probable that your temptations may be harder. Guilt may be forgiven,
+while habits retain their power; and they have been guarded, taught
+self-restraint, and had an example before them in their father, such as
+very few have been blessed with.'</p>
+
+<p>Fernando sighed long and sadly, and said, 'Then you do not think it
+will make much difference.'</p>
+
+<p>'The difference between life and death! But you must expect to have to
+believe rather than <i>feel</i>. But go on, and it will all be clear.'</p>
+
+<p>The Rector was at first anxious to wait for definite sanction from
+the father; but as Mr. Audley was sure of the permission he had
+received, and no letter could be had for several months, he agreed to
+examine the lad, and write to the Bishop&mdash;a new Bishop, who had been
+appointed within the last year, and who was coming in the spring for a
+Confirmation.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bevan was really delighted with the catechumen, and wrote warmly of
+him. The reply was, that if the Baptism could take place the day before
+the Confirmation, which was to be in a month's time, the Bishop himself
+would like to be present, and the youth could be confirmed the next
+day. There was much that was convenient in this, for it gave time for
+Fernando to make progress in moving about. He had made a start within
+the last week or two, was trying to use crutches, and had been out on
+fine days in a chair; and once or twice Lady Price had taken him for
+a drive, though she had never thought of doing so by Geraldine. The
+doctor said that change of air would probably quite restore his health;
+and he had only to wait to be a little less dependent before he was to
+go to a tutor, an old friend of the Audley family.</p>
+
+<p>Everything promised well; but one wet afternoon, in the interim between
+the end of Lance's and that of Fulbert's holidays, Mr. Audley, while
+coming down from a visit to Mrs. Underwood, fancied he heard an ominous
+rattle, and opening the door suddenly, found Fernando and Fulbert
+eagerly throwing the dice and with several shillings before them.</p>
+
+<p>Both started violently as he entered, and Fulbert put his arm and hand
+round as if to hide the whole affair; while Fernando tried to look
+composed.</p>
+
+<p>All that the Curate said in his surprise was one sharp sentence.
+'Fernando Travis, if you are to renounce the devil, you will have to
+begin by throwing those dice into the fire.'</p>
+
+<p>Fernando's eyes looked furious, and he swept the dice and the money
+into his pocket&mdash;all but three shillings. Fulbert stole out of the room
+quietly. No doubt these were his winnings, which he did not dare to
+touch.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley took up a book and waited, fully expecting that sorrow would
+follow; but Fernando did not speak; and when at length he did on some
+indifferent matter, it was in his ordinary tone. Well, there must be
+patience. No doubt repentance would come at night! No; the evening
+passed on, and Fernando was ready for all their usual occupations.
+Perhaps it would come with Felix, or in the dawn after a troubled
+night. Alas! no. And moreover, Felix, to whom it was necessary to
+speak, was exceedingly angry and vexed, and utterly incredulous of
+there being any good in the character that could be so fickle, if not
+deceitful and hypocritical. His own resolute temper had no power of
+comprehending the unmanliness of erring against the better will; he
+was absolutely incapable of understanding the horrible lassitude and
+craving for excitement that must have tempted Fernando, and he was
+hard and even ashamed of himself for having ever believed in the lad's
+sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>This anger too made him speak with such a threatening tone to Fulbert,
+as to rouse the doggedness of the boy's nature. All that could be got
+out of Fulbert was that 'his going there was all Felix's doing,' and he
+would not manifest any sign of regret, such as would be any security
+against his introducing the practice among the clergy orphans, or
+continuing it all his life. He was not a boy given to confidences, and
+neither Wilmet nor Cherry could get him beyond his glum declaration
+that it was Felix's fault, he only wanted to keep out of the fellow's
+way. They could only take comfort in believing that he was really
+ashamed, and that he suffered enough within to be a warning against the
+vice itself.</p>
+
+<p>As to Fernando, he made no sign, he went on as if nothing had happened;
+and nothing was observable about him, but that he showed himself
+intensely weary of his present mode of life, put on at times the
+manners that were either those of the Spanish Don or of the Indian
+Cacique, and seemed to shrink from the prospect of the English tutor.
+Yet he continued his preparation for baptism, and Mr. Bevan was
+satisfied with him; but Mr. Audley was perplexed and unhappy over the
+reserve that had sprung up between them, and could not decide whether
+to make another attempt or leave the lad to himself.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon, only ten days from the time fixed for the Bishop's
+visit, Mr. Audley returned from a clerical meeting to find an
+unexpected visitor in the room&mdash;namely, Alfred Travis, Fernando's
+uncle, a more Americanized and rougher person than his brother. He rose
+as he entered. 'Good morning, Mr. Audley; you have taken good care of
+your charge. He is fit to start with me to-morrow. See a surgeon in
+town&mdash;then to Liverpool&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!' Mr. Audley caught a deprecating look from Fernando. 'Do you
+come from his father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well&mdash;yes and no. His father is still in the Oregon; but he and I have
+always been one&mdash;and opening the boy's letters, and finding him ready
+to move, I thought, as I had business in England, I'd come and fetch
+him, and just settle any claim the fellow at yonder hotel may have
+cheek enough to set up, since Fernan was green enough to let it out.'</p>
+
+<p>'May I ask if you have any authority from his father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Authority! Bless you! William will be glad to see his boy; we don't go
+by authority between brothers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Because,' continued Mr. Audley, 'I heard from your brother that he
+wished Fernando to remain with me to receive an English education.'</p>
+
+<p>'All sentiment and stuff! He knew better before we had sailed! An
+English squire in this wretched old country, forsooth! when the new
+republic is before him! No, no, Mr. Audley, I'll be open with you. I
+saw what you were up to when I got your letter, and Fernan&mdash;Got his
+lesson very well, he had. And when I came down, a friend in London gave
+me another hint. It won't do, I can assure you. That style of thing is
+all very well for you spruce parsons of good family, as you call it in
+the old country; but we are not going to have a rising young fellow
+like this, with a prospect of what would buy out all your squires and
+baronets in the old country, beslobbered and befooled with a lot of
+Puseyite cant. You've had your turn of him; it is time he should come
+and be a man again.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley was dizzy with consternation. Fernando was no child. He was
+full sixteen, and he was so far recovered that his health formed no
+reason for detaining him. If he chose to go with his uncle, he <i>must</i>.
+If not&mdash;what then? He looked at Fernando, who sat uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>'You hear what your uncle says?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'I told him,' said Fernando, 'I must wait for a fortnight.' He spoke
+with eyes cast down, but not irresolutely.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle broke out&mdash;He knew what that meant; it was only that he might
+be flattered by the Bishop and all the ladies, and made a greater fool
+of than ever. No, no, he must be out again by May, and he should just
+have time to take Fernan to one of the gay boarding-houses at Saratoga,
+and leave him there to enjoy himself.</p>
+
+<p>'I have letters from my father,' said Fernando, looking up to Mr.
+Audley, 'before he went to Oregon. He said nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you wish to stay?' said Mr. Audley, feeling that all depended on
+that, and trying to hide the whirl of anxiety and disappointment he
+felt.</p>
+
+<p>The answer was not what he expected. Fernando sat upright in his chair,
+looked up to him and then at his uncle, and said low but resolutely, 'I
+will stay.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you shall stay,' said Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'You have worked upon him, I see, Sir, with your old-world prejudiced
+superstition,' said Alfred Travis, evidently under the delusion that he
+was keeping his temper. 'A proper fool my brother was to leave him to
+you. But you do it at your peril. I shall see if there's power even in
+this old country to keep a boy from his own relations. You'll see me
+again, Fernan. You had better make ready.'</p>
+
+<p>The words were not unaccompanied with expletives such as had never been
+personally uttered to Charles Audley before, and that brought the hot
+colour to his cheek. When he looked round, Fernando's face was covered
+with his hands. 'Oh! Mr. Audley,' he cried, as his uncle hastily shut
+the door, 'is he going to send for the police?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not believe he can do any such thing,' said Mr. Audley, seeing
+that Fernando was in great nervous agitation. 'I have authority from
+your father, he has none; and you are old enough to make your own
+decision. You really mean and wish to stay?' he added.</p>
+
+<p>'I told him so from the first,' said Fernando.</p>
+
+<p>'Then he has no power to force you away.'</p>
+
+<p>Fernando was silent. Then he said, 'If I could have gone after my
+Baptism.'</p>
+
+<p>'Would you have wished that?' said Mr. Audley, somewhat disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>The tears were now on the long black lashes.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't think me ungrateful, or&mdash; But this English life does come
+over me as intolerably dull and slow. No life nor go in it. Sometimes
+I feel sick of it; and going back to books and all, after what I
+have been used to. If my uncle could wait for my Baptism, or,' more
+hesitating, 'if I could be baptized at once. Men do lead Christian
+lives out there. I would try to keep from evil, Mr. Audley. I see your
+face! Is this another temptation of the devil?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think it is an attempt of his,' said Mr. Audley, sadly. 'Even here
+you have not been able to abstain entirely from giving way to your old
+passion, when you had little temptation, and felt your honour bound.
+What will it be when you have comparatively no restraint?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am resolved not to go unbaptized,' said Fernando. 'I said so from
+the first, but he will not wait! Yet if my father sends for me, I must
+go.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it will be your duty, and you will have more right to look for
+help. Besides, a summons from your father could not come for three or
+four months, and in that time you would have had time to gain something
+in Christian practice and training.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there is the bell! Must you go, Mr. Audley? He will come back!'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I could stay, but Smith is gone to Dearport, and I do not know
+whether the Rector is in. Besides, this must be your own doing, Fernan,
+not mine. I shall pray for you, that you well know. Pray for yourself,
+for this is a real crisis of life. God bless you, my dear boy.' He laid
+his hand on the head, and Fernando looked up gratefully, then said,
+'You never did that before. May Lance come to me, if he has not gone?'</p>
+
+<p>'I will call him,' said Mr. Audley, seeing that he really dreaded being
+alone. The little boy was on the stairs with something in his hand. 'Go
+in to Fernan,' he was told; 'he wants you. What have you got there?'</p>
+
+<p>'This queer drawing. Cherry found it in an old portfolio, and has been
+copying it.'</p>
+
+<p>It was Retzsch's outline of the chess-player, and it almost startled
+Mr. Audley by its appropriateness. He went out to Evensong, and never
+was more glad to get back to reinforce the feeble garrison.</p>
+
+<p>Lance opened the front door to him. 'I'm so glad you are come!' he
+said. 'Mr. Bruce is there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not the uncle?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, only Mr. Bruce.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bruce was a lawyer, and a very respectable man, in whom Mr. Audley
+felt confidence. He rose at the clergyman's entrance, and asked to
+speak to him in another room, so he was taken into the little back
+dining-room, and began&mdash;'This is a very unpleasant business, Mr.
+Audley; this gentleman is very much annoyed, and persuaded that he has
+a right to carry off his nephew; but as I told him, it all turns upon
+the father's expressions. Have you any written authority from him?'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley had more than one letter, thanking him, and expressing full
+satisfaction in the proposed arrangements for Fernando; and this Mr.
+Bruce thought was full justification, together with the youth's own
+decided wishes. The words were likewise clear, by which William Travis
+had given consent to his son's Baptism, but there was no witness of
+them. Mr. Bruce explained that Alfred Travis, who seemed to regard
+Fernando as the common property of the brothers, had come to him in
+what he gently termed 'a great state of excitement,' complaining of
+a Puseyite plot. He had evidently taken umbrage at the tone of the
+letters he had opened for his brother, and had been further prejudiced
+by some Dearport timber-merchant he had met at Liverpool, who had told
+him how the parson had got hold of his nephew, and related a farrago of
+gossip about St. Oswald's. He was furious at the opposition, and could
+not understand that law in the old country was powerless in this case,
+because he was neither father nor guardian. In fact he seemed to be
+master of his brother; and Mr. Bruce told Mr. Audley that it was quite
+to be considered whether though law was on his side now, the father
+might not be brought over to the brother's side, be very angry at the
+detention of the boy, and refuse the payment, which, while he was in
+America, could not be forced from him. Of that Mr. Audley could happily
+afford to run the risk; and Mr. Bruce said he had also set before the
+young gentleman that he might have to suffer much displeasure from
+his father for his present refusal, although his right to make it was
+incontestable. To this Fernando had likewise made up his mind; and Mr.
+Bruce, who had never seen him before, thought he looked utterly unfit
+for a long journey and sea voyage, so that the uncle had taken nothing
+by his application to the law.</p>
+
+<p>Fernando was flushed and panting, but more resolute, for resentment at
+the attempt at force had come to back him up, and rouse the spirit of
+resistance. Not half an hour had elapsed before there was another ring
+at the door. The uncle and lawyer were come together now. It was to
+make a last offer to Fernando; Mr. Alfred Travis offered to take him up
+to London the next day, and there to have advice as to the safety of
+the voyage, in the meantime letting him be baptized, if nothing else
+would satisfy him, but by some London clergyman&mdash;not one of the Bexley
+set whom the uncle regarded with such aversion.</p>
+
+<p>Fernando drew himself up, and stood, leaning on the end of the sofa.
+'Thank you, uncle,' he said, 'I cannot. I am obeying my father now, and
+I will not leave those to whom he trusted me.'</p>
+
+<p>There followed a volley of abuse of his English obstinacy and Spanish
+pride and canting conceit, which made Mr. Bruce stand aghast, and
+Fernando look up with burning cheeks and eyes glowing like hot coals;
+but with the Indian impassibility he did not speak till Alfred Travis
+had threatened him not only with his father's displeasure, but with
+being cast off by both, and left to his English friends' charity.</p>
+
+<p>'My father will not!' said Fernando. 'If he sends for me I will come.'
+But there his strength suddenly collapsed, and he was forced to sit
+down and lean back.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Fernan,' said his uncle, suddenly withdrawing his attempt when
+he found it vain, 'you seem hardly in marching order, so I'm off by the
+night train; but if you change your mind in the next week, write to
+me at Peter Brown's&mdash;you know&mdash;and I'll run down. I will save you the
+coming out by yourself. Good-bye.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bruce tarried one moment to aver that he was unprepared for his
+client's violence, and that he thought the nephew had done quite right.</p>
+
+<p>The door was shut, and Mr. Audley came back holding out his hand, but
+Fernando did not take it. He was occupied in supporting himself by
+the furniture from the sofa to the fire-place, where, holding by the
+mantelpiece with one hand, he took his dice from his pocket with the
+other, and threw them into the reddest depth. Then he held the hand to
+Mr. Audley, who wrung it, and said, 'It has been a hard fight, my boy.'</p>
+
+<p>Fernando laid his weary head on his shoulder, and said, 'If my father
+is not poisoned against me!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not fear that, Fernando. You are where he left you. You have given
+up something for the sake of your new Lord and Master; you will have
+his armour another time.'</p>
+
+<p>Fernando let himself be helped to sit down, and sighed. He was
+thoroughly worn out, and his victory was not such as to enliven his
+spirits. He took up the drawing that lay on the table, and gazed on it
+in a sort of dreamy fascination.</p>
+
+<p>'You have checked him this time,' said Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'Here or there, I will never bet again,' said Fernan solemnly. 'God
+help me to keep the resolution! It is the one thing that I care for,
+and I know I should have begun the first day I was away from you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think that with those tastes you cannot make too strong a resolution
+against it,' said Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>Their dinner was brought in, but Fernando had no appetite. He soon
+returned to his chess-player, and seemed to be playing over the game,
+but he was too much tired for talk, and soon went to bed; where after
+a short sleep feverishness set in, bringing something approaching to
+delirium. The nurse had gone a fortnight previously; but as he was
+still too helpless to have no one within call, Felix slept on the bed
+in the corner of the room.</p>
+
+<p>When he came down the opening of the door was greeted by 'Don't let him
+come! Is Mr. Audley there?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, he is not gone.'</p>
+
+<p>Then he knew Felix, but soon began again to talk of the game at chess,
+evidently mixing up his uncle with the personage with the long feather.</p>
+
+<p>'He has been checked once. I've taken one piece of his. He is gone now.
+Will he come back after my Baptism? No; I shall go to him.'</p>
+
+<p>This lasted till past midnight, when, as they were deliberating
+whether to send for Mr. Rugg, he fell soundly asleep, and awoke in the
+morning depressed, but composed and peaceful; and this state of things
+continued. The encounter with his uncle, and the deliberate choice, had
+apparently given some shock to his nerves; and whenever night recurred,
+there came two or three hours of misery, and apparently of temptation
+and terror. It took different forms. Sometimes it was half in
+sleep&mdash;the acting over again of one or two horrible scenes that he had
+partly witnessed in the Southern States, when an emancipator had been
+hunted down, and the slaves who had listened to him savagely punished.
+In spite of his Spanish blood, the horror had been ineffaceable;
+and his imagination connected it with the crowd of terrors that had
+revealed themselves to his awakened conscience. He seemed to think that
+if he lost in the awful game of life, he should be handed over to that
+terrible slave-master; and there were times when Diego's fate, and his
+own lapses, so fastened on his mind, as to make him despair of ever
+being allowed to quit that slave-master's dominions; and that again
+joined with alarm lest his uncle should return and claim him.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, likewise, the old wandering life, with the flashes of
+rollicking mirth and excitement, rather glimpsed at and looked forward
+to than really tasted, would become so alluring a contrast to the flat
+and tasteless&mdash;nay, as it seemed to him, tedious and toilsome&mdash;future
+sketched out for him; and the restraints and constant watchfulness of
+a Christian's life appeared so distressing a bondage, that his soul
+seemed to revolt against it, and he would talk of following his uncle
+at once to London while yet it was time, and writing to him the next
+morning. This state was sure to be followed by a passion of remorse,
+and sheer delirious terror lest he should be given up to the enemy,
+who seemed now to assume to his fancy the form of his uncle. A great
+deal was no doubt delirious, and this betrayed the struggles which he
+had been for weeks fighting out in silence and apparent impassiveness;
+but it was impossible not to feel that therewith was manifested the
+wrestling with the Prince of Darkness, ere his subject should escape
+from his territory, and claim the ransom of his manumission. Mr.
+Audley&mdash;after the second night&mdash;would not let Felix remain, but took
+the watch entirely on himself, and fought the battle with the foe
+by prayer and psalm. Sleep used to come before morning; and by day
+Fernando was himself again, very subdued and quiet, and, in fact,
+having lost a good deal of ground as to health.</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, the greatest pleasure he had at this time was sitting
+in the upstairs parlour. The custom had begun in consequence of his
+nervous shuddering at being left alone lest his uncle should return,
+and Felix and Geraldine had then proposed taking him to their mother,
+who was rather interested than annoyed by his presence, and indeed
+all her gentle motherly instinct was drawn out by his feebleness and
+lameness; she talked to him kindly and quite rationally, and he was
+wonderfully impressed and soothed by her tenderness. It was so utterly
+unlike anything he had ever even seen, that he watched her with a sort
+of awe; while Cherry worked, read aloud, or drew, and felt proud of
+being able to fetch what was beyond the capacity of her little errand
+boy, Bernard.</p>
+
+<p>The children, too, entertained him; he was a little afraid of Bernard's
+roughness, but delighted in watching him, and he and little Stella
+were intensely admiring friends. She always knew him, cooed at him,
+and preferred the gold of his watch-chain to all things in nature or
+art. Then when Wilmet, Angela, and Lance came home, and family chatter
+began, the weary anxious brain rested; and even in that room, so sad
+to most eyes, Fernando began to realise what Christian peace and
+cheerfulness could be.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE HOME.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Within those walls each fluttering guest<br />
+Is gently lured to one safe nest;<br />
+Without, 'tis moaning and unrest.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 40%;"><i>Keble.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>A great delight came to Wilmet and Geraldine the day of the Bishop's
+visit, no other than Alda's being able to spend a week with them. Miss
+Pearson spared Wilmet that whole afternoon, that she might go up to
+meet her at the station, whither she was escorted by a maid going down
+to Centry.</p>
+
+<p>There she was, in her pretty black silk, with violet trimmings, looking
+thoroughly the grown young lady, but clinging tight to her twin in an
+overflow of confused happiness, even while they stood together to get
+their first glance of the Bishop, who came down by the same train, and
+was met by Mr. Bevan with the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm glad it is so nice and warm; it is better for Fernan, and Cherry
+can go!' said Wilmet, ready for joy about everything.</p>
+
+<p>'Nice and warm! 'Tis much colder than in London,' said Alda, with a
+shiver. 'Has Cherry kept well this winter?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite well. She walks much better. And Marilda?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Marilda is always well. Rude health, her mother calls it. What do
+you think she has sent you, Wilmet? A darling little watch! just like
+this of mine!'</p>
+
+<p>'O Alda, you should not have let her. It is too much. Fernan wanted to
+give Lance a watch, but Felix would not let him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but he is not like Uncle Thomas, and it makes you like me.'</p>
+
+<p>'That we shall never be quite again,' sighed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! a little setting off, and trimming up! I've brought down lots of
+things. Aunt Mary said I might. What is this youth like, Wilmet&mdash;is he
+a boy or a young man?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know,' said Wilmet; 'he is younger than Felix, if that helps
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Americans are old of their age. I have met some at Mr. Roper's.
+Oh, and do you know, Mrs. Roper told Aunt Mary that these Travises
+are quite millionaires, and that this youth's mother was a prodigious
+Mexican heiress. Aunt Mary wants to ask him to Kensington Palace
+Gardens, when he comes up to town! I'm glad I am in time for the
+christening. Doesn't he have godfathers and godmothers?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he would have nobody but Felix and Mr. Audley, and Lady Price
+chose to be his godmother; indeed, there was nobody else.'</p>
+
+<p>'You could not well be, certainly,' laughed Alda. 'Oh! and I've brought
+a dress down. I thought some of us might be asked to the Rectory in the
+evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Alda, as if such a thing ever happened!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! you see I have been so long away as to forget my Lady's manners.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Audley is going, and Fernan was asked, but he is not anything like
+well enough. So when Mamma and the little ones go to bed, we are to
+come down and spend the evening with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fancy, Wilmet, I have quite been preparing Marilda for her
+Confirmation. She had hardly been taught anything, and never could have
+answered the questions if she had not come to me. She is always asking
+me what Papa said about this and that; and it is quite awkward, she
+will carry out everything so literally, poor dear girl.'</p>
+
+<p>'She must be very good.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! to be sure she is! But just fancy, she keeps a tithe of her
+pocket-money to give to the Offertory so scrupulously; she would really
+not buy something she wanted because it would have been just a shilling
+into her tenth. I'm so glad she is confirmed. I never knew what to
+do at church before. I couldn't go home by myself, and now a servant
+always waits for us. Oh! how fast the poor hotel is building again! It
+will brighten our street a little! Dear me, I did not know how dingy it
+was!'</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could look dingy where two such fair bright faces were; but
+Alda's became awe-struck and anxious as she went up to her mother's
+room. Indeed Mrs. Underwood looked up at her rather confused, and
+scarcely knowing the fashionable young lady, and it was only when the
+plumed hat was laid aside, and the two heads laid together, their
+fair locks mingling, that she knew she had her elder twins again, and
+stroked their faces with quiet delight.</p>
+
+<p>There was scarcely more than time to kiss the little ones, and contend
+with Stella's shyness, before first Lance hurried in and then Felix,
+excused from his work two hours earlier. He could only just run up and
+dress before he convoyed Geraldine to church, she having the first turn
+of the chair, helped her to her seat near the Font, and then came back
+for Fernando, who was under his special charge.</p>
+
+<p>Fernando sat looking very pale, and with the set expression of the
+mouth that always made Cherry think of Indians at the stake. His little
+new prayer-book was in his hand, and he was grasping it nervously,
+but he said nothing, as Felix helped him up and Lance held his crutch
+for him. It was his first entrance into a place of worship. They had
+intended to have accustomed him a little to the sights and sounds, but
+the weather and his ailment had prevented them. He was drawn to the
+porch, and there Felix partly lifted him out and up the step, while
+Lance took his hat for him, and as they were both wanted for the choir
+procession that was to usher the Bishop into church, they had to leave
+him in his place under Geraldine's protection.</p>
+
+<p>He had not in the least realised the effect of the interior of a
+church. St. Oswald's was a very grand old building, with a deep
+chancel a good deal raised, seen along a vista of heavy columns and
+arched vaults, lighted from the clerestory, and with a magnificent
+chancel-arch. The season was Lent, and the colouring of the decorations
+was therefore grave, but all the richer, and the light coming strongly
+in from the west window immediately over the children's heads, made
+the contrast of the bright sunlight and of the soft depths of mystery
+more striking, and, to an eye to which everything ecclesiastical was
+absolutely new, the effect was almost overwhelming. That solemnity and
+sanctity of long centuries, the peaceful hush, the grave beauty and
+grandeur, almost made him afraid to breathe, and Cherry sat by his side
+with her expressive face composed into the serious but happy look that
+accorded with the whole scene.</p>
+
+<p>He durst not move or speak. His was a silent passive nature, except
+when under strong stimulus, and Cherry respected his silence a great
+deal too much to break upon it by any information. She was half sorry
+when the noise of steps showed that the congregation were beginning
+to drop in, chiefly of the other young Confirmation candidates. Then
+presently Alda came, and whispered to her that Wilmet could not leave
+Mamma; and presently after, Lady Price bustled in with her daughter,
+looked severely at Alda under the impression that she was Wilmet
+very improperly tricked out, and pressed Fernando's hand before
+going on to her own place. Then came the low swell of the organ,
+another new sensation to one who had only heard opera music; then the
+approaching sound of the voices. Geraldine gave him the book open at
+the processional psalm, and the white-clad choir passed by, one of the
+first pair of choristers being Lance, singing with all his might, and
+that merry monkey-face full of a child's beautiful happy reverence. And
+again could be recognised Felix, Mr. Audley, Mr. Bevan, all whom the
+poor sick stranger had come to love best, all to his present perception
+glorified and beautiful. They had told him it would be all faith and no
+sight, but he seemed to find himself absolutely within that brighter
+better sphere to which they belonged, to see them walking in it in
+their white robes, to hear their songs of praise, and to know whence
+came that atmosphere that they carried about with them, and that he had
+felt when it was a riddle to him.</p>
+
+<p>And so the early parts of the service passed by him, not so much
+attended to or understood as filling him with a kind of dreamy
+rapturous trance, as the echoes of the new home, to which he, with all
+his heavy sense of past stain and present evil propensity, was gaining
+admission and adoption. For the first time he was really sensible of
+the <i>happiness</i> of his choice, and felt the compensation for what he
+gave up.</p>
+
+<p>When the Second Lesson was ended, and the clergy and the choir, in
+their surplices, moved down to encircle the Font, it was as if they
+came to gather him in among them. Felix came and helped him up. He
+could stand now with one support, and this was his young godfather's
+right arm, to which he held tightly, but without any nervous
+convulsiveness&mdash;he was too happy for that now&mdash;during the prayers that
+entreated for his being safely gathered into the Ark, and the Gospel of
+admission into the Kingdom. He had an impulse to loose his clasp and
+stand alone at the beginning of the vows, but he could not; he had not
+withdrawn his hand before he was forced again to lean his weight upon
+the steady arm beside him.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing had been able to persuade Lady Price that she was not to make
+all the vows as for an infant, but luckily nobody heard her except her
+husband and the other sponsors, for it was a full, clear, steadfast
+voice that made reply, 'I renounce them all!' and as the dark deep
+eyes gazed far away into the west window, and Felix felt the shudder
+through the whole frame, he knew the force of that renunciation; and
+how it gave up that one excitement that the lad really cared for. And
+when that final and carefully-guarded vow of obedience was uttered,
+the pressure on his arm seemed to show that the moral was felt of that
+moment's endeavour to stand alone.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of prayer, save in his own chamber, was so entirely new,
+that no doubt the force of the petitions was infinitely enhanced, and
+the entreaty for the death of the old Adam had a definite application
+to those old habits and tastes that at times exerted their force. The
+right hand was ready and untrembling when the Rector took it; the
+stream of water glittered as it fell on the awe-struck brow and jetty
+hair, and the eyes shone out with a deep resolute lustre as 'Ferdinand
+Audley' was baptized into the Holy Name, and sworn a faithful soldier
+and servant.</p>
+
+<p>He had begged to be baptized by the English version of his name; the
+Spanish one had grown up by a sort of accident, and had always been
+regretted by his father. He had wished much to take the name of Felix,
+but they were so certain that this would not be approved, that they
+had persuaded him out of it. He was soon set down again by Geraldine's
+side; and she put out her hand and squeezed his hard, looking up into
+his face with tearful eyes of welcome.</p>
+
+<p>When the last sounds of the voluntary had died away, and the
+congregation had gone, she ventured again to look up at him and say, 'I
+am so glad!'</p>
+
+<p>'Why did you never tell me it was like this?' he said. 'I should never
+have hung back one moment. Now nothing can touch me, since I belong to
+<i>this</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing can <i>really</i>,' said Geraldine softly. 'Above all, when it is
+sealed to us to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>Then there came a movement from the vestry, and the Rector and Mr.
+Audley were seen following the Bishop, who came down to where the two
+lame children still sat together, and putting his hand upon Ferdinand's
+head with the hair still wet, gave him his blessing before he spoke
+further. It was only a word or two of congratulation, but such as to go
+very deep; and then, seeing that the boy looked not excited, but worn
+and wearied, he added, 'You are going home to rest. I shall see you
+to-morrow after the confirmation;' and then he shook hands with him and
+with Geraldine, asking if she were the little girl of whom he had been
+told.</p>
+
+<p>'She is very young,' said Mr. Bevan, strongly impressed with the
+littleness of the figure; 'but she has been a Communicant for more than
+a year, and she is&mdash;a very good child.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can believe so,' said the Bishop, smiling to her. 'I have heard of
+your father, my dear, and of your brother.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry coloured rosy red, but was much too shy to speak; and the Rector
+and Bishop went away, leaving only Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'Are you very much tired, Fernan?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know,' he half smiled.</p>
+
+<p>'I think he is; he is too happy to know it,' said Geraldine. 'Please
+let him go home first.'</p>
+
+<p>So Mr. Audley helped him out to the chair, where Felix, Alda, and Lance
+were waiting; and he said, 'Thank you,' and held out his hand, while
+Lance eagerly shook it, saying, 'Now it is right at last; and here's
+Alda&mdash;isn't she a stunner?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought it was Wilmet,' said Fernan; and Alda went into church to
+keep Cherry company, thinking how curiously blind the male sex were not
+to distinguish between her dress and poor dear Wilmet's.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley was more than satisfied, he was surprised and comforted. He
+had prepared to meet either disappointment or excitement in his charge;
+he found neither&mdash;only a perfect placid content, as of one who had
+found his home and was at rest. The boy was too much tired, after his
+many bad nights and the day's exertion, to say or think much; all he
+did say was, 'I shall mind nothing now that I know what it is to be one
+of you.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley tried to remember that there must be a reaction, but he
+could not bring himself to fear or to warn, or do anything but enjoy
+the happiest day of his three years' ministry.</p>
+
+<p>He had to go to the Rectory dinner-party, and leave his neophyte to
+the tendance of the Underwoods. Felix sat with his friend in a great
+calm silence, while the rest were taken up by the counter-attraction
+upstairs, where Alda was unpacking an unrivalled store of presents from
+herself and Marilda, useful and ornamental, such as seemed a perfect
+<i>embarras de richesses</i> to the homely, scantily-endowed children. That
+little gold watch was the prize and wonder of all. It was the first
+in the family, except that Felix wore his father's, and Alda knew
+how an elder girl was scorned at school if she had none; but Wilmet,
+though very happy with hers, smiled, and would not agree to having
+met with disrespect for want of it. Then there were drawing-books
+for Cherry, and a knife of endless blades for Lance, and toys for
+the little ones; and dresses&mdash;a suit for Wilmet like Alda's plainest
+Sunday one, and Alda's last year's silk for Geraldine, and some
+charming little cashmere pelisses&mdash;Aunt Mary's special present to the
+two babies&mdash;things that would lengthen Wilmet's purse for many a day
+to come; and a writing-case for Felix; and all the absent remembered,
+too. Uncle Thomas had given Alda a five-pound note to buy presents,
+and Marilda had sent every one something besides, mostly of such a
+matter-of-fact useful type that Alda stood and laughed at them. And
+Mrs. Underwood was pleased with the exhibition, and smiled and admired,
+only her attention was tired out at last, and she was taken early to
+her own room.</p>
+
+<p>The elder ones went down to sit round the fire in Mr. Audley's room,
+where Ferdinand insisted on leaving his sofa to Geraldine, and betaking
+himself to the easy-chair, where he leant back, content and happy to
+watch the others through his eye-lashes. Alda was a little on her
+company manners at the first, but all the others were at perfect
+ease, as they sat in the dim light. Felix on the floor by Cherry, who
+delighted in a chance of playing fondling tricks with his hair and
+fingers; the twins in Mr. Audley's big chair, where they could lean
+against each other; and Lance cross-legged on the hearth-rug roasting
+chestnuts, of which a fellow chorister had given him a pocketful, and
+feeding every one in turn.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine gave a sigh to the wish that poor dear Edgar were there.</p>
+
+<p>'He is very happy!' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, but I wish he had not missed being here to-morrow. I wonder
+when he will come home.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot guess; Aunt Mary wants to go down the Rhine next summer (only
+she is not quite sure it is not the Rhone), and if so, I suppose he
+would join us there.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is a whole year since we have set eyes on him,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'But I believe he writes more to Cherry than anybody, does not he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, and sends me lovely photographs to copy. Such a beauty of
+himself! Have you seen it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I should think I had! They have set it up in a little gold frame on
+the drawing-room table, and everybody stands and says how handsome it
+is; and Aunt Mary explains all about him till I am tired of hearing it.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Clem?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Clem came to luncheon yesterday. He is very much grown, and looks
+uncommonly demure, and as much disposed to set everybody to rights as
+ever.'</p>
+
+<p>But Alda did not enter much more into particulars; she led away the
+conversation to the sights she had seen in their summer tour; and as
+she had a good deal of descriptive power, she made her narratives so
+interesting that time slipped quickly past, and the young company was
+as much surprised as Mr. Audley was when he came home and found them
+all there, not yet gone to bed. They were greatly ashamed, and afraid
+they had done Ferdinand harm, and all were secretly very anxious about
+the night; but, though the wakeful habit and night feverishness were
+not at once to be broken through, yet the last impression was the
+strongest, and the long-drawn aisle, the 'dim religious light,' and
+the white procession, were now the recurring images, all joyful, all
+restful, truly as if the bird had escaped out of the snare of the
+fowler. Real sleep came sooner than usual, and Fernan rose quite equal
+to the fatigue of the coming day, the Confirmation day, when again
+Geraldine had to sit beside him&mdash;this newly admitted to the universal
+brotherhood, instead of being beside that dear Edgar of her own, for
+whom her whole heart craved, as she thought how their preparation had
+begun together beside her father's chair.</p>
+
+<p>Their place was now as near the choir as possible, and they were
+brought in as before, very early, so that Fernan gazed with the same
+eager, unsated eyes into the chancel and at the altar, admitted as he
+was farther into his true home.</p>
+
+<p>The church was filled with candidates from the villages round as
+well as from the town, and the Litany preceded the rite which was to
+seal the young champions ere the strife. The Bishop came down to the
+two lame children, and laid his hands on the two bent heads, ere he
+gave his final brief address, exhorting the young people to guard
+preciously, and preserve by many a faithful Eucharist, that mark which
+had sealed them to the Day of Redemption, through all this world's long
+hot trial and conflict.</p>
+
+<p>There was holiday at both schools, and Felix had been spared to take
+his place in the choir, but Mr. Froggatt could not do without him
+afterwards, as the presence of so many of the country clergy in the
+town was sure to fill the reading-room and shop; and he was obliged
+to hurry off as soon as he came out of church. Now, the Bishop had
+the evening before asked Lady Price 'whether that son of poor Mr.
+Underwood's' were present among the numerous smart folk who thronged
+her drawing-room, to which my lady had replied, 'No; he was a nice,
+gentlemanly youth certainly, but, considering all things, and how sadly
+he had lowered himself, she thought it better not. In fact, some might
+not be so well pleased to meet him.'</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop took the opportunity of trying to learn from the next person
+he fell in with, namely, Mr. Ryder, how Felix had lowered himself;
+and received an answer that showed a good deal of the schoolmaster's
+disappointment, but certainly did not show any sense of Felix's
+degradation. And what he said was afterwards amplified by Mr. Audley,
+whom the Bishop took apart, and questioned with much interest upon
+both Ferdinand Travis and the Underwood family, of whom he had only
+heard, when, immediately after his appointment, his vote for the orphan
+school had been solicited for the two boys, and he had been asked to
+subscribe to the Comment on the Philippians. Mr. Audley felt that he
+had a sympathizing listener, and was not slow to tell the whole story
+of the family&mdash;what the father had been, what Felix now was, and how
+his influence and that of little Lancelot had told upon their young
+inmate. The Bishop listened with emotion, and said, 'I must see that
+boy! Is the mother in a state in which she would like a call from me?'
+but there an interruption had come; and when the country clergy came in
+the morning, Mr. Audley had thought it fittest not to swell the numbers
+unnecessarily, and had kept himself out of the way, and tried to keep
+his fellow-curate.</p>
+
+<p>So he had seen no more of the Bishop, until, some little time after he
+and Fernan had lunched, and were, it must be confessed, making up for
+their unrestful nights by having both dropped asleep, one on his chair,
+the other on the sofa, there came a ring to the door, and Lance, who
+had a strong turn for opening it, found himself face to face with the
+same tall grey-haired gentleman at whom he had gazed in the rochet and
+lawn-sleeves. He stood gazing up open-mouthed.</p>
+
+<p>'I think I have seen you in the choir, and heard you too,' said the
+Bishop, kindly taking Lance's paw, which might have been cleaner had he
+known what awaited it. 'Mr. Audley lives here, I think.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance was for once without a word to say for himself, though his
+mouth remained open. All he did was unceremoniously to throw wide Mr.
+Audley's door, and bolt upstairs, leaving his Lordship to usher himself
+in, while Mr. Audley started up, and Ferdinand would have done the
+same, had he been able, before he was forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>There was a kindly talk upon his health and plans, how he was to
+remain at Bexley till after Easter and his first Communion, and then
+Mr. Audley would take him up to London to be inspected by a first-rate
+surgeon before going down to the tutor's. The tutor proved to be an
+old school-fellow and great friend of the Bishop; and what Fernan
+heard of him from both the friend and pupil would have much diminished
+his dread, even if he had not been in full force of the feeling that
+whatever served to bind him more closely to the new world of blessing
+within the Church must be good and comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>This visit over, the Bishop asked whether Mrs. Underwood would like
+to be visited, and Mr. Audley went up to ascertain. She was a woman
+who never was happy or at rest in an untidy room, or in disordered
+garments, and all was in as fair order as it could be with the old
+furniture, that all Wilmet's mending could not preserve from the verge
+of rags. Her widow's cap and soft shawl were as neat as possible, and
+so were the little ones in their brown-holland, Theodore sitting at her
+feet, and Stella on Wilmet's lap, where she was being kept out of the
+way of the more advanced amusement of a feast of wooden tea-things,
+carried on in a corner between Angela and Bernard, under Lance's
+somewhat embarrassing patronage.</p>
+
+<p>Alda sprang up, stared about in consternation at the utter unlikeness
+to the drawing-room in Kensington Palace Gardens, and exclaimed, 'Oh!
+if Sibby had only come to take the children out! Take them away, Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sibby will come presently, or I will take them to her,' whispered
+Wilmet. 'I should like them just to have his blessing.'</p>
+
+<p>'So many,' sighed Alda; but meantime Mr. Audley had seen that all was
+right at the first <i>coup d'oeil</i>, had bent over Mrs. Underwood, told
+her that the Bishop wished to call upon her, and asked her leave to
+bring him up; and she smiled, looked pleased, and said, 'He is very
+kind. That is for your Papa, my dears. You must talk to him, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop came up almost immediately, and the perfect tranquillity and
+absence of flutter fully showed poor Mrs. Underwood's old high-bred
+instinct. She was really gratified when he sat down by her, after
+greeting the three girls, and held out his hands to make friends with
+the lesser ones, whom their sisters led up, Angela submissive and
+pretty behaved, Bernard trying to hide his face, and Stella in Wilmet's
+arms staring to the widest extent of eyes. The sisters had their
+wish&mdash;the fatherless babes received the pastoral blessing; and the
+Bishop said a few kind words of real sympathy that made Mrs. Underwood
+look up at him affectionately and say, 'Indeed I have much to be
+thankful for. My children are very good to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure they are,' said the Bishop. 'I cannot tell you how much I
+respect your eldest son.'</p>
+
+<p>The colour rose in the pale face. 'He is a very dear boy,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to see him before I go. Is he at home?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance shall run and call him,' said Alda; but the Bishop had asked
+where he was, and Wilmet had, not unblushingly, for she was red with
+pleasure, but shamelessly, answered that he was at Mr. Froggatt's,
+offering to send Lance in search of him.</p>
+
+<p>'I had rather he would show me the way,' said the Bishop. 'Will you, my
+boy?'</p>
+
+<p>The way to Mr. Froggatt's was not very long, but it was long enough to
+overcome Lance's never very large amount of bashfulness; and he had
+made reply that he went to the Grammar School, and was in the second
+form, that he liked singing in the choir better than&mdash;no, not than
+<i>anything</i>&mdash;anything except&mdash;except what? Oh a jolly good snow-balling,
+or a game at hockey. Did he like the school? Pretty well, on the whole;
+but he did not suppose he should stay there long, his brother at the
+Clergy Orphan said there was such a lot of cads, and that he was always
+grubbing his nose among them; but now, 'do you really think now that
+cads are always such bad fellows?'</p>
+
+<p>His Lordship was too much diverted to be easily able to speak, but he
+observed that it depended on what was meant by a cad.</p>
+
+<p>'That's just it!' exclaimed Lance. 'I'm sure some that he calls cads
+are as good fellows as any going.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what does your eldest brother say?'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix! Oh! he does not mind, as long as one does not get into a real
+scrape.'</p>
+
+<p>'And then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, then he minds so much that one can't do it, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, does he punish you?'</p>
+
+<p>'N&mdash;no&mdash;he never licks any of us now&mdash;but he is so horridly sorry&mdash;and
+it bothers him so,' said Lance. 'Here's old Froggatt's,' he concluded,
+stopping at the glass door. 'My eyes! what a sight of parsons!' (Lance
+had pretty well forgotten whom he was talking to.) 'There, that's
+Felix&mdash;no, no, not that one serving Mr. Burrowes, that's Redstone;
+Felix is out there, getting out the sermon paper for that fat one, and
+that's old Froggy himself, bowing away. Shall I go and call Felix? I
+suppose he will not mind this time.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you, I will go in myself. Good-bye, my little guide, and
+thank you.'</p>
+
+<p>And Lance, when his hand came out of the Bishop's, found something
+in it, which proved to be a tiny Prayer-book, and moreover a
+half-sovereign. He would have looked up and thanked, but the Bishop and
+that 'fat one' were absorbed in conversation on the step; and when he
+turned over the leaves of the little blue morocco book, with its inlaid
+red cross, he found full in his face, in the first page, the words,
+'Lancelot Underwood, March 15th, 1855,' and then followed an initial,
+and a name that utterly defeated Lance's powers, so that perceiving the
+shop to be far too densely full of parsons for him to have a chance
+there, he galloped off at full speed to Cherry, who happily could
+interpret the contracted Latin by the name of the See, and was not
+<i>quite</i> so much astonished as Lance, though even more gratified.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, the Bishop had made his way to the bowing Mr. Froggatt, and
+asked to speak with him in his private room, where he mentioned his
+kindness to young Underwood, and was answered by a gratified disclaimer
+of having done anything that was not of great advantage to himself.
+The good man seemed divided between desire to do justice to Felix and
+not to stand in his light, and alarm lest he should have to lose an
+assistant whom he had always known to be above his mark, and who was
+growing more valuable every month; and he was greatly relieved and
+delighted when the Bishop only rejoiced at his character of Felix, and
+complimented the Pursuivant by being glad that a paper of such good
+principles should be likely to have such a youth on its staff; it had
+been well for the lad to meet with so good a friend. Mr. Froggatt could
+not be denied an eulogium on the father, for whose sake he had first
+noticed the son; and when the Bishop had expressed his sorrow at never
+having known so bright a light as all described the late Curate to have
+been, he courteously regretted the interruption on a busy day, but he
+begged just to see the young man. He had little time himself, 'but if
+he could be spared to walk up to the station&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Froggatt bustled out with great alacrity, and taking the charge of
+the customer on himself, announced, for the benefit of all who might be
+within earshot: 'Mr. Underwood, his Lordship wishes to speak with you.
+He wishes you to walk up to the station with him. You had better go out
+by the private door.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was red up to the ears. His eight years' seniority to Lance were
+eight times eight more shyness and embarrassment, but he could only
+obey; and at his first greeting his hand was taken&mdash;'hoped to have seen
+you sooner,' the Bishop said; 'but you had always escaped me in the
+vestry.'</p>
+
+<p>'I had to go to help my sister, my Lord,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'And your friend,' said the Bishop. 'That is a good work that has been
+done in your house.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix coloured more, not knowing what to say.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish to see you,' continued the Bishop, 'partly to tell you how much
+I honour you for the step you have taken. I wish there were more who
+would understand the true uprightness and dutifulness of thinking no
+shame of any honest employment. I am afraid you do sometimes meet with
+what may be trying,' he added, no doubt remembering Lady Price's tone.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not care now, not much. I did at first,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'No one whose approval is worth having can consider yours really a loss
+of position. You are in a profession every one respects, and you seem
+to have great means of influence likely to be open to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'So my father said, when he consented,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall always regret having just missed knowing your father. Some
+passages in that book of his struck me greatly. But what I wished to
+say was to ask whether there is any way in which I can be useful to you
+in the education of any of the younger ones, or&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, my Lord,' said Felix. 'I think you kindly voted for my
+brothers last year for the Clergy Orphan school. Only one got in, and
+if you would vote again for little Lancelot&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'My droll little companion, who Mr. Audley tells me did so much for
+that poor young American.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed he did,' said Felix. 'I doubt if any of us would have got at
+him but for Lance, who did not mean anything but good-nature all the
+time.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is just the boy I want for our Cathedral school.' And then he
+went on to explain that a great reformation was going on. There was
+a foundation-school attached to the Cathedral, with exhibitions at
+the University, to which the Cathedral choristers had the first
+claim. There had been, of course, a period of decay, but an excellent
+Precentor had been just appointed, who would act as head master; and
+the singing-boys would be kept on free of expense after their voices
+became unavailable, provided that by such time they had passed a
+certain examination. Such a voice as Lance's was sure to recommend
+him; and besides, the Bishop said with a smile, he wanted to raise the
+character of the school, and he thought there was the stuff <i>here</i> that
+would do so.</p>
+
+<p>Felix could only be thankful and rejoiced; but it was a pang to think
+of Lance being as entirely separated from home as was Clement; with
+no regular holidays, and always most needed at his post at the great
+festivals. There was something in his tone that made the Bishop say,
+'You do not like to part with him?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, my Lord; but I am glad it should be so. My father was not happy
+about&mdash;things here, and charged me to get my brothers away when I
+could.'</p>
+
+<p>'And as to holidays, you are near at hand, and most of the choir are
+of our own town. I think he may generally be spared for a good term at
+each holiday time. The organist is very considerate in giving leave of
+absence, even if he should turn out to have a dangerously good voice
+for solos. I will let you know when to send him up for examination,
+which he will pass easily. Good-bye. You must write to me if there is
+anything for me to do for you. One month more, and your father would
+have been one of my clergy, remember.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix went back, flushed with gratification, and yet, to a certain
+degree, with confusion, and not exactly liking the prospect of being
+interrogated as to what the Bishop had said to him: indeed, he never
+told the whole of it to any one but Cherry. Somehow, though Wilmet was
+his counsellor and mainstay, Geraldine was the sharer of all those
+confidences that came spontaneously out of the full but reserved heart.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, Wilmet was at present in such a trance of enjoyment of her
+twin sister, that she seemed scarcely able to enter into anything else.
+She went through her duties as usual, but with an effort to shake off
+her absorption in the thought of having Alda at home; and every moment
+she was not in sight of her darling seemed a cruel diminution of her
+one poor fortnight. Indeed it was <i>tęte-ŕ-tętes</i> that her exclusive
+tenderness craved above all; and she was often disappointed that Alda
+should be willing to go and visit Fernan Travis when they might have
+had a quarter of an hour together alone. How much more selfish she must
+have grown than Alda in this last half year!</p>
+
+<p>Alda's talk was indeed full of interest, and gave a much better notion
+of her way of life than her letters did. She seemed to have been
+fully adopted as a daughter of the house, and to enjoy all the same
+privileges as Marilda; indeed, she had a good deal more credit with
+all varieties of teachers, since she learnt rapidly and eagerly; and
+Marilda, while encouraging her successes, without a shade of jealousy,
+made no attempt to conquer her own clumsiness and tardiness. Even 'Aunt
+Mary,' as Alda called Mrs. Thomas Underwood, often had recourse to Alda
+for sympathy in her endeavours to be tasteful, and continually held her
+up as an example to Marilda.</p>
+
+<p>'And poor dear good woman,' said Alda, 'she has such a respect for
+Underwood breeding and our education, that I believe I could persuade
+her into anything by telling her it was what she calls "<i>comifo</i>."
+Even when she was going to get the boudoir done with apple-green
+picked out with mauve, enough to set one's teeth on edge, and Marilda
+would do nothing but laugh, she let me persuade her into a lovely pale
+sea-green.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is not sea-green too delicate for her?' asked Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, it was very wicked of Edgar, to be sure, but he said that it
+was to suit the nymph reining in the porpoises. He made a sketch, and
+Marilda was delighted with it; she really is the most good-natured
+creature in the world.'</p>
+
+<p>'She must be!' ejaculated Wilmet; 'but surely she ought not to like
+laughing at her mother.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, everybody laughs at Aunt Mary, and she hardly ever finds it out,
+and when she does, she does not mind! Even old Mrs. Kedge, her mother,
+does nothing but laugh at her for trying to be fine. Old Granny is not
+a bit by way of being a lady, you know; she lives in a little house in
+the city with one maid, and I believe she rubs her own tables. I am
+sure she goes about in omnibuses, though she has lots of money; and
+Marilda is so fond of her, and so like her, only not so clever and
+shrewd.'</p>
+
+<p>'But why does she live in such a small way?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because she never was used to anything else, and does not like it. She
+hates grand servants, and never will come to Kensington Palace Gardens;
+but she really is good-natured. She told Clement to drop in on her
+whenever he likes, and bring any of his friends; and she always gives
+them a superb piece of plum-cake, and once she took them to the Tower,
+and once to the Zoological Gardens, for she thinks that she cannot do
+enough to make up to them for being bred up to be little monks, with
+cords and sandals, and everything popish.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't let her think so?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, really when she has got a thing into her head nothing will
+uproot it; and, after all, they do carry things very far there, and
+Clement goes on so that I don't wonder.'</p>
+
+<p>'Goes on how?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, just fancy, the other day when Uncle Thomas fetched him in his
+brougham because I was coming home, there he sat at luncheon and would
+not eat a scrap of meat.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! it was a Wednesday in Lent,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Only a Wednesday, you know; and <i>there</i>, with four or five strange
+people, too. One of them asked if he was a Catholic, and of course
+Clement looked very wise, and greatly pleased, and said, "Yes, he
+was;" and that brought down Aunt Mary with her heavy artillery. "Bless
+me, Clement, you don't say so. Is Mr. Fulmort really gone over?"
+"Yes," said Clem. (I know he did it on purpose.) "He is gone over to
+preach at St. Peter's." And then one of the gentlemen asked if Clem
+meant Mr. Fulmort of St. Matthew's, Whittingtonia, and when he said
+"Yes, he lived in the clergy house," he began regularly to play him
+off, asking the most absurd questions about fasts and feasts and
+vigils and decorations, and Clem answered them all in his prim little
+self-sufficient way, just as if he thought he was on the high-road to
+be St. Clement the Martyr, till I was ready to run away.'</p>
+
+<p>'Couldn't you have given him a hint?' asked Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, have you lived twelve years with Clem without knowing that
+hints are lost on him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Clem, he is a very good steady-hearted little fellow,' said
+Cherry. 'It was very nice of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I only hope he'll never come to luncheon again in Lent. There
+are times and seasons for everything, and certainly not for display!
+And to make it worse, Marilda is the most literal-minded girl. Fasting
+was quite a new mind to her, for she never realises what she does
+not see; and she got Clem into a corner, where I heard him going on,
+nothing loth, about days of abstinence, out of Mr. Fulmort's last
+catechizing, I should think; and ended by asking what Cousin Edward
+did, so that I fully expected that I should find her eating nothing,
+and that I should be called to account.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what did you tell her then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you know I could say quite truly that he did not.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think that was quite fair,' said Wilmet gravely. 'You know it
+was only because he really could not.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't know how glad I was to have an answer that would hinder the
+horrid commotion we should have had if Marilda had taken to fasting.
+And, after all, you <i>know</i>, Papa would have said minding her mother was
+her first duty.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why did not you tell her that?'</p>
+
+<p>'I have, dozens of times; but you know there are mothers and mothers,
+and nobody can always mind Aunt Mary, good soul! Marilda has just made
+herself, with her own good rough plain sense. I wish she was a man,
+she would be a capital merchant like her father; but it is hard to be
+a great heiress, with nothing she really likes to do. She is always
+longing to come down to Centry, and tramp about the lanes among the
+cottages.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I wish they would!'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think Aunt Mary will ever let them, she hates the country; and
+though she likes to have a place for the name of the thing, she does
+not want to live there, especially where there are so many of us; and
+then, Felix's situation!'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame, Alda!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I did not say anything myself. It is only Aunt Mary&mdash;it is very
+foolish of people, but, you see, they <i>will</i>. As to Marilda, I believe
+she would like to stand behind the counter with him this minute.'</p>
+
+<p>'Marilda is the oddest and best girl I ever heard of!'</p>
+
+<p>'You may say that. And so ignorant she was! She had a great
+velvet-and-gold Church Service, and hardly guessed there was any Bible
+or Prayer-Book besides. I am sure Felix cannot have had more work to
+teach that youth than I have had with Marilda. Such a jumble as she had
+picked up! She really had only little baby prayers to say, till she saw
+my book.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a blessing you must be to her!' said Wilmet, fondly looking at
+her sister.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I do hope so. You must know she was regularly struck with dear
+Papa. I am sure he is the first saint in her calendar, and everything
+is&mdash;"What did Cousin Edward say?" And when once she has made up her
+mind that a thing is right, she will blunder on through fire and water,
+but she will do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said Cherry, 'she ought to try and learn, and not to be awkward
+because of obedience.'</p>
+
+<p>Alda burst out laughing. 'People can only do what they can. Marilda
+trying to be graceful would be worse than Marilda floundering her own
+way. But she really is the best and kindest girl living, and she gets
+on much better for having me to keep her out of scrapes.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet went to bed that night thankful to have Alda's head on the
+pillow beside her, and most thankful for the tokens that she watched
+among her brothers and sisters, which showed how much her father's
+influence was extending beyond his short life.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE THIRTEEN.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 40%;">
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'They closed around the fire,</span><br />
+And all in turn essayed to paint<br />
+The rival merits of their saint;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A theme that ne'er can tire</span><br />
+A holy maid, for be it known<br />
+That their saint's honour is their own.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 40%;"><i>Scott.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>The thirteen Underwoods did not meet again in the same house for many
+a long day, and when they did, it was on a grey misty morning in the
+Christmas week of the year following; and the blinds were down, and
+the notes of the knell clashing out overhead, as the door was opened
+to Edgar, Alda, and Clement, as they arrived together, having been
+summoned late on the previous night by a telegram with tidings that
+their mother had been struck by a paralysis. They knew what to expect
+when Felix, with one of the little ones on his arm, came quietly down
+the stairs and admitted them. All they had to ask, was 'when,' and
+'how;' and to hear, that the long living death had ended in peaceful
+insensibility at last. Then they followed him upstairs to the room
+where the others sat, hushed, over their pen or their books, where
+Wilmet, her eyes gushing with quiet tears, held Alda in her embrace,
+and Geraldine, after her first eager kiss, gazed wistfully at Edgar as
+though there must be comfort in the very sight of him, if she could
+only feel it; while the very little ones opened their puzzled eyes on
+the new-comers as strangers.</p>
+
+<p>And so they were: Clement had indeed been at home in September, but
+Alda not for a year and three-quarters, nor Edgar since he first left
+it three years before. The absence of the two latter was not by their
+own choice; a doctor who had ordered Mrs. Thomas Underwood to spend
+the summer months, year after year, at Spa was partly the cause; and
+moreover, during the autumn and winter of 1856 Bexley had been a
+perfect field of epidemics. Measles and whooping-cough had run riot in
+the schools, and lingered in the streets and alleys of the potteries,
+fastening on many who thought themselves secured by former attacks;
+and there had been a good many deaths, in especial Clement's chief
+friend, Harry Lamb. Nobody, excepting the invalid mother, throughout
+the Underwood household, had escaped one or other disorder; and both
+fell to the lot of the four little ones, and likewise of Mr. Audley,
+who was infinitely disgusted at himself, and at the guarded childhood
+for which he thus paid the penalty pretty severely. When matters
+were at the worst, and Felix was laid up, and Wilmet found herself
+succumbing, she had written in desperation to Sister Constance, whose
+presence in the house had made the next three weeks a time of very
+pleasant recollections. Finally she had carried off Geraldine, Angela,
+and Bernard, to the convalescent rooms at St. Faith's, where their
+happiness had been such that the favourite sport of the little ones
+had ever since been the acting of Sisters of Mercy nursing sick dolls.
+The quarantine had been indefinitely prolonged for the protégés of
+Kensington Palace Gardens; for the three at school, though kept away
+till all infection was thought to be over, had perversely caught the
+maladies as soon as they came home for the summer holidays; and indeed
+the whole town and neighbouring villages were so full of contagion,
+that Mrs. Thomas Underwood had not far to seek for a plea for avoiding
+Centry.</p>
+
+<p>All this time, from day to day, the poor mother had been growing more
+feeble, and it had been fully purposed that on Edgar's return at
+Christmas, on the completion of his studies at Louvaine, he and Alda
+should make some stay at home; but the brother and sister were both
+so useful and ornamental that their adopted home could not spare them
+until after a series of Christmas entertainments; and Clement had been
+in like manner detained until the festival services at St. Matthew's no
+longer required him. Indeed, when he had been at home in the autumn, he
+had been scarcely recognized.</p>
+
+<p>For the last week, however, Mrs. Underwood had been much clearer in
+mind, had enjoyed the presence of her holiday children, and had for a
+short time even given hopes that her constitution might yet rally, and
+her dormant faculties revive. She had even talked to Mr. Audley and
+Geraldine at different times as though she had some such presentiment
+herself, and had made some exertions which proved much increased
+activity of brain. Alas! though their coming had thus been rendered
+very happy, the brightening had been but the symptom and precursor of
+a sudden attack of paralysis, whence there was no symptom of recovery,
+and which in a few hours ended in death.</p>
+
+<p>For the present, the hopes that had been entertained gave poignancy
+to the sudden disappointment and grief, and the home children could
+not acquiesce in the dispensation with the same quiet reasonableness
+as those who had been so long separated from them as not to miss
+the gentle countenance, or the 'sweet toils, sweet cares, for ever
+gone.' Indeed Wilmet was physically much exhausted by her long hours
+of anxiety, and went about pale-cheeked and tear-stained, quietly
+attending to all that was needful, but with the tears continually
+dropping; while Geraldine was fit for nothing but to lie still, unable
+to think, but feeling soothed as long as she could lay her hand upon
+Edgar and feel that he was near.</p>
+
+<p>So the whole thirteen were together again; and in the hush of the
+orphaned house there was a certain wonder and curiosity in their mutual
+examination and comparison with one another and with the beings with
+whom they had parted three years ago, at the period of their first
+separation. All were at a time of life when such an interval could
+not fail to make a vast alteration in externals. Even Geraldine had
+gained in strength, and though still white, and with features too
+large for her face, startlingly searching grey eyes, and brows that
+looked strangely thick, dark, and straight, in contrast with the
+pencilled arches belonging to all the rest, she was less weird and
+elfin-like than when she had been three inches shorter, and dressed
+more childishly. As Edgar said, she was less Riquet with a tuft than
+the good fairy godmother, and her twin sisters might have been her
+princess-wards, so far did they tower above her&mdash;straight as fir-trees,
+oval faced, regular featured, fair skinned, blue eyed, and bright
+haired. During those long dreary hours, Edgar often beguiled the
+time with sketches of them, and the outlines&mdash;whether of chiselled
+profiles, shapely heads, or Cupid's-bow lips&mdash;were still almost exactly
+similar; yet it had become impossible to mistake one twin for the
+other, even when Alda had dressed the tresses on Wilmet's passive head
+in perfect conformity with her own. Looking at their figures, Alda's
+air of fashion made her appear the eldest, and Wilmet might have been
+a girl in the school-room; but comparing their faces, Wilmet's placid
+recollected countenance, and the soberness that sat so well on her
+white smooth forehead and steady blue eyes, might have befitted many
+more years than eighteen. There were not nearly so many lights and
+shades in her looks as in those of Alda and Geraldine. The one had both
+more smiles and more frowns, the other more gleams of joy and of pain;
+each was more animated and sensitive, but neither gave the same sense
+of confidence and repose.</p>
+
+<p>As usually happens when the parents are of the same family, the
+inventory of the features of one of the progeny served for almost all
+the rest. The differences were only in degree, and the prime specimens
+were without doubt the two elder twins and Edgar, with like promise of
+little Bernard and Stella.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar had grown very tall, and had inherited his father's advantages
+of grace and elegance of figure, to which was added a certain
+distinguished ease of carriage, and ready graciousness, too simple
+to be called either conceit or presumption, but which looked as if
+he were used to be admired and to confer favours. Athletics had been
+the fashion with him and his English companions, and his complexion
+was embrowned by sun and wind, his form upright and vigorous; and
+by force of contrast it was now perceived that Felix seemed to have
+almost ceased growing for the last three years, and that his in-door
+occupations had given his broad square shoulders a kind of slouch,
+and kept his colouring as pink and white as that of his sisters. Like
+Wilmet, he had something staid and responsible about him, that, even
+more than his fringe of light brown whiskers, gave the appearance of
+full-grown manhood; so that the first impression of all the new-comers
+was how completely he had left the boy behind him, making it an effort
+of memory to believe him only nineteen and a half. But they all knew
+him for their head, and leant themselves against him. And in the
+meantime, Edgar's appearance was a perfect feast of enjoyment, not
+only to little loving Geraldine, but to sage Felix. They recreated
+themselves with gazing at him, and when left alone together would
+discuss his charms in low confidential murmurs, quite aware that Wilmet
+would think them very silly; but Edgar was the great romance of both.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar observed that Clement had done all the growth for both himself
+and Felix, and was doing his best to be a light of the Church by
+resembling nothing but an altar-taper. When they all repaired to the
+back of the cupboard door in Mr. Audley's room to be measured, his head
+was found far above Edgar's mark at fourteen, and therewith he was lank
+and thin, not yet accustomed to the length of his own legs and arms,
+and seeming as if he was not meant to be seen undraped by his surplice.
+His features and face were of the family type, but a little smaller,
+and with much less of the bright rosy tinting; indeed, when not excited
+he was decidedly pale, and his eyes and hair were a little lighter than
+those of the rest. It was a refined, delicate, thoughtful face, pretty
+rather than handsome, and its only fault was a certain melancholy
+superciliousness or benignant pity for every one who did not belong to
+the flock of St. Matthew's.</p>
+
+<p>Regular features are always what most easily lose individuality, and
+become those of the owner's class; and if Clement was all chorister,
+Fulbert and Lancelot were all school-boy. The two little fellows were
+a long way apart in height, though there were only two years between
+them; for Lance was on a much smaller scale, but equally full of ruddy
+health and superabundant vigour; and while Fulbert was the more rough
+and independent, his countenance had not the fun and sweetness that
+rendered Lance's so winning. Their looks were repeated in Robina, who
+was much too square and sturdy for any attempt at beauty, and was
+comically like a boy and like her brothers, but with much frank honesty
+and determination in her big grey darkly-lashed eyes. Angela was one of
+the most altered of all; for her plump cherub cheeks had melted away
+under the glow of measles, and the whooping process had lengthened
+and narrowed her small person into a demure little thread-paper of
+six years old, omnivorous of books, a pet and pickle at school, and
+a romp at home&mdash;the sworn ally, offensive and defensive, of stout,
+rough-pated, unruly Bernard. Stella was the loveliest little bit of
+painted porcelain imaginable, quite capable of being his companion, and
+a perfect little fairy, for beauty, gracefulness, and quickness of all
+kinds. Alda was delighted with her pretty caressing ways and admiration
+of the wonderful new sister. She was of quieter, more docile mood than
+these two, though aspiring to their companionship; for it was startling
+to see how far she had left Theodore behind. He was still in arms,
+and speechless, a little pale inanimate creature, taking very little
+notice, and making no sound except a sort of low musical cooing of
+pleasure, and a sad whining moan of unhappiness, which always recurred
+when he was not in the arms of Sibby, Wilmet, or Felix. It was only
+when Felix held out his arms to take him that the sound of pleasure was
+heard; and once on that firm knee, with his shining head against that
+kind heart, he was satisfied, and Felix had accustomed himself to all
+sorts of occupations with his little brother in his left arm. Even at
+night, there was no rest for Theodore, unless Felix took him into his
+room. So often did the little fretting moan summon him, that soon the
+crib took up his regular abode beside his bed.</p>
+
+<p>But Felix, though of course spared from the shop, could not be
+dispensed with from the printing-house, where he was sub-editor; and in
+his absence Theodore was always less contented; and his tearless moan
+went to his sister's heart, for the poor little fellow had been wont
+to lie day and night in his mother's bosom, and she had been as uneasy
+without him as he now was without her. All her other babes had grown
+past her helpless instinctive tenderness, and Theodore's continued
+passiveness had been hitherto an advantage, which had always been
+called his 'goodness and affection.'</p>
+
+<p>Alda was the first to comment on the wonderful interval between the
+twins, when Wilmet accounted for it by Theodore's having been quite
+kept back for his mother's sake, and likewise by his having been more
+reduced by measles and whooping-cough than Stella had been; but to
+fresh observers it was impossible to think that all was thus explained,
+and Edgar and Alda discussed it in a low voice when they found
+themselves alone.</p>
+
+<p>'The fact is plain,' said Edgar; 'but I suppose nothing can be done,
+and I see no use in forcing it on poor Wilmet.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't understand such blindness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not real blindness&mdash;certainly not on Felix's part. He knows that
+load is on his back for life. Heigh-ho! a stout old Atlas we have
+in Blunderbore; I wonder how long I shall be in plucking the golden
+apples, and taking a share.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought it was Atlas that gathered the apples.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't spoil a good simile with superfluous exactness, Alda! It is base
+enough to compare the gardens of the Hesperides to a merchant's office!
+I wonder how many years it will take to get out of the drudgery, and
+have some power of enjoying life and relieving Felix. One could tear
+one's hair to see him tied down by this large family till all his best
+days are gone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Some of the others may get off his hands, and help.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not they! Clem is too highly spiritualized to care for anything so
+material as his own flesh and blood; and it is not their fault if
+little Lance does not follow in his wake. Then if Ful has any brains,
+he is not come to the use of them; he is only less obnoxious than Tina
+in that he <i>is</i> a boy and not a church candle, but boys are certainly a
+mistake.'</p>
+
+<p>If ever the mature age of seventeen could be excused for so regarding
+boyhood, it was under such circumstances. All were too old for any
+outbreaks, such as brought Angela and Bernard to disgrace, and
+disturbed the hush of those four sad days; but the actual loss had
+been so long previous, that the pressure of present grief was not so
+crushing as to prevent want of employment and confinement in that small
+silent house from being other than most irksome and tedious.</p>
+
+<p>Clement would have done very well alone; he went to church, read, told
+Angela stories, and discoursed to Cherry on the ways of St. Matthew's;
+but, unfortunately, there was something about him that always incited
+the other boys to sparring, nor was he always guiltless of being the
+aggressor, for there was no keeping him in mind that comparisons are
+odious.</p>
+
+<p>Church music might seem a suitable subject, but the London chorister
+could not abstain from criticising St. Oswald's and contemning the
+old-fashioned practices of the Cathedral, which of course Lance
+considered himself bound to defend, till the very names of Gregorians
+and Anglicans became terrible to Cherry as the watchwords of a
+wrangling match. Fulbert, meantime, made no secret of his contempt for
+both brothers as mere choristers instead of school-boys, and exalted
+himself whenever he detected their ignorance of any choice <i>morceau</i> of
+slang; while their superior knowledge on any other point was viewed as
+showing the new-fangled girlish nonsense of their education.</p>
+
+<p>This Lance did not mind; but he was very sensitive as to the dignity
+of his Cathedral, and the perfections of his chosen friend, one Bill
+Harewood; and Fulbert was not slow to use the latter engine for
+'getting a rise' out of him, while Clement as often, though with less
+design, offended by disparagement of his choir; nor could Edgar refuse
+himself the diversion of tormenting Clement by ironical questions and
+remarks on his standard of perfection, which mode of torture enchanted
+Fulbert, whenever he understood it. Thus these four brothers contrived
+to inflict a good amount of teasing on one another, all the more
+wearing and worrying because deprived of its only tolerable seasoning,
+mirth.</p>
+
+<p>Clement had indeed a refuge in Mr. Audley's room, where he could find
+books, and willing ears for Mr. Fulmort's doings; but he availed
+himself of it less than might have been expected. Whether from
+inclination to his brothers' society, desire to do them good, or innate
+pugnacity, he was generally in the thick of the conflict; and before
+long he confided to Felix that he was seriously uneasy about Edgar's
+opinions.</p>
+
+<p>'He is only chaffing you,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Chaff, <i>now!</i>' said Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Clem, you know you are enough to provoke a saint, you bore so
+intolerably about St. Matthew's.'</p>
+
+<p>The much disgusted Clement retired into himself, but Felix was not
+satisfied at heart.</p>
+
+<p><i>One</i> was lacking on the cold misty New Year's morning, when even
+Geraldine could not be withheld from the Communion Feast of the living
+and departed. Each felt the disappointment when they found themselves
+only six instead of seven; but it was Clement who, as the boys were
+waiting for breakfast afterwards, began&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Have not you been confirmed, Edgar?'</p>
+
+<p>'How should I?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure there are plenty of foreign Confirmations. I see them in the
+"British Catholic."'</p>
+
+<p>'Foreign parts isn't all one,' said Edgar; and the younger boys
+sniggled.</p>
+
+<p>'If one took any trouble,' persisted Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but <i>one</i>,' dwelling with emphasis on the awkward impersonal,
+'<i>one</i> may have scruples about committing an act of schism by
+encouraging an intruding bishop performing episcopal functions in
+another man's diocese. Has not your spiritual father taught you that
+much, Tina?'</p>
+
+<p>'I&mdash;I must find out about that,' said Clement thoughtfully; 'but, at
+any rate, the Lent Confirmations are coming on in London, and if I were
+to speak to the Vicar, I have no doubt he would gladly prepare you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor I,' answered Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'Then shall I?' eagerly asked Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'Not at present, thank you.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement stood blank and open mouthed, and Fulbert laughed, secure that
+the joke, whatever it might be, was against him.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course,' burst out Lance, 'Edgar does not want you to speak for
+him, Clem; he has got a tongue of his own, and a clergyman too, I
+suppose.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement proceeded to a disquisition, topographical and censorial, upon
+the parish and district to which Edgar might be relegated, and finally
+exclaimed, 'Yes, he is not much amiss. He has some notions. He dines
+with us sometimes. You can go to him, Edgar, and I'll get the Vicar to
+speak to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, I had rather be excused.'</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot miss another Confirmation.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't say I am fond of pledges, especially when no one can tell how
+much or how little they mean.'</p>
+
+<p>Whether this were in earnest, or a mere thrust in return for Clement's
+pertinacity, was undecided, for Wilmet came in, looking so sad and
+depressed that the brothers felt rebuked for the tone in which they had
+been speaking.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Thomas Underwood soon arrived, having come to Centry the night
+before; and after a few words had passed between him and Edgar, the
+latter announced his intention of returning with him to London that
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' said Felix, much disappointed at this repetition of
+Edgar's willingness to hurry from the house of mourning, 'but we have
+had very little of you; Clement must go on the day after Twelfth Day,
+and we shall have more room. It will be a great blow to Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor little Cherry! I'll come when I can see her in greater peace, but
+I must buckle to with the beginning of the year, Fee.'</p>
+
+<p>There was no further disputing the point, but Edgar was always a great
+loss. To every one except Clement he was so gentle and considerate that
+it was impossible not to think that the strange things reported of him
+were not first evoked and then exaggerated by the zeal of the model
+chorister: and indeed he led Geraldine to that inference when he went
+to her in the sitting-room, where, as before, she had to remain at home.</p>
+
+<p>'My Cherry, I find I must go back with old Tom. Don't be vexed, my
+White-heart, I am not going back to Belgium, you know: I can often run
+down, but my work ought to begin with the year.'</p>
+
+<p>'You cannot even stay over the Epiphany!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I would have made an effort, but I am really wanted; and then
+if I am long with that light of the church, Tina, he will get me into
+everybody's black books. Never mind, old girl. I'll be for ever running
+down. Is any one going to stay with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Bernard is coming presently; I must try to make him recollect
+something about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean that child Angel is going.'</p>
+
+<p>'She wishes it, and it seems right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Right to leave a black spot in her memory! If children could but
+believe people were sublimated away!'</p>
+
+<p>'Children can believe in the Resurrection of the body as well as we,'
+said Cherry reverently.</p>
+
+<p>'Better, too, by a long chalk,' he muttered; then perceiving her
+dismayed expression, he added, 'No, no&mdash;I'm not talking to Tina, only
+he has put me in the humour in which there is nothing he could not make
+me dispute&mdash;even my Cherry being the sweetest morsel in the world.
+There, good-bye for the present, only don't afflict that poor little
+Bernard and yourself into <i>too</i> great wretchedness, out of a sense of
+duty.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I do not really grieve,' said Cherry. 'Tears come for
+thankfulness. The real sorrow came long ago; we grew up in it, and it
+is over now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Right, little one. The mortal coil was very heavy and painful these
+last years, and no one can help being relieved that the end has come.
+It is the conventionalities that are needlessly distressing. What
+earthly purpose can it serve, save the amusement of the maids and
+children of Bexley, that nine of us should present ourselves a pitiful
+spectacle all the way up to the cemetery in veils and hat-bands?'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't talk so, Edgar; you do not know how it jars, though I know you
+mean no disrespect.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it must be a blessed thing to end by drowning or blowing up, to
+save one's friends trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>'Edgar, indeed I cannot bear this! Recollect what a treasure that dear
+shattered earthen vessel has held. What a wonderful life of patient
+silent resignation it was!'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed it was,' said Edgar, suddenly softened. 'No lips could tell
+what the resolution must have been that carried her through those
+years, never murmuring. What must she not have spared my father! Such
+devotion is the true woman's heritage.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry was soothed as she saw the dew on his eye-lashes, but just then
+Felix came in to fetch him, and, stooping down, kissed her, and said
+in his low and tender but strong voice, 'We leave her with <i>him</i>, dear
+child. Recollect&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'"The heart may ache, but may not burst;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Heaven will not leave thee, nor forsake."'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Much as Geraldine had longed for Edgar, his words brought vague
+yearning and distress, while Felix's very tone gave support. How could
+Edgar say patient silent self-devotion was not to be found except in
+woman?</p>
+
+<p>So the worn-out body that once had been bright smiling Mary Underwood
+was borne to the church she had not entered since she had knelt there
+with her husband; and then she was laid beside him in the hill-side
+cemetery, the graves marked by the simple cross, for which there had
+been long anxious saving, the last contribution having been a quarter
+of the Bishop's gift to Lancelot. The inscription was on the edges of
+the steps, from which the cross rose&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>UNDER WODE, UNDER RODE.</i><br />
+<br />
+EDWARD FULBERT UNDERWOOD,<br />
+<br />
+Nine Years Curate of this Parish,<br />
+<br />
+Epiphany, 1855,<br />
+<br />
+AGED 40.<br />
+<br />
+'Thy Rod and Thy Staff comfort me.'<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>There was room enough for the name of Mary Wilmet, his wife, to be
+added at the base of the Rood, that Cross which they had borne, the one
+so valiantly, the other so meekly, during their 'forty years in the
+wilderness.'</p>
+
+<p>Many persons were present out of respect not only to the former Curate,
+but to his hard-working son and daughter, and not only the daughter's
+holly-wreath, but one of camellias sent by Sister Constance, lay upon
+the pall. When the mourners had turned away, Mr. Audley saw a slender
+lad standing by, waiting till the grave was smoothed to lay on it
+a wreath of delicate white roses and ferns. There was no mistaking
+the clear olive face; and indeed Mr. Audley had kept up a regular
+correspondence with Ferdinand Travis, and knew that the vows made two
+years ago had been so far persevered in, and without molestation from
+father or uncle. He had written an account of Mrs. Underwood's death,
+but had received no answer.</p>
+
+<p>'This is kind, Ferdinand,' he said; 'it will gratify them.'</p>
+
+<p>'May I see any of them?' the youth asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix and Lance will be most glad.'</p>
+
+<p>'I only received your letter yesterday evening. Dr. White forwarded it
+to me in London, and I persuaded my father to let me come down.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are with your father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he came home about a fortnight ago. I was going to write to you.
+O Mr. Audley, if you are not in haste, can you tell me whether I can
+see my dear Diego's grave?'</p>
+
+<p>'The Roman Catholic burial-ground is on the other side of the town. I
+think you will have to go to Mr. Macnamara for admittance. Come home
+with me first, Fernan.'</p>
+
+<p>'Home!' he said warmly. 'Yes, it has always seemed so to me! I have
+dreamt so often of her gentle loving face and tender weak voice. She
+was very kind to me;' and he raised his hat reverently, as he placed
+the flowers upon the now completed grave. 'I saw that all were here
+except the little ones and Geraldine,' he added. 'How is she?'</p>
+
+<p>'As well as usual. Wilmet is a good deal worn and downcast, but all are
+calm and cheerful. The loss cannot be like what that of their father
+was.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will they go on as they are doing now?'</p>
+
+<p>'I trust so. I am going down to the family consultation. The London
+cousin is there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then perhaps I had better not come in,' said Ferdinand, looking rather
+blank. 'Shall I go down to Mr. Macnamara first?'</p>
+
+<p>'Had you rather go alone, or shall I send Lance to show you the way?'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear little Lance, pray let me have him!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is a longish walk. Is your lameness quite gone?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, I can walk a couple of miles very well, and when I give out it
+is not my leg, but my back. They say it is the old jar to the spine,
+and that it will wear off when I have done growing, if I get plenty of
+air and riding. This will not be too much for me, but I must be in time
+for the 3.30 train, I promised my father.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he here alone?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my uncle is in Brazil. My father is here for a month, and is very
+kind; he seems very fairly satisfied with me; and he wants me to get
+prepared for the commission in the Life Guards.'</p>
+
+<p>'The Life Guards!'</p>
+
+<p>'You see he is bent on my being an English gentleman, but he has some
+dislike to the University, fancies it too old-world or something; and,
+honestly, I cannot wish it myself. I can't take much to books, and Dr.
+White says I have begun too late, and shall never make much of them.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you went into the Guards, my brother might be a friend to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'My back is not fit for the infantry,' said Ferdinand, 'but I can ride
+anything; I always could. I care for nothing so much as horses.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then why not some other cavalry regiment?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, my father knows a man with a son in the Life Guards, who has
+persuaded him that it is the thing, and I don't greatly care.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he prepared for the expensiveness?'</p>
+
+<p>'I fancy it is the recommendation,' said Ferdinand, smiling with a
+little shame; 'but if you really see reason for some other choice
+perhaps you would represent it to him. I think he would attend to you
+in person.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you positively no choice, Fernan?'</p>
+
+<p>'I never like the bother of consideration,' said Ferdinand; 'and
+in London I might have more chance of seeing you and other friends
+sometimes. I do know that it is not all my father supposes, but
+he thinks it is all my ignorance, and I have not much right to be
+particular.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only take care that horses do not become your temptation,' said Mr.
+Audley.</p>
+
+<p>'I know,' gravely replied Ferdinand. 'The fact is,' he added, as they
+turned down the street, 'that I do not want to go counter to my father
+if I can help it. I have not been able to avoid vexing him, and this is
+of no great consequence. I can exchange, if it should not suit me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe you are right,' said the Curate; 'but I will inquire and
+write to you before the application is made. Wait, and I will send out
+Lance. But ought you not to call at the Rectory?'</p>
+
+<p>'I will do so as I return,' said Ferdinand; and as Mr. Audley entered
+the house, he thought that the making the Cacique into an English
+gentleman seemed to have been attained as far as accent, mind, and
+manner went, and the air and gesture had always been natural in him.
+His tone rather than his words were conclusive to the Curate that his
+heart had never swerved from the purpose with which he had stood at the
+Font; but the languor and indolence of the voice indicated that the
+tropical indifference was far from conquered, and it was an anxious
+question whether the life destined for him might not be exceptionally
+perilous to his peculiar temperament of nonchalance and excitability.</p>
+
+<p>Consideration was not possible just then, for when Mr. Audley opened
+the door, he found that he had been impatiently waited for, and barely
+time was allowed to him to send Lance to Ferdinand Travis, before he
+was summoned to immediate conference with Thomas Underwood, who, on
+coming in, had assumed the management of affairs, and on calling for
+the will, was rather displeased with Felix's protest against doing
+anything without Mr. Audley, whom he knew to have been named guardian
+by his father. The cousin seemed unable to credit the statement; and
+Wilmet had just found the long envelope with the black seal, exactly
+as it had lain in the desk, which had never been disturbed since the
+business on their father's death had been finished.</p>
+
+<p>There was the old will made long before, leaving whatever there was
+to leave unconditionally to the wife, with the sole guardianship of
+the children; and there was the codicil dated the 16th of October,
+1854, appointing Charles Somerville Audley, clerk, to the guardianship
+in case of the death of the mother, while they should all, or any of
+them, be under twenty-one, and directing that in that contingency the
+property should be placed in his hands as trustee, the interest to be
+employed for their maintenance, and the capital to be divided equally
+among them, each receiving his or her share on coming of age. All
+this was in Edward Underwood's own handwriting, and his signature was
+attested by the Rector and the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Underwood was more 'put out,' than the management of such an
+insignificant sum seemed to warrant. He was no doubt disappointed of
+his cousin's confidence, as well as of some liberal (if domineering)
+intentions; and he was only half appeased when Edgar pointed to
+the date, and showed that the arrangement had been made before the
+renewal of intercourse. 'It was hardly fair to thrust a charge upon a
+stranger when there was a relation to act. Poor Edward, he ought to
+have trusted,' he said. There was genuine kindness of heart in the
+desire to confer benefits, though perhaps in rather an overbearing
+spirit, as well as disappointment and hurt feeling that his cousin had
+acquiesced in his neglect without an appeal. However, after asking
+whether Mr. Audley meant to act, and hearing of his decided intention
+of doing so, he proceeded to state his own plans for them. The present
+state of things could not continue, and he proposed that Wilmet and
+Geraldine should go as half boarders to some school, to be prepared for
+governesses. Felix&mdash;could he write short-hand? 'Oh yes; but&mdash;' Then
+he knew of a capital opening for him; a few years, and he would be on
+the way to prosperity: the little ones might be boarded with their old
+nurse till fit for some clergy orphan schools; if the means would not
+provide for all, there need be no difficulty made on that score.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley saw Felix's start of dismay and glance at him, but knowing
+as he did that the lad was always more himself when not interfered
+with, and allowed to act for himself, he only said, 'It is very kind in
+you, sir, but I think Felix should be consulted.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is impossible!' began Felix hastily.</p>
+
+<p>'Impossible! It is quite impossible, I would have you to understand,
+that a lot of children like you should keep house together, and on such
+an income as that. Quite preposterous.'</p>
+
+<p>'As for that,' said Felix, still unsubmissively, 'it is only what we
+have been doing, except for the name of the thing, for the last three
+years on the same means.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean to tell me that you have kept things going on such
+means without a debt?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course we have! We never let a bill run,' said Felix, slightly
+indignant.</p>
+
+<p>'Now mind, I'm not insulting you, Felix, but I know what the women are
+and what they tell us. Are you sure of that? No debts&mdash;honour bright?'</p>
+
+<p>'None at all!' said Felix, with an endeavour at calmness, but glowing
+hotly. 'I help my sister make up her books every Saturday night. We
+always pay ready money.'</p>
+
+<p>'Humph,' said Mr. Underwood, still only half convinced. 'Living must be
+cheap at Bexley.'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better explain a little, Felix,' said Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>Felix did bring himself to say, 'I am sub-editor now, and get Ł100 a
+year, besides being paid for any article I write. Wilmet has Ł25 a year
+and her dinner, and Angela's at school, so there are only five of us
+constantly dining at home, and with Mr. Audley's two guineas a week we
+can do very well.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, you lodge here?'</p>
+
+<p>'Did not you know that?' said Felix, surprised.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood gave a whistle, and the Curate felt his cheeks growing
+redder and redder, as he perceived that seven-and-twenty was not
+considered as so <i>very</i> much older than eighteen. Edgar understood and
+smiled, but Felix only thought he was suspected of making a good thing
+of his lodger, and was beginning something awkward about, 'It is all
+kindness,' when Mr. Audley broke in&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Of course nothing is settled yet, but&mdash;but I believe I shall change
+my quarters. A smaller house would be better for them; but I think the
+children should keep together. Indeed, my dear friend said he chiefly
+appointed me that Felix might be kept at their head.'</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon Mr. Underwood began to expostulate against the sacrifice of
+position and talent that Felix was making for the sake of bearing the
+burthen of a family that would have pressed heavily on a man double his
+age. It was what Felix already knew, much better than when at sixteen
+he had made his first venture. He had experienced the effects of change
+of station, as well as of exertion, drudgery, and of the home hardship
+that no one except Mr. Audley had tried to sweeten. He saw how Edgar
+had acquired the nameless air and style that he was losing, how even
+Clement viewed him as left behind; and, on the other hand, he knew
+that with his own trained and tested ability and application, and his
+kinsman's patronage, there was every reasonable chance of his regaining
+a gentleman's position, away from that half-jealous, half-conceited
+foreman, who made every day a trial to him, and looked at him with an
+evil eye as a supplanter in the post of confidence. But therewith he
+thought of his father's words, that to him he left this heavy burthen;
+and he thought what it would be to have no central home, no place of
+holiday-meeting, no rallying-point for the boys and girls, and to cast
+off the little ones to hired service. This alternative never seriously
+occurred to him, for were they not all bound to him by the cords of
+love, and most closely the weakest and most helpless? Yet his first
+reply did not convey the weight of his determination. It was only
+'Geraldine is too delicate.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well, good advice and treatment might make a change. Or, if she
+be fit for nothing else, would not that Sisterhood at Dearport take her
+on reasonable terms? Not that I can away with such nonsense, but your
+father had his fancies.'</p>
+
+<p>'My father wished us not to break up the home.'</p>
+
+<p>'That was all very well when your poor mother was alive. You have been
+a good son to her, but it is impossible that you and your sister, mere
+children as you are, should set up housekeeping by yourselves. Mr.
+Audley must see it cannot be suffered; it is the bounden duty of your
+friends to interfere.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley did not speak. He knew that Felix could reckon on his
+support; and, moreover, that the youth would show himself to greater
+advantage when not interfered with. So after pausing to see whether his
+guardian would speak, Felix said, 'Of course we are in Mr. Audley's
+power, but he knows that we have made some trial, and except in name,
+we have really stood alone for these three years. Wilmet can quite
+manage the house, and it would be misery for ever to us all to have no
+home. In short&mdash;' and Felix's face burnt, his voice choked, and his
+eyes brimmed over with hot indignant tears, as he concluded, 'it shall
+never be done with my good will.'</p>
+
+<p>'And under the circumstances,' said Mr. Audley, 'I think Felix is
+right.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well,' said Thomas Underwood, much displeased. 'I have no power
+here, and if you and that lad think he can take charge of a house and a
+dozen children, you must have it your own way. Only, when they have all
+gone to rack and ruin, and he is sick of being a little tradesman in a
+country town, he will remember what I said.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix forced back his resentful feelings, and contrived to say, 'Yes,
+sir, I know it is a great disadvantage, and that you only wish for our
+good; but I do not think anything would be so bad for the children as
+to be all cast about the world, with no place to go to, and becoming
+strangers to one another; and since there is this way of keeping them
+together, it seems right.'</p>
+
+<p>The steadiness of his manner struck Mr. Underwood, and the reply was
+not unkind.</p>
+
+<p>'You are a good boy at bottom, Felix, and mean well, and I am only
+sorry not to be able to hinder you from throwing yourself away for life
+by trying to do what is morally impossible, in a foolish spirit of
+independence. Do not interrupt. I warn you that I am not to be appealed
+to for getting you out of the difficulties you are plunging into; but
+of course your brother and sister will be mine, as before; and as I
+promised myself to do the same by your mother as by your father&mdash;my
+near cousins both&mdash;here is to cover necessary expenses.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a cheque for Ł150, the same as he had given on the former
+occasion; and though Felix had rather not have taken it, he had
+little choice, and he brought himself to return cold but respectful
+thanks; and Mr. Underwood did not manifest any more displeasure, but
+showed himself very kind at the meal that was spread in Mr. Audley's
+sitting-room, and even invited Wilmet to accompany Alda, when she
+joined the family in a week's time at Brighton, so as to have sea air
+for the remainder of her holidays.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could be more reluctant than was Wilmet at first, but there was
+a chorus of persuasions and promises; and the thought of being a little
+longer in Alda's presence made her waver and almost consent.</p>
+
+<p>Ferdinand Travis came in, but had only time for a greeting and a hasty
+meal, before Mr. Underwood's carriage came round; and, nothing loth,
+he gave a lift to the Mexican millionaire to the station with him
+and Edgar. So, for the last time, had all the thirteen been at home
+together.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE FAMILY COBWEB ON THE MOVE.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Oh! the auld house, the auld house,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What though the rooms were wee;</span><br />
+Oh! kind hearts were dwelling there,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And bairnies full of glee.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 40%;"><i>Lady Nairn.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>Every one except Edgar would, it was hoped, stay at home till after the
+Epiphany, that most marked anniversary of birth and death.</p>
+
+<p>Clement at first declared it impossible, for St. Matthew's could not
+dispense with him on the great day; and Fulbert grinned, and nudged
+Lance at his crest-fallen looks, when he received full leave of absence
+for the next three weeks.</p>
+
+<p>But Lance was bursting with reverse troubles. The same post had
+brought him a note from his organist; and that 'stupid old Dean,' as
+he irreverently called him, had maliciously demanded 'How beautiful
+are the feet,' with the chorus following, and nobody in the choir was
+available to execute the solo but Lance. He had sung it once or twice
+before; and if he had the music, and would practise at home, he need
+only come up by the earliest train on the Epiphany morning; if not, he
+must arrive in time for a practice on the 5th; he would be wanted at
+both the festival and Sunday services, but might return as early as he
+pleased on Monday the 9th.</p>
+
+<p>Lance did not receive the summons in an exemplary spirit. It is not
+certain that he did not bite it. He rolled on the floor, and contorted
+himself in convulsions of vexation; he 'bothered' the Dean, he
+'bothered' the Precentor, he 'bothered' the Organist, he 'bothered'
+Shapcote's sore throat, he 'bothered' Harewood's wool-gathering wits,
+he 'bothered' his own voice, and thereby caused Clement to rebuke him
+for foolish murmurs instead of joy in his gift.</p>
+
+<p>'A fine gift to rejoice in, to make one be whipped off by an old fogey,
+when one most wants to be at home! I thank my stars I can't sing!' said
+Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'I should thank mine if Bill Harewood had any sense,' said Lance,
+sitting up in a heap on the floor. 'He can go quite high enough when he
+pleases; only, unluckily, a goose of a jackdaw must needs get into the
+cathedral just as Bill had got to sing the solo in "As pants the hart;"
+and there he stood staring with his mouth wide open&mdash;and no wonder, for
+it was sitting on the old stone-king's head! Wasn't Miles in a rage;
+and didn't he vow he'd never trust a solo to Harewood again if he knew
+it! Oh, I say, Wilmet&mdash;Fee, I know! Do let me bring Bill back with me
+on Monday morning; and he could go by the six o'clock train. Oh, jolly!'</p>
+
+<p>'But is he really a nice boy, Lance?' asked Wilmet, doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, isn't he just? You'll see! His father is a Vicar-choral, you know,
+lives in our precincts; his private door just opposite ours, and 'tis
+the most delicious house you ever saw! You may make as much row as you
+please, and nobody minds!'</p>
+
+<p>'I know who Mr. Harewood is. Librarian too, is he not?' said Felix. 'I
+have heard people laughing about his good-natured wife.'</p>
+
+<p>'Aren't they the people who were so kind to you last year, Lance,'
+asked Cherry, 'when you could not come home because of the measles?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course. Do let me bring him, Fee,' entreated Lance; 'he is no end
+of a chap&mdash;captain of our form almost always&mdash;and such a brick at
+cricket! I told him I'd show him the potteries, and your press, and our
+organ, and everything&mdash;and it is such a chance when we are all at home!
+I shall get the fellows to believe now that my sisters beat all theirs
+to shivers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Can you withstand that flattering compliment, Wilmet?' said Felix,
+laughing. 'I can't!'</p>
+
+<p>'He is very welcome,' said Wilmet; 'only, Lance, he must not stay the
+night, for there really is not room for another mouse.'</p>
+
+<p>The little girls had heard so much about Bill Harewood, that
+they were much excited; but their sympathy kindly compensated
+for the lack of that of the elder brothers. Fulbert pronounced
+that a cathedral chorister could never be any great shakes; and
+Clement could not forgive one who had been frivolous enough to be
+distracted by a jackdaw; but Lance, trusting to his friend's personal
+attractions to overcome all prejudice, trotted blithely off to the
+organist-schoolmaster, to beg the loan of the music, and received a
+promise of a practice in church in the evening. Meantime, he begged
+Clement to play the accompaniment for him on the old piano. Neither
+boy knew that it had been scarcely opened since their father's hand
+had last lingered fondly upon it. Music had been found to excite their
+mother to tears; Geraldine resembled Fulbert in unmusicalness, and
+Wilmet had depended on school, the brothers on their choir-practice,
+so that the sound was like a new thing in the house; nor was any one
+prepared either for the superiority of Clement's playing, or for
+the exceeding beauty and sweetness of Lance's singing. No one who
+appreciated the rare quality of his high notes wondered that he was
+indispensable; Geraldine could hardly believe that the clear exquisite
+proclamation, that came floating as from an angel voice, could really
+come from the little, slight, grubby, dusty urchin, who stood with
+clasped hands and uplifted face; and Clement himself&mdash;though deferring
+the communication till Lance was absent, lest it should make him
+vain&mdash;confided to Wilmet that they had no such voice at St Matthew's,
+and it was a shame to waste him on Anglicans.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet hardly entered into this enormity. She had made a discovery
+which interested her infinitely more. Little Theodore, hitherto so
+inanimate, had sat up, listened, looked with a dawning of expression
+in the eyes that had hitherto been clear and meaningless as blue
+porcelain, and as the music ceased, his inarticulate hummings continued
+the same tune. Could it be that the key to the dormant senses was
+found? His eyes turned to the piano, and his finger pointed to it
+as soon as he found himself in the room with it, and the airs he
+heard were continually reproduced in his murmuring sounds; that 'How
+beautiful!' which had first awakened the gleam&mdash;his own birth-day
+anthem&mdash;being sure to recur at sight of Lance; while a doleful Irish
+croon, Sibby's regular lullaby, always served for her, and the 'Hardy
+Norseman' for Felix, who had sometimes whistled it to him. Wilmet spent
+every available moment in awaking the smile on the little waxen face
+that had never responded before; it seemed to be just the cheering hope
+she needed to revive her spirits, only she was almost ready to renounce
+her journey with Alda for the sake of cultivating the new-found faculty.</p>
+
+<p>No one would permit this; and indeed, so far from waiting to be
+exhibited to Lance's friend, the two sisters received their <i>billet de
+route</i> on the very day he was expected; and there was no appeal, since
+a housekeeper was to travel from Centry, who would take charge of them
+to London, whence they would go down with Mr. Underwood. Poor Wilmet
+was much dismayed at leaving Geraldine to what they both regarded as
+the unprecedented invasion of a strange boy; indeed, the whole charge
+made Cherry's heart quail, though she said little of her fears, knowing
+the importance of Wilmet's having and enjoying her holiday; and Mr.
+Audley promised extra aid in keeping order among the boys.</p>
+
+<p>But as they came in that evening from the practice at the church, to
+which Clement had insisted on their coming to hear Lance, Mr. Audley
+beckoned Felix to his room with the words, 'There's a thing I want to
+talk over with you.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix recollected those ominous words to Mr. Underwood, and stood
+warming his hands in dread of what might be coming. It was all he
+feared.</p>
+
+<p>'I wanted to say&mdash;I wanted to tell you&mdash;' began Mr. Audley. 'I would
+not have chosen this time, but that I think it may save Wilmet
+something to be able to tell her friends that the present arrangement
+is to cease.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet!' exclaimed Felix; then bethinking himself. 'Was <i>that</i> what
+Tom Underwood meant? But you will not trouble yourself about such
+rubbish.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you see,' began the Curate, with heightening colour, 'it can't
+be denied that your sister <i>has</i> grown up, and that things are changed.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Froggatt <i>did</i> ask me if you were going on here,' said Felix,
+still unconvinced; 'but can't we leave people to be <i>stoopid</i> without
+interfering with us?'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, you ought to be a better protector to your sisters. You would
+not like to have my Lady remonstrating&mdash;nay, maybe writing to my
+mother: she is quite capable of it.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix's cheeks were in a flame. 'If people would mind their own
+business,' he said; 'but if they <i>will</i> have it so&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'They are right, Felix,' said the Curate quietly; 'appearances must be
+carefully heeded, and by you almost more than by any one. Your slowness
+to understand me makes me almost doubtful about my further design.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not going away altogether!'</p>
+
+<p>'Not immediately; but things stand thus&mdash;Dr. White, my old tutor, you
+know, and Fernan's, is nearly sure of the new Bishopric in Australia,
+and he wants me.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix hardly repressed a groan.</p>
+
+<p>'Any way I should not go immediately; but when your father spoke to me
+about the guardianship, he made me promise not to let it stand in the
+way of any other call. I fancied he had mission work in his mind, and
+it disposes me the more to think I ought not to hold back; but while
+your dear mother lived, I would not have gone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you have been very good to us,' was all Felix could say. 'But
+when?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not for some time; but I am not going this moment. Three months'
+notice Mr. Bevan must have, and if he requires it, six; I must spend
+some time at home, and very like shall not be off till you are of
+age&mdash;certainly not if I find there is any difficulty in handing the
+management of things over to you. How long I remain with you must
+depend on circumstances. How much notice must you give before leaving
+this house?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not know&mdash;half a year, I fancy. You think we ought to give it up?
+I suppose it is too large for us now.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you could take no lodger but one of the old-lady type.'</p>
+
+<p>'Horrid!' said Felix. 'Well, we will see; but it will be a great stroke
+on poor Cherry&mdash;she can remember nothing before this house.'</p>
+
+<p>'It will be very good for her to have no old associations to sit
+brooding over.'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor little Cherry! If I saw how to cheer up her life; but without
+your lessons it will be more dreary for her than ever!'</p>
+
+<p>'Give her all you can to do, and do not be over-careful to keep your
+anxieties from her knowledge. She is very much of a woman, and if you
+leave her too much to herself, she will grow more introspective.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet and I have always wanted to shelter her; she never seems fit
+for trouble, and she is so young!'</p>
+
+<p>'Compared with you two venerable people!' said Mr. Audley, smiling.
+'But her mind is not young, and to treat her as a child is the way to
+make her prey upon herself. I wish her talent could be more cultivated;
+but meantime nothing is better for her than the care of Bernard and
+Stella. I hope you will not be in a hurry to promote them out of her
+hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well; but she will miss you sorely.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope to see her brightened before I am really gone, and I am not
+going to decamp from this house till some natural break comes. To do
+that would be absurd!'</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence; and then Felix said with a sigh, 'Yes, a smaller
+house, and one servant. I will speak to Wilmet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps you had better, so that she may have an answer in case she is
+attacked.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet was aghast at first, but a hint from Alda made her acquiesce,
+not with blushing consciousness, but with the perception that the way
+of the world was against the retention of the lodger; and sorry as she
+was to lose Mr. Audley, her housewifely mind was not consoled, but
+distracted, by calculations on the difference of expenditure. Again she
+tried to beg herself off from her visit, in the dread that Felix would
+go and take some impracticable house in her absence&mdash;some place with
+thin walls, no cupboards, and no coal-hole; and she was only pacified
+by his solemn promise to decide on no house without her. She went away
+in an avalanche of kisses and tears, leaving Geraldine with a basketful
+of written instructions for every possible contingency, at which the
+anxious maiden sat gazing anxiously, trying to store her mind with its
+onerous directions.</p>
+
+<p>'Shall I give you a piece of advice, Cherry?' said the Curate, as he
+saw the dark eye-brows drawn together.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, do!' she earnestly said.</p>
+
+<p>'Put all that in the fire!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Audley!'</p>
+
+<p>'And go by the light of nature! You have just as many senses as Wilmet,
+and almost as much experience; and as to oppressing yourself with the
+determination to do the <i>very</i> thing she would have done under all
+circumstances, it is a delusion. People must act according to their own
+nature, not some one else's.'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly,' said Geraldine, smiling. 'I could never walk stately in
+and say, "Now, boys!"&mdash;and much they would care for it if I did.'</p>
+
+<p>'It seems to be a case for "Now, boys!" at this moment,' said Mr.
+Audley; 'what can all that row be?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it must be that dreadful strange boy, Lance's friend,' sighed
+Geraldine, almost turning pale. Then, trying to cheer up, 'But it is
+only for the day, and Lance wished it so much.'</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke, the shout of 'Cherry, here's Bill!' came nearer, and the
+whole of the younger half of the family tumbled promiscuously into the
+room, introducing the visitor in the midst of them. To the elders,
+'no end of a chap' appeared, as Mr. Audley said, to mean all ends of
+shock hair, and freckles up to the eyes; but when Fulbert and Lance had
+whirled him out again to see the lions of Bexley, Robina and Angela
+were overheard respectfully pronouncing that he was nice and spotty
+like the dear little frogs in the strawberry-beds at Catsacre, and that
+his hair was just the colour Cherry painted that of all the very best
+people in her 'holy pictures.'</p>
+
+<p>The object of their admiration was seen no more till the middle of
+dinner, when all three appeared, immoderately dusty; and no wonder,
+for the organist had employed them to climb, sweep fashion, into the
+biggest organ-pipe to investigate the cause of a bronchial affection of
+long standing, which turned out to be a dead bat caught in a tenacious
+cobweb.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after, the guest was found assisting Angela in a tableau, where
+a pen-wiper doll in nun's costume was enacting the exorcism of the said
+bat, in a cave built of wooden bricks.</p>
+
+<p>Clement was undecided whether to condemn or admire; and Geraldine, to
+whom Edgar had lent some volumes of Ruskin, meditated on the grotesque.</p>
+
+<p>Before there had been time for the fanciful sport to become rough
+comedy, Lance had called off his friend to see the potteries; and to
+poor Cherry's horror, she found that Robina had been swept off in the
+torrent of boyhood. Clement, pitying her despair and self-reproach,
+magnanimously offered to follow, and either bring the little maid back,
+or keep her out of harm's way; and for some time Cherry reposed in the
+conviction that 'Tina was as good as a girl any day.'</p>
+
+<p>But at about a quarter to six, a little tap came to Mr. Audley's door,
+and Angela stood there, saying, with a most serious face, 'Please, Mr.
+Audley, Cherry wants to know whether you don't think something must
+have happened.' And going upstairs, he found the poor young deputy in a
+nervous agony of despair at the non-return of any of the party, quite
+certain that some catastrophe had befallen them, and divided between
+self-reproach and dread of the consequences.</p>
+
+<p>'The very first day Wilmet had gone!' as she said.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost time for Harewood's train, which made it all the more
+strange. Mr. Audley tried to reassure her by the probability that the
+whole party were convoying him to the station, and would appear when
+he was gone; but time confuted this pleasing hypothesis, and Cherry's
+misery was renewed. She even almost hinted a wish that Mr. Audley would
+go out and look for them.</p>
+
+<p>'And then,' he said, smiling, 'in an hour's time you would be sending
+Felix to look for me. No, no, Cherry, these waiting times are often
+hard, no doubt; but, as I fear you are one of those destined to "abide
+by the tents" instead of going out to battle, you had better learn to
+do your watching composedly.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Mr. Audley! how can I? I know it must be very wrong, but how can I
+not care?' And verily the nervous sensitive girl was quivering with
+suspense.</p>
+
+<p>'"He will not be afraid of any evil tidings, for his heart standeth
+fast and believeth in the Lord,"' answered Mr. Audley. 'I see that does
+not tell you <i>how</i> not to be afraid; but I imagine that a few trusting
+ejaculations in the heart, and then resolute attention to something
+else, may be found a help.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry would have sighed that attention was the most impossible thing
+in the world; but before she had time to do so, Mr. Audley had begun to
+expound to her his Australian scheme. It excited her extremely; and as
+a year and a half seemed an immense period of time to her imagination,
+the dread of losing him was not so immediate as to damp her enthusiasm.
+They had discussed his plans for nearly an hour before Cherry started
+at the sound of the door, and then it was only Felix who entered. He
+was irate, but not at all alarmed; and presently the welcome clatter of
+steps approached, and in dashed the whole crew, mired up to the eyes,
+but in as towering spirits as ever.</p>
+
+<p>Their delay had, it appeared, been caused by a long walk that ensued
+upon the visit to the potteries, and a wild venture of Will Harewood
+upon impracticable ice, which had made him acquainted with the depths
+of a horse-pond. There was none of the dignity of danger, for the
+depths were shallows and the water only rose to his waist; but the mud
+was above his ankles, and he had floundered out with some difficulty.
+He wanted to walk back with no more ceremony than a water-dog; but
+the Underwoods had made common cause against him, and had dragged him
+to a cottage, where he had the pleasing alternative of an old woman's
+blankets and petticoats while his garments were drying. He was as
+nearly angry as a Harewood could be, Lance observed, declaring that
+they should never have got him into the cottage without fighting him,
+if Tina had not been so tall, and if Robin had not nearly cried; while
+he, throwing off all responsibility, ascribed all his lateness to
+his friend's 'maggots.' No more trains stopped at Bexley till after
+midnight; but as to his absence causing any uneasiness at home, he
+laughed at the notion, and was corroborated by Lance in averring that
+they had too much sense; listening with undisguised amazement to the
+elaborate explanations and apologies about Robina, which Clement was
+scrupulously pouring forth to his brother and sister, saying that he
+would have brought her home at once, but that he really did not like to
+trust those boys alone.</p>
+
+<p>Whereat Lance held up his hands with a dumb show of amazement that
+convulsed Fulbert, Bill Harewood, and Robina herself, with agonies of
+half-suppressed merriment. The boy had come in, prepared to be grave
+and quiet, as knowing how lately affliction had come to the family,
+and having been warned by Lance, that 'as to going on as we do in the
+precincts, why it would make Cherry jump out of her skin.'</p>
+
+<p>But by some extraordinary influence&mdash;whether it were the oddity of
+William Harewood's face, or the novelty of his perfect <i>insouciance</i>
+in the household whither care had come only too early&mdash;some infection
+seized on the young Underwoods, and before the end of the evening meal,
+if the 'goings on' were not equal to those in the precincts, they were,
+at any rate, not far short of it.</p>
+
+<p>Lance presently incited his friend to show 'how he had mesmerized
+Lucy.' Clement made a horrified protest; and Geraldine looked alarmed
+at her eldest brother, who began, 'Indeed, Lance, we can have nothing
+of that sort here.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Felix, I do assure you there is no harm.'</p>
+
+<p>'Upon my word and honour, there's not a spice of anything the
+Archbishop of Canterbury could stick at,' added Will Harewood.</p>
+
+<p>'It is impossible there should not be harm,' interposed Clement; but
+the boys, including Fulbert, were in such fits of laughter, that Felix
+began to suspect the seriousness of the performance; and when Lance
+sprang at him, exclaiming, 'I'll go to Mr. Audley! Fee&mdash;Cherry&mdash;will
+you be satisfied if Mr. Audley says we may?' Felix and Cherry both
+consented; and Lance rushed off to make the appeal, and returned not
+only with full sanction, but with Mr. Audley himself, come to see
+the operation. This perfectly satisfied Felix, who even consented,
+on the entreaty of his brothers, to become the first subject; and
+Cherry knew that where the Curate and Felix had no scruples, she need
+have none; but, for all that, she was more than half frightened and
+uncomfortable&mdash;above all, when Clement, amid shouts of mirth from the
+three schoolboys, indignantly marched away to shut himself up in his
+cold bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>By-and-by, after some unseen preparation&mdash;all the more mystifying
+because carried on in the kitchen, where Sibby always used to keep
+Theodore in a cradle till Felix was ready for him&mdash;Will Harewood caused
+Felix to stand exactly opposite to him and to the spectators, with a
+dinner-plate in his hand, and under injunctions to imitate the operator
+exactly. Armed with another plate, William rubbed his own finger
+first on the under side of the plate, and then, after some passes and
+flourishes, on his own forehead, entirely without effect so far as he
+himself was concerned; but his victim, standing meekly good-natured
+and unconscious, was seen by the ecstatic audience to be, at each
+pass, painting his own face with the soot from a flame over which his
+plate had been previously held. The shrieks of amusement redoubled at
+the perplexity they occasioned him, till they penetrated the upper
+rooms; and suddenly a cry of horror made all turn to the door and see a
+little white bare-footed figure standing there, transfixed with fright,
+which increased tenfold when Felix hurried towards it, not yet aware
+of the condition of his visage, until a universal shout warned him of
+it; while Lance, darting in pursuit, picked up Bernard, and by his
+wonderful caressing arts, and partly by his special gift of coaxing,
+partly as the object of the little fellow's most fervent adoration,
+made the scattered senses take in that it was 'all play,' and even
+carried back the little white bundle, heart throbbing and eyes staring,
+but still secure in his arms, to admire Felix all black, and then to be
+further relieved by beholding the restoration of the natural hue at the
+pump below stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Then amid Sibby's scoldings and assurances that the child would catch
+his death of cold, Bernard was borne upstairs again by Felix, who found
+Clement in the nursery comforting the little girls, and preventing
+them from following the example of their valiant pioneer. Felix, now
+thoroughly entering into the spirit of the joke, entertained for a
+moment the hope of entrapping Clement; but of course Bernard could not
+be silenced from his bold and rather doubtful proclamation, that 'The
+funny boy made Felix black his own face, and I wasn't afraid.'</p>
+
+<p>'Naughty boy!' commented Stella. 'Poor Fee!'&mdash;and she reared up to kiss
+him, and stroke the cheeks that had suffered such an indignity.</p>
+
+<p>'What! It was only a trick?' said Clement slowly, as if half mystified.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course,' said Felix; 'could not you trust to that?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know. Cathedrals are very lax, and it had a questionable name.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Clem! if it had not been in you before, I should wish you had never
+gone to St. Matthew's. Come down now, don't let us disturb the little
+ones any longer.&mdash;Good-night, Angel; good-night, little Star; we'll not
+make a row to wake you again.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement, in a severe mood, followed Felix downstairs; but some
+wonderful spirit of frolic was on all the young people that night&mdash;a
+reaction, perhaps, from the melancholy that had so long necessarily
+reigned in that house, for though the fun was less loud, it was quite
+as merry: a course of riddles was going on; and Clement, who really
+was used to a great deal of mirth among the staff of St. Matthew's,
+absolutely unbent, and gloried in showing that even more conundrums
+were known there than by the house of Harewood. He was not strong
+in guessing them; but then Will Harewood made such undaunted and
+extraordinary shots at everything proposed, that the spirit of repartee
+was fairly awakened, and Cherry's bright delicate wit began to play,
+so that no one knew how to believe in the lateness of the hour, and
+still less that this was the same house that grave Wilmet had left that
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor dear little Cherry!' said Felix to Mr. Audley, after helping her
+upstairs, 'she is quite spent with laughing; indeed my jaws ache, and
+she is ready to cry, as if it had been unfeeling.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't let her fancy that. We certainly were surprised into it
+to-night; but I only wish for her sake&mdash;for all your sakes&mdash;that you
+could keep the house merrier.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix sighed. He too felt as if he had been betrayed into unbecoming
+levity; and though he would not dispute, his heart had only become the
+heavier. However, he did not forget; and when Cherry again breathed
+a little sigh as to what Wilmet would think of their first day, he
+stoutly averred that there was no use in drooping, and no harm in
+liveliness, and that no one had ever been so full of joyousness as
+their father.</p>
+
+<p>She owned it. 'But&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>And that <i>but</i> meant the effects of the three years that she had spent
+as the companion of her mother's mournful widowhood, and of the cares
+of life on her elder brother and sister.</p>
+
+<p>It was true, as Mr. Audley said, that the associations of the rooms
+were not good for her spirits in her many lonely hours and confined
+life; and this reconciled Felix more than anything else to the proposed
+change. He was keeping his promise to Wilmet of not seeking a house
+till her return, when Mr. and Mrs. Froggatt, whose minds had been much
+relieved by hearing that the lodger would consult the proprieties,
+communicated to him their own scheme of taking up their residence at
+a village named Marshlands, about two miles from Bexley, where they
+already spent great part of the summer in a pleasant cottage and
+garden which they had bought and adorned. Mr. Froggatt would drive
+in to attend to the business every day, but the charge of the house
+was the difficulty, as they did not wish to let the rooms; and they
+now proposed that the young Underwoods should inhabit them rent-free,
+merely keeping a bedroom and little parlour behind the shop for Mr.
+Froggatt, and providing firing in them. With much more diffidence, at
+his wife's earnest suggestion, the kindly modest old man asked whether
+Miss Underwood would object to his coming in to take a piece of bread
+and cheese when he was there in the middle of the day.</p>
+
+<p>It was an excellent offer, and Felix had no hesitation in gratefully
+closing with it, even without consulting Wilmet. Her reply showed that
+a great weight was taken off her mind; and she was only longing to be
+at home again, contriving for the move, which was to take place at
+Lady Day. She was burning to study the new rooms; nevertheless, as by
+kind Marilda's contrivance, she was taking lessons in German every day
+from a superior Fraulein who had once been her cousin's governess, and
+was further allowed to inspect the working of a good school, her stay
+was extended, by Miss Pearson's entreaty, a full fortnight beyond what
+had been intended. Nor had anything gone wrong in her absence. Even
+the overlooking of the boys' linen, which she had believed impossible
+without her, was safely carried on by Cherry, and all were sent off in
+sound condition. No catastrophe occurred; and the continual occupation
+and responsibility drove away all the low spirits that so often had
+tried the home-keeping girl. She <i>did</i> enjoy those <i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i>
+evenings, when Felix opened to her more than he had ever done before;
+and yet it was an immense relief to have the day fixed for Wilmet's
+return, and how much more to have her walking into the room with all
+the children clinging about her in incoherent ecstacy, which had not
+subsided enough for much comprehension when Felix came joyously in.
+'Hurrah, Wilmet! Mr. Froggatt sent me home a couple of hours before
+time!'</p>
+
+<p>'How very good! I met him in the street just now. Really, he is the
+kindest old gentleman in the world!'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe you dazzled him, Mettie; he says he did not know you till
+you spoke to him, and if he had realised what a beautiful and majestic
+young lady you were, he should hardly have ventured to propose your
+taking up your abode under his humble roof.'</p>
+
+<p>'That must be the effect of living with Alda,' said Wilmet merrily;
+'but, oh! I am glad to be at home again!'</p>
+
+<p>'And I never was so glad of anything in my life,' said Geraldine
+eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'I am longing to go over the house, and know what to do about
+furniture,' continued Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'There! now W. W. is herself again!' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Froggatt came and called on me,' said Geraldine. 'She talked of
+leaving us the larger things that will not go into the cottage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Which is well,' said Felix; 'for how much of ours will survive the
+shock of removing is doubtful.'</p>
+
+<p>'All the things that came from Vale Leston are quite solid,' said
+Wilmet, bristling up.</p>
+
+<p>'That carpet is solid darn,' said Felix. 'We tried one evening, and
+found that though the pattern of rose-leaves is a tradition, no one
+younger than Clem could remember having seen either design or colour.'</p>
+
+<p>'You should not laugh at it, Felix,' said Wilmet, a little hurt; for
+indeed her mother's needle and her own were too well acquainted with
+the carpet for her to like to hear it contemned.</p>
+
+<p>Felix and Cherry both felt somewhat called to order, as if their
+mistress had come home again; and Cherry was the first to break silence
+by inquiring after Wilmet's studies at Brighton.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' said Wilmet, 'I do hope I am improved. That was all Marilda's
+kindness. She quite understood how I missed everybody and everything;
+and at last, one day, when I was wishing I could pronounce German like
+Alda, and that Alda had time to give me some lessons&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda hasn't time?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you don't know how useful she is! She writes all the notes.
+Marilda devised getting this Fraulein&mdash;such a good-natured woman! and
+when she heard what I wanted, she got leave for me to come every day to
+study the working of the school. I do believe I shall teach much better
+now, if only I were not so ignorant. I never had any notion before how
+little I knew!'</p>
+
+<p>However, Wilmet's value had really risen so much in consequence of
+these instructions, that Miss Pearson arranged that she should lay the
+French and German foundations, and prepare the scholars, and should
+receive half a sovereign a half year from each girl whom she thus
+instructed, being the moiety of 'extra.' Moreover, the head teacher
+talked of retiring, and her succession was promised to Wilmet&mdash;a
+brilliant prospect, that the sight of Alda's grandeur did not make her
+contemn.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet's anxious mind was well satisfied by her inspection of the new
+quarters, which, among other conveniences, had that of shortening
+by ten minutes her walk to school. The family apartments were all
+upstairs, the space below being entirely taken up by the business, and
+the kitchens were under ground. The chief sitting-room upstairs was
+unfortunately towards the street, and had a northern aspect; it was a
+spacious room, with three large windows filled with boxes of flowers,
+and contained a big table and two sofas, which, with the carpet and
+curtains, would remain well covered up. Folding-doors led into a
+smaller room, with a south window towards the little garden, where Mrs.
+Froggatt generally sat, and which had been used for the dining-room.
+There were two bedrooms besides on the same floor, one of which would
+remain untouched for Mr. Froggatt; and above these, there was a large
+nursery, and more rooms than had been ever furnished. Rent, rates,
+taxes, and repairs, all off her mind! Wilmet felt as if prosperity
+were setting in; and she was the first to make the audacious statement
+that they need not part with Martha, and indeed, that the house could
+not be kept in order, nor dinners cooked fit for Mr. Froggatt, by
+Sibby single-handed. And Cherry made up her mind that they were like a
+family of caterpillars moving their cobweb tent; Angela, seeing such an
+establishment of young tortoise-shells, in their polished black, under
+their family web, had asked, 'Which was their brother Felix?' and the
+name was adopted.</p>
+
+<p>So a time of much business and excitement set in; and the lengthening
+spring evenings were no sinecure to Wilmet, as the flitting day
+approached, being rather hurried on by the old bookseller, who wanted
+to be at Marshlands in time to admire his hyacinths and sow his
+annuals. Mr. Audley would take rooms at the Fortinbras Arms for the
+remainder of his stay at Bexley; and indeed, there was a good deal to
+break the old habit of constantly depending on him, for his brother's
+young wife was slowly dying in London, and the whole family seemed
+instinctively to turn to him for comfort and advice, so that he was
+obliged to be continually going backwards and forwards.</p>
+
+<p>On the 24th of March, when he came down by an afternoon train, he found
+the house door open, the steps scattered with straw; and after looking
+in and seeing his own parlour intact, and with a cheerful fire, he
+pursued his way upstairs, and there found the sitting-room bare except
+for a sort of island consisting of the sofa, on which Geraldine lay
+rolled in cloaks and shawls, trying to amuse the twins by a feeble
+attempt to sing</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Weel may the boatie row,'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>while making paper boats for Stella to drag by strings upon the smooth
+boards.</p>
+
+<p>'Eh, Cherry, are you the Last Man, or the Last Rose of Summer?'</p>
+
+<p>'The last of the caterpillars,' said Cherry, smiling, but with effort.
+'Do you see Stella's fleet&mdash;just thirteen?'</p>
+
+<p>'Making omens, foolish child!' but though Stella was eagerly pointing
+and explaining, 'Tat Tella's boat&mdash;tat Tedo's&mdash;tat brother's&mdash;tat
+Angel,' and so on, the word <i>foolish</i> was not directed to the little
+one, but to the grey eyes heavy with unshed tears, that rested
+wistfully upon a wreck that had caught upon a nail and lay rent and
+ragged.</p>
+
+<p>'Pray don't look which it is,' said she.</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not; I hate auguries.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think there is nothing in them?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think there is nothing in this room but what ought to be in mine.
+Do you expect me to stand discussing superstition in this horrible raw
+emptiness? Here,' picking up Theodore, 'I'll come back for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, thank you, let me get down by myself; he cannot be left alone
+in a room.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, Stella, and take care of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's worse; she leads him into mischief. We are fox, goose, and
+cabbage. Please give me my crutch; Wilmet put it out of reach because
+she said I was destroying myself.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are tired to death.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no; but one can't sit still when so much is going on. Oh, how
+delicious!' as after an interval she arrived, and found Mr. Audley
+winding up a musical-box, which Theodore was greeting with its own
+tunes, and Stella with a dance and chant of 'Sing box&mdash;sing box;' and
+then the two sat listening to the long cycle of tunes which would hold
+Theodore entranced for any length of time.</p>
+
+<p>After a short inquiry and a reply as to the sister-in-law's state,
+and a few words on the progress of the flitting, there was a silence
+while Mr. Audley read the letters that had come for him in his absence,
+and Cherry's face became more and more pensive. At last, when Mr.
+Audley laid down his letters, and leant against the chimney-piece, she
+ventured to say, 'Is it wrong?'</p>
+
+<p>'Is what wrong?' said the Curate, who had quite forgotten the subject.</p>
+
+<p>'To care about omens.'</p>
+
+<p>'That depends. To accept them is sometimes necessary; to look out for
+them is generally foolish and often wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sometimes necessary?' said Cherry eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'Sometimes experience seems to show that in good Providence a merciful
+preparation is sent not so much to lead to anticipations, as to bring
+the mind into keeping with what is coming, and, as it were, attune it.'</p>
+
+<p>'So that little things may be constantly types of great future ones?'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Cherry, I said <i>not</i> constantly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just let me tell you. Sibby says that the very day we all came into
+this poor old house, just as the omnibus stopped, there was the knell
+ringing overhead, and a funeral coming up the street. She knew it was
+a token, and burst out crying; and dear Mamma, who you know never shed
+tears, turned as white as a corpse, as if she was struck to the heart.'</p>
+
+<p>'And your father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! Sibby said he just stood in the doorway, lifted his hat as the
+funeral passed, and then well-nigh carried Mamma, with the baby (that
+was Fulbert) in her arms, over the threshold, and smiled at her,
+saying, "Well, mother, what better than to have found our home till
+death!" So you see he did believe in it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see he wanted to cheer her spirits, not by saying "stuff and
+nonsense," but reminding her that there are worse things than death.
+Have you an omen on your mind, Cherry? Have it out; don't let it sink
+in.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only <i>please</i> don't laugh at me. Indeed, it was not my own doing, but
+Stella's fancy to have a boat for each of us, when she was launching
+them; and I could not help recollecting how we are all starting out and
+away from our first home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stella's was not a <i>very</i> perilous ocean.'</p>
+
+<p>'That was a comfort at first; and Stella tried to draw all the thirteen
+lines together, but they tangled, and one thread broke, and that boat
+was left behind; and one poor crooked ill-made thing fell over, and was
+left at home because hindering all the rest, and even Stella knew that
+was me, and&mdash;' her voice quivered, 'one was caught on a nail, and torn
+into a wreck! Now, can I help thinking, though you'll just call them
+newspaper-boats, dragged by a baby on a dry dusty floor?'</p>
+
+<p>'Watched by a weary fanciful damsel,' said Mr. Audley, sitting down
+by her, 'who does not know a bit more than she did before, that all
+are launching on a sea, and if it <i>is</i> a rougher one, there's a better
+Guiding Star than Stella Eudora to lead them, and they have compasses
+of their own&mdash;ay, and a Pilot. And if there are times when He seems to
+be asleep in the ship&mdash;why, even the owner of the unseaworthy boat left
+at home can show the Light, and pray on till the others are roused to
+awaken Him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish there had not been that wreck,' she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>'What seems a wreck need not be really one,' said Mr. Audley. 'It may
+be the very way of returning to the right course. And by and by we
+shall see our Master standing on the shore in the morning light.'</p>
+
+<p>At that moment there was a sound at the door&mdash;Felix had accompanied
+Cherry's chair, to bring her and Theodore to the new home. There
+was too much haste for the wistful last looks she intended: she
+was deposited in the chair with Theodore on her knee, Stella
+trotting after, with Felix and Mr. Audley, who was coming to see the
+inauguration. St. Oswald's Buildings were left behind, and she was
+drawn up to the green private door, beside the shop window; Wilmet
+hurried down and took Theodore from her; Felix helped her out, and
+up the narrow steep staircase, which certainly was <i>not</i> a gain, but
+when landed in the drawing-room, the space seemed to her magnificent.
+And their own furniture, the two or three cherished portraits brought
+from Vale Leston, their father's chair, their mother's sofa, the silk
+patchwork table-cover that had been the girl's birth-day present to
+Mamma, the bookcase with Papa's precious books, made it seem home-like.</p>
+
+<p>'The mantelpiece is just the same!' cried Cherry, delighted, as she
+recognised all the old ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment her delight was great at the flower-stands, which Mr.
+Froggatt had kindly left full of primulas, squills, and crocuses;
+and when she looked out from the back room into the little garden,
+where Mr. Froggatt's horticultural tastes had long found their sole
+occupation, and saw turf, green laurels, and bunches of snowdrops and
+crocuses, she forgot all Stella's launch!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE CHORAL FESTIVAL.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 30%;">
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">'And with ornaments and banners,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">As becomes gintale good manners,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We made the loveliest Tay room upon Shannon shore.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 45%;"><i>Thackeray.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>'Of course, after <i>this</i>,' said Lady Price, 'Miss Underwood did not
+expect to be visited.'</p>
+
+<p>Otherwise the gain was great. The amusement of looking out of window
+into the High Street was alone a perpetual feast to the little ones,
+and saved Geraldine worlds of anxiety; and the garden where they
+could be turned out to play was prized as it only could be by those
+who had never had any outlet before. It was a pleasant little long
+narrow nook, between the printing-house on the west, and such another
+garden on the east, a like slip, with a wall masked by ivy and lilacs,
+and overshadowed by a horse-chestnut meeting it on the south. It was
+not smoky, and was quite quiet, save for the drone and stamp of the
+steam-press; there was grass, a gum-cistus and some flower-beds in the
+centre, and a gravel-walk all round, bordered by narrow edgings of
+flowers, and with fruit trees against the printing-house wall, and a
+Banksia and Wisteria against that of the house. Mr. Froggatt was quite
+touched at the reverence with which Angela and Stella regarded even
+the daisies that had eluded his perpetual spud; and when he found out
+the delight it was to Cherry to live with flowers for the first time
+in her life, he seldom failed to send her a bunch of violets or some
+other spring beauty as soon as he arrived in the morning, and kept the
+windows constantly supplied with plants.</p>
+
+<p>The old bookseller was at first very much afraid of his new inmates.
+To Felix he was used, but he looked on the sisters as ladies, and to
+ladies except on business-terms he was much less accustomed than to
+gentlemen. Besides, being a thorough gentleman himself at heart, he had
+so much delicacy as to be afraid of hurting their feelings by seeming
+at home in his own house; and he avoided being there at luncheon for a
+whole week, until one afternoon Felix ran up to say that he was sure
+Mr. Froggatt had a cold, and would be glad if a cup of tea appeared
+in his parlour. Gratitude brought him in to face the enemy; and after
+he had been kept at home for a day or two by the cold, his wife's
+injunctions and Felix's entreaties brought him to the dinner.</p>
+
+<p>It happened to be one of Wilmet's favourite economical stews; but
+these were always popular in the family, though chiefly composed of
+scraps, pot-liquor, rice, and vegetables; and both for its excellence
+and prudence it commanded Mr. Froggatt's unqualified approbation. All
+that distressed his kind heart was to see no liquor but water, except
+Cherry's thimbleful of port; he could <i>not</i> enjoy his glass of porter,
+and shook his head&mdash;perhaps not without reason&mdash;when he found that
+his young assistant's diet was on no more generous scale, and was not
+satisfied by Felix's laughing argument that it was impossible to be
+<i>more</i> than perfectly healthy and strong. 'False economy,' said the old
+man in private; but Felix was not to be persuaded into what he believed
+to be an unnecessary drain on the family-finances, and was still more
+stout against the hint that if Redstone discovered this prudential
+abstinence, it might make him 'disagreeable.' Felix had gone his way
+regardless of far too many sneers for poverty and so-called meanness to
+make any concession on their account, though the veiled jealousy and
+guarded insolence of that smart 'gent' the foreman had been for the
+last three years the greatest thorn in his side. And at least he made
+this advance, that the errand-boy cleaned the shoes!</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine, though shy at first from the utter seclusion in which she
+had lived, put forth a pretty bashful graciousness that perfectly
+enchanted Mr. Froggatt, who was besides much touched by her patient
+helplessness. He became something between her grandfather and her
+knight, loading her with flowers, giving her the run of the circulating
+library, and whenever it was fine enough, taking her for a mile or two
+in his low basket-carriage either before or after his day's business
+in the shop. It was not exactly like being with her only other friend,
+Mr. Audley; but he was a thoroughly kind, polite, and by no means
+unlettered old man; and Geraldine enjoyed and was grateful, while the
+children were his darlings, and were encouraged to take all manner of
+liberties with him.</p>
+
+<p>Among the advantages of the change was the having Felix always at hand;
+and though she really did not see him oftener in the course of the day
+than at St. Oswald's Buildings, still the knowing him to be within
+reach gave great contentment to Cherry. The only disadvantage was that
+he lost his four daily walks to and fro, and hardly ever had sufficient
+fresh air and exercise. He was indeed on his feet for the most of the
+day, but not exerting his muscles; and all taste for the active sports
+in which his kind old master begged him to join seemed to have passed
+away from him when care fell upon him. He tried not to hold his head
+above the young men of his adopted rank, many of whom had been his
+school-fellows; but, except with the members of the choir and choral
+society, he had no common ground, and there were none with whom he
+could form a friendship. Thus he never had any real relaxation, except
+music, and his Sunday walks, besides his evenings with his sisters
+and of play with the children. It was not a natural life for a youth,
+but it seemed to suit with his disposition; for though not given to
+outbursts of animal spirits, he was always full of a certain strong and
+supporting cheerfulness.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, though they did not like to own it to themselves, the young
+people had left behind them much of the mournfulness of the widowed
+household, which had borne down their youthful spirits; and though the
+three elders could never be as those who had grown up without care
+or grief, yet their sunshine could beam forth once more, and helped
+them through the parting with their best friend. For Mr. Audley's
+sister-in-law died in the beginning of June, and his father entreated
+him to go abroad with his brother, so that he was hurried away directly
+after midsummer, after having left his books in Felix's charge, and
+provided for the reception of the dividends in his absence.</p>
+
+<p>His successor was a quiet amiable young Mr. Bisset, not at all
+disinclined to cultivate Felix as a link with the tradesfolk; only he
+had brought with him a mother, a very nice, prim, gentle-mannered,
+black-eyed lady, who viewed all damsels of small means as perilous to
+her son. Had she been aware that Bexley contained anything so white
+and carnation, so blue-eyed and straight-featured, so stately, and so
+penniless as Wilmet Underwood, he would never have taken the Curacy.
+She was a kind woman, who would have taken infinite pains to serve the
+orphan girls; and she often called on them; but when the Rector's wife
+had told her that such a set had been made at Mr. Audley that he could
+bear it no longer, it was but a natural instinct to cherish her son's
+bashfulness.</p>
+
+<p>That autumn Wilmet came home elevated by the news that the head teacher
+was going to retire at Christmas, and that she was to be promoted to
+her place of forty pounds a year. Her successor was coming immediately
+to be trained, being in fact the daughter of Miss Pearson's sister,
+who had married an officer in the army. She had been dead about three
+years, and the girl had been living in London with her father, now on
+half pay, and had attended a day-school until he married again, and
+finding his means inadequate to his expenses, and his wife and daughter
+by no means comfortable together, he suddenly flitted to Jersey to
+retrench, and made over his daughter of seventeen to her aunts to be
+prepared for governess-ship.</p>
+
+<p>This was the account Miss Pearson and Miss Maria gave to Wilmet, and
+Wilmet repeated to Geraldine, who watched with some interest for the
+first report of the new-comer.</p>
+
+<p>'She is rather a nice-looking little thing,' was the first report, 'but
+I don't know whether we shall get on together.'</p>
+
+<p>The next was, 'Miss Maria has been begging me to try to draw her out.
+They are quite distressed about her, she is so stiff and cold in her
+ways with them, and they think she cries in her own room.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor thing, how forlorn she must be! Cannot <i>you</i> comfort her, Mettie?'</p>
+
+<p>'She will have nothing to say to me! She is civil and dry, just as she
+is to them.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think she can talk,' said Angela.</p>
+
+<p>'How do you know anything about it, little one?' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I heard her talking away to Lizzie Bruce in the arbour at dinner-time.
+Her face looked quite different then from what it does in school.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I hope she is settling down to be happier,' said Wilmet
+thoughtfully; but, having watched Angela out of hearing, she added,
+'Not that I think Lizzie Bruce a good friend; she is rather a weak
+girl, and is flattered by Carry Price making a distinction between her
+and some of the others.'</p>
+
+<p>'When is Carry Price ever going to leave school?'</p>
+
+<p>'When she can play Mendelssohn well enough to satisfy Mr. Bevan. I
+wonder Lady Price does keep her on here; but in the meantime we can
+only make the best of her.'</p>
+
+<p>A day or two later, Wilmet and Angela came in from school eager,
+indignant, and victorious.</p>
+
+<p>'You <i>did</i> manage it well!' the younger was saying. 'I was so glad
+you saw for yourself.&mdash;Just fancy, Cherry, there were Carry Price and
+Lizzie Bruce turning out all the most secret corners of Miss Knevett's
+work-box, laughing at them, and asking horrid impertinent questions,
+and she was almost crying.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you fetched Wilmet?'</p>
+
+<p>'She was sitting out in the garden, showing some of the little ones how
+to do their crochet&mdash;it was the play-time after dinner&mdash;and I just went
+to her and whispered in her ear, so she strolled quietly by the window.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' added Wilmet, 'and before I came to it, Edith was saying to Jane
+Martin, on purpose for me to hear, that she thought it would be a good
+thing if Miss Underwood would look into the school-room. So Angel was
+not getting into a scrape.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should not have minded if I had,' said Angel; 'it was such a shame,
+and she looks such a dear&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'There she was,' said Wilmet, 'her fingers shaking, and her eyes full
+of tears, trying to do some work, while Carry Price went on in her
+scoffing voice, laughing over all the little treasures and jewels, and
+asking who gave them to her, and what they cost. All I could do was to
+put my hand on her shoulder and say I saw she did not like it; and then
+Lizzie Bruce looked ashamed, but Miss Price bristled up, and declared
+that Miss Knevett had unlocked the box herself. Then the poor child
+burst out that she had only said she would show her Maltese cross; she
+had never asked them to turn everything out, and meddle with it; and
+Carry tossed her head, just like my Lady, and said, "Oh, very well,
+they did not want to see her trumpery, since she was so cross about
+it. I suppose you mean to show the things one by one to the little
+girls! A fine exhibition!" She cried out, "Exhibit! I don't mean to
+exhibit at all; I only showed it to you as my friend!" Whereupon Carry
+Price flounced off with, "As if I were going to make a friend of an
+underteacher!" and she went into a tremendous fit of crying, like what
+you used to have, Cherry, except that it was more passionate!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure I never had anything like that to cry for. What did you do
+with her? How lucky she had you!'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, when she went on sobbing, "I'll not stay here," "I won't be
+insulted." "I'll tell my aunts," my great object was to get her
+upstairs, and to silence her, for I was sure Miss Pearson would
+dislike nothing so much as having a regular complaint from her about
+Carry; and, besides that, all the girls, who pity her now, would be
+turned against her, and think her a mischief-maker. I did get her up
+at last, and, oh dear! what a scene we had! Poor thing, I suppose she
+has been a spoilt child, going to a lady's fashionable institute, as
+she calls it, where she was a great girl, and rather looked up to, for
+the indulgences she got from her father&mdash;very proud, too, of being
+a major's daughter. Then came the step-mother; what things she said
+about her, to be sure! No end of misery, and disputes&mdash;whose fault,
+I am sure I don't know; then a crisis of debts. She says it was all
+Mrs. Knevett's extravagance; but Miss Pearson told me before that she
+thought it had been going on a long time; and at last, when the father
+and his wife and her child go off to Jersey, this poor girl is turned
+over to the aunts she never saw since her mother died, twelve years
+ago.'</p>
+
+<p>'I dare say it is the best thing for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'If she can only think so; but she fancies the being a teacher the most
+horrid thing in the world.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Wilmet!' interrupted Angela; 'why, you like teaching: and Robin
+means to be a real governess, and so do I, if I am not a Sister!'</p>
+
+<p>'Me too,' called out Stella.</p>
+
+<p>'But you see this unlucky girl can't understand that teaching may be
+a real way of doing good; she fancies it a degradation. She says she
+and her friends at her institute hated and despised the teachers, and
+played all manner of tricks upon them.'</p>
+
+<p>'How foolish the teachers must have been!'</p>
+
+<p>'She did say something about their being low and mean. She did me the
+favour to say not like me, and that she was quite shocked to find I was
+one of this dreadful race. It was quite amazing to her when I told her
+how Robina's dear Miss Lyveson keeps school without necessity, only
+to be useful. You may imagine what it is to her to be plunged all on
+a sudden into this unhappy class. She began by trying to take her old
+place as an officer's daughter, and to consort with the girls; but I
+think if she and Carry Price were left to one another, she would very
+soon sink as low as any of the poor hounded teachers she describes.'</p>
+
+<p>'She must be very silly and conceited.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I think she is sensible, and loving too, at the bottom,' said
+Wilmet, 'only every one is strange here: I think she will understand
+better soon; and in the meantime, she has quite forgiven me for being
+a teacher. She clung about me, and called me all sorts of pretty
+names&mdash;her only friend, and so forth.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps she can forgive you for being a teacher, in consideration of
+your being a twin,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'There, Cherry, you understand her better already than I do! I'll bring
+her to you, I have not time for such a friendship.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor thing! I should like to try to comfort her, if she is strange and
+dreary; but I think she must be rather a goose. What's her name?'</p>
+
+<p>'Alice; but in school Miss Pearson is very particular about having her
+called Miss Knevett. We have exchanged Christian names in private, of
+course.'</p>
+
+<p>'You horrid old prosy thing of four U's,' said Geraldine. 'You are
+sitting up there, you great fair creature, you, for the poor child to
+worship and adore, and not reciprocating a bit!'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course,' said Wilmet, 'if she can't be happy without being petted,
+I must pet her, and let her be nonsensical about me; but I think it is
+all great stuff, and that you will suit her much better than I ever
+shall.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you never mean to have a friend, Mettie?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, I haven't time; besides, I've got Alda.'</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine had, however, many dreams about the charms of friendship. She
+read of it in the books that Felix selected for her; and Robina had
+a vehement affection for a schoolfellow whose hair and whose <i>carte</i>
+she treasured, and to whom she would have written daily during the
+holidays but for the cost of stamps. The equality and freedom of the
+letters she received always made Cherry long for the like. Since Edgar
+had left her, she had never been on those equal terms with any one;
+Wilmet was more like mother or aunt than sister; and though Felix had
+a certain air of confidence and ease when with her, and made her his
+chief playfellow, he could not meet all her tastes or all her needs;
+and there was a sort of craving within her for intimacy with a creature
+of her own species.</p>
+
+<p>And though Wilmet's description of Alice Knevett did not sound
+particularly wise, Cherry, in her humility, deemed her the more secure
+of being on her own level, not so sensible and intolerant of little
+dreams, fancies, and delusions as those two sensible people, the twin
+sisters. So she watched impatiently for the introduction; and at last
+Wilmet said, 'Well, she is coming to tea to-morrow evening. Little
+ridiculous chit, she bridled and doubted, but as you were an invalid,
+she supposed she might, only it was not what she had been used to, and
+Papa "might object."'</p>
+
+<p>'What? To the shop? Well, I really think she had better not come! I'll
+have nobody here that thinks it a favour, and looks down on Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, if she contrives to look down on Felix after she has seen
+him, she will deserve anything you please. Just now, I believe the
+foolishness is in her school, and not in herself.'</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Geraldine's eagerness underwent a great revulsion.
+Instead of looking forward to the visit, she expected it with dread,
+and dislike to the pert, conceited, flippant Londoner, who despised her
+noble brother, and aspired to the notice of Carry Price. Her nervous
+shrinking from strangers&mdash;the effect of her secluded life&mdash;increased on
+her every moment of that dull wet afternoon; her feet grew cold, her
+cheeks hot, and she could hardly find temper or patience for the many
+appeals of Bernard and Stella for her attention.</p>
+
+<p>Her foolish little heart was palpitating as if a house-breaker were
+entering instead of Wilmet, conducting a dainty cloud of fresh lilac
+muslin, out of which appeared a shining black head, and a smiling
+sparkling face, with so much life and play about the mouth and eyes
+that there was no studying their form or colour, and it was only after
+a certain effort that it could be realised that Alice Knevett was a
+glowing brunette, with a saucy little nose, <i>retroussé</i>, though very
+pretty, a tiny mouth full of small pearls, and eyes of black diamond.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of her gracious manner, and evident consciousness of her own
+condescension, the winsomeness of the dancing eyes fascinated Cherry at
+once. Indeed, the simplicity and transparency of her little dignities
+disarmed all displeasure, they were so childish; and they vanished in a
+moment in a game at play with Bernard and Stella. When Wilmet brought
+out Geraldine's portfolio, her admiration was enthusiastic if not
+critical.</p>
+
+<p>A sketch of Wilmet and Alda enchanted her; she had never seen anything
+so lovely or so well done.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' said Cherry, rather shocked, 'you must have seen the Royal
+Academy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but I am sure this ought to be in the Royal Academy; I never saw
+anything there that I liked half so much. How clever you must be!'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry could not but laugh at the extravagant compliment. 'My brother
+Edgar draws much better than that,' she said, producing a capital
+water-colour of a group of Flemish market-women.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall always like yours best. Oh! and what is this?'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not know it was there,' said Cherry, colouring, and trying to
+take it away.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, let me look. What! Is it a storm, or a regatta, or fishing boats?
+What is that odd light? What is written under? "The waves of this
+troublesome world." Why, that is in the Bible, is not it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Thirteen boats, Cherry,' said Wilmet; 'is that a device of your own?'</p>
+
+<p>'What, not copied? Oh dear! I wish I was so clever!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is the sea of this life, isn't it?' said Angela, coming up. 'Is it
+ourselves, Cherry, all making for the golden light of Heaven, and the
+star of faith guiding them?'</p>
+
+<p>'She reads it like a book,' exclaimed Alice. 'And those two close
+together&mdash;that means love, I suppose!'</p>
+
+<p>'Love and help, the weak and the strong,' said Geraldine, in her
+earnest dreamy voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Do pray make a picture of my boat on a nice smooth sea of light; I
+don't like rocks and breakers, such as you have done there.'</p>
+
+<p>'There always must be a last long wave,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but don't let us think about horrid things. I like the summer sea.
+Aren't there some verses&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'"Youth at the prow, and pleasure at the helm?"'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>'That would not be a pleasant augury,' said Cherry. 'Do you know what
+this is meant for, bad as it is? Longfellow's verses&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'The phantom host that beleaguered the walls of Prague? How can you
+draw such things?'</p>
+
+<p>'So I say,' observed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'They come and haunt me, and I feel as if I must.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is this kneeling on the wall? He looks like a knight watching his
+armour.'</p>
+
+<p>'So he is,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'But there is nothing about him in the poem. Did you make him for
+yourself?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, he is Ferdinand Travis!' exclaimed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'What, is it a real man? I thought it was somebody in a story.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see!' said Angela quietly. 'He is watching his armour the night
+before he was baptized.'</p>
+
+<p>For the child had never forgotten the adult baptism, though she had
+been little more than four years old at the time; but she was one of
+those little ones to whom allegory seems a natural element, with which
+they have more affinity than with the material world.</p>
+
+<p>However, the mention of Ferdinand Travis led to the history of the fire
+at the hotel, and of his recovery; Alice declared that 'everything
+nice' seemed to happen at Bexley, and was laughed at for her peculiar
+ideas of niceness; but there was something in the feminine prattle
+that was wonderfully new and charming to Geraldine, while, on the
+other hand, the visitor was conscious of a stimulus and charm that she
+had never previously experienced; and the eager tongues never flagged
+till Felix came in. He had evidently taken pains with his toilette,
+in honour of the unusual event; and the measured grave politeness of
+his manners renewed Alice's scared punctilious dignity of demeanour,
+and entire consciousness that she was a major's daughter and he a
+bookseller.</p>
+
+<p>But Felix had brought in some exciting Eastern news; and Alice put on
+an <i>air capable</i>, as one connected with India and the army, but she
+soon found out the deficiency of her geography, and was grateful for
+the full clear explanations, while her <i>amour propre</i> was gratified
+by finding that her familiarity with a few Indian terms was valuable.
+Before the end of the evening all were at ease, and she was singing
+with Felix and Wilmet at the old piano.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had the door shut on her when the maid came to fetch her,
+than a storm fell on Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'So that's what you call rather nice-looking?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, she is under-sized and very brown, but I did think you would
+have allowed that she was rather pretty.'</p>
+
+<p>'Rather!' exclaimed Cherry indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>'That's what it is to be a handsome woman!' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean to say that you think her anything remarkable?' said
+Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Say no more, my dear W. W.,' laughed Felix. 'I never understood before
+why negroes don't admire white people.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I don't know what you are talking about,' said Wilmet,
+betaking herself to her darning with great good-humour. 'Alice Knevett
+is prettier than I thought she was when she was all tears and airs; but
+I can't see any remarkable beauty to rave about.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, <i>you</i> can't,' said Geraldine merrily. 'You look much too high over
+her head, but you see I don't; and such a little sparkling diamond
+beetle is a real treat to me.'</p>
+
+<p>And Geraldine often enjoyed the treat.</p>
+
+<p>In a very short time the green door and steep stairs were as familiar
+to Alice as to the Underwoods themselves; for her aunts were thankful
+to have her happy and safe, and she was rapturously fond of Geraldine,
+reflecting and responding to most of her sentiments. Most of the
+Underwoods had the faculty of imprinting themselves upon the characters
+of their friends, by taking it for granted that they felt alike; and
+Alice Knevett had not spent six weeks at Bexley before she had come
+to think it incredible that she had thought either teaching or the
+Underwoods beneath her. She was taking pains to do her work well,
+and enjoying it, and was being moulded into a capital subordinate
+to Wilmet; while with Geraldine she read and talked over her books,
+obtained illustrations for the poetry she wrote out in her album,
+and brought in a wholesome air of chatter, which made Cherry much
+more girl-like than she had ever been before. It was an importation
+of something external, something lively and interesting, which was
+very refreshing to all; and even Felix, in his grave politeness and
+attention to his sister's friend, manifested that so far from being in
+his way, as they had feared, he found her a very agreeable element when
+she joined the home party or the Sunday walk.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, there was a certain tendency to expansion about the life of the
+young people; the pinch of poverty was less griping than previously,
+and their natural spirits rose. In January Lance was allowed to bring
+his friend Harewood to a concert of the choral society; and on the
+following evening Alice Knevett came to tea, and there was a series of
+wonderful charades, chiefly got up by Clement and Robina, and of comic
+songs by Lance and Bill Harewood&mdash;all with such success, that Alice
+declared that she had never seen anything so delightful in all her
+experience of London Christmases!</p>
+
+<p>The young people really seemed to have recovered elasticity enough that
+year to think of modest treats and holidays as they had never ventured
+to do since that memorable sixteenth birth-day of Felix's. Here was
+his twenty-first not very far off; and when it was announced that this
+identical 3rd of July had been fixed on for a grand choral meeting
+at the Cathedral, at which the choir of Bexley was to assist, there
+was such a spirit of enterprise abroad in the family, that Geraldine
+suggested that Wilmet might take Robina to see the Cathedral and hear
+Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Lance will be just what will not be heard,' said Felix. 'They will
+not show off their solos; but the Robin ought to have the pleasure, if
+possible; and as I go in two capacities, press and choir, I hope we can
+manage it for her.'</p>
+
+<p>He came in full early for the evening. 'All right,' he said. 'Two
+tickets are come for the Pursuivant, and Mr. Froggatt says he would not
+go at any price; and besides, each of the choir may take a friend&mdash;so
+that's three.'</p>
+
+<p>'Am I to be reporter or friend?' asked Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Reporter, I think, for you will have to do audience.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nay, Cherry ought to be the gentleman connected with the press,' said
+Wilmet, for in fact Geraldine did sometimes do copying and correcting
+work for her brother; 'and, indeed, I do not see why she should not. We
+could go home directly after morning service, and leave you there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, impossible,' said Geraldine, 'it would never do; it would only
+spoil everybody's pleasure, and be too much for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think you are wise,' said Felix; and somehow it struck her with a
+prick that he had rather the proposal had not been made. 'There is sure
+to be a great crush, and I may be obliged to be with the choir.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am quite able to take care of her, I can always lift her,' said
+Wilmet, surprised.</p>
+
+<p>'I would not go on any account,' protested Cherry. 'I should be like
+the old woman in that Servian proverb, who paid five dollars to go to
+the fair, and would have paid ten to be safe at home again.'</p>
+
+<p>'There might be no getting a bench fit for you to sit upon,' added
+Felix, who, as a gentleman of the press, was not devoid of experience.
+'I could not be easy about you, my dear; it is much safer not.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps so,' owned Wilmet, disappointed; 'but Angel is too little for
+such a long day, and Cherry is so much stronger, that I thought&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but could not Alice Knevett go?' put in Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'A very good suggestion,' said Felix. 'She hardly ever has any
+amusements. Well thought of, White-heart!'</p>
+
+<p>I believe he thought of it from the first, felt Geraldine, angry with
+herself that this conviction gave a prick like the point of a needle.
+She threw her energies into the scheme, and was begging Wilmet to go
+and make the proposal, when there was a sudden peal of the bell, a
+headlong trampling rush, a dash open of the door&mdash;Theodore began to hum
+the anthem 'How beautiful,' the other three small ones hailed 'Lance'
+at the top of their voices, and his arms were round the neck of the
+first sister who came in his way.</p>
+
+<p>'What, Lance! how came you here?'</p>
+
+<p>'Our organ is tuning up its pipes&mdash;man comes to-morrow&mdash;Prayers in the
+Lady Chapel and not choral, and it's a holiday at school, so I got
+off by the 5.20, and need not go back till the 6.10 to-morrow. We are
+practising our throats out to lead you all on the 3rd. You know you are
+coming, the whole kit of you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do we?' said Wilmet. 'It is only for the last ten minutes that we have
+known that any of us were coming.'</p>
+
+<p>'All right; that's what I'm come about. Robina must be got home.'</p>
+
+<p>'She will be come. She comes on the 1st.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's right; then there's to be a great spread in Bishop's Meads
+between services. Everybody sends provisions, and asks their friends;
+but Cherry is to go and rest at the Harewoods'. The governor will get
+her in through the library into the north transept as quiet as a lamb,
+no squash at all. It is only along the cloister&mdash;a hop, step, and jump;
+and Miles has promised me the snuggest little seat for her. Then the
+Harewood sofa&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'It is too much, Lance,' began Cherry. 'Mrs. Harewood&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't be absurd; she wishes it with all her heart. She won't want a
+ticket if Mr. Harewood smuggles her in, but I can get as many as you
+want. How many&mdash;Wilmet, Cherry, Robin, Angel, and Miss Knevett. She'll
+come, won't she?'</p>
+
+<p>'We were thinking of going to ask her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll do it; I've brought my own ticket for a friend for her; here it
+is, with L. O. U. in the corner. I'll run down with it before any one
+else cuts in.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hold hard,' said Felix; 'we shall not get her if you set about it in
+that wild way!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but I'll promise Wilmet shall take her in tow, and if anything
+will pacify the old girls, that will.'</p>
+
+<p>'You had better let me come with you,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Look sharp then. Is it a practising night? Yes, that's well; Miles is
+in a state of mind at the short notice, and has crammed me choke-full
+of messages; he says it will save his coming down; come along, then, W.
+W., and soft-sawder the venerable aunts.'</p>
+
+<p>No more of this operation was necessary than the assurance that
+Miss Underwood was going, and that Mrs. Harewood would be a sort of
+chaperon. Alice Knevett was happy and grateful; and if anything were
+wanting to the universal enthusiasm of anticipation, it was supplied
+by Lance. The boy, with his musical talent, thorough trustworthiness
+and frank joyous manners, was a favourite with the organist, and was
+well versed in the programme; and his eagerness, and fulness of detail,
+were enough to infect every one. Geraldine thought it was great proof
+of his unspoilableness, that he took quite as much pleasure in bringing
+them to these services, where he would be but a unit in the hundreds,
+as if it had been one of the anthems, of which every one said, 'Have
+you heard little Underwood?' In the charm of the general welcome
+and the congratulation on Lance's arrangement, Geraldine had quite
+forgotten both her alarms and her tiny pang of surprise at not having
+been Felix's prime thought. Lance, by dint of a judicious mixture of
+hectoring and coaxing, obtained leave for Angela to be of the party,
+though against Wilmet's judgment; and Bernard and Stella were to spend
+the day with Mrs. Froggatt, which they regarded as an expedition quite
+as magnificent as that to St. Mary's Minster.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Froggatt was almost as eager about this pleasure for 'his young
+people,' as he called them, as they could be. He came in early to drive
+Geraldine to the station, and looked with grandfatherly complacency at
+the four sisters, who had ventured on the extravagance of white piqué
+and black ribbons, and in their freshness looked as well-dressed as any
+lady in the land.</p>
+
+<p>He entertained Cherry all the way with his admiration of Wilmet's
+beauty and industry, and when arrived at the station, waited there with
+her till first the three girls came up with Alice Knevett, white with
+pink ribbons, and then the choir arrived, marching with the banner
+with the rood of St. Oswald before them, each with a blue satin bow
+in his button-hole, and the bag with his surplice under his arm, the
+organist, the schoolmaster, and the two curates, bringing up the rear.
+Mr. Bevan, my Lady, and Miss Price, whirled up in the carriage, the
+omnibus discharged the friends of the choir, and two waggon loads of
+musical talent from the villages came lumbering and cheering in! The
+very train roared and shrieked in with a sound of cheering from its
+vertebrć, and banners were projecting from the windows, amid nodding
+heads and waving handkerchiefs of all colours; the porters ran about
+distracted; and Geraldine began to be alarmed, and to think of the old
+woman of Servia, but behold, Felix had her on one side, Mr. Froggatt on
+the other, a solid guard held open the door, and protected her from the
+rush, and before she well knew what they were doing with her, she was
+lying on the seat of the carriage, with her sisters and Alice all in a
+row in front of her; the recently crowded platform was empty of all but
+a stray porter, the stationmaster, and Mr. Froggatt kissing his hand,
+and promising to come and fetch her on her return.</p>
+
+<p>The train seemed hardly to have attained its full speed before it
+slackened again, and another merry load was disposed of within its
+joints. Another start, another arrival; and before the motion was over,
+a flash of sunny looks had glanced before the sisters' eyes. There was
+Lance, perfectly radiant, under his square trencher cap&mdash;hair, eyes,
+cheeks, blue bow, boots, and all, seeming to sparkle with delight as he
+snatched open the door. 'Hurrah! there they are. Give her out to me,
+Wilmet!' (as if she had been a parcel).</p>
+
+<p>'Stay, wait for Felix. You can't&mdash;-'</p>
+
+<p>Felix rushed up from his colleagues of the choir, and Geraldine was set
+on her foot and crutch. 'Come along! I've got Ball's chair for you, and
+Bill Harewood is sitting in it for fear any one should bone it. Where's
+your ticket?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance, take care! Don't take her faster than she can go!' as he
+whisked her over the platform; and Wilmet was impeded by the seeking
+for Alice's parasol and Angela's cloak. They were quite out of sight
+when Lance had dragged Cherry through the crowd at the door, and
+brought her to the wheeled chair just in time to find Bill Harewood
+glaring out of it like the red planet Mars, and asseverating that he
+<i>was</i> the lame young lady it was hired for.</p>
+
+<p>In went Geraldine, imploring to wait for Wilmet, but all in vain; off
+went the chair, owner and escort alike in haste, and she was swept
+along, with Lance and Will with a hand holding either side of the
+chair, imparting breathless scraps of information, and exchanging
+remarks: 'There goes the Archdeacon.' 'The Thorpe choir is not come,
+and Miles is mad about it.' 'That's the Town Hall.' 'There's where Jack
+licked a cad for bullying.' 'There's a cannon-ball of Oliver Cromwell's
+sticking out of that wall.' 'That's the only shop fit to get gingerbeer
+at!' 'That old horse in that cab was in the Crimea.' 'We come last in
+the procession, and if you see a fellow like a sheep in spectacles,
+that's Shapcote.' 'Hurrah! what a stunning lot! where is it from?'
+'Bembury? My eyes, if that big fellow doesn't mean to bawl us all down.
+Down that way&mdash;that's the palace. Whose carriage is it stopping there?
+Now, here's the Close.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that the Cathedral? Oh!'</p>
+
+<p>'You may well say so! No, not that way.' And on rattled poor amazed
+Geraldine through an archway, under some lime trees, round a corner,
+round another corner, to another arched doorway, with big doors studded
+with nails, with a little door for use cut out of one of the big ones.</p>
+
+<p>'You must get out here,' said Lance, 'we are close by,' and he helped
+her out, and paid and thanked the man with the chair. 'Here's our
+domain,' he continued, as he introduced Cherry through the open doorway
+into a small flagged court, with two houses, grey and old-fashioned,
+forming one side, and on the other an equally old long low building
+with narrow latticed arched windows. Opposite to the entrance was a
+handsome buttressed Gothic-looking edifice, behind which rose the gable
+of the north transept of the Cathedral, beautiful with a rose window,
+and farther back, far, far above, the noble tower.</p>
+
+<p>Already everything was very wonderful to Geraldine. 'That's our
+kennel,' said Lance, pointing to the low buildings to the right.
+'School's behind; but we boarders are put up in one of the old monks'
+dormitories, between court and cloister.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it really?' exclaimed Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'So my father says,' said Will. 'Here's our door.' Another stone-arched
+passage, almost dark, with doors opening on either side, seemed common
+to both houses; and Will was inviting them to enter, but Lance held
+back. 'No time,' he said; 'better call your father.'</p>
+
+<p>'The others,' sighed Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'Bother the others! That's right: here he is!'</p>
+
+<p>'Halloo, Father!' cried Will; 'we've got Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>'By which unceremonious designation I imagine you to mean to introduce
+Miss Underwood,' said a figure, appearing from beneath the archway,
+in trencher cap, surplice, and hood, with white hair, and a sort
+of precision and blandness that did not at all agree with Cherry's
+preconceived notions of the Harewood household. 'I am very glad to
+see you. My ladies, as usual, are unready. Will you have a glass of
+wine? No?&mdash;What do you say, Lancelot?&mdash;Very well, we will take you in
+at once. You will not object to waiting there, and this is the quiet
+time.&mdash;Boys, you ought to be with the choir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oceans of time, Dad,' coolly answered Will; 'none of the fellows up
+there are under weigh.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Harewood offered his arm, but perceived that Cherry preferred Lance
+and her crutch; advancing to the door opposite that by which they had
+entered, he unlocked it, and Geraldine found herself passing through a
+beauteous old lofty chamber, with a groined Tudor roof, all fans, and
+pendants, and shields; tall windows stained with armorial bearings,
+parchment charters and blazoned genealogies against the walls, and
+screens upon screens loaded with tomes of all ages, writing-tables and
+chairs here and there, and glass-topped tables containing illuminations
+and seals. 'Here is my paradise,' said the librarian, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'I think it must be,' said Geraldine, with a long breath of wonder and
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! would you not like to have a good look, Cherry?' said Lance.
+'That's Richard Coeur de Lion's seal in there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't begin about it&mdash;don't set him on,' whispered Willie, with a
+sign of his head towards his father, who was fitting the key into the
+opposite door, 'or we shall all stay here for the rest of the day.'</p>
+
+<p>This low door open, Mr. Harewood and the boys bared their heads as they
+entered, and Geraldine felt the strange solemn sensation of finding
+herself in a building of vast height and majesty, full of a wonderful
+stillness, as though the confusion of sounds she had been in so
+recently were far, far off.</p>
+
+<p>'Where now, Lancelot?' asked Mr. Harewood, in a hushed voice; 'do you
+want me any further?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you, sir; I'll just take her across the choir to Mr. Miles,
+and then join the rest of us at the vestry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Good-bye for the present, then,' said Mr. Harewood kindly. 'You are in
+safe hands. Your brother comes round every one. <i>I</i> could not do this.'</p>
+
+<p>Through the side-screen, into the grandly beautiful choir, arching high
+above, with stall-work and graceful canopies below, and rich glass
+casting down beams of coloured light&mdash;all for 'glory and for beauty,'
+thought Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'You must not stop; you must look when you are settled. That's my
+side,' pointing to one of the choristers' desks. 'It will be only we
+that sing in here; the congregation is in the nave&mdash;a perfect sea
+of chairs. I'll come for you when it is over. Here is Mr. Miles. My
+sister, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>A pale gentleman in spectacles, with a surplice and beautiful blue
+hood, was here addressed. He too greeted Geraldine, very shyly but
+kindly, and she found herself expected to ascend some alarming-looking
+stone steps. The organ was on the choir-screen, and to the organist's
+little private gallery was she to ascend. It was a difficult matter,
+and she had in her trepidation despairingly recognised the difference
+between Lance's good will and Felix's practised strength; but at last
+she was landed in an admirable little cushioned nook, hidden by two
+tall painted carved canopies&mdash;exactly over the Dean's head, her brother
+told her&mdash;and where, as she sat sideways, she could see through the
+quatrefoils into the choir on the right hand, and the nave on the left.
+'Delightful! Oh, thank you; how kind! If I am only not keeping any one
+out.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Lance, smiling, and whispering lower than ever, 'he has no
+one belonging to him. He hates women. Never a petticoat was here before
+in his reign. Have you a book?'</p>
+
+<p>'They are robing, Underwood,' said the misogynist in the organ-loft;
+and Lance hurried away, leaving Geraldine alone, palpitating a good
+deal, but almost enjoying the solitude, in the vast structure, where
+the sanctity of a thousand years of worship seemed to fill the very
+air, as she gazed at the white vaultings and bosses carved with emblems
+above, at the vista of clustered columns terminating in the great
+jewelled west window, or at the crown-like loveliness that encompassed
+the sanctuary. All was still, except a deep low tone of the organ now
+and then. Mr. Miles looked in after the first, to hope she did not
+<i>feel</i> it uncomfortably, and to assure her that though she was too near
+his organ, she need not fear its putting forth its full powers; it
+was to be kept in subordination, and only guide the voices. This was
+great attention from a woman-hater, and Geraldine ventured to reiterate
+her thanks; at which he smiled, and said, 'When one has such a boy as
+your brother, there is pleasure in doing anything he wishes. You are
+musical?'</p>
+
+<p>'I never was able to learn to play.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you can read music?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' for she had often copied it.</p>
+
+<p>So he brought her whole sheets of music, and put her in the way of
+following and understanding, perceiving, as he went, that she was full
+of intelligence and perception.</p>
+
+<p>When he went back to his post, a few groups, looking very small, were
+creeping in by transept doors&mdash;by favour, like herself: then a little
+white figure flitted across to the desks, opened and marked the books,
+took up something, and disappeared; and in another moment Lance, in his
+broad white folds, was at her side. 'Here's the music. Oh, you have it!
+I've seen Fee,' he whispered; 'they are at Mrs. Harewood's, all right!'
+and he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Here she sat, her attention divided between the sacred impressions of
+the place, its exceeding beauty, and the advance of the multitude into
+the nave, as the doors were open, and they surged up the space left in
+the central aisle, and occupied the ranks of chairs prepared for them.
+Then came a long pause; she scanned each row in search of her sisters,
+and only was confused by the host of heads; felt lost and lonely, and
+turned her eyes and mind to the silent grandeur to the east, rather
+than the throng to the west.</p>
+
+<p>At last there came the sweet floating sound of the chant, growing in
+power like the ocean swell as it approached, and the first bright
+banner appeared beneath the lofty pointed archway; and the double white
+file came flowing on like a snowy glacier, the chant becoming clear
+and high as the singers of each parish marched along to their places,
+each ranked under a bright banner with the symbol of their church's
+dedication. St. Oswald's rood helped Geraldine to make out that of
+Bexley better than their faces, though she did make out her eldest
+brother's fair face, and trace him to his seat. The cathedral singers
+came at last, and that kenspeckle red head of Will Harewood's directed
+her to the less conspicuous locks belonging to Lance, whose own clear
+thrush-like note she could catch as he passed beneath the screen. Then
+came the long train of parish clergy, the canons, the Dean, and lastly
+the Bishop, the sight of whom recalled so much.</p>
+
+<p>The unsurpliced contribution had meantime been ushered in by the side
+doors, and filled seats in the rear of the others, so as to add their
+voices without marring the general effect&mdash;the perfection of which
+Geraldine enjoyed&mdash;of the white-robed multitude that seemed to fill the
+whole chancel.</p>
+
+<p>The sight seemed to inspire her whole soul with a strange yearning joy,
+as though she were beholding a faint earthly reflex of the great vision
+of the Beloved Disciple; and far more was it so at the sound, which
+realised in a measure the words, 'As the voice of mighty waters, and as
+the voice of thunder.'</p>
+
+<p>These were the very words that had been selected for the Second Lesson,
+and the First consisted of those verses in which we hear of David's
+commencement of the continual chant of psalms at the sanctuary; and
+both, unwonted as they were, gave a wonderful thrill to the audience,
+as though opening to them a new comprehension of their office as
+singers of the sanctuary.</p>
+
+<p>There is no need to dwell on the wonderful and touching exhilaration
+derived from the harmony of vast numbers with one voice attuned to
+praise. It is a sensation which is so nearly a foretaste of eternity,
+that participation alone can give the most distant perception thereof.
+To the entirely unprepared and highly sensitive Geraldine it was most
+overpowering, all the more because she was entirely out of sight, and
+without power of taking part by either gesture or posture&mdash;she was
+passive and had no vent for her emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Lance, who made his way to her round through the transept the moment
+he had disrobed, found her pale, panting, tearful, and trembling, with
+burning cheeks, so that his exaltation turned to alarm. 'Are you done
+up, Cherry? It is too hot up here? I'll try to find Felix or Wilmet,
+which?'</p>
+
+<p>'Neither! I am quite well, only&mdash;O Lance, I did not know anything could
+be so heavenly. There seemed to be the sweeping of angels' wings all
+round and over me, and Papa's voice quite clear.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know,' said Lance; 'it always does come in that Te Deum.'</p>
+
+<p>The sister and brother were silent, not yet able for the critical
+discussion of single points; only, as he put his arm round her to help
+her to rise, she said, with a sigh, 'O Lance, it is a great thing to
+be one of them! Thank you. I think this is the greatest day of all my
+life.'</p>
+
+<p>The getting her down, what with Lance's inexperience and want of
+height and strength, was anxious work; and just as it had been safely
+accomplished, the rest of their party were seen roaming the aisle in
+distress and perplexity. Geraldine was very glad of Felix's substantial
+arm, but she had rather he had omitted that rebuke for venturesomeness
+in dealing with her, which would have affronted Fulbert, but never
+seemed to trouble Lance, who was only triumphant in his success; and
+her perfect contentment charmed away the vexation which really arose
+from a slight sense of having neglected her.</p>
+
+<p>The others had been perfectly happy in their several ways, and made
+eager comments on their way to the house of Harewood, whither Lance
+piloted them&mdash;this time by the front way, through the garden, which
+lay behind the close&mdash;entering, in spite of the mannerly demurs of the
+elder ones, through the open door, into a hall whence a voice of hearty
+greeting at once ensued. 'Here you are at last; and how's the poor
+darling your sister? not over-tired?'</p>
+
+<p>And Cherry, before she was aware, found herself kissed, and almost
+snatched away from Felix, to be deposited on a sofa; and while the like
+kisses were bestowed on the two little girls, and hospitable offers
+showered on all, she was amused by perceiving that good Mrs. Harewood
+was endowed with exactly the same grotesque order of ugliness as her
+son William; but she was even more engaging, from an indescribably
+droll mixture of heedlessness, blundering, and tender motherliness.</p>
+
+<p>'There, now, you'll just leave her to me, the poor dear; and Lance will
+take you down to the Mead, and find Papa and the girls for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you, I could not think of your staying. Now pray&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Now prays' were to no purpose; Mrs. Harewood professed only to want an
+excuse for staying at home&mdash;she did not want to be done up with running
+after her girls to the four ends of the Mead, when it was a long step
+for her to begin with. Off with them.</p>
+
+<p>So when Wilmet was satisfied that Geraldine was comfortable, the five
+moved off&mdash;Felix and Alice, Angel in Wilmet's hand, and Lance's and
+Robina's tongues wagging so fast that the wonder was how either caught
+a word of what the other was saying.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Mrs. Harewood, tossing her bonnet and gloves aside, in
+perfect indifference to the exposure of the curious structure of
+red and grey hair she thus revealed, lavished meats and drinks upon
+her guest, waiting on her with such kindness, that in spite of all
+weariness and craving for quiet after these deep and wonderful
+impressions, it was impossible not to enjoy that warmth of heart.
+There was exactly the tender motherliness that even Wilmet and Sister
+Constance could not give.</p>
+
+<p>It was charming to hear how fond Mrs. Harewood was of Lance, and how
+the having such a companion had made it possible to keep her Willie
+at the cathedral school, where the mixture of lads was great, but the
+master first-rate. He thought highly of the promise of both; 'but, to
+tell the truth,' said Mrs. Harewood, as she sat and fanned herself with
+her husband's trencher cap, looking more than ever like a frog in a
+strawberry bed, 'though my Willie is the cleverest boy in the school,
+little good his cleverness would have done him, and he would have been
+harum-scarum Bill more than ever, if it were not for Lance. So say his
+father and brother Jack; so that they will not be for his going to a
+public school unless Lance were sure of it too.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will not they be able to stay on here?'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Harewood explained that the year that the barristers&mdash;choristers
+she meant&mdash;were sixteen, when their voices were usually unserviceable,
+they, together with those of like age in the school, were subjected to
+an examination, and the foremost scholar obtained an exhibition, in
+virtue of which he could remain free of expense for another two years,
+and then could try for one of the Minsterham scholarships at one of the
+colleges at Cambridge. Those who failed, either had to pay like the
+ordinary schoolboys, or left the school.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Mrs. Harewood was a perfect Malaprop, and puzzled Geraldine by
+continually calling the present occasion the rural meeting, and other
+like slips, uncommonly comical in a well-educated woman with the words
+she knew best.</p>
+
+<p>All this, and a great deal more&mdash;about the shy woman-hating organist,
+and the unluckiness of the dissenter&mdash;no, precentor&mdash;having a sick
+wife, and the legal difficulties that prevented building a better house
+for the boarders than the queer long room where they lodged, between
+the cloister and the Bailey&mdash;the proper name of the little court by
+which Geraldine had come&mdash;was poured out; and kind as it was, there was
+a certain sense of having been talked to death.</p>
+
+<p>A whole flood of Harewoods, Underwoods, and untold numbers besides,
+swept into the room as the bell began to ring for Evensong. Most
+sincere were Cherry's entreaties that she might be left alone. She
+could not go back to her coign of vantage, 'it had been too beautiful
+for her to bear more,' she said; and she severally declined offers of
+companionship from three female Harewoods and two sisters, telling
+Wilmet at last that all she wanted was to be still and alone.</p>
+
+<p>Alone she was, but not still, for there was nothing to hinder the
+magnificent volume of sound that surged around the Cathedral from
+coming to her; and she could trace the service all along&mdash;in chant,
+pealing mighty Amens, with the hush between, in anthem, and in jubilant
+hymn. She was more calmly happy than in the oppressive grandeur of the
+morning, as she lay there, in the cool drawing-room, with the open
+window veiled by loose sprays of untrimmed roses, and sacred prints
+looking down from the walls.</p>
+
+<p>The solitude lasted rather too long, when she had heard the hum and
+buzz of the host pouring out of the Cathedral, and still no one came.
+They were to go home by the 5.10 train, and every time she counted the
+chimes she became more alarmed lest they should be too late. Minutes
+dragged on. Five! It was five! Was she forgotten? Should she be only
+missed and remembered at the station, too late? Tired, nervous, unused
+to oblivion, she found tears in her eyes, and was too sorrowful and
+angry with her own impatience even to think of the old woman of Servia.
+Hark! a trampling? Had they remembered her? But oh, it would be late
+for the train!</p>
+
+<p>In burst Lance, in his cap and little short quaint black gown.</p>
+
+<p>'O Lance, I shall be too late!'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't go by this train.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear! oh dear! Mr. Froggatt was to meet me;' and the tears started
+from her eyes. 'How could Felix forget?'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind, there's sure to be a fly or something.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but Mr. Froggatt waiting!'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind,' repeated Lance, ''tis a fine evening to air the old boss.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, Lance; you none of you have any proper regard for Mr.
+Froggatt;' which, as far as Lance was concerned, was unjust, and it was
+well for Cherry that it was not addressed to either of the brothers who
+better deserved it.</p>
+
+<p>What Lance did was to execute one of his peculiar summersaults, and
+then, making up a dismal face, to say, 'Alas! I commiserate the
+venerable citizen disappointed of the pleasure of driving my Lady
+Geraldine home from the wash as well as hisself.'</p>
+
+<p>She was past even appreciating the bathos. 'It is no laughing matter,'
+she said; 'it is so uncivil, when he is so kind. I can't imagine what
+Felix is thinking of?'</p>
+
+<p>'Croquet,' said Lance briefly; then seeing the flushed, quivering,
+mortified face, he added, 'Wilmet has not forgotten you one bit,
+Cherry; but Alice Knevett and Robin did so want to see the fun in the
+mead&mdash;there's running in sacks, and all sorts of games&mdash;that there's no
+getting any one away; and the W's are in charge, and can't leave them
+to their own devices, so she said perhaps you would be more rested by
+lying still than rattling home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I dare say Wilmet is as sorry as anybody,' said Cherry rather
+querulously, for the needle point was pricking her again.</p>
+
+<p>'And as to your dear old Froggy,' continued Lance, 'she says he told
+her he did not in the least expect you back by this train, and if you
+did not come by it, he'll stay in town for the 8.50.'</p>
+
+<p>'How very good of him!' said Cherry, beginning to be consoled. 'And
+Felix at croquet!'</p>
+
+<p>'Alice is teaching him. You never did see such a joke as old
+Blunderbore screwing up his eyes at the balls, and making at them with
+his mallet like a sledge-hammer. He and Alice and Robin and that Bisset
+curate are playing against Bill, two of the girls, and Shapcote&mdash;Bexley
+against Minsterham; and little Bobbie's a real out-and-outer. She'll
+make her side win by sheer cool generalship.'</p>
+
+<p>'And poor little Angel?' The needle point was a pang now.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, Angel is happier than ever she was in her life. The Bishop's
+daughter has a turn for little kids, and has got all the small ones
+together in the pleached alley, playing at all manner of things.'</p>
+
+<p>'Run back, Lance, to the fun. I shall do very well,' said poor
+Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'I should think so, when I get you so often!' scornfully ejaculated
+Lancelot, drawing a dilapidated brioche from under the sofa, and
+squatting on it, with his dancing eyes close to her sad ones.</p>
+
+<p>An effusion of spirits prompted her to lay her hands on his shoulders,
+kiss him on each cheek, and cry, 'O Lance, you are the very sweetest
+boy!'</p>
+
+<p>'Sweetest treble, you mean,' said Lance quaintly; 'if you had only
+heard me! You should see how the old ladies in the stalls peep and
+whisper, and how Bill Harewood opens his mouth rather wider than it
+will go, and they think it is he.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not for fun, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I believe all their jaws are hung on looser than other people's.
+But I say, ain't you dying of thirst?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps Mrs. Harewood will give us some tea when she comes in.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you trust to that&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'O Lance!' she cried, alarmed at seeing him coolly ring the bell.</p>
+
+<p>'Bless you, she's forgotten all about you and tea and everything! They
+are drinking it by the gallon in the tents; and by and by she'll roll
+in, ready to cry that you've had none, and mad with herself and me for
+giving you none; and the fire will be out, and the kettle will boil
+about ten minutes after you are off by the train. We'll have some this
+minute.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Lance&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Cherry, ain't I a walking Sahara with roaring at the tip-top of
+my voice to lead the clod-hoppers? How they did bellow! I owe it as a
+duty to the Chapter to wet my whistle.'</p>
+
+<p>'One comfort is, nobody knows your coolness. Nobody comes for all your
+ringing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Reason good! Every living soul in the house is in the Bishop's meadow,
+barring the old cat; I <i>seen</i> 'em with their cap-strings flying. But
+that's nothing. I know where Mother Harewood keeps her tea and sugar;'
+and he pounced on a tea-caddy of Indian aspect.</p>
+
+<p>'Lance, if you did that to Mettie&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly so. I don't;' and he ran out of the room, while Cherry sat
+up on her sofa, her petulance quite banished between amusement and
+desperation at such proceedings in a strange house. He came back
+presently, with two cups, saucers, and plates, apparently picked up at
+hap-hazard, as no two were alike. 'My dear Lance, where have you been?'</p>
+
+<p>'In the kitchen. Such a jolly arched old hole. Bill and I have done no
+end of Welsh rabbits there. Once when we were melting some lead, Bill
+let it drop into the pudding, and the Pater got it at dinner, and said
+it was the heaviest morsel he ever had to digest.'</p>
+
+<p>'But wasn't it poison?'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose not, for you see he isn't dead. Another time, when we were
+melting glue, we upset a whole lot of fat, and the chimney caught fire;
+and wasn't that a go? Bill got a pistol out of Jack's room, and fired
+it up the chimney to bring the soot down; and down it came with a
+vengeance! He was regularly singed, and I do think the place would have
+been burned if it had not been too old! All the Shapcotes ran out into
+the court, hallooing Fire! and the engine came, but there was nothing
+for it to do. Oh, the face Wilmet would make to see that kitchen.
+Kettle's biling&mdash;I must run.'</p>
+
+<p>He came back with an enormous metal tea-pot in one hand, and a boiling
+kettle in the other, a cloud of vapour about his head.</p>
+
+<p>'You appear in a cloud, like a Greek divinity,' said Cherry, beginning
+to enter into the humour of the thing.</p>
+
+<p>'Bringing nectar and ambrosia,' said Lance, depositing the kettle amid
+the furbelows of paper in the grate, and proceeding to brew the tea.
+'Excuse the small trifles of milk and cream; and as to bread, I can't
+find it, but here are the cakes you had for luncheon, shunted off into
+the passage window. Sugar, Cherry? Fingers were made before tongs. Now
+I call this jolly.'</p>
+
+<p>'I only hope this isn't a great liberty.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you fired off a cannon under Mrs. Harewood's nose, she would not
+call it a liberty.'</p>
+
+<p>'So it appears. But Mr. Harewood does not look&mdash;like that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, he's well broken in. He is the pink of orderliness in his own
+study and the library, but as long as no one meddles there, he minds
+nothing. It just keeps him alive; but I believe the Shapcotes think
+this house a mild lunatic asylum.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who are the Shapcotes?'</p>
+
+<p>'He's registrar. They live in the other half of this place&mdash;the old
+infirmary, Mr. Harewood calls it. Such a contrast! He is a tremendous
+old Turk in his house, and she is a little mincing woman; and they've
+made Gus&mdash;he's one of us, you know&mdash;a horrid sneak, and think it's all
+my bad company and Bill's. By-the-by, Cherry, Gus Shapcote asked me if
+my senior wasn't spoony about&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you told him to mind his own business!' cried Geraldine, with a
+great start of indignation.</p>
+
+<p>'I told him he was a sheep,' said Lance. 'But, I say, Cherry, I want to
+know what you think of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Think? I'm not so ready to think nonsense!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, when the old giant was getting some tea for <i>her</i>, I saw two
+ladies look at one another and wink.'</p>
+
+<p>'Abominably ill-mannered,' she cried, growing ruddier than the cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'But had you any notion of it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Impossible!' she said breathlessly. 'He is only kind and civil to her,
+as he is to everybody. Think how young he is!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure I never thought old Blunderbore much younger than Methuselah.
+Twenty-one! Isn't it about the age one does such things?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not when one has twelve brothers and sisters on one's back,' sighed
+Geraldine. 'Poor Felix! No, there can't be anything in it. Don't let us
+think of foolish nonsense this wonderful day. What a glorious hymn that
+was!'</p>
+
+<p>Lance laid his head lovingly on the sofa-cushion, and discussed
+the enjoyment of the day with his skilled appreciation of music.
+Geraldine's receptive power was not inferior to his own, though she had
+none of that of expression, nor of the science in which he was trained.
+He was like another being from the merry rattle he was at other times;
+and she had more glimpses than she ever had before of the high nature
+and deep enthusiasm that were growing in him.</p>
+
+<p>'Hark! there's somebody coming,' she cried, starting.</p>
+
+<p>'Let him come. Oh, it is the Pater.&mdash;Here is some capital tea, Mr.
+Harewood. Have some? I'll get a cup.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are taking care of your sister. That is right. A good colonist
+you would make.&mdash;Come in, Lee,' said Mr. Harewood, who, to Cherry's
+increased consternation, was followed by another clergyman. 'We are
+better off than I dared to expect, thanks to this young gentleman. Miss
+Geraldine Underwood&mdash;Mr. Lee.&mdash;You knew her father, I think.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not poor Underwood of Bexley? Indeed! I knew him. I always wished I
+could have seen more of him,' said Mr. Lee, coming up and heartily
+shaking hands with Cherry, and asking whether she was staying there, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Lance had fetched a blue china soup-plate, a white cup and
+pink spotted saucer; another plate labelled 'Nursery,' and a coffee-cup
+and saucer, one brown and the other blue; and as tidily as if he had
+been lady of the house or parlour-maid, presented his provisions, Mr.
+Harewood accepting with a certain quiet amusement. His remarkable
+trim neatness of appearance, and old-school precision of manner, made
+his quiet humorous acquiescence in the wild ways of his household all
+the more droll. After a little clerical talk, that reminded Cherry
+of the old times when she used to lie on her couch, supposed not to
+understand, but dreamily taking in much more than any one knew&mdash;it
+appeared that Mr. Lee wanted to see something in the Library, and Mr.
+Harewood asked her whether she would like to come and see Coeur de
+Lion's seal.</p>
+
+<p>She was fully rested, and greatly pleased. Lance's arm was quite
+sufficient now, and she studied the Cathedral and its precincts in a
+superexcellent manner. Mr. Harewood, who had spent almost his whole
+life under its shadow, and knew the history of almost every stone or
+quarry of glass, was the best of lionizers, and gave her much attention
+when he perceived how intelligent and appreciative she was. He showed
+her the plan of the old conventual buildings, and she began to unravel
+the labyrinth through which she had been hurried. The Close and Deanery
+were modernized, but he valued the quaint old corner where he lived
+for its genuine age. The old house now divided between him and Mr.
+Shapcote had been the infirmary; and the long narrow building opposite,
+between the Bailey and the cloister, had been the lodgings either of
+lay-brothers or servants. There being few boarders at the Cathedral
+school, they had always been lodged in the long narrow room, with
+the second master in a little closet shut off from them. Cherry was
+favoured with a glance at Lance's little corner, with the old-fashioned
+black oak bedstead, solid but unsteady table and stool, the equally
+old press, and the book-case he had made himself with boards begged
+from his friend the carpenter. A photograph and drawing or two, and a
+bat, completed the plenishing. She thought it very uncomfortable, but
+Lance called it his castle; and Mr. Harewood, pointing to the washing
+apparatus, related that in his day the cock in the Bailey was the only
+provision for such purposes. The boys were safely locked in at eight
+every night when the curfew rang, and the Bailey door was shut, there
+being no other access to their rooms, except by the Cathedral, through
+the Library, and the private door that led into the passage common to
+the Harewoods and Shapcotes.</p>
+
+<p>The loveliness of the Cloister, the noble vault of the Chapter-house,
+the various beauties and wonders of the Cathedral, and lastly the
+curiosities of the Library&mdash;where Mr. Harewood enthroned her in his own
+chair, unlocked the cases, brought her the treasures, and turned over
+the illuminated manuscripts for her as if she had been a princess&mdash;made
+Geraldine forget time, weariness, and anxiety, until, as the summer sun
+was at last taking leave, a voice called at the window, 'Here she is!
+I thought Papa would have her here!' and the freckled face of a Miss
+Harewood was seen peering in.</p>
+
+<p>There the truants were, eager, hurried, afraid for the train, full of
+compunction for the long abandonment: Alice, most apologetic; Wilmet,
+most quiet; Felix, most attentive; Robina, still ecstatic; and Angela,
+tired out&mdash;there they all were. It was all one hasty scramble to the
+crowded station, and then one merry discussion and comparison of notes
+all the way home; Geraldine maintaining that she had enjoyed herself
+the best of all; and Alice incredulous of the pleasure of sitting in
+a musty old library with an old gentleman of at least sixty; while
+Felix was so much delighted to find that she had been so happy, that he
+almost believed that the delay had been solely out of consideration for
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Froggatt was safe at the station in his basket, full of delight
+at the enjoyment of his young people, and of anecdotes of Bernard and
+Stella; and Geraldine found herself safely deposited at home, but with
+one last private apology from Wilmet as she was putting her to bed.
+'I did not know how to help it,' she said; 'Alice was so wild with
+delight, that I could not get her away; and Felix was enjoying his
+holiday so thoroughly, I knew that you would be sorry it should be
+shortened.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed I am very glad you stayed. It would be too bad to encumber you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wanted to come and see after you, but I had promised Miss Pearson
+not to lose sight of Alice. And then Lance offered to take care of you.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Wilmet, I never half knew what a dear boy Lance is! What boy would
+have come, when all that was going on, to stay with a lame cross
+thing like me? And how nice for him to have such kind friends as the
+Harewoods!'</p>
+
+<p>'They seem very fond of him,' said Wilmet; 'but I wish he had taken up
+with the Shapcotes. I never saw such a house. It is enough to ruin all
+sense of order! But they were very kind to us; and if you were well
+off, it was all right. I never saw Felix look so like his bright old
+self as to-day; and it is his birth-day, after all.'</p>
+
+<p>So Wilmet was innocent of all suspicions&mdash;wise experienced Wilmet!
+That was enough to make Cherry forget that little thorn of jealousy,
+especially as things subsided into their usual course, and she had no
+more food for conjecture.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>GIANT DESPAIR'S CASTLE.</h3>
+
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Who haplesse and eke hopelesse all in vaine,<br />
+Did to him pace sad battle to darrayne;<br />
+Disarmd, disgraste, and inwardly dismayde,<br />
+And eke so faint in every ioynt and vayne,<br />
+Through that fraile fountaine which him feeble made.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 45%;"><i>Spenser.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>Felix's majority made no immediate difference. His thirteenth part of
+his father's small property remained with the rest, at any rate until
+his guardian should return from his travels in the East; but in the
+course of the winter his kind old godfather, Admiral Chester, died, and
+having no nearer relation, left him the result of his small savings out
+of his pay, which would, the lawyer wrote, amount to about a thousand
+pounds; but there was a good deal of business to be transacted, and it
+would be long before the sum was made over to him.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet and Geraldine thought it a perfect fortune, leading to the
+University, and release from trade; and they looked rather crestfallen
+when they heard that it only meant Ł30 per annum in the funds, or
+Ł50 in some risky investment. Mr. Froggatt's wish was that he should
+purchase such a share in the business as would really give him standing
+there; but Wilmet heard this with regret; she did not like his thus
+binding himself absolutely down to trade.</p>
+
+<p>'You are thinking for Alda,' said Felix, smiling. 'You are considering
+how Froggatt and Underwood will sound in her ears.'</p>
+
+<p>'In mine, too, Felix; I <i>do</i> not like it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I would willingly endure it to become Redstone's master,' said Felix,
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>'Is he still so vexatious?' asked Geraldine; for not above once in six
+months did Felix speak of any trials from his companions in business.</p>
+
+<p>'Not actively so; but things might be better done, and much ill blood
+saved. I cannot share W. W.'s peculiar pride in preferring to be an
+assistant instead of a partner.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then this is what you mean to do with it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait till it comes,' he said, oracularly. 'Seriously, though, I don't
+want to tie it all up. The boys may want a start in life.'</p>
+
+<p>Neither sister thought of observing that the legacy was to one, not
+to all. Everybody regarded what belonged to Felix as common property;
+and the 'boys' were far enough into their teens to begin to make their
+future an anxious consideration. Clement was just seventeen, and though
+he had outgrown his voice, was lingering on as a sort of adopted child
+at St. Matthew's, helping in the parish school, and reading under one
+of the clergy in preparation for standing for a scholarship. He tried
+for one in the autumn, but failed, so much to his surprise and disgust,
+that he thought hostility to St. Matthew's must be at the bottom of his
+rejection; and came home with somewhat of his martyr-like complacency
+at Christmas, meaning to read so hard as to force his way in spite
+of prejudice. He was very tall, fair, and slight; and his features
+were the more infantine from a certain melancholy baby-like gravity,
+which music alone dispersed. He really played beautifully, and being
+entrusted with the organ during the schoolmaster's Christmas holidays,
+made practising his chief recreation. That Lance would often follow him
+into church for a study, and always made one of the group round the
+piano when Alice Knevett came to sing with them, was a great grievance
+to Fulbert, who never loved music, and hated it as a rival for Lance's
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>These two were generally the closest companions, and were alike in
+having more boyishness, restlessness, and enterprise than their
+brothers. This winter their ambition was to be at all the meets within
+five miles, follow up the hunt, and be able to report the fox's death
+at the end of the day. Indeed, their appetite for whatever bore the
+name of sport was as ravenous as it was indiscriminate; and their
+rapturous communications could not be checked by Clement's manifest
+contempt, or the discouraging indifference of the rest&mdash;all but Robina,
+who loved whatever Lance loved, and was ready to go to a meet, if
+Wilmet had not interfered with a high hand.</p>
+
+<p>Before long Felix wished that his authority over the male part of the
+family were as well established as that in her department.</p>
+
+<p>One hunting day the two brothers came in splashed up to the eyes,
+recounting how they had found a boy of about their own age in a ditch,
+bruised and stunned, but not seriously hurt; how with consolation and
+schoolboy surgery they had cheered him, and found he was Harry Collis,
+whom they had known as a school-fellow at Bexley; how they had helped
+him home to Marshlands Hall, and had been amazed at the dreariness and
+want of all home comfort at the place, so that they did not like to
+leave him till his father came home; and how Captain Collis had not
+only thanked them warmly, but had asked them over to come and shoot
+rabbits the next day.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to blame them for, but Felix had much rather it had
+never happened. Captain Collis was one of a race of squires who had
+never been very reputable, and had not risen greatly above the farmer.
+He had been in the army, and had the bearing of a gentleman; but ever
+since his wife's death, he had lived an unsatisfactory sort of life
+at the Hall, always forward in sport, but not well thought of, and
+believed to be a good deal in debt. His only child, this Harry Collis,
+had been sent somewhat fitfully to the St. Oswald's Grammar School,
+and had been rather a favourite companion of Lance's; but separation
+had put an end to the intimacy, and this renewal was not at all to the
+taste of their eldest brother.</p>
+
+<p>'It can't be helped this time,' he said, when he heard of the
+invitation; 'I suppose you must go to-morrow, but I don't fancy the
+concern.'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert's bristles began to rise, but Lance chatted gaily on. 'But,
+Fee, you never saw such a place! Stables for nine hunters. Only think!
+And a horse entered for the Derby! We are to see him to-morrow. It is
+the jolliest place.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nine hunters!' moralized Clement; 'they cost as much as three times
+nine orphans.'</p>
+
+<p>'And they are worth a dozen times as much as the nasty little beggars!'
+said Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>On which Angela put in the trite remark that the orphans had souls.</p>
+
+<p>'Precious rum ones,' muttered Fulbert; and in the clamour thus raised
+the subject dropped; but when next morning, in the openness of his
+heart, Lance invited Clement to go with them to share the untold joys
+of rabbit-shooting, he met with a decisive reply. 'Certainly not! I
+should think your Dean would be surprised at you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, the Dean is a kind old chap,' answered Lance, off-hand; 'whenever
+he has us to sing at a party, he tips us all round, thanks us, and
+tells us to enjoy ourselves in the supper-room, like a gentleman, as he
+is.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know what this Collis's character is?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hang his character! I want his rabbits.'</p>
+
+<p>And Lance was off with Fulbert; while Clement remained, to make
+Geraldine unhappy with his opinion of the temptations of Marshlands
+Hall, returning to the charge when Felix came in before dinner.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Felix briefly, 'Mr. Froggatt has been telling me. It must
+be stopped.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you heard of the mischief that&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't be such a girl, Tina. I am going to do the thing, and there is
+no use in keeping on about it.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix had not called Clement Tina since he had been head of the family,
+and irritability in him was a token of great perplexity; for indeed his
+hardest task always was the dealing with Fulbert; and he was besides
+very sorry to balk the poor boys of one of their few chances of manly
+amusement.</p>
+
+<p>He would have waited to utter his prohibition till the excitement
+should have worked off, but he knew that Clement would never hold
+his peace through the narrative of their adventures; so, as they had
+not come in when his work was over, he took Theodore on his arm, and
+retreated to the little parlour behind the shop, where he lay in wait,
+reading, and mechanically whistling tunes to Theodore, till he heard
+the bell, and went to open the door.</p>
+
+<p>The gas showed them rosy, merry, glorious, and bespattered, one
+waving a couple of rabbits, and the other of pheasants, and trying to
+tickle Theodore's cheeks with the long tails of the latter, of course
+frightening him into a fretful wail.</p>
+
+<p>'Take Theodore upstairs, if you please, Lance,' said Felix, 'and then
+come down; I want you.'</p>
+
+<p>'The Captain was going to dine at Bowstead's,' said Fulbert, 'so he
+drove us in his dog-cart. If the frost holds, we are to go out and
+skate on Monday.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix employed himself in putting away his papers, without answering.</p>
+
+<p>'I had very good luck,' continued Fulbert, 'four out of six; wonderful
+for so new a hand, the Captain said.'</p>
+
+<p>'Such a lovely animal you never saw,' said Lance, swinging himself
+downstairs. 'You must walk out and see it, Fee, for you'll have it in
+the Pursuivant some Saturday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance, I am very sorry,' said Felix, standing upright, with his back
+to the exhausted grate. 'Just attend to me, both of you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' said Lance, hastily, 'I know there's a lot of old women's gossip
+about Collis; but nobody minds such stuff. Harry is as good a lad as
+ever stepped; and there was no harm to be seen about the place;&mdash;was
+there, Ful?'</p>
+
+<p>'The old Frog has been croaking,' hoarsely muttered Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>Boys of sixteen and fourteen were incapable of coercion by a youth
+of one-and-twenty, and the only appeal must be to conscience and
+reason; so Felix went on speaking, though he had seen from the first
+that Fulbert's antagonism rendered him stolid, deaf, and blind; and
+Lancelot's flushed cheeks, angry eyes, impatient attempts to interrupt,
+and scornful gestures told of scarcely-repressed passion.</p>
+
+<p>'You may have seen no harm, I find no fault' (Fulbert scowled); 'but
+if I had known what I do now I should not have let you go to-day. My
+father would rather have cut off his right hand than have allowed you
+to begin an acquaintance which has been ruinous to almost all the young
+men who have been in that set.'</p>
+
+<p>'But we are not young men,' cried Lance; 'it is only for the holidays;
+and we only want a little fun with poor Harry, he is so lonely&mdash;and
+just to go out rabbiting and skating. It is very hard we can't be
+let alone the first time anything worth doing has turned up in this
+abominable slow place.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very hard, Lance. No one is more concerned than I; but if this
+intimacy once begins, there is no guessing where it will lead; and I do
+not speak without grounds. Listen&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'If it comes from old Frog, you may as well shut up,' said Lance.
+'There's been no peace at Marshlands since he took that cottage&mdash;a
+regular old nuisance and mischief-maker, spiting the Captain because
+one of the dogs killed his old cock, and bothering Charlie to no end
+about him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have heard from others as well,' said Felix; and he briefly
+mentioned some facts as to the scandals of the dissipated household,
+some of the imputations under which Captain Collis lay, and named two
+or three of the young men whose unsatisfactory conduct was ascribed to
+his influence.</p>
+
+<p>He saw that both lads were startled, and wound up with saying,
+'Therefore it is not without reason that I desire that you do not go
+there again.'</p>
+
+<p>With which words, he opened the door, turned off the gas, and walked
+upstairs, hearing on the way a growl of Fulbert's&mdash;'That's what comes
+of being cad to a stupid brute of an old tradesman;' and likewise a
+bouncing, rolling, and tumbling, and a very unchorister-like expletive
+from Lance; but he hurried up, like the conclave from the vault at
+Lindisfarn, only with a sinking heart, and looks that made his sisters
+say how tired he must be. The boys were seen no more, but sent word by
+Bernard that they were wet through, they should not dress, but should
+get some supper in the kitchen, and go to bed.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday Lance had recovered himself and his temper, but in the
+evening he made another attempt upon Felix in private. His heart was
+greatly set upon Marshlands, and he argued that there was no evil at
+all in what they had been doing, and entreated Felix to be content with
+the promise both were willing to make, to take no share in anything
+doubtful&mdash;not even to play at billiards, or cards&mdash;if that would
+satisfy him, said Lance, 'but we will promise anything you please
+against playing, or betting, or&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I know, Lance, you once made such a promise, and kept it. I trust you
+entirely. But before, it would have been cruel to keep you from that
+sick boy; now this would be mere running into temptation for your own
+amusement.'</p>
+
+<p>'Harry is not much better off than Fernan was,' said Lancelot,
+wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor fellow! very likely not; but it would be more certain harm to
+yourself than good to him. Any way, no respectable person would choose
+to be intimate there, or to let their boys resort there; and it is my
+duty not to consent.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ful is in such an awful way,' said Lance, disconsolately. 'Fee, you
+don't know how hard it is, you always were such a muff.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is true,' said Felix, not at all offended; 'and I had my father
+and Edgar; but indeed, Lance, nothing ever was so hard to me to do as
+this. I cannot say how sorry I am.'</p>
+
+<p>'You do really order me not?' said Lance, looking straight up at him.</p>
+
+<p>'I do. I forbid you to go into Captain Collis's grounds, or to do more
+than exchange a greeting, if you meet him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will not. There's my word and honour for it, since&mdash;since you are so
+intolerably led by the nose by old Frog;' and Lance flung away, with
+the remains of his passion worked up afresh, and was as glum as his
+nature allowed the rest of the evening; but Felix, though much annoyed,
+saw that the boy had set up voluntarily two barriers between himself
+and his tempted will&mdash;in the command and the promise.</p>
+
+<p>But the command that was a guard to the one, was a goad to the other;
+for Fulbert had never accepted his eldest brother's authority, and
+could not brook interference. Still his school character was good, and
+there was a certain worth about him, which made him sometimes withdraw
+his resistance, though never submit; and Felix had some hope that it
+would be so in the present case, when, while speeding to church in the
+dark winter Monday morning, he overheard Lance say to Clement, 'I say,
+Clem, 'tis a jolly stinging frost. If you'll take your skates and give
+us a lesson, we'll be off for the lake at Centry.'</p>
+
+<p>One of the Whittingtonian curates had taken the boys to the ice in the
+parks, and taught them so effectively, that Clement was one of the best
+skaters in Bexley; but he was too much inclined to the nayward not to
+reply, 'I have to practise that anthem for Wednesday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, bother the practice!'</p>
+
+<p>(Which Felix mentally echoed.)</p>
+
+<p>'I can play that anthem, if that's all,' said Lance; 'and I believe you
+know it perfectly well. Now, Clem, don't be savage; I think, if you
+will come, we <i>might</i> put that other thing out of Ful's head.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, if you think it is to be of use&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'That's right! Thank you,' cried Lance. 'And you won't jaw us all the
+way? He can't stand that, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement winced; but in compensation, apparently, for this forbidden
+lecture, he observed, 'I am glad you at least take it properly, Lance,
+though it would be worse in you than in him, considering your&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Bother it!' unceremoniously broke in Lance; and the words of wisdom
+were silenced.</p>
+
+<p>Lance did his best to organise his party, but it was a failure; Fulbert
+said he had made an engagement, and would not break it; he was not
+bound to toady old Froggy, nor in bondage to any old fogeys of a dean
+and chapter; and he walked off the faster for Clement's protest,
+leaving Lance to roll on the floor and climb the balusters backwards
+to exhale his desire to follow. He was too much upset even to follow
+Clement to the organ, or to settle to the drawing which Cherry was
+teaching him, and was a great torment to himself and his sisters till
+dinner-time, when Clement had done his organ and his Greek, and was
+ready for a rush for the ice; and Robina went joyously with them.
+'Between two young ladies one can't well run into harm's way,' said
+Lance.</p>
+
+<p>So things went on for a fortnight. Fulbert never shuffled, he went
+openly to Marshlands Hall; and though not boasting of his expeditions,
+did not treat them as a secret. Wilmet and Geraldine each tried
+persuasion, but were silenced rudely; and Felix, unable to enforce his
+authority, held his tongue, but was very unhappy, both for the present
+and for the future. He did not believe much harm was doing now, but the
+temptation would increase with every vacation as the boys came nearer
+to manhood; and he seemed to have lost all influence and moral power
+over Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>Good old Mrs. Froggatt gave a small children's party, to which, with
+many apologies, she invited the lesser Underwoods, under charge of
+Wilmet. They were to sleep at the cottage, and Wilmet having offered to
+help in dressing the Christmas-tree, they set out early in the day to
+walk, escorted by the three brothers. That the trio did not return to
+tea did not alarm Felix and Geraldine, who suspected that the dislike
+the two elder expressed to the whole house of Froggatt had melted
+before the pleasure of working at the tree.</p>
+
+<p>The evening was taken up in the discussion of a letter of Edgar's, more
+than usually discontented with his employment; and another of Alda's,
+who had been laid under orders to write to her eldest brother, and
+desire him to remonstrate with Edgar on his inattention, laziness, and
+pleasure-seeking. The anxiety had long been growing up; Felix had come
+to write his difficult letter by the light of Geraldine's sympathy,
+and they were weighing what should be said, when the door-bell rang,
+some sounds puzzled them, and just as Felix was getting up to see what
+was the matter, Fulbert put his head in at the door, and said, low but
+earnestly, 'Step here, Felix, please.'</p>
+
+<p>He thought there must have been some terrible accident; but when from
+the top of the stairs he beheld Clement's aspect under the gas in
+the passage, and heard the thick tones in which he was holding forth
+according to instinct, his consternation was almost greater than at any
+injury. Fulbert looked pale and astounded. 'I can't get him upstairs,'
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>However, sense enough remained to Clement to give effect to his eldest
+brother's stern words, 'Be quiet, and come up;' and they dragged him
+stumbling upstairs without more words.</p>
+
+<p>'Where's Lance?' then asked Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Stayed at the Froggatts'. I wish he hadn't. He will walk home
+by-and-by.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Ful, run and tell Cherry that nobody is hurt. Do not let her get
+frightened.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix spoke resolutely, but he felt so full of dismay and horror,
+that he hardly knew what he was doing till Fulbert had returned, and
+repressing all poor Clement's broken moralities, they had deposited him
+safely in bed, and shut the door on him. Then Fulbert gazed up at Felix
+with eyes full of regret and consternation, and he gathered breath to
+enter his own room, and say, 'What is the meaning of this?'</p>
+
+<p>'His head must be ridiculously weak; or there was some beastly trick.
+Nobody else was the least queer!'</p>
+
+<p>'Marshlands Hall?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, he had gone on at me so, that when Lance let himself be
+persuaded into staying to hang up the lamps, it struck me what a lark
+it would be to take Tina across the Hall lands, and then tell him he
+had been on the enemy's ground. So I told him of the old chantry that
+is turned into a barn, and of course he must go and see it, and take
+sketches of the windows for his clergy. While he was doing it, up comes
+young Jackman. You know young Jackman at the Potteries&mdash;a regular
+clever fellow that knows everything?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I know him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, they got into early pointed, and late pointed, and billets and
+dog-tooths, and all the rest, and Clem went on like a house on fire;
+and by that time we had got to the big pond, where Collis and half
+a dozen more were, and he had got his skates, and I believe he did
+surprise them; they called it first rate.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did he know where he was?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not at the beginning of the skating. I only wanted to get him down
+from his altitudes, and never thought it would come to this. You
+believe that, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I do. Go on.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was fine moonlight, and we stayed on ever so long, while Jackman
+and Clem and two more danced a quadrille on the ice; and when it was
+over everybody was horribly cold, and Captain Collis said we must all
+come in and have something hot; and Jackman said he was going to drive
+home to dinner at eight, and would take us, but every one got talking,
+and it was half-past eight before we started. It was all in such a
+scramble, that I had no notion there was anything amiss till Clem began
+to talk on the way home.'</p>
+
+<p>'What were they drinking?'</p>
+
+<p>'Various things&mdash;brandy-and-water chiefly. I don't like it, and had
+some ale; but I was playing with Harry's puppies, and not much noticing
+Clem.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think it was a trick?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't tell. He is so innocent, he would have no notion how stiff to
+make it. If any one meant mischief, it was Jackman; and I did think
+once or twice he had found out Tina, and was playing him off. On the
+way home, when I was trying to hinder poor Clem from falling off, he
+went on chaffing so, that I longed to jump off, and lay the whip about
+his ears.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Clem!' said Felix, more grieved and shocked than angry, and not
+insensible to Fulbert's being even more appalled, and quite frightened
+out of his sulkiness.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a bad business,' he sighed. 'It was all Lance's fault for
+letting himself be lugged into that baby party.'</p>
+
+<p>Even this was a great admission, and Felix would not blight it by a
+word.</p>
+
+<p>'It is well the girls are not at home,' was all he said.</p>
+
+<p>'I only told Cherry that Clem wasn't well. I can't face her; I shall go
+to bed. I would not have had this happen for the world.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall say nothing to her,' said Felix, dejectedly, turning to leave
+the room, under a horrible sense of disgrace and stain on the whole
+family; but at the door he was caught hold of by Fulbert, who looked up
+at him with a face quite unlike anything he had ever seen in the lad.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, I never was so sorry in my life. I wish you would give me a
+good rowing.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix half smiled. 'I could not,' he said. 'You did not know what you
+were doing. Good-night.'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert gazed after him as he went downstairs, and went back, with a
+groan, to his own room.</p>
+
+<p>Felix had never before felt so hopeful about Fulbert; but still he was
+too much overset to talk to Cherry, and hurried her off to bed, soon
+following her example, for he had not the heart to see Lance that night.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the first hours of the morning had to be spent in attending
+on the victim, whose misery, mental and bodily, was extreme, and was
+aggravated by his engagement to the organ. Lance could supply his place
+there, and was sent off to do so, but looking as subdued and guilty as
+if he had been making Fulbert's confession instead of hearing it, and
+stumbling uncomfortably over the explanation that Clement was not well,
+and that Felix could not leave him.</p>
+
+<p>For there was a fragility about Clement's long lank frame that made any
+shock to it very severe, and he was ill enough to alarm his happily
+inexperienced brothers, and greatly increase Fulbert's penitence; but
+by the time Mr. Froggatt drove the sisters home, and Wilmet wondered
+that she could not go out for a night without some one being ill, he
+had arrived at a state which she could be left to attribute to Mrs.
+Froggatt's innocent mince-pies.</p>
+
+<p>He burrowed under his blankets, and feigned sleep and discomfort beyond
+speech, whenever she came into the room, begging only that the light
+might be kept out, and that nobody would speak to him. He was too
+utterly miserable for anger with Fulbert, but only showed a sort of
+broken-hearted forgiveness, which made Fulbert say in desperation to
+Lance, 'I wish you would just fall upon me. I shall not be myself again
+till I've been blown up!'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose you are doing it for yourself, and that is worse,' said
+Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'And you know it was all your doing, for going to that disgusting old
+Philistine's tea and cake.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, you and Clem wanted me to lead you about, like two dogs in a
+string?' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'No; Tina would have kept the baby-bunting out of harm's way.'</p>
+
+<p>'More likely he would have bored me into going. Poor Tina! I should
+almost like to hear him jaw again! After all, you and he never
+promised, and I did.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I had,' said Fulbert; 'I am awfully afraid they are getting
+hold of it in the town.'</p>
+
+<p>'So am I. Mowbray Smith looked me all over, and asked me after Clement,
+when I met him just now in the street, as if he had some malice in his
+head.'</p>
+
+<p>'What did you tell him?'</p>
+
+<p>'I said he was in a state of collapse, and that serious fears were
+entertained for his life and reason; and then he warned me against the
+nineteenth-century manners, and I thanked him and made a bow, and now I
+suppose he is gone to tell my Lady.'</p>
+
+<p>When Felix was free in the evening, he found Clement dressed, and
+sitting over the fire in his room&mdash;so well indeed, that he might have
+been downstairs, but that he shrank from every one; and that fire had
+been the fruit of such persevering battles of Wilmet and Sibby with the
+smoke and soot, that it would have been a waste of good labour to have
+deserted it.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Clem, you are better?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, thank you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Head-ache gone?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nearly,' with a heavy sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Felix drew an ancient straw-bottomed chair in front of the fire
+backwards, placed himself astride on it, laid his arms on the top
+and his forehead on them, and in this imposing Mentorial attitude
+began, 'After all, Clem, I don't see that you need be so desperately
+broken-hearted. It was mere innocence and ignorance. Water-drinkers at
+home are really not on a level with other people. I always have to be
+very guarded when I have to dine with the other reporters.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Clement, sadly; 'I do not regard the disgrace as the sin so
+much as the punishment.'</p>
+
+<p>It was more sensible than Felix had expected. He was conscious of not
+understanding Clement, who always seemed to him like a girl, but if
+treated like one, was sure to show himself in an unexpected light.</p>
+
+<p>'You did not know where you were going?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not at first. I found out long before I came off the ice; and then,
+like an absurd fool as I was, I thought myself showing how to deal
+courteously and hold one's own with such people.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are getting to the bottom of it,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I have been thinking it over all day,' said Clement, mournfully. 'I
+see that such a fall could only be the consequence of long-continued
+error. Have I not been very conceited and uncharitable of late, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not more than usual,' said Felix, intending to speak kindly.</p>
+
+<p>'I see. I have been treating my advantages as if they were merits,
+condemning others, and lording it over them. Long ago I was warned that
+my danger was spiritual pride, but self-complacency blinded me.' And he
+hid his face and groaned.</p>
+
+<p>Felix was surprised. He could not thus have discussed himself, even
+with his father; but he perceived that if Clement had no one else
+to preach to he would preach to himself, and that this anatomical
+examination was done in genuine sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>'No humility!' continued Clement. 'That is what has brought me to this.
+If I had distrusted and watched myself, I should have perceived when
+I grew inflated by their flattery, and never&mdash;egregious fool that I
+was&mdash;have thought I was showing that one of our St. Matthew's choir
+could meet worldly men on their own ground.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was glad that his posture enabled him to conceal a smile; but
+perhaps Clement guessed at it, for he exclaimed, 'A fit consequence, to
+have made myself contemptible to everybody!'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, Clem, that is too strong. Your censorious way was bad for
+yourself, and obnoxious to us all, and it was very silly to go to that
+place after what you had heard.'</p>
+
+<p>'After telling Lance it was unworthy of a servant of the sanctuary,'
+moaned Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'Very silly indeed,' continued the elder brother, 'very wrong; but as
+to what happened there, it is not reasonable to look at it as more than
+an accident. It will be forgotten in a week by all but Fulbert and
+yourself, and you will most likely be the wiser for it all your lives.
+I never got on so well with Ful before, or saw him really sorry.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement only answered by a disconsolate noise; and Felix was becoming
+a little impatient, thinking the penitence overstrained, when he broke
+silence with, 'You must let me go up to St. Matthew's!'</p>
+
+<p>'Really, Clement, it is hardly right to let you be always living upon
+Mr. Fulmort now your occupation is ended, and it would be braver not to
+run away.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not mean <i>that!</i>' cried Clement. 'I will not stay there. I would
+not burthen them; but see the Vicar I <i>must!</i> I will go third class,
+and walk from the station.'</p>
+
+<p>'The fare of an omnibus will not quite break our backs,' said Felix,
+smiling. 'If this is needful to settle your mind, you had better go.'</p>
+
+<p>'You do not know what this is to me,' said Clement, earnestly; 'I
+wish you did.' Then perceiving the recurrence to his old propensity,
+he sighed pitifully and hung his head, adding, 'It is of no use till
+Saturday, the Vicar is gone to his sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, you can get a return ticket on Saturday&mdash;that is, if the
+organist is come back.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance must play; I am not worthy.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have no right to break an engagement for fancies about your own
+worthiness,' said Felix. 'Rouse yourself up, and don't exaggerate the
+thing, to alarm all the girls, and make them suspicious.'</p>
+
+<p>'They ought to know. I felt myself a wicked hypocrite when Wilmet
+<i>would</i> come and read me the Psalms, and yet I could not tell her. Tell
+them, Felix; I cannot bear it without.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I shall not. You have no right to grieve and disgust them just
+because you "cannot bear it without." Cannot you bear up, instead of
+drooping and bemoaning in this way? It is not manly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Manliness is the great temptation of this world.'</p>
+
+<p>'You idiot!' Felix, in his provocation, broke out; then getting himself
+in hand again, 'Don't you know the difference between true and false
+manliness?'</p>
+
+<p>'I know men of the world make the distinction,' said Clement; 'I am not
+meaning any censure, Felix. Circumstances have given you a different
+standard.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix interrupted rather hotly: 'Only my father's. I have heard him
+say, that if one is not a man before one is a parson, one brings the
+ministry into contempt. The things the boys call you Tina for are not
+what make a good clergyman.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't feel as if I could presume to seek the priesthood after that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stuff and nonsense!' cried Felix. 'If no one was ordained who had ever
+made a fool of himself and repented, we should be badly off for clergy.
+You were conceited and provoking, and have let yourself be led into a
+nasty scrape&mdash;that's the long and short of the matter; but it is only
+hugging your own self-importance to sit honing and moaning up here.
+Come down, and behave like a reasonable being.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let me stay here to-night, Felix, I <i>do</i> need it,' said Clement, with
+tears in his eyes; 'if I am alone now, I think I can bring myself to
+bear up outwardly as you wish.'</p>
+
+<p>The affected tone had vanished, and Felix rose, and kindly put his
+hand on his shoulder, and said, 'Do, Clem. You know it is not only my
+worldliness&mdash;mere man of business as I am&mdash;that bids us to hide grief
+within, and "anoint the head and wash the face."'</p>
+
+<p>Just then an exulting shout rang through the house, many feet scuttled
+upstairs, knocks hailed upon the door, and many voices shouted, 'Mr.
+Audley! Felix, Clem, Mr. Audley!'</p>
+
+<p>'Won't you come, Clem?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not to-night; I could not.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement shut the door, and Felix hastened down among the dancing
+exulting little ones. 'I thought you were at Rome!' he said, as the
+hands met in an eager grasp.</p>
+
+<p>'I was there on Christmas Day; but Dr. White's appointment is settled,
+and he wants me to go out with him in June. My brother is gone on to
+London, and I must join him there on Saturday.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad it is to-day instead of yesterday,' said Wilmet. 'We were
+all out but Felix and Cherry, and poor Clement was so ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Clement ill? Is he better?'</p>
+
+<p>'He will be all right to-morrow,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley detected a desire to elude inquiry, as well as a meaning
+look between the two younger boys, and he thought care sat heavier on
+the brow of the young master of the house than when they had parted
+eighteen months before.</p>
+
+<p>His travels were related, his photographs admired, his lodging arranged
+in Mr. Froggatt's room, and after the general good-night, he drew his
+chair in to the fire, and prepared for a talk with his ex-ward.</p>
+
+<p>'You look anxious, Felix. Have things gone on pretty well?'</p>
+
+<p>'Pretty fairly, thank you, till just now, when there is rather an ugly
+scrape,'&mdash;and he proceeded to disburthen his mind of last night's
+misadventure; when it must be confessed that the narrative of Clement's
+overweening security having had a fall provoked a smile from his
+guardian, and an observation that it might do him a great deal of good.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Felix, 'if his friends do not let him make much of his
+penitence, and think it very fine to have so important a thing to
+repent of.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think they will do that. You must not take Clement as exactly
+the fruit of their teaching.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's no humbug about him, at least,' said Felix. 'He is really cut
+up exceedingly. Indeed all I have been doing was to get him to moderate
+his dolefulness. I believe he thinks me a sort of heathen.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Mr. Audley, laughing, 'you don't seem to have taken the
+line of the model head of the family.'</p>
+
+<p>'The poor boys were both so wretched, that one could not say a word
+to make it worse,' said Felix. 'This satisfies me that Fulbert is all
+right in that way. He would not have been so shocked if he had ever
+seen anything like it before; but though he is very sorry now, I am
+afraid it will not cut the connection with those Collises.'</p>
+
+<p>'You do not find him easier to manage?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; that is the worst. He is not half a bad boy&mdash;nay, what is called a
+well-principled boy&mdash;only it is his principle not to mind me. I do not
+know whether I am donnish with him, or if I bullied him too much when
+he was little; but he is always counter to me. Then he is one of those
+boys who want an out-of-door life, and on whom the being shut up in a
+town falls hard. The giving up sporting is real privation to him and to
+Lance, and much the hardest on him, for he does not care for music or
+drawing, or anything of that sort.'</p>
+
+<p>'How old is he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Just sixteen.'</p>
+
+<p>'Suppose I were to take him out to Australia?'</p>
+
+<p>'Fulbert!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I always intended to take one if I went, but I waited till
+my return to see about it, and I thought Clement was of a more
+inconvenient age; but you must judge.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Tina!' said Felix, smiling, 'he would hardly do in a colony. He
+is heart and soul a clergyman, and whether he will ever be more of a
+man I don't know; but I don't think he could rough it as a missionary.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he going to get a scholarship?'</p>
+
+<p>'He has tried at Corpus, and failed. He is full young, and I suppose he
+ought to go to a tutor. I am afraid he learnt more music than classics
+up at that place.'</p>
+
+<p>'Can the tutoring be managed?'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose a hundred out of that thousand will do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that thousand to go like the famous birth-day five?'</p>
+
+<p>'Five hundred is to be put into the business; but the rest I meant to
+keep in reserve for such things as this.'</p>
+
+<p>'If all are to be helped at this rate, your reserve will soon come to
+an end.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps so; but I have always looked on Clement as my own substitute.
+Indeed, I held that hope out to my father, when it distressed him that
+I should give it up. So Clem is pretty well settled, thank you. Besides
+I am not afraid of his not going on well here; but I do believe Fulbert
+will do the better for being more independent, only it seems to me too
+much to let you undertake for us.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are all my charge,' said Mr. Audley; 'and as I am leaving you
+the whole burthen of the rest, and my poor little godson is not likely
+to want such care, you need have no scruple. One of the Somervilles is
+going out to a Government office at Albertstown, and perhaps may put me
+in the way of doing something for him.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix mused a moment, then said, 'The only doubt in my mind would be
+whether, if it suited you equally, it might not be an opening for
+Edgar.'</p>
+
+<p>'Edgar! Surely he is off your hands?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am greatly afraid his present work will not last. He always hated
+it, and I believe he always had some fancy that he could persuade Tom
+Underwood into making a gentleman of him at once, sending him to the
+University or the like, and they petted and admired him enough to
+confirm the notion. Mrs. Underwood makes him escort her to all her
+parties; and you know what a brilliant fellow he is&mdash;sure to be wanted
+for all manner of diversions, concerts, private theatricals, and what
+not; and you can fancy how the counting-house looks to him after. Tom
+Underwood declares he requires nothing of him but what he would of his
+own son; and I believe it is true; but work is work with him, and he
+will not be trifled with. Here is a letter about it, one of many, I
+was trying to answer last night; only this affair of poor Clem's upset
+everything.'</p>
+
+<p>'Six brothers are no sinecure, Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'They are wonderfully little trouble,' said Felix, standing on their
+defence. 'They are all good sound-hearted boys; and as to Lance,
+there's no saying the comfort that little fellow always is. He has that
+peculiar pleasantness about him&mdash;like my father and Edgar&mdash;that one
+feels the moment he is in the house; and he is so steady, with all his
+spirits. The other two both say all this could not have happened with
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'High testimony.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, as both are inclined to look down on him. But think of that boy's
+consideration. He has never once asked me for pocket-money since he
+went to the Cathedral. He gets something when the Dean and Canons have
+the boys to sing, and makes that cover all little expenses.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean to do with him?'</p>
+
+<p>'If he gets the scholarship, a year and a half hence, he will stay on
+two years free of expense. Unluckily, he says that young Harewood is
+cleverer than he, and always just before him: but I have some hope in
+the hare-brains of Master Bill. If he do not get it&mdash;well, we must see,
+but it will go hard if Lance cannot be kept on to be educated properly.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley took the letters, and presently broke into an indignant
+exclamation; to which Felix replied&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'The work is not good enough for him, that is the fact.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you are weak about any one, Felix, it is Edgar. I have no patience
+with him. His work not <i>good</i> enough, forsooth, considering what yours
+is!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mine has much more interest and variety; and he is capable of much
+more than I am.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then let him show it, instead of living in the lap of luxury, and
+murmuring at a few hours at the desk.'</p>
+
+<p>'I ascribe that to his temperament, which certainly has a good deal of
+the artist; that desk-work is peculiarly irksome.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very likely; but it is his plain duty to conquer his dislike. No,
+Felix; I wish I could take him away with me, for I am afraid he will be
+a source of trouble.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never! Edgar is too considerate.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he is exactly what Australia is over-stocked with already&mdash;a
+discontented clerk. If he be spoilt by luxury here, do you think he
+would bear with a rude colony? No. Fulbert is a gruff, obstinate boy,
+but not idle and self-indulgent; and I am not afraid to undertake him,
+but I should be of Edgar.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix had flushed up a good deal, for his love for Edgar was less
+paternal and more sensitively keen than that for any of the others; but
+he was more reasonable, and had more control of temper now, than when
+Mr. Audley had last crossed him; and he made answer, 'I believe you are
+right, and that Edgar could not be happy in a colony. Any way, you are
+most kind to Fulbert. But I am afraid I must go now, or Theodore will
+wake.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you still have him at night?'</p>
+
+<p>'He is not happy with any one else. You have not seen him yet? I am
+sure he is improving! There's his voice! Good-night.' And Felix hurried
+away, leaving Mr. Audley feeling that though here and there the young
+pillar of the house might be mistaken, the daily unselfishness of his
+life was a beautiful thing, and likewise impressed by his grave air of
+manly resolution and deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>By the morning, Clement had recovered his tone, so as not to obtrude
+his penitence or to be much more subdued in manner than usual. Mr.
+Audley made him bring his books to the dining-room after breakfast, and
+the examination quite exonerated the authorities at Oxford from any
+prejudice except against inaccuracy, and showed that a thorough course
+of study was needful before he could even matriculate; and Clement in
+his present lowliness was not incredulous of any deficiency at St.
+Matthew's, but was only meek and mournful.</p>
+
+<p>'What shall I do?' he asked. 'Perhaps some school would take me to
+teach and study at the same time. Or I might get an organist's place,
+and read so that I might be ordained as a literate at last. It would
+come when I was fit, I suppose.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley only said he would inquire, and talk to Felix; and Clement
+pleased him by answering that he could not bear to be an expense to
+Felix. The good principle in the boys was quite to be traced, when
+presently after it was necessary to put Fulbert to a severe trial. On
+going to pay his respects at the Rectory, Mr. Audley found Mr. Mowbray
+Smith there, and after some preliminaries, he was asked whether he knew
+how the young Underwoods had been going on of late; of course, though,
+it would be concealed from him: but it was right, &amp;c. Then Mr. Bevan
+feebly suggested that he did not believe there was any truth in it, and
+was sharply silenced; and Miss Caroline observed that she was always
+sure that Clement Underwood was a great humbug; whereupon, between the
+mother, daughter and curate, the popular version of the Marshlands
+Hall affair was narrated&mdash;or rather versions, for all were beautifully
+entangled and contradictory.</p>
+
+<p>Some one had been in the street, and had seen poor Clement's exit from
+young Jackman's dog-cart, and reported indiscriminately that it was
+'young Underwood.' Lance had not been able to put a sufficiently bold
+face on his morning's report of Clement's indisposition and Felix's
+absence; and this, together with the boys' hunting propensities, and
+Fulbert's visits to Marshlands, had all been concocted into a very
+serious accusation of the whole of the brothers, including Felix, of
+having entered into a dangerous friendship with Captain Collis, and
+underhand enjoying the dissipations of the Hall, which had been the
+bane of many a young man of Bexley.</p>
+
+<p>There were different measures of indignation. Miss Price expected a
+grand series of denunciations&mdash;to Mr. Froggatt&mdash;to Miss Pearson, 'whose
+niece was always there&mdash;most imprudent;'&mdash;nay, perhaps to the Dean, and
+to the Vicar of St. Matthew's. The least excitement she expected, was
+Felix Underwood's expulsion from the choir.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Price merely believed it all, and thought the friends ought to
+interfere, and save the poor young things while there was time for any
+of them. She would never mention it so as to injure them, but nothing
+else could be expected.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mowbray Smith supposed there must be some exaggeration, but he
+had been surprised at Lancelot's manner, and he did not think Felix's
+absence accounted for; he did seem steady&mdash;but&mdash; And there was something
+unnatural in the way of life at St. Matthew's, that would make him
+never trust a lad from thence.</p>
+
+<p>Yes; and even Mr. Bevan did not like St. Matthew's (because it was not
+slack or easy), and he too could believe anything of Clement. No doubt
+poor Felix found those great brothers getting too much for him.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley was standing by the window. He saw Fulbert with Lance and
+little Bernard going down the street, and by one of the sudden dashes
+that had often puzzled the Rectory, he flew out at the door, and the
+next moment had his hand on Fulbert's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>'Fulbert, they have made a terrible scandal of this affair at
+Marshlands Hall. They fancy Felix had something to do with it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix! I should like to punch their heads.'</p>
+
+<p>'You can do better. You can contradict it.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Sir&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>However, Fulbert, while still following to plead with Mr. Audley, found
+himself where he never recollected to have been in his life before,
+among the cushions, arm-chairs, and tables covered with knick-knacks,
+of the Rectory drawing-room. Mr. Bevan in an easy-chair; Mr. Smith
+standing before the fire; Lady Price at work, looking supercilious; and
+her daughter writing notes at a davenport.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bevan half rose and held out his hand, the others contented
+themselves with a nod, while the big, stout lad stood rather like a
+great dog under the same circumstances, very angry with everybody, and
+chiefly with Mr. Audley&mdash;to whom, nevertheless, he trusted for getting
+him safe out again.</p>
+
+<p>'Fulbert,' said Mr. Audley, 'Mr. Bevan would be better satisfied if he
+could hear what intimacy there has been between your brothers and the
+Collises.'</p>
+
+<p>'None at all,' said Fulbert, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>'My boy,' said the gentle Rector, deprecatingly, 'nobody ever suspected
+your eldest brother.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should think not!' exclaimed Fulbert, with angry eyes. 'All he ever
+did was to warn us against going. More fools not to mind him!'</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said my Lady, 'it has been the insubordination and wilfulness
+of you younger boys that has nearly involved him in so grave an
+imputation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of nobody's but mine,' returned Fulbert. 'The others would have
+nothing to do with it.'</p>
+
+<p>'That cannot be the literal fact,' said Mr. Smith, in a low voice, to
+Lady Price. 'There were certainly two of them.'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert heard, and turning to the Rector, as if he thought every one
+else beneath his notice, said, 'The long and short of it is this:
+Lance and I picked young Collis out of a ditch, and took him home.
+Then Captain Collis asked us rabbit-shooting. Lance never went again,
+because Felix did not choose it. I did; and, just by way of a joke, I
+took Clement there without his knowing what place it was. We fell in
+with them skating, and went into the house, the day before yesterday.
+That is,' said Fulbert, concluding as he had begun, 'the long and short
+of it. Whatever happened was my fault, and no one else's.'</p>
+
+<p>'A very honest confession!' said kind Mr. Bevan, pleased to have
+something to praise.</p>
+
+<p>'And I hope it will act as a warning,' said Lady Price.</p>
+
+<p>'But,' said Mr. Smith, partly incited by Carry's looks, 'it was true
+that you&mdash;two of you were brought home by young Jackman.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Fulbert, growing crimson, 'he drove Clement and me home!'</p>
+
+<p>'And,' said Mr. Audley, 'it was Clement's great distress that kept
+Felix at home the next morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Fulbert, 'there was nobody else but me, and Clem could
+hardly bear the sight of me, because I had led him into it. We thought
+no one in the house would know it&mdash;and I don't believe they do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' said Lady Price, 'it is false kindness to attempt concealment.'</p>
+
+<p>'From lawful authority it is,' said Mr. Audley; 'but in this case it
+was only from children and servants. However, Fulbert, I think you have
+fully satisfied Mr. Bevan as to the amount of intercourse between your
+brothers and Marshlands.'</p>
+
+<p>'Entirely,' said Mr. Bevan; 'in fact, you may assure your brother that
+I never believed anything to his discredit.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall say nothing about it,' said Fulbert, not choosing to see the
+hand held out to him. 'I should be ashamed!&mdash;May I go now, Sir?' to Mr.
+Audley; and with an odd sort of circular bow, he made his escape; and
+Mr. Audley, having remained long enough to ascertain that the worst
+that could be said of him was that he was a cub, and that it was a
+terrible thing to see so many great hulking lads growing up under no
+control, took his leave, and presently came on the three boys again,
+consulting at the ironmonger's window over the knife on which Bernard
+was to spend a half-crown that Mrs. Froggatt had given him.</p>
+
+<p>'Can Lance and Bernard settle that? I want you a moment, Fulbert. Not
+to confront the Rectory again,' he added, smiling. 'It was a horrid
+bore for you, but there was no helping it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose not,' said Fulbert, gloomily, as if he did not forgive the
+unpleasant moments.</p>
+
+<p>'It was not about that I wanted to speak to you, though,' said Mr.
+Audley. 'I wanted to know whether you have any plans or wishes for the
+future.'</p>
+
+<p>'I?' said Fulbert, looking up blank.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you. You are growing up, Fulbert.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose I must take what I can get,' said Fulbert, in the same
+sulky, passive voice.</p>
+
+<p>'That may be a wise determination; but have you really no choice?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, when I was a little chap, and knew no better, I used to think I
+would be a soldier or a farmer&mdash;but that's all nonsense; and I suppose
+I must have some abominable little clerkship,' said Fulbert, with a
+certain steadiness for all the growl of his tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Fulbert, have you a mind to try whether the other side of the
+world would suit you better?'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert looked up. 'You don't mean that you would take me out?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I do, if you are inclined to come and try for work at
+Albertstown.'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert, instead of answering, quickened his pace to a walking run,
+dashed on, nearly upsetting half a dozen people, and was only checked
+by a collision with a perambulator. Then he stood still till Mr. Audley
+came up to him, and then again muttered under his breath, 'Go out to
+Albertstown!'</p>
+
+<p>They walked on a little way, and then the boy said, 'Say it again,
+please.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley did say it again, in more detail; and Fulbert this time
+exclaimed, 'It is the very thing! Thank you, Mr. Audley;' and his face
+clearing into a frank, open look, he added, 'I'll try to do my best
+there. I wonder I never thought of it before. I would have worked my
+way out as a cabin-boy if I had. Where is Lance? Does Felix know?'</p>
+
+<p>There was no sentiment about Fulbert. He jumped at the offer as
+instinctively as a young swallow would prepare to migrate, seemed to
+brighten all over, and shake off his dull, defiant mood, and gave
+no sign of feeling about brother or sister&mdash;except that he said he
+believed Felix would get on better without him; and that he told Lance
+that they would have splendid fun together when he was big enough to
+come out and ride a buck-jumper.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>PEGASUS IN HARNESS.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 37%;">
+'Fear not on that rugged high-way<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Life may want its lawful zest,</span><br />
+Sunny glens are on the mountain,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where the weary heart may rest.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 30%;"><i>Charles Gavan Duffy.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>There was much relief and comfort in that visit of Mr. Audley's. For
+one thing, Geraldine was able to pour out all her troubles, as she had
+been used to do ever since her father had left her in his charge&mdash;her
+repentance for the stirrings of her naturally fretful, plaintive
+temper, for her fits of impatience and her hard judgments, and, what
+surprised him chiefly, for jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' she repeated, at his word of surprise, 'I am jealous!'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed!'</p>
+
+<p>'I never knew it till the choral festival. I used to be very fond of
+her, but&mdash;I'm sure it is jealousy; I don't like to see her more eagerly
+attended to than myself. Not that there is anything to complain of. He
+never neglected me in his life.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley smiled. 'People would tell you it is the natural lot of
+sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>Then she saw that he knew all about it; for, in fact, Felix had, rather
+to the general surprise, observed that the Miss Pearsons would like
+to meet Mr. Audley, and the trio had spent a musical evening with the
+Underwood party.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,' she cried, 'is it all my own horridness? Or is it really&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'My own horridness or my own discernment?' said he, taking the words
+out of her mouth. 'My dear, such an affair as this would be generally
+the family jest.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is just as well it should not be so here,' continued Mr. Audley,
+'for nonsense is not always a cure, and the talk would be mischievous;
+besides, I think both are unconscious.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is, I believe,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'At any rate, he is more than ordinarily full of sense and
+self-control, and may safely be trusted to do nothing imprudent. She
+is pretty and attractive, and of course he likes to be with her; but
+I should think it very unlikely it would go farther. Has any one else
+observed it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not Wilmet, only Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>'And has not made fun of it? That speaks well for Master Lance's
+discretion. Yet you all feel the weight of life too heavily. I had
+rather have found you amused by these little prepossessions, than
+weighing them seriously, and wearing yourself to fritters.'</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>will</i> try not to mind, but I can't help being afraid for him! It
+must be very wrong to be almost turned against her because he likes
+her; and yet, what is all very well as my friend does not seem enough
+for Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor will it be. My dear Cherry, such things come on and go off twenty
+times in a man's life. You will treat the symptoms more lightly before
+you have done with your seven brothers. Meantime, don't fret your
+conscience over fancies, unless you have spoken or acted unkindly or
+fretfully.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Mr. Audley, what shall I do when you are quite gone? All this time I
+have felt as if I were without my pilot.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley, too, had been thinking this over, and wished to put her
+more formally under the spiritual charge of Mr. Willoughby of St.
+Faith's, feeling that the morbid and sensitive nature needed external
+support, and that it was not right to deprive it of what the Church
+sanctions.</p>
+
+<p>Her only doubt was Felix's approval. His nature did not readily accept
+progress beyond that to which he had been bred up; and in border
+lands like these, an unfavourable medium made much difference to the
+clearness of the sight. Clement's contempt for what had satisfied his
+father annoyed him; and his mind was self-reliant, his soul accustomed
+to find its requirements met by the system around him, and his
+character averse to intermeddling; so that it was against the grain
+with him that spiritual guidance should be sought outside the family,
+or, at any rate, outside the parish. He thought such direction weakened
+the nature; and Mr. Audley, after warning him against taking the
+disease for the effect of the remedy, had to laugh at him as a British
+householder. After all, he yielded, because he thought Mr. Audley had
+a certain right over Geraldine, and that it was proper to defer to his
+judgment; while his guardian trusted to a sight of St. Matthew's for
+the overthrowal of the prejudices that Clement had managed to excite.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving England, Mr. Audley was resolved that little Theodore
+should be shown to some London physician. The child was five years
+old, but looked no more than three. He could totter in an uncertain
+run, and understood a few simple sentences, but came no nearer to
+language than the appropriation of a musical sound to every one whom
+he knew. There was nothing unpleasant about him, except his constant
+purring and humming; he was perfectly docile, loved music, and could
+be amused by simple recurring games. His affections seemed to have
+gone out chiefly to Felix and to Sibby; and as to his twin-sister, he
+seemed lost without her, and she seemed to view him as the complement
+of herself&mdash;like a sort of left hand, giving him things to hold in his
+feeble grasp, saying her lessons to him, and talking as if to a doll.
+There was something sad in the very resemblance; for their eyes were of
+the same shade of deep blue, their long soft hair of the same flaxen
+tint, their faces equally fair; but while hers was all colour, light,
+and life, his was pale and vacant, and scarcely ever stirred into
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Audley thought it right to ascertain whether treatment could be of
+any use; and finding that his father's London house was only occupied
+by his brother the Captain, he arranged that Felix should come up to
+town with the child and Sibby, when the law business could be arranged,
+and there would be an opportunity of his seeing something of the world.</p>
+
+<p>He had never had a holiday before, and Mr. Froggatt rivalled his
+guardian in his desire that it should not be too short. The first call
+was by appointment on the doctor. He was not used to have patients like
+Theodore brought by youths of Felix's age, and was touched by the care
+and tenderness of the young man, as he tried to overcome the alarm that
+was rendering the little one impracticable, when it was desirable to
+exhibit his slender store of accomplishments. His nearest approach to
+his natural state was when perched on his brother's knee, with his back
+to the strange faces, listening as Felix whistled the tunes he loved
+best.</p>
+
+<p>After all, little was gained by the consultation, except the assurance
+that the poor little fellow was as well situated as was possible. A few
+directions for treatment and discipline were given, but very little
+hope was held out of any important change for the better.</p>
+
+<p>The verdict disappointed Felix to an extent that surprised Mr.
+Audley, who had better understood the hopelessness of the case. Of
+all the family, Felix had the most of the parental instinct for the
+most helpless; and while he warmly thanked his friend, he looked so
+mournfully at the child who clung to him, that Mr. Audley said in a
+voice of sympathy, 'It is a burthen, but one that will never bring the
+sting of sin.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not a burthen,' said Felix. 'No; as my father said when he gave him to
+me, he is the Gift of God, the son of my right hand. May it always be
+able to work for you!' he murmured, as he bent his head over the little
+one.</p>
+
+<p>'And I think the gift will bring a blessing!' said Mr. Audley.</p>
+
+<p>Theodore was sent home with Sibby, thus restoring Stella to herself,
+for she had been greatly lost without her speechless companion; but
+Felix remained in London for a week of business and pleasure. Captain
+Audley was very good-natured and friendly, and abetted his brother
+in all his arrangements for showing Felix as much of life as was
+possible in a week, assuring him that every new experience was a duty
+to the Pursuivant&mdash;a plea that Felix, with his lover-like devotion
+to every detail of his paper, admitted with a smile. Edgar was of
+almost all their expeditions, and dined with them nearly every day.
+That young gentleman's peculiar pleasantness had very nearly averted
+the remonstrances with which his brother and his guardian had come up
+armed. There he was, finding his work real, and not a royal road to
+immediate wealth, idling, lounging, and gratifying his taste for art
+and music; and when his employer stormed and threatened, listening
+with aggravating coolness, and even sweetness, merely hinting that
+his occupation was a mistake; and living all the time as a son of
+the house, with a handsome allowance, and free access to society
+and amusement. Thus, when Mr. Audley talked to him, he smiled with
+a certain resignation, and observed that he was concerned for poor
+old Tom, to have been unlucky enough to have drawn such a fellow as
+himself. Probably it was a judgment on him for not having come forward
+sooner, when he <i>might</i> have had Felix! And when Mr. Audley upheld
+Felix as an example of hearty sacrifice of taste and inclination, it
+was to obtain an enthusiastic response. Nobody breathed equal to dear
+old Fee, and it was the most ardent desire of Edgar's heart to take
+some of the burthen from his shoulders! When it was hinted that such an
+allowance as Tom Underwood gave afforded the opportunity, Edgar smiled
+between melancholy and scorn, saying, 'Times must have altered since
+your time, Mr. Audley.&mdash;No, I forgot. Expense is the rule in our line.
+Swells can do as they please.'</p>
+
+<p>However, there things rested; Mr. Underwood treated him exactly like an
+idle son, storming at him sometimes, but really both fond and proud of
+him, and very gracious to Felix, whom he invited once to a very dull
+and dazzling dinner, and once sent to the opera with his ladies.</p>
+
+<p>Felix's Sunday was chiefly spent at St. Matthew's, which he was
+very glad to see without Tina's spectacles. He was amazed to find
+so much more good sense and reality than the effect on Clement had
+led him to expect; and Mr. Fulmort, who struck him as one of the
+most practical-looking men he had ever seen, spoke in high terms of
+Clement's steadiness and wish to do right; but added, 'I am afraid we
+have rather spoilt him. He came up to us so unlike the kind of boy we
+generally get, that we may have made rather too much of him at first.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix smiled. 'Perhaps we had knocked him about, and made too little of
+him at home,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'Besides, <i>esprit de corps</i> in so small a place as this is apt to
+become so concentrated as not to be many removes from egotism. I
+daresay we have been a terrible bore to you.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix laughed. 'We have always been very grateful to you, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'I understand. I am glad he is going farther a-field. He will be much
+improved by seeing other places, and having his exclusiveness and
+conceit shaken out of him; but we shall always regard him as the child
+of the house, and I only hope he may end by working among us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor fellow! Conceit has been pretty well shaken out for the present,'
+said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope it may last. He was rather hurt at my not making his misfortune
+of more importance: but it seems to have been accident, all except the
+priggish self-confidence that led to it.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix increased much in cordiality towards Mr. Fulmort, and at the same
+time mounted many stages in Clement's estimation on the discovery that,
+however behindhand his ecclesiastical advantages might be, the Vicar
+was exceedingly impressed by his excellence.</p>
+
+<p>A day or two after Felix's arrival, Ferdinand Travis was first
+encountered riding a spirited horse in the park, looking remarkably
+handsome, though still of the small-limbed slender make that recalled
+his Indian blood. His delight in the meeting was extreme, and he seemed
+to be as simple and good as ever. He was in deep mourning, having newly
+heard of his father having been killed in an American railway accident;
+and though his uncle seemed proud of him, and continued his liberal
+allowance, the loss and blank were greatly felt&mdash;all the more that
+he had not found it easy to make friends among his brother officers
+in the Life Guards. His foreign air was somehow uncongenial; he had
+no vivacity or cleverness, and being little inclined to some of the
+amusements of his contemporaries, and on his guard against others, he
+seemed to find his life rather dull and weary. He did not seem to have
+anything to love except his horses, especially the creature he was
+then riding, Brown Murad. He had obtained it after such competition,
+that he viewed the purchase as an achievement; while Felix heard the
+amount with an incredulous shudder, and marvelled at Mr. Audley's not
+regarding it as wildly preposterous. It was a dangerous position; and
+though Mr. Audley certified himself, through his soldier brother, that
+Travis was steadiness itself&mdash;neither betted, gamed, nor ran into
+debt&mdash;yet while he seemed personally acquainted with all the horses
+that ran, and apparently entered into no literature but the 'Racing
+Calendar,' it was impossible not to be anxious about him, even though
+he seemed perfectly happy to be allowed to be with his two godfathers,
+and followed them everywhere, from the Houses of Parliament to St.
+Matthew's.</p>
+
+<p>This was not the last expedition Felix had to make to London that
+spring. After many appointments of the time, and as many delays, a
+telegram suddenly summoned him in the beginning of May to bring Fulbert
+up to London, when the business would be wound up, and Captain Audley
+would take his brother and the boy in his yacht to Alexandria, there to
+join the overland passengers.</p>
+
+<p>So Fulbert's farewells were made in the utmost haste, and mixed up
+with Wilmet's solicitous directions for his proper use of all her
+preparations for his comfort on the voyage; and Lance could only be
+seen for the brief moments of halt at the Minsterham Station, during
+which neither spoke three words, but Lance hung on the step till the
+train was in motion, and then was snatched back, and well shaken and
+reprimanded, by a guard; while Fulbert leant out after him at even
+greater peril of his life, long after the last wave of the trencher cap
+had ceased to be visible.</p>
+
+<p>Felix believed that this parting was more felt than that with all the
+other eleven; and while Fulbert subsided into his corner, the elder
+brother felt much oppressed by the sense that it was his duty to give
+some good advice, together with great perplexity what it should be,
+how it should be expressed, and whether it would be endured. He would
+have been thankful for some of Clement's propensity for preaching when
+he found himself <i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i> with Fulbert in a cab; but while he was
+still considering of the right end by which to take this difficult
+subject, he was startled by his beginning, 'Felix, I say, I'm glad you
+are going to get shut of me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe it is for your good,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'You'll get on better without me,' repeated Fulbert; then, with an
+effort, 'Look here. It isn't that I don't know you're a brick and all
+that, but somehow nothing riles me like your meddling with me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know it,' answered Felix. 'I wish I could have helped it; but what
+could be done, when there was nobody else?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' responded Fulbert, 'I know I have been a sulky, nasty brute to
+you, and I should do it again; and yet I wish I hadn't.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should be as bad myself if I were a junior,' was the moral
+reflection Felix produced for his brother's benefit. 'Only, Ful, if you
+try that on with Mr. Audley out there, you'll come to grief.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't mean to,' said Fulbert.</p>
+
+<p>'And you'll keep in mind what my father meant us to be, Ful&mdash;that we
+have got to live so as to meet him again.'</p>
+
+<p>Fulbert nodded his head emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>'It is his name you have to keep unstained in the new country,' added
+Felix, the fresh thought rising to his lips; but it was met by a gush
+of feeling that quite astonished him.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, and yours, Felix! I do&mdash;I do want to be a help, and not a drag to
+you. I <i>really</i> don't think so much of any of them&mdash;not even Lance&mdash;as
+of you. I <i>hope</i> I shouldn't have been better to my father than I have
+been to you; and when&mdash;when I'm out there, I do hope to show&mdash;that I do
+care.'</p>
+
+<p>The boy was fighting with very hard sobs, and for all the frightful
+faces he made the tears were running down his cheeks. Felix's eyes were
+overflowing too, but with much of sudden comfort and thankfulness.</p>
+
+<p>'I always knew you were a good fellow, Ful,' he said, with his hand on
+his brother's knee; 'and I think you'll keep so, with Mr. Audley to
+keep you up to things, and show you how to be helped.'</p>
+
+<p>All after this was bustle and hurry. Fulbert had to be sent alone to
+take leave of Alda, while his brother and Mr. Audley transacted their
+business. Edgar came back with him; and after some hurried rushings out
+in search of necessaries forgotten, the last farewells were spoken, and
+Fulbert, with the two Audley brothers, was out of sight; while Felix,
+after drawing a long, deep sigh, looked at his watch, and spoke of
+going to see Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't run your head into a hornet's nest,' said Edgar; 'it's all up
+with me there. Come this way, and I'll tell you all about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'All up with you!'</p>
+
+<p>'There are limits to human endurance, and Tom and I have over-passed
+each other's. I don't blame him, poor man; he wanted raw material to
+serve as an importer of hides and tallow, but you, the genuine article,
+were bespoken, and my father was not in a state for the pleading of
+personal predilections.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is it now?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only a set of etchings from Atalanta in Caledon. That was the straw
+that broke the camel's back,' said Edgar, so coolly as to make Felix
+exclaim&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'How much or how little do you mean?'</p>
+
+<p>'Separated on account of irreconcilable incompatibility.'</p>
+
+<p>'Impossible!'</p>
+
+<p>'Possible, because true.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why did you not tell before Mr. Audley was gone?'</p>
+
+<p>'It would have been bad taste to obtrude one's own little affairs, and
+leave him with vexatious intelligence to ruminate on his voyage. Nay,
+who knows but that he might have thought it his duty to wait to compose
+matters, and so a bright light might have been lost to the Antipodes.'</p>
+
+<p>'You actually mean me to understand that you have broken with Tom
+Underwood!'</p>
+
+<p>'The etchings were the text of an awful row, in which the old gentleman
+exposed himself more than I am willing to repeat, and called on me to
+choose between his hides and tallow and what he was pleased to call my
+tomfoolery.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix groaned.</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly so. You are conscious that his demand was not only tyrannical
+but impracticable. One can't change the conditions of one's nature.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you absolutely dismissed?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing can be more so.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what do you mean to do?' demanded Felix, stung, though to a
+certain degree reassured, by his tranquillity.</p>
+
+<p>'Study art.'</p>
+
+<p>'And live&mdash;?'</p>
+
+<p>'On my own two hundred. You will advance it? I only want sixteen months
+of years of discretion, and then I'll pay it back with more than
+interest.'</p>
+
+<p>'I must know more first,' said Felix. 'I must understand what terms
+you are on with Tom Underwood, and whether you have any reasonable or
+definite plans.'</p>
+
+<p>'Spoken like an acting partner! Well, come to Renville, he will satisfy
+you as to my plans. I am to be his pupil; he teaches at the South
+Kensington Museum, and is respectability itself. In fact, he requires
+my responsible brother to be presented to him. Come along.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay, Edgar. I do not think it right by Tom Underwood to see any one
+before him. I shall go to him before anything else is done.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do not delude yourself with the hope of patching up matters like
+Audley last winter, losing me five months of time and old Tom of
+temper.'</p>
+
+<p>'How long ago was this?'</p>
+
+<p>'The crisis was yesterday. I was just packing to come home when Fulbert
+burst upon the scene.'</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could be worse news, yet Edgar's perfect self-possession
+greatly disarmed Felix. Never having thought his brother and the work
+well suited, he was the less disposed to anger, especially as the
+yoke of patronage was trying to his character; but he persisted in
+seeing Thomas Underwood before taking any steps for Edgar's future
+career, feeling that this was only due to the cousin to whom his
+father had entrusted the lad. So Edgar, with a shrug, piloted him to
+the Metropolitan Railway, and then to the counting-house where, in the
+depths of the City, Kedge and Underwood dealt for the produce of the
+corrals of South America.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, as he entered the office full of clerks, nodded to their
+bald-headed middle-aged senior in a half-patronizing manner. 'Don't be
+afraid, Mr. Spooner; I'm not coming back on your hands, whatever this
+good brother of mine may intend. Is the Governor in?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Underwood is in his room, Mr. Edgar,' was the very severe answer;
+'but after this most serious annoyance, I would not answer for the
+consequences.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wouldn't you indeed?' said Edgar quietly, in a nonchalant tone that
+made the younger lads bend down to sniggle behind their desks, while he
+moved on to the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Spooner and he were visibly old foes; but the senior devoured his
+wrath so far as to come forward and offer a chair to Felix, repeating,
+however, 'Mr. Underwood is very seriously annoyed.'</p>
+
+<p>Before Felix could attempt an answer, Edgar had re-descended, newspaper
+in hand. 'Go up, Felix,' he said, threw himself into the chair,
+and proceeded to read the paper; while Felix obeyed, and found the
+principal standing at his door, ready to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>'What, Felix Underwood! Glad to see you. This intolerable affair can't
+have brought you up already, though?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Sir; I was telegraphed for late last night, to bring up my brother
+Fulbert to start with Mr. Audley.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, ay. Well, I hope he'll have a better bargain of him than I've had
+in Edgar. You've heard his impudence?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am exceedingly sorry&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Then Mr. Underwood broke out with his account of Edgar's folly and
+ingratitude, after all the care and expense of his education. He had
+taken up with a set of geniuses for friends, was always rehearsing for
+amateur performances with them, keeping untimely hours; and coming
+late to the office, to cast up accounts, or copy invoices in his
+sleep, make caricatures on his blotting-paper, or still worse, become
+'besotted' with some design for a drawing or series of drawings, and
+in the frenzy of execution know no more what was said to him than a
+post. Finally, 'the ladies' being as mad as himself, as Mr. Underwood
+said, had asked him to draw for a bazaar, and in his frenzy of genius
+over the etchings he had entirely forgotten an important message, and
+then said he could not help it. On being told that if so he was not fit
+for his profession, he merely replied, 'Exactly so, the experiment had
+been unsuccessful;' and when his meekness had brought down a furious
+tempest of wrath, and threats of dismissal, he had responded, 'with his
+intolerable cool insolence,' that 'this would be best for all parties.'</p>
+
+<p>'This is the offence?' anxiously asked Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Offence? What greater offence would you have?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly nothing can be much worse as to business,' said Felix.
+'But when he told me what had happened, I was afraid that he might be
+running into temptation.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! as to that, there's no harm in the lad&mdash;Spooner allows that&mdash;
+nothing low about him.'</p>
+
+<p>'And his friends?'</p>
+
+<p>'How should I know? Raffs those fellows always are, sure to bring him
+to the dogs!'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you ever hear of an artist named Renville?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay?' meditatively. 'He was the master the girls had at one time,
+wasn't he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then he is respectable? I ask because Edgar wants to study under him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Eh! what?' demanded Mr. Underwood, in manifest astonishment. 'Is the
+lad gone crazy?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you had dismissed him, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well,' said Mr. Underwood, taken aback, 'I told him only what he
+deserved, and he chose to take it as final. I thought you were come to
+speak for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are very kind, Sir, but I doubt whether he would resume his work
+here, or indeed if it would not be an abuse of your kindness to induce
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Eh! what?' again exclaimed Thomas. 'You give in to his ungrateful
+folly! Felix Underwood, I thought you at least were reasonable!'</p>
+
+<p>The imperious passionate manner, rather than the actual words,
+made Felix side the more with the wayward genius, and feel that
+having sacrificed himself for the good of the family, he might save
+his brother from the gloomy office and piles of ledgers and bills
+below-stairs. 'Sir,' he said, 'I am sorry Edgar has not been better
+fitted to return the timely help you have given us, but I am afraid
+that such unwilling work as his could never be of service to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why on earth should it be unwilling? Better men than he have sat
+at a desk before now! I've no patience with young men's intolerable
+conceit. There have I done everything for this young fellow, and he
+is unwilling, <i>unwilling</i> indeed, to give his mind to the simplest
+business for six hours a day.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is wrong,' said Felix, 'but his powers lie in such a different
+line.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fiddling and daubing! Pah! If anything could be more incomprehensible
+than his not being able to cast up an account or take a message; it is
+your backing him up!'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid he is too old for coercion.'</p>
+
+<p>'No coercion like having not a penny in the world. Pray, how is he to
+live?'</p>
+
+<p>'His own means will help him through his studies.'</p>
+
+<p>'His own&mdash;Ł200! About as much as he has made ducks and drakes of in a
+year. Besides, he is not of age.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but I have something of my own to advance for him.'</p>
+
+<p>Wherewith there began a fresh storm. Thomas Underwood was greatly
+mortified at the desertion of one brother, and still more at the
+acquiescence of the other. He would no doubt have been ready to
+retain the handsome engaging youth, grumbling and enduring, as a sort
+of expensive luxury; and in his wrath, disappointment, and sense of
+ingratitude at finding that his restive protégé was not to be driven
+back to him, he became so abusive, that Felix could hardly keep his
+tongue or temper in check; but when he declared that if any support
+were given to Edgar's lunatic project, the whole family except Alda
+should be left to their own resources for the rest of their lives, it
+was with quiet determination that the reply was made, with studied,
+though difficult, respectfulness:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Sir, we are much obliged for what you have done for us, but we hope
+to be able to work for ourselves and for one another without becoming
+dependent. You cannot suppose that such a consideration would affect
+my opinion respecting Edgar.' (N.B.&mdash;If Mr. Underwood <i>had</i> supposed
+it, he felt as if it were impossible, as all his cousin Edward's
+high spirit glowed in that young man's eyes, and strengthened the
+studiously calm voice.) 'I think,' continued Felix, 'that no one can
+be doing right whose work is not thorough. If Edgar cannot or will not
+apply himself in earnest to your business, he will be doing better by
+studying art with a will than in pretending to work here, and abusing
+your forbearance. That would be so improper towards you, and so wrong
+in him, that it would be simply unjustifiable in me to try to persuade
+you into allowing it.'</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, Mr. Underwood had not at all expected such a reply; and as
+luckily want of breath had forced him to wait and really hear it, a
+sensation came over him of old times when Edward Underwood had argued
+with him; and it was with much less heat that he returned, with an
+effort at irony, 'And so you take the bread out of the mouths of the
+others to support my fine gentleman in his absurd nonsense?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Sir; what I advance is entirely my own.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, ay; didn't I hear something about a legacy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, from Admiral Chester. A thousand pounds. It has only just been
+paid to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'That you may throw it away on this young scamp's fancies?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Sir, I hope not. Half of it goes into the business at Bexley. We
+sign the deed of partnership next week. It will make a great difference
+to me. The rest is ready for emergencies.'</p>
+
+<p>'Tomfooleries,' muttered Mr. Underwood. 'Pray, what are the plans for
+this making a new Michael Angelo? Am I expected to give him the run of
+my house? I shall do no such thing!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, Sir, it would not be proper to ask it. This Renville takes pupils
+for the Royal Academy, and Edgar would board and lodge there; but I
+hope you will still be good enough to allow him to call on Alda, and
+not let him be entirely left to himself. He is much to blame, but it is
+not as if he had run into bad dissipation.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's true,' said Mr. Underwood. 'A terrible disappointment that
+young dog has been to me, Felix Underwood; but as you put it, there's
+an honesty in the thing! Where is my fine gentleman?'</p>
+
+<p>'Downstairs, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood breathed through a mysterious tube, and Edgar appeared,
+with his usual easy grace, and with a sharp glance at Felix as if to
+inquire whether there were to be any attack on his newly-found liberty.</p>
+
+<p>'Look here, Edgar,' was the address. 'Your brother&mdash;a much better one
+than you deserve&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Thrue for you,' muttered Edgar between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>'&mdash;Says what has some sense in it, that "nothing is so ruinous as doing
+things by halves," and that you ought to be ashamed of hanging about
+here doing nothing&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>A quick glance passed between the brothers.</p>
+
+<p>'&mdash;So he is for letting you have your way; and if he chooses to
+support you, and you choose to rob him&mdash;for I think it nothing less
+than robbery&mdash;why there&mdash;I can't help it. So I put it to you for the
+last time: will you buckle steadily to your work here like a rational
+being, or cast yourself loose to live as a beggarly artist on what your
+brother can give you by pinching the rest?'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Sir; I hope the sooner to help him to feed the rest, by
+taking the plunge you think so desperate,' said Edgar, with more
+gravity than usual.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, indeed!' sneered Mr. Underwood. 'Remember, not a farthing of mine
+goes to such folly! I don't understand it! I thought once you'd have
+been as good as a son to me,' he added in a very different tone, as he
+looked at the fine young man in whom he yearned to take pride.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I could, Sir,' said Edgar, with real feeling. 'I wish you had
+hit upon any one of us but my unlucky self. You've been very good to
+me, but what a man can't do, he can't; and if I gave in now, it would
+only be the same over again. But we don't part in anger, Uncle,' he
+continued, with a trembling of voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Anger?! No, my boy. I'm only vexed at the whole thing; but I don't
+want to lose sight of you altogether. You'll stay with us till you've
+found decent lodgings, and you'll be welcome to look in on a Sunday.'
+Mr. Underwood spoke in a tone between asking and granting a favour.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Sir, with all my heart,' said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'And you'll come to dine and sleep?' he added to Felix. 'You've not
+seen your sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you, Sir, I cannot to-day; I must be at home tonight.'</p>
+
+<p>They shook hands cordially; but as Edgar crossed the counting-house,
+he paused to open his own desk and pocket some of the contents, saying
+lightly as he did so, 'There's promotion in store for some of you
+youngsters&mdash;I congratulate you, Mr. Spooner; you're free of a burthen
+to your spirit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Mr. Edgar, I'm very sorry if&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't throw away your sorrow, Mr. Spooner; I was foredoomed your soul
+to cross, and I bear no malice to you for having been crossed. Shake
+hands, and wish me success as a painter.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you success, Mr. Edgar; but it will not be met with in any
+profession without application and regularity.'</p>
+
+<p>Edgar forbore from any reply but a low and deferential bow, such as to
+provoke another smothered laugh from the other young clerks, to whom
+Felix suspected, as he looked round, the favoured kinsman was subject
+of jealousy, admiration, or imitation, according to character. However,
+Edgar shook hands with each, with some little word of infinite but
+gracious superiority, and on coming out exclaimed, 'Ban, ban, Caliban!
+You who are emancipated from a Redstone, congratulate me!'</p>
+
+<p>Felix neither observed on the vast difference between the excellent
+confidential Spooner and pettily jealous Redstone, nor on the extremely
+dissimilar mode of emancipation. He was more occupied with the
+momentous responsibility of having assisted to cut his brother loose
+from the protection to which his father had confided him. Mr. Audley's
+warning that he was inclined to be weak where Edgar was concerned,
+came before him. Yet the life of luxury and unfulfilled duties was
+in his eyes such a wrongful course, that he felt justified in having
+put an end to it; and his heart warmed with hope and exultation as
+he recollected how Etty's success had been owing to his brother's
+aid, and felt himself putting Edgar's foot on the first round of the
+ladder, and freeing his ascent from all that had hitherto trammelled
+it. Such bright visions haunted him when talking was impossible on
+the omnibus, outside which Edgar had exalted him&mdash;he did not well
+know why till on descending at Charing Cross, he found he was to have
+an interview with Mr. Renville, who was copying a picture in the
+National Gallery, and whom he found, to his great relief, to be no wild
+Bohemian, but a simple painstaking business-like man, who had married
+a German hausfrau, and lodged a few art students with unexceptionable
+references. Knowing Edgar already, he had measured his powers, and
+assured Felix that his talent was undoubted, though whether that talent
+amounted to genius could only be decided when the preliminary studies
+were accomplished; but even if it were not of the very highest order,
+(a supposition that rather hurt Felix's feelings,) the less aspiring
+walks of the profession would afford sufficient security of maintenance
+to justify the expense of the study. He talked with sense and coolness;
+and his charges, though falling severely on such funds as were at the
+disposal of the young pillar of the house, were, Edgar declared, and
+Felix could well believe, very moderate. The time was to be further
+decided after reference to Mrs. Renville.</p>
+
+<p>'Will you not come home first?' asked Felix, as they descended the
+steps.</p>
+
+<p>'Not in the character of the discarded! Who knows the effect it might
+have on old Froggy? By-the-by, I hope this advance does not make any
+difference to the terms of your bondage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing important.'</p>
+
+<p>'Draw bills to any amount on the R.A. of the future!'</p>
+
+<p>The light hopeful tone contrasted with Clement's grave thankfulness,
+and sorrow at being an expense; but Felix really preferred it, as far
+less embarrassing.</p>
+
+<p>'Could you come down in a month's time?' he continued. 'Lance is to be
+confirmed at the Cathedral, and it might be an opportunity for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot lose this month's work at the Academy, it is the most
+important in the year.'</p>
+
+<p>'It might be arranged for you to come down for the day. You could see
+any one you pleased here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Has Tina excited you to consign me to the Whittingtonian Fathers?'</p>
+
+<p>'No.' Felix had almost rested there, but presently added, gravely, 'I
+constantly feel the impossibility of getting through this world and
+keeping straight without help&mdash;the help that is provided for us,' he
+added, lamely enough.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear old Blunderbore,' said Edgar, affectionately; 'what comes
+naturally to you, No. 1, letter A, in a flock of girls and boys, can't
+be the same when one has got out into this wicked world. Go on in your
+own groove, and leave me to my aberrations. Don't vex yourself, old
+fellow. A popular journalist must have got far enough to know that men
+don't concern themselves about these little affairs in one another.'</p>
+
+<p>'Brothers do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not unless they partake of the sister. Come! You have had no
+sustenance since breakfast at six o'clock, have you? Come in here, and
+learn what soup means.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's no time. The train is at five.'</p>
+
+<p>'Time! You don't mean to walk?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do; and get something to eat at the station.'</p>
+
+<p>'I declare, Fee, your unsophistication would be refreshing if it were
+not a disgrace to your profession. Why are you not reporter to the
+"Teetotal Times?" No wonder if the Pursuivant has a flavour of weak
+tea!'</p>
+
+<p>Felix smiled rather sadly, aware that this was meant to lead him
+away from the last subject. He perceived that the door between his
+favourite brother's soul and his own was closed, and that knocking
+would only cause it to be bolted and barred. It might be true, as Mr.
+Audley had told him, that Edgar's was not so much real scepticism as
+the talk of the day, and the regarding the doubts of deeper thinkers
+as a dispensation from all irksome claims; but this was poor solace,
+while his brother rattled on: 'My dear Blunderbore, the hasty-pudding
+on which you characteristically breakfast is a delusion as to economy.
+Renville's little Frau will keep us better and at less expense than
+ever Wilmet conceived. You wrap yourself in your virtue, and refuse to
+spend a couple of shillings, as deeming it robbery of the fry at home.
+You wear out at least a shilling's worth of boot leather, pay twopence
+for a roll and fourpence for a more villainous compound called coffee;
+come home in a state of inanition, cram down a quartern loaf and a
+quarter of a pound of rancid butter, washed down with weak tea; and if
+self-satisfaction and exhaustion combined are soporific, it is only
+to leave you a prey to night-mare. Then, to say nothing of poorness
+of blood producing paucity of ideas, it is fearful to think of the
+doctor's bill you are laying up!'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Edgar; I am in perfect health.'</p>
+
+<p>Edgar went off into a learned dissertation on the qualities of food and
+liquor, and the expedience of enriching the blood, and giving substance
+to the constitution. He was, in fact, much more robust and athletic, as
+well as much taller, than his brother, who looked like one who led an
+indoor life without cultivating his strength, but had no token of lack
+of health or activity. Always of small appetite, he did not care how
+long he fasted, and was so much used to be on his feet, that the long
+walk through the streets seemed to fatigue him less than Edgar, who
+nevertheless kept with him, as finding real pleasure in his company.</p>
+
+<p>The only pauses were at the sight of an accordion in a shop window
+labelled at so low a price, that Felix ventured on it for Theodore; and
+again when Edgar insisted on stuffing his pockets with bon-bons for the
+babes, as antidotes, he said, to the Blunderbore diet.</p>
+
+<p>'I beg to observe, it was not Blunderbore that lived on hasty-pudding.
+That was the Welsh giant,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay! Blunderbore had three heads, and was buried up to the neck,
+completing the resemblance! Well, some day I'll give you all a hoist,
+old fellow, and then you'll be immortalized for having developed the
+President of the Royal Academy out of his slough of hides and tallow.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix went home through the summer twilight, tired and heavy-hearted,
+to find Wilmet sitting up over a supper not much less rigorously frugal
+than Edgar had foretold. Telling Wilmet was perhaps the worst of it
+to Felix. True, she forbore to reprove or lament when she understood
+that the deed was actually accomplished, and saw that he was fatigued
+and out of spirits; but her 'Indeed! Oh! Felix!' and her involuntary
+gesture and attitude of dismay, went as far as a volume of reproach and
+evil augury. He was weary beyond vindicating himself or Edgar; but the
+next morning, when Wilmet and Angela had started for school, there was
+a sense that the cat was away, and Geraldine looking up under her long
+black eyelashes, whispered, 'Oh! it is so nice in you to have let him
+loose, dear Fee! It was such cruel waste to pin him down there!'</p>
+
+<p>'It was mockery for him to pretend to work there against the grain, and
+live in all that ease and luxury,' said Felix, greatly appreciating
+her sympathy. 'That must be so clearly wrong, that the more I think it
+over, the more I trust I did right in not trying to make it up again,
+as Mr. Audley did.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was only a pity he did!' said Cherry; 'but of course it was for
+your sake, that you might not have him thrown back on your hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'And for Edgar's own protection too,' said Felix; 'but I cannot think
+lazy insufficient work, and constant amusement, otherwise than so
+unworthy, that I am sure Mr. Audley would think it more honest and
+right to put an end to them, even at some risk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Risk!' said the little sister, ruffling up her feathers; 'he is sure
+to succeed, and you know it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did only mean risk in that sense,' said Felix, gravely; 'but I hope
+he is safely and satisfactorily placed. Renville seems an excellent
+person, and more trustworthy perhaps because he only commits himself to
+Edgar's capability.</p>
+
+<p>'Capability!' contemptuously repeated Cherry. 'No one but you and I
+really understand what Edgar can do!'</p>
+
+<p>'I could have shaken the fellow for his coldness,' said Felix, smiling;
+'but no doubt it was right of him, and Edgar will soon show&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'That he will! Only look at the beauty and freedom of this outline,' as
+she opened her portfolio.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't beguile me, Cherry; I can't stay. I've all yesterday's work to
+make up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Here are all the proofs, ready. Only just look at the sentence I
+marked for you. O Felix, how lucky Edgar has you for a brother, to save
+him from being blighted and crushed!'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that head yours or his? Yours! I should say he was lucky to have
+such an unenvious sister. You would draw as well as he if you only had
+the teaching.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, don't say that! It spoils his! Though I do wish my drawing
+could be of some use.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind about use. You are our pleasure,' as he saw her
+dissatisfied; 'besides, what would <i>Pur</i> (the household abbreviation of
+Pursuivant) do without the sub?'</p>
+
+<p>This was much pleasanter! Cherry smiled at his kiss, and he ran
+downstairs, exulting&mdash;like herself&mdash;in their artist brother's future
+fame.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned to the sitting-room in the evening twilight, the
+first voice he heard, through Theodore's humming, was Wilmet's, as in
+mitigation&mdash;'I daresay he is well educated, and not vulgar.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but the sound of it!' cried Alice Knevett's voice. 'A mere
+tradesman!'</p>
+
+<p>'Who is the unfortunate?' asked Felix, coming forward.</p>
+
+<p>'O Mr. Underwood, how you do steal upon one! Yes, I'm furious! Here's
+my old friend Florence Spelman&mdash;the dearest girl in the world, and so
+pretty&mdash;gone and engaged herself to young Schneider, of Schneider and
+Co., on the tailor's advertisements, you know! It is one of the first
+houses in London, and he's very rich and handsome and all that; but
+isn't it dreadful? All her friends will have to drop her! And I was so
+fond of her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it trade itself, or the kind of trade, that outrages your
+feelings?' asked Felix, in a tone of raillery.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, a tailor is too horrible! As if all trade wasn't bad enough,' said
+Alice, laughing; then recollecting herself she turned, blushing and
+confused, to Cherry&mdash;'At least&mdash;I mean&mdash;your brother makes one forget.
+He isn't in the least like <i>that!</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'I never wish to forget anything he is!' said Cherry, proudly looking
+up to him.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! you don't know what is in my pocket!' said Felix, leaning his back
+against the mantleshelf.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! what!' cried Alice and Geraldine both together; while Wilmet
+looked at him as if she wished to put him in mind of the presence of a
+stranger.</p>
+
+<p>'Guess!' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'Somebody has left you a fortune! Oh! delightful!' cried Alice,
+clasping her hands.</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Thomas Underwood will take Edgar's art study on himself,'
+exclaimed the more moderate Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'You burn, Cherry. It comes from that quarter. Here's a letter by the
+evening's post to offer me, if I have not closed with Mr. Froggatt, to
+invest in Kedge and Underwood's concern, and begin with Ł300 a year as
+clerk.'</p>
+
+<p>'It can't be possible,' said Wilmet, the only one to speak, as the
+other two girls looked rather blank.</p>
+
+<p>'Just so far that the deed of partnership here is not signed.'</p>
+
+<p>'What is the business?' asked Alice.</p>
+
+<p>'He is a South American merchant, and deals with Rio for hides and
+tallow, if you prefer that to books and stationery,' said Felix, in a
+would-be light tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but a South American merchant! That sounds quite delightful!'
+cried Alice. 'And you'll have to live in dear, dear London! How I envy
+you!'</p>
+
+<p>'That must be the effect you had upon him, Felix!' said Cherry, proudly.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I thought I had been a specimen of the obstinate,' observed
+Felix. 'Here is his letter.'</p>
+
+<p>He gave it as of right to Wilmet; but other eyes remarked the address
+to F. C. Underwood, Esquire, an unusual thing, since, as Mr. Froggatt
+had never aspired to the squirehood, Felix made all his brothers and
+sisters write only the Mister, and thus entirely deprived himself of
+the pleasure of Alda's correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>'Where will you live? Oh! you'll let me come and stay with you
+sometimes!' cried Alice.</p>
+
+<p>Felix smiled as he answered, 'I'm afraid our house is not built yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Pearson's maid for Miss Alice,' said Martha, at the door.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear, how tiresome! but you'll tell me all about it to-morrow. How
+horrid it will be here when you are all gone!'</p>
+
+<p>'We are not gone yet,' said Wilmet, repressively. 'And if you please,
+Alice, do not talk of this.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Felix, 'it must be entirely a family matter. I know we can
+trust to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you! I'm so glad I was there! It is so nice to have a secret of
+yours&mdash;and this is a beauty! Why, you'll be a great man with a house in
+London, just like Mr. Underwood of Centry.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pleasing ambition,' Cherry could not help muttering, with an ironical
+smile, as Alice laughed and nodded herself away.</p>
+
+<p>'Ready sympathy is a pleasant thing,' returned Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean that you think this feasible?' said Wilmet, with a
+negative inflection in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>'I think it ought to be considered before it is absolutely too late.'</p>
+
+<p>Both were surprised, having always thought that he considered his
+destiny as fixed; and as Geraldine looked on while the other two
+discussed pounds, shillings, and pence, it was plain to her that he had
+an inclination to the change. The probability of rising, the benefit
+of lodging Edgar, the nearness to Alda, the probable openings for the
+younger lads, were advantages; but against these Wilmet set the heavy
+London house-rent, rates and taxes&mdash;from which they were free&mdash;the
+expense of living, the loss of her present situation, the dangers of
+deterioration of health. As to Edgar, his habits must be formed, he
+was already in a respectable family, and Lance and Bernard ought not
+to be risked for his sake. In fact Wilmet looked on London with a sage
+country girl's prudent horror of the great and wicked capital; and
+when that experienced man of the world, Felix, tried to prove that she
+did it injustice, he was met with a volley of alarming anecdotes. He
+hinted that ladies' schools might need teachers there, but was met by
+the difficulty of forming a new connection; and when he suggested that
+Cherry's talent might be cultivated, Wilmet hotly exclaimed, 'She could
+never go about to classes and schools of art!'</p>
+
+<p>'Not alone, certainly,' said Cherry, wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Edgar is as good as nobody, and I should be of no use in places like
+that,' added Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I'm afraid you don't look very chaperonish,' said Felix, contemplating
+the fair exquisitely-moulded face, the more Grecian for the youthful
+severity that curved the lip and fixed the eye. 'If we could only turn
+her inside out, Cherry, she would be a dozen duennas in one!'</p>
+
+<p>'And then the Pursuivant. You would not like to desert poor Pur,' added
+Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'I could do that better in town in some ways.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Underwood would think that as bad as Edgar's drawing,' said
+Wilmet. 'No, no, Felix, you have learnt one business thoroughly, and
+it would be foolish to begin a fresh one now. Besides, how about Mr.
+Froggatt?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course I should do nothing in such haste as to inconvenience
+Mr. Froggatt,' said Felix; 'and no one is more anxious for our real
+benefit, if this were possible.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you see it won't do,' reiterated Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps not,' he answered, with more of a sigh than his sisters
+expected.</p>
+
+<p>Rather nettled, Wilmet set to work with pencil and paper to calculate
+expenses; Geraldine looked up at Felix, who had taken up a book, and
+began to whistle, 'For a' that, an' a' that.'</p>
+
+<p>Presently Wilmet, by way of making assurance sure, went off for her
+account-book; when he looked up and said,' How should you have liked
+this, Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know. I've not thought. Did you?'</p>
+
+<p>'I hadn't time before our Pallas Athene settled it; and I believe she
+is right, if she would not lay it in quite so hard. It only seemed
+a pity to lose our last chance of a lift in life without at least
+considering it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you did not care about lifts in life.'</p>
+
+<p>'I ought not. But when it is brought home that we have slipped down
+two degrees in the social scale, it is tempting to step up one again!
+However, it plainly cannot be.'</p>
+
+<p>Yet when Wilmet mustered her irrefragable figures to prove how much
+poorer they would be in London than on their present income at Bexley,
+he would not go into details, saying that he wanted to hear no more
+about it, in a tone that a little hurt her. He was so uniformly gentle
+and gracious, that what would have passed unnoticed in most brothers,
+was noticed anxiously in him; and as Wilmet darned his shirt sleeve,
+a glistening came between her eyes and her needle, as she felt the
+requital of her prudence rather hard. Must all men pant to be out in
+the world, and be angry with women for withholding them?</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Geraldine devoid of the old prick, when she thought of the
+degrees in the social scale in connection with the words about
+tradesmen and merchants.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet was not quite happy without knowing that the letter of refusal
+was written, and was more vexed than she liked to show when Felix
+laughed at her for supposing he could have made time to write it on a
+busy Saturday, even if there had been any London post to send it by.
+Poor Alice Knevett got a considerable snubbing for bursting in to ask
+the decision, and lamenting over it when she had heard it; but she
+stood her ground with a certain pertinacity of her own: and so late in
+the evening, that Wilmet had gone up to put Stella to bed, Felix came
+up with the letter in his hand. It was so carefully expressed, that
+Cherry could not help saying saucily that it was worthy of the editor
+of the Pursuivant; while Alice, much impressed by the long words,
+enthusiastically broke out, 'It is a most beautiful letter, only it
+ought to have said just the other thing!'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, what would you have done without Cherry?' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I'd have come to stay with her! And it is such a pity! A merchant is
+a gentleman, and I am sure you could get to be anything&mdash;a member of
+parliament, or a baronet, or&mdash;' as if her imagination could not go
+farther; but she looked up at him with a dew of eagerness glistening
+in her bright hazel eyes. 'I was telling Cherry it does seem such a
+dreadful horrible pity that you should be nailed down in this little
+hole of a place for life.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix smiled&mdash;a man's superior, gratified, but half melancholy
+smile&mdash;as he answered, 'At any rate, you won't lose the pleasures of
+imagination or of pity.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I want to see you have the spirit to try,' cried Alice, eagerly.
+'I know you could.'</p>
+
+<p>'It would not be right,' said Felix, sitting down by her, and in full
+earnest gentleness and gravity setting before her the reasons that
+Cherry had hardly thought it worth while really to explain&mdash;namely, the
+impossibility of their being able to pay their way and meet the needful
+expenses, and the evils of the young, inexperienced household residing
+in London, resigning security for dependence.</p>
+
+<p>Alice, flattered by being treated as a sensible person, said, 'Yes,'
+and 'I see,' at all the proper places; then drew a sigh, saying, 'It is
+very good in you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I knew you would see it in the right light,' replied Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' but the sigh recurred. 'I can't help being sorry, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is nothing to be sorry for,' he said gratefully. 'I was
+disappointed at first myself; but for sheer usefulness to one's
+neighbour, I believe that this present position, if I have sense
+to make use of it rightly, is as good as any; and the mere
+desire of station and promotion is&mdash;when one comes to look at it
+properly&mdash;nonsense after all.'</p>
+
+<p>She opened her eyes in amazement, and made a little exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>'They may be well when they come,' said Felix in answer; 'but I have
+thought it over well to-night, and I see that to do anything doubtfully
+right for their sake would be a risk for all that I have no right to
+run.'</p>
+
+<p>Alice hung her head, overcome by the pure air of the region where he
+was lifting her; and in a sort of shyness at the serious tone in which
+he had spoken, he added, smiling,</p>
+
+<p>'Then you'll forgive the "sound of it."'</p>
+
+<p>'O Mr. Underwood,' she said, in the simplest and most earnest voice
+that Cherry had ever heard from her, 'I'm ashamed to recollect that
+nonsense!'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>WHAT IT MAY LEAD TO.</h3>
+
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p class="center">'I never was so berhymed since I was an Irish rat, which I can
+scarcely remember.'&mdash;<i>As You Like It</i>.</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 40%;">
+'Dim memories haunt the child,<br />
+Of lives in other beings led&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Other, and yet the same.'&mdash;<i>Keble</i>.</span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>In the autumn Alda made a visit at home. She had, as usual, gone with
+Mr. and Mrs. Underwood to their German baths, and had there fallen in
+with a merry set of her intimates in London, who had persuaded her to
+join them in an expedition to the Tyrol, which lasted till the end of
+September. On her return, she was dropped at Bexley, where her sisters
+were greatly edified by her sketch-book, a perfect journal in clever
+scenes and groups, like the 'Voyage en zig-zag.' Two of the gentlemen
+seemed always in waiting on the graceful outline that did duty for
+Alda; and indeed, she gave Wilmet to understand that only the skill
+that played them off one against the other had averted an offer from
+each, hundreds of miles from home, when it would have been so very
+inconvenient! Every morning Wilmet considered how her dinner would
+appear if one or both should suddenly drop in to pursue his courtship.</p>
+
+<p>Even Felix, though he had pooh-poohed the mysterious whisper from
+his sisters, was startled at the apparition of a picturesque figure;
+in Tyrolese hat, green knickerbockers, belt, knapsack, loose velvet
+coat, and fair moustache, marching full into the shop; and while the
+customers who were making it a rendezvous gazed in doubt between
+gamekeepers and stage banditti, holding out a hand too fair and dainty
+for either character, and exclaiming, 'How are you, Mr. Froggatt!
+Hollo, Felix!'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Froggatt was amazed beyond measure, and it was only on hearing the
+ring of the mirthful laugh that he exclaimed, 'Mr. Edgar! This is an
+alteration! You will find the young ladies up-stairs.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was disengaged at the moment, and could take him through the
+parlour, too glad to have him there at all to utter the faintest wish
+that he would have rung at the private door; and he ushered him into
+the drawing-room with the words, 'Here's the artist who has begun with
+himself;' and then retreated.</p>
+
+<p>'Edgar! oh, you wonderful boy!' cried happy Geraldine, as he threw his
+arms round her; while Alda asked:</p>
+
+<p>'Is that the <i>thing</i> now, Edgar?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite <i>comifo</i>,' he answered. 'Ha, little ones, have you forgotten me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Stella says you're the clarionet in the brass band,' said Bernard.
+'What have you got in that pack?'</p>
+
+<p>'Munitions of war!' he answered, unstrapping his bag, and producing
+packets of French bon-bons, bought on his way home, from the sketching
+tour Mr. Renville always made with sundry of his pupils in early
+autumn. 'Gobble them up, little mice, before the cat comes home.'</p>
+
+<p>Stella paused with a dutiful 'May I?' and Cherry had to interfere
+between the little maiden's scruples, Bernard's omnivorous inclination,
+and Theodore's terror at any new article of food; while Alda and Edgar
+exchanged eager question and answer:</p>
+
+<p>'You've been at home. You've seen them all?'</p>
+
+<p>'I dined there on Sunday&mdash;might do so any day; they can't do without
+me, that's a fact.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor me, I imagine,' said Alda. 'I suppose I am to go back with you?'</p>
+
+<p>'So Madam proposed; but the fact is, that Molly has done uncommonly
+well without you this time.'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean?' asked Alda, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>'What think you of a friend of Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>'I haven't got any friends.'</p>
+
+<p>'Think again! Not the great convert, the Cacique of all the Mexicos?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ferdinand Travis! You don't mean it?'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>I</i> don't; but the elders mean it, and the youngers will do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do tell me! I can't understand,' cried Alda, much excited. 'We have
+never met him.'</p>
+
+<p>'The uncle or father&mdash;which?'</p>
+
+<p>'The uncle.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, the uncle has been in England, and fraternized with our governor
+at Peter Brown's; there was a banqueting all round, and his nephew was
+carried at his chariot wheels. If I am not much mistaken, gold and
+timber jingled to silver and bullock-hide, and concluded a prospective
+union in the persons of my nephew and my daughter. I'm sorry. I have
+long been persuaded that a very small effort on the part of our
+respected Blunderbore might have redeemed the family fortunes in the
+person of Polly.'</p>
+
+<p>'How could you think of anything so absurd?' said Alda. 'As if my uncle
+would consent!'</p>
+
+<p>'If Tom has any sentiment, it is for my father and the name of
+Underwood,' said Edgar. 'You remember he was sorely disappointed that
+Felix would not step into my shoes.'</p>
+
+<p>'And very angry and hurt,' said Alda, 'as well he might be.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but that anger proved the vastness of his good intentions.
+Besides there's something about our old giant&mdash;steadiness and breeding,
+I believe&mdash;that uniformly makes Tom knock under to him; and there's a
+peculiar affinity of good sense between him and Marilda, that ought to
+have ripened under favourable circumstances.'</p>
+
+<p>'And is he really cut out?' said Alda. 'I don't know how to believe
+this! How far has it gone?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hanger on and oyster in love,' promptly answered Edgar. 'Honest
+Polly has the most comical look of anxious coyness on her jolly face,
+and holds her elbows squarer than ever; and a few paces off stands
+Montezuma, magnificent and melancholic;' and Edgar assumed the posture.</p>
+
+<p>'Melancholy, no wonder,' said the conscious beauty; 'Edgar, he must be
+over head and ears in debt.'</p>
+
+<p>'So it struck me; but he must have managed it uncommon quietly, for
+they call him the Mexican Muff; he's hand and glove with all their
+holinesses up at Clement's shop, and the wildest orgie he has been
+detected at was their magic-lantern.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it is real goodness that draws them together!' exclaimed Cherry,
+looking up from her presidency over the comfits.</p>
+
+<p>'Goodness and a balance,' said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you know,' said Cherry, 'that as soon as he came of age, he paid
+the Insurance all the money for the Fortinbras Arms? The agents were
+quite overwhelmed, and wanted to put it in the Pursuivant.'</p>
+
+<p>She was cut short by the return of Wilmet and Angela, accompanied by
+Miss Knevett. The effect of Edgar's appearance was startling. Alice
+gave a little scream of surprise, Angela crept behind her sisters, and
+Wilmet stood for a moment like a stag at gaze; then, as he said, 'Well,
+Mettie, are you going to send for the police?' exclaimed, 'You, Edgar!
+What a figure you have made of yourself!'</p>
+
+<p>'See how our eldest crushes me!' said Edgar. 'Such a face as yours,
+Mettie, ought not to be wedded to the commonplace.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it is like German artists,' said Wilmet, trying to resign
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>'It is such a beautiful becoming dress,' whispered Alice to Geraldine;
+while Edgar rattled on&mdash;'No wonder there is a deterioration in taste
+from living in the very tents of the Philistines. Why, Cherry, how do
+you bear existence surrounded by such colours as these?'</p>
+
+<p>'The paper?' asked Wilmet, surprised. 'It is rather a large pattern, to
+be sure.'</p>
+
+<p>'I call it cruelty to animals to shut Cherry up among the eternal
+abortive efforts of that gilded trellis to close upon those blue
+dahlias, crimson lilacs, and laburnums growing upwards, tied with huge
+ragged magenta ribbons. They would wear out my brain.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I think when you remember our old paper, you might be thankful!'
+said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Precisely what I do, and am not thankful. What our paper may have been
+in its earlier stages of existence, I am not prepared to say; but since
+I can remember, that hateful thing, the pattern, could only be traced
+by curious researches in dark corners, and the wall presented every
+<i>nuance</i> of purplish salmon or warm apricot.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear old paper!' cried Cherry. 'Yes; wasn't it soft, deepening off in
+clouds and bars, sunsets and storm-clouds, to make stories about?'</p>
+
+<p>'Where it was most faded and grimy,' said Wilmet. 'It is all
+affectation not to be glad to have clean walls.'</p>
+
+<p>'Clean!' cried Edgar, in horror. 'Defend me from the clean! Bare, bald,
+and frigid, with hard lines breaking up and frittering your background.
+If walls are ornamented at all, it should not be in a poor material
+like paper, but rich silk or woollen tapestry hangings.'</p>
+
+<p>'We couldn't have tapestry now,' said Alice, in a puzzled voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Then,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'"Comrades, take warning by my fall,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And have it strong or not at all."'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>'Not walls,' laughed Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Let them be of natural, or, at any rate, uniform tint; and cover them
+with your own designs of some character and purpose, not patterns
+bought by the yard.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I see what you would be at,' said Wilmet quaintly. 'You are
+bewailing the loss of your great Man Friday.'</p>
+
+<p>'Achilles, I beg your pardon.'</p>
+
+<p>'He never would come out,' said Angela; 'he came through the whitewash
+after the measles.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder what the present inhabitants think of him,' said Cherry. 'One
+comfort is, if he is a bogy now, they may show him some day as an early
+effort of Sir Edgar Underwood, President of the Royal Academy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear! I must go!' cried Alice. 'I only came to fetch a pattern for
+Aunt Maria, and she is waiting for it; but you are all so delightful
+here.'</p>
+
+<p>'What pretty little thing have you picked up there?' asked Edgar, as
+she went.</p>
+
+<p>'Have we not told you of Miss Pearson's niece?'</p>
+
+<p>'You should take her likeness, Cherry, as a relief from the classically
+severe.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry opened her portfolio, and showed two or three water-coloured
+drawings of the graceful little head and piquant features. Edgar
+criticised, and promised a lesson; and the sitter, nothing loth, though
+rather coy, was caught. She blushed and smiled, and took exception at
+little personalities, and laughed her forgiveness, going through a play
+of countenance very perplexing to the pupil, but much relished by the
+master, as he called up the pout and smile by turns, and played with
+her little airs.</p>
+
+<p>He took Alda back on Monday, but promised to come home for Christmas,
+and kept his word. Perhaps the Renville <i>wirthschaft</i> afforded less
+contrast with home than did the Underwood <i>ménage</i>; and, in spite of
+the Philistine furniture, the rooms in the High Street agreed better
+with his tastes than the old house in St. Oswald's Buildings. He was
+above objecting to the shop; and whereas Clement carefully avoided
+the public precincts, he was often there, hunting up books, reading
+newspapers, gossiping with Mr. Froggatt or with Redstone, and always
+ensuring himself a welcome by the free bright sweetness of his manner
+and his amusing talk.</p>
+
+<p>It was a prosperous winter; Felix, as partner and acknowledged editor,
+was in a more comfortable position both as to income and authority.
+Other matters were going well. Fulbert, to the general surprise,
+turned out a capital letter-writer, and sent home excellent accounts
+of himself, working heartily in a situation in the post-office, which
+Mr. Audley's Somerville interest had managed to secure for him.
+Moreover, all close scholarships had not been abolished, and Felix's
+opportunities in the newspaper line had enabled him to discover one at
+St. Cadoc's, a small college at Cambridge, to be competed for by the
+natives of the county where Clement had fortunately been born. A letter
+to the parish clerk of Vale Leston, to ask for the baptismal register
+of Edward Clement Underwood, produced a reply from a well-remembered
+old Abednego Tripp, who declared himself 'horned and rejoiced' at
+hearing from Master Felix, and at being able to do anything for one of
+the Reverend Mr. Edward's sons. The competition was not very severe;
+Clement obtained the scholarship, and therewith his maintenance for
+three years to come; and he was at the same time able to exercise a
+bit of patronage on his sisters' behalf, more gratifying to his own
+feelings than theirs. Mr. Fulmort's unmarried sisters had lived in
+the country with a former governess, until on the death of the elder,
+the survivor decided on employing her very considerable fortune in
+establishing a school where girls of small means might be prepared
+for becoming first-rate governesses, with special openings for the
+daughters of poor clergy and of missionaries.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first families thought of was that of the favourite
+chorister; so Angela, now ten years old, was nominated at once,
+to the relief of Wilmet, who did not think her romping intimacies
+with the girls at Miss Pearson's very desirable. Moreover, after a
+correspondence between Miss Fulmort and Miss Lyveson, it was decided
+that Robina should be transferred to the new school at Brompton with
+her sister, partly by way of infusing a trustworthy element, and partly
+that her studies might be perfected by London masters. Robina, whose
+allegiance to Miss Lyveson was most devoted, was greatly grieved, but
+she was a reasonable, womanly little being, aware that governess-ship
+was her profession, and resolute to qualify herself; so though she
+came home with tell-tale spots under her eyes, she replied to all
+condolences with, 'I know it's right, what must be must;' and her
+spirits rose when Lance came home, bound only to return during the
+holidays on two or three special days when his voice was indispensable
+at the cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar and he together kept the house in continual merriment, so that
+the sober pillars of the house found themselves carried along, they
+knew not whither.</p>
+
+<p>'I have had a serious application,' said Felix one evening. 'A solemn
+knock came to the office door, and an anxious voice came in&mdash;"Please,
+brother, I want to speak to you." There stood the little Star! I
+thought at least she had broken the chandelier, but no such thing. It
+was, "Please, brother, mayn't I have a birth-day?"'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor little darling!' cried some voices.</p>
+
+<p>'What could have put it into her head?' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'She said all little girls had birth-days, and Ellen Bruce had told
+Angel all about the dance in honour of hers.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' said Wilmet, 'we'll have Angel out of the way of that kind of
+chatter.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor little maid! of course I had to quench her,' said Felix, 'as far
+as her own day was concerned. I told her more about it than she had
+ever heard, but then she took me aback by saying Father was happy, and
+she thought he would like her to be happy.'</p>
+
+<p>'You didn't consent!' exclaimed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I represented that it was Theodore's birth-day as well, and that
+strangers would make him miserable. She was really very good, and I
+want you just to consider whether we could not do something&mdash;of course
+on a different day&mdash;but in the course of the holidays, by way of treat.
+Surely you could invite some of Miss Pearson's pupils.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't like to begin, Felix,' said Wilmet; 'there would be
+reciprocity, and no one knows where it might lead to.'</p>
+
+<p>'A few white muslin frocks&mdash;eh, W. W.? I think we could stand them.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is not all I mean,' said Wilmet; 'it is the sort of style of
+thing. It would be all very well to have a few little girls here, but
+they would all ask us again, and I could not answer for what might
+happen at their homes.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is out!' said Edgar. 'Now we know the sort of style of thing it
+might lead to. Minerva under a mistletoe bough.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hurrah!' burst out Lance, in convulsions of mirth, which infected
+Felix and Cherry; while Wilmet, as simple as she was discreet, blushed
+up to the tips of her ears, and tried to defend herself.</p>
+
+<p>'They tell me of doings at their parties that are what I should not
+like for our little girls, and I don't think you would, Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'Forfeits, to wit?' asked Edgar. 'Or cards, or waltzing. You may as
+well be explicit, Mettie.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' said Felix, 'Mettie shall not be teased: she is right in the
+main.' But his <i>tone</i> was that he always used when her prudence was too
+much for him.</p>
+
+<p>'And the family refinement is to be secured by sitting in ashes all
+Christmas,' said Edgar. 'Slightly unchristian, it strikes me.'</p>
+
+<p>'But,' continued Felix, 'out of these domestic ashes, we <i>must</i> get up
+some sport for the children. I stand committed to Stella.'</p>
+
+<p>'Shall I get Bill Harewood, and do Box and Cox?' suggested Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Might we not get up something they could take part in themselves?'
+said Cherry; 'Cinderella, or some such little play?&mdash;Edgar, you know
+how to manage such things.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet doesn't know where they would lead to,' gravely responded Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'To Lance's going off with a circus,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I always had a great mind to do so,' responded Lance. 'To sing comic
+songs on one leg on a spotted horse's back, and go about day and night
+in a yellow van drawn by elephants&mdash;I call that life!'</p>
+
+<p>'Secure a berth for me as scene-painter!' cried Edgar. 'See how I'd
+draw a house by the very outline of Mazeppa outside!'</p>
+
+<p>'And Felix will print all our advertisements gratis!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' broke in Cherry; 'I have a notion. Couldn't we make a play of the
+conjuror in disguise? It is Dr. Knowall in German popular tales, Robin
+the Conjuror in English.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing foolish, I hope?' seriously asked Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no. Don't you recollect? The story is, that a set of thieves steal
+a jewel, a man comes shamming conjuror and offering to find it for the
+owner, intending to trust to chance, and feast at her expense as long
+as he is not found out.'</p>
+
+<p>'I remember!' exclaimed Lance; 'you used to tell us the story. Somebody
+suspects him, and brings a creature shut up in a covered dish to ask
+him to tell what it was&mdash;and it happens to be a robin; so when he cries
+out, "Oh, poor Robin!" thinking himself done for, out hops the bird,
+and the enemy is sold.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; and then he counts his dinners every day, and the thieves who
+have come to look on think he is counting them, and throw themselves on
+his mercy.'</p>
+
+<p>'It has capabilities,' said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'But the moral!' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'What! Not the lesson against dealing with conjurors?' demanded Edgar.
+'I'll undertake to arm your pupils against spirit-rapping for ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'In that point of view&mdash;' said Wilmet doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>'In that point of view,' said Felix, laughing, 'it has my vote.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't like deception to succeed,' said Wilmet; 'but at least there's
+none of the worst sort of nonsense.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance leapt up and performed a <i>pas seul</i>, insisting that Bill Harewood
+must come and be a robber; and Edgar and Cherry instantly had their
+heads together as playwrights and managers.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind, Wilmet,' said Felix at their bed-room doors that night.
+'Remember, Father never was a man for all work and no play.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't mind play, but I don't know what this may lead to;' then,
+as Felix laughed merrily at the repetition, she followed him into
+his room, saying, 'I mean, I have no trust in Edgar's discretion, or
+Lance's either, and all sorts of things may be put into the children's
+heads.'</p>
+
+<p>'You can't keep children's heads a blank,' said Felix; 'and Edgar's
+good taste ought to be trusted in his own home, for his own sisters.
+Even you might stretch a few points to keep him happy and occupied with
+Cherry. Besides, I believe we do live a duller life than can be really
+good for any one. It can't be right to shut up all these young things
+all their holidays without any pleasure.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought,' said Wilmet, her eyes growing moist, 'it was pleasure
+enough to be all at home together.'</p>
+
+<p>'So it is, to staid old fogies like you and me,' said Felix, kissing
+her; 'but the young ones want a lark now and then, and I confess I
+should be immensely disappointed if this fun didn't come off. No, no,
+W. W., I can't have you an old cat; you are much too young and pretty.'</p>
+
+<p>The levity of this conclusion shocked Wilmet beyond remonstrance. Was
+Felix falling from his height of superiority, or was her strictness
+wearisome?</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, Geraldine's brain was ringing with doggrel rhymes, and
+whirling with stage contrivances, in the delight of doing something
+with Edgar, whether versifying or drawing; and as Felix said, to keep
+him happy at home for Christmas was no small gain, even though it
+brought a painful realisation that their feast was not his feast.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine suffered in silence, for a word from her was always put
+down by some tender jest, avowing as much inferiority in goodness as
+superiority in intellect. As to Clement, Edgar's sport was to startle
+him with jokes, dilemmas, and irreverences, and then to decline
+discussion on the ground that he never argued with <i>sisters</i>, and that
+Clement would understand when he went to Cambridge. Otherwise, the
+subject was avoided at home; but Edgar consorted a good deal with Mr.
+Ryder, calling him the only person in the town, except Cherry, who
+knew the use of a tongue; and one day, when Felix was assisting his
+old master in a search through old newspapers in the reading-room, Mr.
+Ryder said, 'By-the-by, your brother Edgar has a good deal more of the
+talk of the day than you can be prepared for.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid so, sir,' said Felix; 'but he does not put it forth much
+at home.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I hoped. It would have startled your father a good deal; but I
+believe myself acting in the spirit of his wishes in letting him talk
+out his crudities.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, sir,' said Felix, not quite knowing how to take this.</p>
+
+<p>'It is a phase to be passed through,' said Mr. Ryder. 'Indeed, a good
+deal of it is fashion and vanity.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Audley thinks so,' replied Felix. 'He said he thought poor Edgar
+did not think enough to have real doubt, but that he considered other
+people's a dispensation from attending to the subject at all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly,' said Mr. Ryder, 'except so far as repeating what he has
+caught up seems to him knowing, and according to the spirit of the
+time, fit to dazzle us down here. Whatever may deepen him will probably
+change all that&mdash;I do not say into what you or your father would wish;
+but what is jargon now will pass away into something more real, for
+better or&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'For worse?' asked Felix anxiously, as he paused.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not say so,' returned Mr. Ryder. 'Perhaps what I chiefly wished
+at this moment was to clear myself in your eyes of treachery to your
+father.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, sir, that I never could suspect.'</p>
+
+<p>But the conversation might well leave heaviness behind it. Was it come
+to Edgar's views being such as to startle Mr. Ryder! who, for that
+matter, had of late shown much less laxity of opinion than in his
+younger and more argumentative days; and there was little comfort in
+supposing that these were not real honest doubts at all, only apologies
+for general carelessness and irreligion.</p>
+
+<p>Yet with even this trouble in the recess of the heart, this was the
+merriest winter the Underwood household had known since their father's
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar chose to frame the play upon the Italian form of the story, where
+the impostor is a starveling poet, nicknamed Signor Topo, or Master
+Ratton, because his poverty had brought him to live in a hay-loft. This
+character he assumed, and no doubt it fitted him better than either the
+English cobbler or the German doctor; besides, as he said, sham court
+costume is always the easiest to contrive: but Cherry was by no means
+prepared to find the Rat-like poet the secret admirer of a daughter of
+the Serene Highness who owned the jewel.</p>
+
+<p>'Such a monstrous interpolation,' quoth Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>'Interpolations are the beauty of the thing. It would be as flat as a
+pancake without.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Wilmet won't like it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet must be brought to the level of ordinary human nature.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't feel as if this were using her well. You know she expressly
+consented to this "because there was no nonsense in it."'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>I.e.</i> if it had been Cinderella, it would have been improper; if the
+Sleeping Beauty, highly scandalous. Eh, Chérie?'</p>
+
+<p>'You know I think Mettie <i>does</i> carry her scruples pretty far,' said
+Geraldine, trying not to laugh, 'but I won't be a party to cheating
+her; and if this young princess is to come in, she must be told of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Or she will take out her Gorgon's head in the midst, and petrify
+her subjects! Maybe it will be safest to prepare her. You see, such
+discipline reigns here, that a poor Bohemian like me doesn't know where
+to be.'</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, Edgar said in his airy way, 'O Mettie, by-the-by, we have
+put in a part for little Miss Knevett.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed! I thought it was to be all among ourselves. Have you spoken to
+her?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course; and she is in the ecstatic state of preparation of spangles
+and coronets.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you had spoken before. It would be hard to disappoint her now.
+What is she to be?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing less than heroine. There must be some sort of conventional
+catastrophe, or the whole concern falls flat.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't see why it should not fall flat,' said Wilmet, with a sober
+air that drove Cherry into an uncontrollable convulsion of laughter;
+'it would amuse the children just as well.'</p>
+
+<p>'The children of six, maybe,' said Edgar gravely, 'but hardly the
+children of sixteen. Have you no mercy on them, my venerable sister?'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet had arrived at such a pass of resignation as to perceive that
+'a fuss' on her part might be more mischievous than any 'nonsense' in
+which Edgar was likely to indulge in public, especially with Geraldine
+as his coadjutor. She tried to obtain some reassurance that there was
+'nothing more silly than needful in this play of yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed. There is just a little mock courtship; but as that is the
+case with nine-tenths of the stories in the world, I don't think you
+gain much by turning it out.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did hope for once in a way we ourselves might be quit of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is hard on you,' said Cherry, smiling; 'but it would make a great
+uproar to disturb all now.'</p>
+
+<p>'At any rate, I have found the old receipt for tea-cakes,' responded
+Wilmet, whose mind was almost as much preoccupied with the
+entertainment of the body as her sister's with that of the mind.</p>
+
+<p>She had relented so far as to invite two little girls and their widowed
+mother, from whom there was no danger of reciprocities; Lance had
+prevailed to have Will Harewood as one of the robbers; and the Miss
+Pearsons were coming to behold their niece; besides which, Stella
+having imparted the great secret to Mr. Froggatt, Felix found the
+good old gentleman and his wife burning to have an invitation. Thus
+the party would be the largest Wilmet had ever contemplated; and the
+mysteries of tea and supper were so congenial to her housewifely soul,
+that she did not distress herself about the frequent rehearsals in Miss
+Pearson's empty school-room, the transformations of garments under the
+needles of Cherry and Robina, nor even the wildness and ecstacy of
+all the children from Lance downwards, all bursting with secrets, and
+letting them out at every corner of their grinning mouths.</p>
+
+<p>It must soon be over, and Felix seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly;
+and Wilmet could tolerate a great deal when either Felix or Alda
+enjoyed. He was much too busy with Christmas accounts to undertake any
+part that needed learning; but he was pressed into the service as a
+courtier, only with a dispensation from either speaking or rehearsing;
+while Wilmet utterly scouted any idea of taking any share in the drama,
+having enough to do in her own character.</p>
+
+<p>And in that character she was left alone to entertain the guests, for
+even Cherry was in request as prompter and assistant dresser&mdash;nay,
+with the assistance of Theodore's accordion, formed the whole band of
+musicians at the ball which opened the performance, and which required
+the entire <i>corps dramatique</i>. Robina, as the Elderly Princess,
+demonstratively dropped her bracelet, with a ruby about as big as a
+pigeon's egg (being the stopper of a scent-bottle), and after the
+dancers had taken some trouble not to step on it, they retired, and it
+was stolen by the gang of robbers, cloaked up to their corked eyebrows
+and moustaches.</p>
+
+<p>Then appeared in his loft&mdash;supplied with straw culled from packages at
+the printing-house&mdash;the poet, well got up in his knickerbockers and
+velvet smoking-cap, scarf and guitar, soliloquising in burlesque rhyme
+on his fallen state and hopeless admiration, and looking very handsome
+and disconsolate, until startled by the cry behind the scenes&mdash;</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 10%;">
+'O yes! O yes! O yes!<br />
+By command of her Highness!<br />
+Lost, stolen, or strayed,<br />
+Gone to the dogs or mislaid,<br />
+Her Highness's splendid ruby.<br />
+Whoso finds it&mdash;wit or booby,<br />
+Tinker, tailor, soldier, lord&mdash;<br />
+Let him ask what he will, he shall have his reward.'<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon the poet, communicating his designs in a stage soliloquy,
+disguised himself in a tow wig and beard, and a railway rug turned up
+with yellow calico; and the scene shifting to the palace, he introduced
+himself to the Elderly Princess as the greatest of spiritualists&mdash;so
+great, that&mdash;</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 10%;">
+'Detective police are an ignorant fable;<br />
+No detective can equal a walnut-wood table.'<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But he required as a medium a maiden fair and lovely, but with a
+heart as yet untouched, otherwise the spirits might be offended. The
+only lady who was available was, of course, the youthful princess
+Fiordespina, whose alarm and reluctance had been contrived so as to be
+highly flattering to the disguised poet.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner scenes, at which the robbers presented themselves in turn,
+and imagined that they heard themselves counted, went off in due order;
+also the test, when the courtiers tried to pose the spiritualist with
+making him divine what they brought him in a covered dish, and were
+disconcerted by his sighing out,</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 10%;">
+'Alas! alas! see envy batten<br />
+On the unhappy Master Ratton!'<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>while the rat leaped out from beneath the lid!</p>
+
+<p>Then came the avowal by the robber: but the conclusion was so far
+varied, that the jewel having been judiciously hidden, the poet made
+use of his voice and his guitar to throw the Lady Fiordespina into a
+mesmeric sleep before the court, and then to cause a table to rap out
+the letters, which she interpreted so as to lead to the spot.</p>
+
+<p>It was the prettiest scene of all, his music and song were so graceful;
+and in spite of some suppressed giggling, the attitude and countenance
+of Fiordespina were so very pretty in her trance. Nothing more was left
+save the restoration of the ruby, the claiming of the reward, and the
+final tableau, in which Ratton and Fiordespina, in their native good
+mien, had their hands joined by the benignant Elderly Princess; while,
+to the equal amusement and confusion of all, good old Mrs. Froggatt
+fairly burst out crying with excitement and admiration!</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Vincent, the young widow, was likewise enchanted, and so was Miss
+Maria Pearson; but Wilmet could not quite fathom the tone of the elder
+and graver sister, or decide whether it were her own dissatisfaction
+that made her think Miss Pearson had not expected to see such a <i>role</i>
+bestowed upon her niece.</p>
+
+<p>The doors between the drawing-room and the theatre were opened again;
+the boys handed round negus and lemonade; and Felix, standing over
+Cherry, said, 'Lance's circus speculation would not be a bad one.
+There's plenty of dramatic talent in the family.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you like it, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'I could tell exactly which parts were yours and which Edgar's,' was
+the ambiguous answer, as he turned to secure the Princess Fiordespina
+for the dance that was to crown the performance.</p>
+
+<p>'O Mr. Underwood! Oh yes, thank you! but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it part of the programme that wizard and medium should dance
+together?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! Only it seems so funny to think of your dancing.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, you thought a stationer must be stationary?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Mr. Underwood, what a shocking pun!' and she was led off sparkling
+with pretty laughter; while the Conjuror, muttering,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'The gouty oak began to move</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And flounder into hornpipes,'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>turned graciously on little Susie Vincent, and scared as much as he
+elevated her, by claiming her as his partner.</p>
+
+<p>Will Harewood, dashing across the room, and looking earnestly with his
+bold and now flushed face up to Wilmet, blurted out, 'Miss Underwood,
+now please, let me dance with you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you,' she said graciously; 'but I believe I must play for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll do that,' said Clement, over her head.</p>
+
+<p>'The Dead March in Saul?' murmured Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense!' broke out Mrs. Vincent, starting up; 'what am I good for
+but to play?'</p>
+
+<p>So Clement, who thought he had found an escape, was reduced to the
+necessity of asking the other little Vincent; and Wilmet's smile of
+consent so elated Bill Harewood, that he could not help flying across
+to that very happy and well-matched pair, the Elderly Princess and
+First Robber, to tell them, 'I've got her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, your sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'You've never been and made up to Wilmet!' said Lance, as if this
+instance of valour crowned his merits.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, I have; and she will. You see there ain't another gentleman out
+of the family except the old Froggy, and the little one has got him.
+Well, I always wished beyond anything to dance with Miss Underwood!'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you?' said Robina. 'I never should have thought of that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Most likely not,' said Bill; 'but she is the most beautiful woman I
+ever did or shall see in all my life;' and he flew back to her side.</p>
+
+<p>'Is she?' said Robina, altogether amazed.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, perhaps,' said Lance; 'you know one might go a long way without
+finding any one so handsome.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I wish people wouldn't say so. It seems making our Wilmet common,
+like any other girl, to care for her being pretty.'</p>
+
+<p>'So Froggy's dancing with Stella,' observed Lance. 'I declare I'll try
+if Mrs. Frog won't stand up with me. Some one ought. You'll not mind
+waiting, Bobbie. It is not often one has the chance to dance with a cap
+like that.'</p>
+
+<p>Bobbie resigned herself amicably; and Lance, with his bright arch face,
+made his bow and half polite, half saucy addresses to Mrs. Froggatt in
+her magnificent head-gear, making her laugh herself almost to tears
+again as she declined. He held the Miss Pearsons in greater awe, and
+ventured on neither; so that Robina had him for Sir Roger de Coverley,
+where the sole contretemps arose from Angel and Bear being in such
+boisterous spirits that Wilmet decreed that they must not be partners
+again. Of the rest, some had a good deal of dancing-master experience;
+Mrs. Harewood's impromptu merry-makings had afforded plenty of practice
+to the two choristers; even Clement had had a certain school-feast
+training; and Felix, with a good ear, ready eye, and natural ease
+of movement, acquitted himself to Miss Knevett's eagerly expressed
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>'Take care, Master Ratton will be jealous,' said Edgar, as he claimed
+her for the next dance, a quadrille.</p>
+
+<p>'Jealous! oh no! Some people one never thinks of complimenting.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry caught the words, and wondered what they meant.</p>
+
+<p>A few more dances, and then came Wilmet's anxiously contrived supper.</p>
+
+<p>'I say,' observed Will Harewood to Lance, 'why can't we have things
+like this at home?'</p>
+
+<p>''Tisn't their nature to,' judiciously responded Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'This cream is quite up to the grub we get after a crack let-off in
+the Close,' added Will; for requisitions for their voices at private
+concerts had made the choir connoisseurs in the relics of feasts.</p>
+
+<p>'Better, I should say,' returned Lance. 'Mettie doesn't make it of
+soap, or arsenic, or verdigris, like old Twopenny.'</p>
+
+<p>'What! you don't mean that she made it herself?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course! who else should?'</p>
+
+<p>'My eyes! And to see her looking like that!' Then, with a deep sigh,
+'If I could only book her for my wife on the spot!'</p>
+
+<p>Whence it may be inferred, that Stella's birth-day party was not only a
+brilliant success, but might, in Wilmet's phrase, 'lead to something.'
+All it seemed to have led to at present was a discovery on the part of
+the good Miss Pearsons, that the household they had been wont to pity
+as small orphan children, now contained three fine young men.</p>
+
+<p>At least Geraldine connected this with the desire they expressed that
+Alice might enjoy the same opportunities as Robina of giving her
+acquirements a final polish, up to diploma pitch. A correspondence
+commenced, resulting in Miss Knevett being engaged as teacher,
+being remunerated by lessons in languages and accomplishments. The
+arrangement gave universal satisfaction; Cherry could not detect any
+regret on the part of Felix; Alice would still spend her holidays
+with her aunts; and the sense that her departure was near made the
+intercourse between the two houses more frequent and familiar than it
+had ever yet been.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Cherry, while looking up a quotation for Felix in
+Southey's '<i>Doctor</i>,' lit on his quaint theory of the human soul
+having previously migrated through successive stages of vegetable and
+animal life, and still retaining something characteristic from each
+transmigration. Her brothers were a good deal tickled with the idea;
+and Lance exclaimed, 'I know who must have been rhubarb, queen-wasp,
+and a hen-harrier.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that's too bad!' cried Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'Why a hen-harrier?' asked Felix, recognising, like almost all the
+others.</p>
+
+<p>'One of the birds of prey where the female is bigger than her mate,'
+drily observed Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'Besides,' said Cherry, 'recollect the hen-harrier's countenance in
+pictures, with beady eyes, and a puffed supercilious smile about the
+beak.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, that's Lady Price!' chimed in Alice, making the discovery at last.</p>
+
+<p>Lengthily and gravely Edgar uttered the words, 'Puzzle-monkey, praying
+mantis, sacred stork, howler.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance and Robin roared with merriment, and after one glance at
+Clement's half virtuous, half offended countenance, Felix and Cherry
+fell into like convulsions; while Alice exclaimed, 'But who is it?'
+and Angel shouted the sufficiently evident answer, 'Clement, oh! the
+howler, the black preaching monkey in a natural surplice!'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't think how you do it!' exclaimed Alice.</p>
+
+<p>'I object to the mantis,' Cherry struggled to say. 'Nasty hypocritical
+creature that eats things up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Praying for its living, eh, Cherry?' said wicked Edgar. 'If you had
+ever seen the long thin animal, with head back, hands joined, and pious
+attitude, you couldn't doubt.'</p>
+
+<p>And as he spoke he sketched his mischievous likeness, at which
+the mirth grew more furious; while Cherry, always the most easily
+excited, uttered in a strangled voice, 'A parsnip, a barn-door hen, a
+dilapidated Guernsey cow, an old mother whale.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Cherry, Cherry, you've immortalized yourself!' shouted Lance. 'How
+did you hit off the parsnip? the very thing that had stumped me.'</p>
+
+<p>'The colour, and the odd sort of sweetness,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Won't we have fun with it when I go back!' cried Lance.&mdash;'Not tell?
+Nonsense! Why, no one will enjoy it like Mother Harewood herself.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only don't say I made it. There, Edgar has got one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Touch-me-not balsam, blister-fly, bantam-cock (full strut), black
+terrier.'</p>
+
+<p>He did not caricature this time except with the muscles of his face,
+and with these he contrived to put on four different aspects, each
+so exactly like Mr. Mowbray Smith that not even Alice required the
+proclamation of the name; and Wilmet gravely said, 'I do not think this
+is a proper sort of game. It must be ill-natured or irreverent.'</p>
+
+<p>'That depends,' said Geraldine, now thoroughly in the swing.&mdash;'Here!
+Hawthornden apple-tree, stickleback, goldfinch, beaver.'</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'The hardy Norseman's house of yore</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Was on the foaming wave,'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>sang out Lance, recalling Theodore's substitute for Felix's name.</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly like&mdash;figures, tastes, and all,' said Edgar, scanning Felix's
+clear, bright, fresh face, glossy hair, and rather short figure, at
+once trim and sturdy. 'The goldfinch hit him off exactly, but I don't
+see the force of the apple-tree.'</p>
+
+<p>'You would,' said Cherry, 'if you were properly acquainted with our
+three trees and their individualities. The Hawthornden is a resolute
+looking fellow, but it indulges in the loveliest pink and white
+blossoms, and waxen, delicate, peachy fruit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Uncommonly sour! Thank you, Cherry,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Not in a pie,' suggested Alice.</p>
+
+<p>'Properly treated and sweetened, eh?' asked he, smiling on her.</p>
+
+<p>'But why is Felix like a stickleback?' said Angela.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you know?' said Cherry; 'a beautiful bright little fish, and the
+good male one swims up and down taking care of the nest.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do like the beaver,' allowed Wilmet. 'It always was my favourite
+beast.'</p>
+
+<p>'It hits off the respectable householder element,' added Edgar. 'Three
+flaps of his broad tail rule beaverdom like Jupiter's nod.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have one,' interposed Robina.&mdash;'Bella-donna lily, working bee,
+menura&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Hold hard!' called Lance; 'is a menura fish, flesh, or fowl?'</p>
+
+<p>'Fowl: the lyre-tailed pheasant, that makes a shelter for its nest with
+its own tail.'</p>
+
+<p>'Decided liar tale,' muttered Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'Go on, Bobbie,' Felix encouraged her. 'The pheasant suits both the
+twins as well as the bella-donna. Any more?'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps the leading stag of the herd.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't make us like that proud, cowardly, tyrannical beast,' exclaimed
+Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I have seen you look exactly like one,' said Geraldine. 'That and the
+pheasant both give the notion of your neck.'</p>
+
+<p>'Such a set of trumpery gaudy things!' grumbled Wilmet. 'Nothing but
+the bee is tolerable.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did think of a speckled Hamburg hen, and a nice quiet she-goat,'
+said Robina; 'but they are all dowdy, and would not suit Alda.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's something in the theory,' said Edgar. 'That bella-donna
+approves itself perfectly&mdash;so delicate and stately, and yet so
+essentially unpoetical.'</p>
+
+<p>'That Mettie takes as a compliment,' said Felix, 'only she would rather
+have been a potato, or a cabbage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now,' said Cherry, 'you will all know&mdash;bell-heather, the grasshopper,
+the lark, and the squirrel.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is this the lark's crest, or the squirrel's tail?' said Felix, giving
+an elder brother's pull to the boy's highest wave of hair.</p>
+
+<p>'Or the grasshopper's leap?' cried Lance, springing on him for a bout
+of buffeting and skirmishing; in the midst of which Alice was heard
+wondering how the riddles, as she thought them, were either made or
+guessed.</p>
+
+<p>'They come,' said Geraldine. 'I am only afraid we shall fall into a
+trick of making them for everybody.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder what you would make for me.'</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine had it on her tongue's end that Alice would be difficult, for
+want of anything distinctive; but Felix and Edgar were both jotting
+something down, and Robina was beforehand with either&mdash;'Scarlet
+pimpernel, tortoiseshell butterfly, budgerigar, marmoset.'</p>
+
+<p>No one answered, for Felix had pushed a slip of paper over to Alice,
+on which she read&mdash;'"Forget-me-not, ladybird, linnet, kitten." I don't
+think I ever saw a linnet. Isn't it a little brown bird?'</p>
+
+<p>'With a rich glow of red, and a beautiful song,' said Felix, smiling;
+and the red glowed redder on her cheek, as she said, laughing, 'Kitten
+for mischief, eh? For shame, Mr. Underwood!&mdash;What, another! Dear me, I
+shall not know myself!'</p>
+
+<p>This had been slipped into her hand; and Cherry suspected that her
+exclamation had been a mistake of which she was conscious, as the
+colour deepened on her already blushing cheeks, and her eyes were
+cast down, while a demure smile played on her lips. The incautious
+exclamation had betrayed her, and the young ones clamoured to hear
+Edgar's view of her transmigration; but there was a little coy struggle
+of 'Oh no, she wouldn't, and she couldn't.'</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'She smiled and blushed, and oft did say</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Her pretty oath by yea or nay.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>And in the midst came the message that the maid was arrived to take
+her home; and this being a cross stiff personage, who might never be
+kept waiting, she had to hurry away; and had no sooner gone than Angela
+burst out with, 'Here it is! I've got it! Listen to it: "Say, Lady&mdash;"'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay, Angela,' interrupted Felix. 'You have no business with that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not Edgar's fun!' she exclaimed. 'Why, where is he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Surely he is not going home with her!' said Wilmet in some dismay.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but it is such fun,' went on Angela, 'only I can't make it out.
+You read it, Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did she give it you?' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'No, I whipped it up when she dropped it. There's something about
+Ratton in it.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix quietly took the paper out of her hand, folded it, and put it
+into an envelope. 'You take it back to her the first thing to-morrow,'
+he said. 'Now go to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>Angela durst not oppose that tone, so unusually serious and
+authoritative; but she contrived to prolong her good-nights, and the
+putting away of her goods, with a kind of half droll, half sullen
+resignation; and just as Wilmet was hurrying her off, Edgar returned.
+He always spoilt Angela a little, and she sprang to him with a kind of
+droll pout. 'You'll not be cross, Edgar. You'll let us hear Alice's
+transmigrations. Look! here's Felix bottled them up in an envelope, and
+won't let us peep at them! But you'll let me hear. You won't order me
+off to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry fancied she saw a disconcerted look on his face when he saw the
+envelope held up to him; but if so, it instantly gave place to the
+mischievous entertainment of defeating a lesson on discretion.&mdash;'The
+heads of the family must assert themselves sometimes, my dear, even
+about nothing,' he said consolingly.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' said Wilmet, bristling in defence of Felix, 'of course we
+knew it was nothing. It was only very ill-mannered and wrong of Angela
+to go prying into what was not meant to be shown.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure,' said Edgar most ungratefully, 'it might be posted on the
+church door for what I care, except for its intrinsic vileness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, let's have it! let's have it!' burst out Lance and Robina, who had
+been burning with curiosity all the time.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't let us have them murdered, whatever they are,' said Edgar,
+taking them into his own hand. 'Pity the sorrows of a poor wretch
+seduced into one of your horrid <i>jeux d'esprit</i>&mdash;a lady's excuse for
+fishing for compliments that sound more than they mean. Here goes,
+then:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Say, Lady, what existence past</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Thine essence hath enfolded;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">What humble antecedent cast</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Thy present self hath moulded.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'The hawthorn bush, with blossom white</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Veiling her branches pricking;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The painted lady, fluttering light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The rash pursuer tricking.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Grass paraquit, who loves to sit</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">In clustering rows and chat on;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Caressing, purring, traitor kit,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Fatal to Master Ratton.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>'There, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are satisfied,' he concluded,
+letting his performance float into the fire; 'the metaphors, to say the
+least, are startling, but that is the fault of the game.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't enter into it all,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Not likely another of the grass paraquits would, my dear,' said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>'And it is exactly what Robin made her,' said Angela; 'both that and
+the butterfly; and Felix, the kitten. You didn't borrow of course. How
+funny!'</p>
+
+<p>'But I didn't make her inconstant,' said Robin; 'that is not fair.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not when you made her a butterfly, and the shepherd's weather-glass
+too!'</p>
+
+<p>'I never thought of that, only their being both bright, dark, sparkling
+things; and Felix has the forget-me-not, by way of antidote.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think such things are wise,' pronounced Wilmet. 'And,
+by-the-by, Edgar, it has always been the custom that nobody should walk
+home with Alice. Miss Pearson would not like it, and it would make a
+talk.'</p>
+
+<p>Edgar laughed. 'Dear W. W., let it not trouble you! What it may lead
+to is a bugbear to you. You can't think how much younger and more
+agreeable you will be when you have learnt that there can be passages
+that lead to nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine went to bed uncomfortable and perplexed. Before she was
+dressed in the morning, Alice darted in. 'Cherry, I'm so vexed; I
+dropped that paper. Do you think it is here?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; Angel picked it up, and Edgar read us the verses, and then threw
+them into the fire.'</p>
+
+<p>'Burnt them!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he said the worst of such games was that they force one to pay
+compliments that may be taken to mean more than they do.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry spoke under a stern sense of virtue doing a service to Alice;
+and when the quick answer came, 'He didn't say that, I'm sure it was
+Wilmet,' she asseverated, 'Indeed he did. I don't confuse in that way.
+It is a very good warning not to dwell on what gentlemen may say in
+mere play.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who told you I did?' said Alice sharply. 'You've no business to say
+such things!'</p>
+
+<p>Happily there was an interruption. Cherry felt as if she had had a
+taste of the claws; but she feared she had been malicious, and she was
+penitent.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>WHAT IT LED TO.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 40%;">
+'Then out and spak the popinjay.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 30%;"><i>Old Ballad.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>Geraldine was hard at work on a drawing. Edgar's teaching had improved
+her so much that, under a sore longing to obtain some good studies, she
+had ventured to place in the shop one of her best imaginary groups, and
+to her surprise and delight, it had brought her in fifteen shillings,
+and an order for a companion.</p>
+
+<p>Vistas of hope began to rise before her, only obscured by her
+consciousness of the want of knowledge and skill. It took some
+resolution not to attend exclusively to her art, and she was forced to
+make it a rule never to touch a pencil till the lessons of Bernard and
+Stella were both over for the day.</p>
+
+<p>They were finished, the children in the garden, and Cherry was in that
+world of joy and something like inspiration known to spirits imbued
+with any of the constructive poetry of art, always endeavouring to
+fulfil an ideal, never indeed satisfying themselves, but never so at
+rest as in the effort.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she was startled by a step on the stairs. Nothing short
+of the Fall of Delhi had ever been known to bring Felix upstairs in
+business hours; and he was especially bound to his work at present,
+since Mr. Froggatt was detained at home by a serious attack of
+rheumatism. She looked up amazed at the eager question, 'Is there a
+letter from Alda?'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe there is, waiting for Wilmet. What is the matter?'</p>
+
+<p>'The most astonishing thing. Here is Ferdinand Travis writing to tell
+me of his engagement to Alda.'</p>
+
+<p>'To Alda?'</p>
+
+<p>'To Alda! I looked twice to be sure that there was no confusion between
+the names, but it is my sister Alda beyond a doubt. He would not ask
+my consent if it were Marilda. Here's the letter, as good and nice as
+possible, dear good fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then what Edgar told us must have been pure imagination.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not the old folks' wishes, most likely. For the rest, Edgar can make a
+good story. One can't wonder at the preference, and there's no denying
+that it is a brilliant chance for Alda.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what a blessing that he should be so good!'</p>
+
+<p>'Infinite! No one could be so welcome! How pleased Mr. Audley will be!
+But I must go, and try not to look too much disposed to stand on the
+counter and crow.'</p>
+
+<p>Whatever Felix did below, upstairs Cherry found drawing impossible.
+Ferdinand a brother! The pleasure was enhanced by the affectionate
+simplicity of his letter, the outcome of so good a heart, greatly in
+love, but very conscientious, and utterly unpresuming on his wealth,
+but showing all his old affection and reverence for Felix. What a
+delightful wonder that Alda should bring in a connection so faithful to
+Felix!</p>
+
+<p>Yet, what would not Cherry have given to be as unsuspicious as Felix
+or Wilmet? Why would misgivings come into her head such as never
+troubled theirs? Why must she be haunted by Alda's intimations about
+her travelling companions, and her manner, half scornful, half nettled,
+when Edgar described the terms on which Mr. Travis stood?</p>
+
+<p>She read Ferdinand's letter a second time, and was convinced that he
+looked at the whole with such artless seriousness as to preclude all
+notion of his having been consciously playing fast and loose; but she
+was ready to torture herself for the involuntary doubt whether her own
+sister were equally to be trusted.</p>
+
+<p>However, when Wilmet came home, her genuine wholesome overflow of
+undoubting rapture could not but sweep Cherry along in the tide.
+Ferdinand combined the apparently impossible advantages of being
+thoroughly one of themselves, and yet of being able to give Alda
+the luxuries to which she had become accustomed; and Wilmet's joy
+was beyond expression. The contrast between the twins&mdash;one admired,
+praised, followed, esteemed, as one of the brightest ornaments of
+London society; the other toiling in an obscure poverty-stricken home,
+a teacher in a small third-class school, her beauty unheeded or viewed
+as a real disadvantage&mdash;all this never occurred for one moment to
+Wilmet, she only felt elevated in her sister.</p>
+
+<p>Two days passed before more letters were received, and these came
+by the first instead of the second post, before breakfast was
+over. Four&mdash;besides one unheeded, being only in Robina's childish
+handwriting&mdash;Alda to Wilmet, Thomas Underwood and Ferdinand both to
+Felix, Edgar to Geraldine. There was a simultaneous opening of the
+letters, then a general starting and looking into one another's eyes,
+and Geraldine faintly murmured,</p>
+
+<p>'Then it was really <i>so!</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'So? what do you mean?' broke forth Wilmet. 'These selfish people are
+treating my poor Alda most cruelly among them; and Felix must go and
+fetch her home to be married from her own brother's house as she ought
+to be.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall have to fetch her home,' said Felix thoughtfully; 'but I wish
+I were quite clear that she has been dealing kindly by Marilda.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are not believing that man Thomas rather than your own sister!'
+cried Wilmet. 'If Alda does happen to be prettier than his daughter,
+she can't help it. I'm sure I should be glad enough not to be pretty,
+but it is a trial, and one must do the best one can.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is just what I fear Alda has been doing,' said Felix between his
+teeth, as he frowned over his letter.</p>
+
+<p>'Read her letter, poor dear girl,' cried Wilmet, 'and see if you
+aren't ashamed of such a judgment! No. Some is only meant for me; but
+listen&mdash;"Your letter of sisterly joy has come on troubled waters. I
+always knew I was the poor relation upon sufferance, but I have been
+taught to feel it now." She does not know how she could bear it, but
+for the security of Ferdinand's strength; and they will not let her
+see him&mdash;say she must give him up or them&mdash;Mrs. Underwood's violence
+inconceivable, and all because of a chimerical fancy.'</p>
+
+<p>'What does Ferdinand himself say?' asked Cherry, as Wilmet looked on
+for further selections.</p>
+
+<p>'He says,' said Felix, reading, 'that our greeting was especially
+welcome, from the contrast to what he met with from Mr. Underwood.
+The angry opposition took him by surprise, having always thought they
+regarded Alda as a daughter; but of course nothing makes any difference
+to him, and he would much rather come to us for her than to a stranger.
+His uncle is at New Orleans, and he is writing to him; he is afraid
+they ought to wait for the answer, though there can be no doubt about
+it, and he owes him no obedience.&mdash;Now, Cherry, there is just time for
+Edgar's account before we go our several ways.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix,' cried Wilmet, 'aren't you going to fetch her home, poor
+dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not possible to-day, Mettie. I shall have much ado to get away
+to-morrow. Don't be so unhappy, you know she <i>could</i> come alone or with
+Edgar, if it were so very dreadful; or if you are so fierce, you had
+better go yourself and encounter "Man Thomas."'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet looked so much hurt, that Geraldine thought to defend Felix by
+reading aloud at once.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>'Ma Chérie</p>
+
+<p>'Such a bear-garden never was seen! Madame furious, Tom
+abusive, Alda injured innocence, Montezuma heroism, and poor
+Polly magnanimous&mdash;though the less said about her, the soonest
+mended. I saw when I went back that the crisis could not be
+far off. The fact is, that our dear sister cannot see any one
+else treated as "an object," and has so persuaded herself that
+she is the proverbial maltreated poor relation, as to think
+everything fair.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>'Geraldine!' exclaimed Wilmet, 'how can you read? Felix, how can you
+listen to such things about your own sister?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is only what she said herself,' said Felix drily. 'Go on, Cherry.'</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>'It must be owned that it was hard, when for once Polly had
+fallen in with something alike palatable to self and parents,
+and able to swallow her broad visage! If Madame had had any
+wit, she would have kept Alda away till the fish was hooked,
+when, it is my belief, he would have had no eyes for aught
+beyond; but the good creature is too sure of the charms of
+her own goose, to dread the admission of any swan whatsoever
+to her pond. While the Cacique being yet uncommitted, small
+blame to him if he saw the differ, especially as he attaches
+to Alda all the sanctity of Bexley, which is to him at the
+least what St. Matthew's is to Clem. To have been reared on
+the other&mdash;or indeed any side of the Atlantic, our intended
+brother-in-law is curiously simple. He accepted the intimation
+that Alda's face is her fortune with superb indifference;
+whether it will be the same with his uncle, remains to be
+seen; and I am afraid he is a good deal dependent on him, his
+mother's Mexican property having been speculated away. I don't
+like the look of the business; but if any one can do any good
+it is Marilda herself. Tom is in a towering rage, and his wife
+worse&mdash;neither perceiving that the noise they make is small
+mercy to their daughter. She looks all manner of colours, but
+stands out gallantly that she is glad, and that all is as it
+should be; and I believe that, left to herself, she will set
+things straight. Felix had better keep out of the fray except
+upon compulsion.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>'Here is compulsion,' said Felix. 'Tom Underwood summons me; I can't
+say I like the errand.'</p>
+
+<p>'You ought not to let yourself be led by Edgar's unkind joking way!'</p>
+
+<p>'We ought to be off now, at any rate,' said Felix, glad to close
+the discussion. 'I'll write to get Fernan to meet me at the station
+to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, when he arrived, there was Ferdinand Travis driving a
+magnificent horse, the whole turn-out very far from looking like a
+connection of Froggatt and Underwood. He had certainly developed into a
+splendidly handsome fellow, though still lithe and slight rather than
+robust, and his dignified bearing giving the idea of greater height
+than his inches testified to. His greeting was warmly affectionate,
+with all his old wishful reverence towards his young godfather, and
+even with a sort of doubt of his thinking him worthy of his sister.
+As to the disturbance created by the avowal of the object of his
+attentions, he seemed amazed at it, and entirely unconscious of any
+supposed change on his part.</p>
+
+<p>'I knew my uncle wished me to be an intimate with the family,' he said,
+'and I was rejoiced to fall in with any one who bore your name, and
+knew how to appreciate you; but I had reason to think that&mdash;that there
+were other views&mdash;for&mdash;' and here the olive cheeks grew crimson, and he
+stammered himself into a hopeless entanglement, whence Felix recalled
+him charitably to an account of the explosion as it had affected
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that his proposal had not been mentioned to the family till
+Felix's answer had been received, Ferdinand feeling that no one ought
+to hear of it before the eldest brother. The lovers had met that night
+at a ball, and their consultation over the letters had taken place in
+the conservatory, where they had been surprised, and partly overheard,
+by Mrs. Underwood. When Ferdinand arrived the next morning, he was
+received with denunciations of underhand ways, and his explanation only
+made matters worse. A thunderstorm about ingratitude and treachery was
+launched forth, and he was told that the connection was so contrary to
+any intentions of his uncle, that Mr. Underwood could not hear of it,
+and that Alda must renounce it entirely, on peril of being cast off by
+the family. That Ferdinand regarded her brother as the true head of her
+house, was only additionally provoking; and Mr. Underwood had given him
+warning, which he only hinted at to Felix, that the engagement could
+not be carried on with impunity.</p>
+
+<p>Therewith they reached Kensington Palace Gardens, and being in a
+measure forbidden the house, Ferdinand drove about waiting for Felix,
+who on giving his name, found himself ushered into the room where the
+whole party were finishing breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>Alda, looking meek and pensive, but very lovely, exquisitely dressed
+in white and blue ribbons, flew into his arms as if her protector
+were come; Mr. Underwood, without getting up, acknowledged him by a
+grunt, and hand held out; Marilda came round, and put a cold hand into
+his, clasping it tight; and her mother greeted him with, 'So, Felix
+Underwood, you are come up about this unlucky business?'</p>
+
+<p>'There is no reason it should be anything but a very happy one,' said
+Marilda stoutly. 'Come, Mamma, we had better leave Papa and Felix;' and
+she set the example, but Mrs. Underwood did not stir.</p>
+
+<p>'You hear the dear girl!' she said. 'It ought to go to Alda's heart!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is of no use talking before the ladies,' said Mr. Underwood,
+getting up. 'That is, unless you have the good sense to join with me
+in telling Alda that she must give up this wild affair. The fellow has
+next to nothing of his own, and his uncle would see him at Jericho
+before he consented to a match like this!'</p>
+
+<p>'I am hardly prepared to do that, Sir,' said Felix, as Alda clung to
+his arm, and looked appealingly in his face, 'unless the objection were
+more personal.'</p>
+
+<p>'Objection!' burst forth the lady of the house, 'when he has been
+making his way underhand&mdash;deceiving us all along.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda, my dear,' said Felix in her ear, 'don't you think you had better
+go upstairs?'</p>
+
+<p>But Alda seemed as little disposed as Mrs. Underwood to quit the scene
+of conflict. 'O Felix, I don't know what she means, nor what we have
+been doing, for them all to turn against me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't tell me, Miss Innocence,' retorted Mrs. Underwood, the
+artificial polish giving way, and the native scolding Polly Kedge
+breaking out in a storm of words. 'Wasn't the young man doing just as
+his uncle meant him, and my poor dear girl fancying him as I never
+saw her do any one before, till you came home with your sly, artful
+ways&mdash;you that owed us the very clothes on your back?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush, Mary!' ejaculated her husband; but he might as well have tried
+to stop a torrent.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, I know. She comes round every man of you with her smooth tongue
+and pretty face, till you&mdash;you are ready to take her part against your
+own child, Underwood. When my poor girl's laid in her coffin, then you
+will know what a serpent you've been fostering.'</p>
+
+<p>To Felix's surprise and annoyance, Alda must needs answer: 'I'm sure
+it's very hard! If people will look at me, I can't help it; and I've as
+much right to be spoken to as Marilda. She that has got everything, and
+poor me&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Luckily her tears stopped her voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Come along, Felix,' said the master of the house, opening the door;
+and he, perceiving that escape alone could put an end to this most
+humiliating scene, whispered again his recommendation to Alda to go to
+her room, and saw her hurrying up the stairs before his kinsman shut
+the door of his private room with a bounce, exclaiming, 'There! Now we
+are out of the way of the women's tongues, we can hear ourselves speak.
+I am afraid it is an awkward business, Felix Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid it is, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the ladies make it worse by making such a din about it,' said Tom,
+who after all was an Underwood, and whose better breeding had come to
+the perception how these ravings compromised his daughter's dignity.
+'How far any one is to blame, I can't tell. The truth is, that it
+would have been very satisfactory to Alfred Travis and to me both if
+the lad and my girl could have made it up together, and they seemed
+ready enough to like each other. My girl has got rather a turn for your
+new-fashioned sort of saints, and he seemed just her style. Everything
+does go contrary at times; and when your sister came home, with her
+pretty face and way, my wife declares now she saw a change from the
+first, but to tell the truth I never did, and I doubt her doing so;
+but you may guess how amazed we were when she came on them whispering
+together, and it came out that he had been writing to you to sanction
+his proposing for Alda, as if he were ashamed to come to me, who had
+always been a father to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'He meant no slight to you, Sir,' said Felix, eagerly; 'but you know we
+were his first acquaintance, and he had a feeling that an elder brother
+came nearest. I am sure he felt no shame; he was conscious of no change
+of intention.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well, he is a little bit of an ass. Between ourselves, Felix,
+I don't blame him half as much as Alda. The girl is sharp enough; she
+has swarms of lovers; men come about her like wasps to a lump of sugar;
+and there's Ł5,000 ready for her the day she marries; but when there
+was one my poor Mary liked for once, we liked for her, and was in the
+way of liking her&mdash;Mary, who has shared everything with her like a
+sister&mdash;she might have let him alone. Indeed, her aunt gave her a hint,
+but it only served to make her carry it on on the sly.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix wished he had not known of Alda's hearing Edgar's report. He
+could only say sadly, 'If so, she is quite indefensible.'</p>
+
+<p>What would Wilmet have thought of his fight with 'Man Thomas?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course,' proceeded that gentleman, 'we know the less we say of
+that part of the story the better. Some day, Mary will know she's well
+rid of a coxcombical foreign-looking fellow. She can afford to look
+farther; but for your sister, this is the maddest thing in the world.
+William Travis made a regular mull with his wife's fortune, and depend
+on it, the young man has next to nothing, and would come to beggary if
+he offended his uncle. There is nothing for it but for them to give one
+another up!'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not think there is much chance of their doing so,' replied Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Not as they are now, in the height and fury of the thing; but you are
+a sensible lad, Felix; you will do your best to show them the utter
+folly of the thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'We do not know whether Ferdinand can afford it yet,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't delude yourself with fancying Alfred Travis will swallow
+this! Not he! Why, he's set on that young Spanish don making a great
+match&mdash;hardly thought my Mary's hundred thousand good enough.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very likely he will refuse consent,' returned Felix; 'but, in the
+meantime, I see nothing to be done but for Alda to go home with me and
+wait.'</p>
+
+<p>'To very little purpose,' ejaculated Mr. Underwood, 'except that maybe
+a taste of your way of life may bring her to her senses, and serve her
+right. I must say,' he added, 'it is hard that both this boy and girl
+should be thrown back on your hands for no fault of yours. I wish I
+could help it, but you see there wouldn't be a moment's peace if Alda
+stayed here without giving him up.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not fit that she should,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'I like the girl, too; indeed, she's almost like my own,' continued Mr.
+Underwood; 'the house will be dull without her, and I believe those
+pretty young women can't help flirting, and think one another's beaux
+fair game. Eh? Well, we'll send for her and put it to her&mdash;will she
+give up Travis and stay here, or hold him to it and go home with you?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix could make no objection, though he had no question what the
+decision would be; so the bell was rung, Alda was summoned, and soon
+appeared with burning cheeks and moist eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Alda,' said her adopted uncle, 'your brother and I have talked
+it over, and I am ready to overlook what has gone by&mdash;that is, if your
+aunt will&mdash;and to let all be as it was before, on this one condition,
+that you break off this foolish concern. Listen to me. You will find
+that he has little enough to call his own, and his uncle can cut off
+his allowance any day. It is mere insanity to think he will consent to
+such a match as you would be; and you would be doing the best thing for
+the young man and yourself to tell him it is all nonsense, and you've
+thought better of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Uncle, I couldn't do that!'</p>
+
+<p>'If not&mdash;you have the choice&mdash;I can't abet what Travis never intended,
+your aunt couldn't stand it either. There's nothing for it but that you
+should leave this house. Choose between us and him!'</p>
+
+<p>'That can't help being done, Uncle,' said Alda, with streaming eyes
+and a choked voice. 'You have been very good to me, but he must come
+first;' and she moved towards Felix, who put his arm round her kindly,
+and kissed her, saying,</p>
+
+<p>'Then, Alda, I will leave you to prepare; I must go and see the
+children and Edgar. I will come back for you in time for the half-past
+five train.'</p>
+
+<p>Alda's tears flowed too fast again for words, and she turned to leave
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>'I shall see you again,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Can I give you a lift
+anywhere, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you, Sir; Travis is waiting for me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, ay, very fine with his thorough-bred; but when his allowance is
+docked, how is he to live on his pay?'</p>
+
+<p>The brougham had long been waiting for Tom Underwood, and he left them
+together. Alda hung on her brother. 'O Felix, is it not dreadful?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought him very kind and forgiving,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Is that what you call forgiving? And oh! if you could hear Aunt Mary!
+You little think what I have gone through!'</p>
+
+<p>'It will be over soon,' said Felix, kindly. 'You are going home, you
+know, and Wilmet is wild to have you.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Felix, you don't think they mean to do more than frighten me?
+Ferdinand must have a real right to his own father's money; and
+besides, he can't properly object to me; Uncle Tom promised me my
+Ł5,000 whatever happened!'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot stay to discuss that now, Alda,' said Felix. 'I have a great
+deal to do, and Fernan is waiting for me. I shall come back in time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I wish I could come with you now! Dear Fernan! Tell him I have
+borne it all for his sake, but it is such an age since I saw him!'</p>
+
+<p>'No doubt he will meet us at the station,' said Felix, escaping at
+last, and finding Ferdinand not many yards off in the road outside.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Fernan, to Brompton, if you please. Mr. Underwood is really much
+kinder than I expected; but as things stand, you can't carry it on in
+their house, so Alda comes home with me to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then the dear girl is really banished for my sake! I mean, no place is
+like Bexley to me. But it is very noble of her!' exclaimed Ferdinand,
+curiously divided between regard for Felix and sense of Alda's
+sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the proper place in which for her to wait for your uncle's
+answer,' said Felix; 'but indeed, Fernan, it is a question whether we
+ought to let you risk all your prospects.'</p>
+
+<p>Ferdinand's vehement demand what Felix took him for, and equally eager
+protest that his uncle must know he had no right to withhold the means
+that were in all equity due to him, lasted through all the brief
+transit to the farther end of Brompton, where a great old house and
+grounds, once quite in the country, had been adapted and revivified by
+Miss Fulmort.</p>
+
+<p>'Might I not come in and see the little girls?' asked Ferdinand,
+wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>'I should <i>rather suppose</i> not,' said Felix, smiling. 'Life-Guardsmen
+are not exactly the visitors expected in establishments for young
+ladies. You had better not wait for me; I cannot give the children less
+than an hour.'</p>
+
+<p>'I would wait if it were ten hours.'</p>
+
+<p>'But how about your horse? He isn't in love!'</p>
+
+<p>Ferdinand would not, however, be denied; and when at length a
+rendezvous was agreed on, Felix, free of the dashing equipage, of which
+he was, to tell the truth, slightly ashamed, rang at the gates, arrived
+at the house door, announced himself as Mr. Underwood, asked to see his
+sisters; and after a long labyrinth of matted passages, found himself
+in a pretty countrified room, where a wiry, elderly, sensible lady,
+with grey hair and a keen face, gave him a friendly reception, drew a
+favourable, but not enthusiastic, picture of Robina's steadiness and
+industry, and said that Angela was a more difficult character. By this
+time Robina came into the room with her hat on, eagerly, but with her
+face flushed and her eyes rather frightened, and as she received her
+brother's kiss, she said, 'The little ones are not come in yet.&mdash;May I
+take my brother into the garden, Miss Fennimore?'</p>
+
+<p>Permission was given, and Robina held his hand with an unusually tight
+grasp as she led him to the wide, square, walled garden, with a broad
+gravel-walk around an old-fashioned bowling-green. He thought the round
+face looked anxious and perplexed, and was rather uneasy as he began by
+saying, 'I hope not to lose Angel. Do you always walk so early in the
+day?'</p>
+
+<p>'On Herr Müller's days, because he only comes in the afternoon,' said
+Robina; 'but I am rather glad; I wanted to speak to you, Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is anything wrong?' said Felix, seeing that the child's face had
+become crimson, and hearing effort in her voice. 'You are happy here?
+Don't be afraid to tell me anything, my dear. Remember, there is no one
+so bound to watch over you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know,' said Robina, looking up into those kind eyes. 'I want to tell
+you&mdash;' but she panted, and he encouraged her by putting his other hand
+over hers caressingly. 'Edgar comes every Sunday,' came out at last.</p>
+
+<p>'And what of that? Isn't it a pleasure?'</p>
+
+<p>'It&mdash;it would be&mdash;but he and Alice ought not to send each other notes
+and messages.'</p>
+
+<p>'What?' very low.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed they do; and I can't tell what to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'What sort of notes and messages?' asked Felix, in a half reproving
+voice, as though he thought the solemnity of thirteen was taking alarm
+needlessly.</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix, love notes,' half whispered the girl, hanging her burning
+head.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, child; you have misunderstood some joke.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Robina, looking full in his face with sturdy offended
+dignity. 'They both were in earnest when they told me about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'About what?' said he, still severely, as he sat down on a bench,
+unheeding February damp.</p>
+
+<p>'About&mdash;' she was not far from tears, as she faltered out, 'their
+engagement.'</p>
+
+<p>'Theirs!' he wrung the hand that he still retained; 'Edgar and&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'And Alice Knevett,' said Robin. 'I would not promise not to tell. I
+hope it is not treachery!'</p>
+
+<p>'How long?' asked Felix, hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>'Ever since the holidays. They used to walk together when Miss Pearson
+thought she was with us, but none of us ever knew it then.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are certain? Remember, this is a graver matter than perhaps you
+understand.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I do understand, and it is that which makes me so unhappy;
+but, <i>indeed</i>, it can't be fancy. I have seen her ring, emerald and
+amethyst, for Edgar and Alice, and the locket with their hairs twisted
+together. The very first Sunday we were here, he gave me a note for
+her, and when I told him it was not allowed, he tried quizzing me at
+first, and at last told me I was a silly child who did not know what
+was proper between engaged people. So I said,' continued Robina, with
+dignity, 'that I could allow much to be proper in that case, but I
+wanted to know whether this was only kept from me because I was a baby,
+and was known to you and the grown-up people.'</p>
+
+<p>'Right, Robin,' muttered Felix, feeling that she needed encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>'Then he laughed at me more than ever about expecting things to be
+proclaimed on the market-cross, and tried to puzzle me out of my
+senses, till I could only stick to one thing, that I couldn't take
+his notes unless somebody knew. And after all I found the thing in my
+jacket pocket. He must have put it in when I was not looking.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what did you do with it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! the dreadful thing! I felt as if it would bite me all the week
+long, but I didn't think it would be honourable to tear it or burn it,
+and I kept it. Luckily Alice didn't ask if I had a note, only whether
+he had said anything; and when she found I knew, she told me all about
+it, and said all sorts of things about my being unkind and mean to
+stand out, but I never promised to keep the secret.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you still keeping this note?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. I gave it back to Edgar on Sunday, and told him to play no such
+tricks. I thought he would have been in a rage, but he was&mdash;oh! so
+provoking! just as if he didn't care for a little spite in a naughty
+child.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then is this intercourse checked?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, that's the worst of it. When I would not, they took to Angel.
+You know she got very fond of Edgar in the winter, and was always
+running after him and waiting on him. So she did what he told her quite
+innocently at first, till I found out what was going on, and tried
+to stop her; but she doesn't care for me as she does for Edgar, and
+thinks it grand to be in all their secrets, when I am too cross. And
+then there's a class that goes to the South Kensington Museum, and
+Alice is one of them, and Edgar is about there. I'm sure Miss Fulmort
+ought not to be deceived as they are doing; it's all nonsense about
+schoolmistresses being designed by nature to be hoodwinked. It makes me
+so miserable, I don't know what to do; and when I heard you were come,
+it was as if you had been sent on purpose to help me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor child!' said Felix, with a heavy sigh. 'You have kept this all to
+yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>'I could not tell any one. I could have told Miss Lyveson, because she
+is one's friend; but it would only be being a tell-tale and informer
+here. And one's own brother, too! And I could not write, for they look
+over all the letters that are not to fathers and mothers.'</p>
+
+<p>'They must make an exception for me!' said Felix, in an indignant tone.</p>
+
+<p>'I knew you would say so. O Felix, tell them so! I do feel like having
+Papa now I have you.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you only had!' sighed Felix. 'My poor Bob, it is a grievous
+business, but you have been very upright and considerate, as far as I
+can see.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm so glad you don't want me to have told!' she said, with a sigh of
+relief, as unlike his as that of one who throws off a burden is to that
+of him who takes it up.</p>
+
+<p>'Not if it can be helped. It would be a mischievous and cruel exposure,
+and would be hard on one who has been led into it,' he said, with
+breaks and pauses, half for breath, half for considering. 'It is most
+reckless, most unjustifiable, in Edgar!' He knit his brows, so that she
+gazed at him in awe and wonder, as having something in his countenance
+that she did not comprehend. Then, after a silence, he said, 'Robin, I
+will speak to Edgar, and if you do not find that this is stopped after
+<i>one</i> communication, which of course there must be, write to me. These
+ladies must make an exception in favour of such as we are!'</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix, it is so nice to hold you and feel you! Only I wish I had not
+had to grieve you so much!'</p>
+
+<p>'Dishonourable conduct is not what I was prepared for!' he said,
+setting his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>'And will you speak to Angel? I hear them coming in,' said Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. Let me have her alone at first. Come back in ten minutes' time.'</p>
+
+<p>He was still sitting on the bench, with his elbows on his knees, and
+his hands over his brow, when Angela came towards him. She was of the
+same long-limbed make as Clement, was nearly as tall as the square
+sturdy Robina nearly three years older, and had Clement's small, almost
+baby mould of features, relieved only by such arch deep blue eyes as
+shone in Edgar's face. She looked such a mere child, that when her
+step and exclamation caused Felix to raise his head, it seemed absurd
+to imagine her to be knowingly engaged as go-between in a clandestine
+correspondence; and with a sort of pity and compunction for the blame
+he had intended, he held out his arms to her.</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix, how cold you are! Your face is like marble. Now if I was to
+sit there, in this weather, wouldn't they be at me like wild cats?'</p>
+
+<p>Thus reminded, Felix rose, and certainly shivered after the exercise of
+his privilege. 'Are you happy here, Angel?' he asked in a constrained
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it is jollier than Miss Pearson's. There are more girls, and we
+do have such fun!'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you are good and steady, and very careful of all the rules.'</p>
+
+<p>Angela fidgeted, as if she didn't like the style of the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>'You know,' he continued, 'there may be rules that you may not see the
+use of, but that must be obeyed for all that.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a tiresome dry old Blunderbore you are!' broke out Angela, with
+ill-assured sauciness; 'this isn't the way Edgar goes on when he comes
+to see us.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix could not check a sort of groan or grunt; and Angela, whose
+pertness was defensive, quailed a little. She had driven him out of the
+due sequence of his discourse, but he resumed it. 'Angel, I must tell
+you; if anybody asks you to break rules&mdash;by giving letters&mdash;you must
+not.'</p>
+
+<p>Angela kicked pebbles about.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you ever been asked to do so?'</p>
+
+<p>She hung her head, and a pout came over her face.</p>
+
+<p>'Angel,' he said, in a voice from the sadness of his heart, 'I will
+not ask any questions, in case you have made promises not to betray
+secrets; but you must never make such promises again. Tell me you will
+never do&mdash;this thing again.'</p>
+
+<p>She was silent.</p>
+
+<p>'Angela!' he said, reprovingly.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know why I should promise you more than Edgar,' broke out
+Angela, petulantly. 'He is my brother too, and he isn't cross; and I
+love him, and <i>will</i> keep his secret.'</p>
+
+<p>Between this flat defiance of his authority, and his scruple about
+interfering with the child's sense of honour, Felix was in no slight
+perplexity even as to this interview with his little sister. His
+disclaimer came first. 'I ask about no one's secret,' he said; 'but,
+Angel, I must have you understand this. If you break the rules that
+forbid the giving of notes from any person outside the school, it will
+be doing more harm than you can understand. I shall put a stop to it at
+once, and most likely you will be sent away in disgrace.'</p>
+
+<p>She was somewhat awed, but she did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>'Whatever any one may say to you,' said Felix, 'recollect that it is
+dishonesty and treachery to do anything underhand, and the greatest
+possible mischief to those you wish to be kind to. Don't you see, it is
+no kindness to help any one to do wrong?'</p>
+
+<p>She began to cry. 'They don't want to do wrong. It is very nasty and
+mean of Bobbie to have told.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will know some day how good and trustworthy it is in Bobbie,' said
+her elder brother. 'You cannot understand the rights and wrongs in such
+a manner as this, at your age, Angel.' (To tell the child this was a
+mistake, if he had but known it.) 'You must be satisfied with knowing
+that whatever breaks rules and must be kept secret is necessarily
+disobedient and deceitful, and may have terrible consequences. Do you
+believe me? Then give me your word to have no more to do with it.'</p>
+
+<p>She muttered something among her tears like 'I won't,' and Felix was
+satisfied, for the exaction of promises had necessarily been the
+chief mode of government with the two youthful pillars of the house,
+who spent so much time apart from their dominions; and it was almost
+unprecedented that such a promise was not observed.</p>
+
+<p>Robina was lingering near, and as they joined her Felix found that his
+time was up. He was taken back to the drawing-room, where he found
+himself in presence of the lady he had seen, and of a much younger
+smaller person, with a slight cast in her eye, and a peculiar jerking
+manner such as he could well believe would frighten away a young girl's
+confidence. When he made his request for free correspondence from his
+little sisters, there was no demur; only Miss Fulmort said, half vexed,
+'It ought to have been mentioned before; she did not know why the
+children had not told her.' And then she made a point of ascertaining
+Felix's individual address; for she said, 'A great deal of undesirable
+stuff may be scribbled to brothers and sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix possessed no card, unless such might be reckoned the announcement
+of photographs and stationery, &amp;c., which was wont to be put up
+with parcels for strangers; and when he tried to write 'Mr. F. C.
+Underwood,' the shivering chill so affected his fingers that he could
+hardly guide the pencil. He took leave, and soon found the assiduous
+Ferdinand, who presently asked, shyly, 'What the little ones thought of
+it?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix bethought himself. 'Really, Fernan, it was put out of my head;
+and, moreover, perhaps it had better not be known more widely than
+needful.'</p>
+
+<p>'You do not doubt&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>All the ground that had been gone over before was argued out once again
+by the eager Mexican before they reached the National Gallery, the
+appointed place of meeting with Edgar. He was not within, but without,
+and, throwing away his cigar, hailed them as Fernan drew up his horse.</p>
+
+<p>'At last! The storm must have been pitiless, to judge by the effects!
+You are blue with cold, Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ferdinand, thank you,' said Felix, getting out. 'I am sorry, but I
+must have Edgar alone a little while.'</p>
+
+<p>'Look here, Travis,' said Edgar, seeing his blank look, 'we'll give you
+the honour of giving us a spread. You go on and order it at &mdash;&mdash;'s, and
+I'll walk this fellow there. Curry soup that will astonish him, and
+warm the cockles of his heart, mind.'</p>
+
+<p>Ferdinand nodded, and drove off, perfectly satisfied with this
+compensation.</p>
+
+<p>'Let's see if we can walk a little life into you,' said Edgar, taking
+his brother's arm. 'Bless thy five wits, Tom's a cold! Was it Madame! I
+always thought she could not be many generations from Billingsgate.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have been to Brompton.'</p>
+
+<p>'That tragical hoarseness would lead me to conclude something. Eh!
+has that Robin been chirping out her fancies? And do you mean to
+say that you are struck all of a heap by the awful discovery of a
+boarding-school mystery?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is naturally distressing to find you acting such a part.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I am afraid you have a good deal to go through in the course
+of your life. If every little flirtation on the part of your
+"<i>Geschwister</i>" is to produce this effect, there won't be much left of
+you by the time it comes to Stella.'</p>
+
+<p>'What meaning do you attach to the words "little flirtation?"'</p>
+
+<p>'When the head of the family puts the question in that solemn tone, how
+is it to be answered? Bless me, Blunderbore, such a countenance can
+only proceed from being smitten yourself! To be sure, when there was
+only one girl you ever spoke to, it was no wonder. Poor old fellow! I'd
+never have poached on your manor, but how was I to imagine a pillar of
+the house giving way to such levities?'</p>
+
+<p>'This is mere bravado, Edgar,' was the grave answer, in a tone not
+disconcerted, but full of repression, and with a pale but steady
+countenance. 'Gloss it over as you will, a correspondence such as you
+have begun is unjustifiable. It risks damaging for ever the prospects,
+at once not only of&mdash;of the object&mdash;but those of your little sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Felicissimo mio, how green a spot is Bexley! As though secrets and
+mysteries were not the elixir of life to the boarding-school.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have you ever considered what a discovery must involve?'</p>
+
+<p>'I need not, it seems, since you had not the sense to box that
+child's ears for a meddlesome tell-tale. Did the scene equal Madame's
+performance?'</p>
+
+<p>'You do not imagine that I mentioned it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! The revered prop of the state soars so far above my head that I
+did not know what he might regard as his duty.'</p>
+
+<p>'You shall know it now, Edgar. There are two choices. If you are really
+engaged to this young lady' (Edgar made a nod of impatient scornful
+acquiescence, but certainly of acquiescence), 'then ask her honourably
+from her friends, and let whatever you do be open! Otherwise, give
+it up as an impossible imprudence, but drop all attempt at what is
+clandestine. Unless you do one or other of these, I warn you that I
+shall speak to Miss Pearson.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you were a reasonable and experienced paterfamilias, instead of
+only a poor conscientious over-harassed prig of a boy, with more
+brothers and sisters than he knows what to do with, I'll tell you, in
+candid unprejudice, what you would do. Just let it alone! There are as
+many of such little affairs going as there are midges in a sunbeam;
+and they never do any one any harm, unless the higher powers make an
+unadvised hubbub.'</p>
+
+<p>'Am I to understand that as an avowal that you know yourself to be
+trifling?'</p>
+
+<p>'I know nothing about it. I don't live in the heroics, like some of my
+friends. In the rural seclusion of Bexley I saw a pretty lively girl,
+who, not to put too fine a point upon it, made quite as much up to the
+romantic young artist as ever the young artist did to her. Of course,
+there was an exchange of prettinesses, and life on either side became
+a blank when she was immured at Brompton, and the only solace left was
+the notes that so outrage your and Bobbie's united sense of propriety.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what is to follow?'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it to lead to?' he corrected, with a mimicry of Wilmet's tone.
+'That depends. If you make the explosion, I shall have to rise to the
+occasion&mdash;keep the slip-knot ready and patent, and as soon as I get my
+head above water, have a wife and family on my back to keep me down,
+and hinder me from coming to your rescue. If not&mdash;why, it will take
+its chance, and we shall have a reasonable chance of trying whether
+we get tired of one another&mdash;the best thing that could happen to
+us, by-the-by&mdash;though she is such a saucy little darling, that were
+that picture of mine painted, I should be fool enough to marry her
+to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>'And why&mdash;may I ask&mdash;seeing these things so clearly, did you draw the
+poor child into an engagement?'</p>
+
+<p>Edgar shrugged his shoulders. 'You had better ask why she drew me.
+If you didn't know it before, my dear Felix, "'Tis human natur to be
+fools."'</p>
+
+<p>'Allowing it to be folly, you do not mean to persist?'</p>
+
+<p>'As if a poor fellow must always have a meaning! Life is not worth
+having if one is to be always so awfully in earnest.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have the misfortune to be in earnest,' said Felix, with the
+formality of one past patience, but resolved to keep his temper in
+hand, 'when I warn you, that if I find that this intercourse is
+continued, unless you choose to ask her properly of her father, it will
+be my duty to let Miss Pearson know.'</p>
+
+<p>'So be it,' was the answer, in a tone of half mocking, half
+compassionate submission, that was more provoking than all, except
+for the sudden change to the gay kindliness that followed, as Edgar
+threw aside his own affairs, to laugh over Ferdinand Travis's honest
+simplicity of adoration of Alda and all her household, declaring that
+it had been as much for his delight, as to be rid of him, that he
+himself had devised that commission of the luncheon. 'What a spread it
+will be!' Edgar chuckled to himself; 'and how it will be thrown away on
+the present company! not that there ever was a man who wanted it more!'
+he added, as he saw how white his brother's face was. 'You've been and
+got a chill!'</p>
+
+<p>Felix did not deny it; and if his unsophisticated palate did not
+appreciate all that Ferdinand had ordered on the principle that
+nothing could be too good for him either in his individual capacity or
+as Alda's brother, he at least submitted to what his two companions
+required of him in the way of hot soup, and <i>even</i> of one glass of
+wine, before he grew restive, and insisted on carrying the head that
+their solicitude had succeeded in rendering heated and flushed to
+burning pitch, to do the business in the City that always sprang up
+whenever any one had to go to town.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar bade him adieu; and the faithful Ferdinand drove him wherever
+he had to go, and finally to Kensington Palace Gardens, where he
+was ushered into the drawing-room, to find Marilda, resolved upon
+unconsciousness, but only succeeding in a kind of obstreperous
+cordiality and good will, which, together with the hot room, made
+him quite dizzy; and his answers were so much at random, that he
+sent Fulbert to an examination at Cambridge, and Clement prospecting
+in Australia. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Underwood made their appearance;
+but when Felix spoke of getting a cab, Marilda said the carriage was
+ordered. Then Alda was explicit about the boxes that were to follow,
+but on the whole she was behaving very prettily and unobtrusively.
+Marilda kissed her warmly, and detained Felix a moment to say, 'This
+will blow over, and then she will come back, unless things have settled
+themselves better. If I can do any good, write to me.'</p>
+
+<p>So Alda quitted her adopted home; but the change might be lightened
+to her by being handed out of the carriage at the station by a
+military-looking figure, who announced that he wanted to see a fellow
+at Aldershot, and meant to dine there. It was not his fault that he got
+out at Farnborough.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Peace, brother, be not exquisite,<br />
+To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;<br />
+For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,<br />
+What need a man forestall his date of grief?'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 45%;"><i>Milton.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>Wilmet was so devoted to Alda and her hopes and fears, that she let
+Felix escape with less reproof than usual, for the cold that sat
+heavily upon him after the last day's chill. He did not give way to it.
+There might have been some temptation to sit over the fire if Geraldine
+had been alone there; but Alda, when Wilmet was out of reach, engrossed
+Cherry's ears with descriptions of her feelings, and cravings for
+sympathy in her suspense, treating every other subject as futile, and
+the interruption of the children's lessons as an insult. No one might
+talk of anybody but Ferdinand; and Cherry did not wonder that Felix
+looked wearied and harassed, and always betrayed some anxiety to come
+first into possession of the morning post. One day, nearly a fortnight
+after his visit to London, he called Wilmet away from the breakfast
+table into the sitting-room: 'Wilmet,' he said, 'I must go and see Miss
+Pearson before school hours.'</p>
+
+<p>'You! Is there anything the matter with Alice?' asked Wilmet, startled
+at his tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Had they&mdash;had you&mdash;any notion of anything between her and Edgar?'</p>
+
+<p>'No! Miss Pearson has taken to saying, "My dear, your brothers are
+quite grown into young men," and I thought she did not like the play.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! that play! It threw them together!'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it really so? I suppose nothing is too foolish and provoking for
+Edgar!'</p>
+
+<p>'The fact of admiration is not wonderful,' said Felix, rather in a
+tone of defence; 'but the worst of it is, that he has been trying to
+communicate with her through those poor girls at school.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet's horror was surpassing; and when she found that he had known
+it all this fortnight, she was so indignant, that to his reply that it
+was not fair to leave both parties the chance of acting honourably, she
+replied with scorn for his weakness in expecting anything from Edgar,
+and exposing the children to the chance of expulsion, which might be
+a lasting blight, such as merely in thought put her into a perfect
+agony. Nevertheless, angry and excited as she was, she flew at him
+when he gave her the letters, and was off to Miss Pearson's&mdash;'Go there
+without breakfast, in the sleet, sitting and still with that bad cold
+not half gone!' and she dragged him back reluctantly to the other room,
+where, ignominiously ordering off Bernard and Stella to finish their
+stir-about elsewhere, she insisted on his breakfasting while she told
+the story. She was far too loyal to blame him except <i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i>, but
+she burst on him now and then.</p>
+
+<p>'You are not eating, Felix!'</p>
+
+<p>'A cup of tea, then, please, Cherry. No one can swallow stir-about in
+hot haste but Wilmet herself.' He spoke good-humouredly, but with a
+force upon himself that Cherry detected; and she further saw that he
+took nothing but that one cup and a fragment of bread, and then hurried
+off, saying that he must catch Miss Pearson for the little girls' sake.</p>
+
+<p>The letters he had left were Robina's and another enfolding it
+containing these words:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>Dear Sir,</p>
+
+<p>According to my promise, I have refrained from opening this
+letter, though I own that the discovery of the purpose for
+which free correspondence was asked, has been no small
+amazement to me. In the first shock, I will not trust myself
+to say more, until after consultation with my brother; but you
+shall hear from me again respecting your sisters.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 45%;">I remain, your obedient servant,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;">B. M. FULMORT.</span><br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The letter within was&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>My Dear Felix,</p>
+
+<p>It has all come out. There is a dreadful uproar, and nobody
+will believe me. If only Miss Lyveson was here! This was the
+way. Edgar came yesterday and took us for a long walk in
+Kensington Gardens, and afterwards I saw Angela going towards
+Alice Knevett's room; and as we are not allowed to run into
+other people's bedrooms, I stopped her and put her in mind
+of what you said; but she began to cry and struggle with me,
+and Alice came out, and made a fuss to get the note Angel had
+for her, till I got into a passion, and spoke so loud that
+Miss Fennimore came out upon us. Angel did not know what she
+was about by that time, and cried, saying that I was unkind,
+and was hurting her; and Alice took her part, accusing me of
+tyrannizing and being jealous, so that I faced round and told
+all on the spot. Miss Fennimore took us all straight down
+to Miss Fulmort, and it was a dreadful business. They are
+frightfully angry with us all, and me the most, for having told
+you instead of them. They cannot understand the difference
+between you and any common brother. They think I have not told
+the whole truth, and it is very hard. Nobody ever distrusted
+me before. We are just living on sufferance till Mr. Fulmort
+comes to see about it, and then I think we shall be sent away.
+I hope so, for I know my own dear Miss Lyveson will believe
+me and take me back to justice and confidence. Here the girls
+are as angry with me for telling as the ladies are for not
+telling; they have no idea of such loyalty and love as we had
+at Catsacre. There is a report that Miss Pearson has been sent
+for. If we are sent home with her, it will be a horrid shame
+and injustice; but I shall not be able to be sorry one bit, for
+I know you will stand by me.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 50%;">Dear, dear brother Felix,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 65%;">Your affectionate Sister,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 85%; font-size: 0.8em;">BOBBIE.</span><br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>When the three sisters had made out all that could be understood,
+Geraldine owned herself less amazed than Wilmet; and Alda laughed
+at both for not being aware that Edgar was a universal flirt. All
+that surprised her was his having let it proceed to such dangerous
+extremities; but of course that was the girl's own fault&mdash;he would give
+it up when it came to the point.</p>
+
+<p>'Why should you expect Edgar to be more inconstant than Ferdinand?'
+asked Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>Both twins turned on her, and told her she was a child and knew nothing
+about it&mdash;their favourite way of annihilating her; and then Alda, in
+her excitement, walked with Wilmet to the school, leaving Cherry, as
+usual, to wash up the breakfast things. She felt a conviction that
+all this accounted for the weary oppressed look, broken by occasional
+starts of vivacity, which ever since Felix's day in London had been
+laid to the score of the cold he had brought home.</p>
+
+<p>She was glad she was still alone, when Felix looked in for a moment
+to say, 'Miss Maria goes up by the 11.30 train. I am going to send a
+letter by her, and I think she will save Robin. Angel is so mere a
+child, that it matters less.'</p>
+
+<p>'How can they all be so unjust?'</p>
+
+<p>'They have not had time to know the child.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not mean Robina, but you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't mind that,' he said, with a smile, 'though I am glad there is
+one lady who does not scold me;' and he bent down to kiss her.</p>
+
+<p>'Did the Miss Pearsons?'</p>
+
+<p>'They allowed that I meant to act for the best, and you know what that
+means. However,' he added,' they are earnest to save the little girls,
+which is more to the purpose. Wilmet or I would have gone up, but Miss
+Maria thinks she can do better than either, and I believe they are
+more likely to trust an old schoolmistress, who is the injured party
+besides. I must write my letter. Shall I help you into the other room?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you; I have the lessons here, for they tease Alda. If you
+would only send Theodore to me as you go.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does Alda never help you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only by criticising my French pronunciation. She is much too restless.
+O Felix, what a cough! You have made your throat worse.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is only this black east wind.'</p>
+
+<p>'You ought to stay upstairs and be taken care of. Can't you, and let
+Redstone call if you are wanted?'</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>am</i> wanted. It is quite as warm in the office as here, when the
+door is shut. What I want is, only to be twenty years older. Good-bye.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry's ponderings were divided between that sigh and the possible
+sighs of the wind if that door were not shut, until her own door was
+opened by Felix's hand, to admit a little figure still in petticoats,
+with the loose flaxen curls, tottering feet, limp white fingers,
+and vacant blue eyes, whom she daily put through a few exercises to
+train his almost useless fingers and tongue. The sight of this, Alda
+declared, made her ill, though the little boy was as docile as he was
+helpless; but it was quite true that to nerves and ears not inured from
+the first, Theodore's humming and his concertina were a trial from
+their perpetuity.</p>
+
+<p>Late that evening came a message to beg Mr. and Miss Underwood would
+step up; and they stepped, though the east wind was blacker than
+ever. They found that in great tribulation Miss Maria had brought
+Alice Knevett home, and sent her to bed all tears and exhaustion, but
+that Robina and Angela were forgiven&mdash;a word so offensive to Felix as
+relating to the former, that he sorely lamented that prudence forbade
+their removal, but was somewhat consoled by a letter that Miss Maria
+brought him from the Vicar of St. Matthew's, who had had a private
+investigation of the whole subject. He wrote to Felix that his sister
+was new to the management of the girls, and was a good deal annoyed at
+the secrecy observed towards herself, not making full allowance for
+Robina's exceptional circumstances; but that, for his own part, he was
+convinced of the girl's genuine uprightness and unselfish forbearance;
+and though he feared her position must be unpleasant just now, he
+thought it would be for the good of all if she had the patience to
+live it down, and earn the good opinion he was sure she deserved.
+Miss Maria reported that Miss Fennimore had been brought round by his
+opinion, though Miss Fulmort remained persuaded that Robina had 'come
+over him' in some way; and while yielding to his stringent desire that,
+as he said, 'one of the worthiest of her girls should not be unjustly
+expelled,' only let the child herself know that she was tolerated in
+consideration of her youth, her orphanhood, and her relationship to
+Clement. Poor Robin! No one could help grieving for the tempest that
+had fallen on her guiltless head, and hope that all would result in
+her final good; but the sorrows of an absent school-girl could hardly
+occupy even her dearest friends, in the full and present crisis of two
+love affairs.</p>
+
+<p>For Edgar and Major Knevett both arrived, the lover as dispassionate as
+the father was the reverse. Edgar did, however, as he had undertaken,
+rise to the position. He joked at it a little in private, to the
+annoyance and perplexity of Cherry, and even of Felix; but he was
+perfectly steady in maintaining his perfect right to address Miss
+Knevett, in avowing his engagement, and in standing by it.</p>
+
+<p>To Major Knevett, the affair appeared outrageous impudence on the
+part of a beggarly young painter out of a country bookseller's shop,
+encouraged by the egregious folly of the aunts. What was said of
+clergyman's sons and good old family went for absolutely nothing; and
+Edgar's quiet assurance of success in his profession was scoffed at
+with incredulity not altogether unpardonable. In the encounter that
+Felix had the misfortune to witness, since it took place in his own
+office-parlour, he could not help thinking that Edgar, with his perfect
+temper, unfailing courtesy, calm self-respect, and steady sense of
+honour towards the young lady, showed himself the true gentleman in
+contrast with the swaggering little Major, who seemed to expect that
+he could bluster the young man out of his presumption, and was quite
+unprepared for Edgar's cool analysis of his threats. But instead of,
+like Tom Underwood, cooling down into moderation and kindness so soon
+as his bolt was shot, the finding it fall short only chafed him the
+more, and rendered him the more inveterate against all conciliation.</p>
+
+<p>There was an appeal all round to Felix, but he was not so practicable
+as the universal compliments to his good sense showed to be expected.
+He had expressed his opinion that it was a rash engagement, hitherto
+improperly carried on; but he could not be brought to advise his
+brother to break it off on his side while the lady held to it on hers.
+It might be best to give it up by mutual consent; but as long as one
+party was bound, so was the other; and he thoroughly sided with Edgar
+in not being threatened out of it whilst Alice persisted. Still more
+flatly did he refuse Miss Pearson's entreaty that he would see the
+wilful girl, and persuade her how hopeless was her resistance, and
+how little prospect of the attachment being prosperous. Nothing but
+despair and perplexity could have prompted the good aunts to try such
+a resource, but they were at their wits' end. They really loved their
+niece, and they dreaded the tender mercies of her father, who had
+indeed petted Alice as a young child, but had made her mother suffer
+greatly from his temper. If she would yield, they hoped to procure for
+her a home at York, with their brother's widow, and to save her from
+a residence in Jersey with the step-mother; but Alice, upheld by a
+secret commerce of notes ingeniously conveyed, felt herself a heroine
+of constancy, and kept up her spirits by little irritations to whoever
+tried to deal with her. She could deftly insinuate, on the one hand,
+that her aunts had always preached up the Underwood perfections; and
+on the other, hint to her father that if her home had still remained
+what it was, she should never have looked out of it; and whenever he
+flew into a rage, or used violent language, she would look up under her
+eye-lids and whisper something about 'real gentlemen.' Those thorns and
+claws that had figured in the scale of her transmigration were giving a
+good many little scratches, which did her feelings some good, but her
+cause none at all, by the vexation they produced. 'If she could only
+be made to understand,' said poor Miss Pearson, 'how little she gains
+by irritating her father, and that he is really a very dreadful person
+when he is thoroughly offended! Poor child! my heart aches for her.'</p>
+
+<p>So Wilmet was turned in upon her, and before she could utter a word was
+hugged and kissed all over because she was the very image of darling
+Edgar, and his dear violet eyes were exactly the same colour.</p>
+
+<p>Unsentimental Wilmet extricated herself, saying, 'Eyes can't be violet
+coloured. Don't let us go into that silly talk, Alice; things are too
+serious now.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are come to help me and be a dear!' cried Alice, clasping her
+hands. 'How does he look? the dear boy!'</p>
+
+<p>'The same as usual,' said Wilmet, coolly. 'But, Alice, if you think
+that I am come to&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Does he&mdash;really and truly? I saw him out of the little passage window,
+and I thought he looked quite thin! And Lizzie Bruce said Mrs. Hartley
+asked who that handsome young man was who looked so delicate.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is particularly strong and healthy. Alice, I want to set it all
+before you as a reasonable being&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Only do tell me; has he got his appetite? For you know he is used to
+live where everything is <i>recherché</i>, and when one's out of spirits
+<i>things</i> do make a difference&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Was that the claw in the velvet paw?</p>
+
+<p>'He eats three times as much as Felix any day,' said Wilmet, with a
+certain remembrance of the startling nudity of the bone of yesterday's
+leg of mutton. 'He is doing very well. You need not be afraid for him;
+but it seems to me that you should consider whether it can be right&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, Wilmet, you were my first friend; you can't help being kind to
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>'I want to show you true kindness.'</p>
+
+<p>'True kindness means something horridly cross! Now don't, Wilmet. I get
+ever so much kindness as it is! I know what you are going to say. It is
+very naughty of people to like each other when neither of them has got
+a sixpence; but if they can't help it, what then? Must they leave off
+liking, eh?'</p>
+
+<p>'They ought to try to prevent their liking from leading to disobedience
+and concealment.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! but if they can't?'</p>
+
+<p>'People always can.'</p>
+
+<p>'Were you ever tried?' asked Alice, slyly, for all the simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope never to be, if deceiving my friends and making others deceive
+is to be the consequence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, luckily there isn't much chance,' crept out of the demure lips.
+It was intended as the thorn beneath the may-flower, but it was no
+such thing. Wilmet was quite ready to accept the improbability as very
+fortunate.</p>
+
+<p>'That has nothing to do with it,' she said. 'The question is, what it
+is right to do now. It seems hard for me to say so, being your friend
+and his sister&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, never mind that. People's sisters never do like the girls they are
+fond of.'</p>
+
+<p>Decidedly Wilmet could not get on. Her mouth was stopped either by
+a little rapture about Edgar, or a little velvet-pawed scratch to
+herself, whenever she tried in earnest to set the matter before Alice;
+and when, being a determined person, she at last talked on through
+all that Alice tried to thrust in, and delivered her mind of the
+remonstrance she had carefully thought over, and balanced between
+kindness, prudence, and duty, and all the time with the conviction that
+not one word was heeded! If it was not English malice it was French
+<i>malice</i> that pointed the replies and sent Wilmet away as much provoked
+as pitying, and not at all inclined to be examined by Edgar on her
+interview, and let him gather that she had not had the best of it. Poor
+Alice! what were these little triumphs of a sharp tongue in comparison
+with the harm she did herself by exacerbating whoever tried to argue
+with her? There was one person she did profess to wish to see, namely,
+Geraldine; but the flying rheumatic pains, excited by the black east
+wind with sleet upon its blast, could not be trifled with; and Major
+Knevett's wrath put an effectual stop to Alice's entering the house
+during the Saturday and Sunday of his stay at Bexley. Perhaps Cherry
+was not sorry. She could not have pleaded against Edgar, in spite of
+her disapprobation of both; and moreover, the thought at the bottom of
+her heart was, 'How could any one who had been the object of such tones
+of the one brother's voice be won by the showy graces of the other?
+Edgar could easily have thrown off a disappointment; but Felix came
+first&mdash;and oh! can he shake it off in the same light way?'</p>
+
+<p>She had not the comfort of talking it over. Felix made no sign, and
+Edgar's line was to treat the whole complication as a matter of
+pleasantry, pretending that he had only gone into it to please Felix!
+and yet, as came to their knowledge, privately exchanging billets and
+catch-words with Alice, while he openly declared his engagement and
+resolution to work his way up and lay his laurels at her feet.</p>
+
+<p>He went away the very same morning as Major Knevett carried off his
+daughter to Jersey, audaciously following them to the station, where he
+exchanged a grasp of the hand with her in the very sight of the 'grey
+tyrant father,' who actually gnashed his teeth, in his inability either
+to knock him down or give him in charge.</p>
+
+<p>There was no time to breathe between the departure of this pair of
+lovers and the arrival of Alda's splendid Life-Guardsman, who, horses
+and all, took up his abode at the Fortinbras Arms, and spent his
+days in felicity with Alda. A very demonstrative pair they were. To
+Geraldine, often unwillingly <i>en tiers</i>, they seemed to spend their
+time chiefly in sitting hand in hand, playing with one another's rings
+and dangles, of which each seemed to possess an inexhaustible variety.
+Ferdinand's dressing-case and its contents were exquisite in their way,
+and were something between an amusement and a horror to Wilmet, who
+could not understand Felix's regard for so extravagant and wasteful
+a person, who gave away sovereigns where half-crowns would have been
+more wholesome, half-crowns instead of shillings, shillings instead of
+pence, and who moreover was devoted to horse-flesh. His own favourite
+steed, Brown Murad, had been secured at a fabulous price; and the
+possession of him seemed to be the crowning triumph over a certain
+millionaire baronet in the same corps, evidently his rival. What was
+even more alarming was that every detail about races and horses in
+training was at his fingers' ends, so that he put Felix up to a good
+deal of knowledge useful to the racing articles in the Pursuivant; but
+he declared that he never betted. His was a perilous position, homeless
+and friendless as he stood; and this rendered him doubly grateful for
+the brotherly welcome he received. Yet the days would have been long to
+any but lovers, in spite of the rides and walks, one even to Minsterham
+to see Lance. Ferdinand liked to recur to the old remembrances of his
+convalescence; but in these Alda had no part, and they seemed to jar on
+her. She might sometimes seem half fretted by his impetuous southern
+love, but she could not bear a particle of his attention to be bestowed
+on aught save herself; and when Geraldine would have utilised his fine
+straight profile as an artistic study, the monopoly was so unpleasing
+that the portrait had to be dropped. The odd thing was that Alda
+should have a lover whose most congenial spirit was Clement. He was a
+great frequenter of St. Matthew's, and had no interest save in kindred
+subjects. Felix always found them alike difficult to converse with,
+from a want of any breadth of sympathy with subjects past or present,
+such as would have occupied him even without the exigencies of his
+profession. They seemed to talk, not church, but shop, as if they did
+not look beyond proximate ecclesiastical details, which they discussed
+in technical terms startling to the uninitiated; and yet Felix trusted
+that Clement's soul was a good deal deeper and wider than his tongue,
+and that Ferdinand's, if narrow, was thoroughly resolute, finding in
+his enthusiasm for these details a counterpoise for the temptations of
+his position.</p>
+
+<p>His seemed to be a nature that would alternate between apathetic
+indolence and strong craving for excitement. He could go on for
+days with a patient, almost silent, round of mechanical occupations
+performed well, nigh in his sleep, and then, when once stirred up
+became possessed with a vehement restlessness, as if there were still a
+little about him of the panther of the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>At first he awaited his letter from his uncle much more philosophically
+than did Alda, but when it tarried still, he became so eager that he
+made two journeys to London to meet the mail, and pestered every one
+with calculations as to time and space.</p>
+
+<p>The letter came, and was all that every one else had expected. Alfred
+Travis had always detested the family into which his nephew had been
+thrown by his accident, and the tidings that the heiress had been
+rejected for the sake of one of these designing girls could not be
+welcome. So he gave notice that nothing more could be expected from him
+if his nephew stooped thus low. This, however, did not much concern
+Ferdinand. He curled his black moustache, and quietly said his uncle
+would not find that game answer. The affairs of the brothers had always
+been mixed together, and Ferdinand had been content to leave the whole
+in his uncle's hands, only drawing for his own handsome allowance; but
+the foundation had been his mother's fortune, and he had only to claim
+his own share of the capital, and disentangle it from the rest, either
+to bring his uncle to terms at once, or to be able to dispense with
+his consent. The delay was vexatious, but it could be but brief; and
+in the meantime Bexley was felicity. Yes, in spite of the warning he
+received at the Rectory, which my Lady followed up by a remonstrance
+to Felix&mdash;over the counter, for in vain he tried to get her into
+the office. He could only tell her that he much regretted Edgar's
+conduct, but as to Alda, there was no disobedience, and the young man's
+character was high. He was just as impracticably courteous as his
+father, and Lady Price shrugged her shoulders and <i>hoped</i>. 'For, Felix
+Underwood,' she said, 'I am convinced that <i>after all</i> you are a very
+well-meaning young man.'</p>
+
+<p>This was her farewell, for Mr. Bevan had been more ailing than usual,
+and had obtained permission to leave his parish for a year, to be spent
+partly in the south of France, partly at the German baths.</p>
+
+<p>Well was it for those who could get away! Never had the spring been
+sourer; Easter came so early as itself to seem untimely, and the
+Wednesday of its week was bleakness itself, as Lance and Robina stood
+on the top of the viaduct over the railway, looking over the parapet
+at the long perspective of rails and electric wires, their faces
+screwed up, and reddened in unnatural places by the bitter blast. Felix
+had asked at breakfast if any one would be the bearer of a note to
+Marshlands; Lance had not very willingly volunteered, because no one
+else would; then Robina joined him, and they had proceeded through the
+town without a syllable from either of the usually lively tongues, till
+as they stood from force of habit watching for a train, the following
+colloquy took place, Robina being the first speaker.</p>
+
+<p>'What is it?'</p>
+
+<p>'What is what?'</p>
+
+<p>'What is the matter?'</p>
+
+<p>'What is the matter with what?'</p>
+
+<p>'With it all?'</p>
+
+<p>There came a laugh, but Robina returned to the charge. 'Well, but what
+is it? Is it east wind?'</p>
+
+<p>'Something detestable&mdash;whatever it is,' grunted Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'You've found it so too,' said Robina; for Lance had only come home
+after evening cathedral the day before.</p>
+
+<p>'Haven't I, though!'</p>
+
+<p>He said no more, being a boy of much reserve as to his private
+troubles; and Robina presently said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'I say, Lance, did Alda use to be nice, or is it love?'</p>
+
+<p>'Never nice, like Wilmet or Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure,' proceeded the girl, 'I thought love was the most beautiful
+and romantic thing&mdash;too nice to be talked about, for fear it should
+turn one's head; but here it seems to be really nothing but plague and
+bother and crossness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Bob!' said Lance, 'you got the worst of it up at Brompton.'</p>
+
+<p>'I got it every way,' said Robina. 'There was Edgar treating me like a
+little contemptible baby, and Alice sometimes coaxing me and sometimes
+spiting me, and Angel poisoned against me; and when I thought I must
+be acting for the best in telling Felix, somehow that turned out
+altogether horrid.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose a girl must be telling some one,' said Lance; 'and if it was
+to be done, Felix was the right one.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I made sure,' said poor Robin; 'but Miss Fulmort and Miss Fennimore
+seemed to think it no better than if I had told you. They say I am
+forgiven, but I hate their forgiveness. I've done nothing wrong, and
+yet they don't like or trust me; and they seem to grudge me all my
+marks and prizes. "For proficiency, not for conduct," they say, in that
+hard cold voice. And then the girls nod and whisper. Angel and all,
+think me a nasty spiteful marplot. Alice set half of them against me
+before she went!'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Bob. And you can't have a good set to, and punch their heads all
+round! That's the way to have it out, and get comfortable and friendly.'</p>
+
+<p>'For choir boys? O Lance!'</p>
+
+<p>'Choir boys aint girls, I thank my stars.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' continued Robina, glad to pour out her troubles, even for such
+counsel as this, 'when I came home last week, I <i>did</i> think it would be
+made up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Lance, as Robin grew rather choky, and drew the back of a
+woolly glove across her eyes, not much to their benefit.</p>
+
+<p>'Clem looks black, because he says his sisters were meant to raise the
+tone of the school.'</p>
+
+<p>'Confound the tone of the school! I know what <i>that</i> is! But who cares
+for Tina?'</p>
+
+<p>'Then Wilmet says I ought to have asked leave to write to her, and she
+could have managed it quietly, and kept everybody out of a scrape.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whew&mdash;w&mdash;w&mdash;' whistled Lance; but at the melancholy tone, he
+absolutely took his red hand out of its comfortable nest in his pocket,
+to draw his sister's arm into his. It was well, for her voice was far
+more trembling now. 'I could bear it all if it were not for Felix
+himself. I know he is angry with me, but he won't talk, nor tell me
+how; he only said, "We both meant to act for the best; but it is a
+painful affair, and we had better not discuss it," and then he began to
+whistle to Theodore. If any one did know how I hate being told I meant
+to act for the best!'</p>
+
+<p>'Something is come over Felix,' said Lance. 'I never knew him give such
+a jaw as he has to me. To be sure, he was set on to it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Set on?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, by Wilmet for one! You should have seen the way she was in&mdash;as if
+I hadn't a right to do what I please with my own money.'</p>
+
+<p>'What?'</p>
+
+<p>'My violin! Ferdinand Travis tipped me when he rode over to the
+Cathedral, and by good luck it was the day before the auction at old
+Spicer's. Bill and I went in to see the fun; and by all that is lucky,
+there was a violin routed out of an old cupboard. Nobody bid against me
+but Godwin, the broker, and it was knocked down to me for twenty-two
+and six. Bill lent me the half-crown; and Poulter, our lay vicar, who
+is at a music-shop, says 'tis a real bargain, he's mad to have missed
+it himself; but he showed me how to put my fingers on it, and I can
+play Mendelssohn's "Hirtenlied." You shall hear by-and-by, Robin. Well;
+Wilmet comes on it when she was unpacking my shirts. I'm sure I wish
+she'd let me unpack them myself, instead of poking her nose there; and
+if she wasn't in a way! Wasting my money, when I ought to be saving it
+up to buy a watch; and wasting my time and all the rest of it&mdash;till one
+would think 'twas old Scratch himself I'd brought home!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh don't, Lance. And did she set on Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay; and then, you know, our new Precentor, Beccles, isn't one quarter
+the man Nixon was; and he has been and written a letter to Fee that any
+schoolmaster in creation should be licked for writing, to go and pison
+a poor chap's home&mdash;all about those cards.'</p>
+
+<p>'What cards?'</p>
+
+<p>'The pack Jones found in the middle of the north transept ten days ago.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of the Cathedral! How shocking! But why should he write to Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because the big-wigs make sure some one out of the Bailey must have
+dropped them, getting into the town through the Cathedral at night.'</p>
+
+<p>'But they don't suspect you?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but Beccles got into an awful way, and swears&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean really swears!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no&mdash;stuff&mdash;vows&mdash;that unless he gets to the bottom of it, not one
+of us shall have the good-conduct prize. Now I did think I might have
+had that&mdash;though I'm not a church candle like Tina&mdash;for I never was
+<i>had up</i> for anything; and it is precious hard lines! Such a beauty,
+Robin, the Bishop gives it&mdash;all the Cathedral music, bound in red
+morocco; and this beggar hinders us all this very last chance! And
+then, he is dirty enough to write and tell Felix to get out of me who
+has been getting out through the Cathedral, and dropping the cards.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know?'</p>
+
+<p>'Hold your tongue; I thought you had a little sense! Felix had that; he
+saw I could not tell him, and said it must be as I pleased about that;
+but then he rowed me, as he never did before, for wasting time, and not
+mugging for the exhibition&mdash;as if that was any use.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why shouldn't you get the exhibition?'</p>
+
+<p>'Put that out of your head,' said Lance, angrily; 'Harewood is sure
+of that! A fellow that construes by nature&mdash;looks at a sentence, and
+spots the nominative in a moment&mdash;makes verses&mdash;rale, superior, iligant
+articles.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I thought he wasn't always accurate. Can't you catch him out? O
+Lance, don't look so fierce! I only said so because he can't want the
+exhibition as much as you. He can go to some other school, or be paid
+for.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not conveniently,' said Lance; 'they are not at all well off, and
+Jack helps them. Besides, I wouldn't get the thing in a sneaking way;
+and besides, Bill could no more make a mull in construing out of
+carelessness than I could a false note&mdash;it's against nature. I can't
+beat him, except in arithmetic. My birth-day comes at such an unlucky
+time. I should get another year if I'd only been born in July instead
+of June! I might be second, for Shapcote is only dogged by his father;
+but that's no good for the exhibition: and then there's an end of
+Cathedral and all!'</p>
+
+<p>'What should you do then, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Whatever costs least! I'd as lief work my way out to Fulbert, if this
+is to go on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't! don't do that, whatever you do!' cried Robina, clinging to
+his arm.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't see why not, if everybody is to be as savage as a bear when
+one comes home. One always trusted to Felix to see sense, if nobody
+else did; but what with his jawing one about the exhibition, and Wilmet
+about the tin and every spot on one's clothes, and Alda growling at
+whatever one does in the parlour, I'm sure I wish I'd stayed at Bexley.'</p>
+
+<p>The boy and girl had never before been tried by want of sympathy,
+and what seemed to them injustice, when they had thus descended into
+the perturbed atmosphere of what they were used to regard as a happy
+home. There was a long mutual communication of grievances&mdash;irritable
+speeches&mdash;inattention from their elders&mdash;fancies and complaints of
+Alda's enforced peremptorily by Wilmet&mdash;appeals to Felix either quashed
+or unheeded; the strange thing was, in how short a time so much had
+managed to go wrong with them, except that they added the vexations of
+the last quarter to the present discomfort, real or fancied; and though
+they were both good children, each had the strong feeling that there
+was not as much encouragement as usual to goodness, and that it could
+not have been much worse if they had been seriously to blame. One had
+expected to be caressed for her endurance in a good cause; the other
+had not expected to be severely rebuked for what he scarcely viewed
+as faults. It was the first time this younger half of the family had
+ever suffered anything approaching to neglect or injustice from their
+seniors, and the moment was perilous. The discussion was forming their
+discontents into a dangerously avowed state, if it had the beneficial
+effect of raising their spirits by force of sympathy. At any rate, they
+were in no gloomy mood when they reached the tidy little villa, with
+its beds of open-hearted crocuses defying the cold wind, and admitting
+the sun to the utmost depths of their purple and golden bosoms, as they
+laughed their cheery greeting.</p>
+
+<p>No less cheerful was the welcome from kind old Mrs. Froggatt, who
+met them at the door. 'Master Lancelot, Miss Robina, this is an
+unlooked-for pleasure, to be sure! My dear Miss Robina!' as the girl
+gave her hearty embrace.</p>
+
+<p>They were the prime favourites next to Felix, and were the more gladly
+hailed that Mr. Froggatt was anxious about the business on which they
+came, and had been trying to get leave from his wife to peril his
+rheumatics by coming in to Bexley about it. They must stay to luncheon;
+and while Mr. Froggatt went off to answer his note, they were made much
+of over the fire, in the way that had of late become so abhorrent to
+Bernard, with difficulty avoiding a pre-luncheon or nooning of cake and
+wine within an hour of the meal of the day.</p>
+
+<p>'And how is Mr. Underwood?' asked Mrs. Froggatt, when Robina had
+been divested of her wraps, placed close to the fire, screened and
+footstooled, and when Lance had transferred the big white cat from the
+arm-chair to his own knee.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, very well, thank you,' said Robina, rather surprised that the
+lengthy catechism on the family health did not as usual start from
+'poor dear Miss Geraldine.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was looking so thin, and had such a cough, I was quite concerned
+when he walked out here on Good Friday afternoon,' continued Mrs.
+Froggatt. 'I hope he is taking care.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet is always at him about it,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'That is right. And I hope he minds to keep the office-door shut. It is
+such a draughty place! Does he wear flannel, do you know, my dear?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think so,' said Robina. 'Sister Constance told Wilmet he ought, when
+he had that long cough after the measles.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay. You know&mdash;you'll excuse me, my dears, a cough is not to be trifled
+with in your dear family.'</p>
+
+<p>'You should write to the clerk of the weather-office, Mrs. Froggatt,'
+said Lance, rather gruffly.</p>
+
+<p>And as Mrs. Froggatt was not good at understanding jokes, but was
+always ready to accept Mr. Lance's, she thought he meant Admiral
+Fitzroy; and much explanation and banter followed, which the children
+made the louder from dread of the subject. Mrs. Froggatt was by no
+means the cultivated person her husband was; but, being of a good old
+plain farmer stock, she was quite as unassuming, and her manners with
+the young Underwoods were a good deal like those of a superior old
+housekeeper, only perhaps less authoritative and familiar; but she was
+not to be kept away from the subject of her real anxiety. 'I wish I
+could see your sister, and speak to her; he ought to have some advice
+rather than let it run on in this way. I'm sure Mr. Froggatt would be
+willing to do anything. It has been a great concern to him to have to
+leave such a heavy charge to him this spring, and with all the family
+cares on his head too, at his age. Miss Alda's wedding put off too&mdash;is
+it? And is the young gentleman here still?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; his leave was over last Monday,' said Robina, 'a week after I came
+home.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should like to have seen him! Your brother says he is grown up such
+a fine-looking young man, and quite got over his lameness. A handsome
+couple they will be! I did see them ride through the place, but Miss
+Alda didn't see me.'</p>
+
+<p>'You saw his horse?' broke in Lance, who considered Brown Murad as a
+superior specimen to either of the lovers; and Mrs. Froggatt, whose
+father had bred horses, and whose son was much more addicted to them
+than was for his good, was a much more intelligent auditor of the
+perfections now dilated on than could have been expected.</p>
+
+<p>Yet nothing could keep off the dreaded subject, and even at table,
+Lance's disappointing deficiency in schoolboy voracity became the cause
+of a lamentation over his brother's small appetite, and an examination
+of Robina, resulting in her allowing that Felix seldom gave himself
+time to do more than snatch a crust of bread in the middle of the day,
+and did not always make up for it at tea-time. Mr. Froggatt shook his
+head and looked distressed, and his good lady went on discoursing about
+the basin of soup she always used to keep prepared for him, evidently
+longing, though not quite daring, to send a lecture to Wilmet on taking
+care of her brother. But what made more impression on both the children
+was, that after they had been into Mr. Froggatt's little conservatory
+with him, and had received into their charge a basket of camellias,
+violets, and calycanthus, with a pot of jonquils in the middle for
+Geraldine, the old gentleman said, as he bade them good-bye, 'Tell your
+sister, that if she thinks a day or two of laying by would be good
+for your brother, I should be ready and glad to change places with
+him. A little change might take away his cough; and I don't like his
+looks&mdash;no, I don't. He ought to be careful;' this to himself, with a
+long sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Then the children got out into the garden, and with the natural
+impatience of the evil omen, exclaimed at the same moment&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Croak, croak, croak, went the frogs,'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>and</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Were there ever such a pair of good old coddles!'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But then they walked on for a full quarter of a mile before either said
+another word; and then it was, 'You don't think Felix looking ill, do
+you, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'I never thought about his looks at all,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'No more did I,' said Robina; 'but he does cough; I hear him through
+the wall in the morning. Do you think there is anything in it, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'How long has it been going on?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ever since he came up to London. He got a chill in our garden when I
+was telling him about&mdash;' said Robina, stopping short of what she hated
+to mention.</p>
+
+<p>'Then that's it!' said Lance, turning round with a face of one who had
+made a great discovery.</p>
+
+<p>'It? What is the matter with him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Lance. 'Hold your tongue, Robina; but Cherry and I thought
+long ago that he fancied that little Knevett himself. Then I made sure
+it was all a mistake; but now, depend upon it, that's what he is so cut
+up about!'</p>
+
+<p>It carried conviction to the hearer, perhaps because it fitted in with
+a girl's love of romance. 'Then that's why he won't talk to me!'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course!'</p>
+
+<p>And then they began putting together all the tokens of inclination
+which their small experience and large imagination could suggest, till
+they had pretty well decided the point in their own belief, and had
+amused themselves considerably; but the anxiety came back again.</p>
+
+<p>'Do people get over such things, Lance? There was Ophelia, and there
+was Wilfred in "Rokeby"&mdash;only she was a woman, and he was pipy. Did you
+ever know of anybody really and truly?'</p>
+
+<p>Lance meditated, but his experience reached no farther than the
+surgeon's assistant at Minsterham, who was reported to be continually
+in love, but who did not look greatly the worse for it.</p>
+
+<p>And then Robina suggested that she did not remember that either Wilfred
+or Ophelia had a cough.</p>
+
+<p>'But my father had,' said Lance in the depths of his throat. 'Don't you
+know, Robin, it was hard work and trouble and poverty that&mdash;<i>did it?</i>'</p>
+
+<p>'Was it?' awe-struck, for she had been so young as to have no clear
+ideas.</p>
+
+<p>'I've heard it told often enough. My Lady cut off the third curate; and
+that&mdash;and all the rest of it&mdash;helped to bring on the decline.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Lance! At least, that wasn't&mdash;love.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense, Robin! Don't you see, whatever takes the heart and spirit
+out of a man, makes him ready for illness to get hold of?' Lance
+plucked desperately at the hazels in the hedge, and his eyes were full
+of tears.</p>
+
+<p>'O Lance, Lance, what can we do?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know! I'd let him pitch into me from morning till night if
+that would do him any good!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure I am very sorry I grumbled. We'll give Wilmet Mr. Froggatt's
+message, and see what she thinks.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor children! their consternation was such, that they must judge by
+their own eyes of Felix without loss of time; so they both marched into
+the shop with Mr. Froggatt's note, and there felt half baffled to see
+Felix looking much as usual, very busy trying to content a lady with
+nursery literature, and casting a glance at Robin as if she had no
+business there.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet received Mr. Froggatt's message without excitement. She
+thought it would be a very good thing, but she did not believe Felix
+would consent; and Alda broke out, 'Then we should have Mr. Froggatt
+inflicted on us all the evening!'</p>
+
+<p>Nor did Felix consent. He said it was very kind, but his cold was
+almost gone, and he did not need it. Moreover he had his private
+doubts whether Alda would be decently gracious to Mr. Froggatt; and
+Wilmet, whose one object in life was to keep her sister contented and
+happy at home, could press nothing so disagreeable to her. Altogether,
+the reception of their hints at home was so prosaically placid, that
+they were both rather ashamed of the alarm into which they had worked
+themselves up. Even when Robina privately asked Cherry whether she
+thought Felix looking well, the answer was eager.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, very&mdash;very well! He looked pulled down when his cold was bad, but
+he is quite well now.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Froggatt thought&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you've been talking to Mrs. Froggatt! She thinks nothing so kind
+as to say one is looking poorly. I said, "How well you are looking,
+Mrs. Froggatt," one day, and I assure you she only swallowed it by an
+act of Christian forgiveness. She is fondest of Felix, so of course he
+looks the worst.'</p>
+
+<p>Robina got no more out of Geraldine, whose fears at that moment were
+in the form of utterly denying themselves. Commonplace life greatly
+reassured the two young things, and of the alarm there chiefly remained
+a certain shame at their own former discontent, and doubly tender
+feeling towards their fatherly elder brother. Now that they guessed
+something to be amiss with him, they had no irritation for him&mdash;and
+indeed he gave them no cause for any; the discomfort was partly indeed
+occasioned by the lack of his usual quiet mirth, but far more by Alda's
+fastidiousness, and Wilmet's vigilance lest she should be annoyed. This
+caused restrictions that weighed more heavily on the younger ones than
+on Lance and Robina, and had the effect of making Angela and Bernard
+rebellious. They had neither the principle nor the consideration of
+their two seniors; to them every one seemed simply 'cross,' and against
+this crossness there was a constant struggle, either of disobedience or
+of grumble.</p>
+
+<p>Both were at rather an insubordinate age. Angela, having begun school
+life with getting into a scrape greater than she understood, had
+acquired a naughty-girl reputation, of the kind that tempts the young
+mind to live up to it; and her high spirits, boisterous nature, and
+'don't care' system made her irrepressible by any one but Wilmet,
+whose resolute hand might be murmured at, but was never relaxed. While
+Bernard, hitherto very fairly amenable to Cherry, and a capital little
+scholar, became infected with the spirit of riot and insubordination.
+Whatever fastidiousness the children took for fine-ladyism in Alda they
+treated unmercifully, and resented in their own fashion her complaints,
+and Wilmet's enforcement of regard to her tastes; nor was Lance always
+blameless in the tricks played upon her.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange to see the difference made by one incongruous element. A
+few sneers at Cherry's pronunciation, an injudicious laugh when she was
+rebuking, and a general habit of making light of her, on Alda's part,
+upset all Bernard's habits of deference to the sister who had taught
+him all he knew. His lessons grew into daily battles&mdash;miseries to
+himself and far greater miseries to his teacher, and sufficient misery
+to the spectator to induce her to do that which the other sisters could
+scarcely have brought themselves to do on any provocation, namely
+to complain to Felix, and by-and-by make a representation, for the
+general good, she said, that it was a mere farce to leave the boy under
+Cherry's management.</p>
+
+<p>Cherry, with bitter tears, was forced to own that she could no longer
+keep him in order nor make him learn, and there was no alternative but
+to send him to Mr. Ryder's. He had no voice nor ear, so that he could
+not follow in Lance's steps; and for the present, Bexley was the only
+resource.</p>
+
+<p>Of course Cherry charged the whole of this upon her poor little self;
+and some amount of the trouble certainly was due to her incapacity
+not to show in voice and manner when she was under fret, anxiety, or
+depression; and now, poor child! all three at once had come upon her.
+Whether Alda's conversation or the children's naughtiness fretted
+her most, it would be hard to tell; she was in a continual state
+of unuttered, vague, and therefore most wearing anxiety on Felix's
+account, and the physical discomfort of the ungenial spring told on
+her whole frame and spirits. Alda's talk, when good-humoured, opened
+such vistas of brightness, amusement, conversation, and above all of
+beautiful scenes, that they awoke longings and cravings that Cherry
+had hardly known before. The weariness of the grinding monotony of
+home seemed to have infected her. She knew it for discontent, and was
+the more miserable over her want of power to control it, because of
+the terror that hung over her lest repinings might bring on them all
+the judicial punishment of a terrible break-up of the home she loved,
+even while the tedium of the daily round oppressed her. Alternate
+plaintiveness and weary sharpness of course aggravated both Alda and
+Bernard, and they knew nothing of the repentant wretchedness that
+rather weakened than strengthened her.</p>
+
+<p>Little Stella's unfailing docility and sweetness were her great solace.
+Even Alda was exceedingly fond of Stella, and would have spoilt her
+if the child had not been singularly firm in her intense love and
+loyalty to the heads of the family. Angel and Bear were too rough for
+her, and alarmed her sense of duty; but Lance was her hero; and the
+happiest moments of those holidays were spent in a certain loft above
+a warehouse in the court of the printing-office, only attainable by
+a long ladder. Here, secure that none but favoured ears could hear,
+Lance practised on his beloved violin, at every hour he could steal,
+emulating too often Mother Hubbard's dog 'fiddling to mice,' but
+his audience often including his three younger sisters. He had had
+scarcely any hints, but his was the nature that could pick music out of
+anything; and Angela, much more than Robin, was ecstatic in all that
+concerned the sixth sense, and watched and criticised with rapture,
+wanted to learn, and pouted at being told that it was not fit for a
+woman. Among those stacks of paper in the dusty loft, with the stamp
+and thud of the press close at hand, it was possible to forget, in
+creating sounds and longing to fulfil the dream of the spirit, that
+Alda was exacting and trying, Wilmet blind to the annoyances she
+caused, Cherry striving hard, and not always successfully, with the
+fretfulness of anxiety, and Felix&mdash;they durst not think in what state.
+That loft and that violin made their fairy-land, and one that rendered
+it most unusually hard for Lance to learn his holiday task.</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell you what, Lance,' said Robina at last, when he had vainly
+been trying to repeat it to her, with his eye on a sheet of music all
+the time, 'you can't do two things at once. If I were you, I would lock
+up that violin till the summer examination is over.'</p>
+
+<p>He turned on her quite angrily. 'Very fine talking! Lock up all the
+pleasure I have in life! Thank you!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm quite sure you'll never get the exhibition if you have your head
+in this.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shan't get the exhibition any way.'</p>
+
+<p>'But if you do your utmost for it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall do my utmost!'</p>
+
+<p>'You can't if you have these tunes always running in your head, and are
+always wild to be picking them out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, Robin, I sometimes think I should do more good with music than
+anything else.'</p>
+
+<p>'Maybe,' said Robina, a sensible little woman; 'but you'll do no good
+by half and half. If you don't do well in the examination, Felix will
+be horribly vexed, and you'll always hate the thought of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I tell you I shall be as dull as ditch-water, and as stupid as
+Shapcote, if I don't have any pleasure.'</p>
+
+<p>'I only don't want you to be stupider.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance chucked up a pen-wiper and caught it.</p>
+
+<p>'The fact is,' said Robina, 'all we've got to do is our best. If we
+don't, it is wrong in us, and it makes us more a weight on Felix; and
+I think it is our real duty to keep everything out of the way that
+hinders us, if it is ever so nice.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that Cock Robin, or Parson Rook with his little book?' said Lance,
+throwing the pen-wiper in her face.</p>
+
+<p>But the week after, when Robina was at school again, she was called to
+receive a letter which had something hard in it.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you leave a key behind you?' she was asked a little suspiciously,
+for there was nothing about it in the brief note.</p>
+
+<p>'No, Miss Fennimore; but my brother has sent it to me to keep for him.
+It is the key of his violin-case, and he is not going to touch it till
+he is past his examination.'</p>
+
+<p>From that time Miss Fennimore entertained a better opinion of Robina
+Underwood; but little recked Robina. She only felt secure that after
+this act of heroism Lance could not but gain the exhibition.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>MIDSUMMER SUN.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 30%;">
+'For Ph&oelig;bus' awful self encountered him<br />
+Amid the battle throng invisible,<br />
+In thickest darkness shrouded all his face;<br />
+He stood behind, and with extended palm<br />
+Dealt on Patroclus' neck and shoulder broad<br />
+A mighty buffet.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 35%;"><i>Iliad, Book</i> xvi. (<i>Earl of Derby.</i>)</span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>Warmer weather came at last, and brought Mr. Froggatt back to his daily
+work, lifting a weight of responsibility from his young partner's
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>The cough mended too, but did not entirely cease; and when June came
+in with an unusual access of summer heat, there were those who felt it
+as trying as the sharp wind had been. One evening, when the home party
+had been sitting in the garden, and the fall of the dew sent Cherry
+indoors, Felix, as usual, gave her his arm, and lifted her step by
+step up the stairs. She felt, all over her frame, that what used to be
+almost nothing to the boy was a severe exertion to the man.</p>
+
+<p>'You should not do it!' she said, as they both stood resting at the
+top, he leaning back against the wall, and wiping his forehead, where
+the big blue V of the veins stood out prominently.</p>
+
+<p>'Having so often carried the calf&mdash;I should be able to carry&mdash;the cow,'
+he said, the smile not disguising the panting of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>'You are to be at the agricultural meeting at Dearport to-morrow. I
+wish you would just go and see Dr. Lee.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I shall.' And there they were interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Geraldine! What worlds of apprehension were founded on that quiet
+assent, his first intimation that he believed himself unwell! She
+kept absolute silence. She could not have uttered her terrors for ten
+thousand worlds.</p>
+
+<p>She was on her couch under the apple-tree, in the late afternoon,
+trying to force her thoughts out of miserable possibilities, when she
+saw Felix come out of the house, flushed, heated, dusty, tired; but
+somehow she gathered hope from his air, as he threw himself down on the
+grass by her side, saying, 'Mr. Froggatt sent me out to cool.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stella, dear,' to the little one, who had her story-book at hand, 'run
+and ask Sibby to bring Felix out a cup of tea.' Then she tried to guess
+at his face, but durst not look at him fully. 'Are you very tired?'</p>
+
+<p>'Rather! That place was a mere oven of roaring! Well, Cherry,' pulling
+off his neck-tie, and settling himself, with an elbow on her couch, and
+his back against the tree, 'there's nothing amiss with my lungs.'</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered all over, and almost bounded; then put her hand tenderly
+on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>'Your doctor is a clever man, I can see,' he continued. 'He seemed to
+guess about me directly. He sounded my chest, and says it is all right
+now, but that there had been a little damage; he thought the long cough
+I had after the measles had left traces that this winter has told upon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' A great gasp.</p>
+
+<p>'But there's no active disease&mdash;none at all; nor likely, if I can shake
+off this remnant of cough, and get into condition before the winter.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry sighed again at the white hand, and the net-work of blue veins
+on both it and the temple that was propped against it. 'You must
+<i>indeed!</i>' she wistfully said.</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>must</i>,' said Felix, sighing too, as with little mind for the
+struggle. 'I've brought home a detestable bottle of cod-liver oil on
+the spot, and am to take to all the good living I can swallow. Won't
+that delight Mr. Froggatt's good old soul? Then the worst of it is that
+I am to go away to some sea place for the hottest of the weather.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I'm so glad!'</p>
+
+<p>'He taxed me with not taking food enough; and when I allowed that I had
+no turn for eating, insisted on this sea plan: but he laughed me to
+scorn when I asked whether I might not get a room at Dearport, and run
+backwards and forwards. "Ay," he said, "you have a good deal on your
+mind;" and I fell into the trap, and told him my partner had been ill,
+and we had a great deal to work up. And he went on to ask if I had not
+the charge of the family, and was not apt to get anxious about them;
+and he turned round on me, and ordered me to get a thorough holiday,
+and turn my back on everybody and everything; for there's nothing the
+matter with me but overwork and harass&mdash;' Something that did not amount
+to <i>and</i> finished the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix, I know, I have felt,' she said, the tears standing in her
+eyes, and the colour rushing into her face at this first venture.</p>
+
+<p>'Have you&mdash;little foolish thing?' he answered, but shifting hand and
+elbow so that nothing of his face could be seen but a bit of brow and
+temple, and that was crimson to the roots of his hair. 'Don't take it
+for more than it ever was,' he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>'It was enough to hurt you grievously,' whispered the sister.</p>
+
+<p>'It ought not,' he said. 'It was only the putting out of a vain foolish
+hope I had no right to indulge. Eh, Cherry!' as she made a little
+sound, 'tell me one thing; was it all imagination and folly that
+she&mdash;she could have&mdash;liked me?' He bent his head with almost as much
+suppressed emotion as if it had been a matter of present hope.</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not,' said Cherry. 'She liked your&mdash;your attentions; and I
+thought sometimes you were quite pulling her up to your level. If no
+one else&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not imagine it was visible,' he interrupted. 'I tried to be very
+guarded, but one does not know&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'You were. Somehow one feels more than one sees.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you thought she did? Then at least I was not quite a fool! I
+fancied that there was response enough to what seems to have shown in
+spite of me to warrant the dream that if ever a time came&mdash;!'</p>
+
+<p>'If she had had depth enough!'</p>
+
+<p>'But, of course,' said Felix in a tone of defence, 'she never really
+knew; he guessed still less.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I am sure he never guessed. There is that comfort,' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the greatest I have had all along,' said Felix. 'For the rest,
+it was no wonder.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Cherry; 'but it all managed to fall in the very hardest way
+on you. No wonder it was too much for you!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is odd,' mused Felix, 'how this one dream has seemed to take all
+the heart and soul out of one; there seemed no elasticity to meet other
+things. I must say all this doctor's advice has been seeming an amazing
+amount of trouble for what is not very well worth having in the end.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix, Felix you will&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'My Chérie, you don't think I'd drop off the coach while you are in it
+if I can help it, to say nothing of the rest! I suppose every one has
+something of the sort in his turn, and I'll take good care not to be
+let in for it again. Thank you, Cherry,' he added presently, and now
+looking at her, 'I am very glad to have had this out with you. I think
+I can make a fresh start now. What, silly little thing! crying, when I
+thought I had brought you good news!'</p>
+
+<p>'You are quite sure you have told me all Dr. Lee said?' she demanded,
+holding his hands tight, and gazing into the face, which certainly,
+with the still heightened colour, looked both delicate and weary. 'You
+have been so much worse than you told!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, indeed, I have felt very little but weariness and want of energy;
+but I am better now than I have felt for weeks. And what is more,
+Cherry, I don't feel like getting worse. I mean to set myself to live
+to get through the work my father left me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Taking care of all of us! Is that all you care to live for, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>'All, just now. Don't look shocked, Cherry. You know it is all very
+fresh' ('Five months&mdash;poor Felix!' thought she), 'and there is the
+continual pain of knowing how wretched those people make the poor
+child. When she is happier, perhaps the shade will lighten. Don't be
+afraid, you dear little thing' (he was answering her piteous eyes),
+'there's plenty of time to recover it. I suppose I am really very young
+still.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not quite three and twenty! Oh, Felix! I am sure God will give you
+back happiness, you are so good and patient! Where will you go, and
+when?'</p>
+
+<p>'How I wish you could go with me! Dr. Lee said he should like to send
+me to Switzerland; but as he might as well have said the moon, he said
+any sea place would do. Rest and good air are all that signifies; so I
+thought of Ewmouth, and then I might see Vale Leston again. I believe
+you want it as much as I. You are a little washed-out rag.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be all right when I know you are better.' Then as Sibby
+brought out the tea, and Stella the toast she had insisted on making,
+he began to look at his short-hand notes. 'Never mind those. You are
+to rest, you know.&mdash;Stella, little one, run to the office, and if Mr.
+Froggatt is not busy, get him to come and have some tea.'</p>
+
+<p>This was always a mission to Stella's taste; and Mr. Froggatt was
+soon installed in the only basket-chair that would hold him, and was
+professing his relief and satisfaction that Mr. Underwood had been wise
+enough to take advice at last. He had better go any day, the sooner the
+better; and even his desire to take the newspaper work with him would
+have been overruled, but for the simple fact that there was nobody else
+capable of it, in the present state of Mr. Froggatt's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Alda had been lying down in her own room. Her cup of tea&mdash;an
+institution that for any one else Wilmet would have deemed sinful
+waste&mdash;had been rung for, when she saw from the window that Mr.
+Froggatt was one of the party in the garden; and whereas Sibby did not
+choose to hear or attend to her whims, she came down full of wrath and
+indignation, as soon as she saw that Cherry was left alone under her
+tree, and Wilmet coming out to her with the step of one who was glad
+her day's work was over.</p>
+
+<p>'Really, Sibby's inattention was shameful! Not choosing to bring the
+tea upstairs when it was rung for!'</p>
+
+<p>'You forget how much Sibby has to do, Alda.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have quite spoilt Sibby. I would not have such a servant on any
+account. I'm sure I don't know why the tea was so early, either. Cherry
+ordered it, I believe.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Cherry, 'because Felix came in so hot and tired.'</p>
+
+<p>'He could have waited, I suppose,' began Alda; but Wilmet was asking
+anxiously, 'Is he so very tired? Where is he? I was afraid he would be
+knocked up, he looked so pale when he set off.'</p>
+
+<p>'He is gone to write out his notes,' said Cherry; 'I think he is rested
+now. And, Mettie,' she added, knowing that he had rather not have to
+begin the subject again, 'I am glad to say he has been to see Dr. Lee.
+And he says that his lungs are all safe, only he must be careful, and
+go away for a change.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just as I say,' exclaimed Alda; 'no one can be well, living in such a
+hole! When are we to go?'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Alda,' said Wilmet, 'you forget. No one can possibly go but
+Felix; and it will be hard enough to manage for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I do think it is very selfish in him,' said Alda, 'when every one
+of us wants change! I'm as languid as possible; and look at Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix selfish! Even Wilmet could not stand that, and answered with her
+most severely gentle manner, 'Nothing but necessity will induce Felix
+to do so. I beg you will say nothing of the sort again.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry was alarmed lest Wilmet might not be convinced of the necessity,
+and might think more of present pounds than future health; but in fact,
+Wilmet was as much relieved as Cherry herself by the medical opinion,
+for she had charged the failure of health entirely to the constitution
+instead of the heart, and moreover never was troubled with misgivings
+and heart-sinkings for the future. So, as for a needful and infallible
+cure, she set herself to arrange, writing again to Abednego Tripp,
+the Vale Leston clerk, whose possession of a market boat kept him
+conversant with Ewmouth, and who recommended rooms in the house of a
+former servant at the Rectory who had married a sailor.</p>
+
+<p>Felix only waited to put his business in train, and make over Theodore
+to the care of Clement, who had just come home from Cambridge. The
+quantity of work and bustle had not been beneficial, and his sisters
+did not feel at all happy in sending him off by himself; while Alda
+was inclined to think the time a particularly cruel one, just as all
+the most unquiet spirits of the household would be coming home for the
+holidays, and his authority would be most wanted.</p>
+
+<p>However, Wilmet was free first of all, and she was a more efficient
+guardian of the peace than ever Felix could be downstairs. Lance was
+to come on the evening of the 26th of June, after the examination for
+the exhibition, which, as he had told every one, he was quite sure not
+to gain. And then what was to be done with him, small and boyish as he
+still was?</p>
+
+<p>The question was sighed over on that day by the three sisters as
+they sat endeavouring to be cool, and looking out at the glowing
+street where the few passengers seemed to be crawling like flies on a
+window-pane.</p>
+
+<p>Presently a rather hesitating knock at the door was followed by the
+entrance of Mr. Froggatt, ushering in no other than Mr. Harewood.</p>
+
+<p>In the moment of shaking hands, Cherry had foreboded enough to set her
+pulses throbbing so violently as to deafen her ears. Lance had failed,
+had run away in despair, to go to Fulbert rather than be a burthen;
+Felix would go in search of him&mdash;break a blood-vessel&mdash;and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Nay&mdash;what was it? Lance? It really was Lance! Was not Wilmet talking
+of going? Mr. Harewood saying something about trains? She made a
+great effort to clear her senses, and the first thing she really
+distinguished was Wilmet saying, 'Thank you, I will put a few things
+together.'</p>
+
+<p>Then she hurried away, and Cherry found Mr. Froggatt standing over her,
+saying kindly, 'Dear Miss Geraldine, don't be alarmed. There is often
+no bad result.'</p>
+
+<p>'How was it? I don't understand,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Harewood owned himself not perfectly informed, but he feared the
+trouble had been in great part occasioned by his own poor boy William's
+carelessness. The two boys had strolled out the evening before, along
+the bank of the river, and had compared the copies of verses which
+were to be shown up at the examination. Afterwards they had bathed,
+and Will had left his verses meantime in the hollow of a tree, never
+remembering them till he found himself in his place in the Cathedral on
+the very morning of the examination. When he came out, not only did his
+duties as senior chorister chain him to the spot, but he had put off to
+the last moment the fair copying of his algebraic exercises, and his
+chance of the exhibition was as good as lost (the very loop-hole that
+Robina had predicted his carelessness would make), had not Lance, whose
+preparations were all made, as soon as he understood the difficulty,
+dashed headlong off, bare-headed as he stood at the school door,
+without waiting to fetch his cap, and laid the verses on his rival's
+desk just in time for them to be shown up. He had been absent about
+twenty minutes, and had scarcely been missed; but when his turn came,
+a few moments later, to bring his papers to the examiners, as soon as
+he stood up, he staggered, gazed round, cried out, and fell forward
+on his desk insensible. A doctor, who like Mr. Harewood himself had
+been present to hear a son's performance, had helped to raise him,
+and pronounced it to be a case of sun-stroke; nor, when, half an hour
+later, the librarian set off to fetch his sister, had there been any
+sign of consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Harewood tried to be calm, but he was evidently in great distress;
+and Mr. Froggatt could not restrain large tears from dropping.</p>
+
+<p>As to Cherry, she could only tremble, unable to speak or cry; and Mr.
+Froggatt called out to Alda to do something for her, when Alda said she
+would call Wilmet, which made Cherry burst out with 'Don't, don't!' and
+shudder the more with tearless sobs; but happily, Clement coming down,
+fetched her remedies, and did more by whispering a few kind words of
+hope and comfort.</p>
+
+<p>He was going with Wilmet, who was as usual the self-possessed one; and
+while passively allowing Mr. Froggatt to give her biscuits and even
+wine, she left her few parting directions. 'Alda, take care of them
+all.&mdash;Stella, try to keep Tedo happy.&mdash;Cherry, don't give way and fancy
+things.&mdash;Above all, don't write to Felix! He must not be hurried home
+without necessity. I could telegraph if there was&mdash;' and there her
+steady voice faltered, she drew down her veil and turned to walk to the
+station, Clement carrying her bag, and Mr. Froggatt accompanying them
+to the train.</p>
+
+<p>Very little was said on the way, before they reached the town whose
+last associations were so joyous. Mr. Harewood would have given Wilmet
+his arm, dreading the tidings that might meet her; but she was walking
+straight on, with head erect, as though neither needing nor seeking
+support.</p>
+
+<p>They reached the low wicket-door of the Bailey, and as they entered the
+little court and passed the window, they saw that people were still
+standing about the bed in the corner. Everything was open, to admit
+such air as might stir that sultry heat. Some one came to the door, and
+said, 'No change.'</p>
+
+<p>Then Wilmet and Clement advanced to the narrow old dark oak bed,
+and Mrs. Harewood made way for them, fresh tears starting at their
+presence. There he lay, their bright agile boy, with eyes half closed
+and fixed, and circled half way down his cheeks with livid purple, like
+bruises, the purple lips emitting a heavy breath, his crest of sunny
+hair hanging dank with the melting of the ice on his head.</p>
+
+<p>Clement's lips trembled, and he dropped on his knees, hiding his
+face and stifling his sobs in his hands. Wilmet, after looking for
+permission to a gentleman at the foot of the bed, whom she took for the
+doctor, laid her hand on the helpless fingers, and bent to kiss the
+brow, saying softly and steadily, 'Lance, dear Lancey!'</p>
+
+<p>The eyelids moved, the hand closed, there was a struggling stifled
+utterance: 'Wilmet, Wilmet, bring me back! Oh, bring me back!'</p>
+
+<p>She looked up, and read in the watchers' faces that they were glad.
+'Yes, dear Lance,' she said, in her soft steady voice, 'I am here. You
+will soon be better.'</p>
+
+<p>He clung to her, as if blindly struggling with some terrible
+oppression, and the effort ended in violent sickness, exhausting him
+into unconsciousness again; but just then the real doctor came in,
+having been summoned by a message at the first symptom of change from
+the state of stupor. At the same time the Cathedral bell began to
+ring for evening prayer, and Lance at once was roused to endeavour to
+obey it, and when he was gently held back, murmured on about finding
+the places, and seeing Bill was not late. Mr. Harewood had to go, but
+whispered that he would ask the prayers of the congregation. It was
+comfortable to remember that Lance was thought of there, when, as the
+deep roll of the organ vibrated round the building, psalm, chant,
+anthem, and response came thronging thick and confusedly on those
+unconscious lips.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Manby, however, told Wilmet not to be too much alarmed at this
+delirium, for the most immediate danger had passed when the lethargy
+had given way, and that though fever was probably setting in, there
+was fair hope that so healthy a boy would be able to struggle through
+it without permanent harm. There was a gentleness and consideration in
+his manner quite new to her after her dealings with Mr. Rugg, and she
+felt at the same time that he was not concealing the truth from her.
+She told how it was with her eldest brother, asking whether he ought to
+be sent for; and it was a great lightening of present fear to be told
+that there was now no need for haste, and that any change for the worse
+would give full time to bring him; moreover, that new faces were to be
+avoided. Should a nurse be sent from the hospital? Wilmet raised her
+steady sensible eyes, and said she could manage, she was well used to
+nursing.</p>
+
+<p>'I see you are,' he answered, well satisfied, since there were besides
+the Precentor's housekeeper, who was used to act as matron to the
+boarding choir-boys, and apparently an unlimited power of Harewoods.</p>
+
+<p>As to the place, Lance had at first been carried to his own bed, and
+even if there had been a regular infirmary, he was in no state to bear
+being moved. The other boys' goods had been removed, and they all were
+going home that evening; so that it was as cool and as quiet a place
+as could be had, since there was no doubt that the sounds from the
+Cathedral would be hushed for so critical a case.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, just as Dr. Manby had said this, both the Dean and the
+Precentor were seen coming through the Bailey on the way out of church
+to ask after the patient; and the former promised Wilmet that the bells
+and organ should both be silenced, and that the daily service should be
+in the Lady Chapel.</p>
+
+<p>It appeared there had been little but the instrumental music that
+evening, and strangers who had heard the praises of the Minsterham
+choir must have been disappointed; for the psalms so entirely overcame
+the senior chorister that he could do nothing but sob, and at last was
+fain to stuff half the sleeve of his surplice into his mouth to hinder
+a howl such as the least of the boys actually burst out with. Most of
+the other lads were far past singing, and even two or three of the
+men; and such voices as did uplift themselves were none of the best or
+clearest.</p>
+
+<p>That poor senior chorister&mdash;he crept back after his father into the
+room. It was his first entrance, for he had been kept all day at the
+examination, with what power of attention may be guessed; and when
+some half-recognition of him set the sufferer off into wanderings
+that showed habitual vigilance over his carelessness, he was so much
+distressed that he rushed out, and was heard crying so piteously in
+the court, that his mother went out to hush and comfort him. Never
+strong, the shock, anxiety, and exertion had so worn her out, that her
+family would not let her come back; but their attention to the nurses
+did not relax&mdash;they were viewed as guests both by Mr. Beccles and
+the Harewoods; and when it was found that neither would come away to
+another house to dine, a little table was prepared in the court, close
+to the door, and the sister and brother, coaxed one by one, and made to
+eat and drink; while, as Clement could not bear to go home, a note was
+written, the delivery of which to the sisters Mr. Beccles undertook to
+secure. All the evening, Mr. Harewood or his eldest son, the engineer
+captain, the same whom Wilmet had taken for the doctor, sat at the
+other end of the room; while Lance lay, sometimes babbling school tasks
+mixed with anthems and hymns, sometimes in something between sleep and
+torpor, but always moaning and fevered.</p>
+
+<p>This strange temporary infirmary, of which Wilmet was made free,
+consisted of two long narrow rooms, each with a row of quaint black oak
+beds and presses, between the double row of narrow lattice windows,
+looking into the court on one side, and the cloister on the other.
+There was a smaller room dividing these two chambers, and opening
+into both, which the under-master had vacated, and where the matron
+installed Miss Underwood's little bag.</p>
+
+<p>Clement was a good deal impressed with the place, in the grand quiet
+shadow of the old Cathedral; and the room itself told much of his
+brother's daily life, in his own little section of it. The deep
+window-seat and old oak chest were loaded with piles of 'Punch,' sheets
+of music, school-books, and grotesque sketches; bat, hockey-stick, and
+fishing-rod were in the corner; trencher cap and little black gown
+hung on their peg on the white-washed walls, and pinned beside them
+lists of the week's music, school-work, &amp;c. In the corner by the press
+was a little rough deal table, covered with an old white shawl that
+Clement remembered as his mother's; and on it lay Lance's old brown
+Bible, the Prayer-book given him by the Bishop, 'Steps to the Altar,'
+and Ken's Manual; over it hung the photograph of his father, and next
+above, an illumination of Cherry's, 'The joy of the Lord is your
+strength;' while above was a little print of the Good Shepherd. Nor
+was it a small testimony to the boy who had been senior in the room,
+that Clement found one or two other such little tables, evidently for
+private prayer. He had never believed such things could be out of St.
+Matthew's, nor where the books were not more of his own exclusive type
+than were Lance's; and perhaps there was some repentance for harsh
+judgment in his spirit as he knelt on by that little table long after
+Mr. Harewood, near midnight, had read a few prayers and gone to his
+house.</p>
+
+<p>When Clement stood up, his sister made him lie down, as well as his
+long legs would permit, on one of the other beds, where he soon fell
+asleep; while she sat on, where she could see the spire rising aloft
+into the pale blue of the summer night's sky, while the perfect
+stillness was only broken by the quarterly chiming of the clock,
+re-echoed from its fellow in the town-hall. Every window and door
+was open, but the air was heated and oppressive till the early dewy
+coolness before dawn crept in, making her bend over Lance to cover him
+less slightly. Then she met his eyes, heavy and blood-shot, but with
+himself in them.</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet, is that you?' he said, in a wondering tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, here I am, dear Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is it night or morning?'</p>
+
+<p>'Morning. There, it is striking three-quarters past two.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' a long sigh. 'I'm so thirsty!'</p>
+
+<p>She brought some drink; but as he tried to raise his head, the
+distressing sickness returned in full force, and in the midst the
+gasping cry, 'My head, my head!'</p>
+
+<p>'Some more ice, Clem,' said Wilmet; but Clement looked up from the
+ice-pail in despair, for all was melted; and she could only steep
+handkerchiefs in the water and in eau-de-cologne, and lay them on the
+head, while Clement wondered if he could find a shop; but where was
+the use at three in the morning? and poor Lance rolled round wearily,
+sighing, 'Oh, I did not know one's head could ache so!'</p>
+
+<p>Just then a step crossed the court, and a low voice said, 'Is he awake?
+I have brought some more ice.'</p>
+
+<p>'O Jack, thank you!' faintly breathed Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you!' fervently added Wilmet; 'we did not know what to do for
+some more!'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you must want some by this time. I have a little ice-machine
+for Indian use,' he added, as Clement looked at him like a sort of
+wizard.</p>
+
+<p>He was small, sandy, and freckled after the Harewood fashion, and
+was besides dried up by Eastern suns; but one who brought such
+succour could not fail to be half celestial in the sister's eyes; and
+as he said, 'You are getting better,' her response was fervent in
+its quietness, though poor Lance, conscious only of oppression and
+suffering, merely replied with a groan, and seemed to be dozing again
+into torpor in the relief the ice had given.</p>
+
+<p>Clement and Captain Harewood besought Wilmet to rest&mdash;the latter
+declaring himself to be too much of an East Indian to sleep at dawn;
+and she consented to lie down in the little room, where she had enough
+of wakeful slumber to strengthen her for the heat of the day, when the
+fever ran high, and all the most trying symptoms returned.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor continued to forbid despondency, building much on the
+lucid interval in the cool of the morning, and ascribing much of the
+excitement of brain to the excessive, almost despairing, study that
+Lance had been attempting in the last weeks before the examination.
+There had, too, been a concert given by one of the great ladies of the
+Close, for which there had been a good deal of practice, harassed by
+certain amateur humours; and the constant repetition of one poor little
+shallow song in the delirious murmur greatly pained the Precentor, and
+made him indulge in murmurs that boded ill to the ladies' chances with
+the choir-boys. The sultry weather was likewise a great enemy, and
+could hardly be mitigated by the continual fanning kept up chiefly by
+poor Bill Harewood, who seemed to have no comfort except in working the
+fan till he was ready to drop, and his brother or Clement took it from
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Harewood was quite knocked up, and her daughters were curiously
+inefficient people. Their father came and went all day; but the
+serviceable person was the engineer, with his experience of
+sun-strokes, his devices for coolness, and his cheerful words, stilling
+the torrent of rambling restlessness, so that Wilmet depended upon him
+as much as on the doctor himself.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday, the third day of the fever, which had rather increased
+than diminished, Wilmet begged Clement to go home for the night, to
+carry a report to the sisters, and fetch some things she wanted. He
+lingered, grieving and reluctant; while the heated atmosphere was like
+a solid weight on the sufferer, who lay, now and then murmuring some
+distressed phrase, as though labouring with some forgotten task; and
+Wilmet shunned touching the pulse again lest the reckoning should be
+higher than the last, and strove to construct a message conveying the
+hope that seemed to faint in the burthen of the day, insisting, above
+all, that guarded accounts should be sent to Felix, keeping carefully
+to Dr. Manby's report.</p>
+
+<p>'I can be here before nine,' said Clement; 'I wish I could help going.
+I feel as if something must happen!'</p>
+
+<p>'A thunderstorm,' said Captain Harewood in a reproving voice, as he
+plied the fan, with heat-drops on his brow; 'a thunderstorm, which will
+prove the best doctor. Take care, you will miss the train.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement stooped to kiss the unconscious face, as though he had never
+prized his little brother before, and as some association of the touch
+of the lips awoke the murmur, 'Mamma, Mamma!' he sped away with eyes
+full of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Before he could have reached the station, the storm was coming&mdash;great
+rounded masses of cloud, with silver-foamed edges and red lurid
+caverns, began to climb slowly up the sky, distant grumbles of thunder
+came gradually nearer, a few fitful gusts of wind came like sirocco,
+adding to the stifling heat, and were followed by exceeding stillness,
+broken by the first few big drops of rain, the visible flashes, and the
+nearer peals of thunder, till a sudden glare and boom overhead startled
+Lance into a frightened bewildered state, that so occupied Wilmet that
+she hardly heard the roaring, pattering hail-drops on the roofs and
+pavements; but when a sweet fresh wind blew away the hail, the weary
+head was more at rest, the slumber more tranquil, the breathing freer
+and softer than it had been since that Wednesday.</p>
+
+<p>Some two hours later she saw him looking at her with a sort of
+perplexed smile; and the first words upon his tongue were, 'Is Bill
+first?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing is settled till the Bishop comes home,' Captain Harewood
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>'What time is it?' then asked Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Half-past eight.'</p>
+
+<p>'It seems always half dark, said the boy, dreamily, 'and yet there's no
+curfew.'</p>
+
+<p>'They have been so kind as not to ring the bells,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Not ring the bells!' repeated Lance, in a feeble voice of amazement.</p>
+
+<p>'No, nor play the organ,' said Wilmet; 'you have had to be so quiet,
+you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'No organ! and for me!' repeated Lance, impressed almost as if the
+'unchanging sun his daily course' had 'refused to run;' but it rather
+frightened him, for he added, 'Am I very ill, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not now, I hope,' said Wilmet, tenderly, and possessing herself of his
+wrist; 'you are so much better to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>He looked wistfully into her face. 'What's the matter with me?' he
+said. 'What does make my head go on in this dreadful way?'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Lance! It was that running in the hot sun.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' (a sort of sigh of discovery) 'I hope he had the verses.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, indeed you gave them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then he must be first,' said Lance; and then, as his thankful nurses
+were preparing to give him some nourishment, he spoke again. 'Mettie,
+please come here;' and as she bent over him, 'is this being very
+ill?&mdash;like dying, I mean.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not now, dearest,' said Wilmet, kissing him. 'You must be through with
+the worst, thank God.'</p>
+
+<p>He asked no more, for his voice was low and faint, the pain and
+dizziness still considerable; and the being fed without raising himself
+occupied him till the doctor came for his evening visit, and confirmed
+the sister's comfort in his improvement. She sat gazing as he fell
+asleep again, till Captain Harewood reminded her that her letter to
+Ewmouth must be sent before the mail closed. She turned to the window,
+where still lay her anxiously-worded bulletin, not yet closed; but as
+she took the pen, the blinding tears fell thick and soft as the summer
+rain outside.</p>
+
+<p>'This will be a happy ending,' said John Harewood, as he saw her
+silently striving to clear her sight.</p>
+
+<p>'Would you be so very kind as to write it for me?' she answered,
+pointing to the paper, with a lovely smile through her tears. 'He will
+believe it all the more.'</p>
+
+<p>And as he took the pen, she retreated in quiet swiftness to her little
+room; but came back as he finished the few freshly hopeful lines; then
+going to the door with him, looked up with the same sweet tremulous
+smile. 'Thank you! What thankfulness it is! What a merciful rain this
+is! If you knew the relief it is to send this report to Felix! You
+cannot guess what this dear little fellow is to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I can, a little,' said John Harewood, with his heart in his
+voice; and Wilmet smiled again, her stately but usually rather severe
+beauty wonderfully softened and sweetened by emotion.</p>
+
+<p>The improvement continued when Clement arrived on the Sunday morning;
+and though fevered, confused, and beset by odd fancies, especially
+about the silence of the Cathedral, Lance knew his brother, smiled at
+him, and returned his greeting. Clement had a more cheerful task than
+usual in what seemed to be his day's work&mdash;answering inquiries at the
+door, and taking in presents of fruit. All the Chapter and half the
+town seemed to call, or send, at least once a day; and little boys used
+to hang about the court, too shy to come to the door, but waiting to
+collect tidings from the attendants, and mutually using strong measures
+upon one another when either was betrayed into noise.</p>
+
+<p>Clement called his sister aside to ask whether she could spare him,
+since she had the help of the matron and the Harewoods. 'I should be
+very glad to stay,' he averred, 'but somebody is really wanted at home.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet had not been so much accustomed to consider Clement in the light
+of 'somebody,' as greatly to care whether he went or stayed, and only
+said, 'I can get on very well. No one is of so much use as Captain
+Harewood.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just so,' said Clement; 'and I think I am doing more good at home.
+Imagine my finding all the windows open in that pouring rain, and
+Cherry sitting shivering.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very foolish of Cherry,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Cherry! she could not help herself, and was only thankful when I
+had the courage to shut them in Alda's face. Then they don't know what
+to do with Theodore.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Tedo&mdash;that's the worst of it!'</p>
+
+<p>'You see he is used to a man's hand and voice. He is very good with me,
+but Sibby has had dreadful work with him every night till I came home.
+And, Wilmet, couldn't you send a message who is to be mistress while
+you are away?'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda, of course.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda doesn't seem to understand, and she will not let Cherry tell her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Cherry always does bother Alda. I can't help it, Clem, they must rub
+on somehow; and if you can make Theodore happy, the rest does not so
+much signify.'</p>
+
+<p>Not signify! Clement did not know whether he was standing on his
+head or his heels, and never guessed that not only was she too much
+absorbed in the present thoroughly to realise the absent, but that she
+would not venture to send orders based on his report, which in her
+secret soul she qualified by his love of importance and interference.
+However, he went away, and was not seen again all the ensuing week&mdash;the
+early part of which was very trying, for the fever recurred regularly
+about noon and midnight, and always brought rambling, which since
+that conversation with Wilmet, had taken the turn of talking about
+being buried in a surplice, and of continually recurring to the 134th
+Psalm, which, it was now remembered, Lance had shortly before taken
+part in, over the grave of an old lay-vicar, who, boy and man, had
+served the Cathedral for nearly sixty years. Often, too, the poor
+little fellow seemed struggling with some sense of demerit&mdash;whether
+positive disgrace, or suspicion, or the general Christian feeling of
+unworthiness, Wilmet and John Harewood could never make out; and they
+did not choose to speak of these wanderings either to Will or to Mr.
+Beccles. In the intervals of consciousness, the thought of danger and
+death seemed to be lost in the weakness of exhaustion, and the dread of
+whatever brought back the pain, from which there was no respite except
+in cool air and perfect quiet. The least movement intensified it, and
+brought on the sickness that showed the brain to be still affected; and
+still worse was any endeavour to attend to the shortest and simplest
+devotions, when Mr. Harewood attempted them. Yet all the time there was
+amendment; the fever was every day less severe, the intervals longer,
+the sleep calmer, the doctor more securely hopeful; and by the end of a
+week from the time of the accident, recovery was beginning sensibly to
+set in.</p>
+
+<p>Clement, meanwhile, did not appear; nor was he seen till the ensuing
+Monday, when he stood on the threshold of the open door at the Bailey,
+bewildered at the emptiness of the bed where he had last seen his
+brother&mdash;till a weak voice said, 'Here, Clem,' and he saw on another of
+the little old beds a small figure, in a loose soft white silk Indian
+<i>robe de chambre</i>, the face shrunken into nothing but overhanging brow
+and purple haloed eyes, though the eyes themselves were smiling welcome
+in all their native blueness and clearness, and two thin white hands
+were held out.</p>
+
+<p>'Out of bed, Lance! That is getting on!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. They thought I should be cooler, and sleep better for it.'</p>
+
+<p>'And are you all alone?' said Clement, hanging over him.</p>
+
+<p>'The maids are about somewhere. Wilmet is gone to the Cathedral, while
+Jack got me up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then you must be a great deal better.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; I haven't had any of that horrid fever since Friday.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the pain?'</p>
+
+<p>'Better, if I lie quite still and it is not hot, but I couldn't stand a
+bit when I tried. I hardly know how Jack carried me here.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are little and light enough,' said Clement; 'but I'll help to
+carry you back. I am sorry not to have been here more, Lance, but I was
+so much wanted at home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, I didn't want any one. Jack is such a fellow; and
+Wilmet&mdash;somehow, Clem, I never seem to have cared enough about W. W.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor I, till I saw what home is like without her,' muttered Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'And isn't she beautiful, too?' added Lance; 'it is quite nice to lie
+and look at her at work. Don't you think her much better looking than
+Alda?'</p>
+
+<p>'If handsome is that handsome does,' said Clement. 'You wouldn't like
+me to stay with you instead of Mettie, old chap?'</p>
+
+<p>The helplessly alarmed look of illness came into Lance's eyes. 'Oh no,
+no; I couldn't spare Wilmet yet. She doesn't want to go?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I have said nothing to her; but Cherry is not well, and everything
+is at sixes and sevens; but there, never mind,' as the tears started
+into the sick boy's eyes, 'we'll manage; I should not have said
+anything about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Please don't,' said Lance. 'If she ought to go, let her, and don't
+tell me. I can't help it, Clem; I'm afraid to think if it ought to be,
+or I should make my head rage, and I should begin to talk nonsense
+again, and that's worst of all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know when you are talking nonsense?' said Clement, surprised,
+and eager to lead off from the subject he felt he ought not to have
+broached.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, yes, I know that it is not the right thing, and the right thing
+won't come; and the worst of it is,' lowering his already feeble voice,
+'saying one's prayers is hardest of all; I can't remember what I know
+best. I couldn't so much as go through the Magnificat if you were to
+shoot me.'</p>
+
+<p>'But holloa! They don't generally come out of the Cathedral this way,
+do they?'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?'</p>
+
+<p>'The Bishop! Ay, and the Dean! Speaking to Wilmet. I believe they are
+coming here. Lie still, Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>'I must,' he acquiesced, after half raising himself and falling back.
+'Oh, can it be about the prize? Some of that stuff on my forehead,
+please, Clem.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet came in first, ascertained that all was ready, put an arranging
+touch to Lance's pillows, and ushered in the two dignitaries, who shook
+his languid hand, and asked after him kindly.</p>
+
+<p>'You have put the Chapter into great difficulties by disabling yourself
+and Harewood,' said the Bishop. 'What! did you not know that the poor
+fellow entirely broke down?' as the eager eyes inquired.</p>
+
+<p>'Nobody would tell me anything about it,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'It could not be helped,' continued the Bishop, 'but the examiners said
+they felt it a great cruelty when they saw how utterly astray distress
+rendered him. However, his papers and yours were both so good&mdash;his
+verses especially, and your arithmetic&mdash;that it was impossible to
+reject them, so the decision was put off till my return on Saturday.'</p>
+
+<p>'We think,' said the Dean, who was very old, very gentle, and very
+slow of speech&mdash;'we think, my little fellow, that though there is no
+doubt that Shapcote did best in the examination, and ought to have the
+exhibition, yet under the peculiar circumstances, you and Harewood can
+be retained as choir scholars for another year, so as to try again.
+You don't look sixteen, I'm sure, and we should be sorry to lose your
+voice.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm only just turned sixteen,' said Lance, 'only on the 14th of June.
+Thank you, sir;&mdash;thank you, my Lord;' and his face beamed joy, though
+his words faltered.</p>
+
+<p>'Moreover,' proceeded the Bishop, 'I have the greatest pleasure in
+giving the good-conduct prize where, so far as I am able to judge, it
+has been well deserved.'</p>
+
+<p>A perilous flush of joy overspread the pale face; he started up on his
+elbows, and his eyes danced rapture, as some one at the door handed
+in the beautiful red morocco quarto of the Cathedral music; and the
+Bishop, with a fatherly hand making him lie down again, laid the book
+beside him, as he gasped out something like thanks.</p>
+
+<p>'We are quite convinced that you have deserved it,' repeated the Dean,
+again shaking hands with him, and then taking leave; but the Bishop
+remained, talking kindly to Clement about Cambridge, and inquiring for
+Felix; while Wilmet helped Lance's feeble fingers to turn the thick
+creamy pages on which he durst not fix his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the Bishop sat down again, and said, 'I have acted on my
+own judgment in giving you this, my boy. I have seen enough of our
+choir these six years to know that what caused so much displeasure was
+certainly not to be laid to your charge.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance made an uneasy movement, became alarmingly red, and said in a
+choked voice, 'I don't know but what it might, my Lord.'</p>
+
+<p>'You mean that you knew of this custom of getting out at night through
+the Cathedral?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my Lord; I found out the way.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Bishop said, 'After this, I can only leave it to your own
+conscience whether you ought to keep this book; but I think you would
+do wisely to let me know, remembering that I have no authority in the
+school.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance brightened, and he answered, 'My Lord, I did get out once, but
+only once, and I don't think I did wrong. It was a long time ago&mdash;in
+the autumn.'</p>
+
+<p>'Last autumn! Was it not then that there was a report of a chorister
+in his shirt sleeves being seen at the Green Man at eleven o'clock at
+night?'</p>
+
+<p>'That was I, my Lord.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement was ready to start forward, under the impression that Lance
+was talking his 'nonsense;' but the Bishop said, 'You were named, but
+nobody believed it for a moment.'</p>
+
+<p>'One of our little fellows was very ill, my Lord,' said Lance,
+excitement restoring something of his natural briskness. 'We thought he
+was going to have the cholera, and I went to get something for him. The
+chemists' shops were shut, so I went in there.'</p>
+
+<p>'May I ask the question,' said the Bishop, rather as if taking a
+liberty, 'why did you not call up Mr. Stokes?'</p>
+
+<p>'We couldn't, my Lord, for it was all Mr. Shapcote's swans' eggs.
+He caught them&mdash;three of our least fellows, I mean&mdash;jumping at the
+branches that hung over the river wall, and he blackguar&mdash;abused them
+so that they got into a rage and vowed he shouldn't have a plum left
+on the tree. We seniors knew nothing about it; but they got over the
+wall at dark, and one ate eighty-five and the other eighty-one; but,
+little Dick&mdash;one of them, I mean&mdash;could only get down nineteen, and
+brought the rest in his pockets. It was the first time such a thing
+had happened, and it put me in a proper rage. The little one was the
+one I found out first; and I thought he was sulky, so I licked him
+till he howled, so that I was afraid I'd done him some dreadful harm,
+like a regular brute; and when I found it was his inside instead of
+his outside, I was so glad, I could have done anything for him. But we
+couldn't call Stokes, or the poor little chap would have suffered for
+it three times over.'</p>
+
+<p>'That would have been hard measure! And did your remedy succeed?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; I think a good deal was fright. He went to sleep on the brandy,
+and was all right next day.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the gentlemen with the eighty-five and eighty-one suffered no
+inconvenience, of course?' said his Lordship, much amused. 'May I hear
+how you got out?'</p>
+
+<p>'With Mr. Harewood's key,' said Lance. 'He used to keep it on a nail
+inside the study door, which opens into the passage leading into this
+court, and is never locked.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is the key of the Cathedral library.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my lord; it unlocks the outer door, and the door into the north
+transept.'</p>
+
+<p>'And after that&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'You can shoot the bolt on the inside of the little side-door at the
+west front, and climb over the railing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Boys are animals not to be kept in, that is certain! So you were
+pioneer! But you had nothing to do with those cards?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, my Lord. But I ought not to have told how I got out, for there
+were some who would do it afterwards. However, those cards were none of
+ours.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whose were they?'</p>
+
+<p>'Walter Shapcote's, my Lord. He is gone now, so it does not signify.'</p>
+
+<p>'That nephew Mr. Shapcote had in his office?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my Lord; he had got the command of poor Gus, because he had lent
+him money for some debt that Gus was afraid to let his father know of,
+and made him get the key, and let him out and in.'</p>
+
+<p>'You all knew of this?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my Lord; but poor Gus was sure that his father would be so
+dreadful, that we durst not let out a word. Mr. Shapcote makes every
+soul afraid of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'The young man is gone?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my Lord, to London.'</p>
+
+<p>'And there is no danger of the like with Gus?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, my Lord. He's too like a sheep! and now his debt is paid&mdash;after
+the last concert&mdash;he's sure not to get into the same scrape again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you very sincerely,' said the Bishop. 'It is a great relief to
+me to know all this; and it is safe with me. I am only afraid I have
+made you talk more than is good for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'And may I keep this, my Lord?' he wistfully asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed you may, my dear boy. If you have transgressed the letter of
+discipline, you have kept the spirit of charity. I am glad to keep
+<i>you</i>, as well as your voice. But I have tired you out.'</p>
+
+<p>And laying a hand of blessing on his brow, the Bishop took leave,
+Wilmet going to the door with him, to answer his fears that the
+interview had been too much for her patient, with assurances that the
+relief and gratification must do good in the end.</p>
+
+<p>He told her that the threat of the withholding of the prize had not
+been made by his authority, and that he had much regretted it. Just as
+the tidings of the sun-stroke and its cause had reached him, he had
+been with Mr. Nixon, the former Precentor, who had spoken warmly of
+Lance, saying that the whole tone of the boys had improved since his
+coming, though he was too much of a pickle ever to get the credit.
+Wilmet's pleasure was great; but before she could get back, Lance was
+nervously calling for her. The excitement was still great, his head
+was aching violently, and yet he could not leave off eager talking,
+which, as feverishness came on, began to degenerate into such rambling
+as terribly frightened Clement lest a relapse should be coming on. He
+wanted to hurry off to the doctor at once; but Wilmet, well knowing
+he would not be at home, repressed him, and quietly said she had some
+draughts ready, and knew what to do. While she was out of sight,
+preparing them, a great alarm came over the patient lest she should
+have left him; and all the rest of those noonday hours were spent in
+a continual restless desire to keep her in view, hold her hand, and
+elicit her assurances that she was not going home, nor going to leave
+him&mdash;no, not on any account. The very presence of his brother seemed to
+increase the uneasiness; and in the deepest humiliation and despair,
+Clement allowed himself to be invited away by Captain Harewood to see
+the process of ice-making, and be so far comforted that the Bishop's
+visit was probably far more likely to have done the mischief than his
+own rash suggestion, and that there was no reason to fear it would
+last many hours. In fact, Lance was recovering favourably, and had had
+few drawbacks. 'So I tell everybody,' said John Harewood, 'especially
+poor Bill, who is still ready to break his heart every time Lance has
+a headache, and would chatter him to death when he is better. And
+that's the way with them all! There seems no one that can be tender and
+reasonable both at once, except your sister.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement did full justice to that tenderness, when, out of sight
+himself, he had watched Wilmet's soothing firmness and patient
+reassuring softness, at last calming the feverish agitation into
+a sleep, which he was allowed to see for himself was gentle and
+wholesome. Only then&mdash;towards four o'clock&mdash;could Captain Harewood
+persuade her to let him keep guard, while she went to take the food
+that had been long waiting for her, and over which she could hear
+Clement's penitent explanation of his own unlucky proposal.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought he seemed so well&mdash;able to get up and all; and they <i>do</i>
+think me a good nurse at St. Matthew's. I nursed Fred Somers almost
+entirely when he had the scarlet fever.' (Wilmet looked as if she
+pitied St. Matthew's.) 'But of course I see now that it is out of the
+question.'</p>
+
+<p>'Entirely so,' said Wilmet, too kind to remind him of the
+qualifications he had evinced.</p>
+
+<p>'And you cannot guess when he can come home?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not in the least. Even if he could be moved, think of the noisiness of
+our house!'</p>
+
+<p>Clement groaned. 'It was very wrong in me to speak to him before you,
+Wilmet,' he said; 'but I should be thankful if you could tell me what
+is to be done! Cherry was thoroughly chilled that evening of the
+thunderstorm, and has been very poorly ever since.'</p>
+
+<p>'She always feels changes of weather.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's what Alda tells you. She won't believe there is anything the
+matter; but poor Cherry has had rheumatic pain all over her, and her
+bad ankle seems to have a bit of bone coming out. Sibby thinks so. Now,
+ought she not to have her doctor?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well! if&mdash;I wish I could be quite sure! It is such an unlucky thing
+that she has that dislike to Mr. Rugg.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet! You are as bad as Alda!'</p>
+
+<p>'Clement,' she answered gently, 'you do not know what it is to have to
+reckon the expense. There is Felix's journey; and what this illness may
+cost, I cannot guess; and now Cherry! It is not that I grudge it; but I
+don't see what is to become of any of us if we spend unnecessarily&mdash;or
+necessarily either, for that matter.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought her doctor didn't charge.'</p>
+
+<p>'He did not when she was at St. Faith's, but at home it is a different
+thing; but, of course, if it be really needful it cannot be helped.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you couldn't come home and see&mdash;even for one hour?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not yet, most certainly.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I had better write to Sister Constance!'</p>
+
+<p>'If you really do find it impossible to get on, and Cherry is more
+than just ailing, and&mdash;and fractious' (the word came out at last); 'I
+don't like always calling for help, it seems presuming on kindness, and
+Robina will be helpful when she comes home; but no doubt Alda does not
+know what to do,' she added, in a deliberating tone.</p>
+
+<p>'Then you authorize me?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know what you mean by authorizing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only that Alda will neither do anything herself, nor let any one else
+do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Alda! It is a hard time for her, and she is not used to it. I am
+afraid she is out of her element among you all. Don't be vexed, Clem;
+you all ought to make allowances for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I make allowances from morning to night,' said Clement. 'I wonder how
+many Travis will have to make!'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet had finished her hasty meal, and wanted to get back to her
+patient, so she only protested by a reproving look and shake of the
+head; while Clement stood disconcerted, but less surprised than if he
+had not been familiar with the part of the family Cassandra.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>BY THE RIVER.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 30%;">
+'And Lancelot look'd, and was perplext in mind;<br />
+And being weak in body, said no more.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 45%;"><i>Tennyson.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>It was a lovely afternoon, and the sun shone outside the green tracery
+of a hornbeam alley in the Deanery garden, leading from the cloister
+to the river. Here lay Lancelot, on the long cushion of a sofa, while
+Wilmet sat stitching at the last of the set of collars that would
+always bring so many recollections. For this was a Saturday afternoon,
+and on the Monday Lance was to go to Ewmouth to join Felix, who was
+to have his holiday extended another month on that account. Alda, who
+had had a quarter's allowance from her uncle, had made this possible;
+and Wilmet was doubly gratified by its having been her twin's gift and
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet would of course go home, and she found herself almost regretting
+the close of a time that had of late been very pleasant. She had not
+felt, as Geraldine would have done, the romance of living in the old
+monastic buildings, in the calm shadow of the grand old minster;
+yet something of the soothing of the great solemn quiet rested upon
+the spirit that had&mdash;since six years old&mdash;never known freedom from
+responsibility, and&mdash;since fifteen&mdash;had borne the burthen of household
+economies and of school teaching. It was a strange novelty to have
+meals provided without care of her own, no shortcomings of servants to
+make up, no claimant for her attention save a solitary patient, and
+that one with Lance's temper. Wilmet had undergone a good deal from
+Alda's clashes with the rest, even Felix's was only a temper well in
+hand, and alternate fretfulness and penitence were regarded by her
+as part and parcel of Geraldine's ailments; so that it was almost a
+surprise that her present convalescent never visited his discomforts
+upon her, but was always patient and good-humoured, smiling whenever
+he could, like his father before him, as if, according to the pretty
+Spanish saying, the sun had shone on his cradle at his birth. His
+unselfish nature had made him a little uneasy when with cooler senses
+he remembered Clement's hint, while love and instinct alike made him
+feel utterly unable to dispense with his motherly sister; but when she
+had assured him that nothing could make him leave him as yet, and when
+Sister Constance was known to be at Bexley, he threw it from his mind,
+and was perfectly happy and contented.</p>
+
+<p>He could still exert no attention, could neither read nor be read to,
+nor occupy himself in any way; but he was amused by talk around him,
+and companionship was never lacking. Wilmet, whose forte had never been
+conversation, found herself in a stream of small talk with inquiring
+friends of all degrees in the hierarchy; but was most at her ease when
+the female Harewoods were prattling good-humoured inconsequent chatter,
+Willie lying on the grass murmuring with Lance, or John lured into
+stories of Indian surveying adventures in the cause of the Ordnance
+Map. And when she was carried off to have her meals with the family,
+she had put herself so entirely at the mercy of circumstances, that she
+never seemed scandalised by their crazy unpunctuality, their wonderful
+free and easy ways, and customs of putting things to every use but
+the right, did not censure Grace or Lucy for dawdling and gossiping
+whole mornings away, and took it naturally when their mother inquired
+after her eldest brother by the alternate names of Festus and Frank,
+and when she mentioned Lance's disaster as his <i>coup d'état</i>. And here
+was the last of these pleasant afternoons, full of still sweet sounds,
+midsummer hum above, the soft ripple of the water close by, the cawing
+of the rooks in the Close&mdash;all such peace, that her heart quailed as
+she looked forward to the din of the High Street at Bexley, and she
+strangled a sigh half way up her throat.</p>
+
+<p>The click of the cloister door was heard, and Lance awoke from a
+doze, saying, 'Is that Bill?&mdash;You've not been here since morning, you
+vagabone.'</p>
+
+<p>'See what I've got for you,' said Bill. 'What do you say for that, now?'</p>
+
+<p>For Lance, with sparkling eyes, was rising to his feet. 'Hurrah! Robin
+herself! O Robin a Bobbin, isn't this jolly?' and Robina was entangled
+in that wonderful embrace peculiar to their own two selves, too
+ecstatic for a word between them, though as she received her sister's
+kiss, she spoke rather pleadingly&mdash;'Cherry and Sister Constance said I
+might, Wilmet; and Mrs. Harewood was so very kind as to send Willie to
+fetch me to spend Sunday. Do you mind, Wilmet?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mind! Of course she doesn't,' said Lance. 'I was hungry to see you,
+Bob.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was very kind in Mrs. Harewood,' said Wilmet. 'I must go and thank
+her. Only, first, how is Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>'Much better. She has been out for a drive with Mr. Froggatt. It will
+be all right now you are coming home, Mettie! Oh! and Dr. Lee is
+delighted to hear of Lance's going to Ewmouth to make Felix stay longer
+there. Oh! if ever anything was so delightful as this place! only I
+must see your prize, Lancey.'</p>
+
+<p>As the two children linked their arms round one another's waists to
+walk along the alley, all-sufficient to one another, maybe there shot
+a little pang across Wilmet's breast. No one had raptures for her. She
+was Felix's housekeeper, and represented mother to all; but since Alda
+had been taken from her, she had ceased to be any one's perfect equal
+and delight. She might be valued, but only like air, or bread, or any
+other necessary of life, but she was foremost with no one. Lance had
+been everything to her, and she to Lance, for full four weeks; but
+she should never awaken the look on his face she had seen for Robin.
+Such thoughts as these had never troubled her before; it had been
+quite enough to know herself indispensable to all, and there was no
+time for sentiment; but this strange time of nursing had inspired a
+new sensation of yearning, a softness and melancholy, that she strove
+against vainly as weak and unnatural.</p>
+
+<p>The change had not been unperceived by Lance; for as his little sister,
+looking at his sunken cheeks, and feeling his thin bony hand, poured
+out her pity, he answered, 'I've had rather a jolly time of it of
+late; Mettie is so delicious, you can't think how her very voice and
+eyes seemed to do me good. I'm sure that the bella-donna lily, cold
+hard painted thing, was a mistake; she must have been something much
+sweeter. What do you think of a honeysuckle? That's bright red and
+white, and its leaves come out when nothing else does.'</p>
+
+<p>'But it trails about, and doesn't stand alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'It has got a good stout hard stem, that can make a bush of its own
+when it hasn't anything to twine upon. I say, Robin, that's just what
+you women-folk should be, always ready to twine, and yet able to stick
+up for yourselves when you've got nothing to hang upon.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, if Wilmet was the honeysuckle, I'm sure Alda wasn't. O Lance,
+it has been so horrid coming home without any one I wanted, and all
+so queer and uncomfortable. I would as soon have been at school, or
+sooner, for there I had home to think about.'</p>
+
+<p>'The last holidays weren't first-rate,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'No; but then I'd got you!'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish Dr. Manby would prescribe you to come with me,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'It's something to have this little sight! And here! I wanted to give
+this back, Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' as he took the key of the violin-case, 'we'll take a look at her,
+Robin, to see if she's quite well; but I couldn't make her speak, it
+would be like sticking daggers through my head.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor little key! I looked at it so often when you were so bad, and
+grieved to think you had missed all that pleasure. Only it was a
+comfort to know you had been so good about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad you took it, Robin; I know I should have grown idle if I had
+had it. Depend on it, 'twas that gave me this year of grace and the
+Bishop's prize.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! come and show me that! I hope it is not packed up.'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I wanted to take it to show Felix, but Mettie says it is too big,
+and would come to grief. What prizes have you, Robin?'</p>
+
+<p>'Three. General good marks, catechism, and history&mdash;beautiful books.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then the avenging harpies have forgiven you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Pretty well; and they were very kind when you were ill, and the girls
+are much nicer; I am glad we stayed on, except for Angel's sake. Do you
+know, Lance, I really am afraid she is going in for naughtiness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Give a dog an ill name&mdash;' quoted Lance. 'Is that it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I do believe it is that! She is such a Tom-boy! Fancy! One afternoon,
+there was an awful uproar, and her class were all found playing at
+races, some riding astride with handkerchiefs round the forms, which
+they had named after the real horses; and the others pretending to bet
+on them, with their books in their hands, shouting out at the top of
+their voices.'</p>
+
+<p>'Go it, Angel,' said Lance, laughing; 'that's the way Clem's sisters
+improve the tone of the school.'</p>
+
+<p>Robina still looked distressed, but that was soon forgotten in visiting
+Lance's quarters, and admiring his books, peeping respectfully at his
+silent violin, and being lionised as far as his strength would permit.
+They were hand in hand the whole evening, till he was sent to bed, and
+his sisters were claimed by the Harewoods.</p>
+
+<p>The Cathedral was resuming its usual voices on the Sunday morning; and
+when the early bell brought Wilmet from her room, she found Lance up
+and dressed, his little black gown on, and his trencher cap in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>'That's nice!' he said in admiration, as she advanced in her fresh
+white piqué and blue ribbons. 'O Mettie, I'm so glad this isn't my last
+time here!' and he added, as she bent over him and kissed him, not
+quite able to speak, 'Please, Mettie, I beg your pardon for all the
+times I have been tiresome or cross.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear little boy&mdash;' She broke down, and finished with another
+kiss, for Robina was at hand, shy in her thankfulness, and clinging
+to Lance's hand; but as Will Harewood followed, grave and subdued,
+Lance went up to him, and put his arm into his. Mr. Harewood, the
+Captain, and Lucy, were all likewise there; but the greetings were
+silent, and then Mr. Harewood led them all through the library, and was
+followed by the two boys to the sacristy; for though the celebration
+was not choral, all those of the choir who were present were always
+robed. Wilmet hardly liked not to keep her boy beside her, but she
+could not be sorry when she saw the two friends once more heading the
+little procession together; and with such happy grave faces, though so
+different: one broad, ruddy, sandy; the other fair, wasted, delicate,
+the hollow cheeks scarcely more coloured than the white linen, and yet
+with a pure fresh air of bright hope and recovery.</p>
+
+<p>The Cathedral was nobly and calmly beautiful in the summer morning;
+the sunbeams high up in the slender brilliant windows that crowned the
+east, and the voice sounding low and solemn in the distance at the
+Altar. To Wilmet and Robina it was a great deal more than the joyous
+festival they had last shared in there, even though then they had
+exulted in their brother's jubilant notes; and now he scarcely breathed
+a faint response, left his book unopened, and knelt in the dreamy
+passiveness of one incapable of actions of the mind, but too simply
+happy and thankful to doubt of his welcome. In his place, Clement
+would have distressed himself and his advisers over this inability
+to perform his usual mental exercises of devotion; but Lance never
+seemed to question but that he ought to lay himself before the Altar
+in thankfulness as soon as he was able, as certain of being welcomed
+there, as by the kind hands that shook his in the sacristy.</p>
+
+<p>He came to breakfast afterwards at the Harewoods', to put an end to his
+invalid ways; but the clatter soon was too much for him; and he spent
+the chief part of the day lying on his bed, able now to follow dreamily
+the echoes from the minster, the full glories of which his sisters
+were enjoying. There was afterwards a rush of his choir mates to shake
+hands with him; and little Dick Graeme, a delicate, sallow, black-eyed
+boy, in whom Wilmet believed she recognised the hero of the swans'
+eggs, could not be got rid of the whole day. He lived at a farm three
+miles off, and had been sent in to take his part on the Sunday; indeed,
+he had often been at the door to inquire, but had only been allowed
+momentary glimpses of Lance, whom he followed about like a little dog,
+till at last, late in the evening, the proposal was started of walking
+him down to the river, along which lay the path leading to his home.</p>
+
+<p>It was a charming summer evening when they set forth; the three
+Underwoods, the two Harewood brothers, and little Graeme, slowly moving
+along, Robina in ecstasies with the loose-strife and forget-me-nots,
+and the boys absorbed in fish and water-rats, till Bill, holding Robin
+a little back, pointed to a pollard, and told her in a low hoarse
+voice, 'That was where I left those verses.'</p>
+
+<p>'There!' Robina tried to measure with her eye the distance, which
+looked immense for such a run. She could not speak; but little Dick
+turned&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, 'twas a jolly run in the time. Spyers and I tried it, and both got
+blown; but nobody runs like Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it does look a goodish distance,' said Lance. 'And Robin, do you
+know, it all came of this fellow being too good a poet. He thought it
+was the Tiber, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>'The subject was the Tiber, wasn't it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay; and Bill here got to spouting about Horace Cocles till he didn't
+know, nor I either, whether we were heathen Romans or not. It was a
+mercy he didn't go home in Cocles' costume.'</p>
+
+<p>Bill did not laugh. He seemed to forget everything, bystanders and all,
+and threw his arm round his friend's neck. 'O Lancey, don't say a word
+more. If you only could guess what&mdash;what this month has been like to
+me! And now to see you standing here, like your dear old self again!
+Oh! if I could only&mdash;' and he broke off and rushed away behind the
+tree, where they heard him sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>Lance shrugged his shoulders. 'Poor old Bill! he <i>will</i> treat himself
+as if he did it on purpose, but he'll be better now he's had it out.
+But d'ye see, I can't go no farther now. So you, Dick, be off. Spare
+the feelings of your dutiful parents, and get home in Christianable
+time.'</p>
+
+<p>'I say, please Underwood, may I have the bed by yours next half?'</p>
+
+<p>'That's not as it pleases Underwood, but Mrs. Drake; but look here,
+Graeme, there's a little brat of a new treble coming into our
+dormitory. You stand his friend, and speak to Harewood if Bolt takes to
+bullying him.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you'll be back?' said the child, his face all consternation.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope so; but for fear of accidents, you know. Good night, Dick, and
+thank your mater for those stunning raspberries.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's a good dodge,' said Will Harewood, emerging, 'to keep the
+little ape from bullying the little one himself. But you will be able
+to come back, Lance; 'tis as dull as ditch-water without you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall be glad enough to come back,' said Lance, 'and make the most
+of this year. I didn't know how I cared for this place. There's nothing
+like it!' and he leant against a tree, looking back at the Cathedral,
+where the sunbeams were 'weaving a parting crown' for the tall tower,
+and the soft grey of the exquisite stone-work of the chapter-house
+contrasted with the fresh green of the trees, rising up from the
+sparkling river and emerald meadows. Presently he burst out, 'You
+beautiful old thing, and did you hush your grand glorious old voice
+only for me? I should like to be your own, and to serve you for ever!'</p>
+
+<p>The other two felt a little awed at the outburst, and possibly Lance a
+little ashamed, for he suddenly started from his tree trunk, crying,
+'I'm sure we ought to go home. However, there are Jack and Mettie on
+beyond ever so far.' And he elevated his voice in a coo-ee, after what
+he believed to be Australian fashion; but his weakness prevailed, and
+he laughed at his own want of power to shout much above his breath.
+'You do it, Bill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not I! Coo-ee indeed? 'Tis coo-coo there, river and moonlight and all.'</p>
+
+<p>At one and the same moment, Lance exclaimed, 'Jack and Mettie! Thunder
+and ages!' and Robina, 'For shame, Willie!' while that personage cut
+a caper, at once expressive of affirmation and amusement at their
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>'After all,' sagaciously observed Lance, 'I'm not so much surprised. I
+think I've made a pretty good Cupid.'</p>
+
+<p>'You believe it, then?' cried Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'Bless you,' affirmed Willie, 'we've been roasting Jack about it for
+the last fortnight&mdash;only the pater was so awfully afraid of your
+sister's hearing it, that he said any one who breathed the ghost of a
+joke near her should be shipped off to old Aunt Grace that instant.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, they have my consent and blessing,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Amen,' responded his friend.</p>
+
+<p>'Ho!' continued Lance, 'that's the meaning of old W. W. being so jolly.
+I wondered whether it was only that I thought so because I had nothing
+to do but to look at her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, you know she is a real true beauty and no mistake,' said Bill,
+beginning to feel a personal pride in her; 'there's Miles raving about
+her, and every one runs about saying, "Have you seen little Underwood's
+handsome sister?" Half the folks that came to ask after you did it to
+get a look at her; and if she stayed a week longer, she might have a
+dozen offers, only luckily Jack cut in first.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'm glad she is even with Alda,' was Lance's next sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>'That's the one that is booked for the Red Indian you converted, ain't
+it?' asked Bill. 'Fact, Robina; we heard a new fellow was coming who
+had converted a Cherokee, and that the Bishop had christened him in
+his war paint and feathers. Mrs. Shapcote sent out invitations to a
+missionary tea in honour of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, of the Cherokee?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, of the little brute of a missionary chap, and we made up our
+minds to tar and feather him before he converted us; but long before
+we had found out which of the new trebles was the model Christian, old
+Shapcote had caught us two pitching into one another, because I said
+Bexley was a snobbish place full of pots and pans.'</p>
+
+<p>'And that founded your friendship?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, not quite, for we had a worse fight because I shut his Bible up in
+his face when he tried to look over the Lessons in the Cathedral.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, you all do,' said Robina.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, now; but before Nixon came we were a horrid set of little
+ruffians. Do you remember, Lance, how Roper offered you a bull's-eye in
+the Cathedral, and thrashed you afterwards because you wouldn't have
+it?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Lance! but that was persecution!' cried Robina. 'Who would have
+thought you went through things like that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' said Bill, 'you believed in the little cherub chorister boys,
+that sing and look out of their great violet eyes, till they die of
+declines.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' said Lance, who was leaning on his arm rather wearily, 'Jack will
+do for himself if he tells Wilmet her eyes are violet; it is like a red
+rag to a bull.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Robina, 'she says nobody ever had eyes the colour of
+violets, and they would be hideous if they were.'</p>
+
+<p>'I have seen them,' said Willie, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! where?' cried Robina. 'Darker blue than Edgar's?'</p>
+
+<p>'It's generally only one at a time.'</p>
+
+<p>'After a cricket match, eh?' suggested Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'But, depend upon it,' said Bill, while Robina was recovering her
+laughing disgust, 'he may tell her her eyes are any colour he pleases
+by this time.'</p>
+
+<p>'How do you know that?' sharply protested Robin; 'as if she would care
+for him more than for all of us, who can't spare her either!'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you were thick and plenty up the country?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not of that sort,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't believe it,' insisted Robina; 'why, she had never seen him a
+few weeks ago; she can't have had time to get to like him.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's your simplicity,' said Bill. 'Now ain't that oracular&mdash;I mean
+ocular&mdash;demonstration? There they are, very moral of people making
+fools of themselves in books.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish they'd have done with it, then,' sighed Lance; 'my legs won't
+hold out much longer.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you must go in,' said Robin, bringing her sturdy shoulders for
+his other arm to rest on.</p>
+
+<p>'But those two?' said Lance. 'Some one must stay to make it
+respectable. Don't laugh, you vagabond, you shake up the marrow of my
+bones; I'm her brother, and bound to see to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll stay out with Willie if that will make it right,' said Robina;
+'only you must go to bed, and you have to be up so early too.'</p>
+
+<p>So they saw him to the Bailey door, beyond which he declined further
+assistance, saying he could tumble into bed alone, and leaving them to
+their pleasant task of making propriety.</p>
+
+<p>It was made after this sort. Bill delivered himself of a deep sigh, and
+observed, 'Well! if she's done for, I suppose I must take up with you;
+and after all, you're the jolliest.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall never be <i>jolie</i>, like Wilmet, if that's what you mean,' said
+Robina, not quite understanding whether it were jest or earnest.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, if you ain't a regular stunner like her, it doesn't much matter.
+I never <i>did</i> see a face that I liked better than your round one, and I
+know I shall like it more and more. Won't you have me, Robina, one of
+these days?'</p>
+
+<p>'O Willie! oughtn't one to wait till we are old enough to think about
+it?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't see why. I shall always be thinking I'm working for you, and I
+don't see why you shouldn't think the same of me. Won't you?' again he
+repeated. 'At least, of course I shall do all the work for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! I should not like that. I had rather be doing something for
+you, Willie. Look here, I am learning all I can now, and when I go
+out&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Go out?'</p>
+
+<p>'For a governess.'</p>
+
+<p>'Murther! I'll hinder that!'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Willie, you can't make a fortune in five years, and I shall go
+out at eighteen. I think I shall begin the fortune soonest;' and she
+laughed merrily.</p>
+
+<p>'Mother didn't make a fortune.'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't mean that exactly; but I'm learning all the superior
+branches, and if I got a hundred a year! Think of that, Will! If I went
+on with that till you are a clergyman and have a living, how nice it
+would be! There would be plenty to give away; and if we were poor, I
+would take girls to teach.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think I shall ever let you do all the work that way?' said
+Will, strong in boyhood's infinite possibilities. 'I don't know how
+it's to be, but I'll keep you out of slaving, though you're a dear girl
+to think of it. Any way, Robin, you and I will hold together&mdash;always.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sure I shall never like anybody half so much,' said Robin.</p>
+
+<p>'Shall we break a sixpence and keep the halves? That's the thing, ain't
+it? I believe I've got one&mdash;or fourpence, which is all the same.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' said Robina, backing; 'I don't think Mettie would like it. It
+doesn't seem right.'</p>
+
+<p>'But aren't you in earnest, Robin?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, indeed, indeed I am;' from the depths of a very earnest
+childish heart that little knew to what it pledged itself.</p>
+
+<p>'And so am I! I'll never care for any one else, Robina&mdash;never.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor I, William. Here they come!'</p>
+
+<p>The other two had not got near so far, though Captain Harewood was
+talking, and Wilmet listening, as would never have been the case
+without the influence Willie asserted; but the special charm that
+enchained Wilmet was entirely unapprehended by her, till just as the
+first star brightened, and the hues faded from the landscape, she
+bethought her of her patient, and perceived that he had gone in. 'How
+late it must be! I must go and see after him. I hope he is equal to the
+journey.'</p>
+
+<p>'I will come and bring you an account of him on my way home, if I may.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, thank you; but it is taxing your goodness too&mdash;too much.'</p>
+
+<p>'Cannot you believe how glad I am to have a good excuse?' and the
+tone gave Wilmet a sudden thrill, so that she answered not; and he
+continued, 'I am going to beg leave to be sometimes at Bexley.'</p>
+
+<p>'When Felix is at home,' faltered Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I can hardly afford to wait. My time at home is so short. I shall, <i>I</i>
+hope, make friends with him to-morrow, and perhaps you will neither of
+you forbid me to come again. I am asking nothing now, only opportunity
+to try to make you&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't!' hurriedly broke in Wilmet, standing still in consternation.</p>
+
+<p>'Nay,' he said in a pleading voice, 'I know it would be presumption to
+think so short an acquaintance could suffice, but you see I have so
+little time, and all I want is leave to use it in coming to see you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, don't!' she repeated. 'Indeed you had better not. It would be
+only pain. I couldn't! and I can't have Felix worried;' and there was
+a startled sob in her voice; but he answered with the strength and
+sweetness that had upheld her in Lance's most suffering moments.</p>
+
+<p>'I would not distress you or Felix for more than words can utter! I
+would not have breathed a hint of this most earnest wish of my heart
+till you had had some preparation, if it were not so impossible
+otherwise to have any chance of being with you and striving&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Please,' entreated Wilmet, 'that is just what should be avoided; it
+can never come to anything, and the sooner it is stopped the better.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why should it never come to anything?' he asked, encouraged by
+detecting tears in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>'Because you know&mdash;no, you don't know, or you never could think of such
+a thing&mdash;how wrong and impossible it would be for me!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I don't know. That is what I want to have the opportunity of
+knowing.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can tell you before,' she answered, faintly. 'Oh, if you would but
+take my word for it, it would save so much&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'No, that I cannot do,' he repeated. 'I must see for myself your
+preciousness at home.'</p>
+
+<p>She broke in again. 'Please, please, I'm saying what I ought not; but
+it is to hinder distress. Don't want to let us get to like each other
+any better, for as yet it can't be more than what could be got over,
+and it is only making pain to let it grow.'</p>
+
+<p>'That I deny. So far as I am concerned, the thing is done. If you
+wanted to save me that pain, you should have turned me out the moment I
+saw you call the boy back to life. A month like this is not so easily
+got over.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet drooped her head, and made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>'So, since you see,' he continued, 'you will spare me nothing by
+holding me aloof, will you not let me come and gladden myself while
+I may in your presence? And then when my time is up it may be more
+possible to judge&mdash;' (there was a faint 'Oh no,' but he heeded it not)
+'&mdash;whether you can bear such an ugly fellow enough to let him look to
+the time when home claims may be less pressing. I look for no answer. I
+only want to be able to ask for one three months hence, and I shall beg
+your brother to put it into my power so to do.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! but to have Felix disturbed and worried is just what must not be.
+It has made him ill already; and if he thought&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I promise not to harass him,' said Captain Harewood, gently. 'You may
+trust me to take care that what I shall say will not cause him any very
+trying perplexity.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you knew&mdash;' sighed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope to know,' he replied. 'I do know enough already to be
+aware that you stand in no common relation to the rest; and if you
+have my heart, Wilmet, it must follow that somehow I share in your
+self-devotion. Do not fear my trying to make you less yourself. I want
+not to take you away from your burthens, but to share them.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you&mdash;that is your goodness; but would it be right in us?' she
+faltered.</p>
+
+<p>'Leave your brother and me to judge of that,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>They were already at the Bailey door, in the shadow of the buildings,
+the flood of moonlight lying on the tower above, and one little
+mysterious lamp under the deep brow of the archway of the passage.
+No more passed but one 'good-night' from each; he had not even seen
+her face, under her shady hat; while she hastened to her little room,
+glad to ascertain that Lance was fast asleep, and with a rush of new
+sensations bursting on her, against which she was strengthening all the
+dykes of her resolute nature. 'He&mdash;he&mdash;that it should be he! how good!
+how generous! how kind! Oh, it would be so happy! It <i>will</i> make me
+happy that he only just thought of it; but it won't do, it is no use.
+I'm not in love with him; I won't be, I'm not, I'm not!'</p>
+
+<p>And as ardently as Wilmet had ever prayed for Lance's life and reason
+by that little bed, did she beseech not to be tempted to desert her
+duties; and all night she lay between sleep and waking, ever repeating
+to herself. 'I'm not in love, I'm not, I'm not!'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE HOUSE WITHOUT PILLARS.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'And who save she could soothe the boy,<br />
+Or turn his tears to tears of joy?'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 40%;"><i>Samuel Rogers.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>Lance's train was at six o'clock, and that by which the sisters were
+to return to Bexley so little later, that they would await it at the
+station, so the household was betimes more or less afoot. There was
+a frenzied scramble of maids and young ladies in hasty toilette; yet
+breakfast was only forthcoming by personal exertion on the part of the
+Captain, who made the coffee, boiled the eggs, and sent his brother
+foraging into the kitchen. Then a message came that mother must see
+the sweet girl to bid her good-bye; and Wilmet was dragged up to find
+the paddy good-natured face in bed, in an immense frilled nightcap,
+whence two horn-like curl-papers protruded. She was kissed, cried over,
+and told she was the dearest girl, and Jack the best boy, in the four
+kingdoms; and while her head was turning round between dizziness at all
+that this cordiality implied, and a governess's confusion whether these
+were the four kingdoms of Ireland, or England, Ireland, Scotland, and
+Wales, a demand followed for the darling boy; but when she had gravely
+told the Captain that his mother wanted him, the result was to send him
+down laughing. 'No, no, I'm not the only darling boy in the world! 'Tis
+you, Lance. You know the way.'</p>
+
+<p>Between finding her in bed, and being powerfully embraced, Lance's
+sense of decorum brought him down with his blanched cheeks so rosy red,
+that the family were choking with suppressed mirth when the omnibus
+called for the luggage, and the party set forth to walk to the station,
+Lance in a grass hat, enfolded by the Captain's hands in an ample
+puggery, and provided with a natty blue umbrella, presented by the
+Librarian, 'as a shield against the far-darting Apollo.'</p>
+
+<p>'If this had been in my day,' he said, 'some wit would have produced
+a neat epigram on Phoebus playing his old tricks out of jealousy of
+Will's verses; but dainty feats of scholarship are gone out of date.
+Well, Patroclus, when we have you back again, I think we shall none of
+us mourn over the effects of your generous action.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet was near enough to hear, and colour. She had imagined the last
+night's conversation unknown to all; but Underwood reticence was so
+incapable of guessing at Harewood communicativeness, that it never
+entered her brain to suspect the topic of conversation between the
+three juniors as they walked up the drowsy street.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to the difficulties of getting under weigh from the Harewood
+house, there was barely time for John and Lance to take their places,
+while Mr. Harewood got their tickets, and they were whirled off,
+leaving the others to promenade the platform, just then a complete
+solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Harewood, with the attention of the old school, backed by something
+warmer, gave Wilmet his arm. He and his son John never seemed to belong
+to so ramshackle a household as the rest, and he was so gentle and
+fatherly, that when Wilmet found him aware of all, it was a relief to
+tell her objections without being answered by a lover. After all, she
+could only repeat that leaving home was so impossible for her, that, as
+she murmured, 'He had better not get to like me any more, it would be
+such a pity for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'That,' said Mr. Harewood, with his air of old-fashioned gallantry,
+'depends on the esteem in which wealth or merit is held.'</p>
+
+<p>'And station,' said Wilmet, in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>'For that, my dear, one would be a fool not to honour you and your
+brother; besides, it may make you more at ease to hear that my father
+was an apparitor, and I went to Oxford as a servitor, so that in birth
+you have the advantage of us. Of course, I do not mean that every one
+does not in the abstract prefer prosperous matches; but John has a fair
+independent competence, and can afford to do as he pleases; and, for my
+part, I should be very sorry if this were not what he pleased.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are so very kind, but surely if&mdash;even if&mdash;it must be such long
+waiting, and you would not like that for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let us arrive at the <i>if</i> before we settle about the waiting,' said
+Mr. Harewood. 'In truth, I have long looked on John as so much the most
+sensible person in my house, that all I feel called on to do is to hope
+for his success. I know both you and he will be wise enough not to be
+either selfish or unselfish in the wrong place.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet did not quite understand, but she carried away the conviction
+that she need have no scruple as to the parents' cordial approbation;
+and she had had her cure from yesterday's sense of want of individual
+affection. As to the future? Of course it swelled her heart to think
+of such love and generous kindness; but she tried to believe that she
+was as much touched by the goodness of the father as by that of the
+son, and she would be on her guard against herself unless she saw some
+reasonable hope that home would ever dispense with her. Dear Wilmet;
+would she not at any other time have thought it an outrage to think of
+such a possibility? At any rate, she thought, nobody but Felix need
+ever know.</p>
+
+<p>Little guessed she, as Robina sat opposite, kept silent by the presence
+of two stout old females, that the child was revolving the question
+whether she might tell Cherry. She knew that Wilmet would not like
+her affairs to be discussed without her own permission; but it seemed
+unfair that when all the Harewoods were open-mouthed, her own sister
+should know nothing. After all, much would depend on the chances of a
+<i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i>.</p>
+
+<p>At the station stood Clement: 'That's right! I thought you would come
+by this train. What a comfort! How is Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Almost well. How are you getting on?'</p>
+
+<p>'You will soon see for yourself,' in an ominous tone.</p>
+
+<p>Just then she was accosted by Mr. Ryder, who was waiting for his own
+train; and after courteous and anxious inquiries, said, 'I was thinking
+of writing to your eldest brother, but perhaps a word from you would do
+as well.'</p>
+
+<p>'About Bernard?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, yes, I don't quite see my way about him. He is a sharp little
+fellow, and very well taught; in fact, he can afford to do nothing but
+waste time. Somehow, a boy will now and then seem to come into school
+with the wrong foot foremost.'</p>
+
+<p>'Has he fallen in with idle boys?'</p>
+
+<p>'So I fear. I placed him in a form high for his age, but where the lags
+have got hold of him, and make him think idleness the <i>thing</i>. So I
+gather. I conclude he is not to remain here?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean that you wish him to be taken away?' asked Wilmet, in
+consternation.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no; don't understand it in that sense,' said Mr. Ryder, anxiously.
+'I only meant that he is doing no good here, and that possibly a
+change, or the stimulus of preparing for an examination, might rouse
+him. Good-bye.'</p>
+
+<p>And there Mr. Ryder had to rush off to secure his seat.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! good morning, Miss Underwood!' This was from Mr. Mowbray Smith,
+a few steps beyond the station. 'I am glad to see you back. So your
+patient is gone to join your eldest brother? But we shall have you here
+on Sunday? Then there's the less occasion to name it; but some notice
+should be taken of the behaviour yesterday evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was very sad,' interposed Clement; 'but when once set off by the
+christening, they could not stop themselves.'</p>
+
+<p>'Scarcely a valid excuse,' said Mr. Smith, severely, as he made his
+parting bow. 'You know this was not all.'</p>
+
+<p>Clement shrugged his shoulders, exclaiming, 'So he made that into a
+personality! You must know there was an unusually squalling baby,
+whose godmother went on giving its name as Huggeny; and there was a
+five minutes' exchange of "What?" on Mr. Smith's side, and Huggeny
+on hers, till a whisper came all along&mdash;forwarded from the mother, I
+suppose&mdash;"Same as they does their 'air;" and then Mr. Smith looked more
+mystified than ever; some one suggested, "Same as the Empress of the
+French."'</p>
+
+<p>'Something might be excused on such provocation,' owned Wilmet,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>'If that had been all,' said Clement; 'but Angel and Bernard choose to
+go and sit by themselves, and I could see, from Felix's place in the
+choir, that they were tittering long after. I shook my head, but Nares
+must needs make up an odious imitation; and Bernard not only touches
+Angel to make her look, but grins impudently at me. I found myself
+growing burning hot with shame, and whenever they looked at me their
+heads went down and their shoulders worked.'</p>
+
+<p>'Naughty children,' said Wilmet, but with more than usual lenience to
+the combined effects of Huggeny and of Clement's severe countenance
+in producing one of those paroxysms of giggle that seem invincible in
+proportion to their unbecomingness. The door was reached and instantly
+opened, Stella springing into her arms in ecstasy. 'Sister's come!&mdash;O
+Sister, Sister, Sister, don't ever go away any more.'</p>
+
+<p>There was a great deal of confused kissing and embracing as she made
+her way upstairs. 'But oh, my Tedo, what has happened?' for she beheld
+a fine sample of Bill Harewood's violet eye.</p>
+
+<p>'It was Bernard's stick went into his eye when we were playing at
+hockey,' said Stella. 'He did cry terribly, but Sister Constance put
+such nice stuff&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Sister Constance! oh, thank you! but hockey in the garden?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought it rather a remarkable proceeding,' quietly observed the
+Sister.</p>
+
+<p>'I must hear more about it,' said Wilmet. 'My poor dear little man,
+can't he let Sister go for one instant?&mdash;Cherry dear, how are you?'</p>
+
+<p>'All right now you are come. But dear little Lance, how is he looking?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not much worse than you do, my Cherry,' said Wilmet, as she saw that
+the wizened old fairy look was come back. 'You have been worse than I
+knew.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I am all right now; and I have had such a treat of Sister
+Constance.'</p>
+
+<p>'I want to take her back with me,' said the Sister. 'Dr. Lee would like
+to have her under his eye; and if you can spare her, I would write
+to-day, and she could go with me to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is very kind; it might be better for her.'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course,' interrupted Alda, 'it is good for any one to be away from
+this horrid smell of baked earth, and all these riotous children.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' said Wilmet; 'didn't I see the shade of the lamp in the
+landing-place broken? How was that?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! the children, of course,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>But neither child spoke; and Wilmet perceived that only the twins were
+in the room, both hanging upon her, while she swallowed her hurried
+second breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>'No one will tell,' said Clement. 'It was done the day I went over to
+Minsterham. I did all I could to find out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; and made them more obstinate than before,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>Another catastrophe here suddenly struck Wilmet, namely, a long and
+very badly-mended rent in Stella's spotted pink frock, which, to say
+the truth, did not look as if it were Monday morning.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Stella, 'I did try to mend it as well as I could, Sister,
+but there wasn't another work-a-day frock clean.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your mending!' exclaimed Wilmet; 'but how did you tear it?'</p>
+
+<p>'When I tumbled into the brambles, and was lost.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lost, my dear? What does she mean?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is quite true,' said Cherry. 'Angela and Bernard took her out
+fishing to Ball's hatch on Saturday, and lost her, only luckily we did
+not know anything about it till she was safe at home again, dear little
+darling!'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Stella, how was it?' cried the horrified Wilmet, clasping her the
+closer.</p>
+
+<p>'I could not bear to see the poor worms,' said Stella. 'Bear would cut
+them up to stick on his hook, so I got away out of sight of them, and
+gathered the dear little wild roses and honeysuckles; and when I wanted
+to find them again I couldn't, and nobody heard me when I called, and a
+robin looked at me, and I thought he wanted to bury me, and I ran away,
+and a great bush caught hold of me and scratched my legs, and tore out
+a great piece of the rim of my hat; and just then a good lady came
+by, and helped me up and to look for them, but we could not see them
+anywhere; so she took me to her house&mdash;such a dear little house all
+over roses&mdash;and she mended my hat, and I mended my frock, and she gave
+me some tea and plum-cake, and two dear little ponies came to the door,
+and a carriage, and she brought me home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who was she?'</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Crabbe; she is new to the place,' said Cherry. 'Mr. Froggatt said
+she had only been once in the shop before. Tell Sister how you told her
+about yourself, Stella.'</p>
+
+<p>'She asked my name,' said the child, 'and she said it was a very funny
+one, and she could not understand it; and then she wanted to know whose
+little girl I was, and I said, "Brother Felix's;" and then she said,
+"Have you no papa or mamma?" So I told her I hadn't a papa or mamma,
+but a father and mother up in heaven; and she said, "I should think
+so, poor little dear, if there is no one to take more care of you."
+I really did think she wanted to take me and keep me for an adopted
+child, so I told her that I had lots of dear good brothers and sisters
+that wanted me very much indeed, and I must go home to H. Froggatt and
+F. C. Underwood, High Street, Bexley.'</p>
+
+<p>'I fancy,' said Cherry, 'that she thought Mr. Froggatt was Stella's
+grandfather, for she made him quite a speech about the neglect of the
+child&mdash;"such a nice-mannered little girl," she said; but she would not
+come in, nor let Alda be called.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor should I have gone down if Mr. Froggatt had thought proper to call
+me,' said Alda. 'Imagine me in his office!'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't imagine not going anywhere to thank the person that brought
+home my little Star,' said Wilmet, holding her arm close round the
+child, and kissing her repeatedly. 'But what became of the other two?'</p>
+
+<p>'I went out after them,' said Clement, 'and found them rushing wildly
+about after her, afraid to come home. To do them justice, I believe
+they were almost out of their minds, thinking she must have tumbled
+into the river.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, indeed,' said Alda. 'That's your account of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Cherry eagerly, 'all that pretending not to care, and that
+it was a trick of Stella's, was nothing but reaction. And then, you
+know, Clem, you <i>did</i> improve the occasion.'</p>
+
+<p>'There!' exclaimed Alda,' you see how it is, Wilmet; nothing but
+vindication of those two intolerable children! Now, just come, Wilmet,
+and see if they are to be backed up in this.'</p>
+
+<p>But as Wilmet, perfectly bewildered, and feeling no hope of
+comprehension among so many, followed Alda from the room and up the
+stairs, Stella came plunging after, with a cry, 'Alda, Alda, don't hurt
+them!' just as from a housemaid's closet half way up, Alda was bringing
+to light a basin containing a dozen tadpoles twirling their shadowy
+tails.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Wilmet,' she solemnly said, 'do you approve of all those horrid
+brutes swimming in my bath?'</p>
+
+<p>'They aren't in the well, I hope,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'How can you be so absurd, Wilmet? That's the way those children showed
+their sorrow that Clement talks about. I'll never believe but he helped
+them.'</p>
+
+<p>'To weep them?' said a voice above; and Angela's face was seen looking
+out of her bush of hair over the balusters of the top storey. 'They
+<i>are</i> just like black heraldic tears.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean that they put them in?' asked Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'What else should I mean?'</p>
+
+<p>'And didn't she squall?' shouted Bernard; and then came a duet&mdash;</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 5%;">
+'Dame, dame, what makes your ducks to squall,<br />
+Duck to squall, duck to squall, duck to squall?<br />
+Meeting o' pollywogs! Meeting wi' pollywogs!'<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>'Hush, children, this is shocking,' said Wilmet, in the low impressive
+voice by which she could always still a tumult. 'How could you take
+advantage of my absence to do this?'</p>
+
+<p>'Because Alda deserved it,' cried Angela, bouncing downstairs. 'There,
+Alda! I said I should tell of you if you told of us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Angela, that is not the way to speak to your elder sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'She isn't like an elder sister!' exclaimed Angel. 'Stella would be
+ashamed to do like her, eating up the strawberries Mr. Froggatt brought
+for poor Cherry when she was ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure you had your share!' retorted Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'You <i>would</i> have them in for dessert, and you helped us; only Sister
+Constance and Clem left all theirs for Cherry, and then you went by
+yourself and ate them all up.'</p>
+
+<p>The very fact of shouting out such a charge showed a state of
+insubordination such as might make Wilmet's hair stand on end, and she
+simply disbelieved so childish an accusation against her own equal in
+age. 'You should not say such things, Angela,' she answered, in her low
+tone of reproof; 'there must be a mistake.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid it is quite true,' said Clement's quiet voice, as he stood
+arrested on his way by the block upon the landing-place.</p>
+
+<p>'The children make such an uproar,' said the exasperated Alda. 'I'm
+sure I thought Geraldine's had been taken long before, and in this
+parching weather fruit is quite a necessity to me.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet was too much aghast at the admission to speak. It was a strange
+tangle: Clement standing straight and still on the landing-place;
+Wilmet, with Theodore humming to himself, as innocent of the fray as
+the tadpoles that Stella was cherishing in the cupboard door-way; Alda,
+flushed and angry; and on the upper flight, Angela and Bernard dancing
+and roaming in vehement excitement between anger and alarm. 'Well that
+Lance was not in this hubbub!' thought deafened and amazed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'What has this to do with the tadpoles?' she asked, in an endeavour to
+comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>'We said she should be served out,' sung Bernard, 'with a
+polly&mdash;polly&mdash;polly-wog bath.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Bernard, hush!&mdash;Angel! don't you see it was no business of yours
+if Alda did forget?'</p>
+
+<p>She was unprepared for the outbreak this brought on her. 'You, too,
+Wilmet! Every one backs up those children in their behaviour to me!
+Lady Herbert Somerville, and Clement, and all! If only Ferdinand saw
+it!'</p>
+
+<p>'Just step up, Wilmet,' said Clement gently, 'and see whether the
+children are in league with me.'</p>
+
+<p>He followed Wilmet up to the door of the barrack, an attic that he
+shared with Lance and Bernard, and showed the long beam that crossed it
+pasted with a series of little figures cut out in paper, representing
+a procession in elaborate vestments; and at the end a long-backed
+individual kneeling before the chair of a confessor, who bore a painful
+resemblance to the Vicar of St. Matthew's.</p>
+
+<p>'We only wanted to make Tina feel at home,' giggled Angela.</p>
+
+<p>'It would be no matter,' pursued Clement, 'if it were merely quizzing
+myself. I am used to that; but this is trenching on sacred ground.'</p>
+
+<p>'Bless me, your old white beam!' exclaimed Angela, with an affected
+start.</p>
+
+<p>'It is exceedingly improper and irreverent,' said Wilmet. 'I am ashamed
+that such a thing should have been done in this house.'</p>
+
+<p>'Really,' said Alda, 'it seems to me very droll and clever, with no
+harm in it at all; only people like Clement never can take a joke.'</p>
+
+<p>'You can't mean to justify such a one as this,' said Wilmet; but, to
+her still greater astonishment, Alda broke out,</p>
+
+<p>'There! You are turning against me! You are taking Clement's part,
+though you didn't care what they did to me&mdash;not if it had been snakes
+and adders!'</p>
+
+<p>This, decidedly in Mrs. Thomas Underwood's style, elicited a peal of
+laughter from the two naughty children, and the corners of Clement's
+mouth relaxed, bringing Alda to a gush of tears. 'You never used to be
+like this to me, Wilmet.'</p>
+
+<p>'I never saw you like this, dear Alda,' said Wilmet, low and gently,
+but in decided repression. 'Come into our room, and let me try to
+understand.'</p>
+
+<p>So began a morning of mutual complaints, as if everybody were against
+everybody, agreeing in nothing but in appealing to the elder sister.
+First, there was Alda's story. Never had there been such a miserable
+time&mdash;with Geraldine interfering, fussy, fretful, fault-finding;
+Clement intolerable in primness and conceit, only making the children
+worse when he pretended to keep them in order, and making such a
+fuss about Geraldine, when nothing ailed her but change of weather;
+incurring the expense of the Dearport doctor, and bringing down the
+Sister upon them; so awkward to have her in the drawing-room in that
+dress, but Sisters always thrust themselves into families. She hoped
+she had shown my Lady that she was not to be overawed by a title&mdash;such
+affectation, not using it! No consideration for her; the servants
+regularly spoilt, both of them; Martha a vulgar insolent creature, and
+Sibby disgustingly familiar and slovenly, no good at all, not even
+to keep Theodore out of the way. At which Theodore, knowing no more
+than his own name and Alda's displeasure, set up a dismal howl; and as
+Wilmet chose to coax and fondle him into silence instead of scolding
+and turning him out, Alda went off in a huff, muttering about asylums
+and proper places; and Wilmet descended to the kitchen, the little weak
+hand clasped tight into hers.</p>
+
+<p>A sore sight awaited her below; the bills of this month for luxuries
+of sinful extravagance in her economical eyes! Chicken and asparagus,
+ducks and peas, even in the height of their season, were enormities
+to such housekeeping as hers, and had raised the sum total to four
+times the amount that her foreboding soul had dreaded. It exceeded her
+present supplies, and was a grave addition to the expenses of the two
+illnesses, that were serious enough already.</p>
+
+<p>Martha was eloquent, not to say defiant, in self-defence. 'You see,
+Miss Underwood, if I'd been let alone, or Miss Cherry had been the
+one to take my orders from, which we could have made it out to your
+satisfaction; but with Miss Halder, which expects everything to be
+just like what it was in the fammerly up in London, which it stands to
+reason as it can't; which she hasn't got no more notion than a baby of
+prices, nor seasons, nor nothink; which is very determined, too, which
+won't suffer a word from nobody; which if you hadn't been coming home,
+Miss Underwood, I'd have given warning, which have always given you
+satisfaction.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet's satisfaction was not increased when she encountered Sibby.
+'Ah, my darling Missie dear, ye're the jewel that's been longed for!
+The whole house has been mad entirely, and lost widout you; the
+children rampaging and playing pranks, and Miss Cherry dwining and
+pining to a skeleton, so that but for Master Clem and that holy woman,
+the Sisther, 'tis scarce alive ye'd have found her. Miss Alda, she's
+the very wonder of the worruld for jealousy and unfeelingness. I up and
+told her at last there was well-nigh as much differ between you and
+she, as between Stella and this blessed lamb that she spites; for if
+you have not carried off all the wit and understanding, sure 'tis you
+that has got all the heart, and the head, and the hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the partial old nursey, Sibby! You see I had no time nor thought
+but for poor Lance, and Alda was so new to it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Missie dear, you were always the one to vindicate her, but 'tis
+no use! Newness! 'Twasn't newness that makes her turn the back of her
+hand to this darling innocent, till he cries if he's left a moment with
+her.&mdash;Ay, my precious, what would have become of you and me but for
+Masther Clem?&mdash;I tell you, Miss Wilmet, I never thought that long boy
+the aquil of his brothers till I saw him in time of need. Yer father
+himself&mdash;Heaven be his bed!&mdash;couldn't have been tenderer with Theodore
+nor Miss Cherry, by night or by day, an' never a cross word when he was
+bothered past his life with Miss Alda's ugliness an' the children's
+boldness.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, those children! What is come to them, Sibby?'</p>
+
+<p>'Only funning and merriment, Missie dear. They'd never have had to be
+faulted if Miss Alda had let Miss Cherry deal with them; but she could
+neither rule them herself, nor bear to see them ruled; and though she
+was like a mad cow if they played their pranks on her, she backs them
+up if Miss Cherry, or Master Clem, or even the Sisther, do but say a
+word to them, so 'tis no wonder if the poor dears have been a bit off
+their heads, but they'll be as quiet as doves now ye're back again. Oh,
+Missie dear, my own child, but it's you that are the light of my eyes,
+looking the blooming beauty that you are.'</p>
+
+<p>The foster-mother's genuine compliment could not lighten the load that
+had grown every moment heavier, and more compunctious for the deaf ear
+she had turned to Clement. Wilmet said a word or two of apology to
+him when she met him on the stairs, loaded with books to study in the
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind,' he magnanimously answered, 'it is all right now you are
+come, and it was impossible before. Only, please do say something warm
+to Sister Constance, for Alda is barely civil to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry; I did not think Alda had that sort of prejudice,'
+said Wilmet, whose instinct of defence of Alda had wonderfully
+diminished.</p>
+
+<p>'The chief prejudice came of my sending for her,' said Clement.</p>
+
+<p>'Besides, Sister Constance spoke out very sharply about the
+strawberries; and when we had a couple of chickens, and Alda scolded
+me for helping her to a leg instead of a wing, Sister Constance said,
+"Oh, I supposed you had them on Geraldine's account;" and she gives the
+children leave to do anything Sister Constance objects to. These things
+are hardly their fault. But, I say, Mettie, now you are come, and it
+is all right, do you think I might go to St. Matthew's? The Vicar and
+Mr. Sterling are alone, while the other curates are holiday-making, and
+they say I could really be of some use to them, and they would give me
+some help with this reading for my examination. Somers is there too,
+and I have not seen him since Christmas.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed,' said Wilmet, 'no one has deserved a holiday more than you,
+Clement! You have done your best.'</p>
+
+<p>This&mdash;almost the first home praise or thanks that had fallen to his
+lot&mdash;elicited that real grace of humility for which poor self-conscious
+Clement really strove. 'I have tried, Mettie,' he said, with tears in
+his eyes; 'but it was not as if it had been one of the others. There
+must be something very wrong about me, to make me so disagreeable.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have gained two hearts,' said Wilmet, 'Sibby's and this little
+fellow's.'</p>
+
+<p>For Theodore had attached himself limpet fashion to Clement, who with
+difficulty piled his books so as to leave a hand free for him.</p>
+
+<p>'He had better come with me,' said Wilmet; 'your reading must have been
+dreadfully interrupted.'</p>
+
+<p>'It has, rather,' said Clement, whose examination was in alarming
+proximity; 'but I don't mind him, I can work to his tunes as well as
+Felix can; and all is right now you are come.'</p>
+
+<p>That was the burthen of every one's song. It came next from Cherry,
+whom she found in her own room; 'There was so much bustle in the
+sitting-room,' she said.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, you have gone through a great deal!'</p>
+
+<p>'"There's nae luck about the house when our gude man's awa',"' said
+Cherry. 'Clem played and whistled that so often, that Alda begged never
+to hear it again; but unluckily Tedo had caught it, and I don't think
+she quite believes he doesn't hum it on purpose! But now, how delicious
+it is to have got at least our gude woman! And, oh dear! Wilmet, I beg
+your pardon; but you do look so lovely, I can't help telling you so! or
+is it the pleasure of seeing you?'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor Cherry! I did not think half enough about you.'</p>
+
+<p>'That would have done no good. Most of this rose out of my own
+crossness and horridness. If I could only be anxious without being
+peevish!'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Cherry, don't waste time in telling me it was your own fault; I
+know all about that! I really want to understand how it has all been
+with Alda and Clement. I am afraid Alda has not been behaving nicely.'</p>
+
+<p>To hear Wilmet allow Alda to be other than impeccable so amazed Cherry,
+that she could scarcely answer. 'O Mettie, I never knew what you and
+Felix must be. I have so often thought of a house divided against
+itself, one against two, and two against three. We have been all <i>to
+wrongs</i>, and Clem and I have said we would not be a party; and yet we
+could not help it, for we always had to stand up together! Then Angel
+and Bear were against every one, and Alda set them against Clem, and
+fancied he did against her, which was not true. I should have minded
+nothing if Alda had not been so angry at Clement's sending for Sister
+Constance. You did give him leave, though?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and I should have done so much more decidedly if I had known.'</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Sister Constance knocked at the door, with her work in
+her hand, and Wilmet inferred that this was the refuge from Alda and
+the drawing-room. To Cherry's surprise, Wilmet, instead of ignoring
+everything unsatisfactory, began at once, 'Please come in, Sister
+Constance; I wanted to thank you, and tell you how sorry and ashamed I
+am! I am afraid you have not been treated as&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't say any more, my dear,' as the tears were in her eyes; 'don't
+think about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I ought to think!' said Wilmet. 'I have been trying to understand
+things ever since I came home; but everybody except Cherry and Clem
+blames everybody, and they only blame themselves! I can't understand
+the rights of anything!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear,' said Sister Constance, 'I think it would be impossible to
+go into the details of all that has happened. Shall I tell you how it
+seemed to me?'</p>
+
+<p>'Pray do!'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought that the authority of an elder reared in so different a
+school necessarily was producing a few collisions. There was some
+ignorance, and a good deal of dislike of interference, and the younger
+ones would not have been human not to take advantage of it; but it
+is over now you are come home, and I strongly recommend an act of
+oblivion.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I don't want to punish the poor children,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Oblivion, I said, not only amnesty;' and as she did not see perfect
+comprehension in Wilmet's face, she added, 'I mean, not only that
+the children should be forgiven, but that their elders should not go
+hunting for causes, and thinking how this or that could have been
+prevented.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose not,' said Wilmet. 'It is all plain enough;' and the sigh
+that followed quite amazed Cherry, who smiled up in her face, saying,
+'Plain enough that we can't do without you.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Wilmet, kissing Cherry's uplifted face ere leaving the room;
+but it was with such an effort at a responding smile, that Cherry
+exclaimed, 'Oh dear! how dreadfully we have vexed her!' And Sister
+Constance thought the more.</p>
+
+<p>Yet again Wilmet had to hear another testimony to the anarchy in her
+absence. Those formidable bills had obliged her to apply to Alda for an
+advance of the sum she had offered for Lance's journey; and this, after
+some petulance and faltering, elicited that some old forgotten London
+bills had come down and swamped this Midsummer quarter's allowance, so
+that the promise must stand over till&mdash;till Michaelmas; or it might
+be that Ferdinand's matters were arranged, and then what would such
+a paltry sum be? Wilmet turned away in shame and disgust at having
+trusted for a moment to such offers. She could only do what she had
+never done before&mdash;apply to Mr. Froggatt for an advance on Felix's
+account: and she detained him after dinner for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>He was as kind as possible, assuring her that he should have been hurt
+if she had not come to him. And then, in his blandest way, he thought
+it right to hint that 'Young people were sometimes a little unguarded.'
+She was prepared for the story of the loss of Stella, but she was not
+prepared to hear of a gossipping intercourse over the newly arrived
+Punches, &amp;c., carried on in the early morning with Redstone, not only
+by Bernard but Angela. She was but eleven years old, so it was no worse
+than the taste of childish underhand coquetry and giggling; there was
+no fear of its continuance after Felix's return, and, indeed, good old
+Mr. Froggatt had kept guard by coming in two hours earlier ever since
+the discovery; but the propensity dismayed Wilmet more than all that
+had yet happened, and on this head she thought it right to reprove
+Angela seriously.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear me, Wilmet, you are always telling us not to think ourselves
+above our station. Mr. Redstone is just as fit to speak to as Felix was
+before he was a partner.'</p>
+
+<p>'Should you like Felix to have found you gossipping in the
+reading-room?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said audacious Angela, 'half the fun in things is the chance of
+being caught.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, you don't know what you are saying,' replied Wilmet
+dejectedly, as if exhausted beyond the power of working out her
+reproof! and Angela had to fight hard against any softening, telling
+Bernard that W. W. was a tremendous old maid, who had no notion of a
+lark.</p>
+
+<p>Robina, who stood in the peculiar position of neither accusing nor
+being accused, would not add her voice to the chorus of welcome, and
+did not wonder that every hour wore off something from the radiance
+of the beautiful bloom brought from the Bailey. Indeed, the unusual
+gravity and reserve of the younger sister struck Cherry's observant
+eyes, and made her think at first that she had been much pained by
+having to part with Lance in his weak half-recovered state; but when at
+tea-time the whole history of the illness was inquired into in detail
+by the assembled family, the downcast eyes and cheeks with which Robin
+encountered every mention of Captain Harewood's good offices led to the
+inference that she had in her excitement forgotten the bounds where the
+brook and river meet, and was in an anguish of shame; Wilmet meantime
+looking flushed with the fag of her vexatious day, and speaking
+plentifully of this same Captain, proving to herself all the while that
+she was doing so with ordinary gratitude and composure.</p>
+
+<p>Robina was quartered upon Geraldine in the holiday crowding of the
+house; and somewhere about four o'clock on the summer morning, Cherry,
+wakening as usual, and reaching for her book, heard a voice from the
+corner asking if she wanted anything. 'No, thank you, Bobbie. Go to
+sleep again.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't; I've been thinking about it all night. I think he's coming
+to-day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?'</p>
+
+<p>'Captain Harewood. He promised to come and tell us how Lance and Felix
+are.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very glad; but Wilmet never said so.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, but&mdash;O Cherry, I wish we could contrive some nice quiet place, but
+nothing is ever quiet in this house.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Geraldine, who was but too well aware of the fact, 'though I
+can't imagine that any Harewood can be distressed on that score.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, but&mdash;' said Robina, to whom the communication began to feel so
+momentous, that she could not help toying round it before coming
+to the point&mdash;'I know; at least, I am sure he will want to see her
+particularly.'</p>
+
+<p>'You Robin, what have you got into your head?' said Cherry, trying to
+misunderstand, but feeling a foreboding throb of consternation.</p>
+
+<p>'It is not my head. Willie told me.' And as she detected a sigh of
+relief, 'And it is no nonsense of his either. He did it on Sunday
+evening by the river-side.'</p>
+
+<p>'He did it?' repeated Geraldine, willing to take a moment's refuge in
+the confusion of antecedents, though too well aware what must be coming.</p>
+
+<p>'You know what I mean. He&mdash;Jack&mdash;John&mdash;Captain Harewood, had it out
+with her when we were all walking together.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, impossible!'</p>
+
+<p>'I mean, we were out of hearing, but we saw them at it, and walked up
+and down till Lance got tired out, and Willie and I stayed to make it
+proper.'</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine relieved herself by a little laugh, and said, in a superior
+tone of elderly wisdom, 'But, my dear, there might be a walk even
+without what you call doing it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' reiterated Robina; 'but I know, for the Captain shut himself up
+with Mr. Harewood when we came in, and Bill heard his father telling
+his mother about it at night through the wall.'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame, Robin!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! he told them long ago that he could hear, and they don't care;
+besides, Mrs. Harewood told him <i>himself</i> when he went in to wish her
+good morning, and she kissed me and Lance too about it, and said they
+hadn't their equals. And poor Mettie thinks no one knows of it but
+their two selves, and maybe Mr. Harewood!'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Robin, I don't know how to understand it. I think she would have
+told Alda, at least.'</p>
+
+<p>'Perhaps she has to-night,' said Robina; 'but, you see, she didn't
+accept him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! then it doesn't signify.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not out and out, I mean; and it is only because of us. At least, we
+are sure she likes him.'</p>
+
+<p>'We! You and Willie!'</p>
+
+<p>'And Lance. He saw it all the time he was getting well. Besides, the
+Captain told his father that she wouldn't listen to him, and would have
+hindered his going to Felix if Lance had been fit to travel alone.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then it is not an engagement now?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, she won't let it be.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he is coming to-day?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, after he has seen Felix. O Cherry! he is so nice, kind and
+bright, like all the Harewoods, and not ridiculous; and Lance does like
+him so!'</p>
+
+<p>'Does Wilmet?'</p>
+
+<p>'We are almost sure. As Lance says, she has never looked so bright, or
+so sweet, or so pretty. Do you think it is love, Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>'We shall see,' said Cherry. 'If she tells us nothing, we can judge;
+and if&mdash;if&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Her voice died away into contemplation; and after waiting in vain for
+more, Robina somewhat resentfully decided that 'she had fallen asleep
+in her very face.'</p>
+
+<p>No more was said till dressing-time, when there were a few speculations
+whether Alda knew; and Cherry could not help auguring that something
+had opened Wilmet's eyes to her twin's possible deficiencies. Sister
+Constance came, and seeing her patient's paleness, accused the sisters
+of untimely bedroom colloquies; and as they pleaded guilty, Robin was
+struck by the air of fixed resolution on Cherry's thin white face.</p>
+
+<p>There was no sign of any confidence having been made to Alda. Wilmet
+plunged into her long-deferred holiday task of inspecting the family
+linen; and when she came back with a deep basket, an announcement that
+every one must mend and adapt, and portions of darning and piecing
+for Geraldine and Robina, they began to feel as if the morning's
+conversation was a dream.</p>
+
+<p>But just as dinner was near its close, there were steps on the stairs;
+the drawing-room door was opened and shut, and Sibby, unnecessarily
+coming through the folding leaves, announced over the head of Clement,
+'Captain Harewood.'</p>
+
+<p>'Come to tell about Lance!' cried Angela, leaping up, and followed
+by Bernard, Alda, and even Mr. Froggatt; indeed, in the existing
+connection of chairs, tables, and doors, a clearance of that side of
+the table was needful before any one else could stir. Wilmet moved
+after them, and Clement was heard exclaiming, 'You are pinning me down,
+Bobbie!'</p>
+
+<p>'I know! Oh, shut the door! There are more than enough there already.'</p>
+
+<p>'True,' said Sister Constance, signing to Clement to obey. 'I meant to
+go to my room, but Cherry wants to hear of her brothers.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, she doesn't!' cried Robina. 'At least&mdash; Oh! will nobody get the
+others out, and leave them to themselves!'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, Bobbie, what nonsense is this?' said Clement. 'One would think
+you took them for Ferdinand and Alda.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is all the same!&mdash;Stella, you run out to the garden&mdash;by that door,
+you child!' And then it all came out to the two fresh auditors, who
+listened with conviction. 'And now,' concluded Robina, 'there is not
+a place where he can so much as speak to her! What shall we do to get
+them away?'</p>
+
+<p>'You do not know yet that she wishes it,' said Sister Constance, who
+had been a wife before she was a Sister, and saw that it was matronly
+tact and tenderness that the crisis needed; 'but I'll tell you what you
+can safely and naturally do. Go in and fetch Cherry's folding chair,
+and call the children to carry her appurtenances down to the garden.
+That will make a break, and Wilmet can take advantage of it if she sees
+fit.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda is worse than ten children,' said Clement; 'she has an inordinate
+appetite for captains in the absence of her own.'</p>
+
+<p>'It can't be helped. Better do too little than too much.'</p>
+
+<p>And finding Robina shy and giggling, and Clement shy and irresolute,
+Sister Constance herself made the diversion by opening the door, when
+Wilmet's nervous look and manner was confirmation strong. 'Lady Herbert
+Somerville&mdash;Captain Harewood,' was Alda's formal introduction in her
+bad taste; while the Sister, after shaking hands, bade Bernard take
+Geraldine's chair to the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, are we to go out?' said Alda. 'A good move. Of all things I detest
+in summer, a town house is the worst. I'll just fetch a hat, I want
+to show my pet view.&mdash;Our brothers are always fighting about their
+churches, Captain Harewood.'</p>
+
+<p>The thing was done; Mr. Froggatt was already gone, and as Alda's
+trappings were never quickly adjusted, it needed very little
+contrivance to leave a not unwilling pair on one side of the doors, and
+cut off the rest. Robina, too much excited to stand still, flew about
+the stairs till Alda appeared in a tiny hat fluttering with velvet
+tails.</p>
+
+<p>'Are they gone out?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes;' for quite enough to constitute a 'they' were gone; and when Alda
+reached them, they sedulously set themselves to detain her, and thereby
+betrayed the reason.</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense! How absurd! That horrid little fright of a red-haired man!
+No doubt poor dear Wilmet only wants me to go and put an end to it.'</p>
+
+<p>Strictly speaking, this was self-assertion. She had not the assurance
+to intrude, and she contented herself with keeping Cherry on thorns
+by threatening to go in, and declaring that the whole must be untrue,
+since Wilmet had not told her.</p>
+
+<p>Time went on very slowly; and at last Wilmet, about four o'clock, was
+seen advancing, with Theodore in one hand and her great basket of
+mending in the other. And before Alda had time to rise from her chair,
+Robina darted across the grass, with flaming cheeks and low, hurried,
+frightened confession&mdash;'Wilmet, please, it is honest to tell you;
+Willie Harewood knows, and told me, and I couldn't help it; I told them
+to keep away.'</p>
+
+<p>'It always happens so,' said Wilmet, less discomposed than Robina
+expected, though she had evidently been shedding tears. 'Not that there
+is anything to tell.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing!' cried Robina, looking blank.</p>
+
+<p>'Of course not. He came to bring me a note from Felix. I hope no one
+knows but those three.'</p>
+
+<p>'And Sister Constance.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then take care no one does.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, O Wilmet, please! You have not put an end to it all?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Wilmet. 'They will not let me, though I think it would have
+been wiser. I do not know how it is to be, except that it is utterly
+impossible for the present.'</p>
+
+<p>With this much from the fountain-head, Robina was forced to content
+herself; and she had tact enough not to join the trio under the tree,
+but to betake herself to Clement, who had gone off with his books.</p>
+
+<p>'So,' said Alda lightly, 'you have cheated us of another view of your
+conquest, Mettie.'</p>
+
+<p>'He wanted to catch the 3.45 train,' said Wilmet gravely.</p>
+
+<p>'You must have been very unmerciful to despatch him so soon. I thought
+you must want me to come to your rescue, but those romantic children
+wouldn't let me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear! You don't mean that you are smitten? Well! I can't flatter
+you as to his beauty. And yet, after all, situated as you are, it is
+a catch&mdash;that is, if he has anything but his pay; but of course he
+hasn't.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Wilmet abstractedly, 'his father told me he had&mdash;what did
+he call it?&mdash;"a fair independent competence of his own." Oh! they are
+so kind!'</p>
+
+<p>'Then, O Wilmet, is it really so?' asked Geraldine, with eager eyes,
+clasped hands, and quivering frame, infinitely fuller of visible
+emotion than either of the handsome twins.</p>
+
+<p>'I&mdash;don't know.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Wilmet,' cried Alda, excited, 'you can't surely have anything
+better in view!'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Wilmet, even now keeping herself blind to the offensiveness
+of Alda's suggestion; 'but as it is utterly impossible for me to think
+of&mdash;leaving home, I did think it would have been wiser to put a stop to
+it while there wa&mdash;is time,' and the tears began to gather again.</p>
+
+<p>'And have you?</p>
+
+<p>'They won't let me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?'</p>
+
+<p>'<i>He</i>&mdash;and his father, and Felix,' said Wilmet, speaking steadily, but
+the tears rolling down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix! Oh, what does he say?'</p>
+
+<p>'You may see;' and she held out a letter, which Alda and Cherry read
+together, while she rested her elbow on her knee, her brow on her hand,
+and let fall the tears, which with her were always soft, free, and
+healthy outlets of emotion, not disabling, but rather relieving.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 20%;">
+<span style="margin-left: 45%;">Mrs. Pettigrew's Lodgings,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 50%;">North Beach, East Ewmouth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 65%;">20th July, 10 <span style="font-size: 0.7em;">P.M.</span></span>
+</p>
+<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">MY DEAREST WILMET,</p>
+
+<p>What I have heard to-day is a great satisfaction. I had hardly
+hoped that you could have been brought within the reach of
+any one so worthy of you. My only fear is that you are too
+scrupulous and self-sacrificing to contemplate fairly, and
+without prejudice, what is best for us all. You will imagine
+yourself blinded by inclination, and not attend to common
+sense. Harewood tells me he trusts you have no objection on
+personal grounds. (I hope this does not sound as if he were
+presuming; if so, it is my fault. Remember, I am more used
+to writing 'summaries for the week' than letters on delicate
+subjects.) But at any rate, my Mettie, I see there is much
+worth and weight in his affection, and that you could not
+manage to snub him as entirely as you wanted to do. (Didn't
+you?) Now, it seems to me, that if you two are really drawn to
+one another, both being such as you are, it is the call of a
+Voice that you have no right to reject or stifle. I do not mean
+by this that anything immediate need take place; but granting
+your preference, I think it would be wrong not to avow it, or
+to refuse, because you scruple to keep him waiting while you
+may be necessary at home. If you imagine that by such rejection
+you would be doing better for the children and me, I beg leave
+to tell you it is a generous blunder. Remember that, as things
+have turned out, I am quite as much the only dependence for the
+others as I was seven years ago. I felt this painfully in the
+spring, when I was doubtful what turn my health would take; and
+the comfort of knowing you would all have such a man to look
+to would be unspeakable&mdash;indeed, he has already lightened me
+of much care and anxiety. Do not take this as pressing you.
+Between this and the end of his leave, there will be time for
+consideration. Nothing need be done in haste, least of all the
+crushing your liking under the delusion of serving us. So do
+not forbid him the house; and unless your objection be on any
+other score, do not make up your mind till you have seen me. I
+should of course have been with you instead of writing, if it
+were not for Lance. Till I saw the dear little fellow, I had
+no notion how very ill he has been. The five hours' journey
+had quite knocked him up, and he was fit for nothing but his
+bed when he came; but he revived in the evening. I only hope
+I shall take as good care of him as the first-rate nurses he
+describes so enthusiastically. That month must have been worth
+years of common acquaintance. I wish I knew what more to say to
+show you how glad I am of this day's work, and to persuade you
+to see matters as I do.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 45%;">Ever your loving brother,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;">F. C. UNDERWOOD.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>P.S.&mdash;Lance is quite himself this morning, and was up to watch
+us bathing before six o'clock.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>'Oh! what did Captain Harewood say of Felix?' was Cherry's cry, almost
+with shame and pain at not having asked before.</p>
+
+<p>'You know, he had never seen him,' said Wilmet; 'but he said he did
+not seem to him in the least unwell&mdash;and he watched carefully, as I
+had begged him. He said he struck him as naturally delicate-looking;
+but that those blue veins in his temples do not show, and he has no
+cough at all, nor any difficulty in swimming, or walking up a steep
+cliff. He made me laugh, for he said he hardly believed his eyes when
+Lance tumbled himself out of the train on something so little bigger or
+older than himself. He says the way we all talk of "my eldest brother"
+made him expect something taller than Clement, and more imposing than
+the senior verger; but he understood it all when he saw him and Lance
+together. They have two very nice rooms; and Felix has put Lance into
+the bedroom, which is luckily cool, and sleeps on a sofa bed in the
+parlour; and the landlady will do anything for them.'</p>
+
+<p>'But how is it to be?' broke in Alda crossly. 'You and Felix seem to
+be encouraging him to come dangling here, when we all agreed that
+Ferdinand must keep away in Felix's absence, though matters are in such
+a different state.'</p>
+
+<p>'So I told him, dear Alda,' gently said Wilmet; 'but he declared he
+would bring his sisters, or poor Mrs. Harewood herself, if nothing else
+would satisfy me: and what could I do, after all their kindness?'</p>
+
+<p>'Umph!' muttered Alda; 'they are a queer set.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Alda,' said Wilmet earnestly, 'you must not talk without knowing.
+Till I went there, I never understood how much goodness and principle
+there could be without my stiffness and particularity. I know I have
+often been very unnecessarily disagreeable and disapproving, and I hope
+I am shaken out of it in time.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Mettie, no one is like you,' cried Cherry, with a little
+effusion, stretching out her hand, and laying it on her sister's
+shoulder. 'Oh, if we had not all been so vile while you were away!'</p>
+
+<p>'It would not have made any difference, my dear! It would be impossible
+to leave Felix without help. And think of Theodore!'</p>
+
+<p>Alda muttered something, that no one would hear, about asylums; and
+the tell-tale tears coming again, Wilmet sprang up, and bending down
+to kiss Cherry, declared in her most authoritative voice that nothing
+should be said to the younger children, nor to any one out of the
+house; then picked up the tea-cups, and carried them in.</p>
+
+<p>Excitements were, however, not yet over for the day. A telegram was put
+into Alda's hands, containing the words&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>'A.T. is an unmitigated brute. I sail for N.Y. to-night. All
+will be right when I come back.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The mysterious hint restored Alda at once to all the privileges of the
+reigning heroine!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>VALE LESTON.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 30%;">
+'The way to make thy son rich is to fill<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His mind with rest before his trunk with riches;</span><br />
+For wealth without contentment climbs a hill,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To feel those tempests that fly over ditches,</span><br />
+But if thy son can make ten pounds his measure,<br />
+Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 50%;"><i>George Herbert.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>'I say, Felix, you've not told me about Vale Leston.'</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers were established under the lee of an old boat, beneath
+the deep shadow of the red earth cliffs, festooned with ivy, wild
+clematis, everlasting pea, thrift, and samphire. Not far off, niched
+beneath the same cliff, were two or three cottage lodging-houses,
+two-storied, with rough grey slate roofs, glaring white walls, and
+green shutters to the windows that looked out over the shingly beach to
+the lazily rippling summer sea.</p>
+
+<p>Ewmouth was a lazy place. Felix had felt half asleep through the
+earlier days of his stay, and Lance seemed to be lulled into a
+continual doze whenever he was unoccupied, and that was almost always.
+It had grieved his elder brother to see this naturally vivacious
+being so inert and content with inaction, only strolling about a
+little in early morning and late evening, and languid and weary, if
+not actually suffering, during the heat and glare of the day. He was
+now, with his air-pillow and a railway rug, lying on the beach, beside
+Felix, who with his safety ink-stand planted in the sand, was at work
+condensing the parliamentary debates for the Pursuivant, and was glad
+to perceive that he was so far alive as to be leaning on his elbow,
+slowly shovelling the sand or smaller pebbles with the frail tenement
+of a late crab; and it was another good sign to hear his voice in a
+voluntary inquiry about Vale Leston.</p>
+
+<p>'I have not been there yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not there?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. Old Abednego Tripp comes over here every market day, and he's the
+only person I wanted to see.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you came here because you wanted to see the place?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; but I was not up to the walk when I came here; and while you were
+ill I never durst go out of reach of the telegraph, and latterly I
+waited for you. After all, I have not much mind to it. I don't see the
+good of setting oneself a coveting one's neighbour's house.'</p>
+
+<p>'It wouldn't be my house, any way,' said Lance quaintly. 'How far is
+it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Rather more than three miles. We'll get a boat some day and do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'That will be jolly!' and after shovelling a little longer, Lance
+added, 'How came we to be turned out?'</p>
+
+<p>'That's just what I can't tell. I was only seven, you know, and my
+father never would talk of it. Sibby used to revile the mane nagur,
+Misther Fulbert, till it was current in the nursery that he was a black
+man who expelled us <i>vi et armis</i>. One day, my father found four or
+five of us in a row slashing at an old black doll, by way of killing
+Misther Fulbert, and prohibited such executions. I think, too, that he
+quashed an attempt to call our own Fulbert by his other name.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder what the nagur did?'</p>
+
+<p>'By the light of maturer nature, I imagine that he may have succeeded
+as heir-at-law, and that his <i>maneness</i> may have consisted in not
+giving the living to my father; but I cannot tell. It always seemed my
+father's great desire to put it out of our minds. I remember before we
+left the place his catching me in a furious rage with some one who told
+me my pony was to be sold. He carried me off, and told me it was all
+true; and we were going away, and he trusted to me to be brave and make
+it as little hard to Mamma and the little girls as could be. He said
+the place had belonged to old Uncle Underwood, and that we had no right
+to stay there after his death. That was all the explanation he gave me,
+first or last; and I don't think we thought much about it after the
+neck of the change was broken.'</p>
+
+<p>'You remember it, though.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe I know every step of the house and garden. I have never
+ceased to dream of them; and I am as much afraid of disturbing old
+impressions as of reviving wishes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Holloa! what's up?' exclaimed Lance, as the landlady was seen coming
+in quest of them. 'I thought I saw a tidy little tiger going in there
+just now.'</p>
+
+<p>'A note from Mr. Staples, if you please, Sir, and they wait for an
+answer.'</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't know you had any acquaintance here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Staples is the solicitor who did the business about Admiral
+Chester's legacy. He is retired now, and only holds some county office.
+He found me out last week, I believe, from some letters of mine going
+wool-gathering to the other F. Underwood. He called and said he knew my
+father, and was very civil and friendly. He sent to inquire after you
+the day you came. This is what he says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">MY DEAR MR. FELIX UNDERWOOD,</p>
+
+<p>Your relative at Vale Leston wishes me to dine with him
+to-morrow evening. If you and your brother would like to
+accompany me on the drive, meet me at six o'clock on the top of
+the cliff. If you would prefer to return earlier than I do, I
+can direct you to a boatman to take you down by the river.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 55%;">Believe me, yours truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 75%; font-size: 0.8em;">C. STAPLES.</span><br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'Hurrah! that's not half a bad fellow for an attorney,' cried Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Shall not you be tired? Will it not be too hot for you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not a bit of it. He,' indicating the sun, 'can only get at me asquint
+by that time, and I'm a match for him with my blue umbrella. Come, fire
+away, you tardy Norseman. Say we are good for it. Fancy boating back!'</p>
+
+<p>And Lance whistled a few bars of 'The Hardy Norseman,' the liveliest
+thing he had done since his illness.</p>
+
+<p>At the appointed hour, the brothers were standing on the top of the
+cliff, with a broad estuary before them; on the opposite side of which
+lay the town of Ewmouth at the foot of the old castle, with fresh
+modern fortifications towards the sea. The town, with its church towers
+and gas chimneys, sloped away from it; vessels thronged the harbour;
+and a long weird-looking thready suspension-bridge spanned the broad
+tide-river to East Ewmouth, the village fast growing into a suburb.
+There had not been more than time to point out the details to Lance
+before a waggonet drove up from one of the roads that branched among
+pleasant 'villa residences;' and in it appeared a white-haired but
+hearty-looking gentleman, prepossessing and merry, very unlike Lance's
+notion of attorneys, who shook hands with them warmly, and took care to
+put the boy under the shade of the driving-seat.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pretty drive, through rich meadows, shut in by the sloping
+wooded hills which gradually closed nearer; and by-and-by over the
+shoulder of one looked a very tall church tower, whereat Felix started
+with a thrill of responsive recognition, and suddenly faltered in the
+political discussion Mr. Staples had started, but dropped at once,
+looking at the young man's face with kindly interest.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time road and river both made a sudden turn into a much
+narrower and wilder valley, the hills beyond more rough and rocky; but
+the river still broad and smooth, and crossed by a handsome high-backed
+five-arched bridge, the centre arch grandly high and broad, the other
+two rapidly diminishing on either side. Over this the carriage turned;
+and from the crown Lance beheld an almost collegiate-looking mass of
+grey building, enclosing sunny lawns and flower-beds, and surrounded
+by park-like grounds and trees, all sloping towards the river, and
+backed by steep hills of wood and moorland, whence a little brook
+danced with much impetus down to the calm steady main stream of Ewe.
+The church and remnants of the old priory occupied the forefront of a
+sort of peninsula, the sweep of the Ewe on the south and east, and the
+little lively Leston on the north. There was slope enough to raise the
+buildings beyond damp, and display the flower-beds beautifully as they
+lay falling away from the house. The churchyard lay furthest north,
+skirted by the two rivers, and the east end with the lovely floriated
+window of the Lady Chapel rising some thirty yards from the bank of
+the Ewe, the outline a little broken by an immense willow tree that
+wept its fountain-like foliage into the river. The south transept was
+cloistered, and joined to the building beyond, a long low grey house
+with one row of windows above the sloping roof of the cloister, and
+this again connected with a big family mansion, built of the same grey
+stone with the rest, but in the style of the seventeenth century, and a
+good deal modernized upon that. A great plate-glass window looked out
+on the river in the east front, which projected nearly as far as did
+the Lady Chapel, the space between being, as before said, laid out in a
+formal parterre, with stone steps leading down to the river.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, what a place! what a place!' shouted Lance, starting up in the
+carriage. 'It's like the minster, and the jolly old river besides! Two
+of them! Oh! what fishing there must be!'</p>
+
+<p>'I did not know it was really so beautiful,' said Felix in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>'You remember it?' said Mr. Staples.&mdash;'I suppose you can't?' to Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no! I wasn't born! More's the pity! Do the salmon come up here,
+Sir?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, since the fisheries have been protected; but young Mr. Underwood
+is a great fisherman, and I fear it is not easy to get a card.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I wasn't thinking about leave, Sir, thank you. I've got no tackle
+nor anything; but I <i>am</i> glad <i>we</i> have salmon,' said Lance, as though
+he had acquired an accession of dignity.</p>
+
+<p>Descending from the bridge, they were in a road skirting the river,
+and on which presently opened the lodge gates of the Rectory. Here Mr.
+Staples got out, telling his servant to drive the young gentlemen round
+to the village.</p>
+
+<p>'I say, Felix,' said Lance, as they were whirled on along the lane
+which swept round the long wall overhung by trees, 'that old party must
+know all about it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Most likely,' said Felix; 'but if there had been any good in my
+hearing, my father could have told me himself. How well I remember his
+giving me my first ride along this lane! Do you smell the bean field? I
+don't believe I have thought of the scent since.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix seemed absorbed in the pleasures of recognition; and Lance,
+amazed at the beauty and what seemed to him the splendour of the
+place, looked up at his brother with a kind of romantic feeling for a
+disinherited knight, as he contrasted the scene with the counter and
+printing-office.</p>
+
+<p>The lane led to the village street, a very pretty one sloping upwards,
+and lying on each side of the Leston, which rippled along as clear as
+crystal, crossed every here and there by foot-bridges, some wooden,
+some a single stone; while the cottages on the opposite side were
+perched on a high shelf or terrace, and were approached by charming
+irregular flights of stairs with low walls or balustrades. Over the
+rail of one, smoking a pipe in summer evening enjoyment, was seen
+Abednego Tripp, with long nose, brown parchment cheeks, and lank hair
+not yet grey&mdash;one of the genuine almost extinct species of parish
+clerk. As the carriage stopped, he began to descend, keys in hand, for
+the church was a lion, and many carriages did stop there; but it was
+not till Felix jumped out and hailed him that he knew who were his
+visitors.</p>
+
+<p>'Bless me, if it is not Master Felix after all! I did think you was
+never coming, Sir. And this is the young gentleman as has been so ill.
+You're kindly welcome, Sir. I think he'd favour poor Master Eddard if
+he didn't look so nesh.'</p>
+
+<p>'I shall get well here,' said Lance. 'If it is not my native air, it
+ought to be.'</p>
+
+<p>'Will you come and rest a bit, Sir? or would you like to go to the
+church?'</p>
+
+<p>'The church,' they said. Felix first explained what he knew would give
+pleasure&mdash;that they had come depending on him for a cup of tea, and
+a cast in his boat which was wont to convey the marketables of Vale
+Leston twice a week to Ewmouth.</p>
+
+<p>Abednego sped up his stairs like a lamp-lighter, to cause his
+grand-daughter to make preparations, and was speedily down again,
+delighted to hear Felix prove his memory by inquiries after the
+inhabitants of the old dwellings.</p>
+
+<p>'Ha! the Miss Hepburns!' said Felix, looking at a tall narrow house
+completely embowered in trailing roses, and with the rails of the
+bridge of entrance wreathed with clematis. 'Are they there still?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, Sir, all the four on 'em; and a sight of good they does to the
+poor!'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder whether I ought to call?' said Felix; 'they used to be very
+kind to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'What, is that Rob's godmother, that never gave her anything but that
+queer name?' asked Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'I shouldn't think they were rich,' said Felix. 'I fancy they used
+to be very fond of my mother, and made her promise that the next
+girl should be named for one of them. There was Miss Bridget, and
+Miss Martha, and something else as bad, and Robina was the least
+objectionable of the lot. I think they used to write to my mother; but
+it is late in the day for calling.'</p>
+
+<p>'Here comes Miss Bridget,' said the clerk, as there appeared in sight
+a tall, rigid, angular figure, with a big brown hat and long straight
+cloak, and a decidedly charity-looking basket in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Felix stepped forward with his hand to his hat. 'Miss Hepburn, I
+believe. I must introduce myself&mdash;Felix Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>The lady's first move had been a startled shy drawing herself up and
+into herself, at being addressed by a stranger. Then she looked up with
+an amazed 'Felix Underwood! Little Felix!' and as he smiled and bowed,
+she fumbled and put out a hesitating hand.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. Tripp did tell us something&mdash;something of your being at Ewmouth,
+but we were not sure.'</p>
+
+<p>'We had not been able to come over before,' said Felix, thinking she
+meant to imply that he ought to have called. 'We came for health and
+have not been equal to the walk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, indeed. Nothing infectious, I hope?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no,' he said, explaining in a few words the total want of
+connection between his case and Lance's.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad. I'll&mdash;I'll tell my sisters. I'm glad to have seen you.'</p>
+
+<p>There was something faltering and ill-assured in her manner, and in a
+moment she turned back with 'Mr. Underwood, where are you stopping?'</p>
+
+<p>He answered; and with 'I'll tell my sisters,' she parted with them
+again.</p>
+
+<p>'That's Miss Bridget,' commented old Tripp. 'She's the one as allys
+says, "I'll tell my sisters." They do say as Miss Isabella, she be the
+master on 'em all.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix and Lance smiled to one another the assurance that every family
+had its Wilmet; but while the younger brother shrugged his shoulders,
+the elder felt a certain chill in the contrast with those days of old,
+when the sugar-plums and picture-books of the whole sisterhood were all
+at his service, and bethought him that times were changed.</p>
+
+<p>They entered the churchyard by a little side-gate. The church was a
+grand pile of every style of architecture that had prevailed since the
+Cistercians had settled in Vale Leston, and of every defacement that
+the alternate neglect and good-will of the Underwoods could perpetrate.
+The grand tower at the west end was, however, past their power to
+spoil, and they had not done much damage to the exterior, except in a
+window or buttress here and there. But within! The brothers, used to
+the heavy correctness of the St. Oswald's restoration, stood aghast
+when Abednego admitted them by the door of excommunication, straight
+into the chancel, magnificently deep, but with the meanest of rails,
+a reredos where Moses and Aaron kept guard over the Commandments in
+black and gold, and walls bristling with genii and angels of all
+descriptions, weeping over Underwoods of different generations. Lance
+stood open-mouthed before a namesake of his own, whose huge monumental
+slab was upborne by the exertions of a kind of Tartarean cherub, solely
+consisting of a skull and a pair of bats' wings!</p>
+
+<p>'My stars! where did that brute come from?' muttered Lance under his
+breath. 'He's got no trifle of a piece of work!'</p>
+
+<p>However, Felix had taken in that the chancel had respectable
+poppy-headed benches, though the lower part of the church was
+completely 'emparoked in pues,' such as surprised Lance out of all
+bounds when he withdrew his eyes from the white marble death's head.</p>
+
+<p>'My stars!' again he said, 'this is what I've heard of, but never saw.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, Sir,' said Mr. Tripp, 'every one that come here do be crying out
+upon the pews; and to be sure, I see the folk sleepin' in them as is
+shameful!'</p>
+
+<p>Well he might, for his place was the lowest in a lofty three-decker,
+against one pier of the chancel arch, surmounted by a golden angel
+blowing a trumpet, and with lettering round the sounding-board,
+recording it to have been the gift of the Reverend Lancelot Underwood,
+Rector and Vicar of this parish&mdash;the owner of the mural slab before
+mentioned. That angel recalled to Felix that the sight of it had been
+his great pleasure in going to church, only marred by the fact that he
+was out of sight of it in the chancel.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, you weren't in the choir then?' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Choir! no, Sir,' said the clerk. 'They sits in the gallery. The
+chancel is for Mr. Underwood's family&mdash;the Rector, Sir. They seats was
+just put up instead of the red baize pew before old Mr. Underwood as
+was then died, and your poor papa went away. And that there font was
+put, as 'tis there, just when the twin young ladies was christened.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where was I christened, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'In the bowl as we used to have on the Communion, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>It was plain how far Edward Underwood had dared to work at renovation,
+and that nothing had since been done. The Lady-chapel, with a wonderful
+ceiling of Tudor fans and pendants, was full of benches and ragged
+leaves of books for such Sunday schooling as took place there, the
+national school having been built half a mile off, that the children
+might not be obnoxious to the Rectory. The church was a good way behind
+the ordinary churches of 1861, and struck the two brothers the more
+from the system in which they had been brought up.</p>
+
+<p>'What a state Clem would be in!' uttered Lance, as they came out.</p>
+
+<p>'It is of no use to think about it,' said Felix. 'Let us enjoy the
+beautiful exterior.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, Sir,' said old Tripp, 'parties do be saying as how it is a mortial
+pity to see such a church go to wrack; and I do believe the Squire
+wouldn't be so hard to move if it warn't for the Passon&mdash;that's young
+Mr. Fulbert, the vicar.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't understand all these rectors and vicars,' said Lance. 'I
+thought they never hung out together.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, you see, Master Lancelot, as how this is what they calls a lay
+rectory, as goes like a landed estate from father to son, without there
+being any call for 'em to be clergy; and the Vicar, he is just put in
+to do Passon's work, only he gets his situation for life, like I do,
+not like them curates.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see,' said Felix; 'and the rectors have generally taken Holy Orders,
+and presented themselves to the vicarage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, Sir, that's how it ought to be; only this here Squire&mdash;not being
+no Passon, though Rector he be&mdash;he puts in a gentleman to keep it warm
+till his son, young Mr. Fulbert, our Vicar as is, was growed up, and
+hard work they say it was to get him to bend his mind to 't; nor he'd
+not have done it at last, but for his father's paying of his bills,
+and giving consent to his marrying Miss Shaw. And since that, bless
+you, Sir, the curates have done nothing but change, change, change,
+till 'tis enough to ruin a good clerk. You knows what that is, Master
+Felix, you that be one of the cloth.' (For Felix allowed himself no
+unprofessional coats.)</p>
+
+<p>'It is only the cloth, Mr. Tripp; don't you see I sport a blue tie? I
+am a bookseller.'</p>
+
+<p>'A bookseller!' The old man recoiled. 'You'll not be passing your jokes
+on me, Sir. A book-writer&mdash;I understands.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, a bookseller in earnest. I have a share in a very good business at
+Bexley; I've been at it ever since I was sixteen.'</p>
+
+<p>The old clerk was quite overcome; he leant upon a headstone and stared
+at Felix without speaking, and then it was a sort of soliloquy. 'To
+think of poor dear Master Eddard's son being come to that! and he
+looking a dozen times more like a clergyman and a gentleman than ever
+this young Mr. Fulbert will!'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind, Mr. Tripp,' said Felix; 'there's one of us on the way to
+be a clergyman&mdash;Edward Clement, you know, that I wrote to you about;
+and maybe this fellow too. Don't look so angry with me. I was obliged
+to do the best I could to bring in something for the thirteen of us.'</p>
+
+<p>'And we're as proud of him as can be!' added Lance, affectionately and
+indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, well,' said the old aristocrat, 'that may be, for you never
+knew them he came of. There was my old Lady Geraldine, as was his
+great-grandmother, who gave a new coat or new gown to every poor body
+in the parish at Christmas, and as much roast beef as they could eat;
+and wore a shawl as come from the Injies and cost two hundred pounds!
+She <i>was</i> a lady! Bless me, what would she have said to see the day&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'That she was glad to have a great-grandson good for something,'
+stoutly answered Lance. 'I declare, Mr. Tripp, you'd have liked him
+better if he had come a begging!'</p>
+
+<p>'So I do,' said Felix; 'and what's more, Mr. Tripp is going to refuse
+me because he is too fine to sit down to tea with a tradesman!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, sir,' said old Tripp, with tears in his eyes. 'You'll not go
+for to say that. If it was the last morsel I had, I'd be proud to share
+it with one of Master Eddard's sons; but I can't but think as how we
+rung the bells and drunk your health when you was born, just as we did
+for the Prince of Wales, and how proud poor Master Eddard looked. No
+doubt he was spared the knowing of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Felix, 'it was settled with his full consent.'</p>
+
+<p>Abednego seemed more distressed than ever. 'Poor Master Eddard! he must
+have been brought very low. Such a gentleman as he was! Never spoke a
+proud or rude word, Sir, but used to hold up his head like the first
+lord in the land, and fire and colour up and start like one of young
+Mr. Fulbert's thoroughbreds if any one said an impudent word.'</p>
+
+<p>'That no one ever ventured,' said Felix. 'He was as much respected at
+Bexley&mdash;yes, and is still&mdash;as ever he could be here. I wish you could
+see my brother Edgar, he is more like him than either of us. Ah, here's
+the old garden gate, I wish we could go into the shrubbery.'</p>
+
+<p>Tripp was rather for trying it. He said the gardeners would be gone
+home, and the elder master at dinner&mdash;the younger, with his wife,
+was absent; but Felix could not bear the sense of spying, though he
+did not withhold Lance from a rush into the garden paths, where he
+did not discover much. Then they looked into the eddy at the meeting
+of the waters; and turning back to Tripp's neatest of kitchens, were
+there regaled upon shrimps, rashers hissing from the fire, and the
+peculiar native species of hot-buttered cake, which Felix recollected
+as viewed in the nursery as the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of excellence, probably
+because it was an almost prohibited dainty. Lance was in his element,
+delighting himself and Miss Kerenhappuch Tripp by assisting her to
+toast, to butter, and even to wash up, calling Felix to witness that he
+always helped Cherry in the holidays; when just as they were rising to
+seek the boat, Mr. Staples came climbing up the steps.</p>
+
+<p>'I thought I should find you here,' he said. 'Mr. Underwood very much
+wishes you would come and spend the rest of the evening with him.'</p>
+
+<p>'The old humbug!' burst out Lance. 'You won't go, will you, Felix?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix thought a moment, then walked with Mr. Staples to the corner
+of the narrow ledge in front of the cottage. 'Mr. Staples,' he said,
+'I know nothing about it. I trust to you to tell me whether this man
+treated my father so that I ought not to accept attention from him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hm? ha? I should not say so. He treated him unkindly, ungenerously,
+but he hardly knew how much so, and he had the letter of the law on his
+side. I verily believe he regrets it, and that your father, being what
+he was, would be the last to wish you to hold aloof.'</p>
+
+<p>'Most likely,' said Felix. 'I am sure he forgave whatever there was to
+forgive.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not my doing, I assure you. He spoke of your letters that had
+gone astray, and that led to more, till when he found you were in the
+village, he said he should like to see you. He is breaking up; his son
+has given him a good deal of trouble, and I believe he is altogether
+concerned for what has passed.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he will not suppose we want anything from him?' said Felix, with
+something of the almost unavoidable pride of independent poverty.</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not. I have guarded against that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I suppose we must.&mdash;That is, how is your head? are you too much
+tired, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Lance, almost sulkily; for he was much inclined to make
+fatigue a plea for escaping the 'mane nagur' and enjoying the boat, and
+was rather unreasonably disposed to think it all a plot on the part of
+Mr. Staples for spoiling the evening. Felix might have been equally
+glad of the excuse, but he believed his father would have thought
+this act of conciliation a duty, and followed Mr. Staples across
+the churchyard, where all the little boys in the place seemed to be
+playing marbles on the flagged paths. Its neglected state was a painful
+contrast to the exquisitely laid-out shrubbery, as trim as gardeners
+could make it, and improved and altered beyond Felix's recognition.</p>
+
+<p>Entering the house, Mr. Staples led the way to the dining-room,
+where there was a large empty table in the middle of the room, and
+in the deep bay of the window a smaller one, laid out with wine and
+dessert, where sat 'old Fulbert.' Having always heard him so called,
+the brothers were surprised to find him no more than elderly. He must
+have been originally a thorough florid handsome Underwood, and had the
+remains of military bearing, though with an air of feebleness and want
+of health, and a good deal of asthmatic oppression on his breath. He
+did not rise, but held out his hand, saying, 'Good evening. Thank you
+for coming to see a sick man.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sorry to see you so unwell, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, I'm on the mend. Sit down. Take a glass of wine&mdash;claret?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix accepted, wondering if his father would regard it as an act of
+pardon.</p>
+
+<p>'And you?'</p>
+
+<p>'No thank you, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'No wine? You are the one that has been so ill? No objection to melon,
+eh?'</p>
+
+<p>And Lancelot, whose illness had left a strong hankering for fruit, was
+considerably appeased by the first cut into the cool buff flesh.</p>
+
+<p>'Is he the next brother to you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no. There are three brothers and three sisters between us.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what are they doing? There were one or two with Tom Underwood.
+Didn't the young fellow offend him and turn out idle?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not that, Sir,' said Felix, his colour rising: 'but he had no turn
+for a clerkship, and a good deal for art. He is studying at the Royal
+Academy; but there never was any quarrel; he is often at Thomas
+Underwood's.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the rest?'</p>
+
+<p>'One has the Ewshire Scholarship at St. Cadoc's; and there's one in
+Australia.'</p>
+
+<p>'And this lad&mdash;what's his name?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lancelot. He is in the choir school at Minsterham Cathedral, and hopes
+to get a scholarship.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that all of you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Two more boys, quite little, and the six girls.'</p>
+
+<p>'Any of them able to do anything for themselves?'</p>
+
+<p>'The eldest is a teacher in a school at Bexley,' said Felix, not
+delighted with the cross-examination; 'and Alda, the one that lived
+with the Tom Underwoods, is engaged to a man of good fortune. Then two
+of the younger ones are at schools, where an allowance is made for poor
+clergymen's daughters.'</p>
+
+<p>'How long has your mother been dead?'</p>
+
+<p>'Four years and a half.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you have managed all single-handed?'</p>
+
+<p>'With my eldest sister's help, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Taken to the press, have you?' (Mr. Staples must have made the best of
+his vocation.) 'What's your paper?'</p>
+
+<p>'The Bexley Pursuivant. Most likely you never heard of it. It is only
+a little county paper;' and then feeling that to stop there was a
+subterfuge, he added, 'Our main business is the retail trade.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Underwood was chiefly intent on the next question, the politics of
+the paper, though he said he need hardly ask. 'All you young stuck-up
+fellows run in one team&mdash;all destructives.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Sir,' broke in Mr. Staples eagerly. 'Mr. Felix is staunch to
+the back-bone.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was never more tempted to deny his principles than when he found
+them brought forward as a recommendation; but he could only explain
+that the Pursuivant was an old established county gentleman's style
+of paper, in the agricultural interest. Whereupon the Squire mounted
+his political hobby in such sort and with such abusive violence,
+especially as to the local representatives of the adverse party, that
+Felix could not help feeling that if such were indeed the opinions of
+his own side, he should certainly be on the other. One good effect was
+the sparing him any more personal catechizing. Mr. Underwood shouted
+himself weary, without requiring any reply save what Mr. Staple's local
+knowledge supplied; and when the carriage was announced, the guests
+were dismissed with a hearty shake of the hands, and invitation to call
+again&mdash;'It was a comfort to talk of public matters to a young man of
+sense;' and Lance found a sovereign in his hand. He was not sure that
+he was obliged.</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Mr. Staples, rubbing his hands with satisfaction as they
+drove off, 'what do you think of the Squire?'</p>
+
+<p>'He talks very loud,' said Felix, who had for some time been watching
+the increase of Lance's head-ache, and now was trying to give him a
+rest on shoulder and arm.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Staples gave what help he could towards making the tired boy
+comfortable, and then returned to the subject in all their minds. 'So
+your father never told you those particulars?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I think it was his great object not to dwell on them, nor let us
+look back with regret or anger.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just like him. I never saw such a case, never! I'll show you a
+remarkable letter of his. But, first, you ought to understand the way
+the matter stood. To begin with the relationship.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know nothing about them, only that my father and mother were
+second cousins; but I don't even know to which of them my great-uncle
+Underwood was really uncle.'</p>
+
+<p>'To your mother. He had very strong feelings as to the duty of the head
+of a family, and made his house a home for all that needed it. When
+Miss Mary was sent home an orphan from India&mdash;James's, his favourite
+brother's, child&mdash;he asked his cousin's widow, Mrs. Edward Underwood,
+to bring her boy, superintend the house, and look after the little
+girl; and she was glad enough, for the captain had died of his wounds
+at Waterloo, and she had little but her widow's pension.'</p>
+
+<p>'I know,' said Felix. 'Then whose son is the Squire?'</p>
+
+<p>'The son of Lancelot, who was the second brother, between the Reverend
+Fulbert (your great-uncle) and James, your mother's father. So he was
+heir-at-law, but he was a wildish sort of lad, unfit to take Holy
+Orders; and there came to be an understanding that if his uncle would
+buy his commission and purchase his steps, he would not look for the
+Rectory and the estate. On that understanding your father took Orders
+and married; but on old Mr. Underwood's death there was only a draught
+of a will, which he had not been in a state to execute, leaving a
+handsome legacy to Fulbert, but the whole property to your father and
+mother. It seemed a matter of course that, as the only compensation,
+Fulbert should have presented his cousin Edward to the vicarage&mdash;Ł400 a
+year; but as ill-luck would have it, he took offence at some sermon&mdash;a
+Lent one about self-indulgence, I believe it was&mdash;swore he wouldn't
+have a Puseyite parson preaching at him, and went into such a rage,
+that it is thought to be partly by way of getting off giving him the
+living, and getting it held for his son.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'It was a dirty trick; and I was a younger man at the time, and it
+struck me that if your father chose to try the case, the testator's
+intentions being clear, and instructions in his own hand extant, it was
+ten to one it might be given in his favour. I even took a counsel's
+opinion, thinking that at any rate an intimation that the case was to
+be tried before possession was given up, might bring Fulbert to terms
+with regard to the living.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he would not?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. I should like to show you his letter. Would you do me the honour
+of dining with me to-morrow?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was obliged to mutter something about ladies and no dress-coats;
+but this was silenced, and he made a promise contingent on Lance's
+fitness. He was puzzled by the relations in which Mr. Staples seemed to
+stand with the lay-rector; but he found that they were not of business,
+only that elections, and county affairs, brought them together, and
+that Mr. Underwood was regarded with a sort of compassion by the men
+of his own standing, who used to go and visit him whenever they could
+be secure of not encountering the cold welcome and ill-breeding of his
+daughter-in-law&mdash;the grievance of his life.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you see any one you remembered?' further asked Mr. Staples.</p>
+
+<p>'One of the Miss Hepburns, who did not seem very well to know whether
+to acknowledge me or not.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ha, ha!' chuckled Mr. Staples. 'Queer old girls they are. Very high.
+Very good to the poor. All the good that is done in Vale Leston is by
+them; but anything between a swell and a pauper don't exist for them.
+They're as poor as Job, and their pride is all they have, so they make
+the most of it.'</p>
+
+<p>So, after all, the day had not been quite without mortification, and
+Felix felt it a little more than he thought it was worth.</p>
+
+<p>Lance was a good deal excited by the sight of his ancestral home. He
+had an eye for scenery, and longed to bask in it again; boating seemed
+delightful; and he was amazed, not to say elated, by the grandeur
+of the house, which exceeded any&mdash;save Centry Park&mdash;in his limited
+experience. His mind was set on explorations there, and on the whole
+history; while Felix, to whom all was less new and more sorrowful, was
+inclined to hang back from any unwise awakening of unsettling regrets;
+but there was no declining Mr. Staples' kindness, and he had much
+desire to see the letter. So the two youths put on their Sunday coats,
+assisted one another's ties, and looked each other well over before
+encountering the formidable mass of ladies Felix had seen in church,
+and about whom he was far more shy than Lance, who had seen a good deal
+more of the species at Minsterham.</p>
+
+<p>It turned out very pleasant; the frank good-natured mother and
+daughters made themselves very agreeable; and though no one was as
+pretty as Alice Knevett, they were all so far superior to her in manner
+and cultivation that the mixing with them could not fail to soften
+any sting of disappointment that might remain. Lance was made much of
+as an invalid, and very much liked the privileges that did not hinder
+an evening game of croquet, since Mr. Staples evidently intended his
+conference with Felix to be <i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It took place in a pleasant little study, fitted with green morocco and
+walnut, that spoke well for the solicitor's taste and prosperity, and
+looking out on the pretty lawn, with the long shadows of the trees, the
+croquet players flitting about, and the sea glittering in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>The letter was ready, folded up lengthwise and docketed, business
+fashion; but when opened, the familiar handwriting seemed to bring back
+the father, even to the sound of his voice.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>
+
+<span style="margin-left: 65%;">Vale Leston Rectory,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 75%;">18th January.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">MY DEAR STAPLES,</p>
+
+<p>My wife and I feel greatly obliged to you for your good-will
+and zeal on our behalf, and have not for a moment justified
+your dread of being thought officious. In other circumstances,
+I might be tempted to fight the battle; but it is impossible
+for several reasons. Were we the losers, we should be
+totally unable to pay the costs, and a load either of debt
+or obligation would be a burthen we have no right to assume.
+Moreover, the uncertainty of our position pending the decision
+would be as mischievous to myself as to the parishioners. It
+would destroy any fitness to be their Vicar, whether we gained
+or not. The holding the Rectory is in itself an abuse; and
+now that the grapes are sour, I am glad not to encounter the
+question of conscience, and so shall not adopt any means&mdash;to
+my mind doubtful&mdash;for bringing it on myself. This being the
+case, you will see that the idea of alarming Fulbert Underwood
+falls to the ground. Supposing he were coerced into the
+compromise, what a pleasing pair&mdash;squire and parson&mdash;would
+be the result! No, my kind friend, be content to see things
+remain as they are. We carry with us the certainty of our good
+uncle's kindness, and the non-fulfilment of his intentions
+is clearly providential. I have heard of a promising curacy,
+where I shall get the training I need after feeling my wilful
+way as I have done here. My wife, being the expectant heiress
+and lay-rectoress, shall write to satisfy you that she is not
+suffering from my coercion.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 55%;">Yours, most sincerely obliged,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;">E. F. UNDERWOOD.</span><br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>And on another sheet followed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p style="font-size: 0.8em;">DEAR MR. STAPLES,</p>
+
+<p>I think my husband is quite right, and that to go to law would
+only make things much worse. It is very kind in you, but I
+really do not care about anything so long as I have my husband
+and children, and can feel that my dear uncle meant all that
+was kind. Indeed, I really think my husband enjoys the prospect
+of a new and more active kind of work. He is sure to be happy
+anywhere, and as long as that is the case, all will be right;
+and he says that it will be much better for the children not to
+grow up in luxury.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 50%;">With many warm thanks,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 60%;">Yours very truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 70%; font-size: 0.8em;">M. W. UNDERWOOD.</span><br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>'May I copy them?' asked Felix, looking up with his eyes fuller of
+tears than suited his reserved disposition.</p>
+
+<p>His father's letter, full of his constant brave cheerfulness in
+self-abnegation, had not overcome him like the few words that brought
+back the lovely young mamma he now remembered at Vale Leston, but
+whom he had too soon known only as the patient, over-tasked, drudging
+mother, and latterly in the faded helpless invalid. How little she had
+guessed the life that was before her!</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Staples readily supplied him with the materials, adding, 'I will
+take care you have the letters by-and-by. I value them too much to part
+with them in my lifetime.' And presently he interrupted Felix's writing
+by saying, 'I much wished to have seen Mr. and Mrs. Edward Underwood
+again, but it seemed to me that they were unwilling to keep up a
+correspondence.'</p>
+
+<p>'They were so busy,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'No doubt; and I thought they might feel a visit an intrusion.
+Otherwise, I often thought of running down from Town.'</p>
+
+<p>'My father would have been very glad.'</p>
+
+<p>'I did wish to have seen him again&mdash;and your mother, almost a child as
+she was even at that time, with her flock of pretty children. I shall
+never forget her&mdash;the beauty and darling of all the neighbourhood, as
+she used to be. All we young men used to rave about her long before
+she was out.' Mr. Staples smiled at some recollection, and added, 'I
+never spoke to her four times in my life; but I was as bad as any of
+them&mdash;presumptuous as you may think it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad you did not see her again,' burst from Felix, the tears
+starting forth as he copied her hopeful words. 'She altered sadly.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! indeed.'</p>
+
+<p>The concerned tone forced Felix to add, 'It came so much more heavily
+on her than on any of us, care and work and years of seeing my father's
+health failing; and in the last week of his life she had a fall, that
+brought on softening of the brain.'</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, the whole had never struck him as so piteous before as in the
+contrast with her youthful brightness, and when he saw Mr. Staples
+greatly affected. He could only write on through a mist of tears,
+while the solicitor walked about the room, blowing his nose violently,
+and muttering sentences never developed; till at last he came behind
+Felix's chair, and laying his hand on his shoulder, said, 'After all,
+it will come round. You are next heir.'</p>
+
+<p>'Heir? There's Fulbert Underwood!' exclaimed Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'True; but he's been some years married, and there's no sign of a
+family. Depend upon it, we shall see Vale Leston come back yet.'</p>
+
+<p>'It would make no difference now,' muttered Felix, as he traced his
+mother's fearless lines; nay, if he had a personal thought, it was of
+what he might have ventured towards Alice Knevett.</p>
+
+<p>'Not to them,' said Mr. Staples, 'but a good deal to you, my young
+friend.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Mr. Staples,' said Felix, smiling, 'aren't you doing our best to
+unsettle a young man in business?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well, you are too reasonable. A contingency&mdash;only a contingency.
+But I should like to show you.' And he hastily sketched a pedigree that
+had at least the advantage of showing Felix his relationships.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/pedigree.jpg" width="550" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>'There! Through your mother you stand next in the line&mdash;are
+heir-at-law, you see. May I live to see that day! That's all.'</p>
+
+<p>The thought did not affect Felix much at the moment. He was too full of
+what might have been, and the 'contingency' was such a remote one! So
+after answering to the best of his ability whether any of his sisters
+were like his mother, he was glad to get out, and forget it all in
+croquet. His musical capacities were discovered too; but the attempt
+to profit by them proved quite too much for Lance, to whose brain the
+notes of the piano were absolute and severe pain.</p>
+
+<p>A formal little note came on the ensuing morning, in which 'the Misses
+Hepburn'&mdash;in the third person&mdash;requested the favour of the company of
+Mr. Felix Underwood and his brother at luncheon. Felix felt a little
+stung. He could recollect warm passages between the ladies and his
+mother, and had been their pet long enough to wonder at this cold
+reception, and question whether it were not more dignified to reject
+advances made in such a manner; but his heart yearned towards those
+who had been kind to him in his youth, and he believed that his mother
+would have wished him to renew the intercourse, and therefore decided
+upon going; but it was too hot and sunny a day for Lance to walk, and
+Felix so entirely expected the visit to be wearisome and disagreeable,
+if not mortifying, that he could only resolve on it as a duty, and
+would not expose his brother to it.</p>
+
+<p>So he plodded off alone, and a curious visit he had. It was not easy
+for him to guess at the sacredness of those traditions of gentility and
+superiority that the 'Misses Hepburn' held&mdash;not so much for their own
+sakes as in faithful loyalty to the parents many years dead, and to
+the family duty that imposed a certain careful exclusiveness on them
+in deference to the noble lineage they could reckon, and the head of
+the house, whom none of them had ever seen. He could not have guessed
+the warm feeling towards 'dear Mary' that had struggled so hard with
+the sense of duty, and had gained the victory over the soreness at the
+dropping of correspondence, and the idea that it was a dereliction to
+bend to one 'who had lowered himself,' as Mrs. Fulbert Underwood said
+he had.</p>
+
+<p>What he saw was a tiny drawing-room, full of flowers and gimcracks, and
+fuller of four tall angular women, in dark dresses in the rear of the
+fashion, and sandy hair. They had decided in council, or rather Miss
+Isabella had decided for them, that since he was to be received, they
+would remember only his gentle blood; and therefore they shook hands
+with him, and the difference of the clasp alone could have shown the
+difference of character&mdash;the patronising, the nervous, the tenderly
+agitated, the hearty.</p>
+
+<p>He found them better informed than the Squire had been as to the
+condition of the family&mdash;at least, so he presumed from the text of
+their inquiries. Not a word did they say of his own employment&mdash;it
+was to be treated as a thing not to be spoken of; but the welfare of
+the others was inquired after, and especially of Robina&mdash;who was the
+name-child of the eldest sister, the gentlest of the set, and the most
+in the background, quiet and tearful&mdash;pleased to hear that her godchild
+was at school, and as Felix emphatically said 'a very good girl,'
+anxious that he should take charge of 'a little token' for her.</p>
+
+<p>The little token turned out to be 'Ministering Children'; and this gave
+Felix a further hint, which prepared him for the tone in which some of
+his information was received, when he had only mentioned Geraldine as
+gone for health's sake to the St. Faith's Sisterhood.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies looked at one another, Miss Isabella cleared her throat, and
+he knew a warning was coming; so he quickly said, 'One of the ladies,
+a clergyman's widow, was very kind to my father in his illness, and is
+really the best friend we have left in England.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your dear father was too much inclined to those specious doctrines
+that are only too fascinating to youth. I hope you do not outrun him.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope not,' said Felix, very sincerely; and he then succeeded in
+interesting his monitor by speaking of Fulbert, and using him as a
+bridge to lead to an account of Mr. Audley's Australian doings.</p>
+
+<p>It was altogether a stiff uncomfortable visit; the very politeness
+of the good ladies made Felix feel that they viewed his position as
+altered, and he could not but feel a strong hope that he should never
+again have to make this offering at the shrine of ancient friendship.</p>
+
+<p>On coming home in the evening, Felix found a note on the table.</p>
+
+<p>'Croquet to wit?' asked Lance, as Felix tried to read it by the almost
+vanished twilight.</p>
+
+<p>'What's this?'</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>'We hope you and your brother will join us in a pic-nic at
+Kitt's Head on Saturday.</p>
+
+<p>'Having discharged my ladies' commission, I proceed to that
+which I have authority from your relation for intimating
+to you&mdash;namely, that failing heirs of his own son, he has
+entailed the Vale Leston property upon you, thus rendering its
+alienation by the Reverend Fulbert impossible. I believe the
+arrangement was made within the last week. Congratulations
+would hardly be suitable, but I cannot refuse myself the
+pleasure of saying how sincerely I rejoice.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>'What&mdash;what?' cried Lance, jumping up. 'You to have that splendiferous
+river, and the salmons, and all. Won't you get a magnificent organ for
+that church?'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Lance, don't you see that all this means is, that if young
+Fulbert has no children, I shall come after him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, he won't! I'm sure he won't. Things always do come right. Oh, what
+a <i>coup d'état</i> mine was after all! Things always do come right. You,
+that were born to it! Didn't old Tripp say how they had had the bells
+rung for you? I should like to set them going this minute!'</p>
+
+<p>'They should be on your own cap, then!' said Felix, laughing and yet
+sharing in a castle or two&mdash;how Cherry should have a pony-carriage! how
+Clement should be turned loose upon the Church! how Lance should pursue
+the salmon at home and the humanities at the University! how Bernard
+should have a real good gentleman's education!&mdash;but Felix soon brought
+himself back again. 'Remember, Lance, not a word of this at home or
+anywhere else.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not tell any one?' cried the boy, crest-fallen.</p>
+
+<p>'Don't you see, Lance, besides the impropriety of talking of what
+involves two deaths, it would be the most senseless thing in the world
+to let this make the least difference. Old Fulbert may change his mind,
+or young Fulbert have a son; at any rate, he is not five-and-thirty,
+and just as likely as not to outlive me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Fee! Fee! you are quite well, you wretched Norseman!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I didn't mean <i>that;</i> but anybody may outlive anybody for that
+matter. Anyway, there's no chance of any of these schemes coming to
+pass while we are young enough to care, even if they ever do; and if
+they unsettle us now, it would be unmitigated damage.'</p>
+
+<p>'I see that,' said Lance; 'but as, by good luck, I'm No. 8, it can't do
+me much harm to think about it, and I don't see why the others should
+not.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think some of them would be content to go on as we are doing,
+with this in their heads? And if any one in the town knew it, whatever
+I might do, people would think I was getting above my business. I doubt
+whether even Froggy himself would have the same reliance on me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then shan't you even tell Wilmet and Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope not. I don't think Wilmet could keep it from Alda, or Cherry
+from Edgar; and just imagine what it would be to have it come round
+through Kensington Palace Gardens that we were reckoning on it!
+Besides, it will make no earthly difference to anybody, unless, maybe,
+to Edgar's son.'</p>
+
+<p>The mention of such a being brought Felix somehow to a sudden silence;
+and in the meantime supper and a candle were brought in, revealing a
+thick letter from Geraldine, which had at first escaped notice. There
+were two enclosures; but as Felix read her writing, he broke out with
+an exclamation of consternation that startled Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Hollo! What is it?' And as he received no answer&mdash;'Wilmet's not
+given up Jack? Eh? Nor Cherry fallen in love next? Clem hasn't turned
+bare-footed friar?' crowding together the wildest suggestions he could
+think of to force answer.</p>
+
+<p>'Hush! That dear child&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'She doesn't want to be a sister? You'll tell her you'd see her at
+Jericho first!'</p>
+
+<p>'No. It is about her foot.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not worse?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but, dear little thing, she wants to have it taken off, because
+she fancies if she was more effective, it might be one difficulty out
+of Wilmet's way!'</p>
+
+<p>'She's a blessed little brick! But would it be so?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I remember in the time of the measles, the last time I ever let
+that fellow Rugg come near her, he thought proper to tell somebody in
+her hearing that if she was in a fit state of health, it would be the
+only remedy. She wasn't, and it was quite uncalled for; and it put the
+poor little thing in such an agony, that at last Sibby came and wrapped
+me up in a blanket to sit by her, and talk very big about nobody being
+able to do it without my leave, and my not intending to consent to any
+such thing. I thought she had forgotten all about it, but it seems that
+she has not; and she imagines that, as she says, "with a cork foot that
+I could stand upon, instead of always keeping this one up in fear of
+hurting it, I could get about the house with only a stick, and be of
+some use, and then dear Mettie's happiness might not be so far off."'</p>
+
+<p>'And what does Mettie say?'</p>
+
+<p>'She knows nothing; Cherry implores me not to tell her, for she says
+that it would be impossible for Mettie to come and nurse her, and she
+would rather have Sister Constance than any one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Than Mettie! Deluded child!' cried Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Her great wish is to have it done now at St. Faith's. She told Clement
+before she left home, because she thought they would insist on some
+one at home knowing; but "Don't think me very sly," she says; "I would
+not tell Sister Constance what was in my head till I came here, for
+fear she should think it her duty to speak to Wilmet; and now, they
+will not hear of it without your knowing. I did wish to have surprised
+you all! About the cost I have thought. You know Dr. Lee attends me
+for nothing while I am here, and I told you that Sister Constance has
+sent up all my book of illustrations of Queen Isabel, and some of the
+water-coloured drawings, to her sister, Lady Liddesdale, and how much
+she has been getting for them&mdash;quite enough to set me up with a foot
+that will not be half such a nuisance as this old dead-alive one, which
+has never let me have any peace these twelve years. I am trying to be
+good; but indeed I feel as if it might be wrong to try to be rid of my
+cross. So I abide by your decision, dear Felix. You are my king, and I
+put myself in your hands; only you must not be anxious. You should have
+known nothing if I could have helped it."'</p>
+
+<p>'Go on,' grunted Lance, with his face hidden, as Felix paused.</p>
+
+<p>'That's all; but here are notes from Sister Constance and Dr. Lee.'</p>
+
+<p>The Sister's explanation was, that it had been entirely Geraldine's own
+thought, and that her willingness and eagerness made a great difference
+in such a nature as hers. She told Felix not to think of coming&mdash;the
+fewer the better; and he could come in a few hours in case of need.
+It was advisable that the decision should be made quickly, since to
+nervous sensitiveness like Cherry's the very effort to bear suspense
+reacted on the bodily frame. 'If you know what I mean,' concluded
+Sister Constance, 'heroism is likely to carry the little creature
+through what would be far more trying if this were proposed to her for
+her own sake.'</p>
+
+<p>And Dr. Lee's letter gave the medical view, decidedly inclining to the
+opinion that the probabilities were in favour of the operation, and
+that the conditions were never likely to be more promising than at
+present.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear child! I wish I were there!'</p>
+
+<p>'Can't we go?'</p>
+
+<p>'What, you? Think of the train.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance shook his head. 'Couldn't I stay by myself, and you run up?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think I can help it.'</p>
+
+<p>But the excitement of the evening broke Lance's sleep, and the next day
+he was quite ill; while Felix not only saw that he must not be left,
+but perceived after the first that Sister Constance's warning ought to
+be respected, and that an arrival would only agitate Cherry's nerves.
+So he wrote his sanction with a very heavy heart, betraying as little
+emotion as was consistent with the tenderness so essential to support
+brave but fragile little Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>The anxiety seemed to have swallowed up the recollection of Mr.
+Staples' message; indeed, it was not willingly that Felix answered his
+note, and made a half engagement to the pic-nic.</p>
+
+<p>Felix was struck by seeing how much, under the circumstances, Lance
+missed the daily service to which he had been used all his life.</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't mind it at first,' said the chorister, 'it seemed a part of
+the holiday; but somehow the day seems all stupid and astray without
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>But there was no church with it to be heard of; and indeed one attempt
+on Sunday at East Ewmouth resulted in Lance's collapsing into some
+of his most distressing symptoms, caused, as he declared, by the
+overpowering might and untuneableness of the singing, but quite bad
+enough to make Felix resolve against permitting further experiments,
+and thus walk off by himself on the next Wednesday forenoon when he
+heard the bell.</p>
+
+<p>There was a long lecture that he had not bargained for; and when he
+came out with a slightly impatient impulse, the first thing he saw was
+a blue umbrella, a white hat, and a hand waving a paper. In silence
+Felix read&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>'Constance Somerville to Felix Underwood.&mdash;11.30. Favourably
+over. No cause for anxiety.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>They were rather grave and awe-struck, and scarcely spoke all the way
+home&mdash;indeed, Felix was chiefly thinking how to get Lance home out
+of the sun without hurrying or over-heating him; but after dinner
+came a reaction; the boy went frantic with admiration of a beautiful
+yacht that was standing into the bay; and Felix, with his letter to
+Sister Constance to write, one to Australia to finish, and his leading
+articles to draw up, was forced to command peace in something of the
+old rough-and-ready style; and even when Lance vanished, he was to be
+heard singing scraps of comic songs in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>By-and-by he came in carrying a board taller than himself. 'Please your
+Majesty, I'll be as mute as a mole; but I must do this here, for Mrs.
+Pettigrew is baking.'</p>
+
+<p>'What in the name of wonder have you got there?' asked Felix, as
+Lance proceeded to lay his board on the sofa (his day&mdash;and Felix's
+night&mdash;bed) and place on it a white and soppy mass.</p>
+
+<p>'A little dab out, as Sibby calls it,' said Lance. 'It's my puggery.
+Ever since it fell overboard it has been a disgrace to human nature, so
+I have been washing it, and now I've got an iron heating.'</p>
+
+<p>'What a mess you will make of it!' observed Felix, with a grimace of
+disgust, as Lance returned again from the kitchen, holding the iron
+scientifically near his cheek.</p>
+
+<p>'That's all you know about it! Why, I've ironed dozens of
+pocket-handkerchiefs&mdash;at least, not dozens, but my own, dozens of
+times&mdash;in the Harewood tubs.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought the Chapter washed you?'</p>
+
+<p>'So it does, in reason; but last spring there was a doom on my
+pocket-handkerchiefs. The Harewood puppy ate up one; one dropped into
+the canal; I tied up a fellow that had got a cut with one, and the
+beggar never returned it; and two or three more went I don't know how.
+I knew W. W. would be in a dreadful state if I asked for a fresh lot,
+so I used to wash out the last two by turns, till I got some tip and
+bought some fresh ones&mdash;such jolly ones, all over acrobats and British
+flags; and after all, didn't I catch it? Wilmet was no end of disgusted
+to miss her little stupid speckotty ones, vowed these weren't decent
+for the Cathedral, and boned them all for Theodore! Now, hush! or I
+shall come to grief!'</p>
+
+<p>Felix held his pen suspended to watch the dexterity that reduced the
+crude mass to smooth muslin, which in its expanded state looked as
+impracticable as before.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, do you mean to get Mrs. Pettigrew to put it on in those elegant
+festoons?'</p>
+
+<p>'You just mind your leader, Blunderbore! A man who has had women to do
+for him all his life is a pitiable being!'</p>
+
+<p>And Lance, according to instructions obtained from John Harewood,
+wreathed his hat triumphantly in the white drapery, and completed
+Felix's surprise and amusement by producing a needle and thread, and
+setting to work on various needful repairs of his own buttons and his
+brother's, over which he shook his head in amusement as he chuckled at
+the decay which had befallen the garments of so neat a personage as
+Felix, and which had been very distressing to himself.</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! thank you. I never knew what Robinson Crusoe felt like before!'
+said Felix, as Lance came on a wrist-band minus button.</p>
+
+<p>'Robinson Crusoe! You'd soon have been like Man Friday before he caught
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'But doesn't the matron mend for you?'</p>
+
+<p>'She pretends; but I should like to see her face if one brought her
+a chance thing to do. My eyes! if that isn't old Staples! I must
+absquattilate.'</p>
+
+<p>Which after all he had no time to effect, with all his works, before
+their friend came to ask whether they were relieved about their sister,
+and was amused at the handy little schoolboy's ingenious preparations.
+'After all, I find it is to be more of an affair than I expected; I
+thought it was to be only ourselves and the Brandons, but they are the
+kind of people who always pick up every one.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does that yacht belong here?' eagerly asked Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'That! It is the Kittiwake&mdash;Captain Audley's.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ha! That's what Fulbert went to Alexandria in! What fun!'</p>
+
+<p>'He is the son of Sir Robert Audley. Do you know him?'</p>
+
+<p>'His brother was my father's fellow-curate,' said Felix, 'and is our
+guardian and kindest friend. I have seen this one in London. Will he be
+at this pic-nic?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not likely. He is shy and uncertain, very hearty and friendly when
+you do meet him, but reluctant to go into society, and often taking
+no notice one day, when he has seemed like one's best friend the day
+before. They say he has never got over the loss of his wife; but I
+don't like such manners.'</p>
+
+<p>'Does he live here, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'He rents the little Tudor cottage under the cliff year by year, for
+the sake of his yachting&mdash;for he won't go near the regular stations.
+He's got his boy at school at Stoneborough, and stays here all the
+winter.'</p>
+
+<p>When the brothers were walking part of the way back with their visitor,
+they met the gentleman in question, with three boys after him, and
+he was evidently in a cordial mood; for after shaking hands with Mr.
+Staples, he exclaimed, 'I am sure I ought to know you!'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix Underwood,' said the owner of that name.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>Indeed!</i> Not staying with your worthy relations?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I am down here with my brother, who has been laid up by a
+sun-stroke, and wanted sea air.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish I had been at home' said the Captain, who had taken a great
+fancy to Felix when they had been together in London two years
+before; 'but I've been giving my boy and his cousins, the two young
+Somervilles, a trip to the Hebrides; and now, just as I am come home, I
+fall upon Mrs. Brandon, hounding me out to an abominable pic-nic, and
+my youngsters are wild to go. Are you in for it? I believe we shall go
+round to the cove in the yacht. Can I take you two?'</p>
+
+<p>Felix gladly accepted, aware that their transport was a difficulty
+to the Stapleses, and that the Kittiwake would be felicity to Lance,
+who had fraternized with the boys, and went off with them to see the
+vessel. He returned brimful of delight and fatigue, only just in time
+to tumble into bed as fast as possible, and Felix was thus able to get
+his work off his mind by midnight.</p>
+
+<p>The morning's letters set them quite at rest. Sister Constance and
+Clement both wrote: Geraldine had been calm and resolute from the
+time Felix's consent arrived, and doubt was over; and Clement, though
+tender, and striving hard to be firm, had been chiefly useful in
+calling out her words of encouragement. He had spent the time of the
+operation in the oratory, and there had been so entirely overcome by
+the tidings that all was safely over, that he was hardly fit to go to
+Cherry when he was sent for; and that was not soon, for the effect of
+chloroform on her had indeed been to annihilate pain, but only half
+to make her unconscious, for she went on talking to Felix about the
+expedience all the time, ever repeating the old motto, 'Under Wode,
+Under Rode;' and the trance had lasted for a good while, though when
+once over, she remembered nothing of it, and was only so rejoiced and
+thankful, that it was difficult to keep her calm enough. She sent her
+brothers her love, and entreated them not to say a word at home. Lady
+Liddesdale had contrived the sale of the book of illustrations&mdash;a work
+that had been Cherry's delight of many years; so that she could feel
+that she herself had earned what would cover the expense incurred, all
+but the medical attendance, freely given to an inmate of St. Faith's.
+'Tell Felix I am as happy as a queen,' was the final message; 'tell him
+to give thanks for me.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix's voice trembled, shook, and gave way, as he read; and at last he
+sprang up, and walked about the room, saying that no one ever had such
+brothers and sisters as himself. There was something almost oppressive
+in the relief from so much anxiety, and it was some time before he
+roused his ordinary senses to say, 'Well! we must finish breakfast, or
+we shan't be ready for the Captain. How round the world is! Those boys
+must be Sister Constance's nephews&mdash;Lady Liddesdale's sons.'</p>
+
+<p>'Those boys,' said Lance. 'What, Sum and Frank? Well, I did think it
+queer that the sailors on board the Kittiwake called every one My Lord.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sum, I imagine, must mean Lord Somerville. What did you think of them?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nicish chaps of eleven and twelve. Nothing like such swells as Tom
+Bruce! The little one wanted to know where I was at school, and his
+senior snubbed him; so I supposed he saw by the looks of me that I
+wasn't upper-crust public school; and when I said I was a choir-boy,
+the other&mdash;Charlie Audley&mdash;said, "Oh, then you're one of the awful lot
+my father always jaws about when he's out of sorts!" I told him I was
+very sorry, and it wasn't my fault, but yours; and then we got on like
+a house on fire.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>A KETTLE OF FISH.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 35%;">
+'Our Pursuivant at arms will show<br />
+Both why we came and when we go.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 35%;"><i>Scott.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>The place of the pic-nic was a good way off, being the point of the
+promontory that shut in the mouth of the river, a great crag, with
+a long reef of rocks running out into the sea, playfully called the
+Kitten's Tail; though the antiquarians always deposed that the head
+had nothing to do with cats or kits, but with the disposition to erect
+chapels to St. Christopher on the points of land where they might first
+greet the mariners' eyes. Beneath this crag, sheltered by the first
+and larger joints of the Kitten's Tail, was a delightful sandy nook,
+where appeared a multitude of smart hats, male and female, a great many
+strangers even to Captain Audley, who would fain have recognised none
+of them. In a strong access of his almost morbid silence, he devoted
+himself to Felix, and kept aloof from almost every one. Even at the
+dinner, spread on a very sloping bit of beach, pic-nic exigencies
+enabled him to be nearly <i>tęte-ŕ-tęte</i> with Felix, who found himself
+almost back to back to a lady in a brilliant foreign pheasant's plume,
+with glass dew-drops at the points.</p>
+
+<p>In a pause of their own conversation, they heard the inquiry, 'Do you
+know who that boy is&mdash;that fair delicate-looking lad just opposite,
+with the white muslin round his hat?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh&mdash;that!' answered the pheasant lady; 'that is young Lord Somerville,
+son to the Marquess of Liddesdale. He and his brother, Lord Francis,
+have been out yachting with Captain Audley.'</p>
+
+<p>The Captain smiled as he looked at the boys. 'Ay,' he observed, with a
+flash of his bright dark eyes,' he has the advantage over Sum.'</p>
+
+<p>For Lance had resumed his lark-like air, and it was perhaps the more
+striking from the fragility and transparency that remained about his
+looks; and he was full of animation, as he, with a reinforcement of
+boys, clustered round a merry sunny-faced girl, full of joyous drollery.</p>
+
+<p>'Very queer and eccentric&mdash;quite a bear,' was the next thing they
+heard; whereat Captain Audley nodded and smiled to Felix. After the
+general turmoil caused by the change of courses had subsided, that
+penetrating voice was heard again. 'Yes, we came home sooner than we
+had intended. The fact was, we found that old Mr. Underwood was being
+beset by some of those relations. You remember? Oh, yes; they have sunk
+very low&mdash;got into trade, absolutely got into trade! One of them a mere
+common singing-boy. Mr. Underwood is getting aged&mdash;quite past&mdash;and we
+did not know what advantage might be taken of him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your turn now,' murmured Captain Audley, with a look of diversion
+calculated to allay the wounded flush on his neighbour's cheek.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean Mr. Edward Underwood's sons?' said a voice on the other
+side. 'I always understood them to be very respectable and well
+conducted.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, very likely! Only I do happen to know that one of them has been
+a great trouble and vexation to Tom Underwood; and we didn't want the
+same over again with the poor old Squire.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did I understand you that any of them were here?' added the other
+voice; 'for I had just been struck by the likeness of that boy
+opposite, talking to my sister, to poor Mr. Edward Underwood, as I
+remember him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, Mrs. Rivers; I assure you that's young Lord Somerville!'</p>
+
+<p>Captain Audley made an effort, rather difficult in his Turkish
+position, to crane his head beyond the interposing figures, recognised
+and bowed to the speaker, who greeted him by name, and thus diminished
+the flow of Mrs. Fulbert Underwood's conversation by her awe of the
+high and mighty bear whom she scarcely knew by sight. He had no taste
+for scenes, and did not put either her or Felix to pain by mentioning
+his name; but when the last act of the meal was over, and people began
+to move, he made his way in the direction of the inquiring voice. 'Mrs.
+Rivers, let me introduce Mr. Felix Underwood.'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very happy&mdash;' and there was a cordial smile and a hand held out.
+'Are you here for long? My father would be so much pleased to see you.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a rather worn pale face; but the ease and sweetness of manner,
+and the perfect fitness of the dress, made a whole that gave Felix a
+sense of the most perfect lady he had met with, except his mother and
+Sister Constance.</p>
+
+<p>'I am at Ewmouth, with one of my brothers who has been ill.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lord Somerville?' and all three burst out laughing. 'My sister has
+found him out, I see. She and your little boy are old friends, Captain
+Audley.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, you have been very kind to him. But I am as much surprised to see
+you here as you can be to see my friend. Are you from home?'</p>
+
+<p>'We go back this evening. We slept at the Crewes' last night. My
+husband had business there; and when they asked us to this pic-nic,
+it was a good opportunity for Gertrude to learn the beauties of her
+county.'</p>
+
+<p>'Which she seems to be doing under full escort,' laughed Captain
+Audley, as the young lady and the young boy flock were seen descending
+to the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>'She has a strong taste for little boys,' said the elder sister. 'You
+have the Somerville boys here, haven't you, though?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; there had been scarlatina or something or other in their school,
+and their mother was afraid of them among their sisters, till I had
+purified them by a sea voyage.'</p>
+
+<p>Probably Mrs. Fulbert never found out her mistake; for Lord Somerville
+reported that he had never been so pitched into in his life as by an
+old girl in a 'stunning tile,' who found him washing out an empty
+pie-dish for the benefit of some maritime monsters that he wanted to
+carry home to his sisters; but that when Lance came up, she was as meek
+as a mouse. Certainly, the two boys were little sturdy fellows, burnt
+lobster-like up to the roots of their bleached and rough hair; and
+their costumes were more adapted to the deck of the Kittiwake in all
+weathers, than to genteel society. Their sisters were in an aquarium
+fever, and their sport all through their expedition had been researches
+for what they had learnt in Scotland to call 'beasts;' and now the
+collection was to be completed from the mouth of the Ewe, and the
+scrambling and tumbling it involved were enchanting.</p>
+
+<p>Kate Staples, who usually considered Lance her charge, was not sorry
+to see a croquet player disposed of among his own congeners; for the
+game seemed such a necessary of life, that it was actually prepared for
+on the sands, to the extreme contempt of the anemone hunters. 'Play at
+croquet, forsooth, when rocks aren't to be had to scramble on every
+day!' And scramble ecstatically they did, up and over slippery stone
+and rock festooned with olive weed, peeping into pools of crystal
+clearness, and admiring rosy fans of weed, and jewel-like actinias
+embellished by the magic beauty of intense clear brightness. The boys
+took off shoes and stockings, turned up trousers, and scrambled and
+paddled like creatures to the manner born.</p>
+
+<p>'O dear! I wish I might!' sighed the young lady.</p>
+
+<p>'Why don't you?' said Charlie Audley. 'Kate and Em and Annie always
+do&mdash;don't they, Frank?'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course they do, or how would they ever get on!'</p>
+
+<p>'Come along then, Miss Gertrude,' said Charlie. 'You can't think how
+jolly it is!'</p>
+
+<p>And soon another pair of little white feet were dancing on the rocks.
+'Oh dear! what a blunder of civilisation it is to wear shoes at all!
+How delicious a hold one gets!'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't think why people do wear them! They never are anything but a
+bother,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'To play at foot-ball with,' suggested Somerville from the top of a
+rock.</p>
+
+<p>'But women don't,' said Gertrude.</p>
+
+<p>'<i>I</i> think women do it, and make us, that they may have something to
+worrit about,' said Frank. 'Damp stockings are the bother of creation
+till one goes to school; and then, isn't it jolly!'</p>
+
+<p>'Except the chilblains,' called out Charlie.</p>
+
+<p>'I believe,' said Lance, 'chilblains come of shoes.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, they can't,' argued Charlie, 'for one has them on one's hands.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' said Gertrude, 'let's form ourselves into a society for the
+suppression of shoes and stockings!'</p>
+
+<p>'Hurrah!' cried Lance. 'I know one person at least that it would be a
+blessing to.'</p>
+
+<p>The question was, how the five bold reformers were to begin. Frank
+suggested drowning all the present stock, and pretended to be about to
+begin, but was of course prevented by a scream.</p>
+
+<p>'Public opinion must be prepared first,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'And that,' said Gertrude, 'we'd better do by a great example! Here,
+we'll show what can be done. Why shouldn't we get out to the end of the
+Kitten's Tail?'</p>
+
+<p>'One can't to the end,' said Charlie; 'there's a place big enough for a
+gig to go through, half way out.'</p>
+
+<p>'And about the tide?' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Tide,' said Charlie, looking at his watch&mdash;'tide wouldn't think of
+playing us such a dirty trick as turning for an hour and a half.'</p>
+
+<p>'And the jolliest beasts of all always live in places like that,' added
+Somerville. 'Come on, President of the Society for the Suppression of
+Shoeses&mdash;to the front!'</p>
+
+<p>On moved the august Society, now scrambling to a dry flat, now
+threading a <i>mauvais pas</i>, clinging to festoons of sea-weed; the three
+little boys climbed like monkeys or sailors; but Lance, agile as he
+was, had not had the same amount of training, and felt besides that it
+was requisite to be ready to give a helping hand to Miss Gertrude. She
+got on very well, being full of lightness and springiness, only she was
+a little inclined to be adventurous, and to chatter at critical moments.</p>
+
+<p>'We must have got out a quarter of a mile.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh no, not that!'</p>
+
+<p>'No? I'm sure it is! How small they look on the beach! I wonder if they
+can see us! Hark! they're singing&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'"Drink to me only with thine eyes;" that's Felix's crack glee,' said
+Lance; 'what fun for him!'</p>
+
+<p>'This is much better fun!' cried the general voice. 'They'll never see
+us if we wave now!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no; don't let's wave now! Wait till we get to the farthest point.'</p>
+
+<p>'And there we'll plant our ensign!'</p>
+
+<p>'What shall we do for a flag? We haven't got the Britisher here!'</p>
+
+<p>'No; it must be the flag of the SSSS's.'</p>
+
+<p>'That ought to be a bit of bare skin.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no&mdash;a pair of feet&mdash;motto, "Off, vile lendings!"'</p>
+
+<p>'I say, I don't think you can get any farther,' interposed Somerville.
+'I've been on four rocks farther, and I'm sure you will never get back
+again if you go on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that's base! I'm sure this one isn't so hard.'</p>
+
+<p>She was creeping along a ledge, holding the sea-weed with one hand and
+Lance by the other.</p>
+
+<p>'I really don't think it passable,' he said; 'there's scarcely the
+width of one's foot beyond.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hurrah!' shouted Frank. 'Here's the father of all the Daisianas!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! oh! he's my cousin. I must see him!' cried Gertrude, with a
+scramble and a laugh, which ended in a sudden slip&mdash;luckily, not into
+the open sea, but into a very steep-sided bath-like pool; and Lance,
+whom of course she gripped hard, was pulled after her, both over head
+and ears; and though they scrambled on their feet in a moment, there
+they stood up to their shoulders in water.</p>
+
+<p>'Get the Daisiana now you are there!' shouted Frank.</p>
+
+<p>'How are we ever to get out?' said Gertrude, looking up the walls, six
+feet at least on the lowest side.</p>
+
+<p>'If we had a rope,' said Charlie.</p>
+
+<p>'Make signals&mdash;call,' said Somerville, all suiting the action to the
+word. 'No, they don't hear! they are all singing away. You, Franky,
+you're too little to be any good, make the best of your way to call
+somebody.'</p>
+
+<p>'The tide will come in!' said Frank. 'Mamma and Aunt Emmie were once
+shut in by the tide, and Uncle Edwin. And there was a fellow who was
+quite drowned&mdash;dead&mdash;and that was why I was named Francis.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's what you may call a cheering reminiscence at a happy moment,'
+said Lance, recollecting that he was far more nearly a man than any one
+present, and instinctively feeling the need of brightening all into
+cheerful activity, for the girl looked thoroughly frightened. 'Yes,
+Lord Frank, the best thing you can do is to go for somebody; but we'll
+be out long first. Can't we make a rope? Have you a sash or anything,
+Miss Gertrude? Don't fear, we'll soon be out.'</p>
+
+<p>Happily she had both a sash and a broad ribbon round her hat; and Lance
+tore off his puggery.</p>
+
+<p>'I can do it best,' called Charlie. 'I know all the sailors' knots.'</p>
+
+<p>'It will never bear,' said Gertrude.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes, it will. You'll not trust your whole weight to it. Is it done?'</p>
+
+<p>'Besides, how can they draw me up?'</p>
+
+<p>'We'd best get behind that rock, Sum,' suggested Charlie, 'then she
+won't pull us in.'</p>
+
+<p>Charlie's sailor experience was very useful; and he shouted advice to
+Lance, who was tying the extemporary rope round Gertrude, not very
+easily, owing to the material, and to its being done under water.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, then, you do your best at climbing&mdash;here,' he said. 'They'll pull
+you; and look! There, first my knee&mdash;yes&mdash;now my shoulder&mdash;now&mdash;' And
+standing for a moment on his shoulder, Gertrude was really able with a
+desperate grapple to surmount the wall of her prison, and scramble out
+beside the two cousins, whose pulls had been very helpful.</p>
+
+<p>Lance's clambering was a harder matter, for he did not venture to trust
+much to the rope, though the girl's strength was added to that of the
+two boys; and it was a severe climb up the scarcely indented, slippery,
+moist, slimy rock, where his hands and feet could hardly find any hold;
+and when at length he reached the top, he was so panting and dizzy,
+that Somerville at first held him to hinder his slipping backward into
+the sea. No one could get at King or Queen Daisiana, so it was left
+in its glory; while the young people struggled back over rocks that
+seemed much steeper, and pools far deeper, than in their advance; Lance
+still trying to be helpful, but with a mazed sense of the same sort of
+desperate effort with which he had run back with Bill's verses; for not
+only had his small strength been overtaxed, but the immersion in water
+was affecting his head.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Francis had made much quicker progress; and boy as he was,
+showed his breeding by not rushing open-mouthed on the party with his
+intelligence, but seeking the Captain, who was smoking the pipe of
+solitude upon a rock apart. He at once sent Frank to the servants, who
+were enjoying the relics of the feast, to fetch some wine, and tell
+the boat's crew to make ready at once, and then went off himself to
+seek Mrs. Rivers. Felix, who had spied the little messenger speeding
+up to the Captain, was already on his way to the rocks, and reached
+the party in good time; for draggled, drenched, and with clinging
+garments, they were so slow in getting on, that it was no delusion
+that the water was higher, and the rocks lower; and even Gertrude had
+neither breath nor spirits to gabble when that grave anxious face met
+her, and a strong careful hand lifted and helped, first her, then
+Lance, up and down every difficulty; and when she perceived how the
+new-comer avoided point-blank looking at the bare ankles that had
+sometimes to make long stretches, a burning red came up into her face,
+half of shame, half of indignation at being made ashamed. And after
+all, when the place where her hose and shoon had been left was reached,
+the niched shelf in the rock turned out to have been surrounded by the
+tide, so that they were quite unattainable either by herself or the
+little boys; and Felix, putting the arm by which Lance had held by
+him over Somerville's shoulder told them to go on before, and himself
+made two long strides and a scramble before he could reach the boots
+and stockings, and give them to the young lady, unable to help looking
+nearly as grave and vexed as if it had been Angela herself; indeed, he
+was vexed, for he had an ideal of the young ladyhood of his mother's
+old native region, and did not like it to be disturbed. He moved away
+far enough for her to think he had left her to her fate, till she was
+on her feet and coming on, and then there he was again, in a moment
+the attentive squire. Revived by her short rest, and on less perilous
+ground, she glanced at his face in readiness to disperse her discomfort
+with something saucy, but somehow it would not do; and she was tamely
+conducted to terra firma, where her sister saluted her with 'O Daisy!
+what a child you are to have charge of!'</p>
+
+<p>That restored her enough to answer, 'I'm quite delighted something
+should have happened under your keeping! No harm done. Salt water never
+gives cold.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't mind it for you,' said the elder sister; 'you have not been
+ill.&mdash;But indeed, Mr. Underwood, I am very sorry,' she added. 'What
+will be best for your brother?'</p>
+
+<p>'Here!' said Captain Audley, taking from Frank a flask of sherry, and
+over-ruling the objection made by the brothers that stimulants were
+forbidden. He further insisted on taking Lance at once to his own berth
+on board the yacht while Mrs. Rivers meant to conduct her sister to the
+preventive house.</p>
+
+<p>'So,' said Lance, rather ruefully, as he shook hands, 'there ends the
+SSSS.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not at all! Its use is proved. We should have been cooked by this time
+in the Daisiana cauldron, if we had had great cumbrous boots on.'</p>
+
+<p>It was a valiant effort, and she cast a glance out of the corner of
+her eye at the elder brother, but it had not relaxed a muscle of his
+grave anxious face, which was in truth chiefly bent on watching Lance's
+involuntary shiverings; and she again turned crimson, perhaps from her
+share of the chill, and was dragged off, muttering, 'What intolerable
+folks guardian brothers are! Henry Ward was a mild specimen compared to
+this one!'</p>
+
+<p>About noon on the following day, Mrs. Pettigrew's little girl abruptly
+opened the parlour door, and with 'Please, ye're wanted,' turned in a
+tall, thin, grey-haired, spectacled gentleman, who, as Lance started up
+from the sofa, exclaimed, 'Don't disturb yourself; I came to thank you,
+and inquire after you after the adventure my mad-cap daughter led you
+into.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope she is all right,' said Lance, solicitously.</p>
+
+<p>'As right as Daisiana himself; more so than I fear you are. Let me see
+you comfortable. Lie down again, pray.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I don't care about lying down, thank you, Sir; I only sleep for
+want of something to do;' but though he did not put his feet up, he was
+feeling far too languid not to relax his bolt-upright attitude, and
+lean back on his pillows.</p>
+
+<p>'That will do. Bad head-ache?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is nearly gone off now, thank you, Sir; it was bad all night, but
+it is much better since I have been asleep.'</p>
+
+<p>'Let me see,' laying his left hand on the wrist that hung over the edge
+of the sofa. 'Ay, I hope that wicked little siren has done no great
+damage. Pulled you below, true mermaid fashion&mdash;eh?'</p>
+
+<p>'I meant to have pulled her out.'</p>
+
+<p>'Instead of which she made a lad into a ladder to climb out on.' Which
+bad pun served the purpose of making the boy laugh enough to be at
+his ease. 'She is much indebted, and so am I. I like to meet an old
+friend's son. Are you alone?'</p>
+
+<p>'My brother is only gone to the post-office. He will be in before long;
+but it saves a post to take the letters before twelve, and he ought to
+be out as much as he can.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is he here on his own account, or yours?'</p>
+
+<p>'He came down first, before I was ill. It was bother and overwork and
+a cough. Everything always does come to worry him, whenever he ought
+to have rest or pleasure.' And Lance, who was thoroughly weary and
+dispirited, was nearly ready to cry.</p>
+
+<p>'Even when he goes out for a pic-nic, young ladies must needs drown
+themselves!'</p>
+
+<p>This made Lance smile; but he added, with a quivering lip, 'He would
+not go to bed till I could go to sleep last night, and that was not
+till past two, and he looks quite done up this morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is any one attending you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Dr. Manby did at Minsterham&mdash;nobody here.'</p>
+
+<p>'What's been amiss with you&mdash;fever?'</p>
+
+<p>'Plenty of fever, but it was from sun-stroke.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! you boys have thinner skulls than we used to have! How long ago?'</p>
+
+<p>'Seven weeks yesterday,' said Lance, wearily.</p>
+
+<p>'And you are sadly weary of weakness?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't mind that so much;' and the kindness of face, voice, and
+gesture, made the poor boy's eyes overflow; 'but I'm no good, and I
+can't tell whether I ever shall be again!'</p>
+
+<p>'It is a great deal too soon to trouble yourself about that.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's what they all tell me!' cried Lance, impatiently, and the tears
+rushed forth again. 'Manby only laughs, and tells me I shall be a Solon
+yet if I don't vex myself; and how can I tell whether he means it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, dear boy, have it all out; I promise to mean whatever I say.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are a doctor then, Sir?'</p>
+
+<p>'What! the boy doesn't know me, as sure as my name's Dick May!'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!' cried Lance, 'that was what I heard Felix saying to Captain
+Audley&mdash;that he did so wish Dr. May could look at me!'</p>
+
+<p>'That's all right, then. Come, then, what is weighing on you&mdash;weakness?'</p>
+
+<p>'Just not weakness,' said Lance. 'I didn't care so much when I could
+scarcely get about; but now I can walk any distance, and still I have
+not a bit more sense!'</p>
+
+<p>'Is your memory gone?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think so; only, if I fix my mind to recollect, and it doesn't
+come by chance, I'm all abroad, and perfectly senseless and idiotic!'</p>
+
+<p>'And it brings on pain?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, if I try five minutes together.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't try to read or write?'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't&mdash;and&mdash;' then came the tears again&mdash;'music is just like red-hot
+hammers to me.' There was a great fight with sobs, rather puzzling to
+one who did not know what music was to the chorister. 'And what is to
+be the end of it?'</p>
+
+<p>'That rest and patience will make you as well as ever.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you really think so? But, Sir, I have a little brother seven and a
+half years old, with no understanding at all&mdash;not able to speak; and if
+there were two of us on Felix's hands like <i>that!</i> If I could only be
+put away somewhere, so that Felix should not have the burthen of me!'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor little fellow! Is this what is preying on you all this time?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not always&mdash;only when I am doing nothing, and that is most times,' he
+said, dejectedly; but the Doctor smiled.</p>
+
+<p>'Then you may take the very anxiety as a proof that your brain is
+recovering. You cannot expect to shake off the effects quickly; but if
+you are only patient with yourself, you will do perfectly well. Are you
+a son of the clergy?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I am a chorister at Minsterham. I have another year there, when I
+can go back, if ever&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't say <i>if</i> ever! You will, if you only will keep from fretting and
+hurrying, and will accept that beautiful motto of the Underwoods.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance smiled responsively, and said more cheerfully, 'You are quite
+sure, Sir?'</p>
+
+<p>'As sure as any man can be, that there is no reason to anticipate what
+you dread. It is quite possible that you may be more or less liable
+to bad head-aches, and find it needful to avoid exposure to summer
+sunshine; but I should think you as likely to do your work in the world
+as any one I ever saw.'</p>
+
+<p>The light on Lance's face did not wholly spring from this reply. With
+'There's Felix!' he had bounded out of the room the next moment, and
+his incautious voice could be heard through the window&mdash;'Fee, Fee,
+here's her father! that brick of a Miss Gertrude's, I mean. He's
+as jolly as he ought to be, and knew all our people. But just&mdash;I
+say&mdash;how's Cherry?'</p>
+
+<p>'All well; here's a note from the dear little thing herself,' said
+Felix; and in another moment, with his bag strapped over his shoulder,
+he had brought the bright sedateness of his face into the little
+parlour. 'Dr. May! how very kind in you!'</p>
+
+<p>'Not kindness, but common propriety, to come and see how much mischief
+my naughty child had done.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think there's any real mischief,' said the elder brother,
+looking at the much-refreshed face.</p>
+
+<p>'I think not, and so am free to be glad of the catastrophe that has
+brought me in the way of an old friend. Yes, I may say so, for I must
+have known you!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Felix, 'we used to watch for you when you came to my uncle.
+You always had some fun with us.'</p>
+
+<p>'I remember a pair of twins, who were an irresistible attraction. I
+hope they have grown up accordingly. You look as if you ought to have
+pretty sisters.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix laughed, and said the twins were reckoned as very pretty.</p>
+
+<p>'How many of you are there&mdash;was it not thirteen? Did not those boys get
+the clergy-orphan?'</p>
+
+<p>'One did, thank you. He is on a farm in Australia now, and I am
+thinking whether to try for little Bernard; but I am afraid his case
+would be a stale one, being of seven years' standing.'</p>
+
+<p>'If you want it done, my daughter, Mrs. Rivers, is a dragon of
+diplomacy in canvassing; but why not send him to Stoneborough? Cheviot
+takes a selection of cleric's sons at Ł30, and we would have an eye to
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, if we can only manage it; but I must see what my sister
+says&mdash;our financier.'</p>
+
+<p>'One of those little apple-blossom twins? Let me look at you. Do you
+mean to tell me that this fellow has been the whole stand-by of that
+long family these seven years?' he added, turning to Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure he has!' cried Lance, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>'Lance!' said Felix, rather indignantly. 'You forget Wilmet. And Thomas
+Underwood entirely educated two of us.'</p>
+
+<p>'And,' said the Doctor, looking oddly but searchingly from one to the
+other, 'you've been the bundle of sticks in the fable. Never gone
+together by the ears? Ah!' as both brothers burst out laughing at the
+question, 'I'd not have asked if I had not seen how you could answer.
+I've seen what makes me so afraid of brothers in authority that it does
+me good to look at you two.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix looked up. The Stoneborough murder case was about two years old,
+and of course he had to study and condense the details, and had come on
+the names of Dr. May and his son in the evidence.</p>
+
+<p>The further words met his sudden conjecture. 'Ay, boys, you little know
+what you may be spared by home peace and confidence! Well, and what may
+you be doing, Felix? Your bag looks as if you had turned postman to the
+district.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's my chief business, Sir, coupled with bookselling and
+stationery,' said Felix, as he pushed across a copy of the Pursuivant
+that lay on the table. 'I have been well paid from the first, and am in
+partnership now, so we have got along very well.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, ay! Very good trade, I should think? You must send me your paper,
+Felix; I want one I can trust to lie about the house.'</p>
+
+<p>'You will find it very stupid and local, Sir.'</p>
+
+<p>It was curious how what from Mr. Staples was answered with an effort,
+seemed from Dr. May to draw out confidence. One point was, that Mr.
+Staples never seemed sure how to treat him, and often betrayed a fear
+of hurting his feelings; while with Dr. May he was himself and nothing
+else. The Doctor stayed to share their dinner, such as it was in
+consideration of their being lodgers as didn't give trouble&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>
+some plain boiled fish, fresh indeed, but of queer name and quality,
+and without sauce, and some steak not distantly related to an old shoe;
+but both seemed to think so little about it, that the Doctor, who was
+always mourning over the daintiness of the present day, approved them
+all the more.</p>
+
+<p>Just as they had finished, Captain Audley came in with his boys, on
+their way to start off the Somervilles by the train, and it was agreed
+that when he took his son back to school at Stoneborough, Felix and
+Lance should come with him and spend the day.</p>
+
+<p>And a pleasant day it was, as pleasant as the unsettled wanderings of
+a long day in a strange place could be, and memorable for one curious
+fact&mdash;namely, that for the first time in her life Gertrude May was shy!</p>
+
+<p>Not with Lance. She had a good deal of pastime with him in the cool
+garden, while Felix was being walked over the school-yards in the
+sun; and they were excellent friends, though Ethel certainly had a
+certain repugnance to the discovery of how big a boy it was with whom
+Gertrude had danced bare-footed on the rocks. Of course Ethel was the
+kindly mistress of the house as usual, but she was worn and strained
+in spirits just then, and disinclined to exert herself beyond the
+needful welcome to her father's guests. So she let them all go out,
+and went on with her own occupations, thinking that it was well that
+Daisy should take her part in entertaining guests, since 'that boy' was
+evidently a thorough little gentleman; and then shrinking a little as
+she heard their voices over Aubrey's museum, including the Coombe Hole
+curiosities.</p>
+
+<p>No, it was not towards Lance that Daisy was shy; but when all sat
+round the dinner-table, she was unusually silent, and listened to
+the conversation far more than was her wont, though it was chiefly
+political. When Felix spoke to her, she absolutely coloured rosy red
+and faltered, unable to conquer the shamefacedness that their encounter
+had left her; and when the party had taken leave, and she was standing
+in the twilight, Ethel, to her great surprise, found the child quietly
+crying.</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing!' she said, angry at being detected.</p>
+
+<p>'It can't be nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, it is. Only I do so hate&mdash;hate myself for being a tom-boy!'</p>
+
+<p>'One often does go on with that a little too long; and then comes the
+horrible feel.'</p>
+
+<p>'And that it should have happened with him of all people in the world!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Daisy, I wish I had come out with you!'</p>
+
+<p>'Fudge, Ethel! Not to-day. Do you think I care about that boy? I should
+think not! But&mdash;but&mdash;I wanted to think him a nasty prig, but I can't!'</p>
+
+<p>'Who?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, that eldest brother. When he found me scrambling about with
+my stockings off, he didn't speak, but he looked, as Richard might,
+surprised and sorry. I thought it was impertinent&mdash;at least I wanted
+to, but&mdash; And now he'll always think me&mdash;nasty!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear, if one must have a lesson of that kind, it is as well it
+should be from some one that one is never likely to see or hear of
+again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! but not from the very best and noblest of people one ever will
+hear of. Yes, Ethel, I'm not gone mad! That boy has been telling me
+all about his brother; and indeed I never did hear or know about any
+one who was a real hero in a quiet way! No; whenever I hear of a hero,
+I shall think of Mr. Underwood. And, oh dear, that I should have made
+such a goose of myself!'</p>
+
+<p>It was quite unaffected&mdash;a spark of real reverence had lighted at last
+on Gertrude's mind. 'To turn tradesman for the sake of one's brothers
+and sisters, that I do call heroic!' she said; and maintained his
+cause, even to putting down F.U. as her 'favourite hero' in lists of
+likes and dislikes.</p>
+
+<p>But there was no great chance of Gertrude again encountering her hero;
+for the morning after their day at Stoneborough, Lance was beginning
+to experiment on his powers by skimming newspapers, especially the
+Pursuivant, because he knew it before, all but the last local items,
+that could only be added at the moment of going to press. Suddenly he
+broke out, 'Holloa! you never told me this! Mowbray Smith <i>has</i> put his
+foot in it this time.'</p>
+
+<p>'What?' said Felix, pausing in the act of opening an envelope from Mr.
+Froggatt.</p>
+
+<p>'Pocketing the coal and school money&mdash;ay, and the alms.'</p>
+
+<p>'Eh? Impossible! Let me look.'</p>
+
+<p>'There. A letter signed "Scrutator." There's a great deal more than
+I can read, all about under-paid curates and sycophants. My Lady is
+catching it, I should say! It must be true, or Froggy would not have
+put it in.'</p>
+
+<p>'He never admitted that!' said Felix, tearing open his letter. 'He is
+in utter dismay, asks whether I could have seen the thing, tells me to
+telegraph yes or no, that he may know whether to speak to Redstone.
+What's this about tribute to my father?'</p>
+
+<p>'Here! "Once it was deemed well that the ecclesiastical staff should be
+by birth and character, if not by pecuniary fortune, above suspicion;
+but the universal application of the general screw system has warned
+off all who had a predilection for an unfettered tongue, and we all
+know what hands accompany one in chains."'</p>
+
+<p>'Libellous!' cried Felix, running his eye over the article. 'It looks
+as if it had strayed out of the Dearport Hermes. I'd not have had this
+happen for ten thousand pounds! Clap-trap about fat rectors and starved
+curates! Jackman's writing, I'd lay any wager!'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't think he did it?'</p>
+
+<p>'Smith? Muddled his accounts! Nothing more likely; charges like this
+are not got up without some grounds of some sort; but as to intentional
+fraud, that's utter nonsense. Well, I'm off to the station, and I hope
+in half an hour's time Master Redstone will be quaking.'</p>
+
+<p>Ten days of the holiday still remained; and Captain Audley, with boat
+and yacht, greatly added to its pleasures, which both brothers were
+able thoroughly to enjoy, living almost entirely out of doors, and
+valuing each hour as they became fewer.</p>
+
+<p>This matter, however, made Felix very uneasy. He wrote to the curate,
+offering all the amends in his power, and undertaking that if Mr. Smith
+would send him an explanatory letter, he would back it up with a strong
+leading-article; and he waited anxiously for further intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Froggatt's letter came first. Redstone, fond of dabbling in
+editorship, had taken reproof in great dudgeon, affecting great
+surprise at being blamed for inserting a letter from a respectable
+gentleman without submitting it to Mr. Froggatt, who had entirely
+dropped the editorship, or delaying it to another issue by sending
+it to Ewmouth. The respectable gentleman was young Jackman, who was
+no doubt delighted to have such a firebrand to cast. It was a great
+grief and annoyance to Mr. Froggatt, who had always steered clear of
+personalities, and been inoffensive if sometimes dull; and both assault
+and defence were distressing to him&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> if defence were possible,
+for he seemed doubtful whether silence would not lead to the least
+scandal. Even Wilmet wrote: 'Every one seems to think Mr. Smith is to
+blame; and he is so huffy, that it looks only too much as if he were
+afraid of inquiry.'</p>
+
+<p>This was too true a character of his replies. That intended for the
+paper had not a line of real defence, but was a mere tirade on the
+dignity of his office, and the impudence of the charges. Felix dashed
+it away, enraged at its useless folly; nor was the private one more
+satisfactory. It was but a half acceptance of Felix's total disclaimer;
+and the resentful wording made it difficult to discern whether the
+imputation were <i>bonâ fide</i>, regarded as not worth refuting, or whether
+indignation were made an excuse for denial instead of proof. A separate
+sheet seemed to have been added. 'The whole is to be subjected to
+the scrutiny of a parish meeting on Tuesday, when, though the minute
+accuracy of a professional accountant is not to be expected of one
+whose province is not to serve tables, it will be evident that only
+malignity to the Church could have devised the attack to which your
+paper has given currency.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' broke out Lance, as Felix with a voice of ineffable disgust
+read the final sentence, 'if that is not being a knave, it is very like
+a long-eared animal!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell you what, Lance, they'll take him between their teeth, and
+worry him till there's not an inch left whole of him. Jackman and his
+pack will tear him down; and even Bruce and Jones, and our own good old
+Froggy, will give him up when they see his books won't balance.'</p>
+
+<p>'Serve him right!' cried Lance. 'What fun to see his airs taken down,
+when he's served with the sauce he's so fond of for other people! I
+only wish they'd got my Lady too!'</p>
+
+<p>'I must go home, that's all,' said Felix. 'If I got there on Wednesday,
+I might see if I could not get his accounts into presentable order.'</p>
+
+<p>'What?'</p>
+
+<p>'If I don't, I am afraid no one else will.'</p>
+
+<p>'He will not let you.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think I can make him.'</p>
+
+<p>'But such a cur as he has always been to you!'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think he will object now. I know he can't do the thing
+himself; and if little Bisset could, depend upon it his mother would
+not let him stir a finger for fear of being implicated. Now I do know
+the ways of those accounts. I've done them with my father and with Mr.
+Audley. Any way, I must be at home for the meeting. Imagine Redstone
+reporting it! But you can stay out the week, and come home in the
+yacht.'</p>
+
+<p>For Captain Audley had promised to take the brothers round to Dearport;
+but Lance could not bear to be left behind; and it ended in their
+walking up to the Tudor cottage to make their excuses, when the
+good-natured captain declared that he could put to sea that very night
+and land them at Dearport in good time.</p>
+
+<p>So after a hurried grateful farewell to the Staples family, the holiday
+closed with a voyage that both were able to enjoy to the utmost before
+they sailed into the harbour at Dearport, and walked up to St. Faith's.
+Captain Audley, who had not seen Sister Constance since her husband's
+death, had an access of shyness and would not encounter the 'Lady
+Abbess,' as he called her; but his last words to Felix were a promise
+that if Bernard went to Stoneborough, he would have him out now and
+then for a holiday with his own boy.</p>
+
+<p>There had been time to send notice to Geraldine, and her brothers had
+hoped to have taken her home with them; but though she looked clear and
+bright, she was not out of the doctor's hands, and was under orders to
+stay another week. The sight of her brothers made her very homesick,
+in spite of being the spoilt child of the Sisterhood, in the pleasant
+matted room, with its sea view, its prints, and photographs; but then
+she wanted to have her way prepared with Wilmet. Her vision had been
+to walk in imposingly, and take them all by surprise; but that notion
+had vanished as the time drew nearer, and she found that her new art
+required practice, while the dread of making a sensation grew upon her.
+She was ashamed of having even thought of compensating for Wilmet's
+absence, and entreated Felix to communicate the fact, without a word of
+the presumption that had nerved her courage.</p>
+
+<p>The three looked over one another, as if each had undergone much since
+the last meeting; but the sight of Felix greatly relieved Cherry. He
+was sunburnt and vigorous, and his voice had resumed its depth of quiet
+content, instead of having that unconsciously weary sound of patience
+and exertion that had often gone to her heart. Lance, whom she had not
+seen since Easter, had assumed a look of rapid growth; his features had
+lost their childish form, and were disproportionate; and his complexion
+still had the fitful colouring of convalescence; but his eyes were
+dancing, and his talk ecstatic as to Vale Leston and the Kittiwake,
+where he was ready, at that moment, to become a cabin-boy.</p>
+
+<p>'O Cherry! Cherry! you never dreamt of anything so delicious as that
+night's fishing!'</p>
+
+<p>'That, I will answer for, she never did,' said Felix. 'When I saw the
+exquisite delight it afforded, not only to this Lance but to Captain
+Audley, to fill the boat with slimy, flapping, uncomfortable, dying
+fishes, I felt that I was never made for a gentleman.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean that you didn't like it?' exclaimed Lance, turning round
+aghast.</p>
+
+<p>'I should have been much happier balancing the books.'</p>
+
+<p>'And he wasn't even sick!' said Lance, holding up his hands.</p>
+
+<p>'He hadn't that excuse,' laughed Cherry. 'However, midnight fishing is
+not indispensable! I should like to have seen how he looked at Vale
+Leston.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance was in great hopes that Felix would betray the possibilities, and
+mayhap but for his presence, prudence might have evaporated beneath the
+warm breath of Cherry's sympathy; but the answer was only a discreet
+laugh and reply, 'Like a man who wanted his sister! I wish I could just
+fill your eyes with the loveliness of it, Cherry;' and in the midst of
+his description, in came Sister Constance, bringing with her Sister
+Emmeline (sister in blood as well as religion,) wanting to hear about
+the nephews, and the Kitten's Tail adventure, and amused to find Lance
+a little shy about it&mdash;certainly not disposed to dwell on it with his
+usual unceremonious drollery of narrative. They would not let Felix
+go without an inspection by Dr. Lee, which was perfectly satisfactory
+as to the rally of the constitution from the depression that had
+threatened disease, though it was impressed both on him and on Cherry
+that he must be careful next winter, and never neglect a cold; and with
+this promise the brothers took the train, and in half an hour were
+at home&mdash;rather an empty home, for the schools were all in operation
+again, and Wilmet was not at liberty for some little time after their
+arrival.</p>
+
+<p>When she did come in, she was disappointed not to find Geraldine, and
+that Felix had become so absorbed in the business that had brought
+him home, that he only sent in word that he was obliged to go into
+the town, and tea must not wait for him. Lance remained, but the
+burthen of two secrets rendered him uncommunicative, when Wilmet tried
+to understand the cause of Cherry's delay at St. Faith's; and Alda
+was curious about Vale Leston and Mrs. Fulbert, whom she had seen at
+Kensington Palace Gardens. It did not take much acumen to exclaim,
+'Still no children! Then there must be a chance for us!'</p>
+
+<p>'That is not likely,' said Wilmet: 'it must be all in their own power;
+and the Vicar must be quite a young man. Is he not, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'How should I know?'</p>
+
+<p>'Didn't you see him?'</p>
+
+<p>'I saw his wife, and that was enough.'</p>
+
+<p>'About five-and-thirty,' said Alda. 'Of course it will all go to Uncle
+Tom. Money always goes to money.'</p>
+
+<p>'How flushed you are, Lance!' said Wilmet. 'Are you tired?'</p>
+
+<p>'Rather. I am going out into the garden.'</p>
+
+<p>There, however, he was pursued by Bernard with a war-whoop, and by
+Theodore with his concertina; and Stella presently reported that he was
+gone up to bed.</p>
+
+<p>'And I am afraid his room is very hot and noisy,' sighed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'He is only tired and cross after his two nights at sea,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'Lance cross!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Wilmet, it is very bad taste in families always to maintain
+each other's impeccability!'</p>
+
+<p>Alda was still the only person capable of defeating Wilmet, and she
+managed to render her very uncomfortable before the end of the evening,
+when hours passed and still Felix did not come in; and Alda suggested,
+in the intervals of yawning, that Wilmet would soon learn how green it
+was to sit up, now that Felix had got out of leading-strings, and set
+up bachelor habits.</p>
+
+<p>At first, Wilmet was highly indignant; but when Alda persisted that
+she was rather glad to see Felix like other young men, and that Wilmet
+would know better when she was married, and then yawned herself off to
+bed, there was a sense of great discomfort to accompany the solitary
+vigil, which not only involved fancies of possible accidents, but was
+harassed by this assault on faith in the virtue and sincerity of man.
+Could it really be the part of a wise woman to wink at being deceived
+as an inferior creature, with impossible expectations of truth and
+purity? Yet Alda knew the world!</p>
+
+<p>How much heart-sickness was darned into Lance's impossible heel before
+the clock chimed two! A step, and not a policeman's, came along the
+pavement and paused at the door, as, while the bell was cautiously
+pulled, down she flew!</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Mettie, I am so sorry, so ashamed, of not having sent home
+to tell you; but if I had made the least move, it might have upset
+everything!'</p>
+
+<p>'What <i>have</i> you been about?'</p>
+
+<p>'Going over Mowbray Smith's accounts.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry! How tired you must be! I was vexed not to be able to
+give you notice, but you know what poor Smith is.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know why you had to do it all, and at this time of night,'
+said Wilmet, still a little hurt.</p>
+
+<p>'It is the only chance for him to-morrow at the meeting to have his
+accounts clear; so I called under the plea of seeing about the letter
+in Pur, and with much ado got him to realise a little more of his
+position, and let me look at the books. That was at five.'</p>
+
+<p>'And you have been at it ever since? O Felix!' as he stretched his arms
+and gave a vast yawn.</p>
+
+<p>'Ay! If I had shown any consciousness of the time, he would have shut
+up at once; and he would not let me take them home to do to-morrow
+morning.'</p>
+
+<p>'It <i>is</i> to-morrow morning!'</p>
+
+<p>'So it is! I must make haste, for I must try to see Mr. Ryder and Jones
+before the meeting. Good-night, dear old W. W. I meant to have had
+other talk.'</p>
+
+<p>'But oh! you must have some supper!'</p>
+
+<p>'I've had it&mdash;sumptuous! Stilton cheese!'</p>
+
+<p>So Wilmet's faith in masculine nature rebounded as high as Alda had
+striven to sink it!</p>
+
+<p>Patience was a good deal needed the next day; for Felix had to rush
+away from breakfast, and never appeared at all at dinner. He had to
+be present at the very stormy meeting, though only to take notes, and
+thus had the annoyance of seeing Mr. Smith destroying his own cause
+by his incapacity to understand the statement so carefully drawn up,
+until Mr. Ryder (on whom the enemy had reckoned as a champion) took
+the papers out of the helpless hand, comprehended Felix's figures at a
+glance, and set them lucidly forth, such as they were; but even then
+there were blots which there were plenty of persons ready to hit. The
+truth was, that between Lady Price's economies, and the unwillingness
+to call vestry-meetings, moneys intended for one purpose had been used
+for another, and articles not within the denomination of charities had
+been charged on funds raised for that exclusive object.</p>
+
+<p>The assembly comprised the usual variety: the malicious foes of
+religion, headed by Jackman; the more numerous enemies, not of what
+they supposed religion, but of the Church; the adversaries, not of
+the Church, but of the Curate; and the few loyally unwilling to
+condemn a clergyman, but disgusted at the affair, and staggered by his
+management. Perhaps the rabid and ribald violence of the hostile party
+did Mr. Smith good with the respectable; and there were many, too,
+whose dictum was&mdash;'Felix Underwood says it is all right!' At any rate,
+though the Bishop was memorialized, it was in a much better spirit than
+had been likely at first; and it was not to be done without notice to
+the Rector. And when this was over, every one, as usual, went to their
+rendezvous at 'Froggatt's,' either to discuss or inquire; and the
+release of both partners on that summer evening was later than ever it
+had been before.</p>
+
+<p>But then what a welcome upstairs! what a clamour of happy tongues!
+what an ecstatic humming of The Hardy Norseman! what a clinging to
+and climbing on him! If he had the cares, he had much of the joys, of
+the goodman of the house! But presently he missed the voice usually
+blithest of all, and asked for Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'He was here a little while ago,' said Wilmet, 'drinking his tea. He
+must have gone up to bed.'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Bernard; 'I've just been up to the barrack, and he isn't
+there.'</p>
+
+<p>'You've not let him sleep in the attic!' exclaimed Felix. 'Why, under
+the leads it is like an oven!'</p>
+
+<p>'I am very sorry,' said Wilmet, 'but I could not see how to help it.
+Your room is worse, with the glare of the setting sun; and so is
+Cherry's at this time of the evening.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then he must have Mr. Froggatt's.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought,' said Alda, 'that you never took liberties with Mr.
+Froggatt?'</p>
+
+<p>'Nonsense!' said Felix. 'There are only two bedrooms in this house fit
+for that boy in his present state&mdash;yours and Mr. Froggatt's. Which
+shall we have, Wilmet?'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Froggatt's,' she answered at once. 'If you will not have another
+cup, I'll get it ready for him at once.'</p>
+
+<p>'I've just done. I'll come and help you. But where can the boy be? In
+the garden?'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Wilmet, taking a survey from the window.</p>
+
+<p>'I have hardly seen him all day,' added Alda. 'I suppose he has
+pursuits of his own.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pursuits!' said Felix, looking really anxious; 'poor little chap, he
+can't do without constant care and quiet!'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet made no answer, but rose and left the room; Alda muttered
+something about his looking quite well, which Felix did not stay to
+hear, following his sister out with a word about looking for him. At
+the same moment a little soft hand was thrust into his, and Stella, as
+soon as the door was shut, said, 'Please, I know where Lance is, but
+it's a secret.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not from me, I hope?' said Felix, catching her up in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>think</i> not,' said Stella meditatively. 'He only told me not to let
+Bear and Tedo know, because they make a row. He is only up over the
+back warehouse, where he used to play the fiddle to us last Easter.'</p>
+
+<p>'The only cool quiet place he could find!' said Felix, with more of a
+look of reproach than he had ever given Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>It went to her heart. 'I did not know what to do,' she said meekly. 'I
+wanted very much to go into the barrack ourselves, but Alda said it
+would kill her; and you know it has always been a sore subject that we
+would not let her have Mr. Froggatt's room. I ought not to have given
+way.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda's selfishness is a great power,' muttered Felix; and Wilmet was
+too much ashamed to contradict him, except by 'She is vexed because she
+has not heard from Ferdinand,' as they hastily made their way to the
+warehouse, which, being on the north side of higher buildings, never
+did get scorched through.</p>
+
+<p>Felix went up a step-ladder, Wilmet following; and there, sure enough,
+was Lance, lying in a nest of paper shavings, with head on his
+air-pillow. 'Oh, you've unearthed me, have you? I wish you'd let me
+stay here all night!' he said, with some weary fretfulness; but the
+next moment burst into a peal of laughter, as Wilmet's head appeared
+above the floor. 'Pallas Athene ascends! Oh! what a place it would be
+to act a play&mdash;only then all the fry would find it out! I hope they
+haven't! I told the Star not to tell!'</p>
+
+<p>'My poor dear Lance, is this the only quiet place you could find? and
+you let us all neglect you, and never complained!' exclaimed Wilmet,
+kissing his hot forehead.</p>
+
+<p>'Why, it's only my stupidity,' said Lance, wearily but gratefully; 'and
+you can't make places quiet or cool! If you would just let me sleep
+here!'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but you shall have Mr. Froggatt's room. He will not want it now.
+Come along, Lance, we'll bring your things down. The barrack is a great
+deal too hot for you to go into!'</p>
+
+<p>He did not make any resistance; but as they landed from the ladder,
+threw his arm round Wilmet, and leant against her with a sort of
+lazy mischievous tenderness, as he said, 'Isn't the Froggery wanted
+for&mdash;somebody else?' and tried to look up in her face.</p>
+
+<p>'Ferdinand always goes to the Fortinbras Arms,' answered Wilmet, with
+admirable composure.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! that's a precedent,' said Lance, ostentatiously winking at Felix,
+who was very glad the ice was broken. 'When is he coming, Mettie?'</p>
+
+<p>'I think Alda hoped he might have run down to-night, on hearing of your
+return.'</p>
+
+<p>There they paused while entering the house and going upstairs; but no
+sooner were they in the barrack, which was certainly insufferably hot,
+than Lance returned to the charge.</p>
+
+<p>'But when is <i>he</i> coming? Not Fernan&mdash;he's an old story!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Felix, walking up to Wilmet to fold together the corners
+of the sheets they were stripping from Lance's bed, and looking into
+her eyes so archly as to bring up an incarnadine blush, 'I want
+particularly to improve my acquaintance, if you don't.&mdash;What shall we
+do, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Advertise in Pur,' suggested Lance. 'The editor returned. Young men
+may apply!'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, boys!' exclaimed Wilmet, in tones belonging to bygone days,
+when neither she nor Felix had been too serious to tease or be teased.
+'He is much better than you,' she added, with a pretty confused
+petulance, when Felix put on a pleading inquisitive face. 'When he
+found we didn't like it, he went away to visit his uncle.'</p>
+
+<p>'Better than we! There, Lance!' said Felix, in a gratified provoking
+tone of discovery.</p>
+
+<p>'In one sense,' said Wilmet, walking down before him.</p>
+
+<p>'I am very glad you have found it out,' added Felix, as they entered
+Mr. Froggatt's cool well-blinded bedroom, the only well-furnished one
+in the house.</p>
+
+<p>'It is no laughing matter,' said Wilmet seriously.</p>
+
+<p>'That's well,' was the dry answer.</p>
+
+<p>But there Felix perceived that she was on the verge of tears, and he
+kindly and quietly helped her to despatch her arrangements for Lance
+before any more was said; only as they turned to bid the tired boy
+good-night, he said, 'Where does the uncle live? I shall telegraph
+to-morrow, you cruel person!'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush! silly boy&mdash;good-night,' said Wilmet, with a quivering voice;
+then, as she shut the door, 'Please don't go on this way, Felix&mdash;I
+wouldn't have had it happen for any consideration.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose not,' said Felix, as they returned to the twilight garden;
+'but as it has&mdash;Why, my Mettie, dear!' as she pressed close to him, and
+hid her face on his shoulder, with a strong craving for the help and
+sympathy from which the motherless girl had hitherto been debarred.</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix! I wish he would not be so good and kind! I wish you would not
+try to make me give in!'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear girl!' said Felix, with his arm round her. 'You know I would
+not if I did not see that you had given in!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, I haven't!' she cried. 'Why should you want to persuade me? Isn't
+it very cruel and hard to let him give all himself to one that can't
+come to him? He will have to go out and live all dreary and lonely
+for years and years, and come home to find nothing but a stupid old
+worn-out drudge, with all these pretty looks gone off! Felix, be
+reasonable, <i>please!</i> Can't you see that I ought not to let things go
+that way?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean,' said Felix, 'that you would be quite content to put an
+end to all this&mdash;let Harewood go away believing you indifferent, and
+never see him again?'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, why do you&mdash;?' with tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Because I am quite sure that the consideration you want to show him
+would be no kindness. The pain of having his affection thrown over'
+(he spoke with a spasm in the throat) 'would be greater than you would
+<i>like</i> to inflict, if you were forced by truth to own you did not care
+for him; and if he be what I think, the carrying away security of your
+feeling for him will be gladness enough. And as for the looks, I have
+a better opinion of yours than to think they won't wear! Any way,
+dearest, it seems to me that you have won the heart of a good man,
+and that if you like him, it is your duty to give him the comfort of
+knowing it without thinking about to-morrows.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I know so much more would come if I did just allow that much! And
+I might get to wish to leave you all,' she said in an appalled voice.
+'And there seems to me not the slightest chance. You see Alda and
+Cherry never will get on together; and Cherry seems glad of an excuse
+to stay from home. I thought she would have cared to come back when you
+did.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Cherry!' said Felix, hesitating, with a little of her own nervous
+awe of broaching the subject.</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean that there is anything seriously amiss?' she cried,
+startled.</p>
+
+<p>'Wilmet, do you remember what Rugg said would be the very best thing
+for that poor child?'</p>
+
+<p>She stood still, dismayed and angered. 'They aren't tormenting the poor
+little thing about that?'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not their doing.'</p>
+
+<p>'It can't have become necessary! Sister Constance would have told me!
+Felix say she is not worse!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, much better. But, Wilmet, what we could not bear to think of, she
+thought of for herself, and begged to have it done.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then I must go to her.'</p>
+
+<p>'There is no occasion. She knew you could not be spared. It was done
+on the 10th, and she will soon walk better than she has done all these
+years.'</p>
+
+<p>'Done! without our knowledge?'</p>
+
+<p>'She wished to spare us all, but that was not allowed. I was written
+to, and told that her strong desire was such a favourable condition,
+that I had better consent, so as not to protract the strain of spirits.
+She made a point of no one else knowing except Clement.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' Wilmet spoke as if under a weight, 'that was the day Clement went
+down to Dearport, and came home so late! How could Sister Constance
+consent not to tell me?'</p>
+
+<p>'You must forgive her, for it was the little one's desire. Of course we
+should have been fetched if anything had gone wrong; but she has done
+perfectly well; and there she is, very happy, and so full of fun, that
+the Sisters say she keeps them all alive.'</p>
+
+<p>'Done? I cannot fancy it!' said Wilmet. 'Do you know, I believe it has
+been my bugbear for years past to think I might have to persuade her to
+this?'</p>
+
+<p>'To tell you the truth, so it has to me.'</p>
+
+<p>'Little nervous timid thing, I can't even understand her thinking of
+it!'</p>
+
+<p>'She wanted me not to tell you, but I would not promise. She could not
+rest without trying not to be an obstacle to&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet interrupted with a cry of pain.</p>
+
+<p>'Isn't it a noble little thing?'</p>
+
+<p>'But it is so silly!' broke out Wilmet, not choosing her words amid her
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>'So she thinks now, poor child: she is quite ashamed of the
+presumptuous notion that <i>did</i> brace and carry her through.'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't like her to be disappointed,' said Wilmet; 'but it is quite
+ridiculous.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only comfort her a little, Mettie dear, for she is very much afraid
+you will think she has taken a great liberty with your property.'</p>
+
+<p>'I only wish I could kiss her this moment!'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, run down by the train to-morrow. They would all be delighted.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Felix, impossible. Think of the cost!'</p>
+
+<p>'Half a crown! Sinful waste!' said Felix, in a tone of alarming levity.</p>
+
+<p>'Felix, if you only knew what the housekeeping mounted up in that
+unhappy month that I was away! I did not like to tell you before, but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Well!' at the dreadful pause.</p>
+
+<p>'I had to get fifteen pounds from Mr. Froggatt's; and Alda finds, after
+all, that she cannot advance the money for Lance's journey.'</p>
+
+<p>'So you are pinching it out by pence, my poor W. W.!'</p>
+
+<p>'Nothing extra must be done till this is made up.'</p>
+
+<p>'Yet it seems needful that Bernard should go to school. I wrote about&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' she resolutely interrupted. 'Bernard must wait over this year.
+Thirty pounds. Utterly out of the question!'</p>
+
+<p>Her tone gave Felix an unusual sense of chill penury, and brought Vale
+Leston before his eyes. He laughed rather bitterly, saying, 'Perhaps
+some day neither thirty pence nor thirty pounds may have so direful a
+sound!'</p>
+
+<p>'I never mean to learn to waste.'</p>
+
+<p>'You may have to learn to spend.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's enough to set me against it!' she exclaimed, with a good deal
+of pain; and he found how nearly he had broken his resolution, and how
+her application of his words to herself had saved him. He followed the
+lead.</p>
+
+<p>'Nay; you were glad of Alda's prosperity?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes; but poor Alda has been hindered from being like one of us,'
+she said. 'We have fought it out together. And I should not mind so
+much if <i>he</i> were poor, like us, and had to wait on his own account.'</p>
+
+<p>'I appreciate that,' said Felix; 'but at least you will let the poor
+fellow come and judge for himself?'</p>
+
+<p>'If&mdash;if only, Felix, you will promise not to try to tempt me into
+deserting you all, when I know it would be wrong.'</p>
+
+<p>'If I will promise you not to cut my own throat, eh? Come, W. W., put
+out of your head "what it may lead to," confess that you are afraid of
+getting connected with such a mad harum-scarum set!'</p>
+
+<p>'It isn't,' broke out Wilmet. 'I never saw any one so thoughtful and
+considerate. They are all so kind and warm-hearted, that I grew quite
+ashamed of my own fidgetiness; and he&mdash;he always knew the right thing
+at the right time. You can't think how his look seemed to hold me up,
+when poor Lance was moaning and talking nonsense!'</p>
+
+<p>Having thus let herself out as she had never dared, nor indeed been
+tempted to do, since the first dawn of the courtship, Wilmet at last
+relieved herself of some of the vast sense of emotion that she had been
+forcing back for the last month. Hitherto the mistress of the house
+had seemed older than the master; but now the elder brother took the
+place of both parents&mdash;ay, and of sister&mdash;as, all her fencing over,
+she poured out her heart, and let him sympathize, cheer, soothe, and
+encourage, more by kind tones than actual words. The harvest-moon
+shone over the house-tops, as a month before she had shone by the
+river-side; and the Pillars of the House walked up and down till Alda
+grew desperate, and sallied out to tell them that it was past eleven.</p>
+
+<p>It was only such snatches of time that Felix could give to home
+affairs, for his hands were full of arrears of business, and the
+excitement respecting Mr. Smith necessarily occupied him. Pending the
+arrival of letters from the Rector, every tongue was in commotion, and
+the reading-room was a focus of debate and centre of intelligence.
+So many letters, either in assault or defence, were addressed to the
+editor of the Pursuivant, that only a supplement as big as the <i>Times</i>
+could have contained them. Every poor person who had not had every
+demand supplied from the charities was running about, adding to the
+grievance at every encounter with tender-hearted lady or justice-loving
+gentleman, whose blood boiled over into a letter for the Pursuivant,
+which, when sifted and refused, was transferred to the Dearport Hermes,
+or Erms, as most of its supporters termed it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>THE REAL THING AND NO MISTAKE.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 40%;">
+'With asses all his time he spent,<br />
+Their club's perpetual president,<br />
+He caught their manners, looks, and airs&mdash;<br />
+An ass in everything but ears.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 35%;"><i>Gay.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>The master of the house was unable to contribute much more than his
+name to the propriety of the arrival of the suitors, and this made
+Wilmet the more determined that Geraldine should precede them. Nor,
+since the half-crown must be disbursed on an escort for her, did the
+housewifely conscience object to the expedition; for Wilmet could not
+but long to thank the Superior and Sister Constance, and to obtain
+Dr. Lee's advice as to future management. Her coming was great joy
+to Cherry, who had dreaded the meeting almost with a sense of guilt,
+though still hoping Felix had been silent on her motive; and Wilmet did
+not betray him, but only treated her sister with a mixture of almost
+shy tenderness and reverence. Nor did Cherry dare to ask a question
+as to Wilmet's own affairs, nor even about Ferdinand Travis, lest she
+should seem to be leading in that direction. However, Wilmet, in a
+persuasive tone, communicated that Ferdinand had been long without
+writing, and though Cherry tried to be sorry for Alda, her spirit
+quailed at the state of temper her sister evidently meant to prepare
+her for.</p>
+
+<p>But fate was more kind than she expected. That very Saturday brought
+both gentlemen, and by the same train. They made each other out as they
+were leaving their bags at the Fortinbras Arms, and arrived together
+in marked contrast&mdash;the tall, dark, regular-featured, soft-eyed
+Life-guardsman, and the little sandy freckled sun-dried engineer;
+and thus two courtships had to be carried on in the two rooms, only
+supplemented by the narrow parallelogram of a garden! For Ferdinand
+Travis was back again, rather amused at the family astonishment at the
+rapidity of his journey to America, which to his Transatlantic notions
+of travel was as nothing, and indeed had been chiefly performed in a
+big steamer, where he could smoke to his heart's content.</p>
+
+<p>For the first few days there was a good deal of restraint: Wilmet was
+more shy than in the unconscious days of Bexley; while John Harewood
+was devoid of his family's assurance and bonhomie, and so thoroughly
+modest and diffident as to risk nothing by precipitation in begging
+for a decision. Felix, inexperienced, and strongly sensible of his
+office as guardian of his sister's dignity, would not hint at the
+result of his investigations into Wilmet's sentiments; and it was to
+Geraldine that Captain Harewood's attentions were chiefly paid. Knowing
+Alda's resolute monopoly of her Cacique, Cherry at first held back,
+and restrained her keen enjoyment of real conversation; but she found
+Wilmet thankful to have the talk done for her, and content to sit at
+work, listening almost in silence, but proud that her Captain should
+be interested in her sister, and pleased to see Cherry's expressive
+face flash and sparkle all over for him. While Wilmet was at Miss
+Pearson's, Cherry was his chief resource; they read, drew, and talked,
+and in that half-hour's out-of-door exercise, which Dr. Lee had so
+strongly enjoined, his arm was at her service. They were soon on the
+borders of confidence, though never quite plunging over them. Perhaps
+the broad open-mouthed raillery at his home made the gentle reticence
+of the Underwoods the more agreeable to him; at any rate, he did not
+try to break through it, nor to presume beyond the step he had gained.
+Alda, who could best perhaps have acted as helper, had her own affairs
+to attend to; and they were evidently unsatisfactory, for Ferdinand
+was more than ever the silent melancholy Don, and she was to domestic
+eyes visibly cross, and her half-year at home had rendered her much
+less capable of concealing ill-humour. Something was owing to wear and
+suspense, together with the effects of the summer heat and confined
+monotonous life without change or luxury; but much was chargeable on
+the manifestations of temper to which she had given way in the home
+circle. She told Wilmet the trouble, which Ferdinand wished to have
+kept from open discussion till he had received a final statement of his
+means to lay before Felix. He had received no remittances since the
+spring, and on demanding his own share of the capital and investments,
+had found it, instead of the lion's, a ridiculously small portion. The
+whole fortunes of the house of Travis had been built on his mother's
+inheritance; but the accounts laid before him represented all the
+unprosperous speculations undertaken by his father, William, while the
+small ventures of his Uncle Alfred had, alongside of them, swelled into
+the huge wealth of which Ferdinand had been bred to believe himself
+the heir! So palpably outrageous was this representation, that he
+had persuaded himself that personal investigation on the spot would
+clear it up, or perhaps more truly, his blood was up, and he could not
+bear to be inactive. He had rushed over to New York, and of course he
+had been baffled. Exposure was of no use where sympathy was for the
+lucky rather than the duped and luckless, and where the Anglicised
+Life-guardsman could expect it least of all&mdash;at a time, too, when all
+business affairs were convulsed by the uncertainties of civil war. Alda
+could not believe at first that he had done his utmost, and seemed to
+have reproached him with weakness and mismanagement; but by her own
+account she had roused the innate lion. He would not tell her what
+had passed in the interview with his uncle, but he had shuddered over
+the remembrance; and when she upbraided him with not having gone far
+enough, he terrified her by the fierceness with which he had turned
+upon her, bidding her never recur to what she knew nothing about, and
+muttering to himself, 'Far enough&mdash;thank God I went no further, or
+I should not be here now!' and then falling into deep gloom. He had
+certainly made Alda afraid of him, and she burst into tears as she told
+Wilmet, declaring herself the most miserable girl in the world.</p>
+
+<p>'No, that you can't be, Alda, while he is so good and true.'</p>
+
+<p>'But he says he must sell out! Think of that! Never was anybody so
+taken in as I have been!'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't talk so, Alda. It is just as if you had engaged yourself to a
+Life-guardsman and nothing else.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wonder how you would like to be buried in some horrid wild place in
+America, where you would never see anybody!'</p>
+
+<p>'One would not want to see anybody but him.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's your nonsense! How tired of it one would be!'</p>
+
+<p>'There would be no time. It would be so nice to do everything for him
+oneself!'</p>
+
+<p>'In some horrid uncivilized place, with no servants! I'm not going
+to be a drudge. It is all very well for you, who like it, and have
+no notion of society, but for me&mdash;! And there he is furious to take
+me out. Men grow so wild and rough too in such places. You never saw
+anything blaze like his eyes!'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't understand you. Could not you trust yourself anywhere with
+him?'</p>
+
+<p>'You have no right to say such things,' pouted Alda, 'only because I
+have a little common prudence. Some one must have it!'</p>
+
+<p>There was no denying that life in the far west would be a foolish thing
+either for or with Alda; and Felix thought so when Ferdinand came to
+him for consultation over the letters that made it finally clear that
+Alfred Travis had appropriated everything available but half a block
+of unreclaimed land on the wrong side of America, and a few thousands
+invested in Peter Brown's firm; and what was worse, the sudden failure
+of the supplies had occasioned serious debts. Ferdinand's own plan was
+to clear these off with the price of his commission, and take Alda out
+with him to rule in American luxury over the unbounded resources of the
+magnificent land, the very name and scent of which had awakened in him
+his old prairie-land instincts, and her absolute refusal and even alarm
+at his enjoyment had greatly mortified him. 'She should not even have
+to rough it,' he said. 'I could make her like a queen out there, if she
+would only believe it.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix could not but think Alda might be wise, though it was not pretty
+wisdom. Go out alone and make the fortune? Ferdinand did not seem to
+think the separation possible. He said he would rather go to work in
+Peter Brown's office, where he had already a hold; and his familiarity
+with Spanish would secure him usefulness and promotion, and five or six
+years would bring him into a position to marry. He did not look fit for
+desk-work in London, but his mind was made up to any privation, so that
+he could be in reach of Alda, and hope to give her what he had once
+thought easily within his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing this, Felix propounded an old longing of his&mdash;namely, to
+make the Pursuivant a daily paper, and use means for promptitude
+of intelligence, such as might neutralize the unpopularity it was
+incurring on behalf of Mr. Smith. Rumours of a rival paper were afloat;
+but if Ferdinand would throw in his capital, and undertake the joint
+editorship and proprietorship, the hold that the Pursuivant already
+had warranted quite success enough to permit an immediate marriage.
+There would be no need to be concerned with the shop; they might take a
+cottage in the country, and he need not ride in so often as every day.
+In fact, it was his capital rather than his personal assistance that
+was wanted. He caught at the notion. He was too Transatlantic to have
+any dignities to stand upon, and he said almost with tears in his eyes
+that he could never be so happy as in working with Felix; and he went
+off to the Fortinbras Arms, only lamenting that it was too late to tell
+Alda; while Felix, on his side, could not help knocking at Geraldine's
+door. Within he found another auditor, Wilmet, who still always
+helped Cherry to bed. 'It will be the making of the Pursuivant,' he
+said. How often I have sighed, "If I had but capital, or Mr. Froggatt
+enterprise!"'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah, Felicissimo mio, that Pursuivant is as dear to you as any brother
+or sister of us all!'</p>
+
+<p>'So it ought to be, for it has been the making of us.&mdash;Come Cherry,
+confess that you had rather see Pur triumph, than&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Than you at Vale Leston,' said Cherry, not knowing what a bolt she
+shot. 'It would be grand to steal a march on the enemy!'</p>
+
+<p>'And safe?' asked Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>Felix demonstrated to the comprehending ears of his sisters the
+circulation that he could securely reckon upon.</p>
+
+<p>'There would be an immense deal more to do,' said Cherry; but at that
+he smiled, full of vigour.</p>
+
+<p>'True; but we should have a larger staff. There would be Fernan&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'For the racing articles,' said Cherry dryly.</p>
+
+<p>'And a good deal besides, which only needs application; and that he
+has.'</p>
+
+<p>'He has great resolution,' said Cherry, 'but he always seems to me a
+sort of Christian panther of the wilderness; and you seem to be getting
+him into a cage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not such a cage as Peter Brown's office; and besides it is only when
+he is lashed up that the panther leaps about his den. Generally he is
+a quiet determined animal, with the practical Yankee element strong in
+him. It may be true, as Edgar says, that he does not see an inch on
+either side of his nose, but that only makes him go right away in the
+line he does see. I know he will work well.'</p>
+
+<p>'If Alda&mdash;' said Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, she will be willing. A cottage in the country! Besides, it is the
+only reasonable possibility.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should think it would satisfy her,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'And then&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>Everybody understood that 'And then.' It was Alda's pretension to be
+at the head of the family that was the chief obstacle to Wilmet's
+abdicating that post. Without her, Geraldine, stronger and less lame,
+might undertake the charge of the comparatively few permanently at
+home. <i>Might</i> indeed hardly expressed the amount of uncertainty as to
+her capability; and yet but for that 'And then,' Wilmet would hardly
+have yielded as she did the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Stella had a blackberry fever. Possibly Wilmet's frugal regimen
+engendered a hankering for fruit, or it might have been the mere love
+of enterprise that rendered her eagerly desirous of an expedition to a
+lane where splendid blackberries were reported to grow. Since the day
+she had been lost, she had never been allowed to go out with Bernard;
+but in Lance she had acquired a much more complaisant play-fellow,
+who not only promised his escort to the lane, but the purchase of the
+sugar, and aid in the concoction of the jam; but he durst not venture
+till late in the day, and thereupon John Harewood suggested, 'Would not
+your sister be at liberty by that time?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance can take care of me,' said Stella; but in her eyes the whole
+romance of the expedition was destroyed by his acquiescence. 'We'll
+catch her as she comes out, and make her go with us.'</p>
+
+<p>'Among all the girls?' laughed Cherry; and Captain Harewood coloured,
+shook his head, and shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>'The girls won't hurt me,' said Lance, 'not if there were twenty
+hundred. I'll bring her from the very teeth of them. Jack may wait
+round the corner if he likes.'</p>
+
+<p>The party waited, till their patience was worn to a thread, for the
+opening of the tall olive door, until Lance valiantly resolved on a
+single-handed assault, and had just mounted the steps, when it suddenly
+opened, and he found himself obstructing the path of a swarm of little
+girls and big, who all stared, most giggled, and some greeted him. To
+the least of these he confided that he wanted his sister, when she
+innocently piloted him to the school-room, where Wilmet, with her hat
+on, was keeping guard over three victims detained by unfinished tasks.
+Every one gazed at him as if he had been a sort of Actćon; but nothing
+daunted, he answered his sister's anxious exclamation. 'Nothing is the
+matter; but we are going for a walk, and want you.&mdash;Miss Maria,' he
+cried, as the sound of the unfeminine step and voice brought in one of
+the heads, '<i>please</i> do let off these impositions, we do so want her!'</p>
+
+<p>'What, you here! This is an invasion!' she added good-humouredly. 'Am I
+to take it as a convalescent's privilege?'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, Ma'am,' said Lance, bowing with his audacious sweetness;
+'and please let me have Wilmet. I'd do the impositions myself, only I
+don't know French.'</p>
+
+<p>The victims tittered uncontrollably, and Miss Maria laughed, as one
+who, like her neighbours, descried why Wilmet was in request. 'I will
+attend to these exercises, Miss Underwood,' she said. 'You must not
+lose this fine evening for the idleness of these young ladies.'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, Ma'am!' began Wilmet, in a blaze of colour. 'I never thought
+of such a thing.'</p>
+
+<p>'I daresay not, my dear,' said Miss Maria; 'but now you had better do
+it. I wish you a pleasant walk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance, how could you?' broke out Wilmet, as they descended the steps.
+'I never was so ashamed in my life.'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind. We are going to get blackberries at Mile End Lane, and I
+shall lose Stella to a dead certainty if you don't come and look after
+her.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear Lance, I can't go all that way without their knowing it at
+home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! that's all settled with Cherry.'</p>
+
+<p>'And where's Alda?'</p>
+
+<p>'Off somewhere with her Don. Come, W. W., or who knows whether Stel and
+I shall ever come home?'</p>
+
+<p>By this time they had reached the corner where Captain Harewood and
+Stella were lying perdu, and Wilmet made no more resistance, only
+keeping the little girl's not altogether willing hand till they came to
+the stile leading to the field and woodland, and then Stella's durance
+ended, and her adventures with Lance became as free as though no grave
+'sister' had been near.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, since Wilmet had perceived that surrender was her fate, she
+was willing that the summons should be over and a mutual understanding
+reached, so as to waste no more of the time already so short. However
+that might be, though the talk began with Lance's health and Cherry's
+talents, there was a tendency towards topics closer still; nor did she
+start aside, but rather listened pensively as to a strain that touched
+her quiet soul more deeply than she showed in word or gesture.</p>
+
+<p>The blackberry lane was deep and hollow, the brambles outstretching
+their arching wreaths, laden with heavy clusters of shining fruit,
+glossy black, scarlet or green, sometimes with a lingering pearly
+flower. A step-ladder stile led down into it from the field, and on the
+topmost step, her back against the rail, sat Wilmet. On the lowest,
+turned at right angles to the first, was John Harewood, looking up to
+her; while scrambling on the bank, contending with the brambles, were
+the younger ones; Lance, unable to help now and then sending a furtive
+glance through the tangle.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pretty sight. Sitting aloft, Wilmet was framed by an archway
+of meeting branches, with nothing but the pale opal of the evening
+sky behind the beautifully shaped head and shoulders, and the clear
+cut features, drooping just enough to enhance her own peculiar modest
+dignity, and give it a soft graciousness that had once been wanting.
+Her dress was the same in which Captain Harewood had first seen her&mdash;a
+plain black hat, a pale fawn-coloured skirt, and a loose open jacket
+over a white cambric vest and sleeves, only that now there had been
+a budding forth of dainty fresh knots of rose-coloured ribbon at the
+throat and down the front, as though a slight sensibility to the
+vanities as well as the cares of life had begun to dawn on the grave
+young house-mother.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning back against the rough rail to assist the hand of the climber,
+John Harewood looked up with as much worship in his countenance as ever
+good man feels for the being he loves in all her maiden glory. Thus
+they had been for some moments, only broken by the children's distant
+calls, till the fervent words broke from him, 'May I not speak now?'</p>
+
+<p>No word of reply sounded, but the delicate lips quivered and parted;
+the eyes were cast down, and seemed to swim in a soft mist of
+brightness; the queenly head bent, and the roseate tint on the cheek
+deepened and spread, while something came over the face that caused the
+low glad exclamation, 'You sweetest, I do believe you can love me!'</p>
+
+<p>A tremulous smile, a glitter of tears on the eye-lashes&mdash;a whisper,
+'You won't let me be able to help it!'</p>
+
+<p>Then the hands were clasped, and no words but 'Thank you' would come to
+the young man's lips; and then, and the sound reminded him, he bowed
+his head, adding, 'Thank God!'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank God!' echoed Wilmet softly. 'For indeed,' she added, as she let
+her eyes fully meet his ardent gaze, 'I know you will help me to do
+whatever may be His Will.'</p>
+
+<p>'He helping me,' said John Harewood; and there was a reverent silence
+of untold peace and bliss, first interrupted by his long sigh of
+infinite relief and joy; and then, as he looked and looked with all
+his soul in his eyes, an exclamation, almost in spite of himself, 'You
+beautiful creature, you are mine indeed!'</p>
+
+<p>Her colour deepened, but her lips moved into an odd little smile, out
+of which came the words, 'Isn't that rather foolish?'</p>
+
+<p>'I couldn't help it&mdash;I beg your pardon,' said he, reddening. 'You do
+look so lovely! but indeed it is not the externals only, but what looks
+through.'</p>
+
+<p>'And that is what makes me afraid,' said Wilmet, as the dew gathered on
+her eye-lashes. 'I don't think I'm so nice as you take me for.'</p>
+
+<p>'Probably you don't,' he said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'But just hear me,' she said, laying her hand on his, as if to silence
+him. 'You ought to know what all the others would tell you if they
+were not too kind. I know they all feel me strict, and managing, and
+domineering! Yes, it makes you laugh, but I really am. I don't think
+you would have liked me at all if you had not seen me out of my usual
+life, with only Lance&mdash;' and as all she said only made him press her
+hand the closer&mdash;'You see, I've always had to do <i>things</i>. Ever since I
+was a little girl I have had to keep order, great boys and all, and I
+know it has made me disagreeable;' then, in answer to some sound more
+incredulously negative than words, 'Yes indeed! Felix and all go to
+Cherry with whatever comes very near them. She hasn't been hardened and
+sharpened and dried up like me, and wasn't stupid to begin with.'</p>
+
+<p>'Cherry is very clever, but she is&mdash;not&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Now don't. I know how it is. I know I'm horribly pretty, and I've been
+a wonder always for keeping the house going, and doing for them all,
+and so you fancy me everything charming; but I do so wish you could
+really know, as my brothers do, how it takes out of one all that is
+nice and sweet, and that people like.'</p>
+
+<p>'People?' said John, smiling; but seeing that a mirthful even though
+a loving answer was not what she wanted, he gravely said, 'I do
+understand, dearest, that you have had to be too much of an authority
+to be altogether the companion and confidante that Geraldine is free to
+be, but perhaps I feel that this renders you more wholly and altogether
+my own.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh!'&mdash;a strange half sob&mdash;'do you know, I had just begun to know how
+solitary I was when Lance was so happy to get Robina, when you&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'And if I told you all, you would know that I was feeling a certain
+loneliness at home, and that if you had asked my sisters, they would
+have said that Jack was not the harmonious element he appeared.
+There&mdash;there's a pleasing prospect!'</p>
+
+<p>'But you'll not let me be masterful?' said Wilmet earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>'Just as much as is good for me&mdash;for us,' he said, smiling. Then after
+a moment's silence, he took out of his pocket a little box, and making
+a table of her lap, took out a ring of twined ruby and diamonds, such
+as could not but startle the instincts of Wilmet's soul.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, it is a great deal too beautiful! Please, I couldn't&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'You must. It was my mother's.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then she cannot like to part with it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Did you not know that she died when I was five years old? Look!' and
+he showed where within the lid of the box was written, 'For my Little
+Johnny's Wife. August 1839. L. H.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ought you not to keep it till&mdash;' faltered Wilmet, growing crimson as
+she found what she was saying.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' he said decidedly, 'not after this. When I spoke to my father
+that Sunday evening, he unlocked his desk and gave me this, which I had
+not seen since I remember playing with it on my mother's bed. You will
+wear it, dearest. You will let me have the pleasure of knowing you have
+it on.'</p>
+
+<p>The answer was the drawing off of her glove; and he fitted it on, but
+it was rather loose. 'I am afraid it will want a guard,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'I'll ask Felix whether I may take one of Mamma's,' she said. For the
+shapely notable fingers had never worn a ring before this almost sacred
+pledge; and the few jewels either too valuable or not valuable enough
+for the parents to have parted with in times of need had never been
+touched.</p>
+
+<p>'Do,' he said; 'I shall like that. The year 1839. Was not that the year
+a certain little girl was born?'</p>
+
+<p>'The month. Our birth-day is on the 19th.' And the coincidence gave all
+the foolish delight such facts do under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>'Was this long before she died?' asked Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'The last day of that August. You never saw her brass in the cloister?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; I never guessed that you were not Mrs. Harewood's son, though I
+wondered at your being so unlike the rest.'</p>
+
+<p>'She has been kindness itself,' he warmly said. 'My father did well
+both for himself and me in marrying.'</p>
+
+<p>'Tell me of your own mother,' said Wilmet, looking from the sparkling
+stones to the initials. 'L.&mdash; What was her name?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lucy. Lucy Oglandby. My father was tutor at Oglandby Hall. There was
+a long attachment, through much opposition; and even when he was made
+priest-vicar after waiting six years, her father could not consent.
+After six years more, when her health was failing, he gave a sort of
+sanction on his death-bed. The rest of the family contrived to get her
+fortune so tied up that after her death it was of no use to any one
+till I came of age. She only lived seven years after her marriage, and
+then the Oglandbys wanted to take possession of me, and I fancy that
+drove my father into marrying.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was it with them you went to stay?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my father makes a point of it; and they have a turn for
+patronizing me, if I would turn my back on home.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now I understand better,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'You understand how much you were wanting to me,' he said, rightly
+interpreting the words. 'After five years' absence, while my sisters
+were growing up, you can perceive that dear, fond, and hearty as
+our house is, it did not fulfil all that perhaps I had been rather
+unreasonable in expecting. O Wilmet, this time of leave would have been
+very different if you had not come to the precincts!'</p>
+
+<p>And so they fell back on the exquisite time present, which neither
+wished to disturb by looking beyond; and perhaps John felt as though
+his bird had scarcely perched, and any endeavours to hold it might make
+it flutter loose, while she was too glad of the calm and repose to
+renew the struggle between conflicting claims.</p>
+
+<p>At last, with basket laden with dark fruit, and lips vying with the
+babes in the wood, Stella was launched on them by Lance, when his
+sense of time overpowered his half shy, half diverted respect for
+their bliss. He was very curious, but had to be satisfied with Captain
+Harewood's manner of tossing Stella over the stile, and bright look at
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>They did not get into the town till the chimes of half-past seven were
+pealing. Captain Harewood hurried into the hotel, to prepare for the
+evening; and Wilmet was mounting the stairs, still under the spell of
+her newly-found joy, when she was startled by Alda's voice in a key of
+querulous anger.</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly like you, always laying out for attention.'</p>
+
+<p>'What's this?' said Wilmet, as she saw Alda in her habit, standing
+with her back to the open door, and Geraldine leaning on the table,
+trembling and tearful, crimson and burning even to passion in her
+panting reply, 'I don't know&mdash;except that he helped me in from the
+garden.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's what I say,' retorted Alda. 'She is always putting herself
+forward, to be interesting, and get waited on. All affectation. I don't
+know such a flirt anywhere.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush, Alda! you are insulting Cherry,' said Wilmet, in her tone of
+command.</p>
+
+<p>'Take care of yourself, Wilmet,' cried Alda; 'it is the way she goes on
+all day with Captain Harewood&mdash;reading poetry, and drawing, and all.'</p>
+
+<p>'Captain Harewood knows,' said Wilmet, coming to the support of the
+quivering Geraldine, 'that the kinder he is to Cherry the better I like
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, if you do, it is your own concern. I only spoke for your sake.'
+And Alda marched off, while Wilmet's strong tender arms helped
+Cherry into her own room, and tended her through one of those gusts,
+part repentant, part hysterical, which had belonged to her earlier
+girlhood, though the present was now enhanced by the tumult of insulted
+maidenliness. Formerly, Wilmet had not treated these attacks on the
+soft system, but now all her bracing severity was gone. Greatly
+incensed with Alda, she gave her whole self to sympathy with the
+victim, showing herself so ineffably sweet and loving, that Cherry felt
+a thrill of delicious surprise; and as her eye lit on the glittering
+ring, a little ecstatic cry, still slightly hysterical, welcomed the
+token.</p>
+
+<p>'O Wilmet, oh! You have! You have&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'To be sure I have,' answered Wilmet, not in the least heeding what she
+said, in her anxiety to calm her sister. 'It is all right, if only you
+will not go and be silly about it.'</p>
+
+<p>The woman was so much more than her words, that their odd simplicity,
+coming from the grand-looking figure bending over her in tender
+solicitude, touched Cherry the more, and she threw her arms round her
+sister's neck, whispering, 'Oh! I am so glad!'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Wilmet! At that moment all her gladness had gone into a weight
+like lead on her heart, though it only made her more gentle. 'Dear
+Cherry,' she softly said, 'don't talk of anything to upset you. Will
+you be good and lie quite still while I take off my things, and then
+I'll come and dress you? You must not be knocked up to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! I had much rather stay here!'</p>
+
+<p>'No indeed! John would be so disappointed. He does like you so much,
+and I always depend on you to make it pleasant for him. You can't send
+word that Alda has been scolding you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh dear! why can't I behave decently to her the moment we are alone
+together?'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't begin on that, for pity's sake, or you'll get crying again,'
+broke out Wilmet, in her natural voice. ''Tis she can't behave properly
+to anybody&mdash;that's all; so don't think any more about anything, like a
+good child, but lie still till I come back.'</p>
+
+<p>So up went Wilmet, not rejoicing in her room-mate, whom she found, as
+usual, all injured innocence and self-justification.</p>
+
+<p>'You have been petting Cherry all this time! She is quite spoilt among
+you! It is quite true what I said, though she didn't like it. In
+society, I never saw a more arrant flirt, with her pathetic ill-used
+airs. Why, Ferdinand actually found fault to-day with my manner to her!'</p>
+
+<p>Save for the effects, Wilmet was glad to hear it. 'Well, Alda, it is
+not always kind.'</p>
+
+<p>'I only don't fuss and coax her; I see through her better than you do.
+She is the sharp one. As I told Ferdinand, it is I who have reason to
+complain of his manner to her, only I know it is not his fault. If
+there were no other objection to this preposterous scheme of Felix's,
+she would be a reason against it.'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame, Alda! You don't consider what you are saying of your
+sister.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do!' said Alda. 'I have been more in the world than you, Wilmet,
+and I know what comes of sticking oneself down close to one's family,
+especially when there is that sort of spoilt invalid, backed up in all
+kinds of unreasonable expectations. I advise you to take care, Wilmet;
+you don't know what goes on in your absence. I should not wonder if it
+never came to an engagement after all.'</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Felix's step and knock were at the door. Wilmet went to
+it, and both her hands were clasped in her brother's. 'My Wilmet, my
+dear, this is well!'</p>
+
+<p>Then Alda turned from her glass and understood. 'What? He has spoken? O
+Wilmet, and you never told me!'</p>
+
+<p>'I had not time.'</p>
+
+<p>'And what a splendid ring! but it is not a proper engaged-ring. You
+can't wear it.'</p>
+
+<p>'I must! He wishes it. It was his mother's.&mdash;Felix, may I have one of
+Mamma's for a guard?'</p>
+
+<p>'May you!' said Felix, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>'I should like you to give it to me. Come in.'</p>
+
+<p>He came to inspect the unlocking of the ponderous old inlaid
+dressing-case, with velvet-lined compartments mostly empty, or only
+with little labelled papers of first curls, down as far as 'Edward
+Clement, 1842,' after which stern reality had absorbed sentiment&mdash;a
+sad declension from the blue enamel shrine with a pearl cypher, where
+Felix's downy flax reposed.</p>
+
+<p>To do Alda justice, there was no greed in her nature, and she even
+offered Wilmet a turquoise hoop of her own, instead of a little
+battered ring of three plaited strands of gold, which their mother
+had worn till her widowhood, and they believed to be the ring of her
+betrothal. And when Wilmet suggested that the locket would delight
+Cherry, Alda's ready assent inspired the hope that she felt some
+compunction for her jealous unkindness.</p>
+
+<p>The locket did prove a soothing charm, coupled with the little
+consultation as to the ribbon, and the capture of a smooth brown lock
+of the present to add to the original. And as the manly fingers dealt
+with the hasp, and the kind smile welcomed her pleasure, Cherry's heart
+felt that while she had her Felix, Alda need little comprehend her
+craving for attention from any one.</p>
+
+<p>Yet her greeting to John Harewood was shy, tame, and frightened,
+compared with Alda's pretty graceful cordiality, as she told him that
+she was delighted, and envied Lance his powers of diplomacy. In fact,
+it was Alda who kept up the conversation, and made things pleasant,
+with the ease of society; while Felix was shy, Wilmet longed for
+silence, and Ferdinand looked like a picture of Spanish melancholy,
+such as had almost infected the whole table.</p>
+
+<p>'I believe I must ask you to bestow a little time on me,' he said, as
+soon as the meal was over; and Alda made it evident that she meant to
+be in the conclave, which took place in the back drawing-room. It was
+at once made evident that the Pursuivant proposal was abhorrent to her;
+not that she behaved to Felix, nor indeed did she ever do so to any of
+his sex, as she permitted herself to do to Geraldine, but she showed
+great displeasure at the idea having been started.</p>
+
+<p>'Things are unfortunate enough already,' she said, with something like
+Wilmet's dignity; 'but I should never forgive such hopeless ruin to
+dear Ferdinand's prospects.'</p>
+
+<p>'Have I not told you that no prospect is anything to me if you can only
+be mine?'</p>
+
+<p>'We know all that,' said Alda, drawing herself away rather sharply from
+the caressing hand, 'and therefore I must think for you, and I will not
+be the means of lowering your position in life.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda, dearest!' cried Ferdinand, glancing at Felix in such genuine
+distress as made him interfere in pity.</p>
+
+<p>'We understand about position, Ferdinand; and you and Alda have been
+able to observe how far life is enjoyable in this lowered position.'</p>
+
+<p>'Felix,' said Alda, who had evidently wound herself up for this crisis,
+'you know very well that you stand quite out of common rules; but I am
+sure you can see that however valuable your work may be, it would be
+wrong to draw Ferdinand to the same level.'</p>
+
+<p>'As for that,' said Ferdinand moodily, yet with the air of a banished
+prince, 'Felix knows what my father was; and if I knew that my
+grandfather was an honest man, it would be well. A stray wanderer, cast
+up at your door, has no right to talk of levels.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are not to talk,' said Alda, more affectionately. 'You are too
+generous to be allowed to think.'</p>
+
+<p>'In plain English, Alda,' said her brother, 'the objection is yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot see him sacrifice himself for my sake,' said Alda.</p>
+
+<p>'As though it could be a sacrifice!' exclaimed Ferdinand, 'when it
+opens the way to make you my own at once, my peerless beauty! If you&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Come, we have had all this over before,' said Alda, shrinking a little
+petulantly as he hovered over her, speaking with the fervour of his
+Mexican nature, and his eyes glowing with eagerness; 'if you will not
+have common sense, I must.'</p>
+
+<p>'Common sense! It is not common sense I want! It is love!'</p>
+
+<p>'If you doubt my affection&mdash;' said Alda, with dignity, drawing back.</p>
+
+<p>'No! no! no! I never was so profane. Only it drives me frantic to hear
+you so coolly willing to keep us apart for&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Because my affection is less selfish and narrow than yours,' said
+Alda, raising her voice as his became like a roll of distant thunder.
+'I tell you, I will not be the means of binding you to a petty
+provincial paper, that may give an immediate pittance, but will lead to
+nothing. Would that be love worth having? I appeal to Felix, his scheme
+though it was.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix was a very uncomfortable third party, especially as Alda's appeal
+implied a certain accusation of himself. 'I own,' he said, 'that
+this situation is not likely to lead to promotion, but it would be
+competence. Ferdinand would be satisfied, but you&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'I, who know what he is used to, cannot be satisfied for him.'</p>
+
+<p>'As if you&mdash;' gasped the lover; but Alda would not let him go on.</p>
+
+<p>'No,' she said, 'we must be patient. For him to remain in the
+Life-guards would be madness; but a few years at Mr. Brown's, with the
+interest he already has in the business, will open a career to him.'</p>
+
+<p>'And I can run down every Sunday,' said Ferdinand. 'It is her
+determination; I suppose she is right, Felix, but I wish&mdash; If I could
+wish her otherwise, she should be less prudent!'</p>
+
+<p>'I cannot see that she has any right to ask it of you,' indignantly
+exclaimed Felix.</p>
+
+<p>But he found this was putting his head into a hornet's nest. Ferdinand
+would not have contested her right to send him down among the lions,
+and would never have given her back her troth, like Knight Des Lorges.
+No, he hotly contended that Alda had a perfect right to make her own
+terms, and still more hotly, though most inconsistently, that to work
+at Peter Brown's was his own free choice.</p>
+
+<p>It was incontestable that a South American merchant's career offered
+more possibilities of rising into opulence and consideration than the
+proprietorship of a country paper; and though Felix privately doubted
+whether desk-work would suit Ferdinand half as well as the work where
+he himself could have contributed wits, he could say no more. Ferdinand
+was greatly disappointed; but there was no sacrifice that he would not
+make, and persist in with his silent Spanish perseverance, for Alda's
+sake. Indeed, he could not bear not to begin at once. He would return
+at once to his regiment, send in his papers, and dispose of his horses
+and equipments, making arrangements with Peter Brown to enter his
+house. He seemed to be in a fever till the matter was in train, and was
+entirely past remonstrance. And Felix recognised that the lovers must
+act for themselves, and could only feel thoroughly vexed with Alda, and
+equally vexed with himself for the consternation with which he thought
+of having her at home three years longer!</p>
+
+<p>It was the next evening; and not only had Alda's own lover departed,
+but Captain Harewood was missing, and with him Lance, and the only
+explanation was from Bernard, that they were gone to Minsterham. No
+doubt Wilmet was sensible of a blank when she came home, though she
+would not allow it, and stoutly defended her Captain's right of going
+where and when he pleased without notice. She had to fight his battles,
+till late in the evening he walked in. 'Here we are! It is later than I
+expected.'</p>
+
+<p>'Where's Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'He came in with me. Gone to his room, then.&mdash;Here, Geraldine, this
+little gentleman requests the honour of your leaning on him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, what a beauty! What a dear little ivory monster! Turbaned head,
+serpent's tail, and such a fascinating face!'</p>
+
+<p>'Is the cane the right length? I measured yours.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean that he is for me? So smooth and so steady! Where does
+he come from?'</p>
+
+<p>'From Benares&mdash;I bought him at the great fair; and from the moment I
+saw you, it was plain that in the eternal fitness of things he was
+destined to you.'</p>
+
+<p>'To make a Pagan of her,' said Felix. 'See her worshipping her little
+idol!'</p>
+
+<p>'Not my idol, but my prop and companion for life.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your Lord Gerald,' laughed Felix, as she walked triumphantly round the
+room, perhaps her first unnecessary promenade since she was seven years
+old.</p>
+
+<p>'This is just the time I didn't expect you,' said Wilmet; 'is the seven
+o'clock train put on again?'</p>
+
+<p>'We didn't come by the train.' And Felix and Cherry smiled at one
+another as they detected that Wilmet's economical soul was vexed. 'I
+wanted Lance to see his doctor again, and the railway seems so bad for
+his head, that I drove.'</p>
+
+<p>'How very kind!' exclaimed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid I have not managed it well. I would not make an
+appointment, lest it should be a glaring day; so Manby was out, and we
+could only leave a message before going to the precincts. Lance was in
+wild spirits, and the boys gave him such an uproarious welcome, that
+old Canon Burley sent in to know what was the matter, and was told it
+was only little Underwood come back. He dined with us, but I am afraid
+I was off guard, for I never thought of his going and taking a place in
+the Cathedral.'</p>
+
+<p>'I should think not!' said Wilmet, 'except that it is in the nature of
+boys to be provoking, even about Church-going. Then it has knocked him
+up.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was forced to come out in the Psalms; and Poulter, one of the
+lay-vicars, got anxious about him, and went after him when the Lesson
+began, found him with his head down on the table in the sacristy, and
+thought he had fainted, but he was only crying and entirely done up.
+Manby came just as Poulter brought him in, and gave him a proper good
+lecture.'</p>
+
+<p>'A very good thing,' said Wilmet, 'if one could only get him to believe
+there is any need of care when his head is not actually painful. What
+did Mr. Manby think of him?'</p>
+
+<p>'He says he is as well as could reasonably be hoped&mdash;quite recovered
+from the fever; but the sun-stroke was as severe as any he has seen
+in England, and coming on the top of all that overwork, both study
+and music, it has left an amount of irritability and excitability of
+brain that must not be trifled with. He made poor Lance confess all the
+little experiments he has been trying on himself, and ordered him to
+leave off whatever he is about at the first threatening of dizziness or
+pain.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then there's not much chance of his going back?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not before Christmas at soonest. One would think the poor little
+fellow must have been aware of that; but the verdict cut him up very
+much. I thought he had better be quiet till the heat of the day was
+past, so he lay on my bed till six o'clock, and then he said he was
+better; but he hardly spoke all the way home.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet went at once to see after him, and found him already in bed; but
+whether sleepy, suffering, or sorrowful, she could not make out, for
+he hid his eyes from the candle, and only muttered 'No, thank you,' in
+reply to whatever she offered, till she yielded to his evident longing
+for darkness and silence.</p>
+
+<p>He was up and about in the morning; but when at noon Bernard rushed in
+from school, he was neither in the drawing-room, garden, nor office,
+and the door of his&mdash;or rather Mr. Froggatt's&mdash;bed-room was locked.
+Bernard bounced at it, calling, 'Let me in, I say; I'll not make a row.'</p>
+
+<p>'There aren't any more of you?' parleyed Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'No! Let me in, I say!'&mdash;kicking at the panels&mdash;'I must speak to you!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm coming; hold your din!' And Lance revealed himself without coat or
+boots.</p>
+
+<p>'Holloa&mdash;how dark! You were never asleep? I came, because one can never
+catch you without a string of girls and babies after you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Cut on,' said Lance resignedly, shaking up his horse-hair pillow:
+while Bernard seated himself on the table, and in the half-light of the
+shuttered room, began to disentangle some knotted twine.</p>
+
+<p>'Did you come here to do that?' said Lance, wanting to finish his nap,
+and chiefly restrained by the trouble of the thing from kicking the
+intruder out.</p>
+
+<p>'Only, I say, Lance, have you any tin?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not the valley of a brass farthing!' (The last pence of the Vale
+Leston sovereign had gone into Stella's jam.)</p>
+
+<p>'Wouldn't Felix give you some?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't know.' (Very gruffly.)</p>
+
+<p>'I wish you'd ask.'</p>
+
+<p>'You have as many tongues as I.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, you see Felix is not half a bad fellow for one's governor, but
+he doesn't know what's what; and Sims says he'll go to him if I don't
+come down with something before to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Sims! Sims in Smoke-jack Alley? Is that your sort?' demanded Lance, in
+ineffable disgust.</p>
+
+<p>'He's been keeping a dog for me,' said Bernard sulkily.</p>
+
+<p>'A dog!' Lance sat up in astonishment immeasurable.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. It's the thing, and no mistake,' said Bernard eagerly. 'His name
+is Stingo; only we are not quite sure whether he is a bull-terrier or a
+short-haired King Charles.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance dropped back, wriggling in suppressed convulsions, as he
+demanded, 'Where did you steal this unmistakeable animal?'</p>
+
+<p>'I bought him,' said Bernard, with a certain magnificence intended to
+be overawing.</p>
+
+<p>'Then where did you steal the money?'</p>
+
+<p>'Travis,' said Bernard, who considered Christian names unworthy of
+male lips. 'He always used to tip me a sovereign; and Ben Bowyer, the
+dog-fancier, said Stingo was worth thirty shillings any day, only he
+let me have him for eight and six, because he wanted to sell off his
+stock.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought as much. And Sims keeps him for you?'</p>
+
+<p>'At ninepence a week; but the brute is at me for ever, and says it is
+twelve weeks.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pray, how were you to raise ninepence a week? By waiting on Providence
+or turning coach-wheels?'</p>
+
+<p>'I had some then; and Froggy sometimes gives one half-a-crown, but the
+old beast hasn't lately, just because I wanted it&mdash;nor Travis either,
+bad luck to him!' quoth this grateful young man. 'I put them all off,
+making sure of him; and now he's cut, and never tipped me at all! It's
+an abominable sell, and they are all at me.'</p>
+
+<p>'All! what more? Have it out,' grunted Lance, with a sound of bodily
+pain in his tone such as would have silenced any one above ten years
+old, and a bored contemptuous manner that would have crushed any
+attempt at confidence&mdash;if he had been the right person to confess to.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, Bernard mumbled, 'Shooting-gallery. And Mother Goldie
+vowed she would lug me up to Wilmet if I don't fork out!'</p>
+
+<p>'Mother Goldie! You little disgusting ape! You've been tucking in what
+you owed in pies and tarts!' cried Lance, who was too constitutionally
+heedless of the palate to have any charity for its temptations.</p>
+
+<p>'It's all Wilmet's fault,' said Bernard. 'She never gives one anything
+fit to eat. There was that beastly lamp out there went and got broke,
+and what does she do but crib it out of our grub! Now, Lance, was any
+living soul served like that before? She gave us only that beastly
+stir-about at breakfast,' (Bernard worked his single adjective hard,)
+'no butter nor sugar at tea, and no pudding, except when there's that
+beastly mess of rice.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm sure I've seen pudding.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh! she came round when Felix came home. She knew he wouldn't stand
+it. Alda used to buy marmalade and anchovy on her own hook, so I don't
+see why I shouldn't.'</p>
+
+<p>'Alda didn't go on tick, I suppose.'</p>
+
+<p>'Serve Wilmet right if we all did. I don't believe there's a beggar so
+badly fed. Nares says&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'You unnatural little sneak, you haven't been and gone and complained
+to him!'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but all the town is crying out upon her shabbiness. They say it is
+a perfect shame how little butcher's meat she gets. Nares's mother and
+sisters do nothing but laugh at it, and Nares says nothing will make us
+comfortable but a bankruptcy. Hollo!'</p>
+
+<p>For a well-aimed swing of the bolster laid him sprawling on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>'Take that for mentioning such a word!'</p>
+
+<p>'My eyes, Lance, is it swearing?' said Bernard, with a little
+affectation of innocence. 'How you have been and bumped my knees;' and
+he sat on the floor, pulling up his trousers to gain a view; 'there'll
+be a bruise as big as half-a-crown! Well, but Nares says it was a real
+blessing to them; for before it old Nares was always in a rage, and his
+mother boohooing; and now it is over they live like fighting-cocks,
+on champagne, and lobster-salad, and mulli&mdash;what's his name?&mdash;first
+chop; and the women dress in silks and velvets and feathers, no end of
+swells! and they say it is regular stoopid to pinch like that, for no
+one will believe we ain't going to smash while she is such a screw!'</p>
+
+<p>'If you weren't nothing but a little donkey,' said Lance, sitting
+coiled up with his head on his knee, grimly contemplating him, 'you'd
+be a show specimen of precocious depravity.'</p>
+
+<p>'I declare,' persisted Bernard, 'Nares says it is coming as sure as
+fate; for his governor, and Jackman, and Collis are going to stump up
+the old Pursuivant with their new Bexley Tribune, and Redstone is to be
+sub-editor.'</p>
+
+<p>'The black-hearted rascal!' cried Lance, bounding on his feet in a
+rage. 'He ought to be kicked out of the shop this instant!'</p>
+
+<p>'Now don't, Lance,' entreated Bernard, 'for Nares will pitch into me
+for telling. He says they've got an opening through the Pur backing up
+that mean beggar Smith; and Collis and Jackman will find the cash, and
+Nares's father is to be editor, and they vow Froggatt and Underwood
+will be beat out of the field.'</p>
+
+<p>'Catch them,' said Lance, and he stood leaning against the solid old
+carved bed-post in silence, till Bernard returned to the insolvency at
+present far more pressing.</p>
+
+<p>'Won't you help me about Stingo?' he said.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you want me to send him to the dog-show, ticketted "The Real Animal
+and no mistake"?'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't, Lance,' said the boy peevishly. 'I thought you were
+good-natured, and would lend me some tin, or at least stop the
+blackguard from being such a baboon. He's found out that Travis has
+cut, and he says he'll come to Felix this very day,' ended he, not far
+from crying.</p>
+
+<p>'I can't anyhow, to-day, Bear,' said Lance, more kindly. 'My head is
+very bad, and you've not mended it.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was well enough when you broke my knees,' grumbled Bernard. 'Come,
+Lance, you used to be a fellow to help one.'</p>
+
+<p>'I can't, I tell you,' said Lance, hastily throwing himself back on
+the bed, and shutting his eyes. 'It isn't that I won't, but I can't. I
+couldn't walk straight down the street for giddiness; and if I did, I
+don't suppose I could talk sense.'</p>
+
+<p>Bernard was startled by the tone as well as the words; but he had not
+arrived at much pity for any one but himself, and he whined, 'But
+what shall I do, then?' repeating it dolefully, as Lance lay for some
+moments silent and with closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>'Bother!' he broke out angrily at last. 'Look here. Tell the
+blackguard&mdash;let me see&mdash;I don't well know what I'm saying. Tell him
+you've spoken to me&mdash;no, to your brother&mdash;mind, you needn't say
+which&mdash;and that he'll come and see about it. Now give me that bolster,
+and take yourself off. Tell them I want no dinner, and don't let any
+one come! Get along, and shut the door.'</p>
+
+<p>Bernard could extract no more, and departed as the dinner-bell rang,
+leaving him without energy even to lock the door. Presently Felix was
+standing anxiously over him; but he reiterated that he could not bear
+to think of food, and only wanted to be left alone; but just as his
+brother was leaving him, he said, 'Fee, do you know that Redstone is
+going over to the enemy?'</p>
+
+<p>'The opposition paper? Nothing more likely. How did you hear?'</p>
+
+<p>'Bear picked it up. I say, wasn't that little beggar to have gone to
+Stoneborough?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not possible, Lance; I've gone into it with Wilmet. She is in trouble
+about household expenses, as it is; and with this rival paper on our
+hands, I can't undertake anything extra. Has he been bothering you? I'm
+very sorry, but we must keep him here.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance shut his eyes without reply; but no sooner was he left alone
+than he rolled over, gave vent to a heavy groan from the bottom of his
+heart, and clenched his hands as he lay. Then followed some heavy sobs,
+and a few great tears; but gradually a look of purpose and hope came
+over his face, and he slept. He was lying between sleeping and waking,
+when a quiet step and cautious knock made him call out, 'Come in, Jack.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your sister wants to know if you are better, and ready for some tea.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, I'm mending. Is Wilmet come home?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but only to become the prey of an ancient female.'</p>
+
+<p>'Mrs. Bisset! Come to inspect you!'</p>
+
+<p>'She won't, then! Shall I get you some tea?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, thank you. But, I say, Jack, do you see my big box that we brought
+home yesterday? Would you just dig into it for me?'</p>
+
+<p>John Harewood applied himself to disentangle a frightful knot,
+observing, 'This looks like Bill's handiwork.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay! Bill put all my traps together when our other fellows came back.'</p>
+
+<p>'Together indeed!' said the Captain, looking at the heterogeneous
+collection.</p>
+
+<p>'There's nothing to hurt,' said Lance. 'Do you see a green box?'</p>
+
+<p>'A fiddle-case, you boy?'</p>
+
+<p>'A violin-case,' said Lance, with dignity. 'Give it me.' And taking out
+his purse, he produced its only contents&mdash;namely, the key&mdash;tried to
+sit up to unlock his treasure, but was forced by giddiness to lie back
+again with a gasp, and hold out the key to his friend.</p>
+
+<p>'Come, I should think a fiddle the last thing you could want just now,'
+said John.</p>
+
+<p>'Just so. I'm afraid it is. Only, just let me see if she is all right.
+Ay!' and then, after a gaze, a fond touch or two, an irrepressible sigh
+strangled in the midst, 'lock her up again! You ain't by any chance
+going home to-morrow?'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you want anything?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, when I got her at old Spicer's sale for twenty-two and sixpence,
+Poulter was beside himself at my luck, and said she was worth double
+that any day, and he would give it me if I got tired of her. Now, if
+I'd only known yesterday, I could have done it myself; but I can't go,
+and I can't write&mdash;but if you could but send or take it to Poulter, and
+get the money for me!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you feel bound to give Poulter the refusal? for if it is really a
+good instrument, it ought to be worth more than that.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poulter has been very good to me. He taught me to play on it,' said
+Lance; 'that is, he showed me a little; but Robin made me lock it up
+and give her the key all last spring, for fear of hindering my mugging;
+and I can't touch her now, so she has been very little use to me. I
+promised Poulter, and I think he should have her. Besides, I want the
+money slick at once. It's no good sticking it in a window to wait for
+some one to give what it is worth.'</p>
+
+<p>John marvelled what need of money could have come upon the boy in
+the last twenty-four hours, but he was too discreet a friend to take
+advantage of necessity to ask questions, and said, 'The fact was, I was
+thinking of running up to town to get a sewing-machine for your sister,
+but if I start by the earlier train, I can see Poulter on the way, and
+if he does not want it himself, he can tell me where to dispose of it
+to the best advantage.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only it must be ready money,' said Lance; it must be owned with
+scarcely the alacrity of gratitude John deserved. 'If it didn't make
+much difference, I wish Poulter could have her, for then I should
+sometimes see her and handle her again, and I think he would use her
+well.'</p>
+
+<p>'Very well, I'll tell him.'</p>
+
+<p>'And don't tell any one here,' added Lance. 'You don't go and tell W.
+W. everything, do you?' he added, wistful and perplexed.</p>
+
+<p>'Not other people's secrets,' said John. 'Now I am going to fetch you
+some food; you are looking quite faint, you have had nothing since
+yesterday's dinner.'</p>
+
+<p>Poor Lance! when John was gone, he turned with another groan, once more
+took the violin in his arms, laid it on his shoulder, and made the
+motions of playing, then kissed it, and whispering, 'Poulter will be
+good to you, my pretty. It's not for that little beggar of a Bear! It's
+for Felix, for Felix&mdash;' and then at a sound of steps, hastily replaced
+it, shut the box, and fell back again, dizzy and exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, he betook himself to a refuge more impregnable to Bernard
+than even Mr. Froggatt's bed-room, namely the office, which suited his
+sociable nature, and where he was always welcome. He found employment
+there, too, in cutting out extracts from newspapers, labelling library
+books, and packing parcels, and sometimes also, it must be owned, in
+drawing caricatures of the figures he spied through the chinks of the
+door.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h4>
+
+<h3>SMOKE-JACK ALLEY.</h3>
+<hr class="r5" />
+<p style="margin-left: 25%;"><i>Launce.</i> It is no matter if the ty'd were lost, for it is the
+unkindest ty'd that ever man ty'd.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 25%;"><i>Panthino.</i> What's the unkindest ty'd?</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 25%;"><i>Launce.</i> Why, he that's ty'd here&mdash;Crab, my
+dog.&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i></p>
+<hr class="r5" />
+
+<p>John Harewood returned, bringing with him what Alda took for a
+dressing-case, and Cherry for a drawing-box, but which proved to
+contain a wonderful genie to save the well-worn fingers many a prick.
+To Lance he first administered the magical words, 'All right,' and then
+making an opportunity, he put five sovereigns into his hand. Lance's
+first impulse was, however, not to thank, but to exclaim, 'Then Poulter
+has not got it?'</p>
+
+<p>No, Poulter's conscience had forbidden him to purchase 'little
+Underwood's' treasure at what he knew to be so much beneath its value;
+but he had given Captain Harewood his best advice and recommendations,
+and by that means the violin had been taken at a London shop, still at
+a price beneath his estimate, but the utmost that could be expected
+where ready money was the point. Lance ought to have been delighted,
+and his native politeness made him repeat, 'Thank you;' but he could
+not quite keep down his regret&mdash;'Now I shall never see or hear her
+again.'</p>
+
+<p>However, the next day, when Bernard flew upon him at twelve o'clock,
+asseverating that there was shade all the way, he allowed himself to be
+persuaded, prudently carrying with him only ten shillings, and trusting
+to his blue umbrella rather than to Bernard's shade, which could hardly
+have been obtained by sidling against the walls.</p>
+
+<p>Bernard did not seem to have enjoyed much more of Stingo's society than
+Lance of his violin's&mdash;the produce of the same bounty. He confessed
+that he had only ventured on taking the dog out three times in a
+string, and on one of these occasions he had broken loose after a cat,
+on another had fought with Nares's dog, and on the third had snapped at
+Angela.</p>
+
+<p>'You didn't take Angel into these places!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, she came to meet me.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's a sign of grace; but, Bear, I can't stand these diggings at
+all. I've a great mind to turn back.'</p>
+
+<p>'You won't!' cried Bernard. 'You must have been here often when you
+were a grammar-school fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not we! This is a cut below us! Fulbert would never have been caught
+here!'</p>
+
+<p>'But you are going to get me out of this fix?'</p>
+
+<p>'Haven't I said I will? only hold your tongue, and let me alone to
+manage the rascal. If you open your mouth, I've done with it.'</p>
+
+<p>Bernard was forced to acquiesce, though Lance's manner vexed and
+irritated him. Popular and valuable as Lance had been with the
+choristers, he was not dealing as well with his brother, perhaps partly
+because he was more consciously trying to influence him; and likewise
+because the state of his health and his prospects so far affected
+his manner, that though never ill-humoured, it had lost some of the
+easy careless sweetness of high spirits, and assumed an ironical
+tone, exasperating to a child who could not brook ridicule. He was
+ashamed and dismayed at the place where Bernard was leading him, so
+low and disreputable that the boys of his time had never haunted it,
+and his own <i>gamin</i> propensities had never extended so far. It was a
+tumble-down quarter; the houses, deplorable hovels, run up hastily for
+the workmen at the potteries, and every third or fourth a beer-shop;
+and in the midst dwelt Mr. Sims, a maimed poacher, who kept a large
+live-stock with which to trade on the sporting tastes of the youth of
+Bexley.</p>
+
+<p>Probably he was gratified to see that 'my brother' meant nothing
+more imposing than the chorister; but Lance had so cultivated his
+opportunities at Dick Graeme's home, as to be more knowing on the
+subject than Felix would have been. Indeed, it did not take much
+science to estimate the value of the 'real animal,' whose market price
+seemed to have fallen considerably. Lance, as he looked at the pied,
+bandy-legged, long-nosed cur, felt it impossible to set his cost
+against his keep, nor was he designed by nature for driving bargains;
+but Sims' expectations were founded on the probable, and the debt was
+annulled for three-and-sixpence and Stingo himself. Much civility was
+expended on Lance; dogs, rabbits, and other curiosities were exhibited,
+and an invitation given to come with the other young gents to admire
+the favourite terrier's exploits upon a cage of rats shortly expected,
+admission free.</p>
+
+<p>'You will come, won't you?' cried Bernard eagerly, as they went out.</p>
+
+<p>'What? To all the vilest sports in the place!'</p>
+
+<p>'But Lance, you told me about the rat hunt at Mr. Graeme's.'</p>
+
+<p>'What? Turning out the barn, with Mr. Graeme himself, and Bill, and all
+the rest? Do you think that's like letting a lot of wretched beasts out
+of a trap to be snapped up by a cur of a dog, with no end of drinking
+foul-mouthed blackguards betting on him?'</p>
+
+<p>'You are always so savage, Lance; and now you've gone and paid away all
+the money.'</p>
+
+<p>'What more?'</p>
+
+<p>'There's the shooting-gallery, you see.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance did see a public-house called the Flying Stag, where Bernard had
+contrived to incur a debt of a few shillings under Nares's patronage.
+While inquiring after the amount, he saw Mr. Mowbray Smith coming along
+the alley, and was more amused than shocked at the amazement his own
+presence there would cause the Curate; but just then he perceived that
+men were standing scowling at their doors, and slovenly women thronging
+out like ants when their hill is disturbed: and asking an explanation
+from the damsel in ear-rings who attended to him, he heard that 'the
+chaps are determined that that there Smith shall not have the impudence
+to show his face here again, for a hypocrite, defrauding of the poor.
+You'd best be away, young gents, there will be a fracaw!'</p>
+
+<p>'A row!' cried Bernard, between excitement and alarm. 'Shall we stay
+and see it? Won't Smith spy us?'</p>
+
+<p>Lance deigned no reply, but seeing the rough-looking men gathering as
+if to obstruct the Curate's way, he shot across the street to shake
+hands with him.</p>
+
+<p>'You! I am sorry to see you!' said Mr. Smith severely: at which Lance
+gave what under other circumstances would have been an impudent smile,
+and asked, 'Have you anywhere here to go?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am just come away from a sick man. But you know how wrong it is to
+bring your little brother here. Take him away,' he added, trying to
+prevent them from joining him, and at the same time a voice shouted,
+'Let him alone, young gents, he aint your sort;' and a hissing and
+hooting broke out all round, 'A parson as ought to have his gown pulled
+over his head!' 'What's gone of the coals?' 'How about the blankets?'</p>
+
+<p>Bernard got a tight grip, out of sight, of Lance's coat; Mr. Smith grew
+red and bit his lips; but Lance walked close to him, and as they began
+to be jostled, took his arm, holding the blue sun-shade over both their
+heads. Unsavoury missiles began to fly; but a woman screeched, 'Bad
+luck to ye, ye vagabone! ye've ruinated the young gentleman's purty
+blue umberella!'</p>
+
+<p>'Down with it, young chap,' called another, 'or ye'll be served with
+the same sauce!'</p>
+
+<p>'Serve un right too!' was the rejoinder. ''Tis they Underwoods, as
+never stands up for poor men's rights, and is all for the tyrants.'
+(All this full of abusive epithets.)</p>
+
+<p>'Who said that?' broke out Lance, beginning hastily to close his
+umbrella, and trying to wrench his arm from Mr. Smith; 'I'm ready for
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Smith, with an angry 'Are you mad?' held him fast; and his
+struggles provoked a good-humoured laugh at the little champion, still
+so white and slight.</p>
+
+<p>'No, no,' said a big powerful man, collaring a great lad who had been
+thrusting forward at Lance's defiance, 'we don't have no mills with
+natomies like you! Go home and mind yer own business. Your father was
+another guess sort of parson, and I'll not see a finger laid on you. Be
+off, till we've given that other bad lot a bit of our mind.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not I!' growled Lance. 'I'll have it out with that rascal
+there.&mdash;Nonsense, Mr. Smith; I can, I say&mdash;and I will!'</p>
+
+<p>But the big man and Mr. Smith were perfectly in accordance this time;
+and without a word between them, the impulse of the coal-heaver's
+weight somehow opened a path, where, shoved by the one, and dragged by
+the other, Lance was at the corner&mdash;then round it&mdash;the crowd followed
+no farther.</p>
+
+<p>'A plucky little chap that!' quoth the coal-heaver to Mr. Smith. 'You
+may thank your stars that he's his father's son, or it would have been
+the worse for you! And if ever you show the face of you here again, you
+know what to expect.'</p>
+
+<p>'I expect nothing but what I am willing to receive in my Master's
+service,' said Mr. Smith, firmly meeting his eyes. 'Meantime, thank you
+for the help you have given me with these boys. Good morning. You will
+judge me more fairly another time.'</p>
+
+<p>The man added another contemptuous oath to those with which he had
+freely laden his discourse; but Lance paused a moment to say, 'Thank
+you too, you meant it well; but I wish you'd have let me have it out
+with that foul-mouthed cad.'</p>
+
+<p>'Wait till ye're a match for him, and welcome,' said the man. 'Bless
+ye! what could that fist do with Black Bill?'</p>
+
+<p>'For shame, boys! come away,' said the infinitely disgusted Curate;
+and not a word was spoken down the first street; Bernard was still
+trembling with excitement, and Lance, conscious perhaps that though his
+interference had answered his purpose, he had been betrayed into what
+he now saw to have been absurd.</p>
+
+<p>At last the Curate spoke, his naturally harsh voice wavering a little
+between reproach and acknowledgment. 'I am very sorry for all this,
+Lancelot Underwood. I believe you joined me out of a kind and generous
+feeling, of which I am sensible; otherwise, I should feel it my duty to
+report to your brother where I met you.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are quite welcome,' said Lance, coolly.</p>
+
+<p>'And I must say,' continued Mr. Smith, 'that if your whole training,
+as well as your recent severe illness, do not withhold you from such
+associations, at least I entreat you to pause before leading your
+little brother into them.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance made no answer, except to halt at a public drinking fountain,
+to wash away the damage his umbrella had sustained; and there, with a
+serious 'Take care!' the Curate left the brothers.</p>
+
+<p>'Catch me going to his help again!' exclaimed Bernard, entirely
+unconscious that his own gratitude to Lance was on a par with Mr.
+Smith's. 'He may get out of the next row as he can!'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! Bear! You see how you are corrupting my innocent youth!'</p>
+
+<p>'A meddling donkey! I wish he had a rotten egg in each eye! Now it will
+all come out.'</p>
+
+<p>'What will?'</p>
+
+<p>'Where we have been.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's the best thing that could happen.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean that you mean to let it out?'</p>
+
+<p>'If you expect me to tell lies for you, you are out there.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Lance, Lance,' in an agony, 'you wouldn't be such a sneak, when I
+trusted you?'</p>
+
+<p>Lance laughed. The bare idea of betrayal seemed so absurd, that he
+scarcely thought it worth removing.</p>
+
+<p>The two were slackening their pace as they saw Felix at the
+carriage-door of a lady customer; and Lance said gravely, 'I'll see to
+Mother Goldie; but now, Bear, that you are out of this scrape, I give
+you fair warning, that if I find you grubbing your nose into that sort
+of thing again, I'll put a stop to it, one way or another.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm not a bit worse than the rest. All the other fellows do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I suppose, if you think Stingo the right thing in dogs, you think
+Nares the right thing in fellows!'</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the customer drove off, and Felix having spied the blue
+sun-shade, tarried at the door to administer a remonstrance to Lance
+on being so foolish as to venture into the noon-day sun. He was not
+able to come in to dinner till it was half over, and then it was with a
+merry look and question, 'What's this, boys, about Mowbray Smith being
+mobbed in Smoke-jack Alley and your making in to the rescue?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh,' said Lance, 'there was an attempt at getting up a shindy, but it
+was of the meanest description. No one knew how to set about it. There
+was only one Irishman there, and he was a woman.' (This with a wink to
+Sibby.)</p>
+
+<p>'And you didn't offer to fight big Ben Blake?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ben Blake, on the contrary, elbowed us all safe out, because my father
+was another guess sort of parson!'</p>
+
+<p>'And there was a horrible little cad making faces,' exclaimed Bernard,
+unable to resist claiming part of the glory, 'and I was just going to
+have pitched into him&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'What&mdash;you saw the row getting up, and went to stand by Smith?' said
+Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said Bernard boldly; 'and nobody durst lay a finger on him when
+we were on each side of him!'</p>
+
+<p>At which everybody burst out laughing, including Mr. Froggatt, and
+Lance most of all. 'Who was it, then,' he struggled to say gravely,
+'that pulled so hard at the back of my coat? I suppose it must have
+been some little cad. I thought it had been you.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, it was time to hold you back, when you were going to fight that
+great lout!'</p>
+
+<p>'For my part,' said Lance, 'I think it must have been Smith and I that
+were holding the Great Bear back by his tail from fighting big Ben
+Blake. Eh?'</p>
+
+<p>Bernard, never able to bear being laughed at, looked intensely sulky;
+and a true description of the affair being asked by Mr. Froggatt,
+Lance gave it, exactly enough, but with so much of the comic side
+that every one was in fits of merriment, all of which, in his present
+mood, the younger boy imagined to be aimed at him. He was too full of
+angry self-consequence really to attend, so as to see how entirely
+disconnected with himself the laughter was; all he cared for was that
+Lance should not betray him; and to assure himself on this head, it
+must be confessed that he hovered on the upper stairs out of sight,
+while Felix was lingering on the lower to say to Lance, 'Of course it
+was only Smith's affair that took you into Smoke-jack Alley?'</p>
+
+<p>'Not exactly,' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>Bernard trembled with resentment and alarm.</p>
+
+<p>'I don't want to ask questions, but you know it is not a nice place for
+yourself or for Bernard.'</p>
+
+<p>'My dear governor, I know that as well or better than you do, and it
+won't be my fault if I go there again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't let it be anybody's fault,' returned Felix, and vanished through
+the office door; while Lance, sighing wearily, was heard repairing
+to his refuge in his own room, and Bernard grimly and moodily swung
+himself down-stairs, on his way to afternoon school, believing himself
+a much aggrieved party. Here was Lance, whom he had believed a
+fellow-inhabitant of the Alsatia of boyhood, turned into one of those
+natural enemies, moral police, who wanted to do him good! True, Lance
+had helped him out of his scrape, and guarded his secret; but Bernard
+could not forgive either his own alarm, or the 'not exactly;' and the
+terms of confidence so evident between him and Felix seemed to place
+them in the same hateful category. Worse than all, Lance had laughed
+at him, and Bernard was far too proud and self-important not to feel
+every joke like so many nettle-stings. He had expected an easy careless
+helper; he had found what he could not comprehend, whether boy or man,
+but at any rate a thing with that intolerable possession, a conscience,
+and a strong purpose of keeping him out of mischief.</p>
+
+<p>To detect which purpose was to be resolved on thwarting it. Nor, it
+must be allowed, was Lance's management perfect. He wanted to make
+himself a companion such as would content the boy instead of the
+Nareses; but to cross the interval of amusement between sixteen and ten
+required condescension, that could not but be perceived and rejected,
+nor did he perceive that ridicule was an engine most fatal in dealing
+with Bernard. Of course nothing like all this passed through the
+boy's mind. Lance simply saw that his little brother was getting into
+mischief, and tried to play with him to keep him out of it, but was
+neither well nor happy enough to do so naturally, and therefore did not
+succeed. Yet if he had abstained from showing Bernard a picture in the
+style of Punch, of the real animal and no mistake, and Bernard himself
+pointing to Felix and observing that the governor didn't know what's
+what, he might have prevailed to prevent the boy from eluding him and
+going to Mr. Sims' rat-hunt.</p>
+
+<p>Of all this Felix knew nothing. He still had much lee-way to make up,
+in consequence of his absence, and the excitement in the town told upon
+the business.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bevan's reply had been a timid endeavour at peace-making which
+foes called shuffling, and friends could only call weakness, so that
+it added to the general exasperation. Then came the Archdeacon's
+investigation, which elucidated the Curate's moral integrity, but
+showed how money subscribed for charity had gone in the church
+expenses, that ought to have been otherwise provided for. It was
+allowed that the Rector had been only to blame in leaving the whole
+administration to the Curate under his wife's dominion, and as the lady
+could not be put forward, Mr. Smith was left to bear the whole brunt of
+the storm.</p>
+
+<p>His obsequiousness to Lady Price had alienated his brother clergy, and
+his fellow-curate allowed himself to be kept aloof by his mother, in a
+manner that became ungenerous. Half petulant, and wholly ungracious, as
+Mr. Smith's manner was in receiving assistance, only strong principle
+could lead any one to befriend him; and his few advisers found it
+difficult to hinder him from making a public exposure of 'my Lady,' or
+from throwing up his work suddenly and leaving the town, which would of
+course have been fatal to his prospects.</p>
+
+<p>The Pursuivant had a difficult course to steer. Mr. Froggatt would
+fain have ignored the strife altogether, but the original note of
+defiance having been sounded by his trumpet, this was not possible,
+and the border line between justice and partizanship was not easy
+to keep. Whether the young editor did keep it was a question. To
+Mr. Smith, he seemed a tame, lukewarm supporter; to Mr. Froggatt, a
+dangerously conscientious and incautious champion; and the vociferous
+public despised the dull propriety, and narrow partizanship, of the
+old country paper. Finally, on the first Saturday in October, there
+appeared the first sheet of the Bexley Tribune, with a cutting article
+on bloated dignitaries and blood-sucking parasites, and an equally
+personal review of all the Proudie literature. On the Monday morning
+one hundred and twenty-nine Pursuivants remained on hand. Redstone
+took the trouble to count them, and to look into the office to ask Mr.
+Underwood where they should be stowed away.</p>
+
+<p>'I wish he was smothered in them, the malicious brute!' said Lance,
+grinding his teeth, when Felix had given a summary answer. 'What a
+blessing to see the ugly back of him on the 1st of November!'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm not so sure of that,' said Felix, as he sorted the letters of the
+Sunday post.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you think he can do us any harm?'</p>
+
+<p>'No; but he seems a specimen of an article hard to supply at the same
+price.'</p>
+
+<p>'Are those answers to your advertisement?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, and very unpromising.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance came to look them over with him, and to put aside those worth
+showing to Mr. Froggatt; but it seemed that an assistant suitable
+in appearance and intelligence was so costly as to alarm their
+old-fashioned notions. He must be efficient, for Mr. Froggatt was
+equal to little exertion, and never came in on bad days; and to give
+an increased salary when the paper was struggling with a rival was
+serious; yet the only moderate proposal was from a father at Dearport,
+who wanted his son boarded, lodged, and treated as one of the family.</p>
+
+<p>'That is impossible,' said Felix, 'unless the Froggatts would do it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Eighteen!' said Lance. 'I'm sixteen, and up to the ways of the place!
+Why don't you set me to work before I have eaten my head off?'</p>
+
+<p>'It would not do for you afterwards,' said Felix; 'I don't like your
+rushing out to serve.'</p>
+
+<p>'But really, Felix, I mean it. I can do all Redstone does, except
+lifting some of the weights; and I am as old as you when you began.'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Lance; your line is cut out for you.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was,' said Lance, 'but I'm off it, and no good as I am; and if you
+could save Redstone's salary, you might send Bear to Stoneborough,
+instead of letting him stay here and go to the dogs.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah!' groaned Felix, 'it is hard that all this should come to upset his
+chances!'</p>
+
+<p>'Are you really afraid those rascals can do us much harm?'</p>
+
+<p>'We have a sound county circulation beyond their reach, but every
+copy they sell is so much out of our pockets; and there are so many
+people possessed with a love of the low and scurrilous, as well as so
+many who differ in politics, that it must thrive unless they stultify
+themselves. Don't look so appalled, Lancey boy; we aint coming to
+grief, only it will be a close shave at home this winter.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then, Felix, let me help! You don't know the comfort it would be.'</p>
+
+<p>'Not so loud,' said Felix, stepping into the shop. Lance stood
+thoughtful, then hearing more footsteps, ran out, and found two or
+three boys come for school materials, and some maids waiting to change
+volumes for their ladies. He gave his ready help; and there ensued
+a lull, for it was a wet day, such as to make Mr. Froggatt's coming
+doubtful. Felix took a second survey of the applications.</p>
+
+<p>'Now, Fee, do think about this; I am in earnest.'</p>
+
+<p>'So am I, Lance; I am very thankful to you, but it is not to be thought
+of.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why not? Am I too small? For that's mending. There's one good thing in
+being ill, it sets one growing. My thick go-to-meeting trousers that I
+left at Minsterham, are gone up to my ankles; I must ask Wilmet if Clem
+hasn't left a pair that have got too seedy for Cambridge.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not that, Lance, but the disadvantage it might be to you in
+after-life.'</p>
+
+<p>'If I took to it for good?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no, Lance; one is enough.'</p>
+
+<p>'Stay. Don't shut me up that way. Recollect what this horrid
+donothingness is doing for me. I am losing all chance of the
+exhibition, and they can't keep me on at the Cathedral without, for my
+voice has got like an old crow's; and besides, if I can't read, what's
+the good of standing for scholarships?'</p>
+
+<p>'You will feel very differently when your head is stronger. Besides, if
+there should be anything in what we were told at Ewmouth, it would be a
+pity to get more involved with trade.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought that was never to be spoken of.'</p>
+
+<p>'And this is my first time. Don't take it as a licence.'</p>
+
+<p>'I could see the sense of that, if it were you,' said Lance, 'but not
+for No. 5.'</p>
+
+<p>'No. 1 would have his place and work found for him, but No. 5 might not
+find it easy to turn to something else.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well!' said Lance, considering, 'you said that possibility was not
+to make any difference to us. Wouldn't it be making the wrong sort
+of difference to let it keep a great lout like me in idleness while
+Bernard is going to the bad?'</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean about Bernard?' said Felix, now thoroughly roused.
+'Is it worse than you and Fulbert were in your <i>gamin</i> days?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am afraid so,' said Lance. 'Ful took better care of himself than he
+seemed to do, and his friends were decent fellows, not like the lot
+that have hooked in poor little Bear.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suppose it was some scrape of his that took you into Smoke-jack
+Alley. I thought you would get him out best without me.'</p>
+
+<p>'The little dog, he was always after me when I didn't want him, but now
+I can't get at him. In short, there's nothing for it but cutting the
+connection between him and Jem Nares.'</p>
+
+<p>'Just tell me how far it goes. What has he been doing with him?'</p>
+
+<p>'Taking him to see rat-killing at Sims' in Smoke-jack Alley.'</p>
+
+<p>'You couldn't hinder it?'</p>
+
+<p>'No. Indeed, Felix, I did my best,' and the tears sprang into the boy's
+eyes; 'I did all but go after him, for I knew that would be worse than
+no good.'</p>
+
+<p>'You need not apologize to me,' said Felix, laying down his pen; 'I
+have been very wrong. Between this business of Smith's and all the rest
+of it, I have hardly known which way to turn. I knew that I had not
+taken the right line with Fulbert, and interference made him worse, and
+I thought you had taken Bear in hand. Why, Lancey, I never meant to
+upset you. You have done all you could.'</p>
+
+<p>'I <i>did</i> think I was good for that,' said Lance ruefully, 'after all
+our old swells at Minsterham said about influence on the choir and
+bosh. That when it comes to one's own brother&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>The tears were almost girl-like, and Felix's comfort was in the tone
+that suited them. 'Indeed, Lance, you may be doing him more good than
+you know. I thank you with all my heart; you are a much more real help
+and comfort to us all than you guess.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's what you say to Cherry!' said Lance, impatiently. 'Now I can be
+real help, if you would only let me, and then Bernard could go out of
+the way of these fellows.'</p>
+
+<p>'That he shall do, if I have to dip into the Chester legacy again.'</p>
+
+<p>'Better take my way,' said Lance, reviving; 'a young man with good
+references only wants board and lodging.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is not possible, Lance. It would not be respectful to the Bishop
+or the Dean, who have strained a point to keep you. There&mdash;I hear Mr.
+Kenyon's voice in the shop. I must go.'</p>
+
+<p>'Only one thing, Felix. Will you hear what Jack Harewood says to it?'</p>
+
+<p>To this Felix readily assented. He was hurried and harassed nearly
+to the extent of his time and capacity; he could not pause to give
+full consideration to his young brother's project, and was glad that
+the ungracious task of silencing it should be imposed on one less
+immediately interested.</p>
+
+<p>John Harewood was always at Wilmet's side after four o'clock. Before
+that time he sometimes went to his home; he often spent the afternoon
+with Geraldine, but he was not usually about the house in the morning.
+So Lance, in a fever of impatience, wandered till he hunted him down
+writing letters in the coffee-room at the Fortinbras Arms.</p>
+
+<p>'Jack, I say, come and have a walk.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pleasant weather!'</p>
+
+<p>'You want to be watered, after all that parching in India. It isn't
+raining now, and such a jolly cool day!'</p>
+
+<p>'Jollier for you than a finer day, mayhap,' said the good-natured
+soldier, who greatly commiserated Lance's enforced idleness, and only
+wondered at his not making it a greater misery to every one else. He
+also understood what the inured ears of the family never guessed, since
+Lance never complained, the distress of Theodore's constant hum and
+concertina to sensitive ears and excited nerves; and had observed that
+Lance had flagged ever since the journey to Minsterham, with less of
+vigour and more of sharpness. Sure that something was preying on the
+boy, he deferred his least important letters, to splash away with him
+in mud and mist, and hear him explain his views, with the fullness
+often more possible towards friend than family.</p>
+
+<p>John was greatly surprised, but did not make any crushing objection,
+and listened with thorough sympathy. He doubted, however, whether Lance
+would be doing any real good, and not only throwing more, instead of
+less work upon Felix. Sensibly enough the boy went into the matter.
+He said that when Felix began, the staff had also consisted of Mr.
+Froggatt, Redstone, a lad called Stubbs, and a boy. Now Felix did much
+more than Mr. Froggatt had then done, and Stubbs was a useful piece
+of mechanism without a head, and Lance believed himself quite able to
+fill the place Felix had taken at the same age; indeed, he had far less
+either to learn or to overcome, and though his arithmetical powers were
+still in abeyance, he had rather excelled in that line at the Cathedral
+school.</p>
+
+<p>'I know, of course,' said Lance, 'that a man from a London house would
+be of more use; but there's this awful salary, and he would never care
+to look after Felix.'</p>
+
+<p>'I allow that; but even if you can be of much present use, is it not at
+the expense of greater usefulness by-and-by?'</p>
+
+<p>'I am sick of that! Edgar and Clem both mean to be of use by-and-by,
+and what comes of it? Edgar has spent Felix's two hundred pounds that
+he borrowed, and now has got his own, all to repay when he is a great
+painter. And he is six years older than I am! Now if I earned my guinea
+a week, as Felix did, it would be real good now, and I should be
+learning the trade for the future.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's the question. First, would the guinea a week make so much
+appreciable difference?'</p>
+
+<p>'Is that all you know about it, Jack? First, I should be earning my
+keep, not eating my head off; and then Bernard might be sent safe off
+to school.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't mean to say that otherwise he could not?'</p>
+
+<p>'It has been a terribly costly year. There's Edgar. Then Clem couldn't
+settle in at Cambridge for nothing; there's been Alda turned back
+on Felix's hands; there's been illness, and goodness knows what the
+doctors may charge; and there's Felix's outing and mine!'</p>
+
+<p>John answered by opening his pocket-book and showing Dr. Manby's
+account receipted.</p>
+
+<p>'O Jack! You don't mean&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Considering that Will was the sole cause of the doctor being wanted at
+all, we could only wish to bear the damages.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope you have told Wilmet. It would be a ton weight off her mind.'</p>
+
+<p>'I hope she would think the Chapter did it; but if you think she is
+anxious, let her know that it is all right.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are a brick, John! But Felix himself said it would be a close
+shave. I wish I could throttle that Bexley Tribune, and all its dirty
+supporters!'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know, Lance, I am very much struck with your brother's&mdash;ay, and
+old Froggatt's conduct in this matter.'</p>
+
+<p>Lance flushed with pleasure. 'Go ahead, Jack!'</p>
+
+<p>'Of course, for a paper to keep its politics is nothing; but to take up
+the cause of an unpopular man, whose slights have been marked&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Who has been a malicious little cad,' chimed in the chorister.</p>
+
+<p>'To take up his cause, simply as a matter of justice, and therewith of
+the Church, without truckling to public opinion, at absolute risk and
+loss, seems to me generosity and principle quite out of the common way.'</p>
+
+<p>'You're about right there,' said Lance, intensely gratified; 'and
+doesn't it make one burn to help the old fellow?'</p>
+
+<p>'Quite true. The question is, which way to help him; and while I grant
+you that the being idle at home just now is a terrible trial, whether
+it might not be better to be patient under it, than to disqualify
+yourself for a line in which you might do more&mdash;that is if it does
+disqualify you.'</p>
+
+<p>'What line do you mean?' said Lance.</p>
+
+<p>'Scholarship, the University.'</p>
+
+<p>'That wasn't what I wanted most,' said Lance; 'and as for that, I'm
+disqualified enough by all this waste of time.'</p>
+
+<p>'What was your wish, then?'</p>
+
+<p>'I'll tell you,' said Lance, with lowered voice. 'When I used to lie
+catching notes of the chanting, and knowing that the organ was quiet
+for me, I used to feel that if I got well, I must give up my life
+to it, and study music in full earnest, so as to be a real lift to
+people's praise, perhaps in our own Cathedral. I thought maybe I could
+get in as a lay-vicar when my year is up, and work at harmony under
+Miles, and take a musical degree. But then came that day when the organ
+seemed to be crushing and grinding my head to bits&mdash;and of all Psalms
+in the world it was the forty-second! and Manby telling me on my life
+not to try to do anything for I can't tell how long.'</p>
+
+<p>'Was that the reason you sold your violin?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, of course not; except that it was a sin and a shame to keep it for
+no good, when I thought a pound might pull that little ape Bernard out
+of the mire. And I've been asking questions, and find it would take
+huge time and cost to study music so as to be worth anything; and here
+am I, a great lout, not doing that or any other good on the face of the
+earth&mdash;as much worse than Theodore as I am bigger. So if I can help
+Felix, when he is fighting the fight in the Pursuivant for God's honour
+and good and right, wouldn't that be a sort of service?'</p>
+
+<p>'So undertaken,' said John, with a huskiness in his voice. 'Well,
+Lance, I will talk it over with Felix, if you like.'</p>
+
+<p>For John Harewood, not having any strong musical bias, did not greatly
+appreciate the career that Lance had chalked out for himself; and
+while thrilled by the boy's devotional feeling, thought it tinged
+by enthusiasm, and had seen enough of Cathedral singing-men to have
+no wish to see him among them. If the loss of time was to prevent
+a University career, he thought book-selling under Felix's eye the
+preferable occupation.</p>
+
+<p>Discussion was, however, deferred by the arrival of a home friend, who
+had sought him out at the hotel; and Lance had to go home without him,
+and wear through the day between dawdling, drawing, and playing with
+Stella, as best he might, till after school-hours; when, eager to turn
+to the account of his wardrobe these moments when Wilmet was free from
+her Captain, he drew her into his room.</p>
+
+<p>Presently after, Felix heard the most amazing noises to which his
+family had ever treated him, and thankful that the wet day had reduced
+the denizens of the reading-room to one deaf old gentleman, he hurried
+upstairs, and beheld through the open door of Mr. Froggatt's room,
+Bernard raving, roaring, dancing, and stamping, in an over-mastering
+passion, and tearing some paper up with teeth and hands. Just then
+Lance grasped his collar, and tried in vain to rescue the paper; but
+he fought with fists, bites, and kicks, like something frantic, until
+Felix, with a bound forward, suddenly captured him, and dragged him
+back, still tearing and crunching the paper.</p>
+
+<p>'For shame! Be quiet! You are heard all over the place.&mdash;Shut the door.'</p>
+
+<p>The door was shut by Wilmet, while Bernard stood quailing under the
+stern face, strong hand, and tone of displeasure in which Felix
+demanded, 'What is the meaning of this?'</p>
+
+<p>'That Bernard refuses to wear Lance's outgrown clothes,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean that this is the cause of this disgraceful outbreak?'</p>
+
+<p>'I&mdash;I don't see why&mdash;' growled Bernard, 'why I should wear everybody's
+beastly old things.'</p>
+
+<p>'It is right you should hear the whole, Felix,' said Wilmet. 'When
+I showed him that Lance would have some still shabbier clothes of
+Clement's altered for him, he said if Lance chose to be a snob, he
+would not. Lance answered that it was a choice between that and
+petticoats; and then he fell into this extraordinary state, when I can
+only hope he did not know what he was saying or doing.'</p>
+
+<p>'He was drawing me,' bellowed Bernard, 'drawing me in his brute of a
+book!' and he was so infuriated, that words never before heard by his
+sister followed, as he quivered and stamped even under Felix's grasp,
+which at length forced him into desisting; but the command, 'Go up
+to your room this instant,' could only be carried out by main force,
+amid tremendous kicking and struggling, Felix carrying him, and Wilmet
+following to unfasten the hands that clutched at the rail; while Lance
+stood aghast at one door, and Cherry in an agony at another, and Stella
+crept into a corner, and hid her face in terror.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, we never had the like of this before!' said Felix, coming down,
+having locked him in, and heard him begin to bounce about the barrack,
+like prisoners in the breaking-out frenzy. 'Can it be all about the
+clothes?'</p>
+
+<p>'I don't think you know what a grievance the having to take to old ones
+has always been to him, poor little boy!' said Cherry, very nearly
+crying, for Bernard was so much her own child, that in spite of his
+having cast her off, she was in full instinct of defence; 'and he
+dislikes Lance's most of all, because of the Cathedral peculiarities.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ah! you have always humoured him by taking off that chorister's
+frill,' said Wilmet; 'but there <i>could</i> be no objection to those
+trousers. They were almost new when Fulbert left them, and Lance has
+only had them for best one winter.'</p>
+
+<p>Felix could not help laughing. 'Long had she worn, and now Belinda
+wears,' he quoted. 'My dear Mettie, the effect is better than the
+detail. You should spare us the pedigree, however respectable.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I said nothing about it,' said Wilmet. 'Was it what you said
+about petticoats, Lance?'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance does tease and aggravate that child unbearably!' exclaimed
+Cherry, too much vexed not to be relieved to turn her blame upon
+somebody; 'and it is very unkind of him, for he knows Bernard cannot
+bear to be laughed at.'</p>
+
+<p>'Hush! Cherry,' said Wilmet; 'if Lance did, he didn't mean it. It has
+been quite too much&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed it has, said Felix. 'You had better lie down at once, Lance.'</p>
+
+<p>A good deal more than Bernard's outbreak had gone to the pain and
+dizziness that prevented Lance from even attempting to reply to
+Cherry's accusation, but made him turn quietly back into his room;
+while Felix was obliged to hurry downstairs again; and Alda made her
+frequent remark that 'those boys were really unbearable.'</p>
+
+<p>'Poor Lance! it was not his fault,' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'You don't know, Wilmet!' said Cherry indignantly. 'I did hope that
+when he came home, my poor little Bernard might get better managed&mdash;he
+used to be so fond of him; but he has done nothing but worry and laugh
+at him, and I don't at all wonder it has come to this. I shall go up
+and see about the poor little fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean to let her go and pet him after such outrageous
+naughtiness?' asked Alda, as Cherry moved to begin the difficult ascent.</p>
+
+<p>'I should not do it myself,' said Wilmet; 'but I daresay she will do
+him good.'</p>
+
+<p>Alda held up her hands in wonder. How many quarrels might have been
+going on at that moment, if three of the family at least had not
+exercised the forbearance she so little understood.</p>
+
+<p>Cherry and her Lord Gerald mounted the attic stairs. It was for the
+first time in her life, and she was so imperfect in the geography of
+the upper floor, that she had to open one or two doors before she found
+'the barrack,' with Bernard lying kicking his heels fiercely at the
+beam across the low room. The amazing presence of Geraldine suspended
+this occupation. 'How did you come here?' he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>'I came to see you, Bear. My poor Bear! I am so sorry!' said Cherry,
+sitting down on one of the beds; 'how could you go on so?'</p>
+
+<p>There was rebuke and pain in her voice, and Bernard resented it.
+'They've no business to bait me,' he said. 'I've no peace in my life!'</p>
+
+<p>'But that doesn't make it right to fly into such dreadful passions.'</p>
+
+<p>'I wouldn't do it if they'd let me alone. I don't see why I should be
+the one to wear every one's nasty old clothes.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, Felix and Clement couldn't well wear yours!'</p>
+
+<p>'It was all Lance's doing. Lance has bothered me out of existence ever
+since he came home.'</p>
+
+<p>'But you should try to bear it, if he <i>is</i> a little cross and tiresome.
+You know he is not at all well yet, and all this has quite knocked him
+up.'</p>
+
+<p>'I'm glad of it!' said Bernard viciously. 'Served him right for setting
+Wilmet on, and then drawing his abominable pictures; as if it wasn't
+enough to have spoilt all my pleasure, and sold Stingo!'</p>
+
+<p>'What was Stingo?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, just a dog&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'A dog!'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, my dog; and Lance went and sold him, and then drew a beastly
+picture of him and me.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Bernard, how could you have a dog?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, I bought him with some money Travis gave me, and a cad down in the
+town kept him for me; but then Travis didn't give me any more&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'But, Bernard, you must have known you ought not. Did you get into
+debt?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay, just for a few shillings; and the brute threatened me so that I
+just asked Lance&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Was he such a dangerous dog? O Bear!'</p>
+
+<p>'No, no&mdash;the man that kept him. I thought Lance would tackle him
+without making a row.'</p>
+
+<p>'And did he?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ay. He said he hadn't got a penny, and he kept me waiting ever so
+long; but I fancy he got it from Harewood. He might as well have let me
+keep Stingo!'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry's views of the relations between Lance and Bernard had begun
+to adjust themselves, and she began to reason on the impropriety of
+keeping the dog; but she soon perceived that this was only ranging
+herself on the side of the enemy, and exciting the obduracy of her
+favourite, who was determined to be a victim. In truth, Bernard was
+not repentant enough to treat her with confidence, and his world was
+so entirely beyond her knowledge, that she did not possess the threads
+that would have led to it. All that she did perceive was, that much of
+Bernard's irritation was at the endeavour to keep him out of mischief,
+and that her own gentle persuasions were almost as distasteful as
+Lance's jests. She sat on, arguing, talking, entreating, till it had
+long been quite dark; and Wilmet at last came up to say that she must
+not stay any longer in the cold, and to ask Bernard whether he would
+say he was sorry.</p>
+
+<p>'I didn't want her to come here bothering,' was Bernard's grateful
+remark.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I advise you to take care you are in a better mood before Felix
+comes,' said Wilmet.&mdash;'Come, Cherry, it is not safe for you to go down
+alone.'</p>
+
+<p>Cherry could only entreat, 'Do, Bear, do,' and try to kiss the averted
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know that as soon as the door was shut on him and the
+little flicker of gas, Bernard fell into an anguish of sobs and tears,
+the work of her persevering love, softening and lessening the obstinate
+pride so far that the next visitors met with a much better reception
+than they might have done. The first came stumbling up with a weary
+step, and pushed open the door, saying, 'Here, Bear, don't bear malice.
+I'm awfully sorry I ever drew that thing! I'll never do you again. So
+shake hands, and have done with it.'</p>
+
+<p>'All right,' returned Bernard, outstretching his hand as one who felt
+that amends were made him, but could not receive them graciously; and
+Lance's weary and confused senses were satisfied. He never perceived
+hard lumps of offence unless he ran his head very hard against them,
+and even now little guessed the amount of annoyance his raillery had
+given.</p>
+
+<p>And next came a quick, resolute tread that made the little fellow
+shiver with apprehension, never guessing at his brother's self-debate
+whether obstinate impenitence ought not to bring the rod, and wondering
+recollection of his own displeasure when Mr. Audley recommended its
+disuse in the fatherless household. Felix held by the spirit rather
+than the letter, and had decided that unless he found submission,
+signal punishment must ensue.</p>
+
+<p>It was an immense relief to him to detect by eye and ear that the child
+had been crying, and to be able to say that seeing that he was sorry
+made it possible to attend to Lance's kind entreaty not to be hard upon
+him. Absolute words of penitence Felix did not try to exact; but after
+a few words of sympathy, which Bernard had by no means expected, on the
+hardship of the second-hand wardrobe, and a reminder of the necessity,
+he proceeded to rebuke for the passionate behaviour, and above all
+for the language Bernard had used; expressing to the full how much it
+had shocked and appalled him, by showing what sort of associates the
+boy must have chosen since he had learnt such words at all, and what
+a shame and disgrace he felt it that one of the brothers should ever
+have uttered them. And Bernard&mdash;who had learnt that Satanic primer
+with a certain shame and repugnance, under the strong desire to show
+himself neither girl, muff, nor choir-boy, and certainly would never
+in his right senses have betrayed his proficiency at home&mdash;was a good
+deal impressed, and finally began to cry again, and to promise to cure
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>Believed to have thus fulfilled the least pleasing of all his duties,
+Felix went down to his long-delayed evening meal, and therewith to a
+family council. Lance was gone to bed, and his proposal was the more
+freely discussed, as well as his relations with Bernard.</p>
+
+<p>'That boy must go at once to Stoneborough,' said Felix. 'I shall write
+to Dr. Cheviot to-night.'</p>
+
+<p>Wilmet sighed. 'I suppose I ought not to have objected,' she said; 'but
+I did think Lance would have kept him in order.'</p>
+
+<p>'He has tried,' said Felix.</p>
+
+<p>'O Felix!' cried Cherry, turning to him with tears in her eyes, 'I am
+afraid I was unjust to Lance just now, and I am so sorry! Do you know,
+the naughty little fellow had been keeping a dog and got into debt; and
+Lance paid all&mdash;I can't think how!'</p>
+
+<p>'That I believe I can tell,' said John Harewood, 'though I am afraid it
+is a breach of confidence. He sold his violin.'</p>
+
+<p>'That violin that I was so angry with him for buying!' said Wilmet.
+'Well, he is a dear little fellow!'</p>
+
+<p>'And I scolded him for being unkind!' cried Cherry, in despair. 'Oh, is
+he asleep? I should like to beg his pardon,' and her hand clasped Lord
+Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>'About the worst thing you could do to the poor boy, Cherry,' said
+Felix, 'when he is only lying there trying to get his head quiet enough
+to let him sleep.'</p>
+
+<p>'Nor must you betray me,' added John, smiling at poor
+conscience-stricken Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'And it is a mercy the fiddle is gone!' said Alda. 'I used to hear him
+playing it somewhere among the out-houses in the spring, and it was
+enough to distract one, added to Theodore's dronings.'</p>
+
+<p>'It must have been like parting with a bit of his life,' sighed Cherry;
+'and yet Bernard would not mind him, and they <i>did</i> quarrel!'</p>
+
+<p>'Boys who deal well with juniors at school do sometimes fail with
+little brothers,' said John. 'Besides, I observe that where there is
+pride there is always a distaste and dread of those who have much power
+of ridicule.'</p>
+
+<p>'I suspect, too,' said Felix, 'that Lance has made the turn in life
+when one gets superfluously earnest, and nothing so upsets influence. I
+have felt it myself.'</p>
+
+<p>'So all this trouble and vexation has been weighing on the dear little
+fellow,' said Wilmet. 'No wonder he is not half so well as when he came
+home!'</p>
+
+<p>'No,' said Felix; 'I wonder whether the Froggatts would let him come to
+them for a week or two, or whether it would be too dull to be good for
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>'If his mind were settled about the future, it would be rest rather
+than dullness,' said John; 'but I think a good deal of his trouble is
+caused by Manby's verdict, and for that perhaps the best cure would be
+letting him have his wish.'</p>
+
+<p>'You, John!' exclaimed Felix; 'I thought you would have put that out of
+his head!'</p>
+
+<p>'On the contrary, he made me think there was a good deal in his
+arguments. First, as regards you, would he be of any real use?'</p>
+
+<p>'Never mind that,' said Felix. 'I heard something to-day that would
+make it practicable; but I can't have that boy wasted.'</p>
+
+<p>'The point is, what is waste? Now his strongest aptitude never was for
+classical work; and if he is not to touch a Latin book till Christmas,
+and then only cautiously, I do not see what chance he would have, even
+if Will were out of the way.'</p>
+
+<p>'And if not at Minsterham, so much the less anywhere else,' said
+Wilmet. 'Besides, it might be a dreadful risk if his head were to be
+overstrained.'</p>
+
+<p>'And in the meantime, the being kept here doing nothing, and vexing
+himself, is wearing his spirits, and hurting him more than any light
+occupation, especially what he felt to be a labour of love.'</p>
+
+<p>'That is quite true again,' said Felix. 'I quite believe he would be
+much happier if he began working with me to-morrow; but it might be
+letting a mere fit of impatience and despondency fix him for life in an
+uncongenial business.'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought you preferred it!' exclaimed Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Oh yes,' said Felix, with a sort of half contempt in his tone; 'but
+these boys of ours are a different sort of stuff, and we have seen that
+it will never answer to pin them down to plod.'</p>
+
+<p>'Lance would never be like Edgar!' exclaimed Wilmet; 'as if Edgar ever
+thought of doing anything so unselfish in his life!'</p>
+
+<p>'O Wilmet! indeed he <i>thought!</i>' cried Cherry.</p>
+
+<p>'Yes, but always of five or six years hence!' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'Lance is very like Edgar,' said Felix. 'He has what I believe belongs
+to the artist temperament; and that he is the bravest, the most
+uncomplaining little fellow I ever came across, and probably would
+never break off what he had begun, makes me the more anxious not to let
+this access of generosity&mdash;ay, and tedium&mdash;lead to taking any decided
+step while he is so young.'</p>
+
+<p>'When you come to artist temperament, I don't understand,' said Wilmet.
+'Lance doesn't even draw anything like Cherry or Edgar&mdash;much good does
+that do! and as to his music, it would not be much of a living.'</p>
+
+<p>'I believe he thinks that the alternative,' said John.</p>
+
+<p>'For goodness' sake!' cried Alda, 'he doesn't want to get taken on
+in London! To have him singing and fiddling in public would be worse
+than anything. You put that out of his head, I hope, John. Even if he
+changed his name&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'It never was in his head,' said John. 'He never thought of anything
+but his old line&mdash;Cathedral music: and the sacrifice to him is of that,
+not of the chance of the University.'</p>
+
+<p>'That's not so bad,' said Alda, 'because it is a great chance whether
+any one ever heard of it.'</p>
+
+<p>'But I doubt if it be a very desirable life, as things are at present
+constituted,' said John. 'I am not sure that it is not better to give
+the musical talent freely for that service, than to make it one's trade
+and livelihood.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think you are right there,' said Felix. 'I suppose there is always
+some degree of disenchantment.'</p>
+
+<p>'What did you say made his notion practicable?' said Wilmet.</p>
+
+<p>'I've had Mr. Lamb with me this evening&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Mr. Bruce's managing clerk,' explained Wilmet to the Captain. 'Does he
+want you to have Ernest?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes. He has missed the exhibition from the grammar-school; and as he
+can't go to Oxford, fancies (deluded youth!) that he will get more
+reading in this line than any other. He is ready to give a premium with
+him, and spoke what Mr. Froggatt would call very handsomely about our
+house being one where he could trust him. I believe Mr. Froggatt will
+be gratified, and accept him.'</p>
+
+<p>'Ernest Lamb&mdash;Serious mutton,' repeated Cherry; 'doesn't he look very
+heavy?'</p>
+
+<p>'Yes; he is bookish without being quick. I don't expect he will be of
+much use just yet, but he is as steady as old Time; and though he and
+Lance would neither of them do alone, yet together I think we could get
+on.'</p>
+
+<p>'Then,' said John, 'does it not seem to you, Wilmet, that it would be
+a greater positive benefit to accept Lance's offer for the present&mdash;on
+trial, as one may say&mdash;than to leave him to the depression that is
+certainly doing him harm?'</p>
+
+<p>'And if Lance was there,' said Wilmet, 'I should have some comfort that
+Felix would be properly looked after.'</p>
+
+<p>'Whatever happens,' said Felix, 'I shall send Lance out to Marshlands
+for a fortnight, and see if he is in the same mind when he comes back.
+After all, it depends on Mr. Froggatt: and he will be afraid people
+will say we have turned in the whole Grammar-school behind the counter.
+I wonder if Lance is safe not to laugh in the old ladies' faces when
+they ask&mdash;What number of what magazine, how many years ago, had a
+receipt for washing anti-macassars?'</p>
+
+<p>By which they knew him to be very much exhilarated.</p>
+
+<p>That fortnight at Marshlands was not wasted. Lance had faculties
+for never being dull. He pottered about with Mr. or Mrs. Froggatt,
+fed their chickens, gathered their apples and nuts, petted their
+cats, tried to teach words to their parrot and tricks to their dogs,
+played cribbage and back-gammon with them in the evening, never had a
+head-ache, never was at a loss or upon their hands, gained their hearts
+completely, and came home wonderfully benefited by the respite from
+noise and harass, and quite decided to stand by his proposal, to which
+the partners, with some hesitation, had finally acceded.</p>
+
+<h4>END OF VOL. I.</h4>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE, VOL. I (OF 2)***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 6331-h.txt or 6331-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/3/3/6331">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/3/6331</a></p>
+<p>
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+</p>
+
+<h2>*** START: FULL LICENSE ***<br />
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br />
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</h2>
+
+<p>To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">www.gutenberg.org/license</a>.</p>
+
+<h3>Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works</h3>
+
+<p>1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.</p>
+
+<p>1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.</p>
+
+<p>1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.</p>
+
+<p>1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:</p>
+
+<p>1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:</p>
+
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+
+<p>1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."</li>
+
+<li>You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.</li>
+
+<li>You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.</li>
+
+<li>You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.</p>
+
+<h3>Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm</h3>
+
+<p>Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.</p>
+
+<p>Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and
+the Foundation information page at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+
+<h3>Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation</h3>
+
+<p>The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.</p>
+
+<p>The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org/contact">www.gutenberg.org/contact</a></p>
+
+<p>For additional contact information:<br />
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby<br />
+     Chief Executive and Director<br />
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org</p>
+
+<h3>Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation</h3>
+
+<p>Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.</p>
+
+<p>The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org/donate">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a></p>
+
+<p>While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.</p>
+
+<p>International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.</p>
+
+<p>Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org/donate">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a></p>
+
+<h3>Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.</h3>
+
+<p>Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.</p>
+
+<p>Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.</p>
+
+<p>Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+
+<p>This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/6331-h/images/fam_bible.jpg b/6331-h/images/fam_bible.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f688911
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331-h/images/fam_bible.jpg
diff --git a/6331-h/images/pedigree.jpg b/6331-h/images/pedigree.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..80b4521
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331-h/images/pedigree.jpg
diff --git a/6331.txt b/6331.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f6d267
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,24456 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Pillars of the House, Vol. I (of 2), by
+Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Pillars of the House, Vol. I (of 2)
+       or, Under Wode, Under Rode
+
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 26, 2002  [eBook #6331]
+This revision first posted: January 20, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE, VOL. I
+(OF 2)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Sandra Laythorpe and revised by Clare Graham and Marc
+D'Hooghe (http://www.freeliterature.org) using page images generously made
+available by the Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work.
+      Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44721
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE;
+
+Or,
+
+Under Wode, Under Rode.
+
+by
+
+CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+Author of 'The Heir of Redclyffe,' etc.
+
+In Two Volumes.
+
+VOL I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London:
+Macmillan and Co.
+1875.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS TO VOL. I.
+
+        I. THE BIRTH-DAY GIFT
+       II. THE PIC-NIC
+      III. FORTUNATUS' PURSE
+       IV. TWILIGHT AND DAWN
+        V. WORKING FOR BREAD
+       VI. THE CACIQUE
+      VII. THE CHESS-PLAYER'S BATTLE
+     VIII. THE HOME
+       IX. THE THIRTEEN
+        X. THE FAMILY COBWEB ON THE MOVE
+       XI. THE CHORAL FESTIVAL
+      XII. GIANT DESPAIR'S CASTLE
+     XIII. PEGASUS IN HARNESS
+      XIV. WHAT IT MAY LEAD TO
+       XV. WHAT IT LED TO
+      XVI. THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT
+     XVII. MIDSUMMER SUN
+    XVIII. BY THE RIVER
+      XIX. THE HOUSE WITHOUT PILLARS
+       XX. VALE LESTON
+      XXI. A KETTLE OF FISH
+     XXII. THE REAL THING AND NO MISTAKE
+    XXIII. SMOKE-JACK ALLEY
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE;
+
+OR,
+
+UNDER WODE, UNDER RODE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BIRTH-DAY GIFT.
+
+     'O I've got a plum-cake, and a feast let us make,
+        Come, school-fellows, come at my call;
+      I assure you 'tis nice, and we'll all have a slice,
+        Here's more than enough for us all.'
+                                    _Jane Taylor._
+
+
+'It is come! Felix, it is come!'
+
+So cried, shouted, shrieked a chorus, as a street door was torn open
+to admit four boys, with their leathern straps of books over their
+shoulders. They set up a responsive yell of 'Jolly! Jolly!' which
+being caught up and re-echoed by at least five voices within, caused
+a considerable volume of sound in the narrow entry and narrower
+staircase, up which might be seen a sort of pyramid of children.
+
+'Where is it?' asked the tallest of the four arrivals, as he soberly
+hung up his hat.
+
+'Mamma has got it in the drawing-room, and Papa has been in ever since
+dinner,' was the universal cry from two fine complexioned, handsome
+girls, from a much smaller girl and boy, and from a creature rolling on
+the stairs, whose sex and speech seemed as yet uncertain.
+
+'And where's Cherry?' was the further question; 'is she there too?'
+
+'Yes, but--' as he laid his hand on the door--'don't open the letter
+there. Get Cherry, and we'll settle what to do with it.'
+
+'O Felix, I've a stunning notion!'
+
+'Felix, promise to do what I want!'
+
+'Felix, do pray buy me some Turkish delight!'
+
+'Felix, I do want the big spotty horse.'
+
+Such shouts and insinuations, all deserving the epithet of the first,
+pursued Felix as he entered a room, small, and with all the contents
+faded and worn, but with an air of having been once tasteful, and
+still made the best of. Contents we say advisedly, meaning not merely
+the furniture but the inmates, namely, the pale wan fragile mother,
+working, but with the baby on her knee, and looking as if care and toil
+had brought her to skin and bone, though still with sweet eyes and a
+lovely smile; the father, tall and picturesque, with straight handsome
+features, but with a hectic colour, wasted cheek, and lustrous eye,
+that were sad earnests of the future. He was still under forty, his
+wife some years less; and elder than either in its expression of wasted
+suffering was the countenance of the little girl of thirteen years old
+who lay on the sofa, with pencil, paper, and book, her face with her
+mother's features exaggerated into a look at once keen and patient, all
+three forming a sad contrast to the solid exuberant health on the other
+side the door.
+
+Truly the boy who entered was a picture of sturdy English vigour,
+stout-limbed, rosy faced, clear eyed, open, and straightforward
+looking, perhaps a little clumsy with the clumsiness of sixteen,
+especially when conscience required tearing spirits to be subdued to
+the endurance of the feeble. It was, however, a bright congratulating
+look that met him from the trio. The little girl started up: 'Your
+sovereign's come, Felix!'
+
+The father showed his transparent-looking white teeth in a merry laugh.
+'Here are the galleons, you boy named in a lucky hour! How many times
+have you spent them in fancy?'
+
+The mother held up the letter, addressed to Master Felix Chester
+Underwood, No. 8, St. Oswald's Buildings, Bexley, and smiled as she
+said, 'Is it all right, my boy?'
+
+'They want me to open it outside, Mamma!--Come, White-heart, we want
+you at the council.'
+
+And putting his arm round his little sister Geraldine's waist, while
+she took up her small crutch, Felix disappeared with her, the mother
+looking wistfully after them, the father giving something between a
+laugh and a sigh.
+
+'Then you decide against speaking to him,' said Mrs. Underwood.
+
+'Poor children, yes. A little happiness will do them a great deal more
+good than the pound would do to us. The drops that will fill their
+little cup will but be lost in our sea.'
+
+'Yes, I like what comes from Vale Leston to be still a festive matter,'
+said Mrs. Underwood; 'and at least we are sure the dear boy will never
+spend it selfishly. It only struck me whether he would not enjoy
+finding himself able to throw something into the common stock.'
+
+'_He_ would, honest lad,' said Mr. Underwood; 'but, Mamma, you are very
+hard-hearted towards the rabble. Even if this one pound would provide
+all the shoes and port wine that are pressing on the maternal mind, the
+stimulus of a day's treat would be much more wholesome.'
+
+'But not for you,' said his wife.
+
+'Yes, for me. If the boy includes us old folks in his festivity, it
+will be as good as a week's port wine. You doubt, my sweet Enid. Has
+not our long honeymoon at Vale Leston helped us all this time?' Her
+name was Mary, but having once declared her to be a woman made of the
+same stuff as Enid, he had made it his pet title for her.
+
+Mrs. Underwood's thoughts went far away into the long ago of Vale
+Leston. She could hardly believe that nine years only had passed since
+that seven-years' honeymoon. She was a woman of the fewest possible
+words, and her husband generally answered her face instead of her voice.
+
+Vale Leston had promised to be an ample provision when Edward Underwood
+had resigned his fellowship to marry the Rector's niece and adopted
+daughter, his own distant cousin, with the assurance of being presented
+to the living hereafter, and acting in the meantime as curate. It
+was a family living, always held conjointly with a tolerably good
+estate, enough to qualify the owner for the dangerous position of
+'squarson,' as no doubt many a clerical Underwood had been ever since
+their branch had grown out from the stem of the elder line, which had
+now disappeared. These comfortable quarters had seemed a matter of
+certainty, until the uncle died suddenly and with a flaw in his will,
+so that the undesirable nephew and heir-at-law whom he had desired to
+exclude, a rich dissipated man, son to a brother older than the father
+of the favourite niece, had stepped in, and differing _in toto_ from
+Edward Underwood, had made his own son take orders for the sake of the
+living, and it had been the effort of the young wife ever since not to
+disobey her husband by showing that it had been to her the being driven
+out of paradise.
+
+        ASSISTANT CURACY.--A Priest of Catholic opinions is needed
+        at a town parish. Resident Rector and three Curates. Daily
+        Prayers. Choral Service on Sundays and Holy-days. Weekly
+        Communion.--Apply to P.C.B., St. Oswald's Rectory, Bexley.
+
+Every one knows the sort of advertisement which had brought Mr.
+Underwood to Bexley, as a place which would accord with the doctrines
+and practices dear to him. Indeed, apart from the advertisement,
+Bexley had a fame. A great rubrical war had there been fought out by
+the Rector of St. Oswald's, and when he had become a colonial Bishop,
+his successor was reported to have carried on his work; and the beauty
+of the restored church, and the exquisite services, were so generally
+talked of, that Mr. Underwood thought himself fortunate in obtaining
+the appointment. Mr. Bevan too, the Rector, was an exceedingly
+courteous, kindly-mannered man, talking in a soft low voice in the most
+affectionate and considerate manner, and with good taste and judgment
+that exceedingly struck and pleased the new curate. It was the more
+surprise to him to find the congregations thin, and a general languor
+and indifference about the people who attended the church. There was
+also a good deal of opposition in the parish, some old sullen seceders
+who went to a neighbouring proprietary chapel, many more of erratic
+tastes haunted the places of worship of the numerous sects, who swarmed
+in the town, and many more were living in a state of town heathenism.
+
+It was not long before the perception of the cause began to grow upon
+Mr. Underwood. The machinery was perfect, but the spring was failing;
+the salt was there, but where was the savour? The discourses he heard
+from his rector were in one point of view faultless, but the old
+Scottish word 'fushionless' would rise into his thoughts whenever
+they ended, and something of effect and point was sure to fail; they
+were bodies without souls, and might well satisfy a certain excellent
+solicitor, who always praised them as 'just the right medium, sober,
+moderate, and unexciting.'
+
+In the first pleasure of a strong, active, and enterprising man, at
+finding his plans unopposed by authority, Mr. Underwood had been
+delighted with his rector's ready consent to whatever he undertook,
+and was the last person to perceive that Mr. Bevan, though objecting
+to nothing, let all the rough and tough work lapse upon his curates,
+and took nothing but the graceful representative part. Even then,
+Mr. Underwood had something to say in his defence; Mr. Bevan was
+valetudinarian in his habits, and besides--he was in the midst of a
+courtship--after his marriage he would give his mind to his parish.
+
+For Mr. Bevan, hitherto a confirmed and rather precise and luxurious
+bachelor, to the general surprise, married a certain Lady Price, the
+young widow of an old admiral, and with her began a new _regime._
+
+My Lady, as every one called her, since she retained her title and
+name, was by no means desirous of altering the ornamental arrangements
+in church, which she regarded with pride; but she was doubly anxious
+to guard her husband's health; and she also had the sharpest eye to
+the main chance. Hitherto, whatever had been the disappointments and
+shortcomings at the Rectory, there had been free-handed expenditure,
+and no stint either in charity or the expenses connected with the
+service; but Lady Price had no notion of taking on her uncalled-for
+outlay. The parish must do its part, and it was called on to do so
+in modes that did not add to the Rector's popularity. Moreover, the
+arrangements were on the principle of getting as much as possible out
+of everybody, and no official failed to feel the pinch. The Rector
+was as bland, gentle, and obliging as ever; but he seldom transacted
+any affairs that he could help; and in the six years that had elapsed
+since the marriage, every person connected with the church had changed,
+except Mr. Underwood.
+
+Yet, perhaps, as senior curate, he had felt the alteration most
+heavily. He had to be, or to refuse to be, my Lady's instrument in her
+various appeals; he came in for her indignation at wastefulness, and
+at the unauthorised demands on the Rector; he had to feel what it was
+to have no longer unlimited resources of broth and wine to fall back
+upon at the Rectory; he had to supply the shortcomings of the new staff
+brought in on lower terms--and all this, moreover, when his own health
+and vigour were beginning to fail.
+
+Lady Price did not like him or his family. They were poor, and she
+distrusted the poor; and what was worse, she knew they were better
+born and better bred than herself, and had higher aims. Gentle Mrs.
+Underwood, absorbed in household cares, no more thought of rivalry
+with her than with the Queen; but the soft movement, the low voice,
+the quiet sweep of the worn garments, were a constant vexation to my
+Lady, who having once pronounced the curate's wife affected, held to
+her opinion. With Mr. Underwood she had had a fight or two, and had not
+conquered, and now they were on terms of perfect respect and civility
+on his side, and of distance and politeness on hers. She might talk of
+him half contemptuously but she never durst show herself otherwise than
+civil, though she was always longing to bring in some more deferential
+person in his place; and, whenever illness interfered with his duties,
+she spoke largely to her friends of the impropriety of a man's
+undertaking what he could not perform.
+
+One of her reductions had been the economising the third curate, while
+making the second be always a neophyte, who received his title for
+Orders, and remained his two years upon a small stipend.
+
+The change last Easter, which had substituted a deacon for a priest,
+had fallen heavily on Mr. Underwood, and would have been heavier still,
+but that the new comer, Charles Audley, had attached himself warmly
+to him. The young man was the son of a family of rank and connection,
+and Lady Price's vanity was flattered by obtaining his assistance;
+but her vexation was proportionably excited by his preference for the
+Underwood household, where, in truth--with all its poverty--he found
+the only atmosphere thoroughly congenial to him in all the parish of
+St. Oswald's.
+
+Speedily comprehending the state of things, he put his vigorous young
+shoulder to the wheel, and, full of affectionate love and admiration
+for Mr. Underwood, spared himself nothing in the hope of saving him
+fatigue or exertion, quietly gave up his own holidays, was always at
+his post, and had hitherto so far lightened Mr. Underwood's toil, that
+he was undoubtedly getting through this summer better than the last,
+for his bodily frame had long been affected by the increased amount of
+toil in an ungenial atmosphere, and every access of cold weather had
+told on him in throat and chest attacks, which, with characteristic
+buoyancy, he would not believe serious. He never deemed himself aught
+but 'better,' and the invalid habits that crept on him by stealth,
+always seemed to his brave spirit consequent on a day's extra fatigue,
+or the last attention to a departing cough. Alas! when every day's
+fatigue was extra, the cough always depart_ing_, never depart_ed_.
+
+Yet, though it had become a standing order in the house, that for
+an hour after papa came in from his rounds, no one of the children
+should be in the drawing-room, except poor little lame Geraldine,
+who was permanently established there; and that afterwards, even on
+strong compulsion, they should only come in one by one, as quietly as
+possible, he never ceased to apologise to them for their banishment
+when he felt it needful, and when he was at ease, would renew the
+merriment that sometimes cost him dear.
+
+The children had, for the most part, inherited that precious heirloom
+of contentment and elasticity, and were as happy in nooks and corners
+in bed-room, nursery, staircase or kitchen, as they could have been in
+extensive play-rooms and gardens.
+
+See them in full council upon the expenditure of the annual gift that
+an old admiral at Vale Leston, who was godfather to Felix, was wont to
+send the boy on his birth-day--that third of July, which had seemed
+so bright, when birth-days had begun in the family, that no name save
+Felix could adequately express his parent's feelings.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Underwood had fancies as to nomenclature; and that
+staircase-full of children rejoiced in eccentric appellations. To begin
+at the bottom--here sat on a hassock, her back against the wall, her
+sharp old fairy's face uplifted, little Geraldine, otherwise Cherry,
+a title that had suited her round rosiness well, till after the first
+winter at Bexley, when the miseries of a diseased ankle-joint had
+set in, and paled her into the tender aliases of White-heart, or
+Sweet-heart. She was, as might be plainly seen in her grey eyes, a
+clever child; and teaching her was a great delight to her father, and
+often interested him when he was unequal to anything else. Her dark
+eyebrows frowned with anxiety as she lifted up her little pointed
+chin to watch sturdy frank-faced Felix, who with elaborate slowness
+dealt with the envelope, tasting slowly of the excitement it created,
+and edging away from the baluster, on which, causing it to contribute
+frightful creaks to the general Babel, were perched numbers 4, 6,
+7, and 8, to wit, Edgar, Clement, Fulbert, and Lancelot, all three
+handsome, blue-eyed, fair-faced lads. Indeed Edgar was remarkable, even
+among this decidedly fine-looking family. He had a peculiarly delicate
+contour of feature and complexion, though perfectly healthy; and there
+was something of the same expression, half keen, half dreamy, as in
+Geraldine, his junior by one year; while the grace of all the attitudes
+of his slender lissome figure showed to advantage beside Felix's more
+sturdy form, and deliberate or downright movements; while Clement was
+paler, slighter, and with rather infantine features, and shining wavy
+brown hair, that nothing ever seemed to ruffle, looked so much as if
+he ought to have been a girl, that Tina, short for Clementina, was his
+school name. Fulbert, stout, square, fat-cheeked, and permanently rough
+and dusty, looked as if he hardly belonged to the rest.
+
+The four eldest were day-scholars at the city grammar-school; but
+Lancelot, a bright-faced little fellow in knickerbockers, was a pupil
+of whoever would or could teach him at home, as was the little girl
+who was clinging to his leg, and whose name of Robina seemed to have
+moulded her into some curious likeness to a robin-redbreast, with her
+brown soft hair, rosy cheeks, bright merry eyes, plump form, and quick
+loving audacity. Above her sat a girl of fifteen, with the family
+features in their prettiest development--the chiseled straight profile,
+the clear white roseately tinted skin, the large well-opened azure
+eyes, the profuse glossy hair, the long, slender, graceful limbs, and
+that pretty head leant against the knees of her own very counterpart;
+for these were Wilmet and Alda, the twin girls who had succeeded Felix,
+and whose beauty had been the marvel of Vale Leston, their shabby dress
+the scorn of the day school at Bexley. And forming the apex of the
+pyramid, perched astride on the very shoulders of much-enduring Wilmet,
+was three years old Angela--Baby Bernard being quiescent in a cradle
+near mamma. N.B. Mrs. Underwood, though her girls had such masculine
+names, had made so strong a protest against their being called by
+boyish abbreviations, that only in one case had nature been too strong
+for her, and Robina had turned into Bobbie. Wilmet's second name being
+Ursula, she was apt to be known as W. W.
+
+'Make haste, Felix, you intolerable boy! don't be so slow!' cried Alda.
+
+'Is there a letter?' inquired Wilmet.
+
+'Yes, more's the pity!' said Felix. 'Now I shall have to answer it.'
+
+'I'll do that, if you'll give me what's inside,' said Edgar.
+
+'Is it there?' exclaimed Cherry, in a tone of doubt, that sent an
+electric thrill of dismay through the audience; Lance nearly toppling
+over, to the horror of the adjacent sisters, and the grave rebuke of
+Clement.
+
+'If it should be a sell!' gasped Fulbert.
+
+'Suppose it were,' said Felix gravely.
+
+'Then,' said Edgar, 'you can disown the old rogue Chester.'
+
+'What stuff!' interposed Clement.
+
+'I'd cut him out of my will on the spot,' persisted Edgar.
+
+'But it is all right,' said Cherry, looking with quiet certainty into
+her brother's face; and he nodded and coloured at the same time.
+
+'But it is not a pretty one,' said little Robina. 'Last year it was
+green, and before that red; and this is nasty stupid black and white,
+and all thin crackling paper.'
+
+Felix laughed, and held up the document.
+
+'What!' cried Fulbert. 'Five! Why, 'tisn't only five shillings! the
+horrid old cheat!'
+
+'It's a five-pound note!' screamed Cherry. 'I saw one when Papa went to
+the bank! O Felix, Felix!'
+
+A five-pound note! It seemed to take away the breath of those who knew
+what it meant, and then an exulting shout broke forth.
+
+'Well,' said Edgar solemnly, 'old Chester is a brick! Three cheers for
+him!'
+
+Which cheers having been perpetrated with due vociferation, the cry
+began, 'O Felix, what will you do with it?'
+
+'Buy a pony!' cried Fulbert.
+
+'A rocking-horse,' chirped Robina.
+
+'Punch every week,' shouted Lance.
+
+'A knife apiece,' said Fulbert.
+
+'How can you all be so selfish?' pronounced Clement. 'Now a harmonium
+would be good to us all.'
+
+'Then get some cotton, for our ears into the bargain, if Tina is to
+play on it,' said Edgar.
+
+'I shall take the note to mother,' said the owner.
+
+'Oh!' screamed all but Wilmet and Cherry, 'that's as bad as not having
+it at all!'
+
+Maybe Felix thought so, for it was with a certain gravity and solemnity
+of demeanour that he entered the drawing-room, causing his father to
+exclaim, 'How now? No slip between cup and lip? Not infelix, Felix?'
+
+'No, papa, but it's _this;_ and I thought I ought to bring it.'
+
+The dew at once was in the mother's eyes, as she sprang up and kissed
+the boy's brow, saying, 'Felix, dear, don't show it to me. You were
+meant to be happy with it. Go and be so.'
+
+'Stay,' said Mr. Underwood, 'Felix will really enjoy helping us to this
+extent more than any private expenditure. Is it not so, my boy? Well
+then, I propose that the sovereign of old prescriptive right should
+go to his _menus plaisirs_, and the rest to something needful; but he
+shall say to what. Said I well, old fellow?'
+
+'Oh, thank you, thank you!' cried Felix ardently.
+
+'Thank me for permission to do as you will with your own?' smiled Mr.
+Underwood.
+
+'You will choose, then, Felix?' said his mother wistfully, her desires
+divided between port wine for Papa, and pale ale for Geraldine.
+
+'Yes, mamma,' was the prompt answer. 'Then, please, let Wilmet and Alda
+be rigged out fresh for Sundays.'
+
+'Wilmet and Alda!' exclaimed Mamma.
+
+'Yes, I should like that better than anything, please,' said the boy.
+'All our fellows say they would be the prettiest girls in all Bexley,
+if they were properly dressed; and those horrid girls at Miss Pearson's
+lead them a life about those old black hats.'
+
+'Poor dears! I have found Alda crying when she was dressing for
+church,' mused Mrs. Underwood; 'and though I have scolded her, I could
+have cried too, to think how unlike their girlhood is to mine.'
+
+'And if you went to fetch them home from school, you would know how bad
+it is, Mamma,' said Felix. 'Wilmet does not mind it, but Alda cries,
+and the sneaking girls do it the more; and they are girls, so one can't
+lick them; and they have not all got brothers.'
+
+'To be licked instead!' said Mr. Underwood, unable to help being amused.
+
+'Well, yes, Papa; and so you see it would be no end of a comfort to
+make them look like the rest.'
+
+'By all means, Felix. The ladies can tell how far your benefaction will
+go; but as far as it can accomplish, the twins shall be resplendent.
+Now then, back to your anxious clients. Only tell me first how my kind
+old friend the Admiral is.'
+
+'Here's his letter, Father; I quite forgot to read it.'
+
+'Some day, I hope, you will know him enough to care for him personally.
+Now you may be off.--Nay, Enid, love, your daughters could not have
+lived much longer without clothes to their backs.'
+
+'Oh, yes, it must have been done,' sighed the poor mother; 'but I
+fancied Felix would have thought of you first.'
+
+'He thought of troubles much more felt than any of mine. Poor children!
+the hard apprenticeship will serve them all their lives.'
+
+Meantime Felix returned with the words, 'Hurrah! we are to have the
+sovereign just as usual; and all the rest is to go to turn out Wilmet
+and Alda like respectable young females.--Hollo, now!'
+
+For Alda had precipitated herself down-stairs, to throttle him with her
+embraces; while Cherry cried out, 'That's right! Oh, do get those dear
+white hats you told me about;' but the public, even there a many-headed
+monster thing, was less content.
+
+'What, all in girls' trumpery?' 'That's the stupidest sell I ever heard
+of!' 'Oh, I did so want a pony!' were the cries of the boys.
+
+Even Robina was so far infected as to cry, 'I wanted a ride.'
+
+And Wilmet reproachfully exclaimed, 'O Felix, you should have got
+something for Papa. Don't you know, Mr. Rugg said he ought to have a
+respirator. It is a great shame.'
+
+'I don't think he would have let me, Wilmet,' said Felix, looking up;
+'and I never thought of it. Besides, I can't have those girls making
+asses of themselves at you.'
+
+'Oh no, don't listen to Wilmet!' cried Alda. 'You are the very best
+brother in all the world! Now we shall be fit to be seen at the break
+up. I don't think I could have played my piece if I knew every one was
+looking at my horrid old alpaca.'
+
+'And there'll be hats for Cherry and Bobbie too!' entreated Wilmet.
+
+'Oh, don't put it into their heads!' gasped Alda.
+
+'No, I'll have you two fit to be seen first,' said Felix.
+
+'Well, it's a horrid shame,' grumbled Fulbert; 'we have always all gone
+shares in Felix's birth-day tip.'
+
+'So you do now,' said Felix; 'there's the pound all the same as usual.'
+
+That pound was always being spent in imagination; and the voices broke
+out again.
+
+'Oh, then Papa can have the respirator!'
+
+'Felix, the rocking-horse!'
+
+'Felix, do get us three little cannon to make a jolly row every
+birth-day!'
+
+'Felix, do you know that Charlie Froggatt says he would sell that big
+Newfoundland for a pound? and that would be among us all.'
+
+'Nonsense, Fulbert! a big dog is always eating; but there is a
+concertina at Lake's.'
+
+'Tina--tina--concertina! But, I say, Fee, there's White-heart been
+wishing her heart out all the time for a real good paint-box.'
+
+'Oh, never mind that, Ed; no one would care for one but you and me; and
+the little ones would spoil all the paints.'
+
+'Yes, resumed Wilmet, from her throne, 'it would be the worry of one's
+life to keep the little ones off them; and baby would be poisoned to a
+dead certainty. Now the respirator--'
+
+'Now the concertina--'
+
+'Now Punch--'
+
+'Now the dog--'
+
+'Now the rocking-horse--'
+
+'Now the cannon--'
+
+'I'll tell you what,' said Felix, 'I've settled how it is to be. We'll
+get John Harper's van, and all go out to the Castle, with a jolly cold
+dinner--yes, you, Cherry, and all; Ed and I will carry you--and dine on
+the grass, and--'
+
+A chorus of shouts interrupted him, all ecstatic, and rendered more
+emphatic by the stamping of feet.
+
+'And Angela will go!' added Wilmet.
+
+'And Papa,' entreated Cherry.
+
+'And Mamma too, if she will,' said Felix.
+
+'And Mr. Audley,' pronounced Robina, echoed by Clement and Angela. 'Mr.
+Audley must go!'
+
+'Mr. Audley!' grunted Felix. 'I want nobody but ourselves.'
+
+'Yes, and if he went we could not stay jolly late. My Lady would make
+no end of a row if both curates cut the evening prayers.'
+
+'For shame, Edgar!' cried the three elder girls.
+
+While Wilmet added, 'We could not stay late, because of Papa and the
+little ones. But I don't want Mr. Audley, either.'
+
+'No, no! Papa and he will talk to each other, and be of no use,' said
+Geraldine. 'Oh, how delicious! Will the wild-roses be out? When shall
+it be, Felix?'
+
+'Well, the first fine day after school breaks up, I should say.'
+
+'Hurrah! hurrah!'
+
+And there was another dance, in the midst of which Mr. Underwood opened
+the door, to ask what honourable member was receiving such deafening
+cheers.
+
+'Here! here he is, Papa!' cried Alda. 'He is going to take us all out
+to a pic-nic in the Castle woods; and won't you come, Papa?'
+
+'O Papa, you will come!' said Felix. And the whole staircase bawled in
+accordance.
+
+'Come! to be sure I will!' said his father; 'and only too glad to be
+asked! I trust we shall prove to have found the way to get the maximum
+of pleasure out of Admiral Chester's gift.'
+
+'If Mamma will go,' said Felix. 'I wonder what the van will cost, and
+what will be left for the dinner.'
+
+'Oh, let us two cook the whole dinner,' entreated the twins.
+
+'Wait now,' said Felix. 'I didn't know it was so late, Father.' And he
+carefully helped his father on with his coat; and as a church bell made
+itself heard, set forth with him.
+
+When the service was musical, Felix and his two next brothers both
+formed part of the choir; and though this was not the case on this
+evening, Felix knew that his mother was easier when he or Wilmet could
+watch over Papa's wraps.
+
+And Mamma herself, with one at least of the twins, was busy enough in
+giving the lesser ones their supper, and disposing of them in bed, so
+that the discreet alone might remain to the later tea-drinking.
+
+And 'Sibby' must be made a sharer of the good news in her lower region,
+though she was sure to disbelieve in Alda and Wilmet's amateur cookery.
+
+Sibby was Wilmet's foster-mother. Poor thing! Mr. Underwood had found
+her in dire need in the workhouse, a child herself of seventeen, with
+a new-born babe, fresh from the discovery that the soldier-husband, as
+she thought, and who had at least 'gone before the praste with her,'
+and brought her from her Kilkenny home, was previously husband to
+another woman. She was tenderly cared for by Mr. Underwood's mother,
+who was then alive, and keeping house for the whole party at the
+Rectory; and having come into the Vale Leston nursery, she never left
+it. Her own child died in teething, and she clung so passionately to
+her nursling, that Mrs. Underwood had no heart to separate them, Roman
+Catholic though she was, and difficult to dispose of. She was not the
+usual talking merry Irishwoman; if ever she had been such, her heart
+was broken; and she was always meek, quiet, subdued, and attentive;
+forgetful sometimes, but tender and trustworthy to the last degree with
+the children.
+
+She had held fast to the family in their reverses, and no more thought
+of not sharing their lot than one of their children. Indeed, it would
+not have been much more possible to send her out to shift for herself
+in England; and her own people seemed to have vanished in the famine,
+for her letters, with her savings, came back from the dead-letter
+office. She put her shoulder to the burthen, and, with one small scrub
+under her, got through an amazing amount of work: and though her great
+deep liquid brown eyes looked as pathetic as ever, she certainly was
+in far better spirits than when she sat in the nursery. To be sure,
+she was a much better nurse than she was a cook; but as both could not
+be had, Mrs. Underwood was content and thankful to have a servant so
+entirely one with themselves in interests and affections; and who had
+the further perfection of never wanting any society but the children's;
+shrinking from English gossips, and never showing a weakness, save for
+Irish tramps. Moreover, she was a prodigious knitter; and it was her
+boast that not one of the six young gentlemen had yet worn stocking or
+sock, but what came from her needles, and had been re-footed by her to
+the last extremity of wear.
+
+Meantime, Felix and Clement walked with their father to the church.
+There it was, that handsome church; the evening sun in slanting beams
+coming through the gorgeous west window to the illuminated walls, and
+the rich inlaid marble and alabaster of the chancel mellowed by the
+pure evening light. The east window, done before glass-painting had
+improved, was tame and ill-executed, and there was, even aesthetically,
+a strange unsatisfactory feeling in looking at the heavy, though
+handsome, incrustations and arcades of dark marble that formed the
+reredos. It was all very correct; but it wanted life.
+
+Mr. Bevan was not there, he had gone out to dinner, and the
+congregation consisted of some young ladies, old men, and three little
+children. Mr. Audley read all, save the Absolution and the Lessons; and
+the responses sounded low and feeble in the great church, though there
+was one voice among them glad and hearty in dedicating and entrusting
+the new year of his life with its unknown burthen.
+
+Felix had heard sayings and seen looks which, boldly as his sanguine
+spirit resisted them, would hang in a heavy boding cloud over his mind,
+and were already casting a grave shadow there.
+
+And if the thought of his fivefold gift swelled the fervour of his
+'Amen' to the General Thanksgiving, there was another deep heartfelt
+Amen, which breathed forth earnest gratitude for the possession of such
+a first-born son.
+
+'That is a very good boy,' the father could not help saying to Mr.
+Audley, as, on quitting the churchyard, Felix exclaiming, 'Papa, may I
+just get it changed and ask about the van?' darted across the street,
+with Clement, into a large grocer's shop nearly opposite, where a brisk
+evening traffic was going on in the long daylight of hot July; and he
+could not but tell of the birth-day gift, and how it was to be spent.
+'_Res angusta domi_,' he said, with a smile, 'is a thing to be thankful
+for, when it has such effects upon a lad.'
+
+'You must add a small taste of example to the prescription,' said Mr.
+Audley. 'Is this all the birth-day present Felix has had?'
+
+'Well, I believe Cherry gave him one of her original designs; but
+birth-days are too numerous for us to stand presents.'
+
+The other curate half sighed. He was a great contrast--a much smaller
+man than his senior, slight, slim, and pale, but with no look of
+ill-health about him; brown eyed and haired, and with the indefinable
+look about all his appointments and dress, that showed he had lived
+in unconscious luxury and refinement all his days. His thoughts went
+back to a home, where the only perplexity was how to deal with an
+absolute glut of presents, and to his own actual doubts what to send
+that youngest sister, who would feel slighted if Charlie sent nothing,
+but really could not want anything; a book she would not read, a jewel
+could seldom get a turn of being worn, a trinket would only be fresh
+lumber for her room. Then he revolved the possibilities of making Felix
+a present, without silencing his father's confidences, and felt that
+it could not be done in any direct manner at present; nay, that it
+could hardly add to the radiant happiness of the boy, who rushed across
+the road, almost under the nose of the railway-omnibus horses, and
+exclaimed--
+
+'He will let us have it for nothing, Father! He says it would be hiring
+it out, and he can't do that: but he would esteem it a great favour
+if we would go in it, and not pay anything, except just a shilling to
+Harris for a pint of beer. Won't it be jolly, Father?'
+
+'Spicy would be more appropriate,' said Mr. Underwood, laughing, as the
+vehicle in question drew up at the shop door, with Mr. Harper's name
+and all his groceries inscribed in gold letters upon the awning.
+
+'I'm so glad I thought of Harper's,' continued Felix. 'I asked him
+instead of Buff, because I knew Mamma would want it to be covered. Now
+there's lots of room; and we boys will walk up all the hills.'
+
+'I hope there is room for me, Felix,' suggested Mr. Audley.
+
+'Or,' suggested Mr. Underwood, 'you might, like John Gilpin, "ride on
+horseback after we."'
+
+'Felix looks non-content,' said Mr. Audley. 'I am afraid I was not in
+his programme. Speak out--let us have it.'
+
+'Why,' said Felix, looking down, 'our little ones all wanted to have
+you; but then we thought we should all be obliged to come home too
+soon, unless you took the service for Papa.'
+
+'He certainly ought not to go to church after it,' said Mr. Audley;
+'but I can settle that by riding home in good time. What's the day?'
+
+'The day after the girls' break-up, if you please,' said Felix, still
+not perfectly happy, but unable to help himself; and manifesting quite
+enough reluctance to make his father ask, as soon as they had parted,
+what made him so ungracious.
+
+'Only, Papa,' said Felix frankly, 'that we know that you and he will
+get into some Church talk, and then you'll be of no use; and we wanted
+to have it all to ourselves.'
+
+'Take care, Felix,' said Mr. Underwood; 'large families are apt to get
+into a state of savage exclusiveness.'
+
+Felix had to bear the drawback, and the groans it caused from Wilmet,
+Edgar, and Fulbert: the rest decidedly rejoiced. And Mr. Underwood
+privately confided the objection to his friend, observing merrily that
+they would bind themselves by a promise not to talk shop throughout the
+expedition.
+
+It was a brilliantly happy week. Pretty hats, bound with dark blue
+velvet, and fresh black silk jackets, were squeezed out of the four
+pounds, with the help of a few shillings out of the intended hire of
+the van, and were the glory of the whole family, both of those who were
+to wear them and those who were not.
+
+On Saturday evening, just as the four elder young people were about
+to sally forth to do the marketing for their pic-nic, a great hamper
+made its appearance in the passage, addressed to F. C. Underwood,
+Esq., and with nothing to pay. Only there was a note fastened to the
+side, saying, 'Dear Felix, pray let the spicy van find room for my
+contribution to your pic-nic. I told my mother to send me what was
+proper from home.--C. S. A.'
+
+Mrs. Underwood was dragged out to superintend the unpacking, which
+she greatly advised should be merely a surface investigation. That
+was quite enough, however, to assure her that for Felix to lay in any
+provision, except the tea and the bread she had already promised, would
+be entirely superfluous. The girls were disappointed of their cookery;
+but derived consolation from the long walk with the brothers, in which
+a cake of good carmine and a lump of gamboge were purchased for Cherry,
+and two penny dolls for Robina and Angela. What would become of the
+rest of the pound?
+
+On Sunday, the offertory was, as usual on ordinary occasions, rather
+scanty; but there was one half-sovereign; and Mr. Underwood was
+convinced that it had come from under the one white surplice that had
+still remained on the choir boys' bench.
+
+He stayed in the vestry after the others to count and take care of
+the offerings, and as he took up the gold, he could not but look at
+his son, who was waiting for him, and who flushed all over as he met
+his eye. 'Yes, Papa, I wanted to tell you--I did grudge it at first,'
+he said hoarsely. 'I knew it was the tithe; but it seemed so much
+away from them all. I settled that two shillings was the tenth of my
+own share, and I would give that to-day; and then came Mr. Harper's
+kindness about the van; and next, when I was thinking how I could
+save the tenth part without stinting everybody, came all Mr. Audley's
+hamper. It is very strange and happy, Papa, and I have still something
+left.'
+
+'I believe,' said Mr. Underwood, 'that you will find the considering
+the tithe as not your own, is the safest way of keeping poverty from
+grinding you, or wealth from spoiling you.'
+
+And very affectionately he leant on his son's shoulder all the way
+home; while Mr. Audley was at luncheon at the Rectory with my Lady, and
+her twelve years old daughter.
+
+'Mamma,' said Miss Price, 'did you see the Underwoods in new hats?'
+
+'Of course I did, my dear. They were quite conspicuous enough; but when
+people make a great deal of their poverty, they always do break out in
+the most unexpected ways.'
+
+'They are pretty girls,' said the Rector, rather dreamily, 'and I
+suppose they must have new clothes sometimes.'
+
+'You will always find,' proceeded Lady Price without regard, 'that
+people of that sort have a wonderful eye to the becoming--nothing
+economical for them! I am sorry for Mr. Underwood, his wife is bringing
+up a set of fine ladies, who will trust to their pretty looks, and be
+quite above doing anything for themselves.'
+
+'Do you think Wilmet and Alda Underwood so very pretty, Mr. Audley?'
+inquired Miss Price, turning her precocious eyes upon him.
+
+'Remarkably so,' Mr. Audley replied, with a courteous setting-down tone
+that was the only thing that ever approached to subduing Miss Price,
+and which set her pouting without an answer.
+
+'It is a great misfortune to girls in that station of life to have that
+painted-doll sort of beauty,' added my Lady; 'and what was it I heard
+about a pic-nic party?'
+
+'No party, my dear,' replied the Rector, 'only a little fresh air for
+the family--a day in Centry Park. Felix spends his birth-day present
+from his godfather in taking them.'
+
+'Ah! I always was sure they had rich friends, though they keep it so
+close. Never let me hear of their poverty after this.'
+
+Answers only rendered it worse, so my Lady had it her own way, and not
+being known to the public in St. Oswald's Buildings, did not trouble
+them much. Yet there was a certain deference to public opinion there,
+when Alda was heard pouting, 'Felix, why did you go to that horrid
+Harper? Just fancy Miss Price seeing us!'
+
+'Who cares for a stuck-up thing like Miss Price?' growled Felix.
+
+'I don't care for her,' said Edgar; 'but it is just as well to have
+some notion of things, and Felix hasn't a grain. Why, all the fellows
+will be asking which of us is pepper, and which Souchong? I wouldn't
+have Froggatt or Bruce see me in it at no price.'
+
+'Very well, stay at home, then,' said Felix.
+
+'You could have had the waggonet from the Fortinbras Arms,' said Alda.
+
+'Ay--for all my money, and not for love.'
+
+'For shame, Alda,' said her twin sister; 'how can you be so ridiculous!'
+
+'You know yourself, Wilmet, it is quite true; if any of the girls see
+us, we shall be labelled "The Groceries."'
+
+'Get inside far enough, and they will not see you.'
+
+'Ay, but there'll be that disgusting little Bobbie and Lance sitting in
+the front, making no end of row,' said Edgar; 'and the whole place will
+know that Mr. Underwood and his family are going out for a spree in old
+Harper's van! Pah! I shall walk.'
+
+'So shall I,' said Alda, 'at least till we are out of the town; but
+that won't do any good if those children will make themselves so
+horridly conspicuous. Could not we have the thing to meet us somewhere
+out of town, Felix?'
+
+'And how would you get Cherry there, or Mamma? Or Baby?--No, no, if you
+are too genteel for the van, you may walk.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE PIC-NIC.
+
+     'There, on a slope of orchard, Francis laid
+      A damask napkin, wrought with horse and hound;
+      Brought out a dusky loaf that smelt of home,
+      And, half-cut down, a pasty costly made,
+      Where quail and pigeon, lark and leveret lay,
+      Like fossils of the rock, with golden yolks
+      Imbedded and injellied; last, with these
+      A flask of cider from his father's vats,
+      Prime which I knew;--and so we sat and ate.'
+                                                _Tennyson._
+
+
+No. 8, St. Oswald's Buildings was a roomy house, which owed its
+cheapness to its situation, this being neither in the genteel nor the
+busy part of Bexley. It was tall and red, and possessed a good many
+rooms, and it looked out into a narrow street, the opposite side of
+which consisted of the long wall of a brewery, which was joined farther
+on to that of the stable-yard of the Fortinbras Arms, the principal
+hotel, which had been much frequented in old posting days, and
+therefore had offices on a large scale. Only their side, however, was
+presented to St. Oswald's Buildings, the front, with its arched 'porte
+cochere,' being in the High Street, as it was still called, though it
+was a good deal outshone by the newer part of the town.
+
+The next-door neighbours of No. 8 were on the one hand a carpenter's
+yard, the view of which was charming to the children, and the noises
+not _too_ obnoxious to their parents; and on the other the Rectory
+garden, which separated them from the churchyard, now of course
+disused. It had no entrance towards their lane; and to reach the
+church, it was necessary to turn the corner of the wall, and go in
+through the south porch, which opened close upon the High Street.
+
+In this old street lay the two buildings that chiefly concerned the
+young Underwoods, _i.e._ the two schools. That for boys was an old
+foundation, which had fallen into decay, and had been reformed and
+revivified in nineteenth-century fashion, to suit the requirements
+of the town. The place, though in the south of England, had become
+noted as a pottery, owing partly to the possession of large fields
+of a peculiar clay, which was so bad for vegetable growth, as to
+proclaim its destiny to become pots and pans, partly to its convenient
+neighbourhood to the rising seaport of Dearport, which was only an hour
+from it by railway. The old St. Oswald's school had been moulded under
+the influence of new comers, who had upset the rules of the founder,
+and arranged the terms on the broadest principles of liberality,
+bringing, instead of the drowsy old clerical master, a very brisk
+and lively young layman, who had a knack of conveying instruction of
+multifarious kinds such as had never occurred to his predecessor.
+
+Mr. Underwood had a certain liking for the man, and when tolerably
+well, enjoyed the breaking a lance with him over his many crude
+heterodoxies; but he did not love the school, and as long as he was
+able had taught his boys himself, and likewise taken a few day-pupils
+of the upper ranks, who were preparing for public schools. But when his
+failure of health rendered this impracticable, the positive evil of
+idleness was, he felt, greater than any possible ones that might arise
+from either the teaching or the associations of the town school, and he
+trusted to home influence to counteract any such dangers. Or perhaps
+more truly he dreaded lest his own reluctance might partly come from
+prejudice in favour of gentlemen and public schools; and he believed
+that where a course seemed of absolute necessity, Providence became
+a guard in its seeming perils. Indeed, that which he disapproved in
+Mr. Ryder's school was more of omission than commission. It was that
+secularity was the system, rather than the substance of that secularity.
+
+So Felix and Edgar went to school, and were in due time followed by
+Clement and Fulbert; and their bright wits, and the educated atmosphere
+of their home, made their career brilliant and successful. Mr. Ryder
+was greatly pleased to have got the sons of a man whom he could not but
+admire and respect, and was anxious that the boys should be the means
+of conquering the antiquated prejudices in favour of exclusiveness at
+school.
+
+Felix and Edgar were neck and neck, carrying off all the prizes of
+the highest form but one--Felix, those that depended on industry and
+accuracy; Edgar, those that could be gained by readiness and dexterity.
+Both were to be promoted to the upper form; and Mr. Ryder called upon
+their father in great enjoyment of their triumph, and likewise to
+communicate his confident certainty that they would do him and Bexley
+credit by obtaining the most notable scholarships of the University.
+Mr. Underwood was not a little delighted, grateful for the cordial
+sympathy, and he fully agreed that his own lads had benefited by the
+clear vigorous teaching they had received; but though he smiled and
+allowed that they had taken no harm, he said good-humouredly that 'Of
+course, he must consider _that_ as the proof of his own powers of
+counteraction.'
+
+'Exactly so,' said the schoolmaster. 'All we wish is, that each home
+should exercise its powers of counteraction. We do the teaching, you
+form the opinions.'
+
+'Oh! are we parents still to be allowed to form the opinions?'
+
+'If you _will_. Your house is your castle, and the dungeons there may
+be what you will.'
+
+'Well, I cannot have a quarrel with you to-day, Ryder! As long as I
+can show up my boys as tokens of God's blessing on their home, you are
+welcome to them as instances of wits well sharpened by thorough good
+instruction.'
+
+Mrs. Underwood had likewise had a congratulatory visit that was very
+gratifying. The girls' school, a big old red house, standing back from
+the road at the quietest end of the town, was kept by two daughters of
+a former clergyman, well educated and conscientious women, whom she
+esteemed highly, and who gave a real good grounding to all who came
+under their hands, going on the opposite principle to Mr. Ryder's, and
+trying to supply that which the homes lacked.
+
+And they did often succeed in supplying it, though their scholars came
+from a class where there was much to subdue; and just at present their
+difficulties had been much increased by their having been honoured
+by the education of Miss Price. Seven governesses in succession had
+proved incapable of bearing with Lady Price; and the young lady had
+in consequence been sent to Miss Pearson's, not without an endeavour
+on her mother's part to obtain an abatement in terms in honour of the
+_eclat_ of her rank.
+
+There her airs proved so infectious, that, as Miss Pearson said, the
+only assistance she had in lessening their evil influence was the
+perfect lady-likeness of the Underwood twins, and the warm affection
+that Wilmet inspired. Alda headed a sort of counter party against
+Caroline Price, which went on the principle of requiting scorn with
+scorn; but Wilmet's motherly nature made her the centre of attraction
+to all the weak and young, and her uprightness bore many besides
+herself through the temptation to little arts. Both sisters had prizes,
+Alda's the first and best; and Miss Pearson further offered to let
+Wilmet pay for her own studies and those of a sister, by becoming
+teacher to the youngest class, and supervisor during the mid-day
+recreation, herself and her sister dining at school.
+
+It was a handsome offer for such a young beginner, and the mother's
+eyes filled with tears of pleasure; and yet there was a but--
+
+'Not come home to dinner!' cried the children. 'Can't it be Alda
+instead of Wilmet? We do always want Wilmet so, and Alda would do just
+as well at school.'
+
+Alda too was surprised; for was not she more regular and more forward
+than her twin sister, who was always the one to be kept at home when
+any little emergency made Mamma want the aid of an elder daughter?
+And the mother would almost have asked that Alda might be the chosen
+governess pupil, if Mr. Underwood had not said, 'No, my dear, Miss
+Pearson must have her own choice. It is a great kindness, and must be
+accepted as such. I suppose Robina must be the new scholar. My little
+pupil will not leave me.'
+
+Geraldine only heard of the alternative, to say, 'I'll be nobody's
+pupil but yours, Papa.'
+
+While Robina was proportionably exalted by her preferment, and took to
+teasing every one in the house to hear her spelling and her tables,
+that she might not fulfil Edgar's prediction by going down to the
+bottom of the baby-class; and up and down the stairs she ran, chanting
+in a sing-song measure--
+
+     'Twenty pence are one and eightpence,
+      Thirty pence are two and sixpence,'
+
+and so on, till her father said, smiling, 'Compensations again, Mother:
+the less you teach them the more they are willing to learn.' The mother
+shook her head, and said the theory was more comfortable than safe, and
+that she did not find Lancelot an instance of it.
+
+But there was a general sense of having earned the holiday, when the
+grocery van came to the door, on a morning of glorious sunshine. Edgar
+and Alda, true to their promise, had walked on so far ahead as to
+avoid being seen in the town in connection with it; and Fulbert had
+started with them to exhale his impatience, but then had turned back
+half-way, that he might not lose the delicious spectacle of the packing
+of the vehicle. A grand pack it was: first, the precious hamper; then a
+long sofa-cushion, laid along the bottom; then Geraldine lifted in by
+Sibby and Felix, and folded up with shawls, and propped with cushions
+by Mamma, whose imagination foresaw more shaking than did the more
+youthful anticipation; then Mamma herself, not with 'little baby,' but
+with Angela on her lap, and Angela's feet in all manner of unexpected
+places; then a roll of umbrellas and wraps; then Wilmet, Fulbert,
+Lance, and Robina--nowhere in particular; and lastly Papa, making room
+for Clement between himself and the good-humoured lad of a driver, who
+had not long ago been a member of the choir; while Felix, whom nothing
+could tire on that day, dived rapidly down a complication of alleys,
+declaring he should be up with the walkers long before they were
+overtaken by the van.
+
+Next appeared Mr. Audley, with his pretty chestnut horse, offering
+in the plenitude of his good-nature to give Lance a ride, whereupon
+vociferous '_me toos_' resounded from within the curtains; and the
+matter was compounded on ride and tie principles, in which the
+Underwood juniors got all the ride, and Mr. Audley all the _tie_--if
+that consisted in walking and holding the bridle.
+
+By the time the very long and dull suburbs of Bexley were passed, with
+their interminable villas and rows of little ten-pound houses--the
+children's daily _country_ walk, poor things!--the two elder boys and
+their sister were overtaken, the latter now very glad to condescend to
+the van.
+
+'Oh, how nice to get beyond our tiresome old tether!' she said,
+arranging herself a peep-hole between the curtains. 'I am so sick of
+all those dusty black beeches, and formal evergreens. How can you stare
+at them so, Cherry?'
+
+But Geraldine was in a quiet trance of delight; she had never spoken a
+word since she had first found a chink in the awning, but had watched
+with avid eyes the moving panorama of houses, gardens, trees, flowers,
+carriages, horses, passengers, nursemaids, perambulators, and children.
+It was all a perfect feast to the long-imprisoned eyes, and the more
+charming from the dreamy silence in which she gazed. When Felix came up
+to the slit through which the bright eyes gleamed, and asked whether
+she were comfortable and liked it, her answer was a long-drawn gasp
+from the wells of infinite satisfaction, such as set him calculating
+how many drives in a Bath-chair the remnant of his birth-day gift would
+yet produce.
+
+But there were greater delights; corn-fields touched with amber, woods
+sloping up hills, deep lanes edged with luxuriant ferns, greenery that
+drove the young folk half mad with delight, and made them scream to
+be let out and gather--gather to their hearts' content. Only Mamma
+recommended not tiring themselves, but trusting that Centry Park would
+afford even superior flowers to those they passed.
+
+They reached the lodge-gate at last. They were known, for the Castle
+had been long untenanted, and they, like other inhabitants of Bexley,
+had from time to time enjoyed themselves in the Park; but to-day there
+was a shadow of demur. The gentleman who was going to buy the place was
+looking over it--but surely--
+
+Horror began to spread over the inmates of the van.
+
+'But did you come by appointment, sir?' added the gatekeeper's wife,
+coming out; 'the gentleman's name is Mr. Underwood.'
+
+Mr. Underwood was obliged to disclaim any appointment; but he looked
+round at the children's blank faces, and saw lips quivering, and eyes
+gazing wistfully into the paradise of green shade, and added, 'If the
+gentleman has not actually bought it, he could not object. We do not
+wish to go near the house.'
+
+Maybe Mr. Audley, who was standing near the gate, added another more
+substantial argument, for 'Oh, certainly, sir,' at once followed; and
+the van was allowed to turn down a gravelled road, which skirted an
+extensive plantation.
+
+Every one now left it, except Mrs. Underwood, Cherry, and Angela; and
+the children began to rush and roll in wild delight on the grassy
+slope, and to fill their hands with the heather and ling, shrieking
+with delight. Wilmet had enough to do to watch over Angela in her
+toddling, tumbling felicity; while Felix, weighted with Robina on his
+back, Edgar, Fulbert, Clement, and Lance, ran in and out among the
+turf; and Alda, demurely walking by her papa, opined that it was 'very
+odd that the gentleman's name should be Underwood.'
+
+'Less odd than if it was Upperwood,' said her father, as if to throw
+aside the subject; and then, after a few moments' thought, and an odd
+little smile, as if at some thought within himself, he began to hand
+in flowers to Cherry, and to play with little Angela. Mr. Audley had
+gone to put up his horse at the village inn, and did not join the party
+again till they had reached what the children called Pic-nic Hollow--a
+spot where a bank suddenly rose above a bright dimpling stream with a
+bed of rock, the wood opening an exquisite vista under its beech trees
+beyond, and a keeper's lodge standing conveniently for the boiling of
+kettles.
+
+Here the van was disposed of, the horses taken out and provided with
+food, Cherry carried to a mossy throne under a glorious beech-tree,
+and the hampers unpacked by Mamma and Wilmet, among much capering and
+dancing of the rest of the family, and numerous rejected volunteers of
+assistance. Felix and Alda were allowed to spread the table-cloth and
+place the dishes, but Edgar was only entreated to keep the rest out of
+the way.
+
+Meanwhile, Geraldine sat under the silvery bole of her beech-tree,
+looking up through its delicate light green leaves to the blue sky,
+not even wanting to speak, lest anything should break that perfection
+of enjoyment. Her father watched the little pale absorbed countenance,
+and as Mr. Audley came up, touched him to direct his attention to the
+child's expression; but the outcry of welcome with which the rest
+greeted the new-comer was too much for even Cherry's trance, and
+she was a merry child at once, hungry with unwonted appetite, and
+so relishing her share of the magnificent standing-pie, that Mrs.
+Underwood reproved herself for thinking what the poor child would be if
+she had such fare and such air daily, instead of ill-dressed mutton in
+the oppressive smoke-laden atmosphere.
+
+And meantime, Lance was crowing like a cock, and the other boys were
+laughing at Robina for her utter ignorance of the white-fleshed biped
+she was eating.
+
+'No, Clem, chickens have got feathers and wings, and their long necks
+hang down! This can't be one of them.'
+
+'Perhaps it is a robin-redbreast,' said Felix.
+
+'No, nobody kills robin-redbreasts, because they covered the poor
+little children with leaves.'
+
+'Will you cover me with leaves, if I am lost, Bobbie?' said Mr. Audley;
+but as soon as she found that his attention was gained, she returned to
+the charge.
+
+'Please, did it come from your own home? and what is it, really?'
+
+'Why, Bobbie, I am hardly prepared to say whether it is a Hamburg or
+a Houdan, or a more unambitious Dorking. Cannot you eat in comfort
+without being certified?'
+
+'The species will be enough for her without the varieties,' said her
+father. 'You have given us a new experience, you see, Audley, and we
+may make a curious study of contrasts--not of Audley and myself, Mother
+dear, but of the two Underwoods who seem to be in this place together
+to-day.'
+
+'Who is it?' was of course the cry; and the inquiry was in Mrs.
+Underwood's eyes, though it did not pass her quiet lips. It was to her
+that he answered, 'Yes, my dear--Tom; I have little doubt that it is
+he. He was a very rich man when last I heard of him.'
+
+'Is that the man at Vale Leston?' whispered Alda to Felix. 'Oh, I hope
+he is not coming here to insult us.'
+
+'Bosh!' said Felix; 'that man's name is Fulbert. Listen, if you want to
+hear.'
+
+'Twenty years ago,' continued Mr. Underwood, 'I thought myself a
+prodigiously fine fellow--with my arms full of prizes at Harrow,
+and my Trinity scholarship--and could just, in the plenitude of my
+presumption, extend a little conceited patronage to that unlucky dunce,
+Tom Underwood, the lag of every form, and thankful for a high stool at
+old Kedge's. And now my children view a cold fowl as an unprecedented
+monster, while his might, I imagine, revel in '_pates de foie gras_.'
+
+'O Papa, but we like you so much better as you are!' cried Geraldine.
+
+'Eh, Cherry!' said Mr. Underwood, 'what say you? Shouldn't you like me
+better if I were buying that king beech-tree, and all the rest of it?'
+
+Cherry edged nearer, mastered his hand, and looked up in his face with
+a whole soul of negation in her wistful eyes. 'No, no, no--just as you
+are,' she whispered.
+
+Some mood of curiosity had come over him, and he turned an
+interrogative look elsewhere.
+
+Alda spoke. 'Of course, it would be horrid not to be a clergyman; but
+it is a great shame.'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, 'it can't be a shame for this cousin Tom to
+have earned a fortune fairly--if he has; but'--and she pressed her
+hands tightly together as she looked at the thin worn faces of her
+parents--'one can't help wishing. Why do things always go hard and
+wrong?' and the tears dimmed her bright eyes.
+
+'Because--they _don't_,' said her father, with a half-serious
+quaintness that vexed her, and forced her to turn away to let the tear
+drop.
+
+Clement said, in his calm voice, 'How can you be all so repining and
+foolish!'
+
+And Mr. Underwood, almost in lazy mischief, pursued his experiment.
+'Eh, Felix, you are the party most concerned--what say you?'
+
+'Most concerned?' Felix looked up surprised, then recollected himself.
+'I don't care,' he said, with an appearance of gruff sullenness;
+but his father could not content himself without continuing in a
+semi-teasing tone, 'Don't care--eh? Why, this Centry Underwood once
+belonged to our family--that's the reason Tom is after it. If I had
+not scouted old Kedge, you would be prancing about here, a Harrovian,
+counting the partridges.'
+
+'Don't!' broke in Felix, with a growl.
+
+'Never fear, Fee,' cried Edgar, with his hand on his brother's
+shoulder; 'if one man got on in life, another may. If one only was
+grown up, and had the start----' and his blue eyes sparkled.
+
+'I did not know Care's clutch had been so tight,' sighed Mr. Underwood,
+half to himself, half to his wife. 'It is not safe, my gentle Enid, to
+try such experiments. Eh!' rousing himself, 'what's that? Have the mob
+there a right to any sentiments?'
+
+'Only,' cried Clement, shouting with laughter, 'Lance thought you were
+wanted to hold a high stool for Jack Ketch.'
+
+'For a green goose!' shouted Lance, indignantly.
+
+'Oh!' cried Robina, in the tone of one who had made a scientific
+discovery, 'did the goose have a high stool to lay the golden eggs?'
+
+'A most pertinent question, Bobbie, and much more reasonable than
+mine,' said Mr. Underwood; while his colleague gravely answered, 'Yes,
+Bobbie, golden eggs are almost always laid by geese on high stools.'
+
+'I've got a picture of one! It has got a long neck and long legs,'
+quoth Bobbie.
+
+'It is only a flamingo, you little goose yourself,' cried Clement.
+
+'Here is the golden egg of the present,' said Mr. Underwood,
+replenishing the boy's plate with that delicious pie. 'What's that
+beverage, Wilmet? Any horrible brew of your own?'
+
+'No; it is out of Mr. Audley's hamper.'
+
+'The universal hamper. It is like the fairy gifts that produced
+unlimited eatables. I dreaded cowslip wine or periwinkle broth.'
+
+'No, no, Papa,' sighed Alda, 'we only once made cowslip tea at Vale
+Leston.'
+
+'Vale Leston is prohibited for the day.--Master Felix Chester
+Underwood, your good health; and the same to the new Underwood of
+Centry Underwood.'
+
+'Shall we see him, Papa?' asked Alda.
+
+'If either party desires the gratification, no doubt it will come
+about.'
+
+'Shall not you call on him, Papa?'
+
+'Certainly not before he comes. Mother, some of the wonderful
+bottle--ay, you covetous miser of a woman, or I'll make a libation of
+it all. Audley, it must have wrung your father's butler's heart to have
+thrown away this port on a pic-nic. What did you tell him to delude
+him?'
+
+'Only what was true--that I was to meet a gentleman who was a judge of
+the article.'
+
+'For shame!' he answered, laughing. 'What right had you to know that I
+knew the taste of Cape from Roriz?'
+
+But his evident enjoyment of the 'good creature' was no small pleasure
+to the provider, though it was almost choking to meet the glistening
+glance of Mrs. Underwood's grateful eyes, knowing, as she did, that
+there were three more such bottles in the straw at the bottom of
+the hamper. And when baby Angela had clasped her fat hands, and, as
+'youngest at the board,' 'inclined the head and pronounced the solemn
+word,' her father added, '_Gratias Deo_, and _Grazie a lei_. We must
+renew our childhood's training, dear Mary--make our bow and curtesy,
+and say "Thank you for our good dinner."'
+
+'Thank Felix for our pleasant day,' said Mr. Audley. 'Come, boys, have
+a swing! there's a branch too good not to be used; and Ful has already
+hung himself up like a two-toed sloth.'
+
+Then began the real festivity--the swinging, the flower and fern
+hunting, the drawing, the racing and shouting, the merry calls and
+exchange of gay foolish talk and raillery.
+
+Mr. Underwood lay back on a slope of moss, with a plaid beneath him,
+and a cushion under his head, and said that the Elysian fields must
+have been a prevision of this beech-wood. Mrs. Underwood, with Felix
+and Wilmet, tied up the plates, knives, and forks; and then the
+mother, taking Angela with her, went to negotiate kettle-boiling at
+the cottage. Geraldine would fain have sketched, but the glory and the
+beauty, and the very lassitude of delight and novelty, made her eyes
+swim with a delicious mist; and Edgar, who had begun when she did,
+threw down his pencil as soon as he saw Felix at liberty, and the two
+boys rushed away into the wood for a good tearing scramble and climb,
+like creatures intoxicated with the freedom of the greenwood.
+
+After a time they came back, dropping armfuls of loose-strife,
+meadow-sweet, blue vetch, and honey-suckle over delighted Cherry;
+and falling down by her side, coats off, all gasp and laughter, and
+breathless narrative of exploits and adventures, which somehow died
+away into the sleepiness due to their previous five-mile walk. Felix
+went quite off, lying flat on his back, with his head on Cherry's
+little spreading lilac cotton frock, and his mouth wide open, much
+tempting Edgar to pop in a pebble; and this being prevented by tender
+Cherry in vehement dumb show, Edgar consoled himself by a decidedly
+uncomplimentary caricature of him as Giant Blunderbore (a name derived
+from Fee, Fa, Fum) gaping for hasty pudding.
+
+'That's a horrid shame!' remonstrated Geraldine. 'Dear old Fee, when
+the whole treat is owing to him!'
+
+'It is a tidy little lark for a Blunderbore to have thought of,' said
+Edgar. ''Tis a good sort of giant after all, poor fellow!'
+
+'Poor!' said Cherry indignantly. 'Oh, you mean what Papa said--that he
+is the greatest loser of us all. I wonder what made him talk in that
+way? He never did before.'
+
+'I am sorry for _him_,' said Edgar, indicating his brother. 'He is
+famous stuff for a landlord and member of parliament--plenty of wits
+and brains--only he wants to be put on a shelf to be got at. Wherever
+he is, he'll go on there! Now, a start is all I want! Give me my one
+step--and then--O Gerald, some day I'll lift you all up!'
+
+'What's that?' said Felix, waking as the enthusiastic voice was raised.
+'Edgar lifting us all! What a bounce we should all come down with!'
+
+'We were talking of what Papa said at dinner,' explained Cherry. 'What
+did you think about it, Fee?'
+
+'I didn't think at all, I wished he hadn't,' said Felix, stretching
+himself.
+
+'Why not?' said Cherry, a little ruffled at even Felix wishing Papa had
+not.
+
+'There's no use having things put into one's head.'
+
+'O Felix, you don't want to change?' cried Cherry.
+
+'No,' he said; but it was a 'no' in a tone she did not understand. The
+change he saw that hardship was working was that from which he recoiled.
+
+'That's like you, Blunderbore,' said Edgar. 'Now, the very reason I am
+glad not to be born a great swell, but only a poor gentleman, is that
+so much is open to one; and if one does anything great, it is all the
+greater and more credit.'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, sitting up; 'when you have once got a scholarship,
+there will be the whole world before you.'
+
+'Papa got a scholarship,' said Cherry.
+
+'Oh yes!' said Edgar; 'but every one knows what happens to a man that
+takes Orders and marries young; and he had the most extraordinary
+ill-luck besides! Now, as Ryder says, any man with brains can shine.
+And I am only doubting whether to take to scholarship or art! I love
+art more than anything, and it is the speediest.'
+
+The conversation was broken, for just then Wilmet was seen peering
+about with an anxious, careful eye.
+
+'What is it, my deputy Partlet?' asked her father. 'Which of your brood
+are you looking for?'
+
+'I can't see Robina,' said Wilmet anxiously. 'She was swinging just
+now, but neither she nor Lance is with the big boys.'
+
+'Flown up higher,' said Mr. Underwood, pretending to spy among the
+branches. 'Flapsy, come down! Bobbie, where are you?'
+
+A voice answered him; and in another moment Robina and Lance stood in
+the glade, and with them a girl newly come to her teens, whom they
+pulled forward, crying, 'She says she's our cousin!'
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr. Underwood: 'I am sure you are very much obliged to
+her.'
+
+'I am Mary Alda Underwood,' said the girl abruptly; 'and I'm sure there
+must be a very naughty boy here. He had put these poor little things up
+a tree, and run away.'
+
+'No, no! He only put us up because Tina bothered about it!' screamed
+Lance and Robina at once; 'he wasn't naughty. We were being monkeys.'
+
+'Black spider-monkeys,' added Robina.
+
+'And I swung about like a real one, Father,' said Lance, 'and was
+trying to get Bobbie down, only she grew afraid.'
+
+'It was ten feet from the ground,' said Mary Alda, impressively, 'and
+they had lost their way; but they told me who they were. I'm come down
+with my father to see the place.'
+
+Mr. Underwood heartily shook hands with her, thanked her, and asked
+where her father was.
+
+'Gone out with the man to see a farm two miles off,' she said. 'He told
+me I might stay in the house, or roam where I liked, and I saw you all
+looking so happy; I've been watching you this long time.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Mr. Underwood, 'till you captured two of us! Well, we
+are obliged for the introduction, especially if you are to be our
+neighbour.'
+
+'And my cousins will be friends with me,' continued Mary Alda. 'I'm all
+alone, you know.'
+
+'No, I did not know,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Are you the only child?'
+
+'Yes,' she said, looking wistfully at the groups around her; 'and it is
+very horrid--oh dear! who is that pretty one? No, there's another of
+them!'
+
+Mr. Underwood laughed heartily. 'I suppose you mean Wilmet and
+Alda,' he said. 'Come, girls, and see your new cousin--Mary, did you
+say?--Your name backward, Alda Mary.'
+
+'Mary,' she repeated. 'Papa calls me Mary, but Mamma wants it to be
+Marilda all in one word, because she says it is more distinguished; but
+I like a sensible name like other people.'
+
+Mr. Underwood was much amused. He felt he had found a character in
+his newly-discovered cousin. She was Underwood all over in his eyes,
+used to the characteristic family features, although entirely devoid
+of that delicacy and refinement of form and complexion that was so
+remarkable in himself and in most of his children, who were all, except
+poor little Cherry, a good deal alike, and most of them handsome.
+There was a sort of clumsiness in the shape of every outline, and a
+coarseness in the colouring, that made her like a bad drawing of one of
+his own girls; the eyes were larger, the red of the cheeks was redder,
+the lips were thicker, the teeth were irregular; the figure, instead
+of being what the French call _elance_, was short, high-shouldered,
+and thick-set, and the head looked too large. She was over-dressed,
+too, with a smart hat and spangled feather, a womanly silk mantle and
+much-trimmed skirt, from which a heavy quilling had detached itself,
+and was trailing on the ground; her hands were ungloved, and showed
+red stumpy fingers, but her face had a bright open honest heartiness
+of expression, and a sort of resolute straightforwardness, that
+attracted and pleased him; and, moreover, there was something in the
+family likeness, grotesque as it was, that could not but arouse a
+fellow-feeling in his warm and open heart, which neither neglect nor
+misfortune had ever chilled.
+
+'I think I should have known you,' he said, smiling. 'Here! let me
+introduce you; here is our little lame white-hearted Cherry, and the
+twins, as like as two peas. Wilmet, Alda--here!'
+
+'Shall I mend your frock?' was Wilmet's first greeting, as she put her
+hand in her pocket, and produced a little housewife.
+
+'Oh, thank you! You've got a needle and thread! What fun!'
+
+'The little ones are very apt to tear themselves, so I like to have it
+ready.'
+
+'How delicious! And you mend for them? I wish I had any one to mend
+for. Please show me, and let me do it. I tried to tear the nasty thing
+off, but it would not come. I wish Mamma would let me wear sensible
+print like yours.'
+
+'Are you laughing at us?' said Wilmet rather bluntly.
+
+'No, indeed, not a bit,' said Marilda, or Mary Alda, eagerly. 'If you
+only knew how tiresome it all is.'
+
+'What is?'
+
+'Why, being fine--having a governess, and talking French, and learning
+to dance, and coming down into the drawing-room. Then Grandmamma Kedge
+tells me how she used to run about in pattens, and feed the chickens,
+and scrub the floor, and I do so wish I was her. Can you scrub, and do
+those nice things?'
+
+'Not a floor,' said Wilmet; 'and we live in the town.'
+
+'So have we done till now; but Papa is going to get this place, because
+he says it is family property; and I hope he will, for they will
+never be able to screw me up here as they do at home. I say, which is
+Fulbert? Won't your father punish him?'
+
+'Oh, no! You should not have told, Marilda. We never tell Papa of
+little tricks of the boys.'
+
+'But the little darling might have broken her neck.'
+
+'Oh! life in a large family is made up of _might haves_,' said Alda.
+
+'Why, I do declare there's a smaller still! What a little duck!' and
+she pounced upon Angela.
+
+'We have a smaller than that,' said Wilmet--'Bernard, only we left him
+at home.'
+
+'Tell me all your names!' cried Marilda, delighted.
+
+She was perfectly happy, and chattered on in great delight in her
+downright voice, as much at ease as if she had known them all her life.
+She shared their tea, and wanted Mr. Underwood to come and see her
+father at the house; but as she could not promise his early return, and
+it was necessary to get the van under weigh before five, this could not
+be.
+
+However, she would not leave them till they were all packed into the
+van, and then only parted with repeated kisses and auguries of many
+future meetings; so that the children looked down a vista of unlimited
+enjoyment of Centry Park. Edgar, little gentleman as he was, saw her as
+far back on the way as he could venture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FORTUNATUS' PURSE.
+
+     'Out, base mechanical churl!'--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Weeks went on, and nothing more was heard of 'Marilda' except the
+wishes and wonderings of the children. Alda decided that she was one
+of the heartless fine ladies one heard of in books--and no wonder,
+when her father was in trade, and she looked so vulgar; while Wilmet
+contended against her finery, and Cherry transferred the heartlessness
+to her cruel father and mother, and Robina never ceased to watch for
+her from the window, even when Felix and Edgar for very weariness had
+prohibited the subject from being ever mentioned, and further checked
+it by declaring that Marilda looked like a cow.
+
+There was plenty besides to think of; and the late summer and early
+autumn rolled cheerily away. The wonderful remnant of Felix's birth-day
+gift was partly applied to the hire of a chair for Geraldine upon every
+favourable evening; and as the boys themselves were always ready to
+act as horses, they obtained it on moderate terms, which made the sum
+hold out in a marvellous manner. And not only were these drives delight
+unimaginable to the little maid, but the frequent breaths of pure air
+seemed to give her vigour; she ate more, smiled more, and moved with
+less pain and difficulty, so that the thought of a partial recovery
+began to seem far less impossible.
+
+The children trooping about her, she used to be drawn to the nearest
+bit of greensward, tree, or copse, and there would occupy herself
+with the attempt to sketch, often in company with Edgar; and with a
+few hints from her father, would be busied for days after with the
+finishing them, or sometimes the idealizing them, and filling them with
+the personages she had read of in books of history or fiction. She was
+a sensitive little body, who found it hard not to be fretful, when told
+that it was very ill-natured to object to having her paints daubed over
+her drawings by Lance, Robina, and Angel--an accusation often brought
+against her by rough, kindly Sibby, and sometimes even by Wilmet in an
+extremity; while Mamma's subdued entreaty, that she would do something
+to please the little ones, if it could be without mischief to herself,
+always humiliated her more than anything else, and made her ready to
+leave all to their mercy, save for deference to Edgar, and gratitude to
+Felix. Robina would look on soberly enough in admiration; but Lance's
+notions of art were comic, and Fulbert's were arbitrary, and both were
+imperiously carried out with due contempt for the inferior sex, and
+were sure to infect both the little sisters.
+
+Then, of course, so many holiday boys were hard to keep in order.
+Clement had a strong propensity in that direction; he was a grave,
+quiet boy, without much sense of the absurd, and was generally the
+victim of Edgar's wit; but, on the other hand, he was much in the
+habit of objecting to anything Edgar or Fulbert proposed, and thereby
+giving forbidden or doubtful amusements double zest. He was never _in_
+mischief, and yet he was never an element of peace.
+
+All this, however, was mitigated when the holidays ended, and Lance
+was allowed to follow his brothers to school, while Bobbie importantly
+trotted in the wake of her sisters. Mamma and Cherry felt it no small
+comfort to have no one at home who did not sleep away two or three of
+the morning hours; and the lessons that the little girl delighted to
+prepare for her father went on in peace--the arithmetic, the French,
+the Latin, and even the verses of Greek Testament, that he always said
+rested him.
+
+And he was 'quite well,' he said himself; and though his wife never
+confirmed this reply, he was everywhere as usual--in church, in schools
+of all kinds, in parish meetings, by sick-beds, or in cottages, as
+bright and as popular as ever, perhaps the more so that he was more
+transparently thin, and every stranger started at the sound of his
+cough; though the Bexley people had grown weary of repeating the same
+augury for four or five years, and began, like 'my Lady,' to call it
+'constitutional.'
+
+So came the autumn Ember Week; and Mr. Audley had to go to receive
+Priests' Orders, and afterwards to spend the next fortnight with his
+parents, who complained that they had not seen him once since he had
+settled at Bexley. The last week was the break-up of summer weather,
+and Mr. Bevan caught cold, and was rheumatic; there were two funerals
+on wet and windy days, and when Mr. Audley, on Lady Price's entreating
+summons, wrenched himself from a murmuring home, and, starting by an
+early train, arrived half through the St. Michael's Day Service, it was
+to see Mr. Underwood looking indeed like some ethereal ascetic saint,
+with his bright eyes and wasted features, and to hear him preach in
+extempore--as was his custom--a sermon on the blessedness of angel
+helps, which in its intense fervour, almost rapture, was to many as if
+it came from a white-winged angel himself. Mr. Audley glided into his
+own place, and met Felix's look of relief. The sermon was finished,
+and the blessing given; but before he could descend the steps, the
+cough had come on, and with it severe haemorrhage. They had to send
+one startled boy for Mrs. Underwood, and another for the doctor, and
+it was an hour before he could be taken home in a chair. No one ever
+forgot that sermon, for it was the last he ever preached. He was very
+ill indeed for several days, but still hopeful and cheerful; and as the
+weather mended, and the calm brightness of October set in, he rallied,
+and came downstairs again, not looking many degrees more wan and hectic
+than before, with a mind as alert as usual, and his kind heart much
+gratified by the many attentions of his parishioners during his illness.
+
+During the worst, Mrs. Underwood had been obliged to keep one of the
+elder girls at home--Wilmet at first, both by her own desire and that
+of Alda; but it was soon made a special matter of entreaty by Miss
+Pearson, that the substitution might not take place; the little class
+was always naughty under Alda, and something the same effect seemed to
+be produced on Angela and Bernard. They made so much less disturbance
+when entrusted to Cherry, that the mother often sent Alda to sit by
+papa, even though she knew he liked nothing so well as to have his
+little pupil's soft voice repeating to him the Latin hymns she loved to
+learn on purpose. Alda read or sang to him very prettily, and they were
+very happy together; but then Wilmet could do that as well, and also
+mind the babies, or do invalid cookery, and supplement Sibby's defects,
+and set the mother free for the one occupation she cared for most--the
+constant watching of that wasted countenance.
+
+But all was better. He had been able to collect his children for
+their evening's Bible lesson and Sunday Catechism, and to resume the
+preparation of Edgar and Geraldine for their Confirmation, though it
+was at least a year distant, and even had spoken of sending for others
+of his catechumens. Wilmet and Alda were both at school, the two
+babies out with Sibby, Mamma at work, Papa dreaming over a Comment on
+the Epistle to the Philippians, which was very near his heart, and he
+always called his holiday work, and Geraldine reading on her little
+couch when there was a sharp ring at the bell, and after an interval,
+the girl who daily came in to help, announced 'Lady Price.'
+
+Even my Lady had been startled and softened by the reality of Mr.
+Underwood's illness, and remorseful for having coddled her husband at
+his expense; she had sent many enquiries, some dainties, and a good
+many recipes; and she had made no objection to Mr. Bevan's frequent and
+affectionate visits, nor even to his making it obvious that however
+little his senior curate might do that winter, he would not accept his
+resignation for the present.
+
+It was enough to make Mr. Underwood feel absolutely warm and grateful
+to his old tormentor, as he rose, not without some effort, held out
+his hand to her, and cheerily answered her inquiries for his cough.
+She even discussed the berries in the hedges, and the prospects of a
+mild winter, in a friendly, hesitating tone; and actually commended Mr.
+Underwood's last pupil-teacher, before she began--'I am afraid I am
+come upon a disagreeable business.'
+
+Mr. Underwood expected to hear of his own inefficiency; or perhaps
+that Mr. Audley had adopted some habit my Lady disapproved, or that
+the schoolmaster was misbehaving, or that some Christmas dole was
+to be curtailed, and that he would have to announce it because Mr.
+Bevan would not. He was not prepared to hear, 'Are you aware that--in
+short--perhaps you can explain it, but has not your son Felix been
+spending a good deal of money--for him, I mean--lately?'
+
+'Felix had a present from his godfather,' said Mr. Underwood, not at
+all moved, so secure was he that this must be an exaggeration.
+
+'Last summer, I heard of that. It was laid out on a pic-nic,' said Lady
+Price, severely.
+
+'It was intended to be so spent,' said the curate; 'but people were
+so good-natured, that very little actually went that way, and the
+remainder was left in his own hands.'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Underwood, but I am afraid that remainder has been made to
+cover a good deal of which you do not know!'
+
+Mrs. Underwood flushed, and would have started forward. Her husband
+looked at her with a reassuring smile. My Lady, evidently angered
+at their blindness, went on, 'It is a painful duty, Mr. Underwood,
+especially in your present state; but I think it due to you, as the
+father of a family, to state what I have learned.'
+
+'Thank you. What is it?'
+
+'Have you reckoned the number of times the chair has been hired?'
+and as he shook his head, 'That alone would amount to more than a
+pound. Besides which, your daughters have been provided with books and
+music--fruit has been bought--all amiable ways of spending money, no
+doubt; but the question is, how was it procured?'
+
+'Indeed,' said Mr. Underwood, still pausing.
+
+'And,' added the lady, 'the means can, I am afraid, be hardly doubted,
+though possibly the boy may have done it in ignorance. Indeed, one of
+his sisters allowed as much.'
+
+'What did she allow, Lady Price?'
+
+'That--that it was won at play, Mr. Underwood. You know Mr. Froggatt
+gives his boy an absurd amount of pocket-money, and when she was taxed
+with this, your daughter--Alda is her name, I believe--allowed that--'
+
+'Papa, Papa!' breathlessly broke out Cherry, who had been forgotten
+on her little sofa all this time, but now dashed forward, stumping
+impetuously with her crutch--'Papa, it's all Alda, how can she be so
+horrid?'
+
+'What is it, my dear?' said Mr. Underwood. 'You can explain it, I see.
+Tell Lady Price what you mean, Geraldine,' he added gravely, to compose
+the child, who was sobbing with excitement and indignation.
+
+'O Lady Price!' she cried, facing about with her hair over her face,
+'he earned it--he earned every bit of it! How could any one think he
+did not?'
+
+'Earned it? What does that mean, little girl?' said Lady Price, still
+severely. 'If he did the boy's exercises for him--'
+
+'No, no, no,' interrupted Geraldine, 'it was old Mr. Froggatt. He asked
+Felix to look over the papers he had to print for the boys' work at the
+Grammar School, because it is all Latin and Greek, and Charles Froggatt
+is so careless and inaccurate, that he can't be trusted.'
+
+The faces of the father and mother had entirely cleared; but Lady Price
+coughed drily, saying, 'And you did not know of this arrangement?'
+
+Geraldine's eyes began to twinkle with tears. 'I don't know what Felix
+will say to me for telling now,' she said.
+
+'It must have come to light some time, though concealment is always a
+proof of shame,' began Lady Price in a consoling tone that filled the
+little lame girl with a fresh passion, drawing up her head.
+
+'Shame! Nobody's ashamed! Only Mamma and Felix and Wilmet never will
+bear that Papa should know how terribly we do want things sometimes.'
+
+And Geraldine, overpowered by her own unguarded words, ran into her
+mother's arms, and hid her face on her shoulder.
+
+'Thank you, Lady Price,' said Mr. Underwood gravely. 'I am glad my
+little girl has been able to satisfy you that Felix has honestly earned
+whatever he may have spent.'
+
+'If you are satisfied,' returned the lady, 'it is not my affair; but I
+must say I should like to know of such transactions among my children.'
+
+'Sometimes one is glad to have a boy to be perfectly trusted,' said Mr.
+Underwood.
+
+'But you will speak to him?'
+
+'Certainly I shall.'
+
+Lady Price felt that she must go, and rose up with an endeavour to
+retract. 'Well, it is a relief to Mr. Bevan and me to find your son not
+consciously in fault, for it would have been a most serious thing. And
+in such a matter as this, of course you can do as _you_ please.'
+
+To this Mr. Underwood made no reply, as none was necessary, but only
+saw her out to the door in that extremely polite manner that always
+made her feel smallest; and then he dropped into his chair again, with
+a curl of the lip, and the murmur, 'Not consciously!'
+
+'O Papa, Papa!' cried Cherry.
+
+'Dear Felix!' said the mother, with tears in her eyes; 'but what can
+Alda have been saying?'
+
+Cherry was about to speak again, but her father gently put her aside.
+'A little quietness now, if you please, my dear; and send Felix to me
+when he comes in. Let me have him alone, but don't say anything to him.'
+
+There was no need to send Felix to his father, for he came in of his
+own accord, radiant, with a paper containing a report of a public
+meeting on Church matters that his father had been wishing to see.
+
+'Thanks, my boy,' said Mr. Underwood; 'where does this come from?'
+
+'From Froggatt's, father. It was only fourpence.'
+
+'But, Felix, repeated fourpences must exhaust even that Fortunatus'
+purse of Admiral Chester's.'
+
+Felix coloured. 'Yes, Papa, I wanted to tell you; but I waited till you
+were better.'
+
+'You will hardly find a better time than the present,' said Mr
+Underwood.
+
+'It is only this,' said Felix, with a little hesitation. 'You
+know there's a good deal of printing to be done for the school
+sometimes--the questions in Latin and Greek and Algebra, and even
+when Mr. Ryder does have the proofs, it wants some one who really
+understands to see that the corrections are properly done. Old Smith
+used to do it, by real force of Chinese accuracy, but he has been ill
+for some time, and Mr. Froggatt can't see to do it himself, and Charlie
+won't, and can't be trusted either. So one day, when I was reading in
+the shop, Mr. Froggatt asked me to see if a thing was right; and it
+went on: he asked me after a time to take anything I liked, and I did
+get some school books we all wanted; but after that, just when you
+were ill, I could not help telling him I had rather have the money. O
+Father!' cried the boy, struck by a certain look of distress, 'did I do
+wrong?'
+
+'Not in the least, my boy. Go on; what does he give you?'
+
+'Exactly at the rate he gave Smith for doing the same work,' said
+Felix: 'it always was an extra for being so troublesome. It was seven
+shillings last week--generally it comes to three or four and sixpence.'
+
+'And when do you do it?'
+
+'I run in after I come out of school for half an hour. Last Saturday
+I corrected a sheet of the Pursuivant, because Mr. Froggatt had to go
+out, and that made it more. And, Father, Mr. Froggatt says that poor
+old Smith will never be fit for work again.'
+
+'Then I suppose these welcome earnings of yours will end when he has a
+successor?'
+
+Felix came nearer. 'Papa,' he said, 'Mr. Froggatt told me that if
+Charlie would only have taken to the work, he would have done without
+another man in Smith's place, and got him gradually into editing the
+paper too. He said he wished I was not a gentleman's son, for if I
+had not been so I should have suited him exactly, and should be worth
+a guinea a week even now. And, Father, do not you really think I had
+better take it?'
+
+'You, Felix!' Mr. Underwood was exceedingly startled for the moment.
+
+'You see,' said Felix rather grimly, leaning his head on the
+mantelshelf, and looking into the fire, 'any other way I can only be an
+expense for years upon years, even if I did get a scholarship.'
+
+His face was crimson, and his teeth set. Mr. Underwood lay back in his
+chair for some seconds; then said in a low voice, 'I see you know all
+about it, Felix; and that I am going to leave you as heavy a burthen as
+ever lad took on willing shoulders.'
+
+Felix knew well enough, but his father had never uttered a word of
+despondency to him before, and he could only go on gazing steadfastly
+into the fire with an inarticulate moan.
+
+Mr. Underwood opened the first leaf of a volume of St. Augustine,
+beside him, a relic of former days, the family shield and motto
+within--namely, a cross potent, or crutch-shaped, and the old English
+motto, 'Under Wode, Under Rode.'
+
+'Under wood, under rood,' he repeated. 'It was once but sing-song to
+me. Now what a sermon! The load is the Cross. Bear thy cross, and thy
+cross will bear thee, like little Geraldine's cross potent--Rod and
+Rood, Cross and Crutch--all the same etymologically and veritably.'
+
+'Don't call them a burthen, pray!' said Felix, with a sense both of
+deprecation and of being unable to turn to the point.
+
+'My boy, I am afraid I was thinking more of myself than of you. I am
+an ungrateful fool; and when a crutch is offered to me, I take hold of
+it as a log instead of a rood. I did not know how much pride there was
+left in me till I found what a bitter pill this is!'
+
+Felix was more crimson than ever. 'Ought I not--' he began.
+
+'The _ought_ is not on your side, Felix. It is not all folly, I hope;
+but I had thought you would have been a better parson than your father.'
+
+There were tears in the boy's eyes now. 'There are the others; I may be
+able to help them.'
+
+'And,' added Mr. Underwood, 'I know that to be a really poor priest,
+there should be no one dependent on one, or it becomes, "Put me into
+one of the priest's offices, that I may eat a piece of bread." It is
+lowering! Yes, you are right. Even suppose you could be educated,
+by the time you were ordained, you would still have half these poor
+children on your hands, and it would only be my own story over again,
+and beginning younger. You are right, Felix; but I never saw the
+impossibility so fully before. I am glad some inward doubt held me back
+from the impulse to dedicate my first-born.'
+
+'It shall be one of the others instead,' said Felix in his throat.
+
+Mr. Underwood smiled a little, and put his finger on the verse in his
+beloved Epistle--'Look not every man on his own things but every man
+also on the things of others.'
+
+'You really wish this. Do you consider what it involves?' he said.
+
+'I think I do,' said Felix in a stifled voice.
+
+'This is not as if it were a great publisher,' continued Mr. Underwood,
+'with whom there would be no loss of position or real society; but a
+little bookseller in a country town is a mere tradesman, and though a
+man like Audley may take you up from time to time, it will never be on
+an absolute equality; and it will be more and more forgotten who you
+were. You will have to live in yourself and your home, _depending_ on
+no one else.'
+
+'I can stand that,' said Felix, smiling. 'Father, indeed I thought of
+all that. Of course I don't like it, but I don't see how it is to be
+helped.'
+
+'Sit down, Felix: let us go over it again. I suppose you don't know
+what our subsistence is at present.'
+
+'I know you have L250 a year from Mr. Bevan.'
+
+'Yes, I had L200 at first, and he added the L50 when the third curate
+was given up. That goes with me, of course, if not before. On the other
+hand, my poor good uncle, the wisest thing he ever did, made me insure
+my life for L5000, so there will be L150 a year to depend on, besides
+what we had of our own, only L2,350 left of it now. I have had to
+break into it for the doctor's bills, but at least there are no debts.
+Thank God, we have been saved from debt! I think,' he continued, 'that
+probably it will have to be brought down to twenty-two hundred before
+you have done with me. On the whole, then, there will be about L180 a
+year for you all to live upon. Are you understanding, Felix?'
+
+For the boy's anxious look had gone out of his face, and given place to
+a stunned expression which was only dispelled with a sudden start by
+his father's inquiry. 'Yes, yes,' he said recalling himself.
+
+'I have left it all absolutely to your mother,' said Mr. Underwood.
+'She will depend more and more on you, Felix; and I have made up my
+mind to expect that no help will come to you but from yourselves.
+Except that I hope some of you may be educated by clergy orphan
+schools, but you are too old for that now. Felix, I believe it may be
+right, but it is very sore to break off your education.'
+
+'I shall try to keep it up,' said Felix, 'in case anything should ever
+turn up.'
+
+'A guinea a week!' said Mr. Underwood, thoughtfully. 'It would make you
+all not much worse off than you are now, when I am out of the way. And
+yet--' A violent cough came on. 'We must wait, Felix,' he said, when he
+had recovered himself. 'I must have time to think; I will speak to you
+to-morrow.'
+
+Felix left him, very grave and subdued. He buried himself in his tasks
+for the next day, hardly looked up or smiled at little Bernard's most
+earnest attempts at a game of play, and had not a word for even Cherry,
+only when Wilmet begged anxiously to know if he thought Papa worse, he
+answered that he believed not particularly so.
+
+Alda was sent to carry some tea to her father that evening. As she
+set it down on the table before him, he said gently, 'My dear, I want
+to know what has been passing among you and your school-fellows about
+Felix.'
+
+'Oh, nothing, Papa,' said Alda rather hastily. 'Some nonsense or other
+is always going on.'
+
+'Very true, no doubt; nor do I wish to be informed of general nonsense,
+but of that which concerns you. What have you been saying or hearing
+said about Felix?'
+
+'Oh, it's nonsense, Papa. Some of the girls will say anything
+disagreeable.'
+
+'You need not have any scruples on Felix's account, Alda; I know
+exactly what he has done. I want you to tell me what is being said--or
+you have allowed to be said--about it.'
+
+'That horrible Miss Price!' was all the answer he got.
+
+He sat upright--laid on Alda's wrist a long bony burning hand, whose
+clasp she did not forget for weeks, and forcing her to look at him,
+said, 'Did you allow it to be believed that your brother Felix was a
+gambler?'
+
+'Papa! I never said so!' cried Alda, beginning to sob.
+
+'Command yourself, Alda; I am not fit for a scene, and I may not be
+able to speak to you many times again.'
+
+These words--far more new and startling to Alda than to her
+brother--appalled her into quietness.
+
+'What did you say, Alda? or was it the deceit of silence?'
+
+She hung her head, but spoke at last.
+
+'I only said boys had ways and means! They did tease and plague so.
+I do believe Carry Price counts every grape that goes into this
+house--and they would know how I got my new music--and little Robina
+would tell--and then came something about Mr. Froggatt; and if they
+knew--'
+
+'If they knew what?'
+
+'Papa, you have no idea how nasty some of them are.'
+
+'My poor child, I am afraid I have some idea by seeing how nasty they
+are making you! Gambling more creditable than honest labour!'
+
+Alda had it on the tip of her tongue to say winning things was not
+gambling, but she knew that argument would be choked down; and she also
+knew that though she had spoken truth as to her words, she had allowed
+remarks to pass without protest, on the luck and licence that the model
+boy allowed himself, and she was bitterly displeased with the treachery
+of Miss Price.
+
+'These old rags of folly don't look pretty on other folk,' he sighed
+pleasantly. 'Alda, listen to me. What I have heard to-day gives me more
+fears for you than for any one of my children. Did you ever hear that
+false shame leads to true shame? Never shuffle again! Remember, nothing
+is mean that is not sin, and an acted falsehood like this is sin and
+shame both--while your brother's deed is an honour.'
+
+Alda was obliged to go away murmuring within herself, 'That's all true:
+it is very good of Felix, and I should not have equivocated, I know;
+but those stupid girls, how is one to live with them?'
+
+Felix was not quite dressed the next morning when his mother came to
+the door of the attic that he shared with Edgar and Fulbert.
+
+'He wants to speak to you before church, Felix. It has been a very bad
+night, and the sooner this is settled the better.'
+
+'O Mother, I am very sorry--'
+
+'It can't be helped, my dear boy. I think it will really be a great
+relief to him.'
+
+'And you, Mother, do you mind?'
+
+'Dear Felix, all _minding_, except to have you all well, and fed and
+clothed, was worn out of me years ago. I can't feel anything in it but
+that it will keep you by me, my dear good helpful boy.'
+
+Felix's heart leapt up, as it had not done for many a long day; but it
+soon sank again. The children had never been admitted to their father's
+room in the early morning, and Felix thought he must be suddenly worse
+when he saw him in bed propped by pillows, pale and wearied; but the
+usual bright smile made him like himself.
+
+'All right, old fellow,' he said brightly. 'Don't come up to me. I'm
+_incog._ till I'm up and dressed. Are you in the same mind?'
+
+'Yes, Father.'
+
+'Then ask Mr. Froggatt to do me the favour of coming to speak to me any
+time after eleven o'clock that may suit him. I must understand what he
+offers you. The nonsense is conquered, Felix; more shame for me that it
+has followed me so far; but the sense remains. I must try to be sure
+that this sacrifice of yours is a right one to be accepted. Any way, my
+boy, I thank and bless you for it, and God will bless such a beginning.
+There's the bell, be off,' he concluded.
+
+And, Papa,' blurted out Felix suddenly, 'would you _please_ be
+photographed. I have the money for it. _Pray--_'
+
+Mr. Underwood smiled. 'Very well, Felix; that is, if I am ever capable
+of getting up all the stairs to Coleman's sky-parlour.'
+
+'Oh, thank you!' and Felix ran away.
+
+Mr. Froggatt came in due time. He was an elderly portly man, well
+shaven and smooth-faced, intensely respectable, having been brought
+up to inherit an old hereditary business as bookseller, stationer,
+and publisher of a weekly local paper, long before Bexley had broken
+out into its present burning fever of furnaces. He was a very good
+religious man, as Mr. Underwood well knew, having been his great
+comforter through several family troubles, which had left him and his
+wife alone with one surviving and woefully spoilt son, who hated the
+trade, and had set his heart upon being a farmer--chiefly with a view
+to hunting. Mr. Froggatt was conscious of having been too indulgent,
+but the mother and son were against him; and the superior tone of
+education that the son had received at the reformed grammar school had
+only set him above the business, instead of, as had been intended,
+rendering him more useful in it.
+
+Good Mr. Froggatt, an old-fashioned tradesman, with a profound feeling
+for a real gentleman, was a good deal shocked at receiving Mr.
+Underwood's message. He kept a reading-room, and was on terms of a
+certain intimacy with its frequenters, such as had quite warranted his
+first requests for Felix's good-natured help; and it had been really
+as a sort of jesting compliment that he had told the young gentleman
+that he wished he would take Smith's place, little expecting to see how
+earnestly the words were caught up, how the boy asked whether he really
+meant it; and when, on further consideration, he allowed that it might
+be possible, begging him to wait till his father could be spoken to.
+
+Poor as he was, Mr. Underwood had never lost general respect. Something
+there was in his fine presence and gentlemanly demeanour, and still
+more in his showing no false shame, making no pretensions, and never
+having a debt. Doctors' bills had pressed him heavily, but he had
+sacrificed part of his small capital rather than not pay his way; and
+thus no one guessed at the straits of the household. Mr. Froggatt had
+never supposed he would entertain for a moment the idea of letting his
+eldest son, a fine clever and studious lad, undertake a little country
+business, and yet the old bookseller had come to wish it very much on
+his own account. As he explained to Mr. Underwood, he loved his old
+business, and knew that with more education he should have been able
+to make more of it. His elder son had died just as intelligence and
+energy were opening up plans that would have made both the shop and the
+newspaper valuable and beneficial; while Charles's desertion left them
+to decline with his father's declining years, and in danger of being
+supplanted by some brisk new light. Felix Underwood was indeed very
+young, but he had already proved his power of usefulness, and a very
+few years would make him capable of being a right hand to the old man,
+and he might in time make a position for himself. Mr. Froggatt would
+otherwise ere long be forced by his own infirmity, to dispose of the
+business at a disadvantage, and this would, he confessed, go to his
+heart. Mr. Underwood felt greatly reconciled to the project. There was
+real usefulness in the work, great means of influencing men for good,
+and though there would be much of mechanical employment, for which it
+was a pity to give up the boy's education, yet it was a stepping-stone
+to something better, and it gave present and increasing means of
+maintenance. There was less temptation in this way of life than in
+almost any that could be devised, and it would give Mrs. Underwood the
+comfort of a home with him. The great difficulty for the future was,
+that Felix was never likely to have capital enough to purchase, or
+become partner in, the business; but Mr. Froggatt explained that if he
+gained experience in the editing of the Pursuivant, he would be always
+able to obtain profitable employment, and that it was possible that
+he might eventually take the business, and pay an annual sum out of
+the profits to the Froggatt family, unless, indeed, something should
+turn up which would keep him in his natural station. Such was the hope
+lurking in the father's heart, even while he thankfully closed with the
+offer; and Felix was put in the way of studying book-keeping till the
+New Year, when he was to enter upon his duties and his salary.
+
+Mr. Audley was greatly troubled. It was with incredulous vivacity that
+he inquired of Mr. Underwood if it were indeed true that Felix had
+accepted such prospects.
+
+'Quite true,' said Mr. Underwood. 'You need not argue it with me,
+Audley; my own mind has said all you could say seven times over.'
+
+'I should not venture on interference; but could you not let me try to
+do--something?'
+
+'And welcome, my dear fellow: there are so many to be done for, that it
+is well one can do for himself.'
+
+'But Felix--Felix out of them all!'
+
+'As the voice I want to silence has said a thousand times! No; Felix
+seems capable of this, and it is not right to withhold him, and throw
+his education upon the kind friends who might be helping the other
+boys--boys whom I could not trust to fend for themselves and others, as
+I can that dear lad.'
+
+'What he might be--'
+
+'Who knows whether he may not be a greater blessing in this work than
+in that which we should have chosen for him? He may be a leaven for
+good--among the men we have never been able to reach! My dear Audley,
+don't be a greater ass about it than I was at first!'
+
+For the young curate really could not speak at first for a rush of
+emotion.
+
+'It is not only for Felix's sake,' said he, smiling at last, 'but the
+way you take it.'
+
+'And now, I am going to ask you to do something for me,' added Mr.
+Underwood. 'I have left this magnificent estate of mine entirely to my
+wife, appointing her sole guardian to my children. But I have begun
+to think how much has been taken out of her by that shock of leaving
+Vale Leston, and by that wonderful resolute patience that--that I shall
+never be able to thank her for. I scarcely dare to let her know that I
+see it. And when I look on to the winter that is before her,' he added,
+much less calmly, 'I think she may not be long after me. I must add a
+guardian. Once we had many good friends. We have them still, I hope,
+but I cannot lay this on them. Our cousin Tom Underwood does not seem
+disposed to notice us, and his care might not be of the right kind. Our
+only other relation is Fulbert Underwood.'
+
+'Who drove you from Vale Leston?'
+
+'Who did what he had every right to do with his own,' said Mr.
+Underwood. 'But he is not the style of man to be asked, even if I could
+saddle him with the charge. Probably twelve children to bring up on
+seven thousand pounds--a problem never put before us at Cambridge.'
+
+'Do you honour me by--' asked the younger man, much agitated.
+
+'Not by asking you to solve that problem! But let me add your name.
+What I want is a guardian, who will not violently break up the home and
+disperse the children. I believe Felix will be a competent young head
+if he is allowed, and I want you to be an elder brother to him, and let
+him act.'
+
+'You cannot give me greater comfort.'
+
+'Only, Audley, this must be on one condition. Never let this
+guardianship interfere with any higher work that you may be called to.
+If I thought it would bind you down to Bexley, or even to England, I
+should refrain from this request as a temptation. Mind, you are only
+asked to act in case the children should lose their mother, and then
+only to enable Felix to be what I believe he can and will be. Or, as it
+may be right to add, if he should fail them, you will know what to do.'
+
+'I do not think he will.'
+
+'Nor I. But there are ways of failing besides the worst. However, I do
+not greatly fear this illness of mine taking root in them. It has not
+been in the family before; and I am nearly sure that I know when I took
+the infection, four or five years ago, from a poor man in Smoke-jack
+Alley, who would let no one lift him but me. They are healthy young
+things, all but dear little Cherry, and I hope they have spirits to
+keep care from making them otherwise. You will say a kind word to my
+little Cherry sometimes, Audley. Poor little woman, I am afraid it may
+fall sorely on her, she is of rather too highly strung a composition,
+and perhaps I have not acted so much for her good as my own pleasure,
+in the companionship we have had together.'
+
+So the will was altered, though without the knowledge of anyone but
+Mrs. Underwood and the witnesses; and Mr. Audley felt himself bound
+to remonstrate no further against Felix's fate, however much he might
+deplore it.
+
+Nobody was so unhappy about it as Edgar. The boy was incredulous at
+first, then hotly indignant. Then he got a burnt stick, and after
+shutting himself up in his attic for an hour, was found lying on the
+floor, before an awful outline on the whitewash.
+
+'What is it, old fellow?' asked Felix. 'What a horrid mess!'
+
+'I see,' said Lance. 'It is Friday grinning at the savages.'
+
+'Or a scarecrow on the back of a ditch,' said Felix. 'Come, Ed, tell us
+what it is meant for.'
+
+Edgar was impenetrable; but having watched the others out of the house,
+he dragged Geraldine up to see--something--
+
+'Oh!' she cried. 'You've done it!'
+
+'To be sure! You know it?'
+
+'It is Achilles on the rampart, shouting at the Trojans! O Edgar--how
+brave he looks--how his hair flies! Some day you will get him in his
+god-like beauty!'
+
+'Do you think he has not got any of it, Cherry?' said Edgar, gazing
+wistfully. 'I did see it all, but it didn't come out--and now--'
+
+'I see what you mean,' said Cherry, screwing up her eyes; 'it is in him
+to be glorious--a kind of lightning look.'
+
+'Yes, yes; that's what I meant. All majesty and wrath, but no strain. O
+Cherry--to have such things in my head, and not get them out! Don't you
+know what it is?' as he rolled and flung himself about.
+
+'Oh, yes!' said Cherry from her heart. 'Oh! I should so like to do one
+touch to his face, but he's so big! You did him on a chair, and I could
+not stand on one.'
+
+'I'll lift you up. I'll hold you,' cried Edgar.
+
+The passion for drawing must have been very strong in the two children;
+for Geraldine was most perilously, and not without pain, raised to a
+chair, where, with Edgar's arms round her waist, she actually worked
+for ten minutes at Achilles' face, but his arm she declined. 'It is not
+right, Eddy! look--that muscle in his elbow can never be so!'
+
+'I can't see the back of mine, but you can,' said Edgar, lifting her
+down, and proceeding to take off his coat and roll up his shirt-sleeve.
+
+'That's the way. Oh! but it is not such an angle as that.'
+
+'Achilles' muscles must have stood out more than mine, you know. I'll
+get a look at Blunderbore's. O Cherry, if I were but older--I know I
+could--I'd save Felix from this horrible thing! I feel to want to roar
+at old Froggy, like this fellow at the Trojans.'
+
+'Perhaps some day you will save him.'
+
+'Yes; but then he will have done it. Just fancy, Gerald, if _that_
+picture was as it ought to be--as you and I see it!'
+
+'It would be as grand as the world ever saw,' said the little girl,
+gazing through her eye-lashes at the dim strokes in the twilight. 'O
+Edgar, many a great man has begun in a garret!'
+
+'If it would not be so long hence! Oh! must you go down?'
+
+'I heard some one calling. You will be a great artist, I know, Edgar!'
+
+It was pleasanter than the other criticism, at bed-time.
+
+'Hollo! Man Friday does not look quite so frightful!' said Felix.
+
+'I'm sure I won't have him over my bed,' said Fulbert, proceeding to
+rub him out; and though, for the moment, Achilles was saved by violent
+measures of Edgar's, yet before the end of the next day, Fulbert and
+Lance had made him black from head to foot, all but the whites of his
+eyes and his teeth; Robina and Angela had peeped in, and emulated the
+terror of the Trojans, or the savages; and Sibby had fallen on the
+young gentleman for being 'so bold' as to draw a frightful phooka
+upon their walls, just to frighten the darlints. Indeed, it was long
+before Angela could be got past the door at night without shuddering,
+although Achilles had been obliterated by every possible method that
+Felix, Clement, or Sibby could devise, and some silent tears of Cherry
+had bewailed the conclusion of this effort of high art, the outline of
+which, in more moderate proportions, was cherished in that portfolio of
+hers.
+
+Another work of art--the photograph--was safely accomplished. The
+photographer caught at the idea, declaring that he had been so often
+asked for Mr. Underwood's carte, that he had often thought of begging
+to take it gratis. And he not only insisted on so doing, but he came
+down from his studio, and took Mr. Underwood in his own chair, under
+his own window--producing a likeness which, at first sight, shocked
+every one by its faithful record of the ravages of disease, unlightened
+by the fair colouring and lustrous beaming eyes, but which, by-and-by,
+grew upon the gazer, as full of a certain majesty of unearthly beauty
+of countenance.
+
+The autumn was mild, and Mr. Underwood rallied in some measure, so as
+sometimes even to get to church at mid-day services on warm days.
+
+It was on St. Andrew's Day that he was slowly walking home, leaning
+on Felix's arm, with the two elder girls close behind him, when Alda
+suddenly touched Wilmet's arm, exclaiming, 'There's Marilda Underwood!'
+
+There indeed was the apparition of Centry Park, riding a pretty pony,
+beside a large and heavily-bearded personage. The recognition was
+instantaneous; Marilda was speaking to her companion, and at the same
+moment he drew up, and exclaiming, 'Edward! bless me!' was off his
+horse in a moment, and was wringing those unsubstantial fingers in a
+crushing grasp. There was not much to be seen of Mr. Underwood, for
+he was muffled up in a scarf to the very eyes, but they looked out of
+their hollow caves, clear, blue, and bright, and smiling as ever, and
+something like an answer came out of the middle of the folds.
+
+'These yours? How d'ye do!--How d'ye do!--Mary, you don't get off till
+we come to the door!--Yes, I'll come in with you! Bless me! bless me!
+Mary has been at me ever so many times about you, but we've been had
+abroad for masters and trash, and I left it till we were settled here.'
+
+It was not many steps to the door, and there Wilmet flew on to prepare
+her mother and the room, while Alda stood by as her cousin was assisted
+from her horse by the groom, and the new-comer followed in silence,
+while Felix helped his father up the steps, and unwound his wraps,
+after which he turned round, and with his own sunny look held out his
+hand, saying, 'How are you, Tom? I'm glad to see you--How d'ye do, Mary
+Alda? we are old friends.--Call your mother, one of you.'
+
+The mother was at hand, and they entered the drawing-room, where, as
+the clergyman sank back into his arm-chair, the merchant gazed with
+increasing consternation at his wasted figure and features.
+
+'How long has this been going on?' he asked, pointing to him and
+turning to Mrs. Underwood, but as usual her husband answered for her.
+
+'How long have I been on the sick list? Only since the end of
+September, and I am better now than a month ago.'
+
+'Better! Have you had advice?'
+
+'Enough to know how useless it is.'
+
+'Some trumpery Union doctor. I'll have Williams down before you are a
+day older.'
+
+'Stay, Tom. Thank you, most warmly, but you see yourself the best
+advice in the world could tell us no more than we know already. Are you
+really master of old Centry Underwood? I congratulate you.'
+
+'Ay. I'm glad the place should come back to the old name. Mrs.
+Underwood and myself both felt it a kind of duty, otherwise it went
+against the grain with her, and I'm afraid she'll never take to the
+place. 'Twas that kept us abroad so long, though not from want of
+wishes from Mary and myself. The girl fell in love with yours at first
+sight.'
+
+'To be sure I did,' said the young lady. 'Do let me see the little
+ones, and your baby.'
+
+'Take your cousin to see them in the dining-room, Alda,' said the
+mother; the order that Alda had been apprehending, for the dining-room
+was by many degrees more shabby than the drawing-room; however, she
+could only obey, explaining by the way that little Bernard, being
+nearly two years old, was hardly regarded as a baby now.
+
+Wilmet was in effect making him and Angela presentable as to the hands,
+face, hair, and pinafore, and appeared carrying the one and leading the
+other, who never having closely inspected any one in a riding-habit
+before, hung back, whispering to know whether 'that man was a woman.'
+
+Marilda was in raptures, loving nothing so well as small children, and
+very seldom enjoying such an opportunity as the present; and the two
+babies had almost the whole of the conversation adapted to them, till
+Alda made an effort.
+
+'So you have been on the Continent?'
+
+'Oh yes; it was such a horrid bore. Mamma would go. She said I must
+have French masters, and more polish, but I don't like French polish. I
+hope I'm just as English as I was before.'
+
+'That is undeniable,' said Felix, laughing.
+
+'Didn't you care for it? Oh! I should like it so much!' cried Alda.
+
+'Like it? What, to hear French people chattering and gabbling all round
+one, and be always scolded for not being like them! There was a poor
+dog at the hotel that had been left behind by some English people, and
+could not bear the French voices, always snarled at them. I was just
+like him, and I got Papa to buy him and bring him home, and I always
+call him John Bull.'
+
+'But wasn't it nice seeing places, and churches, and pictures?' asked
+Geraldine.
+
+'That was the most disgusting of all, to be bothered with staring at
+the stupid things. Mamma with her Murray standing still at them all,
+and making me read it out just like a lesson, and write it after, which
+was worse! And then the great bare shiny rooms with nothing to do. The
+only thing I liked was looking at a jolly little old woman that sold
+hot chestnuts out in the street below. Such dear little children in
+round caps came to her! Just like that,'--endeavouring to convert her
+pocket-handkerchief into the like head-gear for Robina.
+
+'I have always so wanted to come here,' she continued, 'only I am
+afraid Mamma won't like the place. She says it's dull, and there's no
+good society. Is there?'
+
+'I am sure we don't know,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Lots of people are coming to stay with us for Christmas,' added
+Marilda, 'and you must all of you come and have all the fun with us.'
+
+'Oh, thank you! how charming!' cried Alda. 'If Papa will but be well
+enough; he is so much better now.'
+
+'He must come for change of air,' said Marilda. 'You can't think how
+pleased my father was to hear I had met you. He talked all the way home
+of how clever your father was, and how wickedly Cousin Fulbert at Vale
+Leston had served him, and he promised me when I came here I should
+have you with me very often. I would have written to tell you, only I
+do so hate writing. This is much better.'
+
+Marilda seemed to have perfectly established herself among them before
+the summons came to her; and as the children herded to the door, her
+father turned round and looked at the boys inquiringly. 'There,' said
+Mr. Underwood, 'this is Felix, and this is Edgar, sixteen and fourteen.'
+
+'Bless me, what a number, and as much alike as a flock of sheep,'
+again exclaimed the cousin. 'One or two more or less would not make
+much odds--eh, Edward?--Mary, what kissing all round?--D'ye know them
+all?--I'll look in to-morrow or next day, and you'll give me your
+answer, Edward.'
+
+They were off, and at Mr. Underwood's sign Felix followed him into
+the sitting-room, to the great excitement of the exterior population,
+who unanimously accepted Alda's view, that one of them was going to
+be adopted. Their notion was not so much out as such speculations
+generally are, for Mr. Underwood was no sooner alone with Felix and
+his mother, than he said, 'You are in request, Felix; here's another
+offer for one of you--the very thing I once missed. What say you to a
+clerkship at Kedge Brothers?'
+
+'For one of us, did you say, Father?'
+
+'Yes; the answer I am to give to-morrow is as to which. You have the
+first choice.'
+
+'Do you wish me to take it, Father?'
+
+'I wish you to think. Perhaps this is the last time I shall have any
+decision to make for you, and I had rather you should make your own
+choice; nor, indeed, am I sure of my own wishes.'
+
+'Then,' said Felix decidedly, 'I am sure I had better not. Edgar would
+not, and must not, go to my work; there would be nothing coming in for
+ever so long, and it would be a shame to throw old Froggy over.'
+
+'I rather expected this, Felix. I told Tom you were in a manner
+provided for, but when he found you had a turn for business, he was the
+more anxious to get you.'
+
+'I've got no turn that I know of,' said Felix, rather gloomily; 'but we
+can't all of us set up for gentlemen, and Edgar is the one of us all
+that ought to have the very best! Such a fellow as he is! He is sure
+of the prize this time, you know! I only don't think this good enough
+for him! He ought to go to the University. And maybe when Mr. Underwood
+sees--'
+
+'Not impossible,' said the sanguine father, smiling; 'and, at any
+rate, to get put in the way of prosperity early may make his talents
+available. It is odd that his first name should be Thomas. Besides,
+I do not think your mother could get on without you. And, Felix,' he
+lowered his voice, 'I believe that this is providential. Not only as
+securing his maintenance, but as taking him from Ryder. Some things
+have turned up lately when he has been reading with me, that have
+dismayed me. Do you know what I mean?'
+
+'A little,' said Felix gravely.
+
+'I know Ryder would be too honourable consciously to meddle with a
+boy's faith; but the worst of it is, he does not know what is meddling,
+and he likes Edgar, and talks eagerly to him. And the boy enjoys it.'
+
+'He does,' said Felix, 'but he knows enough to be on his guard. There
+can't be any harm done.'
+
+'Not yet! Not but what can be counteracted, if--Felix, you cannot
+guess how much easier it makes it to me to go, that Edgar will not be
+left in Ryder's hands. As to the younger ones, such things do not come
+down to the lower forms. And they will be eligible for clergy orphans.
+Audley spoke of a choristership for Clement in the clergy-house at
+Whittingtonia. Was there ever such a raising up of friends and helpers?
+I am glad to have seen Tom Underwood, hearty, kindly--sure to be always
+a good friend to you all. What did you think of the girl, Felix?'
+
+'She is a jolly sort of girl,' said Felix; 'not like ours, you know,
+Father, but not half a bad fellow.'
+
+Mr. Underwood smiled thoughtfully, and asked, 'Have you seen enough of
+her to judge how she is brought up?'
+
+It was treating his son so much more as a friend than as a boy, that
+Felix looked up surprised. 'I should think her mother wanted to make
+her no end of a swell,' he said, 'and that it would not take.'
+
+Mr. Underwood lent back thoughtfully. In truth, his cousin had, in his
+outburst of affection and remorse at long unconscious neglect, declared
+his intention of taking home one of the girls to be as a sister to his
+Mary, and then, evidently bethinking himself of some influence at home,
+had half taken back his words, and talked of doing something, bringing
+his wife to see about it, &c.
+
+And when Mr. and Mrs. Underwood were again alone, they discussed the
+probabilities, and considered whether if the offer were made they would
+accept it. Mr. Underwood had only seen his cousin's wife once, in his
+prosperous days, when he had been at the wedding, and his impression
+was not that of perfect refinement. There was reason to think from the
+words of her husband and daughter that there was a good deal of the
+_nouveau riche_ about her, and Mrs. Underwood did not know how to think
+of trusting a daughter in a worldly, perhaps irreligious, household.
+But Mr. Underwood was a good deal touched by his cousin's warmth and
+regret; he believed that the family kept up religious habits; he
+thought that Providence had brought him friends in this last hour, and
+his affectionate sanguine spirit would not hesitate in accepting the
+kindness that provided for another of the children he was leaving. She
+trusted him as sure to know best; and, after her usual mode, said no
+more, except 'Wilmet would be safest there.'
+
+'You could spare her least.'
+
+'Yes, indeed, it would be losing my right hand; but poor Alda--'
+
+'Poor Alda! but consider if there is not worse evil in keeping her
+among girls who hurt her, if they do not Wilmet. Beauty and wounded
+vanity are dangerous in a place like this.'
+
+'Dangerous anywhere!'
+
+'Less so in a great house, with that good honest Mary Alda, and Tom,
+who will look after her in the main, than here, or as a governess, with
+an inferior education.'
+
+'It may be so. I know I can spare her better than her sister.'
+
+'Wilmet is doing something for herself too--as Alda cannot, it seems.
+Justice settles the point, dearest, as it did between the boys--that
+is, if we have the offer.'
+
+Perhaps the mother still had a lurking hope that the offer would not be
+made. Her instinct was to keep all her brood round her; but, silent and
+deferential woman that she was, she said nothing, and resolved to be
+thankful for what so eased her husband's mind.
+
+The handsome carriage tore up to the door, and violet velvet and
+feathers descended, Mary Alda sprang after, and then came her father,
+and hampers on hampers of game, wine, and fruits ensued; while Marilda
+seized on Alda, and turned of herself into the dining-room, bearing a
+box of sweets. 'Where are the little ones? Little Bobbie, here; and all
+the rest.'
+
+Not many calls were needful to bring a flock to share the feast, with
+cries of joy; but Marilda was not yet satisfied.
+
+'Where's the other of you?' she said to Alda. 'I don't know you well
+apart yet.'
+
+'Wilmet's in the kitchen,' thrust in Lancelot, 'ironing the collars for
+Sunday.'
+
+'Lance!' uttered Alda indignantly.
+
+'Oh! what fun! do let me go down and see! I should so like to iron.'
+
+'But, Marilda--your Mamma--'
+
+'Oh nonsense, come along, show me the way. That's right, Robins, only
+your hands are so sticky. What, down here!--Oh, Wilmet, how d'ye do?
+what delicious work! do you always do it?'
+
+'Generally, if Sibby is busy.'
+
+'Do let me try.'
+
+And she did try for ten minutes, at the end of which the mother's voice
+was heard calling for Edgar, who, turning crimson, went upstairs,
+leaving the others standing about the tidy kitchen, fresh sanded for
+Saturday.
+
+'What, not you!' said Marilda, pausing in her smoothing operations, and
+looking at Felix.
+
+'No,' said he. 'I have got my work.'
+
+'Oh! don't talk of it,' said Alda. 'I can't bear it. I didn't think he
+was in earnest, or that Papa would let him.'
+
+Marilda turned full round. 'What, you won't go and be my father's
+clerk, and be one of Kedge and Underwood, and make a fortune?'
+
+Felix shook his head.
+
+'And what is your work instead?'
+
+'Printing,' said Felix stoutly. 'It gives present payment, and we can't
+do without it.'
+
+Both Marilda's hands seized on his. 'I like you!' she said. 'I wish I
+were you.'
+
+They all laughed, and Felix coloured, more abashed than pleased.
+Lance--to make up for his ignominious rescue at their last
+meeting--performed a wonderful progress, holding on by his fingers and
+toes along the ledge of the dresser; and Marilda, setting her back (a
+broad one) against the ironing-board, went on talking.
+
+'And do you know what besides?' looking round, and seeing they did
+not. 'One of you girls is to come and live with me, and be my sister.
+I wanted to have this little darling Angela to pet, but Mamma wouldn't
+have her, and I did so beg for Geraldine, to let her have a sofa and a
+pony-carriage! I do want something to nurse! But Mamma won't hear of
+anybody but one of you two great ones, to learn and do everything with
+me; and that's not half the use.'
+
+'But is it really?' cried Alda.
+
+'Yes, indeed! You'll be had up for her to choose from--that is, if she
+can. How exactly alike you are!'
+
+'She won't choose me,' said Wilmet. 'Hark, there's Edgar coming down.'
+
+Edgar ran in, with orders to the twins to go into the drawing-room.
+Wilmet hung back. 'I will not be the one,' she said resolutely. 'Let
+Alda go alone.'
+
+'No,' said Felix, 'it is what you are told that you've got to do now.
+Never mind about the rest! Let us all come out of this place.' And it
+was he who took off his sister's ironing apron as they went up to the
+dining-room together, while Marilda cried eagerly, 'Well, Edgar?'
+
+'Well,' said Edgar, not in the enchanted voice she expected; 'it is
+very good of your father, and what must be must.'
+
+'Don't you like it?' said Marilda, half hurt; and Edgar, always a boy
+of ready courtesy, answered, 'Yes, yes, I'm no end of grateful. I'll
+get rich, and go abroad, and buy pictures. Only I did hope to paint
+them.'
+
+'Paint pictures!' cried Marilda. 'What, rather than be a merchant! Do
+such stupid useless things, only to bother people with having to stare
+at them, when you could be making money?'
+
+'There's no reason one should not make money with pictures,' said
+Edgar; 'but I'd rather make delight! But it can't be helped, and I am
+very glad to have done with this horrid place.'
+
+Meantime Wilmet and Alda found themselves before a large, florid,
+much-dressed lady, with a most good-natured face, who greeted them with
+'Good morning, my dears! Just as Marilda told me, so much alike as to
+be quite romantic. Well, no doubt it is a pity to separate between you,
+but my Marilda will be a true sister. She has spoken of nothing else.
+Are you willing, either of you, my dears?'
+
+'Ay!' chimed in Mr. Thomas Underwood; 'we'll make you happy whichever
+it is! You shall be in all respects like our own child; Mary would see
+to that, if we didn't.'
+
+'As to choice,' said the lady, 'there's none that I can see--pretty
+genteel girls both, that will do us credit, unless it is their own
+fault. Excellent governess, London masters--you may be assured
+everything shall be done for her.'
+
+'Shall we toss up which it shall be?' laughed her husband.
+
+'No,' said Mr. Underwood gently. 'We think that this one,' laying his
+hand on Alda's arm, 'will value these advantages, and is not quite such
+a home-bird as her sister. I hope you will find a grateful good child
+in Alda Mary, and a kind sister to Mary Alda.'
+
+The tears came into Alda's eyes, as her father seemed thus making her
+over; a great rush of affection for all at home, and contempt for Mary
+Alda in comparison with her own twin, seemed to take away any elation,
+as Mr. and Mrs. Tom Underwood kissed her, and welcomed her, and
+declared they should like to take her home at once.
+
+'You shall have her soon,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Let me keep her for
+Christmas Day.'
+
+And for Christmas Day he did keep her, though at the bottom of Alda's
+heart there were strong hopes of invitations to join the festivities
+at Centry Underwood. Indeed, such a party was insisted on by Marilda,
+one that was to include all the little ones, and make them happier than
+ever they had been in their lives. It was to be on Twelfth Day, but
+Mrs. Underwood hinted to the twins that they had better not talk to the
+younger ones about it, for she scarcely believed they would go. She
+had never before spoken out that conviction which had long crushed her
+down, and Wilmet's whole soul seemed for the moment scared away by this
+fresh intimation of the condition in which their father stood; while
+Alda vehemently repeated the old declaration that he was better. He
+said he was better. Alas! such a better as it always was.
+
+'How well you ought to be!' said Mr. Audley one day at the reiteration,
+'better every day!'
+
+'Yes, and best of all at last!' was the reply, with a sweet smile.
+
+For he was very happy. The partial provision for the four eldest
+children, two by their own exertions, two through friends, had
+evidently been received by him as an earnest of protection and aid
+for the rest, even to the babe whom he scarcely expected ever to
+see in this world. He said it would be ungrateful not to trust, and
+he did trust with all his heart, cheered as it was by the tardy
+cordiality of his cousin, and the indefinable love of kindred that
+was thus gratified. Thomas Underwood poured in good things of
+all kinds on the invalid and his house, fulfilled his promise of
+calling in further advice, and would have franked half the family
+to Torquay--Nice--Madeira--if the doctors had given the slightest
+encouragement. It could be of little ultimate avail; but the wine
+and soup did give support and refreshment bodily, and produced much
+gratitude and thankfulness mentally, besides lightening some of Mrs.
+Underwood's present cares.
+
+No one was more anxious to help than Mr. Ryder; he had been assiduous
+in his inquiries and offers of service ever since the attack at
+Michaelmas; and it was evident that he really venerated the Curate,
+while he was a severe and contemptuous judge of the Rector. But when,
+after a brilliant examination, he became aware that he was to lose
+both the elder Underwoods at once, his mortification was great; he
+came to call, and Mr. Underwood had again to undergo an expostulation
+on Felix's prospects, and an offer of keeping him free of expense.
+The school-fee was a mere trifle, but Mr. Ryder would willingly have
+boarded and lodged the boy himself--for the benefit of his authority,
+as he said, over younger boarders.
+
+'I am afraid,' said Mr. Underwood, kind and grateful as usual, 'that
+there are too many younger boarders here for Felix to be spared. No,
+thank you; I am sincerely obliged to you, but the hard cash is a
+necessary consideration.'
+
+'And you can sacrifice such a boy's prospects--'
+
+'Bread and cheese _must_ be earned, even at the cost of prospects. He
+cannot afford to wait to make his labour skilled.'
+
+'Forgive me, Mr. Underwood, but I cannot think it is right to throw
+away his abilities.'
+
+'You can allow that it is a less wrong than to leave the rest to debt
+or starvation.'
+
+'You should trust--'
+
+'I do trust; but I can do so better when I humble what is nothing
+but pride and vanity in me, after all. I was foolish enough about it
+at first, but I am quite content now that my boy should do his duty,
+without being curious as to where it is to be done.'
+
+'You will tell me a schoolmaster's vanity is concerned; and I allow it
+is, for I looked to your sons to raise the reputation of the school;
+but perhaps it is only put off a little longer. Will you let me have
+Clement or Fulbert, on the terms I proposed for Felix?'
+
+'No, Ryder; with many, many thanks, much feeling of your generous
+kindness--it cannot be.'
+
+'You do not trust me.' This was said with as much indignation as could
+be shown to a man in Mr. Underwood's condition.
+
+'No. Your very kindness would make the tone I regret in you more
+perilous. Do not think Felix ungrateful, Ryder; the desire is mine--and
+remember, it is that of a man who is dying, and who really loves and
+values you greatly. It is that the younger boys should, as soon as may
+be, go to schools where older systems prevail.'
+
+Mr. Ryder was exceedingly mortified, and though he tried hard to
+conceal the full extent of his annoyance, he could not help saying,
+'You know how I respect your motives; but let me say that I doubt your
+finding any place where the ideas you deprecate are not to be found.
+And--pardon me--may not the finding their progress obstructed by your
+scruples, the more indispose your sons to them?'
+
+'I hope not,' said Mr. Underwood, calmly. 'I hope it may show them
+how strong the approach of death makes that faith--nay, rather
+assurance--with which your party are tampering.'
+
+'You are not doing me justice, Mr. Underwood. You know that my faith
+and hope are at the core the same as your own. All our question is what
+outworks are untenable.' Again he spoke hotly, but Mr. Underwood's
+gentleness seemed to silence him.
+
+'And that there should be any such question proves--alas!--the utter
+difference between our belief. Ryder, you are a young man, and as I
+believe and trust verily in earnest; and some day, I think, you will
+understand what faith is. Meantime, your uncertainties are doing more
+mischief than you understand--they pervade all your teaching more than
+you know. I dread what they may do to such as have not your moral
+sense to restrain them and bring them back, as I pray--I hope ever to
+pray--it may be with you. Thank you for all your kindness, actual and
+intended, to my boys.'
+
+Then rising from his chair, while Mr. Ryder remained uncertain how
+to speak, he signed to him to remain still while he sought in his
+book-case and returned with a small old copy of Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy
+Living and Dying;' then sitting down again, wrote the schoolmaster's
+name in it, above his own 'Under-wode, Under-rode' stamp. 'Keep it,
+Ryder! I do not say that you will care for it now, but some day I think
+you will, and if I am allowed to know of it, it will be joy.'
+
+Mr. Ryder could only wring the hand that held it out to him, and with a
+great effort say, 'Thank you.' He saw that Mr. Underwood was too much
+tired to prolong the conversation; but he wrote a note of warm thanks
+that evening, promising to do whatever lay in his power for the boys,
+that their father would not think dangerous for them; and he added,
+that whatever he should for the future think or say, such an example
+as he had now seen was a strong weight on its own side. It was warmly
+and tenderly put, and like everything that befell him, gratified Mr.
+Underwood.
+
+A very happy man he had been, as he sincerely told those who would have
+grieved over him, and not without some remorse.
+
+'Yes,' as he said to Mr. Audley, who watched him like a son, 'it is
+indeed the Lord who hath led me all my life through. I never had a want
+or a care unfulfilled till nine years ago. Then, just as I had become
+sluggish and mechanical in fixed habits of easy country work, came
+this thorough change, break, and rousing. I tell you, I can never be
+thankful enough for the mercy. Not to leave them all provided for, as
+the saying is, would I go back to be such a priest as I was becoming.
+Happy--yes, I have been much happier here, since no choice was left me
+but working up to my strength.'
+
+'And beyond it,' said Mr. Audley, sadly.
+
+'If so--well; so much the better!' he said. 'It is a blessing to be
+allowed to be spent in that service. And for the children, I wish only
+for work and goodness for them--and for that I may well trust my good
+Master.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+TWILIGHT AND DAWN.
+
+     'Two Angels, one of Life and one of Death,
+      Passed o'er the village as the morning broke;
+      The dawn was on their faces; and beneath
+      The sombre houses capped with plumes of smoke.'
+                                             _Longfellow._
+
+
+'Don't, Ful!'
+
+'That's nothing to you, Clem.'
+
+'I say, this won't do. I must have some light.'
+
+'Indeed, Ed, we must not light a candle before five o'clock.'
+
+'Pish!'
+
+'Oh please, Edgar, don't stir the fire. If you knew how few coals there
+are!'
+
+'Stuff!'
+
+'No, I won't have it done if Wilmet says not;' and Felix reared up in
+the gloom, and struggled with his brother.
+
+'Felix--Edgar--Oh, don't.'
+
+'Hsh--sh-- Now you girls are worse than all, screaming in that way.'
+A few moments' silence of shame. It had been a weary, long, wet day,
+a trial under any circumstances to eleven people under seventeen, on
+the 4th of January, and the more oppressive in St. Oswald's Buildings,
+because not only had their father been in a much more suffering state
+for some days past, but their mother, who had hoped to keep up for some
+weeks longer, had for the last two days been quite unlike herself. In
+the sick-room she was as tender and vigilant as ever in her silent
+way, but towards her children a strange fretful impatience had set in,
+almost a jealousy of their coming near their father, and an intolerance
+of the least interruption from them even for the most necessary cause.
+Moreover, the one friend and helper who had never failed them before,
+Mr. Audley, had not been seen since he had looked in before early
+service; and altogether the wretchedness and perplexity of that day
+had been such, that it was no wonder that even Felix and Wilmet had
+scarcely spirits or temper for the only task that seemed at present
+left them, the hindering their juniors from making themselves obnoxious.
+
+'Wilmet, do you think we shall go to the party at Centry Park?'
+reiterated Fulbert.
+
+'Do hold your tongue about that. I don't believe there's the least
+chance,' said Alda fretfully.
+
+'And I don't know how you can think of such a thing,' added Cherry.
+
+'I want to see Cousin Marilda's Christmas tree,' whined Robina.
+
+'Do ask Mamma again,' entreated another voice.
+
+'I shall do no such thing,' said Wilmet, with absolute crossness in her
+tone.
+
+Robina began to cry.
+
+'Come here, Bobbie,' said Cherry's voice in the dark end of the room;
+'I'll tell you a story.'
+
+'I know all Cherry's stories, and they're rubbish,' said Fulbert.
+
+'This is quite a new one. There was once a little match-girl--'
+
+'Bosh! I know that little brute, and I hate her,' broke in Fulbert.
+
+'Hold your tongue,' said Clement; 'but--'
+
+'Oh no, don't let us have the match-girl,' cried several voices.
+
+'Why can't you be good? There was once an old giant that lived in a
+cave--'
+
+'I hate old giants,' said Cherry's critical public; and her voice grew
+melancholy.
+
+'But this one had but one eye. Come, _do_ listen; papa told me. He was
+in an island--' but the voice grew mournful, and was broken by a cry.
+
+'Oh! Fulbert hurt me!'
+
+'Fulbert, for shame! What is it, Angel dear?'
+
+'I only laid hold of her pudding arm,' growled Fulbert. 'Oh! I say,
+Felix, that's too bad!'
+
+'Hold your row, I say,' said Felix, after his application of fist law.
+'Hollo! what's that?' and he sprang to his feet with Angela in his
+arms, as the door was opened by a hand groping, and Mr. Audley's voice
+said, 'Darkness visible.'
+
+There was a general scrambling up all over the floor, and Edgar rushed
+across to light a candle. Wilmet alone had not stirred, as Bernard lay
+asleep across her lap. The flash of the match revealed a mass of light
+disordered heads, and likewise a black figure in the door-way.
+
+'Here is a kind helper for you, Wilmet,' said Mr. Audley, 'from St.
+Faith's, at Dearport. You must call her Sister Constance.'
+
+Wilmet did rise now, in some consternation, lifting her little brother,
+whose hand was still in the locks, the tangling of which had been his
+solace. There was a sweet warm kiss on her brow, and her lost net was
+picked up, her hair coiled into it by a pair of ready tender hands, but
+she faltered, 'Oh, thank you. Does Mamma know?'
+
+'She was there when I got a sort of consent from your father,' said Mr.
+Audley.
+
+'She has not said a word,' said Alda, half resentfully. 'We have hardly
+been in all day except just to fetch and carry.'
+
+'Never mind,' said the Sister, 'it is much better that she did not
+think about it. Now, my dear, don't! I won't have anything done for me.
+You don't know how we Sisters sleep on nothing when we do sleep.'
+
+'But you'll have some tea,' said Alda, the only smooth-haired one of
+the party.
+
+'When you do, perhaps, thank you. Will you come to me, my dear?'
+relieving Felix from Angela. 'What is your name?' and the child, though
+ordinarily very shy, clung to her at once; while she, moving over to
+Cherry, found her in tears, shook up her cushion, arranged her rug,
+and made her comfortable in a moment. A sense came over them all that
+they had among them a head on whom they might rest their cares; and as
+the black bonnet and veil were taken off, and they saw a sweet fair
+motherly face beaming on them from the white plain-bordered cap, they
+gathered round with an outpouring of confidence, small and great, while
+Mr. Audley went upstairs to announce what he had done. He presently
+returned, saying, 'All right! Perhaps you had better come up at once.'
+
+There they sat, on either side of the hearth, he pillowed up and in a
+dressing-gown, more entirely the sick man than he had ever before given
+up himself to be. Mrs. Underwood rose, and with tears in her eyes,
+mutely held out her hand, while her husband at once recognised Sister
+Constance as Lady Herbert Somerville, the wife of the late rector of
+Dearport. He had last met her when, some six or seven years before,
+he had been invited to preach at festivals at Dearport, and had seen
+her the sunbeam of her house. He knew that her husband, who was a
+connection of Mr. Audley's, had since died of the same malady as his
+own, and had left her, a childless widow, together with all else he had
+to leave, to the Sisterhood they had already founded in the seaport
+town. But his greeting was, 'This is _very_ good in you; but surely it
+must be too painful for you.'
+
+'The Superior saw how much I wished it,' she said.
+
+'You are like Alexandrine de la Ferronays,' he said, remembering her
+love for tending a consumptive priest for her husband's sake.
+
+'I am always wishing that I were!' she said.
+
+So they perfectly understood each other; and poor Mrs. Underwood, who
+had, in her new and extraordinary petulance, fiercely resisted the
+doctor's recommendation of a nurse, found herself implicitly relying
+on and trusting Sister Constance with a wonderful sense of relief--a
+relief perhaps still greater to the patient himself, who had silently
+endured more discomforts, and made more exertions than she knew, rather
+than tire her or vex her by employing even son or daughter, and who was
+besides set free from some amount of anxiety.
+
+Indeed the widow had too perfect a sympathy to interfere with the
+wife's only comfort. When it could safely be done, she left the two
+alone together, and applied herself to winning the hearts and soothing
+the spirits of the poor children downstairs, and suggesting and
+compounding new nourishing delicacies.
+
+She even persuaded Mrs. Underwood to go to the next room for a night's
+rest while she sat up, and learnt--what the silent wife had never told
+any one--how trying the nights were even to that spirit! At first the
+patient liked to talk, and drew out much of the hidden treasure of
+her spirit respecting her husband, who, though ailing for years, had
+finally passed away with only the immediate warning of a week--the
+final cause being harass from the difficulties from those above and
+below him that beset an earnest clergyman of his way of thinking.
+
+What struck her, as it did all, was Mr. Underwood's perfect absence of
+all care, and conviction that all the burthen was taken off his hands.
+Her own husband had, as she could not help telling him, found it hard
+to resign himself to leaving his plans half carried out to instruments
+which he had but half formed. He had wished with all his might to
+live, and though he had resigned himself dutifully, it had been with a
+real struggle, and a longing for continued service rather than rest,
+a hope that he should more efficiently serve, and much difficulty in
+refraining from laying all about him under injunctions for the future.
+
+Mr. Underwood half smiled. 'I am neither head nor principal,' he said.
+'Plans have been over long ago. I am only tired out, too tired to think
+about what is to follow. If I live three days longer I shall have just
+had my forty years in the wilderness, and though it has blossomed like
+a rose, I am glad to be near the rest.'
+
+And then he asked for the Midnight Office; and afterwards came
+fitful sleep, half dreamy, half broken by the wanderings of slight
+feverishness and great weakness; but she thought her attendance would
+not be very brief, and agreed mentally with what Mr. Audley had
+told her, that the doctor said that the end might yet be many weeks
+away. When in the dark winter's morning the wife crept back again to
+her post, and all that could be done in those early hours had been
+effected, Sister Constance went to the half-past seven o'clock service
+with Felix and Clement, imparting to them on the road that the Superior
+of St. Faith's was expecting to receive some of the least of the
+children in the course of the day, to remain there for the present.
+
+Both boys declared it would be an infinite relief, but they doubted
+exceedingly whether either father or mother would consent to lose sight
+of them, since the former never failed to see each child, and give it
+a smile and kiss, if no more. If they were to be sent, Felix supposed
+there was no one but himself to take them; nobody with whom they would
+be happy could be spared, nor did he show any repugnance to the notion
+of acting _pere de famille_ to three babies on the railway.
+
+It was quickly settled. Mr. Underwood at once confessed the exceeding
+kindness, and declared it to be much better for everybody. 'Do you not
+feel it so, Mother?'
+
+She bent her head in assent, as she did to all he said.
+
+'Having them back will be good for you,' he added persuasively;
+and again she tried to give a look of response. So they were
+brought--Robina, Angela, and Bernard--and each stood for a moment on
+a chair at his bed-side. The two little ones he merely kissed and
+blessed; but to Robina he said a few more words about being good, and
+minding Mamma and Felix.
+
+'Oh yes, papa! And they'll have a Christmas tree! and I'll save all my
+bon-bons to make your cough well.'
+
+He watched wistfully as the bright heads passed out of sight, and the
+long struggling cough and gasping that followed had all the pangs of
+parting to add to their burthen. Half the family escorted Felix and his
+charge to the station; and in the quiet that followed, Sister Constance
+had a good sleep on Wilmet's bed, as much, she said, as she ever
+required; and she came from it all freshness and brightness, making the
+dinner-time very charming to all the diminished party, though Wilmet
+felt greatly lost without the little ones; and afterwards she earned
+the warmest gratitude from Edgar and Geraldine by looking over their
+drawings and giving them some valuable hints--nay, she even devised
+the new and delightful occupation of ship-building for those three
+inconvenient subjects, Clement, Fulbert, and Lancelot. Upstairs or
+down, all was gentle cheerfulness and patience wherever she went.
+
+Felix came home about five o'clock, and his mother was persuaded
+to go to lie down while he amused his father with the account of
+the children's exemplary behaviour, and of their kind welcome at
+St. Faith's, where he had been kept to dine, feeling, as he said,
+'uncommonly queer' at first, but at last deciding, to the great
+diversion of his father, that the sisters were a set of jolly old
+girls, but not one equal to '_our_ Sister Constance.' Then he had
+seen the church, and was almost bewildered with the beauty of the
+decorations; and Mr. Underwood, though saying little, evidently much
+enjoyed his boy's refreshment and pleasure. He certainly seemed no
+worse, and Mr. Audley was allowed, what he had often asked before, to
+sit up with him.
+
+But there was much to render it a long, anxious, restless night of
+a sort of semi-consciousness, and murmuring talk, as if he fancied
+himself at Vale Leston again. However, when Felix crept in, about four
+o'clock in the morning, anxious at the sounds he heard, he found him
+asleep, and this lasted for two or three hours; he woke refreshed, and
+presently said, 'Epiphany! put back the curtain, that I may see the
+bright and morning star.'
+
+The morning star was shining in the delicate dawn full in view, and he
+looked at it with quiet pleasure. 'Mother,' he said, then recollecting
+himself; 'ah, she is resting! Thank you, Audley.'
+
+At that moment a little cry through the thin wall made him start and
+flush.
+
+'Is it so?' he murmured; 'thank God! That is well!' But his chest
+heaved grievously as he panted with anxiety, and his two watchers
+hesitated what to do, until the door was slightly opened, and before
+the intended sign could be made to Felix, the breathless exclamation,
+'How? what?' brought Sibby's half-scared mournful countenance forward.
+
+'How is she, Sibby? don't fear to say,' he said, more collectedly.
+
+'Nicely, sir, as well as can be expected; but--'
+
+'The baby? Alive--I heard--'
+
+'Yes, sir; that is--O Sir, it is two; and it would be a mere mercy if
+they are taken, as they look like to be--twins, and coming like this!'
+Perhaps Sibby was a little more lamentable, because, instead of looking
+shocked, he clasped his hands in eager thanksgiving, as he looked
+upwards.
+
+Sister Constance followed at the same moment, saying in a far more
+encouraging voice, 'She is doing very well.'
+
+'It is another great mercy,' he said. 'Much better than longer waiting
+on me. Will these Twelfth-day gifts live? Or do I take them with me? At
+least, let me baptize them--now at once,' he spoke earnestly. 'My full
+twelve, and one over, and on Twelfth-day.'
+
+Sister Constance had better hopes of the babes than Sibby, but this
+wish of his was one not to be withstood for a moment; and she went to
+make ready, while Mr. Audley went down for the little Parian font,
+and Felix and Sibby arranged the pillows and coverings. Mr. Underwood
+looked very bright and thankful. 'Birth-day gifts,' he said, 'what are
+they? You have not told me, Sibby.'
+
+'Boy and girl, sir,' she said, 'poor little dears!'
+
+'Jealous for your old twins, Sibby?' he said, smiling.
+
+'Ah! sir, they came in a better time.'
+
+'Better for them, no doubt; but this is the best for these,' he
+answered brightly. 'See, Sibby, can't you be thankful, like me, that
+your mistress is sheltered from what would try her? I can bear it all
+better without her to see.'
+
+Sibby's only reply was a gush of tears, and presently all was made
+ready; Geraldine was quietly helped into the room by Edgar, and placed
+in her usual station by the pillow, and the boys stood against the
+wall, while the two babes, tiny and scarcely animate things, were
+carried, each by one of the elder pair; and the father, as whitely
+robed as if he had been in his surplice, held out his hands, and smiled
+with his kindly lips and clear shining blue eyes full of welcome.
+
+'Has your mother any wishes about names?' he asked. 'Wilmet--what--?'
+
+'No, Papa, I think not;' but her eyes were brimming over with tears,
+and it was plain that something was suppressed.
+
+'My dear, let me hear; I am not to be hurt by such things.'
+
+'It is--it is only--she did say, when we came for them, that we were
+the children of joy--these are the children of sorrow,' murmured
+Wilmet, uttering the words with difficulty.
+
+'I thought so,' he said; then after a brief pause, 'Now, Audley--'
+
+For Mr. Audley said all the previous prayers, though with a voice as
+hard to control as Wilmet's had been. Then Wilmet held her charge close
+to her father, for, almost inappreciable as the weight was, he could
+only venture to lay one arm round that grasshopper burthen, as with his
+long thin fingers he dashed the water. 'Theodore Benjamin, I baptize
+thee.' Alda brought the other. 'Stella Eudora.' Then the two hands were
+folded over his face, and they all knelt round till he moved and smiled.
+
+'Give them to me again,' he said.
+
+It was for the father's kiss and blessing now.
+
+'They look life-like,' he said. 'You will keep them. Now mind me.
+Charge _her_ never to think of them as children of sorrow, but of joy.
+She will remember how nearly you were called Theodore, Felix. Take him
+as God's gift and mine--may he be a son of your right hand to you.'
+
+The boy did take the babe, and with a deep resolve in his heart, that
+his duty to these helpless ones should be his first thought on earth.
+He did not speak it, but his father saw the steadfast wistful gaze, and
+it was enough.
+
+Alda ventured to ask, 'Is Eudora a gift too, Papa?'
+
+'Yes. A happy gift. For so she is! Let her be a little Epiphany Star to
+you all! Tell Mother that I call them a double joy, a double comfort!
+Poor little maid!' and he kissed her again, 'will no one welcome her,
+but the father who is leaving her?'
+
+'O Papa! You know how we will love them,' sobbed Wilmet.
+
+'I think I do, my dear;' and he smoothed the glossy hair; 'but with
+love comes joy, you know.'
+
+'It is very hard now,' broke from the poor girl.
+
+'Very,' he said tenderly; 'but it will if you make the burthen a
+blessing--the cross a crutch--eh, my Cherry? Now, a kiss each, and go,
+I am tired.'
+
+He was tired, but not apparently worse.
+
+Edgar and his three juniors started off directly after church in quest
+of ice where they might behold skating, and practise sliding; and
+Wilmet, with a view to quiet, actually ventured on the extravagance of
+providing them with a shilling, that they might forage for themselves,
+instead of coming home to dinner.
+
+She regretted Edgar's absence, however, for when Mr. Bevan came in to
+hold the Epiphany Feast in the sick chamber, her father asked for Edgar
+and Geraldine, and looked disappointed that the boy was gone. But he
+murmured, 'Maybe it is best!' and when the little girl came in, flushed
+and awe-struck, he took her hand, and said, 'May not I have this little
+one--my last pupil--to share the feast with me? Willing and desirous,'
+he smiled as he held her, and she coloured intensely, with tears in her
+eyes.
+
+There could be no denial, and his judgment at such a moment could only
+be accepted by the Rector; and the child herself durst not say one word
+of her alarm and awe. Papa knew. And never could she forget that he
+held her hand all the time that she leant--for she could not kneel--by
+his bed. Her elder brother and sisters were there too, and he kissed
+and blessed each tenderly afterwards, and Sister Constance too knelt
+and asked his blessing. Then he thanked Mr. Bevan warmly, and called it
+a most true day of brightness. They heard him whispering to himself,
+'Arise, shine, for thy Light is come;' and the peaceful enjoyment
+seemed so to soothe him, that he was not, as usual, eager to get up.
+
+It was only towards the early dusk that a restlessness came on, and an
+increase of the distress and oppression of breath, which he thought
+might be more bearable in his chair; and Mr. Audley, who had just come
+in, began with Felix to dress him, and prepare to move him. But just as
+they were helping him towards the chair, there was a sort of choke, a
+gasping struggle, his head fell on Felix's shoulder, the boy in terror
+managed to stretch out a hand and rang the bell; but in that second
+felt that there was a strange convulsive shudder, and--
+
+'Felix!' Mr. Audley's low voice sounded strange and far away. 'I do
+believe--'
+
+The figure was entirely prone as they lifted it back to the bed. They
+needed not the exclamation of Sibby to reveal the truth. It _was_ only
+an exclamation, it would have been a shriek if Felix had not grasped
+her wrist with a peremptory grasp. But that bell had been enough; there
+had been a sound of dismay in the very tinkle, and Sister Constance was
+in the doorway.
+
+'Felix,' she said, understanding all, 'you must go to her. She
+heard--she is calling you. You cannot conceal it; be as quick and quiet
+as you can,' she added, as the stunned boy went past her, only hearing,
+and that as through a tempest, the feeble voice calling his name. He
+stood by the bed-side; his mother looked into his white face, and held
+out her hands; then as he bent down, clasped both round his neck. 'He
+trusted you,' she said.
+
+He sank on his knees as she relaxed her grasp, and hid her head beneath
+the clothes. A few holy words of commendation of the soul departed
+sounded from the other room; then at Sister Constance's touch of his
+hand, he quitted the room.
+
+Presently after, Felix was sitting in the large arm-chair in the
+dining-room, with his sister Geraldine on his lap, his arms round her,
+her arms tightly clasped round his neck, her hair hanging loosely
+down over his shoulder, her head against him, his face over her, as
+he rocked himself backwards and forwards with her, each straining the
+other closer, as though the mechanical action and motion could allay
+the pain. The table was all over baby-things, which numerous neighbours
+had sent in on the first news of the twins that morning, and which
+the girls had been inspecting; but no one--nothing else was to be
+seen--when Mr. Thomas Underwood, on his way from the station, finding
+his knock unheard, and the door ajar, found his way to the room.
+
+'What is this? How is your father?'
+
+Felix raised his face, still deeply flushed, and rising, placed his
+sister in the chair.
+
+'What, worse! You don't say so,' said Mr. Underwood, advancing.
+
+'He is gone!' said Felix, steadily, but in an unnatural voice. 'Quite
+suddenly. Not very long ago,' he began, but he felt unable to guess for
+what space of time he had been rocking Cherry there.
+
+'Dead! Edward Underwood! Bless me!' said Mr. Underwood, taking off his
+hat, passing his hand over his forehead, and standing horror-struck. 'I
+had no idea! You never sent over to say he was worse.'
+
+'He was not; it came on just now,' said Felix, holding by the
+mantelpiece.
+
+He groaned. 'Poor Edward! Well,' and he was forced to put his
+handkerchief to his eyes. He spoke more gently after that. 'Well, this
+is a sudden thing, but better than lingering on. Your poor mother,
+would she like to see me?'
+
+'She was confined last night.'
+
+'Bless me! bless me! What a state of things! Have you got any one to be
+with you?'
+
+'Yes; a lady from Dearport,' said Felix.
+
+'Humph. Which are you? not _my_ boy?'
+
+'No, I am Felix. Oh, poor Edgar!' he added, still bewildered.
+
+And it was at this moment that trampling steps were heard, making Felix
+spring forward with an instinct to silence them; but at the threshold
+the sight of his face brought conviction to Edgar; and with a loud
+uncontrollable cry, tired and hungry as he was, he seemed to collapse
+into his brother's arms, and fainted away.
+
+'_My_ poor boy!' exclaimed his cousin, coming to Felix's help, and
+himself lifting Edgar to the sofa. Of the other boys, Clement ran for
+water, Fulbert rushed out of sight, and Lancelot laid his head on a
+chair choking with tears.
+
+Felix and Clement were, poor children! used enough to illness to
+attend to their brother with a collectedness that amazed their cousin;
+and without calling for help, Edgar came shuddering and trembling
+to himself, and then burst into silent but agonising sobs, very
+painful to witness. He was always--boy as he was--the most easily
+and entirely overthrown by anything that affected him strongly; and
+Mr. Thomas Underwood was so much struck and touched by his exceeding
+grief, especially now that he looked on him as his own property, that
+after putting in some disjointed sentences of 'There--there--You'll
+always have a father in me--Don't, my boy--I tell you, you are my son
+now,'--which to Felix's mind made it more intolerable, he said, 'I'll
+take him home now--it will be all the better for him and for every one,
+poor lad! So many--'
+
+'The three younger ones were sent to Dearport yesterday,' said Felix;
+'but Edgar--'
+
+'To Dearport! Eh! To whom?'
+
+'The Sisters,' said Felix.
+
+A gruff sound followed. 'Come, come, my dear lad, 'tis bad enough, but
+I'll do my best to make up to you. It will be much the best way for
+you to come out of this,' he added, glancing round the dreary fireless
+room, which his entrance had reminded Felix to darken.
+
+'Thank you,' began Felix, not in the least supposing Edgar could go;
+'but now--'
+
+'It is not like a stranger,' added his relation. 'Be a sensible lad.
+One out of the way is something under the circumstances. Stay--whom can
+I see? I will give orders for you,' he added.
+
+'Mr. Audley and Sister Constance are seeing about things, thank you,'
+said Felix. 'I'll fetch Mr. Audley,' he added, as another trying grunt
+at the other name fell on his ear, and he put his arm round Geraldine,
+and helped her away.
+
+Mr. Audley came, having just parted with the doctor, who had explained
+the sudden termination as what he had of late not thought improbable,
+and further shown that it had been most merciful, since there might
+otherwise have been weeks, if not months, of much severer suffering. He
+had just looked in at the wife, but she had hardly noticed him, and he
+saw no dangerous symptoms about her, except an almost torpid calmness.
+
+Mr. Thomas Underwood saw Mr. Bevan, and made it clearly understood that
+he made himself responsible for all expenses, including mourning for
+the whole family. He even offered to have the funeral at Vale Leston,
+'if it were only to shame Fulbert Underwood;' but the wife was in no
+state to be asked, and the children shrank from the removal, so it was
+decided that Edward Underwood should sleep among those for whom he had
+spent his life, and where his children's lot for the present would be
+cast.
+
+The cousin carried Edgar back to Centry with him; the boy seemed too
+unhappy not to be restless, and as if he were ready to do anything to
+leave his misery behind him.
+
+The others remained with their preparations, and with such consolation
+as the exceeding sympathy and kindness of the whole town could afford
+them. Their mother remained in the same state, except when roused by
+an effort; and then there was an attention and presence of mind about
+her that gave anxiety lest excitement should be bringing feverishness;
+but she always fell back into her usual state of silence, such that it
+could be hardly told whether it were torpid or not.
+
+They looked out that half-finished comment on the Epistle to the
+Philippians. It stopped at the words--'Yea, and if I be offered upon
+the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you
+all.'
+
+Mr. Audley took those words for his text on the Sunday, and, not
+without breaking down more than once, read as much of the comment as
+there was time for, as the happy-hearted message of the late pastor,
+for whom indeed there were many tears shed. It seemed to suit with
+that solemn peace and nobleness that seemed like the 'likeness of the
+Resurrection face,' bringing back all the beauty of his countenance as
+he lay robed in his surplice, with a thorny but bright-fruited cross of
+holly on his breast, when his children looked their last, ere parting
+with what remained of that loved and loving father.
+
+Poor little Geraldine spent that worst hour of her life sitting by her
+mother's bed. She had been helped by Felix to that Feast which had been
+spread for the mourners in the church in early morning; but afterwards
+she was forced to remain at home, while the white-robed choir, the
+brother clergy of all the neighbourhood, and the greater part of the
+parish met their pastor for the last time in the church.
+
+There the first part of the service took place; and then--Cherry could
+just fancy she could hear the dim echo of the _Dies Irae_, as it was
+sung on the way to the cemetery. It was a very aching heart, poor
+child! full of the dull agony of a longing that she knew could never be
+satisfied again, the intense craving for her father.
+
+She missed him more really than any of them, she had been so much his
+companion; and she was the more solitary from the absence of Edgar,
+who had always been her chief partner in her pursuits. His departure
+had seemed like a defection; and yet she had reproached herself for so
+feeling it when he had run upstairs, on arriving with Mr. Underwood,
+looking paler, more scared and miserable, than any of them; and he
+was sobbing so much when he took his place in the procession, that
+Wilmet had made Felix take Alda, that she might support him. None of
+his mother's steady reserve and resolute stillness had descended to
+him, he was all sensibility and nervousness; and Geraldine, though
+without saying this to herself, felt as if 'poor Edgar' might really
+have been nearly killed by the last few days of sadness, he could bear
+depression so little. She could hardly have gone through them but for
+Sister Constance's kindness, and that rocking process from Felix,
+which she and he called 'being his great baby.' And now, when her
+mother looked up at her, held out a hand, and called her Papa's dear
+little Cherry, drawing her to lay her cheek by hers on the pillow,
+there was much soothing in it, though therewith the little girl felt
+a painful doubt and longing to know whether her mother knew what was
+passing; and even while perfectly aware that she must not be talked to
+nor disturbed, was half grieved, half angry, at her dropping off into
+a slumber, and awakening only upon little Stella's behalf. Those few
+words to Geraldine had been the only sign that day of perception of any
+existence in the world save that of the twins.
+
+So the time went by, and the little bustle of return was heard; Sister
+Constance came in, kissed Geraldine, and helped her down that she might
+be with Edgar, who was to return with the cousin, whispering to her
+by the way that it had been very beautiful. It was a day of bright
+sunshine, high wind, and scant sparkling feathery stars of snow, that
+sat for a moment shining in their pure perfectness of regularity on the
+black, and then vanished. 'So like himself,' Sister Constance said.
+
+Geraldine found her four elders and the three little boys all together
+in the dining-room; and while Wilmet anxiously asked after Mother,
+the others, in a sort of sad elation, told of the crowds present,
+the number of clergy--Mr. Ryder, too, came home from his holiday on
+purpose--the sobbing people, and the wreaths of camellias and of holly,
+that loving hands had made, and laid upon the coffin. And then the last
+hymn had been so sweet and beautiful, they all seemed refreshed and
+comforted except Edgar, who, coming fresh back to the desolation of the
+house, was in another paroxysm of grief.
+
+'But, Edgar,' said Alda timidly, 'you like being there, don't you?'
+
+'As if one could like anything now!'
+
+'Well! but, Eddy dear, you know what I mean. It is not bad being there.'
+
+'Not so bad as being at home. Oh!' and a terrible fit of sobbing came
+on, which made the other children stand round rather appalled; while
+Felix, hesitating, said,
+
+'It is no good going on in this way, Edgar. Father would say it was not
+right; and you are upsetting poor little Cherry.'
+
+'It is worse for him, because he has been away,' said Cherry, fondling
+him.
+
+'Yes,' said Edgar between his sobs 'It did not seem _so_ there.'
+
+'And are they kind?'
+
+'Oh, yes. Marilda let me sit in the school-room, and I had books,
+and things to copy; such an angel, Cherry, I'll bring it to you next
+time--my copy, I mean.'
+
+Here there was a summons from the other room for Felix.
+
+'Yes,' said Edgar, a good deal re-invigorated by having something
+to tell; 'I suppose they are going to tell him what is settled. Mr.
+Underwood wrote to the man at Vale Leston, and he won't do anything for
+us; but they are going to try for the Clergy Orphan for one of you two
+little boys.'
+
+'Oh!' there was a great gasp.
+
+'And about me?' asked Alda.
+
+'You are to come when we all go to London--to meet us at the station.
+There's a new governess coming, and you will start both together with
+her; and I think you'll beat Marilda, for she knows nothing, and won't
+learn.'
+
+'I hope she won't be jealous.'
+
+'I don't think it is in her! She's very jolly.'
+
+'But I can't go till Mamma is better.'
+
+Wilmet felt they were falling into a gossiping kind of way that jarred
+on her, and was glad of a summons upstairs.
+
+Mr. Thomas Underwood saw Alda before he returned home, told her she was
+his other daughter, and should join them on their way to London; and he
+further made arrangements about the christening, contingent, of course,
+on the mother's consent, and on the possibility of taking the very
+small delicate babies to the church. He made very extensive promises of
+patronage for the future, with a full and open heart, and looked as if
+he should like to adopt the whole family on the spot.
+
+        For the convenience of our readers we subjoin the first page of
+        the family Bible.
+
+        Edward Fulbert Underwood married August 1st, 1837--Mary Wilmet
+        Underwood.
+
+    Felix Chester  .  .  .  born, July  3rd, 1838.
+    Wilmet Ursula }
+    Alda Mary     }.  .  .    "   Aug. 11th, 1839.
+    Thomas Edgar.  .  .  .    "   Oct. 6th, 1840.
+    Geraldine.  .  .  .  .    "   Oct. 25th, 1841.
+    Edward Clement .  .  .    "   Nov. 23rd, 1842.
+    Fulbert James  .  .  .    "   Jan. 9th, 1844.
+    Lancelot Oswald.  .  .    "   May  16th, 1846.
+    Robina Elizabeth  .  .    "   Feb. 20th, 1848.
+    Angela Margaret.  .  .    "   Sept. 29th, 1851.
+    Bernard  .  .  .  .  .    "   Dec. 1st, 1852.
+    Stella Eudora    }
+    Theodore Benjamin}.  .    "   Jan. 6th, 1854.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WORKING FOR BREAD.
+
+    'Parson's lass 'ant nowt, an' she weant 'a nowt when 'e's dead;
+     Mun be a guvness, lad, or summut, an' addle her bread.'
+                                                   _Tennyson_.
+
+
+'Tell, little one,' said Mr. Rugg, the doctor, as he found Geraldine
+on the landing-place outside her mother's room, and spoke to her in
+a voice that to her reluctant ears, as well as to those of Sister
+Constance, who followed him, sounded all the more vulgar because it was
+low, wheedling, and confidential; 'you are always about the house, you
+know everything--what accident has your mamma met with?'
+
+Cherry's face grew set.
+
+'She has, then,' said the doctor, looking at Sister Constance. 'I
+thought so. Now, be a good child, and tell us all about it.'
+
+'I cannot,' she said.
+
+'Come, don't be silly and sulk. No one will punish you; we know it was
+an accident; out with it.'
+
+'My dear,' said Sister Constance, 'this is a pity. Much may depend on
+your speaking.'
+
+Cherry began to cry very piteously, though still silently.
+
+'Yes, yes, we see you are sorry,' said Mr. Rugg, 'but there's nothing
+for it now but to let us hear the truth.'
+
+She shook her head violently, and brow and neck turned crimson.
+
+Mr. Rugg grew angered, and tried a sharper tone. 'Miss Geraldine, this
+is regular naughtiness. Let me hear directly.'
+
+The flush became purple, and something like 'I won't' came from behind
+the handkerchief.
+
+'Leave her to me, if you please,' said Sister Constance gently; 'I
+think she will tell me what is right to be told.'
+
+'As you please, Lady Somerville,' said Mr. Rugg, who, since he had
+discovered her title, was always barbarously misusing it; 'but the
+thing must be told. It is doing Mrs. Underwood a serious injury to let
+childish naughtiness conceal the truth.'
+
+Constance put her arm round the little girl, a tiny weight for thirteen
+years old, and took her into the room where she had last seen her
+father. She was sobbing violently, not without passion, and the more
+distressingly because she carefully stifled every sound, and the poor
+little frame seemed as if it would be rent to pieces. 'Cherry, dear
+child, don't,' said Constance, sitting down and gathering her into her
+arms; 'do try and calm yourself, and think--'
+
+'He--he--I won't tell him!' sobbed the child. 'He's a bad man--he tells
+stories. He said he would not hurt me--when he knew he should most
+terribly. Papa said it was very wrong. Papa was quite angry--he called
+it deceiving, he did! I won't tell him!'
+
+'My dear child, is there anything to tell? Don't think about him, think
+about what is good for your mother.'
+
+'She told me not,' sobbed Cherry, but not with the anger there had been
+before. 'No, no, don't ask me; she told me not.'
+
+'Your mother? My dear little girl, whatever it is, you ought to say
+it. Your dear mother seems to be too ill and confused to recollect
+everything herself, and if it is not known whether she has been hurt,
+how can anything be done for her?'
+
+Cherry sat upon her friend's lap, and with a very heaving chest said,
+'If Felix says I ought--then I will. Papa said we should mind Felix--
+like him.'
+
+'I will call Felix,' said Sister Constance.
+
+Mr. Rugg looked very impatient of the delay; but Felix, who had just
+come in to dinner, was summoned. He came at once, and was soon standing
+by Geraldine's chair.
+
+'Yes, Geraldine, I think you ought to tell,' he said, as the loyal
+little thing gazed up at her new monarch. 'What did happen?'
+
+'It was on the day after New Year's Day,' said Geraldine, now speaking
+very fast. 'You were all at church, and she came out of--this room
+with Bernard in her arms--and called to me that I might come and sit
+with--him, because she was going down to the kitchen to make some
+beef-tea. And just then she put her foot into a loop of whip-cord, and
+fell. She could not save herself at all, because of Bernard; but she
+went backwards--against the steps.'
+
+'Did she seem hurt at the time?'
+
+'I did not think so. She pulled herself up by the baluster before I
+could get up to help her, and she never let Bernard go all the time--he
+did not even scream. She only said, "Now mind, Cherry, do not say one
+word of this to Papa or anybody else," and she told me she wasn't hurt.
+Oh! was she really?' as the Sister left the room.
+
+'I wonder whose the string was,' said Felix vindictively.
+
+'Oh, never mind! He'll be so sorry! Oh! I hope she won't be very much
+vexed at my telling!'
+
+'She will not mind now!' said Felix; 'it was only not to frighten Papa.'
+
+And Felix had his little sister in that one position where she felt
+a sort of comfort--like a baby in his arms to be rocked--when Sister
+Constance returned with the doctor. He spoke without either the anger
+or the persuasive tone now, and Cherry could bear it better, though she
+slipped off her brother's lap instantly, and stood up in dignity.
+
+'So your Mamma told you to conceal this mishap. That is some excuse.
+Now, tell me, how far did she fall?'
+
+'Not more than four steps, I am sure--I think three.'
+
+'And backwards?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Do you think she struck her head?'
+
+'Yes, the back of it.'
+
+'Ah! And she spoke and moved at once, not like one stunned?'
+
+'Oh no, not at all. She got up and made the beef-tea.'
+
+'The 2nd of January! That must have been about the time you began to
+observe that change of manner--the irritability your sister remarked,'
+said the doctor, turning to Felix.
+
+He nodded, angry as he had been with Alda for remarking it.
+
+All that the doctor further said was, that he must have another
+examination now that he knew a little more about the case; and he went
+away with Sister Constance, saying to her, 'Mrs. Underwood is a lady of
+wonderful fortitude and resolution, and really they are the worst kind
+of patients.'
+
+It was now more than a fortnight since that 6th of January which
+saw the birth of the twins and the death of their father, and Mrs.
+Underwood still lay quiet and almost torpid in her bed, seldom
+speaking, hardly ever originating anything, and apparently taking no
+interest whatsoever in anything outside her room; and yet there was no
+symptom unfavourable to her recovery to be detected. Within the last
+day or two they had tried to rouse her; papers had been brought to her
+to sign, and she did so obediently, but she did not follow the subject:
+she did not refuse, but did not second, any proposal for her beginning
+to sit up; and this was the more remarkable, as, being a woman of much
+health and energy in her quiet way, she had always recovered rapidly,
+and filled her place in the family alarmingly soon. The nurse had begun
+to suspect that besides the torpor of mind there was some weakness of
+limb; and with the new lights acquired, Mr. Rugg had no difficulty in
+coming to the conclusion that there was a slight concussion of the
+spine, causing excitement at first, and now more serious consequences;
+and though he did not apprehend present danger, he thought complete
+recovery very doubtful.
+
+'So they are almost worse than orphans,' said Sister Constance, when
+the Curate went down from reading to the invalid, and she could tell
+him the verdict.
+
+'Do they know?'
+
+'The fact? There is no need to lay the future on the shoulders of the
+present.'
+
+'A very dark present. I feel as if a great bright sun, warming and
+invigorating, had gone out of my life. Yet I knew him but two years.'
+
+'I can understand it, though I knew him but two days.'
+
+'I hope he may have been the making of me,' sighed Mr. Audley. 'He
+ought to be.'
+
+'I think he has been,' said she, smiling. 'There is some difference
+between you and the boyish young deacon that came here two years ago.'
+
+'Who thought life without shooting barely endurable by the help of
+croquet! I trust so! He was very patient and tolerant--made holidays
+for me that first summer which it cuts me to recollect.'
+
+'To live and share in a great sorrow does make a great step in life,'
+said Constance, thoughtfully looking at the much graver and more
+earnest brow of her husband's young cousin; 'and you were a comfort to
+them all as no one else could be.'
+
+'Must you go?' he said. 'I wanted to consult you. I am thinking of
+giving up my present lodgings to this Mowbray Smith, who is coming as
+curate, and coming here.'
+
+'Here! My dear Charles!'
+
+'I thought I had heard legends of twelve foot square?'
+
+'Not with thirteen children. Besides, we were seasoned!'
+
+'Stay; you don't understand. There are three rooms on this floor. Poor
+Mrs. Underwood will hardly want to occupy these two just yet. I take
+them, and put in some furniture--live to myself, but let them board and
+lodge me. They may as well have what is to be made by it as any one
+else.'
+
+'But can they? And, forgive me, Charles, are you prepared for the
+cookery here? Really, some of those children have appetites so small,
+that I can't bear to see them at dinner.'
+
+'That's the very point. They all say the invaluable Sibby is as good a
+nurse as she is bad as a cook. Now, if they have no help, Wilmet _must_
+stay at home to look after her mother and the twins; and that is not
+fit for such a young girl. Now, my coming might enable them to get some
+one who knows the use of meat and fires, and would send upstairs the
+only woman who would undertake such a charge as that must be.'
+
+'I don't like to say a word against it. It seems excellent for them.'
+
+'I would not live with them, but I should be there to help. I could
+keep Felix up in his Latin, and--'
+
+'Only one suggestion more, Charles. If you do not stay here long?'
+
+'Well--if not, every week I am here is so much tided over; and just at
+this time the charge must be heaviest. Those boys may be disposed of
+after a time.'
+
+'I wish we could keep those two little girls at St. Faith's, but there
+is no place yet for children of their class. I am wanted there this
+day week, and I cannot say but that I shall be glad to leave you here.
+Only, I recollect your mother's feelings.'
+
+'Mothers must draw in the horns of their feelings when their sons are
+ordained,' he said, laughing. 'I shall consult that notable person,
+Wilmet.'
+
+Wilmet started and blushed with pleasure. It would be so much less
+dreary; and, poor girl! she was feeling as if she were half rent
+asunder at the thought of Alda's going. So good for Felix, too. Only
+she must ask Mamma. And she did ask Mamma, and, to her great pleasure,
+Mrs. Underwood listened, and said, 'It is very kind.'
+
+'And shall it be, Mamma?'
+
+'I shall like for you to have some one in the house. Yes, my dear, I
+think--' then she paused. 'My dear, you and Sibby and Sister Constance
+had better talk it over. I do not seem able to consider it. But Sister
+Constance will tell you. My dear Wilmet, I am afraid you must have a
+great deal laid on you.'
+
+'Oh, never mind, Mamma; I like doing things. Besides, you are so much
+better.'
+
+'I'll try to help you more,' added Mrs. Underwood wistfully. 'Which
+room did you say?'
+
+And she listened, and even made a few suggestions, as Wilmet explained
+how she thought of making a sitting-room upstairs, and giving the two
+downstairs front ones to Mr. Audley, using the back room for the boys
+and children; she was altogether so much more open to comprehension,
+and ready to speak, that Wilmet was full of hope and assurance that she
+was really mending.
+
+When Sister Constance came in, the readiness to converse continued.
+She consulted her friend on the scheme, and its expedience for Mr.
+Audley, saying that she feared he would be uncomfortable; but she could
+not reject so great a help for her children. She had even thought of
+the advantage of keeping Sibby upstairs to attend on the babies and
+herself--work not fit to rest entirely on Wilmet, though the good girl
+had fully counted on giving up her work at school.
+
+It was evident that the examination by the doctor and Wilmet's
+consultation had thoroughly roused her, and she was as clear-headed
+as ever. Indeed, it seemed to Sister Constance that she was a little
+excited, and in that mood in which the most silent and reserved people
+suddenly become the most unreserved.
+
+She was asked at last what Mr. Rugg thought of her, and Sister
+Constance in reply asked whether she remembered her accident. She
+thought a little. 'Why--yes--I believe I did slip on the stairs; but it
+did not hurt me, and I forgot it. Does he think anything of it?'
+
+'I think he fears you gave yourself a shock.'
+
+'Not unlikely,' she said in an indifferent tone, and did not speak
+again for some minutes; then said, 'Yes, I see! I am thankful it did
+not tell on me sooner,' and her look brought the tears into Constance's
+eyes.
+
+'It told more than you did,' said Constance, endeavouring at a smile.
+
+'Not on the babies,' she said; 'and he never knew it, so there is no
+harm done! Thank God!'
+
+She lay a little longer, and Constance thought her going into her usual
+state of torpor; but she roused herself to say, 'Would you kindly look
+into that desk? You will find a green book.'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Please tear out the leaves, and burn it for me. I would not have one
+of the children see it on any account.'
+
+Constance began to obey, and saw that it was a diary. 'Are you sure it
+ought to be done?' she asked. 'Might it not be better to wait till you
+are better?'
+
+'I cannot tell that I shall be much less helpless. I know how things
+like this go,' she said.
+
+Constance was still reluctant, and Mrs. Underwood added, 'I will tell
+you. It is nothing good, I assure you. When we drove from the door at
+Vale Leston, the home of all our lives, _he_ turned to me and said,
+"Now, Mary, that page is shut for ever. Let us never speak a word to
+make the children or ourselves feel turned out of paradise." And I
+never did; but, oh! I wrote it. There are pages on pages of repinings
+there--I could not let them see it!'
+
+'Nay, but you were resigned.'
+
+'Resigned! What of that? I held my tongue! It was all I could do! I
+never knew things could be worse till I saw it was killing him, and
+then all I could do was still to keep silence.'
+
+There was an agony in her voice that Constance had never heard there
+before.
+
+'Silence was, no doubt--as things were--an exceeding kindness to him,'
+said Constance, 'and one that must have cost you much.'
+
+'Once--once, so tenderly, with tears in his eyes, he did beg me as a
+favour not to complain, or talk of Fulbert Underwood! I did not; but
+I never _could_ be the companion I was before to him. He was always
+happy, he did believe me so; but I could often only smile. If I talked,
+it could only have been of his health and our cares.'
+
+'You kept him happy by taking the weight so entirely to yourself.'
+
+'Perhaps; if he had only known how miserable it made me, we might have
+moved to a healthier place; but after that one time, I never could vex
+him or trust myself. To hear him console me and grieve for me, was
+worst of all.'
+
+Constance began to see how the whole woman, brought up to affluence,
+had been suddenly crushed by the change; and almost the more so for
+her husband's high and cheerful resolution, which had forced back
+her feelings into herself. Her powers had barely sufficed for the
+cares of her household and her numerous family, and her endurance had
+consisted in 'suffering, and being still.' No murmur had escaped, but
+only by force of silence. She had not weakened his energies by word
+or look of repining; but while his physical life was worn out by toil
+and hardship, her mental life had almost been extinguished in care,
+drudgery, and self-control; and all his sweetness, tenderness, and
+cheerfulness had not been able to do more than just to enable her to
+hold out, without manifesting her suffering. Enid had been a very
+suitable name for her; though without a Geraint in any respect to blame
+for what she underwent, she had borne all in the same silent and almost
+hopeless spirit, and with the same unfailing calm temper: but outside
+her own house, she had never loved nor taken real interest in anything
+since the day she drove from the door of Vale Leston; she had merely
+forced herself to seem to do so, rather than disappoint her eager
+husband and children.
+
+And now, how much of her torpor had been collapse, how much the effect
+of the accident, could not be guessed. She herself was greatly roused
+for the present, dwelt on the necessity of trying to get up the next
+day, and was altogether in a state excitable enough to make the Sister
+anxious.
+
+Other troubles too there were that evening, which made all feel that
+even though Mr. Audley was to live to himself, his presence in the
+house would be no small comfort.
+
+Fulbert, never the most manageable of the party, had procured a piece
+of wood from the good-natured carpenter, and was making a sparrow-trap
+on an improved plan, when Wilmet, impatient to have the room clear
+for Mr. Audley to come for the final decision--as he was to do in the
+evening--anxious to clear away the intolerable litter, and with more
+anxiety for Fulbert's holiday task than for the sparrows, ordered him
+to bed--ten minutes too early, and in too peremptory a tone.
+
+Fulbert did not stir.
+
+'Fulbert, I say, clear up that litter, and go to bed.'
+
+'Don't you hear, Fulbert?' said Felix, looking up from his book.
+
+Fulbert gave a pull to the newspaper that was spread under his works on
+the table, and sent all his chips and saw-dust on the ground.
+
+'O Fulbert! how naughty!' broke out Alda.
+
+'Fulbert, are you going to mind?' asked Wilmet. 'Please remember.'
+
+'I shall go in proper time,' growled Fulbert.
+
+'That is not the way to speak to your sister,' interposed Felix, with
+authority.
+
+Fulbert eyed him defiantly all over.
+
+Felix rose up from his chair, full of wrath and indignation. There
+was quite difference enough in their size and strength to give him
+the complete mastery, for Fulbert was only ten years old; but Wilmet,
+dreading nothing so much as a scuffle and outcry, sprang up, imploring,
+'O Felix! remember, Mamma is wide awake to-night. Let him alone--pray,
+let him alone.'
+
+Felix was thoroughly angry, and kept his hands off with exceeding
+difficulty. 'Little sneak,' he said; 'he chooses to take advantage.'
+
+'He always was a sneak; his nose is the shape of it,' said Edgar.
+
+As Felix and Wilmet had the sense to let this amiable observation drop,
+Edgar contented himself with making some physiognomical outlines of
+sneaks' noses on a slate; and silence prevailed till the church clock
+struck the half-hour, when Clement got up, and taking the slate, where
+he had been solacing himself with imitating Edgar's caricatures, he was
+about to make it an impromptu dust-pan, and went down on his knees to
+sweep up Fulbert's malicious litter, but was rewarded with a vicious
+kick on the cheek. It was under the table, out of sight; and Clement,
+like a true son of his mother, made no sign, but went off to bed like a
+Spartan.
+
+'Fulbert,' said Lance, rising to follow his example, 'it is time now.'
+
+He still sat on; and Felix, in intolerable wrath and vexation, found
+himself making such deep bites into a pencil, that he threw it from him
+with shame, just as Mr. Audley's bell sounded, and he ran down to let
+him in.
+
+'Now, Ful,' said Wilmet coaxingly, 'please go--or Mr. Audley will see.'
+
+'Let him.'
+
+Mr. Audley was there in a moment, and the next, Alda, in all the ruffle
+of offended dignity, was telling him that Fulbert was in one of his
+tempers, and would attend to nobody. Fulbert's back looked it. It
+evidently intended to remain in that obstinate curve till midnight.
+
+'I am sorry,' said Mr. Audley, 'I thought no one would have added to
+the distress of the house! What is it, Fulbert?' he added, laying his
+hand on his shoulder, and signing to Alda to hold her peace.
+
+'They bother,' said Fulbert, in the sulky tone; but still, as he
+regarded the new-comer as less of an enemy than the rest--'I'd have
+gone at half-past eight if they would let a fellow alone.'
+
+'Then the fellow had better give them no right to bother,' said
+Mr. Audley. 'Come, Fulbert, no ship can sail unless the crew obey.
+No mutiny. Here's your captain ready to shake hands and wish you
+good-night.'
+
+Fulbert could not face Mr. Audley's determined look, but he was not
+conquered. He took up his tools and his trap, gave a final puff to
+spread his sawdust farther, and marched off without a single good-night.
+
+'He has the worst temper of us all,' cried Alda.
+
+'You should be very cautious of provoking him,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+'I am afraid it was my fault,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'Nonsense,' said Felix; 'he is an obstinate little dog. I wish I was
+licking him. I hope he is not pitching into Clem!'
+
+'Clem is the biggest,' said Alda.
+
+'Yes, but he is much the meekest,' added Wilmet.
+
+'Tina's meek sauce is aggravation, itself,' observed Edgar. 'I should
+hope he was catching it!'
+
+'He is certainly not slow to put in his oar,' said Mr. Audley; 'did you
+hear of his performance in the vestry the other day?'
+
+'No. I hope he did not make an unusual ass of himself,' said Felix.
+
+'He and Mowbray Smith had last Tuesday's Evensong nearly to themselves,
+when Master Clem not only assisted Smith in putting on his hood, but
+expressed his doubts as to the correctness of it (never, of course,
+having seen any bachelor's but Oxford or Cambridge), and further gave
+him some good advice as to his manner of intoning.'
+
+'I hope he won't go on in that way at St. Matthew's!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'It is lucky he is going so soon,' said Mr. Audley. 'I doubt if Mowbray
+Smith will ever get over it!'
+
+'Regular snob that he is,' said Edgar; 'just one of my Lady's sort!
+What did he do? Go crying to her?'
+
+'O Edgar!' remonstrated Wilmet.
+
+'Well, Mettie, if even our spiritual pastors will be snobs, one must
+have the relief of expressing one's opinion now and then.'
+
+'I should say it was better to keep any such fact out of one's mind as
+much as might be,' said Mr. Audley, feeling himself unable to deny what
+had been so broadly expressed.
+
+'And we, at any rate, had better drop talking of snobs,' said Felix.
+
+'Hollo, Felix! I am sure you for one would not be a snob if you had
+turned chimney-sweeper, and let Tom Underwood nail me to his office;
+he'll never make one of me!'
+
+'I trust so,' said Felix; 'but it is not the way to keep from it to
+throw about the word at other folks.'
+
+'What's that?' cried Alda. 'Really, that boy must be falling upon some
+of them.'
+
+It was Lance, in great deshabille, who, opening a crack of the door,
+called cautiously, 'Wilmet, please come here.'
+
+Wilmet hastily obeyed, saying anxiously, as the door was shut, 'Never
+mind, dear Lance, he's in a horrid mood; but do bear it, and not make
+Felix more in a rage.'
+
+'Bosh about Ful,' said Lance unceremoniously. 'It is Cherry; she is
+crying so upstairs, and Clem and I can't get a word out of her.'
+
+Cherry, though older than the boys, had to precede them in vanishing
+for the night, as her undressing was a long operation dependent
+upon Sibby. Wilmet ran up in haste, and did indeed find poor little
+Geraldine with her face smothered under the clothes in an agony of
+weeping, very serious for so frail a little creature.
+
+'Cherry! Cherry, dear, don't! Are you feeling solitary? Are you missing
+_him?_ Oh, don't! Yes, dear, 'tis so sad; but we all do love you so.'
+
+Wilmet would have kissed and fondled her, but the child almost thrust
+her away.
+
+'Not that. Oh, not that! I wish it was.'
+
+'My dear Cherry, you can't have been naughty!'
+
+'Yes, yes! indeed I have. And now--'
+
+'I can't think--O Cherry, if you would only tell me what you mean!'
+cried Wilmet, aghast.
+
+And with agonised sobs, Cherry whispered, 'Mr. Rugg--O Mettie--such
+things as I said about him to Sister Constance--I made sure I had
+forgiven--long ago--and now--now, after _that_.'
+
+If Wilmet had not known how deeply both Geraldine and her father had
+resented what Mr. Rugg had meant as a little friendly gloss to save
+terror before a painful operation, she would have been utterly at a
+loss. And now, she found herself incapable by any argument or caress of
+soothing her sister's sense of heinous offence; for that rite, of which
+she had partaken with her father, had required charity with all men,
+and now she found she had been deceitful--she hated Mr. Rugg all the
+time. Oh, what should she do! how could she be so wicked!
+
+Wilmet tried to tell her that she had not known how it was at the time,
+but this seemed no comfort; and it was plain that that day's solemnity
+had lessened the inequality between the two girls so much, that for
+Wilmet to console her as a child was vain; and indeed, her invalid
+state and constant companionship with her father had rendered her
+religious feeling much more excitable, and more developed, than were as
+yet Wilmet's; and meantime, this piteous sobbing and weeping was doing
+great bodily harm.
+
+Wilmet at last, hearing a door open as if the nurse were taking Sister
+Constance's place, ran down to take counsel with that kind friend on
+the way. She whispered her trouble on the stairs, and the Sister was
+soon kneeling over the little bed; but her comfort was not persuading
+the child to think less of the fault, but promising that she should
+tell all to Mr. Audley to-morrow.
+
+Nay, seeing that even this was too long hence for the 'weary soul, and
+burdened sore,' to look forward to--indeed, that the preparation for
+the interview would be sleep-destroying--she said, 'Then you shall see
+him at once, my dear.'
+
+Wilmet opened her eyes in dismay. That little attic, bare of all but
+beds, was her thought; but Sister Constance, ever an effective woman,
+had the little black frock, the shoes and stockings, on in no time, and
+throwing a shawl over all, actually gathered the small light frame up
+into her arms, and carried her down to the fire in the room now vacated
+by the nurses and babies. And there she fetched Mr. Audley to her. 'It
+will not do,' she whispered on the way to Wilmet, 'to treat her as a
+child _now_.'
+
+'He always made so much of her,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'Yes; and now she is a Communicant.'
+
+They left her to Mr. Audley, and presently, when the door opened
+again, it was he who was carrying her upstairs again; and when Sister
+Constance had taken possession of her, she whispered, 'Yes, thank you.
+He says I may come on Sunday, and I think it is forgiven. I shall say
+a prayer about charity always now!' And with a deep sigh, the worn-out
+little penitent lay down to her sleep.
+
+'O Mr. Audley, it is plain we cannot do without you,' sighed Wilmet, as
+she came down, not without tears in her eyes.
+
+And then came the conference upon ways and means, rooms and attendance.
+Mr. Audley had parted with his horse and groom in the autumn, observing
+that they ate their heads off; and the terms he now proposed for
+lodging, board, and attendance were what Felix and Wilmet would have
+known to be wondrously liberal but for their inexperience, especially
+as he meant to send in some, at least, of the furniture. He was to have
+his meals, at his own times, in his sitting-room; and Sister Constance
+had a person in her eye at Dearport, who was likely to do well in the
+kitchen, and not quarrel with Sibby.
+
+Wilmet had made up her mind that she must remain at home all day, and
+had even told Miss Pearson so; but that good lady had refused to accept
+her resignation, and had come to Mr. Bevan about it; and now both the
+Sister and the Curate united in telling her that she ought not, as long
+as it was possible, to give up this means of improving herself, as well
+as lessening the family burthen. To give up her education now would be
+to sink into a housewifely drudge, who would hardly be able to maintain
+herself when the younger ones would be getting out into the world; and
+as Geraldine must stay at home to be a companion to her mother, there
+was no need for her being also always in attendance, while Sibby was
+equal to the charge. Indeed, Mrs. Underwood herself had said something
+that showed her to contemplate Wilmet's remaining at school.
+
+'You must,' said Felix decidedly. 'Why, you might as well turn
+nursery-girl at once.'
+
+'I should like it,' said Wilmet. 'I shall be miserable at
+school--always thinking something is going wrong. And Cherry can never
+bear with the babies! Oh! please don't tell me I must.'
+
+'I tell you to begin,' said Sister Constance. 'You can always give it
+up if you feel that the need lies at home; but I think the few hours'
+change every day--for duty's sake, mind--will give you vigour not to be
+worn down by the home cares.'
+
+'But Cherry will have them always! She who cares for books and drawing
+so much more than I!'
+
+'Yes; but if you go on learning, you can teach her,' said Sister
+Constance.
+
+'Oh!' cried Wilmet; 'Cherry knows more than I do.'
+
+'Little Cherry is the cleverest of us all,' added Felix.
+
+'Still,' said the Sister, 'the mere going over your work with you
+will give her change and interest. I do feel strongly convinced, dear
+Wilmet, that to shut yourself up with her, without gathering anything
+from elsewhere, would be very bad for both.'
+
+'We must see how Mamma is, and how Cherry gets on,' was all that Wilmet
+would say, but the arrangement was made, and was to take effect in ten
+days' time, when Mr. Mowbray Smith was coming to be second curate, and
+Sister Constance must change places with the three absent children, and
+Alda would be gone to her adopted home.
+
+Then Mr. Audley took leave; and as Felix went to the front door with
+him, he said, 'Forgive me, Felix; but I am a younger brother myself,
+and I do hope you do not mean to assert your authority by licking.'
+
+Felix coloured a little; and though he spoke respectfully, it was with
+some little annoyance. 'There is nothing else that does with Fulbert.'
+
+'Stay, Felix; I am not questioning that he may be the sort of boy for
+whom flogging may be good from some one.'
+
+'He is!' said Felix. 'He never will behave himself till he has felt his
+master! It has been so at school; and once, even my father made himself
+quite ill for a week with having to flog Fulbert for disobedience. It
+settled him; but he is not like the others--Clem and Lance are not any
+trouble; but--I know it will come to it sooner or later; Ful will never
+mind me or Wilmet till I have done it once.'
+
+'And when his strength is equal to yours?'
+
+'Then I hope he will have more sense.'
+
+'Yes, Felix; but what if by forcing him into dogged submission by your
+bodily strength you have lost his confidence, and have no moral power
+over him? Things that can be borne from a father come very differently
+from a brother.'
+
+Felix was quite crimson now. 'But what shall I do, Mr. Audley, when he
+defies Wilmet, and teases Cherry and the little ones?'
+
+'Try all you can with his better sense, but don't anger him by tones of
+authority. What you think needful rule may seem to him domineering. And
+if necessary, call me. My blows will not leave the after rankling that
+yours will, even if they are necessary.'
+
+Felix sighed. He was not desirous of beating his brother in the main;
+but being unhappily master of the house, he was unwilling not to be so
+entirely. He wished Mr. Audley good-night, not in his most perfectly
+cordial tone.
+
+However, the next morning he had brought himself to thank Mr. Audley.
+
+'Thank you, Felix,' said the Curate; 'it is a great relief to me. I was
+afraid you thought you were going to bring a meddling fellow in upon
+you.'
+
+Felix coloured, and with an effort--for which Mr. Audley liked him the
+better--said, 'I know I shall always deserve what advice you give me,
+and I hope another time I may take it better than the last.'
+
+Soon after, one train carried away four of the young Underwoods to
+begin life elsewhere. The Thomas Underwoods had desired that Alda and
+Edgar should meet them at the station, and at Felix's entreaty had
+also undertaken to convoy Clement, who, thanks to Mr. Audley, was
+to be a chorister, and live in the clergy-house at St. Matthew's,
+Whittingtonia. It would have been Fulbert, only unluckily he had
+no ear, and so he was left at home, while Lady Price, Mrs. Thomas
+Underwood, and all the ladies they could enlist in their service,
+canvassed desperately, and made the cards of 'Fulbert James and
+Lancelot Oswald, sons of the Rev. Edward Fulbert Underwood, THIRTEEN
+children,' a weariness to every friend of a subscriber to clergy-orphan
+schools. Robina was not quite old enough to stand for the like
+election; but Sister Constance had negotiated with a lady who had
+devoted herself to educating children of better birth than means, and
+the little girl was to be dropped at the nearest station to her school
+at Catsacre. It had all been settled in a wonderfully short time, by
+Sister Constance and Mr. Audley, with full though helpless acquiescence
+from Mrs. Underwood. They felt it well to lessen the crowd of children
+in the house, and the responsibilities of the elder ones, and acted at
+once.
+
+As to Alda, she was too miserable at home not to be ready to follow
+Edgar, though she had at first implored to stay and help Wilmet till
+their mother was about again; but the Thomas Underwoods were unwilling
+to consent to this--and after all, Alda was more apt to cry than to
+be of much real use. Sister Constance saw that she was only another
+weight on her sister's hands, and that, terrible as the wrench would be
+between the twins, Wilmet would be freer when it was once over. Poor
+Wilmet! she had felt as if she could hardly have lived over these weeks
+save for fondling the younger twins, and waiting on her mother. She was
+almost passive, and ran up and downstairs, or prepared the wardrobes
+of the departing children, just as she was bidden, all in one quiet
+maze of grief. The tears seemed to be always in her eyes, very often
+dropping, and yet they never hindered her, and she never uttered a word
+of deprecation or complaint; only she could not eat, and a kiss would
+bring down a whole shower; and at night, the two sisters would hold
+each other tight, and cry and kiss themselves to sleep.
+
+So had come the last day--the last for all four. Robina, who had only
+just come back from St. Faith's, was grave, puzzled, and awestruck,
+clinging chiefly to Lancelot, and exchanging confidences in corners
+with him, in which they were probably much less childish than they
+showed themselves to the outer world. Clement was very grave and
+unhappy; but seemed to be most distressed at parting with Harry Lamb,
+a favourite school-fellow of his own quiet stamp, with whom he spent
+all available time. Alda and Wilmet were hand in hand at every possible
+moment, and if possible cheek to cheek--each felt as if herself was cut
+in two.
+
+Then Edgar, who had only come home for that farewell Sunday, had
+another of his paroxysms of sorrow at the changes at home, which he
+contrived to forget when at Centry. All that was becoming in a manner
+usual to the others was a shock to him, and he was so very miserable
+the whole day, that he treated every attempt of the others to cheer
+him as a mere token of their hardness of heart. He went in to see his
+mother, and was so overcome at finding her no better, that he rushed
+away, and threw himself on a sofa as if he was going to faint; and when
+at church he saw his father's place filled up he fell into such a fit
+of sobbing, that half-a-dozen smelling-bottles were handed across the
+seats.
+
+However, he had recovered himself on Monday morning, and made it his
+particular request that nobody would come bothering to the station,
+to make them look like Fulbert's canvassing-card of the thirteen
+children--and as the mention of it always affronted Fulbert deeply, it
+was plain that _he_ would be no good company. However, Felix had been
+allowed an hour from his business for that very purpose, and he simply
+said, 'Nonsense, Edgar, I shall take Robin down.' Wilmet submitted,
+though with a great pang. She had no assurance that she should not
+break down, and a crying match at the station--oh no! It might make
+Bobbie roar all the way.
+
+So Alda clung round her neck and Geraldine's in their own little
+parlour, and wished her mother good-bye, scarcely knowing whether it
+were with a full understanding how many were parted from the wing that
+now seemed unable to shelter them; and then Wilmet went up and quietly
+lay down by her mother on her bed, feeling as if there was nothing she
+cared for in all life, and as if youth, hope, and happiness were gone
+away from her for ever, and she were as much widowed as her mother. She
+was even past crying--she could do nothing but lie still. But then her
+mother's hand came out and stroked her; and presently one of the babies
+cried, and Wilmet was walking up and down the room with it, and all
+activity with her outward senses, though her heart felt dead. Meantime,
+the luggage went in the omnibus, the four children walked up together
+only escorted by Felix, and were passed on their way by the prancing
+and thundering carriage from Centry.
+
+But the sense of usefulness that came gave strength and energy to Felix
+and Wilmet Underwood as the first excitement passed away, and they
+better understood their tasks.
+
+Of the absent ones they heard good accounts. Alda was altogether one
+with her cousin's family, and seemed to be completely on an equality
+with Marilda; and Edgar had been sent by Thomas Underwood to acquire
+modern languages under the care of an Englishman who took private
+pupils at Louvaine, whence Edgar despatched most amusing letters and
+clever sketches. Clement was in great favour, both musically and
+morally, at St. Matthew's; and little Robina was reported to have
+bewailed her home with floods of nightly tears, but to have soon
+settled down into the bonnie little pet of the elder girls.
+
+Except for the separation, the cloud had hardly fallen on these, but
+their departure had made a great hole in the hitherto unbroken family;
+and while Felix and Wilmet, by the loss of their contemporaries, seemed
+placed at a point far away from the others, Geraldine was conscious of
+much loneliness. The twins had always consorted together, and regarded
+her as a mere child, and her chief companions had been her father and
+Edgar, so that she seemed left at an equal distance both from the elder
+and younger party.
+
+Then the world around her was so busy, and she could do so little. She
+slept in a little inner room beyond the large nursery, where Wilmet
+kept guard over Angela and Bernard; and long before six o'clock, she
+always heard the call pass between the eldest brother and sister; and
+knew that as soon as he was dressed, Felix--it must out--was cleaning
+the family boots, including those of the lodger, who probably supposed
+that nature did it, and never knew how much his young landlord had done
+before joining him in his early walk to St. Oswald's.
+
+Meantime Wilmet conducted the toilette of the two little children, and
+gave the assistance that Cherry needed, as well as discharging some of
+the lighter tasks of the housemaid; leaving the heavier ones to Sibby
+and Martha, a stout, willing, strong young woman, whom Sister Constance
+had happily found for them, and who was disqualified, by a loutish
+manner and horrible squint, from the places to which her capabilities
+might have raised her.
+
+Then Wilmet helped her sister downstairs, and a visit was paid to the
+mother and the twins, who were Sibby's charge for the night. Mrs.
+Underwood was still in the same state. It was indeed possible to
+rouse her, but at the expense of much suffering and excitement; and
+in general, she was merely tender, placid, and content, mechanically
+busied about her babies, and responding to what was said, but entirely
+incapable of any exertion of body, and as inactive in mind as in limb.
+Wilmet attended to her while Sibby went to her breakfast, returning
+with that of her mistress in time to send Wilmet down to preside at
+the family meal, a genuine Irish dish of stir-about--for which all had
+inherited a taste from their father's Irish mother. Only Cherry was too
+delicate for such food, and was rather ashamed of her cup of tea and
+slice of bread.
+
+However, this was one of the few times when she could hope she was
+useful; for when Felix was gone to the printing-office, the boys to
+the grammar-school, and Wilmet, first to the kitchen, and then to Miss
+Pearson's, she remained with bowl and cloth to wash up in her own
+peculiarly slow and dainty way, never breaking but always dreaming,
+while Angela carried them one by one, first to her, then to the kitchen.
+
+'Now Cherry.'
+
+Mr. Audley's door opened, he would step forward and take the well-worn
+books in one hand, and hold the doors open with the other as Cherry
+tardily hopped in, and perched herself by the table. Her confirmation
+studies had been left in his charge; and then followed a little Greek,
+some Latin, a page or two of French, the revision of an exercise, and
+some help in Euclid and fractions--all studies begun with her father,
+and both congenial and useful to her, as the occupation that (next
+to drawing) best prevented her from feeling the dreary loneliness of
+her days; for though he could seldom give her more than an hour, the
+preparation--after he had helped her upstairs--occupied her during the
+whole period of tranquillity while the younger children slept. Angela
+appeared first, and did some small lessons, cat-and-dog readings, and
+easy hymns, then was generally content to sit on the floor in Mamma's
+room, admiring or amusing the twins. Then Cherry, according to her
+sense of duty, drew or worked. There was a horrible never-ending
+still-beginning basket of mending in the family, which Wilmet
+replenished every Saturday; and though Mrs. Underwood's instinct for
+piecing and darning had revived as soon as she was taken out of bed,
+her work now always needed a certain revision to secure the boys from
+the catastrophe of which Wilmet often dreamt--appearing in public in
+ragged shirt-sleeves! Geraldine knew that every stitch she left undone
+would have to be put in by her sister in late evening or early morning,
+and therefore often wrenched herself from the pencil and paints that
+best beguiled her thoughts from the heart-ache for her father, and the
+craving for Edgar, or the mere craving for light, air, liberty, and
+usefulness. Her only excuse to her own conscience for allowing herself
+her chief pleasure was, that it was her way of helping an old woman
+who kept a stall of small wares on market days, and could sometimes
+dispose of little pictures on domestic and Scriptural subjects, if
+highly coloured, glazed with gum, and bound with bright paper--pickings
+and stealings, as Felix called them, gleaned from advertisements and
+packing-boxes at Mr. Froggatt's; but these did not allow much scope for
+the dreams of her fancy.
+
+Nor had she much choice when Bernard once awoke and came down, in all
+the unreasoning tyranny of two years old, when it was an even chance
+whether he would peaceably look at the old scrap-book, play with
+Angela, or visit Mamma; or be uproarious, and either coalesce with
+Angela in daring mischief, fight a battle-royal with her, or be violent
+with and jealous of the twins. The urchin had found out that when once
+Cherry's crutch was out of her reach she could not get at him; and he
+had ridden off upon it so often, before committing any of his worst
+misdemeanours, that Cherry always lay down on it to secure it. After
+all, he was a fine, affectionate, impetuous little fellow, but with a
+very high, proud, unmanageable will; and she was very fond and proud of
+him; but never more so than when he slept till dinner-time.
+
+That was the hour which brought Felix home to help Sibby to carry his
+mother into the sitting-room, pay a little court to the babies, and
+enliven Cherry with any chance scrap of news or occupation. Best of all
+were the proofs of that unfinished comment on the Epistle to Philippi,
+which was being printed by subscription of the congregation, and the
+clergy of the diocese. It always did Mrs. Underwood good to have these
+read aloud to her by her little daughter, and _she_ could sometimes
+find a clue to the understanding of sentences that had puzzled even Mr.
+Audley.
+
+The two school-boys never appeared till dinner was imminent; and
+then--one unuttered wish of poor Cherry was that Mr. Audley could have
+dined with them; but he kept to his own hours, and they were late.
+
+Whereby dinners on five days of the week were apt to be something on
+this fashion. Bell-ringing--Felix helping Geraldine to her seat, Angela
+trotting after; a large dish of broth, with meat and rice, and another
+of mashed potato; no sign of the boys; Angela lisping Grace; Sibby
+waiting with a tray.
+
+Felix filled a soup-plate for his mother, and a basin for Bernard. 'We
+must begin, I suppose,' and he helped his sisters and himself.
+
+'Here, Angel, push over your plate; I'll cut that.--How did you get on
+to-day?'
+
+'Very well; the only mistake I made I found out before Smith saw it. I
+know all the stationery and steel pens apart now, and haven't made a
+mistake for a week. Yesterday Bartlett junior came in, he stood like
+a post before Mr. Froggatt till he caught sight of me, and then he
+shouted out, "O Blunderbore, you know! What is it that Collis wants?"'
+
+'And did you?'
+
+'When he said it was a horrid sum-book all little a's and b's.--What
+have you been doing, Cherry?'
+
+'I have begun an abstract of the first Punic--'
+
+The door flew open with a bounce, and two hot, wild-locked boys, dust
+everywhere except in their merry blue eyes, burst in, and tumbled
+on their chairs. 'I say--isn't it a horrid sell? we ain't to have a
+holiday for Squire's wedding.--Come, Fee, give us some grub.'
+
+'You have not said Grace,' said Cherry.
+
+Lance, abashed, stood up and bowed; Fulbert looked grim, and mumbled
+something.
+
+'You have not washed your hands,' added Felix.
+
+'Bosh! What's the good?' said Fulbert.
+
+'They'll be as jolly dirty again directly,' said Lance.
+
+'But you would be more decent company in the meantime,' said Felix.
+
+At that moment there was a splash in his plate, a skip-jack made of the
+breast-bone of a chicken had alighted there with a leap.
+
+'There's Felix's master come after him,' cried Fulbert, and Lance went
+off into choking laughter.
+
+'Boys, how can you?' broke out Cherry.
+
+'Look at Blunderbore fishing out his master!' was Fulbert's answer.
+
+     'The frog is in the bog,
+      And Felix is squeamish,'
+
+chanted Lance.
+
+'Bad rhyme, Lance,' said Felix, who could bear these things much better
+from the younger than the elder. Indeed, he scarcely durst notice them
+in Fulbert, lest he should be betrayed into violence by letting out his
+temper.
+
+'I say!' cried Lance, struck by a new idea, 'what prime stuff it is
+for making a fort!' and he began to scrape the more solid parts of his
+plateful to one side.
+
+'Oh, I say, isn't it?' echoed Fulbert: 'but I've eaten up the best part
+of my castle;' and he grasped at the ladle.
+
+'No, I thank you,' said Felix, putting it on the other side. 'While I
+am here, you don't play tricks with that.'
+
+Fulbert swallowed a spoonful in a passion, but a bright thought struck
+Lance, who always cared much more for fun than for food. '_I say_,
+we'll empty it all into one, and eat it down.'
+
+'You horrid boys!' plaintively exclaimed Cherry, almost crying--for
+this return to savage life was perfect misery to her. 'I can't bear it.'
+
+'I will not have Cherry tormented,' said Felix, beginning to be very
+irate.
+
+'We ain't doing anything to Cherry,' said Lance, amazed.
+
+'Don't you know it spoils Cherry's appetite to see you so disgusting?'
+
+'Then she'll have the more next time,' said Fulbert. 'Get along,
+Captain--you've splashed my face!'
+
+'Hurrah! the red-hot shot! The rice is the cannon-balls! Where's some
+bread?'
+
+'O Lance!' entreated Cherry; 'no waste--think of Wilmet and the bills.'
+
+'We'll eat it every bit up,' asseverated Lance; but Fulbert growled,
+'If you bother any more, I shall crumble the whole lot out at window.'
+
+'It is wicked to waste bread,' lisped Angela, and Martha at that moment
+appeared to fetch the tureen for the kitchen dinner.
+
+'Can't you eat any more, Cherry?' asked Felix gloomily.
+
+'Not a bit, thank you,' she said.
+
+'We've not done!' shouted the boys, seizing on her scarcely-tasted and
+half-cold plate.
+
+'You must finish after. Come, Cherry!' Then, as they left the room, and
+she laid her head on his shoulder--'Little ruffians!' he said under his
+breath.
+
+'Oh, never mind, Felix. I don't--at least I ought not to mind--they
+don't mean it.'
+
+'Lance does not, but I think Fulbert does. He'll make me thrash him
+within two inches of his life, before he has done. And then there's no
+one to take me in hand for it. It is horridly bad for them, too, to
+live just like young bears.'
+
+But he smoothed his brow as he came into the room where his mother was,
+and amused her till his time was up.
+
+Mr. Froggatt had explained to his father long ago, that Felix's work
+would not be that of a clerk in a great publishing house, but veritably
+that belonging to the country bookseller and printer, and that he must
+go through all the details, so as to be thoroughly conversant with
+them. The morning's work was at the printing-house, the afternoon's
+at the shop. The mechanical drudgery and intense accuracy needed in
+the first were wearisome enough; and moreover, he had to make his way
+with a crusty old foreman who was incredulous of any young gentleman's
+capabilities, and hard of being convinced that he would or could be
+useful; but old Smith's contempt was far less disagreeable to him
+than the subdued dislike he met with from Redstone, the assistant in
+the shop, a sharp, half-educated young man, who had aspired to the
+very post of confidence for which Felix was training--and being far
+less aware of his own utter unfitness for it than was Mr. Froggatt,
+regarded the lad as an interloper; and though he durst not treat him
+with incivility, was anxious to expose any deficiency or failure on
+his part. Having a good deal of quickness and dexterity, he could
+act as a reporter, draw up articles of a certain description for the
+newspaper, and had, since the death of Mr. Froggatt's eldest son, been
+absolutely necessary to him in carrying on the business; and now, it
+was a matter of delicate discretion on the master's part to avoid
+hurting the feelings of the assistant, whom a little more would have
+made his tyrant, and a dread of the appearance of favouritism made
+it needful to keep Felix thoroughly in a subordinate post, till real
+superiority of mind and education should assert itself over elder years
+and mere familiarity with detail. This reserved ill-will of Redstone's
+had much increased the natural discomfort of appearing behind the
+counter to former acquaintance, and had rendered the learning the
+duties there doubly troublesome and confusing; though, in recalling the
+day's doings, there was some amusement in contrasting the behaviour of
+different people, some--of whom Mr. Ryder was the type--speaking to
+him freely in his own person, others leaving him as an unrecognized
+shop-boy; and a third favouring him with a horrid little furtive nod,
+which he liked least of all. But though awkward and embarrassed at
+first, use soon hardened him, and made the customers indifferent, so
+that by the spring he had begun to be useful, and to feel no particular
+excitement about it.
+
+The worst of his business was that it kept him so late, that he had
+but a very short evening, and no time for exercise. He was on his feet
+most of the day, but indoors, and his recreation chiefly consisted
+in choir-practice twice a week. Not that he missed more positive
+amusement; the cares of life and Edgar's departure seemed to have taken
+the boyish element of frolic out of him; and left him gravely cheerful
+indeed, but with no greater desire of entertainment than could find
+vent in home conversation, or playing with the little ones.
+
+Wilmet and the two boys were at liberty full two hours before him. The
+latter generally stayed out as long as light and hunger permitted.
+Mr. Audley continually stumbled on them playing at marbles, racing
+headlong in teams of pack-thread harness with their fellows, upsetting
+the nerves of quiet folk--staring contentedly at such shows as required
+no outlay, or discontentedly at the outside of those that demanded the
+pennies they never had. They were thorough little street-boys; and all
+that he could do for them was to enforce their coming in at reasonable
+hours, and, much to their sister's relief, cause their daily lessons to
+be prepared in his room. Otherwise their places in their classes would
+have been much less creditable.
+
+Wilmet's return was always Geraldine's great relief, for the afternoon
+of trying to amuse her mother, and keep the peace between the children,
+was almost more than she was equal to; though, on fine days, Sibby
+always took out the two elder babies, with an alternate twin, for an
+hour's air, and Mr. Audley daily visited the invalid. Mr. Bevan did so
+twice a week, with a gentle sympathising tone and manner that was more
+beneficial than Lady Price's occasional endeavours to make her 'rouse
+herself.' Miss Pearson and a few humbler friends now and then looked
+in, but Mrs. Underwood had been little known. With so large a family,
+and such straitened means, the part of the active clergyman's wife was
+impossible to her; she had shrunk from society, and most people knew
+nothing more of her than that the faded lady-like figure they used to
+see among her little flock at church, was Mrs. Underwood.
+
+Wilmet's coming home was always a comfort; and though to her it was
+running from toil to care, the change was life to her. To have been
+either only the teacher or only the housewife might have weighed over
+heavily on her; but the two tasks together seemed to lighten each
+other. She had a real taste and talent for teaching, and she and
+her little class were devoted to one another, while the elder girls
+loved her much better since Alda had been away. The being with them,
+and sharing their recreation in the middle of the day, was no doubt
+the best thing to hinder her from becoming worn by the depressing
+atmosphere around her mother. She always brought home spirits and
+vigour for whatever lay before her, brightening her mother's face,
+dispelling squabbles between Angela and Bernard, and taking a load of
+care from Geraldine.
+
+There was sure to be some anecdote to enliven the home-keepers, or some
+question to ask Cherry, whose grammar and arithmetic stood on firmer
+foundations than any at Miss Pearson's, and who was always pleased to
+help Wilmet. The evening hours were the happiest of the day, only they
+always ended too soon for Cherry, who was ordered up by Sibby as soon
+as her mother was put to bed, and had, in consequence, a weary length
+of wakeful solitude and darkness--only enlivened by the reflection from
+the gas below--while Felix and Wilmet sat downstairs, she with her
+mending, and he either reading, or talking to her.
+
+On Saturday, which she always spent at home, and in very active
+employment in the capacities of nurse, housemaid, or even a slight
+taste of the cook and laundress, the evening topic was always the
+accounts--the two young heads anxiously casting the balance--proud and
+pleased if there were even a shilling below the mark, but serious and
+sad under such a communication as, 'There's mutton gone up another
+half-penny;' or, 'Wilmet, I really am afraid those boots of mine cannot
+be mended again;' or again, 'See what Lance has managed to do to this
+jacket. If one only could send boys to school in sacking!'
+
+'Are not there a few pence to spare for the chair for Cherry? She will
+certainly get ill, if she never goes out now spring is coming on.'
+
+'Indeed, Felix, I don't know how! If there is a penny over, it is
+wanted towards shoes for Bernard; and Cherry begs me, with tears in her
+eyes, not to let her be an expense!'
+
+Poor Geraldine! the costing anything, and the sense of uselessness,
+were becoming, by the help of her nightly wakefulness, a most terrible
+oppression on her spirits. Her father was right. His room had been a
+hot-bed to a naturally sensitive and precocious character, and the
+change that had come over her as time carried her farther and farther
+away from him, affected her more and more.
+
+Her brother and sister, busy all day, and scarcely ever at home, hardly
+knew what was becoming a sore perplexity to Mr. Audley.
+
+A young tutor, not yet twenty-six, could not exactly tell what to do
+with a girl not fourteen, who fell into floods of tears on the smallest
+excuse.
+
+'No, no, Cherry--that is not the nominative.'
+
+The voice faltered, struggled to go on, and melted away behind the
+handkerchief. Then--'O Mr. Audley, I am so sorry--'
+
+'That's exactly what I don't want you to be, Cherry.'
+
+'Oh, but it was so careless,' and there was another flood.
+
+Or, 'Don't you see, Cherry, you should not have put the negative sign
+to that equation. My dear Cherry, what have I said?'
+
+'Oh, oh--nothing. Only I did think--'
+
+'We shall have you a perfect Niobe, if you go on at this rate, Cherry.
+Really, we must not have these lessons, if they excite you so much.'
+
+'Oh! that would be the worst punishment of all!' and the weeping
+became so piteously violent, that the Curate looked on in distressed
+helplessness.
+
+'I know it is very tiresome of me; I would help it, if I could--indeed
+I would.' And she cried the more because she _had_ cried.
+
+Or, as he came in from the town, he would hear ominous sounds, that his
+kind heart would not let him neglect, and would find Cherry sitting on
+the landing-place in a paroxysm of weeping. She always crept out of her
+mother's room on these occasions, for the sight of tears distressed
+and excited Mrs. Underwood; and the poor child, quite unable, in her
+hysterical condition, to drag herself alone up that steep stair,
+had no alternative but to sit, on what Mr. Audley called her stool
+of repentance, outside the door, till she had sobbed herself into
+exhaustion and calm--or till either Sibby scolded her, or he heard her
+confession.
+
+She had been 'so cross' to Bernard, or to Angel--or, once or twice,
+even to Mamma. She had made an impatient answer when interrupted in her
+lessons or in a dream over a drawing; she had been reluctant to exert
+herself when wanted. She had scolded fretfully--or snatched things away
+angrily, when the little ones were troublesome; and every offence of
+this sort was bewailed with an anguish of tears; that, by weakening her
+spirits and temper, really rendered the recurrence more frequent. 'The
+one thing they trust to me, I fail in!'
+
+He was very kind to her. He did not yield to the mannish loathing
+for girlish tears that began to seize on him, after the first two or
+three occasions. He thought and studied--tried comfort, and fancied it
+relaxed her--tried rebuke, and that made it worse; tried the showing
+her Francois de Sales' admirable counsel to Philothee, to be '_doux
+envers soi_,' and saw she appreciated and admired it; but she was not
+an atom more _douce envers soi_ when she had next spoken peevishly.
+
+At last he fairly set off by the train, to lay the case before Sister
+Constance.
+
+'What is to be done, when a child never does anything but cry?'
+
+Sister Constance listened to the symptoms, and promptly answered, 'Give
+her a glass of port wine every day, before you let her out of your
+room.'
+
+'If I can!'
+
+'Tell her they are _my_ orders. Does she eat?'
+
+'I imagine not. I heard Felix reproaching her with a ghoul's dinner of
+a grain of rice.'
+
+'Does she sleep?'
+
+'She has told me a great deal of midnight meditation on her own
+deficiencies.'
+
+'She must be taken out of doors somehow or other! It is of no use to
+reason with her; the tears are not temper, or anything else! Poor
+Charlie! it is an odd capacity for you to come out in, but I suppose no
+one else can attend to her.'
+
+'No, poor child, she is rather worse than motherless! Well--I will find
+some excuse for taking her out for a drive now and then; I don't know
+how to speak to the others about having the chair for her, for they are
+barely scraping on.'
+
+'Poor children! Well, this year is probably the worst. Either they will
+get their heads above water, or there will be a crisis. But they _do_
+scrape?'
+
+'Yes. At Lady-day there was great jubilation, for the rent was paid,
+the taxes were ready, there was not a debt; and there was seven-pence
+over, with which Felix wanted to give Cherry a drive; but Wilmet, who
+is horribly prudent, insisted that it must go to mend Fulbert's broken
+window.'
+
+'Well--poor Wilmet! one can't blame her. How does she treat Cherry's
+tears?'
+
+'I don't think she has much pity for them. Felix does much better
+with Cherry; he rocks her and pets her; though, indeed, she hardly
+ever breaks down when he is there; but even his Sundays are a good
+deal taken up--and I always hunt him out for a walk on the Sunday
+afternoons.'
+
+'Is he still in the choir and teaching at the Sunday school?'
+
+'Yes--though it is not Mowbray Smith's fault.'
+
+'What, is your colleague what you apprehended?'
+
+'My Lady could not have found a curate more to her mind, or more imbued
+with her dislike to all that bears the name of Underwood. I own it
+is hard to have one's predecessor flung constantly in one's teeth,
+and by the very people who were the greatest thorns to dear Underwood
+himself. Then Clem, who _is_ a born prig, though a very good boy, gave
+some of his little interfering bits of advice before he went away, and
+it has all been set down to Felix's account! One Sunday, Smith made a
+complaint of Felix having the biggest boys in the school. It was the
+consequence of his having taken them whenever his father could not,
+till it came to his having them entirely. He always took great pains
+with them, and there was a fellow-feeling between him and them that
+could hardly be with an older person. I said all this--too strongly,
+most likely--and the Rector put in a mild word, as to his goodness in
+coming at all. Smith thought there was nothing wonderful in liking what
+ministered to his conceit; and at last it came out that a baker's boy
+had met Felix and Smith consecutively in the street, and only touched
+his hat to one, and that the wrong one.'
+
+'I should have been only thankful that he touched his hat to anybody.'
+
+'That is the very remark by which I put my foot in it; but my Lady was
+horrified, and the consequence was, that it fell to me to advise Felix
+to resign the class. I never hated a piece of work so much in my life,
+for he had worked the lads well, and we both knew that there would be
+an end of them. Moreover, Felix has some of the true Briton about him,
+and he stood out--would give up the class if the Rector ordered him,
+but would relinquish Sunday-school altogether in that case; and the two
+girls were furious; but, after one Sunday, he came to me, said that
+he found hostility poisoned his teaching, gave up, and accepted the
+younger ones.'
+
+'Of course the boys deserted.'
+
+'Which has not softened Smith, though it has made him tolerate Felix
+in the choir. His voice is of very little use at present; but he is
+such an influence, that we should be glad of him if he could not sing a
+note, and he clings to it with all his heart. I believe music is about
+the only pleasure he has, and it excites his mother too much to have
+any at home. We have little Lance in the choir now, with a voice like a
+thrush in a dewy morning.'
+
+Mr. Audley acted on the port-wine prescription, to the horror and
+dismay of Cherry, who only submitted with any shadow of philosophy on
+being told that the more she cried the more necessary she rendered it;
+but on the Saturday, Sister Constance suddenly knocked at Mr. Audley's
+door. She had been talking the matter over with the Superior; and the
+result was, that she had set off on a mission to see for herself, and
+if she thought it expedient, to bring Geraldine back with her. She
+had chosen Saturday as the time for seeing Wilmet, and was prepared
+to overlook that the stairs were a Lodore of soap, this being Sibby's
+cleaning day, while Wilmet kept guard over the mother and the twins.
+
+Geraldine was in the sitting-room, writing a Latin exercise, with a
+great pucker in her forehead whenever Angela looked up from her wooden
+bricks to speak to her. And though the sharp little pinched face was
+all one beam of joy as the visitor came in, Sister Constance saw at
+once that the child's health had deteriorated in these last months.
+She sat down, and with Angela on her lap, questioned anxiously. Cherry
+had no complaints--she always was like this in the spring. How was her
+foot? As usual, a falter. Was it _really?_ Well, yes, she thought so.
+And then, as the motherly eyes looked into hers, there came a burst of
+the ready tears; and 'Oh, _please_ don't talk about it--_please_ don't
+ask.'
+
+'I know what you are afraid of,' said Sister Constance, remembering her
+horror of the Bexley medical attendant, 'but is it right to conceal
+this, my dear child?'
+
+'I don't think I do,' said Cherry pitifully. 'You know Sibby _does_ it
+every night, and it only aches a little more now. And if they did find
+it out, then they would have _him_, and there would be a doctor's bill,
+and, oh! that would be dreadful!'
+
+Sister Constance saw that the question of right or wrong would be
+infinitely too much for Geraldine, and drew off her mind from it to
+tell of the good accounts of Robina from Catsacre, and Clement from
+Whittingtonia; but when presently Wilmet was so far free as to come in
+with _only_ the boy-baby in her arms, and take the guest up to take off
+her bonnet, it was the time for entering on the subject.
+
+'Cherry? do you think her looking ill? She always is poorly in the
+spring, you know.'
+
+'I do not like what I hear of her appetite, or her sleep, or her
+spirits.'
+
+'Oh! but Cherry is always fanciful, you know. Please, please don't put
+things in her head.'
+
+'What kind of things do you mean?'
+
+'Fancying herself worse, I mean, or wanting things. You know we must be
+so careful, and Mamma and the babies--'
+
+'My dear, I know you have many to care for, and it is hard to strike
+the balance; but somehow your voice sounds to me as if Geraldine were
+the one you most willingly set aside.'
+
+Wilmet did not like this, and said, a little bit hastily, 'I am sure
+Geraldine has everything we can give her. If she complains, it is very
+wrong of her.'
+
+'She has not said one word of complaint. Her grief and fear is only of
+being a burden on you. What brought me here was, that Mr. Audley was
+anxious about her.'
+
+Wilmet was silent, a little abashed.
+
+'Did you know that her ankle is painful again?'
+
+'Sister Constance,' said Wilmet, 'I don't think you or Mr. Audley know
+how soon Cherry fancies all sorts of things. She does get into whiny
+states, and is regularly tiresome; and the more you notice her, the
+worse she is. I know Mamma thought so.'
+
+'My dear, a mother can venture on wholesome neglect when a sister's
+neglect is not wholesome. I am not accusing you of neglect, mind; only
+you want experience and sympathy to judge of a thing with a frame like
+Cherry's. Now, I will tell you what I want to do. I am come to take her
+back with me, and get her treated by our kind doctor for a month or so,
+and the sea air and rest will send her back, most likely, in a much
+more cheery state.'
+
+'Indeed!' cried Wilmet, startled; 'it is very good, but how could we do
+without her? Mamma and the children! If she could only wait till the
+holidays.'
+
+'Let her only hear you say that, Wilmet, and it will do her more good
+than anything.'
+
+'What--that she is of use? Poor little thing, she tries to be; but if
+Marilda could have had her way, and taken her instead of Alda, it would
+have been much better for her and all. Ah! there's Felix. May I call
+him in?'
+
+Felix, dashing up to wash his hands, smooth his hair, and dress himself
+for the reading-room work instead of the printing-office, had much
+rather these operations had been performed before he was called to the
+consultation in the nursery; but he agreed instantly and solicitously,
+knowing much better than Wilmet what the dinners were to Cherry, and
+talking of her much more tenderly.
+
+'Yes, poor little dear, she always breaks down more or less in the
+spring; but I thought she would mend when we could get her out more,'
+he said. 'Do you think her really so unwell, Sister Constance?'
+
+'Oh, no, no!' cried Wilmet, fearfully.
+
+'Not very unwell, but only so that I long to put her under our good
+doctor, who comes to any one in our house, and who is such a fatherly
+old gentleman, that she would not go through the misery the thought of
+Mr. Rugg seems to cause her.'
+
+'Dr. Lee?' asked Felix. 'Tom Underwood sent him to see my father once.
+I remember my father liked him, but called it waste for himself, only
+longed for his opinion on Cherry. Thank you, I am sure it is the
+greatest kindness.'
+
+'But, Felix, how can she before the holidays?' cried Wilmet.
+
+'Well, Mamma does not want her before dinner; and as to the kids, why
+can't you take Angel to school with you? Oh, yes, Miss Pearson will let
+you. Then Mr. Audley, or Mr. Bevan, is always up in the afternoon, and
+you come home by four.'
+
+'Perhaps I could earlier on days when the girls go out walking,' said
+Wilmet. 'If it is to do Cherry good, I don't like to prevent it.'
+
+Wilmet had evidently got all her household into their niches, and the
+disarrangement puzzled her. A wonderful girl she was to contrive as she
+did, and carry out her rule; but Sister Constance feared that a little
+dryness might be growing on her in consequence, and that, like many
+maidens of fifteen or sixteen, while she was devoted to the little, she
+was impatient of the intermediate.
+
+So when they went down, and Cherry heard of the scheme, and implored
+against it in nervous fear of leaving home and dread of new faces,
+Wilmet, having made up her practical mind that the going was necessary,
+only made light of that value at home which was Cherry's one comfort,
+and which made herself feel it so hard to part with her, that this very
+want of tact was all unselfishness.
+
+Felix was much more comfortable to Cherry when he made playful faces
+at the bear-garden that the dining-room would become without her,
+and showed plainly that he at least would miss her dreadfully. Still
+she nourished a hope that Mamma would say she should not go; but
+Mamma always submitted to the decrees of authority, and Wilmet and
+Felix were her authorities now. Sister Constance felt no misgiving
+lest Wilmet were hardening, when she heard the sweet discretion and
+cheerful tenderness with which she propounded the arrangement to the
+sick mother, without giving her the worry of decision, yet still
+deferentially enough to keep her in her place as the head of the family.
+
+Yet it was with unnecessarily bracing severity that Wilmet observed
+to Geraldine, 'Now, don't you go crying, and asking questions, and
+worrying Mamma.'
+
+'I suppose no person can be everything at once, far less a girl of
+fifteen,' thought Sister Constance, as she drove up to the station in
+the omnibus with Cherry, who was too miserable and bewildered to cry
+now; not that she was afraid of either the Sister or the Sisterhood,
+but only because she had never left home in her life, and felt exactly
+like a callow nestling shoved out on the ground with a broken wing.
+
+In two months more the omnibus was setting her down again, much nearer
+plumpness, with a brighter face and stronger spirits. She had been very
+full of enjoyment at St. Faith's. She had the visitor's room, with
+delightful sacred prints and photographs, and a window looking out on
+the sea--a sight enough to fascinate her for hours. She had been out
+every fine day on the shore; she had sat in the pleasant community-room
+with the kind Sisters, who talked to her as a woman, not a baby; she
+had plenty of books; one of the Sisters had given her daily drawing
+lessons, and another had read Tasso with her; she had been to the
+lovely oratory constantly, and to the beautiful church on Sunday, and
+had helped to make the wreaths for the great May holidays; she had made
+many new friends, and among them the doctor, who, if he had hurt her,
+had never deceived her, and had really made her more comfortable than
+she had ever been for the last five years, putting her in the way of
+such self-management as might very possibly avert some of that dreadful
+liability to be cross.
+
+But with all this, and all her gratitude, Geraldine's longing had been
+for home. She was very happy, and it was doing her a great deal of
+good; but Mamma, and Felix, and Wilmet, and Sibby, and the babies, were
+tugging at her heart, and would not let it go out from them. She was
+always dreaming that Felix's heels were coming through his stockings,
+that Mamma was calling and nobody coming, or that Bernard was cutting
+off the heads of the twins with the blunt scissors. And when Dr. Lee's
+course of treatment was over, and Felix had a holiday to come and fetch
+her home, it is not easy to say which was happiest. For she was so glad
+to be at home amid the dear faces, troubling and troublous as they
+often were, and so comfortable in the old wheel-ruts of care and toil,
+that it really seemed as if a new epoch of joy had begun. Felix openly
+professed how sorely he had missed her, and she clung to his arm with
+exulting mutual delight; but it was almost more triumphant pleasure to
+be embraced by Wilmet with the words: 'Dear, dear Cherry, there you are
+at last. You can't think how we have all wanted you! I never knew how
+useful you are.'
+
+'I suppose,' said Felix quaintly, 'the world would rather miss its
+axis, and yet that does not move.'
+
+'Yes, it does,' said Cherry, 'it wobbles. I suppose Wilmet says
+rotates, just about as much as I am going to do now I have got back
+into my own dear sphere again.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE CACIQUE.
+
+     'Devouring flames resistless glow,
+      And blazing rafters downward go,
+      And never halloo, "Heads below!"
+      Nor notice give at all.'
+                 _Rejected Addresses._
+
+
+It was a warm night in September, and Wilmet had laid herself down in
+bed in her nursery with a careful, but not an oppressed heart. About
+many matters she was happier than before. Her mother had revived in
+some degree, could walk from her bed-room to the sitting-room, and
+took more interest in what was passing; and this the hopeful spirits
+of the children interpreted into signs of recovery. Geraldine's health
+and spirits had evidently taken a start for the better. Fulbert,
+too, was off her mind--safe gone to a clergy orphan foundation; and
+though Lancelot had not yet been elected, owing, Mr. Audley imagined,
+to Lady Price's talk about their fine friends, Wilmet could not be
+sorry, he was such a little fellow, and the house would be so dull
+without his unfailing merriment and oddities. And though there had
+been sore disappointment that Mrs. Thomas Underwood had chosen to go
+to Brighton instead of coming home, there was the promise of a visit
+from Alda before Christmas to feed upon. Little Robina had come home
+for the summer holidays, well, happy, and improved, and crying only in
+a satisfactory way on returning to school. Moreover, Wilmet's finances
+had been pleasantly increased by an unexpected present of five pounds
+at the end of the half year from Miss Pearson, and the promise of the
+like for the next; increasing as her usefulness increased; and she
+was also allowed to bring Angela to school with her. The balance of
+accounts at Midsummer had been satisfactory, and Felix had proudly
+pronounced her to be a brick of a housekeeper. And thus altogether
+Wilmet did not feel that the weight of care was so heavy and hopeless
+as when it first descended upon her; and she went to bed as usual,
+feeling how true her father's words of encouragement and hope had been,
+how kind friends were, how dear a brother Felix was, and above all,
+how there is verily a Father of the fatherless. And so she fell fast
+asleep, but was ere long waked by a voice from the inner room where
+Cherry slept with the door open.
+
+'Wilmet, Wilmet, what is it?'
+
+Then she saw that the room was aglow with red light from the window,
+and heard a loud distant hubbub. Hurrying out of bed, she flew to the
+window of Cherry's room, and drew up the blind. 'O Wilmet, is it fire?'
+
+'Yes,' low and awe-struck, said Wilmet. 'Not here. No. There's nothing
+to be frightened at Cherry. It is out--out there. I think it must be
+the Fortinbras Arms. Oh, what a sight!'
+
+'It is dreadful!' said Cherry, shrinking trembling to the foot of her
+little bed, whence she could see the window. 'How plain one can see
+everything in the room! Oh! the terrible red glow in the windows! I
+wonder if all the people are safe. Wilmet, do call Felix.'
+
+'I will,' said Wilmet, proceeding in search of her clothes; but her
+hands shook so that she could hardly put them on. They longed for Felix
+as a protection, and yet Cherry could hardly bear to let her sister go
+out of sight.
+
+'I only hope Mamma does not hear,' said Wilmet.
+
+'How lucky her room looks out the other way! but, oh! Wilmet, don't
+fires spread?'
+
+'Felix and Mr. Audley will see about us in time, if there is any fear
+of that,' said Wilmet, trembling a good deal as she wrapped a shawl
+round Cherry, who sat in a heap on her bed, gazing fascinated at the
+red sky and roofs. Felix slept at the back of the house; her knock did
+not waken him, but her entrance startled both him and Lance.
+
+'Felix, the Fortinbras Arms is on fire.--Hush, Lance; take care; the
+little ones and Mamma! O Felix, do come to our room.'
+
+They followed her there in a few seconds, but they had only glanced
+from the window before they simultaneously rushed away, to the
+increased dismay of their sisters, to whom their manly instinct of
+rushing into the fray had not occurred.
+
+'I'll go down. I'll try to catch them,' said Wilmet; and she too was
+gone before Cherry could call to her. She found that Felix and Mr.
+Audley were in the act of undoing the front door, and this gave her
+just time to fly down with the entreaty that Felix would not leave
+them. It was a great deal more to ask of him than she knew.
+
+'To the end of the street I must go, Wilmet,' he said.
+
+'Oh! but Cherry is so frightened! and if Mamma wakes,' she said,
+gasping.
+
+'It is all quiet in her room,' said Felix.
+
+'Tell Cherry there is no danger at all here _now_,' said Mr. Audley;
+'but if it makes her happier you may dress her. Don't disturb your
+mother. If needful, we will carry her out in her bed; but I do not
+think it will be.'
+
+'We can only see out in the street,' added Felix, opening the door as
+he spoke; and that moment out flew Lance, before anybody had thought of
+stopping him, and the necessity of pursuing the little fellow into the
+throng, and keeping him out of danger, made both Felix and Mr. Audley
+dash after him; while Wilmet, abashed at the men hurrying by, could
+not even gaze from the door, but fled upstairs in terror lest the two
+little ones should be awake and crying at the appalling red light and
+the din, which seemed to her one continuous roar of 'Fire! fire!'
+
+To her great relief, they were still asleep, but Cherry was in a
+chilled agony of trembling prayer for the 'poor people,' and the
+sisters crouched up together shivering in each other's arms as
+they watched the rush of flames streaming up into the sky over the
+brew-house opposite to them.
+
+Presently Wilmet heard feet again downstairs. 'Cherry dear, I must go
+down, they may want me. Indeed, I don't think there is real danger as
+long as that brew-house is safe.'
+
+There was a scuffle of feet that frightened her very much. She
+remembered it last Michaelmas when her father was brought home from
+church, and as she stood on the stairs--one choking petition in her
+heart, 'Let it not be Felix!' she saw that the figure, whatever it was,
+was carried by Mr. Audley and a strange man. And so great a horror
+came over her, that, regardless of her toilette, and the hair that had
+fallen over the jacket on her shoulders, she dropped at once among them
+as they were bearing the senseless form into Mr. Audley's bed-room,
+with a low but piteous cry, 'Felix! Felix! oh, what has happened?'
+
+'It is not Felix, my dear,' said Mr. Audley; 'he is safe--he is gone
+for the doctor. This poor boy has fallen from a window. You can help
+us, Wilmet; call Martha, and get some water made hot. The fire is
+getting under.'
+
+Wilmet needed no second hint. She was up, reassuring Cherry at one
+moment; then breaking into Martha's heavy slumbers, impressing upon her
+the necessity of not shrieking; then downstairs again, reviving the
+dying kitchen fire, and finding that, as usual, there was some water
+not yet cold. For, as she now saw, it was not yet one o'clock. She
+durst not go to her mother's room, where ready means of heating food
+were always to be found. As she brought the jug to the door, Felix came
+in with Mr. Rugg, who, living in a street out of sight, and having ears
+for no sound but his own night-bell, had been ready at once to obey the
+call. Felix told his sister the little he knew.
+
+'It was a terrible sight. Just as we got to that one big window--a
+passage one, I believe, which looks out into this street--we saw this
+poor boy and a black man up on the sill, with all the glare of light
+behind them, screaming out for help.'
+
+'But where was everybody?'
+
+'In the High Street, round the corner. Crowds there; and here in our
+street only ourselves and a few men that hurried up after us. Mr.
+Audley shouted to them that we would get a ladder, but whether they
+could not hold on any more, or they thought we were going quite away--O
+Wilmet! I didn't see; but there was the most horrible thump and crash
+on the pavement.'
+
+'What! down from that window?'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, leaning against the wall, and looking very pale.
+'And there was that good black man, he had got the boy in his arms, as
+if he had wound himself round to keep him from harm.'
+
+'Oh! And he?'
+
+'Killed--quite killed. Don't ask me about it, Wilmet. It is much too
+dreadful to hear of;' and he shuddered all over. 'But this boy's head
+was safe at least, and as there seemed no one to attend to anything,
+Mr. Audley said he would bring him here, and I went for Mr. Rugg.'
+
+'And where's Lance? Did he go with you?'
+
+'Lance! Is not he in? I never saw or thought of him, I must go and
+seek for him,' exclaimed Felix, darting off in haste and alarm at the
+thought of little nine-year-old Lance alone among the midnight crowd,
+just as Mr. Audley opened the door to try to find a messenger to Mr.
+Rugg's surgery. He paused to tell Wilmet that it was a lad about
+Felix's age, moaning some word that sounded like Diego, and with a
+broken leg and ribs; and then, as Martha was in attendance, she felt
+herself obliged to return to Cherry, whom indeed she could not leave
+again, for though the fire had sunk, and only thick clouds of smoke
+showed the play of the engines, the effects of the terror were not
+so quickly over in the tender little frame, which was in a quivering
+hysterical state, so deadly cold, that Wilmet was frightened, and went
+once more down to warm some flannel, and get some hot drink for her.
+She intended tea, but meeting Mr. Audley again, he sent up a glass of
+wine. Even with this in hot water, Cherry could hardly be warmed again,
+and Wilmet lay down, clasping her round, and not daring to let her know
+of her own continued anxiety about the two brothers. At last, however,
+when the red light had almost faded quite away, the cautious steps were
+heard coming up the stairs, and Felix called into the room in a low
+voice--
+
+'All right, Wilmet.'
+
+'Oh! come in,' the sisters called. 'Where did you find him, Fee? Is he
+safe?'
+
+'O Cherry, you never saw such a lark!' cried Lance in a gusty whisper.
+'Wouldn't Fulbert have given his ears to have seen it? To see the
+engines pouring down, and the great hose twining about like jolly old
+sea-serpents spouting.'
+
+'Hush, Lance; how can you? How could you! Does Mr. Audley know he is
+safe?'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, 'he opened the door, and said he might have known
+Lance was too much of a _gamin_ to come to grief.'
+
+'What's a _gamin?_' said Lance.
+
+'A street ragamuffin at Paris,' said Wilmet. 'But really, Lance, it was
+a terrible thing to do.'
+
+'And where do you think I found him?' said Felix. 'In between little
+Jacky Brown and that big old coal-heaver who was so impudent about the
+blanket-club, hanging like a monkey upon the rails of the terrace, and
+hallooing as loud as they.'
+
+''Twas the coal-heaver that helped me up,' said Lance. 'He's a jolly
+good fellow, I can tell you. He said, "You be one of Parson Underwood's
+little chaps, baint you? A rare honest gentleman of the right sort war
+he--he war!" and he pulled down another boy and put me up instead, and
+told me all about the great fire at Stubbs's factory. You can't think
+what fun it was. Roar, roar, up went the flame. Swish, wish, went the
+water--such a bellowing--such great clouds of smoke!'
+
+'Was everybody saved?' whispered Cherry's tremulous murmur.
+
+There was a silence; then Lance said, 'Weren't they?' and Cherry had
+another shuddering fit.
+
+'Who?' Wilmet asked.
+
+'Poor Mr. Jones's youngest child and his nursemaid were in an attic
+room where nobody could get at them,' said Felix in a hurried and
+awe-struck voice, causing Cherry to renew that agony of trembling
+and sobbing so convulsive and painful that her elder brother and
+sister could only devote themselves to soothing her, till at last
+she lay still again in Wilmet's arms, with only a few long gasps
+coming quivering up through her frame. Then Wilmet implored Felix to
+go away and make Lance go to bed, and finding this the only means of
+reducing the little excited fellow to quiet, he went. And though all
+were sure they should not sleep, they overslept themselves far into
+Sunday morning, except Wilmet, who was wakened by the clamours of the
+undisturbed Angela and Bernard, and succeeded in dressing them without
+disturbing the other three.
+
+Very tired and stiff, and very anxious she felt, but she was obliged to
+go down as soon as she was dressed, since she always took charge of her
+mother before breakfast on Sunday while Sibby went to mass. It was so
+late that she could only listen in vain at the top of the stairs before
+she went into the room, where she found Sibby very indignant at having
+missed all the excitement of the night past. 'As if she could not have
+been trusted not to have wakened the mistress. She believed they would
+have let her alone till they all were burnt in their beds!'
+
+It was not till breakfast, which took place unusually late, that Wilmet
+heard much. Felix and Lance had just come downstairs, rather ashamed of
+having overslept themselves, and Mr. Audley came in and begged for a
+cup of tea.
+
+He told them that the father and uncle of the boy had arrived. They
+were American merchants or speculators of some kind, he thought, named
+Travis, and they had gone on business to Dearport the day before,
+meaning to dine there, and return by the mail train in the night, and
+leaving the boy with the black servant in the unfortunate hotel.
+
+On arriving, at about three o'clock, not long after Felix had brought
+Lance home, they had telegraphed to Dearport for a doctor and nurse,
+who were momentarily expected to arrive. The patient was only half
+conscious, and though he knew his father, continued to murmur for
+Diego. Martha was sitting with him whenever she could, for his father
+did not seem to understand nursing, and it would be a great relief when
+a properly-trained person arrived.
+
+She came, and so did the doctor, but not till close upon church-time,
+and little but stray reports from the sick-room reached the population
+upstairs all that day, as Mr. Audley, whenever he was not at church,
+was obliged to be in attendance on his strange guests. All that reached
+the anxious and excited young people was the tidings of the patient
+being not unlikely to do well, though he was in great pain and high
+fever, and continually calling for the poor negro who had saved his
+life at the expense of his own.
+
+This was the last bulletin when the household parted to go their
+several ways on Monday morning, not to be all collected again and free
+to speak till seven o'clock in the evening, when they met round the
+table for tea.
+
+'Mamma looks cheery,' said Felix, coming into the little back room
+where Wilmet was spreading bread and butter.
+
+'Yes,' said Wilmet, 'I think she has cared to hear about the fire. So
+many people have come in and talked, that it has enlivened her.'
+
+'And how is the boy?'
+
+'A little better, Martha heard; but he keeps on talking of Diego, and
+seems not to care about any one else.'
+
+'No wonder. His father must be an unmitigated brute,' said Felix.
+'He came to the inquest, and talked just as if it had been an old
+Newfoundland dog; I really think he cared rather less than if it had
+been.'
+
+'Tell us about the inquest, Felix,' said Lance. 'I wish they'd have
+wanted me there.'
+
+'I don't see why, Lance,' said Felix gravely; 'it was a terrible thing
+to see poor Mr. Jones hardly able to speak for grief, and the mother of
+that poor young nurse went on sobbing as if her heart was breaking.'
+
+'Nobody knows the cause of the fire, do they?' asked Cherry. 'Lady
+Price said it was the gas.'
+
+'No; no one knows. Way, the waiter, saw a glare under the door of
+the great assembly-room as he was going up very late to bed, and
+the instant he opened the door the flame seemed to rush out at him.
+I suppose a draught was all it wanted. He saw this poor Diego safe
+downstairs once, but he must have gone back to save his young master,
+and got cut off in coming back. Poor fellow! he is a Mexican negro,
+belonging to an estate that came to Mr. Travis's wife, and he has
+always clung to her and her son just like a faithful dog.'
+
+'But he could not be a slave in England,' said Cherry eagerly.
+
+'No; but as this Travis said, his one instinct was the boy: he did not
+know how to get rid of him, he said, and I do believe he thinks it a
+lucky chance.'
+
+'I wish it had been he!' said Lance.
+
+'Sibby has asked leave to go to the burial,' added Wilmet.
+
+'I hope you gave it,' said Felix. 'Mr. Macnamara came and asked if he
+were not a Roman Catholic, and those two Travises laughed a little
+offensively, and said they guessed he was so, as much as a nigger was
+anything; and the Papists were welcome to his black carcase, only they
+would not be charged for any flummery. "I won't be made a fool of about
+a nigger," one said. And then, I was so glad, Mr. Audley begged to know
+when the funeral would be, and said he would go anywhere to do honour
+to faithfulness unto death.'
+
+'Well done, Mr. Audley!' cried Lance. 'Won't we go too, Fee?'
+
+'It will be at nine to-morrow,' said Felix; at which Lance made a face,
+since of course he would be in school at the time.
+
+'Maybe I shall have to go,' added Felix; 'for only think, as my good
+luck would have it, Redstone went on Saturday night to see his mother
+or somebody, and only came back this morning; and Mr. Froggatt himself
+was "out at his box," as he calls it, so he told me this morning to
+write the account of the fire for the paper, and he would pay me for it
+extra, as he does Redstone.'
+
+'Well, and have you done it?'
+
+'I was pretty much at sea at first, till I recollected the letter I
+began to Edgar yesterday night, and by following that, I made what I
+thought was a decent piece of business of it.'
+
+'Oh, did you put in the way they threw the things out at window at
+Jessop's without looking what they were?' cried Lance; 'and the jolly
+smash the jugs and basins made, and when their house was never on fire
+at all: and how the coal-heaver said "Hold hard, frail trade there!"'
+
+'Well,' said Felix quaintly, 'I put it in a different form, you see. I
+said the inhabitants of the adjacent houses hurled their furniture from
+the windows with more precipitation than attention to the fragility
+of the articles. And, after all, that intolerable ass, Redstone, has
+corrected fire every time into "the devouring element," and made "the
+faithful black" into "the African of sable integument, but heart of
+precious ore."'
+
+'Now, Felix!'
+
+'Bald, sir, bald,' he said, with such a face. '"Yes, Mr. Underwood,"
+even good old Froggy said, when he saw me looking rather blue, "you and
+I may know what good taste and simplicity is, but if we sent out the
+Pursuivant with no mouth-filling words in it, we should be cut out with
+some low paper in no time among the farmers and mechanics."'
+
+'Is he so led by Mr. Redstone?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'Not exactly; but I believe there's nothing he dreads more than
+Redstone's getting offended and saying that I am no use, as he would
+any day if he could. O, Mr. Audley, are you coming to stay?'
+
+'Will you have a cup of tea?' said Wilmet.
+
+'Thank you, yes; I've got to dine with these fellows at the Railway
+Hotel at eight, but I wanted to speak to you first, Wilmet,' said Mr.
+Audley, sitting down as if he were weary of his day.
+
+'How is the boy?'
+
+'Better. He has been quite sensible ever since he woke at twelve
+o'clock to-day, only he was dreadfully upset about poor Diego--about
+whom his father told him very abruptly--without the least notion he
+would feel it so much.'
+
+'I wish I had the kicking of that father,' observed Felix, driving the
+knife hard into the loaf.
+
+'He is not altogether such a bad fellow,' said Mr. Audley thoughtfully.
+
+'Not for an American, perhaps.'
+
+'He is not an American at all. He was born and bred in my own country,
+and took me by surprise by calculating that I was one of the Audleys
+of Wrightstone Court, and wanting to know whether my father were Sir
+Robert or Sir Robert's son. Then he guessed that I might have heard
+of his father, if I was not too young, and by-and-by it dawned on me
+that whenever there is any complication about business matters, or any
+one is in bad circumstances, my father always vituperates one Travis,
+who, it seems, was a solicitor greatly trusted by all the country
+round, till he died, some twenty years ago, and it appeared that he
+had ruined everybody, himself included. These men are his sons. They
+went out to America, and got up in the world. They told me the whole
+story of how they had knocked about everywhere, last evening, but I
+was too sleepy to enter into it much, though I daresay it was curious
+enough; successful speculations and hair's-breadth escapes seemed to
+come very thick one upon another, but all I am clear about is that
+this poor boy, Fernando's mother was a Mexican heiress, they--one of
+them, I mean--managed to marry; her father English, but her mother old
+Spanish blood allied to the old Caciques, he says; whether it is a
+boast I don't know, but the boy looks like it--such a handsome fellow;
+delicate straight profile, slender limbs, beautifully made, inky-black
+hair and brows, pure olive skin--the two doctors were both in raptures.
+Well, they thought affairs in Mexico insecure, so they sold the poor
+woman's estate and carried her off to Texas. No; was it? I really can't
+remember where; but, at any rate, Diego stuck to her wherever she
+went, and when she died, to her child; nursed him like an old woman,
+and-- In short, it was that touching negro love that one sometimes
+hears of. Now they seem to have grown very rich--the American
+Vice-Consul, who came over this morning from Dearport, knew all about
+them--and they came home partly on business, and partly to leave
+Fernando to be made into an English gentleman, who, Mr. Travis says, if
+he has money to spend, does whip creation. He's English enough for that
+still. Well, they have got a telegram that makes them both want to sail
+by the next steamer.'
+
+'That's a blessing. But the boy?'
+
+'He cannot be moved for weeks. It is not only the fractures, but the
+jar of the fall. He may get quite over it, but must lie quite still on
+his back. So here he is, a fixture, by your leave, my lady housekeeper.'
+
+'It is your room, Mr. Audley,' said Wilmet. 'But can his father really
+mean to leave him alone so very ill, poor boy?'
+
+'Well, as his father truly says, he is no good to him, but rather the
+reverse; and as the Travis mind seems rather impressed by finding an
+Audley here, I am to be left in charge of him now, and to find a tutor
+for him when he gets better. So we are in for that!'
+
+'But what is to become of you?' asked Wilmet. 'The nurse has got the
+little back study.'
+
+'I have got a room at Bolland's to sleep in, thank you,' he answered;
+'and I have been representing the inconvenience to the house of this
+long illness, so that the Travises, who are liberal enough--'
+
+'I thought them horrid misers,' said Felix.
+
+'That was only the American conscience as to negroes. In other matters
+they are ready to throw money about with both hands; so I hope I have
+made a good bargain for you, Wilmet. You are to have five guineas a
+week, and provide for boy and nurse, all but wine and beer, ice and
+fruit.'
+
+'Five guineas!' murmured Wilmet, quite overpowered at the munificent
+sum.
+
+'I am afraid you will not find it go as far as you expect, for he will
+want a good deal of dainty catering.'
+
+'And your room should be deducted,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Not at all. Mrs. Bolland said she did not take lodgers, but should
+esteem it a favour if I would sleep there while her son is away. It is
+all safe, I think. He has given me orders on his London banker, and
+they say here at the bank that they are all right. It is a strange
+charge,' he added thoughtfully; 'we little thought what we were taking
+on ourselves when we picked up that poor fellow, Felix; and I cannot
+help thinking it will turn out well, there was something so noble about
+the poor lad's face as he lay insensible.'
+
+It was about three weeks later, that one Sunday evening, when Mr.
+Audley came in from church, Felix followed him to his sitting-room, and
+began with unusual formality. 'I think I ought to speak to you, sir.'
+
+'What's the matter?'
+
+'About Lance, and him in there. I have had such a queer talk with
+_him!_'
+
+'As how?'
+
+'Why he wanted us to stop from church, asked me to let off the poor
+little coon; and when I said we couldn't, because we were in the
+choir, wanted to know what we were paid, then why we did it at all;
+and so it turned out that he thinks churches only meant for women and
+psalm-singing niggers and Methodists, and has never been inside one in
+his life, never saw the sense of it, wanted to know why I went.'
+
+'What did you tell him?'
+
+'I don't know; I was so taken aback. I said something about our duty
+to God, and it's being all we had to get us through life; but I know I
+made a dreadful mess of it, and the bell rang, and I got away. But he
+seems a sheer heathen, and there's Lance in and out all day.'
+
+'Yes, Felix, I am afraid it is true that the poor lad has been brought
+up with no religion at all--a blank sheet, as his father called him.'
+
+'Wasn't his father English?'
+
+'Yes; but he had lived a roving, godless life. I began, when I found
+the boy must stay here, by asking whether he were of his father's or
+his mother's communion, and in return heard a burst of exultation that
+he had never let a priest into his house. His father-in-law had warned
+him against it, and he had carried his wife out of their reach long
+before the child's birth; he has not even been baptized, but you see,
+Felix, I could not act like Abraham to the idolater in the Talmud.'
+
+Felix did not speak, but knocked one foot against the other in
+vexation, feeling that it was his house after all, and that Mr. Audley
+should not have turned this young heathen loose into it to corrupt his
+brother, without consulting him.
+
+'I told Travis,' continued the Curate, 'that if I undertook the charge
+as he wished, it must be as a priest myself, and I must try to put
+some religion into him. And, to my surprise, he said he left it to
+me. Fernando was old enough to judge, and if he were to be an English
+squire, he must conform to old-country ways; besides, I was another
+sort of parson from Yankee Methodists and Shakers or Popish priests--he
+knew the English clergy well enough, of the right sort.'
+
+'So he is to learn religion to make him a squire?'
+
+'I was thankful enough to find no obstruction.'
+
+'And have you begun?' asked Felix moodily.
+
+'Why--no. He has been too ill and too reserved. I have attempted
+nothing but daily saying a short prayer for him in his hearing, hoping
+he would remark on it. But you know the pain is still very absorbing at
+times, and it leaves him exhausted; and besides, I fancy he has a good
+deal of tropical languor about him, and does not notice much. Nothing
+but Lance has roused him at all.'
+
+'I would never have let Lance in there by himself, if I had known,'
+said Felix. 'He is quite bewitched.'
+
+'It would have been difficult to prevent it. Nor do I think that much
+harm can be done. I believe I ought to have told you, Felix; but I
+did not like denouncing my poor sick guest among the children, or its
+getting round all the town and to my Lady. After all, Lance is a very
+little fellow; it is not as if Edgar or Clem were at home.'
+
+'I suppose it cannot be helped,' sighed Felix; 'but my father--' and as
+he recollected the desire to take his brothers away from Mr. Ryder, he
+felt as if his chosen guardian had been false to his trust, out of pity
+and enthusiasm.
+
+'Your father would have known how to treat him,' sighed Mr. Audley.
+'At any rate, Felix, we must not forget the duties of hospitality and
+kindness; and I hope you will not roughly forbid Lance to go near him,
+without seeing whether the poor fellow is not really inoffensive.'
+
+'I'll see about it,' was all that Felix could get himself to say; for
+much as he loved Mr. Audley, he could not easily brook interference
+with his brothers, and little Lance, so loyal to himself, and so droll
+without a grain of malice, was very near to his heart. 'A young Pagan,'
+as he thought to himself, 'teaching him all the blackguard tricks and
+words he has learnt at all the low schools in north or south!' and all
+the most objectionable scenes he had met with in American stories, from
+'Uncle Tom' onwards, began to rise before his eyes. 'A pretty thing to
+do in a fit of beneficence! I'll order Lance to keep away, and if he
+dares disobey, I'll lick him well to show him who is master.'
+
+So he felt, as he swung himself upstairs, and halted with some
+intention of pouring out his vexed spirit to Wilmet, because Mr. Audley
+had no business to make it a secret; but Wilmet was putting her mother
+to bed, and he went on upstairs. There he found all the doors open, and
+heard a murmuring sound of voices in Geraldine's room. In a mood to be
+glad of any excuse for finding fault, he strode across the nursery,
+where Angela and Bernard slept, and saw that Lance, who ought to have
+gone at once to bed on coming in, was standing in his sister's window,
+trying to read in the ray of gas-light that came up from a lamp at the
+brewhouse door.
+
+'Go to bed, Lance,' he said; 'if you have not learnt your lessons in
+proper time, you must wake early, or take the consequences. I won't
+have it done on Sunday night.'
+
+Lance started round angrily, and Cherry cried, 'O Felix, it is no such
+thing! Only would you tell us where to find about the king and his
+priests that defeated the enemy by singing the "mercy endureth for
+ever" psalm?'
+
+'In the Bible!' said Felix, as if sure it was a blunder. 'There's no
+such story.'
+
+'Indeed there is,' cried Lance, 'for Papa (the word low and reverently)
+took out his blue poly-something Bible and read it out in the sermon.
+Don't you remember, Fee, a hot day in the summer, when he preached all
+about those wild robbers--horrid fellows with long spears--coming up in
+the desert to make a regular smash of the Jews?'
+
+'Lance!' cried Cherry.
+
+'Well, he did not say that, of course, but they wanted to; and how
+the king sent out the priests without a fighting man, only all in
+white, praising God in the beauty of holiness, and singing, "His mercy
+endureth for ever." I saw him read that, though he told us all the rest
+without book; how all the enemy began to quarrel, and all killed one
+another, and the Jews had nothing to do but to pick up the spoil, and
+sing another psalm coming back.'
+
+'I remember now,' said Felix, in a very different tone. 'It was
+Jehoshaphat, Lancey boy. I'll find it for you in the book of
+Chronicles. Did you want it for anything?'
+
+Lance made an uneasy movement.
+
+'It was to show poor Fernando Travis, wasn't it?' said Cherry; and as
+Lance wriggled again, she added, 'He seems to have been taught nothing
+good.'
+
+'Now, Cherry,' broke out Lance, 'I told you to say not a word.'
+
+'I know a little about it, Lance,' said Felix, sitting down on the
+window-seat and lifting Lance on his knee, as he said, in a tone very
+unlike his intended expostulation, 'You must not let him do you harm,
+Lance.'
+
+'He wouldn't; but he does not know anything about anything,' said the
+little boy. 'They never taught him to say his prayers, nor sing hymns,
+nor chant, and he thinks it is only good for niggers. So I told him
+that singing psalms once beat an army, and he laughed; and I thought
+Cherry was sure to know where it was--but girls will always tell.'
+
+'Indeed you never told me not,' said Cherry, humbly.
+
+'She has done no harm,' said Felix. 'Mr. Audley has just been talking
+to me about that poor boy. He really is as untaught as that little
+scamp at the potteries that we tried to teach.'
+
+'He's a stunning good fellow,' broke in Lance; 'he has seen an
+alligator, and ridden mustangs.'
+
+'Never mind that now, Lance; I dare say he is very amusing, but--'
+
+'Don't hinder me from going to him,' broke in the younger boy
+vehemently.
+
+'If,' said Felix gravely, 'you can be quite sure my father would not
+mind it.'
+
+Lance was nestling close up to him in the dark, and he was surprised to
+find that round face wet with tears. 'Papa would not let him lie dull
+and moped all day long,' he said. 'O Fee, I can't keep away; I am so
+sorry for him. When that terrible cramp comes, it is of no use to say
+those sort of things to him.'
+
+'What sort of things?'
+
+'Oh, you know; verses such as Papa used to have said to him. They
+weren't a bit of good. No, not though I did get the book Papa marked
+for Cherry.'
+
+'You did!' gasped Cherry, who little thought that sacred possession of
+hers was even known to Master Lance.
+
+'You'd have done it yourself, Cherry,' said the little boy, 'if you
+had only seen how bad he was; he got quite white, and had great drops
+on his forehead, and panted so, and would not let out a bit of a cry,
+only now and then a groan; and so I ran to get the verse Papa used to
+say over and over to you when your foot was bad. And I'm sure it was
+the right one, but--but--it did him no good, for, oh! he didn't know
+who our Saviour is;' and the little fellow clung to his brother in a
+passion of tears, while Felix felt a pang at the contrast.
+
+'Have you been telling him, Lancey?' he asked.
+
+'I wanted him to ask Mr. Audley, but he said he was a parson, and his
+father said that there would be no parsons if men were not fools. Now,
+Fee, I've told you, but don't keep me away.'
+
+'It would be hard on a poor sick fellow,' said Felix, thoroughly
+softened. 'Only, Lance, you know I can't be with you; will you promise
+to go away if ever you think Papa would wish it?'
+
+'Oh yes; one has to do that, you know, when our own fellows get
+blackguardly,' said little Lance, freely; whereat Cherry shuddered
+somewhat. 'And, Fee,' he added, 'if you would only come and make him
+understand about things.'
+
+'Mr. Audley must do that,' said Felix; 'I can't.'
+
+'You teach the boys in the Sunday-school,' said Lance. 'And he'd mind
+you, Blunderbore. He says you are the grandest and most splendiferous
+fellow he ever did set eyes on, and that he feels something like, when
+you've just looked in and spoken to him.'
+
+'You little ass, he was chaffing you.'
+
+'No, no, _indeed_ he wasn't. I told him all about it, because he liked
+your face so much. And he _does_ care so very much when you look in.
+Oh! _do, do_, Fee; he is so jolly, and it is so lonely and horrid for
+him, and I do so want Papa for him;' and the child cried silently, but
+Felix felt the long deep sobs, and as Geraldine, much moved, said,
+'Dear little Lancey,' he carried him over to her as she sat up in bed,
+and she kissed and fondled him, and murmured in his ear, 'Dear Lance,
+I'm sure he'll get good. We will get Mr. Audley to talk to him, you
+know, and we will say a prayer every day for him.'
+
+Lance, beginning to recover, put his arms round Cherry's neck, gave her
+a tremendous hug, released himself from his brother's arms, and ran off
+to bed. Felix remained a few moments, while Cherry exclaimed, 'Oh! the
+dear good little fellow!'
+
+'Better than any of us,' said Felix. 'I was quite savage with Mr.
+Audley when I found out about it. I must go down and tell him. I never
+thought all that was in the little chap! I'm glad he came to you,
+Cherry. Good-night.'
+
+'And you will try to teach this poor boy, Felix?'
+
+'I don't say that. I don't in the least know how; but I shall not dare
+to hinder Lance, now I see how he goes on.'
+
+On his way down he heard voices in the sitting-room, where, in fact,
+Mr. Audley had joined Wilmet, to explain to her how vexed he was to
+have so much annoyed Felix, and perhaps also something of his own
+annoyance at the manner in which Felix took it. Wilmet, partly from
+her 'growing on the sunny side of the wall,' partly from her early
+authority, was in some ways older than her brother, and could see that
+there was in him a shade of boyish jealousy of his prerogative; and
+as she sat, in her pretty modest gravity, with her fair hair and her
+Sunday frock, she was softly but earnestly telling Mr. Audley that she
+was sure Felix would not mind long, and that he was very sorry for
+the poor boy _really_, only he was so anxious about Lance, and he did
+like to be consulted. Both looked up, startled, as Felix opened the
+door, and they saw that his eyes were full of tears. He came up to Mr.
+Audley, and said, 'I beg your pardon, sir; I'd no business to grumble,
+and that little fellow has been--'
+
+'Beforehand with us?' asked Mr. Audley, as Felix broke down. 'The nurse
+has been just telling me how he sat on his bed saying bits of psalms
+and verses to him when he had that bad fit of cramp, "so pretty," she
+said; but I was afraid it must have been rather like a spell.'
+
+Felix told his story, feeling it too much not to make it lame, and with
+the tearfulness trembling in his voice and eyes all the time.
+
+'Our little _gamin_ has the most of the good Samaritan in him,' said
+Mr. Audley. ''Tis not quite the end I should have begun at, but perhaps
+it may work the better.'
+
+'Dear little boy, that he should have remembered that sermon!'
+exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'I am afraid it is more than I do,' said Felix; 'all last summer the
+more I tried to listen, the more I saw how he was changing. Do you
+remember it, Wilmet?'
+
+'Yes; the text was, "The joy of the Lord is your strength," and he
+said how praising God, and going on thinking about His goodness and
+thankfulness, was the way to make our adversaries dissolve before us,
+and never trouble us at all, just like the bands of the Moabites and
+Ammonites before Jehoshaphat.'
+
+'I recollect it well, and how I thought it such a likeness of himself,'
+said Mr. Audley; 'he was walking over his troubles, scarcely seeing
+them, as if they could not dim the shine of his armour while he went on
+looking up and being thankful. I fancy little Lance has a good deal of
+that kind of bright fearless way.'
+
+'He has,' said Felix in a grave thoughtful tone that made the Curate
+look at him and sigh to think how early care and grief had come to make
+that joyous buoyancy scarce possible to the elder boy, little more than
+seventeen though he was.
+
+'He is _very_ idle, though,' added Wilmet; 'such caricatures as there
+are all over his books! Edgar's were bad enough, but Lance puts
+pig-tails and cocked hats to all Edgar's.'
+
+So Lance's visits to the sick stranger remained unobstructed. He had
+no notion of teaching him; but the foreign boy in his languor and
+helplessness curiously fascinated him, perhaps from the very contrast
+of the passive, indolent, tropical nature with his own mercurial
+temperament. The Spaniard, or perhaps the old Mexican, seemed to
+predominate in Fernando, as far as could be guessed in one so weak and
+helpless. He seemed very quiet and inanimate, seldom wanting or seeking
+diversion, but content to lie still, with half-closed eyes; his manner
+was reserved, and with something of courteous dignity, especially when
+Lady Price came to visit him; and the Yankeeisms that sometimes dropped
+from his tongue did not agree with the polish of the tone, and still
+less with the imperious manner in which he sometimes addressed the
+nurse. He seemed, though not clever, to be tolerably well cultivated;
+he had been at the schools of whatever cities his father had resided
+in, and his knowledge of languages was of course extensive.
+
+However, he never talked freely to Mr. Audley. He had bitterly resented
+that gentleman's interference, one day when he was peremptorily
+commanding the nurse to place him in a position that had been
+forbidden, and the endeavour to control him had made him fearfully
+angry. There was a stormy outbreak of violent language, only checked
+by a severe rebuke, for which he did not forgive the Curate; he was
+coldly civil, and accepted the attentions he could not dispense with in
+a grave formal manner that would have been sulky in an English lad, but
+had something of the dreary grandeur of the Spanish Don from that dark
+lordly visage, and made Mr. Audley half provoked, half pitying, speak
+of him always as his Cacique. He only expanded a little even to Lance,
+though the little boy waited on him assiduously, chattering about
+school doings, illustrating them on a slate, singing to him, acting
+Blondin, exhibiting whatever he could lay his hands on, including the
+twins, whom he bore down one after the other, to the great wrath of
+Sibby, not to say of little Stella herself, while Theodore took the
+exhibition with perfect serenity.
+
+As to Felix, he was, as Lance said, the subject of the sick lad's
+fervent admiration. Perhaps the open, fair, cheerful, though grave
+countenance, fresh complexion, and strong, steadfast, upright bearing
+had something to do with the strange adoration that in his silent way
+Fernando paid to the youth, who looked in from time to time, bringing
+a sort of air of refreshment with his good-natured shy smile, even
+when he least knew what to say. Or else it was little Lance's fervent
+affection for Felix which had conduced to the erection of the elder
+brother into the idol of Fernando's fancy; and his briefest visit was
+the event of the long autumnal days spent in the uncurtained iron bed
+in the corner of the low room. The worship, silent though it was, was
+manifest enough to become embarrassing and ridiculous to the subject
+of it, whose sense of duty and compassion was always at war with his
+reluctance to expose himself to it. Not another word passed on any
+religious subject. Mr. Audley was not forgiven enough to venture on the
+attempt; the Rector was shy and frightened about it, and could make no
+beginning; and Mr. Mowbray Smith, who found great fault with them for
+their neglect, had been fairly stared down by the great black eyes,
+which, when the heavy lids were uplifted, proved to be of an immense
+size and force; and Felix was so sure that it could not be his business
+while three clergymen were going in and out that he had never done more
+than describe the weather, or retail any fresh bit of London news that
+had come down to the office.
+
+At last, however, one November day, he found Fernando sitting up in
+bed, and Lance, perched on the table, talking so earnestly as not to
+perceive his entrance, until Fernando broke upon his words: 'There!
+it's no use!'
+
+'Yes, it is,' cried Lance, jumping down. 'O Fee, I am glad you are
+come; I want you to tell him the rights of it.'
+
+'The rights of what, Lance?'
+
+'Tell him that it is all the devil's doing, and the men he has got on
+his side; and that it was the very thing our Saviour came for to set us
+free, only everybody won't,' said Lance clinging to his brother's hand,
+and looking up in his face.
+
+'That's about right, Lance,' said Felix; 'but I don't quite know what
+you are talking about.'
+
+'Just this,' said Fernando. 'Lance goes on about God being merciful and
+good and powerful--Almighty, as he says; but whatever women may tell a
+little chap like that, nobody can think so that has seen the things I
+have, down in the West, with my own eyes.'
+
+'Felix!' cried Lance, 'say it. You know and believe just as I do, as
+everybody good does, men and all.'
+
+'Yes, indeed!' said Felix with all his heart.
+
+'Then tell me how it can be,' said Fernando.
+
+Felix stood startled and perplexed, feeling the awful magnitude and
+importance of the question, but also feeling his own incompetence to
+deal with it; and likewise that Wilmet was keeping the tea waiting for
+him. He much wished to say, 'Keep it for Mr. Audley,' but he feared to
+choke the dawning of faith, and he likewise feared the appearance of
+hesitation.
+
+'Nobody can really explain it,' he said, 'but that's no wonder. One
+cannot explain a thunderstorm, but one knows that it is.'
+
+'That's electricity,' said Fernando.
+
+'And what's electricity?'
+
+'A fluid that--'
+
+'Yes; that's another word. But you can't get any further. God made
+electricity, or whatever it is, and when you talk about explaining it,
+you only get to something that _is_. You know it _is_, and you can't
+get any further,' he repeated.
+
+'Well, that's true; though science goes beyond you in America.'
+
+'But no searching finds out _all_ about God!' said Felix reverently.
+'All we know is that He is so infinitely great and wise, that of course
+we cannot understand why all He does is right, any more than a private
+soldier understands his general's orders.'
+
+'And _you--you_,' said Fernando, 'are content to say you don't
+understand.'
+
+'Why not?' said Felix.
+
+There was a silence. Fernando seemed to be thinking; Lance gazed from
+one to the other, as if disappointed that his brother was not more
+explicit.
+
+'And how do you know it is true?' added Fernando. 'I mean, what Lance
+has been telling me! What makes you sure of it, if you are?'
+
+'_If_ I am?' cried Felix, startled into indignation. 'To be sure I am!'
+
+'But how?'
+
+'I _know_ it!' said Felix.
+
+'How?'
+
+'The Bible!' gasped Lance impatiently.
+
+'Ay; so you have said for ever,' broke in Fernando; 'but what
+authenticates that?'
+
+'The whole course of history,' said Felix. 'There is a great chain of
+evidence, I know, but I never got it up. I can't tell it you, Fernando;
+I never wanted it, never even tried to think about the proofs. It is
+all too sure.'
+
+'But wouldn't a Mahometan say that?' said Fernando.
+
+'If he did, look at the Life of our Lord and of Mahomet together, and
+see which must be the true Prophet--the Way, the Life, the Truth.'
+
+'That one could do,' said Fernando thoughtfully. 'I say,' as Felix made
+a movement as if he thought the subject concluded, 'I want to know one
+thing more. Lance says it is believing all this that makes you--any one
+I mean--good.'
+
+'I don't know what else should,' said Felix, smiling a little; the
+question seemed to him so absurd.
+
+'Is it really what makes you go and slave away at that old boss's of
+yours?'
+
+'Why, that's necessity and my duty,' said Felix.
+
+'And is it what makes this little coon come and spend all his
+play-hours on a poor fellow with a broken leg? I've been at many
+schools, and never saw the fellow who would do that.'
+
+'Oh! you are such fun!' cried Lance.
+
+'All that is right comes from God first and last,' said Felix gravely.
+
+'And you--you that are no child--you believe all that Lance tells me
+you do, and think it makes you what you are!'
+
+'I believe it; yes, of course. And believing it should make me much
+better than I am! I hope it will in time.'
+
+'Ah!' sighed Fernando. 'I never heard anything like it since my father
+said he'd take the cow-hide to poor old Diego, if he caught him
+teaching me nigger-cant.'
+
+They left him.
+
+'Poor fellow!' sighed Felix; 'what have you been telling him, Lance?'
+
+'Oh, I don't know; only why things were good and bad,' was Lance's
+lucid answer; and he was then intent on detailing the stories he had
+heard from Fernando. He had been in the worst days of Southern slavery
+ere its extinction, on the skirts of the deadly warfare with the Red
+Indians; and the poor lad had really known of horrors that curdled the
+blood of Wilmet and Geraldine, and made the latter lie awake or dream
+dreadful dreams all night.
+
+But the next day, Mr. Audley was startled to hear the two friends in
+the midst of an altercation. When Lance had come in for his mid-day
+recreation, Fernando had produced five shillings, desiring him to go
+and purchase a Bible for him; but Lance, who had conceived the idea
+that the Scriptures ought not to be touched by an unchristened hand,
+flatly refused, offering, however, to read from his own. Now Lance's
+reading was at that peculiar school-boy stage which seems calculated to
+combine the utmost possible noise with the least possible distinctness;
+and though he had good gifts of ear and voice, and his reciting and
+singing were both above the average, the moment a book was before him,
+he roared his sentences between his teeth in horrible monotony. And as
+he began with the first chapter of St. Matthew, and was not perfectly
+able to cope with all the names, Fernando could bear it no longer, and
+insisted on having the book itself. Lance shook his head and refused;
+and matters were in this stage when Mr. Audley, not liking the echoes
+of the voices, opened the door. 'What is it?' he asked anxiously.
+
+'Nothing,' replied Fernando, proudly trying to swallow his vexation.
+
+'Lance!' said Mr. Audley rather severely; but just then, seeing what
+book the child was holding tight under his arm, he decided to follow
+him out of the room and interrogate.
+
+'What was it, Lance?'
+
+'He ought not to touch a Bible--he sha'n't have mine,' said Lance
+resentfully.
+
+'Was he doing anything wrong with it?'
+
+'Oh no! But he ought not to have it before he is christened, and I
+would have read to him.'
+
+Mr. Audley knew what Lance's reading was, and smiled. 'Was that all,
+Lance? I like your guardianship of the Bible, my boy; but it was not
+given only to those who are Christians already, or how could any one
+learn?'
+
+'He sha'n't touch mine, though,' said Lance, with an odd sturdiness;
+stumping upstairs with his treasure, a little brown sixpenny S. P. C.
+K. book, but in which his father had written his name on his last
+birth-day but one.
+
+Mr. Audley only waited to take down a New Testament, and present
+himself at Fernando's bedside, observing gladly that there was much
+more wistfulness than offence about his expression.
+
+'It was a scruple on the young man's part,' said Mr. Audley, smiling,
+though full of anxiety; 'he meant no unkindness.'
+
+'I know he did not,' said Fernando quietly, but gazing at the purple
+book in the clergyman's hands.
+
+'Did you want this?' said Mr. Audley; 'or can I find anything in it for
+you?'
+
+'Thank you;' and there was a pause. The offended manner towards Mr.
+Audley had been subsiding of late into friendliness under his constant
+attentions, and Fernando's desire for an answer prevailed at last.
+'Felix told me to read the Life of Christ,' he said, not irreverently,
+'and that it would show me He must be True.'
+
+'I hope and trust that so it may be,' said Mr. Audley, more moved than
+he could bear to show, but with fervour in his voice far beyond his
+words.
+
+'Felix,' said Fernando, resting on the name, 'Felix does seem as if he
+must be right, Mr. Audley; can it be really as he says--and Lance--that
+their belief makes them like what they are?'
+
+'Most assuredly.'
+
+'And you don't say so only because you are a minister?' asked the boy
+distrustfully.
+
+'I say so because I know it. I knew that it is the Christian faith that
+makes all goodness, long before I was a minister.'
+
+'But I have seen plenty of Christians that were not in the least like
+Felix Underwood.'
+
+'So have I; but in proportion as they live up to their faith, they have
+what is best in him.'
+
+'I should like to be like him,' mused Fernando; 'I never saw such a
+fellow. He, and little Lance too, seem to belong to something bright
+and strong, that seems inside and outside, and I can't lay hold of what
+it is.'
+
+'One day you will, my dear boy,' said Mr. Audley. 'Let me try to help
+you.'
+
+Fernando scarcely answered, save by half a smile, and a long sigh of
+relief: but when Mr. Audley put his hand over the long brown fingers,
+they closed upon it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE CHESS-PLAYER'S BATTLE.
+
+     'Dost thou believe, he said, that Grace
+        Itself can reach this grief?
+      With a feeble voice and a woeful eye--
+      "Lord, I believe," was the sinner's reply,
+      "Help Thou mine unbelief."'
+                                    _Southey._
+
+
+By the beginning of the Christmas holidays, Fernando Travis was able
+to lie on a couch in Mr. Audley's sitting-room. His recovery was even
+tardier than had been expected, partly from the shock, and partly from
+the want of vigour of the tropical constitution: and he still seemed to
+be a great way from walking, though there was no reason to fear that
+the power would not return. His father wrote, preparing for a journey
+to Oregon, and seemed perfectly satisfied, and he was becoming very
+much at home with his host.
+
+He was much interested in that which he was learning from Mr. Audley,
+and imbibing from the young Underwoods. The wandering life he had
+hitherto led, without any tenderness save from the poor old negro,
+without time to make friends, and often exposed to the perception of
+some of the darkest sides of human life, in the terrible lawlessness
+of the Mexican frontier, had hitherto made him dull, dreary, and
+indifferent, with little perception that there could be anything
+better; but first the kindness and then the faith he saw at Bexley, had
+awakened new perceptions and sensations. His whole soul was opening
+to perceive what the love of God and man might be; and the sense of
+a great void, and longing to have it satisfied, seemed to fill him
+with a constant craving for the revelation of that inner world, whose
+existence had just dawned upon him.
+
+After a little hesitation, Mr. Audley decided on reading with Geraldine
+in his presence after he had come into the sitting-room, explaining
+to her how he thought it might be helpful. She did not much like it,
+but acquiesced: she used to hop in with her sweet smile, shy greeting,
+and hand extended to the invalid, who used to lie looking at her
+through his long eyelashes, and listening to her low voice reading or
+answering, as if she were no earthly creature; but the two were far too
+much in awe of one another to go any further; and he got on much better
+with Wilmet, when she looked in on him now and then with cheery voice
+and good-natured care.
+
+Then Fulbert and Robina came home; and the former was half suspicious,
+half jealous, of Lance's preoccupation with what he chose to denominate
+'a black Yankee nigger.' He avoided the room himself, and kept Lance
+from it as much as was in his power; and one day Lance appeared with
+a black eye, of which he concealed the cause so entirely, that Felix,
+always afraid of his _gamin_ tendencies, entreated Fulbert, as a
+friend, to ease his mind by telling him it was not given in a street
+row.
+
+'I did it,' said Fulbert; 'he was so cocky about his Yankee that I
+could not stand it.'
+
+'Why shouldn't he be kind to a poor sick fellow?'
+
+'He has no business to be always bothering about Fernando
+here--Fernando there--Fernando for ever. I shall have him coming up to
+school a regular spoon, and just not know what to do with him.'
+
+'Well, Fulbert, I think if you had a broken leg you'd wish some one
+to speak to you. At any rate, I can't have Lance bullied for his good
+nature; I was very near doing it myself once, but I was shamed out of
+it.'
+
+'Were you--were you, indeed?' cried Fulbert, delighted at this
+confession of human nature; and Felix could not help laughing. And that
+laugh did much to bring him down from the don to the brother. At any
+rate, Fulbert ceased his persecution in aught but word.
+
+Robina, always Lance's companion, followed him devotedly, and only hung
+about the stairs forlorn when he went to Fernando without her; or if
+admitted, she was quite content to sit serenely happy in her beloved
+Lance's presence, expecting neither notice nor amusement, only watching
+their occupation of playing at draughts. Sometimes, however, Lance
+would fall to playing with her, and they would roll on the floor, a
+tumbling mass of legs, arms, and laughter, to the intense diversion of
+Fernando, to whom little girls were beings of an unknown order.
+
+So came on Christmas, with the anniversaries so sweet and so sad, and
+the eve of holly-dressing, when a bundle of bright sprays was left
+by some kind friend at No. 8, and Lance and Bobbie were vehement to
+introduce Fernando to English holly and English decking.
+
+Geraldine suggested that they had better wait for either Mr. Audley
+or Wilmet to come in, but for this they had no patience, and ran down
+with their arms full of the branches, and their tongues going with the
+description of the night's carols, singing them with their sweet young
+voices as they moved about the room. Fernando knew now what Christmas
+meant, but the joy and exhilaration of the two children seemed to him
+strange for such a bygone event. He asked them if they would have any
+treat.
+
+'Oh no! except, perhaps, Mr. Audley said he should drink tea one day,'
+said Robina. And then she broke out again, 'Hark! the herald angels,'
+like a little silver bell.
+
+Suddenly there was a cry of dismay. She had been standing on a chair
+over the mantelpiece, sticking holly into the ornaments, behind and
+under which, in true man's fashion, a good many papers and letters had
+accumulated. One of these papers--by some unlucky movement--fell, and
+by a sudden waft of air floated irrevocably into the hottest place in
+the fire.
+
+'O dear! oh dear!' wailed Robina.
+
+'That's a pretty go,' cried Lancelot.
+
+'That comes of your open fires,' observed Fernando.
+
+'What was it?' asked Lance.
+
+'I don't know. I think it was a list of names! Oh! how vexed he'll be,
+and Wilmet; for she told me never to get on a chair over the fender,
+and I forgot.' Bobbie's round face was puckering for a cry.
+
+'No, no, don't cry, Bob; I told you to get up, and I'll say so,' said
+Lance, smothering her in his arms after the wont of consoling brothers.
+
+'I dare say he'll not miss it,' said Fernando good-naturedly; 'he very
+seldom meddles with those things.'
+
+Bobbie's great round grey eyes came out over Lance's shoulder, and
+flashed amazement and wrath at him. 'I'm not going to tell stories,'
+she said stoutly.
+
+'No,' said Lance, equally scandalized; 'I thought you had learnt
+better, Fernando.'
+
+Robina, be it observed, was ignorant of Fernando's untaught state.
+
+'I only said you could hold your tongue,' was of course Fernando's
+rejoinder.
+
+'That's just as bad,' was the little girl's response.
+
+'But, Lance, you held your tongue about your black eye.'
+
+'That's my affair, and _nobody else's_,' said Lance, flushing up and
+looking cross at the allusion.
+
+'And Fulbert told!' added Robina.
+
+'Will they punish you?' asked Fernando.
+
+'I think Wilmet will, because it was disobedience! I don't think she'll
+let me have any butter at tea,' Bobbie nearly sobbed. 'Mr. Audley won't
+punish! But he'll look--' and she quite cried now.
+
+'And do you like that better than not telling?' said Fernando, still
+curious.
+
+She looked up, amazed again. 'I must! I don't like it! But I couldn't
+ever have a happy Christmas if I didn't tell! I wish they would come
+that I might have it over.'
+
+The street door opened at the moment, and Mr. Audley and Wilmet came in
+together from Lady Price's convocation of the parish staff. Fernando
+heard the sobbing confession in the passage, and Lance's assurance
+that he had been art and part in the disobedience, and Wilmet gravely
+blaming the child, and Mr. Audley telling her not to think so much
+about the loss as the transgression; and then the door was shut, and he
+heard no more, till Mr. Audley came in, examined the chimney-piece, and
+performed the elegy of the list in a long low whistle.
+
+'Is much harm done?' Fernando asked.
+
+'Not much; only I must go and get another list made out, and I am
+afraid I shall not be able to come in again before church.'
+
+'I hope they have not punished her.'
+
+'Wilmet recommended not taking the prize prayer-book to church, and
+she acquiesced with tears in her eyes. A good child's repentance is a
+beautiful thing--
+
+         "O happy in repentance' school
+          So early taught and tried."'
+
+These last words were said to himself as he picked up his various
+goods, and added, 'I must get some tea at the Rectory. I am sorry to
+leave you, but I hope one of them will come down.'
+
+They did not, except that they peeped in for a moment to wish him
+good-night, and regretted that they had not known him to be alone.
+
+As Felix was going out to begin the Christmas Feast in the darkness of
+morning, he looked in as he usually did, since Mr. Audley, sleeping out
+of the house, never came in till after early church. The nurse, who
+still slept in the room, was gone to dress; there was only a flickering
+night-light, and the room looked very desolate and forlorn, still more
+so the voice that called out to him, 'Felix! oh, Felix! is that you?'
+
+'Yes. A happy Christmas to you,' said Felix.
+
+'Happy--!' there was a sort of groan.
+
+'Why, what's the matter? have you had a bad night? Aren't you so well?'
+
+'I don't know. Come here; I must speak to you.'
+
+Felix was, as usual, in a great haste, but the tone startled him.
+
+'Felix, I can't stand this any longer. I must let you know what a
+frightful, intolerable wretch I've been. I tried to teach Lance to bet.'
+
+'Fernando!' He was so choked with indignation, he could not say more.
+
+'He wouldn't do it. Not after he understood it. It seems he tried it
+with another little boy at school, and one of the bigger ones boxed his
+ears and rowed him.'
+
+'Ay; Bruce promised me to look after him.'
+
+'So he refused. He told me he was on his honour to you not to stay if I
+did anything your father would have disapproved. He did leave me once,
+when I would not leave off.'
+
+'But how could you?'
+
+'I was so bored--so intolerably dull--and it is the only thing on earth
+that one cares to do.'
+
+'But Lance had nothing to stake.'
+
+'I could lend him! Ah! you don't know what betting is; why, we all
+do it--women, boys and all!' His voice became excited, and Felix in
+consternation broke in--
+
+'When did you do this?'
+
+'Oh! weeks ago. Before I was out of bed. When I found my dice in my
+purse; but I have not tried it since, with him!'
+
+'With whom, then?'
+
+'Why--don't fall on him--with Fulbert. He knew what it meant. Now,
+Felix, don't come on him for it. Come on me as much as you please. I've
+been a traitor to you. I see it now.'
+
+'Anything but that!' sighed Felix, too much appalled for immediate
+forgiving, dejected as was the voice that spoke to him.
+
+'Yes, yes, I know! I see. The worst thing I could do,' said Fernando,
+turning his face in on the pillow, in so broken-hearted a manner that
+Felix's kindness and generosity were roused.
+
+'Stay, don't be so downcast,' he said. 'There's no harm done with
+Lance, and you being so sorry will undo it with Fulbert! I do thank you
+for telling me, _really_, only it upset me at first.'
+
+'Upset! Yes, you'll be more so when you hear the rest,' said Fernando,
+raising his head again. 'Do you know who set that inn on fire?'
+
+'Nobody does.'
+
+'Well, I did.'
+
+'Nonsense! You've had a bad night! You don't know what you are
+talking about,' said Felix, anxiously laying hold of one of the hot
+hands--perceiving that his own Christmas Day must begin with mercy, not
+sacrifice, and beginning to hope the first self-accusation was also
+delirious.
+
+'Tell me. Didn't the fire begin in the ball-room? Somebody told me so.'
+
+'Yes, the waiter saw it there.'
+
+'Then I did it; I threw the end of a cigar among the flummery in the
+grate,' cried Fernando, falling back from the attitude into which he
+had raised himself, with a gesture of despair.
+
+'Nobody can blame you.'
+
+'Stay. It was after father and uncle had gone! I was smoking at the
+window of our room, and the landlord came in and ordered me not,
+because some ladies in the next room objected. He told me I might come
+down to the coffee-room; but I had never heard of such meddling, and I
+jawed him well; but he made me give in somehow. Only when I saw that
+big ball-room all along the side of the building, I just took a turn in
+it with my cigar to spite him. Poor Diego came up and begged me not,
+but you know the way one does with a nigger. Oh!'
+
+Felix did not know; but the voice broke down in such misery and horror,
+that his soul seemed to sink within him. 'Have you had this on your
+mind all this time?' he asked kindly.
+
+'No, no. It didn't come to me. I think I've been a block or a stone.
+The dear faithful fellow, that loved me as no one ever did. I've been
+feeling the kiss he gave me at the window all to-night. And then I've
+been falling--falling--falling in his black arms--down--down to hell
+itself. Not that he is there; but I murdered him, you know--and some
+one else besides, wasn't there?'
+
+'This is like delirium, really, Fernando,' said Felix, putting his arms
+round him to lay him down, as he raised himself on his elbow. 'I must
+call some one if you seem so ill.'
+
+'I wish it was illness,' said Fernando with a shudder. 'Oh! don't
+go--don't let me go--if you can bear to touch me--when you know all!'
+
+'There can't be any worse to know. You had better not talk.'
+
+'I must! I must tell you all I really am; though you will never let
+your brothers come near me, or the little angels--your sisters. I'd
+not have dared look at them myself if I had known it, but things never
+seemed so to me before.'
+
+Felix shivered at the thought of what he was to hear, but he gave
+himself up to listen kindly, and to his relief he gathered from the
+incoherent words that there was no great stain of crime, as he had
+feared; but that the boy had come to open his eyes to the evils of the
+life in which he had shared according to his age, and saw them in their
+foulness, and with an agonised sense of shame and pollution. Felix
+could not help asking whether this had long dwelt on his thoughts.
+
+'No,' he said, 'that's the wonder! I thought myself a nice,
+gentlemanly, honourable fellow. Oh!' with a groan. 'Fancy that! I never
+thought of recollecting these things, or what they have made me. Only,
+somehow, when those children seemed so shocked at my advising them
+to hold their tongues about their bit of mischief--I thought first
+what fools you all were to be so scrupulous; and then I recollected
+the lots of things I have concealed, till I began to think, Is this
+honour--would it seem so to Lance--or Felix? And then came down on me
+the thought of what you believe, of God seeing it all, and laying it up
+against one for judgment; and I _know_--I _know_ it is true!' and there
+came another heavy groan, and the great eyes shone in the twilight in
+terror.
+
+'If you know that is true,' said Felix, steadfastly and tenderly, 'you
+know something else too. You know Whom He sent into the world for our
+pardon for these things.'
+
+There was a tightening of the grasp as if in acquiescence and comfort;
+but the nurse came back to tidy the room, and still Fernando clung to
+Felix, and would not let him go. She opened the shutters, and then
+both she and Felix were dismayed to see how ill and spent her patient
+looked; for she had slept soundly through his night of silent anguish
+and remorse--misery that, as Felix saw by his face, was pressing on him
+still with intolerable weight.
+
+By the time the woman had finished Mr. Audley came in, and seeing at
+once that Felix's absence was accounted for by Fernando's appearance,
+he stepped up at once to the bed, full of solicitude. Felix hardly knew
+whether to reply or escape; but Fernando's heart was too full for his
+words not to come at once.
+
+'No, I am not worse, but I see it all now.--Tell him, Felix; I cannot
+say it again.'
+
+'Fernando thinks--' Felix found he could hardly speak the words
+either--'Fernando is afraid that it was an accident of his own--'
+
+'Don't say an accident. It was passion and spite,' broke in Fernando.
+
+'That caused the fire at the Fortinbras Arms,' Felix was obliged to
+finish.
+
+'Not on purpose!' exclaimed Mr. Audley.
+
+'Almost as much as if it had been,' said Fernando. 'I smoked to spite
+the landlord for interfering, and threw away the end too angry to
+heed where. There!' he added grimly; 'Felix won't tell me how many I
+murdered besides my poor old black. How many?'
+
+'Do not speak in that way, my poor boy,' said Mr. Audley. 'At least,
+this is better than the weight you have had on your mind so long.'
+
+'How many?' repeated Fernando.
+
+'Two more lives were lost,' said Mr. Audley gently, 'Mr. Jones's
+baby and its nurse. But you must not use harder words than are just,
+Fernando. It was a terrible result, but consequences do not make the
+evil.'
+
+He made a kind of murmur; then turning round, uneasily said, 'That is
+not all; I have seen myself, Mr. Audley.'
+
+Mr. Audley looked at Felix, who spoke with some difficulty and
+perplexity. 'He has been very unhappy all night. He thinks things wrong
+that he never thought about before.'
+
+Mr. Audley felt exceedingly hopeful at those words; but he was alarmed
+at the physical effect on his patient, and felt that the present
+excitement was mischievous. 'I understand in part,' he said. 'But it
+seems to me that he is too restless and uncomfortable to think or
+understand now. It may be that he may yet see the joy of to-day; but no
+more talk now. Have you had your breakfast?'
+
+He shook his head, but Felix had to go away, and breakfast and dressing
+restored Fernando to a more tranquil state. He slept, too, wearied out,
+when he was placed on his couch; while Felix was at Christmas service,
+singing, as he had never sung before,--
+
+     'Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
+      God and sinners reconciled.'
+
+Oh! was the poor young stranger seeing the way to that reconciliation?
+and when Lancelot's sweet clear young notes rose up in all their
+purity, and the rosy honest face looked upwards with an expression
+elevated by the music, Felix could not help thinking that the boy had
+verily sung those words of truth and hope into the poor dark lonely
+heart. Kindness, steadfastness, truth, in that merry-hearted child
+had been doing their work; and when Lance marched away with the other
+lesser choristers, the elder brother felt as if the younger had been
+the more worthy to 'draw near in faith.'
+
+Fernando was more like himself when Felix came in, but he was a good
+deal shaken, and listened to the conventional Christmas greeting like
+mockery, shrinking from the sisters, when they looked in on him, with
+what they thought a fresh access of shyness, but which was a feeling of
+terrible shame beside the innocence he ascribed to them.
+
+'I wish I could help that poor boy,' sighed Wilmet. 'He does look so
+very miserable!'
+
+And Geraldine's eyes swam in tears as she thought of the loneliness
+of his Christmas, and without that Christmas joy that even her
+mother's dulled spirit could feel--the joy that bore them through the
+recollections of this time last year.
+
+Lance's desire to cheer took the more material form of acting as
+Fernando's special waiter at the consumption of the turkey, which Mr.
+Audley had insisted on having from home, and eating in company with the
+rest, to whom it was a 'new experience,' being only a faint remembrance
+even to Felix and Wilmet; but Fernando had no appetite, and even the
+sight of his little friend gave him a pang.
+
+'Do you want any one to stay with you?' asked Lance. 'If Cherry _would_
+do--for Felix said he would take Fulbert and me out for a jolly long
+walk, to see the icicles at Bold's Hatch.'
+
+'No, I want no one. You are better without me.'
+
+'I'll stay if you _do_ want it,' said Lance, very reluctantly. 'I
+don't like your not having one bit of Christmas. Shall I sing you one
+Christmas hymn before I go?' And Lance broke into the 'Herald Angels'
+again.
+
+     'Mild He lays His glory by,
+      Born that man no more may die;
+      Born to raise the sons of earth,
+      Born to give them second birth.'
+
+Fernando's face was bathed in tears; he held out his arms, and to
+little Lance's great amazement, somewhat to his vexation, he held him
+fast and kissed him.
+
+'What did you do that for?' he asked in a gruff astonished voice.
+
+'Never mind!' said Fernando. 'Only I think I see what this day can be!
+Now go.'
+
+Presently Mr. Audley came softly in. The lad's face was turned in to
+his cushion, his handkerchief over it; and as the young priest stood
+watching him, what could be done but pray for the poor struggling soul?
+At last he turned round, and looked up.
+
+'I saw it again,' he said with a sigh.
+
+'Saw what?'
+
+'What you all mean. It touched me, and seemed true and real when Lance
+was singing. What was it--"Born to save the sons of earth"? Oh! but
+such as I am, and at my age, too!'
+
+And with a few words from Mr. Audley, there came such a disburthening
+of self-accusation as before to Felix. It seemed as if the terrible
+effects of his wilfulness at the inn--horrified as he was at them--were
+less oppressive to his conscience than his treachery to his host in his
+endeavour to gamble with the little boys. He had found a pair of dice
+in his purse when looking for the price of a Bible, and the sight had
+awakened the vehement hereditary Mexican passion for betting, the bane
+of his mother's race. His father, as a clever man of the world, hated
+and prohibited the practice; but Fernando had what could easily become
+a frenzy for that excitement of the lazy south, and even while he had
+seen it in its consequences, the intense craving for the amusement had
+mastered him more than once, when loathing the dulness and weariness
+of his confinement, and shrinking from the doctrines he feared to
+accept. He knew it was dishonourable--yet he had given way; and he
+felt like one utterly stained, unpardonable, hopeless: but there was
+less exaggeration in his state of mind than in the early morning; and
+when Mr. Audley dwelt on the Hope of sinners, his eyes glistened and
+brightened; and at the further words that held out to him the assurance
+that all these sins might be washed away, and he himself enabled to
+begin a new life, his looks shone responsively; but he shook his head
+soon--'It went away from him,' he said; poor boy! 'it was too great and
+good to be true.'
+
+Then Mr. Audley put prayer before him as a means of clinging even
+blindly to the Cross that he was barely beginning to grasp, and the
+boy promised. He would do anything they would, could he but hope to be
+freed from the horrible weight of sense of hopeless pollution that had
+come upon him.
+
+For some days he did not seem able to read anything but the Gospels and
+the Baptismal Service; and at length, after a long silence, he said,
+'Mr. Audley, if your sermon is finished, can you listen to me? May I be
+baptized?'
+
+Then indeed the Curate's heart bounded, but he had to keep himself
+restrained. The father's consent he had secured beforehand, but he
+thought Fernando ought to write to him; and it was also needful to
+consult the Rector as to the length of actual preparation and probation.
+
+Then, when the question came, 'Can I indeed be like Felix and Lancelot'
+the reply had to be cautious. 'You will be as entirely pardoned, as
+entirely belonging to the holiness within and without, as they; but
+how far you will have the consciousness, I cannot tell; and it is very
+probable that your temptations may be harder. Guilt may be forgiven,
+while habits retain their power; and they have been guarded, taught
+self-restraint, and had an example before them in their father, such as
+very few have been blessed with.'
+
+Fernando sighed long and sadly, and said, 'Then you do not think it
+will make much difference.'
+
+'The difference between life and death! But you must expect to have to
+believe rather than _feel_. But go on, and it will all be clear.'
+
+The Rector was at first anxious to wait for definite sanction from
+the father; but as Mr. Audley was sure of the permission he had
+received, and no letter could be had for several months, he agreed to
+examine the lad, and write to the Bishop--a new Bishop, who had been
+appointed within the last year, and who was coming in the spring for a
+Confirmation.
+
+Mr. Bevan was really delighted with the catechumen, and wrote warmly of
+him. The reply was, that if the Baptism could take place the day before
+the Confirmation, which was to be in a month's time, the Bishop himself
+would like to be present, and the youth could be confirmed the next
+day. There was much that was convenient in this, for it gave time for
+Fernando to make progress in moving about. He had made a start within
+the last week or two, was trying to use crutches, and had been out on
+fine days in a chair; and once or twice Lady Price had taken him for
+a drive, though she had never thought of doing so by Geraldine. The
+doctor said that change of air would probably quite restore his health;
+and he had only to wait to be a little less dependent before he was to
+go to a tutor, an old friend of the Audley family.
+
+Everything promised well; but one wet afternoon, in the interim between
+the end of Lance's and that of Fulbert's holidays, Mr. Audley, while
+coming down from a visit to Mrs. Underwood, fancied he heard an ominous
+rattle, and opening the door suddenly, found Fernando and Fulbert
+eagerly throwing the dice and with several shillings before them.
+
+Both started violently as he entered, and Fulbert put his arm and hand
+round as if to hide the whole affair; while Fernando tried to look
+composed.
+
+All that the Curate said in his surprise was one sharp sentence.
+'Fernando Travis, if you are to renounce the devil, you will have to
+begin by throwing those dice into the fire.'
+
+Fernando's eyes looked furious, and he swept the dice and the money
+into his pocket--all but three shillings. Fulbert stole out of the room
+quietly. No doubt these were his winnings, which he did not dare to
+touch.
+
+Mr. Audley took up a book and waited, fully expecting that sorrow would
+follow; but Fernando did not speak; and when at length he did on some
+indifferent matter, it was in his ordinary tone. Well, there must be
+patience. No doubt repentance would come at night! No; the evening
+passed on, and Fernando was ready for all their usual occupations.
+Perhaps it would come with Felix, or in the dawn after a troubled
+night. Alas! no. And moreover, Felix, to whom it was necessary to
+speak, was exceedingly angry and vexed, and utterly incredulous of
+there being any good in the character that could be so fickle, if not
+deceitful and hypocritical. His own resolute temper had no power of
+comprehending the unmanliness of erring against the better will; he
+was absolutely incapable of understanding the horrible lassitude and
+craving for excitement that must have tempted Fernando, and he was
+hard and even ashamed of himself for having ever believed in the lad's
+sincerity.
+
+This anger too made him speak with such a threatening tone to Fulbert,
+as to rouse the doggedness of the boy's nature. All that could be got
+out of Fulbert was that 'his going there was all Felix's doing,' and he
+would not manifest any sign of regret, such as would be any security
+against his introducing the practice among the clergy orphans, or
+continuing it all his life. He was not a boy given to confidences, and
+neither Wilmet nor Cherry could get him beyond his glum declaration
+that it was Felix's fault, he only wanted to keep out of the fellow's
+way. They could only take comfort in believing that he was really
+ashamed, and that he suffered enough within to be a warning against the
+vice itself.
+
+As to Fernando, he made no sign, he went on as if nothing had happened;
+and nothing was observable about him, but that he showed himself
+intensely weary of his present mode of life, put on at times the
+manners that were either those of the Spanish Don or of the Indian
+Cacique, and seemed to shrink from the prospect of the English tutor.
+Yet he continued his preparation for baptism, and Mr. Bevan was
+satisfied with him; but Mr. Audley was perplexed and unhappy over the
+reserve that had sprung up between them, and could not decide whether
+to make another attempt or leave the lad to himself.
+
+One afternoon, only ten days from the time fixed for the Bishop's
+visit, Mr. Audley returned from a clerical meeting to find an
+unexpected visitor in the room--namely, Alfred Travis, Fernando's
+uncle, a more Americanized and rougher person than his brother. He rose
+as he entered. 'Good morning, Mr. Audley; you have taken good care of
+your charge. He is fit to start with me to-morrow. See a surgeon in
+town--then to Liverpool--'
+
+'Indeed!' Mr. Audley caught a deprecating look from Fernando. 'Do you
+come from his father?'
+
+'Well--yes and no. His father is still in the Oregon; but he and I have
+always been one--and opening the boy's letters, and finding him ready
+to move, I thought, as I had business in England, I'd come and fetch
+him, and just settle any claim the fellow at yonder hotel may have
+cheek enough to set up, since Fernan was green enough to let it out.'
+
+'May I ask if you have any authority from his father?'
+
+'Authority! Bless you! William will be glad to see his boy; we don't go
+by authority between brothers.'
+
+'Because,' continued Mr. Audley, 'I heard from your brother that he
+wished Fernando to remain with me to receive an English education.'
+
+'All sentiment and stuff! He knew better before we had sailed! An
+English squire in this wretched old country, forsooth! when the new
+republic is before him! No, no, Mr. Audley, I'll be open with you. I
+saw what you were up to when I got your letter, and Fernan--Got his
+lesson very well, he had. And when I came down, a friend in London gave
+me another hint. It won't do, I can assure you. That style of thing is
+all very well for you spruce parsons of good family, as you call it in
+the old country; but we are not going to have a rising young fellow
+like this, with a prospect of what would buy out all your squires and
+baronets in the old country, beslobbered and befooled with a lot of
+Puseyite cant. You've had your turn of him; it is time he should come
+and be a man again.'
+
+Mr. Audley was dizzy with consternation. Fernando was no child. He was
+full sixteen, and he was so far recovered that his health formed no
+reason for detaining him. If he chose to go with his uncle, he _must_.
+If not--what then? He looked at Fernando, who sat uneasily.
+
+'You hear what your uncle says?' he asked.
+
+'I told him,' said Fernando, 'I must wait for a fortnight.' He spoke
+with eyes cast down, but not irresolutely.
+
+His uncle broke out--He knew what that meant; it was only that he might
+be flattered by the Bishop and all the ladies, and made a greater fool
+of than ever. No, no, he must be out again by May, and he should just
+have time to take Fernan to one of the gay boarding-houses at Saratoga,
+and leave him there to enjoy himself.
+
+'I have letters from my father,' said Fernando, looking up to Mr.
+Audley, 'before he went to Oregon. He said nothing.'
+
+'Do you wish to stay?' said Mr. Audley, feeling that all depended on
+that, and trying to hide the whirl of anxiety and disappointment he
+felt.
+
+The answer was not what he expected. Fernando sat upright in his chair,
+looked up to him and then at his uncle, and said low but resolutely, 'I
+will stay.'
+
+'Then you shall stay,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+'You have worked upon him, I see, Sir, with your old-world prejudiced
+superstition,' said Alfred Travis, evidently under the delusion that he
+was keeping his temper. 'A proper fool my brother was to leave him to
+you. But you do it at your peril. I shall see if there's power even in
+this old country to keep a boy from his own relations. You'll see me
+again, Fernan. You had better make ready.'
+
+The words were not unaccompanied with expletives such as had never been
+personally uttered to Charles Audley before, and that brought the hot
+colour to his cheek. When he looked round, Fernando's face was covered
+with his hands. 'Oh! Mr. Audley,' he cried, as his uncle hastily shut
+the door, 'is he going to send for the police?'
+
+'I do not believe he can do any such thing,' said Mr. Audley, seeing
+that Fernando was in great nervous agitation. 'I have authority from
+your father, he has none; and you are old enough to make your own
+decision. You really mean and wish to stay?' he added.
+
+'I told him so from the first,' said Fernando.
+
+'Then he has no power to force you away.'
+
+Fernando was silent. Then he said, 'If I could have gone after my
+Baptism.'
+
+'Would you have wished that?' said Mr. Audley, somewhat disappointed.
+
+The tears were now on the long black lashes.
+
+'Oh, don't think me ungrateful, or-- But this English life does come
+over me as intolerably dull and slow. No life nor go in it. Sometimes
+I feel sick of it; and going back to books and all, after what I
+have been used to. If my uncle could wait for my Baptism, or,' more
+hesitating, 'if I could be baptized at once. Men do lead Christian
+lives out there. I would try to keep from evil, Mr. Audley. I see your
+face! Is this another temptation of the devil?'
+
+'I think it is an attempt of his,' said Mr. Audley, sadly. 'Even here
+you have not been able to abstain entirely from giving way to your old
+passion, when you had little temptation, and felt your honour bound.
+What will it be when you have comparatively no restraint?'
+
+'I am resolved not to go unbaptized,' said Fernando. 'I said so from
+the first, but he will not wait! Yet if my father sends for me, I must
+go.'
+
+'Then it will be your duty, and you will have more right to look for
+help. Besides, a summons from your father could not come for three or
+four months, and in that time you would have had time to gain something
+in Christian practice and training.'
+
+'Oh, there is the bell! Must you go, Mr. Audley? He will come back!'
+
+'I wish I could stay, but Smith is gone to Dearport, and I do not know
+whether the Rector is in. Besides, this must be your own doing, Fernan,
+not mine. I shall pray for you, that you well know. Pray for yourself,
+for this is a real crisis of life. God bless you, my dear boy.' He laid
+his hand on the head, and Fernando looked up gratefully, then said,
+'You never did that before. May Lance come to me, if he has not gone?'
+
+'I will call him,' said Mr. Audley, seeing that he really dreaded being
+alone. The little boy was on the stairs with something in his hand. 'Go
+in to Fernan,' he was told; 'he wants you. What have you got there?'
+
+'This queer drawing. Cherry found it in an old portfolio, and has been
+copying it.'
+
+It was Retzsch's outline of the chess-player, and it almost startled
+Mr. Audley by its appropriateness. He went out to Evensong, and never
+was more glad to get back to reinforce the feeble garrison.
+
+Lance opened the front door to him. 'I'm so glad you are come!' he
+said. 'Mr. Bruce is there.'
+
+'Not the uncle?'
+
+'No, only Mr. Bruce.'
+
+Mr. Bruce was a lawyer, and a very respectable man, in whom Mr. Audley
+felt confidence. He rose at the clergyman's entrance, and asked to
+speak to him in another room, so he was taken into the little back
+dining-room, and began--'This is a very unpleasant business, Mr.
+Audley; this gentleman is very much annoyed, and persuaded that he has
+a right to carry off his nephew; but as I told him, it all turns upon
+the father's expressions. Have you any written authority from him?'
+
+Mr. Audley had more than one letter, thanking him, and expressing full
+satisfaction in the proposed arrangements for Fernando; and this Mr.
+Bruce thought was full justification, together with the youth's own
+decided wishes. The words were likewise clear, by which William Travis
+had given consent to his son's Baptism, but there was no witness of
+them. Mr. Bruce explained that Alfred Travis, who seemed to regard
+Fernando as the common property of the brothers, had come to him in
+what he gently termed 'a great state of excitement,' complaining of
+a Puseyite plot. He had evidently taken umbrage at the tone of the
+letters he had opened for his brother, and had been further prejudiced
+by some Dearport timber-merchant he had met at Liverpool, who had told
+him how the parson had got hold of his nephew, and related a farrago of
+gossip about St. Oswald's. He was furious at the opposition, and could
+not understand that law in the old country was powerless in this case,
+because he was neither father nor guardian. In fact he seemed to be
+master of his brother; and Mr. Bruce told Mr. Audley that it was quite
+to be considered whether though law was on his side now, the father
+might not be brought over to the brother's side, be very angry at the
+detention of the boy, and refuse the payment, which, while he was in
+America, could not be forced from him. Of that Mr. Audley could happily
+afford to run the risk; and Mr. Bruce said he had also set before the
+young gentleman that he might have to suffer much displeasure from
+his father for his present refusal, although his right to make it was
+incontestable. To this Fernando had likewise made up his mind; and Mr.
+Bruce, who had never seen him before, thought he looked utterly unfit
+for a long journey and sea voyage, so that the uncle had taken nothing
+by his application to the law.
+
+Fernando was flushed and panting, but more resolute, for resentment at
+the attempt at force had come to back him up, and rouse the spirit of
+resistance. Not half an hour had elapsed before there was another ring
+at the door. The uncle and lawyer were come together now. It was to
+make a last offer to Fernando; Mr. Alfred Travis offered to take him up
+to London the next day, and there to have advice as to the safety of
+the voyage, in the meantime letting him be baptized, if nothing else
+would satisfy him, but by some London clergyman--not one of the Bexley
+set whom the uncle regarded with such aversion.
+
+Fernando drew himself up, and stood, leaning on the end of the sofa.
+'Thank you, uncle,' he said, 'I cannot. I am obeying my father now, and
+I will not leave those to whom he trusted me.'
+
+There followed a volley of abuse of his English obstinacy and Spanish
+pride and canting conceit, which made Mr. Bruce stand aghast, and
+Fernando look up with burning cheeks and eyes glowing like hot coals;
+but with the Indian impassibility he did not speak till Alfred Travis
+had threatened him not only with his father's displeasure, but with
+being cast off by both, and left to his English friends' charity.
+
+'My father will not!' said Fernando. 'If he sends for me I will come.'
+But there his strength suddenly collapsed, and he was forced to sit
+down and lean back.
+
+'Well, Fernan,' said his uncle, suddenly withdrawing his attempt when
+he found it vain, 'you seem hardly in marching order, so I'm off by the
+night train; but if you change your mind in the next week, write to
+me at Peter Brown's--you know--and I'll run down. I will save you the
+coming out by yourself. Good-bye.'
+
+Mr. Bruce tarried one moment to aver that he was unprepared for his
+client's violence, and that he thought the nephew had done quite right.
+
+The door was shut, and Mr. Audley came back holding out his hand, but
+Fernando did not take it. He was occupied in supporting himself by
+the furniture from the sofa to the fire-place, where, holding by the
+mantelpiece with one hand, he took his dice from his pocket with the
+other, and threw them into the reddest depth. Then he held the hand to
+Mr. Audley, who wrung it, and said, 'It has been a hard fight, my boy.'
+
+Fernando laid his weary head on his shoulder, and said, 'If my father
+is not poisoned against me!'
+
+'Do not fear that, Fernando. You are where he left you. You have given
+up something for the sake of your new Lord and Master; you will have
+his armour another time.'
+
+Fernando let himself be helped to sit down, and sighed. He was
+thoroughly worn out, and his victory was not such as to enliven his
+spirits. He took up the drawing that lay on the table, and gazed on it
+in a sort of dreamy fascination.
+
+'You have checked him this time,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+'Here or there, I will never bet again,' said Fernan solemnly. 'God
+help me to keep the resolution! It is the one thing that I care for,
+and I know I should have begun the first day I was away from you.'
+
+'I think that with those tastes you cannot make too strong a resolution
+against it,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+Their dinner was brought in, but Fernando had no appetite. He soon
+returned to his chess-player, and seemed to be playing over the game,
+but he was too much tired for talk, and soon went to bed; where after
+a short sleep feverishness set in, bringing something approaching to
+delirium. The nurse had gone a fortnight previously; but as he was
+still too helpless to have no one within call, Felix slept on the bed
+in the corner of the room.
+
+When he came down the opening of the door was greeted by 'Don't let him
+come! Is Mr. Audley there?'
+
+'Yes, he is not gone.'
+
+Then he knew Felix, but soon began again to talk of the game at chess,
+evidently mixing up his uncle with the personage with the long feather.
+
+'He has been checked once. I've taken one piece of his. He is gone now.
+Will he come back after my Baptism? No; I shall go to him.'
+
+This lasted till past midnight, when, as they were deliberating
+whether to send for Mr. Rugg, he fell soundly asleep, and awoke in the
+morning depressed, but composed and peaceful; and this state of things
+continued. The encounter with his uncle, and the deliberate choice, had
+apparently given some shock to his nerves; and whenever night recurred,
+there came two or three hours of misery, and apparently of temptation
+and terror. It took different forms. Sometimes it was half in
+sleep--the acting over again of one or two horrible scenes that he had
+partly witnessed in the Southern States, when an emancipator had been
+hunted down, and the slaves who had listened to him savagely punished.
+In spite of his Spanish blood, the horror had been ineffaceable;
+and his imagination connected it with the crowd of terrors that had
+revealed themselves to his awakened conscience. He seemed to think that
+if he lost in the awful game of life, he should be handed over to that
+terrible slave-master; and there were times when Diego's fate, and his
+own lapses, so fastened on his mind, as to make him despair of ever
+being allowed to quit that slave-master's dominions; and that again
+joined with alarm lest his uncle should return and claim him.
+
+Sometimes, likewise, the old wandering life, with the flashes of
+rollicking mirth and excitement, rather glimpsed at and looked forward
+to than really tasted, would become so alluring a contrast to the flat
+and tasteless--nay, as it seemed to him, tedious and toilsome--future
+sketched out for him; and the restraints and constant watchfulness of
+a Christian's life appeared so distressing a bondage, that his soul
+seemed to revolt against it, and he would talk of following his uncle
+at once to London while yet it was time, and writing to him the next
+morning. This state was sure to be followed by a passion of remorse,
+and sheer delirious terror lest he should be given up to the enemy,
+who seemed now to assume to his fancy the form of his uncle. A great
+deal was no doubt delirious, and this betrayed the struggles which he
+had been for weeks fighting out in silence and apparent impassiveness;
+but it was impossible not to feel that therewith was manifested the
+wrestling with the Prince of Darkness, ere his subject should escape
+from his territory, and claim the ransom of his manumission. Mr.
+Audley--after the second night--would not let Felix remain, but took
+the watch entirely on himself, and fought the battle with the foe
+by prayer and psalm. Sleep used to come before morning; and by day
+Fernando was himself again, very subdued and quiet, and, in fact,
+having lost a good deal of ground as to health.
+
+Strange to say, the greatest pleasure he had at this time was sitting
+in the upstairs parlour. The custom had begun in consequence of his
+nervous shuddering at being left alone lest his uncle should return,
+and Felix and Geraldine had then proposed taking him to their mother,
+who was rather interested than annoyed by his presence, and indeed
+all her gentle motherly instinct was drawn out by his feebleness and
+lameness; she talked to him kindly and quite rationally, and he was
+wonderfully impressed and soothed by her tenderness. It was so utterly
+unlike anything he had ever even seen, that he watched her with a sort
+of awe; while Cherry worked, read aloud, or drew, and felt proud of
+being able to fetch what was beyond the capacity of her little errand
+boy, Bernard.
+
+The children, too, entertained him; he was a little afraid of Bernard's
+roughness, but delighted in watching him, and he and little Stella
+were intensely admiring friends. She always knew him, cooed at him,
+and preferred the gold of his watch-chain to all things in nature or
+art. Then when Wilmet, Angela, and Lance came home, and family chatter
+began, the weary anxious brain rested; and even in that room, so sad
+to most eyes, Fernando began to realise what Christian peace and
+cheerfulness could be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HOME.
+
+     'Within those walls each fluttering guest
+      Is gently lured to one safe nest;
+      Without, 'tis moaning and unrest.'
+                                    _Keble._
+
+
+A great delight came to Wilmet and Geraldine the day of the Bishop's
+visit, no other than Alda's being able to spend a week with them. Miss
+Pearson spared Wilmet that whole afternoon, that she might go up to
+meet her at the station, whither she was escorted by a maid going down
+to Centry.
+
+There she was, in her pretty black silk, with violet trimmings, looking
+thoroughly the grown young lady, but clinging tight to her twin in an
+overflow of confused happiness, even while they stood together to get
+their first glance of the Bishop, who came down by the same train, and
+was met by Mr. Bevan with the carriage.
+
+'I'm glad it is so nice and warm; it is better for Fernan, and Cherry
+can go!' said Wilmet, ready for joy about everything.
+
+'Nice and warm! 'Tis much colder than in London,' said Alda, with a
+shiver. 'Has Cherry kept well this winter?'
+
+'Quite well. She walks much better. And Marilda?'
+
+'Oh, Marilda is always well. Rude health, her mother calls it. What do
+you think she has sent you, Wilmet? A darling little watch! just like
+this of mine!'
+
+'O Alda, you should not have let her. It is too much. Fernan wanted to
+give Lance a watch, but Felix would not let him.'
+
+'Yes, but he is not like Uncle Thomas, and it makes you like me.'
+
+'That we shall never be quite again,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'Oh! a little setting off, and trimming up! I've brought down lots of
+things. Aunt Mary said I might. What is this youth like, Wilmet--is he
+a boy or a young man?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Wilmet; 'he is younger than Felix, if that helps
+you.'
+
+'Well, Americans are old of their age. I have met some at Mr. Roper's.
+Oh, and do you know, Mrs. Roper told Aunt Mary that these Travises
+are quite millionaires, and that this youth's mother was a prodigious
+Mexican heiress. Aunt Mary wants to ask him to Kensington Palace
+Gardens, when he comes up to town! I'm glad I am in time for the
+christening. Doesn't he have godfathers and godmothers?'
+
+'Yes; he would have nobody but Felix and Mr. Audley, and Lady Price
+chose to be his godmother; indeed, there was nobody else.'
+
+'You could not well be, certainly,' laughed Alda. 'Oh! and I've brought
+a dress down. I thought some of us might be asked to the Rectory in the
+evening.'
+
+'My dear Alda, as if such a thing ever happened!'
+
+'Ah! you see I have been so long away as to forget my Lady's manners.'
+
+'Mr. Audley is going, and Fernan was asked, but he is not anything like
+well enough. So when Mamma and the little ones go to bed, we are to
+come down and spend the evening with him.'
+
+'Fancy, Wilmet, I have quite been preparing Marilda for her
+Confirmation. She had hardly been taught anything, and never could have
+answered the questions if she had not come to me. She is always asking
+me what Papa said about this and that; and it is quite awkward, she
+will carry out everything so literally, poor dear girl.'
+
+'She must be very good.'
+
+'Oh! to be sure she is! But just fancy, she keeps a tithe of her
+pocket-money to give to the Offertory so scrupulously; she would really
+not buy something she wanted because it would have been just a shilling
+into her tenth. I'm so glad she is confirmed. I never knew what to
+do at church before. I couldn't go home by myself, and now a servant
+always waits for us. Oh! how fast the poor hotel is building again! It
+will brighten our street a little! Dear me, I did not know how dingy it
+was!'
+
+Nothing could look dingy where two such fair bright faces were; but
+Alda's became awe-struck and anxious as she went up to her mother's
+room. Indeed Mrs. Underwood looked up at her rather confused, and
+scarcely knowing the fashionable young lady, and it was only when the
+plumed hat was laid aside, and the two heads laid together, their
+fair locks mingling, that she knew she had her elder twins again, and
+stroked their faces with quiet delight.
+
+There was scarcely more than time to kiss the little ones, and contend
+with Stella's shyness, before first Lance hurried in and then Felix,
+excused from his work two hours earlier. He could only just run up and
+dress before he convoyed Geraldine to church, she having the first turn
+of the chair, helped her to her seat near the Font, and then came back
+for Fernando, who was under his special charge.
+
+Fernando sat looking very pale, and with the set expression of the
+mouth that always made Cherry think of Indians at the stake. His little
+new prayer-book was in his hand, and he was grasping it nervously,
+but he said nothing, as Felix helped him up and Lance held his crutch
+for him. It was his first entrance into a place of worship. They had
+intended to have accustomed him a little to the sights and sounds, but
+the weather and his ailment had prevented them. He was drawn to the
+porch, and there Felix partly lifted him out and up the step, while
+Lance took his hat for him, and as they were both wanted for the choir
+procession that was to usher the Bishop into church, they had to leave
+him in his place under Geraldine's protection.
+
+He had not in the least realised the effect of the interior of a
+church. St. Oswald's was a very grand old building, with a deep
+chancel a good deal raised, seen along a vista of heavy columns and
+arched vaults, lighted from the clerestory, and with a magnificent
+chancel-arch. The season was Lent, and the colouring of the decorations
+was therefore grave, but all the richer, and the light coming strongly
+in from the west window immediately over the children's heads, made
+the contrast of the bright sunlight and of the soft depths of mystery
+more striking, and, to an eye to which everything ecclesiastical was
+absolutely new, the effect was almost overwhelming. That solemnity and
+sanctity of long centuries, the peaceful hush, the grave beauty and
+grandeur, almost made him afraid to breathe, and Cherry sat by his side
+with her expressive face composed into the serious but happy look that
+accorded with the whole scene.
+
+He durst not move or speak. His was a silent passive nature, except
+when under strong stimulus, and Cherry respected his silence a great
+deal too much to break upon it by any information. She was half sorry
+when the noise of steps showed that the congregation were beginning
+to drop in, chiefly of the other young Confirmation candidates. Then
+presently Alda came, and whispered to her that Wilmet could not leave
+Mamma; and presently after, Lady Price bustled in with her daughter,
+looked severely at Alda under the impression that she was Wilmet
+very improperly tricked out, and pressed Fernando's hand before
+going on to her own place. Then came the low swell of the organ,
+another new sensation to one who had only heard opera music; then the
+approaching sound of the voices. Geraldine gave him the book open at
+the processional psalm, and the white-clad choir passed by, one of the
+first pair of choristers being Lance, singing with all his might, and
+that merry monkey-face full of a child's beautiful happy reverence. And
+again could be recognised Felix, Mr. Audley, Mr. Bevan, all whom the
+poor sick stranger had come to love best, all to his present perception
+glorified and beautiful. They had told him it would be all faith and no
+sight, but he seemed to find himself absolutely within that brighter
+better sphere to which they belonged, to see them walking in it in
+their white robes, to hear their songs of praise, and to know whence
+came that atmosphere that they carried about with them, and that he had
+felt when it was a riddle to him.
+
+And so the early parts of the service passed by him, not so much
+attended to or understood as filling him with a kind of dreamy
+rapturous trance, as the echoes of the new home, to which he, with all
+his heavy sense of past stain and present evil propensity, was gaining
+admission and adoption. For the first time he was really sensible of
+the _happiness_ of his choice, and felt the compensation for what he
+gave up.
+
+When the Second Lesson was ended, and the clergy and the choir, in
+their surplices, moved down to encircle the Font, it was as if they
+came to gather him in among them. Felix came and helped him up. He
+could stand now with one support, and this was his young godfather's
+right arm, to which he held tightly, but without any nervous
+convulsiveness--he was too happy for that now--during the prayers that
+entreated for his being safely gathered into the Ark, and the Gospel of
+admission into the Kingdom. He had an impulse to loose his clasp and
+stand alone at the beginning of the vows, but he could not; he had not
+withdrawn his hand before he was forced again to lean his weight upon
+the steady arm beside him.
+
+Nothing had been able to persuade Lady Price that she was not to make
+all the vows as for an infant, but luckily nobody heard her except her
+husband and the other sponsors, for it was a full, clear, steadfast
+voice that made reply, 'I renounce them all!' and as the dark deep
+eyes gazed far away into the west window, and Felix felt the shudder
+through the whole frame, he knew the force of that renunciation; and
+how it gave up that one excitement that the lad really cared for. And
+when that final and carefully-guarded vow of obedience was uttered,
+the pressure on his arm seemed to show that the moral was felt of that
+moment's endeavour to stand alone.
+
+The sound of prayer, save in his own chamber, was so entirely new,
+that no doubt the force of the petitions was infinitely enhanced, and
+the entreaty for the death of the old Adam had a definite application
+to those old habits and tastes that at times exerted their force. The
+right hand was ready and untrembling when the Rector took it; the
+stream of water glittered as it fell on the awe-struck brow and jetty
+hair, and the eyes shone out with a deep resolute lustre as 'Ferdinand
+Audley' was baptized into the Holy Name, and sworn a faithful soldier
+and servant.
+
+He had begged to be baptized by the English version of his name; the
+Spanish one had grown up by a sort of accident, and had always been
+regretted by his father. He had wished much to take the name of Felix,
+but they were so certain that this would not be approved, that they
+had persuaded him out of it. He was soon set down again by Geraldine's
+side; and she put out her hand and squeezed his hard, looking up into
+his face with tearful eyes of welcome.
+
+When the last sounds of the voluntary had died away, and the
+congregation had gone, she ventured again to look up at him and say, 'I
+am so glad!'
+
+'Why did you never tell me it was like this?' he said. 'I should never
+have hung back one moment. Now nothing can touch me, since I belong to
+_this_.'
+
+'Nothing can _really_,' said Geraldine softly. 'Above all, when it is
+sealed to us to-morrow.'
+
+Then there came a movement from the vestry, and the Rector and Mr.
+Audley were seen following the Bishop, who came down to where the two
+lame children still sat together, and putting his hand upon Ferdinand's
+head with the hair still wet, gave him his blessing before he spoke
+further. It was only a word or two of congratulation, but such as to go
+very deep; and then, seeing that the boy looked not excited, but worn
+and wearied, he added, 'You are going home to rest. I shall see you
+to-morrow after the confirmation;' and then he shook hands with him and
+with Geraldine, asking if she were the little girl of whom he had been
+told.
+
+'She is very young,' said Mr. Bevan, strongly impressed with the
+littleness of the figure; 'but she has been a Communicant for more than
+a year, and she is--a very good child.'
+
+'I can believe so,' said the Bishop, smiling to her. 'I have heard of
+your father, my dear, and of your brother.'
+
+Cherry coloured rosy red, but was much too shy to speak; and the Rector
+and Bishop went away, leaving only Mr. Audley.
+
+'Are you very much tired, Fernan?'
+
+'I don't know,' he half smiled.
+
+'I think he is; he is too happy to know it,' said Geraldine. 'Please
+let him go home first.'
+
+So Mr. Audley helped him out to the chair, where Felix, Alda, and Lance
+were waiting; and he said, 'Thank you,' and held out his hand, while
+Lance eagerly shook it, saying, 'Now it is right at last; and here's
+Alda--isn't she a stunner?'
+
+'I thought it was Wilmet,' said Fernan; and Alda went into church to
+keep Cherry company, thinking how curiously blind the male sex were not
+to distinguish between her dress and poor dear Wilmet's.
+
+Mr. Audley was more than satisfied, he was surprised and comforted. He
+had prepared to meet either disappointment or excitement in his charge;
+he found neither--only a perfect placid content, as of one who had
+found his home and was at rest. The boy was too much tired, after his
+many bad nights and the day's exertion, to say or think much; all he
+did say was, 'I shall mind nothing now that I know what it is to be one
+of you.'
+
+Mr. Audley tried to remember that there must be a reaction, but he
+could not bring himself to fear or to warn, or do anything but enjoy
+the happiest day of his three years' ministry.
+
+He had to go to the Rectory dinner-party, and leave his neophyte to
+the tendance of the Underwoods. Felix sat with his friend in a great
+calm silence, while the rest were taken up by the counter-attraction
+upstairs, where Alda was unpacking an unrivalled store of presents from
+herself and Marilda, useful and ornamental, such as seemed a perfect
+_embarras de richesses_ to the homely, scantily-endowed children. That
+little gold watch was the prize and wonder of all. It was the first
+in the family, except that Felix wore his father's, and Alda knew
+how an elder girl was scorned at school if she had none; but Wilmet,
+though very happy with hers, smiled, and would not agree to having
+met with disrespect for want of it. Then there were drawing-books
+for Cherry, and a knife of endless blades for Lance, and toys for
+the little ones; and dresses--a suit for Wilmet like Alda's plainest
+Sunday one, and Alda's last year's silk for Geraldine, and some
+charming little cashmere pelisses--Aunt Mary's special present to the
+two babies--things that would lengthen Wilmet's purse for many a day
+to come; and a writing-case for Felix; and all the absent remembered,
+too. Uncle Thomas had given Alda a five-pound note to buy presents,
+and Marilda had sent every one something besides, mostly of such a
+matter-of-fact useful type that Alda stood and laughed at them. And
+Mrs. Underwood was pleased with the exhibition, and smiled and admired,
+only her attention was tired out at last, and she was taken early to
+her own room.
+
+The elder ones went down to sit round the fire in Mr. Audley's room,
+where Ferdinand insisted on leaving his sofa to Geraldine, and betaking
+himself to the easy-chair, where he leant back, content and happy to
+watch the others through his eye-lashes. Alda was a little on her
+company manners at the first, but all the others were at perfect
+ease, as they sat in the dim light. Felix on the floor by Cherry, who
+delighted in a chance of playing fondling tricks with his hair and
+fingers; the twins in Mr. Audley's big chair, where they could lean
+against each other; and Lance cross-legged on the hearth-rug roasting
+chestnuts, of which a fellow chorister had given him a pocketful, and
+feeding every one in turn.
+
+Geraldine gave a sigh to the wish that poor dear Edgar were there.
+
+'He is very happy!' said Alda.
+
+'Oh yes, but I wish he had not missed being here to-morrow. I wonder
+when he will come home.'
+
+'I cannot guess; Aunt Mary wants to go down the Rhine next summer (only
+she is not quite sure it is not the Rhone), and if so, I suppose he
+would join us there.'
+
+'It is a whole year since we have set eyes on him,' said Felix.
+
+'But I believe he writes more to Cherry than anybody, does not he?'
+
+'Oh yes, and sends me lovely photographs to copy. Such a beauty of
+himself! Have you seen it?'
+
+'I should think I had! They have set it up in a little gold frame on
+the drawing-room table, and everybody stands and says how handsome it
+is; and Aunt Mary explains all about him till I am tired of hearing it.'
+
+'And Clem?'
+
+'Oh, Clem came to luncheon yesterday. He is very much grown, and looks
+uncommonly demure, and as much disposed to set everybody to rights as
+ever.'
+
+But Alda did not enter much more into particulars; she led away the
+conversation to the sights she had seen in their summer tour; and as
+she had a good deal of descriptive power, she made her narratives so
+interesting that time slipped quickly past, and the young company was
+as much surprised as Mr. Audley was when he came home and found them
+all there, not yet gone to bed. They were greatly ashamed, and afraid
+they had done Ferdinand harm, and all were secretly very anxious about
+the night; but, though the wakeful habit and night feverishness were
+not at once to be broken through, yet the last impression was the
+strongest, and the long-drawn aisle, the 'dim religious light,' and
+the white procession, were now the recurring images, all joyful, all
+restful, truly as if the bird had escaped out of the snare of the
+fowler. Real sleep came sooner than usual, and Fernan rose quite equal
+to the fatigue of the coming day, the Confirmation day, when again
+Geraldine had to sit beside him--this newly admitted to the universal
+brotherhood, instead of being beside that dear Edgar of her own, for
+whom her whole heart craved, as she thought how their preparation had
+begun together beside her father's chair.
+
+Their place was now as near the choir as possible, and they were
+brought in as before, very early, so that Fernan gazed with the same
+eager, unsated eyes into the chancel and at the altar, admitted as he
+was farther into his true home.
+
+The church was filled with candidates from the villages round as
+well as from the town, and the Litany preceded the rite which was to
+seal the young champions ere the strife. The Bishop came down to the
+two lame children, and laid his hands on the two bent heads, ere he
+gave his final brief address, exhorting the young people to guard
+preciously, and preserve by many a faithful Eucharist, that mark which
+had sealed them to the Day of Redemption, through all this world's long
+hot trial and conflict.
+
+There was holiday at both schools, and Felix had been spared to take
+his place in the choir, but Mr. Froggatt could not do without him
+afterwards, as the presence of so many of the country clergy in the
+town was sure to fill the reading-room and shop; and he was obliged
+to hurry off as soon as he came out of church. Now, the Bishop had
+the evening before asked Lady Price 'whether that son of poor Mr.
+Underwood's' were present among the numerous smart folk who thronged
+her drawing-room, to which my lady had replied, 'No; he was a nice,
+gentlemanly youth certainly, but, considering all things, and how sadly
+he had lowered himself, she thought it better not. In fact, some might
+not be so well pleased to meet him.'
+
+The Bishop took the opportunity of trying to learn from the next person
+he fell in with, namely, Mr. Ryder, how Felix had lowered himself;
+and received an answer that showed a good deal of the schoolmaster's
+disappointment, but certainly did not show any sense of Felix's
+degradation. And what he said was afterwards amplified by Mr. Audley,
+whom the Bishop took apart, and questioned with much interest upon
+both Ferdinand Travis and the Underwood family, of whom he had only
+heard, when, immediately after his appointment, his vote for the orphan
+school had been solicited for the two boys, and he had been asked to
+subscribe to the Comment on the Philippians. Mr. Audley felt that he
+had a sympathizing listener, and was not slow to tell the whole story
+of the family--what the father had been, what Felix now was, and how
+his influence and that of little Lancelot had told upon their young
+inmate. The Bishop listened with emotion, and said, 'I must see that
+boy! Is the mother in a state in which she would like a call from me?'
+but there an interruption had come; and when the country clergy came in
+the morning, Mr. Audley had thought it fittest not to swell the numbers
+unnecessarily, and had kept himself out of the way, and tried to keep
+his fellow-curate.
+
+So he had seen no more of the Bishop, until, some little time after he
+and Fernan had lunched, and were, it must be confessed, making up for
+their unrestful nights by having both dropped asleep, one on his chair,
+the other on the sofa, there came a ring to the door, and Lance, who
+had a strong turn for opening it, found himself face to face with the
+same tall grey-haired gentleman at whom he had gazed in the rochet and
+lawn-sleeves. He stood gazing up open-mouthed.
+
+'I think I have seen you in the choir, and heard you too,' said the
+Bishop, kindly taking Lance's paw, which might have been cleaner had he
+known what awaited it. 'Mr. Audley lives here, I think.'
+
+Lance was for once without a word to say for himself, though his
+mouth remained open. All he did was unceremoniously to throw wide Mr.
+Audley's door, and bolt upstairs, leaving his Lordship to usher himself
+in, while Mr. Audley started up, and Ferdinand would have done the
+same, had he been able, before he was forbidden.
+
+There was a kindly talk upon his health and plans, how he was to
+remain at Bexley till after Easter and his first Communion, and then
+Mr. Audley would take him up to London to be inspected by a first-rate
+surgeon before going down to the tutor's. The tutor proved to be an
+old school-fellow and great friend of the Bishop; and what Fernan
+heard of him from both the friend and pupil would have much diminished
+his dread, even if he had not been in full force of the feeling that
+whatever served to bind him more closely to the new world of blessing
+within the Church must be good and comfortable.
+
+This visit over, the Bishop asked whether Mrs. Underwood would like
+to be visited, and Mr. Audley went up to ascertain. She was a woman
+who never was happy or at rest in an untidy room, or in disordered
+garments, and all was in as fair order as it could be with the old
+furniture, that all Wilmet's mending could not preserve from the verge
+of rags. Her widow's cap and soft shawl were as neat as possible, and
+so were the little ones in their brown-holland, Theodore sitting at her
+feet, and Stella on Wilmet's lap, where she was being kept out of the
+way of the more advanced amusement of a feast of wooden tea-things,
+carried on in a corner between Angela and Bernard, under Lance's
+somewhat embarrassing patronage.
+
+Alda sprang up, stared about in consternation at the utter unlikeness
+to the drawing-room in Kensington Palace Gardens, and exclaimed, 'Oh!
+if Sibby had only come to take the children out! Take them away, Lance.'
+
+'Sibby will come presently, or I will take them to her,' whispered
+Wilmet. 'I should like them just to have his blessing.'
+
+'So many,' sighed Alda; but meantime Mr. Audley had seen that all was
+right at the first _coup d'oeil_, had bent over Mrs. Underwood, told
+her that the Bishop wished to call upon her, and asked her leave to
+bring him up; and she smiled, looked pleased, and said, 'He is very
+kind. That is for your Papa, my dears. You must talk to him, you know.'
+
+The Bishop came up almost immediately, and the perfect tranquillity and
+absence of flutter fully showed poor Mrs. Underwood's old high-bred
+instinct. She was really gratified when he sat down by her, after
+greeting the three girls, and held out his hands to make friends with
+the lesser ones, whom their sisters led up, Angela submissive and
+pretty behaved, Bernard trying to hide his face, and Stella in Wilmet's
+arms staring to the widest extent of eyes. The sisters had their
+wish--the fatherless babes received the pastoral blessing; and the
+Bishop said a few kind words of real sympathy that made Mrs. Underwood
+look up at him affectionately and say, 'Indeed I have much to be
+thankful for. My children are very good to me.'
+
+'I am sure they are,' said the Bishop. 'I cannot tell you how much I
+respect your eldest son.'
+
+The colour rose in the pale face. 'He is a very dear boy,' she said.
+
+'I should like to see him before I go. Is he at home?'
+
+'Lance shall run and call him,' said Alda; but the Bishop had asked
+where he was, and Wilmet had, not unblushingly, for she was red with
+pleasure, but shamelessly, answered that he was at Mr. Froggatt's,
+offering to send Lance in search of him.
+
+'I had rather he would show me the way,' said the Bishop. 'Will you, my
+boy?'
+
+The way to Mr. Froggatt's was not very long, but it was long enough to
+overcome Lance's never very large amount of bashfulness; and he had
+made reply that he went to the Grammar School, and was in the second
+form, that he liked singing in the choir better than--no, not than
+_anything_--anything except--except what? Oh a jolly good snow-balling,
+or a game at hockey. Did he like the school? Pretty well, on the whole;
+but he did not suppose he should stay there long, his brother at the
+Clergy Orphan said there was such a lot of cads, and that he was always
+grubbing his nose among them; but now, 'do you really think now that
+cads are always such bad fellows?'
+
+His Lordship was too much diverted to be easily able to speak, but he
+observed that it depended on what was meant by a cad.
+
+'That's just it!' exclaimed Lance. 'I'm sure some that he calls cads
+are as good fellows as any going.'
+
+'And what does your eldest brother say?'
+
+'Felix! Oh! he does not mind, as long as one does not get into a real
+scrape.'
+
+'And then?'
+
+'Oh, then he minds so much that one can't do it, you know.'
+
+'What, does he punish you?'
+
+'N--no--he never licks any of us now--but he is so horridly sorry--and
+it bothers him so,' said Lance. 'Here's old Froggatt's,' he concluded,
+stopping at the glass door. 'My eyes! what a sight of parsons!' (Lance
+had pretty well forgotten whom he was talking to.) 'There, that's
+Felix--no, no, not that one serving Mr. Burrowes, that's Redstone;
+Felix is out there, getting out the sermon paper for that fat one, and
+that's old Froggy himself, bowing away. Shall I go and call Felix? I
+suppose he will not mind this time.'
+
+'No, thank you, I will go in myself. Good-bye, my little guide, and
+thank you.'
+
+And Lance, when his hand came out of the Bishop's, found something
+in it, which proved to be a tiny Prayer-book, and moreover a
+half-sovereign. He would have looked up and thanked, but the Bishop and
+that 'fat one' were absorbed in conversation on the step; and when he
+turned over the leaves of the little blue morocco book, with its inlaid
+red cross, he found full in his face, in the first page, the words,
+'Lancelot Underwood, March 15th, 1855,' and then followed an initial,
+and a name that utterly defeated Lance's powers, so that perceiving the
+shop to be far too densely full of parsons for him to have a chance
+there, he galloped off at full speed to Cherry, who happily could
+interpret the contracted Latin by the name of the See, and was not
+_quite_ so much astonished as Lance, though even more gratified.
+
+Meantime, the Bishop had made his way to the bowing Mr. Froggatt, and
+asked to speak with him in his private room, where he mentioned his
+kindness to young Underwood, and was answered by a gratified disclaimer
+of having done anything that was not of great advantage to himself.
+The good man seemed divided between desire to do justice to Felix and
+not to stand in his light, and alarm lest he should have to lose an
+assistant whom he had always known to be above his mark, and who was
+growing more valuable every month; and he was greatly relieved and
+delighted when the Bishop only rejoiced at his character of Felix, and
+complimented the Pursuivant by being glad that a paper of such good
+principles should be likely to have such a youth on its staff; it had
+been well for the lad to meet with so good a friend. Mr. Froggatt could
+not be denied an eulogium on the father, for whose sake he had first
+noticed the son; and when the Bishop had expressed his sorrow at never
+having known so bright a light as all described the late Curate to have
+been, he courteously regretted the interruption on a busy day, but he
+begged just to see the young man. He had little time himself, 'but if
+he could be spared to walk up to the station--'
+
+Mr. Froggatt bustled out with great alacrity, and taking the charge of
+the customer on himself, announced, for the benefit of all who might be
+within earshot: 'Mr. Underwood, his Lordship wishes to speak with you.
+He wishes you to walk up to the station with him. You had better go out
+by the private door.'
+
+Felix was red up to the ears. His eight years' seniority to Lance were
+eight times eight more shyness and embarrassment, but he could only
+obey; and at his first greeting his hand was taken--'hoped to have seen
+you sooner,' the Bishop said; 'but you had always escaped me in the
+vestry.'
+
+'I had to go to help my sister, my Lord,' said Felix.
+
+'And your friend,' said the Bishop. 'That is a good work that has been
+done in your house.'
+
+Felix coloured more, not knowing what to say.
+
+'I wish to see you,' continued the Bishop, 'partly to tell you how much
+I honour you for the step you have taken. I wish there were more who
+would understand the true uprightness and dutifulness of thinking no
+shame of any honest employment. I am afraid you do sometimes meet with
+what may be trying,' he added, no doubt remembering Lady Price's tone.
+
+'I do not care now, not much. I did at first,' said Felix.
+
+'No one whose approval is worth having can consider yours really a loss
+of position. You are in a profession every one respects, and you seem
+to have great means of influence likely to be open to you.'
+
+'So my father said, when he consented,' said Felix.
+
+'I shall always regret having just missed knowing your father. Some
+passages in that book of his struck me greatly. But what I wished to
+say was to ask whether there is any way in which I can be useful to you
+in the education of any of the younger ones, or--'
+
+'Thank you, my Lord,' said Felix. 'I think you kindly voted for my
+brothers last year for the Clergy Orphan school. Only one got in, and
+if you would vote again for little Lancelot--'
+
+'My droll little companion, who Mr. Audley tells me did so much for
+that poor young American.'
+
+'Indeed he did,' said Felix. 'I doubt if any of us would have got at
+him but for Lance, who did not mean anything but good-nature all the
+time.'
+
+'He is just the boy I want for our Cathedral school.' And then he
+went on to explain that a great reformation was going on. There was
+a foundation-school attached to the Cathedral, with exhibitions at
+the University, to which the Cathedral choristers had the first
+claim. There had been, of course, a period of decay, but an excellent
+Precentor had been just appointed, who would act as head master; and
+the singing-boys would be kept on free of expense after their voices
+became unavailable, provided that by such time they had passed a
+certain examination. Such a voice as Lance's was sure to recommend
+him; and besides, the Bishop said with a smile, he wanted to raise the
+character of the school, and he thought there was the stuff _here_ that
+would do so.
+
+Felix could only be thankful and rejoiced; but it was a pang to think
+of Lance being as entirely separated from home as was Clement; with
+no regular holidays, and always most needed at his post at the great
+festivals. There was something in his tone that made the Bishop say,
+'You do not like to part with him?'
+
+'No, my Lord; but I am glad it should be so. My father was not happy
+about--things here, and charged me to get my brothers away when I
+could.'
+
+'And as to holidays, you are near at hand, and most of the choir are
+of our own town. I think he may generally be spared for a good term at
+each holiday time. The organist is very considerate in giving leave of
+absence, even if he should turn out to have a dangerously good voice
+for solos. I will let you know when to send him up for examination,
+which he will pass easily. Good-bye. You must write to me if there is
+anything for me to do for you. One month more, and your father would
+have been one of my clergy, remember.'
+
+Felix went back, flushed with gratification, and yet, to a certain
+degree, with confusion, and not exactly liking the prospect of being
+interrogated as to what the Bishop had said to him: indeed, he never
+told the whole of it to any one but Cherry. Somehow, though Wilmet was
+his counsellor and mainstay, Geraldine was the sharer of all those
+confidences that came spontaneously out of the full but reserved heart.
+
+Besides, Wilmet was at present in such a trance of enjoyment of her
+twin sister, that she seemed scarcely able to enter into anything else.
+She went through her duties as usual, but with an effort to shake off
+her absorption in the thought of having Alda at home; and every moment
+she was not in sight of her darling seemed a cruel diminution of her
+one poor fortnight. Indeed it was _tete-a-tetes_ that her exclusive
+tenderness craved above all; and she was often disappointed that Alda
+should be willing to go and visit Fernan Travis when they might have
+had a quarter of an hour together alone. How much more selfish she must
+have grown than Alda in this last half year!
+
+Alda's talk was indeed full of interest, and gave a much better notion
+of her way of life than her letters did. She seemed to have been
+fully adopted as a daughter of the house, and to enjoy all the same
+privileges as Marilda; indeed, she had a good deal more credit with
+all varieties of teachers, since she learnt rapidly and eagerly; and
+Marilda, while encouraging her successes, without a shade of jealousy,
+made no attempt to conquer her own clumsiness and tardiness. Even 'Aunt
+Mary,' as Alda called Mrs. Thomas Underwood, often had recourse to Alda
+for sympathy in her endeavours to be tasteful, and continually held her
+up as an example to Marilda.
+
+'And poor dear good woman,' said Alda, 'she has such a respect for
+Underwood breeding and our education, that I believe I could persuade
+her into anything by telling her it was what she calls "_comifo_."
+Even when she was going to get the boudoir done with apple-green
+picked out with mauve, enough to set one's teeth on edge, and Marilda
+would do nothing but laugh, she let me persuade her into a lovely pale
+sea-green.'
+
+'Is not sea-green too delicate for her?' asked Cherry.
+
+'Why, it was very wicked of Edgar, to be sure, but he said that it
+was to suit the nymph reining in the porpoises. He made a sketch, and
+Marilda was delighted with it; she really is the most good-natured
+creature in the world.'
+
+'She must be!' ejaculated Wilmet; 'but surely she ought not to like
+laughing at her mother.'
+
+'Oh, everybody laughs at Aunt Mary, and she hardly ever finds it out,
+and when she does, she does not mind! Even old Mrs. Kedge, her mother,
+does nothing but laugh at her for trying to be fine. Old Granny is not
+a bit by way of being a lady, you know; she lives in a little house in
+the city with one maid, and I believe she rubs her own tables. I am
+sure she goes about in omnibuses, though she has lots of money; and
+Marilda is so fond of her, and so like her, only not so clever and
+shrewd.'
+
+'But why does she live in such a small way?'
+
+'Because she never was used to anything else, and does not like it. She
+hates grand servants, and never will come to Kensington Palace Gardens;
+but she really is good-natured. She told Clement to drop in on her
+whenever he likes, and bring any of his friends; and she always gives
+them a superb piece of plum-cake, and once she took them to the Tower,
+and once to the Zoological Gardens, for she thinks that she cannot do
+enough to make up to them for being bred up to be little monks, with
+cords and sandals, and everything popish.'
+
+'You don't let her think so?'
+
+'Well, really when she has got a thing into her head nothing will
+uproot it; and, after all, they do carry things very far there, and
+Clement goes on so that I don't wonder.'
+
+'Goes on how?'
+
+'Why, just fancy, the other day when Uncle Thomas fetched him in his
+brougham because I was coming home, there he sat at luncheon and would
+not eat a scrap of meat.'
+
+'Ah! it was a Wednesday in Lent,' said Cherry.
+
+'Only a Wednesday, you know; and _there_, with four or five strange
+people, too. One of them asked if he was a Catholic, and of course
+Clement looked very wise, and greatly pleased, and said, "Yes, he
+was;" and that brought down Aunt Mary with her heavy artillery. "Bless
+me, Clement, you don't say so. Is Mr. Fulmort really gone over?"
+"Yes," said Clem. (I know he did it on purpose.) "He is gone over to
+preach at St. Peter's." And then one of the gentlemen asked if Clem
+meant Mr. Fulmort of St. Matthew's, Whittingtonia, and when he said
+"Yes, he lived in the clergy house," he began regularly to play him
+off, asking the most absurd questions about fasts and feasts and
+vigils and decorations, and Clem answered them all in his prim little
+self-sufficient way, just as if he thought he was on the high-road to
+be St. Clement the Martyr, till I was ready to run away.'
+
+'Couldn't you have given him a hint?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'My dear, have you lived twelve years with Clem without knowing that
+hints are lost on him?'
+
+'Dear Clem, he is a very good steady-hearted little fellow,' said
+Cherry. 'It was very nice of him.'
+
+'Well, I only hope he'll never come to luncheon again in Lent. There
+are times and seasons for everything, and certainly not for display!
+And to make it worse, Marilda is the most literal-minded girl. Fasting
+was quite a new mind to her, for she never realises what she does
+not see; and she got Clem into a corner, where I heard him going on,
+nothing loth, about days of abstinence, out of Mr. Fulmort's last
+catechizing, I should think; and ended by asking what Cousin Edward
+did, so that I fully expected that I should find her eating nothing,
+and that I should be called to account.'
+
+'And what did you tell her then?'
+
+'Oh, you know I could say quite truly that he did not.'
+
+'I don't think that was quite fair,' said Wilmet gravely. 'You know it
+was only because he really could not.'
+
+'You don't know how glad I was to have an answer that would hinder the
+horrid commotion we should have had if Marilda had taken to fasting.
+And, after all, you _know_, Papa would have said minding her mother was
+her first duty.'
+
+'Why did not you tell her that?'
+
+'I have, dozens of times; but you know there are mothers and mothers,
+and nobody can always mind Aunt Mary, good soul! Marilda has just made
+herself, with her own good rough plain sense. I wish she was a man,
+she would be a capital merchant like her father; but it is hard to be
+a great heiress, with nothing she really likes to do. She is always
+longing to come down to Centry, and tramp about the lanes among the
+cottages.'
+
+'Oh! I wish they would!'
+
+'I don't think Aunt Mary will ever let them, she hates the country; and
+though she likes to have a place for the name of the thing, she does
+not want to live there, especially where there are so many of us; and
+then, Felix's situation!'
+
+'For shame, Alda!'
+
+'Well, I did not say anything myself. It is only Aunt Mary--it is very
+foolish of people, but, you see, they _will_. As to Marilda, I believe
+she would like to stand behind the counter with him this minute.'
+
+'Marilda is the oddest and best girl I ever heard of!'
+
+'You may say that. And so ignorant she was! She had a great
+velvet-and-gold Church Service, and hardly guessed there was any Bible
+or Prayer-Book besides. I am sure Felix cannot have had more work to
+teach that youth than I have had with Marilda. Such a jumble as she had
+picked up! She really had only little baby prayers to say, till she saw
+my book.'
+
+'What a blessing you must be to her!' said Wilmet, fondly looking at
+her sister.
+
+'Well, I do hope so. You must know she was regularly struck with dear
+Papa. I am sure he is the first saint in her calendar, and everything
+is--"What did Cousin Edward say?" And when once she has made up her
+mind that a thing is right, she will blunder on through fire and water,
+but she will do it.'
+
+'Then,' said Cherry, 'she ought to try and learn, and not to be awkward
+because of obedience.'
+
+Alda burst out laughing. 'People can only do what they can. Marilda
+trying to be graceful would be worse than Marilda floundering her own
+way. But she really is the best and kindest girl living, and she gets
+on much better for having me to keep her out of scrapes.'
+
+Wilmet went to bed that night thankful to have Alda's head on the
+pillow beside her, and most thankful for the tokens that she watched
+among her brothers and sisters, which showed how much her father's
+influence was extending beyond his short life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE THIRTEEN.
+
+      'They closed around the fire,
+      And all in turn essayed to paint
+      The rival merits of their saint;
+       A theme that ne'er can tire
+      A holy maid, for be it known
+      That their saint's honour is their own.'
+                                          _Scott._
+
+
+The thirteen Underwoods did not meet again in the same house for many
+a long day, and when they did, it was on a grey misty morning in the
+Christmas week of the year following; and the blinds were down, and
+the notes of the knell clashing out overhead, as the door was opened
+to Edgar, Alda, and Clement, as they arrived together, having been
+summoned late on the previous night by a telegram with tidings that
+their mother had been struck by a paralysis. They knew what to expect
+when Felix, with one of the little ones on his arm, came quietly down
+the stairs and admitted them. All they had to ask, was 'when,' and
+'how;' and to hear, that the long living death had ended in peaceful
+insensibility at last. Then they followed him upstairs to the room
+where the others sat, hushed, over their pen or their books, where
+Wilmet, her eyes gushing with quiet tears, held Alda in her embrace,
+and Geraldine, after her first eager kiss, gazed wistfully at Edgar as
+though there must be comfort in the very sight of him, if she could
+only feel it; while the very little ones opened their puzzled eyes on
+the new-comers as strangers.
+
+And so they were: Clement had indeed been at home in September, but
+Alda not for a year and three-quarters, nor Edgar since he first left
+it three years before. The absence of the two latter was not by their
+own choice; a doctor who had ordered Mrs. Thomas Underwood to spend
+the summer months, year after year, at Spa was partly the cause; and
+moreover, during the autumn and winter of 1856 Bexley had been a
+perfect field of epidemics. Measles and whooping-cough had run riot in
+the schools, and lingered in the streets and alleys of the potteries,
+fastening on many who thought themselves secured by former attacks;
+and there had been a good many deaths, in especial Clement's chief
+friend, Harry Lamb. Nobody, excepting the invalid mother, throughout
+the Underwood household, had escaped one or other disorder; and both
+fell to the lot of the four little ones, and likewise of Mr. Audley,
+who was infinitely disgusted at himself, and at the guarded childhood
+for which he thus paid the penalty pretty severely. When matters
+were at the worst, and Felix was laid up, and Wilmet found herself
+succumbing, she had written in desperation to Sister Constance, whose
+presence in the house had made the next three weeks a time of very
+pleasant recollections. Finally she had carried off Geraldine, Angela,
+and Bernard, to the convalescent rooms at St. Faith's, where their
+happiness had been such that the favourite sport of the little ones
+had ever since been the acting of Sisters of Mercy nursing sick dolls.
+The quarantine had been indefinitely prolonged for the proteges of
+Kensington Palace Gardens; for the three at school, though kept away
+till all infection was thought to be over, had perversely caught the
+maladies as soon as they came home for the summer holidays; and indeed
+the whole town and neighbouring villages were so full of contagion,
+that Mrs. Thomas Underwood had not far to seek for a plea for avoiding
+Centry.
+
+All this time, from day to day, the poor mother had been growing more
+feeble, and it had been fully purposed that on Edgar's return at
+Christmas, on the completion of his studies at Louvaine, he and Alda
+should make some stay at home; but the brother and sister were both
+so useful and ornamental that their adopted home could not spare them
+until after a series of Christmas entertainments; and Clement had been
+in like manner detained until the festival services at St. Matthew's no
+longer required him. Indeed, when he had been at home in the autumn, he
+had been scarcely recognized.
+
+For the last week, however, Mrs. Underwood had been much clearer in
+mind, had enjoyed the presence of her holiday children, and had for a
+short time even given hopes that her constitution might yet rally, and
+her dormant faculties revive. She had even talked to Mr. Audley and
+Geraldine at different times as though she had some such presentiment
+herself, and had made some exertions which proved much increased
+activity of brain. Alas! though their coming had thus been rendered
+very happy, the brightening had been but the symptom and precursor of
+a sudden attack of paralysis, whence there was no symptom of recovery,
+and which in a few hours ended in death.
+
+For the present, the hopes that had been entertained gave poignancy
+to the sudden disappointment and grief, and the home children could
+not acquiesce in the dispensation with the same quiet reasonableness
+as those who had been so long separated from them as not to miss
+the gentle countenance, or the 'sweet toils, sweet cares, for ever
+gone.' Indeed Wilmet was physically much exhausted by her long hours
+of anxiety, and went about pale-cheeked and tear-stained, quietly
+attending to all that was needful, but with the tears continually
+dropping; while Geraldine was fit for nothing but to lie still, unable
+to think, but feeling soothed as long as she could lay her hand upon
+Edgar and feel that he was near.
+
+So the whole thirteen were together again; and in the hush of the
+orphaned house there was a certain wonder and curiosity in their mutual
+examination and comparison with one another and with the beings with
+whom they had parted three years ago, at the period of their first
+separation. All were at a time of life when such an interval could
+not fail to make a vast alteration in externals. Even Geraldine had
+gained in strength, and though still white, and with features too
+large for her face, startlingly searching grey eyes, and brows that
+looked strangely thick, dark, and straight, in contrast with the
+pencilled arches belonging to all the rest, she was less weird and
+elfin-like than when she had been three inches shorter, and dressed
+more childishly. As Edgar said, she was less Riquet with a tuft than
+the good fairy godmother, and her twin sisters might have been her
+princess-wards, so far did they tower above her--straight as fir-trees,
+oval faced, regular featured, fair skinned, blue eyed, and bright
+haired. During those long dreary hours, Edgar often beguiled the
+time with sketches of them, and the outlines--whether of chiselled
+profiles, shapely heads, or Cupid's-bow lips--were still almost exactly
+similar; yet it had become impossible to mistake one twin for the
+other, even when Alda had dressed the tresses on Wilmet's passive head
+in perfect conformity with her own. Looking at their figures, Alda's
+air of fashion made her appear the eldest, and Wilmet might have been
+a girl in the school-room; but comparing their faces, Wilmet's placid
+recollected countenance, and the soberness that sat so well on her
+white smooth forehead and steady blue eyes, might have befitted many
+more years than eighteen. There were not nearly so many lights and
+shades in her looks as in those of Alda and Geraldine. The one had both
+more smiles and more frowns, the other more gleams of joy and of pain;
+each was more animated and sensitive, but neither gave the same sense
+of confidence and repose.
+
+As usually happens when the parents are of the same family, the
+inventory of the features of one of the progeny served for almost all
+the rest. The differences were only in degree, and the prime specimens
+were without doubt the two elder twins and Edgar, with like promise of
+little Bernard and Stella.
+
+Edgar had grown very tall, and had inherited his father's advantages
+of grace and elegance of figure, to which was added a certain
+distinguished ease of carriage, and ready graciousness, too simple
+to be called either conceit or presumption, but which looked as if
+he were used to be admired and to confer favours. Athletics had been
+the fashion with him and his English companions, and his complexion
+was embrowned by sun and wind, his form upright and vigorous; and
+by force of contrast it was now perceived that Felix seemed to have
+almost ceased growing for the last three years, and that his in-door
+occupations had given his broad square shoulders a kind of slouch,
+and kept his colouring as pink and white as that of his sisters. Like
+Wilmet, he had something staid and responsible about him, that, even
+more than his fringe of light brown whiskers, gave the appearance of
+full-grown manhood; so that the first impression of all the new-comers
+was how completely he had left the boy behind him, making it an effort
+of memory to believe him only nineteen and a half. But they all knew
+him for their head, and leant themselves against him. And in the
+meantime, Edgar's appearance was a perfect feast of enjoyment, not
+only to little loving Geraldine, but to sage Felix. They recreated
+themselves with gazing at him, and when left alone together would
+discuss his charms in low confidential murmurs, quite aware that Wilmet
+would think them very silly; but Edgar was the great romance of both.
+
+Edgar observed that Clement had done all the growth for both himself
+and Felix, and was doing his best to be a light of the Church by
+resembling nothing but an altar-taper. When they all repaired to the
+back of the cupboard door in Mr. Audley's room to be measured, his head
+was found far above Edgar's mark at fourteen, and therewith he was lank
+and thin, not yet accustomed to the length of his own legs and arms,
+and seeming as if he was not meant to be seen undraped by his surplice.
+His features and face were of the family type, but a little smaller,
+and with much less of the bright rosy tinting; indeed, when not excited
+he was decidedly pale, and his eyes and hair were a little lighter than
+those of the rest. It was a refined, delicate, thoughtful face, pretty
+rather than handsome, and its only fault was a certain melancholy
+superciliousness or benignant pity for every one who did not belong to
+the flock of St. Matthew's.
+
+Regular features are always what most easily lose individuality, and
+become those of the owner's class; and if Clement was all chorister,
+Fulbert and Lancelot were all school-boy. The two little fellows were
+a long way apart in height, though there were only two years between
+them; for Lance was on a much smaller scale, but equally full of ruddy
+health and superabundant vigour; and while Fulbert was the more rough
+and independent, his countenance had not the fun and sweetness that
+rendered Lance's so winning. Their looks were repeated in Robina, who
+was much too square and sturdy for any attempt at beauty, and was
+comically like a boy and like her brothers, but with much frank honesty
+and determination in her big grey darkly-lashed eyes. Angela was one of
+the most altered of all; for her plump cherub cheeks had melted away
+under the glow of measles, and the whooping process had lengthened
+and narrowed her small person into a demure little thread-paper of
+six years old, omnivorous of books, a pet and pickle at school, and
+a romp at home--the sworn ally, offensive and defensive, of stout,
+rough-pated, unruly Bernard. Stella was the loveliest little bit of
+painted porcelain imaginable, quite capable of being his companion, and
+a perfect little fairy, for beauty, gracefulness, and quickness of all
+kinds. Alda was delighted with her pretty caressing ways and admiration
+of the wonderful new sister. She was of quieter, more docile mood than
+these two, though aspiring to their companionship; for it was startling
+to see how far she had left Theodore behind. He was still in arms,
+and speechless, a little pale inanimate creature, taking very little
+notice, and making no sound except a sort of low musical cooing of
+pleasure, and a sad whining moan of unhappiness, which always recurred
+when he was not in the arms of Sibby, Wilmet, or Felix. It was only
+when Felix held out his arms to take him that the sound of pleasure was
+heard; and once on that firm knee, with his shining head against that
+kind heart, he was satisfied, and Felix had accustomed himself to all
+sorts of occupations with his little brother in his left arm. Even at
+night, there was no rest for Theodore, unless Felix took him into his
+room. So often did the little fretting moan summon him, that soon the
+crib took up his regular abode beside his bed.
+
+But Felix, though of course spared from the shop, could not be
+dispensed with from the printing-house, where he was sub-editor; and in
+his absence Theodore was always less contented; and his tearless moan
+went to his sister's heart, for the poor little fellow had been wont
+to lie day and night in his mother's bosom, and she had been as uneasy
+without him as he now was without her. All her other babes had grown
+past her helpless instinctive tenderness, and Theodore's continued
+passiveness had been hitherto an advantage, which had always been
+called his 'goodness and affection.'
+
+Alda was the first to comment on the wonderful interval between the
+twins, when Wilmet accounted for it by Theodore's having been quite
+kept back for his mother's sake, and likewise by his having been more
+reduced by measles and whooping-cough than Stella had been; but to
+fresh observers it was impossible to think that all was thus explained,
+and Edgar and Alda discussed it in a low voice when they found
+themselves alone.
+
+'The fact is plain,' said Edgar; 'but I suppose nothing can be done,
+and I see no use in forcing it on poor Wilmet.'
+
+'I don't understand such blindness.'
+
+'Not real blindness--certainly not on Felix's part. He knows that
+load is on his back for life. Heigh-ho! a stout old Atlas we have
+in Blunderbore; I wonder how long I shall be in plucking the golden
+apples, and taking a share.'
+
+'I thought it was Atlas that gathered the apples.'
+
+'Don't spoil a good simile with superfluous exactness, Alda! It is base
+enough to compare the gardens of the Hesperides to a merchant's office!
+I wonder how many years it will take to get out of the drudgery, and
+have some power of enjoying life and relieving Felix. One could tear
+one's hair to see him tied down by this large family till all his best
+days are gone.'
+
+'Some of the others may get off his hands, and help.'
+
+'Not they! Clem is too highly spiritualized to care for anything so
+material as his own flesh and blood; and it is not their fault if
+little Lance does not follow in his wake. Then if Ful has any brains,
+he is not come to the use of them; he is only less obnoxious than Tina
+in that he _is_ a boy and not a church candle, but boys are certainly a
+mistake.'
+
+If ever the mature age of seventeen could be excused for so regarding
+boyhood, it was under such circumstances. All were too old for any
+outbreaks, such as brought Angela and Bernard to disgrace, and
+disturbed the hush of those four sad days; but the actual loss had
+been so long previous, that the pressure of present grief was not so
+crushing as to prevent want of employment and confinement in that small
+silent house from being other than most irksome and tedious.
+
+Clement would have done very well alone; he went to church, read, told
+Angela stories, and discoursed to Cherry on the ways of St. Matthew's;
+but, unfortunately, there was something about him that always incited
+the other boys to sparring, nor was he always guiltless of being the
+aggressor, for there was no keeping him in mind that comparisons are
+odious.
+
+Church music might seem a suitable subject, but the London chorister
+could not abstain from criticising St. Oswald's and contemning the
+old-fashioned practices of the Cathedral, which of course Lance
+considered himself bound to defend, till the very names of Gregorians
+and Anglicans became terrible to Cherry as the watchwords of a
+wrangling match. Fulbert, meantime, made no secret of his contempt for
+both brothers as mere choristers instead of school-boys, and exalted
+himself whenever he detected their ignorance of any choice _morceau_ of
+slang; while their superior knowledge on any other point was viewed as
+showing the new-fangled girlish nonsense of their education.
+
+This Lance did not mind; but he was very sensitive as to the dignity
+of his Cathedral, and the perfections of his chosen friend, one Bill
+Harewood; and Fulbert was not slow to use the latter engine for
+'getting a rise' out of him, while Clement as often, though with less
+design, offended by disparagement of his choir; nor could Edgar refuse
+himself the diversion of tormenting Clement by ironical questions and
+remarks on his standard of perfection, which mode of torture enchanted
+Fulbert, whenever he understood it. Thus these four brothers contrived
+to inflict a good amount of teasing on one another, all the more
+wearing and worrying because deprived of its only tolerable seasoning,
+mirth.
+
+Clement had indeed a refuge in Mr. Audley's room, where he could find
+books, and willing ears for Mr. Fulmort's doings; but he availed
+himself of it less than might have been expected. Whether from
+inclination to his brothers' society, desire to do them good, or innate
+pugnacity, he was generally in the thick of the conflict; and before
+long he confided to Felix that he was seriously uneasy about Edgar's
+opinions.
+
+'He is only chaffing you,' said Felix.
+
+'Chaff, _now!_' said Clement.
+
+'Well, Clem, you know you are enough to provoke a saint, you bore so
+intolerably about St. Matthew's.'
+
+The much disgusted Clement retired into himself, but Felix was not
+satisfied at heart.
+
+_One_ was lacking on the cold misty New Year's morning, when even
+Geraldine could not be withheld from the Communion Feast of the living
+and departed. Each felt the disappointment when they found themselves
+only six instead of seven; but it was Clement who, as the boys were
+waiting for breakfast afterwards, began--
+
+'Have not you been confirmed, Edgar?'
+
+'How should I?'
+
+'I am sure there are plenty of foreign Confirmations. I see them in the
+"British Catholic."'
+
+'Foreign parts isn't all one,' said Edgar; and the younger boys
+sniggled.
+
+'If one took any trouble,' persisted Clement.
+
+'Yes, but _one_,' dwelling with emphasis on the awkward impersonal,
+'_one_ may have scruples about committing an act of schism by
+encouraging an intruding bishop performing episcopal functions in
+another man's diocese. Has not your spiritual father taught you that
+much, Tina?'
+
+'I--I must find out about that,' said Clement thoughtfully; 'but, at
+any rate, the Lent Confirmations are coming on in London, and if I were
+to speak to the Vicar, I have no doubt he would gladly prepare you.'
+
+'Nor I,' answered Edgar.
+
+'Then shall I?' eagerly asked Clement.
+
+'Not at present, thank you.'
+
+Clement stood blank and open mouthed, and Fulbert laughed, secure that
+the joke, whatever it might be, was against him.
+
+'Of course,' burst out Lance, 'Edgar does not want you to speak for
+him, Clem; he has got a tongue of his own, and a clergyman too, I
+suppose.'
+
+Clement proceeded to a disquisition, topographical and censorial, upon
+the parish and district to which Edgar might be relegated, and finally
+exclaimed, 'Yes, he is not much amiss. He has some notions. He dines
+with us sometimes. You can go to him, Edgar, and I'll get the Vicar to
+speak to him.'
+
+'Thank you, I had rather be excused.'
+
+'You cannot miss another Confirmation.'
+
+'I can't say I am fond of pledges, especially when no one can tell how
+much or how little they mean.'
+
+Whether this were in earnest, or a mere thrust in return for Clement's
+pertinacity, was undecided, for Wilmet came in, looking so sad and
+depressed that the brothers felt rebuked for the tone in which they had
+been speaking.
+
+Mr. Thomas Underwood soon arrived, having come to Centry the night
+before; and after a few words had passed between him and Edgar, the
+latter announced his intention of returning with him to London that
+evening.
+
+'Very well,' said Felix, much disappointed at this repetition of
+Edgar's willingness to hurry from the house of mourning, 'but we have
+had very little of you; Clement must go on the day after Twelfth Day,
+and we shall have more room. It will be a great blow to Cherry.'
+
+'Poor little Cherry! I'll come when I can see her in greater peace, but
+I must buckle to with the beginning of the year, Fee.'
+
+There was no further disputing the point, but Edgar was always a great
+loss. To every one except Clement he was so gentle and considerate that
+it was impossible not to think that the strange things reported of him
+were not first evoked and then exaggerated by the zeal of the model
+chorister: and indeed he led Geraldine to that inference when he went
+to her in the sitting-room, where, as before, she had to remain at home.
+
+'My Cherry, I find I must go back with old Tom. Don't be vexed, my
+White-heart, I am not going back to Belgium, you know: I can often run
+down, but my work ought to begin with the year.'
+
+'You cannot even stay over the Epiphany!'
+
+'Well, I would have made an effort, but I am really wanted; and then
+if I am long with that light of the church, Tina, he will get me into
+everybody's black books. Never mind, old girl. I'll be for ever running
+down. Is any one going to stay with you?'
+
+'Bernard is coming presently; I must try to make him recollect
+something about it.'
+
+'You don't mean that child Angel is going.'
+
+'She wishes it, and it seems right.'
+
+'Right to leave a black spot in her memory! If children could but
+believe people were sublimated away!'
+
+'Children can believe in the Resurrection of the body as well as we,'
+said Cherry reverently.
+
+'Better, too, by a long chalk,' he muttered; then perceiving her
+dismayed expression, he added, 'No, no--I'm not talking to Tina, only
+he has put me in the humour in which there is nothing he could not make
+me dispute--even my Cherry being the sweetest morsel in the world.
+There, good-bye for the present, only don't afflict that poor little
+Bernard and yourself into _too_ great wretchedness, out of a sense of
+duty.'
+
+'No, I do not really grieve,' said Cherry. 'Tears come for
+thankfulness. The real sorrow came long ago; we grew up in it, and it
+is over now.'
+
+'Right, little one. The mortal coil was very heavy and painful these
+last years, and no one can help being relieved that the end has come.
+It is the conventionalities that are needlessly distressing. What
+earthly purpose can it serve, save the amusement of the maids and
+children of Bexley, that nine of us should present ourselves a pitiful
+spectacle all the way up to the cemetery in veils and hat-bands?'
+
+'Don't talk so, Edgar; you do not know how it jars, though I know you
+mean no disrespect.'
+
+'Well, it must be a blessed thing to end by drowning or blowing up, to
+save one's friends trouble.'
+
+'Edgar, indeed I cannot bear this! Recollect what a treasure that dear
+shattered earthen vessel has held. What a wonderful life of patient
+silent resignation it was!'
+
+'Indeed it was,' said Edgar, suddenly softened. 'No lips could tell
+what the resolution must have been that carried her through those
+years, never murmuring. What must she not have spared my father! Such
+devotion is the true woman's heritage.'
+
+Cherry was soothed as she saw the dew on his eye-lashes, but just then
+Felix came in to fetch him, and, stooping down, kissed her, and said
+in his low and tender but strong voice, 'We leave her with _him_, dear
+child. Recollect--
+
+     '"The heart may ache, but may not burst;
+       Heaven will not leave thee, nor forsake."'
+
+Much as Geraldine had longed for Edgar, his words brought vague
+yearning and distress, while Felix's very tone gave support. How could
+Edgar say patient silent self-devotion was not to be found except in
+woman?
+
+So the worn-out body that once had been bright smiling Mary Underwood
+was borne to the church she had not entered since she had knelt there
+with her husband; and then she was laid beside him in the hill-side
+cemetery, the graves marked by the simple cross, for which there had
+been long anxious saving, the last contribution having been a quarter
+of the Bishop's gift to Lancelot. The inscription was on the edges of
+the steps, from which the cross rose--
+
+           _UNDER WODE, UNDER RODE._
+
+             EDWARD FULBERT UNDERWOOD,
+
+         Nine Years Curate of this Parish,
+
+                  Epiphany, 1855,
+
+                      AGED 40.
+
+        'Thy Rod and Thy Staff comfort me.'
+
+There was room enough for the name of Mary Wilmet, his wife, to be
+added at the base of the Rood, that Cross which they had borne, the one
+so valiantly, the other so meekly, during their 'forty years in the
+wilderness.'
+
+Many persons were present out of respect not only to the former Curate,
+but to his hard-working son and daughter, and not only the daughter's
+holly-wreath, but one of camellias sent by Sister Constance, lay upon
+the pall. When the mourners had turned away, Mr. Audley saw a slender
+lad standing by, waiting till the grave was smoothed to lay on it
+a wreath of delicate white roses and ferns. There was no mistaking
+the clear olive face; and indeed Mr. Audley had kept up a regular
+correspondence with Ferdinand Travis, and knew that the vows made two
+years ago had been so far persevered in, and without molestation from
+father or uncle. He had written an account of Mrs. Underwood's death,
+but had received no answer.
+
+'This is kind, Ferdinand,' he said; 'it will gratify them.'
+
+'May I see any of them?' the youth asked.
+
+'Felix and Lance will be most glad.'
+
+'I only received your letter yesterday evening. Dr. White forwarded it
+to me in London, and I persuaded my father to let me come down.'
+
+'You are with your father?'
+
+'Yes; he came home about a fortnight ago. I was going to write to you.
+O Mr. Audley, if you are not in haste, can you tell me whether I can
+see my dear Diego's grave?'
+
+'The Roman Catholic burial-ground is on the other side of the town. I
+think you will have to go to Mr. Macnamara for admittance. Come home
+with me first, Fernan.'
+
+'Home!' he said warmly. 'Yes, it has always seemed so to me! I have
+dreamt so often of her gentle loving face and tender weak voice. She
+was very kind to me;' and he raised his hat reverently, as he placed
+the flowers upon the now completed grave. 'I saw that all were here
+except the little ones and Geraldine,' he added. 'How is she?'
+
+'As well as usual. Wilmet is a good deal worn and downcast, but all are
+calm and cheerful. The loss cannot be like what that of their father
+was.'
+
+'Will they go on as they are doing now?'
+
+'I trust so. I am going down to the family consultation. The London
+cousin is there.'
+
+'Then perhaps I had better not come in,' said Ferdinand, looking rather
+blank. 'Shall I go down to Mr. Macnamara first?'
+
+'Had you rather go alone, or shall I send Lance to show you the way?'
+
+'Dear little Lance, pray let me have him!'
+
+'It is a longish walk. Is your lameness quite gone?'
+
+'Oh yes, I can walk a couple of miles very well, and when I give out it
+is not my leg, but my back. They say it is the old jar to the spine,
+and that it will wear off when I have done growing, if I get plenty of
+air and riding. This will not be too much for me, but I must be in time
+for the 3.30 train, I promised my father.'
+
+'Is he here alone?'
+
+'Yes, my uncle is in Brazil. My father is here for a month, and is very
+kind; he seems very fairly satisfied with me; and he wants me to get
+prepared for the commission in the Life Guards.'
+
+'The Life Guards!'
+
+'You see he is bent on my being an English gentleman, but he has some
+dislike to the University, fancies it too old-world or something; and,
+honestly, I cannot wish it myself. I can't take much to books, and Dr.
+White says I have begun too late, and shall never make much of them.'
+
+'If you went into the Guards, my brother might be a friend to you.'
+
+'My back is not fit for the infantry,' said Ferdinand, 'but I can ride
+anything; I always could. I care for nothing so much as horses.'
+
+'Then why not some other cavalry regiment?'
+
+'Well, my father knows a man with a son in the Life Guards, who has
+persuaded him that it is the thing, and I don't greatly care.'
+
+'Is he prepared for the expensiveness?'
+
+'I fancy it is the recommendation,' said Ferdinand, smiling with a
+little shame; 'but if you really see reason for some other choice
+perhaps you would represent it to him. I think he would attend to you
+in person.'
+
+'Have you positively no choice, Fernan?'
+
+'I never like the bother of consideration,' said Ferdinand; 'and
+in London I might have more chance of seeing you and other friends
+sometimes. I do know that it is not all my father supposes, but
+he thinks it is all my ignorance, and I have not much right to be
+particular.'
+
+'Only take care that horses do not become your temptation,' said Mr.
+Audley.
+
+'I know,' gravely replied Ferdinand. 'The fact is,' he added, as they
+turned down the street, 'that I do not want to go counter to my father
+if I can help it. I have not been able to avoid vexing him, and this is
+of no great consequence. I can exchange, if it should not suit me.'
+
+'I believe you are right,' said the Curate; 'but I will inquire and
+write to you before the application is made. Wait, and I will send out
+Lance. But ought you not to call at the Rectory?'
+
+'I will do so as I return,' said Ferdinand; and as Mr. Audley entered
+the house, he thought that the making the Cacique into an English
+gentleman seemed to have been attained as far as accent, mind, and
+manner went, and the air and gesture had always been natural in him.
+His tone rather than his words were conclusive to the Curate that his
+heart had never swerved from the purpose with which he had stood at the
+Font; but the languor and indolence of the voice indicated that the
+tropical indifference was far from conquered, and it was an anxious
+question whether the life destined for him might not be exceptionally
+perilous to his peculiar temperament of nonchalance and excitability.
+
+Consideration was not possible just then, for when Mr. Audley opened
+the door, he found that he had been impatiently waited for, and barely
+time was allowed to him to send Lance to Ferdinand Travis, before he
+was summoned to immediate conference with Thomas Underwood, who, on
+coming in, had assumed the management of affairs, and on calling for
+the will, was rather displeased with Felix's protest against doing
+anything without Mr. Audley, whom he knew to have been named guardian
+by his father. The cousin seemed unable to credit the statement; and
+Wilmet had just found the long envelope with the black seal, exactly
+as it had lain in the desk, which had never been disturbed since the
+business on their father's death had been finished.
+
+There was the old will made long before, leaving whatever there was
+to leave unconditionally to the wife, with the sole guardianship of
+the children; and there was the codicil dated the 16th of October,
+1854, appointing Charles Somerville Audley, clerk, to the guardianship
+in case of the death of the mother, while they should all, or any of
+them, be under twenty-one, and directing that in that contingency the
+property should be placed in his hands as trustee, the interest to be
+employed for their maintenance, and the capital to be divided equally
+among them, each receiving his or her share on coming of age. All
+this was in Edward Underwood's own handwriting, and his signature was
+attested by the Rector and the doctor.
+
+Thomas Underwood was more 'put out,' than the management of such an
+insignificant sum seemed to warrant. He was no doubt disappointed of
+his cousin's confidence, as well as of some liberal (if domineering)
+intentions; and he was only half appeased when Edgar pointed to
+the date, and showed that the arrangement had been made before the
+renewal of intercourse. 'It was hardly fair to thrust a charge upon a
+stranger when there was a relation to act. Poor Edward, he ought to
+have trusted,' he said. There was genuine kindness of heart in the
+desire to confer benefits, though perhaps in rather an overbearing
+spirit, as well as disappointment and hurt feeling that his cousin had
+acquiesced in his neglect without an appeal. However, after asking
+whether Mr. Audley meant to act, and hearing of his decided intention
+of doing so, he proceeded to state his own plans for them. The present
+state of things could not continue, and he proposed that Wilmet and
+Geraldine should go as half boarders to some school, to be prepared for
+governesses. Felix--could he write short-hand? 'Oh yes; but--' Then
+he knew of a capital opening for him; a few years, and he would be on
+the way to prosperity: the little ones might be boarded with their old
+nurse till fit for some clergy orphan schools; if the means would not
+provide for all, there need be no difficulty made on that score.
+
+Mr. Audley saw Felix's start of dismay and glance at him, but knowing
+as he did that the lad was always more himself when not interfered
+with, and allowed to act for himself, he only said, 'It is very kind in
+you, sir, but I think Felix should be consulted.'
+
+'It is impossible!' began Felix hastily.
+
+'Impossible! It is quite impossible, I would have you to understand,
+that a lot of children like you should keep house together, and on such
+an income as that. Quite preposterous.'
+
+'As for that,' said Felix, still unsubmissively, 'it is only what we
+have been doing, except for the name of the thing, for the last three
+years on the same means.'
+
+'You don't mean to tell me that you have kept things going on such
+means without a debt?'
+
+'Of course we have! We never let a bill run,' said Felix, slightly
+indignant.
+
+'Now mind, I'm not insulting you, Felix, but I know what the women are
+and what they tell us. Are you sure of that? No debts--honour bright?'
+
+'None at all!' said Felix, with an endeavour at calmness, but glowing
+hotly. 'I help my sister make up her books every Saturday night. We
+always pay ready money.'
+
+'Humph,' said Mr. Underwood, still only half convinced. 'Living must be
+cheap at Bexley.'
+
+'You had better explain a little, Felix,' said Mr. Audley.
+
+Felix did bring himself to say, 'I am sub-editor now, and get L100 a
+year, besides being paid for any article I write. Wilmet has L25 a year
+and her dinner, and Angela's at school, so there are only five of us
+constantly dining at home, and with Mr. Audley's two guineas a week we
+can do very well.'
+
+'What, you lodge here?'
+
+'Did not you know that?' said Felix, surprised.
+
+Mr. Underwood gave a whistle, and the Curate felt his cheeks growing
+redder and redder, as he perceived that seven-and-twenty was not
+considered as so _very_ much older than eighteen. Edgar understood and
+smiled, but Felix only thought he was suspected of making a good thing
+of his lodger, and was beginning something awkward about, 'It is all
+kindness,' when Mr. Audley broke in--
+
+'Of course nothing is settled yet, but--but I believe I shall change
+my quarters. A smaller house would be better for them; but I think the
+children should keep together. Indeed, my dear friend said he chiefly
+appointed me that Felix might be kept at their head.'
+
+Thereupon Mr. Underwood began to expostulate against the sacrifice of
+position and talent that Felix was making for the sake of bearing the
+burthen of a family that would have pressed heavily on a man double his
+age. It was what Felix already knew, much better than when at sixteen
+he had made his first venture. He had experienced the effects of change
+of station, as well as of exertion, drudgery, and of the home hardship
+that no one except Mr. Audley had tried to sweeten. He saw how Edgar
+had acquired the nameless air and style that he was losing, how even
+Clement viewed him as left behind; and, on the other hand, he knew
+that with his own trained and tested ability and application, and his
+kinsman's patronage, there was every reasonable chance of his regaining
+a gentleman's position, away from that half-jealous, half-conceited
+foreman, who made every day a trial to him, and looked at him with an
+evil eye as a supplanter in the post of confidence. But therewith he
+thought of his father's words, that to him he left this heavy burthen;
+and he thought what it would be to have no central home, no place of
+holiday-meeting, no rallying-point for the boys and girls, and to cast
+off the little ones to hired service. This alternative never seriously
+occurred to him, for were they not all bound to him by the cords of
+love, and most closely the weakest and most helpless? Yet his first
+reply did not convey the weight of his determination. It was only
+'Geraldine is too delicate.'
+
+'Well, well, good advice and treatment might make a change. Or, if she
+be fit for nothing else, would not that Sisterhood at Dearport take her
+on reasonable terms? Not that I can away with such nonsense, but your
+father had his fancies.'
+
+'My father wished us not to break up the home.'
+
+'That was all very well when your poor mother was alive. You have been
+a good son to her, but it is impossible that you and your sister, mere
+children as you are, should set up housekeeping by yourselves. Mr.
+Audley must see it cannot be suffered; it is the bounden duty of your
+friends to interfere.'
+
+Mr. Audley did not speak. He knew that Felix could reckon on his
+support; and, moreover, that the youth would show himself to greater
+advantage when not interfered with. So after pausing to see whether his
+guardian would speak, Felix said, 'Of course we are in Mr. Audley's
+power, but he knows that we have made some trial, and except in name,
+we have really stood alone for these three years. Wilmet can quite
+manage the house, and it would be misery for ever to us all to have no
+home. In short--' and Felix's face burnt, his voice choked, and his
+eyes brimmed over with hot indignant tears, as he concluded, 'it shall
+never be done with my good will.'
+
+'And under the circumstances,' said Mr. Audley, 'I think Felix is
+right.'
+
+'Very well,' said Thomas Underwood, much displeased. 'I have no power
+here, and if you and that lad think he can take charge of a house and a
+dozen children, you must have it your own way. Only, when they have all
+gone to rack and ruin, and he is sick of being a little tradesman in a
+country town, he will remember what I said.'
+
+Felix forced back his resentful feelings, and contrived to say, 'Yes,
+sir, I know it is a great disadvantage, and that you only wish for our
+good; but I do not think anything would be so bad for the children as
+to be all cast about the world, with no place to go to, and becoming
+strangers to one another; and since there is this way of keeping them
+together, it seems right.'
+
+The steadiness of his manner struck Mr. Underwood, and the reply was
+not unkind.
+
+'You are a good boy at bottom, Felix, and mean well, and I am only
+sorry not to be able to hinder you from throwing yourself away for life
+by trying to do what is morally impossible, in a foolish spirit of
+independence. Do not interrupt. I warn you that I am not to be appealed
+to for getting you out of the difficulties you are plunging into; but
+of course your brother and sister will be mine, as before; and as I
+promised myself to do the same by your mother as by your father--my
+near cousins both--here is to cover necessary expenses.'
+
+It was a cheque for L150, the same as he had given on the former
+occasion; and though Felix had rather not have taken it, he had
+little choice, and he brought himself to return cold but respectful
+thanks; and Mr. Underwood did not manifest any more displeasure, but
+showed himself very kind at the meal that was spread in Mr. Audley's
+sitting-room, and even invited Wilmet to accompany Alda, when she
+joined the family in a week's time at Brighton, so as to have sea air
+for the remainder of her holidays.
+
+Nothing could be more reluctant than was Wilmet at first, but there was
+a chorus of persuasions and promises; and the thought of being a little
+longer in Alda's presence made her waver and almost consent.
+
+Ferdinand Travis came in, but had only time for a greeting and a hasty
+meal, before Mr. Underwood's carriage came round; and, nothing loth,
+he gave a lift to the Mexican millionaire to the station with him
+and Edgar. So, for the last time, had all the thirteen been at home
+together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE FAMILY COBWEB ON THE MOVE.
+
+     'Oh! the auld house, the auld house,
+        What though the rooms were wee;
+      Oh! kind hearts were dwelling there,
+        And bairnies full of glee.'
+                           _Lady Nairn._
+
+
+Every one except Edgar would, it was hoped, stay at home till after the
+Epiphany, that most marked anniversary of birth and death.
+
+Clement at first declared it impossible, for St. Matthew's could not
+dispense with him on the great day; and Fulbert grinned, and nudged
+Lance at his crest-fallen looks, when he received full leave of absence
+for the next three weeks.
+
+But Lance was bursting with reverse troubles. The same post had
+brought him a note from his organist; and that 'stupid old Dean,' as
+he irreverently called him, had maliciously demanded 'How beautiful
+are the feet,' with the chorus following, and nobody in the choir was
+available to execute the solo but Lance. He had sung it once or twice
+before; and if he had the music, and would practise at home, he need
+only come up by the earliest train on the Epiphany morning; if not, he
+must arrive in time for a practice on the 5th; he would be wanted at
+both the festival and Sunday services, but might return as early as he
+pleased on Monday the 9th.
+
+Lance did not receive the summons in an exemplary spirit. It is not
+certain that he did not bite it. He rolled on the floor, and contorted
+himself in convulsions of vexation; he 'bothered' the Dean, he
+'bothered' the Precentor, he 'bothered' the Organist, he 'bothered'
+Shapcote's sore throat, he 'bothered' Harewood's wool-gathering wits,
+he 'bothered' his own voice, and thereby caused Clement to rebuke him
+for foolish murmurs instead of joy in his gift.
+
+'A fine gift to rejoice in, to make one be whipped off by an old fogey,
+when one most wants to be at home! I thank my stars I can't sing!' said
+Fulbert.
+
+'I should thank mine if Bill Harewood had any sense,' said Lance,
+sitting up in a heap on the floor. 'He can go quite high enough when he
+pleases; only, unluckily, a goose of a jackdaw must needs get into the
+cathedral just as Bill had got to sing the solo in "As pants the hart;"
+and there he stood staring with his mouth wide open--and no wonder, for
+it was sitting on the old stone-king's head! Wasn't Miles in a rage;
+and didn't he vow he'd never trust a solo to Harewood again if he knew
+it! Oh, I say, Wilmet--Fee, I know! Do let me bring Bill back with me
+on Monday morning; and he could go by the six o'clock train. Oh, jolly!'
+
+'But is he really a nice boy, Lance?' asked Wilmet, doubtfully.
+
+'Oh, isn't he just? You'll see! His father is a Vicar-choral, you know,
+lives in our precincts; his private door just opposite ours, and 'tis
+the most delicious house you ever saw! You may make as much row as you
+please, and nobody minds!'
+
+'I know who Mr. Harewood is. Librarian too, is he not?' said Felix. 'I
+have heard people laughing about his good-natured wife.'
+
+'Aren't they the people who were so kind to you last year, Lance,'
+asked Cherry, 'when you could not come home because of the measles?'
+
+'Of course. Do let me bring him, Fee,' entreated Lance; 'he is no end
+of a chap--captain of our form almost always--and such a brick at
+cricket! I told him I'd show him the potteries, and your press, and our
+organ, and everything--and it is such a chance when we are all at home!
+I shall get the fellows to believe now that my sisters beat all theirs
+to shivers.'
+
+'Can you withstand that flattering compliment, Wilmet?' said Felix,
+laughing. 'I can't!'
+
+'He is very welcome,' said Wilmet; 'only, Lance, he must not stay the
+night, for there really is not room for another mouse.'
+
+The little girls had heard so much about Bill Harewood, that
+they were much excited; but their sympathy kindly compensated
+for the lack of that of the elder brothers. Fulbert pronounced
+that a cathedral chorister could never be any great shakes; and
+Clement could not forgive one who had been frivolous enough to be
+distracted by a jackdaw; but Lance, trusting to his friend's personal
+attractions to overcome all prejudice, trotted blithely off to the
+organist-schoolmaster, to beg the loan of the music, and received a
+promise of a practice in church in the evening. Meantime, he begged
+Clement to play the accompaniment for him on the old piano. Neither
+boy knew that it had been scarcely opened since their father's hand
+had last lingered fondly upon it. Music had been found to excite their
+mother to tears; Geraldine resembled Fulbert in unmusicalness, and
+Wilmet had depended on school, the brothers on their choir-practice,
+so that the sound was like a new thing in the house; nor was any one
+prepared either for the superiority of Clement's playing, or for
+the exceeding beauty and sweetness of Lance's singing. No one who
+appreciated the rare quality of his high notes wondered that he was
+indispensable; Geraldine could hardly believe that the clear exquisite
+proclamation, that came floating as from an angel voice, could really
+come from the little, slight, grubby, dusty urchin, who stood with
+clasped hands and uplifted face; and Clement himself--though deferring
+the communication till Lance was absent, lest it should make him
+vain--confided to Wilmet that they had no such voice at St Matthew's,
+and it was a shame to waste him on Anglicans.
+
+Wilmet hardly entered into this enormity. She had made a discovery
+which interested her infinitely more. Little Theodore, hitherto so
+inanimate, had sat up, listened, looked with a dawning of expression
+in the eyes that had hitherto been clear and meaningless as blue
+porcelain, and as the music ceased, his inarticulate hummings continued
+the same tune. Could it be that the key to the dormant senses was
+found? His eyes turned to the piano, and his finger pointed to it
+as soon as he found himself in the room with it, and the airs he
+heard were continually reproduced in his murmuring sounds; that 'How
+beautiful!' which had first awakened the gleam--his own birth-day
+anthem--being sure to recur at sight of Lance; while a doleful Irish
+croon, Sibby's regular lullaby, always served for her, and the 'Hardy
+Norseman' for Felix, who had sometimes whistled it to him. Wilmet spent
+every available moment in awaking the smile on the little waxen face
+that had never responded before; it seemed to be just the cheering hope
+she needed to revive her spirits, only she was almost ready to renounce
+her journey with Alda for the sake of cultivating the new-found faculty.
+
+No one would permit this; and indeed, so far from waiting to be
+exhibited to Lance's friend, the two sisters received their _billet de
+route_ on the very day he was expected; and there was no appeal, since
+a housekeeper was to travel from Centry, who would take charge of them
+to London, whence they would go down with Mr. Underwood. Poor Wilmet
+was much dismayed at leaving Geraldine to what they both regarded as
+the unprecedented invasion of a strange boy; indeed, the whole charge
+made Cherry's heart quail, though she said little of her fears, knowing
+the importance of Wilmet's having and enjoying her holiday; and Mr.
+Audley promised extra aid in keeping order among the boys.
+
+But as they came in that evening from the practice at the church, to
+which Clement had insisted on their coming to hear Lance, Mr. Audley
+beckoned Felix to his room with the words, 'There's a thing I want to
+talk over with you.'
+
+Felix recollected those ominous words to Mr. Underwood, and stood
+warming his hands in dread of what might be coming. It was all he
+feared.
+
+'I wanted to say--I wanted to tell you--' began Mr. Audley. 'I would
+not have chosen this time, but that I think it may save Wilmet
+something to be able to tell her friends that the present arrangement
+is to cease.'
+
+'Wilmet!' exclaimed Felix; then bethinking himself. 'Was _that_ what
+Tom Underwood meant? But you will not trouble yourself about such
+rubbish.'
+
+'Well, you see,' began the Curate, with heightening colour, 'it can't
+be denied that your sister _has_ grown up, and that things are changed.'
+
+'Mrs. Froggatt _did_ ask me if you were going on here,' said Felix,
+still unconvinced; 'but can't we leave people to be _stoopid_ without
+interfering with us?'
+
+'Felix, you ought to be a better protector to your sisters. You would
+not like to have my Lady remonstrating--nay, maybe writing to my
+mother: she is quite capable of it.'
+
+Felix's cheeks were in a flame. 'If people would mind their own
+business,' he said; 'but if they _will_ have it so--'
+
+'They are right, Felix,' said the Curate quietly; 'appearances must be
+carefully heeded, and by you almost more than by any one. Your slowness
+to understand me makes me almost doubtful about my further design.'
+
+'Not going away altogether!'
+
+'Not immediately; but things stand thus--Dr. White, my old tutor, you
+know, and Fernan's, is nearly sure of the new Bishopric in Australia,
+and he wants me.'
+
+Felix hardly repressed a groan.
+
+'Any way I should not go immediately; but when your father spoke to me
+about the guardianship, he made me promise not to let it stand in the
+way of any other call. I fancied he had mission work in his mind, and
+it disposes me the more to think I ought not to hold back; but while
+your dear mother lived, I would not have gone.'
+
+'Yes, you have been very good to us,' was all Felix could say. 'But
+when?'
+
+'Not for some time; but I am not going this moment. Three months'
+notice Mr. Bevan must have, and if he requires it, six; I must spend
+some time at home, and very like shall not be off till you are of
+age--certainly not if I find there is any difficulty in handing the
+management of things over to you. How long I remain with you must
+depend on circumstances. How much notice must you give before leaving
+this house?'
+
+'I do not know--half a year, I fancy. You think we ought to give it up?
+I suppose it is too large for us now.'
+
+'And you could take no lodger but one of the old-lady type.'
+
+'Horrid!' said Felix. 'Well, we will see; but it will be a great stroke
+on poor Cherry--she can remember nothing before this house.'
+
+'It will be very good for her to have no old associations to sit
+brooding over.'
+
+'My poor little Cherry! If I saw how to cheer up her life; but without
+your lessons it will be more dreary for her than ever!'
+
+'Give her all you can to do, and do not be over-careful to keep your
+anxieties from her knowledge. She is very much of a woman, and if you
+leave her too much to herself, she will grow more introspective.'
+
+'Wilmet and I have always wanted to shelter her; she never seems fit
+for trouble, and she is so young!'
+
+'Compared with you two venerable people!' said Mr. Audley, smiling.
+'But her mind is not young, and to treat her as a child is the way to
+make her prey upon herself. I wish her talent could be more cultivated;
+but meantime nothing is better for her than the care of Bernard and
+Stella. I hope you will not be in a hurry to promote them out of her
+hands.'
+
+'Very well; but she will miss you sorely.'
+
+'I hope to see her brightened before I am really gone, and I am not
+going to decamp from this house till some natural break comes. To do
+that would be absurd!'
+
+There was a silence; and then Felix said with a sigh, 'Yes, a smaller
+house, and one servant. I will speak to Wilmet.'
+
+'Perhaps you had better, so that she may have an answer in case she is
+attacked.'
+
+Wilmet was aghast at first, but a hint from Alda made her acquiesce,
+not with blushing consciousness, but with the perception that the way
+of the world was against the retention of the lodger; and sorry as she
+was to lose Mr. Audley, her housewifely mind was not consoled, but
+distracted, by calculations on the difference of expenditure. Again she
+tried to beg herself off from her visit, in the dread that Felix would
+go and take some impracticable house in her absence--some place with
+thin walls, no cupboards, and no coal-hole; and she was only pacified
+by his solemn promise to decide on no house without her. She went away
+in an avalanche of kisses and tears, leaving Geraldine with a basketful
+of written instructions for every possible contingency, at which the
+anxious maiden sat gazing anxiously, trying to store her mind with its
+onerous directions.
+
+'Shall I give you a piece of advice, Cherry?' said the Curate, as he
+saw the dark eye-brows drawn together.
+
+'Oh, do!' she earnestly said.
+
+'Put all that in the fire!'
+
+'Mr. Audley!'
+
+'And go by the light of nature! You have just as many senses as Wilmet,
+and almost as much experience; and as to oppressing yourself with the
+determination to do the _very_ thing she would have done under all
+circumstances, it is a delusion. People must act according to their own
+nature, not some one else's.'
+
+'Certainly,' said Geraldine, smiling. 'I could never walk stately in
+and say, "Now, boys!"--and much they would care for it if I did.'
+
+'It seems to be a case for "Now, boys!" at this moment,' said Mr.
+Audley; 'what can all that row be?'
+
+'Oh, it must be that dreadful strange boy, Lance's friend,' sighed
+Geraldine, almost turning pale. Then, trying to cheer up, 'But it is
+only for the day, and Lance wished it so much.'
+
+As she spoke, the shout of 'Cherry, here's Bill!' came nearer, and the
+whole of the younger half of the family tumbled promiscuously into the
+room, introducing the visitor in the midst of them. To the elders,
+'no end of a chap' appeared, as Mr. Audley said, to mean all ends of
+shock hair, and freckles up to the eyes; but when Fulbert and Lance had
+whirled him out again to see the lions of Bexley, Robina and Angela
+were overheard respectfully pronouncing that he was nice and spotty
+like the dear little frogs in the strawberry-beds at Catsacre, and that
+his hair was just the colour Cherry painted that of all the very best
+people in her 'holy pictures.'
+
+The object of their admiration was seen no more till the middle of
+dinner, when all three appeared, immoderately dusty; and no wonder,
+for the organist had employed them to climb, sweep fashion, into the
+biggest organ-pipe to investigate the cause of a bronchial affection of
+long standing, which turned out to be a dead bat caught in a tenacious
+cobweb.
+
+Shortly after, the guest was found assisting Angela in a tableau, where
+a pen-wiper doll in nun's costume was enacting the exorcism of the said
+bat, in a cave built of wooden bricks.
+
+Clement was undecided whether to condemn or admire; and Geraldine, to
+whom Edgar had lent some volumes of Ruskin, meditated on the grotesque.
+
+Before there had been time for the fanciful sport to become rough
+comedy, Lance had called off his friend to see the potteries; and to
+poor Cherry's horror, she found that Robina had been swept off in the
+torrent of boyhood. Clement, pitying her despair and self-reproach,
+magnanimously offered to follow, and either bring the little maid back,
+or keep her out of harm's way; and for some time Cherry reposed in the
+conviction that 'Tina was as good as a girl any day.'
+
+But at about a quarter to six, a little tap came to Mr. Audley's door,
+and Angela stood there, saying, with a most serious face, 'Please, Mr.
+Audley, Cherry wants to know whether you don't think something must
+have happened.' And going upstairs, he found the poor young deputy in a
+nervous agony of despair at the non-return of any of the party, quite
+certain that some catastrophe had befallen them, and divided between
+self-reproach and dread of the consequences.
+
+'The very first day Wilmet had gone!' as she said.
+
+It was almost time for Harewood's train, which made it all the more
+strange. Mr. Audley tried to reassure her by the probability that the
+whole party were convoying him to the station, and would appear when
+he was gone; but time confuted this pleasing hypothesis, and Cherry's
+misery was renewed. She even almost hinted a wish that Mr. Audley would
+go out and look for them.
+
+'And then,' he said, smiling, 'in an hour's time you would be sending
+Felix to look for me. No, no, Cherry, these waiting times are often
+hard, no doubt; but, as I fear you are one of those destined to "abide
+by the tents" instead of going out to battle, you had better learn to
+do your watching composedly.'
+
+'O Mr. Audley! how can I? I know it must be very wrong, but how can I
+not care?' And verily the nervous sensitive girl was quivering with
+suspense.
+
+'"He will not be afraid of any evil tidings, for his heart standeth
+fast and believeth in the Lord,"' answered Mr. Audley. 'I see that does
+not tell you _how_ not to be afraid; but I imagine that a few trusting
+ejaculations in the heart, and then resolute attention to something
+else, may be found a help.'
+
+Cherry would have sighed that attention was the most impossible thing
+in the world; but before she had time to do so, Mr. Audley had begun to
+expound to her his Australian scheme. It excited her extremely; and as
+a year and a half seemed an immense period of time to her imagination,
+the dread of losing him was not so immediate as to damp her enthusiasm.
+They had discussed his plans for nearly an hour before Cherry started
+at the sound of the door, and then it was only Felix who entered. He
+was irate, but not at all alarmed; and presently the welcome clatter of
+steps approached, and in dashed the whole crew, mired up to the eyes,
+but in as towering spirits as ever.
+
+Their delay had, it appeared, been caused by a long walk that ensued
+upon the visit to the potteries, and a wild venture of Will Harewood
+upon impracticable ice, which had made him acquainted with the depths
+of a horse-pond. There was none of the dignity of danger, for the
+depths were shallows and the water only rose to his waist; but the mud
+was above his ankles, and he had floundered out with some difficulty.
+He wanted to walk back with no more ceremony than a water-dog; but
+the Underwoods had made common cause against him, and had dragged him
+to a cottage, where he had the pleasing alternative of an old woman's
+blankets and petticoats while his garments were drying. He was as
+nearly angry as a Harewood could be, Lance observed, declaring that
+they should never have got him into the cottage without fighting him,
+if Tina had not been so tall, and if Robin had not nearly cried; while
+he, throwing off all responsibility, ascribed all his lateness to
+his friend's 'maggots.' No more trains stopped at Bexley till after
+midnight; but as to his absence causing any uneasiness at home, he
+laughed at the notion, and was corroborated by Lance in averring that
+they had too much sense; listening with undisguised amazement to the
+elaborate explanations and apologies about Robina, which Clement was
+scrupulously pouring forth to his brother and sister, saying that he
+would have brought her home at once, but that he really did not like to
+trust those boys alone.
+
+Whereat Lance held up his hands with a dumb show of amazement that
+convulsed Fulbert, Bill Harewood, and Robina herself, with agonies of
+half-suppressed merriment. The boy had come in, prepared to be grave
+and quiet, as knowing how lately affliction had come to the family,
+and having been warned by Lance, that 'as to going on as we do in the
+precincts, why it would make Cherry jump out of her skin.'
+
+But by some extraordinary influence--whether it were the oddity of
+William Harewood's face, or the novelty of his perfect _insouciance_
+in the household whither care had come only too early--some infection
+seized on the young Underwoods, and before the end of the evening meal,
+if the 'goings on' were not equal to those in the precincts, they were,
+at any rate, not far short of it.
+
+Lance presently incited his friend to show 'how he had mesmerized
+Lucy.' Clement made a horrified protest; and Geraldine looked alarmed
+at her eldest brother, who began, 'Indeed, Lance, we can have nothing
+of that sort here.'
+
+'But, Felix, I do assure you there is no harm.'
+
+'Upon my word and honour, there's not a spice of anything the
+Archbishop of Canterbury could stick at,' added Will Harewood.
+
+'It is impossible there should not be harm,' interposed Clement; but
+the boys, including Fulbert, were in such fits of laughter, that Felix
+began to suspect the seriousness of the performance; and when Lance
+sprang at him, exclaiming, 'I'll go to Mr. Audley! Fee--Cherry--will
+you be satisfied if Mr. Audley says we may?' Felix and Cherry both
+consented; and Lance rushed off to make the appeal, and returned not
+only with full sanction, but with Mr. Audley himself, come to see
+the operation. This perfectly satisfied Felix, who even consented,
+on the entreaty of his brothers, to become the first subject; and
+Cherry knew that where the Curate and Felix had no scruples, she need
+have none; but, for all that, she was more than half frightened and
+uncomfortable--above all, when Clement, amid shouts of mirth from the
+three schoolboys, indignantly marched away to shut himself up in his
+cold bedroom.
+
+By-and-by, after some unseen preparation--all the more mystifying
+because carried on in the kitchen, where Sibby always used to keep
+Theodore in a cradle till Felix was ready for him--Will Harewood caused
+Felix to stand exactly opposite to him and to the spectators, with a
+dinner-plate in his hand, and under injunctions to imitate the operator
+exactly. Armed with another plate, William rubbed his own finger
+first on the under side of the plate, and then, after some passes and
+flourishes, on his own forehead, entirely without effect so far as he
+himself was concerned; but his victim, standing meekly good-natured
+and unconscious, was seen by the ecstatic audience to be, at each
+pass, painting his own face with the soot from a flame over which his
+plate had been previously held. The shrieks of amusement redoubled at
+the perplexity they occasioned him, till they penetrated the upper
+rooms; and suddenly a cry of horror made all turn to the door and see a
+little white bare-footed figure standing there, transfixed with fright,
+which increased tenfold when Felix hurried towards it, not yet aware
+of the condition of his visage, until a universal shout warned him of
+it; while Lance, darting in pursuit, picked up Bernard, and by his
+wonderful caressing arts, and partly by his special gift of coaxing,
+partly as the object of the little fellow's most fervent adoration,
+made the scattered senses take in that it was 'all play,' and even
+carried back the little white bundle, heart throbbing and eyes staring,
+but still secure in his arms, to admire Felix all black, and then to be
+further relieved by beholding the restoration of the natural hue at the
+pump below stairs.
+
+Then amid Sibby's scoldings and assurances that the child would catch
+his death of cold, Bernard was borne upstairs again by Felix, who found
+Clement in the nursery comforting the little girls, and preventing
+them from following the example of their valiant pioneer. Felix, now
+thoroughly entering into the spirit of the joke, entertained for a
+moment the hope of entrapping Clement; but of course Bernard could not
+be silenced from his bold and rather doubtful proclamation, that 'The
+funny boy made Felix black his own face, and I wasn't afraid.'
+
+'Naughty boy!' commented Stella. 'Poor Fee!'--and she reared up to kiss
+him, and stroke the cheeks that had suffered such an indignity.
+
+'What! It was only a trick?' said Clement slowly, as if half mystified.
+
+'Of course,' said Felix; 'could not you trust to that?'
+
+'I don't know. Cathedrals are very lax, and it had a questionable name.'
+
+'O Clem! if it had not been in you before, I should wish you had never
+gone to St. Matthew's. Come down now, don't let us disturb the little
+ones any longer.--Good-night, Angel; good-night, little Star; we'll not
+make a row to wake you again.'
+
+Clement, in a severe mood, followed Felix downstairs; but some
+wonderful spirit of frolic was on all the young people that night--a
+reaction, perhaps, from the melancholy that had so long necessarily
+reigned in that house, for though the fun was less loud, it was quite
+as merry: a course of riddles was going on; and Clement, who really
+was used to a great deal of mirth among the staff of St. Matthew's,
+absolutely unbent, and gloried in showing that even more conundrums
+were known there than by the house of Harewood. He was not strong
+in guessing them; but then Will Harewood made such undaunted and
+extraordinary shots at everything proposed, that the spirit of repartee
+was fairly awakened, and Cherry's bright delicate wit began to play,
+so that no one knew how to believe in the lateness of the hour, and
+still less that this was the same house that grave Wilmet had left that
+morning.
+
+'Poor dear little Cherry!' said Felix to Mr. Audley, after helping her
+upstairs, 'she is quite spent with laughing; indeed my jaws ache, and
+she is ready to cry, as if it had been unfeeling.'
+
+'Don't let her fancy that. We certainly were surprised into it
+to-night; but I only wish for her sake--for all your sakes--that you
+could keep the house merrier.'
+
+Felix sighed. He too felt as if he had been betrayed into unbecoming
+levity; and though he would not dispute, his heart had only become the
+heavier. However, he did not forget; and when Cherry again breathed
+a little sigh as to what Wilmet would think of their first day, he
+stoutly averred that there was no use in drooping, and no harm in
+liveliness, and that no one had ever been so full of joyousness as
+their father.
+
+She owned it. 'But--'
+
+And that _but_ meant the effects of the three years that she had spent
+as the companion of her mother's mournful widowhood, and of the cares
+of life on her elder brother and sister.
+
+It was true, as Mr. Audley said, that the associations of the rooms
+were not good for her spirits in her many lonely hours and confined
+life; and this reconciled Felix more than anything else to the proposed
+change. He was keeping his promise to Wilmet of not seeking a house
+till her return, when Mr. and Mrs. Froggatt, whose minds had been much
+relieved by hearing that the lodger would consult the proprieties,
+communicated to him their own scheme of taking up their residence at
+a village named Marshlands, about two miles from Bexley, where they
+already spent great part of the summer in a pleasant cottage and
+garden which they had bought and adorned. Mr. Froggatt would drive
+in to attend to the business every day, but the charge of the house
+was the difficulty, as they did not wish to let the rooms; and they
+now proposed that the young Underwoods should inhabit them rent-free,
+merely keeping a bedroom and little parlour behind the shop for Mr.
+Froggatt, and providing firing in them. With much more diffidence, at
+his wife's earnest suggestion, the kindly modest old man asked whether
+Miss Underwood would object to his coming in to take a piece of bread
+and cheese when he was there in the middle of the day.
+
+It was an excellent offer, and Felix had no hesitation in gratefully
+closing with it, even without consulting Wilmet. Her reply showed that
+a great weight was taken off her mind; and she was only longing to be
+at home again, contriving for the move, which was to take place at
+Lady Day. She was burning to study the new rooms; nevertheless, as by
+kind Marilda's contrivance, she was taking lessons in German every day
+from a superior Fraulein who had once been her cousin's governess, and
+was further allowed to inspect the working of a good school, her stay
+was extended, by Miss Pearson's entreaty, a full fortnight beyond what
+had been intended. Nor had anything gone wrong in her absence. Even
+the overlooking of the boys' linen, which she had believed impossible
+without her, was safely carried on by Cherry, and all were sent off in
+sound condition. No catastrophe occurred; and the continual occupation
+and responsibility drove away all the low spirits that so often had
+tried the home-keeping girl. She _did_ enjoy those _tete-a-tete_
+evenings, when Felix opened to her more than he had ever done before;
+and yet it was an immense relief to have the day fixed for Wilmet's
+return, and how much more to have her walking into the room with all
+the children clinging about her in incoherent ecstacy, which had not
+subsided enough for much comprehension when Felix came joyously in.
+'Hurrah, Wilmet! Mr. Froggatt sent me home a couple of hours before
+time!'
+
+'How very good! I met him in the street just now. Really, he is the
+kindest old gentleman in the world!'
+
+'I believe you dazzled him, Mettie; he says he did not know you till
+you spoke to him, and if he had realised what a beautiful and majestic
+young lady you were, he should hardly have ventured to propose your
+taking up your abode under his humble roof.'
+
+'That must be the effect of living with Alda,' said Wilmet merrily;
+'but, oh! I am glad to be at home again!'
+
+'And I never was so glad of anything in my life,' said Geraldine
+eagerly.
+
+'I am longing to go over the house, and know what to do about
+furniture,' continued Wilmet.
+
+'There! now W. W. is herself again!' said Felix.
+
+'Mrs. Froggatt came and called on me,' said Geraldine. 'She talked of
+leaving us the larger things that will not go into the cottage.'
+
+'Which is well,' said Felix; 'for how much of ours will survive the
+shock of removing is doubtful.'
+
+'All the things that came from Vale Leston are quite solid,' said
+Wilmet, bristling up.
+
+'That carpet is solid darn,' said Felix. 'We tried one evening, and
+found that though the pattern of rose-leaves is a tradition, no one
+younger than Clem could remember having seen either design or colour.'
+
+'You should not laugh at it, Felix,' said Wilmet, a little hurt; for
+indeed her mother's needle and her own were too well acquainted with
+the carpet for her to like to hear it contemned.
+
+Felix and Cherry both felt somewhat called to order, as if their
+mistress had come home again; and Cherry was the first to break silence
+by inquiring after Wilmet's studies at Brighton.
+
+'Oh yes,' said Wilmet, 'I do hope I am improved. That was all Marilda's
+kindness. She quite understood how I missed everybody and everything;
+and at last, one day, when I was wishing I could pronounce German like
+Alda, and that Alda had time to give me some lessons--'
+
+'Alda hasn't time?'
+
+'Oh, you don't know how useful she is! She writes all the notes.
+Marilda devised getting this Fraulein--such a good-natured woman! and
+when she heard what I wanted, she got leave for me to come every day to
+study the working of the school. I do believe I shall teach much better
+now, if only I were not so ignorant. I never had any notion before how
+little I knew!'
+
+However, Wilmet's value had really risen so much in consequence of
+these instructions, that Miss Pearson arranged that she should lay the
+French and German foundations, and prepare the scholars, and should
+receive half a sovereign a half year from each girl whom she thus
+instructed, being the moiety of 'extra.' Moreover, the head teacher
+talked of retiring, and her succession was promised to Wilmet--a
+brilliant prospect, that the sight of Alda's grandeur did not make her
+contemn.
+
+Wilmet's anxious mind was well satisfied by her inspection of the new
+quarters, which, among other conveniences, had that of shortening
+by ten minutes her walk to school. The family apartments were all
+upstairs, the space below being entirely taken up by the business, and
+the kitchens were under ground. The chief sitting-room upstairs was
+unfortunately towards the street, and had a northern aspect; it was a
+spacious room, with three large windows filled with boxes of flowers,
+and contained a big table and two sofas, which, with the carpet and
+curtains, would remain well covered up. Folding-doors led into a
+smaller room, with a south window towards the little garden, where Mrs.
+Froggatt generally sat, and which had been used for the dining-room.
+There were two bedrooms besides on the same floor, one of which would
+remain untouched for Mr. Froggatt; and above these, there was a large
+nursery, and more rooms than had been ever furnished. Rent, rates,
+taxes, and repairs, all off her mind! Wilmet felt as if prosperity
+were setting in; and she was the first to make the audacious statement
+that they need not part with Martha, and indeed, that the house could
+not be kept in order, nor dinners cooked fit for Mr. Froggatt, by
+Sibby single-handed. And Cherry made up her mind that they were like a
+family of caterpillars moving their cobweb tent; Angela, seeing such an
+establishment of young tortoise-shells, in their polished black, under
+their family web, had asked, 'Which was their brother Felix?' and the
+name was adopted.
+
+So a time of much business and excitement set in; and the lengthening
+spring evenings were no sinecure to Wilmet, as the flitting day
+approached, being rather hurried on by the old bookseller, who wanted
+to be at Marshlands in time to admire his hyacinths and sow his
+annuals. Mr. Audley would take rooms at the Fortinbras Arms for the
+remainder of his stay at Bexley; and indeed, there was a good deal to
+break the old habit of constantly depending on him, for his brother's
+young wife was slowly dying in London, and the whole family seemed
+instinctively to turn to him for comfort and advice, so that he was
+obliged to be continually going backwards and forwards.
+
+On the 24th of March, when he came down by an afternoon train, he found
+the house door open, the steps scattered with straw; and after looking
+in and seeing his own parlour intact, and with a cheerful fire, he
+pursued his way upstairs, and there found the sitting-room bare except
+for a sort of island consisting of the sofa, on which Geraldine lay
+rolled in cloaks and shawls, trying to amuse the twins by a feeble
+attempt to sing
+
+     'Weel may the boatie row,'
+
+while making paper boats for Stella to drag by strings upon the smooth
+boards.
+
+'Eh, Cherry, are you the Last Man, or the Last Rose of Summer?'
+
+'The last of the caterpillars,' said Cherry, smiling, but with effort.
+'Do you see Stella's fleet--just thirteen?'
+
+'Making omens, foolish child!' but though Stella was eagerly pointing
+and explaining, 'Tat Tella's boat--tat Tedo's--tat brother's--tat
+Angel,' and so on, the word _foolish_ was not directed to the little
+one, but to the grey eyes heavy with unshed tears, that rested
+wistfully upon a wreck that had caught upon a nail and lay rent and
+ragged.
+
+'Pray don't look which it is,' said she.
+
+'Certainly not; I hate auguries.'
+
+'Do you think there is nothing in them?'
+
+'I think there is nothing in this room but what ought to be in mine.
+Do you expect me to stand discussing superstition in this horrible raw
+emptiness? Here,' picking up Theodore, 'I'll come back for you.'
+
+'Oh no, thank you, let me get down by myself; he cannot be left alone
+in a room.'
+
+'Come, Stella, and take care of him.'
+
+'That's worse; she leads him into mischief. We are fox, goose, and
+cabbage. Please give me my crutch; Wilmet put it out of reach because
+she said I was destroying myself.'
+
+'You are tired to death.'
+
+'Oh no; but one can't sit still when so much is going on. Oh, how
+delicious!' as after an interval she arrived, and found Mr. Audley
+winding up a musical-box, which Theodore was greeting with its own
+tunes, and Stella with a dance and chant of 'Sing box--sing box;' and
+then the two sat listening to the long cycle of tunes which would hold
+Theodore entranced for any length of time.
+
+After a short inquiry and a reply as to the sister-in-law's state,
+and a few words on the progress of the flitting, there was a silence
+while Mr. Audley read the letters that had come for him in his absence,
+and Cherry's face became more and more pensive. At last, when Mr.
+Audley laid down his letters, and leant against the chimney-piece, she
+ventured to say, 'Is it wrong?'
+
+'Is what wrong?' said the Curate, who had quite forgotten the subject.
+
+'To care about omens.'
+
+'That depends. To accept them is sometimes necessary; to look out for
+them is generally foolish and often wrong.'
+
+'Sometimes necessary?' said Cherry eagerly.
+
+'Sometimes experience seems to show that in good Providence a merciful
+preparation is sent not so much to lead to anticipations, as to bring
+the mind into keeping with what is coming, and, as it were, attune it.'
+
+'So that little things may be constantly types of great future ones?'
+
+'My dear Cherry, I said _not_ constantly.'
+
+'Just let me tell you. Sibby says that the very day we all came into
+this poor old house, just as the omnibus stopped, there was the knell
+ringing overhead, and a funeral coming up the street. She knew it was
+a token, and burst out crying; and dear Mamma, who you know never shed
+tears, turned as white as a corpse, as if she was struck to the heart.'
+
+'And your father?'
+
+'Oh! Sibby said he just stood in the doorway, lifted his hat as the
+funeral passed, and then well-nigh carried Mamma, with the baby (that
+was Fulbert) in her arms, over the threshold, and smiled at her,
+saying, "Well, mother, what better than to have found our home till
+death!" So you see he did believe in it.'
+
+'I see he wanted to cheer her spirits, not by saying "stuff and
+nonsense," but reminding her that there are worse things than death.
+Have you an omen on your mind, Cherry? Have it out; don't let it sink
+in.'
+
+'Only _please_ don't laugh at me. Indeed, it was not my own doing, but
+Stella's fancy to have a boat for each of us, when she was launching
+them; and I could not help recollecting how we are all starting out and
+away from our first home.'
+
+'Stella's was not a _very_ perilous ocean.'
+
+'That was a comfort at first; and Stella tried to draw all the thirteen
+lines together, but they tangled, and one thread broke, and that boat
+was left behind; and one poor crooked ill-made thing fell over, and was
+left at home because hindering all the rest, and even Stella knew that
+was me, and--' her voice quivered, 'one was caught on a nail, and torn
+into a wreck! Now, can I help thinking, though you'll just call them
+newspaper-boats, dragged by a baby on a dry dusty floor?'
+
+'Watched by a weary fanciful damsel,' said Mr. Audley, sitting down
+by her, 'who does not know a bit more than she did before, that all
+are launching on a sea, and if it _is_ a rougher one, there's a better
+Guiding Star than Stella Eudora to lead them, and they have compasses
+of their own--ay, and a Pilot. And if there are times when He seems to
+be asleep in the ship--why, even the owner of the unseaworthy boat left
+at home can show the Light, and pray on till the others are roused to
+awaken Him.'
+
+'I wish there had not been that wreck,' she sighed.
+
+'What seems a wreck need not be really one,' said Mr. Audley. 'It may
+be the very way of returning to the right course. And by and by we
+shall see our Master standing on the shore in the morning light.'
+
+At that moment there was a sound at the door--Felix had accompanied
+Cherry's chair, to bring her and Theodore to the new home. There
+was too much haste for the wistful last looks she intended: she
+was deposited in the chair with Theodore on her knee, Stella
+trotting after, with Felix and Mr. Audley, who was coming to see the
+inauguration. St. Oswald's Buildings were left behind, and she was
+drawn up to the green private door, beside the shop window; Wilmet
+hurried down and took Theodore from her; Felix helped her out, and
+up the narrow steep staircase, which certainly was _not_ a gain, but
+when landed in the drawing-room, the space seemed to her magnificent.
+And their own furniture, the two or three cherished portraits brought
+from Vale Leston, their father's chair, their mother's sofa, the silk
+patchwork table-cover that had been the girl's birth-day present to
+Mamma, the bookcase with Papa's precious books, made it seem home-like.
+
+'The mantelpiece is just the same!' cried Cherry, delighted, as she
+recognised all the old ornaments.
+
+The next moment her delight was great at the flower-stands, which Mr.
+Froggatt had kindly left full of primulas, squills, and crocuses;
+and when she looked out from the back room into the little garden,
+where Mr. Froggatt's horticultural tastes had long found their sole
+occupation, and saw turf, green laurels, and bunches of snowdrops and
+crocuses, she forgot all Stella's launch!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CHORAL FESTIVAL.
+
+        'And with ornaments and banners,
+         As becomes gintale good manners,
+    We made the loveliest Tay room upon Shannon shore.'
+                                                  _Thackeray._
+
+
+'Of course, after _this_,' said Lady Price, 'Miss Underwood did not
+expect to be visited.'
+
+Otherwise the gain was great. The amusement of looking out of window
+into the High Street was alone a perpetual feast to the little ones,
+and saved Geraldine worlds of anxiety; and the garden where they
+could be turned out to play was prized as it only could be by those
+who had never had any outlet before. It was a pleasant little long
+narrow nook, between the printing-house on the west, and such another
+garden on the east, a like slip, with a wall masked by ivy and lilacs,
+and overshadowed by a horse-chestnut meeting it on the south. It was
+not smoky, and was quite quiet, save for the drone and stamp of the
+steam-press; there was grass, a gum-cistus and some flower-beds in the
+centre, and a gravel-walk all round, bordered by narrow edgings of
+flowers, and with fruit trees against the printing-house wall, and a
+Banksia and Wisteria against that of the house. Mr. Froggatt was quite
+touched at the reverence with which Angela and Stella regarded even
+the daisies that had eluded his perpetual spud; and when he found out
+the delight it was to Cherry to live with flowers for the first time
+in her life, he seldom failed to send her a bunch of violets or some
+other spring beauty as soon as he arrived in the morning, and kept the
+windows constantly supplied with plants.
+
+The old bookseller was at first very much afraid of his new inmates.
+To Felix he was used, but he looked on the sisters as ladies, and to
+ladies except on business-terms he was much less accustomed than to
+gentlemen. Besides, being a thorough gentleman himself at heart, he had
+so much delicacy as to be afraid of hurting their feelings by seeming
+at home in his own house; and he avoided being there at luncheon for a
+whole week, until one afternoon Felix ran up to say that he was sure
+Mr. Froggatt had a cold, and would be glad if a cup of tea appeared
+in his parlour. Gratitude brought him in to face the enemy; and after
+he had been kept at home for a day or two by the cold, his wife's
+injunctions and Felix's entreaties brought him to the dinner.
+
+It happened to be one of Wilmet's favourite economical stews; but
+these were always popular in the family, though chiefly composed of
+scraps, pot-liquor, rice, and vegetables; and both for its excellence
+and prudence it commanded Mr. Froggatt's unqualified approbation. All
+that distressed his kind heart was to see no liquor but water, except
+Cherry's thimbleful of port; he could _not_ enjoy his glass of porter,
+and shook his head--perhaps not without reason--when he found that
+his young assistant's diet was on no more generous scale, and was not
+satisfied by Felix's laughing argument that it was impossible to be
+_more_ than perfectly healthy and strong. 'False economy,' said the old
+man in private; but Felix was not to be persuaded into what he believed
+to be an unnecessary drain on the family-finances, and was still more
+stout against the hint that if Redstone discovered this prudential
+abstinence, it might make him 'disagreeable.' Felix had gone his way
+regardless of far too many sneers for poverty and so-called meanness to
+make any concession on their account, though the veiled jealousy and
+guarded insolence of that smart 'gent' the foreman had been for the
+last three years the greatest thorn in his side. And at least he made
+this advance, that the errand-boy cleaned the shoes!
+
+Geraldine, though shy at first from the utter seclusion in which she
+had lived, put forth a pretty bashful graciousness that perfectly
+enchanted Mr. Froggatt, who was besides much touched by her patient
+helplessness. He became something between her grandfather and her
+knight, loading her with flowers, giving her the run of the circulating
+library, and whenever it was fine enough, taking her for a mile or two
+in his low basket-carriage either before or after his day's business
+in the shop. It was not exactly like being with her only other friend,
+Mr. Audley; but he was a thoroughly kind, polite, and by no means
+unlettered old man; and Geraldine enjoyed and was grateful, while the
+children were his darlings, and were encouraged to take all manner of
+liberties with him.
+
+Among the advantages of the change was the having Felix always at hand;
+and though she really did not see him oftener in the course of the day
+than at St. Oswald's Buildings, still the knowing him to be within
+reach gave great contentment to Cherry. The only disadvantage was that
+he lost his four daily walks to and fro, and hardly ever had sufficient
+fresh air and exercise. He was indeed on his feet for the most of the
+day, but not exerting his muscles; and all taste for the active sports
+in which his kind old master begged him to join seemed to have passed
+away from him when care fell upon him. He tried not to hold his head
+above the young men of his adopted rank, many of whom had been his
+school-fellows; but, except with the members of the choir and choral
+society, he had no common ground, and there were none with whom he
+could form a friendship. Thus he never had any real relaxation, except
+music, and his Sunday walks, besides his evenings with his sisters
+and of play with the children. It was not a natural life for a youth,
+but it seemed to suit with his disposition; for though not given to
+outbursts of animal spirits, he was always full of a certain strong and
+supporting cheerfulness.
+
+Indeed, though they did not like to own it to themselves, the young
+people had left behind them much of the mournfulness of the widowed
+household, which had borne down their youthful spirits; and though the
+three elders could never be as those who had grown up without care
+or grief, yet their sunshine could beam forth once more, and helped
+them through the parting with their best friend. For Mr. Audley's
+sister-in-law died in the beginning of June, and his father entreated
+him to go abroad with his brother, so that he was hurried away directly
+after midsummer, after having left his books in Felix's charge, and
+provided for the reception of the dividends in his absence.
+
+His successor was a quiet amiable young Mr. Bisset, not at all
+disinclined to cultivate Felix as a link with the tradesfolk; only he
+had brought with him a mother, a very nice, prim, gentle-mannered,
+black-eyed lady, who viewed all damsels of small means as perilous to
+her son. Had she been aware that Bexley contained anything so white
+and carnation, so blue-eyed and straight-featured, so stately, and so
+penniless as Wilmet Underwood, he would never have taken the Curacy.
+She was a kind woman, who would have taken infinite pains to serve the
+orphan girls; and she often called on them; but when the Rector's wife
+had told her that such a set had been made at Mr. Audley that he could
+bear it no longer, it was but a natural instinct to cherish her son's
+bashfulness.
+
+That autumn Wilmet came home elevated by the news that the head teacher
+was going to retire at Christmas, and that she was to be promoted to
+her place of forty pounds a year. Her successor was coming immediately
+to be trained, being in fact the daughter of Miss Pearson's sister,
+who had married an officer in the army. She had been dead about three
+years, and the girl had been living in London with her father, now on
+half pay, and had attended a day-school until he married again, and
+finding his means inadequate to his expenses, and his wife and daughter
+by no means comfortable together, he suddenly flitted to Jersey to
+retrench, and made over his daughter of seventeen to her aunts to be
+prepared for governess-ship.
+
+This was the account Miss Pearson and Miss Maria gave to Wilmet, and
+Wilmet repeated to Geraldine, who watched with some interest for the
+first report of the new-comer.
+
+'She is rather a nice-looking little thing,' was the first report, 'but
+I don't know whether we shall get on together.'
+
+The next was, 'Miss Maria has been begging me to try to draw her out.
+They are quite distressed about her, she is so stiff and cold in her
+ways with them, and they think she cries in her own room.'
+
+'Poor thing, how forlorn she must be! Cannot _you_ comfort her, Mettie?'
+
+'She will have nothing to say to me! She is civil and dry, just as she
+is to them.'
+
+'I think she can talk,' said Angela.
+
+'How do you know anything about it, little one?' said Wilmet.
+
+'I heard her talking away to Lizzie Bruce in the arbour at dinner-time.
+Her face looked quite different then from what it does in school.'
+
+'Then I hope she is settling down to be happier,' said Wilmet
+thoughtfully; but, having watched Angela out of hearing, she added,
+'Not that I think Lizzie Bruce a good friend; she is rather a weak
+girl, and is flattered by Carry Price making a distinction between her
+and some of the others.'
+
+'When is Carry Price ever going to leave school?'
+
+'When she can play Mendelssohn well enough to satisfy Mr. Bevan. I
+wonder Lady Price does keep her on here; but in the meantime we can
+only make the best of her.'
+
+A day or two later, Wilmet and Angela came in from school eager,
+indignant, and victorious.
+
+'You _did_ manage it well!' the younger was saying. 'I was so glad
+you saw for yourself.--Just fancy, Cherry, there were Carry Price and
+Lizzie Bruce turning out all the most secret corners of Miss Knevett's
+work-box, laughing at them, and asking horrid impertinent questions,
+and she was almost crying.'
+
+'And you fetched Wilmet?'
+
+'She was sitting out in the garden, showing some of the little ones how
+to do their crochet--it was the play-time after dinner--and I just went
+to her and whispered in her ear, so she strolled quietly by the window.'
+
+'Yes,' added Wilmet, 'and before I came to it, Edith was saying to Jane
+Martin, on purpose for me to hear, that she thought it would be a good
+thing if Miss Underwood would look into the school-room. So Angel was
+not getting into a scrape.'
+
+'I should not have minded if I had,' said Angel; 'it was such a shame,
+and she looks such a dear--'
+
+'There she was,' said Wilmet, 'her fingers shaking, and her eyes full
+of tears, trying to do some work, while Carry Price went on in her
+scoffing voice, laughing over all the little treasures and jewels, and
+asking who gave them to her, and what they cost. All I could do was to
+put my hand on her shoulder and say I saw she did not like it; and then
+Lizzie Bruce looked ashamed, but Miss Price bristled up, and declared
+that Miss Knevett had unlocked the box herself. Then the poor child
+burst out that she had only said she would show her Maltese cross; she
+had never asked them to turn everything out, and meddle with it; and
+Carry tossed her head, just like my Lady, and said, "Oh, very well,
+they did not want to see her trumpery, since she was so cross about
+it. I suppose you mean to show the things one by one to the little
+girls! A fine exhibition!" She cried out, "Exhibit! I don't mean to
+exhibit at all; I only showed it to you as my friend!" Whereupon Carry
+Price flounced off with, "As if I were going to make a friend of an
+underteacher!" and she went into a tremendous fit of crying, like what
+you used to have, Cherry, except that it was more passionate!'
+
+'I'm sure I never had anything like that to cry for. What did you do
+with her? How lucky she had you!'
+
+'Why, when she went on sobbing, "I'll not stay here," "I won't be
+insulted." "I'll tell my aunts," my great object was to get her
+upstairs, and to silence her, for I was sure Miss Pearson would
+dislike nothing so much as having a regular complaint from her about
+Carry; and, besides that, all the girls, who pity her now, would be
+turned against her, and think her a mischief-maker. I did get her up
+at last, and, oh dear! what a scene we had! Poor thing, I suppose she
+has been a spoilt child, going to a lady's fashionable institute, as
+she calls it, where she was a great girl, and rather looked up to, for
+the indulgences she got from her father--very proud, too, of being
+a major's daughter. Then came the step-mother; what things she said
+about her, to be sure! No end of misery, and disputes--whose fault,
+I am sure I don't know; then a crisis of debts. She says it was all
+Mrs. Knevett's extravagance; but Miss Pearson told me before that she
+thought it had been going on a long time; and at last, when the father
+and his wife and her child go off to Jersey, this poor girl is turned
+over to the aunts she never saw since her mother died, twelve years
+ago.'
+
+'I dare say it is the best thing for her.'
+
+'If she can only think so; but she fancies the being a teacher the most
+horrid thing in the world.'
+
+'Oh, Wilmet!' interrupted Angela; 'why, you like teaching: and Robin
+means to be a real governess, and so do I, if I am not a Sister!'
+
+'Me too,' called out Stella.
+
+'But you see this unlucky girl can't understand that teaching may be
+a real way of doing good; she fancies it a degradation. She says she
+and her friends at her institute hated and despised the teachers, and
+played all manner of tricks upon them.'
+
+'How foolish the teachers must have been!'
+
+'She did say something about their being low and mean. She did me the
+favour to say not like me, and that she was quite shocked to find I was
+one of this dreadful race. It was quite amazing to her when I told her
+how Robina's dear Miss Lyveson keeps school without necessity, only
+to be useful. You may imagine what it is to her to be plunged all on
+a sudden into this unhappy class. She began by trying to take her old
+place as an officer's daughter, and to consort with the girls; but I
+think if she and Carry Price were left to one another, she would very
+soon sink as low as any of the poor hounded teachers she describes.'
+
+'She must be very silly and conceited.'
+
+'No, I think she is sensible, and loving too, at the bottom,' said
+Wilmet, 'only every one is strange here: I think she will understand
+better soon; and in the meantime, she has quite forgiven me for being
+a teacher. She clung about me, and called me all sorts of pretty
+names--her only friend, and so forth.'
+
+'Perhaps she can forgive you for being a teacher, in consideration of
+your being a twin,' said Cherry.
+
+'There, Cherry, you understand her better already than I do! I'll bring
+her to you, I have not time for such a friendship.'
+
+'Poor thing! I should like to try to comfort her, if she is strange and
+dreary; but I think she must be rather a goose. What's her name?'
+
+'Alice; but in school Miss Pearson is very particular about having her
+called Miss Knevett. We have exchanged Christian names in private, of
+course.'
+
+'You horrid old prosy thing of four U's,' said Geraldine. 'You are
+sitting up there, you great fair creature, you, for the poor child to
+worship and adore, and not reciprocating a bit!'
+
+'Of course,' said Wilmet, 'if she can't be happy without being petted,
+I must pet her, and let her be nonsensical about me; but I think it is
+all great stuff, and that you will suit her much better than I ever
+shall.'
+
+'Do you never mean to have a friend, Mettie?'
+
+'Oh no, I haven't time; besides, I've got Alda.'
+
+Geraldine had, however, many dreams about the charms of friendship. She
+read of it in the books that Felix selected for her; and Robina had
+a vehement affection for a schoolfellow whose hair and whose _carte_
+she treasured, and to whom she would have written daily during the
+holidays but for the cost of stamps. The equality and freedom of the
+letters she received always made Cherry long for the like. Since Edgar
+had left her, she had never been on those equal terms with any one;
+Wilmet was more like mother or aunt than sister; and though Felix had
+a certain air of confidence and ease when with her, and made her his
+chief playfellow, he could not meet all her tastes or all her needs;
+and there was a sort of craving within her for intimacy with a creature
+of her own species.
+
+And though Wilmet's description of Alice Knevett did not sound
+particularly wise, Cherry, in her humility, deemed her the more secure
+of being on her own level, not so sensible and intolerant of little
+dreams, fancies, and delusions as those two sensible people, the twin
+sisters. So she watched impatiently for the introduction; and at last
+Wilmet said, 'Well, she is coming to tea to-morrow evening. Little
+ridiculous chit, she bridled and doubted, but as you were an invalid,
+she supposed she might, only it was not what she had been used to, and
+Papa "might object."'
+
+'What? To the shop? Well, I really think she had better not come! I'll
+have nobody here that thinks it a favour, and looks down on Felix.'
+
+'My dear, if she contrives to look down on Felix after she has seen
+him, she will deserve anything you please. Just now, I believe the
+foolishness is in her school, and not in herself.'
+
+Nevertheless, Geraldine's eagerness underwent a great revulsion.
+Instead of looking forward to the visit, she expected it with dread,
+and dislike to the pert, conceited, flippant Londoner, who despised her
+noble brother, and aspired to the notice of Carry Price. Her nervous
+shrinking from strangers--the effect of her secluded life--increased on
+her every moment of that dull wet afternoon; her feet grew cold, her
+cheeks hot, and she could hardly find temper or patience for the many
+appeals of Bernard and Stella for her attention.
+
+Her foolish little heart was palpitating as if a house-breaker were
+entering instead of Wilmet, conducting a dainty cloud of fresh lilac
+muslin, out of which appeared a shining black head, and a smiling
+sparkling face, with so much life and play about the mouth and eyes
+that there was no studying their form or colour, and it was only after
+a certain effort that it could be realised that Alice Knevett was a
+glowing brunette, with a saucy little nose, _retrousse_, though very
+pretty, a tiny mouth full of small pearls, and eyes of black diamond.
+
+In spite of her gracious manner, and evident consciousness of her own
+condescension, the winsomeness of the dancing eyes fascinated Cherry at
+once. Indeed, the simplicity and transparency of her little dignities
+disarmed all displeasure, they were so childish; and they vanished in a
+moment in a game at play with Bernard and Stella. When Wilmet brought
+out Geraldine's portfolio, her admiration was enthusiastic if not
+critical.
+
+A sketch of Wilmet and Alda enchanted her; she had never seen anything
+so lovely or so well done.
+
+'No, no,' said Cherry, rather shocked, 'you must have seen the Royal
+Academy.'
+
+'Oh, but I am sure this ought to be in the Royal Academy; I never saw
+anything there that I liked half so much. How clever you must be!'
+
+Cherry could not but laugh at the extravagant compliment. 'My brother
+Edgar draws much better than that,' she said, producing a capital
+water-colour of a group of Flemish market-women.
+
+'I shall always like yours best. Oh! and what is this?'
+
+'I did not know it was there,' said Cherry, colouring, and trying to
+take it away.
+
+'Oh, let me look. What! Is it a storm, or a regatta, or fishing boats?
+What is that odd light? What is written under? "The waves of this
+troublesome world." Why, that is in the Bible, is not it?'
+
+'Thirteen boats, Cherry,' said Wilmet; 'is that a device of your own?'
+
+'What, not copied? Oh dear! I wish I was so clever!'
+
+'It is the sea of this life, isn't it?' said Angela, coming up. 'Is it
+ourselves, Cherry, all making for the golden light of Heaven, and the
+star of faith guiding them?'
+
+'She reads it like a book,' exclaimed Alice. 'And those two close
+together--that means love, I suppose!'
+
+'Love and help, the weak and the strong,' said Geraldine, in her
+earnest dreamy voice.
+
+'Do pray make a picture of my boat on a nice smooth sea of light; I
+don't like rocks and breakers, such as you have done there.'
+
+'There always must be a last long wave,' said Cherry.
+
+'Oh, but don't let us think about horrid things. I like the summer sea.
+Aren't there some verses--
+
+     '"Youth at the prow, and pleasure at the helm?"'
+
+'That would not be a pleasant augury,' said Cherry. 'Do you know what
+this is meant for, bad as it is? Longfellow's verses--'
+
+'The phantom host that beleaguered the walls of Prague? How can you
+draw such things?'
+
+'So I say,' observed Wilmet.
+
+'They come and haunt me, and I feel as if I must.'
+
+'Who is this kneeling on the wall? He looks like a knight watching his
+armour.'
+
+'So he is,' said Cherry.
+
+'But there is nothing about him in the poem. Did you make him for
+yourself?'
+
+'Why, he is Ferdinand Travis!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'What, is it a real man? I thought it was somebody in a story.'
+
+'I see!' said Angela quietly. 'He is watching his armour the night
+before he was baptized.'
+
+For the child had never forgotten the adult baptism, though she had
+been little more than four years old at the time; but she was one of
+those little ones to whom allegory seems a natural element, with which
+they have more affinity than with the material world.
+
+However, the mention of Ferdinand Travis led to the history of the fire
+at the hotel, and of his recovery; Alice declared that 'everything
+nice' seemed to happen at Bexley, and was laughed at for her peculiar
+ideas of niceness; but there was something in the feminine prattle
+that was wonderfully new and charming to Geraldine, while, on the
+other hand, the visitor was conscious of a stimulus and charm that she
+had never previously experienced; and the eager tongues never flagged
+till Felix came in. He had evidently taken pains with his toilette,
+in honour of the unusual event; and the measured grave politeness of
+his manners renewed Alice's scared punctilious dignity of demeanour,
+and entire consciousness that she was a major's daughter and he a
+bookseller.
+
+But Felix had brought in some exciting Eastern news; and Alice put on
+an _air capable_, as one connected with India and the army, but she
+soon found out the deficiency of her geography, and was grateful for
+the full clear explanations, while her _amour propre_ was gratified
+by finding that her familiarity with a few Indian terms was valuable.
+Before the end of the evening all were at ease, and she was singing
+with Felix and Wilmet at the old piano.
+
+No sooner had the door shut on her when the maid came to fetch her,
+than a storm fell on Wilmet.
+
+'So that's what you call rather nice-looking?'
+
+'Well, she is under-sized and very brown, but I did think you would
+have allowed that she was rather pretty.'
+
+'Rather!' exclaimed Cherry indignantly.
+
+'That's what it is to be a handsome woman!' said Felix.
+
+'Do you mean to say that you think her anything remarkable?' said
+Wilmet.
+
+'Say no more, my dear W. W.,' laughed Felix. 'I never understood
+before why negroes don't admire white people.'
+
+'I am sure I don't know what you are talking about,' said Wilmet,
+betaking herself to her darning with great good-humour. 'Alice Knevett
+is prettier than I thought she was when she was all tears and airs; but
+I can't see any remarkable beauty to rave about.'
+
+'No, _you_ can't,' said Geraldine merrily. 'You look much too high over
+her head, but you see I don't; and such a little sparkling diamond
+beetle is a real treat to me.'
+
+And Geraldine often enjoyed the treat.
+
+In a very short time the green door and steep stairs were as familiar
+to Alice as to the Underwoods themselves; for her aunts were thankful
+to have her happy and safe, and she was rapturously fond of Geraldine,
+reflecting and responding to most of her sentiments. Most of the
+Underwoods had the faculty of imprinting themselves upon the characters
+of their friends, by taking it for granted that they felt alike; and
+Alice Knevett had not spent six weeks at Bexley before she had come
+to think it incredible that she had thought either teaching or the
+Underwoods beneath her. She was taking pains to do her work well,
+and enjoying it, and was being moulded into a capital subordinate
+to Wilmet; while with Geraldine she read and talked over her books,
+obtained illustrations for the poetry she wrote out in her album,
+and brought in a wholesome air of chatter, which made Cherry much
+more girl-like than she had ever been before. It was an importation
+of something external, something lively and interesting, which was
+very refreshing to all; and even Felix, in his grave politeness and
+attention to his sister's friend, manifested that so far from being in
+his way, as they had feared, he found her a very agreeable element when
+she joined the home party or the Sunday walk.
+
+Indeed, there was a certain tendency to expansion about the life of the
+young people; the pinch of poverty was less griping than previously,
+and their natural spirits rose. In January Lance was allowed to bring
+his friend Harewood to a concert of the choral society; and on the
+following evening Alice Knevett came to tea, and there was a series of
+wonderful charades, chiefly got up by Clement and Robina, and of comic
+songs by Lance and Bill Harewood--all with such success, that Alice
+declared that she had never seen anything so delightful in all her
+experience of London Christmases!
+
+The young people really seemed to have recovered elasticity enough that
+year to think of modest treats and holidays as they had never ventured
+to do since that memorable sixteenth birth-day of Felix's. Here was
+his twenty-first not very far off; and when it was announced that this
+identical 3rd of July had been fixed on for a grand choral meeting
+at the Cathedral, at which the choir of Bexley was to assist, there
+was such a spirit of enterprise abroad in the family, that Geraldine
+suggested that Wilmet might take Robina to see the Cathedral and hear
+Lance.
+
+'Lance will be just what will not be heard,' said Felix. 'They will
+not show off their solos; but the Robin ought to have the pleasure, if
+possible; and as I go in two capacities, press and choir, I hope we can
+manage it for her.'
+
+He came in full early for the evening. 'All right,' he said. 'Two
+tickets are come for the Pursuivant, and Mr. Froggatt says he would not
+go at any price; and besides, each of the choir may take a friend--so
+that's three.'
+
+'Am I to be reporter or friend?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'Reporter, I think, for you will have to do audience.'
+
+'Nay, Cherry ought to be the gentleman connected with the press,' said
+Wilmet, for in fact Geraldine did sometimes do copying and correcting
+work for her brother; 'and, indeed, I do not see why she should not. We
+could go home directly after morning service, and leave you there.'
+
+'Oh no, impossible,' said Geraldine, 'it would never do; it would only
+spoil everybody's pleasure, and be too much for me.'
+
+'I think you are wise,' said Felix; and somehow it struck her with a
+prick that he had rather the proposal had not been made. 'There is sure
+to be a great crush, and I may be obliged to be with the choir.'
+
+'I am quite able to take care of her, I can always lift her,' said
+Wilmet, surprised.
+
+'I would not go on any account,' protested Cherry. 'I should be like
+the old woman in that Servian proverb, who paid five dollars to go to
+the fair, and would have paid ten to be safe at home again.'
+
+'There might be no getting a bench fit for you to sit upon,' added
+Felix, who, as a gentleman of the press, was not devoid of experience.
+'I could not be easy about you, my dear; it is much safer not.'
+
+'Perhaps so,' owned Wilmet, disappointed; 'but Angel is too little for
+such a long day, and Cherry is so much stronger, that I thought--'
+
+'Oh, but could not Alice Knevett go?' put in Cherry.
+
+'A very good suggestion,' said Felix. 'She hardly ever has any
+amusements. Well thought of, White-heart!'
+
+I believe he thought of it from the first, felt Geraldine, angry with
+herself that this conviction gave a prick like the point of a needle.
+She threw her energies into the scheme, and was begging Wilmet to go
+and make the proposal, when there was a sudden peal of the bell, a
+headlong trampling rush, a dash open of the door--Theodore began to hum
+the anthem 'How beautiful,' the other three small ones hailed 'Lance'
+at the top of their voices, and his arms were round the neck of the
+first sister who came in his way.
+
+'What, Lance! how came you here?'
+
+'Our organ is tuning up its pipes--man comes to-morrow--Prayers in the
+Lady Chapel and not choral, and it's a holiday at school, so I got
+off by the 5.20, and need not go back till the 6.10 to-morrow. We are
+practising our throats out to lead you all on the 3rd. You know you are
+coming, the whole kit of you.'
+
+'Do we?' said Wilmet. 'It is only for the last ten minutes that we have
+known that any of us were coming.'
+
+'All right; that's what I'm come about. Robina must be got home.'
+
+'She will be come. She comes on the 1st.'
+
+'That's right; then there's to be a great spread in Bishop's Meads
+between services. Everybody sends provisions, and asks their friends;
+but Cherry is to go and rest at the Harewoods'. The governor will get
+her in through the library into the north transept as quiet as a lamb,
+no squash at all. It is only along the cloister--a hop, step, and jump;
+and Miles has promised me the snuggest little seat for her. Then the
+Harewood sofa--'
+
+'It is too much, Lance,' began Cherry. 'Mrs. Harewood--'
+
+'Don't be absurd; she wishes it with all her heart. She won't want a
+ticket if Mr. Harewood smuggles her in, but I can get as many as you
+want. How many--Wilmet, Cherry, Robin, Angel, and Miss Knevett. She'll
+come, won't she?'
+
+'We were thinking of going to ask her.'
+
+'I'll do it; I've brought my own ticket for a friend for her; here it
+is, with L. O. U. in the corner. I'll run down with it before any one
+else cuts in.'
+
+'Hold hard,' said Felix; 'we shall not get her if you set about it in
+that wild way!'
+
+'Oh, but I'll promise Wilmet shall take her in tow, and if anything
+will pacify the old girls, that will.'
+
+'You had better let me come with you,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Look sharp then. Is it a practising night? Yes, that's well; Miles is
+in a state of mind at the short notice, and has crammed me choke-full
+of messages; he says it will save his coming down; come along, then, W.
+W., and soft-sawder the venerable aunts.'
+
+No more of this operation was necessary than the assurance that
+Miss Underwood was going, and that Mrs. Harewood would be a sort of
+chaperon. Alice Knevett was happy and grateful; and if anything were
+wanting to the universal enthusiasm of anticipation, it was supplied
+by Lance. The boy, with his musical talent, thorough trustworthiness
+and frank joyous manners, was a favourite with the organist, and was
+well versed in the programme; and his eagerness, and fulness of detail,
+were enough to infect every one. Geraldine thought it was great proof
+of his unspoilableness, that he took quite as much pleasure in bringing
+them to these services, where he would be but a unit in the hundreds,
+as if it had been one of the anthems, of which every one said, 'Have
+you heard little Underwood?' In the charm of the general welcome
+and the congratulation on Lance's arrangement, Geraldine had quite
+forgotten both her alarms and her tiny pang of surprise at not having
+been Felix's prime thought. Lance, by dint of a judicious mixture of
+hectoring and coaxing, obtained leave for Angela to be of the party,
+though against Wilmet's judgment; and Bernard and Stella were to spend
+the day with Mrs. Froggatt, which they regarded as an expedition quite
+as magnificent as that to St. Mary's Minster.
+
+Mr. Froggatt was almost as eager about this pleasure for 'his young
+people,' as he called them, as they could be. He came in early to drive
+Geraldine to the station, and looked with grandfatherly complacency at
+the four sisters, who had ventured on the extravagance of white pique
+and black ribbons, and in their freshness looked as well-dressed as any
+lady in the land.
+
+He entertained Cherry all the way with his admiration of Wilmet's
+beauty and industry, and when arrived at the station, waited there with
+her till first the three girls came up with Alice Knevett, white with
+pink ribbons, and then the choir arrived, marching with the banner
+with the rood of St. Oswald before them, each with a blue satin bow
+in his button-hole, and the bag with his surplice under his arm, the
+organist, the schoolmaster, and the two curates, bringing up the rear.
+Mr. Bevan, my Lady, and Miss Price, whirled up in the carriage, the
+omnibus discharged the friends of the choir, and two waggon loads of
+musical talent from the villages came lumbering and cheering in! The
+very train roared and shrieked in with a sound of cheering from its
+vertebrae, and banners were projecting from the windows, amid nodding
+heads and waving handkerchiefs of all colours; the porters ran about
+distracted; and Geraldine began to be alarmed, and to think of the old
+woman of Servia, but behold, Felix had her on one side, Mr. Froggatt on
+the other, a solid guard held open the door, and protected her from the
+rush, and before she well knew what they were doing with her, she was
+lying on the seat of the carriage, with her sisters and Alice all in a
+row in front of her; the recently crowded platform was empty of all but
+a stray porter, the stationmaster, and Mr. Froggatt kissing his hand,
+and promising to come and fetch her on her return.
+
+The train seemed hardly to have attained its full speed before it
+slackened again, and another merry load was disposed of within its
+joints. Another start, another arrival; and before the motion was over,
+a flash of sunny looks had glanced before the sisters' eyes. There was
+Lance, perfectly radiant, under his square trencher cap--hair, eyes,
+cheeks, blue bow, boots, and all, seeming to sparkle with delight as he
+snatched open the door. 'Hurrah! there they are. Give her out to me,
+Wilmet!' (as if she had been a parcel).
+
+'Stay, wait for Felix. You can't---'
+
+Felix rushed up from his colleagues of the choir, and Geraldine was set
+on her foot and crutch. 'Come along! I've got Ball's chair for you, and
+Bill Harewood is sitting in it for fear any one should bone it. Where's
+your ticket?'
+
+'Lance, take care! Don't take her faster than she can go!' as he
+whisked her over the platform; and Wilmet was impeded by the seeking
+for Alice's parasol and Angela's cloak. They were quite out of sight
+when Lance had dragged Cherry through the crowd at the door, and
+brought her to the wheeled chair just in time to find Bill Harewood
+glaring out of it like the red planet Mars, and asseverating that he
+_was_ the lame young lady it was hired for.
+
+In went Geraldine, imploring to wait for Wilmet, but all in vain; off
+went the chair, owner and escort alike in haste, and she was swept
+along, with Lance and Will with a hand holding either side of the
+chair, imparting breathless scraps of information, and exchanging
+remarks: 'There goes the Archdeacon.' 'The Thorpe choir is not come,
+and Miles is mad about it.' 'That's the Town Hall.' 'There's where Jack
+licked a cad for bullying.' 'There's a cannon-ball of Oliver Cromwell's
+sticking out of that wall.' 'That's the only shop fit to get gingerbeer
+at!' 'That old horse in that cab was in the Crimea.' 'We come last in
+the procession, and if you see a fellow like a sheep in spectacles,
+that's Shapcote.' 'Hurrah! what a stunning lot! where is it from?'
+'Bembury? My eyes, if that big fellow doesn't mean to bawl us all down.
+Down that way--that's the palace. Whose carriage is it stopping there?
+Now, here's the Close.'
+
+'Is that the Cathedral? Oh!'
+
+'You may well say so! No, not that way.' And on rattled poor amazed
+Geraldine through an archway, under some lime trees, round a corner,
+round another corner, to another arched doorway, with big doors studded
+with nails, with a little door for use cut out of one of the big ones.
+
+'You must get out here,' said Lance, 'we are close by,' and he helped
+her out, and paid and thanked the man with the chair. 'Here's our
+domain,' he continued, as he introduced Cherry through the open doorway
+into a small flagged court, with two houses, grey and old-fashioned,
+forming one side, and on the other an equally old long low building
+with narrow latticed arched windows. Opposite to the entrance was a
+handsome buttressed Gothic-looking edifice, behind which rose the gable
+of the north transept of the Cathedral, beautiful with a rose window,
+and farther back, far, far above, the noble tower.
+
+Already everything was very wonderful to Geraldine. 'That's our
+kennel,' said Lance, pointing to the low buildings to the right.
+'School's behind; but we boarders are put up in one of the old monks'
+dormitories, between court and cloister.'
+
+'Is it really?' exclaimed Geraldine.
+
+'So my father says,' said Will. 'Here's our door.' Another stone-arched
+passage, almost dark, with doors opening on either side, seemed common
+to both houses; and Will was inviting them to enter, but Lance held
+back. 'No time,' he said; 'better call your father.'
+
+'The others,' sighed Geraldine.
+
+'Bother the others! That's right: here he is!'
+
+'Halloo, Father!' cried Will; 'we've got Cherry.'
+
+'By which unceremonious designation I imagine you to mean to introduce
+Miss Underwood,' said a figure, appearing from beneath the archway,
+in trencher cap, surplice, and hood, with white hair, and a sort
+of precision and blandness that did not at all agree with Cherry's
+preconceived notions of the Harewood household. 'I am very glad to
+see you. My ladies, as usual, are unready. Will you have a glass of
+wine? No?--What do you say, Lancelot?--Very well, we will take you in
+at once. You will not object to waiting there, and this is the quiet
+time.--Boys, you ought to be with the choir.'
+
+'Oceans of time, Dad,' coolly answered Will; 'none of the fellows up
+there are under weigh.'
+
+Mr. Harewood offered his arm, but perceived that Cherry preferred Lance
+and her crutch; advancing to the door opposite that by which they had
+entered, he unlocked it, and Geraldine found herself passing through a
+beauteous old lofty chamber, with a groined Tudor roof, all fans, and
+pendants, and shields; tall windows stained with armorial bearings,
+parchment charters and blazoned genealogies against the walls, and
+screens upon screens loaded with tomes of all ages, writing-tables and
+chairs here and there, and glass-topped tables containing illuminations
+and seals. 'Here is my paradise,' said the librarian, smiling.
+
+'I think it must be,' said Geraldine, with a long breath of wonder and
+admiration.
+
+'Ah! would you not like to have a good look, Cherry?' said Lance.
+'That's Richard Coeur de Lion's seal in there.'
+
+'Don't begin about it--don't set him on,' whispered Willie, with a
+sign of his head towards his father, who was fitting the key into the
+opposite door, 'or we shall all stay here for the rest of the day.'
+
+This low door open, Mr. Harewood and the boys bared their heads as they
+entered, and Geraldine felt the strange solemn sensation of finding
+herself in a building of vast height and majesty, full of a wonderful
+stillness, as though the confusion of sounds she had been in so
+recently were far, far off.
+
+'Where now, Lancelot?' asked Mr. Harewood, in a hushed voice; 'do you
+want me any further?'
+
+'No, thank you, sir; I'll just take her across the choir to Mr. Miles,
+and then join the rest of us at the vestry.'
+
+'Good-bye for the present, then,' said Mr. Harewood kindly. 'You are in
+safe hands. Your brother comes round every one. _I_ could not do this.'
+
+Through the side-screen, into the grandly beautiful choir, arching high
+above, with stall-work and graceful canopies below, and rich glass
+casting down beams of coloured light--all for 'glory and for beauty,'
+thought Geraldine.
+
+'You must not stop; you must look when you are settled. That's my
+side,' pointing to one of the choristers' desks. 'It will be only we
+that sing in here; the congregation is in the nave--a perfect sea
+of chairs. I'll come for you when it is over. Here is Mr. Miles. My
+sister, sir.'
+
+A pale gentleman in spectacles, with a surplice and beautiful blue
+hood, was here addressed. He too greeted Geraldine, very shyly but
+kindly, and she found herself expected to ascend some alarming-looking
+stone steps. The organ was on the choir-screen, and to the organist's
+little private gallery was she to ascend. It was a difficult matter,
+and she had in her trepidation despairingly recognised the difference
+between Lance's good will and Felix's practised strength; but at last
+she was landed in an admirable little cushioned nook, hidden by two
+tall painted carved canopies--exactly over the Dean's head, her brother
+told her--and where, as she sat sideways, she could see through the
+quatrefoils into the choir on the right hand, and the nave on the left.
+'Delightful! Oh, thank you; how kind! If I am only not keeping any one
+out.'
+
+'No,' said Lance, smiling, and whispering lower than ever, 'he has no
+one belonging to him. He hates women. Never a petticoat was here before
+in his reign. Have you a book?'
+
+'They are robing, Underwood,' said the misogynist in the organ-loft;
+and Lance hurried away, leaving Geraldine alone, palpitating a good
+deal, but almost enjoying the solitude, in the vast structure, where
+the sanctity of a thousand years of worship seemed to fill the very
+air, as she gazed at the white vaultings and bosses carved with emblems
+above, at the vista of clustered columns terminating in the great
+jewelled west window, or at the crown-like loveliness that encompassed
+the sanctuary. All was still, except a deep low tone of the organ now
+and then. Mr. Miles looked in after the first, to hope she did not
+_feel_ it uncomfortably, and to assure her that though she was too near
+his organ, she need not fear its putting forth its full powers; it
+was to be kept in subordination, and only guide the voices. This was
+great attention from a woman-hater, and Geraldine ventured to reiterate
+her thanks; at which he smiled, and said, 'When one has such a boy as
+your brother, there is pleasure in doing anything he wishes. You are
+musical?'
+
+'I never was able to learn to play.'
+
+'But you can read music?'
+
+'Oh yes,' for she had often copied it.
+
+So he brought her whole sheets of music, and put her in the way of
+following and understanding, perceiving, as he went, that she was full
+of intelligence and perception.
+
+When he went back to his post, a few groups, looking very small, were
+creeping in by transept doors--by favour, like herself: then a little
+white figure flitted across to the desks, opened and marked the books,
+took up something, and disappeared; and in another moment Lance, in his
+broad white folds, was at her side. 'Here's the music. Oh, you have it!
+I've seen Fee,' he whispered; 'they are at Mrs. Harewood's, all right!'
+and he was gone.
+
+Here she sat, her attention divided between the sacred impressions of
+the place, its exceeding beauty, and the advance of the multitude into
+the nave, as the doors were open, and they surged up the space left in
+the central aisle, and occupied the ranks of chairs prepared for them.
+Then came a long pause; she scanned each row in search of her sisters,
+and only was confused by the host of heads; felt lost and lonely, and
+turned her eyes and mind to the silent grandeur to the east, rather
+than the throng to the west.
+
+At last there came the sweet floating sound of the chant, growing in
+power like the ocean swell as it approached, and the first bright
+banner appeared beneath the lofty pointed archway; and the double white
+file came flowing on like a snowy glacier, the chant becoming clear
+and high as the singers of each parish marched along to their places,
+each ranked under a bright banner with the symbol of their church's
+dedication. St. Oswald's rood helped Geraldine to make out that of
+Bexley better than their faces, though she did make out her eldest
+brother's fair face, and trace him to his seat. The cathedral singers
+came at last, and that kenspeckle red head of Will Harewood's directed
+her to the less conspicuous locks belonging to Lance, whose own clear
+thrush-like note she could catch as he passed beneath the screen. Then
+came the long train of parish clergy, the canons, the Dean, and lastly
+the Bishop, the sight of whom recalled so much.
+
+The unsurpliced contribution had meantime been ushered in by the side
+doors, and filled seats in the rear of the others, so as to add their
+voices without marring the general effect--the perfection of which
+Geraldine enjoyed--of the white-robed multitude that seemed to fill the
+whole chancel.
+
+The sight seemed to inspire her whole soul with a strange yearning joy,
+as though she were beholding a faint earthly reflex of the great vision
+of the Beloved Disciple; and far more was it so at the sound, which
+realised in a measure the words, 'As the voice of mighty waters, and as
+the voice of thunder.'
+
+These were the very words that had been selected for the Second Lesson,
+and the First consisted of those verses in which we hear of David's
+commencement of the continual chant of psalms at the sanctuary; and
+both, unwonted as they were, gave a wonderful thrill to the audience,
+as though opening to them a new comprehension of their office as
+singers of the sanctuary.
+
+There is no need to dwell on the wonderful and touching exhilaration
+derived from the harmony of vast numbers with one voice attuned to
+praise. It is a sensation which is so nearly a foretaste of eternity,
+that participation alone can give the most distant perception thereof.
+To the entirely unprepared and highly sensitive Geraldine it was most
+overpowering, all the more because she was entirely out of sight, and
+without power of taking part by either gesture or posture--she was
+passive and had no vent for her emotion.
+
+Lance, who made his way to her round through the transept the moment
+he had disrobed, found her pale, panting, tearful, and trembling, with
+burning cheeks, so that his exaltation turned to alarm. 'Are you done
+up, Cherry? It is too hot up here? I'll try to find Felix or Wilmet,
+which?'
+
+'Neither! I am quite well, only--O Lance, I did not know anything could
+be so heavenly. There seemed to be the sweeping of angels' wings all
+round and over me, and Papa's voice quite clear.'
+
+'I know,' said Lance; 'it always does come in that Te Deum.'
+
+The sister and brother were silent, not yet able for the critical
+discussion of single points; only, as he put his arm round her to help
+her to rise, she said, with a sigh, 'O Lance, it is a great thing to
+be one of them! Thank you. I think this is the greatest day of all my
+life.'
+
+The getting her down, what with Lance's inexperience and want of
+height and strength, was anxious work; and just as it had been safely
+accomplished, the rest of their party were seen roaming the aisle in
+distress and perplexity. Geraldine was very glad of Felix's substantial
+arm, but she had rather he had omitted that rebuke for venturesomeness
+in dealing with her, which would have affronted Fulbert, but never
+seemed to trouble Lance, who was only triumphant in his success; and
+her perfect contentment charmed away the vexation which really arose
+from a slight sense of having neglected her.
+
+The others had been perfectly happy in their several ways, and made
+eager comments on their way to the house of Harewood, whither Lance
+piloted them--this time by the front way, through the garden, which
+lay behind the close--entering, in spite of the mannerly demurs of the
+elder ones, through the open door, into a hall whence a voice of hearty
+greeting at once ensued. 'Here you are at last; and how's the poor
+darling your sister? not over-tired?'
+
+And Cherry, before she was aware, found herself kissed, and almost
+snatched away from Felix, to be deposited on a sofa; and while the like
+kisses were bestowed on the two little girls, and hospitable offers
+showered on all, she was amused by perceiving that good Mrs. Harewood
+was endowed with exactly the same grotesque order of ugliness as her
+son William; but she was even more engaging, from an indescribably
+droll mixture of heedlessness, blundering, and tender motherliness.
+
+'There, now, you'll just leave her to me, the poor dear; and Lance will
+take you down to the Mead, and find Papa and the girls for you.'
+
+'Oh, thank you, I could not think of your staying. Now pray--'
+
+'Now prays' were to no purpose; Mrs. Harewood professed only to want an
+excuse for staying at home--she did not want to be done up with running
+after her girls to the four ends of the Mead, when it was a long step
+for her to begin with. Off with them.
+
+So when Wilmet was satisfied that Geraldine was comfortable, the five
+moved off--Felix and Alice, Angel in Wilmet's hand, and Lance's and
+Robina's tongues wagging so fast that the wonder was how either caught
+a word of what the other was saying.
+
+Meanwhile, Mrs. Harewood, tossing her bonnet and gloves aside, in
+perfect indifference to the exposure of the curious structure of
+red and grey hair she thus revealed, lavished meats and drinks upon
+her guest, waiting on her with such kindness, that in spite of all
+weariness and craving for quiet after these deep and wonderful
+impressions, it was impossible not to enjoy that warmth of heart.
+There was exactly the tender motherliness that even Wilmet and Sister
+Constance could not give.
+
+It was charming to hear how fond Mrs. Harewood was of Lance, and how
+the having such a companion had made it possible to keep her Willie
+at the cathedral school, where the mixture of lads was great, but the
+master first-rate. He thought highly of the promise of both; 'but, to
+tell the truth,' said Mrs. Harewood, as she sat and fanned herself with
+her husband's trencher cap, looking more than ever like a frog in a
+strawberry bed, 'though my Willie is the cleverest boy in the school,
+little good his cleverness would have done him, and he would have been
+harum-scarum Bill more than ever, if it were not for Lance. So say his
+father and brother Jack; so that they will not be for his going to a
+public school unless Lance were sure of it too.'
+
+'Will not they be able to stay on here?'
+
+Mrs. Harewood explained that the year that the barristers--choristers
+she meant--were sixteen, when their voices were usually unserviceable,
+they, together with those of like age in the school, were subjected to
+an examination, and the foremost scholar obtained an exhibition, in
+virtue of which he could remain free of expense for another two years,
+and then could try for one of the Minsterham scholarships at one of the
+colleges at Cambridge. Those who failed, either had to pay like the
+ordinary schoolboys, or left the school.
+
+Dear Mrs. Harewood was a perfect Malaprop, and puzzled Geraldine by
+continually calling the present occasion the rural meeting, and other
+like slips, uncommonly comical in a well-educated woman with the words
+she knew best.
+
+All this, and a great deal more--about the shy woman-hating organist,
+and the unluckiness of the dissenter--no, precentor--having a sick
+wife, and the legal difficulties that prevented building a better house
+for the boarders than the queer long room where they lodged, between
+the cloister and the Bailey--the proper name of the little court by
+which Geraldine had come--was poured out; and kind as it was, there was
+a certain sense of having been talked to death.
+
+A whole flood of Harewoods, Underwoods, and untold numbers besides,
+swept into the room as the bell began to ring for Evensong. Most
+sincere were Cherry's entreaties that she might be left alone. She
+could not go back to her coign of vantage, 'it had been too beautiful
+for her to bear more,' she said; and she severally declined offers of
+companionship from three female Harewoods and two sisters, telling
+Wilmet at last that all she wanted was to be still and alone.
+
+Alone she was, but not still, for there was nothing to hinder the
+magnificent volume of sound that surged around the Cathedral from
+coming to her; and she could trace the service all along--in chant,
+pealing mighty Amens, with the hush between, in anthem, and in jubilant
+hymn. She was more calmly happy than in the oppressive grandeur of the
+morning, as she lay there, in the cool drawing-room, with the open
+window veiled by loose sprays of untrimmed roses, and sacred prints
+looking down from the walls.
+
+The solitude lasted rather too long, when she had heard the hum and
+buzz of the host pouring out of the Cathedral, and still no one came.
+They were to go home by the 5.10 train, and every time she counted the
+chimes she became more alarmed lest they should be too late. Minutes
+dragged on. Five! It was five! Was she forgotten? Should she be only
+missed and remembered at the station, too late? Tired, nervous, unused
+to oblivion, she found tears in her eyes, and was too sorrowful and
+angry with her own impatience even to think of the old woman of Servia.
+Hark! a trampling? Had they remembered her? But oh, it would be late
+for the train!
+
+In burst Lance, in his cap and little short quaint black gown.
+
+'O Lance, I shall be too late!'
+
+'You don't go by this train.'
+
+'Oh dear! oh dear! Mr. Froggatt was to meet me;' and the tears started
+from her eyes. 'How could Felix forget?'
+
+'Never mind, there's sure to be a fly or something.'
+
+'Yes, but Mr. Froggatt waiting!'
+
+'Never mind,' repeated Lance, ''tis a fine evening to air the old boss.'
+
+'Don't, Lance; you none of you have any proper regard for Mr.
+Froggatt;' which, as far as Lance was concerned, was unjust, and it was
+well for Cherry that it was not addressed to either of the brothers who
+better deserved it.
+
+What Lance did was to execute one of his peculiar summersaults, and
+then, making up a dismal face, to say, 'Alas! I commiserate the
+venerable citizen disappointed of the pleasure of driving my Lady
+Geraldine home from the wash as well as hisself.'
+
+She was past even appreciating the bathos. 'It is no laughing matter,'
+she said; 'it is so uncivil, when he is so kind. I can't imagine what
+Felix is thinking of?'
+
+'Croquet,' said Lance briefly; then seeing the flushed, quivering,
+mortified face, he added, 'Wilmet has not forgotten you one bit,
+Cherry; but Alice Knevett and Robin did so want to see the fun in the
+mead--there's running in sacks, and all sorts of games--that there's no
+getting any one away; and the W's are in charge, and can't leave them
+to their own devices, so she said perhaps you would be more rested by
+lying still than rattling home.'
+
+'Oh, I dare say Wilmet is as sorry as anybody,' said Cherry rather
+querulously, for the needle point was pricking her again.
+
+'And as to your dear old Froggy,' continued Lance, 'she says he told
+her he did not in the least expect you back by this train, and if you
+did not come by it, he'll stay in town for the 8.50.'
+
+'How very good of him!' said Cherry, beginning to be consoled. 'And
+Felix at croquet!'
+
+'Alice is teaching him. You never did see such a joke as old
+Blunderbore screwing up his eyes at the balls, and making at them with
+his mallet like a sledge-hammer. He and Alice and Robin and that Bisset
+curate are playing against Bill, two of the girls, and Shapcote--Bexley
+against Minsterham; and little Bobbie's a real out-and-outer. She'll
+make her side win by sheer cool generalship.'
+
+'And poor little Angel?' The needle point was a pang now.
+
+'Oh, Angel is happier than ever she was in her life. The Bishop's
+daughter has a turn for little kids, and has got all the small ones
+together in the pleached alley, playing at all manner of things.'
+
+'Run back, Lance, to the fun. I shall do very well,' said poor
+Geraldine.
+
+'I should think so, when I get you so often!' scornfully ejaculated
+Lancelot, drawing a dilapidated brioche from under the sofa, and
+squatting on it, with his dancing eyes close to her sad ones.
+
+An effusion of spirits prompted her to lay her hands on his shoulders,
+kiss him on each cheek, and cry, 'O Lance, you are the very sweetest
+boy!'
+
+'Sweetest treble, you mean,' said Lance quaintly; 'if you had only
+heard me! You should see how the old ladies in the stalls peep and
+whisper, and how Bill Harewood opens his mouth rather wider than it
+will go, and they think it is he.'
+
+'Not for fun, Lance?'
+
+'Well, I believe all their jaws are hung on looser than other people's.
+But I say, ain't you dying of thirst?'
+
+'Perhaps Mrs. Harewood will give us some tea when she comes in.'
+
+'If you trust to that--'
+
+'O Lance!' she cried, alarmed at seeing him coolly ring the bell.
+
+'Bless you, she's forgotten all about you and tea and everything! They
+are drinking it by the gallon in the tents; and by and by she'll roll
+in, ready to cry that you've had none, and mad with herself and me for
+giving you none; and the fire will be out, and the kettle will boil
+about ten minutes after you are off by the train. We'll have some this
+minute.'
+
+'But, Lance--'
+
+'But, Cherry, ain't I a walking Sahara with roaring at the tip-top of
+my voice to lead the clod-hoppers? How they did bellow! I owe it as a
+duty to the Chapter to wet my whistle.'
+
+'One comfort is, nobody knows your coolness. Nobody comes for all your
+ringing.'
+
+'Reason good! Every living soul in the house is in the Bishop's meadow,
+barring the old cat; I _seen_ 'em with their cap-strings flying. But
+that's nothing. I know where Mother Harewood keeps her tea and sugar;'
+and he pounced on a tea-caddy of Indian aspect.
+
+'Lance, if you did that to Mettie--'
+
+'Exactly so. I don't;' and he ran out of the room, while Cherry sat
+up on her sofa, her petulance quite banished between amusement and
+desperation at such proceedings in a strange house. He came back
+presently, with two cups, saucers, and plates, apparently picked up at
+hap-hazard, as no two were alike. 'My dear Lance, where have you been?'
+
+'In the kitchen. Such a jolly arched old hole. Bill and I have done no
+end of Welsh rabbits there. Once when we were melting some lead, Bill
+let it drop into the pudding, and the Pater got it at dinner, and said
+it was the heaviest morsel he ever had to digest.'
+
+'But wasn't it poison?'
+
+'I suppose not, for you see he isn't dead. Another time, when we were
+melting glue, we upset a whole lot of fat, and the chimney caught fire;
+and wasn't that a go? Bill got a pistol out of Jack's room, and fired
+it up the chimney to bring the soot down; and down it came with a
+vengeance! He was regularly singed, and I do think the place would have
+been burned if it had not been too old! All the Shapcotes ran out into
+the court, hallooing Fire! and the engine came, but there was nothing
+for it to do. Oh, the face Wilmet would make to see that kitchen.
+Kettle's biling--I must run.'
+
+He came back with an enormous metal tea-pot in one hand, and a boiling
+kettle in the other, a cloud of vapour about his head.
+
+'You appear in a cloud, like a Greek divinity,' said Cherry, beginning
+to enter into the humour of the thing.
+
+'Bringing nectar and ambrosia,' said Lance, depositing the kettle amid
+the furbelows of paper in the grate, and proceeding to brew the tea.
+'Excuse the small trifles of milk and cream; and as to bread, I can't
+find it, but here are the cakes you had for luncheon, shunted off into
+the passage window. Sugar, Cherry? Fingers were made before tongs. Now
+I call this jolly.'
+
+'I only hope this isn't a great liberty.'
+
+'If you fired off a cannon under Mrs. Harewood's nose, she would not
+call it a liberty.'
+
+'So it appears. But Mr. Harewood does not look--like that.'
+
+'Oh, he's well broken in. He is the pink of orderliness in his own
+study and the library, but as long as no one meddles there, he minds
+nothing. It just keeps him alive; but I believe the Shapcotes think
+this house a mild lunatic asylum.'
+
+'Who are the Shapcotes?'
+
+'He's registrar. They live in the other half of this place--the old
+infirmary, Mr. Harewood calls it. Such a contrast! He is a tremendous
+old Turk in his house, and she is a little mincing woman; and they've
+made Gus--he's one of us, you know--a horrid sneak, and think it's all
+my bad company and Bill's. By-the-by, Cherry, Gus Shapcote asked me if
+my senior wasn't spoony about--'
+
+'I hope you told him to mind his own business!' cried Geraldine, with a
+great start of indignation.
+
+'I told him he was a sheep,' said Lance. 'But, I say, Cherry, I want to
+know what you think of it.'
+
+'Think? I'm not so ready to think nonsense!'
+
+'Well, when the old giant was getting some tea for _her_, I saw two
+ladies look at one another and wink.'
+
+'Abominably ill-mannered,' she cried, growing ruddier than the cherry.
+
+'But had you any notion of it?'
+
+'Impossible!' she said breathlessly. 'He is only kind and civil to her,
+as he is to everybody. Think how young he is!'
+
+'I'm sure I never thought old Blunderbore much younger than Methuselah.
+Twenty-one! Isn't it about the age one does such things?'
+
+'Not when one has twelve brothers and sisters on one's back,' sighed
+Geraldine. 'Poor Felix! No, there can't be anything in it. Don't let us
+think of foolish nonsense this wonderful day. What a glorious hymn that
+was!'
+
+Lance laid his head lovingly on the sofa-cushion, and discussed
+the enjoyment of the day with his skilled appreciation of music.
+Geraldine's receptive power was not inferior to his own, though she had
+none of that of expression, nor of the science in which he was trained.
+He was like another being from the merry rattle he was at other times;
+and she had more glimpses than she ever had before of the high nature
+and deep enthusiasm that were growing in him.
+
+'Hark! there's somebody coming,' she cried, starting.
+
+'Let him come. Oh, it is the Pater.--Here is some capital tea, Mr.
+Harewood. Have some? I'll get a cup.'
+
+'You are taking care of your sister. That is right. A good colonist
+you would make.--Come in, Lee,' said Mr. Harewood, who, to Cherry's
+increased consternation, was followed by another clergyman. 'We are
+better off than I dared to expect, thanks to this young gentleman. Miss
+Geraldine Underwood--Mr. Lee.--You knew her father, I think.'
+
+'Not poor Underwood of Bexley? Indeed! I knew him. I always wished I
+could have seen more of him,' said Mr. Lee, coming up and heartily
+shaking hands with Cherry, and asking whether she was staying there, &c.
+
+Meantime Lance had fetched a blue china soup-plate, a white cup and
+pink spotted saucer; another plate labelled 'Nursery,' and a coffee-cup
+and saucer, one brown and the other blue; and as tidily as if he had
+been lady of the house or parlour-maid, presented his provisions, Mr.
+Harewood accepting with a certain quiet amusement. His remarkable
+trim neatness of appearance, and old-school precision of manner, made
+his quiet humorous acquiescence in the wild ways of his household all
+the more droll. After a little clerical talk, that reminded Cherry
+of the old times when she used to lie on her couch, supposed not to
+understand, but dreamily taking in much more than any one knew--it
+appeared that Mr. Lee wanted to see something in the Library, and Mr.
+Harewood asked her whether she would like to come and see Coeur de
+Lion's seal.
+
+She was fully rested, and greatly pleased. Lance's arm was quite
+sufficient now, and she studied the Cathedral and its precincts in a
+superexcellent manner. Mr. Harewood, who had spent almost his whole
+life under its shadow, and knew the history of almost every stone or
+quarry of glass, was the best of lionizers, and gave her much attention
+when he perceived how intelligent and appreciative she was. He showed
+her the plan of the old conventual buildings, and she began to unravel
+the labyrinth through which she had been hurried. The Close and Deanery
+were modernized, but he valued the quaint old corner where he lived
+for its genuine age. The old house now divided between him and Mr.
+Shapcote had been the infirmary; and the long narrow building opposite,
+between the Bailey and the cloister, had been the lodgings either of
+lay-brothers or servants. There being few boarders at the Cathedral
+school, they had always been lodged in the long narrow room, with
+the second master in a little closet shut off from them. Cherry was
+favoured with a glance at Lance's little corner, with the old-fashioned
+black oak bedstead, solid but unsteady table and stool, the equally
+old press, and the book-case he had made himself with boards begged
+from his friend the carpenter. A photograph and drawing or two, and a
+bat, completed the plenishing. She thought it very uncomfortable, but
+Lance called it his castle; and Mr. Harewood, pointing to the washing
+apparatus, related that in his day the cock in the Bailey was the only
+provision for such purposes. The boys were safely locked in at eight
+every night when the curfew rang, and the Bailey door was shut, there
+being no other access to their rooms, except by the Cathedral, through
+the Library, and the private door that led into the passage common to
+the Harewoods and Shapcotes.
+
+The loveliness of the Cloister, the noble vault of the Chapter-house,
+the various beauties and wonders of the Cathedral, and lastly the
+curiosities of the Library--where Mr. Harewood enthroned her in his own
+chair, unlocked the cases, brought her the treasures, and turned over
+the illuminated manuscripts for her as if she had been a princess--made
+Geraldine forget time, weariness, and anxiety, until, as the summer sun
+was at last taking leave, a voice called at the window, 'Here she is!
+I thought Papa would have her here!' and the freckled face of a Miss
+Harewood was seen peering in.
+
+There the truants were, eager, hurried, afraid for the train, full of
+compunction for the long abandonment: Alice, most apologetic; Wilmet,
+most quiet; Felix, most attentive; Robina, still ecstatic; and Angela,
+tired out--there they all were. It was all one hasty scramble to the
+crowded station, and then one merry discussion and comparison of notes
+all the way home; Geraldine maintaining that she had enjoyed herself
+the best of all; and Alice incredulous of the pleasure of sitting in
+a musty old library with an old gentleman of at least sixty; while
+Felix was so much delighted to find that she had been so happy, that he
+almost believed that the delay had been solely out of consideration for
+her.
+
+Mr. Froggatt was safe at the station in his basket, full of delight
+at the enjoyment of his young people, and of anecdotes of Bernard and
+Stella; and Geraldine found herself safely deposited at home, but with
+one last private apology from Wilmet as she was putting her to bed.
+'I did not know how to help it,' she said; 'Alice was so wild with
+delight, that I could not get her away; and Felix was enjoying his
+holiday so thoroughly, I knew that you would be sorry it should be
+shortened.'
+
+'Indeed I am very glad you stayed. It would be too bad to encumber you.'
+
+'I wanted to come and see after you, but I had promised Miss Pearson
+not to lose sight of Alice. And then Lance offered to take care of you.'
+
+'O Wilmet, I never half knew what a dear boy Lance is! What boy would
+have come, when all that was going on, to stay with a lame cross
+thing like me? And how nice for him to have such kind friends as the
+Harewoods!'
+
+'They seem very fond of him,' said Wilmet; 'but I wish he had taken up
+with the Shapcotes. I never saw such a house. It is enough to ruin all
+sense of order! But they were very kind to us; and if you were well
+off, it was all right. I never saw Felix look so like his bright old
+self as to-day; and it is his birth-day, after all.'
+
+So Wilmet was innocent of all suspicions--wise experienced Wilmet!
+That was enough to make Cherry forget that little thorn of jealousy,
+especially as things subsided into their usual course, and she had no
+more food for conjecture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+GIANT DESPAIR'S CASTLE.
+
+
+     'Who haplesse and eke hopelesse all in vaine,
+      Did to him pace sad battle to darrayne;
+      Disarmd, disgraste, and inwardly dismayde,
+      And eke so faint in every ioynt and vayne,
+      Through that fraile fountaine which him feeble made.'
+                                                     _Spenser._
+
+
+Felix's majority made no immediate difference. His thirteenth part of
+his father's small property remained with the rest, at any rate until
+his guardian should return from his travels in the East; but in the
+course of the winter his kind old godfather, Admiral Chester, died, and
+having no nearer relation, left him the result of his small savings out
+of his pay, which would, the lawyer wrote, amount to about a thousand
+pounds; but there was a good deal of business to be transacted, and it
+would be long before the sum was made over to him.
+
+Wilmet and Geraldine thought it a perfect fortune, leading to the
+University, and release from trade; and they looked rather crestfallen
+when they heard that it only meant L30 per annum in the funds, or
+L50 in some risky investment. Mr. Froggatt's wish was that he should
+purchase such a share in the business as would really give him standing
+there; but Wilmet heard this with regret; she did not like his thus
+binding himself absolutely down to trade.
+
+'You are thinking for Alda,' said Felix, smiling. 'You are considering
+how Froggatt and Underwood will sound in her ears.'
+
+'In mine, too, Felix; I _do_ not like it.'
+
+'I would willingly endure it to become Redstone's master,' said Felix,
+quietly.
+
+'Is he still so vexatious?' asked Geraldine; for not above once in six
+months did Felix speak of any trials from his companions in business.
+
+'Not actively so; but things might be better done, and much ill blood
+saved. I cannot share W. W.'s peculiar pride in preferring to be an
+assistant instead of a partner.'
+
+'Then this is what you mean to do with it?'
+
+'Wait till it comes,' he said, oracularly. 'Seriously, though, I don't
+want to tie it all up. The boys may want a start in life.'
+
+Neither sister thought of observing that the legacy was to one, not
+to all. Everybody regarded what belonged to Felix as common property;
+and the 'boys' were far enough into their teens to begin to make their
+future an anxious consideration. Clement was just seventeen, and though
+he had outgrown his voice, was lingering on as a sort of adopted child
+at St. Matthew's, helping in the parish school, and reading under one
+of the clergy in preparation for standing for a scholarship. He tried
+for one in the autumn, but failed, so much to his surprise and disgust,
+that he thought hostility to St. Matthew's must be at the bottom of his
+rejection; and came home with somewhat of his martyr-like complacency
+at Christmas, meaning to read so hard as to force his way in spite
+of prejudice. He was very tall, fair, and slight; and his features
+were the more infantine from a certain melancholy baby-like gravity,
+which music alone dispersed. He really played beautifully, and being
+entrusted with the organ during the schoolmaster's Christmas holidays,
+made practising his chief recreation. That Lance would often follow him
+into church for a study, and always made one of the group round the
+piano when Alice Knevett came to sing with them, was a great grievance
+to Fulbert, who never loved music, and hated it as a rival for Lance's
+attention.
+
+These two were generally the closest companions, and were alike in
+having more boyishness, restlessness, and enterprise than their
+brothers. This winter their ambition was to be at all the meets within
+five miles, follow up the hunt, and be able to report the fox's death
+at the end of the day. Indeed, their appetite for whatever bore the
+name of sport was as ravenous as it was indiscriminate; and their
+rapturous communications could not be checked by Clement's manifest
+contempt, or the discouraging indifference of the rest--all but Robina,
+who loved whatever Lance loved, and was ready to go to a meet, if
+Wilmet had not interfered with a high hand.
+
+Before long Felix wished that his authority over the male part of the
+family were as well established as that in her department.
+
+One hunting day the two brothers came in splashed up to the eyes,
+recounting how they had found a boy of about their own age in a ditch,
+bruised and stunned, but not seriously hurt; how with consolation and
+schoolboy surgery they had cheered him, and found he was Harry Collis,
+whom they had known as a school-fellow at Bexley; how they had helped
+him home to Marshlands Hall, and had been amazed at the dreariness and
+want of all home comfort at the place, so that they did not like to
+leave him till his father came home; and how Captain Collis had not
+only thanked them warmly, but had asked them over to come and shoot
+rabbits the next day.
+
+There was nothing to blame them for, but Felix had much rather it had
+never happened. Captain Collis was one of a race of squires who had
+never been very reputable, and had not risen greatly above the farmer.
+He had been in the army, and had the bearing of a gentleman; but ever
+since his wife's death, he had lived an unsatisfactory sort of life
+at the Hall, always forward in sport, but not well thought of, and
+believed to be a good deal in debt. His only child, this Harry Collis,
+had been sent somewhat fitfully to the St. Oswald's Grammar School,
+and had been rather a favourite companion of Lance's; but separation
+had put an end to the intimacy, and this renewal was not at all to the
+taste of their eldest brother.
+
+'It can't be helped this time,' he said, when he heard of the
+invitation; 'I suppose you must go to-morrow, but I don't fancy the
+concern.'
+
+Fulbert's bristles began to rise, but Lance chatted gaily on. 'But,
+Fee, you never saw such a place! Stables for nine hunters. Only think!
+And a horse entered for the Derby! We are to see him to-morrow. It is
+the jolliest place.'
+
+'Nine hunters!' moralized Clement; 'they cost as much as three times
+nine orphans.'
+
+'And they are worth a dozen times as much as the nasty little beggars!'
+said Fulbert.
+
+On which Angela put in the trite remark that the orphans had souls.
+
+'Precious rum ones,' muttered Fulbert; and in the clamour thus raised
+the subject dropped; but when next morning, in the openness of his
+heart, Lance invited Clement to go with them to share the untold joys
+of rabbit-shooting, he met with a decisive reply. 'Certainly not! I
+should think your Dean would be surprised at you.'
+
+'Oh, the Dean is a kind old chap,' answered Lance, off-hand; 'whenever
+he has us to sing at a party, he tips us all round, thanks us, and
+tells us to enjoy ourselves in the supper-room, like a gentleman, as he
+is.'
+
+'Do you know what this Collis's character is?'
+
+'Hang his character! I want his rabbits.'
+
+And Lance was off with Fulbert; while Clement remained, to make
+Geraldine unhappy with his opinion of the temptations of Marshlands
+Hall, returning to the charge when Felix came in before dinner.
+
+'Yes,' said Felix briefly, 'Mr. Froggatt has been telling me. It must
+be stopped.'
+
+'Have you heard of the mischief that--'
+
+'Don't be such a girl, Tina. I am going to do the thing, and there is
+no use in keeping on about it.'
+
+Felix had not called Clement Tina since he had been head of the family,
+and irritability in him was a token of great perplexity; for indeed his
+hardest task always was the dealing with Fulbert; and he was besides
+very sorry to balk the poor boys of one of their few chances of manly
+amusement.
+
+He would have waited to utter his prohibition till the excitement
+should have worked off, but he knew that Clement would never hold
+his peace through the narrative of their adventures; so, as they had
+not come in when his work was over, he took Theodore on his arm, and
+retreated to the little parlour behind the shop, where he lay in wait,
+reading, and mechanically whistling tunes to Theodore, till he heard
+the bell, and went to open the door.
+
+The gas showed them rosy, merry, glorious, and bespattered, one
+waving a couple of rabbits, and the other of pheasants, and trying to
+tickle Theodore's cheeks with the long tails of the latter, of course
+frightening him into a fretful wail.
+
+'Take Theodore upstairs, if you please, Lance,' said Felix, 'and then
+come down; I want you.'
+
+'The Captain was going to dine at Bowstead's,' said Fulbert, 'so he
+drove us in his dog-cart. If the frost holds, we are to go out and
+skate on Monday.'
+
+Felix employed himself in putting away his papers, without answering.
+
+'I had very good luck,' continued Fulbert, 'four out of six; wonderful
+for so new a hand, the Captain said.'
+
+'Such a lovely animal you never saw,' said Lance, swinging himself
+downstairs. 'You must walk out and see it, Fee, for you'll have it in
+the Pursuivant some Saturday.'
+
+'Lance, I am very sorry,' said Felix, standing upright, with his back
+to the exhausted grate. 'Just attend to me, both of you.'
+
+'Oh!' said Lance, hastily, 'I know there's a lot of old women's gossip
+about Collis; but nobody minds such stuff. Harry is as good a lad as
+ever stepped; and there was no harm to be seen about the place;--was
+there, Ful?'
+
+'The old Frog has been croaking,' hoarsely muttered Fulbert.
+
+Boys of sixteen and fourteen were incapable of coercion by a youth
+of one-and-twenty, and the only appeal must be to conscience and
+reason; so Felix went on speaking, though he had seen from the first
+that Fulbert's antagonism rendered him stolid, deaf, and blind; and
+Lancelot's flushed cheeks, angry eyes, impatient attempts to interrupt,
+and scornful gestures told of scarcely-repressed passion.
+
+'You may have seen no harm, I find no fault' (Fulbert scowled); 'but
+if I had known what I do now I should not have let you go to-day. My
+father would rather have cut off his right hand than have allowed you
+to begin an acquaintance which has been ruinous to almost all the young
+men who have been in that set.'
+
+'But we are not young men,' cried Lance; 'it is only for the holidays;
+and we only want a little fun with poor Harry, he is so lonely--and
+just to go out rabbiting and skating. It is very hard we can't be
+let alone the first time anything worth doing has turned up in this
+abominable slow place.'
+
+'It is very hard, Lance. No one is more concerned than I; but if this
+intimacy once begins, there is no guessing where it will lead; and I do
+not speak without grounds. Listen--'
+
+'If it comes from old Frog, you may as well shut up,' said Lance.
+'There's been no peace at Marshlands since he took that cottage--a
+regular old nuisance and mischief-maker, spiting the Captain because
+one of the dogs killed his old cock, and bothering Charlie to no end
+about him.'
+
+'I have heard from others as well,' said Felix; and he briefly
+mentioned some facts as to the scandals of the dissipated household,
+some of the imputations under which Captain Collis lay, and named two
+or three of the young men whose unsatisfactory conduct was ascribed to
+his influence.
+
+He saw that both lads were startled, and wound up with saying,
+'Therefore it is not without reason that I desire that you do not go
+there again.'
+
+With which words, he opened the door, turned off the gas, and walked
+upstairs, hearing on the way a growl of Fulbert's--'That's what comes
+of being cad to a stupid brute of an old tradesman;' and likewise a
+bouncing, rolling, and tumbling, and a very unchorister-like expletive
+from Lance; but he hurried up, like the conclave from the vault at
+Lindisfarn, only with a sinking heart, and looks that made his sisters
+say how tired he must be. The boys were seen no more, but sent word by
+Bernard that they were wet through, they should not dress, but should
+get some supper in the kitchen, and go to bed.
+
+On Sunday Lance had recovered himself and his temper, but in the
+evening he made another attempt upon Felix in private. His heart was
+greatly set upon Marshlands, and he argued that there was no evil at
+all in what they had been doing, and entreated Felix to be content with
+the promise both were willing to make, to take no share in anything
+doubtful--not even to play at billiards, or cards--if that would
+satisfy him, said Lance, 'but we will promise anything you please
+against playing, or betting, or--'
+
+'I know, Lance, you once made such a promise, and kept it. I trust you
+entirely. But before, it would have been cruel to keep you from that
+sick boy; now this would be mere running into temptation for your own
+amusement.'
+
+'Harry is not much better off than Fernan was,' said Lancelot,
+wistfully.
+
+'Poor fellow! very likely not; but it would be more certain harm to
+yourself than good to him. Any way, no respectable person would choose
+to be intimate there, or to let their boys resort there; and it is my
+duty not to consent.'
+
+'Ful is in such an awful way,' said Lance, disconsolately. 'Fee, you
+don't know how hard it is, you always were such a muff.'
+
+'That is true,' said Felix, not at all offended; 'and I had my father
+and Edgar; but indeed, Lance, nothing ever was so hard to me to do as
+this. I cannot say how sorry I am.'
+
+'You do really order me not?' said Lance, looking straight up at him.
+
+'I do. I forbid you to go into Captain Collis's grounds, or to do more
+than exchange a greeting, if you meet him.'
+
+'I will not. There's my word and honour for it, since--since you are so
+intolerably led by the nose by old Frog;' and Lance flung away, with
+the remains of his passion worked up afresh, and was as glum as his
+nature allowed the rest of the evening; but Felix, though much annoyed,
+saw that the boy had set up voluntarily two barriers between himself
+and his tempted will--in the command and the promise.
+
+But the command that was a guard to the one, was a goad to the other;
+for Fulbert had never accepted his eldest brother's authority, and
+could not brook interference. Still his school character was good, and
+there was a certain worth about him, which made him sometimes withdraw
+his resistance, though never submit; and Felix had some hope that it
+would be so in the present case, when, while speeding to church in the
+dark winter Monday morning, he overheard Lance say to Clement, 'I say,
+Clem, 'tis a jolly stinging frost. If you'll take your skates and give
+us a lesson, we'll be off for the lake at Centry.'
+
+One of the Whittingtonian curates had taken the boys to the ice in the
+parks, and taught them so effectively, that Clement was one of the best
+skaters in Bexley; but he was too much inclined to the nayward not to
+reply, 'I have to practise that anthem for Wednesday.'
+
+'Oh, bother the practice!'
+
+(Which Felix mentally echoed.)
+
+'I can play that anthem, if that's all,' said Lance; 'and I believe you
+know it perfectly well. Now, Clem, don't be savage; I think, if you
+will come, we _might_ put that other thing out of Ful's head.'
+
+'Well, if you think it is to be of use--'
+
+'That's right! Thank you,' cried Lance. 'And you won't jaw us all the
+way? He can't stand that, you know.'
+
+Clement winced; but in compensation, apparently, for this forbidden
+lecture, he observed, 'I am glad you at least take it properly, Lance,
+though it would be worse in you than in him, considering your--'
+
+'Bother it!' unceremoniously broke in Lance; and the words of wisdom
+were silenced.
+
+Lance did his best to organise his party, but it was a failure; Fulbert
+said he had made an engagement, and would not break it; he was not
+bound to toady old Froggy, nor in bondage to any old fogeys of a dean
+and chapter; and he walked off the faster for Clement's protest,
+leaving Lance to roll on the floor and climb the balusters backwards
+to exhale his desire to follow. He was too much upset even to follow
+Clement to the organ, or to settle to the drawing which Cherry was
+teaching him, and was a great torment to himself and his sisters till
+dinner-time, when Clement had done his organ and his Greek, and was
+ready for a rush for the ice; and Robina went joyously with them.
+'Between two young ladies one can't well run into harm's way,' said
+Lance.
+
+So things went on for a fortnight. Fulbert never shuffled, he went
+openly to Marshlands Hall; and though not boasting of his expeditions,
+did not treat them as a secret. Wilmet and Geraldine each tried
+persuasion, but were silenced rudely; and Felix, unable to enforce his
+authority, held his tongue, but was very unhappy, both for the present
+and for the future. He did not believe much harm was doing now, but the
+temptation would increase with every vacation as the boys came nearer
+to manhood; and he seemed to have lost all influence and moral power
+over Fulbert.
+
+Good old Mrs. Froggatt gave a small children's party, to which, with
+many apologies, she invited the lesser Underwoods, under charge of
+Wilmet. They were to sleep at the cottage, and Wilmet having offered to
+help in dressing the Christmas-tree, they set out early in the day to
+walk, escorted by the three brothers. That the trio did not return to
+tea did not alarm Felix and Geraldine, who suspected that the dislike
+the two elder expressed to the whole house of Froggatt had melted
+before the pleasure of working at the tree.
+
+The evening was taken up in the discussion of a letter of Edgar's, more
+than usually discontented with his employment; and another of Alda's,
+who had been laid under orders to write to her eldest brother, and
+desire him to remonstrate with Edgar on his inattention, laziness, and
+pleasure-seeking. The anxiety had long been growing up; Felix had come
+to write his difficult letter by the light of Geraldine's sympathy,
+and they were weighing what should be said, when the door-bell rang,
+some sounds puzzled them, and just as Felix was getting up to see what
+was the matter, Fulbert put his head in at the door, and said, low but
+earnestly, 'Step here, Felix, please.'
+
+He thought there must have been some terrible accident; but when from
+the top of the stairs he beheld Clement's aspect under the gas in
+the passage, and heard the thick tones in which he was holding forth
+according to instinct, his consternation was almost greater than at any
+injury. Fulbert looked pale and astounded. 'I can't get him upstairs,'
+he said.
+
+However, sense enough remained to Clement to give effect to his eldest
+brother's stern words, 'Be quiet, and come up;' and they dragged him
+stumbling upstairs without more words.
+
+'Where's Lance?' then asked Felix.
+
+'Stayed at the Froggatts'. I wish he hadn't. He will walk home
+by-and-by.'
+
+'Now, Ful, run and tell Cherry that nobody is hurt. Do not let her get
+frightened.'
+
+Felix spoke resolutely, but he felt so full of dismay and horror,
+that he hardly knew what he was doing till Fulbert had returned, and
+repressing all poor Clement's broken moralities, they had deposited him
+safely in bed, and shut the door on him. Then Fulbert gazed up at Felix
+with eyes full of regret and consternation, and he gathered breath to
+enter his own room, and say, 'What is the meaning of this?'
+
+'His head must be ridiculously weak; or there was some beastly trick.
+Nobody else was the least queer!'
+
+'Marshlands Hall?'
+
+'Well, he had gone on at me so, that when Lance let himself be
+persuaded into staying to hang up the lamps, it struck me what a lark
+it would be to take Tina across the Hall lands, and then tell him he
+had been on the enemy's ground. So I told him of the old chantry that
+is turned into a barn, and of course he must go and see it, and take
+sketches of the windows for his clergy. While he was doing it, up comes
+young Jackman. You know young Jackman at the Potteries--a regular
+clever fellow that knows everything?'
+
+'Yes, I know him.'
+
+'Well, they got into early pointed, and late pointed, and billets and
+dog-tooths, and all the rest, and Clem went on like a house on fire;
+and by that time we had got to the big pond, where Collis and half
+a dozen more were, and he had got his skates, and I believe he did
+surprise them; they called it first rate.'
+
+'Did he know where he was?'
+
+'Not at the beginning of the skating. I only wanted to get him down
+from his altitudes, and never thought it would come to this. You
+believe that, Felix?'
+
+'Yes, I do. Go on.'
+
+'It was fine moonlight, and we stayed on ever so long, while Jackman
+and Clem and two more danced a quadrille on the ice; and when it was
+over everybody was horribly cold, and Captain Collis said we must all
+come in and have something hot; and Jackman said he was going to drive
+home to dinner at eight, and would take us, but every one got talking,
+and it was half-past eight before we started. It was all in such a
+scramble, that I had no notion there was anything amiss till Clem began
+to talk on the way home.'
+
+'What were they drinking?'
+
+'Various things--brandy-and-water chiefly. I don't like it, and had
+some ale; but I was playing with Harry's puppies, and not much noticing
+Clem.'
+
+'Do you think it was a trick?'
+
+'I can't tell. He is so innocent, he would have no notion how stiff to
+make it. If any one meant mischief, it was Jackman; and I did think
+once or twice he had found out Tina, and was playing him off. On the
+way home, when I was trying to hinder poor Clem from falling off, he
+went on chaffing so, that I longed to jump off, and lay the whip about
+his ears.'
+
+'Poor Clem!' said Felix, more grieved and shocked than angry, and not
+insensible to Fulbert's being even more appalled, and quite frightened
+out of his sulkiness.
+
+'It is a bad business,' he sighed. 'It was all Lance's fault for
+letting himself be lugged into that baby party.'
+
+Even this was a great admission, and Felix would not blight it by a
+word.
+
+'It is well the girls are not at home,' was all he said.
+
+'I only told Cherry that Clem wasn't well. I can't face her; I shall go
+to bed. I would not have had this happen for the world.'
+
+'I shall say nothing to her,' said Felix, dejectedly, turning to leave
+the room, under a horrible sense of disgrace and stain on the whole
+family; but at the door he was caught hold of by Fulbert, who looked up
+at him with a face quite unlike anything he had ever seen in the lad.
+
+'Felix, I never was so sorry in my life. I wish you would give me a
+good rowing.'
+
+Felix half smiled. 'I could not,' he said. 'You did not know what you
+were doing. Good-night.'
+
+Fulbert gazed after him as he went downstairs, and went back, with a
+groan, to his own room.
+
+Felix had never before felt so hopeful about Fulbert; but still he was
+too much overset to talk to Cherry, and hurried her off to bed, soon
+following her example, for he had not the heart to see Lance that night.
+
+Of course, the first hours of the morning had to be spent in attending
+on the victim, whose misery, mental and bodily, was extreme, and was
+aggravated by his engagement to the organ. Lance could supply his place
+there, and was sent off to do so, but looking as subdued and guilty as
+if he had been making Fulbert's confession instead of hearing it, and
+stumbling uncomfortably over the explanation that Clement was not well,
+and that Felix could not leave him.
+
+For there was a fragility about Clement's long lank frame that made any
+shock to it very severe, and he was ill enough to alarm his happily
+inexperienced brothers, and greatly increase Fulbert's penitence; but
+by the time Mr. Froggatt drove the sisters home, and Wilmet wondered
+that she could not go out for a night without some one being ill, he
+had arrived at a state which she could be left to attribute to Mrs.
+Froggatt's innocent mince-pies.
+
+He burrowed under his blankets, and feigned sleep and discomfort beyond
+speech, whenever she came into the room, begging only that the light
+might be kept out, and that nobody would speak to him. He was too
+utterly miserable for anger with Fulbert, but only showed a sort of
+broken-hearted forgiveness, which made Fulbert say in desperation to
+Lance, 'I wish you would just fall upon me. I shall not be myself again
+till I've been blown up!'
+
+'I suppose you are doing it for yourself, and that is worse,' said
+Lance.
+
+'And you know it was all your doing, for going to that disgusting old
+Philistine's tea and cake.'
+
+'What, you and Clem wanted me to lead you about, like two dogs in a
+string?' said Lance.
+
+'No; Tina would have kept the baby-bunting out of harm's way.'
+
+'More likely he would have bored me into going. Poor Tina! I should
+almost like to hear him jaw again! After all, you and he never
+promised, and I did.'
+
+'I wish I had,' said Fulbert; 'I am awfully afraid they are getting
+hold of it in the town.'
+
+'So am I. Mowbray Smith looked me all over, and asked me after Clement,
+when I met him just now in the street, as if he had some malice in his
+head.'
+
+'What did you tell him?'
+
+'I said he was in a state of collapse, and that serious fears were
+entertained for his life and reason; and then he warned me against the
+nineteenth-century manners, and I thanked him and made a bow, and now I
+suppose he is gone to tell my Lady.'
+
+When Felix was free in the evening, he found Clement dressed, and
+sitting over the fire in his room--so well indeed, that he might have
+been downstairs, but that he shrank from every one; and that fire had
+been the fruit of such persevering battles of Wilmet and Sibby with the
+smoke and soot, that it would have been a waste of good labour to have
+deserted it.
+
+'Well, Clem, you are better?'
+
+'Yes, thank you.'
+
+'Head-ache gone?'
+
+'Nearly,' with a heavy sigh.
+
+Felix drew an ancient straw-bottomed chair in front of the fire
+backwards, placed himself astride on it, laid his arms on the top
+and his forehead on them, and in this imposing Mentorial attitude
+began, 'After all, Clem, I don't see that you need be so desperately
+broken-hearted. It was mere innocence and ignorance. Water-drinkers at
+home are really not on a level with other people. I always have to be
+very guarded when I have to dine with the other reporters.'
+
+'No,' said Clement, sadly; 'I do not regard the disgrace as the sin so
+much as the punishment.'
+
+It was more sensible than Felix had expected. He was conscious of not
+understanding Clement, who always seemed to him like a girl, but if
+treated like one, was sure to show himself in an unexpected light.
+
+'You did not know where you were going?'
+
+'Not at first. I found out long before I came off the ice; and then,
+like an absurd fool as I was, I thought myself showing how to deal
+courteously and hold one's own with such people.'
+
+'You are getting to the bottom of it,' said Felix.
+
+'I have been thinking it over all day,' said Clement, mournfully. 'I
+see that such a fall could only be the consequence of long-continued
+error. Have I not been very conceited and uncharitable of late, Felix?'
+
+'Not more than usual,' said Felix, intending to speak kindly.
+
+'I see. I have been treating my advantages as if they were merits,
+condemning others, and lording it over them. Long ago I was warned that
+my danger was spiritual pride, but self-complacency blinded me.' And he
+hid his face and groaned.
+
+Felix was surprised. He could not thus have discussed himself, even
+with his father; but he perceived that if Clement had no one else
+to preach to he would preach to himself, and that this anatomical
+examination was done in genuine sorrow.
+
+'No humility!' continued Clement. 'That is what has brought me to this.
+If I had distrusted and watched myself, I should have perceived when
+I grew inflated by their flattery, and never--egregious fool that I
+was--have thought I was showing that one of our St. Matthew's choir
+could meet worldly men on their own ground.'
+
+Felix was glad that his posture enabled him to conceal a smile; but
+perhaps Clement guessed at it, for he exclaimed, 'A fit consequence, to
+have made myself contemptible to everybody!'
+
+'Come, Clem, that is too strong. Your censorious way was bad for
+yourself, and obnoxious to us all, and it was very silly to go to that
+place after what you had heard.'
+
+'After telling Lance it was unworthy of a servant of the sanctuary,'
+moaned Clement.
+
+'Very silly indeed,' continued the elder brother, 'very wrong; but as
+to what happened there, it is not reasonable to look at it as more than
+an accident. It will be forgotten in a week by all but Fulbert and
+yourself, and you will most likely be the wiser for it all your lives.
+I never got on so well with Ful before, or saw him really sorry.'
+
+Clement only answered by a disconsolate noise; and Felix was becoming
+a little impatient, thinking the penitence overstrained, when he broke
+silence with, 'You must let me go up to St. Matthew's!'
+
+'Really, Clement, it is hardly right to let you be always living upon
+Mr. Fulmort now your occupation is ended, and it would be braver not to
+run away.'
+
+'I do not mean _that!_' cried Clement. 'I will not stay there. I would
+not burthen them; but see the Vicar I _must!_ I will go third class,
+and walk from the station.'
+
+'The fare of an omnibus will not quite break our backs,' said Felix,
+smiling. 'If this is needful to settle your mind, you had better go.'
+
+'You do not know what this is to me,' said Clement, earnestly; 'I
+wish you did.' Then perceiving the recurrence to his old propensity,
+he sighed pitifully and hung his head, adding, 'It is of no use till
+Saturday, the Vicar is gone to his sisters.'
+
+'Very well, you can get a return ticket on Saturday--that is, if the
+organist is come back.'
+
+'Lance must play; I am not worthy.'
+
+'You have no right to break an engagement for fancies about your own
+worthiness,' said Felix. 'Rouse yourself up, and don't exaggerate the
+thing, to alarm all the girls, and make them suspicious.'
+
+'They ought to know. I felt myself a wicked hypocrite when Wilmet
+_would_ come and read me the Psalms, and yet I could not tell her. Tell
+them, Felix; I cannot bear it without.'
+
+'No, I shall not. You have no right to grieve and disgust them just
+because you "cannot bear it without." Cannot you bear up, instead of
+drooping and bemoaning in this way? It is not manly.'
+
+'Manliness is the great temptation of this world.'
+
+'You idiot!' Felix, in his provocation, broke out; then getting himself
+in hand again, 'Don't you know the difference between true and false
+manliness?'
+
+'I know men of the world make the distinction,' said Clement; 'I am not
+meaning any censure, Felix. Circumstances have given you a different
+standard.'
+
+Felix interrupted rather hotly: 'Only my father's. I have heard him
+say, that if one is not a man before one is a parson, one brings the
+ministry into contempt. The things the boys call you Tina for are not
+what make a good clergyman.'
+
+'I don't feel as if I could presume to seek the priesthood after that.'
+
+'Stuff and nonsense!' cried Felix. 'If no one was ordained who had ever
+made a fool of himself and repented, we should be badly off for clergy.
+You were conceited and provoking, and have let yourself be led into a
+nasty scrape--that's the long and short of the matter; but it is only
+hugging your own self-importance to sit honing and moaning up here.
+Come down, and behave like a reasonable being.'
+
+'Let me stay here to-night, Felix, I _do_ need it,' said Clement, with
+tears in his eyes; 'if I am alone now, I think I can bring myself to
+bear up outwardly as you wish.'
+
+The affected tone had vanished, and Felix rose, and kindly put his
+hand on his shoulder, and said, 'Do, Clem. You know it is not only my
+worldliness--mere man of business as I am--that bids us to hide grief
+within, and "anoint the head and wash the face."'
+
+Just then an exulting shout rang through the house, many feet scuttled
+upstairs, knocks hailed upon the door, and many voices shouted, 'Mr.
+Audley! Felix, Clem, Mr. Audley!'
+
+'Won't you come, Clem?'
+
+'Not to-night; I could not.'
+
+Clement shut the door, and Felix hastened down among the dancing
+exulting little ones. 'I thought you were at Rome!' he said, as the
+hands met in an eager grasp.
+
+'I was there on Christmas Day; but Dr. White's appointment is settled,
+and he wants me to go out with him in June. My brother is gone on to
+London, and I must join him there on Saturday.'
+
+'I am glad it is to-day instead of yesterday,' said Wilmet. 'We were
+all out but Felix and Cherry, and poor Clement was so ill.'
+
+'Clement ill? Is he better?'
+
+'He will be all right to-morrow,' said Felix.
+
+Mr. Audley detected a desire to elude inquiry, as well as a meaning
+look between the two younger boys, and he thought care sat heavier on
+the brow of the young master of the house than when they had parted
+eighteen months before.
+
+His travels were related, his photographs admired, his lodging arranged
+in Mr. Froggatt's room, and after the general good-night, he drew his
+chair in to the fire, and prepared for a talk with his ex-ward.
+
+'You look anxious, Felix. Have things gone on pretty well?'
+
+'Pretty fairly, thank you, till just now, when there is rather an ugly
+scrape,'--and he proceeded to disburthen his mind of last night's
+misadventure; when it must be confessed that the narrative of Clement's
+overweening security having had a fall provoked a smile from his
+guardian, and an observation that it might do him a great deal of good.
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, 'if his friends do not let him make much of his
+penitence, and think it very fine to have so important a thing to
+repent of.'
+
+'I don't think they will do that. You must not take Clement as exactly
+the fruit of their teaching.'
+
+'There's no humbug about him, at least,' said Felix. 'He is really cut
+up exceedingly. Indeed all I have been doing was to get him to moderate
+his dolefulness. I believe he thinks me a sort of heathen.'
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Audley, laughing, 'you don't seem to have taken the
+line of the model head of the family.'
+
+'The poor boys were both so wretched, that one could not say a word
+to make it worse,' said Felix. 'This satisfies me that Fulbert is all
+right in that way. He would not have been so shocked if he had ever
+seen anything like it before; but though he is very sorry now, I am
+afraid it will not cut the connection with those Collises.'
+
+'You do not find him easier to manage?'
+
+'No; that is the worst. He is not half a bad boy--nay, what is called a
+well-principled boy--only it is his principle not to mind me. I do not
+know whether I am donnish with him, or if I bullied him too much when
+he was little; but he is always counter to me. Then he is one of those
+boys who want an out-of-door life, and on whom the being shut up in a
+town falls hard. The giving up sporting is real privation to him and to
+Lance, and much the hardest on him, for he does not care for music or
+drawing, or anything of that sort.'
+
+'How old is he?'
+
+'Just sixteen.'
+
+'Suppose I were to take him out to Australia?'
+
+'Fulbert!'
+
+'Yes; I always intended to take one if I went, but I waited till
+my return to see about it, and I thought Clement was of a more
+inconvenient age; but you must judge.'
+
+'Poor Tina!' said Felix, smiling, 'he would hardly do in a colony. He
+is heart and soul a clergyman, and whether he will ever be more of a
+man I don't know; but I don't think he could rough it as a missionary.'
+
+'Is he going to get a scholarship?'
+
+'He has tried at Corpus, and failed. He is full young, and I suppose he
+ought to go to a tutor. I am afraid he learnt more music than classics
+up at that place.'
+
+'Can the tutoring be managed?'
+
+'I suppose a hundred out of that thousand will do it.'
+
+'Is that thousand to go like the famous birth-day five?'
+
+'Five hundred is to be put into the business; but the rest I meant to
+keep in reserve for such things as this.'
+
+'If all are to be helped at this rate, your reserve will soon come to
+an end.'
+
+'Perhaps so; but I have always looked on Clement as my own substitute.
+Indeed, I held that hope out to my father, when it distressed him that
+I should give it up. So Clem is pretty well settled, thank you. Besides
+I am not afraid of his not going on well here; but I do believe Fulbert
+will do the better for being more independent, only it seems to me too
+much to let you undertake for us.'
+
+'They are all my charge,' said Mr. Audley; 'and as I am leaving you
+the whole burthen of the rest, and my poor little godson is not likely
+to want such care, you need have no scruple. One of the Somervilles is
+going out to a Government office at Albertstown, and perhaps may put me
+in the way of doing something for him.'
+
+Felix mused a moment, then said, 'The only doubt in my mind would be
+whether, if it suited you equally, it might not be an opening for
+Edgar.'
+
+'Edgar! Surely he is off your hands?'
+
+'I am greatly afraid his present work will not last. He always hated
+it, and I believe he always had some fancy that he could persuade Tom
+Underwood into making a gentleman of him at once, sending him to the
+University or the like, and they petted and admired him enough to
+confirm the notion. Mrs. Underwood makes him escort her to all her
+parties; and you know what a brilliant fellow he is--sure to be wanted
+for all manner of diversions, concerts, private theatricals, and what
+not; and you can fancy how the counting-house looks to him after. Tom
+Underwood declares he requires nothing of him but what he would of his
+own son; and I believe it is true; but work is work with him, and he
+will not be trifled with. Here is a letter about it, one of many, I
+was trying to answer last night; only this affair of poor Clem's upset
+everything.'
+
+'Six brothers are no sinecure, Felix.'
+
+'They are wonderfully little trouble,' said Felix, standing on their
+defence. 'They are all good sound-hearted boys; and as to Lance,
+there's no saying the comfort that little fellow always is. He has that
+peculiar pleasantness about him--like my father and Edgar--that one
+feels the moment he is in the house; and he is so steady, with all his
+spirits. The other two both say all this could not have happened with
+him.'
+
+'High testimony.'
+
+'Yes, as both are inclined to look down on him. But think of that boy's
+consideration. He has never once asked me for pocket-money since he
+went to the Cathedral. He gets something when the Dean and Canons have
+the boys to sing, and makes that cover all little expenses.'
+
+'What do you mean to do with him?'
+
+'If he gets the scholarship, a year and a half hence, he will stay on
+two years free of expense. Unluckily, he says that young Harewood is
+cleverer than he, and always just before him: but I have some hope in
+the hare-brains of Master Bill. If he do not get it--well, we must see,
+but it will go hard if Lance cannot be kept on to be educated properly.'
+
+Mr. Audley took the letters, and presently broke into an indignant
+exclamation; to which Felix replied--
+
+'The work is not good enough for him, that is the fact.'
+
+'If you are weak about any one, Felix, it is Edgar. I have no patience
+with him. His work not _good_ enough, forsooth, considering what yours
+is!'
+
+'Mine has much more interest and variety; and he is capable of much
+more than I am.'
+
+'Then let him show it, instead of living in the lap of luxury, and
+murmuring at a few hours at the desk.'
+
+'I ascribe that to his temperament, which certainly has a good deal of
+the artist; that desk-work is peculiarly irksome.'
+
+'Very likely; but it is his plain duty to conquer his dislike. No,
+Felix; I wish I could take him away with me, for I am afraid he will be
+a source of trouble.'
+
+'Never! Edgar is too considerate.'
+
+'But he is exactly what Australia is over-stocked with already--a
+discontented clerk. If he be spoilt by luxury here, do you think he
+would bear with a rude colony? No. Fulbert is a gruff, obstinate boy,
+but not idle and self-indulgent; and I am not afraid to undertake him,
+but I should be of Edgar.'
+
+Felix had flushed up a good deal, for his love for Edgar was less
+paternal and more sensitively keen than that for any of the others; but
+he was more reasonable, and had more control of temper now, than when
+Mr. Audley had last crossed him; and he made answer, 'I believe you are
+right, and that Edgar could not be happy in a colony. Any way, you are
+most kind to Fulbert. But I am afraid I must go now, or Theodore will
+wake.'
+
+'Do you still have him at night?'
+
+'He is not happy with any one else. You have not seen him yet? I am
+sure he is improving! There's his voice! Good-night.' And Felix hurried
+away, leaving Mr. Audley feeling that though here and there the young
+pillar of the house might be mistaken, the daily unselfishness of his
+life was a beautiful thing, and likewise impressed by his grave air of
+manly resolution and deliberation.
+
+By the morning, Clement had recovered his tone, so as not to obtrude
+his penitence or to be much more subdued in manner than usual. Mr.
+Audley made him bring his books to the dining-room after breakfast, and
+the examination quite exonerated the authorities at Oxford from any
+prejudice except against inaccuracy, and showed that a thorough course
+of study was needful before he could even matriculate; and Clement in
+his present lowliness was not incredulous of any deficiency at St.
+Matthew's, but was only meek and mournful.
+
+'What shall I do?' he asked. 'Perhaps some school would take me to
+teach and study at the same time. Or I might get an organist's place,
+and read so that I might be ordained as a literate at last. It would
+come when I was fit, I suppose.'
+
+Mr. Audley only said he would inquire, and talk to Felix; and Clement
+pleased him by answering that he could not bear to be an expense to
+Felix. The good principle in the boys was quite to be traced, when
+presently after it was necessary to put Fulbert to a severe trial. On
+going to pay his respects at the Rectory, Mr. Audley found Mr. Mowbray
+Smith there, and after some preliminaries, he was asked whether he knew
+how the young Underwoods had been going on of late; of course, though,
+it would be concealed from him: but it was right, &c. Then Mr. Bevan
+feebly suggested that he did not believe there was any truth in it, and
+was sharply silenced; and Miss Caroline observed that she was always
+sure that Clement Underwood was a great humbug; whereupon, between the
+mother, daughter and curate, the popular version of the Marshlands
+Hall affair was narrated--or rather versions, for all were beautifully
+entangled and contradictory.
+
+Some one had been in the street, and had seen poor Clement's exit from
+young Jackman's dog-cart, and reported indiscriminately that it was
+'young Underwood.' Lance had not been able to put a sufficiently bold
+face on his morning's report of Clement's indisposition and Felix's
+absence; and this, together with the boys' hunting propensities, and
+Fulbert's visits to Marshlands, had all been concocted into a very
+serious accusation of the whole of the brothers, including Felix, of
+having entered into a dangerous friendship with Captain Collis, and
+underhand enjoying the dissipations of the Hall, which had been the
+bane of many a young man of Bexley.
+
+There were different measures of indignation. Miss Price expected a
+grand series of denunciations--to Mr. Froggatt--to Miss Pearson, 'whose
+niece was always there--most imprudent;'--nay, perhaps to the Dean, and
+to the Vicar of St. Matthew's. The least excitement she expected, was
+Felix Underwood's expulsion from the choir.
+
+Lady Price merely believed it all, and thought the friends ought to
+interfere, and save the poor young things while there was time for any
+of them. She would never mention it so as to injure them, but nothing
+else could be expected.
+
+Mr. Mowbray Smith supposed there must be some exaggeration, but he
+had been surprised at Lancelot's manner, and he did not think Felix's
+absence accounted for; he did seem steady--but-- And there was
+something unnatural in the way of life at St. Matthew's, that would
+make him never trust a lad from thence.
+
+Yes; and even Mr. Bevan did not like St. Matthew's (because it was not
+slack or easy), and he too could believe anything of Clement. No doubt
+poor Felix found those great brothers getting too much for him.
+
+Mr. Audley was standing by the window. He saw Fulbert with Lance and
+little Bernard going down the street, and by one of the sudden dashes
+that had often puzzled the Rectory, he flew out at the door, and the
+next moment had his hand on Fulbert's shoulder.
+
+'Fulbert, they have made a terrible scandal of this affair at
+Marshlands Hall. They fancy Felix had something to do with it.'
+
+'Felix! I should like to punch their heads.'
+
+'You can do better. You can contradict it.'
+
+'But, Sir--'
+
+However, Fulbert, while still following to plead with Mr. Audley, found
+himself where he never recollected to have been in his life before,
+among the cushions, arm-chairs, and tables covered with knick-knacks,
+of the Rectory drawing-room. Mr. Bevan in an easy-chair; Mr. Smith
+standing before the fire; Lady Price at work, looking supercilious; and
+her daughter writing notes at a davenport.
+
+Mr. Bevan half rose and held out his hand, the others contented
+themselves with a nod, while the big, stout lad stood rather like a
+great dog under the same circumstances, very angry with everybody, and
+chiefly with Mr. Audley--to whom, nevertheless, he trusted for getting
+him safe out again.
+
+'Fulbert,' said Mr. Audley, 'Mr. Bevan would be better satisfied if he
+could hear what intimacy there has been between your brothers and the
+Collises.'
+
+'None at all,' said Fulbert, bluntly.
+
+'My boy,' said the gentle Rector, deprecatingly, 'nobody ever suspected
+your eldest brother.'
+
+'I should think not!' exclaimed Fulbert, with angry eyes. 'All he ever
+did was to warn us against going. More fools not to mind him!'
+
+'Then,' said my Lady, 'it has been the insubordination and wilfulness
+of you younger boys that has nearly involved him in so grave an
+imputation.'
+
+'Of nobody's but mine,' returned Fulbert. 'The others would have
+nothing to do with it.'
+
+'That cannot be the literal fact,' said Mr. Smith, in a low voice, to
+Lady Price. 'There were certainly two of them.'
+
+Fulbert heard, and turning to the Rector, as if he thought every one
+else beneath his notice, said, 'The long and short of it is this:
+Lance and I picked young Collis out of a ditch, and took him home.
+Then Captain Collis asked us rabbit-shooting. Lance never went again,
+because Felix did not choose it. I did; and, just by way of a joke, I
+took Clement there without his knowing what place it was. We fell in
+with them skating, and went into the house, the day before yesterday.
+That is,' said Fulbert, concluding as he had begun, 'the long and short
+of it. Whatever happened was my fault, and no one else's.'
+
+'A very honest confession!' said kind Mr. Bevan, pleased to have
+something to praise.
+
+'And I hope it will act as a warning,' said Lady Price.
+
+'But,' said Mr. Smith, partly incited by Carry's looks, 'it was true
+that you--two of you were brought home by young Jackman.'
+
+'Yes,' said Fulbert, growing crimson, 'he drove Clement and me home!'
+
+'And,' said Mr. Audley, 'it was Clement's great distress that kept
+Felix at home the next morning.'
+
+'Yes,' said Fulbert, 'there was nobody else but me, and Clem could
+hardly bear the sight of me, because I had led him into it. We thought
+no one in the house would know it--and I don't believe they do.'
+
+'Ah!' said Lady Price, 'it is false kindness to attempt concealment.'
+
+'From lawful authority it is,' said Mr. Audley; 'but in this case it
+was only from children and servants. However, Fulbert, I think you have
+fully satisfied Mr. Bevan as to the amount of intercourse between your
+brothers and Marshlands.'
+
+'Entirely,' said Mr. Bevan; 'in fact, you may assure your brother that
+I never believed anything to his discredit.'
+
+'I shall say nothing about it,' said Fulbert, not choosing to see the
+hand held out to him. 'I should be ashamed!--May I go now, Sir?' to Mr.
+Audley; and with an odd sort of circular bow, he made his escape; and
+Mr. Audley, having remained long enough to ascertain that the worst
+that could be said of him was that he was a cub, and that it was a
+terrible thing to see so many great hulking lads growing up under no
+control, took his leave, and presently came on the three boys again,
+consulting at the ironmonger's window over the knife on which Bernard
+was to spend a half-crown that Mrs. Froggatt had given him.
+
+'Can Lance and Bernard settle that? I want you a moment, Fulbert. Not
+to confront the Rectory again,' he added, smiling. 'It was a horrid
+bore for you, but there was no helping it.'
+
+'I suppose not,' said Fulbert, gloomily, as if he did not forgive the
+unpleasant moments.
+
+'It was not about that I wanted to speak to you, though,' said Mr.
+Audley. 'I wanted to know whether you have any plans or wishes for the
+future.'
+
+'I?' said Fulbert, looking up blank.
+
+'Yes, you. You are growing up, Fulbert.'
+
+'I suppose I must take what I can get,' said Fulbert, in the same
+sulky, passive voice.
+
+'That may be a wise determination; but have you really no choice?'
+
+'Well, when I was a little chap, and knew no better, I used to think I
+would be a soldier or a farmer--but that's all nonsense; and I suppose
+I must have some abominable little clerkship,' said Fulbert, with a
+certain steadiness for all the growl of his tone.
+
+'Well, Fulbert, have you a mind to try whether the other side of the
+world would suit you better?'
+
+Fulbert looked up. 'You don't mean that you would take me out?'
+
+'Yes, I do, if you are inclined to come and try for work at
+Albertstown.'
+
+Fulbert, instead of answering, quickened his pace to a walking run,
+dashed on, nearly upsetting half a dozen people, and was only checked
+by a collision with a perambulator. Then he stood still till Mr. Audley
+came up to him, and then again muttered under his breath, 'Go out to
+Albertstown!'
+
+They walked on a little way, and then the boy said, 'Say it again,
+please.'
+
+Mr. Audley did say it again, in more detail; and Fulbert this time
+exclaimed, 'It is the very thing! Thank you, Mr. Audley;' and his face
+clearing into a frank, open look, he added, 'I'll try to do my best
+there. I wonder I never thought of it before. I would have worked my
+way out as a cabin-boy if I had. Where is Lance? Does Felix know?'
+
+There was no sentiment about Fulbert. He jumped at the offer as
+instinctively as a young swallow would prepare to migrate, seemed to
+brighten all over, and shake off his dull, defiant mood, and gave
+no sign of feeling about brother or sister--except that he said he
+believed Felix would get on better without him; and that he told Lance
+that they would have splendid fun together when he was big enough to
+come out and ride a buck-jumper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+PEGASUS IN HARNESS.
+
+     'Fear not on that rugged high-way
+        Life may want its lawful zest,
+      Sunny glens are on the mountain,
+        Where the weary heart may rest.'
+                               _Charles Gavan Duffy._
+
+
+There was much relief and comfort in that visit of Mr. Audley's. For
+one thing, Geraldine was able to pour out all her troubles, as she had
+been used to do ever since her father had left her in his charge--her
+repentance for the stirrings of her naturally fretful, plaintive
+temper, for her fits of impatience and her hard judgments, and, what
+surprised him chiefly, for jealousy.
+
+'Yes,' she repeated, at his word of surprise, 'I am jealous!'
+
+'Indeed!'
+
+'I never knew it till the choral festival. I used to be very fond of
+her, but--I'm sure it is jealousy; I don't like to see her more eagerly
+attended to than myself. Not that there is anything to complain of. He
+never neglected me in his life.'
+
+Mr. Audley smiled. 'People would tell you it is the natural lot of
+sisters.'
+
+Then she saw that he knew all about it; for, in fact, Felix had, rather
+to the general surprise, observed that the Miss Pearsons would like
+to meet Mr. Audley, and the trio had spent a musical evening with the
+Underwood party.
+
+'Oh,' she cried, 'is it all my own horridness? Or is it really--'
+
+'My own horridness or my own discernment?' said he, taking the words
+out of her mouth. 'My dear, such an affair as this would be generally
+the family jest.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'It is just as well it should not be so here,' continued Mr. Audley,
+'for nonsense is not always a cure, and the talk would be mischievous;
+besides, I think both are unconscious.'
+
+'He is, I believe,' said Cherry.
+
+'At any rate, he is more than ordinarily full of sense and
+self-control, and may safely be trusted to do nothing imprudent. She
+is pretty and attractive, and of course he likes to be with her; but
+I should think it very unlikely it would go farther. Has any one else
+observed it?'
+
+'Not Wilmet, only Lance.'
+
+'And has not made fun of it? That speaks well for Master Lance's
+discretion. Yet you all feel the weight of life too heavily. I had
+rather have found you amused by these little prepossessions, than
+weighing them seriously, and wearing yourself to fritters.'
+
+'I _will_ try not to mind, but I can't help being afraid for him! It
+must be very wrong to be almost turned against her because he likes
+her; and yet, what is all very well as my friend does not seem enough
+for Felix.'
+
+'Nor will it be. My dear Cherry, such things come on and go off twenty
+times in a man's life. You will treat the symptoms more lightly before
+you have done with your seven brothers. Meantime, don't fret your
+conscience over fancies, unless you have spoken or acted unkindly or
+fretfully.'
+
+'O Mr. Audley, what shall I do when you are quite gone? All this time I
+have felt as if I were without my pilot.'
+
+Mr. Audley, too, had been thinking this over, and wished to put her
+more formally under the spiritual charge of Mr. Willoughby of St.
+Faith's, feeling that the morbid and sensitive nature needed external
+support, and that it was not right to deprive it of what the Church
+sanctions.
+
+Her only doubt was Felix's approval. His nature did not readily accept
+progress beyond that to which he had been bred up; and in border
+lands like these, an unfavourable medium made much difference to the
+clearness of the sight. Clement's contempt for what had satisfied his
+father annoyed him; and his mind was self-reliant, his soul accustomed
+to find its requirements met by the system around him, and his
+character averse to intermeddling; so that it was against the grain
+with him that spiritual guidance should be sought outside the family,
+or, at any rate, outside the parish. He thought such direction weakened
+the nature; and Mr. Audley, after warning him against taking the
+disease for the effect of the remedy, had to laugh at him as a British
+householder. After all, he yielded, because he thought Mr. Audley had
+a certain right over Geraldine, and that it was proper to defer to his
+judgment; while his guardian trusted to a sight of St. Matthew's for
+the overthrowal of the prejudices that Clement had managed to excite.
+
+Before leaving England, Mr. Audley was resolved that little Theodore
+should be shown to some London physician. The child was five years
+old, but looked no more than three. He could totter in an uncertain
+run, and understood a few simple sentences, but came no nearer to
+language than the appropriation of a musical sound to every one whom
+he knew. There was nothing unpleasant about him, except his constant
+purring and humming; he was perfectly docile, loved music, and could
+be amused by simple recurring games. His affections seemed to have
+gone out chiefly to Felix and to Sibby; and as to his twin-sister, he
+seemed lost without her, and she seemed to view him as the complement
+of herself--like a sort of left hand, giving him things to hold in his
+feeble grasp, saying her lessons to him, and talking as if to a doll.
+There was something sad in the very resemblance; for their eyes were of
+the same shade of deep blue, their long soft hair of the same flaxen
+tint, their faces equally fair; but while hers was all colour, light,
+and life, his was pale and vacant, and scarcely ever stirred into
+expression.
+
+Mr. Audley thought it right to ascertain whether treatment could be of
+any use; and finding that his father's London house was only occupied
+by his brother the Captain, he arranged that Felix should come up to
+town with the child and Sibby, when the law business could be arranged,
+and there would be an opportunity of his seeing something of the world.
+
+He had never had a holiday before, and Mr. Froggatt rivalled his
+guardian in his desire that it should not be too short. The first call
+was by appointment on the doctor. He was not used to have patients like
+Theodore brought by youths of Felix's age, and was touched by the care
+and tenderness of the young man, as he tried to overcome the alarm that
+was rendering the little one impracticable, when it was desirable to
+exhibit his slender store of accomplishments. His nearest approach to
+his natural state was when perched on his brother's knee, with his back
+to the strange faces, listening as Felix whistled the tunes he loved
+best.
+
+After all, little was gained by the consultation, except the assurance
+that the poor little fellow was as well situated as was possible. A few
+directions for treatment and discipline were given, but very little
+hope was held out of any important change for the better.
+
+The verdict disappointed Felix to an extent that surprised Mr.
+Audley, who had better understood the hopelessness of the case. Of
+all the family, Felix had the most of the parental instinct for the
+most helpless; and while he warmly thanked his friend, he looked so
+mournfully at the child who clung to him, that Mr. Audley said in a
+voice of sympathy, 'It is a burthen, but one that will never bring the
+sting of sin.'
+
+'Not a burthen,' said Felix. 'No; as my father said when he gave him to
+me, he is the Gift of God, the son of my right hand. May it always be
+able to work for you!' he murmured, as he bent his head over the little
+one.
+
+'And I think the gift will bring a blessing!' said Mr. Audley.
+
+Theodore was sent home with Sibby, thus restoring Stella to herself,
+for she had been greatly lost without her speechless companion; but
+Felix remained in London for a week of business and pleasure. Captain
+Audley was very good-natured and friendly, and abetted his brother
+in all his arrangements for showing Felix as much of life as was
+possible in a week, assuring him that every new experience was a duty
+to the Pursuivant--a plea that Felix, with his lover-like devotion
+to every detail of his paper, admitted with a smile. Edgar was of
+almost all their expeditions, and dined with them nearly every day.
+That young gentleman's peculiar pleasantness had very nearly averted
+the remonstrances with which his brother and his guardian had come up
+armed. There he was, finding his work real, and not a royal road to
+immediate wealth, idling, lounging, and gratifying his taste for art
+and music; and when his employer stormed and threatened, listening
+with aggravating coolness, and even sweetness, merely hinting that
+his occupation was a mistake; and living all the time as a son of
+the house, with a handsome allowance, and free access to society
+and amusement. Thus, when Mr. Audley talked to him, he smiled with
+a certain resignation, and observed that he was concerned for poor
+old Tom, to have been unlucky enough to have drawn such a fellow as
+himself. Probably it was a judgment on him for not having come forward
+sooner, when he _might_ have had Felix! And when Mr. Audley upheld
+Felix as an example of hearty sacrifice of taste and inclination, it
+was to obtain an enthusiastic response. Nobody breathed equal to dear
+old Fee, and it was the most ardent desire of Edgar's heart to take
+some of the burthen from his shoulders! When it was hinted that such an
+allowance as Tom Underwood gave afforded the opportunity, Edgar smiled
+between melancholy and scorn, saying, 'Times must have altered since
+your time, Mr. Audley.--No, I forgot. Expense is the rule in our line.
+Swells can do as they please.'
+
+However, there things rested; Mr. Underwood treated him exactly like an
+idle son, storming at him sometimes, but really both fond and proud of
+him, and very gracious to Felix, whom he invited once to a very dull
+and dazzling dinner, and once sent to the opera with his ladies.
+
+Felix's Sunday was chiefly spent at St. Matthew's, which he was
+very glad to see without Tina's spectacles. He was amazed to find
+so much more good sense and reality than the effect on Clement had
+led him to expect; and Mr. Fulmort, who struck him as one of the
+most practical-looking men he had ever seen, spoke in high terms of
+Clement's steadiness and wish to do right; but added, 'I am afraid we
+have rather spoilt him. He came up to us so unlike the kind of boy we
+generally get, that we may have made rather too much of him at first.'
+
+Felix smiled. 'Perhaps we had knocked him about, and made too little of
+him at home,' he said.
+
+'Besides, _esprit de corps_ in so small a place as this is apt to
+become so concentrated as not to be many removes from egotism. I
+daresay we have been a terrible bore to you.'
+
+Felix laughed. 'We have always been very grateful to you, Sir.'
+
+'I understand. I am glad he is going farther a-field. He will be much
+improved by seeing other places, and having his exclusiveness and
+conceit shaken out of him; but we shall always regard him as the child
+of the house, and I only hope he may end by working among us.'
+
+'Poor fellow! Conceit has been pretty well shaken out for the present,'
+said Felix.
+
+'I hope it may last. He was rather hurt at my not making his misfortune
+of more importance: but it seems to have been accident, all except the
+priggish self-confidence that led to it.'
+
+Felix increased much in cordiality towards Mr. Fulmort, and at the same
+time mounted many stages in Clement's estimation on the discovery that,
+however behindhand his ecclesiastical advantages might be, the Vicar
+was exceedingly impressed by his excellence.
+
+A day or two after Felix's arrival, Ferdinand Travis was first
+encountered riding a spirited horse in the park, looking remarkably
+handsome, though still of the small-limbed slender make that recalled
+his Indian blood. His delight in the meeting was extreme, and he seemed
+to be as simple and good as ever. He was in deep mourning, having newly
+heard of his father having been killed in an American railway accident;
+and though his uncle seemed proud of him, and continued his liberal
+allowance, the loss and blank were greatly felt--all the more that
+he had not found it easy to make friends among his brother officers
+in the Life Guards. His foreign air was somehow uncongenial; he had
+no vivacity or cleverness, and being little inclined to some of the
+amusements of his contemporaries, and on his guard against others, he
+seemed to find his life rather dull and weary. He did not seem to have
+anything to love except his horses, especially the creature he was
+then riding, Brown Murad. He had obtained it after such competition,
+that he viewed the purchase as an achievement; while Felix heard the
+amount with an incredulous shudder, and marvelled at Mr. Audley's not
+regarding it as wildly preposterous. It was a dangerous position; and
+though Mr. Audley certified himself, through his soldier brother, that
+Travis was steadiness itself--neither betted, gamed, nor ran into
+debt--yet while he seemed personally acquainted with all the horses
+that ran, and apparently entered into no literature but the 'Racing
+Calendar,' it was impossible not to be anxious about him, even though
+he seemed perfectly happy to be allowed to be with his two godfathers,
+and followed them everywhere, from the Houses of Parliament to St.
+Matthew's.
+
+This was not the last expedition Felix had to make to London that
+spring. After many appointments of the time, and as many delays, a
+telegram suddenly summoned him in the beginning of May to bring Fulbert
+up to London, when the business would be wound up, and Captain Audley
+would take his brother and the boy in his yacht to Alexandria, there to
+join the overland passengers.
+
+So Fulbert's farewells were made in the utmost haste, and mixed up
+with Wilmet's solicitous directions for his proper use of all her
+preparations for his comfort on the voyage; and Lance could only be
+seen for the brief moments of halt at the Minsterham Station, during
+which neither spoke three words, but Lance hung on the step till the
+train was in motion, and then was snatched back, and well shaken and
+reprimanded, by a guard; while Fulbert leant out after him at even
+greater peril of his life, long after the last wave of the trencher cap
+had ceased to be visible.
+
+Felix believed that this parting was more felt than that with all the
+other eleven; and while Fulbert subsided into his corner, the elder
+brother felt much oppressed by the sense that it was his duty to give
+some good advice, together with great perplexity what it should be,
+how it should be expressed, and whether it would be endured. He would
+have been thankful for some of Clement's propensity for preaching when
+he found himself _tete-a-tete_ with Fulbert in a cab; but while he was
+still considering of the right end by which to take this difficult
+subject, he was startled by his beginning, 'Felix, I say, I'm glad you
+are going to get shut of me.'
+
+'I believe it is for your good,' said Felix.
+
+'You'll get on better without me,' repeated Fulbert; then, with an
+effort, 'Look here. It isn't that I don't know you're a brick and all
+that, but somehow nothing riles me like your meddling with me.'
+
+'I know it,' answered Felix. 'I wish I could have helped it; but what
+could be done, when there was nobody else?'
+
+'Ay,' responded Fulbert, 'I know I have been a sulky, nasty brute to
+you, and I should do it again; and yet I wish I hadn't.'
+
+'I should be as bad myself if I were a junior,' was the moral
+reflection Felix produced for his brother's benefit. 'Only, Ful, if you
+try that on with Mr. Audley out there, you'll come to grief.'
+
+'I don't mean to,' said Fulbert.
+
+'And you'll keep in mind what my father meant us to be, Ful--that we
+have got to live so as to meet him again.'
+
+Fulbert nodded his head emphatically.
+
+'It is his name you have to keep unstained in the new country,' added
+Felix, the fresh thought rising to his lips; but it was met by a gush
+of feeling that quite astonished him.
+
+'Ay, and yours, Felix! I do--I do want to be a help, and not a drag to
+you. I _really_ don't think so much of any of them--not even Lance--as
+of you. I _hope_ I shouldn't have been better to my father than I have
+been to you; and when--when I'm out there, I do hope to show--that I do
+care.'
+
+The boy was fighting with very hard sobs, and for all the frightful
+faces he made the tears were running down his cheeks. Felix's eyes were
+overflowing too, but with much of sudden comfort and thankfulness.
+
+'I always knew you were a good fellow, Ful,' he said, with his hand on
+his brother's knee; 'and I think you'll keep so, with Mr. Audley to
+keep you up to things, and show you how to be helped.'
+
+All after this was bustle and hurry. Fulbert had to be sent alone to
+take leave of Alda, while his brother and Mr. Audley transacted their
+business. Edgar came back with him; and after some hurried rushings out
+in search of necessaries forgotten, the last farewells were spoken, and
+Fulbert, with the two Audley brothers, was out of sight; while Felix,
+after drawing a long, deep sigh, looked at his watch, and spoke of
+going to see Alda.
+
+'Don't run your head into a hornet's nest,' said Edgar; 'it's all up
+with me there. Come this way, and I'll tell you all about it.'
+
+'All up with you!'
+
+'There are limits to human endurance, and Tom and I have over-passed
+each other's. I don't blame him, poor man; he wanted raw material to
+serve as an importer of hides and tallow, but you, the genuine article,
+were bespoken, and my father was not in a state for the pleading of
+personal predilections.'
+
+'What is it now?'
+
+'Only a set of etchings from Atalanta in Caledon. That was the straw
+that broke the camel's back,' said Edgar, so coolly as to make Felix
+exclaim--
+
+'How much or how little do you mean?'
+
+'Separated on account of irreconcilable incompatibility.'
+
+'Impossible!'
+
+'Possible, because true.'
+
+'Why did you not tell before Mr. Audley was gone?'
+
+'It would have been bad taste to obtrude one's own little affairs, and
+leave him with vexatious intelligence to ruminate on his voyage. Nay,
+who knows but that he might have thought it his duty to wait to compose
+matters, and so a bright light might have been lost to the Antipodes.'
+
+'You actually mean me to understand that you have broken with Tom
+Underwood!'
+
+'The etchings were the text of an awful row, in which the old gentleman
+exposed himself more than I am willing to repeat, and called on me to
+choose between his hides and tallow and what he was pleased to call my
+tomfoolery.'
+
+Felix groaned.
+
+'Exactly so. You are conscious that his demand was not only tyrannical
+but impracticable. One can't change the conditions of one's nature.'
+
+'Are you absolutely dismissed?'
+
+'Nothing can be more so.'
+
+'And what do you mean to do?' demanded Felix, stung, though to a
+certain degree reassured, by his tranquillity.
+
+'Study art.'
+
+'And live--?'
+
+'On my own two hundred. You will advance it? I only want sixteen months
+of years of discretion, and then I'll pay it back with more than
+interest.'
+
+'I must know more first,' said Felix. 'I must understand what terms
+you are on with Tom Underwood, and whether you have any reasonable or
+definite plans.'
+
+'Spoken like an acting partner! Well, come to Renville, he will satisfy
+you as to my plans. I am to be his pupil; he teaches at the South
+Kensington Museum, and is respectability itself. In fact, he requires
+my responsible brother to be presented to him. Come along.'
+
+'Stay, Edgar. I do not think it right by Tom Underwood to see any one
+before him. I shall go to him before anything else is done.'
+
+'Do not delude yourself with the hope of patching up matters like
+Audley last winter, losing me five months of time and old Tom of
+temper.'
+
+'How long ago was this?'
+
+'The crisis was yesterday. I was just packing to come home when Fulbert
+burst upon the scene.'
+
+Nothing could be worse news, yet Edgar's perfect self-possession
+greatly disarmed Felix. Never having thought his brother and the work
+well suited, he was the less disposed to anger, especially as the
+yoke of patronage was trying to his character; but he persisted in
+seeing Thomas Underwood before taking any steps for Edgar's future
+career, feeling that this was only due to the cousin to whom his
+father had entrusted the lad. So Edgar, with a shrug, piloted him to
+the Metropolitan Railway, and then to the counting-house where, in the
+depths of the City, Kedge and Underwood dealt for the produce of the
+corrals of South America.
+
+Edgar, as he entered the office full of clerks, nodded to their
+bald-headed middle-aged senior in a half-patronizing manner. 'Don't be
+afraid, Mr. Spooner; I'm not coming back on your hands, whatever this
+good brother of mine may intend. Is the Governor in?'
+
+'Mr. Underwood is in his room, Mr. Edgar,' was the very severe answer;
+'but after this most serious annoyance, I would not answer for the
+consequences.'
+
+'Wouldn't you indeed?' said Edgar quietly, in a nonchalant tone that
+made the younger lads bend down to sniggle behind their desks, while he
+moved on to the staircase.
+
+Mr. Spooner and he were visibly old foes; but the senior devoured his
+wrath so far as to come forward and offer a chair to Felix, repeating,
+however, 'Mr. Underwood is very seriously annoyed.'
+
+Before Felix could attempt an answer, Edgar had re-descended, newspaper
+in hand. 'Go up, Felix,' he said, threw himself into the chair,
+and proceeded to read the paper; while Felix obeyed, and found the
+principal standing at his door, ready to meet him.
+
+'What, Felix Underwood! Glad to see you. This intolerable affair can't
+have brought you up already, though?'
+
+'No, Sir; I was telegraphed for late last night, to bring up my brother
+Fulbert to start with Mr. Audley.'
+
+'Oh, ay. Well, I hope he'll have a better bargain of him than I've had
+in Edgar. You've heard his impudence?'
+
+'I am exceedingly sorry--'
+
+Then Mr. Underwood broke out with his account of Edgar's folly and
+ingratitude, after all the care and expense of his education. He had
+taken up with a set of geniuses for friends, was always rehearsing for
+amateur performances with them, keeping untimely hours; and coming
+late to the office, to cast up accounts, or copy invoices in his
+sleep, make caricatures on his blotting-paper, or still worse, become
+'besotted' with some design for a drawing or series of drawings, and
+in the frenzy of execution know no more what was said to him than a
+post. Finally, 'the ladies' being as mad as himself, as Mr. Underwood
+said, had asked him to draw for a bazaar, and in his frenzy of genius
+over the etchings he had entirely forgotten an important message, and
+then said he could not help it. On being told that if so he was not fit
+for his profession, he merely replied, 'Exactly so, the experiment had
+been unsuccessful;' and when his meekness had brought down a furious
+tempest of wrath, and threats of dismissal, he had responded, 'with his
+intolerable cool insolence,' that 'this would be best for all parties.'
+
+'This is the offence?' anxiously asked Felix.
+
+'Offence? What greater offence would you have?'
+
+'Certainly nothing can be much worse as to business,' said Felix.
+'But when he told me what had happened, I was afraid that he might be
+running into temptation.'
+
+'Oh! as to that, there's no harm in the lad--Spooner allows that--
+nothing low about him.'
+
+'And his friends?'
+
+'How should I know? Raffs those fellows always are, sure to bring him
+to the dogs!'
+
+'Did you ever hear of an artist named Renville?'
+
+'Ay?' meditatively. 'He was the master the girls had at one time,
+wasn't he?'
+
+'Then he is respectable? I ask because Edgar wants to study under him.'
+
+'Eh! what?' demanded Mr. Underwood, in manifest astonishment. 'Is the
+lad gone crazy?'
+
+'I thought you had dismissed him, Sir.'
+
+'Well, well,' said Mr. Underwood, taken aback, 'I told him only what he
+deserved, and he chose to take it as final. I thought you were come to
+speak for him.'
+
+'You are very kind, Sir, but I doubt whether he would resume his work
+here, or indeed if it would not be an abuse of your kindness to induce
+him.'
+
+'Eh! what?' again exclaimed Thomas. 'You give in to his ungrateful
+folly! Felix Underwood, I thought you at least were reasonable!'
+
+The imperious passionate manner, rather than the actual words,
+made Felix side the more with the wayward genius, and feel that
+having sacrificed himself for the good of the family, he might save
+his brother from the gloomy office and piles of ledgers and bills
+below-stairs. 'Sir,' he said, 'I am sorry Edgar has not been better
+fitted to return the timely help you have given us, but I am afraid
+that such unwilling work as his could never be of service to you.'
+
+'Why on earth should it be unwilling? Better men than he have sat
+at a desk before now! I've no patience with young men's intolerable
+conceit. There have I done everything for this young fellow, and he
+is unwilling, _unwilling_ indeed, to give his mind to the simplest
+business for six hours a day.'
+
+'It is wrong,' said Felix, 'but his powers lie in such a different
+line.'
+
+'Fiddling and daubing! Pah! If anything could be more incomprehensible
+than his not being able to cast up an account or take a message; it is
+your backing him up!'
+
+'I am afraid he is too old for coercion.'
+
+'No coercion like having not a penny in the world. Pray, how is he to
+live?'
+
+'His own means will help him through his studies.'
+
+'His own--L200! About as much as he has made ducks and drakes of in a
+year. Besides, he is not of age.'
+
+'No; but I have something of my own to advance for him.'
+
+Wherewith there began a fresh storm. Thomas Underwood was greatly
+mortified at the desertion of one brother, and still more at the
+acquiescence of the other. He would no doubt have been ready to
+retain the handsome engaging youth, grumbling and enduring, as a sort
+of expensive luxury; and in his wrath, disappointment, and sense of
+ingratitude at finding that his restive protege was not to be driven
+back to him, he became so abusive, that Felix could hardly keep his
+tongue or temper in check; but when he declared that if any support
+were given to Edgar's lunatic project, the whole family except Alda
+should be left to their own resources for the rest of their lives, it
+was with quiet determination that the reply was made, with studied,
+though difficult, respectfulness:--
+
+'Sir, we are much obliged for what you have done for us, but we hope
+to be able to work for ourselves and for one another without becoming
+dependent. You cannot suppose that such a consideration would affect
+my opinion respecting Edgar.' (N.B.--If Mr. Underwood _had_ supposed
+it, he felt as if it were impossible, as all his cousin Edward's
+high spirit glowed in that young man's eyes, and strengthened the
+studiously calm voice.) 'I think,' continued Felix, 'that no one can
+be doing right whose work is not thorough. If Edgar cannot or will not
+apply himself in earnest to your business, he will be doing better by
+studying art with a will than in pretending to work here, and abusing
+your forbearance. That would be so improper towards you, and so wrong
+in him, that it would be simply unjustifiable in me to try to persuade
+you into allowing it.'
+
+Somehow, Mr. Underwood had not at all expected such a reply; and as
+luckily want of breath had forced him to wait and really hear it, a
+sensation came over him of old times when Edward Underwood had argued
+with him; and it was with much less heat that he returned, with an
+effort at irony, 'And so you take the bread out of the mouths of the
+others to support my fine gentleman in his absurd nonsense?'
+
+'No, Sir; what I advance is entirely my own.'
+
+'Oh, ay; didn't I hear something about a legacy?'
+
+'Yes, from Admiral Chester. A thousand pounds. It has only just been
+paid to me.'
+
+'That you may throw it away on this young scamp's fancies?'
+
+'No, Sir, I hope not. Half of it goes into the business at Bexley. We
+sign the deed of partnership next week. It will make a great difference
+to me. The rest is ready for emergencies.'
+
+'Tomfooleries,' muttered Mr. Underwood. 'Pray, what are the plans for
+this making a new Michael Angelo? Am I expected to give him the run of
+my house? I shall do no such thing!'
+
+'No, Sir, it would not be proper to ask it. This Renville takes pupils
+for the Royal Academy, and Edgar would board and lodge there; but I
+hope you will still be good enough to allow him to call on Alda, and
+not let him be entirely left to himself. He is much to blame, but it is
+not as if he had run into bad dissipation.'
+
+'That's true,' said Mr. Underwood. 'A terrible disappointment that
+young dog has been to me, Felix Underwood; but as you put it, there's
+an honesty in the thing! Where is my fine gentleman?'
+
+'Downstairs, Sir.'
+
+Mr. Underwood breathed through a mysterious tube, and Edgar appeared,
+with his usual easy grace, and with a sharp glance at Felix as if to
+inquire whether there were to be any attack on his newly-found liberty.
+
+'Look here, Edgar,' was the address. 'Your brother--a much better one
+than you deserve--'
+
+'Thrue for you,' muttered Edgar between his teeth.
+
+'--Says what has some sense in it, that "nothing is so ruinous as doing
+things by halves," and that you ought to be ashamed of hanging about
+here doing nothing--'
+
+A quick glance passed between the brothers.
+
+'--So he is for letting you have your way; and if he chooses to
+support you, and you choose to rob him--for I think it nothing less
+than robbery--why there--I can't help it. So I put it to you for the
+last time: will you buckle steadily to your work here like a rational
+being, or cast yourself loose to live as a beggarly artist on what your
+brother can give you by pinching the rest?'
+
+'Thank you, Sir; I hope the sooner to help him to feed the rest, by
+taking the plunge you think so desperate,' said Edgar, with more
+gravity than usual.
+
+'Oh, indeed!' sneered Mr. Underwood. 'Remember, not a farthing of mine
+goes to such folly! I don't understand it! I thought once you'd have
+been as good as a son to me,' he added in a very different tone, as he
+looked at the fine young man in whom he yearned to take pride.
+
+'I wish I could, Sir,' said Edgar, with real feeling. 'I wish you had
+hit upon any one of us but my unlucky self. You've been very good to
+me, but what a man can't do, he can't; and if I gave in now, it would
+only be the same over again. But we don't part in anger, Uncle,' he
+continued, with a trembling of voice.
+
+'Anger?! No, my boy. I'm only vexed at the whole thing; but I don't
+want to lose sight of you altogether. You'll stay with us till you've
+found decent lodgings, and you'll be welcome to look in on a Sunday.'
+Mr. Underwood spoke in a tone between asking and granting a favour.
+
+'Thank you, Sir, with all my heart,' said Edgar.
+
+'And you'll come to dine and sleep?' he added to Felix. 'You've not
+seen your sister.'
+
+'No, thank you, Sir, I cannot to-day; I must be at home tonight.'
+
+They shook hands cordially; but as Edgar crossed the counting-house,
+he paused to open his own desk and pocket some of the contents, saying
+lightly as he did so, 'There's promotion in store for some of you
+youngsters--I congratulate you, Mr. Spooner; you're free of a burthen
+to your spirit.'
+
+'Indeed, Mr. Edgar, I'm very sorry if--'
+
+'Don't throw away your sorrow, Mr. Spooner; I was foredoomed your soul
+to cross, and I bear no malice to you for having been crossed. Shake
+hands, and wish me success as a painter.'
+
+'I wish you success, Mr. Edgar; but it will not be met with in any
+profession without application and regularity.'
+
+Edgar forbore from any reply but a low and deferential bow, such as to
+provoke another smothered laugh from the other young clerks, to whom
+Felix suspected, as he looked round, the favoured kinsman was subject
+of jealousy, admiration, or imitation, according to character. However,
+Edgar shook hands with each, with some little word of infinite but
+gracious superiority, and on coming out exclaimed, 'Ban, ban, Caliban!
+You who are emancipated from a Redstone, congratulate me!'
+
+Felix neither observed on the vast difference between the excellent
+confidential Spooner and pettily jealous Redstone, nor on the extremely
+dissimilar mode of emancipation. He was more occupied with the
+momentous responsibility of having assisted to cut his brother loose
+from the protection to which his father had confided him. Mr. Audley's
+warning that he was inclined to be weak where Edgar was concerned,
+came before him. Yet the life of luxury and unfulfilled duties was
+in his eyes such a wrongful course, that he felt justified in having
+put an end to it; and his heart warmed with hope and exultation as
+he recollected how Etty's success had been owing to his brother's
+aid, and felt himself putting Edgar's foot on the first round of the
+ladder, and freeing his ascent from all that had hitherto trammelled
+it. Such bright visions haunted him when talking was impossible on
+the omnibus, outside which Edgar had exalted him--he did not well
+know why till on descending at Charing Cross, he found he was to have
+an interview with Mr. Renville, who was copying a picture in the
+National Gallery, and whom he found, to his great relief, to be no wild
+Bohemian, but a simple painstaking business-like man, who had married
+a German hausfrau, and lodged a few art students with unexceptionable
+references. Knowing Edgar already, he had measured his powers, and
+assured Felix that his talent was undoubted, though whether that talent
+amounted to genius could only be decided when the preliminary studies
+were accomplished; but even if it were not of the very highest order,
+(a supposition that rather hurt Felix's feelings,) the less aspiring
+walks of the profession would afford sufficient security of maintenance
+to justify the expense of the study. He talked with sense and coolness;
+and his charges, though falling severely on such funds as were at the
+disposal of the young pillar of the house, were, Edgar declared, and
+Felix could well believe, very moderate. The time was to be further
+decided after reference to Mrs. Renville.
+
+'Will you not come home first?' asked Felix, as they descended the
+steps.
+
+'Not in the character of the discarded! Who knows the effect it might
+have on old Froggy? By-the-by, I hope this advance does not make any
+difference to the terms of your bondage.'
+
+'Nothing important.'
+
+'Draw bills to any amount on the R.A. of the future!'
+
+The light hopeful tone contrasted with Clement's grave thankfulness,
+and sorrow at being an expense; but Felix really preferred it, as far
+less embarrassing.
+
+'Could you come down in a month's time?' he continued. 'Lance is to be
+confirmed at the Cathedral, and it might be an opportunity for you.'
+
+'I cannot lose this month's work at the Academy, it is the most
+important in the year.'
+
+'It might be arranged for you to come down for the day. You could see
+any one you pleased here.'
+
+'Has Tina excited you to consign me to the Whittingtonian Fathers?'
+
+'No.' Felix had almost rested there, but presently added, gravely, 'I
+constantly feel the impossibility of getting through this world and
+keeping straight without help--the help that is provided for us,' he
+added, lamely enough.
+
+'Dear old Blunderbore,' said Edgar, affectionately; 'what comes
+naturally to you, No. 1, letter A, in a flock of girls and boys, can't
+be the same when one has got out into this wicked world. Go on in your
+own groove, and leave me to my aberrations. Don't vex yourself, old
+fellow. A popular journalist must have got far enough to know that men
+don't concern themselves about these little affairs in one another.'
+
+'Brothers do.'
+
+'Not unless they partake of the sister. Come! You have had no
+sustenance since breakfast at six o'clock, have you? Come in here, and
+learn what soup means.'
+
+'There's no time. The train is at five.'
+
+'Time! You don't mean to walk?'
+
+'I do; and get something to eat at the station.'
+
+'I declare, Fee, your unsophistication would be refreshing if it were
+not a disgrace to your profession. Why are you not reporter to the
+"Teetotal Times?" No wonder if the Pursuivant has a flavour of weak
+tea!'
+
+Felix smiled rather sadly, aware that this was meant to lead him
+away from the last subject. He perceived that the door between his
+favourite brother's soul and his own was closed, and that knocking
+would only cause it to be bolted and barred. It might be true, as Mr.
+Audley had told him, that Edgar's was not so much real scepticism as
+the talk of the day, and the regarding the doubts of deeper thinkers
+as a dispensation from all irksome claims; but this was poor solace,
+while his brother rattled on: 'My dear Blunderbore, the hasty-pudding
+on which you characteristically breakfast is a delusion as to economy.
+Renville's little Frau will keep us better and at less expense than
+ever Wilmet conceived. You wrap yourself in your virtue, and refuse to
+spend a couple of shillings, as deeming it robbery of the fry at home.
+You wear out at least a shilling's worth of boot leather, pay twopence
+for a roll and fourpence for a more villainous compound called coffee;
+come home in a state of inanition, cram down a quartern loaf and a
+quarter of a pound of rancid butter, washed down with weak tea; and if
+self-satisfaction and exhaustion combined are soporific, it is only
+to leave you a prey to night-mare. Then, to say nothing of poorness
+of blood producing paucity of ideas, it is fearful to think of the
+doctor's bill you are laying up!'
+
+'Nonsense, Edgar; I am in perfect health.'
+
+Edgar went off into a learned dissertation on the qualities of food and
+liquor, and the expedience of enriching the blood, and giving substance
+to the constitution. He was, in fact, much more robust and athletic, as
+well as much taller, than his brother, who looked like one who led an
+indoor life without cultivating his strength, but had no token of lack
+of health or activity. Always of small appetite, he did not care how
+long he fasted, and was so much used to be on his feet, that the long
+walk through the streets seemed to fatigue him less than Edgar, who
+nevertheless kept with him, as finding real pleasure in his company.
+
+The only pauses were at the sight of an accordion in a shop window
+labelled at so low a price, that Felix ventured on it for Theodore; and
+again when Edgar insisted on stuffing his pockets with bon-bons for the
+babes, as antidotes, he said, to the Blunderbore diet.
+
+'I beg to observe, it was not Blunderbore that lived on hasty-pudding.
+That was the Welsh giant,' said Felix.
+
+'Ay! Blunderbore had three heads, and was buried up to the neck,
+completing the resemblance! Well, some day I'll give you all a hoist,
+old fellow, and then you'll be immortalized for having developed the
+President of the Royal Academy out of his slough of hides and tallow.'
+
+Felix went home through the summer twilight, tired and heavy-hearted,
+to find Wilmet sitting up over a supper not much less rigorously frugal
+than Edgar had foretold. Telling Wilmet was perhaps the worst of it
+to Felix. True, she forbore to reprove or lament when she understood
+that the deed was actually accomplished, and saw that he was fatigued
+and out of spirits; but her 'Indeed! Oh! Felix!' and her involuntary
+gesture and attitude of dismay, went as far as a volume of reproach and
+evil augury. He was weary beyond vindicating himself or Edgar; but the
+next morning, when Wilmet and Angela had started for school, there was
+a sense that the cat was away, and Geraldine looking up under her long
+black eyelashes, whispered, 'Oh! it is so nice in you to have let him
+loose, dear Fee! It was such cruel waste to pin him down there!'
+
+'It was mockery for him to pretend to work there against the grain, and
+live in all that ease and luxury,' said Felix, greatly appreciating
+her sympathy. 'That must be so clearly wrong, that the more I think it
+over, the more I trust I did right in not trying to make it up again,
+as Mr. Audley did.'
+
+'It was only a pity he did!' said Cherry; 'but of course it was for
+your sake, that you might not have him thrown back on your hands.'
+
+'And for Edgar's own protection too,' said Felix; 'but I cannot think
+lazy insufficient work, and constant amusement, otherwise than so
+unworthy, that I am sure Mr. Audley would think it more honest and
+right to put an end to them, even at some risk.'
+
+'Risk!' said the little sister, ruffling up her feathers; 'he is sure
+to succeed, and you know it.'
+
+'I did only mean risk in that sense,' said Felix, gravely; 'but I hope
+he is safely and satisfactorily placed. Renville seems an excellent
+person, and more trustworthy perhaps because he only commits himself to
+Edgar's capability.
+
+'Capability!' contemptuously repeated Cherry. 'No one but you and I
+really understand what Edgar can do!'
+
+'I could have shaken the fellow for his coldness,' said Felix, smiling;
+'but no doubt it was right of him, and Edgar will soon show--'
+
+'That he will! Only look at the beauty and freedom of this outline,' as
+she opened her portfolio.
+
+'Don't beguile me, Cherry; I can't stay. I've all yesterday's work to
+make up.'
+
+'Here are all the proofs, ready. Only just look at the sentence I
+marked for you. O Felix, how lucky Edgar has you for a brother, to save
+him from being blighted and crushed!'
+
+'Is that head yours or his? Yours! I should say he was lucky to have
+such an unenvious sister. You would draw as well as he if you only had
+the teaching.'
+
+'Oh no, don't say that! It spoils his! Though I do wish my drawing
+could be of some use.'
+
+'Never mind about use. You are our pleasure,' as he saw her
+dissatisfied; 'besides, what would _Pur_ (the household abbreviation of
+Pursuivant) do without the sub?'
+
+This was much pleasanter! Cherry smiled at his kiss, and he ran
+downstairs, exulting--like herself--in their artist brother's future
+fame.
+
+When he returned to the sitting-room in the evening twilight, the
+first voice he heard, through Theodore's humming, was Wilmet's, as in
+mitigation--'I daresay he is well educated, and not vulgar.'
+
+'Oh! but the sound of it!' cried Alice Knevett's voice. 'A mere
+tradesman!'
+
+'Who is the unfortunate?' asked Felix, coming forward.
+
+'O Mr. Underwood, how you do steal upon one! Yes, I'm furious! Here's
+my old friend Florence Spelman--the dearest girl in the world, and so
+pretty--gone and engaged herself to young Schneider, of Schneider and
+Co., on the tailor's advertisements, you know! It is one of the first
+houses in London, and he's very rich and handsome and all that; but
+isn't it dreadful? All her friends will have to drop her! And I was so
+fond of her.'
+
+'Is it trade itself, or the kind of trade, that outrages your
+feelings?' asked Felix, in a tone of raillery.
+
+'Oh, a tailor is too horrible! As if all trade wasn't bad enough,' said
+Alice, laughing; then recollecting herself she turned, blushing and
+confused, to Cherry--'At least--I mean--your brother makes one forget.
+He isn't in the least like _that!_'
+
+'I never wish to forget anything he is!' said Cherry, proudly looking
+up to him.
+
+'Ah! you don't know what is in my pocket!' said Felix, leaning his back
+against the mantleshelf.
+
+'Oh! what!' cried Alice and Geraldine both together; while Wilmet
+looked at him as if she wished to put him in mind of the presence of a
+stranger.
+
+'Guess!' he said.
+
+'Somebody has left you a fortune! Oh! delightful!' cried Alice,
+clasping her hands.
+
+'Mr. Thomas Underwood will take Edgar's art study on himself,'
+exclaimed the more moderate Geraldine.
+
+'You burn, Cherry. It comes from that quarter. Here's a letter by the
+evening's post to offer me, if I have not closed with Mr. Froggatt, to
+invest in Kedge and Underwood's concern, and begin with L300 a year as
+clerk.'
+
+'It can't be possible,' said Wilmet, the only one to speak, as the
+other two girls looked rather blank.
+
+'Just so far that the deed of partnership here is not signed.'
+
+'What is the business?' asked Alice.
+
+'He is a South American merchant, and deals with Rio for hides and
+tallow, if you prefer that to books and stationery,' said Felix, in a
+would-be light tone.
+
+'Oh, but a South American merchant! That sounds quite delightful!'
+cried Alice. 'And you'll have to live in dear, dear London! How I envy
+you!'
+
+'That must be the effect you had upon him, Felix!' said Cherry, proudly.
+
+'Well, I thought I had been a specimen of the obstinate,' observed
+Felix. 'Here is his letter.'
+
+He gave it as of right to Wilmet; but other eyes remarked the address
+to F. C. Underwood, Esquire, an unusual thing, since, as Mr. Froggatt
+had never aspired to the squirehood, Felix made all his brothers and
+sisters write only the Mister, and thus entirely deprived himself of
+the pleasure of Alda's correspondence.
+
+'Where will you live? Oh! you'll let me come and stay with you
+sometimes!' cried Alice.
+
+Felix smiled as he answered, 'I'm afraid our house is not built yet.'
+
+'Miss Pearson's maid for Miss Alice,' said Martha, at the door.
+
+'Oh dear, how tiresome! but you'll tell me all about it to-morrow. How
+horrid it will be here when you are all gone!'
+
+'We are not gone yet,' said Wilmet, repressively. 'And if you please,
+Alice, do not talk of this.'
+
+'No,' said Felix, 'it must be entirely a family matter. I know we can
+trust to you.'
+
+'Thank you! I'm so glad I was there! It is so nice to have a secret of
+yours--and this is a beauty! Why, you'll be a great man with a house in
+London, just like Mr. Underwood of Centry.'
+
+'Pleasing ambition,' Cherry could not help muttering, with an ironical
+smile, as Alice laughed and nodded herself away.
+
+'Ready sympathy is a pleasant thing,' returned Felix.
+
+'You don't mean that you think this feasible?' said Wilmet, with a
+negative inflection in her voice.
+
+'I think it ought to be considered before it is absolutely too late.'
+
+Both were surprised, having always thought that he considered his
+destiny as fixed; and as Geraldine looked on while the other two
+discussed pounds, shillings, and pence, it was plain to her that he had
+an inclination to the change. The probability of rising, the benefit
+of lodging Edgar, the nearness to Alda, the probable openings for the
+younger lads, were advantages; but against these Wilmet set the heavy
+London house-rent, rates and taxes--from which they were free--the
+expense of living, the loss of her present situation, the dangers of
+deterioration of health. As to Edgar, his habits must be formed, he
+was already in a respectable family, and Lance and Bernard ought not
+to be risked for his sake. In fact Wilmet looked on London with a sage
+country girl's prudent horror of the great and wicked capital; and
+when that experienced man of the world, Felix, tried to prove that she
+did it injustice, he was met with a volley of alarming anecdotes. He
+hinted that ladies' schools might need teachers there, but was met by
+the difficulty of forming a new connection; and when he suggested that
+Cherry's talent might be cultivated, Wilmet hotly exclaimed, 'She could
+never go about to classes and schools of art!'
+
+'Not alone, certainly,' said Cherry, wistfully.
+
+'Edgar is as good as nobody, and I should be of no use in places like
+that,' added Wilmet.
+
+'I'm afraid you don't look very chaperonish,' said Felix, contemplating
+the fair exquisitely-moulded face, the more Grecian for the youthful
+severity that curved the lip and fixed the eye. 'If we could only turn
+her inside out, Cherry, she would be a dozen duennas in one!'
+
+'And then the Pursuivant. You would not like to desert poor Pur,' added
+Cherry.
+
+'I could do that better in town in some ways.'
+
+'Mr. Underwood would think that as bad as Edgar's drawing,' said
+Wilmet. 'No, no, Felix, you have learnt one business thoroughly, and
+it would be foolish to begin a fresh one now. Besides, how about Mr.
+Froggatt?'
+
+'Of course I should do nothing in such haste as to inconvenience
+Mr. Froggatt,' said Felix; 'and no one is more anxious for our real
+benefit, if this were possible.'
+
+'But you see it won't do,' reiterated Wilmet.
+
+'Perhaps not,' he answered, with more of a sigh than his sisters
+expected.
+
+Rather nettled, Wilmet set to work with pencil and paper to calculate
+expenses; Geraldine looked up at Felix, who had taken up a book, and
+began to whistle, 'For a' that, an' a' that.'
+
+Presently Wilmet, by way of making assurance sure, went off for her
+account-book; when he looked up and said,' How should you have liked
+this, Cherry?'
+
+'I don't know. I've not thought. Did you?'
+
+'I hadn't time before our Pallas Athene settled it; and I believe she
+is right, if she would not lay it in quite so hard. It only seemed
+a pity to lose our last chance of a lift in life without at least
+considering it.'
+
+'I thought you did not care about lifts in life.'
+
+'I ought not. But when it is brought home that we have slipped down
+two degrees in the social scale, it is tempting to step up one again!
+However, it plainly cannot be.'
+
+Yet when Wilmet mustered her irrefragable figures to prove how much
+poorer they would be in London than on their present income at Bexley,
+he would not go into details, saying that he wanted to hear no more
+about it, in a tone that a little hurt her. He was so uniformly gentle
+and gracious, that what would have passed unnoticed in most brothers,
+was noticed anxiously in him; and as Wilmet darned his shirt sleeve,
+a glistening came between her eyes and her needle, as she felt the
+requital of her prudence rather hard. Must all men pant to be out in
+the world, and be angry with women for withholding them?
+
+Nor was Geraldine devoid of the old prick, when she thought of the
+degrees in the social scale in connection with the words about
+tradesmen and merchants.
+
+Wilmet was not quite happy without knowing that the letter of refusal
+was written, and was more vexed than she liked to show when Felix
+laughed at her for supposing he could have made time to write it on a
+busy Saturday, even if there had been any London post to send it by.
+Poor Alice Knevett got a considerable snubbing for bursting in to ask
+the decision, and lamenting over it when she had heard it; but she
+stood her ground with a certain pertinacity of her own: and so late in
+the evening, that Wilmet had gone up to put Stella to bed, Felix came
+up with the letter in his hand. It was so carefully expressed, that
+Cherry could not help saying saucily that it was worthy of the editor
+of the Pursuivant; while Alice, much impressed by the long words,
+enthusiastically broke out, 'It is a most beautiful letter, only it
+ought to have said just the other thing!'
+
+'Why, what would you have done without Cherry?' said Felix.
+
+'I'd have come to stay with her! And it is such a pity! A merchant is
+a gentleman, and I am sure you could get to be anything--a member of
+parliament, or a baronet, or--' as if her imagination could not go
+farther; but she looked up at him with a dew of eagerness glistening
+in her bright hazel eyes. 'I was telling Cherry it does seem such a
+dreadful horrible pity that you should be nailed down in this little
+hole of a place for life.'
+
+Felix smiled--a man's superior, gratified, but half melancholy
+smile--as he answered, 'At any rate, you won't lose the pleasures of
+imagination or of pity.'
+
+'But I want to see you have the spirit to try,' cried Alice, eagerly.
+'I know you could.'
+
+'It would not be right,' said Felix, sitting down by her, and in full
+earnest gentleness and gravity setting before her the reasons that
+Cherry had hardly thought it worth while really to explain--namely, the
+impossibility of their being able to pay their way and meet the needful
+expenses, and the evils of the young, inexperienced household residing
+in London, resigning security for dependence.
+
+Alice, flattered by being treated as a sensible person, said, 'Yes,'
+and 'I see,' at all the proper places; then drew a sigh, saying, 'It is
+very good in you.'
+
+'I knew you would see it in the right light,' replied Felix.
+
+'Oh!' but the sigh recurred. 'I can't help being sorry, you know.'
+
+'There is nothing to be sorry for,' he said gratefully. 'I was
+disappointed at first myself; but for sheer usefulness to one's
+neighbour, I believe that this present position, if I have sense
+to make use of it rightly, is as good as any; and the mere
+desire of station and promotion is--when one comes to look at it
+properly--nonsense after all.'
+
+She opened her eyes in amazement, and made a little exclamation.
+
+'They may be well when they come,' said Felix in answer; 'but I have
+thought it over well to-night, and I see that to do anything doubtfully
+right for their sake would be a risk for all that I have no right to
+run.'
+
+Alice hung her head, overcome by the pure air of the region where he
+was lifting her; and in a sort of shyness at the serious tone in which
+he had spoken, he added, smiling,
+
+'Then you'll forgive the "sound of it."'
+
+'O Mr. Underwood,' she said, in the simplest and most earnest voice
+that Cherry had ever heard from her, 'I'm ashamed to recollect that
+nonsense!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+WHAT IT MAY LEAD TO.
+
+        'I never was so berhymed since I was an Irish rat, which I can
+        scarcely remember.'--_As You Like It_.
+
+     'Dim memories haunt the child,
+      Of lives in other beings led--
+        Other, and yet the same.'--_Keble_.
+
+
+In the autumn Alda made a visit at home. She had, as usual, gone with
+Mr. and Mrs. Underwood to their German baths, and had there fallen in
+with a merry set of her intimates in London, who had persuaded her to
+join them in an expedition to the Tyrol, which lasted till the end of
+September. On her return, she was dropped at Bexley, where her sisters
+were greatly edified by her sketch-book, a perfect journal in clever
+scenes and groups, like the 'Voyage en zig-zag.' Two of the gentlemen
+seemed always in waiting on the graceful outline that did duty for
+Alda; and indeed, she gave Wilmet to understand that only the skill
+that played them off one against the other had averted an offer from
+each, hundreds of miles from home, when it would have been so very
+inconvenient! Every morning Wilmet considered how her dinner would
+appear if one or both should suddenly drop in to pursue his courtship.
+
+Even Felix, though he had pooh-poohed the mysterious whisper from
+his sisters, was startled at the apparition of a picturesque figure;
+in Tyrolese hat, green knickerbockers, belt, knapsack, loose velvet
+coat, and fair moustache, marching full into the shop; and while the
+customers who were making it a rendezvous gazed in doubt between
+gamekeepers and stage banditti, holding out a hand too fair and dainty
+for either character, and exclaiming, 'How are you, Mr. Froggatt!
+Hollo, Felix!'
+
+Mr. Froggatt was amazed beyond measure, and it was only on hearing the
+ring of the mirthful laugh that he exclaimed, 'Mr. Edgar! This is an
+alteration! You will find the young ladies up-stairs.'
+
+Felix was disengaged at the moment, and could take him through the
+parlour, too glad to have him there at all to utter the faintest wish
+that he would have rung at the private door; and he ushered him into
+the drawing-room with the words, 'Here's the artist who has begun with
+himself;' and then retreated.
+
+'Edgar! oh, you wonderful boy!' cried happy Geraldine, as he threw his
+arms round her; while Alda asked:
+
+'Is that the _thing_ now, Edgar?'
+
+'Quite _comifo_,' he answered. 'Ha, little ones, have you forgotten me?'
+
+'Stella says you're the clarionet in the brass band,' said Bernard.
+'What have you got in that pack?'
+
+'Munitions of war!' he answered, unstrapping his bag, and producing
+packets of French bon-bons, bought on his way home, from the sketching
+tour Mr. Renville always made with sundry of his pupils in early
+autumn. 'Gobble them up, little mice, before the cat comes home.'
+
+Stella paused with a dutiful 'May I?' and Cherry had to interfere
+between the little maiden's scruples, Bernard's omnivorous inclination,
+and Theodore's terror at any new article of food; while Alda and Edgar
+exchanged eager question and answer:
+
+'You've been at home. You've seen them all?'
+
+'I dined there on Sunday--might do so any day; they can't do without
+me, that's a fact.'
+
+'Nor me, I imagine,' said Alda. 'I suppose I am to go back with you?'
+
+'So Madam proposed; but the fact is, that Molly has done uncommonly
+well without you this time.'
+
+'What do you mean?' asked Alda, sharply.
+
+'What think you of a friend of Cherry?'
+
+'I haven't got any friends.'
+
+'Think again! Not the great convert, the Cacique of all the Mexicos?'
+
+'Ferdinand Travis! You don't mean it?'
+
+'_I_ don't; but the elders mean it, and the youngers will do it.'
+
+'Do tell me! I can't understand,' cried Alda, much excited. 'We have
+never met him.'
+
+'The uncle or father--which?'
+
+'The uncle.'
+
+'Well, the uncle has been in England, and fraternized with our governor
+at Peter Brown's; there was a banqueting all round, and his nephew was
+carried at his chariot wheels. If I am not much mistaken, gold and
+timber jingled to silver and bullock-hide, and concluded a prospective
+union in the persons of my nephew and my daughter. I'm sorry. I have
+long been persuaded that a very small effort on the part of our
+respected Blunderbore might have redeemed the family fortunes in the
+person of Polly.'
+
+'How could you think of anything so absurd?' said Alda. 'As if my uncle
+would consent!'
+
+'If Tom has any sentiment, it is for my father and the name of
+Underwood,' said Edgar. 'You remember he was sorely disappointed that
+Felix would not step into my shoes.'
+
+'And very angry and hurt,' said Alda, 'as well he might be.'
+
+'Yes; but that anger proved the vastness of his good intentions.
+Besides there's something about our old giant--steadiness and breeding,
+I believe--that uniformly makes Tom knock under to him; and there's a
+peculiar affinity of good sense between him and Marilda, that ought to
+have ripened under favourable circumstances.'
+
+'And is he really cut out?' said Alda. 'I don't know how to believe
+this! How far has it gone?'
+
+'Hanger on and oyster in love,' promptly answered Edgar. 'Honest
+Polly has the most comical look of anxious coyness on her jolly face,
+and holds her elbows squarer than ever; and a few paces off stands
+Montezuma, magnificent and melancholic;' and Edgar assumed the posture.
+
+'Melancholy, no wonder,' said the conscious beauty; 'Edgar, he must be
+over head and ears in debt.'
+
+'So it struck me; but he must have managed it uncommon quietly, for
+they call him the Mexican Muff; he's hand and glove with all their
+holinesses up at Clement's shop, and the wildest orgie he has been
+detected at was their magic-lantern.'
+
+'Then it is real goodness that draws them together!' exclaimed Cherry,
+looking up from her presidency over the comfits.
+
+'Goodness and a balance,' said Edgar.
+
+'Did you know,' said Cherry, 'that as soon as he came of age, he paid
+the Insurance all the money for the Fortinbras Arms? The agents were
+quite overwhelmed, and wanted to put it in the Pursuivant.'
+
+She was cut short by the return of Wilmet and Angela, accompanied by
+Miss Knevett. The effect of Edgar's appearance was startling. Alice
+gave a little scream of surprise, Angela crept behind her sisters, and
+Wilmet stood for a moment like a stag at gaze; then, as he said, 'Well,
+Mettie, are you going to send for the police?' exclaimed, 'You, Edgar!
+What a figure you have made of yourself!'
+
+'See how our eldest crushes me!' said Edgar. 'Such a face as yours,
+Mettie, ought not to be wedded to the commonplace.'
+
+'I suppose it is like German artists,' said Wilmet, trying to resign
+herself.
+
+'It is such a beautiful becoming dress,' whispered Alice to Geraldine;
+while Edgar rattled on--'No wonder there is a deterioration in taste
+from living in the very tents of the Philistines. Why, Cherry, how do
+you bear existence surrounded by such colours as these?'
+
+'The paper?' asked Wilmet, surprised. 'It is rather a large pattern, to
+be sure.'
+
+'I call it cruelty to animals to shut Cherry up among the eternal
+abortive efforts of that gilded trellis to close upon those blue
+dahlias, crimson lilacs, and laburnums growing upwards, tied with huge
+ragged magenta ribbons. They would wear out my brain.'
+
+'Well, I think when you remember our old paper, you might be thankful!'
+said Wilmet.
+
+'Precisely what I do, and am not thankful. What our paper may have been
+in its earlier stages of existence, I am not prepared to say; but since
+I can remember, that hateful thing, the pattern, could only be traced
+by curious researches in dark corners, and the wall presented every
+_nuance_ of purplish salmon or warm apricot.'
+
+'Dear old paper!' cried Cherry. 'Yes; wasn't it soft, deepening off in
+clouds and bars, sunsets and storm-clouds, to make stories about?'
+
+'Where it was most faded and grimy,' said Wilmet. 'It is all
+affectation not to be glad to have clean walls.'
+
+'Clean!' cried Edgar, in horror. 'Defend me from the clean! Bare, bald,
+and frigid, with hard lines breaking up and frittering your background.
+If walls are ornamented at all, it should not be in a poor material
+like paper, but rich silk or woollen tapestry hangings.'
+
+'We couldn't have tapestry now,' said Alice, in a puzzled voice.
+
+'Then,
+
+     '"Comrades, take warning by my fall,
+       And have it strong or not at all."'
+
+'Not walls,' laughed Cherry.
+
+'Let them be of natural, or, at any rate, uniform tint; and cover them
+with your own designs of some character and purpose, not patterns
+bought by the yard.'
+
+'Oh! I see what you would be at,' said Wilmet quaintly. 'You are
+bewailing the loss of your great Man Friday.'
+
+'Achilles, I beg your pardon.'
+
+'He never would come out,' said Angela; 'he came through the whitewash
+after the measles.'
+
+'I wonder what the present inhabitants think of him,' said Cherry. 'One
+comfort is, if he is a bogy now, they may show him some day as an early
+effort of Sir Edgar Underwood, President of the Royal Academy.'
+
+'Oh dear! I must go!' cried Alice. 'I only came to fetch a pattern for
+Aunt Maria, and she is waiting for it; but you are all so delightful
+here.'
+
+'What pretty little thing have you picked up there?' asked Edgar, as
+she went.
+
+'Have we not told you of Miss Pearson's niece?'
+
+'You should take her likeness, Cherry, as a relief from the classically
+severe.'
+
+Cherry opened her portfolio, and showed two or three water-coloured
+drawings of the graceful little head and piquant features. Edgar
+criticised, and promised a lesson; and the sitter, nothing loth, though
+rather coy, was caught. She blushed and smiled, and took exception at
+little personalities, and laughed her forgiveness, going through a play
+of countenance very perplexing to the pupil, but much relished by the
+master, as he called up the pout and smile by turns, and played with
+her little airs.
+
+He took Alda back on Monday, but promised to come home for Christmas,
+and kept his word. Perhaps the Renville _wirthschaft_ afforded less
+contrast with home than did the Underwood _menage_; and, in spite of
+the Philistine furniture, the rooms in the High Street agreed better
+with his tastes than the old house in St. Oswald's Buildings. He was
+above objecting to the shop; and whereas Clement carefully avoided
+the public precincts, he was often there, hunting up books, reading
+newspapers, gossiping with Mr. Froggatt or with Redstone, and always
+ensuring himself a welcome by the free bright sweetness of his manner
+and his amusing talk.
+
+It was a prosperous winter; Felix, as partner and acknowledged editor,
+was in a more comfortable position both as to income and authority.
+Other matters were going well. Fulbert, to the general surprise,
+turned out a capital letter-writer, and sent home excellent accounts
+of himself, working heartily in a situation in the post-office, which
+Mr. Audley's Somerville interest had managed to secure for him.
+Moreover, all close scholarships had not been abolished, and Felix's
+opportunities in the newspaper line had enabled him to discover one at
+St. Cadoc's, a small college at Cambridge, to be competed for by the
+natives of the county where Clement had fortunately been born. A letter
+to the parish clerk of Vale Leston, to ask for the baptismal register
+of Edward Clement Underwood, produced a reply from a well-remembered
+old Abednego Tripp, who declared himself 'horned and rejoiced' at
+hearing from Master Felix, and at being able to do anything for one of
+the Reverend Mr. Edward's sons. The competition was not very severe;
+Clement obtained the scholarship, and therewith his maintenance for
+three years to come; and he was at the same time able to exercise a
+bit of patronage on his sisters' behalf, more gratifying to his own
+feelings than theirs. Mr. Fulmort's unmarried sisters had lived in
+the country with a former governess, until on the death of the elder,
+the survivor decided on employing her very considerable fortune in
+establishing a school where girls of small means might be prepared
+for becoming first-rate governesses, with special openings for the
+daughters of poor clergy and of missionaries.
+
+One of the first families thought of was that of the favourite
+chorister; so Angela, now ten years old, was nominated at once,
+to the relief of Wilmet, who did not think her romping intimacies
+with the girls at Miss Pearson's very desirable. Moreover, after a
+correspondence between Miss Fulmort and Miss Lyveson, it was decided
+that Robina should be transferred to the new school at Brompton with
+her sister, partly by way of infusing a trustworthy element, and partly
+that her studies might be perfected by London masters. Robina, whose
+allegiance to Miss Lyveson was most devoted, was greatly grieved, but
+she was a reasonable, womanly little being, aware that governess-ship
+was her profession, and resolute to qualify herself; so though she
+came home with tell-tale spots under her eyes, she replied to all
+condolences with, 'I know it's right, what must be must;' and her
+spirits rose when Lance came home, bound only to return during the
+holidays on two or three special days when his voice was indispensable
+at the cathedral.
+
+Edgar and he together kept the house in continual merriment, so that
+the sober pillars of the house found themselves carried along, they
+knew not whither.
+
+'I have had a serious application,' said Felix one evening. 'A solemn
+knock came to the office door, and an anxious voice came in--"Please,
+brother, I want to speak to you." There stood the little Star! I
+thought at least she had broken the chandelier, but no such thing. It
+was, "Please, brother, mayn't I have a birth-day?"'
+
+'Poor little darling!' cried some voices.
+
+'What could have put it into her head?' said Wilmet.
+
+'She said all little girls had birth-days, and Ellen Bruce had told
+Angel all about the dance in honour of hers.'
+
+'Ah!' said Wilmet, 'we'll have Angel out of the way of that kind of
+chatter.'
+
+'Poor little maid! of course I had to quench her,' said Felix, 'as far
+as her own day was concerned. I told her more about it than she had
+ever heard, but then she took me aback by saying Father was happy, and
+she thought he would like her to be happy.'
+
+'You didn't consent!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'I represented that it was Theodore's birth-day as well, and that
+strangers would make him miserable. She was really very good, and I
+want you just to consider whether we could not do something--of course
+on a different day--but in the course of the holidays, by way of treat.
+Surely you could invite some of Miss Pearson's pupils.'
+
+'I don't like to begin, Felix,' said Wilmet; 'there would be
+reciprocity, and no one knows where it might lead to.'
+
+'A few white muslin frocks--eh, W. W.? I think we could stand them.'
+
+'That is not all I mean,' said Wilmet; 'it is the sort of style of
+thing. It would be all very well to have a few little girls here, but
+they would all ask us again, and I could not answer for what might
+happen at their homes.'
+
+'It is out!' said Edgar. 'Now we know the sort of style of thing it
+might lead to. Minerva under a mistletoe bough.'
+
+'Hurrah!' burst out Lance, in convulsions of mirth, which infected
+Felix and Cherry; while Wilmet, as simple as she was discreet, blushed
+up to the tips of her ears, and tried to defend herself.
+
+'They tell me of doings at their parties that are what I should not
+like for our little girls, and I don't think you would, Felix.'
+
+'Forfeits, to wit?' asked Edgar. 'Or cards, or waltzing. You may as
+well be explicit, Mettie.'
+
+'No, no,' said Felix, 'Mettie shall not be teased: she is right in the
+main.' But his _tone_ was that he always used when her prudence was too
+much for him.
+
+'And the family refinement is to be secured by sitting in ashes all
+Christmas,' said Edgar. 'Slightly unchristian, it strikes me.'
+
+'But,' continued Felix, 'out of these domestic ashes, we _must_ get up
+some sport for the children. I stand committed to Stella.'
+
+'Shall I get Bill Harewood, and do Box and Cox?' suggested Lance.
+
+'Might we not get up something they could take part in themselves?'
+said Cherry; 'Cinderella, or some such little play?--Edgar, you know
+how to manage such things.'
+
+'Wilmet doesn't know where they would lead to,' gravely responded Edgar.
+
+'To Lance's going off with a circus,' said Felix.
+
+'I always had a great mind to do so,' responded Lance. 'To sing comic
+songs on one leg on a spotted horse's back, and go about day and night
+in a yellow van drawn by elephants--I call that life!'
+
+'Secure a berth for me as scene-painter!' cried Edgar. 'See how I'd
+draw a house by the very outline of Mazeppa outside!'
+
+'And Felix will print all our advertisements gratis!'
+
+'Oh!' broke in Cherry; 'I have a notion. Couldn't we make a play of the
+conjuror in disguise? It is Dr. Knowall in German popular tales, Robin
+the Conjuror in English.'
+
+'Nothing foolish, I hope?' seriously asked Wilmet.
+
+'Oh no. Don't you recollect? The story is, that a set of thieves steal
+a jewel, a man comes shamming conjuror and offering to find it for the
+owner, intending to trust to chance, and feast at her expense as long
+as he is not found out.'
+
+'I remember!' exclaimed Lance; 'you used to tell us the story. Somebody
+suspects him, and brings a creature shut up in a covered dish to ask
+him to tell what it was--and it happens to be a robin; so when he cries
+out, "Oh, poor Robin!" thinking himself done for, out hops the bird,
+and the enemy is sold.'
+
+'Yes; and then he counts his dinners every day, and the thieves who
+have come to look on think he is counting them, and throw themselves on
+his mercy.'
+
+'It has capabilities,' said Edgar.
+
+'But the moral!' said Wilmet.
+
+'What! Not the lesson against dealing with conjurors?' demanded Edgar.
+'I'll undertake to arm your pupils against spirit-rapping for ever.'
+
+'In that point of view--' said Wilmet doubtfully.
+
+'In that point of view,' said Felix, laughing, 'it has my vote.'
+
+'I don't like deception to succeed,' said Wilmet; 'but at least there's
+none of the worst sort of nonsense.'
+
+Lance leapt up and performed a _pas seul_, insisting that Bill Harewood
+must come and be a robber; and Edgar and Cherry instantly had their
+heads together as playwrights and managers.
+
+'Never mind, Wilmet,' said Felix at their bed-room doors that night.
+'Remember, Father never was a man for all work and no play.'
+
+'I don't mind play, but I don't know what this may lead to;' then,
+as Felix laughed merrily at the repetition, she followed him into
+his room, saying, 'I mean, I have no trust in Edgar's discretion, or
+Lance's either, and all sorts of things may be put into the children's
+heads.'
+
+'You can't keep children's heads a blank,' said Felix; 'and Edgar's
+good taste ought to be trusted in his own home, for his own sisters.
+Even you might stretch a few points to keep him happy and occupied with
+Cherry. Besides, I believe we do live a duller life than can be really
+good for any one. It can't be right to shut up all these young things
+all their holidays without any pleasure.'
+
+'I thought,' said Wilmet, her eyes growing moist, 'it was pleasure
+enough to be all at home together.'
+
+'So it is, to staid old fogies like you and me,' said Felix, kissing
+her; 'but the young ones want a lark now and then, and I confess I
+should be immensely disappointed if this fun didn't come off. No, no,
+W. W., I can't have you an old cat; you are much too young and
+pretty.'
+
+The levity of this conclusion shocked Wilmet beyond remonstrance. Was
+Felix falling from his height of superiority, or was her strictness
+wearisome?
+
+Meantime, Geraldine's brain was ringing with doggrel rhymes, and
+whirling with stage contrivances, in the delight of doing something
+with Edgar, whether versifying or drawing; and as Felix said, to keep
+him happy at home for Christmas was no small gain, even though it
+brought a painful realisation that their feast was not his feast.
+
+Geraldine suffered in silence, for a word from her was always put
+down by some tender jest, avowing as much inferiority in goodness as
+superiority in intellect. As to Clement, Edgar's sport was to startle
+him with jokes, dilemmas, and irreverences, and then to decline
+discussion on the ground that he never argued with _sisters_, and that
+Clement would understand when he went to Cambridge. Otherwise, the
+subject was avoided at home; but Edgar consorted a good deal with Mr.
+Ryder, calling him the only person in the town, except Cherry, who
+knew the use of a tongue; and one day, when Felix was assisting his
+old master in a search through old newspapers in the reading-room, Mr.
+Ryder said, 'By-the-by, your brother Edgar has a good deal more of the
+talk of the day than you can be prepared for.'
+
+'I am afraid so, sir,' said Felix; 'but he does not put it forth much
+at home.'
+
+'So I hoped. It would have startled your father a good deal; but I
+believe myself acting in the spirit of his wishes in letting him talk
+out his crudities.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' said Felix, not quite knowing how to take this.
+
+'It is a phase to be passed through,' said Mr. Ryder. 'Indeed, a good
+deal of it is fashion and vanity.'
+
+'Mr. Audley thinks so,' replied Felix. 'He said he thought poor Edgar
+did not think enough to have real doubt, but that he considered other
+people's a dispensation from attending to the subject at all.'
+
+'Exactly,' said Mr. Ryder, 'except so far as repeating what he has
+caught up seems to him knowing, and according to the spirit of the
+time, fit to dazzle us down here. Whatever may deepen him will probably
+change all that--I do not say into what you or your father would wish;
+but what is jargon now will pass away into something more real, for
+better or--'
+
+'For worse?' asked Felix anxiously, as he paused.
+
+'I do not say so,' returned Mr. Ryder. 'Perhaps what I chiefly wished
+at this moment was to clear myself in your eyes of treachery to your
+father.'
+
+'No, sir, that I never could suspect.'
+
+But the conversation might well leave heaviness behind it. Was it come
+to Edgar's views being such as to startle Mr. Ryder! who, for that
+matter, had of late shown much less laxity of opinion than in his
+younger and more argumentative days; and there was little comfort in
+supposing that these were not real honest doubts at all, only apologies
+for general carelessness and irreligion.
+
+Yet with even this trouble in the recess of the heart, this was the
+merriest winter the Underwood household had known since their father's
+time.
+
+Edgar chose to frame the play upon the Italian form of the story, where
+the impostor is a starveling poet, nicknamed Signor Topo, or Master
+Ratton, because his poverty had brought him to live in a hay-loft. This
+character he assumed, and no doubt it fitted him better than either the
+English cobbler or the German doctor; besides, as he said, sham court
+costume is always the easiest to contrive: but Cherry was by no means
+prepared to find the Rat-like poet the secret admirer of a daughter of
+the Serene Highness who owned the jewel.
+
+'Such a monstrous interpolation,' quoth Geraldine.
+
+'Interpolations are the beauty of the thing. It would be as flat as a
+pancake without.'
+
+'And Wilmet won't like it.'
+
+'Wilmet must be brought to the level of ordinary human nature.'
+
+'I don't feel as if this were using her well. You know she expressly
+consented to this "because there was no nonsense in it."'
+
+'_I.e._ if it had been Cinderella, it would have been improper; if the
+Sleeping Beauty, highly scandalous. Eh, Cherie?'
+
+'You know I think Mettie _does_ carry her scruples pretty far,' said
+Geraldine, trying not to laugh, 'but I won't be a party to cheating
+her; and if this young princess is to come in, she must be told of it.'
+
+'Or she will take out her Gorgon's head in the midst, and petrify
+her subjects! Maybe it will be safest to prepare her. You see, such
+discipline reigns here, that a poor Bohemian like me doesn't know where
+to be.'
+
+Accordingly, Edgar said in his airy way, 'O Mettie, by-the-by, we have
+put in a part for little Miss Knevett.'
+
+'Indeed! I thought it was to be all among ourselves. Have you spoken to
+her?'
+
+'Of course; and she is in the ecstatic state of preparation of spangles
+and coronets.'
+
+'I wish you had spoken before. It would be hard to disappoint her now.
+What is she to be?'
+
+'Nothing less than heroine. There must be some sort of conventional
+catastrophe, or the whole concern falls flat.'
+
+'I don't see why it should not fall flat,' said Wilmet, with a sober
+air that drove Cherry into an uncontrollable convulsion of laughter;
+'it would amuse the children just as well.'
+
+'The children of six, maybe,' said Edgar gravely, 'but hardly the
+children of sixteen. Have you no mercy on them, my venerable sister?'
+
+Wilmet had arrived at such a pass of resignation as to perceive that
+'a fuss' on her part might be more mischievous than any 'nonsense' in
+which Edgar was likely to indulge in public, especially with Geraldine
+as his coadjutor. She tried to obtain some reassurance that there was
+'nothing more silly than needful in this play of yours.'
+
+'No, indeed. There is just a little mock courtship; but as that is the
+case with nine-tenths of the stories in the world, I don't think you
+gain much by turning it out.'
+
+'I did hope for once in a way we ourselves might be quit of it.'
+
+'It is hard on you,' said Cherry, smiling; 'but it would make a great
+uproar to disturb all now.'
+
+'At any rate, I have found the old receipt for tea-cakes,' responded
+Wilmet, whose mind was almost as much preoccupied with the
+entertainment of the body as her sister's with that of the mind.
+
+She had relented so far as to invite two little girls and their widowed
+mother, from whom there was no danger of reciprocities; Lance had
+prevailed to have Will Harewood as one of the robbers; and the Miss
+Pearsons were coming to behold their niece; besides which, Stella
+having imparted the great secret to Mr. Froggatt, Felix found the
+good old gentleman and his wife burning to have an invitation. Thus
+the party would be the largest Wilmet had ever contemplated; and the
+mysteries of tea and supper were so congenial to her housewifely soul,
+that she did not distress herself about the frequent rehearsals in Miss
+Pearson's empty school-room, the transformations of garments under the
+needles of Cherry and Robina, nor even the wildness and ecstacy of
+all the children from Lance downwards, all bursting with secrets, and
+letting them out at every corner of their grinning mouths.
+
+It must soon be over, and Felix seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly;
+and Wilmet could tolerate a great deal when either Felix or Alda
+enjoyed. He was much too busy with Christmas accounts to undertake any
+part that needed learning; but he was pressed into the service as a
+courtier, only with a dispensation from either speaking or rehearsing;
+while Wilmet utterly scouted any idea of taking any share in the drama,
+having enough to do in her own character.
+
+And in that character she was left alone to entertain the guests, for
+even Cherry was in request as prompter and assistant dresser--nay,
+with the assistance of Theodore's accordion, formed the whole band of
+musicians at the ball which opened the performance, and which required
+the entire _corps dramatique_. Robina, as the Elderly Princess,
+demonstratively dropped her bracelet, with a ruby about as big as a
+pigeon's egg (being the stopper of a scent-bottle), and after the
+dancers had taken some trouble not to step on it, they retired, and it
+was stolen by the gang of robbers, cloaked up to their corked eyebrows
+and moustaches.
+
+Then appeared in his loft--supplied with straw culled from packages at
+the printing-house--the poet, well got up in his knickerbockers and
+velvet smoking-cap, scarf and guitar, soliloquising in burlesque rhyme
+on his fallen state and hopeless admiration, and looking very handsome
+and disconsolate, until startled by the cry behind the scenes--
+
+     'O yes! O yes! O yes!
+      By command of her Highness!
+      Lost, stolen, or strayed,
+      Gone to the dogs or mislaid,
+      Her Highness's splendid ruby.
+      Whoso finds it--wit or booby,
+      Tinker, tailor, soldier, lord--
+      Let him ask what he will, he shall have his reward.'
+
+Thereupon the poet, communicating his designs in a stage soliloquy,
+disguised himself in a tow wig and beard, and a railway rug turned up
+with yellow calico; and the scene shifting to the palace, he introduced
+himself to the Elderly Princess as the greatest of spiritualists--so
+great, that--
+
+     'Detective police are an ignorant fable;
+      No detective can equal a walnut-wood table.'
+
+But he required as a medium a maiden fair and lovely, but with a
+heart as yet untouched, otherwise the spirits might be offended. The
+only lady who was available was, of course, the youthful princess
+Fiordespina, whose alarm and reluctance had been contrived so as to be
+highly flattering to the disguised poet.
+
+The dinner scenes, at which the robbers presented themselves in turn,
+and imagined that they heard themselves counted, went off in due order;
+also the test, when the courtiers tried to pose the spiritualist with
+making him divine what they brought him in a covered dish, and were
+disconcerted by his sighing out,
+
+     'Alas! alas! see envy batten
+      On the unhappy Master Ratton!'
+
+while the rat leaped out from beneath the lid!
+
+Then came the avowal by the robber: but the conclusion was so far
+varied, that the jewel having been judiciously hidden, the poet made
+use of his voice and his guitar to throw the Lady Fiordespina into a
+mesmeric sleep before the court, and then to cause a table to rap out
+the letters, which she interpreted so as to lead to the spot.
+
+It was the prettiest scene of all, his music and song were so graceful;
+and in spite of some suppressed giggling, the attitude and countenance
+of Fiordespina were so very pretty in her trance. Nothing more was left
+save the restoration of the ruby, the claiming of the reward, and the
+final tableau, in which Ratton and Fiordespina, in their native good
+mien, had their hands joined by the benignant Elderly Princess; while,
+to the equal amusement and confusion of all, good old Mrs. Froggatt
+fairly burst out crying with excitement and admiration!
+
+Mrs. Vincent, the young widow, was likewise enchanted, and so was Miss
+Maria Pearson; but Wilmet could not quite fathom the tone of the elder
+and graver sister, or decide whether it were her own dissatisfaction
+that made her think Miss Pearson had not expected to see such a _role_
+bestowed upon her niece.
+
+The doors between the drawing-room and the theatre were opened again;
+the boys handed round negus and lemonade; and Felix, standing over
+Cherry, said, 'Lance's circus speculation would not be a bad one.
+There's plenty of dramatic talent in the family.'
+
+'Did you like it, Felix?'
+
+'I could tell exactly which parts were yours and which Edgar's,' was
+the ambiguous answer, as he turned to secure the Princess Fiordespina
+for the dance that was to crown the performance.
+
+'O Mr. Underwood! Oh yes, thank you! but--'
+
+'Is it part of the programme that wizard and medium should dance
+together?'
+
+'Oh no! Only it seems so funny to think of your dancing.'
+
+'What, you thought a stationer must be stationary?'
+
+'O Mr. Underwood, what a shocking pun!' and she was led off sparkling
+with pretty laughter; while the Conjuror, muttering,
+
+     'The gouty oak began to move
+        And flounder into hornpipes,'
+
+turned graciously on little Susie Vincent, and scared as much as he
+elevated her, by claiming her as his partner.
+
+Will Harewood, dashing across the room, and looking earnestly with his
+bold and now flushed face up to Wilmet, blurted out, 'Miss Underwood,
+now please, let me dance with you.'
+
+'Thank you,' she said graciously; 'but I believe I must play for them.'
+
+'I'll do that,' said Clement, over her head.
+
+'The Dead March in Saul?' murmured Edgar.
+
+'Nonsense!' broke out Mrs. Vincent, starting up; 'what am I good for
+but to play?'
+
+So Clement, who thought he had found an escape, was reduced to the
+necessity of asking the other little Vincent; and Wilmet's smile of
+consent so elated Bill Harewood, that he could not help flying across
+to that very happy and well-matched pair, the Elderly Princess and
+First Robber, to tell them, 'I've got her.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'Why, your sister.'
+
+'You've never been and made up to Wilmet!' said Lance, as if this
+instance of valour crowned his merits.
+
+'Yes, I have; and she will. You see there ain't another gentleman out
+of the family except the old Froggy, and the little one has got him.
+Well, I always wished beyond anything to dance with Miss Underwood!'
+
+'Did you?' said Robina. 'I never should have thought of that.'
+
+'Most likely not,' said Bill; 'but she is the most beautiful woman I
+ever did or shall see in all my life;' and he flew back to her side.
+
+'Is she?' said Robina, altogether amazed.
+
+'Well, perhaps,' said Lance; 'you know one might go a long way without
+finding any one so handsome.'
+
+'Then I wish people wouldn't say so. It seems making our Wilmet common,
+like any other girl, to care for her being pretty.'
+
+'So Froggy's dancing with Stella,' observed Lance. 'I declare I'll try
+if Mrs. Frog won't stand up with me. Some one ought. You'll not mind
+waiting, Bobbie. It is not often one has the chance to dance with a cap
+like that.'
+
+Bobbie resigned herself amicably; and Lance, with his bright arch face,
+made his bow and half polite, half saucy addresses to Mrs. Froggatt in
+her magnificent head-gear, making her laugh herself almost to tears
+again as she declined. He held the Miss Pearsons in greater awe, and
+ventured on neither; so that Robina had him for Sir Roger de Coverley,
+where the sole contretemps arose from Angel and Bear being in such
+boisterous spirits that Wilmet decreed that they must not be partners
+again. Of the rest, some had a good deal of dancing-master experience;
+Mrs. Harewood's impromptu merry-makings had afforded plenty of practice
+to the two choristers; even Clement had had a certain school-feast
+training; and Felix, with a good ear, ready eye, and natural ease
+of movement, acquitted himself to Miss Knevett's eagerly expressed
+admiration.
+
+'Take care, Master Ratton will be jealous,' said Edgar, as he claimed
+her for the next dance, a quadrille.
+
+'Jealous! oh no! Some people one never thinks of complimenting.'
+
+Cherry caught the words, and wondered what they meant.
+
+A few more dances, and then came Wilmet's anxiously contrived supper.
+
+'I say,' observed Will Harewood to Lance, 'why can't we have things
+like this at home?'
+
+''Tisn't their nature to,' judiciously responded Lance.
+
+'This cream is quite up to the grub we get after a crack let-off in
+the Close,' added Will; for requisitions for their voices at private
+concerts had made the choir connoisseurs in the relics of feasts.
+
+'Better, I should say,' returned Lance. 'Mettie doesn't make it of
+soap, or arsenic, or verdigris, like old Twopenny.'
+
+'What! you don't mean that she made it herself?'
+
+'Of course! who else should?'
+
+'My eyes! And to see her looking like that!' Then, with a deep sigh,
+'If I could only book her for my wife on the spot!'
+
+Whence it may be inferred, that Stella's birth-day party was not only a
+brilliant success, but might, in Wilmet's phrase, 'lead to something.'
+All it seemed to have led to at present was a discovery on the part of
+the good Miss Pearsons, that the household they had been wont to pity
+as small orphan children, now contained three fine young men.
+
+At least Geraldine connected this with the desire they expressed that
+Alice might enjoy the same opportunities as Robina of giving her
+acquirements a final polish, up to diploma pitch. A correspondence
+commenced, resulting in Miss Knevett being engaged as teacher,
+being remunerated by lessons in languages and accomplishments. The
+arrangement gave universal satisfaction; Cherry could not detect any
+regret on the part of Felix; Alice would still spend her holidays
+with her aunts; and the sense that her departure was near made the
+intercourse between the two houses more frequent and familiar than it
+had ever yet been.
+
+One evening Cherry, while looking up a quotation for Felix in
+Southey's '_Doctor_,' lit on his quaint theory of the human soul
+having previously migrated through successive stages of vegetable and
+animal life, and still retaining something characteristic from each
+transmigration. Her brothers were a good deal tickled with the idea;
+and Lance exclaimed, 'I know who must have been rhubarb, queen-wasp,
+and a hen-harrier.'
+
+'Oh, that's too bad!' cried Robina.
+
+'Why a hen-harrier?' asked Felix, recognising, like almost all the
+others.
+
+'One of the birds of prey where the female is bigger than her mate,'
+drily observed Edgar.
+
+'Besides,' said Cherry, 'recollect the hen-harrier's countenance in
+pictures, with beady eyes, and a puffed supercilious smile about the
+beak.'
+
+'Why, that's Lady Price!' chimed in Alice, making the discovery at last.
+
+Lengthily and gravely Edgar uttered the words, 'Puzzle-monkey, praying
+mantis, sacred stork, howler.'
+
+Lance and Robin roared with merriment, and after one glance at
+Clement's half virtuous, half offended countenance, Felix and Cherry
+fell into like convulsions; while Alice exclaimed, 'But who is it?'
+and Angel shouted the sufficiently evident answer, 'Clement, oh! the
+howler, the black preaching monkey in a natural surplice!'
+
+'I can't think how you do it!' exclaimed Alice.
+
+'I object to the mantis,' Cherry struggled to say. 'Nasty hypocritical
+creature that eats things up.'
+
+'Praying for its living, eh, Cherry?' said wicked Edgar. 'If you had
+ever seen the long thin animal, with head back, hands joined, and pious
+attitude, you couldn't doubt.'
+
+And as he spoke he sketched his mischievous likeness, at which
+the mirth grew more furious; while Cherry, always the most easily
+excited, uttered in a strangled voice, 'A parsnip, a barn-door hen, a
+dilapidated Guernsey cow, an old mother whale.'
+
+'O Cherry, Cherry, you've immortalized yourself!' shouted Lance. 'How
+did you hit off the parsnip? the very thing that had stumped me.'
+
+'The colour, and the odd sort of sweetness,' said Cherry.
+
+'Won't we have fun with it when I go back!' cried Lance.--'Not tell?
+Nonsense! Why, no one will enjoy it like Mother Harewood herself.'
+
+'Only don't say I made it. There, Edgar has got one.'
+
+'Touch-me-not balsam, blister-fly, bantam-cock (full strut), black
+terrier.'
+
+He did not caricature this time except with the muscles of his face,
+and with these he contrived to put on four different aspects, each
+so exactly like Mr. Mowbray Smith that not even Alice required the
+proclamation of the name; and Wilmet gravely said, 'I do not think this
+is a proper sort of game. It must be ill-natured or irreverent.'
+
+'That depends,' said Geraldine, now thoroughly in the swing.--'Here!
+Hawthornden apple-tree, stickleback, goldfinch, beaver.'
+
+     'The hardy Norseman's house of yore
+        Was on the foaming wave,'
+
+sang out Lance, recalling Theodore's substitute for Felix's name.
+
+'Exactly like--figures, tastes, and all,' said Edgar, scanning Felix's
+clear, bright, fresh face, glossy hair, and rather short figure, at
+once trim and sturdy. 'The goldfinch hit him off exactly, but I don't
+see the force of the apple-tree.'
+
+'You would,' said Cherry, 'if you were properly acquainted with our
+three trees and their individualities. The Hawthornden is a resolute
+looking fellow, but it indulges in the loveliest pink and white
+blossoms, and waxen, delicate, peachy fruit.'
+
+'Uncommonly sour! Thank you, Cherry,' said Felix.
+
+'Not in a pie,' suggested Alice.
+
+'Properly treated and sweetened, eh?' asked he, smiling on her.
+
+'But why is Felix like a stickleback?' said Angela.
+
+'Don't you know?' said Cherry; 'a beautiful bright little fish, and the
+good male one swims up and down taking care of the nest.'
+
+'I do like the beaver,' allowed Wilmet. 'It always was my favourite
+beast.'
+
+'It hits off the respectable householder element,' added Edgar. 'Three
+flaps of his broad tail rule beaverdom like Jupiter's nod.'
+
+'I have one,' interposed Robina.--'Bella-donna lily, working bee,
+menura--'
+
+'Hold hard!' called Lance; 'is a menura fish, flesh, or fowl?'
+
+'Fowl: the lyre-tailed pheasant, that makes a shelter for its nest with
+its own tail.'
+
+'Decided liar tale,' muttered Edgar.
+
+'Go on, Bobbie,' Felix encouraged her. 'The pheasant suits both the
+twins as well as the bella-donna. Any more?'
+
+'Perhaps the leading stag of the herd.'
+
+'Don't make us like that proud, cowardly, tyrannical beast,' exclaimed
+Wilmet.
+
+'I have seen you look exactly like one,' said Geraldine. 'That and the
+pheasant both give the notion of your neck.'
+
+'Such a set of trumpery gaudy things!' grumbled Wilmet. 'Nothing but
+the bee is tolerable.'
+
+'I did think of a speckled Hamburg hen, and a nice quiet she-goat,'
+said Robina; 'but they are all dowdy, and would not suit Alda.'
+
+'There's something in the theory,' said Edgar. 'That bella-donna
+approves itself perfectly--so delicate and stately, and yet so
+essentially unpoetical.'
+
+'That Mettie takes as a compliment,' said Felix, 'only she would rather
+have been a potato, or a cabbage.'
+
+'Now,' said Cherry, 'you will all know--bell-heather, the grasshopper,
+the lark, and the squirrel.'
+
+'Is this the lark's crest, or the squirrel's tail?' said Felix, giving
+an elder brother's pull to the boy's highest wave of hair.
+
+'Or the grasshopper's leap?' cried Lance, springing on him for a bout
+of buffeting and skirmishing; in the midst of which Alice was heard
+wondering how the riddles, as she thought them, were either made or
+guessed.
+
+'They come,' said Geraldine. 'I am only afraid we shall fall into a
+trick of making them for everybody.'
+
+'I wonder what you would make for me.'
+
+Geraldine had it on her tongue's end that Alice would be difficult, for
+want of anything distinctive; but Felix and Edgar were both jotting
+something down, and Robina was beforehand with either--'Scarlet
+pimpernel, tortoiseshell butterfly, budgerigar, marmoset.'
+
+No one answered, for Felix had pushed a slip of paper over to Alice,
+on which she read--'"Forget-me-not, ladybird, linnet, kitten." I don't
+think I ever saw a linnet. Isn't it a little brown bird?'
+
+'With a rich glow of red, and a beautiful song,' said Felix, smiling;
+and the red glowed redder on her cheek, as she said, laughing, 'Kitten
+for mischief, eh? For shame, Mr. Underwood!--What, another! Dear me, I
+shall not know myself!'
+
+This had been slipped into her hand; and Cherry suspected that her
+exclamation had been a mistake of which she was conscious, as the
+colour deepened on her already blushing cheeks, and her eyes were
+cast down, while a demure smile played on her lips. The incautious
+exclamation had betrayed her, and the young ones clamoured to hear
+Edgar's view of her transmigration; but there was a little coy struggle
+of 'Oh no, she wouldn't, and she couldn't.'
+
+     'She smiled and blushed, and oft did say
+          Her pretty oath by yea or nay.'
+
+And in the midst came the message that the maid was arrived to take
+her home; and this being a cross stiff personage, who might never be
+kept waiting, she had to hurry away; and had no sooner gone than Angela
+burst out with, 'Here it is! I've got it! Listen to it: "Say, Lady--"'
+
+'Stay, Angela,' interrupted Felix. 'You have no business with that.'
+
+'Not Edgar's fun!' she exclaimed. 'Why, where is he?'
+
+'Surely he is not going home with her!' said Wilmet in some dismay.
+
+'Oh, but it is such fun,' went on Angela, 'only I can't make it out.
+You read it, Lance.'
+
+'Did she give it you?' said Felix.
+
+'No, I whipped it up when she dropped it. There's something about
+Ratton in it.'
+
+Felix quietly took the paper out of her hand, folded it, and put it
+into an envelope. 'You take it back to her the first thing to-morrow,'
+he said. 'Now go to bed.'
+
+Angela durst not oppose that tone, so unusually serious and
+authoritative; but she contrived to prolong her good-nights, and the
+putting away of her goods, with a kind of half droll, half sullen
+resignation; and just as Wilmet was hurrying her off, Edgar returned.
+He always spoilt Angela a little, and she sprang to him with a kind of
+droll pout. 'You'll not be cross, Edgar. You'll let us hear Alice's
+transmigrations. Look! here's Felix bottled them up in an envelope, and
+won't let us peep at them! But you'll let me hear. You won't order me
+off to bed.'
+
+Cherry fancied she saw a disconcerted look on his face when he saw the
+envelope held up to him; but if so, it instantly gave place to the
+mischievous entertainment of defeating a lesson on discretion.--'The
+heads of the family must assert themselves sometimes, my dear, even
+about nothing,' he said consolingly.
+
+'Indeed,' said Wilmet, bristling in defence of Felix, 'of course we
+knew it was nothing. It was only very ill-mannered and wrong of Angela
+to go prying into what was not meant to be shown.'
+
+'I'm sure,' said Edgar most ungratefully, 'it might be posted on the
+church door for what I care, except for its intrinsic vileness.'
+
+'Oh, let's have it! let's have it!' burst out Lance and Robina, who had
+been burning with curiosity all the time.
+
+'Don't let us have them murdered, whatever they are,' said Edgar,
+taking them into his own hand. 'Pity the sorrows of a poor wretch
+seduced into one of your horrid _jeux d'esprit_--a lady's excuse for
+fishing for compliments that sound more than they mean. Here goes,
+then:--
+
+     'Say, Lady, what existence past
+        Thine essence hath enfolded;
+      What humble antecedent cast
+        Thy present self hath moulded.
+
+      'The hawthorn bush, with blossom white
+        Veiling her branches pricking;
+      The painted lady, fluttering light,
+        The rash pursuer tricking.
+
+      'Grass paraquit, who loves to sit
+        In clustering rows and chat on;
+      Caressing, purring, traitor kit,
+        Fatal to Master Ratton.
+
+'There, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are satisfied,' he concluded,
+letting his performance float into the fire; 'the metaphors, to say the
+least, are startling, but that is the fault of the game.'
+
+'I don't enter into it all,' said Cherry.
+
+'Not likely another of the grass paraquits would, my dear,' said Edgar.
+
+'And it is exactly what Robin made her,' said Angela; 'both that and
+the butterfly; and Felix, the kitten. You didn't borrow of course. How
+funny!'
+
+'But I didn't make her inconstant,' said Robin; 'that is not fair.'
+
+'Not when you made her a butterfly, and the shepherd's weather-glass
+too!'
+
+'I never thought of that, only their being both bright, dark, sparkling
+things; and Felix has the forget-me-not, by way of antidote.'
+
+'I do not think such things are wise,' pronounced Wilmet. 'And,
+by-the-by, Edgar, it has always been the custom that nobody should walk
+home with Alice. Miss Pearson would not like it, and it would make a
+talk.'
+
+Edgar laughed. 'Dear W. W., let it not trouble you! What it may lead
+to is a bugbear to you. You can't think how much younger and more
+agreeable you will be when you have learnt that there can be passages
+that lead to nothing.'
+
+Geraldine went to bed uncomfortable and perplexed. Before she was
+dressed in the morning, Alice darted in. 'Cherry, I'm so vexed; I
+dropped that paper. Do you think it is here?'
+
+'No; Angel picked it up, and Edgar read us the verses, and then threw
+them into the fire.'
+
+'Burnt them!'
+
+'Yes; he said the worst of such games was that they force one to pay
+compliments that may be taken to mean more than they do.'
+
+Cherry spoke under a stern sense of virtue doing a service to Alice;
+and when the quick answer came, 'He didn't say that, I'm sure it was
+Wilmet,' she asseverated, 'Indeed he did. I don't confuse in that way.
+It is a very good warning not to dwell on what gentlemen may say in
+mere play.'
+
+'Who told you I did?' said Alice sharply. 'You've no business to say
+such things!'
+
+Happily there was an interruption. Cherry felt as if she had had a
+taste of the claws; but she feared she had been malicious, and she was
+penitent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+WHAT IT LED TO.
+
+     'Then out and spak the popinjay.'
+                                      _Old Ballad._
+
+
+Geraldine was hard at work on a drawing. Edgar's teaching had improved
+her so much that, under a sore longing to obtain some good studies, she
+had ventured to place in the shop one of her best imaginary groups, and
+to her surprise and delight, it had brought her in fifteen shillings,
+and an order for a companion.
+
+Vistas of hope began to rise before her, only obscured by her
+consciousness of the want of knowledge and skill. It took some
+resolution not to attend exclusively to her art, and she was forced to
+make it a rule never to touch a pencil till the lessons of Bernard and
+Stella were both over for the day.
+
+They were finished, the children in the garden, and Cherry was in that
+world of joy and something like inspiration known to spirits imbued
+with any of the constructive poetry of art, always endeavouring to
+fulfil an ideal, never indeed satisfying themselves, but never so at
+rest as in the effort.
+
+Presently she was startled by a step on the stairs. Nothing short
+of the Fall of Delhi had ever been known to bring Felix upstairs in
+business hours; and he was especially bound to his work at present,
+since Mr. Froggatt was detained at home by a serious attack of
+rheumatism. She looked up amazed at the eager question, 'Is there a
+letter from Alda?'
+
+'I believe there is, waiting for Wilmet. What is the matter?'
+
+'The most astonishing thing. Here is Ferdinand Travis writing to tell
+me of his engagement to Alda.'
+
+'To Alda?'
+
+'To Alda! I looked twice to be sure that there was no confusion between
+the names, but it is my sister Alda beyond a doubt. He would not ask
+my consent if it were Marilda. Here's the letter, as good and nice as
+possible, dear good fellow.'
+
+'Then what Edgar told us must have been pure imagination.'
+
+'Not the old folks' wishes, most likely. For the rest, Edgar can make a
+good story. One can't wonder at the preference, and there's no denying
+that it is a brilliant chance for Alda.'
+
+'And what a blessing that he should be so good!'
+
+'Infinite! No one could be so welcome! How pleased Mr. Audley will be!
+But I must go, and try not to look too much disposed to stand on the
+counter and crow.'
+
+Whatever Felix did below, upstairs Cherry found drawing impossible.
+Ferdinand a brother! The pleasure was enhanced by the affectionate
+simplicity of his letter, the outcome of so good a heart, greatly in
+love, but very conscientious, and utterly unpresuming on his wealth,
+but showing all his old affection and reverence for Felix. What a
+delightful wonder that Alda should bring in a connection so faithful to
+Felix!
+
+Yet, what would not Cherry have given to be as unsuspicious as Felix
+or Wilmet? Why would misgivings come into her head such as never
+troubled theirs? Why must she be haunted by Alda's intimations about
+her travelling companions, and her manner, half scornful, half nettled,
+when Edgar described the terms on which Mr. Travis stood?
+
+She read Ferdinand's letter a second time, and was convinced that he
+looked at the whole with such artless seriousness as to preclude all
+notion of his having been consciously playing fast and loose; but she
+was ready to torture herself for the involuntary doubt whether her own
+sister were equally to be trusted.
+
+However, when Wilmet came home, her genuine wholesome overflow of
+undoubting rapture could not but sweep Cherry along in the tide.
+Ferdinand combined the apparently impossible advantages of being
+thoroughly one of themselves, and yet of being able to give Alda
+the luxuries to which she had become accustomed; and Wilmet's joy
+was beyond expression. The contrast between the twins--one admired,
+praised, followed, esteemed, as one of the brightest ornaments of
+London society; the other toiling in an obscure poverty-stricken home,
+a teacher in a small third-class school, her beauty unheeded or viewed
+as a real disadvantage--all this never occurred for one moment to
+Wilmet, she only felt elevated in her sister.
+
+Two days passed before more letters were received, and these came
+by the first instead of the second post, before breakfast was
+over. Four--besides one unheeded, being only in Robina's childish
+handwriting--Alda to Wilmet, Thomas Underwood and Ferdinand both to
+Felix, Edgar to Geraldine. There was a simultaneous opening of the
+letters, then a general starting and looking into one another's eyes,
+and Geraldine faintly murmured,
+
+'Then it was really _so!_'
+
+'So? what do you mean?' broke forth Wilmet. 'These selfish people are
+treating my poor Alda most cruelly among them; and Felix must go and
+fetch her home to be married from her own brother's house as she ought
+to be.'
+
+'I shall have to fetch her home,' said Felix thoughtfully; 'but I wish
+I were quite clear that she has been dealing kindly by Marilda.'
+
+'You are not believing that man Thomas rather than your own sister!'
+cried Wilmet. 'If Alda does happen to be prettier than his daughter,
+she can't help it. I'm sure I should be glad enough not to be pretty,
+but it is a trial, and one must do the best one can.'
+
+'That is just what I fear Alda has been doing,' said Felix between his
+teeth, as he frowned over his letter.
+
+'Read her letter, poor dear girl,' cried Wilmet, 'and see if you
+aren't ashamed of such a judgment! No. Some is only meant for me; but
+listen--"Your letter of sisterly joy has come on troubled waters. I
+always knew I was the poor relation upon sufferance, but I have been
+taught to feel it now." She does not know how she could bear it, but
+for the security of Ferdinand's strength; and they will not let her
+see him--say she must give him up or them--Mrs. Underwood's violence
+inconceivable, and all because of a chimerical fancy.'
+
+'What does Ferdinand himself say?' asked Cherry, as Wilmet looked on
+for further selections.
+
+'He says,' said Felix, reading, 'that our greeting was especially
+welcome, from the contrast to what he met with from Mr. Underwood.
+The angry opposition took him by surprise, having always thought they
+regarded Alda as a daughter; but of course nothing makes any difference
+to him, and he would much rather come to us for her than to a stranger.
+His uncle is at New Orleans, and he is writing to him; he is afraid
+they ought to wait for the answer, though there can be no doubt about
+it, and he owes him no obedience.--Now, Cherry, there is just time for
+Edgar's account before we go our several ways.'
+
+'O Felix,' cried Wilmet, 'aren't you going to fetch her home, poor
+dear?'
+
+'Not possible to-day, Mettie. I shall have much ado to get away
+to-morrow. Don't be so unhappy, you know she _could_ come alone or with
+Edgar, if it were so very dreadful; or if you are so fierce, you had
+better go yourself and encounter "Man Thomas."'
+
+Wilmet looked so much hurt, that Geraldine thought to defend Felix by
+reading aloud at once.
+
+        'Ma Cherie
+
+        'Such a bear-garden never was seen! Madame furious, Tom
+        abusive, Alda injured innocence, Montezuma heroism, and poor
+        Polly magnanimous--though the less said about her, the soonest
+        mended. I saw when I went back that the crisis could not be
+        far off. The fact is, that our dear sister cannot see any one
+        else treated as "an object," and has so persuaded herself that
+        she is the proverbial maltreated poor relation, as to think
+        everything fair.'
+
+'Geraldine!' exclaimed Wilmet, 'how can you read? Felix, how can you
+listen to such things about your own sister?'
+
+'It is only what she said herself,' said Felix drily. 'Go on, Cherry.'
+
+        'It must be owned that it was hard, when for once Polly had
+        fallen in with something alike palatable to self and parents,
+        and able to swallow her broad visage! If Madame had had any
+        wit, she would have kept Alda away till the fish was hooked,
+        when, it is my belief, he would have had no eyes for aught
+        beyond; but the good creature is too sure of the charms of
+        her own goose, to dread the admission of any swan whatsoever
+        to her pond. While the Cacique being yet uncommitted, small
+        blame to him if he saw the differ, especially as he attaches
+        to Alda all the sanctity of Bexley, which is to him at the
+        least what St. Matthew's is to Clem. To have been reared on
+        the other--or indeed any side of the Atlantic, our intended
+        brother-in-law is curiously simple. He accepted the intimation
+        that Alda's face is her fortune with superb indifference;
+        whether it will be the same with his uncle, remains to be
+        seen; and I am afraid he is a good deal dependent on him, his
+        mother's Mexican property having been speculated away. I don't
+        like the look of the business; but if any one can do any good
+        it is Marilda herself. Tom is in a towering rage, and his wife
+        worse--neither perceiving that the noise they make is small
+        mercy to their daughter. She looks all manner of colours, but
+        stands out gallantly that she is glad, and that all is as it
+        should be; and I believe that, left to herself, she will set
+        things straight. Felix had better keep out of the fray except
+        upon compulsion.'
+
+'Here is compulsion,' said Felix. 'Tom Underwood summons me; I can't
+say I like the errand.'
+
+'You ought not to let yourself be led by Edgar's unkind joking way!'
+
+'We ought to be off now, at any rate,' said Felix, glad to close
+the discussion. 'I'll write to get Fernan to meet me at the station
+to-morrow.'
+
+Accordingly, when he arrived, there was Ferdinand Travis driving a
+magnificent horse, the whole turn-out very far from looking like a
+connection of Froggatt and Underwood. He had certainly developed into a
+splendidly handsome fellow, though still lithe and slight rather than
+robust, and his dignified bearing giving the idea of greater height
+than his inches testified to. His greeting was warmly affectionate,
+with all his old wishful reverence towards his young godfather, and
+even with a sort of doubt of his thinking him worthy of his sister.
+As to the disturbance created by the avowal of the object of his
+attentions, he seemed amazed at it, and entirely unconscious of any
+supposed change on his part.
+
+'I knew my uncle wished me to be an intimate with the family,' he said,
+'and I was rejoiced to fall in with any one who bore your name, and
+knew how to appreciate you; but I had reason to think that--that there
+were other views--for--' and here the olive cheeks grew crimson, and he
+stammered himself into a hopeless entanglement, whence Felix recalled
+him charitably to an account of the explosion as it had affected
+himself.
+
+It appeared that his proposal had not been mentioned to the family till
+Felix's answer had been received, Ferdinand feeling that no one ought
+to hear of it before the eldest brother. The lovers had met that night
+at a ball, and their consultation over the letters had taken place in
+the conservatory, where they had been surprised, and partly overheard,
+by Mrs. Underwood. When Ferdinand arrived the next morning, he was
+received with denunciations of underhand ways, and his explanation only
+made matters worse. A thunderstorm about ingratitude and treachery was
+launched forth, and he was told that the connection was so contrary to
+any intentions of his uncle, that Mr. Underwood could not hear of it,
+and that Alda must renounce it entirely, on peril of being cast off by
+the family. That Ferdinand regarded her brother as the true head of her
+house, was only additionally provoking; and Mr. Underwood had given him
+warning, which he only hinted at to Felix, that the engagement could
+not be carried on with impunity.
+
+Therewith they reached Kensington Palace Gardens, and being in a
+measure forbidden the house, Ferdinand drove about waiting for Felix,
+who on giving his name, found himself ushered into the room where the
+whole party were finishing breakfast.
+
+Alda, looking meek and pensive, but very lovely, exquisitely dressed
+in white and blue ribbons, flew into his arms as if her protector
+were come; Mr. Underwood, without getting up, acknowledged him by a
+grunt, and hand held out; Marilda came round, and put a cold hand into
+his, clasping it tight; and her mother greeted him with, 'So, Felix
+Underwood, you are come up about this unlucky business?'
+
+'There is no reason it should be anything but a very happy one,' said
+Marilda stoutly. 'Come, Mamma, we had better leave Papa and Felix;' and
+she set the example, but Mrs. Underwood did not stir.
+
+'You hear the dear girl!' she said. 'It ought to go to Alda's heart!'
+
+'It is of no use talking before the ladies,' said Mr. Underwood,
+getting up. 'That is, unless you have the good sense to join with me
+in telling Alda that she must give up this wild affair. The fellow has
+next to nothing of his own, and his uncle would see him at Jericho
+before he consented to a match like this!'
+
+'I am hardly prepared to do that, Sir,' said Felix, as Alda clung to
+his arm, and looked appealingly in his face, 'unless the objection were
+more personal.'
+
+'Objection!' burst forth the lady of the house, 'when he has been
+making his way underhand--deceiving us all along.'
+
+'Alda, my dear,' said Felix in her ear, 'don't you think you had better
+go upstairs?'
+
+But Alda seemed as little disposed as Mrs. Underwood to quit the scene
+of conflict. 'O Felix, I don't know what she means, nor what we have
+been doing, for them all to turn against me.'
+
+'Don't tell me, Miss Innocence,' retorted Mrs. Underwood, the
+artificial polish giving way, and the native scolding Polly Kedge
+breaking out in a storm of words. 'Wasn't the young man doing just as
+his uncle meant him, and my poor dear girl fancying him as I never
+saw her do any one before, till you came home with your sly, artful
+ways--you that owed us the very clothes on your back?'
+
+'Hush, Mary!' ejaculated her husband; but he might as well have tried
+to stop a torrent.
+
+'Ay, I know. She comes round every man of you with her smooth tongue
+and pretty face, till you--you are ready to take her part against your
+own child, Underwood. When my poor girl's laid in her coffin, then you
+will know what a serpent you've been fostering.'
+
+To Felix's surprise and annoyance, Alda must needs answer: 'I'm sure
+it's very hard! If people will look at me, I can't help it; and I've as
+much right to be spoken to as Marilda. She that has got everything, and
+poor me--'
+
+Luckily her tears stopped her voice.
+
+'Come along, Felix,' said the master of the house, opening the door;
+and he, perceiving that escape alone could put an end to this most
+humiliating scene, whispered again his recommendation to Alda to go to
+her room, and saw her hurrying up the stairs before his kinsman shut
+the door of his private room with a bounce, exclaiming, 'There! Now we
+are out of the way of the women's tongues, we can hear ourselves speak.
+I am afraid it is an awkward business, Felix Underwood.'
+
+'I am afraid it is, Sir.'
+
+'And the ladies make it worse by making such a din about it,' said Tom,
+who after all was an Underwood, and whose better breeding had come to
+the perception how these ravings compromised his daughter's dignity.
+'How far any one is to blame, I can't tell. The truth is, that it
+would have been very satisfactory to Alfred Travis and to me both if
+the lad and my girl could have made it up together, and they seemed
+ready enough to like each other. My girl has got rather a turn for your
+new-fashioned sort of saints, and he seemed just her style. Everything
+does go contrary at times; and when your sister came home, with her
+pretty face and way, my wife declares now she saw a change from the
+first, but to tell the truth I never did, and I doubt her doing so;
+but you may guess how amazed we were when she came on them whispering
+together, and it came out that he had been writing to you to sanction
+his proposing for Alda, as if he were ashamed to come to me, who had
+always been a father to her.'
+
+'He meant no slight to you, Sir,' said Felix, eagerly; 'but you know we
+were his first acquaintance, and he had a feeling that an elder brother
+came nearest. I am sure he felt no shame; he was conscious of no change
+of intention.'
+
+'Well, well, he is a little bit of an ass. Between ourselves, Felix,
+I don't blame him half as much as Alda. The girl is sharp enough; she
+has swarms of lovers; men come about her like wasps to a lump of sugar;
+and there's L5,000 ready for her the day she marries; but when there
+was one my poor Mary liked for once, we liked for her, and was in the
+way of liking her--Mary, who has shared everything with her like a
+sister--she might have let him alone. Indeed, her aunt gave her a hint,
+but it only served to make her carry it on on the sly.'
+
+Felix wished he had not known of Alda's hearing Edgar's report. He
+could only say sadly, 'If so, she is quite indefensible.'
+
+What would Wilmet have thought of his fight with 'Man Thomas?'
+
+'Of course,' proceeded that gentleman, 'we know the less we say of
+that part of the story the better. Some day, Mary will know she's well
+rid of a coxcombical foreign-looking fellow. She can afford to look
+farther; but for your sister, this is the maddest thing in the world.
+William Travis made a regular mull with his wife's fortune, and depend
+on it, the young man has next to nothing, and would come to beggary if
+he offended his uncle. There is nothing for it but for them to give one
+another up!'
+
+'I do not think there is much chance of their doing so,' replied Felix.
+
+'Not as they are now, in the height and fury of the thing; but you are
+a sensible lad, Felix; you will do your best to show them the utter
+folly of the thing.'
+
+'We do not know whether Ferdinand can afford it yet,' said Felix.
+
+'Don't delude yourself with fancying Alfred Travis will swallow
+this! Not he! Why, he's set on that young Spanish don making a great
+match--hardly thought my Mary's hundred thousand good enough.'
+
+'Very likely he will refuse consent,' returned Felix; 'but, in the
+meantime, I see nothing to be done but for Alda to go home with me and
+wait.'
+
+'To very little purpose,' ejaculated Mr. Underwood, 'except that maybe
+a taste of your way of life may bring her to her senses, and serve her
+right. I must say,' he added, 'it is hard that both this boy and girl
+should be thrown back on your hands for no fault of yours. I wish I
+could help it, but you see there wouldn't be a moment's peace if Alda
+stayed here without giving him up.'
+
+'It is not fit that she should,' said Felix.
+
+'I like the girl, too; indeed, she's almost like my own,' continued Mr.
+Underwood; 'the house will be dull without her, and I believe those
+pretty young women can't help flirting, and think one another's beaux
+fair game. Eh? Well, we'll send for her and put it to her--will she
+give up Travis and stay here, or hold him to it and go home with you?'
+
+Felix could make no objection, though he had no question what the
+decision would be; so the bell was rung, Alda was summoned, and soon
+appeared with burning cheeks and moist eyes.
+
+'Now, Alda,' said her adopted uncle, 'your brother and I have talked
+it over, and I am ready to overlook what has gone by--that is, if your
+aunt will--and to let all be as it was before, on this one condition,
+that you break off this foolish concern. Listen to me. You will find
+that he has little enough to call his own, and his uncle can cut off
+his allowance any day. It is mere insanity to think he will consent to
+such a match as you would be; and you would be doing the best thing for
+the young man and yourself to tell him it is all nonsense, and you've
+thought better of it.'
+
+'O Uncle, I couldn't do that!'
+
+'If not--you have the choice--I can't abet what Travis never intended,
+your aunt couldn't stand it either. There's nothing for it but that you
+should leave this house. Choose between us and him!'
+
+'That can't help being done, Uncle,' said Alda, with streaming eyes
+and a choked voice. 'You have been very good to me, but he must come
+first;' and she moved towards Felix, who put his arm round her kindly,
+and kissed her, saying,
+
+'Then, Alda, I will leave you to prepare; I must go and see the
+children and Edgar. I will come back for you in time for the half-past
+five train.'
+
+Alda's tears flowed too fast again for words, and she turned to leave
+the room.
+
+'I shall see you again,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Can I give you a lift
+anywhere, Felix?'
+
+'No, thank you, Sir; Travis is waiting for me.'
+
+'Ay, ay, very fine with his thorough-bred; but when his allowance is
+docked, how is he to live on his pay?'
+
+The brougham had long been waiting for Tom Underwood, and he left them
+together. Alda hung on her brother. 'O Felix, is it not dreadful?'
+
+'I thought him very kind and forgiving,' said Felix.
+
+'Is that what you call forgiving? And oh! if you could hear Aunt Mary!
+You little think what I have gone through!'
+
+'It will be over soon,' said Felix, kindly. 'You are going home, you
+know, and Wilmet is wild to have you.'
+
+'But, Felix, you don't think they mean to do more than frighten me?
+Ferdinand must have a real right to his own father's money; and
+besides, he can't properly object to me; Uncle Tom promised me my
+L5,000 whatever happened!'
+
+'I cannot stay to discuss that now, Alda,' said Felix. 'I have a great
+deal to do, and Fernan is waiting for me. I shall come back in time.'
+
+'Oh, I wish I could come with you now! Dear Fernan! Tell him I have
+borne it all for his sake, but it is such an age since I saw him!'
+
+'No doubt he will meet us at the station,' said Felix, escaping at
+last, and finding Ferdinand not many yards off in the road outside.
+
+'Well, Fernan, to Brompton, if you please. Mr. Underwood is really much
+kinder than I expected; but as things stand, you can't carry it on in
+their house, so Alda comes home with me to-night.'
+
+'Then the dear girl is really banished for my sake! I mean, no place is
+like Bexley to me. But it is very noble of her!' exclaimed Ferdinand,
+curiously divided between regard for Felix and sense of Alda's
+sacrifice.
+
+'It is the proper place in which for her to wait for your uncle's
+answer,' said Felix; 'but indeed, Fernan, it is a question whether we
+ought to let you risk all your prospects.'
+
+Ferdinand's vehement demand what Felix took him for, and equally eager
+protest that his uncle must know he had no right to withhold the means
+that were in all equity due to him, lasted through all the brief
+transit to the farther end of Brompton, where a great old house and
+grounds, once quite in the country, had been adapted and revivified by
+Miss Fulmort.
+
+'Might I not come in and see the little girls?' asked Ferdinand,
+wistfully.
+
+'I should _rather suppose_ not,' said Felix, smiling. 'Life-Guardsmen
+are not exactly the visitors expected in establishments for young
+ladies. You had better not wait for me; I cannot give the children less
+than an hour.'
+
+'I would wait if it were ten hours.'
+
+'But how about your horse? He isn't in love!'
+
+Ferdinand would not, however, be denied; and when at length a
+rendezvous was agreed on, Felix, free of the dashing equipage, of which
+he was, to tell the truth, slightly ashamed, rang at the gates, arrived
+at the house door, announced himself as Mr. Underwood, asked to see his
+sisters; and after a long labyrinth of matted passages, found himself
+in a pretty countrified room, where a wiry, elderly, sensible lady,
+with grey hair and a keen face, gave him a friendly reception, drew a
+favourable, but not enthusiastic, picture of Robina's steadiness and
+industry, and said that Angela was a more difficult character. By this
+time Robina came into the room with her hat on, eagerly, but with her
+face flushed and her eyes rather frightened, and as she received her
+brother's kiss, she said, 'The little ones are not come in yet.--May I
+take my brother into the garden, Miss Fennimore?'
+
+Permission was given, and Robina held his hand with an unusually tight
+grasp as she led him to the wide, square, walled garden, with a broad
+gravel-walk around an old-fashioned bowling-green. He thought the round
+face looked anxious and perplexed, and was rather uneasy as he began by
+saying, 'I hope not to lose Angel. Do you always walk so early in the
+day?'
+
+'On Herr Mueller's days, because he only comes in the afternoon,' said
+Robina; 'but I am rather glad; I wanted to speak to you, Felix.'
+
+'Is anything wrong?' said Felix, seeing that the child's face had
+become crimson, and hearing effort in her voice. 'You are happy here?
+Don't be afraid to tell me anything, my dear. Remember, there is no one
+so bound to watch over you.'
+
+'I know,' said Robina, looking up into those kind eyes. 'I want to tell
+you--' but she panted, and he encouraged her by putting his other hand
+over hers caressingly. 'Edgar comes every Sunday,' came out at last.
+
+'And what of that? Isn't it a pleasure?'
+
+'It--it would be--but he and Alice ought not to send each other notes
+and messages.'
+
+'What?' very low.
+
+'Indeed they do; and I can't tell what to do.'
+
+'What sort of notes and messages?' asked Felix, in a half reproving
+voice, as though he thought the solemnity of thirteen was taking alarm
+needlessly.
+
+'O Felix, love notes,' half whispered the girl, hanging her burning
+head.
+
+'Nonsense, child; you have misunderstood some joke.'
+
+'No,' said Robina, looking full in his face with sturdy offended
+dignity. 'They both were in earnest when they told me about it.'
+
+'About what?' said he, still severely, as he sat down on a bench,
+unheeding February damp.
+
+'About--' she was not far from tears, as she faltered out, 'their
+engagement.'
+
+'Theirs!' he wrung the hand that he still retained; 'Edgar and--'
+
+'And Alice Knevett,' said Robin. 'I would not promise not to tell. I
+hope it is not treachery!'
+
+'How long?' asked Felix, hoarsely.
+
+'Ever since the holidays. They used to walk together when Miss Pearson
+thought she was with us, but none of us ever knew it then.'
+
+'You are certain? Remember, this is a graver matter than perhaps you
+understand.'
+
+'I think I do understand, and it is that which makes me so unhappy;
+but, _indeed_, it can't be fancy. I have seen her ring, emerald and
+amethyst, for Edgar and Alice, and the locket with their hairs twisted
+together. The very first Sunday we were here, he gave me a note for
+her, and when I told him it was not allowed, he tried quizzing me at
+first, and at last told me I was a silly child who did not know what
+was proper between engaged people. So I said,' continued Robina, with
+dignity, 'that I could allow much to be proper in that case, but I
+wanted to know whether this was only kept from me because I was a baby,
+and was known to you and the grown-up people.'
+
+'Right, Robin,' muttered Felix, feeling that she needed encouragement.
+
+'Then he laughed at me more than ever about expecting things to be
+proclaimed on the market-cross, and tried to puzzle me out of my
+senses, till I could only stick to one thing, that I couldn't take
+his notes unless somebody knew. And after all I found the thing in my
+jacket pocket. He must have put it in when I was not looking.'
+
+'And what did you do with it?'
+
+'Oh! the dreadful thing! I felt as if it would bite me all the week
+long, but I didn't think it would be honourable to tear it or burn it,
+and I kept it. Luckily Alice didn't ask if I had a note, only whether
+he had said anything; and when she found I knew, she told me all about
+it, and said all sorts of things about my being unkind and mean to
+stand out, but I never promised to keep the secret.'
+
+'Are you still keeping this note?'
+
+'No. I gave it back to Edgar on Sunday, and told him to play no such
+tricks. I thought he would have been in a rage, but he was--oh! so
+provoking! just as if he didn't care for a little spite in a naughty
+child.'
+
+'Then is this intercourse checked?'
+
+'No, that's the worst of it. When I would not, they took to Angel.
+You know she got very fond of Edgar in the winter, and was always
+running after him and waiting on him. So she did what he told her quite
+innocently at first, till I found out what was going on, and tried
+to stop her; but she doesn't care for me as she does for Edgar, and
+thinks it grand to be in all their secrets, when I am too cross. And
+then there's a class that goes to the South Kensington Museum, and
+Alice is one of them, and Edgar is about there. I'm sure Miss Fulmort
+ought not to be deceived as they are doing; it's all nonsense about
+schoolmistresses being designed by nature to be hoodwinked. It makes me
+so miserable, I don't know what to do; and when I heard you were come,
+it was as if you had been sent on purpose to help me.'
+
+'Poor child!' said Felix, with a heavy sigh. 'You have kept this all to
+yourself.'
+
+'I could not tell any one. I could have told Miss Lyveson, because she
+is one's friend; but it would only be being a tell-tale and informer
+here. And one's own brother, too! And I could not write, for they look
+over all the letters that are not to fathers and mothers.'
+
+'They must make an exception for me!' said Felix, in an indignant tone.
+
+'I knew you would say so. O Felix, tell them so! I do feel like having
+Papa now I have you.'
+
+'If you only had!' sighed Felix. 'My poor Bob, it is a grievous
+business, but you have been very upright and considerate, as far as I
+can see.'
+
+'I'm so glad you don't want me to have told!' she said, with a sigh of
+relief, as unlike his as that of one who throws off a burden is to that
+of him who takes it up.
+
+'Not if it can be helped. It would be a mischievous and cruel exposure,
+and would be hard on one who has been led into it,' he said, with
+breaks and pauses, half for breath, half for considering. 'It is most
+reckless, most unjustifiable, in Edgar!' He knit his brows, so that she
+gazed at him in awe and wonder, as having something in his countenance
+that she did not comprehend. Then, after a silence, he said, 'Robin, I
+will speak to Edgar, and if you do not find that this is stopped after
+_one_ communication, which of course there must be, write to me. These
+ladies must make an exception in favour of such as we are!'
+
+'O Felix, it is so nice to hold you and feel you! Only I wish I had not
+had to grieve you so much!'
+
+'Dishonourable conduct is not what I was prepared for!' he said,
+setting his teeth.
+
+'And will you speak to Angel? I hear them coming in,' said Robina.
+
+'Yes. Let me have her alone at first. Come back in ten minutes' time.'
+
+He was still sitting on the bench, with his elbows on his knees, and
+his hands over his brow, when Angela came towards him. She was of the
+same long-limbed make as Clement, was nearly as tall as the square
+sturdy Robina nearly three years older, and had Clement's small, almost
+baby mould of features, relieved only by such arch deep blue eyes as
+shone in Edgar's face. She looked such a mere child, that when her
+step and exclamation caused Felix to raise his head, it seemed absurd
+to imagine her to be knowingly engaged as go-between in a clandestine
+correspondence; and with a sort of pity and compunction for the blame
+he had intended, he held out his arms to her.
+
+'O Felix, how cold you are! Your face is like marble. Now if I was to
+sit there, in this weather, wouldn't they be at me like wild cats?'
+
+Thus reminded, Felix rose, and certainly shivered after the exercise of
+his privilege. 'Are you happy here, Angel?' he asked in a constrained
+tone.
+
+'Yes, it is jollier than Miss Pearson's. There are more girls, and we
+do have such fun!'
+
+'I hope you are good and steady, and very careful of all the rules.'
+
+Angela fidgeted, as if she didn't like the style of the conversation.
+
+'You know,' he continued, 'there may be rules that you may not see the
+use of, but that must be obeyed for all that.'
+
+'What a tiresome dry old Blunderbore you are!' broke out Angela, with
+ill-assured sauciness; 'this isn't the way Edgar goes on when he comes
+to see us.'
+
+Felix could not check a sort of groan or grunt; and Angela, whose
+pertness was defensive, quailed a little. She had driven him out of the
+due sequence of his discourse, but he resumed it. 'Angel, I must tell
+you; if anybody asks you to break rules--by giving letters--you must
+not.'
+
+Angela kicked pebbles about.
+
+'Have you ever been asked to do so?'
+
+She hung her head, and a pout came over her face.
+
+'Angel,' he said, in a voice from the sadness of his heart, 'I will
+not ask any questions, in case you have made promises not to betray
+secrets; but you must never make such promises again. Tell me you will
+never do--this thing again.'
+
+She was silent.
+
+'Angela!' he said, reprovingly.
+
+'I don't know why I should promise you more than Edgar,' broke out
+Angela, petulantly. 'He is my brother too, and he isn't cross; and I
+love him, and _will_ keep his secret.'
+
+Between this flat defiance of his authority, and his scruple about
+interfering with the child's sense of honour, Felix was in no slight
+perplexity even as to this interview with his little sister. His
+disclaimer came first. 'I ask about no one's secret,' he said; 'but,
+Angel, I must have you understand this. If you break the rules that
+forbid the giving of notes from any person outside the school, it will
+be doing more harm than you can understand. I shall put a stop to it at
+once, and most likely you will be sent away in disgrace.'
+
+She was somewhat awed, but she did not speak.
+
+'Whatever any one may say to you,' said Felix, 'recollect that it is
+dishonesty and treachery to do anything underhand, and the greatest
+possible mischief to those you wish to be kind to. Don't you see, it is
+no kindness to help any one to do wrong?'
+
+She began to cry. 'They don't want to do wrong. It is very nasty and
+mean of Bobbie to have told.'
+
+'You will know some day how good and trustworthy it is in Bobbie,' said
+her elder brother. 'You cannot understand the rights and wrongs in such
+a manner as this, at your age, Angel.' (To tell the child this was a
+mistake, if he had but known it.) 'You must be satisfied with knowing
+that whatever breaks rules and must be kept secret is necessarily
+disobedient and deceitful, and may have terrible consequences. Do you
+believe me? Then give me your word to have no more to do with it.'
+
+She muttered something among her tears like 'I won't,' and Felix was
+satisfied, for the exaction of promises had necessarily been the
+chief mode of government with the two youthful pillars of the house,
+who spent so much time apart from their dominions; and it was almost
+unprecedented that such a promise was not observed.
+
+Robina was lingering near, and as they joined her Felix found that his
+time was up. He was taken back to the drawing-room, where he found
+himself in presence of the lady he had seen, and of a much younger
+smaller person, with a slight cast in her eye, and a peculiar jerking
+manner such as he could well believe would frighten away a young girl's
+confidence. When he made his request for free correspondence from his
+little sisters, there was no demur; only Miss Fulmort said, half vexed,
+'It ought to have been mentioned before; she did not know why the
+children had not told her.' And then she made a point of ascertaining
+Felix's individual address; for she said, 'A great deal of undesirable
+stuff may be scribbled to brothers and sisters.'
+
+Felix possessed no card, unless such might be reckoned the announcement
+of photographs and stationery, &c., which was wont to be put up
+with parcels for strangers; and when he tried to write 'Mr. F. C.
+Underwood,' the shivering chill so affected his fingers that he could
+hardly guide the pencil. He took leave, and soon found the assiduous
+Ferdinand, who presently asked, shyly, 'What the little ones thought of
+it?'
+
+Felix bethought himself. 'Really, Fernan, it was put out of my head;
+and, moreover, perhaps it had better not be known more widely than
+needful.'
+
+'You do not doubt--'
+
+All the ground that had been gone over before was argued out once again
+by the eager Mexican before they reached the National Gallery, the
+appointed place of meeting with Edgar. He was not within, but without,
+and, throwing away his cigar, hailed them as Fernan drew up his horse.
+
+'At last! The storm must have been pitiless, to judge by the effects!
+You are blue with cold, Felix.'
+
+'Ferdinand, thank you,' said Felix, getting out. 'I am sorry, but I
+must have Edgar alone a little while.'
+
+'Look here, Travis,' said Edgar, seeing his blank look, 'we'll give you
+the honour of giving us a spread. You go on and order it at ----'s, and
+I'll walk this fellow there. Curry soup that will astonish him, and
+warm the cockles of his heart, mind.'
+
+Ferdinand nodded, and drove off, perfectly satisfied with this
+compensation.
+
+'Let's see if we can walk a little life into you,' said Edgar, taking
+his brother's arm. 'Bless thy five wits, Tom's a cold! Was it Madame! I
+always thought she could not be many generations from Billingsgate.'
+
+'I have been to Brompton.'
+
+'That tragical hoarseness would lead me to conclude something. Eh!
+has that Robin been chirping out her fancies? And do you mean to
+say that you are struck all of a heap by the awful discovery of a
+boarding-school mystery?'
+
+'It is naturally distressing to find you acting such a part.'
+
+'Then I am afraid you have a good deal to go through in the course
+of your life. If every little flirtation on the part of your
+"_Geschwister_" is to produce this effect, there won't be much left of
+you by the time it comes to Stella.'
+
+'What meaning do you attach to the words "little flirtation?"'
+
+'When the head of the family puts the question in that solemn tone, how
+is it to be answered? Bless me, Blunderbore, such a countenance can
+only proceed from being smitten yourself! To be sure, when there was
+only one girl you ever spoke to, it was no wonder. Poor old fellow! I'd
+never have poached on your manor, but how was I to imagine a pillar of
+the house giving way to such levities?'
+
+'This is mere bravado, Edgar,' was the grave answer, in a tone not
+disconcerted, but full of repression, and with a pale but steady
+countenance. 'Gloss it over as you will, a correspondence such as you
+have begun is unjustifiable. It risks damaging for ever the prospects,
+at once not only of--of the object--but those of your little sisters.'
+
+'O Felicissimo mio, how green a spot is Bexley! As though secrets and
+mysteries were not the elixir of life to the boarding-school.'
+
+'Have you ever considered what a discovery must involve?'
+
+'I need not, it seems, since you had not the sense to box that
+child's ears for a meddlesome tell-tale. Did the scene equal Madame's
+performance?'
+
+'You do not imagine that I mentioned it.'
+
+'Oh! The revered prop of the state soars so far above my head that I
+did not know what he might regard as his duty.'
+
+'You shall know it now, Edgar. There are two choices. If you are really
+engaged to this young lady' (Edgar made a nod of impatient scornful
+acquiescence, but certainly of acquiescence), 'then ask her honourably
+from her friends, and let whatever you do be open! Otherwise, give
+it up as an impossible imprudence, but drop all attempt at what is
+clandestine. Unless you do one or other of these, I warn you that I
+shall speak to Miss Pearson.'
+
+'If you were a reasonable and experienced paterfamilias, instead of
+only a poor conscientious over-harassed prig of a boy, with more
+brothers and sisters than he knows what to do with, I'll tell you, in
+candid unprejudice, what you would do. Just let it alone! There are as
+many of such little affairs going as there are midges in a sunbeam;
+and they never do any one any harm, unless the higher powers make an
+unadvised hubbub.'
+
+'Am I to understand that as an avowal that you know yourself to be
+trifling?'
+
+'I know nothing about it. I don't live in the heroics, like some of my
+friends. In the rural seclusion of Bexley I saw a pretty lively girl,
+who, not to put too fine a point upon it, made quite as much up to the
+romantic young artist as ever the young artist did to her. Of course,
+there was an exchange of prettinesses, and life on either side became
+a blank when she was immured at Brompton, and the only solace left was
+the notes that so outrage your and Bobbie's united sense of propriety.'
+
+'And what is to follow?'
+
+'Is it to lead to?' he corrected, with a mimicry of Wilmet's tone.
+'That depends. If you make the explosion, I shall have to rise to the
+occasion--keep the slip-knot ready and patent, and as soon as I get my
+head above water, have a wife and family on my back to keep me down,
+and hinder me from coming to your rescue. If not--why, it will take
+its chance, and we shall have a reasonable chance of trying whether
+we get tired of one another--the best thing that could happen to
+us, by-the-by--though she is such a saucy little darling, that were
+that picture of mine painted, I should be fool enough to marry her
+to-morrow.'
+
+'And why--may I ask--seeing these things so clearly, did you draw the
+poor child into an engagement?'
+
+Edgar shrugged his shoulders. 'You had better ask why she drew me.
+If you didn't know it before, my dear Felix, "'Tis human natur to be
+fools."'
+
+'Allowing it to be folly, you do not mean to persist?'
+
+'As if a poor fellow must always have a meaning! Life is not worth
+having if one is to be always so awfully in earnest.'
+
+'I have the misfortune to be in earnest,' said Felix, with the
+formality of one past patience, but resolved to keep his temper in
+hand, 'when I warn you, that if I find that this intercourse is
+continued, unless you choose to ask her properly of her father, it will
+be my duty to let Miss Pearson know.'
+
+'So be it,' was the answer, in a tone of half mocking, half
+compassionate submission, that was more provoking than all, except
+for the sudden change to the gay kindliness that followed, as Edgar
+threw aside his own affairs, to laugh over Ferdinand Travis's honest
+simplicity of adoration of Alda and all her household, declaring that
+it had been as much for his delight, as to be rid of him, that he
+himself had devised that commission of the luncheon. 'What a spread it
+will be!' Edgar chuckled to himself; 'and how it will be thrown away on
+the present company! not that there ever was a man who wanted it more!'
+he added, as he saw how white his brother's face was. 'You've been and
+got a chill!'
+
+Felix did not deny it; and if his unsophisticated palate did not
+appreciate all that Ferdinand had ordered on the principle that
+nothing could be too good for him either in his individual capacity or
+as Alda's brother, he at least submitted to what his two companions
+required of him in the way of hot soup, and _even_ of one glass of
+wine, before he grew restive, and insisted on carrying the head that
+their solicitude had succeeded in rendering heated and flushed to
+burning pitch, to do the business in the City that always sprang up
+whenever any one had to go to town.
+
+Edgar bade him adieu; and the faithful Ferdinand drove him wherever
+he had to go, and finally to Kensington Palace Gardens, where he
+was ushered into the drawing-room, to find Marilda, resolved upon
+unconsciousness, but only succeeding in a kind of obstreperous
+cordiality and good will, which, together with the hot room, made
+him quite dizzy; and his answers were so much at random, that he
+sent Fulbert to an examination at Cambridge, and Clement prospecting
+in Australia. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Underwood made their appearance;
+but when Felix spoke of getting a cab, Marilda said the carriage was
+ordered. Then Alda was explicit about the boxes that were to follow,
+but on the whole she was behaving very prettily and unobtrusively.
+Marilda kissed her warmly, and detained Felix a moment to say, 'This
+will blow over, and then she will come back, unless things have settled
+themselves better. If I can do any good, write to me.'
+
+So Alda quitted her adopted home; but the change might be lightened
+to her by being handed out of the carriage at the station by a
+military-looking figure, who announced that he wanted to see a fellow
+at Aldershot, and meant to dine there. It was not his fault that he got
+out at Farnborough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT.
+
+     'Peace, brother, be not exquisite,
+      To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
+      For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
+      What need a man forestall his date of grief?'
+                                                _Milton._
+
+
+Wilmet was so devoted to Alda and her hopes and fears, that she let
+Felix escape with less reproof than usual, for the cold that sat
+heavily upon him after the last day's chill. He did not give way to it.
+There might have been some temptation to sit over the fire if Geraldine
+had been alone there; but Alda, when Wilmet was out of reach, engrossed
+Cherry's ears with descriptions of her feelings, and cravings for
+sympathy in her suspense, treating every other subject as futile, and
+the interruption of the children's lessons as an insult. No one might
+talk of anybody but Ferdinand; and Cherry did not wonder that Felix
+looked wearied and harassed, and always betrayed some anxiety to come
+first into possession of the morning post. One day, nearly a fortnight
+after his visit to London, he called Wilmet away from the breakfast
+table into the sitting-room: 'Wilmet,' he said, 'I must go and see Miss
+Pearson before school hours.'
+
+'You! Is there anything the matter with Alice?' asked Wilmet, startled
+at his tone.
+
+'Had they--had you--any notion of anything between her and Edgar?'
+
+'No! Miss Pearson has taken to saying, "My dear, your brothers are
+quite grown into young men," and I thought she did not like the play.'
+
+'Ah! that play! It threw them together!'
+
+'Is it really so? I suppose nothing is too foolish and provoking for
+Edgar!'
+
+'The fact of admiration is not wonderful,' said Felix, rather in a
+tone of defence; 'but the worst of it is, that he has been trying to
+communicate with her through those poor girls at school.'
+
+Wilmet's horror was surpassing; and when she found that he had known
+it all this fortnight, she was so indignant, that to his reply that it
+was not fair to leave both parties the chance of acting honourably, she
+replied with scorn for his weakness in expecting anything from Edgar,
+and exposing the children to the chance of expulsion, which might be
+a lasting blight, such as merely in thought put her into a perfect
+agony. Nevertheless, angry and excited as she was, she flew at him
+when he gave her the letters, and was off to Miss Pearson's--'Go there
+without breakfast, in the sleet, sitting and still with that bad cold
+not half gone!' and she dragged him back reluctantly to the other room,
+where, ignominiously ordering off Bernard and Stella to finish their
+stir-about elsewhere, she insisted on his breakfasting while she told
+the story. She was far too loyal to blame him except _tete-a-tete_, but
+she burst on him now and then.
+
+'You are not eating, Felix!'
+
+'A cup of tea, then, please, Cherry. No one can swallow stir-about in
+hot haste but Wilmet herself.' He spoke good-humouredly, but with a
+force upon himself that Cherry detected; and she further saw that he
+took nothing but that one cup and a fragment of bread, and then hurried
+off, saying that he must catch Miss Pearson for the little girls' sake.
+
+The letters he had left were Robina's and another enfolding it
+containing these words:
+
+        Dear Sir,
+
+        According to my promise, I have refrained from opening this
+        letter, though I own that the discovery of the purpose for
+        which free correspondence was asked, has been no small
+        amazement to me. In the first shock, I will not trust myself
+        to say more, until after consultation with my brother; but you
+        shall hear from me again respecting your sisters.
+
+                        I remain, your obedient servant,
+                                                    B. M. FULMORT.
+
+
+The letter within was--
+
+        My Dear Felix,
+
+        It has all come out. There is a dreadful uproar, and nobody
+        will believe me. If only Miss Lyveson was here! This was the
+        way. Edgar came yesterday and took us for a long walk in
+        Kensington Gardens, and afterwards I saw Angela going towards
+        Alice Knevett's room; and as we are not allowed to run into
+        other people's bedrooms, I stopped her and put her in mind
+        of what you said; but she began to cry and struggle with me,
+        and Alice came out, and made a fuss to get the note Angel had
+        for her, till I got into a passion, and spoke so loud that
+        Miss Fennimore came out upon us. Angel did not know what she
+        was about by that time, and cried, saying that I was unkind,
+        and was hurting her; and Alice took her part, accusing me of
+        tyrannizing and being jealous, so that I faced round and told
+        all on the spot. Miss Fennimore took us all straight down
+        to Miss Fulmort, and it was a dreadful business. They are
+        frightfully angry with us all, and me the most, for having told
+        you instead of them. They cannot understand the difference
+        between you and any common brother. They think I have not told
+        the whole truth, and it is very hard. Nobody ever distrusted
+        me before. We are just living on sufferance till Mr. Fulmort
+        comes to see about it, and then I think we shall be sent away.
+        I hope so, for I know my own dear Miss Lyveson will believe
+        me and take me back to justice and confidence. Here the girls
+        are as angry with me for telling as the ladies are for not
+        telling; they have no idea of such loyalty and love as we had
+        at Catsacre. There is a report that Miss Pearson has been sent
+        for. If we are sent home with her, it will be a horrid shame
+        and injustice; but I shall not be able to be sorry one bit, for
+        I know you will stand by me.
+
+                     Dear, dear brother Felix,
+                                   Your affectionate Sister,
+                                                         BOBBIE.
+
+
+When the three sisters had made out all that could be understood,
+Geraldine owned herself less amazed than Wilmet; and Alda laughed
+at both for not being aware that Edgar was a universal flirt. All
+that surprised her was his having let it proceed to such dangerous
+extremities; but of course that was the girl's own fault--he would give
+it up when it came to the point.
+
+'Why should you expect Edgar to be more inconstant than Ferdinand?'
+asked Cherry.
+
+Both twins turned on her, and told her she was a child and knew nothing
+about it--their favourite way of annihilating her; and then Alda, in
+her excitement, walked with Wilmet to the school, leaving Cherry, as
+usual, to wash up the breakfast things. She felt a conviction that
+all this accounted for the weary oppressed look, broken by occasional
+starts of vivacity, which ever since Felix's day in London had been
+laid to the score of the cold he had brought home.
+
+She was glad she was still alone, when Felix looked in for a moment
+to say, 'Miss Maria goes up by the 11.30 train. I am going to send a
+letter by her, and I think she will save Robin. Angel is so mere a
+child, that it matters less.'
+
+'How can they all be so unjust?'
+
+'They have not had time to know the child.'
+
+'I did not mean Robina, but you.'
+
+'I don't mind that,' he said, with a smile, 'though I am glad there is
+one lady who does not scold me;' and he bent down to kiss her.
+
+'Did the Miss Pearsons?'
+
+'They allowed that I meant to act for the best, and you know what that
+means. However,' he added,' they are earnest to save the little girls,
+which is more to the purpose. Wilmet or I would have gone up, but Miss
+Maria thinks she can do better than either, and I believe they are
+more likely to trust an old schoolmistress, who is the injured party
+besides. I must write my letter. Shall I help you into the other room?'
+
+'No, thank you; I have the lessons here, for they tease Alda. If you
+would only send Theodore to me as you go.'
+
+'Does Alda never help you?'
+
+'Only by criticising my French pronunciation. She is much too restless.
+O Felix, what a cough! You have made your throat worse.'
+
+'It is only this black east wind.'
+
+'You ought to stay upstairs and be taken care of. Can't you, and let
+Redstone call if you are wanted?'
+
+'I _am_ wanted. It is quite as warm in the office as here, when the
+door is shut. What I want is, only to be twenty years older. Good-bye.'
+
+Cherry's ponderings were divided between that sigh and the possible
+sighs of the wind if that door were not shut, until her own door was
+opened by Felix's hand, to admit a little figure still in petticoats,
+with the loose flaxen curls, tottering feet, limp white fingers,
+and vacant blue eyes, whom she daily put through a few exercises to
+train his almost useless fingers and tongue. The sight of this, Alda
+declared, made her ill, though the little boy was as docile as he was
+helpless; but it was quite true that to nerves and ears not inured from
+the first, Theodore's humming and his concertina were a trial from
+their perpetuity.
+
+Late that evening came a message to beg Mr. and Miss Underwood would
+step up; and they stepped, though the east wind was blacker than
+ever. They found that in great tribulation Miss Maria had brought
+Alice Knevett home, and sent her to bed all tears and exhaustion, but
+that Robina and Angela were forgiven--a word so offensive to Felix as
+relating to the former, that he sorely lamented that prudence forbade
+their removal, but was somewhat consoled by a letter that Miss Maria
+brought him from the Vicar of St. Matthew's, who had had a private
+investigation of the whole subject. He wrote to Felix that his sister
+was new to the management of the girls, and was a good deal annoyed at
+the secrecy observed towards herself, not making full allowance for
+Robina's exceptional circumstances; but that, for his own part, he was
+convinced of the girl's genuine uprightness and unselfish forbearance;
+and though he feared her position must be unpleasant just now, he
+thought it would be for the good of all if she had the patience to
+live it down, and earn the good opinion he was sure she deserved.
+Miss Maria reported that Miss Fennimore had been brought round by his
+opinion, though Miss Fulmort remained persuaded that Robina had 'come
+over him' in some way; and while yielding to his stringent desire that,
+as he said, 'one of the worthiest of her girls should not be unjustly
+expelled,' only let the child herself know that she was tolerated in
+consideration of her youth, her orphanhood, and her relationship to
+Clement. Poor Robin! No one could help grieving for the tempest that
+had fallen on her guiltless head, and hope that all would result in
+her final good; but the sorrows of an absent school-girl could hardly
+occupy even her dearest friends, in the full and present crisis of two
+love affairs.
+
+For Edgar and Major Knevett both arrived, the lover as dispassionate as
+the father was the reverse. Edgar did, however, as he had undertaken,
+rise to the position. He joked at it a little in private, to the
+annoyance and perplexity of Cherry, and even of Felix; but he was
+perfectly steady in maintaining his perfect right to address Miss
+Knevett, in avowing his engagement, and in standing by it.
+
+To Major Knevett, the affair appeared outrageous impudence on the
+part of a beggarly young painter out of a country bookseller's shop,
+encouraged by the egregious folly of the aunts. What was said of
+clergyman's sons and good old family went for absolutely nothing; and
+Edgar's quiet assurance of success in his profession was scoffed at
+with incredulity not altogether unpardonable. In the encounter that
+Felix had the misfortune to witness, since it took place in his own
+office-parlour, he could not help thinking that Edgar, with his perfect
+temper, unfailing courtesy, calm self-respect, and steady sense of
+honour towards the young lady, showed himself the true gentleman in
+contrast with the swaggering little Major, who seemed to expect that
+he could bluster the young man out of his presumption, and was quite
+unprepared for Edgar's cool analysis of his threats. But instead of,
+like Tom Underwood, cooling down into moderation and kindness so soon
+as his bolt was shot, the finding it fall short only chafed him the
+more, and rendered him the more inveterate against all conciliation.
+
+There was an appeal all round to Felix, but he was not so practicable
+as the universal compliments to his good sense showed to be expected.
+He had expressed his opinion that it was a rash engagement, hitherto
+improperly carried on; but he could not be brought to advise his
+brother to break it off on his side while the lady held to it on hers.
+It might be best to give it up by mutual consent; but as long as one
+party was bound, so was the other; and he thoroughly sided with Edgar
+in not being threatened out of it whilst Alice persisted. Still more
+flatly did he refuse Miss Pearson's entreaty that he would see the
+wilful girl, and persuade her how hopeless was her resistance, and
+how little prospect of the attachment being prosperous. Nothing but
+despair and perplexity could have prompted the good aunts to try such
+a resource, but they were at their wits' end. They really loved their
+niece, and they dreaded the tender mercies of her father, who had
+indeed petted Alice as a young child, but had made her mother suffer
+greatly from his temper. If she would yield, they hoped to procure for
+her a home at York, with their brother's widow, and to save her from
+a residence in Jersey with the step-mother; but Alice, upheld by a
+secret commerce of notes ingeniously conveyed, felt herself a heroine
+of constancy, and kept up her spirits by little irritations to whoever
+tried to deal with her. She could deftly insinuate, on the one hand,
+that her aunts had always preached up the Underwood perfections; and
+on the other, hint to her father that if her home had still remained
+what it was, she should never have looked out of it; and whenever he
+flew into a rage, or used violent language, she would look up under her
+eye-lids and whisper something about 'real gentlemen.' Those thorns and
+claws that had figured in the scale of her transmigration were giving a
+good many little scratches, which did her feelings some good, but her
+cause none at all, by the vexation they produced. 'If she could only
+be made to understand,' said poor Miss Pearson, 'how little she gains
+by irritating her father, and that he is really a very dreadful person
+when he is thoroughly offended! Poor child! my heart aches for her.'
+
+So Wilmet was turned in upon her, and before she could utter a word was
+hugged and kissed all over because she was the very image of darling
+Edgar, and his dear violet eyes were exactly the same colour.
+
+Unsentimental Wilmet extricated herself, saying, 'Eyes can't be violet
+coloured. Don't let us go into that silly talk, Alice; things are too
+serious now.'
+
+'You are come to help me and be a dear!' cried Alice, clasping her
+hands. 'How does he look? the dear boy!'
+
+'The same as usual,' said Wilmet, coolly. 'But, Alice, if you think
+that I am come to--'
+
+'Does he--really and truly? I saw him out of the little passage window,
+and I thought he looked quite thin! And Lizzie Bruce said Mrs. Hartley
+asked who that handsome young man was who looked so delicate.'
+
+'He is particularly strong and healthy. Alice, I want to set it all
+before you as a reasonable being--'
+
+'Only do tell me; has he got his appetite? For you know he is used to
+live where everything is _recherche_, and when one's out of spirits
+_things_ do make a difference--'
+
+Was that the claw in the velvet paw?
+
+'He eats three times as much as Felix any day,' said Wilmet, with a
+certain remembrance of the startling nudity of the bone of yesterday's
+leg of mutton. 'He is doing very well. You need not be afraid for him;
+but it seems to me that you should consider whether it can be right--'
+
+'Come, Wilmet, you were my first friend; you can't help being kind to
+me.'
+
+'I want to show you true kindness.'
+
+'True kindness means something horridly cross! Now don't, Wilmet. I get
+ever so much kindness as it is! I know what you are going to say. It is
+very naughty of people to like each other when neither of them has got
+a sixpence; but if they can't help it, what then? Must they leave off
+liking, eh?'
+
+'They ought to try to prevent their liking from leading to disobedience
+and concealment.'
+
+'Ah! but if they can't?'
+
+'People always can.'
+
+'Were you ever tried?' asked Alice, slyly, for all the simplicity.
+
+'I hope never to be, if deceiving my friends and making others deceive
+is to be the consequence.'
+
+'Well, luckily there isn't much chance,' crept out of the demure lips.
+It was intended as the thorn beneath the may-flower, but it was no
+such thing. Wilmet was quite ready to accept the improbability as very
+fortunate.
+
+'That has nothing to do with it,' she said. 'The question is, what it
+is right to do now. It seems hard for me to say so, being your friend
+and his sister--'
+
+'Oh, never mind that. People's sisters never do like the girls they are
+fond of.'
+
+Decidedly Wilmet could not get on. Her mouth was stopped either by
+a little rapture about Edgar, or a little velvet-pawed scratch to
+herself, whenever she tried in earnest to set the matter before Alice;
+and when, being a determined person, she at last talked on through
+all that Alice tried to thrust in, and delivered her mind of the
+remonstrance she had carefully thought over, and balanced between
+kindness, prudence, and duty, and all the time with the conviction that
+not one word was heeded! If it was not English malice it was French
+_malice_ that pointed the replies and sent Wilmet away as much provoked
+as pitying, and not at all inclined to be examined by Edgar on her
+interview, and let him gather that she had not had the best of it. Poor
+Alice! what were these little triumphs of a sharp tongue in comparison
+with the harm she did herself by exacerbating whoever tried to argue
+with her? There was one person she did profess to wish to see, namely,
+Geraldine; but the flying rheumatic pains, excited by the black east
+wind with sleet upon its blast, could not be trifled with; and Major
+Knevett's wrath put an effectual stop to Alice's entering the house
+during the Saturday and Sunday of his stay at Bexley. Perhaps Cherry
+was not sorry. She could not have pleaded against Edgar, in spite of
+her disapprobation of both; and moreover, the thought at the bottom of
+her heart was, 'How could any one who had been the object of such tones
+of the one brother's voice be won by the showy graces of the other?
+Edgar could easily have thrown off a disappointment; but Felix came
+first--and oh! can he shake it off in the same light way?'
+
+She had not the comfort of talking it over. Felix made no sign, and
+Edgar's line was to treat the whole complication as a matter of
+pleasantry, pretending that he had only gone into it to please Felix!
+and yet, as came to their knowledge, privately exchanging billets and
+catch-words with Alice, while he openly declared his engagement and
+resolution to work his way up and lay his laurels at her feet.
+
+He went away the very same morning as Major Knevett carried off his
+daughter to Jersey, audaciously following them to the station, where he
+exchanged a grasp of the hand with her in the very sight of the 'grey
+tyrant father,' who actually gnashed his teeth, in his inability either
+to knock him down or give him in charge.
+
+There was no time to breathe between the departure of this pair of
+lovers and the arrival of Alda's splendid Life-Guardsman, who, horses
+and all, took up his abode at the Fortinbras Arms, and spent his
+days in felicity with Alda. A very demonstrative pair they were. To
+Geraldine, often unwillingly _en tiers_, they seemed to spend their
+time chiefly in sitting hand in hand, playing with one another's rings
+and dangles, of which each seemed to possess an inexhaustible variety.
+Ferdinand's dressing-case and its contents were exquisite in their way,
+and were something between an amusement and a horror to Wilmet, who
+could not understand Felix's regard for so extravagant and wasteful
+a person, who gave away sovereigns where half-crowns would have been
+more wholesome, half-crowns instead of shillings, shillings instead of
+pence, and who moreover was devoted to horse-flesh. His own favourite
+steed, Brown Murad, had been secured at a fabulous price; and the
+possession of him seemed to be the crowning triumph over a certain
+millionaire baronet in the same corps, evidently his rival. What was
+even more alarming was that every detail about races and horses in
+training was at his fingers' ends, so that he put Felix up to a good
+deal of knowledge useful to the racing articles in the Pursuivant; but
+he declared that he never betted. His was a perilous position, homeless
+and friendless as he stood; and this rendered him doubly grateful for
+the brotherly welcome he received. Yet the days would have been long to
+any but lovers, in spite of the rides and walks, one even to Minsterham
+to see Lance. Ferdinand liked to recur to the old remembrances of his
+convalescence; but in these Alda had no part, and they seemed to jar on
+her. She might sometimes seem half fretted by his impetuous southern
+love, but she could not bear a particle of his attention to be bestowed
+on aught save herself; and when Geraldine would have utilised his fine
+straight profile as an artistic study, the monopoly was so unpleasing
+that the portrait had to be dropped. The odd thing was that Alda
+should have a lover whose most congenial spirit was Clement. He was a
+great frequenter of St. Matthew's, and had no interest save in kindred
+subjects. Felix always found them alike difficult to converse with,
+from a want of any breadth of sympathy with subjects past or present,
+such as would have occupied him even without the exigencies of his
+profession. They seemed to talk, not church, but shop, as if they did
+not look beyond proximate ecclesiastical details, which they discussed
+in technical terms startling to the uninitiated; and yet Felix trusted
+that Clement's soul was a good deal deeper and wider than his tongue,
+and that Ferdinand's, if narrow, was thoroughly resolute, finding in
+his enthusiasm for these details a counterpoise for the temptations of
+his position.
+
+His seemed to be a nature that would alternate between apathetic
+indolence and strong craving for excitement. He could go on for
+days with a patient, almost silent, round of mechanical occupations
+performed well, nigh in his sleep, and then, when once stirred up
+became possessed with a vehement restlessness, as if there were still a
+little about him of the panther of the wilderness.
+
+At first he awaited his letter from his uncle much more philosophically
+than did Alda, but when it tarried still, he became so eager that he
+made two journeys to London to meet the mail, and pestered every one
+with calculations as to time and space.
+
+The letter came, and was all that every one else had expected. Alfred
+Travis had always detested the family into which his nephew had been
+thrown by his accident, and the tidings that the heiress had been
+rejected for the sake of one of these designing girls could not be
+welcome. So he gave notice that nothing more could be expected from him
+if his nephew stooped thus low. This, however, did not much concern
+Ferdinand. He curled his black moustache, and quietly said his uncle
+would not find that game answer. The affairs of the brothers had always
+been mixed together, and Ferdinand had been content to leave the whole
+in his uncle's hands, only drawing for his own handsome allowance; but
+the foundation had been his mother's fortune, and he had only to claim
+his own share of the capital, and disentangle it from the rest, either
+to bring his uncle to terms at once, or to be able to dispense with
+his consent. The delay was vexatious, but it could be but brief; and
+in the meantime Bexley was felicity. Yes, in spite of the warning he
+received at the Rectory, which my Lady followed up by a remonstrance
+to Felix--over the counter, for in vain he tried to get her into
+the office. He could only tell her that he much regretted Edgar's
+conduct, but as to Alda, there was no disobedience, and the young man's
+character was high. He was just as impracticably courteous as his
+father, and Lady Price shrugged her shoulders and _hoped_. 'For, Felix
+Underwood,' she said, 'I am convinced that _after all_ you are a very
+well-meaning young man.'
+
+This was her farewell, for Mr. Bevan had been more ailing than usual,
+and had obtained permission to leave his parish for a year, to be spent
+partly in the south of France, partly at the German baths.
+
+Well was it for those who could get away! Never had the spring been
+sourer; Easter came so early as itself to seem untimely, and the
+Wednesday of its week was bleakness itself, as Lance and Robina stood
+on the top of the viaduct over the railway, looking over the parapet
+at the long perspective of rails and electric wires, their faces
+screwed up, and reddened in unnatural places by the bitter blast. Felix
+had asked at breakfast if any one would be the bearer of a note to
+Marshlands; Lance had not very willingly volunteered, because no one
+else would; then Robina joined him, and they had proceeded through the
+town without a syllable from either of the usually lively tongues, till
+as they stood from force of habit watching for a train, the following
+colloquy took place, Robina being the first speaker.
+
+'What is it?'
+
+'What is what?'
+
+'What is the matter?'
+
+'What is the matter with what?'
+
+'With it all?'
+
+There came a laugh, but Robina returned to the charge. 'Well, but what
+is it? Is it east wind?'
+
+'Something detestable--whatever it is,' grunted Lance.
+
+'You've found it so too,' said Robina; for Lance had only come home
+after evening cathedral the day before.
+
+'Haven't I, though!'
+
+He said no more, being a boy of much reserve as to his private
+troubles; and Robina presently said,--
+
+'I say, Lance, did Alda use to be nice, or is it love?'
+
+'Never nice, like Wilmet or Cherry.'
+
+'I am sure,' proceeded the girl, 'I thought love was the most beautiful
+and romantic thing--too nice to be talked about, for fear it should
+turn one's head; but here it seems to be really nothing but plague and
+bother and crossness.'
+
+'Poor Bob!' said Lance, 'you got the worst of it up at Brompton.'
+
+'I got it every way,' said Robina. 'There was Edgar treating me like a
+little contemptible baby, and Alice sometimes coaxing me and sometimes
+spiting me, and Angel poisoned against me; and when I thought I must
+be acting for the best in telling Felix, somehow that turned out
+altogether horrid.'
+
+'I suppose a girl must be telling some one,' said Lance; 'and if it was
+to be done, Felix was the right one.'
+
+'So I made sure,' said poor Robin; 'but Miss Fulmort and Miss Fennimore
+seemed to think it no better than if I had told you. They say I am
+forgiven, but I hate their forgiveness. I've done nothing wrong, and
+yet they don't like or trust me; and they seem to grudge me all my
+marks and prizes. "For proficiency, not for conduct," they say, in that
+hard cold voice. And then the girls nod and whisper. Angel and all,
+think me a nasty spiteful marplot. Alice set half of them against me
+before she went!'
+
+'Poor Bob. And you can't have a good set to, and punch their heads all
+round! That's the way to have it out, and get comfortable and friendly.'
+
+'For choir boys? O Lance!'
+
+'Choir boys aint girls, I thank my stars.'
+
+'Well,' continued Robina, glad to pour out her troubles, even for such
+counsel as this, 'when I came home last week, I _did_ think it would be
+made up.'
+
+'Well,' said Lance, as Robin grew rather choky, and drew the back of a
+woolly glove across her eyes, not much to their benefit.
+
+'Clem looks black, because he says his sisters were meant to raise the
+tone of the school.'
+
+'Confound the tone of the school! I know what _that_ is! But who cares
+for Tina?'
+
+'Then Wilmet says I ought to have asked leave to write to her, and she
+could have managed it quietly, and kept everybody out of a scrape.'
+
+'Whew--w--w--' whistled Lance; but at the melancholy tone, he
+absolutely took his red hand out of its comfortable nest in his pocket,
+to draw his sister's arm into his. It was well, for her voice was far
+more trembling now. 'I could bear it all if it were not for Felix
+himself. I know he is angry with me, but he won't talk, nor tell me
+how; he only said, "We both meant to act for the best; but it is a
+painful affair, and we had better not discuss it," and then he began to
+whistle to Theodore. If any one did know how I hate being told I meant
+to act for the best!'
+
+'Something is come over Felix,' said Lance. 'I never knew him give such
+a jaw as he has to me. To be sure, he was set on to it.'
+
+'Set on?'
+
+'Yes, by Wilmet for one! You should have seen the way she was in--as if
+I hadn't a right to do what I please with my own money.'
+
+'What?'
+
+'My violin! Ferdinand Travis tipped me when he rode over to the
+Cathedral, and by good luck it was the day before the auction at old
+Spicer's. Bill and I went in to see the fun; and by all that is lucky,
+there was a violin routed out of an old cupboard. Nobody bid against me
+but Godwin, the broker, and it was knocked down to me for twenty-two
+and six. Bill lent me the half-crown; and Poulter, our lay vicar, who
+is at a music-shop, says 'tis a real bargain, he's mad to have missed
+it himself; but he showed me how to put my fingers on it, and I can
+play Mendelssohn's "Hirtenlied." You shall hear by-and-by, Robin. Well;
+Wilmet comes on it when she was unpacking my shirts. I'm sure I wish
+she'd let me unpack them myself, instead of poking her nose there; and
+if she wasn't in a way! Wasting my money, when I ought to be saving it
+up to buy a watch; and wasting my time and all the rest of it--till one
+would think 'twas old Scratch himself I'd brought home!'
+
+'Oh don't, Lance. And did she set on Felix?'
+
+'Ay; and then, you know, our new Precentor, Beccles, isn't one quarter
+the man Nixon was; and he has been and written a letter to Fee that any
+schoolmaster in creation should be licked for writing, to go and pison
+a poor chap's home--all about those cards.'
+
+'What cards?'
+
+'The pack Jones found in the middle of the north transept ten days ago.'
+
+'Of the Cathedral! How shocking! But why should he write to Felix?'
+
+'Because the big-wigs make sure some one out of the Bailey must have
+dropped them, getting into the town through the Cathedral at night.'
+
+'But they don't suspect you?'
+
+'No; but Beccles got into an awful way, and swears--'
+
+'You don't mean really swears!'
+
+'No, no--stuff--vows--that unless he gets to the bottom of it, not one
+of us shall have the good-conduct prize. Now I did think I might have
+had that--though I'm not a church candle like Tina--for I never was
+_had up_ for anything; and it is precious hard lines! Such a beauty,
+Robin, the Bishop gives it--all the Cathedral music, bound in red
+morocco; and this beggar hinders us all this very last chance! And
+then, he is dirty enough to write and tell Felix to get out of me who
+has been getting out through the Cathedral, and dropping the cards.'
+
+'Do you know?'
+
+'Hold your tongue; I thought you had a little sense! Felix had that; he
+saw I could not tell him, and said it must be as I pleased about that;
+but then he rowed me, as he never did before, for wasting time, and not
+mugging for the exhibition--as if that was any use.'
+
+'Why shouldn't you get the exhibition?'
+
+'Put that out of your head,' said Lance, angrily; 'Harewood is sure
+of that! A fellow that construes by nature--looks at a sentence, and
+spots the nominative in a moment--makes verses--rale, superior, iligant
+articles.'
+
+'But I thought he wasn't always accurate. Can't you catch him out? O
+Lance, don't look so fierce! I only said so because he can't want the
+exhibition as much as you. He can go to some other school, or be paid
+for.'
+
+'Not conveniently,' said Lance; 'they are not at all well off, and
+Jack helps them. Besides, I wouldn't get the thing in a sneaking way;
+and besides, Bill could no more make a mull in construing out of
+carelessness than I could a false note--it's against nature. I can't
+beat him, except in arithmetic. My birth-day comes at such an unlucky
+time. I should get another year if I'd only been born in July instead
+of June! I might be second, for Shapcote is only dogged by his father;
+but that's no good for the exhibition: and then there's an end of
+Cathedral and all!'
+
+'What should you do then, Lance?'
+
+'Whatever costs least! I'd as lief work my way out to Fulbert, if this
+is to go on.'
+
+'Oh, don't! don't do that, whatever you do!' cried Robina, clinging to
+his arm.
+
+'I don't see why not, if everybody is to be as savage as a bear when
+one comes home. One always trusted to Felix to see sense, if nobody
+else did; but what with his jawing one about the exhibition, and Wilmet
+about the tin and every spot on one's clothes, and Alda growling at
+whatever one does in the parlour, I'm sure I wish I'd stayed at Bexley.'
+
+The boy and girl had never before been tried by want of sympathy,
+and what seemed to them injustice, when they had thus descended into
+the perturbed atmosphere of what they were used to regard as a happy
+home. There was a long mutual communication of grievances--irritable
+speeches--inattention from their elders--fancies and complaints of
+Alda's enforced peremptorily by Wilmet--appeals to Felix either quashed
+or unheeded; the strange thing was, in how short a time so much had
+managed to go wrong with them, except that they added the vexations of
+the last quarter to the present discomfort, real or fancied; and though
+they were both good children, each had the strong feeling that there
+was not as much encouragement as usual to goodness, and that it could
+not have been much worse if they had been seriously to blame. One had
+expected to be caressed for her endurance in a good cause; the other
+had not expected to be severely rebuked for what he scarcely viewed
+as faults. It was the first time this younger half of the family had
+ever suffered anything approaching to neglect or injustice from their
+seniors, and the moment was perilous. The discussion was forming their
+discontents into a dangerously avowed state, if it had the beneficial
+effect of raising their spirits by force of sympathy. At any rate, they
+were in no gloomy mood when they reached the tidy little villa, with
+its beds of open-hearted crocuses defying the cold wind, and admitting
+the sun to the utmost depths of their purple and golden bosoms, as they
+laughed their cheery greeting.
+
+No less cheerful was the welcome from kind old Mrs. Froggatt, who
+met them at the door. 'Master Lancelot, Miss Robina, this is an
+unlooked-for pleasure, to be sure! My dear Miss Robina!' as the girl
+gave her hearty embrace.
+
+They were the prime favourites next to Felix, and were the more gladly
+hailed that Mr. Froggatt was anxious about the business on which they
+came, and had been trying to get leave from his wife to peril his
+rheumatics by coming in to Bexley about it. They must stay to luncheon;
+and while Mr. Froggatt went off to answer his note, they were made much
+of over the fire, in the way that had of late become so abhorrent to
+Bernard, with difficulty avoiding a pre-luncheon or nooning of cake and
+wine within an hour of the meal of the day.
+
+'And how is Mr. Underwood?' asked Mrs. Froggatt, when Robina had
+been divested of her wraps, placed close to the fire, screened and
+footstooled, and when Lance had transferred the big white cat from the
+arm-chair to his own knee.
+
+'Oh, very well, thank you,' said Robina, rather surprised that the
+lengthy catechism on the family health did not as usual start from
+'poor dear Miss Geraldine.'
+
+'He was looking so thin, and had such a cough, I was quite concerned
+when he walked out here on Good Friday afternoon,' continued Mrs.
+Froggatt. 'I hope he is taking care.'
+
+'Wilmet is always at him about it,' said Lance.
+
+'That is right. And I hope he minds to keep the office-door shut. It is
+such a draughty place! Does he wear flannel, do you know, my dear?'
+
+'I think so,' said Robina. 'Sister Constance told Wilmet he ought, when
+he had that long cough after the measles.'
+
+'Ay. You know--you'll excuse me, my dears, a cough is not to be trifled
+with in your dear family.'
+
+'You should write to the clerk of the weather-office, Mrs. Froggatt,'
+said Lance, rather gruffly.
+
+And as Mrs. Froggatt was not good at understanding jokes, but was
+always ready to accept Mr. Lance's, she thought he meant Admiral
+Fitzroy; and much explanation and banter followed, which the children
+made the louder from dread of the subject. Mrs. Froggatt was by no
+means the cultivated person her husband was; but, being of a good old
+plain farmer stock, she was quite as unassuming, and her manners with
+the young Underwoods were a good deal like those of a superior old
+housekeeper, only perhaps less authoritative and familiar; but she was
+not to be kept away from the subject of her real anxiety. 'I wish I
+could see your sister, and speak to her; he ought to have some advice
+rather than let it run on in this way. I'm sure Mr. Froggatt would be
+willing to do anything. It has been a great concern to him to have to
+leave such a heavy charge to him this spring, and with all the family
+cares on his head too, at his age. Miss Alda's wedding put off too--is
+it? And is the young gentleman here still?'
+
+'No; his leave was over last Monday,' said Robina, 'a week after I came
+home.'
+
+'I should like to have seen him! Your brother says he is grown up such
+a fine-looking young man, and quite got over his lameness. A handsome
+couple they will be! I did see them ride through the place, but Miss
+Alda didn't see me.'
+
+'You saw his horse?' broke in Lance, who considered Brown Murad as a
+superior specimen to either of the lovers; and Mrs. Froggatt, whose
+father had bred horses, and whose son was much more addicted to them
+than was for his good, was a much more intelligent auditor of the
+perfections now dilated on than could have been expected.
+
+Yet nothing could keep off the dreaded subject, and even at table,
+Lance's disappointing deficiency in schoolboy voracity became the cause
+of a lamentation over his brother's small appetite, and an examination
+of Robina, resulting in her allowing that Felix seldom gave himself
+time to do more than snatch a crust of bread in the middle of the day,
+and did not always make up for it at tea-time. Mr. Froggatt shook his
+head and looked distressed, and his good lady went on discoursing about
+the basin of soup she always used to keep prepared for him, evidently
+longing, though not quite daring, to send a lecture to Wilmet on taking
+care of her brother. But what made more impression on both the children
+was, that after they had been into Mr. Froggatt's little conservatory
+with him, and had received into their charge a basket of camellias,
+violets, and calycanthus, with a pot of jonquils in the middle for
+Geraldine, the old gentleman said, as he bade them good-bye, 'Tell your
+sister, that if she thinks a day or two of laying by would be good
+for your brother, I should be ready and glad to change places with
+him. A little change might take away his cough; and I don't like his
+looks--no, I don't. He ought to be careful;' this to himself, with a
+long sigh.
+
+Then the children got out into the garden, and with the natural
+impatience of the evil omen, exclaimed at the same moment--
+
+     'Croak, croak, croak, went the frogs,'
+
+and
+
+     'Were there ever such a pair of good old coddles!'
+
+But then they walked on for a full quarter of a mile before either said
+another word; and then it was, 'You don't think Felix looking ill, do
+you, Lance?'
+
+'I never thought about his looks at all,' said Lance.
+
+'No more did I,' said Robina; 'but he does cough; I hear him through
+the wall in the morning. Do you think there is anything in it, Lance?'
+
+'How long has it been going on?'
+
+'Ever since he came up to London. He got a chill in our garden when I
+was telling him about--' said Robina, stopping short of what she hated
+to mention.
+
+'Then that's it!' said Lance, turning round with a face of one who had
+made a great discovery.
+
+'It? What is the matter with him?'
+
+'Yes,' said Lance. 'Hold your tongue, Robina; but Cherry and I thought
+long ago that he fancied that little Knevett himself. Then I made sure
+it was all a mistake; but now, depend upon it, that's what he is so cut
+up about!'
+
+It carried conviction to the hearer, perhaps because it fitted in with
+a girl's love of romance. 'Then that's why he won't talk to me!'
+
+'Of course!'
+
+And then they began putting together all the tokens of inclination
+which their small experience and large imagination could suggest, till
+they had pretty well decided the point in their own belief, and had
+amused themselves considerably; but the anxiety came back again.
+
+'Do people get over such things, Lance? There was Ophelia, and there
+was Wilfred in "Rokeby"--only she was a woman, and he was pipy. Did you
+ever know of anybody really and truly?'
+
+Lance meditated, but his experience reached no farther than the
+surgeon's assistant at Minsterham, who was reported to be continually
+in love, but who did not look greatly the worse for it.
+
+And then Robina suggested that she did not remember that either Wilfred
+or Ophelia had a cough.
+
+'But my father had,' said Lance in the depths of his throat. 'Don't you
+know, Robin, it was hard work and trouble and poverty that--_did it?_'
+
+'Was it?' awe-struck, for she had been so young as to have no clear
+ideas.
+
+'I've heard it told often enough. My Lady cut off the third curate; and
+that--and all the rest of it--helped to bring on the decline.'
+
+'But, Lance! At least, that wasn't--love.'
+
+'Nonsense, Robin! Don't you see, whatever takes the heart and spirit
+out of a man, makes him ready for illness to get hold of?' Lance
+plucked desperately at the hazels in the hedge, and his eyes were full
+of tears.
+
+'O Lance, Lance, what can we do?'
+
+'I don't know! I'd let him pitch into me from morning till night if
+that would do him any good!'
+
+'I'm sure I am very sorry I grumbled. We'll give Wilmet Mr. Froggatt's
+message, and see what she thinks.'
+
+Poor children! their consternation was such, that they must judge by
+their own eyes of Felix without loss of time; so they both marched into
+the shop with Mr. Froggatt's note, and there felt half baffled to see
+Felix looking much as usual, very busy trying to content a lady with
+nursery literature, and casting a glance at Robin as if she had no
+business there.
+
+Wilmet received Mr. Froggatt's message without excitement. She
+thought it would be a very good thing, but she did not believe Felix
+would consent; and Alda broke out, 'Then we should have Mr. Froggatt
+inflicted on us all the evening!'
+
+Nor did Felix consent. He said it was very kind, but his cold was
+almost gone, and he did not need it. Moreover he had his private
+doubts whether Alda would be decently gracious to Mr. Froggatt; and
+Wilmet, whose one object in life was to keep her sister contented and
+happy at home, could press nothing so disagreeable to her. Altogether,
+the reception of their hints at home was so prosaically placid, that
+they were both rather ashamed of the alarm into which they had worked
+themselves up. Even when Robina privately asked Cherry whether she
+thought Felix looking well, the answer was eager.
+
+'Oh, very--very well! He looked pulled down when his cold was bad, but
+he is quite well now.'
+
+'Mrs. Froggatt thought--'
+
+'Oh, you've been talking to Mrs. Froggatt! She thinks nothing so kind
+as to say one is looking poorly. I said, "How well you are looking,
+Mrs. Froggatt," one day, and I assure you she only swallowed it by an
+act of Christian forgiveness. She is fondest of Felix, so of course he
+looks the worst.'
+
+Robina got no more out of Geraldine, whose fears at that moment were
+in the form of utterly denying themselves. Commonplace life greatly
+reassured the two young things, and of the alarm there chiefly remained
+a certain shame at their own former discontent, and doubly tender
+feeling towards their fatherly elder brother. Now that they guessed
+something to be amiss with him, they had no irritation for him--and
+indeed he gave them no cause for any; the discomfort was partly indeed
+occasioned by the lack of his usual quiet mirth, but far more by Alda's
+fastidiousness, and Wilmet's vigilance lest she should be annoyed. This
+caused restrictions that weighed more heavily on the younger ones than
+on Lance and Robina, and had the effect of making Angela and Bernard
+rebellious. They had neither the principle nor the consideration of
+their two seniors; to them every one seemed simply 'cross,' and against
+this crossness there was a constant struggle, either of disobedience or
+of grumble.
+
+Both were at rather an insubordinate age. Angela, having begun school
+life with getting into a scrape greater than she understood, had
+acquired a naughty-girl reputation, of the kind that tempts the young
+mind to live up to it; and her high spirits, boisterous nature, and
+'don't care' system made her irrepressible by any one but Wilmet,
+whose resolute hand might be murmured at, but was never relaxed. While
+Bernard, hitherto very fairly amenable to Cherry, and a capital little
+scholar, became infected with the spirit of riot and insubordination.
+Whatever fastidiousness the children took for fine-ladyism in Alda they
+treated unmercifully, and resented in their own fashion her complaints,
+and Wilmet's enforcement of regard to her tastes; nor was Lance always
+blameless in the tricks played upon her.
+
+It was strange to see the difference made by one incongruous element. A
+few sneers at Cherry's pronunciation, an injudicious laugh when she was
+rebuking, and a general habit of making light of her, on Alda's part,
+upset all Bernard's habits of deference to the sister who had taught
+him all he knew. His lessons grew into daily battles--miseries to
+himself and far greater miseries to his teacher, and sufficient misery
+to the spectator to induce her to do that which the other sisters could
+scarcely have brought themselves to do on any provocation, namely
+to complain to Felix, and by-and-by make a representation, for the
+general good, she said, that it was a mere farce to leave the boy under
+Cherry's management.
+
+Cherry, with bitter tears, was forced to own that she could no longer
+keep him in order nor make him learn, and there was no alternative but
+to send him to Mr. Ryder's. He had no voice nor ear, so that he could
+not follow in Lance's steps; and for the present, Bexley was the only
+resource.
+
+Of course Cherry charged the whole of this upon her poor little self;
+and some amount of the trouble certainly was due to her incapacity
+not to show in voice and manner when she was under fret, anxiety, or
+depression; and now, poor child! all three at once had come upon her.
+Whether Alda's conversation or the children's naughtiness fretted
+her most, it would be hard to tell; she was in a continual state
+of unuttered, vague, and therefore most wearing anxiety on Felix's
+account, and the physical discomfort of the ungenial spring told on
+her whole frame and spirits. Alda's talk, when good-humoured, opened
+such vistas of brightness, amusement, conversation, and above all of
+beautiful scenes, that they awoke longings and cravings that Cherry
+had hardly known before. The weariness of the grinding monotony of
+home seemed to have infected her. She knew it for discontent, and was
+the more miserable over her want of power to control it, because of
+the terror that hung over her lest repinings might bring on them all
+the judicial punishment of a terrible break-up of the home she loved,
+even while the tedium of the daily round oppressed her. Alternate
+plaintiveness and weary sharpness of course aggravated both Alda and
+Bernard, and they knew nothing of the repentant wretchedness that
+rather weakened than strengthened her.
+
+Little Stella's unfailing docility and sweetness were her great solace.
+Even Alda was exceedingly fond of Stella, and would have spoilt her
+if the child had not been singularly firm in her intense love and
+loyalty to the heads of the family. Angel and Bear were too rough for
+her, and alarmed her sense of duty; but Lance was her hero; and the
+happiest moments of those holidays were spent in a certain loft above
+a warehouse in the court of the printing-office, only attainable by
+a long ladder. Here, secure that none but favoured ears could hear,
+Lance practised on his beloved violin, at every hour he could steal,
+emulating too often Mother Hubbard's dog 'fiddling to mice,' but
+his audience often including his three younger sisters. He had had
+scarcely any hints, but his was the nature that could pick music out of
+anything; and Angela, much more than Robin, was ecstatic in all that
+concerned the sixth sense, and watched and criticised with rapture,
+wanted to learn, and pouted at being told that it was not fit for a
+woman. Among those stacks of paper in the dusty loft, with the stamp
+and thud of the press close at hand, it was possible to forget, in
+creating sounds and longing to fulfil the dream of the spirit, that
+Alda was exacting and trying, Wilmet blind to the annoyances she
+caused, Cherry striving hard, and not always successfully, with the
+fretfulness of anxiety, and Felix--they durst not think in what state.
+That loft and that violin made their fairy-land, and one that rendered
+it most unusually hard for Lance to learn his holiday task.
+
+'I'll tell you what, Lance,' said Robina at last, when he had vainly
+been trying to repeat it to her, with his eye on a sheet of music all
+the time, 'you can't do two things at once. If I were you, I would lock
+up that violin till the summer examination is over.'
+
+He turned on her quite angrily. 'Very fine talking! Lock up all the
+pleasure I have in life! Thank you!'
+
+'I'm quite sure you'll never get the exhibition if you have your head
+in this.'
+
+'I shan't get the exhibition any way.'
+
+'But if you do your utmost for it?'
+
+'I shall do my utmost!'
+
+'You can't if you have these tunes always running in your head, and are
+always wild to be picking them out.'
+
+'Well, Robin, I sometimes think I should do more good with music than
+anything else.'
+
+'Maybe,' said Robina, a sensible little woman; 'but you'll do no good
+by half and half. If you don't do well in the examination, Felix will
+be horribly vexed, and you'll always hate the thought of it.'
+
+'I tell you I shall be as dull as ditch-water, and as stupid as
+Shapcote, if I don't have any pleasure.'
+
+'I only don't want you to be stupider.'
+
+Lance chucked up a pen-wiper and caught it.
+
+'The fact is,' said Robina, 'all we've got to do is our best. If we
+don't, it is wrong in us, and it makes us more a weight on Felix; and
+I think it is our real duty to keep everything out of the way that
+hinders us, if it is ever so nice.'
+
+'Is that Cock Robin, or Parson Rook with his little book?' said Lance,
+throwing the pen-wiper in her face.
+
+But the week after, when Robina was at school again, she was called to
+receive a letter which had something hard in it.
+
+'Did you leave a key behind you?' she was asked a little suspiciously,
+for there was nothing about it in the brief note.
+
+'No, Miss Fennimore; but my brother has sent it to me to keep for him.
+It is the key of his violin-case, and he is not going to touch it till
+he is past his examination.'
+
+From that time Miss Fennimore entertained a better opinion of Robina
+Underwood; but little recked Robina. She only felt secure that after
+this act of heroism Lance could not but gain the exhibition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+MIDSUMMER SUN.
+
+     'For Phoebus' awful self encountered him
+      Amid the battle throng invisible,
+      In thickest darkness shrouded all his face;
+      He stood behind, and with extended palm
+      Dealt on Patroclus' neck and shoulder broad
+      A mighty buffet.'
+                             _Iliad, Book_ xvi. (_Earl of Derby._)
+
+
+Warmer weather came at last, and brought Mr. Froggatt back to his daily
+work, lifting a weight of responsibility from his young partner's
+shoulders.
+
+The cough mended too, but did not entirely cease; and when June came
+in with an unusual access of summer heat, there were those who felt it
+as trying as the sharp wind had been. One evening, when the home party
+had been sitting in the garden, and the fall of the dew sent Cherry
+indoors, Felix, as usual, gave her his arm, and lifted her step by
+step up the stairs. She felt, all over her frame, that what used to be
+almost nothing to the boy was a severe exertion to the man.
+
+'You should not do it!' she said, as they both stood resting at the
+top, he leaning back against the wall, and wiping his forehead, where
+the big blue V of the veins stood out prominently.
+
+'Having so often carried the calf--I should be able to carry--the cow,'
+he said, the smile not disguising the panting of his voice.
+
+'You are to be at the agricultural meeting at Dearport to-morrow. I
+wish you would just go and see Dr. Lee.'
+
+'I think I shall.' And there they were interrupted.
+
+Poor Geraldine! What worlds of apprehension were founded on that quiet
+assent, his first intimation that he believed himself unwell! She
+kept absolute silence. She could not have uttered her terrors for ten
+thousand worlds.
+
+She was on her couch under the apple-tree, in the late afternoon,
+trying to force her thoughts out of miserable possibilities, when she
+saw Felix come out of the house, flushed, heated, dusty, tired; but
+somehow she gathered hope from his air, as he threw himself down on the
+grass by her side, saying, 'Mr. Froggatt sent me out to cool.'
+
+'Stella, dear,' to the little one, who had her story-book at hand, 'run
+and ask Sibby to bring Felix out a cup of tea.' Then she tried to guess
+at his face, but durst not look at him fully. 'Are you very tired?'
+
+'Rather! That place was a mere oven of roaring! Well, Cherry,' pulling
+off his neck-tie, and settling himself, with an elbow on her couch, and
+his back against the tree, 'there's nothing amiss with my lungs.'
+
+She shuddered all over, and almost bounded; then put her hand tenderly
+on his shoulder.
+
+'Your doctor is a clever man, I can see,' he continued. 'He seemed to
+guess about me directly. He sounded my chest, and says it is all right
+now, but that there had been a little damage; he thought the long cough
+I had after the measles had left traces that this winter has told upon.'
+
+'Ah!' A great gasp.
+
+'But there's no active disease--none at all; nor likely, if I can shake
+off this remnant of cough, and get into condition before the winter.'
+
+Cherry sighed again at the white hand, and the net-work of blue veins
+on both it and the temple that was propped against it. 'You must
+_indeed!_' she wistfully said.
+
+'I _must_,' said Felix, sighing too, as with little mind for the
+struggle. 'I've brought home a detestable bottle of cod-liver oil on
+the spot, and am to take to all the good living I can swallow. Won't
+that delight Mr. Froggatt's good old soul? Then the worst of it is that
+I am to go away to some sea place for the hottest of the weather.'
+
+'Oh, I'm so glad!'
+
+'He taxed me with not taking food enough; and when I allowed that I had
+no turn for eating, insisted on this sea plan: but he laughed me to
+scorn when I asked whether I might not get a room at Dearport, and run
+backwards and forwards. "Ay," he said, "you have a good deal on your
+mind;" and I fell into the trap, and told him my partner had been ill,
+and we had a great deal to work up. And he went on to ask if I had not
+the charge of the family, and was not apt to get anxious about them;
+and he turned round on me, and ordered me to get a thorough holiday,
+and turn my back on everybody and everything; for there's nothing the
+matter with me but overwork and harass--' Something that did not amount
+to _and_ finished the sentence.
+
+'O Felix, I know, I have felt,' she said, the tears standing in her
+eyes, and the colour rushing into her face at this first venture.
+
+'Have you--little foolish thing?' he answered, but shifting hand and
+elbow so that nothing of his face could be seen but a bit of brow and
+temple, and that was crimson to the roots of his hair. 'Don't take it
+for more than it ever was,' he muttered.
+
+'It was enough to hurt you grievously,' whispered the sister.
+
+'It ought not,' he said. 'It was only the putting out of a vain foolish
+hope I had no right to indulge. Eh, Cherry!' as she made a little
+sound, 'tell me one thing; was it all imagination and folly that
+she--she could have--liked me?' He bent his head with almost as much
+suppressed emotion as if it had been a matter of present hope.
+
+'Certainly not,' said Cherry. 'She liked your--your attentions; and I
+thought sometimes you were quite pulling her up to your level. If no
+one else--'
+
+'I did not imagine it was visible,' he interrupted. 'I tried to be very
+guarded, but one does not know--'
+
+'You were. Somehow one feels more than one sees.'
+
+'And you thought she did? Then at least I was not quite a fool! I
+fancied that there was response enough to what seems to have shown in
+spite of me to warrant the dream that if ever a time came--!'
+
+'If she had had depth enough!'
+
+'But, of course,' said Felix in a tone of defence, 'she never really
+knew; he guessed still less.'
+
+'No, I am sure he never guessed. There is that comfort,' said Cherry.
+
+'It is the greatest I have had all along,' said Felix. 'For the rest,
+it was no wonder.'
+
+'No,' said Cherry; 'but it all managed to fall in the very hardest way
+on you. No wonder it was too much for you!'
+
+'It is odd,' mused Felix, 'how this one dream has seemed to take all
+the heart and soul out of one; there seemed no elasticity to meet other
+things. I must say all this doctor's advice has been seeming an amazing
+amount of trouble for what is not very well worth having in the end.'
+
+'O Felix, Felix you will--'
+
+'My Cherie, you don't think I'd drop off the coach while you are in it
+if I can help it, to say nothing of the rest! I suppose every one has
+something of the sort in his turn, and I'll take good care not to be
+let in for it again. Thank you, Cherry,' he added presently, and now
+looking at her, 'I am very glad to have had this out with you. I think
+I can make a fresh start now. What, silly little thing! crying, when I
+thought I had brought you good news!'
+
+'You are quite sure you have told me all Dr. Lee said?' she demanded,
+holding his hands tight, and gazing into the face, which certainly,
+with the still heightened colour, looked both delicate and weary. 'You
+have been so much worse than you told!'
+
+'No, indeed, I have felt very little but weariness and want of energy;
+but I am better now than I have felt for weeks. And what is more,
+Cherry, I don't feel like getting worse. I mean to set myself to live
+to get through the work my father left me.'
+
+'Taking care of all of us! Is that all you care to live for, Felix?'
+
+'All, just now. Don't look shocked, Cherry. You know it is all very
+fresh' ('Five months--poor Felix!' thought she), 'and there is the
+continual pain of knowing how wretched those people make the poor
+child. When she is happier, perhaps the shade will lighten. Don't be
+afraid, you dear little thing' (he was answering her piteous eyes),
+'there's plenty of time to recover it. I suppose I am really very young
+still.'
+
+'Not quite three and twenty! Oh, Felix! I am sure God will give you
+back happiness, you are so good and patient! Where will you go, and
+when?'
+
+'How I wish you could go with me! Dr. Lee said he should like to send
+me to Switzerland; but as he might as well have said the moon, he said
+any sea place would do. Rest and good air are all that signifies; so I
+thought of Ewmouth, and then I might see Vale Leston again. I believe
+you want it as much as I. You are a little washed-out rag.'
+
+'I shall be all right when I know you are better.' Then as Sibby
+brought out the tea, and Stella the toast she had insisted on making,
+he began to look at his short-hand notes. 'Never mind those. You are
+to rest, you know.--Stella, little one, run to the office, and if Mr.
+Froggatt is not busy, get him to come and have some tea.'
+
+This was always a mission to Stella's taste; and Mr. Froggatt was
+soon installed in the only basket-chair that would hold him, and was
+professing his relief and satisfaction that Mr. Underwood had been wise
+enough to take advice at last. He had better go any day, the sooner the
+better; and even his desire to take the newspaper work with him would
+have been overruled, but for the simple fact that there was nobody else
+capable of it, in the present state of Mr. Froggatt's eyes.
+
+Alda had been lying down in her own room. Her cup of tea--an
+institution that for any one else Wilmet would have deemed sinful
+waste--had been rung for, when she saw from the window that Mr.
+Froggatt was one of the party in the garden; and whereas Sibby did not
+choose to hear or attend to her whims, she came down full of wrath and
+indignation, as soon as she saw that Cherry was left alone under her
+tree, and Wilmet coming out to her with the step of one who was glad
+her day's work was over.
+
+'Really, Sibby's inattention was shameful! Not choosing to bring the
+tea upstairs when it was rung for!'
+
+'You forget how much Sibby has to do, Alda.'
+
+'You have quite spoilt Sibby. I would not have such a servant on any
+account. I'm sure I don't know why the tea was so early, either. Cherry
+ordered it, I believe.'
+
+'Yes,' said Cherry, 'because Felix came in so hot and tired.'
+
+'He could have waited, I suppose,' began Alda; but Wilmet was asking
+anxiously, 'Is he so very tired? Where is he? I was afraid he would be
+knocked up, he looked so pale when he set off.'
+
+'He is gone to write out his notes,' said Cherry; 'I think he is rested
+now. And, Mettie,' she added, knowing that he had rather not have to
+begin the subject again, 'I am glad to say he has been to see Dr. Lee.
+And he says that his lungs are all safe, only he must be careful, and
+go away for a change.'
+
+'Just as I say,' exclaimed Alda; 'no one can be well, living in such a
+hole! When are we to go?'
+
+'My dear Alda,' said Wilmet, 'you forget. No one can possibly go but
+Felix; and it will be hard enough to manage for him.'
+
+'Then I do think it is very selfish in him,' said Alda, 'when every one
+of us wants change! I'm as languid as possible; and look at Cherry.'
+
+Felix selfish! Even Wilmet could not stand that, and answered with her
+most severely gentle manner, 'Nothing but necessity will induce Felix
+to do so. I beg you will say nothing of the sort again.'
+
+Cherry was alarmed lest Wilmet might not be convinced of the necessity,
+and might think more of present pounds than future health; but in fact,
+Wilmet was as much relieved as Cherry herself by the medical opinion,
+for she had charged the failure of health entirely to the constitution
+instead of the heart, and moreover never was troubled with misgivings
+and heart-sinkings for the future. So, as for a needful and infallible
+cure, she set herself to arrange, writing again to Abednego Tripp,
+the Vale Leston clerk, whose possession of a market boat kept him
+conversant with Ewmouth, and who recommended rooms in the house of a
+former servant at the Rectory who had married a sailor.
+
+Felix only waited to put his business in train, and make over Theodore
+to the care of Clement, who had just come home from Cambridge. The
+quantity of work and bustle had not been beneficial, and his sisters
+did not feel at all happy in sending him off by himself; while Alda
+was inclined to think the time a particularly cruel one, just as all
+the most unquiet spirits of the household would be coming home for the
+holidays, and his authority would be most wanted.
+
+However, Wilmet was free first of all, and she was a more efficient
+guardian of the peace than ever Felix could be downstairs. Lance was
+to come on the evening of the 26th of June, after the examination for
+the exhibition, which, as he had told every one, he was quite sure not
+to gain. And then what was to be done with him, small and boyish as he
+still was?
+
+The question was sighed over on that day by the three sisters as
+they sat endeavouring to be cool, and looking out at the glowing
+street where the few passengers seemed to be crawling like flies on a
+window-pane.
+
+Presently a rather hesitating knock at the door was followed by the
+entrance of Mr. Froggatt, ushering in no other than Mr. Harewood.
+
+In the moment of shaking hands, Cherry had foreboded enough to set her
+pulses throbbing so violently as to deafen her ears. Lance had failed,
+had run away in despair, to go to Fulbert rather than be a burthen;
+Felix would go in search of him--break a blood-vessel--and--
+
+Nay--what was it? Lance? It really was Lance! Was not Wilmet talking
+of going? Mr. Harewood saying something about trains? She made a
+great effort to clear her senses, and the first thing she really
+distinguished was Wilmet saying, 'Thank you, I will put a few things
+together.'
+
+Then she hurried away, and Cherry found Mr. Froggatt standing over her,
+saying kindly, 'Dear Miss Geraldine, don't be alarmed. There is often
+no bad result.'
+
+'How was it? I don't understand,' said Alda.
+
+Mr. Harewood owned himself not perfectly informed, but he feared the
+trouble had been in great part occasioned by his own poor boy William's
+carelessness. The two boys had strolled out the evening before, along
+the bank of the river, and had compared the copies of verses which
+were to be shown up at the examination. Afterwards they had bathed,
+and Will had left his verses meantime in the hollow of a tree, never
+remembering them till he found himself in his place in the Cathedral on
+the very morning of the examination. When he came out, not only did his
+duties as senior chorister chain him to the spot, but he had put off to
+the last moment the fair copying of his algebraic exercises, and his
+chance of the exhibition was as good as lost (the very loop-hole that
+Robina had predicted his carelessness would make), had not Lance, whose
+preparations were all made, as soon as he understood the difficulty,
+dashed headlong off, bare-headed as he stood at the school door,
+without waiting to fetch his cap, and laid the verses on his rival's
+desk just in time for them to be shown up. He had been absent about
+twenty minutes, and had scarcely been missed; but when his turn came,
+a few moments later, to bring his papers to the examiners, as soon as
+he stood up, he staggered, gazed round, cried out, and fell forward
+on his desk insensible. A doctor, who like Mr. Harewood himself had
+been present to hear a son's performance, had helped to raise him,
+and pronounced it to be a case of sun-stroke; nor, when, half an hour
+later, the librarian set off to fetch his sister, had there been any
+sign of consciousness.
+
+Mr. Harewood tried to be calm, but he was evidently in great distress;
+and Mr. Froggatt could not restrain large tears from dropping.
+
+As to Cherry, she could only tremble, unable to speak or cry; and Mr.
+Froggatt called out to Alda to do something for her, when Alda said she
+would call Wilmet, which made Cherry burst out with 'Don't, don't!' and
+shudder the more with tearless sobs; but happily, Clement coming down,
+fetched her remedies, and did more by whispering a few kind words of
+hope and comfort.
+
+He was going with Wilmet, who was as usual the self-possessed one; and
+while passively allowing Mr. Froggatt to give her biscuits and even
+wine, she left her few parting directions. 'Alda, take care of them
+all.--Stella, try to keep Tedo happy.--Cherry, don't give way and fancy
+things.--Above all, don't write to Felix! He must not be hurried home
+without necessity. I could telegraph if there was--' and there her
+steady voice faltered, she drew down her veil and turned to walk to the
+station, Clement carrying her bag, and Mr. Froggatt accompanying them
+to the train.
+
+Very little was said on the way, before they reached the town whose
+last associations were so joyous. Mr. Harewood would have given Wilmet
+his arm, dreading the tidings that might meet her; but she was walking
+straight on, with head erect, as though neither needing nor seeking
+support.
+
+They reached the low wicket-door of the Bailey, and as they entered the
+little court and passed the window, they saw that people were still
+standing about the bed in the corner. Everything was open, to admit
+such air as might stir that sultry heat. Some one came to the door, and
+said, 'No change.'
+
+Then Wilmet and Clement advanced to the narrow old dark oak bed,
+and Mrs. Harewood made way for them, fresh tears starting at their
+presence. There he lay, their bright agile boy, with eyes half closed
+and fixed, and circled half way down his cheeks with livid purple, like
+bruises, the purple lips emitting a heavy breath, his crest of sunny
+hair hanging dank with the melting of the ice on his head.
+
+Clement's lips trembled, and he dropped on his knees, hiding his
+face and stifling his sobs in his hands. Wilmet, after looking for
+permission to a gentleman at the foot of the bed, whom she took for the
+doctor, laid her hand on the helpless fingers, and bent to kiss the
+brow, saying softly and steadily, 'Lance, dear Lancey!'
+
+The eyelids moved, the hand closed, there was a struggling stifled
+utterance: 'Wilmet, Wilmet, bring me back! Oh, bring me back!'
+
+She looked up, and read in the watchers' faces that they were glad.
+'Yes, dear Lance,' she said, in her soft steady voice, 'I am here. You
+will soon be better.'
+
+He clung to her, as if blindly struggling with some terrible
+oppression, and the effort ended in violent sickness, exhausting him
+into unconsciousness again; but just then the real doctor came in,
+having been summoned by a message at the first symptom of change from
+the state of stupor. At the same time the Cathedral bell began to
+ring for evening prayer, and Lance at once was roused to endeavour to
+obey it, and when he was gently held back, murmured on about finding
+the places, and seeing Bill was not late. Mr. Harewood had to go, but
+whispered that he would ask the prayers of the congregation. It was
+comfortable to remember that Lance was thought of there, when, as the
+deep roll of the organ vibrated round the building, psalm, chant,
+anthem, and response came thronging thick and confusedly on those
+unconscious lips.
+
+Dr. Manby, however, told Wilmet not to be too much alarmed at this
+delirium, for the most immediate danger had passed when the lethargy
+had given way, and that though fever was probably setting in, there
+was fair hope that so healthy a boy would be able to struggle through
+it without permanent harm. There was a gentleness and consideration in
+his manner quite new to her after her dealings with Mr. Rugg, and she
+felt at the same time that he was not concealing the truth from her.
+She told how it was with her eldest brother, asking whether he ought to
+be sent for; and it was a great lightening of present fear to be told
+that there was now no need for haste, and that any change for the worse
+would give full time to bring him; moreover, that new faces were to be
+avoided. Should a nurse be sent from the hospital? Wilmet raised her
+steady sensible eyes, and said she could manage, she was well used to
+nursing.
+
+'I see you are,' he answered, well satisfied, since there were besides
+the Precentor's housekeeper, who was used to act as matron to the
+boarding choir-boys, and apparently an unlimited power of Harewoods.
+
+As to the place, Lance had at first been carried to his own bed, and
+even if there had been a regular infirmary, he was in no state to bear
+being moved. The other boys' goods had been removed, and they all were
+going home that evening; so that it was as cool and as quiet a place
+as could be had, since there was no doubt that the sounds from the
+Cathedral would be hushed for so critical a case.
+
+Indeed, just as Dr. Manby had said this, both the Dean and the
+Precentor were seen coming through the Bailey on the way out of church
+to ask after the patient; and the former promised Wilmet that the bells
+and organ should both be silenced, and that the daily service should be
+in the Lady Chapel.
+
+It appeared there had been little but the instrumental music that
+evening, and strangers who had heard the praises of the Minsterham
+choir must have been disappointed; for the psalms so entirely overcame
+the senior chorister that he could do nothing but sob, and at last was
+fain to stuff half the sleeve of his surplice into his mouth to hinder
+a howl such as the least of the boys actually burst out with. Most of
+the other lads were far past singing, and even two or three of the
+men; and such voices as did uplift themselves were none of the best or
+clearest.
+
+That poor senior chorister--he crept back after his father into the
+room. It was his first entrance, for he had been kept all day at the
+examination, with what power of attention may be guessed; and when
+some half-recognition of him set the sufferer off into wanderings
+that showed habitual vigilance over his carelessness, he was so much
+distressed that he rushed out, and was heard crying so piteously in
+the court, that his mother went out to hush and comfort him. Never
+strong, the shock, anxiety, and exertion had so worn her out, that her
+family would not let her come back; but their attention to the nurses
+did not relax--they were viewed as guests both by Mr. Beccles and
+the Harewoods; and when it was found that neither would come away to
+another house to dine, a little table was prepared in the court, close
+to the door, and the sister and brother, coaxed one by one, and made to
+eat and drink; while, as Clement could not bear to go home, a note was
+written, the delivery of which to the sisters Mr. Beccles undertook to
+secure. All the evening, Mr. Harewood or his eldest son, the engineer
+captain, the same whom Wilmet had taken for the doctor, sat at the
+other end of the room; while Lance lay, sometimes babbling school tasks
+mixed with anthems and hymns, sometimes in something between sleep and
+torpor, but always moaning and fevered.
+
+This strange temporary infirmary, of which Wilmet was made free,
+consisted of two long narrow rooms, each with a row of quaint black oak
+beds and presses, between the double row of narrow lattice windows,
+looking into the court on one side, and the cloister on the other.
+There was a smaller room dividing these two chambers, and opening
+into both, which the under-master had vacated, and where the matron
+installed Miss Underwood's little bag.
+
+Clement was a good deal impressed with the place, in the grand quiet
+shadow of the old Cathedral; and the room itself told much of his
+brother's daily life, in his own little section of it. The deep
+window-seat and old oak chest were loaded with piles of 'Punch,' sheets
+of music, school-books, and grotesque sketches; bat, hockey-stick, and
+fishing-rod were in the corner; trencher cap and little black gown
+hung on their peg on the white-washed walls, and pinned beside them
+lists of the week's music, school-work, &c. In the corner by the press
+was a little rough deal table, covered with an old white shawl that
+Clement remembered as his mother's; and on it lay Lance's old brown
+Bible, the Prayer-book given him by the Bishop, 'Steps to the Altar,'
+and Ken's Manual; over it hung the photograph of his father, and next
+above, an illumination of Cherry's, 'The joy of the Lord is your
+strength;' while above was a little print of the Good Shepherd. Nor
+was it a small testimony to the boy who had been senior in the room,
+that Clement found one or two other such little tables, evidently for
+private prayer. He had never believed such things could be out of St.
+Matthew's, nor where the books were not more of his own exclusive type
+than were Lance's; and perhaps there was some repentance for harsh
+judgment in his spirit as he knelt on by that little table long after
+Mr. Harewood, near midnight, had read a few prayers and gone to his
+house.
+
+When Clement stood up, his sister made him lie down, as well as his
+long legs would permit, on one of the other beds, where he soon fell
+asleep; while she sat on, where she could see the spire rising aloft
+into the pale blue of the summer night's sky, while the perfect
+stillness was only broken by the quarterly chiming of the clock,
+re-echoed from its fellow in the town-hall. Every window and door
+was open, but the air was heated and oppressive till the early dewy
+coolness before dawn crept in, making her bend over Lance to cover him
+less slightly. Then she met his eyes, heavy and blood-shot, but with
+himself in them.
+
+'Wilmet, is that you?' he said, in a wondering tone.
+
+'Yes, here I am, dear Lance.'
+
+'Is it night or morning?'
+
+'Morning. There, it is striking three-quarters past two.'
+
+'Oh!' a long sigh. 'I'm so thirsty!'
+
+She brought some drink; but as he tried to raise his head, the
+distressing sickness returned in full force, and in the midst the
+gasping cry, 'My head, my head!'
+
+'Some more ice, Clem,' said Wilmet; but Clement looked up from the
+ice-pail in despair, for all was melted; and she could only steep
+handkerchiefs in the water and in eau-de-cologne, and lay them on the
+head, while Clement wondered if he could find a shop; but where was
+the use at three in the morning? and poor Lance rolled round wearily,
+sighing, 'Oh, I did not know one's head could ache so!'
+
+Just then a step crossed the court, and a low voice said, 'Is he awake?
+I have brought some more ice.'
+
+'O Jack, thank you!' faintly breathed Lance.
+
+'Thank you!' fervently added Wilmet; 'we did not know what to do for
+some more!'
+
+'I thought you must want some by this time. I have a little ice-machine
+for Indian use,' he added, as Clement looked at him like a sort of
+wizard.
+
+He was small, sandy, and freckled after the Harewood fashion, and
+was besides dried up by Eastern suns; but one who brought such
+succour could not fail to be half celestial in the sister's eyes; and
+as he said, 'You are getting better,' her response was fervent in
+its quietness, though poor Lance, conscious only of oppression and
+suffering, merely replied with a groan, and seemed to be dozing again
+into torpor in the relief the ice had given.
+
+Clement and Captain Harewood besought Wilmet to rest--the latter
+declaring himself to be too much of an East Indian to sleep at dawn;
+and she consented to lie down in the little room, where she had enough
+of wakeful slumber to strengthen her for the heat of the day, when the
+fever ran high, and all the most trying symptoms returned.
+
+The doctor continued to forbid despondency, building much on the
+lucid interval in the cool of the morning, and ascribing much of the
+excitement of brain to the excessive, almost despairing, study that
+Lance had been attempting in the last weeks before the examination.
+There had, too, been a concert given by one of the great ladies of the
+Close, for which there had been a good deal of practice, harassed by
+certain amateur humours; and the constant repetition of one poor little
+shallow song in the delirious murmur greatly pained the Precentor, and
+made him indulge in murmurs that boded ill to the ladies' chances with
+the choir-boys. The sultry weather was likewise a great enemy, and
+could hardly be mitigated by the continual fanning kept up chiefly by
+poor Bill Harewood, who seemed to have no comfort except in working the
+fan till he was ready to drop, and his brother or Clement took it from
+him.
+
+Mrs. Harewood was quite knocked up, and her daughters were curiously
+inefficient people. Their father came and went all day; but the
+serviceable person was the engineer, with his experience of
+sun-strokes, his devices for coolness, and his cheerful words, stilling
+the torrent of rambling restlessness, so that Wilmet depended upon him
+as much as on the doctor himself.
+
+On Saturday, the third day of the fever, which had rather increased
+than diminished, Wilmet begged Clement to go home for the night, to
+carry a report to the sisters, and fetch some things she wanted. He
+lingered, grieving and reluctant; while the heated atmosphere was like
+a solid weight on the sufferer, who lay, now and then murmuring some
+distressed phrase, as though labouring with some forgotten task; and
+Wilmet shunned touching the pulse again lest the reckoning should be
+higher than the last, and strove to construct a message conveying the
+hope that seemed to faint in the burthen of the day, insisting, above
+all, that guarded accounts should be sent to Felix, keeping carefully
+to Dr. Manby's report.
+
+'I can be here before nine,' said Clement; 'I wish I could help going.
+I feel as if something must happen!'
+
+'A thunderstorm,' said Captain Harewood in a reproving voice, as he
+plied the fan, with heat-drops on his brow; 'a thunderstorm, which will
+prove the best doctor. Take care, you will miss the train.'
+
+Clement stooped to kiss the unconscious face, as though he had never
+prized his little brother before, and as some association of the touch
+of the lips awoke the murmur, 'Mamma, Mamma!' he sped away with eyes
+full of tears.
+
+Before he could have reached the station, the storm was coming--great
+rounded masses of cloud, with silver-foamed edges and red lurid
+caverns, began to climb slowly up the sky, distant grumbles of thunder
+came gradually nearer, a few fitful gusts of wind came like sirocco,
+adding to the stifling heat, and were followed by exceeding stillness,
+broken by the first few big drops of rain, the visible flashes, and the
+nearer peals of thunder, till a sudden glare and boom overhead startled
+Lance into a frightened bewildered state, that so occupied Wilmet that
+she hardly heard the roaring, pattering hail-drops on the roofs and
+pavements; but when a sweet fresh wind blew away the hail, the weary
+head was more at rest, the slumber more tranquil, the breathing freer
+and softer than it had been since that Wednesday.
+
+Some two hours later she saw him looking at her with a sort of
+perplexed smile; and the first words upon his tongue were, 'Is Bill
+first?'
+
+'Nothing is settled till the Bishop comes home,' Captain Harewood
+answered.
+
+'What time is it?' then asked Lance.
+
+'Half-past eight.'
+
+'It seems always half dark, said the boy, dreamily, 'and yet there's no
+curfew.'
+
+'They have been so kind as not to ring the bells,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Not ring the bells!' repeated Lance, in a feeble voice of amazement.
+
+'No, nor play the organ,' said Wilmet; 'you have had to be so quiet,
+you know.'
+
+'No organ! and for me!' repeated Lance, impressed almost as if the
+'unchanging sun his daily course' had 'refused to run;' but it rather
+frightened him, for he added, 'Am I very ill, then?'
+
+'Not now, I hope,' said Wilmet, tenderly, and possessing herself of his
+wrist; 'you are so much better to-night.'
+
+He looked wistfully into her face. 'What's the matter with me?' he
+said. 'What does make my head go on in this dreadful way?'
+
+'Dear Lance! It was that running in the hot sun.'
+
+'Oh!' (a sort of sigh of discovery) 'I hope he had the verses.'
+
+'Yes, indeed you gave them.'
+
+'Then he must be first,' said Lance; and then, as his thankful nurses
+were preparing to give him some nourishment, he spoke again. 'Mettie,
+please come here;' and as she bent over him, 'is this being very
+ill?--like dying, I mean.'
+
+'Not now, dearest,' said Wilmet, kissing him. 'You must be through with
+the worst, thank God.'
+
+He asked no more, for his voice was low and faint, the pain and
+dizziness still considerable; and the being fed without raising himself
+occupied him till the doctor came for his evening visit, and confirmed
+the sister's comfort in his improvement. She sat gazing as he fell
+asleep again, till Captain Harewood reminded her that her letter to
+Ewmouth must be sent before the mail closed. She turned to the window,
+where still lay her anxiously-worded bulletin, not yet closed; but as
+she took the pen, the blinding tears fell thick and soft as the summer
+rain outside.
+
+'This will be a happy ending,' said John Harewood, as he saw her
+silently striving to clear her sight.
+
+'Would you be so very kind as to write it for me?' she answered,
+pointing to the paper, with a lovely smile through her tears. 'He will
+believe it all the more.'
+
+And as he took the pen, she retreated in quiet swiftness to her little
+room; but came back as he finished the few freshly hopeful lines; then
+going to the door with him, looked up with the same sweet tremulous
+smile. 'Thank you! What thankfulness it is! What a merciful rain this
+is! If you knew the relief it is to send this report to Felix! You
+cannot guess what this dear little fellow is to him.'
+
+'I think I can, a little,' said John Harewood, with his heart in his
+voice; and Wilmet smiled again, her stately but usually rather severe
+beauty wonderfully softened and sweetened by emotion.
+
+The improvement continued when Clement arrived on the Sunday morning;
+and though fevered, confused, and beset by odd fancies, especially
+about the silence of the Cathedral, Lance knew his brother, smiled at
+him, and returned his greeting. Clement had a more cheerful task than
+usual in what seemed to be his day's work--answering inquiries at the
+door, and taking in presents of fruit. All the Chapter and half the
+town seemed to call, or send, at least once a day; and little boys used
+to hang about the court, too shy to come to the door, but waiting to
+collect tidings from the attendants, and mutually using strong measures
+upon one another when either was betrayed into noise.
+
+Clement called his sister aside to ask whether she could spare him,
+since she had the help of the matron and the Harewoods. 'I should be
+very glad to stay,' he averred, 'but somebody is really wanted at home.'
+
+Wilmet had not been so much accustomed to consider Clement in the light
+of 'somebody,' as greatly to care whether he went or stayed, and only
+said, 'I can get on very well. No one is of so much use as Captain
+Harewood.'
+
+'Just so,' said Clement; 'and I think I am doing more good at home.
+Imagine my finding all the windows open in that pouring rain, and
+Cherry sitting shivering.'
+
+'Very foolish of Cherry,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Poor Cherry! she could not help herself, and was only thankful when I
+had the courage to shut them in Alda's face. Then they don't know what
+to do with Theodore.'
+
+'Poor Tedo--that's the worst of it!'
+
+'You see he is used to a man's hand and voice. He is very good with me,
+but Sibby has had dreadful work with him every night till I came home.
+And, Wilmet, couldn't you send a message who is to be mistress while
+you are away?'
+
+'Alda, of course.'
+
+'Alda doesn't seem to understand, and she will not let Cherry tell her.'
+
+'Cherry always does bother Alda. I can't help it, Clem, they must rub
+on somehow; and if you can make Theodore happy, the rest does not so
+much signify.'
+
+Not signify! Clement did not know whether he was standing on his
+head or his heels, and never guessed that not only was she too much
+absorbed in the present thoroughly to realise the absent, but that she
+would not venture to send orders based on his report, which in her
+secret soul she qualified by his love of importance and interference.
+However, he went away, and was not seen again all the ensuing week--the
+early part of which was very trying, for the fever recurred regularly
+about noon and midnight, and always brought rambling, which since
+that conversation with Wilmet, had taken the turn of talking about
+being buried in a surplice, and of continually recurring to the 134th
+Psalm, which, it was now remembered, Lance had shortly before taken
+part in, over the grave of an old lay-vicar, who, boy and man, had
+served the Cathedral for nearly sixty years. Often, too, the poor
+little fellow seemed struggling with some sense of demerit--whether
+positive disgrace, or suspicion, or the general Christian feeling of
+unworthiness, Wilmet and John Harewood could never make out; and they
+did not choose to speak of these wanderings either to Will or to Mr.
+Beccles. In the intervals of consciousness, the thought of danger and
+death seemed to be lost in the weakness of exhaustion, and the dread of
+whatever brought back the pain, from which there was no respite except
+in cool air and perfect quiet. The least movement intensified it, and
+brought on the sickness that showed the brain to be still affected; and
+still worse was any endeavour to attend to the shortest and simplest
+devotions, when Mr. Harewood attempted them. Yet all the time there was
+amendment; the fever was every day less severe, the intervals longer,
+the sleep calmer, the doctor more securely hopeful; and by the end of a
+week from the time of the accident, recovery was beginning sensibly to
+set in.
+
+Clement, meanwhile, did not appear; nor was he seen till the ensuing
+Monday, when he stood on the threshold of the open door at the Bailey,
+bewildered at the emptiness of the bed where he had last seen his
+brother--till a weak voice said, 'Here, Clem,' and he saw on another of
+the little old beds a small figure, in a loose soft white silk Indian
+_robe de chambre_, the face shrunken into nothing but overhanging brow
+and purple haloed eyes, though the eyes themselves were smiling welcome
+in all their native blueness and clearness, and two thin white hands
+were held out.
+
+'Out of bed, Lance! That is getting on!'
+
+'Yes. They thought I should be cooler, and sleep better for it.'
+
+'And are you all alone?' said Clement, hanging over him.
+
+'The maids are about somewhere. Wilmet is gone to the Cathedral, while
+Jack got me up.'
+
+'Then you must be a great deal better.'
+
+'Oh yes; I haven't had any of that horrid fever since Friday.'
+
+'And the pain?'
+
+'Better, if I lie quite still and it is not hot, but I couldn't stand a
+bit when I tried. I hardly know how Jack carried me here.'
+
+'You are little and light enough,' said Clement; 'but I'll help to
+carry you back. I am sorry not to have been here more, Lance, but I was
+so much wanted at home.'
+
+'Thank you, I didn't want any one. Jack is such a fellow; and
+Wilmet--somehow, Clem, I never seem to have cared enough about W. W.'
+
+'Nor I, till I saw what home is like without her,' muttered Clement.
+
+'And isn't she beautiful, too?' added Lance; 'it is quite nice to lie
+and look at her at work. Don't you think her much better looking than
+Alda?'
+
+'If handsome is that handsome does,' said Clement. 'You wouldn't like
+me to stay with you instead of Mettie, old chap?'
+
+The helplessly alarmed look of illness came into Lance's eyes. 'Oh no,
+no; I couldn't spare Wilmet yet. She doesn't want to go?'
+
+'No; I have said nothing to her; but Cherry is not well, and everything
+is at sixes and sevens; but there, never mind,' as the tears started
+into the sick boy's eyes, 'we'll manage; I should not have said
+anything about it.'
+
+'Please don't,' said Lance. 'If she ought to go, let her, and don't
+tell me. I can't help it, Clem; I'm afraid to think if it ought to be,
+or I should make my head rage, and I should begin to talk nonsense
+again, and that's worst of all.'
+
+'Do you know when you are talking nonsense?' said Clement, surprised,
+and eager to lead off from the subject he felt he ought not to have
+broached.
+
+'Oh, yes, I know that it is not the right thing, and the right thing
+won't come; and the worst of it is,' lowering his already feeble voice,
+'saying one's prayers is hardest of all; I can't remember what I know
+best. I couldn't so much as go through the Magnificat if you were to
+shoot me.'
+
+'But holloa! They don't generally come out of the Cathedral this way,
+do they?'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'The Bishop! Ay, and the Dean! Speaking to Wilmet. I believe they are
+coming here. Lie still, Lance.'
+
+'I must,' he acquiesced, after half raising himself and falling back.
+'Oh, can it be about the prize? Some of that stuff on my forehead,
+please, Clem.'
+
+Wilmet came in first, ascertained that all was ready, put an arranging
+touch to Lance's pillows, and ushered in the two dignitaries, who shook
+his languid hand, and asked after him kindly.
+
+'You have put the Chapter into great difficulties by disabling yourself
+and Harewood,' said the Bishop. 'What! did you not know that the poor
+fellow entirely broke down?' as the eager eyes inquired.
+
+'Nobody would tell me anything about it,' said Lance.
+
+'It could not be helped,' continued the Bishop, 'but the examiners said
+they felt it a great cruelty when they saw how utterly astray distress
+rendered him. However, his papers and yours were both so good--his
+verses especially, and your arithmetic--that it was impossible to
+reject them, so the decision was put off till my return on Saturday.'
+
+'We think,' said the Dean, who was very old, very gentle, and very
+slow of speech--'we think, my little fellow, that though there is no
+doubt that Shapcote did best in the examination, and ought to have the
+exhibition, yet under the peculiar circumstances, you and Harewood can
+be retained as choir scholars for another year, so as to try again.
+You don't look sixteen, I'm sure, and we should be sorry to lose your
+voice.'
+
+'I'm only just turned sixteen,' said Lance, 'only on the 14th of June.
+Thank you, sir;--thank you, my Lord;' and his face beamed joy, though
+his words faltered.
+
+'Moreover,' proceeded the Bishop, 'I have the greatest pleasure in
+giving the good-conduct prize where, so far as I am able to judge, it
+has been well deserved.'
+
+A perilous flush of joy overspread the pale face; he started up on his
+elbows, and his eyes danced rapture, as some one at the door handed
+in the beautiful red morocco quarto of the Cathedral music; and the
+Bishop, with a fatherly hand making him lie down again, laid the book
+beside him, as he gasped out something like thanks.
+
+'We are quite convinced that you have deserved it,' repeated the Dean,
+again shaking hands with him, and then taking leave; but the Bishop
+remained, talking kindly to Clement about Cambridge, and inquiring for
+Felix; while Wilmet helped Lance's feeble fingers to turn the thick
+creamy pages on which he durst not fix his eyes.
+
+Presently the Bishop sat down again, and said, 'I have acted on my
+own judgment in giving you this, my boy. I have seen enough of our
+choir these six years to know that what caused so much displeasure was
+certainly not to be laid to your charge.'
+
+Lance made an uneasy movement, became alarmingly red, and said in a
+choked voice, 'I don't know but what it might, my Lord.'
+
+'You mean that you knew of this custom of getting out at night through
+the Cathedral?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord; I found out the way.'
+
+There was a silence.
+
+Then the Bishop said, 'After this, I can only leave it to your own
+conscience whether you ought to keep this book; but I think you would
+do wisely to let me know, remembering that I have no authority in the
+school.'
+
+Lance brightened, and he answered, 'My Lord, I did get out once, but
+only once, and I don't think I did wrong. It was a long time ago--in
+the autumn.'
+
+'Last autumn! Was it not then that there was a report of a chorister
+in his shirt sleeves being seen at the Green Man at eleven o'clock at
+night?'
+
+'That was I, my Lord.'
+
+Clement was ready to start forward, under the impression that Lance
+was talking his 'nonsense;' but the Bishop said, 'You were named, but
+nobody believed it for a moment.'
+
+'One of our little fellows was very ill, my Lord,' said Lance,
+excitement restoring something of his natural briskness. 'We thought he
+was going to have the cholera, and I went to get something for him. The
+chemists' shops were shut, so I went in there.'
+
+'May I ask the question,' said the Bishop, rather as if taking a
+liberty, 'why did you not call up Mr. Stokes?'
+
+'We couldn't, my Lord, for it was all Mr. Shapcote's swans' eggs.
+He caught them--three of our least fellows, I mean--jumping at the
+branches that hung over the river wall, and he blackguar--abused them
+so that they got into a rage and vowed he shouldn't have a plum left
+on the tree. We seniors knew nothing about it; but they got over the
+wall at dark, and one ate eighty-five and the other eighty-one; but,
+little Dick--one of them, I mean--could only get down nineteen, and
+brought the rest in his pockets. It was the first time such a thing
+had happened, and it put me in a proper rage. The little one was the
+one I found out first; and I thought he was sulky, so I licked him
+till he howled, so that I was afraid I'd done him some dreadful harm,
+like a regular brute; and when I found it was his inside instead of
+his outside, I was so glad, I could have done anything for him. But we
+couldn't call Stokes, or the poor little chap would have suffered for
+it three times over.'
+
+'That would have been hard measure! And did your remedy succeed?'
+
+'Yes; I think a good deal was fright. He went to sleep on the brandy,
+and was all right next day.'
+
+'And the gentlemen with the eighty-five and eighty-one suffered no
+inconvenience, of course?' said his Lordship, much amused. 'May I hear
+how you got out?'
+
+'With Mr. Harewood's key,' said Lance. 'He used to keep it on a nail
+inside the study door, which opens into the passage leading into this
+court, and is never locked.'
+
+'That is the key of the Cathedral library.'
+
+'Yes, my lord; it unlocks the outer door, and the door into the north
+transept.'
+
+'And after that--'
+
+'You can shoot the bolt on the inside of the little side-door at the
+west front, and climb over the railing.'
+
+'Boys are animals not to be kept in, that is certain! So you were
+pioneer! But you had nothing to do with those cards?'
+
+'No, my Lord. But I ought not to have told how I got out, for there
+were some who would do it afterwards. However, those cards were none of
+ours.'
+
+'Whose were they?'
+
+'Walter Shapcote's, my Lord. He is gone now, so it does not signify.'
+
+'That nephew Mr. Shapcote had in his office?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord; he had got the command of poor Gus, because he had lent
+him money for some debt that Gus was afraid to let his father know of,
+and made him get the key, and let him out and in.'
+
+'You all knew of this?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord; but poor Gus was sure that his father would be so
+dreadful, that we durst not let out a word. Mr. Shapcote makes every
+soul afraid of him.'
+
+'The young man is gone?'
+
+'Yes, my Lord, to London.'
+
+'And there is no danger of the like with Gus?'
+
+'Oh no, my Lord. He's too like a sheep! and now his debt is paid--after
+the last concert--he's sure not to get into the same scrape again.'
+
+'Thank you very sincerely,' said the Bishop. 'It is a great relief to
+me to know all this; and it is safe with me. I am only afraid I have
+made you talk more than is good for you.'
+
+'And may I keep this, my Lord?' he wistfully asked.
+
+'Indeed you may, my dear boy. If you have transgressed the letter of
+discipline, you have kept the spirit of charity. I am glad to keep
+_you_, as well as your voice. But I have tired you out.'
+
+And laying a hand of blessing on his brow, the Bishop took leave,
+Wilmet going to the door with him, to answer his fears that the
+interview had been too much for her patient, with assurances that the
+relief and gratification must do good in the end.
+
+He told her that the threat of the withholding of the prize had not
+been made by his authority, and that he had much regretted it. Just as
+the tidings of the sun-stroke and its cause had reached him, he had
+been with Mr. Nixon, the former Precentor, who had spoken warmly of
+Lance, saying that the whole tone of the boys had improved since his
+coming, though he was too much of a pickle ever to get the credit.
+Wilmet's pleasure was great; but before she could get back, Lance was
+nervously calling for her. The excitement was still great, his head
+was aching violently, and yet he could not leave off eager talking,
+which, as feverishness came on, began to degenerate into such rambling
+as terribly frightened Clement lest a relapse should be coming on. He
+wanted to hurry off to the doctor at once; but Wilmet, well knowing
+he would not be at home, repressed him, and quietly said she had some
+draughts ready, and knew what to do. While she was out of sight,
+preparing them, a great alarm came over the patient lest she should
+have left him; and all the rest of those noonday hours were spent in
+a continual restless desire to keep her in view, hold her hand, and
+elicit her assurances that she was not going home, nor going to leave
+him--no, not on any account. The very presence of his brother seemed to
+increase the uneasiness; and in the deepest humiliation and despair,
+Clement allowed himself to be invited away by Captain Harewood to see
+the process of ice-making, and be so far comforted that the Bishop's
+visit was probably far more likely to have done the mischief than his
+own rash suggestion, and that there was no reason to fear it would
+last many hours. In fact, Lance was recovering favourably, and had had
+few drawbacks. 'So I tell everybody,' said John Harewood, 'especially
+poor Bill, who is still ready to break his heart every time Lance has
+a headache, and would chatter him to death when he is better. And
+that's the way with them all! There seems no one that can be tender and
+reasonable both at once, except your sister.'
+
+Clement did full justice to that tenderness, when, out of sight
+himself, he had watched Wilmet's soothing firmness and patient
+reassuring softness, at last calming the feverish agitation into
+a sleep, which he was allowed to see for himself was gentle and
+wholesome. Only then--towards four o'clock--could Captain Harewood
+persuade her to let him keep guard, while she went to take the food
+that had been long waiting for her, and over which she could hear
+Clement's penitent explanation of his own unlucky proposal.
+
+'I thought he seemed so well--able to get up and all; and they _do_
+think me a good nurse at St. Matthew's. I nursed Fred Somers almost
+entirely when he had the scarlet fever.' (Wilmet looked as if she
+pitied St. Matthew's.) 'But of course I see now that it is out of the
+question.'
+
+'Entirely so,' said Wilmet, too kind to remind him of the
+qualifications he had evinced.
+
+'And you cannot guess when he can come home?'
+
+'Not in the least. Even if he could be moved, think of the noisiness of
+our house!'
+
+Clement groaned. 'It was very wrong in me to speak to him before you,
+Wilmet,' he said; 'but I should be thankful if you could tell me what
+is to be done! Cherry was thoroughly chilled that evening of the
+thunderstorm, and has been very poorly ever since.'
+
+'She always feels changes of weather.'
+
+'That's what Alda tells you. She won't believe there is anything the
+matter; but poor Cherry has had rheumatic pain all over her, and her
+bad ankle seems to have a bit of bone coming out. Sibby thinks so. Now,
+ought she not to have her doctor?'
+
+'Well! if--I wish I could be quite sure! It is such an unlucky thing
+that she has that dislike to Mr. Rugg.'
+
+'Wilmet! You are as bad as Alda!'
+
+'Clement,' she answered gently, 'you do not know what it is to have to
+reckon the expense. There is Felix's journey; and what this illness may
+cost, I cannot guess; and now Cherry! It is not that I grudge it; but I
+don't see what is to become of any of us if we spend unnecessarily--or
+necessarily either, for that matter.'
+
+'I thought her doctor didn't charge.'
+
+'He did not when she was at St. Faith's, but at home it is a different
+thing; but, of course, if it be really needful it cannot be helped.'
+
+'And you couldn't come home and see--even for one hour?'
+
+'Not yet, most certainly.'
+
+'I think I had better write to Sister Constance!'
+
+'If you really do find it impossible to get on, and Cherry is more
+than just ailing, and--and fractious' (the word came out at last); 'I
+don't like always calling for help, it seems presuming on kindness, and
+Robina will be helpful when she comes home; but no doubt Alda does not
+know what to do,' she added, in a deliberating tone.
+
+'Then you authorize me?'
+
+'I don't know what you mean by authorizing.'
+
+'Only that Alda will neither do anything herself, nor let any one else
+do it.'
+
+'Poor Alda! It is a hard time for her, and she is not used to it. I am
+afraid she is out of her element among you all. Don't be vexed, Clem;
+you all ought to make allowances for her.'
+
+'I make allowances from morning to night,' said Clement. 'I wonder how
+many Travis will have to make!'
+
+Wilmet had finished her hasty meal, and wanted to get back to her
+patient, so she only protested by a reproving look and shake of the
+head; while Clement stood disconcerted, but less surprised than if he
+had not been familiar with the part of the family Cassandra.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+BY THE RIVER.
+
+     'And Lancelot look'd, and was perplext in mind;
+      And being weak in body, said no more.'
+                                             _Tennyson._
+
+
+It was a lovely afternoon, and the sun shone outside the green tracery
+of a hornbeam alley in the Deanery garden, leading from the cloister
+to the river. Here lay Lancelot, on the long cushion of a sofa, while
+Wilmet sat stitching at the last of the set of collars that would
+always bring so many recollections. For this was a Saturday afternoon,
+and on the Monday Lance was to go to Ewmouth to join Felix, who was
+to have his holiday extended another month on that account. Alda, who
+had had a quarter's allowance from her uncle, had made this possible;
+and Wilmet was doubly gratified by its having been her twin's gift and
+thought.
+
+Wilmet would of course go home, and she found herself almost regretting
+the close of a time that had of late been very pleasant. She had not
+felt, as Geraldine would have done, the romance of living in the old
+monastic buildings, in the calm shadow of the grand old minster;
+yet something of the soothing of the great solemn quiet rested upon
+the spirit that had--since six years old--never known freedom from
+responsibility, and--since fifteen--had borne the burthen of household
+economies and of school teaching. It was a strange novelty to have
+meals provided without care of her own, no shortcomings of servants to
+make up, no claimant for her attention save a solitary patient, and
+that one with Lance's temper. Wilmet had undergone a good deal from
+Alda's clashes with the rest, even Felix's was only a temper well in
+hand, and alternate fretfulness and penitence were regarded by her
+as part and parcel of Geraldine's ailments; so that it was almost a
+surprise that her present convalescent never visited his discomforts
+upon her, but was always patient and good-humoured, smiling whenever
+he could, like his father before him, as if, according to the pretty
+Spanish saying, the sun had shone on his cradle at his birth. His
+unselfish nature had made him a little uneasy when with cooler senses
+he remembered Clement's hint, while love and instinct alike made him
+feel utterly unable to dispense with his motherly sister; but when she
+had assured him that nothing could make him leave him as yet, and when
+Sister Constance was known to be at Bexley, he threw it from his mind,
+and was perfectly happy and contented.
+
+He could still exert no attention, could neither read nor be read to,
+nor occupy himself in any way; but he was amused by talk around him,
+and companionship was never lacking. Wilmet, whose forte had never been
+conversation, found herself in a stream of small talk with inquiring
+friends of all degrees in the hierarchy; but was most at her ease when
+the female Harewoods were prattling good-humoured inconsequent chatter,
+Willie lying on the grass murmuring with Lance, or John lured into
+stories of Indian surveying adventures in the cause of the Ordnance
+Map. And when she was carried off to have her meals with the family,
+she had put herself so entirely at the mercy of circumstances, that she
+never seemed scandalised by their crazy unpunctuality, their wonderful
+free and easy ways, and customs of putting things to every use but
+the right, did not censure Grace or Lucy for dawdling and gossiping
+whole mornings away, and took it naturally when their mother inquired
+after her eldest brother by the alternate names of Festus and Frank,
+and when she mentioned Lance's disaster as his _coup d'etat_. And here
+was the last of these pleasant afternoons, full of still sweet sounds,
+midsummer hum above, the soft ripple of the water close by, the cawing
+of the rooks in the Close--all such peace, that her heart quailed as
+she looked forward to the din of the High Street at Bexley, and she
+strangled a sigh half way up her throat.
+
+The click of the cloister door was heard, and Lance awoke from a
+doze, saying, 'Is that Bill?--You've not been here since morning, you
+vagabone.'
+
+'See what I've got for you,' said Bill. 'What do you say for that, now?'
+
+For Lance, with sparkling eyes, was rising to his feet. 'Hurrah! Robin
+herself! O Robin a Bobbin, isn't this jolly?' and Robina was entangled
+in that wonderful embrace peculiar to their own two selves, too
+ecstatic for a word between them, though as she received her sister's
+kiss, she spoke rather pleadingly--'Cherry and Sister Constance said I
+might, Wilmet; and Mrs. Harewood was so very kind as to send Willie to
+fetch me to spend Sunday. Do you mind, Wilmet?'
+
+'Mind! Of course she doesn't,' said Lance. 'I was hungry to see you,
+Bob.'
+
+'It was very kind in Mrs. Harewood,' said Wilmet. 'I must go and thank
+her. Only, first, how is Cherry?'
+
+'Much better. She has been out for a drive with Mr. Froggatt. It will
+be all right now you are coming home, Mettie! Oh! and Dr. Lee is
+delighted to hear of Lance's going to Ewmouth to make Felix stay longer
+there. Oh! if ever anything was so delightful as this place! only I
+must see your prize, Lancey.'
+
+As the two children linked their arms round one another's waists to
+walk along the alley, all-sufficient to one another, maybe there shot
+a little pang across Wilmet's breast. No one had raptures for her. She
+was Felix's housekeeper, and represented mother to all; but since Alda
+had been taken from her, she had ceased to be any one's perfect equal
+and delight. She might be valued, but only like air, or bread, or any
+other necessary of life, but she was foremost with no one. Lance had
+been everything to her, and she to Lance, for full four weeks; but
+she should never awaken the look on his face she had seen for Robin.
+Such thoughts as these had never troubled her before; it had been
+quite enough to know herself indispensable to all, and there was no
+time for sentiment; but this strange time of nursing had inspired a
+new sensation of yearning, a softness and melancholy, that she strove
+against vainly as weak and unnatural.
+
+The change had not been unperceived by Lance; for as his little sister,
+looking at his sunken cheeks, and feeling his thin bony hand, poured
+out her pity, he answered, 'I've had rather a jolly time of it of
+late; Mettie is so delicious, you can't think how her very voice and
+eyes seemed to do me good. I'm sure that the bella-donna lily, cold
+hard painted thing, was a mistake; she must have been something much
+sweeter. What do you think of a honeysuckle? That's bright red and
+white, and its leaves come out when nothing else does.'
+
+'But it trails about, and doesn't stand alone.'
+
+'It has got a good stout hard stem, that can make a bush of its own
+when it hasn't anything to twine upon. I say, Robin, that's just what
+you women-folk should be, always ready to twine, and yet able to stick
+up for yourselves when you've got nothing to hang upon.'
+
+'Well, if Wilmet was the honeysuckle, I'm sure Alda wasn't. O Lance,
+it has been so horrid coming home without any one I wanted, and all
+so queer and uncomfortable. I would as soon have been at school, or
+sooner, for there I had home to think about.'
+
+'The last holidays weren't first-rate,' said Lance.
+
+'No; but then I'd got you!'
+
+'I wish Dr. Manby would prescribe you to come with me,' said Lance.
+
+'It's something to have this little sight! And here! I wanted to give
+this back, Lance.'
+
+'Ah!' as he took the key of the violin-case, 'we'll take a look at her,
+Robin, to see if she's quite well; but I couldn't make her speak, it
+would be like sticking daggers through my head.'
+
+'Poor little key! I looked at it so often when you were so bad, and
+grieved to think you had missed all that pleasure. Only it was a
+comfort to know you had been so good about it.'
+
+'I am glad you took it, Robin; I know I should have grown idle if I had
+had it. Depend on it, 'twas that gave me this year of grace and the
+Bishop's prize.'
+
+'Oh! come and show me that! I hope it is not packed up.'
+
+'No; I wanted to take it to show Felix, but Mettie says it is too big,
+and would come to grief. What prizes have you, Robin?'
+
+'Three. General good marks, catechism, and history--beautiful books.'
+
+'Then the avenging harpies have forgiven you?'
+
+'Pretty well; and they were very kind when you were ill, and the girls
+are much nicer; I am glad we stayed on, except for Angel's sake. Do you
+know, Lance, I really am afraid she is going in for naughtiness.'
+
+'Give a dog an ill name--' quoted Lance. 'Is that it?'
+
+'I do believe it is that! She is such a Tom-boy! Fancy! One afternoon,
+there was an awful uproar, and her class were all found playing at
+races, some riding astride with handkerchiefs round the forms, which
+they had named after the real horses; and the others pretending to bet
+on them, with their books in their hands, shouting out at the top of
+their voices.'
+
+'Go it, Angel,' said Lance, laughing; 'that's the way Clem's sisters
+improve the tone of the school.'
+
+Robina still looked distressed, but that was soon forgotten in visiting
+Lance's quarters, and admiring his books, peeping respectfully at his
+silent violin, and being lionised as far as his strength would permit.
+They were hand in hand the whole evening, till he was sent to bed, and
+his sisters were claimed by the Harewoods.
+
+The Cathedral was resuming its usual voices on the Sunday morning; and
+when the early bell brought Wilmet from her room, she found Lance up
+and dressed, his little black gown on, and his trencher cap in his hand.
+
+'That's nice!' he said in admiration, as she advanced in her fresh
+white pique and blue ribbons. 'O Mettie, I'm so glad this isn't my last
+time here!' and he added, as she bent over him and kissed him, not
+quite able to speak, 'Please, Mettie, I beg your pardon for all the
+times I have been tiresome or cross.'
+
+'My dear little boy--' She broke down, and finished with another
+kiss, for Robina was at hand, shy in her thankfulness, and clinging
+to Lance's hand; but as Will Harewood followed, grave and subdued,
+Lance went up to him, and put his arm into his. Mr. Harewood, the
+Captain, and Lucy, were all likewise there; but the greetings were
+silent, and then Mr. Harewood led them all through the library, and was
+followed by the two boys to the sacristy; for though the celebration
+was not choral, all those of the choir who were present were always
+robed. Wilmet hardly liked not to keep her boy beside her, but she
+could not be sorry when she saw the two friends once more heading the
+little procession together; and with such happy grave faces, though so
+different: one broad, ruddy, sandy; the other fair, wasted, delicate,
+the hollow cheeks scarcely more coloured than the white linen, and yet
+with a pure fresh air of bright hope and recovery.
+
+The Cathedral was nobly and calmly beautiful in the summer morning;
+the sunbeams high up in the slender brilliant windows that crowned the
+east, and the voice sounding low and solemn in the distance at the
+Altar. To Wilmet and Robina it was a great deal more than the joyous
+festival they had last shared in there, even though then they had
+exulted in their brother's jubilant notes; and now he scarcely breathed
+a faint response, left his book unopened, and knelt in the dreamy
+passiveness of one incapable of actions of the mind, but too simply
+happy and thankful to doubt of his welcome. In his place, Clement
+would have distressed himself and his advisers over this inability
+to perform his usual mental exercises of devotion; but Lance never
+seemed to question but that he ought to lay himself before the Altar
+in thankfulness as soon as he was able, as certain of being welcomed
+there, as by the kind hands that shook his in the sacristy.
+
+He came to breakfast afterwards at the Harewoods', to put an end to his
+invalid ways; but the clatter soon was too much for him; and he spent
+the chief part of the day lying on his bed, able now to follow dreamily
+the echoes from the minster, the full glories of which his sisters
+were enjoying. There was afterwards a rush of his choir mates to shake
+hands with him; and little Dick Graeme, a delicate, sallow, black-eyed
+boy, in whom Wilmet believed she recognised the hero of the swans'
+eggs, could not be got rid of the whole day. He lived at a farm three
+miles off, and had been sent in to take his part on the Sunday; indeed,
+he had often been at the door to inquire, but had only been allowed
+momentary glimpses of Lance, whom he followed about like a little dog,
+till at last, late in the evening, the proposal was started of walking
+him down to the river, along which lay the path leading to his home.
+
+It was a charming summer evening when they set forth; the three
+Underwoods, the two Harewood brothers, and little Graeme, slowly moving
+along, Robina in ecstasies with the loose-strife and forget-me-nots,
+and the boys absorbed in fish and water-rats, till Bill, holding Robin
+a little back, pointed to a pollard, and told her in a low hoarse
+voice, 'That was where I left those verses.'
+
+'There!' Robina tried to measure with her eye the distance, which
+looked immense for such a run. She could not speak; but little Dick
+turned--
+
+'Ay, 'twas a jolly run in the time. Spyers and I tried it, and both got
+blown; but nobody runs like Underwood.'
+
+'Well, it does look a goodish distance,' said Lance. 'And Robin, do you
+know, it all came of this fellow being too good a poet. He thought it
+was the Tiber, you know.'
+
+'The subject was the Tiber, wasn't it?'
+
+'Ay; and Bill here got to spouting about Horace Cocles till he didn't
+know, nor I either, whether we were heathen Romans or not. It was a
+mercy he didn't go home in Cocles' costume.'
+
+Bill did not laugh. He seemed to forget everything, bystanders and all,
+and threw his arm round his friend's neck. 'O Lancey, don't say a word
+more. If you only could guess what--what this month has been like to
+me! And now to see you standing here, like your dear old self again!
+Oh! if I could only--' and he broke off and rushed away behind the
+tree, where they heard him sobbing.
+
+Lance shrugged his shoulders. 'Poor old Bill! he _will_ treat himself
+as if he did it on purpose, but he'll be better now he's had it out.
+But d'ye see, I can't go no farther now. So you, Dick, be off. Spare
+the feelings of your dutiful parents, and get home in Christianable
+time.'
+
+'I say, please Underwood, may I have the bed by yours next half?'
+
+'That's not as it pleases Underwood, but Mrs. Drake; but look here,
+Graeme, there's a little brat of a new treble coming into our
+dormitory. You stand his friend, and speak to Harewood if Bolt takes to
+bullying him.'
+
+'But you'll be back?' said the child, his face all consternation.
+
+'I hope so; but for fear of accidents, you know. Good night, Dick, and
+thank your mater for those stunning raspberries.'
+
+'That's a good dodge,' said Will Harewood, emerging, 'to keep the
+little ape from bullying the little one himself. But you will be able
+to come back, Lance; 'tis as dull as ditch-water without you.'
+
+'I shall be glad enough to come back,' said Lance, 'and make the most
+of this year. I didn't know how I cared for this place. There's nothing
+like it!' and he leant against a tree, looking back at the Cathedral,
+where the sunbeams were 'weaving a parting crown' for the tall tower,
+and the soft grey of the exquisite stone-work of the chapter-house
+contrasted with the fresh green of the trees, rising up from the
+sparkling river and emerald meadows. Presently he burst out, 'You
+beautiful old thing, and did you hush your grand glorious old voice
+only for me? I should like to be your own, and to serve you for ever!'
+
+The other two felt a little awed at the outburst, and possibly Lance a
+little ashamed, for he suddenly started from his tree trunk, crying,
+'I'm sure we ought to go home. However, there are Jack and Mettie on
+beyond ever so far.' And he elevated his voice in a coo-ee, after what
+he believed to be Australian fashion; but his weakness prevailed, and
+he laughed at his own want of power to shout much above his breath.
+'You do it, Bill.'
+
+'Not I! Coo-ee indeed? 'Tis coo-coo there, river and moonlight and all.'
+
+At one and the same moment, Lance exclaimed, 'Jack and Mettie! Thunder
+and ages!' and Robina, 'For shame, Willie!' while that personage cut
+a caper, at once expressive of affirmation and amusement at their
+surprise.
+
+'After all,' sagaciously observed Lance, 'I'm not so much surprised. I
+think I've made a pretty good Cupid.'
+
+'You believe it, then?' cried Robina.
+
+'Bless you,' affirmed Willie, 'we've been roasting Jack about it for
+the last fortnight--only the pater was so awfully afraid of your
+sister's hearing it, that he said any one who breathed the ghost of a
+joke near her should be shipped off to old Aunt Grace that instant.'
+
+'Well, they have my consent and blessing,' said Lance.
+
+'Amen,' responded his friend.
+
+'Ho!' continued Lance, 'that's the meaning of old W. W. being so jolly.
+I wondered whether it was only that I thought so because I had nothing
+to do but to look at her.'
+
+'Oh, you know she is a real true beauty and no mistake,' said Bill,
+beginning to feel a personal pride in her; 'there's Miles raving about
+her, and every one runs about saying, "Have you seen little Underwood's
+handsome sister?" Half the folks that came to ask after you did it to
+get a look at her; and if she stayed a week longer, she might have a
+dozen offers, only luckily Jack cut in first.'
+
+'Well, I'm glad she is even with Alda,' was Lance's next sentiment.
+
+'That's the one that is booked for the Red Indian you converted, ain't
+it?' asked Bill. 'Fact, Robina; we heard a new fellow was coming who
+had converted a Cherokee, and that the Bishop had christened him in
+his war paint and feathers. Mrs. Shapcote sent out invitations to a
+missionary tea in honour of him.'
+
+'What, of the Cherokee?'
+
+'No, no, of the little brute of a missionary chap, and we made up our
+minds to tar and feather him before he converted us; but long before
+we had found out which of the new trebles was the model Christian, old
+Shapcote had caught us two pitching into one another, because I said
+Bexley was a snobbish place full of pots and pans.'
+
+'And that founded your friendship?'
+
+'No, not quite, for we had a worse fight because I shut his Bible up in
+his face when he tried to look over the Lessons in the Cathedral.'
+
+'Why, you all do,' said Robina.
+
+'Yes, now; but before Nixon came we were a horrid set of little
+ruffians. Do you remember, Lance, how Roper offered you a bull's-eye in
+the Cathedral, and thrashed you afterwards because you wouldn't have
+it?'
+
+'O Lance! but that was persecution!' cried Robina. 'Who would have
+thought you went through things like that?'
+
+'Ay,' said Bill, 'you believed in the little cherub chorister boys,
+that sing and look out of their great violet eyes, till they die of
+declines.'
+
+'Ah!' said Lance, who was leaning on his arm rather wearily, 'Jack will
+do for himself if he tells Wilmet her eyes are violet; it is like a red
+rag to a bull.'
+
+'Yes,' said Robina, 'she says nobody ever had eyes the colour of
+violets, and they would be hideous if they were.'
+
+'I have seen them,' said Willie, gravely.
+
+'Oh! where?' cried Robina. 'Darker blue than Edgar's?'
+
+'It's generally only one at a time.'
+
+'After a cricket match, eh?' suggested Lance.
+
+'But, depend upon it,' said Bill, while Robina was recovering her
+laughing disgust, 'he may tell her her eyes are any colour he pleases
+by this time.'
+
+'How do you know that?' sharply protested Robin; 'as if she would care
+for him more than for all of us, who can't spare her either!'
+
+'I thought you were thick and plenty up the country?'
+
+'Not of that sort,' said Lance.
+
+'I don't believe it,' insisted Robina; 'why, she had never seen him a
+few weeks ago; she can't have had time to get to like him.'
+
+'That's your simplicity,' said Bill. 'Now ain't that oracular--I mean
+ocular--demonstration? There they are, very moral of people making
+fools of themselves in books.'
+
+'I wish they'd have done with it, then,' sighed Lance; 'my legs won't
+hold out much longer.'
+
+'Yes, you must go in,' said Robin, bringing her sturdy shoulders for
+his other arm to rest on.
+
+'But those two?' said Lance. 'Some one must stay to make it
+respectable. Don't laugh, you vagabond, you shake up the marrow of my
+bones; I'm her brother, and bound to see to her.'
+
+'I'll stay out with Willie if that will make it right,' said Robina;
+'only you must go to bed, and you have to be up so early too.'
+
+So they saw him to the Bailey door, beyond which he declined further
+assistance, saying he could tumble into bed alone, and leaving them to
+their pleasant task of making propriety.
+
+It was made after this sort. Bill delivered himself of a deep sigh, and
+observed, 'Well! if she's done for, I suppose I must take up with you;
+and after all, you're the jolliest.'
+
+'I shall never be _jolie_, like Wilmet, if that's what you mean,' said
+Robina, not quite understanding whether it were jest or earnest.
+
+'Well, if you ain't a regular stunner like her, it doesn't much matter.
+I never _did_ see a face that I liked better than your round one, and I
+know I shall like it more and more. Won't you have me, Robina, one of
+these days?'
+
+'O Willie! oughtn't one to wait till we are old enough to think about
+it?'
+
+'I don't see why. I shall always be thinking I'm working for you, and I
+don't see why you shouldn't think the same of me. Won't you?' again he
+repeated. 'At least, of course I shall do all the work for you.'
+
+'Oh no! I should not like that. I had rather be doing something for
+you, Willie. Look here, I am learning all I can now, and when I go
+out--'
+
+'Go out?'
+
+'For a governess.'
+
+'Murther! I'll hinder that!'
+
+'But, Willie, you can't make a fortune in five years, and I shall go
+out at eighteen. I think I shall begin the fortune soonest;' and she
+laughed merrily.
+
+'Mother didn't make a fortune.'
+
+'I didn't mean that exactly; but I'm learning all the superior
+branches, and if I got a hundred a year! Think of that, Will! If I went
+on with that till you are a clergyman and have a living, how nice it
+would be! There would be plenty to give away; and if we were poor, I
+would take girls to teach.'
+
+'Do you think I shall ever let you do all the work that way?' said
+Will, strong in boyhood's infinite possibilities. 'I don't know how
+it's to be, but I'll keep you out of slaving, though you're a dear girl
+to think of it. Any way, Robin, you and I will hold together--always.'
+
+'I am sure I shall never like anybody half so much,' said Robin.
+
+'Shall we break a sixpence and keep the halves? That's the thing, ain't
+it? I believe I've got one--or fourpence, which is all the same.'
+
+'No, no,' said Robina, backing; 'I don't think Mettie would like it. It
+doesn't seem right.'
+
+'But aren't you in earnest, Robin?'
+
+'Oh yes, indeed, indeed I am;' from the depths of a very earnest
+childish heart that little knew to what it pledged itself.
+
+'And so am I! I'll never care for any one else, Robina--never.'
+
+'Nor I, William. Here they come!'
+
+The other two had not got near so far, though Captain Harewood was
+talking, and Wilmet listening, as would never have been the case
+without the influence Willie asserted; but the special charm that
+enchained Wilmet was entirely unapprehended by her, till just as the
+first star brightened, and the hues faded from the landscape, she
+bethought her of her patient, and perceived that he had gone in. 'How
+late it must be! I must go and see after him. I hope he is equal to the
+journey.'
+
+'I will come and bring you an account of him on my way home, if I may.'
+
+'Oh, thank you; but it is taxing your goodness too--too much.'
+
+'Cannot you believe how glad I am to have a good excuse?' and the
+tone gave Wilmet a sudden thrill, so that she answered not; and he
+continued, 'I am going to beg leave to be sometimes at Bexley.'
+
+'When Felix is at home,' faltered Wilmet.
+
+'I can hardly afford to wait. My time at home is so short. I shall, _I_
+hope, make friends with him to-morrow, and perhaps you will neither of
+you forbid me to come again. I am asking nothing now, only opportunity
+to try to make you--'
+
+'Oh, don't!' hurriedly broke in Wilmet, standing still in consternation.
+
+'Nay,' he said in a pleading voice, 'I know it would be presumption to
+think so short an acquaintance could suffice, but you see I have so
+little time, and all I want is leave to use it in coming to see you.'
+
+'Oh, don't!' she repeated. 'Indeed you had better not. It would be
+only pain. I couldn't! and I can't have Felix worried;' and there was
+a startled sob in her voice; but he answered with the strength and
+sweetness that had upheld her in Lance's most suffering moments.
+
+'I would not distress you or Felix for more than words can utter! I
+would not have breathed a hint of this most earnest wish of my heart
+till you had had some preparation, if it were not so impossible
+otherwise to have any chance of being with you and striving--'
+
+'Please,' entreated Wilmet, 'that is just what should be avoided; it
+can never come to anything, and the sooner it is stopped the better.'
+
+'Why should it never come to anything?' he asked, encouraged by
+detecting tears in her voice.
+
+'Because you know--no, you don't know, or you never could think of such
+a thing--how wrong and impossible it would be for me!'
+
+'No, I don't know. That is what I want to have the opportunity of
+knowing.'
+
+'I can tell you before,' she answered, faintly. 'Oh, if you would but
+take my word for it, it would save so much--'
+
+'No, that I cannot do,' he repeated. 'I must see for myself your
+preciousness at home.'
+
+She broke in again. 'Please, please, I'm saying what I ought not; but
+it is to hinder distress. Don't want to let us get to like each other
+any better, for as yet it can't be more than what could be got over,
+and it is only making pain to let it grow.'
+
+'That I deny. So far as I am concerned, the thing is done. If you
+wanted to save me that pain, you should have turned me out the moment I
+saw you call the boy back to life. A month like this is not so easily
+got over.'
+
+Wilmet drooped her head, and made no answer.
+
+'So, since you see,' he continued, 'you will spare me nothing by
+holding me aloof, will you not let me come and gladden myself while
+I may in your presence? And then when my time is up it may be more
+possible to judge--' (there was a faint 'Oh no,' but he heeded it not)
+'--whether you can bear such an ugly fellow enough to let him look to
+the time when home claims may be less pressing. I look for no answer. I
+only want to be able to ask for one three months hence, and I shall beg
+your brother to put it into my power so to do.'
+
+'Ah! but to have Felix disturbed and worried is just what must not be.
+It has made him ill already; and if he thought--'
+
+'I promise not to harass him,' said Captain Harewood, gently. 'You may
+trust me to take care that what I shall say will not cause him any very
+trying perplexity.'
+
+'If you knew--' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'I hope to know,' he replied. 'I do know enough already to be
+aware that you stand in no common relation to the rest; and if you
+have my heart, Wilmet, it must follow that somehow I share in your
+self-devotion. Do not fear my trying to make you less yourself. I want
+not to take you away from your burthens, but to share them.'
+
+'Yes, you--that is your goodness; but would it be right in us?' she
+faltered.
+
+'Leave your brother and me to judge of that,' he said.
+
+They were already at the Bailey door, in the shadow of the buildings,
+the flood of moonlight lying on the tower above, and one little
+mysterious lamp under the deep brow of the archway of the passage.
+No more passed but one 'good-night' from each; he had not even seen
+her face, under her shady hat; while she hastened to her little room,
+glad to ascertain that Lance was fast asleep, and with a rush of new
+sensations bursting on her, against which she was strengthening all the
+dykes of her resolute nature. 'He--he--that it should be he! how good!
+how generous! how kind! Oh, it would be so happy! It _will_ make me
+happy that he only just thought of it; but it won't do, it is no use.
+I'm not in love with him; I won't be, I'm not, I'm not!'
+
+And as ardently as Wilmet had ever prayed for Lance's life and reason
+by that little bed, did she beseech not to be tempted to desert her
+duties; and all night she lay between sleep and waking, ever repeating
+to herself. 'I'm not in love, I'm not, I'm not!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE HOUSE WITHOUT PILLARS.
+
+     'And who save she could soothe the boy,
+      Or turn his tears to tears of joy?'
+                             _Samuel Rogers._
+
+
+Lance's train was at six o'clock, and that by which the sisters were
+to return to Bexley so little later, that they would await it at the
+station, so the household was betimes more or less afoot. There was
+a frenzied scramble of maids and young ladies in hasty toilette; yet
+breakfast was only forthcoming by personal exertion on the part of the
+Captain, who made the coffee, boiled the eggs, and sent his brother
+foraging into the kitchen. Then a message came that mother must see
+the sweet girl to bid her good-bye; and Wilmet was dragged up to find
+the paddy good-natured face in bed, in an immense frilled nightcap,
+whence two horn-like curl-papers protruded. She was kissed, cried over,
+and told she was the dearest girl, and Jack the best boy, in the four
+kingdoms; and while her head was turning round between dizziness at all
+that this cordiality implied, and a governess's confusion whether these
+were the four kingdoms of Ireland, or England, Ireland, Scotland, and
+Wales, a demand followed for the darling boy; but when she had gravely
+told the Captain that his mother wanted him, the result was to send him
+down laughing. 'No, no, I'm not the only darling boy in the world! 'Tis
+you, Lance. You know the way.'
+
+Between finding her in bed, and being powerfully embraced, Lance's
+sense of decorum brought him down with his blanched cheeks so rosy red,
+that the family were choking with suppressed mirth when the omnibus
+called for the luggage, and the party set forth to walk to the station,
+Lance in a grass hat, enfolded by the Captain's hands in an ample
+puggery, and provided with a natty blue umbrella, presented by the
+Librarian, 'as a shield against the far-darting Apollo.'
+
+'If this had been in my day,' he said, 'some wit would have produced
+a neat epigram on Phoebus playing his old tricks out of jealousy of
+Will's verses; but dainty feats of scholarship are gone out of date.
+Well, Patroclus, when we have you back again, I think we shall none of
+us mourn over the effects of your generous action.'
+
+Wilmet was near enough to hear, and colour. She had imagined the last
+night's conversation unknown to all; but Underwood reticence was so
+incapable of guessing at Harewood communicativeness, that it never
+entered her brain to suspect the topic of conversation between the
+three juniors as they walked up the drowsy street.
+
+Thanks to the difficulties of getting under weigh from the Harewood
+house, there was barely time for John and Lance to take their places,
+while Mr. Harewood got their tickets, and they were whirled off,
+leaving the others to promenade the platform, just then a complete
+solitude.
+
+Mr. Harewood, with the attention of the old school, backed by something
+warmer, gave Wilmet his arm. He and his son John never seemed to belong
+to so ramshackle a household as the rest, and he was so gentle and
+fatherly, that when Wilmet found him aware of all, it was a relief to
+tell her objections without being answered by a lover. After all, she
+could only repeat that leaving home was so impossible for her, that, as
+she murmured, 'He had better not get to like me any more, it would be
+such a pity for him.'
+
+'That,' said Mr. Harewood, with his air of old-fashioned gallantry,
+'depends on the esteem in which wealth or merit is held.'
+
+'And station,' said Wilmet, in an undertone.
+
+'For that, my dear, one would be a fool not to honour you and your
+brother; besides, it may make you more at ease to hear that my father
+was an apparitor, and I went to Oxford as a servitor, so that in birth
+you have the advantage of us. Of course, I do not mean that every one
+does not in the abstract prefer prosperous matches; but John has a fair
+independent competence, and can afford to do as he pleases; and, for my
+part, I should be very sorry if this were not what he pleased.'
+
+'You are so very kind, but surely if--even if--it must be such long
+waiting, and you would not like that for him.'
+
+'Let us arrive at the _if_ before we settle about the waiting,' said
+Mr. Harewood. 'In truth, I have long looked on John as so much the most
+sensible person in my house, that all I feel called on to do is to hope
+for his success. I know both you and he will be wise enough not to be
+either selfish or unselfish in the wrong place.'
+
+Wilmet did not quite understand, but she carried away the conviction
+that she need have no scruple as to the parents' cordial approbation;
+and she had had her cure from yesterday's sense of want of individual
+affection. As to the future? Of course it swelled her heart to think
+of such love and generous kindness; but she tried to believe that she
+was as much touched by the goodness of the father as by that of the
+son, and she would be on her guard against herself unless she saw some
+reasonable hope that home would ever dispense with her. Dear Wilmet;
+would she not at any other time have thought it an outrage to think of
+such a possibility? At any rate, she thought, nobody but Felix need
+ever know.
+
+Little guessed she, as Robina sat opposite, kept silent by the presence
+of two stout old females, that the child was revolving the question
+whether she might tell Cherry. She knew that Wilmet would not like
+her affairs to be discussed without her own permission; but it seemed
+unfair that when all the Harewoods were open-mouthed, her own sister
+should know nothing. After all, much would depend on the chances of a
+_tete-a-tete_.
+
+At the station stood Clement: 'That's right! I thought you would come
+by this train. What a comfort! How is Lance?'
+
+'Almost well. How are you getting on?'
+
+'You will soon see for yourself,' in an ominous tone.
+
+Just then she was accosted by Mr. Ryder, who was waiting for his own
+train; and after courteous and anxious inquiries, said, 'I was thinking
+of writing to your eldest brother, but perhaps a word from you would do
+as well.'
+
+'About Bernard?'
+
+'Why, yes, I don't quite see my way about him. He is a sharp little
+fellow, and very well taught; in fact, he can afford to do nothing but
+waste time. Somehow, a boy will now and then seem to come into school
+with the wrong foot foremost.'
+
+'Has he fallen in with idle boys?'
+
+'So I fear. I placed him in a form high for his age, but where the lags
+have got hold of him, and make him think idleness the _thing_. So I
+gather. I conclude he is not to remain here?'
+
+'Do you mean that you wish him to be taken away?' asked Wilmet, in
+consternation.
+
+'No, no; don't understand it in that sense,' said Mr. Ryder, anxiously.
+'I only meant that he is doing no good here, and that possibly a
+change, or the stimulus of preparing for an examination, might rouse
+him. Good-bye.'
+
+And there Mr. Ryder had to rush off to secure his seat.
+
+'Oh! good morning, Miss Underwood!' This was from Mr. Mowbray Smith,
+a few steps beyond the station. 'I am glad to see you back. So your
+patient is gone to join your eldest brother? But we shall have you here
+on Sunday? Then there's the less occasion to name it; but some notice
+should be taken of the behaviour yesterday evening.'
+
+'It was very sad,' interposed Clement; 'but when once set off by the
+christening, they could not stop themselves.'
+
+'Scarcely a valid excuse,' said Mr. Smith, severely, as he made his
+parting bow. 'You know this was not all.'
+
+Clement shrugged his shoulders, exclaiming, 'So he made that into a
+personality! You must know there was an unusually squalling baby,
+whose godmother went on giving its name as Huggeny; and there was a
+five minutes' exchange of "What?" on Mr. Smith's side, and Huggeny
+on hers, till a whisper came all along--forwarded from the mother, I
+suppose--"Same as they does their 'air;" and then Mr. Smith looked more
+mystified than ever; some one suggested, "Same as the Empress of the
+French."'
+
+'Something might be excused on such provocation,' owned Wilmet,
+laughing.
+
+'If that had been all,' said Clement; 'but Angel and Bernard choose to
+go and sit by themselves, and I could see, from Felix's place in the
+choir, that they were tittering long after. I shook my head, but Nares
+must needs make up an odious imitation; and Bernard not only touches
+Angel to make her look, but grins impudently at me. I found myself
+growing burning hot with shame, and whenever they looked at me their
+heads went down and their shoulders worked.'
+
+'Naughty children,' said Wilmet, but with more than usual lenience to
+the combined effects of Huggeny and of Clement's severe countenance
+in producing one of those paroxysms of giggle that seem invincible in
+proportion to their unbecomingness. The door was reached and instantly
+opened, Stella springing into her arms in ecstasy. 'Sister's come!--O
+Sister, Sister, Sister, don't ever go away any more.'
+
+There was a great deal of confused kissing and embracing as she made
+her way upstairs. 'But oh, my Tedo, what has happened?' for she beheld
+a fine sample of Bill Harewood's violet eye.
+
+'It was Bernard's stick went into his eye when we were playing at
+hockey,' said Stella. 'He did cry terribly, but Sister Constance put
+such nice stuff--'
+
+'Sister Constance! oh, thank you! but hockey in the garden?'
+
+'I thought it rather a remarkable proceeding,' quietly observed the
+Sister.
+
+'I must hear more about it,' said Wilmet. 'My poor dear little man,
+can't he let Sister go for one instant?--Cherry dear, how are you?'
+
+'All right now you are come. But dear little Lance, how is he looking?'
+
+'Not much worse than you do, my Cherry,' said Wilmet, as she saw that
+the wizened old fairy look was come back. 'You have been worse than I
+knew.'
+
+'Oh, I am all right now; and I have had such a treat of Sister
+Constance.'
+
+'I want to take her back with me,' said the Sister. 'Dr. Lee would like
+to have her under his eye; and if you can spare her, I would write
+to-day, and she could go with me to-morrow.'
+
+'It is very kind; it might be better for her.'
+
+'Of course,' interrupted Alda, 'it is good for any one to be away from
+this horrid smell of baked earth, and all these riotous children.'
+
+'Ah!' said Wilmet; 'didn't I see the shade of the lamp in the
+landing-place broken? How was that?'
+
+'Oh! the children, of course,' said Alda.
+
+But neither child spoke; and Wilmet perceived that only the twins were
+in the room, both hanging upon her, while she swallowed her hurried
+second breakfast.
+
+'No one will tell,' said Clement. 'It was done the day I went over to
+Minsterham. I did all I could to find out.'
+
+'Yes; and made them more obstinate than before,' said Alda.
+
+Another catastrophe here suddenly struck Wilmet, namely, a long and
+very badly-mended rent in Stella's spotted pink frock, which, to say
+the truth, did not look as if it were Monday morning.
+
+'Yes,' said Stella, 'I did try to mend it as well as I could, Sister,
+but there wasn't another work-a-day frock clean.'
+
+'Your mending!' exclaimed Wilmet; 'but how did you tear it?'
+
+'When I tumbled into the brambles, and was lost.'
+
+'Lost, my dear? What does she mean?'
+
+'It is quite true,' said Cherry. 'Angela and Bernard took her out
+fishing to Ball's hatch on Saturday, and lost her, only luckily we did
+not know anything about it till she was safe at home again, dear little
+darling!'
+
+'But, Stella, how was it?' cried the horrified Wilmet, clasping her the
+closer.
+
+'I could not bear to see the poor worms,' said Stella. 'Bear would cut
+them up to stick on his hook, so I got away out of sight of them, and
+gathered the dear little wild roses and honeysuckles; and when I wanted
+to find them again I couldn't, and nobody heard me when I called, and a
+robin looked at me, and I thought he wanted to bury me, and I ran away,
+and a great bush caught hold of me and scratched my legs, and tore out
+a great piece of the rim of my hat; and just then a good lady came
+by, and helped me up and to look for them, but we could not see them
+anywhere; so she took me to her house--such a dear little house all
+over roses--and she mended my hat, and I mended my frock, and she gave
+me some tea and plum-cake, and two dear little ponies came to the door,
+and a carriage, and she brought me home.'
+
+'Who was she?'
+
+'Miss Crabbe; she is new to the place,' said Cherry. 'Mr. Froggatt said
+she had only been once in the shop before. Tell Sister how you told her
+about yourself, Stella.'
+
+'She asked my name,' said the child, 'and she said it was a very funny
+one, and she could not understand it; and then she wanted to know whose
+little girl I was, and I said, "Brother Felix's;" and then she said,
+"Have you no papa or mamma?" So I told her I hadn't a papa or mamma,
+but a father and mother up in heaven; and she said, "I should think
+so, poor little dear, if there is no one to take more care of you."
+I really did think she wanted to take me and keep me for an adopted
+child, so I told her that I had lots of dear good brothers and sisters
+that wanted me very much indeed, and I must go home to H. Froggatt and
+F. C. Underwood, High Street, Bexley.'
+
+'I fancy,' said Cherry, 'that she thought Mr. Froggatt was Stella's
+grandfather, for she made him quite a speech about the neglect of the
+child--"such a nice-mannered little girl," she said; but she would not
+come in, nor let Alda be called.'
+
+'Nor should I have gone down if Mr. Froggatt had thought proper to call
+me,' said Alda. 'Imagine me in his office!'
+
+'I can't imagine not going anywhere to thank the person that brought
+home my little Star,' said Wilmet, holding her arm close round the
+child, and kissing her repeatedly. 'But what became of the other two?'
+
+'I went out after them,' said Clement, 'and found them rushing wildly
+about after her, afraid to come home. To do them justice, I believe
+they were almost out of their minds, thinking she must have tumbled
+into the river.'
+
+'Oh, indeed,' said Alda. 'That's your account of it.'
+
+'Yes,' said Cherry eagerly, 'all that pretending not to care, and that
+it was a trick of Stella's, was nothing but reaction. And then, you
+know, Clem, you _did_ improve the occasion.'
+
+'There!' exclaimed Alda,' you see how it is, Wilmet; nothing but
+vindication of those two intolerable children! Now, just come, Wilmet,
+and see if they are to be backed up in this.'
+
+But as Wilmet, perfectly bewildered, and feeling no hope of
+comprehension among so many, followed Alda from the room and up the
+stairs, Stella came plunging after, with a cry, 'Alda, Alda, don't hurt
+them!' just as from a housemaid's closet half way up, Alda was bringing
+to light a basin containing a dozen tadpoles twirling their shadowy
+tails.
+
+'Now, Wilmet,' she solemnly said, 'do you approve of all those horrid
+brutes swimming in my bath?'
+
+'They aren't in the well, I hope,' said Wilmet.
+
+'How can you be so absurd, Wilmet? That's the way those children showed
+their sorrow that Clement talks about. I'll never believe but he helped
+them.'
+
+'To weep them?' said a voice above; and Angela's face was seen looking
+out of her bush of hair over the balusters of the top storey. 'They
+_are_ just like black heraldic tears.'
+
+'You don't mean that they put them in?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'What else should I mean?'
+
+'And didn't she squall?' shouted Bernard; and then came a duet--
+
+     'Dame, dame, what makes your ducks to squall,
+      Duck to squall, duck to squall, duck to squall?
+      Meeting o' pollywogs! Meeting wi' pollywogs!'
+
+'Hush, children, this is shocking,' said Wilmet, in the low impressive
+voice by which she could always still a tumult. 'How could you take
+advantage of my absence to do this?'
+
+'Because Alda deserved it,' cried Angela, bouncing downstairs. 'There,
+Alda! I said I should tell of you if you told of us.'
+
+'Angela, that is not the way to speak to your elder sister.'
+
+'She isn't like an elder sister!' exclaimed Angel. 'Stella would be
+ashamed to do like her, eating up the strawberries Mr. Froggatt brought
+for poor Cherry when she was ill.'
+
+'I'm sure you had your share!' retorted Alda.
+
+'You _would_ have them in for dessert, and you helped us; only Sister
+Constance and Clem left all theirs for Cherry, and then you went by
+yourself and ate them all up.'
+
+The very fact of shouting out such a charge showed a state of
+insubordination such as might make Wilmet's hair stand on end, and she
+simply disbelieved so childish an accusation against her own equal in
+age. 'You should not say such things, Angela,' she answered, in her low
+tone of reproof; 'there must be a mistake.'
+
+'I am afraid it is quite true,' said Clement's quiet voice, as he stood
+arrested on his way by the block upon the landing-place.
+
+'The children make such an uproar,' said the exasperated Alda. 'I'm
+sure I thought Geraldine's had been taken long before, and in this
+parching weather fruit is quite a necessity to me.'
+
+Wilmet was too much aghast at the admission to speak. It was a strange
+tangle: Clement standing straight and still on the landing-place;
+Wilmet, with Theodore humming to himself, as innocent of the fray as
+the tadpoles that Stella was cherishing in the cupboard door-way; Alda,
+flushed and angry; and on the upper flight, Angela and Bernard dancing
+and roaming in vehement excitement between anger and alarm. 'Well that
+Lance was not in this hubbub!' thought deafened and amazed Wilmet.
+
+'What has this to do with the tadpoles?' she asked, in an endeavour to
+comprehend.
+
+'We said she should be served out,' sung Bernard, 'with a
+polly--polly--polly-wog bath.'
+
+'But, Bernard, hush!--Angel! don't you see it was no business of yours
+if Alda did forget?'
+
+She was unprepared for the outbreak this brought on her. 'You, too,
+Wilmet! Every one backs up those children in their behaviour to me!
+Lady Herbert Somerville, and Clement, and all! If only Ferdinand saw
+it!'
+
+'Just step up, Wilmet,' said Clement gently, 'and see whether the
+children are in league with me.'
+
+He followed Wilmet up to the door of the barrack, an attic that he
+shared with Lance and Bernard, and showed the long beam that crossed it
+pasted with a series of little figures cut out in paper, representing
+a procession in elaborate vestments; and at the end a long-backed
+individual kneeling before the chair of a confessor, who bore a painful
+resemblance to the Vicar of St. Matthew's.
+
+'We only wanted to make Tina feel at home,' giggled Angela.
+
+'It would be no matter,' pursued Clement, 'if it were merely quizzing
+myself. I am used to that; but this is trenching on sacred ground.'
+
+'Bless me, your old white beam!' exclaimed Angela, with an affected
+start.
+
+'It is exceedingly improper and irreverent,' said Wilmet. 'I am ashamed
+that such a thing should have been done in this house.'
+
+'Really,' said Alda, 'it seems to me very droll and clever, with no
+harm in it at all; only people like Clement never can take a joke.'
+
+'You can't mean to justify such a one as this,' said Wilmet; but, to
+her still greater astonishment, Alda broke out,
+
+'There! You are turning against me! You are taking Clement's part,
+though you didn't care what they did to me--not if it had been snakes
+and adders!'
+
+This, decidedly in Mrs. Thomas Underwood's style, elicited a peal of
+laughter from the two naughty children, and the corners of Clement's
+mouth relaxed, bringing Alda to a gush of tears. 'You never used to be
+like this to me, Wilmet.'
+
+'I never saw you like this, dear Alda,' said Wilmet, low and gently,
+but in decided repression. 'Come into our room, and let me try to
+understand.'
+
+So began a morning of mutual complaints, as if everybody were against
+everybody, agreeing in nothing but in appealing to the elder sister.
+First, there was Alda's story. Never had there been such a miserable
+time--with Geraldine interfering, fussy, fretful, fault-finding;
+Clement intolerable in primness and conceit, only making the children
+worse when he pretended to keep them in order, and making such a
+fuss about Geraldine, when nothing ailed her but change of weather;
+incurring the expense of the Dearport doctor, and bringing down the
+Sister upon them; so awkward to have her in the drawing-room in that
+dress, but Sisters always thrust themselves into families. She hoped
+she had shown my Lady that she was not to be overawed by a title--such
+affectation, not using it! No consideration for her; the servants
+regularly spoilt, both of them; Martha a vulgar insolent creature, and
+Sibby disgustingly familiar and slovenly, no good at all, not even
+to keep Theodore out of the way. At which Theodore, knowing no more
+than his own name and Alda's displeasure, set up a dismal howl; and as
+Wilmet chose to coax and fondle him into silence instead of scolding
+and turning him out, Alda went off in a huff, muttering about asylums
+and proper places; and Wilmet descended to the kitchen, the little weak
+hand clasped tight into hers.
+
+A sore sight awaited her below; the bills of this month for luxuries
+of sinful extravagance in her economical eyes! Chicken and asparagus,
+ducks and peas, even in the height of their season, were enormities
+to such housekeeping as hers, and had raised the sum total to four
+times the amount that her foreboding soul had dreaded. It exceeded her
+present supplies, and was a grave addition to the expenses of the two
+illnesses, that were serious enough already.
+
+Martha was eloquent, not to say defiant, in self-defence. 'You see,
+Miss Underwood, if I'd been let alone, or Miss Cherry had been the
+one to take my orders from, which we could have made it out to your
+satisfaction; but with Miss Halder, which expects everything to be
+just like what it was in the fammerly up in London, which it stands to
+reason as it can't; which she hasn't got no more notion than a baby of
+prices, nor seasons, nor nothink; which is very determined, too, which
+won't suffer a word from nobody; which if you hadn't been coming home,
+Miss Underwood, I'd have given warning, which have always given you
+satisfaction.'
+
+Wilmet's satisfaction was not increased when she encountered Sibby.
+'Ah, my darling Missie dear, ye're the jewel that's been longed for!
+The whole house has been mad entirely, and lost widout you; the
+children rampaging and playing pranks, and Miss Cherry dwining and
+pining to a skeleton, so that but for Master Clem and that holy woman,
+the Sisther, 'tis scarce alive ye'd have found her. Miss Alda, she's
+the very wonder of the worruld for jealousy and unfeelingness. I up and
+told her at last there was well-nigh as much differ between you and
+she, as between Stella and this blessed lamb that she spites; for if
+you have not carried off all the wit and understanding, sure 'tis you
+that has got all the heart, and the head, and the hands.'
+
+'And the partial old nursey, Sibby! You see I had no time nor thought
+but for poor Lance, and Alda was so new to it.'
+
+'Ah, Missie dear, you were always the one to vindicate her, but 'tis
+no use! Newness! 'Twasn't newness that makes her turn the back of her
+hand to this darling innocent, till he cries if he's left a moment with
+her.--Ay, my precious, what would have become of you and me but for
+Masther Clem?--I tell you, Miss Wilmet, I never thought that long boy
+the aquil of his brothers till I saw him in time of need. Yer father
+himself--Heaven be his bed!--couldn't have been tenderer with Theodore
+nor Miss Cherry, by night or by day, an' never a cross word when he was
+bothered past his life with Miss Alda's ugliness an' the children's
+boldness.'
+
+'Oh, those children! What is come to them, Sibby?'
+
+'Only funning and merriment, Missie dear. They'd never have had to be
+faulted if Miss Alda had let Miss Cherry deal with them; but she could
+neither rule them herself, nor bear to see them ruled; and though she
+was like a mad cow if they played their pranks on her, she backs them
+up if Miss Cherry, or Master Clem, or even the Sisther, do but say a
+word to them, so 'tis no wonder if the poor dears have been a bit off
+their heads, but they'll be as quiet as doves now ye're back again. Oh,
+Missie dear, my own child, but it's you that are the light of my eyes,
+looking the blooming beauty that you are.'
+
+The foster-mother's genuine compliment could not lighten the load that
+had grown every moment heavier, and more compunctious for the deaf ear
+she had turned to Clement. Wilmet said a word or two of apology to
+him when she met him on the stairs, loaded with books to study in the
+garden.
+
+'Never mind,' he magnanimously answered, 'it is all right now you are
+come, and it was impossible before. Only, please do say something warm
+to Sister Constance, for Alda is barely civil to her.'
+
+'I am very sorry; I did not think Alda had that sort of prejudice,'
+said Wilmet, whose instinct of defence of Alda had wonderfully
+diminished.
+
+'The chief prejudice came of my sending for her,' said Clement.
+
+'Besides, Sister Constance spoke out very sharply about the
+strawberries; and when we had a couple of chickens, and Alda scolded
+me for helping her to a leg instead of a wing, Sister Constance said,
+"Oh, I supposed you had them on Geraldine's account;" and she gives the
+children leave to do anything Sister Constance objects to. These things
+are hardly their fault. But, I say, Mettie, now you are come, and it
+is all right, do you think I might go to St. Matthew's? The Vicar and
+Mr. Sterling are alone, while the other curates are holiday-making, and
+they say I could really be of some use to them, and they would give me
+some help with this reading for my examination. Somers is there too,
+and I have not seen him since Christmas.'
+
+'Indeed,' said Wilmet, 'no one has deserved a holiday more than you,
+Clement! You have done your best.'
+
+This--almost the first home praise or thanks that had fallen to his
+lot--elicited that real grace of humility for which poor self-conscious
+Clement really strove. 'I have tried, Mettie,' he said, with tears in
+his eyes; 'but it was not as if it had been one of the others. There
+must be something very wrong about me, to make me so disagreeable.'
+
+'You have gained two hearts,' said Wilmet, 'Sibby's and this little
+fellow's.'
+
+For Theodore had attached himself limpet fashion to Clement, who with
+difficulty piled his books so as to leave a hand free for him.
+
+'He had better come with me,' said Wilmet; 'your reading must have been
+dreadfully interrupted.'
+
+'It has, rather,' said Clement, whose examination was in alarming
+proximity; 'but I don't mind him, I can work to his tunes as well as
+Felix can; and all is right now you are come.'
+
+That was the burthen of every one's song. It came next from Cherry,
+whom she found in her own room; 'There was so much bustle in the
+sitting-room,' she said.
+
+'My dear, you have gone through a great deal!'
+
+'"There's nae luck about the house when our gude man's awa',"' said
+Cherry. 'Clem played and whistled that so often, that Alda begged never
+to hear it again; but unluckily Tedo had caught it, and I don't think
+she quite believes he doesn't hum it on purpose! But now, how delicious
+it is to have got at least our gude woman! And, oh dear! Wilmet, I beg
+your pardon; but you do look so lovely, I can't help telling you so! or
+is it the pleasure of seeing you?'
+
+'My poor Cherry! I did not think half enough about you.'
+
+'That would have done no good. Most of this rose out of my own
+crossness and horridness. If I could only be anxious without being
+peevish!'
+
+'Now, Cherry, don't waste time in telling me it was your own fault; I
+know all about that! I really want to understand how it has all been
+with Alda and Clement. I am afraid Alda has not been behaving nicely.'
+
+To hear Wilmet allow Alda to be other than impeccable so amazed Cherry,
+that she could scarcely answer. 'O Mettie, I never knew what you and
+Felix must be. I have so often thought of a house divided against
+itself, one against two, and two against three. We have been all _to
+wrongs_, and Clem and I have said we would not be a party; and yet we
+could not help it, for we always had to stand up together! Then Angel
+and Bear were against every one, and Alda set them against Clem, and
+fancied he did against her, which was not true. I should have minded
+nothing if Alda had not been so angry at Clement's sending for Sister
+Constance. You did give him leave, though?'
+
+'Yes, and I should have done so much more decidedly if I had known.'
+
+At that moment Sister Constance knocked at the door, with her work in
+her hand, and Wilmet inferred that this was the refuge from Alda and
+the drawing-room. To Cherry's surprise, Wilmet, instead of ignoring
+everything unsatisfactory, began at once, 'Please come in, Sister
+Constance; I wanted to thank you, and tell you how sorry and ashamed I
+am! I am afraid you have not been treated as--'
+
+'Don't say any more, my dear,' as the tears were in her eyes; 'don't
+think about it.'
+
+'I ought to think!' said Wilmet. 'I have been trying to understand
+things ever since I came home; but everybody except Cherry and Clem
+blames everybody, and they only blame themselves! I can't understand
+the rights of anything!'
+
+'My dear,' said Sister Constance, 'I think it would be impossible to
+go into the details of all that has happened. Shall I tell you how it
+seemed to me?'
+
+'Pray do!'
+
+'I thought that the authority of an elder reared in so different a
+school necessarily was producing a few collisions. There was some
+ignorance, and a good deal of dislike of interference, and the younger
+ones would not have been human not to take advantage of it; but it
+is over now you are come home, and I strongly recommend an act of
+oblivion.'
+
+'Oh! I don't want to punish the poor children,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Oblivion, I said, not only amnesty;' and as she did not see perfect
+comprehension in Wilmet's face, she added, 'I mean, not only that
+the children should be forgiven, but that their elders should not go
+hunting for causes, and thinking how this or that could have been
+prevented.'
+
+'I suppose not,' said Wilmet. 'It is all plain enough;' and the sigh
+that followed quite amazed Cherry, who smiled up in her face, saying,
+'Plain enough that we can't do without you.'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, kissing Cherry's uplifted face ere leaving the room;
+but it was with such an effort at a responding smile, that Cherry
+exclaimed, 'Oh dear! how dreadfully we have vexed her!' And Sister
+Constance thought the more.
+
+Yet again Wilmet had to hear another testimony to the anarchy in her
+absence. Those formidable bills had obliged her to apply to Alda for an
+advance of the sum she had offered for Lance's journey; and this, after
+some petulance and faltering, elicited that some old forgotten London
+bills had come down and swamped this Midsummer quarter's allowance, so
+that the promise must stand over till--till Michaelmas; or it might
+be that Ferdinand's matters were arranged, and then what would such
+a paltry sum be? Wilmet turned away in shame and disgust at having
+trusted for a moment to such offers. She could only do what she had
+never done before--apply to Mr. Froggatt for an advance on Felix's
+account: and she detained him after dinner for the purpose.
+
+He was as kind as possible, assuring her that he should have been hurt
+if she had not come to him. And then, in his blandest way, he thought
+it right to hint that 'Young people were sometimes a little unguarded.'
+She was prepared for the story of the loss of Stella, but she was not
+prepared to hear of a gossipping intercourse over the newly arrived
+Punches, &c., carried on in the early morning with Redstone, not only
+by Bernard but Angela. She was but eleven years old, so it was no worse
+than the taste of childish underhand coquetry and giggling; there was
+no fear of its continuance after Felix's return, and, indeed, good old
+Mr. Froggatt had kept guard by coming in two hours earlier ever since
+the discovery; but the propensity dismayed Wilmet more than all that
+had yet happened, and on this head she thought it right to reprove
+Angela seriously.
+
+'Dear me, Wilmet, you are always telling us not to think ourselves
+above our station. Mr. Redstone is just as fit to speak to as Felix was
+before he was a partner.'
+
+'Should you like Felix to have found you gossipping in the
+reading-room?'
+
+'Well,' said audacious Angela, 'half the fun in things is the chance of
+being caught.'
+
+'My dear, you don't know what you are saying,' replied Wilmet
+dejectedly, as if exhausted beyond the power of working out her
+reproof! and Angela had to fight hard against any softening, telling
+Bernard that W. W. was a tremendous old maid, who had no notion of a
+lark.
+
+Robina, who stood in the peculiar position of neither accusing nor
+being accused, would not add her voice to the chorus of welcome, and
+did not wonder that every hour wore off something from the radiance
+of the beautiful bloom brought from the Bailey. Indeed, the unusual
+gravity and reserve of the younger sister struck Cherry's observant
+eyes, and made her think at first that she had been much pained by
+having to part with Lance in his weak half-recovered state; but when at
+tea-time the whole history of the illness was inquired into in detail
+by the assembled family, the downcast eyes and cheeks with which Robin
+encountered every mention of Captain Harewood's good offices led to the
+inference that she had in her excitement forgotten the bounds where the
+brook and river meet, and was in an anguish of shame; Wilmet meantime
+looking flushed with the fag of her vexatious day, and speaking
+plentifully of this same Captain, proving to herself all the while that
+she was doing so with ordinary gratitude and composure.
+
+Robina was quartered upon Geraldine in the holiday crowding of the
+house; and somewhere about four o'clock on the summer morning, Cherry,
+wakening as usual, and reaching for her book, heard a voice from the
+corner asking if she wanted anything. 'No, thank you, Bobbie. Go to
+sleep again.'
+
+'I can't; I've been thinking about it all night. I think he's coming
+to-day.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'Captain Harewood. He promised to come and tell us how Lance and Felix
+are.'
+
+'I am very glad; but Wilmet never said so.'
+
+'No, but--O Cherry, I wish we could contrive some nice quiet place, but
+nothing is ever quiet in this house.'
+
+'No,' said Geraldine, who was but too well aware of the fact, 'though I
+can't imagine that any Harewood can be distressed on that score.'
+
+'Oh, but--' said Robina, to whom the communication began to feel so
+momentous, that she could not help toying round it before coming
+to the point--'I know; at least, I am sure he will want to see her
+particularly.'
+
+'You Robin, what have you got into your head?' said Cherry, trying to
+misunderstand, but feeling a foreboding throb of consternation.
+
+'It is not my head. Willie told me.' And as she detected a sigh of
+relief, 'And it is no nonsense of his either. He did it on Sunday
+evening by the river-side.'
+
+'He did it?' repeated Geraldine, willing to take a moment's refuge in
+the confusion of antecedents, though too well aware what must be coming.
+
+'You know what I mean. He--Jack--John--Captain Harewood, had it out
+with her when we were all walking together.'
+
+'My dear, impossible!'
+
+'I mean, we were out of hearing, but we saw them at it, and walked up
+and down till Lance got tired out, and Willie and I stayed to make it
+proper.'
+
+Geraldine relieved herself by a little laugh, and said, in a superior
+tone of elderly wisdom, 'But, my dear, there might be a walk even
+without what you call doing it.'
+
+'Yes,' reiterated Robina; 'but I know, for the Captain shut himself up
+with Mr. Harewood when we came in, and Bill heard his father telling
+his mother about it at night through the wall.'
+
+'For shame, Robin!'
+
+'Oh! he told them long ago that he could hear, and they don't care;
+besides, Mrs. Harewood told him _himself_ when he went in to wish her
+good morning, and she kissed me and Lance too about it, and said they
+hadn't their equals. And poor Mettie thinks no one knows of it but
+their two selves, and maybe Mr. Harewood!'
+
+'But, Robin, I don't know how to understand it. I think she would have
+told Alda, at least.'
+
+'Perhaps she has to-night,' said Robina; 'but, you see, she didn't
+accept him.'
+
+'Oh! then it doesn't signify.'
+
+'Not out and out, I mean; and it is only because of us. At least, we
+are sure she likes him.'
+
+'We! You and Willie!'
+
+'And Lance. He saw it all the time he was getting well. Besides, the
+Captain told his father that she wouldn't listen to him, and would have
+hindered his going to Felix if Lance had been fit to travel alone.'
+
+'Then it is not an engagement now?'
+
+'No, she won't let it be.'
+
+'And he is coming to-day?'
+
+'Yes, after he has seen Felix. O Cherry! he is so nice, kind and
+bright, like all the Harewoods, and not ridiculous; and Lance does like
+him so!'
+
+'Does Wilmet?'
+
+'We are almost sure. As Lance says, she has never looked so bright, or
+so sweet, or so pretty. Do you think it is love, Cherry?'
+
+'We shall see,' said Cherry. 'If she tells us nothing, we can judge;
+and if--if--'
+
+Her voice died away into contemplation; and after waiting in vain for
+more, Robina somewhat resentfully decided that 'she had fallen asleep
+in her very face.'
+
+No more was said till dressing-time, when there were a few speculations
+whether Alda knew; and Cherry could not help auguring that something
+had opened Wilmet's eyes to her twin's possible deficiencies. Sister
+Constance came, and seeing her patient's paleness, accused the sisters
+of untimely bedroom colloquies; and as they pleaded guilty, Robin was
+struck by the air of fixed resolution on Cherry's thin white face.
+
+There was no sign of any confidence having been made to Alda. Wilmet
+plunged into her long-deferred holiday task of inspecting the family
+linen; and when she came back with a deep basket, an announcement that
+every one must mend and adapt, and portions of darning and piecing
+for Geraldine and Robina, they began to feel as if the morning's
+conversation was a dream.
+
+But just as dinner was near its close, there were steps on the stairs;
+the drawing-room door was opened and shut, and Sibby, unnecessarily
+coming through the folding leaves, announced over the head of Clement,
+'Captain Harewood.'
+
+'Come to tell about Lance!' cried Angela, leaping up, and followed
+by Bernard, Alda, and even Mr. Froggatt; indeed, in the existing
+connection of chairs, tables, and doors, a clearance of that side of
+the table was needful before any one else could stir. Wilmet moved
+after them, and Clement was heard exclaiming, 'You are pinning me down,
+Bobbie!'
+
+'I know! Oh, shut the door! There are more than enough there already.'
+
+'True,' said Sister Constance, signing to Clement to obey. 'I meant to
+go to my room, but Cherry wants to hear of her brothers.'
+
+'No, she doesn't!' cried Robina. 'At least-- Oh! will nobody get the
+others out, and leave them to themselves!'
+
+'Why, Bobbie, what nonsense is this?' said Clement. 'One would think
+you took them for Ferdinand and Alda.'
+
+'It is all the same!--Stella, you run out to the garden--by that door,
+you child!' And then it all came out to the two fresh auditors, who
+listened with conviction. 'And now,' concluded Robina, 'there is not
+a place where he can so much as speak to her! What shall we do to get
+them away?'
+
+'You do not know yet that she wishes it,' said Sister Constance, who
+had been a wife before she was a Sister, and saw that it was matronly
+tact and tenderness that the crisis needed; 'but I'll tell you what you
+can safely and naturally do. Go in and fetch Cherry's folding chair,
+and call the children to carry her appurtenances down to the garden.
+That will make a break, and Wilmet can take advantage of it if she sees
+fit.'
+
+'Alda is worse than ten children,' said Clement; 'she has an inordinate
+appetite for captains in the absence of her own.'
+
+'It can't be helped. Better do too little than too much.'
+
+And finding Robina shy and giggling, and Clement shy and irresolute,
+Sister Constance herself made the diversion by opening the door, when
+Wilmet's nervous look and manner was confirmation strong. 'Lady Herbert
+Somerville--Captain Harewood,' was Alda's formal introduction in her
+bad taste; while the Sister, after shaking hands, bade Bernard take
+Geraldine's chair to the lawn.
+
+'Oh, are we to go out?' said Alda. 'A good move. Of all things I detest
+in summer, a town house is the worst. I'll just fetch a hat, I want
+to show my pet view.--Our brothers are always fighting about their
+churches, Captain Harewood.'
+
+The thing was done; Mr. Froggatt was already gone, and as Alda's
+trappings were never quickly adjusted, it needed very little
+contrivance to leave a not unwilling pair on one side of the doors, and
+cut off the rest. Robina, too much excited to stand still, flew about
+the stairs till Alda appeared in a tiny hat fluttering with velvet
+tails.
+
+'Are they gone out?'
+
+'Yes;' for quite enough to constitute a 'they' were gone; and when Alda
+reached them, they sedulously set themselves to detain her, and thereby
+betrayed the reason.
+
+'Nonsense! How absurd! That horrid little fright of a red-haired man!
+No doubt poor dear Wilmet only wants me to go and put an end to it.'
+
+Strictly speaking, this was self-assertion. She had not the assurance
+to intrude, and she contented herself with keeping Cherry on thorns
+by threatening to go in, and declaring that the whole must be untrue,
+since Wilmet had not told her.
+
+Time went on very slowly; and at last Wilmet, about four o'clock, was
+seen advancing, with Theodore in one hand and her great basket of
+mending in the other. And before Alda had time to rise from her chair,
+Robina darted across the grass, with flaming cheeks and low, hurried,
+frightened confession--'Wilmet, please, it is honest to tell you;
+Willie Harewood knows, and told me, and I couldn't help it; I told them
+to keep away.'
+
+'It always happens so,' said Wilmet, less discomposed than Robina
+expected, though she had evidently been shedding tears. 'Not that there
+is anything to tell.'
+
+'Nothing!' cried Robina, looking blank.
+
+'Of course not. He came to bring me a note from Felix. I hope no one
+knows but those three.'
+
+'And Sister Constance.'
+
+'Then take care no one does.'
+
+'But, O Wilmet, please! You have not put an end to it all?'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet. 'They will not let me, though I think it would have
+been wiser. I do not know how it is to be, except that it is utterly
+impossible for the present.'
+
+With this much from the fountain-head, Robina was forced to content
+herself; and she had tact enough not to join the trio under the tree,
+but to betake herself to Clement, who had gone off with his books.
+
+'So,' said Alda lightly, 'you have cheated us of another view of your
+conquest, Mettie.'
+
+'He wanted to catch the 3.45 train,' said Wilmet gravely.
+
+'You must have been very unmerciful to despatch him so soon. I thought
+you must want me to come to your rescue, but those romantic children
+wouldn't let me.'
+
+'Thank you,' said Wilmet.
+
+'My dear! You don't mean that you are smitten? Well! I can't flatter
+you as to his beauty. And yet, after all, situated as you are, it is
+a catch--that is, if he has anything but his pay; but of course he
+hasn't.'
+
+'Yes,' said Wilmet abstractedly, 'his father told me he had--what did
+he call it?--"a fair independent competence of his own." Oh! they are
+so kind!'
+
+'Then, O Wilmet, is it really so?' asked Geraldine, with eager eyes,
+clasped hands, and quivering frame, infinitely fuller of visible
+emotion than either of the handsome twins.
+
+'I--don't know.'
+
+'My dear Wilmet,' cried Alda, excited, 'you can't surely have anything
+better in view!'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, even now keeping herself blind to the offensiveness
+of Alda's suggestion; 'but as it is utterly impossible for me to think
+of--leaving home, I did think it would have been wiser to put a stop to
+it while there wa--is time,' and the tears began to gather again.
+
+'And have you?
+
+'They won't let me.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'_He_--and his father, and Felix,' said Wilmet, speaking steadily, but
+the tears rolling down her cheeks.
+
+'Felix! Oh, what does he say?'
+
+'You may see;' and she held out a letter, which Alda and Cherry read
+together, while she rested her elbow on her knee, her brow on her hand,
+and let fall the tears, which with her were always soft, free, and
+healthy outlets of emotion, not disabling, but rather relieving.
+
+        Mrs. Pettigrew's Lodgings, North Beach, East Ewmouth, 20th
+        July, 10 P.M.
+
+        MY DEAREST WILMET,
+
+        What I have heard to-day is a great satisfaction. I had hardly
+        hoped that you could have been brought within the reach of
+        any one so worthy of you. My only fear is that you are too
+        scrupulous and self-sacrificing to contemplate fairly, and
+        without prejudice, what is best for us all. You will imagine
+        yourself blinded by inclination, and not attend to common
+        sense. Harewood tells me he trusts you have no objection on
+        personal grounds. (I hope this does not sound as if he were
+        presuming; if so, it is my fault. Remember, I am more used
+        to writing 'summaries for the week' than letters on delicate
+        subjects.) But at any rate, my Mettie, I see there is much
+        worth and weight in his affection, and that you could not
+        manage to snub him as entirely as you wanted to do. (Didn't
+        you?) Now, it seems to me, that if you two are really drawn to
+        one another, both being such as you are, it is the call of a
+        Voice that you have no right to reject or stifle. I do not mean
+        by this that anything immediate need take place; but granting
+        your preference, I think it would be wrong not to avow it, or
+        to refuse, because you scruple to keep him waiting while you
+        may be necessary at home. If you imagine that by such rejection
+        you would be doing better for the children and me, I beg leave
+        to tell you it is a generous blunder. Remember that, as things
+        have turned out, I am quite as much the only dependence for the
+        others as I was seven years ago. I felt this painfully in the
+        spring, when I was doubtful what turn my health would take; and
+        the comfort of knowing you would all have such a man to look
+        to would be unspeakable--indeed, he has already lightened me
+        of much care and anxiety. Do not take this as pressing you.
+        Between this and the end of his leave, there will be time for
+        consideration. Nothing need be done in haste, least of all the
+        crushing your liking under the delusion of serving us. So do
+        not forbid him the house; and unless your objection be on any
+        other score, do not make up your mind till you have seen me. I
+        should of course have been with you instead of writing, if it
+        were not for Lance. Till I saw the dear little fellow, I had
+        no notion how very ill he has been. The five hours' journey
+        had quite knocked him up, and he was fit for nothing but his
+        bed when he came; but he revived in the evening. I only hope
+        I shall take as good care of him as the first-rate nurses he
+        describes so enthusiastically. That month must have been worth
+        years of common acquaintance. I wish I knew what more to say to
+        show you how glad I am of this day's work, and to persuade you
+        to see matters as I do.
+
+                               Ever your loving brother,
+                                              F. C. UNDERWOOD.
+
+        P.S.--Lance is quite himself this morning, and was up to watch
+        us bathing before six o'clock.
+
+'Oh! what did Captain Harewood say of Felix?' was Cherry's cry, almost
+with shame and pain at not having asked before.
+
+'You know, he had never seen him,' said Wilmet; 'but he said he did
+not seem to him in the least unwell--and he watched carefully, as I
+had begged him. He said he struck him as naturally delicate-looking;
+but that those blue veins in his temples do not show, and he has no
+cough at all, nor any difficulty in swimming, or walking up a steep
+cliff. He made me laugh, for he said he hardly believed his eyes when
+Lance tumbled himself out of the train on something so little bigger or
+older than himself. He says the way we all talk of "my eldest brother"
+made him expect something taller than Clement, and more imposing than
+the senior verger; but he understood it all when he saw him and Lance
+together. They have two very nice rooms; and Felix has put Lance into
+the bedroom, which is luckily cool, and sleeps on a sofa bed in the
+parlour; and the landlady will do anything for them.'
+
+'But how is it to be?' broke in Alda crossly. 'You and Felix seem to
+be encouraging him to come dangling here, when we all agreed that
+Ferdinand must keep away in Felix's absence, though matters are in such
+a different state.'
+
+'So I told him, dear Alda,' gently said Wilmet; 'but he declared he
+would bring his sisters, or poor Mrs. Harewood herself, if nothing else
+would satisfy me: and what could I do, after all their kindness?'
+
+'Umph!' muttered Alda; 'they are a queer set.'
+
+'Now, Alda,' said Wilmet earnestly, 'you must not talk without knowing.
+Till I went there, I never understood how much goodness and principle
+there could be without my stiffness and particularity. I know I have
+often been very unnecessarily disagreeable and disapproving, and I hope
+I am shaken out of it in time.'
+
+'Dear Mettie, no one is like you,' cried Cherry, with a little
+effusion, stretching out her hand, and laying it on her sister's
+shoulder. 'Oh, if we had not all been so vile while you were away!'
+
+'It would not have made any difference, my dear! It would be impossible
+to leave Felix without help. And think of Theodore!'
+
+Alda muttered something, that no one would hear, about asylums; and
+the tell-tale tears coming again, Wilmet sprang up, and bending down
+to kiss Cherry, declared in her most authoritative voice that nothing
+should be said to the younger children, nor to any one out of the
+house; then picked up the tea-cups, and carried them in.
+
+Excitements were, however, not yet over for the day. A telegram was put
+into Alda's hands, containing the words--
+
+        'A.T. is an unmitigated brute. I sail for N.Y. to-night. All
+        will be right when I come back.'
+
+The mysterious hint restored Alda at once to all the privileges of the
+reigning heroine!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+VALE LESTON.
+
+     'The way to make thy son rich is to fill
+      His mind with rest before his trunk with riches;
+      For wealth without contentment climbs a hill,
+      To feel those tempests that fly over ditches,
+      But if thy son can make ten pounds his measure,
+      Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.'
+                                             _George Herbert._
+
+
+'I say, Felix, you've not told me about Vale Leston.'
+
+The two brothers were established under the lee of an old boat, beneath
+the deep shadow of the red earth cliffs, festooned with ivy, wild
+clematis, everlasting pea, thrift, and samphire. Not far off, niched
+beneath the same cliff, were two or three cottage lodging-houses,
+two-storied, with rough grey slate roofs, glaring white walls, and
+green shutters to the windows that looked out over the shingly beach to
+the lazily rippling summer sea.
+
+Ewmouth was a lazy place. Felix had felt half asleep through the
+earlier days of his stay, and Lance seemed to be lulled into a
+continual doze whenever he was unoccupied, and that was almost always.
+It had grieved his elder brother to see this naturally vivacious
+being so inert and content with inaction, only strolling about a
+little in early morning and late evening, and languid and weary, if
+not actually suffering, during the heat and glare of the day. He was
+now, with his air-pillow and a railway rug, lying on the beach, beside
+Felix, who with his safety ink-stand planted in the sand, was at work
+condensing the parliamentary debates for the Pursuivant, and was glad
+to perceive that he was so far alive as to be leaning on his elbow,
+slowly shovelling the sand or smaller pebbles with the frail tenement
+of a late crab; and it was another good sign to hear his voice in a
+voluntary inquiry about Vale Leston.
+
+'I have not been there yet.'
+
+'Not there?'
+
+'No. Old Abednego Tripp comes over here every market day, and he's the
+only person I wanted to see.'
+
+'I thought you came here because you wanted to see the place?'
+
+'Yes; but I was not up to the walk when I came here; and while you were
+ill I never durst go out of reach of the telegraph, and latterly I
+waited for you. After all, I have not much mind to it. I don't see the
+good of setting oneself a coveting one's neighbour's house.'
+
+'It wouldn't be my house, any way,' said Lance quaintly. 'How far is
+it?'
+
+'Rather more than three miles. We'll get a boat some day and do it.'
+
+'That will be jolly!' and after shovelling a little longer, Lance
+added, 'How came we to be turned out?'
+
+'That's just what I can't tell. I was only seven, you know, and my
+father never would talk of it. Sibby used to revile the mane nagur,
+Misther Fulbert, till it was current in the nursery that he was a black
+man who expelled us _vi et armis_. One day, my father found four or
+five of us in a row slashing at an old black doll, by way of killing
+Misther Fulbert, and prohibited such executions. I think, too, that he
+quashed an attempt to call our own Fulbert by his other name.'
+
+'I wonder what the nagur did?'
+
+'By the light of maturer nature, I imagine that he may have succeeded
+as heir-at-law, and that his _maneness_ may have consisted in not
+giving the living to my father; but I cannot tell. It always seemed my
+father's great desire to put it out of our minds. I remember before we
+left the place his catching me in a furious rage with some one who told
+me my pony was to be sold. He carried me off, and told me it was all
+true; and we were going away, and he trusted to me to be brave and make
+it as little hard to Mamma and the little girls as could be. He said
+the place had belonged to old Uncle Underwood, and that we had no right
+to stay there after his death. That was all the explanation he gave me,
+first or last; and I don't think we thought much about it after the
+neck of the change was broken.'
+
+'You remember it, though.'
+
+'I believe I know every step of the house and garden. I have never
+ceased to dream of them; and I am as much afraid of disturbing old
+impressions as of reviving wishes.'
+
+'Holloa! what's up?' exclaimed Lance, as the landlady was seen coming
+in quest of them. 'I thought I saw a tidy little tiger going in there
+just now.'
+
+'A note from Mr. Staples, if you please, Sir, and they wait for an
+answer.'
+
+'I didn't know you had any acquaintance here.'
+
+'Mr. Staples is the solicitor who did the business about Admiral
+Chester's legacy. He is retired now, and only holds some county office.
+He found me out last week, I believe, from some letters of mine going
+wool-gathering to the other F. Underwood. He called and said he knew my
+father, and was very civil and friendly. He sent to inquire after you
+the day you came. This is what he says:--
+
+        MY DEAR MR. FELIX UNDERWOOD,
+
+        Your relative at Vale Leston wishes me to dine with him
+        to-morrow evening. If you and your brother would like to
+        accompany me on the drive, meet me at six o'clock on the top of
+        the cliff. If you would prefer to return earlier than I do, I
+        can direct you to a boatman to take you down by the river.
+
+                                  Believe me, yours truly,
+                                                       C. STAPLES.
+
+
+'Hurrah! that's not half a bad fellow for an attorney,' cried Lance.
+
+'Shall not you be tired? Will it not be too hot for you?'
+
+'Not a bit of it. He,' indicating the sun, 'can only get at me asquint
+by that time, and I'm a match for him with my blue umbrella. Come, fire
+away, you tardy Norseman. Say we are good for it. Fancy boating back!'
+
+And Lance whistled a few bars of 'The Hardy Norseman,' the liveliest
+thing he had done since his illness.
+
+At the appointed hour, the brothers were standing on the top of the
+cliff, with a broad estuary before them; on the opposite side of which
+lay the town of Ewmouth at the foot of the old castle, with fresh
+modern fortifications towards the sea. The town, with its church towers
+and gas chimneys, sloped away from it; vessels thronged the harbour;
+and a long weird-looking thready suspension-bridge spanned the broad
+tide-river to East Ewmouth, the village fast growing into a suburb.
+There had not been more than time to point out the details to Lance
+before a waggonet drove up from one of the roads that branched among
+pleasant 'villa residences;' and in it appeared a white-haired but
+hearty-looking gentleman, prepossessing and merry, very unlike Lance's
+notion of attorneys, who shook hands with them warmly, and took care to
+put the boy under the shade of the driving-seat.
+
+It was a pretty drive, through rich meadows, shut in by the sloping
+wooded hills which gradually closed nearer; and by-and-by over the
+shoulder of one looked a very tall church tower, whereat Felix started
+with a thrill of responsive recognition, and suddenly faltered in the
+political discussion Mr. Staples had started, but dropped at once,
+looking at the young man's face with kindly interest.
+
+At the same time road and river both made a sudden turn into a much
+narrower and wilder valley, the hills beyond more rough and rocky; but
+the river still broad and smooth, and crossed by a handsome high-backed
+five-arched bridge, the centre arch grandly high and broad, the other
+two rapidly diminishing on either side. Over this the carriage turned;
+and from the crown Lance beheld an almost collegiate-looking mass of
+grey building, enclosing sunny lawns and flower-beds, and surrounded
+by park-like grounds and trees, all sloping towards the river, and
+backed by steep hills of wood and moorland, whence a little brook
+danced with much impetus down to the calm steady main stream of Ewe.
+The church and remnants of the old priory occupied the forefront of a
+sort of peninsula, the sweep of the Ewe on the south and east, and the
+little lively Leston on the north. There was slope enough to raise the
+buildings beyond damp, and display the flower-beds beautifully as they
+lay falling away from the house. The churchyard lay furthest north,
+skirted by the two rivers, and the east end with the lovely floriated
+window of the Lady Chapel rising some thirty yards from the bank of
+the Ewe, the outline a little broken by an immense willow tree that
+wept its fountain-like foliage into the river. The south transept was
+cloistered, and joined to the building beyond, a long low grey house
+with one row of windows above the sloping roof of the cloister, and
+this again connected with a big family mansion, built of the same grey
+stone with the rest, but in the style of the seventeenth century, and a
+good deal modernized upon that. A great plate-glass window looked out
+on the river in the east front, which projected nearly as far as did
+the Lady Chapel, the space between being, as before said, laid out in a
+formal parterre, with stone steps leading down to the river.
+
+'Oh, what a place! what a place!' shouted Lance, starting up in the
+carriage. 'It's like the minster, and the jolly old river besides! Two
+of them! Oh! what fishing there must be!'
+
+'I did not know it was really so beautiful,' said Felix in a low voice.
+
+'You remember it?' said Mr. Staples.--'I suppose you can't?' to Lance.
+
+'Oh no! I wasn't born! More's the pity! Do the salmon come up here,
+Sir?'
+
+'Yes, since the fisheries have been protected; but young Mr. Underwood
+is a great fisherman, and I fear it is not easy to get a card.'
+
+'Oh, I wasn't thinking about leave, Sir, thank you. I've got no tackle
+nor anything; but I _am_ glad _we_ have salmon,' said Lance, as though
+he had acquired an accession of dignity.
+
+Descending from the bridge, they were in a road skirting the river,
+and on which presently opened the lodge gates of the Rectory. Here Mr.
+Staples got out, telling his servant to drive the young gentlemen round
+to the village.
+
+'I say, Felix,' said Lance, as they were whirled on along the lane
+which swept round the long wall overhung by trees, 'that old party must
+know all about it.'
+
+'Most likely,' said Felix; 'but if there had been any good in my
+hearing, my father could have told me himself. How well I remember his
+giving me my first ride along this lane! Do you smell the bean field? I
+don't believe I have thought of the scent since.'
+
+Felix seemed absorbed in the pleasures of recognition; and Lance,
+amazed at the beauty and what seemed to him the splendour of the
+place, looked up at his brother with a kind of romantic feeling for a
+disinherited knight, as he contrasted the scene with the counter and
+printing-office.
+
+The lane led to the village street, a very pretty one sloping upwards,
+and lying on each side of the Leston, which rippled along as clear as
+crystal, crossed every here and there by foot-bridges, some wooden,
+some a single stone; while the cottages on the opposite side were
+perched on a high shelf or terrace, and were approached by charming
+irregular flights of stairs with low walls or balustrades. Over the
+rail of one, smoking a pipe in summer evening enjoyment, was seen
+Abednego Tripp, with long nose, brown parchment cheeks, and lank hair
+not yet grey--one of the genuine almost extinct species of parish
+clerk. As the carriage stopped, he began to descend, keys in hand, for
+the church was a lion, and many carriages did stop there; but it was
+not till Felix jumped out and hailed him that he knew who were his
+visitors.
+
+'Bless me, if it is not Master Felix after all! I did think you was
+never coming, Sir. And this is the young gentleman as has been so ill.
+You're kindly welcome, Sir. I think he'd favour poor Master Eddard if
+he didn't look so nesh.'
+
+'I shall get well here,' said Lance. 'If it is not my native air, it
+ought to be.'
+
+'Will you come and rest a bit, Sir? or would you like to go to the
+church?'
+
+'The church,' they said. Felix first explained what he knew would give
+pleasure--that they had come depending on him for a cup of tea, and
+a cast in his boat which was wont to convey the marketables of Vale
+Leston twice a week to Ewmouth.
+
+Abednego sped up his stairs like a lamp-lighter, to cause his
+grand-daughter to make preparations, and was speedily down again,
+delighted to hear Felix prove his memory by inquiries after the
+inhabitants of the old dwellings.
+
+'Ha! the Miss Hepburns!' said Felix, looking at a tall narrow house
+completely embowered in trailing roses, and with the rails of the
+bridge of entrance wreathed with clematis. 'Are they there still?'
+
+'Oh yes, Sir, all the four on 'em; and a sight of good they does to the
+poor!'
+
+'I wonder whether I ought to call?' said Felix; 'they used to be very
+kind to me.'
+
+'What, is that Rob's godmother, that never gave her anything but that
+queer name?' asked Lance.
+
+'I shouldn't think they were rich,' said Felix. 'I fancy they used
+to be very fond of my mother, and made her promise that the next
+girl should be named for one of them. There was Miss Bridget, and
+Miss Martha, and something else as bad, and Robina was the least
+objectionable of the lot. I think they used to write to my mother; but
+it is late in the day for calling.'
+
+'Here comes Miss Bridget,' said the clerk, as there appeared in sight
+a tall, rigid, angular figure, with a big brown hat and long straight
+cloak, and a decidedly charity-looking basket in her hand.
+
+Felix stepped forward with his hand to his hat. 'Miss Hepburn, I
+believe. I must introduce myself--Felix Underwood.'
+
+The lady's first move had been a startled shy drawing herself up and
+into herself, at being addressed by a stranger. Then she looked up with
+an amazed 'Felix Underwood! Little Felix!' and as he smiled and bowed,
+she fumbled and put out a hesitating hand.
+
+'Yes. Tripp did tell us something--something of your being at Ewmouth,
+but we were not sure.'
+
+'We had not been able to come over before,' said Felix, thinking she
+meant to imply that he ought to have called. 'We came for health and
+have not been equal to the walk.'
+
+'Oh, indeed. Nothing infectious, I hope?'
+
+'Oh no,' he said, explaining in a few words the total want of
+connection between his case and Lance's.
+
+'I am glad. I'll--I'll tell my sisters. I'm glad to have seen you.'
+
+There was something faltering and ill-assured in her manner, and in a
+moment she turned back with 'Mr. Underwood, where are you stopping?'
+
+He answered; and with 'I'll tell my sisters,' she parted with them
+again.
+
+'That's Miss Bridget,' commented old Tripp. 'She's the one as allys
+says, "I'll tell my sisters." They do say as Miss Isabella, she be the
+master on 'em all.'
+
+Felix and Lance smiled to one another the assurance that every family
+had its Wilmet; but while the younger brother shrugged his shoulders,
+the elder felt a certain chill in the contrast with those days of old,
+when the sugar-plums and picture-books of the whole sisterhood were all
+at his service, and bethought him that times were changed.
+
+They entered the churchyard by a little side-gate. The church was a
+grand pile of every style of architecture that had prevailed since the
+Cistercians had settled in Vale Leston, and of every defacement that
+the alternate neglect and good-will of the Underwoods could perpetrate.
+The grand tower at the west end was, however, past their power to
+spoil, and they had not done much damage to the exterior, except in a
+window or buttress here and there. But within! The brothers, used to
+the heavy correctness of the St. Oswald's restoration, stood aghast
+when Abednego admitted them by the door of excommunication, straight
+into the chancel, magnificently deep, but with the meanest of rails,
+a reredos where Moses and Aaron kept guard over the Commandments in
+black and gold, and walls bristling with genii and angels of all
+descriptions, weeping over Underwoods of different generations. Lance
+stood open-mouthed before a namesake of his own, whose huge monumental
+slab was upborne by the exertions of a kind of Tartarean cherub, solely
+consisting of a skull and a pair of bats' wings!
+
+'My stars! where did that brute come from?' muttered Lance under his
+breath. 'He's got no trifle of a piece of work!'
+
+However, Felix had taken in that the chancel had respectable
+poppy-headed benches, though the lower part of the church was
+completely 'emparoked in pues,' such as surprised Lance out of all
+bounds when he withdrew his eyes from the white marble death's head.
+
+'My stars!' again he said, 'this is what I've heard of, but never saw.'
+
+'Ay, Sir,' said Mr. Tripp, 'every one that come here do be crying out
+upon the pews; and to be sure, I see the folk sleepin' in them as is
+shameful!'
+
+Well he might, for his place was the lowest in a lofty three-decker,
+against one pier of the chancel arch, surmounted by a golden angel
+blowing a trumpet, and with lettering round the sounding-board,
+recording it to have been the gift of the Reverend Lancelot Underwood,
+Rector and Vicar of this parish--the owner of the mural slab before
+mentioned. That angel recalled to Felix that the sight of it had been
+his great pleasure in going to church, only marred by the fact that he
+was out of sight of it in the chancel.
+
+'Why, you weren't in the choir then?' said Lance.
+
+'Choir! no, Sir,' said the clerk. 'They sits in the gallery. The
+chancel is for Mr. Underwood's family--the Rector, Sir. They seats was
+just put up instead of the red baize pew before old Mr. Underwood as
+was then died, and your poor papa went away. And that there font was
+put, as 'tis there, just when the twin young ladies was christened.'
+
+'Where was I christened, then?'
+
+'In the bowl as we used to have on the Communion, Sir.'
+
+It was plain how far Edward Underwood had dared to work at renovation,
+and that nothing had since been done. The Lady-chapel, with a wonderful
+ceiling of Tudor fans and pendants, was full of benches and ragged
+leaves of books for such Sunday schooling as took place there, the
+national school having been built half a mile off, that the children
+might not be obnoxious to the Rectory. The church was a good way behind
+the ordinary churches of 1861, and struck the two brothers the more
+from the system in which they had been brought up.
+
+'What a state Clem would be in!' uttered Lance, as they came out.
+
+'It is of no use to think about it,' said Felix. 'Let us enjoy the
+beautiful exterior.'
+
+'Ay, Sir,' said old Tripp, 'parties do be saying as how it is a mortial
+pity to see such a church go to wrack; and I do believe the Squire
+wouldn't be so hard to move if it warn't for the Passon--that's young
+Mr. Fulbert, the vicar.'
+
+'I don't understand all these rectors and vicars,' said Lance. 'I
+thought they never hung out together.'
+
+'Why, you see, Master Lancelot, as how this is what they calls a lay
+rectory, as goes like a landed estate from father to son, without there
+being any call for 'em to be clergy; and the Vicar, he is just put in
+to do Passon's work, only he gets his situation for life, like I do,
+not like them curates.'
+
+'I see,' said Felix; 'and the rectors have generally taken Holy Orders,
+and presented themselves to the vicarage.'
+
+'Yes, Sir, that's how it ought to be; only this here Squire--not being
+no Passon, though Rector he be--he puts in a gentleman to keep it warm
+till his son, young Mr. Fulbert, our Vicar as is, was growed up, and
+hard work they say it was to get him to bend his mind to 't; nor he'd
+not have done it at last, but for his father's paying of his bills,
+and giving consent to his marrying Miss Shaw. And since that, bless
+you, Sir, the curates have done nothing but change, change, change,
+till 'tis enough to ruin a good clerk. You knows what that is, Master
+Felix, you that be one of the cloth.' (For Felix allowed himself no
+unprofessional coats.)
+
+'It is only the cloth, Mr. Tripp; don't you see I sport a blue tie? I
+am a bookseller.'
+
+'A bookseller!' The old man recoiled. 'You'll not be passing your jokes
+on me, Sir. A book-writer--I understands.'
+
+'No, a bookseller in earnest. I have a share in a very good business at
+Bexley; I've been at it ever since I was sixteen.'
+
+The old clerk was quite overcome; he leant upon a headstone and stared
+at Felix without speaking, and then it was a sort of soliloquy. 'To
+think of poor dear Master Eddard's son being come to that! and he
+looking a dozen times more like a clergyman and a gentleman than ever
+this young Mr. Fulbert will!'
+
+'Never mind, Mr. Tripp,' said Felix; 'there's one of us on the way to
+be a clergyman--Edward Clement, you know, that I wrote to you about;
+and maybe this fellow too. Don't look so angry with me. I was obliged
+to do the best I could to bring in something for the thirteen of us.'
+
+'And we're as proud of him as can be!' added Lance, affectionately and
+indignantly.
+
+'Ah, well,' said the old aristocrat, 'that may be, for you never
+knew them he came of. There was my old Lady Geraldine, as was his
+great-grandmother, who gave a new coat or new gown to every poor body
+in the parish at Christmas, and as much roast beef as they could eat;
+and wore a shawl as come from the Injies and cost two hundred pounds!
+She _was_ a lady! Bless me, what would she have said to see the day--'
+
+'That she was glad to have a great-grandson good for something,'
+stoutly answered Lance. 'I declare, Mr. Tripp, you'd have liked him
+better if he had come a begging!'
+
+'So I do,' said Felix; 'and what's more, Mr. Tripp is going to refuse
+me because he is too fine to sit down to tea with a tradesman!'
+
+'No, no, sir,' said old Tripp, with tears in his eyes. 'You'll not go
+for to say that. If it was the last morsel I had, I'd be proud to share
+it with one of Master Eddard's sons; but I can't but think as how we
+rung the bells and drunk your health when you was born, just as we did
+for the Prince of Wales, and how proud poor Master Eddard looked. No
+doubt he was spared the knowing of it.'
+
+'No,' said Felix, 'it was settled with his full consent.'
+
+Abednego seemed more distressed than ever. 'Poor Master Eddard! he must
+have been brought very low. Such a gentleman as he was! Never spoke a
+proud or rude word, Sir, but used to hold up his head like the first
+lord in the land, and fire and colour up and start like one of young
+Mr. Fulbert's thoroughbreds if any one said an impudent word.'
+
+'That no one ever ventured,' said Felix. 'He was as much respected at
+Bexley--yes, and is still--as ever he could be here. I wish you could
+see my brother Edgar, he is more like him than either of us. Ah, here's
+the old garden gate, I wish we could go into the shrubbery.'
+
+Tripp was rather for trying it. He said the gardeners would be gone
+home, and the elder master at dinner--the younger, with his wife,
+was absent; but Felix could not bear the sense of spying, though he
+did not withhold Lance from a rush into the garden paths, where he
+did not discover much. Then they looked into the eddy at the meeting
+of the waters; and turning back to Tripp's neatest of kitchens, were
+there regaled upon shrimps, rashers hissing from the fire, and the
+peculiar native species of hot-buttered cake, which Felix recollected
+as viewed in the nursery as the _ne plus ultra_ of excellence, probably
+because it was an almost prohibited dainty. Lance was in his element,
+delighting himself and Miss Kerenhappuch Tripp by assisting her to
+toast, to butter, and even to wash up, calling Felix to witness that he
+always helped Cherry in the holidays; when just as they were rising to
+seek the boat, Mr. Staples came climbing up the steps.
+
+'I thought I should find you here,' he said. 'Mr. Underwood very much
+wishes you would come and spend the rest of the evening with him.'
+
+'The old humbug!' burst out Lance. 'You won't go, will you, Felix?'
+
+Felix thought a moment, then walked with Mr. Staples to the corner
+of the narrow ledge in front of the cottage. 'Mr. Staples,' he said,
+'I know nothing about it. I trust to you to tell me whether this man
+treated my father so that I ought not to accept attention from him.'
+
+'Hm? ha? I should not say so. He treated him unkindly, ungenerously,
+but he hardly knew how much so, and he had the letter of the law on his
+side. I verily believe he regrets it, and that your father, being what
+he was, would be the last to wish you to hold aloof.'
+
+'Most likely,' said Felix. 'I am sure he forgave whatever there was to
+forgive.'
+
+'It is not my doing, I assure you. He spoke of your letters that had
+gone astray, and that led to more, till when he found you were in the
+village, he said he should like to see you. He is breaking up; his son
+has given him a good deal of trouble, and I believe he is altogether
+concerned for what has passed.'
+
+'And he will not suppose we want anything from him?' said Felix, with
+something of the almost unavoidable pride of independent poverty.
+
+'Certainly not. I have guarded against that.'
+
+'Then I suppose we must.--That is, how is your head? are you too much
+tired, Lance?'
+
+'No,' said Lance, almost sulkily; for he was much inclined to make
+fatigue a plea for escaping the 'mane nagur' and enjoying the boat, and
+was rather unreasonably disposed to think it all a plot on the part of
+Mr. Staples for spoiling the evening. Felix might have been equally
+glad of the excuse, but he believed his father would have thought
+this act of conciliation a duty, and followed Mr. Staples across
+the churchyard, where all the little boys in the place seemed to be
+playing marbles on the flagged paths. Its neglected state was a painful
+contrast to the exquisitely laid-out shrubbery, as trim as gardeners
+could make it, and improved and altered beyond Felix's recognition.
+
+Entering the house, Mr. Staples led the way to the dining-room,
+where there was a large empty table in the middle of the room, and
+in the deep bay of the window a smaller one, laid out with wine and
+dessert, where sat 'old Fulbert.' Having always heard him so called,
+the brothers were surprised to find him no more than elderly. He must
+have been originally a thorough florid handsome Underwood, and had the
+remains of military bearing, though with an air of feebleness and want
+of health, and a good deal of asthmatic oppression on his breath. He
+did not rise, but held out his hand, saying, 'Good evening. Thank you
+for coming to see a sick man.'
+
+'I am sorry to see you so unwell, Sir.'
+
+'Thank you, I'm on the mend. Sit down. Take a glass of wine--claret?'
+
+Felix accepted, wondering if his father would regard it as an act of
+pardon.
+
+'And you?'
+
+'No thank you, Sir.'
+
+'No wine? You are the one that has been so ill? No objection to melon,
+eh?'
+
+And Lancelot, whose illness had left a strong hankering for fruit, was
+considerably appeased by the first cut into the cool buff flesh.
+
+'Is he the next brother to you?'
+
+'Oh no. There are three brothers and three sisters between us.'
+
+'And what are they doing? There were one or two with Tom Underwood.
+Didn't the young fellow offend him and turn out idle?'
+
+'Not that, Sir,' said Felix, his colour rising: 'but he had no turn
+for a clerkship, and a good deal for art. He is studying at the Royal
+Academy; but there never was any quarrel; he is often at Thomas
+Underwood's.'
+
+'And the rest?'
+
+'One has the Ewshire Scholarship at St. Cadoc's; and there's one in
+Australia.'
+
+'And this lad--what's his name?'
+
+'Lancelot. He is in the choir school at Minsterham Cathedral, and hopes
+to get a scholarship.'
+
+'Is that all of you?'
+
+'Two more boys, quite little, and the six girls.'
+
+'Any of them able to do anything for themselves?'
+
+'The eldest is a teacher in a school at Bexley,' said Felix, not
+delighted with the cross-examination; 'and Alda, the one that lived
+with the Tom Underwoods, is engaged to a man of good fortune. Then two
+of the younger ones are at schools, where an allowance is made for poor
+clergymen's daughters.'
+
+'How long has your mother been dead?'
+
+'Four years and a half.'
+
+'And you have managed all single-handed?'
+
+'With my eldest sister's help, Sir.'
+
+'Taken to the press, have you?' (Mr. Staples must have made the best of
+his vocation.) 'What's your paper?'
+
+'The Bexley Pursuivant. Most likely you never heard of it. It is only
+a little county paper;' and then feeling that to stop there was a
+subterfuge, he added, 'Our main business is the retail trade.'
+
+Mr. Underwood was chiefly intent on the next question, the politics of
+the paper, though he said he need hardly ask. 'All you young stuck-up
+fellows run in one team--all destructives.'
+
+'No, no, Sir,' broke in Mr. Staples eagerly. 'Mr. Felix is staunch to
+the back-bone.'
+
+Felix was never more tempted to deny his principles than when he found
+them brought forward as a recommendation; but he could only explain
+that the Pursuivant was an old established county gentleman's style
+of paper, in the agricultural interest. Whereupon the Squire mounted
+his political hobby in such sort and with such abusive violence,
+especially as to the local representatives of the adverse party, that
+Felix could not help feeling that if such were indeed the opinions of
+his own side, he should certainly be on the other. One good effect was
+the sparing him any more personal catechizing. Mr. Underwood shouted
+himself weary, without requiring any reply save what Mr. Staple's local
+knowledge supplied; and when the carriage was announced, the guests
+were dismissed with a hearty shake of the hands, and invitation to call
+again--'It was a comfort to talk of public matters to a young man of
+sense;' and Lance found a sovereign in his hand. He was not sure that
+he was obliged.
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Staples, rubbing his hands with satisfaction as they
+drove off, 'what do you think of the Squire?'
+
+'He talks very loud,' said Felix, who had for some time been watching
+the increase of Lance's head-ache, and now was trying to give him a
+rest on shoulder and arm.
+
+Mr. Staples gave what help he could towards making the tired boy
+comfortable, and then returned to the subject in all their minds. 'So
+your father never told you those particulars?'
+
+'No; I think it was his great object not to dwell on them, nor let us
+look back with regret or anger.'
+
+'Just like him. I never saw such a case, never! I'll show you a
+remarkable letter of his. But, first, you ought to understand the way
+the matter stood. To begin with the relationship.'
+
+'I know nothing about them, only that my father and mother were
+second cousins; but I don't even know to which of them my great-uncle
+Underwood was really uncle.'
+
+'To your mother. He had very strong feelings as to the duty of the head
+of a family, and made his house a home for all that needed it. When
+Miss Mary was sent home an orphan from India--James's, his favourite
+brother's, child--he asked his cousin's widow, Mrs. Edward Underwood,
+to bring her boy, superintend the house, and look after the little
+girl; and she was glad enough, for the captain had died of his wounds
+at Waterloo, and she had little but her widow's pension.'
+
+'I know,' said Felix. 'Then whose son is the Squire?'
+
+'The son of Lancelot, who was the second brother, between the Reverend
+Fulbert (your great-uncle) and James, your mother's father. So he was
+heir-at-law, but he was a wildish sort of lad, unfit to take Holy
+Orders; and there came to be an understanding that if his uncle would
+buy his commission and purchase his steps, he would not look for the
+Rectory and the estate. On that understanding your father took Orders
+and married; but on old Mr. Underwood's death there was only a draught
+of a will, which he had not been in a state to execute, leaving a
+handsome legacy to Fulbert, but the whole property to your father and
+mother. It seemed a matter of course that, as the only compensation,
+Fulbert should have presented his cousin Edward to the vicarage--L400 a
+year; but as ill-luck would have it, he took offence at some sermon--a
+Lent one about self-indulgence, I believe it was--swore he wouldn't
+have a Puseyite parson preaching at him, and went into such a rage,
+that it is thought to be partly by way of getting off giving him the
+living, and getting it held for his son.'
+
+'I see,' said Felix.
+
+'It was a dirty trick; and I was a younger man at the time, and it
+struck me that if your father chose to try the case, the testator's
+intentions being clear, and instructions in his own hand extant, it was
+ten to one it might be given in his favour. I even took a counsel's
+opinion, thinking that at any rate an intimation that the case was to
+be tried before possession was given up, might bring Fulbert to terms
+with regard to the living.'
+
+'And he would not?'
+
+'No. I should like to show you his letter. Would you do me the honour
+of dining with me to-morrow?'
+
+Felix was obliged to mutter something about ladies and no dress-coats;
+but this was silenced, and he made a promise contingent on Lance's
+fitness. He was puzzled by the relations in which Mr. Staples seemed to
+stand with the lay-rector; but he found that they were not of business,
+only that elections, and county affairs, brought them together, and
+that Mr. Underwood was regarded with a sort of compassion by the men
+of his own standing, who used to go and visit him whenever they could
+be secure of not encountering the cold welcome and ill-breeding of his
+daughter-in-law--the grievance of his life.
+
+'Did you see any one you remembered?' further asked Mr. Staples.
+
+'One of the Miss Hepburns, who did not seem very well to know whether
+to acknowledge me or not.'
+
+'Ha, ha!' chuckled Mr. Staples. 'Queer old girls they are. Very high.
+Very good to the poor. All the good that is done in Vale Leston is by
+them; but anything between a swell and a pauper don't exist for them.
+They're as poor as Job, and their pride is all they have, so they make
+the most of it.'
+
+So, after all, the day had not been quite without mortification, and
+Felix felt it a little more than he thought it was worth.
+
+Lance was a good deal excited by the sight of his ancestral home. He
+had an eye for scenery, and longed to bask in it again; boating seemed
+delightful; and he was amazed, not to say elated, by the grandeur
+of the house, which exceeded any--save Centry Park--in his limited
+experience. His mind was set on explorations there, and on the whole
+history; while Felix, to whom all was less new and more sorrowful, was
+inclined to hang back from any unwise awakening of unsettling regrets;
+but there was no declining Mr. Staples' kindness, and he had much
+desire to see the letter. So the two youths put on their Sunday coats,
+assisted one another's ties, and looked each other well over before
+encountering the formidable mass of ladies Felix had seen in church,
+and about whom he was far more shy than Lance, who had seen a good deal
+more of the species at Minsterham.
+
+It turned out very pleasant; the frank good-natured mother and
+daughters made themselves very agreeable; and though no one was as
+pretty as Alice Knevett, they were all so far superior to her in manner
+and cultivation that the mixing with them could not fail to soften
+any sting of disappointment that might remain. Lance was made much of
+as an invalid, and very much liked the privileges that did not hinder
+an evening game of croquet, since Mr. Staples evidently intended his
+conference with Felix to be _tete-a-tete_.
+
+It took place in a pleasant little study, fitted with green morocco and
+walnut, that spoke well for the solicitor's taste and prosperity, and
+looking out on the pretty lawn, with the long shadows of the trees, the
+croquet players flitting about, and the sea glittering in the distance.
+
+The letter was ready, folded up lengthwise and docketed, business
+fashion; but when opened, the familiar handwriting seemed to bring back
+the father, even to the sound of his voice.
+
+                                                Vale Leston Rectory,
+                                                         18th January.
+
+        MY DEAR STAPLES,
+
+        My wife and I feel greatly obliged to you for your good-will
+        and zeal on our behalf, and have not for a moment justified
+        your dread of being thought officious. In other circumstances,
+        I might be tempted to fight the battle; but it is impossible
+        for several reasons. Were we the losers, we should be
+        totally unable to pay the costs, and a load either of debt
+        or obligation would be a burthen we have no right to assume.
+        Moreover, the uncertainty of our position pending the decision
+        would be as mischievous to myself as to the parishioners. It
+        would destroy any fitness to be their Vicar, whether we gained
+        or not. The holding the Rectory is in itself an abuse; and
+        now that the grapes are sour, I am glad not to encounter the
+        question of conscience, and so shall not adopt any means--to
+        my mind doubtful--for bringing it on myself. This being the
+        case, you will see that the idea of alarming Fulbert Underwood
+        falls to the ground. Supposing he were coerced into the
+        compromise, what a pleasing pair--squire and parson--would
+        be the result! No, my kind friend, be content to see things
+        remain as they are. We carry with us the certainty of our good
+        uncle's kindness, and the non-fulfilment of his intentions
+        is clearly providential. I have heard of a promising curacy,
+        where I shall get the training I need after feeling my wilful
+        way as I have done here. My wife, being the expectant heiress
+        and lay-rectoress, shall write to satisfy you that she is not
+        suffering from my coercion.
+
+                                 Yours, most sincerely obliged,
+                                                    E. F. UNDERWOOD.
+
+
+And on another sheet followed:--
+
+        DEAR MR. STAPLES,
+
+        I think my husband is quite right, and that to go to law would
+        only make things much worse. It is very kind in you, but I
+        really do not care about anything so long as I have my husband
+        and children, and can feel that my dear uncle meant all that
+        was kind. Indeed, I really think my husband enjoys the prospect
+        of a new and more active kind of work. He is sure to be happy
+        anywhere, and as long as that is the case, all will be right;
+        and he says that it will be much better for the children not to
+        grow up in luxury.
+
+                                     With many warm thanks,
+                                            Yours very truly,
+                                                  M. W. UNDERWOOD.
+
+
+'May I copy them?' asked Felix, looking up with his eyes fuller of
+tears than suited his reserved disposition.
+
+His father's letter, full of his constant brave cheerfulness in
+self-abnegation, had not overcome him like the few words that brought
+back the lovely young mamma he now remembered at Vale Leston, but
+whom he had too soon known only as the patient, over-tasked, drudging
+mother, and latterly in the faded helpless invalid. How little she had
+guessed the life that was before her!
+
+Mr. Staples readily supplied him with the materials, adding, 'I will
+take care you have the letters by-and-by. I value them too much to part
+with them in my lifetime.' And presently he interrupted Felix's writing
+by saying, 'I much wished to have seen Mr. and Mrs. Edward Underwood
+again, but it seemed to me that they were unwilling to keep up a
+correspondence.'
+
+'They were so busy,' said Felix.
+
+'No doubt; and I thought they might feel a visit an intrusion.
+Otherwise, I often thought of running down from Town.'
+
+'My father would have been very glad.'
+
+'I did wish to have seen him again--and your mother, almost a child as
+she was even at that time, with her flock of pretty children. I shall
+never forget her--the beauty and darling of all the neighbourhood, as
+she used to be. All we young men used to rave about her long before
+she was out.' Mr. Staples smiled at some recollection, and added, 'I
+never spoke to her four times in my life; but I was as bad as any of
+them--presumptuous as you may think it.'
+
+'I am glad you did not see her again,' burst from Felix, the tears
+starting forth as he copied her hopeful words. 'She altered sadly.'
+
+'Ah! indeed.'
+
+The concerned tone forced Felix to add, 'It came so much more heavily
+on her than on any of us, care and work and years of seeing my father's
+health failing; and in the last week of his life she had a fall, that
+brought on softening of the brain.'
+
+Somehow, the whole had never struck him as so piteous before as in the
+contrast with her youthful brightness, and when he saw Mr. Staples
+greatly affected. He could only write on through a mist of tears,
+while the solicitor walked about the room, blowing his nose violently,
+and muttering sentences never developed; till at last he came behind
+Felix's chair, and laying his hand on his shoulder, said, 'After all,
+it will come round. You are next heir.'
+
+'Heir? There's Fulbert Underwood!' exclaimed Felix.
+
+'True; but he's been some years married, and there's no sign of a
+family. Depend upon it, we shall see Vale Leston come back yet.'
+
+'It would make no difference now,' muttered Felix, as he traced his
+mother's fearless lines; nay, if he had a personal thought, it was of
+what he might have ventured towards Alice Knevett.
+
+'Not to them,' said Mr. Staples, 'but a good deal to you, my young
+friend.'
+
+'Now, Mr. Staples,' said Felix, smiling, 'aren't you doing our best to
+unsettle a young man in business?'
+
+'Well, well, you are too reasonable. A contingency--only a contingency.
+But I should like to show you.' And he hastily sketched a pedigree that
+had at least the advantage of showing Felix his relationships.
+
+Rev. Lancelot.
+    |_____________________________________________2
+    |                                             |
+    |                                             |
+Rev. Fulbert.                                  Lancelot.
+    |                                             |
+    |               2            3                |               2
+Rev. Fulbert.____Lancelot.____James U.          Lancelot._______Thomas.
+d. 1843.            |            |                |               |
+                    |            |                |               |
+                 Fulbert.    Mary Wilmet.      Thomas.       Rev. Edward.
+                    |       m. Edward U.    m. Mary Kedge.  m. Mary Wilmet
+                    |            |                |            Underwood.
+                ev. Fulbert.     |                |
+                            Felix, &c.       Mary Alda
+                                              Underwood.
+
+'There! Through your mother you stand next in the line--are
+heir-at-law, you see. May I live to see that day! That's all.'
+
+The thought did not affect Felix much at the moment. He was too full of
+what might have been, and the 'contingency' was such a remote one! So
+after answering to the best of his ability whether any of his sisters
+were like his mother, he was glad to get out, and forget it all in
+croquet. His musical capacities were discovered too; but the attempt
+to profit by them proved quite too much for Lance, to whose brain the
+notes of the piano were absolute and severe pain.
+
+A formal little note came on the ensuing morning, in which 'the Misses
+Hepburn'--in the third person--requested the favour of the company of
+Mr. Felix Underwood and his brother at luncheon. Felix felt a little
+stung. He could recollect warm passages between the ladies and his
+mother, and had been their pet long enough to wonder at this cold
+reception, and question whether it were not more dignified to reject
+advances made in such a manner; but his heart yearned towards those
+who had been kind to him in his youth, and he believed that his mother
+would have wished him to renew the intercourse, and therefore decided
+upon going; but it was too hot and sunny a day for Lance to walk, and
+Felix so entirely expected the visit to be wearisome and disagreeable,
+if not mortifying, that he could only resolve on it as a duty, and
+would not expose his brother to it.
+
+So he plodded off alone, and a curious visit he had. It was not easy
+for him to guess at the sacredness of those traditions of gentility and
+superiority that the 'Misses Hepburn' held--not so much for their own
+sakes as in faithful loyalty to the parents many years dead, and to
+the family duty that imposed a certain careful exclusiveness on them
+in deference to the noble lineage they could reckon, and the head of
+the house, whom none of them had ever seen. He could not have guessed
+the warm feeling towards 'dear Mary' that had struggled so hard with
+the sense of duty, and had gained the victory over the soreness at the
+dropping of correspondence, and the idea that it was a dereliction to
+bend to one 'who had lowered himself,' as Mrs. Fulbert Underwood said
+he had.
+
+What he saw was a tiny drawing-room, full of flowers and gimcracks, and
+fuller of four tall angular women, in dark dresses in the rear of the
+fashion, and sandy hair. They had decided in council, or rather Miss
+Isabella had decided for them, that since he was to be received, they
+would remember only his gentle blood; and therefore they shook hands
+with him, and the difference of the clasp alone could have shown the
+difference of character--the patronising, the nervous, the tenderly
+agitated, the hearty.
+
+He found them better informed than the Squire had been as to the
+condition of the family--at least, so he presumed from the text of
+their inquiries. Not a word did they say of his own employment--it
+was to be treated as a thing not to be spoken of; but the welfare of
+the others was inquired after, and especially of Robina--who was the
+name-child of the eldest sister, the gentlest of the set, and the most
+in the background, quiet and tearful--pleased to hear that her godchild
+was at school, and as Felix emphatically said 'a very good girl,'
+anxious that he should take charge of 'a little token' for her.
+
+The little token turned out to be 'Ministering Children'; and this gave
+Felix a further hint, which prepared him for the tone in which some of
+his information was received, when he had only mentioned Geraldine as
+gone for health's sake to the St. Faith's Sisterhood.
+
+The ladies looked at one another, Miss Isabella cleared her throat, and
+he knew a warning was coming; so he quickly said, 'One of the ladies,
+a clergyman's widow, was very kind to my father in his illness, and is
+really the best friend we have left in England.'
+
+'Your dear father was too much inclined to those specious doctrines
+that are only too fascinating to youth. I hope you do not outrun him.'
+
+'I hope not,' said Felix, very sincerely; and he then succeeded in
+interesting his monitor by speaking of Fulbert, and using him as a
+bridge to lead to an account of Mr. Audley's Australian doings.
+
+It was altogether a stiff uncomfortable visit; the very politeness
+of the good ladies made Felix feel that they viewed his position as
+altered, and he could not but feel a strong hope that he should never
+again have to make this offering at the shrine of ancient friendship.
+
+On coming home in the evening, Felix found a note on the table.
+
+'Croquet to wit?' asked Lance, as Felix tried to read it by the almost
+vanished twilight.
+
+'What's this?'
+
+        'We hope you and your brother will join us in a pic-nic at
+        Kitt's Head on Saturday.
+
+        'Having discharged my ladies' commission, I proceed to that
+        which I have authority from your relation for intimating
+        to you--namely, that failing heirs of his own son, he has
+        entailed the Vale Leston property upon you, thus rendering its
+        alienation by the Reverend Fulbert impossible. I believe the
+        arrangement was made within the last week. Congratulations
+        would hardly be suitable, but I cannot refuse myself the
+        pleasure of saying how sincerely I rejoice.'
+
+'What--what?' cried Lance, jumping up. 'You to have that splendiferous
+river, and the salmons, and all. Won't you get a magnificent organ for
+that church?'
+
+'My dear Lance, don't you see that all this means is, that if young
+Fulbert has no children, I shall come after him.'
+
+'Oh, he won't! I'm sure he won't. Things always do come right. Oh, what
+a _coup d'etat_ mine was after all! Things always do come right. You,
+that were born to it! Didn't old Tripp say how they had had the bells
+rung for you? I should like to set them going this minute!'
+
+'They should be on your own cap, then!' said Felix, laughing and yet
+sharing in a castle or two--how Cherry should have a pony-carriage! how
+Clement should be turned loose upon the Church! how Lance should pursue
+the salmon at home and the humanities at the University! how Bernard
+should have a real good gentleman's education!--but Felix soon brought
+himself back again. 'Remember, Lance, not a word of this at home or
+anywhere else.'
+
+'Not tell any one?' cried the boy, crest-fallen.
+
+'Don't you see, Lance, besides the impropriety of talking of what
+involves two deaths, it would be the most senseless thing in the world
+to let this make the least difference. Old Fulbert may change his mind,
+or young Fulbert have a son; at any rate, he is not five-and-thirty,
+and just as likely as not to outlive me.'
+
+'Fee! Fee! you are quite well, you wretched Norseman!'
+
+'Oh! I didn't mean _that;_ but anybody may outlive anybody for that
+matter. Anyway, there's no chance of any of these schemes coming to
+pass while we are young enough to care, even if they ever do; and if
+they unsettle us now, it would be unmitigated damage.'
+
+'I see that,' said Lance; 'but as, by good luck, I'm No. 8, it can't do
+me much harm to think about it, and I don't see why the others should
+not.'
+
+'Do you think some of them would be content to go on as we are doing,
+with this in their heads? And if any one in the town knew it, whatever
+I might do, people would think I was getting above my business. I doubt
+whether even Froggy himself would have the same reliance on me.'
+
+'Then shan't you even tell Wilmet and Cherry?'
+
+'I hope not. I don't think Wilmet could keep it from Alda, or Cherry
+from Edgar; and just imagine what it would be to have it come round
+through Kensington Palace Gardens that we were reckoning on it!
+Besides, it will make no earthly difference to anybody, unless, maybe,
+to Edgar's son.'
+
+The mention of such a being brought Felix somehow to a sudden silence;
+and in the meantime supper and a candle were brought in, revealing a
+thick letter from Geraldine, which had at first escaped notice. There
+were two enclosures; but as Felix read her writing, he broke out with
+an exclamation of consternation that startled Lance.
+
+'Hollo! What is it?' And as he received no answer--'Wilmet's not
+given up Jack? Eh? Nor Cherry fallen in love next? Clem hasn't turned
+bare-footed friar?' crowding together the wildest suggestions he could
+think of to force answer.
+
+'Hush! That dear child--'
+
+'She doesn't want to be a sister? You'll tell her you'd see her at
+Jericho first!'
+
+'No. It is about her foot.'
+
+'Not worse?'
+
+'No; but, dear little thing, she wants to have it taken off, because
+she fancies if she was more effective, it might be one difficulty out
+of Wilmet's way!'
+
+'She's a blessed little brick! But would it be so?'
+
+'Well, I remember in the time of the measles, the last time I ever let
+that fellow Rugg come near her, he thought proper to tell somebody in
+her hearing that if she was in a fit state of health, it would be the
+only remedy. She wasn't, and it was quite uncalled for; and it put the
+poor little thing in such an agony, that at last Sibby came and wrapped
+me up in a blanket to sit by her, and talk very big about nobody being
+able to do it without my leave, and my not intending to consent to any
+such thing. I thought she had forgotten all about it, but it seems that
+she has not; and she imagines that, as she says, "with a cork foot that
+I could stand upon, instead of always keeping this one up in fear of
+hurting it, I could get about the house with only a stick, and be of
+some use, and then dear Mettie's happiness might not be so far off."'
+
+'And what does Mettie say?'
+
+'She knows nothing; Cherry implores me not to tell her, for she says
+that it would be impossible for Mettie to come and nurse her, and she
+would rather have Sister Constance than any one.'
+
+'Than Mettie! Deluded child!' cried Lance.
+
+'Her great wish is to have it done now at St. Faith's. She told Clement
+before she left home, because she thought they would insist on some
+one at home knowing; but "Don't think me very sly," she says; "I would
+not tell Sister Constance what was in my head till I came here, for
+fear she should think it her duty to speak to Wilmet; and now, they
+will not hear of it without your knowing. I did wish to have surprised
+you all! About the cost I have thought. You know Dr. Lee attends me
+for nothing while I am here, and I told you that Sister Constance has
+sent up all my book of illustrations of Queen Isabel, and some of the
+water-coloured drawings, to her sister, Lady Liddesdale, and how much
+she has been getting for them--quite enough to set me up with a foot
+that will not be half such a nuisance as this old dead-alive one, which
+has never let me have any peace these twelve years. I am trying to be
+good; but indeed I feel as if it might be wrong to try to be rid of my
+cross. So I abide by your decision, dear Felix. You are my king, and I
+put myself in your hands; only you must not be anxious. You should have
+known nothing if I could have helped it."'
+
+'Go on,' grunted Lance, with his face hidden, as Felix paused.
+
+'That's all; but here are notes from Sister Constance and Dr. Lee.'
+
+The Sister's explanation was, that it had been entirely Geraldine's own
+thought, and that her willingness and eagerness made a great difference
+in such a nature as hers. She told Felix not to think of coming--the
+fewer the better; and he could come in a few hours in case of need.
+It was advisable that the decision should be made quickly, since to
+nervous sensitiveness like Cherry's the very effort to bear suspense
+reacted on the bodily frame. 'If you know what I mean,' concluded
+Sister Constance, 'heroism is likely to carry the little creature
+through what would be far more trying if this were proposed to her for
+her own sake.'
+
+And Dr. Lee's letter gave the medical view, decidedly inclining to the
+opinion that the probabilities were in favour of the operation, and
+that the conditions were never likely to be more promising than at
+present.
+
+'Dear child! I wish I were there!'
+
+'Can't we go?'
+
+'What, you? Think of the train.'
+
+Lance shook his head. 'Couldn't I stay by myself, and you run up?'
+
+'I don't think I can help it.'
+
+But the excitement of the evening broke Lance's sleep, and the next day
+he was quite ill; while Felix not only saw that he must not be left,
+but perceived after the first that Sister Constance's warning ought to
+be respected, and that an arrival would only agitate Cherry's nerves.
+So he wrote his sanction with a very heavy heart, betraying as little
+emotion as was consistent with the tenderness so essential to support
+brave but fragile little Geraldine.
+
+The anxiety seemed to have swallowed up the recollection of Mr.
+Staples' message; indeed, it was not willingly that Felix answered his
+note, and made a half engagement to the pic-nic.
+
+Felix was struck by seeing how much, under the circumstances, Lance
+missed the daily service to which he had been used all his life.
+
+'I didn't mind it at first,' said the chorister, 'it seemed a part of
+the holiday; but somehow the day seems all stupid and astray without
+it.'
+
+But there was no church with it to be heard of; and indeed one attempt
+on Sunday at East Ewmouth resulted in Lance's collapsing into some
+of his most distressing symptoms, caused, as he declared, by the
+overpowering might and untuneableness of the singing, but quite bad
+enough to make Felix resolve against permitting further experiments,
+and thus walk off by himself on the next Wednesday forenoon when he
+heard the bell.
+
+There was a long lecture that he had not bargained for; and when he
+came out with a slightly impatient impulse, the first thing he saw was
+a blue umbrella, a white hat, and a hand waving a paper. In silence
+Felix read--
+
+        'Constance Somerville to Felix Underwood.--11.30. Favourably
+        over. No cause for anxiety.'
+
+They were rather grave and awe-struck, and scarcely spoke all the way
+home--indeed, Felix was chiefly thinking how to get Lance home out
+of the sun without hurrying or over-heating him; but after dinner
+came a reaction; the boy went frantic with admiration of a beautiful
+yacht that was standing into the bay; and Felix, with his letter to
+Sister Constance to write, one to Australia to finish, and his leading
+articles to draw up, was forced to command peace in something of the
+old rough-and-ready style; and even when Lance vanished, he was to be
+heard singing scraps of comic songs in the distance.
+
+By-and-by he came in carrying a board taller than himself. 'Please your
+Majesty, I'll be as mute as a mole; but I must do this here, for Mrs.
+Pettigrew is baking.'
+
+'What in the name of wonder have you got there?' asked Felix, as
+Lance proceeded to lay his board on the sofa (his day--and Felix's
+night--bed) and place on it a white and soppy mass.
+
+'A little dab out, as Sibby calls it,' said Lance. 'It's my puggery.
+Ever since it fell overboard it has been a disgrace to human nature, so
+I have been washing it, and now I've got an iron heating.'
+
+'What a mess you will make of it!' observed Felix, with a grimace of
+disgust, as Lance returned again from the kitchen, holding the iron
+scientifically near his cheek.
+
+'That's all you know about it! Why, I've ironed dozens of
+pocket-handkerchiefs--at least, not dozens, but my own, dozens of
+times--in the Harewood tubs.'
+
+'I thought the Chapter washed you?'
+
+'So it does, in reason; but last spring there was a doom on my
+pocket-handkerchiefs. The Harewood puppy ate up one; one dropped into
+the canal; I tied up a fellow that had got a cut with one, and the
+beggar never returned it; and two or three more went I don't know how.
+I knew W. W. would be in a dreadful state if I asked for a fresh lot,
+so I used to wash out the last two by turns, till I got some tip and
+bought some fresh ones--such jolly ones, all over acrobats and British
+flags; and after all, didn't I catch it? Wilmet was no end of disgusted
+to miss her little stupid speckotty ones, vowed these weren't decent
+for the Cathedral, and boned them all for Theodore! Now, hush! or I
+shall come to grief!'
+
+Felix held his pen suspended to watch the dexterity that reduced the
+crude mass to smooth muslin, which in its expanded state looked as
+impracticable as before.
+
+'Now, do you mean to get Mrs. Pettigrew to put it on in those elegant
+festoons?'
+
+'You just mind your leader, Blunderbore! A man who has had women to do
+for him all his life is a pitiable being!'
+
+And Lance, according to instructions obtained from John Harewood,
+wreathed his hat triumphantly in the white drapery, and completed
+Felix's surprise and amusement by producing a needle and thread, and
+setting to work on various needful repairs of his own buttons and his
+brother's, over which he shook his head in amusement as he chuckled at
+the decay which had befallen the garments of so neat a personage as
+Felix, and which had been very distressing to himself.
+
+'Ah! thank you. I never knew what Robinson Crusoe felt like before!'
+said Felix, as Lance came on a wrist-band minus button.
+
+'Robinson Crusoe! You'd soon have been like Man Friday before he caught
+him.'
+
+'But doesn't the matron mend for you?'
+
+'She pretends; but I should like to see her face if one brought her
+a chance thing to do. My eyes! if that isn't old Staples! I must
+absquattilate.'
+
+Which after all he had no time to effect, with all his works, before
+their friend came to ask whether they were relieved about their sister,
+and was amused at the handy little schoolboy's ingenious preparations.
+'After all, I find it is to be more of an affair than I expected; I
+thought it was to be only ourselves and the Brandons, but they are the
+kind of people who always pick up every one.'
+
+'Does that yacht belong here?' eagerly asked Lance.
+
+'That! It is the Kittiwake--Captain Audley's.'
+
+'Ha! That's what Fulbert went to Alexandria in! What fun!'
+
+'He is the son of Sir Robert Audley. Do you know him?'
+
+'His brother was my father's fellow-curate,' said Felix, 'and is our
+guardian and kindest friend. I have seen this one in London. Will he be
+at this pic-nic?'
+
+'Not likely. He is shy and uncertain, very hearty and friendly when
+you do meet him, but reluctant to go into society, and often taking
+no notice one day, when he has seemed like one's best friend the day
+before. They say he has never got over the loss of his wife; but I
+don't like such manners.'
+
+'Does he live here, then?'
+
+'He rents the little Tudor cottage under the cliff year by year, for
+the sake of his yachting--for he won't go near the regular stations.
+He's got his boy at school at Stoneborough, and stays here all the
+winter.'
+
+When the brothers were walking part of the way back with their visitor,
+they met the gentleman in question, with three boys after him, and
+he was evidently in a cordial mood; for after shaking hands with Mr.
+Staples, he exclaimed, 'I am sure I ought to know you!'
+
+'Felix Underwood,' said the owner of that name.
+
+'_Indeed!_ Not staying with your worthy relations?'
+
+'No, I am down here with my brother, who has been laid up by a
+sun-stroke, and wanted sea air.'
+
+'I wish I had been at home' said the Captain, who had taken a great
+fancy to Felix when they had been together in London two years
+before; 'but I've been giving my boy and his cousins, the two young
+Somervilles, a trip to the Hebrides; and now, just as I am come home, I
+fall upon Mrs. Brandon, hounding me out to an abominable pic-nic, and
+my youngsters are wild to go. Are you in for it? I believe we shall go
+round to the cove in the yacht. Can I take you two?'
+
+Felix gladly accepted, aware that their transport was a difficulty
+to the Stapleses, and that the Kittiwake would be felicity to Lance,
+who had fraternized with the boys, and went off with them to see the
+vessel. He returned brimful of delight and fatigue, only just in time
+to tumble into bed as fast as possible, and Felix was thus able to get
+his work off his mind by midnight.
+
+The morning's letters set them quite at rest. Sister Constance and
+Clement both wrote: Geraldine had been calm and resolute from the
+time Felix's consent arrived, and doubt was over; and Clement, though
+tender, and striving hard to be firm, had been chiefly useful in
+calling out her words of encouragement. He had spent the time of the
+operation in the oratory, and there had been so entirely overcome by
+the tidings that all was safely over, that he was hardly fit to go to
+Cherry when he was sent for; and that was not soon, for the effect of
+chloroform on her had indeed been to annihilate pain, but only half
+to make her unconscious, for she went on talking to Felix about the
+expedience all the time, ever repeating the old motto, 'Under Wode,
+Under Rode;' and the trance had lasted for a good while, though when
+once over, she remembered nothing of it, and was only so rejoiced and
+thankful, that it was difficult to keep her calm enough. She sent her
+brothers her love, and entreated them not to say a word at home. Lady
+Liddesdale had contrived the sale of the book of illustrations--a work
+that had been Cherry's delight of many years; so that she could feel
+that she herself had earned what would cover the expense incurred, all
+but the medical attendance, freely given to an inmate of St. Faith's.
+'Tell Felix I am as happy as a queen,' was the final message; 'tell him
+to give thanks for me.'
+
+Felix's voice trembled, shook, and gave way, as he read; and at last he
+sprang up, and walked about the room, saying that no one ever had such
+brothers and sisters as himself. There was something almost oppressive
+in the relief from so much anxiety, and it was some time before he
+roused his ordinary senses to say, 'Well! we must finish breakfast, or
+we shan't be ready for the Captain. How round the world is! Those boys
+must be Sister Constance's nephews--Lady Liddesdale's sons.'
+
+'Those boys,' said Lance. 'What, Sum and Frank? Well, I did think it
+queer that the sailors on board the Kittiwake called every one My Lord.'
+
+'Sum, I imagine, must mean Lord Somerville. What did you think of them?'
+
+'Nicish chaps of eleven and twelve. Nothing like such swells as Tom
+Bruce! The little one wanted to know where I was at school, and his
+senior snubbed him; so I supposed he saw by the looks of me that I
+wasn't upper-crust public school; and when I said I was a choir-boy,
+the other--Charlie Audley--said, "Oh, then you're one of the awful lot
+my father always jaws about when he's out of sorts!" I told him I was
+very sorry, and it wasn't my fault, but yours; and then we got on like
+a house on fire.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A KETTLE OF FISH.
+
+     'Our Pursuivant at arms will show
+      Both why we came and when we go.'
+                                    _Scott._
+
+
+The place of the pic-nic was a good way off, being the point of the
+promontory that shut in the mouth of the river, a great crag, with
+a long reef of rocks running out into the sea, playfully called the
+Kitten's Tail; though the antiquarians always deposed that the head
+had nothing to do with cats or kits, but with the disposition to erect
+chapels to St. Christopher on the points of land where they might first
+greet the mariners' eyes. Beneath this crag, sheltered by the first
+and larger joints of the Kitten's Tail, was a delightful sandy nook,
+where appeared a multitude of smart hats, male and female, a great many
+strangers even to Captain Audley, who would fain have recognised none
+of them. In a strong access of his almost morbid silence, he devoted
+himself to Felix, and kept aloof from almost every one. Even at the
+dinner, spread on a very sloping bit of beach, pic-nic exigencies
+enabled him to be nearly _tete-a-tete_ with Felix, who found himself
+almost back to back to a lady in a brilliant foreign pheasant's plume,
+with glass dew-drops at the points.
+
+In a pause of their own conversation, they heard the inquiry, 'Do you
+know who that boy is--that fair delicate-looking lad just opposite,
+with the white muslin round his hat?'
+
+'Oh--that!' answered the pheasant lady; 'that is young Lord Somerville,
+son to the Marquess of Liddesdale. He and his brother, Lord Francis,
+have been out yachting with Captain Audley.'
+
+The Captain smiled as he looked at the boys. 'Ay,' he observed, with a
+flash of his bright dark eyes,' he has the advantage over Sum.'
+
+For Lance had resumed his lark-like air, and it was perhaps the more
+striking from the fragility and transparency that remained about his
+looks; and he was full of animation, as he, with a reinforcement of
+boys, clustered round a merry sunny-faced girl, full of joyous drollery.
+
+'Very queer and eccentric--quite a bear,' was the next thing they
+heard; whereat Captain Audley nodded and smiled to Felix. After the
+general turmoil caused by the change of courses had subsided, that
+penetrating voice was heard again. 'Yes, we came home sooner than we
+had intended. The fact was, we found that old Mr. Underwood was being
+beset by some of those relations. You remember? Oh, yes; they have sunk
+very low--got into trade, absolutely got into trade! One of them a mere
+common singing-boy. Mr. Underwood is getting aged--quite past--and we
+did not know what advantage might be taken of him.'
+
+'Your turn now,' murmured Captain Audley, with a look of diversion
+calculated to allay the wounded flush on his neighbour's cheek.
+
+'Do you mean Mr. Edward Underwood's sons?' said a voice on the other
+side. 'I always understood them to be very respectable and well
+conducted.'
+
+'Oh, very likely! Only I do happen to know that one of them has been
+a great trouble and vexation to Tom Underwood; and we didn't want the
+same over again with the poor old Squire.'
+
+'Did I understand you that any of them were here?' added the other
+voice; 'for I had just been struck by the likeness of that boy
+opposite, talking to my sister, to poor Mr. Edward Underwood, as I
+remember him.'
+
+'Oh no, Mrs. Rivers; I assure you that's young Lord Somerville!'
+
+Captain Audley made an effort, rather difficult in his Turkish
+position, to crane his head beyond the interposing figures, recognised
+and bowed to the speaker, who greeted him by name, and thus diminished
+the flow of Mrs. Fulbert Underwood's conversation by her awe of the
+high and mighty bear whom she scarcely knew by sight. He had no taste
+for scenes, and did not put either her or Felix to pain by mentioning
+his name; but when the last act of the meal was over, and people began
+to move, he made his way in the direction of the inquiring voice. 'Mrs.
+Rivers, let me introduce Mr. Felix Underwood.'
+
+'I am very happy--' and there was a cordial smile and a hand held out.
+'Are you here for long? My father would be so much pleased to see you.'
+
+It was a rather worn pale face; but the ease and sweetness of manner,
+and the perfect fitness of the dress, made a whole that gave Felix a
+sense of the most perfect lady he had met with, except his mother and
+Sister Constance.
+
+'I am at Ewmouth, with one of my brothers who has been ill.'
+
+'Lord Somerville?' and all three burst out laughing. 'My sister has
+found him out, I see. She and your little boy are old friends, Captain
+Audley.'
+
+'Yes, you have been very kind to him. But I am as much surprised to see
+you here as you can be to see my friend. Are you from home?'
+
+'We go back this evening. We slept at the Crewes' last night. My
+husband had business there; and when they asked us to this pic-nic,
+it was a good opportunity for Gertrude to learn the beauties of her
+county.'
+
+'Which she seems to be doing under full escort,' laughed Captain
+Audley, as the young lady and the young boy flock were seen descending
+to the rocks.
+
+'She has a strong taste for little boys,' said the elder sister. 'You
+have the Somerville boys here, haven't you, though?'
+
+'Yes; there had been scarlatina or something or other in their school,
+and their mother was afraid of them among their sisters, till I had
+purified them by a sea voyage.'
+
+Probably Mrs. Fulbert never found out her mistake; for Lord Somerville
+reported that he had never been so pitched into in his life as by an
+old girl in a 'stunning tile,' who found him washing out an empty
+pie-dish for the benefit of some maritime monsters that he wanted to
+carry home to his sisters; but that when Lance came up, she was as meek
+as a mouse. Certainly, the two boys were little sturdy fellows, burnt
+lobster-like up to the roots of their bleached and rough hair; and
+their costumes were more adapted to the deck of the Kittiwake in all
+weathers, than to genteel society. Their sisters were in an aquarium
+fever, and their sport all through their expedition had been researches
+for what they had learnt in Scotland to call 'beasts;' and now the
+collection was to be completed from the mouth of the Ewe, and the
+scrambling and tumbling it involved were enchanting.
+
+Kate Staples, who usually considered Lance her charge, was not sorry
+to see a croquet player disposed of among his own congeners; for the
+game seemed such a necessary of life, that it was actually prepared for
+on the sands, to the extreme contempt of the anemone hunters. 'Play at
+croquet, forsooth, when rocks aren't to be had to scramble on every
+day!' And scramble ecstatically they did, up and over slippery stone
+and rock festooned with olive weed, peeping into pools of crystal
+clearness, and admiring rosy fans of weed, and jewel-like actinias
+embellished by the magic beauty of intense clear brightness. The boys
+took off shoes and stockings, turned up trousers, and scrambled and
+paddled like creatures to the manner born.
+
+'O dear! I wish I might!' sighed the young lady.
+
+'Why don't you?' said Charlie Audley. 'Kate and Em and Annie always
+do--don't they, Frank?'
+
+'Of course they do, or how would they ever get on!'
+
+'Come along then, Miss Gertrude,' said Charlie. 'You can't think how
+jolly it is!'
+
+And soon another pair of little white feet were dancing on the rocks.
+'Oh dear! what a blunder of civilisation it is to wear shoes at all!
+How delicious a hold one gets!'
+
+'I can't think why people do wear them! They never are anything but a
+bother,' said Lance.
+
+'To play at foot-ball with,' suggested Somerville from the top of a
+rock.
+
+'But women don't,' said Gertrude.
+
+'_I_ think women do it, and make us, that they may have something to
+worrit about,' said Frank. 'Damp stockings are the bother of creation
+till one goes to school; and then, isn't it jolly!'
+
+'Except the chilblains,' called out Charlie.
+
+'I believe,' said Lance, 'chilblains come of shoes.'
+
+'No, they can't,' argued Charlie, 'for one has them on one's hands.'
+
+'Well,' said Gertrude, 'let's form ourselves into a society for the
+suppression of shoes and stockings!'
+
+'Hurrah!' cried Lance. 'I know one person at least that it would be a
+blessing to.'
+
+The question was, how the five bold reformers were to begin. Frank
+suggested drowning all the present stock, and pretended to be about to
+begin, but was of course prevented by a scream.
+
+'Public opinion must be prepared first,' said Lance.
+
+'And that,' said Gertrude, 'we'd better do by a great example! Here,
+we'll show what can be done. Why shouldn't we get out to the end of the
+Kitten's Tail?'
+
+'One can't to the end,' said Charlie; 'there's a place big enough for a
+gig to go through, half way out.'
+
+'And about the tide?' said Lance.
+
+'Tide,' said Charlie, looking at his watch--'tide wouldn't think of
+playing us such a dirty trick as turning for an hour and a half.'
+
+'And the jolliest beasts of all always live in places like that,' added
+Somerville. 'Come on, President of the Society for the Suppression of
+Shoeses--to the front!'
+
+On moved the august Society, now scrambling to a dry flat, now
+threading a _mauvais pas_, clinging to festoons of sea-weed; the three
+little boys climbed like monkeys or sailors; but Lance, agile as he
+was, had not had the same amount of training, and felt besides that it
+was requisite to be ready to give a helping hand to Miss Gertrude. She
+got on very well, being full of lightness and springiness, only she was
+a little inclined to be adventurous, and to chatter at critical moments.
+
+'We must have got out a quarter of a mile.'
+
+'Oh no, not that!'
+
+'No? I'm sure it is! How small they look on the beach! I wonder if they
+can see us! Hark! they're singing--'
+
+'"Drink to me only with thine eyes;" that's Felix's crack glee,' said
+Lance; 'what fun for him!'
+
+'This is much better fun!' cried the general voice. 'They'll never see
+us if we wave now!'
+
+'No, no; don't let's wave now! Wait till we get to the farthest point.'
+
+'And there we'll plant our ensign!'
+
+'What shall we do for a flag? We haven't got the Britisher here!'
+
+'No; it must be the flag of the SSSS's.'
+
+'That ought to be a bit of bare skin.'
+
+'No, no--a pair of feet--motto, "Off, vile lendings!"'
+
+'I say, I don't think you can get any farther,' interposed Somerville.
+'I've been on four rocks farther, and I'm sure you will never get back
+again if you go on.'
+
+'Oh, that's base! I'm sure this one isn't so hard.'
+
+She was creeping along a ledge, holding the sea-weed with one hand and
+Lance by the other.
+
+'I really don't think it passable,' he said; 'there's scarcely the
+width of one's foot beyond.'
+
+'Hurrah!' shouted Frank. 'Here's the father of all the Daisianas!'
+
+'Oh! oh! he's my cousin. I must see him!' cried Gertrude, with a
+scramble and a laugh, which ended in a sudden slip--luckily, not into
+the open sea, but into a very steep-sided bath-like pool; and Lance,
+whom of course she gripped hard, was pulled after her, both over head
+and ears; and though they scrambled on their feet in a moment, there
+they stood up to their shoulders in water.
+
+'Get the Daisiana now you are there!' shouted Frank.
+
+'How are we ever to get out?' said Gertrude, looking up the walls, six
+feet at least on the lowest side.
+
+'If we had a rope,' said Charlie.
+
+'Make signals--call,' said Somerville, all suiting the action to the
+word. 'No, they don't hear! they are all singing away. You, Franky,
+you're too little to be any good, make the best of your way to call
+somebody.'
+
+'The tide will come in!' said Frank. 'Mamma and Aunt Emmie were once
+shut in by the tide, and Uncle Edwin. And there was a fellow who was
+quite drowned--dead--and that was why I was named Francis.'
+
+'That's what you may call a cheering reminiscence at a happy moment,'
+said Lance, recollecting that he was far more nearly a man than any one
+present, and instinctively feeling the need of brightening all into
+cheerful activity, for the girl looked thoroughly frightened. 'Yes,
+Lord Frank, the best thing you can do is to go for somebody; but we'll
+be out long first. Can't we make a rope? Have you a sash or anything,
+Miss Gertrude? Don't fear, we'll soon be out.'
+
+Happily she had both a sash and a broad ribbon round her hat; and Lance
+tore off his puggery.
+
+'I can do it best,' called Charlie. 'I know all the sailors' knots.'
+
+'It will never bear,' said Gertrude.
+
+'Oh yes, it will. You'll not trust your whole weight to it. Is it done?'
+
+'Besides, how can they draw me up?'
+
+'We'd best get behind that rock, Sum,' suggested Charlie, 'then she
+won't pull us in.'
+
+Charlie's sailor experience was very useful; and he shouted advice to
+Lance, who was tying the extemporary rope round Gertrude, not very
+easily, owing to the material, and to its being done under water.
+
+'Now, then, you do your best at climbing--here,' he said. 'They'll pull
+you; and look! There, first my knee--yes--now my shoulder--now--' And
+standing for a moment on his shoulder, Gertrude was really able with a
+desperate grapple to surmount the wall of her prison, and scramble out
+beside the two cousins, whose pulls had been very helpful.
+
+Lance's clambering was a harder matter, for he did not venture to trust
+much to the rope, though the girl's strength was added to that of the
+two boys; and it was a severe climb up the scarcely indented, slippery,
+moist, slimy rock, where his hands and feet could hardly find any hold;
+and when at length he reached the top, he was so panting and dizzy,
+that Somerville at first held him to hinder his slipping backward into
+the sea. No one could get at King or Queen Daisiana, so it was left
+in its glory; while the young people struggled back over rocks that
+seemed much steeper, and pools far deeper, than in their advance; Lance
+still trying to be helpful, but with a mazed sense of the same sort of
+desperate effort with which he had run back with Bill's verses; for not
+only had his small strength been overtaxed, but the immersion in water
+was affecting his head.
+
+Lord Francis had made much quicker progress; and boy as he was,
+showed his breeding by not rushing open-mouthed on the party with his
+intelligence, but seeking the Captain, who was smoking the pipe of
+solitude upon a rock apart. He at once sent Frank to the servants, who
+were enjoying the relics of the feast, to fetch some wine, and tell
+the boat's crew to make ready at once, and then went off himself to
+seek Mrs. Rivers. Felix, who had spied the little messenger speeding
+up to the Captain, was already on his way to the rocks, and reached
+the party in good time; for draggled, drenched, and with clinging
+garments, they were so slow in getting on, that it was no delusion
+that the water was higher, and the rocks lower; and even Gertrude had
+neither breath nor spirits to gabble when that grave anxious face met
+her, and a strong careful hand lifted and helped, first her, then
+Lance, up and down every difficulty; and when she perceived how the
+new-comer avoided point-blank looking at the bare ankles that had
+sometimes to make long stretches, a burning red came up into her face,
+half of shame, half of indignation at being made ashamed. And after
+all, when the place where her hose and shoon had been left was reached,
+the niched shelf in the rock turned out to have been surrounded by the
+tide, so that they were quite unattainable either by herself or the
+little boys; and Felix, putting the arm by which Lance had held by
+him over Somerville's shoulder told them to go on before, and himself
+made two long strides and a scramble before he could reach the boots
+and stockings, and give them to the young lady, unable to help looking
+nearly as grave and vexed as if it had been Angela herself; indeed, he
+was vexed, for he had an ideal of the young ladyhood of his mother's
+old native region, and did not like it to be disturbed. He moved away
+far enough for her to think he had left her to her fate, till she was
+on her feet and coming on, and then there he was again, in a moment
+the attentive squire. Revived by her short rest, and on less perilous
+ground, she glanced at his face in readiness to disperse her discomfort
+with something saucy, but somehow it would not do; and she was tamely
+conducted to terra firma, where her sister saluted her with 'O Daisy!
+what a child you are to have charge of!'
+
+That restored her enough to answer, 'I'm quite delighted something
+should have happened under your keeping! No harm done. Salt water never
+gives cold.'
+
+'I don't mind it for you,' said the elder sister; 'you have not been
+ill.--But indeed, Mr. Underwood, I am very sorry,' she added. 'What
+will be best for your brother?'
+
+'Here!' said Captain Audley, taking from Frank a flask of sherry, and
+over-ruling the objection made by the brothers that stimulants were
+forbidden. He further insisted on taking Lance at once to his own berth
+on board the yacht while Mrs. Rivers meant to conduct her sister to the
+preventive house.
+
+'So,' said Lance, rather ruefully, as he shook hands, 'there ends the
+SSSS.'
+
+'Not at all! Its use is proved. We should have been cooked by this time
+in the Daisiana cauldron, if we had had great cumbrous boots on.'
+
+It was a valiant effort, and she cast a glance out of the corner of
+her eye at the elder brother, but it had not relaxed a muscle of his
+grave anxious face, which was in truth chiefly bent on watching Lance's
+involuntary shiverings; and she again turned crimson, perhaps from her
+share of the chill, and was dragged off, muttering, 'What intolerable
+folks guardian brothers are! Henry Ward was a mild specimen compared to
+this one!'
+
+About noon on the following day, Mrs. Pettigrew's little girl abruptly
+opened the parlour door, and with 'Please, ye're wanted,' turned in a
+tall, thin, grey-haired, spectacled gentleman, who, as Lance started up
+from the sofa, exclaimed, 'Don't disturb yourself; I came to thank you,
+and inquire after you after the adventure my mad-cap daughter led you
+into.'
+
+'I hope she is all right,' said Lance, solicitously.
+
+'As right as Daisiana himself; more so than I fear you are. Let me see
+you comfortable. Lie down again, pray.'
+
+'Oh, I don't care about lying down, thank you, Sir; I only sleep for
+want of something to do;' but though he did not put his feet up, he was
+feeling far too languid not to relax his bolt-upright attitude, and
+lean back on his pillows.
+
+'That will do. Bad head-ache?'
+
+'It is nearly gone off now, thank you, Sir; it was bad all night, but
+it is much better since I have been asleep.'
+
+'Let me see,' laying his left hand on the wrist that hung over the edge
+of the sofa. 'Ay, I hope that wicked little siren has done no great
+damage. Pulled you below, true mermaid fashion--eh?'
+
+'I meant to have pulled her out.'
+
+'Instead of which she made a lad into a ladder to climb out on.' Which
+bad pun served the purpose of making the boy laugh enough to be at
+his ease. 'She is much indebted, and so am I. I like to meet an old
+friend's son. Are you alone?'
+
+'My brother is only gone to the post-office. He will be in before long;
+but it saves a post to take the letters before twelve, and he ought to
+be out as much as he can.'
+
+'Is he here on his own account, or yours?'
+
+'He came down first, before I was ill. It was bother and overwork and
+a cough. Everything always does come to worry him, whenever he ought
+to have rest or pleasure.' And Lance, who was thoroughly weary and
+dispirited, was nearly ready to cry.
+
+'Even when he goes out for a pic-nic, young ladies must needs drown
+themselves!'
+
+This made Lance smile; but he added, with a quivering lip, 'He would
+not go to bed till I could go to sleep last night, and that was not
+till past two, and he looks quite done up this morning.'
+
+'Is any one attending you?'
+
+'Dr. Manby did at Minsterham--nobody here.'
+
+'What's been amiss with you--fever?'
+
+'Plenty of fever, but it was from sun-stroke.'
+
+'Ah! you boys have thinner skulls than we used to have! How long ago?'
+
+'Seven weeks yesterday,' said Lance, wearily.
+
+'And you are sadly weary of weakness?'
+
+'I don't mind that so much;' and the kindness of face, voice, and
+gesture, made the poor boy's eyes overflow; 'but I'm no good, and I
+can't tell whether I ever shall be again!'
+
+'It is a great deal too soon to trouble yourself about that.'
+
+'That's what they all tell me!' cried Lance, impatiently, and the tears
+rushed forth again. 'Manby only laughs, and tells me I shall be a Solon
+yet if I don't vex myself; and how can I tell whether he means it?'
+
+'Well, dear boy, have it all out; I promise to mean whatever I say.'
+
+'You are a doctor then, Sir?'
+
+'What! the boy doesn't know me, as sure as my name's Dick May!'
+
+'Oh!' cried Lance, 'that was what I heard Felix saying to Captain
+Audley--that he did so wish Dr. May could look at me!'
+
+'That's all right, then. Come, then, what is weighing on you--weakness?'
+
+'Just not weakness,' said Lance. 'I didn't care so much when I could
+scarcely get about; but now I can walk any distance, and still I have
+not a bit more sense!'
+
+'Is your memory gone?'
+
+'I don't think so; only, if I fix my mind to recollect, and it doesn't
+come by chance, I'm all abroad, and perfectly senseless and idiotic!'
+
+'And it brings on pain?'
+
+'Yes, if I try five minutes together.'
+
+'You don't try to read or write?'
+
+'I can't--and--' then came the tears again--'music is just like red-hot
+hammers to me.' There was a great fight with sobs, rather puzzling to
+one who did not know what music was to the chorister. 'And what is to
+be the end of it?'
+
+'That rest and patience will make you as well as ever.'
+
+'Do you really think so? But, Sir, I have a little brother seven and a
+half years old, with no understanding at all--not able to speak; and if
+there were two of us on Felix's hands like _that!_ If I could only be
+put away somewhere, so that Felix should not have the burthen of me!'
+
+'My poor little fellow! Is this what is preying on you all this time?'
+
+'Not always--only when I am doing nothing, and that is most times,' he
+said, dejectedly; but the Doctor smiled.
+
+'Then you may take the very anxiety as a proof that your brain is
+recovering. You cannot expect to shake off the effects quickly; but if
+you are only patient with yourself, you will do perfectly well. Are you
+a son of the clergy?'
+
+'No, I am a chorister at Minsterham. I have another year there, when I
+can go back, if ever--'
+
+'Don't say _if_ ever! You will, if you only will keep from fretting and
+hurrying, and will accept that beautiful motto of the Underwoods.'
+
+Lance smiled responsively, and said more cheerfully, 'You are quite
+sure, Sir?'
+
+'As sure as any man can be, that there is no reason to anticipate what
+you dread. It is quite possible that you may be more or less liable
+to bad head-aches, and find it needful to avoid exposure to summer
+sunshine; but I should think you as likely to do your work in the world
+as any one I ever saw.'
+
+The light on Lance's face did not wholly spring from this reply. With
+'There's Felix!' he had bounded out of the room the next moment, and
+his incautious voice could be heard through the window--'Fee, Fee,
+here's her father! that brick of a Miss Gertrude's, I mean. He's
+as jolly as he ought to be, and knew all our people. But just--I
+say--how's Cherry?'
+
+'All well; here's a note from the dear little thing herself,' said
+Felix; and in another moment, with his bag strapped over his shoulder,
+he had brought the bright sedateness of his face into the little
+parlour. 'Dr. May! how very kind in you!'
+
+'Not kindness, but common propriety, to come and see how much mischief
+my naughty child had done.'
+
+'I don't think there's any real mischief,' said the elder brother,
+looking at the much-refreshed face.
+
+'I think not, and so am free to be glad of the catastrophe that has
+brought me in the way of an old friend. Yes, I may say so, for I must
+have known you!'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, 'we used to watch for you when you came to my uncle.
+You always had some fun with us.'
+
+'I remember a pair of twins, who were an irresistible attraction. I
+hope they have grown up accordingly. You look as if you ought to have
+pretty sisters.'
+
+Felix laughed, and said the twins were reckoned as very pretty.
+
+'How many of you are there--was it not thirteen? Did not those boys get
+the clergy-orphan?'
+
+'One did, thank you. He is on a farm in Australia now, and I am
+thinking whether to try for little Bernard; but I am afraid his case
+would be a stale one, being of seven years' standing.'
+
+'If you want it done, my daughter, Mrs. Rivers, is a dragon of
+diplomacy in canvassing; but why not send him to Stoneborough? Cheviot
+takes a selection of cleric's sons at L30, and we would have an eye to
+him.'
+
+'Thank you, if we can only manage it; but I must see what my sister
+says--our financier.'
+
+'One of those little apple-blossom twins? Let me look at you. Do you
+mean to tell me that this fellow has been the whole stand-by of that
+long family these seven years?' he added, turning to Lance.
+
+'To be sure he has!' cried Lance, eagerly.
+
+'Lance!' said Felix, rather indignantly. 'You forget Wilmet. And Thomas
+Underwood entirely educated two of us.'
+
+'And,' said the Doctor, looking oddly but searchingly from one to the
+other, 'you've been the bundle of sticks in the fable. Never gone
+together by the ears? Ah!' as both brothers burst out laughing at the
+question, 'I'd not have asked if I had not seen how you could answer.
+I've seen what makes me so afraid of brothers in authority that it does
+me good to look at you two.'
+
+Felix looked up. The Stoneborough murder case was about two years old,
+and of course he had to study and condense the details, and had come on
+the names of Dr. May and his son in the evidence.
+
+The further words met his sudden conjecture. 'Ay, boys, you little know
+what you may be spared by home peace and confidence! Well, and what may
+you be doing, Felix? Your bag looks as if you had turned postman to the
+district.'
+
+'There's my chief business, Sir, coupled with bookselling and
+stationery,' said Felix, as he pushed across a copy of the Pursuivant
+that lay on the table. 'I have been well paid from the first, and am in
+partnership now, so we have got along very well.'
+
+'Ay, ay! Very good trade, I should think? You must send me your paper,
+Felix; I want one I can trust to lie about the house.'
+
+'You will find it very stupid and local, Sir.'
+
+It was curious how what from Mr. Staples was answered with an effort,
+seemed from Dr. May to draw out confidence. One point was, that Mr.
+Staples never seemed sure how to treat him, and often betrayed a fear
+of hurting his feelings; while with Dr. May he was himself and nothing
+else. The Doctor stayed to share their dinner, such as it was in
+consideration of their being lodgers as didn't give trouble--_i.e._
+some plain boiled fish, fresh indeed, but of queer name and quality,
+and without sauce, and some steak not distantly related to an old shoe;
+but both seemed to think so little about it, that the Doctor, who was
+always mourning over the daintiness of the present day, approved them
+all the more.
+
+Just as they had finished, Captain Audley came in with his boys, on
+their way to start off the Somervilles by the train, and it was agreed
+that when he took his son back to school at Stoneborough, Felix and
+Lance should come with him and spend the day.
+
+And a pleasant day it was, as pleasant as the unsettled wanderings of
+a long day in a strange place could be, and memorable for one curious
+fact--namely, that for the first time in her life Gertrude May was shy!
+
+Not with Lance. She had a good deal of pastime with him in the cool
+garden, while Felix was being walked over the school-yards in the
+sun; and they were excellent friends, though Ethel certainly had a
+certain repugnance to the discovery of how big a boy it was with whom
+Gertrude had danced bare-footed on the rocks. Of course Ethel was the
+kindly mistress of the house as usual, but she was worn and strained
+in spirits just then, and disinclined to exert herself beyond the
+needful welcome to her father's guests. So she let them all go out,
+and went on with her own occupations, thinking that it was well that
+Daisy should take her part in entertaining guests, since 'that boy' was
+evidently a thorough little gentleman; and then shrinking a little as
+she heard their voices over Aubrey's museum, including the Coombe Hole
+curiosities.
+
+No, it was not towards Lance that Daisy was shy; but when all sat
+round the dinner-table, she was unusually silent, and listened to
+the conversation far more than was her wont, though it was chiefly
+political. When Felix spoke to her, she absolutely coloured rosy red
+and faltered, unable to conquer the shamefacedness that their encounter
+had left her; and when the party had taken leave, and she was standing
+in the twilight, Ethel, to her great surprise, found the child quietly
+crying.
+
+'Nothing!' she said, angry at being detected.
+
+'It can't be nothing.'
+
+'Yes, it is. Only I do so hate--hate myself for being a tom-boy!'
+
+'One often does go on with that a little too long; and then comes the
+horrible feel.'
+
+'And that it should have happened with him of all people in the world!'
+
+'Ah, Daisy, I wish I had come out with you!'
+
+'Fudge, Ethel! Not to-day. Do you think I care about that boy? I should
+think not! But--but--I wanted to think him a nasty prig, but I can't!'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'Why, that eldest brother. When he found me scrambling about with
+my stockings off, he didn't speak, but he looked, as Richard might,
+surprised and sorry. I thought it was impertinent--at least I wanted
+to, but-- And now he'll always think me--nasty!'
+
+'My dear, if one must have a lesson of that kind, it is as well it
+should be from some one that one is never likely to see or hear of
+again.'
+
+'Oh! but not from the very best and noblest of people one ever will
+hear of. Yes, Ethel, I'm not gone mad! That boy has been telling me
+all about his brother; and indeed I never did hear or know about any
+one who was a real hero in a quiet way! No; whenever I hear of a hero,
+I shall think of Mr. Underwood. And, oh dear, that I should have made
+such a goose of myself!'
+
+It was quite unaffected--a spark of real reverence had lighted at last
+on Gertrude's mind. 'To turn tradesman for the sake of one's brothers
+and sisters, that I do call heroic!' she said; and maintained his
+cause, even to putting down F.U. as her 'favourite hero' in lists of
+likes and dislikes.
+
+But there was no great chance of Gertrude again encountering her hero;
+for the morning after their day at Stoneborough, Lance was beginning
+to experiment on his powers by skimming newspapers, especially the
+Pursuivant, because he knew it before, all but the last local items,
+that could only be added at the moment of going to press. Suddenly he
+broke out, 'Holloa! you never told me this! Mowbray Smith _has_ put his
+foot in it this time.'
+
+'What?' said Felix, pausing in the act of opening an envelope from Mr.
+Froggatt.
+
+'Pocketing the coal and school money--ay, and the alms.'
+
+'Eh? Impossible! Let me look.'
+
+'There. A letter signed "Scrutator." There's a great deal more than
+I can read, all about under-paid curates and sycophants. My Lady is
+catching it, I should say! It must be true, or Froggy would not have
+put it in.'
+
+'He never admitted that!' said Felix, tearing open his letter. 'He is
+in utter dismay, asks whether I could have seen the thing, tells me to
+telegraph yes or no, that he may know whether to speak to Redstone.
+What's this about tribute to my father?'
+
+'Here! "Once it was deemed well that the ecclesiastical staff should be
+by birth and character, if not by pecuniary fortune, above suspicion;
+but the universal application of the general screw system has warned
+off all who had a predilection for an unfettered tongue, and we all
+know what hands accompany one in chains."'
+
+'Libellous!' cried Felix, running his eye over the article. 'It looks
+as if it had strayed out of the Dearport Hermes. I'd not have had this
+happen for ten thousand pounds! Clap-trap about fat rectors and starved
+curates! Jackman's writing, I'd lay any wager!'
+
+'You don't think he did it?'
+
+'Smith? Muddled his accounts! Nothing more likely; charges like this
+are not got up without some grounds of some sort; but as to intentional
+fraud, that's utter nonsense. Well, I'm off to the station, and I hope
+in half an hour's time Master Redstone will be quaking.'
+
+Ten days of the holiday still remained; and Captain Audley, with boat
+and yacht, greatly added to its pleasures, which both brothers were
+able thoroughly to enjoy, living almost entirely out of doors, and
+valuing each hour as they became fewer.
+
+This matter, however, made Felix very uneasy. He wrote to the curate,
+offering all the amends in his power, and undertaking that if Mr. Smith
+would send him an explanatory letter, he would back it up with a strong
+leading-article; and he waited anxiously for further intelligence.
+
+Mr. Froggatt's letter came first. Redstone, fond of dabbling in
+editorship, had taken reproof in great dudgeon, affecting great
+surprise at being blamed for inserting a letter from a respectable
+gentleman without submitting it to Mr. Froggatt, who had entirely
+dropped the editorship, or delaying it to another issue by sending
+it to Ewmouth. The respectable gentleman was young Jackman, who was
+no doubt delighted to have such a firebrand to cast. It was a great
+grief and annoyance to Mr. Froggatt, who had always steered clear of
+personalities, and been inoffensive if sometimes dull; and both assault
+and defence were distressing to him--_i.e._ if defence were possible,
+for he seemed doubtful whether silence would not lead to the least
+scandal. Even Wilmet wrote: 'Every one seems to think Mr. Smith is to
+blame; and he is so huffy, that it looks only too much as if he were
+afraid of inquiry.'
+
+This was too true a character of his replies. That intended for the
+paper had not a line of real defence, but was a mere tirade on the
+dignity of his office, and the impudence of the charges. Felix dashed
+it away, enraged at its useless folly; nor was the private one more
+satisfactory. It was but a half acceptance of Felix's total disclaimer;
+and the resentful wording made it difficult to discern whether the
+imputation were _bona fide_, regarded as not worth refuting, or whether
+indignation were made an excuse for denial instead of proof. A separate
+sheet seemed to have been added. 'The whole is to be subjected to
+the scrutiny of a parish meeting on Tuesday, when, though the minute
+accuracy of a professional accountant is not to be expected of one
+whose province is not to serve tables, it will be evident that only
+malignity to the Church could have devised the attack to which your
+paper has given currency.'
+
+'Well,' broke out Lance, as Felix with a voice of ineffable disgust
+read the final sentence, 'if that is not being a knave, it is very like
+a long-eared animal!'
+
+'I'll tell you what, Lance, they'll take him between their teeth, and
+worry him till there's not an inch left whole of him. Jackman and his
+pack will tear him down; and even Bruce and Jones, and our own good old
+Froggy, will give him up when they see his books won't balance.'
+
+'Serve him right!' cried Lance. 'What fun to see his airs taken down,
+when he's served with the sauce he's so fond of for other people! I
+only wish they'd got my Lady too!'
+
+'I must go home, that's all,' said Felix. 'If I got there on Wednesday,
+I might see if I could not get his accounts into presentable order.'
+
+'What?'
+
+'If I don't, I am afraid no one else will.'
+
+'He will not let you.'
+
+'I think I can make him.'
+
+'But such a cur as he has always been to you!'
+
+'I don't think he will object now. I know he can't do the thing
+himself; and if little Bisset could, depend upon it his mother would
+not let him stir a finger for fear of being implicated. Now I do know
+the ways of those accounts. I've done them with my father and with Mr.
+Audley. Any way, I must be at home for the meeting. Imagine Redstone
+reporting it! But you can stay out the week, and come home in the
+yacht.'
+
+For Captain Audley had promised to take the brothers round to Dearport;
+but Lance could not bear to be left behind; and it ended in their
+walking up to the Tudor cottage to make their excuses, when the
+good-natured captain declared that he could put to sea that very night
+and land them at Dearport in good time.
+
+So after a hurried grateful farewell to the Staples family, the holiday
+closed with a voyage that both were able to enjoy to the utmost before
+they sailed into the harbour at Dearport, and walked up to St. Faith's.
+Captain Audley, who had not seen Sister Constance since her husband's
+death, had an access of shyness and would not encounter the 'Lady
+Abbess,' as he called her; but his last words to Felix were a promise
+that if Bernard went to Stoneborough, he would have him out now and
+then for a holiday with his own boy.
+
+There had been time to send notice to Geraldine, and her brothers had
+hoped to have taken her home with them; but though she looked clear and
+bright, she was not out of the doctor's hands, and was under orders to
+stay another week. The sight of her brothers made her very homesick,
+in spite of being the spoilt child of the Sisterhood, in the pleasant
+matted room, with its sea view, its prints, and photographs; but then
+she wanted to have her way prepared with Wilmet. Her vision had been
+to walk in imposingly, and take them all by surprise; but that notion
+had vanished as the time drew nearer, and she found that her new art
+required practice, while the dread of making a sensation grew upon her.
+She was ashamed of having even thought of compensating for Wilmet's
+absence, and entreated Felix to communicate the fact, without a word of
+the presumption that had nerved her courage.
+
+The three looked over one another, as if each had undergone much since
+the last meeting; but the sight of Felix greatly relieved Cherry. He
+was sunburnt and vigorous, and his voice had resumed its depth of quiet
+content, instead of having that unconsciously weary sound of patience
+and exertion that had often gone to her heart. Lance, whom she had not
+seen since Easter, had assumed a look of rapid growth; his features had
+lost their childish form, and were disproportionate; and his complexion
+still had the fitful colouring of convalescence; but his eyes were
+dancing, and his talk ecstatic as to Vale Leston and the Kittiwake,
+where he was ready, at that moment, to become a cabin-boy.
+
+'O Cherry! Cherry! you never dreamt of anything so delicious as that
+night's fishing!'
+
+'That, I will answer for, she never did,' said Felix. 'When I saw the
+exquisite delight it afforded, not only to this Lance but to Captain
+Audley, to fill the boat with slimy, flapping, uncomfortable, dying
+fishes, I felt that I was never made for a gentleman.'
+
+'Do you mean that you didn't like it?' exclaimed Lance, turning round
+aghast.
+
+'I should have been much happier balancing the books.'
+
+'And he wasn't even sick!' said Lance, holding up his hands.
+
+'He hadn't that excuse,' laughed Cherry. 'However, midnight fishing is
+not indispensable! I should like to have seen how he looked at Vale
+Leston.'
+
+Lance was in great hopes that Felix would betray the possibilities, and
+mayhap but for his presence, prudence might have evaporated beneath the
+warm breath of Cherry's sympathy; but the answer was only a discreet
+laugh and reply, 'Like a man who wanted his sister! I wish I could just
+fill your eyes with the loveliness of it, Cherry;' and in the midst of
+his description, in came Sister Constance, bringing with her Sister
+Emmeline (sister in blood as well as religion,) wanting to hear about
+the nephews, and the Kitten's Tail adventure, and amused to find Lance
+a little shy about it--certainly not disposed to dwell on it with his
+usual unceremonious drollery of narrative. They would not let Felix
+go without an inspection by Dr. Lee, which was perfectly satisfactory
+as to the rally of the constitution from the depression that had
+threatened disease, though it was impressed both on him and on Cherry
+that he must be careful next winter, and never neglect a cold; and with
+this promise the brothers took the train, and in half an hour were
+at home--rather an empty home, for the schools were all in operation
+again, and Wilmet was not at liberty for some little time after their
+arrival.
+
+When she did come in, she was disappointed not to find Geraldine, and
+that Felix had become so absorbed in the business that had brought
+him home, that he only sent in word that he was obliged to go into
+the town, and tea must not wait for him. Lance remained, but the
+burthen of two secrets rendered him uncommunicative, when Wilmet tried
+to understand the cause of Cherry's delay at St. Faith's; and Alda
+was curious about Vale Leston and Mrs. Fulbert, whom she had seen at
+Kensington Palace Gardens. It did not take much acumen to exclaim,
+'Still no children! Then there must be a chance for us!'
+
+'That is not likely,' said Wilmet: 'it must be all in their own power;
+and the Vicar must be quite a young man. Is he not, Lance?'
+
+'How should I know?'
+
+'Didn't you see him?'
+
+'I saw his wife, and that was enough.'
+
+'About five-and-thirty,' said Alda. 'Of course it will all go to Uncle
+Tom. Money always goes to money.'
+
+'How flushed you are, Lance!' said Wilmet. 'Are you tired?'
+
+'Rather. I am going out into the garden.'
+
+There, however, he was pursued by Bernard with a war-whoop, and by
+Theodore with his concertina; and Stella presently reported that he was
+gone up to bed.
+
+'And I am afraid his room is very hot and noisy,' sighed Wilmet.
+
+'He is only tired and cross after his two nights at sea,' said Alda.
+
+'Lance cross!'
+
+'My dear Wilmet, it is very bad taste in families always to maintain
+each other's impeccability!'
+
+Alda was still the only person capable of defeating Wilmet, and she
+managed to render her very uncomfortable before the end of the evening,
+when hours passed and still Felix did not come in; and Alda suggested,
+in the intervals of yawning, that Wilmet would soon learn how green it
+was to sit up, now that Felix had got out of leading-strings, and set
+up bachelor habits.
+
+At first, Wilmet was highly indignant; but when Alda persisted that
+she was rather glad to see Felix like other young men, and that Wilmet
+would know better when she was married, and then yawned herself off to
+bed, there was a sense of great discomfort to accompany the solitary
+vigil, which not only involved fancies of possible accidents, but was
+harassed by this assault on faith in the virtue and sincerity of man.
+Could it really be the part of a wise woman to wink at being deceived
+as an inferior creature, with impossible expectations of truth and
+purity? Yet Alda knew the world!
+
+How much heart-sickness was darned into Lance's impossible heel before
+the clock chimed two! A step, and not a policeman's, came along the
+pavement and paused at the door, as, while the bell was cautiously
+pulled, down she flew!
+
+'My dear Mettie, I am so sorry, so ashamed, of not having sent home
+to tell you; but if I had made the least move, it might have upset
+everything!'
+
+'What _have_ you been about?'
+
+'Going over Mowbray Smith's accounts.'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'I am very sorry! How tired you must be! I was vexed not to be able to
+give you notice, but you know what poor Smith is.'
+
+'I don't know why you had to do it all, and at this time of night,'
+said Wilmet, still a little hurt.
+
+'It is the only chance for him to-morrow at the meeting to have his
+accounts clear; so I called under the plea of seeing about the letter
+in Pur, and with much ado got him to realise a little more of his
+position, and let me look at the books. That was at five.'
+
+'And you have been at it ever since? O Felix!' as he stretched his arms
+and gave a vast yawn.
+
+'Ay! If I had shown any consciousness of the time, he would have shut
+up at once; and he would not let me take them home to do to-morrow
+morning.'
+
+'It _is_ to-morrow morning!'
+
+'So it is! I must make haste, for I must try to see Mr. Ryder and Jones
+before the meeting. Good-night, dear old W. W. I meant to have had
+other talk.'
+
+'But oh! you must have some supper!'
+
+'I've had it--sumptuous! Stilton cheese!'
+
+So Wilmet's faith in masculine nature rebounded as high as Alda had
+striven to sink it!
+
+Patience was a good deal needed the next day; for Felix had to rush
+away from breakfast, and never appeared at all at dinner. He had to
+be present at the very stormy meeting, though only to take notes, and
+thus had the annoyance of seeing Mr. Smith destroying his own cause
+by his incapacity to understand the statement so carefully drawn up,
+until Mr. Ryder (on whom the enemy had reckoned as a champion) took
+the papers out of the helpless hand, comprehended Felix's figures at a
+glance, and set them lucidly forth, such as they were; but even then
+there were blots which there were plenty of persons ready to hit. The
+truth was, that between Lady Price's economies, and the unwillingness
+to call vestry-meetings, moneys intended for one purpose had been used
+for another, and articles not within the denomination of charities had
+been charged on funds raised for that exclusive object.
+
+The assembly comprised the usual variety: the malicious foes of
+religion, headed by Jackman; the more numerous enemies, not of what
+they supposed religion, but of the Church; the adversaries, not of
+the Church, but of the Curate; and the few loyally unwilling to
+condemn a clergyman, but disgusted at the affair, and staggered by his
+management. Perhaps the rabid and ribald violence of the hostile party
+did Mr. Smith good with the respectable; and there were many, too,
+whose dictum was--'Felix Underwood says it is all right!' At any rate,
+though the Bishop was memorialized, it was in a much better spirit than
+had been likely at first; and it was not to be done without notice to
+the Rector. And when this was over, every one, as usual, went to their
+rendezvous at 'Froggatt's,' either to discuss or inquire; and the
+release of both partners on that summer evening was later than ever it
+had been before.
+
+But then what a welcome upstairs! what a clamour of happy tongues!
+what an ecstatic humming of The Hardy Norseman! what a clinging to
+and climbing on him! If he had the cares, he had much of the joys, of
+the goodman of the house! But presently he missed the voice usually
+blithest of all, and asked for Lance.
+
+'He was here a little while ago,' said Wilmet, 'drinking his tea. He
+must have gone up to bed.'
+
+'No,' said Bernard; 'I've just been up to the barrack, and he isn't
+there.'
+
+'You've not let him sleep in the attic!' exclaimed Felix. 'Why, under
+the leads it is like an oven!'
+
+'I am very sorry,' said Wilmet, 'but I could not see how to help it.
+Your room is worse, with the glare of the setting sun; and so is
+Cherry's at this time of the evening.'
+
+'Then he must have Mr. Froggatt's.'
+
+'I thought,' said Alda, 'that you never took liberties with Mr.
+Froggatt?'
+
+'Nonsense!' said Felix. 'There are only two bedrooms in this house fit
+for that boy in his present state--yours and Mr. Froggatt's. Which
+shall we have, Wilmet?'
+
+'Mr. Froggatt's,' she answered at once. 'If you will not have another
+cup, I'll get it ready for him at once.'
+
+'I've just done. I'll come and help you. But where can the boy be? In
+the garden?'
+
+'No,' said Wilmet, taking a survey from the window.
+
+'I have hardly seen him all day,' added Alda. 'I suppose he has
+pursuits of his own.'
+
+'Pursuits!' said Felix, looking really anxious; 'poor little chap, he
+can't do without constant care and quiet!'
+
+Wilmet made no answer, but rose and left the room; Alda muttered
+something about his looking quite well, which Felix did not stay to
+hear, following his sister out with a word about looking for him. At
+the same moment a little soft hand was thrust into his, and Stella, as
+soon as the door was shut, said, 'Please, I know where Lance is, but
+it's a secret.'
+
+'Not from me, I hope?' said Felix, catching her up in his arms.
+
+'I _think_ not,' said Stella meditatively. 'He only told me not to let
+Bear and Tedo know, because they make a row. He is only up over the
+back warehouse, where he used to play the fiddle to us last Easter.'
+
+'The only cool quiet place he could find!' said Felix, with more of a
+look of reproach than he had ever given Wilmet.
+
+It went to her heart. 'I did not know what to do,' she said meekly. 'I
+wanted very much to go into the barrack ourselves, but Alda said it
+would kill her; and you know it has always been a sore subject that we
+would not let her have Mr. Froggatt's room. I ought not to have given
+way.'
+
+'Alda's selfishness is a great power,' muttered Felix; and Wilmet was
+too much ashamed to contradict him, except by 'She is vexed because she
+has not heard from Ferdinand,' as they hastily made their way to the
+warehouse, which, being on the north side of higher buildings, never
+did get scorched through.
+
+Felix went up a step-ladder, Wilmet following; and there, sure enough,
+was Lance, lying in a nest of paper shavings, with head on his
+air-pillow. 'Oh, you've unearthed me, have you? I wish you'd let me
+stay here all night!' he said, with some weary fretfulness; but the
+next moment burst into a peal of laughter, as Wilmet's head appeared
+above the floor. 'Pallas Athene ascends! Oh! what a place it would be
+to act a play--only then all the fry would find it out! I hope they
+haven't! I told the Star not to tell!'
+
+'My poor dear Lance, is this the only quiet place you could find? and
+you let us all neglect you, and never complained!' exclaimed Wilmet,
+kissing his hot forehead.
+
+'Why, it's only my stupidity,' said Lance, wearily but gratefully; 'and
+you can't make places quiet or cool! If you would just let me sleep
+here!'
+
+'No; but you shall have Mr. Froggatt's room. He will not want it now.
+Come along, Lance, we'll bring your things down. The barrack is a great
+deal too hot for you to go into!'
+
+He did not make any resistance; but as they landed from the ladder,
+threw his arm round Wilmet, and leant against her with a sort of
+lazy mischievous tenderness, as he said, 'Isn't the Froggery wanted
+for--somebody else?' and tried to look up in her face.
+
+'Ferdinand always goes to the Fortinbras Arms,' answered Wilmet, with
+admirable composure.
+
+'Oh! that's a precedent,' said Lance, ostentatiously winking at Felix,
+who was very glad the ice was broken. 'When is he coming, Mettie?'
+
+'I think Alda hoped he might have run down to-night, on hearing of your
+return.'
+
+There they paused while entering the house and going upstairs; but no
+sooner were they in the barrack, which was certainly insufferably hot,
+than Lance returned to the charge.
+
+'But when is _he_ coming? Not Fernan--he's an old story!'
+
+'Yes,' said Felix, walking up to Wilmet to fold together the corners
+of the sheets they were stripping from Lance's bed, and looking into
+her eyes so archly as to bring up an incarnadine blush, 'I want
+particularly to improve my acquaintance, if you don't.--What shall we
+do, Lance?'
+
+'Advertise in Pur,' suggested Lance. 'The editor returned. Young men
+may apply!'
+
+'Don't, boys!' exclaimed Wilmet, in tones belonging to bygone days,
+when neither she nor Felix had been too serious to tease or be teased.
+'He is much better than you,' she added, with a pretty confused
+petulance, when Felix put on a pleading inquisitive face. 'When he
+found we didn't like it, he went away to visit his uncle.'
+
+'Better than we! There, Lance!' said Felix, in a gratified provoking
+tone of discovery.
+
+'In one sense,' said Wilmet, walking down before him.
+
+'I am very glad you have found it out,' added Felix, as they entered
+Mr. Froggatt's cool well-blinded bedroom, the only well-furnished one
+in the house.
+
+'It is no laughing matter,' said Wilmet seriously.
+
+'That's well,' was the dry answer.
+
+But there Felix perceived that she was on the verge of tears, and he
+kindly and quietly helped her to despatch her arrangements for Lance
+before any more was said; only as they turned to bid the tired boy
+good-night, he said, 'Where does the uncle live? I shall telegraph
+to-morrow, you cruel person!'
+
+'Hush! silly boy--good-night,' said Wilmet, with a quivering voice;
+then, as she shut the door, 'Please don't go on this way, Felix--I
+wouldn't have had it happen for any consideration.'
+
+'I suppose not,' said Felix, as they returned to the twilight garden;
+'but as it has--Why, my Mettie, dear!' as she pressed close to him, and
+hid her face on his shoulder, with a strong craving for the help and
+sympathy from which the motherless girl had hitherto been debarred.
+
+'O Felix! I wish he would not be so good and kind! I wish you would not
+try to make me give in!'
+
+'My dear girl!' said Felix, with his arm round her. 'You know I would
+not if I did not see that you had given in!'
+
+'No, I haven't!' she cried. 'Why should you want to persuade me? Isn't
+it very cruel and hard to let him give all himself to one that can't
+come to him? He will have to go out and live all dreary and lonely
+for years and years, and come home to find nothing but a stupid old
+worn-out drudge, with all these pretty looks gone off! Felix, be
+reasonable, _please!_ Can't you see that I ought not to let things go
+that way?'
+
+'Do you mean,' said Felix, 'that you would be quite content to put an
+end to all this--let Harewood go away believing you indifferent, and
+never see him again?'
+
+'Felix, why do you--?' with tears in her eyes.
+
+'Because I am quite sure that the consideration you want to show him
+would be no kindness. The pain of having his affection thrown over'
+(he spoke with a spasm in the throat) 'would be greater than you would
+_like_ to inflict, if you were forced by truth to own you did not care
+for him; and if he be what I think, the carrying away security of your
+feeling for him will be gladness enough. And as for the looks, I have
+a better opinion of yours than to think they won't wear! Any way,
+dearest, it seems to me that you have won the heart of a good man,
+and that if you like him, it is your duty to give him the comfort of
+knowing it without thinking about to-morrows.'
+
+'But I know so much more would come if I did just allow that much! And
+I might get to wish to leave you all,' she said in an appalled voice.
+'And there seems to me not the slightest chance. You see Alda and
+Cherry never will get on together; and Cherry seems glad of an excuse
+to stay from home. I thought she would have cared to come back when you
+did.'
+
+'Poor Cherry!' said Felix, hesitating, with a little of her own nervous
+awe of broaching the subject.
+
+'You don't mean that there is anything seriously amiss?' she cried,
+startled.
+
+'Wilmet, do you remember what Rugg said would be the very best thing
+for that poor child?'
+
+She stood still, dismayed and angered. 'They aren't tormenting the poor
+little thing about that?'
+
+'It is not their doing.'
+
+'It can't have become necessary! Sister Constance would have told me!
+Felix say she is not worse!'
+
+'No, much better. But, Wilmet, what we could not bear to think of, she
+thought of for herself, and begged to have it done.'
+
+'Then I must go to her.'
+
+'There is no occasion. She knew you could not be spared. It was done
+on the 10th, and she will soon walk better than she has done all these
+years.'
+
+'Done! without our knowledge?'
+
+'She wished to spare us all, but that was not allowed. I was written
+to, and told that her strong desire was such a favourable condition,
+that I had better consent, so as not to protract the strain of spirits.
+She made a point of no one else knowing except Clement.'
+
+'Ah!' Wilmet spoke as if under a weight, 'that was the day Clement went
+down to Dearport, and came home so late! How could Sister Constance
+consent not to tell me?'
+
+'You must forgive her, for it was the little one's desire. Of course we
+should have been fetched if anything had gone wrong; but she has done
+perfectly well; and there she is, very happy, and so full of fun, that
+the Sisters say she keeps them all alive.'
+
+'Done? I cannot fancy it!' said Wilmet. 'Do you know, I believe it has
+been my bugbear for years past to think I might have to persuade her to
+this?'
+
+'To tell you the truth, so it has to me.'
+
+'Little nervous timid thing, I can't even understand her thinking of
+it!'
+
+'She wanted me not to tell you, but I would not promise. She could not
+rest without trying not to be an obstacle to--'
+
+Wilmet interrupted with a cry of pain.
+
+'Isn't it a noble little thing?'
+
+'But it is so silly!' broke out Wilmet, not choosing her words amid her
+tears.
+
+'So she thinks now, poor child: she is quite ashamed of the
+presumptuous notion that _did_ brace and carry her through.'
+
+'I don't like her to be disappointed,' said Wilmet; 'but it is quite
+ridiculous.'
+
+'Only comfort her a little, Mettie dear, for she is very much afraid
+you will think she has taken a great liberty with your property.'
+
+'I only wish I could kiss her this moment!'
+
+'Well, run down by the train to-morrow. They would all be delighted.'
+
+'No, no, Felix, impossible. Think of the cost!'
+
+'Half a crown! Sinful waste!' said Felix, in a tone of alarming levity.
+
+'Felix, if you only knew what the housekeeping mounted up in that
+unhappy month that I was away! I did not like to tell you before, but--'
+
+'Well!' at the dreadful pause.
+
+'I had to get fifteen pounds from Mr. Froggatt's; and Alda finds, after
+all, that she cannot advance the money for Lance's journey.'
+
+'So you are pinching it out by pence, my poor W. W.!'
+
+'Nothing extra must be done till this is made up.'
+
+'Yet it seems needful that Bernard should go to school. I wrote about--'
+
+'No,' she resolutely interrupted. 'Bernard must wait over this year.
+Thirty pounds. Utterly out of the question!'
+
+Her tone gave Felix an unusual sense of chill penury, and brought Vale
+Leston before his eyes. He laughed rather bitterly, saying, 'Perhaps
+some day neither thirty pence nor thirty pounds may have so direful a
+sound!'
+
+'I never mean to learn to waste.'
+
+'You may have to learn to spend.'
+
+'That's enough to set me against it!' she exclaimed, with a good deal
+of pain; and he found how nearly he had broken his resolution, and how
+her application of his words to herself had saved him. He followed the
+lead.
+
+'Nay; you were glad of Alda's prosperity?'
+
+'Oh yes; but poor Alda has been hindered from being like one of us,'
+she said. 'We have fought it out together. And I should not mind so
+much if _he_ were poor, like us, and had to wait on his own account.'
+
+'I appreciate that,' said Felix; 'but at least you will let the poor
+fellow come and judge for himself?'
+
+'If--if only, Felix, you will promise not to try to tempt me into
+deserting you all, when I know it would be wrong.'
+
+'If I will promise you not to cut my own throat, eh? Come, W. W., put
+out of your head "what it may lead to," confess that you are afraid of
+getting connected with such a mad harum-scarum set!'
+
+'It isn't,' broke out Wilmet. 'I never saw any one so thoughtful and
+considerate. They are all so kind and warm-hearted, that I grew quite
+ashamed of my own fidgetiness; and he--he always knew the right thing
+at the right time. You can't think how his look seemed to hold me up,
+when poor Lance was moaning and talking nonsense!'
+
+Having thus let herself out as she had never dared, nor indeed been
+tempted to do, since the first dawn of the courtship, Wilmet at last
+relieved herself of some of the vast sense of emotion that she had been
+forcing back for the last month. Hitherto the mistress of the house
+had seemed older than the master; but now the elder brother took the
+place of both parents--ay, and of sister--as, all her fencing over,
+she poured out her heart, and let him sympathize, cheer, soothe, and
+encourage, more by kind tones than actual words. The harvest-moon
+shone over the house-tops, as a month before she had shone by the
+river-side; and the Pillars of the House walked up and down till Alda
+grew desperate, and sallied out to tell them that it was past eleven.
+
+It was only such snatches of time that Felix could give to home
+affairs, for his hands were full of arrears of business, and the
+excitement respecting Mr. Smith necessarily occupied him. Pending the
+arrival of letters from the Rector, every tongue was in commotion, and
+the reading-room was a focus of debate and centre of intelligence.
+So many letters, either in assault or defence, were addressed to the
+editor of the Pursuivant, that only a supplement as big as the _Times_
+could have contained them. Every poor person who had not had every
+demand supplied from the charities was running about, adding to the
+grievance at every encounter with tender-hearted lady or justice-loving
+gentleman, whose blood boiled over into a letter for the Pursuivant,
+which, when sifted and refused, was transferred to the Dearport Hermes,
+or Erms, as most of its supporters termed it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE REAL THING AND NO MISTAKE.
+
+     'With asses all his time he spent,
+      Their club's perpetual president,
+      He caught their manners, looks, and airs--
+      An ass in everything but ears.'
+                                       _Gay._
+
+
+The master of the house was unable to contribute much more than his
+name to the propriety of the arrival of the suitors, and this made
+Wilmet the more determined that Geraldine should precede them. Nor,
+since the half-crown must be disbursed on an escort for her, did the
+housewifely conscience object to the expedition; for Wilmet could not
+but long to thank the Superior and Sister Constance, and to obtain
+Dr. Lee's advice as to future management. Her coming was great joy
+to Cherry, who had dreaded the meeting almost with a sense of guilt,
+though still hoping Felix had been silent on her motive; and Wilmet did
+not betray him, but only treated her sister with a mixture of almost
+shy tenderness and reverence. Nor did Cherry dare to ask a question
+as to Wilmet's own affairs, nor even about Ferdinand Travis, lest she
+should seem to be leading in that direction. However, Wilmet, in a
+persuasive tone, communicated that Ferdinand had been long without
+writing, and though Cherry tried to be sorry for Alda, her spirit
+quailed at the state of temper her sister evidently meant to prepare
+her for.
+
+But fate was more kind than she expected. That very Saturday brought
+both gentlemen, and by the same train. They made each other out as they
+were leaving their bags at the Fortinbras Arms, and arrived together
+in marked contrast--the tall, dark, regular-featured, soft-eyed
+Life-guardsman, and the little sandy freckled sun-dried engineer;
+and thus two courtships had to be carried on in the two rooms, only
+supplemented by the narrow parallelogram of a garden! For Ferdinand
+Travis was back again, rather amused at the family astonishment at the
+rapidity of his journey to America, which to his Transatlantic notions
+of travel was as nothing, and indeed had been chiefly performed in a
+big steamer, where he could smoke to his heart's content.
+
+For the first few days there was a good deal of restraint: Wilmet was
+more shy than in the unconscious days of Bexley; while John Harewood
+was devoid of his family's assurance and bonhomie, and so thoroughly
+modest and diffident as to risk nothing by precipitation in begging
+for a decision. Felix, inexperienced, and strongly sensible of his
+office as guardian of his sister's dignity, would not hint at the
+result of his investigations into Wilmet's sentiments; and it was to
+Geraldine that Captain Harewood's attentions were chiefly paid. Knowing
+Alda's resolute monopoly of her Cacique, Cherry at first held back,
+and restrained her keen enjoyment of real conversation; but she found
+Wilmet thankful to have the talk done for her, and content to sit at
+work, listening almost in silence, but proud that her Captain should
+be interested in her sister, and pleased to see Cherry's expressive
+face flash and sparkle all over for him. While Wilmet was at Miss
+Pearson's, Cherry was his chief resource; they read, drew, and talked,
+and in that half-hour's out-of-door exercise, which Dr. Lee had so
+strongly enjoined, his arm was at her service. They were soon on the
+borders of confidence, though never quite plunging over them. Perhaps
+the broad open-mouthed raillery at his home made the gentle reticence
+of the Underwoods the more agreeable to him; at any rate, he did not
+try to break through it, nor to presume beyond the step he had gained.
+Alda, who could best perhaps have acted as helper, had her own affairs
+to attend to; and they were evidently unsatisfactory, for Ferdinand
+was more than ever the silent melancholy Don, and she was to domestic
+eyes visibly cross, and her half-year at home had rendered her much
+less capable of concealing ill-humour. Something was owing to wear and
+suspense, together with the effects of the summer heat and confined
+monotonous life without change or luxury; but much was chargeable on
+the manifestations of temper to which she had given way in the home
+circle. She told Wilmet the trouble, which Ferdinand wished to have
+kept from open discussion till he had received a final statement of his
+means to lay before Felix. He had received no remittances since the
+spring, and on demanding his own share of the capital and investments,
+had found it, instead of the lion's, a ridiculously small portion. The
+whole fortunes of the house of Travis had been built on his mother's
+inheritance; but the accounts laid before him represented all the
+unprosperous speculations undertaken by his father, William, while the
+small ventures of his Uncle Alfred had, alongside of them, swelled into
+the huge wealth of which Ferdinand had been bred to believe himself
+the heir! So palpably outrageous was this representation, that he
+had persuaded himself that personal investigation on the spot would
+clear it up, or perhaps more truly, his blood was up, and he could not
+bear to be inactive. He had rushed over to New York, and of course he
+had been baffled. Exposure was of no use where sympathy was for the
+lucky rather than the duped and luckless, and where the Anglicised
+Life-guardsman could expect it least of all--at a time, too, when all
+business affairs were convulsed by the uncertainties of civil war. Alda
+could not believe at first that he had done his utmost, and seemed to
+have reproached him with weakness and mismanagement; but by her own
+account she had roused the innate lion. He would not tell her what
+had passed in the interview with his uncle, but he had shuddered over
+the remembrance; and when she upbraided him with not having gone far
+enough, he terrified her by the fierceness with which he had turned
+upon her, bidding her never recur to what she knew nothing about, and
+muttering to himself, 'Far enough--thank God I went no further, or
+I should not be here now!' and then falling into deep gloom. He had
+certainly made Alda afraid of him, and she burst into tears as she told
+Wilmet, declaring herself the most miserable girl in the world.
+
+'No, that you can't be, Alda, while he is so good and true.'
+
+'But he says he must sell out! Think of that! Never was anybody so
+taken in as I have been!'
+
+'Don't talk so, Alda. It is just as if you had engaged yourself to a
+Life-guardsman and nothing else.'
+
+'I wonder how you would like to be buried in some horrid wild place in
+America, where you would never see anybody!'
+
+'One would not want to see anybody but him.'
+
+'That's your nonsense! How tired of it one would be!'
+
+'There would be no time. It would be so nice to do everything for him
+oneself!'
+
+'In some horrid uncivilized place, with no servants! I'm not going
+to be a drudge. It is all very well for you, who like it, and have
+no notion of society, but for me--! And there he is furious to take
+me out. Men grow so wild and rough too in such places. You never saw
+anything blaze like his eyes!'
+
+'I don't understand you. Could not you trust yourself anywhere with
+him?'
+
+'You have no right to say such things,' pouted Alda, 'only because I
+have a little common prudence. Some one must have it!'
+
+There was no denying that life in the far west would be a foolish thing
+either for or with Alda; and Felix thought so when Ferdinand came to
+him for consultation over the letters that made it finally clear that
+Alfred Travis had appropriated everything available but half a block
+of unreclaimed land on the wrong side of America, and a few thousands
+invested in Peter Brown's firm; and what was worse, the sudden failure
+of the supplies had occasioned serious debts. Ferdinand's own plan was
+to clear these off with the price of his commission, and take Alda out
+with him to rule in American luxury over the unbounded resources of the
+magnificent land, the very name and scent of which had awakened in him
+his old prairie-land instincts, and her absolute refusal and even alarm
+at his enjoyment had greatly mortified him. 'She should not even have
+to rough it,' he said. 'I could make her like a queen out there, if she
+would only believe it.'
+
+Felix could not but think Alda might be wise, though it was not pretty
+wisdom. Go out alone and make the fortune? Ferdinand did not seem to
+think the separation possible. He said he would rather go to work in
+Peter Brown's office, where he had already a hold; and his familiarity
+with Spanish would secure him usefulness and promotion, and five or six
+years would bring him into a position to marry. He did not look fit for
+desk-work in London, but his mind was made up to any privation, so that
+he could be in reach of Alda, and hope to give her what he had once
+thought easily within his grasp.
+
+Hearing this, Felix propounded an old longing of his--namely, to
+make the Pursuivant a daily paper, and use means for promptitude
+of intelligence, such as might neutralize the unpopularity it was
+incurring on behalf of Mr. Smith. Rumours of a rival paper were afloat;
+but if Ferdinand would throw in his capital, and undertake the joint
+editorship and proprietorship, the hold that the Pursuivant already
+had warranted quite success enough to permit an immediate marriage.
+There would be no need to be concerned with the shop; they might take a
+cottage in the country, and he need not ride in so often as every day.
+In fact, it was his capital rather than his personal assistance that
+was wanted. He caught at the notion. He was too Transatlantic to have
+any dignities to stand upon, and he said almost with tears in his eyes
+that he could never be so happy as in working with Felix; and he went
+off to the Fortinbras Arms, only lamenting that it was too late to tell
+Alda; while Felix, on his side, could not help knocking at Geraldine's
+door. Within he found another auditor, Wilmet, who still always
+helped Cherry to bed. 'It will be the making of the Pursuivant,' he
+said. How often I have sighed, "If I had but capital, or Mr. Froggatt
+enterprise!"'
+
+'Ah, Felicissimo mio, that Pursuivant is as dear to you as any brother
+or sister of us all!'
+
+'So it ought to be, for it has been the making of us.--Come Cherry,
+confess that you had rather see Pur triumph, than--'
+
+'Than you at Vale Leston,' said Cherry, not knowing what a bolt she
+shot. 'It would be grand to steal a march on the enemy!'
+
+'And safe?' asked Wilmet.
+
+Felix demonstrated to the comprehending ears of his sisters the
+circulation that he could securely reckon upon.
+
+'There would be an immense deal more to do,' said Cherry; but at that
+he smiled, full of vigour.
+
+'True; but we should have a larger staff. There would be Fernan--'
+
+'For the racing articles,' said Cherry dryly.
+
+'And a good deal besides, which only needs application; and that he
+has.'
+
+'He has great resolution,' said Cherry, 'but he always seems to me a
+sort of Christian panther of the wilderness; and you seem to be getting
+him into a cage.'
+
+'Not such a cage as Peter Brown's office; and besides it is only when
+he is lashed up that the panther leaps about his den. Generally he is
+a quiet determined animal, with the practical Yankee element strong in
+him. It may be true, as Edgar says, that he does not see an inch on
+either side of his nose, but that only makes him go right away in the
+line he does see. I know he will work well.'
+
+'If Alda--' said Cherry.
+
+'Oh, she will be willing. A cottage in the country! Besides, it is the
+only reasonable possibility.'
+
+'I should think it would satisfy her,' said Wilmet.
+
+'And then--'
+
+Everybody understood that 'And then.' It was Alda's pretension to be
+at the head of the family that was the chief obstacle to Wilmet's
+abdicating that post. Without her, Geraldine, stronger and less lame,
+might undertake the charge of the comparatively few permanently at
+home. _Might_ indeed hardly expressed the amount of uncertainty as to
+her capability; and yet but for that 'And then,' Wilmet would hardly
+have yielded as she did the next day.
+
+Stella had a blackberry fever. Possibly Wilmet's frugal regimen
+engendered a hankering for fruit, or it might have been the mere love
+of enterprise that rendered her eagerly desirous of an expedition to a
+lane where splendid blackberries were reported to grow. Since the day
+she had been lost, she had never been allowed to go out with Bernard;
+but in Lance she had acquired a much more complaisant play-fellow,
+who not only promised his escort to the lane, but the purchase of the
+sugar, and aid in the concoction of the jam; but he durst not venture
+till late in the day, and thereupon John Harewood suggested, 'Would not
+your sister be at liberty by that time?'
+
+'Lance can take care of me,' said Stella; but in her eyes the whole
+romance of the expedition was destroyed by his acquiescence. 'We'll
+catch her as she comes out, and make her go with us.'
+
+'Among all the girls?' laughed Cherry; and Captain Harewood coloured,
+shook his head, and shuddered.
+
+'The girls won't hurt me,' said Lance, 'not if there were twenty
+hundred. I'll bring her from the very teeth of them. Jack may wait
+round the corner if he likes.'
+
+The party waited, till their patience was worn to a thread, for the
+opening of the tall olive door, until Lance valiantly resolved on a
+single-handed assault, and had just mounted the steps, when it suddenly
+opened, and he found himself obstructing the path of a swarm of little
+girls and big, who all stared, most giggled, and some greeted him. To
+the least of these he confided that he wanted his sister, when she
+innocently piloted him to the school-room, where Wilmet, with her hat
+on, was keeping guard over three victims detained by unfinished tasks.
+Every one gazed at him as if he had been a sort of Actaeon; but nothing
+daunted, he answered his sister's anxious exclamation. 'Nothing is the
+matter; but we are going for a walk, and want you.--Miss Maria,' he
+cried, as the sound of the unfeminine step and voice brought in one of
+the heads, '_please_ do let off these impositions, we do so want her!'
+
+'What, you here! This is an invasion!' she added good-humouredly. 'Am I
+to take it as a convalescent's privilege?'
+
+'Thank you, Ma'am,' said Lance, bowing with his audacious sweetness;
+'and please let me have Wilmet. I'd do the impositions myself, only I
+don't know French.'
+
+The victims tittered uncontrollably, and Miss Maria laughed, as one
+who, like her neighbours, descried why Wilmet was in request. 'I will
+attend to these exercises, Miss Underwood,' she said. 'You must not
+lose this fine evening for the idleness of these young ladies.'
+
+'Indeed, Ma'am!' began Wilmet, in a blaze of colour. 'I never thought
+of such a thing.'
+
+'I daresay not, my dear,' said Miss Maria; 'but now you had better do
+it. I wish you a pleasant walk.'
+
+'Lance, how could you?' broke out Wilmet, as they descended the steps.
+'I never was so ashamed in my life.'
+
+'Never mind. We are going to get blackberries at Mile End Lane, and I
+shall lose Stella to a dead certainty if you don't come and look after
+her.'
+
+'My dear Lance, I can't go all that way without their knowing it at
+home.'
+
+'Oh! that's all settled with Cherry.'
+
+'And where's Alda?'
+
+'Off somewhere with her Don. Come, W. W., or who knows whether Stel and
+I shall ever come home?'
+
+By this time they had reached the corner where Captain Harewood and
+Stella were lying perdu, and Wilmet made no more resistance, only
+keeping the little girl's not altogether willing hand till they came to
+the stile leading to the field and woodland, and then Stella's durance
+ended, and her adventures with Lance became as free as though no grave
+'sister' had been near.
+
+Perhaps, since Wilmet had perceived that surrender was her fate, she
+was willing that the summons should be over and a mutual understanding
+reached, so as to waste no more of the time already so short. However
+that might be, though the talk began with Lance's health and Cherry's
+talents, there was a tendency towards topics closer still; nor did she
+start aside, but rather listened pensively as to a strain that touched
+her quiet soul more deeply than she showed in word or gesture.
+
+The blackberry lane was deep and hollow, the brambles outstretching
+their arching wreaths, laden with heavy clusters of shining fruit,
+glossy black, scarlet or green, sometimes with a lingering pearly
+flower. A step-ladder stile led down into it from the field, and on the
+topmost step, her back against the rail, sat Wilmet. On the lowest,
+turned at right angles to the first, was John Harewood, looking up to
+her; while scrambling on the bank, contending with the brambles, were
+the younger ones; Lance, unable to help now and then sending a furtive
+glance through the tangle.
+
+It was a pretty sight. Sitting aloft, Wilmet was framed by an archway
+of meeting branches, with nothing but the pale opal of the evening
+sky behind the beautifully shaped head and shoulders, and the clear
+cut features, drooping just enough to enhance her own peculiar modest
+dignity, and give it a soft graciousness that had once been wanting.
+Her dress was the same in which Captain Harewood had first seen her--a
+plain black hat, a pale fawn-coloured skirt, and a loose open jacket
+over a white cambric vest and sleeves, only that now there had been
+a budding forth of dainty fresh knots of rose-coloured ribbon at the
+throat and down the front, as though a slight sensibility to the
+vanities as well as the cares of life had begun to dawn on the grave
+young house-mother.
+
+Leaning back against the rough rail to assist the hand of the climber,
+John Harewood looked up with as much worship in his countenance as ever
+good man feels for the being he loves in all her maiden glory. Thus
+they had been for some moments, only broken by the children's distant
+calls, till the fervent words broke from him, 'May I not speak now?'
+
+No word of reply sounded, but the delicate lips quivered and parted;
+the eyes were cast down, and seemed to swim in a soft mist of
+brightness; the queenly head bent, and the roseate tint on the cheek
+deepened and spread, while something came over the face that caused the
+low glad exclamation, 'You sweetest, I do believe you can love me!'
+
+A tremulous smile, a glitter of tears on the eye-lashes--a whisper,
+'You won't let me be able to help it!'
+
+Then the hands were clasped, and no words but 'Thank you' would come to
+the young man's lips; and then, and the sound reminded him, he bowed
+his head, adding, 'Thank God!'
+
+'Thank God!' echoed Wilmet softly. 'For indeed,' she added, as she let
+her eyes fully meet his ardent gaze, 'I know you will help me to do
+whatever may be His Will.'
+
+'He helping me,' said John Harewood; and there was a reverent silence
+of untold peace and bliss, first interrupted by his long sigh of
+infinite relief and joy; and then, as he looked and looked with all
+his soul in his eyes, an exclamation, almost in spite of himself, 'You
+beautiful creature, you are mine indeed!'
+
+Her colour deepened, but her lips moved into an odd little smile, out
+of which came the words, 'Isn't that rather foolish?'
+
+'I couldn't help it--I beg your pardon,' said he, reddening. 'You do
+look so lovely! but indeed it is not the externals only, but what looks
+through.'
+
+'And that is what makes me afraid,' said Wilmet, as the dew gathered on
+her eye-lashes. 'I don't think I'm so nice as you take me for.'
+
+'Probably you don't,' he said, smiling.
+
+'But just hear me,' she said, laying her hand on his, as if to silence
+him. 'You ought to know what all the others would tell you if they
+were not too kind. I know they all feel me strict, and managing, and
+domineering! Yes, it makes you laugh, but I really am. I don't think
+you would have liked me at all if you had not seen me out of my usual
+life, with only Lance--' and as all she said only made him press her
+hand the closer--'You see, I've always had to do _things_. Ever since I
+was a little girl I have had to keep order, great boys and all, and I
+know it has made me disagreeable;' then, in answer to some sound more
+incredulously negative than words, 'Yes indeed! Felix and all go to
+Cherry with whatever comes very near them. She hasn't been hardened and
+sharpened and dried up like me, and wasn't stupid to begin with.'
+
+'Cherry is very clever, but she is--not--'
+
+'Now don't. I know how it is. I know I'm horribly pretty, and I've been
+a wonder always for keeping the house going, and doing for them all,
+and so you fancy me everything charming; but I do so wish you could
+really know, as my brothers do, how it takes out of one all that is
+nice and sweet, and that people like.'
+
+'People?' said John, smiling; but seeing that a mirthful even though
+a loving answer was not what she wanted, he gravely said, 'I do
+understand, dearest, that you have had to be too much of an authority
+to be altogether the companion and confidante that Geraldine is free to
+be, but perhaps I feel that this renders you more wholly and altogether
+my own.'
+
+'Oh!'--a strange half sob--'do you know, I had just begun to know how
+solitary I was when Lance was so happy to get Robina, when you--'
+
+'And if I told you all, you would know that I was feeling a certain
+loneliness at home, and that if you had asked my sisters, they would
+have said that Jack was not the harmonious element he appeared.
+There--there's a pleasing prospect!'
+
+'But you'll not let me be masterful?' said Wilmet earnestly.
+
+'Just as much as is good for me--for us,' he said, smiling. Then after
+a moment's silence, he took out of his pocket a little box, and making
+a table of her lap, took out a ring of twined ruby and diamonds, such
+as could not but startle the instincts of Wilmet's soul.
+
+'Oh, it is a great deal too beautiful! Please, I couldn't--'
+
+'You must. It was my mother's.'
+
+'Then she cannot like to part with it.'
+
+'Did you not know that she died when I was five years old? Look!' and
+he showed where within the lid of the box was written, 'For my Little
+Johnny's Wife. August 1839. L. H.'
+
+'Ought you not to keep it till--' faltered Wilmet, growing crimson as
+she found what she was saying.
+
+'No,' he said decidedly, 'not after this. When I spoke to my father
+that Sunday evening, he unlocked his desk and gave me this, which I had
+not seen since I remember playing with it on my mother's bed. You will
+wear it, dearest. You will let me have the pleasure of knowing you have
+it on.'
+
+The answer was the drawing off of her glove; and he fitted it on, but
+it was rather loose. 'I am afraid it will want a guard,' he said.
+
+'I'll ask Felix whether I may take one of Mamma's,' she said. For the
+shapely notable fingers had never worn a ring before this almost sacred
+pledge; and the few jewels either too valuable or not valuable enough
+for the parents to have parted with in times of need had never been
+touched.
+
+'Do,' he said; 'I shall like that. The year 1839. Was not that the year
+a certain little girl was born?'
+
+'The month. Our birth-day is on the 19th.' And the coincidence gave all
+the foolish delight such facts do under the circumstances.
+
+'Was this long before she died?' asked Wilmet.
+
+'The last day of that August. You never saw her brass in the cloister?'
+
+'No; I never guessed that you were not Mrs. Harewood's son, though I
+wondered at your being so unlike the rest.'
+
+'She has been kindness itself,' he warmly said. 'My father did well
+both for himself and me in marrying.'
+
+'Tell me of your own mother,' said Wilmet, looking from the sparkling
+stones to the initials. 'L.-- What was her name?'
+
+'Lucy. Lucy Oglandby. My father was tutor at Oglandby Hall. There was
+a long attachment, through much opposition; and even when he was made
+priest-vicar after waiting six years, her father could not consent.
+After six years more, when her health was failing, he gave a sort of
+sanction on his death-bed. The rest of the family contrived to get her
+fortune so tied up that after her death it was of no use to any one
+till I came of age. She only lived seven years after her marriage, and
+then the Oglandbys wanted to take possession of me, and I fancy that
+drove my father into marrying.'
+
+'Was it with them you went to stay?'
+
+'Yes, my father makes a point of it; and they have a turn for
+patronizing me, if I would turn my back on home.'
+
+'Now I understand better,' said Wilmet.
+
+'You understand how much you were wanting to me,' he said, rightly
+interpreting the words. 'After five years' absence, while my sisters
+were growing up, you can perceive that dear, fond, and hearty as
+our house is, it did not fulfil all that perhaps I had been rather
+unreasonable in expecting. O Wilmet, this time of leave would have been
+very different if you had not come to the precincts!'
+
+And so they fell back on the exquisite time present, which neither
+wished to disturb by looking beyond; and perhaps John felt as though
+his bird had scarcely perched, and any endeavours to hold it might make
+it flutter loose, while she was too glad of the calm and repose to
+renew the struggle between conflicting claims.
+
+At last, with basket laden with dark fruit, and lips vying with the
+babes in the wood, Stella was launched on them by Lance, when his
+sense of time overpowered his half shy, half diverted respect for
+their bliss. He was very curious, but had to be satisfied with Captain
+Harewood's manner of tossing Stella over the stile, and bright look at
+himself.
+
+They did not get into the town till the chimes of half-past seven were
+pealing. Captain Harewood hurried into the hotel, to prepare for the
+evening; and Wilmet was mounting the stairs, still under the spell of
+her newly-found joy, when she was startled by Alda's voice in a key of
+querulous anger.
+
+'Exactly like you, always laying out for attention.'
+
+'What's this?' said Wilmet, as she saw Alda in her habit, standing
+with her back to the open door, and Geraldine leaning on the table,
+trembling and tearful, crimson and burning even to passion in her
+panting reply, 'I don't know--except that he helped me in from the
+garden.'
+
+'That's what I say,' retorted Alda. 'She is always putting herself
+forward, to be interesting, and get waited on. All affectation. I don't
+know such a flirt anywhere.'
+
+'Hush, Alda! you are insulting Cherry,' said Wilmet, in her tone of
+command.
+
+'Take care of yourself, Wilmet,' cried Alda; 'it is the way she goes on
+all day with Captain Harewood--reading poetry, and drawing, and all.'
+
+'Captain Harewood knows,' said Wilmet, coming to the support of the
+quivering Geraldine, 'that the kinder he is to Cherry the better I like
+it.'
+
+'Oh, if you do, it is your own concern. I only spoke for your sake.'
+And Alda marched off, while Wilmet's strong tender arms helped
+Cherry into her own room, and tended her through one of those gusts,
+part repentant, part hysterical, which had belonged to her earlier
+girlhood, though the present was now enhanced by the tumult of insulted
+maidenliness. Formerly, Wilmet had not treated these attacks on the
+soft system, but now all her bracing severity was gone. Greatly
+incensed with Alda, she gave her whole self to sympathy with the
+victim, showing herself so ineffably sweet and loving, that Cherry felt
+a thrill of delicious surprise; and as her eye lit on the glittering
+ring, a little ecstatic cry, still slightly hysterical, welcomed the
+token.
+
+'O Wilmet, oh! You have! You have--'
+
+'To be sure I have,' answered Wilmet, not in the least heeding what she
+said, in her anxiety to calm her sister. 'It is all right, if only you
+will not go and be silly about it.'
+
+The woman was so much more than her words, that their odd simplicity,
+coming from the grand-looking figure bending over her in tender
+solicitude, touched Cherry the more, and she threw her arms round her
+sister's neck, whispering, 'Oh! I am so glad!'
+
+Poor Wilmet! At that moment all her gladness had gone into a weight
+like lead on her heart, though it only made her more gentle. 'Dear
+Cherry,' she softly said, 'don't talk of anything to upset you. Will
+you be good and lie quite still while I take off my things, and then
+I'll come and dress you? You must not be knocked up to-night.'
+
+'Oh! I had much rather stay here!'
+
+'No indeed! John would be so disappointed. He does like you so much,
+and I always depend on you to make it pleasant for him. You can't send
+word that Alda has been scolding you.'
+
+'Oh dear! why can't I behave decently to her the moment we are alone
+together?'
+
+'Don't begin on that, for pity's sake, or you'll get crying again,'
+broke out Wilmet, in her natural voice. ''Tis she can't behave properly
+to anybody--that's all; so don't think any more about anything, like a
+good child, but lie still till I come back.'
+
+So up went Wilmet, not rejoicing in her room-mate, whom she found, as
+usual, all injured innocence and self-justification.
+
+'You have been petting Cherry all this time! She is quite spoilt among
+you! It is quite true what I said, though she didn't like it. In
+society, I never saw a more arrant flirt, with her pathetic ill-used
+airs. Why, Ferdinand actually found fault to-day with my manner to her!'
+
+Save for the effects, Wilmet was glad to hear it. 'Well, Alda, it is
+not always kind.'
+
+'I only don't fuss and coax her; I see through her better than you do.
+She is the sharp one. As I told Ferdinand, it is I who have reason to
+complain of his manner to her, only I know it is not his fault. If
+there were no other objection to this preposterous scheme of Felix's,
+she would be a reason against it.'
+
+'For shame, Alda! You don't consider what you are saying of your
+sister.'
+
+'I do!' said Alda. 'I have been more in the world than you, Wilmet,
+and I know what comes of sticking oneself down close to one's family,
+especially when there is that sort of spoilt invalid, backed up in all
+kinds of unreasonable expectations. I advise you to take care, Wilmet;
+you don't know what goes on in your absence. I should not wonder if it
+never came to an engagement after all.'
+
+At that moment Felix's step and knock were at the door. Wilmet went to
+it, and both her hands were clasped in her brother's. 'My Wilmet, my
+dear, this is well!'
+
+Then Alda turned from her glass and understood. 'What? He has spoken? O
+Wilmet, and you never told me!'
+
+'I had not time.'
+
+'And what a splendid ring! but it is not a proper engaged-ring. You
+can't wear it.'
+
+'I must! He wishes it. It was his mother's.--Felix, may I have one of
+Mamma's for a guard?'
+
+'May you!' said Felix, smiling.
+
+'I should like you to give it to me. Come in.'
+
+He came to inspect the unlocking of the ponderous old inlaid
+dressing-case, with velvet-lined compartments mostly empty, or only
+with little labelled papers of first curls, down as far as 'Edward
+Clement, 1842,' after which stern reality had absorbed sentiment--a
+sad declension from the blue enamel shrine with a pearl cypher, where
+Felix's downy flax reposed.
+
+To do Alda justice, there was no greed in her nature, and she even
+offered Wilmet a turquoise hoop of her own, instead of a little
+battered ring of three plaited strands of gold, which their mother
+had worn till her widowhood, and they believed to be the ring of her
+betrothal. And when Wilmet suggested that the locket would delight
+Cherry, Alda's ready assent inspired the hope that she felt some
+compunction for her jealous unkindness.
+
+The locket did prove a soothing charm, coupled with the little
+consultation as to the ribbon, and the capture of a smooth brown lock
+of the present to add to the original. And as the manly fingers dealt
+with the hasp, and the kind smile welcomed her pleasure, Cherry's heart
+felt that while she had her Felix, Alda need little comprehend her
+craving for attention from any one.
+
+Yet her greeting to John Harewood was shy, tame, and frightened,
+compared with Alda's pretty graceful cordiality, as she told him that
+she was delighted, and envied Lance his powers of diplomacy. In fact,
+it was Alda who kept up the conversation, and made things pleasant,
+with the ease of society; while Felix was shy, Wilmet longed for
+silence, and Ferdinand looked like a picture of Spanish melancholy,
+such as had almost infected the whole table.
+
+'I believe I must ask you to bestow a little time on me,' he said, as
+soon as the meal was over; and Alda made it evident that she meant to
+be in the conclave, which took place in the back drawing-room. It was
+at once made evident that the Pursuivant proposal was abhorrent to her;
+not that she behaved to Felix, nor indeed did she ever do so to any of
+his sex, as she permitted herself to do to Geraldine, but she showed
+great displeasure at the idea having been started.
+
+'Things are unfortunate enough already,' she said, with something like
+Wilmet's dignity; 'but I should never forgive such hopeless ruin to
+dear Ferdinand's prospects.'
+
+'Have I not told you that no prospect is anything to me if you can only
+be mine?'
+
+'We know all that,' said Alda, drawing herself away rather sharply from
+the caressing hand, 'and therefore I must think for you, and I will not
+be the means of lowering your position in life.'
+
+'Alda, dearest!' cried Ferdinand, glancing at Felix in such genuine
+distress as made him interfere in pity.
+
+'We understand about position, Ferdinand; and you and Alda have been
+able to observe how far life is enjoyable in this lowered position.'
+
+'Felix,' said Alda, who had evidently wound herself up for this crisis,
+'you know very well that you stand quite out of common rules; but I am
+sure you can see that however valuable your work may be, it would be
+wrong to draw Ferdinand to the same level.'
+
+'As for that,' said Ferdinand moodily, yet with the air of a banished
+prince, 'Felix knows what my father was; and if I knew that my
+grandfather was an honest man, it would be well. A stray wanderer, cast
+up at your door, has no right to talk of levels.'
+
+'You are not to talk,' said Alda, more affectionately. 'You are too
+generous to be allowed to think.'
+
+'In plain English, Alda,' said her brother, 'the objection is yours.'
+
+'I cannot see him sacrifice himself for my sake,' said Alda.
+
+'As though it could be a sacrifice!' exclaimed Ferdinand, 'when it
+opens the way to make you my own at once, my peerless beauty! If you--'
+
+'Come, we have had all this over before,' said Alda, shrinking a little
+petulantly as he hovered over her, speaking with the fervour of his
+Mexican nature, and his eyes glowing with eagerness; 'if you will not
+have common sense, I must.'
+
+'Common sense! It is not common sense I want! It is love!'
+
+'If you doubt my affection--' said Alda, with dignity, drawing back.
+
+'No! no! no! I never was so profane. Only it drives me frantic to hear
+you so coolly willing to keep us apart for--'
+
+'Because my affection is less selfish and narrow than yours,' said
+Alda, raising her voice as his became like a roll of distant thunder.
+'I tell you, I will not be the means of binding you to a petty
+provincial paper, that may give an immediate pittance, but will lead to
+nothing. Would that be love worth having? I appeal to Felix, his scheme
+though it was.'
+
+Felix was a very uncomfortable third party, especially as Alda's appeal
+implied a certain accusation of himself. 'I own,' he said, 'that
+this situation is not likely to lead to promotion, but it would be
+competence. Ferdinand would be satisfied, but you--'
+
+'I, who know what he is used to, cannot be satisfied for him.'
+
+'As if you--' gasped the lover; but Alda would not let him go on.
+
+'No,' she said, 'we must be patient. For him to remain in the
+Life-guards would be madness; but a few years at Mr. Brown's, with the
+interest he already has in the business, will open a career to him.'
+
+'And I can run down every Sunday,' said Ferdinand. 'It is her
+determination; I suppose she is right, Felix, but I wish-- If I could
+wish her otherwise, she should be less prudent!'
+
+'I cannot see that she has any right to ask it of you,' indignantly
+exclaimed Felix.
+
+But he found this was putting his head into a hornet's nest. Ferdinand
+would not have contested her right to send him down among the lions,
+and would never have given her back her troth, like Knight Des Lorges.
+No, he hotly contended that Alda had a perfect right to make her own
+terms, and still more hotly, though most inconsistently, that to work
+at Peter Brown's was his own free choice.
+
+It was incontestable that a South American merchant's career offered
+more possibilities of rising into opulence and consideration than the
+proprietorship of a country paper; and though Felix privately doubted
+whether desk-work would suit Ferdinand half as well as the work where
+he himself could have contributed wits, he could say no more. Ferdinand
+was greatly disappointed; but there was no sacrifice that he would not
+make, and persist in with his silent Spanish perseverance, for Alda's
+sake. Indeed, he could not bear not to begin at once. He would return
+at once to his regiment, send in his papers, and dispose of his horses
+and equipments, making arrangements with Peter Brown to enter his
+house. He seemed to be in a fever till the matter was in train, and was
+entirely past remonstrance. And Felix recognised that the lovers must
+act for themselves, and could only feel thoroughly vexed with Alda, and
+equally vexed with himself for the consternation with which he thought
+of having her at home three years longer!
+
+It was the next evening; and not only had Alda's own lover departed,
+but Captain Harewood was missing, and with him Lance, and the only
+explanation was from Bernard, that they were gone to Minsterham. No
+doubt Wilmet was sensible of a blank when she came home, though she
+would not allow it, and stoutly defended her Captain's right of going
+where and when he pleased without notice. She had to fight his battles,
+till late in the evening he walked in. 'Here we are! It is later than I
+expected.'
+
+'Where's Lance?'
+
+'He came in with me. Gone to his room, then.--Here, Geraldine, this
+little gentleman requests the honour of your leaning on him.'
+
+'Oh, what a beauty! What a dear little ivory monster! Turbaned head,
+serpent's tail, and such a fascinating face!'
+
+'Is the cane the right length? I measured yours.'
+
+'You don't mean that he is for me? So smooth and so steady! Where does
+he come from?'
+
+'From Benares--I bought him at the great fair; and from the moment I
+saw you, it was plain that in the eternal fitness of things he was
+destined to you.'
+
+'To make a Pagan of her,' said Felix. 'See her worshipping her little
+idol!'
+
+'Not my idol, but my prop and companion for life.'
+
+'Your Lord Gerald,' laughed Felix, as she walked triumphantly round the
+room, perhaps her first unnecessary promenade since she was seven years
+old.
+
+'This is just the time I didn't expect you,' said Wilmet; 'is the seven
+o'clock train put on again?'
+
+'We didn't come by the train.' And Felix and Cherry smiled at one
+another as they detected that Wilmet's economical soul was vexed. 'I
+wanted Lance to see his doctor again, and the railway seems so bad for
+his head, that I drove.'
+
+'How very kind!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'I am afraid I have not managed it well. I would not make an
+appointment, lest it should be a glaring day; so Manby was out, and we
+could only leave a message before going to the precincts. Lance was in
+wild spirits, and the boys gave him such an uproarious welcome, that
+old Canon Burley sent in to know what was the matter, and was told it
+was only little Underwood come back. He dined with us, but I am afraid
+I was off guard, for I never thought of his going and taking a place in
+the Cathedral.'
+
+'I should think not!' said Wilmet, 'except that it is in the nature of
+boys to be provoking, even about Church-going. Then it has knocked him
+up.'
+
+'He was forced to come out in the Psalms; and Poulter, one of the
+lay-vicars, got anxious about him, and went after him when the Lesson
+began, found him with his head down on the table in the sacristy, and
+thought he had fainted, but he was only crying and entirely done up.
+Manby came just as Poulter brought him in, and gave him a proper good
+lecture.'
+
+'A very good thing,' said Wilmet, 'if one could only get him to believe
+there is any need of care when his head is not actually painful. What
+did Mr. Manby think of him?'
+
+'He says he is as well as could reasonably be hoped--quite recovered
+from the fever; but the sun-stroke was as severe as any he has seen
+in England, and coming on the top of all that overwork, both study
+and music, it has left an amount of irritability and excitability of
+brain that must not be trifled with. He made poor Lance confess all the
+little experiments he has been trying on himself, and ordered him to
+leave off whatever he is about at the first threatening of dizziness or
+pain.'
+
+'Then there's not much chance of his going back?'
+
+'Not before Christmas at soonest. One would think the poor little
+fellow must have been aware of that; but the verdict cut him up very
+much. I thought he had better be quiet till the heat of the day was
+past, so he lay on my bed till six o'clock, and then he said he was
+better; but he hardly spoke all the way home.'
+
+Wilmet went at once to see after him, and found him already in bed; but
+whether sleepy, suffering, or sorrowful, she could not make out, for
+he hid his eyes from the candle, and only muttered 'No, thank you,' in
+reply to whatever she offered, till she yielded to his evident longing
+for darkness and silence.
+
+He was up and about in the morning; but when at noon Bernard rushed in
+from school, he was neither in the drawing-room, garden, nor office,
+and the door of his--or rather Mr. Froggatt's--bed-room was locked.
+Bernard bounced at it, calling, 'Let me in, I say; I'll not make a row.'
+
+'There aren't any more of you?' parleyed Lance.
+
+'No! Let me in, I say!'--kicking at the panels--'I must speak to you!'
+
+'I'm coming; hold your din!' And Lance revealed himself without coat or
+boots.
+
+'Holloa--how dark! You were never asleep? I came, because one can never
+catch you without a string of girls and babies after you.'
+
+'Cut on,' said Lance resignedly, shaking up his horse-hair pillow:
+while Bernard seated himself on the table, and in the half-light of the
+shuttered room, began to disentangle some knotted twine.
+
+'Did you come here to do that?' said Lance, wanting to finish his nap,
+and chiefly restrained by the trouble of the thing from kicking the
+intruder out.
+
+'Only, I say, Lance, have you any tin?'
+
+'Not the valley of a brass farthing!' (The last pence of the Vale
+Leston sovereign had gone into Stella's jam.)
+
+'Wouldn't Felix give you some?'
+
+'I don't know.' (Very gruffly.)
+
+'I wish you'd ask.'
+
+'You have as many tongues as I.'
+
+'Well, you see Felix is not half a bad fellow for one's governor, but
+he doesn't know what's what; and Sims says he'll go to him if I don't
+come down with something before to-morrow.'
+
+'Sims! Sims in Smoke-jack Alley? Is that your sort?' demanded Lance, in
+ineffable disgust.
+
+'He's been keeping a dog for me,' said Bernard sulkily.
+
+'A dog!' Lance sat up in astonishment immeasurable.
+
+'Yes. It's the thing, and no mistake,' said Bernard eagerly. 'His name
+is Stingo; only we are not quite sure whether he is a bull-terrier or a
+short-haired King Charles.'
+
+Lance dropped back, wriggling in suppressed convulsions, as he
+demanded, 'Where did you steal this unmistakeable animal?'
+
+'I bought him,' said Bernard, with a certain magnificence intended to
+be overawing.
+
+'Then where did you steal the money?'
+
+'Travis,' said Bernard, who considered Christian names unworthy of
+male lips. 'He always used to tip me a sovereign; and Ben Bowyer, the
+dog-fancier, said Stingo was worth thirty shillings any day, only he
+let me have him for eight and six, because he wanted to sell off his
+stock.'
+
+'I thought as much. And Sims keeps him for you?'
+
+'At ninepence a week; but the brute is at me for ever, and says it is
+twelve weeks.'
+
+'Pray, how were you to raise ninepence a week? By waiting on Providence
+or turning coach-wheels?'
+
+'I had some then; and Froggy sometimes gives one half-a-crown, but the
+old beast hasn't lately, just because I wanted it--nor Travis either,
+bad luck to him!' quoth this grateful young man. 'I put them all off,
+making sure of him; and now he's cut, and never tipped me at all! It's
+an abominable sell, and they are all at me.'
+
+'All! what more? Have it out,' grunted Lance, with a sound of bodily
+pain in his tone such as would have silenced any one above ten years
+old, and a bored contemptuous manner that would have crushed any
+attempt at confidence--if he had been the right person to confess to.
+
+Nevertheless, Bernard mumbled, 'Shooting-gallery. And Mother Goldie
+vowed she would lug me up to Wilmet if I don't fork out!'
+
+'Mother Goldie! You little disgusting ape! You've been tucking in what
+you owed in pies and tarts!' cried Lance, who was too constitutionally
+heedless of the palate to have any charity for its temptations.
+
+'It's all Wilmet's fault,' said Bernard. 'She never gives one anything
+fit to eat. There was that beastly lamp out there went and got broke,
+and what does she do but crib it out of our grub! Now, Lance, was any
+living soul served like that before? She gave us only that beastly
+stir-about at breakfast,' (Bernard worked his single adjective hard,)
+'no butter nor sugar at tea, and no pudding, except when there's that
+beastly mess of rice.'
+
+'I'm sure I've seen pudding.'
+
+'Oh! she came round when Felix came home. She knew he wouldn't stand
+it. Alda used to buy marmalade and anchovy on her own hook, so I don't
+see why I shouldn't.'
+
+'Alda didn't go on tick, I suppose.'
+
+'Serve Wilmet right if we all did. I don't believe there's a beggar so
+badly fed. Nares says--'
+
+'You unnatural little sneak, you haven't been and gone and complained
+to him!'
+
+'No; but all the town is crying out upon her shabbiness. They say it is
+a perfect shame how little butcher's meat she gets. Nares's mother and
+sisters do nothing but laugh at it, and Nares says nothing will make us
+comfortable but a bankruptcy. Hollo!'
+
+For a well-aimed swing of the bolster laid him sprawling on the floor.
+
+'Take that for mentioning such a word!'
+
+'My eyes, Lance, is it swearing?' said Bernard, with a little
+affectation of innocence. 'How you have been and bumped my knees;' and
+he sat on the floor, pulling up his trousers to gain a view; 'there'll
+be a bruise as big as half-a-crown! Well, but Nares says it was a real
+blessing to them; for before it old Nares was always in a rage, and his
+mother boohooing; and now it is over they live like fighting-cocks,
+on champagne, and lobster-salad, and mulli--what's his name?--first
+chop; and the women dress in silks and velvets and feathers, no end of
+swells! and they say it is regular stoopid to pinch like that, for no
+one will believe we ain't going to smash while she is such a screw!'
+
+'If you weren't nothing but a little donkey,' said Lance, sitting
+coiled up with his head on his knee, grimly contemplating him, 'you'd
+be a show specimen of precocious depravity.'
+
+'I declare,' persisted Bernard, 'Nares says it is coming as sure as
+fate; for his governor, and Jackman, and Collis are going to stump up
+the old Pursuivant with their new Bexley Tribune, and Redstone is to be
+sub-editor.'
+
+'The black-hearted rascal!' cried Lance, bounding on his feet in a
+rage. 'He ought to be kicked out of the shop this instant!'
+
+'Now don't, Lance,' entreated Bernard, 'for Nares will pitch into me
+for telling. He says they've got an opening through the Pur backing up
+that mean beggar Smith; and Collis and Jackman will find the cash, and
+Nares's father is to be editor, and they vow Froggatt and Underwood
+will be beat out of the field.'
+
+'Catch them,' said Lance, and he stood leaning against the solid old
+carved bed-post in silence, till Bernard returned to the insolvency at
+present far more pressing.
+
+'Won't you help me about Stingo?' he said.
+
+'Do you want me to send him to the dog-show, ticketted "The Real Animal
+and no mistake"?'
+
+'Don't, Lance,' said the boy peevishly. 'I thought you were
+good-natured, and would lend me some tin, or at least stop the
+blackguard from being such a baboon. He's found out that Travis has
+cut, and he says he'll come to Felix this very day,' ended he, not far
+from crying.
+
+'I can't anyhow, to-day, Bear,' said Lance, more kindly. 'My head is
+very bad, and you've not mended it.'
+
+'It was well enough when you broke my knees,' grumbled Bernard. 'Come,
+Lance, you used to be a fellow to help one.'
+
+'I can't, I tell you,' said Lance, hastily throwing himself back on
+the bed, and shutting his eyes. 'It isn't that I won't, but I can't. I
+couldn't walk straight down the street for giddiness; and if I did, I
+don't suppose I could talk sense.'
+
+Bernard was startled by the tone as well as the words; but he had not
+arrived at much pity for any one but himself, and he whined, 'But
+what shall I do, then?' repeating it dolefully, as Lance lay for some
+moments silent and with closed eyes.
+
+'Bother!' he broke out angrily at last. 'Look here. Tell the
+blackguard--let me see--I don't well know what I'm saying. Tell him
+you've spoken to me--no, to your brother--mind, you needn't say
+which--and that he'll come and see about it. Now give me that bolster,
+and take yourself off. Tell them I want no dinner, and don't let any
+one come! Get along, and shut the door.'
+
+Bernard could extract no more, and departed as the dinner-bell rang,
+leaving him without energy even to lock the door. Presently Felix was
+standing anxiously over him; but he reiterated that he could not bear
+to think of food, and only wanted to be left alone; but just as his
+brother was leaving him, he said, 'Fee, do you know that Redstone is
+going over to the enemy?'
+
+'The opposition paper? Nothing more likely. How did you hear?'
+
+'Bear picked it up. I say, wasn't that little beggar to have gone to
+Stoneborough?'
+
+'Not possible, Lance; I've gone into it with Wilmet. She is in trouble
+about household expenses, as it is; and with this rival paper on our
+hands, I can't undertake anything extra. Has he been bothering you? I'm
+very sorry, but we must keep him here.'
+
+Lance shut his eyes without reply; but no sooner was he left alone
+than he rolled over, gave vent to a heavy groan from the bottom of his
+heart, and clenched his hands as he lay. Then followed some heavy sobs,
+and a few great tears; but gradually a look of purpose and hope came
+over his face, and he slept. He was lying between sleeping and waking,
+when a quiet step and cautious knock made him call out, 'Come in, Jack.'
+
+'Your sister wants to know if you are better, and ready for some tea.'
+
+'Thank you, I'm mending. Is Wilmet come home?'
+
+'Yes, but only to become the prey of an ancient female.'
+
+'Mrs. Bisset! Come to inspect you!'
+
+'She won't, then! Shall I get you some tea?'
+
+'No, thank you. But, I say, Jack, do you see my big box that we brought
+home yesterday? Would you just dig into it for me?'
+
+John Harewood applied himself to disentangle a frightful knot,
+observing, 'This looks like Bill's handiwork.'
+
+'Ay! Bill put all my traps together when our other fellows came back.'
+
+'Together indeed!' said the Captain, looking at the heterogeneous
+collection.
+
+'There's nothing to hurt,' said Lance. 'Do you see a green box?'
+
+'A fiddle-case, you boy?'
+
+'A violin-case,' said Lance, with dignity. 'Give it me.' And taking out
+his purse, he produced its only contents--namely, the key--tried to
+sit up to unlock his treasure, but was forced by giddiness to lie back
+again with a gasp, and hold out the key to his friend.
+
+'Come, I should think a fiddle the last thing you could want just now,'
+said John.
+
+'Just so. I'm afraid it is. Only, just let me see if she is all right.
+Ay!' and then, after a gaze, a fond touch or two, an irrepressible sigh
+strangled in the midst, 'lock her up again! You ain't by any chance
+going home to-morrow?'
+
+'Do you want anything?'
+
+'Why, when I got her at old Spicer's sale for twenty-two and sixpence,
+Poulter was beside himself at my luck, and said she was worth double
+that any day, and he would give it me if I got tired of her. Now, if
+I'd only known yesterday, I could have done it myself; but I can't go,
+and I can't write--but if you could but send or take it to Poulter, and
+get the money for me!'
+
+'Do you feel bound to give Poulter the refusal? for if it is really a
+good instrument, it ought to be worth more than that.'
+
+'Poulter has been very good to me. He taught me to play on it,' said
+Lance; 'that is, he showed me a little; but Robin made me lock it up
+and give her the key all last spring, for fear of hindering my mugging;
+and I can't touch her now, so she has been very little use to me. I
+promised Poulter, and I think he should have her. Besides, I want the
+money slick at once. It's no good sticking it in a window to wait for
+some one to give what it is worth.'
+
+John marvelled what need of money could have come upon the boy in
+the last twenty-four hours, but he was too discreet a friend to take
+advantage of necessity to ask questions, and said, 'The fact was, I was
+thinking of running up to town to get a sewing-machine for your sister,
+but if I start by the earlier train, I can see Poulter on the way, and
+if he does not want it himself, he can tell me where to dispose of it
+to the best advantage.'
+
+'Only it must be ready money,' said Lance; it must be owned with
+scarcely the alacrity of gratitude John deserved. 'If it didn't make
+much difference, I wish Poulter could have her, for then I should
+sometimes see her and handle her again, and I think he would use her
+well.'
+
+'Very well, I'll tell him.'
+
+'And don't tell any one here,' added Lance. 'You don't go and tell W.
+W. everything, do you?' he added, wistful and perplexed.
+
+'Not other people's secrets,' said John. 'Now I am going to fetch you
+some food; you are looking quite faint, you have had nothing since
+yesterday's dinner.'
+
+Poor Lance! when John was gone, he turned with another groan, once more
+took the violin in his arms, laid it on his shoulder, and made the
+motions of playing, then kissed it, and whispering, 'Poulter will be
+good to you, my pretty. It's not for that little beggar of a Bear! It's
+for Felix, for Felix--' and then at a sound of steps, hastily replaced
+it, shut the box, and fell back again, dizzy and exhausted.
+
+The next day, he betook himself to a refuge more impregnable to Bernard
+than even Mr. Froggatt's bed-room, namely the office, which suited his
+sociable nature, and where he was always welcome. He found employment
+there, too, in cutting out extracts from newspapers, labelling library
+books, and packing parcels, and sometimes also, it must be owned, in
+drawing caricatures of the figures he spied through the chinks of the
+door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+SMOKE-JACK ALLEY.
+
+        _Launce._ It is no matter if the ty'd were lost, for it is the
+        unkindest ty'd that ever man ty'd.
+
+        _Panthino._ What's the unkindest ty'd?
+
+        _Launce._ Why, he that's ty'd here--Crab, my
+        dog.--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+John Harewood returned, bringing with him what Alda took for a
+dressing-case, and Cherry for a drawing-box, but which proved to
+contain a wonderful genie to save the well-worn fingers many a prick.
+To Lance he first administered the magical words, 'All right,' and then
+making an opportunity, he put five sovereigns into his hand. Lance's
+first impulse was, however, not to thank, but to exclaim, 'Then Poulter
+has not got it?'
+
+No, Poulter's conscience had forbidden him to purchase 'little
+Underwood's' treasure at what he knew to be so much beneath its value;
+but he had given Captain Harewood his best advice and recommendations,
+and by that means the violin had been taken at a London shop, still at
+a price beneath his estimate, but the utmost that could be expected
+where ready money was the point. Lance ought to have been delighted,
+and his native politeness made him repeat, 'Thank you;' but he could
+not quite keep down his regret--'Now I shall never see or hear her
+again.'
+
+However, the next day, when Bernard flew upon him at twelve o'clock,
+asseverating that there was shade all the way, he allowed himself to be
+persuaded, prudently carrying with him only ten shillings, and trusting
+to his blue umbrella rather than to Bernard's shade, which could hardly
+have been obtained by sidling against the walls.
+
+Bernard did not seem to have enjoyed much more of Stingo's society than
+Lance of his violin's--the produce of the same bounty. He confessed
+that he had only ventured on taking the dog out three times in a
+string, and on one of these occasions he had broken loose after a cat,
+on another had fought with Nares's dog, and on the third had snapped at
+Angela.
+
+'You didn't take Angel into these places!'
+
+'No, she came to meet me.'
+
+'That's a sign of grace; but, Bear, I can't stand these diggings at
+all. I've a great mind to turn back.'
+
+'You won't!' cried Bernard. 'You must have been here often when you
+were a grammar-school fellow.'
+
+'Not we! This is a cut below us! Fulbert would never have been caught
+here!'
+
+'But you are going to get me out of this fix?'
+
+'Haven't I said I will? only hold your tongue, and let me alone to
+manage the rascal. If you open your mouth, I've done with it.'
+
+Bernard was forced to acquiesce, though Lance's manner vexed and
+irritated him. Popular and valuable as Lance had been with the
+choristers, he was not dealing as well with his brother, perhaps partly
+because he was more consciously trying to influence him; and likewise
+because the state of his health and his prospects so far affected
+his manner, that though never ill-humoured, it had lost some of the
+easy careless sweetness of high spirits, and assumed an ironical
+tone, exasperating to a child who could not brook ridicule. He was
+ashamed and dismayed at the place where Bernard was leading him, so
+low and disreputable that the boys of his time had never haunted it,
+and his own _gamin_ propensities had never extended so far. It was a
+tumble-down quarter; the houses, deplorable hovels, run up hastily for
+the workmen at the potteries, and every third or fourth a beer-shop;
+and in the midst dwelt Mr. Sims, a maimed poacher, who kept a large
+live-stock with which to trade on the sporting tastes of the youth of
+Bexley.
+
+Probably he was gratified to see that 'my brother' meant nothing
+more imposing than the chorister; but Lance had so cultivated his
+opportunities at Dick Graeme's home, as to be more knowing on the
+subject than Felix would have been. Indeed, it did not take much
+science to estimate the value of the 'real animal,' whose market price
+seemed to have fallen considerably. Lance, as he looked at the pied,
+bandy-legged, long-nosed cur, felt it impossible to set his cost
+against his keep, nor was he designed by nature for driving bargains;
+but Sims' expectations were founded on the probable, and the debt was
+annulled for three-and-sixpence and Stingo himself. Much civility was
+expended on Lance; dogs, rabbits, and other curiosities were exhibited,
+and an invitation given to come with the other young gents to admire
+the favourite terrier's exploits upon a cage of rats shortly expected,
+admission free.
+
+'You will come, won't you?' cried Bernard eagerly, as they went out.
+
+'What? To all the vilest sports in the place!'
+
+'But Lance, you told me about the rat hunt at Mr. Graeme's.'
+
+'What? Turning out the barn, with Mr. Graeme himself, and Bill, and all
+the rest? Do you think that's like letting a lot of wretched beasts out
+of a trap to be snapped up by a cur of a dog, with no end of drinking
+foul-mouthed blackguards betting on him?'
+
+'You are always so savage, Lance; and now you've gone and paid away all
+the money.'
+
+'What more?'
+
+'There's the shooting-gallery, you see.'
+
+Lance did see a public-house called the Flying Stag, where Bernard had
+contrived to incur a debt of a few shillings under Nares's patronage.
+While inquiring after the amount, he saw Mr. Mowbray Smith coming along
+the alley, and was more amused than shocked at the amazement his own
+presence there would cause the Curate; but just then he perceived that
+men were standing scowling at their doors, and slovenly women thronging
+out like ants when their hill is disturbed: and asking an explanation
+from the damsel in ear-rings who attended to him, he heard that 'the
+chaps are determined that that there Smith shall not have the impudence
+to show his face here again, for a hypocrite, defrauding of the poor.
+You'd best be away, young gents, there will be a fracaw!'
+
+'A row!' cried Bernard, between excitement and alarm. 'Shall we stay
+and see it? Won't Smith spy us?'
+
+Lance deigned no reply, but seeing the rough-looking men gathering as
+if to obstruct the Curate's way, he shot across the street to shake
+hands with him.
+
+'You! I am sorry to see you!' said Mr. Smith severely: at which Lance
+gave what under other circumstances would have been an impudent smile,
+and asked, 'Have you anywhere here to go?'
+
+'I am just come away from a sick man. But you know how wrong it is to
+bring your little brother here. Take him away,' he added, trying to
+prevent them from joining him, and at the same time a voice shouted,
+'Let him alone, young gents, he aint your sort;' and a hissing and
+hooting broke out all round, 'A parson as ought to have his gown pulled
+over his head!' 'What's gone of the coals?' 'How about the blankets?'
+
+Bernard got a tight grip, out of sight, of Lance's coat; Mr. Smith grew
+red and bit his lips; but Lance walked close to him, and as they began
+to be jostled, took his arm, holding the blue sun-shade over both their
+heads. Unsavoury missiles began to fly; but a woman screeched, 'Bad
+luck to ye, ye vagabone! ye've ruinated the young gentleman's purty
+blue umberella!'
+
+'Down with it, young chap,' called another, 'or ye'll be served with
+the same sauce!'
+
+'Serve un right too!' was the rejoinder. ''Tis they Underwoods, as
+never stands up for poor men's rights, and is all for the tyrants.'
+(All this full of abusive epithets.)
+
+'Who said that?' broke out Lance, beginning hastily to close his
+umbrella, and trying to wrench his arm from Mr. Smith; 'I'm ready for
+him.'
+
+But Mr. Smith, with an angry 'Are you mad?' held him fast; and his
+struggles provoked a good-humoured laugh at the little champion, still
+so white and slight.
+
+'No, no,' said a big powerful man, collaring a great lad who had been
+thrusting forward at Lance's defiance, 'we don't have no mills with
+natomies like you! Go home and mind yer own business. Your father was
+another guess sort of parson, and I'll not see a finger laid on you. Be
+off, till we've given that other bad lot a bit of our mind.'
+
+'Not I!' growled Lance. 'I'll have it out with that rascal
+there.--Nonsense, Mr. Smith; I can, I say--and I will!'
+
+But the big man and Mr. Smith were perfectly in accordance this time;
+and without a word between them, the impulse of the coal-heaver's
+weight somehow opened a path, where, shoved by the one, and dragged by
+the other, Lance was at the corner--then round it--the crowd followed
+no farther.
+
+'A plucky little chap that!' quoth the coal-heaver to Mr. Smith. 'You
+may thank your stars that he's his father's son, or it would have been
+the worse for you! And if ever you show the face of you here again, you
+know what to expect.'
+
+'I expect nothing but what I am willing to receive in my Master's
+service,' said Mr. Smith, firmly meeting his eyes. 'Meantime, thank you
+for the help you have given me with these boys. Good morning. You will
+judge me more fairly another time.'
+
+The man added another contemptuous oath to those with which he had
+freely laden his discourse; but Lance paused a moment to say, 'Thank
+you too, you meant it well; but I wish you'd have let me have it out
+with that foul-mouthed cad.'
+
+'Wait till ye're a match for him, and welcome,' said the man. 'Bless
+ye! what could that fist do with Black Bill?'
+
+'For shame, boys! come away,' said the infinitely disgusted Curate;
+and not a word was spoken down the first street; Bernard was still
+trembling with excitement, and Lance, conscious perhaps that though his
+interference had answered his purpose, he had been betrayed into what
+he now saw to have been absurd.
+
+At last the Curate spoke, his naturally harsh voice wavering a little
+between reproach and acknowledgment. 'I am very sorry for all this,
+Lancelot Underwood. I believe you joined me out of a kind and generous
+feeling, of which I am sensible; otherwise, I should feel it my duty to
+report to your brother where I met you.'
+
+'You are quite welcome,' said Lance, coolly.
+
+'And I must say,' continued Mr. Smith, 'that if your whole training,
+as well as your recent severe illness, do not withhold you from such
+associations, at least I entreat you to pause before leading your
+little brother into them.'
+
+Lance made no answer, except to halt at a public drinking fountain,
+to wash away the damage his umbrella had sustained; and there, with a
+serious 'Take care!' the Curate left the brothers.
+
+'Catch me going to his help again!' exclaimed Bernard, entirely
+unconscious that his own gratitude to Lance was on a par with Mr.
+Smith's. 'He may get out of the next row as he can!'
+
+'Ah! Bear! You see how you are corrupting my innocent youth!'
+
+'A meddling donkey! I wish he had a rotten egg in each eye! Now it will
+all come out.'
+
+'What will?'
+
+'Where we have been.'
+
+'That's the best thing that could happen.'
+
+'You don't mean that you mean to let it out?'
+
+'If you expect me to tell lies for you, you are out there.'
+
+'But, Lance, Lance,' in an agony, 'you wouldn't be such a sneak, when I
+trusted you?'
+
+Lance laughed. The bare idea of betrayal seemed so absurd, that he
+scarcely thought it worth removing.
+
+The two were slackening their pace as they saw Felix at the
+carriage-door of a lady customer; and Lance said gravely, 'I'll see to
+Mother Goldie; but now, Bear, that you are out of this scrape, I give
+you fair warning, that if I find you grubbing your nose into that sort
+of thing again, I'll put a stop to it, one way or another.'
+
+'I'm not a bit worse than the rest. All the other fellows do it.'
+
+'Oh, I suppose, if you think Stingo the right thing in dogs, you think
+Nares the right thing in fellows!'
+
+At that moment the customer drove off, and Felix having spied the blue
+sun-shade, tarried at the door to administer a remonstrance to Lance
+on being so foolish as to venture into the noon-day sun. He was not
+able to come in to dinner till it was half over, and then it was with a
+merry look and question, 'What's this, boys, about Mowbray Smith being
+mobbed in Smoke-jack Alley and your making in to the rescue?'
+
+'Oh,' said Lance, 'there was an attempt at getting up a shindy, but it
+was of the meanest description. No one knew how to set about it. There
+was only one Irishman there, and he was a woman.' (This with a wink to
+Sibby.)
+
+'And you didn't offer to fight big Ben Blake?'
+
+'Ben Blake, on the contrary, elbowed us all safe out, because my father
+was another guess sort of parson!'
+
+'And there was a horrible little cad making faces,' exclaimed Bernard,
+unable to resist claiming part of the glory, 'and I was just going to
+have pitched into him----'
+
+'What--you saw the row getting up, and went to stand by Smith?' said
+Felix.
+
+'Yes,' said Bernard boldly; 'and nobody durst lay a finger on him when
+we were on each side of him!'
+
+At which everybody burst out laughing, including Mr. Froggatt, and
+Lance most of all. 'Who was it, then,' he struggled to say gravely,
+'that pulled so hard at the back of my coat? I suppose it must have
+been some little cad. I thought it had been you.'
+
+'Well, it was time to hold you back, when you were going to fight that
+great lout!'
+
+'For my part,' said Lance, 'I think it must have been Smith and I that
+were holding the Great Bear back by his tail from fighting big Ben
+Blake. Eh?'
+
+Bernard, never able to bear being laughed at, looked intensely sulky;
+and a true description of the affair being asked by Mr. Froggatt,
+Lance gave it, exactly enough, but with so much of the comic side
+that every one was in fits of merriment, all of which, in his present
+mood, the younger boy imagined to be aimed at him. He was too full of
+angry self-consequence really to attend, so as to see how entirely
+disconnected with himself the laughter was; all he cared for was that
+Lance should not betray him; and to assure himself on this head, it
+must be confessed that he hovered on the upper stairs out of sight,
+while Felix was lingering on the lower to say to Lance, 'Of course it
+was only Smith's affair that took you into Smoke-jack Alley?'
+
+'Not exactly,' said Lance.
+
+Bernard trembled with resentment and alarm.
+
+'I don't want to ask questions, but you know it is not a nice place for
+yourself or for Bernard.'
+
+'My dear governor, I know that as well or better than you do, and it
+won't be my fault if I go there again.'
+
+'Don't let it be anybody's fault,' returned Felix, and vanished through
+the office door; while Lance, sighing wearily, was heard repairing
+to his refuge in his own room, and Bernard grimly and moodily swung
+himself down-stairs, on his way to afternoon school, believing himself
+a much aggrieved party. Here was Lance, whom he had believed a
+fellow-inhabitant of the Alsatia of boyhood, turned into one of those
+natural enemies, moral police, who wanted to do him good! True, Lance
+had helped him out of his scrape, and guarded his secret; but Bernard
+could not forgive either his own alarm, or the 'not exactly;' and the
+terms of confidence so evident between him and Felix seemed to place
+them in the same hateful category. Worse than all, Lance had laughed
+at him, and Bernard was far too proud and self-important not to feel
+every joke like so many nettle-stings. He had expected an easy careless
+helper; he had found what he could not comprehend, whether boy or man,
+but at any rate a thing with that intolerable possession, a conscience,
+and a strong purpose of keeping him out of mischief.
+
+To detect which purpose was to be resolved on thwarting it. Nor, it
+must be allowed, was Lance's management perfect. He wanted to make
+himself a companion such as would content the boy instead of the
+Nareses; but to cross the interval of amusement between sixteen and ten
+required condescension, that could not but be perceived and rejected,
+nor did he perceive that ridicule was an engine most fatal in dealing
+with Bernard. Of course nothing like all this passed through the
+boy's mind. Lance simply saw that his little brother was getting into
+mischief, and tried to play with him to keep him out of it, but was
+neither well nor happy enough to do so naturally, and therefore did not
+succeed. Yet if he had abstained from showing Bernard a picture in the
+style of Punch, of the real animal and no mistake, and Bernard himself
+pointing to Felix and observing that the governor didn't know what's
+what, he might have prevailed to prevent the boy from eluding him and
+going to Mr. Sims' rat-hunt.
+
+Of all this Felix knew nothing. He still had much lee-way to make up,
+in consequence of his absence, and the excitement in the town told upon
+the business.
+
+Mr. Bevan's reply had been a timid endeavour at peace-making which
+foes called shuffling, and friends could only call weakness, so that
+it added to the general exasperation. Then came the Archdeacon's
+investigation, which elucidated the Curate's moral integrity, but
+showed how money subscribed for charity had gone in the church
+expenses, that ought to have been otherwise provided for. It was
+allowed that the Rector had been only to blame in leaving the whole
+administration to the Curate under his wife's dominion, and as the lady
+could not be put forward, Mr. Smith was left to bear the whole brunt of
+the storm.
+
+His obsequiousness to Lady Price had alienated his brother clergy, and
+his fellow-curate allowed himself to be kept aloof by his mother, in a
+manner that became ungenerous. Half petulant, and wholly ungracious, as
+Mr. Smith's manner was in receiving assistance, only strong principle
+could lead any one to befriend him; and his few advisers found it
+difficult to hinder him from making a public exposure of 'my Lady,' or
+from throwing up his work suddenly and leaving the town, which would of
+course have been fatal to his prospects.
+
+The Pursuivant had a difficult course to steer. Mr. Froggatt would
+fain have ignored the strife altogether, but the original note of
+defiance having been sounded by his trumpet, this was not possible,
+and the border line between justice and partizanship was not easy
+to keep. Whether the young editor did keep it was a question. To
+Mr. Smith, he seemed a tame, lukewarm supporter; to Mr. Froggatt, a
+dangerously conscientious and incautious champion; and the vociferous
+public despised the dull propriety, and narrow partizanship, of the
+old country paper. Finally, on the first Saturday in October, there
+appeared the first sheet of the Bexley Tribune, with a cutting article
+on bloated dignitaries and blood-sucking parasites, and an equally
+personal review of all the Proudie literature. On the Monday morning
+one hundred and twenty-nine Pursuivants remained on hand. Redstone
+took the trouble to count them, and to look into the office to ask Mr.
+Underwood where they should be stowed away.
+
+'I wish he was smothered in them, the malicious brute!' said Lance,
+grinding his teeth, when Felix had given a summary answer. 'What a
+blessing to see the ugly back of him on the 1st of November!'
+
+'I'm not so sure of that,' said Felix, as he sorted the letters of the
+Sunday post.
+
+'Do you think he can do us any harm?'
+
+'No; but he seems a specimen of an article hard to supply at the same
+price.'
+
+'Are those answers to your advertisement?'
+
+'Yes, and very unpromising.'
+
+Lance came to look them over with him, and to put aside those worth
+showing to Mr. Froggatt; but it seemed that an assistant suitable
+in appearance and intelligence was so costly as to alarm their
+old-fashioned notions. He must be efficient, for Mr. Froggatt was
+equal to little exertion, and never came in on bad days; and to give
+an increased salary when the paper was struggling with a rival was
+serious; yet the only moderate proposal was from a father at Dearport,
+who wanted his son boarded, lodged, and treated as one of the family.
+
+'That is impossible,' said Felix, 'unless the Froggatts would do it.'
+
+'Eighteen!' said Lance. 'I'm sixteen, and up to the ways of the place!
+Why don't you set me to work before I have eaten my head off?'
+
+'It would not do for you afterwards,' said Felix; 'I don't like your
+rushing out to serve.'
+
+'But really, Felix, I mean it. I can do all Redstone does, except
+lifting some of the weights; and I am as old as you when you began.'
+
+'No, no, Lance; your line is cut out for you.'
+
+'It was,' said Lance, 'but I'm off it, and no good as I am; and if you
+could save Redstone's salary, you might send Bear to Stoneborough,
+instead of letting him stay here and go to the dogs.'
+
+'Ah!' groaned Felix, 'it is hard that all this should come to upset his
+chances!'
+
+'Are you really afraid those rascals can do us much harm?'
+
+'We have a sound county circulation beyond their reach, but every
+copy they sell is so much out of our pockets; and there are so many
+people possessed with a love of the low and scurrilous, as well as so
+many who differ in politics, that it must thrive unless they stultify
+themselves. Don't look so appalled, Lancey boy; we aint coming to
+grief, only it will be a close shave at home this winter.'
+
+'Then, Felix, let me help! You don't know the comfort it would be.'
+
+'Not so loud,' said Felix, stepping into the shop. Lance stood
+thoughtful, then hearing more footsteps, ran out, and found two or
+three boys come for school materials, and some maids waiting to change
+volumes for their ladies. He gave his ready help; and there ensued
+a lull, for it was a wet day, such as to make Mr. Froggatt's coming
+doubtful. Felix took a second survey of the applications.
+
+'Now, Fee, do think about this; I am in earnest.'
+
+'So am I, Lance; I am very thankful to you, but it is not to be thought
+of.'
+
+'Why not? Am I too small? For that's mending. There's one good thing in
+being ill, it sets one growing. My thick go-to-meeting trousers that I
+left at Minsterham, are gone up to my ankles; I must ask Wilmet if Clem
+hasn't left a pair that have got too seedy for Cambridge.'
+
+'It is not that, Lance, but the disadvantage it might be to you in
+after-life.'
+
+'If I took to it for good?'
+
+'No, no, Lance; one is enough.'
+
+'Stay. Don't shut me up that way. Recollect what this horrid
+donothingness is doing for me. I am losing all chance of the
+exhibition, and they can't keep me on at the Cathedral without, for my
+voice has got like an old crow's; and besides, if I can't read, what's
+the good of standing for scholarships?'
+
+'You will feel very differently when your head is stronger. Besides, if
+there should be anything in what we were told at Ewmouth, it would be a
+pity to get more involved with trade.'
+
+'I thought that was never to be spoken of.'
+
+'And this is my first time. Don't take it as a licence.'
+
+'I could see the sense of that, if it were you,' said Lance, 'but not
+for No. 5.'
+
+'No. 1 would have his place and work found for him, but No. 5 might not
+find it easy to turn to something else.'
+
+'Well!' said Lance, considering, 'you said that possibility was not
+to make any difference to us. Wouldn't it be making the wrong sort
+of difference to let it keep a great lout like me in idleness while
+Bernard is going to the bad?'
+
+'What do you mean about Bernard?' said Felix, now thoroughly roused.
+'Is it worse than you and Fulbert were in your _gamin_ days?'
+
+'I am afraid so,' said Lance. 'Ful took better care of himself than he
+seemed to do, and his friends were decent fellows, not like the lot
+that have hooked in poor little Bear.'
+
+'I suppose it was some scrape of his that took you into Smoke-jack
+Alley. I thought you would get him out best without me.'
+
+'The little dog, he was always after me when I didn't want him, but now
+I can't get at him. In short, there's nothing for it but cutting the
+connection between him and Jem Nares.'
+
+'Just tell me how far it goes. What has he been doing with him?'
+
+'Taking him to see rat-killing at Sims' in Smoke-jack Alley.'
+
+'You couldn't hinder it?'
+
+'No. Indeed, Felix, I did my best,' and the tears sprang into the boy's
+eyes; 'I did all but go after him, for I knew that would be worse than
+no good.'
+
+'You need not apologize to me,' said Felix, laying down his pen; 'I
+have been very wrong. Between this business of Smith's and all the rest
+of it, I have hardly known which way to turn. I knew that I had not
+taken the right line with Fulbert, and interference made him worse, and
+I thought you had taken Bear in hand. Why, Lancey, I never meant to
+upset you. You have done all you could.'
+
+'I _did_ think I was good for that,' said Lance ruefully, 'after all
+our old swells at Minsterham said about influence on the choir and
+bosh. That when it comes to one's own brother--'
+
+The tears were almost girl-like, and Felix's comfort was in the tone
+that suited them. 'Indeed, Lance, you may be doing him more good than
+you know. I thank you with all my heart; you are a much more real help
+and comfort to us all than you guess.'
+
+'That's what you say to Cherry!' said Lance, impatiently. 'Now I can be
+real help, if you would only let me, and then Bernard could go out of
+the way of these fellows.'
+
+'That he shall do, if I have to dip into the Chester legacy again.'
+
+'Better take my way,' said Lance, reviving; 'a young man with good
+references only wants board and lodging.'
+
+'It is not possible, Lance. It would not be respectful to the Bishop
+or the Dean, who have strained a point to keep you. There--I hear Mr.
+Kenyon's voice in the shop. I must go.'
+
+'Only one thing, Felix. Will you hear what Jack Harewood says to it?'
+
+To this Felix readily assented. He was hurried and harassed nearly
+to the extent of his time and capacity; he could not pause to give
+full consideration to his young brother's project, and was glad that
+the ungracious task of silencing it should be imposed on one less
+immediately interested.
+
+John Harewood was always at Wilmet's side after four o'clock. Before
+that time he sometimes went to his home; he often spent the afternoon
+with Geraldine, but he was not usually about the house in the morning.
+So Lance, in a fever of impatience, wandered till he hunted him down
+writing letters in the coffee-room at the Fortinbras Arms.
+
+'Jack, I say, come and have a walk.'
+
+'Pleasant weather!'
+
+'You want to be watered, after all that parching in India. It isn't
+raining now, and such a jolly cool day!'
+
+'Jollier for you than a finer day, mayhap,' said the good-natured
+soldier, who greatly commiserated Lance's enforced idleness, and only
+wondered at his not making it a greater misery to every one else. He
+also understood what the inured ears of the family never guessed, since
+Lance never complained, the distress of Theodore's constant hum and
+concertina to sensitive ears and excited nerves; and had observed that
+Lance had flagged ever since the journey to Minsterham, with less of
+vigour and more of sharpness. Sure that something was preying on the
+boy, he deferred his least important letters, to splash away with him
+in mud and mist, and hear him explain his views, with the fullness
+often more possible towards friend than family.
+
+John was greatly surprised, but did not make any crushing objection,
+and listened with thorough sympathy. He doubted, however, whether Lance
+would be doing any real good, and not only throwing more, instead of
+less work upon Felix. Sensibly enough the boy went into the matter.
+He said that when Felix began, the staff had also consisted of Mr.
+Froggatt, Redstone, a lad called Stubbs, and a boy. Now Felix did much
+more than Mr. Froggatt had then done, and Stubbs was a useful piece
+of mechanism without a head, and Lance believed himself quite able to
+fill the place Felix had taken at the same age; indeed, he had far less
+either to learn or to overcome, and though his arithmetical powers were
+still in abeyance, he had rather excelled in that line at the Cathedral
+school.
+
+'I know, of course,' said Lance, 'that a man from a London house would
+be of more use; but there's this awful salary, and he would never care
+to look after Felix.'
+
+'I allow that; but even if you can be of much present use, is it not at
+the expense of greater usefulness by-and-by?'
+
+'I am sick of that! Edgar and Clem both mean to be of use by-and-by,
+and what comes of it? Edgar has spent Felix's two hundred pounds that
+he borrowed, and now has got his own, all to repay when he is a great
+painter. And he is six years older than I am! Now if I earned my guinea
+a week, as Felix did, it would be real good now, and I should be
+learning the trade for the future.'
+
+'That's the question. First, would the guinea a week make so much
+appreciable difference?'
+
+'Is that all you know about it, Jack? First, I should be earning my
+keep, not eating my head off; and then Bernard might be sent safe off
+to school.'
+
+'You don't mean to say that otherwise he could not?'
+
+'It has been a terribly costly year. There's Edgar. Then Clem couldn't
+settle in at Cambridge for nothing; there's been Alda turned back
+on Felix's hands; there's been illness, and goodness knows what the
+doctors may charge; and there's Felix's outing and mine!'
+
+John answered by opening his pocket-book and showing Dr. Manby's
+account receipted.
+
+'O Jack! You don't mean--'
+
+'Considering that Will was the sole cause of the doctor being wanted at
+all, we could only wish to bear the damages.'
+
+'I hope you have told Wilmet. It would be a ton weight off her mind.'
+
+'I hope she would think the Chapter did it; but if you think she is
+anxious, let her know that it is all right.'
+
+'You are a brick, John! But Felix himself said it would be a close
+shave. I wish I could throttle that Bexley Tribune, and all its dirty
+supporters!'
+
+'Do you know, Lance, I am very much struck with your brother's--ay, and
+old Froggatt's conduct in this matter.'
+
+Lance flushed with pleasure. 'Go ahead, Jack!'
+
+'Of course, for a paper to keep its politics is nothing; but to take up
+the cause of an unpopular man, whose slights have been marked--'
+
+'Who has been a malicious little cad,' chimed in the chorister.
+
+'To take up his cause, simply as a matter of justice, and therewith of
+the Church, without truckling to public opinion, at absolute risk and
+loss, seems to me generosity and principle quite out of the common way.'
+
+'You're about right there,' said Lance, intensely gratified; 'and
+doesn't it make one burn to help the old fellow?'
+
+'Quite true. The question is, which way to help him; and while I grant
+you that the being idle at home just now is a terrible trial, whether
+it might not be better to be patient under it, than to disqualify
+yourself for a line in which you might do more--that is if it does
+disqualify you.'
+
+'What line do you mean?' said Lance.
+
+'Scholarship, the University.'
+
+'That wasn't what I wanted most,' said Lance; 'and as for that, I'm
+disqualified enough by all this waste of time.'
+
+'What was your wish, then?'
+
+'I'll tell you,' said Lance, with lowered voice. 'When I used to lie
+catching notes of the chanting, and knowing that the organ was quiet
+for me, I used to feel that if I got well, I must give up my life
+to it, and study music in full earnest, so as to be a real lift to
+people's praise, perhaps in our own Cathedral. I thought maybe I could
+get in as a lay-vicar when my year is up, and work at harmony under
+Miles, and take a musical degree. But then came that day when the organ
+seemed to be crushing and grinding my head to bits--and of all Psalms
+in the world it was the forty-second! and Manby telling me on my life
+not to try to do anything for I can't tell how long.'
+
+'Was that the reason you sold your violin?'
+
+'No, of course not; except that it was a sin and a shame to keep it for
+no good, when I thought a pound might pull that little ape Bernard out
+of the mire. And I've been asking questions, and find it would take
+huge time and cost to study music so as to be worth anything; and here
+am I, a great lout, not doing that or any other good on the face of the
+earth--as much worse than Theodore as I am bigger. So if I can help
+Felix, when he is fighting the fight in the Pursuivant for God's honour
+and good and right, wouldn't that be a sort of service?'
+
+'So undertaken,' said John, with a huskiness in his voice. 'Well,
+Lance, I will talk it over with Felix, if you like.'
+
+For John Harewood, not having any strong musical bias, did not greatly
+appreciate the career that Lance had chalked out for himself; and
+while thrilled by the boy's devotional feeling, thought it tinged
+by enthusiasm, and had seen enough of Cathedral singing-men to have
+no wish to see him among them. If the loss of time was to prevent
+a University career, he thought book-selling under Felix's eye the
+preferable occupation.
+
+Discussion was, however, deferred by the arrival of a home friend, who
+had sought him out at the hotel; and Lance had to go home without him,
+and wear through the day between dawdling, drawing, and playing with
+Stella, as best he might, till after school-hours; when, eager to turn
+to the account of his wardrobe these moments when Wilmet was free from
+her Captain, he drew her into his room.
+
+Presently after, Felix heard the most amazing noises to which his
+family had ever treated him, and thankful that the wet day had reduced
+the denizens of the reading-room to one deaf old gentleman, he hurried
+upstairs, and beheld through the open door of Mr. Froggatt's room,
+Bernard raving, roaring, dancing, and stamping, in an over-mastering
+passion, and tearing some paper up with teeth and hands. Just then
+Lance grasped his collar, and tried in vain to rescue the paper; but
+he fought with fists, bites, and kicks, like something frantic, until
+Felix, with a bound forward, suddenly captured him, and dragged him
+back, still tearing and crunching the paper.
+
+'For shame! Be quiet! You are heard all over the place.--Shut the door.'
+
+The door was shut by Wilmet, while Bernard stood quailing under the
+stern face, strong hand, and tone of displeasure in which Felix
+demanded, 'What is the meaning of this?'
+
+'That Bernard refuses to wear Lance's outgrown clothes,' said Wilmet.
+
+'Do you mean that this is the cause of this disgraceful outbreak?'
+
+'I--I don't see why--' growled Bernard, 'why I should wear everybody's
+beastly old things.'
+
+'It is right you should hear the whole, Felix,' said Wilmet. 'When
+I showed him that Lance would have some still shabbier clothes of
+Clement's altered for him, he said if Lance chose to be a snob, he
+would not. Lance answered that it was a choice between that and
+petticoats; and then he fell into this extraordinary state, when I can
+only hope he did not know what he was saying or doing.'
+
+'He was drawing me,' bellowed Bernard, 'drawing me in his brute of a
+book!' and he was so infuriated, that words never before heard by his
+sister followed, as he quivered and stamped even under Felix's grasp,
+which at length forced him into desisting; but the command, 'Go up
+to your room this instant,' could only be carried out by main force,
+amid tremendous kicking and struggling, Felix carrying him, and Wilmet
+following to unfasten the hands that clutched at the rail; while Lance
+stood aghast at one door, and Cherry in an agony at another, and Stella
+crept into a corner, and hid her face in terror.
+
+'Well, we never had the like of this before!' said Felix, coming down,
+having locked him in, and heard him begin to bounce about the barrack,
+like prisoners in the breaking-out frenzy. 'Can it be all about the
+clothes?'
+
+'I don't think you know what a grievance the having to take to old ones
+has always been to him, poor little boy!' said Cherry, very nearly
+crying, for Bernard was so much her own child, that in spite of his
+having cast her off, she was in full instinct of defence; 'and he
+dislikes Lance's most of all, because of the Cathedral peculiarities.'
+
+'Ah! you have always humoured him by taking off that chorister's
+frill,' said Wilmet; 'but there _could_ be no objection to those
+trousers. They were almost new when Fulbert left them, and Lance has
+only had them for best one winter.'
+
+Felix could not help laughing. 'Long had she worn, and now Belinda
+wears,' he quoted. 'My dear Mettie, the effect is better than the
+detail. You should spare us the pedigree, however respectable.'
+
+'Well, I said nothing about it,' said Wilmet. 'Was it what you said
+about petticoats, Lance?'
+
+'Lance does tease and aggravate that child unbearably!' exclaimed
+Cherry, too much vexed not to be relieved to turn her blame upon
+somebody; 'and it is very unkind of him, for he knows Bernard cannot
+bear to be laughed at.'
+
+'Hush! Cherry,' said Wilmet; 'if Lance did, he didn't mean it. It has
+been quite too much--'
+
+'Indeed it has, said Felix. 'You had better lie down at once, Lance.'
+
+A good deal more than Bernard's outbreak had gone to the pain and
+dizziness that prevented Lance from even attempting to reply to
+Cherry's accusation, but made him turn quietly back into his room;
+while Felix was obliged to hurry downstairs again; and Alda made her
+frequent remark that 'those boys were really unbearable.'
+
+'Poor Lance! it was not his fault,' said Wilmet.
+
+'You don't know, Wilmet!' said Cherry indignantly. 'I did hope that
+when he came home, my poor little Bernard might get better managed--he
+used to be so fond of him; but he has done nothing but worry and laugh
+at him, and I don't at all wonder it has come to this. I shall go up
+and see about the poor little fellow.'
+
+'Do you mean to let her go and pet him after such outrageous
+naughtiness?' asked Alda, as Cherry moved to begin the difficult ascent.
+
+'I should not do it myself,' said Wilmet; 'but I daresay she will do
+him good.'
+
+Alda held up her hands in wonder. How many quarrels might have been
+going on at that moment, if three of the family at least had not
+exercised the forbearance she so little understood.
+
+Cherry and her Lord Gerald mounted the attic stairs. It was for the
+first time in her life, and she was so imperfect in the geography of
+the upper floor, that she had to open one or two doors before she found
+'the barrack,' with Bernard lying kicking his heels fiercely at the
+beam across the low room. The amazing presence of Geraldine suspended
+this occupation. 'How did you come here?' he gasped.
+
+'I came to see you, Bear. My poor Bear! I am so sorry!' said Cherry,
+sitting down on one of the beds; 'how could you go on so?'
+
+There was rebuke and pain in her voice, and Bernard resented it.
+'They've no business to bait me,' he said. 'I've no peace in my life!'
+
+'But that doesn't make it right to fly into such dreadful passions.'
+
+'I wouldn't do it if they'd let me alone. I don't see why I should be
+the one to wear every one's nasty old clothes.'
+
+'Why, Felix and Clement couldn't well wear yours!'
+
+'It was all Lance's doing. Lance has bothered me out of existence ever
+since he came home.'
+
+'But you should try to bear it, if he _is_ a little cross and tiresome.
+You know he is not at all well yet, and all this has quite knocked him
+up.'
+
+'I'm glad of it!' said Bernard viciously. 'Served him right for setting
+Wilmet on, and then drawing his abominable pictures; as if it wasn't
+enough to have spoilt all my pleasure, and sold Stingo!'
+
+'What was Stingo?'
+
+'Oh, just a dog--'
+
+'A dog!'
+
+'Yes, my dog; and Lance went and sold him, and then drew a beastly
+picture of him and me.'
+
+'But, Bernard, how could you have a dog?'
+
+'Oh, I bought him with some money Travis gave me, and a cad down in the
+town kept him for me; but then Travis didn't give me any more--'
+
+'But, Bernard, you must have known you ought not. Did you get into
+debt?'
+
+'Ay, just for a few shillings; and the brute threatened me so that I
+just asked Lance--'
+
+'Was he such a dangerous dog? O Bear!'
+
+'No, no--the man that kept him. I thought Lance would tackle him
+without making a row.'
+
+'And did he?'
+
+'Ay. He said he hadn't got a penny, and he kept me waiting ever so
+long; but I fancy he got it from Harewood. He might as well have let me
+keep Stingo!'
+
+Cherry's views of the relations between Lance and Bernard had begun
+to adjust themselves, and she began to reason on the impropriety of
+keeping the dog; but she soon perceived that this was only ranging
+herself on the side of the enemy, and exciting the obduracy of her
+favourite, who was determined to be a victim. In truth, Bernard was
+not repentant enough to treat her with confidence, and his world was
+so entirely beyond her knowledge, that she did not possess the threads
+that would have led to it. All that she did perceive was, that much of
+Bernard's irritation was at the endeavour to keep him out of mischief,
+and that her own gentle persuasions were almost as distasteful as
+Lance's jests. She sat on, arguing, talking, entreating, till it had
+long been quite dark; and Wilmet at last came up to say that she must
+not stay any longer in the cold, and to ask Bernard whether he would
+say he was sorry.
+
+'I didn't want her to come here bothering,' was Bernard's grateful
+remark.
+
+'Well, I advise you to take care you are in a better mood before Felix
+comes,' said Wilmet.--'Come, Cherry, it is not safe for you to go down
+alone.'
+
+Cherry could only entreat, 'Do, Bear, do,' and try to kiss the averted
+cheek.
+
+She did not know that as soon as the door was shut on him and the
+little flicker of gas, Bernard fell into an anguish of sobs and tears,
+the work of her persevering love, softening and lessening the obstinate
+pride so far that the next visitors met with a much better reception
+than they might have done. The first came stumbling up with a weary
+step, and pushed open the door, saying, 'Here, Bear, don't bear malice.
+I'm awfully sorry I ever drew that thing! I'll never do you again. So
+shake hands, and have done with it.'
+
+'All right,' returned Bernard, outstretching his hand as one who felt
+that amends were made him, but could not receive them graciously; and
+Lance's weary and confused senses were satisfied. He never perceived
+hard lumps of offence unless he ran his head very hard against them,
+and even now little guessed the amount of annoyance his raillery had
+given.
+
+And next came a quick, resolute tread that made the little fellow
+shiver with apprehension, never guessing at his brother's self-debate
+whether obstinate impenitence ought not to bring the rod, and wondering
+recollection of his own displeasure when Mr. Audley recommended its
+disuse in the fatherless household. Felix held by the spirit rather
+than the letter, and had decided that unless he found submission,
+signal punishment must ensue.
+
+It was an immense relief to him to detect by eye and ear that the child
+had been crying, and to be able to say that seeing that he was sorry
+made it possible to attend to Lance's kind entreaty not to be hard upon
+him. Absolute words of penitence Felix did not try to exact; but after
+a few words of sympathy, which Bernard had by no means expected, on the
+hardship of the second-hand wardrobe, and a reminder of the necessity,
+he proceeded to rebuke for the passionate behaviour, and above all
+for the language Bernard had used; expressing to the full how much it
+had shocked and appalled him, by showing what sort of associates the
+boy must have chosen since he had learnt such words at all, and what
+a shame and disgrace he felt it that one of the brothers should ever
+have uttered them. And Bernard--who had learnt that Satanic primer
+with a certain shame and repugnance, under the strong desire to show
+himself neither girl, muff, nor choir-boy, and certainly would never
+in his right senses have betrayed his proficiency at home--was a good
+deal impressed, and finally began to cry again, and to promise to cure
+himself.
+
+Believed to have thus fulfilled the least pleasing of all his duties,
+Felix went down to his long-delayed evening meal, and therewith to a
+family council. Lance was gone to bed, and his proposal was the more
+freely discussed, as well as his relations with Bernard.
+
+'That boy must go at once to Stoneborough,' said Felix. 'I shall write
+to Dr. Cheviot to-night.'
+
+Wilmet sighed. 'I suppose I ought not to have objected,' she said; 'but
+I did think Lance would have kept him in order.'
+
+'He has tried,' said Felix.
+
+'O Felix!' cried Cherry, turning to him with tears in her eyes, 'I am
+afraid I was unjust to Lance just now, and I am so sorry! Do you know,
+the naughty little fellow had been keeping a dog and got into debt; and
+Lance paid all--I can't think how!'
+
+'That I believe I can tell,' said John Harewood, 'though I am afraid it
+is a breach of confidence. He sold his violin.'
+
+'That violin that I was so angry with him for buying!' said Wilmet.
+'Well, he is a dear little fellow!'
+
+'And I scolded him for being unkind!' cried Cherry, in despair. 'Oh, is
+he asleep? I should like to beg his pardon,' and her hand clasped Lord
+Gerald.
+
+'About the worst thing you could do to the poor boy, Cherry,' said
+Felix, 'when he is only lying there trying to get his head quiet enough
+to let him sleep.'
+
+'Nor must you betray me,' added John, smiling at poor
+conscience-stricken Cherry.
+
+'And it is a mercy the fiddle is gone!' said Alda. 'I used to hear him
+playing it somewhere among the out-houses in the spring, and it was
+enough to distract one, added to Theodore's dronings.'
+
+'It must have been like parting with a bit of his life,' sighed Cherry;
+'and yet Bernard would not mind him, and they _did_ quarrel!'
+
+'Boys who deal well with juniors at school do sometimes fail with
+little brothers,' said John. 'Besides, I observe that where there is
+pride there is always a distaste and dread of those who have much power
+of ridicule.'
+
+'I suspect, too,' said Felix, 'that Lance has made the turn in life
+when one gets superfluously earnest, and nothing so upsets influence. I
+have felt it myself.'
+
+'So all this trouble and vexation has been weighing on the dear little
+fellow,' said Wilmet. 'No wonder he is not half so well as when he came
+home!'
+
+'No,' said Felix; 'I wonder whether the Froggatts would let him come to
+them for a week or two, or whether it would be too dull to be good for
+him.'
+
+'If his mind were settled about the future, it would be rest rather
+than dullness,' said John; 'but I think a good deal of his trouble is
+caused by Manby's verdict, and for that perhaps the best cure would be
+letting him have his wish.'
+
+'You, John!' exclaimed Felix; 'I thought you would have put that out of
+his head!'
+
+'On the contrary, he made me think there was a good deal in his
+arguments. First, as regards you, would he be of any real use?'
+
+'Never mind that,' said Felix. 'I heard something to-day that would
+make it practicable; but I can't have that boy wasted.'
+
+'The point is, what is waste? Now his strongest aptitude never was for
+classical work; and if he is not to touch a Latin book till Christmas,
+and then only cautiously, I do not see what chance he would have, even
+if Will were out of the way.'
+
+'And if not at Minsterham, so much the less anywhere else,' said
+Wilmet. 'Besides, it might be a dreadful risk if his head were to be
+overstrained.'
+
+'And in the meantime, the being kept here doing nothing, and vexing
+himself, is wearing his spirits, and hurting him more than any light
+occupation, especially what he felt to be a labour of love.'
+
+'That is quite true again,' said Felix. 'I quite believe he would be
+much happier if he began working with me to-morrow; but it might be
+letting a mere fit of impatience and despondency fix him for life in an
+uncongenial business.'
+
+'I thought you preferred it!' exclaimed Wilmet.
+
+'Oh yes,' said Felix, with a sort of half contempt in his tone; 'but
+these boys of ours are a different sort of stuff, and we have seen that
+it will never answer to pin them down to plod.'
+
+'Lance would never be like Edgar!' exclaimed Wilmet; 'as if Edgar ever
+thought of doing anything so unselfish in his life!'
+
+'O Wilmet! indeed he _thought!_' cried Cherry.
+
+'Yes, but always of five or six years hence!' said Wilmet.
+
+'Lance is very like Edgar,' said Felix. 'He has what I believe belongs
+to the artist temperament; and that he is the bravest, the most
+uncomplaining little fellow I ever came across, and probably would
+never break off what he had begun, makes me the more anxious not to let
+this access of generosity--ay, and tedium--lead to taking any decided
+step while he is so young.'
+
+'When you come to artist temperament, I don't understand,' said Wilmet.
+'Lance doesn't even draw anything like Cherry or Edgar--much good does
+that do! and as to his music, it would not be much of a living.'
+
+'I believe he thinks that the alternative,' said John.
+
+'For goodness' sake!' cried Alda, 'he doesn't want to get taken on
+in London! To have him singing and fiddling in public would be worse
+than anything. You put that out of his head, I hope, John. Even if he
+changed his name--'
+
+'It never was in his head,' said John. 'He never thought of anything
+but his old line--Cathedral music: and the sacrifice to him is of that,
+not of the chance of the University.'
+
+'That's not so bad,' said Alda, 'because it is a great chance whether
+any one ever heard of it.'
+
+'But I doubt if it be a very desirable life, as things are at present
+constituted,' said John. 'I am not sure that it is not better to give
+the musical talent freely for that service, than to make it one's trade
+and livelihood.'
+
+'I think you are right there,' said Felix. 'I suppose there is always
+some degree of disenchantment.'
+
+'What did you say made his notion practicable?' said Wilmet.
+
+'I've had Mr. Lamb with me this evening--'
+
+'Mr. Bruce's managing clerk,' explained Wilmet to the Captain. 'Does he
+want you to have Ernest?'
+
+'Yes. He has missed the exhibition from the grammar-school; and as he
+can't go to Oxford, fancies (deluded youth!) that he will get more
+reading in this line than any other. He is ready to give a premium with
+him, and spoke what Mr. Froggatt would call very handsomely about our
+house being one where he could trust him. I believe Mr. Froggatt will
+be gratified, and accept him.'
+
+'Ernest Lamb--Serious mutton,' repeated Cherry; 'doesn't he look very
+heavy?'
+
+'Yes; he is bookish without being quick. I don't expect he will be of
+much use just yet, but he is as steady as old Time; and though he and
+Lance would neither of them do alone, yet together I think we could get
+on.'
+
+'Then,' said John, 'does it not seem to you, Wilmet, that it would be
+a greater positive benefit to accept Lance's offer for the present--on
+trial, as one may say--than to leave him to the depression that is
+certainly doing him harm?'
+
+'And if Lance was there,' said Wilmet, 'I should have some comfort that
+Felix would be properly looked after.'
+
+'Whatever happens,' said Felix, 'I shall send Lance out to Marshlands
+for a fortnight, and see if he is in the same mind when he comes back.
+After all, it depends on Mr. Froggatt: and he will be afraid people
+will say we have turned in the whole Grammar-school behind the counter.
+I wonder if Lance is safe not to laugh in the old ladies' faces when
+they ask--What number of what magazine, how many years ago, had a
+receipt for washing anti-macassars?'
+
+By which they knew him to be very much exhilarated.
+
+That fortnight at Marshlands was not wasted. Lance had faculties
+for never being dull. He pottered about with Mr. or Mrs. Froggatt,
+fed their chickens, gathered their apples and nuts, petted their
+cats, tried to teach words to their parrot and tricks to their dogs,
+played cribbage and back-gammon with them in the evening, never had a
+head-ache, never was at a loss or upon their hands, gained their hearts
+completely, and came home wonderfully benefited by the respite from
+noise and harass, and quite decided to stand by his proposal, to which
+the partners, with some hesitation, had finally acceded.
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE, VOL. I (OF
+2)***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 6331.txt or 6331.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/3/3/6331
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/6331.zip b/6331.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0ac59e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/6331.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2948c6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #6331 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6331)
diff --git a/old/plrh110.zip.20021106 b/old/plrh110.zip.20021106
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8303adc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/plrh110.zip.20021106