if he was right about them, and there was no revulsion.

Far from it. Nuttie was still angry. 'Gerard had been so ridiculous,'
she said, 'teasing her to take the pledge, and quite incapable of
understanding her reasons. I can't think why Gerard has grown so
stupid.'

'Enthusiasms carry people away,' returned Mary.

'If Mr. Dutton had only stayed, he would have kept Gerard like
himself,' said Nuttie.

But there was no relenting. The two young people avoided each other;
and perhaps Nuttie was secretly relieved that the romance she had
outgrown no longer entangled her.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A FAILURE.

'Would I had loved her more!'--Mrs. Hemans.

'On the 14th of January, at Bridgefield Egremont, the wife of Alwyn
Piercefield Egremont, Esquire, a son and heir.'

Ursula had been prepared for this event for about a fortnight by a long
tender letter from her mother, mourning over the not meeting at
Christmas, and the long separation, but saying that she had wished to
spare the long anxiety, and that it had been a trying time which she
felt herself able to cope with better alone, than even with her dear
Nuttie, knowing her to be happy and safe with Aunt Ursel. Now, if all
went well, they would have a happy meeting, and begin on a new score.
'If the will of God should be otherwise,' added Alice, 'I am sure I
need not entreat my Nuttie to do and be all that she can to her father.
My child, you do not know how sorely he needs such love and tendance
and prayer as you can give him. I know you have thought I have set you
aside--if not better things, for his sake. Indeed I could not help
it.' Then there was something tear-stained and blotted out, and it
ended with, 'He is beginning to miss your step and voice about the
house. I believe he will really be glad to see you, when the bright
spring days come, and I can kiss my own Nuttie again.'

Nuttie was very much delighted, but a little hurt that her aunt and
Mary should have been in the secret, and pledged to say nothing to her
till her mother should write. She found, moreover, that Miss Headworth
was extremely anxious and not altogether reassured by Mrs. William
Egremont's letter of announcement, which filled Nuttie with delight.
How happy the little mother must be to have a baby in her arms again,
and though she herself did not profess to have a strong turn for infant
humanity, it was the greatest possible relief to be no longer an
heiress, excepting that