——

So,

194

THE PANELLED HOUSE.

mind. Once she tried to open Aunt Hermy’s
mind to the suggestion; but found herself most
decidedly in the wrong box for so doing.

“ Winny, you should not repeat such suspicions,
if you are so unfortunate as to have them come
into your mind,” said Aunt Hermy, very quietly,
and for her severely. ‘Nest is perfectly satisfied,
and it is not the right thing for a girl like you to
trump up stories, and then try to persuade yourself
that they are true. No, I will not hear another syl-
lable on the subject! I am quite ashamed of you !”

was once out of the way, she almost persuaded
herself that she had been fanciful and mischief-
making, and that Nest must know her own affairs
best. Certainly, she took all Edward’s little atten-
tions to Flora as serenely as possible, for Nest had
no jealousy in her nature, and considered that
Edward was only identifying himself with their

of the duties of hospitality. Nevertheless, even

had a toothache, and could not go out one evening,

the grayel-walk for nearly an hour, while she was
alone. She put it down to Flora; and laughed to
Winny afterwards about their visitor being so fond
| of any thing that wore a coat, that she would even

used to say.

Winny, who was rather eross.

** Never mind, I am not jealous,” said Nest.

* You ought to be,” the younger sister thought,
if she did not say.

When Colonel Armyn came to fetch his daughter
he had an interview with Aunt Hermy and Nest
in the drawing-room. Winny and Flora were out
with Aunt Immy, and thus his two favourites in

| the family were the only ones in the way.

“JT wish I could satisfy myself about Escott,”
said he, in the course of conversation.

Nest looked up eagerly, remembering Winny’s
| midnight confidence.
| ‘There seems to be so little reason for his act-
| ing as he has done except upon the supposition

that he did it, and was not hardened enough in |

| deceit to deny it boldly,” said his father.

“What was it?” asked Aunt Hermy.

“An impertinent, ungentlemanly practical joke
perpetrated on the Dean of St. Wilfrid’s. I
would sooner drop the particulars. The less they
| are discussed, and the sooner they are forgotten—
if ever—the better for Escott.”

Colonel Armyn’s face could not have looked
more stern when he stood in the midst of his
mutinous sepoys in *57,

So Winny had to retire baffled ; and when Flora |
_ afraid that it is too like poor Escott!”

household, and treating Flora with the civility due |
to a visitor—for she had most conscientious views |

Nest felt a little hurt on one occasion, when she

| him at Oxford, in the shape of three hundred
to watch Edward and Flora walking up and down |

_ have preferred a stick to nobody, as their old nurse |

; . : . |
“A stick, or some one else’s property,” said

| Hugh, what will you do with him ?”

| for the Engineers or Artillery, where he will have

_any other course I could take,

“His tutor—Spencer—has told me all about it,
at least, as far as he knows. It seems that there
are two men in the scrape, but the other positively
denied that he had any thing to do with it; and of |
course you cannot convict a man of a falsehood |
without proof, of which there was none. Then |
Escott seems to have denied the charge, then half |
admitted it, then denied it again, and altogether
to have given them the impression of a man who |
had not the strength of mind to bear the blame he
deserved, while he could not reconcile it to his}
conscience to throw it upon any one else. I am}

“But I thought he positively denied it to you,”
said Miss Rivers.

“He did; but rather as if he were sticking to an
assertion once made, than as if he were stating a
matter of fact. He flared up at the first moment,
too, and charged me with doubting his word, which
I had not done till his manner then roused my
suspicion. Poor fellow! I did hope he was rea-
sonable, but he seems even to have lost that. Be-
sides, Hermione, I found there were other relies of

pounds’ worth of debt.”

Aunt Hermy looked thoroughly horrified now.
She had been a little inclined to take his part
before, thinking his father rather needlessly cre-
dulous of his guilt; but this changed her views-
“Three hundred pounds!” she said. ‘My dear

“T hardly know. I shall not let him go back to
Oxford ; it is a hot-bed of temptation for a lad like
him. He has something of a fancy for the army,
but I shall not let him go in unless he likes to try

to work. I rather think of keeping him under my
own eye for a while: I could coach him myself for
the Artillery, perhaps. He has a fancy that way,
and though he is rather old, I might get him into
Woolwich yet.”

“Would not that be a trial for both of vou?”|
asked Aunt Hermy. |

“T cannot say whether it would be worse thar}
At least, I should
have the satisfaction of not shirking my responsi-
bility, as I feel tempted to do every hour of the
day, when I think of it. Hermione, you need not
say any thing to dissuade me. I know I have mis-
managed every thing with regard to those poor
children ; but yet I could not feel happy if I did|
not go on with it, trying to do my best!”

Edward’s next visit, to which Nest had looked
forward as a period of supreme happiness—sinee
Flora would be away, and Nest, though by no
means jealous, preferred her room to her company
—proved a failure. He seemed low in spirits, and
a little irritable, and Nest was afraid he was ill.

i