again lifting her
eyes to Trenholme for sympathy in her admiration.

"Sh--sh--," said the elder ladies, as if it were possible that Blue and
Red could be kept in ignorance of their own charms.

A man nervously tired can feel acute disappointment at the smallest,
silliest thing. Trenholme had expected that Sophia would pour out his
tea; he thought it would have refreshed him then to the very soul, even
if she had given it indifferently. The cup he took seemed like some
bitter draught he was swallowing for politeness' sake. When it, and all
the necessary talk concerning it, were finished, together with other
matters belonging to the hour, he got himself out of his big chair, and
Mrs. Brown's horses, that had been switching their tails in the lane,
drove him home.

The carriage gone, Mrs. Brown's curiosity was at hand directly. She and
Mrs. Rexford were standing apart where with motherly kindness they had
been bidding him good-bye.

"I suppose, Mrs. Rexford, you know--you have always known--this fact
concerning Principal Trenholme's origin. I mean what he alluded to just
now." Mrs. Brown spoke, not observing Mrs. Rexford but the group in
which her daughters were prominent figures.

Nothing ever impressed Mrs. Rexford's imagination vividly that did not
concern her own family.

"I do not think it has been named to me," said she, "but no doubt my
husband and Sophia--"

"You think they have known it?" It was of importance to Mrs. Brown to
know whether Captain Rexford and Sophia had known or not; for if they
knew and made no difference--"If Miss Rexford has not objected. She is
surely a judge in such matters!"

"Sophia! Yes, to be sure, Sophia is very highly connected on her
mother's side. I often say to my husband that I am a mere nobody
compared with his first wife. But Sophia is not proud. Sophia would be
kind to the lowest, Mrs. Brown." (This praise was used with vaguest
application.) "She has such a good heart! Really, what she has done for
me and my children--"

A light broke in upon Mrs. Brown's mind. She heard nothing concerning
Mrs. Rexford and her children. She knew now, or felt sure she knew, why
Miss Rexford had always seemed a little stiff when Trenholme was
praised. Her attitude towards him, it appeared, had always been that of
mere "kindness." Now, up to this moment, Mrs. Brown, although not a
designing woman, had entertained comfortable motherly hopes that
Trenholme might ultimately espouse one of h