and mischief, except
when a treat of facetious small talk was got up for their benefit. Any
attempt of the ladies to join in the conversation was replied to with a
condescending levity that reduced Ethel to her girlhood's awkward sense
of forwardness and presumption; Mary was less disconcerted, because her
remarks were never so aspiring, and Harry's wristbands sufficed her;
but the never-daunted Daisy rebelled openly, related the day's events
to her papa, fearless of any presence, and when she had grown tired of
the guest's regular formula of expecting to meet Richard, she told him
that the adult school always kept Richard away in the winter evenings;
'But if you want to see him, he is always to be found at Cocksmoor, and
he would be very glad of help.'

'Did he express any such wish?' said Mr. Cheviot, looking rather
puzzled.

'Oh dear, no; only I thought you had so much time on your hands.'

'Oh no--oh no!' exclaimed Mary, in great confusion, 'Gertrude did not
mean--I am sure I don't know what she was thinking of.'

And at the first opportunity, Mary, for once in her life, administered
to Gertrude a richly-deserved reproof for sauciness and contempt of
improving conversation; but the consequence was a fancy of the idle
younglings to make Mary accountable for the 'infesting of their
evenings,' and as she was always ready to afford sport to the
household, they thus obtained a happy outlet for their drollery and
discontent, and the imputation was the more comical from his apparent
indifference and her serene composure; until one evening when, as the
bell rung, and mutterings passed between Aubrey and Gertrude, of 'Day
set,' and 'Cheviot's mountains lone,' the head of the family, for the
first time, showed cognizance of the joke, and wearily taking down his
slippered feet from their repose, said, 'Lone! yes, there's the rub! I
shall have to fix days of reception if Mary will insist on being so
attractive.'

Mary, with an instinct that she was blamed, began to be very sorry, but
broke off amid peals of merriment, and blushes that were less easily
extinguished; and which caused Ethel to tell each of the young ones
privately, that their sport was becoming boy and frog work, and she
would have no more of it. The Daisy was inclined to be restive; but
Ethel told her that many people thought this kind of fun could never be
safe or delicate. 'I have always said that it might be quite harmless,
if people knew where to st