plaid thrown
round her. 'What--what--what's the matter?' she hastily asked, following
Phoebe to her room. 'Is there an end of all these mysteries?'

'Yes,' said Phoebe, 'Miss Fennimore is ready for you.'

'As if that were all I wanted to know. Do you think I did not hear
Mervyn storming like a lion?'

'I am sorry you did hear,' said Phoebe, 'for it was not pleasant. It
seems that it is not thought proper for us to live here while Mervyn has
so many gentleman-guests, so,' with a sigh, 'you will have your wish,
Bertha. They mean us to go away!'

'It is not my wish now,' said Bertha, pulling pins in and out of Phoebe's
pincushion. 'I am not the child I was in the summer. Don't go, Phoebe;
I know you can get your way, if you try for it.'

'I must try to be put in the right way, Bertha, that is all I want.'

'And you are going to the Holt for the most precise, narrow-minded way
you can get. I wish I were in your place, Phoebe.'

Scarcely had Phoebe driven from the door, before she saw Miss Charlecote
crossing the grass on foot, and after the interchange of a few words, it
was agreed to talk while driving on towards Elverslope. Each was laden
with the same subject, for not only had Honor heard from Robert, but
during her visit to Moorcroft she had become enlightened on the gossip
that seldom reached the Holt, and had learnt that the whole neighbourhood
was scandalized at the Beauchamp doings, and was therefore shy of taking
notice of the young people there. She had been incredulous at first,
then extremely shocked and distressed, and though in part convinced that
more than she guessed had passed beyond the west wing, she had come
primed with a representation which she cautiously administered to Phoebe.
The girl was more indignant on her brother's account than alarmed on her
own.

'If that is the way the Raymonds talk of Mervyn,' cried she, 'no wonder
they made their niece cast him off, and drive him to despair.'

'It was no unkindness of the Raymonds, my dear. They were only sorry for
you.'

'I do not want them to be sorry for me; they ought to be sorry for
Mervyn,' said Phoebe, almost petulantly.

'Perhaps they are,' said Honor. 'It was only in kindness that they
spoke, and they had almost anticipated my explanation that you were kept
entirely apart. Every gentleman hereabouts who has been at Beauchamp has
declared such to be the case.'

'I should think so!' said Phoebe; 'Mervyn knows how to take