d.

Could Lucilla but have seen that face, she would have doubted of her
means of reducing him to obedience.

The course he had adopted might indeed be the more excellent way in the
end, but at present even his self-devotion was not in such a spirit as to
afford much consolation to Honor. If good were to arise out of sorrow,
the painful seed-time was not yet over. His looks were stern even to
harshness, and his unhappiness seemed disposed to vent itself in doing
his work after his own fashion, brooking no interference.

He had taken a lodging over a baker's shop at Turnagain Corner. Honor
thought it fair for the locality, and knew something of the people, but
to Phoebe it was horror and dismay. The two small rooms, the painted
cupboard, the cut paper in the grate, the pictures in yellow gauze, with
the flies walking about on them, the round mirror, the pattern of the
carpet, and the close, narrow street, struck her as absolutely shocking,
and she came to Miss Charlecote with tears in her eyes, to entreat her to
remonstrate, and tell Robin it was his duty to live like a gentleman.

'My dear,' said Honor, rather shocked at a speech so like the ordinary
Fulmort mind, 'I have no fears of Robert not living like a gentleman.'

'I know--not in the real sense,' said Phoebe, blushing; 'but surely he
ought not to live in this dismal poky place, with such mean furniture,
when he can afford better.'

'I am afraid the parish affords few better lodgings, Phoebe, and it is
his duty to live where his work lies. You appreciated his self-denial, I
thought? Do you not like him to make a sacrifice?'

'I ought,' said Phoebe, her mind taking little pleasure in those acts of
self-devotion that were the delight of her friend. 'If it be his duty,
it cannot be helped, but I cannot be happy at leaving him to be
uncomfortable--perhaps ill.'

Coming down from the romance of martyrdom which had made her expect
Phoebe to be as willing to see her brother bear hardships in the London
streets, as she had herself been to dismiss Owen the first to his wigwam,
Honor took the more homely view of arguing on the health and quietness of
Turnagain Corner, the excellence of the landlady, and the fact that her
own cockney eyes had far less unreasonable expectations than those
trained to the luxuries of Beauchamp. But by far the most efficient
solace was an expedition for the purchase of various amenities of life,
on which Phoebe expended the last