HESTER.
 
 f HESTEK 
 
 A STORY OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. OLIPHANT 
 
 A springy motion in her gait, 
 
 A rising step, did indicate 
 
 Of pride and joy no common rate 
 
 That flush'd her spirit : 
 I know not by what name beside 
 I shall it call : if 'twas not pride, 
 It was a joy to that allied 
 She did inherit. 
 
 She was trained in Nature's school, 
 
 Nature had blest her. 
 A waking eye, a prying mind, 
 A heart that stirs, is hard to bind ; 
 A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind. 
 
 Ye could not Hester." 
 
 CHARLES LAMB. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 YOL. II 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1883 
 
 The Eight of Translation and Reproduction ?' Reserved
 
 LONDON : 
 
 B. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOK, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 THE YOUNG AND THE OLD 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A FAMILY PARTY 18 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONFIDENCES 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROLAND 53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WARNING 62 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DANCING TEAS 83 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FIRST OF THEM 104 
 
 2202855
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 A NEW COMPETITOR 
 
 A DOUBLE MIND 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 , 126 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 148 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 STRAIGHTFORWARD 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A CENTRE OF LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WAS IT LOVE ? . . 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHRISTMAS 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE 
 
 166 
 
 183 
 
 195 
 
 209 
 
 234
 
 HESTER.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 
 
 " I LIKE your Roland," said Miss Vernon. She 
 had come to pay one of her usual visits to her old 
 relations. The grandson whom Hester had made 
 acquaintance with without seeing his face, had now 
 been nearly a week at the Vernonry and was known 
 to everybody about. The captain's precautions had, 
 of course, come to nothing. He had gone, as in duty 
 bound, to pay his respects to the great lady who 
 was his relation too, though in a far-off degree, and 
 he had pleased her. Catherine thought of nothing 
 less than of giving a great pleasure to her old friends 
 by her praise. " He is full of news and information, 
 which is a godsend to us country folks, and he is 
 very good-looking, qui ne gate rien." 
 
 Mrs. Morgan looked up from her place by the 
 fireside with a smile of pleasure. She sat folding her 
 peaceful old hands with an air of beatitude, which, 
 
 VOL. II. B
 
 2 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 notwithstanding her content, had not been upon 
 her countenance before the young man's arrival. 
 
 " That is a great pleasure to me, Catherine to 
 know that you like him," said the old lady. " He 
 seems to me all that, and kind besides." 
 
 " What I should have expected your grandson to 
 be," said Catherine. " I want him to see the people 
 here, and make a few acquaintances. I don't suppose 
 that our little people at Redborough can be of much 
 importance to a young man in town ; still it is a pity 
 to neglect an opportunity. He is coming to dine 
 with me to-morrow as I suppose he told you ? " 
 
 The old lady nodded her head several times with 
 the same soft smile of happiness. 
 
 "You are always good," she said ; " you have done 
 everything, Catherine, for me and my old man. But 
 if you want to go straight to my heart you know the 
 way lies through the children my poor Katie's boys." 
 
 " I am glad that the direct route is so easy," Miss 
 Vernon said in her fine, large, beneficent way; " at 
 least in this case. The others I don't know." 
 
 Captain Morgan came and stood between his wife 
 and the visitor. To be sure it was to the fire he 
 went, by which he posted himself with his back to it, 
 as is the right of every Englishman. His countenance 
 wore a troubled look, very different from the happi- 
 ness of his wife's. He stood like a barrier between 
 them, a non-conductor intercepting the passage of 
 genial sentiment. 
 
 " My dear Catherine," he said, with a little form- 
 ality, " I don't wish to be unkind, nor to check your
 
 i.] THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 3 
 
 kindness ; but you must recollect that though he is 
 poor Katie's boy, she, poor soul, had nothing to do 
 with the up-bringing of him, and that, in short, we 
 know nothing about him. It has been my principle, 
 as you know, of late years, to insist upon living my 
 own life." 
 
 " All that, my kind old uncle, is understood," said 
 Catherine. " There are a great many people, I 
 believe, who are better than their principles, and 
 you are one of them that is all. I understand that 
 you know nothing about him. You are only a man, 
 which is a great drawback, but it is not to be helped : 
 we know, though we have seen no more of him than 
 you have. Isn't it so ? " 
 
 She leaned forward a little, and looked across at 
 the old lady, who smiled and nodded in return. Old 
 Mrs. Morgan was not disturbed by her husband's 
 disagreement. It did not even make her angry. 
 She took it with perfect composure, beaming over 
 her own discovery of her grandson, and the additional 
 happiness it 'had brought. 
 
 " My old man," she said, " Catherine, has his own 
 ways of thinking, we all know that ; and sometimes 
 he will act upon them, but most commonly not. One 
 thing I know, he will never shut his doors on his own 
 flesh and blood, nor deny his old wife what is her 
 greatest pleasure the thing that has been wanting 
 to me all the time all the time ! I scarcely knew 
 what it was. And if the boy had been distant or 
 strange, or showed that he knew nothing about us, 
 still I should have been content. I would have said, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Let him go ; you were right, Rowley, and not 1.' 
 But it is not so," the old lady went on after a pause, 
 " there's love in him. I remember when the girls 
 were married there was something I always seemed 
 to want. I found out what it was when the 
 first grandchild was born. It was to feel a baby in 
 my arms again that was what I wanted. I don't 
 know, Catherine," she added with humility, "if you 
 will think that foolish ?" 
 
 " If I will understand that is what you are 
 doubtful of for I am an old maid, and never had, 
 so to speak, a baby in rny arms ; but I do under- 
 stand," said Catherine, with a little moisture in her 
 eyes. "Well, and this great handsome fellow, a 
 man of the world, is he your baby that you wanted 
 so much ? " 
 
 " Pooh ! " said the old captain. " The great 
 advantage of being an old maid, as you say, is that 
 you are above the prejudices of parentage. It is 
 possible to get you to hear reason. Why should 
 my life be overshadowed permanently by the action 
 of another? That is what I ask. Why should I 
 be responsible for one who is not me, nor of my 
 mind ? " 
 
 0^ 
 
 " Listen to him ! You would think that was all 
 he knows," said Mrs. Morgan ; " there is no 
 fathoming that old man, my dear." 
 
 " What I have to say is, that we know nothing 
 of this young man," said the captain, shaking his 
 shaggy head as if to shake off his wife's comments. 
 " You will exercise your own judgment but don't
 
 i.] THE Yotns[G AND THE OLD. 5 
 
 take him on mine, for I don't know him. He is 
 well enough to look at; he has plenty to say for 
 himself; I dare say he is clever enough. Form 
 your own judgment and act upon that, but don't 
 come and say it's our fault if he disappoints you 
 that is all I have to say. Excuse me, Catherine, 
 if I take a walk even while you are here, for this 
 puts me out I allow it puts me out," Captain 
 Morgan said. 
 
 " What has made him take this idea ? " said 
 Miss Vernon, when Captain Morgan had hobbled 
 out. 
 
 " Oh, my dear, he has his fancies like another. 
 AVe have had many things to put up with, and he 
 thinks when it comes to the second generation 
 he thinks we have a right to peace and quiet in 
 our old age." 
 
 " And so you have," said Catherine gravely, " so 
 you have." 
 
 She did not ask any questions. Neither she nor 
 any one knew what it was with which, in the other 
 part of their lives, these old people had been com- 
 pelled to " put up." Nor did the old lady say. 
 She answered softly, "Yes, I think so too. Peace 
 is sweet, but it is not life." 
 
 " Some people would say it was better." 
 
 " They never knew, those people, what life was. 
 I like to see the children come and go one here, 
 one there. One in need of your sympathy, another 
 of your help, another, oh Catherine, even that 
 of your pardon, my dear ! " This made her pause,
 
 6 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 and brought, what was so unusual, a little glistening 
 moisture to the old lady's eyes. She was silent for 
 a moment, and smiled, perhaps to efface the im- 
 pression she had made. " If you can do nothing 
 else for them you can always do that," she said. 
 
 Catherine Vernon, who was sixty-five, and knew 
 herself to be an old woman, looked at the other, who 
 was over eighty, as a girl looks at her mother 
 wondering at her strange experiences, feeling herself 
 a child in presence of a knowledge which is not hers. 
 She had not experience enough to understand this 
 philosophy. She looked for a little at her companion, 
 wondering, and then she said, soothingly 
 
 " We must not dwell upon painful subjects. This 
 young fellow will not appeal to you so. What I 
 like in him is his independence. He has his own 
 opinion, and he expresses it freely. His society will 
 be very good for my nephew Edward. If he has 
 a fault and, indeed, I don't think that boy has 
 many it is that he is diffident about his own 
 opinion. Roland, if he stays long enough, will 
 help to cure him of that. And how does the other 
 affair go on ? " she added, with a perceptible pause, 
 and in a voice which was a little constrained. " No 
 doubt there is great triumph next door." 
 
 Old Mrs. Morgan shook her head. 
 
 " It is curious what mistakes we all make," she 
 said. 
 
 " Mistakes ? Do you mean that I am mistaken 
 about the triumph ? Well, they have very good 
 jreason. I should triumph too, if having been turned
 
 i.] THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 7 
 
 out of a great house, like Mrs. John, I managed to 
 get back again, and recover all that I had lost by 
 means of a thing so entirely my own creation as a 
 daughter. Even a son would have been different 
 I suppose. You know I am not a judge on that 
 point," Catherine said with a laugh. 
 
 The old lady continued to shake her head 
 slowly. 
 
 "The only one that has not made a mistake is 
 Harry. If he could have got what he wanted, it 
 would have been the best thing that could have 
 happened. There is no complication about that. 
 For lim it would have been the best." 
 
 "Do you mean to say," said Catherine, her eyes 
 lighting up with that fire of curiosity and interest 
 which overcomes even the languor of age. " Do 
 you mean to say that he is not to get what he 
 wishes ? Oh, this is too much ! That girl is eaten 
 up with pride. What is she saving herself for, I 
 wonder ? What can she expect ? " 
 
 Again old Mrs. Morgan shook her head, smiling 
 softly as at blunders upon which she could not be 
 'too severe. 
 
 " I have said already what mistakes we make, 
 Catherine ! often in our own career, always about 
 other people, my dear." 
 
 Upon this Catherine laughed, not having, though 
 she esteemed her old relation greatly, as much re- 
 spect for her judgment as probably it deserved. Miss 
 Vernon was too sensible a woman either to feel 
 or express any contempt for her own sex, as clever
 
 8 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 women who were not sensible used to do in those 
 days ; but there was an undertone in her mind of 
 indifference, to say the least, of another woman's 
 opinion. She had a feeling that it could not be 
 any better, and most likely was not so good, as 
 her own, for she had held a position not usual 
 among women, and knew that not many would 
 have proved equal to the emergency as she did. 
 What the old captain said would have impressed 
 her more than what his wife said, and this although 
 she was perfectly aware that the old lady in many 
 cases was considered the most judicious of the two. 
 
 " I know you are both fanatics for Hester," she 
 said, " who is not my favourite as she is yours. 
 You must take care that Roland does not fall a 
 victim to her. There are few girls about, and in 
 that case, when young men have a mind to make 
 fools of themselves, there is no choice. Do not 
 shake your kind head off; you know this is a 
 thing in which we have agreed we shall never 
 think alike." 
 
 " Never is a long day," said the old lady, tran- 
 quilly. She was well used to waiting. In her 
 experience, so many things had come to pass which 
 no one expected. Even now, she said to herself 
 if any one had told her that Roland Ashton would 
 one day be under her roof She added quietly, 
 " You are too much alike to do each other 
 justice." 
 
 At this Catherine grew red. It had been in- 
 timated to her before, and she had scarcely been
 
 i ] THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 9 
 
 able to support the imputation. But she mastered 
 herself with an effort. Nowhere perhaps but in 
 this house would she have done so ; but these 
 old people had an ascendency over her which she 
 could not explain. 
 
 " We will say nothing on that point," she said, 
 quickly. " Your news has taken me so completely 
 by surprise. Are you sure of it ? Why should 
 Mrs. John's daughter have rejected so excellent a 
 settlement ? She is looking for something better, 
 I suppose ? " 
 
 "I think that was a mistake too," said the old 
 lady. " She says herself that Harry, though he is 
 not clever, is good and true. Ah ! it is you who 
 shake your head now. In some things even our 
 Catherine fails ; he is not the equal of Hester ; but 
 it is not my opinion that a man need be always 
 superior to his wife. Where there is love, it does 
 not matter. I should have been pleased to see it ; 
 but she is young ; she thinks differently. She is 
 looking for nothing consciously ; but in her heart 
 for love, which is the visitor one is always looking 
 for when one is young." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said Catherine ; " it is the old people 
 that are romantic, not the young. It is the settle- 
 ments that are the things to be considered ; or 
 perhaps she is thinking of a title ? Her mother is 
 capable of any nonsense," she said with a scornful 
 laugh. 
 
 Mrs. Morgan made no reply. Her peaceful aspect 
 with her folded hands, the soft little smile on her old
 
 10 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 mouth, the slight shake of the head, was perhaps a 
 trial of patience for the other, who felt herself thrown 
 back into the category of the young and superficial 
 by this calm expectation and quietness. Catherine 
 Vernon was still in the region of prejudice and dis- 
 like. She had not lived into that superior sphere of 
 toleration and calm. Impatience filled her veins. But 
 she mastered herself, the atmosphere subduing her. 
 And Captain Morgan came hobbling back, having 
 calmed himself down too. 
 
 "Ellen has come back," said Miss Vernon, to 
 change the subject, "from Paris, with clothes enough 
 for all the neighbourhood. It amuses me to think of 
 her among the bonnet-shops. What true enjoyment ! 
 and scarcely less now to show them to all her friends. 
 Now there is a pleasure you cannot enjoy, uncle. A 
 man could not call his friends together to look at 
 his new hats." 
 
 " There is no telling what a young man can do in 
 the way of folly till he is put to it," said the captain. 
 " I am loth to recognise any inferiority. What do 
 you think about all these failures, Catherine ? or 
 rather, if you have withdrawn from it, what do the 
 boys think ? " 
 
 " J hope I am still capable of giving an opinion," 
 said Miss Ternon. " None of them touch us, which 
 is the chief thing. For my part, speculation in this 
 wild way is my horror. If you could see the pro- 
 posals that used to be put before me ! Not an un- 
 dertaking that was not the safest and the surest in 
 the world ! The boys are well indoctrinated in my
 
 i.] THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 11 
 
 opinions on that subject. They know better, I hope, 
 than to snatch at a high percentage ; and love the 
 substance, the good honest capital, which I love. I 
 think," she continued, " there is a little of a miser in 
 me, or perhaps you will say in all women. I love to 
 
 see my money to count it over like the By the 
 
 way, it was the king that did that while the queen 
 was eating her bread and honey. That goes against 
 my theory." 
 
 " A good many things go against your theory. 
 They say that there are no such wild speculators as 
 women. It seems easy to them that a sort of miracle 
 should happen ; that something should come out of 
 nothing." 
 
 " They have not had my experience," said Catherine. 
 " But Edward and Harry are as steady as two churches ; 
 that is," she added with a complacency which they 
 all recollected afterwards, " Edward is the head ; the 
 other fortunately has the good sense not to attempt 
 to think for himself." 
 
 " Hester would have done that for him," said 
 Mrs. Morgan, in an undertone ; but Catherine caught 
 it and went on with heightened colour, for the idea 
 that Hester tliat girl ! might have had something 
 to say in the government of the bank, struck her as 
 if some one had given her a blow. 
 
 " Edward is the heart and soul of everything," 
 she said. " How fortunate it was for me that my 
 choice fell upon that boy. I should say he had an 
 old head on young shoulders, but that I don't like 
 the conjunction. He is young enough. He has
 
 12 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 always been accustomed to family life, and loves his 
 home." 
 
 " It is, no doubt," said Captain Morgan, kindly, 
 " that he has had the advantage of your own experi- 
 ence and teaching more than the other, Catherine." 
 
 " That would be a delightful thought for me," 
 Miss Vernon said with a suffusion of pleasure in her 
 eyes. " Perhaps there is some truth in it. I have 
 done my best to share my lights, such as they are, 
 with him ; but he goes beyond me. And to think 
 that I hesitated between Edward and Harry ! I hope 
 I am grateful to Providence that turned me to the 
 best. The other family are following out their lot 
 quite characteristically. Ellen's husband has a good 
 deal of worldly sense, which is wanting to that bit 
 of a butterfly. He is trying hard to get her to make 
 up to me. She has come to see me twice, full of 
 pretty speeches about Algy's great respect for me. 
 Human nature," said Catherine with a laugh, " is as 
 good, nay, far better, than a play. How cunning it 
 thinks it is, but in reality how very easy to see 
 through." 
 
 Here old Mrs. Morgan began to shake her head 
 again, smiling always, but with an indulgent, gentle 
 contradictoriness which was more near making Miss 
 Vernon angry than anything she had encountered 
 in this house before. 
 
 " What does she sit there for, like a Chinese idol ? " 
 said the captain. "She has a wonderful opinion 
 of herself, that old woman. Human nature may be 
 easy to see through, but it is very hard to under-
 
 i.j THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 13 
 
 stand, Catherine. What is that the Bible says about 
 ' deceitful above all things ' ? When you try to get 
 hold of yourself, did you ever find a more slippery 
 customer ? There's a kind of amusement in it, when 
 you are up to all your own dodges." 
 
 " Rowley, my dear ! " said the old lady, surprised. 
 
 " It is true I am too old for slang : but one picks 
 it up, and sometimes it is happy enough. I say 
 when you are up to your own dodges ; but that is 
 difficult, and takes a great deal of time. To find 
 yourself trotting forth the same old pretences that 
 you did at twenty, attempting to throw the same sort 
 of dust in your own eyes, is wonderful. There is a 
 sort of artlessness in the artifice that is amusing, as 
 you say ; but it is only amusing when you are strong 
 enough to get the upper hand." 
 
 " When which of you gets the upper hand ? for 
 there seem to be two of you," said Catherine, not 
 so much amused in her own person as she made a 
 pretence of being for this was certainly not her view. 
 
 " To be sure," said the old captain, " there are two 
 of you, we all know that ; and in most cases one of 
 you a very silly fellow, taken in on every hand, while 
 the other man sniggers in his sleeve. Of course I am 
 speaking from my own side ladies may be different 
 from anything I know. But after all," he went on. 
 " I don't think so ; for I've been a woman myself, 
 so to speak, through her, for sixty years that is a 
 long spell. I don't see much difference, though in 
 some things she has got to the last word sooner 
 than I."
 
 14 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " I think we mean different things," said Catherine, 
 rising ; " that was not the view I was taking. Yours 
 is better in the moral aspect, for I suppose it is more 
 profitable to judge ourselves than others ; but one 
 cannot always be studying one's self." 
 
 There was a half-apology in her tone, and at the 
 same time a half-impatience. She did not desire to 
 be turned from the comedy which she had in her 
 way enjoyed for years, seeing through, as she said, all 
 the little world of dependents that hung about her, 
 drawing out their weaknesses, perceiving the bitter 
 grudge that lay under their exterior of smiles, and 
 the thousand ways in which they made up to them- 
 selves for the humiliation of being in her debt in 
 order to turn to what might prove the less amusing 
 contemplation of her own weaknesses, or recognise 
 the element of evil in that which was certainly not 
 amusing. Her carriage was standing at the gate 
 which admitted to the garden front of the Vernonry, 
 and it was with a sense of comfort that she got rid 
 of the old captain at his door, and threw a keen, 
 half-laughing glance at the windows on the other 
 side. Mr. Mildmay Vernon was making himself 
 very uncomfortable at the only angle of his room 
 which permitted him to see the gate, watching for 
 her exit. He kissed his hand to her as she paused 
 and looked round before getting into the carriage, 
 and Catherine realised as if she had seen it, the 
 snarl of mockery with which this salutation was 
 accompanied. In the intervening space were the 
 two sisters keeping the most vigilant watch for her
 
 i.] THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 15 
 
 reappearance, counting the minutes which she spent 
 on the other side of the house, and saying ill-natured 
 things to each other as they nodded and waved their 
 hands. She was aware of the very tone in which 
 these speeches would be made, as well as if she had 
 heard them, and it gave her a great sense of enjoy- 
 ment to reflect that they were all sitting in rooms 
 well warmed and carefully kept, and full of benevo- 
 lent prevision of all their wants, while they thus 
 permitted themselves to sneer and snarl at the 
 bestower. Just as she drove away, Hester by chance 
 opened the verandah door, and came out to gather 
 some of the leaves of the Virginia creeper which 
 were dropping with every blast. Hester's serious 
 eyes met hers with scarcely; any greeting at all on 
 either side. Catherine did not know very well how 
 it was that this girl came into the comedy. Had 
 she been Harry's betrothed, Miss Vernon could 
 have understood it, and though she could not but 
 have felt the triumph of her old rival, yet it would 
 have added delightfully to the commonplace drama 
 in which everybody pursued their own mean ends 
 under high-sounding pretences. She would have 
 been able to smile at the commonplace young fellow 
 taken in by the delusion that he was loved for him- 
 self, and laugh in the conviction that Harry's was 
 no deep affection to be wounded, but that he could 
 quite well take care of himself, and that between 
 these two it would be diamond cutting diamond. 
 But the present state of affairs she did not under- 
 stand. All that was amusing in it was the doubtless
 
 16 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 unbounded disappointment of the scheming little 
 mother, who thus must find all her fine schemes 
 collapsing in her hands. She could not refrain from 
 mentioning the matter at dinner that evening, though 
 Edward had a little failed on the former occasion, in 
 that backing up of all her opinions and feelings 
 which she had been accustomed to expect from 
 him. 
 
 " I find there is to be no match such as that we 
 were speaking of," she said. "Harry has either 
 drawn back or he is refused. Perhaps it may be 
 that he has thought better of it," she added suddenly, 
 without premeditation, grudging, as perhaps was 
 natural, to let her young antagonist carry off the 
 honours of the day. 
 
 " I thought it was not quite so certain as people 
 seemed to believe." 
 
 " Do you mean that Harry would persevere ? " 
 
 "I mean that she would accept him, Aunt 
 Catherine. She is not a girl, so far as I can judge, 
 of whom one could ever be so sure." 
 
 " In the name of wonder," cried out Miss Vernon, 
 " what does she expect ? Good heavens ! where is 
 she to get another such chance again ? To refuse 
 Harry, for a girl in her position, is madness. Where 
 does she think she will get another such offer ? 
 Upon my word," said Catherine, with a little laugh, 
 " I can scarcely help being sorry for her poor little 
 mother. Such a disappointment for Mrs. John her 
 White House and her recovered ' position ' that she 
 loves so dearly, and all her comforts I could find
 
 i.] THE YOUNG AND THE OLD. 17 
 
 it in my heart to be very sorry for her," she said, 
 with another little laugh. 
 
 Edward gave a glance up at her from his plate, 
 on which he had the air of being intent. The young 
 man thought he saw through Catherine, as she 
 thought she saw through all the other inmates of 
 her little world. What he did see through was the 
 superficial badness which her position had made, 
 but he had not so much as a glimmering of the 
 other Catherine, the nobler creature who stood 
 behind ; and though he smiled and assented, a 
 sensation of disgust came into his heart. He, too, 
 had his comedy of human nature, which secretly, 
 under cover of his complacency and agreement with 
 Catherine's opinion, he regarded with the bitterest 
 and angriest scorn. What an extraordinary shock 
 would it have been for his companion, who felt 
 herself to sit in the place of the audience, seeing 
 the puppets play their pranks upon the stage and 
 exhibit all their fooleries, to know that she herself 
 was the actor, turned outside in and seen through 
 in all her devices, to this boy whom she loved ! 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A FAMILY PARTY. 
 
 " A GRANDSON of Captain Morgan ! Well, that 
 is not much to meet us at our wedding dinner at 
 least, if it is not our wedding dinner Oh, I know 
 there was our state one, and we met all the old 
 fogies whom I detest ! " cried Mrs. Algernon Merri- 
 dew, born Ellen Vernon ; " but this is only the 
 second, and the second is quite as important as the 
 first. She should have asked the county first, to 
 introduce us properly and then the town ; but 
 Aunt Catherine is one of the people who never do 
 what's expected of them. Besides, I don't want to 
 meet her relations on the other side. They're no- 
 bodies. She spends quantities of money upon them 
 which she has no business to do, seeing it's the 
 Vernons' money and not hers at all, if you come 
 to that." 
 
 "Come, Nell," said her husband with a laugh. 
 He was a dark young man, as was to be expected 
 seeing that she was so fair a young woman good-
 
 CHAP, ir.] A FAMILY PARTY. 19 
 
 looking, with whiskers, which were the fashion in 
 those days, of a bushy blackness, and hair which 
 suggested pomade. " Come, Nell," he said, " strike 
 fair. Catherine Vernon does a great deal of good 
 with her money, and doesn't spare upon the Vernons 
 all the town knows that." 
 
 " Oh no, she doesn't spare upon the Vernons all 
 those useless old creatures that she has up there in 
 that horrid old-fashioned house ! I think if she did 
 a little more for real relations, and left those old 
 
 fogies alone, it would be more like Expecting 
 
 one to call upon them, and take all sorts of trouble ! 
 A.nd look at poor old Harry kept with his nose at 
 his desk for ever." 
 
 "Poor old Harry is very lucky, I think. Fair 
 play is a jewel. If she doesn't do all you want, 
 who do you expect would?" 
 
 " You, of course ! " cried Ellen, as was natural : 
 and they were so newly married that he thought it 
 very pretty ; " that is the good of you ; and if you 
 go in for Aunt Catherine too, when you know I 
 can't endure her 
 
 " Of course the good of me is to do whatever you 
 want," he said, with various honeymoon demonstra- 
 tions ; " but as for going in for Aunt Catherine 
 you must know this, Nelly, that I'm very proud of 
 being connected with Catherine Yernon. I have 
 heard of her all my life as a sort of goddess, you 
 know. You must not put me off it all at once I 
 couldn't be put off it. There now, there's nothing 
 to look sulky about." 
 
 c 2
 
 20 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " You are such an old Redborough person," Ellen 
 said, with a little pout : which was very true. He 
 was not, indeed, at all a good match for a Vernon ; 
 but his whiskers things much admired in those days 
 and her self-will had worsted all opposition. He 
 was no more than the son of the perfectly respectable 
 and very well-to-do solicitor, who was universally 
 respected in Redborough, and though Algernon had 
 been in town and sown his wild oats, he had never 
 entirely got out of his mind the instinctive convic- 
 tion that Redborough was the centre of the world ; 
 and to feel himself within the charmed circle in 
 which Catherine Vernon moved was a promotion 
 which was intoxicating to the young man. Not 
 even his devotion to his pretty wife, which was 
 great, could bring him to disown that allegiance 
 to Catherine Vernon which every Redborough man 
 was born with. It was a sort of still more intoxicat- 
 ing proof of the dignity he had come to, that the 
 pretty wife herself turned up her little nose at 
 Catherine. That Mrs. Algernon should be so 
 familiar with the highest excellence known to 
 them, as to venture to do this, was to the whole 
 family of the Merridews an admiration just as a 
 family entirely loyal might be flattered by having 
 a princess among them who should permit herself to 
 laugh at the majesty of the king ; but this did not 
 shake their own fidelity. And Algernon, though he 
 ventured with bated breath to say "Aunt Catherine" 
 when he spoke of her in his own family, had not 
 got over his veneration for Miss Vernon. He had
 
 IL] A FAMILY PARTY. 21 
 
 taken her in to dinner on the occasion of the great 
 banquet, which Ellen described so lightly, with a 
 sensation bordering upon the hysterical. Rapture, 
 and pride, and panic were in it. He did not know, 
 according to the vulgar description, whether he were 
 on his head or his heels, and his voice made a 
 buzzing in his own ears as he talked. The second 
 time was to be in the intimacy of the domestic 
 circle if it had been to meet a crossing-sweeper it 
 would still have been a bewildering gratification ; 
 but all the more, his wife's criticism and her indiffer- 
 ence, and even discontent with the notice which 
 to him seemed [so overpowering an honour, pleased 
 the young man. She felt herself every bit as good 
 as Catherine, and yet she was his Mrs. Algernon 
 Merridew ! The thought was one adapted to make 
 his head swim with pride and delight. 
 
 It was entirely a family party, as Catherine had 
 said, and a very small one. The Miss Vernon-Ridg- 
 \vays had been invited, to make the number even, 
 and their preparations for the unusual honour had 
 taken up four days at least. When they sailed into 
 the drawing-room at the Grange, having spent ten 
 minutes in shaking out the flounces and arranging 
 the flowers and ribbons with which they were orna- 
 mented, it would be impossible to attempt to describe 
 the disgust of the bride. She turned her eyes upon 
 her husband, who for his part was in a state of 
 beatitude not to be disturbed by trifles, with a look 
 of indignant rage which he did not understand. " To 
 think she should ask those old things to meet us !
 
 22 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 I declare I have a great mind to go right away," she 
 whispered to Harry, who was more sympathetic. 
 Harry allowed that it was almost beyond bearing. 
 " But I wouldn't make a quarrel if I were you," he 
 said. In the meantime the sisters went up beaming 
 to their dear Catherine, whom they kissed with 
 devotion. How well she was looking ! how becoming 
 her dress was ! but that lovely lace would be becom- 
 ing to any one ! they cried. Catherine received all 
 these compliments with a smile, and she took great 
 pleasure in Ellen's disgust, and the way in which she 
 turned her ear instead of her cheek to the salutations 
 of the cousins, who were rapturous in their admira- 
 tion of her in all her bridal finery. The entry of the 
 stranger, who was unknown to any of them, made a 
 diversion. Roland Ashton, when he was visible in 
 the full light of Miss Vernon's drawing-room, turned 
 out, in appearance at least, a very valuable addition 
 to the society. Ellen, who was critical, and inclined 
 by nature to a poor opinion of old Captain Morgan's 
 grandson, looked at him with astonished, and indeed 
 reluctant, approval. His whiskers were not so thick 
 or so black as Algernon's ; but he had a fine mass of 
 dark hair, wavy, and rather longer than is now per- 
 mitted by fashion, fine features and dark eyes, with 
 a paleness which was considered very interesting in 
 those days. He was much taller and of more im- 
 posing aspect than Edward, whose stature was not 
 great ; he was far more intellectual than Harry ; 
 altogether of the four young men present, his was 
 no doubt the most noticeable figure. They all
 
 ii.] A FAMILY PARTY. 23 
 
 appraised him mentally as he came in Catherine 
 first of all, with a sensation of pride that the one 
 individual who was her relation, without being the 
 relation of her family, was a creditable novelty to in- 
 troduce among them ; the others, with various degrees 
 of quickened curiosity and grudging. The grudge was 
 intensified in the persons of the sisters, who could 
 not endure this interloper. They had felt it their 
 duty to draw the line at the Morgans long ago, and 
 it was all they could do to behave with propriety at 
 Catherine's table when they were seated beside the 
 descendant of the old people on whom Catherine 
 spent her money in what they felt to be an entirely 
 unjustifiable way. They were the only persons pre- 
 sent who kept up their grudge to the end. In 
 Ellen's case it disappeared with the clear perception 
 of his good looks. But when Mr. Ashton offered his 
 arm to Miss Matilda Vernon-Ridgway, the look with 
 which she received the offered courtesy was enough 
 to freeze any adventurous young man into stone. 
 It did not, however. It made him all but laugh as 
 he glanced at Catherine, who for her part contem- 
 plated her cousins with much gratification. Miss 
 Matilda placed the end of her finger upon the young 
 man's arm. She kept at as great a distance as 
 possible as she crossed the hall by his side. To the 
 little speech about the weather, which he thought 
 it his duty to make her, she returned a sort of 
 inarticulate reply a monosyllable, but conveying no 
 meaning. When she was seated at table she flung 
 herself, so to speak, upon her neighbour at the other
 
 24 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 side, who, as it happened, was Harry Vernon, and 
 who was not prepared for the honour. All this was 
 to Catherine as good as a play. 
 
 " What a climate, and what a poky old place this 
 Redborough is," said Ellen, preparing to lead the 
 conversation, as she finished her soup. She spoke 
 apparently to Edward, but in reality to the company, 
 which was not too large for general conversation. 
 " It is dreadful to come back here in the beginning 
 of winter from Abroad. I declare I quite envy you, 
 you people who have never been Abroad ; you don't 
 know the difference. Bright sunshine all day long, 
 and bands playing, and the best of music, and all 
 your friends to talk to, sitting out under the trees. 
 Compare that with Redborough, where, beyond a 
 few tiresome little dinner parties, and perhaps three 
 dances at Christmas " 
 
 " The White House used to be a great addition to 
 the cheerfulness of the place," said Edward. " Harry 
 will have no heart to keep it up by himself now you 
 have left him." 
 
 " Oh, Harry shall marry," said Ellen, " I have 
 made up my mind to that ; and as soon as we have 
 got quite settled, I mean to set things a-going. I 
 mean to have a Thursday, Aunt Catherine. We 
 shall be glad if you'll come. It is to be a The 
 Dansante, which is quite a novelty here. You learn 
 so much better about all these things Abroad." 
 
 " Where is Abroad ? " said Roland, in an under- 
 tone which was so confidential and intimate, that 
 had he been anybody else, Miss Matilda must have
 
 IK] A FAMILY PARTY. 25 
 
 yielded to its seduction. As it was, she only gave 
 him a look of surprise at his ignorance, and cleared 
 her throat and shook her bracelets in order to be 
 able to strike in. 
 
 " A Thd Dansante is exactly the kind of entertain- 
 ment that suits me," Catherine said. 
 
 " Yes, won't it be nice ? " said Ellen, unconscious. 
 " I learnt all the figures of the cotillion, which is the 
 most amusing thing to end up with, and I made Algy 
 learn it. As soon as ever our house is ready we shall 
 start. It will be a new feature in society. As for 
 Harry, till he's married he'll have to be content with 
 bachelor's dinners, for I can't always be leaving Algy 
 to look after him." 
 
 Here Harry murmured something, stammering, 
 and with a blush, to the intent that the bachelor's 
 dinners would last a long time. 
 
 " We don't see you so often at our place as we used 
 to do, Mr. Harry," said Miss Matilda, sweetly. " It 
 used to be quite a pleasure to watch for you ; and 
 the summer evenings were so tempting, weren't they ? 
 Oh, fie ! it is very naughty to love and to ride away. 
 We always said that was what was likely to happen, 
 didn't we ? " she said to her sister, on the other side 
 of the table. 
 
 Miss Martha nodded and smiled in return, and 
 cried 
 
 " Oh, always," in a shriller tone. 
 
 " What's that you thought likely to happen ? 
 Then it didn't happen if it was Harry," cried Ellen, 
 instinctively, ranging herself on her brother's side.
 
 26 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " But about this cotillion ? " said Edward. " What 
 is it ? I thought it had something to say to a lady's 
 dress. I am sure it had in the eighteenth century. 
 We shall have to go to school to learn what your 
 novelty means." 
 
 " She put me to school, I can tell you," cried 
 Algernon, from the other end of the table. " I had 
 
 O ' 
 
 to work ! She is the most dreadful little tyrant, 
 though she looks 'so soft." 
 
 " Dancing is neglected shamefully nowadays," said 
 Miss Matilda ; " shamefully ! We were taught very 
 differently. Don't you remember, dear, Mousheer 
 D'Egmont and his little violin, Martha ? we were 
 taught the minuet first on account of our 
 curtseys " 
 
 " Oh, the funny, old-fashioned thing ! You never 
 curtsey nowadays ; even in the Lancers it is only a 
 bob," said Ellen, " or a bend mostly with your head. 
 You never see such a thing nowadays." 
 
 " My dear ! In the presence of your sovereign," 
 said Miss Matilda, with dignity, " it always continues 
 necessary. There is no change in that respect so far 
 as I am aware, Martha, is there ? You were in the 
 habit of attending Drawing-rooms longer than I." 
 
 " Oh, never any change in that ! " cried Miss 
 Martha, rising upon herself, so to speak, and erect- 
 ing her head as she looked from one end of the table 
 to another. It was not often that they had such a 
 triumph. They had been Presented. They had 
 made their curtseys to their Sovereign, as Miss 
 Matilda said.
 
 ii.] A FAMILY PARTY. 27 
 
 Silence fell upon the table, only broken by the 
 jingle of Ellen's bracelets, which she pushed up her 
 arm in her mortification ; and there were so many of 
 them that they made a considerable noise. Even 
 she was cowed for the moment ; and what was worse 
 was, that her husband being simple-minded, and 
 getting a little familiar with Catherine, now turned 
 his looks of awe and veneration upon the Miss 
 Vernon-Ridgways, who were so well acquainted with 
 the court and its ways. 
 
 And Catherine laughed. 
 
 " We are all behind in that respect," she said. " I 
 am fond of pomp and ceremonial for my part. It 
 is a pretty thing, but I like it best at a distance. 
 It is my fault, I have no doubt, that your wife 
 is ignorant of Drawing-rooms, Mr. Merridew." 
 
 " I always said so, Aunt Catherine," cried Ellen, 
 who was ready to cry, in the midst of her triumph. 
 " It is horrid for girls to have relations with those 
 out-of-the-way notions." 
 
 Catherine only laughed ; it was her habitual 
 comment. She turned smiling to young Ashton by 
 her side. 
 
 " You ought not to dislike state," he said, in an 
 undertone ; " you who are a kind of queen yourself 
 or, shall I say, grand duchess in your own town ? " 
 
 "A queen without any subjects," said Catherine, 
 shaking her head. This time she did not laugh } 
 and there was even a little glimmer of sadness in 
 her eyes. 
 
 " Not so. I am a stranger, you know. When I
 
 28 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 go about the town, I hear of nothing but Catherine 
 Vernon. They call you so, do you know tout court, 
 without miss or madam that has a great effect upon 
 one's imagination." 
 
 Young Merridew had thrust forward his head, and 
 was listening, which perhaps was not very good 
 manners. 
 
 " It is quite true," he said eagerly. " Ellen says I 
 am a very Redborough person. I have been born 
 and bred here. I can't remember the time when 
 I didn't look up to her, as if she was something 
 above the human " 
 
 " And yet you have married a Vernon ! " said 
 Catherine ; but she was pleased. " It is not an un- 
 common thing in this world," she said. " People at 
 a distance think more kindly of one than those who 
 are near; but this is not talk for a dinner-table. 
 Not to interfere with Ellen's cotillion" she said, in a 
 louder tone, " I am thinking of a party for Christmas, 
 young people. As it is for you, you must lay your 
 heads together, and decide what it is to be." 
 
 Then there arose a flutter of talk, chiefly main- 
 tained by the ladies, but in which young Merridew 
 was appealed to by his wife ; and Harry, stimulated 
 by the same hand, and Edward, mindful of his duties, 
 took part. 
 
 Catherine and her young relative were left, as it 
 were, alone, amid the babble of tongues. 
 
 " I cannot allow myself to look at it gravely," she 
 said. " I laugh ; it is the best way. They all take 
 what they can get, but their opinions, if they were
 
 ii.] A FAMILY PARTY. 29 
 
 individually weighed, of Catherine Vernon, would 
 surprise you. They don't think much of me. I dare 
 say I quite deserve it," she said, after a pause, with 
 another laugh. " Don't you think that in most cases 
 enthusiasm is confined to those people who person- 
 ally know the least of the object of it ? That's an 
 awkward sentence, but never mind." 
 
 " Isn't it the same thing as to say that a great man 
 is never a hero to his valet, or that a prophet has no 
 honour in his own country ? " 
 
 " Not the last, at least," said Catherine ; ",for being 
 no prophet, you yourself say I have got some honour 
 in my country. As for the valet, I don't know," she 
 continued, " but a maid, though she appraises you at 
 your true value, and is convinced you are a fool in 
 many things, still is not without a prejudice in your 
 favour. She would like, though she maintains her 
 erect position, to see the rest of the world bow down 
 before you. That is amusing too." 
 
 " You are a philosopher," said the stranger, look- 
 ing at her with a tender regard in his eyes, which 
 made a great impression generally upon younger 
 women, and moved even Catherine as with a sense 
 of kindness of kindness disproportioned to their 
 actual knowledge of each other, which is a thing 
 which conciliates everybody, looking as if it implied 
 a particular attraction. 
 
 " Your grandfather thinks me a cynic," she said. 
 She liked these few words of quiet talk in the midst 
 of the mingled voices of the others, and was grateful 
 to the young man who looked so sympathetic. " I
 
 30 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 don't know that I am a cynic, but rather than cry, I 
 prefer to laugh. Is that cynicism ? " He gave her 
 a look which would have no doubt had a great effect 
 upon the heart of a younger woman, and which 
 pleased Catherine, old as she was. 
 
 " I think it is true philosophy ; but some of us 
 have feelings that will not be laughed at," said 
 Roland. He was accustomed to make great use of 
 his fine eyes, and on this occasion he did so with 
 the greatest effect. There could not have been 
 more tender sympathy than was in them. Could 
 he be really so much impressed by her character and 
 position, and the failure of true gratitude and kind- 
 ness ? Catherine Vernon would probably have 
 laughed at any one else of her own age who had 
 been so easily persuaded ; but it is always so much 
 more easy to believe in the sincerity of affection 
 which is called forth by one's self ! Her eyes softened 
 as she looked at him. 
 
 " I think you and I, Roland, are going to be great 
 friends," she said, and then turned with a slight 
 little sigh, so small as to be almost imperceptible, 
 to the louder voices appealing to her. " You must 
 settle it among you," she said. "I give Edward 
 carte Uanche. The only thing is that it must take in 
 everybody, all the Vernonry and our neighbours as 
 well a real Christmas party." 
 
 " Oh, don't you think, Aunt Catherine, Christmas 
 is such a bore ! " said Ellen, "and family parties ! Let 
 us have strangers. Let us have people we never set 
 eyes on before. Christmas is so vulgar ! Look at
 
 n.] A FAMILY PARTY. 31 
 
 all the newspapers with their little stories; the 
 snow on the ground and the wanderer coming home, 
 and so forth. I am so glad we haven't got a 
 wanderer to come home." 
 
 " Christmas brings a great many duties I am 
 sure," said Miss Matilda. " Have you seen the 
 charity flannel at Roby's, Catherine ? It is so good, 
 almost good enough to wear one's self; and the 
 blankets really look like blankets, not horse-cloths. 
 Do you think that is good or bad ? What you give 
 in charity ought to be different, don't you think ? 
 not to let them suppose they have a right " 
 
 " You forget," said her sister, eager to get in a 
 word, " that dear Catherine always gives the best." 
 
 " Ah ! it is well to be Catherine," said Miss 
 Matilda, "but many people think there should be a 
 difference. What do you think, Mr. Harry ? Cathe- 
 rine may consider poor people's feelings ; but there 
 are some who think it is wrong to do so for who is 
 like Catherine ? She is always giving. She is 
 always so considerate. Whatever she does is sure 
 to be the best way." 
 
 " I am certain/' said Algernon Merridew beaming 
 with honest loyalty from where he sat by Miss 
 Yernon's side, "that all Redborough is of that 
 opinion ; a%d Redborough ought to know." 
 
 " You mean all but the people to whom I give," 
 said Catherine, "there are not so many of them: 
 but they are the best judges of all, and I don't think 
 they approve." 
 
 " There's nobody so unreasonable as the poor,"
 
 32 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 said Ellen, " they are never satisfied. You should 
 just see them turning over the pieces from my 
 kitchen. Of course all the pieces are quite nice ; 
 everything is, I hope, where I am housekeeper. Oh, 
 I know I am extravagant, I like the best of every- 
 thing : but nothing satisfies the poor. Cold potatoes 
 now with mayonnaise sauce are what I adore, but 
 they throw them away." 
 
 " Perhaps they don't have the mayonnaise sauce ? " 
 suggested Edward. 
 
 " Oh, goodness ! I hope not ; that would be 
 simply immoral," cried Miss Matilda. " But, Mr. 
 Harry, you don't give your opinion, none of the 
 gentlemen give their opinion. Perhaps that is 
 because money is what they give, and one shilling 
 is just like another. You can't have charity shil- 
 lings. Oh, but I approve of charity flannel ; and 
 some people always like to make a difference in 
 what they give to the poor. Poor ladies and gentle- 
 men soon find that out, I assure you. People give 
 you useful presents. If they want to invite you, 
 they invite you when there's nobody there. They 
 think a family dinner or high tea quite treat 
 enough for you. And quite right, don't you think, 
 when one is in the position of a dependent ? It 
 keeps people in their proper places. Dear Cathe- 
 rine buys the best flannel, better than I can afford, 
 for her Christmas gifts. She is never like other 
 people, always more liberal ; but I should buy the 
 whitey-brown, that is, if I could afford any at all 
 you know."
 
 ii.] A FAMILY PARTY. 33 
 
 " Don't attack me, Matilda," said Catherine, with 
 a laugh, " all along the line." 
 
 " Oh, attack ! you, dear Catherine ? not for the 
 world. We all know what a friend you are. What 
 should we do without you ? Whether we are in 
 Paris fashions or our old silks, don't we owe it all 
 to you ? " 
 
 There was a little pause round the table which 
 was somewhat awkward ; for what could anybody 
 say ? The clever ones were all non-plussed, but 
 Harry, who was the stolid one, suddenly became 
 audible with his round rolling bass voice. " Whoever 
 says that, and whether it was well meant or not, I 
 say the same. It's all quite true. We owe every- 
 thing to Aunt Catherine. I am always ready to say 
 so, wherever I go." 
 
 " Have we come to Christmas toasts already ? " 
 said Edward intervening. " We had better not start 
 that sort of thing before the time. We all know 
 what we owe to Aunt Catherine." 
 
 " Hush, hush," she cried, waving her hand tohim 
 as she rose. " Now we shall release your noble 
 intellects from the necessity of coming down to our 
 level," Catherine said as she followed carefully Miss 
 Matilda's long train. It was very long, though it 
 was rather flimsy, and the progress of the ladies was 
 impeded by it. Ellen swept out lightly in advance 
 with a perfect command of hers. It was the first 
 time she had preceded the old cousins in her dignity 
 as a married woman, and the ring of her bracelets 
 sounded like a little trumpet-note. As she followed 
 
 VOL. ii. D
 
 34 HESTER, [CHAP. 
 
 them out Catherine Yeruon returned to her habitual 
 mood of amused indulgence. She had been almost 
 sentimental for a moment, she said to herself, be- 
 guiled by that boy's sympathetic eyes, which no doubt 
 he must make great use of among the young ones. 
 She laughed at herself not unpleasantly, to think of 
 the confidences she had almost been beguiled into. 
 But it pleased her to think that it was her mother's 
 blood which had exercised this influence upon her. 
 After all, it might be the Vernons only who were 
 sordid and ungrateful. The old captain and his wife 
 had always been exceptions to her sweeping judg- 
 ment of human nature. And now it was their 
 descendant who had touched her heart. Perhaps it 
 was only the Vernonry after all. But she was fully 
 restored to her usual kind of amusement as she 
 watched the progress of her three companions into 
 a temporary but eager intimacy on the score of 
 Ellen's Paris fashions which they were eager to ex- 
 amine. The bride was as eager to exhibit as they 
 were to see, and was so well pleased with herself 
 as to be impervious to the little covert blows which 
 Miss Matilda gave under the shield of her flatteries. 
 Catherine Vernon established herself in her own 
 chair, and gathered her costly silken skirts about 
 her, and took up the newspaper, which people in the 
 country have to read in the evening instead of the 
 morning ; but she did not read much. She was 
 diverted by the talk. " Crinoline is certainly going 
 out," said Ellen. "I heard it from the very best 
 shops. Look at mine, it is quite small, hardly to be
 
 n.] A FAMILY PARTY. 35 
 
 called crinoline at all. This is the very newest, from 
 the Grangd Magaseens du Louvre. You see yours 
 are twice as big," Ellen added, making a little 
 pirouette to exhibit the diminished proportions of 
 her hoops. The Miss Vernon-Ridgways looked down 
 upon their own skirts with unquiet eyes. 
 
 "The French are always so exaggerated," said 
 Miss Matilda. " Ignorant persons have such strange 
 ideas. They think really nice people in England 
 take their fashions straight out of Paris, but that is 
 quite a mistake. It has always to be modified by 
 English good taste " 
 
 Ellen interrupted with a little shriek. " Oh, good 
 taste ! You should just hear how they speak of that 
 Abroad. Sometimes I could have cried. They say 
 no woman knows how to dress herself in England. 
 And when I come back and see the dreadful things 
 that are worn here This is pretty," Ellen con- 
 tinued, drawing attention to a portion of her dress. 
 " The Empress wore one just the same at a ball." 
 
 " Dear Ellen," said Miss Matilda, " and you wear 
 it at a little family party ! that shows the difference. 
 I am sure it was done just to please us, to let us see 
 what the new fashions are, in your unselfish way, 
 dear ! " 
 
 And Catherine laughed behind the newspaper. 
 The honours of the occasion were to the old sisters 
 after all. 
 
 In the meantime conversation of much more 
 serious import, though scarcely more elevated, was 
 going on round the table in the dining-room, where 
 
 D 2
 
 36 HESTER. [CTAP. 
 
 young Ashton had got the lead, though none of the 
 others looked upon him with over-favourable eyes. 
 There was no doubt that he was a very handsome 
 fellow, and both Harry and Edward had that in- 
 stinctive sense that he was a competitor likely to 
 put them on their mettle, which is supposed to 
 influence the bosoms of women alone. They thought 
 (instinctively, and each in their different ways,) that 
 he must be a coxcomb. They divined that he was 
 the sort of fellow whom women admired, and scorned 
 him for it as women perhaps now and then indulge 
 in a little sneer at a gentleman's beauty. But by 
 and by he touched a chord which vibrated more or 
 less in all their bosoms. He began to talk of the 
 city, for which country men of business have a 
 natural reverence. He revealed to them that he 
 himself was on the Stock Exchange, and incidentally 
 let fall an anecdote here and there, of the marvellous 
 incidents, the fairy tales of commerce, that were 
 taking place in those magic regions every day : of 
 men who woke in the morning with the most 
 moderate means at their command, and before night 
 were millionaires. They gathered close about him 
 as he added anecdote to anecdote. Edward Vernon 
 was like tinder, prepared for the fire ; for all his 
 thoughts for some time past had been directed in 
 that way. And young Merridew was launching forth 
 upon life, rather more lavishly than was consistent 
 with his income and prospects. Harry was the least 
 interested of the three, but even to him the idea of 
 making a fortune in a few hours and being able to
 
 ii.] A FAMILY PARTY. 37 
 
 retire to the country to give himself up to dogs and 
 horses, instead of going down to the bank every 
 morning, was a beatific suggestion. The present 
 writer does not pretend to be able to inform the 
 reader exactly how it was, or in favour of which 
 schemes, that the poet of the Stock Exchange 
 managed to influence these rustic imaginations, but 
 he did so. He filled their minds with an impatience 
 of their own slow business and its mild percentages, 
 even when he seemed to praise it. 
 
 " Perhaps it does feel slow work ; I can't say. 
 I think it is a vast deal more wholesome. It is 
 very hard to keep your head steady, you know, when 
 you feel that the chances of an hour or two may 
 make you the richest man in England." 
 
 " Or the poorest perhaps ? " said Edward, more 
 with the idea of subduing himself than checking this 
 flow of instruction. 
 
 "Ye-es," said Ashton, indifferently, "no doubt 
 that's on the cards : but it ought not to be if your 
 broker has a head on his shoulders. About the 
 worst that can happen, if you take proper pre- 
 cautions, is that you're no worse than you were to 
 start with, and better luck next time. I don't 
 approve the ' gain or lose it all ' system. But what 
 will Miss Vernon say if we stay here talking shop 
 all the evening ? " he added. 
 
 There was never a more clever conclusion ; it was 
 like the exciting close of, an act in the theatre, for 
 he could not be persuaded to begin again. When 
 they went reluctantly into the drawing-room, Ellen
 
 38 HESTER. [CHAP. n. 
 
 thought her Algernon had taken too much wine ; 
 and even Edward, who never offended the proprieties 
 in any way, had a curious light in his eyes, and did 
 not hear when he was spoken to. But Catherine 
 Vernon, for her part, did not notice anything ex- 
 cept the filial kindness of young Roland, and the 
 sympathy and understanding which shone in his 
 eyes.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CONFIDENCES. 
 
 "I WOULD not speculate if I were you," said 
 Ashton. "What would be the good? You are 
 very well off as you are. You are making your 
 fortune steadily, far hetter than if you did it by a 
 successful coup. Yes, yes, I can understand that a 
 man should desire a little more excitement, and 
 rebel against the monotony of a quiet life, but not 
 you, Vernon, if you'll excuse my saying so. You 
 don't go in for any sort of illegitimate pursuit. You 
 don't play or bet ; you have no claim upon you that 
 you want extraordinary means of supplying " 
 
 " How can you tell all that ? " said Edward 
 Yernon. "Do you think life's so easy a business 
 that you can read it off from the surface, and make 
 sure that everything is as it seems ? " 
 
 " I don't say that. Of course, I go upon appear- 
 ances. I can understand that perhaps you are 
 tired of it " 
 
 "Tired of it!" He twirled his stick violently 
 in his hand, hitting at the rusty bramble branches
 
 40 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 and gorse bushes that bordered the Common as if 
 they were his enemies. "I suppose one is apt to 
 tire of anything that lasts and never varies," he cried 
 with a forced laugh. " Yes, I am tired of it. Quiet 
 life and safe business, and the hope of making a 
 fortune, as you call it, steadily, in twenty or thirty 
 
 years Good life ! Twenty or thirty years ! Only 
 
 think of the number of days in that, one after the 
 other, one exactly like the other. I begin to feel as 
 if I should welcome anything to break the monotony 
 crime itself." 
 
 " That means, old fellow," said Ashton, soothingly, 
 " nerves, and nothing more." 
 
 Edward laughed out, a laugh which was not 
 harmonious with the soft dulness of the autumnal 
 atmosphere. " I have no nerves, nor tastes nor 
 inclinations, nor any mind of my own," he said. 
 " I do what it is the right thing to do. Though 
 I arn sick of it, I never show that. Nobody here 
 has the slightest idea that I was ever impatient or 
 irritable or weary in my life." 
 
 Ashton looked at him with some curiosity, but 
 took no further notice. " Does Miss Vernon," lie 
 said, " take any share in the business of the bank I 
 mean, in the work, in the regulations ? " 
 
 " Miss Vernon," said Edward, " takes a share in 
 everything that is going on around her, it does not 
 matter what. She has been so long used to be at 
 the head of everything, that she thinks it her 
 natural place ; and, as she is old and a woman, it 
 stands to reason "
 
 in.] CONFIDENCES. 41 
 
 " But she is a very intelligent woman ; and she 
 must have a great deal of experience." 
 
 " The experience of a little country town, and of 
 steady business, as you call it oh, she has all that. 
 But put your own views before her, or suggest even 
 the advantages of the circulation of money, quick 
 turning over, and balance of losses and gains " 
 
 "I can understand that," said Ashton. "You 
 don't appreciate the benefits of the Conservative 
 element, Vernon. But for you and your steady- 
 going banks, how could we operate at all ? The 
 money must be somewhere. We can't play with 
 counters only in this game." 
 
 " There was no question of counters," said Edward ; 
 " we have the money in our hands. It seems to me 
 that you and I should change places : you to do the 
 steady business here, and please Aunt Catherine 
 who has taken a great fancy to you, you must know 
 I, to watch the tide, how it comes and how it goes." 
 
 " There might be worse arrangements," Ashton 
 said with a laugh : but he added quickly, meeting a 
 keen, sudden glance from Edward, "if you could 
 transfer to me your training, and I mine to you. I 
 am counted rather bold sometimes, you must know," 
 he added, after a moment, returning that look. They 
 talked with great apparent readiness and openness, 
 but with a curious dread of mutual observation 
 going on under the current of their talk all the time. 
 
 " So much the better," said Edward, " so long as 
 you know when to hold in." 
 
 They were going along the side of the Common
 
 42 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 between the Grange and the Vernonry. It was 
 Sunday afternoon a dull day, the sky hanging low, 
 the green parts of the Common very green, glistening 
 with wetness, the gorse and brushwood very brown 
 and faded. Nobody was about on this day of leisure. 
 Even the slow country cart, the farmer's shandry, 
 the occasional roll of a carriage, was absent from the 
 silent road. There were no nursemaids and children 
 from Redborough picking their way along the side 
 path. Captain Morgan, feeling his rheumatism, had 
 retired to his chimney corner ; the young men had it 
 all to themselves. Ashton had been lunching at the 
 Grange. He was on the eve of going back to town 
 to business, from which he declared he had been 
 absent far too long. The object of his visit was not 
 very clear to any flrjg : he had left his grandparents 
 for years without showing so much interest in them. 
 But, whatever his motive had been, his expedition 
 had not been without fruit. He had discovered a new 
 and wealthy vein well worth working, and lit a fire 
 which, no doubt, would light up still further illumi- 
 nations, in some inflammable spirits. No one had 
 received him more warmly than Edward Vernon, 
 but he was less easy to make out than the others. 
 He was less simple ; his life did not correspond with 
 the betrayals of his conversation, whereas neither 
 Harry Vernou nor his brother-in-law, had any- 
 thing to betray. What was evident, at least, was 
 that Catherine Vernon smiled upon the acquaint- 
 ance which had been formed so rapidly between 
 her nephew and the stranger. She called Edward
 
 in.] CONFIDENCES. 43 
 
 " your cousin " to Ashton, then laughed and apolo- 
 gised, explaining that where there were so many 
 cousins it was difficult to remember that her relation 
 was not Edward's too. When Ashton replied, " There 
 is connection enough to justify the name, if it is 
 agreeable to Vernon," there could be no doubt that 
 it was, at least, agreeable to her. She smiled upon 
 them from her window as they went out together, 
 waving her hand. And no foolish mother could have 
 been more unaware than Catherine, that the know- 
 ledge that she was there, watching with tender looks 
 of affection the two figures as they went along, was 
 to Edward irksome beyond expression. He felt no 
 charm of love in the look, but substituted suspicion 
 for tenderness, and believed that she was watching 
 them, keeping them in sight as far as her eyes could 
 carry, to spy out all they did, and make for herself 
 an explanation of eveiy gesture. He would not even 
 have twirled his stick and cut down the brambles 
 but in a momentary fit of forgetfulness. When they 
 got beyond her range, he breathed more freely, but, 
 even then, was not without a recollection that she 
 had her opera-glasses at hand, and might, through 
 them, be watching his demeanour still. 
 
 " Let us go this way," he said, turning into the 
 road, which slanted away on the nearer side of the 
 Vernonry, leading out into the open country and 
 brown fields. 
 
 Ashton hesitated a moment. " I am not sure that 
 I am not expected at home. It is my last day," 
 he said.
 
 44 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " Home is a kind of irons," said Edward, " hand- 
 cuffs, ankle chains. One is always like an unhappy 
 cockatoo on a perch. Any little attempt at flight is 
 always pulled back." 
 
 "I don't think that is my experience. My old 
 people are very indulgent ; but then, I am a mere 
 visitor. Home does not mean much to me," said 
 Ash ton. If he had been in the presence of any lady 
 he would have sighed as he said this being in 
 absolute freedom with one of his own kind he smiled, 
 and it was Edward who sighed. 
 
 " There is such a thing as having too much of it," 
 he said. " What I suffer from is want of air. Don't 
 you perceive it ? There is no atmosphere ; every 
 breath has been breathed over and over again. We 
 want ventilation. We welcome every horror with 
 delight in consequence a murder or even a big 
 bankruptcy. I suppose that is why bankruptcies are 
 so common," he added, as if struck with the idea. " A 
 man requires a great deal of original impulse before 
 he will go the length of murder. The other has a 
 milder but similar attraction ; you ruin other people, 
 which shakes them up, and gives a change of air." 
 
 "Ill-omened words," said Ashton, laughing, and 
 throwing out the fore-finger and little finger of his 
 right hand with a play at superstition. " Ugly at all 
 times, but especially when we are talking of business 
 and the Stock Exchange." 
 
 " Are you aware," said Edward, sinking his voice, 
 " that our predecessor, before Aunt Catherine, did 
 something of the kind ? "
 
 in.] CONFIDENCES. 45 
 
 " Who was he ? " 
 
 " A certain John Vernon. His wife lives yonder, 
 with the rest of Aunt Catherine's dependents in that 
 red house. He found it too much for him ; but it 
 was a poor sort of a flash in the pan, and hurt 
 nobody but himself." 
 
 "You would like to do more than that," said 
 Ash ton, with a laugh. 
 
 But in Edward's face there was no jest. 
 
 "I should like," he said, "if I broke down, to 
 carry the whole concern along with me. I should 
 like to pull it down about their ears as Samson 
 pulled the temple, you know, upon his persecutors." 
 
 " Vernon," said Roland, " do you know that you 
 are very rash, opening out like this to me ? Don't 
 you see it is quite possible I might betray you ? I 
 have no right to preach, but surely you can't have 
 any reason to be so bitter. You seem tremendously 
 well off, I can tell you, to a friendless fellow 
 like me." 
 
 " I am very well off," said Edward, with a smile ; 
 " no man was ever better. I came out of a strug- 
 gling family where I was to have gone to the colonies 
 or something. My next brother got that chance, 
 and here I am. John Vernon, so far as I can hear, 
 was an extravagant fool. I have not the least 
 sympathy with that. Money's a great power, but as 
 for fine houses, or fine furniture, or show or dash 
 as they call it " 
 
 " I told you," said Ashton, " you have no vice." 
 
 Edward gave him a dark, suspicious look.
 
 46 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 / 
 " I have even a contempt for it," he said. 
 
 " There are plenty of men who have that a horror 
 even ; and yet can't do without the excitement." 
 
 " I prefer your sort of excitement. John Vernon, 
 as I say, was a fool. He ran away, poor wretch, and 
 Catherine stepped in, and re-made everything, and 
 covered him with contempt." 
 
 " He is the father (is he dead ?) of the young 
 lady who is such a favourite with my grandfather?" 
 
 " Hester ? Oh, you know her, do you ? One of 
 Aunt Catherine's pensioners in the Vernonry, as 
 she calls it." 
 
 " It is a little hard upon them to be called depen- 
 dents ; my old people live there. They have their 
 own little income to live upon. Miss Vernon gives 
 them their house, I believe, which is very kind, but 
 not enough to justify the name of pensioners." 
 
 " That is our way here," said Edward laughing. 
 " We are very ready to give, but we like to take the 
 good of it. It is not respectful to call the place the 
 Vernonry, but we do it. We are delighted to be 
 kind ; the more you will take from us, the better we 
 will like you. We even rather like you to be 
 ungrateful. It satisfies our theory." 
 
 " Vernon, all that seems to me to be diabolical, 
 you iSrow, I wish you wouldn't. Miss Hester is a 
 little of your way of thinking, I fear. She makes it 
 amusing though. There are parties, it appears, 
 where she stands all night in a corner, or looks 
 at photographs." 
 
 " She says that, does she ? " said Edward. His
 
 in.] CONFIDENCES. 47 
 
 smile had not been a pleasant one, but now it 
 disappeared from his face. " And I suppose she tells 
 you that I never go near her ? I have to look after 
 the old ladies and take them to supper. I have 
 the honour of standing in the position of master of 
 the house." 
 
 " I don't know that she blames any one," said Ash- 
 ton indifferently. " It is more fun than anger. Talk 
 of want of air, Vernon ; that poor child wants air 
 if you please. She is as full of spirit and life as any 
 one I ever saw. She would like to do something." 
 
 " Something ! What kind of something ? Go on 
 the stage or what ? " 
 
 " I have never heard of the stage or anything of 
 the kind. She wants work." 
 
 " Excitement ! " Edward said, with an impatient 
 gleam in his eyes. 
 
 " She is like you then," said Ashton, trying to 
 laugh, but not with much cordiality, for he felt 
 himself growing angry in spite of himself. 
 
 There was excitement enough now in Edward 
 Vernon's face. It grew dark with passion and 
 intolerance. 
 
 " A woman is altogether differeDt," he said ; then 
 subduing himself with a change in his voice from 
 rage to scorn, " she will soon have it in her power 
 to change all that. Don't you know she is going to 
 marry Harry Vernon ? an excellent match for her 
 money and little brains whereas she has much 
 brains and little money, the very thing in marriage," 
 he concluded, with a harsh laugh.
 
 48 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " Is that so ? " said Ashton. 
 
 He had been listening quite at his ease, turning 
 his face towards his companion, and it was a 
 satisfaction to Edward to see that the stranger's 
 countenance clouded over. He was astonished, and 
 Edward could not help hoping more than astonished 
 for being sore and bitter himself he liked to see 
 another feel the sting. 
 
 " That's well," Roland said after a moment, " if 
 she likes it. I should not have thought but a 
 week's acquaintance does not show you much of a 
 character. I am glad to hear it," he said, after a 
 pause, " if she likes it," which was but a dubious 
 sort of satisfaction after all. 
 
 Edward looked at him again with an expression of 
 gratified feeling. He was glad to have given his 
 new friend a little friendly stab. It pleased him to 
 see Roland wince. When one is very uneasy one's self, 
 that is always a little consolation. He looked at 
 him and enjoyed it, then turned away from the 
 subject which had given him this momentary 
 pleasure. 
 
 " Let us return to our muttons," he said. " Tell 
 me what you think of these papers ? I put them 
 into my pocket to show you. Now that we are 
 fairly out of sight " then he turned back to glance 
 along the still damp road, upon which there was not 
 a single shadow but their own " and nobody can 
 spy upon us for I distrust windows we may think 
 of business a little," the young man said. 
 
 Ashton looked at him as he took the papers with a
 
 in.] CONFIDENCES. 49 
 
 glance as suspicious as his own. They had grown 
 into a sort of sudden intimacy in a single night. 
 Edward had been exactly in the state of mind to 
 which Roland's revelation of chances and possibilities 
 was as flame to tinder. To have his impatient desires 
 and longings made practical was everything to him, 
 and the prudence and business instinct left in him 
 which made him hesitate to make the plunge by 
 himself without skilled guidance, endowed the new- 
 comer with an importance which nothing else could 
 have given him. He was at home in those regions 
 which were so entrancing and exciting, yet strange 
 to Edward. These communications had brought 
 them to something like confidential friendship, and 
 yet they did not know each other, and in many 
 things were mutually antipathetic, repelling, rather 
 than attracting each other. This interview, though 
 it was to seal the connection between them, made 
 their mutual want of sympathy more apparent. 
 Edward had showed the worst side of himself, and 
 knew it. He felt even that his self-betrayal had 
 been so great as to put him almost in his companion's 
 power, while at the same time Ashton had impertin- 
 ently interposed in tjie family affairs (a point upon 
 which Edward was as susceptible as any one) by 
 what he had permitted himself to say about Hester. 
 Ashton, on the other hand, whose temper in a way 
 was generous and easy, regarded the fortunate but 
 ungrateful possessor of Catherine Yernon's sym- 
 pathies with an indignant astonishment. To have 
 VOL. II. E
 
 50 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 been so taken up by such a woman, to have her 
 affection, her confidence, her unbounded approbation 
 and trust, and to so repay her ! It was incredible, 
 
 and the fellow was Should he fling up all his 
 
 pretence at sympathy with this cub, and go off at 
 once, rather abandoning the possible advantage than 
 consenting to ally himself with such a being ? This 
 was the point at which they stood for a moment ; 
 but beside the pull of mutual interest how were 
 they ever to explain the sudden breach, should they 
 follow their mutual inclinations and make one ? . It 
 would be necessary to say something, and what could 
 be said ? and then there lay before Edward a world 
 of fabulous gain, of sudden wealth, of a hundred 
 excitements to which Roland seemed to hold the 
 key ; and before Roland the consciousness that not 
 only the advantage of having Edward, but a whole 
 population of eager country people ready to put their 
 money into his hands, and give him such power of 
 immediate action as he had scarcely dreamt of, 
 depended upon his self-restraint. Accordingly the 
 sole evidence of their absolute distrust and dislike 
 of each other, was this mutual look, exchanged just 
 before they entered upon the closest relations of 
 mutual aid. 
 
 It was a curious scene for such a beginning. The 
 solitude of the country road was complete ; there 
 was no one to interrupt them. Although they were 
 in the freedom of the open air, and subject to be 
 overtaken by any passer-by, yet the Sunday stillness
 
 m.] CONFIDENCES. 51 
 
 was so intense that they might have been in the 
 most secret retirement on earth. Had they been 
 seated together in Edward's room at home, a hundred 
 disturbances were possible. Servants can never be 
 shut out; if it is only to mend the fire they will 
 appear in the middle of the most private conference. 
 And Catherine herself, all unconscious that her 
 presence was disagreeable, might have come to the 
 door to summon them, or perhaps even to bring them, 
 with her own kind hands, the cups of tea which in 
 his heart Edward loathed as one of the signs of his 
 slavery. They were the drink of bondage those 
 poor cups that never inebriate. He hated even the 
 fragrance of them the little steams ascending. 
 Thank Heaven no one could bring him tea out upon 
 the high road ! The chill outer air, the faint scent 
 of mossy damp and decay, the dim atmosphere with- 
 out a sparkle in it, the absolute quiet, would have 
 better suited confidences of a different description. 
 But if business is not sentimental it is at least so 
 urgent and engrossing, that it becomes indifferent 
 to circumstances. The , do-nothing calm of the 
 Sunday closed curiously around the group ; their 
 rustling papers and eager countenances brought the 
 strangest interruption of restless life into the almost 
 dead and blank quiet. The season, the weather, the 
 hour, the brown quiescent fields in which for the 
 only moment of the year no mystery of growth was 
 going on, but only a silent waiting for the seeds and 
 
 the spring ; this day of leisure when everything was 
 
 E9 
 M
 
 52 HESTER. [CHAP. m. 
 
 at rest, all the surrounding circumstances united to 
 throw into full relief the strange centre to the 
 landscape the two figures which brought a sharp 
 interest of life into this still-breathing atmosphere, 
 and waiting stagnation, and Sunday calm.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROLAND. 
 
 ROLAND ASHTON had been in little doubt as to his 
 own motives when he came after so many years' in- 
 difference to " look up " his old grandparents, and 
 take up late, yet not too late, the traditions of filial 
 duty. These traditions, indeed, had no existence for 
 this young man. His mother, the victim of a dissi- 
 pated and hopeless spendthrift, had died when her 
 children were young, and her father and mother had 
 stood aloof from all but the earliest years of the 
 handful of boys and girls she left behind. The 
 children scrambled up somehow, and, as is not un- 
 usual among children, whom the squalor of a parent's 
 >vice has disgusted from their earliest consciousness, 
 succeeded in doing well ; the girls making much 
 better marriages than could have been hoped for ; 
 the boys, flung into the world on their own account 
 at a very early age, finding the means of maintaining 
 themselves, and even pushing forward to a position as 
 good as that which their father had lost. That father
 
 54 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 had happily died and gone out of all power to injure 
 them, a number of years before> and it was only on a 
 rare visit to the elder sister, who alone knew much 
 about the family connections, that Roland had 
 learned something of the state of affairs at Red- 
 borough. 
 
 Elinor was old enough to remember the time when 
 the grandfather and grandmother had taken charge of 
 the little weeping band of babies in their far-off help- 
 less days, and she had kept up a certain correspondence 
 with them, when, half ruined by that effort, they were 
 saved by Catherine Vernon, the mysterious, wealthy 
 cousin, of whose name everybody in the family had 
 heard. Elinor remembered so many details when her 
 memory was jogged, that it occurred to Roland that 
 it would be a very good thing to go down to Eed- 
 borough and pay his grandfather a visit. Catherine 
 Vernon might turn out to be worth cultivating. She 
 had stepped in to save old Captain Morgan and his 
 wife from the consequences of their own liberality to 
 their daughter's children. She had a little colony of 
 pensioners about her, Elinor was informed. She was 
 very rich, so rich that she did not know what to do 
 with her money. There was a swarm of Vernons 
 round her, eating her up. 
 
 " We are her nearest relations on her mother's 
 side," Elinor had said. " I do not see why we should 
 not have our chance too. Don't forget us, Roland, if 
 you make any way ; and you ought to do something ; 
 for you have the right way with women," his sister 
 said, with some admiration and a little doubt. Her
 
 iv.] ROLAND. 55 
 
 faith was that he was sure to succeed, her doubt 
 whether his success would be of use to anybody but 
 himself; but however it might turn out, it was 
 always better that one of the Ashtons should 
 benefit by Catherine Vernon's colossal fortune, than 
 that it should all go into the hands of the other 
 people. 
 
 Roland himself was well aware that he had the 
 right way with women. This was not the result of 
 art and calculation, but was pure nature. The young 
 man was bent upon his own ends, without much con- 
 sideration, in great matters, of other people. But in 
 small matters he was very considerate, and had a 
 delightful way of deferring to the comfort of those 
 about him. And he had the power of looking inter- 
 ested, and even of feeling ^jiterested in everybody 
 he addressed. And he had fine eyes ! What more is 
 needed to enable a young man to make his way with 
 women ? He was very popular ; he might have 
 married well had he chosen to take that step ; indeed, 
 the chief thing against him was, that he had waver ed 
 too long more than once, before he could make up his 
 mind to hurt the feelings of a sensitive girl by not 
 asking her to marry him. It was not, to be sure, his 
 fault, if they thought that was his meaning. A 
 prudent girl will never allow herself to think so until 
 she is asked point-blank ; and when you came to in- 
 vestigate each case, there really was nothing against 
 Roland. He had made himself agreeable, but then, 
 that was his way. He could not help making himself 
 agreeable. The very tone of his voice changed when
 
 56 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 he spoke to any woman who pleased him, and he was. 
 very catholic in his tastes. Most women pleased him 
 if they had good looks, or even the remains of good 
 looks ; or if they were clever ; or even if they were 
 nice ; and he was pleasant to all, old and young. The 
 quality was not without its dangers ; but it had great 
 advantages. He came to Redborough fully deter- 
 mined to make the conquest of Catherine Vernon, 
 whom, save that she was rich and benevolent, he 
 knew very little about. Very rich (according to 
 Elinor), rather foolishly benevolent, old a young man 
 who has the right way with women could scarcely be 
 indifferent to such a description. He determined to 
 find an opportunity in the dull time of the year, when 
 business was not too exacting, to pay some of the 
 long over-due respect and gratitude which he owed 
 to his grandfather. Captain Morgan professed to have 
 cut himself clear of all his relationships, but it was 
 true that twenty years before, he had spent every- 
 thing he had, and deprived himself of every comfort, 
 he and his wife, for the maintenance of his daughter's 
 children. He had never got any return for this from 
 the children, who kuew very little about him. And 
 it was full time that Roland should come with his 
 power of making himself agreeable to pay the family 
 debt no harm if he did something for the family 
 fortunes by the way. 
 
 And it has been seen that the young man fully 
 proved, and at once, the justice of his sister's descrip- 
 tion of him. His grandmother, to be sure, was van- 
 quished by his very name, by a resemblance which
 
 iv.] ROLAND. 57 
 
 .she found out in his mouth and eyelids to his 
 mother, and by the old love which had never been 
 extinguished, and could not be extinguished in her 
 motherly old bosom. But Hester, by a mere chance 
 encounter in the fire-light, without even seeing 
 him, without knowng his name, had been moved 
 to a degree of interest such as she was not con- 
 scious of having ever felt before. And Catherine 
 Vernon had yielded at once, and without a struggle, 
 to his influence. This was delightful enough, but 
 after all it did not come to very much, for Roland 
 found himself plunged into the midst of a society 
 upon which he had not at all reckoned. The com- 
 munity at the Vernonry was simple ; he was prepared 
 for that, and understood it. But when he went to the 
 Grange and made acquaintance with the closer circle 
 there, the young men to whom Catherine had made 
 over the bank and all its interests, and especially 
 Edward, who was established as if he had been her 
 son, in her house, a change came over Roland's plans 
 and anticipations. He had a strong desire for his own 
 advantage, and inclination to follow that wherever it 
 might lead him ; but he was not malignant in his 
 selfishness. He had no wish to interfere, unless it 
 proved to be absolutely necessary, with another man's 
 career, or to injure his fellow-creatures in promoting 
 his own interest. And it cannot be denied that he 
 felt a shock of disappointment which, as he found 
 when he reasoned with himself on the subject, was 
 somewhat unreasonable. How could he expect the 
 field to be clear for him, and the rich, childless woman
 
 58 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 of fortune left at his mercy ? As if there were not 
 crowds of other people in the world who had a quick 
 eye for their own advantage, and clear sight to see 
 who was likely to serve it ! But these discoveries put 
 him out. They made his mission purposeless. They 
 reduced it to the mere visit to his grandfather, which 
 he had called it, but which he by no means intended 
 it solely to be. 
 
 After this first shock of disappointment, however, 
 Roland began to find himself at once amused and 
 interested by the new community, into the midst of 
 which he had dropped. The inmates of the Vernonry 
 were all simple enough. To be very poor and obliged 
 to accept favours from a rich relative, yet never to be 
 able to escape the sense of humiliation, and a grudge 
 against those who are better off that is indeed too 
 general : and it is even a conventional necessity of 
 the imagination, that there should be bickerings 
 and private little spites among neighbours so closely 
 thrown together. Ash ton did not see much of the 
 Miss Vernon-Ridgways, who had refused to know him 
 at Catherine's house, nor of their kindred spirit Mr. 
 Mildmay Vernon ; but he could imagine them, and 
 did so easily. Nor was the gentle little widow, who 
 was now on one side now on the other, according as 
 the last speaker moved her, or the young heroine her 
 daughter, difficult to realise. But Catherine, and the 
 closer group of her relations, puzzled him more. That 
 she should gauge them all so exactly, yet go on with 
 them, pouring kindness upon their ungrateful heads 
 with a sort of amusement at their ingratitude, almost
 
 iv.] ROLAND. 59 
 
 a malicious pleasure in it, surprised him less than 
 that among all who surrounded her there was no one 
 who gave to her a real and faithful devotion. And 
 her faith in Edward, whose impatience of .her bonds 
 was the greatest of all, seemed to> Roland in his 
 spectatorship so pitiful, that he could scarcely help 
 crying out against it to earth and heaven. He was 
 sorry for her all the more that she was so little sorry 
 for herself, and it seemed to him that of all her sur- 
 roundings he was the only one who was sorry for 
 Catherine. Even his old people as he called them, 
 did not fathom that curse of her loneliness. They 
 thought with everybody else that Edward was a true 
 son to her, studying her wishes, and thinking of noth- 
 ing so much as how to please her. It appalled him 
 when he thought of the snarl on Edward's lips, the 
 profound discontent in his soul. It would be cruel 
 above all things to warn her she who felt herself so 
 clear-sighted of the deception she was the victim of ; 
 and yet what could it come to but unhappiness ? 
 Roland felt himself overpowered and almost overawed 
 by this combination. .Nobody but he, it seemed, had 
 divined it. He had walked back with Edward to the 
 Grange after their long talk and consultation, and had 
 taken off his hat with a smile of kindness to the 
 indistinct figure still seated in the window, which 
 Edward recognised with a secret grimace. To see her 
 seated there looking out for their return, was a 
 pleasure to the more genial spirit. It would have 
 pleased him to feel that there was some one who 
 would look out for his coming, who would watch him
 
 60 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 like this, with, tenderness as he went away. But then 
 he had no experience of the kind in his own person, 
 and Edward perhaps had too much of it. While the 
 one went indoors with a bitter sense that he could go 
 nowhere without being watched, the other turned 
 away with a pleasant look back, waving his hand to 
 Catherine Vernon in the window. She was not likely 
 to adopt him, but she was kind to him, a pleasant, 
 handsome old woman, and a most creditable relative. 
 He was glad he had come if it were for that and no 
 more. There were other reasons too why Roland 
 should be glad he had come. He had found a new 
 client, nay, a group of new clients, by whose means he 
 could extend his business and his prospects solid 
 people with real money to risk, not men of straw. 
 Though he was full of aspirations they were all of a 
 practical kind. He meant to make his fortune ; he 
 meant to do the very best for his customers who 
 trusted him as well as for himself, and his spirits rose 
 when he thought what a power of extensive and 
 successful operation would be given him by the money 
 of all these new people who were so eager to face the 
 risks of speculation. They should not suffer by it ; 
 their confidence in him should be repaid, and not only 
 his, but their fortunes would be made. The certainty 
 of this went to his head a little, like wine. It had 
 been well for him to come. It had been the most 
 important step he had ever taken in his life. It was 
 not what he had hoped for, and yet it was the thing 
 above all others that he wanted, a new start for him 
 in the world, and probably the turning-point of his
 
 iv.] ROLAND. 61 
 
 life. Other matters were small in comparison with 
 this, and approbation or disappointment has little to 
 do with a new customer in any branch of business. 
 As for other interests he might have taken up on the 
 way, the importance of them was nothing. Hester 
 was a pretty girl, and it was natural to him to have 
 an occupation of that sort in hand ; but to suppose 
 that he was sufficiently interested to allow any thought 
 of her to beguile him from matters so much more 
 serious, would have been vain indeed. He felt just 
 such a momentary touch of pique in hearing that she 
 was going to be married, as a woman-beauty does 
 when she hears of any conquests but her own. If she 
 had seen him (Roland) first, she would not have been, 
 he felt, so easily won ; but he laughed at himself for 
 the thought, as perhaps the woman-beauty would 
 scarcely have been moved to do.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WARNING. 
 
 " I THINK, if you will let me, I will send down 
 Emma for a little fresh air and to make your 
 acquaintance, grandmother. She is rather of the 
 butterfly order of girls, but there is no harm in her. 
 And as it is likely that I shall have a good deal to 
 do with the Vernons " 
 
 " What do you want with the Vernons ? Why 
 should you have a good deal to do with them ? " 
 asked Captain Morgan, hastily, and it must be added 
 rather testily, for the old man's usually placid humour 
 had been disturbed of late. 
 
 " In the most legitimate way," said Ashton. " You 
 can't wish me, now that I am just launched in busi- 
 ness, to shut my eyes to my own advantage. It will 
 be for their advantage too. They are going to be 
 customers of mine. When you have a man's money 
 to invest you have a good deal to do with him. I 
 shall have to come and go in all likelihood often." 
 
 "Your customers and their money to invest
 
 CHAP, v.] WARNING. 63 
 
 what do mean by that ? I hope you haven't taken 
 advantage of my relationship with Catherine Vernon 
 to draw in those boys of hers " 
 
 " Grandfather," said Roland, with an air digne 
 which it was impossible not to respect, " if you think 
 a little you will see how injurious your words are. 
 I cannot for a moment suppose you mean them. 
 Catherine Vernon's boys, as you call them, are nearly 
 as old, and I suppose as capable of judging what is 
 for their advantage, as I am. If they choose to 
 entrust me with their business, is there any reason 
 why I should refuse it ? I am glad to get everything 
 I can." 
 
 " Yes, sir, there is a reason," said Captain Morgan. 
 " I know what speculation is. I know what happens 
 when a hot-headed young fellow gets a little bit of 
 success, and the gambling fever gets into his veins. 
 Edward Vernon is just the sort of fellow to fall 
 a victim. He is a morose, ill-tempered, bilious 
 being " 
 
 " Stop," said Roland ; " have a little consideration, 
 sir. There is no question of any victim." 
 
 " You are just a monomaniac, Rowley, my old 
 man," said Mrs. Morgan. 
 
 " I know everything you can say," said the old 
 captain. " All that jargon about watching the 
 market, and keeping a cool head, and running no 
 unnecessary risks I know it all. You think you 
 can turn over your money, as you call it, always to 
 your advantage, and keep risk at arm's length." 
 
 " I do not say so much as that ; but risk may be
 
 64 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 reduced to a minimum, and profit be the rule, when one 
 gives one's mind to it which it is my business to do." 
 
 " Oh, I know everything you can say," said the 
 -old man. " Give your mind to it ! Give your mind 
 to an honest trade, that's my advice to you. What 
 is it at the best but making money out of the follies 
 of your fellow-creatures ? They take a panic and 
 you buy from them, to their certain loss, and then 
 they take a freak of enthusiasm and you sell to them, 
 to their certain loss. Somebody must always lose in 
 order that you should gain. It is a devilish trade I 
 said so when I heard you had gone into it ; but for 
 God's sake, Roland Ashton, keep that for the outside 
 world, and don't bring ruin and misery here." 
 
 " What can I say ? " said the young man. He rose 
 up from the table where he had been taking his 
 last meal with the old people. He kept his temper 
 beautifully, Mrs. Morgan thought, with great pride 
 in him. He grew pale and a little excited, as was 
 natural, but never forgot his respect for his grand- 
 father, who, besides that venerable relationship, was 
 an old man. " What can I say ? To tell you that I 
 consider my profession an honourable one would be 
 superfluous, for you can't imagine I should have 
 taken it up had I thought otherwise." 
 
 " Rowley, my old man," said Mrs. Morgan, " you 
 are just as hot-headed as when you were a boy. 
 But, Roland, you must remember that we have 
 suffered from it ; and everybody says when you begin 
 to gamble in business, it is worse than any other 
 kind of gambling."
 
 v.] WARNING. 65 
 
 " When you begin ; but there is no need ever to 
 begin, that I can see." 
 
 " And then, my dear I am not taking up your 
 grandfather's view, but just telling you what he 
 means then, my dear, Catherine Vernon has been 
 very kind to him and me. She is fond of us, I really 
 believe. She trusts us, which to her great hurt, 
 poor thing, she does to few " 
 
 " Catherine Vernon is a noble character. She 
 has a fine nature. She has a scorn of meanness and 
 everything that is little " 
 
 The old lady shook her head. " That is true," she 
 said ; " but it is her misfortune, poor thing, that she 
 gets her amusement out of all that, and she believes 
 in few. You must not, Roland," she said, laying her 
 hand upon his arm, " you must not, my dear lad 
 Oh, listen to what my old man says ! You must not 
 be the means of leading into imprudence or danger 
 any one she is fond of she that has been so kind to 
 him and to me ! " 
 
 The old hand was heavy on his arm, bending him 
 down towards her with an imperative clasp, and this 
 sudden appeal was so unexpected from the placid 
 old woman, who seemed to have outgrown all impas- 
 sioned feeling and lived only to soothe and reconcile 
 opposing influences, that both the young man and 
 the old were impressed by it. Roland Ashton stooped, 
 and kissed his grandmother's forehead. He had a 
 great power in him of response to every call of 
 emotion. 
 
 " Dear old mother," he said, " if I were a villain 
 
 VOL. n. F
 
 G6 . HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 and meant harm, I don't see how I could carry on 
 with it after that. But I want you to believe that 
 I am not a villain," he said, with a half-laugh of 
 feeling. 
 
 Old Captain Morgan was so touched by the scene 
 that in the weakness of old age and the unexpected- 
 ness of this interposition the tears stood in his eyes. 
 
 " When you do put your shoulder to the wheel, 
 Mary," he said, with a half-laugh too, and holding 
 out a hand to Roland, with whom for the first time 
 he found himself in perfect sympathy, " you do it 
 like a hero. I'll add nothing to what she has said, 
 my boy. Even at the risk of losing a profit, or 
 failing in a stroke of business, respect the house that 
 has sheltered your family. That's what we both say." 
 
 "And I have answered, sir," said Roland, "that 
 even if I were bent on mischief I could not persist 
 after such an appeal and I am not bent on mis- 
 chief," he added, this time with a smile ; and so fell 
 into easy conversation about his sister, and the good 
 it would do her to pay the old people a visit. " I am 
 out all day, and she is left to herself. It is dull for 
 her in a little house at Kilburn, all alone though 
 she says she likes it," he went on, glad, as indeed 
 they all were, to get down to a milder level of 
 conversation. 
 
 The old captain had not taken kindly to the idea 
 of having Emma ; but after the moment of sympa- 
 thetic emotion which they had all passed through, 
 there was no rejecting so very reasonable a petition. 
 And on the whole, looking back upon it, now that the
 
 v.] WARNING. 67 
 
 young man's portmanteau stood packed in the 
 and he himself was on the eve of departure, even 
 the captain could not deny that there had been on 
 the whole more pleasure in Roland's visit than he 
 had at all expected. However he might modify the 
 account of his own sensations, it had certainly been 
 agreeable to meet a young fellow of his own blood, 
 his descendant, a man among the many women with 
 whom he was surrounded, and one who, even when 
 they disagreed, could support his opinions, and was 
 at least intelligent, whatever else. He had received 
 him with unfeigned reluctance, almost forgetting who 
 his mother was in bitter and strong realisation that 
 he was his father's son and bore his father's name. 
 But personal encounter had so softened everything, 
 that though Roland actually resembled his objection- 
 able father, the captain parted from him with regret. 
 And, after all, why should not Emma come ? She 
 was a girl, which in itself softened everything (not- 
 withstanding that the captain had recognised as a 
 distinct element in Roland's favour that he was a 
 man, and so a most desirable interruption to the 
 flood of womankind but nobody is bound to be con- 
 sistent in these matters). It was good of her brother, 
 as soon as he was afloat in the world, to take upon 
 himself the responsibility of providing for Emma, 
 and on the whole the captain, always ready to be 
 kind, saw no reason for refusing to be kind to this 
 lonely girl because she was of his own flesh and 
 blood. He drew much closer to his grandson during 
 these last few hours than he had done yet. He went 
 
 F 2
 
 68 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 out with him to make his adieux to Mrs. John and 
 her daughter. And Hester came forward to give 
 them her hand with that little enlargement about 
 the eyes, which was a sure sign of some emotion in 
 her mind. She had seen a great deal of Hoi and, and 
 his going away gave her a pang which she scarcely 
 explained to herself. It was so much life subtracted 
 from the scanty circle. She too, like Edward, felt 
 that she wanted air, and the departure of one who 
 had brought so much that was new into her restricted 
 existence was a loss that was all. She had assured 
 herself so half-a-dozen times this morning therefore 
 no doubt it was true. As for Roland, it was not in 
 him to part from such a girl without an attempt at 
 least to intensify this effect. He drew her towards 
 the window, apart from the others, to watch, as he 
 said, for the coming of the slow old fly from 
 Red borough which was to convey him away. 
 
 " My sister is coming," he said, " and I hope you 
 will be friends. I will instruct her to bring in my 
 name on every possible occasion, that you may not 
 altogether forget me." 
 
 " There is no likelihood that we shall forget you ; 
 we see so few people here." 
 
 " And you call that a consolatory reason ! I shall 
 see thousands of people, but I shall not forget you." 
 It was Roland's way to use' no name. He said you 
 as if there was nobody but yourself who owned that 
 pronoun, with an inference that in thinking of the 
 woman before him, whoever she might be, he, in his 
 heart, identified her from all women.
 
 v.] WARNING. 60 
 
 Hester was embarrassed by his eyes and his tone, 
 but not displeased. He had pleased her from the 
 first. There is a soft and genial interest excited in 
 the breasts of women by such a man, at which 
 everybody smiles and which few acknowledge, yet 
 which is not the less dangerous for that. It rouses 
 a prepossession in his favour, whatever may come of 
 it afterwards ; and he had done his best to fill up all 
 his spare moments, when he was not doing some- 
 thing else, in Hester's company. It would be vain 
 to say that this homage had not been sweet, and it 
 had been entertaining, which is so great a matter. It 
 had opened out a new world to her, and expanded 
 all her horizon. With his going all these new 
 outlets into life would be closed again. She felt a 
 certain terror of the place without Roland. He had 
 imported into the air an excitement, an expectation. 
 The prospect of seeing him was a prospect full of 
 novelty and interest, and even when he did not 
 come, there had always been that expectation to 
 brighten the dimness. Now there could be no ex- 
 pectation, not even a disappointment ; and Hester's 
 eyes were large, and had a clearness of emotion in 
 them. She might have cried indeed, it seemed 
 very likely that she had cried at the thought of his 
 going away, and would cry again. 
 
 ' ' Though I don't know," he. added, leaning against 
 the recess of the window, and so shutting her in 
 where she stood looking out, " why I should leave so 
 many thoughts here, for I don't suppose they will do 
 rne any good. They tell me that your mind will be
 
 70 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 too fully, and, alas, too pleasantly occupied. Yes, I 
 say alas ! and alas again ! I am not glad you will 
 be so pleasantly occupied. I had rather you were 
 dull a little, that you might have time now and then 
 to remember me." 
 
 " You are talking a great deal of nonsense, Mr. 
 Ashton but that is your way. And how am I to 
 be so pleasantly occupied ? I am glad to hear it, 
 but I certainly did not know. What is going to 
 happen ? " 
 
 " Is this hypocrisy, or is it kindness to spare me ? 
 
 Or is it ? They tell me that I ought to 
 
 congratulate you," said Roland with a sigh. 
 
 " Congratulate me ? On what ? I suppose," said 
 Hester, growing red, " there is only one thing upon 
 which girls are congratulated : and that does not 
 exist in my case." 
 
 " May I believe you ? " he said, putting his hands 
 together with a supplicating gesture, " may I put 
 faith in you ? But it seemed on such good authority. 
 Your cousin Edward " 
 
 " Did Edward tell you so ? " Hester grew so red 
 that the flush scorched her. She was angry and 
 mortified and excited. Her interest changed, in a 
 moment, from the faint interest which she had felt 
 in the handsome young deceiver before her, to a 
 feeling more strong and deeply rooted, half made 
 out of repulsion, half bitter, half injured, yet more 
 powerful in attraction than any other sentiment of 
 her mind. Roland was ill-pleased that he was 
 superseded by this other feeling. It was a sensation
 
 v.] WARNING. 71 
 
 quite unusual to him, and he did not like it. " He 
 had no right to say so," said Hester; "he knew 
 it was not true." 
 
 " All is fair in love and war," said Roland ; 
 "perhaps he wished it to be not true." 
 
 " I do not know what he wishes, and I do not 
 care ! " Hester cried, after a pause, with a passion 
 which did not carry out her words. " He has never 
 been a friend to me," she said hastily. " He might 
 have helped me, he might have been kind not that 
 I want his help or any one's," cried the girl, her 
 passion growing as she went on. Then she came to 
 a dead stop, and gave Roland a rapid look, to see 
 how much he had divined of her real feelings. 
 " But he need not have said what was not true," 
 she added in a subdued tone. 
 
 " I forgive him," said Roland, "because it is not 
 true. If it had been true it would not have been 
 so easy to forgive. I am coming back again, and I 
 should have seen you changed. It was too much. 
 Now I can look forward with unmingled pleasure. 
 It is one's first duty, don't you think, to minister to 
 the pleasure of one's grandparents ? they are old ; 
 one ought to come often, as often as duty will 
 permit." 
 
 Hester looked up to him with a little surprise, the 
 transition was so sudden ; and, to tell the truth, the 
 tumult in her own mind was not so entirely subdued 
 that she could bestow her full attention upon 
 Roland's double entendre. 
 
 He laughed. " One would think, by your look,
 
 72 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 that you did not share my fine sense of duty," he 
 said ; " but you must not frown upon it. 1 am 
 coming soon, very soon, again. A fortnight ago the 
 place was only a name to me ; but now it is a name 
 that I shall remember for ever," he added with 
 fervour. 
 
 Hester looked at him this time with a smile upon 
 her mouth. She had recovered herself and come 
 back to the diversion of his presence, the amuse- 
 ment and novelty he had brought. A half sense of 
 the exaggeration and sentimental nonsense of his 
 speech was in her smile ; and he was more or less 
 conscious of it too. When their eyes met they 
 both laughed; and yet she was not displeased, 
 nor he untouched by some reality of feeling. The 
 exaggeration was humorous, and the sentiment not 
 altogether untrue. 
 
 " Do you say that always when you leave a 
 place ? " Hester said. 
 
 " Very often," he acknowledged ; and they both 
 laughed again, which, to her at least, was very 
 welcome, as she had been doubly on the verge of 
 tears for anger and for regret. " But seldom as I 
 do now," he added, "you may believe me. The old 
 people are better and kinder than I had dreamt of ; 
 it does one good to be near them ; and then I have 
 helped myself on in the world by this visit, but that 
 you will not care for. And then " 
 
 Here Roland broke off abruptly, and gazed, as his 
 fashion was, as feeling the impotence of words to 
 convey all that the heart would say.
 
 v.] WAKNING. 73 
 
 It was very shortly after this that the white horse 
 which drew the old fly from Redborough the horse 
 which was supposed to have been chosen for this 
 quality, that it could be seen a long way off to 
 console the souls of those who felt it could never 
 arrive in time was seen upon the road, and the last 
 moment had visibly come. Not the less for the 
 commotion and tumult or other feelings through 
 which her heart had gone, did Hester acknowledge 
 the emotions which belonged to this leave-taking. 
 The depth and sadness of Roland's eyes those 
 expressive eyes which said so many things, the 
 pathos of his mouth, the lingering clasp in which 
 he held her hand, all affected her. There was a 
 magic about him which the girl did not resist, 
 though she was conscious of the other side of it, 
 the faint mixture of the fictitious which did not 
 impair its charm. She stood and watched him 
 from the low window of the parlour which looked 
 that way, while the fly was being laden, with a 
 blank countenance. She felt the corners of her 
 mouth droop, her eyes widen, her face grow longer. 
 It was as if all the novelty, the variety, the pleasure 
 of life were going away. It was a dull afternoon, 
 which was at once congenial as suiting the circum- 
 stances and oppressive as enhancing the gloom. 
 She watched the portmanteau put in as if she had 
 been watching a funeral. When Roland stepped in 
 after his grandfather, who in the softness of the 
 moment had offered, to the great surprise of every- 
 body, to accompany him to the station, Hester still
 
 74 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 looked on with melancholy gravity. She was almost 
 on a level with them where she stood looking out ; 
 her mother all smiles, kissing her hand beside her. 
 " I wish you would show a little interest, Hester," 
 Mrs. John said. "You might at least wave your 
 hand. If it were only for the old captain's sake 
 whom you always profess to be so fond of." Roland 
 at this moment leant out of the window of the fly 
 and took off his hat to her for the last time. Mrs. 
 John thought it was barbarous to take no notice. 
 She redoubled her own friendly salutations ; but 
 Hester stood like a statue, forcing a faint ghost of a 
 smile, but not moving a finger. She stood thus 
 watching them long after they had driven away, titi 
 they had almost disappeared in the smoke of Red- 
 borough. She saw the fly stop at the Grange and 
 Miss Catherine come out to the door to take leave of 
 him : and then the slow vehicle disappeared alto- 
 gether. The sky seemed to lean down almost 
 touching the ground ; the stagnant afternoon air 
 had not a breath to move it. Hester said to herself 
 that nothing more would happen now. She knew 
 the afternoon atmosphere, the approach of tea, the 
 scent of it in the air, the less ethereal bread-and- 
 butter, and then the long dull evening. It seemed 
 endless to look forward, as if it never would be 
 night. And Mrs. John, as soon as the fly was out of 
 sight, had drawn her chair towards the fire and 
 
 O * 
 
 begun to talk. " I am sure I am very sorry he has 
 gone," Mrs. John said. " I did not think I should 
 have liked him at first, but I declare I like him very
 
 v.] WARNING. 75 
 
 much now. How long is it since he came, Hester ? 
 Only a fortnight ! I should have said three weeks 
 at least. I 'think it was quite unnatural of the 
 captain to talk of him as he did, for I am sure he 
 is a very nice young man. Where are you going ? 
 not I hope for one of your long walks : for the night 
 closes in very early now, and it will soon be time 
 for tea." 
 
 "Don't you think, mamma," said Hester, some- 
 what hypocritically, "that it would be kind to go 
 in and keep Mrs. Morgan company a little, as she 
 will be quite alone ? " 
 
 " That is always your way as soon as I show any 
 inclination for a little talk," said her mother pro- 
 voked, not without reason. Then she softened, being 
 at heart the most good-natured of women. " Perhaps 
 you are right," she said, " the old lady will be lonely. 
 Give her my love, and say I should have come to see 
 her myself, but that " Mrs. John paused for a 
 reason, " but that I am afraid for my neuralgia," she 
 added triumphantly. "You know how bad it was 
 the other day." 
 
 Thus sanctioned Hester threw her grey " cloud " 
 round her, and ran round to console Mrs. Morgan, 
 while her mother arranged herself comfortably with 
 a footstool, a book upon the table beside her, and 
 her knitting, but with a furtive inclination towards 
 an afternoon nap, which the greyness of the day, 
 the early failing light in the dark wainscoted parlour, 
 and the absence of all movement about her, natur- 
 ally inclined her to. Mrs. John was at the age
 
 76 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 when we are very much ashamed of the afternoon 
 nap, and she was well provided with semblances of 
 occupation in case any one should come. But Mrs. 
 Morgan was far beyond any such simple deceit. 
 Eighty has vast advantages in this way. When she 
 felt disposed to doze a little she was quite pleased, 
 almost proud of the achievement. She had indeed 
 a book on the table with her spectacles carefully 
 folded into it, but she did not require any occupation. 
 
 " I had a kind of feeling that you would come, 
 my pet," she said as Hester appeared. " When I 
 want you very much I think some kind little angel 
 must go and tap you on the shoulder, for you always 
 come." 
 
 " The captain would say it is a brain-wave," said 
 Hester. 
 
 " The captain says a great deal of nonsense, my 
 dear," said the old lady with a smile, " but think of 
 him going with Roland to the station ! He has been 
 vanquished, quite vanquished which is a great 
 pleasure to me. And Emma is coming. 1 hope she 
 will not wear out the good impression " 
 
 " Is she not so nice ? " Hester asked. 
 
 The old lady looked her favourite intently in the 
 face. She saw the too great clearness of Hester's 
 eyes, and that her mouth was not smiling, but drawn 
 downward ; and a vague dread filled her mind. She 
 was full of love and charity, but she was full of 
 insight too ; and though she loved Roland, she did 
 not think it would be to the advantage of cHester 
 to love him.
 
 v.] WARNING. 77 
 
 " Roland is very nice," she said. " Poor boy, per- 
 haps that is his temptation. It is his nature to 
 please whomsoever he comes across. It is a beautiful 
 kind of nature ; but I am not sure that it is not 
 very dangerous both for himself and others." 
 
 It was fortunate that Hester did not divine what 
 her friend meant. 
 
 " Dangerous to please ? " she said, with a little 
 curiosity. She liked Roland so much, that even 
 rom the lips of those who had more right to him 
 Jian she had, she did not like to hear blame. 
 
 "To wish to please everybody," said the old 
 lady. " My poor lad ! that is his temptation. Your 
 grandfather, if he were here my dear, I beg your 
 pardon. I have got into the way of saying it : as 
 if my old man was your grandfather too." 
 
 " I like it," Hester said, with the only gleam of 
 her usual frank and radiant smile which Mrs. 
 Morgan had yet seen. But this made the old lady 
 only more afraid. 
 
 '' There is nobody he could be more fatherly to," 
 she said. " What I meant was that if he were here, 
 he would have something ready out of a book, as you 
 and he are always going on with your poetries ; but 
 I never was a poetry woman, as you know. Life is 
 all my learning. And I have seen people that have 
 had plenty of heart, Hester, if they had given it 
 fair play but frittered it away on one and another, 
 trying to give a piece to each, making each believe 
 that she (for it is mostly upon women that the spell 
 works) was the one above all others. But you are
 
 78 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 so young, my darling; you will not know what I 
 mean." 
 
 A faint, uneasy colour, came on Hester's face. 
 
 " I think I know what you mean," she said. " I 
 understand how you should think so of Mr. Ashton. 
 You don't see so well as you did, dear Mrs. Morgan, 
 when you have not got your spectacles on. If you 
 did, you would see that when he talks like that, he 
 is ready to laugh all the time." 
 
 " Is that so, my love ? Then I am very glad to 
 hear you say so," cried the old lady. But she knew 
 very well that her supposed want of sight was a 
 delusion, and that Hester knew it was only for 
 reading that she ever used her spectacles. She 
 felt, however, all the more that her warning had 
 been taken, and that it was unnecessary to proceed 
 further. " You are young and sweet," she said, " my 
 dear : but the best thing still is that you have 
 sense. Oh, what it is to have sense ! it is the best 
 blessing in life." 
 
 Hester made no reply to this praise. Her heart 
 was beating more quickly than usual. What she 
 had said was quite true : but all the time, though 
 he had been ready to laugh, and though she had 
 been ready to laugh, she was aware that there was 
 something more. The tone of banter had not been 
 all. The sense of something humorous, under those 
 high-flown phrases, had not exhausted them. She 
 was intended to laugh, indeed, if they did not secure 
 another sentiment; but the first aim, and perhaps 
 the last aim, of the insidious Roland, had been to
 
 v .] WARNING. 7i) 
 
 secure this other sentiment. Hester did not enter 
 into these distinctions, but she felt them ; and when 
 she thus put forward Mrs. Morgan's failing sight, it 
 was with a natural casuistry which she knew would 
 be partially seen through, and yet would have its 
 effect. This made her feel that there was no reply 
 to be made to the praise of her " sense," which the 
 old lady had given. Was it her cunning that the 
 old lady meant to praise ? There was a little 
 silence, and the subject of Roland was put aside, 
 not perhaps quite to the satisfaction of either ; but 
 there was nothing more that could be said. 
 
 And presently the old captain came back, groaning 
 a little over his long walk. 
 
 " Why do you never remind me," he said, " what 
 an old fool I am ? To drive in that jingling affair, 
 and to walk back two miles if it is a yard well, 
 then, a mile and a half. My dear, what was half a 
 mile when you and I were young is two miles now, 
 and not an inch less ; but I have seen him off the 
 premises. And now, Hester, we shall have our 
 talks again, and our walks again, without any 
 interruption ' 
 
 " Do not speak so fast, Rowley. There is Emma 
 coming; and Hester will like a girl to talk with, 
 and to walk with, better than an old fellow like 
 you." 
 
 " That old woman insults me," said the captain. 
 " She thinks I am as old as she is but Hester, you 
 and I know better. You are looking anxious, my 
 child. Do you think we are a frivolous old pair
 
 80 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 talking as we ought not two old fools upon the 
 brink of the grave-? " 
 
 "Captain Morgan! I, to have such a thought! 
 And what should I do without you ? " cried Hester, 
 in quick alarm. This brought the big tears to 
 her eyes, and perhaps she was glad, for various, 
 causes, to have a perfectly honest and comprehen- 
 sible cause in the midst of her agitation, for those 
 tears. 
 
 " This was brought to my mind very clearly to- 
 day," said the old captain. " When I saw that young 
 fellow go off, a man in full career of his life, and 
 thought of his parents swept away, the mother whom 
 you know I loved, Mary, as dearly as a man ever 
 loves his child, and the father whom I hated, both 
 so much younger than we are, and both gone for 
 years; and here are we still living, as if we had 
 been forgotten somehow. We just go on in our 
 usual, from day to day, and it seems quite natural ; 
 but when you think of all of them gone and we 
 two still here " 
 
 " We are not forgotten," said the old lady, in her 
 easy chair, smiling upon him, folding those old 
 hands which were now laid up from labour, hands 
 that had worked hard in their day. " We have 
 .some purpose to serve yet, or we would not be 
 here." 
 
 " I suppose so I suppose so," said the old man, 
 with a sigh ; and then he struck his stick upon the 
 floor, and cried out, " but not, God forbid it, as the 
 instruments of evil to the house that has sheltered
 
 WARNING. 81 
 
 us, Mary ! My heart misgives me. I would like 
 at least, before anything comes of it, that we should 
 be out of the way, you and I." 
 
 " You were always a man of little faith," his wife 
 said. " Why should you go out of your way to 
 meet the evil, that by God's good grace will never 
 come ? It will never come ; we have not been 
 preserved for that. You would as soon teach me 
 Job's lesson as to believe that, my old man." 
 
 " What was Job's lesson ? It was, ' Though 
 He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,' " Captain 
 Morgan said. 
 
 " Oh, my Rowley ! " cried the old lady, " I was 
 wrong to say you were of little faith ! It is you that 
 are the faithful one, and not me. I am just nothing 
 beside you, as I have always been." 
 
 The old captain took his wife's old hands in his, 
 and gave her a kiss upon her faded cheek, and they 
 smiled upon each other, the two who had been one 
 for nearly sixty years. Meanwhile, Hester sitting by, 
 looked on with large eyes of wonder and almost 
 affright. She did not know what it meant. She 
 could not divine what it could be that made them 
 differ, yet made them agree. What harm could they 
 do to the house that sheltered them, two old, good, 
 peaceful people, who were kind to everybody ? She 
 gazed at them with her wondering young eyes, and 
 did what she could to fathom the mystery : then 
 retired from it, thinking it perhaps some little fad of 
 the old people, which she had no knowledge of, nor 
 
 VOL. II. G
 
 82 HESTER. [CHAP. v. 
 
 means of understanding. The best people, Hester 
 thought, when they grew old take strange notions 
 into their heads, and trouble themselves about 
 nothing ; and of course they missed Roland. She 
 broke in upon them in that moment of feeling, as 
 soon as she dared speak for wonder, making an effort 
 to amuse them, and bring them back to their usual 
 ways ; and that effort was not in vain.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DANCING TEAS. 
 
 IT was shortly after the departure of Roland that 
 a new era dawned for Hester in social life. Mrs. 
 Algernon Merridew had felt from the moment of her 
 return from Abroad that there was a work for her to 
 do in Redborough. It was not the same as in her 
 maiden days, when she had been at the head of 
 Harry's household, wonderfully enfranchised indeed, 
 but still somewhat under the awe of Aunt Catherine. 
 But now she was altogether independent, and nobody 
 had any right to make suggestions as to who she 
 should invite or how she should entertain, to a 
 married lady, with an admiring husband, not to speak 
 of brother and sisters-in-law, eagerly anticipating 
 social elevation by her means, at her back. Ellen 
 was not ill-natured. She was very willing to promote 
 the happiness and prosperity of others, so long as she 
 could do so without any diminution of her own a 
 negative goodness which the world at large is very 
 well pleased to acknowledge as satisfactory. And it 
 
 G 2
 
 84 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 is not at all probable that the representations of 
 Harry, or the good-humoured suggestions of Algernon 
 inspired by Harry, to the effect that it would be 
 sublimely good of her to take up and brighten the 
 life of Hester, would have come to very much, had it 
 not at the same time occurred to Ellen that Hester 
 was the best assistant she could have on her own side 
 of the house, in the indispensable work of making 
 her Thursdays "go." Rather than that they should 
 not " go," she would have embraced her worst enemy, 
 had she possessed one ; and she did not care to rely 
 upon the Merridew girls, feeling as she did that she 
 had condescended in entering their family, and that 
 they must never be allowed to forget that they owed 
 everything to her, and she nothing to them. But at 
 the same time she required a feminine auxiliary, a 
 somebody to be her right hand, and help to make 
 everything "go." The result of her cogitations on 
 this subject was that she set out for the Vemonry 
 one afternoon in the little victoria, which Algernon, 
 rather tremulous about the cost, had set up for her, 
 and which, with the smart coachman who for the 
 moment condescended to be gardener too, and the 
 boy on the box who was of quite a fashionable size, 
 looked a very imposing little equipage. Ellen lay 
 back in her little carriage enveloped in her new seal- 
 skin, with a little hat of the same upon her head, and 
 a muff also of the same, and her light hair looking 
 all the brighter against that dark background, with 
 bracelets enough to make a jingle wherever she went, 
 and which she had to push up upon her arm from
 
 vi j DANCING TEAS. 85 
 
 time to time, and a violet scent about herself and all 
 her garments, at least the scent which is called violet 
 at Piesse and Lubin's, which served her purpose. 
 When she drove up in this state, it may be supposed 
 what a nutter she made in the afternoon atmosphere. 
 The inmates of the Vernonry rushed to their windows. 
 
 " It is that little doll Ellen, come to show ofi' more 
 of her finery," said one sister. 
 
 " I wonder why she comes here, when you set her 
 down so, Matilda," said the other. 
 
 They kept behind the curtains, one over the other's 
 shoulder, that she might not see how curious they 
 were. But when Ellen floated in at the verandah 
 door, and was evidently gone to see Mrs. John, their 
 astonishment was boundless. They shrugged their 
 shoulders and interchanged glances with Mr. Mild- 
 may Vernon, who, with his newspaper in his hand, 
 had appeared at his window. . 
 
 "Did he think she was going to see him?" Miss 
 Matilda said, even while addressing these satires in pan- 
 tomime to him. " What interest can he take in Ellen ? 
 It is just prying and curiosity, and nothing more." 
 
 The gentleman's comments were not more friendly. 
 He chuckled as he saw where Ellen was going. 
 
 " The old cats will think it a visit to them, and 
 they will be disappointed," he said to himself, all the 
 same shrugging his shoulders back again to Miss 
 Matilda. They kept on the watch all the time the 
 visit lasted, and it was a long one. The sisters 
 discussed the victoria, the horse, the little footman, 
 the great fur rug which Ellen threw off as she
 
 86 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 jumped lightly out of the carriage. It was somewhat 
 hard indeed that a little minx like Ellen should have 
 all these things, and her seniors, her betters, who 
 would have enjoyed them so much, none of them. 
 But so it always is in this unjust world. 
 
 On the other side of the partition from where the 
 sisters were sitting, Ellen's appearance had caused an 
 almost equal sensation. She was not looked for, and 
 the proposal she made was a very startling one. 
 
 " I am going to begin my Thfe Dansantes, and I 
 want you to help me," she said abruptly. " I want 
 you to be my right hand ; just like my sister. You 
 know I can't do everything myself. Mrs. John, you 
 shall come too, I never intended to leave you out ; 
 but I want Hester to help me, for she is the only 
 one that can help me. She is really my cousin. 
 Clara and Connie are only rny sisters-in-law, and I 
 don't care to have them about me in that position. 
 It would be nice for me, and it would be giving 
 Hester the best of chances. Now, Mrs. John, I am 
 sure you will see it in that light. What could be 
 better for a girl ? All that she will meet will be the 
 best sort of people : and she would have her chance." 
 
 " I don't know what you mean by having my 
 chance and I don't want any chance," said Hester, 
 in a flush of shame and indignation ; but Ellen put 
 her down with a wave of her gloved hand and arm, 
 all tinkling with bangles. 
 
 " Of course you don't know anything about it," 
 she said, " an unmarried girl ! We don't want you to 
 know. Your mother and I will talk about that ; but
 
 M] DANCING TEAS. 87 
 
 you can understand that a nice dance in a nice house 
 like ours will be something pleasant. And you 
 would be there not just like a visitor, but like one of 
 the family, and get a good deal of attention, and as 
 many partners as ever you liked." 
 
 " Of course, Ellen, of course," cried Mrs. John. " I 
 am sure / understand you. It would be very nice 
 for Hester. At her age every girl likes a little 
 gaiety, and in my position I have never been able to 
 give it to her. It was very different when my hus- 
 band was alive, when we were in the White House. 
 I am sure I have never grudged it to you, but it 
 made a great difference. I was not brought up to 
 this sort of thing. I had my balls, and my parties, 
 as many as could be wished, when I was Hester's age. 
 If her poor papa had lived, and we had' stayed in the 
 White House, she would have held a very different 
 position. It gives me a little prick, you will under- 
 stand, to think of Hester wanting anybody to be kind 
 to her ; but still, as it is so, and as you are her 
 relation, I never could object. You will find no 
 objection from me." 
 
 " No, I should think not," cried Ellen, throwing 
 back her warm coat. It was at the time when seal- 
 skins were rare, when they were just " coming in," 
 and Mrs. John looked at it with admiration. She 
 did not ask, as the Miss Vernon-Bidgways did, why 
 this little minx should have everything ; but she 
 remembered with a little regret the days when she 
 too had everything that a young woman could de- 
 sire, and wondered, with a little flutter at her heart,
 
 88 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 whether when Hester married she would have a 
 sealskin and a victoria, and all the other crowns of 
 happiness. She looked with something of a pathetic 
 look at her daughter. Ah ! if she could but see 
 Hester as Ellen was ! 
 
 Meanwhile Hester was elevating her young head as 
 was natural, in special scorn of the " chance " which 
 her cousin meant to secure for her, and in defiance 
 altogether of the scheme, which nevertheless (for she 
 was but human and nineteen, and the prospect of a 
 dance every week took away her breath) moved her 
 in spite of herself. 
 
 " When I was a child," Hester said, " when you 
 first came to see us, Cousin Ellen, you said you must 
 see a great deal of me, that I must go to your 
 house, that you and Harry would take me out, 
 that I should have a share in your pleasures. 
 Perhaps my mother and you don't remember but 
 I do. How I used to look out for you every morn- 
 ing ; how I used to watch at the window, thinking 
 they will surely come or send, or take some notice 
 to-day. I was very young, you know, and believed 
 everything, and wished so much to drive about and 
 to go to parties. But you never came." 
 
 " To think she should remember all that ! " cried 
 Ellen, a little abashed. " Of course I didn't. Why, 
 you were only a child. One said so to please you ; 
 but how can you suppose one meant anything ? 
 What could I have done with you then a little 
 thing among lots of people ? Why, you wouldn't 
 have been allowed to come ! It would have been
 
 vi.] DANCING TEAS. 89 
 
 bad for you. You would have heard things you 
 oughtn't to hear. You wouldn't have let her come, 
 would you, Mrs. John ? " 
 
 " Certainly not, my dear," said Mrs. John, promptly. 
 To tell the truth, it was she who had complained 
 the most though it was Hester who had been most 
 indignant. She forgot this, however, in the new 
 interest of the moment. "It would never have 
 done," she said, with all sincerity. "Your cousin, 
 of course, only spoke to please you, Hester. I never 
 could have permitted you, a little thing at your 
 lessons, to plunge into pleasure at that age." 
 
 " Then why " cried Hester, open-mouthed ; but 
 when she had got so far she paused. What was the 
 use of saying any more ? She looked at them both 
 with her large brown eyes, full of light and wonder, 
 and a little indignation and a little scorn, then 
 stopped and laughed, and changed the subject. 
 "When I go to Cousin Catherine's," she said, 
 "which I never do when I can help it, we stand in 
 a corner all the evening, my mother and I. We 
 are thankful when any one speaks to us the 
 curate's daughters and the ~Miss Keynoldses and 
 
 we There is never anybody to take us in to 
 
 supper. All the Redborough people sweep past 
 while mamma stands waiting; and then perhaps 
 some gentleman who has been down once before 
 takes pity, and says, ' Haven't you been down to 
 supper, Mrs. Vernon ? Dear me ! then let me take 
 you.' You will please to remember that my mother 
 is Mrs. Vernon, Ellen, and not Mrs. John."
 
 90 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 "I only say it for short," said Ellen, apologeti- 
 cally ; " and how can I help what happens at Aunt 
 Catherine's ? I don't go in for her ways. I don't 
 mean to do as she does. Why do you talk of Aunt 
 Catherine to me ? " 
 
 " It is only to let you see that I will not be treated 
 so," the girl said with indignation. " If you think I 
 will go to your house like that, just because you are 
 a relation, I won't, Ellen ; and you had better under- 
 stand this before we begin." 
 
 " What a spitfire it is ! " said Ellen, raising her 
 hand with a toss of all her bracelets to brush 
 Hester's downy cheek with a playful touch. " To 
 think she should put all these things down in her 
 book against us ! I should never remember if it 
 were me. I should be furious for the moment, and 
 then I should forget all about it. Now, Hester, 
 you look here. I am not asking you for your own 
 pleasure, you silly ; I am asking you to help me. 
 Don't you see that makes all the difference ? You 
 are no good to Aunt Catherine. She doesn't need 
 you. She asks you only for civility. But it stands 
 to reason, you know, that I can't look after all the 
 people myself if I am to have any of the fun. I 
 must have some one to help me. Of course you will 
 have every attention paid you ; for, don't you see, you 
 are wanted. I can't get on without you. Oh, of 
 course, that makes all the difference ! I am sure 
 your mamma understands very well, even if you are 
 too young and too silly to understand ! " 
 
 " Yes, Hester, your cousin is quite right," said Mrs.
 
 vi.] DANCING TEAS. 91 
 
 John, eagerly. The poor lady was so anxious to 
 secure her child's assent to what she felt would be 
 so manifestly for her advantage that she was ready 
 to back up everything that Ellen said. A spark of 
 animation and new life had lighted up in Mrs. John's 
 eyes. It was not a very elevated kind of hope per- 
 haps, yet no hope that is centred in the successes of 
 another is altogether ignoble. She wanted to see 
 her child happy ; she wanted Hester to have her 
 chance, as Ellen said. That she should be seen 
 and admired and made much of, was, Mrs. John 
 felt, the first object in her life. It would not be 
 without some cost to herself, but she did not shrink 
 from the idea of the lonely evenings she would have 
 to spend, or the separation that might ensue. Her 
 mind, which was not a great mind, jumped forward 
 into an instant calculation of how the evening dresses 
 could be got, at what sacrifice of ease or comfort. 
 She did not shrink from this, whatever it might be. 
 Neither did she let any visionary pride stand in her 
 way as Hester did. She was ready to forgive, to 
 forget, to condone all offences and in the long dis- 
 cussion and argument that followed, Mrs. John was 
 almost more eloquent than Ellen on the mutual 
 advantages of the contract. She saw them all the 
 instant they were set before her. She was quite 
 tremulous with interest and expectation. She ran 
 over with approval and beaming admiration as Ellen 
 unfolded her plans. " Oh, yes, I can quite under- 
 stand ; you want to strike out something original," 
 cried Mrs. John. " You must not think I agree with
 
 92 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Hester about Catherine's parties. I think Cathe- 
 rine's parties are very nice ; and relations, you 
 know, must expect to give way to strangers, 
 especially when there are not enough of gentle- 
 men ; but it will be much pleasanter for you to 
 strike out something original. I should have liked 
 it when I was in your circumstances, but I don't 
 think I had the energy. And I am sure if Hester 
 
 can be of any use Oh, my darling ! of course 
 
 you will like it very much. You always are ready 
 to help, and you have plenty of energy far more 
 than I ever had and so fond of dancing too ; and 
 there are so few dances in Redborough. Oh, yes, 
 I think it is a capital plan, Ellen ! and Hester will 
 be delighted to help you. It will be such an open- 
 ing for her," Mrs. John said, with tears of pleasure 
 in her eyes. 
 
 Hester did not say much while the talk ran on. 
 She was understood to fall into the scheme, and 
 that was all that was necessary. But when Ellen, 
 after a prolonged visit and a detailed explanation to 
 Mrs. John, which she received with the greatest 
 excitement and interest, of all her arrangements as 
 to the music, the suppers, and every other particular 
 they could think of between them, rose to take heir 
 leave, she put her hand within Hester's arm, and 
 drew her aside for a few confidential words. 
 
 " Don't think of coming to the door," she said to 
 Mrs. John ; " it is so cold you must not stir. Hester 
 will see me out. There is one thing I must say to 
 you, dear," she added, raising herself to Hester's ear
 
 VL] DANCING TEAS. 93 
 
 when they were out of the mother's hearing, " and 
 you are not to take it amiss. It must be a condi- 
 tion beforehand now please, Hester, mind, and 
 don't be offended. You must promise me that you 
 will have nothing to say to either of the boys." 
 
 The quick flush of offence sprang to Hester's 
 face. 
 
 " I don't know what you mean. You mean 
 something you have no right to say, Ellen ! " 
 
 " I have a very good right to say it for I'm a 
 married lady, and you are only a girl, and of course 
 I must know best. You are not to have anything 
 to say to the boys. Any one else you like. I am 
 sure I don't mind, but will do anything I can to 
 help but not the boys. Oh, I know something 
 about Harry. I know you have had the sense 
 
 to Well, I don't understand how far it went, 
 
 but I suppose it must have gone as far as it could 
 go, for he's not clever enough to be put off with 
 anything less than a real No. But you may have 
 changed your mind, or a hundred things might 
 happen. And then there's Edward ; Aunt Catherine 
 would be wild if anything got up between you and 
 Edward. Oh, I think it's always best to speak plain, 
 and then one has nothing to reproach one's self with 
 after. She would just be wild, you know. She 
 thinks there is nobody good enough for him ; and 
 you and she have never got on. Oh, I don't suppose 
 there's anything between you and Edward. I never 
 said so ; the only thing is you must promise me to 
 have nothing to say to them. There are plenty of
 
 94 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 others much better matches, and more eligible : 
 and it's always a pity to have anything to say to a 
 cousin in that way. You're sure to set the family by 
 the ears; and then it narrows the connection, and 
 you keep always the same name ; and there are 
 ever so many drawbacks. So just you promise me, 
 Hester, there's a dear never." said Ellen, seizing 
 
 * * ^ o 
 
 her with both hands, and giving her a sudden per- 
 fumy kiss, " never ! " and the salute was repeated 
 on the other cheek, " to hswe-Mny thing to say to the 
 boys " 
 
 " The boys ! if you think I care anything for the 
 boys! I shall have nothing to say to anybody," cried 
 Hester, with indignation, drawing herself out of this 
 too urgent embrace. Ellen tossed back all her 
 bracelets, and shook her golden locks and her seal- 
 skin hat, and made an agitation in the air of scent 
 and sound and movement. 
 
 "Oh, that's being a great deal too good," she 
 cried. 
 
 Hester stood at the door, and looked on while Mrs. 
 Algernon got into her victoria and drew the fur rug 
 over her, and was driven away, waving the hand and 
 the bracelets in a parting jingle. The girl was not 
 envious, but half-contemptuous, feeling herself in 
 her poverty as much superior to this butterfly in 
 furs and feathers, as pride could desire. Hester did 
 little credit to the social gifts, or the popularity or 
 reputed cleverness in her own way, of her gay 
 cousin who had been the inspiration of Harry, and 
 now was the guide of Algernon Merridew. She said
 
 vi.] DANCING TEAS. 95 
 
 to herself with the downrightness of youth, that 
 Ellen was a little fool. But her own cheeks were 
 blazing with this parting dart which had been thrown 
 at her. The boys ' She had a softened feeling of 
 amity towards Harry, who had done all a stupid 
 young man could do to overcome the sentence of 
 disapproval under which Hester was aware she lay. 
 It had been embarrassing and uncomfortable, and 
 had made her anything but grateful at the moment ; 
 but now she began to feel that Harry had indeed 
 behaved like a man, and done all that a man could 
 to remedy her false position, and give her a substan- 
 tial foundation for the native indomitable pride which 
 none of them could crush, though they did their 
 best. No ; she would have, nothing to say to Harry. 
 She shook her head to herself, and laughed at the 
 thought, all in the silence of the verandah, where 
 she stood hazily gazing out through the dim greenish 
 glass at Ellen, long after Ellen had disappeared. 
 But Edward ! that was a different matter altogether. 
 She would give no word so far as he was concerned. 
 Edward was altogether different from Harry. He 
 piqued and excited her curiosity ; he kept her mind 
 in a tremor of interest. She could not cease thinking 
 of him when she was in his neighbourhood, wondering 
 what he would do, what he would say. And if it 
 did make Catherine wild, as Ellen said, that was but 
 an inducement the more in Hester's indignant soul. 
 She had no wish to please Catherine Vernon. There 
 had not been any love lost between them from the 
 first, and Hester was glad to think she was not one
 
 96 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 of those who had in any way pretended to her kins- 
 woman's favour. She had never sought Catherine, 
 never bowed the knee before her. When she went to 
 the Grange it had been against her will, as a matter 
 of obedience to her mother, not to Catherine. If it 
 made Catherine wild to think that there was a friend- 
 ship, or any other sentiment between Edward and the 
 girl whom she had so slighted, then let Catherine be 
 wild. That was no motive to restrain Hester's freedom 
 of action. All this passed through her mind as she 
 stood in the verandah in the cold, gazing after Ellen, 
 long after Ellen was out of sight. There were many 
 things which gave her a sort of attraction of repul- 
 sion to Edward. He had tried to deceive Roland 
 Ashton about her, telling him she was about to 
 marry Harry, when he knew very well she had 
 refused to marry Harry. Why had he done it? 
 And in his manner to herself Edward was two men. 
 When they were alone he was more than friendly ; 
 he was tender, insinuating, anxious for her approval, 
 eager to unfold himself to her. But when he saw 
 her in the Grange drawing-room he never went near 
 her. In early times she had asked why, and he had 
 answered with deceiving words, asking how she 
 thought he could bear to approach her with common- 
 place civilities when she was the only creature in the 
 place for whom he cared at all, a speech which had 
 pleased Hester at first as something high-flown and 
 splendid, but which had not preserved its effect as 
 time went on : for she could not see why he should 
 not be civil, and show some regard for her presence,
 
 vi.j DANCING TEAS. 97 
 
 even if he could not devote himself to her. And 
 why could he not devote himself to her ? Because 
 it would displease Catherine. When Catherine was 
 not present, there was nobody for him but Hester. 
 When Catherine was there, he was unconscious of 
 her existence. This, of course, should have shown 
 clearly to Hester that he was not worthy of her 
 regard, and to some degree did so. But the con- 
 viction was mingled with so lively a curiosity in 
 respect to him, so strong an opposition as regarded 
 her, that Hester's moral judgment was confused 
 altogether. She was anxious, eager to overcome her 
 adversary, excited to know what Edward's meaning 
 was. He would not stand up for her like a true 
 friend, but at the same time he would never let her 
 alone, he would still let her see that she was in his 
 
 mind. She disliked him, yet She almost loved 
 
 him, but still Nothing could be more tantalising, 
 
 more entirely unlike indifference. To think of 
 meeting Edward in society, yet not under Catherine's 
 eye, made her heart beat loudly. She had never 
 done this hitherto. She had met him by chance on 
 the Common or in the country roads about, and his 
 voice had been almost that of a lover. She had met 
 him before the world, and he had scarcely seemed to 
 know her. But how could these meetings test what 
 he meant ? This it was that made Ellen's proposal 
 exciting, even while she herself half scorned it. 
 Harry ? no ! Poor Harry ! she would not disturb 
 his peace, nor say a word, nor even look a look 
 which should put him in jeopardy. But Edward ? 
 VOL. II. H
 
 98 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 ah ! that was a different matter. It was with all 
 the vehemence of a quarrel that she snatched at the 
 chance put into her hands, even when she had 
 seemed to scorn it. To know what he meant to 
 know what was his real state of mind. If he would 
 be afraid of what the world would say, as well as of 
 what Catherine would say in that case there was 
 n<ji scorn which Hester did not feel herself capable 
 of pouring out upon her unworthy admirer; but if 
 things proved different ? Ah ! then she did not 
 know what softening, what yielding, she might not 
 be capable of. The very thought melted her heart. 
 
 And yet she had thought herself more " interested " 
 (this was what she called it) in Roland Ash ton than 
 in any man whom she had ever heard of before. 
 The world had seemed all blank to her when he 
 went away. His step at the door had made her 
 heart thrill : the commonplace day had brightened 
 up into something smiling and sweet when he came 
 in. But then she had not been fighting a duel with 
 him half her life as she had been doing with Edward. 
 She was not curious, intrigude, to know what Roland 
 meant. She thought (with a blush) that she did 
 know more or less what he meant. But Edward 
 was a sort of sphinx ; he was an enemy to be beaten, 
 a riddle to be read. She said to herself, what would 
 please her best would be to force him into self- 
 abandonment, to carry him so out of himself that he-- 
 should give up all pretences and own himself at her 
 disposal, and then to turn her back upon him and 
 scorn him. Would she have done so ? she thought
 
 vi.] DANCING TEAS. 99 
 
 she would, and that in this lay the secret of her 
 interest in Edward and his crooked ways. And now, 
 here was the trial approaching. She would see what 
 was his true mettle, she would be able indeed to 
 judge of him now. 
 
 "Hester," said Mrs. John appearing at the open 
 door, " what do you mean by lingering in the cold, to 
 get your death ? You will be chilled to your very 
 bones. You have not even a shawl on, and in this 
 cold place. What are you doing ? I have called you 
 three times, and you never paid any attention. Even 
 to stand here for five minutes freezes me." 
 
 " Then don't stand here, mamma," said Hester, 
 taking hold of her mother's arm and thus leading 
 her back in the old way. They did not walk about 
 very much together now. Hester preferred her own 
 thoughts to her mother's society, and Mrs. John was 
 not sorry to be left quietly by herself at the fireside. 
 How long it seemed since the time when she held 
 her mother's arm clasped in hers whenever she 
 moved, and used it as a helm to guide that timid 
 and trustful woman wherever she would ! A little 
 compunction came over her as she made use of that 
 well-known expedient again, and steered her mother 
 (all the more gently for that thought) back to her 
 own chair. 
 
 " Yes, yes, dear, this is very comfortable," said 
 Mrs. John, " but I wish you had come at once, when 
 I called you, for we must not lose any time in 
 thinking about your dresses. You must do Ellen 
 credit, that is one thing clear. I can't have you 
 
 H 2
 
 100 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 dowdy, Hester. The Merridew girls shall not have a 
 word to say about the Vernons on your account. Oh, 
 I know they will if they can ; they will whisper and 
 say how proud we all are, and give ourselves airs, 
 and just look at Hester in a washed muslin ! I 
 would rather go without my dinner," said Mrs. John 
 with vehemence, " for a whole year." 
 
 " But I shall not let you do that, mamma." 
 
 " Oh, Hester, just hold your tongue. What do 
 you know about it ? I would rather sell my Indian 
 shawl, or my pearls Dear me, what a good thing I 
 did not part with my pearls ! that is something 
 nobody can turn up their noses at. And you can say 
 you got them from your mother, and your grand- 
 mother before her which is more than they ever 
 had. But there are the dresses to be thought of," 
 said the tender mother, looking in Hester's face, half 
 awed, half appealing : for even in the pride of 
 descent she was forced to remember that you cannot 
 send your child to a The Dansante with nothing but 
 a string of pearls round her neck, however fine, and 
 however long in the family it may have been. 
 
 " .Dresses ! one will do," said Hester, with a little 
 flush of pleasure, yet determination to repress her 
 mother's unnecessary liberality. " You forget what 
 you are talking of, mother dear. One dress is as 
 much as " 
 
 " And to whom do you suppose you are speaking," 
 said Mrs. John with dignity; "there are a great 
 many things which you think you know better than 
 I. Perhaps you are wrong there too ; but I am not
 
 vi.] DANCING TEAS. 101 
 
 going to bandy words with you. One thing I must 
 say, than when we talk of ball dresses I know a great 
 deal better than you. Oh, but I do I had to get 
 everything for myself in old days. Your father 
 delighted in seeing me fine, but he never pretended 
 to have any taste. All the responsibility was on me. 
 Considering that we are poor, and that you are so 
 young, I should think tulle would do : or even 
 tarlatan. Hester, I should like you to have silk 
 slips, that gives a character to a thing at once. A 
 white one, a pink one, and a blue one " 
 
 " Dear mamma, a white frock, that is all I want. 
 I am sure that is all I want ; we can't afford any 
 more. And as for silk slips " 
 
 " Oh, hold your tongue, Hester, what do you know 
 about it ? " cried Mrs. John, exasperated. " You 
 have never been at a ball in your life. You can't 
 know what's wanted, like me. There are quantities 
 of other things besides. Shoes you must have satin 
 shoes and silk stockings, and gloves, and something 
 to wear in your hair. I don't even know what's 
 worn now. We used to have wreaths in my day, 
 but perhaps that's not the fashion at present. When 
 I had not a maid and of course, poor child, you 
 have no maid I used to have a hair-dresser to do 
 my hair when I was going out. We wore it quite 
 high on the top of our heads, and now you wear it 
 clown, in the nape of your neck. What a thing 
 fashion is ! We had gigot sleeves all puffed out with 
 feather cushions, and I used to wear a lace scarf 
 which was very becoming. We had muslins in my
 
 102 '."' HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 time, nice clear book-muslins, and when you had 
 worn it two or three times for balls you just wore it 
 out in the evenings at home. Tarlatan is not half 
 so profitable," said Mrs. John, with a very serious 
 face, "but you must have it, I suppose, all the 
 same." 
 
 " Mother," said Hester, when her mother paused 
 for breath, " I feel quite horrified at all this. Why 
 should I dress up so fine for Ellen's parties ? I shall 
 only be a sort of poor relation. My washed muslin 
 will do very well. Nobody will expect anything 
 better from me." 
 
 " Then that is just why you shall have something 
 better," said the poor lady, her pale countenance 
 brightening with a pretty pink flush. " You shaVt 
 go at all if you can't go as my daughter should. 
 You shall have a white first, and then a no, not a 
 pink ; pink used to be my colour, for you know I 
 was pale, and my hair was plain brown, not like 
 yours. Yours is a little too auburn for pink. 
 You must have a blue for -your second, with silk 
 slips made very simply, and tarlatan over that. 
 White shoes, and white gloves, and my pearls. Oh, 
 how glad I am I kept my pearls ! It will be such a 
 pleasure, dear, to see you dressed, it will be like old 
 times again. And you must ask Ellen what to wear 
 in your hair, a wreath, or just one flower at the side, 
 with a spray hanging down over your neck. Mr. 
 Ashton, I am sure, would get it for me in town. For 
 flowers and those sort of things one should always 
 send to London. And you must have a fan. I
 
 vi.] DANCING TEAS. 103 
 
 wonder if my ivory fan would be old-fashioned ? I 
 must ask Ellen. And, dear child, don't stand there 
 doing nothing when there is not a moment to lose, 
 but ring for the tea. We must have tea first. I 
 always feel better after, and then we must put every- 
 thing down upon paper, and calculate what it will 
 cost, and how we are to do." 
 
 " I don't want all that," said Hester again : but 
 the sound of it flattered her youthful ears ; for she 
 was only a girl, when all was said. 
 
 " Don't talk any nonsense, child, but ring for the 
 tea," said Mrs. John, feeling herself for once mistress 
 of the occasion. " But Hester," she added, in so 
 solemn a tone that Hester came back half frightened 
 to hear what it was, " if you ever have children, as 
 I hope you will, be sure you have one of your girls 
 taught how to cut out, and to look after the dress- 
 making. If we only could have them made at 
 home, what a saving it would be ! "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FIRST OF THEM. 
 
 YOUNG Mrs. Merridew's Thds Dansantes made a 
 great commotion in Redborough. Dancing teas 
 what did it mean ? It meant some nonsense or 
 another. You might be sure it meant nonsense of 
 some kind, as it was Ellen Vernon that was at the 
 bottom of it, the elder people said ; but the younger 
 ones were of a different opinion. It did not matter 
 to them so much that Ellen Vernon was silly ; indeed 
 the greater part of them were so dazzled by the 
 furs and the bracelets, and the victoria, if not by 
 the brilliant fairness and beaming smiles and pretti- 
 ness of the bride, that they did not remember Ellen 
 Vernon had been silly, and thought Mrs. Algernon 
 Merridew not only the leader of fashion, but the 
 most amiable and goodnatured of all queens of 
 society, the most " easy to get on with " and most 
 full of "go." Nothing like her and her dresses, 
 and her house and her company, had ever been seen 
 in the quiet, steady-going country town. She made
 
 CHAP, vii.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 105 
 
 it known graciously, that she was always at home at 
 lunch, and there was scarcely a day that a merry 
 party did not assemble at her house, filling the 
 newly - furnished pretty room with chatter and 
 laughter, and all the distracting devices of careless 
 youth to get rid of a few of its golden hours. And 
 already there had been half a dozen dinners, far too 
 soon and quite unnecessary, as all the elders said. 
 She ought to have waited until everybody had given 
 her and her husband a dinner before she began to 
 return their hospitalities. But Ellen had no idea 
 either of waiting or returning the heavy dinners to 
 which she, as a daughter of one of the reigning 
 houses of the town, and her husband as belonging, 
 if not to that rank, at least to the foremost respect- 
 ability, were invited by all the principal people. 
 The entertainments she gave were reckless young 
 dinners, where there was no solemnity at all, and 
 perhaps not much wit, but where laughter abounded 
 and all sorts of wild schemes of pleasure were in- 
 vented. And just as the solid people who had made a 
 point of having a dinner for the Algernon Merridews 
 began to feel a little offended at the goings-on of the 
 young household which paid no attention to ordinary 
 rules of civility, the younger portion of the popu- 
 lation was thrown into the wildest excitement by 
 the announcement of the Thfe Dansantes, and 
 frowning mothers were courted to smiles again, by 
 the anticipated pleasure of their children. The old 
 Merridews, the father and mother, looked on with 
 pride but misgiving, the brothers and sisters with
 
 106 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 pride and delight, as they felt themselves already 
 rising high upon the topmost wave of society hy 
 means of their brilliant sister-in-law. 
 
 " Only mind what you are about and keep hold 
 on the reins, my boy," old Merridew said to his son, 
 which Algernon promised with a laughing " Trust 
 me for that." 
 
 "Trust Algy, indeed!" his mother said, shaking 
 her head. " I would not trust him a step further 
 that I saw him with that crazy little thing by the 
 side of him ; all my hope is that being a Vernon her 
 people will step in." They were all sure that no 
 great harm could happen to a Vernon in Eedborough. 
 Harry, her brother, was always at her side, as faithful 
 as her husband, backing her up. And Catherine 
 herself could not disapprove, for she went to the 
 house now and then, and laughed when she was 
 spoken to. on the subject. " Ellen was always like 
 that," she said, " wild for pleasure and amusement. 
 She has asked me to her dancing teas, as an enter- 
 tainment quite suited to my years and habits." All 
 which things reassured the Merridews and the other 
 anxious persons about. 
 
 " And you are going to this dancing tea ? " Cathe- 
 rine Vernon said. 
 
 " I suppose so," said Edward, indifferently. " They 
 would think it strange if I did not go. And they 
 expect you Merridew told me so. He said it would 
 add such dignity to their little party ! " 
 
 There was something in the tone with which 
 Edward said this which Catherine did not like. It
 
 vii.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 107 
 
 was true that she herself had always represented the 
 invitation as ludicrous, yet it was quite true that her 
 presence would have added dignity to the party, 
 and there was nothing ridiculous in the idea that 
 Algernon Merridew thought so. This annoyed her 
 a little, but it was the annoyance of a moment. 
 She said, " I hope you will enjoy yourself," with a 
 laugh, which Edward on his side found as offensive : 
 but he did not betray this, and, smiled in reply, as 
 he knew she meant him to smile, with a sort of 
 apologetic indulgent air. 
 
 " I shall do the best I can," he said, and they both 
 laughed. She tenderly, thinking how good he was 
 to take this trouble in order to gratify the frivolous 
 young pair and keep up the Vernon traditions ; he 
 with a fierce question to herself, why shouldn't he 
 enjoy it ? at least it would be an evening to himself, 
 with nobody to keep watch over him and make a 
 note of every girl he danced with. Alas for Catherine ! 
 if she noticed the girls he danced with it was in 
 order to invite them afterwards (if she approved of 
 them), for she had no jealous desire to keep him to 
 herself, but wanted him to marry. But then there was 
 one at least whom she could never have tolerated. 
 And the chief point in Edward's anticipations, as in 
 Hester's, was the freedom of intercourse permitted 
 under Ellen's easy young wing, and the opportunity 
 he would have of seeing how the eager, large-eyed 
 girl would look among other girls, when he could 
 approach her freely. This gave him something of 
 the same sense of curiosity which was so warm in
 
 108 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Hester's mind. How would she look among other 
 girls how would she receive him ? It did not occur 
 to him as probable that she would resent that avoid- 
 ance of her when under Catherine's eye which he 
 had so often assured her made him wretched. He 
 felt that the little secret between them, the stolen 
 glance he would give her at the Grange parties, the 
 little shrug with which he pointed her attention to 
 his bondage, would have an attraction even greater 
 than had he been always at her side ; and in some 
 sense this was true. But he did not think of Hester's 
 judgment and of the natural indignation of her high 
 spirit ; neither did he think of the comparison she 
 made between him and Harry, who had never 
 hesitated to show his devotion. To compare himself 
 and Harry, seemed to Edward impossible. A big 
 idiot a nonentity. She had more sense than that. 
 
 Never was there such a spectacle seen in Red- 
 borough as the first of the Thfe Dansantes. The 
 Merridews' house was near the White House, and 
 consequently on a little eminence, which answered 
 all the purposes of a great eminence in that flat 
 country. It stood in the midst of a little shrubbery 
 above which it rose on white steps, to make the posi- 
 tion still more commanding. There was a long domed 
 conservatory at one side, the windows were all plate 
 glass, and when you consider that within and with- 
 out the place was lighted up like the Crystal 
 Palace, people said you may imagine something of 
 the imposing effect. The conservatory was all hung 
 with Chinese lanterns, and was fairy land to the
 
 vii.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 109 
 
 young guests inexperienced in such glorious effects ; 
 the two drawing-rooms were both thrown open 
 for dancing. There were very few chaperons ; only 
 here and there a middle-aged mother, too devoted 
 to her charge, yawned behind her fan with nobody 
 to speak to, not a lady of her own age to exchange 
 experiences with, no elderly gallant to get her a cup 
 of tea. All was youth, rampant, insolent, careless 
 feeling that the world was made for it, and rejoicing 
 to shake itself free of every trammel. Mrs. Ellen 
 set them the example in the most daring way. 
 
 " What do we want with the old things here ? " she 
 said ; " they would much rather be in bed, and the 
 best place for them. I don't suppose you mean to do 
 anything wrong, any of you girls, and if you did they 
 wouldn't stop you. If you can't take care of your- 
 selves, if you want a chaperon, there's me. And 
 there's Fanny Willoughby, and Lilian Melville, and 
 Maud Seton ; they've all been married as long as I 
 have. Where could you find steadier married women ? 
 and ain't we enough to chaperon a couple of dozen 
 girls? I never pretend to ask old people, unless it 
 was just to let them see how everything looks, poor 
 old things, once in a way." 
 
 This being the creed of the mistress of the feast, 
 it is not to be supposed that her disciples were more 
 catholic. And there was no limit to the fun which 
 the young people promised themselves. To do them 
 justice, it was very innocent fun. The greatest sin 
 on the conscience of the wildest romp in the place 
 was that of having danced ten times with a favourite
 
 110 HESTER. [ C5A p. 
 
 partner, besides sitting out all the square dances (of 
 which there were only two) in his company. Algernon 
 himself had insisted upon two. He said it was 
 respectable : and he danced both with the least 
 popular of the young ladies, that they might not feel 
 themselves slighted, for he was a very good fellow. 
 
 "Did you ever see such a muff?" his wife said, 
 who never condescended to the Lancers. " I do 
 believe he likes to hop about with the ugliest thing 
 he can pick up. I thought I had kept out all the 
 ugly girls, but I haven't succeeded. If there is one, 
 Algy is sure to find her out." 
 
 " To show you that you have no need to be jealous," 
 some one said. 
 
 "Oh, jealous /" cried Ellen, with supreme disdain. 
 
 The young Merridews, brothers and sisters, thought 
 her the most wonderful creature that had ever been 
 born. Her light hair was in curls and frizzes (newly 
 come in and extremely captivating) all over her 
 head. Her dress was a sort of purple, a colour no- 
 body but herself ventured to wear, but which threw, 
 up her fairness with the most brilliant effect. She 
 had all her jewellery on, from the diamonds Harry 
 had spent all his available money (under her own 
 directions) in buying for her, to the little bracelet 
 contributed by the clerks at the bank. Her arm was 
 covered nearly up to the elbow, and the sound she 
 made when they fell over her hands and she had to 
 push them back again was wonderful. It was like a 
 whole concert of fairy music, the bangles representing 
 the higher notes, the big golden manacles furnishing
 
 vir.] THE FIRST OF THEM. Ill 
 
 a bass. She liked to hold up her hands and shake 
 them back with a pretty cry of " Tiresome ! Why 
 is one forced to wear all this upon one ? " Ellen said. 
 
 And Mrs. John had accomplished her wish. She had 
 got, if not three, at least two new dresses for Hester, 
 one upon her shoulders at this moment, the other, 
 the blue one, laid up all ready in the box. White of 
 course was the first. It had the silk slip upon which 
 Mrs. John had set her heart, which was so much 
 more thrifty than anything else, which could be 
 covered over again and again, as she pointed out to 
 her daughter, and which at the present moment was 
 veiled in floods and billows of tarlatan. Tarlatan 
 was the fashion of those days : anything that was 
 limp, that took as people now love to say, "nice 
 folds," being considered utterly dowdy. And when 
 Hester appeared in those crisp puffings, with her 
 pearls round her throat, and white flowers in the 
 hair which her mother called auburn, even young 
 Mrs. Merridew herself held her breath. She turned 
 her cousin round and round to examine her. 
 
 " Well, I call that a beautiful dress," she said. 
 " Who put it into your head to get a dress like that ? 
 Why, it is the height of the fashion ! Those bouil- 
 londes are just the right thing to wear. And do you 
 mean to say these are real pearls ? Oh, go away, or 
 I shall kill you ! Why have I not pearls ? They 
 are far more distingufe oh, far more ! than my 
 paltry bits of diamonds. Oh, take her away, or I shall 
 not be able to keep my hands off her. And such 
 flowers ! they must have come from Forster's. I am
 
 112 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 certain they came from Forster's. Mine are French, 
 but they are not so pretty," Ellen said. 
 
 Hester stood and smiled while these comments 
 were made, though with a half sense of shame. She 
 thought it annoyed her very much to be subjected to 
 such a survey, and so no doubt it would have done 
 had not the result been so satisfactory ; but it is hard 
 to be really displeased by approbation. 
 
 As for Ellen, she whispered behind her hand to 
 Harry, " The old lady must have a great deal more 
 than we think for. She must have been saving up. 
 You don't get a dress like that for nothing." 
 
 " It's not the dress she always looks nice, what- 
 ever she puts on," said faithful Harry. 
 
 His sister contemplated him with eyes full of con- 
 tempt. " What is the use of talking to such a silly ? " 
 she said. " Not the dress ! She never looked one 
 ten-thousandth part so well all her life, and that you 
 know just as well as me." 
 
 No, she had never looked so well all her nineteen 
 years. Her dress was simple indeed, but it was 
 perfect in all its details, for Mrs. John had remembered 
 everything. The flowers were artificial, which also 
 was the fashion then, but they were from Forster's, 
 procured by Roland Ashton and brought down by his 
 sister Emma, who had arrived that same afternoon. 
 The pearls were beautiful, more beautiful than any 
 other ornament in the room. Hester stood beside 
 her cousin to receive the guests with a sense that 
 there were no imperfections about her. In the days 
 of the washed muslin there was always a fear that the
 
 vii.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 113 
 
 flounces were not quite even, the bows were not quite 
 firmly sewed on, or something else which at any 
 moment might come to pieces and betray the home- 
 madeness of the garment. But she stood up in her 
 virgin robes with a sense of delightful security a 
 knowledge that all was complete, which was exhil- 
 arating to her spirits. She was not the one white 
 swan in this little provincial party : there were faces 
 quite as lovely as Hester's, which, as a matter of 
 fact, was not so perfect as her dress ; but there was 
 no one to whom the anticipated pleasure was so 
 entirely ideal. Her mind did not come down to 
 practical delights at all. She was going to be happy 
 was she going to be happy ? How does it feel to 
 be happy ? These were the questions in her mind. 
 She had been so, she was aware, as children are, 
 without knowing it; but this would be conscious, 
 whatever it was. 
 
 The dancing began. It was a very pretty scene, 
 and Hester, not in herself perhaps so overwhelmingly 
 gay as the others about her, was caught upon that 
 stream of careless youth and carried with it in spite of 
 herself. An atmosphere of pleasure was about her; 
 eyes looked upon her admiring, almost caressing, 
 every glance was pleasant ; the rougher part of the 
 world had disappeared altogether. It was as if there 
 was nothing but merry dancers, laughing engagements, 
 an interchange of enjoyment, all about. Happy ! 
 Well, she could not say that this was not happiness. 
 It might be so, for anything she could tell. There 
 was not much that was ideal about it, but yet . 
 
 VOL. II. I
 
 114 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Just as she was thinking this, she felt in a moment of 
 repose her hand suddenly taken, drawn into some one 
 else's hand : and, looking round suddenly, saw Edward 
 close to her, looking at her with a subdued glow in 
 his eyes, a look of admiration and wonder. It was 
 quite a steady, straightforward gaze not furtive, not 
 flying. She started at the touch and look, and 
 attempted to draw away her hand, but it was held 
 fast. But he had not lifted her hand, he had taken 
 it where it hung half-veiled by her furbelows, and 
 he had turned his back towards the company 
 isolating her in a corner, while he inspected her. 
 He drew a long breath apparently of satisfaction 
 and pleasure. 
 
 " I am late," he said, " but this was worth waiting 
 for. Cinderella, where have you left your pumpkin 
 coach ? " 
 
 Hester's brow grew dark, her heart seemed to swoon 
 away in her bosom altogether, then came to itself 
 again with a rush of heat and indignation. She 
 wrenched her hand out of that hold, a flood of colour 
 came to her cheeks. 
 
 " I suppose you mean to insult me," she said ; " but 
 this is not a place to insult me I am among friends 
 here." 
 
 ' Why do you say so, Hester ? Insult you ! What 
 an ungenerous thing to say ! as if I was in the habit 
 of doing so, and must not here because you have 
 friends. What a cruel thing to say ! " 
 
 " Would you rather have it in your power to insult 
 me always ? " said Hester. Her lip began to quiver
 
 vn.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 115 
 
 a little. What an odious thing it is to be a woman, 
 to be always ready, when you would rather not, when 
 you want to show yourself most strong and angry, to 
 cry ! She clenched her hands tightly to keep herself 
 down. " I am no cinder-wench, Mr. Edward Vernon," 
 she said. " I have given you no reason to call me so. 
 It is a pitiful thing for a man to notice a girl's dress. 
 If I am dressed poorly, I am not ashamed of it. It is 
 not a sin to be poor." 
 
 " Hester ! a girl of your sense to be so foolish ! 
 How could I mean that ! What I meant was, that 
 you have come out glorious, like the moon from the 
 clouds. Nothing could be sweeter than that little 
 house-frock you used to wear out on the Common. I 
 liked it better than all the finery. But to-night you 
 are like a young princess. Why did I say Cinderella ? 
 Heaven knows ; just because I was dazzled and 
 bewildered, and because you are a princess ; and the 
 pleasure of seeing you made my head go round. Have 
 I made my peace ? Well then, there's a darling, turn 
 round and let me see you, that I may see all the 
 finery, and everything that makes you so lovely, in 
 detail." 
 
 ' ; You may have made it a little better," said Hes- 
 ter ; " but why do ytm go on talking like that ? I am 
 neither lovely nor a darling ; and you shall not say so 
 you ! that would not see me if this, instead of being 
 Ellen's house, were the Grange/' 
 
 " You have me at your mercy there," said 
 Edward. "I confess you have me at your mercy, 
 there." 
 
 I 2
 
 116 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Upon which Hester melted a little, and, perceiving 
 the abashed look which he had put on, began to 
 falter, and presently found herself guilty of the 
 commonplace expedient of asking if he did not think 
 it a pretty scene. 
 
 " Oh, very pretty," said Edward ; " that is to say, I 
 don't know anything about it. I looked for one 
 individual when I came in, and as, as soon as I 
 found her, she began to bully me violently, I feel a 
 little muddled, and I don't know what to think. Give 
 me a little time." 
 
 By this time, as was natural, Hester began to 
 think herself a monster of folly and unkindness, and 
 to feel that she was ready to sink through the floor 
 with shame. 
 
 " I did not mean to be cross," she said. " I thought 
 that is, I had been looking that is " 
 
 Here she stopped, feeling herself get deeper and 
 deeper into difficulty. Her countenance changed 
 from the girlish freshness of complexion, which 
 everybody admired, into a burning red ; her eyelids 
 unable to keep up, her heart beating as if it would 
 burst through silk slip, and tarlatan bouillone'e, and 
 all- 
 
 " Come, let us have this dance. I like the music," 
 said Edward, drawing her hand suddenly through his 
 arm. 
 
 " But I am engaged." 
 
 " Oh, never mind, if you are engaged. You were 
 engaged to me before ever you came," he said, lightly, 
 and drew her into the whirl. Hester was at the age
 
 vii,] THE FIRST OF THEM. 117 
 
 (in society), when, to throw over a partner, looks like 
 the guiltiest treachery. She could not take any 
 pleasure in the dance, for thought of it. 
 
 " I must go and ask his pardon. I am sure I am 
 very sorry. I did not intend to be so false ; and there 
 he is, poor man, not dancing." 
 
 These words Hester said breathless over the 
 shoulder of the enterprising intruder, who had carried 
 her off under the victim's eyes. 
 
 "Poor man!" Edward echoed, with a laugh. " I 
 am glad he has nobody to dance with. What right 
 had he to engage you ? and you regret him ; and you 
 don't want me." 
 
 Here Hester rebuked her cousin. 
 
 " You have no right to say so. I might want I 
 mean I might like very well to dance with you when 
 you condescended to ask me ; but not to be run away 
 with, without a word, and made to do a false thing. 
 False things are what I hate." 
 
 " You say that with such meaning. You must bo 
 thinking of more than a dance. Am I one of the false 
 things you hate ? " 
 
 " I do not hate you," said Hester, as they came to 
 a pause, looking doubtfully into his face ; " but I do 
 not think you are very true." 
 
 " You mean I don't blurt out everything I mean, 
 and am capable now and then of keeping something 
 to myself. I can keep my own counsel not like 
 that fellow there," Edward permitted himself to say : 
 which was a mistake ; for Hester looked up and saw 
 the gaze of honest Harry dwelling upon her with some
 
 118 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 regret, and much tenderness, and was touched at once 
 with sympathy and indignation. 
 
 " If you mean Harry, no one could ever doubt him," 
 said Hester, in the warmth of her compunction. " If 
 he is your friend, he is always your friend. He is not 
 afraid of what any one says." 
 
 "Ah, Hester, you are always harping on that 
 string," said Edward. " I know what you mean ; 
 but can't you understand the position I am in, and 
 understand me ? Don't you know I am in bondage ? 
 I cannot say my soul is my own. I dare not think 
 nor feel but as I am told. If I were to follow my 
 own heart without disguise, I think it would be my 
 ruin. We will not name any names, but you know. 
 And I know what you think about that big stupid 
 there, but you are mistaken. It is not that his heart is 
 more true. It is that he has not brains enough to see 
 what is liked and what is not liked. He is not even 
 sympathetic enough. He does what he likes, and 
 never considers if it is good for him or not." 
 
 " Sympathetic ! " cried Hester. " He is sympathetic 
 with me. When he sees me lonely and neglected he 
 comes and stands beside me. If he cannot do more, 
 he does do that. I don't pretend to say that he is 
 very amusing," she continued, with a laugh, " but he 
 does what he can. He stands by me. Oh ! failing 
 other things that are better, I like that. Rather than 
 being sympathetic with Catherine, I like him to 
 sympathise with me." 
 
 " There is no question of names," said Edward, 
 " We must not get personal. But I am glad you
 
 vn.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 119 
 
 find Harry amusing. I never heard that he was so 
 before. He is standing by Ellen now ; that's what 
 he's here for. They will come to grief, these young 
 people. They are beginning a great deal too fast. 
 You know young Merridew, or old Merridew either, 
 can never keep up this. Ellen ought to know better. 
 But Harry will have scope for this great accomplish- 
 ment that you appreciate so highly. He will have to 
 stand by his sister." 
 
 " And he will," Hester said. 
 
 She scarcely thought of the dancing, so much did 
 this conversation so unlike a conversation to be 
 carried on in the whirl of a waltz occupy her. It 
 occurred to her now, as breath failed her, to remem- 
 ber how in all the accounts of a first ball she had 
 ever read, the heroine had felt all other sentiments 
 melt away in the rapturous pleasure of dancing with 
 the man of her heart. Novels were all Hester's 
 experience. She remembered this, and it gave her a 
 half comic, half miserable sensation to realise that she 
 was not thinking about the dancing at all. She was 
 carrying on her duel with Edward. There was 
 always a warm sense of gratification in that a stir- 
 ring up of all her faculties. She liked to go on 
 carrying it a step further, defying and puzzling him, 
 and wondering on his side how much he meant, how 
 much that he left to be inferred, was true. The 
 heroine in a novel is generally the point of every- 
 body's admiration in the ball-room, and to look at 
 the perfection of the waltz which she and her lover 
 enjoy so deeply, the whole assemblage stands still-
 
 120 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 But nothing of -this kind occurred in Hester's case. 
 As she had so little experience, the chances are that 
 she was by no means the best dancer in the room, 
 and certainly Edward was not the other best. Their 
 waltz was the means of carrying on the discussion 
 which to both was the most attractive possibility. 
 When she realised this, Hester was a little amused, 
 but likewise a good deal disappointed. She felt 
 a disagreeable limit thus placed to her power to 
 enjoy. 
 
 " Come into the conservatory," Edward said. 
 " Don't you think you have had enough ? Oh, it 
 is your first ball. I suppose you like it ; but I am 
 beginning to lose my relish for those sort of affairs." 
 
 " You are not so old that you should give up 
 dancing, Cousin Edward." 
 
 " Old ! No, I hope I am not old yet, and I don't 
 intend to give up dancing ; but I like to walk here 
 better with you. I like to talk better with you. 
 I like to see your face, Hester, and see how it 
 changes from kindness to wrath, from friendship to 
 indignation, from a patient sense that I am endur- 
 able, to a violent consciousness Come and sit 
 
 here." 
 
 "You seem to think I never do anything but 
 think of you : and that is the greatest mistake," 
 Hester said. 
 
 Upon which he laughed. The place he had led 
 her to was only partially lighted. There were many 
 other groups scattered about among the plants and 
 stands of flowers. Flirtation was openly recognised
 
 vii.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 121 
 
 in this youthful house as one of the portions of the 
 evening's entertainment, and large provision made 
 for it. There was nobody to notice with whom it 
 was that Edward was amusing himself, and he felt 
 fully disposed to take advantage of his opportunities. 
 He laughed at Hester's indignant disclosures. " If 
 you did not think a little about me, dear, you would 
 not notice so distinctly my course of conduct in other 
 places, you cou* not be sure that it was much more 
 agreeable to me, instead of standing by your side 
 and trying to be as amusing as Harry, to lead down 
 Mrs. Houseman and old Lady Kearney to supper 
 or to tea." 
 
 " My mother should go out of the room before 
 either of them," cried Hester. " Do you know who 
 she is ? Sir John Westwood is her cousin : a duke's 
 daughter once married into her family " 
 
 " I quite understand you and agree with you, 
 Hester. It is nothing that she is a perfect little 
 gentlewoman, and has far better manners than any 
 of us ; but because she is a cousin to a heavy 
 baronet, who is not good enough to tie her 
 shoe " 
 
 " Edward ! " The girl was so startled she could 
 not believe her ears. 
 
 " Oh, I know very well what I am saying. You 
 don't know me, that is all. You think I am a 
 natural snob, when I am only a snob by circum- 
 stances. You yourself, Hester, do you really think 
 your mother should stand upon her cousin and upon 
 Lady Ethelinda (or whatever was her name), her
 
 122 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 great-grandmother, and not upon herself far better 
 than either? I can't imagine you think that." 
 
 Hester was surprised and silenced for the moment. 
 She had been so often reminded of the noble grand- 
 mother and the baronet cousin, and so hard put to 
 it to find a ground of superiority on which her pride 
 could take refuge, that this sudden appeal to her 
 better judgment bewildered her. She was startled 
 to find those advantages which were indisputable, 
 and to which everybody deferred in theory, so 
 boldly under-valued ; but yet the manner of doing it 
 made her heart beat with pleasure. Yes ; people 
 thought her dear little mother silly, and Hester was 
 aware that she was not clever. Sometimes, in the 
 depths of her own soul, she had chafed, as children 
 will, at the poor lady's dulness and slowness of 
 comprehension ; but she was a perfect little gentle- 
 woman. And he saw it ! He felt in his heart that 
 she was above them all not because of Lady 
 Ethelinda (she was Lady Sarah in reality) and Sir 
 John, but herself. 
 
 "I did not know you were a Radical," she said. 
 She knew nothing about Radicals, though instinc- 
 tively in her heart she agreed with them. " I 
 thought you cared for family and that sort of 
 thing." 
 
 " Do you ? " 
 
 Hester paused. She flung higher her young head, 
 which was proud with life and a sense of power 
 unknown. " I should like to be a king's daughter," 
 she said, " or a great soldier's or a great statesman's.
 
 VIL] THE FIRST OF THEM. 123 
 
 I should like my name to mean something. I should 
 like people to say, when they hear it, that is 
 
 " But you don't care much about Sir John ? that 
 is what I thought. I am no Radical ; I am all for 
 decorum and established order and church and state. 
 How could you doubt that ? But, by the way, there 
 is a person whom neither of us like, who certainly 
 has the kind of rank you prize. Don't you know 
 who I mean, Hester? When a stranger comes to 
 Redborough, there is one name he is sure to hear. 
 If she were a duchess she could not be better 
 known. To be her relation carries a certain weight. 
 We were always a leading family in the place, I 
 suppose. But why are we, for instance, so much 
 better than the Merridews and all the rest of the 
 respectable people ? She has something to do with 
 it, I can't deny, though I don't like her any more 
 than you." 
 
 " Edward," cried Hester breathlessly, " about that 
 we ought to understand each other. I have no 
 
 O 
 
 reason to like Catherine. Yes, I will say her name ; 
 why shouldn't I ? She has not liked me. I was 
 only a child, and if I was saucy she might have 
 forgiven me, all these years. But she has taken the 
 trouble on the contrary to humiliate me, to make 
 me feel that I am nobody, which was unworthy. But 
 you : she has been kind to you. She has been more 
 than kind she has loved you. I have seen it in 
 her eyes. She thinks that nobody is worth thinking 
 of in comparison with you. If if who shall I 
 say ? if Sir Walter Scott came here, or Mr.
 
 12-i HESTER. [CHAF. 
 
 Tennyson, she would rather have you. And yet, 
 you that ought to be so grateful, that ought to love 
 her back, that ought to be proud oh, I should if 
 I were you. If she were fond of me I should be 
 proud. I hate all those wretched people who take 
 from her hand, and then sneer and snarl at her, like 
 dogs no, not like dogs : dogs are far nobler like 
 cats ; that is better." 
 
 Hester's eyes were shining with eloquence and 
 ardour ; the little movement of her head so proud, 
 so animated, so full of visionary passion, threw back 
 and gave a certain freedom to the hair which her 
 mother called auburn. Her whole figure was full 
 of that force and meaning which is above beauty. 
 Edward looked at her with smiling admiration. If 
 his conscience was touched, or his temper at least, 
 he did not show it. 
 
 " Do you call me a cat ? " he said. 
 
 " Oh, I am not in fun. I am as earnest as ever 
 I can be. It is wicked, it is miserable, and I cannot 
 understand you. All the others are as nothing in 
 comparison with you." 
 
 He grew a little pale under this accusation ; he 
 would not meet it directly. " But you know," he 
 said, " why she hates you. It is for your mother's 
 sake." 
 
 " My mother ! " cried Hester astonished. " But 
 no one could hate my mother." The suggestion 
 took away her breath. 
 
 " It is true, all the same. I thought you did not 
 know. She was to have married John Vernon, your
 
 vii.] THE FIRST OF THEM. 125 
 
 father, and lie preferred that is the whole account 
 
 of it; then he got into trouble,, and she had her 
 revenge." 
 
 " Did she ruin my father ? " said Hester in a low 
 whisper of horror. 
 
 " I don't know if it went so far as that," Edward 
 said. 
 
 A hesitation was in his speech. It was scarcely 
 compunction, but doubt, lest a statement of this 
 kind, so easily to be contradicted, might be injudi- 
 cious on his part but then, who would speak to 
 Hester on such a subject ? And her mother was a 
 little fool, and, most likely, did not know, or would 
 be sure to mistake, the circumstances. 
 
 " Don't let us talk of that : it is so long past," 
 he said ; " and here is a wretch, a scoundrel, coming 
 up with his eye fixed upon you as if he was a 
 partner. How I loathe all your partners, Hester ! 
 Mind, the rest of the dances are for me. I shall 
 watch for you as soon as you have shaken that 
 fellow off." 
 
 But Hester did not care for the dances that 
 followed. She went through them indifferently, 
 faithful to the partners who had presented themselves 
 before he came on the scene ; and, indeed, the 
 conversation in the conservatory had not drawn 
 her nearer to Edward. It had given her a great 
 deal to think of. She had not time in the whirl 
 and fluster of this gaiety to think it all out.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A NEW COMPETITOR. 
 
 EMMA ASHTON had brought Hester's flowers, and 
 though she was tired with her journey, had taken 
 a great deal of interest in Hester's dress. When 
 she came in to show herself to the old people in her 
 white robes before her ball, the stranger had surveyed 
 her with much attention. She had kissed her slowly 
 and deliberately when introduced to her. 
 
 "Roland told me a great deal about you," she 
 said. "I suppose we are cousins too. You look 
 very nice. I hope you will enjoy yourself." She 
 was a very deliberate, measured talker, doing every- 
 thing steadily. When Hester was gone, she resumed 
 her seat beside her grandmother. 
 
 " Roland admires her very much. She is pretty, 
 but I should think she had a great deal of temper," 
 Emma said. 
 
 " Temper is scarcely the word. She is a great 
 favourite with your grandfather and with me too 
 with me too."
 
 CHAP, vin.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 127 
 
 " Roland told me," said Emma. " When I say 
 temper I don't mean any harm. She would do 
 much better for Roland if she had a good deal of 
 temper. That is what he wants to keep him 
 straight; for a man ought not to flirt after he is 
 married, and he will, unless she keeps him in 
 order." 
 
 " Married ! but is he likely to marry ? I did not 
 hear anything of it." 
 
 " When a man can keep a sister he can keep a 
 wife," said Emma, announcing this fact as if it were 
 an oracle. " He has a house, and everything that is 
 necessary. And of course I shall not stand in his 
 way. I can go back to Elinor, where I am a sort of 
 head nurse, and cheap enough at the money ; or I 
 can be a governess. That touches his pride he 
 does not like that." 
 
 Here the old captain came back, who had been 
 putting his favourite carefully into the fly. 
 
 " Why has she not her mother with her ? " he 
 said. " I like a girl to have her mother with her. 
 It is pretty, it is natural. I do not like those 
 new-fashioned, independent ways." 
 
 " But they are much more convenient, grandpapa," 
 said Emma. " Think how I should have been situ- 
 ated had a girl always wanted her mother with her. 
 Elinor, with her family, cannot always be going out ; 
 and when she goes she likes to amuse herself, she 
 does not go for me. A girl going out with her 
 mother means a devoted sort of old lady like the 
 mothers in books. Such nonsense, you know for
 
 128 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 a girl's mother, when she is eighteen or so, is rarely 
 more than forty, and people of forty like amusement 
 just as much as we do. It is better, on the whole, I 
 think, when every one is for herself." 
 
 " Well, that is not my opinion," said the old 
 captain, shortly. 
 
 He was accustomed to do most of the talking 
 himself, and it startled him to have it thus taken 
 out of his hand. 
 
 " I suppose an invitation will come for me," said 
 Emma calmly, " as soon as they know I am here ; 
 and then Hester and I can go together. Roland said 
 there was no dancing, but I think it always safest to 
 bring a ball-dress. It is not heavy, though it takes 
 up a good deal of room ; but then you can always 
 take one box into the carriage, and the railway 
 only charges by weight." 
 
 " Roland is very busy, I suppose, my dear. You 
 only see him in the evening ? " 
 
 " I don't always see him in the evening. He has 
 his own friends, and I am getting a few acquaint- 
 ances too. If he gives me my living and very little 
 to do I ought to be grateful to him, but I would 
 not let him give up his own amusements for me. 
 That wouldn't be fair. Oh yes, he is very busy. 
 He has found so many new people to do business 
 for down here." 
 
 " I hope to goodness he won't speculate with 
 their money and ruin them," Captain Morgan 
 said. 
 
 " Ruin ! oh, I hope not. But Roland says there
 
 nn.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 129 
 
 is nothing so exciting as to be on the verge of 
 ruin. He says it is better tha.n a play : for instead 
 of looking on at the acting, the acting is going on 
 inside of you. But it is his trade to speculate, 
 isn't it, grandpapa ? That is what he is there for, 
 and he is very good at it they say. I suppose 
 this girl has not any money ? When they are 
 pretty and nice they seldom have." 
 
 " What girl ? " said Captain Morgan, almost 
 haughtily as haughtily and harshly as the old 
 gentleman could persuade himself to speak. 
 
 "Doesn't he know, grandmamma? " said Emma, 
 " the girl Roland admired so much : and she would 
 just do for him, if she had some money : but so 
 nice looking as he is, and so well established in 
 business, I don't think, unless there is money, he 
 should throw himself away." 
 
 " Is it Hester Vernon that you mean ? " asked 
 the captain in an angry voice. 
 
 " She does not mean any harm, Rowley. Don't 
 you see Hester is just to her an abstract person, 
 not the dear girl she is to you and me. And 
 Emma," said the old lady almost with timidity, 
 "I fear your ball-dress will not be of much use. 
 Mrs. Merridew will not think of inviting you she 
 will not perhaps know you are here." 
 
 " Roland met her, grandmamma," said Emma 
 calmly. " He told me ; we are all cousins, I 
 believe. She will be sure to invite me, or if not, 
 you will be able to get me an invitation. People 
 always exert themselves to get invitations for girls. 
 
 VOL. II. K
 
 130 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 It is like helping young men on in business. We 
 cannot go and make acquaintances for ourselves 
 as young men go and set up offices, but we must 
 have our chance, you know, as well. Of course," 
 said Emma in her deliberate way, " it is for every- 
 body's advantage that we should have our chance 
 as well as the men." 
 
 "And what do you call your chance?" said 
 Captain Morgan. He planted himself in the front 
 of the fireplace with his legs very wide apart, which, 
 as his wife well understood, meant war. 
 
 " My old man," she said, " what do you know 
 about the talk of girls ? They have one way of 
 thinking, and we have another. They are young, 
 and we are old." 
 
 " Hester is younger than she is," said the captain, 
 " let her alone. She is as ready to talk as there is 
 any need to be." 
 
 " My chance, grandpapa ? " said Emma with a 
 slow little laugh. "It is not necessary, is it, to 
 explain? a girl's chance is in making friends. If 
 one goes for a governess one's family does not like 
 it. They would rather you were your sister's head 
 nurse with all the trouble, and without any pay. 
 Roland has taken me now and I do not require to 
 work for my living ; but it is not so very cheerful 
 with Roland that I should not wish if I could to 
 make a change. We must all think of ourselves 
 you know." 
 
 " My dear," said the old lady in her soft voice, 
 "in one way that is very true."
 
 viir.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 131 
 
 "It is very true, I think, in every way. It 
 might be cheerful for me if Roland were to spend 
 his evenings at home as Tom Pinch in Dickens did 
 with his sister. But then Roland is not a bit like 
 Tom Pinch, and I said to him when I came, ' You 
 are not to change your life for me.' So that some- 
 times, you know, I am in the house all alone all 
 day, and then if he is out to dinner, or if he has 
 any evening engagement, I am alone all the night. 
 And if he were to marry, why there would be an 
 end of me altogether. So you see, grandmamma, 
 wherever I am, it is very natural that I should 
 wish to have my chance." 
 
 " How old are you ? " said the captain abruptly. 
 " I shall be twenty-three at Christmas," said 
 Emma, raising her eyes to his face. She was 
 curious to know why he asked whether he 
 thought her older, or younger than her age, 
 whether he thought it was strange she should 
 still be unmarried. " I was kept very much out 
 of sight when I was with Elinor," she said half 
 apologetically. She had not had her " chance " as 
 she had always wished to have. She had not been 
 very well treated she felt in this life, the youngest 
 of seven. She had been passed on from one to 
 another of her married sisters to make herself 
 useful. All of them had said that Emma must 
 "come out," but no one had taken any trouble 
 about it. She had to scramble for a dress, a very 
 cheap one, and to coax Elinor into taking her to 
 some little local merrymaking, and so opening, as 
 
 K 2
 
 132 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 it were, the gates of society. As soon as she could 
 say that she was " out " Emma had kept the idea 
 of having "her chance" of making friends and 
 getting invitations always before her. But her 
 opportunities had not been great, and Elinor had 
 not devoted herself to her younger sister. She 
 was still young enough to amuse herself, and it had 
 not occurred to her to put so unimportant a person 
 as Emma in the foreground. So that she had 
 never been allowed to have much of a " chance." 
 Emma had not much experience of the world. 
 Of the many novels she had read, and which 
 were her guides to life, a great many devoted 
 themselves to the history and description of young 
 ladies at whose entrance into a ball-room every 
 man present fell metaphorically on his knees. 
 She was acquainted with many evening parties in 
 fiction at which the fate of countless young men 
 and women was decided. The smallest dance 
 would be represented there as bringing people 
 together who were never more to be sundered. 
 Emma herself had not produced any such sensation 
 at the small parties she had hitherto gone to, but 
 she felt that this glory must be awaiting her, 
 and especially that in a new place like this Red- 
 borough, in some waltz or other, among some 
 unknown assembly she should meet her fate. 
 
 This being the case, it is not to be wondered at 
 that she should lose no time in announcing her cer- 
 tainty of an invitation to anything so likely to 
 conduce to such an object as Ellen Merridew's dancing
 
 VHI.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 133 
 
 teas. She had come down to Redborough prepared 
 to be cousin to all the world. Roland, indeed, had 
 taken pains to explain that Catherine Vernon's 
 cousins were not actually her cousins, but she had 
 thought it better in many ways to ignore this, and 
 to descend upon the new scene with the most amiable 
 disposition to embrace as a near relative every Vernon 
 presented to her. Among them all, what could be 
 more likely than that her fate should be found ? She 
 meant no harm to anybody. It would be doing no 
 harm, certainly, if any young man fell in love with 
 her, to make him happy by marrying him. She felt 
 most strongly the supreme necessity of marrying for 
 her own part. She had no disguise with herself on 
 this subject,. and with her grandparents she did not 
 think it necessary to have any disguise. Everything 
 was involved in it. Roland had taken the responsi- 
 bility of her upon himself and given her a home, 
 with very little to do, and enough to make her suffi- 
 ciently comfortable. Emma had always been brought 
 up to consider everything from a strictly practical 
 point of view. She had been taught to believe that 
 she had no right to anything, that it was out of their 
 bounty and charity that her brothers and sisters, now 
 one, now another, afforded her a temporary home. 
 And she was very comfortable with Roland but if 
 he were to marry, what then ? The comfort of having 
 a home of her own, a husband of her own with a 
 settled income, was to Emma in prospect the crown 
 of all good things. She would not have been ashamed 
 to say so if necessary ; and it was in balls and parties
 
 134 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 and picnics and social meetings generally, that a 
 young woman had her chance of suddenly obtaining, 
 by looking pretty, by making herself agreeable, all 
 these good things at a stroke. She made up her 
 mind at once that heaven and earth must be moved 
 to get her an invitation to Mrs. Algernon Merridew's 
 Thds Dansantes. She would not take, she said to 
 herself, any denial. She would see all the Red- 
 borough people there, among whom there must cer- 
 tainly be some individuals of the class upon which 
 depended Emma's fate. As she sat unfolding so 
 much of this as was needful with a calm confidence 
 in being understood, her grandparents, with a sort of 
 stupefaction, listened and looked on. Emma was 
 knitting all the time in the German way, with a very 
 slight swift movement of her fingers and without 
 looking at her work. She spoke slowly, with an air 
 of such undoubted fact and practical commonplace 
 about her, that those two old people, who each in 
 their several ways indulged in fancy and sentiment, 
 were daunted and silenced. Emma spoke in a sort 
 of saintly simplicity, as not knowing that anything 
 beyond those solid primitive foundations, anything 
 like sentiment or fancy, was in the world. 
 
 She was not handsome like her brother, and yet 
 there was something remarkable about her appear- 
 ance which some people admired. Her hair was 
 dark, her features sufficiently good. The strange 
 thing in her was her eyes, which were very light in 
 colour so light, that sometimes there seemed no 
 colour at all in them. This was not beautiful, but
 
 viii.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 135 
 
 it was bizarre and unusual, and as such Emma had 
 her admirers. But it was only in this particular, 
 not in mind or thoughts, that there was anything in 
 her out of the way. 
 
 " Well ? " said the old captain to his wife, when, 
 after having yawned softly over her work as a signal 
 and preparation for bed-going, Emma rose with a 
 smile at half-past ten, and kissed them both, and 
 asked if she might have her candle. " I must not 
 keep you out of bed," she said, with that look of 
 complacent consideration which, notwithstanding, was 
 quite innocent and referred to her own circumscribed 
 horizon, in which everything connected with herself 
 was well in the foreground. Mrs. Morgan did not 
 meet her husband's eye as she had met it when 
 Roland was the visitor. 
 
 " She has not been well brought up, poor thing ! " 
 the old lady said. " She has had no one to care for 
 her and, Rowley, she is our own flesh and blood." 
 
 "That's the wonderful thing," the captain said, 
 " Katie's child ! My dear, I give it up ; there seems 
 no reason and no sense in it. I cannot think what 
 the Lord can mean." 
 
 " Oh, hush, Rowley nothing, nothing that is not 
 good." 
 
 " One would say that there must be just a crowd 
 of souls ready to put into the new little bodies, and 
 that one must slip down before the other that ought 
 to come ; like that vile cad, you know, that slipped 
 into the pool of Siloam before the poor fellow that 
 had no servant could shuffle down."
 
 136 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " And that was all the better for your poor fellow 
 as it turned out, Rowley, for he got his healing more 
 
 sweetly out of the very hand And, poor little 
 
 spirit, if it was not intended for this body, I can't 
 think it has got very much by its deceit," Mrs. 
 Morgan said, with a little laugh. 
 
 But the captain did not laugh. There was con- 
 sternation in his soul. 
 
 " A girl," he said, " with her eyes open to all 
 chances, looking out for a husband, and seriously 
 thinking that is the right thing to do to come from 
 you and me, Mary to come from you and me ! " 
 
 The old lady gave him her hands that he might 
 help her out of her chair, and when she stood up- 
 right, tottering a little for she was not strong upon 
 her legs she gave him a little playful tap with her 
 finger upon his old cheek. 
 
 "You are just a high-flown old sentimentalist," 
 she said. " There is no harm in her. She is only 
 prose to your poetry which I've always been all our 
 lives, and you've said so many a day." 
 
 "Don't blaspheme, old woman, don't blaspheme," 
 the captain said. 
 
 But next day, when Hester came in to give them 
 the account which she knew the old people would 
 expect of all that had happened, Emma lost no 
 time in making her desires known. 
 
 " It must have been a very pretty party," she 
 said ; " a conservatory lighted like that is always so 
 nice. It is cool to sit in after you have got heated 
 with dancing. I wish I could have seen you all
 
 viii.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 137 
 
 enjoying yourselves. I am so fond of dancing, and 
 I don't get much ; for Roland does not care for 
 dancing parties, and at Waltham Elinor never had 
 time. I suppose you had an invitation, grandmamma, 
 though you are too old to go ? " 
 
 Here Hester explained, wondering, that there were 
 very few chaperons, and nobody asked but people 
 who were known to dance. 
 
 " Ellen says it only tires the others, and what is 
 the use ? " Hester said. 
 
 " That is very true ; she must be judicious 
 she must have right notions. When do you think 
 my invitation will come, grandmamma ? I suppose 
 people will call when they know I am here ? " 
 
 Here there was a little pause, for even Mrs. 
 Morgan was taken aback by this question, and did 
 not know what to say. 
 
 " I am sure," said Hester blushing, after a 
 minute's silence, " that if Miss Ashton would like 
 it so very much " 
 
 " Oh, I should, of course, very much. I want to 
 know the Redborough people. I like to know the 
 people wherever I go. It is so dull knowing no one," 
 Emma said. " And then it would be so convenient, 
 you know, for I could go with you 
 
 To this Hester did not know what to reply ; but 
 it was well in one way that the new comer took it 
 all for granted and gave no trouble. Emma made 
 no account of embarrassed looks and hesitating 
 replies. She did not even notice them, but pur- 
 sued her own way deliberately, impervious to any
 
 138 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 discouragement, which was more equivocal than a 
 flat " No." She had been used to " noes " very flat 
 and uncompromising, and everything less seemed to 
 her to mean assent. When she had disposed, as 
 she thought, of this question, she went on to 
 another which was of still greater importance. 
 
 "But I cannot expect Cousin Catherine to call 
 upon me," she said composedly. "She is too old, 
 and she is always treated as a kind of princess, 
 Roland says. And you are too old to take me, 
 grandmamma. Perhaps I could go with Hester. 
 Would that be the right thing ? For they all say 
 I must not neglect Cousin Catherine." 
 
 Hester looked aghast upon the young woman, who 
 contemplated them so calmly over her knitting, and 
 talked of neglecting Catherine, and being called upon 
 by the sovereign of society, who left even the Red- 
 borough magnates out, and called only upon those 
 who pleased her. Emma went on quite placidly, knit- 
 ting with the ends of her fingers in that phlegmatic 
 German way, which is an offence to English knitters. 
 The stocking went on dropping in longer and longer 
 lengths from her hands, as if twirling upon a leisurely 
 wheel. She had explained that they were knicker- 
 bocker stockings, for Elinor's boys, which she was 
 always busy with. 
 
 " She gives me so much for them, for every dozen 
 pairs and the wool ; I make a little by it, and it is 
 much cheaper for her than the shops." 
 
 "Your grandfather will take you some day," said 
 Mrs. Morgan hastily.
 
 vm.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 139 
 
 " Oh, that will do very well, but it ought to be 
 soon," Emma said. She returned to the subject 
 after Hester had given a further account of the 
 merrymaking of the previous night. 
 
 " Are you all great friends ? " said Emma, " or are 
 there little factions as there generally are in families ? 
 Elinor and William's wife used always to be having 
 tiffs, and then the rest of us had to take sides. I 
 never would. I thought it was wisest not. I was 
 nobody, you know, only the youngest. And when 
 one has to stay a few months here and a few months 
 there, without any home of one's own, it is best to 
 keep out of all these quarrels, don't you think, 
 grandmamma ? Roland said there were some old 
 things living here, some old maids that were spiteful." 
 
 Now it is curious enough that though the Miss 
 Vernon-Ridgways were not at all approved by their 
 neighbours, it gave these ladies a shock to hear an 
 outsider describe them thus. 
 
 "Never mind that," said Mrs. Morgan, almost 
 impatiently. " Are you going further, Hester ? If 
 you want my old man, tell him not to stay out too 
 long, for the wind is cold to-day." 
 
 " I am going to Redborough," Hester said. " I 
 have some things to do for mamma." 
 
 " Oh, you must take me with you," said Emma 
 "just one moment till I have turned this heel. I 
 never like to leave a heel midway. I want to see 
 Redborough of all things. Grandmamma, you will 
 not mind me leaving you I want to see all I can, 
 as I don't know how long I may stay."
 
 140 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " Do you mind, Hester ? " the old lady said in a 
 little alarm, as having finished the heel, and put her 
 knitting carefully away in a long basket made to 
 hold the length of her needles, Emma went up stairs 
 to get her hat. Hester laughed a little and hesitated, 
 for though she was not moved to enthusiasm by 
 Emma, she was young enough to like the novelty of 
 a new companion, whoever that might be. 
 
 " I hope she will not make me take her to see 
 Catherine. Catherine would not be very gracious 
 to any one whom I brought her. Dear Mrs. 
 
 Morgan, I wanted to ask you Was Catherine 
 
 Did Catherine " 
 
 " What, my dear ? " 
 
 " Nothing I can't tell you before any one. It 
 
 was something;! heard from last night. Yes, I 
 
 am quite ready, Miss Ashton," Hester said. 
 
 " It is grand to be called Miss Ashton, but I wish 
 you would say Emma. It makes me feel as if I were 
 some one's governess when you say Miss Ashton. I 
 nearly was," said Emma. " You know we are a 
 large family, eight of us, and we had no money. I 
 am sure I can't tell how we managed to grow up. 
 It was thanks to Elinor I believe ; she was the only 
 one who could manage papa. And now they are all 
 provided for, but only me. Elinor and Bee made 
 very good marriages, and Kate didn't do so badly 
 either, but she's gone to India. The others were to 
 help me between them, but that is not very nice. 
 They are always scheming to have as little of you as 
 they can, and to make the others have too much. I
 
 VIIL] A NEW COMPETITOR. 141 
 
 never would give in to that. I always kept to my 
 day. I used to say ' No, Bee, my time is up. I 
 don't mind where you put me (for I never made any 
 fuss in that sort of way, it turns the servants against 
 you), I can sleep anywhere, but you must keep your 
 turn. Elinor sha'n't be put upon if I can help it,' 
 and the short and the long of it was that I had as 
 nearly as possible taken a governess's place." 
 
 " That would have been better surely to be 
 independent," Hester said. 
 
 " In some ways. To have a paid salary would be 
 very nice but it hurts a girl's chance. Oh, yes, it 
 does," said Emma, " there is no doubt of it : people 
 say not when they want to coax you into it, but it 
 does and as all the others have married so well, 
 of course I was very unwilling to do anything to 
 damage my chance." 
 
 " What was your chance ? " said Hester with a set 
 countenance : partly she did not know, and partly 
 from the context she divined, and meant to crush her 
 companion with lofty indignation : but Emma was 
 not quick enough to perceive the moral disapproval. 
 She was not even conscious that it was possible to 
 disapprove of such an elemental necessity. 
 
 " Oh, you know very well," she said with a little 
 laugh. " I have never been a flirt. I haven't got 
 any inclination that way. Of course in my position 
 I would think it my duty to consider any offer. But I 
 was very nearly driven to the governessing," she con- 
 tinued calmly. "Elinor had visitors coming, and 
 Bee was so ill-natured as to start painting and
 
 142 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 papering just as I was due there. Can you imagine 
 anything more nasty ? just to be able to say she 
 could not take me in ! I just said I must take a 
 situation, and they were in a way. But I do really 
 believe I should have done it had it not been for 
 Roland. He said it would suit him very well to 
 have me. He had just got a house of his own, you 
 know, and I could be of use to him. So he took me, 
 which was very kind. It is a little dull after being 
 used to children, but I have scarcely anything to do, 
 and he gives me a little allowance for my clothes. 
 Don't you think it is very kind ? " 
 
 " I would much rather be a governess," Hester said 
 with a glow of indignant pride. This matter-of-fact 
 description of the state of dependence, which was 
 made without any sense of injury at all, with the 
 composure of an individual fully capable of holding 
 her own and looking for nothing else, had an effect 
 upon her sensitive mind which it is impossible to 
 describe. She shrank from the revelation as if it 
 had been something terrible ; and yet it was not 
 terrible at all, but the most calm historic account of 
 a state of affairs which seemed perfectly natural to 
 every one concerned. Emma knew that she would 
 herself have employed any possible expedient to get 
 rid of an unnecessary member of her household, 
 especially such a detrimental as " the youngest " 
 and she was not angry with Bee. 
 
 "Ah, you don't know children," said Emma 
 serenely. " I have been used to them all my life, 
 and I know what demons they are ; and then it does
 
 vm.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 143 
 
 so spoil your chances in life. Being with Roland is 
 very nice you know, he never orders me about, and 
 he gives me an allowance for my clothes, as I told 
 you. - But it is much duller. At Elinor's and Bee's, 
 and even at William's, there's a little life going on. 
 Now and then you can't help seeing people. Even 
 when your sisters don't wish it, people will ask you 
 out when they know you're there. And I must say 
 that for Elinor, that when she's not worried she does 
 take a little trouble about you, and always likes to 
 see you look nice. To be sure with five boys and a 
 husband in business, she is worried," Emma added 
 with impartiality, " most of the time. What is that 
 big house, that red one, so near the road ? Nice 
 people ought to live there." 
 
 " That is the Grange," said Hester, with a sudden 
 flush, " that is Catherine Vernon's house." 
 
 " Oh h ! But then why should I ic^e any time ? 
 It would look better that I should go at once, the 
 very first day. I suppose you run in whenever you 
 please." 
 
 Hesters countenance flamed more than ever. " I 
 never go except when I go with my mother. 
 Catherine would not care to see you with me. She 
 is very fond of your grandfather and grandmother 
 but not so fond of us. And she is quite right, we 
 don't deserve it so much," Hester said, flinging back 
 her young head with that movement of natural pride 
 which belonged to her. Just then, to make the 
 situation more complicated, Edward came out from 
 the gate, and seeing the two figures on the road.
 
 144 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 hesitated for a moment, conscious of Catherine's eye 
 behind him, and Hester's keen consciousness before. 
 
 " Oh," said Emma again, " then there are factions ? 
 I am sure I am very glad grandpapa is on Catherine's 
 
 side ; for Elinor said, and then Roland told me 
 
 Who is that ? Oh, then, there are men there ? I 
 thought she lived alone. He looks rather nice, 
 though I like men to be taller than that. Mind you 
 introduce me, and walk a little faster please, before 
 he gets away." 
 
 Hester's response to this was naturally the indig- 
 nant one of walking more slowly, so as to give the 
 hesitating figure at the gate full time to get away. 
 But Edward had thought better of it. On the whole, 
 he found it more undesirable to encounter Hester's 
 disdain than anything Catherine would be likely to 
 say. And just at that hour after luncheon Catherine 
 generally ab",iidoned her seat in the window. It was 
 true tha/ he very seldom came back to lunch. He 
 advanced accordingly a few steps from the door, and 
 held out his hand. " I am glad to see you are none 
 the worse of our dissipations last night," he said. 
 
 " Introduce me," said Emma, keeping her place 
 close to Hester's side, "we are all cousins together, 
 though we don't know each other. I wanted to go 
 in at once to see Cousin Catherine, whom I have 
 heard of all my life ; but she will not let me. Per- 
 haps you will mention it to Cousin Catherine. I will 
 come as soon as I can get grandpapa to bring me. It 
 is so much more formal than I thought. Among 
 relations generally one runs out and in, and never
 
 vin.] A NEW COMPETITOR. 145 
 
 thinks twice, but that does not seem to be your 
 way here." 
 
 " No, it is not our way here. We hold each other 
 at arm's length. We are not even civil if we can 
 help it," said Edward, with a laugh and a glance at 
 Hester, who stood, the impersonation of unwilling 
 politeness, holding herself back, in an attitude which 
 said as plainly as words, that though their way was 
 the same she did not choose to be accompanied, by 
 him, along even that common way. 
 
 " I see," said Emma. " I am sure I am very sorry 
 I made you stand and talk, Hester, when you dislike 
 it so much. Of course, among relations one under- 
 stands all that. Do you live here ? I remember 
 now Roland told me there were some gentlemen- 
 cousins, but I am quite a stranger, and I don't know 
 anything. Hester is going to take me to see the 
 little town." 
 
 " You must not say ' little town ' to any of the 
 Redborough people, Miss Ashtoru" 
 
 " Oh, mustn't I ? At Waltham nobody minds. I 
 should like to see the Bank where all the Vernon 
 money comes from. The Vernon money has never 
 done us any good I believe, but still when one is 
 connected with money one likes to see all about it at 
 least. Do you think, Hester, this gentleman would 
 be so good as to see about my invitation ? I don't 
 
 know if Mrs. , I forget her name, who gives the 
 
 dances is your sister, Mr. Vernon." 
 
 " Mrs. Merridew is my cousin," said Edward. 
 
 " Oh, cousin, is it ? I suppose we are all cousins. 
 
 VOL. II. L
 
 146 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Naturally I should like an invitation : but I suppose 
 it is because of the splits in the family, grandmamma 
 doesn't seem to wish to do anything about it, and 
 Hester hesitated, you know, just as you hesitated, 
 Mr. Vernon, before you came to speak to us. What 
 a pity that there should be such to-does : but where 
 there are a large number of people in a family, of 
 course it can't always be helped. I have always 
 found gentlemen were more good-natured than ladies 
 about getting one invitations. If you were to tell 
 Mrs. Merridew I am Here, even if she didn't think 
 it right to call as most people would, at least she 
 might send me a ticket. I can't have anything to 
 do with either side, seeing I only arrived yesterday, 
 and don't know a word about it : but I do like to 
 make acquaintance with a place wherever I go." 
 
 " I will see that my cousin sends you an invitation, 
 Miss Ashton, at least if she will do what I ask 
 her. I have got my work waiting me. Pardon me 
 if I go on." 
 
 " Oh, we are going the same way. I suppose we 
 are going the same way ? " said Emma, looking at 
 her companion. 
 
 " You walk quicker than we do, and I dare say you 
 are in a hurry," said Hester ungraciously. She did 
 not respond to the look of mingled reproach and 
 relief which he gave her. The very vicinity of 
 Catherine Vernon's house stiffened Hester into 
 marble, and Edward was very anxious to go on. He 
 stood still for one moment with his hat in his hand, 
 then hastened on, at a rate very little like his usual
 
 vin.] A NEW COMPETITOE. 147 
 
 mode of progression. Hester on her part followed 
 with studious lingering, pausing to point out to her 
 companion the view over the Common, the roofs of 
 the Redborough houses, the White House on the 
 opposite slope. Emma naturally conceived her own 
 suspicions from this curious piece of pantomime. 
 They had been walking smartly before, they walked 
 slowly now and hers was what she thought a 
 romantic imagination. She felt confident that these 
 two were true lovers separated by some family 
 squabble, and that they did not venture to be seen 
 walking together. " I know we were going the same 
 way," she said, " because there are not two ways, and 
 you can see the town before you. I can't see why 
 we might not have walked together. It is sinful to 
 carry family tiffs so far," Emma said. 
 
 L 2
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A DOUBLE MIND. 
 
 EDWARD had drawn his bow at a venture when he 
 made that statement about Catherine to Hester, and 
 he was full of doubt as to how it would influence 
 her. This was the first time almost that he had dis- 
 regarded opinion and withdrawn the bolts and bars 
 and let himself go. There was something in the 
 atmosphere of the young house, all breathing of life 
 and freedom, and daring disregard of all trammels, 
 which got into his head in spite of himself. He had 
 abandoned altogether the decorous habits of his life, 
 the necessity which bound him as surely in a dance 
 as at his office. On ordinary occasions, wherever 
 a ball occurred in Redborough, Edward was aware 
 beforehand which young ladies he would have to 
 dance with, and knew that he must apportion his 
 attentions rightly, and neglect nobody whose father 
 or mother had been civil to him. He knew that he 
 must not dance too often with one, nor sit out in 
 corners, nor do anything unbecoming a young man
 
 CHAP, ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 149 
 
 upon whom the eyes of many were fixed. But the 
 very air in the house of the Merridews was different 
 from that of other places. There was a licence in it 
 which existed nowhere else. He, the staid and grave, 
 carried off Hester from her partners, appropriated 
 her for a good part of the evening, sat with her 
 hidden away among the ferns in the conservatory, and 
 only resigned her when he was compelled to do so. 
 Even then, by way of emphasising his choice of 
 Hester, he scarcely danced at all after, but stood 
 among the other disengaged men in the doorways, 
 watching her and seizing every opportunity to gain 
 her attention. He was startled at himself when he 
 thought of it. He walked home in the middle of 
 the night, in the faint wintry moonlight, following 
 the old fly he heard lumbering off in the distance 
 carrying her home, his mind rilled with a curious 
 excitement and sense of self-abandonment. He had 
 always admired her her independence, her courage, 
 her eager intelligence, had furnished him since she 
 was a child with a sort of ideal. He had kept 
 wondering what kind of woman she would grow up ; 
 and lo ! here she was, a woman grown, drawing 
 other eyes than his, the object of admiring glances 
 and complimentary remarks. When he had seen 
 her in her washed muslin at Catherine Vernon's 
 parties, she had still appeared to him a child, or 
 little more than a child. He had still felt the 
 superiority of his own position, and that the passing 
 glance and shrug of familiar confidential half-apology 
 would probably please her more than the ordinary
 
 150 HESTER. [CHAP, 
 
 attentions which he had to show among so many. 
 But Hester, by Ellen Merridew's side, a taller and 
 grander woman, well-dressed, with her mother's 
 pearls about her white throat, which was as white as 
 they, was a different creature altogether. To risk 
 everything for a mere school-girl was one thing, but 
 a stately young creature like this, at whom everybody 
 looked, of whom everybody said, " That Hester 
 Vernon ? Dear me, I never thought she had grown 
 up like that ! " was a different matter. The sight of 
 her had intoxicated Edward. Perhaps poor Mrs. 
 John's pearls and the careful perfection of her dress 
 had something to do with it. And the place intoxi- 
 cated him. There every one was doing what seemed 
 good in his own sight. There were few or none of 
 those stern reminders which he had read elsewhere 
 in the eyes of parents whose daughters were waiting 
 to be danced with, the " Was-it-for-this-I-asked-you- 
 to-dinner? " look, to which he had so often succumbed. 
 For once he had lost his head ; he was even vaguely 
 conscious that he had come there with a sort of 
 intention of losing his head, and for once thinking of 
 his own pleasure, and nothing more. No doubt this 
 had been in his mind : and the sudden sight of that 
 white figure, all graceful and stately, and of Mrs. 
 John's pearls, had done the rest. But he was a little 
 nervous next morning as he thought over what he 
 had been doing ; he did not bear Catherine's ques- 
 tioning well at breakfast. When she asked him 
 whom he had danced with, he made answer that he 
 had danced very little. But yet he had enjoyed
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 151 
 
 himself, oh yes. It had been so pretty a party that 
 it had been pleasure enough to look on. He described 
 the conservatory and its Chinese lanterns with en- 
 thusiasm. " It must, indeed, have been like fairyland 
 or the fireworks at the Crystal Palace," Catherine 
 had said. And he had felt a bitter pang of offence, 
 as she laughed. He did not feel, indeed, that he 
 could bear any remarks of the kind, or depreciation 
 of Ellen, for whom he felt a special kindness just- 
 now. When Catherine said, " But all this must have 
 come to a great deal of money : Algernon Merridew 
 has only a share in his father's business, he has no 
 private money, has he ? but, of course I know he 
 has no private means : and Ellen's little money will 
 soon go at that rate," 
 
 " I don't suppose Chinese lanterns cost very much," 
 said Edward. 
 
 "Your temper is doubtful this morning," said 
 Catherine, with a smile. " It is ' on the go,' which 
 is usual enough after late hours and the excitement 
 of a dance ; but I don't think you are often so much 
 excited by a dance. Did you see some one whom 
 you admired, Edward ? I am sure, if she is a nice 
 girl, I shall be very glad." 
 
 " Perhaps it would be as well not to try, Aunt 
 Catherine ; we might not agree about what a nice 
 girl is." 
 
 " No ? " said Catherine rather wistfully. 
 
 She looked into his doubtful eyes across the break- 
 fast table, and, perhaps for the first time, began to 
 feel that she was not so very certain as she had once
 
 152 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 been as to what her boy meant. Was it possible 
 after all, that perhaps the words upon which they 
 agreed had different meanings to each ? But this 
 was only a passing cloud. 
 
 " Who was the belle ? " she said smiling ; " you 
 can tell me that, at least, if you can't tell who you 
 admired most." 
 
 Edward paused ; and then an impulse of audacity 
 seized him. 
 
 " I don't know if you will like it," he said, "but 
 if I must tell the truth, I think that girl at the 
 Vernonry Hester, you know, who is grown up, it 
 appears, and out " 
 
 Catherine bore the little shock with great self- 
 possession, but she felt it. 
 
 " Hester. Why should you suppose I would not 
 like it ? She must be nineteen, and, of course, she is 
 out. And what of her ? " Catherine said, with a 
 grave smile. 
 
 She was vexed that Edward should be the one to 
 tell her of the girl's success, and she was vexed, too, 
 that he should think it would displease her. Why 
 should it displease her ? He ought to have kept 
 silence on the subject, and he ought not to have 
 seemed to know that she had any feeling upon it : 
 the suggestion hurt her pride. 
 
 " Ellen seems to have taken her up. She has 
 grown up much handsomer than I should have ex- 
 pected, and she was very well dressed, with beautiful 
 pearls " 
 
 " Ah ! " said Catherine, with a long breath ; " then
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 153 
 
 her mother kept her pearls ! " She laughed a mo- 
 ment after, and added, " Of course, she would ; what 
 could I have expected ? She kept her settlement. 
 Poor little thing ! I suppose she did not understand 
 what it meant, and that she was cheating her 
 husband's creditors." 
 
 " I never quite understood," said Edward, " why 
 you should have brought her here, and given her a 
 house, when she is still in possession of that income." 
 
 " She has only a scrap of it. Poor little thing ! 
 She neither knew it was wrong to take it, nor that if 
 she did keep it, it ought not to have been allowed to 
 go for his after debts. She got muddled altogether 
 among them. The greater part of it she mortgaged 
 for him. so that there was only a pittance left. 
 Whatever you may think, you young men, it is a 
 drawback for a man when he marries a fool. And 
 so she kept her pearls ! " Catherine added, with a 
 laugh of contempt. 
 
 " Marrying a fool, however, must have its ad- 
 vantages," said Edward, " since a woman with 
 brains would probably hav.e given up the settlement 
 altogether." 
 
 " Advantages if you think them advantages ! " 
 Catherine said, with a flash of her eyes such as 
 Edward had seldom seen. " And certainly would 
 not have kept the pearls which are worth a good 
 deal of money," she added, however, with her habitual 
 laugh. " I think they must have dazzled you, my 
 boy, these pearls." 
 
 " I am sure they did," said Edward composedly ;
 
 154- HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " they took away my breath. I have seen her here 
 often, a dowdy little girl " (he scorned himself for 
 saying these words, yet he said them, though even 
 his cheek reddeued with the sense of self-contempt) 
 " with no ornaments at all." 
 
 "No," said Catherine; "to do Mrs. John justice, 
 she had as much sense as that. She would not have 
 put those pearls on a girl's neck, unless she was 
 dressed conformably. Oh, she has sense enough for 
 that. I suppose she had a pretty dress white ? But 
 of course it would be white, at the first ball and 
 looked well, you say ? " 
 
 " Very handsome," said Edward, gravely. He did 
 not look up to meet the look of awakened alarm, 
 wonder, doubt, and rousing up of her faculties to 
 meet a new danger, which was in Catherine's eyes. 
 He kept his on his plate and ate his breakfast with 
 great apparent calm, though he knew very well, and 
 had pleasure in thinking, that he had planted an 
 arrow in her. " By the way," he said, after an in- 
 terval, " where did John Vernon pick his wife up ? 
 I hear she is of good family and was it her extrava- 
 gance that brought about his ruin ? These are 
 details I have never heard." 
 
 " It is not necessary to enter into such old stories," 
 said Catherine, somewhat stiffly. " He met her, I 
 suppose, as young men meet unsuitable people every- 
 where ; but we must do justice. I don't think she 
 had any share in the ruin, any more at least than a 
 woman's legitimate share," she added, with a laugh 
 that was somewhat grim. " He was fond of every
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 155 
 
 kind of indulgence, and then speculated to mend 
 matters. Beware of speculation, Edward. Extrava- 
 gance is bad, but speculation is ruin. In the one 
 case you may have to buy your pleasures very dear, 
 but in the other there is no pleasure, nothing but 
 destruction and misery." 
 
 " Is not that a little hard, Aunt Catherine ? there 
 is another side to it. Sometimes a colossal fortune 
 instead of destruction, as you say ; and in the mean- 
 time a great deal of excitement and interest, which 
 are pleasures in their way." 
 
 " The pleasure of balancing on the point of a 
 needle over the bottomless pit," she said. " If I 
 were not very sure that you have too much sense to 
 be drawn into anything of the kind, I should take 
 fright, to hear you say even as much as that. The 
 very name of speculation is a horror to me." 
 
 " Yet there must always be a little of it in busi- 
 ness," he said, with a smile creeping about the 
 corners of his mouth. 
 
 " You think me old-fashioned in my notions, and 
 with a woman's incapacity to understand business ; 
 but in my day we managed to do very well without 
 it," Catherine said. 
 
 " To think of a woman's incapacity for business in 
 your presence would be silly indeed. I hope I am 
 not such an ass as that," said Edward, looking up at 
 her with a smile. And she thought his lock so kind 
 and true, so full of affectionate filial admiration and 
 trust, that Catherine's keen perceptions were of no 
 more use to her than the foolishness of any mother.
 
 156 HEATER. [CHAP. 
 
 % 
 He returned to luncheon that day as if for the 
 
 purpose of obliterating all disagreeable impressions, 
 and it was on leaving the Grange to return to the 
 bank that he met Hester and Emma. This confused 
 and annoyed him for the moment. It was not so 
 that he would have liked to meet the heroine of last 
 night ; and her unknown companion, and the highly 
 inappropriate place of meeting, made the encounter 
 still less to his taste. !5ut when he had hurried on 
 in advance he began to ask himself what was the 
 meaning of Hester's reluctance to walk with him, 
 or even to speak to him, her attitude drawing back 
 even from his greeting, and the clouded look in her 
 eyes. It was natural that he should not wish to 
 speak to her at the door of the Grange, but why 
 she should wish to avoid him he could not tell. It 
 would have been a triumph over Catherine to have 
 thus demonstrated her acquaintance with him at 
 Catherine's very door. So Edward thought, having 
 only the vulgar conception of feminine enmity. On 
 the whole, seeing that he had sowed the seeds of 
 suspicion in Catherine's bosom, it was better that 
 Hester should hold him at arm's length. Yet he 
 was piqued by it. When he reached the bank, 
 however, news awaited him, which turned his 
 thoughts in a different channel. He found Harry 
 Vernon and Algernon Merridew in great excitement 
 in the room which was sacred to the former. Ashton 
 had made the first coup on their behalf. He hajl 
 bought in for them, at a fabulously low price, certain 
 stock by which in a few weeks he was confident they
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 157 
 
 might almost double their ventures. To furnish the 
 details of this operation is beyond the writer's power, 
 but the three young men understood it, or thought 
 they understood it. Of course a skilful buyer prowl- 
 ing about a crowded market with real money in his 
 pocket, knowing what he wants, and what is profit- 
 able, will be likely to get his money's worth, whether 
 he is buying potatoes or stock. 
 
 " I saw it was very low," said Merridew, " and 
 wondered at the time if Ashton would be down 
 upon it. I thought of writing to him, but on -the 
 whole I suppose it's best not to cramp them in their 
 operations. They ought to know their own business 
 best." 
 
 " They shell it out when there's a good thing going, 
 these fellows do," said Harry, out of his moustache. 
 
 " And nobody has any money apparently," Alger- 
 non said, with a laugh of pleasure, meaning to imply 
 save you and me. " When money's tight, that is the 
 time to place a little with advantage/' he said with a 
 profound air. " I think you should go in for it on a 
 larger scale, you two fellows that have the command 
 of the bank." 
 
 " I wouldn't risk too much at once," Harry said. 
 
 Edward listened to their prattle with a contempt 
 which almost reached the length of passion. To 
 hear them talk as if they understood, or as if it 
 mattered what they thought ! His own brains were 
 swelling with excitement. He knew that he could 
 go a great deal further if he pleased, and that 
 Harry's share in the decision would be small.
 
 158 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Dancing on the point of a needle over the bottom- 
 less pit ! It was like an old woman's insane objec- 
 tion to anything daring anything out of the common 
 way. Ashton's letter to him was far longer and 
 more detailed than his communications with the 
 others. He said plainly that here was an oppor- 
 tunity for an operation really upon a grand scale, 
 and that there could be no doubt of a dazzling 
 success. " You will communicate just as much or 
 as little of this as you think proper to the others," 
 Roland wrote, and it was all that Edward could do 
 to keep up an appearance of replying to them, of 
 joining in their gratification as he pondered this 
 much more important proposal. "It is not once in 
 a dozen years that such a chance arises," Roland said. 
 Now Edward had nothing of his own to speak 
 of, far less than the others, who each had a trifle of 
 independent fortune. All that he could risk was 
 the money of the bank. The profit, if profit there 
 was, would be to the bank, and even that large 
 increase of profit would have its drawbacks, for 
 Catherine, who liked to know everything, would 
 inquire into it, and in her opinion, success would be 
 scarcely less dangerous than failure. He could not 
 stop in the drab-coloured calm of the office where 
 these two young idiots were congratulating each 
 other, and trying to talk as if they knew all about 
 it. His scorn of them was unspeakable. If they 
 gained a hundred pounds their elation would be 
 boundless. They were like boys sending out a little 
 toy frigate and enchanted when it reached in safety
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 159 
 
 the opposite side of the puddle. But Ash ton meant 
 business. It was not for this sort of trifling work 
 that he had set himself to watch those fluctuations, 
 which are more delicate than anything in nature 
 they could be compared to. The blowing of the 
 winds and their changes were prose compared to 
 the headlong poetry of the money-market. Edward 
 felt so many new pulses waking in him, such a 
 hurrying fever in his veins, that he could not control 
 himself. 
 
 "You'll be here, I suppose, Harry, till closing 
 time ? I'm going out," he said. 
 
 "You going out you that never have anything 
 to do out of doors ! T had to umpire in a match on 
 the other side of the Common," said Harry, " but 
 if you'll just tell Cordwainer as you pass to get 
 some one else in my place, I don't mind staying. 
 I'm sure you've done it often, Ned, for me." 
 
 " I am not in request, like you ; but I have some- 
 thing I want to see to, to-day." 
 
 "All right," said Harry. "Don't you go and 
 overdo it, whatever it is." 
 
 " You are seedy with staying up, dancing and 
 flirting," said young Merridew, with his imbecile 
 laugh. " Nelly says she could not believe her eyes." 
 
 " I wish Ellen, and you too, would understand 
 that dancing and flirting are entirely out of my 
 way," said Edward, with a flush of anger, as he took 
 his hat and went out. 
 
 Poor Algernon's innocent joke was doubly unsuc- 
 cessful, for Harry stood perfectly glum, not moving
 
 160 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 a muscle. He had not been at all amused by the 
 proceedings of the previous night. 
 
 " I wouldn't report it, if I were you, when Ellen 
 says silly things," said her brother, as black as a 
 thunder-cloud. 
 
 " By Jove ! " said poor Merridew, falling from his 
 eminence of satisfaction into the ludicrous dismay 
 of undeserved depreciation. He told his wife after, 
 " They both set upon me tooth and nail, when I 
 meant nothing but to be pleasant." 
 
 " I wish you would learn, Algernon, that it's always 
 wise to hold your tongue when I'm not there," Ellen 
 said. " Of course I understand my own family. 
 And not much wonder they were vexed ! Edward 
 that doesn't look at a girl because of Aunt Catherine, 
 and Harry that she has snubbed so ! You could 
 not have chosen a worse subject to be pleasant 
 upon," Mrs. Ellen said. 
 
 But it was not this subject that was in Edward's 
 mind as he sallied forth with the step and the air 
 of that correct and blameless man of business which 
 already all Kedborough believed him to be. He had 
 taken that aspect upon him in the most marvellous 
 way the air of a man whose mind was balanced 
 like his books, as regularly, and without the variation 
 of a farthing. He was one of those who are born 
 punctual, and already his morning appearance was 
 as a clock to many people on the outskirts of 
 Redborough. His hat, his gloves, his very um- 
 brella, were enough to give people confidence. 
 There was nobody who would have hesitated to
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 1G1 
 
 intrust their money to his hands. But if Redborough 
 could have known, as he passed along the streets, 
 causing a little wonder to various people for 
 already it had become a surprising fact that Mr. 
 Edward should leave business at so much earlier an 
 hour than usual what a wild excitement was pass- 
 ing through Edward's veins, the town would have 
 been soared out of its composure altogether. He 
 scarcely felt the pavement under his feet ; he 
 scarcely knew which way he was turning. The 
 message for Cordwainer went out of his head, 
 though he went that way on purpose. Several 
 important questions had come before him to be 
 settled since he had taken his place at the head 
 of the bank. He had been called upon to decide 
 whether here and there an old customer who had 
 not thriven in the world should be allowed to 
 borrow, or a new one permitted to overdraw; and 
 in such cases he had stood upon the security of the 
 bank with a firmness which was invulnerable, and 
 listened to no weak voices of pity. But this was 
 far more important than such questions as these. As 
 his ideas disentangled themselves, there seemed to be 
 two possibilities before him. If he threw himself 
 into Ashton's scheme at all, to do it as a partner 
 in the business, not indeed with the sanction of 
 his other partners, but, if there was risk to the firm 
 in his proceedings at large, to make them profitable 
 to it in case of success. In case of success ! Of 
 course there would be success. It was inevitable 
 that they must succeed. On the other side, the 
 VOL. ii. M
 
 162 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 expedient was to use the money and the securities 
 of the bank, not for the aggrandisement of Vernon's, 
 but for his own. This would leave the responsibility 
 of the action entirely upon his own shoulders if 
 anything went wrong. And he did not refuse to 
 give a rapid glance at that contingency. What could 
 it mean to the bank ? Not ruin he half-smiled 
 as he thought. It would mean coming down perhaps 
 in the world, descending from the prestige and im- 
 portance of its present rank. And to himself it 
 would mean going to the dogs anyhow, there could 
 be no doubt on that point. But on the other side ! 
 that was better worth looking at, more worthy of 
 consideration. It would be like pouring in new 
 blood to stagnant veins ; it would be new life coming 
 in, new energy, something that would stir the old 
 fabric through and through, and stimulate its steady - 
 going, old-fashioned existence. It would be the some- 
 thing he had longed for the liberating influence, 
 new possibilities, more extended work. He thought, 
 with an excitement that gradually overmastered 
 him, of the rush of gain coming in like a river, and 
 the exhilaration and new force it would bring. This 
 idea caught him up as a strong wind might have 
 caught him, and carried him beyond his own con- 
 trol. He walked faster and faster, skimming along 
 the road that led into the country, into the quiet, 
 where no one could note his altered aspect or the 
 excitement that devoured him, taking off his hat as 
 he got out of sight of the houses, to let the air blow 
 upon his forehead and clear his senses. And by and
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 163 
 
 by things began to become more clear. He read 
 Ashton's letter over again, and with every word the 
 way seemed to grow plainer, the risks less. It was 
 as near a dead certainty as anything could be in 
 business. " Of course there is always a possibility 
 that something unforeseen may happen," Ashton 
 wrote, " and it is for you to weigh this. I think 
 myself that the chance is so infinitesimal as not to 
 be worth taking into consideration ; but I would not 
 wish to bias your judgment ; the only thing is, that 
 the decision must be immediate." Now that the 
 first shock of novelty was over, he felt it in his 
 power to " weigh this," as Ashton said. Getting 
 familiarised with the subject made him more im- 
 partial, he said to himself. The first mention of it 
 had raised a cowardly host of apprehensions and 
 doubts, but now that the throbbing of excitement 
 began to die away, he saw the matter as it was 
 a question of calculation, a delicate operation, a 
 good coup, but all within the legitimate limits of 
 business. He had recovered, he felt, the use of his 
 reason, which the novelty, the necessity for imme- 
 diate determination, the certainty that he must take 
 no counsel on the subject, that Harry would be 
 dumbly obstinate, and Catherine anxiously, horta- 
 tively, immovably against it, had taken away. 
 Harry was an ass, he said to himself, recovering 
 his calm, and Aunt Catherine an old woman. What 
 was the use of the faculties he possessed, and the 
 position he had gained, if in such a crisis he could 
 not act boldly and for himself ! 
 
 M 2
 
 164 HESTER [CHAP. 
 
 Thus it was with a very different aspect that 
 Edward walked back. He put on his hat, feeling 
 himself cooled and subdued ; his pulses returned to 
 their usual rate of beating, which was essentially a 
 moderate one. And so rapidly had he skimmed 
 over the ground, and so quick had been the progress 
 both of his steps and his thoughts, that when he 
 got back, with his mind made up, to the skirts of 
 the Common, he saw the football party just begin- 
 ning to assemble, and recollected that he had never 
 given Harry's message to Cordwainer, and that 
 accordingly no new umpire could have been found 
 in Harry's place. But what did that matter ? He 
 reflected benevolently, with a contemptuous good 
 nature, that he could get back to the bank in time 
 still to liberate his cousin, so that everybody would 
 be satisfied. This he did, stopping at the telegraph 
 office on the way. His despatch was as follows : 
 " Proceed, but with caution. Needful will be forth- 
 coming." He drew a long breath when he thus 
 decided his fate ; then he returned with all the ease 
 and relief which naturally comes with a decision. 
 The thing was done, whether for good or evil and 
 there could be very little doubt that it was for good. 
 His countenance was cheerful and easy as he re- 
 turned to the bank. 
 
 " I did not give your message, for my business 
 did not keep me so long as I expected. Your foot- 
 ball fellows are just collecting. You can get there, 
 if you make haste, before they begin." 
 
 " Oh, thanks, awfully ! " said Harry. " I hope you
 
 ix.] A DOUBLE MIND. 165 
 
 did not hurry, though I'm glad to go. I hope you 
 understand I'm always ready to stay, Ned, when 
 you want the time. Of course, you're worth two 
 of me here, I know that ; but I can't stand any- 
 thing that's not fair, and if you want to get 
 away " 
 
 " I don't, old fellow ; I've done my business. It did 
 not take so long as I thought. You had better be off 
 if you want to get there in time." 
 
 " All right," said Harry. And he went off to his 
 match in a softened state of mind, which, had he 
 been able to divine it, would have astonished Edward 
 greatly. Harry had seen Hester and her companion 
 pass, and he felt a sad conviction that Edward's sud- 
 den business had something to do with that apparition. 
 Well ! he had said to himself, and what then ? Hadn't 
 he a right to try, the same as another ? If she liked 
 one better than the other, should the fellow she 
 wouldn't have be such a cad as to stand in her way ? 
 This was what had made Harry " fly out," as Algy 
 said, upon his brother-in-law ; it had made him pass 
 a very sombre hour alone in the bank. But in the 
 revulsion of feeling at Edward's rapid return, and the 
 likelihood either that he had not seen Hester, or that 
 she would have nothing to say to him, Harry's heart 
 was moved within him. Either his cousin was "in 
 the same box " as himself and rejected, or else he was 
 innocent altogether of evil intention and in either 
 case Harry's heart was soft to him : at once as one 
 whom he had wronged, and as one who might be 
 suffering with him under a common calamity.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 STRAIGHTFORWARD. 
 
 " I HOPE, Cousin Catherine," said Emma, " that 
 you will not think it is any want of civility on my 
 part. I wished very much to come the first day. I 
 went out with Hester Vernon, who is constantly at 
 grandpapa's and I was quite distressed, when I 
 found we had to pass here, that she would not bring 
 me in to call. But she seemed to think you would 
 rather not. Of course I know that there are often 
 tiffs in families, so I wouldn't say anything. There 
 are times when Elinor wouldn't call on William's 
 wife not if life and death depended on it ; so I under- 
 stand quite well, and of course a stranger mustn't 
 interfere. Only I wish you to know that I had no 
 wish to take sides, and didn't mean to be rude. 
 That was the last thing in the world I intended. 
 Elinor has always told us younger ones so much 
 about you." 
 
 " It is very kind of Elinor, I am sure ; and you 
 have behaved most judiciously," said Catherine, with
 
 CHAP, x.] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 167 
 
 a twinkle in her eye. " It is unnecessary to say to a 
 person of your judgment that in the best regulated 
 family " 
 
 "Oh, you needn't tell me," said Emma, shaking 
 her head. " Nobody can know better than I do. It 
 is very awkward when you are the youngest, and 
 when you are expected by everybody to take their 
 part. Of course they have all been very kind to me. 
 I live part of my time with one, and part with 
 another, and that is why every one thinks I should 
 be on their side. But now I am very independent," 
 Emma said, " for Roland has taken me. I dare say 
 he would tell you, Cousin Catherine, when he was 
 here." 
 
 " That must be a very pleasant arrangement," said 
 Catherine, with a smile. " I suppose when you were 
 with Elinor you had a good deal to do." 
 
 " I do Roland's housekeeping now. I don't wish 
 to be idle," said Emma. " But to be sure when there 
 are children to be seen after you are never done, and 
 especially boys. Elinor has five boys ! it is some- 
 thing dreadful ! The stockings and the mending you 
 can't think-! It is very nice being with Roland ; he 
 is most kind. He gives me a regular allowance for 
 my clothes, which I never got before, and I am sure it 
 is very good of him ; but you can't have everything, 
 you know, and it is a little dull. He is out all day, 
 and often in the evenings, for of course I shouldn't 
 wish him to give up his gentlemen-engagements for 
 me. I don't think people should ever do that sort of 
 thing. Tom Pinch is all very well in Dickens, but it
 
 168 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 would be inconvenient in actual life ; for suppose you 
 married ? and of course that is what every girl 
 expects to do." 
 
 " To be sure," said Catherine. " Is there anything 
 of that sort in prospect, if I may be permitted to 
 ask?" 
 
 " Of course, I am quite pleased that you should 
 ask," said Emma. " It would be such a comfort to 
 have somebody like you to come and talk it over 
 with, Cousin Catherine, if there was anything for I 
 should feel sure you could tell me about my trousseau 
 and all that. But there is nothing, I am sorry to^say. 
 You see I have had so little chance. Elinor took me 
 out sometimes, but not much, and she was far more 
 disposed to amuse herself than to introduce me. I 
 don't think that is nice in a married sister, do you ? 
 and speaking of that, Cousin Catherine, I am sure 
 you will be kind enough to help me here. Grand- 
 papa will not take any trouble about it. I asked 
 the gentleman whom we met coming out of 
 here, Hester and I Mr. Edward I think is his 
 name." 
 
 " What of Edward ? " said Catherine quickly, with 
 a touch of alarm. 
 
 " But nothing seems to have come of it," said the 
 persistent Emma. " He said he would try, and 
 Hester made a sort of promise ; but there has been 
 one since and I have never been asked. It is your 
 niece's dance Mrs. Merridew, I think, is her name. 
 She gives one every week, and both for a little 
 amusement, and that I mayn't lose any chance that
 
 x.] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 169 
 
 may be going, I should like very much to go. I 
 don't doubt that you could get me an invita- 
 tion in a moment if you would just say you would 
 like it." 
 
 Catherine's consternation was ludicrous to behold. 
 She was herself so much amused by the situation 
 that she laughed till the tears stood in her eyes. 
 But this matter-of-fact young woman who sat by and 
 gazed upon her with such a stolid incapacity to see 
 the joke, was of the side of the house to which 
 Catherine could pardon anything the old captain's 
 grandchild, Roland's sister. What would have been 
 vulgar assurance in another, was amusing naivctt in 
 Emma. When she had got over her laugh she said, 
 with amused remonstrance as if she had been speak- 
 ing to a child 
 
 " But you must know, Emma, that these family 
 tiffs you are so well accustomed to, come in to 
 prevent this too. Ellen would not care for my 
 recommendation. She is a very self-willed little 
 person, and indeed the chief rebel of the family." 
 
 " That is all very well, Cousin Catherine," said 
 Emma with the downrightness of fact and certainty ; 
 " but you know you are the head of the family. You 
 have got the money. If they were in trouble they 
 would all have to come to you : and if you said " I 
 wish this," of course nobody would venture to refuse 
 you. The most stupid person must be sure of that." 
 
 There was a commanding commonsense in this view 
 that silenced Catherine. She looked at the young 
 philosopher almost with awe.
 
 170 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " Your arguments are unanswerable," she said ; 
 " there is nothing to be said against such admirable 
 logic." 
 
 "Then you will ask for an invitation for me?" 
 said Emma. " I am sure I am much obliged to you, 
 Cousin Catherine. It is always best to come to the 
 fountain-head. And it isn't as if I were going to 
 cause any expense or trouble, for I have my ball-dress 
 all ready. I have wore it only once, and it is quite 
 fresh. It is my second ball-dress ; the first I wore 
 about a dozen times. Elinor gave it me, which was 
 very kind of her. It was only muslin, but really it 
 was very nice, and got up quite respectably. But 
 this one I bought myself out of the allowance Roland 
 gives me. Don't you think it is very thoughtful of 
 him ? for of course what a sister buys for you, how- 
 ever kind she is, is never just the same as what you 
 would choose for yourself." 
 
 " I suppose not I never had any experience," said 
 Catherine, gravely. " I am afraid, however, that you 
 will not meet anybody who will much advance your 
 views at Redborough. It is an old-fashioned, back- 
 ward place. London would afford a much larger 
 scope for any social operations. Indeed it is very 
 condescending in a young lady from town to give 
 any attention to us and our little parties down 
 here." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Emma, eager to correct a mistake, 
 "that just shows how little people in the country 
 know. You think London means the London you 
 read of in books, where you meet all the great people
 
 x .] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 171 
 
 and have half-a-dozen parties every night. But when 
 London means Kilburn ! " said Emma shaking her 
 head, " where all the gentlemen go to the city every 
 morning, and there is perhaps one dance given in a 
 whole season, and only the people asked that you 
 know ! and we know scarcely one. You see the 
 people there don't think of calling because they are 
 your neighbours. There are so many : and unless 
 you get introductions, or work in the parish, or some- 
 thing Working in the parish is a very good way," 
 Emma added, with a sudden recollection ; " you get 
 invited to a great many evening parties where you 
 just stand about and talk, or people sing : and not 
 many dances. Unfortunately I never was much used 
 to parish work. In Elinor's there was too much to do, 
 and Bee was too worldly, and as for William's wife, 
 though we should not like it to be known, Cousin 
 Catherine, she is a Dissenter." 
 
 Emma made this admission with the reluctance it 
 merited. 
 
 " I have not told grandpapa," she said, with bated 
 breath. 
 
 "I think he could bear it," said Catherine. "I 
 think you might venture on the communication. 
 In some things he is very strong-minded." 
 
 " It was a very bitter pill to us," Emma 
 said. 
 
 Here they were interrupted by the entrance of 
 the captain himself, who had left his grandchild in a 
 cowardly way to make Catherine's acquaintance by 
 herself. But Emma had not minded. She had not even
 
 172 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 divined that his pretence of business was hypocritical. 
 She had not been alarmed by Catherine, and now she 
 was comfortably confident of having made a good 
 impression, and secured a friend. 
 
 "I am quite ready, grandpapa," she said. " Cousin 
 Catherine has been so kind. She says she will speak 
 to Mrs. Merridew about my invitation, so you may 
 make yourself quite easy. on that subject. And grand- 
 mamma will be very pleased. Of course I could not 
 expect such an old lady as she is to exert herself. 
 Rut Cousin Catherine understands how important 
 that sort of thing is to a girl," Emma said, with an air 
 of great gravity. 
 
 The captain gave Catherine a piteous glance. He 
 did not understand the new specimen of womankind 
 of whom he had the responsibility, and Catherine, 
 whose powers of self-restraint had been called forth 
 to an unusual degree, responded with an outburst of 
 laughter. 
 
 " We have got on admirably," she said. " I like 
 a straightforward mind, with such a power of 
 applying reason to practical uses. You must come 
 to see me often, Emma. Never mind grandpapa. 
 He will tell you I am busy, but when I am so, I 
 shall tell you so. You are far too sensible to take 
 offence." 
 
 " Oh, offence, Cousin Catherine ? between you 
 and me ! " said Emma, " that would be too ridiculous. 
 I hope I know my place. When you are the youngest 
 you soon learn that. Your first lesson is that nobody 
 wants you. and that you must just do the best you
 
 x.] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 173 
 
 can for yourself. There is only just one thing I 
 should like to mention, and that is, that the first 
 time it would be a great advantage to me if you 
 would take me. It is such a fine thing for a girl 
 when she is known to belong to the best people in a 
 place. It is not even as if my name were Vernon. 
 But people will say ' Miss Ashton ! who is Miss 
 Ashton ? I never heard of her ! ' Whereas if I were 
 with you, the best partners in the place would ask 
 to get introduced to me, and that would give me 
 a start. Afterwards I could get on by myself, as I 
 hear Mrs. Merridew does not care for chaperons," 
 Ernma said. 
 
 Once more Catherine was struck dumb. She 
 pushed her chair back a little and regarded this 
 dauntless young woman with a mixture of dismay, 
 admiration, and amusement. 
 
 " But I assure you I have never gone to any of 
 Ellen's junketings," she said. 
 
 " That will not matter," said the persistent Emma 
 " Of course she will be pleased to have you. It will 
 be a great honour. And then to me it would be such 
 an advantage. I should feel that I really was having 
 my chance." 
 
 When she left the gate of the Grange, walking by 
 the side of the bswildered captain, Emma felt that 
 she was tolerably sure of getting all she wanted, and 
 her triumph, though quite moderate and serious, was 
 great. 
 
 " I am very glad you left me to make acquaintance 
 with Cousin Catherine by myself," she said, " grand-
 
 174 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 papa ; I was a little frightened, but she was so nice. 
 She was very nice to Roland too ; and it will be such 
 an advantage to go into society for the first time 
 with such a well-known person. It makes all the 
 difference. People see at once who you are, and 
 there is no difficulty afterwards." 
 
 "And you think Catherine Vernon will depart 
 from all her habits and take you to that butterfly's 
 ball ? " the captain said. 
 
 " Of course, grandpapa," said Emma, in the calm 
 of simple conviction. It was not a matter which 
 admitted of any doubt. 
 
 And the wonderful thing was, that she proved 
 right. To her own great amazement, and to the 
 consternation of everybody concerned, Catherine 
 Vernon assumed her grey gown, the gayest of her 
 evening garments, and most befitting a dance, and 
 took Emma Ashton in her own carriage to Mrs. 
 Merridew's house on the hill. Catherine was too 
 genial a person in ordinary society to exercise any 
 discouraging influence upon the young party in 
 general ; but upon the members of her own family 
 there was no doubt that she did have a subduing 
 effect. Ellen's face of consternation was the subject 
 of remark in the family for years after ; indeed, they 
 spoke of " the night when Aunt Catherine came to 
 the dance," dating things from it, as people speak 
 of a great national event. Harry was the one who 
 showed himself most equal to the occasion. He 
 established himself by Catherine's side as a sort of 
 guard of honour, relieving the frightened Algernon,
 
 x.] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 175 
 
 who, what with pride and pleasure on his own part, 
 and a wondering sympathy with Ellen's dismay, did 
 not know how to conduct himself in such an emer- 
 gency. Edward did not appear at all. He had said 
 he was very busy, and did not think it was possible 
 he could go, as soon as he heard of Emma's extra- 
 ordinary request. And though Catherine was almost 
 displeased by his defection, there was nothing to be 
 said against so evident a necessity as that the most 
 active partner in the bank should attend to his work. 
 Her chief point of curiosity in the scene which she 
 surveyed with amused disapproval and astonishment 
 to find herself there, was Hester, to whom her eyes 
 turned with the lively sense of opposition which 
 existed always between the two. 
 ' Catherine's eyes, in spite of herself, turned from 
 Emma's insignificance to the fine indignant figure 
 of the girl whom (she said to herself) she could not 
 endure, with the most curious mixture of curiosity, 
 and interest, and rivalship. She, Catherine Vernon, 
 the rival of a trifling creature of nineteen ! Such 
 a sentiment sometimes embitters the feelings of a 
 mother towards the girl of whom her son makes 
 choice. But Catherine's mood had nothing to do 
 with Edward. It was more like the " taking sides," 
 which Emma was so anxious to demonstrate was 
 impossible to her as a stranger. Hester had no 
 separate standing ground, no might or authority, 
 and yet it was no exaggeration to say that Catherine, 
 with all of these advantages, instinctively looked 
 upon her as a rival power.
 
 176 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Hester was in the blue dress, which was the 
 alternative of her white one. In those days there 
 were no yellows or sage greens; and even before 
 Catherine remarked the girl's young freshness and 
 beauty, or^the high-thrown head, and indignant 
 bearing, which denoted on Hester's side a sense 
 of Catherine's inspection, her eyes had caught the 
 glistening pearls on the young neck her mother's 
 pearls. Catherine looked at them with a mingled 
 sense of pity and disdain. If that mother had been 
 such a woman as Catherine, neither these pearls nor 
 anything else of value would have remained in her 
 hands. They were Catherine's, they were the 
 creditors' by rights. Mrs. John was not wise 
 enough to .understand all that ; but Hester, if she 
 knew, would understand. Catherine could not keep 
 her mind from dwelling upon these ornaments. If 
 Hester knew, what would the girl do ? Pocket the 
 shame and continue to wear them as became Mrs. 
 John's daughter, or tear them from her neck and 
 trample them under foot ? One or the other she 
 would have to do but then, Hester did not know. 
 
 As she walked about through the rooms, stopping 
 to give a gracious word there, a nod here, a question 
 about father or mother, Catherine's mind was not 
 occupied either with the house or the company, but 
 with this girl. Hester had been in the background 
 till now. A glimpse of her in the corner of her own 
 drawing-room, standing by her mother's side in her 
 washed muslin, did not though Hester's look was 
 always one of indignation impress her relation's
 
 x.] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 177 
 
 mind But here she stood like an equal, sending 
 glances of defiance out of her brown eyes. Hester 
 had come in the old fly with the white horse, while 
 Emma was fetched from her grandfather's by Cathe- 
 rine's carriage. The contrast was striking enough ; 
 but Catherine, though she would not own it to 
 herself, was more aware than any one else, that 
 no one would look twice at Emma while Hester 
 was by. 
 
 When the evening was about half over, Emma 
 came to her patroness and kindly gave her her 
 dismissal. 
 
 " Don't wait longer on my account, Cousin Cathe- 
 rine," she said. " I am quite nicely started ; thank 
 you so much. I have got my card filled ; quite the 
 nicest people in the room have asked me. I'm sure 
 I am very grateful to you, for it is all your doing ; 
 but don't think of waiting for me. Chaperons 
 are not at all wanted, and I can go home in Hester's 
 fly. I am so much obliged to you, but of course 
 you want to get to bed. Don't stay a moment 
 longer than you wish, for me." 
 
 Catherine smiled, but did not take any further 
 notice. She walked about the rooms for some time 
 after on the arm of Harry, who was always dutiful. 
 
 "And who do you think is the prettiest person 
 in the room, Harry ? I excuse you from telling 
 me it is my young lady, whom for my own part I 
 don't admire." 
 
 " I cannot see there is any doubt about it, Aunt 
 Catherine," said Harry, in his sturdy way. " It is 
 
 VOL. II. N
 
 178 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 my cousin Hester. There is an air about her I 
 cannot explain it : I found it out long ago ; but now 
 everybody sees it." 
 
 " Thanks to her mother's pearls," said Catherine, 
 with her laugh. 
 
 Harry looked at her with startled eyes. 
 
 " The pearls are very pretty on her ; but they are 
 nothing, to me at least," he said. 
 
 " You should not let her wear them. She should 
 not have them ; knowing her father's story, as I 
 suppose you do. Don't you see," cried Catherine, 
 with sudden energy, " that she ought not to appear 
 in Redborough in those pearls ? " 
 
 Emma had been standing near when this conver- 
 sation began, and she drew closer to listen, not with 
 any clandestine intention, but only with a natural 
 curiosity. She caught up the words in a disjointed 
 way. What reason could there be for not wearing 
 your mother's pearls ? She would have gone and 
 asked the question direct of Catherine, but that just 
 then her partner came for her ; and for the rest of 
 the evening she had no time to consider any such 
 question ; nor was it till she found herself in the fly 
 in the middle of the night rumbling and jolting 
 along the dark road that skirted the Common, by 
 Hester's side, that this mysterious speech occurred 
 to her mind. She had been talking of the advantage 
 of being introduced by a well-known person and 
 thus put at once "on a right footing." 
 
 "You don't want that. You know everybody; 
 you have been here all your life," she said. " And
 
 x.] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 179 
 
 I am sure you got plenty of partners, and looked 
 very nice. And what a pretty necklace that is," 
 said Emma, artlessly entering upon her subject. 
 " Are they real ? Oh, you must not be offended 
 with me, for I never had any nice ornaments. The 
 youngest never has any chance. If they are real, 
 I suppose they are worth a great deal of money ; 
 and you must be quite rich, or you would not be 
 able to afford them." 
 
 " We are not rich ; indeed we are very poor," said 
 Hester, " but the pearls are my mother's. She got 
 them when she was young, from her mother. They 
 have belonged to us for numbers of years." 
 
 " I wonder what Cousin Catherine could mean ! " 
 said Emma innocently. 
 
 "About my pearls?" cried Hester, pricking up 
 her ears, and all her spirit awakening, though she 
 was so sleepy and tired of the long night. 
 
 " She said you oughtn't to wear them. She 
 said you shouldn't have them. I wonder what she 
 meant ! And Mr. Harry Vernon, that tall gentle- 
 man, he seemed to understand, for he got quite red 
 and angry." 
 
 " I oughtn't to wear them I shouldn't have 
 them ! " Hester repeated, in a blaze of wrath. She 
 sat bolt upright, though she had been lying back in 
 her corner indisposed for talk. 
 
 " Oh, I dare say she didn't mean anything," said 
 Emma, " only spite, as you are on the other side.'" 
 
 Hester did not reply, but she was roused out of all 
 her sleepiness in a moment. She let Emma prattle 
 
 N 2
 
 180 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 on by her side without response. As they drove past 
 the Grange a window was opened softly, and some 
 one seemed to look out. 
 
 "Oh, I wonder if that was Mr. Edward," said 
 Emma. "I wonder why he stayed away. Is he 
 after some girl, and doesn't want Cousin Catherine 
 to know ? If it were not that you would scarcely 
 speak to each other when you met, I should say it 
 was you, Hester." 
 
 " I wish," said Hester severely, " that you would 
 go to sleep; at three in the morning I never want 
 to talk." 
 
 "Well, of course, it may be that," said Emma 
 somewhat inconsequently, "but I never want to 
 sleep when I have been enjoying myself. I want 
 to have some one in the same room and to talk it 
 all over everything that has happened. Who was 
 that man, do you know who " 
 
 And here she went into details which Hester, 
 roused and angry, paid no attention to. But Emma 
 was not dependent on replies. She went on asking 
 questions, of which her companion took no notice, 
 till the fly suddenly stopped with a great jarring and 
 rattling, and the opening of two doors, and glimmers 
 of two small lights in the profound dark, gave note 
 of watchers in the two houses, warned by the slow 
 rumbling of the ancient vehicle, and glad to be 
 released from their respective vigils. In Hester's 
 case it was her mother, wrapped in a warm dressing- 
 gown, with a shawl over her head, and two anxious 
 eyes shining out with warm reflections over her
 
 x ] STRAIGHTFORWARD. 181 
 
 little candle, who received the girl in her finery with 
 eager questions if she were very cold, if she were 
 tired, if all had gone off well. 
 
 " Run up stairs, my darling, while I fasten the 
 door," Mrs. John said. " There is a nice fire and 
 you can warm yourself and some tea." 
 
 In those days people, especially women, were not 
 afraid of being kept awake because of a cup of tea. 
 
 " Mamma," said Hester when her mother followed 
 her up stairs into the old-fashioned, low-roofed 
 room, which the fire filled with rosy light, " it 
 appears that Catherine Vernon says I ought not to 
 wear your pearls. Has she anything to do with 
 your pearls ? Has she any right to interfere ? " 
 
 "My pearls!" cried Mrs. John almost with a 
 scream. "What could Catherine Vernon have to 
 do with them ? I think, dear, you must have fallen 
 asleep and been dreaming. Where have you seen 
 Catherine Vernon, Hester ? She gives us our house, 
 dear ; you know we are so far indebted to her : but 
 that is the only right she can have to interfere." 
 
 " Had she anything to do with my father ? " 
 Hester asked. 
 
 She was relieved from she did not know what 
 indefinable terrors by the genuine astonishment in 
 her mother's face. 
 
 " Anything to do with him ? Of course ; she had 
 a great deal to do with him. She was his first 
 cousin. Her father had brought him up. It was 
 
 intended but then he met me," said the gentle 
 
 little woman, not without a tone of satisfaction in
 
 182 HESTER. [CHAP. x. 
 
 the incoherent tale. "And she was a kind of 
 partner, and had a great deal to do with the hank. 
 I never understood the rights of it, Hester. I never 
 had any head for business. Wait, darling, till I 
 undo these buttons. And now, my love, if you have 
 got warm, go to bed. My pearls ! She must mean, 
 I suppose, that they are too good for you to wear 
 because we are poor. They were my mother's, and 
 her mother's before that. I would like to know 
 what Catherine Vernon could have to say to them," 
 Mrs. John said, taking the pearls from her child's 
 throat and holding them up, all warm and shining, 
 to the light, before she deposited them in their 
 carefully padded bed. 
 
 If there was anything in the world that was her 
 individual property, and in which no one else had 
 any share, it was her pearls : they had always been 
 one of her household gods. 

 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A CENTRE OF LIFE. 
 
 THERE are periods in life, and especially in the 
 early part of it, when all existence gets, as it 
 were, out of focus, and instead of some great and 
 worthy centre, takes to circling round some point of 
 outwardly frivolous meaning, some little axis of 
 society entirely unfit to be the turning-point of even 
 the smallest world of human concerns. This had 
 come to be the case with the Vernons in those 
 lingering weeks of winter just before Christmas. 
 That the young, gay, foolish nay, absurd house 
 on the hill inhabited by Algernon Merridew and his 
 wife should become to all of this important family 
 the chief place, not only in Redborough, but for 
 u time, in the world, was the most curious fact 
 imaginable ; but yet it was so. To Edward it was 
 the one place in the world where he was, as he 
 hoped, free from observation and able to do as he 
 pleased ; which meant where he was entirely free 
 from Catherine, and need have no fear of any inter-
 
 184 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 ruption from her to his amusement, or his pleasure, 
 or, if you like it better, his love : to Hester it was 
 the place where she had been recognised as part 
 possessor in her own person, like the others, of the 
 honours due to her family, and where the homage, 
 to which a young woman sufficiently endowed has a 
 right, was first given to her ; if it had a more close 
 attraction still as the place where she met Edward, 
 that was a dream as yet unacknowledged to her own 
 heart. Harry, on the other hand, had a double 
 interest neither of them of a very cheerful kind 
 one of which was the necessity of standing by his 
 sister, who his good sense told him was embarked in 
 a very perilous way, and whose husband was quite 
 incapable of controlling or guiding her erratic course ; 
 and the other was the painful fascination of watch- 
 ing Edward and Hester through all the vicissitudes 
 of their quarrellings and makings up the hours 
 they would spend together, followed by other hours 
 in which they would mutually scowl at each other 
 and did not speak. Harry knew, poor fellow, by a 
 sort of instinct common to the rejected, that the 
 quarrels were as ominous, or more so, than the 
 intimacy. Hester had never quarrelled with him- 
 self, they had been on the best terms, alas, as they 
 were now ! But Edward she would pass with 
 flushed cheek and shining eye : she would address 
 him with haughty reluctance when it was necessary 
 to speak to him, and mark her reluctance with a 
 decision which was never employed towards those 
 for whom she cared nothing. Harry's eyes were
 
 xi. ] A CENTRE OF LIFE. 185 
 
 opened, and he understood the duel between them. 
 The only mistake he made was in the belief that it 
 had gone further than the preliminary stage. He 
 could not believe it possible that no explanation had 
 taken place between them. 
 
 And of all people to be interested in Ellen's silly 
 parties, who should be seized with an intense desire 
 to know all about them but Catherine Vernon her- 
 self? She did know more about them than any one 
 else who was not present, and than a great many 
 who were present. Her suspicious had been roused 
 by various indications of something occult in 
 Edward's mind. He was no longer on his guard to 
 the incredible extent which had been common with 
 him ; his mind was agitated with new hopes and 
 fears the chance of being able to be altogether 
 independent of Catherine had made him relax in his 
 caution, and there had been moments when, in all 
 the stir and elation of his new life, he had been on 
 the eve of disclosing everything. Habitual prudence 
 had saved him, but yet there had been something 
 in his aspect which had roused Catherine's sus- 
 picions. They had been, as she thought, in such 
 entire sympathy before, that she was deeply 
 affected by this feeling, which she could not explain 
 to herself this sense of being in sympathy no 
 longer. And it was all since Ellen's absurd parties 
 began, and he began to meet at them, that girl, born 
 for the confusion of all her plans, Catherine thought. 
 There were evenings when the strongest temptation 
 to order her carriage instead of going to bed, and to
 
 186 . HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 go suddenly unexpected to Ellen's party, and see 
 with her own eyes what was going on, would come over 
 her mind. But there was in Catherine's mind, along 
 with her suspicions, that terror to have them con- 
 firmed, which so often goes with love when it begins 
 to tremble in this way. Had she gone, Edward 
 would have declared contemptuously (within himself) 
 that it was all of a piece with her usual watchfulness, 
 and the perfection of her system not being able to 
 divine that Catherine would have given the world to 
 find herself in the wrong, and shrank from proving 
 herself to be in the right. In the meantime she was 
 kept informed of what was going on more or less by 
 various people, and above all by Emma Ashton, 
 whose information, though largely leavened by a 
 great deal about herself which did not much interest 
 her hearer, also afforded revelations about other 
 people, especially Hester. Emma had become a 
 constant visitor at the Grange. She was allowed to 
 prattle for hours, and Catherine was always kind to 
 her. Her insignificance, her little egotisms, her 
 straightforward aim at her own advancement, did not 
 call forth the amused contempt of that observer of 
 the human comedy as they would have done in any 
 other specimen. Catherine's tradition in favour of 
 her mother's kindred covered this little person with 
 a shield. But those who were not aware of this fond 
 superstition wondered and scorned. And the feeling 
 of the Redborough community was not in Emma's 
 favour. 
 
 "She is just a horrid little spy," Ellen cried.
 
 XL] A CKNTRE OF LIFE. 187 
 
 " I know she goes and tells Aunt Catherine every- 
 thing. I shouldn't have her if I could help it ; but 
 everybody knows now that she is Aunt Catherine's 
 relation, and they are all civil to her." 
 
 " She cannot do us any harm, Nelly," said her 
 husband, " we are not afraid of any spy, I hope." 
 
 " Oh, don't talk so much nonsense, Algy," cried 
 Ellen. " Of course she can't do us any harm ; but 
 I hate spies for all that" 
 
 They were wrong so far that Emma was not at all 
 a spy. Of all the interminable discourses she poured 
 out upon Catherine, the far greater part was about 
 herself; only unfortunately the part that interested 
 her auditor was not that about herself, but the 
 much smaller portion in which, quite unconscious 
 and without any evil motive, she dropped here and 
 there a chance hint as to the others. 
 
 "And whom did you say Edward was dancing 
 with ? " Catherine would say. 
 
 " Oh, I was not talking of Mr. Edward, but of 
 young Mr. Merridew, who is always very attentive. 
 That was our third dance together, and I did feel it 
 was a great pity there were no chaperons, because I 
 should have asked her, if I had been with any one, 
 
 whether it wasn't rather, you know for I 
 
 wouldn't for the world do anything to get myself 
 talked about " 
 
 " I thought you had been talking about Edward," 
 Catherine said. 
 
 "Oh dear no. It was whether three dances 
 together wasn't perhaps a little for I always feel
 
 188 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 the responsibility of belonging to the family, Cousin 
 Catherine, and I wouldn't for the world do any- 
 thing it is quite different with gentlemen. Mr. 
 
 Edward was just carrying on as usual." 
 
 " But, Emma, you must tell me what you mean 
 by 'carrying on.'" 
 
 " Oh, I don't mean any harm," Emma would say. 
 " I wonder what young Mr. Merridew is if he is 
 well off, and all that ? Hester has cousins all round 
 to tell her what's best, and of course she does not 
 need to be on her p's and q's, like me." 
 
 Catherine had to follow a mazy, vague, and 
 wandering clue thus, through acres of indifferent 
 matter, and to piece together broken scraps of 
 information which were never intended to affect her 
 at all. But they did affect her sometimes so power- 
 fully that she had her hand actually on the bell, not 
 only that evening but on several other occasions, to 
 intimate that she should want the carriage at ten 
 o'clock a proceeding which would have convulsed 
 the household at home, and carried consternation to 
 the recipients of the unlooked-for honour. But, on 
 further consideration, Catherine always succeeded in 
 subduing herself, often sadly enough saying to herself 
 that it would be time enough when he told her 
 Why should she go out to meet trouble ? Her heart 
 so took her strength from her, and changed her 
 natural temperament, that Catherine restrained 
 herself, with a shrinking, which nobody who knew 
 her would have believed in, from any contact with 
 irresistible fact, and decided that rather than find
 
 XL] A CENTRE OF LIFE. 189 
 
 out the vanity of her confidence it was better to 
 be deceived. 
 
 Thus the house on the hill which flaunted forth 
 every Thursday evening the great lamps of its lighted 
 windows and the lines of Chinese lanterns in the 
 conservatory, became the centre for the moment of 
 a great deal of life and many anxious thoughts. It 
 turned Ellen's head with pride and delight when she 
 received indications of this, which indeed came to 
 her on all sides. When a shade of alarm crossed 
 Algernon's face at the amount of the bills, she took 
 a lofty position which no man pretending to any spirit 
 could have gone against. " Goodness, Algy, how 
 can you look so glum about a pound or two, when 
 you see we are doing a great work ? " Ellen said. 
 " Well ! if it is not more important than mothers' 
 meetings, I don't know what words mean : and 
 Mr. Ransom says the mothers' meetings are a great 
 work." Algernon laughed, but he, too, felt a thrill 
 of pride. To have made the house, which though 
 it was Ellen's was a Merridew house, and his own, 
 into a centre for the great Vernon family, was, if not 
 a great work, at least an extraordinary local success, 
 such as old Merridew's son could never have hoped 
 to attain to. And indeed Algernon's remonstrances 
 about the bills were of the feeblest description. He 
 was too much devoted to his wife to have interfered 
 with her, even had not the balance of moral force 
 been on her side ; and he was proud of the extrava- 
 gance and the commotion and .the way in which the 
 elders shook their heads. It is pleasant to make a
 
 190 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 sensation, and Algernon was comforted by the know- 
 ledge that he had already made a little money by 
 his stockbroking transactions, and hoped to make a 
 great deal more. 
 
 The young men had carried on their transactions 
 with considerable vigour, though with little risk so far 
 as Algernon and Harry were concerned. But Edward's 
 was a different case. The venture upon which he 
 had pondered with so much anxiety had turned out 
 favourably, and he had gone on without telling his 
 secret to any one, with a general amount of success 
 which had made the operation of risking other 
 people's money seem quite natural to him a process 
 without any practical consequences at all, except the 
 accumulation of a good deal of money under his 
 own name, which is one of the happiest of sensations. 
 To his temperament indeed it is by no means 
 certain that the vicissitudes of the career in which 
 he had embarked, the tragic suspense in which he 
 was occasionally held, and the transport of deliver- 
 ance that followed, were not in themselves the highest 
 pleasures of which he was capable. And even so 
 early in his career as this, such crises would come. 
 He had self-command enough not to betray himself 
 when these moments arrived, and though there were 
 eyes keen enough to see that something had pro- 
 duced a change in him, they were, as has been seen 
 in Catherine's case, deceived as to the cause of his 
 perturbation. Hester did not have so many oppor- 
 tunities of studying him, and she had no clue to the 
 business complications in which he was involved ;
 
 XL] A CENTRE OF LIFE. 191 
 
 but she had many thoughts on her own mind as to 
 the reason of all the commotion which she saw 
 vaguely, without understanding it. Some of the 
 members of the general society, strangers who some- 
 times perceive a departure from habit which does 
 not strike the most intimate, had said of Edward 
 on more than one occasion, that he must be in love. 
 Was he in love ? Hester had felt that a look was 
 directed to herself when this was said, and that a 
 suppressed laugh had run round the little group. 
 She was herself agitated by tumults which she could 
 not understand, commotions in which Edward was 
 certainly involved, and his name thus mentioned 
 brought the blood to her cheek. Was he in love ? 
 
 O 
 
 She did not want to turn the question upon herself, 
 to bring the matter to any conclusion, one way or 
 another. He was very pale that evening, yet would 
 flush, as she herself did, growing red in a moment 
 and then pale again ; and there was a watchful air 
 about him as of a man who expected to hear some- 
 thing or see some one whom nobody else looked for. 
 A man who was in love did not behave so. He was 
 absorbed in the being whom he loved. He is not 
 absorbed in me, the girl said to herself involuntarily, 
 then blushed, as if her thought had been found out. 
 Edward came up to her at this moment, which made 
 her confusion the greater. 
 
 " Why do you change colour so ? What is the 
 matter ? " he said to her. 
 
 "It is you who are changing colour," said Hester, 
 not knowing how else to defend herself. .
 
 192 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Instead of contradicting her, or throwing off the 
 accusation, he suddenly took her hand and drew it' 
 through his arm. 
 
 " It is true," he said. " I have something on my 
 mind. You were going to dance this waltz with 
 me. Come into the hall, it is cool there, and let 
 us talk instead ? " 
 
 Every inch of available space in the house was 
 given up to the accommodation of the guests, and 
 the hall was filled, like the conservatory, with plants, 
 among which little groups of two could find corners. 
 Edward established Hester in one of these, and 
 placed a chair for himself, so as to cut her off 
 from everybody. 
 
 "You are the only one that can understand," he 
 said. " I can speak to you. Don't mind me if I 
 look like a fool. I am too anxious to talk." 
 
 "What is it?" she said, with a tremour of sym- 
 pathetic anxiety. 
 
 " It is only business," he said, " but it is business 
 so unexpected that even beside you I am obliged to 
 think of it. Can a man say more than that ? " he 
 asked with something in his eyes which Hester had 
 never seen there so distinctly before, and which 
 silenced her. One great emotion clears the way for 
 another. Edward in the commotion of his being was 
 almost ready to rush into words that, being said, 
 would have turned his life upside down, and shat- 
 tered all his present foundations. He was saved by 
 an incident which was of the most ordinary common- 
 place kind. There came a violent ring at the door
 
 XL] A CENTRE OF LIFE. 193 
 
 which was within half a dozen steps of the spot 
 where they sat. Half a dozen heads immediately 
 protruded from among the little banks of foliage to 
 see what this odd interruption could mean, for all the 
 guests had arrived, and it was not late enough for 
 any one to go away. Hester saw that all the colour 
 ebbed immediately out of Edward's face. He did not 
 even attempt to say a word to her,' but sat perfectly 
 still, slightly turned towards the door, but not looking 
 out, awaiting whatever might come. It seemed to 
 Hester that never in her life had she so understood 
 the power of fate, the moment when Nature and life 
 seem to stand still before some event. A minute 
 after, the footman came up and handed a telegram to 
 Edward. He tore it open with trembling hands. The 
 next moment he jumped up from his seat with a 
 suppressed cry of triumph. " Hurrah ! " he said, and 
 then with a laugh which was very unsteady held out 
 the despatch to her. All that it contained were the 
 words " All right." But somehow it was not to these 
 words that Hester's eyes confined themselves. " From 
 Ashton, London -" she said without knowing that 
 she did so, before he thrust the pink paper into his 
 pocket. " Come along," he said, " the waltz is not 
 half over. We shall be in time yet." And for the rest 
 of the evening Edward was in wild spirits, dancing 
 every dance. He even asked the girls to take him 
 with them in their fly as far as the Grange in his 
 reckless exhilaration, and as he got out in the dark- 
 ness, Hester felt a kiss upon her hand. This startled 
 VOL. II. O
 
 194 HESTER. [CHAP. XT. 
 
 her still more than the telegram. " Till to-morrow," 
 he said as they rumbled away. 
 
 " What does he mean by till to-morrow ? He must be 
 coming to make you an offer to-morrow that is how 
 they do. It often happens after a dance when it is 
 going to happen," Emma said in the darkness, with a 
 little sigh.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WAS IT LOVE? 
 
 WAS he in love ? That this was a question very 
 interesting to Hester there can be no reason to con- 
 ceal. She did not even conceal it from herself, nor 
 did she trifle with herself by pretending to suppose 
 that if he were in love it could be with any one else. 
 There was no one else who had ever appeared to 
 attract him. To nobody had he so much as given his 
 passing attention. When he had neglected her at the 
 Grange it had been truly, as he said, for no higher 
 reason than that he might hand down the old ladies 
 to supper or tea. No young one had ever been 
 suggested as having any attraction for him. Hester 
 did her best to enter calmly into this question. It is 
 one which it is sometimes very difficult for a young 
 woman to decide upon. What is conspicuous and 
 apparent to others will often remain to her a question 
 full of doubt and uncertainty ; and it is to be feared 
 that when this is the case it is all the more likely that 
 her own sentiments will be capable of very little 
 
 o 2
 
 196 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 question. This, however, was not exactly the case 
 with Hester. Her mind was very much interested, and 
 indeed excited. She wanted to know what Edward 
 meant. From the first morning when he had met her 
 a child wandering on the Common, his manner had 
 been different to her from the manner of other people, 
 or from his own manner to others. His eyes had 
 lingered upon her with pleasure even when his look 
 had been stealthy; even when it had been but a glance 
 in passing, they had said things to her which no other 
 eyes said. His interest in her had never failed. It 
 had not leaped like Harry's, after a good deal of 
 indifference, into a sudden outburst. The very charm 
 and attraction of it had lain in the restraint which 
 Hester had often considered to be dishonest, and 
 against which she had chafed. She had known all 
 through, even in those evenings when he had neg- 
 lected her, that he was always conscious what she was 
 doing, and knew without looking when any one went 
 to talk to her, when she left the room and when she 
 came back. This had kept her own interest in him 
 unvarying. But Hester was not any more sure of 
 her own sentiments than of his. She remembered 
 with some shame that Roland Ashton's presence had 
 made a great difference in the state of her mind as 
 regarded Edward. She had felt but little curiosity 
 about him when that stranger was at the Vernonry 
 All the foreground of her mind had been so pleasantly 
 occupied by that new figure which was in itself much 
 more attractive than Edward, that he had slid almost 
 completely out of her thoughts. And this fact, which
 
 xii j WAS IT LOVE? 197 
 
 was only quite apparent to her after Roland was 
 gone*, had greatly discomfited Hester, and given her 
 a very small opinion of herself. Was it possible that 
 any new object that might appear would have the 
 same effect upon her ? The effect had passed away 
 and Edward had come slowly back to his original 
 position as the person who in all Redborough inter- 
 ested her most. But the incident had been of a very 
 disturbing character, and had altogether confused 
 her ideas. Therefore the question was one of a very 
 special interest. To know exactly how he regarded 
 her would much help her in deciding the other ques- 
 tion, not less important, which was, how she regarded 
 him ? Everything thus depended, Hester felt, on 
 Edward's sentiments. If it should turn out that he 
 loved her strange thought which made her heart 
 beat ! it could not be but that in great and 
 tender gratitude for such a gift she should love him. 
 She did feel offended by his efforts to disguise his 
 feelings, or even to get the better of them never at 
 least when she was cool and in command of her 
 judgment ; but there could be no doubt that she 
 was very curious and anxious to know. 
 
 Was he in love ? The appearances which had made 
 the lookers-on say so were not altogether to be attri- 
 buted to this, Hester knew. His paleness, his excite- 
 ment, his absence of mind, had all been from another 
 cause. The discovery had startled her much, and 
 given her an uneasy sense that she might at other 
 times have referred to some cause connected with 
 herself manifestations of feeling which had nothing
 
 198 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 to do with her, which belonged to an entirely different 
 order of sentiments a thought which made her blush 
 red with shame, since there is nothing that hurts a 
 girl's pride so much as the suggestion, that she has 
 been vain, and imagined, like the foolish women, a 
 man to love her who perhaps has never thought of 
 her at all. But the question altogether was one which 
 was too profound for Hester. She could not tell 
 what to make of it. Among the heads of the young 
 party at the Merridews, she was aware that no doubt 
 was entertained on the matter. Edward was allotted 
 to her by a sort of unspoken right, and in Ellen's jibes 
 and Harry's gloom she read alike the same distinct 
 understanding. Ellen in her chatter, notwithstanding 
 the warning to her cousin at the beginning, accepted 
 it entirely as a matter of course : and in a hundred 
 things that Edward had said as well as in his looks, 
 which were still more eloquent, there had been strong 
 confirmation of the general belief. But yet Hester 
 could not make up her mind that it was beyond 
 doubt. She watched him, not with anxiety so much 
 as with a great curiosity. If it was not so, would 
 she be deeply disappointed ? she asked herself with- 
 out being able even to answer that question. And 
 as to her own sentiments, they were quite as per- 
 plexing. She was half ashamed to feel that they 
 depended upon his. Was this a confession of femi- 
 nine inferiority ? she sometimes wondered with a hot 
 blush the position here being very perplexing 
 indeed and profoundly difficult to elucidate ; for it 
 neither consisted with the girl's dignity to give her
 
 xii.] WAS IT LOVE? 199 
 
 love unsought, nor thus to wait as if ready to deliver 
 up her affections to the first bidder. 
 
 Such a matter of thought, involving the greatest 
 interests of life, is curiously mixed up with its most 
 frivolous events. They met in the midst of the 
 dancing with a constant crash and accompaniment of 
 dance-music, amid chatterings and laughter, and all 
 the inane nothings of a ball-room, and yet in the 
 midst of this were to consider and decide the most 
 important question of their lives. It was only thus, 
 except by concerted meetings which would have 
 solved the question, that they could meet at all, and 
 the grotesque incongruity of such surroundings with 
 the matter in the foreground, sometimes affected 
 Hester with a sort of moral sickness and disgust. 
 The scene seemed to throw a certain unworthiness, 
 levity, unelevated aspect upon the question altogether 
 as if this thing which was to affect two lives was 
 no more than an engagement for a dance. 
 
 And though it is a strange thing to say, it is 
 doubtful whether Edward was much more decided 
 in his sentiments than Hester was. In such a case 
 the man at least generally knows more or tess what 
 he wants ; but partly because Edward's mind was in 
 a high state of excitement on other subjects, he too 
 was for a moment entirely uncertain as to what his 
 wishes were. He knew with sufficient distinctness 
 that he could not tolerate the idea of her appro- 
 priation by any one else, and it was his full intention 
 that some time or other Hester should be his, and 
 no one else's, which gave a foundation of certainty
 
 200 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 to his thoughts which was wanting to hers. But 
 further than this, he too was in a chaos somewhat 
 similar to that of Hester. Sometimes there was in 
 his mind the strongest impulse to tell her that he 
 loved her, and to settle the matter by an engage- 
 ment, which must, however, he felt, be a secret one, 
 giving satisfaction to themselves but no one else. 
 And here it may be remarked that whereas Hester 
 was apt to be seized by sudden fits of shame at the 
 idea that perhaps, after all her thoughts on the 
 subject, he was not thinking of her at all, Edward 
 on the other hand felt no such alarm, and never 
 thought it even presumptuous on his part to assume 
 the certainty of her love for him, which, as the 
 reader knows, was a certainty to which she had not 
 herself attained. He believed with simplicity that 
 when, if ever (nay, certainly it was to happen some 
 time), he declared himself, Hester would respond 
 at once. He acknowledged to himself that it was 
 possible that in pique, or impatience, or weariness, 
 if he did not keep a vigilant watch over the situa- 
 tion, it might happen that Hester would accept 
 some one else. Her mother might drive her to 
 it, or the impossibility of going on longer might 
 drive her to it ; but he had so much confidence in 
 the simplicity of her nature that he did not believe 
 that the complications which held him in on every 
 side could affect her, and was sure that in her heart 
 the question was solved in the most primitive way. 
 
 -This was and generally is the great difference 
 between the man and woman in such a controversy ;
 
 xii.] WAS IT LOVE? 201 
 
 until he had spoken, it was a shame to her that she 
 should ask herself did he intend to speak ; but 
 Edward felt no shame if ever the idea crossed his 
 mind that he might be mistaken in supposing she 
 loved him ; such a discovery would have made him 
 furious. He would have aimed all sorts of ill names, 
 such as coquette and jilt, at her ; but he had no 
 fear of any such mistake. He felt sure that he had 
 her in his power, and when he did declare himself 
 would be received with enthusiasm ; and he always 
 meant to declare himself some time, to reward her 
 long suspense, and to make her the happiest of 
 women. In words, this part is generally allotted to 
 the lady, as it was in the days of chivalry. But the 
 nineteenth century has modified many things, and if 
 ever (out of America) it was really the woman who 
 occupied the more commanding position, it is no 
 longer so in the apprehension of the world. Only 
 in this particular case, as has been seen, Edward was 
 wrong. It is possible enough that in the curious 
 position of affairs between them she would have 
 followed his lead whatever it might be ; but even 
 this was by no means certain, and as a matter of 
 fact, though her curiosity about him drew her mind 
 after him, she had not even gone so far as he had, 
 nor come to any ultimate certainty on the case 
 at all. 
 
 Emma Ashton, who by means of propinquity 
 that quick knitter of bonds bad become Hester's 
 frequent companion, had very different ideas on. a 
 similar subject. There was no sort of indefiniteness
 
 202 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 in her views. She was perfectly clear as to what 
 she was likely to do in a given case, and the case in 
 question occupied probably almost as great a share 
 in her thoughts as the different yet similar question 
 which agitated the mind of Hester. It was indeed 
 to outward view, though with so many and subtle 
 differences, a very similar question. Emma's 
 wonder was whether Reginald Merridew would 
 " speak " before she went away. She had no doubt 
 that all the requisite sentiments were existing, and 
 she had satisfied herself that when he did " speak " 
 there was no reason why she should not reply 
 favourably. The family was "quite respectable," 
 it might almost be said also that it was "quite 
 well off," but that there were rumours that Algernon 
 was to be " made an eldest son of," which were 
 somewhat disquieting. The suggestion was one 
 which made Emma indignant, notwithstanding the 
 gratitude she owed Algernon and his wife for giving 
 her " her chance " in Redbo rough. 
 
 " When there is an estate I suppose it is all right," 
 Emma said ; "anyhow it can't be helped when that's 
 the case; and there must be an eldest son. But 
 when your property is in money it does seem such a 
 mistake to make a difference between your children. 
 Don't you think so ? Oh, but I do ; they are just one 
 as good as another, and why should one be rich and 
 another poor ? If old Mr. Merridew does anything 
 of this sort I am sure I shall always think it is 
 very unfair." 
 
 " I suppose Mr. Merridew has a right to do what
 
 xii.] WAS IT LOVE? 203 
 
 he pleases ? " said Hester ; " and as it does not matter 
 
 to us " 
 
 "You speak a great deal too fast," said Emma, 
 offended. " Say it doesn't matter to you : but it 
 may to me a great deal, and therefore I take a 
 great interest in it. Do you think parents have a 
 right to do what they please ? If they make us 
 come into the world, whether we wish it or not, of 
 course they are bound to do their best for us. I am 
 the youngest myself, and I hope I know my place ; 
 but then there was no money at all among us. Papa 
 spent it all himself ; so certainly we had share and 
 share alike, for there was nothing. When that's 
 the case nobody can have a word to say. But the 
 Merridews have a good deal, and every one ought to 
 have his just share. Not but what I like Algernon 
 Merridew very much. He is always very agreeable, 
 and I think it very nice both of Ellen and him that 
 they should have been so kind to me and given me 
 my chance, though you say we're no relations. I 
 am sure I always thought we were relations, for 
 my part." 
 
 " Did you think Reginald was your relation too ? " 
 " Well, not perhaps quite so far as that a connec- 
 tion I should have said ; but it does not matter very 
 much now," Emma said, with a little simper of 
 satisfaction. " What a good thing Roland found out 
 about grandpapa and grandmamma, Hester and how 
 fortunate that they should have asked me ! If every- 
 thing goes right I shall feel that I owe the happiness 
 of my life to it. When a girl goes out upon a visit,
 
 204 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 she never knows what may happen before she gets 
 home or even she may never need to go home at 
 all. I don't know if I shall, I am sure. To talk 
 about anything taking place from Roland's house 
 would be absurd. Why, we don't even know the 
 clergyman ! and nobody cares a bit about us. If there 
 was any meaning in home it should be from Elinor's, 
 you know for everybody knows us there." 
 
 " What do you mean about ' anything taking 
 place ' ? and from from what ? " Hester asked, who 
 never paid too much attention to Emma's mono- 
 logues, and had altogether lost the thread of her 
 discoursings now. 
 
 " Oh," cried Emma, clasping Hester's arm close, 
 " how you do make one blush ! Of course you know 
 very well what I mean. If he speaks before I go 
 away and I am sure I hope he will, for it would be 
 such a nuisance to have him following me up to 
 Kilburn! I don't suppose there would be any 
 occasion for waiting long. Why should people 
 wait when they are well off enough, and nothing 
 to be gained by it ? When the man has not 
 got settled in a proper situation, or when there 
 is not enough to live upon, then of course they 
 must put it off; but in such a case as ours I 
 mean this, you know it might as well be here 
 as anywhere," Emma said, reflectively. " Cousin 
 Catherine has always been very kind to me. Rather 
 than let grandpapa and grandmamma be disturbed 
 at their age, I shouldn't wonder if she would give 
 the breakfast especially considering the double
 
 xn.] WAS IT LOVE? 205 
 
 connection, and that it is such a very good thing to 
 get me settled, You needn't laugh, Hester. It is 
 not a thing to laugh at. Unless I had settled, what 
 should I have done ? You are an only daughter, 
 you don't know what it is to be the youngest and 
 have no proper home." 
 
 These words mollified Hester, who had been in 
 lofty opposition, half disgusted, half indignant. She 
 was brought down by this appeal to her sympathy. 
 ' But you are happy with your brother ? " she said. 
 
 " Oh, yes happy enough ; Roland is very kind. 
 And though it's a small house, it is tolerably nice, 
 and two maids with nothing particular to do. But 
 it is very dull, you know, and I don't know many 
 people. And you must always take into considera- 
 tion that at any moment Roland might marry, and 
 then where should I be ? Why, he admires you 
 very much. He might just as likely as not, next 
 time he comes, make you an offer ; and then where 
 should I be ? " 
 
 " You think, I suppose," said Hester, loftily, " that 
 when a man makes an offer, as you say, that is all 
 about it ; there is no opposition to be looked for on 
 the girl's side ? " 
 
 " Well, you know," said Emma, " I call you one of 
 the high-flown ones. There are always some like that. 
 But in an ordinary way what do girls want but their 
 chance ? And when they've got it, what folly to 
 refuse at least in my position, Hester. If I don't 
 get settled, what have I to look forward to ? Roland 
 will marry sooner or later. He's an awful flirt, and
 
 HESTER. [CRAP 
 
 though he admires you very much, I shouldn't advise 
 you to have anything to do with him unless you just 
 marry him out and out. I should think he'd make 
 a good husband. But don't be engaged to him, 
 Hester ; mind my words. Be married in three weeks, 
 or have nothing to say to him that is my advice. 
 Oh, you need not be huffy. I am sure I don't want 
 you or any one to marry him, at least till I am 
 settled. But if I don't settle now, he is sure, of 
 course, to marry some time ; and then where shall I 
 be ? This is what makes me wish that if lie, you 
 know, is going to speak, he would do it, and not 
 shilly-shally. It is astonishing how men shilly-shally. 
 I think they take a pleasure in it. They would 
 know better if they had to wait as we have, and 
 wonder, and feel that we can't make any arrange- 
 ments or settle anything till we know what's coming. 
 If I have to go away and he never says anything, I 
 don't know what I shall do." 
 
 " Is this because you care so much for Reginald 
 Merridew ? " Hester could not so form her lips as to 
 say love. 
 
 Emma made a sort of reflective pause. " I like 
 him well enough," she said. " I am not one to go 
 on about love and so forth. Besides, that sort of 
 thing is not becoming in a girl. You can't, till you 
 are quite certain what they mean, don't you know ? 
 It is dreadful to go caring for them, and all that, and 
 then to find out that they don't care for you. A girl 
 has to wait till they speak." 
 
 Hester listened not with her usual mixture of
 
 xii.] WAS IT LOVE? 207 
 
 amusement and indignation, but with a curious feel- 
 ing of shame and alarm growing in her. Was not 
 this what she herself was doing? Emma's desire 
 that her supposed lover should speak and settle the 
 question, was it not much the same thing as her own 
 curiosity and self-questioning in respect to Edward ? 
 Emma was always more practical. She was so in 
 sentimental matters as well as in everything else. 
 Things that other people leave indistinct, in a half 
 light, she put clearly, without any pretences at 
 obscurity. Her grieved sense of the shilly-shallying 
 of men, her consciousness of all the inconveniences 
 that arose from their way of putting off their expla- 
 nations, her prudential conviction that a girl should 
 not commit herself by " caring for " them, before 
 they made it apparent that they cared for her were 
 these not so many vulgar, straightforward statements 
 of the dilemma in which Hester too found herself? 
 But this grotesque resemblance of sentiment and 
 situation made Hester, as may be supposed, pas- 
 sionately angry and indignant, not with Emma, who 
 was guiltless, and who pursued the subject endlessly, 
 never tiring of it, nor of going over the matter again 
 and again from the beginning as they walked, but 
 with herself and Edward, and fate, which had placed 
 her in such circumstances. It was something like a 
 caricature of herself that was thus presented to her, 
 and she could scarcely help laughing at it, even while 
 she resented it warmly as an insult offered to her 
 by whom ? not Emma by circumstances and 
 evil fortune, and the spite of a position which was
 
 208 HESTER. [CHAP. xn. 
 
 intolerable, and Catherine Vernon. All these persons 
 were conspiring against her, but none of them were 
 so hard upon Hester as this little purring deliberate 
 Emma, holding up her little distorted mirror that 
 Hester in her pride might see how like was the image 
 in it to her own troubled face.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHRISTMAS. 
 
 WHILE all these agitations were going on, it came 
 to be Christmas, with the usual stir and commotion 
 always produced in a large family and connections, 
 by that often troublesome festival. The amount of 
 reality in the rejoicings may be very doubtful, but 
 yet there must be a family gathering, and the 
 different branches of the race must seem to take 
 kindly to it whatever may be their private senti- 
 ments. Dickeus did wisely in finding his types of 
 Christmas felicity among people to whom an acci- 
 dental turkey is a benediction from heaven, and the 
 mystery of the pudding has not lost its freshness. 
 In such a family as the Vernons, the turkey and 
 the pudding are unsatisfactory symbols a return 
 to the rude elements of plenty which were employed 
 by a more primitive age; and though it certainly 
 was an excitement for the Miss Vernon-Ridgways, 
 and Mr. Mildmay Vernon and Mrs. John, to be in- 
 vited to dinner, it was by no means invariable that 
 
 VOL. II. P
 
 210 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 their feast improved the harmony of these much 
 separated divisions of the family. It was a very big 
 dinner, and there was no absolute breach of the 
 peace. Catherine sat at the head of the table in 
 a dress which, though very handsome, was by no 
 means one of her best, and without the diamonds in 
 which she appeared on very great occasions. This 
 was kindly intended, in order that she might not 
 make too evident the contrast between her own 
 toilette and that of some of her visitors ; but the 
 kindness of the intention was not appreciated. 
 
 " We are not considered worth dressing for," Miss 
 Matilda said, in her sister's ear, after they had re- 
 spectively kissed their relative, and, with effusion, 
 wished her a merry Christmas. 
 
 " She thinks it better taste to be as shabby as we 
 are," said the other, which indeed was very true, 
 though no offence was meant. 
 
 As for Mrs. John, though she was quite willing to 
 enjoy herself, her mind was kept in a state of nerv- 
 ous anxiety about Hester, who was in the defiant 
 mood with which she always met her cousin. It had 
 been her mother's desire to dress her plainly in one 
 of the simple dresses made up on the foundation of 
 the " silk slip," which by this time had been worn 
 out as a ball-dress. These economies were very 
 necessary, and indeed it ought to be said that the 
 ball-dresses could not have been kept up as they 
 were, but for the sacrifice of Mrs. John's Indian 
 shawl, which, after Hester and the pearls, was the 
 thing in the world which the poor lady held most dear.
 
 xiii.] CHEISTMAS. 211 
 
 Hester had not resisted the substitution of the 
 simpler dress for those carefully preserved clouds of 
 tarlatan which were sacred to the Dancing Teas. 
 But she stood firm to the pearls, and insisted on 
 wearing them. " Unless you will put them on 
 yourself, mamma," she said. 
 
 " I wear them, Hester ! Oh, no ! They have 
 been in their box all these years, and I have never 
 put them on, you know. I kept them for you. But 
 don't you think, dear, that just for a family dinner 
 no one is expected to be fine at a family dinner " 
 
 " Don't you want Catherine Vernon to see them, 
 mother ? If it is so, tell me at once." 
 
 " Don't I want Catherine Vernon to see them ? " 
 cried Mrs. John, stupefied with astonishment. "I 
 , wonder," she added, regretfully, " what there is 
 between you that makes you lose your good sense, 
 Hester for you are very sensible in most trfings, 
 and far cleverer than I ever was the moment 
 Catherine Vernon's name is mentioned ? I cannot 
 think what it can be." 
 
 " Oh, mother ! You are too good if that is what 
 not being clever means. When I think how you 
 have been allowed to stand in the corner of that 
 room, and nobody taking any notice of you." 
 
 " My dear," said Mrs. John, mildly, " I did not 
 require to go unless I liked." 
 
 " And now this dinner a sort of Christmas dole 
 for her relations like the flannel petticoats to the 
 poor women." 
 
 " We do not require to go unless we like," said 
 
 p 2
 
 212 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Mrs. John ; " but if you will reflect a little, Hester, 
 that is not how a lady should talk." 
 
 It was seldom that the mild little woman said so 
 much. When Hester came up to Catherine, follow- 
 ing her mother's little figure, clothed in a black silk 
 gown which had seen a great deal of service, she 
 read, with an excitement that made her glow, that 
 Catherine's first glance was upon the pearls. 
 
 " You are quite fine," she said as she went through 
 the Christmas formula, and dropped a formal kiss 
 upon Hester's reluctant cheek ; " you have put on 
 your lovely pearls to do us honour." 
 
 " She is fond of the pearls," said Mrs. John, who 
 was very watchful to prevent any collision ; " they 
 were her grandmother's, and her great-grandmother'?, 
 Catherine. It is not only for their value that one 
 is fond of things like these." 
 
 " Their value is sometimes the worst thing about 
 them," said Catherine, feeling that there was a stern- 
 ness of virtue in what she said which justified her 
 dislike. But Mrs. John stood her ground. 
 
 " I don't think so," she said simply. " I like them to 
 be worth a great deal, for they are all she will have." 
 
 Hester, thus talked over, stood drawing back, in 
 all her flush of youthful indignation, kept down 
 by the necessities of the occasion. She gave a 
 glance round at the little audience which was en- 
 joying the encounter, the Miss Vernon-Ridgways in 
 the foreground. She caught their keen inquisitive 
 stare, and the mantling of delight upon their faces 
 as they witnessed the little passage of arms; and
 
 xiii.] CHRISTMAS. 213 
 
 Mr. Vernon Mildmay craning over their shoulders 
 with his sharp face projected to see what it was, and 
 Mrs. Reginald's countenance half sympathetic, half- 
 preoccupied (for to-day for the first time her eldest 
 boy had accompanied her, and she was very anxious 
 lest he should do or say anything that might injure 
 him with Catherine). But the one thing Hester did 
 not catch was Edward's eyes, which surely, if he had 
 cared for her, ought now to have been raised in 
 kindness. He was outside of the circle, his head 
 turned away, taking no notice. When Mrs. John 
 fell back to give way to Ellen Merridew, who came 
 up rustling and jingling with all her bracelets, 
 Edward still kept apart. He was talking to Harry, 
 to Algernon, to everybody except the two who, 
 Hester felt, wanted the succour of a chivalrous sym- 
 pathy. But Mrs. John had no feeling of this kind. 
 She felt that she had held her own. She looked 
 with a mild pride upon the group of her neighbours 
 all so eagerly watching for mischief. It was natural, 
 when you think of it, that she should treat the 
 ill-nature of the Miss Vernon-Ridgways with gentle 
 disdain. Poor things ! they had neither a daughter 
 nor a necklace of pearls. And as she had not been 
 at the Tkds dansantes, nor seen Edward in any aspect 
 but that he had always borne at the Grange, she 
 felt no anxiety as to his present behaviour. Harry's 
 was the eye which she sought. She beamed with 
 smiles when he came and stood beside her. Harry 
 was always faithful, whoever might be careless. She 
 looked at him and at Hester with a little sigh ; but
 
 214 HESTEE. [CHAP. 
 
 who could tell what might happen with patience 
 and time ? 
 
 There was, however, one moment during the 
 evening in which Edward had the opportunity of 
 setting himself right. It was while the departures 
 were going on, while the ladies were being shawled 
 and cloaked. Catherine had not come down stairs, 
 and in the darkness of the further corner of the 
 hall, under cover of the chatter of Ellen and Emma 
 Ashton, the young man ventured upon a hurried 
 whisper 
 
 " Do you despise me or detest me most ? " lie said 
 in Hester's ear. She started what with the sudden 
 proximity, what with the unexpected character of 
 the question. 
 
 " I wonder ? " she answered coldly. He took the 
 opportunity of wrapping her cloak round her to grasp 
 both her hands in a sudden, almost fierce grasp. 
 
 " You could do nothing less : but I cannot be 
 different here. Suspicion produces treachery, don't 
 you know ? " he said, with his face close to her ear. 
 " I cannot be true here. No, don't say anything. 
 I ought, but I cannot. It is in the air. All of us, 
 every one except you, we are making believe and 
 rinding each other out, yet going on all the same. 
 But it is only for a time," Edward cried, grasping 
 her hands once more till the pressure was painful, 
 " only for a time ! " 
 
 Next moment he was standing at the door, im- 
 passible, saying good-night to every one, paying no 
 more heed to Hester than if she had been, as indeed
 
 CHRISTMAS. 215 
 
 she was, the least important of all the Christmas 
 visitors. Ellen, as a married woman and a social 
 power, commanded his attention, and to Emma, as 
 the stranger among so many who knew each other, 
 he was very polite. But Hester got from him the 
 coolest good-night. The very servants who stood 
 about, felt a passing wonder that the prettiest person 
 in the company should meet with such scant obser- 
 vation, but explained it by saying to each other that 
 " Mr. Edward, he was the one as kep' hold of the 
 main chance." 
 
 And Hester went home, angry, yet somewhat 
 soothed. It did not make her less indignant, less 
 wrathful ; but it gave an excuse which at least had 
 to be taken into consideration. Before she got 
 home, indeed, she taught herself to lay that offence 
 too to the score of Catherine. She went home 
 packed into the fly with her mother and Emma and 
 the Miss Vernon-Ridways, all together. Mr. Mildmay 
 Vernon was mounted on the box, and the old white 
 horse had the six people, besides his driver, to drag 
 behind him. He took a great deal of time over the 
 short bit of road, thinking probably that it was as 
 well to take his time over one fare as to put it in 
 the power of his oppressors to send him out with 
 another, or perhaps compel him to kick his heels 
 at the railway station waiting for the last train. 
 The ladies were packed very close inside, but not 
 too close to talk. The sisters immediately plunged 
 into that " criticism of life " which could scarcely be 
 called poetry, in their hands.
 
 216 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " What a blessing it is," said one, " that we can't 
 be called upon to eat another Christmas dinner with 
 Catherine for another year." 
 
 " Dear Catherine ! " said the other, " she always 
 means so well. It is our own fault if we don't 
 carry out her intentions." 
 
 "Indeed," said Mrs. John, "she gave us a very 
 nice dinner, and everything was very comfortable." 
 
 "Dear Mrs. John ! you are always so charitable," 
 said Miss Matilda, " as we all ought to be, I am 
 sure. Did you ever see anything so insufferable 
 as that little Ellen like a picture out of a fashion- 
 book giving herself as many airs as if she were 
 at the head of society ? I never heard she had 
 any society, except the vulgar young people on 
 the Thursdays. I wonder she doesn't ask her shop 
 people." 
 
 " Oh, hush, hush ! " cried Mrs. John, alarmed. 
 
 " Perhaps she does ask the shop people," said Miss 
 Matilda, " it would be wise of her, for I should not 
 think they'd ever see the colour of their money. 
 The old Merridews can never keep up all that ex- 
 travagance, and Algy is nothing more than a clerk 
 in his father's office. It is dreadful to see a young 
 man dragged on to destruction like that." 
 
 " Oh, I hope it is not so bad ! " cried Mrs. John. 
 " I am sure if I thought so, I should never let 
 
 " It is the talk of the town," said Miss Matilda. 
 " A thing must be very bad before it comes to us, 
 who never hear any gossip." 
 
 " Oh, everybody knows," said Miss Martha.
 
 xiii.] CHRISTMAS. 217 
 
 It was happy that Hester's mind was so fully 
 occupied, and that the conversation passed harm- 
 lessly over her head. When they reached the 
 Vernonry, Mr. Mildmay Vernon got down from the 
 box where he had been seated wrapped up from 
 head to foot, but which he protested against with a 
 continuous volley of short coughs as he helped the 
 ladies out one after another. He thought in his 
 heart that if one of these strong young women had 
 been put up on the box, who had no rheumatism, 
 it would have been more appropriate. 
 
 " I hope you have enjoyed your evening, including 
 your dinner," he said. "I have made up my mind 
 to rheumatism to-morrow ; but what does that 
 matter in comparison with such a delightful enter- 
 tainment ? " 
 
 " It was very nice," said Mrs. John, dubious as to 
 his meaning, as she always was. 
 
 " Nice ! " he said, with a grimace, " a sort of little 
 heaven on earth ! " 
 
 "It is wicked to be so satirical," said one sister, 
 with a laugh : and " Dear Catherine ! I am sure she 
 meant everything that was kind," said the other. 
 
 And then there was a little nutter of good-nights, 
 the respective doors opening, and lights flashing out 
 into the dark. 
 
 This entertainment was followed very shortly after 
 by the larger gathering which Catherine had an- 
 nounced her intention of giving some time before, 
 and to which all Redborough was convoked besides 
 the immediate family. The period between these
 
 218 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 two parties was the climax of Hester's hostility to 
 Catherine Vernon. She had never been so actively 
 indignant, so angry, nor so impotent against her old 
 and wealthy cousin as in these wintry days. Catherine 
 was a kind of impersonation of injustice and unkind- 
 ness to Hester. She felt not only that she herself 
 was oppressed and injured, but that the persecution 
 of which she was the object was of a kind which 
 was most petty and miserable, degrading to the 
 author of it as well as to its victim. The attempt 
 at interference with her movements was not only a 
 kind of meddling most irritating to a high-spirited 
 girl, but it was also the kind of assault which her 
 very pride prevented her from resisting openly. 
 Hester felt that she would have lowered her own 
 pride, and wounded her own self-respect, had she 
 uttered a word of reply or taken any notice of the 
 small and petty attack upon her. The incident of 
 the pearls, though so trifling, excited her almost as 
 much as the other and more important grievance she 
 had against Catherine. That Edward should be so 
 cowed by this woman that he had to conceal his 
 real sentiments, to offend the girl whom he loved, 
 to compromise his own honour and dignity all 
 because of Catherine's watch upon him, and the 
 subjection in which it held him, was such a miser- 
 able thought to Hester, that it was all she could do 
 to restrain herself at all. It is terrible to be com- 
 pelled to endure one who has harmed those who are 
 dear to you ; but to enter her house and preserve a 
 show of peace and good-feeling, though you are
 
 xm.] CHRISTMAS. 219 
 
 aware she is causing the self-debasement of those 
 you love, that is the hardest of all. What should 
 it matter to Edward that Catherine's eye was upon 
 him ? An honourable and fine spirit would not 
 have been influenced by any such oppression. It 
 made Hester's heart sick to think that he did this 
 consciously, deceived his benefactress, and pretended 
 to obey her when in his heart he loathed his 
 bondage ; and to think that she herself should be 
 called upon to sustain this humiliation filled her 
 with shame and rage. But though her heart was 
 bitter against Edward, there was yet a softening in 
 it, an involuntary indulgence, which made her glad 
 to elude the question so far as he was concerned, and 
 to fix upon Catherine, who was the cause of it, with 
 all her force of indignation. 
 
 From Hester's point of view there was indeed 
 little to be said for this woman, who, to so many in 
 the place, was the very impersonation of active 
 benevolence and goodness a tyrant who seized 
 upon the very soul of the young man whom she 
 favoured most, and whose prying and vigilant ob- 
 servation forced him to deception, and made him 
 true to himself only when he was out of her sight 
 a woman, who while she gave with one hand 
 closed a grasp of iron upon the people obliged to 
 her with the other, and would prescribe their very 
 dress if she could. Oh, how true it must be after 
 all, the picture of the tyrannical, narrow despot, 
 exacting, remorseless, descending to the lowest 
 details, which a woman, when endued with
 
 220 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 irresponsible power, was understood to make ! Hester 
 had rebelled as a girl does against every such in- 
 jurious picture of women ; but it occurred to her 
 now that it must all be true. No doubt it was 
 unsafe to trust such a creature with any kind of 
 authority. She would not be content with less than 
 absolute sway. She would let no charity nor ruth, 
 nor the hearts of others, nor their wishes, stand in 
 her way. She would crush a young life with no 
 more compunction than a savage. Thus Hester 
 took refuge from questions more trying from the 
 aspect of Edward which within these last few days 
 had become more and more important to her. Her 
 whole being seemed to be flowing towards him with 
 a current which she felt herself unable to restrain. 
 She did not any longer ask herself questions about 
 his love. She tried not to ask any questions about 
 him at all. In her secret consciousness there was a 
 distrust of him, and disapproval and fear, which had 
 never been breathed into any ear scarcely even into 
 her own. Indeed, Hester was her own only confidant. 
 All the things which occupied her were uncommuni- 
 cable. She had grown a woman, everything that 
 happened was now more important to her than in 
 earlier days. And now there had come a crisis in 
 her fate, and it was not she who held the key of the 
 problem, nor her lover, nor any legitimate authority 
 but Catherine ! Catherine controlled her future 
 and all its issues through him. Catherine could have 
 stopped all further development for both, she could 
 have checked their love ruthlessly, and made an end
 
 xni.] CHRISTMAS. 221 
 
 of their happiness. The girl began to feel that there 
 was something in the presence of this woman, in her 
 influence, in her very name, that was insupportable. 
 That impulse of flight which always presents itself to 
 the impatient spirit came upon her strongly. Why 
 should not she and her mother shake themselves free 
 from the imbroglio go away anywhere, it did not 
 matter where, and get peace, at least, and a life free 
 of agitations and complications ? Away from the 
 Vernons she would be free to work as she pleased, 
 and so make up for the aid that Catherine gave 
 away from them there would be no more question of 
 love and hate, love afraid to declare itself, hate 
 veiled beneath the aspect of benevolence. 
 
 Hester had very little to do at home. She had 
 not even books to read. She had unbounded time to 
 think ; even her visits to her old friends, the captain 
 and his wife, had grown less frequent since Emma 
 came, for Emma's monologues were not amusing to 
 Hester's excited mind, and the captain and Mrs. 
 Morgan had both yielded to their granddaughter's 
 irrepressible talent of speech. Hester was more at 
 home in consequence, more alone, less subject to 
 wholesome distractions and interruptions. She would 
 think and think the whole evening through. The 
 TMs dansantes began to fill her with a sort of sicken- 
 ing, of weariness, and disgust. She felt as if she too, 
 like Emma, had gone to get her " chance " there, and 
 was, like Emma, hung up in degrading suspense until 
 he should speak. The rage with her position, the scorn 
 of herself with which this filled her, is indescribable.
 
 222 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 She would burst forth into wild laughter after one of 
 Emma's calculations, often repeated, about Reginald 
 Merridew ; then hide her face in her hands to con- 
 ceal the burning blush the bitter consciousness 
 that her own circumstances were not much different. 
 The self-ridicule was more painful still than the 
 self-disgust. She shed no tears over the question, 
 but the laughter was a great deal more bitter than 
 any tears. 
 
 Mrs. John was as unconscious of this struggle as if 
 it had gone on in Kamschatka and not under her 
 own eye, in her own parlour, and the bedroom that 
 opened into hers. She was not one of the women 
 who divine. She understood what was told her, and 
 not always that never anything more than was told 
 her. She thought her child was not looking well, 
 but then, she had a cold ; and there is nothing more 
 oppressive than a cold. The first thing that really 
 startled her was Hester's determination not to go to 
 Mrs. Merridew's party on the first Thursday that 
 occurred after Christmas, which was to be a par- 
 ticularly brilliant one. This struck her mother with 
 consternation. 
 
 " Do you think your cold is so bad as that ? I 
 would not wish you to do anything imprudent, but I 
 have often heard girls say that a ball was the very 
 best thing for a cold. If you were to nurse up this 
 evening, and have your breakfast in bed, I can't help 
 thinking you would feel quite yourself to-morrow, 
 my darling," Mrs. John said. 
 
 " It is not my cold," said Hester ; and then she
 
 XIIL] CHEISTMAS. 223 
 
 reflected that it was a pity to throw aside so ex- 
 cellent a plea. " At least it is not altogether my 
 cold" 
 
 " Oh, I know how oppressed one feels, just good 
 for nothing ; but, my love, you would feel sorry after. 
 It is a pity to give in. You shall have a foot-bath 
 to-night with some mustard in it, and a hot drink. 
 And you must not get up till mid-day. You'll feel 
 a great deal better after that." 
 
 " I don't want to go I am tired of them," Hester 
 said, her impatience getting the better of her, " once 
 a week is a great deal too often. I am sick of the 
 very name of dancing." 
 
 " My love ! " cried her mother in consternation. 
 Then she carne behind her and gave her a soft little 
 kiss. " I think I shall give you quinine, for I am 
 sure you're low," she said, "and you must be bright 
 and well, and looking your best for Catherine's great 
 party, which is next week," 
 
 " I don't " cried Hester, then stopped short, 
 for .she had not the heart to give her mother a 
 double wound by declaring she would not go to 
 Catherine's party. One such blow was enough 
 at a time. 
 
 The astonishment with which her non-appeararice 
 at Mrs. Merridew's was regarded by all the connec- 
 tion was unbounded. The discovery that Hester was 
 not going, filled the Miss Ridgways with excitement. 
 What could be the cause ? 
 
 " I suppose there has been a quarrel," the sisters 
 said. " Ellen is a little minx ; but still she is a true
 
 224 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 Vernon, and won't stand any such airs as that girl 
 gives herself. Her mother and she are insupportable, 
 with their pearls and their pretences." 
 
 " Roman pearls," said Mr. Mildmay Vernon, " and 
 Brummagem pretences." 
 
 So they discussed the question. When Hester 
 went in next day to Captain Morgan's, not without a 
 little curiosity to hear from Emma what had been 
 said of her absence : " I am glad you have recovered," 
 Mrs. Morgan said, kissing her, and looking into her 
 face with an air of reproach and a shake of the head. 
 
 " It is not like you to give in for a cold," the old 
 captain added ; but fortunately for Hester all expla- 
 nation on her part, and all remonstrance on theirs, 
 was cut short by the persevering deliberate voice 
 which now was the principal circumstance in the old 
 people's house. 
 
 " I assure you Ellen was very much astonished, 
 Hester. She looked at me as if she could not 
 believe her eyes. And they all looked at me as if it 
 was my fault. How could it be my fault ? I didn't 
 give you your cold. I think there were more people 
 than usual. We had Sir Roger de Coverley, you 
 know, because it was Christmas. I danced it with 
 young Mr. Norris, who has just come into his fortune, 
 you know. He is very nice. He asked me for four 
 dances, but I only gave him three. Don't you think 
 I was right, grandmamma ? That is the worst of 
 Ellen's parties, that there are no old chaperons with 
 experience, that could advise you on a point like 
 that. Two waltzes and then the Sir Roger, which is
 
 xiii.] CHRISTMAS. 225 
 
 a sort of extra you know, and doesn't count. I 
 don't think there could be anything wrong in 
 that." 
 
 " You should not give in, Hester," said the old 
 captain. " That is not like you. What is a cold at 
 your age ! You should always stand to your colours, 
 
 and hold your " 
 
 " Oh, I said to everybody, Hester had such a bad 
 cold," said Emma. " I said that her nose was red 
 and that it quite affected her voice. So it does. 
 You don't notice it so much when she flames up like 
 that. I wonder how you can blush in that way, 
 Hester. It is the difference of complexion, I sup- 
 pose. I always keep the same. It is nice in some 
 ways, for however hot it is you can be sure you are 
 not a figure ; but in other respects I should like to 
 change colour like that. It makes you look interest- 
 ing. People think you are so sensitive, and that 
 sort of thing, when it's only just complexion. Harry 
 Vernon was more grumphy than ever because you 
 were not there, always standing about beside Ellen 
 and looking after her, which, considering she's 
 married, is a great deal more than any brother ought 
 to take upon him. I am sure if Roland did, I should 
 not know what to think. But then Ellen is an only 
 sister, which makes a great difference, and I am the 
 youngest. Reginald Merridew was in such a way ! 
 I was engaged for almost every dance before he 
 came. I quite enjoyed it. I filled up my card as 
 soon as I could, just to give him a lesson. Men 
 should be kept in their proper places. I never 
 VOL. II. Q
 
 226 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 thought you showed half a spirit letting Edward 
 Vernon carry you off just as he pleased." 
 
 " My dear," said old Mrs. Morgan, making an 
 endeavour to strike in, we have not seen half so 
 much of you lately as we like to do. My old man 
 misses you on his walk. Do go and take a walk 
 with him, as your cold is better." 
 
 " Oh, don't send her away when I just want to 
 talk over everything," said Emma. " You never 
 think what young people like. I am sure you are 
 very kind and nice, grandmamma, I always say so. 
 Whatever any one may think, I always maintain 
 that you have been very nice and kind to me : and 
 kept me such a time when I dare say you are tired 
 of me. But you don't remember what young people 
 like. Of course Hester wants to hear who was there, 
 and how every one was looking, and who danced 
 with who, and all that. There are always a hundred 
 things that we have to say to each other. Come up 
 with me to my room, Hester, and then we sha'n't 
 bore grandmamma and grandpapa. I have such a 
 lot to tell you. Ellen had such a lovely new dress, 
 old gold and black. It sounds much too old for her, 
 but it wasn't a bit. It was quite a change among all 
 the whites and pinks. I just went in my grenadine. 
 I don't pretend to cope with the rich girls, you know. 
 If the men want to dance with rich dresses they 
 must just leave me alone. I am always straightfor- 
 ward. I say, 'Don't ask me unless you are sure you 
 don't mind.' But I suppose they like my dancing 
 or something, for I always have my card full. Sir
 
 xiii.] CHRISTMAS. 227 
 
 Roger de Coverley was really fun. We were all 
 danciug, it seemed about a mile going down the 
 middle. It is such a pity you weren't there. Edward 
 Vernon danced it with I really forget who he 
 danced it with one of the Miss Bradleys or Mary 
 Wargrave, or one of that set. Are you really going 
 out with grandpapa ? That is awfully self-denying of 
 you, to please the old gentleman. And it is so cold . 
 Grandmamma, I do think you shouldn't let fyer go." 
 
 " She can hear your report another time indeed 
 she has heard a great deal of it already," said old 
 Mrs. Morgan. " You don't lose any time, Emina. 
 But, Hester, if you are afraid " 
 
 " Oh, I shouldn't go on any account," cried Emma, 
 " with a bad cold. But then I have such dreadful 
 colds when I do have them. I am obliged to go to 
 bed. I never get my nose red like Hester's, nor lose 
 my voice but I get such a cough. I am so thank- 
 ful I have not had one here. It gives everybody so 
 much trouble when you get ill on a visit, and you lose 
 all the good of the visit, and might just as well be at 
 home. There is grandpapa calling. I should just 
 let him call if it was me. Well, Hester, if you will 
 go, I can't help it. Come in again if you are not 
 afraid of the evening air, and you shall hear all the 
 rest ; or if you'll have me at tea time, perhaps that 
 will be best. I'll go to you " 
 
 The old captain sighed as he went out. Emma 
 was, as it were, left speaking, standing on the step 
 of the door addressing Hester, as she followed her old 
 friend out into the dusky afternoon of one of those 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 black days that conclude the year. Very black days 
 they were on this occasion, not so cold as December 
 often is, without snow or any of the harsher signs of 
 winter, but also without sun or any of the exhilarat- 
 ing sharpness of the frost. Everything was dry, but 
 dark, the skies leaden, the very Common showing 
 less green. The captain went on before with a woollen 
 comforter wrapped in many folds about his throat, 
 and woollen mittens on the hands which grasped his 
 stick -with so much energy. He struck it against 
 the ground as if he had been striking some one as he 
 hurried away. 
 
 "I think that girl will be the death of us," he 
 said : then repented of his sharp utterance. " I told 
 you I thought you were a spiritual grandchild 
 Hester. What the child of our child whom we lost 
 who never had a child, would have been. And you 
 have spoiled us for the other thing the grandchilc 
 of common life." 
 
 "It is a long time since we have been oul 
 together," said Hester, as the old man put his othei 
 hand in its large mitten within her slender arm. 
 
 " And you have been in the meantime getting 
 into some of the muddles," he said. " It was kind o: 
 my old wife to hand you over to me, Hester. W( 
 all think our own experience the best. She woulc 
 like to have had you to herself, to find out all abou 1 
 it, and give you the help of her old lights ; bu 
 instead of that she was self-denying, and handed yoi 
 over to me. And now let me hear what it is, an( 
 see if the old ship's lantern will do you any good,"
 
 XIIL] CHRISTMAS. 229 
 
 " Am I in any muddles ? " said Hester. " I don't 
 know perhaps there is nothing to tell. It is so 
 hard to divide one thing from another." 
 
 "So it is ; but when it is divided it is easier to 
 manage," said the old captain. He paused a little 
 to give her time to speak : but as she did not do so 
 he resumed on an indifferent subject, that the girl's 
 confidence might not be forced. " I am always glad 
 when the old year is over. You will say I am an old 
 fool for that, as my days are so few. But the first 
 of January is a great deal gayer than the first of 
 December, though they may be exactly like each 
 other. When you can say there will be spring this 
 year " 
 
 " Captain Morgan," said Hester, who had been 
 taking advantage of the pause without paying any 
 attention to what he said, " Catherine Vernon is 
 angry because I wear my mother's pearls. How 
 should that be ? " 
 
 " You must be mistaken, my dear," said the old 
 captain promptly. " She has her faults, but Cathe- 
 rine is never paltry, Hester. That cannot be." 
 
 " Either you are very much mistaken about her, 
 or I am much mistaken about her," Hester said. 
 
 The old man looked at her with a smile on his 
 face. 
 
 " I don't say anything against that. And which 
 of us is most likely to be right ? " he asked. " I knew 
 her before you were born." 
 
 " Oh, before I was born ! Does that tell you any- 
 thing about her conduct to me ? Once I was not,
 
 230 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 but now I am; and somebody quite distinct from 
 other people." 
 
 " Very distinct ! " Captain Morgan said. 
 
 " Then what does she mean by it ? " cried Hester. 
 " She cannot endure the sight of me. Oh, I know 
 she is not paltry in one way. She does not care 
 about money, as some people do ; but she is in 
 another. Why should she care about what I wear ? 
 Did you ever hear anything about my father ? " the 
 girl said, raising her eyes suddenly, and looking him 
 full in the face. The old captain was so taken by 
 surprise that he fell back a step and almost dropped 
 her arm in his dismay. 
 
 " About your father ! " 
 
 " About him and Catherine Vernon and how it 
 was he went away ? He had as good 'a right to the 
 bank as she had, had he not ? I have not thought 
 much about it ; but I should like to know," said 
 Hester with more composure, " how it was that she 
 had it and not papa ? " 
 
 " That was all before my time," said Captain 
 Morgan, who had recovered himself in the interval. 
 "I did not come here, you know, till after. And 
 then it is not as if I had been a Vernon to under- 
 stand all the circumstances. I was not of the family, 
 you know." 
 
 " That is true," said Hester thoughtfully, and she 
 suffered herself to be led into safer subjects without 
 any serious attempt to return to a question so un- 
 answerable ; while Captain Morgan on his side was 
 too much alarmed by the possibility of having to
 
 sin.] CHRISTMAS. 231 
 
 explain to her the steps which had led to her father's 
 expatriation to inquire any more into the "mud- 
 dles " which he had read in her countenance. And 
 thus they made their way home together without 
 any mutual satisfaction. The captain was obliged to 
 own to his wife afterwards that he had given Hester 
 no aid or good advice. 
 
 " She asked me about her father : and was I going 
 to be so brutal as to tell the poor child what has 
 always been concealed from her ? " 
 
 " Concealments are never good," Mrs. Morgan said, 
 shaking her head. " It would be better for her to 
 know." But the captain had an easy victory when 
 he said " Should you like to be the one to tell her ? " 
 with defiance in his voice. 
 
 Thus the time went on for Catherine Vernon's 
 great Christmas party, to which all Redborough was 
 asked. It was not till the day before that Hester 
 was bold enough to declare her intention not to go. 
 " You must not be angry, mamma. What should I 
 go for ? It is no pleasure. The moment I am in 
 Catherine Vernon's house I am all wrong. I feel 
 like a beggar, a poor relation, a dependent upon her 
 charity ; and she has no charity for me. Don't make 
 me go." 
 
 " Oh Hester, my darling." said Mrs. John. " It 
 would never, never do to stay away, when every- 
 body is there ! And you her relation, that ought to 
 wish to do her what honour you can." 
 
 " Why should I wish to do her honour ? She has 
 never been kind to us. She has never treated you
 
 232 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 as she ought to have done. She has never behaved 
 to us as a relation should, or even as a gentlewoman 
 should." 
 
 " Oh hush ! Hester, hush ! " said Mrs. John. "You 
 don't know what you are speaking of. If you knew 
 all, you would know that Catherine has behaved to 
 us better than we had any right to expect." 
 
 "Then let me know all, mother," said Hester, 
 sitting upright, her eyes shining, her whole face full 
 of inquiry. " I have felt lately that there must be 
 something which was concealed from me. Let me 
 know all." 
 
 Then Mrs. John faltered and explained. " There 
 is nothing for you to know. Dear, dear, you are so 
 literal. You take everything one says to you, Hester, 
 as if one meant it. There are just things that one 
 
 says When I said if you knew all, I meant if 
 
 you were to consider properly, if you saw things in a 
 just light " 
 
 "I think you mean something more than that," 
 Hester said. 
 
 "What should I mean more ? We had no claims 
 upon her. Your poor father had got his share. He 
 had not perhaps been very prudent with it, but I 
 never understand anything about business. He got 
 his share, all that he had any right to expect. 
 Catherine might have said that, when we came back 
 so poor; but she did not. Hester, you have for- 
 gotten what she has done for us. Oh, my dear, if 
 you knew all ! No, I don't mean that there is any- 
 thing to know but just if you would think Hester,
 
 xin.] CHRISTMAS. 233 
 
 you must not insult Catherine in the sight of all 
 Redborough by refusing to go to her party. You 
 must not, indeed you must not. If you do, you will 
 break my heart." 
 
 " What I do is of no importance to Catherine 
 Vernon. Oh, mother, do not make me go. It is 
 more than I can bear." 
 
 " But you are of importance, and she would feel 
 it deeply. Oh, Hester, for my sake ! " Mrs. John 
 cried with tears in her eyes. She would not be 
 turned away from the subject or postpone it. Her 
 daughter had never seen her so deeply in earnest, 
 so intent upon having her way, before. On previous 
 occasions it had been Hester that had won the day. 
 But this time the girl had to give way to the im- 
 passioned 1 earnestness of her mother, which in so 
 mild a woman was strange to see.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 
 
 CATHERINE'S Christmas party called forth all Red- 
 borough. It was an assembly to which the best 
 people in the place considered themselves bound to 
 go, notwithstanding that many of the small people 
 were there also. Everybody indeed was supposed to 
 come, and all classes were represented. The respect- 
 able old clerks, who had spent their lives in the 
 bank, talked upon equal terms, according to the 
 fiction of society, with the magnates of the town, 
 and Edward and Harry Vernon, and others of the 
 golden youth, asked their daughters to dance. The 
 great ladies in their jewels sat about upon the sofas, 
 and so did Mrs. Halifax, the cashier's wife, and Mrs. 
 Brown, the head clerk's, in their ribbons. All was 
 supposed to be equality and happiness ; if it were 
 not so, then the fault was upon the shoulders of the 
 guests, and not of the hostess, who walked about 
 from one to another, and was so civil to Mrs. 
 Brown so very civil that Lady Freemantle could
 
 CH. xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 235 
 
 not help whispering to Mrs. Merridew that, after all, 
 when a woman had once been engaged in business, 
 it always left a mark upon her. 
 
 " She is more at home with those sort of persons 
 than she is with the county," Lady Freemantle 
 said. 
 
 Mrs. Merridew was deeply flattered with the con- 
 fidence, and gave a most cordial assent. " It does 
 give a sort of an unfeminine turn of mind, though 
 dear Miss Vernon is so universally respected," she 
 said. 
 
 This little dialogue would have given Catherine 
 sincere enjoyment if she had heard it. She divined 
 it from the conjunction of Lady Freemantle's 
 diamonds with Mrs. Merridew's lace, as they leant 
 towards each other, and from the expression and 
 direction of their eyes. 
 
 On her side Mrs. Brown drew conclusions quite as 
 fallacious. " Miss Vernon is well aware how much 
 the young gentlemen owe to Brown," that lady said 
 afterwards, " and how devoted he is. She knows 
 his value to the business, and I am sure she sees 
 that a share in the bank is what he has a right to 
 look to." 
 
 This delusion, however, Catherine did not divine. 
 
 It was with a reluctance and repugnance in- 
 describable that Hester had come : but she was 
 there, by the side of her mother, who, a little 
 alarmed by the crowd, did not know what to do 
 with herself, until Harry Vernon interposed and led 
 her to the corner of a sofa, in the very midst of the
 
 236 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 fine people, which poor Mrs. John, divided between 
 the pride which was too proud to take a chief place 
 and the consciousness that this place was her right, 
 hesitated greatly upon. 
 
 " I think I should like to be farther off," she said, 
 faltering ; " down there somewhere," and she pointed 
 in the direction of the Mrs. Browns " or anywhere," 
 she added, getting confused. 
 
 " This is your proper place," said Harry out of his 
 moustache, with persistence. 
 
 The poor lady sat down in a nervous flutter in her 
 black silk gown, which looked very nice, but had 
 lasted a long time, and though it had been kept, so 
 to speak, within sight of the fashion by frequent 
 alterations, was very different from the elegant 
 mixture of velvet and satin, fresh from the hands of 
 a court milliner, which swept over the greater part 
 of the space. Mrs. John had a little cap made of a 
 piece of fine Mechlin upon her hair, which was still 
 very pretty, and of the dark brown satin kind. Her 
 ornaments were of the most modest description, 
 whereas the other lady had a set of emeralds which 
 were the admiration of the county. Hester stood 
 behind her mother very erect and proud, in her 
 white muslin, with her pearls, looking like a maid of 
 honour to a mild, discrowned queen. A maid of 
 honour in such circumstances would stand a great 
 deal more upon her dignity than her mistress would 
 be likely to do. This was the aspect they presented 
 to the lookers-on who saw them in that unusual 
 eminence. When Catherine perceived where her
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 237 
 
 poor pensioners were placed, she gave way to a 
 momentary impatience. 
 
 " Who put Mrs. John there ? " she said to Edward, 
 almost with anger. " Don't you see how thoroughly 
 out of place she looks ? You may think it shows a 
 fine regard for the fallen, but she would have been 
 much more comfortable at the other end among the 
 people she knows." 
 
 " I had nothing to do with it. I have not spoken 
 to them," said Edward with a certain sullenness. 
 He was glad to be able to exculpate himself, and yet 
 he despised himself all the more fiercely. 
 
 Catherine was vexed in a way which she herself 
 felt to be unworthy, but which she said to herself 
 was entirely justified by the awkwardness of the 
 situation. 
 
 " I suppose it is Harry that has done it," she said, 
 her voice softened by the discovery that Edward at 
 least was not to blame. " It must be said for him, 
 at least, that he is very faithful to his family." 
 
 Did she mean that he was not faithful ? Edward 
 asked himself. Did even she despise him ? But he 
 could not now change his course, or stoop to follow 
 Harry's example, that oaf who was inaccessible to 
 the fluctuations of sentiment around him, and could 
 do nothing but cling to his one idea. It cannot be 
 said, however, that either Mrs. John or Hester were 
 at their ease in their present position. It was true, 
 as Catherine had said, that with the curate's wife 
 Mrs. John would have been much more comfortable, 
 and this consciousness wounded the poor lady, who
 
 238 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 felt now she was out of place among the people to 
 whom she was allied by nature. She was accus- 
 tomed to the slight of being put in a lower place, 
 but to feel herself so completely out of her old 
 position, went to her heart. She looked timidly, 
 poor soul, at the great lady with the emeralds, 
 remembering when she, too, used to be in the order 
 of great ladies, and wonderiDg if in those days she 
 had ever despised the lowly. But when she thus 
 raised her eyes she found that the lady of the 
 emeralds was^ looking very fixedly at her. 
 
 " Surely," she said, after a little hesitation, " this 
 must be Lucy Westwood." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. John wistfully, investigating 
 the stranger with her timid eyes. 
 
 " Then have you forgotten ' Bridget Fidget ' ? " 
 said the other. 
 
 It was a school name, and it brought a glow upon 
 Mrs. John's pale face. An old school-fellow ! She 
 forgot all the painful past and her present embar- 
 rassment, and even her daughter. Hester stood for 
 some time in her maid-of-honour attitude and con- 
 templated the conversation. She heard her mother 
 say, " This is my girl the only one I have," and 
 felt herself crimsoning and curtseying vaguely to 
 some one she scarcely saw ; then the stranger 
 added 
 
 " I have three here ; but I think they are all 
 dancing." 
 
 Yes, no doubt there was dancing going on, but 
 Hester had no part in it. She became tired, after a
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 239 
 
 while, of her post of maid of honour. Her wonder- 
 ful indignant carriage, the poise of her young head, 
 the proud air of independence which was evident in 
 her, called forth the admiration of many of the 
 spectators. " Who is that girl ? " said the elder 
 people, who only came once a year, and were unac- 
 quainted with the gossip of Redborough. "John 
 Vernon's daughter ? Oh, that was the man who 
 ought to have married Catherine he who nearly 
 ruined the bank. And that is her mother ? How 
 good of Catherine to have them here." If Hester 
 had heard these remarks she would have had few 
 questions to ask about her father. But she was 
 unaware of the notice she was attracting, placed thus 
 at the head of the great drawing-room. The folding 
 doors had been removed and the two rooms made 
 into one. The girl was in the most conspicuous 
 position without knowing ; her white figure stood 
 out against the wall, with her little mother in the 
 foreground. She stood for a long time looking out 
 with large eyes, full of light, upon the crowd, her 
 varying emotions very legible in her face. When a 
 creature so young and full of life feels herself 
 neglected and disdained, and sees others about her 
 whom her keen eyes cannot help but see are inferior 
 to herself, promoted far above her, enjoying what is 
 forbidden to her, finding pleasure where she has 
 none yet is bound to the spot and cannot escape, it 
 is natural that indignation should light fires in her 
 eyes, and that her breast should swell and her young 
 countenance glow with a visionary scorn of all who
 
 240 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 seem to scorn her. This sentiment is neither amiable 
 nor desirable, but it gave a sort of inspiration to 
 Hester her head so erect, slightly thrown back, her 
 nostrils a little dilated, her mouth shut close, her 
 eyes large and open, regarding in full face the world 
 of enemies against whom, wholly or singly, she felt 
 herself ready to stand. All this gave a character 
 and individuality to her such as nothing in the room 
 could equal. But by and by she tired of standing, 
 shut out from everybody, holding up her banner. 
 She stole away from her mother's side, behind the 
 chairs, to get to somebody she knew and could 
 talk to. Flesh and blood cannot bear this sort of 
 martyrdom of pride for ever. 
 
 An old man was standing in her way, who made a 
 little movement to stop Hester as she passed. " You 
 will excuse an old friend, Miss Hester," he said; 
 " but I must tell you how glad I am to see you and 
 your mother. I have been looking at you both ever 
 since you came. She is very much changed since 
 I used to see her, but her sweet expression is the 
 same. That is a thing that will never change." 
 
 I think I know you," said Hester, with the shy 
 frankness which was so unlike her hostile attitude. 
 " Did not I see you at Captain Morgan's ? and you 
 said something to me about my mother ? " 
 
 " I had not much time to tell you then. I should 
 just like to describe it to you," said the old clerk. 
 "I have never forgotten that day. I was in a 
 dreadful state of anxiety, fearing that everything 
 was coming to an end ; and the only place I could
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 241 
 
 think of going to was the White House. That 
 was where your parents were staying at the time 
 No, no, they were not your parents then ; I think 
 there was a little baby that died " 
 
 " I was born abroad," said Hester, eager to catch 
 every word. 
 
 " Yes, yes, to be sure ; and she was quite young, 
 not much older than you are now. It was in that 
 long room at the White House, with a window at 
 each end, which is the dining-room now. You will 
 excuse me for being a little long-winded, Miss Hester. 
 It was beautifully furnished, as we thought then ; 
 and there was a harp and a piano. Does your 
 mamma ever play the harp now ? No, no, I ought 
 to remember, that has quite gone out of fashion. 
 She had her hair high up on her head like this," said 
 Mr. Rule, trying to give a pantomimic description 
 on the top of his own grey head of the high bows 
 which had once adorned Mrs. John's. " She had a 
 white dress on, far shorter than you wear them now ; 
 and little slippers with crossed bands, sandals they 
 used to call them. Oh, I remember everything like 
 a picture ! Ladies used to wear little short sleeves 
 in those days, and low dresses. She had a little 
 scarf round her over one shoulder. What a pretty 
 creature she was, to be sure ! I had been so wretched 
 and anxious that the sight of her as I came rushing 
 in, had the strangest effect upon me. All bank 
 business and our troubles about money, and the 
 terror of a run, which was what I was frightened 
 for, seemed nothing but ugly dreams, without any 
 VOL. II. R
 
 242 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 reality in them. I dare say you don't know, Miss 
 Hester, what I mean by a run ? " 
 
 " No, indeed/' said Hester, a little impatient ; 
 " but I should like to know what happened after." 
 
 " A run on the bank," said the old clerk, " is the 
 most terrible thing in all creation. A battle is 
 nothing to it for in a battle you can at least fight 
 for your life. It happens when the partners or the 
 company, or whatever they may be, have had losses, 
 or are reported to have had losses, and a rumour 
 gets up against the bank. Sometimes it may be a 
 long time threatening, sometimes it may get up in a 
 single day but as soon as the rumour gets the length 
 of a panic, everybody that has money deposited 
 comes to draw it out, and everybody that has a note 
 of the bank comes for his money. In those days 
 Vernon's issued notes, like all the other great country 
 banks. I was in mortal terror for a run : I never 
 was in such a state in my life. And it was then, as 
 I told you, Miss Hester, that I went to your mother. 
 Of course we had not money enough to meet it 
 the most solvent could scarcely hope to have that at 
 a moment's notice. Next day was the market day, 
 
 and I knew that, as sure as life ! I have passed 
 
 through many a troublesome moment, but never one 
 like that." 
 
 And, as if even the thinking of it. was more than 
 he could bear, the old clerk took out his handker- 
 chief and wiped his forehead. Hester had listened 
 with great interest, but still with a little impatience : 
 for though the run upon the bank would have
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 243 
 
 interested her at another time, it was more than 
 her attention was equal to now. 
 
 "But was not my father here as well as my 
 mother ? " said Hester, in her clear voice, unconscious 
 of any need to subdue it. 
 
 Mr. Rule looked at her with a startled air and a 
 half-involuntary " Hush ! " 
 
 " Your father ! " he said, with a tone of conster- 
 nation. " Oh ; the fact was that your father did 
 not happen to be there at the time." 
 
 Hester waved her hand slightly as a token for him 
 to go on. She had a feeling that these words were 
 of more importance than they seemed to be, but they 
 confused her, and she did not as yet see what this 
 importance was. She remembered that she had 
 thought so when he told her this incident before. 
 
 "Where was I?" said Mr. Rule. "Oh, yes, I 
 remember ; just going into the White House with 
 my mind full of trouble, not knowing what to do. 
 Well, Miss Hester, when I found that your I mean 
 when I discovered that your mother was alone, I 
 told her the dreadful condition I was in Nobody to 
 say what to do, no chief authority to direct, and 
 market-day to-morrow, and a run as sure as fate. 
 Now, you know, we could have telegraphed all over 
 the country, but there was no such thing as a 
 telegraph then. I had to explain it to her just as 
 I have to you, and I feel sure she didn't understand 
 me in the very least. She only knew there was 
 money wanted. She stepped across the room in her 
 pretty sandals, with her scarf hanging from her 
 
 R 2
 
 244 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 shoulders, as if she had been going to play her harp, 
 and opened a little bit of a desk, one of those 
 gimcrack things, all rosewood and velvet, which 
 were the fashion then, and took out all her money 
 and brought it to me. It was in our own notes, 
 poor dear," said old Rule, with a little laugh ; " and 
 it came to just twenty pounds. She would have 
 made me take it forced it upon me. She did not 
 understand a bit. She was full of trouble and 
 sympathy, and ready to give up everything. Ah, 
 I have often told Miss Vernon since. It was not 
 want of will ; it was only that she did not 
 understand." 
 
 " I am sure you mean to speak kindly of mamma," 
 said Hester, with a quick blush of alarmed pride ; 
 "but I don't think it is so difficult to make her 
 understand. And what did you do after that ? Was 
 there a run and how did you provide ? " 
 
 She did not know what to say, the questions 
 seemed to get into her throat and choke her. There 
 was something else which she could not understand 
 which must soon be made clear. She gave furtive 
 glances at the old clerk, but did not look him in 
 the face. 
 
 "Ah, I went to Miss Vernon. She was but a 
 young lady then. Oh, I don't mean to say young 
 like you. It is thirty years ago. She was older 
 than your pretty young mamma, and though she 
 had a great share in the business she never had 
 taken any part in it. But she was come of a family 
 that have all had fine heads for business. Look at
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 245 
 
 Mr. Edward now : what a clear understanding lie 
 has, and sees exactly the right thing to do, whatever 
 happens. She was a little shocked and startled just 
 at first, but she took it up in a moment, no man 
 could have done it better. She signed away all her 
 money in the twinkling of an eye, and saved the 
 bank. When all the crowd of the country folk came 
 rushing to draw out their money, she stepped in 
 well, like a kind of goddess to us, Miss Hester and 
 paid in almost her whole fortune, all her mother's 
 money, every penny she had out of the business, 
 and pulled us through. I can remember her too, as 
 if it had been yesterday, the way she stepped in 
 with her head held high, and a kind of a triumph 
 about her; something like what I have seen in 
 yourself, my dear young lady." 
 
 " Seen in me ! You have never seen me with any 
 triumph about me," cried Hester, bitterly. " And 
 where have you seen me ? I scarcely know you. 
 Ah, that was because of the money she had. My 
 mother, with her twenty pounds, what could she 
 do? But Catherine was rich. It was because of 
 her money." 
 
 " Her money was a great deal : but it was not 
 the money alone. It was the heart and the courage 
 she had. We had nobody to tell us what to do 
 but after she came, all went well. She had such a 
 head for business." 
 
 Hester could not stand and listen to Catherine's 
 praises ; but she was entirely absorbed in the narra- 
 tive. It seemed terrible to her that she had not
 
 246 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 been there to be able to step in as Catherine had 
 done. But there was another question pressing 
 upon her which she had asked already, and to which 
 she had got no reply. She shrank from repeating it 
 yet felt a force upon her to do so. She fixed her 
 large widely-opened eyes upon the speaker, so as 
 to lose none of the indications of his face. 
 
 " Will you tell me," she said, " how it was that 
 you had, as you say, nobody to tell you anything 
 no one at the head nobody to say what was to 
 be done?" 
 
 Old Mr. Rule did not immediately reply. He 
 made a little pause, and shuffled with his feet, 
 looking down at them, not meeting her eyes. 
 
 " Hester," said Ellen Merridew, who was passing, 
 and paused on her partner's arm to interfere, " why 
 don't you dance ? What do you mean by not 
 dancing ? What are you doing here behind backs ? 
 I have been looking for you everywhere." 
 
 " I prefer to be here," Hester answered, shortly ; 
 " never mind me, please. Mr. Rule, will you answer 
 me? I want to know." 
 
 " You asked how it was that we What was 
 
 it you asked, Miss Hester ? I am very glad to see 
 you so interested : but you ought to be dancing, 
 not talking to an old man, as Mrs. Merridew 
 says." 
 
 " I think you are all in a plot against me," said 
 Hester, impatiently ; " why was it you were left 
 without a head ? What had happened ? Mr. Rule," 
 cried the girl, " you know what I asked, and you
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 247 
 
 know why I am so anxious. You are trying to put 
 me off. What does it all mean ? " 
 
 " It is an old story," he said ; " I cannot tell what 
 tempted me to .begin about it. It was seeing you 
 and your mother for the first time. You were not 
 at Miss Vernon's party last year ? " 
 
 "What has that to do with it?" cried Hester. 
 " If you will not tell me, say so. I shall find out 
 some other way." 
 
 " My dear young lady, ask me anything. Don't 
 find out any other way. I will come and see you, if 
 your mamma will permit me, and tell you every- 
 thing about the old days. But I can't keep you 
 longer now. And, besides, it would need a great 
 deal of explanation. I was foolish to begin about it 
 here, keeping you out of your natural amusement. 
 But I'll come and tell you, Miss Hester, with 
 pleasure," said the old man, putting on a show of 
 easy cordiality, " any day you will name." 
 
 "Hester," said another voice over her head, 
 " Ellen says I am not to let you stay here. Come 
 and see the supper-room. And the hall is very 
 pretty. I am not to go without you, Ellen says." 
 
 " Oh, what do I care for Ellen ! " cried Hester, 
 exasperated. " Go away, Harry ; go and dance and 
 amuse yourself. I don't want you or any one. 
 Mr. Rule- 
 But the old clerk had seized his opportunity. He 
 had made a dart at some one else on the other side 
 while Hester turned to reply to Harry's demand. 
 The girl found herself abandoned when she turned
 
 248 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 to him again. There had been a gradual shifting in 
 the groups about while she stood absorbed listening 
 to his story. She was standing now among people 
 who were strange to her, and who looked at her 
 curiously, knowing her to be " one of the family." 
 As she met their curious eyes, Hester, though she 
 had a high courage, felt her heart fail her. She 
 was glad to fall back upon her cousin's support. 
 
 " I think you are all in a conspiracy against me," 
 she said ; but she took Harry's arm. He never 
 abandoned her in any circumstances. Edward had 
 not spoken to her, nor noticed her presence ; but 
 Harry never failed. In her excitement and disap- 
 pointment she turned to him with a sense that here 
 she could not go wrong. As for Harry, to whom she 
 was seldom so complacent, he drew her arm within 
 his own with a flush of pleasure. 
 
 " I know you don't think much of me," he said, 
 " but surely I am as good as that old fellow ! " a 
 speech at which Hester could not but laugh. " I 
 should like to know what he was saying to you," 
 Harry said. 
 
 " He was telling me about the run on the bank 
 and how Catherine saved it. Do you know I 
 
 wonder Had my father never anything to do 
 
 with it ? " Hester said. 
 
 They were making their way through the crowd 
 at the end of the room. And Harry's countenance 
 was not expressive. Hester thought the stare in his 
 eyes was directed to somebody behind who had 
 pushed against her. She was not suspicious that
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 249 
 
 Harry could hide from her any knowledge he 
 possessed. 
 
 " That was ages before my time/' he said very 
 steadily. "You might as well ask me about the 
 flood ;" and so led her on through the many groups 
 about the door, entirely unsuspicious that he, too, 
 for whom she had an affectionate contempt, had 
 baulked her. She allowed him to take her over all 
 the lighted rooms which opened into each other : 
 the hall, the library, the room blazing with lights 
 and decorations, which was prepared for supper. 
 Hester had never been before at one of these great 
 assemblies. And she could not keep herself entirely 
 unmoved by the dazzling of the lights, the warmth 
 and largeness of the entertainment. A sort of pride 
 came upon her, surprising her in spite of herself: 
 though she was so humble a member of the family, 
 and subject under this roof to slights and scorns, 
 yet she was a Vernon, and could not escape some 
 reflection of the family glory which centred in 
 Catherine. And as she went into the hall a still 
 more strange sensation suddenly came over Hester. 
 She caught sight, in a large mirror, of herself 
 stepping forward, her head held high in its habitual 
 poise of half indignant energy, and a certain swift- 
 ness in her air and movement, a sentiment of forward 
 motion and progress, very familiar to everybody who 
 knew her, but which brought suddenly to her mind 
 old Rule's description, " stepping in with a kind 
 of triumph about her, as I have seen yourself." 
 " Triumph ! " Hester said secretly within herself,
 
 250 HESTER. [ CHAK 
 
 and coloured high, with a sensation of mingled 
 pain and pleasure, which no words could have de- 
 scribed. She did not know what it meant; but it 
 stirred her strangely. If she had been in these 
 circumstances she would have acted like Catherine. 
 The story of her mother in her gentle ignorance, 
 which the old clerk thought so much of, did not 
 affect the high-spirited girl as did the picture of the 
 other putting herself in the breach, taking upon her 
 own shoulders the weight of the falling house. 
 Hester felt that she, too, could have done this. 
 Her breast swelled, her breath came short with an 
 impulse of impatience and longing to have such an 
 opportunity, to show the mettle that was in her. 
 But how could she do it ? Catherine was rich, but 
 Hester was poor. In this way she was diverted for 
 the moment from her anxiety. The question as to 
 how the bank came into that peril, .the suspicion 
 that her father must have been somehow connected 
 with it, the heat of her research after the key of the 
 mystery, faded away for the moment in a vague, 
 general excitement and eager yet vain desire to have 
 
 it in her power to do something, she also a 
 
 desire which many a young mind has felt as well 
 as Hester; to have that golden opportunity the 
 occasion to do a heroic deed, to .save some one, to 
 venture your own life, to escape the bonds of every 
 day, and once have a chance of showing what was in 
 you ! This was not the " chance " which Emma 
 Ashton desired, but it appealed to every sentiment 
 in Hester. The strong longing for it seemed almost
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 251 
 
 to promise a possibility, as she walked along in a 
 dream, without noticing Harry by her side. And 
 he did not disturb her by conversation. It was 
 enough for Harry to feel her hand on his arm. 
 He had never very much to say, and he did not 
 insist upon saying it. He was content to lead her 
 about, to show her everything; and the sensation 
 of taking care of her was pleasant to his heart. 
 
 When they reached the hall, however, they became 
 aware of a late arrival, which had a certain effect 
 upon both. Standing near the great door, which 
 had been opened a minute before to admit him, 
 sending a thrill of cold night air through the whole 
 warm succession of rooms, stood Roland Ashton. 
 Hester was aware that he was expected, but not 
 that he was coming here. A servant was helping 
 him off with his coat, and Edward stood beside him 
 in eager conversation. Edward's .countenance, gene- 
 rally toned down to the air of decorum and self- 
 command which he thought necessary, was excited 
 and glowing. And Harry, too, lighted up when he 
 saw the new comer. " Ah, there's Ashton ! " he 
 said ; while from one of the other doors Catherine 
 Vernon herself, with a white shawl over her shoul- 
 ders, came out from amidst her other guests to 
 welcome her kinsman. It was a wonderful recep- 
 tion for a young man who was not distinguished 
 either by rank or wealth. Hester had to hang 
 back, keeping persistently in the shade, to prevent 
 her companion from hurrying forward into the 
 circle of welcoming: faces.
 
 252 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 " I felt the cold air from the door at the very end 
 of the drawing-room," Catherine said ; " but though 
 it made me shiver it was not unwelcome, Roland. 
 I knew that it meant that you had come." 
 
 " I wish my coming had not cost you a shiver," 
 Roland cried. 
 
 " One moment ; I must say how d'ye do to him," 
 said Harry in -.Hester's ear ; and even he, the faith- 
 fulest one, left her for a moment to hold out his 
 hand to the new comer. 
 
 The girl stood apart, sheltering herself under the 
 shade of the plants with which the hall was filled, 
 and looked on at this scene. There was in the 
 whole group a curious connection with herself. 
 Even to Catherine she, perhaps, poor girl as she 
 was, was the guest among all the others who roused 
 the keenest feeling. Edward, who did not venture 
 to look at her here, had given her every reason to 
 believe that his mind was full of her. Harry had put 
 his life at her disposal. Roland Roland had taken 
 possession of her mind and thoughts for a few weeks 
 with a completeness of influence which probably he 
 never intended, which, perhaps, was nothing at all 
 to him, which it made Hester blush to remember. 
 They all stood together, their faces lighted up with 
 interest while she looked on. Hester stood under 
 a great myrtle bush, which shaded her face, and 
 looked at them in the thrill of the excitement which 
 the previous events of the evening had called forth. 
 A sort of prophetic sense that the lives of all were 
 linked with her own, a presentiment that between
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 253 
 
 them and among them it would be hers to work 
 either for weal or woe, came over her like a sudden 
 revelation. It was altogether fanciful and absurd 
 she felt ; but the impression was so strong that she 
 turned and fled, with a sudden impulse to avoid the 
 fate that seemed almost to overshadow her as she 
 stood and looked at them. She, who a moment 
 before had been longing for the heroic opportunity, 
 the power of interposing as Catherine had interposed, 
 felt all the panic of a child come over her as she 
 stood and gazed at the four people, not one of whom 
 was indifferent to her. She hurried out of the com- 
 parative quiet of the hall into the crowd, and made 
 her way with a trembling of nervous excitement to 
 where her mother sat. Mrs. John was still seated 
 serenely on her sofa talking of old school-days and 
 comrades with the lady of the emeralds. She was 
 serene, yet there was a little gentle excitement 
 about her too, a little additional colour upon her 
 soft cheek. Hester, with her heart beating loudly 
 and a strange tumult in her veins, took refuge 
 behind her mother with a sense of protection which 
 she had never felt before. The soft nature which 
 was ready to be touched by any gentle emotion, 
 which understood none of life's problems, yet, by 
 patience and simplicity, sailed over them all, is often 
 a shield to those that see more and feel more. 
 Behind her unconscious mother Hester seemed to 
 herself to take refuge from her fate. 
 
 It was a great elevation to Mrs. John to sit there 
 at the upper part of the room, among the great
 
 254 HESTER. [CHAP. 
 
 ladies, out of the crowd of less distinguished persons. 
 Her feeling of embarrassed shyness and sense of 
 being out of place had all vanished when she dis- 
 covered her old friend ; and from that time she had 
 begun to enjoy herself with a soothing consciousness 
 that all proper respect was paid to her, and that at 
 last, without any doing of hers, all, as she said to 
 herself, had come right. She assented with gentle 
 cordiality to all that was said to her about the 
 beauty of the house, and the perfection of the 
 arrangements. 
 
 " Catherine is wonderful," she said ; " she has 
 such a head ; she understands everything," and not 
 a feeling in her heart contradicted her words. 
 
 That evening was, in its way, a. gentle triumph to 
 the gentle little woman. Hester had disappeared 
 from her for a time, and had been, she had no doubt, 
 enjoying herself; and then she had come back and 
 stood dutifully by her mother, such a maid of honour 
 as any queen might have been proud of. She had 
 a thousand things to say of the assembly; of dear 
 Bridget Wilton, who recollected her so well, and 
 who was now quite a great person ; of the prettiness 
 of the party, and the girls' dresses, and all the light 
 and brilliancy of the scene when at last it was all 
 over and they had reached home. 
 
 "Now I am sure you are glad you went," she 
 said, with innocent confidence. " It is a long, long 
 time since I have spent so pleasant an evening. 
 You see Catherine would not allow me to be over- 
 looked when it was really a great party. She knows
 
 xiv.] THE PARTY AT THE GRANGE. 255 
 
 very well what is due. She did not mind at those 
 little evenings, which are of no importance ; but 
 to-night you could see how different it was. Bridget 
 insisted that Sir John himself should take me to 
 supper. No, dear, it was nothing more than was 
 right, but it shows, what I always thought, that no 
 neglect was ever intended. And Catherine was 
 very kind. I am sure now you are glad you 
 went." 
 
 Was she glad she had gone? Hester could not 
 tell. She closed the door between her and her 
 mother as if she were afraid that Mrs. John in 
 her unusual exhilaration might read her thoughts. 
 These thoughts were almost too great to be con- 
 fined within her own spirit. As she lay down in 
 the dark she seemed to see the light shining all 
 about her, the groups in the ball-room the old 
 man garrulous, deep in the revelations of the past, 
 and the cluster of figures all standing together under 
 the light of the lamps, exchanging questions which 
 meant, though she could scarcely tell how, the 
 future to Hester. Perhaps, on the whole, it was 
 true, and she was glad she had gone. 
 
 END OF VOL. II.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACH 
 
 A 000130944