day with Mrs Forrest, and she always
wanted Anna at the Vicarage.

It was strange that Anna should have come to calling it a "risk" to meet
her grandfather, but it was true. Not all at once, but little by
little, since her separation from Delia, the habit of dismissing him
from her thoughts, as well as keeping silence about him, had grown
strong within her. At first Delia's scornful face often seemed to flash
before her in the midst of some gaiety or enjoyment. "You are not
worthy of him," it seemed to say. But it had been so often driven away
that it now came very seldom, and when it did, it looked so pale and
shadowy that it had no reality about it. Anna threw herself into the
amusements which her new friends put in her way, and determined to be
happy in spite of uncomfortable recollections.

On her side, Delia had now come to the swift decision natural to her age
and character. Anna was unworthy. She had been tried and found
wanting. Gold had been offered to her, and she had chosen tinsel. It
was not surprising that the Palmers should be preferred to herself, but
that any one related to the Professor, able to see and know him, should
be capable of turning aside and neglecting him for others, was a thing
she could neither understand nor bear with patience. She ceased to
speak of it when she met Anna, and preserved a haughty silence on the
subject, but her manner and looks expressed disapproval plainly enough.
The disapproval grew stronger as time went on, for although no word of
complaint ever passed Mr Goodwin's lips, Delia soon felt sure that he
longed to see more of his grandchild. They often talked of Anna, the
Professor listening eagerly to any news of her or account of her doings.
No hint of disappointment was ever given, but affection has quick
instincts, and Delia was able to understand her old friend's silence as
well as his speech. She ran in to Number 4 Back Row one afternoon, and
found him looking rather uncertainly and nervously at his tea-table,
which Mrs Cooper had just prepared in her usual hurried manner--
slapping down the cups and plates with a sort of spiteful emphasis, and
leaving the cloth awry. He looked relieved to see Delia.

"You would perhaps put things a little straight, and make it look
nicer," he said. "I don't know how it is, but Mrs Cooper seems to
spoil the look of things so."

"You expect a visitor?" said Delia, as she began to alter the
arrangement of the little mea