Miss Charlecote as I do, and
feeling that I owe everything to her notice.'

'Oh, I find no fault, I reverence her too! It was only the nature of
things, not her intentions, nor her kindness, that was to blame. She
meant to be justice and mercy combined towards us, but I had all the one,
and Owen all the other. Not that I am jealous! Oh, no! Not that she
could help it; but no woman can help being hard on her rival's daughter.'

Nothing but the sweet tone and sad arch smile could have made this speech
endurable to Robert, even though he remembered many times when the
trembling of the scale in Miss Charlecote's hands had filled him with
indignation. 'You allow that it was justice,' he said, smiling.

'No doubt of that,' she laughed. 'Poor Honor! I must have been a
grievous visitation, but I am very good now; I shall come and spend
Sunday as gravely as a judge, and when you come to Wrapworth, you shall
see how I can go to the school when it is not forced down my throat--no
merit either, for our mistress is perfectly charming, with _such_ a
voice! If I were Phoebe I would look out, for Owen is desperately
smitten.'

'Phoebe!' repeated Robert, with a startled look.

'Owen and Phoebe! I considered it _une affaire arrangee_ as much as--'
She had almost said you and me: Robert could supply the omission, but he
was only blind of _one_ eye, and gravely said, 'It is well there is
plenty of time before Owen to tame him down.'

'Oney,' laughed Lucilla; 'yes, he has a good deal to do in that line,
with his opinions in such a mess that I really don't know what he does
believe.'

Though the information was not new to Robert, her levity dismayed him,
and he gravely began, 'If you have such fears--' but she cut him off
short.

'Did you ever play at bagatelle?'

He stared in displeased surprise.

'Did you never see the ball go joggling about before it could settle into
its hole, and yet abiding there very steadily at last? Look on quietly,
and you will see the poor fellow as sober a parish priest as yourself.'

'You are a very philosophical spectator of the process,' Robert said,
still displeased.

'Just consider what a capacious swallow the poor boy had in his tender
infancy, and how hard it was crammed with legends, hymns, and allegories,
with so many scruples bound down on his poor little conscience, that no
wonder, when the time of expansion came, the whole concern should give
way with a jerk.'

'I thought