fa-cushion; but the mind of
neither was on her work.

MRS. CAMPION.--"Has Mr. Chillingly said when he means to take leave?"

CECILIA.--"Not to me. How much my dear father enjoys his conversation!"

MRS. CAMPION.--"Cynicism and mockery were not so much the fashion among
young men in your father's day as I suppose they are now, and therefore
they seem new to Mr. Travers. To me they are not new, because I saw
more of the old than the young when I lived in London, and cynicism and
mockery are more natural to men who are leaving the world than to those
who are entering it."

CECILIA.--"Dear Mrs. Campion, how bitter you are, and how unjust!
You take much too literally the jesting way in which Mr. Chillingly
expresses himself. There can be no cynicism in one who goes out of his
way to make others happy."

MRS. CAMPION.--"You mean in the whim of making an ill-assorted marriage
between a pretty village flirt and a sickly cripple, and settling a
couple of peasants in a business for which they are wholly unfitted."

CECILIA.--"Jessie Wiles is not a flirt, and I am convinced that she will
make Will Somers a very good wife, and that the shop will be a great
success."

MRS. CAMPION.--"We shall see. Still, if Mr. Chillingly's talk belies his
actions, he may be a good man, but he is a very affected one."

CECILIA.--"Have I not heard you say that there are persons so natural
that they seem affected to those who do not understand them?"

Mrs. Campion raised her eyes to Cecilia's face, dropped them again over
her work, and said, in grave undertones,--"Take care, Cecilia."

"Take care of what?"

"My dearest child, forgive me; but I do not like the warmth with which
you defend Mr. Chillingly."

"Would not my father defend him still more warmly if he had heard you?"

"Men judge of men in their relations to men. I am a woman, and judge of
men in their relations to women. I should tremble for the happiness of
any woman who joined her fate with that of Kenelm Chillingly."

"My dear friend, I do not understand you to-day."

"Nay; I did not mean to be so solemn, my love. After all, it is nothing
to us whom Mr. Chillingly may or may not marry. He is but a passing
visitor, and, once gone, the chances are that we may not see him again
for years."

Thus speaking, Mrs. Campion again raised her eyes from her work,
stealing a sidelong glance at Cecilia; and her mother-like heart sank
within her, on noticing how suddenly pale the girl