That sounds, thought Aurelia, as if Mr. Belamour had made her relinquish
the plan of that cruel marriage, for I am sure I have not yet seen the
man I am to marry.

And with a lighter heart the young tutoress stood between Fay and Letty
on the steps to see the departure, her cheeks still feeling Amoret's
last fond kisses, and a swelling in her throat bringing tears to her
eyes at the thought how soon that carriage would be at Carminster.
Yet there were sweet chains in the little hands that held her gown,
and in the thought of the lonely old man who depended on her for
enlivenment.

The day was long, for Amoret was missed; and the two children were
unusually fretful and quarrelsome without her, disputing over the
new toys which Brother Amyas's guinea had furnished in demoralising
profusion. It was strange too see the difference made by the loss
of the child who would give up anything rather than meet a look of
vexation, and would coax the others into immediate good humour.
There was reaction, too, after the excitement, for which the
inexperienced Aurelia did not allow. At the twentieth bickering
as to which doll should ride on the spotted hobby-horse, the face
of Letty's painted wooden baby received a scar, and Fay's lost a
leg, whereupon Aurelia's endurance entirely gave way, and she
pronounced them both naughty children, and sent them to bed before
supper.

Then her heart smote her for unkindness, and she sat in the firelight
listless and sad, though she hardly knew why, longing to go up and
pet and comfort her charges, but withheld by the remembrance of
Betty's assurances that leniency, in a like case, would be the ruin