r mother. "Why, you have only just
finished your dinner."

"We dined at half-past one, and it is nearly half-past three."

"Poor darlings!" cried Mrs. Mostyn, regarding them with the enraptured
gaze of the true child-lover; "their drive has made them hungry; and we
cannot have tea very well before half-past four, because some old women
from the village have come up to have tea, and the servants are busy
attending to them. But I can tell you what you could do, dears. You know
the way to the dairy; one of the maids is sure to be there; tell her to
give you some cream. You will like that, won't you? Yes, you can go out
by this door."

"And remember to--"

Lady Atherley's exhortation remained unfinished, her sons having darted
through the door-window like arrows from the bow.

"Since Miss Jones has been gone for her holiday the children are quite
unmanageable," she observed.

"Oh, it is such a good sign!" cried Mrs. Mostyn heartily; "it shows they
are so thoroughly well. Mr. Lyndsay, why have you chosen that
uncomfortable chair? Come and sit over beside me, if you are not afraid
of the fire. And now, Jane, my love, tell me how you are getting on at
Weald."

Then followed a long catalogue of accidents and disappointments, of
faithlessness and incapacity, to which Mrs. Mostyn supplied a running
commentary of interjections sympathetic and consoling. There were,
moreover, many changes for the worse since Sir Marmaduke had resided
there: the shooting and the fishing had been alike neglected; the
farmers were impoverished; the old places had changed hands.

"And a good many quite new people have come to live in small houses
round Weald," said Lady Atherley. "They have left cards on us. Do you
know what they are like?"

"Quite ladies and gentlemen, I believe, and nice enough as long as you
don't get to know them too intimately; but they are always
quarrelling."

"About what?"

"About everything; but especially about church matters--decorations and
anthems and other rubbish. What they want is less of the church and more
of the Bible."

"I believe Mr. Jackson has a Bible-class every week."

"But is it a Bible-class, or is it only called so? There is Mr. Austin
at Rood Warren, a Romanist in disguise if ever there was one: he is by
way of having a Bible-class, and one of our farmers' daughters attended
it. 'And what part of the Bible are you studying now?' I asked her. 'We
are studying early church history.' 'I don't