nothing of the pearls and other jewellery, wealth indeed if measured by
the Walrond standard. Her beloved sisters were evidently in the best of
health and spirits; also, as she thought, better-looking than any girls
she had seen since she bade them farewell. Her father and mother were,
as they told her, well and delighted at her return; and lastly, as she
had already gathered, Anthony either was or was about to be at the Hall.
Why then should she be sorry? Why indeed should she not rejoice and
thank God for these good things?

On that evening, however, when supper was done, she had a somewhat
serious interview with her father and mother who sat on either side of
her, each of them holding one of her hands, for they could scarcely bear
her out of their sight. She had told all the tale of the Hon. Charles
Russell and of her violent dismissal by her aunt, of which story they
were not entirely ignorant, for Lady Thompson had already advised them
of these events by letter.

The Reverend Septimus shook his head sadly. He was not a worldly-minded
man; still, to have a presumptive peer for a son-in-law, who would
doubtless also become an ambassador, was a prospect that at heart he
relinquished with regret. Also this young Arnott business seemed very
vague and unsatisfactory, and there were the other girls and their
future to be considered. No wonder, then, that he shook his kindly grey
head and looked somewhat depressed.

But his wife took another line.

"Septimus," she said, "in these matters a woman must judge by her own
heart, and you see Barbara is a woman now. Once, you remember, I had
to face something of the same sort, and I do not think, dear,