, though not lessening the outward harmony of
those early bridal days. The long, dark drives to the county gaieties,
shut up with Mervyn and Cecily, were formidable by the mere existence of
a topic, never mentioned, but always secretly dwelt on. And in spite of
three letters a week, Phoebe was beginning to learn that trust does not
fully make up to the heart for absence, by the distance of London to
estimate that of Canada, and by the weariness of one month, the tedium of
seven years!

'Yet,' said Bertha to Cecily, 'Phoebe is so stupidly like herself now she
is engaged, that it is no fun at all. Nobody would guess her to be in
love! If they cared for each other one rush, would not they have floated
to bliss even on streams of gin?'

Cecily would not dispute their mutual love, but she was not one of those
who could fully understand the double force of that love which is second
to love of principle. Obedience, not judgment, had been her safeguard,
and, like most women, she was carried along, not by the abstract idea,
but by its upholder.

Intuition, rather than what had actually passed before her, showed Phoebe
more than once that Cecily was sorely perplexed by the difference between
the standard of Sutton and that of Beauchamp. Strict, scrupulous, and
deeply devout, the clergyman's daughter suffered at every deviation from
the practices of the parsonage, made her stand in the wrong places, and
while conscientiously and painfully fretting Mervyn about petty details,
would be unknowingly carried over far greater stumbling-blocks. In her
ignorance she would be distressed at habits which were comparatively
innocent, and then fear to put forth her influence at the right moment.
There was hearty affection on either side, and Mervyn was exceedingly
improved, but more than once Phoebe saw in poor Cecily's harassed,
puzzled, wistful face, and heard in her faltering remonstrances, what it
was to have loved and married without perfect esteem and trust.

CHAPTER XXXII

Get thee an ape, and trudge the land
The leader of a juggling band.--SCOTT

'Master Howen, Master Howen, you must not go up the best stairs.'

'But I will go up the best stairs. I don't like the nasty, dark, back
stairs!'

'Let me take off your boots then, sir; Mrs. Stubbs said she could not
have such dirty marks--'

'I don't care for Mrs. Stubbs! I won't take my boots off! Get off--I'll
kick you if you touch them! I shall go where