sionate ill-conducted boy" as he took care to tell her her youngest brother was. He went up to his own room to write letters, but soon came down, ashamed of having been betrayed into speaking uncourteously of any of his host's family; and for the last hour before dinner sat with her under the mulberry tree, she working a collar for her mother, he reading to her "Hamlet," at which he had been greatly shocked the night before to find she had never even looked. When they were seated at the dinner table, Henrietta its bright merry head, Gordon was discovered to be missing. "Go and see where he is, Will," said the eldest sister. "Oh, he's in the schoolroom, safe enough," answered the schoolboy, not offering to move. "Well, tell him." "Oh, he knows. I offered to let him out, but he wouldn't come.' "Let him out ?" "Yes," answered honest, plain-faced Will, smiling. "When I went in after school and asked a civil question, he answered by shying his knife at me-I daresay it's sticking in the wainscot still-so I returned the compliment by locking him in." "Oh, Will, you shouldn't!" "Shouldn't: why not? I think it was the most sensible thing I could do, seeing the dear little baby is in one of his tempers." Henrietta looked irresolute. "Miss Wynne," began Mr. Cradock, impatiently, thinking she had already wasted far more thought than enough on such a scapegrace," may I send you some chicken ?" "Thank you." Hannah put the plate before her." A little ham and some potatoe and sauce, please, Hannah." In a few minutes it was brought back furnished with all these good things. Hetty rose. "Hetty, where are you going now ?" cried Har grave. 66 66 Only to take Gordon his dinner." Only. Excuse me, Miss Wynne, but you do not go without me," said Mr. Cradock, rising and putting himself between the young girl and the door. "I certainly do not go with you," said Henrietta after a moment's pause; then, Hannah, you will take it." 66 "Feed the wild beast through the bars of the window," put in Will; "but take precious good care you don't let him out, it would be as much as my life is worth." "Will," said Henrietta with a sudden assumption of dignity and sharpness, as soon as the maid was gone, "you must not speak so to the servants." "I was addressing myself to Mr. Cradock," answered Will, after a moment's hesitation as to whether he dared venture on the liberty. "I thought he was kindly going to undertake the little viper." "Nasty little ill-tempered wretch," added Hargrave. 66 Come, do leave the poor boy alone, and find something more pleasant to talk about," interrupted Henrietta goodhumouredly; "we-Mr. Cradock, Barbara, Elizabeth, and I-are going to Fordhurst after dinner, will you go with us?" "If you'll blackball that-" "He's the head and chief of the party; we are all going for his amusement. Will you come ?" "I'm going to walk with Mason," said Hargrave. "And I'm going to cricket," said Will. "Well, you, David ?" "And I'm kept in," said David, bright enough, poor fellow, to see the fun of continuing the excuses in one strain. Whether Gordon grew tired of sulking, or whether the recovery of his good temper is to be laid to his good dinner, we cannot say; but certain it is that he joined the Fordhurst party as a matter of course, and nutted far more happily, till it was time to return, than his conscience ought to have allowed him to do. Mrs. Wynne was just driving up to the gates as the walking party reached home themselves. 66 So you have been to the woods and been successful? Let me see, Gordon." Gordon hung back a little, and glanced a little shyly at Mr. Cradock; but Mr. Cradock threatened no disclosures. It was not his place to speak, he had already interfered too much, and should himself say nothing. Gordon knew he had nothing to fear from the others, and, reassured here, sprang into the carriage and displayed all his treasures before he suffered his mother to alight. "There's my good boy," whispered his mother fondly; "I knew you would see how wrong your temper was and conquer it." Mr. Cradock did not hear these words, but nevertheless as he handed Mrs. Wynne out and gave her his arm to the house, he might well wonder how so sensible and admirable a woman to most of her children could be so weak and partial towards this one. In his opinion, Will was the only person who that day had shown the slightest sense in their treatment of the boy. If he had had his way Gordon should still have been a prisoner in the schoolroom. Mr. Cradock little guessed how fully his feelings were shared by one of the members of the Ford household, Barbara, who as soon as she could get Paul apart, half in indignation, half in sorrow, poured out to him the evils of the day. "Was it not abominable, miserable, that Gordon should behave in this outrageous way, and no one know it ?" "Plenty of people know it," answered Paul dryly. "Yes, all but the right ones. Papa has not the least idea, nor mamma either. Flinging knives about!" "One knife," corrected Paul. "Well, if I were Hetty, I should have locked him up in the schoolroom till papa came home!" "Well we shall soon see now what you will do in such a case." 66 Paul, do not be so tiresome; do give me a plain If Hetty won't, ought not one of us to tell mamma, at least ?" answer. "I-I don't know. It would only worry her, and she ought not to be worried. But don't try to make this into a plain answer, for I know it is no such thing." CHAPTER III. THE FIRST WEDDING. "The bride had still that anxious mien "Her father strove with laugh and jest Henrietta's THE morning of October 31st was come. twenty-first birthday, and her wedding-day. Barbara was awake early; she sprang out of bed, went to the window, drew back the blind softly, thinking her sister still slept, and looked out. It was a lovely autumn morning. The blue-green light of dawn scarcely yet fleeing before the rosy hues which marked the east. The little green and its oldfashioned houses lay in unbroken repose, the only sound around was the faint ceaseless twittering of the many birds whose homes for the night its sheltering shrubs and trees had been. Barbara gazed on, without heeding any of this much. This day the first break into the family was to be made. So mercifully had their large household hitherto been sheltered, that not a babe even had been buried out of their sight. This first break might be in the eyes of the world a joyful one; but to a sis |