uccumbed to the
fascination, but Julius had given one such foil, that she had never
again attempted to cajole him.

"I have seen that you did from the first," said Lenore. "And it
would make it much easier to talk to you than to any outsider, who
would never understand, even if it were possible for me to explain,
how hard it is to see which way my duty lies--especially filial."

"Do you mean in general, or in this special matter?"

"Both. You see, in her hands he is so different from what he was
before she came home, that I don't feel as if I was obeying him--
only her; and I don't think I am bound to do that. Not in the great
matter, I am clear. Nobody can meddle with my real sincere pledge
of myself to Frank, nobody!" she spoke as if there was iron in her
lips. "But as far as overt acts go, they have a right to forbid me,
till I am of age at least, and we must bear it."

"Yes, you are right there."

"But there are thousands of other little cases of right and wrong,
and altogether I have come to such a spirit of opposition that I
find it easier to resist than to do anything with a good grace."

"You cannot always tell when resistance is principle, and when
temper or distaste."

"There's distaste enough always," said poor Lenore.

"To gaieties?" he said, amazed as one habituated to his wife's
ravenous appetite for any sort of society or amusement.

"Of course," she answered sadly. "A great deal of trouble just for
a little empty babble. Often not one word worth remembering, and a
general sense of having been full of bad feelings."

"No enjoyment?" he asked in surprise.

"Only by the merest chance and exception," she answered, surprised
at his surprise; "what is there to enjoy?"

The peculiar-looking clergyman might have seemed more likely to ask
such a question than the beautiful girl, but he looked at her
anxiously and said, "Don't nourish morbid dislike and contempt, my
dear Lena, it is not a safeguard. There are such things as perilous
reactions. Try to weigh justly, and be grateful for kindness, and
to like what is likeable."

At that moment, after what had been an interval of weary famine to
all but these two, host and hostess appeared, the lady as usual,
picturesque, though in the old black silk, with a Roman sash tied
transversely, and holly in her hair; and gaily shaking hands--
"That's right, Lady Rosamond; so you are trusted here! Your husband
hasn't sent you to represent him?"

"I