hrust her hand through her husband's arm, and led him down
the wide, flagged hall, towards the room whence the sound of merry young
voices fell pleasantly upon the ear.

CHAPTER TWO.

MELLICENT'S PROPHECY.

The schoolroom was a long, bare apartment running along one side of the
house, and boasting three tall windows, through which the sun poured in
on a shabby carpet and ink-stained tables. Everything looked well worn
and, to a certain extent, dilapidated, yet there was an air of cheerful
comfort about the whole which is not often found in rooms of the kind.
Mrs Asplin revelled in beautiful colours, and would tolerate no drab
and saffron papers in her house; so the walls were covered with a rich
soft blue; the cushions on the wicker chairs rang the changes from rose
to yellow; a brilliant Japanese screen stood in one corner, and a wire
stand before the open grate held a number of flowering plants. A young
fellow of seventeen or eighteen was seated at one end of the table
employed in arranging a selection of foreign stamps. This was Maxwell,
the vicar's eldest surviving son, who was to go up to Oxford at the
beginning of the year, and was at present reading under his father's
supervision. His sister Mellicent was perched on the table itself,
watching his movements, and vouchsafing scraps of advice. Her
suggestions were received with sniffs of scornful superiority, but
Mellicent prattled on unperturbed, being a plump, placid person, with
flaxen hair, blue eyes, and somewhat obtuse sensibilities. The elder
girl was sitting reading by the window, leaning her head on her hand,
and showing a long, thin face, comically like her father's, with the
same deep lines running down her cheeks. She was neither so pretty nor
so even-tempered as her sister, but she had twice the character, and was
a young person who made her individuality felt in the house; while
Maxwell was the beauty of the family, with his mother's crisp, dark
locks, grey eyes, and brunette colouring.

These three young people were the vicar's only surviving children; but
there were two more occupants of the room--the two lads who were being
coached to enter the University at the same time as his own son. Number
one was a fair, dandified-looking youth, who sat astride a deck-chair,
with his trousers hitched up so as to display long, narrow feet, shod in
scarlet silk socks and patent-leather slippers. He had fair hair,
curling over his forehead; bold