The Three Brides

instead of how he can stand up to a battery.'

'So I thought,' said Herbert; 'but I know now what it is to be in the teeth of the battery without having done my best to get my weapons about me.'

'Come now! Would any of those poor creatures have been the better for your knowing

'How many notes a sackbut has, Or whether shawms have strings,'

or the Greek particles, which I believe were what sacked you?'

'They would have been the better if I had ever learnt to think what men's souls are, or my own either,' said Herbert, with a heavy sigh.

'Ah! well, you have had a sharp campaign,' said Phil; 'but you'll soon get the better of it when you are at Nice with the old folks. Jolly place-lots of nice girls-something always going on. I'll try and get leave to take you out; but you'll cut us all out! Ladies won't look at a fellow when there's an interesting young parson to the fore.'

Herbert made an action of negation, and his sister said-

'The doctors say Nice will not do after such an illness as this. Papa asked the doctor there, and he said he could not advise it.'

'Indeed! Then I'll tell you what, Herbs, you shall come into lodgings at York, and I'll look after you there. You shall ride Pimento, and dine at the mess.'

'Thank you, Phil,' said Herbert, to whom a few months ago this proposal would have been most seducing, 'but I am going home, and that's all the change I shall want.'

'Home! Yes, Ellen is getting ready for you. Not your room-oh, no! but the state bedroom! When will you come? My leave is only till Tuesday.'

'Oh! I don't know how to think of the drive,' sighed Herbert wearily.

'We must wait for a fine day, when he feels strong enough,' said Jenny.

'All right,' said Phil; 'but ten days or a fortnight there will be quite enough, and then you'll come. There are some friends of yours, that only looked at me, I can tell you, for the sake of your name-eh, Master Herbs?'

Herbert did not rise to the bait; but Jenny said, 'The Miss Strangeways?'

'Yes. Wouldn't he be flattered to hear of the stunning excitement when they heard of Captain Bowater, and how the old lady, their mother, talked by the yard about him? You'll get a welcome indeed when you come, old fellow. When shall it be?'

'No, thank you, Phil,' said Herbert, gravely. 'I shall come back here as soon as I am well enough. But there is one thing I wish you would do for me.'

'Well, what? I'll speak about having any horse you please taken up for you to ride; I came over on Brown Ben, but he would shake you too much.'

'No, no, it's about a young fellow. If you could take him back to York to enlist-'

'My dear Herbert, I ain't a recruiting-sergeant.'

'No, but it might be the saving of him,' said Herbert, raising himself and speaking with more animation. 'It is Harry Hornblower.'

'Why, that's the chap that bagged your athletic prizes! Whew! Rather strong, ain't it, Joan!'

'He did no such thing,' said Herbert, rather petulantly; 'never dreamt of it. He only was rather a fool in talking of them- vaunting of me, I believe, as not such a bad fellow for a parson; so his friends got out of him where to find them. But they knew better than to take him with them. Tell him, Jenny; he won't believe me.'

'It is quite true, Phil,' said Jenny, 'the poor fellow did get into bad company at the races, but that was all. He did not come home that night, but he was stupefied with drink and the beginning of the fever, and it was proved- perfectly proved-that he was fast asleep at a house at Backsworth when the robbery was committed, and he was as much shocked about it as any one-more, I am sure, than Herbert, who was so relieved on finding him clear of it, that he troubled himself very little about the things. And now he has had the fever- not very badly-and he is quite well now, but he can't get anything to do. Truelove turned him off before the races for hanging about at the Three Pigeons, and nobody will employ him. I do think it is true what they say-his mother, and Julius, and Herbert, and all- that he has had a lesson, and wants to turn over a new leaf, but the people here won't let him. Julius and Herbert want him to enlist, and I believe he would, but his mother-as they all do-thinks that the last degradation; but she might listen if Captain Bowater came and told her about his own regiment-cavalry too-and the style of men in it-and it is the only chance for him.'

Philip made a wry face.

'You see I took him up and let him down,' said Herbert, sadly and earnestly.

'I really do believe,' said Jenny, clenching the matter, 'that Herbert would get well much faster if Harry Hornblower were off his mind.'

Phil growled, and his younger brother and sister knew that they would do their cause no good by another word. There was an odd shyness about them all. The elder brother had not yet said anything about Jenny's prospects, and only asked after the party at the Hall.

'All nearly well, except Frank's deafness,' said Jenny. 'In a day or two he is going up to London to consult an aurist, and see whether he can keep his clerkship. Miles is going with him, and Rosamond takes Terry up to see his brother in London, and then, I believe, she is going on to get rooms at Rockpier, while Miles comes home to fetch his mother there.'

'Mrs. Poynsett!' with infinite wonder.

'Oh yes, all this has really brought out much more power of activity in her. You know it was said that there was more damage to the nervous system than anything else, and the shock has done her good. Besides, Miles is so much less timid about her than dear Raymond, who always handled her like a cracked teapot, and never having known much of any other woman, did not understand what was good for her.'

'Miles has more pith in him than ever poor old Raymond had,' said Phil. 'Poor old Poynsett, I used to think he wanted to be spoony on you, Joan, if he had only known his own mind. If he had, I suppose he would have been alive now!'

'What a pleasing situation for Jenny!' Herbert could not help muttering.

'Much better than running after ostriches in the wilderness,' quoth Philip. 'You ride them double, don't you?'

'Two little negro boys at a time,' replied Jenny, 'according to the nursery-book. Will you come and try, Phil?'

'You don't mean to go out?'

'I don't know,' said Jenny; 'it depends on how mamma is, and how Edith gets on.'

Philip gave a long whistle of dismay. Herbert looked at him wistfully, longing to hear him utter some word of congratulation or sympathy with his sister; but none was forthcoming. Philip had disliked the engagement originally-never had cared for Archie Douglas, and was not melted now that Jenny was more valuable than ever. She knew him too well to expect it of him, and did not want to leave him to vex Herbert by any expression of his opinion on the matter, and on this account, as well as on that of the fatigue she saw on her patient's features, she refused his kind offer of keeping guard while she went in the afternoon to church, adding that Herbert must rest, as Mrs. Duncombe was coming afterwards to take leave of him.

Philip shrugged his shoulders in horror, and declared that he should not return again till that was over; but he should look in again before he went home to settle about Herbert's coming to York.

'York!' said Herbert, with a gasp, as Jenny brought his jelly, and arranged his pillows for a rest, while the dragoon's boots resounded on the stairs. 'Please tell him to say no more about it. I want them all to understand that I'm not going in for that sort of thing any more.'

'My dear, I think you had better not say things hotly and rashly; you may feel so very differently by and by.'

'I know that,' said Herbert; 'but after all it is only what my ordination vows mean, though I did not see it then. And this year must be a penance year; I had made up my mind to that before I fell ill.'

'Only you must get well,' said Jenny.

'That takes care of itself when one is sound to begin with,' said Herbert. 'And now that I have been brought back again, and had my eyes opened, and have got another trial given me, it would be double shame to throw it away.'

'I don't think you will do that.'