renwood had so much
of his time. He seemed to be asked to come to dinner whenever Sir
Harry saw him, or a chair was left vacant at a party; and though his
Rector was inexorable as to releasing him on casual notice from the
parish avocations of three nights in the week, the effect was
grumbling as savage as was possible from so good-humoured a being;
and now and then a regular absence without leave, and a double growl
at the consequent displeasure. It was true that in ten minutes he
was as hearty and friendly as ever to his colleagues, but that might
be only a proof of his disregard of their reproofs, and their small
effect.

Eleonora Vivian was not the attraction. No; Herbert thought her a
proud, silent, disagreeable girl, and could see no beauty in her;
but he had a boy's passion for the matured splendour of her sister's
beauty; and she was so kind to him!

What could Jenny mean by looking glum about it? She was stunningly
good, and all that. She had done no end of good with clubs and
mothers' meetings at her married home; and it was no end of a pity
she was not in Compton parish, instead of under poor wretched old
Fuller, whom you could not stir--no, not if you tied a firebrand to
his tail.

CHAPTER XIII
Withered Leaves and Fresh Buds

Lady Rosamond and Joanna Bowater could not fail to be good friends;
Herbert was a great bond of union, and so was Mrs. Poynsett.
Rosamond found it hard to recover from the rejection of her scheme
of the wheeled-chair, and begged Jenny to become its advocate; but
Mrs. Poynsett listened with a smile of the unpromising kind--"You
too, Jenny?"

"Why not, dear Mrs. Poynsett? How nice it would be to see you in
your own corner again!"

"I don't think my own corner remains."

"Oh! but it could be restored at once."

"Do you think so? No, no, Jenny my dear; cracked china is better
left on the shelf out of the way, even if it could bear the move,
which it can't."

Then Jenny understood, and advised Rosamond to bide her time, and
wait till the session of parliament, when the house would be
quieter; and Rosamond nodded and held her peace.

The only person who held aloof was Cecil, who would not rise to the
bait when Raymond tried to exhibit Miss Bowater as a superior
intellectual woman.

Unluckily, too, Jenny observed one evening at the five o'clock tea,
"I hear that Mrs. Duncombe has picked up some very funny people--a
lady lecturer, who is coming to set us all to