'

'Ah! to be sure, any way I could restore it all to James.'

'Or, better still, you may yet be able to draw the uncle and nephew
together, and bring back peace and union.'

'Then I must stay and bear all this, you think?'

'As a mere matter of obedience, certainly.'

Clara's countenance fell.

'That may deprive it of the brilliance of a voluntary sacrifice; but,
after all, it is what makes your course safe and plain.'

'And very dismal, just because no one will believe so.'

'So the safer for humility,' said Louis. 'Perhaps the dear old Terrace
did not offer training and trial enough. I try to believe something of
the kind in my own case. If choice had been mine, I should hardly have
been exactly what I am; and you know how my chief happiness has been
put far from me; but I can imagine that to be at the summit of my
wishes might foster my sluggishness, and that I might rest too much on
better judgment than my own, if it were beside me. Probation maybe
safer than joy; and you may do more good to yourself and others than
even under Isabel's wing. Only think of the means in your hands, and
all the wretched population round! There will be some hope of help for
the curate now--besides, I shall know where to come for subscriptions
next time I run crazy about any wonderful charity.'

Clara smiled. 'I suppose I must bear it,' she said.

'For shame, Clara! With Aunt Kitty, who would make a palace of a
dungeon, in the glorious glow of such a sunset, turning each cloud to
red and purple radiance by the very force of love and faith, who could
regret the being beside her? My own dear and precious aunt, to see her
so happy, with bliss and peace so undisturbed, so far above these toys,
and these distresses, gives me a sort of fear--'

'Oh, don't, Louis--'

They were interrupted by approaching voices. Clara hastily started up,
as her uncle and Lady Britton appeared in the green alley.

'Oh, must I go back to them all! My head does ache!'

Louis gave her his arm, pursued the path in the opposite direction, and
emerged at the lower end of the bowling-green, with the battlemented
front of the house rising before them. Presently, he met his father
searching for him. 'Poor Clara has been overcome,' he said, in
explanation. 'The speechifying has been too much for her.'

It was the first time that Clara had appeared to the Earl in any light
but that of an idle school-girl, and he said, kindly, 'It must have
b