She soon discovered, also, that repining was useless.  Her mother begged for peace at any cost.  “Put up with it,” she said, “for a little while, Charlotte.  I cannot bear quarrelling.  And you know how Sophia will insist upon explaining.  She will call up the servants, and ’fend and prove,’ and make complaints and regrets, and in the long end have all on her own side.  And I can tell you that Ann has been queer lately, and Elizabeth talks of leaving at Martinmas.  O Charlotte! put up with things, my dear.  There is only you to help me.”

Charlotte could not resist such appeals.  She knew she was really the hand to which all other hands in the house looked, the heart on which her father and mother leaned their weary hearts; still, she could not but resent many an unkind position, which Sophia’s clever tactics compelled her to take.  For instance, as she was leaving the room one morning, Sophia said in her blandest voice, “Dear Charlotte, will you tell Ann to make one of those queen puddings for Julius.  He does enjoy them so much.”

Ann did not receive the order pleasantly.  “They are a sight of trouble, Miss Charlotte.  I’ll be hard set with the squire’s fancies to-day.  And there is as good as three dinners to make now, and I must say a queen’s pudding is a bit thoughtless of you.”  And Charlotte felt the injustice she was too proud to explain to a servant.  But even to Sophia, complaint availed nothing.  “You must give extra orders yourself to Ann in the future,” she said.  “Ann accuses me of being thoughtless in consequence of them.”

“As if I should think of interfering in your duties, Charlotte.  I hope I know better than that.  You would be the first to complain of my ’taking on’ if I did, and I should not blame you.  I am only a guest here now.  But I am sure a little queen pudding is not too much to ask, in one’s own father’s house too.  Julius has not many fancies I am sure, but such a little thing.”

“Julius can have all the fancies he desires, only do please order them from Ann yourself.”

“Well, I never!  I am sure father and mother would never oppose a little pudding that Julius fancies.”

Does any one imagine that such trials as these are small and insignificant?  They are the very ones that make the heart burn, and the teeth close on the lips, and the eyes fill with angry tears.  They take hope out of daily work, and sunshine out of daily life, and slay love as nothing else can slay it.  There was an evil spirit in the house,—­a small, selfish, envious, malicious spirit; people were cross, and they knew not why; felt injured, and they knew not why; the days were harder than those dreadful ones when fire and candle were never out, and every one was a watcher in the shadow of death.

As the season advanced, Julius took precisely the position which Stephen had foretold he would take.  At first he deferred entirely to the squire; he received his orders, and then saw them carried out.  Very soon he forgot to name the squire in the matter.  He held consultations with the head man, and talked with him about the mowing and harvesting, and the sale of lambs and fleeces.  The master’s room was opened, and Julius sat at the table to receive tenants and laborers.  In the squire’s chair it was easy to feel that he was himself squire of Sandal-Side and Torver.