the mistress's hair, till heat and
idleness asserted their narcotic influences together, and Magdalen fell
asleep.

It was past three o'clock when she woke. On going downstairs again she
found her mother, Norah and Miss Garth all sitting together enjoying the
shade and the coolness under the open portico in front of the house.

Norah had the railway time-table in her hand. They had been discussing
the chances of Mr. Vanstone's catching the return train and getting back
in good time. That topic had led them, next, to his business errand at
Grailsea--an errand of kindness, as usual; undertaken for the benefit
of the miller, who had been his old farm-servant, and who was now hard
pressed by serious pecuniary difficulties. From this they had glided
insensibly into a subject often repeated among them, and never exhausted
by repetition--the praise of Mr. Vanstone himself. Each one of the three
had some experience of her own to relate of his simple, generous nature.
The conversation seemed to be almost painfully interesting to his
wife. She was too near the time of her trial now not to feel nervously
sensitive to the one subject which always held the foremost place in her
heart. Her eyes overflowed as Magdalen joined the little group under the
portico; her frail hand trembled as it signed to her youngest daughter
to take the vacant chair by her side. "We were talking of your father,"
she said, softly. "Oh, my love, if your married life is only as happy--"
Her voice failed her; she put her handkerchief hurriedly over her face
and rested her head on Magdalen's shoulder. Norah looked appealingly to
Miss Garth, who at once led the conversation back to the more trivial
subject of Mr. Vanstone's return. "We have all been wondering," she
said, with a significant look at Magdalen, "whether your father will
leave Grailsea in time to catch the train--or whether he will miss it
and be obliged to drive back. What do you say?"

"I say, papa will miss the train," replied Magdalen, taking Miss Garth's
hint with her customary quickness. "The last thing he attends to at
Grailsea will be the business that brings him there. Whenever he has
business to do, he always puts it off to the last moment, doesn't he,
mamma?"

The question roused her mother exactly as Magdalen had intended it
should. "Not when his errand is an errand of kindness," said
Mrs. Vanstone. "He has gone to help the miller in a very pressing
difficulty--"

"And don't you