rl.

So Mr. Ward departed, and Mary was relieved, although she missed his
honest manly homage, and sound wise tone of thought, where she had so
few to love or lean on. She thought that she ought to try to put
herself out of the way of her cousins at home as much as possible, and
so she did not try to make time to write to Clara, and time did not
come unsought, for her father's health did not improve; and when they
returned to Lima, he engrossed her care almost entirely, while his
young wife continued her gaieties, and Mary had reason to think the
saya y manto disguise was frequently donned; but it was so much the
custom of ladies of the same degree, that Mary thought it neither
desirable nor likely to be effectual to inform her father, and incite
him to interfere. She devoted herself to his comfort, and endeavoured
to think as little as she heard of English cousins.

There was not much to hear. After returning home quite well, Lord
Ormersfield was laid up again by the first cold winds, and another
summer of German brunnens was in store for him and Louis. Lady Conway
had taken a cottage in the Isle of Wight, where Walter, having found
the Christmas holidays very dull, and shown that he could get into
mischief as well without Delaford as with him, she sent him off in a
sort of honourable captivity to James and Isabel, expecting that he
would find it a great punishment. Instead of this, the change from
luxury to their hard life seemed to him a sort of pic-nic. He enjoyed
the 'fun' of the waiting on themselves, had the freedom of Ormersfield
park for sport; and at home, his sister, whom he had always loved and
respected more than any one else. James had time to attend to him, and
to promote all his better tastes and feelings; and above all, he lost
his heart to his twin nieces. It was exceedingly droll to see the half
quarrelsome coquetries between the three, and to hear Walter's grand
views for the two little maidens as soon as he should be of age. James
and Louis agreed that there could not be much harm in him, while he
could conform so happily to such a way of life. Everything is
comparative, and the small increase to James's income had been
sufficient to relieve him from present pinching and anxiety in the
scale of life to which he and Isabel had become habituated. His
chaplaincy gave full employment for heart and head to a man so
energetic and earnest; he felt himself useful there, and threw himself
into i