e
pleased, and only as an after-thought could come the perception that his
ease hardly befitted the circumstances, and that he comported himself
more like the master of the house than as a _protege_ under a cloud.

No sooner had he handed them into their vehicle than he sank into a
chair, and burst into one of the prolonged, vehement fits of laughter
that are the reaction of early youth unwontedly depressed. Never had he
seen such visages! They ought at once to be sketched--would be worth any
money to Currie the architect, for gurgoyles.

'For shame,' said Lucilla, glad, however, once more to hear the merry
peal; 'for shame, to laugh at my master!'

'I'm not laughing at old Pendy, his orifice is a mere crevice
comparatively. The charm is in seeing it classified--the recent sloth
accounted for by the ancient megatherium.'

'The megatherium is my master. Yes, I'm governess to Glumdalclitch!'

'You've done it?'

'Yes, I have. Seventy pounds a year.'

He made a gesture of angry despair, crying, 'Worse luck than I thought.'

'Better luck than I did.'

'Old Pendy thrusting in his oar! I'd have put a stop to your absurdity
at once, if I had not been sure no one would be deluded enough to engage
you, and that you would be tired of looking out, and glad to go back to
your proper place at the Holt before I sailed.'

'My proper place is where I can be independent.'

'Faugh! If I had known it, they should never have seen the Roman coins!
There! it is a lesson that nothing is too chimerical to be worth
opposing!'

'Your opposition would have made no difference.'

He looked at her silently, but with a half smile in lip and eye that
showed her that the moment was coming when the man's will might be
stronger than the woman's.

Indeed, he was so thoroughly displeased and annoyed that she durst not
discuss the subject with him, lest she should rouse him to take some
strong authoritative measures against it. He had always trusted to the
improbability of her meeting with a situation before his departure, when,
between entreaty and command, he had reckoned on inducing her to go home;
and this engagement came as a fresh blow, making him realize what he had
brought on those nearest and dearest to him. Even praise of Mrs.
Prendergast provoked him, as if implying Lucilla's preference for her
above the tried friend of their childhood; he was in his lowest spirits,
hardly speaking to his sister all dinner-time, and hurri