ne on guard.

"Now then, my dear," she said, "I have known a talk must soon come.
You have all been very good to me to leave it so long."

"I am come now without poor Miles's knowledge or consent," said
Julius, "because it is necessary for him to know what to do."

"He will give up the navy," said his mother. "O, Julius! does he
require to be told that he--?" and she laid her head on her son's
shoulder.

"It is what he cannot bear to be told; but what drives me on is that
Whitlock tells me that the Wil'sbro' people want to bring him in at
once, as the strongest proof of their feeling for Raymond."

"Yes," she raised her head proudly, "of course he must come forward.
He need have no doubt. Send him to me, Julius, I will tell him to
open letters, and put matters in train. Perhaps you will write to
Graves for me, if he does not like it, poor boy."

She had roused herself into the woman of business, and when Miles,
after some indignation at her having been disturbed, obeyed the
summons, she held out her arms, and became the consoler.

"Come, my boy," she said, "we must face it sooner or later. You
must stand foremost and take up his work for him."

"Oh, mother! mother! you know how little I am able," said Miles,
covering his face with his hands.

"You do not bring his burthened heart to the task," she said. "If
you had watched and felt with him, as perhaps only his mother could,
you would know that I can be content that the long heartache should
have ceased, where the weary are at rest. Yes, Miles, I feel as if
I had put him to sleep after a long day of pain, as when he was a
little child."

They hardened themselves to the discussion, Mrs. Poynsett explaining
what she thought the due of her eldest son, only that Cecil's
jointure would diminish the amount at her disposal. Indeed, when
she was once aroused, she attended the most fully; but when Miles
found her apologizing for only affording him the little house in the
village, he cried out with consternation.

"My dear," she said, "it is best so; I will not be a burthen on you
young ones. I see the mistake."

"I know," stammered Miles, "my poor Anne is not up to your mark--not
clever like you or Jenny--but I thought you did like her pretty
handy ways."

"I feel them and love them with all my heart; but I cannot have her
happiness and yours sacrificed to me. Yes, you boys love the old
nest; but even Julius and Rose rejoice in their own, and you must