'Did you not see Oakworthy Hill?'
'That tame green thing!' said Marian.
'The truth is,' said Johnny, 'that she likes it the best all the time, only she won't own it.'
'Nonsense, Johnny,' replied Lionel, 'every one likes their own home best, and I like Marian for not pretending to be polite and nonsensical.'
'And I tell you,' said Gerald, 'that you never saw anything so good as my Manor house in your whole life.'
Here they went in, and Marian gently said to Gerald as they came into her room, 'I wish you would not say _my_, Gerald, it seems like boasting. My park--my house--'
Gerald hung his head, and the colour came deeply into his cheeks. 'Marian,' said he, 'you know how I wish it wasn't mine now,' and the tears were in his eyes. 'But they boast over me, and they ought not, for I'm Sir--'
'Oh! hush, Gerald. You used never to like to hear yourself called so, because it put you in mind--. Yes, I know they boast; but this is not the way to stop them, it only makes them go on; and what does it signify to you? it does not make this place really better than home.'
'Yes, but I want them to know it.'
'But you should not want to set yourself up above them. If you don't answer, and, let them say what nonsense they please, it would be the best way, and the right way, and so you would humble yourself, which is what we must all do Gerald.'
Gerald was silenced, but looked dissatisfied; however, there was no more time to talk, for Clara came to say that tea was almost ready, and Marian rang for Saunders. Gerald looked as if he was meditating when first they sat down to tea, and after some little time he abruptly began, 'I don't like your church at all. It is just like a room, and nobody makes any noise.'
'Nobody makes any noise,' repeated Caroline, smiling; 'is that Fern Torr fashion?'
'I do not mean exactly a noise,' said Gerald, 'but people read their verse of the psalm, and say Amen, and all that, quite loud. They don't leave it all to the clerk in his odd voice.'
Lionel mimicked the clerk so drolly, that in spite of 'Don't, my dear,' and 'O! Lionel,' nobody could help laughing; and Johnny added an imitation of the clerk at their church in London. After the mirth was over, Gerald went on, 'Why does not every one say Amen here?'
'Like so many charity children,' said Lionel, with a nasal drawl.
'No, indeed!' cried Gerald, indignantly; 'Edmund does it, and everybody.'
'Everybody! as if you could tell, who never went to church in your life, except at that little poky place,' said Johnny,
Gerald's colour rose, but Marian's eye met his, and he remembered what she had said, and answered quietly, 'I don't know whether Fern Torr is poky, but it is a place where people are taught to behave well.'
'Capital, Gerald, excellent!' cried Caroline, laughing heartily, 'that is a hit, Lionel, for you!' while Gerald looked round him, amazed at the applause with which his speech, made in all simplicity, was received.
As soon as tea was over, Miss Morley called Lionel and John to repeat the Catechism, and added doubtfully, 'Perhaps Sir Gerald would rather wait for next Sunday.'
'O no, thank you,' said Marian, 'we always say it.'
'You need not, Marian,' said Caroline, 'we never do, only it would be so troublesome for the boys to have to learn it at school.'
