'And what in others!'

'I like to look at her better than ever, but I cannot say she is not
paler and thinner.'

'Yes, and sober and matronly. That I am!' said Violet, drawing herself
up. 'I must stand on my dignity now I have two children. Don't I look
old and wise, Annette?'

'Not a bit now,' said Annette.

There was an end of Annette's doubt and dread of her grand
brother-in-law. He talked and laughed, took her on pleasant expeditions,
and made much of her with all his ready good-nature, till her heart was
quite won. She did not leave them till just as they were departing for
Windsor, and as she looked back from her railway carriage, at Violet and
her husband, arm-in-arm, she sighed a sigh on her own account, repented
of as soon as heaved, as she contrasted her own unsatisfactory home with
their happiness.

But the heart knoweth its own bitterness, and Annette little guessed
at the grief that lurked in the secret springs of her sister's joy,
increasing with her onward growth in the spirit that brought her sure
trust and peace. It was the want of fellowship with her husband, in her
true and hidden life. She could not seek counsel or comfort from above,
she could not offer prayer or thanksgiving, she could not join in the
highest Feast, without finding herself left alone, in a region whither
he would not follow. It was a weariness to him. In the spring she had
had hopes. At Easter, an imploring face, and timid, 'Won't you come?'
had made him smile, and say he was not so good as she, then sigh, and
half promise, 'Next time, when he had considered.' But next time he had
had no leisure for thinking; she should do as she liked with him when
they got into the country. And since that, some influence that she could
not trace seemed, as she knew by the intuition of her heart, rather than
the acknowledgment of her mind, to have turned him away; the distaste
and indifference were more evident, and he never gave her an opening for
leading to any serious subject. It was this that gave pain even to her
prayers, and added an acuter pang to every secret anxiety.

'When his children are older, and he feels that they look up to him'
thought Violet, hopefully, and in the meantime she prayed.

CHAPTER 23

Not so, bold knight, no deed of thine
Can ever win my hand;
That hope, poor youth, thou must resign,
For barriers 'twixt us stand.
Yet what doth part us I will now reveal,
Nor, nobles