d
herself to soothe the weeping girl, as she so often had done before,
when overcome by her infantile, or youthful griefs. Throughout this
interview, habit and single-heartedness so exercised their influence,
that the excellent matron did not, in the most remote manner, recollect
that her son and Maud were not natural relatives. Accustomed herself to
see the latter every day, and to think of her, as she had from the
moment when she was placed in her arms, an infant of a few weeks old
the effect that separation might produce on others, never presented
itself to her mind. Major Willoughby, a boy of eight when Maud was
received in the family, had known from the first her precise position;
and it was perhaps morally impossible that _he_ should not recall
the circumstance in their subsequent intercourse; more especially as
school, college, and the army, had given him so much leisure to reflect
on such things, apart from the influence of family habits; while it was
to be expected that a consequence of his own peculiar mode of thinking
on this subject, would be to produce something like a sympathetic
sentiment in the bosom of Maud. Until within the last few years,
however, she had been so much of a child herself, and had been treated
so much like a child by the young soldier, that it was only through a
change in him, that was perceptible only to herself, and which occurred
when he first met her grown into womanhood, that she alone admitted any
feelings that were not strictly to be referred to sisterly regard. All
this, nevertheless, was a profound mystery to every member of the
family, but the two who were its subjects; no other thoughts than the
simplest and most obvious, ever suggesting themselves to the minds of
the others.

In half an hour, Mrs. Willoughby had quieted all Maud's present
troubles, and the whole family left the house to repair to the chapel.
Michael, though he had no great reverence for Mr. Wood's ministrations,
had constituted himself sexton, an office which had devolved on him in
consequence of his skill with the spade. Once initiated into one branch
of this duty, he had insisted on performing all the others; and it was
sometimes a curious spectacle to see the honest fellow, busy about the
interior of the building, during service, literally stopping one of his
ears with a thumb, with a view, while he acquitted himself of what he
conceived to be temporal obligations, to exclude as much heresy as
possible.