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Nest could not think how she could be, for she had
the contempt for field-sports which does sometimes
possess girls of an intellectual turn of mind without
sporting male relations ; but Winny was certainly
laughing, and eager, and put in a word here and
there which showed that she followed the narrative.

“J’m afraid there are no badgers here,” she
said, after the close of one of Escott’s anecdotes.
“But I suppose you will like hunting, and there
is plenty of that hereabouts.”

“JT don’t suppose my father will let we,” he
said. “He has not said any thing about my
having any thing to ride.” And Escott’s face,
which had been animated, clouded over and took
the heavy morose look it had had at the time of
his first visit.

“Oh, I thought you all rode,” said Winny: “he
asked if Nest and I did, and said he hoped some-
times we should come out riding with you, because
he wanted Flora to learn.”

‘Then that does seem like it,” said Escott, with
such sudden brightening that Winny could not
resist saying, “ Why don’t you ask him ?”

“We never ask him any thing,” said Escott.
‘He never gives us what we want if we do. Why,
I’ve asked him a dozen times at least, till I got too
old, to let me go to school: and now, instead of
letting me go off to a tutor somewhere, where I
should find a few other fellows to talk to, he’s
fixed for me to go to Erconbury to be coached by
the curate there.”

Whereby Winny perceived that Escott had his
grievances as well as his sister. Still, she had
broken the ice, and, as she considered, had redeemed
her challenge fairly by making him talk ; and she
liked him better than his sister, for he could
brighten and make himself very pleasant when he
chose, whereas she seemed to be interested only in
her own affairs.

When the visitors departed, they both gave a
warm invitation to Winny to come to the Manor
House. Nest was by courtesy included; but all
the warmth was accorded to Winny, and Aunt
Immy remarked it after they were gone.

“When J was a girl,” she said pointedly to
Winny, “I should have thought it wrong to put
myself forward before my elder sister. First of all
you drag the girl downstairs, and keep her there
to yourself; and then monopolize the boy, so that
| Nest has hardly had a word with him,”
| Quite as much as I wanted, Aunt Immy,” said
| Nest merrily, her spirits greatly lightened by the
| departure of her incubus.

“JT don’t care ; I don’t like to see Winny putting
| herself out of her place. It is neither right nor
proper, and I don’t call it proper feeling on her
| part,” added Aunt Immy severely.

| Winny pretended to cry, but her conscience

68 THE PANELLED HOUSE.

gave her a little prick notwithstanding ; for she
had so much satisfaction in making herself agree-
able that she was conscious at times of leaving
Nest in the background.

“ Nest,” she said, clasping her sister’s waist with
her two hands, next time they were alone together,
“T am compunctious, and I won't never do it no
more. Do you mind ?”

“No, nonsense, my dear,” said good, unselfish
Nest: ‘you are the one to make the house pleasant,
which I can’t do. Never mind Aunt Immy, but
go on as you do, and take the trouble off my hands.
It is much better for every one concerned.”

And Winny danced off, her mind at ease.

or)

Vil.
MRS. HEYDON’S DINNER-PARTY.

Friends, neighbours, countrymen, lend me your ears !

LyYKE was so quiet a place, that it caused quite a
stir in its little world ifa party was given either
at the Rectory, or the Panelled House. The poor
people always found it out beforehand, and knew
there would be soup for somebody, and the chronic
invalids knew it too, and expected delicacies; and
as a Lyke school-child, being asked to define
charity, had informed Nest that it was, “ when
people expect something,” charity in the Lyke
sense was very abundant just then.

The Rector and his wife had resolved to have a
dinner-party in honour of the newly arrived
parishioners. They had only a small dining-room,
and could not entertain more than ten; so that
with themselves, their nephew Jack, Miss Imogen
Rivers, and Nest, the Colonel, Mrs. Escott, and the
young Armyns, and a neighbouring curate, the
table was full. Aunt Hermy’s throat was delicate,
and she did not often go out in the evening; but
Winny was asked to come after dinner, an invita-
tion which she was not at all too proud to accept.

Nest looked very fresh and nice in her white |

evening dress, displaying the pretty shoulders and
the smooth contour of seventeen. Her shy gentle
manner suited her well, and so did the expression
of the thoughtful brow and grave eyes. Mrs.
Heydon looked approvingly at her, and still more
when Flora Armyn came in, attired in a manner

which certainly became her extremely well, but |
which was too fanciful to be quite suitable for a |

country dinner-party. The girl looked strikingly |

handsome, for her fair complexion seemed almost
dazzling in its lily and rose, and her masses of
chestnut-red hair were disposed to the utmost:
advantage ;

but her good looks were those of a |

person who has studied effect rather more than one |

would wish a young girl to do, and the consequence

was that she lacked the air of freshness and sim- |

plicity which gave such a charm to Nest.