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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chantry House, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
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+Title: Chantry House
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: January, 2005  [EBook #7378]
+[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, CHANTRY HOUSE ***
+
+
+
+
+Credit
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, 
+email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+CHANTRY HOUSE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--A NURSERY PROSE
+
+
+
+'And if it be the heart of man
+   Which our existence measures,
+Far longer is our childhood's span
+   Than that of manly pleasures.
+
+'For long each month and year is then,
+   Their thoughts and days extending,
+But months and years pass swift with men
+   To time's last goal descending.'
+
+ISAAC WILLIAMS.
+
+The united force of the younger generation has been brought upon me 
+to record, with the aid of diaries and letters, the circumstances 
+connected with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers.  Once 
+this could not have been done without more pain than I could brook, 
+but the lapse of time heals wounds, brings compensations, and, when 
+the heart has ceased from aching and yearning, makes the memory of 
+what once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy and 
+thankfulness.  Nor would it be well that some of those mentioned in 
+the coming narrative should be wholly forgotten, and their place 
+know them no more.
+
+To explain all, I must go back to a time long before the morning 
+when my father astonished us all by exclaiming, 'Poor old James 
+Winslow!  So Chantry House is came to us after all!'  Previous to 
+that event I do not think we were aware of the existence of that 
+place, far less of its being a possible inheritance, for my parents 
+would never have permitted themselves or their family to be 
+unsettled by the notion of doubtful contingencies.
+
+My father, John Edward Winslow, was a barrister, and held an 
+appointment in the Admiralty Office, which employed him for many 
+hours of the day at Somerset House.  My mother, whose maiden name 
+was Mary Griffith, belonged to a naval family.  Her father had been 
+lost in a West Indian hurricane at sea, and her uncle, Admiral Sir 
+John Griffith, was the hero of the family, having been at Trafalgar 
+and distinguished himself in cutting out expeditions.  My eldest 
+brother bore his name.  The second was named after the Duke of 
+Clarence, with whom my mother had once danced at a ball on board 
+ship at Portsmouth, and who had been rather fond of my uncle.  
+Indeed, I believe my father's appointment had been obtained through 
+his interest, just about the time of Clarence's birth.
+
+We three boys had come so fast upon each other's heels in the 
+Novembers of 1809, 10, and 11, that any two of us used to look like 
+twins.  There is still extant a feeble water-coloured drawing of the 
+trio, in nankeen frocks, and long white trowsers, with bare necks 
+and arms, the latter twined together, and with the free hands, 
+Griffith holding a bat, Clarence a trap, and I a ball.  I remember 
+the emulation we felt at Griffith's privilege of eldest in holding 
+the bat.
+
+The sitting for that picture is the only thing I clearly remember 
+during those earlier days.  I have no recollection of the disaster, 
+which, at four years old, altered my life.  The catastrophe, as 
+others have described it, was that we three boys were riding cock-
+horse on the balusters of the second floor of our house in Montagu 
+Place, Russell Square, when we indulged in a general melee, which 
+resulted in all tumbling over into the vestibule below.  The others, 
+to whom I served as cushion, were not damaged beyond the power of 
+yelling, and were quite restored in half-an-hour, but I was 
+undermost, and the consequence has been a curved spine, dwarfed 
+stature, an elevated shoulder, and a shortened, nearly useless leg.
+
+What I do remember, is my mother reading to me Miss Edgeworth's 
+Frank and the little do Trusty, as I lay in my crib in her bedroom.  
+I made one of my nieces hunt up the book for me the other day, and 
+the story brought back at once the little crib, or the watered blue 
+moreen canopy of the big four-poster to which I was sometimes lifted 
+for a change; even the scrawly pattern of the paper, which my weary 
+eyes made into purple elves perpetually pursuing crimson ones, the 
+foremost of whom always turned upside down; and the knobs in the 
+Marseilles counterpane with which my fingers used to toy.  I have 
+heard my mother tell that whenever I was most languid and suffering 
+I used to whine out, 'O do read Frank and the little dog Trusty,' 
+and never permitted a single word to be varied, in the curious 
+childish love of reiteration with its soothing power.
+
+I am afraid that any true picture of our parents, especially of my 
+mother, will not do them justice in the eyes of the young people of 
+the present day, who are accustomed to a far more indulgent 
+government, and yet seem to me to know little of the loyal 
+veneration and submission with which we have, through life, regarded 
+our father and mother.  It would have been reckoned disrespectful to 
+address them by these names; they were through life to us, in 
+private, papa and mamma, and we never presumed to take a liberty 
+with them.  I doubt whether the petting, patronising equality of 
+terms on which children now live with their parents be equally 
+wholesome.  There was then, however, strong love and self-
+sacrificing devotion; but not manifested in softness or cultivation 
+of sympathy.  Nothing was more dreaded than spoiling, which was 
+viewed as idle and unjustifiable self-gratification at the expense 
+of the objects thereof.  There were an unlucky little pair in 
+Russell Square who were said to be 'spoilt children,' and who used 
+to be mentioned in our nursery with bated breath as a kind of 
+monsters or criminals.  I believe our mother laboured under a 
+perpetual fear of spoiling Griff as the eldest, Clarence as the 
+beauty, me as the invalid, Emily (two years younger) as the only 
+girl, and Martyn as the after-thought, six years below our sister.  
+She was always performing little acts of conscientiousness, little 
+as we guessed it.
+
+Thus though her unremitting care saved my life, and was such that 
+she finally brought on herself a severe and dangerous illness, she 
+kept me in order all the time, never wailed over me nor weakly 
+pitied me, never permitted resistance to medicine nor rebellion 
+against treatment, enforced little courtesies, insisted on every 
+required exertion, and hardly ever relaxed the rule of Spartan 
+fortitude in herself as in me.  It is to this resolution on her 
+part, carried out consistently at whatever present cost to us both, 
+that I owe such powers of locomotion as I possess, and the habits of 
+exertion that have been even more valuable to me.
+
+When at last, after many weeks, nay months, of this watchfulness, 
+she broke down, so that her life was for a time in danger, the lack 
+of her bracing and tender care made my life very trying, after I 
+found myself transported to the nursery, scarcely understanding why, 
+accused of having by my naughtiness made ray poor mamma so ill, and 
+discovering for the first time that I was a miserable, naughty 
+little fretful being, and with nobody but Clarence and the housemaid 
+to take pity on me.
+
+Nurse Gooch was a masterful, trustworthy woman, and was laid under 
+injunctions not to indulge Master Edward.  She certainly did not err 
+in that respect, though she attended faithfully to my material 
+welfare; but woe to me if I gave way to a little moaning; and what I 
+felt still harder, she never said 'good boy' if I contrived to 
+abstain.
+
+I hear of carpets, curtains, and pictures in the existing nurseries.  
+They must be palaces compared with our great bare attic, where 
+nothing was allowed that could gather dust.  One bit of drugget by 
+the fireside, where stood a round table at which the maids talked 
+and darned stockings, was all that hid the bare boards; the walls 
+were as plain as those of a workhouse, and when the London sun did 
+shine, it glared into my eyes through the great unshaded windows.  
+There was a deal table for the meals (and very plain meals they 
+were), and two or three big presses painted white for our clothes, 
+and one cupboard for our toys.  I must say that Gooch was strictly 
+just, and never permitted little Emily, nor Griff--though he was 
+very decidedly the favourite,--to bear off my beloved woolly dog to 
+be stabled in the houses of wooden bricks which the two were 
+continually constructing for their menagerie of maimed animals.
+
+Griff was deservedly the favourite with every one who was not, like 
+our parents, conscientiously bent on impartiality.  He was so bright 
+and winning, he had such curly tight-rolled hair with a tinge of 
+auburn, such merry bold blue eyes, such glowing dimpled cheeks, such 
+a joyous smile all over his face, and such a ringing laugh; he was 
+so strong, brave, and sturdy, that he was a boy to be proud of, and 
+a perfect king in his own way, making every one do as he pleased.  
+All the maids, and Peter the footman, were his slaves, every one 
+except nurse and mamma, and it was only by a strong effort of 
+principle that they resisted him; while he dragged Clarence about as 
+his devoted though not always happy follower.
+
+Alas! for Clarence!  Courage was not in him.  The fearless infant 
+boy chiefly dwells in conventional fiction, and valour seldom comes 
+before strength.  Moreover, I have come to the opinion that though 
+no one thought of it at the time, his nerves must have had a 
+terrible and lasting shock at the accident and at the sight of my 
+crushed and deathly condition, which occupied every one too much for 
+them to think of soothing or shielding him.  At any rate, fear was 
+the misery of his life.  Darkness was his horror.  He would scream 
+till he brought in some one, though he knew it would be only to 
+scold or slap him.  The housemaid's closet on the stairs was to him 
+an abode of wolves.  Mrs. Gatty's tale of The Tiger in the Coal-box 
+is a transcript of his feelings, except that no one took the trouble 
+to reassure him; something undefined and horrible was thought to wag 
+in the case of the eight-day clock; and he could not bear to open 
+the play cupboard lest 'something' should jump out on him.  The 
+first time he was taken to the Zoological Gardens, the monkeys so 
+terrified him that a bystander insisted on Gooch's carrying him away 
+lest he should go into fits, though Griffith was shouting with 
+ecstasy, and could hardly forgive the curtailment of his enjoyment.
+
+Clarence used to aver that he really did see 'things' in the dark, 
+but as he only shuddered and sobbed instead of describing them, he 
+was punished for 'telling fibs,' though the housemaid used to speak 
+under her breath of his being a 'Sunday child.'  And after long 
+penance, tied to his stool in the corner, he would creep up to me 
+and whisper, 'But, Eddy, I really did!'
+
+However, it was only too well established in the nursery that 
+Clarence's veracity was on a par with his courage.  When taxed with 
+any misdemeanour, he used to look round scared and bewildered, and 
+utter a flat demur.  One scene in particular comes before me.  There 
+were strict laws against going into shops or buying dainties without 
+express permission from mamma or nurse; but one day when Clarence 
+had by some chance been sent out alone with the good natured 
+housemaid, his fingers were found sticky.
+
+'Now, Master Clarence, you've been a naughty boy, eating of sweets,' 
+exclaimed stern Justice in a mob cap and frills.
+
+'No--no--' faltered the victim; but, alas!  Mrs. Gooch had only to 
+thrust her hand into the little pocket of his monkey suit to convict 
+him on the spot.
+
+The maid was dismissed with a month's wages, and poor Clarence 
+underwent a strange punishment from my mother, who was getting about 
+again by that time, namely, a drop of hot sealing-wax on his tongue, 
+to teach him practically the doom of the false tongue.  It might 
+have done him good if there had been sufficient encouragement to him 
+to make him try to win a new character, but it only added a fresh 
+terror to his mind; and nurse grew fond of manifesting her 
+incredulity of his assertions by always referring to Griff or to me, 
+or even to little Emily.  What was worse, she used to point him out 
+to her congeners in the Square or the Park as 'such a false child.'
+
+He was a very pretty little fellow, with a delicately rosy face, 
+wistful blue eyes, and soft, light, wavy hair, and perhaps Gooch was 
+jealous of his attracting more notice than Griffith, and thought he 
+posed for admiration, for she used to tell people that no one could 
+guess what a child he was for slyness; so that he could not bear 
+going out with her, and sometimes bemoaned himself to me.
+
+There must be a good deal of sneaking in the undeveloped nature, for 
+in those days I was ashamed of my preference for Clarence, the 
+naughty one.  But there was no helping it, he was so much more 
+gentle than Griff, and would always give up any sport that 
+incommoded me, instead of calling me a stupid little ape, and 
+becoming more boisterous after the fashion of Griff.  Moreover, he 
+fetched and carried for me unweariedly, and would play at 
+spillekins, help to put up puzzles, and enact little dramas with our 
+wooden animals, such as Griff scorned as only fit for babies.  Even 
+nurse allowed Clarence's merits towards me and little Emily, but 
+always with the sigh:  'If he was but as good in other respects, but 
+them quiet ones is always sly.'
+
+Good Nurse Gooch!  We all owe much to her staunch fidelity, strong 
+discipline, and unselfish devotion, but nature had not fitted her to 
+deal with a timid, sensitive child, of highly nervous temperament.  
+Indeed, persons of far more insight might have been perplexed by the 
+fact that Clarence was exemplary at church and prayers, family and 
+private,--whenever Griff would let him, that is to say,--and would 
+add private petitions of his own, sometimes of a startling nature.  
+He never scandalised the nursery, like Griff, by unseemly pranks on 
+Sundays, nor by innovations in the habits of Noah's ark, but was as 
+much shocked as nurse when the lion was made to devour the elephant, 
+or the lion and wolf fought in an embrace fatal to their legs.  
+Bible stories and Watt's hymns were more to Clarence than even to 
+me, and he used to ask questions for which Gooch's theology was 
+quite insufficient, and which brought the invariable answers, 'Now, 
+Master Clarry, I never did!  Little boys should not ask such 
+questions!'  'What's the use of your pretending, sir!  It's all 
+falseness, that's what it is!  I hates hypercriting!'  'Don't 
+worrit, Master Clarence; you are a very naughty boy to say such 
+things.  I shall put you in the corner!'
+
+Even nurse was scared one night when Clarence had a frightful 
+screaming fit, declaring that he saw 'her--her--all white,' and even 
+while being slapped reiterated, 'HER, Lucy!'
+
+Lucy was a kind elder girl in the Square gardens, a protector of 
+little timid ones.  She was known to be at that time very ill with 
+measles, and in fact died that very night.  Both my brothers 
+sickened the next day, and Emily and I soon followed their example, 
+but no one had it badly except Clarence, who had high fever, and 
+very much delirium each night, talking to people whom he thought he 
+saw, so as to make nurse regret her severity on the vision of Lucy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--SCHOOLROOM DAYS
+
+
+
+'In the loom of life-cloth pleasure,
+   Ere our childish days be told,
+With the warp and woof enwoven,
+   Glitters like a thread of gold.'
+
+JEAN INGELOW.
+
+Looking back, I think my mother was the leading spirit in our 
+household, though she never for a moment suspected it.  Indeed, the 
+chess queen must be the most active on the home board, and one of 
+the objects of her life was to give her husband a restful evening 
+when he came home to the six o'clock dinner.  She also had to make 
+both ends meet on an income which would seem starvation at the 
+present day; but she was strong, spirited, and managing, and equal 
+to all her tasks till the long attendance upon me, and the 
+consequent illness, forced her to spare herself--a little--a very 
+little.
+
+Previously she had been our only teacher, except that my father read 
+a chapter of the Bible with us every morning before breakfast, and 
+heard the Catechism on a Sunday.  For we could all read long before 
+young gentlefolks nowadays can say their letters.  It was well for 
+me, since books with a small quantity of type, and a good deal of 
+frightful illustration, beguiled many of my weary moments.  You may 
+see my special favourites, bound up, on the shelf in my bedroom.  
+Crabbe's Tales, Frank, the Parent's Assistant, and later, Croker's 
+Tales from English History, Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Tales of 
+a Grandfather, and the Rival Crusoes stand pre-eminent--also Mrs. 
+Leicester's School, with the ghost story cut out.
+
+Fairies and ghosts were prohibited as unwholesome, and not unwisely.  
+The one would have been enervating to me, and the other would have 
+been a definite addition to Clarence's stock of horrors.  Indeed, 
+one story had been cut out of Crabbe's Tales, and another out of an 
+Annual presented to Emily, but not before Griff had read the latter, 
+and the version he related to us probably lost nothing in the 
+telling; indeed, to this day I recollect the man, wont to slay the 
+harmless cricket on the hearth, and in a storm at sea pursued by a 
+gigantic cockroach and thrown overboard.  The night after hearing 
+this choice legend Clarence was found crouching beside me in bed for 
+fear of the cockroach.  I am afraid the vengeance was more than 
+proportioned to the offence!
+
+Even during my illness that brave mother struggled to teach my 
+brothers' daily lessons, and my father heard them a short bit of 
+Latin grammar at his breakfast (five was thought in those days to be 
+the fit age to begin it, and fathers the fit teachers thereof).  And 
+he continued to give this morning lesson when, on our return from 
+airing at Ramsgate after our recovery from the measles, my mother 
+found she must submit to transfer us to a daily governess.
+
+Old Miss Newton's attainments could not have been great, for her 
+answers to my inquiries were decidedly funny, and prefaced sotto 
+voce with, 'What a child it is!'  But she was a good kindly lady, 
+who had the faculty of teaching, and of forestalling rebellion; and 
+her little thin corkscrew curls, touched with gray, her pale eyes, 
+prim black silk apron, and sandalled shoes, rise before me full of 
+happy associations of tender kindness and patience.  She was wise, 
+too, in her own simple way.  When nurse would have forewarned her of 
+Clarence's failings in his own hearing, she cut the words short by 
+declaring that she should like never to find out which was the 
+naughty one.  And when habit was too strong, and he had denied the 
+ink spot on the atlas, she persuasively wiled out a confession not 
+only to her but to mamma, who hailed the avowal as the beginning of 
+better things, and kissed instead of punishing.
+
+Clarence's queries had been snubbed into reserve, and I doubt 
+whether Miss Newton's theoretic theology was very much more 
+developed than that of Mrs. Gooch, but her practice and devotion 
+were admirable, and she fostered religious sentiment among us, 
+introducing little books which were welcome in the restricted range 
+of Sunday reading.  Indeed, Mrs. Sherwood's have some literary 
+merit, and her Fairchild Family indulged in such delicious and 
+eccentric acts of naughtiness as quite atoned for all the religious 
+teaching, and fascinated Griff, though he was apt to be very 
+impatient of certain little affectionate lectures to which Clarence 
+listened meekly.  My father and mother were both of the old-
+fashioned orthodox school, with minds formed on Jeremy Taylor, 
+Blair, South, and Secker, who thought it their duty to go diligently 
+to church twice on Sunday, communicate four times a year (their only 
+opportunities), after grave and serious preparation, read a sermon 
+to their household on Sunday evenings, and watch over their 
+children's religious instruction, though in a reserved 
+undemonstrative manner.  My father always read one daily chapter 
+with us every morning, one Psalm at family prayers, and my mother 
+made us repeat a few verses of Scripture before our other studies 
+began; besides which there was special teaching on Sunday, and an 
+abstinence from amusements, such as would now be called Sabbatarian, 
+but a walk in the Park with papa was so much esteemed that it made 
+the day a happy and honoured one to those who could walk.
+
+There was little going into society, comparatively, for people in 
+our station,--solemn dinner-parties from time to time--two a year, 
+did we give, and then the house was turned upside down,--and now and 
+then my father dined out, or brought a friend home to dinner; and 
+there were so-called morning calls in the afternoon, but no tea-
+drinking.  For the most part the heads of the family dined alone at 
+six, and afterwards my father read aloud some book of biography or 
+travels, while we children were expected to employ ourselves 
+quietly, threading beads, drawing, or putting up puzzles, and listen 
+or not as we chose, only not interrupt, as we sat at the big, 
+central, round, mahogany table.  To this hour I remember portions of 
+Belzoni's Researches and Franklin's terrible American adventures, 
+and they bring back tones of my father's voice.  As an authority 
+'papa' was seldom invoked, except on very serious occasions, such as 
+Griffith's audacity, Clarence's falsehood, or my obstinacy; and then 
+the affair was formidable, he was judicial and awful, and, though he 
+would graciously forgive on signs of repentance, he never was 
+sympathetic.  He had not married young, and there were forty years 
+or more between him and his sons, so that he had left too far behind 
+him the feelings of boyhood to make himself one with us, even if he 
+had thought it right or dignified to do so,--yet I cannot describe 
+the depth of the respect and loyalty he inspired in us nor the 
+delight we felt in a word of commendation or a special attention 
+from him.
+
+The early part of Miss Newton's rule was unusually fertile in such 
+pleasures, and much might have been spared, could Clarence have been 
+longer under her influence; but Griff grew beyond her management, 
+and was taunted by 'fellows in the Square' into assertions of 
+manliness, such as kicking his heels, stealing her odd little 
+fringed parasol, pitching his books into the area, keeping her in 
+misery with his antics during their walks, and finally leading 
+Clarence off after Punch into the Rookery of St. Giles's, where she 
+could not follow, because Emily was in her charge.
+
+This was the crisis.  She had to come home without the boys, and 
+though they arrived long before any of the authorities knew of their 
+absence, she owned with tears that she could not conscientiously be 
+responsible any longer for Griffith,--who not only openly defied her 
+authority, but had found out how little she knew, and laughed at 
+her.  I have reason to believe also that my mother had discovered 
+that she frequented the preachings of Rowland Hill and Baptist Noel; 
+and had confiscated some unorthodox tracts presented to the 
+servants, thus being alarmed lest she should implant the seeds of 
+dissent.
+
+Parting with her after four years under her was a real grief.  Even 
+Griff was fond of her; when once emancipated, he used to hug her and 
+bring her remarkable presents, and she heartily loved her tormentor.  
+Everybody did.  It remained a great pleasure to get her to spend an 
+evening with us while the elders were gone out to dinner; nor do I 
+think she ever did us anything but good, though I am afraid we 
+laughed at 'Old Newton' as we grew older and more conceited.  We 
+never had another governess.  My mother read and enforced diligence 
+on Emily and me, and we had masters for different studies; the two 
+boys went to school; and when Martyn began to emerge from babyhood, 
+Emily was his teacher.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--WIN AND SLOW
+
+
+
+'The rude will shuffle through with ease enough:
+Great schools best suit the sturdy and the rough.'
+
+COWPER.
+
+At school Griffith was very happy, and brilliantly successful, alike 
+in study and sport, though sports were not made prominent in those 
+days, and triumphs in them were regarded by the elders with doubtful 
+pride, lest they should denote a lack of attention to matters of 
+greater importance.  All his achievements were, however, poured 
+forth by himself and Clarence to Emily and me, and we felt as proud 
+of them as if they had been our own.
+
+Clarence was industrious, and did not fail in his school work, but 
+when he came home for the holidays there was a cowed look about him, 
+and private revelations were made over my sofa that made my flesh 
+creep.  The scars were still visible, caused by having been 
+compelled to grasp the bars of the grate bare-handed; and, what was 
+worse, he had been suspended outside a third story window by the 
+wrists, held by a schoolfellow of thirteen!
+
+'But what was Griff about?' I demanded, with hot tears of 
+indignation.
+
+'Oh, Win!--that's what they call him, and me Slow--he said it would 
+do me good.  But I don't think it did, Eddy.  It only makes my heart 
+beat fit to choke me whenever I go near the passage window.'
+
+I could only utter a vain wish that I had been there and able to 
+fight for him, and I attacked Griff on the subject on the first 
+opportunity.
+
+'Oh!' was his answer, 'it is only what all fellows have to bear if 
+there's no pluck in them.  They tried it on upon me, you know, but I 
+soon showed them it would not do'--with the cock of the nose, the 
+flash of the eyes, the clench of the fist, that were peculiarly 
+Griff's own; and when I pleaded that he might have protected 
+Clarence, he laughed scornfully.  'As to Slow, wretched being, a 
+fellow can't help bullying him.  It comes as natural as to a cat 
+with a mouse.'  On further and reiterated pleadings, Griff declared, 
+first, that it was the only thing to do Slow any good, or make a man 
+of him; and next, that he heartily wished that Winslow junior had 
+been Miss Clara at once, as the fellows called him--it was really 
+hard on him (Griff) to have such a sneaking little coward tied to 
+him for a junior!
+
+I particularly resented the term Slow, for Clarence had lately been 
+the foremost of us in his studies; but the idea that learning had 
+anything to do with the matter was derided, and as time went on, 
+there was vexation and displeasure at his progress not being 
+commensurate with his abilities.  It would have been treason to 
+schoolboy honour to let the elders know that though a strong, high-
+spirited popular boy like 'Win' might venture to excel big bullying 
+dunces, such fair game as poor 'Slow' could be terrified into not 
+only keeping below them, but into doing their work for them.  To him 
+Cowper's 'Tirocinium' had only too much sad truth.
+
+As to his old failing, there were no special complaints, but in 
+those pre-Arnoldian times no lofty code of honour was even ideal 
+among schoolboys, or expected of them by masters; shuffling was 
+thought natural, and allowances made for faults in indolent despair.
+
+My mother thought the Navy the proper element of boyhood, and her 
+uncle the Admiral promised a nomination,--a simple affair in those 
+happy days, involving neither examination nor competition.  Griffith 
+was, however, one of those independent boys who take an aversion to 
+whatever is forced on them as their fate.  He was ready and 
+successful with his studies, a hero among his comrades, and 
+preferred continuing at school to what he pronounced, on the 
+authority of the nautical tales freely thrown in our way, to be the 
+life of a dog, only fit for the fool of the family; besides, he had 
+once been out in a boat, tasted of sea-sickness, and been laughed 
+at.  My father was gratified, thinking his brains too good for a 
+midshipman, and pleased that he should wish to tread in his own 
+steps at Harrow and Oxford, and thus my mother could not openly 
+regret his degeneracy when all the rest of us were crazy over Tom 
+Cringle's Log, and ready to envy Clarence when the offer was passed 
+on to him, and he appeared in the full glory of his naval uniform.  
+Not much choice had been offered to him.  My mother would have 
+thought it shameful and ungrateful to have no son available, my 
+father was glad to have the boy's profession fixed, and he himself 
+was rejoiced to escape from the miseries he knew only too well, and 
+ready to believe that uniform and dirk would make a man of him at 
+once, with all his terrors left behind.  Perhaps the chief drawback 
+was that the ladies WOULD say, 'What a darling!' affording Griff 
+endless opportunities for the good-humoured mockery by which he 
+concealed his own secret regrets.  Did not even Selina Clarkson, 
+whose red cheeks, dark blue eyes, and jetty profusion of shining 
+curls, were our notion of perfect beauty, select the little naval 
+cadet for her partner at the dancing master's ball?
+
+In the first voyage, a cruise in the Pacific, all went well.  The 
+good Admiral had carefully chosen ship and captain; there were an 
+excellent set of officers, a good tone among the midshipmen, and 
+Clarence, who was only twelve years old, was constituted the pet of 
+the cockpit.  One lad in especial, Coles by name, attracted by 
+Clarence's pleasant gentleness, and impelled by the generosity that 
+shields the weak, became his guardian friend, and protected him from 
+all the roughnesses in his power.  If there were a fault in that 
+excellent Coles, it was that he made too much of a baby of his 
+protege, and did not train him to shift for himself:  but wisdom and 
+moderation are not characteristics of early youth.  At home we had 
+great enjoyment of his long descriptive letters, which came under 
+cover to our father at the Admiralty, but were chiefly intended for 
+my benefit.  All were proud of them, and great was my elation when I 
+heard papa relate some fact out of them with the preface, 'My boy 
+tells me, my boy Clarence, in the Calypso; he writes a capital 
+letter.'
+
+How great was our ecstasy when after three years and a half we had 
+him at home again; handsome, vigorous, well-grown, excellently 
+reported of, fully justifying my mother's assurances that the sea 
+would make a man of him.  There was Griffith in the fifth form and a 
+splendid cricketer, but Clarence could stand up to him now, and 
+Harrovian exploits were tame beside stories of sharks and negroes, 
+monkeys and alligators.  There was one in particular, about a whole 
+boat's crew sitting down on what they thought was a fallen tree, but 
+which suddenly swept them all over on their faces, and turned out to 
+be a boa-constrictor, and would have embraced one of them if he had 
+not had the sail of the boat coiled round the mast, and palmed off 
+upon him, when he gorged it contentedly, and being found dead on the 
+next landing, his skin was used to cover the captain's sea-chest.  
+Clarence declined to repeat this tale and many others before the 
+elders, and was displeased with Emily for referring to it in public.  
+As to his terrors, he took it for granted that an officer of H.M.S. 
+Calypso, had left them behind, and in fact, he naturally forgot and 
+passed over what he had not been shielded from, while his hereditary 
+love of the sea really made those incidental to his profession much 
+more endurable than the bullying he had undergone at school.
+
+We were very happy that Christmas, and very proud of our boys.  One 
+evening we were treated to a box at the pantomime, and even I was 
+able to go to it.  We put our young sailor and our sister in the 
+forefront, and believed that every one was as much struck with them 
+as with the wonderful transformations of Goody-Two-Shoes under the 
+wand of Harlequin.  Brother-like, we might tease our one girl, and 
+call her an affected little pussy cat, but our private opinion was 
+that she excelled all other damsels with her bright blue eyes and 
+pretty curling hair, which had the same chestnut shine as Griff's--
+enough to make us correct possible vanity by terming it red, though 
+we were ready to fight any one else who presumed to do so.  Indeed 
+Griff had defended its hue in single combat, and his eye was treated 
+for it with beefsteak by Peter in the pantry.  We were immensely, 
+though silently, proud of her in her white embroidered cambric 
+frock, red sash and shoes, and coral necklace, almost an heirloom, 
+for it had been brought from Sicily in Nelson's days by my mother's 
+poor young father.  How parents and doctors in these days would have 
+shuddered at her neck and arms, bare, not only in the evening, but 
+by day!  When she was a little younger she could so shrink up from 
+her clothes that Griff, or little Martyn, in a mischievous mood, 
+would put things down her back, to reappear below her petticoats.  
+Once it was a dead wasp, which descended harmlessly the length of 
+her spine!  She was a good-humoured, affectionate, dear sister, my 
+valued companion, submitting patiently to be eclipsed when Clarence 
+was present, and everything to me in his absence.  Sturdy little 
+Martyn too, was held by us to be the most promising of small boys.  
+He was a likeness of Clarence, only stouter, hardier, and without 
+the delicate, girlish, wistful look; imitating Griff in everything, 
+and rather a heavy handful to Emily and me when left to our care, 
+though we were all the more proud of his high spirit, and were fast 
+becoming a mutual admiration society.
+
+What then were our feelings when Griff, always fearless, dashed to 
+the rescue of a boy under whom the ice had broken in St. James' 
+Park, and held him up till assistance came?  Martyn, who was with 
+him, was sent home to fetch dry clothes and reassure my mother, 
+which he did by dashing upstairs, shouting, 'Where's mamma?  Here's 
+Griff been into the water and pulled out a boy, and they don't know 
+if he is drowned; but he looks--oh!'
+
+Even after my mother had elicited that Martyn's HE meant the boy, 
+and not Griff, she could not rest without herself going to see that 
+our eldest was unhurt, greet him, and bring him home.  What happy 
+tears stood in her eyes, how my father shook hands with him, how we 
+drank his health after dinner, and how ungrateful I was to think 
+Clarence deserved his name of Slow for having stayed at home to play 
+chess with me because my back was aching, when he might have been 
+winning the like honours!  How red and gruff and shy the hero 
+looked, and how he entreated no one to say any more about it!
+
+He would not even look publicly at the paragraph about it in the 
+paper, only vituperating it for having made him into 'a juvenile 
+Etonian,' and hoping no one from Harrow would guess whom it meant.
+
+I found that paragraph the other day in my mother's desk, folded 
+over the case of the medal of the Royal Humane Society, which Griff 
+affected to despise, but which, when he was well out of the way, 
+used to be exhibited on high days and holidays.  It seems now like 
+the boundary mark of the golden days of our boyhood, and unmitigated 
+hopes for one another.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--UBI LAPSUS, QUID FECI
+
+
+
+'Clarence is come--false, fleeting, perjured Clarence.'
+
+King Richard III.
+
+There was much stagnation in the Navy in those days in the reaction 
+after the great war; and though our family had fair interest at the 
+Admiralty, it was seven months before my brother went to sea again.  
+To me they were very happy months, with my helper of helpers, 
+companion of companions, who made possible to me many a little 
+enterprise that could not be attempted without him.  My father made 
+him share my studies, and thus they became doubly pleasant.  And oh, 
+ye boys! who murmur at the Waverley Novels as a dry holiday task, ye 
+may envy us the zest and enthusiasm with which we devoured them in 
+their freshness.  Strangely enough, the last that we read together 
+was the Fair Maid of Perth.
+
+Clarence and his friend Coles longed to sail together again, but 
+Coles was shelved; and when Clarence's appointment came at last, it 
+was to the brig Clotho, Commander Brydone, going out in the 
+Mediterranean Fleet, under Sir Edward Codrington.  My mother did not 
+like brigs, and my father did not like what he heard of the captain; 
+but there had been jealous murmurs about appointments being absorbed 
+by sons of officials--he durst not pick and choose; and the Admiral 
+pronounced that if the lad had been spoilt on board the Calypso, it 
+was time for him to rough it--a dictum whence there was no appeal.
+
+Half a year later the tidings of the victory of Navarino rang 
+through Europe, and were only half welcome to the conquerors; but in 
+our household it is connected with a terrible recollection.  Though 
+more than half a century has rolled by, I shrink from dwelling on 
+the shock that fell on us when my father returned from Somerset 
+House with such a countenance that we thought our sailor had fallen; 
+but my mother could brook the fact far less than if her son had died 
+a gallant death.  The Clotho was on her way home, and Midshipman 
+William Clarence Winslow was to be tried by court-martial for 
+insubordination, disobedience, and drunkenness.  My mother was like 
+one turned to stone.  She would hardly go out of doors; she could 
+scarcely bring herself to go to church; she would have had my father 
+give up his situation if there had been any other means of 
+livelihood.  She could not talk; only when my father sighed, 'We 
+should never have put him into the Navy,' she hotly replied,
+
+'How was I to suppose that a son of mine would be like that?'
+
+Emily cried all day and all night.  Some others would have felt it a 
+relief to have cried too.  In more furious language than parents in 
+those days tolerated, Griff wrote to me his utter disbelief, and how 
+he had punched the heads of fellows who presumed to doubt that it 
+was not all a rascally, villainous plot.
+
+When the time came my father went down by the night mail to 
+Portsmouth.  He could scarcely bear to face the matter; but, as he 
+said, he could not have it on his conscience if the boy did anything 
+desperate for want of some one to look after him.  Besides, there 
+might be some explanation.
+
+'Explanation,' said my mother bitterly.  'That there always is!'
+
+The 'explanation' was this--I have put together what came out in 
+evidence, what my father and the Admiral heard from commiserating 
+officers, and what at different times I learned from Clarence 
+himself.  Captain Brydone was one of the rough old description of 
+naval men, good sailors and stern disciplinarians, but wanting in 
+any sense of moral duties towards their ship's company.  His 
+lieutenant was of the same class, soured, moreover, by tardy 
+promotion, and prejudiced against a gentleman-like, fair-faced lad, 
+understood to have interest, and bearing a name that implied it.  Of 
+the other two midshipmen, one was a dull lad of low stamp, the other 
+a youth of twenty, a born bully, with evil as well as tyrannical 
+propensities;--the crew conforming to severe discipline on board, 
+but otherwise wild and lawless.  In such a ship a youth with good 
+habits, sensitive conscience, and lack of moral or physical courage, 
+could not but lead a life of misery, losing every day more of his 
+self-respect and spirit as he was driven to the evil he loathed, 
+dreading the consequences, temporal and eternal, with all his soul, 
+yet without resolution or courage to resist.
+
+As every one knows, the battle of Navarino came on suddenly, almost 
+by mistake; and though it is perhaps no excuse, the hurly-burly and 
+horror burst upon him at unawares.  Though the English loss was 
+comparatively very small, the Clotho was a good deal exposed, and 
+two men were killed--one so close to Clarence that his clothes were 
+splashed with blood.  This entirely unnerved him; he did not even 
+know what he did, but he was not to be found when required to carry 
+an order, and was discovered hidden away below, shuddering, in his 
+berth, and then made some shallow excuse about misunderstanding 
+orders.  Whether this would have been brought up against him under 
+other circumstances, or whether it would have been remembered that 
+great men, including Charles V. and Henri IV., have had their moment 
+de peur, I cannot tell; but there were other charges.  I cannot give 
+date or details.  There is no record among the papers before me; and 
+I can only vaguely recall what could hardly be read for the sense of 
+agony, was never discussed, and was driven into the most oblivious 
+recesses of the soul fifty years ago.  There was a story about 
+having let a boat's crew, of which he was in charge, get drunk and 
+over-stay their time.  One of them deserted; and apparently 
+prevarication ran to the bounds of perjury, if it did not overpass 
+them.  (N.B.--Seeing seamen flogged was one of the sickening horrors 
+that haunted Clarence in the Clotho.)  Also, when on shore at Malta 
+with the young man whose name I will not record--his evil genius--he 
+was beguiled or bullied into a wine-shop, and while not himself was 
+made the cat's-paw of some insolent practical joke on the 
+lieutenant; and when called to account, was so bewildered and 
+excited as to use unpardonable language.
+
+Whatever it might have been in detail, so much was proved against 
+him that he was dismissed his ship, and his father was recommended 
+to withdraw him from the service, as being disqualified by want of 
+nerve.  Also, it was added more privately, that such vicious 
+tendencies needed home restraint.  The big bully, his corrupter, 
+bore witness against him, but did not escape scot free, for one of 
+the captains spoke to him in scathing tones of censure.
+
+Whenever my mother was in trouble, she always re-arranged the 
+furniture, and a family crisis was always heralded by a revolution 
+of chairs, tables, and sofas.  She could not sit still under 
+suspense, and, during these terrible days the entire house underwent 
+a setting to rights.  Emily attended upon her, and I sat and dusted 
+books.  No doubt it was much better for us than sitting still.  My 
+father's letter came by the morning mail, telling us of the 
+sentence, and that he and our poor culprit, as he said, would come 
+home by the Portsmouth coach in the evening.
+
+One room was already in order when Sir John Griffith kindly came to 
+see whether he could bring any comfort to a spirit which would 
+infinitely have preferred death to dishonour, and was, above all, 
+shocked at the lack of physical courage.  Never had I liked our old 
+Admiral so well as when I heard how his chief anger was directed 
+against the general mismanagement, and the cruelty of blighting a 
+poor lad's life when not yet seventeen.  His father might have been 
+warned to remove him without the public scandal of a court-martial 
+and dismissal.
+
+'The guilt and shame would have been all the same to us,' said my 
+mother.
+
+'Come, Mary, don't be hard on the poor fellow.  In quiet times like 
+these a poor boy can't look over the wall where one might have 
+stolen a horse, ay, or a dozen horses, when there was something else 
+to think about!'
+
+'You would not have forgiven such a thing, sir.'
+
+'It never would have happened under me, or in any decently commanded 
+ship!' he thundered.  'There wasn't a fault to be found with him in 
+the Calypso.  What possessed Winslow to let him sail with Brydone?  
+But the service is going,' etc. etc., he ran on--forgetting that it 
+was he himself who had been unwilling, perhaps rightly, to press the 
+Duke of Clarence for an appointment to a crack frigate for his 
+namesake.  However, when he took leave he repeated, as he kissed my 
+mother, 'Mind, Mary, don't be set against the lad.  That's the way 
+to make 'em desperate, and he is a mere boy, after all.'
+
+Poor mother, it was not so much hardness as a wounded spirit that 
+made her look so rigid.  It might have been better if the return 
+could have been delayed so as to make her yearn after her son, but 
+there was nowhere for him to go, and the coach was already on its 
+way.  How strange it was to feel the wonted glow at Clarence's 
+return coupled with a frightful sense of disgrace and depression.
+
+The time was far on in October, and it was thus quite dark when the 
+travellers arrived, having walked from Charing Cross, where the 
+coach set them down.  My father came in first, and my mother clung 
+to him as if he had been absent for weeks, while all the joy of 
+contact with my brother swept over me, even though his hand hung 
+limp in mine, and was icy cold like his cheeks.  My father turned to 
+him with one of the little set speeches of those days.  'Here is our 
+son, Mary, who has promised me to do his utmost to retrieve his 
+character, as far as may be possible, and happily he is still 
+young.'
+
+My mother's embrace was in a sort of mechanical obedience to her 
+husband's gesture, and her voice was not perhaps meant to be so 
+severe as it sounded when she said, 'You are very cold--come and 
+warm yourself.'
+
+They made room for him by the fire, and my father stood up in front 
+of it, giving particulars of the journey.  Emily and Martyn were at 
+tea in the nursery, in a certain awe that hindered them from coming 
+down; indeed, Martyn seems to have expected to see some strange 
+transformation in his brother.  Indeed, there was alteration in the 
+absence of the blue and gold, and, still more, in the loss of the 
+lightsome, hopeful expression from the young face.
+
+There is a picture of Ary Scheffer's of an old knight, whose son had 
+fled from the battle, cutting the tablecloth in two between himself 
+and the unhappy youth.  Like that stern baron's countenance was that 
+with which my mother sat at the head of the dinner-table, and we 
+conversed by jerks about whatever we least cared for, as if we could 
+hide our wretchedness from Peter.  When the children appeared each 
+gave Clarence the shyest of kisses, and they sat demurely on their 
+chairs on either side of my father to eat their almonds and raisins, 
+after which we went upstairs, and there was the usual reading.  It 
+is curious, but though none of us could have told at the time what 
+it was about, on turning over not long ago a copy of Head's Pampas 
+and Andes, one chapter struck me with an intolerable sense of 
+melancholy, such as the bull chases of South America did not seem 
+adequate to produce, and by and by I remembered that it was the book 
+in course of being read at that unhappy period.  My mother went on 
+as diligently as ever with some of those perpetual shirts which 
+seemed to be always in hand except before company, when she used to 
+do tambour work for Emily's frocks.  Clarence sat the whole time in 
+a dark corner, never stirring, except that he now and then nodded a 
+little.  He had gone through many wakeful, and worse than wakeful, 
+nights of wretched suspense, and now the worst was over.
+
+Family prayers took place, chill good-nights were exchanged, and 
+nobody interfered with his helping me up to my bedroom as usual; but 
+there was something in his face to which I durst not speak, though 
+perhaps I looked, for he exclaimed, 'Don't, Ned!' wrung my hand, and 
+sped away to his own quarters higher up.  Then came a sound which 
+made me open my door to listen.  Dear little Emily!  She had burst 
+out of her own room in her dressing-gown, and flung herself upon her 
+brother as he was plodding wearily upstairs in the dark, clinging 
+round his neck sobbing, 'Dear, dear Clarry!  I can't bear it!  I 
+don't care.  You're my own dear brother, and they are all wicked, 
+horrid people.'
+
+That was all I heard, except hushings on Clarence's part, as if the 
+opening of my door and the thread of light from it warned him that 
+there was risk of interruption.  He seemed to be dragging her up to 
+her own room, and I was left with a pang at her being foremost in 
+comforting him.
+
+My father enacted that he should be treated as usual.  But how could 
+that be when papa himself did not know how changed were his own ways 
+from his kindly paternal air of confidence?  All trust had been 
+undermined, so that Clarence could not cross the threshold without 
+being required to state his object, and, if he overstayed the time 
+calculated, he was cross-examined, and his replies received with a 
+sigh of doubt.
+
+He hung about the house, not caring to do much, except taking me out 
+in my Bath chair or languidly reading the most exciting books he 
+could get;--but there was no great stock of sensation then, except 
+the Byronic, and from time to time one of my parents would exclaim, 
+'Clarence, I wonder you can find nothing more profitable to occupy 
+yourself with than trash like that!'
+
+He would lay down the book without a word, and take up Smith's 
+Wealth of Nations or Smollett's England--the profitable studies 
+recommended, and speedily become lost in a dejected reverie, with 
+fixed eyes and drooping lips.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--A HELPING HAND
+
+
+
+'Though hawks can prey through storms and winds,
+The poor bee in her hive must dwell.'
+
+HENRY VAUGHAN.
+
+In imagination the piteous dejection of our family seems to have 
+lasted for ages, but on comparison of dates it is plain that the 
+first lightening of the burthen came in about a fortnight's time.
+
+The firm of Frith and Castleford was coming to the front in the 
+Chinese trade.  The junior partner was an old companion of my 
+father's boyhood; his London abode was near at hand, and he was a 
+kind of semi-godfather to both Clarence and me, having stood proxy 
+for our nominal sponsors.  He was as good and open-hearted a man as 
+ever lived, and had always been very kind to us; but he was scarcely 
+welcome when my father, finding that he had come up alone to London 
+to see about some repairs to his house, while his family were still 
+in the country, asked him to dine and sleep--our first guest since 
+our misfortune.
+
+My mother could hardly endure to receive any one, but she seemed 
+glad to see my father become animated and like himself while Roman 
+Catholic Emancipation was vehemently discussed, and the ruin of 
+England hotly predicted.  Clarence moped about silently as usual, 
+and tried to avoid notice, and it was not till the next morning--
+after breakfast, when the two gentlemen were in the dining-room, 
+nearly ready to go their several ways, and I was in the window 
+awaiting my classical tutor--that Mr. Castleford said,
+
+'May I ask, Winslow, if you have any plans for that poor boy?'
+
+'Edward?' said my father, almost wilfully misunderstanding.  'His 
+ambition is to be curator of something in the British Museum, isn't 
+it?'
+
+Mr. Castleford explained that he meant the other, and my father 
+sadly answered that he hardly knew; he supposed the only thing was 
+to send him to a private tutor, but where to find a fit one he did 
+not know and besides, what could be his aim?  Sir John Griffith had 
+said he was only fit for the Church, 'But one does not wish to 
+dispose of a tarnished article there.'
+
+'Certainly not,' said Mr. Castleford; and then he spoke words that 
+rejoiced my heart, though they only made my father groan, bidding 
+him remember that it was not so much actual guilt as the accident of 
+Clarence's being in the Navy that had given so serious a character 
+to his delinquencies.  If he had been at school, perhaps no one 
+would ever have heard of them, 'Though I don't say,' added the good 
+man, casting a new light on the subject, 'that it would have been 
+better for him in the end.'  Then, quite humbly, for he knew my 
+mother especially had a disdain for trade, he asked what my father 
+would think of letting him give Clarence work in the office for the 
+present.  'I know,' he said, 'it is not the line your family might 
+prefer, but it is present occupation; and I do not think you could 
+well send a youth who has seen so much of the world back to 
+schooling.  Besides, this would keep him under your own eye.'
+
+My father was greatly touched by the kindness, but he thought it 
+right to set before Mr. Castleford the very worst side of poor 
+Clarence; declaring that he durst not answer for a boy who had 
+never, in spite of pains and punishments, learnt to speak truth at 
+home or abroad, repeating Captain Brydone's dreadful report, and 
+even adding that, what was most grievous of all, there was an 
+affectation of piety about him that could scarcely be anything but 
+self-deceit and hypocrisy.  'Now,' he said, 'my eldest son, 
+Griffith, is just a boy, makes no profession, is not--as I am afraid 
+you have seen--exemplary at church, when Clarence sits as meek as a 
+mouse, but then he is always above-board, frank and straightforward.  
+You know where to have a high-spirited fellow, who will tame down, 
+but you never know what will come next with the other.  I sometimes 
+wonder for what error of mine Providence has seen fit to give me 
+such a son.'
+
+Just then an important message came for Mr. Winslow, and he had to 
+hurry away, but Mr. Castleford still remained, and presently said,
+
+'Edward, I should like to know what your eyes have been trying to 
+say all this time.'
+
+'Oh, sir,' I burst out, 'do give him a chance.  Indeed he never 
+means to do wrong.  The harm is not in him.  He would have been the 
+best of us all if he had only been let alone.'
+
+Those were exactly my own foolish words, for which I could have 
+beaten myself afterwards; but Mr. Castleford only gave a slight 
+grave smile, and said, 'You mean that your brother's real defect is 
+in courage, moral and physical.'
+
+'Yes,' I said, with a great effort at expressing myself.  'When he 
+is frightened, or bullied, or browbeaten, he does not know what he 
+is doing or saying.  He is quite different when he is his own self; 
+only nobody can understand.'
+
+Strange that though the favoured home son and nearly sixteen years 
+old, it would have been impossible to utter so much to one of our 
+parents.  Indeed the last sentence felt so disloyal that the colour 
+burnt in my cheeks as the door opened; but it only admitted 
+Clarence, who, having heard the front door shut, thought the coast 
+was clear, and came in with a load of my books and dictionaries.
+
+'Clarence,' said Mr. Castleford, and the direct address made him 
+start and flush, 'supposing your father consents, should you be 
+willing to turn your mind to a desk in my counting-house?'
+
+He flushed deeper red, and his fingers quivered as he held by the 
+table.  'Thank you, sir.  Anything--anything,' he said hesitatingly.
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Castleford, with the kindest of voices, 'let us 
+have it out.  What is in your mind?  You know, I'm a sort of 
+godfather to you.'
+
+'Sir, if you would only let me have a berth on board one of your 
+vessels, and go right away.'
+
+'Aye, my poor boy, that's what you would like best, I've no doubt; 
+but look at Edward's face there, and think what that would come to 
+at the best!'
+
+'Yes, I know I have no right to choose,' said Clarence, drooping his 
+head as before.
+
+''Tis not that, my dear lad,' said the good man, 'but that packing 
+you off like that, among your inferiors in breeding and everything 
+else, would put an end to all hope of your redeeming the past--
+outwardly I mean, of course--and lodge you in a position of 
+inequality to your brothers and sister, and all--'
+
+'That's done already,' said Clarence.
+
+'If you were a man grown it might be so,' returned Mr. Castleford, 
+'but bless me, how old are you?'
+
+'Seventeen next 1st of November,' said Clarence.
+
+'Not a bit too old for a fresh beginning,' said Mr. Castleford 
+cheerily.  'God helping you, you will be a brave and good man yet, 
+my boy--' then as my master rang at the door--'Come with me and look 
+at the old shop.'
+
+Poor Clarence muttered something unintelligible, and I had to own 
+for him that he never went out without accounting for himself.  
+Whereupon our friend caused my mother to be hunted up, and explained 
+to her that he wanted to take Clarence out with him--making some 
+excuse about something they were to see together.
+
+That walk enabled him to say something which came nearer to cheering 
+Clarence than anything that had passed since that sad return, and 
+made him think that to be connected with Mr. Castleford was the best 
+thing that could befall him.  Mr. Castleford on his side told my 
+father that he was sure that the boy was good-hearted all the time, 
+and thoroughly repentant; but this had the less effect because 
+plausibility, as my father called it, was one of the qualities that 
+specially annoyed him in Clarence, and made him fear that his friend 
+might be taken in.  However, the matter was discussed between the 
+elders, and it was determined that this most friendly offer should 
+be accepted experimentally.  It was impressed on Clarence, with 
+unnecessary care, that the line of life was inferior; but that it 
+was his only chance of regaining anything like a position, and that 
+everything depended on his industry and integrity.
+
+'Integrity!' commented Clarence, with a burning spot on his cheek 
+after one of these lectures; 'I believe they think me capable of 
+robbing the office!'
+
+We found out, too, that the senior partner, Mr. Frith, a very crusty 
+old bachelor, did not like the appointment, and that it was made 
+quite against his will.  'You'll be getting your clerks next from 
+Newgate!' was what some amiable friend reported him to have said.  
+However, Mr. Castleford had his way, and Clarence was to begin his 
+work with the New Year, being in the meantime cautioned and lectured 
+on the crime and danger of his evil propensities more than he could 
+well bear.  'Oh!' he groaned, 'it serves me right, I know that very 
+well, but if my father only knew how I hate and abhor all those 
+things--and how I loathed them at the very time I was dragged into 
+them!'
+
+'Why don't you tell him so?' I asked.
+
+'That would make it no better.'
+
+'It is not so bad as if you had gone into it willingly, and for your 
+own pleasure.'
+
+'He would only think that another lie.'
+
+No more could be said, for the idea of Clarence's untruthfulness and 
+depravity had become so deeply rooted in our father's mind that 
+there was little hope of displacing it, and even at the best his 
+manner was full of grave constrained pity.  Those few words were 
+Clarence's first approach to confidence with me, but they led to 
+more, and he knew there was one person who did not believe the 
+defect was in the bent of his will so much as in its strength.
+
+All the time the prospect of the counting-house in comparison with 
+the sea was so distasteful to him that I was anxious whenever he 
+went out alone, or even with Griffith, who despised the notion of, 
+as he said, sitting on a high stool, dealing in tea, so much that he 
+was quite capable of aiding and abetting in an escape from it.  Two 
+considerations, however, held Clarence back; one, the timidity of 
+nature which shrank from so violent a step, and the other, the 
+strong affections that bound him to his home, though his sojourn 
+there was so painful.  He knew the misery his flight would have been 
+to me; indeed I took care to let him see it.
+
+And Griffith's return was like a fresh spring wind dispersing 
+vapours.  He had gained an excellent scholarship at Brazenose, and 
+came home radiant with triumph, cheering us all up, and making a 
+generous use of his success.  He was no letter-writer, and after 
+learning that the disaster and disgrace were all too certain, he 
+ignored the whole, and hailed Clarence on his return as if nothing 
+had happened.  As eldest son, and almost a University man, he could 
+argue with our parents in a manner we never presumed on.  At least I 
+cannot aver what he actually uttered, but probably it was a revised 
+version of what he thundered forth to me.  'Such nonsense! such a 
+shame to keep the poor beggar going about with that hang dog look, 
+as if he had done for himself for life!  Why, I've known fellows do 
+ever so much worse of their own accord, and nothing come of it.  If 
+it was found out, there might be a row and a flogging, and there was 
+an end of it.  As to going about mourning, and keeping the whole 
+house in doleful dumps, as if there was never to be any good again, 
+it was utter folly, and so I've told Bill, and papa and mamma, both 
+of them!'
+
+How this was administered, or how they took it, there is no knowing, 
+but Griff would neither skate nor go to the theatre, nor to any 
+other diversion, without his brother; and used much kindly force and 
+banter to unearth him from his dismal den in the back drawing-room.  
+He was only let alone when there were engagements with friends, and 
+indeed, when meetings in the streets took place, by tacit agreement, 
+Clarence would shrink off in the crowd as if not belonging to his 
+companion; and these were the moments that stung him into longing to 
+flee to the river, and lose the sense of shame among common sailors:  
+but there was always some good angel to hold him back from desperate 
+measures--chiefly just then, the love between us three brothers, a 
+love that never cooled throughout our lives, and which dear old 
+Griff made much more apparent at this critical time than in the old 
+Win and Slow days of school.  That return of his enlivened us all, 
+and removed the terrible constraint from our meals, bringing us 
+back, as it were, to ordinary life and natural intercourse among 
+ourselves and with our neighbours.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION
+
+
+
+'But when I lay upon the shore,
+   Like some poor wounded thing,
+I deemed I should not evermore
+   Refit my wounded wing.
+Nailed to the ground and fastened there,
+This was the thought of my despair.'
+
+ABP. TRENCH.
+
+Clarence's debut at the office was not wholly unsuccessful.  He 
+wrote a good hand, and had a good deal of method and regularity in 
+his nature, together with a real sense of gratitude to Mr. 
+Castleford; and this bore him through the weariness of his new 
+employment, and, what was worse, the cold reception he met with from 
+the other clerks.  He was too quiet and reserved for the wilder 
+spirits, too much of a gentleman for others, and in the eyes of the 
+managers, and especially of the senior partner, a disgraced, 
+untrustworthy youth foisted on the office by Mr. Castleford's weak 
+partiality.  That old Mr. Frith had, Clarence used to say, a 
+perfectly venomous way of accepting his salute, and seemed always 
+surprised and disappointed if he came in in time, or showed up 
+correct work.  Indeed, the old man was disliked and feared by all 
+his subordinates as much as his partner was loved; and while Mr. 
+Castleford, with his good-natured Irish wife and merry family, lived 
+a life as cheerful as it was beneficent, Mr. Frith dwelt entirely 
+alone, in rooms over the office, preserving the habits formed when 
+his income had been narrow, and mistrusting everybody.
+
+At the end of the first month of experiment, Mr. Castleford declared 
+himself contented with Clarence's industry and steadiness, and 
+permanent arrangements were made, to which Clarence submitted with 
+an odd sort of passive gratitude, such as almost angered my father, 
+who little knew how trying the position really was, nor how a 
+certain home-sickness for the seafaring life was tugging at the 
+lad's heart, and making each morning's entrance at the counting-
+house an effort--each merchant-captain, redolent of the sea, an 
+object of envy.  My mother would have sympathised here, but Clarence 
+feared her more than my father, and she was living in continual 
+dread of some explosion, so that her dark curls began to show 
+streaks of gray, and her face to lose its round youthfulness.
+
+Lent brought the question of Confirmation.  Under the influence of 
+good Bishop Blomfield, and in the wave of evangelical revival--then 
+at its flood height--Confirmation was becoming a more prominent 
+subject with religious people than it had probably ever been in our 
+Church, and it was recognised that some preparation was desirable 
+beyond the power of repeating the Church Catechism.  This was all 
+that had been required of my father at Harrow.  My mother's 
+godfather, a dignified clergyman, had simply said, 'I suppose, my 
+dear, you know all about it;' and as for the Admiral, he remarked, 
+'Confirmed!  I never was confirmed anything but a post-captain!'
+
+Our incumbent was more attentive to his duties, or rather recognised 
+more duties, than his predecessor.  He preached on the subject, and 
+formed classes, sixteen being then the limit of age,--since the idea 
+of the vow, having become far more prominent than that of the 
+blessing, it was held that full development of the will and 
+understanding was needful.
+
+I was of the requisite age, and my father spoke to the clergyman, 
+who called, and, as I could not attend the classes, gave me books to 
+read and questions to answer.  Clarence read and discussed the 
+questions with me, showing so much more insight into them, and 
+fuller knowledge of Scripture than I possessed, that I exclaimed, 
+'Why should you not go up for Confirmation too?'
+
+'No,' he answered mournfully.  'I must take no more vows if I can't 
+keep them.  It would just be profane.'
+
+I had no more to say; indeed, my parents held the same view.  It was 
+good Mr. Castleford who saw things differently.  He was a 
+clergyman's son, and had been bred up in the old orthodoxy, which 
+was just beginning to put forth fresh shoots, and, as a quasi-
+godfather, he held himself bound to take an interest in our 
+religious life, while the sponsors, whose names stood in the family 
+Bible, and whose spoons reposed in the plate-chest, never troubled 
+themselves on the matter.  I remember Clarence leaning over me and 
+saying, 'Mr. Castleford thinks I might be confirmed.  He says it is 
+not so much the promise we make as of coming to Almighty God for 
+strength to keep what we are bound by already!  He is going to speak 
+to papa.'
+
+Perhaps no one except Mr. Castleford could have prevailed over the 
+fear of profanation in the mind of my father, who was, in his old-
+fashioned way, one of the most reverent of men, and could not bear 
+to think of holy things being approached by one under a stigma, nor 
+of exposing his son to add to his guilt by taking and breaking 
+further pledges.  However, he was struck by his friend's arguments, 
+and I heard him telling my mother that when he had wished to wait 
+till there had been time to prove sincerity of repentance by a 
+course of steadiness, the answer had been that it was hard to 
+require strength, while denying the means of grace.  My mother was 
+scarcely convinced, but as he had consented she yielded without a 
+protest; and she was really glad that I should have Clarence at my 
+side to help me at the ceremony.  The clergyman was applied to, and 
+consented to let Clarence attend the classes, where his knowledge, 
+comprehension, and behaviour were exemplary, so that a letter was 
+written to my father expressive of perfect satisfaction with him.  
+'There,' said my father, 'I knew it would be so!  It is not THAT 
+which I want.'
+
+The Confirmation seemed at the time a very short and perfunctory 
+result of our preparation; and, as things were conducted or 
+misconducted then, involved so much crowding and distress that I 
+recollect very little but clinging to Clarence's arm under a strong 
+sense of my infirmities,--the painful attempt at kneeling, and the 
+big outstretched lawn sleeves while the blessing was pronounced over 
+six heads at once, and then the struggle back to the pew, while the 
+silver-pokered apparitor looked grim at us, as though the maimed and 
+halt had no business to get into the way.  Yet this was a great 
+advance upon former Confirmations, and the Bishop met my father 
+afterwards, and inquired most kindly after his lame son.
+
+We were disappointed, and felt that we could not attain to the 
+feelings in the Confirmation poem in the Christian Year--Mr. 
+Castleford's gift to me.  Still, I believe that, though encumbered 
+with such a drag as myself, Clarence, more than I did,
+
+
+'Felt Him how strong, our hearts how frail,
+And longed to own Him to the death.'
+
+
+But the evangelical belief that dejection ought to be followed by a 
+full sense of pardon and assurance of salvation somewhat perplexed 
+and dimmed our Easter Communion.  For one short moment, as Clarence 
+turned to help my father lift me up from the altar-rail, I saw his 
+face and eyes radiant with a wonderful rapt look; but it passed only 
+too fast, and the more than ordinary glimpse his spiritual nature 
+had had made him all the more sad afterwards, when he said, 'I would 
+give everything to know that there was any steadfastness in my 
+purpose to lead a new life.'
+
+'But you are leading a new life.'
+
+'Only because there is no one to bully me,' he said.  Still, there 
+had been no reproach against him all the time he had been at Frith 
+and Castleford's, when suddenly we had a great shock.
+
+Parties were running very high, and there were scurrilous papers 
+about, which my father perfectly abhorred; and one day at dinner, 
+when declaiming against something he had seen, he laid down strict 
+commands that none should be brought into the house.  Then, glancing 
+at Clarence, something possessed him to say, 'You have not been 
+buying any.'
+
+'No, sir,' Clarence answered; but a few minutes later, when we were 
+alone together, the others having left him to help me upstairs, he 
+exclaimed, 'Edward, what is to be done?  I didn't buy it; but there 
+is one of those papers in my great-coat pocket.  Pollard threw it on 
+my desk; and there was something in it that I thought would amuse 
+you.'
+
+'Oh! why didn't you say so?'
+
+'There I am again!  I simply could not, with his eye on me!  
+Miserable being that I am!  Oh, where is the spirit of ghostly 
+strength?'
+
+'Helping you now to take it to papa in the study and explain!' I 
+cried; but the struggle in that tall fellow was as if he had been 
+seven years old instead of seventeen, ere he put his hand over his 
+face and gave me his arm to come out into the hall, fetch the paper, 
+and make his confession.  Alas! we were too late.  The coat had been 
+moved, the paper had fallen out; and there stood my mother with it 
+in her hand, looking at Clarence with an awful stony face of mute 
+grief and reproach, while he stammered forth what he had said 
+before, and that he was about to give it to my father.  She turned 
+away, bitterly, contemptuously indignant and incredulous; and my 
+corroborations only served to give both her and my father a certain 
+dread of Clarence's influence over me, as though I had been either 
+deceived or induced to back him in deceiving them.  The unlucky 
+incident plunged him back into the depths, just as he had begun to 
+emerge.  Slight as it was, it was no trifle to him, in spite of 
+Griffith's exclamation, 'How absurd!  Is a fellow to be bound to 
+give an account of everything he looks at as if he were six years 
+old?  Catch me letting my mother pry into my pockets!  But you are 
+too meek, Bill; you perfectly invite them to make a row about 
+nothing!'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--THE INHERITANCE
+
+
+
+'For he that needs five thousand pound to live
+Is full as poor as he that needs but five.
+But if thy son can make ten pound his measure,
+Then all thou addest may be called his treasure.'
+
+GEORGE HERBERT.
+
+It was in the spring of 1829 that my father received a lawyer's 
+letter announcing the death of James Winslow, Esquire, of Chantry 
+House, Earlscombe, and inviting him, as heir-at-law, to be present 
+at the funeral and opening of the will.  The surprise to us all was 
+great.  Even my mother had hardly heard of Chantry House itself, far 
+less as a possible inheritance; and she had only once seen James 
+Winslow.  He was the last of the elder branch of the family, a third 
+cousin, and older than my father, who had known him in times long 
+past.  When they had last met, the Squire of Chantry House was a 
+married man, with more than one child; my father a young barrister; 
+and as one lived entirely in the country and the other in town, 
+without any special congeniality, no intercourse had been kept up, 
+and it was a surprise to hear that he had left no surviving 
+children.  My father greatly doubted whether being heir-at-law would 
+prove to avail him anything, since it was likely that so distant a 
+relation would have made a will in favour of some nearer connection 
+on his wife's or mother's side.  He was very vague about Chantry 
+House, only knowing that it was supposed to be a fair property, and 
+he would hardly consent to take Griffith with him by the Western 
+Royal Mail, warning him and all the rest of us that our expectations 
+would be disappointed.
+
+Nevertheless we looked out the gentlemen's seats in Paterson's Road 
+Book, and after much research, for Chantry House lay far off from 
+the main road, we came upon--'Chantry House, Earlscombe, the seat of 
+James Winslow, Esquire, once a religious foundation; beautifully 
+situated on a rising ground, commanding an extensive prospect--'
+
+'A religious foundation!' cried Emily.  'It will be a dear delicious 
+old abbey, all Gothic architecture, with cloisters and ruins and 
+ghosts.'
+
+'Ghosts!' said my mother severely, 'what has put such nonsense into 
+your head?'
+
+Nevertheless Emily made up her mind that Chantry House would be 
+another Melrose, and went about repeating the moonlight scene in the 
+Lay of the Last Minstrel whenever she thought no one was there to 
+laugh at her.
+
+My father and Griffith returned with the good news that there was no 
+mistake.  Chantry House was really his own, with the estate 
+belonging to it, reckoned at 5000 pounds a year, exclusive of a 
+handsome provision to Miss Selby, the niece of the late Mrs. 
+Winslow, a spinster of a certain age, who had lived with her uncle, 
+and now proposed to remove to Bath.  Mr. Winslow had, it appeared, 
+lost his only son as a schoolboy, and his daughters, like their 
+mother, had been consumptive.  He had always been resolved that the 
+estate should continue in the family; but reluctance to see any one 
+take his son's place had withheld him from making any advances to my 
+father; and for several years past he had been in broken health with 
+failing faculties.
+
+Of course there was much elation.  Griff described as charming the 
+place, perched on the southern slope of a wooded hill, with a broad 
+fertile valley lying spread out before it, and the woods behind 
+affording every promise of sport.  The house, my father said, was 
+good, odd and irregular, built at different times, but quite 
+habitable, and with plenty of furniture, though he opined that mamma 
+would think it needed modernising, to which she replied that our 
+present chattels would make a great difference; whereat my father, 
+looking at the effects of more than twenty years of London blacks, 
+gave a little whistle, for she was always the economical one of the 
+pair.
+
+Emily, with glowing cheeks and eager eyes, entreated to know whether 
+it was Gothic, and had a cloister!  Papa nipped her hopes of a 
+cloister, but there were Gothic windows and doorway, and a bit of 
+ruin in the garden, a fragment of the old chapel.
+
+My father could not resign his office without notice, and, besides, 
+he wished Miss Selby to have leisure for leaving her home of many 
+years; after which there would be a few needful repairs.  The delay 
+was not a great grievance to any of us except little Martyn.  We 
+were much more Cockney than almost any one is in these days of 
+railways.  We were unusually devoid of kindred on both sides, my 
+father's holidays were short, I was not a very movable commodity, 
+and economy forbade long journeys, so that we had never gone farther 
+than Ramsgate, where we claimed a certain lodging-house as a sort of 
+right every summer.
+
+Real country was as much unknown to us as the backwoods.  My father 
+alone had been born and bred to village life and habits, for my 
+mother had spent her youth in a succession of seaport towns, 
+frequented by men-of-war.  We heard, too, that Chantry House was 
+very secluded, with only a few cottages near at hand--a mile and a 
+half from the church and village of Earlscombe, three from the tiny 
+country town of Wattlesea, four from the place where the coach 
+passed, connecting it with the civilisation of Bath and Bristol, 
+from each of which places it was about half a day's distance, 
+according to the measures of those times.  It was a sort of 
+banishment to people accustomed to the stream of life in London; and 
+though the consequence and importance derived from being raised to 
+the ranks of the Squirearchy were agreeable, they were a dear 
+purchase at the cost of being out of reach of all our friends and 
+acquaintances, as well as of other advantages.
+
+To my father, however, the retirement from his many years of 
+drudgery was really welcome, and he had preserved enough of country 
+tastes to rejoice that it was, as he said, a clear duty to reside on 
+his estate and look after his property.  My mother saw his relief in 
+the prospect, and suppressed her sighs at the dislocation of her 
+life-long habits, and the loss of intercourse with the acquaintance 
+whom separation raised to the rank of intimate friends, even her 
+misgivings as to butchers, bakers, and grocers in the wilderness, 
+and still worse, as to doctors for me.
+
+'Humph!' said the Admiral, 'the boy will be all the better without 
+them.'
+
+And so I was; I can't say they were the subject of much regret, but 
+I was really sorry to leave our big neighbour, the British Museum, 
+where there were good friends who always made me welcome, and 
+encouraged me in studies of coins and heraldry, which were great 
+resources to me, so that I used to spend hours there, and was by no 
+means willing to resign my ambition of obtaining an appointment 
+there, when I heard my father say that he was especially thankful 
+for his good fortune because it enabled him to provide for me.  
+There were lessons, too, from masters in languages, music, and 
+drawing, which Emily and I shared, and which she had just begun to 
+value thoroughly.  We had filled whole drawing-books with wriggling 
+twists of foliage in B B B marking pencil, and had just been 
+promoted to water-colours; and she was beginning to sing very 
+prettily.  I feared, too, that I should no longer have a chance of 
+rivalling Griffith's university studies.  All this, with my sister's 
+girl friends, and those kind people who used to drop in to play 
+chess, and otherwise amuse me, would all be left behind; and, sorest 
+of all, Clarence, who, whatever he was in the eyes of others, had 
+grown to be my mainstay during this last year.  He it was who 
+fetched me from the Museum, took me into the gardens, helped me up 
+and down stairs, spared no pains to rout out whatever my fanciful 
+pursuits required from shops in the City, and, in very truth, spoilt 
+me through all his hours that were free from business, besides being 
+my most perfect sympathising and understanding companion.
+
+I feared, too, that he would be terribly lonesome, though of late he 
+had been less haunted by longings for the sea, had made some way 
+with his fellows, and had been commended by the managing clerk; and 
+it was painful to find the elders did not grieve on their own 
+account at parting with him.  My mother told the Admiral that she 
+thought it would be good for Mr. Winslow's spirits not to be 
+continually reminded of his trouble; and my father might be heard 
+confiding to Mr. Castleford that the separation might be good for 
+both her and her son, if only the lad could be trusted.  To which 
+that good man replied by giving him an excellent character; but was 
+only met by a sigh, and 'Well, we shall see!'
+
+Clarence was to be lodged with Peter, whose devotion would not 
+extend to following us into barbarism, where, as he told us, he 
+understood there was no such thing as a 'harea,' and master would 
+have to kill his own mutton.
+
+Peter had been tranquilly engaged to Gooch for years untold.  They 
+were to be transformed into Mr. and Mrs. Robson, with some small 
+appointment about the Law Courts for him, and a lodging-house for 
+her, where Clarence was to abide, my mother feeling secure that 
+neither his health, his morals, nor his shirts could go much astray 
+without her receiving warning thereof.
+
+Meanwhile, by the help of an antiquarian friend of my father, Mr. 
+Stafford, who was great in county history, I hunted up in the Museum 
+library all I could discover about our new possession.
+
+The Chantry of St. Cecily at Earlscombe, in Somersetshire, had, it 
+appeared, been founded and endowed by Dame Isabel d'Oyley, in the 
+year of grace 1434, that constant prayers might be offered for the 
+souls of her husband and son, slain in the French wars.  The poor 
+lady's intentions, which to our Protestant minds appeared rather 
+shocking than otherwise, had been frustrated at the break up of such 
+establishments, when the Chantry, and the estate that maintained its 
+clerks and bedesmen, was granted to Sir Harry Power, from whom, 
+through two heiresses, it had come to the Fordyces, the last of 
+whom, by name Margaret, had died childless, leaving the estate to 
+her stepson, Philip Winslow, our ancestor.
+
+Moreover, we learnt that a portion of the building was of ancient 
+date, and that there was an 'interesting fragment' of the old chapel 
+in the grounds, which our good friend promised himself the pleasure 
+of investigating on his first holiday.
+
+To add to our newly-acquired sense of consideration and of high 
+pedigree, the family chariot, after taking Miss Selby to Bath, came 
+up post to London to be touched up at the coachbuilder's, have the 
+escutcheon altered so as to impale the Griffith coat instead of the 
+Selby, and finally to convey us to our new abode, in preparation for 
+which all its boxes came to be packed.
+
+A chariot!  You young ones have as little notion of one as of a 
+British war-chariot armed with scythes.  Yet people of a certain 
+grade were as sure to keep their chariot as their silver tea-pot; 
+indeed we knew one young couple who started in life with no other 
+habitation, but spent their time as nomads, in visits to their 
+relations and friends, for visits WERE visits then.
+
+The capacities of a chariot were considerable.  Within, there was a 
+good-sized seat for the principal occupants, and outside a dickey 
+behind, and a driving box before, though sometimes there was only 
+one of these, and that transferable.  The boxes were calculated to 
+hold family luggage on a six months' tour.  There they lay on the 
+spare-room floor, ready to be packed, the first earnest of our new 
+possessions--except perhaps the five-pound note my father gave each 
+of us four elder ones, on the day the balance at the bank was made 
+over to him.  There was the imperial, a grand roomy receptacle, 
+which was placed on the top of the carriage, and would not always go 
+upstairs in small houses; the capbox, which fitted into a curved 
+place in front of the windows, and could not stand alone, but had a 
+frame to support it; two long narrow boxes with the like infirmity 
+of standing, which fitted in below; square ones under each seat; and 
+a drop box fastened on behind.  There were pockets beneath each 
+window, and, curious relic in name and nature of the time when every 
+gentleman carried his weapon, there was the sword case, an 
+excrescence behind the back of the best seat, accessible by lifting 
+a cushion, where weapons used to be carried, but where in our 
+peaceful times travellers bestowed their luncheon and their books.
+
+Our chariot was black above, canary yellow below, beautifully 
+varnished, and with our arms blazoned on each door.  It was lined 
+with dark blue leather and cloth, picked out with blue and yellow 
+lace in accordance with our liveries, and was a gorgeous spectacle.  
+I am afraid Emily did not share in Mistress Gilpin's humility when
+
+
+      'The chaise was brought,
+   But yet was not allowed
+To drive up to the door, lest all
+   Should say that she was proud!'
+
+
+It was then that Emily and I each started a diary to record the 
+events of our new life.  Hers flourished by fits and starts; but I 
+having perforce more leisure than she, mine has gone on with few 
+interruptions till the present time, and is the backbone of this 
+narrative, which I compile and condense from it and other sources 
+before destroying it.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--THE OLD HOUSE
+
+
+
+'Your history whither are you spinning?
+   Can you do nothing but describe?
+A house there is, and that's enough!'
+
+GRAY.
+
+How we did enjoy our journey, when the wrench from our old home was 
+once made.  We did not even leave Clarence behind, for Mr. 
+Castleford had given him a holiday, so that he might not appear to 
+be kept at a distance, as if under a cloud, and might help me 
+through our travels.
+
+My mother and I occupied the inside of the carriage, with Emily 
+between us at the outset; but when we were off the London stones she 
+was often allowed to make a third on the dickey with Clarence and 
+Martyn, whose ecstatic heels could be endured for the sake of the 
+free air and the view.  Of course we posted, and where there were 
+severe hills we indulged in four horses.  The varieties of the 
+jackets of our post-boys, blue or yellow, as supposed to indicate 
+the politics of their inns, were interesting to us, as everything 
+was interesting then.  Otherwise their equipment was exactly alike--
+neat drab corduroy breeches and top-boots, and hats usually white, 
+and they were all boys, though the red faces and grizzled hair of 
+some looked as if they had faced the weather for at least fifty 
+years.
+
+It was a beautiful August, and the harvest fields were a sight 
+perfectly new, filling us with rapture unspeakable.  At every hill 
+which offered an excuse, our outsiders were on their feet, thrusting 
+in their heads and hands to us within with exclamations of delight, 
+and all sorts of discoveries--really new to us three younger ones.  
+Ears of corn, bearded barley, graceful oats, poppies, corn-flowers, 
+were all delicious novelties to Emily and me, though Griff and my 
+father laughed at our ecstasies, and my mother occasionally objected 
+to the wonderful accumulation of curiosities thrust into her lap or 
+the door pockets, and tried to persuade Martyn that rooks' wings, 
+dead hedgehogs, sticks and stones of various merits, might be found 
+at Earlscombe, until Clarence, by the judicious purchase of a basket 
+at Salisbury, contrived to satisfy all parties and safely dispose of 
+the treasures.  The objects that stand out in my memory on that 
+journey were Salisbury Spire, and a long hill where the hedgebank 
+was one mass of the exquisite rose-bay willow herb--a perfect 
+revelation to our city-bred eyes; but indeed, the whole route was 
+like one panorama to us of L'Allegro and other descriptions on which 
+we had fed.  For in those days we were much more devoted to poetry 
+than is the present generation, which has a good deal of false shame 
+on that head.
+
+Even dining and sleeping at an inn formed a pleasing novelty, though 
+we did not exactly sympathise with Martyn when he dashed in at 
+breakfast exulting in having witnessed the killing of a pig.  As my 
+father observed, it was too like realising Peter's forebodings of 
+our return to savage life.
+
+Demonstrations were not the fashion of these times, and there was a 
+good deal of dull discontent and disaffection in the air, so that no 
+tokens of welcome were prepared for us--not even a peal of bells; 
+nor indeed should we have heard them if they had been rung, for the 
+church was a mile and a half beyond the house, with a wood between 
+cutting off the sound, except in certain winds.  We did not miss a 
+reception, which would rather have embarrassed us.  We began to 
+think it was time to arrive, and my father believed we were climbing 
+the last hill, when, just as we had passed a remarkably pretty 
+village and church, Griffith called out to say that we were on our 
+own ground.  He had made his researches with the game keeper while 
+my father was busy with the solicitor, and could point to our 
+boundary wall, a little below the top of the hill on the northern 
+side.  He informed us that the place we had passed was Hillside--
+Fordyce property,--but this was Earlscombe, our own.  It was a great 
+stony bit of pasture with a few scattered trees, but after the flat 
+summit was past, the southern side was all beechwood, where a gate 
+admitted us into a drive cut out in a slant down the otherwise steep 
+descent, and coming out into an open space.  And there we were!
+
+The old house was placed on the widest part of a kind of shelf or 
+natural terrace, of a sort of amphitheatre shape, with wood on 
+either hand, but leaving an interval clear in the midst broad enough 
+for house and gardens, with a gentle green slope behind, and a much 
+steeper one in front, closed in by the beechwoods.  The house stood 
+as it were sideways, or had been made to do so by later inhabitants.  
+I know this is very long-winded, but there have been such 
+alterations that without minute description this narrative will be 
+unintelligible.
+
+The aspect was northwards so far as the lie of the ground was 
+concerned, but the house stood across.  The main body was of the big 
+symmetrical Louis XIV. style--or, as it is now the fashion to call 
+it, Queen Anne--brick, with stone quoins, big sash-windows, and a 
+great square hall in the midst, with the chief rooms opening into 
+it.  The principal entrance had been on the north, with a huge front 
+door and a flight of stone steps, and just space enough for a gravel 
+coach ring before the rapid grassy descent.  Later constitutions, 
+however, must have eschewed that northern front door, and later 
+nerves that narrow verge, and on the eastern front had been added 
+that Gothic porch of which Emily had heard,--and a flagrantly modern 
+Gothic porch it was, flanked by two comical little turrets, with 
+loopholes, from which a thread-paper or Tom Thumb might have 
+defended it.  Otherwise it resembled a church porch, except for the 
+formidable points of a sham portcullis; but there was no denying 
+that it greatly increased the comfort of the house, with its two 
+sets of heavy doors, and the seats on either side.  The great hall 
+door had been closed up, plastered over within, and rendered 
+inoffensive.  Towards the west there was another modern addition of 
+drawing and dining rooms, and handsome bedchambers above, in Gothic 
+taste, i.e. with pointed arches filled up with glass over the sash-
+windows.  The drawing-room was very pretty, with a glass door at the 
+end leading into an old-fashioned greenhouse, and two French windows 
+to the south opening upon the lawn, which soon began to slope 
+upwards, curving, as I said, like an amphitheatre, and was always 
+shady and sheltered, tilting its flower-beds towards the house as if 
+to display them.  The dining-room had, in like manner, one west and 
+two north windows, the latter commanding a grand view over the green 
+meadow-land below, dotted with round knolls, and rising into blue 
+hills beyond.  We became proud of counting the villages and church 
+towers we could see from thence.
+
+There was a still older portion, more ancient than the square corps 
+de logis, and built of the cream-coloured stone of the country.  It 
+was at the south-eastern angle, where the ground began sloping so 
+near the house that this wing--if it may so be called--containing 
+two good-sized rooms nearly on a level with the upper floor, had 
+nothing below but some open stone vaultings, under which it was only 
+just possible for my tall brothers to stand upright, at the 
+innermost end.  These opened into the cellars which, no doubt, 
+belonged to the fifteenth-century structure.  There seemed to have 
+once been a door and two or three steps to the ground, which rose 
+very close to the southern end; but this had been walled up.  The 
+rooms had deep mullioned windows east and west, and very handsome 
+groined ceilings, and were entered by two steps down from the 
+gallery round the upper part of the hall.  There was a very handsome 
+double staircase of polished oak, shaped like a Y, the stem of which 
+began just opposite the original front door--making us wonder if 
+people knew what draughts were in the days of Queen Anne, and 
+remember Madame de Maintenon's complaint that health was sacrificed 
+to symmetry.  Not far from this oldest portion were some broken bits 
+of wall and stumps of columns, remnants of the chapel, and prettily 
+wreathed with ivy and clematis.  We rejoiced in such a pretty and 
+distinctive ornament to our garden, and never troubled ourselves 
+about the desecration; and certainly ours was one of the most 
+delightful gardens that ever existed, what with green turf, bright 
+flowers, shapely shrubs, and the grand beech-trees enclosing it with 
+their stately white pillars, green foliage, and the russet arcades 
+beneath them.  The stillness was wonderful to ears accustomed to the 
+London roar--almost a new sensation.  Emily was found, as she said, 
+'listening to the silence;' and my father declared that no one could 
+guess at the sense of rest that it gave him.
+
+Of space within there was plenty, though so much had been sacrificed 
+to the hall and staircase; and this was apparently the cause of the 
+modern additions, as the original sitting-rooms, wainscotted and 
+double-doored, were rather small for family requirements.  One of 
+these, once the dining-room, became my father's study, where he read 
+and wrote, saw his tenants, and by and by acted as Justice of the 
+Peace.  The opposite one, towards the garden, was termed the book-
+room.  Here Martyn was to do his lessons, and Emily and I carry on 
+our studies, and do what she called keeping up her accomplishments.  
+My couch and appurtenances abode there, and it was to be my retreat 
+from company,--or on occasion could be made a supplementary drawing-
+room, as its fittings showed it had been the parlour.  It 
+communicated with another chamber, which became my own--sparing the 
+difficulties that stairs always presented; and beyond lay, niched 
+under the grand staircase, a tiny light closet, a passage-room, 
+where my mother put a bed for a man-servant, not liking to leave me 
+entirely alone on the ground floor.  It led to a passage to the 
+garden door, also to my mother's den, dedicated to housewifely cares 
+and stores, and ended at the back stairs, descending to the 
+servants' region.  This was very old, handsomely vaulted with stone, 
+and, owing to the fall of the ground, had ample space for light on 
+the north side,--where, beyond the drive, the descent was so rapid 
+as to afford Martyn infinite delight in rolling down, to the horror 
+of all beholders and the detriment of his white duck trowsers.
+
+I don't know much about the upper story, so I spare you that.  Emily 
+had a hankering for one of the pretty old mullioned-windowed rooms--
+the mullion chambers, as she named them; but Griff pounced on them 
+at once, the inner for his repose, the outer for his guns and his 
+studies--not smoking, for young men were never permitted to smoke 
+within doors, nor indeed in any home society.  The choice of the son 
+and heir was undisputed, and he proceeded to settle his possessions 
+in his new domains, where they made an imposing appearance.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--RATS
+
+
+
+'As louder and louder, drawing near,
+The gnawing of their teeth he could hear.'
+
+SOUTHEY.
+
+'What a ridiculous old fellow that Chapman is,' said Griff, coming 
+in from a conference with the gaunt old man who acted as keeper to 
+our not very extensive preserves.  'I told him to get some gins for 
+the rats in my rooms, and he shook his absurd head like any 
+mandarin, and said, "There baint no trap as will rid you of them 
+kind of varmint, sir."'
+
+'Of course,' my father said, 'rats are part of the entail of an old 
+house.  You may reckon on them.'
+
+'Those rooms of yours are the very place for them,' added my mother.  
+'I only hope they will not infest the rest of the house.'
+
+To which Griff rejoined that they perpetrated the most extraordinary 
+noises he had ever heard from rats, and told Emily she might be 
+thankful to him for taking those rooms, for she would have been 
+frightened out of her little wits.  He meant, he said, to get a 
+little terrier, and have a thorough good rat hunt, at which Martyn 
+capered about in irrepressible ecstasy.
+
+This, however, was deferred by the unwillingness of old Chapman, of 
+whom even Griff was somewhat in awe.  His fame as a sportsman had to 
+be made, and he had had only such practice as could be attained by 
+shooting at a mark ever since he had been aware of his coming 
+greatness.  So he was desirous of conciliating Chapman, and not 
+getting laughed at as the London young gentleman who could not hit a 
+hay-stack.  My father, who had been used to carrying a gun in his 
+younger days, was much amused, in his quiet way, at seeing Griff 
+watch Chapman off on his rounds, and then betake himself to the 
+locality most remote from the keeper's ears to practise on the rook 
+or crow.  Martyn always ran after him, having solemnly promised not 
+to touch the gun, and to keep behind.  He was too good-natured to 
+send the little fellow back, though he often tried to elude the 
+pursuit, not wishing for a witness to his attempts; and he never 
+invited Clarence, who had had some experience of curious game but 
+never mentioned it.
+
+Clarence devoted himself to Emily and me, tugging my garden-chair 
+along all the paths where it would go without too much jolting, and 
+when I had had enough, exploring those hanging woods, either with 
+her or on his own account.  They used to come home with their hands 
+full of flowers, and this resulted in a vehement attack of botany,--
+a taste that has lasted all our lives, together with the hortus 
+siccus to which we still make additions, though there has been a 
+revolution there as well as everywhere else, and the Linnaean system 
+we learnt so eagerly from Martin's Letters is altogether exploded 
+and antiquated.  Still, my sister refuses to own the scientific 
+merits of the natural system, and can point to school-bred and 
+lectured young ladies who have no notion how to discover the name or 
+nature of a live plant.
+
+On the Friday after our arrival the noises had been so fearful that 
+Griff had been exasperated into going off across the hills, 
+accompanied by his constant shadow, Martyn, in search of the 
+professional ratcatcher of the neighbourhood, in spite of Chapman's 
+warning--that Tom Petty was the biggest rascal in the neighbourhood, 
+and a regular out and out poacher; and as to the noises--he couldn't 
+'tackle the like of they.'  After revelling in the beauty of the 
+beechwoods as long as was good for me or for Clarence, I was left in 
+the garden to sketch the ruin, while my two companions started on 
+one of their exploring expeditions.
+
+It was getting late enough to think of going to prepare for the six 
+o'clock dinner when Emily came forth alone from the path between the 
+trees, announcing--'An adventure, Edward!  We have had such an 
+adventure.'
+
+'Where's Clarence?'
+
+'Gone for the doctor!  Oh, no; Griff hasn't shot anybody.  He is 
+gone for the ratcatcher, you know.  It is a poor little herdboy, who 
+tumbled out of a tree; and oh! such a sweet, beautiful, young lady--
+just like a book!'
+
+When Emily became less incoherent, it appeared that on coming out on 
+the bit of common above the wood, as she and Clarence were halting 
+on the brow of the hill to admire the view, they heard a call for 
+help, and hurrying down in the direction whence it proceeded they 
+saw a stunted ash-tree, beneath which were a young lady and a little 
+child bending over a village lad who lay beneath moaning piteously.  
+The girl, whom Emily described as the most beautiful creature she 
+ever saw, explained that the boy, who had been herding the cattle 
+scattered around, had been climbing the tree, a limb of which had 
+broken with him.  She had seen the fall from a distance, and hurried 
+up; but she hardly knew what to do, for her little sister was too 
+young to be sent in quest of assistance.  Clarence thought one leg 
+seriously injured, and as the young lady seemed to know the boy, 
+offered to carry him home.  School officers were yet in the future; 
+children were set to work almost as soon as they could walk, and 
+this little fellow was so light and thin as to shock Clarence when 
+he had been taken up on his back, for he weighed quite a trifle.  
+The young lady showed the way to a wretched little cottage, where a 
+bigger girl had just come in with a sheaf of corn freshly gleaned 
+poised on her head.  They sent her to fetch her mother, and Clarence 
+undertook to go for a doctor, but to the surprise and horror of 
+Emily, there was a demur.  Something was said of old Molly and her 
+'ile' and 'yarbs,' or perhaps Madam could step round.  When 
+Clarence, on this being translated to him, pronounced the case 
+beyond such treatment, it was explained outside the door that this 
+was a terribly poor family, and the doctor would not come to parish 
+patients for an indefinite time after his summons, besides which, he 
+lived at Wattlesea.  'Indeed mamma does almost all the doctoring 
+with her medicine chest,' said the girl.
+
+On which Clarence declared that he would let the doctor know that he 
+himself would be responsible for the cost of the attendance, and set 
+off for Wattlesea, a kind of town village in the flat below.  He 
+could not get back till dinner was half over, and came in alarmed 
+and apologetic; but he had nothing worse to encounter than Griff's 
+unmerciful banter (or, as you would call it, chaff) about his knight 
+errantry, and Emily's lovely heroine in the sweetest of cottage 
+bonnets.
+
+Griff could be slightly tyrannous in his merry mockery, and when he 
+found that on the ensuing day Clarence proposed to go and inquire 
+after the patient, he made such wicked fun of the expectations the 
+pair entertained of hearing the sweet cottage bonnet reading a tract 
+in a silvery voice through the hovel window, that he fairly teased 
+and shamed Clarence out of starting till the renowned Tom Petty 
+arrived and absorbed all the three brothers, and even their father, 
+in delights as mysterious to me as to Emily.  How she shrieked when 
+Martyn rushed triumphantly into the room where we were arranging 
+books with the huge patriarch of all the rats dangling by his tail!  
+Three hopeful families were destroyed; rooms, vaults, and cellars 
+examined and cleared; and Petty declared the race to be 
+exterminated, picturesque ruffian that he was, in his shapeless hat, 
+rusty velveteen, long leggings, a live ferret in his pocket, and 
+festoons of dead rats over his shoulder.
+
+Chapman, who regarded him much as the ferret did the rat, declared 
+that the rabbits and hares would suffer from letting 'that there 
+chap' show his face here on any plea; and, moreover, gave a grunt 
+very like a scoff; at the idea of slumbers in the mullion rooms (as 
+they were called) being secured by his good offices.
+
+And Chapman was right.  The unaccountable noises broke out again--
+screaming, wailing, sobbing--sounds scarcely within the power of cat 
+or rat, but possibly the effect of the wind in the old building.  At 
+any rate, Griff could not stand them, and declared that sleep was 
+impossible when the wind was in that quarter, so that he must shift 
+his bedroom elsewhere, though he still wished to retain the outer 
+apartment, which he had taken pleasure in adorning with his special 
+possessions.  My mother would scarcely have tolerated such fancies 
+in any one else, but Griff had his privileges.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--OUR TUNEFUL CHOIR
+
+
+
+'The church has been whitewashed, but right long ago,
+As the cracks and the dinginess amply doth show;
+About the same time that a strange petrifaction
+Confined the incumbent to mere Sunday action.
+So many abuses in this place are rife,
+The only church things giving token of life
+Are the singing within and the nettles without -
+Both equally rampant without any doubt.'
+
+F. R. HAVERGAL.
+
+All Griff's teasing could not diminish--nay, rather increased--
+Emily's excitement in the hope of seeing and identifying the sweet 
+cottage bonnet at church on Sunday.  The distance we had to go was 
+nearly two miles, and my mother and I drove thither in a donkey 
+chair, which had been hunted up in London for that purpose because 
+the 'pheeaton' (as the servants insisted on calling it) was too high 
+for me.  My father had an old-fashioned feeling about the Fourth 
+Commandment, which made him scrupulous as to using any animal on 
+Sunday; and even when, in bad weather, or for visitors, the larger 
+carriage was used, he always walked.  He was really angry with Griff 
+that morning for mischievously maintaining that it was a greater 
+breach of the commandment to work an ass than a horse.
+
+It was a pretty drive on a road slanting gradually through the 
+brushwood that clothed the steep face of the hillside, and passing 
+farms and meadows full of cattle--all things quieter and stiller 
+than ever in their Sunday repose.  We knew that the living was in 
+Winslow patronage, but that it was in the hands of one of the Selby 
+connection, who held it, together with it is not safe to say how 
+many benefices, and found it necessary for his health to reside at 
+Bath.  The vicarage had long since been turned into a farmhouse, and 
+the curate lived at Wattlesea.  All this we knew, but we had not 
+realised that he was likewise assistant curate there, and only 
+favoured Earlscombe with alternate morning and evening services on 
+Sundays.
+
+Still less were we prepared for the interior of the church.  It had 
+a picturesque square tower covered with ivy, and a general air of 
+fitness for a sketch; indeed, the photograph of it in its present 
+beautified state will not stand a comparison with our drawings of 
+it, in those days of dilapidation in the middle of the untidy 
+churchyard, with little boys astride on the sloping, sunken lichen-
+grown headstones, mullein spikes and burdock leaves, more graceful 
+than the trim borders and zinc crosses which are pleasanter to the 
+mental eye.
+
+The London church we had left would be a fearful shock to the 
+present generation, but we were accustomed to decency, order, and 
+reverence; and it was no wonder that my father was walking about the 
+churchyard, muttering that he never saw such a place, while my 
+brothers were full of amusement.  Their spruce looks in their tall 
+hats, bright ties, dark coats, and white trowsers strapped tight 
+under their boots, looked incongruous with the rest of the 
+congregation, the most distinguished members of which were farmers 
+in drab coats with huge mother-of-pearl buttons, and long gaiters 
+buttoned up to their knees and strapped up to their gay waistcoats 
+over their white corduroys.  Their wives and daughters were in 
+enormous bonnets, fluttering with ribbons; but then what my mother 
+and Emily wore were no trifles.  The rest of the congregation were--
+the male part of it--in white or gray smock-frocks, the elderly 
+women in black bonnets, the younger in straw; but we had not long to 
+make our observations, for Chapman took possession of us.  He was 
+parish clerk, and was in great glory in his mourning coat and hat, 
+and his object was to marshal us all into our pew before he had to 
+attend upon the clergyman; and of course I was glad enough to get as 
+soon as possible out of sight of all the eyes not yet accustomed to 
+my figure.
+
+And hidden enough I was when we had been introduced through the 
+little north chancel door into a black-curtained, black-cushioned, 
+black-lined pew, well carpeted, with a table in the midst, and a 
+stove, whose pipe made its exit through the floriated tracery of the 
+window overhead.  The chancel arch was to the west of us, blocked up 
+by a wooden parcel-gilt erection, and to the east a decorated window 
+that would have been very handsome if two side-lights had not been 
+obscured by the two Tables of the Law, with the royal arms on the 
+top of the first table, and over the other our own, with the Fordyce 
+in a scutcheon of pretence; for, as an inscription recorded, they 
+had been erected by Margaret, daughter of Christopher Fordyce, 
+Esquire, of Chantry House, and relict of Sir James John Winslow, 
+Kt., sergeant-at-law, A.D. 1700--the last date, I verily believe, at 
+which anything had been done to the church.  And on the wall, 
+stopping up the southern chancel window, was a huge marble slab, 
+supported by angels blowing trumpets, with a very long inscription 
+about the Fordyce family, ending with this same Margaret, who had 
+married the Winslow, lost two or three infants, and died on 1st 
+January 1708, three years later than her husband.
+
+Thus far I could see; but Griff was standing lifting the curtain, 
+and showing by the working of his shoulders his amazement and 
+diversion, so that only the daggers in my mother's eyes kept Martyn 
+from springing up after him.  What he beheld was an altar draped in 
+black like a coffin, and on the step up to the rail, boys and girls 
+eating apples and performing antics to beguile the waiting time, 
+while a row of white-smocked old men occupied the bench opposite to 
+our seat, conversing loud enough for us to hear them.
+
+My father and Clarence came in; the bells stopped; there was a sound 
+of steps, and in the fabric in front of us there emerged a grizzled 
+head and the back of a very dirty surplice besprinkled with iron 
+moulds, while Chapman's back appeared above our curtain, his desk 
+(full of dilapidated prayer-books) being wedged in between us and 
+the reading-desk.
+
+The duet that then took place between him and the curate must have 
+been heard to be credible, especially as, being so close behind the 
+old man, we could not fail to be aware of all the remarkable shots 
+at long words which he bawled out at the top of his voice, and I 
+refrain from recording, lest they should haunt others as they have 
+done by me all my life.  Now and then Chapman caught up a long 
+switch and dashed out at some obstreperous child to give an audible 
+whack; and towards the close of the litany he stumped out--we heard 
+his tramp the whole length of the church, and by and by his voice 
+issued from an unknown height, proclaiming--'Let us sing to the 
+praise and glory in an anthem taken from the 42d chapter of 
+Genesis.'
+
+There was an outburst of bassoon, clarionet, and fiddle, and the 
+performance that followed was the most marvellous we had ever heard, 
+especially when the big butcher--fiddling all the time--declared in 
+a mighty solo, 'I am Jo--Jo--Jo--Joseph!' and having reiterated this 
+information four or five times, inquired with equal pertinacity, 
+'Doth--doth my fa-a-u-ther yet live?'  Poor Emily was fairly 
+'convulsed;' she stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth, and grew 
+so crimson that my mother was quite frightened, and very near 
+putting her out at the little door of excommunication.  To our last 
+hour we shall never forget the shock of that first anthem.
+
+The Commandments were read from the desk, Chapman's solitary 
+response coming from the gallery; and while the second singing--four 
+verses from Tate and Brady--was going on, we beheld the surplice 
+stripped off,--like the slough of a May-fly, as Griff said,--when a 
+rusty black gown was revealed, in which the curate ascended the 
+pulpit and was lost to our view before the concluding verse of the 
+psalm, which we had reason to believe was selected in compliment to 
+us, as well as to Earlscombe, -
+
+
+'My lot is fall'n in that blest land
+   Where God is truly know,
+He fills my cup with liberal hand;
+   'Tis He--'tis He--'tis He--supports my throne.'
+
+
+We had great reason to doubt how far the second line could justly be 
+applied to the parish! but there was no judging of the sermon, for 
+only detached sentences reached us in a sort of mumble.  Griff 
+afterwards declared churchgoing to be as good as a comedy, and we 
+all had to learn to avoid meeting each other's eyes, whatever we 
+might hear.  When the scuffle and tramp of the departing 
+congregation had ceased, we came forth from our sable box, and 
+beheld the remnants of a once handsome church, mauled in every 
+possible way, green stains on the walls, windows bricked up, and a 
+huge singing gallery.  Good bits of carved stall work were nailed 
+anyhow into the pews; the floor was uneven; no font was visible; 
+there was a mouldy uncared-for look about everything.  The curate in 
+riding-boots came out of the vestry,--a pale, weary-looking man, 
+painfully meek and civil, with gray hair sleeked round his face.  He 
+'louted low,' and seemed hardly to venture on taking the hand my 
+father held out to him.  There was some attempt to enter into 
+conversation with him, but he begged to be excused, for he had to 
+hurry back to Wattlesea to a funeral.  Poor man! he was as great a 
+pluralist as his vicar, for he kept a boys' school, partially day, 
+partially boarding, and his eyes looked hungrily at Martyn.
+
+If the 'sweet cottage bonnet' had been at church there would have 
+been little chance of discovering her, but we found that we were the 
+only 'quality,' as Chapman called it, or things might not have been 
+so bad.  Old James Winslow had been a mere fox-hunting squire till 
+he became a valetudinarian; nor had he ever cared for the church or 
+for the poor, so that the village was in a frightful state of 
+neglect.  There was a dissenting chapel, old enough to be overgrown 
+with ivy and not too hideous, erected by the Nonconformists in the 
+reign of the Great Deliverer, but this partook of the general 
+decadence of the parish, and, as we found, the chapel's principal 
+use was to serve as an excuse for not going to church.
+
+My father always went to church twice, so he and Clarence walked to 
+Wattlesea, where appearances were more respectable; but they heard 
+the same sermon over again, and, as my father drily remarked, it was 
+not a composition that would bear repetition.
+
+He was much distressed at the state of things, and intended to write 
+to the incumbent, though, as he said, whatever was done would end by 
+being at his own expense, and the move and other calls left him so 
+little in hand that he sighed over the difficulties, and declared 
+that he was better off in London, except for the honour of the 
+thing.  Perhaps my mother was of the same opinion after a dreary 
+afternoon, when Griff and Martyn had been wandering about aimlessly, 
+and were at length betrayed by the barking of a little terrier, 
+purchased the day before from Tom Petty, besieging the stable cat, 
+who stood with swollen tail, glaring eyes, and thunderous growls, on 
+the top of the tallest pillar of the ruins.  Emily nearly cried at 
+their cruelty.  Martyn was called off by my mother, and set down, 
+half sulky, half ashamed, to Henry and his Bearer; and Griff, vowing 
+that he believed it was that brute who made the row at night, and 
+that she ought to be exterminated, strolled off to converse with 
+Chapman, who was a quaint compound of clerk and keeper--in the one 
+capacity upholding his late master, in the other bemoaning Mr. 
+Mears' unpunctualities, specially as regarded weddings and funerals; 
+one 'corp' having been kept waiting till a messenger had been sent 
+to Wattlesea, who finding both clergy out for the day, had had to go 
+to Hillside, 'where they was always ready, though the old Squire 
+would have been mad with him if he'd a-guessed one of they Fordys 
+had ever set foot in the parish.'
+
+The only school in the place was close to the meeting-house, 'a very 
+dame's school indeed,' as Emily described it after a peep on Monday.  
+Dame Dearlove, the old woman who presided, was a picture of 
+Shenstone's schoolmistress,--black bonnet, horn spectacles, fearful 
+birch rod, three-cornered buff 'kerchief, checked apron and all, but 
+on meddling with her, she proved a very dragon, the antipodes of her 
+name.  Tattered copies of the Universal Spelling-Book served her 
+aristocracy, ragged Testaments the general herd, whence all appeared 
+to be shouting aloud at once.  She looked sour as verjuice when my 
+mother and Emily entered, and gave them to understand that 'she 
+wasn't used to no strangers in her school, and didn't want 'em.'  We 
+found that in Chapman's opinion she 'didn't larn 'em nothing.'  She 
+had succeeded her aunt, who had taught him to read 'right off,' but 
+'her baint to be compared with she.'  And now the farmers' children, 
+and the little aristocracy, including his own grand-children,--all 
+indeed who, in his phrase, 'cared for eddication,'--went to 
+Wattlesea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--'THEY FORDYS.'
+
+
+
+'Of honourable reckoning are you both,
+And pity 'tis, you lived at odds so long.'
+
+SHAKESPEARE.
+
+My father had a good deal of business in hand, and was glad of 
+Clarence's help in writing and accounts,--a great pleasure, though 
+it prevented his being Griff's companion in his exploring and essays 
+at shooting.  He had time, however, to make an expedition with me in 
+the donkey chair to inquire after the herdboy, Amos Bell, and carry 
+him some kitchen physic.  To our horror we found him quite alone in 
+the wretched cottage, while everybody was out harvesting; but he did 
+not seem to pity himself, or think it otherwise than quite natural, 
+as he lay on a little bed in the corner, disabled by what Clarence 
+thought a dislocation.  Miss Ellen had brought him a pudding, and 
+little Miss Anne a picture-book.
+
+He was not so dense and shy as the children of the hamlet near us, 
+and Emily extracted from him that Miss Ellen was 'Our passon's young 
+lady.'
+
+'Mr. Mears'!' she exclaimed.
+
+'No:  ourn be Passon Fordy.'
+
+It turned out that this place was not in Earlscombe at all, but in 
+Hillside, a different parish; and the boy, Amos, further 
+communicated that there was old Passon Fordy, and Passon Frank, and 
+Madam, what was Mr. Frank's lady.  Yes, he could read, he could; he 
+went to Sunday School, and was in Miss Ellen's class; he had been to 
+school worky days, only father was dead, and Farmer Hartop gave him 
+a job.
+
+It was plain that Hillside was under a very different rule from 
+Earlscombe; and Emily was delighted to have discovered that the 
+sweet cottage bonnet's owner was called Ellen, which just then was 
+the pet Christian name of romance, in honour of the Lady of the 
+Lake.
+
+In the midst of her raptures, however, just as we were about to turn 
+in at our own gate into the wood, we heard horses' hoofs, and then 
+came, careering by on ponies, a very pretty girl and a youth of 
+about the same age.  Clarence's hand rose to his hat, and he made 
+his eager bow; but the young lady did not vouchsafe the slightest 
+acknowledgment, turned her head away, and urged her pony to speed.
+
+Emily broke out with an angry disappointed exclamation.  Clarence's 
+face was scarlet, and he said low and hoarsely, 'That's Lester.  He 
+was in the Argus at Portsmouth two years ago;'--and then, as our 
+little sister continued her indignant exclamations, he added, 'Hush!  
+Don't on any account say a word about it.  I had better get back to 
+my work.  I am only doing you harm by staying here.'
+
+At which Emily shed tears, and together we persuaded him not to 
+curtail his holiday, which, indeed, he could not have done without 
+assigning the reason to the elders, and this was out of the 
+question.  Nor did he venture to hang back when, as our service was 
+to be on Sunday afternoon, my father proposed to walk to Hillside 
+Church in the morning.  They came back well pleased.  There was care 
+and decency throughout.  The psalms were sung to a 'grinder organ'--
+which was an advanced state of things in those days--and very 
+nicely.  Parson Frank read well and impressively, and the old 
+parson, a fine venerable man, had preached an excellent sermon--
+really admirable, as my father repeated.  Our party had been 
+scarcely in time, and had been disposed of in seats close to the 
+door, where Clarence was quite out of sight of the disdainful young 
+lady and her squire, of whom Emily begged to hear no more.
+
+She looked askance at the cards left on the hall table the next day-
+-'The Rev. Christopher Fordyce,' and 'The Rev. F. C. Fordyce,' also 
+'Mrs. F. C. Fordyce, Hillside Rectory.'
+
+We had found out that Hillside was a family living, and that there 
+was much activity there on the part of the father and son--rector 
+and curate; and that the other clerical folk, ladies especially, who 
+called on us, spoke of Mrs. F. C. Fordyce with a certain tone, as if 
+they were afraid of her, as Sir Horace Lester's sister,--very 
+superior, very active, very strict in her notions,--as if these were 
+so many defects.  They were an offshoot of the old Fordyces of 
+Chantry House, but so far back that all recollection of kindred or 
+connection must have worn out.  Their property--all in beautiful 
+order--marched with ours, and Chapman was very particular about the 
+boundaries.  'Old master he wouldn't have a bird picked up if it 
+fell over on they Fordys' ground--not he!  He couldn't abide 
+passons, couldn't the old Squire--not Miss Hannah More, and all they 
+Cheddar lot, and they Fordys least of all.  My son's wife, she was 
+for sending her little maid to Hillside to Madam Fordys' school, 
+but, bless your heart, 'twould have been as much as my place was 
+worth if master had known it.'
+
+The visit was not returned till after Clarence had gone back to his 
+London work.  Sore as was the loss of him from my daily life, I 
+could see that the new world and fresh acquaintances were a trial to 
+him, and especially since the encounter with young Lester had driven 
+him back into his shell, so that he would be better where he was 
+already known and had nothing new to overcome.  Emily, though not 
+yet sixteen, was emancipated from schoolroom habits, and the dear 
+girl was my devoted slave to an extent that perhaps I abused.
+
+Not being 'come out,' she was left at home on the day when we set 
+out on a regular progress in the chariot with post-horses.  The 
+britshka and pair, which were our ambition, were to wait till my 
+father's next rents came in.  Morning calls in the country were a 
+solemn and imposing ceremony, and the head of the family had to be 
+taken on the first circuit; nor was there much scruple as to making 
+them in the forenoon, so several were to be disposed of before 
+fulfilling an engagement to luncheon at the farthest point, where 
+some old London friends had borrowed a house for the summer, and had 
+included me in their invitation.
+
+Here alone did I leave the carriage, but I had Cooper's Spy and my 
+sketch-book as companions while waiting at doors where the 
+inhabitants were at home.  The last visit was at Hillside Rectory, a 
+house of architecture somewhat similar to our own, but of the soft 
+creamy stone which so well set off the vine with purple clusters, 
+the myrtles and fuchsias, that covered it.  I was wishing we had 
+drawn up far enough off for a sketch to be possible, when, from a 
+window close above, I heard the following words in a clear girlish 
+voice -
+
+'No, indeed!  I'm not going down.  It is only those horrid 
+Earlscombe people.  I can't think how they have the face to come 
+near us!'
+
+There was a reply, perhaps that the parents had made the first 
+visit, for the rejoinder was--'Yes; grandpapa said it was a 
+Christian duty to make an advance; but they need not have come so 
+soon.  Indeed, I wonder they show themselves at all.  I am sure I 
+would not if I had such a dreadful son.'  Presently, 'I hate to 
+think of it.  That I should have thanked him.  Depend upon it, he 
+will never pay the doctor.  A coward like that is capable of 
+anything.'
+
+The proverb had been realised, but there could hardly have been a 
+more involuntary or helpless listener.  Presently my parents came 
+back, escorted by both the gentlemen of the house, tall fine-looking 
+men, the elder with snowy hair, and the dignity of men of the old 
+school; the younger with a joyous, hearty, out-of-door countenance, 
+more like a squire than a clergyman.
+
+The visit seemed to have been gratifying.  Mrs. Fordyce was declared 
+to be of higher stamp than most of the neighbouring ladies; and my 
+father was much pleased with the two clergymen, while as we drove 
+along he kept on admiring the well-ordered fields and fences, and 
+contrasting the pretty cottages and trim gardens with the dreary 
+appearance of our own village.  I asked why Amos Bell's home had 
+been neglected, and was answered with some annoyance, as I pointed 
+down the lane, that it was on our land, though in Hillside parish.  
+'I am glad to have such neighbours!' observed my mother, and I kept 
+to myself the remarks I had heard, though I was still tingling with 
+the sting of them.
+
+We heard no more of 'they Fordys' for some time.  The married pair 
+went away to stay with friends, and we only once met the old 
+gentleman, when I was waiting in the street at Wattlesea in the 
+donkey chair, while my mother was trying to match netting silk in 
+the odd little shop that united fancy work, toys, and tracts with 
+the post office.  Old Mr. Fordyce met us as we drew up, handed her 
+out with a grand seigneur's courtesy, and stood talking to me so 
+delightfully that I quite forgot it was from Christian duty.
+
+My father corresponded with the old Rector about the state of the 
+parish, and at last went over to Bath for a personal conference, but 
+without much satisfaction.  The Earlscombe people were pronounced to 
+be an ungrateful good-for-nothing set, for whom it was of no use to 
+do anything; and indeed my mother made such discoveries in the 
+cottages that she durst not let Emily fulfil her cherished scheme of 
+visiting them.  The only resemblance to the favourite heroines of 
+religious tales that could be permitted was assembling a tiny Sunday 
+class in Chapman's lodge; and it must be confessed that her brothers 
+thought she made as much fuss about it as if there had been a 
+hundred scholars.
+
+However, between remonstrances and offers of undertaking a share of 
+the expense, my father managed to get Mr. Mears' services dispensed 
+with from the ensuing Lady Day, and that a resident curate should be 
+appointed, the choice of whom was to rest with himself.  It was then 
+and there decided that Martyn should be 'brought up to the Church,' 
+as people then used to term destination to Holy Orders.  My father 
+said he should feel justified in building a good house when he could 
+afford it, if it was to be a provision for one of his sons, and he 
+also felt that as he had the charge of the parish as patron, it was 
+right and fitting to train one of his sons up to take care of it.  
+Nor did Martyn show any distaste to the idea, as indeed there was 
+less in it then than at present to daunt the imagination of an 
+honest, lively boy, not as yet specially thoughtful or devout, but 
+obedient, truthful, and fairly reverent, and ready to grow as he was 
+trained.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--MRS. SOPHIA'S FEUD
+
+
+
+'O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear,
+   A sense of mystery the spirit daunted,
+And said as plain as whisper in the ear,
+   The place is haunted.'
+
+HOOD.
+
+We had a houseful at Christmas.  The Rev. Charles Henderson, a 
+Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, lately ordained a deacon, had 
+been recommended to us by our London vicar, and was willing not only 
+to take charge of the parish, but to direct my studies, and to 
+prepare Martyn for school.  He came to us for the Christmas vacation 
+to reconnoitre and engage lodgings at a farmhouse.  We liked him 
+very much--my mother being all the better satisfied after he had 
+shown her a miniature, and confided to her that the original was 
+waiting till a college living should come to him in the distant 
+future.
+
+Admiral Griffith could not tear himself from his warm rooms and his 
+club, but our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, came with his wife, 
+and revelled in the ceilings of the mullion room, where he would 
+much have liked to sleep, but that its accommodations were only fit 
+for a bachelor.
+
+Our other visitor was Miss Selby, or rather Mrs. Sophia Selby, as 
+she designated herself, according to the becoming fashion of elderly 
+spinsters, which to my mind might be gracefully resumed.  It irked 
+my father to think of the good lady's solitary Christmas at Bath, 
+and he asked her to come to us.  She travelled half-way in a post-
+chaise, and then was met by the carriage.  A very nice old lady she 
+was, with a meek, delicate babyish face, which could not be spoilt 
+by the cap of the period, one of the most disfiguring articles of 
+head gear ever devised, though nobody thought so then.  She was full 
+of kindness; indeed, if she had a fault it was the abundant pity she 
+lavished on me, and her determination to amuse me.  The weather was 
+of the kind that only the healthy and hardy could encounter, and 
+when every one else was gone out, and I was just settling in with a 
+new book, or an old crabbed Latin document, that Mr. Stafford had 
+entrusted to me to copy out fairly and translate, she would glide in 
+with her worsted work on a charitable mission to enliven poor Mr. 
+Edward.
+
+However, this was the means of my obtaining some curious 
+enlightenments.  A dinner-party was in contemplation, and she was 
+dismayed at the choice of the fashionable London hour of seven, and 
+still more by finding that the Fordyces were to be among the guests.  
+She was too well-bred to manifest her feelings to her hosts, but 
+alone with me, she could not refrain from expressing her 
+astonishment to me, all the more when she heard this was reciprocity 
+for an invitation that it had not been possible to accept.  Her poor 
+dear uncle would never hear of intercourse with Hillside.  On being 
+asked why, she repeated what Chapman had said, that he could not 
+endure any one connected with Mrs. Hannah More and her canting, 
+humbugging set, as the ungodly old man had chosen to call them, 
+imbuing even this good woman with evil prejudices against their 
+noble work at Cheddar.
+
+'Besides this, Fordyces and Winslows could never be friends, since 
+the Fordyces had taken on themselves to dispute the will, and say it 
+had been improperly obtained.'
+
+'What will?'
+
+'Mrs. Winslow's--Margaret Fordyce that was.  She was the heiress, 
+and had every right to dispose of her property.'
+
+'But that was more than a hundred years ago!'
+
+'So it was, my dear; but though the law gave it to us--to my uncle's 
+grandfather (or great-grandfather, was it?)--those Fordyces never 
+could rest content.  Why, one of them--a clergyman's son too--shot 
+young Philip Winslow dead in a duel.  They have always grudged at 
+us.  Does your papa know it, my dear Mr. Edward?  He ought to be 
+aware.'
+
+'I do not know,' I said; 'but he would hardly care about what 
+happened in the time of Queen Anne.'
+
+It was curious to see how the gentle little lady espoused the family 
+quarrel, which, after all, was none of hers.
+
+'Well, you are London people, and the other branch, and may not feel 
+as we do down here; but I shall always say that Madam Winslow's 
+husband's son had every right to come before her cousin once 
+removed.'
+
+I asked if we were descended from her, for, having a turn for 
+heraldry and genealogy, I wanted to make out our family tree.  Mrs. 
+Sophia was ready to hold up her hands at the ignorance of the 'other 
+branch.'  This poor heiress had lost all her children in their 
+infancy, and bequeathed the estate to her stepson, the Fordyce male 
+heir having been endowed by her father with the advowson of Hillside 
+and a handsome estate there, which Mrs. Selby thought ought to have 
+contented him, 'but some people never know when they have enough;' 
+and, on my observing that it might have been a matter of justice, 
+she waxed hotter, declaring that what the Winslows felt so much was 
+the accusation of violence against the poor lady.  She spoke as if 
+it were a story of yesterday, and added, 'Indeed, they made the 
+common people have all sorts of superstitious fancies about the room 
+where she died--that old part of the house.'  Then she added in a 
+low mysterious voice, 'I hear that your brother Mr. Griffith Winslow 
+could not sleep there;' and when the rats and the wind were 
+mentioned--'Yes, that was what my poor dear uncle used to say.  He 
+always called it nonsense; but we never had a servant who would 
+sleep there.  You'll not mention it, Mr. Edward, but I could not 
+help asking that very nice housemaid, Jane, whether the room was 
+used, and she said how Mr. Griffith had given it up, and none of the 
+servants could spend a night there when they are sleeping round.  Of 
+course I said all in my power to dispel the idea, and told her that 
+there was no accounting for all the noises in old houses; but you 
+never can reason with that class of people.'
+
+'Did you ever hear the noises, Mrs. Selby?'
+
+'Oh, no; I wouldn't sleep there for thousands!  Not that I attach 
+any importance to such folly,--my poor dear uncle would never hear 
+of such a thing; but I am such a nervous creature, I should lie 
+awake all night expecting the rats to run over me.  I never knew of 
+any one sleeping there, except in the gay times when I was a child, 
+and the house used to be as full as, or fuller than, it could hold, 
+for the hunt breakfast or a ball, and my poor aunt used to make up 
+ever so many beds in the two rooms, and then we never heard of any 
+disturbance, except what they made themselves.'
+
+This chiefly concerned me, because home cosseting had made me old 
+woman enough to be uneasy about unaired beds; and I knew that my 
+mother meant to consign Clarence to the mullion chamber.  So, 
+without betraying Jane, I spoke to her, and was answered, 'Oh, sir, 
+I'll take care of that; I'll light a fire and air the mattresses 
+well.  I wish that was all, poor young gentleman!'
+
+To the reply that the rats were slaughtered and the wind stopped 
+out, Jane returned a look of compassion; but the subject was 
+dropped, as it was supposed to be the right thing to hush up, 
+instead of fostering, any popular superstition; but it surprised me 
+that, as all our servants were fresh importations, they should so 
+soon have become imbued with these undefined alarms.
+
+My father was much amused at being successor to this family feud, 
+and said that when he had time he would look up the documents.
+
+Mrs. Sophia was a sight when Mr. Fordyce and his son and daughter-
+in-law were announced; she was so comically stiff between her 
+deference to her hosts and her allegiance to her poor dear uncle; 
+but her coldness melted before the charms of old Mr. Fordyce, who 
+was one of the most delightful people in the world.  She even was 
+his partner at whist, and won the game, and that she DID like.
+
+Parson Frank, as we naughty young ones called him, was all good-
+nature and geniality--a thorough clergyman after the ideas of the 
+time, and a thorough farmer too; and in each capacity, as well as in 
+politics, he suited my father or Mr. Henderson.  His lady, in a 
+blonde cap, exactly like the last equipment my mother had provided 
+herself with in London, and a black satin dress, had much more style 
+than the more gaily-dressed country dames, and far more 
+conversation.  Mr. Stafford, who had dreaded the party, pronounced 
+her a sensible, agreeable woman, and she was particularly kind and 
+pleasant to me, coming and talking over the botany of the country, 
+and then speaking of my brother's kindness to poor Amos Bell, who 
+was nearly recovered, but was a weakly child, for whom she dreaded 
+the toil of a ploughboy in thick clay with heavy shoes.
+
+I was sorry when, after Emily's well-studied performance on the 
+piano, Mrs. Fordyce was summoned away from me to sing, but her music 
+and her voice were both of a very different order from ordinary 
+drawing-room music; and when our evening was over, we congratulated 
+ourselves upon our neighbours, and agreed that the Fordyces were the 
+gems of the party.
+
+Only Mrs. Sophia sighed at us as degenerate Winslows, and Emily 
+reserved to herself the right of believing that the daughter was 'a 
+horrid girl.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--A SCRAPE
+
+
+
+'Though bound with weakness' heavy chain
+We in the dust of earth remain;
+Not all remorseful be our tears,
+No agony of shame or fears,
+Need pierce its passion's bitter tide.'
+
+Verses and Sonnets.
+
+Perhaps it was of set purpose that our dinner. party had been given 
+before Clarence's return.  Griffith had been expected in time for 
+it, but he had preferred going by way of London to attend a ball 
+given by the daughter of a barrister friend of my father's.  Selina 
+Clarkson was a fine showy girl, with the sort of beauty to inspire 
+boyish admiration, and Griff's had been a standing family joke, even 
+my father condescending to tease him when the young lady married Sir 
+Henry Peacock, a fat vulgar old man who had made his fortune in the 
+commissariat, and purchased a baronetcy.  He was allowing his young 
+wife her full swing of fashion and enjoyment.  My mother did not 
+think it a desirable acquaintance, and was restless until both the 
+brothers came home together, long after dark on Christmas Eve, 
+having been met by the gig at the corner where the coach stopped.  
+The dinner-hour had been put off till half-past six, and we had to 
+wait for them, the coach having been delayed by setting down 
+Christmas guests and Christmas fare.  They were a contrast; Griffith 
+looking very handsome and manly, all in a ruddy glow from the frosty 
+air, and Clarence, though equally tall, well-made, and with more 
+refined features, looked pale and effaced, now that his sailor tan 
+was worn off.  The one talked as eagerly as he ate, the other was 
+shy, spiritless, and with little appetite; but as he always shrank 
+into himself among strangers, it was the less wonder that he sat in 
+his drooping way behind my sofa, while Griffith kept us all merry 
+with his account of the humours of the 'Peacock at home;' the 
+lumbering efforts of old Sir Henry to be as young and gay as his 
+wife, in spite of gout and portliness; and the extreme delight of 
+his lady in her new splendours--a gold spotted muslin and white 
+plumes in a diamond agraffe.  He mimicked Sir Henry's cockneyisms 
+more than my father's chivalry approved towards his recent host, as 
+he described the complaints he had heard against 'my Lady being 
+refused the hentry at Halmack's, but treated like the wery canal;' 
+and how the devoted husband 'wowed he would get up a still more 
+hexclusive circle, and shut hout these himpertinent fashionables who 
+regarded Halmack's as the seventh 'eaven.'
+
+My mother shook her head at his audacious fun about Paradise and the 
+Peri, but he was so brilliant and good-humoured that no one was ever 
+long displeased with him.  At night he followed when Clarence helped 
+me to my room, and carefully shutting the door, Griff began.  'Now, 
+Teddy, you're always as rich as a Jew, and I told Bill you'd help 
+him to set it straight.  I'd do it myself, but that I'm cleaned out.  
+I'd give ten times the cash rather than see him with that hang-dog 
+look again for just nothing at all, if he would only believe so and 
+be rational.'
+
+Clarence did look indescribably miserable while it was explained 
+that he had been commissioned to receive about 20 pounds which was 
+owing to my father, and to discharge therewith some small debts to 
+London tradesmen.  All except the last, for a little more than four 
+pounds, had been paid, when Clarence met in the street an old 
+messmate, a good-natured rattle-pated youth,--one of those who had 
+thought him harshly treated.  There was a cordial greeting, and an 
+invitation to dine at once at a hotel, where they were joined by 
+some other young men, and by and by betook themselves to cards, when 
+my poor brother's besetting enemy prevented him from withdrawing 
+when he found the points were guineas.  Thus he lost the remaining 
+amount in his charge, and so much of his own that barely enough was 
+left for his journey.  His salary was not due till Lady Day; Mr. 
+Castleford was in the country, and no advances could be asked from 
+Mr. Frith.  Thus Griff had found him in utter despair, and had ever 
+since been trying to cheer him and make light of his trouble.  If I 
+advanced the amount, which was no serious matter to me, Clarence 
+could easily get Peter to pay the bill, and if my father should 
+demand the receipt too soon, it would be easy to put him off by 
+saying there had been a delay in getting the account sent in.
+
+'I couldn't do that,' said Clarence.
+
+'Well, I should not have thought you would have stuck at that,' 
+returned Griff.
+
+'There must be no untruth,' I broke in; 'but if without THAT, he can 
+avoid getting into a scrape with papa--'
+
+Clarence interrupted in the wavering voice we knew so well, but 
+growing clearer and stronger.
+
+'Thank you, Edward, but--but--no, I can't.  There's the Sacrament 
+to-morrow.'
+
+'Oh--h!' said Griff, in an indescribable tone.  But he will never 
+believe you, nor let you go.'
+
+'Better so,' said Clarence, half choked, 'than go profanely--
+deceiving--or not knowing whether I shall--'
+
+Just then we heard our father wishing the other gentlemen good-
+night, and to our surprise Clarence opened the door, though he was 
+deadly white and with dew starting on his forehead.
+
+My father turned good-naturedly.  'Boys, boys, you are glad to be 
+together, but mamma won't have you talking here all night, keeping 
+her baby up.'
+
+'Sir,' said Clarence, holding by the rail of the bed, 'I was waiting 
+for you.  I have something to tell you--'
+
+The words that followed were incoherent and wrong end foremost; nor 
+had many, indeed, been uttered before my father cut them short with 
+-
+
+'No false excuses, sir; I know you too well to listen.  Go.  I have 
+ceased to hope for anything better.'
+
+Clarence went without a word, but Griff and I burst out with 
+entreaties to be listened to.  Our father thought at first that ours 
+were only the pleadings of partiality, and endeavours to shield the 
+brother we both so heartily loved; but when he understood the 
+circumstances, the real amount of the transgression, and Clarence's 
+rejection of our united advice and assistance to conceal it, he was 
+greatly touched and softened.  'Poor lad! poor fellow!' he muttered, 
+'he is really doing his best.  I need not have cut him so short.  I 
+was afraid of more falsehoods if I let him open his mouth.  I'll go 
+and see.'
+
+He went off, and we remained in suspense, Griff observing that he 
+had done his best, but poor Bill always would be a fool, and that no 
+one who had not always lived at home like me would have let out that 
+we had been for the suppression policy.  As I was rather shocked, he 
+went off to bed, saying he should look in to see what remained of 
+Clarence after the pelting of the pitiless storm he was sure to 
+bring on himself by his ridiculous faltering instead of speaking out 
+like a man.
+
+I longed to have been able to do the same, but my father kindly came 
+back to relieve my mind by telling me that he was better satisfied 
+about Clarence than ever he had been before.  When encouraged to 
+speak out, the narrative of the temptation had so entirely agreed 
+with what we had said as to show there had been no prevarication, 
+and this had done more to convince my father that he was on the 
+right track than the having found him on his knees.  He had had a 
+patient hearing, and thus was able to command his nerves enough to 
+explain himself, and it had ended in my father giving entire 
+forgiveness for what, as Griff truly said, would have been a mere 
+trifle but for the past.  The voluntary confession had much 
+impressed my father, and he could not help adding a word of gentle 
+reproof to me for having joined in aiding him to withhold it, but he 
+accepted my explanation and went away, observing, 'By the by, I 
+don't wonder at what Griffith says of that room; I never heard such 
+strange effects of currents of air.'
+
+Clarence was in my room before I was drest, full of our father's 
+'wonderful goodness' to him.  He had never experienced anything like 
+it, he said.  'Why! he really seemed hopeful about me,' were words 
+uttered with a gladness enough to go to one's heart.  'O Edward, I 
+feel as if there was some chance of "steadfastly purposing" this 
+time.'
+
+It was not the way of the family to say much of religious feeling, 
+and this was much for Clarence to utter.  He looked white and tired, 
+but there was an air of rest and peace about him, above all when my 
+mother met him with a very real kiss.  Moreover, Mr. Castleford had 
+taken care to brighten our Christmas with a letter expressive of 
+great satisfaction with Clarence for steadiness and intelligence.  
+Even Mr. Frith allowed that he was the most punctual of all those 
+young dogs.
+
+'I do believe,' said my father, 'that his piety is doing him some 
+good after all.'
+
+So our mutual wishes of a happy Christmas were verified, though not 
+much according to the notions of this half of the century.  People 
+made their Christmas day either mere merriment, or something little 
+different from the grave Sunday of that date.  And ours, except for 
+the Admiral's dining with us, had always been of the latter 
+description, all the more that when celebrations of the Holy 
+Communion were so rare they were treated with an awe and reverence 
+which frequency has perhaps diminished, and a feeling (possibly 
+Puritanical) prevailed which made it appear incongruous to end with 
+festivity a day so begun.  That we had a Christmas Day Communion at 
+all at Earlscombe was an innovation only achieved by Mr. Henderson 
+going to assist the old Rector at Wattlesea; and there were no 
+communicants except from our house, besides Chapman, his daughter-
+in-law, and five old creatures between whom the alms were 
+immediately divided.  We afterwards learnt that our best farmer and 
+his wife were much disappointed at the change from Sunday 
+interfering with the family jollification; and Mrs. Sophia Selby was 
+annoyed at the contradiction to her habits under the rule of her 
+poor dear uncle.
+
+Of the irregularities, irreverences, and squalor of the whole I will 
+not speak.  They were not then such stumbling-blocks as they would 
+be now, and many passed unperceived by us, buried as we were in our 
+big pew, with our eyes riveted on our books; yet even thus there was 
+enough evident to make my mother rejoice that Mr. Henderson would be 
+with us before Easter.  Still this could not mar the thankful 
+gladness that was with us all that day, and which shone in 
+Clarence's eyes.  His countenance always had a remarkable expression 
+in church, as if somehow his spirit went farther than ours did, and 
+things unseen were more real to him.
+
+Hillside, as usual, had two services, and my father and his friend 
+were going to walk thither in the afternoon, but it was a raw cold 
+day, threatening snow, and Emily was caught by my mother in the hail 
+and ordered back, as well as Clarence, who had shown symptoms of 
+having caught cold on his dismal journey.  Emily coaxed from her 
+permission to have a fire in the bookroom, and there we three had a 
+memorably happy time.  We read our psalms and lessons, and our 
+Christian Year, which was more and more the lodestar of our 
+feelings.  We compared our favourite passages, and discussed the 
+obscurer ones, and Clarence was led to talk out more of his heart 
+than he had ever shown to us before.  Perhaps he had lost some of 
+his reserve through his intercourse with our good old governess, 
+Miss Newton, who was still grinding away at her daily mill, though 
+with somewhat failing eyesight, so that she could do nothing but 
+knit in the long evenings, and was most grateful to her former pupil 
+for coming, as often as he could, to talk or read to her.
+
+She was a most excellent and devout woman, and when Emily, who in 
+youthful gaiete de coeur had got a little tired of her, exclaimed at 
+his taste, and asked if she made him read nothing but Pike's Early 
+Piety, he replied gravely, 'She showed me where to lay my burthen 
+down,' and turned to the two last verses of the poem for 'Good 
+Friday' in the Christian Year, as well as to the one we had just 
+read on the Holy Communion.
+
+My father's kindness had seemed to him the pledge of the Heavenly 
+Father's forgiveness; and he added, perhaps a little childishly, 
+that it had been his impulse to promise never to touch a card again, 
+but that he dreaded the only too familiar reply, 'What availed his 
+promises?'
+
+'Do promise, Clarry!' cried Emily, 'and then you won't have to play 
+with that tiresome old Mrs. Sophia.'
+
+'That would rather deter me,' said Clarence good-humouredly.
+
+'A card-playing old age is despicable,' pronounced Miss Emily, much 
+to our amusement.
+
+After that we got into a bewilderment.  We knew nothing of the 
+future question of temperance versus total abstinence; but after it 
+had been extracted that Miss Newton regarded cards as the devil's 
+books, the inconsistent little sister changed sides, and declared it 
+narrow and evangelical to renounce what was innocent.  Clarence 
+argued that what might be harmless for others might be dangerous for 
+such as himself, and that his real difficulty in making even a 
+mental vow was that, if broken, there was an additional sin.
+
+'It is not oneself that one trusts,' I said.
+
+'No,' said Clarence emphatically; 'and setting up a vow seems as if 
+it might be sticking up the reed of one's own word, and leaning on 
+THAT--when it breaks, at least mine does.  If I could always get the 
+grasp of Him that I felt to-day, there would be no more bewildered 
+heart and failing spirit, which are worse than the actual falls they 
+cause.'  And as Emily said she did not understand, he replied in 
+words I wrote down and thought over, 'What we ARE is the point, more 
+than even what we DO.  We DO as we ARE; and yet we form ourselves by 
+what we DO.'
+
+'And,' I put in, 'I know somebody who won a victory last night over 
+himself and his two brothers.  Surely DOING that is a sign that he 
+IS more than he used to be.'
+
+'If he were, it would not have been an effort at all,' said 
+Clarence, but with his rare sweet smile.
+
+Just then Griff called him away, and Emily sat pondering and 
+impressed.  'It did seem so odd,' she said, 'that Clarry should be 
+so much the best, and yet so much the worst of us.'
+
+I agreed.  His insight into spiritual things, and his enjoyment of 
+them, always humiliated us both, yet he fell so much lower in 
+practice,--'But then we had not his temptations.'
+
+'Yes,' said Emily; 'but look at Griff!  He goes about like other 
+young men, and keeps all right, and yet he doesn't care about 
+religious things a bit more than he can help.'
+
+It was quite true.  Religion was life to the one and an insurance to 
+the other, and this had been a mystery to us all our young lives, as 
+far as we had ever reflected on the contrast between the practical 
+failure and success of each.  Our mother, on the other hand, viewed 
+Clarence's tendencies as part of an unreal, self-deceptive nature, 
+and regretted his intimacy with Miss Newton, who, she said, had 
+fostered 'that kind of thing' in his childhood--made him fancy talk, 
+feeling, and preaching were more than truth and honour--and might 
+lead him to run after Irving, Rowland Hill, or Baptist Noel, about 
+whose tenets she was rather confused.  It would be an additional 
+misfortune if he became a fanatical Evangelical light, and he was 
+just the character to be worked upon.
+
+My father held that she might be thankful for any good influence or 
+safe resort for a young man in lodgings in London, and he merely 
+bade Clarence never resort to any variety of dissenting preacher.  
+We were of the school called--a little later--high and dry, but were 
+strictly orthodox according to our lights, and held it a prime duty 
+to attend our parish church, whatever it might be; nor, indeed, had 
+Clarence swerved from these traditions.
+
+Poor Mrs. Sophia was baulked of the game at whist, which she viewed 
+as a legitimate part of the Christmas pleasures; and after we had 
+eaten our turkey, we found the evening long, except that Martyn 
+escaped to snapdragon with the servants; and, by and by, Chapman, 
+magnificent in patronage, ushered in the church singers into the 
+hall, and clarionet, bassoon, and fiddle astonished our ears.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--THE MULLION CHAMBER
+
+
+
+'A lady with a lamp I see,
+Pass through the glimmering gloom,
+   And flit from room to room.'
+
+LONGFELLOW.
+
+For want of being able to take exercise, the first part of the night 
+had always been sleepless with me, though my dear mother thought it 
+wrong to recognise the habit or allow me a lamp.  A fire, however, I 
+had, and by its light, on the second night after Christmas, I saw my 
+door noiselessly opened, and Clarence creeping in half-dressed and 
+barefooted.  To my frightened interrogation the answer came, through 
+chattering teeth, 'It's I--only I--Ted--no--nothing's the matter, 
+only I can't stand it any longer!'
+
+His hands were cold as ice when he grasped mine, as if to get hold 
+of something substantial, and he trembled so as to shake the bed.  
+'That room,' he faltered.  ''Tis not only the moans!  I've seen 
+her!'
+
+'Whom?'
+
+'I don't know.  There she stands with her lamp, crying!'  I could 
+scarcely distinguish the words through the clashing of his teeth, 
+and as I threw my arms round him the shudder seemed to pass to me; 
+but I did my best to warm him by drawing the clothes over him, and 
+he began to gather himself together, and speak intelligibly.  There 
+had been sounds the first night as of wailing, but he had been too 
+much preoccupied to attend to them till, soon after one o'clock, 
+they ended in a heavy fall and long shriek, after which all was 
+still.  Christmas night had been undisturbed, but on this the voices 
+had begun again at eleven, and had a strangely human sound; but as 
+it was windy, sleety weather, and he had learnt at sea to disregard 
+noises in the rigging, he drew the sheet over his head and went to 
+sleep.  'I was dreaming that I was at sea,' he said, 'as I always do 
+on a noisy night, but this was not a dream.  I was wakened by a 
+light in the room, and there stood a woman with a lamp, moaning and 
+sobbing.  My first notion was that one of the maids had come to call 
+me, and I sat up; but I could not speak, and she gave another awful 
+suppressed cry, and moved towards that walled-up door.  Then I saw 
+it was none of the servants, for it was an antique dress like an old 
+picture.  So I knew what it must be, and an unbearable horror came 
+over me, and I rushed into the outer room, where there was a little 
+fire left; but I heard her going on still, and I could endure it no 
+longer.  I knew you would be awake and would bear with me, so I came 
+down to you.'
+
+Then this was what Chapman and the maids had meant.  This was Mrs. 
+Sophia Selby's vulgar superstition!  I found that Clarence had heard 
+none of the mysterious whispers afloat, and only knew that Griff had 
+deserted the room after his own return to London.  I related what I 
+had learnt from the old lady, and in that midnight hour we agreed 
+that it could be no mere fancy or rumour, but that cruel wrong must 
+have been done in that chamber.  Our feeling was that all ought to 
+be made known, and in that impression we fell asleep, Clarence 
+first.
+
+By and by I found him moving.  He had heard the clock strike four, 
+and thought it wiser to repair to his own quarters, where he 
+believed the disturbance was over.  Lucifer matches as yet were not, 
+but he had always been a noiseless being, with a sailor's foot, so 
+that, by the help of the moonlight through the hall windows, he 
+regained his room.
+
+And when morning had come, the nocturnal visitation wore such a 
+different aspect to both our minds that we decided to say nothing to 
+our parents, who, said Clarence, would simply disbelieve him; and, 
+indeed, I inclined to suppose it had been an uncommonly vivid dream, 
+produced in that sensitive nature by the uncanny sounds of the wind 
+in the chinks and crannies of the ancient chamber.  Had not Scott's 
+Demonology and Witchcraft, which we studied hard on that day, proved 
+all such phantoms to be explicable?  The only person we told was 
+Griff, who was amused and incredulous.  He had heard the noises--oh 
+yes! and objected to having his sleep broken by them.  It was too 
+had to expose Clarence to them--poor Bill--on whom they worked such 
+fancies!
+
+He interrogated Chapman, however, but probably in that bantering way 
+which is apt to produce reserve.  Chapman never 'gave heed to them 
+fictious tales,' he said; but, when hard pressed, he allowed that he 
+had 'heerd that a lady do walk o' winter nights,' and that was why 
+the garden door of the old rooms was walled up.  Griff asked if this 
+was done for fear she should catch cold, and this somewhat affronted 
+him, so that he averred that he knew nought about it, and gave no 
+thought to such like.
+
+Just then they arrived at the Winslow Arms, and took each a glass of 
+ale, when Griff, partly to tease Chapman, asked the landlady--an old 
+Chantry House servant--whether she had ever met the ghost.  She 
+turned rather pale, which seemed to have impressed him, and demanded 
+if he had seen it.  'It always walked at Christmas time--between 
+then and the New Year.'  She had once seen a light in the garden by 
+the ruin in winter-time, and once last spring it came along the 
+passage, but that was just before the old Squire was took for 
+death,--folks said that was always the way before any of the family 
+died--'if you'll excuse it, sir.'  Oh no, she thought nothing of 
+such things, but she had heard tell that the noises were such at all 
+times of the year that no one could sleep in the rooms, but the 
+light wasn't to be seen except at Christmas.
+
+Griff with the philosophy of a university man, was certain that all 
+was explained by Clarence having imbibed the impression of the place 
+being haunted; and going to sleep nervous at the noises, his brain 
+had shaped a phantom in accordance.  Let Clarence declare as he 
+might that the legends were new to him, Griff only smiled to think 
+how easily people forgot, and he talked earnestly about catching 
+ideas without conscious information.
+
+However, he volunteered to sit up that night to ascertain the exact 
+causes of the strange noises and convince Clarence that they were 
+nothing but the effects of draughts.  The fire in his gunroom was 
+surreptitiously kept up to serve for the vigil, which I ardently 
+desired to share.  It was an enterprise; it would gratify my 
+curiosity; and besides, though Griffith was good-natured and 
+forbearing in a general way towards Clarence, I detected a spirit of 
+mockery about him which might break out unpleasantly when poor 
+Clarry was convicted of one of his unreasonable panics.
+
+Both brothers were willing to gratify me, the only difficulty being 
+that the tap of my crutches would warn the entire household of the 
+expedition.  However, they had--all unknown to my mother--several 
+times carried me about queen's cushion fashion, as, being always 
+much of a size, they could do most handily; and as both were now 
+fine, strong, well-made youths of twenty and nineteen, they had no 
+doubt of easily and silently conveying me up the shallow-stepped 
+staircase when all was quiet for the night.
+
+Emily, with her sharp ears, guessed that something was in hand, but 
+we promised her that she should know all in time.  I believe Griff, 
+being a little afraid of her quickness, led her to suppose he was 
+going to hold what he called a symposium in his rooms, and to think 
+it a mystery of college life not intended for young ladies.
+
+He really had prepared a sort of supper for us when, after my 
+father's resounding turn of the key of the drawing-room door, my 
+brothers, in their stocking soles, bore me upstairs, the fun of the 
+achievement for the moment overpowering all sense of eeriness.  
+Griff said he could not receive me in his apartment without doing 
+honour to the occasion, and that Dutch courage was requisite for us 
+both; but I suspect it was more in accordance with Oxford habits 
+that he had provided a bottle of sherry and another of ale, some 
+brandy cherries, bread, cheese, and biscuits, by what means I do not 
+know, for my mother always locked up the wine.  He was disappointed 
+that Clarence would touch nothing, and declared that inanition was 
+the preparation for ghost-seeing or imagining.  I drank his health 
+in a glass of sherry as I looked round at the curious old room, with 
+its panelled roof, the heraldic devices and badges of the Power 
+family, and the trophy of swords, dirks, daggers, and pistols, 
+chiefly relics of our naval grandfather, but reinforced by the 
+sword, helmet, and spurs of the county Yeomanry which Griff had 
+joined.
+
+Griff proposed cards to drive away fancies, especially as the sounds 
+were beginning; but though we generally yielded to him we COULD not 
+give our attention to anything but these.  There was first a low 
+moan.  'No great harm in that,' said Griff; 'it comes through that 
+crack in the wainscot where there is a sham window.  Some putty will 
+put a stop to that.'
+
+Then came a more decided wail and sob much nearer to us.  Griff 
+hastily swallowed the ale in his tumbler, and, striking a theatrical 
+attitude, exclaimed, 'Angels and ministers of grace defend us!'
+
+Clarence held up his hand in deprecation.  The door into his bedroom 
+was open, and Griff, taking up one of the flat candlesticks, pursued 
+his researches, holding the flame to all chinks or cracks in the 
+wainscotting to detect draughts which might cause the dreary sounds, 
+which were much more like suppressed weeping than any senseless gust 
+of wind.  Of draughts there were many, and he tried holding his hand 
+against each crevice to endeavour to silence the wails; but these 
+became more human and more distressful.  Presently Clarence 
+exclaimed, 'There!' and on his face there was a whiteness and an 
+expression which always recurs to me on reading those words of 
+Eliphaz the Temanite, 'Then a spirit passed before my face, and the 
+hair of my flesh stood up.'  Even Griff was awestruck as we cried, 
+'Where? what?'
+
+'Don't you see her?  There!  By the press--look!'
+
+'I see a patch of moonlight on the wall,' said Griff.
+
+'Moonlight--her lamp.  Edward, don't you see her?'
+
+I could see nothing but a spot of light on the wall.  Griff (plainly 
+putting a force on himself) came back and gave him a good-natured 
+shake.  'Dreaming again, old Bill.  Wake up and come to your 
+senses.'
+
+'I am as much in my senses as you are,' said Clarence.  'I see her 
+as plainly as I see you.'
+
+Nor could any one doubt either the reality of the awe in his voice 
+and countenance, nor of the light--a kind of hazy ball--nor of the 
+choking sobs.
+
+'What is she like?' I asked, holding his hand, for, though infected 
+by his dread, my fears were chiefly for the effect on him; but he 
+was much calmer and less horror-struck than on the previous night, 
+though still he shuddered as he answered in a low voice, as if loth 
+to describe a lady in her presence, 'A dark cloak with the hood 
+fallen back, a kind of lace headdress loosely fastened, brown hair, 
+thin white face, eyes--oh, poor thing!--staring with fright, dark--
+oh, how swollen the lids! all red below with crying--black dress 
+with white about it--a widow kind of look--a glove on the arm with 
+the lamp.  Is she beckoning--looking at us?  Oh, you poor thing, if 
+I could tell what you mean!'
+
+I felt the motion of his muscles in act to rise, and grasped him.  
+Griff held him with a strong hand, hoarsely crying, 'Don't!--don't--
+don't follow the thing, whatever you do!'
+
+Clarence hid his face.  It was very awful and strange.  Once the 
+thought of conjuring her to speak by the Holy Name crossed me, but 
+then I saw no figure; and with incredulous Griffith standing by, it 
+would have been like playing, nor perhaps could I have spoken.  How 
+long this lasted there is no knowing; but presently the light moved 
+towards the walled-up door and seemed to pass into it.  Clarence 
+raised his head and said she was gone.  We breathed freely.
+
+'The farce is over,' said Griff.  'Mr. Edward Winslow's carriage 
+stops the way!'
+
+I was hoisted up, candle in hand, between the two, and had nearly 
+reached the stairs when there came up on the garden side a sound as 
+of tipsy revellers in the garden.  'The scoundrels! how can they 
+have got in?' cried Griff, looking towards the window; but all the 
+windows on that side had peculiarly heavy shutters and bars, with 
+only a tiny heart-shaped aperture very high up, so they somewhat 
+hurried their steps downstairs, intending to rush out on the 
+intruders from the back door.  But suddenly, in the middle of the 
+staircase, we heard a terrible heartrending woman's shriek, making 
+us all start and have a general fall.  My brothers managed to seat 
+me safely on a step without much damage to themselves, but the 
+candle fell and was extinguished, and we made too heavy a weight to 
+fall without real noise enough to bring the household together 
+before we could pick ourselves up in the dark.
+
+We heard doors opening and hurried calls, and something about 
+pistols, impelling Griff to call out, 'It's nothing, papa; but there 
+are some drunken rascals in the garden.'
+
+A light had come by this time, and we were detected.  There was a 
+general sally upon the enemy in the garden before any one thought of 
+me, except a 'You here!' when they nearly fell over me.  And there I 
+was left sitting on the stair, helpless without my crutches, till in 
+a few minutes all returned declaring there was nothing--no signs of 
+anything; and then as Clarence ran up to me with my crutches my 
+father demanded the meaning of my being there at that time of night.
+
+'Well, sir,' said Griff, 'it is only that we have been sitting up to 
+investigate the ghost.'
+
+'Ghost!  Arrant stuff and nonsense!  What induced you to be dragging 
+Edward about in this dangerous way?'
+
+'I wished it,' said I.
+
+'You are all mad together, I think.  I won't have the house 
+disturbed for this ridiculous folly.  I shall look into it to-
+morrow!'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--RATIONAL THEORIES
+
+
+
+'These are the reasons, they are natural.'
+
+Julius Caesar.
+
+If anything could have made our adventure more unpleasant to Mr. and 
+Mrs. Winslow, it would have been the presence of guests.  However, 
+inquiry was suppressed at breakfast, in deference to the signs my 
+mother made to enjoin silence before the children, all unaware that 
+Emily was nearly frantic with suppressed curiosity, and Martyn knew 
+more about the popular version of the legend than any of us.
+
+Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed.  His head was aching from a bump 
+against the edge of a step, and his cold was much worse; no wonder, 
+said my mother; but she was always softened by any ailment, and 
+feared that the phantoms were the effect of coming illness.  I have 
+always thought that if Clarence could have come home from his court-
+martial with a brain fever he would have earned immediate 
+forgiveness; but unluckily for him, he was a very healthy person.
+
+All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study, where my 
+father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed 'this 
+preposterous business.'  In our morning senses our impressions were 
+much more vague than at midnight, and we betrayed some confusion; 
+but Griff and I had a strong instinct of sheltering Clarence, and we 
+stoutly declared the noises to be beyond the capacities of wind, 
+rats, or cats; that the light was visible and inexplicable; and that 
+though we had seen nothing else, we could not doubt that Clarence 
+did.
+
+'Thought he did,' corrected my father.
+
+'Without discussing the word,' said Griff, 'I mean that the effect 
+on his senses was the same as the actual sight.  You could not look 
+at him without being certain.'
+
+'Exactly so,' returned my mother.  'I wish Dr. Fellowes were near.'
+
+Indeed nothing saved Clarence from being consigned to medical 
+treatment but the distance from Bath or Bristol, and the 
+contradictory advice that had been received from our county 
+neighbours as to our family doctor.  However, she formed her theory 
+that his nervous imaginings--whether involuntary or acted, she hoped 
+the former, and wished she could be sure--had infected us; and, as 
+she was really uneasy about him, she would not let him sleep in the 
+mullion room, but having nowhere else to bestow him, she turned out 
+the man-servant and put him into the little room beyond mine, and 
+she also forbade any mention of the subject to him that day.
+
+This was a sore prohibition to Emily, who had been discussing it 
+with the other ladies, and was in a mingled state of elation at the 
+romance, and terror at the supernatural, which found vent in excited 
+giggle, and moved Griff to cram her with raw-head and bloody-bone 
+horrors, conventional enough to be suspicious, and send her to me 
+tearfully to entreat to know the truth.  If by day she exulted in a 
+haunted chamber, in the evening she paid for it by terrors at 
+walking about the house alone, and, when sent on an errand by my 
+mother, looked piteous enough to be laughed at or scolded on all 
+sides.
+
+The gentlemen had more serious colloquies, and the upshot was a 
+determination to sit up together and discover the origin of the 
+annoyance.  Mr. Stafford's antiquarian researches had made him 
+familiar with such mysteries, and enough of them had been explained 
+by natural causes to convince him that there was a key to all the 
+rest.  Owls, coiners, and smugglers had all been convicted of 
+simulating ghosts.  In one venerable mansion, behind the wainscot, 
+there had been discovered nine skeletons of cats in different stages 
+of decay, having trapped themselves at various intervals of time, 
+and during the gradual extinction of their eighty-one lives having 
+emitted cries enough to establish the ghastly reputation of the 
+place.  Perhaps Mr. Henderson was inclined to believe there were 
+more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in even an 
+antiquary's philosophy.  He owned himself perplexed, but reserved 
+his opinion.
+
+At breakfast Clarence was quite well, except for the remains of his 
+sore throat, and the two seniors were gruff and brief as to their 
+watch.  They had heard odd noises, and should discover the cause; 
+the carpenter had already been sent for, and they had seen a light 
+which was certainly due to reflection or refraction.  Mr. Henderson 
+committed himself to nothing but that 'it was very extraordinary;' 
+and there was a wicked look of diversion on Griff's face, and an 
+exchange of glances.  Afterwards, in our own domain, we extracted a 
+good deal more from them.
+
+Griff told us how the two elders started on politics, and denounced 
+Brougham and O'Connell loud enough to terrify any save the most 
+undaunted ghost, till Henderson said 'Hush!' and they paused at the 
+moan with which the performance always commenced, making Mr. 
+Stafford turn, as Griff said, 'white in the gills,' though he talked 
+of the wind on the stillest of frosty nights.  Then came the sobbing 
+and wailing, which certainly overawed them all; Henderson called 
+them 'agonising,' but Griff was in a manner inured to this, and felt 
+as if master of the ceremonies.  Let them say what they would by 
+daylight about owls, cats, and rats, they owned the human element 
+then, and were far from comfortable, though they would not 
+compromise their good sense by owning what both their younger 
+companions had perceived--their feeling of some undefinable 
+presence.  Vain attempts had been made to account for the light or 
+get rid of it by changing the position of candles or bright objects 
+in the outer room; and Henderson had shut himself into the bedroom 
+with it; but there he still only saw the hazy light--though all was 
+otherwise pitch dark, except the keyhole and the small gray patch of 
+sky at the top of the window-shutters.  'You saw nothing else?' said 
+Griff.  'I thought I heard you break out as Clarence did, just 
+before my father opened the door.'
+
+'Perhaps I did so.  I had the sense strongly on me of some being in 
+grievous distress very near me.'
+
+'And you should have power over it,' suggested Emily.
+
+'I am afraid,' he said, 'that more thorough conviction and 
+comprehension are needed before I could address the thing with 
+authority.  I should like to have stayed longer and heard the 
+conclusion.'
+
+For Mr. Stafford had grown impatient and weary, and my father having 
+satisfied himself that there was something to be detected, would not 
+remain to the end, and not only carried his companions off, but 
+locked the doors, perhaps expecting to imprison some agent in a 
+trick, and find him in the morning.
+
+Indeed Clarence had a dim remembrance of having been half wakened by 
+some one looking in on him in the night, when he was sleeping 
+heavily after his cold and the previous night's disturbance, and we 
+suspected, though we would not say, that our father might have 
+wished to ascertain that he had no share in producing these 
+appearances.  He was, however, fully acquitted of all wilful 
+deception in the case, and he was not surprised, though he was 
+disappointed, that his vision of the lady was supposed to be the 
+consequence of excited imagination.
+
+'I can't help it,' he said to me in private.  'I have always seen or 
+felt, or whatever you may call it, things that others do not.  Don't 
+you remember how nobody would believe that I saw Lucy Brooke?'
+
+'That was in the beginning of the measles.'
+
+' I know; and I will tell you something curious.  When I was at 
+Gibraltar I met Mrs. Emmott--'
+
+'Mary Brooke?'
+
+'Yes; I spent a very happy Sunday with her.  We talked over old 
+times, and she told me that Lucy had all through her illness been 
+very uneasy about having promised to bring me a macaw's feather the 
+next time we played in the Square gardens.  It could not be sent to 
+me for fear of carrying the infection, but the dear girl was too 
+light-headed to understand, and kept on fretting and wandering about 
+breaking her word.  I have no doubt the wish carried her spirit to 
+me the moment it was free,' he added, with tears springing to his 
+eyes.  He also said that before the court-martial he had, night 
+after night, dreams of sinking and drowning in huge waves, and his 
+friend Coles struggling to come to his aid, but being forcibly 
+withheld; and he had since learnt that Coles had actually 
+endeavoured to come from Plymouth to bear testimony to his previous 
+character, but had been refused leave, and told that he could do no 
+good.
+
+There had been other instances of perception of a presence and of a 
+prescient foreboding.  'It is like a sixth sense,' he said, 'and a 
+very uncomfortable one.  I would give much to be rid of it, for it 
+is connected with all that is worst in my life.  I had it before 
+Navarino, when no one expected an engagement.  It made me believe I 
+should be killed, and drove me to what was much worse--or at least I 
+used to think so.'
+
+'Don't you now?' I asked.
+
+'No,' said Clarence.  'It was a great mercy that I did not die then.  
+There's something to conquer first.  But you'll never speak of this, 
+Ted.  I have left off telling of such things--it only gives another 
+reason for disbelieving me.'
+
+However, this time his veracity was not called in question,--but he 
+was supposed to be under a hallucination, the creation of the noises 
+acting on his imagination and memory of the persecuted widow, which 
+must have been somewhere dormant in his mind, though he averred that 
+he had never heard of it.  It had now, however, made a strong 
+impression on him; he was convinced that some crime or injustice had 
+been perpetrated, and thought it ought to be investigated; but 
+Griffith made us laugh at his championship of this shadow of a 
+shade, and even wrote some mock heroic verses about it,--nor would 
+it have been easy to stir my father to seek for the motives of an 
+apparition which no one in the family save Clarence professed to 
+have seen.
+
+The noises were indisputable, but my mother began to suspect a cause 
+for them.  To oblige a former cook we had brought down with us as 
+stable-boy her son, George Sims, an imp accustomed to be the pet and 
+jester of a mews.  Martyn was only too fond of his company, and he 
+made no secret of his contempt for the insufferable dulness of the 
+country, enlivening it by various acts of monkey-mischief, in some 
+of which Martyn had been implicated.  That very afternoon, as Mrs. 
+Sophia Selby was walking home in the twilight from Chapman's lodge, 
+in company with Mr. Henderson, an eldritch yell proceeding from the 
+vaults beneath the mullion chambers nearly frightened her into fits.  
+Henderson darted in and captured the two boys in the fact.  Martyn's 
+asseveration that he had taken the pair for Griff and Emily would 
+have pacified the good-natured clergyman, but Mrs. Sophia was too 
+much agitated, or too spiteful, as we declared, not to make a scene.
+
+Martyn spent the evening alone and in disgrace, and only his 
+unimpeachable character for truth caused the acceptance of his 
+affirmation that the yell was an impromptu fraternal compliment, and 
+that he had nothing to do with the noises in the mullion chamber.  
+He had been supposed to be perfectly unconscious of anything of the 
+kind, and to have never so much as heard of a phantom, so my mother 
+was taken somewhat aback when, in reply to her demand whether he had 
+ever been so naughty as to assist George in making a noise in 
+Clarence's room, he said, 'Why, that's the ghost of the lady that 
+was murdered atop of the steps, and always walks every Christmas!'
+
+'Who told you such ridiculous nonsense?'
+
+The answer 'George' was deemed conclusive that all had been got up 
+by that youth; and there was considerable evidence of his talent for 
+ventriloquism and taste for practical jokes.  My mother was certain 
+that, having heard of the popular superstition, he had acted ghost.  
+She appealed to Woodstock to prove the practicability of such feats; 
+and her absolute conviction persuaded the maids (who had given 
+warning en masse) that the enemy was exorcised when George Sims had 
+been sent off on the Royal Mail under Clarence's guardianship.
+
+None of the junior part of the family believed him guilty, but he 
+had hunted the cows round the paddock, mounted on my donkey, had 
+nearly shot the kitchen-maid with Griff's gun, and, if not much 
+maligned, knew the way to the apple-chamber only too well,--so that 
+he richly deserved his doom, rejoiced in it himself, and was 
+unregretted save by Martyn.  Clarence viewed him in the light of a 
+victim, and tried to keep an eye on him, but he developed his talent 
+as a ventriloquist, made his fortune, and retired on a public-house.
+
+My mother would fain have had the vaults under the mullion rooms 
+bricked up, but Mr. Stafford cried out on the barbarism of such a 
+proceeding.  The mystery was declared to be solved, and was added to 
+Mr. Stafford's good stories of haunted houses.
+
+And at home my father forbade any further mention of such rank folly 
+and deception.  The inner mullion chamber was turned into a lumber-
+room, and as weeks passed by without hearing or seeing any more of 
+lady or of lamp, we began to credit the wonderful freaks of the 
+goblin page.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--CAT LANGUAGE
+
+
+
+Soon as she parted thence--the fearful twayne,
+That blind old woman and her daughter deare,
+Came forth, and finding Kirkrapine there slayne,
+For anguish greate they gan to rend their heare
+And beate their breasts, and naked flesh to teare;
+And when they both had wept and wayled their fill,
+Then forth they ran, like two amazed deere,
+Half mad through malice and revenging will,
+To follow her that was the causer of their ill.'
+
+SPENSER.
+
+The Christmas vacation was not without another breeze about 
+Griffith's expenses at Oxford.  He held his head high, and declared 
+that people expected something from the eldest son of a man of 
+property, and my father tried to convince him that a landed estate 
+often left less cash available than did the fixed salary of an 
+office.  Griff treated all in his light, good-humoured way, promised 
+to be careful, and came to me to commiserate the poor old 
+gentleman's ignorance of the ways of the new generation.
+
+There ensued some trying weeks of dark days, raw frost, and black 
+east wind, when the home party cast longing, lingering recollections 
+back to the social intercourse, lamp-lit streets, and ready 
+interchange of books and other amenities we had left behind us.  We 
+were not accustomed to have our nearest neighbours separated from us 
+by two miles of dirty lane, or road mended with excruciating stones, 
+nor were they very congenial when we did see them.  The Fordyce 
+family might be interesting, but we younger ones could not forget 
+the slight to Clarence, and, besides, the girls seemed to be 
+entirely in the schoolroom, Mrs. Fordyce was delicate and was shut 
+up all the winter, and the only intercourse that took place was when 
+my father met the elder Mr. Fordyce at the magistrates' bench; also 
+there was a conference about Amos Bell, who was preferred to the 
+post left vacant by George Sims, in right of his being our tenant, 
+but more civilised than Earlscombers, a widow's son, and not 
+sufficiently recovered from his accident to be exposed to the severe 
+tasks of a ploughboy in the winter.
+
+Mrs. Fordyce was the manager of a book-club, which circulated 
+volumes covered in white cartridge paper, with a printed list of the 
+subscribers' names.  Two volumes at a time might be kept for a month 
+by each member in rotation, novels were excluded, and the manager 
+had a veto on all orders.  We found her more liberal than some of 
+our other neighbours, who looked on our wants and wishes with 
+suspicion as savouring of London notions.  Happily we could read old 
+books and standard books over again, and we gloated over Blackwood 
+and the Quarterly, enjoying, too, every out-of-door novelty of the 
+coming spring, as each revealed itself.  Emily will never forget her 
+first primroses, nor I the first thrush in early morning.
+
+Blankets, broth, and what were uncomfortably termed broken victuals 
+had been given away during the winter, and a bewildering amount of 
+begging women and children used to ask interviews with 'the Lady 
+Winslow,' with stories that crumbled on investigation so as to make 
+us recollect the Rector's character of Earlscombe.
+
+However, Mr. Henderson came in the second week of Lent, and what our 
+steps towards improvement introduced would have seemed almost as 
+shocking to you youngsters, as what they displaced.  For instance, a 
+plain crimson cloth covered the altar, instead of the rags in the 
+colours of the Winslow livery, presented, according to the queer old 
+register, by the unfortunate Margaret.  There was talk of velvet and 
+the gold monogram, surrounded by rays, alternately straight and 
+wavy, as in our London church, but this was voted 'unfit for a plain 
+village church.'  Still, the new hangings of pulpit, desk, and altar 
+were all good in quality and colour, and huge square cushions were 
+provided as essential to each.  Moreover, the altar vessels were 
+made somewhat more respectable,--all this being at my father's 
+expense.
+
+He also carried in the Vestry, though not without strong opposition 
+from a dissenting farmer, that new linen and a fresh surplice should 
+be provided by the parish, which surplice would have made at least 
+six of such as are at present worn.  The farmers were very jealous 
+of the interference of the Squire in the Vestry--'what he had no 
+call to,' and of church rates applied to any other object than the 
+reward of birdslayers, as thus, in the register -
+
+
+Hairy Wills, 1 score sprows heds 2d.
+Jems Brown, 1 poulcat 6d.
+Jarge Bell, 2 howls 6d.
+
+
+It was several years before this appropriation of the church rates 
+could be abolished.  The year 1830, with a brand new squire and 
+parson, was too ticklish a time for many innovations.
+
+Hillside Church was the only one in the neighbourhood where Holy 
+Week or Ascension Day had been observed in the memory of man.  When 
+we proposed going to church on the latter day the gardener asked my 
+mother 'if it was her will to keep Thursday holy,' as if he expected 
+its substitution for Sunday.  Monthly Communions and Baptisms after 
+the Second Lesson were viewed as 'not fit for a country church,' and 
+every attempt at even more secular improvements was treated with the 
+most disappointing distrust and aversion.  When my father laid out 
+the allotment grounds, the labourers suspected some occult design 
+for his own profit, and the farmers objected that the gardens would 
+be used as an excuse for neglecting their work and stealing their 
+potatoes.  Coal-club and clothing-club were regarded in like manner, 
+and while a few took advantage of these offers in a grudging manner, 
+the others viewed everything except absolute gifts as 'me-an' on our 
+part, the principle of aid to self-help being an absolute novelty.  
+When I look back to the notes in our journals of that date I see how 
+much has been overcome.
+
+Perhaps we listened more than was strictly wise to the revelations 
+of Amos Bell, when he attended Emily and me on our expeditions with 
+the donkey.  Though living over the border of Hillside, he had a 
+family of relations at Earlscombe, and for a time lodged with his 
+grandmother there.  When his shyness and lumpishness gave way, he 
+proved so bright that Emily undertook to carry on his education.  He 
+soon had a wonderful eye for a wild flower, and would climb after it 
+with the utmost agility; and when once his tongue was loosed, he 
+became almost too communicative, and made us acquainted with the 
+opinions of 'they Earlscoom folk' with a freedom not to be found in 
+an elder or a native.
+
+Moreover, he was the brightest light of the Sunday school which Mr. 
+Henderson opened at once--for want of a more fitting place--in the 
+disused north transept of the church.  It was an uncouth, ill-clad 
+crew which assembled on those dilapidated paving tiles.  Their own 
+grandchildren look almost as far removed from them in dress and 
+civilisation as did my sister in her white worked cambric dress, 
+silk scarf, huge Tuscan bonnet, and the little curls beyond the lace 
+quilling round her bright face, far rosier than ever it had been in 
+town.  And what would the present generation say to the odd little 
+contrivances in the way of cotton sun-bonnets, check pinafores, list 
+tippets, and print capes, and other wonderful manufactures from the 
+rag-bag, which were then grand prizes and stimulants?
+
+Previous knowledge or intelligence scarcely existed, and then was 
+not due to Dame Dearlove's tuition.  Mr. Henderson pronounced an 
+authorised school a necessity.  My father had scruples as to vested 
+rights, for the old woman was the last survivor of a family who had 
+had recourse to primer and hornbook after their ejection on 'black 
+Bartholomew's Day;' and when the meeting-house was built after the 
+Revolution, had combined preaching with teaching.  Monopoly had 
+promoted degeneracy, and this last of the race was an unfavourable 
+specimen in all save outward picturesqueness.  However, much against 
+Henderson's liking, an accommodation was proposed, by which books 
+were to be supplied to her, and the Church Catechism be taught in 
+her school, with the assistance of the curate and Miss Winslow.
+
+The terms were rejected with scorn.  No School Board could be more 
+determined against the Catechism, nor against 'passons meddling wi' 
+she;' and as to assistance, 'she had been a governess this thirty 
+year, and didn't want no one trapesing in and out of her school.'
+
+She was warned, but probably did not believe in the possibility of 
+an opposition school; and really there were children enough in the 
+place to overfill both her room and that which was fitted up after a 
+very humble fashion in one of our cottages.  H.M. Inspector would 
+hardly have thought it even worth condemnation any more than the 
+attainments of the mistress, the young widow of a small Bristol 
+skipper.  Her qualifications consisted in her piety and 
+conscientiousness, good temper and excellent needlework, together 
+with her having been a scholar in one of Mrs. Hannah More's schools 
+in the Cheddar district.  She could read and teach reading well; but 
+as for the dangerous accomplishments of writing and arithmetic, such 
+as desired to pass beyond the rudiments of them must go to 
+Wattlesea.
+
+So nice did she look in her black that Earlscombe voted her a mere 
+town lady, and even at a penny a week hesitated to send its children 
+to her.  Indeed it was currently reported that her school was part 
+of a deep and nefarious scheme of the gentlefolks for reducing the 
+poor-rates by enticing the children, and then shipping them off to 
+foreign parts from Bristol.
+
+But the great crisis was one unlucky summer evening when Emily and I 
+were out with the donkey, and Griffith, just come home from Oxford, 
+was airing the new acquisition of a handsome black retriever.
+
+Close by the old chapel, a black cat was leisurely crossing the 
+road.  At her dashed Nero, stimulated perhaps by an almost 
+involuntary scss--scss--from his master, if not from Amos and me.  
+The cat flew up a low wall, and stood at bay on the top on tiptoe, 
+with bristling tail, arched back, and fiery eyes, while the dog 
+danced round in agony on his hind legs, barking furiously, and 
+almost reaching her.  Female sympathy ever goes to the cat, and 
+Emily screamed out in the fear that he would seize her, or even that 
+Griff might aid him.  Perhaps Amos would have done so, if left to 
+himself; but Griff, who saw the cat was safe, could not help egging 
+on his dog's impotent rage, when in the midst, out flew pussy's 
+mistress, Dame Dearlove herself, broomstick in hand, using language 
+as vituperative as the cat's, and more intelligible.
+
+She was about to strike the dog--indeed I fancy she did, for there 
+was a howl, and Griff sprang to his defence with--'Don't hurt my 
+dog, I say!  He hasn't touched the brute!  She can take care of 
+herself.  Here, there's half-a-crown for the fright,' as the cat 
+sprang down within the wall, and Nero slunk behind him.  But Dame 
+Dearlove was not so easily appeased.  Her blood was up after our 
+long series of offences, and she broke into a regular tirade of 
+abuse.
+
+'That's the way with you fine folk, thinking you can tread down poor 
+people like the dirt under your feet, and insult 'em when you've 
+taken the bread out of the mouths of them that were here before you.  
+Passons and ladies a meddin' where no one ever set a foot before!  
+Ay, ay, but ye'll all be down before long.'
+
+Griff signed to us to go on, and thundered out on her to take care 
+what she was about and not be abusive; but this brought a fresh 
+volley on him, heralded by a derisive laugh.  'Ha! ha! fine talking 
+for the likes of you, Winslows that you are.  But there's a curse on 
+you all!  The poor lady as was murdered won't let you be!  Why, 
+there's one of you, poor humpy object--'
+
+At this savage attack on me, Griff waxed furious, and shouted at her 
+to hold her confounded tongue, but this only diverted the attack on 
+himself.  'And as for you--fine chap as ye think yourself, 
+swaggering and swearing at poor folk, and setting your dog at them--
+your time's coming.  Look out for yourself.  It's well known as how 
+the curse is on the first-born.  The Lady Margaret don't let none of 
+'em live to come after his father.'
+
+Griff laughed and said, 'There, we have had enough of this;' and in 
+fact we had already moved on, so that he had to make some long steps 
+to overtake us, muttering, 'So we've started a Meg Merrilies!  My 
+father won't keep such a foul-mouthed hag in the parish long!'
+
+To which I had to respond that her cottage belonged to the trustees 
+of the chapel, whereat he whistled.  I don't think he knew that we 
+had heard her final denunciation, and we did not like to mention it 
+to him, scarcely to each other, though Emily looked very white and 
+scared.
+
+We talked it over afterwards in private, and with Henderson, who 
+confessed that he had heard of the old woman's saying something of 
+the kind to other persons.  We consulted the registers in hopes of 
+confuting it, but did not satisfy ourselves.  The last Squire had 
+lost his only son at school.  He himself had been originally second 
+in the family, and in the generation before him there had been some 
+child-deaths, after which we came back to a young man, apparently 
+the eldest, who, according to Miss Selby's story, had been killed in 
+a duel by one of the Fordyces.  It was not comfortable, till I 
+remembered that our family Bible recorded the birth, baptism, and 
+death of a son who had preceded Griffith, and only borne for a day 
+the name afterwards bestowed on me.
+
+And Henderson, who was so little our elder as to discuss things on 
+fairly equal grounds, had some very interesting talks with us two 
+over ancestral sin and its possible effects, dwelling on the 18th of 
+Ezekiel as a comment on the Second Commandment.  Indeed, we agreed 
+that the uncomfortable state of disaffection which, in 1830, was 
+becoming only too manifest in the populace, was the result of 
+neglect in former ages, and that, even in our own parish, the 
+bitterness, distrust, and ingratitude were due to the careless, 
+riotous, and oppressive family whom we represented.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--THE SIEGE OF HILLSIDE
+
+
+
+'Ferments arise, imprisoned factions roar,
+Represt ambition struggles round the shore;
+Till, overwrought, the general system feels
+Its motion stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.'
+
+GOLDSMITH.
+
+Griffith had come straight home this year.  There were no Peacock 
+gaieties to tempt him in London, for old Sir Henry had died suddenly 
+soon after the ball in December; nor was there much of a season that 
+year, owing to the illness and death of George IV.
+
+A regiment containing two old schoolmates of his was at Bristol, and 
+he spent a good deal of time there, and also in Yeomanry drill.  As 
+autumn came on we rejoiced in having so stalwart a protector, for 
+the agricultural riots had begun, and the forebodings of another 
+French Revolution seemed about to be realised.  We stayed on at 
+Chantry House.  My father thought his duty lay there as a 
+magistrate, and my mother would not leave him; nor indeed was any 
+other place much safer, certainly not London, whence Clarence wrote 
+accounts of formidable mobs who were expected to do more harm than 
+they accomplished; though their hatred of the hero of our country 
+filled us with direful prognostications, and made us think of the 
+guillotine, which was linked with revolution in our minds, before we 
+had I beheld the numerous changes that followed upon the thirty 
+years of peace in which we grew up.
+
+The ladies did not much like losing so stalwart a defender when 
+Griff returned to Oxford; and Jane the housemaid went to bed every 
+night with the pepper-pot and a poker, the first wherewith to blind 
+the enemy, the second to charge them with.  From our height we could 
+more than once see blazing ricks, and were glad that the home farm 
+was not in our own hands, and that our only stack of hay was a good 
+way from the house.  When the onset came at last, it was December, 
+and the enemy only consisted of about thirty dreary-looking men and 
+boys in smock-frocks and chalked or smutted faces, armed only with 
+sticks and an old gun diverted from its purpose of bird-scaring.  
+They shouted for food, money, and arms; but my father spoke to them 
+from the hall steps, told them they had better go home and learn 
+that the public-house was a worse enemy to them than any machine 
+that had ever been invented, and assured them that they would get no 
+help from him in breaking the laws and getting themselves into 
+trouble.  A stone or two was picked up, whereupon he went back and 
+had the hall door shut and barred, the heavy shutters of the windows 
+having all been closed already, so that we could have stood a much 
+more severe siege than from these poor fellows.  One or two windows 
+were broken, as well as the glass of the conservatory, and the 
+flower beds were trampled; but finding our fortress impregnable they 
+sneaked away before dark.  We fared better than our neighbours, some 
+of whom were seriously frightened, and suffered loss of property.  
+Old Mr. Fordyce had for many years past been an active magistrate--
+that a clergyman should be on the bench having been quite correct 
+according to the notions of his younger days; and in spite of his 
+beneficence he incurred a good deal of unpopularity for withstanding 
+the lax good-nature which made his brother magistrates give orders 
+for parish relief refused to able-bodied paupers by their own 
+Vestries.  This was a mischievous abuse of the old poor-law times, 
+which made people dispose of every one's money save their own.  He 
+had also been a keen sportsman; and though his son had given up 
+field sports in deference to higher notions of clerical duty (his 
+wife's, as people said), the old man's feeling prompted him to 
+severity on poachers.  Frank Fordyce, while by far the most earnest, 
+hardworking clergyman in the neighbourhood, worked off his 
+superfluous energy on scientific farming, making the glebe and the 
+hereditary estate as much the model farm as Hillside was the model 
+parish.  He had lately set up a threshing-machine worked by horses, 
+which was as much admired by the intelligent as it was vituperated 
+by the ignorant.
+
+Neither paupers nor poachers abounded in Hillside; the natives were 
+chiefly tenants and employed on the property, and, between good 
+management and beneficence, there was little real want and much 
+friendly confidence and affection; and thus, in spite of surrounding 
+riots, Hillside seemed likely to be an exception, proving what could 
+he done by rightful care and attention.  Nor indeed did the attack 
+come from thence; but the two parsons were bitterly hated by 
+outsiders beyond the reach of their personal influence and 
+benevolence.
+
+It was on a Saturday evening, the day after Griff had come back for 
+the Christmas vacation, that, as Emily was giving Amos his lesson, 
+she saw that the boy was crying, and after examination he let out 
+that 'folk should say that the lads were agoing to break Parson 
+Fordy's machine and fire his ricks that very night;' but he would 
+not give his authority, and when he saw her about to give warning, 
+entreated, 'Now, dont'ze say nothing, Miss Emily--'
+
+'What?' she cried indignantly; 'do you think I could hear of such a 
+thing without trying to stop it?'
+
+'Us says,' he blurted out, 'as how Winslows be always fain of ought 
+as happens to the Fordys--'
+
+'We are not such wicked Winslows as you have heard of,' returned 
+Emily with dignity; and she rushed off in quest of papa and Griff, 
+but when she brought them to the bookroom, Amos had decamped, and 
+was nowhere to be found that night.  We afterwards learnt that he 
+lay hidden in the hay-loft, not daring to return to his granny's, 
+lest he should be suspected of being a traitor to his kind; for our 
+lawless, untamed, discontented parish furnished a large quota to the 
+rioters, and he has since told me that though all seemed to know 
+what was about to be done, he did not hear it from any one in 
+particular.
+
+It was no time to make light of a warning, but very difficult to 
+know what to do.  Rural police were non-existent; there were no 
+soldiers nearer than Keynsham, and the Yeomanry were all in their 
+own homesteads.  However, the captain of Griff's troop, Sir George 
+Eastwood, lived about three miles beyond Wattlesea, and had a good 
+many dependants in the corps, so it was resolved to send him a note 
+by the gardener, good James Ellis, a steady, resolute man, on 
+Emily's fast-trotting pony, while my father and Griff should hasten 
+to Hillside to warn the Fordyces, who were not unlikely to be able 
+to muster trustworthy defenders among their own people, and might 
+send the ladies to take shelter at Chantry House.
+
+My mother's brave spirit disdained to detain an effective man for 
+her own protection, and the groom was to go to Hillside; he was in 
+the Yeomanry, and, like Griff, put on his uniform, while my father 
+had the Riot Act in his pocket.  All the horses were thus absorbed, 
+but Chapman and the man-servant followed on foot.
+
+Never did I feel my incapacity more than on that strange night, when 
+Emily was flying about with Martyn to all the doors and windows in a 
+wild state of excitement, humming to herself -
+
+
+'When the dawn on the mountain was misty and gray,
+My true love has mounted his steed and away.'
+
+
+My mother was equally restless, prolonging as much as possible the 
+preparation of rooms for possible guests; and when she did come and 
+sit down, she netted her purse with vehement jerks, and scolded 
+Emily for jumping up and leaving doors open.
+
+At last, after an hour according to the clock, but far more by our 
+feelings, wheels were heard in the distance; Emily was off like a 
+shot to reconnoitre, and presently Martyn bounced in with the 
+tidings that a pair of carriage lamps were coming up the drive.  My 
+mother hurried out into the hall; I made my best speed after her, 
+and found her hastily undoing the door-chain as she recognised the 
+measured, courteous voice of old Mr. Fordyce.  In a moment more they 
+were all in the house, the old gentleman giving his arm to his 
+daughter-in-law, who was quite overcome with distress and alarm; 
+then came his tall, slim granddaughter, carrying her little sister 
+with arms full of dolls, and sundry maid-servants completed the 
+party of fugitives.
+
+'We are taking advantage of Mr. Winslow's goodness,' said the old 
+Rector.  'He assured us that you would be kind enough to receive 
+those who would only be an encumbrance.'
+
+'Oh, but I must go back to Frank now that you and the children are 
+safe,' cried the poor lady.  'Don't send away the carriage; I must 
+go back to Frank.'
+
+'Nonsense, my dear,' returned Mr. Fordyce, 'Frank is in no danger.  
+He will get on much better for knowing you are safe.  Mrs. Winslow 
+will tell you so.'
+
+My mother was enforcing this assurance, when the little girl's sobs 
+burst out in spite of her sister, who had been trying to console 
+her.  'It is Celestina Mary,' she cried, pointing to three dolls 
+whom she had carried in clasped to her breast.  'Poor Celestina 
+Mary!  She is left behind, and Ellen won't let me go and see if she 
+is in the carriage.'
+
+'My dear, if she is in the carriage, she will be quite safe in the 
+morning.'
+
+'Oh, but she will be so cold.  She had nothing on but Rosella's old 
+petticoat.'
+
+The distress was so real that I had my hand on the bell to cause a 
+search to be instituted for the missing damsel, when Mrs. Fordyce 
+begged me to do no such thing, as it was only a doll.  The child, 
+while endeavouring to shelter with a shawl the dolls, snatched in 
+their night-gear from their beds, wept so piteously at the rebuff 
+that her grandfather had nearly gone in quest of the lost one, but 
+was stopped by a special entreaty that he would not spoil the child.  
+Martyn, however, who had been standing in open-mouthed wonder at 
+such feeling for a doll, exclaimed, 'Don't cry, don't cry.  I'll go 
+and get it for you;' and rushed off to the stable-yard.
+
+This episode had restored Mrs. Fordyce, and while providing some of 
+our guests with wine, and others with tea, we heard the story, only 
+interrupted by Martyn's return from a vain search, and Anne's 
+consequent tears, which, however, were somehow hushed and smothered 
+by fears of being sent to bed, coupled with his promises to search 
+every step of the way to-morrow.
+
+It appeared that while the Fordyce family were at dinner, shouts, 
+howls and yells had startled them.  The rabble had surrounded the 
+Rectory, bawling out abuse of the parsons and their machines, and 
+occasionally throwing stones.  There was no help to be expected; the 
+only hope was in the strength of the doors and windows, and the 
+knowledge that personal violence was very uncommon; but those were 
+terrible moments, and poor Mrs. Fordyce was nearly dead with 
+suppressed terror when her husband tried haranguing from an upper 
+window, and was received with execrations and a volley of stones, 
+while the glass crashed round him.
+
+At that instant the shouts turned to yells of dismay, 'The so'diers! 
+the so'diers!'
+
+Our party had found everything still and dark in the village, for in 
+truth the men had hidden themselves.  They were being too much 
+attached to their masters to join in the attack, but were afraid of 
+being compelled to assist the rioters, and not resolute enough 
+against their own class either to inform against them or oppose 
+them.
+
+Through the midnight-like stillness of the street rose the tumult 
+around the Rectory; and by the light of a few lanterns, and from the 
+upper windows, they could see a mass of old hats, smock-frocked 
+shoulders, and the tops of bludgeons; while at soonest, Sir George 
+Eastwood's troop could not be expected for an hour or more.
+
+'We must get to them somehow,' said my father and Griff to one 
+another; and Griff added, 'These rascals are arrant cowards, and 
+they can't see the number of us.'
+
+Then, before my father knew what he was about--certainly before he 
+could get hold of the Riot Act--he found the stable lantern made 
+over to him, and Griff's sword flashing in light, as, making all 
+possible clatter and jingling with their accoutrements, the two 
+yeomen dashed among the throng, shouting with all their might, and 
+striking with the flat of their swords.  The rioters, ill-fed, dull-
+hearted men for the most part--many dragged out by compulsion, and 
+already terrified--went tumbling over one another and running off 
+headlong, bearing off with them (as we afterwards learnt) their 
+leaders by their weight, taking the blows and pushes they gave one 
+another in their pell-mell rush for those of the soldiery, and 
+falling blindly against the low wall of the enclosure.  The only 
+difficulty was in clearing them out at the two gates of the drive.
+
+When Mr. Fordyce opened the door to hail his rescuers he was utterly 
+amazed to behold only three, and asked in a bewildered voice, 'Where 
+are the others?'
+
+There were two prisoners, Petty the ratcatcher, who had attempted 
+some resistance and had been knocked down by Griff's horse, and a 
+young lad in a smock-frock who had fallen off the wall and hurt his 
+knee, and who blubbered piteously, declaring that them chaps had 
+forced him to go with them, or they would duck him in the horse-
+pond.  They were supposed to be given in charge to some one, but 
+were lost sight of, and no wonder!  For just then it was discovered 
+that the machine shed was on fire.  The rioters had apparently 
+detached one of their number to kindle the flame before assaulting 
+the house.  The matter was specially serious, because the stackyard 
+was on a line with the Rectory, at some distance indeed, but on 
+lower ground; and what with barns, hay and wheat ricks, sheds, 
+cowhouses and stables, all thatched, a big wood-pile, and a long 
+old-fashioned greenhouse, there was almost continuous communication.  
+Clouds of smoke and an ominous smell were already perceptible on the 
+wind, generated by the heat, and the loose straw in the centre of 
+the farmyard was beginning to be ignited by the flakes and sparks, 
+carrying the mischief everywhere, and rendering it exceedingly 
+difficult to release the animals and drive them to a place of 
+safety.  Water was scarce.  There were only two wells, besides the 
+pump in the house, and a shallow pond.  The brook was a quarter of a 
+mile off in the valley, and the nearest engine, a poor feeble thing, 
+at Wattlesea.  Moreover, the assailants might discover how small was 
+the force of rescuers, and return to the attack.  Thus, while Griff, 
+who had given amateur assistance at all the fires he could reach in 
+London; was striving to organise resistance to this new enemy, my 
+father induced the gentlemen to cause the horses to be put to the 
+various vehicles, and employ them in carrying the women and children 
+to Chantry House.  The old Rector was persuaded to go to take care 
+of his daughter-in-law, and she only thought of putting her girls in 
+safety.  She listened to reason, and indeed was too much exhausted 
+to move when once she was laid on the sofa.  She would not hear of 
+going to bed, though her little daughter Anne was sent off with her 
+nurse, grandpapa persuading her that Rosella and the others were 
+very much tired.  When she was gone, he declared his fears that he 
+had sat down on Celestina's head, and showed so much compunction 
+that we were much amused at his relief when Martyn assured him of 
+having searched the carriage with a stable lantern, so that whatever 
+had befallen the lady he was not the guilty person.  He really 
+seemed more concerned about this than at the loss of all his own 
+barns and stores.  And little Anne was certainly as lovely and 
+engaging a little creature as ever I saw; while, as to her elder 
+sister, in all the trouble and anxiety of the night, I could not 
+help enjoying the sight of her beautiful eager face and form.  She 
+was tall and very slight, sylph-like, as it was the fashion to call 
+it, but every limb was instinct with grace and animation.  Her face 
+was, perhaps, rather too thin for robust health, though this 
+enhanced the idea of her being all spirit, as also did the 
+transparency of complexion, tinted with an exquisite varying 
+carnation.  Her eyes were of a clear, bright, rather light brown, 
+and were sparkling with the lustre of excitement, her delicate lips 
+parted, showing the pretty pearly teeth, as she was telling Emily, 
+in a low voice of enthusiasm, scarcely designed for my ears, how 
+glorious a sight our brother had been, riding there in his glancing 
+silver, bearing down all before him with his good sword, like the 
+Captal de Buch dispersing the Jacquerie.
+
+To which Emily responded, 'Oh, don't you love the Captal de Buch?'  
+And their friendship was cemented.
+
+Next I heard, 'And that you should have been so good after all my 
+rudeness.  But I thought you were like the old Winslows; and instead 
+of that you have come to the rescue of your enemies.  Isn't it 
+beautiful?'
+
+'Oh no, not enemies,' said Emily.  'That was all over a hundred 
+years ago!'
+
+'So my papa and grandpapa say,' returned Miss Fordyce; 'but the last 
+Mr. Winslow was not a very nice man, and never would be civil to 
+us.'
+
+A report was brought that the glare of the fire could be seen over 
+the hill from the top of the house, and off went the two young 
+ladies to the leads, after satisfying themselves that Anne was 
+asleep among her homeless dolls.
+
+Old Mr. Fordyce devoted himself to keeping up the spirits of his 
+daughter-in-law as the night advanced without any tidings, except 
+that the girls, from time to time, rushed down to tell us of fresh 
+outbursts of red flame reflected in the sky, then that the glow was 
+diminishing; by which time they were tired out, and, both sinking 
+into a big armchair, they went to sleep in each other's arms.  
+Indeed I believe we all dozed more or less before any one returned 
+from the scene of action--at about three o'clock.
+
+The struggle with the flames had been very unequal.  The long 
+tongues soon reached the roof of the large barn, which was filled 
+with straw, nor could the flakes of burning thatch be kept from the 
+stable, while the water of the pond was soon reduced to mud.  
+Helpers began to flock in, but who could tell which were 
+trustworthy? and all were uncomprehending.
+
+There was so little hope of saving the house that the removal of 
+everything valuable was begun under my father's superintendence.  
+Frank Fordyce was here, there, and everywhere; while Griffith, like 
+a gallant general, fought the foe with very helpless unmanageable 
+forces.  Villagers, male and female, had emerged and stood gaping 
+round; but, let him rage and storm as he might, they would not go 
+and collect pails and buckets and form a line to the brook.  Still 
+less would they assist in overthrowing and carrying away the faggots 
+of a big wood-pile so as to cut off the communication with the 
+offices.  Only Chapman and one other man gave any help in this; and 
+presently the stack caught, and Griff, on the top, was in great 
+peril of the faggots rolling down with him into the middle, and 
+imprisoning him in the blazing pile.  'I never felt so like Dido,' 
+said Griff.
+
+That woodstack gave fearful aliment to the roaring flame, which came 
+on so fast that the destruction of the adjoining buildings quickly 
+followed.  The Wattlesea engine had come, but the yard well was 
+unattainable, and all that could be done was to saturate the house 
+with water from its own well, and cover the side with wet blankets; 
+but these reeked with steam, and then shrivelled away in the intense 
+glow of heat.
+
+However, by this time the Eastwood Yeomanry, together with some 
+reasonable men, had arrived.  A raid was made on the cottages for 
+buckets, a chain formed to the river, and at last the fire was got 
+under, having made a wreck of everything out-of-doors, and consumed 
+one whole wing of the house, though the older and more esteemed 
+portion was saved.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--THE PORTRAIT
+
+
+
+'When day was gone and night was come,
+   And all men fast asleep,
+There came the spirit of fair Marg'ret
+   And stood at William's feet.'
+
+Scotch Ballad.
+
+When I emerged from my room the next morning the phaeton was at the 
+door to take the two clergymen to reconnoitre their abode before 
+going to church.  Miss Fordyce went with them, and my father was for 
+once about to leave his parish church to give them his sympathy, and 
+join in their thanksgiving that neither life nor limb had been 
+injured.  He afterwards said that nothing could have been more 
+touching than old Mr. Fordyce's manner of mentioning this special 
+cause for gratitude before the General Thanksgiving; and Frank 
+Fordyce, having had all his sermons burnt, gave a short address 
+extempore (a very rare and almost shocking thing at that date), 
+reducing half the congregation to tears, for they really loved 'the 
+fam'ly,' though they had not spirit enough to defend it; and their 
+passiveness always remained a subject of pride and pleasure to the 
+Fordyces.  It was against the will of these good people that Petty, 
+the ratcatcher, was arrested, but he had been engaged in other 
+outrages, though this was the only one in which a dwelling-house had 
+suffered.  And Chapman observed that 'there was nothing to be done 
+with such chaps but to string 'em up out of the way.'
+
+Griff had toiled that night till he was as stiff as a rheumatic old 
+man when he came down only just in time for luncheon.  Mrs. Fordyce 
+did not appear at all.  She was a fragile creature, and quite 
+knocked up by the agitations of the night.  The gentlemen had 
+visited the desolate rectory, and found that though the fine ancient 
+kitchen had escaped, the pleasant living rooms had been injured by 
+the water, and the place could hardly be made habitable before the 
+spring.  They proposed to take a house in Bath, whence Frank Fordyce 
+could go and come for Sunday duty and general superintendence, but 
+my parents were urgent that they should not leave us until after 
+Christmas, and they consented.  Their larger possessions were to be 
+stored in the outhouses, their lesser in our house, notably in the 
+inner mullion chamber, which would thus be so blocked that there 
+would be no question of sleeping in it.
+
+Old Mr. Fordyce had ascertained that he might acquit himself of 
+smashing Celestina Mary, for no remains appeared in the carriage; 
+but a miserable trunk was discovered in the ruins, which he 
+identified--though surely no one else save the disconsolate parent 
+could have done so.  Poor little Anne's private possessions had 
+suffered most severely of all, for her whole nursery establishment 
+had vanished.  Her surviving dolls were left homeless, and devoid of 
+all save their night-clothing, which concerned her much more than 
+the loss of almost all her own garments.  For what dolls were to her 
+could never have been guessed by us, who had forced Emily to disdain 
+them; whereas they were children to the maternal heart of this 
+lonely child.
+
+She was quite a new revelation to us.  All the Fordyces were 
+handsome; and her chestnut curls and splendid eyes, her pretty 
+colour and unconscious grace, were very charming.  Emily was so near 
+our own age that we had never known the winsomeness of a little 
+maid-child amongst us, and she was a perpetual wonder and delight to 
+us.
+
+Indeed, from having always lived with her elders, she was an odd 
+little old-fashioned person, advanced in some ways, and comically 
+simple in others.  Her doll-heart was kept in abeyance all Sunday, 
+and it was only on Monday that her anxiety for Celestina manifested 
+itself with considerable vehemence; but her grandfather gravely 
+informed her that the young lady was gone to an excellent doctor, 
+who would soon effect a cure.  The which was quite true, for he had 
+sent her to a toy-shop by one of the maids who had gone to restore 
+the ravage on the wardrobes, and who brought her back with a new 
+head and arms, her identity apparently not being thus interfered 
+with.  The hoards of scraps were put under requisition to re-clothe 
+the survivors; and I won my first step in Miss Anne's good graces by 
+undertaking a knitted suit for Rosella.
+
+The good little girl had evidently been schooled to repress her 
+dread and repugnance at my unlucky appearance, and was painfully 
+polite, only shutting her eyes when she came to shake hands with me; 
+but after Rosella condescended to adopt me, we became excellent 
+friends.  Indeed the following conversation was overheard by Emily, 
+and set down:
+
+'Do you know, Martyn, there's a fairies' ring on Hillside Down?'
+
+'Mushrooms,' quoth Martyn.
+
+'Yes, don't you know?  They are the fairies' tables.  They come out 
+and spread them with lily tablecloths at night, and have acorn cups 
+for dishes, with honey in them.  And they dance and play there.  
+Well, couldn't Mr. Edward go and sit under the beech-tree at the 
+edge till they come?'
+
+'I don't think he would like it at all,' said Martyn.  'He never 
+goes out at odd times.'
+
+'Oh, but don't you know? when they come they begin to sing -
+
+
+'"Sunday and Monday,
+Monday and Tuesday."
+
+
+And if he was to sing nicely,
+
+
+'"Wednesday and Thursday,"
+
+
+they would be so much pleased that they would make his back straight 
+again in a moment.  At least, perhaps Wednesday and Thursday would 
+not do, because the little tailor taught them those; but Friday 
+makes them angry.  But suppose he made some nice verse -
+
+
+'"Monday and Tuesday
+The fairies are gay,
+Tuesday and Wednesday
+They dance away--"
+
+
+I think that would do as well, perhaps.  Do get him to do so, 
+Martyn.  It would be so nice if he was tall and straight.'
+
+Dear little thing!  Martyn, who was as much her slave as was her 
+grandfather, absolutely made her shed tears over his history of our 
+accident, and then caressed them off; but I believe he persuaded her 
+that such a case might be beyond the fairies' reach, and that I 
+could hardly get to the spot in secret, which, it seems, is an 
+essential point.  He had imagination enough to be almost persuaded 
+of fairyland by her earnestness, and she certainly took him into 
+doll-land.  He had a turn for carpentry and contrivance, and he 
+undertook that the Ladies Rosella, etc., should be better housed 
+than ever.  A great packing-case was routed out, and much ingenuity 
+was expended, much delight obtained, in the process of converting it 
+into a doll's mansion, and replenishing it with furniture.  Some was 
+bought, but Martyn aspired to make whatever he could; I did a good 
+deal, and I believe most of our achievements are still extant.  
+Whatever we could not manage, Clarence was to accomplish when he 
+should come home.
+
+His arrival was, as usual, late in the evening; and, as before, he 
+had the little room within mine.  In the morning, as we were 
+crossing the hall to the bright wood fire, around which the family 
+were wont to assemble before prayers, he came to a pause, asking 
+under his breath, 'What's that?  Who's that?'
+
+'It is one of the Hillside pictures.  You know we have a great many 
+things here from thence.'
+
+'It is SHE,' he said, in a low, awe-stricken voice.  No need to say 
+who SHE meant.
+
+I had not paid much attention to the picture.  It had come with 
+several more, such as are rife in country houses, and was one of the 
+worst of the lot, a poor imitation of Lely's style, with a certain 
+air common to all the family; but Clarence's eyes were riveted on 
+it.  'She looks younger,' he said; 'but it is the same.  I could 
+swear to the lip and the whole shape of the brow and chin.  No--the 
+dress is different.'
+
+For in the portrait, there was nothing on the head, and one long 
+lock of hair fell on the shoulder of the low-cut white-satin dress, 
+done in very heavy gray shading.  The three girls came down 
+together, and I asked who the lady was.
+
+'Don't you know?  You ought; for that is poor Margaret who married 
+your ancestor.'
+
+No more was said then, for the rest of the world was collecting, and 
+then everybody went out their several ways.  Some tin tacks were 
+wanted for the dolls' house, and there were reports that Wattlesea 
+possessed a doll's grate and fire-irons.  The children were wild to 
+go in quest of them, but they were not allowed to go alone, and it 
+was pronounced too far and too damp for the elder sister, so that 
+they would have been disappointed, if Clarence--stimulated by 
+Martyn's kicks under the table--had not offered to be their escort.  
+When Mrs. Fordyce demurred, my mother replied, 'You may perfectly 
+trust her with Clarence.'
+
+'Yes; I don't know a safer squire,' rejoined my father.
+
+Commendation was so rare that Clarence quite blushed with pleasure; 
+and the pretty little thing was given into his charge, prancing and 
+dancing with pleasure, and expecting much more from sixpence and 
+from Wattlesea than was likely to be fulfilled.
+
+Griff went out shooting, and the two young ladies and I intended to 
+spend a very rational morning in the bookroom, reading aloud Mme. de 
+La Rochejaquelein's Memoirs by turns.  Our occupations were, on 
+Emily's part, completing a reticule, in a mosaic of shaded coloured 
+beads no bigger than pins' heads, for a Christmas gift to mamma--a 
+most wearisome business, of which she had grown extremely tired.  
+Miss Fordyce was elaborately copying our Muller's print of 
+Raffaelle's St. John in pencil on cardboard, so as to be as near as 
+possible a facsimile; and she had trusted me to make a finished 
+water-coloured drawing from a rough sketch of hers of the Hillside 
+barn and farm-buildings, now no more.
+
+In a pause Ellen Fordyce suddenly asked, 'What did you mean about 
+that picture?'
+
+'Only Clarence said it was like--' and here Emily came to a dead 
+stop.
+
+'Grandpapa says it is like me,' said Miss Fordyce.  'What, you don't 
+mean THAT?  Oh! oh! oh! is it true?  Does she walk?  Have you seen 
+her?  Mamma calls it all nonsense, and would not have Anne hear of 
+it for anything; but old Aunt Peggy used to tell me, and I am sure 
+grandpapa believes it, just a little.  Have you seen her?'
+
+'Only Clarence has, and he knew the picture directly.'
+
+She was much impressed, and on slight persuasion related the story, 
+which she had heard from an elder sister of her grandfather's, and 
+which had perhaps been the more impressed on her by her mother's 
+consternation at 'such folly' having been communicated to her.  Aunt 
+Peggy, who was much older than her brother, had died only four years 
+ago, at eighty-eight, having kept her faculties to the last, and 
+handed down many traditions to her great-niece.  The old lady's 
+father had been contemporary with the Margaret of ghostly fame, so 
+that the stages had been few through which it had come down from 
+1708 to 1830.
+
+I wrote it down at once, as it here stands.
+
+Margaret was the only daughter of the elder branch of the Fordyces.  
+Her father had intended her to marry her cousin, the male heir on 
+whom the Hillside estates and the advowson of that living were 
+entailed; but before the contract had been formally made, the father 
+was killed by accident, and through some folly and ambition of her 
+mother's (such seemed to be the Fordyce belief), the poor heiress 
+was married to Sir James Winslow, one of the successful intriguers 
+of the days of the later Stewarts, and with a family nearly as old, 
+if not older, than herself.  Her own children died almost at their 
+birth, and she was left a young widow.  Being meek and gentle, her 
+step-sons and daughters still ruled over Chantry House.  They 
+prevented her Hillside relations from having access to her whilst in 
+a languishing state of health, and when she died unexpectedly, she 
+was found to have bequeathed all her property to her step-son, 
+Philip Winslow, instead of to her blood relations, the Fordyces.
+
+This was certain, but the Fordyce tradition was that she had been 
+kept shut up in the mullion chambers, where she had often been heard 
+weeping bitterly.  One night in the winter, when the gentlemen of 
+the family had gone out to a Christmas carousal, she had endeavoured 
+to escape by the steps leading to the garden from the door now 
+bricked up, but had been met by them and dragged back with violence, 
+of which she died in the course of a few days; and, what was very 
+suspicious, she had been entirely attended by her step-daughter and 
+an old nurse, who never would let her own woman come near her.
+
+The Fordyces had thought of a prosecution, but the Winslows had 
+powerful interest at Court in those corrupt times, and contrived to 
+hush up the matter, as well as to win the suit in which the Fordyces 
+attempted to prove that there was no right to will the property 
+away.  Bitter enmity remained between the families; they were always 
+opposed in politics, and their animosity was fed by the belief which 
+arose that at the anniversaries of her death the poor lady haunted 
+the rooms, lamp in hand, wailing and lamenting.  A duel had been 
+fought on the subject between the heirs of the two families, 
+resulting in the death of the young Winslow.
+
+'And now,' cried Ellen Fordyce, 'the feud is so beautifully ended; 
+the doom must be appeased, now that the head of one hostile line has 
+come to the rescue of the other, and saved all our lives.'
+
+My suggestion that these would hardly have been destroyed, even 
+without our interposition, fell very flat, for romance must have its 
+swing.  Ellen told us how, on the news of our kinsman's death and 
+our inheritance, the ancestral story had been discussed, and her 
+grandfather had said he believed there were letters about it in the 
+iron deed-box, and how he hoped to be on better terms with the new 
+heir.
+
+The ghost story had always been hushed up in the family, especially 
+since the duel, and we all knew the resemblance of the picture would 
+be scouted by our elders; but perhaps this gave us the more pleasure 
+in dwelling upon it, while we agreed that poor Margaret ought to be 
+appeased by Griffith's prowess on behalf of the Fordyces.
+
+The two young ladies went off to inspect the mullion chamber, which 
+they found so crammed with Hillside furniture that they could 
+scarcely enter, and returned disappointed, except for having 
+inspected and admired all Griff's weapons, especially what Miss 
+Fordyce called the sword of her rescue.
+
+She had been learning German--rather an unusual study in those days, 
+and she narrated to us most effectively the story of Die Weisse 
+Frau, working herself up to such a pitch that she would have 
+actually volunteered to spend a night in the room, to see whether 
+Margaret would hold any communication with a descendant, after the 
+example of the White Woman and Lady Bertha, if there had been either 
+fire or accommodation, and if the only entrance had not been through 
+Griff's private sitting-room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--THE WHITE FEATHER
+
+
+
+'The white doe's milk is not out of his mouth.'
+
+SCOTT.
+
+Clarence had come home free from all blots.  His summer holiday had 
+been prevented by the illness of one of the other clerks, whose 
+place, Mr. Castleford wrote, he had so well supplied that ere long 
+he would be sure to earn his promotion.  That kind friend had 
+several times taken him to spend a Sunday in the country, and, as we 
+afterwards had reason to think, would have taken more notice of him 
+but for the rooted belief of Mr. Frith that it was a case of 
+favouritism, and that piety and strictness were assumed to throw 
+dust in the eyes of his patron.
+
+Such distrust had tended to render Clarence more reserved than ever, 
+and it was quite by the accident of finding him studying one of Mrs. 
+Trimmer's Manuals that I discovered that, at the request of his good 
+Rector, he had become a Sunday-school teacher, and was as much 
+interested as the enthusiastic girls; but I was immediately 
+forbidden to utter a word on the subject, even to Emily, lest she 
+should tell any one.
+
+Such reserve was no doubt an outcome of his natural timidity.  He 
+had to bear a certain amount of scorn and derision among some of his 
+fellow-clerks for the stricter habits and observances that could not 
+be concealed, and he dreaded any fresh revelation of them, partly 
+because of the cruel imputation of hypocrisy, partly because he 
+feared the bringing a scandal on religion by his weakness and 
+failures.
+
+Nor did our lady visitors' ways reassure him, though they meant to 
+be kind.  They could not help being formal and stiff, not as they 
+were with Griff and me.  The two gentlemen were thoroughly friendly 
+and hearty; Parson Frank could hardly have helped being so towards 
+any one in the same house with himself; and as to little Anne, she 
+found in the new-comer a carpenter and upholsterer superior even to 
+Martyn; but her candour revealed a great deal which I overheard one 
+afternoon, when the two children were sitting together on the 
+hearth-rug in the bookroom in the twilight.
+
+'I want to see Mr. Clarence's white feather,' observed Anne.
+
+'Griff has a white plume in his Yeomanry helmet,' replied Martyn; 
+'Clarence hasn't one.'
+
+'Oh, I saw Mr. Griffith's!' she answered; 'but Cousin Horace said 
+Mr. Clarence showed the white feather.'
+
+'Cousin Horace is an ape!' cried Martyn.
+
+'I don't think he is so nice as an ape,' said Anne.  'He is more 
+like a monkey.  He tries the dolls by court-martial, and he shot 
+Arabella with a pea-shooter, and broke her eye; only grandpapa made 
+him have it put in again with his own money, and then he said I was 
+a little sneak, and if I ever did it again he would shoot me.'
+
+'Mind you don't tell Clarence what he said,' said Martyn.
+
+'Oh, no!  I think Mr. Clarence very nice indeed; but Horace did 
+tease so about that day when he carried poor Amos Bell home.  He 
+said Ellen had gone and made friends with the worst of all the 
+wicked Winslows, who had shown the white feather and disgraced his 
+flag.  No; I know you are not wicked.  And Mr. Griff came all 
+glittering, like Richard Coeur de Lion, and saved us all that night.  
+But Ellen cried to think what she had done, and mamma said it showed 
+what it was to speak to a strange young man; and she has never let 
+Ellen and me go out of the grounds by ourselves since that day.'
+
+'It is a horrid shame,' exclaimed Martyn, 'that a fellow can't get 
+into a scrape without its being for ever cast up to him.'
+
+'_I_ like him,' said Anne.  'He gave Mary Bell a nice pair of boots, 
+and he made a new pair of legs for poor old Arabella, and she can 
+really sit down!  Oh, he is VERY nice; but'--in an awful whisper--
+'does he tell stories?  I mean fibs--falsehoods.'
+
+'Who told you that?' exclaimed Martyn.
+
+'Mamma said it.  Ellen was telling them something about the picture 
+of the white-satin lady, and mamma said, "Oh, if it is only that 
+young man, no doubt it is a mere mystification;" and papa said, 
+"Poor young fellow, he seems very amiable and well disposed;" and 
+mamma said, "If he can invent such a story it shows that Horace was 
+right, and he is not to be believed."  Then they stopped, but I 
+asked Ellen who it was, and she said it was Mr. Clarence, and it was 
+a sad thing for Emily and all of you to have such a brother.'
+
+Martyn began to stammer with indignation, and I thought it time to 
+interfere; so I called the little maid, and gravely explained the 
+facts, adding that poor Clarence's punishment had been terrible, but 
+that he was doing his best to make up for what was past; and that, 
+as to anything he might have told, though he might be mistaken, he 
+never said anything NOW but what he believed to be true.  She raised 
+her brown eyes to mine full of gravity, and said, 'I DO like him.'  
+Moreover, I privately made Martyn understand that if he told her 
+what had been said about the white-satin lady, he would never be 
+forgiven; the others would be sure to find it out, and it might 
+shorten their stay.
+
+That was a dreadful idea, for the presence of those two creatures, 
+to say nothing of their parents, was an unspeakable charm and 
+novelty to us all.  We all worshipped the elder, and the little one 
+was like a new discovery and toy to us, who had never been used to 
+such a presence.  She was not a commonplace child; but even if she 
+had been, she would have been as charming a study as a kitten; and 
+she had all the four of us at her feet, though her mother was 
+constantly protesting against our spoiling her, and really kept up 
+so much wholesome discipline that the little maid never exceeded the 
+bounds of being charming to us.  After that explanation there was 
+the same sweet wistful gentleness in her manner towards Clarence as 
+she showed to me; while he, who never dreamt of such a child knowing 
+his history was brighter and freer with her than with any one else, 
+played with her and Martyn, and could be heard laughing merrily with 
+them.  Perhaps her mother and sister did not fully like this, but 
+they could not interfere before our faces.  And Parson Frank was 
+really kind to him; took him out walking when going to Hillside, and 
+talked to him so as to draw him out; certifying, perhaps, that he 
+would do no harm, although, indeed, the family looked on dear good 
+Frank as a sort of boy, too kind-hearted and genial for his approval 
+to be worth as much as that of the more severe.
+
+These were our only Christmas visitors, for the state of the country 
+did not invite Londoners; but we did not want them.  The suppression 
+of Clarence was the only flaw in a singularly happy time; and, after 
+all I believe I felt the pity of it more than he did, who expected 
+nothing, and was accustomed to being in the background.
+
+For instance, one afternoon in the course of one of the grave 
+discussions that used to grow up between Miss Fordyce, Emily, and 
+me, over subjects trite to the better-instructed younger generation, 
+we got quite out of our shallow depths.  I think it was on the 
+meaning of the 'Communion of Saints,' for the two girls were both 
+reading in preparation for a Confirmation at Bristol, and Miss 
+Fordyce knew more than we did on these subjects.  All the time 
+Clarence had sat in the window, carving a bit of doll's furniture, 
+and quite forgotten; but at night he showed me the exposition copied 
+from Pearson on the Creed, a bit of Hooker, and extracts from one or 
+two sermons.  I found these were notes written out in a blank book, 
+which he had had in hand ever since his Confirmation--his logbook as 
+he called it; but he would not hear of their being mentioned even to 
+Emily, and only consented to hunt up the books on condition I would 
+not bring him forward as the finder.  It was of no use to urge that 
+it was a deprivation to us all that he should not aid us with his 
+more thorough knowledge and deeper thought.  'He could not do so,' 
+he said, in a quiet decisive manner; 'it was enough for him to watch 
+and listen to Miss Fordyce, when she could forget his presence.'
+
+She often did forget it in her eagerness.  She was by nature one of 
+the most ardent beings that I ever saw, yet with enthusiasm kept in 
+check by the self-control inculcated as a primary duty.  It would 
+kindle in those wonderful light brown eyes, glow in the clear 
+delicate cheek, quiver in the voice even when the words were only 
+half adequate to the feeling.  She was not what is now called 
+gushing.  Oh, no! not in the least!  She was too reticent and had 
+too much dignity for anything of the kind.  Emily had always been 
+reckoned as our romantic young lady, and teased accordingly, but her 
+enthusiasm beside Ellen's was
+
+
+'As moonlight is to sunlight, as water is to wine,' -
+
+
+a mere reflection of the tone of the period, compared with a real 
+element in the character.  At least so my sister tells me, though at 
+the time all the difference I saw was that Miss Fordyce had the most 
+originality, and unconsciously became the leader.  The bookroom was 
+given up to us, and there in the morning we drew, worked, read, 
+copied and practised music, wrote out extracts, and delivered our 
+youthful minds to one another on all imaginable topics from 'slea 
+silk to predestination.'
+
+Religious subjects occupied us more than might have been held 
+likely.  A spirit of reflection and revival was silently working in 
+many a heart.  Evangelicalism had stirred old-fashioned orthodoxy, 
+and we felt its action.  The Christian Year was Ellen's guiding 
+star--as it was ours, nay, doubly so in proportion to the ardour of 
+her nature.  Certain poems are dearer and more eloquent to me still, 
+because the verses recall to me the thrill of her sweet tones as she 
+repeated them.  We were all very ignorant alike of Church doctrine 
+and history, but talking out and comparing our discoveries and 
+impressions was as useful as it was pleasant to us.
+
+What the Christian Year was in religion to us Scott was in history.  
+We read to verify or illustrate him, and we had little raving fits 
+over his characters, and jokes founded on them.  Indeed, Ellen saw 
+life almost through that medium; and the siege of Hillside, 
+dispersed by the splendid prowess of Griffith, the champion with 
+silver helm and flashing sword, was precious to her as a renewal of 
+the days of Ivanhoe or Damian de Lacy.
+
+As may be believed, these quiet mornings were those when that true 
+knight was employed in field sports or yeomanry duties, such as the 
+state of the country called for.  When he was at home, all was fun 
+and merriment and noise--walks and rides on fine days, battledore 
+and shuttlecock on wet ones, music, singing, paper games, giggling 
+and making giggle, and sometimes dancing in the hall--Mr. Frank 
+Fordyce joining with all his heart and drollery in many of these, 
+like the boy he was.
+
+I could play quadrilles and country dances, and now and then a reel-
+-nobody thought of waltzes--and the three couples changed and 
+counterchanged partners.  Clarence had the sailor's foot, and did 
+his part when needed; Emily generally fell to his share, and their 
+silence and gravity contrasted with the mirth of the other pairs.  
+He knew very well he was the pis aller of the party, and only danced 
+when Parson Frank was not dragged out, nothing loth, by his little 
+daughter.  With Miss Fordyce, Clarence never had the chance of 
+dancing; she was always claimed by Griff, or pounced upon by Martyn.
+
+Miss Fordyce she always was to us in those days, and those pretty 
+lips scrupulously 'Mistered' and 'Winslowed' us.  I don't think she 
+would have been more to us, if we had called her Nell, and had been 
+Griff, Bill, and Ted to her, or if there had not been all the little 
+formalities of avoiding tete a tetes and the like.  They were 
+essentials of propriety then--natural, and never viewed as prudish.  
+Nor did it detract from the sweet dignity of maidenhood that there 
+was none of the familiarity which breeds something one would rather 
+not mention in conjunction with a lady.
+
+Altogether there was a sunshine around Miss Fordyce by which we all 
+seemed illuminated, even the least favoured and least demonstrative; 
+we were all her willing slaves, and thought her smile and thanks 
+full reward.
+
+One day, when Griff and Martyn were assisting at the turn out of an 
+isolated barn at Hillside, where Frank Fordyce declared, all the 
+burnt-out rats and mice had taken refuge, the young ladies went out 
+to cater for house decorations for Christmas under Clarence's 
+escort.  Nobody but the clerk ever thought of touching the church, 
+where there were holes in all the pews to receive the holly boughs.
+
+The girls came back, telling in eager scared voices how, while 
+gathering butcher's broom in Farmer Hodges' home copse, a savage dog 
+had flown out at them, but had been kept at bay by Mr. Clarence 
+Winslow with an umbrella, while they escaped over the stile.
+
+Clarence had not come into the drawing-room with them, and while my 
+mother, who had a great objection to people standing about in out-
+door garments, sent them up to doff their bonnets and furs, I 
+repaired to our room, and was horrified to find him on my bed, white 
+and faint.
+
+'Bitten?' I cried in dismay.
+
+'Yes; but not much.  Only I'm such a fool.  I turned off when I 
+began taking off my boots.  No, no--don't!  Don't call any one.  It 
+is nothing!'
+
+He was springing up to stop me, but was forced to drop back, and I 
+made my way to the drawing-room, where my mother happened to be 
+alone.  She was much alarmed, but a glass of wine restored Clarence; 
+and inspection showed that the thick trowser and winter stocking had 
+so protected him that little blood had been drawn, and there was 
+bruise rather than bite in the calf of the leg, where the brute had 
+caught him as he was getting over the stile as the rear-guard.  It 
+was painful, though the faintness was chiefly from tension of nerve, 
+for he had kept behind all the way home, and no one had guessed at 
+the hurt.  My mother doctored it tenderly, and he begged that 
+nothing should be said about it; he wanted no fuss about such a 
+trifle.  My mother agreed, with the proud feeling of not enhancing 
+the obligations of the Fordyce family; but she absolutely kissed 
+Clarence's forehead as she bade him lie quiet till dinner-time.
+
+We kept silence at table while the girls described the horrors of 
+the monster.  'A tawny creature, with a hideous black muzzle,' said 
+Emily.  'Like a bad dream,' said Miss Fordyce.  The two fathers 
+expressed their intention of remonstrating with the farmer, and 
+Griff declared that it would be lucky if he did not shoot it.  Miss 
+Fordyce generously took its part, saying the poor dog was doing its 
+duty, and Griff ejaculated, 'If I had been there!'
+
+'It would not have dared to show its teeth, eh?' said my father, 
+when there was a good deal of banter.
+
+My father, however, came at night with mamma to inspect the hurt and 
+ask details, and he ended with, 'Well done, Clarence, boy; I am 
+gratified to see you are acquiring presence of mind, and can act 
+like a man.'
+
+Clarence smiled when they were gone, saying, 'That would have been 
+an insult to any one else.'
+
+Emily perceived that he had not come off unscathed, and was much 
+aggrieved at being bound to silence.  'Well,' she broke out, 'if the 
+dog goes mad, and Clarence has the hydrophobia, I suppose I may 
+tell.'
+
+'In that pleasing contingency,' said Clarence smiling.  'Don't you 
+see, Emily, it is the worst compliment you can pay me not to treat 
+this as a matter of course?'  Still, he was the happier for not 
+having failed.  Whatever strengthened his self-respect and gave him 
+trust in himself was a stepping-stone.
+
+As to rivalry or competition with Griff, the idea seemingly never 
+crossed his mind, and envy or jealousy were equally aloof from it.  
+One subject of thankfulness runs through these recollections--
+namely, that nothing broke the tie of strong affection between us 
+three brothers.  Griffith might figure as the 'vary parfite knight,' 
+the St. George of the piece, glittering in the halo shed round him 
+by the bright eyes of the rescued damsel; while Clarence might drag 
+himself along as the poor recreant to be contemned and tolerated, 
+and he would accept the position meekly as only his desert, without 
+a thought of bitterness.  Indeed, he himself seemed to have imbibed 
+Nurse Gooch's original opinion, that his genuine love for sacred 
+things was a sort of impertinence and pretension in such as he--a 
+kind of hypocrisy even when they were the realities and helps to 
+which he clung with all his heart.  Still, this depression was only 
+shown by reserve, and troubled no one save myself, who knew him best 
+guessed what was lost by his silence, and burned in spirit at seeing 
+him merely endured as one unworthy.
+
+In one of our varieties of Waverley discussions the crystal hardness 
+and inexperienced intolerance of youth made Miss Fordyce declare 
+that had she been Edith Plantagenet, she would never, never have 
+forgiven Sir Kenneth.  'How could she, when he had forsaken the 
+king's banner?  Unpardonable!'
+
+Then came a sudden, awful silence, as she recollected her audience, 
+and blushed crimson with the misery of perceiving where her random 
+shaft had struck, nor did either of us know what to say; but to our 
+surprise it was Clarence who first spoke to relieve the desperate 
+embarrassment.  'Is forgiven quite the right word, when the offence 
+was not personal?  I know that such things can neither be repaired 
+nor overlooked, and I think that is what Miss Fordyce meant.'
+
+'Oh, Mr. Winslow,' she exclaimed, 'I am very sorry--I don't think I 
+quite meant'--and then, as her eyes for one moment fell on his 
+subdued face, she added, 'No, I said what I ought not.  If there is 
+sorrow'--her voice trembled--'and pardon above, no one below has any 
+right to say unpardonable.'
+
+Clarence bowed his head, and his lips framed, but he did not utter, 
+'Thank you.'  Emily nervously began reading aloud the page before 
+her, full of the jingling recurring rhymes about Sir Thomas of Kent; 
+but I saw Ellen surreptitiously wipe away a tear, and from that time 
+she was more kind and friendly with Clarence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--VENI, VIDI, VICI
+
+
+
+'None but the brave,
+None but the brave,
+None but the brave deserve the fair.'
+
+Song.
+
+Christmas trees were not yet heard of beyond the Fatherland, and 
+both the mothers held that Christmas parties were not good for 
+little children, since Mrs. Winslow's strong common sense had 
+arrived at the same conclusion as Mrs. Fordyce had derived from 
+Hannah More and Richard Lovell Edgeworth.  Besides, rick-burning and 
+mobs were far too recent for our neighbours to venture out at night.
+
+But as we were all resolved that little Anne should have a memorable 
+Christmas at Chantry House, we begged an innocent, though iced cake, 
+from the cook, painted a set of characters ourselves, including all 
+the dolls, and bespoke the presence of Frank Fordyce at a feast in 
+the outer mullion room--Griff's apartment, of course.  The locality 
+was chosen as allowing more opportunity for high jinks than the 
+bookroom, and also because the swords and pistols in trophy over the 
+mantelpiece had a great fascination for the two sisters, and to 
+'drink tea with Mr. Griffith' was always known to be a great 
+ambition of the little queen of the festival.  As to the mullion 
+chamber legends, they had nearly gone out of our heads, though 
+Clarence did once observe, 'You remember, it will be the 26th of 
+December;' but we did not think this worthy of consideration, 
+especially as Anne's entertainment, at its latest, could not last 
+beyond nine o'clock; and the ghostly performances--now entirely laid 
+to the account of the departed stable-boy--never began before 
+eleven.
+
+Nor did anything interfere with our merriment.  The fun of fifty 
+years ago must be intrinsically exquisite to bear being handed down 
+to another generation, so I will attempt no repetition, though some 
+of those Twelfth Day characters still remain, pasted into my diary.  
+We anticipated Twelfth Day because our guests meant to go to visit 
+some other friends before the New Year, and we knew Anne would have 
+no chance there of fulfilling her great ambition of drawing for king 
+and queen.  These home-made characters were really charming.  Mrs. 
+Fordyce had done several of them, and she drew beautifully.  A 
+little manipulation contrived that the exquisite Oberon and Titania 
+should fall to Martyn and Anne, for whom crowns and robes had been 
+prepared, worn by her majesty with complacent dignity, but barely 
+tolerated by him!  The others took their chance.  Parson Frank was 
+Tom Thumb, and convulsed us all the evening by acting as if no 
+bigger than that worthy, keeping us so merry that even Clarence 
+laughed as I had never seen him laugh before.
+
+Cock Robin and Jenny Wren--the best drawn of all--fell to Griff and 
+Miss Fordyce.  There was a suspicion of a tint of real carnation on 
+her cheek, as, on his low, highly-delighted bow, she held up her 
+impromptu fan of folded paper; and drollery about currant wine and 
+hopping upon twigs went on more or less all the time, while somehow 
+or other the beauteous glow on her cheeks went on deepening, so that 
+I never saw her look so pretty as when thus playing at Jenny Wren's 
+coyness, though neither she nor Griff had passed the bounds of her 
+gracious precise discretion.
+
+The joyous evening ended at last.  With the stroke of nine, Jenny 
+Wren bore away Queen Titania to put her to bed, for the servants 
+were having an entertainment of their own downstairs for all the 
+out-door retainers, etc.  Oberon departed, after an interval 
+sufficient to prove his own dignity and advanced age.  Emily went 
+down to report the success of the evening to the elders in the 
+drawing-room, but we lingered while Frank Fordyce was telling good 
+stories of Oxford life, and Griff capping them with more recent 
+ones.
+
+We too broke up--I don't remember how; but Clarence was to help me 
+down the stairs, and Mr. Fordyce, frowning with anxiety at the 
+process, was offering assistance, while we had much rather he had 
+gone out of the way; when suddenly, in the gallery round the hall 
+giving access to the bedrooms, there dawned upon us the startled but 
+scarcely displeased figure of Jenny Wren in her white dress, not 
+turning aside that blushing face, while Cock Robin was clasping her 
+hand and pressing it to his lips.  The tap of my crutches warned 
+them.  She flew back within her door and shut it; Griff strode 
+rapidly on, caught hold of her father's hand, exclaiming, 'Sir, sir, 
+I must speak to you!' and dragged him back into the mullion room 
+leaving Clarence and me to convey ourselves downstairs as best we 
+might.
+
+'Our sister, our sweet sister!'
+
+We were immensely excited.  All the three of us were so far in love 
+with Ellen Fordyce that her presence was an enchantment to us, and 
+at any rate none of us ever saw the woman we could compare to her; 
+and as we both felt ourselves disqualified in different ways from 
+any nearer approach, we were content to bask in the reflected rays 
+of our brother's happiness.
+
+Not that he had gone that length as yet, as we knew before the night 
+was over, when he came down to us.  Even with the dear maiden 
+herself, he had only made sure that she was not averse, and that 
+merely by her eyes and lips; and he had extracted nothing from her 
+father but that they were both very young, a great deal too young, 
+and had no business to think of such things yet.  It must be talked 
+over, etc. etc.
+
+But just then, Griff told us, Frank Fordyce jumped up and turned 
+round with the sudden exclamation, 'Ellen!' looking towards the door 
+behind him with blank astonishment, as he found it had neither been 
+opened nor shut.  He thought his daughter had recollected something 
+left behind, and coming in search of it, had retreated 
+precipitately.  He had seen her, he said, in the mirror opposite.  
+Griff told him there was no mirror, and had to carry a candle across 
+to convince him that he had only been looking at the door into the 
+inner room, which though of shining dark oak, could hardly have made 
+a reflection as vivid as he declared that his had been.  Indeed, he 
+ascertained that Ellen had never left her own room at all.  'It must 
+have been thinking about the dear child,' he said.  'And after all, 
+it was not quite like her--somehow--she was paler, and had something 
+over her head.'  We had no doubt who it was.  Griff had not seen 
+her, but he was certain that there had been none of the moaning nor 
+crying, 'In fact, she has come to give her consent,' he said with 
+earnest in his mocking tone.
+
+'Yes,' said Clarence gravely, and with glistening eyes.  'You are 
+happy Griff.  It is given to you to right the wrong, and quiet that 
+poor spirit.'
+
+'Happy!  The happiest fellow in the world,' said Griff, 'even 
+without that latter clause--if only Madam and the old man will have 
+as much sense as she has!'
+
+The next day was a thoroughly uncomfortable one.  Griff was not half 
+so near his goal as he had hoped last night when with kindly Parson 
+Frank.
+
+The commotion was as if a thunderbolt had descended among the 
+elders.  What they had been thinking of, I cannot tell, not to have 
+perceived how matters were tending; but their minds were full of the 
+Reform Bill and the state of the country, and, besides, we were all 
+looked on still as mere children.  Indeed, Griff was scarcely one-
+and-twenty, and Ellen wanted a month of seventeen; and the crisis 
+had really been a sudden impulse, as he said, 'She looked so sweet 
+and lovely, he could not help it.'
+
+The first effect was a serious lecture upon maidenliness and 
+propriety to poor Ellen from her mother, who was sure that she must 
+have transgressed the bounds of discretion, or such ill-bred 
+presumption would have been spared her, and bitterly regretted the 
+having trusted her to take care of herself.  There were sufficient 
+grains of truth in this to make the poor girl cry herself out of all 
+condition for appearing at breakfast or luncheon, and Emily's report 
+of her despair made us much more angry with Mrs. Fordyce than was 
+perhaps quite due to that good lady.
+
+My parents were at first inclined to take the same line, and be 
+vexed with Griff for an act of impertinence towards a guest.  He had 
+a great deal of difficulty in inducing the elders to believe him in 
+earnest, or treat him as a man capable of knowing his own mind; and 
+even thus they felt as if his addresses to Miss Fordyce were, under 
+present circumstances, taking almost an unfair advantage of the 
+other family--at which our youthful spirits felt indignant.
+
+Yet, after all, such a match was as obvious and suitable as if it 
+had been a family compact, and the only objection was the youth of 
+the parties.  Mrs. Fordyce would fain have believed her daughter's 
+heart to be not yet awake, and was grieved to find childhood over, 
+and the hero of romance become the lover; and she was anxious that 
+full time should be given to perceive whether her daughter's 
+feelings were only the result of the dazzling aureole which 
+gratitude and excited fancy had cast around the fine, handsome, 
+winning youth.  Her husband, however, who had himself married very 
+young, and was greatly taken with Griff, besides being always 
+tender-hearted, did not enter into her scruples; but, as we had 
+already found out, the grand-looking and clever man of thirty-eight 
+was, chiefly from his impulsiveness and good-nature, treated as the 
+boy of the family.  His old father, too, was greatly pleased with 
+Griff's spirit, affection, and purpose, as well as with my father's 
+conduct in the matter; and so, after a succession of private 
+interviews, very tantalising to us poor outsiders, it was conceded 
+that though an engagement for the present was preposterous, it might 
+possibly be permitted when Ellen was eighteen if Griff had completed 
+his university life with full credit.  He was fervently grateful to 
+have such an object set before him, and my father was warmly 
+thankful for the stimulus.
+
+That last evening was very odd and constrained.  We could not help 
+looking on the lovers as new specimens over which some strange 
+transformation had passed, though for the present it had stiffened 
+them in public into the strictest good behaviour.  They would have 
+been awkward if it had been possible to either of them, and, save 
+for a certain look in their eyes, comported themselves as perfect 
+strangers.
+
+The three elder gentlemen held discussions in the dining-room, but 
+we were not trusted in our playground adjoining.  Mrs. Fordyce 
+nailed Griff down to an interminable game at chess, and my mother 
+kept the two girls playing duets, while Clarence turned over the 
+leaves; and I read over The Lady of the Lake, a study which I always 
+felt, and still feel, as an act of homage to Ellen Fordyce, though 
+there was not much in common between her and the maid of Douglas.  
+Indeed, it was a joke of her father's to tease her by criticising 
+the famous passage about the tears that old Douglas shed over his 
+duteous daughter's head--'What in the world should the man go 
+whining and crying for?  He had much better have laughed with her.'
+
+Little did the elders know what was going on in the next room, where 
+there was a grand courtship among the dolls; the hero being a small 
+jointed Dutch one in Swiss costume, about an eighth part of the size 
+of the resuscitated Celestina Mary, but the only available male 
+character in doll-land!  Anne was supposed to be completely ignorant 
+of what passed above her head; and her mother would have been aghast 
+had she heard the remarkable discoveries and speculations that she 
+and Martyn communicated to one another.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--THE OUTSIDE OF THE COURTSHIP
+
+
+
+'Or framing, as a fair excuse,
+The book, the pencil, or the muse;
+Something to give, to sing, to say,
+Some modern tale, some ancient lay.'
+
+SCOTT.
+
+It seems to me on looking back that I have hardly done justice to 
+Mrs. Fordyce, and certainly we--as Griffith's eager partisans--often 
+regarded her in the light of an enemy and opponent; but after this 
+lapse of time, I can see that she was no more than a prudent mother, 
+unwilling to see her fair young daughter suddenly launched into 
+womanhood, and involved in an attachment to a young and untried man.
+
+The part of a drag is an invidious one; and this must have been her 
+part through most of her life.  The Fordyces, father and son, were 
+of good family, gentlemen to their very backbones, and thoroughly 
+good, religious men; but she came of a more aristocratic strain, had 
+been in London society, and brought with her a high-bred air which, 
+implanted on the Fordyce good looks, made her daughter especially 
+fascinating.  But that air did not recommend Mrs. Fordyce to all her 
+neighbours, any more than did those stronger, stricter, more 
+thorough-going notions of religious obligation which had led her 
+husband to make the very real and painful sacrifice of his sporting 
+tastes, and attend to the parish in a manner only too rare in those 
+days.  She was a very well-informed and highly accomplished woman, 
+and had made her daughter the same, keeping her children up in a 
+somewhat exclusive style, away from all gossip or undesirable 
+intimacies, as recommended by Miss Edgeworth and other more 
+religious authorities, and which gave great offence in houses where 
+there were girls of the same age.  No one, however, could look at 
+Ellen, and doubt of the success of the system, or of the young 
+girl's entire content and perfect affection for her mother, though 
+her father was her beloved playfellow--yet always with respect.  She 
+never took liberties with him, nor called him Pap or any other 
+ridiculous name inconsistent with the fifth Commandment, though she 
+certainly was more entirely at ease with him than ever we had been 
+with our elderly father.  When once Mrs. Fordyce found on what terms 
+we were to be, she accepted them frankly and fully.  Already Emily 
+had been the first girl, not a relation, whose friendship she had 
+fostered with Ellen; and she had also become thoroughly affectionate 
+and at home with my mother, who suited her perfectly on the 
+conscientious, and likewise on the prudent and sensible, side of her 
+nature.
+
+To me she was always kindness itself, so kind that I never felt, as 
+I did on so many occasions, that she was very pitiful and attentive 
+to the deformed youth; but that she really enjoyed my companionship, 
+and I could help her in her pursuits.  I have a whole packet of 
+charming notes of hers about books, botany, drawings, little bits of 
+antiquarianism, written with an arch grace and finish of expression 
+peculiarly her own, and in a very pointed hand, yet too definite to 
+be illegible.  I owe her more than I can say for the windows of 
+wholesome hope and ambition she opened to me, giving a fresh motive 
+and zest even to such a life as mine.  I can hardly tell which was 
+the most delightful companion, she or her husband.  In spite of ill 
+health, she knew every plant, and every bit of fair scenery in the 
+neighbourhood, and had fresh, amusing criticisms to utter on each 
+new book; while he, not neglecting the books, was equally well 
+acquainted with all beasts and birds, and shed his kindly light over 
+everything he approached.  He was never melancholy about anything 
+but politics, and even there it was an immense consolation to him to 
+have the owner of Chantry House staunch on the same side, instead of 
+in chronic opposition.
+
+The family party moved to a tall house at Bath, but there still was 
+close intercourse, for the younger clergyman rode over every week 
+for the Sunday duty, and almost always dined and slept at Chantry 
+House.  He acted as bearer of long letters, which, in spite of a 
+reticulation of crossings, were too expensive by post for young 
+ladies' pocket-money, often exceeding the regular quarto sheet.  It 
+was a favourite joke to ask Emily what Ellen reported about Bath 
+fashions, and to see her look of scorn.  For they were a curious 
+mixture, those girlish letters, of village interests, discussion of 
+books, and thoughts beyond their age; Tommy Toogood and Prometheus; 
+or Du Guesclin in the closest juxtaposition with reports of progress 
+in Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers.  It was the desire of 
+Ellen to prove herself not unsettled but improved by love, and to 
+become worthy of her ideal Griffith, never guessing that he would 
+have been equally content with her if she had been as frivolous as 
+the idlest girl who lingered amid the waning glories of Bath.
+
+We all made them a visit there when Martyn was taken to a 
+preparatory school in the place.  Mrs. Fordyce took me out for 
+drives on the beautiful hills; and Emily and I had a very delightful 
+time, undisturbed by the engrossing claims of love-making.  Very 
+good, too, were our friends, after our departure, in letting Martyn 
+spend Sundays and holidays with them, play with Anne as before, say 
+his Catechism with her to Mrs. Fordyce, and share her little Sunday 
+lessons, which had, he has since told, a force and attractiveness he 
+had never known before, and really did much, young as he was, in 
+preparing the way towards the fulfilment of my father's design for 
+him.
+
+When the Rectory was ready, and the family returned, it was high 
+summer, and there were constant meetings between the households.  No 
+doubt there were the usual amount of trivial disappointments and 
+annoyances, but the whole season seems to me to have been bathed in 
+sunlight.  The Reform Bill agitations and the London mobs of which 
+Clarence wrote to us were like waves surging beyond an isle of 
+peace.  Clarence had some unpleasant walks from the office.  Once or 
+twice the shutters had to be put up at Frith and Castleford's to 
+prevent the windows from being broken; and once Clarence actually 
+saw our nation's hero, 'the Duke,' riding quietly and slowly through 
+a yelling, furious mob, who seemed withheld from falling on him by 
+the perfect impassiveness of the eagle face and spare figure.  
+Moreover a pretty little boy, on his pony, suddenly pushed forward 
+and rode by the Duke's side, as if proud and resolute to share his 
+peril.
+
+'If Griffith had been there!' said Ellen and Emily, though they did 
+not exactly know what they expected him to have done.
+
+The chief storms that drifted across our sky were caused by Mrs. 
+Fordyce's resolution that Griffith should enjoy none of the 
+privileges of an accepted suitor before the engagement was an actual 
+fact.  Ellen was obedient and conscientious; and would neither 
+transgress nor endure to have her mother railed at by Griff's hasty 
+tongue, and this affronted him, and led to little breezes.
+
+When people overstay their usual time, tempers are apt to get rather 
+difficult.  Griffith had kept all his terms at Oxford, and was not 
+to return thither after the long vacation, but was to read with a 
+tutor before taking his degree.  Moreover bills began to come from 
+Oxford, not very serious, but vexing my father and raising 
+annoyances and frets, for Griff resented their being complained of, 
+and thought himself ill-used, going off to see his own friends 
+whenever he was put out.
+
+One morning at breakfast, late in October, he announced that Lady 
+Peacock was in lodgings at Clifton, and asked my mother to call on 
+her.  But mamma said it was too far for the horse--she visited no 
+one at that distance, and had never thought much of Selina Clarkson 
+before or after her marriage.
+
+'But now that she is a widow, it would be such a kindness,' pleaded 
+Griff.
+
+'Depend upon it, a gay young widow needs no kindness from me, and 
+had better not have it from you,' said my mother, getting up from 
+behind her urn and walking off, followed by my father.
+
+Griff drummed on the table.  'I wonder what good ladies of a certain 
+age do with their charity,' he said.
+
+And while we were still crying out at him, Ellen Fordyce and her 
+father appeared, like mirth bidding good-morrow, at the window.  All 
+was well for the time, but Griff wanted Ellen to set out alone with 
+him, and take their leisurely way through the wood-path, and she 
+insisted on waiting for her father, who had got into an endless 
+discussion with mine on the Reform Bill, thrown out in the last 
+Session.  Griff tried to wile her on with him, but, though she 
+consented to wander about the lawn before the windows with him, she 
+always resolutely turned at the great beech tree.  Emily and I 
+watched them from the window, at first amused, then vexed, as we 
+could see, by his gestures, that he was getting out of temper, and 
+her straw bonnet drooped at one moment, and was raised the next in 
+eager remonstrance or defence.  At last he flung angrily away from 
+her, and went off to the stables, leaving her leaning against the 
+gate in tears.  Emily, in an access of indignant sympathy, rushed 
+out to her, and they vanished together into the summer-house, until 
+her father called her, and they went home together.
+
+Emily told me that Ellen had struggled hard to keep herself from 
+crying enough to show traces of tears which her father could 
+observe, and that she had excused Griff with all her might on the 
+plea of her own 'tiresomeness.'
+
+We were all the more angry with him for his selfishness and want of 
+consideration, for Ellen, in her torrent of grief, had even 
+disclosed that he had said she did not care for him--no one really 
+in love ever scrupled about a mother's nonsense, etc., etc.
+
+We were resolved, like two sages, to give him a piece of our minds, 
+and convince him that such dutifulness was the pledge of future 
+happiness, and that it was absolute cruelty to the rare creature he 
+had won, to try to draw her in a direction contrary to her 
+conscience.
+
+However, we saw him no more that day; and only learnt that he had 
+left a message at the stables that dinner was not to be kept waiting 
+for him.  Such a message from Clarence would have caused a great 
+commotion; but it was quite natural and a matter of course from him 
+in the eyes of the elders, who knew nothing of his parting with 
+Ellen.  However, there was annoyance enough, when bedtime came, 
+family prayers were over, and still there was no sign of him.  My 
+father sat up till one o'clock, to let him in, then gave it up, and 
+I heard his step heavily mounting the stairs.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--BRISTOL DIAMONDS
+
+
+
+'Stafford.  And you that are the King's friends, follow me.
+
+Cade.  And you that love the Commons, follow me;
+We will not leave one lord, one gentleman,
+Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon.'
+
+Act I.  Henry VI.
+
+The next day was Sunday, and no Griff appeared in the morning.  
+Vexation, perhaps, prevented us from attending as much as we 
+otherwise might have done to Mr. Henderson when he told us that 
+there were rumours of a serious disturbance at Bristol; until Emily 
+recollected that Griff had been talking for some days past of riding 
+over to see his friend in the cavalry regiment there stationed, and 
+we all agreed that it was most likely that he was there; and our 
+wrath began to soften in the belief that he might have been detained 
+to give his aid in the cause of order, though his single arm could 
+not be expected to effect as much as at Hillside.
+
+Long after dark we heard a horse's feet, and in another minute 
+Griff, singed, splashed, and battered, had hurried into the room--
+'It has begun!' he said.  'The revolution!  I have brought her--Lady 
+Peacock.  She was at Clifton, dreadfully alarmed.  She is almost at 
+the door now, in her carriage.  I'll just take the pony, and ride 
+over to tell Eastwood in case he will call out the Yeomanry.'
+
+The wheels were to be heard, and everybody hastened out to receive 
+Lady Peacock, who was there with her maid, full of gratitude.  I 
+heard her broken sentences as she came across the hall, about 
+dreadful scenes--frightful mob--she knew not what would have become 
+of her but for Griffith--the place was in flames when they left it--
+the military would not act--Griffith had assured her that Mr. and 
+Mrs. Winslow would be so kind--as long as any place was a refuge
+
+We really did believe we were at the outbreak of a revolution or 
+civil war, and, all little frets forgotten, listened appalled to the 
+tidings; how the appearance of Sir Charles Wetherall, the Recorder 
+of Bristol, a strong opponent to the Reform Bill, seemed to have 
+inspired the mob with fury.  Griff and his friend the dragoon, while 
+walking in Broad Street, were astonished by a violent rush of 
+riotous men and boys, hooting and throwing stones as the Recorder's 
+carriage tried to make its way to the Guildhall.  In the midst a 
+piteous voice exclaimed -
+
+'Oh, Griffith!  Mr. Griffith Winslow!  Is it you?' and Lady Peacock 
+was seen retreating upon the stone steps of a house either empty, or 
+where the inhabitants were too much alarmed to open the doors.  She 
+was terribly frightened, and the two gentlemen stood in front of her 
+till the tumultuary procession had passed by.  She was staying in 
+lodgings at Clifton, and had driven in to Bristol to shop, when she 
+thus found herself entangled in the mob.  They then escorted her to 
+the place where she was to meet her carriage, and found it for her 
+with some difficulty.  Then, while the officer returned to his 
+quarters, Griff accompanied her far enough on the way to Clifton to 
+see that everything was quiet before her, and then returned to seek 
+out his friend.  The court at the Guildhall had had to be adjourned, 
+but the rioters were hunting Sir Charles to the Mansion-House.  
+Griff was met by one of the Town Council, a tradesman with whom we 
+dealt, who, having perhaps heard of his prowess at Hillside, 
+entreated him to remain, offering him a bed, and saying that all 
+friends of order were needed in such a crisis as this.  Griff wrote 
+a note to let us know what had become of him, but everything was 
+disorganised, and we did not get it till two days afterwards.
+
+In the evening the mob became more violent, and in the midst of 
+dinner a summons came for Griff's host to attend the Mayor in 
+endeavouring to disperse it.  Getting into the Mansion-House by 
+private back ways, they were able to join the Mayor when he came 
+out, amid a shower of brickbats, sticks, and stones, and read the 
+Riot Act three times over, after warning them of the consequences of 
+persisting in their defiance.
+
+'But they were far past caring for that,' said Griff.  'An iron rail 
+from the square was thrown in the midst of it, and if I had not 
+caught it there would have been an end of his Worship.'
+
+The constables, with such help as Griff and a few others could give 
+them, defended the front of the Mansion-House, while the Recorder, 
+for whom they savagely roared, made his escape by the roof to 
+another house.  A barricade was made with beds, tables, and chairs, 
+behind which the defenders sheltered themselves, while volleys of 
+stones smashed in the windows, and straw was thrown after them.  But 
+at last the tramp of horses' feet was heard, and the Dragoons came 
+up.
+
+'We thought all over then,' said Griff; 'but Colonel Brereton would 
+not have a blow struck, far less a shot fired!  He would have it 
+that it was a good-humoured mob!  I heard him!  When one of his own 
+men was brought up badly hurt with a brickbat, I heard Ludlow, the 
+Town-Clerk, ask him what he thought of their good humour, and he had 
+nothing to say but that it was an accident!  And the rogues knew it!  
+He took care they should; he walked about among them and shook hands 
+with them!'
+
+Griff waited at the Mansion-House all night, and helped to board up 
+the smashed windows; but at daylight Colonel Brereton came and 
+insisted on withdrawing the piquet on guard--not, however, sending a 
+relief for them, on the plea that they only collected a crowd.  The 
+instant they were withdrawn, down came the mob in fresh force, so 
+desperate that all the defences were torn down, and they swarmed in 
+so that there was nothing for it but to escape over the roofs.
+
+Griffith was sent to rouse the inhabitants of College Green and St. 
+Augustine's Back to come in the King's name to assist the 
+Magistrates, and he had many good stories of the various responses 
+he met with.  But the rioters, inflamed by the wine they had found 
+in sacking the Mansion-House, and encouraged by the passiveness of 
+the troops, had become entirely masters of the situation.  And 
+Colonel Brereton seems to have imagined that the presence of the 
+soldiers acted as an irritation; for in this crisis he actually sent 
+them out of the city to Keynsham, then came and informed the mob, 
+who cheered him, as well they might.
+
+In the night the Recorder had left the city, and notices were posted 
+to that effect; also that the Riot Act had been read, and any 
+further disturbance would be capital felony.  This escape of their 
+victim only had the effect of directing the rage of the populace 
+against Bishop Grey, who had likewise opposed the Reform Bill.
+
+Messages had been sent to advise the Bishop, who was to preach that 
+day at the Cathedral, to stay away and sanction the omission of the 
+service; but his answer to one of his clergy was--'These are times 
+in which it is necessary not to shrink from danger!  Our duty is to 
+be at our post.'  And he also said, 'Where can I die better than in 
+my own Cathedral?'
+
+Since the bells were ringing, and it was understood that the Bishop 
+was actually going to dare the peril, Griff and others of the 
+defenders decided that it was better to attend the service and fill 
+up the nave so as to hinder outrage.  He said it was a most strange 
+and wonderful service.  Chants and Psalms and Lessons and prayers 
+going on their course as usual, but every now and then in the pauses 
+of the organ, a howl or yell of the voice of the multitude would 
+break on the ear through the thick walls.  Griff listened and hoped 
+for a volley of musketry.  He was not tender-hearted!  But none 
+came, and by the time the service was over, the mob had been greatly 
+reinforced and had broken into the prisons, set them on fire, and 
+released the prisoners.  They were mustering on College Green for an 
+attack on the palace.  Griff aided in guarding the entrance to the 
+cloisters till the Bishop and his family had had time to drive away 
+to Almondsbury, four miles off, and then the rush became so strong 
+that they had to give way.  There was another great struggle at the 
+door of the palace, but it was forced open with a crowbar, while 
+shouts rang out 'No King and no Bishops!'  A fire was made in the 
+dining-room with chairs and tables, and live coals were put into the 
+beds, while the plunder went on.
+
+Griff meantime had made his way to the party headed by the 
+magistrates, and accompanied by the dragoons, and the mob began to 
+flee; but Colonel Brereton had given strict orders that the soldiers 
+should not fire, and the plunderers rallied, made a fire in the 
+Chapter House, and burnt the whole of the library, shouting with the 
+maddest triumph.
+
+They next attacked the Cathedral, intending to burn that likewise, 
+but two brave gentlemen, Mr. Ralph and Mr. Linne, succeeded in 
+saving this last outrage, at the head of the better affected.
+
+Griff had fought hard.  He was all over bruises which he really had 
+never felt at the time, scarcely even now, though one side of his 
+face was turning purple, and his clothes were singed.  In a sort of 
+council held at the repulse of the attack on the Cathedral, it had 
+been decided that the best thing he could do would be to give notice 
+to Sir George Eastwood, in order that the Yeomanry might be called 
+out, since the troops were so strangely prevented from acting.  As 
+he rode through Clifton, he had halted at Lady Peacock's, and found 
+her in extreme alarm.  Indeed, no one could guess what the temper of 
+the mob might be the next day, or whether they might not fall upon 
+private houses.  The Mansion-House, the prisons, the palace were all 
+burning and were an astounding sight, which terrified her 
+exceedingly, and she was sending out right and left to endeavour to 
+get horses to take her away.  In common humanity, and for old 
+acquaintance sake, it was impossible not to help her, and Griff had 
+delayed, to offer any amount of reward in her name for posthorses, 
+which he had at last secured.  Her own man-servant, whom she had 
+sent in quest of some, had never returned, and she had to set off 
+without him, Griff acting as outrider; but after the first there was 
+no more difficulty about horses, and she had been able to change 
+them at the next stage.
+
+We all thought the days of civil war were really begun, as the heads 
+of this account were hastily gathered; but there was not much said, 
+only Mr. Frank Fordyce laid his hand on Griff's shoulder and said, 
+'Well done, my boy; but you have had enough for to-day.  If you'll 
+lend me a horse, Winslow, I'll ride over to Eastwood.  That's work 
+for the clergy in these times, eh?  Griffith should rest.  He may be 
+wanted to-morrow.  Only is there any one to take a note home for me, 
+to say where I'm gone;' and then he added with that sweet smile of 
+his, 'Some one will be more the true knight than ever, eh, you 
+Griffith you--'
+
+Griffith coloured a little, and Lady Peacock's eyes looked 
+interrogative.  When the horse was announced, Griff followed Mr. 
+Fordyce into the hall, and came back announcing that, unless 
+summoned elsewhere, he should go to breakfast at Hillside, and so 
+hear what was decided on.  He longed to be back at the scene of 
+action, but was so tired out that he could not dispense with another 
+night's rest; though he took all precautions for being called up, in 
+case of need.
+
+However, nothing came, and he rode to the Rectory in Yeomanry 
+equipment.  Nor could any one doubt that in the ecstasy of meeting 
+such a hero, all the little misunderstanding and grief of the night 
+before was forgotten?  Ellen looked as if she trod on air, when she 
+came down with her father to report that Griffith had gone, 
+according to the orders sent, to join the rest of the Yeomanry, who 
+were to advance upon Bristol.  They had seen, and tried to turn 
+back, some of the villagers who were starting with bludgeons to 
+share in the spoil, and who looked sullen, as if they were 
+determined not to miss their share.
+
+I do not think we were very much alarmed for Griff's safety or for 
+our own, not even the ladies.  My mother had the lion-heart of her 
+naval ancestors, and Ellen was in a state of exaltation.  Would that 
+I could put her before other eyes, as she stood with hands clasped 
+and glowing cheek.
+
+'Oh!--think!--think of having one among us who is as real and true 
+knight as ever watched his armour -
+
+
+'"For king, for church, for lady fight!"
+It has all come gloriously true!'
+
+
+'Should not you like to bind on his spurs?' I asked somewhat 
+mischievously; but she was serious as she said, 'I am sure he has 
+won them.'  All the rest of the Fordyces came down afterwards, too 
+anxious to stay at home.  Our elders felt the matter more gravely, 
+thinking of what civil war might mean to us all, and what an awful 
+thing it was for Englishmen to be enrolled against each other.  
+Nottingham Castle had just been burnt, and things looked only too 
+like revolution, especially considering the inaction of the 
+dragoons.  After Griff had left Bristol, there had been some 
+terrible scenes at the Custom House, where the ringleaders--unhappy 
+men!--were caught in a trap of their own and perished miserably.
+
+However, by the morning, the order sent from Lord Hill, the arrival 
+of Major Beckwith from Gloucester, and the proceedings of the good-
+humoured mob had put an end to poor Brereton's hesitations; a 
+determined front had been shown; the mob had been fairly broken up; 
+troops from all quarters poured into the city, and by dinner-time 
+Griff came back with the news that all was quiet and there was 
+nothing more to fear.  Ellen and Emily both flew out to meet him at 
+the first sound of the horse's feet, and they all came into the 
+drawing-room together--each young lady having hold of one of his 
+hands--and Ellen's face in such a glow, that I rather suspect that 
+he had snatched a reward which certainly would not have been granted 
+save in such a moment of uplifted feeling, and when she was thankful 
+to her hero for forgetting how angry he had been with her two days 
+before.
+
+Minor matters were forgotten in the details of his tidings, as he 
+stood before the fire, shining in his silver lace, and relating the 
+tragedy and the comedy of the scene.
+
+It was curious, as the evening passed on, to see how Ellen and Lady 
+Peacock regarded each other, now that the tension of suspense was 
+over.  To Ellen, the guest was primarily a distressed and widowed 
+dame, delivered by Griff, to whom she, as his lady love, was bound 
+to be gracious and kind; nor had they seen much of one another, the 
+elder ladies sitting in the drawing-room, and we in our own regions; 
+but we were all together at dinner and afterwards, and Lady Peacock, 
+who had been in a very limp, nervous, and terrified state all day, 
+began to be the Selina Clarkson we remembered, and 'more too.'  She 
+was still in mourning, but she came down to dinner in gray satin 
+sheen, and with her hair in a most astonishing erection of bows and 
+bands, on the very crown of her head, raising her height at least 
+four inches.  Emily assures me that it was the mode in use, and that 
+she and Ellen wore their hair in the same style, appealing to 
+portraits to prove it.  I can only say that they never astonished my 
+weak mind in the like manner; and that their heads, however dressed, 
+only appeared to me a portion of the general woman, and part of the 
+universal fitness of things.  Ellen was likewise amazed, most likely 
+not at the hair, but at the transformation of the disconsolate, 
+frightened widow, into the handsome, fashionable, stylish lady, 
+talking over London acquaintance and London news with my father and 
+Griff whenever they left the endless subject of the Bristol 
+adventures.
+
+The widow had gained a good deal in beauty since her early girlhood, 
+having regular features, eyes of an uncommon deep blue, very black 
+brows, eye-lashes, and hair, and a form of the kind that is better 
+after early youth is over.  'A fine figure of a woman,' Parson Frank 
+pronounced her, and his wife, with the fine edge of her lips 
+replied, 'exactly what she is!'
+
+She looked upon us younger ones as mere children still--indeed she 
+never looked at me at all if she could help it--but she mortally 
+offended Emily by penning her up in a corner, and asking if Griff 
+were engaged to that sentimental little girl.
+
+Emily coloured like a turkey cock between wrath and embarrassment, 
+and hotly protested against the word sentimental.
+
+'Ah yes, I see!' she said in a patronising tone, 'she is your bosom 
+friend, eh?  That's the way those things always begin.  You need not 
+answer:  I see it all.  And no doubt it is a capital thing for him; 
+properties joining and all.  And she will get a little air and style 
+when he takes her to London.'  It was a tremendous offence even to 
+hint that Ellen's style was capable of improvement; perhaps an 
+unprejudiced eye would have said that the difference was between 
+high-bred simplicity and the air of fashion and society.
+
+In our eyes Lady Peacock was the companion of the elders, and as 
+such was appreciated by the gentlemen; but neither of the two 
+mothers was equally delighted with her, nor was mine at all sorry 
+when, on Tuesday, the boxes were packed, posthorses sent for, and my 
+Lady departed, with great expressions of thankfulness to us all.
+
+'A tulip to a jessamine,' muttered Griff as she drove off, and he 
+looked up at his Ellen's sweet refined face.
+
+The unfortunate Colonel Brereton put an end to himself when the 
+court-martial was half over.  How Clarence was shocked and how 
+ardent was his pity!  But Griffith received the thanks of the 
+Corporation of Bristol for his gallant conduct, when the special 
+assize was held in January.  Mrs. Fordyce was almost as proud of him 
+as we were, and there was much less attempt at restraining the terms 
+on which he stood with Ellen--though still the formal engagement was 
+not permitted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--QUICKSANDS
+
+
+
+   'Whither shall I go?
+Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?'
+
+TENNYSON.
+
+It was in the May of the ensuing year, 1832, that Clarence was sent 
+down to Bristol for a few weeks to take the place of one of the 
+clerks in the office where the cargoes of the incoming vessels of 
+the firm were received and overhauled.
+
+This was a good-natured arrangement of Mr. Castleford's in order to 
+give him change of work and a sight of home, where, by the help of 
+the coach, he could spend his Sundays.  That first spring day on his 
+way down was a great delight and even surprise to him, who had never 
+seen our profusion of primroses, cowslips, and bluebells, nor our 
+splendid blossom of trees--apple, lilac, laburnum--all vieing in 
+beauty with one another.  Emily conducted him about in great 
+delight, taking him over to Hillside to see Mrs. Fordyce's American 
+garden, blazing with azaleas, and glowing with rhododendrons.  He 
+came back with a great bouquet given to him by Ellen, who had been 
+unusually friendly with him, and he was more animated and full of 
+life than for years before.
+
+Next time he came he looked less happy.  There was plenty of room in 
+our house, but he used, by preference, the little chamber within 
+mine, and there at night he asked me to lend him a few pounds, since 
+Griffith had written one of his off-hand letters asking him to 
+discharge a little bill or two at Bristol, giving the addresses, but 
+not sending the accounts.  This was no wonder, since any enclosure 
+doubled the already heavy postage.  One of these bills was for some 
+sporting equipments from the gunsmith's; another, much heavier, from 
+a tavern for breakfasts, or rather luncheons, to parties of 
+gentlemen, mostly bearing date in the summer and autumn of 1830, 
+before the friendship with the Fordyces had begun.  On Clarence's 
+defraying the first and applying for the second, two more had come 
+in, one from a jeweller for a pair of drop-earrings, the other from 
+a nurseryman for a bouquet of exotics.  Doubting of these two last, 
+Clarence had written to Griff, but had not yet received an answer.  
+The whole amount was so much beyond what he had been led to expect 
+that he had not brought enough money to meet it, and wanted an 
+advance from me, promising repayment, to which latter point I could 
+not assent, as both of us knew, but did not say, we should never see 
+the sum again, and to me it only meant stinting in new books and 
+curiosities.  We were anxious to get the matter settled at once, as 
+Griffith spoke of being dunned; and it might be serious, if the 
+tradesmen applied to my father when he was still groaning over 
+revelations of college expenses.
+
+On the ensuing Saturday, Clarence showed me Griff's answer--'I had 
+forgotten these items.  The earrings were a wedding present to the 
+pretty little barmaid, who had been very civil.  The bouquet was for 
+Lady Peacock; I felt bound to do something to atone for mamma's 
+severe virtue.  It is all right, you best of brothers.'
+
+It was consolatory that all the dates were prior to the Hillside 
+fire, except that of the bouquet.  As to the earrings, we all knew 
+that Griff could not see a pretty girl without talking nonsense to 
+her.  Anyway, if they were a wedding present, there was an end of 
+it; and we were only glad to prevent any hint of them from reaching 
+the ears of the authorities.
+
+Clarence had another trouble to confide to me.  He had strong reason 
+to believe that Tooke, the managing clerk at Bristol, was carrying 
+on a course of peculation, and feathering his nest at the expense of 
+the firm.  What a grand discovery, thought I, for such a youth to 
+have made.  The firm would be infinitely obliged to him, and his 
+fortune would be secured.  He shook his head, and said that was all 
+my ignorance; the man, Tooke, was greatly trusted, especially by Mr. 
+Frith the senior partner, and was so clever and experienced that it 
+would be almost impossible to establish anything against him.  
+Indeed he had browbeaten Clarence, and convinced him at the moment 
+that his suspicions and perplexities were only due to the ignorance 
+of a foolish, scrupulous youth, who did not understand the customs 
+and perquisites of an agency.  It was only when Clarence was alone, 
+and reflected on the matter by the light of experience gained on a 
+similar expedition to Liverpool, that he had perceived that Mr. 
+Tooke had been throwing dust in his eyes.
+
+'I shall only get into a scrape myself,' said Clarence despondently.  
+'I have felt it coming ever since I have been at Bristol;' and he 
+pushed his hair back with a weary hopeless gesture.
+
+'But you don't mean to let it alone?' I cried indignantly.
+
+He hesitated in a manner that painfully recalled his failing, and 
+said at last, 'I don't know; I suppose I ought not.'
+
+'Suppose?' I cried.
+
+'It is not so easy as you think,' he answered, 'especially for one 
+who has forfeited the right to be believed.  I must wait till I have 
+an opportunity of speaking to Mr. Castleford, and then I can hardly 
+do more than privately give him a hint to be watchful.  You don't 
+know how things are in such houses as ours.  One may only ruin 
+oneself without doing any good.'
+
+'You cannot write to him?'
+
+'Certainly not.  He has taken his family to Mrs. Castleford's home 
+in the north of Ireland for a month or six weeks.  I don't know the 
+address, and I cannot run the risk of the letter being opened at the 
+office.'
+
+'Can't you speak to my father?'
+
+'Impossible! it would be a betrayal.  He would do things for which I 
+should never be forgiven.  And, after all, remember, it is no 
+business of mine.  I know of agents at the docks who do such things 
+as a matter of course.  It is only that I happen to know that Harris 
+at Liverpool does not.  Very possibly old Frith knows all about it.  
+I should only get scored down as a meddlesome prig, worse hypocrite 
+than they think me already.'
+
+He said a good deal more to this effect, and I remember exclaiming, 
+'Oh, Clarence, the old story!' and then being frightened at the 
+whiteness that came over his face.
+
+Little did I know the suffering to which those words of mine 
+condemned him.  For not only had he to make up his mind to 
+resistance, which to his nature was infinitely worse than it was to 
+Griffith to face a raging mob, but he knew very well that it would 
+almost inevitably produce his own ruin, and renew the disgrace out 
+of which he was beginning to emerge.  I did not--even while I prayed 
+that he might do the right--guess at his own agony of supplication, 
+carried on incessantly, day and night, sleeping and waking, that the 
+Holy Spirit of might should brace his will and govern his tongue, 
+and make him say the right thing at the right time, be the 
+consequences what they might.  No one, not constituted as he was, 
+can guess at the anguish he endured.  I knew no more.  Clarence did 
+not come home the next Saturday, to my mother's great vexation; but 
+on Tuesday a small parcel was given to me, brought from our point of 
+contact with the Bristol coach.  It contained some pencils I had 
+asked him to get, and a note marked PRIVATE.  Here it is -
+
+
+'DEAR EDWARD--I am summoned to town.  Tooke has no doubt forestalled 
+me.  We have had some curious interviews, in which he first, as I 
+told you, persuaded me out of my senses that it was all right, and 
+then, finding me still dissatisfied, tried in a delicate fashion to 
+apprise me that I had a claim to a share of the plunder.  When I 
+refused to appropriate anything without sanction from headquarters, 
+he threatened me with the consequences of presumptuous interference.  
+It came to bullying at last.  I hardly know what I answered, but I 
+don't think I gave in.  Now, a sharp letter from old Frith recalls 
+me.  Say nothing at home; and whatever you do, do not betray Griff.  
+He has more to lose than I.  Help me in the true way, as you know 
+how.--Ever yours, W. C. W.
+
+
+I need not dwell on the misery of those days.  It was well that my 
+father had ruled that our letters should not be family property.  
+Here were all the others discussing a proposed tour in the north of 
+Devon, to be taken conjointly with the Fordyces, as soon as Griff 
+should come home.  My mother said it would do me good; she saw I was 
+flagging, but she little guessed at the continual torment of 
+anxiety, and my wonder at the warning about Griff.
+
+At the end of the week came another letter.
+
+
+'You need not speak yet.  Papa and mamma will know soon enough.  I 
+brought down 150 pounds in specie, to be paid over to Tooke.  He 
+avers that only 130 pounds was received.  What is my word worth 
+against his?  I am told that if I am not prosecuted it will only be 
+out of respect to my father.  I am not dismissed yet, but shall get 
+notice as soon as letters come from Ireland.  I have written, but it 
+is not in the nature of things that Mr. Castleford should not accept 
+such proofs as have been sent him.  I have no hope, and shall be 
+glad when it is over.  The part of black sheep is not a pleasant 
+one.  Say not a word, and do not let my father come up.  He could do 
+no good, and to see him believing it all would be the last drop in 
+the bucket.
+
+N.B.--In this pass, nothing would be saved by bringing Griff into 
+it, so be silent on your life.  Innocence does not seem to be much 
+comfort at present.  Maybe it will come in time.  I know you will 
+not drop me, dear Ted, wherever I may be.'
+
+
+Need I tell the distress of those days of suspense and silence, when 
+my only solace was in being left alone, and in writing letters to 
+Clarence which were mostly torn up again.
+
+My horror was lest he should be driven to go off to the sea, which 
+he loved so well, knowing, as nobody else did, the longing that 
+sometimes seized him for it, a hereditary craving that curiously 
+conflicted with the rest of his disposition; and, indeed, his lack 
+was more of moral than of physical courage.  It haunted me 
+constantly that his entreaty that my father should not come to 
+London was a bad sign, and that he would never face such another 
+return home.  And was I justified in keeping all this to myself, 
+when my father's presence might save him from the flight that would 
+indeed be the surrender of his character, and to the life of a 
+common sailor?  Never have I known such leaden days as these, yet 
+the misery was not a tithe of what Clarence was undergoing.
+
+I was right in my forebodings.  Prosecution and a second return home 
+in shame and disgrace were alike hideous to Clarence, and the 
+present was almost equally terrible, for nobody at the office had 
+any doubt of his guilt, and the young men who had sneered at his 
+strictness and religious habits regarded him as an unmasked 
+hypocrite, only waiting on sufferance till his greatly deceived 
+patron should write to decide on the steps to be taken with him, 
+while he knew he was thought to be brazening it out in hopes of 
+again deceiving Mr. Castleford.
+
+The sea began to exert its power over him, and he thought with 
+longing of its freedom, as if the sails of the vessels were the 
+wings of a dove to flee away and be at rest.  He had no illusions as 
+to the roughness of the life and companionship; but in his present 
+mood, the frank rudeness and profanity of the sailors seemed 
+preferable to his cramped life, and the scowls of his fellows; and 
+he knew himself to have seamanship enough to rise quickly, even if 
+he could not secure a mate's berth at first.
+
+Mr. Castleford could not be heard from till the end of the week.  
+Friday, Saturday came and not a word.  That was the climax!  When 
+the consignment of cash, hitherto carried by Clarence to the Bank of 
+England, was committed to another clerk, the very office boy 
+sniggered, and the manager demonstratively waited to see him depart.
+
+Unable to bear it any longer, he walked towards Wapping, bought a 
+Southwester, examined the lists of shipping, and entered into 
+conversation with one or two sailors about the vessels making up 
+their crews; intending to go down after dark, to meet the skipper of 
+a craft bound for Lisbon, who, he heard, was so much in want of a 
+mate as perhaps to overlook the lack of testimonials, and at any 
+rate take him on board on Sunday.
+
+Going home to pick up a few necessaries, a book lent to him by Miss 
+Newton came in his way, and he felt drawn to carry it home, and see 
+her face for the last time.
+
+All unconscious of his trouble and of his intentions, the good lady 
+told him of her strong desire to hear a celebrated preacher at a 
+neighbouring church on the Sunday evening, but said that in her 
+partial blindness and weakness, she was afraid to venture, unless he 
+would have the extreme goodness, as she said, to take care of her.  
+He saw that she wished it so much that he had not the heart to 
+refuse, and he recollected likewise that very early on Monday 
+morning would answer his purpose equally well.
+
+It was the 7th of June.  The Psalm was the 37th--the supreme lesson 
+of patience.  'Hold thee still in the Lord; and abide patiently on 
+Him; and He shall bring it to pass.  He shall make thy righteousness 
+as clear as the light, and thy just dealing as the noonday.'
+
+The awful sense of desolation seemed to pass away under those words, 
+with that gentle woman beside him.  And the sermon was on 'Oh tarry 
+thou the Lord's leisure; be strong, and He shall comfort thine 
+heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord.'
+
+Clarence remembered nothing but the text.  But it was borne in upon 
+him that his purpose of flight was 'the old story,'--cowardice and 
+virtual distrust of the Lord, as well as absolute cruelty to us who 
+loved him.
+
+When he had deposited Miss Newton at her own door, he whispered 
+thanks, and an entreaty for her prayers.
+
+And then he went home, and fought the battle of his life, with his 
+own horrible dread of Mr. Castleford's disappointment; of possible 
+prosecution; of the shame at home; the misery of a life a second 
+time blighted.  He fought it out on his knees, many a time 
+persuading himself that flight would not be a sin, then returning to 
+the sense that it was a temptation of his worse self to be overcome.  
+And by morning he knew that it would be a surrender of himself to 
+his lower nature, and the evil spirit behind it; while, by facing 
+the worst that could befall him, he would be falling into the hand 
+of the Lord.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--AFTER THE TEMPEST
+
+
+
+'Nor deem the irrevocable past
+As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
+If rising on its wrecks at last
+To something nobler we attain.'
+
+LONGFELLOW.
+
+All the rest of the family were out, and I was relieved by being 
+alone with my distress, not forced to hide it, when the door opened 
+and 'Mr. Castleford' was announced.  After one moment's look at me, 
+one touch of my hand, he must have seen that I was faint with 
+anxiety, and said, 'It is all right, Edward; I see you know all.  I 
+am come from Bristol to tell your father that he may be proud of his 
+son Clarence.'
+
+I don't know what I did.  Perhaps I sobbed and cried, but the first 
+words I could get out were, 'Does he know?  Oh! it may be too late.  
+He may be gone off to sea!' I cried, breaking out with my chief 
+fear.  Mr. Castleford looked astounded, then said, 'I trust not.  I 
+sent off a special messenger last night, as soon as I saw my way--'
+
+Then I breathed a little more freely, and could understand what he 
+was telling me, namely, that Tooke had accused Clarence of 
+abstracting 20 pounds from the sum in his charge.  The fellow 
+accounted for it by explaining that young Winslow had been paying 
+extravagant bills at a tavern, where the barmaid showed his 
+presents, and boasted of her conquest.  All this had been written to 
+Mr. Castleford by his partner, and he was told that it was out of 
+deference to himself that his protege was not in custody, nor had 
+received notice of dismissal; but, no doubt, he would give his 
+sanction to immediate measures, and communicate with the family.
+
+The effect had been to make the good man hurry at once from the 
+Giant's Causeway to Bristol, where he had arrived on Sunday, to 
+investigate the books and examine the underlings.  In the midst 
+Tooke attempted to abscond, but he was brought back as he was 
+embarking in an American vessel; and he then confessed the whole,--
+how speculation had led to dishonesty, and following evil customs 
+not uncommon in other firms.  Then, when the fugitive found that 
+young Winslow was too acute to be blinded, and that it had been a 
+still greater mistake to try to overcome his integrity, self-defence 
+required his ruin, or at any rate his expulsion, before he could 
+gain Mr. Castleford's ear.
+
+Tooke really believed that the discreditable bills were the young 
+man's own, and proofs of concealed habits of dissipation; but this 
+excellent man had gone into the matter, repaired to the tradesfolk, 
+learnt the date, and whose the accounts really were, and had even 
+hunted up the barmaid, who was not married after all, and had no 
+hesitation in avowing that her beau had been the handsome young 
+Yeomanry lieutenant.  Mr. Castleford had spent the greater part of 
+Monday in this painful task, but had not been clear enough till 
+quite late in the evening to despatch an express to his partner, and 
+to Clarence, whom he desired to meet him here.
+
+'He has acted nobly,' said our kind friend.  'His only error seems 
+to have been in being too good a brother.'
+
+This made me implore that nothing should be said about Griffith's 
+bills, showing those injunctions of Clarence's which had so puzzled 
+me, and explaining the circumstances.
+
+Mr. Castleford hummed and hawed, and perhaps wished he had seen my 
+father before me; but I prevailed at last, and when the others came 
+in from their drive, there was nothing to alloy the intelligence 
+that Clarence had shown rare discernment, as well as great 
+uprightness, steadfastness, and moral courage.
+
+My mother, when she had taken in the fact, actually shed tears of 
+joy.  Emily stood by me, holding my hand.  My father said, 'It is 
+all owing to you, Castleford, and the helping hand you gave the poor 
+boy.'
+
+'Nay,' was the answer, 'it seems to me that it was owing to his 
+having the root of the matter in him to overcome his natural 
+failings.'
+
+Still, in all the rejoicing, my heart failed me lest the express 
+should have come too late, and Clarence should be already on the 
+high seas, for there had been no letter from him on Sunday morning.  
+It was doubtful whether Mr. Castleford's messenger could reach 
+London in time for tidings to come down by the coach--far less did 
+we expect Clarence--and we had nearly finished the first course at 
+dinner, when we heard the front door open, and a voice speaking to 
+the butler.  Emily screamed 'It's he!  Oh mamma, may I?' and flew 
+out into the hall, dragging in a pale, worn and weary wight, all 
+dust and heat, having travelled down outside the coach on a broiling 
+day, and walked the rest of the way.  He looked quite bewildered at 
+the rush at him; my father's 'Well done, Clarence,' and strong 
+clasp; and my mother's fervent kiss, and muttered something about 
+washing his hands.
+
+Formal folks, such as we were, had to sit in our chairs; and when he 
+came back apologising for not dressing, as he had left his 
+portmanteau for the carrier, he looked so white and ill that we were 
+quite shocked, and began to realise what he had suffered.  He could 
+not eat the food that was brought back for him, and allowed that his 
+head was aching dreadfully; but, after a glass of wine had been 
+administered, it was extracted that he had met Mr. Frith at the 
+office door, and been gruffly told that Mr. Castleford was 
+satisfied, and he might consider himself acquitted.
+
+'And then I had your letter, sir, thank you,' said Clarence, 
+scarcely restraining his tears.
+
+'The thanks are on our side, my dear boy,' said Mr. Castleford.  'I 
+must talk it over with you, but not till you have had a night's 
+rest.  You look as if you had not known one for a good while.'
+
+Clarence gave a sort of trembling smile, not trusting himself to 
+speak.  Approbation at home was so new and strange to him that he 
+could scarcely bear it, worn out as he was by nearly a month of 
+doubt, distress, apprehension, and self-debate.
+
+My mother went herself to hasten the preparation of his room, and 
+after she had sent him to bed went again to satisfy herself that he 
+was comfortable and not feverish.  She came back wiping away a tear, 
+and saying he had looked up at her just as when she had the three of 
+us in our nursery cribs.  In truth these two had seldom been so 
+happy together since those days, though the dear mother, while 
+thankful that he had not failed, was little aware of the conflict 
+his resolution had cost him, and the hot journey and long walk came 
+in for more blame for his exhaustion than they entirely deserved.
+
+My father perhaps understood more of the trial; for when she came 
+back, declaring that all that was needed was sleep, and forbidding 
+me to go to my room before bedtime, he said he must bid the boy 
+good-night.
+
+And he spoke as his reserve would have never let him speak at any 
+other time, telling Clarence how deeply thankful he felt for the 
+manifestation of such truthfulness and moral courage as he said 
+showed that the man had conquered the failings of the boy.
+
+Nevertheless, when I retired for the night, it was to find Clarence 
+asleep indeed, but most uneasily, tossing, moaning, and muttering 
+broken sentences about 'disgracing his pennant,' 'never bearing to 
+see mamma's face'--and the like.  I thought it a kindness to wake 
+him, and he started up.  'Ted, is it you?  I thought I should never 
+hear your dear old crutch again!  Is it really all right'--then, 
+sitting up and passing his hand over his face, 'I always mix it up 
+with the old affair, and think the court-martial is coming again.'
+
+'There's all the difference now.'
+
+'Thank God! yes--He has dragged me through!  But it did not seem so 
+in one's sleep, nor waking neither--though sleep is worst, and 
+happily there was not much of that!  Sit down, Ted; I want to look 
+at you.  I can't believe it is not three weeks since I saw you 
+last.'
+
+We talked it all out, and I came to some perception of the fearful 
+ordeal it had been--first, in the decision neither to shut his eyes, 
+nor to conceal that they were open; and then in the lack of presence 
+of mind and the sense of confusion that always beset him when 
+browbeaten and talked down, so that, in the critical contest with 
+Tooke, he felt as if his feet were slipping from under him, and what 
+had once been clear to him was becoming dim, so that he had only 
+been assured that he had held his ground by Tooke's redoubled 
+persuasions and increased anger.  And for a clerk, whose years were 
+only twenty-one, to oppose a manager, who had been in the service 
+more than the whole of that space, was preposterous insolence, and 
+likely to result in the utter ruin of his own prospects, and the 
+character he had begun to retrieve.  It was just after this, the 
+real crisis, that he had the only dream which had not been misery 
+and distress.  In it she--she yonder--yes, the lady with the lamp, 
+came and stood by him, and said, 'Be steadfast.'
+
+'It was a dream,' said Clarence.  'She was not as she is in the 
+mullion room, not crying, but with a sweet, sad look, almost like 
+Miss Fordyce--if Miss Fordyce ever looked sad.  It was only a 
+dream.'
+
+Yet it had so refreshed and comforted him that we have often since 
+discussed whether the spirit really visited him, or whether this was 
+the manner in which conscience and imagination acted on his brain.  
+Indeed, he always believed that the dream had been either heaven-
+sent or heaven-permitted.
+
+The die had been cast in that interview when he had let it be seen 
+that he was dangerous, and could not be bought over.  The after 
+consequences had been the terrible distress and temptation I have 
+before described, only most inadequately.  'But that,' said 
+Clarence, half smiling, 'only came of my being such a wretched 
+creature as I am.  There, dear old Miss Newton saved me--yes, she 
+did--most unconsciously, dear old soul.  Don't you remember how 
+Griff used to say she maundered over the text.  Well, she did it all 
+the way home in my ear, as she clung to my arm--"Be strong, and He 
+shall comfort thine heart."  And then I knew my despair and 
+determination to leave it all behind were a temptation--"the old 
+story," as you told me, and I prayed God to help me, and just 
+managed to fight it out.  Thank God for her!'
+
+If it had not been for that good woman, he would have been out of 
+reach--already out in the river--before Mr. Castleford's messenger 
+had reached London!  He might call himself a poor creature--and 
+certainly a man of harder, bolder stuff would not have fared so 
+badly in the strife; but it always seemed to me in after years that 
+much of what he called the poor creature--the old, nervous, timid, 
+diffident self--had been shaken off in that desperate struggle, 
+perhaps because it had really given him more self-reliance, and 
+certainly inspired others with confidence in him.
+
+We talked late enough to have horrified my mother, but I did not 
+leave him till he was sleeping like a child, nor did he wake till I 
+was leaving the room at the sound of the bell.  It was alleged that 
+it was the first time in his life that he had been late for prayers.  
+Mr. Castleford said he was very glad, and my mother, looking 
+severely at me, said she knew we had been talking all night, and 
+then went off to satisfy herself whether he ought to be getting up.
+
+There was no doubt on that score, for he was quite himself again, 
+though he was, in looks and in weariness, just as if he had 
+recovered from a bad illness, or, as he put it himself, he felt as 
+tired and bruised as if he had been in a stiff gale.  Mr. Castleford 
+was sorry to be obliged to ask him to go through the whole matter 
+with him in the study, and the result was that he was pronounced to 
+have an admirable head for business, as well as the higher qualities 
+that had been put to the test.  After that his good friend insisted 
+that he should have a long and complete holiday, at first proposing 
+to take him to Ireland, but giving the notion up on hearing of our 
+projected excursion to the north of Devon.  Pending this, Clarence 
+was, for nearly a week, fit for nothing but lying on the grass in 
+the shade, playing with the cats and dogs, or with little Anne, 
+looking over our drawings, listening to Wordsworth, our reigning 
+idol,--and enjoying, with almost touching gratitude, the first 
+approach to petting that had ever fallen to his share.
+
+The only trouble on his mind was the Quarter-Session.  Mr. 
+Castleford would hardly have prosecuted an old employe, but Mr. 
+Frith was furious, and resolved to make an example.  Tooke had, 
+however, so carefully entrenched himself that nothing could be 
+actually made a subject of prosecution but the abstraction of the 20 
+pounds of which he had accused Clarence, who had to prove the having 
+received and delivered it.
+
+It was a very painful affair, and Tooke was sentenced to seven 
+years' transportation.  I believe he became a very rich and 
+prosperous man in New South Wales, and founded a family.  My father 
+received warm compliments upon his sons, and Clarence had the new 
+sensation of being honourably coupled with Griffith, though he 
+laughed at the idea of mere honesty with fierce struggles being 
+placed beside heroism with no struggle at all.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--HOLIDAY-MAKING
+
+
+
+'The child upon the mountain side
+   Plays fearless and at ease,
+While the hush of purple evening
+   Spreads over earth and seas.
+The valley lies in shadow,
+   But the valley lies afar;
+And the mountain is a slope of light
+   Upreaching to a star.'
+
+MENELLA SMEDLEY.
+
+How pleasant it was to hear Griffith's cheery voice, as he swung 
+himself down, out of a cloud of dust, from the top of the coach at 
+the wayside stage-house, whither Clarence and I had driven in the 
+new britshka to meet him.  While the four fine coach-horses were led 
+off, and their successors harnessed in almost the twinkling of an 
+eye, Griff was with us; and we did nothing but laugh and poke fun at 
+each other all the way home, without a word of graver matters.
+
+I was resolved, however, that Griff should know how terribly his 
+commission had added to Clarence's danger, and how carefully the 
+secret had been guarded; and the first time I could get him alone, I 
+told him the whole.
+
+The effect was one of his most overwhelming fits of laughter.  'Poor 
+old Bill!  To think of his being accused of gallanting about with 
+barmaids!' (an explosion at every pause) 'and revelling with 
+officers!  Poor old Bill! it was as bad as Malvolio himself.'
+
+When, indignant at the mirth excited by what had nearly cost us so 
+dear, I observed that these items had nearly turned the scale 
+against our brother, Griff demanded how we could have been such 
+idiots as not to have written to him; I might at least have had the 
+sense to do so.  As to its doing him harm at Hillside, Parson Frank 
+was no fool, and knew what men were made of!  Griff would have taken 
+the risk, come at once, and thrust the story down the fellow's 
+throat (as indeed he would have done).  The idea of Betsy putting up 
+with a pious young man like Bill, whose only flame had ever been old 
+Miss Newton!  And he roared again at the incongruous pair.  'Oh, 
+wasn't she married after all, the hussy?  She always had a dozen 
+beaux, and professed to be on the point of putting up her banns; so 
+if the earrings were not a wedding present, they might have been, 
+ought to have been, and would be some time or other.'
+
+Then he patted me, and declared there was no occasion for my 
+disgusted looks, for no one knew better than himself that he had the 
+best brace of brothers in existence, wanting in nothing but common 
+sense and knowledge of the world.  As to Betsy--faugh!  I need not 
+make myself uneasy about her; she knew what a civil word was worth 
+much better than I did.
+
+He showed considerable affection for Clarence after a fashion of his 
+own, which we three perfectly understood, and preferred to anything 
+more conventional.  Griff was always delightful, and he was 
+especially so on that vacation, when every one was in high spirits; 
+so that the journey is, as I look back on it, like a spot of 
+brilliant sunshine in the distant landscape.
+
+Mrs. Fordyce kept house with her father-in-law, little Anne, and 
+Martyn, whose holidays began a week after we had started.  The two 
+children were allowed to make a desert island and a robbers' cave in 
+the beech wood; and the adventures which their imaginations 
+underwent there completely threw ours into the shade.
+
+The three ladies and I started in the big Hillside open carriage, 
+with my brothers on the box and the two fathers on horseback.  Frank 
+Fordyce was a splendid rider, as indeed was the old rector, who had 
+followed the hounds, made a leap over a fearful chasm, still known 
+as the Parson's Stride, and had been an excellent shot.  The 
+renunciation of field sports had been a severe sacrifice to Frank 
+Fordyce, and showed of what excellent stuff he was made.  He used to 
+say that it was his own fault that he had to give them up; another 
+man would have been less engrossed by them.  Though he only read by 
+fits and starts when his enthusiasm was excited, he was thorough, 
+able, and acute, and his intelligence and sympathy were my father's 
+best compensation for the loss of London society.
+
+The two riders were a great contrast.  Mr. Winslow had the 
+thoroughly well-appointed, somewhat precise, and highly-polished air 
+of a barrister, and a thin, somewhat worn and colourless face, with 
+grizzled hair and white whiskers; and though he rode well, with full 
+command of his horse, he was old enough to have chosen Chancery for 
+her sterling qualities.  Parson Frank, on the other hand, though a 
+thorough gentleman, was as ruddy and weather-browned as any farmer, 
+and--albeit his features were handsome and refined, and his figure 
+well poised and athletic--he lost something of dignity by easiness 
+of gesture and carelessness of dress, except on state occasions, 
+when he discarded his beloved rusty old coat and Oxford mixture 
+trousers, and came out magnificent enough for an archdeacon, if not 
+an archbishop; while his magnificent horse, Cossack, was an animal 
+that a sporting duke might have envied.
+
+Nothing ever tired that couple, but my father had stipulated for 
+exchanges with Griffith.  On these occasions it almost invariably 
+happened that there was a fine view for Ellen to see, so that she 
+was exalted to the box with Griffith to show it to her, and Chancery 
+was consigned to Clarence.  Griff was wont to say that Chancery 
+deserved her name, and that he would defy the ninety-ninth part of a 
+tailor to come to harm with her; but Clarence was utterly 
+unpractised in riding, did not like it, was tormented lest Cossack's 
+antics should corrupt Chancery, and was mortally afraid of breaking 
+the knees of the precious mare.  Not all Parson Frank's good advice 
+and kindly raillery would induce him to risk riding her on a 
+descent; and as our travels were entirely up and down hill, he was 
+often left leading her far behind, in hot sun or misty rain, and 
+then would come cantering hastily up, reckless of parallels with 
+John Gilpin, and only anxious to be in time to help me out at the 
+halting-place; but more than once only coming in when the beefsteaks 
+were losing their first charm, and then good-humouredly serving as 
+the general butt for his noble horsemanship.  Did any one fully 
+comprehend how much pleasanter our journey was through the presence 
+of one person entirely at the service of the others?  For my own 
+part, it made an immense difference to have one pair of strong arms 
+and dextrous well-accustomed hands always at my service, enabling me 
+to accomplish what no one else, kind as all were, would have 
+ventured on letting me attempt.  Primarily, he was my devoted slave; 
+but he was at the beck and call of every one, making the inquiries, 
+managing the bargains, going off in search of whatever was wanting--
+taking in fact all the 'must be dones' of the journal.  The 
+contemplation of Cossack and Chancery being rubbed down, and 
+devouring their oats was so delightful to Frank Fordyce and Griffith 
+that they seldom wished to shirk it; but if there were any more 
+pleasing occupation, it was a matter of course that Clarence should 
+watch to see that the ostlers did their duty by the animals--an 
+obsolete ceremony, by the bye.  He even succeeded in hunting up and 
+hiring a side saddle when the lovers, with the masterfulness of 
+their nature, devised appropriating the horses at all the most 
+beautiful places, in spite of Frank's murmur, 'What will mamma say?'  
+But, as Griff said, it was a real mercy, for Ellen was infinitely 
+more at her ease with Chancery than was Clarence.  Then Emily had 
+Clarence to walk up the hills with her, and help her in botany--her 
+special department in our tour.  Mine was sketching, Ellen's, 
+keeping the journal, though we all shared in each other's work at 
+times; and Griff, whose line was decidedly love-making, interfered 
+considerably with us all, especially with our chronicler.  I spare 
+you the tour, young people; it lies before me on the table, 
+profusely illustrated and written in many hands.  As I turn it over, 
+I see noble Dunster on its rock; Clarence leading Chancery down 
+Porlock Hill; Parson Frank in vain pursuit of his favourite ancient 
+hat over that wild and windy waste, the sheep running away from him; 
+a boat tossing at lovely Minehead; a 'native' bargaining over a crab 
+with my mother; the wonderful Valley of Rocks, and many another 
+scene, ludicrous or grand; for, indeed, we were for ever taking the 
+one step between the sublime and the ridiculous!  I am inclined to 
+believe it is as well worth reading as many that have rushed into 
+print, and it is full of precious reminiscences to Emily and me; but 
+the younger generation may judge for itself, and it would be an 
+interruption here.  The country we saw was of utterly unimagined 
+beauty to the untravelled eyes of most of us.  I remember Ellen 
+standing on Hartland Point, with her face to the infinite expanse of 
+the Atlantic, and waving back Griff with 'Oh, don't speak to me.'  
+Yet the sea was a delight above all to my mother and Clarence.  To 
+them it was a beloved friend; and magnificent as was Lynmouth, 
+wonderful as was Clovelly, and glorious as was Hartland, I believe 
+they would equally have welcomed the waves if they had been on the 
+flattest of muddy shores!  The ripple, plash, and roar were as 
+familiar voices, the salt smell as native air; and my mother never 
+had thawed so entirely towards Clarence as when she found him the 
+only person who could thoroughly participate her feeling.
+
+At Minehead they stayed out, walking up and down together in the 
+summer twilight till long after every one else was tired out, and 
+had gone in; and when at last they appeared she was leaning on 
+Clarence's arm, an unprecedented spectacle!
+
+At Appledore, the only place on that rugged coast where boating 
+tempted them, there was what they called a pretty little breeze, but 
+quite enough to make all the rest of us decline venturing out into 
+Bideford bay.  They, however, found a boatman and made a trip, which 
+was evidently such enjoyment to them, that my father, who had been a 
+little restless and uneasy all the time, declared on their return 
+that he felt quite jealous of Neptune, and had never known what a 
+cruelty he was committing in asking a sea-nymph to marry a London 
+lawyer.
+
+Mr. Fordyce told him he was afraid of being like the fisherman who 
+wedded a mermaid, and made Ellen tell the story in her own pretty 
+way; but while we were laughing over it, I saw my mother steal her 
+hand into my father's and give it a strong grasp.  Such gestures, 
+which she denominated pawing, when she witnessed them in Emily, were 
+so alien to her in general that no doubt this little action was 
+infinitely expressive to her husband.  She was wonderfully softened, 
+and Clarence implied to me that it was the first time she had ever 
+seemed to grieve for him more than she despised him, or to recognise 
+his deprivation more than his disgrace,--implied, I say, for the 
+words he used were little more than--'You can't think how nice she 
+was to me.'
+
+The regaining of esteem and self-respect was lessening Clarence's 
+bashfulness, and bringing out his powers of conversation, so that he 
+began to be appreciated as a pleasant companion, answering Griff's 
+raillery in like fashion, and holding his own in good-natured 
+repartee.  Mr. Fordyce got on excellently with him in their tete-a-
+tetes (who would not with Parson Frank?), and held him in higher 
+estimation than did Ellen.  To her, honesty was common, tame, and 
+uninteresting in comparison with heroism; and Griff's vague 
+statement that Clarence was the best brother in the world did not go 
+for much.  Emily and I longed to get the two better acquainted, but 
+it did not become possible while Griff absorbed the maiden as his 
+exclusive property.
+
+The engagement was treated as an avowed and settled thing, though I 
+do not know that there had been a formal ratification by the 
+parents; but in truth Mrs. Fordyce must have tacitly yielded her 
+consent when she permitted her daughter to make the journey under 
+the guardianship of Parson Frank.  After a walk in the ravine of 
+Lynton, we became aware of a ring upon Ellen's finger; and Emily was 
+allowed at night to hear how and when it had been put on.
+
+Ellen only slightly deepened her lovely carnation tints when her 
+father indulged in a little tender teasing and lamentation over 
+himself.  She was thoroughly happy and proud of her hero, and not 
+ashamed of owning it.
+
+There was one evening when she and I were sitting with our 
+sketchbooks in the shade on the beech at Ilfracombe, while the rest 
+had gone, some to bathe, the others to make purchases in the town.  
+We had been condoling with one another over the impossibility of 
+finding anything among our water-colours that would express the 
+wondrous tints before our eyes.
+
+'No, nothing can do it,' I said at last; 'we can only make a sort of 
+blot to assist our memories.'
+
+'Sunshine outside and in!' said Ellen.  'The memory of such days as 
+these can never fade away,--no, nor thankfulness for them, I hope.'
+
+Something then passed about the fact that it was quite possible to 
+go on in complete content in a quiet monotonous life, in an oyster-
+like way, till suddenly there was an unveiling and opening of 
+unimagined capacities of enjoyment--as by a scene like this before 
+us, by a great poem, an oratorio, or, as I supposed, by Niagara or 
+the Alps.  Ellen put it--'Oh! and by feelings for the great and 
+good!'  Dear girl, her colour deepened, and I am sure she meant her 
+bliss in her connection with her hero.  Presently, however, she 
+passed on to saying how such revelations of unsuspected powers of 
+enjoyment helped one to enter into what was meant by 'Eye hath not 
+seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man 
+to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that love 
+him.'  Then there was a silence, and an inevitable quoting of the 
+Christian Year, the guide to all our best thoughts -
+
+
+'But patience, there may come a time.'
+
+
+And then a turning to the 'Ode to Immortality,' for Wordsworth was 
+our second leader, and we carried him on our tour as our one secular 
+book, as Keble was our one religious book.  We felt that the 
+principal joy of all this beauty and delight was because there was 
+something beyond.  Presently Ellen said, prettily and shyly, 'I am 
+sure all this has opened much more to me than I ever thought of.  I 
+always used to be glad that we had no brothers, because our cousins 
+were not always pleasant with us; but now I have learnt what 
+valuable possessions they are,' she added, with the sweetest, 
+prettiest glance of her bright eyes.
+
+I ventured to say that I was glad she said they, and hoped it was a 
+sign that she was finding out Clarence.
+
+'I have found out that I behaved so ill to him that I have been 
+ashamed ever since to look at him or speak to him,' said Ellen; 'I 
+long to ask his pardon, but I believe that would distress him more 
+than anything.'
+
+In which she was right; and I was able to tell her of the excuses 
+there had been for the poor boy, how he had suffered, and how he had 
+striven to conquer his failings; and she replied that the words 
+'Judge not, that ye be not judged,' always smote her with the 
+remembrance of her disdainfully cantering past him.  There was a 
+tear on her eye-lashes, and it drew from me an apology for having 
+brought a painful recollection into our bright day.
+
+'There must be shade to throw up the lights,' she said, with her 
+sparkling look.
+
+Was it shade that we never fell into one of these grave talks when 
+Griffith was present, and that the slightest approach to them was 
+sure to be turned by him into jest?
+
+We made our journey a little longer than we intended, crossing the 
+moors so as to spend a Sunday at Exeter; but Frank Fordyce left us, 
+not liking to give his father the entire duty of a third Sunday.
+
+Emily says she has come to have a superstition that extensions of 
+original plans never turn out well, and certainly some of the charm 
+of our journey departed with the merry, genial Parson Frank.  Our 
+mother was more anxious about Ellen, and put more restrictions on 
+the lovers than when the father was present to sanction their 
+doings.  Griffith absolutely broke out against her in a way he had 
+never ventured before, when she forbade Ellen's riding with him when 
+he wanted to hire a horse at Lydford and take an excursion on the 
+moor before joining us at Okehampton.
+
+My father looked up, and said, 'Griffith, I am surprised at you.'  
+He was constrained to mutter some apology, and I believe Ellen 
+privately begged my mother's pardon, owning her to have been quite 
+right; but, by the dear girl, the wonderful cascade and narrow gorge 
+were seen through swollen eyes.  And poor Clarence must have had a 
+fine time of it when Griffith had to ride off with him faute de 
+mieux.
+
+All was cleared off, however, when we met again, for Griff's storms 
+were very fleeting, and Ellen treated him as if she had to make her 
+own peace with him.  She sacrificed her own enjoyment of Exeter 
+Cathedral to go about with him when he had had enough of it, but on 
+Sunday afternoon she altogether declined to walk with him till after 
+the second service.  He laughed at her supposed passion for sacred 
+music, and offered to wait with her to hear the anthem from the 
+nave.  'No,' she said, 'that would be amusing ourselves instead of 
+worshipping.'
+
+'We've done our devoir in that way already,' said Griff.  'Paid our 
+dues.'
+
+'One can't,' cried Ellen, with an eager look.  'One longs to do all 
+the more when He has just let us have such a taste of His beautiful 
+things.'
+
+'ONE, perhaps, when one is a little saint,' returned Griff.
+
+'Oh don't, Griff!  I'm not THAT; but you know every one wants all 
+the help and blessing that can be got.  And then it is so 
+delightful!'
+
+He gave a long whistle.  'Every one to his taste,' he said; 
+'especially you ladies.'
+
+He did come to the Cathedral with us, but he had more than half 
+spoilt this last Sunday.  Did he value her for what was best in her, 
+or was her influence raising him?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI--C. MORBUS, ESQ.
+
+
+
+'Forgot were hatred, wrongs, and fears,
+The plaintive voice alone she hears,
+   Sees but the dying man.'
+
+SCOTT.
+
+C. Morbus, Esq.  Such was the card that some wicked wag, one of 
+Clarence's fellow-clerks probably, left at his lodgings in the 
+course of the epidemic which was beginning its ravages even while we 
+were upon our pleasant journey--a shade indeed to throw out the 
+light.
+
+In these days, the tidings of a visitation of cholera are heard with 
+compassion for crowded towns, but without special alarm for 
+ourselves or our friends, since its conditions and the mode of 
+combating it have come to be fairly understood.
+
+In 1832, however, it was a disease almost unknown and unprecedented 
+except in its Indian abode, whence it had advanced city by city, 
+seaport by seaport, sweeping down multitudes before it; nor had 
+science yet discovered how to encounter or forestall it.  We heard 
+of it in a helpless sort of way, as if it had been the plague or the 
+Black Death, and thought of its victims as doomed.
+
+That terrible German engraving, 'Death as a Foe,' which represents 
+the grisly form as invading a ballroom in Paris, is an expression of 
+the feeling with which the scourge was regarded on that first 
+occasion.  Two Years Ago gives some notion of the condition of 
+things in 1849, but by that time there had been some experience, and 
+means of prevention were better understood.  On the alarm in that 
+year there was a great inspection of cottages throughout Earlscombe 
+and Hillside, but in 1832 there was no notion of such precautions.  
+Nevertheless, on neither visitation, nor any subsequent one, has the 
+disease come nearer to us than Bristol.
+
+As far as memory serves me, the idea was that wholesome food, 
+regular habits, and cleanliness were some protection, but one 
+locality might be as dangerous as another.  There had been cases in 
+London all the spring, but no special anxiety was felt when Clarence 
+returned to his work in the end of July, much refreshed and 
+invigorated by his holiday, and with the understanding that he was 
+to have a rise in position and salary on Mr. Castleford's return 
+from Ireland, where he was still staying with his wife's relations.  
+Clarence was received at the office with a kind of shamefaced 
+cordiality, as if every one would fain forget the way in which he 
+had been treated; and he was struck by finding that all the talk was 
+of the advances of the cholera, chiefly at Rotherhithe.  And a great 
+shock awaited him.  He went, as soon as business hours were over, to 
+thank good old Miss Newton for the comfort and aid she had 
+unwittingly given him, and to tell her from what she had saved him.  
+Alas! it was the last benefit she was ever to confer on her old 
+pupil.  At the door he was told by a weeping, terrified maid that 
+she was very ill with cholera, and that no hope was given.  He tried 
+to send up a message, but she was in a state of collapse and 
+insensible; and when he inquired the next morning, the gentle spirit 
+had passed away.
+
+He attended her funeral that same evening.  Griff said it was a 
+proof how your timid people will do the most foolhardy things; but 
+Clarence always held that the good woman had really done more for 
+him than any one in actually establishing a contact, so to say, 
+between his spirit and external truth, and he thought no mark of 
+respect beyond her deserts.  She was a heavy loss to him, for no one 
+else in town gave him the sense of home kindness; and there was much 
+more to depress him, for several of his Sunday class were dead, and 
+the school had been broken up for the time, while the heats and the 
+fruits of August contributed to raise the mortality.
+
+His return had released a couple more clerks for their holiday; it 
+was a slack time of year, with less business in hand than usual, and 
+the place looked empty.  Mr. Frith worked on as usual, but preserved 
+an ungracious attitude, as though he were either still incredulous 
+or, if convinced against his will, resolved that 'that prig of a 
+Winslow' should not presume upon his services.  Altogether the poor 
+fellow was quite unhinged, and wrote such dismal bills of mortality, 
+and meek, resigned forebodings that my father was almost angry, 
+declaring that he would frighten himself into the sickness; yet I 
+suppressed a good deal, and never told them of the last will and 
+testament in which he distributed his possessions amongst us.  Griff 
+said he had a great mind to go and shake old Bill up and row him 
+well, but he never did.
+
+More than a week passed by, two of Clarence's regular days for 
+writing, but no letter came.  My mother grew uneasy, and talked of 
+writing to Mrs. Robson, or, as we still called her, Gooch; but it 
+was doubtful whether the answer would contain much information, and 
+it was quite certain that any ill tidings would be sent to us.
+
+At last we did hear, and found, as we had foreboded, that the letter 
+had not been written for fear of alarming us, or carrying infection, 
+though Clarence underlined the words 'I am perfectly well.'
+
+Having to take a message into the senior partner's room, Clarence 
+had found the old man crouched over the table, writhing in the 
+unmistakable grip of the deadly enemy.  No one else was available; 
+Clarence had to collect himself, send for the doctor, and manage the 
+conveyance of the patient to his rooms, which fortunately adjoined 
+the office; for, through all his influx of wealth, Mr. Frith had 
+retained the habits and expenditure of his early struggling days.  
+His old housekeeper and her drudge showed themselves terrified out 
+of their senses, and as incapable as unwilling.  Naval experience, 
+and waiting on me, had taught Clarence helpfulness and handiness; 
+and though this was the very thing that had appalled his 
+imagination, he seemed, as he said afterwards, 'to have got beyond 
+his fright' to the use of his commonsense.  And when at last the 
+doctor came, and talked of finding a nurse, if possible, for they 
+were scarce articles, the sufferer only entreated between his 
+paroxysms, 'Stay, Winslow!  Is Winslow there?  Don't go!  Don't 
+leave me!'
+
+No nurse was to be found, but to Clarence's amazement Gooch arrived.  
+He had sent by the office boy to explain his absence; and before 
+night the faithful woman descended on him, intending, as in her old 
+days of authority, simply to put Master Clarry out of harm's way, 
+and take the charge upon herself.  Then, as he proved unmanageable 
+and would not leave his patient, neither would she leave him, and 
+through the frightful night that ensued, there was quite employment 
+enough for them both.  Gooch fully thought the end would come before 
+morning, and was murmuring something about a clergyman, but was cut 
+short by a sharp prohibition.  However, detecting Clarence's lips 
+moving, the old man said, 'Eh! speak it out!'  'And with difficulty, 
+feeling as if I were somebody else,' said Clarence, 'I did get out 
+some short words of prayer.  It seemed so awful for him to die 
+without any.'
+
+When the doctor came in early morning, the watchers were astonished 
+to hear that their charge had taken a turn for the better, and might 
+recover if their admirable care were continued.  The doctor had 
+brought a nurse; but Mr. Frith would not let her come into the room, 
+and there was plenty of need for her elsewhere.
+
+Several days of unremitting care followed, during which Clarence 
+durst not write to us, so little were the laws of infection 
+understood.  Good Mrs. Robson stayed all the time, and probably 
+saved Clarence from falling a victim to his zeal, for she looked 
+after him as anxiously as after the sick man; and with a wondering 
+and thankful heart, he found himself in full health, when both were 
+set free to return home.  Clarence had written at the beginning of 
+the illness to the only relations of whose existence or address he 
+was aware, an old sister, Mrs. Stevens, and a young great-nephew in 
+the office at Liverpool; and the consequence was the arrival of a 
+sour-looking, old widow sister, who came to take charge of the 
+convalescence, and, as the indignant Gooch overheard her say, 'to 
+prevent that young Winslow from getting round him.'
+
+There were no signs of such a feat having been performed, when, the 
+panic being past, my father went up to London with Griffith, who was 
+to begin eating his terms at the Temple.  He was to share Clarence's 
+lodgings, for the Robsons had plenty of room, and Gooch was 
+delighted to extend her cares to her special favourite, as she 
+already reigned over Clarence's wardrobe and table as entirely as in 
+nursery days; and, to my great exultation, my father said it would 
+be good for Griffith to be with his brother; and, moreover, we 
+should hear of the latter.  Nothing could be a greater contrast than 
+his rare notifications or requests, scrawled on a single side of the 
+quarto sheet, with Clarence's regular weekly lines of clerkly 
+manuscript, telling all that could interest any of us, and covering 
+every available flap up to the blank circle left for the trim red 
+seal.
+
+Promotion had come to Clarence in the natural course of seniority, 
+and a small sum, due to him on his coming of age, was invested in 
+the house of business, so that the two brothers could take between 
+them all the Robsons' available rooms.  Clarence's post was one of 
+considerable trust; but there were no tokens of special favour, 
+except that Mr. Frith was more civil to my father than usual, and 
+when he heard of the arrangement about the lodgings, he snarled out, 
+'Hm!  Law student indeed!  Don't let him spoil his brother!'
+
+Which was so far an expression of gratitude that it showed that he 
+considered that there was something to be spoilt.  Mr. Castleford, 
+however, showed real satisfaction in the purchase of a share in the 
+concern for Clarence.  His own eldest son inherited a good deal of 
+his mother's Irish nature, and was evidently unfit to be anything 
+but a soldier, and the next was so young that he was glad to have a 
+promising and trustworthy young man, from whom a possible joint head 
+of the firm might be manufactured.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII--PETER'S THUNDERBOLT
+
+
+
+If you can separate yourself and your misdemeanours you are welcome 
+to the house; if not, an it would please you to take leave of her, 
+she is very willing to bid you farewell.'
+ 
+Twelfth Night.
+
+In the early summer of 1833, we had the opportunity of borrowing a 
+friend's house in Portman Square for six weeks, and we were allowed 
+to take Ellen with us for introduction to the Admiral and other old 
+friends, while we were to make acquaintance with her connections--
+the family of Sir Horace Lester, M.P.
+
+We were very civil; but there were a good many polite struggles for 
+the exclusive possession of Ellen, whom both parties viewed as their 
+individual right; and her unselfish good-humour and brightness must 
+have carried her over more worries than we guessed at the time.
+
+She had stayed with the Lesters before, but in schoolroom days.  
+They were indolent and uninterested, and had never shown her any of 
+the permanent wonders of London, despising these as only fit for 
+country cousins, whereas we had grown up to think of them with 
+intelligent affection.  To me, however, much was as new as to Ellen.  
+Country life had done so much for me that I could venture on what I 
+had never attempted before.  The Admiral said it was getting away 
+from doctors and their experiments, but I had also done with the 
+afflictions of attempts at growth in wrong directions.  Old friends 
+did not know me, and more than once, as I sat in the carriage, 
+addressed me for one of my brothers--a compliment which, Griff said, 
+turned my head.  Happily I was too much accustomed to my own 
+appearance, and people were too kind, for me to have much shyness on 
+that score.  Our small dinner parties were great enjoyment to me, 
+and the two girls were very happy in their little gaieties.
+
+Braham and Catalani, Fanny Kemble, and Turner's landscapes at his 
+best, rise in my memory as supreme delights and revelations in their 
+different lines, and awakening trains of thought; and then there was 
+that entertainment which Griffith and Clarence gave us in their 
+rooms, when they regaled us with all the delicacies of the season, 
+and Peter and Gooch looked all pride and hospitality!  The dining-
+parlour, or what served as such, was Griff's property, as any one 
+could see by the pictures of horses, dogs, and ladies, the cups, 
+whips, and boxing-gloves that adorned it; the sitting-room had 
+tokens of other occupation, in Clarence's piano, window-box of 
+flowers, and his one extravagance in engravings from Raffaelle, and 
+a marine water-colour or two, besides all my own attempts at family 
+portraits, with a case of well-bound books.  Those two rooms were 
+perfectly redolent of their masters--I say it literally--for the 
+scent of flowers was in Clarence's room, and in Griff's, the odour 
+of cigars had not wholly been destroyed even by much airing.  For in 
+those days it was regarded by parents and guardians as an 
+objectionable thing.
+
+Peter was radiant on that occasion; but a few evenings later, when 
+all were gone to an evening party except my father and myself, Mr. 
+Robson was announced as wishing to speak to Mr. Winslow.  After the 
+civilities proper to the visit of an old servant had passed, he 
+entered with obvious reluctance on the purpose of his visit, namely, 
+his dissatisfaction with Griff as a lodger.  His wife, he said, 
+would not have had him speak, she was THAT attached to Mr. Griffith, 
+it couldn't be more if he was her own son; nor was it for want of 
+liking for the young gentleman on his part, as had known him from a 
+boy, 'but the wife of one's bosom must come first, sir, as stands to 
+reason, and it's for the good of the young gentleman himself, and 
+his family, as some one should speak.  I never said one word against 
+it when she would not be satisfied without running the risk of her 
+life after Mr. Clarence; hattending of Mr. Frith in the cholery.  
+That was only her dooty, sir, and I have never a word to say against 
+dooty:  but I cannot see her nearly wore out, and for no good to 
+nobody.'
+
+It appeared that Mrs. Robson was 'pretty nigh wore out, a setting up 
+for Mr. Griffith's untimely hours.'  'He laughed and coaxed--what I 
+calls cajoling--did Mr. Griff, to get a latch-key; but we knows our 
+dooty too well for that, and Mrs. Winslow had made us faithfully 
+promise, when Master Clarence first came to us, that he should never 
+have a latch-key,--Mr. Clarence, as had only been five times later 
+than eleven o'clock, and then he was going to dine with Mr. 
+Castleford, or to the theayter, and spoke about it beforehand.  If 
+he was not reading to poor Miss Newton, as was gone, or with some of 
+his language-masters, he was setting at home with his books and 
+papers, not giving no trouble to nobody, after he had had his bit of 
+bread and cheese and glass of beer to his supper.'
+
+Ay, Peter knew what young gentlemen was.  He did not expect to see 
+them all like poor Master Clarence, as had had his troubles; the 
+very life knocked out of him in his youth, as one might say.  Indeed 
+Peter would be pleased to see him a bit more sprightly, and taking 
+more to society and hamusements of his hage.  Nor would there be any 
+objection if the late 'ours was only once a week or so, and things 
+was done in a style fitting the family; but when it came to mostly 
+every night, often to two or three o'clock, it was too much for Mrs. 
+Robson, for she would never go to bed, being mortal afraid of fire, 
+and not always certain that Mr. Griffith was--to say--fit to put out 
+his candle.  'What do you mean, Peter?' thundered my father, whose 
+brow had been getting more and more furrowed every moment.  'Say it 
+out!--Drunk?'
+
+'Well sir, no, no, not to say that exactly, but a little excited, 
+sir, and women is timid.  No sir, not to call intoxicated.'
+
+'No, that's to come,' muttered my father.  'Has this often 
+happened?'
+
+Peter did not think that it had been noticed more than three times 
+at the most; but he went on to offer his candid and sensible advice 
+that Mr. Griffith should be placed in a family where there was a 
+gentleman or lady who would have some hauthority, and could not be 
+put aside with his good-'umoured haffability--'You're an old fogy, 
+Peter.'  'Never mind, Nursey, I'll be a good boy next time,' and the 
+like.  'It is a disadvantage you see, sir, to have been in his 
+service, and 'tis for the young gentleman's own good as I speaks; 
+but it would be better if he were somewheres else--unless you would 
+speak to him, sir.'
+
+To the almost needless question whether Clarence had been with his 
+brother on these occasions, there was a most decided negative.  He 
+had never gone out with Griffith except once to the theatre, and to 
+dine at the Castlefords, and at first he had sat up for his return, 
+'but it led to words between the young gentlemen,' said Peter, whose 
+confidences were becoming reckless; and it appeared that when 
+Clarence had found that Gooch would not let him spare her vigil, he 
+had obeyed her orders and ceased to share it.
+
+Peter was thanked for the revelations, which had been a grievous 
+effort to him, and dismissed.  My father sat still in great distress 
+and perplexity, asking me whether Clarence had ever told me anything 
+of this, and I had barely time to answer 'No' before Clarence 
+himself came in, from what Peter called his language-master.  He was 
+taking lessons in French and Spanish, finding a knowledge of these 
+useful in business.  To his extreme distress, my father fell on him 
+at once, demanding what he knew of the way Griffith was spending his 
+time, 'coming home at all sorts of hours in a disreputable 
+condition.  No prevarication, sir,' he added, as the only too 
+familiar look of consternation and bewilderment came over Clarence's 
+face.  'You are doing your brother no good by conniving at his 
+conduct.  Speak truth, if you can,' he added, with more cruelty than 
+he knew, in his own suffering.
+
+'Sir,' gasped Clarence, 'I know Griff often comes home after I am in 
+bed, but I do not know the exact time, nor anything more.'
+
+'Is this all you can tell me?  Really all?'
+
+'All I know--that is--of my own knowledge,' said Clarence, 
+recovering a little, but still unable to answer without hesitation, 
+which vexed my father.
+
+'What do you mean by that?  Do you hear nothing?'
+
+'I am afraid,' said Clarence, 'that I do not see as much of him as I 
+had hoped.  He is not up till after I have to be at our place, and 
+he does not often spend an evening at home.  He is such a popular 
+fellow, and has so many friends and engagements.'
+
+'Ay, and of what sort?  Can't you tell? or will you not?  I sent him 
+up to you, thinking you a steady fellow who might influence him for 
+good.'
+
+The colour rushed into Clarence's face, as he answered, looking up 
+and speaking low, 'Have I not forfeited all such hopes?'
+
+'Nonsense!  You've lived down that old story long ago.  You would 
+make your mark, if you only showed a little manliness and force of 
+character.  Griffith was always fond of you.  Can't you do anything 
+to hinder him from ruining his own life and that sweet girl's 
+happiness?'
+
+'I would--I would give my life to do so!' exclaimed Clarence, in 
+warm, eager tones.  'I have tried, but he says I know nothing about 
+it, and it is very dull at our rooms for him.  I have got used to 
+it, but you can't expect a fellow like Griff to stay at home, with 
+no better company than me, and do nothing but read law.'
+
+'Then you DO know,' began my father; but Clarence, with full self-
+possession, said, 'I think you had better ask me no more questions, 
+papa.  I really know nothing, or hardly anything, personally of his 
+proceedings.  I went to one supper with him, after going to the 
+play, and did not fancy it; besides, it almost unfitted me for my 
+morning's work; nor does it answer for me to sit up for him--it only 
+vexes him, as if I were watching him.'
+
+'Did you ever see him come home showing traces of excess?'
+
+'No!' said Clarence, 'I never saw!' and, under a stern, distressed 
+look, 'Once I heard tones that--that startled me, and Mrs. Robson 
+has grumbled a good deal--but I think Peter takes it for more than 
+it is worth.'
+
+'I see,' said my father more gently; 'I will not press you farther.  
+I believe I ought to be glad that these habits are only hearsay to 
+you.'
+
+'As far as I can see,' said Clarence diffidently, but quite restored 
+to himself, 'Griff is only like most of his set, young men who go 
+into society.'
+
+'Oh!' said my father, in a 'that's your opinion' kind of tone; and 
+as at that moment the yell of a newsboy was heard in the street, he 
+exclaimed that he must go and get an evening paper.  Clarence made a 
+step to go instead, but was thrust back, as apparently my father 
+merely wanted an excuse for rushing into the open air to recover the 
+shock or to think it over.
+
+Clarence gave a kind of groan, and presently exclaimed, 'If only 
+untruth were not such a sin!' and, on my exclamation of dismay, he 
+added, 'I don't think a blowing up ever does good!'
+
+'But this state of things should not last.'
+
+'It will not.  It would have come to an end without Peter's 
+springing this mine.  Griff says he can't stand Gooch any longer!  
+And really she does worry him intolerably.'
+
+'Peter professed to come without her knowledge or consent.'
+
+'Exactly so.  It will almost break the good old soul's heart for 
+Griff to leave her; but she expects to have him in hand as if he was 
+in the nursery.  She is ever so much worse than she was with me, and 
+he is really good-nature itself to laugh off her nagging as he does-
+-about what he chooses to put on, or eating, or smoking, or leaving 
+his room untidy, as well as other things.'
+
+'And those other things?  Do you suspect more than you told papa?'
+
+'It amounts to no more.  Griff likes amusement, and everybody likes 
+him--that's all.  Yes, I know my father read law ten hours a day, 
+but his whole nature and circumstances were different.  I don't 
+believe Griff could go on in that way.'
+
+'Not with such a hope before him?  You would, Clarence.'
+
+His face and not his tongue answered me, but he added, 'Griff is 
+sure of THAT without so much labour and trouble.'
+
+'And do you see so little of him?'
+
+'I can't help it.  I can't keep his hours and do my work.  Yes, I 
+know we are drifting apart; I wish I could help it, but being 
+coupled up together makes it rather worse than better.  It 
+aggravates him, and he will really get on better without Gooch to 
+worry him, and thrust my droning old ways down his throat,--as if 
+Prince Hal could bear to be twitted with "that sober boy, Lord John 
+of Lancaster."  Not,' he added, catching himself up, 'that I meant 
+to compare him to the madcap Prince.  He is the finest of fellows, 
+if they only would let him alone.'
+
+And that was all I could get from Clarence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII--A SQUIRE OF DAMES
+
+
+
+   'Spited with a fool -
+Spited and angered both.'
+
+Cymbeline.
+
+This long stay of Ellen's in our family had made our fraternal 
+relations with her nearer and closer.  Familiarity had been far from 
+lessening our strong feeling for her goodness and sweetness.  Emily, 
+who knew her best, used to confide to me little instances of the 
+spirit of devotion and self-discipline that underlay all her sunny 
+gaiety--how she never failed in her morning's devout readings; how 
+she learnt a verse or two of Scripture every day, and persuaded 
+Emily to join with her in repeating it ere they went downstairs for 
+their evening's pleasure; how she had set herself a little task of 
+plain work for the poor, which she did every day in her own room; 
+and the like dutiful habits, which seemed, as it were, to help her 
+to keep herself in hand, and not be carried away by what was a whirl 
+of pleasure to her, though a fashionable young lady would have 
+despised its mildness.
+
+Indeed Lady Peacock, with whom we exchanged calls, made no secret of 
+her compassion when she found how many parties the ladies were NOT 
+going to; and Ellen's own relations, the Lesters, would have taken 
+her out almost every night if she had not staunchly held to her 
+promise to her mother not to go out more than three evenings in the 
+week, for Mrs. Fordyce knew her to be delicate, and feared late 
+hours for her.  The vexation her cousins manifested made her feel 
+the more bound to give them what time she could, at hours when 
+Griffith was not at liberty.  She did not like them to be hurt, and 
+jealous of us, or to feel forsaken, and she tried to put her 
+affection for us on a different footing by averring that 'it was not 
+the same kind of thing--Emily was her sister.'
+
+One day she had gone to luncheon with the Lesters in Cavendish 
+Square, and was to be called for in the carriage by me, on the way 
+to take up the other two ladies, who were shopping in Regent Street.
+
+Ellen came running downstairs, with her cheeks in a glow under the 
+pink satin lining of her pretty bonnet, and her eyes sparkling with 
+indignation, which could not but break forth.
+
+'I don't know how I shall ever go there again!' she exclaimed; 'they 
+have no right to say such things!'  Then she explained.  Mary and 
+Louisa had been saying horrid things about Griffith--her Griff!  It 
+was always their way.  Think how Horace had made her treat Clarence!  
+It was their way and habit to tease, and call it fun, and she had 
+never minded it before; but this was too bad.  Would not I put it in 
+her power to give a flat contradiction, such as would make them 
+ashamed of themselves?
+
+Contradict what?
+
+Then it appeared that the Misses Lester had laughed at her, who was 
+so very particular and scrupulous, for having taken up with a 
+regular young man about town.  Oh no, THEY did not think much of it-
+-no doubt he was only just like other people; only the funny thing 
+was that it should be Ellen, for whom it was always supposed that no 
+saint in the calendar, no knight in all the Waverley novels, would 
+be good enough!  And then, on her hot desire to know what they 
+meant, they quoted John, the brother in the Guards, as having been 
+so droll about poor Ellen's perfect hero, and especially at his 
+straight-laced Aunt Fordyce having been taken in,--but of course it 
+was the convenience of joining the estates, and it was agreeable to 
+see that your very good folk could wink at things like other people 
+in such a case.  Then, when Ellen fairly drove her inquiries home, 
+in her absolute trust of confuting all slanders, she was told that 
+Griffith did, what she called 'all sorts of things--billiards and 
+all that.'  And even that he was always running after a horrid Lady 
+Peacock, a gay widow.
+
+'They went on in fun,' said Ellen, 'and laughed the more when--yes, 
+I am afraid I did--I lost my temper.  No, don't say I well might, I 
+know I ought not; but I told them I knew all about Lady Peacock, and 
+that you were all old friends, even before he rescued her from the 
+Bristol riots and brought her home to Chantry House; and that only 
+made Mary merrier than ever, and say, "What, another distressed 
+damsel?  Take care, Ellen; I would not trust such a squire of 
+dames."  And then Louisa chimed in, "Oh no, you see this Peacock 
+dame was only conducted, like Princess Micomicona and all the rest 
+of them, to the feet of his peerless Dulcinea!"  And then I heard 
+the knock, and I was never so glad in my life!'
+
+'Well!' I could not help remarking, 'I have heard of women's 
+spitefulness, but I never believed it till now.'
+
+'I really don't think it was altogether what you call malice, so 
+much as the Lester idea of fun,' said Ellen, recovering herself 
+after her outpouring.  'A very odd notion I always thought it was; 
+and Mary and Louisa are not really ill-natured, and cannot wish to 
+do the harm they might have done, if I did not know Griff too well.'
+
+Then, after considering a little, she said, blushing, 'I believe I 
+have told you more than I ought, Edward--I couldn't help having it 
+out; but please don't tell any one, especially that shocking way of 
+speaking of mamma, which they could not really mean.'
+
+'No one could who knew her.'
+
+'Of course not.  I'll tell you what I mean to do.  I will write to 
+Mary when we go in, and tell her that I know she really cares for me 
+enough to be glad that her nonsense has done no mischief, and, 
+though I was so foolish and wrong as to fly into a passion, of 
+course I know it is only her way, and I do not believe one word of 
+it.'
+
+Somehow, as she looked with those radiant eyes full of perfect 
+trust, I could not help longing not to have heard Peter Robson's 
+last night's complaint; but family feeling towards outsiders 
+overcomes many a misgiving, and my wrath against the malignity of 
+the Lesters was quite as strong as if I had been devoid of all 
+doubts whether Griff wore to all other eyes the same halo of pure 
+glory with which Ellen invested him.
+
+Such doubts were very transient.  Dear old Griff was too delightful, 
+too bright and too brave, too ardent and too affectionate, not to 
+dispel all clouds by the sunshine he carried about with him.  If 
+rest and reliance came with Clarence, zest and animation came with 
+Griffith.  He managed to take the initiative by declining to remain 
+any longer with the Robsons, saying they had been spoilt by such a 
+model lodger as Clarence, who would let Gooch feed him on bread and 
+milk and boiled mutton, and put on his clean pinafore if she chose 
+to insist; whereas her indignation, when Griff found fault with the 
+folding of his white ties, amounted to 'Et tu Brute,' and he really 
+feared she would have had a fit when he ordered devilled kidneys for 
+breakfast.  He was sure her determination to tuck him up every night 
+and put out his candle was shortening her life; and he had made 
+arrangements to share the chambers of a friend who had gone through 
+school and college with him.  There was no objection to the friend, 
+who had stayed at Chantry House and was an agreeable, lively, young 
+man, well reported of, satisfactorily connected, fairly industrious, 
+and in good society, so that Griff was likely to be much less 
+exposed to temptation of the lower kinds than when left to his own 
+devices, or only with Clarence, who had neither time nor disposition 
+to share his amusements.
+
+There was a scene with my father, but in private; and all that came 
+to general knowledge was that Griff felt himself injured by any 
+implication that he was given to violent or excessive dissipation, 
+such as could wreck Ellen's happiness or his own character.
+
+He declared with all his heart that immediate marriage would be the 
+best thing for both, and pleaded earnestly for it; but my father 
+could not have arranged for it even if the Fordyces would have 
+consented, and there were matters of business, as well as other 
+reasons, which made it inexpedient for them to revoke their decision 
+that the wedding should not take place before Ellen was of age and 
+Griffith called to the bar.
+
+So we took our young ladies home, loaded with presents for their 
+beloved school children, of whom Emily said she dreamt, as the time 
+for seeing them again drew near.  After all the London enjoyment, it 
+was pretty to see the girls' delight in the fresh country sights and 
+sounds in full summer glory, and how Ellen proved to have been 
+hungering after all her dear ones at home.  When we left her at her 
+own door, our last sight of her was in her father's arms, little 
+Anne clinging to her dress, mother and grandfather as close to her 
+as could be--a perfect tableau of a joyous welcome.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX--LOVE AND OBEDIENCE
+
+
+
+'Unless he give me all in change
+   I forfeit all things by him;
+The risk is terrible and strange.'
+
+MRS. BROWNING.
+
+You will be weary of my lengthiness; and perhaps I am lingering too 
+long over the earlier portion of my narrative.  Something is due to 
+the disproportion assumed in our memories by the first twenty years 
+of existence--something, perhaps, to reluctance to passing from 
+comparative sunshine to shadow.  There was still a period of 
+brightness, but it was so uneventful that I have no excuse for 
+dwelling on it further than to say that Henderson, our excellent 
+curate, had already made a great difference in the parish, and it 
+was beginning to be looked on as almost equal to Hillside.  The 
+children were devoted to Emily, who was the source of all the 
+amenities of their poor little lives.  The needlework of the school 
+was my mother's pride; and our church and its services, though you 
+would shudder at them now, were then thought presumptuously superior 
+'for a country parish.'  They were a real delight and blessing to 
+us, as well as to many more of the flock, who still, in their old 
+age, remember and revere Parson Henderson as a sort of apostle.
+
+The dawning of the new Poor-Law led to investigations which revealed 
+the true conditions of the peasant's life--its destitution, 
+recklessness, and dependence.  We tried to mend matters by inducing 
+families to emigrate, but this renewed the distrust which had at 
+first beheld in the schools an attempt to enslave the children.  
+Even accounts, sent home by the exceptionally enterprising who did 
+go to Canada, were, we found, scarcely trusted.  Amos Bell, who 
+would have gone, if he had not been growing into my special personal 
+attendant, was letter-writer and reader to all his relations, and 
+revealed to us that it had been agreed that no letter should be 
+considered as genuine unless it bore a certain private mark.  To be 
+sure, the accounts of prosperity might well sound fabulous to the 
+toilers and moilers at home.  Harriet Martineau's Hamlets, which we 
+lent to many of our neighbours, is a fair picture of the state of 
+things.  We much enjoyed those tales, and Emily says they were the 
+only political economy she ever learnt.
+
+The model arrangements of our vestries led to a summons to my father 
+and the younger Mr. Fordyce to London, to be examined on the 
+condition of the pauper, and the working of the old Elizabethan 
+Poor-Law.
+
+They were absent for about a fortnight of early spring, and Emily 
+and I could not help observing that our mother was unusually 
+uncommunicative about my father's letters; and, moreover, there was 
+a tremendous revolution of the furniture, a far more ominous token 
+in our household than any comet.
+
+The truth came on us when the two fathers returned.  Mine told me 
+himself that Frank Fordyce was so much displeased with Griffith's 
+conduct that he had declared that the engagement could not continue 
+with his consent.
+
+This from good-natured, tender-hearted Parson Frank!
+
+I cried out hotly that 'those Lesters' had done this.  They had 
+always been set against us, and any one could talk over Mr. Frank.  
+My father shook his head.  He said Frank Fordyce was not weak, but 
+all the stronger for his gentleness and charity; and, moreover, that 
+he was quite right--to our shame and grief be it spoken--quite 
+right.
+
+It was true that the first information had been given by Sir Horace 
+Lester, Mrs. Fordyce's brother, but it had not been lightly spoken 
+like the daughter's chatter; and my father himself had found it only 
+too true, so that he could not conscientiously call Griffith worthy 
+of such a creature as Ellen Fordyce.
+
+Poor Griff, he had been idle and impracticable over his legal 
+studies, which no persuasion would make him view as otherwise than a 
+sort of nominal training for a country gentleman; nor had he ever 
+believed or acted upon the fact that the Earlscombe property was not 
+an unlimited fortune, such as would permit him to dispense with any 
+profession, and spend time and money like the youths with whom he 
+associated.  Still, this might have been condoned as part of the 
+effervescence which had excited him ever since my father had 
+succeeded to the estate, and patience might still have waited for 
+greater wisdom; but there had been graver complaints of 
+irregularities, which were forcing his friend to dissolve 
+partnership with him.  There was evidence of gambling, which he not 
+only admitted, but defended; and, moreover, he was known at parties, 
+at races, and at the theatre, as one of the numerous satellites who 
+revolved about that gay and conspicuous young fashionable widow, 
+Lady Peacock.
+
+'Yes, Frank has every right to be angry,' said my father, pacing the 
+room.  'I can't wonder at him.  I should do the same; but it is 
+destroying the best hope for my poor boy.'
+
+Then he began to wish Clarence had more--he knew not what to call 
+it--in him; something that might keep his brother straight.  For, of 
+course, he had talked to Clarence and discovered how very little the 
+brothers saw of one another.  Clarence had been to look for Griff in 
+vain more than once, and they had only really met at a Castleford 
+dinner-party.  In fact, Clarence's youthful spirits, and the tastes 
+which would have made him companionable to Griff, had been crushed 
+out of him; and he was what more recent slang calls 'such a muff,' 
+that he had perforce drifted out of our elder brother's daily life, 
+as much as if he had been a grave senior of fifty.  It was, as he 
+owned, a heavy penalty of his youthful fall that he could not help 
+his brother more effectually.
+
+It appeared that Frank Fordyce, thoroughly roused, had had it out 
+with Griffith, and had declared that his consent was withdrawn and 
+the engagement annulled.  Griff, astounded at the resolute tone of 
+one whom he considered as the most good-natured of men, had answered 
+hotly and proudly that he should accept no dismissal except from 
+Ellen herself, and that he had done no more than was expected of any 
+young man of position and estate.  On the other indictment he 
+scorned any defence, and the two had parted in mutual indignation.  
+He had, however, shown himself so much distressed at the threat of 
+being deprived of Ellen, that neither my father nor Clarence had the 
+least doubt of his genuine attachment to her, nor that his 
+attentions to Lady Peacock were more than the effect of old habit 
+and love of amusement, and that they had been much exaggerated.  He 
+scouted the bare idea of preferring her to Ellen; and, in his second 
+interview with my father, was ready to make any amount of promises 
+of reformation, provided his engagement were continued.
+
+This was on the last evening before leaving town, and he came to the 
+coach-office looking so pale, jaded, and unhappy that Parson Frank's 
+kind heart was touched; and in answer to a muttered 'I've been ten 
+thousand fools, sir, but if you will overlook it I will try to be 
+worthy of her,' he made some reply that could be construed into, 'If 
+you keep to that, all may yet be well.  I'll talk to her mother and 
+grandfather.'
+
+Perhaps this was cruel kindness, for, as we well knew, Mrs. Fordyce 
+was far less likely to be tolerant of a young man's failings than 
+was her husband; and she was, besides, a Lester, and might take the 
+same view.
+
+Abusing the Lesters was our great resource; for we did not believe 
+either the sailor or the guardsman to be immaculate, and we knew 
+them to be jealous.  We had to remain in ignorance of what we most 
+wished to know, for Ellen was kept away from us, and my mother would 
+not let Emily go in search of her.  Only Anne, who was a high-
+spirited, independent little person, made a sudden rush upon me as I 
+sat in the garden.  She had no business to be so far from home 
+alone; but, said she, 'I don't care, it is all so horrid.  Please, 
+Edward, is it true that Griff has been so very wicked?  I heard the 
+maids talking, and they said papa had found out that he was a bad 
+lot, and that he was not to marry Ellen; but she would stick to him 
+through thick and thin, like poor Kitty Brown who would marry the 
+man that got transported for seven years.'  'Will he be transported, 
+Edward? and would Ellen go too, like the "nut-brown maid?"  Is that 
+what she cries so about?  Not by day, but all night.  I know she 
+does, for her handkerchief is wet through, and there is a wet place 
+on her pillow always in the morning; but she only says, "Never 
+mind," and nobody WILL tell me.  They only say little girls should 
+not think about such things.  And I am not so very little.  I am 
+eight, and have read the Lay of the Last Minstrel and I know all 
+about people in love.  So you might tell me.'
+
+I relieved Anne's mind as to the chances of transportation, and, 
+after considering how many confidences might be honourably exchanged 
+with the child, I explained that her father thought Griff had been 
+idle and careless, and not fit as yet to be trusted with Ellen.
+
+Her parish experience came into play.  'Does papa think he would be 
+like Joe Sparks?  But then gentlemen don't beat their wives, nor go 
+to the public-house, nor let their children go about in rags.'
+
+I durst not inquire much, but I gathered that there was a heavy 
+shadow over the house, and that Ellen was striving to do as usual, 
+but breaking down when alone.  Just then Parson Frank appeared.  
+Anne had run away from him while on a farming inspection, when the 
+debate over the turnips with the factotum had become wearisome.  He 
+looked grave and sorrowful, quite unlike his usual hearty self, and 
+came to me, leaning over my chair, and saying, 'This is sad work, 
+Edward'; and, on an anxious venture of an inquiry for Ellen, 'Poor 
+little maid, it is very sore work with her.  She is a good child and 
+obedient--wants to do her duty; but we should never have let it go 
+on so long.  We have only ourselves to thank--taking the family 
+character, you see'--and he made a kindly gesture towards me.  'Your 
+father sees how it is, and won't let it make a split between us.  I 
+believe that not seeing as much of your sister as usual is one of my 
+poor lassie's troubles, but it may be best--it may be best.'
+
+He lingered talking, unwilling to tear himself away, and ended by 
+disclosing, almost at unawares, that Ellen had held out for a long 
+time, would not understand nor take in what she was told, accepted 
+nothing on Lester authority, declared she understood all about Lady 
+Peacock, and showed a strength of resistance and independence of 
+view that had quite startled her parents, by proving how far their 
+darling had gone from them in heart.  But they still held her by the 
+bonds of obedience; and, by dealing with her conscience, her mother 
+had obtained from her a piteous little note -
+
+
+'MY DEAR GRIFFITH--I am afraid it is true that you have not always 
+seemed to be doing right, and papa and mamma forbid our going on as 
+we are.  You know I cannot be disobedient.  It would not bring a 
+blessing on you.  So I must break off, though--'
+
+
+The 'though' could be read through an erasure, followed by the 
+initials, E. M. F.--as if the dismal conclusion had been felt to be 
+only too true--and there followed the postscript, 'Forgive me, and, 
+if we are patient, it may come right.'
+
+This letter was displayed, when, on the ensuing evening, it brought 
+Griff down in towering indignation, and trying to prove the coercion 
+that must have been exercised to extract even thus much from his 
+darling.  Over he went headlong to Hillside to insist on seeing her, 
+but to encounter a succession of stormy scenes.  Mrs. Fordyce was 
+the most resolute, but was ill for a week after.  The old Rector was 
+gentle, and somewhat overawed Griff by his compassion, and by 
+representations that were only too true; and Parson Frank, with his 
+tender heart torn to pieces, showed symptoms of yielding another 
+probation.
+
+The interview with Ellen was granted.  She, however, was intrenched 
+in obedience.  She had promised submission to the rupture of her 
+engagement, and she kept her word,--though she declared that nothing 
+could hinder her love, and that she would wait patiently till her 
+lover had proved himself, to everybody's satisfaction, as good and 
+noble as she knew him to be.  When he told her she did not love him 
+she smiled.  She was sure that whatever mistakes there might have 
+been, he would give no further occasion against himself, and then 
+every one would see that all had been mere misunderstanding, and 
+they should be happy again.
+
+Such trust humbled him, and he was ready to make all promises and 
+resolutions; but he could not obtain the renewal of the engagement, 
+nor permission to correspond.  Only there was wrung out of Parson 
+Frank a promise that if he could come in two years with a perfectly 
+unstained, unblotted character, the betrothal might be renewed.
+
+We were very thankful for the hope and motive, and Griff had no 
+doubts of himself.
+
+'One can't look at the pretty creature and think of disappointing 
+her,' he said.  'She is altered, you know, Ted; they've bullied her 
+till she is more ethereal than ever, but it only makes her lovelier.  
+I believe if she saw me kill some one on the spot she would think it 
+all my generosity; or, if she could not, she would take and die.  Oh 
+no!  I'll not fail her.  No, I won't; not if I have to spend seven 
+years after the model of old Bill, whose liveliest pastime is a good 
+long sermon, when it is not a ghost.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX--UNA OR DUESSA
+
+
+
+'Soone as the Elfin knight in presence came
+And false Duessa, seeming ladye fayre,
+A gentle husher, Vanitie by name,
+Made roome, and passage did for them prepare.'
+
+SPENSER.
+
+The two families were supposed to continue on unbroken terms of 
+friendship, and we men did so; but Mrs. Fordyce told my mother that 
+she had disapproved of the probation, and Mrs. Winslow was hurt.  
+Though the two girls were allowed to be together as usual, it was on 
+condition of silence about Griff; and though, as Emily said, they 
+really had not been always talking about him in former times, the 
+prohibition seemed to weigh upon all they said.
+
+Old Mr. Fordyce had long been talking of a round of visits among 
+relations whom he had not seen for many years; and it was decided to 
+send Ellen with him, chiefly, no doubt, to prevent difficulties 
+about Griffith in the long vacation.
+
+There was no embargo on the correspondence with my sister, and 
+letters full of description came regularly, but how unlike they were 
+to our journal.  They were clear, intelligent, with a certain 
+liveliness, but no ring of youthful joy, no echo of the heart, 
+always as if under restraint.  Griff was much disappointed.  He had 
+been on his good behaviour for two months, and expected his reward, 
+and I could not here repeat all that he said about her parents when 
+he found she was absent.  Yet, after all, he got more pity and 
+sympathy from Parson Frank than from any one else.  That good man 
+actually sent a message for him, when Emily was on honour to do no 
+such thing.  Poor Emily suffered much in consequence, when she would 
+neither afford Griff a blank corner of her paper, nor write even a 
+veiled message; while as to the letters she received and gave to 
+him, 'what was the use,' he said, 'of giving him what might have 
+been read aloud by the town-crier?'
+
+'You don't understand, Griff; it is all dear Ellen's 
+conscientiousness--'
+
+'Oh, deliver me from such con-sci-en-tious-ness,' he answered, in a 
+tone of bitter mimicry, and flung out of the room leaving Emily in 
+tears.
+
+He could not appreciate the nobleness of Ellen's self-command and 
+the obedience which was the security of future happiness, but was 
+hurt at what he thought weak alienation.  One note of sympathy would 
+have done much for Griff just then.  I have often thought it over 
+since, and come to the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce was justified in 
+the entire separation she brought about.  No one can judge of the 
+strength with which 'true love' has mastered any individual, nor how 
+far change may be possible; and, on the other hand, unless there 
+were full appreciation of Ellen's character, she might only have 
+been looked on as -
+
+
+'Puppet to a father's threat,
+Servile to a shrewish tongue.'
+
+
+Yet, after all, Frank Fordyce was very kind to Griff, making himself 
+as much of a medium of communication as he could consistently with 
+his conscience, but of course not satisfying one who believed that 
+the strength of love was to be proved not by obedience but 
+disobedience.
+
+Ellen's letters showed increasing anxiety about her grandfather, who 
+was not favourably affected by the change of habits, consequent on a 
+long journey, and staying in different houses.  His return was fixed 
+two or three times, and then delayed by slight attacks of illness, 
+till at last he became anxious to get home, and set off about the 
+end of September; but after sleeping a night at an inn at Warwick, 
+he was too ill to proceed any farther.  His old man-servant was with 
+him; but poor Ellen went through a great deal of suspense and 
+responsibility before her parents reached her.  The attack was 
+paralysis, and he never recovered the full powers of mind or body, 
+though they managed to bring him back to Hillside--as indeed his 
+restlessness longed for his native home.  When once there he became 
+calmer, but did not rally; and a second stroke proved fatal just 
+before Easter.  He was mourned alike by rich and poor, 'He WAS a 
+gentleman,' said even Chapman, 'always the same to rich or poor, 
+though he was one of they Fordys.'
+
+My father wrote to summon both his elder sons to the funeral at 
+Hillside, and in due time Clarence appeared by the coach, but alone.  
+He had gone to Griffith's chambers to arrange about coming down 
+together, but found my father's letter lying unopened on the table, 
+and learnt that his brother was supposed to be staying at a villa in 
+Surrey, where there were to be private theatricals.  He had 
+forwarded the letter thither, and it would still be possible to 
+arrive in time by the night mail.
+
+So entirely was Griff expected that the gig was sent to meet him at 
+seven o'clock the next morning, but there was no sign of him.  My 
+father and Clarence went without him to the gathering, which showed 
+how deeply the good old man was respected and loved.
+
+It was the only funeral Clarence had attended except Miss Newton's 
+hurried one, and his sensitive spirit was greatly affected.  He had 
+learnt reserve when amongst others, but I found that he had a strong 
+foreboding of evil; he tossed and muttered in his sleep, and 
+confessed to having had a wretched night of dreams, though he would 
+not describe them otherwise than that he had seen the lady whose 
+face he always looked on as a presage of evil.
+
+Two days later the Morning Post gave a full account of the amateur 
+theatricals at Bella Vista, the seat of Benjamin Bullock, Esquire, 
+and the Lady Louisa Bullock; and in the list of dramatis personae, 
+there figured Griffith Winslow, Esquire, as Captain Absolute, and 
+the fair and accomplished Lady Peacock as Lydia Languish.
+
+Amateur theatricals were much less common in those days than at 
+present, and were held as the ne plus ultra of gaiety.  Moreover, 
+the Lady Louisa Bullock was noted for fashionable extravagance of 
+the semi-reputable style; and there would have been vexation enough 
+at Griffith's being her guest, even had not the performance taken 
+place on the very day of the funeral of Ellen's grandfather, so as 
+to be an outrage on decorum.
+
+At the same time, there came a packet franked by a not very 
+satisfactory peer, brother to Lady Louisa.  My father threw a note 
+over to Clarence, and proceeded to read a very properly expressed 
+letter full of apologies and condolences for the Fordyces.
+
+'He could not have got the letter in time' was my father's comment.  
+'When did you forward the letter?  How was it addressed?  Clarence, 
+I say, didn't you hear?'
+
+Clarence lifted up his face from his letter, so much flushed that my 
+mother broke in--'What's the matter?  A mistake in the post-town 
+would account for the delay.  Has he had the letter?'
+
+'Oh yes.'
+
+'Not in time--eh?'
+
+'I'm afraid,' and he faltered, 'he did.'
+
+'Did he or did he not?' demanded my mother.
+
+'What does he say?' exclaimed my father.
+
+'Sir' (always an unpropitious beginning for poor Clarence), 'I 
+should prefer not showing you.'
+
+'Nonsense!' exclaimed my mother:  'you do no good by concealing it!'
+
+'Let me see his letter,' said my father, in the voice there was no 
+gainsaying, and absolutely taking it from Clarence.  None of us will 
+ever forget the tone in which he read it aloud at the breakfast-
+table.
+
+
+'DEAR BILL--What possessed you to send a death's-head to the feast?  
+The letter would have bitten no one in my chambers.  A nice scrape I 
+shall be in if you let out that your officious precision forwarded 
+it.  Of course at the last moment I could not upset the whole affair 
+and leave Lydia to languish in vain.  The whole thing went off 
+magnificently.  Keep counsel and no harm is done.  You owe me that 
+for sending on the letter.--Yours,
+
+'J. G. W.'
+
+
+Clarence had not read to the end when the letter was taken from him.  
+Indeed to inclose such a note in a dispatch sure to be opened en 
+famille was one of Griffith's haphazard proceedings, which arose 
+from the present being always much more to him than the absent.  
+Clarence was much shocked at hearing these last sentences, and 
+exclaimed, 'He meant it in confidence, papa; I implore you to treat 
+it as unread!'
+
+My father was always scrupulous about private letters, and said, 'I 
+beg your pardon, Clarence; I should not have forced it from you.  I 
+wish I had not seen it.'
+
+My mother gave something between a snort and a sigh.  'It is right 
+for us to know the truth,' she said, 'but that is enough.  There is 
+no need that they should know at Hillside what was Griffith's 
+alternative.'
+
+'I would not add a pang to that dear girl's grief,' said my father; 
+'but I see the Fordyces were right.  I shall never do anything to 
+bring these two together again.'
+
+My mother chimed in with something about preferring Lady Peacock and 
+the Bella Vista crew to Ellen and Hillside, which made us rush into 
+the breach with incoherent defence.
+
+'I know how it was,' said Clarence.  'His acting is capital, and of 
+course these people could not spare him, nor understand how much it 
+signified that he should be here.  They make so much of him.'
+
+'Who do?' asked my mother.  'Lady Peacock?  How do you know?  Have 
+you been with them?'
+
+'I have dined at Mr. Clarkson's,' Clarence avowed; and, on further 
+pressure, it was extracted that Griffith--handsome, and with talents 
+such as tell in society--was a general favourite, and much engrossed 
+by people who found him an enlivenment and ornament to their 
+parties.  There had been little or nothing of late of the former 
+noisy, boyish dissipation; but that the more fashionable varieties 
+were getting a hold on him became evident under the cross-
+questioning to which Clarence had to submit.
+
+My father said he felt like a party to a falsehood when he sent 
+Griff's letter up to Hillside, and he indemnified himself by writing 
+a letter more indignant--not than was just, but than was prudent, 
+especially in the case of one little accustomed to strong censure.  
+Indeed Clarence could not restrain a slight groan when he perceived 
+that our mother was shut up in the study to assist in the 
+composition.  Her denunciations always outran my father's, and her 
+pain showed itself in bitterness.  'I ought to have had the presence 
+of mind to refuse to show the letter,' he said; 'Griff will hardly 
+forgive me.'
+
+Ellen looked very thin, and with a transparent delicacy of 
+complexion.  She had greatly grieved over her grandfather's illness 
+and the first change in her happy home; and she must have been much 
+disappointed at Griffith's absence.  Emily dreaded her mention of 
+the subject when they first met.
+
+'But,' said my sister, 'she said no word of him.  All she cared to 
+tell me was of the talks she had with her grandfather, when he made 
+her read his favourite chapters in the Bible; and though he had no 
+memory for outside things, his thoughts were as beautiful as ever.  
+Sometimes his face grew so full of glad contemplation that she felt 
+quite awestruck, as if it were becoming like the face of an angel.  
+It made her realise, she said, "how little the ups and downs of this 
+life matter, if there can be such peace at the last."  And, after 
+all, I could not help thinking that it was better perhaps that Griff 
+did not come.  Any other sort of talk would have jarred on her just 
+now, and you know he would never stand much of that.'
+
+Much as we loved our Griff, we had come to the perception that Ellen 
+was a treasure he could not esteem properly.
+
+The Lester cousins, never remarkable for good taste, forced on her 
+the knowledge of his employment.  Her father could not refrain from 
+telling us that her exclamation had been, 'Poor Griff, how shocked 
+he must be!  He was so fond of dear grandpapa.  Pray, papa, get Mr. 
+Winslow to let him know that I am not hurt, for I know he could not 
+help it.  Or may I ask Emily to tell him so?'
+
+I wish Mrs. Fordyce would have absolved her from the promise not to 
+mention Griff to us.  That innocent reliance might have touched him, 
+as Emily would have narrated it; but it only rendered my father more 
+indignant, and more resolved to reserve the message till a repentant 
+apology should come.  And, alas! none ever came.  Just wrath on a 
+voiceless paper has little effect.  There is reason to believe that 
+Griff did not like the air of my father's letter, and never even 
+read it.  He diligently avoided Clarence, and the pain and shame his 
+warm heart must have felt only made him keep out of reach.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI--FACILIS DESCENSUS
+
+
+
+'The slippery verge her feet beguiled;
+   She tumbled headlong in.'
+
+GRAY.
+
+One of Griffith's briefest notes in his largest hand announced that 
+he had accepted various invitations to country houses, for cricket 
+matches, archery meetings, and the like; nor did he even make it 
+clear where his address would be, except that he would be with a 
+friend in Scotland when grouse-shooting began.
+
+Clarence, however, came home for a brief holiday.  He was startled 
+at the first sight of Ellen.  He said she was indeed lovelier than 
+ever, with an added sweetness in her clear eyes and the wild rose 
+flush in her delicate cheek; but that she looked as if she was being 
+refined away to nothing, and was more than ever like the vision with 
+the lamp.
+
+Of course the Fordyces had not been going into society, though Ellen 
+and Emily were as much together as before, helping one another in 
+practising their school children in singing, and sharing in one 
+another's studies and pursuits.  There had been in the spring a 
+change at Wattlesea; the old incumbent died, and the new one was 
+well reported of as a very earnest hardworking man.  He seemed to be 
+provided with a large family, and there was no driving into 
+Wattlesea without seeing members of it scattered about the place.
+
+The Fordyces being anxious to show them attention without a regular 
+dinner-party, decided on inviting all the family to keep Anne's 
+ninth birthday, and Emily and Martyn were of course to come and 
+assist at the entertainment.
+
+It was on the morning of the day fixed that a letter came to me 
+whose contents seemed to burn themselves into my brain.  Martyn 
+called across the breakfast-table, 'Look at Edward!  Has any one 
+sent you a young basilisk?'
+
+'I wish it was,' I gasped out.
+
+'Don't look so,' entreated Emily.  'Tell us!  Is it Griff?'
+
+'Not ill-hurt?' cried my mother.  'Oh no, no.  Worse!' and then 
+somehow I articulated that he was married; and Clarence exclaimed, 
+'Not the Peacock!' and at my gesture my father broke out.  'He has 
+done for himself, the unhappy boy.  A disgraceful Scotch marriage.  
+Eh?'
+
+'It was his sense of honour,' I managed to utter.
+
+'Sense of fiddlestick!' said my poor father.  'Don't stop to excuse 
+him.  We've had enough of that!  Let us hear.'
+
+I cannot give a copy of the letter.  It was so painful that it was 
+destroyed; for there was a tone of bravado betraying his uneasiness, 
+but altogether unbecoming.  All that it disclosed was, that some one 
+staying in the same house had paid insulting attentions to Lady 
+Peacock; she had thrown herself on our brother's protection, and 
+after interfering on her behalf, he had found that there was no 
+means of sheltering her but by making her his wife.  This had been 
+effected by the assistance of the lady of the house where they had 
+been staying; and Griffith had written to me two days later from 
+Edinburgh, declaring that Selina had only to be known to be loved, 
+and to overcome all prejudices.
+
+'Prejudices,' said my father bitterly.  'Prejudices in favour of 
+truth and honour.'
+
+And my mother uttered the worst reproach of all, when in my 
+agitation, I slipped and almost fell in rising--'Oh, my poor Edward! 
+that I should have lived to think yours the least misfortune that 
+has befallen my sons!'
+
+'Nay, mother,' said Clarence, putting Martyn toward her, 'here is 
+one to make up for us all.'
+
+'Clarence,' said my father, 'your mother did not mean anything but 
+that you and Edward are the comfort of our lives.  I wish there were 
+a chance of Griffith redeeming the past as you have done; but I see 
+no hope of that.  A man is never ruined till he is married.'
+
+At that moment there was a step in the hall, a knock at the door, 
+and there stood Mr. Frank Fordyce.  He looked at us and said, 'It is 
+true then.'
+
+'To our shame and sorrow it is,' said my father.  'Fordyce, how can 
+we look you in the face?'
+
+'As my dear good friend, and my father's,' said the kind man, 
+shaking him by the hand heartily.  'Do you think we could blame you 
+for this youth's conduct?  Stay'--for we young ones were about to 
+leave the room.  'My poor girl knows nothing yet.  Her mother 
+luckily got the letter in her bedroom.  We can't put off the 
+Reynoldses, you know, so I came to ask the young people to come up 
+as if nothing had happened, and then Ellen need know nothing till 
+the day is over.'
+
+'If I can,' said Emily.
+
+'You can be capable of self-command, I hope,' said my mother 
+severely, 'or you do not deserve to be called a friend.'
+
+Such speeches might not be pleasant, but they were bracing, and we 
+all withdrew to leave the elders to talk it over together, when, as 
+I believe, kind Parson Frank was chiefly concerned to argue my 
+parents out of their shame and humiliation.
+
+Clarence told us what he knew or guessed; and we afterwards 
+understood the matter to have come about chiefly through poor 
+Griff's weakness of character, and love of amusement and flattery.  
+The boyish flirtation with Selina Clarkson had never entirely died 
+away, though it had been nothing more than the elder woman's 
+bantering patronage and easy acceptance of the youth's equally gay, 
+jesting admiration.  It had, however, involved some raillery on his 
+attachment to the little Methodistical country girl, and this 
+gradually grew into jealousy of her--especially as Griff became more 
+of a man, and a brilliant member of society.  The detention from the 
+funeral had been a real victory on the widow's part, and the few 
+times when Clarence had seen them together he had been dismayed at 
+the cavaliere serviente terms on which Griff seemed to stand; but 
+his words of warning were laughed down.  The rest was easy to 
+gather.  He had gone about on the round of visits almost as an 
+appendage to Lady Peacock, till they came to a free and easy house, 
+where her coquetry and love of admiration brought on one of those 
+disputes which rendered his championship needful; and such defence 
+could only have one conclusion, especially in Scotland, where hasty 
+private marriages were still legal.  What an exchange!  Only had 
+Griff ever comprehended the worth of his treasure?
+
+Emily went as late as she could, that there might be the less chance 
+of a tete-a-tete, in which she might be surprised into a betrayal of 
+her secret:  indeed she only started at last when Martyn's 
+impatience had become intolerable.
+
+What was our amazement when, much earlier than we expected, we saw 
+Mr. Fordyce driving up in his phaeton, and heard the story he had to 
+tell.
+
+Emily's delay had succeeded in bringing her only just in time for 
+the luncheon that was to be the children's dinner.  There was a 
+keen-looking, active, sallow clergyman, grizzled, and with an air of 
+having seen much service; a pale, worn wife, with a gentle, sensible 
+face; and a bewildering flock of boys and girls, all apparently 
+under the command of a very brisk, effective-looking elder sister of 
+fourteen or fifteen, who seemed to be the readiest authority, and to 
+decide what and how much each might partake of, among delicacies, 
+evidently rare novelties.
+
+The day was late in August.  The summer had broken; there had been 
+rain, and, though fine, the temperature was fitter for active sports 
+than anything else.  Croquet was not yet invented, and, besides, 
+most of the party were of the age for regular games at play.  Ellen 
+and Emily did their part in starting these--finding, however, that 
+the Reynolds boys were rather rough, in spite of the objurgations of 
+their sister, who evidently thought herself quite beyond the age for 
+romps.  The sports led them to the great home-field on the opposite 
+slope of the ridge from our own.  The new farm-buildings were on the 
+level ground at the bottom to the right, where the declivity was 
+much more gradual than to the left, which was very steep, and ended 
+in furze bushes and low copsewood.  It was voted a splendid place 
+for hide-and-seek, and the game was soon in such full career that 
+Ellen, who had had quite running enough, could fall out of it, and 
+with her, the other two elder girls.  Emily felt Fanny Reynolds' 
+presence a sort of protection, 'little guessing what she was up to,' 
+to use her own expression.  Perhaps the girl had not earlier made 
+out who Emily was, or she had been too much absorbed in her cares; 
+but, as the three sat resting on a stump overlooking the hill, she 
+was prompted by the singular inopportuneness of precocious fourteen 
+to observe, 'I ought to have congratulated you, Miss Winslow.'
+
+Emily gabbled out, 'Thank you, never mind,' hoping thus to put a 
+stop to whatever might be coming; but there was no such good 
+fortune.  'We saw it in the paper.  It is your brother, isn't it?'
+
+'What?' asked unsuspicious Ellen, thinking, no doubt, of some fresh 
+glory to Griffith.
+
+And before Emily could utter a word, if there were any she could 
+have uttered, out it came.  'The marriage--John Griffith Winslow, 
+Esquire, eldest son of John Edward Winslow of Chantry House, to 
+Selina, relict of Sir Henry Peacock and daughter of George Clarkson, 
+Esquire, Q.C.  I didn't think it could be you at first, because you 
+would have been at the wedding.'
+
+Emily had not even time to meet Ellen's eyes before they were 
+startled by a shriek that was not the merry 'whoop' and 'I spy' of 
+the game, and, springing up, the girls saw little Anne Fordyce 
+rushing headlong down the very steepest part of the slope, just 
+where it ended in an extremely muddy pool, the watering-place of the 
+cattle.  The child was totally unable to stop herself, and so was 
+Martyn, who was dashing after her.  Not a word was said, though, 
+perhaps, there was a shriek or two, but the elder sisters flew with 
+one accord towards the pond.  They also were some way above it, but 
+at some distance off, so that the descent was not so perpendicular, 
+and they could guard against over-running themselves.  Ellen, 
+perhaps from knowing the ground better, was far before the other 
+two; but already poor little Anne had gone straight down, and fallen 
+flat on her face in the water, Martyn after her, perhaps with a 
+little more free will, for, though he too fell, he was already 
+struggling to lift Anne up, and had her head above water, when Ellen 
+arrived and dashed in to assist.
+
+The pond began by being shallow, but the bottom sloped down into a 
+deep hollow, and was besides covered several feet deep with heavy 
+cattle-trodden mire and weeds, in which it was almost impossible to 
+gain a footing, or to move.  By the time Emily and Miss Reynolds had 
+come to the brink, Ellen and Martyn were standing up in the water, 
+leaning against one another, and holding poor little Anne's head up-
+-all they could do.  Ellen called out, 'Don't! don't come in!  Call 
+some one!  The farm!  We are sinking in!  You can't help!  Call--'
+
+The danger was really terrible of their sinking in the mud and 
+weeds, and being sucked into the deep part of the pool, and they 
+were too far in to be reached from the bank.  Emily perceived this, 
+and ran as she had never run before, happily meeting on the way with 
+the gentlemen, who had been inspecting the new model farm-buildings, 
+and had already taken alarm from the screams.
+
+They found the three still with their heads above water, but no 
+more, for every struggle to get up the slope only plunged them 
+deeper in the horrible mud.  Moreover, Fanny Reynolds was up to her 
+ankles in the mud, holding by one of her brothers, but unable to 
+reach Martyn.  It seems she had had some idea of forming a chain of 
+hands to pull the others out.
+
+Even now the rescue was not too easy.  Mr. Fordyce hurried in, and 
+took Anne in his arms; but, even with his height and strength, he 
+found his feet slipping away under him, and could only hand the 
+little insensible girl to Mr. Reynolds, bidding him carry her at 
+once to the house, while he lifted Martyn up only just in time, and 
+Ellen clung to him.  Thus weighted, he could not get out, till the 
+bailiff and another man had brought some faggots and a gate that 
+were happily near at hand, and helped him to drag the two out, 
+perfectly exhausted, and Martyn hardly conscious.  They both were 
+carried to the Rectory,--Ellen by her father, Martyn by the 
+foreman,--and they were met at the door by the tidings that little 
+Anne was coming to herself.
+
+Indeed, by the time Mr. Fordyce had put on dry clothes, all three 
+were safe in warm beds, and quite themselves again, so that he 
+trusted that no mischief was done; though he decided upon fetching 
+my mother to satisfy herself about Martyn.  However, a ducking was 
+not much to a healthy fellow like Martyn, and my mother found him 
+quite fit to dress himself in the clothes she brought, and to return 
+home with her.  Both the girls were asleep, but Ellen had had a 
+shivering fit, and her mother was with her, and was anxious.  Emily 
+told her mother of Fanny Reynolds' unfortunate speech, and it was 
+thought right to mention it.  Mrs. Fordyce listened kindly, kissed 
+Emily, and told her not to be distressed, for possibly it might turn 
+out to have been the best thing for Ellen to have learnt the fact at 
+such a moment; and, at any rate, it had spared her parents some 
+doubt and difficulty as to the communication.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII--WALY, WALY
+
+
+
+'And am I then forgot, forgot?
+It broke the heart of Ellen!'
+
+CAMPBELL
+
+Clarence and Martyn walked over to Hillside the first thing the next 
+morning to inquire for the two sisters.  As to one, they were 
+quickly reassured, for Anne was in the porch feeding the doves, and 
+no sooner did she see them than out she flew, and was clinging round 
+Martyn's neck, her hat falling back as she kissed him on both 
+cheeks, with an eagerness that made him, as Clarence reported, turn 
+the colour of a lobster, and look shy, not to say sheepish, while 
+she exclaimed, ' Oh, Martyn! mamma says she never thanked you, for 
+you really and truly did save my life, and I am so glad it was you--
+'
+
+'It was not I, it was Ellen,' gruffly muttered Martyn.
+
+'Oh yes! but papa says I should have been smothered in that horrid 
+mud, before Ellen could get to me if you had not pulled me up 
+directly.'
+
+The elders came out by this time, and Clarence was able to get in 
+his inquiry.  Ellen had had a feverish night, and her chest seemed 
+oppressed, but her mother did not think her seriously ill.  Once she 
+had asked, 'Is it true, what Fanny Reynolds said?' and on being 
+answered, 'Yes, my dear, I am afraid it is,' she had said no more; 
+and as the Fordyce habit of treating colds was with sedatives, her 
+mother thought her scarcely awake to the full meaning of the 
+tidings, and hoped to prevent her dwelling on them till she had 
+recovered the physical shock.  Having answered these inquiries, the 
+two parents turned upon Martyn, who, in an access of shamefacedness, 
+had crept behind Clarence and a great orange-tree, and was thence 
+pulled out by Anne's vigorous efforts.  The full story had come to 
+light.  The Reynolds' boys had grown boisterous as soon as the 
+restraint of the young ladies' participation had been removed, and 
+had, whether intentionally or not, terrified little Anne in the 
+chases of hide-and-seek.  Finally, one of them had probably been 
+unable to withstand the temptation of seeing her timid nervous way 
+of peeping and prying about; and had, without waiting to be properly 
+found, leapt out of his lair with a roar that scared the little girl 
+nearly out of her wits, and sent her flying, she knew not whither.  
+Martyn was a few steps behind, only not holding her hand, because 
+the other children had derided her for clinging to his protection.  
+He had instantly seen where she was going, and shouted to her to 
+stop and take care; but she was past attending to him, and he had no 
+choice but to dart after her, seeing what was inevitable; while 
+George Reynolds had sense to stop in time, and seek a safer descent.  
+Had Martyn not been there to raise the child instantly from the 
+stifling mud, her sister could hardly have been in time to save her.
+
+Mrs. Fordyce tearfully kissed him; her husband called him a little 
+hero, as if in joke, then gravely blessed him; and he looked, 
+Clarence related, as if he had been in the greatest possible 
+disgrace.
+
+It was the second time that one of us had saved a life from 
+drowning, but there was none of the exultation we had felt that time 
+before in London.  It was a much graver feeling, where the danger 
+had really been greater, and the rescue had been of one so dear to 
+us.  It was tempered likewise by anxiety about our dear Ellen--ours, 
+alas, no longer!  She was laid up for several days, and it was 
+thought better that she should not see Emily till she had recovered; 
+but after a week had passed, her father drove over to discuss some 
+plans for the Poor-Law arrangements, and begged my sister to go back 
+in the carriage and spend the day with his daughter.
+
+We brothers could now look forward to some real intelligence; we 
+became restless; and in the afternoon Clarence and I set out with 
+the donkey-chair on the woodland path to meet Emily.  We gained more 
+than we had hoped, for as we came round one of the turns in the 
+winding path, up the hanging beech-wood, we came on the two friends-
+-Ellen, a truly Una-like figure, in her white dress with her black 
+scarf making a sable stole.  Perhaps we betrayed some confusion, for 
+there was a bright flush on her cheeks as she came towards us, and, 
+standing straight up, said, 'Clarence, Edward, I am so glad you are 
+here; I wanted to see you.  I wanted--to say--I know he could not 
+help it.  It was his generosity--helping those that need it; and--
+and--I'm not angry.  And though that's all over, you'll always be my 
+brothers, won't you?'
+
+She held her outstretched hands to us both.  I could not help it, I 
+drew her down, and kissed her brow; Clarence clasped her other hand 
+and held it to his lips, but neither of us could utter a word.
+
+She turned back and went quietly away through the wood, while Emily 
+sank down under the beech-tree in a paroxysm of grief.  You may see 
+which it was, for Clarence cut out 'E. M. F., 1835' upon the bark.  
+He soothed and caressed poor Emily as in old nursery troubles; and 
+presently she told us that it would be long before we saw that dear 
+one again, for Mrs. Fordyce was going to take her away on the 
+morrow.
+
+Mrs. Fordyce had seen Emily in private, before letting her go to 
+Ellen.  There was evidently a great wish to be kind.  Mrs. Fordyce 
+said she could never forget what she owed to us all, and could not 
+think of blaming any of us.  'But,' she said, 'you are a sensible 
+girl, Emily,'--'how I hate being called a sensible girl,' observed 
+the poor child, in parenthesis,--'and you must see that it is 
+desirable not to encourage her to indulge in needless discussion 
+after she once understands the facts.'  She added that she thought a 
+cessation of present intercourse would be wise till the sore was in 
+some degree healed.  She had not been satisfied about her daughter's 
+health for some time, and meant to take her to Bath the next day to 
+consult a physician, and then decide what would be best.  'And, my 
+dear,' she said, 'if there should be a slackening of correspondence, 
+do not take it as unkindness, but as a token that my poor child is 
+recovering her tone.  Do not discontinue writing to her, but be 
+guarded, and perhaps less rapid, in replying.'
+
+It was for her friendship that poor Emily wept so bitterly--the 
+first friendship that had been an enthusiasm to her; looking at it 
+as a cruel injustice that Griff's misdoing should separate them.  
+The prediction that all might be lived down and forgotten was too 
+vague and distant to be much consolation; indeed, we were too young 
+to take it in.
+
+We had it all over again in a somewhat grotesque form when, at 
+another turn in the wood, we came upon Martyn and Anne, loaded with 
+treasures from their robbers' cave, some of which were bestowed in 
+my chair, the others carried off between Anne and her not very 
+willing nursery-maid.
+
+Anne kissed us all round, and augured cheerfully that she should lay 
+up a store of shells and rocks by the seaside to make 'a perfect 
+Robinson Crusoe cavern,' she said, 'and then Clarence can come and 
+be the Spaniards and the savages.  But that won't be till next 
+summer,' she added, shaking her head.  'I shall get Ellen to tell 
+Emily what shells I find, and then she can tell Martyn; for mamma 
+says girls never write to boys unless they are their brothers!  And 
+now Martyn will never be my brother,' she added ruefully.
+
+'You will always be our darling,' I said.
+
+'That's not the same as your sister,' she answered.  However, amid 
+auguries of the combination of robbers and Robinson Crusoe, the 
+parting was effected, and Anne borne off by the maid; while we had 
+Martyn on our hands, stamping about and declaring that it was very 
+hard that because Griff chose to be a faithless, inconstant ruffian, 
+all his pleasure and comfort in life should be stopped!  He said 
+such outrageous things that, between scolding him and laughing at 
+him, Emily had been somewhat cheered by the time we reached the 
+house.
+
+My father had written to Griffith, in his first displeasure, curt 
+wishes that he might not have reason to repent of the step he had 
+taken, though he had not gone the right way to obtain a blessing.  
+As it was not suitable that a man should be totally dependent on his 
+wife, his allowance should be continued; but under present 
+circumstances he must perceive that he and Lady Peacock could not be 
+received at Chantry House.  We were shown the letter, and thought it 
+terribly brief and cold; but my mother said it would be weak to 
+offer forgiveness that was not sought, and my father was specially 
+exasperated at the absence of all contrition as to the treatment of 
+Ellen.  All Griff had vouchsafed on that head was--the rupture had 
+been the Fordyces' doing; he was not bound.  As to intercourse with 
+him, Clarence and I might act as we saw fit.
+
+'Only,' said my father, as Clarence was leaving home, 'I trust you 
+not to get yourself involved in this set.'
+
+Clarence gave a queer smile, 'They would not take me as a gift, 
+papa.'
+
+And as my father turned from the hall door, he laid his hand on his 
+wife's arm, and said, 'Who would have told us what that young fellow 
+would be to us.'
+
+She sighed, and said, 'He is not twenty-three; he has plenty of 
+money, and is very fond of Griff.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII--THE RIVER'S BANK
+
+
+
+'And my friend rose up in the shadows,
+   And turned to me,
+"Be of good cheer," I said faintly,
+   For He called thee.'
+
+B. M.
+
+Mr. Fordyce waited at Hillside till after Sunday, and then went to 
+Bath to hear the verdict of the physician.  He returned as much 
+depressed as it was in his sanguine nature to be, for great delicacy 
+of the lungs had been detected; and to prevent the recent chill from 
+leaving permanent injury, Ellen must have a winter abroad, and warm 
+sea or mountain air at once.  Whether the disease were 
+constitutional and would have come on at all events no one could 
+tell.
+
+Consumption was much less understood half a century ago; codliver 
+oil was unknown; and stethoscopes were new inventions, only used by 
+the more advanced of the faculty.  The only escape poor Parson Frank 
+had from accepting the doom was in disbelieving that a thing like a 
+trumpet could really reveal the condition of the chest.  Moreover, 
+Mrs. Fordyce had had a brother who had, under the famous cowhouse 
+cure, recovered enough to return home, and be killed by the 
+upsetting of a stage coach.
+
+Mrs. Fordyce took her daughter to Lyme, and waited there till her 
+husband had found a curate and made all arrangements.  It must have 
+been very inconvenient not to come home; but, no doubt, she wanted 
+to prevent any more partings.  Then they went abroad, travelling 
+slowly, and seeing all the sights that came in their way, to 
+distract Ellen's thoughts.  She was not allowed to hear what ailed 
+her; but believed her languor and want of interest in everything to 
+be the effect of the blow she had received, struggling to exert 
+herself, and to enter gratefully into the enjoyments provided for 
+her.  She was not prevented from writing to Emily; indeed, no one 
+liked to hinder anything she wished, but they were guide-book 
+letters, describing all she saw as a kind of duty, but scarcely 
+concealing the trouble it was to look.  Such sentences would slip 
+out as 'This is a nice quiet place, and I am happy to say there is 
+nothing that one ought to see.'  Or, 'I sat in the cathedral at 
+Lucerne while the others were going round.  The organ was playing, 
+and it was such rest!'  Or, again, after a day on the Lago di Como, 
+'It was glorious, and if you and Edward were here, perhaps the 
+beauty would penetrate my sluggish soul!'
+
+Ellen's sluggish soul!--when we remembered her keen ecstasy at the 
+Valley of Rocks.
+
+Those letters were our chief interest in an autumn which seemed 
+dreary to us, in spite of friendly visitors; for had not our family 
+hope and joy been extinguished?  There was no direct communication 
+with Griffith after his unpleasant reply to my father's letter; but 
+Clarence saw the newly married pair on their return to Lady 
+Peacock's house in London, and reported that they were very kind and 
+friendly to him, and gave him more invitations than he could accept.  
+Being cross-examined when he came home for Christmas, he declared 
+his conviction that Lady Peacock had married Griff entirely from 
+affection, and that he had been--well--flattered into it.  They 
+seemed very fond of each other now, and were launching out into all 
+sorts of gaieties; but though he did not tell my father, he confided 
+to me that he feared that Griffith had been disappointed in the 
+amount of fortune at his wife's disposal.
+
+It was at that Christmas time, one night, having found an intrusive 
+cat upon my bed, Clarence carried her out at the back door close to 
+his room, and came back in haste and rather pale.  'It is quite true 
+about the lady and the light being seen out of doors,' he said in an 
+awe-stricken voice, 'I have just seen her flit from the mullion room 
+to the ruin.'
+
+We only noted the fact in that ghost-diary of ours--we told nobody, 
+and looked no more.  We already believed that these appearances on 
+the lawn must be the cause that every window, up to the attics on 
+the garden side of the house, were so heavily shuttered and barred 
+that there was no opening them without noise.  Indeed, those on the 
+ground floor had in addition bells attached to them.  No doubt the 
+former inhabitants had done their best to prevent any one from 
+seeing or inquiring into what was unacknowledged and unaccountable.  
+It might be only a coincidence, but we could not help remarking that 
+we had seen and heard nothing of her during the engagement which 
+might have united the two families; though, of course, it would be 
+ridiculous to suppose her cognisant of it, like the White Lady of 
+Avenel, dancing for joy at Mary's marriage with Halbert Glendinning.
+
+The Fordyces had settled at Florence, where they suffered a great 
+deal more from cold than they would have done at Hillside; and there 
+was such a cessation of Ellen's letters that Emily feared that Mrs. 
+Fordyce had attained her wish and separated the friends effectually.  
+However, Frank Fordyce beguiled his enforced leisure with long 
+letters to my father on home business, Austrian misgovernment, and 
+the Italian Church and people, full of shrewd observations and new 
+lights; and one of these ended thus, 'My poor lassie has been in bed 
+for ten days with a severe cold.  She begs me to say that she has 
+begun a letter to Emily, and hopes soon to finish it.  We had 
+thought her gaining ground, but she is sadly pulled down.  Fiat 
+voluntas.'
+
+The letter, which had been begun, never came; but, after three long 
+weeks, there was one from the dear patient herself, mentioning her 
+illness, and declaring that it was so comfortable to be allowed to 
+be tired, and to go nowhere and see nothing except the fragment of 
+beautiful blue sky, and the corner of a campanile, and the flowers 
+Anne brought in daily.
+
+As soon as she could be moved, they took her to Genoa, where she 
+revived enough to believe that she should be well if she were at 
+home again, and to win from her parents a promise to take her to 
+Hillside as soon as the spring winds were over.  So anxious was she 
+that, as soon as there was any safety in travelling, the party began 
+moving northwards, going by sea to Marseilles to avoid the Corniche, 
+so early in the year.  There were many fluctuations, and it was only 
+her earnest yearning for home and strong resolution that could have 
+made her parents persevere; but at last they were at Hillside, just 
+after Whitsuntide, in the last week of May.
+
+Frank Fordyce walked over to see us on the very evening after their 
+arrival.  He was much altered, his kindly handsome face looked 
+almost as if he had gone through an illness; and, indeed, apart from 
+all his anxiety and sorrow, he had pined in foreign parts for his 
+human flock, as well as his bullocks and his turnips.  He had also 
+read, thought, and observed a great deal, and had left his long 
+boyhood behind him, during a space for study and meditation such as 
+he had never had before.
+
+He was quite hopeless of his daughter's recovery, and made no secret 
+of it.  In passing through London the best advice had been taken, 
+but only to obtain the verdict that the case was beyond all skill, 
+and that it was only a matter of weeks, when all that could be done 
+was to give as much gratification as possible.  The one thing that 
+Ellen did care about was to be at home--to have Emily with her, and 
+once more see her school children, her church, and her garden.  
+Tired as she was she had sprung up in the carriage at the first 
+glimpse of Hillside spire, and had leant forward at the window, 
+nodding and smiling her greetings to all the villagers.
+
+She had been taken at once to her room and her bed, but her father 
+had promised to beg Emily to come up by noon on the morrow.  Then he 
+sat talking of local matters, not able to help showing what infinite 
+relief it was to him to be at home, and what music to his ears was 
+the Somersetshire dialect and deep English voice 'after all those 
+thin, shrill, screeching foreigners.'
+
+Poor Emily!  It was in mingled grief and gladness that she set off 
+the next day, with the trepidation of one to whom sickness and decay 
+were hitherto unknown.  When she returned, it was in a different 
+mood, unable to believe the doctors could be right, and in the 
+delight of having her own bright, sweet Ellen back again, all 
+herself.  They had talked, but more of home and village than of 
+foreign experiences; and though Ellen did not herself assist, she 
+had much enjoyed watching the unpacking of the numerous gifts which 
+had cost a perfect fortune at the Custom House.  No one seemed 
+forgotten--villagers, children, servants, friends.  Some of these 
+tokens are before me still.  The Florentine mosaic paper-weight she 
+brought me presses this very sheet; the antique lamp she gave my 
+father is on the mantelpiece; Clarence's engraving of Raffaelle's 
+St. Michael hangs opposite to me on the wall.  Most precious in our 
+eyes was the collection of plants, dried and labelled by herself, 
+which she brought to Emily and me--poor mummies now, but redolent of 
+undying affection.  Her desire was to bestow all her keepsakes with 
+her own hands, and in most cases she actually did so--a few daily, 
+as her strength served her.  The little figures in costume, coloured 
+prints, Swiss carvings, French knicknacks, are preserved in many a 
+Hillside cottage as treasured relics of 'our young lady.'  Many 
+years later, Martyn recognised a Hillside native in a back street in 
+London by a little purple-blue picture of Vesuvius, and thereby 
+reached the soft spot in a nearly dried-up heart.
+
+So bright and playful was the dear girl over all her old familiar 
+interests that we inexperienced beings believed not only that the 
+wound to her affections was healed, but that she either did not know 
+or did not realise the sentence that had been pronounced on her; but 
+when this was repeated to her mother, it was met by a sad smile and 
+the reply that we only saw her in her best hours.  Still, through 
+the summer, it was impossible to us to accept the truth; she looked 
+so lovely, was so cheerful, and took such delight in all that was 
+about her.
+
+With the first cold, however, she seemed to shrivel up, and the bad 
+nights extended into the days.  Emily ascribed the change to the 
+lack of going out into the air, and always found reasons for the 
+increased languor and weakness; till at last there came a day when 
+my poor little sister seemed as if the truth had broken upon her for 
+the first time, when Ellen talked plainly to her of their parting, 
+and had asked us both, 'her dear brother and sister,' to be with her 
+at her Communion on All Saints' Day.
+
+She had written a little letter to Clarence, begging his forgiveness 
+for having cut him, and treated him with the scorn which, I believe, 
+was the chief fault that weighed upon her conscience; and, hearing 
+my father's voice in the house, she sent a message to beg him to 
+come and see her in her mother's dressing-room--that very window 
+where I had first heard her voice, refusing to come down to 'those 
+Winslows.'  She had sent for him to entreat him to forgive Griffith 
+and recall the pair to Chantry House.  'Not now,' she said, 'but 
+when I am gone.'
+
+My father could deny her nothing, though he showed that the sight of 
+her made the entreaty all the harder to him; and she pleaded, 'But 
+you know this was not his doing.  I never was strong, and it had 
+begun before.  Only think how sad it would have been for him.'
+
+My father would have promised anything with that wasted hand on his, 
+those fervent eyes gazing on him, and he told her he would have 
+given his pardon long ago, if it had been sought, as it never had 
+been.
+
+'Ah! perhaps he did not dare!' she said.  'Won't you write when all 
+this is over, and then you will be one family again as you used to 
+be?'
+
+He promised, though he scarcely knew where Griffith was.  Clarence, 
+however, did.  He had answered Ellen's letter, and it had made him 
+ask for a few days' leave of absence.  So he came down on the 
+Saturday, and was allowed a quarter of an hour beside Ellen's sofa 
+in the Sunday evening twilight.  He brought away the calm, rapt 
+expression I had sometimes seen on his face at church, and Ellen 
+made a special entreaty that he might share the morrow's feast.
+
+There are some things that cannot be written of, and that was one.  
+Still we had not thought the end near at hand, though on Tuesday 
+morning a message was sent that Ellen was suffering and exhausted, 
+and could not see Emily.  It was a wild, stormy day, with fierce 
+showers of sleet, and we clung to the hope that consideration for my 
+sister had prompted the message.  In the afternoon Clarence battled 
+with a severe gale, made his way to Hillside, and heard that the 
+weather affected the patient, and that there was much bodily 
+distress.  For one moment he saw her father, who said in broken 
+accents that we could only pray that the spirit might be freed 
+without much more suffering, 'though no doubt it is all right.'
+
+Before daylight, before any one in the house was up, Clarence was 
+mounting the hill in the gusts that had done their work on the trees 
+and were subsiding with the darkness.  And just as he was beginning 
+the descent, as the sun tipped the Hillside steeple with light, he 
+heard the knell, and counted the twenty-one for the years of our 
+Ellen--for ours she will always be.
+
+'Somehow,' he told me, 'I could not help taking off my hat and 
+giving thanks for her, and then all the drops on all the boughs 
+began sparkling, and there was a hush on all around as if she were 
+passing among the angels, and a thrush broke out into a regular song 
+of jubilee!'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV--NOT IN VAIN
+
+
+
+'Then cheerly to your work again,
+   With hearts new braced and set
+To run untired love's blessed race,
+As meet for those who face to face
+   Over the grave their Lord have met.'
+
+KEBLE.
+
+That dying request could not but be held sacred, and overtures were 
+made to Griffith, who returned an odd sort of answer, friendly and 
+affectionate, but rather as if my father were the offending party in 
+need of forgiveness.  He and his wife were obliged for the 
+invitation, but could not accept it, as they had taken a house near 
+Melton-Mowbray for the hunting season, and were entertaining 
+friends.
+
+In some ways it was disappointing, in others it was a relief, not to 
+have the restraint of Lady Peacock's presence during the last days 
+we were to have with the Fordyces.  For a fresh loss came upon us.  
+Beachharbour was a fishing-village on the north-western coast, 
+which, within the previous decade, had sprung into importance, on 
+the one hand as a fashionable resort, on the other as a minor port 
+for colliers.  The living was wretchedly poor, and had been held for 
+many years by one of the old inferior stamp of clergy, scarcely 
+superior in habits or breeding to the farmers, and only outliving 
+the scandals of his youth to fall into a state of indolent 
+carelessness.  It was in the gift of a child, for whom Sir Horace 
+Lester was trustee, and that gentleman had written, about a 
+fortnight before Ellen's death, to consult Mr. Fordyce on its 
+disposal, declaring the great difficulties and deficiencies of the 
+place, which made it impossible to offer it to any one without 
+considerable private means, and also able to attract and improve the 
+utterly demoralised population.  He ended, almost in joke, by 
+saying, 'In fact, I know no one who could cope with the situation 
+but yourself; I wish you could find me your own counterpart, or come 
+yourself in earnest.  It is just the air that suits my sister--
+bracing sea-breezes; the parsonage, though a wretched place, is well 
+situated, and she would be all the stronger; but in poor Ellen's 
+state there is no use in talking of it, and besides I know you are 
+wedded to your fertile fields and Somersetshire clowns.'
+
+That letter (afterwards shown to us) had worked on Mr. Fordyce's 
+mind during those mournful days.  He was still young enough to leave 
+behind him Parson Frank and the 'squarson' habits of Hillside in 
+which he had grown up; and the higher and more spiritual side of his 
+nature had been fostered by the impressions of the last year.  He 
+was conscious, as he said, that his talk had been overmuch of 
+bullocks, and that his farm had engrossed him more than he wished 
+should happen again, though a change would be tearing himself up by 
+the roots; and as to his own people at Hillside, the curate, an 
+active young man, had well supplied his place, and, in his TRULY 
+humble opinion, though by no means in theirs, introduced several 
+improvements even in that model parish.
+
+What had moved him most, however, was a conversation he had had with 
+Ellen, with whom during this last year he had often held deep and 
+serious counsel, with a growing reverence on his side.  He had read 
+her uncle's letter to her, and to his great surprise found that she 
+looked on it as a call.  Devotedly fond as she herself was of 
+Hillside, she could see that her father's abilities were wasted on 
+so small a field, in a manner scarcely good for himself, and she had 
+been struck with the greater force of his sermons when preaching to 
+educated congregations abroad.  If no one else could or would take 
+efficient charge of these Beachharbour souls, she could see that it 
+would weigh on his conscience to take comparative ease in his own 
+beloved meadows, among a flock almost his vassals.  Moreover, she 
+relieved his mind about her mother.  She had discovered, what the 
+good wife kept out of sight, that the north-country woman never 
+could entirely have affinities with the south, and she had come to 
+the conclusion that Mrs. Fordyce's spirits would be heavily tried by 
+settling down at Hillside in the altered state of things.
+
+After this talk, Mr. Fordyce had suggested a possible incumbent to 
+his brother-in-law, but left the matter open; and when Sir Horace 
+came down to the funeral, it was more thoroughly discussed; and, as 
+soon as Mrs. Fordyce saw that departure would not break her 
+husband's heart, she made no secret of the way that both her opinion 
+and her inclinations lay.  She told my mother that she had always 
+believed her own ill-health was caused by the southern climate, and 
+that she hoped that Anne would grow up stronger than her sister in 
+the northern breezes.
+
+Poor little Anne!  Of all the family, to her the change was the 
+greatest grief.  The tour on the Continent had been a dull affair to 
+her; she was of the age to weary of long confinement in the carriage 
+and in strange hotels, and too young to appreciate 'grown-up' 
+sights.  Picture-galleries and cathedrals were only a drag to her, 
+and if the experiences that were put into Rosella's mouth for the 
+benefit of her untravelled sisters could have been written down, 
+they would have been as unconventional as Mark Twain's adventures.  
+Rosella went through the whole tour, and left a leg behind in the 
+hinge of a door, but in compensation brought home a Paris bonnet and 
+mantle.  She seemed to have been her young mistress's chief comfort, 
+next to an occasional game of play with her father, or a walk, 
+looking in at the shop windows and watching marionettes, or, still 
+better, the wonderful sports of brown-legged street children, 
+without trying to make her speak French or Italian--in her eyes one 
+of the inflictions of the journey, in those of her elders the one 
+benefit she might gain.  She had missed the petting to which she had 
+been accustomed from her grandfather and from all of us; and she had 
+absolutely counted the days till she could get home again, and had 
+fallen into dire disgrace for fits of crying when Ellen's weakness 
+caused delays.  Martyn's holidays had been a time of rapture to her, 
+for there was no one to attend much to her at home, and she was too 
+young to enter into the weight of anxiety; so the two had run as 
+wild together as a gracious well-trained damsel of ten and a 
+fourteen-year-old boy with tender chivalry awake in him could well 
+do.  To be out of the way was all that was asked of her for the 
+time, and all old delights, such as the robbers' cave, were renewed 
+with fresh zest.
+
+
+'It was the sweetest and the last.'
+
+
+And though Martyn was gone back to school, the child felt the wrench 
+from home most severely.  As she told me on one of those sorrowful 
+days, 'She did think she had come back to live at dear, dear little 
+Hillside all the days of her life.'  Poor child, we became convinced 
+that this vehement attachment to Griffith's brothers was one factor 
+in Mrs. Fordyce's desire to make a change that should break off 
+these habits of intimacy and dependence.
+
+Pluralities had not become illegal, and Frank Fordyce, being still 
+the chief landholder in Hillside, and wishing to keep up his 
+connection with his people, did not resign the rectory, though he 
+put the curate into the house, and let the farm.  Once or twice a 
+year he came to fulfil some of a landlord's duties, and was as 
+genial and affectionate as ever, but more and more absorbed in the 
+needs of Beachharbour, and unconsciously showing his own growth in 
+devotion and activity; while he brought his splendid health and 
+vigour, his talent, his wealth, and, above all, his winning charm of 
+manner and address, to that magnificent work at Beachharbour, well 
+known to all of you; though, perhaps, you never guessed that the 
+foundation of all those churches and their grand dependent works of 
+piety, mercy, and beneficence was laid in one young girl's grave.  I 
+never heard of a fresh achievement there without remembering how the 
+funeral psalm ends with -
+
+
+'Prosper Thou the work of our hands upon us,
+O prosper Thou our handiwork.'
+
+
+And Emily?  Her drooping after the loss of her friend was sad, but 
+it would have been sadder but for the spirit Ellen had infused.  We 
+found the herbs to heal our woe round our pathway, though the first 
+joyousness of life had departed.  The reports Mr. Henderson and the 
+Hillside curate brought from Oxford were great excitements to us, 
+and we thought and puzzled over church doctrine, and tried to impart 
+it to our scholars.  We I say, for Henderson had made me take a 
+lads' class, which has been the chief interest of my life.  Even the 
+roughest were good to their helpless teacher, and some men, as gray-
+headed as myself, still come every Sunday to read with Mr. Edward, 
+and are among the most faithful friends of my life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV--GRIFF'S BIRD
+
+
+
+'Shall such mean little creatures pretend to the fashion?
+Cousin Turkey Cock, well may you be in a passion.'
+
+The Peacock at Home.
+
+It was not till the second Christmas after dear Ellen Fordyce's 
+death that my eldest brother brought his wife and child to Chantry 
+House, after an urgent letter to Lady Peacock from my mother, who 
+yearned for a sight of Griffith's boy.
+
+I do not wish to dwell on that visit.  Selina, or Griff's bird, as 
+Martyn chose to term her, was certainly handsome and stylish; but 
+her complexion had lost freshness and delicacy, and the ladies said 
+her colour was rouge, and her fine figure due to other female 
+mysteries.  She meant to be very gracious, and patronised everybody, 
+especially Emily, who, she said, would be quite striking if not 
+sacrificed by her dress, and whom she much wished to take to London, 
+engaging to provide her with a husband before the season was over, 
+not for a moment believing my mother's assurance that it would be a 
+trial to us all whenever we had to resign our Emily.  Nay, she tried 
+to condole with the poor moped family slave, and was received with 
+such hot indignation as made her laugh, for, to do her justice, she 
+was good-natured and easy-tempered.  However, I saw less of her than 
+did the others, for I believe she thought the sight of me made her 
+ill.  Griff, poor old fellow, was heartily glad to be with us again, 
+but quite under her dominion.  He had lost his glow of youth and 
+grace of figure, his complexion had reddened, and no one would have 
+guessed him only a year older than Clarence, whose shoulders did 
+indeed reveal something of the desk, but whose features, though 
+pale, were still fair and youthful.  The boy was another Clarence, 
+not so much in compliment to his godfather as because it was the 
+most elegant name in the family, and favoured an interesting belief, 
+current among his mother's friends, that the king had actually stood 
+sponsor to the uncle.  Poor little man, his grandmother shut herself 
+into the bookroom and cried, after her first sight of him.  He was a 
+wretched, pinched morsel of humanity, though mamma and Emily 
+detected wonderful resemblances; I never saw them, but then he 
+inherited his mother's repulsion towards me, and roared doubly at 
+the sight of me.  My mother held that he was the victim of Selina's 
+dissipations and mismanagement of herself and him, and gave many 
+matronly groans at his treatment by the smart, flighty nurse, who 
+waged one continual warfare with the household.
+
+Accustomed to absolute supremacy in domestic matters, it was very 
+hard for my mother to have her counsels and experience set at 
+naught, and, if she appealed to Griff, to find her notions treated 
+with the polite deference he might have shown to a cottage dame.
+
+A course of dinner-parties could not hinder her ladyship from 
+finding Chantry House insufferably dull, 'always like Sunday;' and, 
+when she found that we were given to Saints' Day services, her pity 
+and astonishment knew no bounds.  'It was all very well for a poor 
+object like Edward,' she held, 'but as to Mr. Winslow and Clarence, 
+did they go for the sake of example?  Though, to be sure, Clarence 
+might be a Papist any day.'
+
+Popery, instead of Methodism, was just beginning to be the bugbear 
+set up for those whom the world held to be ultra-religious, and my 
+mother was so far disturbed at our interest in what was termed 
+Oxford theology that the warning would have alarmed her if it had 
+come from any other quarter.  However, Lady Peacock was rather fond 
+of Clarence, and entertained him with schemes for improving Chantry 
+House when it should have descended to Griffith.  The mullion rooms 
+were her special aversion, and were all to be swept away, together 
+with the vaultings and the ruin--'enough to give one the blues, if 
+there were nothing else,' she averred.
+
+We really felt it to the credit of our country that Sir George 
+Eastwood sent an invitation to an early dance to please his young 
+daughters; and for this our visitors prolonged their stay.  My 
+mother made Clarence go, that she might have some one to take care 
+of her and Emily, since Griff was sure to be absorbed by his lady.  
+Emily had not been to a ball since those gay days in London with 
+Ellen.  She shrank back from the contrast, and would have begged 
+off; but she was told that she must submit; and though she said she 
+felt immeasurably older than at that happy time, I believe she was 
+not above being pleased with the pale pink satin dress and wreath of 
+white jessamine, which my father presented to her, and in which, 
+according to Martyn, she beat 'Griff's bird all to shivers.'
+
+Clarence had grown much less bashful and embarrassed since the Tooke 
+affair had given him a kind of position and a sense of not being a 
+general disgrace.  He really was younger in some ways at five-and-
+twenty than at eighteen; he enjoyed dancing, and especially enjoyed 
+the compliments upon our sister, whom in our usual fashion we viewed 
+as the belle of the ball.  He was standing by my fire, telling me 
+the various humours of the night, when a succession of shrieks ran 
+through the house.  He dashed away to see what was the matter, and 
+returned, in a few seconds, saying that Selina had seen some one in 
+the garden, and neither she nor mamma would be satisfied without 
+examination--'though, of course, I know what it must be,' he added, 
+as he drew on his coat.
+
+'Bill, are you coming?' said Griff at the door.  'You needn't, if 
+you don't like it.  I bet it is your old friend.'
+
+'I'm coming!  I'm coming!  I'm sure it is,' shouted Martyn from 
+behind, with the inconsistent addition, 'I've got my gun.'
+
+'Enough to dispose of any amount of robbers or phantoms either,' 
+observed Griff as they went forth by the back door, reinforced by 
+Amos Bell with a lantern in one hand and a poker in the other.
+
+My father was fortunately still asleep, and my mother came down to 
+see whether I was frightened.
+
+She said she had no patience with Selina, and had left her to Emily 
+and her maid; but, before many words had been spoken, they all came 
+creeping down after her, feeling safety in numbers, or perhaps in 
+her entire fearlessness.  The report of a gun gave us all a shock, 
+and elicited another scream or two.  My mother, hoping that no one 
+was hurt, hastened into the hall, but only to meet Griff, hurrying 
+in laughing to reassure us with the tidings that it was only Martyn, 
+who had shot the old sun-dial by way of a robber; and he was 
+presently followed by the others, Martyn rather crestfallen, but 
+arguing with all his might that the sun-dial was exactly like a man; 
+and my mother hurried every one off upstairs without further 
+discussion.
+
+Clarence was rather white, and when Martyn demanded, 'Do you really 
+think it was the ghost?  Fancy her selection of the bird!' he 
+gravely answered, 'Martyn, boy, if it were, it is not a thing to 
+speak of in that tone.  You had better go to bed.'
+
+Martyn went off, somewhat awed.  Clarence was cold and shivering, 
+and stood warming himself.  He was going to wind up his watch, but 
+his hand shook, and I did it for him, noting the hour--twenty 
+minutes past one.
+
+It appeared that Selina, on going upstairs, recollected that she had 
+left her purse in Griff's sitting-room before going to dress, and 
+had gone in quest of it.  She heard strange shouts and screams 
+outside, and, going to one of the old windows, where the shutters 
+were less unmanageable than elsewhere, she beheld a woman rushing 
+towards the house pursued by at least a couple of men.  Filled with 
+terror she had called out, and nearly fainted in Griff's arms.
+
+'It agrees with all we have heard before,' said Clarence, 'the very 
+day and hour!'
+
+'As Martyn said, the person is strange.'
+
+'Villagers, less concerned, have seen the like,' he said; 'and, 
+indeed, all unconsciously poor Selina has cut away the hope of 
+redress,' he sighed.  'Poor, restless spirit! would that I could do 
+anything for her.'
+
+'Let me ask, do you ever see her now?'
+
+'N-no, I suppose not; but whenever I am anxious or worried, the 
+trouble takes her form in my dreams.'
+
+Lady Peacock had soon extracted the ghost story from her husband, 
+and, though she professed to be above the vulgar folly of belief in 
+it, her nerves were so upset, she said, that nothing would have 
+induced her to sleep another night in the house.  The rational 
+theory on this occasion was that one of the maids must have stolen 
+out to join in the Christmas entertainment at the Winslow Arms, and 
+been pursued home by some tipsy revellers; but this explanation was 
+not productive of goodwill between the mother and daughter-in-law, 
+since mamma had from the first so entirely suspected Selina's smart 
+nurse as actually to have gone straight to the nursery on the plea 
+of seeing whether the baby had been frightened.  The woman was found 
+asleep--apparently so--said my mother, but all her clothes were in 
+an untidy heap on the floor, which to my mother was proof conclusive 
+that she had slipped into the house in the confusion, and settled 
+herself there.  Had not my mother with her own eyes watched from the 
+window her flirtations with the gardener, and was more evidence 
+requisite to convict her?  Mamma entertained the hope that her 
+proposal would be adopted of herself taking charge of her grandson, 
+and fattening his poor little cheeks on our cows' milk, while the 
+rest of the party continued their round of visits.
+
+Lady Peacock, however, treated it as a personal imputation that HER 
+nurse should be accused instead of any servant of Mrs. Winslow's 
+own, though, as Griff observed, not only character, but years and 
+features might alike acquit them of any such doings; but even he 
+could not laugh long, for it was no small vexation to him that such 
+offence should have arisen between his mother and wife.  Of course 
+there was no open quarrel--my mother had far too much dignity to 
+allow it to come to that--but each said in private bitter things of 
+the other, and my lady's manner of declining to leave her baby at 
+Chantry House was almost offensive.
+
+Poor Griffith, who had been growing more like himself every day, 
+tried in vain to smooth matters, and would have been very glad to 
+leave his child to my mother's management, though, of course, he 
+acquitted the nurse of the midnight adventure.  He privately owned 
+to us that he had no opinion of the woman, but he defended her to my 
+mother, in whose eyes this was tantamount to accusing her own 
+respectable maids, since it was incredible that any rational person 
+could accept the phantom theory.
+
+Gladly would he have been on better terms, for he had had to confess 
+that his wife's fortune had turned out to be much less than common 
+report had stated, or than her style of living justified, and that 
+his marriage had involved him in a sea of difficulties, so that he 
+had to beg for a larger allowance, and for assistance in paying off 
+debts.
+
+The surrender of the London house and of some of the chief expenses 
+were made conditions of such favours, and Griffith had assented 
+gratefully when alone with his father; but after an interview with 
+his wife, demonstrations were made that it was highly economical to 
+have a house in town, and horses, carriages, and servants and that 
+any change would be highly derogatory to the heir of Earlscombe and 
+the sacred wishes of the late Sir Henry Peacock.
+
+In fact, it was impressed on us that we were mere homely, 
+countrified beings, who could not presume to dictate to her 
+ladyship, but who had ill requited her condescension in deigning to 
+beam upon us.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI--SLACK WATER
+
+
+
+'O dinna look, ye prideful queen, on a' aneath your ken,
+For he wha seems the farthest BUT aft wins the farthest BEN,
+And whiles the doubie of the schule tak's lead of a' the rest:
+The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.
+
+'The cauld, grey, misty morn aft brings a sunny summer day;
+The tree wha's buds are latest is longest to decay;
+The heart sair tried wi' sorrow still endures the sternest test:
+The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.
+
+'The wee wee stern that glints in heaven may be a lowin' sun,
+Though like a speck of light it seem amid the welkin dun;
+The humblest sodger on the field may win a warrior's crest:
+The birdie sure to sing is the gorbal of the nest.'
+
+Scotch Newspaper.
+
+The wickedness of the nurse was confirmed in my mother's eyes when 
+the doom on the first-born of the Winslows was fulfilled, and the 
+poor little baby, Clarence, succumbed to a cold on the chest caught 
+while his nurse was gossiping with a guardsman.
+
+He was buried in London.  'It was better for Selina to get those 
+things over as quickly as possible,' said Griff; but Clarence saw 
+that he suffered much more than his wife would let him show to her.  
+'It is so bad for him to dwell on it,' she said.  'You see.  I never 
+let myself give way.'
+
+And she was soon going out, nearly as usual, till their one other 
+infant came to open its eyes only for a few hours on this 
+troublesome world, and owe its baptism to Clarence's exertions.  My 
+mother, who was in London just after, attending on the good old 
+Admiral's last illness, was greatly grieved and disgusted with all 
+she heard and saw of the young pair, and that was not much.  She 
+felt their disregard of her uncle as heartless, or rather as 
+insulting, on Selina's part, and weak on Griff's; and on all sides 
+she heard of their reckless extravagance, which made her forebode 
+the worst.
+
+All these disappointments much diminished my father's pleasure and 
+interest in his inheritance.  He had little heart to build and 
+improve, when his eldest son's wife made no secret of her hatred to 
+the place, or to begin undertakings only to be neglected by those 
+who came after; and thus several favourite schemes were dropped, or 
+prevented by Griffith's applications for advances.
+
+At last there was a crisis.  At the end of the second season after 
+their visit to us, Clarence sent a hasty note, begging my father to 
+join him in averting an execution in Griffith's house.  I cannot 
+record the particulars, for just at that time I had a long low 
+fever, and did not touch my diary for many weeks; nor indeed did I 
+know much about the circumstances, since my good nurses withheld as 
+much as possible, and would not let me talk about what they believed 
+to make me worse.  Nor can I find any letters about it.  I believe 
+they were all made away with long ago, and thus I only know that my 
+father hurried up to town, remained for a fortnight, and came back 
+looking ten years older.  The house in London had been given up, and 
+he had offered a vacant one of our own, near home, to Griff to 
+retrench in, but Selina would not hear of it, insisting on going 
+abroad.
+
+This was a great grief to him and to us all.  There was only one 
+side of our lives that was not saddened.  Our old incumbent had died 
+about six months after the Fordyces had gone, and Mr. Henderson had 
+gladly accepted the living where the parsonage had been built.  The 
+lady to whom he had been so long engaged was a great acquisition.  
+Her home had been at Oxford; and she was as thoroughly imbued with 
+the spirit that there prevailed as was the Hillside curate.  She 
+talked to us of Littlemore, and of the sermons there and at St. 
+Mary's, and Emily and I shared to the full her hero-worship.  It was 
+the nearest compensation my sister had had for the loss of Ellen, 
+with this difference, that Mrs. Henderson was older, had read more, 
+and had conversed thoughtfully with some of the leading spirits in 
+religious thought, so that she opened a new world to us.
+
+People would hardly believe in our eagerness and enthusiasm over the 
+revelations of church doctrine; how we debated, consulted our books, 
+and corresponded with Clarence over what now seems so trite; how we 
+viewed the British Critic and Tracts for the Times as our oracles, 
+and worried the poor Wattlesea bookseller to get them for us at the 
+first possible moment.
+
+Church restoration was setting in.  Henderson had always objected to 
+christening from a slop-basin on the altar, and had routed out a 
+dilapidated font; and now one, which was termed by the country paper 
+chaste and elegant, was by united efforts, in which Clarence had the 
+lion's share, presented in time for the christening of the first 
+child at the Parsonage.  It is that which was sent off to the 
+Mission Chapel as a blot on the rest of Earlscombe Church.  Yet what 
+an achievement it was deemed at the time!
+
+The same may be said of most of our doings at that era.  We effected 
+them gradually, and have ever since been undoing them, as our 
+architectural and ecclesiastical perceptions have advanced.  I 
+wonder how the next generation will deal with our alabaster reredos 
+and our stained windows, with which we are all as well pleased as we 
+were fifty years ago with the plain red cross with a target-like 
+arrangement above and below it in the east window, or as poor 
+Margaret may have been with her livery altar-cloth.  Indeed, it 
+seems to me that we got more delight out of our very imperfect work, 
+designed by ourselves and sent to Clarence to be executed by men in 
+back streets in London, costing an immensity of trouble, than can be 
+had now by simply choosing out of a book of figures of cut and dried 
+articles.
+
+What an enthusiastic description Clarence sent of the illuminated 
+commandments in the new Church of St. Katharine in the Regent's 
+Park!  How Emily and I gloated over the imitation of them when we 
+replaced the hideous old tables, and how exquisite we thought the 
+initial I, which irreverent youngsters have likened, with some 
+justice, to an enormous overfed caterpillar, enwreathed with red and 
+green cabbage leaves!
+
+My mother was startled at these innovations; but my father, who had 
+kept abreast with the thought of the day, owned to the doctrines as 
+chiming in with his unbroken belief, and transferred to the 
+improvements in the church the interest which he had lost in the 
+estate.  The farmers had given up their distrust of him, and 
+accepted him loyally as friend and landlord, submitting to the 
+reseating of the church, and only growling moderately at decorations 
+that cost them nothing.  Daily service began as soon as Henderson 
+was his own master, and was better attended than it is now; for the 
+old people to whom it was a novelty took up the habit more freely 
+than their successors, to whom the bell has been familiar through 
+their days of toil.  We were too far off to be constant attendants; 
+but evensong made an object for our airings, and my father's head, 
+now quite white, was often seen there.  He felt it a great relief 
+amid the cares of his later years.
+
+Perhaps it was with a view to him that Mr. Castleford arranged that 
+Clarence should become manager for the firm at Bristol, with a good 
+salary.  The Robsons would not take a fresh lodger--they were 
+getting too old for fresh beginnings; but they kept their rooms 
+ready for him, whenever he had to be in town, and Gooch found him a 
+trustworthy widow as housekeeper.  He took a little cottage at 
+Clifton, availing himself of the coach to spend his Sundays with us; 
+and it was an acknowledged joy to every one that I should drive to 
+meet him every Saturday afternoon at the Carpenter's Arms, and bring 
+him home to be my father's aid in all his business, and a most 
+valuable help in Sunday parish work, in which he had an amount of 
+experience which astonished us.
+
+What would have become of the singing without him?  The first hint 
+against the remarkable anthems had long ago alienated our tuneful 
+choir placed on high, and they had deserted en masse.  Then Emily 
+and the schoolmistress had toiled at the school children, whose thin 
+little pipes and provincialisms were a painful infliction, till Mrs. 
+Henderson, backed by Clarence, worked up a few promising men's 
+voices to support them.  We thought everything but the New and Old 
+Versions smacked of dissent, except the hymns at the end of the 
+Prayer-book, though we did not go as far as Chapman, who told Emily 
+he understood as how all the tunes was tried over in Doctor's 
+Commons afore they were sent out, and it was not 'liable' to change 
+them.  One of Clarence's amusements in his lonely life had been the 
+acquisition of a knowledge of music, and he had a really good voice; 
+while his adherence to our choir encouraged other young men of the 
+farmer and artisan class to join us.  Choir, however, did not mean 
+surplices and cassocks, but a collection of our best voices, male 
+and female, in the gallery.
+
+Martyn began to be a great help when at home, never having wavered 
+in his purpose of becoming a clergyman.  On going to Oxford, he 
+became imbued with the influences that made Alma Mater the focus of 
+the religious life and progress of that generation which is now the 
+elder one.  There might in some be unreality, in others 
+extravagance, in others mere imitation; but there was a truly great 
+work on the minds of the young men of that era--a work which has 
+stood the test of time, made saints and martyrs, and sown the seed 
+whereof we have witnessed a goodly growth, in spite of cruel shocks 
+and disappointments, fightings within and fears without, slanders 
+and follies to provoke them, such as we can now afford to laugh 
+over.  With Martyn, rubrical or extra-rubrical observances were the 
+outlet of the exuberance of youth, as chivalry and romance had been 
+to us; and on Frank Fordyce's visits, it was delightful to find that 
+he too was in the full swing of these ideas and habits, partly from 
+his own convictions, partly from his parish needs, and partly 
+carried along by curates fresh from Oxford.
+
+In the first of his summer vacations Martyn joined a reading party, 
+with a tutor of the same calibre, and assured them that if they took 
+up their quarters in a farmhouse not many miles by the map from 
+Beachharbour, they would have access to unlimited services, with the 
+extraordinary luxury of a surpliced choir, and intercourse with 
+congenial spirits, which to him meant the Fordyces.
+
+On arriving, however, the bay proved to be so rocky and dangerous 
+that there was no boating across it, as he had confidently expected.  
+The farm depended on a market town in the opposite direction, and 
+though the lights of Beachharbour could be seen at night, there was 
+no way thither except by a six-miles walk along a cliff path, with a 
+considerable detour in order to reach a bridge and cross the rapid 
+river which was an element of danger in the bay, on the north side 
+of the promontory which sheltered the harbour to the south.
+
+So when Martyn started as pioneer on the morning before the others 
+arrived, he descended into Beachharbour later than he intended, but 
+still he was in time to meet Anne Fordyce, a tall, bright-faced girl 
+of fourteen, taking her after-lessons turn on the parade with a 
+governess, who looked amazed as the two met, holding out both hands 
+to one another, with eager joy and welcome.
+
+It was not the same when Anne flew into the Vicarage with the 
+rapturous announcement, 'Here's Martyn!'  The vicar was gone to a 
+clerical meeting, and Mrs. Fordyce said nothing about staying to see 
+him.  The luncheon was a necessity, but with quiet courtesy Martyn 
+was made to understand that he was regarded as practically out of 
+reach, and 'Oh, mamma, he could come and sleep,' was nipped in the 
+utterance by 'Martyn is busy with his studies; we must not disturb 
+him.'  This was a sufficient intimation that Mrs. Fordyce did not 
+intend to have the pupils dropping in on her continually, and making 
+her house their resort; and while Martyn was digesting the rebuff, 
+the governess carried Anne off to prepare for a music lesson, and 
+her mother gave no encouragement to lingering or repeating the 
+visit.
+
+Still Martyn, on his way homewards, based many hopes on the return 
+of Mr. Fordyce; but all that ensued was, three weeks later, a note 
+regretting the not having been able to call, and inviting the whole 
+party to a great school-feast on the anniversary of the dedication 
+of the first of the numerous new churches of Beachharbour.  There 
+was no want of cordiality on that occasion, but time was lacking for 
+anything beyond greetings and fleeting exchanges of words.  Parson 
+Frank tried to talk to Martyn, bemoaned the not seeing more of him, 
+declared his intentions of coming to the farm, began an invitation, 
+but was called off a hundred ways; and Anne was rushing about with 
+all the children of the place, gentle and simple, on her hands.  
+Whenever Martyn tried to help her, he was called off some other way, 
+and engaged at last in the hopeless task of teaching cricket where 
+these fisher boys had never heard of it.
+
+That was all he saw of our old friends, and he was much hurt by such 
+ingratitude.  So were we all, and though we soon acquitted the head 
+of the family of more than the forgetfulness of over occupation, the 
+soreness at his wife's coldness was not so soon passed over.  Yet 
+from her own point of view, poor woman, she might be excused for a 
+panic lest her second daughter might go the way of the first.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII--OUTWARD BOUND
+
+
+
+'As slow our ship her foamy track
+   Against the wind was cleaving,
+Her trembling pennant still looked back
+   To the dear isle 'twas leaving.
+So loath we part from all we love,
+   From all the links that bind us,
+So turn our hearts as on we rove
+   To those we've left behind us.'
+
+T.  MOORE.
+
+The first time I saw Clarence's menage was in that same summer of 
+poor Martyn's repulse.  My father had come in for a small property 
+in his original county of Shropshire, and this led to his setting 
+forth with my mother to make necessary arrangements, and then to pay 
+visits to old friends; leaving Emily and me to be guests to our 
+brother at Clifton.
+
+We told them it was their harvest honeymoon, and it was funny to see 
+how they enjoyed the scheme when they had once made up their minds 
+to it, and our share in the project was equally new and charming, 
+for Emily and I, though both some way on in our twenties, were still 
+in many respects home children, nor had I ever been out on a visit 
+on my own account.  The yellow chariot began by conveying Emily and 
+me to our destination.
+
+Clifton has grown considerably since those days, and terraces have 
+swallowed up the site of what the post-office knew as Prospect 
+Cottage, but we were apt to term the doll's house, for, as Emily 
+said, our visit there had something the same effect as a picnic or 
+tea drinking at little Anne's famous baby house.  In like manner, it 
+was tiny, square, with one sash-window on each side of the door, but 
+it was nearly covered with creepers, odds and ends which Clarence 
+brought from home, and induced to flourish and take root better than 
+their parent stocks.  In his nursery days his precision had given 
+him the name of 'the old bachelor,' and he had all a sailor's 
+tidiness.  Even his black cat and brown spaniel each had its 
+peculiar basket and mat, and had been taught never to transgress 
+their bounds or interfere with one another; and the effect of his 
+parlour, embellished as it was in our honour, was delightful.  The 
+outlook was across the beautiful ravine, into the wooded slopes on 
+the further side, and, on the other side, down the widening cleft to 
+that giddy marvel, the suspension bridge, with vessels passing under 
+it, and the expanse beyond.
+
+Most entirely we enjoyed ourselves, making merry over Clarence's 
+housekeeping, employing ourselves after our wonted semi-student, 
+semi-artist fashion in the morning; and, when our host came home 
+from business, starting on country expeditions, taking a carriage 
+whenever the distance exceeded Emily's powers of walking beside my 
+chair; sketching, botanising, or investigating church architecture, 
+our newest hobby.  I sketched, and the other two rambled about, 
+measuring and filling up archaeological papers, with details of 
+orientation, style, and all the rest, deploring barbarisms and 
+dilapidations, making curious and delightful discoveries, pitying 
+those who thought the Dun Cow's rib and Chatterton's loft the most 
+interesting features of St. Mary's Redcliff, and above all rubbing 
+brasses with heel ball, and hanging up their grim effigies wherever 
+there was a vacant space on the walls of our doll's house.
+
+And though we grumbled when Clarence was detained at the office 
+later than we expected, this was qualified by pride at feeling his 
+importance there as a man in authority.  It was, however, with much 
+dismay and some inhospitality that we learnt that a young man 
+belonging to the office--in fact, Mr. Frith's great-nephew--was 
+coming to sail for Canton in one of the vessels belonging to the 
+firm, and would have to be 'looked after.'  He could not be asked to 
+sleep at Prospect Cottage, for Emily had the only spare bedchamber, 
+and Clarence had squeezed himself into a queer little dressing 
+closet to give me his room; but the housekeeper (a treasure found by 
+Gooch) secured an apartment in the next house, and we were to act 
+hosts, much against our will.  Clarence had barely seen the youth, 
+who had been employed in the office at Liverpool, living with his 
+mother, who was in ill-health and had died in the last spring.  The 
+only time of seeing him, he had seemed to be a very shy raw lad; 
+but, 'poor fellow, we can make the best of him,' was the sentiment; 
+'it is only for one night.'  However, we were dismayed when, as 
+Emily was in the crisis of washing-in a sky, it was announced that a 
+gentleman was asking for Mr. Winslow.  Churlishness bade us despatch 
+him to the office, but humanity prevailed to invite him previously 
+to share our luncheon.  Yet we doubted whether it had not been a 
+cruel mercy when he entered, evidently unprepared to stumble on a 
+young lady and a deformed man, and stammering piteously as he hoped 
+there was no mistake--Mr. Winslow--Prospect, etc.
+
+Emily explained, frustrating his desire to flee at once to the 
+office, and pointing out his lodging, close at hand, whence he was 
+invited to return in a few minutes to the meal.
+
+We had time for some amiable exclamations, 'The oaf!'  'What a 
+bore!'  'He has spoilt my sky!'  'I shan't finish this to-day!'  
+'Shall we order a carriage and take him to the office; we can't have 
+him on our hands all the afternoon?'  'And we might get the new 
+number of Nicholas Nickleby.'
+
+N.B.--Perhaps it was Oliver Twist or The Old Curiosity Shop--I am 
+not certain which was the current excitement just then; but I am 
+quite sure it was Mrs. Nickleby who first disclosed to us that our 
+guest had a splendid pair of dark eyes.  Hitherto he had kept them 
+averted in the studious manner I have often noticed in persons who 
+did not wish to excite suspicion of staring at my peculiarities; but 
+that lady's feelings when her neighbour's legs came down her chimney 
+were too much for his self-consciousness, and he gave a glance that 
+disclosed dark liquid depths, sparkling with mirth.  He was one 
+number in advance of us, and could enlighten us on the next stage in 
+the coming story; and this went far to reconcile us to the invasion, 
+and to restore him to the proper use of his legs and arms--and very 
+shapely limbs they were, for he was a slim, well-made fellow, with a 
+dark gipsy complexion, and intelligent, honest face, altogether 
+better than we expected.
+
+Yet we could have groaned when in the evening, Clarence brought him 
+back with tidings that something had gone wrong with the ship.  If I 
+tried to explain, I might be twitted with,
+
+
+'The bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.'
+
+
+But of course Clarence knew all about it, and he thought it unlikely 
+that the vessel would be in sailing condition for a week at soonest.  
+Great was our dismay!  Getting through one evening by the help of 
+walking and then singing was one thing, having the heart of our 
+visit consumed by an interloper was another; though Clarence 
+undertook to take him to the office and find some occupation for him 
+that might keep him out of our way.  But it was Clarence's leisure 
+hours that we begrudged; though truly no one could be meeker than 
+this unlucky Lawrence Frith, nor more conscious of being an 
+insufferable burthen.  I even detected a tear in his eye when 
+Clarence and Emily were singing 'Sweet Home.'
+
+'Do you know,' said Clarence, on the second evening, when his guest 
+had gone to dress for dinner, 'I am very sorry for that poor lad.  
+It is only six weeks since he lost his mother, and he has not a soul 
+to care for him, either here or where he is going.  I had fancied 
+the family were under a cloud, but I find it was only that old Frith 
+quarrelled with the father for taking Holy Orders instead of going 
+into our house.  Probably there was some imprudence; for the poor 
+man died a curate and left no provision for his family.  The only 
+help the old man would give was to take the boy into the office at 
+Liverpool, stopping his education just as he was old enough to care 
+about it.  There were a delicate mother and two sisters then, but 
+they are all gone now; scarlet fever carried off the daughters, and 
+Mrs. Frith never was well again.  He seems to have spent his time in 
+waiting on her when off duty, and to have made no friends except one 
+or two contemporaries of hers; and his only belongings are old Frith 
+and Mrs. Stevens, who are packing him off to Canton without caring a 
+rap what becomes of him.  I know what Mrs. Stevens is at; she comes 
+up to town much oftener now, and has got her husband's nephew into 
+the office, and is trying to get everything for him; and that's the 
+reason she wants to keep up the old feud, and send this poor 
+Lawrence off to the ends of the earth.'
+
+'Can't you do anything for him?' asked Emily.  'I thought Mr. Frith 
+did attend to you.'
+
+Clarence laughed.  'I know that Mrs. Stevens hates me like poison; 
+but that is the only reason I have for supposing I might have any 
+influence.'
+
+'And can't you speak to Mr. Castleford?'
+
+'Set him to interfere about old Frith's relations!  He would know 
+better!  Besides, the fellow is too old to get into any other line--
+four-and-twenty he says, though he does not look it; and he is as 
+innocent as a baby, indifferent just now to what becomes of him, or 
+whither he goes; it is all the same to him, he says; there is no one 
+to care for him anywhere, and I think he is best pleased to go where 
+it is all new.  And there, you see, the poor lad will be left to 
+drift to destruction--mother's darling that he has been--just for 
+want of some human being to care about him, and hinder his getting 
+heartless and reckless!'
+
+Clarence's voice trembled, and Emily had tears in her eyes as she 
+asked if absolutely nothing could be done for him.  Clarence meant 
+to write to Mr. Castleford, who would no doubt beg the chaplain at 
+the station to show the young man some kindness; also, perhaps, to 
+the resident partner, whom Clarence had looked at once over his 
+desk, but in his rawest and most depressed days.  The only clerk out 
+there, whom he knew, would, he thought, be no element of safety, and 
+would not like the youth the better either for bringing his 
+recommendation or bearing old Frith's name.
+
+We were considerably softened towards our guest, though the next 
+time Emily came on him he was standing in the hall, transfixed in 
+contemplation of her greatest achievement in brass-rubbing, a severe 
+and sable knight with the most curly of nostrils, the stiffest and 
+straightest of mouths, hair straight on his brows, pointed toes 
+joined together below, and fingers touching over his breast.  There 
+he hung in triumph just within the front door, fluttering and 
+swaying a little on his pins whenever a draught came in; and there 
+stood Lawrence Frith, freshly aware of him, and unable to repress 
+the exclamation, 'I say! isn't he a guy?'
+
+'Sir Guy de Warrenne,' began Emily composedly; 'don't you see his 
+coat of arms? "chequy argent and azure."'
+
+'Does your brother keep him there to scare away the tramps?'
+
+Emily's countenance was a study.
+
+The subject of brasses was unfolded to Lawrence Frith, and before 
+the end of the week he had spent an entire day on his hands and 
+knees, scrubbing away with the waxy black compound at a figure in 
+the Cathedral--the office-work, as we declared, which Clarence gave 
+him to do.  In fact he became so thoroughly infected that it was a 
+pity that he was going where there would be no exercise in 
+ecclesiology--rather the reverse.  Embarrassment on his side, and 
+hostility on ours, may be said to have vanished under the influence 
+of Sir Guy de Warrenne's austere countenance.  The youth seemed to 
+regard 'Mr. Winslow' in the light of a father, and to accept us as 
+kindly beings.  He ceased to contort his limbs in our awful 
+presence, looked at me like as an ordinary person, and even ventured 
+on giving me an arm.  He listened with unfeigned pleasure to our 
+music, perilled his neck on St. Vincent's rocks in search of plants, 
+and by and by took to hanging back with Emily, while Clarence walked 
+on with me, to talk to her out of his full heart about his mother 
+and sisters.
+
+Three weeks elapsed before the Hoang-ho was ready to sail, and by 
+that time Lawrence knew that there were some who would rejoice in 
+his success, or grieve if things went ill with him.  Clarence and I 
+had promised him long home letters, and impressed on him that we 
+should welcome his intelligence of himself.  For verily he had made 
+his way into our hearts, as a thoroughly good-hearted, affectionate 
+being, yearning for something to cling to; intelligent and refined, 
+though his recent cultivation had been restricted, soundly 
+principled, and trained in religious feelings and habits, but so 
+utterly inexperienced that there was no guessing how it might be 
+with him when cast adrift, with no object save his own maintenance, 
+and no one to take an interest in him.
+
+Clarence talked to him paternally, and took him to second-hand shops 
+to provide a cheap library of substantial reading, engaging to cater 
+for him for the future, not omitting Dickens; and Emily worked at 
+providing him with the small conveniences and comforts for the 
+voyage that called for a woman's hand.  He was so grateful that it 
+was like fitting out a dear friend or younger brother.
+
+'I wonder,' said Clarence, as he walked by my chair on one of the 
+last days, 'whether it was altogether wise to have this young Frith 
+here so much, though it could hardly have been helped.'
+
+To which I rejoined that it could hardly have displeased the uncle, 
+and that if it did, the youth's welfare was worth annoying him for.
+
+'I meant something nearer home,' said Clarence, and proceeded to ask 
+if I did not think Lawrence Frith a good deal smitten with Emily.
+
+To me it seemed an idea not worth consideration.  Any youth, 
+especially one who had lived so secluded a life, would naturally be 
+taken by the first pleasing young woman who came in his way, and 
+took a kindly interest in him; but I did not think Emily very 
+susceptible, being entirely wrapped up in home and parish matters; 
+and I reminded Clarence that she had not been loverless.  She had 
+rejected the Curate of Hillside; and we all saw, though she did not, 
+that only her evident indifference kept Sir George Eastwood's second 
+son from making further advances.
+
+Clarence was not convinced.  He said he had never seen our sister 
+look at either of these as she did when Lawrence came into the room; 
+and there was no denying that there was a soft and embellishing 
+light on her whole countenance, and a fresh sweetness in her voice.  
+But then he seemed such a boy as to make the notion ridiculous; and 
+yet, on reckoning, it proved that their years were equal.  All that 
+could be hoped was that the sentiment, if it existed, would not 
+discover itself before they parted, so as to open their eyes to the 
+dreariness of the prospect, and cause our mother to think we had 
+betrayed our trust in the care of our sister.  As we could do 
+nothing, we were not sorry that this was the last day.  Clarence was 
+to go on board with Frith, see him out of the river, and come back 
+with the pilot; and we all drove down to the wharf together; nobody 
+saying much by the way, except the few jerky remarks we brothers 
+felt bound to originate and reply to.
+
+Emily sat very still, her head bent under her shading bonnet--I 
+think she was trying to keep back tears for the solitary exile; and 
+Lawrence, opposite, was unable to help watching her with wistful 
+eyes, which would have revealed all, if we had not guessed it 
+already.  It might be presumptuous, but it made us very sorry for 
+him.
+
+When the moment of parting came, there was a wringing of hands, and, 
+'Thank you, thank you,' in a low, broken, heartfelt voice, and to 
+Emily, 'You have made life a new thing to me.  I shall never 
+forget,' and the showing of a tiny book in his waistcoat pocket.
+
+When the two had disappeared, Emily, no longer restraining her 
+tears, told me that she had exchanged Prayer-books with him, and 
+they were to read the Psalms at the same time every day.  'I thought 
+it might be a help to him,' she said simply.
+
+Nor was there any consciousness in her talk as she related to me 
+what he had told her about his mother and sisters, and his dreary 
+sense of piteous loneliness, till we had adopted him as a brother--
+in which capacity I trusted that she viewed him.
+
+However, Clarence had been the recipient of all the poor lad's 
+fervent feelings for Miss Winslow, how she had been a new revelation 
+to his desolate spirit, and was to be the guiding star of his life, 
+etc., etc., all from the bottom of his heart, though he durst not 
+dream of requital, and was to live, not on hope, but on memory of 
+the angelic kindness of these three weeks.
+
+It was impossible not to be touched, though we strove to be worldly 
+wise old bachelors, and assured one another that the best and most 
+probable thing that could happen to Lawrence Frith would be to have 
+his dream blown away by the Atlantic breezes, and be left open to 
+the charms of some Chinese merchant's daughter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII--TOO LATE
+
+
+
+'Thus Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss,
+Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.'
+
+KEBLE.
+
+After such a rebuff as Martyn had experienced at Beachharbour, he no 
+longer haunted its neighbourhood, but devoted the long vacation of 
+the ensuing year to a walking tour in Germany, with one or two 
+congenial spirits, who shared his delight in scenery, pictures, and 
+architecture.
+
+By and by he wrote to Clarence from Baden Baden -
+
+'Whom do you think I should find here but Griffith and his bird?  I 
+first spotted the old fellow smoking under a tree in the Grand 
+Platz, but he looked so seedy and altered altogether that I was not 
+sure enough of him to speak, especially as he showed no signs of 
+knowing me.  (He says it was my whiskers that stumped him.)  I made 
+inquiries and found that they figured as "Sir Peacock and lady," but 
+they were entered all right in the book.  He is taking the "Kur"--he 
+looks as if he wanted it--and she is taking rouge et noir.  I saw 
+her at the salon, with her neck grown as long as her namesake's, but 
+not as pretty, claws to match, thin and painted, as if the ruling 
+passion was consuming her.  Poor old Griff! he was glad enough to 
+see me, but he is wofully shaky, and nearly came to tears when he 
+asked after Ted and all at home.  They had an upset of their 
+carriage in Vienna last winter, and he got some twist, or other 
+damage, which he thought nothing of, but it has never righted 
+itself; I am sure he is very ill, and ought to be looked after.  He 
+has had only foreign doctoring, and you know he never was strong in 
+languages.  I heard of the medico here inquiring what precise 
+symptom der Englander meant by being "down in zie mout!"  Poor Griff 
+is that, whatever else he is, and Selina does not see it, nor 
+anything else but her rouge et noir table.  I am afraid he plays 
+too, when he is up to it, but he can't stand much of the stuffiness 
+of the place, and he respects my innocence, poor old beggar; so he 
+has kept out of it, since we have been here.  He seems glad to have 
+me to look after him, but afraid to let me stay, for fear of my 
+falling a victim to the place.  I can't well tell him that there is 
+a perpetual warning to youth in the persons of himself and his 
+Peacock.  His mind might be vastly relieved if I were out of it, but 
+scarcely his body; and I shall not leave him till I hear from home.  
+Thomson says I am right.  I should like to bring the poor old man 
+home for advice, especially if my lady could be left behind, and by 
+all appearances she would not object.  Could not you come, or mamma?  
+Speak to papa about it.  It is all so disgusting that I really could 
+not write to him.  It is enough to break one's heart to see Griff 
+when he hears about home, and Edward, and Emily.  I told him how 
+famously you were getting on, and he said, "It has been all up, up 
+with him, all down, down with me," and then he wanted me to fix my 
+day for leaving Baden, as if it were a sink of infection.  I fancy 
+he thinks me a mere infant still, for he won't heed a word of advice 
+about taking care of himself and WILL do the most foolish things 
+imaginable for a man in his state, though I can't make out what is 
+the matter with him.  I tried both French and Latin with his doctor, 
+equally in vain.'
+
+There was a great consultation over this letter.  Our parents would 
+fain have gone at once to Baden, but my father was far from well; in 
+fact, it was the beginning of the break-up of his constitution.  He 
+had been ageing ever since his disappointment in Griffith, and 
+though he had so enjoyed his jaunt with my mother that he had seemed 
+revived for the time, he had been visibly failing ever since the 
+winter, and my mother durst not leave him.  Indeed she was only too 
+well aware that her presence was apt to inspire Selina with the 
+spirit of contradiction, and that Clarence would have a better 
+chance alone.  He was to go up to London by the mail train, see Mr. 
+Castleford, and cross to Ostend.
+
+A valise from the lumber-room was wanted, and at bedtime he went in 
+quest of it.  He came back white and shaken; and I said -
+
+'You have not seen HER?'
+
+'Yes, I have.'
+
+'It is not her time of year.'
+
+'No; I was not even thinking of her.  There was none of the wailing, 
+but when I looked up from my rummaging, there was her face as if in 
+a window or mirror on the wall.'
+
+'Don't dwell on it' was all I could entreat, for the apparition at 
+unusual times had been mentioned as a note of doom, and not only did 
+it weigh on me, but it might send Clarence off in a desponding mood.  
+Tidings were less rapid when telegraphs were not, and railways 
+incomplete.  Clarence did not reach Baden till ten days after the 
+despatch of Martyn's letter, and Griffith's condition had in the 
+meantime become much more serious.  Low fever had set in, and he was 
+confined to his dreary lodgings, where Martyn was doing his best for 
+him in an inexperienced, helpless sort of way, while Lady Peacock 
+was at the salle, persisting in her belief that the ailment was a 
+temporary matter.  Martyn afterwards declared that he had never seen 
+anything more touching than poor Griff's look of intense rest and 
+relief at Clarence's entrance.
+
+On the way through London, by the assistance of Mr. Castleford, 
+Clarence had ascertained how to procure the best medical advice 
+attainable, and he was linguist enough to be an adequate 
+interpreter.  Alas! all that was achieved was the discovery that 
+between difficulties of language, Griff's own indifference, and his 
+wife's carelessness, the injury had developed into fatal disease.  
+An operation MIGHT yet save him, if he could rally enough for it, 
+but the fever was rapidly destroying his remaining strength.  Selina 
+ascribed it to excitement at meeting Martyn, and indeed he had been 
+subject to such attacks every autumn.  Any way, he had no spirits 
+nor wish for improvement.  If his brothers told him he was better, 
+he smiled and said it was like a condemned criminal trying to 
+recover enough for the gallows.  His only desire was to be let alone 
+and have Clarence with him.  He had ceased to be uneasy as to 
+Martyn's exposure to temptation, but he said he could hardly bear to 
+watch that bright, fresh young manhood, and recollect how few years 
+had passed since he had been such another, nor did he like to have 
+any nurse save Clarence.  His wife at first acquiesced, holding fast 
+to the theory of the periodical autumnal fever, and then that the 
+operation would restore him to health; and as her presence fretted 
+him, and he received her small attentions peevishly, she persisted 
+in her usual habits, and heard with petulance his brothers' 
+assurances of his being in a critical condition, declaring that it 
+was always thus with these fevers--he was always cross and low-
+spirited, and no one could tell what she had undergone with him.
+
+Then came days of positive pain, and nights of delirious, dreary 
+murmuring about home and all of us, more especially Ellen Fordyce.  
+Clarence had no time for letters, and Martyn's became a call for 
+mamma, with the old childish trust in her healing and comforting 
+powers, declaring that he would meet her at Cologne, and steer her 
+through the difficulties of foreign travel.
+
+Hesitation was over now.  My father was most anxious to send her, 
+and she set forth, secure that she could infuse life, energy, and 
+resolution into her son, when those two poor boys had failed.
+
+It was not, however, Martyn who met her, but his friend Thomson, 
+with the tidings that the suffering had become so severe as to 
+prevent Martyn from leaving Baden, not only on his brother's 
+account, but because Lady Peacock had at last taken alarm, and was 
+so uncontrollable in her distress that he was needed to keep her out 
+of the sickroom, where her presence, poor thing, only did mischief.
+
+She evidently had a certain affection for her husband; and it was 
+the more piteous that in his present state he only regarded her as 
+the tempter who had ruined his life--his false Duessa, who had led 
+him away from Una.  On one unhappy evening he had been almost 
+maddened by her insisting on arguing with him; he called her a hag, 
+declared she had been the death of his children, the death of that 
+dear one--could she not let him alone now she had been the death of 
+himself?
+
+When Martyn took her away, she wept bitterly, and told enough to 
+make the misery of their life apparent, when the gaiety was over, 
+and regrets and recriminations set in.
+
+However, there came a calmer interval, when the suffering passed 
+off, but in the manner which made the German doctor intimate that 
+hope was over.  Would life last till his mother came?
+
+His brothers had striven from the first to awaken thoughts of higher 
+things, and turn remorse into repentance; but every attempt resulted 
+in strange, sad wanderings about Esau, the birthright, and the 
+blessing.  Indeed, these might not have been entirely wanderings, 
+for once he said, 'It is better this way, Bill.  You don't know what 
+you wish in trying to bring me round.  Don't be hard on me.  She 
+drove me to it.  It is all right now.  The Jews will be 
+disappointed.'
+
+For even at the crisis in London, he had concealed that he had 
+raised money on post obits, so that, had he outlived my father, 
+Chantry House would have been lost.  Lady Peacock's fortune had been 
+undermined when she married him; extravagance and gambling had made 
+short work of the rest.
+
+Why should I speak of such things here, except to mourn over our 
+much-loved brother, with all his fine qualities and powers wasted 
+and overthrown?  He clung to Clarence's affection, and submitted to 
+prayers and psalms, but without response.  He showed tender 
+recollection of us all, but scarcely durst think of his father, and 
+hardly appeared to wish to see his mother.  Clarence's object soon 
+came to be to obtain forgiveness for the wife, since bitterness 
+against her seemed the great obstacle to seeking pardon, peace, or 
+hope; but each attempt only produced such bitterness against her, 
+and such regrets and mourning for Ellen, as fearfully shook the 
+failing frame, while he moaned forth complaints of the blandishments 
+and raillery with which his temptress had beguiled him.  Clarence 
+tried in vain to turn away this idea, but nothing had any effect 
+till he bethought himself of Ellen's message, that she knew even 
+this fatal act had been prompted by generosity of spirit.  There was 
+truth enough in it to touch Griff, but only so far as to cry, 'What 
+might I not have been with her?'  Still, there was no real softening 
+till my mother came.  He knew her at once, and all the old childish 
+relations were renewed between them.  There was little time left 
+now, but he was wholly hers.  Even Clarence was almost set aside, 
+save where strength was needed, and the mother seemed to have equal 
+control of spirit and body.  It was she, who, scarcely aware of what 
+had gone before, caused him to admit Selina.
+
+'Tell her not to talk,' he said.  'But we have each much to forgive 
+one another.'
+
+She came in, awed and silent, and he let her kiss him, sit near at 
+hand, and wait on my mother, whose coming had, as it were, 
+insensibly taken the bitterness away and made him as a little child 
+in her hands.  He could follow prayers in which she led him, as he 
+could not, or did not seem to do, with any one else, for he was 
+never conscious of the presence of the clergyman whom Thomson hunted 
+up and brought, and who prayed aloud with Martyn while the physical 
+agony claimed both my mother and Clarence.
+
+Once Griff looked about him and called out for our father, then 
+recollecting, muttered, 'No--the birthright gone--no blessing.'
+
+It grieved us much, it grieves me now, that this was his last 
+distinct utterance.  He LOOKED as if the comforting replies and the 
+appeals to the Source of all redemption did awaken a response, but 
+he never spoke articulately again; and only thirty-six hours after 
+my mother's arrival, all was over.
+
+Poor Selina went into passions of hysterics and transports of grief, 
+needing all the firmness of so resolute a woman as my mother to deal 
+with her.  She was wild in self-accusation, and became so ill that 
+the care of her was a not unwholesome occupation for my mother, who 
+was one of those with whom sorrow has little immediate outlet, and 
+is therefore the more enduring.
+
+She would not bring our brother's coffin home, thinking the 
+agitation would be hurtful to my father, and anxious to get back to 
+him as soon as possible.  So Griff was buried at Baden, and from 
+time to time some of us have visited his grave.  Of course she 
+proposed Selina's return to Chantry House with her; but Mr. 
+Clarkson, the brother, had come out to the funeral, and took his 
+sister home with him, certainly much to our relief, though all the 
+sad party at Baden had drawn much nearer together in these latter 
+days.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX--A PURPOSE
+
+
+
+   'It then draws near the season
+Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.'
+
+Hamlet.
+
+We had really lost our Griffith long before--our bright, generous, 
+warm-hearted, promising Griff, the brilliance of our home; but his 
+actual death made the first breach in a hitherto unbroken family, 
+and was a new and strange shock.  It made my father absolutely an 
+old man; and it also changed Martyn.  His first contact with 
+responsibility, suffering, and death had demolished the light-
+hearted boyishness which had lasted in the youngest of the family 
+through all his high aspirations.  Till his return to Oxford, his 
+chief solace was in getting some one of us alone, going through all 
+the scenes at Baden, discussing his new impressions of the trials 
+and perplexities of life, and seeking out passages in the books that 
+were becoming our oracles.  What he had admired externally before, 
+he was grasping from within; nor can I describe what the Lyra 
+Apostolica, and the two first volumes of Parochial Sermons preached 
+at Littlemore, became to us.
+
+Mr. Clarkson had been rather dry with my brothers at Baden, 
+evidently considering that poor Griffith had been as fatal to his 
+sister as we thought Selina had been to our brother.  It was hardly 
+just, for there had been much more to spoil in him than in her; and 
+though she would hardly have trod a much higher path, there is no 
+saying what he might have been but for her.
+
+Griffith had said nothing about providing for her, not having 
+forgiven her till he was past recollecting the need, but her brother 
+had intimated that something was due from the family, and Clarence 
+had assented--not, indeed, as to her deserts, poor woman, but her 
+claims and her needs--well knowing that my father would never suffer 
+Griff's widow to be in want.
+
+He judged rightly.  My father was nervously anxious to arrange for 
+giving her 500 pounds a year, in the manner most likely to prevent 
+her from making away with it, and leaving herself destitute.  But 
+there had already been heavy pulls on his funded property, and ways 
+and means had to be considered, making Clarence realise that he had 
+become the heir.  Somehow, there still remained, especially with my 
+mother and himself, a sense of his being a failure, and an inferior 
+substitute, although my father had long come to lean upon him, as 
+never had been the case with our poor Griff.
+
+The first idea of raising the amount required was by selling an 
+outlying bit of the estate near the Wattlesea Station, for which an 
+enterprising builder was making offers, either to purchase or take 
+on a building lease.  My father had received several letters on the 
+subject, and only hesitated from a feeling against breaking up the 
+estate, especially if this were part of the original Chantry House 
+property, and not a more recent acquisition of the Winslows.  
+Moreover, he would do nothing without Clarence's participation.
+
+The title-deeds were not in the house, for my father had had too 
+much of the law to meddle more than he could help with his own 
+affairs, and had left them in the hands of the family solicitor at 
+Bristol, where Clarence was to go and look over them.  He rejoiced 
+in the opportunity of being able to see whether anything would throw 
+light on the story of the mullion chamber; and the certainty that 
+the Wattlesea property had never been part of the old endowment of 
+the Chantry did not seem nearly so interesting as a packet of yellow 
+letters tied with faded red tape.  Mr. Ryder made no difficulty in 
+entrusting these to him, and we read them by our midnight lamp.
+
+Clarence had seen poor Margaret's will, bequeathing her entire 
+property to her husband's son, Philip Winslow, and had noted the 
+date, 1705; also the copy of the decision in the Court of Probate 
+that there was no sufficient evidence of entail on the Fordyce 
+family to bar her power of disposing of it.  We eagerly opened the 
+letters, but found them disappointing, as they were mostly offerings 
+of 'Felicitations' to Philip Winslow on having established his 'Just 
+Claim,' and 'refuted the malicious Accusations of Calumny.'  They 
+only served to prove the fact that he had been accused of something, 
+and likewise that he had powerful friends, and was thought worth 
+being treated with adulation, according to the fashion of his day.  
+Perhaps it was hardly to be expected that he should have preserved 
+evidence against himself, but it was baffling to sift so little out 
+of such a mass of correspondence.  If we could have had access to 
+the Fordyce papers, no doubt they would have given the other phase 
+of the transaction, but they were unattainable.  The only public 
+record that Clarence could discover was much abbreviated, and though 
+there was some allusion to intimidation, the decision seemed to have 
+been fixed by the non-existence of any entail.
+
+Christmas was drawing on, and gathering together what was left of 
+us.  Though Griffith had spent only one Christmas at home in nine 
+years, it was wonderful how few we seemed, even when Martyn 
+returned.  My father liked to have us about him, and even spoke of 
+Clarence's giving up his post as manager at Bristol, and living 
+entirely at home to attend to the estate; but my mother did not 
+encourage the idea.  She could not quite bear to accept any one in 
+Griff's place, and rightly thought there was not occupation enough 
+to justify bringing Clarence home.  I was competent to assist my 
+father through all the landlord's business that came to him within 
+doors, and Emily had ridden and walked about enough with him to be 
+an efficient inspector of crops and repairs, besides that Clarence 
+himself was within reach.
+
+'Indeed,' he said to me, 'I cannot loose my hold on Frith and 
+Castleford till I see my way into the future.'
+
+I did not know what he intended either then or when he gave his 
+voice against dismembering the property by selling the Wattlesea 
+estate, but arranged for raising Selina's income otherwise, 
+persuading my father to let him undertake the building of the 
+required cottages out of his own resources, on principles much more 
+wholesome than were likely to be employed by the speculator.  Nor 
+did grasp what was in his mind when he made me look out my 'ghost 
+journal,' as we called my record of each apparition reported in the 
+mullion chamber or the lawn, with marks to those about which we had 
+no reasonable doubt.  Separately there might be explanation, but 
+conjointly and in connection with the date they had a remarkable 
+force.
+
+'I am resolved,' said Clarence, 'to see whether that figure can have 
+a purpose.  I have thought of it all those years.  It has hitherto 
+had no fair play.  I was too much upset by the sight, and beaten by 
+the utter incredulity of everybody else; but now I am determined to 
+look into it.'
+
+There was both awe and resolution in his countenance, and I only 
+stipulated that he should not be alone, or with no more locomotive 
+companion than myself.  Martyn was as old as I had been at our 
+former vigil, and a person to be relied on.
+
+A few months ago he would have treated the matter as a curious 
+adventurous enterprise--a concession to superstition or imagination; 
+but now he took it up with much grave earnestness.  He had been 
+discussing the evidence for such phenomena with friends at Oxford, 
+and the conclusion had been that they were at times permitted, 
+sometimes as warnings, sometimes to accomplish the redress of a 
+wrong, sometimes to teach us the reality of the spiritual world 
+about us; and, likewise, that some constitutions were more 
+susceptible than others to these influences.  Of course he had 
+adduced all that he knew of his domestic haunted chamber, but had 
+found himself uncertain as to the amount of direct or trustworthy 
+evidence.  So he eagerly read our jottings, and was very anxious to 
+keep watch with Clarence, though there were greater difficulties in 
+the way than when the outer chamber was Griffith's sitting-room, and 
+always had a fire lighted.
+
+To our disappointment, likewise, there came an invitation from the 
+Eastwoods for the evening of the 27th of December, the second of the 
+recurring days of the phantom's appearance.  My father could not, 
+and my mother would not go, but they so much wanted my brothers and 
+sister to accept it that it could not well be declined.  It was 
+partly a political affair, and my father was anxious to put Clarence 
+forward, and make him take his place as the future squire; and my 
+mother thought depression had lasted long enough with her children, 
+and did not like to see Martyn so grave and preoccupied.  'It was 
+quite right and very nice in him, dear boy, but it was not natural 
+at his age, though he was to be a clergyman.'
+
+As to Emily, her gentle cheerfulness had helped us all through our 
+time of sorrow, and just now we had been gratified by the tidings of 
+young Lawrence Frith.  That youth was doing extremely well.  There 
+had been golden reports from manager and chaplain, addressed to Mr. 
+Castleford, the latter adding that the young man evidently owed much 
+to Mr. Winslow's influence.  Moreover, Lawrence had turned out an 
+excellent correspondent.  Long letters, worthy of forming a book of 
+travels, came regularly to Clarence and me, indeed they were thought 
+worth being copied into that fat clasped MS. book in the study.  
+Writing them must have been a real solace to the exile, in his 
+island outside the town, whither all the outer barbarians were 
+relegated.  So, no doubt, was the packing of the gifts that were 
+gradually making Prospect Cottage into a Chinese exhibition of 
+nodding mandarins, ivory balls, exquisite little cups, and faggots 
+of tea.  Also, a Chinese walking doll was sent humbly as an offering 
+for the amusement of Miss Winslow's school children, whom indeed she 
+astonished beyond measure; and though her wheels are out of order, 
+and her movements uncertain, she is still a stereotyped incident in 
+the Christmas entertainments.
+
+There was no question but that these letters and remembrances gave 
+great pleasure to Emily; but I believe she was not in the least 
+conscious that though greater in degree, it was not of the same 
+quality as that she felt when a runaway scholar who had gone to sea 
+presented her in token of gratitude with a couple of dried sea-
+horses.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL--THE MIDNIGHT CHASE
+
+
+
+'What human creature in the dead of night
+   Had coursed, like hunted hare, that cruel distance,
+Had sought the door, the window in her flight
+   Striving for dear existence?'
+
+HOOD.
+
+On the night of the 26th of December, Clarence and Martyn, well 
+wrapped in greatcoats, stole into the outer mullion room; but though 
+the usual sounds were heard, and the mysterious light again 
+appeared, Martyn perceived nothing else, and even Clarence declared 
+that if there were anything besides, it was far less distinct to him 
+than it had been previously.  Could it be that his spiritual 
+perceptions were growing dimmer as he became older, and outgrew the 
+sensitiveness of nerves and imagination?
+
+We came to the conclusion that it would be best to watch the outside 
+of the house, rather than within the chamber; and the dinner-party 
+facilitated this, since it accounted for being up and about nearer 
+to the hour when the ghost might be expected.  Egress could be had 
+through the little garden door, and I undertook to sit up and keep 
+up the fire.
+
+All three came to my room on their return home, for Emily had become 
+aware of our scheme, and entreated to be allowed to watch with us.  
+Clarence had unfastened the alarum bell from my shutters, and taken 
+down the bar after the curtains had been drawn by the housemaid, and 
+he now opened them.  It was a frosty moonlight night, and the lawn 
+lay white and crisp, marked with fantastic shadows.  The others 
+looked grave and pale, Emily was in a thick white shawl and hood, 
+with a swan's down boa over her black dress, a somewhat ghostly 
+figure herself, but we were in far too serious a mood for light 
+observations.
+
+There was something of a shudder about Clarence as he went to unbolt 
+the back door; Martyn kept close to him.  We saw them outside, and 
+then Emily flew after them.  From my window I could watch them 
+advancing on the central gravel walk, Emily standing still between 
+her brothers, clasping an arm of each.  I saw the light near the 
+ruin, and caught some sounds as of shrieks and of threatening 
+voices, the light flitted towards the gable of the mullion rooms, 
+and then was the concluding scream.  All was over, and the three 
+came back much agitated, Emily sinking into an armchair, panting, 
+her hands over her face, and a nervous trembling through her whole 
+frame, Martyn's eyes looking wide and scared, Clarence with the 
+well-known look of terror on his face.  He hurried to fetch the tray 
+of wine and water that was always left on the table when anyone went 
+to a party at night, but he shivered too much to prevent the glasses 
+from jingling, and I had to pour out the sherry and administer it to 
+Emily.  'Oh! poor, poor thing,' she gasped out.
+
+'You saw?' I exclaimed.
+
+'They did,' said Martyn; 'I only saw the light, and heard!  That was 
+enough!' and he shuddered again.
+
+'Then Emily did,' I began, but Clarence cut me short.  'Don't ask 
+her to-night.'
+
+'Oh! let me tell,' cried Emily; 'I can't go away to bed till I have 
+had it out.'
+
+Then she gave the details, which were the more notable because she 
+had not, like Martyn, been studying our jottings, and had heard 
+comparatively little of the apparition.
+
+'When I joined the boys,' she said, 'I looked toward the mullion 
+rooms; I saw the windows lighted up, and heard a sobbing and crying 
+inside.'
+
+'So did I,' put in Martyn, and Clarence bent his head.
+
+'Then,' added Emily, 'by the moonlight I saw the gable end, not 
+blank, and covered by the magnolia as it is now, but with stone 
+steps up to the bricked-up doorway.  The door opened, the light 
+spread, and there came out a lady in black, with a lamp in one hand, 
+and a kind of parcel in the other, and oh, when she turned her face 
+this way, it was Ellen's!'
+
+'So you called out,' whispered Martyn.
+
+'Dear Ellen, not as she used to be,' added Emily, 'but like what she 
+was when last I saw her; no, hardly that either, for this was sad, 
+sad, scared, terrified, with eyes all tears, as Ellen never, never 
+was.'
+
+'I saw,' added Clarence, 'I saw the shape, but not the countenance 
+and expression as I used to do.'
+
+'She came down the steps,' continued Emily, 'looking about her as if 
+making her escape, but, just as she came opposite to us, there was a 
+sound of tipsy laughing and singing from the gate up by the wood.'
+
+'I thought it real,' said Martyn.
+
+'Then,' continued Emily, 'she wavered, then turned and went under an 
+arch in the ruin--I fancied she was hiding something--then came out 
+and fled across to the steps; but there were two dark men rushing 
+after her, and at the stone steps there was a frightful shriek, and 
+then it was all over, the steps gone, all quiet, and the magnolia 
+leaves glistening in the moonshine.  Oh! what can it all mean?'
+
+'Went under the arch,' repeated Clarence.  'Is it what she hid there 
+that keeps her from resting?'
+
+'Then you believe it really happened?' said Emily, 'that some 
+terrible scene is being acted over again.  Oh! but can it be the 
+real spirits!'
+
+'That is one of the great mysteries,' answered Martyn; 'but I could 
+tell you of other instances.'
+
+'Don't now,' I interposed; 'Emily has had quite enough.'
+
+We reminded her that the ghastly tragedy was over and would not 
+recur again for another year; but she was greatly shaken, and we 
+were very sorry for her, when the clock warned her to go to her own 
+room, whither Martyn escorted her.  He lighted every candle he could 
+find, and revived the fire; but she was sadly overcome by what she 
+had witnessed, she lay awake all the rest of the night, and in the 
+morning, looked so unwell, and had so little to tell about the party 
+that my mother thought her spirits had been too much broken for 
+gaieties.
+
+The real cause could not be confessed, for it would have been 
+ascribed to some kind of delirium, and have made a commotion for 
+which my father was unfit.  Besides, we had reached an age when, 
+though we would not have disobeyed, liberty of thought and action 
+had become needful.  All our private confabulations were on this 
+extraordinary scene.  We looked for the arch in the ruin, but there 
+was, as our morning senses told us, nothing of the kind.  She tried 
+to sketch her remembrance of both that and the gable of the mullion 
+chamber, and Martyn prowled about in search of some hiding-place.  
+Our antiquarian friend, Mr. Stafford, had made a conjectural drawing 
+of the Chapel restored, and all the portfolios about the house were 
+searched for it, disquieting mamma, who suspected Martyn's Oxford 
+notions of intending to rebuild it, nor would he say that it ought 
+not to be done.  However, he with his more advanced ecclesiology, 
+pronounced Mr. Stafford's reconstruction to be absolutely mistaken 
+and impossible, and set to work on a fresh plan, which, by the bye, 
+he derides at present.  It afforded, however, an excuse for routing 
+under the ivy and among the stones, but without much profit.  From 
+the mouldings on the materials and in the stables and the front 
+porch, it was evident that the chapel had been used as a quarry, and 
+Emily's arch was very probably that of the entrance door.  In a dry 
+summer, the foundations of the walls and piers could be traced on 
+the turf, and the stumps of one or two columns remained, but the 
+rest was only a confused heap of fragments within which no one could 
+have entered as in that strange vision.
+
+Another thing became clear.  There had once been a wall between the 
+beech wood and the lawn, with a gate or door in it; Chapman could 
+just remember its being taken down, in James Winslow's early married 
+life, when landscape gardening was the fashion.  It must have been 
+through this that the Winslow brothers were returning, when poor 
+Margaret perhaps expected them to enter by the front.
+
+We wished we could have consulted Dame Dearlove, but she had died a 
+few years before, and her school was extinct.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI--WILLS OLD AND NEW
+
+
+
+'And that to-night thou must watch with me
+   To win the treasure of the tomb.'
+
+SCOTT.
+
+Some seasons seem to be peculiarly marked, as if Death did indeed 
+walk forth in them.
+
+Old Mr. Frith died in the spring of 1841, and it proved that he had 
+shown his gratitude to Clarence by a legacy of shares in the firm 
+amounting to about 2000 pounds.  The rest of his interest therein 
+went to Lawrence Frith, and his funded property to his sister, Mrs. 
+Stevens, a very fair and upright disposition of his wealth.
+
+Only six weeks later, my father had a sudden seizure, and there was 
+only time to summon Clarence from London and Martyn from Oxford, 
+before a second attack closed his righteous and godly career upon 
+earth.
+
+My mother was very still and calm, hardly shedding a tear, but her 
+whole demeanour was as if life were over for her, and she had 
+nothing to do save to wait.  She seemed to care very little for 
+tendernesses or attentions on our part.  No doubt she would have 
+been more desolate without them, but we always had a baffled 
+feeling, as though our affection were contrasted with her perfect 
+union with her husband.  Yet they had been a singularly 
+undemonstrative couple; I never saw a kiss pass between them, except 
+as greeting or farewell before or after a journey; and if my mother 
+could not use the terms papa or your father, she always said, 'Mr. 
+Winslow.'  There was a large gathering at the funeral, including Mr. 
+Fordyce, but he slept at Hillside, and we scarcely saw him--only for 
+a few kind words and squeezes of the hand.  Holy Week was begun, and 
+he had to hurry back to Beachharbour that very night.
+
+The will had been made on my father's coming into the inheritance.  
+It provided a jointure of 800 pounds per annum for my mother, and 
+gave each of the younger children 3000 pounds.  A codicil had been 
+added shortly after Griffith's death, written in my father's hand, 
+and witnessed by Mr. Henderson and Amos Bell.  This put Clarence in 
+the position of heir; secured 500 pounds a year to Griffith's widow, 
+charged on the estate, and likewise an additional 200 pounds a year 
+to Emily and to me, hers till marriage, mine for life, 300 pounds a 
+year to Martyn, until Earlscombe Rectory should be voided, when it 
+was to be offered to him.  The executors had originally been Mr. 
+Castleford and my mother, but by this codicil, Clarence was 
+substituted for the former.
+
+The legacies did not come out of the Chantry House property, for my 
+father had, of course, means of his own besides, and bequests had 
+accrued to both him and my mother; but Clarence was inheriting the 
+estate much more burthened than it had been in 1829, having 2000 
+pounds a year to raise out of its proceeds.
+
+My mother was quite equal to business, with a sort of outside sense, 
+which she applied to it when needful.  Clarence made it at once 
+evident to her that she was still mistress of Chantry House, and 
+that it was still to be our home; and she immediately calculated 
+what each ought to contribute to the housekeeping.  She looked 
+rather blank when she found that Clarence did not mean to give up 
+business, nor even to become a sleeping partner; but when she 
+examined into ways and means, she allowed that he was prudent, and 
+that perhaps it was due to Mr. Castleford not to deprive him of an 
+efficient helper under present circumstances.  Meantime she was 
+content to do her best for Earlscombe 'for the present,' by which 
+she meant till her son brought home a wife; but we knew that to him 
+the words bore a different meaning, though he was still in doubt and 
+uncertainty how to act, and what might be the wrong to be undone.
+
+He was anxious to persuade her to go from home for a short time, and 
+prevailed on her at last to take Emily and me to Dawlish, while the 
+repairs went on which had been deferred during my father's 
+feebleness; at least that was the excuse.  We two, going with great 
+regret, knew that his real reason was to have an opportunity for a 
+search among the ruins.
+
+It was in June, just as Martyn came back from Oxford, eager to share 
+in the quest.  Those two brothers would trust no one to help them, 
+but one by one, in the long summer evenings, they moved each of 
+those stones; I believe the servants thought they were crazed, but 
+they could explain with some truth that they wanted to clear up the 
+disputed points as to the architecture, as indeed they succeeded in 
+doing.
+
+They had, however, nearly given up, having reached the original 
+pavement and disinterred the piscina of the side altar, also a 
+beautiful coffin lid with a floriated cross; when, in a kind of 
+hollow, Martyn lit upon the rotten remains of something silken, 
+knotted together.  It seemed to have enclosed a bundle.  There were 
+some rags that might have been a change of clothing, also a Prayer-
+book, decayed completely except the leathern covering, inside which 
+was the startling inscription, 'Margaret Winslow, her booke; Lord, 
+have mercy on a miserable widow woman.'  There was also a thick 
+leathern roll, containing needles, pins, and scissors, entirely 
+corroded, and within these a paper, carefully folded, but almost 
+destroyed by the action of damp and the rust of the steel, so that 
+only thus much was visible.  'I, Margaret Winslow, being of sound 
+mind, do hereby give and bequeath--'
+
+Then came stains that defaced every line, till the extreme end, 
+where a seal remained; the date 1707 was legible, and there were 
+some scrawls, probably the poor lady's signature, and perhaps that 
+of witnesses.  Clarence and Martyn said very little to one another, 
+but they set out for Dawlish the next day.
+
+'Found' was indicated to us, but no more, for they arrived late, and 
+had to sleep at the hotel, after an evening when we were delighted 
+to hear my mother ask so many questions about household and parish 
+affairs.  In the morning she was pleased to send all 'the children' 
+out on the beach, then free from the railway.  It was a beautiful 
+day, with the intensely blue South Devon sea dancing in golden 
+ripples, and breaking on the shore with the sound Clarence loved so 
+well, as, in the shade of the dark crimson cliffs, Emily sat at my 
+feet and my brothers unfolded their strange discoveries into her 
+lap.  There was a kind of solemnity in the thing; we scarcely spoke, 
+except that Emily said, 'Oh, will she come again,' and, as the tears 
+gathered at sight of the pathetic petition in the old book, 'Was 
+that granted?'
+
+We reconstructed our theory.  The poor lady must have repented of 
+the unjust will forced from her by her stepsons, and contrived to 
+make another; but she must have been kept a captive until, during 
+their absence at some Christmas convivialities, she tried to escape; 
+but hearing sounds betokening their return, she had only time to 
+hide the bundle in the ruin before she was detected, and in the 
+scuffle received a fatal blow.
+
+'But why,' I objected, 'did she not remain hidden till her enemies 
+were safe in the house?'
+
+'Terrified beyond the use of her senses,' said Clarence.
+
+'By all accounts,' said Martyn, 'the poor creature must have been 
+rather a silly woman.'
+
+'For shame, Martyn,' cried Emily, 'how can you tell?  They might 
+have seen her go in, or she might have feared being missed.'
+
+'Or if you watch next Christmas you may see it all explained.'
+
+To which Emily replied with a shiver that nothing would induce her 
+to go through it again, and indeed she hoped the spirit would rest 
+since the discovery had been made.
+
+'And then?'--one of us said, and there was a silence, and another 
+futile attempt to read the will.
+
+'I shall take it to London and see what an expert can do with it,' 
+said Clarence.  'I have heard of wonderful decipherings in the 
+Record Office; but you will remember that even if it can be made 
+out, it will hardly invalidate our possession after a hundred and 
+thirty years.'
+
+'Clarence!' cried Emily in a horrified voice; and I asked if the 
+date were not later than that by which we inherited.
+
+'Three years,' Clarence said, 'yes; but as things stand, it is 
+absolutely impossible for me to make restitution at present.'
+
+'On account of the burthens on the estate?' I said.
+
+'Oh, but we could give up,' said Emily.
+
+'I dare say!' said Clarence, smiling; 'but to say nothing of poor 
+Selina, my mother would hardly see it in the same light, nor should 
+I deal rightly, even if I could make any alterations; I doubt 
+whether my father would have held himself bound--certainly not while 
+no one can read this document.'
+
+'It would simply outrage his legal mind,' said Martyn.
+
+'Then what is to be done?  Is the injustice to be perpetual?' asked 
+Emily.
+
+'This is what I have thought of,' said Clarence.  'We must leave 
+matters as they are till I can realise enough either to pay off all 
+these bequests, or to offer Mr. Fordyce the value of the estate.'
+
+'It is not the whole,' I said.
+
+'Not the Wattlesea part.  This means Chantry House and the three 
+farms in the village.  10,000 pounds would cover it.'
+
+'Is it possible?' asked Emily.
+
+'Yes,' returned Clarence, 'God helping me.  You know our concern is 
+bringing in good returns, and Mr. Castleford will put me in the way 
+of doing more with my available capital.'
+
+'We will save so as to help you!' added Emily.  At which he smiled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII--ON A SPREE
+
+
+
+'Her eyes as stars of twilight fair,
+Like twilight too, her dusky hair,
+But all things else about her drawn
+From May-time and the cheerful dawn,
+A dancing shape, an image gay,
+To haunt, to startle, and waylay.'
+
+WORDSWORTH.
+
+Clarence went to London according to his determination, and as he 
+had for some time been urgent that I should try some newly-invented 
+mechanical appliances, he took me with him, this being the last 
+expedition of the ancient yellow chariot.  One of his objects was 
+that I should see St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, which was then the most 
+distinguished church of our school of thought, and where there was 
+to be some special preaching.  The Castlefords had a seat there, and 
+I was settled there in good time, looking at the few bits of stained 
+glass then in the east window, when, as the clergy came in from the 
+vestry, I beheld a familiar face, and recognised the fine 
+countenance and bearing of our dear old friend Frank Fordyce.
+
+Then, looking at the row of ladies in front of me, I beheld for a 
+moment an outline of a profile recalling many things.  No doubt, 
+Anne Fordyce was there, though instead of barely emulating my 
+stunted stature, she towered above her companions, looking to my 
+mind most fresh and graceful in her pretty summer dress; and I knew 
+that Clarence saw her too.
+
+I had never heard Mr. Fordyce preach before, as in his flying visits 
+his ministrations were due at Hillside; and I certainly should have 
+been struck with the force and beauty of his sermon if I had never 
+known him before.  It was curious that it was on the 49th Psalm, 
+meant perhaps for the fashionable congregation, but remarkably 
+chiming in with the feelings of us, who were conscious of an 
+inheritance of evil from one who had 'done well unto himself;' 
+though, no doubt, that was the last thing honest Parson Frank was 
+thinking of.
+
+When the service was over, and Anne turned, she became aware of us, 
+and her face beamed all over.  It was a charming face, with a 
+general likeness to dear Ellen's, but without the fragile ethereal 
+look, and all health, bloom, and enjoyment recalling her father's.  
+She was only moving to let her pew-fellows pass out, and was waiting 
+for him to come for her, as he did in a few moments, and he too was 
+all pleasure and cordiality.  He told us when we were outside that 
+he had come up to preach, and 'had brought Miss Anne up for a 
+spree.'  They were at a hotel, Mrs. Fordyce was at home, and the 
+Lesters were not in town this season--a matter of rejoicing to us.  
+Could we not come home and dine with them at once?  We were too much 
+afraid of disappointing Gooch to do so, but they made an appointment 
+to meet us at the Royal Academy as soon as it was open the next 
+morning.
+
+There was a fortnight of enjoyment.  Parson Frank was like a boy out 
+for a holiday.  He had not spent more than a day or two in town for 
+many years; Anne had not been there since early childhood, and they 
+adopted Clarence as their lioniser, going through such a country-
+cousin course of delights as in that memorable time with Ellen.  
+They even went down to Eton and Windsor, Frank Fordyce being an old 
+Etonian.  I doubt whether Clarence ever had a more thoroughly happy 
+time, not even in the north of Devon, for there was no horse on his 
+mind, and he was not suppressed as in those days.  Indeed, I 
+believe, it is the experience of others besides ourselves that there 
+is often more unmixed pleasure on casual holidays like this than in 
+those of early youth; for even if spirits are less high (which is 
+not always the case), anticipations are less eager, there is more 
+readiness to accept whatever comes, more matured appreciation, and 
+less fret and friction at contretemps.
+
+I was not much of a drag, for when I could not be with the others, I 
+had old friends, and the museum was as dear to me as ever, in those 
+recesses that had been the paradise of my youth; but there was a 
+good deal in which we could all share, and as usual they were all 
+kind consideration.
+
+Anne overflowed with minute remembrances of her old home, and 
+Clarence so basked in her sunshine that it began to strike me that 
+here might be the solution of all the perplexities especially after 
+the first evening, when he had shown his strange discovery to Mr. 
+Fordyce, who simply laughed and said we need not trouble ourselves 
+about it.  Illegible was it?  He was heartily glad to hear that it 
+was.  Even otherwise, forty years' possession was quite enough, and 
+then he pointed to the grate, and said that was the best place for 
+such things.  There was no fire, but Clarence could hardly rescue 
+the paper from being torn up.
+
+As to the ghost, he knew much less than his daughter Ellen had done.  
+He said his old aunt had some stories about Chantry House being 
+haunted, and had thought it incumbent on her to hate the Winslows, 
+but he had thought it all nonsense, and such stories were much 
+better forgotten.  'Would he not see if there were any letters?'
+
+There might be, perhaps in the solicitor's office at Bath, but if he 
+ever got hold of them, he should certainly burn them.  What was the 
+use of being Christians, if such quarrels were to be remembered?
+
+Anne knew nothing.  Aunt Peggy had died before she could remember, 
+and even Martyn had been discreet.  Clarence said no more after that 
+one conversation, and seemed to me engrossed between his necessary 
+business at the office, and the pleasant expeditions with the 
+Fordyces.  Only when they were on the point of returning home, did 
+he tell me that the will had been pronounced utterly past 
+deciphering, and that he thought he saw a way of setting all 
+straight.  'So do I,' was my rejoinder, and there must have been a 
+foolishly sagacious expression about me that made him colour up, and 
+say, 'No such thing, Edward.  Don't put that into my head.'
+
+'Isn't it there already?'
+
+'It ought not to be.  It would be mere treachery in these sweet, 
+fresh, young, innocent, days of hers, knowing too what her mother 
+would think of it and of me.  Didn't you observe in old Frank's 
+unguarded way of reading letters aloud, and then trying to suppress 
+bits, that Mrs. Fordyce was not at all happy at our being so much 
+about with them, poor woman.  No wonder! the child is too young,' he 
+added, showing how much, after all, he was thinking of it.  'It 
+would be taking a base advantage of them NOW.'
+
+'But by and by?'
+
+'If she should be still free when the great end is achieved and the 
+evil repaired, then I might dare.'
+
+He broke off with a look of glad hope, and I could see it was 
+forbearance rather than constitutional diffidence that withheld him 
+from awakening the maiden's feelings.  He was a very fine looking 
+man, in his prime--tall, strong, and well made, with a singularly 
+grave, thoughtful expression, and a rare but most winning smile; and 
+Anne was overflowing with affectionate gladness at intercourse with 
+one who belonged to the golden age of her childhood.  I could 
+scarcely believe but that in the friction of the parting the spark 
+would be elicited, and I should even have liked to kindle it for 
+them myself, being tolerably certain that warm-hearted, unguarded 
+Parson Frank would forget all about his lady and blow it with all 
+his might.
+
+We dined with the Fordyces at their hotel, and sat in the twilight 
+with the windows open, and we made Anne and Clarence sing, as both 
+could do without notes, but he would not undertake to remember 
+anything with an atom of sentiment in it, and when Anne did sing, 
+'Auld lang syne,' with all her heart, he went and got into a dark 
+corner, and barely said, 'Thank you.'
+
+Not a definite answer could be extracted from him in reply to all 
+the warm invitations to Beachharbour that were lavished on us by the 
+father, while the daughter expatiated on its charms; the rocks I 
+might sketch, the waves and the delicious boating, and above all the 
+fisher children and the church.  Nothing was wanting but to have us 
+all there!  Why had we not brought Mrs. Winslow, and Emily, and 
+Martyn, instead of going to Dawlish?
+
+Good creatures, they little knew the chill that had been cast upon 
+Martyn.  They even bemoaned the having seen so little of him.  And 
+we knew all the time that they were mice at play in the absence of 
+their excellent and cautious cat.
+
+'Now mind you do come!' said Anne, as we were in the act of taking 
+leave.  'It would be as good as Hillside to have you by my Lion 
+rock.  He has a nose just like old Chapman's, and you must sketch it 
+before it crumbles off.  Yes, and I want to show you all the dear 
+old things you made for my baby-house after the fire, your dear 
+little wardrobe and all.'
+
+She was coming out with us, oblivious that a London hotel was not 
+like her own free sea-side house.  Her father was out at the 
+carriage door, prepared to help me in, Clarence halted a moment -
+
+'Please, pray, go back, Anne,' he said, and his voice trembled.  
+'This is not home you know.'
+
+She started back, but paused.  'You'll not forget.'
+
+'Oh no; no fear of my forgetting.'
+
+And when seated beside me, he leant back with a sigh.
+
+'How could you help?' I said.
+
+'How?  Why the perfect, innocent, childish, unconsciousness of the 
+thing,' he said, and became silent except for one murmur on the way.
+
+'Consequences must be borne--'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII--THE PRICE
+
+
+
+'With thee, my bark, I'll swiftly go
+   Athwart the foaming brine.'
+
+LORD BYRON.
+
+Clarence would not tell me his purpose, he said, till he had 
+considered it more fully; nor could we have much conversation on the 
+way home, as my mother had arranged that we should bring an old 
+friend of hers back with us to pay her a visit.  So I had to sit 
+inside and make myself agreeable to Mrs. Wrightson, while Clarence 
+had plenty of leisure for meditation outside on the box seat.  The 
+good lady said much on the desirableness of marriage for Clarence, 
+and the comfort it would be to my mother to see Emily settled.
+
+We had heard much in town of railway shares; and the fortunes of 
+Hudson, the railway king, were under discussion.  I suspected 
+Clarence of cogitating the using his capital in this manner; and 
+hoped that when he saw his way, he might not think it dishonourable 
+to come into further contact with Anne, and reveal his hopes.  He 
+allowed that he was considering of such investments, but would not 
+say any more.
+
+My mother and Emily had, in the meantime, been escorted home by 
+Martyn.  The first thing Clarence did was to bespeak Emily's company 
+in a turn in the garden.  What passed then I never knew nor guessed 
+for years after.  He consulted her whether, in case he were absent 
+from England for five, seven, or ten years, she would be equal to 
+the care of my mother and me.  Martyn, when ordained, would have 
+duties elsewhere, and could only be reckoned upon in emergencies.  
+My mother, though vigorous and practical, had shown symptoms of 
+gout, and if she were ill, I could hardly have done much for her; 
+and on the other hand, though my health and powers of moving were at 
+their best, and I was capable of the headwork of the estate, I was 
+scarcely fit to be the representative member of the family.  
+Moreover, these good creatures took into consideration that poor 
+mamma and I would have been rather at a loss as each other's sole 
+companions.  I could sort shades for her Berlin work, and even solve 
+problems of intricate knitting, and I could read to her in the 
+evening; but I could not trot after her to her garden, poultry-yard, 
+and cottages; nor could she enter into the pursuits that Emily had 
+shared with me for so many years.  Our connecting link, that dear 
+sister, knew how sorely she would be missed, and she told Clarence 
+that she felt fully competent to undertake, conjointly with us, all 
+that would be incumbent on Chantry House, if he really wanted to be 
+absent.  For the rest, Clarence believed my mother would be the 
+happier for being left regent over the estate; and his scheme broke 
+upon me that very forenoon, when my mother and he were settling some 
+executor's business together, and he told her that Mr. Castleford 
+wished him to go out to Hong Kong, which was then newly ceded to the 
+English, and where the firm wished to establish a house of business.
+
+'You can't think of it,' she exclaimed, and the sound fell like a 
+knell on my ears.
+
+'I think I must,' was his answer.  'We shall be cut out if we do not 
+get a footing there, and there is no one who can quite answer the 
+purpose.'
+
+'Not that young Frith--'
+
+'Ten to one but he is on his way home.  Besides, if not, he has his 
+own work at Canton.  We see our way to very considerable advantages, 
+if--'
+
+'Advantages!' she interrupted.  'I hate speculation.  I should have 
+thought you might be contented with your station; but that is the 
+worst of merchants,--they never know when to stop.  I suppose your 
+ambition is to make this a great overgrown mansion, so that your 
+father would not know it again.'
+
+'Certainly not that, mamma,' said Clarence smiling; 'it is the last 
+thing I should think of; but stopping would in this case mean going 
+backward.'
+
+'Why can't Mr. Castleford send one of his own sons?'
+
+'Probably Walter may come out by and by, but he has not experience 
+enough for this.'
+
+Clarence had not in the least anticipated my mother's opposition, 
+for he had come to underestimate her affection for and reliance on 
+him.  He had us all against him, for not only could we not bear to 
+part with him; but the climate of Hong-Kong was in evil repute, and 
+I had become persuaded that, with his knowledge of business, railway 
+shares and scrip might be made to realise the amount needed, but he 
+said, 'That is what _I_ call speculation.  The other matter is trade 
+in which, with Heaven's blessing, I can hope to prosper.'
+
+He explained that Mr. Castleford had received him on his coming to 
+London with almost a request that he would undertake this 
+expedition; but with fears whether, in his new position, he could or 
+would do so, although his presence in China would be very important 
+to the firm at this juncture; and there would be opportunities which 
+would probably result in very considerable profits after a few 
+years.  If Clarence had been, as before, a mere younger brother, it 
+would have been thought an excellent chance; and he would almost 
+have felt bound by his obligations to Mr. Castleford to undertake 
+the first starting of the enterprise, if it had not been for our 
+recent loss, and the doubt whether he could he spared from home.
+
+He made light of the dangers of climate.  He had never suffered in 
+that way in his naval days, and scarcely knew what serious illness 
+meant.  Indeed, he had outgrown much of that sensibility of nerve 
+which had made him so curiously open to spiritual or semi-spiritual 
+impressions.
+
+'Any way,' he said, 'the thing is right to be done, provided my 
+mother does not make an absolute point of my giving it up; and 
+whether she does or not depends a good deal on how you others put it 
+to her.'
+
+'Right on Mr. Castleford's account?' I asked.
+
+'That is one side of it.  To refuse would put him in a serious 
+difficulty; but I could perhaps come home sooner if it were not for 
+this other matter.  I told him so far as that it was an object with 
+me to raise this sum in a few years, and he showed me how there is 
+every likelihood of my being able to do so out there.  So now I feel 
+in your hands.  If you all, and Edward chiefly, set to and persuade 
+my mother that this undertaking is a dangerous business, and that I 
+can only be led to it by inordinate love of riches--'
+
+'No, no--'
+
+'That's what she thinks,' pursued Clarence, 'and that I want to be a 
+grander man than my father.  That's at the bottom of her mind, I 
+see.  Well, if you deplore this, and let her think the place can't 
+do without me, she will come out in her strength and make it my duty 
+to stay at home.'
+
+'It is very tempting,' said Emily.
+
+'We all undertook to give up something.'
+
+'We never thought it would come in this way!'
+
+'We never do,' said Clarence.
+
+'Tell me,' said Martyn, 'is this to content that ghost, poor thing?  
+For it is very hard to believe in her, except in the mullion room in 
+December.'
+
+'Exactly so, Martyn,' he answered.  'Impressions fade, and the 
+intellect fails to accept them.  But I do not think that is my 
+motive.  We know that a wicked deed was done by our ancestor, and we 
+hardly have the right to pray, "Remember not the sins of our 
+forefathers," unless, now that we know the crime, we attempt what 
+restitution in us lies.'
+
+There was no resisting after this appeal, and after the first shock, 
+my mother was ready to admit that as Clarence owed everything to Mr. 
+Castleford, he could not well desert the firm, if it were really 
+needful for its welfare that he should go out.  We got her to look 
+on Mr. Castleford as captain of the ship, and Clarence as first 
+lieutenant; and when she was once convinced that he did not want to 
+aggrandise the family, but to do his duty, she dropped her 
+objections; and we soon saw that the occupations that his absence 
+would impose on her would be a fresh interest in life.
+
+Just as the decision was thus ratified, a packet from Canton arrived 
+for Clarence from Bristol.  It was the first reply of young Frith to 
+the tidings of the bequest which had changed the poor clerk to a 
+wealthy man, owning a large proportion of the shares of the 
+prosperous house.
+
+I asked if he were coming home, and Clarence briefly replied that he 
+did not know,--'it depended--'
+
+'Is he going to wed a fair Chinese with lily feet?' asked Martyn, to 
+which the reply was an unusually discourteous 'Bosh,' as Clarence 
+escaped with his letter.  He was so reticent about it that I 
+required a solemn assurance that poor Lawrence's head had not been 
+turned by his fortune, and that there was nothing wrong with him.  
+Indeed, there was great stupidity in never guessing the purport of 
+that thick letter, nor that it contained one for Emily, where 
+Lawrence Frith laid himself, and all that he had, at her feet, 
+ascribing to her all the resolution with which he had kept from 
+evil, and entreating permission to come home and endeavour to win 
+her heart.  We lived so constantly together that it is surprising 
+that Clarence contrived to give the letter to Emily in private.  She 
+implored him to say nothing to us, and brought him the next day her 
+letter of uncompromising refusal.
+
+He asked whether it would have been the same if he had intended to 
+remain at home.
+
+'As if you were a woman, you conceited fellow,' was all the answer 
+she vouchsafed him.
+
+Nor could he ascertain, nor perhaps would she herself examine, on 
+which side lay her heart of hearts.  The proof had come whether she 
+would abide by her pledge to him to accept the care of us in his 
+absence.  When he asked it, it had not occurred to him that it might 
+be a renunciation of marriage.  Now he perceived that so it had 
+been, but she kept her counsel and so did he.  We others never 
+guessed at what was going on between those two.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV--PAYING THE COST
+
+
+
+'But oh! the difference to me.'
+
+WORDSWORTH.
+
+So Clarence was gone, and our new life begun in its changed aspect.  
+Emily showed an almost feverish eagerness to make it busy and 
+cheerful, getting up a sewing class in the village, resuming the 
+study of Greek, grappling with the natural system in botany, all of 
+which had been fitfully proposed but hindered by interruptions and 
+my father's feebleness.
+
+On a suggestion of Mr. Stafford's, we set to work on that History of 
+Letter Writing which, what with collecting materials, and making 
+translations, lasted us three years altogether, and was a great 
+resource and pleasure, besides ultimately bringing in a fraction 
+towards the great purpose.  Emily has confessed that she worked away 
+a good deal of vague, weary depression, and sense of monotony into 
+those Greek choruses:  but to us she was always a sunbeam, with her 
+ever ready attention, and the playfulness which resumed more of 
+genuine mirth after the first effort and strain of spirits were 
+over.
+
+Then journal-letters on either side began to bridge the gulf of 
+separation,--those which, minus all the specially interesting 
+portions, are to be seen in the volume we culled from them, and 
+which had considerable success in its day.
+
+Martyn worked in the parish and read with Mr. Henderson till he was 
+old enough for Ordination, and then took the curacy of St. 
+Wulstan's, under a hardworking London vicar, and thenceforth his 
+holidays were our festivals.  Our old London friends pitied us for 
+what they viewed as a fearfully dull life, and in the visits they 
+occasionally paid us thought they were doing us a great favour by 
+bringing us new ideas and shooting our partridges.
+
+We hardly deserved their compassion:  our lives were full of 
+interest to ourselves--that interest which comes of doing ever so 
+feeble a stroke of work in one great cause; and there was much keen 
+participation in the general life of the Church in the crisis 
+through which she was passing.  We found that, what with drawing 
+pictures, writing little books, preparing lessons for teachers, and 
+much besides which is now ready done by the National Society and 
+Sunday School Institute, we could do a good deal to assist Martyn in 
+his London work, and our own grew upon us.
+
+For the first year of her widowhood, my mother shrank from society, 
+and afterwards had only spasmodic fits of doubt whether it were not 
+her duty to make my sister go out more.  So that now and then Emily 
+did go to a party, or to make a visit of some days or weeks from 
+home, and then we knew how valuable she was.  It would be hard to 
+say whether my mother were relieved or disappointed when Emily 
+refused James Eastwood, in spite of many persuasions, not only from 
+himself, but his family.  I believe mamma thought it selfish to be 
+glad, and that it was a failure in duty not to have performed that 
+weighty matter of marrying her daughter; feeling in some way 
+inferior to ladies who had disposed of a whole flock under five and 
+twenty, whereas she had not been able to get rid of a single one!
+
+Of Clarence's doings in China I need not speak; you have read of 
+them in the book for yourselves, and you know how his work 
+prospered, so that the results more than fulfilled his expectations, 
+and raised the firm to the pitch of greatness and reputation which 
+it has ever since preserved, and this without soiling his hands with 
+the miserable opium traffic.  Some of the subordinates were so set 
+on the gains to be thus obtained, that he and Lawrence Frith had a 
+severe struggle with them to prevent it, and were forced conjointly 
+to use all their authority as principals to make it impossible.  
+Those two were the greatest of friends.  Their chief relaxation was 
+one another's company, and their earnest aim was to support the 
+Christian mission, and to keep up the tone of their English 
+dependants, a terribly difficult matter, and one that made the time 
+of their return somewhat doubtful, even when Walter Castleford was 
+gone out to relieve them.  Their health had kept up so well that we 
+had ceased to be anxious on that point, and it was through the 
+Castlefords that we received the first hint that Clarence might not 
+be as well as his absence of complaint had led us to believe.
+
+In fact he had never been well since a terrible tempest, when he had 
+worked hard and exposed himself to save life.  I never could hear 
+the particulars, for Lawrence was away, and Clarence could not write 
+about it himself, having been prostrated by one of those chills so 
+perilous in hot countries; but from all I have heard, no resident in 
+Hong-Kong would have believed that Mr. Winslow's courage could ever 
+have been called in question.  He ought to have come home 
+immediately after that attack of fever; for the five years were 
+over, and his work nearly done; but there was need to consolidate 
+his achievements, and a strong man is only too apt to trifle with 
+his health.  We might have guessed something by the languor and 
+brevity of his letters, but we thought the absence of detail owing 
+to his expectation of soon seeing us; and had gone on for months 
+expecting the announcement of a speedy return, when an unexpected 
+shock fell on us.  Our dear mother was still an active woman, with 
+few signs of age about her, when, in her sixty-seventh year, she was 
+almost suddenly taken from us by an attack of gout in the stomach.
+
+I feel as if I had not done her justice, and as if she might seem 
+stern, unsympathising, and lacking in tenderness.  Yet nothing could 
+be further from the truth.  She was an old-fashioned mother, who 
+held it her duty to keep up her authority, and counted over-
+familiarity and indulgence as sins.  To her 'the holy spirit of 
+discipline was the beginning of wisdom,' and to make her children 
+godly, truthful, and honourable was a much greater object than to 
+win their love.  And their love she had, and kept to a far higher 
+degree than seems to be the case with those who court affection by 
+caresses and indulgence.  We knew that her approval was of a 
+generous kind, we prized enthusiastically her rare betrayals of her 
+motherly tenderness, and we depended on her in a manner we only 
+realised in the desolation, dreariness, and helplessness that fell 
+upon us, when we knew that she was gone.  She had not, nor had any 
+of us, understood that she was dying, and she had uttered only a few 
+words that could imply any such thought.  On hearing that there was 
+a letter from Clarence, she said, 'Poor Clarence!  I should like to 
+have seen him.  He is a good boy after all.  I've been hard on him, 
+but it will all be right now.  God Almighty bless him!'
+
+That was the only formal blessing she left among us.  Indeed, the 
+last time I saw her was with an ordinary good-night at the foot of 
+the stairs.  Emily said she was glad that I had not to carry with me 
+the remembrance of those paroxysms of suffering.  My dear Emily had 
+alone the whole force of that trial--or shall I call it privilege?  
+Martyn did not reach home till some hours after all was over, poor 
+boy.
+
+And in the midst of our desolateness, just as we had let the 
+daylight in again upon our diminished numbers round the table, came 
+a letter from Hong-Kong, addressed to me in Lawrence Frith's 
+writing, and the first thing I saw was a scrawl, as follows:-
+
+
+'DEAREST TED--All is in your hands.  You can do IT.  God bless you 
+all.  W. C. W.'
+
+
+When I came to myself, and could see and hear, Martyn was impressing 
+on me that where there is life there is hope, though indeed, 
+according to poor Lawrence's letter, there was little of either.  He 
+feared our hearing indirectly, and therefore wrote to prepare us.
+
+He had been summoned to Hong-Kong to find Clarence lying desperately 
+ill, for the most part semi-delirious, holding converse with 
+invisible forms, or entreating some one to let him alone--he had 
+done his best.  In one of his more lucid intervals he had made 
+Lawrence find that note in a case that lay near him, and promise to 
+send it; and he had tried to send some messages, but they had become 
+confused, and he was too weak to speak further.
+
+The next mail was sure to bring the last tidings of one who had 
+given his life for right and justice.  It was only a reprieve that 
+what it actually brought was the intelligence that he was still 
+alive, and more sensible, and had been able to take much pleasure in 
+seeing the friend of his youth, Captain Coles, who was there with 
+his ship, the Douro.  Then there had been a relapse.  Captain Coles 
+had brought his doctor to see him, and it had been pronounced that 
+the best chance of saving him was a sea-voyage.  The Douro had just 
+received orders to return to England, and Coles had offered to take 
+home both the friends as guests, though there was evidently little 
+hope that our brother would reach any earthly home.  As we knew 
+afterwards, he had smiled and said it was like rehabilitation to 
+have the chance of dying on board one of H.M. ships.  And he was 
+held in such respect, and was so entirely one of the leading men of 
+the little growing colony, and had been known as such a friend to 
+the naval men, and had so gallantly aided a Queen's ship in that 
+hurricane, that his passage home in this manner only seemed a 
+natural tribute of respect.  A few last words from Lawrence told us 
+that he was safely on board, all unconscious of the silent, almost 
+weeping, procession that had escorted his litter to the Douro's 
+boat, only too much as if it were his bier.  In fact, Captain Coles 
+actually promised him that if he died at sea he should be buried 
+with the old flag.
+
+We could not hope to hear more for at least six weeks, since our 
+letter had come by overland mail, and the Douro would take her time.  
+It was a comfort in this waiting time that Martyn could be with us.  
+His rector had been promoted; there was a general change of curates; 
+and as Martyn had been working up to the utmost limits of his 
+strength, we had no scruple in inducing him to remain with us, and 
+undertake nothing fresh till this crisis was past.  Though as to 
+rest, not one Sunday passed without requests for his assistance from 
+one or more of the neighbouring clergy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV--ACHIEVED
+
+
+
+'And hopes and fears that kindle hope,
+An undistinguishable throng,
+And gentle wishes long subdued -
+Subdued and cherished long.'
+
+S. T. COLERIDGE.
+
+The first that we did hear of our brother was a letter with a 
+Falmouth postmark, which we scarcely dared to open.  There was not 
+much in it, but that was enough.  'D. G.- I shall see you all again.  
+We put in at Portsmouth.'
+
+There was no staying at home after that.  We three lost no time in 
+starting, for railways had become available, and by the time we had 
+driven from the station at Portsmouth the Douro had been signalled.
+
+Martyn took a boat and went on board alone, for besides that Emily 
+did not like to leave me, her dress would have been a revelation 
+that ALL were no longer there to greet the arrival.  The precaution 
+was, however, unnecessary.  There stood Clarence on deck, and after 
+the first greeting, he laid his hand on Martyn's arm and said, 'My 
+mother is gone?' and on the wondering assent, 'I was quite sure of 
+it.'
+
+So they came ashore, Clarence lying in the man-of-war's boat, in 
+which his friend insisted on sending him, able now to give a smiling 
+response and salute to the three cheers with which the crew took 
+leave of him.  He was carried up to our hotel on a stretcher by 
+half-a-dozen blue jackets.  Indeed he was grievously changed, 
+looking so worn and weak, so hollow-eyed and yellow, and so 
+fearfully wasted, that the very memory is painful; and able to do 
+nothing but lie on the sofa holding Emily's hand, gazing at us with 
+a face full of ineffable peace and gladness.  There was a misgiving 
+upon me that he had only come back to finish his work and bid us 
+farewell.
+
+Kindly and considerately they had sent him on before with Martyn.  
+In a quarter of an hour's time his good doctor came in with Lawrence 
+Frith, a considerable contrast to our poor Clarence, for the slim 
+gypsy lad had developed into a strikingly handsome man, still 
+slender and lithe, but with a fine bearing, and his bronzed 
+complexion suiting well with his dark shining hair and beautiful 
+eyes.  They had brought some of the luggage, and the doctor insisted 
+that his patient should go to bed directly, and rest completely 
+before trying to talk.
+
+Then we heard that his condition, though still anxious, was far from 
+being hopeless, and that after the tropics had been passed, he had 
+been gradually improving.  The kind doctor had got leave to go up to 
+London with us, and talk over the case with L---, and he hoped 
+Clarence might be able to bear the journey by the next afternoon.
+
+Presently after came Captain Coles, whom we had not seen since the 
+short visit when we had idolised the big overgrown midshipman, whom 
+Clarence exhibited to our respectful and distant admiration nearly 
+twenty years ago.  My mother used to call him a gentlemanly lad, and 
+that was just what he was still, with a singularly soft gentle 
+manner, gallant officer and post-captain as he was.  He cheered me 
+much, for he made no doubt of Clarence's ultimate recovery, and he 
+added that he had found the dear fellow so valued and valuable, so 
+useful in all good works, and so much respected by all the English 
+residents, 'that really,' said the captain, 'I did not know whether 
+to deplore that the service should have lost such a man, or whether 
+to think it had been a good thing for him, though not for us, that--
+that he got into such a scrape.'
+
+I said something of our thanks.
+
+'To tell you the truth,' said Coles, 'I had my doubts whether it had 
+not been a cruel act, for he had a terrible turn after we got him on 
+board, and all the sounds of a Queen's ship revived the past 
+associations, and always of a painful kind in his delirium, till at 
+last, just as I gave him up, the whole character of his fancies 
+seemed to change, and from that time he has been gaining every day.'
+
+We kept the captain to dinner, and gathered a good deal more 
+understanding of the important position to which Clarence had risen 
+by force of character and rectitude of purpose in that strange 
+little Anglo-Chinese colony; and afterwards, I was allowed to make a 
+long visit to Clarence, who, having eaten and slept, was quite ready 
+to talk.
+
+It seemed that the great distress of his illness had been the 
+recurrence--nay, aggravation--of the strange susceptibility of brain 
+and nerve that had belonged to his earlier days, and with it either 
+imagination or perception of the spirit-world.  Much that had seemed 
+delirium had belonged to that double consciousness, and he perfectly 
+recollected it.  As Coles had said, the sights and sounds of the 
+ship had been a renewal of the saddest time in his life; he could 
+not at night divest himself of the impression that he was under 
+arrest, and the sins of his life gathered themselves in fearful and 
+oppressive array, as if to stifle him, and the phantom of poor 
+Margaret with her lamp--which had haunted him from the beginning of 
+his illness--seemed to taunt him with having been too fainthearted 
+and tardy to be worthy to espouse her cause.  The faith to which he 
+tried to cling WOULD seem to fail him in those awful hours, when he 
+could only cry out mechanical prayers for mercy.  Then there had 
+come a night when he had heard my mother say, 'All right now; God 
+Almighty bless him.'  And therewith the clouds cleared from his 
+mind.  The power of FEELING, as well as believing in, the blotting 
+out of sin, returned, the sense of pardon and peace calmed him, and 
+from that time he was fully himself again, 'though,' he said, 'I 
+knew I should not see my mother here.'
+
+If she could only have seen him come home under the Union Jack, 
+cheered by sailors, and carried ashore by them, it would have been 
+to her like restoration.  Perhaps Clarence in his dreamy weakness 
+had so felt it, for certainly no other mode of return to Portsmouth, 
+the very place of his degradation, could so have soothed him and 
+effaced those memories.  The English sounds were a perfect charm to 
+him, as well as to Lawrence, the commonest street cry, the very 
+slices of bread and butter, anything that was not Chinese, was as 
+water to the thirsty!  And wasted as was his face, the quiet rest 
+and joy were ineffable.
+
+Still Portsmouth was not the best place for him, and we were glad 
+that he was well enough to go up to London in the afternoon; 
+intensely delighting in the May beauty of the green meadows, and 
+white blossoming hedgerows, and the Church towers, especially the 
+gray massiveness of Winchester Cathedral.  'Christian tokens,' he 
+said, instead of the gay, gilded pagodas and quaint crumpled roofs 
+he had left.  The soft haze seemed to be such a rest after the glare 
+of perpetual clearness.
+
+We were all born Londoners, and looked at the blue fog, and the 
+broad, misty river, and the brooding smoke, with the affection of 
+natives, to the amazement of Lawrence, who had never been in town 
+without being browbeaten and miserable.  That he hardly was now, as 
+he sat beside Emily all the way up, though they did not say much to 
+one another.
+
+He told us it was quite a new sensation to walk into the office 
+without timidity, and to have no fears of a biting, crushing speech 
+about his parents or himself; but to have the clerks getting up 
+deferentially as soon as he was known for Mr. Frith.  He had hardly 
+ever been allowed by his old uncle to come across Mr. Castleford, 
+who was of course cordial and delighted to receive him, and, without 
+loss of time, set forth to see Clarence.
+
+The consultation with the physician had taken place, and it was not 
+concealed from us that Clarence's health was completely shattered, 
+and his state still very precarious, needing the utmost care to give 
+him any chance of recovering the effects of the last two years, when 
+he had persevered, in spite of warning, in his eagerness to complete 
+his undertaking, and then to secure what he had effected.  The 
+upshot of the advice given him was to spend the summer by the 
+seaside, and if he had by that time gathered strength, and 
+surmounted the symptoms of disease, to go abroad, as he was not 
+likely to be able as yet to bear English cold.  Business and cares 
+were to be avoided, and if he had anything necessary to be done, it 
+had better be got over at once, so as to be off his mind.  Martyn 
+and Frith gathered that the case was thought doubtful, and entirely 
+dependent on constitution and rallying power.  Clarence himself 
+seemed almost passive, caring only for our presence and the 
+accomplishment of his task.
+
+We had a blessed thanksgiving for mercies received in the Margaret 
+Street Chapel, as we called what is now All Saints; but he and I 
+were unfit for crowds, and on Sunday morning availed ourselves of a 
+friend's seat in our old church, which felt so natural and homelike 
+to us elders that Martyn was scandalised at our taste.  But it was 
+the church of our Confirmation and first Communion, and Clarence 
+rejoiced that it was that of his first home-coming Eucharist.  What 
+a contrast was he now to the shrinking boy, scarcely tolerated under 
+his stigmatised name.  Surely the Angel had led him all his life 
+through!
+
+How happy we two were in the afternoon, while the others conducted 
+Lawrence to some more noteworthy church.
+
+'Now,' said Clarence, 'let us go down to Beachharbour.  It must be 
+done at once.  I have been trying to write, and I can't do it,' and 
+his face lighted with a quiet smile which I understood.
+
+So we wrote to the principal hotel to secure rooms, and set forth on 
+Tuesday, leaving Frith to finish with Mr. Castleford what could not 
+be settled in the one business interview that had been held with 
+Clarence on the Monday.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI--RESTITUTION
+
+
+
+'Ah! well for us all some sweet hope lies
+Deeply buried from human eyes.'
+
+WHITTIER.
+
+Things always happen in unexpected ways.  During the little 
+hesitation and difficulty that always attend my transits at a 
+station, a voice was heard to say, 'Oh!  Papa, isn't that Edward 
+Winslow?'  Martyn gave a violent start, and Mr. Fordyce was 
+exclaiming, 'Clarence, my dear fellow, it isn't you!  I beg your 
+pardon; you have strength enough left nearly to wring one's hand 
+off!'
+
+'I--I wanted very much to see you, sir,' said Clarence.  'Could you 
+be so good as to appoint a time?'
+
+'See you!  We must always be seeing you of course.  Let me think.  
+I've got three weddings and a funeral to-morrow, and Simpson coming 
+about the meeting.  Come to luncheon--all of you.  Mrs. Fordyce will 
+be delighted, and so will somebody else.'
+
+There was no doubt about the somebody else, for Anne's feet were as 
+nearly dancing round Emily as public propriety allowed, and the 
+radiance of her face was something to rejoice in.  Say what people 
+will, Englishwomen in a quiet cheerful life are apt to gain rather 
+than lose in looks up to the borders of middle age.  Our Emily at 
+two-and-thirty was fair and pleasant to look on; while as for Anne 
+Fordyce at twenty-three, words will hardly tell how lovely were her 
+delicate features, brown eyes, and carnation cheeks, illuminated by 
+that sunshine brightness of her father's, which made one feel better 
+all day for having been beamed upon by either of them.  Clarence 
+certainly did, when the good man turned back to say, 'Which hotel?  
+Eh?  That's too far off.  You must come nearer.  I would see you in, 
+but I've got a woman to see before church time, and I'm short of a 
+curate, so I must be sharp to the hour.'
+
+'Can I be of any use?' eagerly asked Martyn.  'I'll follow you as 
+soon as I have got these fellows to their quarters.'
+
+We had Amos with us, and were soon able to release Martyn, after a 
+few compliments on my not being as usual THE invalid; and by and by 
+he came back to take Emily to inspect a lodging, recommended by our 
+friends, close to the beach, and not a stone's throw from the 
+Rectory built by Mr. Fordyce.  As we two useless beings sat opposite 
+to each other, looking over the roofs of houses at the blue expanse 
+and feeling the salt breeze, it was no fancy that Clarence's cheek 
+looked less wan, and his eyes clearer, as a smile of content played 
+on his lips.  'Years sit well on her,' he said gaily; and I thought 
+of rewards in store for him.
+
+Then he took this opportunity of consulting me on the chances for 
+Frith, telling of the original offer, and the quiet constancy of his 
+friend, and asking whether I thought Emily would relent.  And I 
+answered that I suspected that she would,--'But you must get well 
+first.'
+
+'I begin to think that more possible,' he answered, and my heart 
+bounded as he added, 'she would be satisfied since you would always 
+have a home with US.'
+
+Oh, how much was implied in that monosyllable.  He knew it, for a 
+little faint colour came up, as he, shyly, laughed and hesitated, 
+'That is--if--'
+
+'If' included Mrs. Fordyce's not being ungracious.  Nor was she.  
+Emily had found her as kind as in the old days at Hillside, and 
+perfectly ready to bring us into close vicinity.  It was not caprice 
+that had made this change, but all possible doubt and risk of 
+character were over, the old wound was in some measure healed, and 
+the friendship had been brought foremost by our recent sorrow and 
+our present anxiety.  Anne was in ecstasies over Emily.  'It is so 
+odd,' she said, 'to have grown as old as you, whom I used to think 
+so very grown up,' and she had all her pet plans to display in the 
+future.  Moreover, Martyn had been permitted to relieve the Rector 
+from the funeral--a privilege which seemed to gratify him as much as 
+if it had been the liveliest of services.
+
+We were to lunch at the Rectory, and the move of our goods was to be 
+effected while we were there.  We found Mrs. Fordyce looking much 
+older, but far less of an invalid than in old times, and there was 
+something more genial and less exclusive in her ways, owing perhaps 
+to the difference of her life among the many classes with whom she 
+was called on to associate.
+
+Somersetshire, Beachharbour, and China occupied our tongues by 
+turns, and we had to begin luncheon without the Rector, who had been 
+hindered by numerous calls; in fact, as Anne warned us, it was a 
+wonder if he got the length of the esplanade without being stopped 
+half-a-dozen times.
+
+His welcome was like himself, but he needed a reminder of Clarence's 
+request for an interview.  Then we repaired to the study, for 
+Clarence begged that his brothers might be present, and then the 
+beginning was made.  'Do you remember my showing you a will that I 
+found in the ruins at Chantry House?'
+
+'A horrid old scrap that you chose to call one.  Yes; I told you to 
+burn it.'
+
+'Sir, we have proved that a great injustice was perpetrated by our 
+ancestor, Philip Winslow, and that the poor lady who made that will 
+was cruelly treated, if not murdered.  This is no fancy; I have 
+known it for years past, but it is only now that restitution has 
+become possible.'
+
+'Restitution?  What are you talking about?  I never wanted the place 
+nor coveted it.'
+
+'No, sir, but the act was our forefather's.  You cannot bid us sit 
+down under the consciousness of profiting by a crime.  I could not 
+do so before, but I now implore you to let me restore you either 
+Chantry House and the three farms, or their purchase money, 
+according to the valuation made at my father's death.  I have it in 
+hand.'
+
+Frank Fordyce walked about the room quite overcome.  'You foolish 
+fellow!' he said, 'Was it for this that you have been toiling and 
+throwing away your health in that pestiferous place?  Edward, did 
+you know this?'
+
+'Yes,' I answered.  'Clarence has intended this ever since he found 
+the will.'
+
+'As if that was a will!  You consented.'
+
+'We all thought it right.'
+
+He made a gesture of dismay at such folly.
+
+'I do not think you understand how it was, Mr. Fordyce,' said 
+Clarence, who by this time was quivering and trembling as in his 
+boyish days.
+
+'No, nor ever wish to do so.  Such matters ought to be forgotten, 
+and you don't look fit to say another word.'
+
+'Edward will tell you,' said Clarence, leaning back.
+
+I had the whole written out, and was about to begin, when the 
+person, with whom there was an appointment, was reported, and we 
+knew that the rest of the day was mapped out.
+
+'Look here,' said Mr. Fordyce, 'leave that with me; I can't give any 
+answer off-hand, except that Don Quixote is come alive again, only 
+too like himself.'
+
+Which was true, for Clarence took long to rally from the effort, and 
+had to be kept quiet for some time in the study where we were left.  
+He examined me on the contents of my paper, and was vexed to hear 
+that I had mentioned the ghost, which he said would discredit the 
+whole.  Never was the dear fellow so much inclined to be fretful, 
+and when Martyn restlessly observed that if we did not want him, he 
+might as well go back to the drawing-room, the reply was quite 
+sharp--'Oh yes, by all means.'
+
+No wonder there was pain in the tone; for the next words, after some 
+interval, were, when two happy voices came ringing in from the 
+garden behind, 'You see, Edward.'
+
+Somehow I had never thought of Martyn.  He had simply seemed to me a 
+boy, and I had decided that Anne would be the crown of Clarence's 
+labours.  I answered 'Nonsense; they are both children together!'
+
+'The nonsense was elsewhere,' he said.  'They always were devoted to 
+each other.  I saw how it was the moment he came into the room.'
+
+'Don't give up,' I said; 'it is only the old habit.  When she knows 
+all, she must prefer--'
+
+'Hush!' he said.  'An old scarecrow and that beautiful young 
+creature!' and he laughed.
+
+'You won't be an old scarecrow long.'
+
+'No,' he said in an ominous way, and cut short the discussion by 
+going back to Mrs. Fordyce.
+
+He was worn out, had a bad night, and did not get up to breakfast; I 
+was waiting for it in the sitting-room, when Mr. Fordyce came in 
+after matins with Emily and Martyn.
+
+'I feel just like David when they brought him the water of 
+Bethlehem,' he said.  'You know I think this all nonsense, 
+especially this--this ghost business; and yet, such--such doings as 
+your brother's can't go for nothing.'
+
+His face worked, and the tears were in his eyes; then, as he partook 
+of our breakfast, he cross-examined us on my statement, and even 
+tried to persuade us that the phantom in the ruin was Emily; and on 
+her observing that she could not have seen herself, he talked of the 
+Brocken Spectre and fog mirages; but we declared the night was 
+clear, and I told him that all the rational theories I had ever 
+heard were far more improbable than the appearance herself, at which 
+he laughed.  Then he scrupulously demanded whether this--this (he 
+failed to find a name for it) would be an impoverishment of our 
+family, and I showed how Clarence had provided that we should be in 
+as easy circumstances as before.  In the midst came in Clarence 
+himself, having hastened to dress, on hearing that Mr. Fordyce was 
+in the house, and looking none the better for the exertion.
+
+'Look here, my dear boy,' said Frank, taking his hot trembling hand, 
+'you have put me in a great fix.  You have done the noblest deed at 
+a terrible cost, and whatever I may think, it ought not to be thrown 
+away, nor you be hindered from freeing your soul from this sense of 
+family guilt.  But here, my forefathers had as little right to the 
+Chantry as yours, and ever since I began to think about such things, 
+I have been thankful it was none of mine.  Let us join in giving it 
+or its value to some good work for God--pour it out to the Lord, as 
+we may say.  Bless me! what have I done now.'
+
+For Clarence, muttering 'thank you,' sank out of his grasp on a 
+chair, and as nearly as possible fainted; but he was soon smiling 
+and saying it was all relief, and he felt as if a load he had been 
+bearing had been suddenly removed.
+
+Frank Fordyce durst stay no longer, but laid his hand on Clarence's 
+head and blessed him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII--THE FORDYCE STORY
+
+
+
+'For soon as once the genial plain
+Has drunk the life-blood of the slain,
+Indelible the spots remain,
+And aye for vengeance call.'
+
+EURIPIDES--(Anstice).
+
+Still all was not over, for by the next day our brother was as ill, 
+or worse, than ever.  The doctor who came from London allowed that 
+he had expected something of the kind, but thought we must have let 
+him exert himself perilously.  Poor innocent Martyn and Anne, they 
+little suspected that their bright eyes and happy voices had 
+something to do with the struggle and disappointment, which probably 
+was one cause of the collapse.  As to poor Frank Fordyce, I never 
+saw him so distressed; he felt as if it were all his own fault, or 
+that of his ancestors, and, whenever he was not required by his 
+duties, was lingering about for news.  I had little hope, though 
+Clarence seemed to me the very light of my eyes; it was to me as 
+though, his task being accomplished, and the earthly reward denied, 
+he must be on his way to the higher one.
+
+His complete quiescence confirmed me in the assurance that he 
+thought so himself.  He was too ill for speech, but Lawrence, who 
+could not stay away, was struck with the difference from former 
+times.  Not only were there no delusions, but there was no anxiety 
+or uneasiness, as there had always been in the former attacks, when 
+he was evidently eager to live, and still more solicitous to be told 
+if he were in a hopeless state.  Now he had plainly resigned himself 
+-
+
+
+'Content to live, but not afraid to die;'
+
+
+and perhaps, dear fellow, it was chiefly for my sake that he was 
+willing to live.  At least, I know that when the worst was over, he 
+announced it by putting those wasted fingers into mine, and saying -
+
+'Well, dear old fellow, I believe we shall jog on together, after 
+all.'
+
+That attack, though the most severe of all, brought, either owing to 
+skilful treatment or to his own calm, the removal of the mischief, 
+and the beginning of real recovery.  Previously he had given himself 
+no time, but had hurried on to exertions which retarded his cure, so 
+as very nearly to be fatal; but he was now perfectly submissive to 
+whatever physicians or nurses desired, and did not seem to find his 
+slow convalescence in the least tedious, since he was amongst us all 
+again.
+
+It was nearly a month before he was disposed to recur to the subject 
+of his old solicitude again, and then he asked what Mr. Fordyce had 
+said or done.  Just nothing at all; but on the next visit paid to 
+the sick-room, Parson Frank yielded to his earnest request to send 
+for any documents that might throw light on the subject, and after a 
+few days he brought us a packet of letters from his deed-box.  They 
+were written from Hillside Rectory to the son in the army in 
+Flanders, chiefly by his mother, and were full of hot, angry 
+invective against our family, and pity for poor, foolish 'Madam,' or 
+'Cousin Winslow,' as she was generally termed, for having put 
+herself in their power.
+
+The one most to the purpose was an account of the examination of 
+Molly Cox, the waiting-woman, who had been in attendance on the 
+unfortunate Margaret, and whose story tallied fairly with Aunt 
+Peggy's tradition.  She declared that she was sure that her mistress 
+had met with foul play.  She had left her as usual at ten o'clock on 
+the fatal 27th of December 1707, in the inner one of the old 
+chambers; and in the night had heard the tipsy return home of the 
+gentlemen, followed by shrieks.  In the morning she (the maid) who 
+usually was the first to go to her room, was met by Mistress Betty 
+Winslow, and told that Madam was ill, and insensible.  The old nurse 
+of the Winslows was called in; and Molly was never left alone in the 
+sick-room, scarcely permitted to approach the bed, and never to 
+touch her lady.  Once, when emptying out a cup at the garden-door, 
+she saw a mark of blood on the steps, but Mr. Philip came up and 
+swore at her for a prying fool.  Doctor Tomkins was sent for, but he 
+barely walked through the room, and 'all know that he is a mere 
+creature of Philip Winslow,' wrote the Mrs. Fordyce of that date to 
+her son.  And presently after, 'Justice Eastwood declared there is 
+no case for a Grand Jury; but he is a known Friend and sworn Comrade 
+of the Winslows, and bound to suppress all evidence against them.  
+Nay, James Dearlove swears he saw Edward Winslow slip a golden 
+Guinea into his Clerk's Hand.  But as sure as there is a Heaven 
+above us, Francis, poor Cousin Winslow was trying to escape to us of 
+her own Kindred, and met with cruel Usage.  Her Blood is on their 
+Heads.'
+
+'There!' said Frank Fordyce.  'This Francis challenged Philip 
+Winslow's eldest son, a mere boy, three days after he joined the 
+army before Lille, and shot him like a dog.  I turned over the 
+letter about it in searching for these.  I can't boast of my 
+ancestors more than you can.  But may God accept this work of yours, 
+and take away the guilt of blood from both of us.'
+
+'And have you thought what is best to be done?' asked Clarence, 
+raising himself on his cushions.
+
+'Have you?' asked the Vicar.
+
+'Oh yes; I have had my dreams.'
+
+They put their castles together, and they turned out to be for an 
+orphanage, or rather asylum, not too much hampered with strict 
+rules, combined with a convalescent home.  The battle of sisterhoods 
+was not yet fought out, and we were not quite prepared for them; but 
+Frank Fordyce had, as he said, 'the two best women in the world in 
+his eye' to make a beginning.
+
+There was full time to think and discuss the scheme, for our patient 
+was in no condition to move for many weeks, lying day after day on a 
+couch just within the window of our sitting-room, which was as 
+nearly as possible in the sea, so that he constantly had the 
+freshness of its breezes, the music of its ripple, and the sight of 
+its waves, and seemed to find endless pleasure in watching the red 
+sails, the puffs of steam, and the frolics of the children, simple 
+or gentle, on the beach.
+
+Something else was sometimes to be watched.  Martyn, all this time, 
+was doing the work of two curates, and was to be seen walking home 
+with Anne from church or school, carrying her baskets and bags, and, 
+as we were given to understand, discussing by turns ecclesiastical 
+questions, visionary sisterhoods, and naughty children.  At first I 
+wished it were possible to remove Clarence from the perpetual 
+spectacle, but we had one last talk over the matter, and this was 
+quite satisfactory.
+
+'It does me no harm,' he said; 'I like to see it.  Yes, it is quite 
+true that I do.  What was personal and selfish in my fancies seems 
+to have been worn out in the great lull of my senses under the 
+shadow of death; and now I can revert with real joy and thankfulness 
+to the old delight of looking on our dear Ellen as our sister, and 
+watch those two children as we used when they talked of dolls' 
+fenders instead of the surplice war.  I have got you, Edward; and 
+you know there is a love "passing the love of women."'
+
+A lively young couple passed by the window just then, and with 
+untamed voices observed -
+
+'There are those two poor miserable objects!  It is enough to make 
+one melancholy only to look at them.'
+
+Whereat we simultaneously burst out laughing; perhaps because a 
+choking, very far from misery, was in our throats.
+
+At any rate, Clarence was prepared to be the cordial, fatherly 
+brother, when Martyn came headlong in upon us with the tidings that 
+utterly indescribable, unimaginable joy had befallen him.  A 
+revelation seemed simultaneously to have broken upon him and Anne 
+while they were copying out the Sunday School Registers, that what 
+they had felt for each other all their lives was love--'real, true 
+love,' as Anne said to Emily, 'that never could have cared for 
+anybody else.'
+
+Mrs. Fordyce's sharp eyes had seen what was coming, and accepted the 
+inevitable, quite as soon as Clarence had.  She came and talked it 
+over with us, saying she was perfectly satisfied and happy.  Martyn 
+was all that could be wished, and she was sincerely glad of the 
+connection with her old friends.  So, in fact, was dear old Frank, 
+but he had been running about with his head full, and his eyes 
+closed, so that it was quite a shock to him to find that his little 
+Anne, his boon companion and playfellow, was actually grown up, and 
+presuming to love and be loved; and he could hardly believe that she 
+was really seven years older than her sister had been when the like 
+had begun with her.  But if Anne must be at those tricks, he said, 
+shaking his head at her, he had rather it was with Martyn than 
+anybody else.
+
+There was no difficulty as to money matters.  In truth, Martyn was 
+not so good a match as an heiress, such as was Anne Fordyce, might 
+have aspired to, and her Lester kin were sure to be shocked; but 
+even if Clarence married, the Earlscombe living went for something 
+(though, by the bye, he has never held it), and the Fordyces only 
+cared that there should be easy circumstances.  The living of 
+Hillside would be resigned in favour of Martyn in the spring, and 
+meantime he would gain more experience at Beachharbour, and this 
+would break the separation to the Fordyces.
+
+After all, however, theirs was not to be our first wedding.  I have 
+said little of Emily.  The fact was, that after that week of 
+Clarence's danger, we said she lived in a kind of dream.  She 
+fulfilled all that was wanted of her, nursing Clarence, waiting on 
+me, ordering dinner, making the tea, and so forth; but it was quite 
+evident that life began for her on the Saturdays, when Lawrence came 
+down, and ended on the Mondays, when he went away.  If, in the 
+meantime, she sat down to work, she went off into a trance; if she 
+was sent out for fresh air, she walked quarter-deck on the 
+esplanade, neither seeing nor hearing anything, we averred, but some 
+imaginary Lawrence Frith.
+
+If she had any drawback, good girl, it was the idea of deserting me; 
+but then, as I could honestly tell her, nobody need fear for my 
+happiness, since Clarence was given back to me.  And she believed, 
+and was ready to go to China with her Lawrence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII--THE LAST DISCOVERY
+
+
+
+'Grief will be joy if on its edge
+Fall soft that holiest ray,
+Joy will be grief, if no faint pledge
+Be there of heavenly day.'
+
+KEBLE.
+
+We did not move from Beachharbour till September, and by that time 
+it had been decided that Chantry House itself should be given up to 
+the new scheme.  It was too large for us, and Clarence had never 
+lived there enough to have any strong home feeling for it; but he 
+rather connected it with disquiet and distress, and had a longing to 
+make actual restitution thereof, instead of only giving an 
+equivalent, as he did in the case of the farms.  Our feelings about 
+the desecrated chapel were also considerably changed from the days 
+when we regarded it merely as a picturesque ruin, and it was to be 
+at once restored both for the benefit of the orphanage, and for that 
+of the neighbouring households.  For ourselves, a cottage was to be 
+built, suited to our idiosyncrasies; but that could wait till after 
+the yacht voyage, which we were to make together for the winter.
+
+Thus it came to pass that the last time we inhabited Chantry House 
+was when we gave Emily to Lawrence Frith.  We would fain have made 
+it a double wedding, but the Fordyces wished to wait for Easter, 
+when Martyn would have been inducted to Hillside.  They came, 
+however, that Mrs. Fordyce might act lady of the house, and Anne be 
+bridesmaid, as well as lay the first stone of St. Cecily's restored 
+chapel.
+
+It was on the day on which they were expected, when the workmen were 
+digging foundations, and clearing away rubbish, that the foreman 
+begged Mr. Winslow to come out to see something they had found.  
+Clarence came back, very grave and awe-struck.  It was an old oak 
+chest, and within lay a skeleton, together with a few fragments of 
+female clothing, a wedding ring, and some coins of the later 
+Stewarts, in a rotten leathern purse.  This was ghastly 
+confirmation, though there was nothing else to connect the bones 
+with poor Margaret.  We had some curiosity as to the coffin in the 
+niche in the family vault which bore her name, but both Clarence and 
+Mr. Fordyce shrank from investigations which could not be carried 
+out without publicity, and might perhaps have disturbed other 
+remains.
+
+So on the ensuing night there was a strange, quiet funeral service 
+at Earlscombe Church.  Mr. Henderson officiated, and Chapman acted 
+as clerk.  These, with Amos Bell, alone knew the tradition, or 
+understood what the discovery meant to the two Fordyces and three 
+Winslows who stood at the opening of the vault, and prayed that 
+whatever guilt there might be should be put away from the families 
+so soon to be made one.  The coins were placed with those of 
+Victoria, which the next day Anne laid beneath the foundation-stone 
+of St. Cecily's.  I need not say that no one has ever again heard 
+the wailings, nor seen the lady with the lamp.
+
+What more is there to tell?  It was of this first half of our lives 
+that I intended to write, and though many years have since passed, 
+they have not had the same character of romance and would not 
+interest you.  Our honeymoon, as Mr. Fordyce called the expedition 
+we two brothers made in the Mediterranean, was a perfect success; 
+and Clarence regained health, and better spirits than had ever been 
+his; while contriving to show me all that I was capable of being 
+carried to see.  It was complete enjoyment, and he came home, not as 
+strong as in old times, but with fair comfort and capability for the 
+work of life, so as to be able to take Mr. Castleford's place, when 
+our dear old friend retired from active direction of the firm.
+
+You all know how the two old bachelors have kept house together in 
+London and at Earlscombe cottage, and you are all proud of the 
+honoured name Clarence Winslow has made for himself, foremost in 
+works for the glory of God and the good of men--as one of those 
+merchant princes of England whose merchandise has indeed been 
+Holiness unto the Lord.
+
+Thus you must all have felt a shock on finding that he always looked 
+on that name as blotted, and that one of the last sayings I heard 
+from him was, 'O remember not the sins and offences of my youth, but 
+according to Thy mercy, think upon me, O Lord, for Thy goodness.'
+
+Then he almost smiled, and said, 'Yes, He has so looked on me, and I 
+am thankful.'
+
+Thankful, and so am I, for those thirty-four peaceful years we spent 
+together, or rather for the seventy years of perfect brotherhood 
+that we have been granted, and though he has left me behind him, I 
+am content to wait.  It cannot be for long.  My brothers and 
+sisters, their children, and my faithful Amos Bell, are very good to 
+me; and in writing up to that mezzo termine of our lives, I have 
+been living it over again with my brother of brothers, through the 
+troubles that have become like joys.
+
+
+REMARKS.
+
+
+Uncle Edward has not said half enough about his dear old self.  I 
+want to know if he never was unhappy when he was young about being 
+LIKE THAT, though mother says his face was always nearly as 
+beautiful as it is now.  And it is not only goodness.  It IS 
+beautiful with his sweet smile and snowy white hair.  ELLEN WINSLOW.
+
+And I wonder, though perhaps he could not have told, what Aunt Anne 
+would have done if Uncle Clarence had not been so forbearing before 
+he went to China.  CLARE FRITH.
+
+The others are highly impertinent questions, but we ought to know 
+what became of Lady Peacock.  ED. G. W.
+
+
+REPLY.
+
+
+Poor woman, she drifted back to London after about ten years, with 
+an incurable disease.  Clarence put her into lodgings near us, and 
+did his best for her as long as she lived.  He had a hard task, but 
+she ended by saying he was her only friend.
+
+To question No. 2 I have nothing to say; but as to No. 1, with its 
+extravagant compliment, Nature, or rather God, blessed me with even 
+spirits, a methodical nature that prefers monotony, and very little 
+morbid shyness; nor have I ever been devoid of tender care and love.  
+So that I can only remember three severe fits of depression.  One, 
+when I had just begun to be taken out in the Square Gardens, and 
+Selina Clarkson was heard to say I was a hideous little monster.  It 
+was a revelation, and must have given frightful pain, for I remember 
+it acutely after sixty-five years.
+
+The second fit was just after Clarence was gone to sea, and some 
+very painful experiments had been tried in vain for making me like 
+other people.  For the first time I faced the fact that I was set 
+aside from all possible careers, and should be, as I remember 
+saying, 'no better than a girl.'  I must have been a great trial to 
+all my friends.  My father tried to reason on resignation, and tell 
+me happiness could be IN myself, till he broke down.  My mother 
+attempted bracing by reproof.  Miss Newton endeavoured to make me 
+see that this was my cross.  Every word was true, and came round 
+again, but they only made me for the time more rebellious and 
+wretched.  That attack was ended, of all things in the world, by 
+heraldry.  My attention somehow was drawn that way, and the study 
+filled up time and thought till my misfortunes passed into custom, 
+and haunted me no more.
+
+My last was a more serious access, after coming into the country, 
+when improved health and vigour inspired cravings that made me fully 
+sensible of my blighted existence.  I had gone the length of my 
+tether and overdone myself; I missed London life and Clarence; and 
+the more I blamed myself, and tried to rouse myself, the more 
+despondent and discontented I grew.
+
+This time my physician was Mr. Stafford; I had deciphered a bit of 
+old French and Latin for him, and he was very much pleased.  'Why, 
+Edward,' he said, 'you are a very clever fellow; you can be a 
+distinguished--or what is better--a useful man.'
+
+Somehow that saying restored the spring of hope, and gave an 
+impulse!  I have not been a distinguished man, but I think in my 
+degree I have been a fairly useful one, and I am sure I have been a 
+happy one.  E. W.
+
+
+'Useful! that you have, dear old fellow.  Even if you had done 
+nothing else, and never been an unconscious backbone to Clarence; 
+your influence on me and mine has been unspeakably blest.  But pray, 
+Mistress Anne, how about that question of naughty little Clare's?'  
+M. W.
+
+'Don't you think you had better let alone that question, reverend 
+sir?  Youngest pets are apt to be saucy, especially in these days, 
+but I didn't expect it of you!  It might have been the worse for you 
+if W. C. W. had not held his tongue in those days.  Just like 
+himself, but I am heartily glad that so he did.  A. W.'
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg eBook Chantry House *** Corrected and 
+fully spell-checked to here ***
+
+
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