movement, subdued tone, and downcast eye, had an air of habitual dejection and patience, as though disappointment had gone deeper, or solitude were telling more on the spirits, than any past blow had done.
She saw the preparations for her tea going on within the window, but ere going indoors, she took out and re- read two letters.
The first was in the irregular decided characters affected by young ladies in the reaction from their grandmothers' pointed illegibilities, and bore a scroll at the top, with the word 'Cilly,' in old English letters of bright blue.
'Lowndes Square, June 14th.
'MY DEAR HONOR,-Many thanks for wishing for your will-o'-th'-wisp
again, but it is going to dance off in another direction. Rashe and
I are bound to the west of Ireland, as soon as Charles's inauguration
is over at Castle Blanch; an odd jumble of festivities it is to be,
but Lolly is just cockney enough to be determinedly rural, and
there's sure to be some fun to be got out of it; besides, I am
pacified by having my special darling, Edna Murrell, the lovely
schoolmistress at Wrapworth, to sing to them. How Mr. Calthorp will
admire her, as long as he thinks she is Italian! It will be hard if
I can't get a rise out of some of them! This being the case, I have
not a moment for coming home; but I send some contributions for the
prize-giving, some stunning articles from the Lowther Arcade. The
gutta-percha face is for Billy Harrison,
not. He deserves compensation for his many weary hours of Sunday
School, and it may suggest a new art for beguiling the time.
you tell him it is from me, with my love; and bestow the rest on all
the chief reprobates. I wish I could see them; but you have no loss,
you know how unedifying I am. Kiss Ponto for me, and ask Robin for
his commands to Connaught. I know his sulkiness will transpire
through Phoebe. Love to that dear little Cinderella, and tell her
mamma and Juliana, that if she does not come out this winter, Mrs.
Fulmort shall have no peace and Juliana no partners. Please to look
in my room for my great nailed boots and hedging-gloves, also for the
pig's wool in the left-hand drawer of the cabinet, and send them to
me before the end of next week. Owen would give his ears to come
with us, but gentlemen would only obstruct Irish chivalry; I am only
afraid there is no hope of a faction fight. Mr. Saville called
yesterday, so I made him dine here, and sung him into raptures. What
a dear old Don he is!
'Your affectionate cousin, CILLY.'
The second letter stood thus:-
'Farrance's Hotel, June 14th.
'MY DEAR MISS CHARLECOTE,-I have seen Lawrence on your business, and
he will prepare the leases for your signature. He suggests that it
might be more satisfactory to wait, in case you should be coming to
town, so that you might have a personal meeting with the parties; but
this will be for you to determine. I came up from --College on
Wednesday, having much enjoyed my visit. Oxford is in many respects
a changed place, but as long as our old Head remains to us, I am sure
of a gratifying welcome, and I saw many old friends. I exchanged
cards with Owen Sandbrook, but only saw him as we met in the street,
and a very fine-looking youth he is, a perfect Hercules, and the
champion of his college in all feats of strength; likely, too, to
stand well in the class list. His costume was not what we should
once have considered academical; but his is a daring set,
intellectual as well as bodily, and the clever young men of the
present day are not what they were in my time. It is gratifying to
hear how warmly and affectionately he talks of you. I do not know
how far you have undertaken the supplies, but I give you a hint that
a warning on that subject might not be inappropriate, unless they
have come into some great accession of fortune on their uncle's
death. I ventured to call upon the young lady in Lowndes Square, and
was most graciously received, and asked to dinner by the young Mrs.
Charteris. It was a most
fashion, which does not quite approve itself to me. 'Regardless of
expense,' seems to be the family motto. Your pupil sings better than
ever, and knew how to keep her hold of my heart, though I suspected
her of patronizing the old parson to pique her more brilliant
admirers, whom she possesses in plenty; and no wonder, for she is
pretty enough to turn any man's head and shows to great advantage
beside her cousin, Miss Charteris. I hope you will be able to
prevent the cousins from really undertaking the wild plan of
travelling alone in Ireland, for the sake, they say, of
salmon-fishing. I should have thought them not in earnest, but girls
are as much altered as boys from the days of my experience, and
brothers, too; for Mr. Charteris seemed to view the scheme very
coolly; but, as I told my friend Lucilla, I hope you will bring her
to reason. I hope your hay-crop promises favourably.
'Yours sincerely, W. SAVILLE.'
No wonder that these letters made loneliness more lonely!
'Oh, that Horatia!' exclaimed she, almost aloud. 'Oh, that Captain Charteris were available! No one else ever had any real power with Lucy! It was an unlucky day when he saw that colonial young lady, and settled down in Vancouver's Island! And yet how I used to wish him away, with the surly independence he was always infusing into Owen. Wanting to take him out there, indeed! And yet, and yet-I sometimes doubt whether I did right to set my personal influence over my dear affectionate boy so much in opposition to his uncle-Mr. Charteris was on my side, though! And I always took care to have it clearly understood that it was his education alone that I undertook. What can Mr. Saville mean?-The supplies? Owen knows what he has to trust to, but I can talk to him. A daring set!-Yes, everything appears daring to an old-world man like Mr. Saville. I am sure of my Owen; with our happy home Sundays. I know I am his Sweet Honey still. And yet'-then hastily turning from that dubious 'and yet'-'Owen is the only chance for his sister. She does care for him; and he will view this mad scheme in the right light. Shall I meet him at the beginning of the vacation, and see what he can do with Lucy? Mr. Saville thinks I ought to be in London, and I think I might be useful to the Parsonses. I suppose I must; but it
As she rose, however, her face brightened at the sight of two advancing figures, and she went forward to meet
