so bitterly grieved at the failure of all his plans that I cannot bear to check him in doing all he can. It is just what I ought to have been doing all these years; I only saw my duties as they were being taken away from me, and so I deserve the way Miss Parsons treats me.'
'What way?'
'You need not bristle up. She is very civil; but when I hint that Armine has study and health to consider, I see that in her eyes I am the worldly obstructive mother who serves as a trial to the hero.'
'If she makes Armine think so-'
'Armie is too loyal for that. Yet it may be only too true, and only my worldliness that wishes for a little discretion. Still, I don't think a sensible woman, if she were ever so good and devoted, would encourage his fretting over the disappointment, or lead him to waste his time when so much depends on his diligence. I am sure the focus of her mind must be distorted, and she is twisting his the same way.'
'And her brother follows suit?'
'I think they go in parallel grooves, and he lets her alone. It is very unlucky, for they are a constant irritation to Bobus, and he fancies them average specimens of good people. He sneers, and I can't say but that much of what he says is true, but there is the envenomed drop in it which makes his good sense shocking to Armine, and I fear Babie relishes it more than is good for her. So they make one another worse, and so they will as long as we are here. It was a great mistake to stay on, and your uncle must feel it so.'
'Could you not go to Dieppe, or some cheap place?'
'I don't feel justified in any more expense. Here the house costs nothing, and our personal expenditure does not go beyond our proper means; but to pay for lodging elsewhere would soon bring me in excess of it, at least as long as Allen keeps up the yacht. Then poor Janet must have something, and I don't know what bills may be in store for me, and there's your outfit, and Bobus's.'
'Never mind mine.'
'My dear, that's fine talking, but you can't go like Sir Charles Napier, with one shirt and a bit of soap.'
'No, but I shall get something for the exchange. Besides, my kit was costly even for the Guards, and will amply cover all that.'
'And you have sold your horses?'
'And have been living on them ever since! Come, won't that encourage you to make a little jaunt, just to break the spell?'
'I wish it could, my dear, but it does not seem possible while those bills are such a dreadful uncertainty. I never know what Allen may have been ordering.'
'Surely the Evelyns would be glad to have you.'
'No, Jock, that can't be. Promise me that you will do nothing to lead to an invitation. You are to meet some of them, are you not?'
'Yes, on Thursday week, at Roland Hampton's wedding. Cecil and I and a whole lot of us go down in the morning to it, and Sydney is to be a bridesmaid. What are you going to do now, mother?'
'I don't quite know. I feel regularly foolish. I shall have a headache if I don't keep quiet, but I can't persuade myself to stay in the house lest that man should come back.'
'What! not with me for garrison?'
'O nonsense, my dear. You must go and catch up the sportsmen.'
'Not when I can get my Mother Carey all to myself. You go and lie down in the dressing-room, and I'll come as soon as I have taken off my boots and ordered some coffee for you.'
He returned with the step of one treading on eggs, expecting to find her half asleep; but her eyes were glittering, and there were red spots on her cheeks, for her nerves were excited, and when he came in she began to talk. She told him, not of present troubles, but of the letters between his father and grandmother, which, in her busy, restless life, she had never before looked at, but which had come before her in her preparations for vacating Belforest. Perhaps it was only now that she had grown into appreciation of the relations between that mother and son, as she read the letters, preserved on each side, and revealing the full beauty and greatness of her husband's nature, his perfect confidence in his mother, and a guiding influence from her, which she herself had never thought of exerting. Does not many an old correspondence thus put the present generation to shame?
Jock was the first person with whom she had shared these letters, and it was good to watch his face as he read the words of the father whom he remembered chiefly as the best of playfellows. He was of an age and in a mood to enter into them with all his heart, though he uttered little more than an occasional question, or some murmured remark when anything struck him. Both he and his mother were so occupied that they never observed that the sky clouded over and rain began to fall, nor did they think of any other object till Bobus opened the door in search of them.
'Halloo, you deserter!'
'Hush! Mother has a headache.'
'Not now, you have cured it.'
'Well, you've missed an encounter with the most impudent rascal I ever came across.'
'You didn't meet Hermann?'
'Well, perhaps I have found his match; but you shall hear. Grimes said he heard guns, and we came upon the scoundrel in Lewis Acre, two brace on his shoulder.'
'The vultures are gathering to the prey,' said his mother.
'I'm not arrived at lying still to be devoured!' said Bobus. 'I gave him the benefit of a doubt, and sent Grimes to warn him off; but the fellow sent his card-_his_ card forsooth, 'Mr. Gilbert Gould, R.N.,'-and information that he had Miss Menella's permission.'
'Not credible,' said Jock.
'Mrs. Lisette's more likely,' said his mother. 'I think he is her brother.'
'I sent Grimes back to tell him that Miss Menella had as much power to give leave as my old pointer, and if he did not retire at once, we should gently remove his gun and send out a summons.'
'Why did you not do so at once?' cried Jock.
'Because I have brains enough not to complicate matters by a personal row with the Goulds,' said Bobus, 'though I could wish not to have been there, when the keepers would infallibly have done so. Shall I write to George Gould, or will you, mother?'
'Oh dear,' sighed Caroline, 'I think Mr. Wakefield is the fittest person, if it signifies enough to have it done at all.'
'Signifies!' cried Jock. 'To have that rascal loafing about! I wouldn't be trampled upon while the life is in me!'
'I don't like worrying Mr. Gould. It is not his fault, except for having married such a wife, poor man.'
'Having been married by her, you mean,' said Bobus. 'Mark me, she means to get that fellow married to that poor child, as sure as fate.'
'Impossible, Bobus! His age!'
'He is a good deal younger than his sister, and a prodigious swell.'
'Besides, he is her uncle,' said Jock.
'No, no, only her uncle's wife's brother.'
'That's just the same.'
'I wish it were!' But Jock would not be satisfied without getting a Prayer-book, to look at the table of degrees.
'He is really her third cousin, I believe,' said his mother, 'and I'm afraid that is not prohibited.'
'Is he a ship's steward?' said Jock, looking at the card with infinite disgust.
'A paymaster's assistant, I believe.'
'That would be too much. Besides, there's the Scot!'
'I don't think much of that,' said Jock. 'The mother and sister are keen for it, but Clanmacnalty is in no haste to marry, and by all accounts the Elf carries on promiscuously with three or four at once.'
'And she has no fine instinct for a gentleman,' added Bobus. 'It is who will spread the butter thickest!'
'A bad look out for Belforest,' said Jock.
'It can't be much worse than it has been with me,' said his mother.
'That's what that little ass, Armine, has been presuming to din into your ears,' said Bobus; 'as if the old
