knowing how to get her pardon, feeling
guilty, yet having done nothing. Her second venture had not brought her
very much additional happiness so far.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

"Two little girls. He came over to tell us yesterday. Poor Theo! He is
pleased, of course, but I think half ashamed too. It seems a little
ridiculous to have twins, and the first."

"I can't think how you can say it is ridiculous. It is very interesting.
But nowadays people seem to be ashamed of having children at all. It
used to be thought the strength of a country, and doing your duty to the
state. But people have different notions now."

"Well," said the rector, "I should have thought Theo would be pleased;
for he likes to be original in everything, and two little girls are as
unlike as possible to one little boy."

Mrs. Warrender's eyes shot forth a gleam, half of humorous acquiescence,
half of irritation, that Mr. Wilberforce should have divined her son's
state of mind. She had come to the Warren with Chatty for a few weeks,
for what they called "change," though the change of a six miles' journey
was not much. The Warren bore a very different aspect now from that which
it had borne in former days. It was light and cheerful; some new rooms
had been built, which broke the commonplace outlines of the respectable
house. It was newly furnished with furniture as unlike as possible to
the mahogany catafalques. Only the hall, which had been old-fashioned
and harmonious, in which Chatty was attending to the flowers, was the
same; and so far as that went, it might have been the very same day on
which Dick Cavendish had paid his first visit, when Chatty with her bowl
of roses had walked in, as he said, into his heart. There were still
roses of the second bloom, with the heat of July in their fervent heart,
and she stood at the table arranging them, changed, indeed, but not so
changed as to affect the indifferent spectator, to whom she still seemed
a part of the background, a figure passive though sweet, with no immediate
vocation in life. Old Joseph, too, was in the depths of the hall, just
visible, doing something,--something that was not of the least urgency
or importance, but which kept him about and hearing all that passed. He
and his old wife were in charge of the Warren, in the present changed
days, and though they both half resented the fact that the young master
had abandoned his own house, they were yet more than half pleased to
have this