Corey imagined some reliefs to this suffering, some
qualifications of this sublimity in a girl she had disliked so
distinctly; but she saw none in her son's behaviour, and she gave him
her further sympathy. She tried to praise Penelope, and said that it
was not to be expected that she could reconcile herself at once to
everything. "I shouldn't have liked it in her if she had. But time
will bring it all right. And if she really cares for you----"

"I extorted that from her."

"Well, then, you must look at it in the best light you can. There is
no blame anywhere, and the mortification and pain is something that
must be lived down. That's all. And don't let what I said grieve you,
Tom. You know I scarcely knew her, and I--I shall be sure to like any
one you like, after all."

"Yes, I know," said the young man drearily. "Will you tell father?"

"If you wish."

"He must know. And I couldn't stand any more of this, just yet--any
more mistake."

"I will tell him," said Mrs. Corey; and it was naturally the next thing
for a woman who dwelt so much on decencies to propose: "We must go to
call on her--your sisters and I. They have never seen her even; and
she mustn't be allowed to think we're indifferent to her, especially
under the circumstances."

"Oh no! Don't go--not yet," cried Corey, with an instinctive perception
that nothing could be worse for him. "We must wait--we must be
patient. I'm afraid it would be painful to her now."

He turned away without speaking further; and his mother's eyes followed
him wistfully to the door. There were some questions that she would
have liked to ask him; but she had to content herself with trying to
answer them when her husband put them to her.

There was this comfort for her always in Bromfield Corey, that he never
was much surprised at anything, however shocking or painful. His
standpoint in regard to most matters was that of the sympathetic
humorist who would be glad to have the victim of circumstance laugh
with him, but was not too much vexed when the victim could not. He
laughed now when his wife, with careful preparation, got the facts of
his son's predicament fully under his eye.

"Really, Bromfield," she said, "I don't see how you can laugh. Do you
see any way out of it?"

"It seems to me that the way has been found already. Tom has told his
love to the right one, and the wrong one knows it. Time will do the
rest."

"If I had so low an opinion of th