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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Modern Broods, by Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
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+Title: Modern Broods
+
+Author: Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+Release Date: December, 2004  [EBook #7191]
+[This file was first posted on March 26, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MODERN BROODS ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1900 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price,
+email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+MODERN BROODS, or DEVELOPMENTS UNLOOKED FOR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--TORTOISES AND HARES
+
+
+
+"Whate'er is good to wish, ask that of Heaven,
+Though it be what thou canst not hope to see."
+- HARTLEY COLERIDGE.
+
+
+The scene was a drawing-room, with old-fashioned heavy sash windows
+opening on a narrow brick-walled town-garden sloping down to a river,
+and neatly kept.  The same might be said of the room, where heavy
+old-fashioned furniture, handsome but not new, was concealed by
+various flimsy modernisms, knicknacks, fans, brackets, china
+photographs and water-colours, a canary singing loud in the window in
+the winter sunshine.
+
+"Miss Prescott," announced the maid; but, finding no auditor save the
+canary, she retreated, and Miss Prescott looked round her with a half
+sigh of recognition of the surroundings.  She was herself a quiet-
+looking, gentle lady, rather small, with a sweet mouth and eyes of
+hazel, in a rather worn face, dressed in a soft woollen and grey fur,
+with headgear to suit, and there was an air of glad expectation, a
+little flush, that did not look permanent, on her thin cheeks.
+
+"Is it you, my dear Miss Prescott?" was the greeting of the older
+hostess as she entered, her grey hair rough and uncovered, and her
+dress of well-used black silk, her complexion of the red that shows
+wear and care.  "Then it is true?" she asked, as the kiss and double
+shake of the hand was exchanged.
+
+"May I ask?  Is it true?  May I congratulate you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, it is true!" said Miss Prescott, breathlessly.  "I suppose
+the girls are at the High School?"
+
+"Yes, they will be at home at one.  Or shall I send for them?"
+
+"No, thank you, Mrs. Best.  I shall like to have a little time with
+you first.  I can stay till a quarter-past three."
+
+"Then come and take off your things.  I do not know when I have been
+so glad!"
+
+"Do the girls know?" asked Miss Prescott, following upstairs to a
+comfortable bedroom, evidently serving also the purposes of a private
+room, for writing table and account books stood near the fire.
+
+"They know something; Kate Bell heard a report from her cousins, and
+they have been watching anxiously for news from you."
+
+"I would not write till I knew more.  I hope they have not raised
+their expectations too high; for though it is enough to be an immense
+relief, it is not exactly affluence.  I have been with Mr. Bell going
+into the matter and seeing the place," said Miss Prescott, sitting
+comfortably down in the arm-chair Mrs. Best placed for her, while she
+herself sat down in another, disposing themselves for a talk over the
+fire.
+
+"Mr. Bell reckons it at about 600 pounds a year."
+
+"And an estate?"
+
+"A very pretty cottage in a Devonshire valley, with the furniture and
+three acres of land."
+
+"Oh!  I believe the girls fancy that it is at least as large as Lord
+Coldhurst's."
+
+"Yes, I was in hopes that they would have heard nothing about it."
+
+"It came through some of their schoolfellows; one cannot help things
+getting into the air."
+
+"And there getting inflated like bubbles," said Miss Prescott,
+smiling.  "Well, their expectations will have a fall, poor dears!"
+
+"And it does not come from their side of the family," said Mrs. Best.
+"Of course not!  And it was wholly unexpected, was it not?"
+
+"Yes, I had my name of Magdalen from my great aunt Tremlett; but she
+had never really forgiven my mother's marriage, though she consented
+to be my godmother.  She offered to adopt me on my mother's death,
+and once when my father married again, and when we lost him, she
+wrote to propose my coming to live with her; but there would have
+been no payment, and so--"
+
+"Yes, you dear good thing, you thought it your duty to go and work
+for your poor little stepmother and her children!"
+
+"What else was my education good for, which has been a costly thing
+to poor father?  And then the old lady was affronted for good, and
+never took any more notice of me, nor answered my letters.  I did not
+even know she was dead, till I heard from Mr. Bell, who had learnt it
+from his lawyers!"
+
+"It was quite right of her.  Dear Magdalen, I am so glad," said Mrs.
+Best, crossing over to kiss her; for the first stiffness had worn
+off, and they were together again, as had been the solicitor's
+daughter and the chemist's daughter, who went to the same school till
+Magdalen had been sent away to be finished in Germany.
+
+"Dear Sophy, I wish you had the good fortune, too!"
+
+"Oh! my galleons are coming when George has prospered a little more
+in Queensland, and comes to fetch me.  Sophia and he say they shall
+fight for me," said Mrs. Best, who had been bravely presiding over a
+high-school boarding-house ever since her husband, a railway
+engineer, had been killed by an accident, and left her with two
+children to bring up.  "Dear children, they are very good to me."
+
+"I am sure you have been goodness itself to us," said Magdalen, "in
+taking the care of these poor little ones when their mother died.  I
+don't know how to be thankful enough to you and for all the blessings
+we have had!  And that this should have come just now, especially
+when my life with Lady Milsom is coming to an end."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, the little boys are old enough for school, and the Colonel is
+going to take a house at Shrewsbury, where his mother will live with
+them, and want me no longer."
+
+"You have been there seven years."
+
+"Yes, and very happy.  When Fanny married, Lady Milsom was left
+alone, and would not part with me, and then came the two little boys
+from India, so that she had an excuse for retaining me; but that is
+over now, or will be in a few weeks time.  I had been trying for an
+engagement, and finding that beside your high-school diploma young
+ladies I am considered quite passee--"
+
+"My dear!  With your art, and music, and all!"
+
+"Too true!  And while I was digesting a polite hint that my terms
+were too high, and therewith Agatha's earnest appeal to be sent to
+Girton, there comes this inheritance!  Taking my burthen off my back,
+and making me ready to throw up my heels like a young colt."
+
+"Ah! you will be taking another burthen, perhaps."
+
+"No doubt, I suppose so, but let me find it out by degrees.  I can
+only think as yet of having my dear girls to myself, moi, as the
+French would say, after having seen so little of them."
+
+"It has been very unfortunate.  Epidemics have been strangely
+inconvenient."
+
+"Yes.  First there was whooping cough here to destroy the summer
+holidays; then came the Milsoms' measles, and I could not go and
+carry infection.  Oh! and then Freddy broke his leg, and his
+grandmother was too nervous to be left with him.  And by and by some
+one told her the scarlatina was in the town."
+
+"It really was, you know."
+
+"Any way, it would have been sheer selfish inhumanity to leave her,
+and then she had a real illness, which frightened us all very much.
+Next came influenza to every one.  And these last holidays!  What
+should the newly-come little one from India do, but catch a fever in
+the Red Sea, and I had to keep guard over the brothers at Weymouth
+till she was reported safe, and I don't believe it was infectious
+after all!  Still, I am tired of 'other people's stairs.'"
+
+"It is nearly five years since you have been with them, except for
+that one peep you took at Weston."
+
+"And that is a great deal at their age.  Agatha was a vehement
+reader; she would hardly look at me, so absorbed was she in 'The York
+and Lancaster Rose' which I had brought her."
+
+"She is rather like that now.  I conclude that you will wish to take
+them away?"
+
+"Not this time, at any rate till the house is fit to put over their
+heads.  Besides, you have so mothered them, dear Sophy, that I could
+not bear to make a sudden parting."
+
+"There will be pain, especially over little Thekla and Polly.  But if
+George comes home this spring, and I go out to Queensland with him,
+perhaps I should have asked you to take this house off my hands.  May
+be it would be prudent in you to do so even now, considering all
+things; only I believe that transplanting would be good for them
+all."
+
+"I am glad you think so, for I have a perfect longing for that little
+house of my own."
+
+"You will be able to give them a superior kind of society to what
+they have had access to here.  There is a good deal that I should
+like to talk over with you before they come in."
+
+"Agatha seems to be in despair at her failure."
+
+"So is all the house, for we were very proud of her, and, of course,
+we all thought it a fad of the examiners, but perhaps our
+headmistress might not say the same.  She is a good, hardworking girl
+though, and ambitious, and quite worth further training."
+
+"I am glad of being able to secure it to her at least, and by the
+time her course is finished I shall be able to judge about the
+others."
+
+"You thought of taking them in hand yourself?"
+
+"Certainly; how nice it will be to teach my own kin, and not endless
+strangers, lovable as they have been!"
+
+"It will be very good for them all to see something of life and
+manners superior to what I can give them here.  You will take them
+into a fresh sphere, and--as things were--besides that, I could not--
+I did not know whether their lives would not lie among our people
+here."
+
+"Dear Sophy, don't concern yourself.  I am quite certain you would
+never let them fall in with anything hurtful."
+
+"Why, no!  I hope not; but if I had known what was coming, I don't
+think I should have asked you to consent to Vera and Thekla's
+spending their holidays at Mr. Waring's country house."
+
+"Very worthy people, you said.  I remember Tom Waring, a very nice
+boy; and Jessie Dale went to school with us--I liked her.  Fancy them
+having a country house."
+
+"Waring Grange they call it.  He has got on wonderfully as
+upholsterer, decorator, and auctioneer.  It is a very handsome one,
+with a garden that gets the prizes at the horticultural shows.  They
+are thoroughly good people, but I was afraid afterwards that there
+had been a good deal of noisiness among the young folks at Christmas.
+Hubert Delrio was there, and I fancy there was some nonsense going
+on."
+
+"Ah, the Delrios!  Are they here?"
+
+"Yes, poor Fred did not make his art succeed when he had a family to
+provide for, and he is the head of the Art School here.  His son has
+a good deal of talent, and very prudently has got taken on by the
+firm of Eccles and Co., who do a great deal of architectural
+decoration.  The boy is doing very well, but there have been giggles
+and whispers that make me rejoice that Vera should be out of the
+neighbourhood."
+
+"Is she not very pretty?"
+
+"You will be very much struck with her, I think; and Paulina is
+pretty too, and more thoughtful.  She would not go with Thekla,
+because Waring Grange is far from church, and she would not disturb
+her Christmas and Epiphany.  She is the most religious of them all,
+and puts me in mind of our old missionary castles in the air."
+
+"Ah, what castles they were!  And they seem further off than ever!
+Or perhaps you will fulfil them, and go and teach the Australian
+blacks!"
+
+"A very unpromising field," said Mrs. Best, "though I hear there is a
+Sister Angela at the station who does wonders with them.  I hear the
+quarter striking--they will be back directly."
+
+"Ah! before they come, we ought to talk over means!  Something is
+owing for these last holidays.  Oh! Sophy, I cannot find words to say
+how thankful I am to you for having helped me through this time, even
+to your own loss!  It has made our life possible."
+
+"Indeed, I was most thankful to do all I could for poor Agnes'
+children; and though I did not gain by them like my other boarders, I
+never LOST, and they have been a great joy to me, yes, and a help, by
+giving my house a character."
+
+"When I recollect how utterly crushed down I felt, seven years ago,
+when their mother died, and Aunt Magdalen refused help, and how
+despairingly I prayed, I feel all the more that there is an answer to
+even feeble almost worldly prayer."
+
+"That it could not be when it was that you might be enabled to do the
+duty that was laid on you, my dear."
+
+And with the exchange of a kiss, the two good women set themselves to
+practical pounds, shillings, and pence, which was just concluded when
+the patter of feet up the stone steps and voices in the hall
+announced the return of Mrs. Best's boarders.
+
+Just as Magdalen was opening the door, there darted up, with the air
+of a privileged favourite, a little person of ten years old, with
+flying brown hair and round rosy cheeks, exclaiming breathlessly, "Is
+she come?"
+
+The answer was to take her up with a motherly hug, and "My dear
+little Thekla!"  There was not time for more than a hurried glance
+and embrace of the three on the steps of the stair, in their sailor
+hats and blue serge; but when in ten minutes more, the whole party,
+twenty in number, were seated round the dining table, observation was
+possible.  Agatha, as senior scholar, sat at the foot of the table,
+fully occupied in dispensing Irish stew.  She had a sensible face, to
+which projecting teeth gave a character, and a brow that would have
+shown itself finer but for the overhanging mass of hair.  Vera and
+Paulina were so much alike and so nearly of the same age that they
+were often taken for twins, but on closer inspection Vera proved to
+be the prettiest, with a more delicately cut nose, clearer
+complexion, and bluer eyes; but Paulina, with paler cheeks, had
+softer eyes, and more pencilled brows, as well as a prettier lip and
+chin, though she would not strike the eye so much as her sister.
+Little Thekla was a round-faced, rosy little thing, childish for her
+nearly eleven years, smiling broadly and displaying enough white
+teeth to make Magdalen forebode that they would need much attention
+if they were not to be a desight like Agatha's.
+
+She sat between Mrs. Best and Magdalen; and in the first pause, when
+the first course had just been distributed, she looked up with a
+great pair of grey eyes, and asked, in a shrill, clear little voice,
+"Sister, may I have a bicycle?"
+
+"We will see about it, my dear," returned Magdalen, unwilling to
+pledge herself.
+
+"But haven't you got a fortune?" undauntedly demanded Thekla.
+
+"Something like it, Thekla.  You shall hear about it after dinner."
+And Magdalen felt her colour flushing up under all those young eyes.
+
+"Kitty Best said--"
+
+But here Mrs. Best interposed.  "We don't talk over such things at
+table, Thekla.  Take care with the gravy.  Did Mr. Jones give a
+lesson, this morning?"
+
+"Yes, a very long one," said Vera.
+
+"It was about the exact force of the words in the Revised Version,"
+added Agatha, "compared with the Greek."
+
+"That must have been very interesting!" said Magdalen.
+
+Vera and her neighbour looked at one another and shrugged their
+shoulders; while some one else broke in with the news that another
+girl had not come back because she was down with influenza; and
+Magdalen, suspecting that "shop" was not talked at table, and also
+that the Scripture passage could not well be discussed there, saw
+that it was wise to let the conversation drift off, by Mrs. Best's
+leading, into anecdotes of the influenza.
+
+All were glad when grace was chanted, and the five sisters could
+retreat into the drawing-room, which Mrs. Best let them have to
+themselves for the half hour before Magdalen's train, and the young
+ones' return to the High School.  She was at once established with
+Thekla on her lap, and the others perched round on chairs and
+footstools.  Of course the first question was, "And is it really
+true?"
+
+"It is true, my dears, that my old great aunt has left me a house and
+some money; but you must not flatter yourselves that it is a great
+estate."
+
+"Only mayn't I have a bicycle?" began Thekla again.
+
+"Child, I believe you have bicycles on the brain," said Agatha.
+"But, sister, you do mean that we shall be better off, and I shall be
+able to go on with my education?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, I think I can promise you so much," said Magdalen,
+caressing the serge shoulder.
+
+"O thanks!  Girton?" cried Agatha.
+
+"There is much that I must inquire about before I decide--"
+
+Again came, "Elsie Warner has a bicycle, and she is no older than me!
+Please, sister!"
+
+"Hush now, my little Thekla," said the sister kindly; "I will talk to
+Mrs. Best, and see whether she thinks it will be good for you."
+
+Thekla subsided with a pout, and Magdalen was able to explain her
+circumstances and plans a little more in detail; seeing however that
+the girls had no idea of the value of money, Paulina asked whether it
+meant being as well off as the Colonel and Lady Mary -
+
+"Who keep a carriage and pair, and a butler," interposed Vera.
+
+"Oh no, my dear.  If I keep any kind of carriage it will be only a
+basket or governess cart, and a pony or donkey."
+
+"That's all right," said Agatha.  "I would not be rich and stupid for
+the world."
+
+"Small fear of that!" said Magdalen, laughing.  "Our home, the Goyle,
+is not more than a cottage, in a beautiful Devonshire valley--"
+
+"What's the name of it?"
+
+"The Goyle.  I believe it is a diminutive of Gully, a narrow ravine.
+It is lovely even now, and will be delightful when you come to me in
+April--"
+
+"Shall I leave school?" asked Vera.  "I shall be seventeen in May."
+
+"You will all leave school.  Mrs. Best has made it easy to me by her
+wonderful goodness in keeping you on cheaper terms; but if Agatha
+goes to the University you must be content to work for a time with
+me."
+
+"Oh!" cried Thekla.  "Shall I have always holidays?  My bicycle!"
+
+Everybody burst out laughing at this--not a very trained
+cachinnation, but more of the giggle, even in Agatha; and Magdalen
+answered:
+
+"You will have plenty of time for bicycling if the hills are not too
+steep, but I hope to make your lessons pleasant to you."  She did not
+know whether to mention Mrs. Best's intention of soon giving up her
+house, which would have much increased her difficulties but for her
+legacy; and Agatha said, "You know, I think, that Vera and Polly both
+ought to make a real study of music.  They both have talent, and
+cultivation would do a great deal for it."
+
+Agatha spoke in a dogmatic way that amused Magdalen, and she said,
+"Well, I shall be able to judge when we are at the Goyle.  Vera, I
+think you sing--"
+
+Vera looked shy, and Agatha said, "She has a good voice, and Madame
+Lardner thinks it would answer to send her to some superior
+Conservatoire in process of time."
+
+Vera did not commit herself as to her wishes, and Mrs. Best returned
+to say that if Miss Prescott wished to see the headmistress it was
+time to set out for the school; and accordingly the whole party
+walked up together to the school, Magdalen with Agatha, who was
+chiefly occupied in explaining how entirely it was owing to the one-
+sidedness of the examiners that she had not gained the scholarship.
+Magdalen had heard of such examiners before from the mothers of her
+pupils.
+
+She had to wish her sisters good-bye for the next three months, not
+having gathered very much about them, except their personal
+appearance.  She administered a sovereign to each of them as they
+parted.  Agatha thanked her in a tone as if afraid to betray what a
+boon it was; Vera, with an eager kiss, asking if she could spend it
+as she liked; Paulina, with a certain grave propriety; and Thekla, of
+course, wanted to know whether it would buy a bicycle, or, if not,
+how many rides could be purchased from it.
+
+When they were absorbed in the routine of the day, the interview with
+the head mistress disclosed, what Magdalen had expected, that Agatha,
+was an industrious, ambitious girl, with very good abilities quite
+worth cultivating, though not extraordinary; that Vera had a certain
+sort of cleverness, but no application and not much taste for
+anything but music; and that Paulina was a good, dutiful, plodding
+girl, who surpassed brighter powers by dint of diligence.  The little
+one was a mere child, who had not yet come much under notice from the
+higher authorities.
+
+On the whole, Magdalen went away with pleasant hopes, and the
+affectionate impulses of kindred blood rising within her, to complete
+her term with Lady Milsom, by whom she could not well be spared till
+towards Easter; while, in the meantime, her house was being repaired.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE GOYLE
+
+
+
+"A poor thing, but mine own."--SHAKESPEARE.
+
+"Thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns, thaay stwuns."
+--T. HUGHES, Scouring of the White Horse.
+
+Magdalen Prescott stood on her own little terrace.  Her house was,
+like many Devonian ones, built high on the slope of a steep hill,
+running down into a narrow valley, and her abode was almost at the
+narrowest part, where a little lively brawling stream descended from
+the moor amid rocks and brushwood.  If the history of the place were
+told, it had been built for a shooting box, then inherited by a
+lawyer who had embellished and spent his holidays there, and
+afterwards, his youngest daughter, a lonely and retiring woman, had
+spent her latter years there.
+
+The house was low, stone built, and roofed with rough slate, with a
+narrow verandah in front, and creepers in bud covering it.  Then came
+a terrace just wide enough for a carriage to drive up; and below,
+flower-beds bordered with stones found what vantage ground they could
+between the steep slopes of grass that led almost precipitously down
+to the stream, where the ground rose equally rapidly on the other
+side.  Moss, ivy, rhododendrons, primroses, anemones, and the promise
+of ferns were there, and the adjacent beds had their full share of
+hepaticas and all the early daffodil kinds.  Behind and on the
+southern side, lay the kitchen garden, also a succession of steps,
+and beyond as the ravine widened were small meadows, each with a big
+stone in the midst.  The gulley, (or goyle) narrowed as it rose, and
+there was a disused limestone quarry, all wreathed over with creeping
+plants, a birch tree growing up all white and silvery in the middle,
+and above the house and garden was wood, not of fine trees, and
+interspersed with rocks, but giving shade and shelter.  The opposite
+side had likewise fields below, with one grey farm house peeping in
+sight, and red cattle feeding in one, and above the same rocky
+woodland, meeting the other at the quarry; and then after a little
+cascade had tumbled down from the steeper ground, giving place to the
+heathery peaty moor, which ended, more than two miles off in a torr
+like a small sphinx.  This could not be seen from Magdalen's
+territory, but from the highest walk in her kitchen garden, she could
+see the square tower of Arnscombe, her parish church; and on a clear
+day, the glittering water of Rockstone bay.
+
+To Magdalen it was a delightful view, and delightful too had been the
+arranging of her house, and preparing for her sisters.  All the
+furniture and contents of the abode had been left to her.  It was
+solid and handsome of its kind, belonging to the days of the retired
+Q.C., and some of it would have been displaced for what was more
+fresh and tasteful if Magdalen had not consulted economy.  So she
+depended on basket-chairs, screens, brackets and drapery to enliven
+the ancient mahagony and rosewood, and she had accumulated a good
+many water colours, vases and knick-knacks.  The old grand piano was
+found to be past its work, so that she went the length of purchasing
+a cottage one for the drawing-room, and another for the sitting-room
+that was to be the girls' own property, and on which she expended
+much care and contrivance.  It opened into the drawing-room, and like
+it, had glass doors into the verandah, as well as another door into
+the little hall.  The drawing-room had a bow window looking over the
+fields towards the South, and this way too looked the dining-room, in
+which Magdalen bestowed whatever was least interesting, such as the
+"Hume and Smollett" and "Gibbon" of her grandfather's library and her
+own school books, from which she hoped to teach Thekla.
+
+Her upstairs arrangements had for the moment been rather disturbed by
+Mrs. Best's wishing to come with her pupils; but she decided that
+Agatha should at once take possession of her own pretty room, and the
+two next sisters of theirs, while she herself would sleep in the
+dressing room which she destined to Thekla, giving up her own chamber
+to Mrs. Best for these few days, and sending Thekla's little bed to
+Agatha's room.
+
+And there she stood, on the little terrace, thinking how lovely the
+purple light on the moor was, and how all the newcomers would enjoy
+such a treat.
+
+She had abstained from meeting them at the station, having respect to
+the capacities of the horse, even upon his native hills, and she had
+hired a farmer's cart to meet them and bring their luggage.  Already
+she had a glimpse of the carriage, toiling up one hill, then
+disappearing between the hedges, and it was long before her gate,
+already open, was reached, and at her own OWN door, she received her
+little sister, followed by the others.  And the first word she heard
+even before she had time to pay the driver was, "My dear Magdalen,
+what a road!"
+
+Poor Mrs. Best! as the payment was put into the man's hand, Magdalen
+looked round and saw she looked quite worn out.
+
+"Yes," said Paulina, "bumped to pieces and tired to death."
+
+"I was afraid they had been mending the roads," said Magdalen.
+
+"Mending!  Strewing them with rocks, if you please," said Agatha.
+
+"And such a distance!" added Paulina.
+
+"Not quite three miles," replied Magdalen.  "Here is some tea to
+repair you."
+
+"My dear Magdalen"--in a chorus--"that really is quite impossible.
+It must be five, at least."
+
+"Your nearest town ten miles off!" sighed Vera.
+
+"Your nearest church," cried Paulina.
+
+"Up in the wilds," said Agatha.
+
+Magdalen felt as if these speeches were so many drops of water in her
+face and that of her beautiful Goyle, but she rose in its defence.
+
+"It actually is less than three miles," she said.  "I have walked it
+several times, and the cabs only charge three."
+
+"That is testimony," said Mrs. Best, smiling; "but hills, perhaps,
+reckon for miles in one's feelings!"
+
+"Particularly before you are rested," said Magdalen, setting her down
+in a comfortable wicker chair.  "You will think little of it on your
+own feet, Vera, and the church is much nearer, Paulina, only on the
+other side of the hill."
+
+"May I have a bicycle of my own?" burst in Thekla, again; while every
+one began laughing, and Agatha told her that Sister would think her
+brains were cycling.
+
+
+"With centric and concentric scribbled o'er
+Cycle and epicycle orb in orb."
+
+
+"Epicycle?" cried Vera.  "I saw it advertised in the Queen.  A
+splendid one."
+
+"Ah!  Magdalen, you will think I have not taught them their Milton,"
+said Mrs. Best, as both elders burst out laughing; and Agatha said,
+in an undertone, "Don't make yourself such a goose, Vera."
+
+"I should think it rather rough sailing for bikes," said Paulina.
+
+"I should have thought so, myself," returned Magdalen; "but the
+Clipstone girls do not seem to think so.  I see them sailing merrily
+into Rockstone."
+
+"You have neighbours, then?" said Vera.
+
+"Certainly.  Rockstone supplies a good deal.  Here are various cards
+of people whose visits are yet to be returned.  Clipstone is further
+off; but the daughters will be nice friends for you.  I met one of
+them before, when she was staying at Lord Rotherwood's.  But I am
+afraid your boxes are hardly come yet.  Still, you will like to take
+off your things before dinner, even if you cannot unpack."
+
+She led the way, and disposed of each girl in her new quarters,
+explaining to Agatha that her's and her little lodger were only
+temporary; but it struck upon her rather painfully that the only word
+of approbation or comfort came from Mrs. Best, and there were no
+notes at all of admiration of the scenery.
+
+"Well," she said to herself, "much is not to be expected from people
+who have been tired and shaken up in a station cab over newly-mended
+roads!  Were they as bad when I came?  But then I could look out, and
+did not hear poor Sophy's groans all the way.  I rather wish she had
+not come with them, though I am glad to see her again for this last
+time."
+
+Meantime the four girls had congregated in the room appropriated to
+Vera and Paulina.  "Here are the necessaries of life," said Agatha,
+handing out a brush and comb.  "That slow wain may roll its course in
+utter darkness before it comes here."
+
+"To the other end of nowhere," said Vera.
+
+"And I am so tired," whined Thekla.  "These tight boots do hurt me
+so!  I want to go to bed."
+
+Paulina was already on her knees, removing the boots and
+accommodating a pair of slippers to the little feet.
+
+"We might as well be in a desert island," continued Vera, "shut up
+from everything with an old frump."
+
+"Take care," said Agatha, in warning, signing towards Thekla.
+
+"I am sure she looks jolly and good-natured," said Paulina.
+
+"But did you hear what Elsie Lee always calls her, 'our maiden
+aunt'?"
+
+All three laughed, and Vera added, "All the girls say she can't be
+less than fifty."
+
+"Topsy!  You know she is only sixteen years older than I am."
+
+"Well, that's half a hundred!"
+
+"Sixteen and nineteen, what do they make?"
+
+"Oh, never mind your sums.  She has got the face and look of half a
+hundred!"
+
+"Now, I thought her face and her dress like a girl's," said Paulina.
+
+"Yes," said Vera, "that's just the way with old maids.  They dress
+themselves up youthfully and affect girlish airs, and are all the
+more horrid."
+
+"That's your experience!" said Agatha.  "But there's the waggon
+creeping up at a snail's pace.  "Let us run down and see after our
+things."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--THE FIRST SUNDAY
+
+
+
+"Speed on, speed on, the footpath way,
+   And merrily hunt the stile-a;
+A merry heart goes all the way,
+   A sad tires in a mile-a."
+- SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+Sunday morning rose with new and bright hopes.  The girls looked out
+at their window, and saw that it was a beautiful morning, and that
+the spring sunshine glowed upon the purple summits of the hills.
+Agatha supposed there would be a pleasant walk to church; Paulina
+said she had heard good accounts of the services in that part of the
+country; Vera hoped that they would see what their neighbours were
+like, and Thekla was delighted with the jolly garden and places to
+scramble in.
+
+On this first Sunday they were let alone to explore the garden before
+the walk to church, which Magdalen foresaw would be a long affair
+with Mrs. Best.  After their decorous stillness at breakfast, it was
+a contrast to hear the merry voices and laughter outside, but it
+subsided as soon as she approached, though she did not hear the
+murmured ripple, "Here comes maiden aunt!  Behold--Quite a spicy
+hat!"
+
+In truth, Magdalen's hat was a pretty new one, not by any means
+unsuitable to her age and appearance, and altogether her air was more
+stylish than the country town breeding was accustomed to; her dress
+perfectly plain, but well made.
+
+Vera was perhaps the most sensible of the perfection of the turn-out;
+Agatha chiefly felt that her more decorated skirt and mantle had
+their inconveniences in walking through the red mud of the lanes,
+impeded by books and umbrella, which left no leisure to admire the
+primroses that studded the deep banks and which delighted Thekla in
+the freedom of short skirts.
+
+Magdalen herself had enough to do in steering along such a
+substantial craft as poor Mrs. Best, used to church-going along a
+street, and shrouded under a squirrel mantle of many pounds weight.
+
+Barely in time was the convoy when at last the exhausted lady was
+helped over the stone stile that led to the churchyard.  Highly
+picturesque was the grey structure outside, but within modernism had
+not done much; the chancel was feebly fitted after the ideas of the
+"fifties," but the faded woodwork of the nave was intact, and
+Magdalen still had to sit in the grim pew of her predecessors.
+
+The girls' looks at each other might have suited the entrance to a
+condemned cell, and the pulpit towered above them with a faded green
+cushion, that seemed in danger of tumbling down over their heads.
+
+The service was a plain one, but reverent and careful; the music had
+a considerable element of harmonium mixed with schoolchild voices,
+and the sermon from an elderly man was a good one; but when the move
+to go out was made, and the young ones were beyond ear-shot of their
+elders, the exclamations were, "Well, I never thought to have gone
+back to Georgian era."
+
+"Exactly the element of our maiden aunt."
+
+"And nobody to be seen."
+
+"Naggie, why do they shut one up in boxes?"
+
+"Just to daunt Flapsy's roving eye, Tickle, my dear."
+
+"Don't, Polly.  There was nobody to be seen if we hadn't been in a
+box.  Of course no one comes there but stately old farmers and their
+smart daughters.  I saw one with a Gainsborough hat, and a bunch of
+cock's feathers, with a scarlet cactus cocking it up behind."
+
+"Flapsy made use of her opportunities, you see.  Being 'emparocked in
+a pew' cannot daunt her spirit of research."
+
+"Now, Nag, I only meant to show you what impossible people they are."
+
+"Natives who will repay the study perhaps," continued Agatha, reading
+as though from a book of travels.  "We were able to observe a group
+of the aborigines at their devotions.  Conspicuous was a not
+ungraceful young female, whose head, ornamented with a plume of
+feathers, towered above the enclosure in which she was secluded,
+while an aged fakir, hakem or medicine man pronounced from a loftier
+structure resembling a sentry box."
+
+"Children, children, that's the wrong way," came Magdalen's voice
+from behind.  "You must turn into that lane.  Wait a moment."
+
+They waited till Mrs. Best's lagging steps allowed Magdalen to come
+up with them, but dead silence fell on them when Mrs. Best observed,
+"You were very merry."  They could not speak of the cause.  Perhaps
+Magdalen divined something, for she said, "We hope to make some
+improvements, and so indeed does Mr. Earl, but he is very poor.
+Besides, newcomers must work slowly."
+
+The doubt whether she had heard Agatha's speech made the girls
+conscious enough to keep from responding, as she meant them to do, by
+cheerful criticisms, and indeed the task of cheering and dragging on
+Mrs. Best was quite enough to occupy her.  There was only three years
+difference in their ages, but this seemed to have made a great
+interval between one whose metier had been to be youthful and active,
+and her who had to be staid and dignified.
+
+The early dinner passed in all demureness and formality, and the poor
+visitor was too much tired for any more services to be thought of for
+her.  Magdalen explained that when the days would be longer, she
+thought of walking to Rockstone for evensong, but now the best way
+was to go to the chapel at Clipstone, which was nearer than either of
+the others.
+
+"There is a lovely little chapel there, beautifully fitted up by Lord
+Rotherwood and Sir Jasper Merrifield, for the hamlet," she said.
+
+"How far?" asked Mrs. Best.
+
+"About a mile and a half across the fields; further by the road.  You
+will find your bicycles available when you know the way."
+
+"Don't we go to Rockstone?" asked Paulina.  "I am sure there is a
+really satisfactory church there."
+
+"St. Kenelm's, do you mean?  That is not so near as St. Andrew's
+Church, but that is very satisfactory, and I go to one or other of
+them on week-days.  It is too late to come back on these spring
+Sundays."
+
+"I should not like to live among so many churches," said Mrs. Best,
+"and so far from them all!"
+
+"You love your old parish church, like a faithful old churchwoman,"
+said Magdalen.  "Well, you see, I am faithful enough to go to my
+parish in the morning, but I think we may be discursive afterwards.
+There is a Sunday school in which I was waiting to offer help till
+our party was made up."
+
+Magdalen had looked twice for a responding smile, first from Agatha,
+and then from Paulina, but none was awakened.  The girls clustered
+together in the bedroom, and the word "Goody" passed between them.
+
+"Tempered by respect for my Lord and Sir Jasper," added Agatha.
+
+"And avoiding St. Kenelm's because it is the real correct church,"
+said Paulina.
+
+"Oh, yes!" cried Vera.  "Mr. Hubert Delrio went to see it in case
+Eccles and Beamster should have an order.  We must go there."
+
+"Of course," said Paulina, with a sympathetic nod.
+
+"But," said Agatha, "there will be an embargo on all acquaintance
+except the grandees at Clipstone."
+
+"I shall never drop old friends," cried Vera.  "I am a rock of
+crystal as regards them, whatever swells may require, if they burst
+themselves like the frog and the ox."
+
+"Well done, crystal rock; but suppose the old friends slide off and
+drop you?" laughed Agatha.
+
+Vera tossed her head; and Thekla ran in to say that Sister was ready.
+
+The walk was shorter and pleasanter than that in the morning, over
+moorland, but with a good road; but all Magdalen discovered on the
+walk was that though the girls had attended botanical classes, they
+did not recognise spear-wort when they saw it, and Agatha thought the
+old catalogue fashions of botany were quite exploded.  This was a
+sentiment, and it gave hopes of something like an argument and a
+conversation, but they were at that moment overtaken by the
+neighbouring farmer's wife, who wanted to give Miss Prescott some
+information about a setting of eggs, which she did at some length,
+and with a rapid utterance of dialect that amused, while it puzzled,
+Magdalen, and her inquiries and comments were decided to be
+"thoroughly good-wife" by all save Thekla, who hailed the possible
+ownership of a hen and chicken as almost equal to that of a bicycle.
+
+Magdalen further discovered that Thekla's name in common use was
+"Tickle," or else "Tick-tick"; Paulina was, of course, Paula or
+Polly; Vera had her old baby title of Flapsy, which somehow suited
+her restless nervous motions, and Agatha had become Nag.  Well, it
+was the fashion of the day, though not a pretty one; but Magdalen
+recollected, with some pain, her father's pleasure in the selection
+of saintly names for his little daughters, and she wondered how he
+would have liked to hear them thus transmuted.  There had been
+something bordering on sentiment in her father's character, and
+something in Paulina's expression made her hope to see it repeated by
+inheritance.  She saw the countenance brighten out of the morning's
+antagonistic air when they entered the little chapel at Clipstone,
+and saw the altar adorned and carefully decked with white narcissus
+and golden daffodils.
+
+The little chapel was old and plain, very small, but reverently cared
+for.  There was no choir, but the chairs of those who could sing were
+placed near the harmonium, which was played by one of the young
+ladies from the large gabled house to which the chapel was attached,
+and the singing had the refined tones that belong to the music of
+cultivated people.  The congregation was evidently of poor folks from
+the hamlet, dependants of the great house, and the family itself, a
+grey-haired, fine-looking general, a tall dark-eyed lady, a tall
+youth, a schoolboy, and four girls--one of whom was musician, and the
+other presided over the school children.  The service was reverent,
+the catechising good and effective, the sermon brief, and summing up
+in a spiritual and devotional manner; Magdalen was happy, and trusted
+that Paulina was so likewise.
+
+She expected to hear some commendation as they walked home, but Vera
+alone kept with her, to examine her on the names and standing of the
+persons she had seen, on which there was as yet little to tell, for
+the first move towards acquaintance had not yet been made.  All that
+was known was that there were Sir Jasper and Lady Merrifield,
+connections of Lord Rotherwood, who owned most of the Rockstone
+property, and who with his family had once been staying in the
+country house where Magdalen had been governess; but it was a long
+time ago, and she only recollected that there were some nice little
+girls.  At least she said no more, but her friend thought the more.
+
+"I suppose they will call?" said Vera.
+
+"Most likely they will."
+
+"Has nobody called?"
+
+"Mr. Earl, the Vicar of Arnscombe.  He has promised to tell me how we
+can be of use here.  I believe there is great want of a lady at the
+Sunday school."
+
+This did not interest Vera--and she went on asking questions about
+the neighbourhood, and whether any of the Rockstone people had left
+cards, and whether there were any parties, garden or evening, at
+Rockstone--more than Magdalen could yet answer, though she was glad
+to promote any sort of conversation with either of the girls who did
+not stand aloof from her.
+
+"I say, the M.A. (maiden aunt) knows nobody but that old clergyman,
+who wants her to teach his Sunday school."
+
+"I'm out of that, thank goodness," said Agatha.
+
+"And Sunday schools are a delusion, only hindering the children from
+going to church with their parents," said Paulina.
+
+"And if nobody calls, and they all think her no better than an old
+governess, how awfully slow it will be," continued Vera.
+
+"I do not suppose that will last," said Agatha.  "There is Rockstone,
+remember."
+
+"Ten miles off," said Vera disconsolately.  "Oh, Nag, Nag, isn't it
+horrid!  We shall be just smart enough to be taken for swells, and
+know nobody; and the swells won't have us because she is a governess.
+We might as well be upon a desert island at once."
+
+Agatha could not help laughing and repeating -
+
+
+"I am out of humanity's reach,
+   I must finish my journey alone -
+Never hear the sweet music of speech,
+   I start at the sound of my own."
+
+
+"But really, Nag," broke in Paulina, "it is horrid.  Here we are
+equidistant from three or four churches, and condemned to the most
+behind the world of them all, and then to the one where there is this
+distant fragrance of swells, instead of the only Catholic one."
+
+Agatha had a little more common sense than the other two, and she
+responded -
+
+"After all, you know, you are better off than if you were still at
+school; and the M.A. is a good old soul at the bottom, and you may
+manage her, depend on it.  Though I wish she had let me go to
+Girton."
+
+Magdalen and Mrs. Best meantime were going over future prospects and
+old times.  Mrs. Best's destination was Albertstown, in Queensland,
+where her son George had a good practice as a doctor, and where he
+assured her she would find church privileges--even a cathedral, so-
+called, and a bishop--though Bishop Fulmort was always out on some
+expedition among the colonists or the natives, but among his clergy
+there was always Sunday service.  In fact, Magdalen thought the good
+old lady expected to find a town more like Filsted than the Goyle.
+There was a sisterhood located there too, which tried, mostly in
+vain, to train the wild native women--an attempt at which George Best
+laughed, though he allowed that the sisters were splendid nurses,
+especially Sister Angela, who had a wonderful way of bringing cases
+round.
+
+Magdalen could feel secure that her old friend would be near kind
+people; and presently Mrs. Best, returning to the actual
+neighbourhood, observed -
+
+"Merrifield!  It is not a common name."
+
+"No; but I do not think this is the same family.  This is a retired
+general, living in a house of Lord Rotherwood's.  I once met one of
+his little girls, who came to Castle Towers with the Rotherwood
+party, and though she had a brother of the name, he was evidently not
+the same person."
+
+Mrs. Best asked no more, for tell-tale colour had arisen in
+Magdalen's cheeks; and she had been the confidante of an engagement
+with a certain Henry Merrifield, who had been employed in the bank at
+Filsted when Magdalen was a very young girl.  His father had come
+down suddenly, had found debt and dissipation, had broken all off
+decidedly, and no more had been heard of the young man.  It was many
+years previously; but those cheeks and the tone of the reply made her
+suspect that there was still poignancy in the remembrance.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--CYCLES
+
+
+
+"What flowers grow in my field wherewith to dress thee."
+- E. BARRETT BROWNING.
+
+Mrs. Best departed early the next morning.  It was probably a parting
+for life between the two old friends; and Magdalen keenly felt the
+severance from the one person whom she had always known, and on whose
+sympathy she could rely.  Their conversations had been very precious
+to her, and she felt desolate without the entire companionship.  Yet,
+on the other hand, she felt as if she could have begun better with
+her sisters if Sophy Best had not come with them, to hand them over,
+as it were, when she wanted to start on the same level with them, and
+be more like their contemporary than their authority.
+
+They all stood on the terrace, watching the fly go down the hill, and
+she turned to them and said -
+
+"We will all settle ourselves this morning, and you will see how the
+land lies, so that to-morrow we can arrange our day and see what work
+to do.  Thekla, when you have had a run round the garden, you might
+bring your books to the dining-room and let me see how far you have
+gone."
+
+"Oh, sister, it is holidays!"
+
+"Well, my dear, you have had a week, and your holiday time cannot
+last for ever.  Looking at your books cannot spoil it."
+
+"Yes, it will; they are so nasty."
+
+"Perhaps you will not always think so; but now you had better put on
+your hat and your thick boots, for the grass is still very wet, and
+explore the country.  The same advice to you," she added, turning to
+the others; "it is warm here, but the dew lies long on the slopes."
+
+"We have got a great deal too much to do," said Agatha, "for dawdling
+about just now."
+
+Really, she was chiefly prompted by the satisfaction of not being
+ordered about; and the other two followed suit, while Magdalen turned
+away to her household business.
+
+They found the housemaid in possession of the bedrooms, so that the
+unpacking plans could not conveniently be begun; and while Agatha was
+struggling with the straps of a book box, Thekla burst in upon them.
+
+"Oh, Nag, Nag, there is the loveliest angel of a bicycle in the
+stable, and a dear little pony besides!  'New tyre wheels,' he says."
+
+"A bicycle!  Well, if she has got it for us, she is an angel indeed,"
+said Vera.
+
+"It is a big one," said Thekla, "but the pony is a dear little thing;
+Pixy is his name, and I can ride him!  Do come, Flapsy, and see!
+Earwaker will show you.  It is he that does the oiling of Pixy and
+harnessing the bicycle.  I mean--"
+
+"Tick, Tick, which does he oil and which does he harness?" said
+Paula.
+
+"That little tongue wants both," said Agatha.
+
+"But do, do come and see," said Thekla, not at all disconcerted by
+being laughed at; and Vera came, only asserting her independence by
+not putting on either hat or boots.
+
+Thekla led the way to the stable, tucked under the hill at the back,
+and presiding over a linhay, as she had already learnt to call the
+tiny farm-court, containing accommodation for two cows, a pig, and
+sundry fowls.  There was a shed attached with a wicker pony carriage
+and the bicycle, a handsome modern one, with all the newest
+appendages, including the "Nevertires," as Thekla had translated
+them.
+
+But disappointment was in store for Vera.  Magdalen came out during
+the inspection, and was received with -
+
+"Sister, you never told us of this beauty."
+
+"It was a parting present from General Mansell," she said, "and he
+took great pains to get me a very good one."
+
+"And you bike!"
+
+"Oh, yes; I learnt to go out with the Colvins.  But I do not venture
+to use it much here, unless the road is good.  Those rocks, freshly
+laid towards Rockstone, would make regular havoc of the pneumatic
+tyres."
+
+Vera saw that this was prohibitive, and felt too much vexed to
+mention Thekla's version of the same; but Magdalen asked, "Have you
+learnt?"
+
+"They were always going to teach me at Warner Grange, but it always
+snowed, or rained, or skated, I mean we skated, or something,
+whenever Hubert had time; but I am perfectly dying to learn."
+
+"Well, before you expire, we may teach you a little on these smoother
+paths; and hire one perhaps, by the time the stones are passable.
+Just at present, I think our own legs and Pixy's are safer for that
+descent."
+
+Vera was pacified enough to look on with a certain degree of
+complacency, while Thekla was enraptured at being set to take out the
+eggs from the hens' nests.
+
+But the conclave in the sitting-room on Vera's report decided,
+"Selfish old thing, it is only an excuse!  Of course we should take
+care not to spoil it.  It shows what will be the way with
+everything."
+
+No one knew of a still more secret conclave within Magdalen's own
+breast, one of those held at times by many an elder, between the
+claims of loyalty to the keepsakes of affection and old association
+and the gratification of present desires.  Magdalen thought of the
+rules of convents forbidding the appropriation of personal trifles,
+and wondered if it were wise, if stern; but for the present she
+decided that it could not be her duty to risk what had been carefully
+and kindly selected for her in unpractised and careless hands; and
+she further compromised the matter by reckoning whether her funds,
+which were not excessive, would admit of the hire or purchase of
+machines that might allay the burning aspirations of her young
+people.
+
+The upshot of her reckoning was that when they all met at the early
+dinner, she announced, "I think we might go to Rock Quay this
+afternoon, between the pony carriage and Shanks's mare.  I want to
+ask about some lessons, and we could see about the hire of a bicycle
+for you to learn upon."
+
+It was only Agatha who answered, "Thank you, but it is not worth
+while for me, I shall be away so soon."
+
+Thekla cried out, "Me too!"--and Paulina mumbled something.  In
+truth, besides the thought of the bicycle in the stable, the other
+two had lived enough in the country-town atmosphere to be foolishly
+disgusted at being obliged to dine early.  That they had always been
+used to it made them only think it beneath their age as well as their
+dignity, and, "What a horrid nuisance!" had been on their tongues
+when the bell was ringing.
+
+Moreover, they had enough of silly prejudice about them to feel
+aggrieved at the sight of hash, nice as it was with fresh vegetables,
+and they were not disposed to good temper when they sat down to their
+meal.  "They" perhaps properly means the middle pair, for Agatha had
+more notion of manners and of respect, and Thekla had an endless
+store of chatter about her discoveries.
+
+The pony-carriage was brought round in due time, but just then
+another vehicle of the same kind, only prettier and with two ponies,
+was seen at the gate, too late for the barbarian instinct of rushing
+away to hide from morning visitors to be carried out, before Lady
+Merrifield and a daughter, were up the slope and on the levelled road
+before the verandah.
+
+"I think this is an old acquaintance," said Lady Merrifield as she
+shook hands, "though perhaps Mysie is grown out of remembrance."
+
+"Oh, yes," said an honest open-faced maiden, eagerly putting out her
+hand.  "Don't you remember, Miss Prescott, our all staying at Castle
+Towers?  I came with Phyllis Devereux, and she and I took poor Betty
+Bernard out after blackberries, and she thought it was a mad bull
+when it was a railway whistle, and ran into a cow-pond, and Cousin
+Rotherwood came and Captain Grantley and got her out."
+
+Magdalen was smiling and nodding recollection, and added, "It was
+really one of the boys."
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+
+"I thought it was a crazy bull
+   Firing a blunderbuss--"
+
+
+She paused for recollection, and Magdalen went on -
+
+
+"I thought it was a crazy bull
+   Firing a blunderbuss;
+I looked again, and, lo, it was
+   A water polypus.
+'Oh, guard my life,' I said, 'for she
+   Will make an awful fuss.'"
+
+
+"Ah! do you remember that?" cried Mysie.  "I have so often tried to
+recollect what it really was when she looked again.  Captain Grantley
+made it, you know, when we were trying to comfort Betty."
+
+"I remember you and Lady Phyllis said you would go and confess to
+Mrs. Bernard and take all the blame, and Lord Rotherwood said he
+would escort you!"
+
+"Yes, and Betty said it was no good, for if her mother forgave her
+ten times over, still that spiteful French maid would put her to bed
+and say she had no robe convenable," went on Mysie.  "But then you
+took her to your own room, and washed her and mended her, so that she
+came out all right at luncheon, and nobody knew anything, but she
+thought that horrid woman guessed and tweaked her hair all the harder
+for it."
+
+"Poor child, she looked as if she were under a tyranny."
+
+"Have you seen her since?"
+
+"No; but Phyllis tells me she has burst forth into liberty, bicycles,
+and wild doings that would drive her parents to distraction if she
+dreamt of them."
+
+"How is Lady Phyllis?  Did I not hear that the family had gone abroad
+for her health?"
+
+"Oh yes, and I went with them.  They all had influenza, and were
+frightened, but it ended in our meeting with Franceska Vanderkist,
+the very most charming looking being I ever did see; and Ivinghoe had
+fallen in love with her when she was Miranda, and he married her like
+a real old hero.  Do you remember Ivinghoe?"
+
+"No; I suppose he was one of an indistinguishable troop of
+schoolboys."
+
+"I remember Lord Rotherwood's good nature and fun when he met the
+bedraggled party," said Magdalen, smiling.
+
+"That is what every one remembers about him," said Lady Merrifield,
+smiling.  "You have imported a large party of youth, Miss Prescott."
+
+"My young sisters," responded Magdalen; "but I shall soon part with
+Agatha; she is going to Oxford."
+
+"Indeed!  To which College?  I have a daughter at Oxford, and a niece
+just leaving Cambridge.  Such is our lot in these days.  No, not this
+one, but her elder sister Gillian is at Lady Catharine's."
+
+"I am going to St. Robert's," said Agatha, abruptly.
+
+"Close to Lady Catharine's!  Gillian will be glad to tell her
+anything she would like to ask about it.  You had better come over to
+tea some afternoon."
+
+The time was fixed, and then Magdalen showed some of the
+advertisements of tuition in art, music, languages, and everything
+imaginable, which had begun to pour in upon her, and was very glad of
+a little counsel on the reputation of each professor.  Lady
+Merrifield saying, however, that her experience was small, as her
+young people in general were not musical, with the single exception
+of her son Wilfred, who was at home, reading to go up for the Civil
+Service, and recreating himself with the Choral Society and lessons
+on the violin.  "My youngest is fifteen," she said, "and we provide
+for her lessons amongst us, except for the School of Art, and
+calisthenics at the High School, which is under superior management
+now, and very much improved."
+
+Mysie echoed, "Oh, calisthenics are such fun!" and took the reins to
+drive away.
+
+"Oh! she is very nice," exclaimed Mysie, as they drove down the hill.
+
+"Yes, there is something very charming about her.  I wonder whether
+Sam made a great mistake."
+
+"Mamma, what do you mean?"
+
+"Have I been meditating aloud?  You said when you met her at Castle
+Towers, she asked you whether you had a brother Harry."
+
+"Yes, she did.  I only said yes, but he was going to be a clergyman,
+and when she heard his age, she said he was not the one she had
+known; I did not speak of cousin Henry because you said we were not
+to mention him.  What was it, if I may know, mamma?"
+
+"There is no reason that you should not, except that it is a painful
+matter to mention to Bessie or any of the Stokesley cousins.  Harry
+was never like the rest, I believe, but I had never seen him since he
+was almost a baby.  He never would work, and was not fit for any
+examination."
+
+"Our Harry used to say that Bessie and David had carried off all the
+brains of the family."
+
+"The others have sense and principle, though.  Well, they put their
+Hal into a Bank at Filsted, and by and by they found he was in a
+great scrape, with gambling debts; and I believe that but for the
+forbearance of the partners, he might have been prosecuted for
+embezzling a sum--or at least he was very near it; besides which he
+had engaged himself to an attorney's daughter, very young, and with a
+very disagreeable mother or stepmother.  The Admiral came down in
+great indignation, thought these Prescotts had inveigled poor Henry,
+broke everything hastily off, and shipped him off to Canada to his
+brothers, George and John.  They found some employment for him, but
+Susan and Bessie doubt whether they were very kind to him, and in a
+few years more he was in fresh scrapes, and with worse stains and
+questions of his integrity.  It ended in his running away to the
+States, and no trace has been found of him since.  I am afraid he
+took away money of his brothers."
+
+"How long ago was it, mamma?"
+
+"At least twenty years.  It was while we were in Malta."
+
+"Who would have thought of those dear Stokesley cousins having such a
+skeleton in their cupboard?"
+
+"Ah! my dear, no one knows the secrets of others' hearts."
+
+"And you really think that this Miss Prescott was his love?"
+
+"I know it was the same name, and Bessie told me that he used to talk
+to her of his Magdalen, or Maidie; and when I heard of your meeting
+her at Castle Towers I wondered if it were the same.  And now I see
+what she is, and what she is undertaking for these young sisters; I
+have wondered whether your uncle was wise to insist on the utter
+break, and whether she might not have been an anchor to hold him fast
+to his moorings."
+
+"Only," said Mysie, "if he had really cared, would he have let his
+father break it off so entirely?"
+
+"I think your uncle expected implicit obedience."
+
+"But--," said Mysie, and left the rest unsaid, while both she and her
+mother went off into meditations on different lines on the exigencies
+of parental discipline and of the requirements of full-grown hearts.
+
+And, on the whole, the younger one was the most for strict obedience,
+the experienced parent in favour of liberty.  But then Mysie was old-
+fashioned and dutiful.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--CLIPSTONE FRIENDS
+
+
+
+"What idle progeny succeed
+To chase the rolling circle's speed,
+Or urge the flying ball."--GRAY.
+
+
+The afternoon at Clipstone was a success.  Gillian was at home, and
+every one found congeners.  Lady Merrifield's sister, Miss Mohun,
+pounced upon Miss Prescott as a coadjutor in the alphabet of good
+works needed in the neglected district of Arnscombe, where Mr. Earl
+was wifeless, and the farm ladies heedless; but they were interrupted
+by Mysie running up to claim Miss Prescott for a game at croquet.
+"Uncle Redgie was so glad to see the hoops come into fashion again,"
+and Vera and Paula hardly knew the game, they had always played at
+lawn tennis; but they were delighted to learn, for Uncle Redgie
+proved to be a very fine-looking retired General, and there was a lad
+besides, grown to manly height; and one boy, at home for Easter, who,
+caring not for croquet, went with Primrose to exhibit to Thekla the
+tame menagerie, where a mungoose, called of course Raki raki, was the
+last acquisition.  She was also shown the kittens of the beloved
+Begum, and presented with Phoebus, a tabby with a wise face and a
+head marked like a Greek lyre, to be transplanted to the Goyle in due
+time.
+
+"If Sister will let me have it," said Thekla.
+
+"Of course she will," said Primrose.  "Mysie says she is so jolly."
+
+"Dear me! all the girls at our school said she was a regular Old
+Maid."
+
+"What shocking bad form!" exclaimed Primrose.  "Just like cads of
+girls," muttered Fergus, unheard; for Thekla continued--"Why, they
+said she must be our maiden aunt, instead of our sister."
+
+"The best thing going!" said Fergus.
+
+"Maiden aunts in books are always horrid," said Thekla.
+
+"Then the books ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered, and
+spifflicated besides," said Fergus.
+
+"Fergus doesn't like anybody so well as Aunt Jane," said Primrose,
+"because nobody else understands his machines."
+
+Thekla made a grimace.
+
+"Ah!" said Primrose.  "I see it is just as mamma and Mysie said when
+they came home, that Miss Prescott was very nice indeed, and it was
+famous that she should make a home for you all, only they were afraid
+you seemed as if--you might be--tiresome," ended Primrose, looking
+for a word.
+
+"Well, you know she wants to be our governess," said Thekla.
+
+"Well?" repeated Primrose.
+
+"And of course no one ever likes their governess."
+
+This aphorism, so uttered by Thekla, provoked a yell from Primrose,
+echoed by Fergus; and Primrose, getting her breath, declared that
+dear Miss Winter was a great darling, and since she had gone away,
+more's the pity, mamma was real governess to herself, Valetta, and
+Mysie, and she always looked at their translations and heard their
+reading if Gillian was not at home.
+
+"And they are quite grown-up young ladies!"
+
+"Mysie is; but I don't know about Val.  Only I don't see why any one
+should be silly and do nothing if one is grown up ever so much," said
+Primrose.
+
+"As the Eiffel Tower," put in Fergus.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Primrose, bent on being improving.  "Don't you know
+what that old book of mamma's says, 'When will Miss Rosamond's
+education be finished?'  She answered 'Never.'"
+
+Thekla gave a groan, whether of pity for Rosamond or for herself
+might be doubted; and a lop-eared rabbit was a favourable diversion.
+
+There was a triad who seemed to be of Rosamond's opinion regarding
+education, for Agatha was eagerly availing herself of the counsel of
+Gillian, and the books shown to her; with the further assistance of
+the cousin, Dolores Mohun, now an accredited lecturer in technical
+classes, though making her home and headquarters at Clipstone.
+
+Thekla's views of young ladyhood were a good deal more fulfilled by
+the lessons on cycling which were going on among the other young
+people after the game of croquet had ended.  Every size and variety
+seemed to exist among the Clipstone population, under certain
+regulations of not coasting down the hills, the girls not going out
+alone, and never into the town, but always "putting up" at Aunt
+Jane's.
+
+Vera and Paulina were in ecstasy, and there was a continual mounting,
+attempting and nearly falling, or turning anywhere but the right,
+little screams, and much laughter, Jasper attending upon Vera, who,
+in spite of her failures, looked remarkably pretty and graceful upon
+Valetta's machine; while Paula, whom Mysie and Valetta were both
+assisting, learnt more easily and steadily, but looked on with a few
+qualms as to the entire crystal rock constancy that Vera had
+professed, more especially when Jasper volunteered to come over to
+the Goyle and give another lesson.
+
+Magdalen, after her game at croquet, had spent a very pleasant time
+with Lady Merrifield and her brother and sister, till they were
+imperiously summoned by Primrose to come and give consent to the
+transfer of Phoebus, or to choose between him and the Mufti, to whom
+Thekla had begun to incline.
+
+The whole party adjourned to the back settlements, where Magdalen was
+edified by the antics of the mungoose, and admired the Begum and her
+progeny with a heartiness that would have won Thekla's heart, save
+that she remembered hearing Vera say, over the domestic cat in the
+morning, that M.A.'s were always devoted to cats.  But, on the whole,
+the visit had done much to reconcile the young sisters to their new
+surroundings; books, bicycles, and kitten had reconciled them even to
+the intimacy with "swells."
+
+The hired bicycle and tricycle had arrived in their absence, and the
+moment breakfast was over the next morning, the three younger ones
+all rushed off to the enjoyment, and, at ten minutes past the
+appointed hour for the early reading and study, Agatha felt obliged
+to go out and tell them that the M.A. was sitting like Patience on a
+monument, waiting for them; on which three tongues said "Bother," and
+"She ought to let us off till the proper end of the holidays."
+
+"Then you should have propitiated her by asking leave after the
+Scripture was done," said Agatha; "you might have known she would not
+let you off that."
+
+"Bother," said Vera again; "just like an M.A."
+
+"I did forget," said Paula; "and you know it was only just going
+through a lesson for form's sake, like the old superlative."
+
+They had, in fact, read the day before; when Thekla had made such
+frightful work of every unaccustomed word, and the elders by one or
+two observations had betrayed so much ignorance alike of Samuel's
+history and of the Gospel of St. Luke, that she had resolved to
+endeavour at a thorough teaching of the Old and New Testaments for
+the first hour on alternate days, giving one day in the week to
+Catechism and Prayer Book.
+
+She asked what they had done before.
+
+"Mrs. Best always read something at prayers."
+
+"Something?"
+
+"Something out of the Bible."
+
+"No, the Testament."
+
+"I am sure it was the Bible, it was so fat."
+
+"And Saul was in it, and we had him yesterday."
+
+"That was St. Paul before he was converted," said Paula.
+
+There their knowledge seemed to end, and it further appeared that
+Mrs. Best heard the Catechism and Collect on Sundays from the
+unconfirmed, and had tried to get the Gospel repeated by heart, but
+had not succeeded.
+
+"We did not think it fair," said Vera.  "None of the other houses
+did."
+
+"Yes," said Agatha, "Miss Ferris's did."
+
+"Oh, she is a regular old Prot," said Paula, "almost a Dissenter, and
+it is not the Gospel either, only texts out of her own head."
+
+"Polly!" said Agatha.  "Texts out of her own head!"
+
+"It is Bible, of course, only what she fancies; and they have to work
+out the sermon, and if they can't do the sermon, a text.  They might
+as well be Dissenters at once!" said Paula.
+
+"Janet M'Leod is," said Vera.  "It was really Dissentish."
+
+Magdalen could not help saying, "So you would not learn the Gospel
+because Dissenters learnt pieces of Scripture!  You seem to me like
+the Roman Catholic child, who said there were five sacraments, there
+ought to be seven, but the Protestants had got two of them."
+
+She was sorry she had said it, for though Agatha laughed, the other
+two drew into themselves, as if their feelings were hurt.  "These are
+the boarding-house habits," she said.  "What is done at the High
+School itself?"
+
+"The Vicar comes when he has time, and gives a lecture on an
+Epistle," said Agatha, "or a curate, if he doesn't; but I was working
+for the exam., and didn't go this last term.  What was it, Polly?"
+
+"On the--on the Apollonians," answered Paulina, hesitating.
+
+"My dear, where did he find it?"
+
+"I know it was something about Apollo," said Vera.
+
+"It was Corinthians," said Paula.  "I ought to have recollected, but
+the lectures are very dull and disjointed; you said so yourself, Nag,
+and the Rector is very low church."
+
+"So you could not learn from him!"
+
+"Really, sister," said Agatha, "the lectures are not well managed,
+they are in too many hands, and too uncertain, and it is not easy to
+learn much from them."
+
+"Well, that being the case, I think we had better begin at the
+beginning.  Suppose I ask you to say the first answer in the
+Catechism."
+
+On which Vera said they had all been confirmed except Thekla, and
+passed it on to her.
+
+However, the endeavours of that half-hour need not be recounted, and
+the moment half-past ten chimed out the young ladies jumped up, and
+would have been off to the bicycles, if Magdalen had not felt that
+the time was come for asserting authority, and said, "Not yet, if you
+please.  We cannot waste whole days.  You know Herr Gnadiger is
+coming to-morrow, and it would be well to practise that sonata
+beforehand; you ought each to practise it; Paula, you had better
+begin, and Vera, you prepare this first scene of Marie Stuart to read
+with me when Thekla's lessons are over.  Change over when Paula has
+done."
+
+"It is of no use my doing anything while anyone is playing," said
+Vera.
+
+"Nonsense," Agatha muttered; but Magdalen said, "You can sit in the
+drawing-room or your own room.  Come, Tick-tick, where's your slate?
+Come along."
+
+"Don't sulk, Flapsy," said the elder sister, "it is of no use.  The
+M.A. means to be minded, and will be, and you know it is all for your
+good."
+
+"I hate my good," said naughty Vera.
+
+"So does every one when it is against the grain," said Agatha; "but
+remember it is a preparation for a free life of our own."
+
+"It is our cross," said Paula, as she placed herself on the music
+stool with a look of resignation almost comical.
+
+Nor did her performance interfere with the equations which Agatha was
+diligently working out; but Vera, though refusing to take refuge from
+the piano, to which, in fact, she was perfectly inured, worried her
+elder as much as she durst, by inquiries after the meaning of words,
+or what horrid verb to look out in the dictionary; and it was a
+pleasing change when Paula proceeded to work the same scene out for
+herself without having recourse to explanations, so that Agatha was
+undisturbed except by the careless notes, which almost equally
+worried Magdalen in the more distant dining-room.
+
+This was really the crisis of the battle of study.  As the girls were
+accustomed to it, and knew that they were of an age to be ground
+down, they followed Agatha's advice, and submitted without further
+open struggle, though there was a good deal of low murmur, and the
+foreman's work was not essentially disagreeable, even while Vera
+maintained, what she believed to be an axiom, that governesses were
+detestable, and that the M.A. must incur the penalty of acting as
+such.
+
+Very soon after luncheon appeared three figures on bicycles.  Wilfred
+Merrifield, with Mysie and Valetta, come to give another lesson on
+the "flying circle's speed."
+
+Magdalen came out with her young people to enjoy their amusement, as
+well as to watch over her own precious machine, as Vera said.  It was
+admired, as became connoisseurs in the article; and she soon saw that
+Wilfred was to be trusted with the care of it, so she consented to
+its being ridden in the practice, provided it was not taken out into
+the lanes.
+
+Mysie turned off from the practising, where she was not wanted, and
+joined Miss Prescott in walking through the garden terraces, and
+planning what would best adorn them, talking over favourite books,
+and enjoying themselves very much; then going on to the quarry, where
+Mysie looked about with a critical eye to see if it displayed any
+fresh geological treasures to send Fergus in quest of.  She began
+eagerly to pour forth the sister's never-ending tale of her brother's
+cleverness, and thus they came down the outside lane to the lower
+gate, seeing beforehand the sparkle of bicycles in its immediate
+proximity.
+
+It was not open, but Vera might be seen standing with one hand on the
+latch, the other on Magdalen's bicycle, her face lifted with
+imploring, enticing smiles to Wilfred, who had fallen a little back,
+while Paula had decidedly drawn away.
+
+None of them had seen Magdalen and Mysie till they were round the low
+stone wall and close upon them.  There was a general start, and Vera
+exclaimed, "We haven't been outside!  No, we haven't!  And it is not
+the Rockquay Road either, sister!  I only wanted a run down that lane
+up above."
+
+Wilfred laughed a little oddly.  It was quite plain that he had been
+withstanding the temptress, only how long would the resistance have
+lasted?
+
+Downright Mysie exclaimed, "It would have been a great shame if you
+had, and I am glad Wilfred hindered you."
+
+"Thank you," said Magdalen, smiling to him.  "You know better than my
+sisters what Devon lanes and pneumatic tyres are!"
+
+Perhaps Wilfred was a little vexed, though he had resisted, for he
+was ready to agree with Mysie that they could not stay and drink tea.
+
+But he did not escape his sister's displeasure, for Mysie began at
+once, "How lucky it was that we came in time.  I do believe that
+naughty little thing was just going to talk you over into doing what
+her sister had forbidden."
+
+"A savage, old, selfish bear.  It was only the lane."
+
+"Full of crystals as sharp as needles, enough to cut any tyre in
+two," said Mysie.
+
+"Like your tongue, eh, Mysie?"
+
+"Well, you did not do it!  That is a comfort.  You would not let her
+transgress, and ruin her sister's good bicycle."
+
+"She is an uncommonly pretty little sprite, and the selfish hag of a
+sister only left orders that I was to take care of the bike!  I could
+see where there was a stone as well as anybody else."
+
+"Hag!" angrily cried Mysie, "she is the only nice one of the whole
+lot.  Vera is a nasty little thing, or she would never think of
+meddling with what does not belong to her, or trying to persuade you
+to allow it."
+
+"I call it abominable selfishness, dog in the mangerish, to shut up
+such a machine as that, and condemn her sisters to one great
+lumbering one."
+
+"That's one account," said Valetta.  "Paula said it was only till
+they had learnt to ride properly, and till the stones have a little
+worn in."
+
+"Yes," said Mysie, "I could see Vera is an exaggerating monkey, just
+talking over and deluding Will, just as men like when they get a
+silly fit."
+
+By this time Wilfred had thought it expedient to put his bicycle to
+greater speed, and indulge in a long whistle to show how contemptible
+he thought his sisters as he went out of hearing.
+
+"Paulina is nice and good," said Valetta, "she has heard all about
+St. Kenelm's, and wants to go there.  Yes, and she means to be a
+Sister of Charity, only she is afraid her sister is narrow and low
+church."
+
+"That is stuff and nonsense," said Mysie.  "I have had a great deal
+of talk with Miss Prescott.  She loves all the same books that we do.
+She is going to have G. F. S. and Mothers' Union, and all at poor
+Arnscombe, and she told me to call her Magdalen."
+
+With which proofs of congeniality Valetta could not choose but be
+impressed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM'S
+
+
+
+Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed
+Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay.--TENNYSON.
+
+
+The deferred expedition to Rockquay also began, Magdalen driving Vera
+and Thekla.  She was pleased with her visitors, and hoped that the
+girls would feel the same, but Vera began by declaring that THAT Miss
+Merrifield was not pretty.
+
+"Not exactly, but it is an honest, winning face."
+
+"So broad, and such a wide mouth, and no style at all, as I should
+have expected after all that about lords and ladies!  An old blue
+serge and sailor hat!"
+
+"You don't expect people to drive about the country in silk attire?"
+
+"Well, perhaps she is not out!  Sister, do you know I am seventeen?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, certainly."
+
+"Oh, look, look, there's a dear little calf!" broke in Thekla, "and,
+oh! what horns the cows have.  I shall be afraid to go near them!
+Was it only a sham mad bull when the little girl ran into the pond?"
+
+"It was the railway whistle, and she had never heard it in the
+fields.  She rushed away in a great fright and ran into the pond,
+full of horrible black mud.  The gentlemen heard the scream and
+dragged her out, and it would have all been fun and a good story if
+she had not been so much afraid of the French lady's maid.  It is
+curious how the sight of those brown eyes brought the whole scene
+back to me.  We all grew so fond of Mysie Merrifield in the few days
+we spent together, and she is very little altered."
+
+"Is she out?" asked Vera once more.
+
+"Oh, yes, she cannot be less than twenty."
+
+"And I am seventeen," said Vera, returning to the charge.  "I ought
+to be out."
+
+"If there are nice invitations, I shall be quite ready to accept them
+for you."
+
+"But I am too old for the schoolroom and lessons and masters."
+
+"Too old or too wise?" said Magdalen laughing.
+
+"I have got into the highest form in everything.  Every one at
+Filston of my age is leaving off all the bother."
+
+"Not Agatha."
+
+"Oh, but Agatha is--!"
+
+"Is what?
+
+"Agatha is awfully clever, and wants to be something!"
+
+"Something?  But do you want to evaporate?  To be nothing at all, I
+mean," said Magdalen, seeing her first word was bewildering, and
+Thekla put in -
+
+"Flapsy couldn't go off in steam, could she?  Isn't that
+evaporating?"
+
+"I think what she wants is to be a young lady at large!  Eh, Vera?
+Only I don't quite see how that is to be managed, even if it is quite
+a worthy ambition.  But we will talk that over another time.  Do you
+see how pretty those sails are crossing the bay?"
+
+Neither girl seemed to have eyes for the lovely blue of the sea in
+the spring sunshine, nor the striking forms of ruddy peaks of rock
+that enclosed it.  Uneducated eyes, she thought, as she slowly
+manoeuvred the pony down the steep hill before coming to the
+Rockstone Cliff Road.  The other two girls were following her
+direction across field and road, and making their observations.
+
+"A dose of lords and ladies," said Agatha.
+
+"I thought they were rather nice," said Paula.
+
+"I see how it will be," said Agatha.  "They will patronise the M.A.
+as Lady Somebody's old governess, and she will fawn upon them and run
+after them, and we shall be on those terms."
+
+"But I thought you meant to be a governess?"
+
+"I shall make my own line.  I know how swells look on a governess of
+the ancien regime, and how they will introduce her as the kindly old
+goody who mends my little lady's frock!"
+
+"The girl had not any airs," said Paula.  "She told me about the
+churches down there in the town--not the ones we went to on Sunday;
+but there's one that is very low indeed, and St. Andrew's, which is
+their parish church, was suiting the moderate high church folk; and
+there is St. Kenelm's, very high indeed, Mr. Flight's, I think I have
+heard of him, and it is just the right thing, I am sure."
+
+"Don't flatter yourself that the M.A. will let you have much pleasure
+in it.  It is just what people of her sort think dangerous."
+
+"But do you know, Nag, I do believe that it is the church that Hubert
+Delrio was sent down to study and make a design for."
+
+"Whew!  There will be a pretty kettle of fish if he comes down about
+it!  That is, if he and Flapsy have not forgotten all about the ice
+and the forfeits at Warner's Grange, as is devoutly to be hoped."
+
+"Do you hope it really, Nag, for Flapsy really was very much--did
+care very much."
+
+"I have no great faith in Flapsy's affections surviving the contact
+with greater swells."
+
+"Poor Hubert!"
+
+"Perhaps his will not survive common sense.  I am sure I hope not for
+both their sakes."
+
+"But, Nag, it would be very horrid of them if they had no constancy,"
+declared the more romantic Paula.
+
+"It will be a regular mess if they do have it, and bring on horrid
+scrapes with the M.A.  Just think.  It is all very well to say she
+has known Hubert all his life; but she can't treat him as a
+gentleman, or she won't.  She has a position to keep up with all
+these swells, and he will be only the man who paints the church!  I
+only hope he will not come.  There will be nothing but bother if he
+does, unless they both have more sense and less constancy than you
+expect.  Well, this really is a splendid view.  Old Mr. Delrio would
+be wild about it."
+
+Here the steep and stony hill brought them into contact with the pony
+carriage, nor were there any more confidential conversations.  The
+pony was put up at the top of the hill leading from Rockstone to
+Rockquay, and thence the party walked down for Miss Prescott to make
+a few purchases, and, moreover, to begin by gratifying Thekla's
+reiterated entreaty for a bicycle, though, as she was unpractised and
+growing so fast, it was decided to be better to hire a tricycle for
+practice, and one bicycle on which Vera and Paula might learn the
+art.
+
+The choice was a long one, and left only just time for a peep into
+the two churches and a study of the hours of their services.  St.
+Kenelm's was decided to be a "perfect gem," ornaments, beauty, and
+all, a little overdone, perhaps, in Magdalen's opinion, but perfectly
+"the thing" in her sisters'.
+
+This St. Andrew's fulfilled to her mind, being handsome, reverent,
+and decorous in all the arrangements, while to the younger folk it
+was "all very well," but quite of the old times.  Little did they
+know of "old times" beyond the quarter century of their birth!  Poor
+old Arnscombe might feebly represent them, but even that had
+struggled out of the modern "dark ages."  Magdalen had decided on
+talking to Agatha and seeing how far she understood the situation,
+and she came to her room to put her in possession now that Mrs. Best
+had left the guest chamber free.
+
+"This is your home when you are here.  You must put up any belongings
+that you do not want to take to St. Robert's."
+
+"Thank you; it is a nice pleasant room."
+
+"And, my dear, may I stay a few minutes?  I think we had better have
+a talk, and quite understand one another."
+
+"Very well."
+
+It was not quite encouraging, but Agatha really wished to hear, and
+she advanced a wicker chair for her elder sister, and sat down on the
+window seat.
+
+"Thank you, my dear; I do not know how much Mrs. Best has told you."
+
+"She told us that you had always been very good to us, and that you
+had been our guardian ever since we lost our mother."
+
+"Did she tell you what we have of our own that our father could leave
+us?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What amounts to about 40 pounds a year apiece.  Mrs. Best in her
+very great goodness has taken you four for that amount, though her
+proper charge is eighty."
+
+"And she never let any one guess it," said Agatha, more warmly, "for
+fear we might feel the difference.  How very good of her."
+
+She seemed more impressed by Mrs. Best's bounty than by Magdalen's,
+but probably she took the latter as a matter of course and
+obligation; besides, the sense of it involved a sum in subtraction.
+However, this was not observed by her sister, who did not want to
+feel obliged.
+
+"Now that this property has come in," continued Magdalen, "we can
+live comfortably together upon it for the present, and your expenses
+at Oxford can be paid, as well as masters in what may be needful for
+the others, and an allowance for dress.  I suppose you will want the
+40 pounds while you are at St. Robert's, besides the regular
+expenses?"
+
+"Thank you," warmly said.
+
+"But I want you to understand, as I think you do, about the future,
+for you must be prepared to be independent."
+
+"I should have wished for a career if I had been a millionaire," said
+Agatha.
+
+"I believe you would, and it is well that you should have every
+advantage.  But the others.  If I left you all this property, it
+would not be a comfortable maintenance divided among four; and you
+would not like to be dependent, or to leave the last who might not
+marry to a pittance alone."
+
+"Certainly not," said Agatha, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Then you see that it is needful that you should be able to do
+something for yourselves.  I can give one of you at a time the power
+of going to the University."
+
+"I don't think Vera or Polly would wish for that," said Agatha.
+
+"Well, what would they wish for?  I can do something towards
+preparing them, and I can teach Thekla, but I should like to know
+what you think would be best for them."
+
+"Vera's strong point is music," said Agatha.  "She cares for that
+more than anything else, and Mr. Selby thought she had talent and
+might sing, only she must not strain her voice.  I don't believe she
+will do much in any other line.  And Polly--she is very good, and
+always does her best because it is right, but I don't think anything
+is any particular pleasure to her, except needlework.  She is always
+wanting to make things for the church.  She really has a better voice
+than Flapsy, and can play better, but that is because she is so much
+steadier."
+
+"Seventeen and sixteen, are they not?"
+
+"Yes; but Polly seems ever so much older than Flapsy."
+
+"Mrs. Best showed me that she had higher marks.  She must be a
+thoroughly good girl."
+
+"That she is," cried Agatha, warmly.  "She never had any task for
+getting into mischief."
+
+"Well, they are both so young that a little study with me will be
+good for them, and there will be time to judge what they are fit for.
+In art I think they are not much interested."
+
+"Paula draws pretty well, but Vera hates it.  Old Mr. Delrio is
+always cross to her now; but--" Agatha stopped short, remembering
+that there might be a reason why the drawing master no longer made
+her a favourite pupil.
+
+"Do you think him a good judge?"
+
+"Yes; Mrs. Best thinks much of him.  He had an artist's education,
+and sometimes has a picture in the Water Colour Exhibition; but I
+believe he did not find it answer, and so he took our school of art."
+
+Agatha had talked sensibly throughout the conference, but not
+confidentially; much, in fact, as she would have discussed her
+sisters with Mrs. Best.  She was glad that at the moment the sound of
+the piano set them listening.  She did not feel bound to mention to
+"sister" any more than she would to the head mistress, that when
+staying at Mr. Waring's country house a sort of semi-flirtation had
+begun with Hubert Delrio, a young man to whose education his father
+had sacrificed a great deal, and who was a well-informed and
+intelligent gentleman in all his ways.  He had engaged himself to the
+great firm of Eccles and Beamster, ecclesiastical decorators, and
+might be employed upon the intended frescoes of St. Kenelm's Church.
+
+Ought "Sister" to be told?
+
+But Agatha thought it would be betraying confidence to "set on the
+dragon"; and besides nobody ever could tell how much Vera's
+descriptions meant.  She knew already that the sweetest countenance
+in the world and the loveliest dark eyes belonged to a fairly good-
+looking young man, and she could also suspect that the "squeeze of my
+hand" might be an ordinary shake, and the kneeling before the one he
+loved best might have been only the customary forfeit.  On the whole,
+it would be better to let things take their course; it was not likely
+that either was seriously smitten, and it was more than probable that
+Hubert Delrio would be too busy to look after a young lady now in a
+different stratum, and that Vera would have found another sweetest
+countenance in the world.
+
+All this passed through her mind while Magdalen listened, and
+pronounced -
+
+"That is brilliant--a clever touch--only--"
+
+"Yes, that is Vera--I know what you are noticing, but this is only
+amusement; she is not taking pains."
+
+"It is very clever--especially as probably she has no music.  But
+there--"
+
+"Polly's?  Oh, yes; she is really steady-going.  That is just what
+you will find her.  This is a charming room, sister; thank you very
+much."
+
+"Make it your home, my dear."
+
+But in reality they were not much nearer together than before the
+conference.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--SISTER AND SISTERS
+
+
+
+"Have we not all, amid earth's petty strife,
+Some pure ideal of a nobler life?
+We lost it in the daily jar and fact,
+And now live idly in a vain regret."
+ADELAIDE PROCTER.
+
+
+Agatha was so much absorbed in her preparation for St. Robert's that
+she did not pay very much heed to her younger sisters or their
+relations with Magdalen.  She had induced them to submit to the
+regulation of their studies with her pretty much as if she had been
+Mrs. Best, looking upon her, however, as something out of date, and
+hardly up to recent opinions, not realising that, of late, Magdalen's
+world had been a wide one.
+
+Perhaps, in Agatha's feelings, there was an undercurrent inherited
+from her mother, who had always felt the better connected, better
+educated step-daughter, a sort of alien element, exciting jealousy by
+her companionship to her father, and after his death, apt to be
+regarded as a scarcely willing, and perhaps censorious pay-master.
+
+"Your sister might call it too expensive."  "I must ask your sister."
+"No, your sister does not think she can afford it.  I am sure she
+might.  Her expenses must be nothing."  All this had been no
+preparation for full sisterly confidence with "Sister," even when a
+sort of grudging gratitude was extracted, and Agatha had been quite
+old enough to imbibe an undefined antagonism, though, being a
+sensible girl, she repressed the manifestations, kept her sisters in
+order and taught them not to love but to submit, and herself remained
+in a state of civil coolness, without an approach beyond formal signs
+of affection, and such confidence.
+
+It was the more disappointing to Magdalen, because Agatha and Paulina
+both showed so much unconscious likeness to their father, not only in
+features, but in little touches of gesture and manner.  She longed to
+pet them, and say, "Oh, my dears, how like papa!" but the only time
+she attempted it, she was met by a severe, uncomprehending look and
+manner.
+
+And Agatha went away to Oxford without any thawing on her part.
+
+The only real ground that had been gained was with little Thekla, who
+was soon very fond of "Sister," and depended on her more and more for
+sympathy and amusement.  Girls of seventeen and sixteen do not
+delight in the sports of nine-year-olds, except in the case of
+special pets and protegees, and Thekla was snubbed when a partner was
+required to assist in doll's dramas, or in evening games.  Only
+"Sister" would play unreservedly with her, unaware or unheeding that
+this was looked on as keeping up the metier of governess.  Indeed,
+Thekla's reports of schoolroom murmurs and sneers about the M.A. had
+to be silenced.  Peace and good will could best be guarded by closed
+ears.  Yet, even then, Thekla missed child companionship, and, even
+more, competition, the lack of which rendered her dull and listless
+over her lessons, and when reproved, she would beg to be sent to
+school, or, at least, to attend the High School on her bicycle.  Not
+admiring the manners or the attainments of the specimens before her,
+Magdalen felt bound to refuse, and the sisters' pity kept alive the
+grievance.
+
+She had, however, decided on granting the bicycles.  She had found
+plenty of use for her own, for it was possible with prudent use of
+it, avoiding the worst parts of the road, to be at early celebration
+at St. Andrew's, and get to the Sunday school at Arnscombe
+afterwards; and Paulina, with a little demur, decided on giving her
+assistance there.
+
+At a Propagation of the Gospel meeting at the town hall, the Misses
+Prescott were introduced to the Reverend Augustine Flight, of St.
+Kenelm's, and his mother, Lady Flight, who sat next to Magdalen, and
+began to talk eagerly of the designs for the ceiling of their church,
+and the very promising young artist who was coming down from Eccles
+and Beamster to undertake the work.
+
+The church had not yet been seen, and the conversation ended in the
+sisters coming back to tea, at which Paula was very happy, for the
+talk had something of the rather exclusive High Church tone that was
+her ideal.  She had seen it in books, but had never heard it before
+in real life, and Vera was in a restless state, longing to hear
+whether the promising young artist was really Hubert Delrio, and
+hoping, while she believed that she feared, that she should blush
+when she heard his name.  However, she did not, though Mr. Flight
+unfolded his rough plans for the frescoes, which were to be of virgin
+and child martyrs, Magdalen hesitating a little over those that
+seemed too legendary; while old Lady Flight, portly and sentimental,
+declared them so sweet and touching.  After tea, they went on to the
+church.  Just at the entrance of the porch, Vera clutched at Paula,
+with the whisper, "Wasn't that Wilfred Merrifield?  There, crossing?"
+
+"Nonsense," was Paula's reply, as she lingered over the illuminated
+list of the hours of services displayed at the door, and feeling as
+if she had attained dreamland, as she saw two fully habited Sisters
+enter, and bend low as they did so.
+
+The church was very elaborately ornamented, small, but showing that
+no expense had been spared, though there was something that did not
+quite accord with Magdalen's ideas of the best taste; so that when
+they went out she answered Paula's raptures of admiration somewhat
+coldly, or what so appeared to the enthusiastic girl.
+
+The next day, meeting Miss Mohun over cutting out for a working
+party, Magdalen asked her about the Flights and St. Kenelm's.
+
+"He is an excellent good man," said Jane Mohun, "and has laid out
+immense sums on the church and parish."
+
+"All his own?  Not subscription?"
+
+"No.  He is the only son of a very rich City man, a brewer, and came
+here with his mother as a curate, as a good place for health.  They
+found a miserable little corrugated-iron place, called the Kennel
+Chapel, and worked it up, raising the people, and doing no end of
+good till it came to be a district, as St. Kenelm's."
+
+"Very ornamental?"
+
+"Oh, very," said Jane, warming out of caution, as she felt she might
+venture showing city gorgeousness all over.  "But it is infinitely to
+his credit.  He had a Fortunatus' purse, and was a spoilt child--not
+in the bad sense--but with an utterly idolising mother, and he tried
+a good many experiments that made our hair stand on end; but he has
+sobered down, and is a much wiser man now--though I would not be
+bound to admire all he does."
+
+"I see there are Sisters?  Do they belong to his arrangements?"
+
+"Yes.  They are what my brother calls Cousins of Mercy.  The elder
+one has tried two or three Sisterhoods, and being dissatisfied with
+all the rules, I fancy she has some notion of trying to set up one on
+her own account at Mr. Flight's.  They are both relations of his
+mother, and are really one of his experiments--fancy names and fancy
+rules, of course.  I believe the young one wanted to call herself
+Sister Philomena, but that he could not stand.  So they act as parish
+women here, and they do it very well.  I liked Sister Beata when I
+have come in contact with her, and I am sure she is an excellent
+nurse.  They will do your nieces no harm, though I don't like the
+irregular."
+
+Of this assurance Magdalen felt very glad, when at the door of the
+parish room, where the ladies were to hold a working party for the
+missions, Carrigaboola Missions at Albertstown, she and her nieces
+were introduced to the two ladies in hoods and veils; and Paula's
+eyes sparkled with delight as she settled into a chair next to Sister
+Mena.  She looked as happy as Vera looked bored!  Conversation was
+not possible while a missionary memoir was being read aloud, but the
+history of Mother Constance, once Lady Herbert Somerville, but then
+head at Dearport, and founder of the Daughter Sisterhood at
+Carrigaboola.  To the Merrifields it was intensely interesting, and
+also to Magdalen; but all the time she could see demonstrations
+passing between Paula and Sister Mena, a nice-looking girl, much
+embellished by the setting of the hood and veil, as if the lending of
+a pair of scissors or the turning of a hem were an act of tender
+admiration.  So sweet a look came out on Paula's face that she longed
+to awaken the like.  Vera meantime looked as if her only consolation
+lay in the neighbourhood of a window, whence she could see up the
+street, as soon as she had found whispers to Mysie Merrifield treated
+as impossible.
+
+The party at the Goyle had begun to fall into regular habits, and
+struggles were infrequent.  There was study in the forenoon, walks or
+cycle expeditions in the afternoon, varied by the lessons in music
+and in art, which Vera and Paula attended on Wednesdays and Fridays,
+the one in the morning, the other after dinner.  It was possible to
+go to St. Andrew's matins at ten o'clock before the drawing class,
+and to St. Kenelm's at five, after the music was over.  Magdalen,
+whenever it was possible, went with her sisters on their bicycles to
+St. Andrew's, and sometimes devised errands that she might join them
+at St. Kenelm's, but neither could always be done by the head of the
+household.  And she could perceive that her company was not specially
+welcome.
+
+Valetta, the only one of the Clipstone family whose drawing was worth
+cultivating, used to ride into Rockstone, escorted by her brother
+Wilfred, who was in course of "cramming" with a curate on his way to
+his tutor, and Vera found in casual but well-cultivated meetings and
+partings, abundant excitement in "nods and becks and wreathed
+smiles," and now and then in the gift of a flower.
+
+Paula on the other hand found equal interest and delight in meetings
+with Sister Mena, especially after a thunderstorm had driven the two
+to take refuge at what the Sisters called "the cell of St. Kenelm,"
+and tea had unfolded their young simple hearts to one another!
+Magdalen had called on the Sisters and asked them to tea at the
+Goyle, and there had come to the conclusion that Sister Beata was an
+admirable, religious, hardworking woman, of strong opinions, and not
+much cultivated, with a certain provincial twang in her voice.  She
+had a vehement desire for self-devotion and consecration, but perhaps
+not the same for obedience.  She sharply criticised all the
+regulations of the Sisterhoods with which she was acquainted, wore a
+dress of her own device, and with Sister Mena, a young cousin of her
+own, meant to make St. Kenelm's a nucleus for a Sisterhood of her own
+invention.
+
+Sister Mena had been bred up in a Sisterhood's school, from five
+years old and upwards, and had no near relatives.  Mr. Flight was
+Saint, Pope and hero to both, and Mena knew little beyond the horizon
+of St. Kenelm's, but she and Paula were fascinated with one another;
+and Magdalen saw more danger in interfering than in acquiescing,
+though she gave no consent to Paulina's aspirations after admission
+into the perfect Sisterhood that was to be.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--SNOBBISHNESS
+
+
+
+"Why then should vain repinings rise,
+That to thy lover fate denies
+A nobler name, a wide domain?"--SCOTT.
+
+
+The friendship with the Sisters was about three weeks old when, one
+morning, scaffold poles were being erected in the new side aisle of
+St. Kenelm's Church, and superintending them was a tall dark-haired
+young man.  There was a start of mutual recognition; and by and by he
+met Paula and Vera in the porch, and there were eager hand-clasps and
+greetings, as befitted old friends meeting in a strange place.
+
+"Mr. Hubert!  I heard you were coming!"
+
+"Miss Vera!  Miss Paula!  This is a pleasure."
+
+Then followed an introduction of Sister Mena, whose elder companion
+was away, attending a sick person.
+
+"May I ask whether you are living here?"
+
+"Two miles off at the Goyle, at Arnscombe, with our sister."
+
+"So I heard!  I shall see you again."  And he turned aside to give an
+order, bowing as he did so.
+
+"Is he the artist of those sweet designs?" asked Sister Mena.
+
+"Did we not tell you?"
+
+"And now he is going to execute them?  How delicious!"
+
+"I trust so!  We must see him again.  We have not heard of Edie and
+Nellie, nor any one."
+
+"He will call on you?" said Sister Mena.
+
+"I do not think so," said Paula.  "At least his father is really an
+artist, but he is drawing-master at the High School, and Hubert works
+for this firm.  They are not what you call in society, and our sister
+is all for getting in with Lady Merrifield and General Mohun and all
+the swells, so it would never do for him to call."
+
+"She would first be stiff and stuck up," said Vera, "and I could not
+stand that."
+
+"I thought she was so kind," said Mena.
+
+"You don't understand," said Vera.  "She would be kind to a workman
+in a fever; but this sort--oh, no."
+
+"To be on an equality with the man painting the church?" said Paula.
+"No, indeed! not if he were Fra Angelico and Ary Scheffer and
+Michelangelo rolled into one."
+
+At that moment the subject referred to in that mighty conglomeration
+reappeared.  He was a handsome young man, his touch of Italian blood
+showing just enough to give him a romantic air; and Sister Philomena
+listened, much impressed by the interchange of question and answer
+about "Edie and Nellie," and the dear Warings, and the happy
+Christmas at the Grange; and Vera blushed again, and Paula coloured
+in sympathy, as it appeared that Mr. Delrio had never had such a
+splendid time.
+
+The colloquy was ended by Mr. Flight being descried, approaching with
+his mother, whereupon the two girls fled away like guilty creatures.
+
+Presently Vera exclaimed, "Oh, Polly dear, what a complication!  Poor
+dear fellow! he cares for me as much as ever."
+
+"And you will be staunch to him in spite of all the worldly
+allurements," said Paula.
+
+"Well, I mean Mr. Wilfred Merrifield is not half so handsome,"
+returned Vera.
+
+"Nor is he engaged in sacred work; only bent on frivolity," said
+Paula; "yet see how the M.A. encourages him with tennis and games and
+nonsense."
+
+Poor M.A., when the encouragement had only been some general
+merriment, and a few games on the lawn Paulina, who had heard many
+confidences when Vera returned from Waring Grange, believed
+altogether in the true love of the damsel and Hubert Delrio, who had
+been wont to single out the prettiest of the girls at Filstead, and
+she was resolved to do all she could in their cause, being schoolgirl
+enough to have no scruple as to secrecy towards Magdalen, though on
+the next opportunity she poured out all to Sister Philomena's by no
+means unwilling ears.
+
+Lovers had never fallen within the young Sister's experience, either
+personally or through friends; and they had only been revealed to her
+in a few very carefully-selected tales, where they were more the
+necessary machinery than the main interest, for she had been bred up
+in an orphanage by Sister Beata, and had never seen beyond it.  So to
+her Paula's story, little as there was of it, was a perfect romance,
+and it gained in colour when she related it to her senior.
+
+Sister Beata hesitated a little, having rather more knowledge of the
+world, remembering that Vera Prescott was not eighteen years old, and
+doubting whether an underhand intimacy ought to be encouraged; but
+then Mr. Flight had spoken of Mr. Delrio as a highly praiseworthy
+young man, of decided Catholic principles; he was regular at Church
+services, and had dined or supped at the Vicarage.  The intercourse,
+as the girls had explained, had been sanctioned by Mrs. Best in their
+native town, where all parties were well known, and thus there could
+be no harm in letting it continue.  While as to the elder Miss
+Prescott, she was understood to be unduly bent on county and titled
+society, and to be exclusive towards inferiors.  Moreover, she was an
+attendant at St. Andrew's Church, and thus regarded as out of the
+pale of sympathy of the St. Kenelm's flock.
+
+So no obstacle was put in the way of the gossips, for they were
+really nothing more, except that there was admiration of the designs
+for the side chapel, which were of the Scripture children on one
+side, and on the other of child martyrs.  Now and then there was a
+reference to the chilliness and hardship of living with an
+unsympathising sister, and being obliged to go to churches of which
+they did not approve.  Sometimes too there were airy castles of a
+distant future to be shared by the magnificent architect, together
+with Vera, while Paula nursed in the convent with Mother Beata and
+Sister Philomena.
+
+But all this did not prevent an excitement and eager laughter and
+chatter whenever Wilfred Merrifield came in the way, and he certainly
+was enough attracted by Vera's pretty face and lively graces to make
+his sisters think him very absurd; but his mother had seen so many
+passing fancies among her elder sons as to hold that blindness was
+better than serious treatment.
+
+There was the further effect that Magdalen had no suspicion that the
+vehement attraction to St. Kenelm's went beyond the harmless quarter
+of the two nursing Sisters and some hero worship of Mr. Flight.  Miss
+Mohun, who knew everything, had indeed hinted that something foolish
+might be going on there; but Magdalen had not decided on the mutual
+fairness of the two congregations, and deferred investigation till
+Agatha should come home, when she would have a reasonable, if cold,
+person to deal with.  Nor did Thekla's chatter excite any suspicion;
+for the only time when she had been present at a meeting with Mr.
+Delrio, she had been half bribed, half threatened into silence, and
+she was quite schoolgirl enough to feel that such was the natural
+treatment of authority, though she had become really fond of
+"sister."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--GONE OVER TO THE ENEMY
+
+
+
+"Can I teach thee, my beloved? can I teach thee?"
+E. B. BROWNING.
+
+
+Agatha came home in due time, and Magdalen sent her sister to meet
+her at the station, where they found a merry Clipstone party in the
+waggonette waiting for Gillian, who was to come home at the same
+time.  There was so much discussion of the new golf ground, that Vera
+had hardly a hand or a glance to bestow on Mr. Delrio, who jumped out
+of the same train, shook hands with Agatha, and bestirred himself in
+finding her luggage and calling a cab.
+
+"How he is improved!  What a pleasing, gentlemanly fellow he looks!"
+she exclaimed, as she waved her thanks, while driving off in the cab.
+
+"Is he not?" said Paula, while Vera bridled and blushed.  "You will
+be delighted with his work.  I never saw anything more lovely than
+little St. Cyriac the martyr."
+
+"He is taken from Mrs. Henderson's little boy," added Vera; "such a
+dear little darling."
+
+"And his mother is to be done; indeed, he has sketched her for St.
+Juliet."
+
+"Flapsy!  St. Romeo, too, I suppose?"
+
+"Nonsense, Nag!  There really was a St. Juliet or Julitta, and she
+was his mother, and they both were martyrs.  I will tell you all the
+history," began Paula; but Agatha interposed.
+
+"You must like having him down here.  Sister must be much pleased
+with him.  She used to like old Mr. Delrio."
+
+"Well, we have not said much about him," owned Paula.  "He does not
+seem to wish it, or expect to be in with swells."
+
+"We could not stand his being treated like a common house-painter and
+upholsterer," added Vera.
+
+"Surely no one does so," said Agatha.
+
+"Not exactly," said Paula; "at least, he has had supper at St.
+Kenelm's Vicarage with Lady Flight, and luncheon at Carrara with
+Captain and Mrs. Henderson."
+
+"Because he was DOING the child," interposed Vera; "and Thekla says
+that Primrose Merrifield says that her Aunt Jane--that is, old Miss
+Mohun--says that Lady Flight is not a gentlewoman."
+
+"What has that to do with Magdalen?"
+
+"Why, she is so taken up with those swells of hers, especially now
+that there is a talk of Lord Somebody's yacht coming in, that she
+would never treat him as on equal terms, but just keep him at a
+distance, like a mere decorator."
+
+"That seemed to me just what you were doing," said Agatha, "when he
+was so kind and helpful about my box."
+
+"Oh, THEY were all there, and we did not want to be talked of," said
+Vera, blushing.  "He understands."
+
+"He understands," repeated Paula.  "We do see him at the church and
+at the Sisters'.  Those dear Sisters!  There is no nonsense about
+them.  You will love them, Nag."
+
+"Well, it does not seem to me to be treating our own sister Magdalen
+fairly."
+
+"The M.A.!" said Vera, in a tone of wonder.
+
+"No; not to be intimate with a person you do not introduce to her,
+because you do not think she would consider him as on equal terms."
+
+"Sister Beata quite approves," added Paula, sincerely, not guessing
+how little Sister Beata knew of the situation, of which she only
+heard through the medium of her own representations to Sister Mena.
+
+The two girls rushed into the charms of these two Sisters, and the
+plan for an entertainment for the maidens of the Guild of St.
+Milburgha, at which they were to assist.  It lasted up to the gate of
+the Goyle, where Magdalen and Thekla were ready to meet them; and
+they trooped merrily up the hill, Agatha keeping to Magdalen's side
+in a way that struck her as friendly and affectionate.  It seemed to
+be more truly coming HOME than the elder sister had dared to
+anticipate; nor, indeed, did she feel the veiled antagonism to
+herself that had previously disappointed her.
+
+The talk was about St. Robert's, about Oxford in general, the new
+friends, the principal, the games, the debates, the lectures, the
+sermons, the celebrities, the undergraduates, the concerts, the
+chapels, the boats, the architecture; all were touched on for further
+discussion by and by as they sat at the evening meal, and then on the
+chairs and cushions in the verandah; and through all there was no
+exclusion of the elder sister, but rather she was the one who could
+appreciate the interest of what Agatha had seen and heard; and even
+she was allowed to enter into the amusement of an Oxford bon mot,
+sometimes, indeed, when it was far beyond Paula and Vera.
+
+There was no doubt that the term had much improved Agatha even in
+appearance and manner.  She held herself better, pronounced better,
+uttered no slangish expressions, and twice she repressed little
+discourtesies on the part of her sisters, and neglects such as were
+not the offspring of tender familiarity, but of an indifference akin
+to rudeness.  Magdalen had endured, knowing how bad it was for their
+manners, but unwilling to become more of an annoyance than could be
+helped.  The indescribable difference in Agatha's whole manner sent
+Magdalen to bed happier than she had been since the arrival of her
+sisters, and feeling as if Agatha had come to her own side of a
+barrier.
+
+Perhaps it was quite true; for the last two months had been a time of
+growth with the maiden, changing her from a schoolgirl to a student,
+from the "brook to the river."  She had, indeed, studied hard, but
+that she had always done, as being clever, intellectual and
+ambitious.  The difference had been from her intercourse with persons
+slightly her elders, but who did not look on authorities as natural
+enemies, to be tolerated for one's own good.  There had been a
+development of the conscience and soul even in this first term that
+made her regard her elder sister not merely with a sense of
+compulsory gratitude and duty, but with sympathy and fellow feeling,
+which were the more excited when she saw her own chilliness of last
+spring carried further by the two young girls.
+
+So breakfast went off merrily; and after the round of the garden and
+the pets, Agatha promised to come, when summoned, to hear how well
+Thekla could read French.  In the meantime she waited in the morning-
+room, looking at her sisters' books; Vera pushed aside the Venetian
+blind.
+
+"Don't come in that way, Flapsy!" called Paula.  "You'll be heard in
+the dining-room, and the M.A. will tremble at your dusty feet."
+
+"They aren't dusty," said Vera, pulling up the blind with a clatter.
+
+"Aren't they?" laughed Paula, pointing.
+
+"You had better go and wipe them," said Agatha.
+
+"I don't believe in M.A.'s fidgets," returned Vera.
+
+"But I do, in proper deference to the head of the house," said
+Agatha, gravely.
+
+"Murder in Irish!" cried Vera, bouncing away, while Paula argued,
+"Really, Nag, life is not long enough to attend to all the M.A.'s
+little worries."
+
+"Polly, dear, I am afraid we have been on a wrong tack with our
+sister.  I don't like calling her by that name."
+
+"You began it!" exclaimed Vera, dashing in by the door as she spoke.
+
+"I could not have meant it as a nickname to be always in use."
+
+"Oh yes, you did, I remember"--and an argument was beginning, which
+Agatha cut short by saying, "Any way, it is bad taste."
+
+"Nag has been so much among the real M.A. that she is tender about
+their title."
+
+"She wants to be one herself," said Vera; "and so she will if she
+goes on getting learned and faddy."
+
+"In both senses?" said Paula.
+
+Agatha laughed a little, but added, "No, Polly, the thing is that it
+is hardly kind or right to put that sort of label upon a person like
+Magdalen--who has done so much for us--and--"
+
+The perverse young hearts could not bear a touch on the chord of
+gratitude; and Paula burst in, "Label or libel, do you mean?"
+
+"It becomes a libel as you use it."
+
+"Do you want us to call her sister or Magdalen, the whole scriptural
+mouthful at once?"
+
+"I believe that to call her Magdalen or Maidie, as my father did,
+would make her feel nearer to us than the formal way of saying
+'Sister.'"
+
+"I don't mind about changing," said Paula.  "She can never be the
+same to us as dear Sister Mena."
+
+"She is so tiresome," added Vera.  "She bothers so over my music;
+calling out if I make ever so small a slip, and making me go over all
+again."
+
+"Well she may," said Paula.  "She is making little Tick play so
+nicely.  Just listen!  But I can't bear her dragging us off to that
+horrid old Arnscombe Church and the nasty stuffy Sunday school."
+
+"That reminds me," said Agatha; "Gillian Merrifield met a relation of
+Mr. Earl's, who said that Miss Prescott had brought quite new life
+and spirit to the poor old man, who had been getting quite out of
+heart for want of any one to help and sympathise with him."
+
+"Then he ought to make his services more Catholic," said Paula.  "But
+nothing will wean her from the old parochial idea.  Why, she would
+not let me give my winter stockings to Sister Beata's poor girls, but
+made me darn them and put them by."
+
+"Yes, and mine, which were bad enough to give away, she made me darn
+first," cried Vera.  "She is ever so much worse than the superlative
+about mending one's clothes."
+
+"There ought to be another degree of comparison," said Paula,--
+"Botheratissima!"
+
+"For, only think!" said Vera.  "She won't let us have new hats, but
+only did up the old ones, and not with feathers, though there is such
+a love at Tebbitts's at Rockstone."
+
+"She says it is cruel," said Paula.
+
+"Cruel to me, I am sure; and what difference does it make when the
+birds are once killed?"
+
+"Well, she did give us those lovely wreaths of lilies," said Paula.
+
+"Of course, but nothing to make them stylish!  What's the good of
+being out if one is to have nothing chic?  And she won't let me have
+a hockey outfit.  She says she must see more of it to be able to
+judge whether to let us play!"
+
+"That just means seeing whether her dear Merrifields do," said Paula.
+
+"Gillian did at St. Catherine's.  But you will know soon.  Did I not
+hear something about a garden party?"
+
+"Oh, yes; she is talking of one, but it will be all swells and
+croquet, and deadly dull."
+
+"I thought you seemed to be getting on well with the swells, if you
+mean the Merrifields, especially Wilfred, if that is his name."
+
+"Bil--Bil!  Oh, he is all very well," said Vera, "if he would not be
+always so silly and come after me!  As if I cared!"
+
+"And only think," said Paula, "that she was going to have it on the
+very day that St. Milburga's Guild has their festival!  Just as if it
+was on purpose!"
+
+"Did you ask her to keep clear of your engagements?"
+
+"I told her, but I don't think she listened."  And as another
+grievance suggested itself to Vera, she declared, "And she won't let
+us join the Girls' Magazine Club, because she saw one she didn't like
+on somebody's table.  As if we were little babies!"
+
+"She won't let us order books at the library, but gets such awfully
+slow ones," chimed in Paula, "or only baby stories fit for Thekla.
+She made me return that book dear Sister Mena lent me, because she
+said it was Roman Catholic."
+
+"And hasn't she got Thomas a Kempis on her table? and I'm sure he was
+Roman Catholic.  There's consistency!"
+
+"You don't understand," began Agatha.  "He was a great Saint before
+the Catholics became so Roman."
+
+"Oh, never mind!  It is anything to thwart us," cried Vera.  "It is
+ever so much worse than school."
+
+"But," began Agatha, and the tone of consideration to that one
+conjunction caused an outburst.  "Oh, Nag, Nag, if you are gone over
+to the enemy, what will life be worth?"
+
+As that terrible question was propounded, in burst Thekla with, "Oh,
+Nag, Nag, they are cutting the hay in the high torr field, and sister
+says we may go and see them before I read my French."
+
+"Oh!" cried Vera, with a prolongation into a groan, "is she going to
+be tiresome?"
+
+"She has come to be quite a don," said Paula; "but never mind, we
+will soon make her all right again."
+
+The two sisters had to go to their different classes in the
+afternoon, and wanted Agatha to go with them; but it was a very warm
+day, and she preferred resting in the garden, and, to Magdalen's
+surprise and pleasure, conversation with her.  At first it was about
+Oxford matters, very interesting, but public and external to the
+home, and it did not draw the cords materially closer; but when
+Thekla had privately decided that even hanging upon the newly
+recovered Nag was not worth the endurance of anything so tedious, and
+had gone off to assist her beloved old gardener in gathering green
+gooseberries, Magdalen observed that she was a very pleasant little
+pupil, and was getting on very well, especially with arithmetic.
+
+"That was the strong point in the junior classes," said Agatha;
+"better taught than it was in my time."
+
+"I wish she could have more playfellows," said Magdalen.  "She would
+like to go to the High School at Rockquay, but there are foundations
+I should wish to lay before having her out of my own hands."
+
+"I should think you were her best playfellow.  She seems very fond of
+you, and very happy."
+
+"Yes," said Magdalen, rather wistfully.  "I think she generally is
+so."
+
+"Maidie! may I call you by the old home name?"  And as Magdalen
+answered with a kiss and tearful smile, "Do tell me, please, if Polly
+and Flapsy are nice to you?"
+
+Magdalen was taken by surprise at the pressure of the hand and the
+eyes that gazed into her face full of expression.
+
+She could not keep the drops from rushing to her own eyes, though she
+smiled through them and said, "As nice as they know how."
+
+"I am afraid I know what that means," said Agatha.
+
+"If I only knew how to prevent their looking on me as their
+governess," continued Magdalen; "but I must have got into the groove,
+and I suppose I do not always remember how much must be tolerated if
+love has to be won; and Paula is a thoroughly good girl."
+
+"Yes, I am sure she wishes to be," said Agatha.  "Are those Sisters
+nice that she talks of so eagerly?"
+
+"They are very excellent women, but somehow I should have had more
+confidence in them if they were not unattached, or belonged to some
+regular Sisterhood.  I wish she had taken instead to Mysie
+Merrifield, who is more of my sort; but no one can control those
+likings."
+
+"I don't think Gillian very attractive; she is so wrapped up in her
+work," confessed Agatha.
+
+"You will see them all, I hope, for I am giving a garden party next
+week, perhaps.  Have not they told you?"
+
+"Oh, yes; but Polly seemed bent on its not clashing with some
+festival at St. Kenelm's."
+
+"Therefore I had not fixed the day till I had heard what is settled.
+I have invited people for Thursday, which will hardly interfere."
+
+"Did you know that the young man who is painting the ceiling at St.
+Kenelm's Church is old Mr. Delrio's son Hubert?"
+
+"Indeed!  Is he staying here?  We must ask him to come up to luncheon
+or to tea.  I am glad he is doing so well.  I heard Eccles and
+Beamster were to do the decorations; I suppose they employ him.  I
+should think it was a very good line to get into."
+
+This was on a Friday; and the next day Magdalen proposed driving down
+in the cool of the evening to see the decorations at St. Kenelm's and
+their artist; but it turned out that he was gone to spend Sunday at
+the Cathedral city, and all that could be done was to admire the
+designs, and listen to Paula's enthusiastic explanation.
+
+Magdalen consulted Agatha whether to send young Delrio a card for the
+garden party; but they decided that it was too late for an invitation
+to be sent, though a spoken one might have been possible.  Besides,
+it was not likely to be pleasant to a stranger who knew no one but
+the Flights and Hendersons, and those professionally.  Agatha told
+her sisters, and with one voice they declared that they would not see
+him patronised; while Agatha's acute senses doubted whether Vera's
+objection was not secretly based on the embarrassment of a double
+flirtation with him and with Wilfred Merrifield.
+
+Indeed, Vera told her gaily:  "Only think, Nag, I did have a jolly
+ride on the M.A.'s bike after all."
+
+"Indeed!  Then she lent it to you."
+
+"Not she!  But she and the little kid were safe gone to Avoncester,
+and Paula was with her dear Sisters, so Will and I took a jolly spin
+along the cliff road; and it was such screaming fun.  Only once we
+thought we saw old Sir Jasper coming, and we got behind a barn, but
+it turned out to be only a tripper, and we had such a laugh."
+
+"Paula does not know?"
+
+"What would be the good of telling her, with her little nun's
+schoolgirl mind?  She would only make no end of a fuss about a mere
+bit of fun and nonsense."
+
+"I think if Wilfred Merrifield was afraid to meet his father, it
+showed a sense of wrong."
+
+"Sir Jasper is a horrid old martineau, who never gives them any peace
+at home, but is always after them."
+
+"A martinet, I suppose you mean.  I don't think that makes it any
+better.  I should not be happy till Magdalen knew."
+
+"Why, no harm was done!  There's her precious machine all safe!  It
+was just for the fun of the thing, and to try how it goes.  One can't
+be kept in like a blessed baby!  She never has guessed it.  That's
+the fun of it."
+
+"I would not return her kindness in such an unladylike way when she
+is trusting you, Vera."
+
+Did Magdalen know what had been done?  She did guess, for there was a
+mark on the wheel that she did not remember to have known before, and
+it cost her a bitter pang of mistrust; but she abstained from
+inquiries, thinking that they might only do harm.  But she bought a
+chain for her bicycle; and Agatha felt more shame than did Vera, who
+tried to believe herself amused by her tacit sense of emancipation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--FLOWN
+
+
+
+"Till now thy soul hath been all glad and gay,
+Bid it arise and look on grief to-day."
+ADELAIDE PROCTOR.
+
+
+There was a Guild at St. Kenelm's which was considered by the
+promoters to be superior to the Girls' Friendly Society, and which
+comprised about a dozen young women, who attended classes held by
+Sister Beata, and occasional modest entertainments given by Lady
+Flight.
+
+One of these was to take place the day before Miss Prescott's garden
+party.  It was to be given at Carrara, the very pretty grounds on the
+top of the cliff, belonging to Captain Henderson, the managing
+partner in the extensive marble works of Mr. White, who lived at
+Rocca Marina, in the Riviera.  Mrs. Henderson had resided in Mr.
+Flight's parish, and been a member of his congregation, and while he
+was absent for a day or two she had put her garden at the service of
+the Guild of St. Milburga's for the day.
+
+Of course Vera and Paula were delighted to assist; but Thekla was too
+young for the amusements of grown-up maidens, and was much better
+pleased to help her two elder sisters in preparations for the next
+day, placing tennis nets, arranging croquet hoops, mustering chairs
+by the verandah, and adorning tables with flowers.  Agatha's
+assistance was heartily given, as making it her own concern, and, for
+that reason above all others, it was a happy day, though a very
+tiring one, to Magdalen, in spite of the sultry atmosphere and the
+sight of lurid-looking clouds over the moors, which did not augur
+well for the next day's weather, and caused all the arrangement of
+chairs and rugs to be prudently broken up and deposited under the
+verandah.
+
+This was done, and the evening meal had been taken, and Thekla had
+gone to bed before some flashes of lightning made the two sisters
+wish to see the other pair at home, especially as Vera was much
+afraid of lightning, and Paula apt to be made quite ill by it.
+
+The storm rolled on, bringing violent gusts of wind and hail, though
+not at the very nearest, and such a hurricane of wind and rain ensued
+that the two watchers concluded that the two girls must have been
+housed for the night by some of the friends at Rock Quay, and it was
+near midnight, when just as they had gone to their rooms, a carriage
+was heard ascending the hill, and they had reached the door before
+Paulina sprang out with the cry, "Is she come home?"  Then at sight
+of the blank faces of dismay, she seized hold of Agatha's hands and
+began to sob.  Mr. Flight had stepped out of the car at the same
+moment, and answered the incoherent questions and exclamations.
+
+"Young Delrio offered to take photographs of the party, and that was
+the last time she was seen."
+
+"Yes," sobbed Paula, "Sister Mena saw her there.  We were trying to
+get up croquet, and then I missed her.  I tried to find her when the
+lightning began, but I could not find her anywhere, though I looked
+in all the summer-houses!"
+
+"At Mrs. Henderson's? or Miss Mohun's? or the Sisters'?" asked
+Magdalen, catching alarm from each denial.  "She might have gone home
+with one of the girls."
+
+"She would be wild in such a storm," said Agatha, "and not know what
+she was about."
+
+"Sister Beata and I have gone to each house," said Mr. Flight.
+
+"When did you say you saw her last?"
+
+"I saw her when we were grouped," said Paula; "Sister Mena, when she
+was helping him to put up his photos."
+
+"The strange thing is," said Mr. Flight, "though no doubt it will be
+explained, that Delrio is missing too."
+
+"Hubert Delrio!" exclaimed Agatha.  "Impossible!  He must have taken
+her into the church to be out of the storm."
+
+"We have tried," said the clergyman.  And as the round of suggestions
+began to be despairingly reiterated, he said, hesitating, "Miss Mohun
+told me that she thought she had seen a boat, Captain Henderson's,
+she believed, in the cave with some one rocking in it; and certainly
+that little boat was there, when on the hope, if it can be called a
+hope, I ran down the steps to look."
+
+"Would it not have been put into the boathouse out of the rain?" said
+Agatha.
+
+"The gardener was gone home, out of reach round the point, but we
+shall know to-morrow."
+
+"He thinks they may have rowed out and been caught in the storm,"
+cried Paula, bursting into fresh weeping; and Magdalen saw the
+conjecture confirmed by Mr. Flight's countenance.
+
+"I am afraid it is the least distressing--the least unsatisfactory
+idea," said he, in much agitation.  "I thought Mr. Delrio an
+excellent young man; and she," indicating his companion, "tells me
+you know him and his family well."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Agatha and Magdalen in one breath.  "We have known
+his father all our lives.  Nothing can be more respectable."
+
+"And Hubert is as steady and good as possible," continued Agatha.
+"His mother used to come to Mrs. Best and praise him, till we were
+quite tired of his name; I am sure he is all right."
+
+"Or I should be much deceived in him," said the clergyman.
+
+Yet there was an idea in Paulina's mind.  Could Vera have poured out
+such an exaggerated tale of oppression and unhappiness as to have
+induced her old playfellow to carry her off to his mother at Filsted?
+She had given some such hint to Mr. Flight on the way; but he had not
+seemed to hear or attend, and he was now promising to let the sisters
+know as soon as possible in the morning whether anything had been
+discovered, and to telegraph to Filsted and to the office in London
+if he should see occasion.
+
+Then he drove off, in what would have been almost daylight but for
+the pelting of the storm; and after a vain attempt to make Paula
+swallow some nourishment, Magdalen thought it kinder to let Agatha
+carry her off to bed, and then she confessed, what really gave a
+certain hope, that the pair had been in the habit of murmuring
+against "sister" so much that, considering poor Vera's propensity to
+strong language, it was quite possible that Hubert might think her
+cruelly oppressed, and for a freak carry her off to his mother to be
+consoled.
+
+Agatha tried to believe it, for the sake of hushing the exhausted
+Paula, who almost went into hysterics, as she laughed at the notion
+of to-morrow's telegram that Vera was safe at Filsted; and then
+allowed herself to be calmed enough to sleep, while Agatha revolved
+the notion, but found herself unable seriously to believe, that
+sufficient grievance could be brought against sister to induce any
+man in his senses to take such a step.  But then Paula had inferred
+that he was a lover, and Agatha did not know of what lovers might be
+capable, and she could not but blame herself for not having given
+more importance to the semi-confidences of her sisters on the first
+day of her arrival.  It was all misery; and the two poor girls could
+find no solace in the morning, save in talking to Magdalen, though
+that involved the confession of all the murmurs against her, the
+distrust of her kindness, and the explanation of the interviews,
+which, as far as Paula had ever witnessed them, were absolutely
+harmless, the only pity being in their concealment.
+
+Magdalen was manifestly as wretched as they, or even more so, being
+convinced of her own shortcoming in not having won the affection or
+confidence that would have made all open between them.  She could not
+understand why Hubert Delrio should not have been made known to her.
+
+"We thought," said Paula, "we thought you might not think him enough-
+-enough--of a gentleman for your sort of society."
+
+"I think you might have trusted me to know what was due to an old
+friend," said Magdalen "but, oh, I ought to have made you feel that
+we could think together."
+
+"Perhaps," said Agatha, "there was a little consciousness on poor
+dear Vera's part that she did not want you to know the terms she was
+on."
+
+They had tried only to let Thekla know that they were much alarmed
+because Vera had gone out in a boat and not returned.  It was
+observable that, on the principle that where there is life there is
+hope, Paula clung to the notion that Vera's having fled to Filsted;
+while the two elder sisters, perhaps because they better knew what
+such a flight might seem to others, would almost have preferred to
+suppose there had been a fatal accident in the midst of youthful,
+innocent sport.
+
+The two were lingering sadly over their uneaten breakfast, talking
+more freely when they had sent Thekla to feed her pets, when Mr.
+Flight came up on his bicycle; but it was plain at the first moment
+that he had no good news.
+
+Nothing had been heard.  It only appeared that one of the young
+gardeners at Carrara had taken Captain Henderson's boat without
+leave, to fetch one of the girls, but on entering the cove had found
+the boathouse locked.  He had moored the boat to a stake for want of
+the ring that secured it within.  When the storm threatened he ran
+down to recover it, but it was gone, and he had concluded that the
+gardeners had put it into the boathouse.  It now appeared that they
+had not seen it, and were very angry at its having been meddled with.
+An oar had drifted up with the morning tide, and had been recognised
+as belonging to the boat; but such a gale was blowing that it was
+impossible to put out to sea or make any search round the coast.
+Words could hardly describe the distress of Mr. Flight or of his
+ladies at not having better looked after the young girl; Sister Beata
+for never having thoroughly attended to the matter; and Sister Mena
+for having accepted confidences which, if she had only guessed it,
+told her more than there really was to be known.  Both these two were
+inclined to the elopement idea, partly because it was the least
+shocking, and partly because they had looked at Vera's grievances
+through her own spectacles, and partly from their unlimited notions
+of young men's wickedness.  Their vicar was not of the same opinion,
+knowing Hubert better, and besides having found his work, his orders
+to his subordinates, and the belongings at the lodgings in a state
+that showed that whatever he had done had been unpremeditated.
+Sending off notes to stop the garden party was a sort of occupation,
+broken by many signs, much listening, and much sorrowful discussion,
+not quite vain, since it made Paulina more one with Magdalen than
+ever before.  Poor old Mr. Delrio arrived in the afternoon, a thin,
+grey-haired and bearded old man, who could only make it too certain
+that Paula's theory of the innocent flight to Filsted was impossible.
+Moreover, he was as certain as a father could be, intimate with, and
+therefore confident of, his eldest son, that though Hubert might
+indulge in a little lively flirtation, it could never be otherwise
+than perfectly harmless.  In the terrible suspense and restlessness,
+he went vibrating about in the torrents of moorland rain between Rock
+Quay and the Goyle, on the watch for telegrams from the office in
+London or his wife at home, or for the discovery of anything from the
+sea, or searching in his son's lodgings, where nothing was found that
+did not show him to have been a pure-hearted young man, devoted to
+his art, and fond of poetry.  Sundry compositions were in the
+blotting-book, one, indeed, to Vera's name, under the supposition (a
+wrong one) {100} that it meant "true," but mostly rough copies of a
+poem about the Saints Julitta and her child Cyriac.  Hope sank as
+another stormy day rose; and still the poor old artist lingered in
+hopes of news by some returning craft which might have picked up the
+derelict.  His chief comfort was in walking about between the showers
+with Magdalen, as an old friend, and trying to think of the two as
+innocent creatures, engulfed like mayflies in the stream.
+
+Sister Mena came over, wanting to join Paula in bewailing entreaties;
+but Paula, in youthful hard-hearted wilfulness, declared that it was
+impossible to see her; and it fell to Magdalen to try to discuss the
+grief with her.
+
+It turned out that Mr. Flight had spoken severely to her and to the
+far less implicated Sister Beata, declaring his confidence in them
+destroyed, so that they had begun to consider of throwing up their
+work in his parish.  "And it was all my fault," said Mena; "Sister
+Beata really knew nothing, or hardly anything of what Vera told me."
+
+"Indeed, I can quite understand that you had hardly experience enough
+to know that it might be wiser not to encourage what was not quite
+open."
+
+"But I thought,--I thought you--"
+
+"That I was unkind and unsympathising."
+
+"Oh, you never could have been--"
+
+"Indeed I never meant to be, but I am afraid it seemed so to my young
+sisters.  I can quite see how you thought you were acting kindly."
+
+"Oh, that is so good of you."
+
+"And perhaps I, being only an elder sister, you would not feel that I
+was the only authority the poor girls have to look to; and that it
+would have been kinder to help them to be content with me."
+
+"I did not know what you could be," said Mena, greatly soothed and
+surprised by her caresses.
+
+"We often do go on in ignorance, and get on a wrong tack; but you
+know God pardons our mistakes, and I do believe that you will be
+wiser for all this sorrow, and better able to rise to your work.  I
+am sure, however it ends, that is the reason that such blows are sent
+to us."
+
+Mena went back sorrowful and chastened, but tenderly hopeful.  If
+Miss Prescott could forgive, surely Mr. Flight could, and One still
+greater.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--ADRIFT
+
+
+
+"She splashed, and she dashed, and she turned herself round,
+And heartily wished herself safe on the ground."
+JANE TAYLOR.
+
+
+And where were the missing pair?
+
+Vera had lingered about, fancying she was helping to pack the
+photographic apparatus, while the others dispersed.  Presently,
+seeing no one near, Hubert Delrio said, in a gentle diffident voice,
+"It would be a great pleasure to me if I might ask you to listen to
+the verses on St. Cyriac and his mother that the design brought with
+it."
+
+"I should love it better than anything," said Vera, highly flattered.
+
+"If you would come down this way, there is a charming secluded cove,
+where we should be free from interruption."
+
+"How deliciously romantic!  Quite stunning!" cried Vera, as her
+cavalier conducted her down a steep path along the side of the cliff
+to the stony beach, where a few red rocks had been manipulated into a
+tiny harbour, with a boathouse for the little skiff in which Captain
+Henderson was wont to go round to the marble works on the other side
+of the headland.  The boat looked very inviting as it lay swinging
+gently in the sluggish waves in the advancing shade of the tall
+cliff; and Vera exclaimed with delight as she was assisted into it,
+and placed herself comfortably on the cushion, with one hand dabbling
+in the cool translucent wave.  Hubert Delrio opened his manuscript
+and began to read his ballad, if so it was to be called, being the
+history of the little boy of four years old, who, being taken with
+his mother before the tribunal at Tarsus, was lifted on the
+propraetor's knee, but struggled, crying out, "I am a Christian!"
+till the propraetor, in a rage, hurled him down.  His skull was
+fractured on the marble pavement, and his mother gave thanks for his
+soul's safety, when she too was sentenced to be beheaded.  Great
+pains had been taken with the noble-minded tale; and the verses had
+considerable merit, more, perhaps, than Vera could appreciate.  But
+to read such a production of his own, in such surroundings, to the
+auditor whom youthful fancy most preferred, was such luxury to both
+that it was no wonder that under the broad shady hat with the lily
+wreath she was nodding in the gentle breeze, the lapping of the
+waves, and the soft cadence of the poetry, till at an effective
+passage on the mother's death, the poet looked up, expecting to
+receive a responsive glance from those blue eyes.
+
+Not only were they hidden, but the cliff was farther off.  The
+mooring rope and the stake were dragging behind in the water.  The
+tide had turned, and the boat was already out of reach of the rock
+where it had been drawn up.  His exclamation of dismay awoke Vera,
+who would have started up with a little shriek, but for his, "Don't!
+Don't!  I'll row back."
+
+But he was a landsman, whose only knowledge of the water was in an
+occasional bathe, or in a river steamer; and his first attempt at
+placing the oars in the rowlocks resulted in one falling overboard,
+while he helplessly grasped the other; and Vera screamed again.
+
+"Don't be frightened, my dear!  Dearest, don't!  We must be seen.
+Some one will come out and help us."
+
+"Can't you get on with one oar?  They do in pictures."
+
+"Punting?  Yes, but there must be a bottom.  No, don't move, whatever
+you do.  There can't be any danger.  Fishermen must be about.  Or we
+shall be seen from the cliffs."
+
+"They are getting farther off!  Can't you shout?"
+
+Hubert shouted, and Vera added her shriller cries; but all in vain,
+and the outgoing tide was carrying them, not towards the quay and
+marble rocks, but farther to sea.  The waves grew rougher and had
+crests of foam, and discomfort began.  Once the feather of a steamer
+was seen on the horizon.  They waved handkerchiefs and redoubled
+their shouts, and Hubert had to hold his companion to prevent her
+from leaping up; but they never were within the vessel's ken, and she
+went on her way, while the sea bore them farther and farther.
+
+The shore was growing dim and indistinct, the sun was sinking, and
+the cloud, that had at first shown only a golden border, was lifting
+tall perpendicular masses, while the tossing of the little boat
+became more and more distressing.  Anxiety and sense of
+responsibility kept Hubert from feeling physical discomfort; but Vera
+began to cry, and to declare that it would be the death of her if she
+were not landed immediately.
+
+"If it were only possible!" sighed Delrio.
+
+"There must be some way!  You are so stupid!  Oh!  There was a flash
+of lightning."
+
+"Summer lightning."
+
+"No such thing!  There will be a storm, and we shall be drowned.  Oh,
+I wish I had never listened to your nonsense, and got into this
+horrible boat."  She was in a state for scolding, and scold she did,
+as the clouds rose higher, and sheets of lightning more decided.
+"How could you?  You, who know nothing about boats, and going on, on,
+with those horrid tiresome verses--not minding anything--I wish I had
+never come near you!"
+
+Vainly the poor young fellow tried to get in a word of consolation;
+it only made her scold the more, till there was no question that the
+storm was raging overhead; the hail rattled and splashed, the waves
+raised them to a height, then subsided into endless depths; the
+thunder pealed, and she clung to Hubert, too frightened for
+screaming.  His fear was that the cockleshell of a boat should fill
+and founder; he tried to bale out the water with his hat, and to make
+her assist, but she seemed incapable, and he could only devise laying
+her down in the bottom of the boat with his coat over her, hiding her
+face in terror.  Her hat had long ago been blown away, and her hair
+was flapping about.  Ejaculations were in his heart, if not on his
+lips, and once or twice she cried out something like, "Save me!" but
+in general it was, "We are sinking!  Hold me!  We are going!  Paula!
+Nag!" clutching at his legs, so as to hamper him in the baling out
+the water.
+
+The hail passed, but there was a solid sheet of rain descending on
+them, undistinguishable from the foam that rushed over them as they
+went down, down, down.  Vera was silenced; and Hubert, drenched and
+nearly beaten out of life, almost welcomed every downward plunge as
+the last, tried to commend his spirit, and was amazed to find his
+little boat lifted up again, and the black darkness not so absolute.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--"THE KITTIWAKE"
+
+
+
+"Good luck to your fishing!  Whom watch ye to-night?
+A man of mean, or a man of might?"--SCOTT.
+
+
+Something black was before the tossed boat!  Yes, and light, not
+lightning.  A human voice seemed to be on the blast.  Hubert Delrio
+essayed to shout, but his voice was gone, or was blown away.  He
+understood that a vessel must be above him.  Would it finish all by
+running him down?  He perceived that he was bidden to catch
+something.  A rope!  His benumbed hands and the heaving of the boat
+made him fail once, twice, and he was being swept away as at last he
+did grasp a rope, and was drawn, as it ground his hands, close to the
+dark wall that rose above, with lights visible.
+
+"Cheer up! cheer up!" he cried to Vera.  "Thank God, we are saved!"
+
+Response from her there was none; but he could hear the yell of
+inquiry from ahead, and answered, "Here!  Two!  A woman!"
+
+A second rope was lowered.  "Lash her to it."  But as it was evident
+that Delrio could do nothing but hold on, and that his companion was
+helpless, a sailor descended from no great elevation, and, in another
+moment, the senseless girl was hoisted up and received on deck; and,
+with some assistance, Hubert was also on board, thinking of nothing
+but the breathless question, "Is she safe?"
+
+"Oh, yes!  She will soon come round!  Here!  They will see to her."
+As she was carried away, and Hubert had a perception that she was
+received by female hands, but he was utterly exhausted, and unable to
+see or speak, till some stimulant had been poured down his throat,
+and even then he could hardly ask, "Is she safe?
+
+"Yes, yes!  All right!  Reviving fast!  Here!  Take some more!  Bed
+is ready!  Get rid of those clothes!"  It was an elderly, grey-haired
+man who spoke, and Hubert was in no condition to resist, as the yacht
+was pitching considerably, though after the boat the motion was
+almost rest.  He instinctively shook his head at the glass, but
+swallowed what was forced upon him, and managed to say, "Thanks--
+sitting in boat--drifted off--Rock Quay."
+
+"All right!  Never mind.  Take him down.  My berth, Ivy--Jephson.
+Tuck him in.  Don't let him speak!  Never mind, my lad!  We will hear
+all about it to-morrow!"
+
+Meantime, Vera, though reviving, was conscious of very little, save a
+soft pillow, tender hands, and warm drink that choked her; and then
+she fell asleep, though still she was aware of a strange tossing
+going on all night, and by and by she found herself secured into a
+sort of narrow shelf, and murmuring female voices were at hand.  As
+she moved, she heard, "There, you are better now.  You can take this,
+then you will be more comfortable."
+
+Her eyes had opened to a curious sort of twilight, and there was a
+fair girlish head over her, with a sweet smiling face.  An elderly
+weather-beaten face in a hood next appeared, and a brown hand holding
+a cup closed over the top, in invalid fashion, and a kind strong arm
+slightly raised her with, "There, there, poor dear!  The spirit, my
+lady dear, the spirit!  That's right, now then."
+
+"You MUST be a baby;" and a merry reassuring smile broke out as the
+draught was administered.  Vera tasted, thanked, swallowed, felt
+giddy, and lay down, hearing a lively bit of self-gratulation.
+"There, Mrs. Griggs, I'm getting my sea legs!" followed by an
+ignominious stumble as Mrs. Griggs caught the cup in good time as the
+vessel gave a lurch which completed Vera's awakening in the fear of
+being shaken out on the floor.
+
+She looked round to find herself in a tiny room, cushioned
+throughout, with strange dancing confused light coming in, and the
+few articles of furniture carefully secured.  Two young figures were
+there, both dressed in stout blue serge, with white trimmings; one,
+the darker, beside her bed, had a face full of kindness and
+solicitude, yet of fun dimpling over continually; the other, even in
+that dim light, striking Vera as something out of the loveliest
+visions of romance, so fair and beautiful was the countenance.
+
+A man's voice was at the door.  "Fly!  Francie!  How is she?"
+
+"Much better!  Nearly well!  Good morning, Papa dear.  Is he all
+right?"
+
+"As sound as a bell!  Ha!"  As the door escaped, the curtain over it
+shook, and he nearly fell against it, saving himself with his hands.
+"That was exercise!"  As the young girls came tumbling up and
+disappeared behind the curtain, where, however, the voices could be
+plainly heard, "Had any sleep to-night or this morning?"
+
+"Between whiles!  O yes!  All our bones are still whole, as I hope
+yours and Ivy's are."
+
+"Come and see.  Griggs is getting breakfast under difficulties
+insurmountable to any one but a sea-grasshopper!  I came to call you
+damsels, and present my inquiries to Miss Prescott."
+
+"She will soon be all right!  Francie and I are so proud of having
+had a real downright adventure."
+
+"I trust she will not be the worse, and will--excuse me, and regard
+me as incognito."
+
+This was said as another lurch drove the grizzled head into the
+cabin; and recovering in another upheaval they all disappeared,
+leaving Vera in a dreaming state, whence she was only half roused
+when Mrs. Griggs returned to administer breakfast, so far as she
+could taste it, under exhortations, pettings, and scoldings; and she
+very soon fell asleep again, and was thus left, sensible all the time
+of tossings and buffetings, but so worn out by the five hours of the
+boat, and so liable to be made ill by the motion of the vessel, that
+it was thought best to leave her to sleep in her berth.
+
+She was only aware of voices above talking and laughing, or sailor
+calls being shouted out, or now and then of some one coming to look
+at her, and insisting on her taking food.
+
+It was not till late in the afternoon that she awoke from what seemed
+like a strange long uneasy dream, and found one of the girls sitting
+by her and telling her she was better now.
+
+"Yes," said Vera, trying to raise herself, finding something over her
+head, and falling back on the pillow; "but what is it?  Where is
+this?"
+
+"THIS is somewhere out in the Channel, near off Guernsey, Griggs
+says, but we cannot put in anywhere till the gale goes down."
+
+"What is it?  Is it a ship, then?"
+
+"O yes," said the girl, laughing; "a yacht, the Kittiwake.  Sir
+Robert Audley has lent it to my brother, and we are all going to see
+the Hebrides and Staffa and Iona."
+
+"Not to take me all up there?" groaned poor Vera, in horror.  "Can't
+you put me out somewhere, anywhere?"
+
+"Don't be afraid," was the much-amused reply.  "As soon as ever we
+can put in anywhere, we can telegraph to Rock Quay and put you ashore
+to go home; but we can only run before the wind while the sea is so
+high.  I wish you could come on deck, it is so jolly!"
+
+"Oh! it was too dreadful!"
+
+"Beating about in the boat!  It must have been, Mr. Delrio told us."
+
+"It was so stupid in him never to see that we had got loose, and were
+drifting off," said Vera, who had never thought of inquiring after
+him.
+
+"My father and Griggs think he behaved quite like a hero," was the
+answer.  "He must have managed very well to keep you afloat, and
+saved you all this time."
+
+"I suppose so," said Vera.  "We always did know him, or I should not
+have let him get me into that boat, when he minded nothing but his
+verses."
+
+"Those verses, they came all limp and wet out of his pocket, and
+Francie made him let her dry them and copy them out; and she is so
+delighted with them.  It really is well it is too late to call the
+baby Cyriac."
+
+"The baby?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  We had to leave him behind, though Francie was ready to
+break her heart over it; but they said that nothing would do for
+Ivinghoe--after this second influenza--but a sea voyage, so she had
+to make up her mind to leave him to my mother."
+
+Vera was in a state of bewilderment, caring a great deal more for
+herself and her own sensations than for any of her surroundings; and
+her next question was, "When do you think we shall be out of this?"
+
+"We shall put into harbour somewhere as soon as the wind lulls.  We
+cannot venture yet, though we do steam; and then we can telegraph.  I
+am longing to relieve Miss Prescott.  We can take you home all the
+way.  We were on our way into Rock Quay to take up Mysie Merrifield
+if she can go.  It really was a wonderful and most merciful thing
+that we made you out just as it was getting light before running you
+down.  My father saw you first, and old Griggs would hardly believe
+it, but then we heard Mr. Delrio's hail!  But it was a terrible
+business getting you up the ship's side."
+
+"I did not know anything about it.  It was so dreadful in the
+lightning.  And my new hat was blown away.  And what is become of all
+my clothes?"
+
+"Mrs. Griggs has them, and is drying them.  We will lend you a hat to
+land in."
+
+"Oh, when we do!  I wish I had never got into that boat, but Hubert
+Delrio did persuade me so."
+
+"And he is an old friend?"
+
+"Yes, he is come to paint the roof of St. Kenelm's Church, and we
+want to be attentive to him because my eldest sister would be sure to
+be cross and keep him at a distance, being only that sort of wall
+painter, you know, and his father a drawing master."
+
+"My father is very much pleased with him, and thinks him a very
+superior young man.  They have been sitting on deck together, talking
+as much as they could about architecture and Italy, with their breath
+all blown away every moment.  There!  You are really getting better!
+If you would eat something and come on deck you would be well!  I
+will call the sea gnat, and see what we have."
+
+It was all very wonderful to Vera; and she began to be interested and
+to forget her troubles.  A slice of very salt ham was brought to her
+and a glass of something, she did not know what, and asked if she
+could have some tea.
+
+"You could have tea if you like, but there's no milk.  You see, we
+ought to have been in at Rock Quay yesterday evening, and our stores
+were not adapted to hold out any longer!  We shall have another
+curious experience, though Mrs. Griggs says it won't be so bad as
+once when they were off the coast of Ireland, and when they put into
+a bay with a queer name, all Kill and Bally, they could get nothing
+but potatoes and goat's milk."
+
+"Who is Mrs. Griggs?"
+
+"She is wife to the sailing master; and, like the Norsemen, her home
+is on the wave, at least in the yacht, for she always lives in it,
+and her cabin is quite a sight; she is great fun, she cooks when
+there is anything to cook, and is stewardess and everything.  Francie
+and I knew a maid would be a vain encumbrance, so we are taking care
+of ourselves, and, if you will let me, I will try and set your hair
+to rights."
+
+It was in a fearful tangle, after five hours at sea, and many more in
+the berth in the cabin; but Vera was able to sit up in a dainty
+dressing-gown, and submit to treatment not quite that of a
+hairdresser, but made as lively as could be by little jokes and
+kindly apologies at any extra hard pull at the knots, which really
+seemed "as if a witch had twined them;" and the two began to feel
+well acquainted with each other over the operation, though Vera was
+somewhat impressed when she observed that the brush was ivory
+handled.
+
+Her bicycling skirt was in tolerable condition, but her once delicate
+blue blouse was past renovation, so she was invested with a borrowed
+white one, and led in triumph to the saloon, just as the beautiful
+"Francie" came to call "Phyllis," and give a helping hand.  There
+were two gentlemen besides Hubert Delrio, and there was a general
+rejoicing welcome; but Vera did not think Hubert made half enough
+inquiries or apologies, before she was seated at the table, where
+everything was secured, and the fare was not very sumptuous or
+various, being chiefly some concoction of rice and scraps of salt
+beef, which Francie said was a shame, eating up the poor sailors'
+fare; also there was potted meat, and cheese, but all the fresh bread
+was gone, and they praised Mrs. Griggs' construction of ham and rice
+with all the warmth and drollery each could contribute.  Vera began
+to be puzzled as to who every one was, for no names except Phyl, Fly,
+Francie and Ivy were heard, and the merry grey-haired head of the
+family was "Father" or "Papa" to every one, except of course Mr.
+Delrio, who, however, seemed at his ease, and took a fair share in
+the talk, and once or twice Vera thought he said, "my lord," but she
+did not believe it.
+
+"I find you are a friend of a special pet of mine, Mysie Merrifield,"
+said the father.
+
+"I know her a little," stammered Vera, "but Primrose best."
+
+"Nearer your age, eh?  But Mysie is our gem!  It looks fit for going
+on deck."
+
+After the apology for a dinner, the young married pair went their
+way, he to endeavour to add a fish to their provisions, she to look
+on; the father and Delrio went where the latter could best study the
+wonderful tints of sunset over the purple retreating clouds, and the
+still agitated foaming sea,--sights that seemed to be filling him
+with enchantment, and revealing effects in colour, while his delight
+was evidently a new pleasure to his companion.
+
+Vera was afraid to move, and sat on a deck chair, with her back to
+the sunset, while Phyllis, who perhaps would have liked to share in
+the admiration, sat by her, so that Vera began to accept her as a
+special friend, and to pour out the explanation of how she came to be
+tossing in an open boat with this one companion.
+
+"You see, poor fellow," she said, simpering, "he has been always so
+devoted to me.  Everybody observed it, and I could not help just
+gratifying him a little."
+
+"He does seem to be very full of promise," said Phyllis.  "I suppose
+Miss Prescott is much pleased with him."
+
+"My sister Magdalen, do you mean?  Well, we have not introduced him
+to her yet.  You see, he is ONLY painting the church, and she is so
+devoted to swells, and makes such a fuss about our manners."
+
+"Indeed!  But surely you could not go out with him without her
+knowing it."
+
+"She was not at this St. Milburgha's Guild, you know, and Sisters
+Beata and Mena knew all about it.  Oh, yes, she lets us go to them at
+St. Kenelm's, but they are not swells enough for her."
+
+"Mr. Flight's Sisterhood, are not they?"
+
+"And Primrose Merrifield says that Wilfred declares that they are not
+ladies; but that's all jealousy, you know, because Will doesn't like
+my friends, and Magdalen is altogether gone upon grandees."
+
+"Fancy!" was all that Phyllis managed to say.
+
+"She doesn't want us to be friends with anybody who don't belong to
+some one with a handle to her name.  So foolish and stuck up!  So we
+knew she would not be kind to Hubert."
+
+"I think you had better have tried.  I thought her one of the kindest
+people in the world."
+
+"Ah! but, you know, unfortunately she has been a governess, and that
+teaches toadying."
+
+At that moment "Phyl" was called to see the first star over the sea,
+and ran up to her father, so as to conceal how nearly she was
+laughing.  Hubert Delrio came towards Vera.
+
+"Can you forgive me, Vera?" he said.  "I shall speak to your sister
+as soon as I am at home, and ask her forgiveness, and--"
+
+"Oh, yes! yes!  But do tell me who these people are."
+
+"Did you not know?  That most kind of men, is Lord Rotherwood.  Those
+are Lord and Lady Ivinghoe, and--"
+
+"Lady Phyllis!  Oh!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--CHIMERAS DIRE
+
+
+
+"Qu'allait-il faire dans cette galere?"
+FRENCH COMEDY.
+
+
+Vera's first thorough awakening the next morning was to hear outside
+the door, "Are you up, Fly?"
+
+"I shall be in a minute or two.  Do you want me?"
+
+"You are a dab at parlez-vous.  I want you to come ashore with me and
+cater for the starving crew."
+
+"What fun!  Anon, anon, Sir!"
+
+Vera then perceived that she had been bestowed in Lady Phyllis'
+cabin, and that the proper owner was dressing herself in haste before
+the little shelf of a toilette table.  So great had been the
+confusion of last night's discovery that the poor silly child had
+only thought of hurrying out of sight and tumbling into bed without
+speaking to any one, and she had not distinctly known, when Lady
+Phyllis came down a good deal later and disposed of herself on the
+sofa, that Mrs. Griggs had made ready for her.  And now the only
+thing she could think of was to say, "Oh!  Lady Phyllis, I didn't
+know."
+
+"Take care!  Don't knock your head!  We ought to have remembered that
+Boreas, or whichever it was, was hardly a sufficient introduction.
+Are you all right now?  You had better go to sleep again till I bring
+something to eat.  We are lying to off some little Breton fishing
+village, and I am going with my brother to get some provisions, and
+telegraph if we can."
+
+It was long before they came back.  Vera had another nap, dressed
+herself, grew very hungry, and came out to find Lord Rotherwood
+fishing, and his daughter-in-law watching for the boat to put out
+from the white houses with grey roofs, which, clustered round their
+church-tower, seemed descending to the water's edge.  They were
+equally famished, though Mrs. Griggs stewed up the poor remnants of
+last night's banquet; but at last the little boat appeared, gaily
+dancing over the waves, and Phyllis making signals of success.
+
+"Oh, yes, you may be thankful, you poor starving beings!  Here, Mrs.
+Griggs!  Accept, and do all you can!  Here are eggs, and some milk
+and fresh water, four poulets, such as they are, and a huge monster
+of a crab; but all the bread is leavened, and you little guess what
+Ivy and I had to go through before we were allowed to buy anything.
+We were had up to the Mayor, and had to constater all manner of
+things about our ship, to prove that we were no smugglers."
+
+"I thought the fat old rogue would have come out to visit the yacht
+before he would have allowed us a morsel," said Lord Ivinghoe.
+
+"In which case you might have been found a skeleton, father, like Sir
+Hugh Willoughby!  And as to our telegrams, they won't go till the
+diligence gets to St. Malo, and what they will make of them there is
+another question.  I did not dare to send more than one, for fear
+they should get mixed up.
+
+Vera heard the joyous chaff as it fluttered round her, not half
+understanding it any more than if it had been a strange tongue, and
+not always guessing the cause of the fits of laughter, chiefly at
+Lord Ivinghoe's misadventures, over which his little sister and his
+father were well pleased to tease his correctness, and his young wife
+looked a little hurt at his being tormented.  He could not remember
+that braconnier was a poacher by land, not by sea, and very
+unnecessarily disclaimed to the Maire being such a thing.  His
+father, he said, "was gentilhomme anglais en--what's a yacht?--yac.
+(Nonsense! that's a long-haired ox.  No!)  Non point contrabandiste,
+mais galerien dans galere."  "And there I interposed," said Phyllis,
+"for fear we should be boarded as escaped galeriens."
+
+"Why, galley was a pleasure-boat sometimes," said Ivinghoe, and his
+wife supported him with "Cleopatra's galley."
+
+"Well done, Francie!  To your oars for Ivy's defence," said Lord
+Rotherwood.  "How did you defend us, Fly, from being towed into
+harbour at Brest as runaway convicts?"
+
+"She gabbled away most eloquently to the Maire, almost as fluently as
+a born French-woman," said Ivinghoe, "and persuaded him at last that
+it was not necessary to come on board to inspect us, nor even to
+detain us till he had sent for instructions to St. Malo."
+
+"As Ivy managed matters, I thought we might be kept as hostages,"
+said Phyllis.
+
+"But, thanks to her blandishments, the solemn official vouchsafed to
+send off a messenger for us with a telegram."
+
+"I do not think he sent directions to pursue our suspicious galere,"
+added Phyllis; "but I own I shall be glad to be under the lee of old
+England again."
+
+"What was your telegram?"
+
+"Brevity was safest, nor had we money enough for two; so all I
+attempted was, 'Delrio to Flight, Rock Quay.  Both safe.  Picked up
+by Kittiwake.'  I thought that would be the quickest means of
+relieving anxiety, as we were not sure of other addresses; and as to
+'home,' Mamma probably hardly was aware of the storm, or, if she
+were, she knew the capabilities of yachts and of Griggs."
+
+"Right!" returned his father.  "Poor Miss Prescott! she must have
+given you up for lost.  Have you been improving your mind with French
+telegrams?" he added, turning to Delrio.
+
+"No, my lord, I found my way to the church, a wonderful piece of old
+Norman!--if it may so be called."
+
+"I see you have been sketching."
+
+Griggs here interposed with tidings that eggs and coffee were ready
+in the saloon, the worthy pair having had respect to the general
+famine, and prepared what could be made ready in haste.  Those who
+had eaten ashore sat by, making an amusing account of their
+reception, and difficulties with language and peasants, for, this not
+being an ordinary place of call, nothing was ready for sale.
+
+Vera, finding herself for the first time in distinguished company,
+which desired to set her at ease, began to be at ease, and to desire
+to shine, so she giggled whenever she perceived the slightest excuse,
+even when Lord Ivinghoe handed her the eggs, and, hoped she had not
+too British an appetite for French eggs; and Lady Ivinghoe asked if
+she had seen the fowls, and whether their feathers were ruffled up
+like a hen's that had been given to Aunt Cherry.  Her little sister
+Joan, she added, had asked whether eating the eggs would make her
+hair curl.
+
+"Or stand on end," said Phyllis.
+
+"As I am afraid Miss Prescott's is doing till your telegram reaches
+her.  Did you say it was to go from St. Malo?"
+
+"Yes.  I thought that the safest place to have a comprehensible
+message copied."
+
+"To whom did you say?" asked Lady Ivinghoe.
+
+"'Delrio to Flight.'  Oh, they will know his name and address fast
+enough when it gets to Rock Quay."
+
+"He is the clergyman at St. Kenelm's," put in Vera, in explanation;
+"very very advanced Ritualist, you know."
+
+"Indeed!" was the answer.
+
+"Oh, yes, that he is.  My sister Polly is perfectly devoted to him;
+but we don't go to his church, except now and then, because my eldest
+sister is just one of those very old-fashioned people, you know, who
+want everything horrid and dull."
+
+"That is hardly what our cousins think of Miss Prescott," said
+Phyllis.  "I am so sorry for her anxiety!  But I was not sure of the
+name of her place."
+
+"The Goyle!  Isn't it frightful?" said Vera.
+
+"You say she was unprepared for your adventure?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite.  Her notions are so dreadfully proper and old
+fashioned.  She hasn't got any sympathy, has she, Hubert?"
+
+"I don't know," he said gravely.  "I have always had the greatest
+respect for her."
+
+"Respect!  So you ought.  That's just the thing one has for a slow
+dear old fogey," she said, laughing, "Oh, Hubert!"  There was a
+silence, and Lord Rotherwood made an observation upon the wind.
+
+Vera perceived an awkwardness, and, by way of repairing it,
+afterwards thought it expedient to communicate to Lady Phyllis that
+it might be a pity she had said "Hubert."  It was so awkward, only he
+was such an old acquaintance.
+
+"I should have thought the awkwardness was incurred long ago," said
+Lady Phyllis.  "Come, you will have no more concealments from Miss
+Prescott, will you?  You will be ever so much more comfortable, and
+find out how kind she is."
+
+"Oh, but!--" Vera wanted to talk over all her grievances for the
+pleasure of talking, saying very much what she had said before, and
+Phyllis tried to endure and put in as much sense as she could,
+without lecturing the girl, who struck her as the very silliest she
+had ever encountered; but she was continually called off to admire
+the receding French coast, or to look at the creatures brought up by
+dredging.  She always took care to call Vera, and not let her feel
+herself left out; but Vera, if in solitude for a moment, reflected on
+the neglect shown of little people by great ones; and when called up
+to see uncanny slimy creatures, or even transparent balls like watery
+umbrellas, only was disgusted and horrified.
+
+She began to guess, rather truly, that Lady Phyllis wanted to hinder
+a tete-a-tete between her and Hubert Delrio.  In fact, Lord
+Rotherwood, who was much more of a sympathetic, confidence-inviting
+personage than his stiffer, much older seeming son, had said to his
+daughter, "Don't let that poor lad and the girl get together alone,
+Fly; the boy thinks he is bound to make her an offer."
+
+"Oh, father!  Surely not!"
+
+"No more than if they had been two babies in a walnut shell.  So I
+told him, but people don't see what infants they are themselves, and
+I want to hinder him from putting his foot in it before he has seen
+her aunt--cousin--sister, or whoever it is that has the charge of
+her; and she has depicted to him a Gorgon, with Medusa's hair, claws
+and all--a fancy sketch, isn't it?"
+
+"Of course, sentimental schoolgirl colours!  Mysie thinks her
+delightful."
+
+"At any rate, let him get a dose of common sense before committing
+himself.  He is a capital fellow, sure to rise; has the soul and head
+and hands for it, but he ought not to weight himself with a drag."
+
+"Do you think he is really in love with her?"
+
+Lord Rotherwood waved his hands.  "He thinks so, but nobody knows
+with those boys!  I had to tell him at last that I would not have any
+philandering on board MY ship; and whatever he might think it his
+duty to say, must be put off for aunt--sister--Gorgon--Medusa or what
+not.  And I don't think he's very bad, Fly, for he modestly asked
+permission to sketch Francie's head for St. Mildred, or Milburg, or
+somebody; and was ready to run crazy about the tints on that dogfish.
+The young fellow is in the queerest state between the artist and the
+lover! delight and shame!  I should like to take him north with us;
+the colours of the cliffs in the Isles would soon drive out Miss
+Victoria--what's her name?"
+
+"You don't think him like Stephen in the Mill on the Floss, who ought
+to have married Maggie Tulliver."
+
+"I believe that is his precedent--but it is sheer stuff--pure
+accident--as a respectable old householder like me is ready to
+testify to the Gorgons and Chimeras dire--Grundys and all.  We must
+encounter Rock Quay, Fly, if it is only to rescue this unlucky
+youth."
+
+"What is he doing now?  Oh, I see; drawing Francie, who sits as stiff
+as a Saint of Burne-Jones!  Well, I'll have an eye to them!  Vera!
+Have you finished Rudder Grange?"
+
+"Not quite.  I can't make out who Lord Edward was."
+
+"Why, the big dog!  Did you think he was Pomona's hero?"
+
+"I don't know.  Wasn't Pomona very silly?"
+
+"If life was to be taken from story-books," said Phyllis, in a very
+didactic mood; "but you see she imbibed the best side, what they
+really taught her of good."
+
+"I thought, when you gave me the book, it was to be an adventure like
+mine, not all standing still in an old river.  What do you think
+Hubert Delrio ought to do after persuading me into such an awful
+predicament?"
+
+"Tell your sister he is very sorry that you two foolish children got
+into such a scrape, and very thankful that you were saved."
+
+"We are very thankful to Lord Rotherwood."
+
+"I didn't mean to him.  To some One else," said Phyllis, reverently.
+
+"Oh, of course," said Vera.  "But what DO you think, Lady Phyllis?"
+(Since her discovery of the title she made a liberal use of it.)
+"What do you think people will say?"
+
+"That a little girl has had a dangerous adventure and a happy
+escape."
+
+"I am seventeen, Lady Phyllis!"
+
+"One is nothing like grown up at seventeen!  I declare there's a big
+steamer coming into sight.  I wonder if it belongs to the Channel
+Fleet!"
+
+Nothing more sentimental could be extracted for the rest of the
+voyage.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED
+
+
+
+"I marry without more ado,
+My dear Dick Red Cap, what say you?"
+COWPER.
+
+
+The telegram had been received about mid-day; and Mr. Flight rushed
+up with it to the Goyle, just in time to prevent poor old Mr. Delrio
+from starting hopelessly home.  It had suffered a good deal in
+spelling and precision, in spite of Lady Phyllis's precautions; but
+"both safe" was understood, as it was known in Rock Quay that "Lord
+Rotherwood and family," as the papers had it, were yachting in the
+Kittiwake and might be expected in the bay.
+
+Agatha and Paula threw their arms round one another and cried;
+Magdalen, with a choke in her voice, struggled to ask Mr. Flight to
+lead them in a few words of thanksgiving; and as soon as these were
+over, Thekla expressed her hopes that they had been cast on a desert
+island and would bring home Man Friday.
+
+The Goyle ladies walked over to Clipstone with the good news, and the
+whole party went down afterwards to Rockstone to look out for yachts,
+and inquire about possibilities.  The Kittiwake being a steamer,
+light and swift, might be expected in harbour in the course of the
+night, and Mr. Delrio meant to wait for her at his son's lodgings.
+The ladies wished they could do the same; and Paula was allowed to
+accept Sister Beata's humble entreaty to house her.  But they did not
+know how long before the telegraph from St. Malo the Kittiwake from
+St. Cadoc had spread her wings and hoisted her feather, for, happily,
+her coals had held out better than her provisions.  So, as they were
+looking their last look from the cliffs of Beechcroft Miss Mohun
+exclaimed, "A steamer! a yacht!  Kittiwake!"
+
+Glasses were rushed for, and unaccustomed eyes could trace the
+graceful course through the gentle evening waves towards the quay.
+
+Every one was on the quay in time to receive the boat, which, rowed
+by four smart sailors, was seen with the party of six, two sailor
+hats, and one red cap being at once spied out among the female
+figures.  Then two hats were waved and answered by cheers of welcome;
+and the figures were recognised, and unnecessarily numerous hands
+stretched out to assist the landing from the plank extended to the
+boat.
+
+Vera was put first by her kind rescuers, Lord Rotherwood's hand
+guiding her to the rail, and, after an insecure step or so, she found
+herself in the arms of Paulina, sobbing for joy; and the little
+cluster of sisters seemed to know nothing else, except Thekla, who
+presently, in the confusion of the greetings, was found by Lord
+Rotherwood looking about vaguely, and saying, "But where's their man
+Friday?"
+
+"You must accept me for him," said he.  "'Tis Friday, unless we have
+lost our reckoning!  I hope you think me something promising in the
+way of savages!"
+
+Young Delrio's first proceeding, even while his father was wringing
+his hand in speechless welcome and thankfulness, was to turn to
+Captain Henderson.  "Sir, your boat is safe, it will be brought in
+to-morrow.  I am much concerned, and beg your forgiveness, but I had
+no idea that it was yours till Griggs found your name.  Only one oar
+is lost, and a cushion, which I will replace."
+
+"Say no more, pray," said Captain Henderson.  "The fault was my
+servant's, who took it without leave, and left it out.  He must
+repair the very slight damage."
+
+Miss Mohun wanted the whole troop to come up to Beechcroft to drink
+tea, and her relations consented; but the hearts of the Prescotts
+were a great deal too full for them not to wish to be alone together;
+and after Magdalen had given her hand to Lord Rotherwood with a
+fervent, "You know what I would say, my lord--beyond all words," they
+turned homewards; but Mr. Flight ran after them to say in a low
+voice, "Can we meet to-morrow at eight for a service of
+thanksgiving?"  And this was gladly accepted.
+
+Hubert was dragged off by his father.
+
+"Nonsense! they don't want your apologies and explanations.  It would
+only be besetting them.  Come home with me, and don't be a fool!  But
+write a few lines to your poor mother, after the intolerable fright
+you have given her; meddling and presuming where you had no business.
+A Providence it is that you are not half across the Atlantic, if not
+at the bottom of it."
+
+Of course this was the reaction of great anxiety; but however meekly
+Hubert submitted to the queer outpouring of affection, and however
+thankful they both were, and glad and content over the particulars of
+the youth's work and progress, still he was not to be withheld from
+laying hand and heart at Vera Prescott's feet, as he insisted was due
+to her and her family after the compromising situation in which he
+had placed her.  His father said it was talking novels and folly; but
+he was a man of three and twenty, and could not well be stopped, as
+he was earning his own livelihood, and had always been
+irreproachable.  So Mr. Delrio had to leave the matter, only
+expressing discouragement, and insisting that it must be no more than
+an engagement.
+
+The thanksgiving took place as arranged, and Lord Rotherwood, his
+daughter, and Mysie were there.  For indeed there had been danger
+enough during the thunderstorm to make the safety of the Kittiwake a
+matter of thankfulness, though the rescue of the boat had caused it
+to be almost forgotten in the history of the night.
+
+Lady Flight had begged that all would come to breakfast with her, and
+this was accepted by the Goyle party; but the Clipstone pony-carriage
+was waiting for the others, and they could not accede to Lady
+Flight's impromptu, and rather nervous, invitation.  But before they
+started Lord Rotherwood managed to say a few words aside to Miss
+Prescott of the impression he had divined from his voyage with Hubert
+Delrio, whom he thought a young man of great ability and promise, and
+of excellent principles, but with a chivalry it was quite refreshing
+to see in youth, perhaps ready to strain honourable scruples almost
+too far for his own good or that of others.
+
+Magdalen thought she perceived what had been in the marquis's mind
+when, immediately after her return home, Hubert and Vera came up,
+hand in hand, and he informed her of their mutual attachment.
+
+"I am afraid, Miss Prescott," he said, "that we may not have acted
+rightly or squarely by you; and this last adventure was a most
+unhappy result of my careless awkwardness and preoccupation."
+
+"It was the merest accident.  We all quite understand.  It is not to
+be thought of."
+
+"You are very good to say so, but--"
+
+Both he and Magdalen wished that Vera had not been present, blushing
+and smiling, or rather simpering; and as Hubert hesitated over his
+"but," Magdalen said:
+
+"Vera, my dear, Hubert and I can talk over this better without you.
+You had better go and find Paula."
+
+"Only, sister, please do understand that I care for Hubert with all
+my heart," said Vera, much less childishly than Magdalen had
+expected.
+
+However, she went, while Magdalen succeeded in saying what she had
+intended--that Hubert must not consider himself in the smallest
+degree bound by what had been accident, entirely unintentional and
+innocent.
+
+"You are generous, Miss Prescott.  You understand!  But the world!
+It was public."
+
+"Never mind the world.  You see what sensible people think."
+
+"But, indeed, Miss Prescott, I cannot leave you to suppose I am only
+actuated by the fact of that awkward situation.  Of course that would
+never have been if I did not deeply, entirely love your sister.  It
+has only precipitated matters.  I entreat of you to give her to me,
+as one who is--who is devoted to her!  If my station is inferior I
+will work--"
+
+"That is not the point.  Vera is too young for such things.  What
+does your father say?"
+
+"My father sees that I am right."
+
+"I see what that means," said Magdalen, smiling.  "But where is he?
+I should like to talk to him."
+
+Mr. Delrio, pretty well knowing what was going on, was found
+endeavouring to distract his mind by sketching the Goyle.  He and
+Magdalen walked up and down the drive together, perfectly agreeing
+that it would be senseless cruelty to permit an early marriage
+between these two young people, and that it was a pity there should
+be an engagement; but this could hardly be prevented, since Mr.
+Delrio could only give advice, and leave a self-supporting worthy son
+to judge for himself; but the elder sister and the trustee could
+stipulate for delay till Vera should be of age.
+
+So Hubert was called, and acquiesced, cheerfully observing that he
+trusted that four years would make him able to render Vera's life an
+easy and pleasant one; and after heartily thanking both Miss Prescott
+and his father, he went off to rejoice the heart of the maiden, who
+was sitting under the pear-tree, watching with anxious eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--BROODS ASTRAY
+
+
+
+"But ill for him who, bettering not with time,
+Corrupts the strength of Heaven-descended will,
+And ever weaker grows through acted crime,
+Or seeming genial venial fault."
+- TENNYSON.
+
+
+"Man Friday hope piccaniny live well--bring her buckra fish from
+sea!"  Such was the greeting from Lord Rotherwood to Thekla when the
+whole party walked over in time for tea on the lawn, before church at
+Clipstone, as he presented her with a facsimile oyster which he had
+hunted up in a sweet shop, making an absurd bow and scrape.
+
+Poor Thekla coloured, and mumbled a shy, "Thank you, my--my--" having
+had a lecture from Vera on treating a marquis with over familiarity
+and it was left to Primrose to ask where Friday learnt nigger
+language.  "By nature, Missy buckra," he responded; "all same nigger
+everywhere."  And he repeated his bow so drolly that Primrose's laugh
+carried Thekla's along with it, as Lady Phyllis walked up with,
+"Come, father, you are wanted to congratulate."
+
+"Eh!  Am I?  So they have perpetrated it, have they?  More's the pity
+is what I should say in the Palace of Truth; but the maiden has
+landed a better fish than she knows--that is, if she have landed
+him."
+
+"There! take care, don't be tiresome, Papa!" admonished Lady Phyllis,
+drawing him on, when he met Vera with a courtly manner, and, "I hope
+I see you recovered, Miss Prescott, and able to rejoice in the
+pleasant consequences of your adventure."
+
+Vera blushed, and looked very pretty and modest, making not much
+answer as she retreated among her contemporaries to show them her
+ring, a hoop of pearls, which Wilfred insisted were Roman pearls,
+fishes' eyes, most appropriate; but Flapsy felt immeasurably older
+than Wilfred to-day, and able to despise his teasing, though Hubert
+Delrio was not present, and indeed Wilfred was not disposed to bestow
+much of his attention upon her, having much more inclination to beset
+his cousin, Lady Phyllis, who surely ought to perceive that he had
+attained at least the same height as his brother Jasper, and could,
+in his absence, pose as the young man of the household.
+
+Phyllis had not much to say to him, nor after the first to Vera,
+though she duly admired the ring so exultantly shown, and accepted
+the assurance that Hubert was the dearest fellow in the world.  But
+there was no getting any condolence out of her upon the misery of
+having to wait four whole years.  She said, "It was a very good
+thing!  There was her cousin Gillian, who had insisted on waiting
+three years to finish her education."
+
+"Oh, but dear Hubert likes me as I am," simpered Vera.
+
+"You might wish that he should find more in you to like.  Gillian,"
+said Phyllis, coming up to her and Agatha, "I want you to assure Vera
+that four years is not such a great trial in waiting."
+
+"It is what I have been trying to persuade her," said Agatha; "she is
+hardly seventeen."
+
+"And I would not have been married at seventeen for anything," said
+Gillian to the pouting Vera.  "I want to be more worth having."
+
+Vera did not like it, she had heard the like at home, and she fell
+back upon Valetta, while the others walked on.  "Poor little Flapsy!"
+said Agatha, "I do hope this engagement may make more of a woman of
+her."
+
+"My father was very much struck by Mr. Delrio," said Phyllis, "both
+as artist and personally."
+
+"You must be glad of the time for putting her up to his level," said
+Gillian.
+
+"Do you think such things are to be done?" asked Agatha.
+
+"Yes," said Phyllis stoutly.  "You may not make her able to be a
+Senior Wrangler--(Oh you are Oxford!)--or capable of it, like this
+Gillyflower; but you can get the stuff into her that makes a sound
+sensible wife."
+
+Gillian caught a little hopeless sigh of "CAN," and answered it with,
+"When all this effervescence is blown off, then will be the time for
+working at the substance, and she may be all the better wife--
+especially for the artist temperament, if she is of the homely sort."
+
+"How angry she would be if she heard you say so!" returned Agatha.
+"Yet certainly I do feel relieved that wifehood is to be my poor
+Flapsy's portion, for she is not of the sort that can stand alone and
+make her own way."
+
+"There will always be plenty of such women in the world," said
+Gillian.
+
+"So much the better for the world," retorted Phyllis, who had never
+shown any symptoms of exclusive devotion to any one of the other sex,
+except her father.
+
+One thing Agatha wanted to know, and dared not ask, namely, what
+impression Vera had made in the Kittiwake and what Hubert had said
+about her; for she and Paula had begun to remark that, lover as he
+was, not a word about her heroism had escaped him.  And it was as
+well that she did not hear what the extra plain spoken Primrose did
+not spare the boasting Thekla.  "Cousin Rotherwood and Fly both say
+they can't think how Mr. Delrio got on with such a silly little
+hysterical goose upon his hands; and that it is a foolish romantic
+unlucky notion that he ought to be engaged to her.  I think Mamma
+will tell Miss Prescott so."
+
+The Kittiwake, having arrived three days later than had been
+expected, there had been an amount of revolution in the general
+arrangements.  The break up of the High School was to be on an early
+day of the next week.  It had become a much more extensive and public
+matter than in the days of Valetta and Maura, though these were not
+so very long ago, and there was a great day of exhibitions and
+speeches to the parents and neighbourhood generally.  Two ladies had
+been secured for the purpose, Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret,
+and the former arrived on the Saturday afternoon, but as the
+Rotherwood party almost overflowed Clipstone, she was transferred to
+Miss Mohun.
+
+After the death of their parents, about three years previously, Susan
+and Elizabeth had gone to live at Coalham, and to be useful to their
+brother David's parish; Susan betaking herself to the poor, and
+Bessie finding herself specially available in the various forms of
+improvement undertaken by ladies in modern days.  To her own
+surprise, and her sister's discomfiture, her talent as a public
+speaker had become developed.  With a little assistance from her
+sister-in-law Agnes's unwilling stage experience, and entreaties, not
+easily to be withstood, came from various quarters that she would
+come and advocate the good cause.
+
+Of course she was ever welcome at Clipstone, and she walked up
+thither with General Mohun, arriving just after the others from the
+Goyle; and in the general confusion of greetings, and the Babel of
+cousinly tongues, there were no introductions nor naming of names.
+Bessie declared herself delighted with the chance of seeing Lady
+Ivinghoe, whom she considered more to realise the beauty of women
+than any one she had hitherto beheld, and the fair face had not lost
+its simplicity, but rather gained in loveliness by the sweetness of
+early motherhood, as she and Phyllis sat by Mysie, regaling her with
+tales of what they regarded as the remarkable precocity of the infant
+Claude, reluctantly left to his grandmother.
+
+"But where's Dolores?" asked Bessie.  "I miss her among the swarm of
+mice!"
+
+"Dolores is at Vale Leston," answered Gillian.  "She has been a long
+time making up her mind to go there, to Gerald's home; and now she is
+there, they will not let her go till some birthday is over."
+
+"Uncle Felix's!" whispered Franceska to Mysie.  "You know it was dear
+Gerald's place.  She had never seen it."
+
+Another voice was now raised, asking, "What had become of Miss
+Arthuret?"
+
+"She only comes down on Monday," said Bessie.  "Just in time for the
+meeting.  She is too valuable to come for more than one meeting."
+
+"But who is she?"
+
+"Arthurine Arthuret?  She is a girl, or rather woman, who has some
+property at Stokesley.  In fact, she is one of those magnets that
+seem to attract inheritance without effort--like the Hapsburgs,
+though happily she makes a most beneficent, though, sometimes,
+original use of them."
+
+"Is not that very dangerous?" said Aunt Lily.
+
+"The first came to her early, and coming into it very young, and
+overflowing with new ideas, she began rather grotesquely; but she has
+tamed down a good deal since, and really has done an immense deal of
+good in finding employment for people, making improvements and the
+like, though she is Sam's pet aversion, a tremendous Liberal, almost
+a Socialist.  They are so like cat and dog that Susan and I were
+really glad to be away from Stokesley, especially at election times;
+but altogether she is an admirable person."
+
+Lady Merrifield thought she detected a start of Miss Prescott at the
+name Stokesley, and that her eyes looked anxiously at the speaker.
+Bessie was not of the sandy part of the family.  Was the unattractive
+schoolboy, once seen, like his sisters?  All that was observable was
+startling similitudes to her own children, though in them the
+elements of the handsome dark Mohun generally predominated.
+
+But by and by, in a quiet moment, Bessie suddenly asked, "Did you say
+her name was Magdalen?"
+
+Lady Merrifield laughed.  "Four years MAY do a good deal at that time
+of life," she said.  "I suppose no time ever so changes--changes--
+what shall I say?--eyes--views--characters.  Only constancy in
+absence is the dangerous thing.  There are distinguished examples of-
+-of the mischief of being constant without knowing what one is
+constant to.  Virulent constancy, as Mrs. Malaprop has it."
+
+Magdalen thanked and smiled.  Perhaps there was a certain virulent
+constancy in a remote corner of her heart which had been revived by a
+certain indescribable look in the eyes and contour of Bessie
+Merrifield.
+
+And Bessie herself, while sitting under the verandah with Lady
+Merrifield, while all the others were walking down to embark Lord and
+Lady Ivinghoe in the yacht, suddenly repeated, "Did you say that her
+name was Magdalen?"
+
+"Yes; I saw it startled you, my dear."
+
+"It revived an old, old story.  I do not know whether there was
+anything in it.  Who or what is she, Aunt Lily?  I only know her as
+the sister of the girl that the Ivinghoes picked up."
+
+"She is the owner of a little property at Arnscombe, and has taken
+home her four young half-sisters to live with her, after having
+slaved for them as a governess till she came into this inheritance.
+She is an excellent person."
+
+"Ah!  Was her house at Filsted?"
+
+"I am not sure.  Yes, I think the young ones were at school there.
+You think--"
+
+"I feel certain.  May I tell you, Aunt Lily?  Some of the others
+cannot bear to mention my poor Hal; but to me the worst of the sting
+is gone, since I know he repented."
+
+"My dear, I should be very glad to hear.  Your father and mother
+never mention your brother, and we were away at the time."
+
+"Poor Hal!  I am afraid there was a weakness in him.  He never had
+that determination that carried all the others on.  He never could
+get through an examination, and my father put him into a bank at
+Filsted.  By and by, after some years, came a letter telling my
+father he was gambling very seriously, getting into temptation, and
+engaging himself to an attorney's daughter.  It was while I was
+living with grandmamma, and he used sometimes to look in on me, and
+talk to me about this Magdalen.  Once he showed me her photograph and
+I thought I knew her face again.  But my father went off, very angry.
+I have always feared he found poor Hal on the verge of tampering with
+the bank money, but he never would say a word.  He broke everything
+up, put an end to the engagement if there was one, and sent Hal off
+to John and George, who had just got their farm in Manitoba, and were
+getting on by dint of hard work."
+
+"They have done very well, have they not?"
+
+"Yes, by working and living harder than any day labourer at
+Stokesley.  Hal could not stand it, and--and I'm afraid the boys were
+not very merciful to him, poor fellow, and he got something to do in
+Winnipeg.  There he fell in with a speculator called Golding, they
+all did in fact; he was a plausible man, whom they all liked, and
+used to put up at his house when they took waggons in with their
+produce.  He had a daughter, and Johnnie got engaged to her, or
+thought he was.  They all were persuaded to put money into a horrid
+building speculation,--Henry, what he had brought out, the other two
+what they had realised.  Well, suddenly it all ended.  They were all
+gone, Golding, daughter, Hal and all--yes, all--the money the other
+boys had put in the thing, off to the States, as we suppose!  No
+trace ever found."
+
+"Really no trace?"
+
+"None!  The poor boys lost all they had, and were obliged to begin
+over again."
+
+"And has really nothing been heard of this unfortunate Hal?"
+
+"There is one thing that does give me a hope.  There did come to
+Stokesley a letter from a Brisbane bank, addressed to J. and G.
+Merrifield, to the care of Rear-Admiral Merrifield, and in it were
+bank bills up to the value of what the boys had been robbed of, about
+two hundred and fifty pounds.  Poor Henry must have repented, and
+wished to make restitution."
+
+"Was there no name, no clue?"
+
+"None at all.  We know no more."
+
+"But was there no inquiry made at Brisbane?"
+
+"It was when my father was very ill.  The parcel was not opened at
+first.  I have been always sorry he never heard of it; but after all
+there was no asking of forgiveness, nor anything that could be
+answered.  The boys got it with the tidings of our dear father's
+death.  John came home to see about things, George stayed to look
+after his Stokesley.  They were well over their troubles by that
+time, and they gave the restored money to David for his churches."
+
+"And no more was done, not even by David?" said Lady Merrifield,
+thinking over what she had heard from Geraldine Grinstead, and how
+the Underwoods would have accepted such a token from their lost
+sheep.
+
+"David did write to Brisbane to the bank, but there never was any
+answer.  There is no knowing how it might have been, if any one had
+gone out and done his best; but you see we were all much taken up
+with home duties and cares, and I am afraid we have not dwelt enough
+upon our poor boy, and he had much against him.  The discipline from
+my dear father, that all the elders responded to with a sort of loyal
+exultation, only frightened him and made him shifty.  They despised
+him, and I do not think any of us were as kind to him as we ought to
+have been; though on the whole he liked me the best, for he cared for
+books and quiet pursuits, such as all laughed at, except David.  I
+wish he could have seen more of David."
+
+"Did your mother hear of this ray of hope?"
+
+"Susan thought it best not to tell her.  We used to hear her
+murmuring his name among all ours in her prayers, Susie, Sam, Hal,
+Bessie, and so on; but she never was herself enough to understand,
+and they thought it might only stir her up to expect to see him.  Oh,
+Aunt Lily, I don't think you--any of you--would have gone on so; but
+you are all much more affectionate and demonstrative than our branch
+of the family."
+
+"Ah, my dear, I am sure there was a pang in your mother's heart that
+she never durst mention," said Lady Merrifield, her imagination
+dwelling in terror on her Wilfred, the one child in whom she could
+not help detecting the weakness of character of his unhappy cousin.
+"Depend upon it, Bessie, her prayers were hovering round him all the
+time, and bringing that act of restitution, though she was not
+allowed to hear of it."
+
+"I had not thought of that," said Bessie, in a low tone, "though I
+think David has.  I have heard his voice choke over an intercession
+for the absent."
+
+"Think of it now, my dear, and do not let habitual reserve hinder you
+from speaking of it to Susan and David, though most likely they have
+the habit already.  Who knows what united prayer may do with Him who
+deviseth means to bring home His banished?"
+
+Steps returning, Bessie wiped away her tears in haste, actually the
+first she had shed for the lost Hal, though there was a heartache too
+deep for tears.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--THE REGIMENT OF WOMEN
+
+
+
+"And happier than the merriest games
+Is the joy of our new and nobler aims."
+F. R. HAVERGAL.
+
+
+Miss Mohun and Miss Merrifield encountered Miss Prescott and Agatha
+among a perfect herd of cycles, making Bessie laugh over the
+recollections of the horror caused at Stokesley by the arrival of
+Arthurine Arthuret on a tricycle twelve years previously.
+
+The place was the Town Hall, the High School having proved too small
+for the number of the intended audience, and Lord Rotherwood having
+been captured, in spite of the Kittiwake being pronounced ready to
+sail, and all the younger passengers being actually on board,
+entertaining a party from Clipstone.  There he sat enthroned on the
+platform, with portraits of himself, his Elizabethan ancestor, and
+the Prince of Wales overhead, and, in propria persona on either side,
+the Mayor of Rockstone, Captain Henderson, and a sprinkling of the
+committee, Jane, of course, being one; while in the space beneath was
+a sea of hats, more or less beflowered and befeathered.
+
+Lord Rotherwood began by complaining of an act of piracy!  After
+being exposed to a tempest and forced to put in for supplies, here he
+was captured, and called upon to distribute prizes!  He perceived
+that it was a new act of aggression on the part of the ladies,
+proving to what lengths they were coming.  Tyrants they had always
+been, but to find them wreckers to boot was a novelty.  However,
+prizes were the natural sequence of a maritime exploit, and he was
+happy to distribute them to the maidens about to start on the voyage
+of life, hoping that these dainty logbooks would prove a stimulus and
+a compass to steer by even into unexplored seas, such as he believed
+the better-informed ladies were about to describe to them.
+
+Rockstone was used to its Marquis's speeches, and always enjoyed
+them; and he handed the prize-books to the recipients with a shake of
+the hand, and a word or two of congratulation appropriate to each,
+especially when he knew their names; and then he declared that they
+were about to hear what education was good for, much better than from
+himself, from such noted examples as Miss Arthuret and Miss
+Merrifield, better known to them as Mesa.  Wherewith he waved forward
+Miss Arthuret, a slight, youthful-looking lady, fashionably attired,
+and made his escape with rapid foot and hasty nods, almost furtively,
+while the audience were clapping her.
+
+She spoke with voice and utterance notably superior to his well-known
+halting periods, scarcely saved by long training and use from being a
+stutter.  The female population eagerly listened, while she painted
+in vivid colours the aim of education, in raising the status of
+women, and extending their spheres not only of influence in the
+occult manner which had hitherto been their way of working through
+others, but in an open manner, which compelled attention; and she
+dwelt on certain brilliant achievements of women, and of others which
+stood before them, and towards which their education, passing out of
+the old grooves, was preparing them to take their place among men,
+and temper their harshness and indifference to suffering with the
+laws of mercy and humanity, speaking with an authority and equality
+such as should ensure attention, no longer in home and nursery
+whispering alone, but with open face asserting and claiming justice
+for the weakest.
+
+It was a powerful and effective speech; and Agatha's eye lighted with
+enthusiasm, as did those of several others of the elder scholars and
+younger teachers, as these high aims were unfolded to them.
+
+Then followed Elizabeth Merrifield, not contradictory, but
+recognising what wide fields had been opened to womanhood, dwelling
+on such being the work of Christianity, which had always tended to
+repress the power of brute animal strength and jealousy, and to give
+preponderance to the force of character and the just influence of
+sweet homely affection.  Exceptional flashes, even in heathen lands,
+and still more under the Divine guidance of the Israelites, showed
+what women were capable of; and ever since a woman had been the
+chosen instrument of the mystery of the Incarnation, the Church, the
+chosen emblem of the union of humanity with her Lord, had gradually
+purified and exalted the sex by training them through the duties of
+mercy, of wifehood and motherhood, to be capable of undertaking and
+fulfilling higher and more extensive tasks, always by the appointment
+and with the help of Him who had increased their outside powers, for
+the sake of the weaker ones of His flock.  What might, by His will,
+in the government and politics of the country, be put into their
+hands, no one could tell; but it was right to be prepared for it, by
+extending their intellectual ability and knowledge of the past, as
+well as of the laws of physical nature--all, in short, that modern
+education aimed at opening young minds to pursue with growing
+faculties.  This was what made her rejoice in the studies here
+followed with good success, as the prizes testified so pleasantly;
+and she trusted that the cultivation, which here went on so
+prosperously, was leading--if she might use old well-accustomed
+words--to the advancement of God's glory, the good of His Church,
+aye! and to the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and her
+dominions.
+
+The words brought tears of feeling into the eyes of some; but Jane
+Mohun could not help observing, "Ah!  I was afraid you were going to
+hold up to us the example of the ants and bees, where the old maids
+do all the working and fighting and governing!  Don't make Gillian
+regret that she is falling away from the spinsterhood."
+
+"Come, Aunt Jane, Bessie never did make it the praise of spinsters.
+I am sure married women can do as much as spinsters, and have more
+weight," said Gillian, facing round gallantly, and winning the
+approval of her aunt and of Bessie.  There was no doubt but that
+since her engagement she had been much quieter and less opinionative.
+
+With what different sensations the same occasion may be attended!  To
+Bessie Merrifield, the primary object was, as ever, woman's work,
+especially her own, for the Church; and the actual business absorbed
+her.  In spite of her evenings' talk to her Aunt Lilias, and the sad
+and painful recollections it had aroused, still her only look at
+Magdalen Prescott's face was one half of curiosity half of sorrow, as
+of the object of the brief calf-love of one of many brothers, and who
+had been now lost sight of, with the passing wonder whether, if the
+affection had survived and been encouraged, it might have led him to
+better things.
+
+While Magdalen felt the poignant renewal of the one romance of a
+lifetime, as she caught tones, watched little gestures and recognised
+those indescribable hereditary similarities which more and more bore
+in upon her the fraternal connection of the bright earnest woman with
+the lively pleasant young man who had brought the attraction of a
+higher tone of manners and cultivation into the country town.  No
+more had been heard of him since his promise to write, a promise that
+had been only once remembered, so that she had tried to take refuge
+in the supposition, unlikely as it was, that her stepmother had
+confiscated his letters.  All was a blank since that last stolen
+kiss; and the wonder whether she could by any means discover anything
+further from Lady Merrifield or Gillian, so occupied her that she
+hardly heard the tenor of the two speeches, and did not observe
+Agatha's glowing cheeks and burning eyes, which might have told her
+that this was one of the moments which direct the current of life.
+
+When Hubert Delrio came up in the evening he was curious to hear
+about the meeting.  His young landlady, who had been a High School
+girl for a short time, thought Miss Arthuret's speech the most
+beautiful discourse that ever was spoken; while other reports said
+that Lady Flight and Miss Mohun were very much shocked, and thought
+it unwholesome, not to say dangerous; and he wanted to know the
+meaning of it.  Magdalen was quite dismayed to find how entirely her
+attention had been absent, and how little account she could give of
+what had passed by her like the wind; but she need not have been at a
+loss, for Agatha, with sparkling eyes and clasped hands, burst out
+into a very able and spirited abstract of the speech, and the future
+it portrayed, showing perhaps more enthusiasm than the practised
+public speaker thought it prudent to manifest.
+
+"I see," said Hubert with something of a smile, "you ladies are
+charmed with the great future opened to you."
+
+"I'm sure," said Vera, perhaps a little nettled by attention paid so
+long to Agatha, "I can't see the sense of it all; I think a woman is
+made just to love her husband, and be his pet, without all that fuss
+about societies, and speeches and learning and fuss!"  And she gave a
+little caress to Hubert's hand, which was returned, as he said, "She
+may well be loved, but, without publicly coming forward, she may
+become the more valuable to her home."
+
+"Of course she may, at home or abroad.  She ought --" began Agatha,
+but Vera snapped her off.  "Well, it only comes to being one of a lot
+of horrid old maids; and you don't want me to be one of them, do you,
+darling?  Come and look at my doves!"
+
+"What do you think of it all, sister?" asked Paulina.
+
+"So far as I grasp the subject," said Magdalen, to whom, of course,
+this was not new, "I think that if a larger scope is to be given to
+women, it is for the sake and under the direction of the Church that
+it can be rightly and safely used."
+
+She knew she was speaking by rote, and was not surprised that Agatha
+said, "That is just what one has heard so often, and what Miss
+Merrifield harped upon!  I want to breathe in a fresh atmosphere
+beyond the old traditions, and know which are Divine and which are
+only the superstructure of those who have always had the dominion and
+justified it in their own way!"
+
+"Who gave them that dominion?" said Magdalen.
+
+"Brute strength," began Agatha.
+
+"Nag, Nag!" cried Paula.  "Surely you believe--"
+
+"I did not say--I did not mean--I only meant to think it out, and
+understand what is Divine and what is in the eternal fitness of
+things."
+
+Here came an interruption, leaving Magdalen conscious of the want of
+preparation for guiding the thought of these young things, and of
+self-reproach too, for having let herself be so absorbed in the
+thought of "her broken reed of earth beneath," as not to have dwelt
+on what might be the deep impressions of the young sisters under her
+charge.
+
+A few days later, as Agatha sat reading in the garden, two figures
+appeared on the drive, wheeling up their bicycles.  One was Gillian,
+the other had a general air of the family, but much darker, and not
+one of the old acquaintances.  Advancing to meet them, she said, "I
+am the only one at home.  My sisters are all at lessons or in the
+village."
+
+"I'll leave a message," said Gillian.  "My mother wants you all to
+come up to picnic tea to see the foxgloves in the dell, on Monday,
+and to bring Mr. Delrio--"
+
+"Oh! thank you."
+
+"I forgot, you had not seen my cousin Dolores Mohun before.  Mysie
+calls her a cousin-twin, if you know what that is."
+
+Agatha thought the newcomer's great pensive dark eyes and overhanging
+brow under very black hair made her look older than Mysie, or indeed
+than Gillian herself; and when the message had been disposed of, the
+latter continued, "Dolores wanted to know about Miss Arthuret's
+lecture, being rather in that line herself.  She could not get home
+in time for it, and I was seeing the Kittiwake party on board, and
+only crept in at the other end of the hall in time for Bessie's faint
+echoes."
+
+"I was in the very antipodes," said Dolores, "in a haunt of ancient
+peace, whence they would not let me come away soon enough."
+
+"And, Agatha, Aunt Jane says she saw you devouring Miss Arthuret with
+your eyes," said Gillian.
+
+"It gave one a sense of new life," said Agatha; and she related again
+Miss Arthuret's speech, broken only by appreciative questions and
+comments from Dolores' auditor, to whom, in the true fashion of
+nineteen, Agatha straightway lost her heart.  Dolores, who had seen
+much more of the outer world than her cousins, and had had besides a
+deeply felt inward experience which might well render her far more
+responsive, and able to comprehend the questions working in the
+girl's mind, and which found expression in, "I went to St. Robert's
+only wanting to get my education carried on so that I might be a
+better governess; but I see now there are much farther on, much
+greater things to aim at, than I ever thought of."
+
+"Alps on Alps arise!" said Dolores.  "Yes--till they lose themselves-
+-and where?"
+
+"Miss Merrifield would say in Heaven, by way of the Church."
+
+"The all things in earth or under the earth rising up in circles of
+praise to the Cherubim and the Great White Throne," said Dolores, her
+dark eyes raised in a moment's contemplation.
+
+"Ah!  One knows.  But is that thought the one to be brought home to
+every one, as if they could bear it always?  Are not we to do
+something--something--for the helping people here in this life, not
+always going on to the other life--"
+
+"Temporal or spiritual?" said Dolores; "or spiritual through
+temporal?"
+
+"And our part in helping," said Agatha.
+
+"There is an immense deal to be thought out," said Dolores.  "I feel
+only at the beginning of the questions, and there is study and
+experience to go to them."
+
+"You mean what one gets at Oxford?"
+
+"Partly.  Thorough--at least, as thorough as one can--of the physical
+and material nature of things, then of the precedent which then
+results, also of reasoning."
+
+"Metaphysical, do you mean, or logical?"
+
+"That comes in; but I was thinking of mathematical in the indirect
+training of the mind.  It all works into needful equipment, and so
+does actual life."
+
+"It takes one's breath away."
+
+"Well, we have begun our training," said Dolores, with a sweet sad
+smile.  "At least, I hope so."
+
+"At St. Robert's, you mean?"
+
+"You have, I think.  But I believe my aunt will be expecting us."
+
+"Oh!  And then they talk about modesty and womanliness and retiring!
+What do you think about all that?"
+
+"That we never shall do any good without it."
+
+They were interrupted by the hasty rushing up of Paula, who had
+committed her bicycle to Vera, and came dashing up the steep slope,
+crying, "O Nag, Nag, they are going away!"
+
+The announcement was interrupted as she perceived the presence of the
+visitor, and they rose to meet her, but saw that there were tears in
+her eyes, and she had rushed up so fast that she was panting and
+could hardly speak, though she gave her hand, as Agatha, after naming
+the two cousins, asked, "Who are going?"
+
+"The Sisters--Sister Mena--" with another overflow of tears which
+made Dolores and Gillian think they had better retreat and leave her
+to her sister's consolation; so they took leave hastily, Agatha
+however, coming as far as their machines, and confiding to them,
+"Poor Polly, it is a great blow to her, but I believe it is very good
+for her."
+
+"There's stuff in that girl," said Dolores, as soon as they were out
+of reach.  "She has the faculty of hearkening as well as of hearing."
+
+"You would say so if you saw her at a lecture; and she is also
+gaining power of expressing and reproducing," said Gillian.
+
+"She will be a power by and by, unless some blight comes across her."
+
+"Will me, will me, it seems as if we HAD to do it.  Even Mamma, whose
+ideal was chivalry, Church and home, has to be drawn out to take a
+certain public part; Aunt Jane, who only wished to live to potter
+about among neighbours, poor and rich, must needs come out of her
+traditional conventions, and relate her experiences, and you--"
+
+"Oh, I am only trying to do the work Gerald aimed at!"
+
+"Any way we have our work before us, whether we call it for the
+Church or mankind."
+
+"Charity or Altruism," said Dolores.
+
+"May not altruism lead to charity?" said Gillian.
+
+"Sometimes, but sometimes disappointment leads only to intolerance of
+those whose methods differ.  Altruism will not stand without a
+foundation," said Dolores.
+
+"Mysie has been impressing on me, with what she heard from Phyllis
+Devereux, of the work Sister Angela has been doing at Albertstown--
+the most utter self-abnegation, through bitter disappointment in her
+most promising pupils--only the charity that is rooted could endure.
+It is just the old difference Tennyson points out between Wisdom and
+Knowledge."
+
+"And with wisdom come those feminine attributes that Agatha began
+asking about."
+
+"Yes, softening, gentleness, tact.  If people have not grown up to
+them, they must be taught as parts of wisdom."
+
+Gillian sighed.  "I wonder what Ernley Armitage will say when he
+comes home?"
+
+"He won't want you to throw up everything."
+
+"I don't think he will!  But if he did--No, I think he will be a
+staff to guide a silly, priggish heart to the deeper wisdom."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--FOXGLOVES AND FLIRTATIONS
+
+
+
+"With her venturous climbings, and tumbles, and childish escapes."
+TENNYSON.
+
+
+Hubert Delrio, pleased and gratified, but very shy, joined the ladies
+from the Goyle in their walk to Clipstone, expecting perhaps a good
+deal of stiffness and constraint, since every one at St. Kenelm's
+told him what a severe and formidable person Sir Jasper Merrifield
+was, and that all Lady Merrifield's surroundings were "so very
+clever."  "They did want SUCH books ordered in the library."
+
+Magdalen laughed, and said her only chance of seeing a book she
+wanted was that Lady Merrifield should have asked for it.  At
+Clipstone, they were directed to the dell where the foxgloves were
+unusually fine that year, covering one of the banks of the ravine
+with a perfect cloud of close-grown spikes, nodding with thick
+clustered bells, spotted withinside, and without, of that
+indescribable light crimson or purple, enchanting in reality but
+impossible to reproduce.  It was like a dream of fairy land to Hubert
+to wander thither with his Vera, count the tiers of bells, admire the
+rings of purple and the crooked stamens, measure the height of the
+tall ones, some almost equal to himself in stature, and recall the
+fairy lore and poetry connected with them, while Vera listened and
+thought she enjoyed, but kept herself entertained by surreptitiously
+popping the blossoms, and trying to wreath her hat with wild roses.
+
+Thekla meantime admired from the opposite bank, in a state of much
+elevation at acquiring a dear delicious brother-in-law, and insisted
+on Primrose sharing her sentiments till her boasting at last provoked
+the exclamation, "I wouldn't be so cocky!  I don't make such a fuss
+if my sisters do go and fall in love.  I have two brothers-in-law out
+in India, and Gillian has a captain, an Egyptian hero, with a medal,
+a post captain out at sea in the Nivelle.  You shall see his
+photograph coloured in his lovely uniform, with his sword and all!
+Your Flapsy's man isn't even an officer!"
+
+"He is a poet, and that's better!"
+
+"Better! why, if you WILL have it, Wilfred and Fergus always call him
+that 'painter cad,'" broke out Primrose, who had not outgrown her
+childish power of rudeness, especially out of hearing of her elders.
+
+"Then it is very wicked of them," exclaimed Thekla, "when the Marquis
+of Rotherwood himself said that Hubert Delrio is a very superior
+young man" (each syllable triumphantly rounded off).
+
+Primrose was equal to the occasion.  "Oh, they all laugh at Cousin
+Rotherwood; and, besides, a superior young man does not mean a
+gentleman."
+
+Thekla burst into angry tears and sobs, which brought Gillian, and a
+grave, dark young lady from the other side of a rock to inquire what
+was the matter--there was a confession on the two tongues of "she
+did," and "I didn't" of "painter cad, superior young man and no
+gentleman," but at last it cleared itself into Primrose allowing
+that, to take down Thekla's conceit, she had declared that a very
+superior young man did not mean a gentleman.
+
+"I could not have believed that you could have been so abominably
+ill-mannered," said Gillian gravely; "you ought to apologise to
+Thekla."
+
+"Oh, never mind," began Thekla ashamed; and at that moment a frantic
+barking was heard in the depths, and Valetta, Wilfred, Fergus and a
+dog or two darted headlong past, calling out, "Hedgehogs, hedgehogs!
+Run! come!"  And Primrose, giving a hand to Thekla, joined in the
+general rush down the glade.
+
+"A situation relieved!" said the newcomer.
+
+
+"For all ran to see,
+For they took him to be
+   An Egyptian porcupig,"
+
+
+quoted Gillian.  "They have wanted such a beast for some time for
+their menagerie; but really Primrose is getting much too old to
+indulge in such babyish incivility to a guest, true though the speech
+was, 'a superior young man,' not necessarily a gentleman."
+
+"I am colonial enough to like him the better for the absence of a
+hall mark."
+
+"Should you have missed it?  He is very good looking, and has a
+sensible refined countenance, poor man!"
+
+"He is a little too point device, too obviously got up for the
+occasion!"
+
+"Too like the best electroplate!  No; that is not fair, for it is not
+pretence, at least, I should think there was sound material below,
+and that never would brighten instead of dimming it."
+
+"According to Mysie and Fly, there is plenty of good taste; and his
+principle is vouched for.  Mysie is quite furious at any lady-love
+having gone to sleep to the sound of original verses from a lover!"
+
+"Dear old Mysie!  No, she would not.  She has a practical vein in
+her!  Would you?"
+
+"I'm not likely to be tried!" said Gillian merrily.  "Catch Ernley
+either practising or not minding his boat!  But come!  Mamma will
+want me, I feel only deputy daughter, with Mysie away."
+
+The two girls rose from the mossy bank, and proceeded across the
+paddock to the opening of the glade.
+
+On the turf Lady Merrifield sat enthroned; making a nucleus to the
+festivities and delicacies of all sorts, from sandwiches and cakes
+down to strawberries, cherries and Devonshire cream, were displayed
+before her; and the others drifted up gradually, Miss Mohun first.
+"I am later than I meant to be," she said, "but I was delayed by a
+talk with Sister Beata.  I never saw a woman more knocked down than
+she is by that adventure of Vera's."
+
+"I know," said Magdalen, rousing herself.  "It has made her look ten
+years older, and she could not talk it over or let a word be said to
+comfort her.  She says it was all her fault, and I should have
+thought it was that silly little Sister Mena's, if that is her name.
+
+"She considers it her fault for objecting to strict discipline in
+things of which she did not see the use," said Jane Mohun, "and so
+getting absorbed in her own work, and having no fixed rule by which
+to train Mena."
+
+"I see," said Lady Merrifield; "it reminds me of a story told in
+Madame de Chantal's life, how, when, par mortification, a Sister
+quietly ate up a rotten apple without complaint and another made
+signs of amusement, a rule was made that no one should raise her eyes
+at meals.  It shows that some rules which seem unreasonable may have
+a foundation."
+
+"It is an unnatural life altogether," said Dolores.  "Why should the
+rotten apple have been swallowed? or, if it was, I should think a
+joke over it might have been wholesome."
+
+"Hindering priggishness in the mortified Sister," said Gillian.
+
+"The fact is," said Lady Merrifield, "that if you vow yourself to an
+unnatural life, so to speak, you must submit to the rules that have
+been found best to work for it."
+
+"And poor Sister Beata did neither the one nor the other, by her own
+account," said Jane.  "She called herself a Sister, but disliked each
+rule, and chose to go her own way, like any other benevolent woman,
+doing very admirable work herself, but letting little Mena have the
+prestige of a Sister, while too busy to look after her, and without
+rules to restrain her."
+
+"But surely there has been no harm!" exclaimed Lady Merrifield.
+
+"No harm, only a little incipient flirtation with the organist,
+nothing in any one else, but not quite like a convent maid."
+
+"Ah!  I rather suspected," said Agatha.
+
+"I should think the best thing for Sister Mena would be to go to a
+good school, leave off her veil, in which she looks so pretty, and be
+treated like an ordinary girl," said Lady Merrifield.
+
+"That is just what Sister Beata intends," said Miss Mohun.  "She is
+to sink down into Miss Marian Jenkins, to wear a straw hat and blue
+frock, and go to school with the other girls, the pupils, while
+Sister Beata begins life as a probationer at Dearport."
+
+"Poor Sister Beata!"
+
+"She says she has experienced that it is best to learn to obey before
+one begins to rule.  It is most touching to see how humble she is.
+Such a real good woman too!  I doubt whether she gets a night's rest
+three days in a week, and she looks quite haggard with this
+distress," said Jane.
+
+"She will be a great power by and by!  But what will Mr. Flight and
+St. Kenelm's do without her?"
+
+"He is promised relays of Sisters from Dearport, which has stood so
+many years that they have a supply.  You see, he, like Sister Beata,
+tried a little too much to be original and stand aloof."
+
+"Ah!" said Lady Merrifield, "that is the benefit of institutions.
+They hinder works from dying away with the original clergyman or the
+wonderful woman."
+
+"But, Aunt Lily," put in Dolores, "institutions get slack?"
+
+"They have their DOWNS, but they also have their ups.  There is
+something to fall back upon with public schools."
+
+"Yes, like croquet," laughed Aunt Jane.  "We saw it rise and saw it
+fall; and here come all the players, the revival.  Well, how went the
+game?"
+
+So the party collected, and the two Generals came in from some vanity
+of inspection to grumble a little merrily at the open air banquet,
+but to take their places in all good humour, and the lively meal
+began with all the home witticisms, yet not such as to exclude
+strangers.  Indeed, Hubert Delrio was treated with something like
+distinction, and was evidently very happy, with Vera by his side.
+Perhaps Magdalen perceived that there was not the perfect ease of
+absolute equality and familiarity; but his poetical and chivalrous
+nature was gratified by the notice of a Crimean hero, and he
+infinitely admired the dignity and courtesy of Lady Merrifield, and
+the grace and ease of her daughters, finding himself in a new world
+of exquisite charm for him.
+
+And before they broke up, Magdalen had a quiet time with Lady
+Merrifield, in which she was able, not without a tell-tale blush even
+at her years, to ascertain that there were two Henry Merrifields, and
+that, alas! there was nothing good known of the son of Stokesley,
+except that anonymous attempt at restitution which gave hopes of
+repentance.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--PALACES OR CHURCHES
+
+
+
+"And if I leave the thing that lieth next,
+To go and do the thing that is afar,
+I take the very strength out of my deed."
+- MACDONALD.
+
+
+Those were happy days that succeeded Vera's engagement.  It had made
+her more womanly, or at least less childish; and the intercourse with
+Hubert Delrio became an increasing delight to her sisters, who had
+never known anything so like a brother.
+
+He was at first shy and not at ease with Magdalen, who, on her side,
+perceived the lack of public school and university training; but in
+grain he was so completely a good man, a churchman, and a gentleman,
+and had so much right sense as well as talent, that she liked him
+thoroughly and began to rely on him, as a woman with unaccustomed
+property is glad to do with a male relation.
+
+And to him, the society of the Goyle was a new charm.  He had been
+brought up to the technicalities and the business relations of art,
+and had a cultivated taste; but to be with a thoughtful, highly
+educated lady, able to enter into its higher and deeper associations,
+was an unspeakable delight and improvement to him.  Vera was fairly
+satisfied as long as he sketched her in various attitudes, and held
+her hand while he talked; though she did grudge having so much time
+spent on "taste, Shakespeare and the musical glasses."  Paula had
+various ecclesiastical interests in common with him, and began to
+expand and enter more into realities, while Thekla had in him a dear
+delightful delicious brother, who petted her, bantered her, mended
+her rabbit hutch, caught her hedgehog, taught her to guide her
+bicycle, drew picture games for her, and taught her to sketch.
+
+Agatha had endless discussions with him on his various aspirations,
+in some of which Magdalen took her share, sometimes thinking with a
+pang of regret and self-reproach that that brief time of intercourse
+with Hal Merrifield had been spent in youthful nonsense that could
+have left no permanent influence for good.
+
+In fact, whether through Hubert or through Agatha, a certain
+intellectual waft had breathed upon the Goyle.  Hubert was eager for
+assistance in learning German and Italian, and read and discussed
+books of interest; and even when he had left Rockstone, and his work
+at St. Kenelm's being finished, the stimulus was kept up by his
+letters, comments and questions; and the younger girls had entirely
+ceased to form an opposite camp, or to view "sister" as a
+taskmistress, even when Agatha had returned to St. Robert's.
+
+Mysie had come home, very brown, fuller of Scott than ever for her
+mother, and of Hugh Miller for Fergus, for whom she had brought so
+many specimens that Cousin Rotherwood declared that she would sink
+the Kittiwake.  Over the sketches and photographs of Iona, she and
+Paulina became great friends, and Paula was admitted to hear accounts
+of the modern missions that had come from the other Harry Merrifield
+among the Karens in Burmah, or again through Franciska Ivinghoe, of
+her Aunt Angela Underwood, who was considered to have a peculiar
+faculty for dealing with those very unpromising natives, the
+Australian gins.  Franciska remembered her tender nursing and bright
+manner in the days of fever at Vale Leston, and had a longing hope
+that she would take a holiday and come home; but at present she was
+bound to the couch of her slowly declining old friend, Sister
+Constance, the Mother of Dearport.  It was another bond of interest
+with Magdalen, to whom missions to the heathens had always been a
+dream.
+
+Thus had passed a year uneventful and peaceable, with visits from
+Hubert whenever he had a day or two to spare.  They were looked
+forward to with delight; but if there were a drawback it was in
+Vera's viewing him partly as one who held her in a sort of chain, and
+partly as one whom it was pleasant to tease by allowing little casual
+civilities from Wilfred Merrifield.
+
+For Wilfred was an embarrassment to his family.  He had never been
+strong, his public school career had been shortened by failure in
+health, and headaches in the summer, and coughs in the winter made it
+needful to keep him at home, and trust to cramming at Rockstone,
+enforced by his father's stern discipline and his mother's
+authoritative influence.
+
+Thus he was always within reach of the mild social gaieties in which
+each family indulged, and Vera was not quite so ready as were his
+sisters to contrast unfavourably his hatred of all self-improvement
+with Hubert Delrio's eagerness to pick up every crumb of information,
+thus deservedly getting on well in his profession.
+
+One morning, at breakfast, Hubert opened a letter and made a sudden
+exclamation; and in answer to Vera's vehement inquiry said, "It seems
+that the great millionaire swell, Pettifer--is that his name?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he was at Rock Quay."
+
+"Well, he went to see St. Kenelm's, fell in love with the ceiling,
+and offered Pratt and Pavis any sum they like to decorate a huge new
+hall he is building in the same style.  So they write to propose to
+me to come and do it, with a promise of future work, at any terms I
+like to ask."
+
+"Oh! but that's jolly," cried Vera.  "Can't you?"
+
+"No," he said; "this is immediate, and I have two churches, reredos
+and walls, on my hands, enough to last me all the year.  Nor could I
+throw over Eccles and Beamster."
+
+"Is there an agreement with them?" asked Magdalen.
+
+"Not regularly; but Mr. Eccles has been very kind to me, and promised
+me employment for four years to come; in fact, he has made
+engagements on that understanding."
+
+"I see," said Magdalen.  "You could not break with them."
+
+"Certainly not.  Nor do I entirely like the line of this other house.
+It is a good deal more secular."
+
+"And you have dedicated your talents to the Church!" cried Paulina.
+
+"Not that exactly, Paula," he said, smiling; "but I had rather work
+for the Church, so I am glad the matter is definitely settled for
+me."
+
+To that he kept, though he had a very kind letter from Mr. Eccles,
+who had evidently been applied to, wishing not to stand in his light,
+especially as he was engaged to be married, and telling him how it
+might be possible to fairly compensate for the loss to the firm.
+Between the lines, however, it was plain that it would be a great
+blow, only possible because the agreement had been neglected; and
+Hubert was only the more determined, out of gratitude for the
+generosity, not to break what he felt to be an implied pledge; and
+all the sisters sympathised with his determination.
+
+He adhered to it even after his return to London, though his father
+thought it a pity to lose the chance, if it could be accepted without
+discourtesy to Mr. Eccles; and he had been interviewed by various
+parties concerned, and there had been an attempt to dazzle him by the
+prospects held out to him by an enthusiastic young member of the
+firm.  Perhaps he was too shrewd entirely to trust them, but at any
+rate he felt his good faith to Eccles and Beamster a bond to hold him
+fast from the temptation; and his heart was really set on the
+consecration of the higher uses of his art; so that regard to the
+simple rule of honour was an absolute relief to him.
+
+So he wrote to Vera, who, if there were a secret wish on her part,
+did not dare to give it shape; while all her sisters, to whom she
+showed the letters that she scarcely comprehended, were open-mouthed
+in their admiration.  Thekla, who had been seized with a fit of
+hagiology, went the length of comparing him to St. Barbara; even
+Paula pronounced it a far-fetched resemblance.
+
+It was some months later that Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood had
+decided on building a magnificent cathedral-like church for the
+population rising around him in the Rocky Mountains; and meeting Lord
+Rotherwood in London heard of the work at St. Kenelm's, and resorted
+to Eccles and Beamster as the employers of young Delrio.  There would
+be plenty of varieties of beautiful material to be found near at hand
+in the mountains; but Hubert was sent first for a short journey in
+Italy to study the effect of the old mosaics as well as the frescoes,
+and then to go out to America to the work that would last a
+considerable time.
+
+Vera was much excited by the notion of the Italian journey, and
+thought she ought to have been married at once and have shared it,
+including as it did a short visit to Rocca Marina.  But she was
+scarcely eighteen, and neither her trustee nor her elder sister
+thought it advisable to dispense with the decision that her twenty-
+first birthday must be waited for, at which she pouted.  Hubert came
+for two nights on his return, and was exceedingly full of his tour,
+talking over Italian scenes and churches with Magdalen, who had never
+seen them, but had the descriptions and the history at her fingers'
+ends, and listened with delight to all the impressions of a mind full
+of feeling and poetry.  The time was only too short to discuss or
+look out everything, and much was left to be copied and sent after
+him, with many promises on Vera's part of writing everything for him,
+and translating the books that Magdalen would refer to.  He was
+allowed to take Vera and Paulina to Filsted for a hurried visit to
+his parents.  When they came home again, it soon became plain that it
+had not been a success.  "I am glad to be at home again," said Paula,
+as the pony carriage turned up the steep drive, and the girls jumped
+out to walk.  "I am quite glad to feel the stones under my feet
+again!"
+
+Magdalen laughed.  "A new sentiment!" she said.
+
+"I don't like the stones," said Vera, "but I did not know Filsted was
+such a poky place."
+
+"A dead flat!" added Paula.  "No sea, no torrs! one wanted something
+to look at! and SUCH a church!"
+
+"Did you see Minnie Maitland?" put in Thekla.
+
+"I saw all the Maitlands in a hurry," said Vera.  "I don't remember
+which was which.  They were all dressed alike in horrid colours.
+Hubert said they set his teeth on edge!"
+
+"How was old Mrs. Delrio?"
+
+"Just the same as ever, lean and pinched."
+
+"But so kind!" added Paula.  "She could not make enough of Flapsy."
+
+"I should think not!" ejaculated Vera.  "Enough! aye, and too much!
+just fancy, no dinner napkins! and Edith went away and made the
+scones herself!"
+
+"Very praiseworthy," said Magdalen.  "Don't you know how Hubert
+always tells us what a dear devoted good girl she is?"
+
+"Well, I only hope Hubert does not expect me to live in that way,"
+said Vera.  "His mother looks like a half-starved hare, and Edith is
+giving lessons as a daily governess!
+
+"Edith is very nice," said Paula; "and I never understood before how
+excellent old Mr. Delrio's pictures are!  Do you remember his
+'Country Lane'?  What a pity it did not sell!"
+
+"Poor man!" said Magdalen.  "He married too soon, and that has kept
+him down."
+
+"It is beautiful to see how proud they are of Hubert," said Paula,
+"and his pretty gentle attention and deference to them both.  Mr.
+Delrio is really a gentleman, I am sure; but, Maidie," she said,
+falling back with her, while Vera and Thekla mounted faster, "it was
+very odd to see how different things looked to us from what they
+seemed when we were at Mrs. Best's.  Filsted High Street has grown so
+small, and one could hardly breathe in Mrs. Delrio's stuffy drawing-
+room.  And as to Waring Grange, which we used to think just perfect,
+it was all so pretentious and in such bad taste.  Hubert saw it as
+much as we did, but I could see he was on thorns to hinder Flapsy
+from making observations."
+
+Certainly the visit had not done much good, except in making the
+girls appreciate the refinement of their surroundings at the Goyle.
+
+And when letters arrived from Hubert at the American Vale Leston,
+asking questions requiring some research in books, either Magdalen's
+or at the Rock Quay library, Vera dawdled and sighed over them; and
+when the more zealous Magdalen or Paula took all the trouble, and
+left nothing for her to do but to copy their notes, and write the
+letters, she grew cross.  "It was for Hubert, and she did not want
+any one else to meddle!  So stupid!  If he had only taken Pratt and
+Pavis's offer, there would not have been all this bother!"
+
+That, of course, she only ventured to utter before Paula and Thekla,
+and it made them both so furious that she declared she was only in
+joke, and did not mean it.
+
+She was indulging in reflections on the general dulness of her lot,
+and the lack of sympathy in her sisters, as she lingered by the
+confectioner's window, with her eyes fixed on a gorgeous combination
+of coloured bonbons, when Wilfred Merrifield sauntered out.  "Fresh
+from Paris!" he said.  "Going to choose some?"
+
+"Oh no, I haven't got any cash.  M. A. keeps us horribly short."
+
+"As usual with governors!  But look here!  Pocket this.  Sweets to
+the sweet, from an old chum!"
+
+"Oh, Will, how jolly!  Such a love of a box."
+
+"Make haste!  Some of the girls are lurking about, and if there is
+any mischief to be made, trust Gill for doing it."
+
+"Mischief!--" but before the words were out of her mouth, Gillian and
+Mysie appeared from the next shop, a bootmaker's, and Mysie stood
+aghast with, "What ARE you doing?  Buying goodies!  How very
+ridiculous!"
+
+"The proper thing between chums, isn't it, Vera?" said Wilfred, with
+an indifferent air.  "We aren't unlucky Sunday scholars, Mysie, to be
+jumped upon!  Good-bye, Vera, au revoir!"
+
+He sauntered away with his hands in his pockets; while Gillian, from
+her eldership of two years, and her engagement, gravely said, "Vera,
+perhaps you do not fully know, but I should say this is not quite the
+thing."
+
+"He told you we are just chums!" exclaimed Vera.  "As if there were
+any harm in it!  You've not got a sweet tooth yourself, so you need
+not grudge me just a few goodies."
+
+Gillian saw that it was of no use to prolong the dispute either for
+the place or the time, and she hushed Mysie, who was about to
+expostulate farther, and made her go away with a brief parting, such
+as she hoped would impress on Vera that the sisters thought very
+badly of her discretion and loyalty.  They could not hear the
+reflection, "They need not be so particular and so cross.  Hubert
+never thought of giving me anything nice like this.  Why should not
+my chum?  Such a sweet little box too, with a dear girl's head on it!
+Would Polly fuss about it, and set on Sister?  I shall put it into my
+own drawer, and then if they notice it, they may think somebody at
+Filsted gave it!  No one has any business to worry me about Hubert,
+and Wilfred being civil to me.  He IS a gentleman."
+
+The gentleman had been overtaken by his sisters.  He was walking his
+bicycle up the hill rather breathlessly and slowly.  Mysie
+indignantly began, "Of all the stupid things to do, to give goodies
+to that girl, like a baby!"
+
+"I have been wishing to speak to you," said Gillian.  "You are going
+the way to get that foolish girl into a scrape."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course.  Sisters uniformly object to a little civility
+to a pretty girl," carelessly answered Wilfred.
+
+"Nonsense!" returned Mysie, hotly.  "We don't care! only it is not
+fair on Mr. Delrio."
+
+"The painter cad!  A very good thing too!  The sacrifice ought to be
+prevented.  Is not that the general sentiment?"
+
+"Wilfred!" cried the scandalised Mysie, "when it is all the other
+way, and he is ever so much too good for her."
+
+"Consummate prig!  The cheek of him pretending to a lady!"
+
+"But, Wilfred," went on downright Mysie, "is it only mischief, or do
+you want to marry her yourself?"
+
+"Draw your own conclusions," responded Wilfred, mounting his machine,
+and spinning down the hill faster than they could follow on foot.
+
+"What is to be done, Gill?" sighed Mysie.  "Ought we to get mamma to
+speak to him?"
+
+"Better not," said Gillian, with more experience.  "It would only
+make it worse to take it seriously.  Half of it is play--and half to
+tease you."
+
+"And," said Mysie, with due deference to the engaged sister, "how
+about Mr. Delrio?  Will it make him unhappy?"
+
+"If he finds out in time what a horrid little thing it is, I should
+say it would be very well for him; but I don't want Will to be the
+means."
+
+"Oh! when his examination is over, and he gets an appointment, he
+will go away, and it will be safe."
+
+"I have not much hopes of his getting in!"
+
+"Oh, Gill, none of us ever failed before."
+
+On the side of the Goyle not much was known or cared about Wilfred's
+little attentions, which were generally out of sight of Magdalen, and
+did not amount to much; but Paula saw enough of them to consult
+Agatha on, and to observe that Flapsy was going on just as she used
+to at Filsted, and she thought Hubert would not like it.
+
+"I believe Flapsy can't live without it," sighed Agatha.
+
+"But would you speak to her?  I don't think she ought to let him give
+her boxes of bonbons--to keep up in her room, and never give a hint
+to Maidie."
+
+Agatha did speak but the effect was to set Vera into crying out at
+every one being so intolerably cross about such a trifle, Gillian
+Merrifield and all!
+
+"Did Gillian speak to you?"
+
+"Yes, as if she had any business to do so!"
+
+"I am sure it is not the way she would treat Captain Armitage."
+
+"I don't believe she cares for Captain Armitage one bit!  You said
+yourself that all the girls at Oxford thought she cared much more for
+her horrid examination!  I wouldn't be a dry, cold-hearted,
+insensible stick like her for the world."
+
+"Perhaps she is the more quietly in earnest," said Agatha, repenting
+a little that she had told before Vera the college jokes over what
+had leaked out of Gillian's reception of Ernley Armitage when he had
+hastened up to Oxford as soon as his ship was paid off, and she had
+been called down to him in the Lady Principal's room.  Report said
+that she had only prayed him to keep out of the way, and not to upset
+her brain, and that he had meekly obeyed--as one who knew what it was
+to have promotion depending on it.
+
+It was a half truth, exaggerated, but it had not a happy effect on
+Vera.  Nevertheless, the finishing push of preparation brought on
+such a succession of violent headaches as quite to disable the really
+delicate boy.  Moreover, the tutor declared that there had been
+little chance of his success, and Dr.  Dagger said that he had much
+better not try again.  The best hope for his health, and even for his
+life, was to keep him at home for a few years, and give him light
+work.
+
+He had never been the pleasantest element in the household; and if
+his parents were glad of the avoidance of the risk of a launch into
+the world, and his mother's love rejoiced in the power of watching
+over him, there were others who felt his temper a continual trial,
+while his career was a perplexity.
+
+However, Captain Henderson offered a clerkship at the Marble Works,
+subject to Mr. White's approval; and this was gratefully accepted.
+Nor did Agatha come home again at the Long Vacation for more than two
+days, in which there was no time for consultation with her sisters on
+matters of uncertain import.
+
+Miss Arthuret and Elizabeth Merrifield had arranged together to take
+the old roomy farmhouse on Penbeacon for three or four months, and
+there receive parties of young women in need of rest, fresh air, and,
+in some cases, of classes, or time for study.  It was to be a sort of
+Holiday House, though not altogether of idleness; and Dolores
+undertook to be a kind of vice-president, with Agatha to pursue her
+reading under her superintendence, and to assist in helping others,
+governesses, students, schoolmistresses from Coalham, in whose behalf
+indeed the scheme had been first started, and it was extremely
+delightful to Agatha, among many others.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--TWO WEDDINGS
+
+
+
+"How happy by my mother's side
+When some dear friend became a bride!
+To shine beyond the rest I was
+   In gay embroidery drest.
+Vain of my drapery's rich brocade,
+I held my flowing locks to braid."
+ANSTICE (from the Greek).
+
+
+"Epidemics of marriage set in from time to time," said Jane Mohun.
+"Gillian has set the fashion."
+
+For the Rock Quay neighbourhood was in a state of excitement over a
+letter from Mrs. White, of Rocca Marina, announcing the approaching
+marriage of Mr. White's niece, Maura, with Lord Roger Grey, a nephew
+of dear Emily's husband, and heir to the Dukedom.  The White family
+were coming home for the wedding, and the interest entirely eclipsed
+that of Gillian Merrifield's.  In fact, though that young lady
+somewhat justified the Oxford stories, she was in a state of much
+inward agitation between real love for Ernley, and pain in leaving
+home, so she put on an absolutely imperturbable demeanour.  Her
+reserve and dread of comments made her so undemonstrative and
+repressive to her Captain that there were those who doubted whether
+she cared for him at all, or only looked on her wedding as a
+mediaeval maiden might have done, as coming naturally a few years
+after she had grown up.  Ernley Armytage knew better, and so did her
+parents.  The wedding was hurried on by Captain Armytage's
+appointment to a frigate on the coast of Southern America, where he
+had to join at once, in lieu of a captain invalided home; and Gillian
+accepted the arrangements, which would take her to Rio, "as much a
+matter of course," said her aunt, "as if she had been a wife for ten
+years."  Her uncle, Mr. Mohun, was anxious that the marriage of his
+sister Lily's daughter should take place at the family home,
+Beechcroft.  If there had been scruples, chiefly founded on the
+largeness of the party, and the trouble to Mrs. Mohun, these were
+forgotten in the convenience of being out of the way of Rockstone
+gossip, as well as for other reasons.
+
+"I should certainly have escaped," said General Mohun.  "I have no
+notion of meeting that unmitigated scamp."
+
+"Mr. White ought to be warned," said Jane.
+
+"You'll do so, I suppose; and much good it will be."
+
+"I do not imagine that it will.  It will be too charming to surpass
+Franciska and Ivinghoe; but if neither you nor Jasper will speak to
+old Tom, I shall deliver my conscience to Ada."
+
+"And be advised to mind your own business."
+
+Nevertheless, Jane Mohun did deliver her conscience, when, on the day
+after the arrival, there had been loud lamentations over the intended
+absence of the Merrifield family.  "It would have looked well to make
+it a double wedding, all in the family," said Mr. White.
+
+To which Miss Mohun only answered by a silence which Mrs. White was
+unwilling to break, but Maura exclaimed -
+
+"But I thought Valetta would be sure to be my bridesmaid.  Such
+friends as we were at the High School!"
+
+It did not strike Miss Mohun that the friendship had been very close
+or very beneficial; but Adeline added, "We thought she would pair so
+well with Vera Prescott, and then uncle will give all the dresses--
+white silk with cerise trimmings.  We ordered them in Paris."
+
+"Uncle Tom is so generous!" said Maura.  "There is no end to his
+kindness.  I'll go and unpack some of the patterns, that Miss Mohun
+may see them."
+
+She tripped out of the room, and Jane exclaimed, "Poor child!  Has
+Emily written to you, Ada?"
+
+"Yes, rather stiffly.  Mr. White thinks it aristocratic pride."
+
+"Ada, you know it is not that."
+
+"Well, I suppose the Greys are hardly gratified by the connection,
+though Mr. White will make it worth their while.  You see the Duke
+leaves everything in his power to his daughters, so poor Roger will
+be very badly off."
+
+"But--"  There was so much expressed in that "but" that Adeline began
+to answer one of the sentiments she supposed it to convey.  "He can
+do it easily--for all the rest are provided for by the Marble Works--
+except the two eldest brothers.  Richard has gone away, and Alexis--
+oh, you know he has notions of his own that Mr. White does not like."
+
+"Does Mr. White know all about Lord Roger, or why the Duke should cut
+him off as far as possible?"
+
+"My dear Jane, it is not charitable to bring things up against young
+men's follies."
+
+"It is a pretty considerable folly to have done what compelled him to
+retire.  Reginald was called in at the inquiry, and knows all about
+it."
+
+"But that was ages ago, and he has been quite distinguished in the
+Turkish army."
+
+"Yes; and I also know that English gentlemen have associated with him
+as little as possible.  I should call it a fatal thing to let Maura
+marry him.  What does Captain Henderson say?"
+
+"Mr. White thinks that it is all jealousy.  And really, Jenny, I do
+not in the least believe that he will make her unhappy.  He is old
+enough to have quite outgrown all his wild ways, and he has quite
+gentlemanly manners and ways.  Besides, Maura likes him, and is quite
+bent upon it."
+
+Still there was a dissatisfied look on Jane's face, and Adeline went
+on answering it, with tears in her eyes.  "My dear Jane, I know what
+you would say, and what Reginald and all the rest feel, that it is
+not what we should like!  But, my dear, don't let the whole family
+rise up in arms!  It would be of no use, only make it painful for me.
+Maura is quite bent upon it, and she has arrived at turning her uncle
+round her finger so much that I am sometimes hardly mistress of the
+house!  Oh, I don't tell any one, not Lily nor any one, but it will
+really be a relief to me when she is gone, with her Greek coaxing
+ways.  Her uncle is wrapped up in her, and so proud of her being a
+Duchess that he would condone anything.  Indeed, I am always afraid
+of her putting it into his head to suppose that her disappointment
+about Ivinghoe was in any way owing to my family pride."
+
+Jane was sorry for Adeline, and able to perceive how the wifely
+feelings, which she had taken on herself, by choosing a man of
+inferior breeding and nature clashed with her hereditary character
+and principles.
+
+"You are absolutely relieved that the Beechcroft wedding takes all of
+us out of the way naturally and without offence," she said so kindly
+that Ada laid her head on her sisterly shoulder, and allowed herself
+to shed a few tears.
+
+"Yes, yes," she said; "I am glad to have so good a reason to mention.
+Only I do hope Jasper will not object to Valetta's coming back to be
+bridesmaid.  That would really be a blow and give offence, and it
+would make difficulties with others--even James Henderson, who swears
+by Jasper.  I have often wished they would have done as I advised,
+and have had this wedding at Rocca Marina, out of the way of
+everybody!  I sometimes think it will be the death of me.  Do come
+home to help me through it."
+
+She spoke so like the Ada of old that it went to Jane's heart.
+
+She promised that she would return in time to give the very
+substantial assistance in which all believed, and the more
+sentimental support in which nobody believed, though her distaste
+arose tenfold after seeing the bridegroom, who looked like an old
+satyr, all the more because Maura was like a Greek nymph.  Mrs.
+Henderson was much grieved, and had tried remonstrance with her
+sister, but found her quite impervious.
+
+Glad were all the Merrifields to escape to the quiet atmosphere of
+Beechcroft, where the relations were able to congregate between the
+Court, the Vicarage, and the more-distant Rotherwood; and the wedding
+was an ideal one in ecclesiastical beauty, and the festivities of
+those who had known and loved Lady Merrifield as Miss Lily in early
+youth, grandmothers who had been her schoolchildren, and were pleased
+to hear that she was a grandmother herself, and hoped in a year or
+two to welcome her grandchildren.
+
+Alethea and her little Somervilles she had seen en route to Canada,
+and Phyllis was to come in due time when Bernard Underwood could be
+spared from the bank in Colombo, and they would bring their little
+pair.
+
+In the matter of bridesmaids Gillian certainly had the advantage, for
+she was amply provided with sisters and cousins, Dolores coming for a
+few days for the wedding; whereas the six whom Maura had provided for
+beforehand in Paris were only, as Miss Jane said, "scraped up" with
+difficulty from former schoolfellows.  Lord Roger's nieces would not
+hear of being present.  Paulina was unwillingly pressed into the
+service, as well as the more willing Vera; but Mysie Merrifield was
+not to be persuaded to give up her visit to Lady Phyllis, and Aunt
+Jane could only carry home Valetta, who held the whole as "capital
+fun," and liked the acquisition of the white silk and lace and cerise
+ribbons.  Dolores had negotiated that No. 6 of the Vanderkist girls
+should spend a year with Miss Mohun for a final polish at the High
+School at Rock Quay, so as to be with her brother Adrian, who was
+completing his term at the preparatory school before his launch at
+Winchester.
+
+Wilfred also returned, father and uncle having decided that he did
+not merit a game licence, nor to attack the partridges of Beechcroft,
+and the prospect of the gaieties of Cliffe House consoled him.
+
+Adeline had to endure her husband's mortification at other
+disappointments.  The Ducal family was wholly unrepresented.  Even
+Emily, the connecting link, would not venture on the journey; and the
+clerical nephew was not sufficiently gratified by Lord Roger's
+intention to se ranger to undertake to officiate; and a Bishop, who
+had enjoyed the hospitality of Rocca Marina, proved to have other
+engagements.  No clergyman could be imported except Maura's brother
+Alexis, who had been two years at work at Coalham under Mr. Richard
+Burnet, and had just been appointed by the newly-chosen Bishop of
+Onomootka, and both were to go out with him as chaplains.  In the
+meantime, while the Bishop was preparing, by tours in England, Alexis
+undertook the duties of Mr. Flight's curate, rejoicing in the
+opportunity of seeing his elder sister, and the old friends with whom
+he had never been since his unlucky troubles with Gillian Merrifield,
+now no more.
+
+The delight of receiving him compensated to Kalliope Henderson for
+much that was distressing to both in Maura's choice.  The seven years
+that had passed had made him into a noble-looking man, with a
+handsome classical countenance, lighted up by earnestness and
+devotion, a fine voice and much musical skill, together with a bright
+attractive manner that, all unconsciously on his part, had turned the
+heads of half the young womanhood of Coalham, and soon had the same
+effect at Rock Quay.
+
+Vera and Paulina were in a state of much excitement over their white
+silks, in which the three other sisters took great pleasure in
+arraying them, and Thekla only wished that Hubert could see them.
+She should send him out a photograph, buying it herself with her own
+money.
+
+She was, of course, to see the wedding, in her Sunday white and broad
+pink sash, of the appropriateness of which she was satisfied when, at
+Beechcroft, they met Miss Mohun's young friend, Miss Vanderkist, in
+the same garb.  She and her brother had been put under Magdalen's
+protection, as Miss Mohun was too much wanted at Cliffe House to look
+after them; but Sir Adrian, a big boy of twelve, wanted to go his own
+way, and only handed her over with "Hallo, Miss Prescott! you'll look
+after this pussy-cat of ours while Aunt Jane is dosing Aunt Ada with
+salts and sal volatile.  She--I'll introduce you!  Miss Prescott,
+Miss Felicia Vanderkist!  She wants to be looked after, she is a
+little kitten that has never seen anything!  I'm off to Martin's."
+
+The stranger did look very shy.  She was a slight creature, not yet
+seventeen, with an abundant mass of long golden silk hair tied
+loosely, and a very lovely face and complexion, so small that she was
+a miniature edition of Lady Ivinghoe.
+
+Her name was Wilmet Felicia, but the latter half had been always used
+in the family, and there was something in the kitten grace that
+suited the arbitrary contractions well.  In fact, Jane Mohun had been
+rather startled to find that she had the charge of such a little
+beauty, when she saw how people turned around at the station to look,
+certainly not at Valetta, who was a dark bright damsel of no special
+mark.
+
+At church, however, every one was in much too anxious a state to gaze
+at the coming procession to have any eyes to spare for a childish
+girl in a quiet white frock.  St. Andrew's had never seen such a
+crowded congregation, for it was a wedding after Mr. White's own
+heart, in which nobody dared to interfere, not even his wife,
+whatever her good taste might think.  So the church was filled, and
+more than filled, by all who considered a wedding as legitimate gape
+seed, and themselves as not bound to fit behaviour in church.  On
+such an occasion Magdalen, being a regular attendant, and connected
+with the bridesmaids, was marshalled by a churchwarden into a
+reserved seat; but there they were dismayed by the voices and the
+scrambling behind them, which, in the long waiting, the Vicar from
+the vestry vainly tried to subdue by severe looks; and Felicia, whose
+notions of wedding behaviour were moulded on Vale Lecton and
+Beechcroft, looked as if she thought she had got into the house of
+Duessa, amid all Pride's procession, as in the prints in the large-
+volumed "Faerie Queene."
+
+And when, on the sounds of an arrival, the bridegroom stood forth,
+the resemblance to Sans Foy was only too striking, while the party
+swept up the church, the bride in the glories of cobweb veil, white
+satin, &c., becomingly drooping on her uncle's arm, while he beamed
+forth, expansive in figure and countenance, with delight.  Little
+Jasper Henderson, anxious and patronising to his tiny brother Alexis,
+both in white pages' dresses picked out with cerise, did his best to
+support the endless glistening train.
+
+The bridesmaids' costumes taxed the descriptive powers of the
+milliners in splendour and were scarcely eclipsed by the rich brocade
+and lace of Mrs. White, as she sailed in on Captain Henderson's arm;
+but her elaborate veil and feathery bonnet hardly concealed the weary
+tedium of her face, though to the shame, well nigh horror, of her
+sister, she was rouged.  "I must, I must," she said; "he would be
+vexed if I looked pale."
+
+It was true that "he" loved her heartily, and that he put all the
+world at her service; but she had learnt where he must not be
+offended, and was on her guard.  Hers had been the last wedding that
+Jane had attended in St. Andrew's.  "Did she repent?" was Jane's
+thought.  No, probably not.  She had the outward luxuries she had
+craved for, and her husband was essentially a good man, though not of
+the caste to which her instincts belonged--very superior in nature
+and conscience to him to whom his blinded vanity was now giving his
+beautiful niece, a willing sacrifice.
+
+It was over!  More indecorous whispering and thronging; and the
+procession came down the aisle, to be greeted outside by a hail of
+confetti and rice; the schoolboys, profiting by the dinner interval,
+and headed by Adrian, had jostled themselves into the foreground, and
+they ran headlong to the portico of Cliffe House to renew the shower.
+
+And there, unluckily, Mr. White recognised the boy, and, pleased to
+have anything with a title to show, turned him round to the
+bridegroom, with, "Here, Lord Roger, let me introduce a guest, Sir
+Adrian Vanderkist."
+
+"Ha, I didn't know poor Van had left a son.  I knew your father, my
+boy.  Where was it I saw him last?  Poor old chap!"
+
+"You must come in to taste the cake, my boy," began Mr. White.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. White, I must get back to Edgar's.  Late already.
+The others are off."
+
+"Not a holiday!  For shame!  He'll excuse you.  I'll send a note down
+to say you must stay to drink the health of your father's old
+friend."
+
+Those words settled the matter with Adrian.  The holiday was
+enticing, and might have overpowered the chances of a scholarship,
+for which he was working; but he had begun to know that there were
+perplexities from which it was safer to retreat; and that he had
+never transgressed his Uncle Clement's warning might be read in the
+clear open face that showed already the benefits, not only of
+discipline, but of self-control.  So obedience answered the question;
+though, as he again thanked and refused, he looked so dogged as he
+turned and walked off, that Ethel Varney whispered to Vera that at
+school he was called, "the Dutchman, if not the Boer."
+
+Nor did he ever mention the temptation or his own resistance.  Only
+Mr. White asked Miss Mohun to bring him to the dance which was to be
+given in the evening, telling her of his refusal of the invitation to
+wedding cake and champagne and she--mindful of her duty to her charge
+as hinted by Clement Underwood--had not granted the honour of his
+presence on the score of his school obligations.
+
+The afternoon was spent in desultory wanderings about the gardens,
+Magdalen and her sisters being invited guests, and Vera in a
+continual state of agitated expectation.  Had not Wilfred Merrifield
+always been a cavalier of her own?  And here he was, paying no
+attention to her, with all the embellishment of her bridesmaid's
+adornments, and squiring instead that little insignificant Felicia,
+in a simple hat, and hair still on her shoulders; whilst she had to
+put up with nothing better than a young Varney, who was very shy, and
+had never probably mastered croquet.
+
+She was an ill-used mortal; and why had she not Hubert to show how
+superior she was to them all, in having a piece of property of her
+own to show off?
+
+There was Paula, too, playing animated tennis with that clerical
+brother of the bride, who had been talking to Magdalen about the
+frescoes of St. Kenelm's (as if she, Vera, had not the greatest right
+to know all about those frescoes!).  Even little Thekla was better
+off, for she was reigning over a merry party of the little ones,
+which had been got up for the benefit of the small Hendersons, and of
+which Theodore White had constituted himself the leader, being a
+young man passionately devoted to little children.
+
+So when the guests dispersed to eat their dinner at their homes and
+dress for the dance, Vera was extremely cross.  Each of the other
+three had some delightful experiences to talk over; but whether it
+was Mr. Theodore's fun in acting ogre behind the great aloe, or Mr.
+Alexis's achievements with the croquet ball, or his information about
+the Red Indians and Onomootka, she was equally ungracious to all; she
+scolded Thekla for crumpling her skirt, and was quite sure that Paula
+had on the wrong fichu that was meant for her.  Each bridesmaid had
+been presented with a bracelet, like a snake with ruby eyes; but
+Vera, fingering hers with fidgeting petulance, seemed to have managed
+to loosen the clasp, and when arranging her dress for the evening
+thought that her snake had escaped.
+
+Upstairs and downstairs she rushed in hopes of finding it.  The cab
+in which they had returned was gone home to come again, and there was
+the chance that it might be there or in the Cliffe House gardens; and
+then the others tried to console her, but they were not able to
+hinder a violent burst of crying, which scandalised Thekla.
+
+"I am sure you couldn't cry more if you had lost Hubert's, and that
+would be something worth crying about."
+
+Hubert's was an ingeniously worked circle of scales of Californian
+gold, the first ornament that Vera had ever possessed, and that all
+the sisters had set great store by.  But with an outcry of joy Vera
+exclaimed, "Here's the snake all safe!  I pushed the other up my arm
+because it looked so plain and dull, and it was that which came off."
+
+"That is a great deal worse than losing the snake," said Thekla.  "He
+has a nasty face, and I don't like him, with his red eyes."
+
+"Don't be silly," returned Vera; "this is a great deal more
+valuable."
+
+"Surely the value is in the giver," said Paula; to which Vera
+returned in the same vein, "Don't be silly and sentimental, Polly."
+
+She was so much cheered by the recovery of the snake that they
+brought her off to the evening dance without a fresh fit of ill-
+humour, and she sprang out under the portico of Cliffe House, with
+her spirits raised to expectation pitch.
+
+But disappointment was in store for her.  It was not disappointment
+in other eyes.  Paula had all the attention she expected or desired,
+she danced almost every time and did not reckon greatly on who might
+be her partner.  What pleased and honoured her most was being asked
+to dance by Captain Henderson himself.
+
+What was it to Vera, however, that partners came to her, young men of
+Rock Quay whom she knew already and did not care about?  And she
+never once had the pleasure of saying that she was keeping the next
+dance for Wilfred Merrifield!  To her perceptions, he was always
+figuring away with Felicia Vanderkist, her golden hair seemed always
+gleaming with him; and though this was not always the case, as the
+nephew of the house was one of those who had duties to guests and was
+not allowed by his aunts to be remiss, yet whenever he was not
+ordered about by them, he was sure to be found by Felicia's side.
+
+Vera's one consolation was that Alexis White took her to supper.  To
+be sure he was a clergyman, and had stood talking to Lady Flight half
+the time, and his conversation turned at once to Hubert Delrio's
+frescoes; but then he was very handsome, and graceful in manner, and
+he sympathised with her on the loss of her bracelet, and promised to
+have a search for it by daylight in the gardens.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--FLEETING
+
+
+
+"And variable as the shade
+By the light quivering aspen made."
+- SCOTT.
+
+
+The bracelet came to light in the gardens of Cliffe House the next
+morning, and Alexis White walked over to the Goyle to return it
+safely, little guessing, when he set forth to enjoy the sight of the
+purple moors, and to renew old recollections, what a flutter of
+gratified vanity would be excited in one silly little breast, though
+he only stayed ten minutes, and casually asked whether the sisters
+were coming to Lady Flight's garden party.  Everybody was going
+there.  Miss Mohun even took Felicia, as it was on a Saturday's
+holiday; and, unwittingly, she renewed all the agitation caused by
+Wilfred's admiration, and that of others, to the all-unconscious
+girl.  Vera could no longer think herself the reigning belle of Rock
+Quay, though she talked of Felicia as a schoolgirl or a baby, or a
+horrid little forward chit!  Her excitement was, however, divided
+between Wilfred and Mr. Alexis White, who could not look in her
+direction without putting her in a state of eagerness.
+
+In this, however, she was not alone.  Half the ladies were interested
+about him; his manners were charming, his voice in church beautiful,
+and his destination as chaplain to a missionary bishop made him
+doubly interesting; while he himself, even though his mind was set on
+higher things, was really enjoying his brief holiday, and his sister,
+Mrs. Henderson, was delighted to promote his pleasure, and garden
+parties and the like flourished as long as weather permitted; and as
+Vera was a champion player, she was sure to be asked to the
+tournaments, and to have to practise for them.
+
+Inopportunely there arrived a letter from Hubert, requiring an answer
+about the form of ornament in the moulding of the fourteenth century!
+Paula dutifully went to the library, looked out and traced two or
+three examples, French and English.  Nothing remained but for Vera to
+write the letter after the early dinner.  However, she went to sleep
+in a hammock, and only roused herself to recollect that there was to
+be tea and lawn tennis at Carrara.
+
+"Won't you just write to Hubert first?"
+
+"Oh, bother, how can I now?  Don't worry so!"
+
+"But, Flapsy, he really needs it without loss of time."
+
+"I'm sure he has no right to make me his clerk in that horrid
+peremptory way, as if one had nothing else to do but wait on his
+fads."
+
+"Flapsy, how can you?" broke out even Thekla.
+
+"Surely it is the greatest honour," said Paula.
+
+"Well, do it yourself then, I'm not going to be bothered for ever."
+
+Thekla went off, in great indignation, to beg "sister" to speak to
+Flapsy, and beg her not to use dear Hubert so very very badly, which
+of course Magdalen refused to do, and Thekla had her first lesson on
+the futility of interfering with engaged folk; Paula meanwhile sent
+off the despatch, with one line to say that Vera was too busy to
+write that day.
+
+There had been two or three letters from Hubert, over which Vera had
+looked cross, but had said nothing; and at last she came down from
+her own room, and announced passionately, "There!  I have done with
+Mr. Hubert Delrio, and have written to tell him so!"
+
+"Vera, what have you done?"
+
+"Written to tell him I have no notion of a man being so tiresome and
+dictatorial!  I don't want a schoolmaster to lecture me, and expect
+me to drudge over his work as if I was his clerk."
+
+"My dear," said Magdalen, "have you had a letter that vexed you?  Had
+you not better wait a little to think it over?"
+
+"No!  Nonsense, Maidie!  He has been provoking ever so long, and I
+won't bear it any longer!" and she flounced into a chair.
+
+"Provoking!  Hubert!" was all Paulina could utter, in her amazement
+and horror.
+
+"Oh, I daresay you would like it well enough!  Always at me to slave
+for him with stupid architectural drawings and stuff, as if I was
+only a sort of clerk or fag!  And boring me to read great dull books,
+and preaching to me about them, expecting to know what I think!  Dear
+me!"
+
+"Those nice letters!" sighed Paula.
+
+"Nice!  As if any one that was one bit in love would write such as
+that!  No, I don't want to marry a schoolmaster or a tyrant!"
+
+"How can you, Flapsy?" went on Paula, so vehemently that Magdalen
+left the defence thus far to her; "when he only wishes for your
+sympathy and improvement."
+
+The worst plea she could have used, thought the elder sister, as Vera
+broke out with, "Improvement, indeed!  If he cared for me, he would
+not think I wanted any IMPROVING!  But he never did!  Or he would
+have taken Pratt and Povis' offer, and I should have been living in
+London and keeping my carriage!  Or he would have taken me to Italy!
+But that horrid home of his, and his mother just like a half-starved
+hare!  I might have seen then it was not fit for me; but I was a
+child, and over-persuaded among you all!  But I know better now, and
+I know my own mind, as I didn't then.  So you need not talk!  I have
+done with him."
+
+"Oh, Flapsy, Flapsy, how can you grieve him so?  You don't know what
+you are throwing away!" incoherently cried Paula, collapsing in a
+burst of tears.  "Maidie, Maidie, why don't you speak to her, and
+tell her how wicked it is--and--and--and--"
+
+The rest was cut short by sobs.
+
+"No, Paula, authority or reasoning of mine would not touch such a
+mood as this.  We must leave it to Hubert himself.  If she really
+cares for him, she will have recovered from her fit of temper by the
+time his letter can come, and it may have an effect upon her, if our
+tongues have not increased her spirit of opposition.  I strongly
+advise you to say nothing."
+
+Paula tried to take her sister's advice, and would have adhered to
+it, but that Vera would talk and try to make her declare the rupture
+to have been justified; and this produced an amount of wrangling
+which did good to no one.  Magdalen really rejoiced when the frequent
+golf and tennis parties carried Vera on her bicycle out of reach of
+arguing, even if it took her into the alternative of flirtation.
+
+Thekla cried bitterly, and declared that she should never speak to
+Flapsy again; but in half an hour's time was heard chattering about
+the hedgehog's meal of cockroaches.  In another week the excitement
+was over.  The Bishop of Onomootka had come and gone, after holding
+meetings and preaching sermons at Rock Quay and all the villages
+round, and had carried off Alexis White with him.
+
+Nothing had come of the intercourse of the latter with his rich
+uncle, nor of the varieties of encounters with the damsels of Rock
+Quay, except that society was declared by more than one to have
+become horridly flat and slow.
+
+Vera was one of these, and the letters received from Hubert Delrio
+did not stir up a fresh excitement.  There were no persuasions to
+revoke her decision, no urgent entreaties, no declaration of being
+heart-broken.  He acquiesced in her assurance that the engagement had
+been a mistake; and he wrote at more length to Magdalen, avowing that
+he had for some time past traced discontent in Vera's letters, and
+fearing that he had been too didactic and peremptory in writing to
+her.  He relinquished the engagement with much regret, and should
+always regard it as having been a fair summer dream--but, though
+undeserving, he hoped still to retain Miss Prescott's kindness and
+friendship, which had been of untold value to him.
+
+A little more zeal and distress would have been much more pleasing to
+Vera; and she began to be what Agatha and Thekla called cross, and
+Paula called drooping, and even excited alarm in her, lest Flapsy
+should be going into a decline.  But a note came to the Goyle which
+Magdalen read alone, and likewise she cycled alone to Rockstone.
+
+"Miss Mohun, can you give me a few minutes?" said she, as the trim
+little figure emerged from beneath the copper beeches, basket in
+hand.
+
+"By all means; I shall not be due at the cutting-out meeting till
+three o'clock."
+
+"I wanted to consult you about an invitation that Mrs. White has been
+so very kind as to give my little sister, Vera."
+
+"Oh!" quoth Jane Mohun, in a dry sort of tone.
+
+"I know that she had wished to take out one of her own nieces to
+Rocca Marina, but that Sir Jasper did not wish it, and I thought
+perhaps it would be easier for you than for Lady Merrifield to tell
+me whether there is any objection that would apply to Vera."
+
+"I suppose Vera wishes to go?"
+
+"She is so wild with delight that it would be a serious thing to
+disappoint her.  Mrs. White is very kind and good, and has thought
+that she has flagged of late, and has supposed it might be due to
+poor Hubert Delrio, but, indeed, it was no fault of his."
+
+"None at all, except for out-growing her."
+
+"The offer was hinted at to go with Valetta even before we knew it
+was declined at Clipstone, and that made me anxious to know whether
+it would be well for me to send Vera.  I suppose she would pick up
+pronunciation of languages, which would be a great advantage, as she
+will have to earn her own living, and Mrs. White is so good as to
+promise lessons in arts and music.  I hear, too, it is quite an
+English colony, with a church and schools."
+
+"Oh, yes, Mr. White is a very good and careful man about his workmen.
+I have been there at the Henderson's wedding, and it is a charming
+place, a castle fit for Mrs. Radclyffe, with English comforts, and an
+Italian garden and an English village on the mountain side.  My
+sister would do all that she promises, and would look after any young
+girl very well; you may quite trust her."
+
+"Then is there any fear of Italian society?--not that poor Vera has
+any attraction OF THAT KIND," hesitated Magdalen.
+
+"None at all.  All the society they have is of English travellers
+coming with introductions.  I fancy it is very dull at times, and
+that Adeline wants a young person about her.  You need have no fears.
+Ah!  I see you still want to know why the Merrifields don't consent.
+It is not their way.  They would not let the Rotherwoods have Mysie
+to bring up with Phyllis, and--and Val is just the being that needs a
+mother's eye over her.  But I really and honestly think that your
+Vera may quite safely be put under Adeline's care, and that she is
+likely to be all the better for it."
+
+"One thing more, added Magdalen, with a little hesitation; "is your
+nephew, Wilfred, likely to be one of the party?"
+
+"None at all.  His father wants to keep him under his own eye, and
+his mother is anxious about his health; nor do I think Mr. White
+wants him, having his own two nephews, who are useful, so he will
+remain under Captain Henderson here."
+
+"Thank you!  That settles it in my mind.  I am sure the change to a
+fresh home will be an excellent thing for my poor Vera, and that the
+training of imitation of one to whom she looks up is what she most
+needs."
+
+"Very true," said Miss Mohun.
+
+And as she afterwards said to Lady Merrifield, "It was in all
+sincerity and honesty that I gave the advice to Magdalen, who is very
+sensible in the matter.  In plain English, Ada can't do without a
+lady in waiting, and Vera probably fancies that Lords, young or old,
+start from every wave like the spirits of our fathers, at Rocca
+Marina, in which she will probably be disappointed; but Ada will be a
+very dragon as to her manners and discretion, and not being his own
+niece, old Tom White will not be deluded by his ambition and any
+blandishments of hers.  As people go, they are very safe guardians,
+and Vera--Flapsy as they call her--is just of the composition to be
+improved, and not disimproved, by living with Ada."
+
+"Probably, though I do not like the foolish little puss to be
+rewarded for throwing over young Delrio."
+
+"He was so much too good for her that I am more inclined to reward
+her for doing so!"
+
+Agatha, however, came home somewhat annoyed by the whole arrangement.
+She supposed the rupture with Hubert might have been inevitable; but
+she was very sorry for it, thinking that Vera might have grown up to
+him, and regretting the losing him as a brother.  Nor did she like
+the atmosphere of the Whites and Rocca Marina for her feather-brained
+young sister.  "Dolores had no great opinion of her Aunt Adeline,"
+she said.
+
+"My dear," said Magdalen, as they sat over their early fire, "I have
+talked it over with Lady Merrifield and Miss Mohun, and they both
+tell me that Mrs. White is very sensible, and sure to be discreet for
+any girl in her charge--probably better for Flapsy than a more
+intellectual woman."
+
+"But--!  Such a marriage as this one!" said Agatha.
+
+"It was Mr. White's own niece, and taken out of Mrs. White's hands,"
+said Magdalen.  "Besides," as Agatha still looked unconvinced, "one
+thing that made me think the invitation desirable was that it would
+break off any foolishness with Wilfred Merrifield--I think it was in
+their minds too."
+
+"Wilfred!  Oh, there was a little nonsense."
+
+"Less on his side, since Felicia Vanderkist has been here; but I
+think Vera has been all the more disposed to--to--"
+
+"Run after him," said Agatha.  "I could fancy it in Flapsy; but he is
+such a boy, and not half so nice-looking as the rest of them either."
+
+"My dear Agatha, I must tell you he reminds me strangely of a young
+Mr. Merrifield whom I knew at Filsted when I was younger than you."
+
+"A brother of Bessie?"
+
+"Even so.  He got into some kind of trouble at Filsted, his father
+came and broke it off, and sent him out to Canada, where I fear he
+did not do well, and nothing has been heard of him since, except -
+
+She spoke with a catch in her voice which made Agatha look up at her,
+and detect a rising colour.
+
+"Nothing!" she repeated.
+
+"Except an anonymous parcel, returning to the brothers in Canada the
+sum he had taken with him.  Strangely, the clue was not followed up,
+and he is lost sight of!  But Wilfred's air, and still more his
+manner, is always recalling his cousin to me, and, Nag, dear, I could
+not bear to see Vera go through the same trial by my exposing her to
+the intercourse.  Not that I know any harm of Wilfred, but his
+parents could not like anything of the kind."
+
+"Certainly not!  Yes, I suppose you are right, dear old Maidie."  But
+Agatha pondered over those words that had slipped out, "the same
+trial."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--THE ELECTRICIANS
+
+
+
+   "Thou shalt have the air
+Of freedom.  Follow and do me service."
+- "THE TEMPEST."
+
+"Is Agatha in?" asked Dolores Mohun, jumping off her bicycle as she
+saw Magdalen, on a frosty day the next Christmas vacation, in her
+garden.
+
+"She is doing scientific arithmetic with Thekla; giving me a holiday,
+in fact!  You University maidens quite take the shine out of us poor
+old teachers."
+
+"Ah! if we can give shine we can't give substance.  But I want to
+borrow Nag, if you have no objection."
+
+"Borrow her! I am sure it is something she will like."
+
+"It is in the way of business, but she will like it all the same.
+They want me to give a course of lectures on electricity at Bexley to
+the Institute and the two High Schools, and I particularly want a
+skilled assistant, whom I can depend upon; not masters, nor boys!
+Now Nag is just what I should like.  We should stay at Lancelot
+Underwood's, a very charming place to be at."
+
+"Isn't he some connection?"
+
+"Connection all round.  Phyllis Merrifield married his brother,
+banking in Ceylon, and may come home any day on a visit; and
+Ivinghoe's pretty wife is Lancelot's niece.  He edits what is really
+the crack newspaper of the county, in spite of its being true blue
+Conservative, Church and all."
+
+"The Pursuivant?  It has such good literary articles."
+
+"Oh, yes!  Mrs. Grinstead and Canon Harewood write them.  His wife is
+a daughter of old Dr. May--rather a peculiar person, but very jolly
+in her way."
+
+"But would they like to have Agatha imposed upon them?"
+
+"Certainly; they are just the people to like nothing better, and it
+will only be for a fortnight.  I have settled it all with them."
+
+At which Magdalen looked a little doubtful, but Dolores reiterated
+that there need be no scruple, she might ask Aunt Lily if she liked;
+but Lance Underwood was Mayor, and member of all the committees, and
+the most open-hearted man in the world besides, and it was all right.
+
+To the further demur as to safety, Dolores answered that to light a
+candle or sit by the fire might be dangerous, but as long as people
+were careful, it was all right, and Agatha had already assisted in
+some experiments at Rock Quay, which had shown her to be thoroughly
+understanding and trustworthy, and capable of keeping off the
+amateur--the great bugbear.
+
+So Magdalen consented, after rapturous desires on the part of Agatha,
+and assurances from General Mohun that Dolores had it in her by
+inheritance and by training to meddle with the lightning as safely as
+human being might; and Lady Merrifield owned with a sigh that she
+must accept as a fact that what even the heathens owned as a Divine
+mystery and awful attribute, had come to be treated as a commonplace
+business messenger and scientific toy, though (as Mrs. Gatty puts it)
+the mystery had only gone deeper.  So much for the peril; and for the
+other scruple, it was set at rest by a hospitable letter from Mrs.
+Underwood, heartily inviting Miss Agatha Prescott, as an Oxford
+friend of Gillian.
+
+So off the two electricians set, and after two days of business and
+sight-seeing in London, went down to Bexley.  In the third-class
+carriage in which they travelled they were struck by the sight of a
+tall lady in mourning--a sort of compromise between a conventual and
+a secular bonnet over short fair hair, and holding on her lap a tiny
+little girl of about six years old, with a small, pinched, delicate
+face and slightly red hair, to whom she pointed out by name each spot
+they passed, herself wearing an earnest absorbed look of recognition
+as she pointed out familiar landmark after landmark till the darkness
+came down.  Also there were two cages--one with a small pink
+cockatoo, and another with two budgerigars.
+
+As the train began slackening Dolores exclaimed:
+
+"There he is!  Lance--!"
+
+"Lance!  Oh, Lance!" was echoed; and setting the child down, her
+companion almost fell across Agatha, and was at the window as the
+train stopped.
+
+What happened in the next moment no one could quite tell; but as the
+door was torn open there was a mingled cry of "Angel!" and of
+"Lance!" and the traveller was in his arms, turning the next moment
+to lift out the frightened little girl, who clung tight round her
+neck; while Lance held out his hand with, "Dolores!  Yes.  This is
+Dolores, Angel, whom you have never seen."
+
+Each knew who the other was in a moment, and clasped hands in
+greeting, as well as they could with the one, and the other receiving
+bird-cages, handbags, umbrellas, and rugs from Agatha, whom, however,
+Lance relieved of them with a courteous, "Miss Prescott!  You have
+come in for the arrival of my Australian sister!  What luggage have
+you?"  Wherewith all was absorbed in the recognition of boxes, and
+therewith a word or two to an old railway official, "My sister
+Angela."
+
+"Miss Angela! this is an unexpected pleasure!"
+
+"Tom Lightfoot! is it you?  You are not much altered.  Mr. Dane, I
+should have known you anywhere!" with corresponding shakes of the
+hand.
+
+"Yes, that's ours.  Oh, the birds!  There they are!  All right!  Oh!
+not the omnibus, Lance!  Let the traps go in that!  Then Lena will
+like to stretch her legs, and I must revel in the old street."
+
+Dolores and Agatha felt it advisable to squeeze themselves with the
+bird-cages into the omnibus, and leave the brother and sister to walk
+down together, though the little girl still adhered closely to her
+protector's hand.
+
+"Poor Field's little one?  Yes, of course."
+
+"But tell me! tell me of them all!"
+
+"All well! all right!  But how--"
+
+"The Mozambique was out of coal and had to put in at Falmouth.  You
+know, I came by her because they said the long sea voyage would be
+best for this child, and it was so long since I had heard of any one
+that I durst not send anywhere till I knew--and I knew Froggatt's
+would be in its own place.  Oh! there's the new hotel! the gas looks
+just the same!  There's the tower of St. Oswald's, all shadowy
+against the sky.  Look, Lena!  Oh! this is home!  I know the lamps.
+I've dreamt of them!  Tired, Lena, dear? cold?  Shall I carry you?"
+
+"No, no; let me!" and he lifted her up, not unwillingly on her part,
+though she did not speak.  "You are a light weight," he said.
+
+"I am afraid so," answered Angel.  "Oh! there's the bus stopping at
+Mr. Pratt's door."
+
+"Mine, now.  We have annexed it."
+
+"But let me go in by the dear old shop.  The window is as of old, I
+see.  Ernest Lamb! don't you know me?" as a respectable tradesman
+came forward.  "And Achille, is it?  You are as much changed as this
+old shop is transmogrified!  And they are all well?  Do you mean
+Bernard?"
+
+"Bernard and Phyllis may come home any day to deposit a child.  They
+lost their boy, and hope to save the elder one.  But come, Angel! if
+you have taken in enough we must go up to those electrical girls.
+Dolores is come to give a lecture, with the other girl to assist,
+Miss Prescott."
+
+"Dolores!  Yes, poor Gerald's love!  They are almost myths to me.
+Ah!" as Lancelot opened his office-door, "now I know where I am!  And
+there's the old staircase!  This is the real thing, and no mistake."
+
+"Angel, Angel, come to tea!"  And Gertrude, comfortable and
+substantial, in loving greeting threw arms round the new comers,
+Lance still carrying the child, who clung round his neck as he
+brought her into the room, full of his late fellow travellers, and
+also of a group of children.
+
+"It is as if we had gone back thirty years or more," was Angela's
+cry, as she looked forth on what had been as little altered as
+possible from the old family centre; and Lance, setting down the
+child, spoke as the pretty little blue-eyed girls advanced to
+exchange kisses with their new aunt.
+
+"Margaret, or Pearl, whom you knew as a baby; Etheldred, or Awdrey,
+and Dickie!  Fely is at Marlborough.  There, take little Lena--is
+that her name--to your table, and give her some tea."
+
+"Her name is Magdalen," said Angela, removing the little black hat
+and smoothing the hair; but Lena backed against her, and let her hand
+hang limp in Pearl's patronising clasp.  Nor would she amalgamate
+with the children, nor even eat or drink except still beside
+"Sister," as she called Angela.  In fact, she was so thoroughly worn
+out and tired, as well as shy and frightened, that Angela's attention
+was wholly given to her and she could only be put to bed, but not in
+the nursery, which, as Angel said, seemed to her like a den of little
+wild beasts.  So she was deposited in the chamber and bed hastily
+prepared for the unexpected guest; and even there, being wakeful and
+feverish from over-fatigue, there was no leaving her alone, and
+Gertrude, after seeing her safely installed, could only go down with
+the hope that she would be able to spare her slave or nurse, which
+was it? by dinner-time.
+
+"Who is that child so like?" said Dolores, in their own room.
+
+"Very like somebody, but I can't tell whom," said Agatha.  "Who did
+you say she is?"
+
+"I cannot say I exactly know," said Dolores.  "I believe she is the
+daughter of Fulbert Underwood's mate, on a sheep-farm in Queensland,
+and that as her mother died when she was born, she has been always
+under the care of this Angela, living in the Sisterhood there."
+
+"Not a Sister?"
+
+"Not under vows, certainly.  I never saw her before, but I believe
+she is rather a funny flighty person, and that Fulbert was afraid at
+one time that she would marry this child's father."
+
+"Is he alive?"
+
+"Which?  Fulbert died four or five years ago, and I think the little
+girl's father must be dead, for she is in mourning."
+
+"There's something very charming about her--Miss Underwood."
+
+"Yes there is.  They all seem to be very fond of her, and yet to
+laugh about her, and never to be quite sure what she will do next."
+
+"Did I not hear of her being so useful among the Australian black
+women?"
+
+"No one has ever managed those very queer gins so well; and she is an
+admirable nurse too, they say.  I am very glad to have come in her
+way."
+
+They did not, however, see much of her that evening.  The head master
+of the Grammar School and his wife, the head mistress of the High
+School, and a few others had been invited to meet them; and Angela
+could only just appear at dinner, trusting to a slumber of her
+charge, but, on coming out of the dining-room, a wail summoned her
+upstairs at once, and she was seen no more that night.
+
+However, with morning freshness, Lena showed herself much less
+farouche, and willing to accept the attentions of Mr. Underwood
+first, and, later, of his little daughter Pearl--a gentle, elder
+sisterly person, who knew how to avert the too rough advances of
+Dick--and made warm friends over the pink cockatoo; while Awdrey was
+entranced by the beauties of the budgerigars.
+
+Robina had been informed by telegram, and came up from Minsterham
+with her husband, looking just like his own father, and grown very
+broad.  He was greatly interested in the lecture, and went off to it,
+to consider whether it would be desirable for the Choristers' School.
+Lancelot had, of course, to go, and Angela declared that she must be
+brought up to date, and rejoiced that Lena was able to submit to be
+left with the other children under the protection of Mrs. Underwood,
+who averred that she abhorred electricity in all its forms, and that
+if Lance were induced to light the town, or even the shop by that
+means, he must begin by disposing of her by a shock.
+
+It was an excellent lecture, only the two sisters hardly heard it.
+They could think of nothing but that they were once more sitting side
+by side in the old hall, where they had heard and shared in so many
+concerts, on the gala days of their home life.
+
+The two lecturers, as well as the rest of the party, were urgently
+entreated to stay to tea at the High School; but when the interest of
+the new arrival was explained, the sisters and brother were released
+to go home, Canon Harewood remaining to content their hostesses.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--ANGEL AND BEAR
+
+
+
+"Enough of science and of art!
+   Close up those barren leaves,
+Come forth, and bring with you a heart
+   That watches and receives."
+- WORDSWORTH.
+
+A telegram had been handed to Mr. Mayor, which he kept to himself,
+smiling over it, and he--at least--was not taken utterly by surprise
+at the sight of a tall handsome man, who stepped forward with
+something like a shout.
+
+"Angel!  Lance!  Why, is it Robin, too?"
+
+"Bear, Bear, old Bear, how did you come?"
+
+"I couldn't stop when I heard at Clipstone that Angel was here, so I
+left Phyllis and the kid with her mother.  Oh, Angel, Angel, to meet
+at Bexley after all!"
+
+They clung together almost as they had done when they were the
+riotous elements of the household, while Lance opened the front door,
+and Robina, mindful of appearances, impelled them into the hall,
+Bernard exclaiming, "Pratt's room!  Whose teeth is it?"
+
+"Don't you want Wilmet to hold your hands and make you open your
+mouth?" said Lance, laughing.
+
+Gertrude, who had already received the Indian arrival, met Angela,
+who was bounding up to see to her charge, with, "Not come in yet!
+She is gone out with the children quite happily, with Awdrey's doll
+in her arms.  Come and enjoy each other in peace."
+
+"In the office, please," said Angela.  "That is home.  We shall be
+our four old selves."
+
+Lance opened the office door, and gave a hint to Mr. Lamb, while they
+looked at each other by the fire.
+
+Bernard was by far the most altered.  The others were slightly
+changed, but still their "old selves," while he was a grave
+responsible man, looking older than Lancelot, partly from the effects
+of climate; but Angela saw enough to make her exclaim, "Here we are!
+Don't you feel as if we were had down to Felix to be blown up?"
+
+"Not a bit altered," said Bernard, looking at the desks and shelves
+of ledgers, with the photographs over the mantelpiece--Felix, Mr.
+Froggatt, the old foreman, and a print of Garofalo's Vision of St.
+Augustine, hung up long ago by Felix, as Lance explained, as a token
+of the faith to which all human science and learning should be
+subordinated.
+
+"A declaration of the Pursuivant," said Angela.  "How Fulbert did
+look out for Pur!  I believe it was his only literature."
+
+"Phyllis declares," said Bernard, "that nothing so upsets me as a
+failure in Pur's arrival."
+
+"And this is Pur's heart and centre!" said Robina.
+
+"Only," added Angela, "I miss the smell of burnt clay that used to
+pervade the place, and that Alda so hated."
+
+"Happily the clay is used up," said Lance.  "I could not have brought
+Gertrude and the children here if the ceramic art, as they call it,
+had not departed.  Cherry was so delighted at our coming to live
+here.  She loved the old struggling days."
+
+"Fulbert said he never felt as if he had been at home till he came
+here.  He never TOOK to Vale Leston."
+
+"Clement and Cherry have settled in very happily," said Robina, "with
+convalescent clergy in the Vicarage."
+
+"I say, Angel, let us have a run over there," cried Bernard, "you and
+I together, for a bit of mischief."
+
+"Do, DO let us!  Though this is real home, our first waking to
+perception and naughtiness, it is more than Vale Leston.  We seem to
+have been up in a balloon all those five happy years."
+
+"A balloon?" said Bernard.  "Nay, it seems to me that till they were
+over, I never thought at all except how to get the most rollicking
+and the finest rowing out of life.  It seems to me that I had about
+as much sense as a green monkey."
+
+"Something sank in, though," said Lance; "you did not drift off like
+poor Edgar."
+
+"Some one must have done so," said Angela.  "I wanted to ask you,
+Lancey, about advertising for my little Lena's people; the Bishop
+said I ought."
+
+"I say," exclaimed Bernard, "was it her father that was Fulbert's
+mate?  I thought he was afraid of your taking up with him.  You
+didn't?"
+
+"No, no.  Let me tell you, I want you to know.  Field and a little
+wife came over from Melbourne prospecting for a place to sit down in.
+They had capital, but the poor wife was worn out and ill, and after
+taking them in for a night, Fulbert liked them.  Field was an
+educated man and a gentleman, and Ful offered them to stay there in
+partnership.  So they stayed, and by and by this child was born, and
+the poor mother died.  The two great bearded men came galloping over
+to Albertstown from Carrigaboola, with this new born baby, smaller
+than even Theodore was, and I had the care of her from the very
+first, and Field used to ride over and see the little thing."
+
+"And--?" said Bernard, in a rather teasing voice, as his eyes
+actually looked at Angela's left hand.
+
+"I'll own it DID tempt me.  I had had some great disappointments with
+my native women, running wild again, and I could not bear my child
+having a horrid stepmother; and there was the glorious free bush
+life, and the horses and the sheep!  But then I thought of you all
+saying Angel had broken out again; and by and by Fulbert came and
+told me that he was sure there was some ugly mystery, and spoke to
+Mother Constance, and they made me promise not to take him unless it
+was cleared up.  Then, as you know, dear Ful's horse fell with him;
+Field came and fetched me to their hut, and I was there to the last.
+Ful told each of us again that all must be plain and explained before
+we thought of anything in the future.  He, Henry Field, said he had
+great hopes that he should be able to set it right.  Then, as you
+know, there was no saving dear Fulbert, and after that Mother
+Constance's illness began.  Oh! Bear, do you recollect her coming in
+and mothering us in the little sitting-room?  I could not stir from
+her, of course, while she was with us.  And after that, Harry Field
+came and said he had written a letter to England, and when the answer
+came, he would tell me all, and I should judge!  But I don't think
+the answer ever did come, and he went to Brisbane to see if it was at
+the bank; and there he caught a delirious fever, and there was an end
+of it
+
+At that moment something between a whine or a call of "sister" was
+heard.  Up leapt Angela and hurried away, while Lance observed,
+"Well!  That's averted, but I am sorry for her."
+
+"It was not love," said Robina.
+
+"Or only for the child," said Bernard; "and that would have been a
+dangerous speculation."
+
+"The child or something else has been very good for her," said Lance;
+"I never saw her so gentle and quiet."
+
+"And with the same charm about her as ever," said Bernard.  "I don't
+wonder that all the fellows fall in love with her.  I hope she won't
+make havoc among Clement's sick clergy."
+
+"I suppose we ought to go up and fulfil the duties of society," said
+Robina, rising.  "But first, Bear, tell me how is Phyllis?"
+
+"Pretty fair," he answered.  "Resting with her mother, but she has
+never been quite the thing of late.  I almost hope Sir Ferdinand will
+see his way to keeping us at home, or we shall have to leave our
+little Lily."
+
+Interruption occurred as a necessary summons to "Mr. Mayor," and the
+paternal conclave was broken up, and had to adjourn to Gertrude's tea
+in the old sitting-room.
+
+"I see!" exclaimed Agatha, as she looked at the party of children at
+their supplementary table.  "I see what the likeness is in that
+child.  Don't you, Dolores?  Is it not to Wilfred Merrifield?"
+
+"There is very apt to be a likeness between sandy people, begging
+your pardon, Angel," said Gertrude.
+
+"Yes, the carroty strain is apt to crop up in families," said Lance,
+"like golden tabbies, as you ladies call your stable cats."
+
+"All the Mohuns are dark," said Dolores, "and all Aunt Lily's
+children, except Wilfred; and is not your Phyllis of that colour?"
+
+"Phyllis's hair is not red, but dark auburn," said Bernard, in a tone
+like offence.
+
+"I never saw Phyllis," said dark-browed Dolores, "but I have heard
+the aunts talk over the source of the--the fair variety, and trace it
+to the Merrifields.  Uncle Jasper is brown, and so is Bessie; but
+Susan is, to put it politely, just a golden tabby, and David's baby
+promises to be, to her great delight, as she says he will be a real
+Merrifield.  So much for family feeling!"
+
+"Sister, Sister!" came in a bright tone, "may I go with Pearl and get
+a stick for Ben?  He wants something to play with!  He is eating his
+perch."
+
+Ben, it appeared, was the pink cockatoo, who was biting his perch
+with his hooked beak.  The children had finished their meal, and
+consent was given.  "Only, Lena, come here," said Angela, fastening a
+silk handkerchief round her neck, and adding, "Don't let Lena go on
+the dew, Pearl; she is not used to early English autumn, I must get
+her a pair of thicker boots."
+
+"What is her name?" asked Agatha, catching the sound.
+
+"Magdalen Susanna.  Her father made a point of it, instead of his
+wife's name, which, I think, was Caroline."
+
+"I don't think I ever knew a Magdalen except my own elder sister,"
+said Agatha, "and Susanna!  Did you say Miss Merrifield had a sister
+Susan?"
+
+"An excellent, sober-sided, dear old Susan!  Yes, Susanna was their
+mother's name," said Dolores "and now that you have put it into my
+head, little Lena, when she is animated, puts me more in mind of
+Bessie than even of Wilfred, though the colouring is different.
+Why?"
+
+"Did you never hear," said Agatha, "that there was one of the
+brothers who was a bad lot, and ran away.  My sister says Wilfred is
+like him.  I believe," she added, "that he was her romance!"
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Bernard, "that's queer!  We had a clerk in the bank
+who gave his name as Meriton, and who cut and ran the very day he
+heard that Sir Jasper Merrifield was coming out as Commandant.  Yes,
+he was carroty.  I rarely saw Wilfred at Clipstone, but this might
+very well have been the fellow, afraid to face his uncle."
+
+Angela did not look delighted.  "She is not destitute, you know," she
+said, "I am her guardian, and she will have about two hundred a
+year."
+
+"Is there a will?" asked Lance.
+
+"Oh, yes, I have it upstairs!  It is all right.  It was at the bank
+at Brisbane, and they kept a copy.  I brought her because the Bishop
+said it was my duty to find out whether there were any relations."
+
+"Certainly," said Bernard.  "In our own case, remember what joy
+Travis's letter was!"
+
+Angela was silent, and presently said, "You shall see the will when I
+have unpacked it, but there is no doubt about my being guardian."
+
+"Probably not," said Bernard, rather drily.
+
+"If it be a valid will, signed by his proper name," said Lance.
+
+Whereupon the two brothers fell into a discussion on points of law,
+not unlike the editor of the Pursuivant, as he had become known to
+his family, but most unlike the Bernard they had known before his
+departure for the East.  At any rate it dissipated the emotional tone
+of the party; and by and by, when Bernard and Angela had agreed to
+make a bicycle rush to Minsterham the next day, "that is," said
+Angela "if Lena is happy enough to spare me," the Harewoods took
+leave.
+
+When the children had gone to bed, and Angela had stayed upstairs so
+long that Gertrude augured that she was waiting till her charge had
+gone to sleep, and that they should have no more of her henceforth
+but "Lena's baulked stepmother," she came down, bringing a document
+with her, which she displayed before her brothers.
+
+There was no question but that it was a will drawn up in due form,
+and very short, bequeathing his property at Carrigaboola, Queensland,
+to his daughter, Magdalen Susanna, and appointing Fulbert Underwood
+and Angela Margaret Underwood and "my brother Samuel" her guardian.
+It was dated the year after his daughter's birth, and was signed
+Henry Field, with a word interposed, which, as Lance said, might be
+anything, but was certainly the right length for the first syllables
+of Merrifield.  Bernard looked at it, and declared it was, to the
+best of his belief, the same signature as his former clerk used to
+write.
+
+"And this," he said, looking at the seal, "is the crest of the
+Merrifield's--the demi lion.  I know it well on Sir Jasper's seal
+ring."
+
+"Have you nothing else, Angel?" asked Lance.
+
+"Here is the certificate of her baptism, but that will tell you
+nothing."
+
+No more it did, it only called the child the daughter of Henry and
+Caroline Field, and the surname was omitted in the bequest.
+
+"Who was the mother?" asked Lance.
+
+"I never exactly knew.  Fulbert thought she had been a person whom
+Field had met in America or somewhere, and married in a hurry.
+Fulbert said she was rather pretty, but she was a poor helpless,
+bewildered thing, and very poorly.  He wanted to bring her to
+Albertstown for fit help and nursing; but she cried so much at the
+idea of either horse or wagon over the-no-roads, that it was put off
+and off and she had only his shepherd's housekeeper, so it was no
+wonder she did not live!  Field was dreadfully cut up, and blamed
+himself extremely for having given way to her; but it is as likely as
+not the journey would have been just as fatal."
+
+"Poor thing!"
+
+"You never heard her surname?"
+
+"No, it did not signify."
+
+"He did not name his child after her?"
+
+"No.  I remember Fulbert saying he supposed she should be called
+Caroline; and he exclaimed, 'No, no, I always said it should be
+Magdalen and Susanna.'"
+
+"My sister's name," repeated Agatha.
+
+"And Susan Merrifield," added Dolores.
+
+"But she is mine, mine!" cried Angela, with a tone like herself, of a
+sort of triumphant jealousy.  "They can't take her away from me!"
+
+"Gently, Angela, my dear," said Lance, in a tone so like Felix of
+old, that it almost startled her.  "Tell me what arrangement is this
+about the property.  Your share of Fulbert's has never been taken
+out, I think?"
+
+"No, Macpherson, the purchaser, you know, of Fulbert's share, pays me
+my amount out of it, and agreed to do the same by Lena.  I don't
+think the value is quite what it used to be.  It rather went down
+under Field; but Macpherson is all there, and it has been a better
+season.  I could sell it all to him, hers and mine both; but I have
+thought how it would be, as it is her native country, and I have not
+parted with my own to go out again to Carrigaboola, and bring her up
+there.  I assure you I am up to it," she added, meeting an amused
+look.  "I know a good deal more about sheep farming than either of
+you gentlemen.  I can ride anything but a buckjumper, and boss the
+shepherds, and I do love the life, no stifling in fields and copses!
+I only wish you would come too, Bear; it would do you ever so much
+good to get a little red paint on those white banker's hands of
+yours."
+
+"Well done, sister Angel!"  And the brothers both burst out laughing.
+
+"But really," proceeded Angela, "it is by far the best hope of
+keeping up Christianity among those hands.  Fulbert had a sort of
+little hut for a chapel, and once a month one of the clergy from
+Albertstown came over there; I used to ride with him when I could,
+and if I were there, I could keep a good deal going till the place is
+more peopled, and we can get a cleric.  It is a great opportunity,
+not to be thrown away.  I can catch those cockatoos better than a
+parson.  And there are the blacks."
+
+The brothers had not the least doubt of it.  Angela was Angela still,
+for better or for worse.  Or was it for worse?  Yet she went up to
+bed chanting -
+
+
+"His sister she went beyond the seas,
+And died an old maid among black savagees."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--WILLOW WIDOWS
+
+
+
+   "Set your heart at rest.
+The fairyland buys not that child of me.
+- "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM."
+
+An expedition to Minsterham finished the visit of Dolores and her
+faithful "Nag," whose abilities as an assistant were highly
+appreciated, and who came home brilliantly happy to keep her
+remaining holiday with Magdalen; while Dolores repaired to Clipstone.
+Bernard had been obliged to go to London, to report himself to Sir
+Ferdinand Travis Underwood, but his wife and little girl were the
+reigning joy at Clipstone.  Phyllis looked very white, much changed
+from the buxom girl who had gone out with her father two years ago.
+She had never recovered the loss of the little boy, and suffered the
+more from her husband's inability to bear expression, and it was an
+immense comfort to her to speak freely of her little one to her
+mother.
+
+The little Lilias looked frail, but was healthy, happy, and as
+advanced as a well-trained companion child of six could well be, and
+the darling of the young aunts, who expected Dolores to echo their
+raptures, and declare the infinite superiority of the Ceylonese to
+"that little cornstalk," as Valetta said.
+
+"There's no difficulty as to that," said Dolores, laughing.  "The
+poor little cornstalk looks as if she had grown up under a blight."
+
+"It is a grand romance though," said Mysie; "only I wish that Cousin
+Harry had had any constancy in him."
+
+"I wonder if Magdalen will adopt her!" was Valetta's bold suggestion.
+
+"Poor Magdalen has had quite adopting enough to do," said Mysie.
+
+"Besides," said Dolores, "Sister Angela will never let her go.  And
+certainly I never saw any one more TAKING than Sister Angela.  She is
+so full of life, and of a certain unexpectedness, and one knows she
+has done such noble work.  I want to see more of her."
+
+"You will," said Mysie.  "Mamma is going to ask her to come, for
+Phyllis says there is no one that Bernard cares for so much.  She was
+his own companion sister."
+
+"Magdalen might have the little cornstalk," said Valetta.
+
+"Well," said Mysie, "it is rather funny to have two--what shall I
+say?--willow widows, and a child that is neither of theirs!  How will
+they settle it?"
+
+Magdalen had heard from Agatha on the first evening of the arrival of
+the sister, and the probability of the identification of little
+Lena's father with the Henry Merrifield of her former years, and she
+was deeply touched by the bestowal of her name--so much that Nag
+avoided saying more, but only kissed her and went to bed.
+
+The Merrifields discussed the subject dispassionately.
+
+Sir Jasper recollected what his brother had written to him of his
+anxieties and disappointment in his son Henry, and of his absconding
+from Manitoba, since which time all trace of him had been lost,
+except in the restoration to the two brothers in Canada.  To the
+surprise and indignation of Sir Jasper, there had been no attempt to
+follow it up.
+
+"If my poor brother Edgar had done anything of the kind," said
+Bernard, "none of us would have rested."
+
+So far as they could put recollections together this act of
+restitution must have been made soon after the connection with
+Fulbert Underwood began, perhaps at the time of the wife's death.  If
+there had been another letter, as Sister Angela thought, it was more
+recent, certainly within the last two years.
+
+Captain Samuel Merrifield, of Stokesley, had been on a voyage for
+four years, and had not long been at home.  His wife had been charged
+with the forwarding of the letters that she thought of immediate
+interest, and there was an accumulation of those that had been left
+for his return, as yet not looked over.
+
+Of course, Sir Jasper impelled him to plunge into these, and by and
+by one came to light, which Mrs. Merrifield had taken "for only some
+Australian gold mines," and left to wait, especially as it was
+directed to his father instead of himself.
+
+It was a letter full of repentance, and entreaties for forgiveness,
+describing in part poor Henry's past life, and adding that the best
+thing that had ever befallen him was his association with "such a
+fellow as Underwood."
+
+It was to be gathered that Fulbert's uprightness of mind had led him
+to the first impulse of restitution, and he went on to mention his
+first hasty marriage and the loss of his wife, with the kindness of
+the Carrigaboola Sisterhood; above all, of Sister Angela, and
+declaring his love and admiration for her, and his sense that she was
+the one person who could keep him straight now that her brother was
+gone.
+
+He had more than once offered to her, but he found that her brother
+had solemnly charged her not to accept him till he had made all his
+past clear before her, and could show her that he was acknowledged by
+his family, and had his father's forgiveness, and for this he humbly
+craved, as one deeply sensible of his own demerits.
+
+It was piteous to think of the poor fellow waiting and hoping for an
+answer to such a letter as this, and dying without one, while all the
+time it was lying unread in the Captain's desk, and no one even knew
+of the changed life and fresh hopes.  Sir Jasper was much moved by
+it; but Sam said, "Ay, ay! poor Harry always was a plausible fellow!"
+and his wife was chiefly concerned to show that the suppression was
+not by her fault.  Sir Jasper had brought the will with him, and the
+certificate of the child's baptism.
+
+Both were met with a little hesitation.  So little had been said in
+the letter about the marriage that the Captain wanted to know more,
+and also whether the will had been properly proved in Australia, and
+whether it had force in England.  In that case he was surely the
+right person to have the custody of his brother's child.  His wife,
+who had been bred up in a different school, was not by any means
+satisfied that she should be consigned to a member of a Sisterhood.
+
+David came to Stokesley, saw the letter, and agreed with his brother
+on the expediency of obtaining full proof of the validity of the will
+in both Queensland and England, and put in hand the writing of
+inquiries for the purpose, from the legal authorities at Brisbane,
+for which purpose Angela had to be consulted.
+
+She had been (having left the budgerigars to the delight of Pearl and
+Awdrey), in the meantime, at Vale Leston, enjoying the atmosphere of
+peace that prevailed wherever were Clement and Geraldine, and hailed
+with delight by all her old village friends, as well as Lady
+Vanderkist and her somewhat thinned flock.
+
+She won Adrian's heart by skating or golfing with him, and even, on
+one or two hunting days, joining in his pursuit of the chase, being
+altogether, as he said, ever so much better a fellow than even his
+youngest sister Joan, and entrancing them all with tales of
+kangaroos.  Lena had really a tame kangaroo at Carrigaboola.  Oh, why
+did they not bring it home as well as Ben, the polly?  She quite
+pined for it, and had tears in her eyes when it was spoken of.
+
+Indeed the joyous young Vanderkists were too much for the delicate
+little girl, and sorry as Angela was to leave Vale Leston, she was
+not ungrateful for an invitation to the Goyle, where there was more
+room for them than at Clipstone in the holidays, and with the Bernard
+Underwoods making it their headquarters.
+
+Lena and she were much better and happier with "Sister" always at her
+service, and Paula and Thekla were delighted to amuse her.  Paula was
+in a state of delight with Sister Angela, only a little puzzled by
+the irregularity of her course, though it was carefully explained
+that she had never been under any vows.  To hear of her doings among
+the Australian women was a romance, often as there had been
+disappointment.  "Paula is a born Sister," said Angela, "a much truer
+one than I have ever been, for there does not seem to be any demon of
+waywardness to drive her wild."
+
+These talks with Magdalen, often prolonged hours after the young
+people had gone to bed, were a great solace to both the elders.
+Girls like Mysie Merrifield and Phyllis Devereux thought sitting up
+to converse a propensity peculiar to themselves, and to their own
+age, of new experiences and speculations; but the two "old girls,"
+whose experiences were not new, and whose speculations had a certain
+material foundation, they were equally fascinating.
+
+There were no small jealousies in either of them--"willow widows"--
+though Mysie's name stuck.  There was nothing but comfort to Magdalen
+in the certainty of the ultimate "coming home" of one who had
+finished a delusive dream of her younger days, and been yearned after
+with a heartache now quenched; and Angela, who had never been the
+least in love with Henry Merrifield, could quite afford her interest
+in the scanty records of his younger days, and fill up all she knew
+of the measure of the latter and better days.  There was another
+bond, for Mrs. Best's daughter was, "as distances go," a neighbour to
+Carrigaboola, and resorted thither on great occasions.
+
+Angela's vision began to be, to take Magdalen and her sisters out to
+Carrigaboola, where a superior school for colonists' daughters was
+much needed, and where Paula might enter the Sisterhood.  She longed
+all the more when she saw how much better Magdalen could deal with
+Lena as to teaching and restraint than she could.  The child was very
+backward, and could hardly read words of one syllable, though she
+knew any amount of Scripture history and legends of Saints, and was
+very fairly intelligent; but though she was devoted to "Sister,"
+always hanging on her, and never quite happy when out of sight of
+her, she had hardly any notion of prompt obedience or of giving up
+her own way.
+
+Angela's visit to Vale Leston had been partly spoilt by the little
+girl's fretful worry at the elder children, and by the somewhat
+uncalled for fears that all the Vanderkists were hard on the poor
+little colonial damsel; but whether it was the air of Rock Quay, or
+the quiet influence of Miss Prescott, Lena certainly improved in
+health at the Goyle, and was much more amenable, and less rudely shy.
+But her guardian trembled at hearing that, pending Captain
+Merrifield's correspondence with Brisbane, the sisters, Susan and
+Elizabeth, were coming to Miss Mohun's to see their niece, there
+being no room for them at Clipstone.
+
+They came--Susan, plump, comfortable and good-natured looking, as
+like an apricot as ever, with an air many years more than three above
+her sister Bessie, who as ever was brisk and bright, scarcely middle
+aged in face, dress or demeanour.  They arrived too late for
+visiting, and only dined at Clipstone to be introduced to Bernard
+Underwood, and see their cousin Phyllis, whom they had once met when
+all were small children.  Dolores was much amused, as she told her
+Aunt Jane, to see how gratified they were at the "sanguine" colouring
+of Phyllis and Wilfred, quite Merrifields, they said, though Phyllis
+with auburn eyes and hair was far handsomer than any other of the
+clan had ever been; and Wilfred had simply commonplace carrots and
+freckles.
+
+"The fun is," said Jane, "to remember how some of us Mohuns have
+sighed at Lily's having any yellow children, and, till we saw
+Stokesley specimens, wondering where the strain came from!  As if it
+signified!"
+
+"It does in some degree," said Dolores; "something hereditary goes
+with the complexion."
+
+"I don't know," said Jane.  "I believe too much is made in these days
+of heredity, and by those who believe least in the Bible indications
+on the effect, forgetting the counteracting grace."
+
+"Well," said Dolores, "Wilfred was always a bete noire to me--no, not
+noire--in my younger days, and I can't help being glad he is not of
+our strain!  Though you know the likeness was the first step to
+identifying that poor little girl."
+
+"Poor child!  I am afraid she will be a bone of contention."
+
+The two aunts were at Clipstone early; and might be satisfied with
+the true Merrifield tints of Magdalen Susanna, but perhaps she had
+been over much warned to be gracious, for the very contrary was the
+effect.  She had been very civil to her great-aunt Lilias, and had
+allowed both her uncles to take her up in their arms; but she
+retreated upon Angela, planted an elbow on the well-known lap, turned
+her back, and put a skinny little finger in her mouth by way of
+answer to Susan's advances, advances which had hardly ever before
+been repelled even by the most untamable of infants.
+
+Angela tried to coax, lift her up and turn her round; but this only
+led to the shoulder being the hiding-place, and it might be suspected
+that there was a lurking perception that these strangers asserted a
+closer claim than the beloved "Sister."  She would not even respond
+to Susan's doll or Bessie's picture book; and Bessie advised leaving
+her alone, and turned to the window with Agatha, who was nothing loth
+to tell of her Bexley and Minsterham experiences.
+
+Angela tried to talk about the voyage, or any thing that might save
+the child from being discussed or courted; but Susan's heart was in
+the subject, and she had not enough tact or knowledge of the world to
+turn away from it.  Regret for the past was strong within her, and
+she could not keep from asking how much "little Magdalen" (at full
+length) remembered of her father, how much she had been with him,
+whether he had much altered, whether there were a photograph of him,
+and a great deal more, with tears in her eyes and a trembling in her
+voice which made Angela feel much for her, even while vexed at her
+pertinacity, for the child was by no means the baby she looked like,
+but perfectly well able to listen and understand, and this
+consciousness made her own communications much briefer and more
+reserved than otherwise they would have been.
+
+Bessie, with more perception, saw the embarrassment, turned round
+from Agatha, went up to the cockatoo in his cage, and asked in a
+pleasant voice if Magdalen would show him to her, and tell her his
+name.  Angela was glad enough to break off poor Susan's questioning,
+and come forward, with the child still clinging, to incite the bird
+to display the rose colour under his crest, put up a grey claw to
+shake hands, and show off his vocabulary, laughing herself and acting
+merriment as she did so, in hopes to inspire Lena.
+
+"Come, Ben, tell how you were picked up under a gum tree, quite a
+baby, a little grey ball, and brought over in the shepherd's pocket
+for a present to the little Boss, and how we fed you and nursed you
+till you turned all rose-colour and lovely!  There! put up your crest
+and make red revelations.  Can't you speak?  Fetch him a banana,
+Lena.  That will open his mouth."
+
+At sight of the banana, the bird put his head on one side and croaked
+in a hoarse whisper, "Yo ho!"
+
+"No, you need not be afraid of any more sailors' language," said
+Angela.  "They were as careful as possible on board.  I overheard
+once, 'Hold hard, Tom, Polly Pink is up there, and she's a regular
+lady born!
+
+Whereupon Polly indulged in a ridiculous chuckle, holding the banana
+cleverly in one foot, while Angela laughed and chattered more and
+more nervously, but only succeeded in disgusting the visitors by what
+Susan at least took for unbecoming flippancy.
+
+"THAT Sister," said Susan, as they drove away, "does not seem to me
+at all the person to have the charge of Henry's poor little girl!"
+
+"I wish she had not thrust herself in," said Bessie, "to prevent me
+from getting on with the child over the cockatoo."
+
+"She calls herself a Sister!  I don't understand it, for she seems to
+have been bent on marrying poor Henry."
+
+"She never took any vows."
+
+"Then why does she wear a ridiculous cap over all that hair?"
+
+By and by they were met by Bernard Underwood striding along.
+"Holloa! have you seen Angel and her darling?  She is a perfect slave
+to the little thing, and one only gets fragments of her."
+
+"She seems very fond of her," said Bessie.
+
+"Just kept her alive, you see.  Poor old Angel!  She is all for one
+thing at a time!  Are you going up to Clipstone?"
+
+"I think we shall find Phyllis at Beechcroft."
+
+"Yes, she is driving there to lunch, and Angel is to bring the little
+cornstalk over to make friends with our Lily!  I trust the creature
+goes to sleep now, and I may get a word out of Angel!"  Wherewith he
+dashed on, and the two ladies agreed that "those Underwoods seemed to
+be curiously impulsive."
+
+They were, however, much better satisfied with the Ceylonese Lily,
+who was a very well trained civilised specimen, conversing very
+prettily over one of Aunt Jane's picture books, which Bessie looked
+at with her, and showing herself fully able to read the titles
+beneath, a feat of which Lena was quite incapable, though she was
+less on the defensive than she had shown herself at the Goyle, and
+Angela was far more at her ease than when she was conscious that
+"Field's" original love was watching the introduction to his sisters.
+Besides, Bernard's presence was sunshine to her, and the two expanded
+into bright reminiscences and merry comparisons of their two lives,
+absolutely delightful to themselves, and to Phyllis and her Aunt
+Jane, and which would have been the same to Elizabeth, if she had not
+been worried at Susan's evident misunderstanding of--and displeasure
+at--the quips and cranks of the happy brother and sister; also she
+was bent on promoting an intercourse between Lily and Lena, over the
+doll she had brought for the former.  She was a little hurt that Lena
+had not been accompanied by the blue-eyed article with preposterously
+long eyelashes that had been bestowed on her at the Goyle; but the
+little Australian had no opinion of dolls, and had let the one bought
+for her at Sydney be thrown overboard by the ship's monkey.
+
+"That was cruel!" said Lily, fondling her black-eyed specimen.
+
+"She could not feel," reasoned Lena, with contempt.
+
+"I don't know," said Lily, knitting her brows.  "It's not ALL make
+believe!  I do love my Rosamunda Rowena, and she loves me, and I
+shall tell her not to be jealous of this dear Betsinda.  For, do you
+know, when Rosamunda was ill in the Red Sea, father carried her up
+and down on deck, and made her a dear little deck chair."
+
+"But she is not alive.  She COULDN'T be," sighed Lena.  "I like my
+Ben and my kangaroo!  Oh, I do want to go back to my kangaroo!"
+
+"And does Lily want to go back to her riki-tiki?" asked Lily's
+father, lifting a little girl on each knee, so that they might be
+vis-a-vis, when certainly his own had the advantage in beauty, as she
+answered, leaning against him, "Granny's better than riki-tiki!"
+
+For which pretty speech some of the ladies gave her much credit; but
+her father, with a tender arm round her, said, "Ah! you are a
+sentimental little pussy-cat!  Is anything here as good as
+Carrigaboola?  Eh, Lena?"
+
+But Lena resolutely shook her carrots; but kept silence, while
+Bernard turned over the leaves of a great book of natural history,
+till as a page was displayed with a large kangaroo under a blue-gum
+tree, with a yellow wattle tree beside him, her lips quivered, her
+face puckered, and she burst into an uncontrollable fit of crying;
+"Oh!  I want to go home, home!  Sister, Sister, take me home!"
+
+Angela was in a minute beside her, took her within loving arms, and
+carried her off.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--CRUEL LAWYERS
+
+
+
+"Tender companions of our serious days,
+   Who colour with your kisses, smiles and tears,
+Life's worn web woven over wasted ways."
+- LOWELL.
+
+There was a good deal of worry and anxiety for some little time,
+while correspondence was going on about Henry Merrifield's will, and
+in the meantime Angela decided to board with Miss Prescott, since her
+charge was certainly much better in health there; and besides, as
+Mrs. Bernard Merrifield was naturally at Clipstone, it became the
+head quarters of her husband, though he made many excursions to his
+own people, and on business affairs to Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood
+in London.
+
+And Clipstone suited him well for his holiday.  Sir Jasper had, of
+course, a certain amount of intercourse with the garrison at
+Avoncester, and the officers stationed there at present had already
+some acquaintance with Bernard Underwood, who was known to be a
+champion in Ceylon in all athletic sports, especially polo and
+cricket.  Tall and well made, he had been devoted to all such games
+in his youth, and they had kept up his health in his sedentary
+occupation.  Now, in his leisure time, his prowess did much to efface
+the fame of the much younger and slighter Alexis White, and, so far
+as might be, Angela enjoyed the games with him, keeping well within
+bounds, but always feeling activity a wholesome outlet for her
+superfluous strength, and, above all, delighting in an interval of
+being a child again with her Bear of old times; and her superabundant
+life, energy, and fun amazed all, especially by the contrast with her
+poor little languid charge, who seemed, as Jane Mohun said, centuries
+older.
+
+The Merrifield lads were also devoted to him.  Even Fergus was
+somewhat distracted from his allegiance to Dolores and her
+experiments, and in the very few days that Christmas afforded for
+skating, could think of nothing else.
+
+And as to Wilfred, his whole mind seemed to be set on sports, and
+marble works to be only an incident thrown in.  Bernard, whom he
+followed assiduously, and who took him to Avoncester, and introduced
+him to young officers, began to have doubts whether he had done
+wisely.  Bernard had, in his time, vexed Felix's soul by idleness and
+amusement, but he had been one betted upon, not himself given to
+betting.  He loved football and cricket for their bodily excitement,
+not the fictitious one of a looker on, or reader of papers, and it
+struck him that Wilfred knew a good deal too much about this more
+dangerous side of races and athletics.
+
+He said so to Angela, and she answered, "Oh, nonsense!  Young men are
+out of it if they don't know the winning horse.  Even Pur had to be
+up to the Derby."
+
+And Angela had her own bitter trial in the decision of the lawyers.
+Not only was the signature of the will unsatisfactory, from the
+confusion between Field and Merrifield, but the two witnesses failed
+to be traced, John Shepherd and George Jones were not to be
+identified, and though Brisbane might accept wills easily, an English
+court of law required more certainty.  The little daughter being the
+only child and natural heiress, this was not felt to be doing her any
+injury; but the decision deprived her of the guardian her father had
+chosen, and Angela was in despair.  She was ready to write to the
+Pursuivant, to the Bishop of Albertstown, to the Lord Chancellor,
+with an exposition of the wicked injustice and hardness of heart of
+lawyers, and the inexpedience of taking the poor child from her
+earliest motherly friend, expressly chosen by her father.  All
+Bernard's common sense and Magdalen's soothing were needed to make
+her hold her peace, when correspondence made it plain that the
+guardianship being assumed by the uncles, Captain Merrifield would
+not hear for a moment of the scheme of taking the child out to
+Carrigaboola.  In his opinion, and his sister Susan's, the only fit
+thing to be done with her was to place her with the two aunts at
+Coalham to be educated.  He came down to Rock Quay to inspect her.
+It was a cold, raw day, with the moors wrapped in mist, and the poor
+little maid looked small, peaky and pinched.  He was sure that the
+dry winds of the north were what she needed, wanted to carry her off
+immediately, and looked regardless of Angela's opinion, though backed
+by Miss Prescott, that it would be highly dangerous to take the
+delicate child of a semi-tropical climate off in the depth of winter
+to a northerly town.  Angela walked off to ask Dr. Dagger to inspect
+the child and give his opinion, while Captain Sam repaired to
+Clipstone to visit his relations and lunch with them.
+
+He did not meet with all the sympathy he expected.  Lady Merrifield
+said that Coalham had not agreed with her own son Harry, and that
+little Lena ought not to be taken there till after the cold winds of
+spring were over; and her daughters all chimed in with a declaration
+that Angela Underwood was perfectly devoted to the little one, and
+that no one else could make her happy.
+
+"Petting her! spoiling her!" scoffed the Captain.  "Why, Susan and
+Bessie were full of the contrast with your little girl."
+
+"Health," began Phyllis.
+
+"An Indian child too!" he went on.  "Just showing what a little good
+sense in the training can do!  No, indeed!  Since I am to be her
+guardian, I have no notion of swerving from my duty, and letting poor
+Hal's child be bred up to Sisterhoods and all that flummery."
+
+"It will just break Angela's heart," cried Valetta, with tears in her
+eyes, at which the Captain looked contemptuous.
+
+"I must say," added Bernard, "that I should think it little short of
+murderous to take that unlucky child from the one woman who
+understands her up into the bleak north at this time of year."
+
+"Decidedly!" added Sir Jasper.  "Miss Underwood deserves every
+consideration in dealing with the child who has been always her sole
+charge."
+
+Wherewith he changed the conversation by a question about Stokesley;
+but he held to his dictum when alone with his nephew, and as he was
+the only person for whose opinion Captain Sam had any respect, it had
+its effect, though there was a sense that he might be biassed by his
+son-in-law and his herd of womanfolk, and that he did not partake
+Mrs. Samuel Merrifield's dislike to the very name of Sister or of
+anything not commonplace.
+
+Angela obtained Dr. Dagger's opinion to reinforce her own and Lady
+Merrifield's, and the Captain was obliged to give way so far as to
+consent to Magdalen, as he insisted on calling her, being allowed to
+remain at Arnscombe till after Easter, when her aunts were to fetch
+her to Coalham, there to send her to the kindergarten.
+
+After Angela's period of raging against law and lawyers and all the
+Stokesley family, and being on the verge of impertinence to Captain
+Merrifield, she submitted to the prospect more quietly than her
+friends had dared to hope.  Lance had almost expected her to deport
+her charge, parrot and all, suddenly and secretly by an Australian
+liner, and had advised Bernard, on a fleeting meeting at Bexley, to
+be on his guard if she hinted at anything so preposterous; but
+Bernard shook his head, and said Angel was more to be trusted than
+her elders thought.  "Waves and storms don't go over us for nothing,
+I hope," he said.
+
+And he found himself right on his return.  Angela had bowed her head
+to the inevitable, and was quietly trying to prepare her little
+charge for the change, accustoming her to more discipline and less
+petting.  When Angela proposed to walk over to Clipstone with her
+brother on his return, and the whine was set up, "Let me go, Sister,"
+it was answered, "No, my dear, it is too far for you.  You must stay
+and walk with Paula."
+
+"I want to go with Sister."
+
+"You must be a good child, and do as Sister tells you.  No, I can't
+have any fretting.  Paula will show you how to drive your hoop.  Keep
+her moving fast, Paula, don't let her fret and get cold."
+
+And Angela actually detached the clinging hand, and put it into
+Paulina's, and, holding up her finger, silenced the burst of weeping,
+though tears sprang to her own eyes as she resolutely turned away,
+and, after running out and shutting the back gate after her, put her
+arm with a clinging gesture into Bernard's.
+
+"That's right!" he said, pressing her hand.
+
+"Cruel," she said, "but better by and by for her.  Oh, Bear, if one
+could but learn to lie still and say, 'Thou didst it,' when it is
+human agency that takes away the desire of one's eyes with a stroke."
+
+"The desire of thine eyes!" repeated Bernard.  "How often I thought
+of that last February."
+
+It was the only time he had referred to the loss of his little boy.
+His wife had told her mother that he could not bear to mention it,
+and had poured out all her own feelings of sorrow and her struggle
+for cheerfulness and resignation alone with her or with Mysie; but he
+had shrunk from the least allusion to the little two year old Felix,
+who slept beneath a palm tree at Colombo.
+
+Now, however, still holding his sister's hand, he drifted into all
+the particulars of the little ways, the baby language, the dawning
+understanding, and the very sudden sharp illness carrying the
+beautiful boy away almost before they were aware of danger; and he
+took out the photograph from his breast, and showed her the little
+face, so recalling old fond remembrances.  "Forbear to cry, make no
+mourning for the dead," he repeated.  "Yes, the boy is saved the wear
+and tear and heat and burthen of the day, but it is very hard to be
+thankful."
+
+"Ah, and it is all the harder if you have to leave your Lily."
+
+"If--yes; but Travis MAY so arrange that we can stay, or I make only
+one voyage out to settle matters and then come home for good.  If you
+are still bent on Carrigaboola you might come as far as Frisco with
+me.  I may have to go there about the Californian affairs."
+
+"That would be jolly.  Yes, I think it will clench the matter, for I
+believe I am of more good at Carriga than anywhere else, though the
+heart of it is taken out of it for me; but one lives on and gets on
+somehow without a heart, or a heart set where I suppose it ought not
+to be entirely at least!  And, indeed, I think that little one taught
+me better than ever before how to love."
+
+"That's what the creatures are sent us for," said Bernard, in a low
+voice.  "And here are, looming in the distance, all the posse of
+girls to meet us."
+
+"Ah-h!" breathed Angela, withdrawing her arm.  "Well, Bear, you have
+given me something to look forward to, whether it comes to anything
+or not.  It will help me to be thankful.  I know they are good
+people, and the child will do well when once the pining and bracing
+are over.  They are her own people, and it is right."
+
+"Right you are, Angel!" said Bernard, with a fresh squeeze of the
+hand, as he resumed his own cheerful, resolute voice ere joining his
+sisters-in-law.
+
+"What!  Angela without her satellite!" cried Primrose.
+
+"Too far," murmured Angela; but Mysie tried to hush her sister,
+perceiving the weaning process, and respecting Angela for it.
+
+And the next moment Angela was challenging Bernard to a game at golf.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--BEAR AS ADVISER
+
+
+
+"Weary soul and burthened sore
+Labouring with thy secret load."
+- KEBLE.
+
+The early spring brought a new development.  Thekla, who attended
+classes at the High School, came home with unmistakable tokens of
+measles, and Primrose did the same, in common with most of their
+contemporaries at Rockstone.  Nor was there any chance that either
+Lily Underwood at Clipstone or Lena Merrifield at the Goyle would
+escape; indeed, they both showed an amount of discomfort that made it
+safer to keep them where they were, than to try to escape in the
+sharp east wind and frost.
+
+No one was much dismayed at what all regarded as a trifling ailment,
+even if dignified as German.  Angela owned that she regarded it as a
+relief, since infection might last till the summer, and the only
+person who was--as he owned--trying to laugh at himself with Angela,
+was Bernard, who could not keep out of his mind's eye a little grave
+at Colombo.  As he walked home, at the turning he saw a figure
+wearily toiling upwards, which proved to be Wilfred.  "Holloa! you
+are at home early!"
+
+"I had an intolerable headache!"
+
+"Measles, eh?"
+
+"No such thing!  Once when I was a kid in Malta.  But I say, Bear,"
+he added, coming up with quickened pace, "you could do me no end of a
+favour if you would advance me twenty pounds."
+
+"Whew!" Bernard whistled.
+
+"There is Lady Day coming, and I can pay you then--most assuredly."
+And an asseveration or two was beginning.
+
+"Twenty pounds don't fly promiscuously about the country," muttered
+Bernard, chiefly for the sake of giving himself time.
+
+"But I tell you I shall have a quarter from the works, and a quarter
+from my father (with his hand to his head).  That's--that's--.  Awful
+skinflints both of them!  How is a man to do, so cramped up as that?"
+
+"Oh! and how is a man to do if he spends it all beforehand?"
+
+"I tell you, Bernard, I must have it, or--or it will break my
+mother's heart!  And as to my father, I'd--I'd cut my throat--I'd go
+to sea before he knew!  Advance it to me, Bear!  You know what it is
+to be in an awful scrape.  Get me through this once and I'll never--"
+
+Bernard did not observe that the scrape of his boyhood over the
+drowned Stingo had hardly been of the magnitude that besought for
+twenty pounds.  He waived the personal appeal, and asked, "What is
+the scrape?"
+
+"Why, that intolerable swindler and ruffian, Hart, deceived me about
+Racket, and--"
+
+"A horse at Avoncester?" said Bernard, light beginning to dawn on
+him.
+
+"I made sure it was the only way out of it all, and they said Racket
+was as sure as death, and now the brute has come in third.  Hart
+swears there was foul play, but what's that to me?  I'm done for
+unless you will help me over."
+
+"If it is a betting debt, the only safe way is to have it out with
+your father, and have done with it."
+
+"You don't know what my father is!  Just made of iron.  You might as
+well put your hand under a Nasmyth's hammer."  And as he saw that his
+hearer was unconvinced, "Besides, it is ever so much more than what I
+put upon Racket!  That was only the way out of it!  It is all up with
+me if he hears of it.  You might as well pitch me over the cliff at
+once!"
+
+"Well, what is it then?"
+
+Incoherently, Wilfred stammered out what Bernard understood at last
+to mean that he had got into the habit of betting at the billiard
+table, surreptitiously kept up in Ivinghoe Terrace in a house of
+Richard White's, not for any excessive sums, and with luck at first
+on his side than otherwise; but at last he had become involved for a
+sum not in itself very terrible to elder years, and his creditor was
+in great dread of pressure from his employers, and insisted on
+payment.  Wilfred, who seemed to have a mortal terror of his father,
+beyond what Bernard could understand, had been unable to believe that
+the offence for so slight a sum might be forgiven if voluntarily
+confessed, had done the worst thing he could, he had paid the debt
+with a cheque which had, unfortunately, passed through his hands at
+the office, trusting in a few days to recover the amount by a bet
+upon the horse, in full security of success!  And now!
+
+Before the predicament was made clear, Wilfred reeled, and would have
+fallen if Bernard had not supported him, and he mumbled something
+about giddiness and dazzling, insisting at the same time that it was
+nothing but the miserable pickle, and that if Bernard would not see
+him out of it, he might as well let him lie there and have done with
+it.
+
+Happily they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the house, and it
+was possible to get him into the hall before he entirely collapsed
+upon a chair; but seeming to recover fresh vigour from alarm at the
+sound of voices, he rushed at the stairs and dashed up rapidly the
+two flights to his own room, only throwing back the words, "Dead
+secret, mind!"
+
+Bernard was glad to have made no promise, and, indeed, Wilfred's
+physical condition chiefly occupied him at the moment, for one or two
+of the girls were hurrying in, asking what was the matter, and at the
+answer, "He is gone up to his room with a bad headache," Valetta
+declared with satisfaction, "Then he has got it!  We told him so!
+But he would go to the office! and, Bernard, so has Lily."
+
+"Pleasing information!" said Bernard, nettled and amused at the tone
+of triumph, while Mysie, throwing behind her the words, "It may be
+nothing," went off to call Mrs. Halfpenny, who was in a state of
+importance and something very like pleasure.  Bernard strode up to
+his wife's room, leaving Valetta half-way in her exposition that when
+all the family had been laid low by measles at Malta, Wilfred had
+been a very young infant, and it had always been doubtful whether he
+had been franked or not; and how he had been reproached with looking
+ill in the morning, but had fiercely insisted on going down to the
+office, which he was usually glad to avoid on any excuse.
+
+By the time the household met at dinner, it was plain that they had
+to resign themselves to being an infected family, though there were
+not many probable victims, and they were likely only to have the
+disorder favourably, with the exception of Wilfred, who had evidently
+got a severe chill, and could only be reported as very ill, though
+still he vehemently resented any suspicion of being subject to such a
+babyish complaint.  But when the break up for the night was just
+over, Lady Merrifield came in search of Bernard, entreating him to
+come to speak to Wilfred, who was more and more feverish, almost
+light-headed, and insisting that he must speak to Bear, "Bear had not
+promised," reiterating the summons, so that there was no choice but
+to comply with it.
+
+He found Wilfred flushed with fever, and violently restless, starting
+up in bed as he entered, and crying out, "Bear, Bear, will you? will
+you?  You did not promise!"
+
+"I will see about it!  Lie down now!  There's nothing to be done to-
+night."
+
+"But promise! promise!  And not a word!"
+
+All this was reiterated till Wilfred at last was exhausted for the
+time, and to a certain degree pacified by the reassuring voice in
+which Bernard soothed him and undertook to take the matter in hand,
+hardly knowing what he undertook, and only feeling the necessity of
+quieting the perilous excitement, and of helping the mother to bring
+a certain amount of tranquillity.
+
+His own little girl was going on well, and quite capable of being
+amused in the morning by being compared to a lobster or a tiger lily;
+and Primrose was reported in an equally satisfactory state, ready
+either for sleep or continuous reading by her sisters.  Only Wilfred
+was in the same, or a more anxious, state of fever; and as soon as
+Bernard had satisfied himself that there was no special use in his
+remaining in the house, he set out for the marble works office,
+having made up his mind as to one part of what he had expressed as
+"seeing about it."
+
+He had hardly turned into the Cliffe road before he met Captain
+Henderson walking up, and they exchanged distant inquiries and
+answers as to whether each might be thought dangerous to the other's
+home; after which they forgathered, and compared notes as to
+invalids.  The Captain had heard of Wilfred's going home ill, and was
+coming, he said, to inquire.
+
+"He seems very seriously ill," was the answer.  "I imagine there has
+been a chill, and a check.  I was coming to speak to you about him."
+
+"He has spoken to you?"
+
+Both could now consult freely.  "It is a very anxious matter--not so
+much for the actual amount as for the habits that it shows."
+
+"The amount?  Oh, I have made up that as regards the firm.  I could
+not let it come before Sir Jasper, especially in the present state of
+things!  I meant to give the young chap a desperate fright and
+rowing, but that will have to be deferred."
+
+"You must let me take it!"
+
+"No, no.  Remember, Sir Jasper was my commanding officer, and I and
+my wife owe everything to him.  I could supply the amount, so that no
+one would guess from the accounts that anything had been amiss."
+
+Bernard could hardly allow himself to be thus relieved, but there was
+the comfort of knowing that Wilfred's name was safe, and that the
+unstained family honour would not have to suffer shame.  Still the
+other debts remained, of which Captain Henderson had been only
+vaguely suspicious, till the two took counsel on them.  Wilfred had
+not given up the name of the person for whom he had meant to borrow
+from the office; but Captain Henderson had very little doubt who it
+was, and it was agreed that he should receive the amount through a
+cheque of Bernard on Brown and Travis Underwood, from Captain
+Henderson's hands, with a scathing rebuke and peremptory assurance of
+exposure to Mr. White, and consequent dismissal, if anything more of
+the same kind among the younger men were detected.  The man was a
+clever artist in his first youth, and had always been something of a
+favourite with the authorities, and had a highly respectable father;
+so Captain Henderson meant to spare him as much as possible, and
+endeavour to ascertain how far the mischief had gone among the young
+men connected with the marble works, also to consult Mr. White on the
+amount of stringency in the measures used to put a stop to it.  All
+this, of course, passed out of Bernard Underwood's hands and
+knowledge, but a sad and anxious day was before him.  All the young
+girls were going on well, but Wilfred was increasingly ill all day,
+and continually calling for Bernard.  Being told, "I have settled the
+matter" did not satisfy him.  He looked eagerly about the room to
+find whether his mother were present, and fancying she was absent
+demanded, "Does he know?  Do they know?" reiterating again and again.
+It was necessary to tell Lady Merrifield that there was an
+entanglement about money matters on his mind, which had been settled;
+but towards evening he grew worse and more light-headed, apparently
+under the impression that only Bernard could guard him from something
+unknown, or conceal, whenever he was conscious of the presence of his
+mother; and on his father's entrance he hid his face in the pillows
+and trembled, of course to their exceeding distress and perplexity;
+and when he believed no one present but Bernard and Mrs. Halfpenny,
+he became more and more rambling, sometimes insisting that his father
+must not know, sometimes abusing all connected with the racing bet,
+and more often fancying that he was going to be arrested for robbing
+the firm, the enormity of the sum and of the danger increasing with
+the fever, and therewith his horror of his father's knowing.  It was
+of no use for his mother to hang over him, hold his hands, and assure
+him that she knew (as, in fact, she did, for Bernard had been obliged
+to make a cursory explanation), and that nothing could hinder her
+loving him still; he forgot it in the next interruption, and turned
+from her with terror and dismay, and once he nearly flung himself out
+of bed, fancying that the policeman was coming.
+
+Bernard held him on this occasion, and told him, "Nothing will do you
+good, Willie, but to tell your father, and he will keep all from you.
+Let him know, and it will be all right."
+
+It only seemed to add to his misery and terror.  Something that
+passed in his hearing, gave him the impression that he was in great
+danger, if not actually dying; but his cry was still for Bernard, who
+had not ventured to go to bed; but it was still, "Oh, Bear, save me!
+Don't let me die with this upon my name!  I can't go to God!"
+
+"There's nothing for it, Wilfred, but to tell your father.  He will
+pardon you.  Your mother has, you see.  Tell him, and when he
+forgives, you will know that God does.  It will come right.  Let me
+call him!"
+
+"Let me bring him, my boy, my dear boy!" entreated his mother.  "You
+know he will."
+
+Wilfred seemed as if he did not know, but still held fast by
+Bernard's strong hands, as though there were support in them; and
+when in a few moments Sir Jasper entered the room, there was the same
+clinging gesture and endeavour to hide, in spite of the gentle
+sweetness of the tone of, "Well, my poor boy."
+
+It was Bernard who was obliged to say, turning the poor flushed face
+towards him, "Wilfred wishes to say--"
+
+"Father," it came with a gasp at last, "I've done it.  I've disgraced
+us all.  Forgive!"
+
+He was repeating his own exaggerated ideas of what his crime had
+been, and what Sir Jasper would have said to him if all had been
+discovered in any other way.
+
+"Do not think of it now, my boy.  I forgive you, whatever it is."
+
+Thereupon Dr. Dagger entered.  He turned every one out except Mrs.
+Halfpenny, and gave a draught, which silenced the patient and put him
+to sleep in a few minutes.  While Bernard hastily satisfied the
+parents that a good deal was exaggerated feeling, and that an old
+soldier must have known of a good many worse things in his time,
+though not so near home.
+
+There was a general sense of relief in the morning, for Wilfred's
+attack had become an ordinary, though severe one, and the other cases
+were going on well.  But Sir Jasper, who had not been able to grasp
+the extent of Wilfred's delinquency, and had been persuaded by his
+despair that it was much more serious than it really was, called his
+son-in-law into council, and demanded whether the whole could have
+been told.
+
+Bernard was certain that it was so, and related his transactions with
+Captain Henderson, much of course to the father's relief, so far as
+the outer world was concerned; but what principally grieved him,
+besides the habits thus discovered, was his son's abject terror of
+him, not only in the exaggeration of illness, but in his mode of
+speaking of him.
+
+It had never been thus with any of his sons before.
+
+Claude, the soldier, had always been satisfactory, so had Harry the
+clergyman, though often widely separated from the parents in their
+wandering life; but the bond of confidence had never been broken.
+Jasper had never teased any one but his sisters.  Fergus, too, the
+youngest of all the sons, and of an individual, rather peculiar
+nature, was growing up in straight grooves of his own; but Wilfred,
+who from delicate health, had been the most at home, had never seemed
+to open to his father.  The family discipline of the General seemed
+only to oppress and terrify him, and the irregularities and
+subterfuges that had from time to time been detected had been met
+with just anger, never received in such a manner as to call forth the
+tenderness of forgiveness.  Each discovery of a misdemeanour had only
+been the prelude to fresh and worse concealments and hardening.
+
+And experience of mankind did not give any decided hope that even the
+last day's agony of repentance would be the turning over of a new
+leaf, when convalescence should bring the same surroundings and
+temptations, and perhaps the like disproportionate indignation and
+impatience in dealing with errors and constitutional weakness.  "And
+the example of my brother's poor son is not encouraging," he added.
+"He who seems to have owed everything to your brother and sister."
+
+"Yet poor Fulbert and I were to our homes, perhaps not the black
+sheep, but at any rate the vagrant ones."
+
+"And what made a difference to you, may I ask?"
+
+"Strong infusion by character and example of principle," said Bernard
+thoughtfully; "then, real life, and having to be one's own safeguard,
+with nothing to fall back on.  As my brother told me at his last, I
+should swim when my plank was gone."
+
+"Yes, but, plainly, you were never weak," and as Bernard did not
+answer at once, "Old-fashioned severity used to be the rule with
+lads, but it seems only to alienate them now and make them think
+themselves unjustly treated.  What is one to do with these boys?"
+
+A question which Bernard could not answer, though it carried him back
+with a strange yearning, yet resignation, to the little figure that
+had curled round on his knee, and the hopes connected with the hands
+that had caressed his cheek.
+
+He thought over it the more the next week, when he was called to sit
+by Wilfred, who was getting better and anxious to talk.
+
+"My father is very kind," he said.  "Oh, yes, very kind now; but it
+will be all the same when I get well.  You see, Bear, how can a man
+be always dawdling about with a lot of girls?  There's Dolores
+bothering with her science, and Fergus every bit as bad; and Mysie
+after her disgusting schoolchildren; and Val and Prim horrid little
+empty chatterboxes; and if one does turn to a jolly girl for a bit of
+fun, their tongues all go to work, so that you would think the skies
+were going to fall; and if one goes in for a bit of a spree, down
+comes the General like a sledge-hammer!  I wish you would take me out
+with you, Bear."
+
+The same idea had already been undeveloped in Bernard's mind, and
+ever on his tongue when alone with his wife; but he kept it to
+himself, and only committed himself to, "You would not find an office
+in Colombo much more enlivening."
+
+"There would be something to see--something to do.  It would not be
+all as dull as ditch-water--just driving one to do something to get
+away from the girls and their fads."
+
+This was nearly a fortnight from the night of crisis, when Wilfred,
+very weak, was still in bed; when Primrose and Lily were up and
+about, but threatened with whooping cough.  Thekla much in the same
+case, and very cross; and little Lena weak, caressing and dependant,
+but angelically good and patient, so much so that Magdalen and Angela
+were quite anxious about her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI--NEW PATHS
+
+
+
+"I'll put a girdle round the earth
+In forty minutes."
+- SHAKESPEARE.
+
+The visitation had not been confined to the High School.  The little
+cheaply-built rows for workmen and fishermen had suffered much more
+severely, owing chiefly to the parents' callous indifference to
+infection.  "Kismet," as they think it, said Jane Mohun, and still
+more to their want of care.  Chills were caught, fevers and
+diphtheria ensued, and there was an actual mortality among the
+children at the works and at Arnscombe.  Mr. Flight begged for help
+from the Nursing Sisterhood at Dearport, and, to her great joy,
+Sister Beata was sent down to him, with another who was of the same
+standing as Angela, and delighted to have a glimpse of her; though
+Angela thought it due to her delicate charge, and the Merrifields,
+not to plunge into actual nursing while Lena needed her hourly
+attention, and was not yet in a state for the training to do without
+it to continue.  Paulina, however, being regarded as infection proof,
+was permitted to be an attendant and messenger of her dear Sister
+Beata, to her own great joy.  She was now nineteen, and her desire to
+devote herself to a Sisterhood had never wavered, and intercourse
+with Sister Angela had only strengthened it.
+
+"Oh, Maidie!" she said, "I do not think there can be any life so good
+or so happy as being really given up to our Lord and His work among
+the sick and poor."
+
+"My dear, He can be served if you are in the world, provided you are
+not OF the world, and if you keep yourself from the evil."
+
+"Yes; but why should I run into the world?  It is not evil, I know,
+so far as you and all your friends can manage; but it stirs up the
+evil in one's self."
+
+"And so would a Sisterhood.  That is a world, too."
+
+"I suppose it is, and that there would be temptation; but there is a
+great deal to help one to keep right.  And, oh! to have one's work in
+real good to Christ's poor, or in missions, instead of in all these
+outside silly nonsensical diversions that one doubts about all the
+time.  If you would only let me go back with dear Sister Beata and
+Sister Elfleda as a probationer!"
+
+"You could not be any more yet," said Magdalen; "but I will think
+about it, and talk it over with Sister Angela.  You know your friend
+Sister Mena, as she called herself, does not mean to be a Sister, but
+a governess."
+
+"Yes; she wrote to me.  She has never seen or known anything outside
+the Convent, and it is all new and turns her head," said Paulina,
+wisely.  "I know she helped me to be all the more silly about Vera
+and poor Hubert Delrio."
+
+Magdalen promised to talk the matter over with Sister Angela.
+
+"I should call it a vocation," said Angela.  "I have watched her ever
+since I have been here, and I am sure her soul is set on these best
+things, in a steady, earnest way."
+
+"She has always been an exceedingly good girl ever since I have had
+to do with her," said Magdalen.  "I have hardly had a fault to find
+with her, except a little exaggeration in the direction of St.
+Kenelm's."
+
+"A steady, not a fitful flame," said Angela.
+
+"But she is so young."
+
+"If you will believe me, Magdalen, such a home as that Dearport
+Sisterhood is a precious thing--I have not been worthy of it.  I have
+been a wild colt, carried about by all manner of passing excitements.
+Oh, dear! love of sheer fun and daring enterprise, and amusement, in
+shocking every one, even my very dearest, whom I loved best.  I have
+done things too dreadful to think of, and been utterly unreasonable
+and unmanageable, and proud of it; but always that Sisterhood has
+been like a cord drawing me!  I never quite got free of it, even when
+I sent back my medal, and fancied it had been playing at
+superstition.  I was there for a month as almost a baby, and the
+atmosphere has brought peace ever since.  That, and my brother, and
+Sister Constance, and Bishop Fulmort, have been the saving of me, if
+anything has.  I mean, if they will have me, to spend a little time
+at Dearport after all this perplexity is over, and I know how it is
+with Lena, and I could see how it is with Paula if you liked."
+
+Magdalen accepted the suggestion, perhaps the more readily because of
+a fleeting visit from Hubert Delrio, who had finished his frescoes at
+the American Vale Leston, and came for a day or two to Mr. Flight's.
+She had sometimes doubted whether the supposed love of Vera had not
+been a good deal diffused among the young ladies, and might not so
+far awaken in Paulina as to render her vocation doubtful; but there
+were no such symptoms.  Paula was quiet and cheerful, with a friendly
+welcome, but no excitement; but it was Thekla, now fifteen, who was
+all blushes whenever Hubert looked or spoke to her, all her
+forwardness gone; and shyness, or decidedly awkwardness, set in,
+resulting chiefly in giggle.
+
+Hubert looked more manly and substantial, and he had just had an
+order for an important London church, which pleased him much, and
+involved another journey to Italy to study some of the designs in the
+Lombardic churches.
+
+Not that there was any chance of meeting Vera.  Mr. and Mrs. White
+had spent the last summer at Baden; and Vera, who had many pretty
+little drawing-room talents, and was always obliging, had been very
+acceptable there.  This winter an attack of rheumatism had made them
+decide on trying Algiers, with a view to the Atlas marbles, and then
+German baths again might claim them for the summer.
+
+In fact, the fear of infection had rendered Rock Quay a deserted
+place during the Easter vacation.  Fergus Merrifield might not come
+near Primrose and Lily, and was charmed to accept an invitation from
+his friend and admirer, Adrian Vanderkist, to Vale Leston, where he
+would be able to explore the geology of Penbeacon, to say nothing of
+the coast; while his sister Felicia, who had been one of the victims,
+remained to be disinfected with Miss Mohun.  Dolores was at Vale
+Leston Priory, and Agatha Prescott with her, so as to have a clean
+bill of health for her return to Oxford for her last term.
+
+The Holy Week was calm and grave; and the two girls, with Anna
+Vanderkist and her little sisters, were very happy over their
+primroses and anemones on Easter Eve, with the beautiful Altar Cross
+that no one could manage like Aunt Cherry, whose work was confined to
+that, and to the two crosses on the graves.
+
+Another notion soon occupied them.  There was a vague idea that a
+sort of convalescent or children's hospital might be established for
+the training of women intending to study medicine or nursing, chiefly
+at Miss Arthuret's expense, and Dolores was anxious to consider the
+possibility of placing it in the sweet mountain air, tempered by the
+sea breezes of Penbeacon.
+
+It was an idea to make Mrs. Grinstead shudder; but neither she nor
+her niece, Anna Vanderkist, could forget Gerald's view that Penbeacon
+was not only to be the playground of Vale Leston, and they always
+felt as if Dolores had a certain widow's right to influence any
+decision.  So she cheerfully acquiesced in what, in her secret heart,
+seemed only a feeble echo of the past, though, to the young
+generations it was a very happy hopeful present when all the youthful
+party, under the steerage of Mary and Anna, and the escort of Sir
+Adrian and Fergus, started off with ponies, donkeys, cycles and
+sturdy feet to picnic on Penbeacon, if possible in the March winds--
+well out of the way of the clay works.
+
+How Fergus divided his cares between the strata and Dolores' kodak,
+how even his photography could not spoil Aunt Alda; how charming a
+group of sisters Dolores contrived to produce; how Adrian was the
+proud pioneer into a coach adorned with stalactites and antediluvian
+bones; how Anna collected milkwort and violets for Aunt Cherry; how a
+sly push sent little Joan in a headlong career down a slope that
+might have resulted in a terrible fall, but did only cause a tumble
+and great fright, and a severe reprimand from the elder sisters; how
+Agatha was entranced by the glorious view in the clearness of spring,
+how they ate their sandwiches and tried to think it was not cold; how
+grey east wind mist came over the distance and warned them it was
+time to trot down,--all this must belong to the annals of later Vale
+Leston; and of those years of youth which in each generation leave
+impressions as of sunbeams for life.  And on their return, Dolores
+found a letter which filled her with a fresh idea.  It was from her
+father in New Zealand, telling her that there was an opening for her
+to come and give a course of lectures on electricity at Canterbury,
+Auckland and the other towns, and proposing to her to come out with
+her lady assistant, when she might very probably extend her tour to
+Australia.
+
+"Would you come, Naggie?" asked Dolores.
+
+"Oh!  I should like nothing half so well.  If you could only wait
+till my turn is over, and the exam!"
+
+"Of course!  Why, we shall not have finished the correspondence till
+after the examination!  How capital it will be!  My father will like
+your bright face, and you will think him like Fergus grown older.
+Will your sister consent?"
+
+"Oh!  Magdalen will be glad enough to have me off on a career.  We
+will write and prepare her mind.  I believe I am not to go home, so
+as to bring a clean bill of health to St. Robert's."
+
+"I really think," added Dolores, "that Magdalen would make an
+admirable head matron, or whatever you call it!"
+
+"Dear old thing!  She is very fond of her Goyle."
+
+"True, but Sophy's engineer husband tells us that a new line is
+projected to Rock Quay, through the very heart of the Goyle, Act of
+Parliament, compulsory sale and all."
+
+"Well! work might console her for being uprooted, and she is quite
+youthful enough to take to it with spirit."
+
+"Besides that she would greatly console Clement and Cherry for the
+profanation of their Penbeacon.  I declare I will suggest it to
+Arthurine!"
+
+So the two young people resolved, not without a consciousness that
+what was to them a fresh and inspiring gale, to the elder generation
+was "winds have rent thy sheltering bowers."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII--A SENTENCE
+
+
+
+"What should we give for our beloved?"
+- E. B. BROWNING.
+
+No sooner had the visitors departed than the others now out of
+quarantine appeared at Vale Leston.  Angela was anxious to spend a
+little time there, and likewise to have Lena overhauled by Tom May.
+The child had never really recovered, and was always weakly; and
+whereas on the journey, Lily, now in high health, was delighted with
+all she saw, though she could not compare Penbeacon to Adam's Peak,
+Lena lay back in Sister Angela's arms, almost a dead weight, hardly
+enduring the bustle of the train, though she tried not to whine, as
+long as she saw her pink Ben looking happy in his cage.
+
+Angela was an experienced nurse, and was alarmed at some of the
+symptoms that others made light of.  Mrs. Grinstead had thought
+things might be made easier to her if the Miss Merrifields came to
+meet her and hear the doctor's opinion; and Elizabeth accepted her
+invitation, arriving to see the lovely peaceful world in the sweet
+blossoming of an early May, the hedges spangled with primroses, and
+the hawthorns showing sheets of snow; while the pear trees lifted
+their snowy pyramids, and Lily in her white frock darted about the
+lawn in joyous play with her father under the tree, and the grey
+cloister was gay with wisteria.
+
+Angela was sitting in the boat, safely moored, with a book in her
+hand, the pink cockatoo on the gunwale, nibbling at a stick, and the
+girl lying on a rug, partly on her lap.  Phyllis and Anna, who had
+come out on the lawn, made Elizabeth pause.
+
+"That's the way they go on!" said Phyllis.  "All day long Angela is
+reading to the child either the 'Water Babies' or the history of
+Joseph."
+
+"Or crooning to her the story of the Cross," said Anna; "and as soon
+as one is ended she begins it again, and Lena will not let her miss
+or alter a single word."
+
+"They go on more than half the night," added Phyllis.  "Bear sat up
+long over his letters and accounts, and as he went up he heard the
+crooning, and looked in; and the very moment Angela paused, there
+came the little plaintive voice, 'Go on, please.'  'Women are
+following'--"
+
+"But is not that spoiling her?" asked Bessie.
+
+A look of sad meaning passed between her two companions.  Phyllis
+shook her head slightly, and, instead of answering, conducted Bessie
+on to the bank, when Angela looked up and made a sign that she could
+not move or speak, for the child was asleep.  The yellow head was
+shaded by Angela's parasol, the thin hair lying ruffled on the black
+dress, and the small face looked more pinched than when the aunt had
+last seen it, nearly a year previously.  She had watched the decay of
+aged folks, but she was unused to the illnesses of children; and she
+recoiled with a little shock, as she looked down at the little wasted
+face, with a slight flush of sleep.  "Recovery from measles," she
+said.
+
+Phyllis smiled a little pitifully as her own little girl, all radiant
+with health and joy, came skipping up, performing antics over her
+father's hand.  "Take care, Lily, don't wake poor little Lena," was
+murmured quietly.
+
+"Northern breezes--" began Bessie, but the voices had broken the
+light slumber; and as Angela began, "See, Lena, here is Aunt Bessie,"
+the effect was to make her throw herself over Angela's shoulder and
+hide her face; and when her protector tried to turn her round and
+reason her into courtesy, she began to cry in a feeble manner.
+
+"She has had a bad night," said motherly Phyllis; "let her alone."
+
+"May not I get down into the boat?" asked Lily.  "I'll be very good."
+
+There would have been a little hesitation, but at the voice Lena
+looked up and called "Lily, Lily!"  Bernard lifted his small daughter
+down, Elizabeth was not sorry to be led away for the present, and
+when, after a turn in the rose garden, she came back, the two
+children were sitting with arms round one another, holding a
+conversation with Ben, the cockatoo, and making him dance on one of
+the benches of the boat, under Angela's supervision, lest he should
+end by dancing overboard.  The rich fair hair, shining dark blue
+eyes, and plump glowing cheeks of Lily were a contrast to the wan
+wasted colouring of her little cousin; but Lena was more herself now
+than when just awake, and let Lily lead her up and introduce her, as
+it might be called, to Cousin Bessie as Lily called her, a less
+formidable sound than "Aunt Elizabeth."  They were both kissed, and
+she endured it.  Angela was, as her brothers and sisters said, "very
+good," and scrupulously abstained from absorbing the child all the
+evening, letting Elizabeth show her pictures and tell her stories, to
+which, by Lily's example, she listened quietly enough and with
+interest.
+
+When the two children went off, hand in hand, to their beds,
+Elizabeth said, "Really, Magdalen is improved.  If you leave Lily
+with her, Phyllis, I think we should get on beautifully.  The bracing
+air will do wonders for them both."
+
+"Thank you," said poor Phyllis forbearingly; "we have not made our
+plans about Lily yet."
+
+But Elizabeth thought out a beautiful scheme of discipline and study
+in the long light hours of the morning, and began to feel herself
+drawn towards her delicate little niece, feeling sure that the little
+thing would soon be Susan's darling, if Susan could be brought to
+endure the cockatoo walking loose about the house.
+
+Early in the day Professor May appeared, and was hailed as an old
+friend by all the Underwoods.  He rejoiced to see Clement looking
+well and active; and "as to this fellow," he said, looking at
+Bernard, "it shows what development will do."
+
+"Not quite the young Bear of Stoneborough," said Clement, leaning
+affectionately on his broad shoulder; "our skittish pair are grown
+very sober-minded.  But you have not told us of your father."
+
+"My father is very well.  He walks down every day to sit with my
+wife, and visits a selection of his old patients, who are getting few
+enough now.  This is not my patient, I suppose?"
+
+"Unless you are ready to prescribe only laughing and good Jersey
+cows' milk," said Bernard, pulling the long silky brown hair.
+"Where's mother, little one?"
+
+"Mother sent me to say Aunt Angel is ready, if Dr. May will come up
+to Aunt Cherry's room.  Lena is frightened, and they did not like to
+leave her."
+
+It was a long visit, after Phyllis had come down; and, walking up and
+down the cloister with Bessie Merrifield, listened to her schemes of
+education for the little maidens.  Lily she liked and admired, and
+she was convinced that Magdalen's weak health and spirits were the
+result of the spoiling system.  Phyllis trembled a little as she
+heard of the knocking about, out-of-doors ways that had certainly
+produced fine strong healthy frames and upright characters, but she
+forbore to say that if her little girl had to be left, it would be to
+her mother and Mysie.
+
+By and by Tom came down, and finding Geraldine alone in the drawing-
+room, he answered her inquiry with a very grave look.  "Poor little
+thing!  You do not think well of her!  Is it as Angel feared?"
+
+"Confirmed disease, from original want of development of heart.
+Measles accelerated it.  I doubt her lasting six months, though it
+may be longer or less."
+
+"Have you told Angel?"
+
+"She knew it, more or less.  She is ready to bear it, though one can
+see how her soul is wrapped up in the child, and the child in her."
+
+"One thing, Tom, will you tell Miss Merrifield yourself, and alone,
+and make her feel that it is an independent opinion?  It may save
+both the poor child and Angel a great deal."
+
+"Are you prepared to keep her here?"
+
+"Of course we are.  It is Angel's natural home.  Clement and I could
+think of nothing else"
+
+"I knew you would say so.  If I understand rightly there is something
+like a jealousy of her case in the Merrifields, prompted greatly by
+their wish to expiate any neglect of her father."
+
+"That is what I gather from what Phyllis tells me."
+
+"What a lovely countenance hers is in expression!  No wonder Bernard
+has softened down.  There is strength and solidity as well as
+sweetness in her face.  Ah, there they are!"
+
+"I will call Phyllis in.  Bessie Merrifield has almost walked her to
+death by this time."
+
+So Phyllis was called and told.  What she said was, "I only hope he
+will make her understand that it could not be helped, and it was not
+Angela's fault."
+
+Tom May had wisdom enough to make this clear in what was a greater
+shock to Elizabeth than it was to Angela, who had suspected enough to
+be prepared for the sentence, and had besides a good deal of hospital
+experience, which enabled her thoroughly to understand the
+Professor's explanations.  So, indeed, did it seem to Elizabeth at
+the time he was speaking; but she had lived a good deal in London,
+and had a great idea that a London physician must be superior to a
+man who had lived in the country, and, moreover, whom all the
+household called Tom, and she asked Mrs. Grinstead if he were really
+so clever.
+
+"Indeed, I think he is; and I have seen a great deal of his
+treatment.  You may quite trust him.  He lives down here at
+Stoneborough for his father's sake, or he would be quite at the head
+of his profession."
+
+"Superior to the two Doctors Brownlow?"
+
+"I should not say superior, but quite equal."
+
+"The Brownlows," said Clement, looking up from his paper, "helped me
+through an ordinary malarial fever.  John Lucas is a brilliant
+specialist in such cases, but certifying an affection of the heart.
+Tom May latterly has treated me better.  As far as I understand the
+case of your little niece, I should say both that it was more in the
+line of Tom May, and likewise that it would be very hurtful to her to
+take her about and subject her to more examinations."
+
+"Poor little thing! no doubt it would be a terrible distress,"
+acquiesced Bessie; "but still, if it is bracing that she needs--
+northern air might make all the difference."
+
+Clement sighed a little hopelessly over making a woman understand or
+give way, and returned to his newspaper; while Geraldine tried to
+argue that air could not make much difference, speaking in the
+interest of the child herself and of her sister.  Elizabeth listened
+and agreed; but there was in the Merrifield family a fervour of
+almost jealous expiation of their neglect of Henry, inattention to
+his daughter, and desire to appropriate her, and to restore her to
+health, strength, and wisdom, in spite of her would-be stepmother.
+
+"They hate me as much as if I were her stepmother!" cried Angela.  "I
+wish I was, to have a right to protect her!  No, Clem; I'll not break
+out, if I can help it, as long as they don't worry her; and I think
+Bessie does see the rights of it."
+
+Yes; the peaceful, thoughtful atmosphere of Vale Leston, unlike the
+active bustle of Coalham, had an insensible influence on Elizabeth's
+mind; and she saw that Angela's treatment of the child, always
+cheerful though tender, was right, and that it would be sheer cruelty
+to separate them.  She promised to use all her power to prevent any
+such step, and finally left Vale Leston, perfectly satisfied that it
+was impossible to take Lena with her.
+
+But her family did not see it thus, especially Mrs. Samuel
+Merrifield, the child's guardian.  She insisted that it was her
+husband's duty to bring the little one to London for advice, and to
+remove her from all the weakening, morbid influences of Vale Leston.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII--SUMMONED
+
+
+
+"What would we give to our beloved?"
+- E. B. BROWNING.
+
+"I wish they all would not go so very fast," said little Lena, hiding
+her face against him from the whirl of cabs and omnibuses.
+
+"They bewilder us savages," said Angela, smiling.  "Remember we are
+from the wilds."
+
+"She shall have her tea, and a good rest," said Marilda; "and then I
+have asked her uncle and aunts to meet you at dinner, and Fernan
+hopes to bring home another old friend.  Whom do you think, Angel?"
+
+"Oh!  Not our Bishop?"
+
+"Yes, the Bishop of Albertstown!  He is actually in town; Fernan saw
+him yesterday at the Church House."
+
+"Oh! that is joy!" cried Angela; and Lena raised her head, with, "Is
+it mine--mine own Bishop?"
+
+"Mine own, mine own Bishop and godfather, my sweet!" said Angela;
+"more to us in our own way than any one else.  Oh! it is joy!  How
+happy Clement will be!"
+
+It was with much feeling, almost akin to shame, that Bessie wrote to
+Angela this decision of her brother, that a London authority must be
+consulted--not Dr. Brownlow, but one whom Mrs. Sam had heard highly
+spoken of.
+
+"That man!" cried Angela.  "I have heard of him!  He is a regular
+mealy-mouthed old woman of a doctor!  And she is so well just now!
+How horrid to shake her up again!  Oh, Bear! if I could only sail
+away with her to Queensland!"
+
+"You would if it was ten years ago," said Bernard.
+
+"Yes!  Is it the way of the world, or learning resignation, that
+makes one know one must submit?  Giving up an idol is a worse thing
+when the idol is made of flesh and blood."
+
+Bernard wanted to see Sir Ferdinand, so made it an excuse for helping
+his sister on the way; and he did so effectively, for his knee and
+broad breast were Lena's great resting-place; and his stories of
+monkeys and elephants were almost as good as kangaroos.  Was there
+not a kangaroo to be seen in London, which she apparently thought
+would be a place of about the size of Albertstown?
+
+Lady Underwood had insisted on receiving the travellers from Vale
+Leston in her house in Kensington; and there was her broad, kindly
+face looking out for them at the station, and her likewise broad and
+kindly carriage ready to carry them from it.  How natural all looked
+to Angela, with all her associations of being a naughty, wild,
+mischievous schoolgirl, the general plague and problem!
+
+"But always a dear," said Marilda, with her habit of forgetting
+everybody's faults.  "Why didn't you bring your wife, Bernard, and
+your little girl for this darling's playfellow?"
+
+"She is her best playfellow," said Angela; "Adela's Joan is too
+rough, and fitter for Adrian's companion."
+
+"She is my playfellow," said Bernard, holding her up.  "Look out,
+Lena.  Here's Father Thames to go over."
+
+"And Fernan is so glad," added Marilda.
+
+For Bishop Robert Fulmort had, when Vicar of St. Wulstan's, been the
+guide and helper of Ferdinand Travis's time of trial and
+disappointment, as well as the spiritual father of Clement Underwood;
+he had known and dealt with Angela in her wayward girlhood, and aided
+her bitter repentance; and in these later days in Australia had been
+her true fatherly friend, counsellor and comforter in the trials and
+perplexities that had befallen her.  Bernard read, in her lifted head
+and brightened eye, that she felt the meeting him almost a
+compensation for the distress and perplexity of this journey to
+London.
+
+Bernard carried the little girl up to the room and laid her down to
+sleep off her fatigue, while Marilda waited on her and Angela with
+her wonted bustling affection, extremely happy to have two of her
+best beloved cousins under her roof.
+
+Bernard went off to find Sir Ferdinand at his office, and quiet
+prevailed till nearly dinner time, when Lena awoke and would not be
+denied one sight of her godfather.  So Angela dressed her in her
+white frock, and smoothed her thin yellow hair, and took her down to
+the great stiff handsome room that all Emilia's efforts had never
+made to look liveable.  Emilia Brown was there, very fashionably
+attired, but eager for news of Vale Leston, and the Merrifields soon
+arrived with, "Oh! here she is!" from the Captain, "Well! she looks
+better than I expected!"
+
+"Poor little dear!" observed his wife, dressed in a low dress and
+thin fringe on her forehead in honour of what, to the country mind,
+was a grand dinner party, at which Angela's plain black dress and
+tight white cap were an unbecoming sight.  Elizabeth was there,
+kissing Angela with real sympathy; and Lena, who had grown a good
+deal more accustomed to strange relations, endured the various
+embraces without discourtesy.
+
+But when the door opened and the grey-headed Bishop came in there was
+a low half scream of "Oh! oh!" and with one leap she was in his arms,
+as he knelt on one knee, and clasped her, holding out a hand to
+Angela, whose eyes were full of tears of relief and trust.  Marilda
+gave a glad welcome, but they were startled by perceiving that the
+joy of meeting had brought on a spasm of choking on Lena, who was
+gasping in a strange sort of agony.  Angela took her in her arms and
+carried her out of the room.  Marilda presently following, came back
+reporting that the little girl had been relieved by a shower of
+tears, but was still faint and agitated, and that Angela could not
+leave her, but begged that they would not wait dinner.
+
+"Such sensitiveness needs anxious care," said Elizabeth.
+
+"If it be not the effect of spoiling.  Just affectation!" replied the
+sister-in-law in a decided voice, which made Bessie glad that the
+poor child's home was not to be among the rough boys at Stokesley,
+who were not credited with any particular feelings.
+
+Angela's absence gave the Bishop the opportunity of telling what she
+had been during her years at Albertstown, what a wonderful power
+among the natives, though not without disappointment, and she had
+been still more effective among the settlers and their daughters.
+Carrigaboola, Fulbert's farm, had been an oasis of hope and rest to
+the few clergy of his scanty staff, and Fulbert himself had been a
+tower of strength for influence over the settlers who had fallen in
+his way, by his unswerving uprightness and honour, with the deeper
+principles of religion, little talked of but never belied.  Even
+after his death, the power he had been told over all with whom he had
+come in contact.
+
+Bernard heard it with immense pleasure, as did the faithful Ferdinand
+and Marilda; while Elizabeth felt more and more that Sister Angela
+was not to be treated, as she feared Sam and his wife were inclined
+to do, as a mere interloper in their family affairs, but as one to be
+not merely considered with gratitude, but even reverenced.
+
+Indeed, Sam began to feel it, as he saw how the other men, both
+practical business men, listened, and were impressed; but it was not
+quite the case with his wife, who did not particularly esteem
+colonial Bishops, and still less Sisterhoods or devotion to
+missionary efforts, especially among the Australian blacks, whom her
+old geography book had told her were the most degraded and hopeless
+of natives, scarcely removed from mere animals.
+
+When Angela appeared half through dinner time and said that Lena was
+safely asleep, and Marilda sat her down to be happy in exchange of
+Carrigaboola tidings with her Bishop, Fernando greeted her with a
+reverence not undeserved, though perhaps all the more from the
+contrast to the mischievous little sprite who used to disturb the
+days of his philandering with Alda.
+
+How much shocked Mrs. Samuel was, when the magnificent Sir Ferdinand,
+whom she regarded with awe as a millionaire, was flippantly answered
+by this extraordinary Sister, "Thank you, Fernan, I should like to
+have a sight of the old office.  I hope you have a descendant of the
+old cat, Betty.  Didn't she come from your grandmother, Marilda?  Do
+you remember her being found playing tricks with the nugget, just
+come from Victoria?"
+
+"That was in her kitten days," said Ferdinand.
+
+"Is that personal, Fernan?"
+
+"A compliment, Angel," said the Bishop.  "Kittens alter a good deal."
+
+"Not much for the better," said Angela.  "If you only could see Mrs.
+Lamb, who used to be the very moral of a kitten, scratchiness and
+all!"
+
+"I thought her very much improved," said Lady Underwood gravely.
+
+"Oh, yes; grown into a sleek and personable tabby, able to wave her
+tail at the tip and tuck her paws--her velvet paws--well under her;
+and lick her lips over the--oh, dear!--what do you call it?--your
+menu is quite too much for us poor savages, Marilda.  A bit of damper
+is quite enough for us, isn't it, Bishop?"
+
+"Varied with opossum and fern root," he said smiling; "but that's
+only when we have lost our way."
+
+The talk drifted off to the history of a shepherd's child, who had
+strayed into the bush, and after much searching, in which the Bishop
+and Fulbert had been half starved, had finally been found and carried
+home by Angela's "crack gin," as she told it to Bernard; and as
+Marilda thought the poor child was in a trap, it had to be translated
+into "favourite pupil," though Bernard carried on the joke by asking
+Marilda if she thought the natives cannibals given to the snaring of
+mankind.
+
+Altogether it was a thoroughly merry evening, such as comes to pass
+in the meeting of old friends and comrades in too large numbers for
+grave discourse, but with habits of close intercourse and
+associations of all kinds.  Emilia and her husband tried in all
+courtesy not to let the Merrifields feel themselves neglected; and
+indeed Bessie was only too glad to listen and join at times in the
+talk; but it all went outside Mrs. Sam, who was on the whole
+scandalised at the laughter of a Bishop, and a Sister.  Indeed, it
+was true that Bishop Fulmort, naturally a grave man, very much so in
+his early days, comported himself on this occasion as if he realised
+Southey's wish -
+
+
+"That in mine age as cheerful I might be,
+Like the green winter of the holly tree."
+
+
+At any rate, that evening was long a bright remembrance.  Lena slept
+all night, and was so fresh and well in the morning that Angela
+foreboded that the examination might not detect her delicacy.  They
+met Mrs. Merrifield, and took her with them to the doctor's, Lady
+Underwood Travis having placed her carriages at their disposal.
+
+It was very much as Angela had expected, knowing by hospital
+reputation what the doctor was supposed to be to old ladies and
+fanciful mothers, while perhaps he had also heard of her fracas long
+ago at the hospital.  For he was not more courteous to her than could
+be helped, treating her much as if she were only the nursery maid,
+and hardly looking at the opinion which she had made Professor May
+write out for him.
+
+To her mind, it was a very cursory examination that he made; and the
+upshot of his opinion, triumphantly accepted by Mrs. Merrifield, was
+that there was nothing seriously amiss with the child, that she only
+needed care, regularity and bracing, and that the stifling, gasping
+spasms were simply the effect of hysteria.
+
+Hysteria!  Angela felt as if she should run wild as she heard Mrs.
+Merrifield's complacent remarks on having always thought so, and
+being sure that a few weeks of good air and good management would
+make an immense difference.  The need of not alarming or prejudicing
+the poor little victim was all that kept Angela in any restraint; and
+Mrs. Merrifield went on to say that she had promised her youngest
+boy, who was with her in London, to take him to the Zoological
+Gardens, and it would be a good opportunity for Magdalen to see them.
+
+"Is that where there is a kangaroo?" asked Lena, so eagerly that
+Angela, though thinking that morning's work enough for the feeble
+strength, could not withstand her.  Besides, if the Merrifields were
+to have her wholly in another day, what was the use of standing out
+for one afternoon?  One comfort was that Elizabeth, who would really
+have the charge of the child, had much more good sense and knowledge
+of the world than her sister-in-law.
+
+Still Angela felt the only way of bearing it was that after setting
+Mrs. Merrifield down, she stopped the carriage at a church she knew
+to have a noon-tide Litany, knelt there, with the little girl beside
+her, and tried to say, "Thy will be done!  To Thy keeping I commit
+her."  Her "hours" came to help her.
+
+
+"Quench Thou the fires of hate and strife,
+   The wasting fever of the heart,
+From perils guard her feeble life,
+   And to our souls Thy help impart."
+
+
+She was able to be calm, and to utter none of her rage when they came
+back to luncheon; and Marilda, declaring she liked nothing so well as
+seeing children at the Zoo, wished to go with the party.  All, save
+Mrs. Merrifield and her boy, had gone different ways in London, so
+there was plenty of room in the barouche.
+
+The boy's mind was set on riding on the elephant, and they walked on
+that way, turning aside, however, to the yard where towered the
+kangaroo, tall, gentle, graceful and gracious.  Lena sprang forward
+with a cry of joy, and clasped her hands; but in one moment the same
+spasm, at first of ecstasy then of overpowering feeling, becoming
+agony, came over her, and gasping and choking, Angela held her in her
+arms and carried her to a seat, holding her up, loosening her
+clothes; but still she did not come round.  Her aunt tried to say,
+"hysteric."  Some one brought water, but it was of no use--there were
+still the labouring gasps, and the convulsive motion.  "Let us take
+her home," Marilda said.
+
+"Nothing but hysterics!" repeated the aunt.  "I will stay with
+Jackie."
+
+Marilda found her servant and the carriage, and in the long drive, a
+few drops of strong stimulant at a chemist's brought a little relief
+though scarcely consciousness; and when Angela had carried her up to
+her room, there was a blueness about the lips, a coldness about the
+fingers, that told much.  Marilda had at once sent for Dr. Brownlow
+as the nearest, and he was at home; but he could only look and do
+nothing, but attempt to revive circulation, all in vain; and with
+Marilda standing by, with one convulsive clutch of Angela's hand, the
+true mother of her orphaned life, little Lena sank to a peaceful rest
+from the tribulations that awaited her here.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX--SAFE
+
+
+
+"Rest beyond all grief and pain,
+Death to thee is truest gain."
+KEBLE.
+
+Angela's nearest and best friends had anticipated that the peaceful
+climax of all her cares would be a relief to her; and so indeed in
+the long run it would be to her higher sense, and she would be
+thankful.  But even those who knew her most thoroughly had not
+estimated the pangs of personal affection and deprivation of the
+child she had fostered with a mother's tenderness for seven years,
+and the absolute suffering of the sudden parting, even though it was
+to security of bliss, instead of doubt and uneasiness.
+
+She was quite broken and really ill with neuralgia and exhaustion,
+unable to attend the funeral, which the Merrifields wished to have at
+Stokesley, and unfit for anything but lying still with the pink
+parrot on the rail below, kindly watched over by good Marilda.  The
+strain of many disturbed nights, the perplexities, the struggle for
+resignation, all coming after a succession of trying events in
+Australia, had told heavily upon her.  Indeed, no one guessed how
+much she had undergone, physically as well as spiritually, till
+Marilda would not be denied the consulting Dr. Brownlow, who
+questioned her closely, and extorted confessions of the long
+continued strain of exertion.  Rest was all she needed; and Marilda
+took care that she had it, bringing Robina up from Minsterham to make
+it more effectual, and letting her have visits from her Bishop and
+from Bernard as they could afford the time, both being very and
+variously busy.
+
+Angela had made up her mind to go out to Australia again, and to make
+Carrigaboola an endowment for the Sisterhood; but the means of doing
+this could best be arranged there, and she intended to go out when
+her Bishop should return in the autumn, feeling that her vocation was
+there, though there was a blank in all she had most cared for on
+earth in that home.
+
+As soon as she had recovered, she wished to spend a fortnight at
+Dearport, beginning with a retreat that was held there.  Remembering
+her old career there, and the abrupt close of her novitiate, she felt
+and spoke as if she was to be received as in penitence, but to the
+Sisters who surrounded her it was more as if they were receiving a
+saint.
+
+When she came back to Vale Leston, she had recovered cheerfulness,
+more equable than it had ever been, and Cherry and Alda found her a
+charming companion.  There was much going on at Vale Leston just
+then.  Miss Arthuret and Dolores were at Penbeacon, seriously
+considering of the scheme of converting the old farm house into a
+kind of place of study for girls who wanted to work at various
+technicalities, and to fit themselves for usefulness or for self-
+maintenance.  There was to be more or less of the Convalescent Home
+or House of Rest in combination, and it had occurred to Dolores that
+there could hardly be a better head of such an establishment than
+Magdalen Prescott.
+
+Magdalen had been asked to the Priory to meet Angela, to whom it was
+now a comfort and pleasure to talk of her treasure, so much less lost
+to her than in the uncongenial surroundings threatened at Coalham.
+And the invitation, followed by the proposal, came at a not
+unpropitious moment.  A railway company, after much surveying, much
+disputing, and many heartburnings, were actually obtaining an Act of
+Parliament, empowering it to lay its cruel hands upon the Goyle,
+running its viaducts down the ravine of Arnscombe, and destroy all
+the peace and privacy!  It did much, as Agatha had said, to make the
+new scheme of Penbeacon acceptable though.
+
+"That comes of making one's nest," she sighed, "and thinking one's
+self secure in it for life!  Oh! it is worse and more changeable in
+this latter century than in any other!  Does the world go round
+faster?"
+
+"Of course it does," said Geraldine.  "Think how many fashions, how
+many styles, how many ways of thinking, have passed away, even in our
+own time."
+
+"And what have they left behind them?"
+
+"Something good, I trust.  Coral cells, stones for the next
+generation of zoophytes to stand upon to reach up higher."
+
+"Is it higher?"
+
+"In one sense, I hope.  The same foundation, remember, and each cell
+forms a rock for the future--a white and beautiful cell, remember, as
+it grows unconsciously, beneath this creature."
+
+Magdalen smiled, delighted with the illustration.
+
+"It forms into the rocks, the strong foundations of the earth," she
+said.
+
+"When it has undergone its baptism beneath the sea," added Geraldine.
+"But practically and unpoetically, perhaps--how the young folk mount
+upon all our little achievements in Church matters, and think them
+nearly as old-fashioned and despicable as we did pews and black
+gowns!  Or how attempts like the schools that brought up Robina and
+Angela have shot out into High Schools, colleges, professions, and I
+know not what besides."
+
+"Ah! we come to my old notions for my sisters.  I thought they would
+have been governesses like myself, but they married; and now tell me,
+what do you think of this scheme of Miss Mohun and Agatha?"
+
+"You know Dolores is going to her father first.  I never saw him, but
+Lady Merrifield and Jane tell me he is a very wise, highly-principled
+person, perfectly to be trusted; and they like all that they have
+heard of his young wife.  I should think if Agatha is to become a
+scientific lecturer, she could not begin her career under better
+training."
+
+"Career, exactly!  People used not to talk of careers."
+
+"Life and career!  Tortoise and hare, eh?  But the hare may and ought
+still to reach the goal, and have her cell built, even if she does
+have her wander yahr, like the young barnacles, before becoming
+attached!  No! she need not become the barnacle goose.  That is
+fabulous," said Mrs. Grinstead, laughing off a little of her
+seriousness, and adding, "Tell me of the other girls.  I think Vera
+did not come home last year."
+
+"No; nor the year before.  She has a good many pretty little talents,
+and is very obliging.  Mrs. White seems to be very fond of her, and
+did not want to spare her when they went to Gastein for the summer.
+And this year, when there was so much infection about, I could not
+press it."
+
+"Is it true that there is anything between her and Petros White?"
+
+"I know Miss Mohun--Jane--infers it, but I don't like to build upon
+it."
+
+"I should build on most inferences that Jane Mohun ventured to make
+known," said Geraldine, smiling; "and Paulina's fate is pretty well
+fixed, I suppose!"
+
+"Dear child, she has never had any other purpose since I first knew
+her thoroughly, and I do not think her present stay at Dearport will
+disenchant her.  I think she is really devoted, not to the
+theoretical romance of a Sisterhood, but to the deeper full purpose
+of self-devotion."
+
+"I can fully believe it of her.  Hers have not been the ups and downs
+of my Angela, though indeed, after all she has gone through, there is
+something in her face that brings to my mind, 'After that ye have
+suffered awhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you.'"
+
+"It is a lovely countenance--so patient, and yet so bright."
+
+"I do not think anything in all her life has tried her so much as the
+distress about little Lena; and after knowing her wildness--to use a
+weak word for it--under other troubles, I see what grace and self-
+control have done for her.  You still keep your Thekla!" she added,
+as the girl flashed by, in company with a coeval Vanderkist.
+
+"For a few years to come, though I am beginning to feel like the old
+hens who do but bring their children up to launch them on the
+waters."
+
+"Well, it is happy if the launch can be made with hope present as
+well as faith; and to see what Angel has become after many
+vicissitudes, not confined to her first years of youth, is an immense
+encouragement."
+
+To Angela's great delight, the affairs of Brown and Underwood were
+found to require inspection at San Francisco, as well as at Colombo,
+where Bernard was to put the firm into the hands of one of the
+Browns, who was to meet him there, and he would then be able to come
+home to the central office in England.
+
+It was not expedient for Phyllis to make the voyage for so brief a
+stay, so it was decided that she should remain with her mother, and
+she declared that she should be happy about Bernard being taken care
+of if Angela, before settling in at Carrigaboola, would go and stay
+with him at Ceylon.  "No one can tell the pleasure it is," she said
+to Magdalen, "to borrow one's own especial brother from his wife for
+a little while.  Oh, yes, I know it goes against the grain with him,
+and it is right it should; but the poor old sister enjoys her treat
+nevertheless and notwithstanding."
+
+There was a great family gathering at Vale Leston, including both the
+Harewoods; and the Bishop of Albertstown came to spend that last
+fortnight in England with Clement, the boy who had been committed to
+him as a chorister, then trained as a young deacon, and almost driven
+out in his inexperience to the critical charge of the neglected
+parish and the old squire, only to be recalled after seven years to
+the more important charge in London on the Bishop's appointment,
+there to serve till strength gave way, and he must perforce return to
+his former home.  There was a farewell picnic of the elders at
+Penbeacon, merry and yet wistful in its hopeful auguries that the
+loved play place would be a glad and beneficial home.
+
+It was a strange retrospect, talked over by the two old friends in
+deep thankfulness, yet humility over their own shortcomings and
+failures, and no less strange were the recollections of the wild
+noisy insubordinate schoolgirl whom the Bishop's sister had failed to
+tame, and who had to both seemed to live only on sensation, whether
+religious or secular, and who had been one continual care and
+perplexity to each.  By turns they had thought that the full Church
+system acted as a hotbed on her peculiar temperament, and at others
+they had thought it only an alternative to the amusements of vanity
+and flirtation.  Each had felt himself a failure with regard to her,
+and had hoped for a fresh start from each crisis of repentance,
+notably, from the death of Felix, only to be disappointed by some
+fresh aberration.
+
+However, in Queensland, her work had been noble, and thoroughly
+effective in many cases; it had involved much self-denial and even
+danger, and though these might agree with her native spirit of
+adventure, there had likewise been not fitful, but steadily earnest
+devotion in her convent life, as well as the tenderest reverent care
+of Mother Constance in a long and painful decline, and therewith a
+steady cheerful influence which had immensely assisted the growth of
+Fulbert's character.  For some years past, Sister Angela had been not
+a care, but a trusty helper to the Bishop; and the later trials and
+difficulties, especially the sore rending of the tie with the being
+she had come to love with all the force of her strong nature, had
+been borne in a manner that bore witness to the subduing of that
+over-rebellious and vehement spirit.
+
+And, as she said to Geraldine on the last evening as they bade good-
+night, "This has been the very happiest time I ever spent here--yes,
+happier than in those exultant days of new possession and liberty.
+Oh, yes, all experiments, as it were, bold ventures, self-reproach
+and failure, defiance and fun, and then--oh, the ache I would not
+confess, the glory of being provoking, and, oh, the final anguish I
+brought on myself and on you all; and I went on, when it began to
+wear away, still stifling the sting which revived whenever I came
+home, and all was renewed!  Really, whenever I shammed it was only
+remorse.  I don't think that real repentance, and the peace after it,
+began till those quiet days with dear Mother Constance."
+
+"And is it peace now?"
+
+"Yes, I think so.  Even the parting with my child has not torn me up.
+I can say it is well--far better than leaving her, far better,
+indeed!  And Felix is what he meant to be, my treasure, not my
+accuser.  Oh, I am glad to have been at home, and made it all up, to
+bear away--and leave with you the sense of Peace."
+
+All who had loved and feared for her were very happy over her when
+all joined in that farewell service on her own birthday, St. Michael
+and All Angels' Day.
+
+The party were joined by Dolores and Wilfred at Liverpool; Bernard
+having undertaken to establish the latter at Colombo in hands as safe
+as might be.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX--THE MAIDEN ROCKS
+
+
+
+"What need we more if hearts be true,
+Our voyage safe, our port in view."
+- KEBLE.
+
+A telegram that a steamer had been wrecked on the Maiden Rocks filled
+three homes with dismay.  The rocks were sought out in maps, and
+found to be specks lying between County Antrim and Scotland--no doubt
+terrible in their reality.
+
+Another day brought something more definite.  It WAS the Afra,--
+"wrecked in the fog of October 11th.  Boats got off."
+
+That was all; but a day's post brought letters, of which the fullest
+was from Dolores:
+
+
+"CORNCASTLE, LARNE, CO.  ANTRIM, IRELAND,
+October 12.
+
+"DEAREST AUNT LILY, -
+
+"I trust Phyllis has by this time heard from Bernard, as I heard him
+called on, as a good oarsman, to go in the first boat, and we saw
+Angela's bonnet.  We--that is Wilfred, Nag, and the Bishop--are all
+safe here, with eight or nine others.  Will will do well, I trust.
+He quite owes his life to Nag.  This is how it was:  We had not long
+been out of the Mersey before an impenetrable fog came down upon us,
+and we could not see across the deck; but on we went, on what proved
+to be our blind way, till, after a night and day, just as we were
+getting up from dinner, there came a hideous shock and concussion,
+throwing us all about the room; and in less than a minute it was
+repeated, with horrible crackings, tearings, yells and shouts.  No
+one needed to tell us what it meant, and down came the call, 'Don't
+wait to save your things, only wraps, ladies!  Up on deck!  Life-
+belts if you can!'  I remember Bernard standing at the top of the
+ladder, helping us up, and somehow, I understand from him, that we
+were on a reef, and might either remain there, and sink, or be washed
+off.  The fog was clearing, and there was a dim light up high,
+somewhere, one of the lighthouses, I believe.  I don't quite know how
+it all went; I think we kept in the background, round the Bishop, and
+that a boat full of emigrant women was put off.  I know there were
+only about half a dozen women left, who had been crying and refusing
+to leave their husbands; and about thirty altogether, men and women,
+were somehow got into our boat with the chief mate; the Bishop all
+consolation and prayer; poor Wilfred limp, cold and trembling, for he
+had been very seasick till the last moment, when Bernard pulled him
+out of his berth, and put him into a lifebelt.  The sea was not very
+rough, with an east wind; but the mate said the current was so strong
+he could make no way against it.  It would bring us on to the Irish
+cliffs, and then, God help us!  Knowing what that coast is, I thought
+there was no hope; and as it was beginning to grow light there rose
+an awful wall, all black and white, ready to close upon us; but just
+as I set my teeth and tried to recollect prayers, or follow the
+Bishop's, but I could only squeeze Agatha harder and harder, there
+was a fresh shouting among the men, and the boat was heaved up in a
+fearful way, then down.  It was tide, and we were near upon breakers;
+but there were answering shouts, or so they said--I believe a line
+was thrown, and a light shown.  But as the boat rose again, Nag and I
+expected to be hurled on the rocks the next moment, and clung
+together.  But instead--though the waves had almost torn us asunder--
+we were lying on a stony beach, and human hands were dragging at us--
+voices calling and shouting about our not being dead.  God had helped
+us!  We had been carried into a clift where there is a coastguard
+station; and the good men had come down and were helping us on shore.
+But before I well knew anything, Agatha was on her feet; I heard her
+cry 'Wilfred, Wilfred!' and then I saw her dragging him, quite like a
+dead thing, out of the surf, just in time before another great wave
+rushed in which would have washed them both back, if a man had not
+grappled her at the very moment, calling out, 'Let go, let go, he's a
+dead man!'  She did not let go; when the wave broke, happily, just
+short of them, and another came to help, and saved them from being
+sucked back.  Then the Bishop came and assured us that he was alive,
+and got the men to carry him up to the coastguard cottages; indeed,
+it was an awful escape; for of our boatload most were lost
+altogether, three lie dead, dashed against the rock, and two more,
+the mate one of them, have broken limbs.  Wilfred was unconscious for
+a long time, at least an hour; but by the help of spoonfuls of
+whiskey he came round to a dreamy kind of state, and he does not seem
+to suffer much; and the Bishop, the Preventive man and Nag all are
+sure no limbs are broken, but he seems incapable of movement except
+his hands.  It may be only jar upon the spine, and go off in another
+day or two; but we do not dare to send for a doctor, or anything
+else, indeed, till we have some money; for we all of us have lost
+everything except five shillings in my pocket and two in Nag's.  Even
+our wraps were washed off--I believe Agatha gave hers to a shivering
+woman in the boat.  The Bishop, too, gave away his coat, forgetting
+to secure his purse.  But the people are very kind to us--North, or
+Scotch Irish Presbyterians, I think--for they don't seem to know what
+to make of his being a Bishop when they found he was not R.C., though
+they call him His Reverence.  Please send us an order to get cashed,
+at Larne, six miles off, where this is posted.  Wilfred lies on the
+good Preventive woman's bed, clean and fairly comfortable, and they
+have made a shake-down in their parlour for Nag and me.  The Bishop
+SAYS he is well off, but I believe he is always looking after the
+mate and the other man in the other house, and sleeps, if at all, in
+a chair.  Nag is THE nurse.  She had ambulance lessons, you know,
+when at the High School, and profited by them more than I ever did,
+and Wilfred likes to have her about him, and when he is dazed, as he
+always is at first waking, he calls her Vera.  But don't be uneasy
+about him, dear Aunt Lily.  Deadly sea-sickness, a night of tossing
+and cold, and then this terrible landing may well upset him, and
+probably he will be on his legs by the time you get this letter.
+
+"I find our disaster was on the Maiden Rocks, a horrible group, I
+only wonder that any one gets past them.  There are five of them, the
+wicked Sirens, and three have lighthouses, but not very efficient
+ones, and apt to disappear in the fog, and there are reefs beneath on
+one of which we came to grief.  The folk here think a wreck on these
+Maidens absolutely fatal, so we cannot be but most thankful for being
+alive, though it is a worse experience than the Rotuma earthquake.
+
+"Fergus would think the place worth all we have undergone.  The crags
+are wonderful, chalk at the bottom, basalt above, and of course all
+round to the Giant's Causeway it is finer still.  Well may we, as the
+Bishop is always doing, give thanks that we were taken, by the Divine
+Hand guiding tide and current, to this milder and less inhospitable
+opening.
+
+"We can afford to dispense with less majesty, for one of those finer
+cliffs would have been our destruction.
+
+"This is going to Larne, where there is a railway station and
+something of a town, and the Bishop has written to the doctor of the
+place.  I will write again when he has been here.  I hope to send you
+another and more cheery account to-morrow, or whenever post goes.
+
+"Nag is writing to her sister.  I trust you will have heard of
+Bernard and Angela.  Their boat was a better one than ours, and
+certainly got off safely.  Let us know as soon you can.
+
+"Your most loving niece,
+
+"D. M. MOHUN."
+
+
+Agatha had also written to Magdalen, very briefly, to assure her of
+her safety and thankfulness, and to say she could not leave Wilfred
+till more efficient care arrived, or till she had means to come back
+with.  She was evidently too busy over her patient to have much
+possibility of writing, even if she had paper, which seemed to be
+scarce at Corncastle.
+
+The Bishop also wrote to Clement, and to Sir Jasper and others; but
+he also could say little, only that he trusted that Angela and
+Bernard were safe elsewhere, having heard them called, and, as he
+believed, seen them off in the first boat, so that probably they had
+been already heard of before these letters arrived.  Their own party
+had been spared from being dashed against the rocks almost by a
+miracle; and Agatha Prescott's courage and readiness, as now her
+nursing faculties, were beyond all praise, as indeed was the brave
+patience of Miss Mohun.  He could only look on and be thankful, and
+hope for tidings of those who were as his own children.  The next
+day's letters spoke of the doctor as so much perplexed about Wilfred,
+and nothing had been heard at Larne of the other boats.
+
+But no tidings came; there was too much cause to fear that the first
+boat had been borne away by the currents and swamped.  Lady
+Merrifield could not leave Phyllis in such a crisis of suspense, and
+Sir Jasper was hardly fit for such a journey, so that his wife was
+much relieved when her brother, General Mohun, came to Clipstone, and
+undertook to hasten out to Corncastle, with money and appliances,
+including a nurse.
+
+"Oh, Reggie, always good at need!  I hardly dare to send my good old
+Halfpenny--!"
+
+"No, Mamma, send me.  You know I had the ambulance lessons with Nag,"
+said Mysie, "and we could get a real nurse from Belfast or Dublin, if
+it was wanted."
+
+So it was arranged, and uncle and niece started, but hope faded more
+and more!  Were those two precious young lives so early quenched?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI--THE WRECK
+
+
+
+"How purer were earth, if all its martyrdoms,
+If all its struggling sighs of sacrifice
+Were swept away!"
+E. HAMILTON KING.
+
+No tidings of Bernard and Angela.  The suspense began to diminish
+into "wanhope" or despair; and the brothers and sisters continued to
+say that they were sorry above all for Phyllis, whose gentle
+sweetness had made her one with them.
+
+But at last, one forenoon, a telegram was put into Clement's hand,
+dated from Ewmouth:
+
+
+Muriel Ellen, Ewmouth Harbour, October 14th.  Blaine to Rev.
+Underwood.  Brother here.  Come to infirmary.
+
+
+Clement and Geraldine lost no time in driving to the infirmary, too
+anxious to speak to one another.  Blaine's name was known to them as
+a Gwenworth lad, who had gone to sea, and risen to be sailing master
+of the Muriel Ellen, a trader plying between Londonderry and Bristol.
+He, with another, who proved to be the American captain of the Afra,
+were at the gate of the hospital, where an ambulance had just
+entered.
+
+"Oh!  Sir," as Clement held out his hand, "I could not save her.  I'd
+have given my life!"
+
+"My brother?" as Clement returned his grasp fervently.
+
+"We've just got him in here, Sir.  I hope!  I hope!  And here's the
+doctor."
+
+The house surgeon, who, of course, knew the Rector of Vale Leston,
+met him with, "Best see him before we touch him, it will set his mind
+at rest--You must be prepared, Sir--No, better not you, Mrs.
+Grinstead."
+
+Clement followed in silence, leaving Geraldine to the care of the
+matron.  All he was allowed to see was a ghastly, death-like face and
+form, covered with rugs, lying prostrate on a mattress; but as he
+came in, at the sound of his step, there was a quiver of recognition,
+the eyes opened and looked up, the lips moved, and as Clement bent
+down with a kiss, there was a faint sound gasped out, "Telegraph to
+Clipstone."
+
+"I will, I will at once."
+
+"It was noble!"  Then was added, "She gave herself for the Bishop,
+for me."  Then the eyes closed, and unconsciousness seemed to
+prevail.  Some one came and put Clement aside, saying -
+
+"Go now, Sir; you shall hear!"
+
+Clement, who thought it might be death, would have stayed at hand;
+but he was turned away, and could only murmur an inarticulate
+blessing and prayer, as he meant to fulfil the earnest desire that
+was thought to have been conned over and over again by Bernard, as
+these half sentences recurred again and again in semi-consciousness.
+His telegram despatched, Clement returned to his sister, to hear from
+the two masters all they had to tell.  Captain Miller, of the Afra,
+had slight hurts, which had been looked to before he should take the
+train for London; and Blaine had waited to tell his story before
+pursuing his voyage to Bristol, both, indeed, to hear the report of
+the patient, and likewise to collect the news of the few who had been
+landed at Corncastle, to the great relief of Captain Miller; but of
+the first boat there were no tidings, and Blaine thought there was
+little probability that it had not sunk or been dashed against the
+crags of the savage coast.
+
+Captain Miller's account was, that not long after leaving the Mersey,
+there had set in an impenetrable fog, lasting for a night and a day.
+There was perhaps some confusion as to charts, and the scarcely
+visible lights upon the Maidens.  At any rate, the Afra had suddenly
+struck on a reef, and, shifting at once, had been hopelessly rent, so
+as to leave no hope save in the boats.  Every one seemed to have
+behaved with the resolute fortitude and unselfishness generally shown
+by English and Americans in the like circumstances.  The sea was not
+in a dangerous state, and there was a steady east wind, so that the
+boats were lowered without much difficulty, and most of the women
+disposed of in the first.
+
+Before the second could be put off however, the water had reached the
+fires; there was a violent lurch, the ship had heeled completely
+over, washing many overboard, and of course causing a great confusion
+among those who had been steady before, and making the deck almost
+perpendicular.  The captain, however, succeeded in lowering another
+boat, and putting into it, as he trusted, the few remaining women,
+the Bishop, and most of the men.  This was, of course, that which had
+safely reached Corncastle, and of which he only now heard.  The last
+boat was so overcrowded that he, with three of his crew, had thought
+it best to remain for the almost desperate chance of being picked up
+before they sank.
+
+He had supposed Mr. Underwood had been washed overboard in the
+heeling over of the ship, and that his sister had been put into the
+first boat; but presently he heard a call.
+
+"Oh, help me, please!"  And he became aware that Sister Angela was
+hanging over her brother, who lay crushed by a heavy chest which had
+fallen on him, and thrown him against the gunwale, though a moan or
+two showed him to be still alive.  The remaining sailors removed the
+weight, lifted him, and laid him in the best place and position they
+could, while his sister hung over him and supported his head.  To
+Miller's dismayed exclamation at finding a woman still on board, she
+replied -
+
+"It was no fault of yours.  I hid below.  Other lives--the Bishop's--
+were what mattered!  I am glad to be here!"
+
+He believed that Mr. Underwood had revived enough to know his sister,
+for he had heard her voice talking to him.  Yes, and singing; but it
+was not for very long.  The wreck was in motion, being carried by
+current and tide along the Channel, and if it did not sink, might be
+perceived now that daylight had come, and a signal of distress might
+be seen by some passing vessel.
+
+Seen it was, in fact, and that there were persons to be rescued; and
+Blaine, who was on his way from Londonderry to Bristol, in the Muriel
+Ellen, a cattle-boat, possessed a boat in which to attempt a rescue.
+
+All that experienced sailors could do in transferring the helpless
+and unconscious form to the boat first, and then to the sloop had
+been done; but it was no wonder that in the transit Angela, more
+heedful of her brother's safety than her own, had fallen between, and
+been lost in the waves, to the extreme grief of Tom Blaine, who had
+been one of her scholars, and devoted to her, as all the boys of Vale
+Leston were.
+
+The cattle-boat had few facilities for comfort, and all he could do
+was to let Mr. Bernard Underwood lie, as softly as could be
+contrived, on deck, and make sail for Ewmouth, so as to land him as
+near home as possible.  How far he had been conscious it was
+impossible to say, though once he had asked for Angela, but had
+seemed to understand from an evasion, that she was missing, and had
+said no more, but muttered parts of these requests, as if afraid of
+not being capable of them.
+
+All this had been told or implied, while messages came down that the
+surgeons did not think the injuries need be mortal, provided the
+exhaustion and exposure had not fatal consequences.  The left arm,
+two ribs, and the leg had been broken, and were reduced before the
+doctors ventured on a hopeful report with which to send home the
+brother and sister.  One sight, Clement was allowed of a more
+unconscious, but much less distressed face, and one murmur, "Noble!
+Phyllis!" and he was promised a telegram later in the day.  The two
+hardly knew which to feel most; grief or thankfulness, the loss or
+the mercy, and yet--and yet--after the fitful, wayward, yet always
+devout life, with all its strains, there was a sense of wistful
+acceptance of such a close.
+
+They felt it all the more deeply when, a day or two later, Bernard
+was able to say, at intervals, for the injury rendered speech
+difficult and almost dangerous, as Clement leant over him -
+
+"Yes!  I woke to see her face over me, all bright in wavy hair just
+as when we were children, and she said, 'Bear!  Bear! we are going
+together!'  Then somehow she tried to help me to trust for Phyllis
+and Lily."
+
+Then his voice sank, but presently he added, "There was more, but it
+is like a dream.  She was singing in her own, own voice.  There was
+'Lead, kindly Light!' and when it came to 'Angel faces smile' there
+was a cry--quite glad--'There! there on the water!  Felix!  Coming
+for us!  Oh! and another One!  Lord, into Thy hands.'  That is all I
+know--a kiss here, and 'Yes! thanks!  For me!'  But the lifting hurt
+so much that I lost all sense, when she must have fallen between the
+wreck and the boat.  You are glad for her!  Mine own! mine Angel!"
+
+"Safe home!" said Clement.  "Oh, thankworthy!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII--ANCHORED
+
+
+
+"Safe home, safe home in port,
+   Rent cordage, shattered deck;
+Torn sails, provision short,
+   And only not a wreck;
+But all the joy upon the shore,
+To tell our voyage the perils o'er!"
+
+Safe home!  It might be said in another sense for Bernard, for he was
+naturally so strong and healthy that the effects of exposure and
+exhaustion were not long in passing off, the injury to the chest
+proved to be only temporary; and having cased him like a statue in
+plaster of Paris, the surgeons decided, to the joy of his family,
+that the more serious injuries would be better recovered from in the
+fresh air of Vale Leston, than in the fishy, muddy atmosphere of
+Ewmouth.
+
+So he was transported thither, and installed in Felix's study, among
+the familiar sights and sounds, and where another joy awaited him,
+and where he lay in happy stillness.
+
+Phyllis had borne up bravely through the suspense, never
+relinquishing a strong assurance of hope; but when that hope was
+actually crowned by the first telegram, the reaction set in, and she
+had broken down so entirely that her mother durst not let her move at
+first, and indeed accompanied her and her little girl as far as the
+junction, being herself on the way to Larne.
+
+And Geraldine's heart was at peace when she saw Phyllis sitting by
+the bed, her hand in his, content to see and not to speak.  Another
+visitor appeared the following day, namely, the Bishop of
+Albertstown, who had remained at Larne till he could see his fellow
+passengers in safe hands.  Then he had crossed to Bristol, and before
+his hurried visit to his sisters he could not but come to see his
+beloved old pupil, Clement, and share with him those reminiscences of
+her, who, as he had only now learnt, had given her young
+superabundant life for him, a man growing into age, whose work might
+be nearly done.
+
+He only saw Bernard in silence, but heard from Clement the account of
+those last moments, which showed how entirely Angela had been
+conscious of what she was doing, and how willingly she had devoted
+herself to save those whom she loved and valued.
+
+While yet they talked, there was a fresh arrival.  Sir Ferdinand
+Travis Underwood, who could not forbear the running down to hear
+perfectly all that was to be heard, and to make arrangements that
+might relieve Bernard's mind, if he were indeed on the way of
+recovery.
+
+In fact, almost the first thought after that of the wife and child
+had been the security of the drenched, stained, and soiled pocket-
+book; nor would the patient be satisfied till he had been allowed
+himself to hand it over to the head of his firm, with, "There,
+Fernan, safe, though smashed with me.  Tell Brown."
+
+"Never mind Brown or anything else but getting well, Bernard.  I have
+taken our passage for next week.  I shall get things arranged so that
+you need not think of being wanted again out there.  We will find a
+berth for you in the office in town, as soon as you are about again."
+
+Bernard's eye lightened.  "I hope--"
+
+But Ferdinand would not let him either thank or hope, scarcely even
+allow any words from Phyllis, who could not be grateful enough for
+the relief.  To Alda, who had received her old companion, since
+Marilda seemed unable to let her husband out of her sight; it was
+explained that she was going too, happen what would.  Oh, yes, it was
+true she was a shocking bad sailor, but she was not going to have
+Fernan's ships running upon rocks or getting on fire, or anything of
+that sort, without her.  She wanted to see about Ludmilla
+Schmetterling, who was reported to have found a lover while studying
+at a class in the States, and she also meant to settle her own
+especial niece Emilia, whose husband was to take Bernard's place in
+Ceylon and who had become heartily tired of London's second-rate
+gaieties.
+
+Those thus concerned met at the memorial service in the morning
+before the Bishop quitted them, where many parishioners gathered who
+had been spellbound in Angela's freakish days of early girlhood, and
+who were greatly touched when the committal to the deep was inserted
+from the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea.
+
+It brought a deep sense of awe and thankfulness to those who had
+feared and wondered through the stormy uncertain life, and now could
+exult in what was almost a martyrdom, and had brought their beloved
+one to the great pure grave, as her Baptism for eternity.
+
+Some months later, while Bernard still lay on his couch, but could
+speak and be glad, he rejoiced indeed, for a sore in his heart was
+healed, when two fair babes were brought to him,--a boy who would be
+as another firstborn son, and a little maiden who would bear that
+name which had become dear and saintly in the peculiar calendar of
+Vale Leston.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII--FAREWELL
+
+
+
+"Nay, your pardon!  Cry you, 'Forward.'  Yours are youth, we hope--
+but I?"
+- BROWNING.
+
+The visit of the Bishop of Albertstown had, in fact, been deferred
+till he could quit his fellow-sufferers, especially Wilfred, who
+could not well be left to the charge of the two girls, with the Larne
+doctor evidently in difficulty about his case.
+
+It was with great joy that a telegram was received with tidings that
+General Mohun and Mysie were on the way, and also Magdalen Prescott,
+who met them at Liverpool, being unable to stay away from Agatha
+under such circumstances.  At Belfast they obtained a trained nurse,
+and a doctor was to follow them.
+
+The joy of the meeting between Magdalen and Agatha was almost that of
+mother and daughter, and nothing could be more entirely convincing
+that they were one.
+
+Indeed, Agatha was thoroughly worn out; for the main strain of
+attendance had fallen upon her, since the Bishop was fully occupied
+with some of the seriously hurt in other cottages; and though Dolores
+tried to be helpful, it was chiefly in outside work, and attempts at
+sick cookery, in which she was rather too scientific, and found the
+lack of appliances very inconvenient.  Besides, cousin though she
+was, or perhaps for that very reason, Wilfred was far less amenable
+to her voice than Agatha's; and if she attempted authority it was
+sure to rouse all the resistance left in him.  Agatha had been
+constantly on the alert, liable to be called on every half-hour, to
+soothe fretful distress over impossible impatience at delay, anger at
+want of comforts, and dolefulness over the chances of improvements,
+and abuse, whether just or not, of the only accessible doctor.
+
+In fact, Magdalen, on seeing how utterly worn out she was, and how
+little space the cottages afforded, thought it best, now that the
+patient was in the hands of sister, uncle, and nurse, to carry her
+off at once by the return car to Larne; and Dolores thought it best
+to accompany them, after Mysie had hung on her as one restored from
+death.  But Mysie was absorbed in her brother, and Dolores had a
+strong yearning to be with her father, so strong that she decided not
+to return to England, but to procure a second outfit at Belfast, and
+to set forth again from thence, nothing daunted, for, as she said
+(not carelessly), such things did not happen immediately after, in a
+second voyage.  In fact, though thankful and impressed by the loss of
+the others, she had gone through the crisis of the life of her heart
+and affections, and she had likewise been once in imminent peril
+through a convulsion of nature.  Thus she was inclined to look on the
+wreck and the Irish cliffs as an experience in the way of business,
+so she was resolved to see the Giant's Causeway, and to make notes
+upon it for her lectures.
+
+But it was a different thing with Agatha.  She had been brought face
+to face with death; and though the actual time had been spent in
+hurry and bustle, and even the subsequent tossing in the boat had
+been not so much waiting and thinking as attending to others more
+terrified and injured than herself, and there followed the incessant
+waiting on Wilfred; still the experiences had worked in.  She rested
+very silently, dwelling little to Magdalen on her thoughts; but each
+word she said, and her very countenance, showed that she had made a
+great step in life and realised the spiritual world, which hitherto
+had been outside her life--not disbelieved, but almost matter of
+speculation and study.
+
+She was not at all desirous of falling back from Dolores, whose grave
+steadiness and fortitude, the result of a truly brave and deep trust,
+had given her a sense of confidence and protection.  So they wrote,
+and arranged for their passage, and, with Magdalen, spent the
+intermediate time in needful preparations at Belfast, and in an
+expedition to the Causeway, where they laid in a stock of notes and
+observations, all in a spirit that made Magdalen feel that she knew
+both in a manner she had never done before, and loved them with a
+deep value and confidence.
+
+Wilfred meanwhile made very slow, if any, progress.
+
+They took him to Belfast as soon as it was possible, and his mother
+came to him.  He was gentle and quiet, with little power of movement,
+and scarcely any of thought; and in a consultation of doctors, the
+verdict was given that he must be carefully tended for months, if not
+for years to come; and though there might finally be full recovery,
+yet it would depend on the most tender and careful treatment of body
+and mind.  London doctors, when he could be moved thither, confirmed
+the decision, and he began a helpless invalid life, in which a
+certain indifference and dulness made him a much less peevish and
+trying patient than would have been anticipated.  Mysie was his
+willing, but intelligent slave; and his mother was not only thankful
+to have him brought back to her at any price, but really--though she
+would not have confessed it even to herself--was less troubled and
+anxious about him than she had been since he had begun to "roam in
+youth's uncertain wilds."  Indeed, there were hopes that slow
+recovery might find him a much changed person in character.
+
+He had become so uninterested in his former predilections that he
+heard with little emotion that Vera was to marry Petros White.
+
+"I thought she would take up with some cad," he said.  But his family
+were really glad that this wedding was to take place at Rocca Marina,
+whither the two sisters and Magdalen were invited.
+
+Paulina would not go.  She still resented the treatment of Hubert
+Delrio, and she was devoted to her study of nursing at the Dearport
+Sisterhood; but Magdalen thought it right to take Thekla, and give
+her the advantages of improvement in languages, and the sight of fine
+scenery.
+
+And certainly Rocca Marina was a wonderful place for marriages.
+Vera, handsome and happy and likely to turn into a fairly good
+commonplace wife, had no sooner been sent off on a honeymoon tour to
+Greece and Egypt, and Mrs. White had begged the other two to prolong
+their visit, considering, perhaps, if one or the other aunt or niece
+could not be promoted to the vacant post of lady-in-waiting, than
+Hubert Delrio came to secure specimens of marble for some mosaic work
+on which he was engaged.  He was fast becoming a man of mark, whom
+the Whites were delighted to receive and entertain, and who was
+delighted to be with the old friends who had had so great an
+influence on his life.  And was it Magdalen alone to whom he chiefly
+looked up as his helper and guide?  So he thought; but before the
+time of separation had come, he had found out that Thekla was far
+prettier than ever Vera had been, and with a mind and principle--no
+Flapsy, but a real sympathetic and poetic nature, which had grown up
+in these years.  Young as she was, their destinies were fixed.
+
+And Magdalen?  The railroad had obtained authority to pass through
+the Goyle, and thus break up her home and shelter.  Still she was not
+tempted by Adeline White's desire to make her a companion; but rather
+she accepted the plan on which Dolores had first started, and on
+which Elizabeth Merrifield and Miss Arthuret were set, of making her
+the head of their home at Penbeacon, partly a convalescent home, and
+partly a training college for young women in need of technical
+instruction in nursing or other possible feminine avocations.  Tom
+May was delighted with all it might set on foot, and Clement saw in
+her leading the hopes that a high and pure spirit might inspire it.
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+{100}  It is Russian, and means Faith.
+
+
+
+
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