could not
be angry with her. He called her Sancho Panza all the rest of the holidays,
though she protested against it, saying she could not bear the Squire, and
disliked being called by his name.

Frank and Edward seemed to have a mutual antipathy to each other, and the
coldness between them was rather increased than diminished by all Mr.
Buxton's efforts to bring them together. "Come, Frank, my lad!" said he,
"don't be so stiff with Ned. His father was a dear friend of mine, and I've
set my heart on seeing you friends. You'll have it in your power to help
him on in the world."

But Frank answered, "He is not quite honorable, sir. I can't bear a boy who
is not quite honorable. Boys brought up at those private schools are so
full of tricks!"

"Nay, my lad, there thou'rt wrong. I was brought up at a private school,
and no one can say I ever dirtied my hands with a trick in my life. Good
old Mr. Thompson would have flogged the life out of a boy who did anything
mean or underhand."

CHAPTER IV.

Summers and winters came and went, with little to mark them, except the
growth of the trees, and the quiet progress of young creatures. Erminia was
sent to school somewhere in France, to receive more regular instruction
than she could have in the house with her invalid aunt. But she came home
once a year, more lovely and elegant and dainty than ever; and Maggie
thought, with truth, that ripening years were softening down her
volatility, and that her aunt's dewlike sayings had quietly sunk deep, and
fertilized the soil. That aunt was fading away. Maggie's devotion added
materially to her happiness; and both she and Maggie never forgot that this
devotion was to be in all things subservient to the duty which she owed to
her mother.

"My love," Mrs. Buxton had more than once said, "you must always recollect
that your first duty is toward your mother. You know how glad I am to see
you; but I shall always understand how it is, if you do not come. She may
often want you when neither you nor I can anticipate it."

Mrs. Browne had no great wish to keep Maggie at home, though she liked to
grumble at her going. Still she felt that it was best, in every way, to
keep on good terms with such valuable friends; and she appreciated, in some
small degree, the advantage which her intimacy at the house was to Maggie.
But yet she could not restrain a few complaints, nor withhold from her, on
her return, a recapitulation of all the things whi