r informing her aunt of his return, that
lady was also disconcerted. She had fully calculated upon seeing her
husband before he had access to Emily. But it was too late now, but she
used all her tact to disperse her friends at an early hour, and then
found Mr. Graham smoking in the dining-room.

He was in an unpleasant mood; but she contrived to conciliate rather
than irritate him, avoided all discordant subjects, and the next morning
introduced to her friends an apparently affable host.

But this serenity was disturbed long before the Sabbath drew to a close.
As he walked up the aisle, before morning service, with Emily, according
to custom, leaning upon his arm, his brow darkened at seeing Isabel
complacently seated in that corner of the old fashioned pew which had
for years been sacred to his blind daughter. Mrs. Graham winked at her
niece, but Isabel was mentally rather obtuse, and was subjected to the
mortification of having Mr. Graham remove her from the seat, in which he
placed Emily, while the displaced occupant, who had been so mean for the
last three Sundays to deprive Miss Graham of this old-established right,
was compelled to sit in the only vacant place, beside Mr. Graham, with
her back to the pulpit. And very angry was she at observing the smiles
visible upon many countenances in the neighboring pews.

Mr. Graham had not been at home a week before he understood the state of
feeling in the mind of his wife and Isabel, and the manner in which it
was likely to act upon the happiness of the household. He saw that Emily
was superior to complaint; she had never in her life complained; he
observed, too, Gertrude's devotion to his much-loved child, and it
stamped her in his mind as one who had a claim to his regard which
should never be disputed. It is not, then, to be wondered at, that when
Mrs. Graham made her intended insinuations against his youthful
_protegee_, Mr. Graham treated them with contempt.

He had known Gertrude from a child. She was high-spirited--he had
sometimes thought her wilful--but _never_ mean or false. It was no use
to tell him all that nonsense;--he was glad that it was all off between
Kitty and Bruce; for Ben was an idle fellow, and would never make a good
husband; and, as to Kitty, he thought her much improved of late, and if
it were owing to Gertrude's influence, the more they saw of each other
the better.

Mrs. Graham was in despair. "It is all settled," said she to Isabel. "It
is