e would have held out his hand silently to each of the company,
and the secret pleasure in the fulfilment of all that was just and
right which would have been in his mind. It was instantaneous, it was
involuntary, it made her smile against her will; but the smile recalled
her to herself, and overwhelmed her with compunction and misery.
Smile--when it was he who lay there in the coffin, under that black
pall, expecting from her the last observances, and that homage which
ought to come from a breaking heart!

The blinds were drawn up when they returned home, the sunshine pouring
in, the table spread. Minnie, leading Chatty with her, not without a
slight struggle on that young lady's part, retired to her room, and lay
down a little, which was the right thing to do. She had a tray brought
upstairs, and was not disinclined for her luncheon: mercifully, their
presence at the funeral had not been too much for them. And all the
mourning was complete and everything in order, even so far as to the
jet necklaces which the girls put on when they went down to tea. Mrs.
Warrender had been quite overcome on re-entering the house, feeling,
though she had so suffered from the long interval before the funeral,
that to come back to a place from which he had now been solemnly shut
out for ever was more miserable than all that had gone before; for it
will be perceived that she was not of the steady mettle of the others,
but a fantastic woman, who changed her mind very often, and whose
feelings were always betraying her. The funeral had been early, and the
distant visitors had been able to leave in good time, so that there was
no need for a large luncheon party; and the lawyer and a cousin of Mr.
Warrender's were the only strangers who shared that meal with the mother
and son. Then, as a proper period had now been arrived at, and as
solicitors rush in where heirs fear to tread, open questions were asked
about the plans of the family and what Theo meant to do. He said at
once, "I see no need for plans. Why should there be any discussion of
plans? So far as outward circumstances go, what change is there? My
mother and the girls will just go on as usual, and I, of course, will go
back to Oxford. It will be more than a year before I can take my
degree."

He thought--but no doubt he must have been mistaken--that a blank look
came over his mother's face; but it was so impossible that she could
have thought of anything else that he dismissed the i