‘You knew him.  You knew why he did that.  Why did you not save me?’

Caroline fell upon her neck, asking pardon.  She spared her the recital of facts further than the broad avowal.  Evan’s present condition she plainly stated:  and Rose, when the bitter pangs had ceased, made oath to her soul she would rescue him from it.

In addition to the task of clearing Evan’s character, and rescuing him, Rose now conceived that her engagement to Ferdinand must stand ice-bound till Evan had given her back her troth.  How could she obtain it from him?  How could she take anything from one so noble and so poor!  Happily there was no hurry; though before any bond was ratified, she decided conscientiously that it must be done.

You see that like a lithe snake she turns on herself, and must be tracked in and out.  Not being a girl to solve the problem with tears, or outright perfidy, she had to ease her heart to the great shock little by little—­sincere as far as she knew:  as far as one who loves may be.  The day of the funeral came and went.  The Jocelyns were of their mother’s opinion:  that for many reasons Juliana was better out of the way.  Mrs. Bonner’s bequest had been a severe blow to Sir Franks.  However, all was now well.  The estate naturally lapsed to Lady Jocelyn.  No one in the house dreamed of a will, signed with Juliana’s name, attested, under due legal forms, being in existence.  None of the members of the family imagined that at Beckley Court they were then residing on somebody else’s ground.

Want of hospitable sentiments was not the cause that led to an intimation from Sir Franks to his wife, that Mrs. Strike must not be pressed to remain, and that Rose must not be permitted to have her own way in this.  Knowing very well that Mrs. Shorne spoke through her husband’s mouth, Lady Jocelyn still acquiesced, and Rose, who had pressed Caroline publicly to stay, had to be silent when the latter renewed her faint objections; so Caroline said she would leave on the morrow morning.

Juliana, with her fretfulness, her hand bounties, her petty egoisms, and sudden far-leaping generosities, and all the contradictory impulses of her malady, had now departed utterly.  The joys of a landed proprietor mounted into the head of Sir Franks.  He was up early the next morning, and he and Harry walked over a good bit of the ground before breakfast.  Sir Franks meditated making it entail, and favoured Harry with a lecture on the duty of his shaping the course of his conduct at once after the model of the landed gentry generally.

’And you may think yourself lucky to come into that catalogue—­the son of a younger son!’ said Sir Franks, tapping Mr. Harry’s shoulder.  Harry also began to enjoy the look and smell of land.  At the breakfast, which, though early, was well attended, Harry spoke of the adviseability of felling timber here, planting there, and so forth, after the model his father held up.  Sir Franks nodded approval of his interest in the estate, but reserved his opinion on matters of detail.