Osborne’s conversation and ways might very possibly have been just the same as before, had he been thrown amongst new people; but Molly only saw him in their own circle in which he was on terms of decided intimacy.  Still there was no doubt that he was really improved, though perhaps not to the extent for which Molly gave him credit; and this exaggeration on her part arose very naturally from the fact, that he, perceiving Roger’s warm admiration for Cynthia, withdrew a little out of his brother’s way; and used to go and talk to Molly in order not to intrude himself between Roger and Cynthia.  Of the two, perhaps, Osborne preferred Molly; to her he needed not to talk if the mood was not on him—­they were on those happy terms where silence is permissible, and where efforts to act against the prevailing mood of the mind are not required.  Sometimes, indeed, when Osborne was in the humour to be critical and fastidious as of yore, he used to vex Roger by insisting upon it that Molly was prettier than Cynthia.

’You mark my words, Roger.  Five years hence the beautiful Cynthia’s red and white will have become just a little coarse, and her figure will have thickened, while Molly’s will only have developed into more perfect grace.  I don’t believe the girl has done growing yet; I am sure she is taller than when I first saw her last summer.’

’Miss Kirkpatrick’s eyes must always be perfection.  I cannot fancy any could come up to them:  soft, grave, appealing, tender; and such a heavenly colour—­I often try to find something in nature to compare them to; they are not like violets—­that blue in the eyes is too like physical weakness of sight; they are not like the sky—­that colour has something of cruelty in it.’

’Come, don’t go on trying to match her eyes as if you were a draper, and they a bit of ribbon; say at once “her eyes are loadstars,” and have done with it!  I set up Molly’s grey eyes and curling black lashes, long odds above the other young woman’s; but, of course, it’s all a matter of taste.’

And now both Osborne and Roger had left the neighbourhood.  In spite of all that Mrs. Gibson had said about Roger’s visits being ill-timed and intrusive, she began to feel as if they had been a very pleasant variety, now they had ceased altogether.  He brought in a whiff of a new atmosphere from that of Hollingford.  He and his brother had been always ready to do numberless little things which only a man can do for women; small services which Mr. Gibson was always too busy to render.  For the good doctor’s business grew upon him.  He thought that this increase was owing to his greater skill and experience, and he would probably have been mortified if he could have known how many of his patients were solely biassed in sending for him, by the fact that he was employed at the Towers.  Something of this sort must have been contemplated in the low scale of payment adopted long ago by the Cumnor family.  Of itself the money he received for going to the Towers would hardly have paid him for horse-flesh, but then as Lady Cumnor in her younger days had worded it,—­