manoeuvres of her ladyship had taken effect?

Lady Tyrrell did not know, nor indeed did Conny or Bee, that, though
they would meet their mother in London, she would not at once go
into Yorkshire with them, but would send them to their uncle's,
while she repaired to the retreat at St. Faith's. The harass of
these last few weeks, especially the endeavour to make her go to the
races, had removed all scruples from Lenore's mind as to leaving her
home in ignorance of her intentions. To her mind, the circumstances
of her brother's death had made a race-course no place for any of
the family, especially that of Backsworth; gout coming opportunely
to disable her father in London, and one or two other little
accidents, had prevented the matter from coming to an issue while
she had been in London, and the avowal of her intention to keep away
had filled her father with passion at her for her absurd scruples
and pretences at being better than other people. It had been Lady
Tyrrell who pacified him with assurances that she would soon do
better; no one wished to force her conscience, and Lenore, always on
the watch, began to wonder whether her sister had any reason for
wishing to keep her away, and longed the more for the house of truth
and peace.

So came on the bazaar day, which Mrs. Poynsett spent in solitude,
except for visits from the Rectory, and one from Joanna Bowater, who
looked in while Julius was sitting with her, and amused them by her
account of herself as an emissary from home with ten pounds to be
got rid of from her father and mother for good neighbourhood's sake.
She brought Mrs. Poynsett a beautiful bouquet, for the elderly
spinsters, she said, sat on the stairs and kept up a constant
supply; and she had also some exquisite Genoese wire ornaments from
Cecil's counter, and a set of studs from a tray of polished pebbles
sent up from Vivian's favourite lapidary at Rockpier. She had been
amused to find the Miss Strangeways hunting over it to match that
very simple-looking charm which Lena wore on to her watch, for, as
she said, "the attraction must either be the simplicity of it, or
the general Lena-worship in which those girls indulge."

"How does that dear child look?"

"Fagged, I think, but so does every one, and it was not easy to keep
order, Mrs. Duncombe's counter was such a rendezvous for noisy
people, and Miss Moy was perfectly dreadful, running about forcing
things on people and refusing change."

"A