fication to listen to the laugh of
another. The Wilberforces were very great friends and very nice, but
they always remembered what had happened, and toned themselves--these
were the words Mrs. Wilberforce used--toned themselves to the subdued
condition of the family. Chatty thought that, however nice (and most
thoughtful) that might be, it was pleasant now and then to be in company
with somebody who did not tone himself, but laughed freely when he had a
mind to do so. And accordingly she kept very quiet, and took no part,
but inclined silently to her mother's side.

This day was to Dick Cavendish like a bad dream. He could not move
outside the inclosure of the rectory grounds without seeing before him
in the distance the high garden wall, the higher range of windows, the
big trees which gave its name to the Elms. Going through the village
street, he saw twice--which seemed a superfluity of ill-fortune--Lizzie
Hampson, with her demure air, passing without lifting her eyes, as if
she had never seen him before. Had any one else known what he alone
knew, how extraordinary would his position have appeared! But he had no
leisure to think of the strangeness of his position, all his faculties
being required to keep himself going, to look as if everything was as
usual. The terror which was in his mind of perhaps, for anything he
could tell, meeting some one in these country roads, without warning, to
meet whom would be very different from meeting Lizzie Hampson, by times
got the better of his composure altogether. He did not know what he would
do or say in such an emergency. But he could do nothing to avoid it. The
Wilberforces, anxious to amuse him, drove him over in the waggonette, in
the morning, to Pierrepoint, making a little impromptu picnic among the
ruins. Under no circumstances could the party have been very exciting,
except to the children, who enjoyed it hugely, with the simple appetite
for anything that is supposed to be pleasure which belongs to their age.
They passed the Elms both coming and going. Mrs. Wilberforce put her
parasol between her and that objectionable house, but all the same made
a rapid inspection of it through the fringes. Dick turned his head away;
but he, too, saw more than any one could be supposed to see who was
looking in the other direction, and at the same time, with an almost
convulsion of laughter, which to himself was horrible, perceived the
double play of curiosity and repugnance in his h