'I have never spoken to them since Polly went away-never until this morning,' said Thomasina. They do not like me now, and Robin said that I must not come again.'

'Never cry about it, my little maid,' said Sir Richard, taking out his great silk handkerchief to wipe away her tears. 'I daresay that it is only some mare's nest of your aunt's. Why did you go and see them this morning?'

'Because Maria told me last night that she had heard that Polly was ill, and I wanted to ask about her. And she is ill, only I promised Robin not to say anything about it,' said Thomasina, her tears beginning to flow afresh, since she felt that she had betrayed his confidence.

'The child is less to blame than I thought,' said Mrs. Grey, with an unwonted stretch of candour.

'You are always too ready to think her to

blame,' rejoined Sir Richard. 'No one is angry with you, my dear, and you must not cry any more.'

'But I am very miserable,' said Thomasina. 'I have lost all my friends, and Polly is ill, and father is unhappy; and you know that it is your fault, grandfather.'

'Now, Thomasina,' said her aunt, with genuine tenderness, 'I think you have a good deal to say for yourself, but you had better not stay to say it now. I am going to talk the matter over with Sir Richard.' And Thomasina accepted her dismissal with the instinctive belief that her cause was in good hands.

The child is perfectly right, Sir Richard,' reasoned Mrs. Grey, with much greater decision than Lady Bertram ever ventured to display towards her autocratic husband; 'you will have no peace of mind until you consent to this marriage.'

'Why should you turn round and say so?'

rejoined Sir Richard. Julia told me that you warned her against it a year ago.'

'I

'So I did,' said Mrs. Grey composedly;

gave her good advice then, and I give you no worse now. Anthony might have done better no doubt, but his heart is set on it, and I hear a good account of the girl. You should not give him cause to wish you in your grave, that he may have his own way.'

Anthony has given it up, and the girl gave him up,' said Sir Richard doggedly.

'I know she gave him up, and I like her the better for it. And now that she is breaking down, as girls will do after a time, the Windsors show a proper pride in trying to keep her secret. But you may take my word for it, Sir Richard, that if you were to die to-morrow, she would be Lady Bertram before the year is out,'

This was not a conciliatory mode of argu

ment, but the brother and sister understood

each other.

In that case it may as well be

now as then,' said he. But she shall never

live in this house in my time, to overrun the place with a pack of babies, and I will tie up every penny on which I can lay my hands for Thomasina.'

'You may make your own terms with Anthony,' said Mrs. Grey; he will be glad enough to get your consent in any shape.'

Be

'I don't call it consent, Thomasina. cause I am an old man I am set on one

side, and my wishes go for nothing.'

'Indeed, Sir Richard, you have had much more of your own way than is good for you, and it is but fair that Anthony should have his turn. No one can say that he has had too much of his own way.'

'Because he would have made a fool of himself if I had not been here to look after

him, and he is doing it now. I wonder what my lady will think of it?'

'Precisely what you tell her to think of it,' said Mrs. Grey, and Sir Richard chuckled gruffly, conscious that in that quarter, at all events, age had not slackened the vigour of his rule.

Sir Richard's inclination to yield was stimulated by the letter received from Mr. Windsor that morning, asking permission to resign the agency to the estate. He said that circumstances into which he need not enter had made such a step necessary, and he hoped that Sir Richard would not be inconvenienced by the shortness of the notice he desired to give. Sir Richard could not regard his son's marriage with Mary Windsor as anything but a misalliance, but the connection would, at all events, be less galling if her father were agent to any estate but his own. When the matter had been discussed