been that alone which has caused him to refuse so obstinately to enter
into our plans, or to pay even decent courtesy to the various
excellent young women we have from time to time asked down here, and
who were in every way suitable for the position of mistress of this
house--women full of sense, and who, with right guidance, would have
made him perfectly happy. And now he flies in our faces and asks the
boy down. I have had an idea for some little time that he has had
something on his mind; he has been more nervous and fidgety than
usual, and several times he has seemed to be on the point of saying
something, and then changed his mind. Of course, one can understand it
all now. No wonder he was ashamed to look us in the face when he was
meditating such a step as this. The duplicity of man is something
shocking!"

It was not surprising that Herbert Penfold's sudden assertion of his
will was a shock to his sisters. These ladies had so long been
accustomed to rule absolutely at Penfold Hall that Mr. Penfold's
assertion of his right to act as he pleased in his own house came upon
them like an act of absolute rebellion. At their father's death they
were women of twenty-seven and twenty-six years old respectively.
Herbert was a lad of sixteen. He was of a gentle and yielding
disposition; and as their father for some years previous to his death
had been a confirmed invalid, and they had had the complete management
of the house, it was but natural that at his death they should
continue in the same position.

Owing to weak health, Herbert had not been sent to school, but had
been educated under the care of a tutor. He had wished when he reached
the age of nineteen to enter one of the universities; but his sisters
had been so opposed to the idea, and had represented so strongly to