"That is weak!" said Rachel. ceived the boy's word, and. it is my to deal with the breach of promise." business So down went Rachel, and finding the boys rushing about the garden, according to their practice, before her arrival, she summoned Conrade, and addressed him with, " Well, Conrade, I knew that you were violent and disobedient; but I never expected you to fail in your honor as a gentleman." "I'll thrash any one who says I have," hotly exclaimed Conrade. You gave ther, Grace had hunted out the old bowls, | take no notice, it would only distress Fanny, much to the delight of the younger ones. and make "the mother" more afraid of the This sport lasted a good while, but at last boys than she was already, and she doubted the sisters, who had relaxed their attention a the possibility of bringing it home to the little, perceived that Conrade and Hubert puerile conscience. were both missing, and on Rachel's inquiry "I rewhere they were, she received from Francis that elegant stock answer, " In their skins." However, they came to light in process of time, the two mothers returned home, and Mrs. Curtis and Grace had the conversation almost in their own hands. Rachel was too much tired to do anything but read the new number of her favorite Traveller's Magazine, listening to her mother with one ear, and gathering additional impressions of Sir Stephen Temple's imprudence, and the need of their own vigilance. To make Fanny feel that she could lean upon some one besides the military secretary, seemed to be the great object, and she was so confiding and affectionate with her own kin that there were great hopes. Those boys were an affliction, no doubt; but, thought Rachel, “there is always an ordeal at the beginning of one's mission. I am mastering them by degrees, and should do so sooner if I had them in my own hands, and no more worthy task can be done than training human beings for their work in this world; so I must be willing to go through a little, while I bring them into order, and fit their mother for managing them." "Then you must thrash me. your word to me not to take your Aunt Grace's thrush's nest." "And I didn't," said Conrade, boldly. But Rachel, used to flat denials at the village-school, was not to be thus set aside. "I am shocked at you, Conrade," she said. "I know your mamma will be exceedingly grieved. You must have fallen into very sad ways to be able to utter such a bold untruth. You had better confess at once, and then I shall have something to tell her that will comfort her." Conrade's dark face looked set as iron. "Come; tell me you are sorry you took the nest, and broke your word, and told a falsehood." Red color flushed into the brown cheek, and the hands were clinched. She spent the time before breakfast the next morning in a search among the back numbers of the Traveller's Magazine for a paper upon "Educational Laws," which "There is not the smallest use in denying she thought would be very good reading for it. I know you took it when you and HuFanny. Her search had been just completed bert went away together. Your Aunt Grace when Grace returned home from church, found it gone this morning, and one of the looking a good deal distressed. My poor poor little birds dead below. What have thrushes have not escaped, Rachel," she said; you done with the others?" "I came home that way to see how they Not a word. were going on, and the nest is torn out, one poor little fellow lying dead below it." 66 "Then I grieve to say I must tell all to your mother." "Well that is much worse than I There was a sort of smile of defiance, and expected! "burst out Rachel. "I did think he followed her. For a moment she thought that boy Conrade would at least keep his of preventing this, and preparing Fanny in pripromises." And she detailed the adventure vate, but recollecting that this would give of the previous day, whence the conclusion him the opportunity of preparing Hubert to was but too evident. Grace, however, said support his falsehood, she let him enter with in her own sweet manner that she believed her, and sought Lady Temple in the nursery. boys could not resist a nest, and thought it "Dear Fanny, I am very sorry to bring mere womanhood to intercede for such law-you so much vexation. I am afraid it will ful game. She thought it would be best to be a bitter grief to you, but it is only for Conrade's own sake that I do it. It was a cruel thing to take a bird's-nest at all, but worse when he knew that his Aunt Grace was particularly fond of it; and, besides, he had promised not to touch it, and now, saddest of all, he denies having done so." "Oh, Conrade, Conrade!" cried Fanny, quite confounded, "you can't have done like this!" No, I have not," said Conrade, coming up to her, as she held out her hand, positively encouraging him, as Rachel thought, to persist in the untruth. "Listen, Fanny," said Rachel. "I do not wonder that you are unwilling to believe anything so shocking, but I do not come without being only too certain." And she gave the facts, to which Fanny listened with pale cheeks and tearful eyes, then turned to the boy, whose hand she had held all the time, and said, "Dear Con, do pray tell me if you did it." "I did not," said Conrade, wrenching his hand away, and putting it behind his back. "Where's Hubert?" asked Rachel, looking round, and much vexed when she perceived that Hubert had been within hearing all the time, though to be sure there was some little hope to be founded upon the simplicity of five years old. 66 chel, angrily, only that Conrade is a worse boy than I had thought him, and has been teaching his little brother falsehood." The angry voice set Hubert crying, and little Cyril, who was very soft-hearted, joined in chorus, followed by the baby, who was conscious of something very disagreeable going on in her nursery. Thereupon, after the apparently most important business of comforting Mrs. Temple had been gone through, the court of justice adjourned, Rachel opening the door of Conrade's little room, and recommending solitary imprisonment there till he should be brought to confession. She did not at all reckon on his mother going in with him, and shutting the door after her. It was not the popular notion of solitary confinement, and Rachel was obliged to retire, and wait in the drawingroom for a quarter of an hour, before Fanny came down; and then it was to say, "Do you know, Rachel dear, I am convinced that it must be a mistake. Conrade assures me he never touched the nest." "So he persists in it?" "And indeed, Rachel dear, I cannot help believing him. If it had been Francie, now; but I never knew Conrade to tell an untruth in his life." "You never knew, because you always believe him." "And it is not only I, but I have often heard the major say he could always depend on Conrade's word." "Come here, Hubert dear," said his mother; "don't be frightened; only come and tell me where you and Con went yesterday, when the others were playing at bowls." Hubert hung his head, and looked at his ment. It must be dreadful to make such a brother. discovery; but it was far worse to let deceit go Rachel's next endeavor was at gentle argu "Tell," quoth Conrade. "Never mind on undetected; and if only they were firm "her, she's only a civilian." "Where did you go, Hubert?" "Con showed me the little birds in their nest." "That is right, Hubert, good little boy. Did you or he touch the nest?" "Yes." Then, as Conrade started, and looked fiercely at him, "Yes, you did, Con, you touched the inside to see what it was made of." At that moment she beheld two knickerbocker boys prancing on the lawn. "Didn't you lock the door? Has he broken out? How audacious!" "I let him come out," said Fanny; "there was nothing to shut him up for. I beg your pardon, dear Rachel; I am very sorry for the poor little birds and for Grace; but I am sure Conrade did not take it." "How can you be so unreasonable, Fanny ; "But what did you do with it?" asked the evidence," and Rachel went over it all Rachel. "Left it there, up in the tree," said the little boy. "There Rachel!" said the mother, triumphantly. 66 again. Don't you think," said Fanny, "that some boy may have got into the park?" "My dear Fanny, I am sorry for you; it is quite out of the question to think so ; the "I don't know what you mean," said Ra-place is not a stone's-throw from Randall's lodge. It will be the most fatal thing in the world to let your weakness be imposed on in this way. Now that the case is clear, the boy must be forced to confession, and severely punished." Fanny burst into tears. "I am very sorry for you, Fanny. I know it is very painful; I assure you it is so to me. Perhaps it would be best if I were to lock him up, and go from time to time to see if he is come to a better mind.' She rose up. 66 66 No, no, Rachel ! absolutely screamed Fanny, starting up, my boy hasn't done anything wrong, and I wont have him locked up! Go away! If anything is to be done to my boys, I'll do it myself; they haven't got any one but me. Oh, I wish the major would come!" "But you wont believe Conrade,-my Conrade, that never told a falsehood in his life!" cried the mother, with a flush in her cheeks, and a bright glance in her soft eyes. "You want me to punish him for what he hasn't done." "How much alike mothers are in all classes of life!" thought Rachel, and much in the way in which she would have brought Zack's mother to reason by threats of expulsion from the shoe-club, she observed, "Well, Fann, one thing is clear, while you are so weak as to let that boy go on in his deceit, unrepentant and unpunished, I can have no more to do with his education." "Indeed," softly said Fanny, "I am afraid so, Rachel. You have taken a great deal of trouble; but Conrade declares he will never say a lesson to you again, and I don't quite see how to make him after this." hope that the boys would be cured and tamed at school, and begging that they might never be let loose in the park again. Rachel could not dwell much longer on the matter; for she had to ride to Upper Avon Park to hold council on the books to be ordered for the bookclub; for if she did not go herself, whatever she wanted especially was always set aside as too something or other for the rest of the subscribers. Mrs. Curtis was tired, and stayed at home; and Grace spent the afternoon in investigations about the harrying of the thrushes, but, alas! without coming a bit nearer the truth. Nothing was seen or heard of Lady Temple till, at half-past nine, one of the midges, or diminutive flies used at Avonmouth, came to the door, and Fanny came into the drawingroom,-wan, tearful, agitated. "Dear Rachel, I am so afraid I was hasty; I could not sleep without coming to tell you how sorry I am." "Then you are convinced? I knew you would be." "Oh, yes, I have just been sitting by him after he was gone to bed. He never goes to sleep till I have done that, and he always tells me if anything is on his mind. I could not ask him again, it would have been insulting him; but he went over it all of himself, and owned he ought not to have put a finger on the edge of the nest, but he wanted so to see what it was lined with; otherwise he never touched it. He says, poor boy, that it was only your being a civilian that made you not able to believe him. I am sure you must believe him, now." Mrs. Curtis began in her gentle way about the difficulty of believing one's children in fault; but Lady Temple was entirely past accepting the possibility of Conrade's being "Oh, very well; then there's an end of it. to blame in this particular instance. It made I am sorry for you, Fanny." And away walked Rachel, and as she went oward the gate, two artificial jets d'eau, naking a considerable curve in the air, alightd, the one just before her, the other, better imed, in the back of her neck. She had too much dignity to charge back upon the offenders; but she went home full of the story of Fanny's lamentable weakness, and prognostications of the misery she was entailing on herself. Her mother and sister were both much concerned, and thought Fanny extremely foolish, Mrs. Curtis consoling herself with the her bristle up again, so that even Rachel saw the impossibility of pressing it, and trusted to some signal confutation to cure her of her infatuation. But she was as affectionate as ever, only wanting to be forgiven for the morning's warmth, and to assure dear Aunt Curtis, dear Grace, and dearest Rachel in particular, that there was no doing without them, and it was the greatest blessing to be near them. "Oh, and the squirting, dear Rachel, I was so sorry when I found it out; it was only Francie and Leo. I was very angry with them for it, and I should like to make thought; complexion meant to be brilliant them ask pardon, only I don't think Francie brunette, a pleasant glow still; hair with would. I'm afraid they are very rude boys. threads of gray. I hope she does not affect I must write to the major to find me a gov- youth; she can't be less than one or two and erness that wont be very strict with them, thirty! What is the matter with her? It and if she could be an officer's daughter, the is not the countenance of deformity; accident, boys would respect her so much more." I should say. Yes, it is all favorable, except the dress. What a material! what a pattern! did she get it second-hand from a lady's-maid? Will there be an incongruity in her conversation to match? Let us sec. Grace making inquiries. Quite at my best; ah, she is not one of the morbid sort, never thinking themselves better." CHAPTER III. MACKAREL LANE. "For I would lonely stand ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. “WELL, Grace, all things considered, perhaps I had better walk down with you to Mackarel Lane, and then I can form a judgment on these Williamses without committing Fanny." "Then you do not intend to go on teaching?" Not while Conrade continues to brave me, and is backed up by poor Fanny.” "I might speak to Miss Williams after church, and bring her in to Myrtlewood for Fanny to see. 66 Yes, that might do in time; but I shall make up my mind first. Poor Fanny is so easily led that we must take care what influences fall in her way." 66 I always wished you would call." "Yes, and I would not as patronage or curatolatry, but this for a purpose; and I hope we shall find both sisters at home." Mackarel Lane was at right angles to the shore, running up the valley of the Avon; but it soon ceased to be fishy, and became agricultural, owning a few cottages of very humble gentility, which were wont to hang out boards to attract lodgers of small means. At one of these Grace rang, and obtained admittance to a parlor with crazy French windows opening on a little strip of garden. In a large-wheeled chair, between the fire and the window, surrounded by numerous little appliances for comfort and occupation, sat the invalid Miss Williams, holding out her hand in welcome to the guests. "A fine countenance, what one calls a fine countenance," thought Rachel. "Is it a delusion of insipidity as usual? The brow is good, massive, too much for the features, but perhaps they were fuller once; eyes bright and vigorous, hazel, the color for "I was afraid I had not seen you out for some time.” 66 No, going out is a troublesome business, and sitting in the garden answers the same purpose." "Of air perhaps, but hardly of change or of view.” "Oh! I assure you there is a wonderful variety," she answered, with an eager and brilliant smile. "Clouds and sunsets?" asked Rachel, beginning to be interested. "Yes, differing every day. Then I have the tamarisk and its inhabitants. There has been a tom-tit's nest every year since we came, and that provides us with infinite amusement. Then the sea-gulls are often so good as to float high enough for me to see them. There is a wonderful charm in a circumscribed view, because one is obliged to look well into it all." "Yes; eyes and no eyes apply there," said Rachel. “We found a great prize too the other day. Rosie?" At the call, a brown-haired, brown-eyed child of seven, looking like a little fawn, sprung to the window from the outside. "My dear, will you show the sphinx to Miss Curtis?" The little girl daintily brought a box covered with net, in which a huge apple-green caterpillar, with dashes of bright color on his sides, and a horny spike on his tail, was feasting upon tamarisk leaves. Grace asked if she was going to keep it. "Yes, till it buries itself," said the child. "Aunt Ermine thinks it is the elephant sphinx." "I cannot be sure," said the aunt; "my sister tried to find a figure of it at Villar's; but he had no book that gave the caterpillars. Do you care for those creatures? " 66 "I like to watch them," said Grace; "but I know nothing about them scientifically; Rachel does that." "Then can you help us to the history of our sphinx?" asked Miss Williams, with her pleasant look. "I will see if I have this portrait," said Rachel; "but I doubt it. I prefer general principles to details.” "Don't you find working out details the best way of entering into general principles?" It was new to Rachel to find the mention of a general principle received neither with a stare nor a laugh; and she gathered herself up to answer, "Naming and collecting is not science." "And masonry is not architecture; but you can't have architecture without it." was an odd look in her bright transparent eyes that made Grace speculate whether she could have heard that agreement with the Invalid in the Traveller's Review was one of the primary articles of faith required by Rachel. But Grace, though rather proud of Rachel's falling under the spell of Miss Williams's conversation, deemed an examination rather hard on her, and took the opportunity of asking for her sister. "She is generally at home by this time; but this is her last day at Cliff Cottages, and she was to stay late to help in the packing up.' "Will she be at home for the present?" asked Grace. 66 Yes, Rose and I are looking forward to a festival of her." Grace was not at all surprised to hear Rachel "One can have broad ideas without all the petty work of flower botanists and but-at once commit herself with "My cousin, terfly naturalists.” Lady Temple," and rush into the matter in hand as if secure that the other Miss Williams would educate on the principles of the Invalid; but full in the midst there was a sound of wheels and a ring at the bell. Miss Williams quietly signed to her little attendant to put a chair in an accessible place, and in walked Lady Temple, Mrs. Curtis, and the middle brace of boys. "The room will be too full," was Grace's aside to her sister, chiefly thinking of her mother, but also of their hostess; but Rachel returned for answer, "I must see about it ;" and Grace could only remove herself into the veranda, and try to attract Leoline and Hubert after her; but failing in this, she "You had some one to improve it to talked to the far more conversible Rose about you?" 66 the bulfinch that hung at the window, which loved no one but Aunt Ermine, and scolded and pecked at every one else; and Augustus, the beloved tame toad, that lived in a hole under a tree in the garden. Mrs. Curtis, considerate and tender-hearted, startled to find her daughter in the field, and wishing No, not I. My brother had; but I her niece to begin about her own affairs, could only perceive the confirmation." "This reminds me of an interesting article on the Edgeworth system of education in the Traveller's Review. I will send it down to you." "Thank you, but I have it here." talked commonplace by way of filling up the time; and Rachel had her eyes free for a range of the apartment. The foundation was the dull, third-rate lodging-house, the superstructure told of other scenes. One end of the room was almost filled by the frameless “Indeed; and do you not think it excel- portrait of a dignified clergyman, who would lent, and quite agree with it?" have had far more justice done to him by "Yes, I quite agree with it," and there greater distance; a beautifully-painted min |