Biddy's face did not pucker up, but a dark look came over it, taking
away all the pleasant brightness and the merry eagerness of the gray
eyes. She did not often look like that, fortunately, for it made her
almost ugly. And though her face cleared a little after a while, still
it was gloomy, like the darkening sky outside, when she followed Alie
downstairs to tea, after they had taken off their things and the torn
frock had been changed.

Things had hardly got into their regular order yet at Seacove Rectory.
The Vanes had only been there three days, and every one knows that the
troubles of a removal, especially to a considerable distance, are very
much aggravated when it takes place in midwinter. It was not to be
wondered at that 'mamma' felt both tired and rather dispirited. She was
a little homesick too, for mammas can feel homesick as well as both boys
and girls; and indeed I would not take upon myself to say that 'papas'
are quite above this weakness either. Christmas time had been spent at
Mrs. Vane's old home, a warm, cheery, old-fashioned country-house, where
grandpapa and grandmamma were still hale and hearty, and never so happy
as when surrounded by their grandchildren. This old home of mamma's was
within easy access of London too; no wonder, therefore, that the remote
seaside rectory seemed a kind of exile to Mrs. Vane, though the reasons
that had made Mr. Vane accept the offer of Seacove had been very
important ones.

Rosalys, and Randolph too, though in a less thoughtful way, understood
all this, and both of the elder children were anxious to help and cheer
their parents to the best of their ability. And as all children love
change, and most children enjoy, for a time at least, the freedom and
independence of the country, it was much less trying for them than for