agreeable social relations. Rose had been honoured, beyond
her deserts, she said, by visits since she came home. These had to be
returned, and Graeme, who had fallen off from the performance of such
duties, during Rose's absence, and Fanny's illness, took pleasure in
going with her. She took real pleasure in many of these visits,
sometimes because of the renewal of friendly interest, sometimes for
other reasons. The new way in which the character and manner of Rose
came out never failed to amuse her. At home, and especially in her
intercourse with her, Rose was just what she had been as a child, except
the difference that a few added years must make. But it was by no means
so in her intercourse with the rest of the world. She had ideas and
opinions of her own, and she had her own way of making them known, or of
defending them when attacked. There was not much opportunity for seeing
this during brief formal visits, but now and then Graeme got a glimpse
that greatly amused her. The quiet self-possession with which she met
condescending advances, and accepted or declined compliments, the serene
air with which she ignored or rebuked the little polite impertinences,
not yet out of fashion in fine drawing-rooms, it was something to see.
And her perfect unconsciousness of her sister's amusement or its cause
was best of all to Graeme. Arthur amused himself with this change in
her, also, and had a better opportunity to do so. For Graeme seldom
went to large parties, and it was under the chaperonage of Mrs Arthur
that Rose, as a general thing, made her appearance in their large and
agreeable circle, on occasions of more than usual ceremony. Not that
there were very many of these. Fanny was perfectly well now, and
enjoyed these gay gatherings in moderation, but they were not so
necessary to her happiness as they used to be, and Rose, though she made
no secret of the pleasure she took in them, was not unreasonable in her
devotion to society. So the winter was rather quiet than otherwise, and
Graeme and Rose found themselves with a good deal of leisure time at
their disposal.

For true to her first idea of what was for the happiness of her
brother's household, Graeme, as Fanny grew stronger, gradually withdrew
from the bearing of responsibility where household matters were
concerned, and suffered it to fall, as she felt it to be right, on
Arthur's wife. Not that she refused to be helpful; either in word or in
deed, b