“What has become of the girl?”

“Gone from bad to worse.  Alas!  I heard a report that she had been seen with some of the people who appear on the race-course with those gambling shooting-galleries, or something of that sort.”

“Ah! those miserable races!  They are the bane of the country.  I wish no one would go near them.”

“They are a very pleasant county gathering.”

“To you, mother, and such as you; but you could have your county meeting without doing quite so much harm.  If Raymond would only withdraw his subscription.”

“It would be as much as his seat is worth!  Those races are the one great event of Wil’sbro’ and Backsworth, the harvest of all the tradespeople.  Besides, you know what is said of their expedience as far as horses are concerned.”

“I would sacrifice the breed of horses to prevent the evils,” said Julius.

“You would, but—­My boy, I suppose this is the right view for a clergyman, but it will never do to force it here.  You will lose all influence if you are over-strained.”

“Was St. Chrysostom over-strained about the hippodrome?” said Julius, thoughtfully.

Mrs. Poynsett looked at him as he leant upon the chimney-piece.  Here was another son gone, in a different way, beyond her reach.  She had seen comparatively little of him since his University days; and though always a good and conscientious person, there had been nothing to draw her out of secular modes of thought; nor had she any connection with the clerical world, so that she had not, as it were, gone along with the tone of mind that she had perceived in him.

He did not return to the subject, and they were soon joined by his elder brother.  At the first opportunity after dinner, Frank got Rosamond up into a corner with a would-be indifferent “So you met Miss Vivian.  What did you think of her?”

Rosamond’s intuition saw what she was required to think, and being experienced in raving brothers, she praised the fine face and figure so as to find the way to his heart.

“I am so glad you met her in that way.  Even Julius must be convinced.  Was not he delighted?”

“I think she grew upon him.”

“And now neither of you will be warped.  It is so very strange in my mother, generally the kindest, most open-hearted woman in the world, to distrust and bear a grudge against them all for the son’s dissipation—­just as if that affected the ladies of a family!”

“I did not think it was entirely on his account,” said Rosamond.

“Old stories of flirtation!” said Frank, scornfully; “but what are they to be cast up against a woman in her widowhood?  It is so utterly unlike mother, I can’t understand it.”

“Would not the natural conclusion be that she knew more, and had her reasons?”