seven. One might be quite glad to see him!

Cassandra had done her duty to the family by producing a healthy male
child within eighteen months of her marriage. So sorely had she
suffered in giving birth to her son that there was no hope of a second
child to bear him company, but there had been no regret nor self-pity in
her mother's heart during those first hours in which he lay, red and
crumpled, within her arms. Never while she lived could Cassandra forget
the rest, the thankfulness, the deep, uplifted joy of those hours. It
had seemed to her then that with the coming of the child all gaps must
be filled, and all the poverty of life be turned into gold. But... was
it her own fault, or the fault of circumstances which had brought about
the disillusionment? It had been difficult to believe that the stolid,
well-behaved young person, who walked abroad between two white-robed
nurses, spoke when he was spoken to, and tucked his feeder carefully
beneath his chin, was really her own child, bone of her bone, flesh of
her flesh; the wonder child of whom she had dreamt such dreams.

Cassandra had known nothing of babies; Mrs Mason, the head nurse, knew
everything, and Bernard was tenacious of the safety of his heir. He
thought it a pity for his wife to "interfere," and said as much with his
usual frankness. He did not approve of young children being in
evidence, and discouraged the boy's appearance downstairs. At an
unusually early age also he selected a preparatory school at the far end
of the county, and henceforth Bernard the younger visited home for the
holidays only, and was no longer a member of the household proper.
Cassandra loved him, but,--she had wanted to love him so much more! In
those first hours she had imagined a bond of union so strong and tender
that the commonplaces of the reality could not fail to be a
disappointment. Bernard was a dutiful boy, a sensible boy, a boy who
brought home satisfactory reports; he considered the Mater a good sort,
and appreciated her generosity. Her affection he endured, her
tenderness he would have abhorred, but it was as difficult to be tender
to Bernard the son, as to Bernard the father. Cassandra had abandoned
the attempt.

And, socially speaking, the Court was situated in a hopeless part of the
county. The other two big places in the neighbourhood were occupied,
the one by an objectionable _nouveau riche_, and the other by an elderly
couple of such strong evan