Mr. Mohun had much business to transact in London which he could not leave undone, and as soon as his nephew began to recover he thought of setting off to meet Mr. and Mrs. Hawkesworth, who had already been a week at Lady Rotherwood’s house in Grosvenor Square, which she had lent to them for the occasion.  Claude had intended to stay at home, as his cousin was not yet well enough to leave the room; but just at this time a college friend of the Rector’s, hearing of his illness, wrote to propose to come and stay with him for a month or six weeks, and help him in serving his church.  Mr. Devereux was particularly glad to accept this kind offer, as it left him no longer dependent on Mr. Stephens and the Raynham curates, and set Claude at liberty for the London expedition.  All was settled in the short space of one day.  The very next they were to set off, and in great haste; Lily did all she could for the regulation of the house, packed up her goods, and received the commissions of her sisters.

Ada gave her six shillings, with orders to buy either a doll or a book—­the former if Eleanor did not say it was silly; and Phyllis put into her hands a weighty crown piece, begging for as many things as it could buy.  Jane’s wants and wishes were moderate and sensible, and she gave Lily the money for them.  With Emily there was more difficulty.  All Lily’s efforts had not availed to prevent her from contracting two debts at Raynham.  More than four pounds she owed to Lily, and this she offered to pay her, giving her at the same time a list of commissions sufficient to swallow up double her quarter’s allowance.  Lily, though really in want of the money for her own use, thought the debts at Raynham so serious, that she begged Emily to let her wait for payment till it was convenient, and to pay the shoemaker and dressmaker immediately.

Emily thanked her, and promised to do so as soon as she could go to Raynham, and Lily next attempted to reduce her list of London commissions to something more reasonable.  In part she succeeded, but it remained a matter of speculation how all the necessary articles which she had to buy for herself, and all Emily’s various orders, were to come out of her own means, reduced as they were by former loans.

The next day Lilias was on her way to London; feeling, as she left Beechcroft, that it was a great relief that the schoolroom and storeroom could not follow her.  She was sorry that she should miss seeing Alethea Weston, who was to come home the next day, but she left various messages for her, and an affectionate note, and had received a promise from her sisters that the copy of the music should be given to her the first day that they saw her.  Her journey afforded her much amusement, and it was not till towards the end of the day that she had much time for thinking, when, her companions being sleepily inclined, she was left to her own meditations and to a dull country.  She began to revolve her own feelings towards Eleanor,