their
self-satisfaction. Even Frampton is far from the impenetrable person
he used to be.'

'And I suppose they have done infinite good to the wild Marksedge
people!'

'Some are better, some are worse. I believe that people always are
worse when they reject good. I am glad to find, too, that the
improvements answer in a pecuniary point of view. His Lordship is
amazed at his son's sagacity, and they have never been so much at ease
in money matters.'

'Indeed! Well, I must own that I have always been struck with the very
small scale on which things are done here. Just the mere margin of
what is required by their station, barely an indulgence!'

'I fancy you must look into subscriptions for Fitzjocelyn's means,'
said James; 'and for the rest, they have no heart for new furniture
till he marries.'

'Well! I wonder if Mary is worth so much heart! It might be the best
thing for him if she would find some worthy merchant. He is very young
still, and looks younger. I should like him to begin the world again.'

'Ha! Isabel, you want to cook up a romance of your own for him.'

James was recovering cheerfulness. He thought he was bracing himself
to bear bravely with an unmerited wrong. The injustice of his sentence
hid from him the degree of justice; and with regard to his own temper,
he knew better what he restrained than what he expressed, and
habitually gave himself credit for what he did not say or do. There was
much that was really good in his present spirit, and it was on the way
to be better; but his was not the character to be materially altered by
the first brunt of a sudden shock. It was a step that he had brought
himself to forgive the trustees. He did not yet see that he had any
need to be forgiven.

At the end of three weeks James and Isabel returned to their home, and
to their new way of life; and Fitzjocelyn had only time to see that
they were beginning their struggle with good courage, before the
meeting of Parliament summoned him to London.

Isabel fully justified Miss Faithfull's prediction. She was too truly
high-minded to think any task beneath her; and with her heart in, not
out of her immediate work, she could not fail to be a happier woman.
Success gave as much pleasure in a household duty as in an
accomplishment--nay, far more when it was a victory over herself, and
an increase to the comfort of her husband. Her strength was much
tried, and the children often fatigued and haras