girls themselves, who were so much out of the way of
seeing eligible persons, or being sought. The rector felt that if Minnie
Warrender once took the young man in hand he was safe. And they had
already met at Oxford during Commemoration, and young Cavendish had
remembered with pleasure their fresh faces and slightly, pleasantly
rustic and old-fashioned ways. He was very willing to come when he was
told that the Wilberforces saw a great deal of Warrender's nice sisters.
"Why, I am in love with them both! Of course I shall come," he had said,
with his boyish levity. But with equal levity had put it off from time
to time, and at last had chosen the moment which was least convenient,
the most uncomfortable for all parties,--a moment when there was nothing
but croquet, or picnics, or other gentle pleasures which require feminine
co-operation, to amuse the stranger, and when the feminine co-operation
which had been hoped for was for the time altogether laid on the shelf
and out of the question. Few things could be more trying than this state
of affairs.

Notwithstanding which Dick Cavendish arrived, as had been arranged.
There was nothing remarkable about his appearance. He was an ordinary
brown-haired, blue-eyed young man,--not, perhaps, ordinary, for that
combination is rather rare,--and there were some people who said that
something in his eye betrayed what they called insincerity; indeed there
was generally about him an agreeableness, a ready self-adaptation to
everybody's way of thinking, a desire to recommend himself, which is
always open to censure. Mrs. Wilberforce was one of the people who shook
her head and declared him to be insincere. And as he went so far as to
agree that the empire very possibly was dropping to pieces, and the
education of the poor tending to their and our destruction, in order to
please her, it is possible that she was not far wrong. As a matter of
fact, however, his tactics were successful even with her; and though
she did not relinquish her deep-seated conviction, yet the young man
succeeded in flattering and pleasing her, which was all that he wanted,
and not that she should vouch for his sincerity. He was very sorry to
hear that the Warrenders were in mourning. "I saw the death in the
papers," he said, "and thought for a moment that I had perhaps better
write and put off; for some people look their worst in mourning. But
then I reflected that some others look their best; and their hearts are