being taunted on a
subject which gave her much pain, and then was keenly hurt at his tone
and way of leaving her, though in fact she was driving him away. She
stood leaning against a pillar in the hall, looking after him with eyes
brimming with tears; but on hearing a step approach, she subdued all
signs of emotion, and composedly met the eye of her eldest brother. She
could not brook that any one should see her grief, and she was in no
mood for his first sentences: 'What are you looking at?' and seeing the
pair standing by the fountain, 'Well, you don't think I said too much in
her favour?'

'She is very pretty,' said Theodora, as if making an admission.

'It is a very sweet expression. Even as a stranger, it would be
impossible not to be interested in her, if only for the sake of her
simplicity.'

Theodora glanced at Violet's dress, and at the attitude in which she was
looking up, as Arthur gathered some roses from a vase; then turned her
eyes on John's thoughtful and melancholy countenance, and thought within
herself, that every man, however wise, can be taken in by a fair face,
and by airs and graces.

'Poor thing,' continued John, 'it must be very trying; you don't see
her to advantage, under constraint, but a few kind words will set her at
ease.'

He paused for an answer, but not obtaining one, said, 'I did not know
you expected Miss Gardner to-day.'

She surprised him, by answering with asperity, prompted by a second
attack on this subject, 'I can't help it. I could not put her off,--what
objection can there be?'

'Nothing, nothing,--I meant nothing personal. It was only that I would
have avoided having spectators of a family meeting like this. I am
afraid of first impressions.'

'My impressions are nothing at all.'

'Well, I hope you will make friends--I am sure she will repay your
kindness.'

'Do you know that you are standing in a tremendous draught?' interrupted
Theodora.

'And there's my mother on the stairs. I shall go and call them in; come
with me, Theodora.'

But she had turned back and joined her mother.

He found Violet all smiles and wonder: but she relapsed into constraint
and alarm as soon as she entered the drawing-room. Miss Gardner
presently came down,--a lady about five or six and twenty, not handsome,
but very well dressed, and with an air of ease and good society, as if
sure of her welcome. As Violet listened to her lively conversation with
Lord Martindale, she thought how