if there
were a sixpence in the house, nor a joint in the larder, if there had not
been cook and me to care for him. I often said to cook--"Well for him
that he has honest people about him."'

Honora likewise spoke to Jones, her private retainer. He smiled scorn of
the accusation, and answered her as the child he had known in frocks.
'Yes, ma'am, I did tell the young gentleman to hold his tongue, for it
never would be his in your lifetime, nor after, in my judgment.'

'Why, certainly, it does seem early days to speak of such a matter,' said
Honora, sadly.

'It is unaccountable what people will not put in children's heads,' said
Jones, sagely; 'not but what he is a nice quiet young gentleman, and
gives very little trouble, but they might let _that_ alone. Miss Honora,
when will it be convenient to you to take my account of the plate?'

She felt pretty well convinced that Jones had only resented the whole on
her account, and that it was not he who had put the notion into the boy's
head. As to nurse, she was far from equally clear. Doubts of nurse's
sincerity had long been growing upon her, and she was in the
uncomfortable position of being able to bear neither to think of the
children's intercourse with any one tainted with falsehood, nor to
dismiss a person implicitly trusted by their father. She could only
decide that the first detected act of untruth should be the
turning-point.

Meantime, painful as was many an association, Honor did not find her
position so dreary or so oppressive as she had anticipated. She had a
great deal to do, and the tracks had been duly made out for her by her
cousin. Mr. Saville, or Humfrey's old friend, Sir John Raymond, were
always ready to help her in great matters, and Brooks was an excellent
dictatorial deputy in small ones. Her real love for country life, for
live animals, and, above all, the power of doing good, all found scope.
Humfrey's charge gave her a sense of a fulfilled duty; and mournful and
broken-spirited as she believed herself, if Humfrey could have looked at
her as she scrupulously made entries in his book, rode out with the
children to try to look knowing at the crops, or sat by the fire in the
evening with his dogs at her feet, telling stories to the children, he
would not have feared too much for his Honor. Living or dead, the love
of Humfrey could hardly help being a spring of peace and happiness; and
the consciousness of it had been too brief, and the t