it is well
fostered in its youth."

"And I suppose," said Miss O'Donoghue, with a faint smile, "you think
I ought to know all about bulls." She again put up her glasses to
survey the portrait with critical deliberation; after which,
recommending him once more strenuously to have a curtain erected, she
observed, that it would break her heart to look at it one moment
longer and requested to be conducted from the room.

Mr. Landale could not draw any positive conclusion from his aunt's
manner of receiving his confidence, nor determine whether she had
altogether grasped the whole meaning of what he had intended
delicately to convey to her concerning his brother's past as well as
present position; but he had said as much as prudence counselled.

CHAPTER XIII

THE DISTANT LIGHT

In spite of their first petulant or dolorous anticipation, and of the
contrast between the even tenor of country life and the constant
stream of amusement which young people of fashion can find in a place
like Bath, the two girls discovered that time glided pleasantly enough
over them at Pulwick.

Instead of the gloomy northern stronghold their novel-fed imagination
had pictured (the more dismally as their sudden removal from town
gaieties savoured distantly of punishment at the hand of their irate
aunt), they found themselves delivered over into a bright,
admirably-ordered house, replete with things of beauty, comfortable to
the extremity of luxury; and allowed in this place of safety to enjoy
almost unrestricted liberty.

The latter privilege was especially precious, as the sisters at that
time had engrossing thoughts of their own they wished to pursue, and
found more interest in solitary roamings through the wide estate than
in the company of the hosts.

On the fifth day Miss O'Donoghue took her departure. Her own
travelling coach had rumbled down the avenue, bearing her and her
woman away, in its polished yellow embrace, her flat trunk strapped
behind, and the good-natured old face nodding out of the window, till
Molly and Madeleine, standing (a little disconsolate) upon the porch
to watch her departure, could distinguish even the hooked nose no
longer. Mr. Landale, upon his mettled grey, a gallant figure, as Molly
herself was forced to admit, in his boots and buckskins, had cantered
in the dust alongside, intent upon escorting his aged relative to the
second stage of her journey.

That night, almost for the first time since t