rive,
they overtook her in the court, her cloak over her arm, her crape limp
with spray, her cheeks brightened to a rosy glow by the wind, and a
real smile as she looked up to them. When Charles was on his sofa, she
stooped over him and whispered, 'James and Ben Robinson have taken me
out to the Shag!'

She saw Mr. Wellwood, and heard a good account of Coombe Prior. She made
great friends with the Ashfords, especially little Lucy and the baby.
She delighted in visits to the cottages, and Charles every day wondered
where was the drooping dejection that she could not shake off at home.
She would have said that in Guy's own home, 'the joy' had come to her,
no longer in fitful gleams and held by an effort for a moment, but
steadily brightening. She missed him indeed, but the power of finding
rest in looking forward to meeting him, the pleasure of dwelling on the
days he had been with her, and the satisfaction of doing his work for
the present, had made a happiness for her, and still in him, quiet,
grave, and subdued, but happiness likely to bloom more and more brightly
throughout her life. The anniversary of his death was indeed a day of
tears, but the tears were blessed ones, and she was more full of the
feeling that had sustained her on that morning, than she had been
through all the year before.

Charles and Philip, meanwhile, proceeded excellently together, each very
anxious for the comfort of the other. Philip was a good deal overwhelmed
at first by the quantity of business on his hands, and setting about it
while his head was still weak, would have seriously hurt himself again,
if Charles had not come to his help, worked with a thorough good will,
great clearness and acuteness, and surprised Philip by his cleverness
and perseverance. He was elated at being of so much use; and begged to
be considered for the future as Philip's private secretary, to which
the only objection was, that his handwriting was as bad as Philip's was
good; but it was an arrangement so much to the benefit of both parties,
that it was gladly made. Philip was very grateful for such valuable
assistance; and Charles amused himself with triumphing in his
importance, when he should sit in state on his sofa at Hollywell,
surrounded with blue-books, getting up the statistics for some
magnificent speech of the honourable member for Moorworth.

In the meantime, Charles and Amabel saw no immediate prospect of
their party returning from Ireland, and thou