some
hope, some absorbing preoccupation of his own. His mother was straining
at her bonds like a greyhound in a leash. Minnie, who had been the chief
example of absolute self-satisfaction and certainty that everything was
right, had developed a keenness of curiosity and censure which betrayed
her conviction that something had gone wrong. These three were all, as
it were, on tiptoe, on the boundary line, the thinnest edge which divided
the known from the unknown; conscious that at any moment something might
happen which would disperse them and shatter all the remains of the old
life.

Chatty alone, amid these smouldering elements of change, sat calm in her
accustomed place as yet unawakened except to the mild pleasure of a new
face among those to which she was accustomed, and of a cheerful voice
and laugh which broke the monotony. She had not even gone so far as to
say to herself that such a cheerful presence coming and going might make
life more interesting. The new-comer, she was quite well aware, was going
away to-morrow, nor was there any reason within her power of divination
why he should not go; but he was a pleasant break. Chatty reasoned
with herself that though a love of novelty is a bad thing and quite
unjustifiable in a woman, still that when something new comes of itself
across one's point of vision, there is no harm in taking the good of it.
And accordingly she looked up with her face of pleasure, and smiled at
the very sound of Dick's cheerful voice, thinking how delightful it must
be to be so cheerful as that. What a happy temperament! If Theo had been
as cheerful! But then to think of Theo as cheerful was beyond the power
of mortal imagination. Thus they sat round the table, lighted by a large
lamp standing up tall in the midst, according to the fashion of the time.
In those days the light was small, not because of aesthetic principles,
but because people had not as yet learned how to make more light, and
the moderator lamp was the latest invention.

"We took Mr. Cavendish to Pierrepoint, as you suggested," said Mrs.
Wilberforce. "We had a very nice drive, but the place is really infested
by persons from Highcombe; the woman at the gate told us there had been
a party of thirty people from the works the day before yesterday. Sir
Edward will soon find the consequences if he goes on in that way. If
everybody is allowed to go, not only will they ruin the place, but other
people, people like ourselves, will g