He hesitated. 'I might wish to satisfy you, mother, and other good folks, but not to put myself in bondage to what has led blindfold to half the dastardly and cruel acts on this earth, beautiful dream though it be.'
'Ah, my boy, it is my shame and grief that it is not a beautiful reality to you.'
'You were too wise to bore us. You have only fancied that since you fell in with the Evelyns.'
'Ah, if I had only bred you up in the same spirit as the Evelyns!'
'It would not have answered. We are of different stuff. And after all, Janet and I are your only black sheep. Jock has his convictions in a strong, practical working order, as real to him as ever his drill and order-book were. Good old fellow, he strikes me a good deal more than all Ogilvie's discussions.'
'Mr. Ogilvie has talked to you?'
'He has done his part both as cleric and your devoted servant, mother, and, I confess, made the best of his case, as an able man heartily convinced can do. Good night, mother.'
'One moment, Bobus, my dear; I want one promise from you, to your old Mother Carey. Call it a superstition and a charm if you will, but promise. Take this Greek Testament, keep it with you, and read a few verses every night. Promise me.'
'Dear mother, I am ready to promise. I have read those poems and letters several times in the original.'
'But you will do this for me, beginning again when you have finished? Promise.'
'I will, mother, since it comforts you,' said Bobus, in a tone that she knew might be trusted.
The other little book, with the like request, in urgent and tender entreaty, was made up into a parcel to be forwarded as soon as Mr. Wakefield should learn Janet Hermann's address. It was all that the mother could do, except to pray that this living Sword of the Spirit might yet pierce its way to those closed hearts.
Nor was she quite happy about Barbara. Hitherto the girl had seemed, as it were, one with Armine, and had been led by his precocious piety into similar habits and aspirations, which had been fostered by her intercourse with Sydney and the sharing with her of many a blissful and romantic dream.
All this, however, was altered. Petronella had drawn Armine aside one way, and now that he was come back again, he did not find the same perfectly sympathetic sister as before. Bobus had not been without effect upon her, as the impersonation of common sense and antagonism to Miss Parsons. It had not shown at the time, for his domineering tone and his sneers always impelled her to stand up for her darling; but when he was 'poor Bobus' gone into exile and bereft of his love, certain poisonous germs attached to his words began to grow. There was no absolute doubt-far from it-but there was an impatience of the weariness and solemnity of religion.
To enjoy Church privileges to the full, and do good works under Church direction, had in their wandering life been a dream of modern chivalry which she had shared with Sydney, much as they had talked of going on a crusade. And now she found these privileges very tedious, the good works onerous, and she viewed them somewhat as she might have regarded Coeur de Lion's camp had she been set down in it. Armine would have gone on hearing nothing but 'Remember the Holy Sepulchre,' but Barbara would soon have seen every folly and failure that spoiled the glory of the army-even though she might not question its destination-and would have been unfeignedly weary of its discipline.
So she hung back from the frequent Church ordinances of St. Cradocke's, being allowed to do as she pleased about everything extra; she made fun of the peculiarities of the varieties of the genus Petronella who naturally hung about it, and adopted the popular tone about the curates, till Jock told her 'not to be so commonplace.' Indeed both he and Armine had made friends with them, as he did with every one; and Armine's enjoyment of the society of a new, young, bright deacon, who came at Christmas, perhaps accounted for a little of her soreness, and made Armine himself less observant that the two were growing apart.
Her mother saw it though, and being seconded by Jock, found it easier than of old to keep the tables free from sceptical and semi-sceptical literature; but this involved the loss of much that was clever, and there was no avoiding those envenomed shafts that people love to strew about, and which, for their seeming wit and sense, Babie always relished. She did not think-that was the chief charge; and she was still a joyous creature, even though chafing at the dulness of St. Cradocke's.
'Gould and another versus Brownlow and another, to be heard on the l8th,' Mr. Wakefield writes. 'So we must leave our peaceful harbour to face the world again!'
'Oh, I'm so glad!' cried Barbara. 'I am fairly tingling to be in the thick of it again!'
'You ungrateful infant,' said Armine, 'when this place has done every one so much good!'
'So does bed; but I feel as if it were six in the morning and I couldn't get the shutters open!'
'I wonder if Mr. Ogilvie will think me fit to go in for matriculation for the next term?' said Armine.
'And I ought to go up for lectures,' said Jock, who had been reading hard all this time under directions from Dr. Medlicott. 'I might go on before, and see that the house is put in order before you come home, mother.'
'Home! It sounds more like going home than ever going back to Belforest did!'
'And we'll make it the very moral of the old times. We've got all the old things!'
'What do you know about the old times-baby that you are and were?' said Jock.
'The Drakes move to-morrow,' said his mother. 'I must write to your aunt and Richards about sending the things from Belforest. We must have it at its best before Ali comes home.'
'All right!' said Babie. 'You know our own things have only to go back into their places, and the Drake carpets go on. It will be such fun; as nice as the getting into the Folly!'
'Nice you call that?' said her mother. 'All I remember is the disgrace we got into and the fright I was in! I wonder what the old home will bring us?'
'Life and spirit and action,' cried Babie. 'Oh, I'm wearying for the sound of the wheels and the flow of people!'
'Oh, you little Cockney!'
'Of course. I was born one, and I am thankful for it! There's nothing to do here.'
'Babie!' cried Armine, indignantly.
'Well, you and Jock have read a great deal, and he has plunged into night-schools.'
'And become a popular lecturer,' added Armine.
'And you and mother have cultivated Percy Stagg, and gone to Church a great deal-pour passer le temps.'
'Ah, you discontented mortal!' said her mother, rising to write her letters. 'You have yet to learn that what is stagnation to some is rest to others.'
'Oh yes, mother, I know it was very good for you, but I'm heartily glad it is over. Sea and Ogre are all very well for once in a way, but they pall, especially in an east wind English fog!'
'My Babie, I hope you are not spoilt by all the excitements of our last few years,' said the mother. 'You won't find life in Collingwood Street much like life in Hyde Corner.'
'No, but it will be _life_, and that's what I care for!'
No, Barbara, used to constant change, and eager for her schemes of helpfulness, could not be expected to enjoy the peacefulness of St. Cradocke's as the others had done. To Armine, indeed, it had been the beginning of a new life of hope and vigour, and a casting off of the slough of morbid self-contemplation, induced by his invalid life, and fostered at Woodside. He had left off the romance of being early doomed, since his health had stood the trial of the English winter, and under Mr. Ogilvie's bracing management, seconded by Jock's energetic companionship, he had learnt to look to active service, and be ready to strive for it.
To Jock, the time had been a rest from the victory which had cost him so dear, and though the wounds still smarted, there had been nothing to call them into action; and he had fortified himself against the inevitable reminders he should meet with in London. He had been studying with all his might for the preliminary examination, and eagerness in so congenial a pursuit was rapidly growing on him, while conversations with Mr. Ogilvie had been equally pleasant to both, for the ex-schoolmaster thoroughly enjoyed hearing of the scientific world, and the young man was heartily glad of the higher light he was able to shed on his studies, and for being shown how to prevent the spiritual world from being obscured by the physical, and to deal with the difficulties that his brother's materialism had raised for him. He had never lost, and trusted never to lose, hold of his anchor in the Rock; but he had not always known how to answer when called on to prove its existence and trace the cable. Thus the winter at St. Cradocke's had been very valuable to him personally, and he had been willing to make return for the kindness for which he felt so grateful, by letting the Vicar employ him in the night-schools, lectures, and parish diversions-all in short for which a genial and sensible young layman is invaluable, when he can be caught.
And for their mother herself, she had been sheltered from agitation, and had gathered strength and calmness, though with her habitual want of self-consciousness she hardly knew it, and what she thanked her old friend for was
