p, it added something to the general temper
of self-assertion, but in fact Cecil had little time to think, so
thickly did gaieties and preparations crowd upon her. It was the
full glory and importance of the Member's wife, her favourite ideal,
but all the time her satisfaction was marred by secret heartache as
she saw how wearily and formally her husband dragged through
whatever fell to his lot, saw how jaded and depressed he looked, and
heard him laugh his company laugh without any heart in it. She
thought it all his mother's fault, and meant to make up for
everything when she had him to herself.

Julius had his troubles. When Rosamond found that races were what
she called his pet aversion, she resisted with all her might. Her
home associations were all on fire again. She would not condemn the
pleasures she had shared with her parents, by abstinence from them,
any more than she would deviate from Lady Rathforlane's nursery
management to please Mrs. Poynsett and Susan. A bonnet, which
Julius trusted never to see in church, was purchased in the face of
his remark that every woman who carried her gay attire to the stand
made herself an additional feather on the hook of evil. At first
she laughed, and then grew tearfully passionate in protests that
nothing should induce her to let her brothers see what their own
father did turned into a crime; and if they went without her to take
care of them, and fell into mischief, whose fault would that be?

It was vain to hint that Tom was gone back to school, and Terry
cared more for the Olympic dust than that of Backsworth. She had
persuaded herself that his absence would be high treason to her
father, whom she respected far more at a distance than when she had
been struggling with his ramshackle, easy-going ways. Even now, she
was remonstrating with him about poor Terry's present misery. His
last half year had been spent under the head-master, who had
cultivated his historical and poetical intelligence, whereas Mr.
Driver was nothing but an able crammer; and the moment the lad
became interested and diverged from routine, he was choked off
because such things would not 'tell.' If the 'coach' had any
enthusiasm it was for mathematics, and thitherwards Terry's brain
was undeveloped. With misplaced ingenuity, he argued that sums came
right by chance and that Euclid was best learnt by heart, for 'the
pictures' simply confused him; and when Julius, amazed at finding so
clev