were few. Once some words were caught from him by both children, which
startled Honor exceedingly, and obliged her to tell him that if ever she
found him to have repeated the like, she should forbid his coming near
them. He looked excessively sullen, and did not come for a week, during
which Lucilla was intolerably naughty, and was twice severely punished
for using the identical expressions in defiance.

Then he came again, and behaved as if nothing had happened, but the
offence never recurred. Some time after, when he boasted of having come
away with a lesson unlearnt, in flat disobedience to Mademoiselle, Honor
sent him straight home, though Lucilla stamped and danced at her in a
frenzy. Another time Owen rushed up to her in great agony at some
torture that Robin was inflicting upon a live mouse. Upon this, Honor,
full of the spirit of indignation, fairly struck the offender sharply on
the fingers with her riding-whip. He scowled at her, but it was only for
a moment. She held him tightly by the hand, while she sent the gardener
to put his victim out of its misery, and then she talked to him, not
sentimentally, her feelings were too strongly stirred, but with all her
horror of cruelty. He muttered that Mervyn and the grooms always did it;
but he did not hold out long--Lucilla was holding aloof, too much
horrified to come near--and finally he burst into tears, and owned that
he had never thought!

Every now and then, such outbreaks made Honor wonder why she let him
come, perhaps to tempt her children; but she remembered that he and
Humfrey had been fond of one another, and she felt drawn towards him,
though in all prudence she resolved to lessen the attractions of the Holt
by being very strict with all, and rather ungracious to him. Yet,
strange to say, the more regulations she made, and the more she flashed
out at his faults, the more constant was her visitor, the Robin who
seemed to thrive upon the veriest crumbs of good-nature.

Positively, Honora was sometimes amazed to find what a dragon she could
be upon occasion. Since she had been brought into subordination at six
or eight years old, she had never had occasion to find out that she had a
spirit of her own, till she found herself astonishing Jones and Brooks
for taking the liberty of having a deadly feud; making Brooks understand
that cows were not to be sold, nor promises made to tenants, without
reference to her; or showing a determined marauder that