this on you. She is very sorry for her fright.'
'I had not the least intention of frightening the most fearsome little tender mouse on earth,' said Harry.
'No, indeed!' said Ethel.
'And at another time it would not have signified,' said Richard; 'but, you know, Margaret always was timid, and now, the not being able to move, and the being out of health, has made her nerves weak, so that she cannot help it.'
'The fault was in our never heeding her when we were so eager to hear Harry's story,' said Ethel. 'That was what made the palpitation so bad. But, now papa knows all, does he not understand about Harry?'
'He was obliged to go out as soon as Margaret was better,' said Richard, 'and was scarcely come in when I came up.'
'Go down, Ethel,' repeated Harry. 'Never mind me. Norman told me that sort of joke never answered, and I might have minded him.'
The voice was very much troubled, and it brought back that burning sensation of indignant tears to Ethel's eyes.
'Oh, Harry! you did not deserve to be so punished for it.'
'That is what you are not to say,' returned Harry. 'I ought not to have played the trick, and--and just now too--but I always forget things--'
The door shut, and they fancied they heard sobs. Ethel groaned, but made no opposition to following her brother down to tea. Margaret lay, wan and exhausted, on the sofa--the doctor looked very melancholy and rather stern, and the others were silent. Ethel had begun to hope for the warm reaction she had so often known after a hasty fit, but it did not readily come; Harry was boy instead of girl--the fault and its consequence had been more serious--and the anxiety for the future was greater. Besides, he had not fully heard the story; Harry, in his incoherent narration, had not excused himself, and Margaret's panic had appeared more as if inspired by him, than, as it was, in fact, the work of her fancy.
Thus the evening passed gloomily away, and it was not till the others had said good-night that Dr. May began to talk over the affair with his eldest son, who then was able to lay before him the facts of the case, as gathered from his sisters. He listened with a manner as though it were a reproof, and then said sadly, 'I am afraid I was in a passion.'
'It was very wrong in Harry,' said Richard, 'and particularly unlucky it should happen with the Andersons.'
'Very thoughtless,' said the doctor, 'no more, even as regarded Margaret; but thoughtlessness should not have been treated as a crime.'
'I wish we could see him otherwise,' said Richard.
'He wants--' and there Dr. May stopped short, and, taking up his candle, slowly mounted the stairs, and looked into Harry's room. The boy was in bed, but started up on hearing his father's step, and exclaimed, 'Papa, I am very sorry! Is Margaret better?'
'Yes, she is; and I understand now, Harry, that her alarm was an accident. I beg your pardon for thinking for a moment that it was otherwise--'
'No,' interrupted Harry, 'of course I could never mean to frighten her; but I did not leave off the moment I saw she was afraid, because it was so very ridiculous, and I did not guess it would hurt her.'
'I see, my honest boy. I do not blame you, for you did not know how much harm a little terror does to a person in her helpless state. But, indeed, Harry, though you did not deserve such anger as mine was, it is a serious thing that you should be so much set on fun and frolic as to forget all considerations, especially at such a time as this. It takes away from much of my comfort in sending you into the world; and for higher things--how can I believe you really impressed and reverent, if the next minute--'
'I'm not fit! I'm not fit!' sobbed Harry, hiding his face.
'Indeed, I hardly know whether it is not so,' said the doctor. 'You are under the usual age, and, though I know you wish to be a good boy, yet I don't feel sure that these wild spirits do not carry away everything serious, and whether it is right to bring one so thoughtless to--'
'No, no,' and Harry cried bitterly, and his father was deeply grieved; but no more could then be said, and they parted for the night--Dr. May saying, as he went away, 'You understand, that it is not as punishment for your trick, if I do not take you to Mr. Ramsden for a ticket, but that I cannot be certain whether it is right to bring you to such solemn privileges while you do not seem to me to retain steadily any grave or deep feelings. Perhaps your mother would have better helped you.'
And Dr. May went away to mourn over what he viewed as far greater sins than those of his son.
Anger had, indeed, given place to sorrow, and all were grave the next morning, as if each had something to be forgiven.
Margaret, especially, felt guilty of the fears which, perhaps, had not been sufficiently combated in her days of health, and now were beyond control, and had occasioned so much pain. Ethel grieved over the words she had yesterday spoken in haste of her father and sister; Mary knew herself to have been an accomplice in the joke; and Norman blamed himself for not having taken the trouble to perceive that Harry had not been talking rhodomontade, when he had communicated 'his capital scheme' the previous morning.
The decision as to the Confirmation was a great grief to all. Flora consoled herself by observing that, as he was so young, no one need know it, nor miss him; and Ethel, with a trembling, almost sobbing voice, enumerated all Harry's excellences, his perfect truth, his kindness, his generosity, his flashes of intense feeling--declared that nobody might be confirmed if he were not, and begged and entreated that Mr. Wilmot might be written to, and consulted. She would almost have done so herself, if Richard had not shown her it would be undutiful.
Harry himself was really subdued. He made no question as to the propriety of the decision, but rather felt his own unworthiness, and was completely humbled and downcast. When a note came from Mrs. Anderson, saying that she was convinced that it could not have been Dr. May's wish that she should be exposed to the indignity of a practical joke, and that a young lady of the highest family should have been insulted, no one had spirits to laugh at the terms; and when Dr. May said, 'What is to be done?' Harry turned crimson, and was evidently trying to utter something.
'I see nothing for it but for him to ask their pardon,' said Dr. May; and a sound was heard, not very articulate, but expressing full assent.
'That is right,' said the doctor. 'I'll come with you.'
'Oh, thank you!' cried Harry, looking up.
They set off at once. Mrs. Anderson was neither an unpleasing nor unkind person--her chief defect being a blind admiration of her sons and daughters, which gave her, in speaking of them, a tone of pretension that she would never have shown on her own account.
Her displeasure was pacified in a moment by the sight of the confused contrition of the culprit, coupled with his father's frank and kindly tone of avowal, that it had been a foolish improper frolic, and that he had been much displeased with him for it.
'Say no more--pray, say no more, Dr. May. We all know how to overlook a sailor's frolic, and, I am sure, Master Harry's present behaviour; but you'll take a bit of luncheon,' and, as something was said of going home to the early dinner, 'I am sure you will wait one minute. Master Harry must have a piece of my cake, and allow me to drink to his success.'
Poor Mr. May! to be called Master Harry, and treated to sweet cake! But he saw his father thought he ought to endure, and he even said, 'Thank you.'
The cake stuck in his throat, however, when Mrs. Anderson and her daughters opened their full course of praise on their dear Harvey and dearest Edward, telling all the flattering things Dr. Hoxton had said of the order into which Harvey had brought the school, and insisting on Dr. May's reading the copy of the testimonial that he had carried to Oxford. 'I knew you would be kind enough to rejoice,' said Mrs. Anderson, 'and that you would have no--no feeling about Mr. Norman; for, of course, at his age, a little matter is nothing, and it must be better for the dear boy himself to be a little while under a friend like Harvey, than to have authority while so young.'
'I believe it has done him no harm,' was all that the doctor could bring himself to say; and thinking that he and his son had endured quite enough, he took his leave as soon as Harry had convulsively bolted the last mouthful.
Not a word was spoken all the way home. Harry's own trouble had overpowered even this subject of
