disappointed
and chilled guests concerning the probable future of the hope of
Raynham. Little Clare kissed her mama, curtsied to the lingering
curate, and went to bed like a very good girl. Immediately the maid had
departed, little Clare deliberately exchanged night, attire for that of
day. She was noted as an obedient child. Her light was allowed to burn
in her room for half-an-hour, to counteract her fears of the dark. She
took the light, and stole on tiptoe to Richard's room. No Richard was
there. She peeped in further and further. A trifling agitation of the
curtains shot her back through the door and along the passage to her
own bedchamber with extreme expedition. She was not much alarmed, but
feeling guilty she was on her guard. In a short time she was prowling
about the passages again. Richard had slighted and offended the little
lady, and was to be asked whether he did not repent such conduct toward
his cousin; not to be asked whether he had forgotten to receive his
birthday kiss from her; for, if he did not choose to remember that,
Miss Clare would never remind him of it, and to-night should be his last
chance of a reconciliation. Thus she meditated, sitting on a stair, and
presently heard Richard's voice below in the hall, shouting for supper.

"Master Richard has returned," old Benson the butler tolled out
intelligence to Sir Austin.

"Well?" said the baronet.

"He complains of being hungry," the butler hesitated, with a look of
solemn disgust.

"Let him eat."

Heavy Benson hesitated still more as he announced that the boy had
called for wine. It was an unprecedented thing. Sir Austin's brows were
portending an arch, but Adrian suggested that he wanted possibly to
drink his birthday, and claret was conceded.

The boys were in the vortex of a partridge-pie when Adrian strolled in
to them. They had now changed characters. Richard was uproarious. He
drank a health with every glass; his cheeks were flushed and his eyes
brilliant. Ripton looked very much like a rogue on the tremble of
detection, but his honest hunger and the partridge-pie shielded him
awhile from Adrian's scrutinizing glance. Adrian saw there was matter
for study, if it were only on Master Ripton's betraying nose, and sat
down to hear and mark.

"Good sport, gentlemen, I trust to hear?" he began his quiet banter, and
provoked a loud peal of laughter from Richard.

"Ha, ha! I say, Rip: 'Havin' good sport, gentlemen, are ye?' You
remember