possession of Charles
and his father. Such a state of things had not prevailed since Guy's
arrival: Hollywell was hardly like the same house; Mrs. Edmonstone and
Laura could do nothing without being grumbled at or scolded by one
or other of the gentlemen; even Amy now and then came in for a little
petulance on her father's part, and Charles could not always forgive her
for saying in her mournful, submissive tome,--'It is of no use to talk
about it!'

CHAPTER 18

This just decree alone I know,
Man must be disciplined by woe,
To me, whate'er of good or ill
The future brings, since come it will,
I'll bow my spirit, and be still.
--AESCHYLUS, (Anstice's Translation.)

Guy, in the meantime, was enduring the storm in loneliness, for he was
unwilling to explain the cause of his trouble to his companions. The
only occasion of the suspicions, which he could think of, was his
request for the sum of money; and this he could not mention to
Mr. Wellwood, nor was he inclined to make confidants of his other
companions, though pleasant, right-minded youths.

He had only announced that he had had a letter which had grieved him
considerably, but of which he could not mention the contents; and as
Harry Graham, who knew something of the Broadstone neighbourhood, had
picked up a report that Sir Guy Morville was to marry Lady Eveleen de
Courcy, there was an idea among the party that there was some trouble in
the way of his attachment. He had once before been made, by some
joke, to colour and look conscious; and now this protected him from
inconvenient questions, and accounted for his depression. He was like
what he had been on first coming to Hollywell--grave and silent, falling
into reveries when others were talking, and much given to long, lonely
wanderings. Accustomed as he had been in boyhood to a solitary life in
beautiful scenery, there was something in a fine landscape that was to
him like a friend and companion; and he sometimes felt that it would
have been worse if he had been in a dull, uniform country, instead of
among mountain peaks and broad wooded valleys. Working hard, too, helped
him not a little, and conic sections served him almost as well as they
served Laura.

A more real help was the neighbourhood of Stylehurst. On the first
Sunday after receiving Mr. Edmonstone's letter, he went to church there,
instead of with the others, to St. Mildred's. They thought it was
for