d over her head.

'It was all owing to your promptitude,' said Mervyn; 'a capital thought
that telegram.'

'I am glad,' said Miss Fennimore; 'but I do not lose sight of my own
negligence. It convinces me that I am utterly unfit for the charge I
assumed. I shall leave your sisters as soon as new plans can be formed.'

'Why, I'll be bound none of your pupils ever played you such a trick
before!'

Miss Fennimore only looked as if this convinced her the more; but it was
no time for the argument, and Phoebe caressingly persuaded her to come
into the library and drink coffee with them, judging rightly that she had
tasted nothing since morning.

Afterwards Phoebe induced Mervyn to lie on the sofa, and having made
every preparation for the travellers, she sat down to wait. She could
not read, she could not work; she felt that tranquillity was needful for
her brother, and had learnt already the soothing effect of absolute
repose. Indeed, one of the first tokens by which Miss Fennimore had
perceived character in Phoebe was her faculty of being still. Only that
which has substance can be motionless. There she sat in the lamplight,
her head drooping, her hands clasped on her knee, her eyes bent down, not
drowsy, not abstracted, not rigid, but peaceful. Her brother lay in the
shade, watching her with a half-fascinated gaze, as though a magnetic
spell repressed all inclination to work himself into agitation.

The stillness became an effort at last, but it was resolutely preserved
till the frost-bound gravel resounded with wheels. Phoebe rose, Mervyn
started up, caught her hand and squeezed it hard. 'Do not let him be
hard on me, Phoebe,' he said. 'I could not bear it.'

She had little expected this. Her answer was a mute caress, and she
hurried out, but in a tumult of feeling, retreated behind the shelter of
a pillar, and silently put her hand on Robert's arm as he stepped out of
the carriage.

'Wait,' he whispered, holding her back. 'Hush! I have promised that she
shall see no one.'

Bertha descended, unassisted, her veil down, and neither turning to the
right nor the left, crossed the hall and went upstairs. Robert took off
his overcoat and hat, took a light and followed her, signing that Phoebe
should remain behind. She found Mervyn at the library door, like herself
rather appalled at the apparition that had swept past them. She put her
hand into his, with a kind of common feeling that they were awaiting