Here they were summoned to dinner, and hurried down.  The dinner passed very strangely; some were in very high spirits, others in a very melancholy mood; Eleanor and Maurice alone preserved the golden mean; and the behaviour of the merry ones was perfectly unintelligible to the rest.  Reginald, still bound by his promise to Marianne, was wild to make his discovery known, and behaved in such a strange and comical manner as to call forth various reproofs from Eleanor, which provoked double mirth from the others.  The cause of their amusement was ostensibly the talking over of yesterday’s fete, but the laughing was more than adequate, even to the wonderful collection of odd speeches and adventures which were detailed.  Emily and Jane could not guess what had come to Lily, and thought her merriment very ill-placed.  Yet, in justice to Lily, it must be said that her joy no longer made her wild and thoughtless.  There was something guarded and subdued about her, which made Claude reflect how different she was from the untamed girl of last summer, who could not be happy without a sort of intoxication.

The ladies returned to the drawing-room, where Ada now appeared for the first time, and while they were congratulating her Mr. Mohun summoned Eleanor away.  Jane followed at a safe distance to see where they went.  They shut themselves into the study, and Jane, now meeting Maurice, went into the garden with him.  ’It must be coming now,’ said she; ’oh! there are William and Claude talking under the plane-tree.’

‘Claude has his cunning smile on,’ said Maurice.

‘No wonder,’ said Jane, ’it is very absurd.  I daresay William will hardly ever come home now.  One comfort is, they will see I was right from the first.’

Jane and Maurice remained in the garden till teatime, and thus missed hearing the whole affair discussed in the drawing-room between Emily, Lilias, and Frank.  This was the first news that Emily heard of it, and a very great relief it was, for she could imagine liking, and even loving, Alethea as a sister-in-law.  Her chief annoyance was at present from the perception of the difference between her own position and that of Lilias.  Last year how was Lily regarded in the family, and what was her opinion worth?  Almost nothing; she was only a clever, romantic, silly girl, while Emily had credit at least for discretion.  Now Lily was consulted and sought out by father, brothers, Eleanor—­no longer treated as a child.  And what was Emily?  Blamed or pitied on every side, and left to hear this important news from the chance mention of her brother-in-law, himself not fully informed.  She had become nobody, and had even lost the satisfaction, such as it was, of fancying that her father only made her bad management an excuse for his marriage.  She heard many particulars from Lily in the course of the evening, as they were going to bed; and the sisters talked with all their wonted affection, although Emily had not thought it