d great reliance on
their nurse, and they were healthy children, so that there was not much
instruction as regarded the care of their little persons; but he had a
great deal to say about the books they were to be taught from, the hymns
they were to learn, and the exact management required by Lucilla's
peculiar temper and decided will. The theory was so perfect and so
beautifully wise that Honora sat by in reverence, fearing her power of
carrying it out; and Captain Charteris listened with a shade of satire on
his face, and at last broke out with a very odd grunt, as if he did not
think this quite what he had seen at Wrapworth parsonage.

Mr. Sandbrook coloured, and checked himself. Then after a pause, he said
in a very different tone, 'Perhaps so, Kit. It is only too easy to talk.
Nora knows that there is a long way between my intentions and my
practice.'

The humble dejection of that tone touched her more than she had been
touched since he had wrung her hand, long, long ago.

'Well,' said the captain, perceiving only that he had given pain, 'I will
say this for your monkeys, they do _know_ what is right at least; they
have heard the articles of war, which I don't fancy the other lot ever
did. As to the discipline, humph! It is much of a muchness, and I'm not
sure but it is not the best at the castle.'

'The children are different at home,' said Owen, quietly; 'but,' he
added, with the same sad humility, 'I dare say they will be much the
better for the change; I know--'

But he broke off, and put his hand before his eyes.

Honora hoped she should not be left alone with him, but somehow it did
happen. The captain went to bring the carriage into the court, and get
all imaginable wraps before trusting him out in the air, and Miss Wells
disappeared, probably intending kindness. Of course neither spoke, till
the captain was almost come back. Then Owen rose from where he had been
sitting listlessly, leaning back, and slowly said, 'Nora, we did not
think it would end thus when I put my hand to the plough. I am glad to
have been here again. I had not remembered what I used to be. I do not
ask you to forgive me. You are doing so, returning me good for--shall I
say evil?'

Honor could not speak or look, she drooped her head, and her hair veiled
her; she held out her hand as the captain came in, and felt it pressed
with a feverish, eager grasp, and a murmured blessing.

Honora did not see Mr. Sandbrook again,