rs and ready conversation were universally liked, and more
than once she dexterously helped Violet out of a state of embarrassment,
and made a connecting link, through which she ventured to talk to the
other ladies.

With the gentlemen she was happier. Lord Martindale was kind in manner,
and she improved in the power of speaking to him, while John was, as she
knew, her best friend; but she saw very little of him, he lived apart
from the family, often not meeting them till dinner-time, and she began
to understand Arthur's surprise at his doings at Winchester, when
she found that his usual habits were so solitary that his father was
gratified if he joined him in a ride, and his mother esteemed it a
favour if he took a turn in the garden with her.

The parish church was so distant that the carriage was always used
to convey thither the ladies, except Theodora, who ever since her
fourteenth year had made it her custom to walk early to the school, and
to remain there in the interval between the services. It was believed
that she enjoyed a wet Sunday, as an occasion for proving her
resolution, now so well established that no one thought of remonstrance,
let the weather be what it might. The first Sunday of Violet's visit
happened to be showery, and in the afternoon, Lord Martindale had gone
to John's room to dissuade him from going to church a second time, when,
as the door stood open, they heard Arthur's voice in the gallery.

'Hollo! you are not setting out in these torrents!'

'Do let me, please!' returned the pleading note.

'Why, the avenue is a river, and you are not a real goose yet, you
know.'

'We never did miss church for weather, and it is further off at
Wrangerton.'

'Nobody is going, I tell you. It is not in common sense. You are as bad
as Theodora, I declare.'

'I don't mean to be wilful!' said she, piteously; 'I won't go if you
tell me not, but please don't. I have no Sunday-book, and nothing to do,
and I should feel wrong all the week.'

'To be sure you can't smoke a cigar,' said Arthur, in a tone of
commiseration; 'so wilful will to water! Now for an aquatic excursion!'

Their steps and voices receded, and the father and brother looked
amused. 'A good honest child!' 'She will do something with him after
all!' and Lord Martindale (for Arthur had made too broad an assertion
in declaring no one was going) followed them down, and showed positively
paternal solicitude that Violet should be guarded from