Yet there was a sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction, which increased upon her as the time drew nearer for returning to be again only a guest in her married home.  It was a tangible grievance on which her mind could fix itself.  Surely it was hard on her that her husband should require it of her, and yet she perceived that he could not avoid it, since his mother was mistress.  She knew too that he was unfailingly kind, attentive, and indulgent, except on that one occasion when he had sharply reproved her for her behaviour in the Tallboys matter; and strange to say, a much stronger feeling towards him had been setting in ever since that one time when she had seen him thoroughly angry.  She longed and craved to stir that even, gentle courtesy to frowns or smiles; and yet there was a perversity in her nature that seem to render it impossible to her to attempt to win a smile from him, far more so to lay aside any device or desire of her own to gratify him.  All she did know was, that to be all that her ambition had sought, a Charnock by marriage as well as birth, and with a kind, considerate husband, was not enough to hinder a heartsickness she had never known or supposed possible.

Presently, through the flowers in her balcony, Cecil saw the opening and closing of the opposite house-door, and a white parasol unfurled, and she had only time to finish and address her letter to Mrs. Duncombe before Lady Tyrrell was announced.

“Here I am after a hard morning’s work, winding up accounts, &c.”

“You go to-morrow?”

“Yes, trusting that you will soon follow; though you might be a cockney born, your bloom is town-proof.”

“We follow as soon as the division on the Education Question is over, and that will not be for ten days.  You are come to look at my stores for the bazaar; but first, what are you going to do this afternoon?”

“What are your plans?”

“I must leave cards at half-a-dozen people’s at the other end of the park.  Will you come with me?  Where is Lenore?”

“She is gone to take leave of the Strangeways’ party; Lady Susan insisted on having her for this last day.  Poor Frank!  I confess impartially that it does not look well for him.”

“Poor Frank!” repeated Cecil, “he does look very forlorn when he hears where she is.”

“When, after all, if the silly boy could only see it, it is the most fortunate thing that could happen to him, and the only chance of keeping his head above water.  I have made Lady Susan promise me two of her daughters for the bazaar.  They thoroughly know how to make themselves useful.  Oh, how pretty!”

For Cecil was producing from the shelves of various pieces of furniture a large stock of fancy articles—­Swiss carvings, Spa toys, Genevese ornaments, and Japanese curiosities, which, as Lady Tyrrell said, “rivalled her own accumulation, and would serve to carry off the housewives and pen-wipers on which all the old maids of Wil’sbro’ were employed.”