family.'
'I told you so, papa,' said Ellen. 'I was sure nothing could be amiss with him. You can't expect everybody to look like our boys. Well, Caroline, you have always been a good sister; and to think of your having done this for little Essie! Tell me how it was? Had you suspected it?'
It was all very commonplace and happy. Colonel and Mrs. Brownlow were squeezed into the house to await Mrs. Evelyn's reply, and Cecil and Esther sat hand-in-hand all the evening, looking, as Allen and Babie agreed, like such a couple of idiots, that the intimate connection between selig and silly was explained.
Mrs. Robert Brownlow whiled away the next day by a grand shopping expedition, followed by the lovers, who seemed to find pillars of floor-cloth and tracery of iron-work as blissful as ever could be pleached alley. Nay, one shopman flattered Cecil and shocked Esther by directing his exhibition of wares to them, and the former was thus excited to think how soon they might be actually shopping on their own account, and to fix his affections on an utterly impracticable fender as his domestic hearth. Meanwhile Caroline had only just come in from amusing Mrs. Lucas with the story, when a cab drove up, and Mrs. Evelyn was with her, with an eager, 'Where are they?'
'Somewhere in the depths of the city, with her mother, shopping. Ought I to have told you?'
'Of course I trust you. She must be nice-your Friar's sister; but I could not stay at home, and Duke wished me to come-'
'How is he?'
'So very happy about this-the connection especially. I don't think he could have borne it if it had been the Infanta. How is that dear Babie?'
'Quite well. I left her walking with Lina in the Square gardens.'
'As simple and untouched as ever?'
'As much as ever a light-hearted baby.'
'Ah! well, so much the better. And let me say, once for all, that you need not fear any closer intercourse with us. My poor Duke has made up his mind that such things are not for him, and wishes all to be arranged for Cecil as his heir. Not that he is any worse. With care he may survive us all, the doctors say; but he has made up his mind, and will never ask Babie again. He says it would be cruel; but he does long for a sight of her bright face!'
'Well, we shall be brought into meeting in a simple natural way.'
'And Babie? How does she look? I am ashamed of it; but I can't help thinking more about seeing her than this new cousin. I can fancy her-handsome, composed, and serene.'
'That may be so ten or twenty years hence! but now she is the tenderest little clinging thing you ever saw.'
'And my ideal would have been that Cecil should have chosen some one superior; but after all, I believe he is really more likely to be raised by being looked up to. He has been our boy too long.'
'Quite true; I have watched him content with the level my impertinent children assign him here, but now trying to be manly for Essie's sake. You have not told me of Sydney.'
'So angry at the folly of passing over Babie, that I was forced to give her a hint to be silent before Duke. She collapsed, much impressed. Forgive me, if it was a betrayal; but she is two years older now, and would not have been a safe companion unless warned. Hark! Is that the door-bell?'
Therewith the private interview period set in, and Babie made such use of her share of it, that when Lina was produced in the drawing- room before dinner she sat on Cecil's knee, and gravely observed that she had a verse to repeat to him-
'The phantom blackcock of Kilnaught Is a marvellous bird yet uncaught; Go out in all weather, You see not a feather, Yet a marvellous work it has wrought, That phantom blackcock of Kilnaught.'
'What is that verse you are saying, Lina?' said her mother.
Lina trotted across and repeated it, while Cecil shook his head at wicked Babie.
'I hope you don't learn nursery rhymes, about phantoms and ghosts, Lina?' said Mrs. Robert Brownlow.
'This is an original poem, Aunt Ellen,' replied Babie, gravely.
'More original than practical,' said John. 'You haven't accounted for the pronoun?'
'Oh, never mind that. Great poets are above rules. I want Essie to promise us bridesmaids blackcock tails in our hats.'
'My dear!' said her aunt, in serious reproof, shocked at the rapidity of the young lady's ideas.
'Or, at least,' added Babie, 'if she won't, you'll give us blackcock lockets, Cecil. They would be lovely-you know-enamelled!'
'That I will!' he cried. 'And, Mother Carey, will you model me a group of the birds? That would be a jolly present!'
'Better than Esther's head, eh? I have done that three times, and you shall choose one, Cecil.'
Nothing would serve Cecil but an immediate expedition to the studio, to choose as well as they could by lamp- light.
And during the examination, Mrs. Evelyn managed to say to Caroline, 'I'm quite satisfied. She is as bright and childish as you told me.'
'Essie?'
'No, the Infanta.'
'If she is not a little too much so.'
'Oh no, don't wish any difference in those high spirits!'
'She makes it a cheerful house, dear child; and even Allen has brightened lately.'
'And, Jock? He looks hard-worked, but brisk as ever.'
'He does work very hard in all ways; but he thoroughly enjoys his work, and is as much my sunshine as Babie. There are golden opinions of him in the Medical School; indeed there are of both my Johns.'
'They are quite the foremost of the young men of their year, and carry off most of the distinctions, besides being leaders in influence. So Dr. Medlicott told us,' said Mrs. Evelyn; 'and yet he said it was delightful to see how they avoided direct rivalry, or else were perfectly friendly over it.'
'Yes, they avoid, when it is possible, going in for the same things, and indeed I think Jock has more turn for the scientific side of the study, and the Friar for the practical. There is room for them both!'
'And what a contrast they are! What a very handsome fellow John has grown! So tall, and broad, and strong, with that fine colour, and dark eyes as beautiful as his sister's!'
'More beautiful, I should say,' returned Caroline; 'there is so much more intellect in them-raising them out of the regular Kencroft comeliness. True, the great charm of the stalwart Friar, as we call him, is-what his father has in some degree-that quiet composed way that gives one a sense of protection. I think his patients will feel entire trust in his hands. They say at the hospital the poor people always are happy when they see one of the Mr. Brownlows coming, whether it be the big or the little one.'
'Not so very little, except by comparison; and I am glad Jock keeps his soldierly bearing.'
'He is a Volunteer, you know, and very valuable there.'
'But he has not an ounce of superfluous flesh. He puts me in mind of a perfectly polished, finished instrument!'
'That is just what used to be said of his father. Colonel Brownlow says he is the most like my poor young father of all the children.'
'He is the most like you.'
'But he puts me most of all in mind of my husband, in all his ways, and manner; and our old friends tell me that he sets about things exactly like his father, as if it were by imitation. I like to know it is so.'
CHAPTER XXXVI. OF NO CONSEQUENCE.
Fell not, but dangled in mid air, For from a fissure in the stone Which lined its sides, a bush had grown, To this he clung with all his might. Archbishop Trench.
Lord Fordham made it his most especial and urgent desire that his brother's wedding, which was to take place before Lent, should be at his home instead of at the lady's. Otherwise he could not be present, for Kenminster had a character for bleakness, and he was never allowed to travel in an English winter. Besides, he had set his heart on giving one grand festal day to his tenantry, who had never had a day of rejoicing since his great-uncle came of age, forty years ago.
