But there is no need for a wife always to
be chattering to her husband: she must have her little secrets, and he
ought to respect them. Now, as to Sir Richard, I can see as well as
possible the kind of management he will require; thou must quietly
suggest ideas to him, gently and diffidently, as if thou wert desirous
of his opinion: but whenever he takes them up, mind and always let him
think he is getting his own way. He has a strong will, against which a
foolish woman would just run full tilt, and spoil every thing. A wise
one will quietly get her own way, and let him fancy he has got his.
That is thy work, Magot."

Margaret shook her bright head with a laugh. Such work as that was not
at all in her line.

It took only a day for the girls to discover that the Belasez who had
come back to them in October was not the Belasez who had gone away from
them at Whitsuntide. She seemed almost a different being. Quite as
amiable, as patient, as refined, as before, there was something about
her which they instantly perceived, but to which they found it hard to
give a name. It was not exactly any one thing. It was not sadness, for
at times she seemed more bright and lively than they remembered her of
old: it was not ill-temper, for her patience was proof against any
amount of teasing. But her moods were far more variable than they used
to be. A short time after she had been playing with little Marie, all
smiles and sunshine, they would see tears rush to her eyes, which she
seemed anxious to conceal. And at times there was an expression of
distress and perplexity in her face, evidently not caused by any
intricacy in the pattern she was working.

Indirect questions produced none but evasive answers. Each of the girls
had her own idea as to the solution of the enigma. Margaret, very
naturally, pronounced Belasez in love. Eva, one of whose sisters had
been recently ill, thought she was anxious about her brother. Marie
suggested that too much damson tart might be a satisfactory
explanation,--that having been the state of things with herself a few
days before. Hawise, who governed her life by a pair of moral
compasses, was of opinion that Belasez thought it proper to look
sorrowful in her circumstances, and therefore did so except in an
emergency. Doucebelle alone was silent: but her private thought was
that no one of the four had come near the truth.

When Belasez had been about a week at the Castle, one afternoo