It was quite true that the squire had become very fond of Molly.  The charm of having a young girl dancing and singing inarticulate ditties about the house and garden, was indescribable in its novelty to him.  And then Molly was so willing and so wise; ready both to talk and to listen at the right times.  Mrs. Hamley was quite right in speaking of her husband’s fondness for Molly.  But either she herself chose a wrong time for telling him of the prolongation of the girl’s visit, or one of the fits of temper to which he was liable, but which he generally strove to check in the presence of his wife, was upon him; at any rate, he received the news in anything but a gracious frame of mind.

‘Stay longer!  Did Gibson ask for it?’ ’Yes!  I don’t see what else is to become of her; Miss Eyre away and all.  It’s a very awkward position for a motherless girl like her to be at the head of a household with two young men in it.’

’That’s Gibson’s look-out; he should have thought of it before taking pupils, or apprentices, or whatever he calls them.’

’My dear squire!  Why, I thought you’d be as glad as I was—­as I am to keep Molly.  I asked her to stay for an indefinite time; two months at least.’

‘And to be in the house with Osborne!  Roger, too, will be at home.’

By the cloud in the squire’s eyes, Mrs. Hamley read his mind.

’Oh, she’s not at all the sort of girl young men of their age would take to.  We like her because we see what she really is; but lads of one or two and twenty want all the accessories of a young woman.’

‘Want what?’ growled the squire.

’Such things as becoming dress, style of manner.  They would not at their age even see that she is pretty; their ideas of beauty would include colour.’

’I suppose all that’s very clever; but I don’t understand it.  All I know is, that it’s a very dangerous thing to shut two young men of one and three and twenty up in a country-house like this, with a girl of seventeen—­choose what her gowns may be like, or her hair, or her eyes.  And I told you particularly I didn’t want Osborne, or either of them, indeed, to be falling in love with her.  I’m very much annoyed.’

Mrs. Hamley’s face fell; she became a little pale.

’Shall we make arrangements for their stopping away while she is here; staying up at Cambridge, or reading with some one? going abroad for a month or two?’

’No; you’ve been reckoning this ever so long on their coming home.  I’ve seen the marks of the weeks on your almanack.  I’d sooner speak to Gibson, and tell him he must take his daughter away, for it’s not convenient to us——­’

’My dear Roger!  I beg you will do no such thing.  It will be so unkind; it will give the lie to all I said yesterday.  Don’t, please, do that.  For my sake, don’t speak to Mr. Gibson!’

‘Well, well, don’t put yourself in a flutter,’ for he was afraid of her becoming hysterical; ’I’ll speak to Osborne when he comes home, and tell him how much I should dislike anything of the kind.’