than
his ordinary manner to herself.

"Go in, my love," he said, opening the door for her which he had just
closed. "Tell your mother all you have told me--and more, if you have
more to say. She is better prepared for you than I was. We will take
to-day to think of it, Magdalen; and to-morrow you shall know, and Frank
shall know, what we decide."

Her eyes brightened, as they looked into his face and saw the decision
there already, with the double penetration of her womanhood and her
love. Happy, and beautiful in her happiness, she put his hand to her
lips, and went, without hesitation, into the morning-room. There, her
father's words had smoothed the way for her; there, the first shock of
the surprise was past and over, and only the pleasure of it remained.
Her mother had been her age once; her mother would know how fond she
was of Frank. So the coming interview was anticipated in her thoughts;
and--except that there was an unaccountable appearance of restraint in
Mrs. Vanstone's first reception of her--was anticipated aright. After a
little, the mother's questions came more and more unreservedly from the
sweet, unforgotten experience of the mother's heart. She lived again
through her own young days of hope and love in Magdalen's replies.

The next morning the all-important decision was announced in words. Mr.
Vanstone took his daughter upstairs into her mother's room, and there
placed before her the result of the yesterday's consultation, and of the
night's reflection which had followed it. He spoke with perfect kindness
and self-possession of manner-but in fewer and more serious words than
usual; and he held his wife's hand tenderly in his own all through the
interview.

He informed Magdalen that neither he nor her mother felt themselves
justified in blaming her attachment to Frank. It had been in part,
perhaps, the natural consequence of her childish familiarity with him;
in part, also, the result of the closer intimacy between them which the
theatrical entertainment had necessarily produced. At the same time, it
was now the duty of her parents to put that attachment, on both sides,
to a proper test--for her sake, because her happy future was their
dearest care; for Frank's sake, because they were bound to give him the
opportunity of showing himself worthy of the trust confided in him. They
were both conscious of being strongly prejudiced in Frank's favor.
His father's eccentric conduct had made the lad the obj