are thinking of the old place, and, of
course, after what you've been used to it is a trial; but you must pluck
up courage and be thankful that you have your family still and no lost
lives to mourn over.'

Mrs Clay shook her head in a melancholy way; she was not to be comforted,
and the others gave it up.

'One would think he had been the best and kindest husband in the world,
instead of being'----began Sarah after dinner, when her mother had
hurried back to her husband's room; but here she checked herself.

'Well, there's one thing--you'll excite no envy, hatred, and malice at
the Red House; and you know the proverb, "Better is a dinner of herbs
where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith,"' said their
uncle.

'Oh!' cried Sarah, and then explained, 'That's just what I said when we
lived at Balmoral; but I didn't mean it to come about in this dreadful
way.'

'Ay; but things never do come about in the way we want or expect,' said
Mr Howroyd as he rose from the table, leaving the brother and sister
together.

'George, what are you thinking of?' asked his sister abruptly, after the
former had sat for some time smoking a cigarette, and leaning back in his
old indolent way.

'Thinking of? I'm thinking that I've undertaken a task too big for me,
and that I should do better to accept Uncle Howroyd's offer of winding up
affairs,' he replied.

'Then you are a coward! And I only wish I were your age and a man, and
I'd carry on the mills myself, and show people.'

George looked at his sister with an amused smile, which was his usual way
of treating her outbursts, and which always exasperated her; but he
hastened to say, 'Steady there, Sarah! I never said I was going to back
out, only that things seem more difficult than they did when I began.'

'Why? After Sykes's offer, and Tom Fox's? I never told mother of him. It
didn't seem to be any use, because she doesn't care for anything or feel
grateful about anything.'

'I hope I shall have as good a wife; but she will be difficult to find,'
observed George.

'You'll probably marry a virago; easy-going people like you generally do,
and you'll be henpecked all your life,' was Sarah's consoling remark.

Then they both laughed, which did them good. Not very long after they
went to bed, and, being young and full of hope, to sleep.

It seemed to them both that they had just shut their eyes when they heard
the clanging of a bell; and, starting up in alarm, they re