sneer, or by some mortification to her desires; any act of
mismanagement towards the servants brought its own punishment; and if
she was tempted by girlish spirits to relax the quiet, stiff courtesy
which she observed towards her father's guests, there followed jests,
or semi-patronage, or a tone of conversation that offended her, and
made her repent it. Happily, Mr. Egremont did not wish her to be
otherwise. One day, when she had been betrayed into rattling and
giggling, he spoke to her afterwards with a cutting irony which
bitterly angered her at the moment, and which she never forgot. Each
irksome duty, each privation, each disappointment, each recurrence of
the sweeping sense of desolation and loneliness had had one effect--it
had sent her to her knees. She had no one else to go to. She turned
to her Father in heaven. Sometimes, indeed, it was in murmuring and
complaint at her lot, but still it was to Him and Him alone, and
repentance sooner or later came to aid her, while refreshments sprang
up around her--little successes, small achievements, pleasant hours,
tokens that her father was pleased or satisfied, and above all, the
growing charms of little Alwyn.

The special grievance, Gregorio's influence, had scarcely dwelt on her
at first as it had done on her mother. The man had been very cautious
for some time, knowing that his continuance in his situation was in the
utmost jeopardy, and Mr. Egremont had, in the freshness of his grief
for his wife, abstained from relapsing into the habits from which she
had weaned him. When, however, the Canon was dead, and his son at a
distance, Gregorio began to feel more secure, and in the restless
sorrow of his master over the blow that had taken away an only brother,
he administered soothing drugs under another name, so that Ursula, in
her inexperience, did not detect what was going on, and still fancied
that the habit had been renounced. All she did know was that it was
entirely useless for her to attempt to exert any authority over the
valet, and that the only way to escape insolently polite disobedience
was to let him alone. Moreover, plans to which her father had agreed,
when broached by her, had often been overthrown after his valet had
been with him. It was a life full of care and disappointment, yet
there was a certain spring of trust that kept Ursula's youth from being
dimmed, and enabled her to get a fair share of happiness out of it,
though she was very sor