And then the girls would come to me when there was anything going on at the Lodge. "We met the Miss Llewellyns the other day," Adelaide said on one occasion. "We thought them very nice. They are staying with Lady Denzil, you know. I wish you would make Lady Denzil call on mamma, Mrs. Mulgrave. It is so hard to come and settle in a place and be shut out from all the best parties. Until you have been at the Lodge you are considered nobody on the Green."

"The Lodge can't make us different from what we are," said Nora, the other sister, who was of a different temper. "I should be ashamed to think it mattered whether Lady Denzil called or not."

66

"But it does matter a great deal when they are going to give a ball," said Adelaide, very solemnly. "The best balls going, some of the officers told me; and everybody will be there-except Nora and me," said the poor girl. "Oh, Mrs. Mulgrave, I wish you would make Lady Denzil call! ”’' 'But, my dear, I can't make Lady Denzil do anything," I said; “I have no power over her. She comes to see me sometimes, but we are not intimate, and I have no influence. She comes because my people knew the Denzils long ago. She has her own ways. I could not make her do one thing or another. It is wrong to speak so to me." "But you could if you would try," said Adelaide as she spoke, we could hear the sound of the croquet balls from the Lodge, and voices and laughter. We were all three walking along the road, under shelter of the trees. She gave such a wistful look when she heard them, that it went to my heart. It was not a very serious trouble, it is true. But still, to feel oneself shut out from anything, is hard when one is twenty. I had to hurry past the gate, to restrain the inclination I had to brave everything, and take them in with me, as my friends, to join the croquet party. I know very well what would have happened had I done so. Lady Denzil would have been perfectly sweet and gracious, and sent them away delighted with her; but she would never have crossed my threshold again. And what good would that have done them? The fact was, they had nothing particular to recommend them; no special qualities of their own to make up for their want of birth and connexion: and this being the case, what could any one say?

It gave one a very different impression of Lady Denzil, to see how she behaved when poor Mrs. Stoke was in such trouble about her youngest boy. I had been with her calling, and Mrs. Stoke had told us a whole long story about him: how good-hearted he was, and how generous, spending his money upon everybody. It was a very hard matter for me to keep my countenance, for of course I knew Everard Stoke, and what kind of a boy he was. But Lady Denzil took it all with the greatest attention and sympathy. I could not but speak of it when we came out. "Poor Mrs. Stoke!" said I; "it is strange how she can deceive herself so-and she must have known we knew better. You who have seen poor Everard grow up, Lady Denzil

"Yes, my dear," she said, "you are right; and yet, do you know, I

think you are wrong too? She is not deceived. She knows a great deal better than we do. But then she is on the other side of the scene, and she sees into the boy's heart a little. I hope she sees into his heart."

"I fear it is a very bad heart; I should not think it was any pleasure to look into it," said I, in my haste. Lady Denzil gave me a soft, halfreproachful look. "Well," she said, and gave a sigh, "it has always been one of my great fancies, that God was more merciful than man, because He saw fully what was in all our hearts. What we meant, poor creatures that we are, not what we did. We never have any confidence in Him for that. We think He will forgive and save, but we don't think He understands, and sees everything, and knows that nothing is so bad as it seems. Perhaps it is dangerous doctrine; at least the vicar would think 80, I fear."

"In the case of Everard Stoke," said I, stupidly, coming back to the starting point.

"My dear," said Lady Denzil with a little impatience, "the older one grows, the less one feels inclined to judge any one. Indeed when one grows quite old," she went on after a pause, smiling a little, as if it were at the thought that she, whom no doubt she could remember so thoughtless and young, was quite old, " one comes to judge not at all. Poor Everard, he never was a good boy-but I daresay his mother knows him best, and he is better than is thought."

"At least it was a comfort to her to see you look as if you believed her," said I, not quite entering into the argument. Lady Denzil took no notice of this speech. It was a beautiful bright day, and it was but a step from Mrs. Stoke's cottage to the Lodge gates, which we were just about entering. But at that moment there was a little party of soldiers marching along the high-road, at right angles from where we stood. It is not far from the Green to the barracks, and their red coats were not uncommon features in the landscape. These men, however, were marching in a business-like way, not lingering on the road, and among them was a man in a shooting-coat, handcuffed, poor fellow. It was a deserter they were taking back to the punishment that awaited him. I made some meaningless exclamation or other, and stood still, looking after them for a moment. Then I suppose my interest failed, as they went on, at their rapid, steady pace, turning their backs upon us. I came back to Lady Denzil as it were; but when I looked at her, there was something in her face that struck me with the deepest wonder. She had not come back to me. She was standing absorbed, watching them; the colour all gone out of her soft old cheeks, and the saddest wistful, longing gaze in her eyes. It was not pity,-it was something mightier, more intense. She did not breathe or move, but stood gazing, gazing, after them. When they had disappeared, she came to herself; her hands, which had been clasped tightly, fell loose at her sides; she gave a long, deep sigh, and then she became 'conscious of my eyes upon her, and the colour came back with a rush to her face.

"I am always interested about soldiers," she said faintly, turning as she spoke to open the gate. That was all the notice she took of it. But the incident struck me more than my account of it may seem to justify. If such a thing had been possible as that the deserter could have been her husband or her brother, one could have understood it. Had I seen such a look on Mrs. Stoke's face, I should have known it was Everard. But here was Lady Denzil, a contented childless woman, without anybody to disturb her peace. Sympathy must indeed have become perfect, before such a wistfulness could come into any woman's eyes.

Often since I have recalled that scene to my mind, and wondered over it: the quick march of the soldiers on the road; the man in the midst with death environing him all round, and most likely despair in his heart; and that one face looking on, wistful as love, sad as death-and yet with no cause either for her sadness or her love. It did not last long, it is true; but it was one of the strangest scenes I ever witnessed in

my life.

It even appeared to me next day as if Lady Denzil had been a little shaken, either by her visit to Mrs. Stoke, or by this strange little episode which nobody knew of. She had taken to me, which I confess I felt as a great compliment. And Sir Thomas came to ask me to go to her next afternoon. "My lady has a headache," he said in a quaint way he had of speaking of her: I think he would have liked to call her my queen or my princess. When he said "my lady" there was something chivalric, something romantic in his very tone. When I went into the drawing-room at the Lodge the great green blind was drawn over the window on the west side, and the trees gave the same green effect to the daylight, at the other end. The east windows looked out upon the lime walk, and the light came in softly, green and shadowy, through the silken leaves. She was lying on the sofa, which was not usual with her. As soon as I entered the room she called me to come and sit by her-and of course she did not say a word about yesterday. We went on talking for an hour and more, about the trees, and the sunset; about what news there was; girls going to be married, and babies coming, and other such domestic incidents. And sometimes the conversation would languish for a moment, and I did think once there was something strange in her eyes, when she looked at me, as if she had something to tell and was looking into my face to see whether she might or might not do it. But it never went any further; we began to speak of Molly Jackson, and that was an interminable subject. Molly was a widow in the village, and she gave us all a great deal of trouble. She had a quantity of little children, to whom the people on the Green were very kind, and she was a good-natured soft soul, always falling into some scrape or other. This time was the worst of all; it was when the talk got up about Thomas Short. People said that Molly was going to marry him. It would have been very foolish for them both, of course. He was poor and he was getting old, and would rather have hindered than helped her with her children. We gentlefolks may, or may not, be sentimental about our own concerns; but we see things in their true light

when they take place among our poor neighbours.

As for the two being

a comfort to each other we never entered into that question; there were more important matters concerned.

"I don't know what would become of the poor children," said I. "The man would never put up with them, and indeed it could not be expected; and they have no friends to go to. But I don't think Molly would be so wicked; she may be a fool, but she has a mother's heart.”

Lady Denzil gave a faint smile and turned on her sofa as if something hurt her; she did not answer me all at once-and as I sat for a minute silent in that soft obscurity, Molly Jackson, I acknowledge, went out of my head. Then all at once when I had gone on to something else, she spoke; and her return to the subject startled me, I could not have told how.

"There are different ways of touching a mother's heart," she said; "she might think it would be for their good; I don't think it could be, for my part; I don't think it ever is; a woman is deceived, or she deceives herself; and then when it is too late"

"What is too late?" said Sir Thomas behind us. He had come in at the great window, and we had not noticed. I thought Lady Denzil gave a little start, but there was no sign of it in her face.

"We were talking of Molly Jackson," she said. Nothing is ever too late here, thanks to your precise habits, you old soldier. Molly must be talked to, Mrs. Mulgrave," she said, turning to me.

"O yes, she will be talked to," said I; "I know the Rector and his wife have both called; and last time I saw her, Mrs. Wood

"You are not one of the universal advisers," said Lady Denzil, patting my arm with her white hand. It was no virtue on my part, but she spoke as if she meant it for a compliment. And then we had to tell the whole story over again to Sir Thomas, who was very fond of a little gossip like all the gentlemen, but had to have everything explained to him, and never knew what was coming next. He chuckled and laughed as men do over it."Old fool!" he said. "A woman with half-a-dozen children." It was not Molly but Thomas Short that he thought would be a fool; and on our side, it is true that we had not been thinking of him.

Molly Jackson has not much to do with this story, but yet it may be as well to say that she listened to reason, and did not do anything so absurd. It was a relief to all our minds when Thomas went to live in Langham parish the spring after, and married somebody there. I believe it was a girl out of the workhouse, who might have been his daughter, and led him a very sad life. But still in respect to Molly it was a relief to our minds. I hope she was of the same way of thinking. I know for one thing that she lost her temper, the only time I ever saw her do it— and was very indignant about the young wife. "Old fool!" she said, and again it was Thomas that was meant. We had a way of talking a good deal about the village folks, and we all did a great deal for themperhaps, on the whole, we did too much. When anything happened to

be wanting among them, instead of making an effort to get it for themselves, it was always the ladies on the Green they came to. And, of course, we interfered in our turn.

CHAPTER II.

Ir was in the spring of the following year that little Mary first came to the Lodge. Sir Thomas had been absent for some time, on business, Lady Denzil said, and it was he who brought the child home. It is all impressed on my mind by the fact that I was there when they arrived. He was not expected until the evening, and I had gone to spend an hour with Lady Denzil in the afternoon. It was a bright spring day, as warm as summer; one of those sweet surprises that come upon us in England in intervals between the grey east wind and the rain. The sunshine had called out a perfect crowd of golden crocuses along the borders. They had all blown out quite suddenly, as if it had been an actual voice that called them, and God's innocent creatures had rushed forth to answer to their names. And there were heaps of violets about the Lodge which made the air sweet. And there is something in that first exquisite touch of spring which moves all hearts. Lady Denzil had come out with me to the lawn. I thought she was quieter than usual, with the air of a woman listening for something. Everything was very still, and yet in the sunshine one felt as if one could hear the buds unfolding, the young grass and leaflets thrilling with their new life. But it did not seem to me that Lady Denzil was listening to these. I said, "Do you expect Sir Thomas now?" with a kind of vague curiosity; and she looked in my face with a sudden quick glance of something like suspicion which I could not understand.

"Do I look as if I expected something?" she said. "Yes-I expect some news that probably I shall not like. But it does not matter, my dear. It is nothing that affects me."

She said these words with a smile that was rather dreary to see. It was not like Lady Denzil. It was like saying, "So long as it does not affect me you know I don't care "—which was so very very far from my opinion of her. I did not know what to answer. Her tone somehow disturbed the spring feeling, and the harmony of the flowers.

"I wish Sir Thomas had been here on such a lovely day," she said, after a while; "he enjoys it so. Peace is very pleasant, my dear, when you are old. You don't quite appreciate it yet, as we do." And then she paused again and seemed to listen, and permitted herself the faintest little sigh.

"I think I am older than you, Lady Denzil," I said.

Then she laughed in her natural soft way, "I daresay you are," she said. "That is the difference between your restless middle age and our oldness. You feel old because you feel young. That's how it is; whereas being really old, we can afford to be young again-sometimes," she added,