THE PANELLED HOUSE. 145
.

‘I am afraid you have let your temper get the
upper hand again, Escott, and that that must bear
some of the blame. But Iam very sorry for this,
—whether you are in fault or not, of course I
cannot tell at present.”

“Then I suppose my word is to be doubted ?” |

said Escott, indignantly.

Colonel Armyn looked at him, not for the moment
understanding what he meant. He had referred
only to Escott’s refusal to refute the accusation,
not to his actual blame-worthiness in regard to the
matter concerning which he had been rusticated.

“JT said nothing of doubting your word, Escott,”
he said gravely. “If you can’t control yourself,
you had better go. We will talk of this later.”

Escott marched sulkily out of the room, as he
used to do when he was a boy. Colonel Armyn
walked to the window, and stood there uneasily,
fooking into the sunny garden.

** He used to be truthful at least.
even that now? Poor boy! what can I do for
him? I must wait, and hear more before I judge
him; but I fear his story is hardly probable. He
must have had some reason for refusing to clear
himself, if he could have done so—I fear no good
one. He could hardly have let his temper carry
him away to that length.
and see.”

But the heavy sigh with which Colonel Armyn’s
meditations closed, showed that his musings were
not hopeful ones.

Has he lost

VI.

INEQUALITIES.
A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.
G. HERBERT.
«‘Hermione,” said Colonel Armyn, a few days
later, “I am going to ask you to do me a favour.
If you were not such an old friend, I should not
dare.”

“What can it be?” said Aunt Hermy, a little
nervous, and a little amused by this prelude.

“JT must go to Oxford to investigate this busi-
ness of Escott’s, and I have disposed of Escott
meanwhile, by sending him off to Switzerland for
a month with Burnet, who is taking his holiday
there. They start to-night, and I can trust Bur-
net to see that the boy does not get into mischief.
Then I thought I should like to run down to
Edinburgh to see my old comrade, Macpherson,
who is back from India now, and altogether I
should be away for a fortnight. Mrs. Escott wants
to go and see her son John down in Yorkshire,
whom she has not seen for three years; and
altogether, I suppose we should be away for a
fortnight. But I can’t inflict Flora on an old
bachelor lke Macpherson, and John Escott’s

RS ee ee — Eee

VOL. IX. N.S.— NO. LI.

Well, we must wait |

friends are not such as I should choose for her ;
nor should I like to trust her by herself at the
Manor. Hermiorie, will you cut the Gordian knot
for me, and take her in ?”

Hermione laughed. “Is that all, Hugh? Of
course we will. The girls will be delighted to
have her,”—this was a stretch of Aunt Hermy’s
kindly imagination, since if Nest disliked any per-
son, that person was Flora Armyn. “But if you
will exeuse my saying so, I don’t like to hear you
say you can’t trust her, poor girl! You should
trust your children more, Hugh.”

“Tt is all very well for you, with those two nice
little nieces of yours, Hermione. But it comes
from the misfortune of their early bringing-up, I
suppose. I never quite know where I am with
my two. I daresay it is my fault; I am not
blaming them. But I should be all the happier if
you would not mind taking in Flora for that fort-
night.”

So the family arrangements were completed,
and Flora came to stay at the Panelled House.
She was not in quite as gracious a mood as might
have been, for she was angry with her father for
not having taken her to Edinburgh with
him; but no one could very long remain ill-
tempered in Winny’s company, and as they very
seldom received visitors at the Panelled House,
they made much of Flora. She was shown into
the most charming of little bed-rooms, with paper
and curtains all over pink rosebuds, and a view
over the garden into the wooded valley below;
and Winny flitted about her with strawberries and
eream, and five o’clock tea, and all manner of
dainties which did not exist at the Manor, Colonel
Armyn haying an old-fashioned, soldierly idea of
the value of asceticism. But since few young
people value enforced asceticism, it is not generally
found that they retain its habits for long together
when the outward pressure is removed.

She came on a Friday, and Edward Anderson,
as his established custom was now, appeared at the
Panelled House on the Saturday. He came down
by an earlier train than usual; and when he
arrived at the house, he found no one at home
whom he had expected to see. The, two aunts,
Nest and Winny, were all gone to see a con-
firmation at Erconbury, and Flora had rather dis-
concerted their arrangements by declining to
accompany them; for they did not consider it
hospitable to leave her alone. However, she
graciously allowed them to do so, saying that
she had letters to write; and in consequence, when
Edward Anderson made his appearance in the
drawing-room, he perceived a very good-looking
young lady, with magnificent chestnut hair, turning
over music at the piano. In another moment he
had recognized her as the girl with the wonderful

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