ruth and power
of his remonstrance must have made it leave a sting. Poor fellow, I
believe he suffered terribly--just as he had lost Fanny, too, which he
felt very deeply, for she was a very sweet creature, and he was very
fond of her. It was like losing both sisters and home at once.'

'Has he not just been staying with Mrs. Henley?'

'Yes. There was never any coolness, as people call it. He is the one
thing she loves and is proud of. They always correspond, and he often
stays with her; but he owns to disliking the Doctor, and I don't think
he has much comfort in Margaret herself, for he always comes back more
grave and stern than he went. Her house, with all her good wishes, can
be no home to him; and so we try to make Hollywell supply the place of
Stylehurst as well as we can.'

'How glad he must be to have you to comfort him!'

'Philip? Oh no. He was always reserved; open to no one but Margaret, not
even to his father, and since her marriage he has shut himself up within
himself more than ever. It has, at least I think it is this that has
given him a severity, an unwillingness to trust, which I believe is
often the consequence of a great disappointment either in love or in
friendship.'

'Thank you for telling me,' said Guy: 'I shall understand him better,
and look up to him more. Oh! it is a cruel thing to find that what one
loves is, or has not been, all one thought. What must he not have gone
through!'

Mrs. Edmonstone was well pleased to have given so much assistance to
Guy's sincere desire to become attached to his cousin, one of the most
favourable signs in the character that was winning so much upon her.

CHAPTER 5

A cloud was o'er my childhood's dream,
I sat in solitude;
I know not how--I know not why,
But round my soul all drearily
There was a silent shroud.
--THOUGHTS IN PAST YEARS

Mrs. Edmonstone was anxious to hear Mr. Lascelle's opinion of his pupil,
and in time she learnt that he thought Sir Guy had very good abilities,
and a fair amount of general information; but that his classical
knowledge was far from accurate, and mathematics had been greatly
neglected. He had been encouraged to think his work done when he had
gathered the general meaning of a passage, or translated it into English
verse, spirited and flowing, but often further from the original than he
or his tutor could perceive. He had never been taught to work, at l