prayer for them, she slumbered, and in the
course of the night she slept herself tranquilly away from the world
where even prosperity had been but a troubled maze to her.

Augusta arrived, weeping profusely, but with all her wits about her, so
as to assume the command, and to provide for her own, and her Admiral's
comfort. Phoebe was left to the mournful repose of having no one to whom
to attend, since Miss Fennimore provided for the younger ones; and in the
lassitude of bodily fatigue and sorrow, she shrank from Maria's babyish
questions and Bertha's levity and curiosity, spending her time chiefly
alone. Even Robert could not often be with her, since Mervyn's absence
and silence threw much on him and Mr. Crabbe, the executor and guardian;
and the Bannermans were both exacting and self-important. The Actons,
having been pursued by their letters from place to place in the
Highlands, at length arrived, and Mervyn last of all, only just in time
for the funeral.

Phoebe did not see him till the evening after it, when, having spent the
day nearly alone, she descended to the late dinner, and after the
quietness in which she had lately lived, and with all the tenderness from
fresh suffering, it seemed to her that she was entering on a distracting
turmoil of voices. Mervyn, however, came forward at once to meet her,
threw his arm round her, and kissed her rather demonstratively, saying,
'My little Phoebe, I wondered where you were;' then putting her into a
chair, and bending over her, 'We are in for the funeral games. Stand up
for yourself!'

She did not know in the least what he could mean, but she was too sick at
heart to ask; she only thought he looked unwell, jaded, and fagged, and
with a heated complexion.

He handed Lady Acton into the dining-room; Augusta, following with Sir
Bevil, was going to the head of the table, when he called out, 'That's
Phoebe's place!'

'Not before my elders,' Phoebe answered, trying to seat herself at the
side.

'The sister at home is mistress of the house,' he sternly answered.
'Take your proper place, Phoebe.'

In much discomfort she obeyed, and tried to attend civilly to Sir
Nicholas's observations on the viands, hoping to intercept a few, as she
perceived how they chafed her eldest brother.

At last, on Mervyn himself roundly abusing the flavour of the
ice-pudding, Augusta not only defended it, but confessed to having
herself directed Mrs. Brisbane to the concoction that morn