"And I should not have thought so much of it, if I had not thought it
would be pleasanter for you when I am away," said Fred.

"And so," said Henrietta, laughing yet sighing, "we agree to persuade
each other that we don't care about it."

Fred performed a grimace, and remarked that if Henrietta continued to
make her tea so scalding, there would soon be a verdict against her of
fratricide; but the observation, being intended to conceal certain
feelings of disappointment and heroism, only led to silence.

After sleeping for some hours, Mrs. Langford awoke refreshed, and got
up, but did not leave her room. Frederick and Henrietta went to take a
walk by her desire, as she declared that she preferred being alone, and
on their return they found her lying on the sofa.

"Mamma has been in mischief," said Fred. "She did not think herself
knocked up enough already, so she has been doing it more thoroughly."

"Oh, mamma!" was Henrietta's reproachful exclamation, as she looked at
her pale face and red swollen eyelids.

"Never mind, my dears," said she, trying to smile, "I shall be better
now this is done, and I have it off my mind." They looked at her in
anxious interrogation, and she smiled outright with lip and eye. "You
will seal that letter with a good will, Henrietta," she said. "It is
to ask Uncle Geoffrey to make inquiries about the Pleasance."

"Mamma!" and they stood transfixed at a decision beyond their hopes: