of the poets. The buried impulses had broken out, like a half-smothered
flame, in her children, especially in her younger daughter. Singularly
enough, the mother regarded these qualities, partly inherited from
herself, as erratic and annoying. The memory of her own youth taught her
no sympathy.

It was a benumbed sort of life that she led, in her picturesque old
home, whose charm she perceived but dimly with the remnants of her lost
aptitudes.

"Picturesque!" Mr. Fullerton used to cry with a snort; "why not say
'unhealthy' and be done with it?"

From these native elements of character, modified in so singular a
fashion in the mother's life, the children of this pair had drawn
certain of their peculiarities. The inborn strength and authenticity
of the parents had transmuted itself, in the younger generation, to a
spirit of free enquiry, and an audacity of thought which boded ill for
Mrs. Fullerton's ambitions. The talent in her daughters, from which she
had hoped so much, seemed likely to prove a most dangerous obstacle to
their success. Why was it that clever people were never sensible?

The gong sounded for luncheon. Austin put his head in at the door of the
study, to ask if his father would shew him a drop of ditch-water through
the microscope, in the afternoon.

"If you will provide the ditch-water, I will provide the microscope,"
promised Mr. Fullerton genially.

Luncheon, usually a merry meal at Dunaghee, passed off silently. There
was a sense of oppression in the air. Algitha and her sister made
spasmodic remarks, and there were long pauses. The conversation was
chiefly sustained by the parents and the ever-talkative Fred.

The latter had some anecdotes to tell of the ravages made by wasps.

"If Buchanan would only adopt my plan of destroying them," said Mr.
Fullerton, "we should soon get rid of the pest."

"It's some chemical, isn't it?" asked Mrs. Fullerton.

"Oh, no; that's no use at all! Wasps positively enjoy chemicals. What
you do is this----." And then followed a long and minute explanation of
his plan, which had the merit of extreme originality.

Mr. Fullerton had his own particular way of doing everything, a piece
of presumption which was naturally resented, with proper spirit, by his
neighbours. He found it an expensive luxury. In the management of the
estate, he had outraged the feelings of every landlord and land-agent
within a radius of many miles, but he gained the affection of his
tenan