articular, when
they are nigh upon their third ten.'

'Don't tell me such things! I don't believe them; but they ought never
to be suggested.'

'You ought to thank me for teaching you knowledge of the world.'

He was called off, but heavy at her heart lay the text, 'The knowledge of
wickedness is not wisdom.'

Mervyn's confidences were serious troubles to Phoebe. Gratifying as it
was to be singled out by his favour, it was distressing to be the
repository of what she knew ought never to have been spoken, prompted by
a coarse tone of mind, and couched in language that, though he meant it
to be restrained, sometimes seemed to her like the hobgoblins' whispers
to Christian. Oh! how unlike her other brother! Robert had troubles,
Mervyn grievances, and she saw which were the worst to bear. It was a
pleasing novelty to find a patient listener, and he used it to the
utmost, while she often doubted whether to hear without remonstrance were
not undutiful, yet found opposition rather increased the evil by the
storm of ill-temper that it provoked.

This last communication was dreadful to her, yet she could not but feel
that it might be a wholesome warning to avoid giving offence to the
jealousy which, when once pointed out to her, she could not prevent
herself from tracing in Juliana's petulance towards herself, and resolve
to force her into the background. Even Bertha was more often brought
forward, for in spite of a tongue and temper cast somewhat in a similar
mould, she was rather a favourite with Juliana, whom she was not unlikely
to resemble, except that her much more elaborate and accurate training
might give her both more power and more self-control.

As Mervyn insinuated, Juliana was prudent in not lengthening out the
engagement, and the marriage was fixed for Christmas week, but it was not
to take place at Hiltonbury. Sir Bevil was bashful, and dreaded county
festivities, and Juliana wished to escape from Maria as a bridesmaid, so
they preferred the privacy of an hotel and a London church. Phoebe could
not decently be excluded, and her heart leapt with the hope of seeing
Robert, though so unwelcome was his name in the family that she could not
make out on what terms he stood, whether proscribed, or only disapproved,
and while sure that he would strive to be with her, she foresaw that the
pleasure would be at the cost of much pain. Owen Sandbrook was spending
his vacation at the Holt, and Miss Charlecote loo