strength and peace at the moment of trial, when
the wayward and untrained spirits of the daughter gave way. Not that she
blamed Henrietta, she was rather gratified to find that she was so much
attached to her home and her grandmother, and felt so much with her; and
after she had succeeded in some degree in restoring her to composure,
they talked long and earnestly over old times and deeper feelings.

CHAPTER IV.

The journey to London was prosperously performed, and Mrs. Frederick
Langford was not overfatigued when she arrived at Uncle Geoffrey's house
at Westminster. The cordiality of their greeting may be imagined, as a
visit from Henrietta had been one of the favourite visions of her cousin
Beatrice, through her whole life; and the two girls were soon deep in
the delights of a conversation in which sense and nonsense had an equal
share.

The next day was spent by the two Mrs. Langfords in quiet together,
while Henrietta was conducted through a rapid whirl of sight-seeing by
Beatrice and Uncle Geoffrey, the latter of whom, to his niece's great
amazement, professed to find almost as much novelty in the sights as she
did. A short December day, though not what they would have chosen, had
this advantage, that the victim could not be as completely fagged and
worn out as in a summer's day, and Henrietta was still fresh and in high
spirits when they drove home and found to their delight that the two
schoolboys had already arrived.

Beatrice met both alike as old friends and almost brothers, but
Alexander, though returning her greeting with equal cordiality, looked
shyly at the new aunt and cousin, and as Henrietta suspected, wished
them elsewhere. She had heard much of him from Beatrice, and knew that
her brother regarded him as a formidable rival; and she was therefore
surprised to see that his broad honest face expressed more good
humour than intellect, and his manners wanted polish. He was tolerably
well-featured, with light eyes and dark hair, and though half a year
older than his cousin, was much shorter, more perhaps in appearance than
reality, from the breadth and squareness of his shoulders, and from not
carrying himself well.

Alexander was, as ought previously to have been recorded, the third son
of Mr. Roger Langford, the heir of Knight Sutton, at present living at
Sutton Leigh, a small house on his father's estate, busied with farming,
sporting, and parish business; while his active wife contrived