towards him had been setting in ever since that one time when she
had seen him thoroughly angry. She longed and craved to stir that
even, gentle courtesy to frowns or smiles; and yet there was a
perversity in her nature that seem to render it impossible to her to
attempt to win a smile from him, far more so to lay aside any device
or desire of her own to gratify him. All she did know was, that to
be all that her ambition had sought, a Charnock by marriage as well
as birth, and with a kind, considerate husband, was not enough to
hinder a heartsickness she had never known or supposed possible.

Presently, through the flowers in her balcony, Cecil saw the opening
and closing of the opposite house-door, and a white parasol
unfurled, and she had only time to finish and address her letter to
Mrs. Duncombe before Lady Tyrrell was announced.

"Here I am after a hard morning's work, winding up accounts, &c."

"You go to-morrow?"

"Yes, trusting that you will soon follow; though you might be a
cockney born, your bloom is town-proof."

"We follow as soon as the division on the Education Question is
over, and that will not be for ten days. You are come to look at my
stores for the bazaar; but first, what are you going to do this
afternoon?"

"What are your plans?"

"I must leave cards at half-a-dozen people's at the other end of the