"No, no," put in Wilfred--"that"s wrong!

"To draw the sergeant"s daughter; Fangs dragged down unto the town, And Jill came moaning after!"

"I didn"t moan--"

"Oh, you don"t know how disconsolate you looked! Moaning, you know, because her Fangs had to draw the other young woman--eh, Gill? Fangs always leave an aching void, you know."

"You ridiculous boy! I"m sure I wish Fangs would leave a void. It wouldn"t ache!"

The two parents had been exchanging glances of something very like consternation, and of the mute inquiry on one side, "Were you aware of this sort of thing? and an emphatic shake of the head on the other. Then Sir Jasper"s voice exclaimed aloud--

"Children, we hear every word you say, and are shocked at your impertinence and bad taste!"

There was a scatter. Wilfred and Valetta, who had been pinioning Gillian on either side by her dress, released her, and fled into the laurels that veiled the guinea-pigs; but their father"s long strides pursued them, and he gravely said--

"I am very sorry to find this is your style of so-called wit!"

"It was only chaff," said Valetta, the boldest in right of her girlhood.

"Very improper chaff! I am the last person to object to harmless merriment; but you are both old enough to know that on these subjects such merriment is not harmless."

"Everybody does it," whined Valetta, beginning one of her crying fits.

"I am sorry you have been among people who have led you to think so.

No nicely-minded girl will do so, nor any brother who wishes to see his sisters refined, right-feeling women. Go in, Valetta--I can"t suffer this howling! Go, I say! Your mother will talk to you. Now, Wilfred, do you wish to see your sisters like your mother?"

"They"ll never be that, if they live to a hundred!"

"Do not you hinder it, then; and never let that insulting nickname pa.s.s your lips again."

Wilfred"s defence as to universal use in the family was inaudible, and he was allowed to slouch away.

Gillian had fled to her mother, entreating her to explain to her father that such jests were abhorrent to her.

"But you know, mamma, if I was cross and dignified, Wilfred would enjoy it all the more, and be ten times worse."

"Quite true, my dear. Papa will understand; but we are sorry to hear that nickname.

"It was an old Royal Wardour name, mamma. Harry and Claude both used it, and--oh, lots of the young officers!"

"That does not make it more becoming in you."

"N--no. But oh, mamma, he was very kind to-day! But I do wish it had been anybody else!"

And her colour rose so as to startle her mother.

"Why, my dear, I thought you would have been glad that a stranger did not find you in that plight!"

"But it makes it all the worse. He does beset us, mamma; and it is hard on me, after all the other nonsense!"

Lady Merrifield burst out laughing.

"My dear child, he thinks as much of you as of old Halfpenny!"

"Oh, mamma, are you sure?" said Gillian, still hiding her face. "It was not silliness of my own; but Kitty Varley told Val that everybody said it--her sister, and Miss Mohun, and all. Why can"t he go away, and not be always bothering about this horrid place with nothing to do?"

"How thankful I shall be to have you all safe at Clipston!"

"But, mamma, can"t you keep him off us?"

Valetta"s sobbing entrance here prevented more; but while explaining to her the causes of her father"s displeasure, her mother extracted a good deal more of the gossip, to which she finally returned answer--

"There is no telling the harm that is done by chattering gossip in this way. You might have learnt by what happened before what mistakes are made. What am I to do, Valetta? I don"t want to hinder you from having friends and companions; but if you bring home such mischievous stories, I shall have to keep you entirely among ourselves till you are older and wiser."

"I never--never will believe--anybody who says anybody is going to marry anybody!" sobbed Valetta desperately and incoherently.

"Certainly no one who knows nothing about the matter. There is nothing papa and I dislike much more than such foolish talk; and to tease your sister about it is even worse; but I will say no more about that, as I believe it was chiefly Wilfred"s doing."

"I--told--Will," murmured Valetta. "Mysie begged me not, but I had done it."

"How much you would have saved yourself and everybody else if you had let the foolish word die with you! Now, good-night, my dear. Bathe your eyes well, or they will be very uncomfortable to-morrow; and do try to cure yourself of roaring when you cry. It vexes papa so much more."

Another small scene had to follow with the boy, who was quite willing to go off to bed, having no desire to face his father again, though his mother had her fears that he was not particularly penitent for "what fellows always did when people were spooning." He could only be a.s.sured that he would experience unpleasant consequences if he recurred to the practice; but Wilfred had always been the problem in the family.

The summer twilight was just darkening completely, and Lady Merrifield had returned to the drawing-room, and was about to ring for lights, when Sir Jasper came in through the window, saying--

"No question now about renewal. Angelic features, more than angelic calmness and dignity. Ha! you there, young ladies!" he added in some dismay as two white dresses struck his eye.

"There"s no harm done," said Lady Merrifield, laughing. "I was thinking whether to relieve Gillian"s mind by telling her the state of the case, and Mysie is to be trusted."

"Oh, mamma, then it is Kalliope!" exclaimed Gillian, already relieved, for even love could not have perceived calmness and dignity in her sitting upon Bruno"s head.

"Has she ever talked about him?" asked Lady Merrifield.

"No; except to-day, when I said I hoped she was safe from him on that road. She said he had always been very kind to her, and taught her to draw when she was quite a little girl."

"Just so," said Lady Merrifield. "Well, when she was a little older, poor Mr. White, who was one of the most honourable and scrupulous of men, took alarm, and saw that it would never do to have the young officers running after her."

"It was an uncommonly awkward position," added Sir Jasper, "with such a remarkable-looking girl, and a foolish unmanageable mother. It made poor White"s retirement the more reasonable when the girl was growing too old to be kept at school any longer."

"And has he been constant to her all these years? How nice!" cried Mysie.

"After a fashion," said Lady Merrifield. "He made me the receptacle of a good deal of youthful despair."

"All the lads did," said her husband.

"But he got over it, and it seemed to have pa.s.sed out of his life.