Lady Connie

oper, as she came into the schoolroom, where her eld

e beside Alice, and sitting down on the other si

stily opened the notes. She flush

t!" she said shortly, as

ery great lady, begged "dear Mrs. Hooper" to bring Lady Constance to a small party in Wolsey College Gardens, to meet the Chancellor of the

rnal feeling, which was her only passion, was more irritated b

" It had begun to get on her nerves. The only defence against any sort of "superiority," as some one has said, is to love it. But Mrs. Hooper did not love her husband's niece. She was

ks showed a spirited and inventive economy of which they were inordinately proud, who made their own gowns of Liberty stuff in scorn of the fashion, were at the same time excellent hostesses, keeping open house on Sundays for their husbands' undergraduate pupils, and gallantly entertaining their own friends and equals at small flowery dinner-parties in Morris-papered rooms, where the food and wine mattered little, and good talk and happy comradeship were the real fare. Meanwhile the

to spoil his children, and had then died leaving them penniless. Ewen Hooper had come across her when he was lecturing at a northern university, immediately after his own appointment at Oxford. He had passed a harassed and penurious youth, was pi

n her husband badly into debt; and things had got slowly worse with the years. Mrs. Hooper was the most wasteful of managers; servants came and went interminably; and while money oozed away, there was neither comfort nor luxury to show for it. As the girls grew up, they learnt to dread the sound of the front doorbell, which

given a breathing space; and Connie had readily consented to pay a year's maintenance in advance. Yet still the drawer of bil

have a new dress, if these i

ay that I could have my old blue one done up. She never seems to care how her mother looks. If

These musts of her mother's and Alice's were

stance dresses so extravagantly!" she added bit

glanced round her to see

her that pretty white dress in Brandon's window. She told me Connie had insulted her. Such nonsense!

ess of Connie's garments, when she compared them with her own; but there was something in her sa

he's never been the least nice to me. She makes a pet of Nora, and t

per reflectively. She added, after a minute--"It's ext

ance--both Constance and Annette were now intimately acquainted with each of Mrs. Hooper's three maids, and all their family histories; whereas Mrs. Hooper always found it impossible to remember their surnames. A few days before this date, Susan the housemaid had received a telegram telling her of the sudden death of a brother in South Africa. In Mrs. Hooper's view it was providential that the death had occurred in South

rious pleasure in pointing out her, charms to Alice? Alice supposed he meant it well. There was a didactic ele

he picnic to-morrow?" ask

indifferently to a pile o

if we should inv

mother. He is aw

res for him?" said

e la

oles herself pretty we

with Mr.

e no

e a few lines, Constance begins to talk, and Mr. Sorell throws himself back in his chair, and they chatter about the

aid Nora, who had just opened the school

said Alice, "we were talkin

s usual, on the window-sill. "We don't do much Greek,

over. Alice threw a mo

bout titles? When did any of those

ceited; she's always interested in other people. And she's an orphan--and people were very fond of her mother. An

tside, and began to chew it energetically with her

Alice with contempt. "Conn

he wasn't. But

e la

eans 'Don't be such a fool as to imagine that I'm thinking of you

oth proud and vain," sa

-looking and run after," said Nora, beginning to fl

d Alice vindictively, to which Mrs. Hoop

s much as Connie does must be va

t her sister. She was thinking of a small evening party the night before, at which, it seemed to her, Connie had several times snubbed Herbert Pry

sighed aga

carrying on with tha

antly. Her mother's v

,' mother? He won't be in Ox

s. Hooper vaguely. "Well, I m

descended gloomily f

we don't all look out, we sh

lice impatiently. "Things are a g

so much better as you think. And the only reason why they're better is that Uncle Risborough left us some money,

d, and declared she wasn't going to be lectured by her younger sister

I said something about having no dresses for the Commem. balls, even if I wanted to 'come out' then--which I don't!--and she straightaway offered to g

a's brown eyes f

h impatience--"and I don't. That's all there is to

Fogazzaro before her and a reading lamp beside her, she suddenly put out her arms, and took Annette's appl

e had a rea

said Annette rather severe

ride--and now Aunt Ellen has been pointing out to me that it's all my fault she has to get a

h a great stretch, her black brows drawn

et you a nice horse," said Annette, still tidying and folding as she moved about the room. Consta

here, A

d took out some knitting from her pocket. She foresaw a conversation in which sh

Constance slowly, "I've go

t before." Annette bega

n't know, for instance, that I went to ride over a week ago with a young man, without telling you, or Aunt Ellen,

ou met him o

d, belonging to some people he knows, where there are beautiful grass rides. He has the k

her head. She had been fifteen years in the Risboroughs'

ly for? You know your mam

owly. "And I'm not going to be managed by Aun

aid Annette, k

e lau

k I'm going

s in my head. It's that ge

nd and laid violent hand

at me! You can't say

than is good for him," said Annette

illy! Of course, he's most suitable--dreadfully so. An

tle chin fell forward on her white wrappings

after a pause--adopting a tone in wh

know," said C

her not quite as regretful as it might have been; his epistolary style lacked charm. And it was impertinent of him to suggest Lord Meyrick as a substitute. She ha

re going to see a good deal of Douglas

l you I'd heard from t

knitting of her own accord th

art--Prince and Princess coming--everybody begging for tickets. She's actually got an invitation for me--I suppose by asking for it!--rather cal

never worn that dress you got at Nice, and it'll be a dish-cloth if yo

e capacious new wardrobe which to

oor, because you can't find any room for my best frock. It's

the pages of her Fren

litical, and Winifred's very churchy--it doesn't really matter what you take up. So do come. You can bring your maid and have a sitting-room. Nobody would interfere with you. But, of course, we should introduce you to some nice people. If you are a sensible girl--and I expect you are, for your father was a very clever man--you must know that you ought to marry as soon as possible. There aren't many young men about here. What becomes of all the young men in England, I'm sure I don't know. But there are a few--and quite possible. There are the Kenbarrows, about four miles off--a large family--nouveaux riches--the father made buttons, or something of the kind. But the children are all most presentable, and enormously rich. And, of course, there are the Fallodens--quite near--Mr. and Lady Laura, Douglas, the eldest son, a girl of seventeen, and tw

ds. Winifred who has just read this letter says it will 'put you off.' I don't see why it should. I certainly don't want it to. I'm downr

staying with him--a Mr. Sorell, and a young musician with a Polish name--I can't remember it. Mr. Sorell's going to coach the young man, or something. They

ere are plenty of pe

dear Co

fection

RISBO

do about that?" said Constance, t

of Wight, and Miss Alice is going with them," said Annette,

me sitting in lodgings at Ryde with Aunt Ellen for five or six weeks, doing

eetly over her knitti

e to sample Aunt Marcia. I must speak to Uncle Ewen to-morrow

ring bells of Oxford, from the boom of the Christ Church "Tom," far away, through every variety of nearer tone. Connie lay and sleepily listened

ing! good night!" It was generally her last waking thought. But suddenly anothe

Sorell says the schools will b

her was bending towards her, all his harsh strength subdued, for the moment, to the one end of pleasing her. She saw the smile in his dark eye

ning downstairs the following afternoon to find the

ss everybody," said Alice

d to Herb

miled and evade

d Alice. "Of course they'l

a couple of boats round from the lower river, and were to

d her eyes, however, as though Alice's tone as

iend of Nora's who was going with the party. It was an as

pealingly to

he party left the house, he and Constance walked on together, ahead of the others

supposed, perfect of their kind. But Oxford in the summer term was full of pretty dresses. No, it must be her ease, her sureness o

given by the Berlin Academy, his own experience of German Universities, and the shortcomings of Oxford. On these last he became scornful

tance amiably. Was he

rains, and through journalism one got into the House, when the chance

ently. "I have made several attempts here

her on a walk some days previously. "What is it makes the mathematicians such fools? They never seem to

g so gaily ahead. Alice Hooper's expression seemed to him that of something weak and tortured. All through the winter, in the small world of Oxford, the flirtation between Pryce of Beaumont and Ewen Hooper's eldest girl had been a conspicuous thing, even for those who had little or no personal knowledge of the

much," said Sorell, as they neared the museum, and saw Pr

to like it," s

affection for his dead friends. He was not a profaner of shrines. But what he said brought out the vastness of Connie's loss in the death of her moth

rs in Rome, who is a friend of mine, told me that they thought at one time t

s that," said Alice drily. "Anyway

That's a great comfort to a

sensitive kindness in his own nature

reply; and he dr

lue hills beyond it. At the Cherwell boat-house they found the two boats, with four or five me

by Herbert Pryce, who was in his shirt-sleeves, while Lord

Now I think we're made up. No--we want another lady. And running his eyes over those still standing on th

come with us? I think t

ed off. Mrs. Hooper, Alice, Sorell, two St. Cyprian undergradua

the hay meadows on either side. Flowers of the edge, meadow-sweet, ragged-robin and yellow flags, dipped into the water; willows spread their thin green over the embattled white and blue of the sky; her

-songs of the Campagna, some comic, some tragic, fitting an action to them so lively and true that even those of her hearers who could not follow the dialect sat entranced. Then some one said--"But they ought to be sung!" And suddenly, though rather sh

ounds floated a

eard her sing it in many places--Rome, Naples, Syracuse. It was a great favourite with her mother, for wh

said Mrs. Hooper in her thin peevish voice. "Gi

pped into the wa

her parasol, must explain to her about English farms, and landlords, and why the labourers were discontented--why there were no peasant owners, as in Italy--and so on, and so on. Round-faced Mrs. Maddison, who had never seen the Hoopers' niece before, watched her with amusement, deciding that, distinguished and refined as the girl was, she was bent on admiration, and not too critical as to whence it came. The good-natured, curly-haired Meyrick, who was discontentedly redu

boats to the Isis; the undergraduates who had brought them being due at various engagements in Oxford. Sorell carried Constance off. He thought that he had never seen her look more radiant. She was flushed with suc

like Mr. Pryce," s

ked at him in

don't like h

erybody suppose?"--he looked at her smiling--"tha

lent a moment. A

he'll propo

ddened. He was a shy man, and he was sudden

ance faced him, her face no

nk I have been

tamm

had come across the Oxford gossip. I wish sometimes--you know I'm an old friend of

t foolish quixotry--what jealousy for an ideal--had made him run this hideous risk of offending her?

e annoyed me--she doesn't like me, you see--and I took a

her, rather incoherently, to forgive his impertinence. Was it to be Ella Risborou

and the young man's energies released. What possible justification had he, Sorell, for any sort of interference in this quarter? It seemed to him, indeed, as to many others, that the young man s