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rs and ready conversation were universally liked, and more than once she dexterously helped Violet out of a state of embarrassment, and made a connecting link, through which she ventured to talk to the other ladies. With the gentlemen she was happier. Lord Martindale was kind in manner, and she improved in the power of speaking to him, while John was, as she knew, her best friend; but she saw very little of him, he lived apart from the family, often not meeting them till dinner-time, and she began to understand Arthur's surprise at his doings at Winchester, when she found that his usual habits were so solitary that his father was gratified if he joined him in a ride, and his mother esteemed it a favour if he took a turn in the garden with her. The parish church was so distant that the carriage was always used to convey thither the ladies, except Theodora, who ever since her fourteenth year had made it her custom to walk early to the school, and to remain there in the interval between the services. It was believed that she enjoyed a wet Sunday, as an occasion for proving her resolution, now so well established that no one thought of remonstrance, let the weather be what it might. The first Sunday of Violet's visit happened to be showery, and in the afternoon, Lord Martindale had gone to John's room to dissuade him from going to church a second time, when, as the door stood open, they heard Arthur's voice in the gallery. 'Hollo! you are not setting out in these torrents!' 'Do let me, please!' returned the pleading note. 'Why, the avenue is a river, and you are not a real goose yet, you know.' 'We never did miss church for weather, and it is further off at Wrangerton.' 'Nobody is going, I tell you. It is not in common sense. You are as bad as Theodora, I declare.' 'I don't mean to be wilful!' said she, piteously; 'I won't go if you tell me not, but please don't. I have no Sunday-book, and nothing to do, and I should feel wrong all the week.' 'To be sure you can't smoke a cigar,' said Arthur, in a tone of commiseration; 'so wilful will to water! Now for an aquatic excursion!' Their steps and voices receded, and the father and brother looked amused. 'A good honest child!' 'She will do something with him after all!' and Lord Martindale (for Arthur had made too broad an assertion in declaring no one was going) followed them down, and showed positively paternal solicitude that Violet should be guarded from
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