s might have been called
hypocrisy, if it had been inconvenient; but coming as it did, it was
pronounced, by all who desired either news or love, to be another proof
of the goodness of my heart.

Escorted thus by William Stixon (armed with a brilliant cane bought for
this occasion), and knowing that Sir Montague Hockin was not there, I
arrived at Bruntlands in the afternoon, and received a kindly welcome
from my dear friend Mrs. Hockin. Her husband was from home, and she
grieved to say that now he was generally doing this; but nobody else
could have any idea what his avocations were! Then she paid me some
compliments on my appearance--a thing that I never thought of, except
when I came to a question of likeness, or chanced to be thinking of
things, coming up as they will, at a looking-glass.

That the Major was out was a truth established in my mind some time
ago; because I had seen him, as our fly crawled by, expressly and
emphatically at work on a rampart of his own designing. The work was
quite new to me, but not so his figure. Though I could not see people
three miles off, as Firm Gundry was said to do, I had pretty clear
sight, and could not mistake the Major within a furlong. And there he
was, going about in a row of square notches against the sea-line, with
his coat off, and brandishing some tool, vehemently carrying on to
spirits less active than his own. I burned with desire to go and join
him, for I love to see activity; but Mrs. Hockin thought that I had
better stay away, because it was impossible to get on there without
language too strong for young ladies.

This closed the question, and I stopped with her, and found the best
comfort that I ever could have dreamed of. "Aunt Mary" was so steadfast,
and so built up with, or rather built of, the very faith itself, that to
talk with her was as good as reading the noblest chapter of the Bible.
She put by all possibility of doubt as to the modern interference of the
Lord, with such a sweet pity and the seasoned smile of age, and so much
feeling (which would have been contempt if she had not been softened
by her own escapes), that really I, who had come expecting to set her
beautiful white hair on end, became like a little child put into the
corner, but too young yet for any other punishment at school, except to
be looked at. Nevertheless, though I did look small, it made me all the
happier. I seemed to become less an individual, and more a member of
a large kin