ully at him, with a touching pleasure in the fact
that he had remembered to ask. As she glanced quickly from father to
son, eager to see them reconciled, utterly forgetful of herself,
something of the anxious cheerfulness of Mrs. Pendleton's spirit
appeared to live again in her look. Though her freshness had withered,
she was still what is called "a sweet looking woman," and her
expression of simple goodness lent an appealing charm to her features.

"Are you going back to New York soon, father?" asked Harry, turning
politely in Oliver's direction. From his manner, which had lost its
boyishness, Virginia knew that he was trying with all his energy to be
agreeable, yet that he could not overcome the old feeling of constraint
and lack of sympathy.

"Next week. 'The Home' is to be put on in February, and I'm obliged to
be there for the rehearsals."

"Does Miss Oldcastle take the leading part?"

"Yes."

Crossing the room, Oliver held out his hands to the fire, and then
turning, stretched his arms, with a stifled yawn, above his head. The
only fault that could be urged against his appearance was that his
figure was becoming a trifle square, that he was beginning to look a
little too well-fed, a little too comfortable. For the rest, his hair,
which had gone quite grey, brought out the glow and richness of his
colour and lent a striking emphasis to his dark, shining eyes.

"Do you think that the new play is as good as 'Pretty Fanny'?" asked
Virginia.

"Well, they're both rot, you know," he answered, with a laugh.

"Oh, Oliver, how can you, when all the papers spoke so admiringly of
it?"

"Why shouldn't they? It is perfectly innocuous. The kind of thing any
father might take his daughter to see. We shan't dispute that, anyhow."

His flippancy not only hurt, it confused her. It was painful enough to
have him speak so slightingly of his success, but worse than this was
the feeling it aroused in her that he was defying authority. Even if her
innate respect for the printed word had not made her accept as final the
judgment of the newspapers, there was still the incontestable fact that
so many people had paid to see "Pretty Fanny" that both Oliver and Miss
Oldcastle had reaped a small fortune. She glanced in a helpless way at
Harry, and he said suddenly:

"Don't you think Jenny ought to come home to be with mother after Lucy
marries? You are obliged to go to New York so often that she will get
lonely."

"It's a good i