he had at last found peace and
happiness.

'Yes,' said Lucy, 'he is very busy and happy. I do not think it dwells
on his spirits, but it is the disappointment of his life, and he will
never get over it.'

'I hope he will find some one to make him forget it.'

'I do not think he will. No one can ever be like Miss Martindale, and I
believe he had rather cling to the former vision, though not repining.
He is quite content, and says it is a good thing to meet with a great
disappointment early in life.'

Violet doubted not of his contentment when she had looked into his adult
school, and seen how happily he was teaching a class of great boys to
write; nor when she heard him discussing prices, rents, and wages with
Mr. Hunt.

Lord St. Erme and Lady Lucy had come to an early dinner at
Lassonthwayte, thus causing great jealousy on the part of Mrs. Albert
Moss, and despair on Matilda's, lest Olivia should do something
extremely amiss without her supervision. Little did she guess that Lucy
had been reckoning on the pleasure of meeting her dear Mrs. Moss for
once without those daughters.

After dinner, all the party were on the lawn, watching the tints on
the mountains, when Lord St. Erme, coming to walk with Mrs. Martindale,
asked her, with a smile, if she remembered that she had been the first
person who ever hinted that the Westmoreland hills might be more to him
than the Alps.

'I have not forgotten that evening,' he said. 'It was then that I first
saw Mr. Fotheringham;' and he proceeded to ask many questions about
Percy's former appointment at Constantinople, his length of service, and
reason for giving it up, which she much enjoyed telling. He spoke too of
his books, praising them highly, and guessing which were his articles
in reviews, coming at last to that in which, as he said, he had had the
honour of being dissected.

'Poor Lucy has hardly yet forgiven it,' he said; 'but it was one of the
best things that ever befell me.'

'I wonder it did not make you too angry to heed it.'

'Perhaps I was at first, but it was too candid to be offensive. The
arrow had no venom, and was the first independent criticism I had
met with. Nobody had cared for me enough to take me to task for my
absurdities. I am obliged to Mr. Fotheringham.'

Violet treasured this up for Percy's benefit.

This festivity was their last in the north. Their visit at Lassonthwayte
had been lengthened from a week to a fortnight, and Lady Martindal