em
to the opera, and he expended some vituperation upon Ratia for an
invitation which had prevented Phoebe from being asked to join the party.

Phoebe was happy enough without it, and though not morbidly bashful, felt
that at present it was more comfortable to be under Miss Charlecote's
wing than that of Lucilla, and that the quiet evening was more composing
than fresh scenes of novelty.

The Woolstone-lane world was truly very different from that of which she
had had a glimpse, and quite as new to her. Mr. Parsons, after his
partial survey, was considering of possibilities, or more truly of
endeavours at impossibilities, a mission to that dreadful population,
means of discovering their sick, of reclaiming their children, of causing
the true Light to shine in that frightful gross darkness that covered the
people. She had never heard anything yet discussed save on the principle
of self-pleasing or self-aggrandizement; here, self-spending was the
axiom on which all the problems were worked.

After dinner, Mr. Parsons retired into the study, and while his wife and
Miss Charlecote sat down for a friendly gossip over the marriages of the
two daughters, Phoebe welcomed an unrestrained _tete-a-tete_ with her
brother. They were one on either seat of the old oriel window, she, with
her work on her lap, full of pleasant things to tell him, but pausing as
she looked up, and saw his eyes far far away, as he knelt on the cushion,
his elbows on the sill of the open lattice, one hand supporting his chin,
the other slowly erecting his hair into the likeness of the fretful
porcupine. He had heard of, but barely assented to, the morrow's dinner,
or the _fete_ at Castle Blanch; he had not even asked her how Lucilla
looked; and after waiting for some time, she said, as a feeler--'You go
with us to-morrow?'

'I suppose I must.'

'Lucy said so much in her pretty way about catching the robin, that I am
sure she was vexed at your not having called.'

No answer: his eyes had not come home.

Presently he mumbled something so much distorted by the compression of
his chin, and by his face being out of window, that his sister could not
make it out. In answer to her sound of inquiry, he took down one hand,
removed the other from his temple, and emitting a modicum more voice from
between his teeth, said, 'It is plain--it can't be--'

'What can't be? Not--Lucy?' gasped Phoebe.

'I can't take shares in the business.'

Her look of reli