habit of calling her dear Mrs. Warrender;
but it seemed a term that was appropriate where there had been a death.
"I hope she does not quite shut herself up."

"Mamma has been with Lady Markland several times," said Minnie, with a
mixture of disapproval and satisfaction. "Naturally, we have been so
much thrown together since----"

"To be sure. What a sad thing!--twice in one house, within a week, was
it not, the two deaths?"

"Just a week," said Chatty, who loved to be exact.

"But you know Lord Markland was no relation," added Minnie, too
conscientious to take to herself the credit of a grief which was not
hers. "It was not as if we felt it in that way."

"It was a dreadful thing to happen in one's house, all the same. And
Theo, I hear, goes a great deal to Markland. Oh, it is quite natural.
He had so much to do for her from the first. And I hear she is a very
attractive sort of woman, though I don't know much of her, for my own
part."

"Attractive? Well, perhaps she may be attractive, to some people," said
Minnie; "but when a woman has been married so long as she has, one never
thinks--and her attractiveness has nothing to do with Theo," she added,
with some severity.

"Oh no, I suppose not," said the rector. "Tell him I hope we shall soon
see him here, for I expect his friend Dick Cavendish in the end of the
week. You remember Cavendish? He told me he had met you at Oxford."

"Oh yes," said Chatty quickly. Minnie, who was not accustomed to be
forestalled in speech, trod upon this little exclamation, as it were,
and spoilt its effect. "Cavendish! I am not sure. I think I do recollect
the name," she said.

And then they shook hands with the rector across the gate, and went upon
their way. But it was not for the first moment quite a peaceful way.
"You were dreadfully ready to say you remembered Mr. Cavendish," said
the elder sister. "What do you know of Mr. Cavendish? If I were you, I
would not speak so fast, as if Mr. Cavendish were of such importance."

"Oh no, he is of no importance; only I do recollect him quite well. He
gave us tea. He was very----"

"He was exactly like other young men," said Miss Warrender. And then
they proceeded in silence, Chatty having no desire to contest the
statement. She did not know very much about young men. Their way lay
across the end of the village street, beyond which the trees of the
Warren overshadowed everything. There was only a fence on that side of
the grounds, a