If Claude had rather injudiciously talked too much to Lilias of ’her principle,’ and thus kept it alive in her mind, yet his example might have made its fallacy evident.  She believed that what she called love had been the turning point in his character, that it had been his earnest desire to follow in Henry’s steps, and so try to comfort his father for his loss, that had roused him from his indolence; but she was beginning to see that nothing but a sense of duty could have kept up the power of that first impulse for six years.  Lily began to enter a little into his principle, and many things that occurred during these holidays made her mistrust her former judgment.  She saw that without the unvarying principle of right and wrong, fraternal love itself would fail in outward acts and words.  Forbearance, though undeniably a branch of love, could not exist without constant remembrance of duty; and which of them did not sometimes fail in kindness, meekness, and patience?  Did Emily show that softness, which was her most agreeable characteristic, in her whining reproofs--in her complaints that ’no one listened to a word she said’—­in her refusal to do justice even to those who had vainly been seeking for peace?  Did Lily herself show any of her much valued love, by the sharp manner in which she scolded the boys for roughness towards herself? or for language often used by them on purpose to make her displeasure a matter of amusement?  She saw that her want of command of temper was a failure both in love and duty, and when irritated, the thought of duty came sooner to her aid than the feeling of love.

And Maurice and Reginald were really very provoking.  Maurice loved no amusement better than teasing his sisters, and this was almost the only thing in which Reginald agreed with him.  Reginald was affectionate, but too reckless and violent not to be very troublesome, and he too often flew into a passion if Maurice attempted to laugh at him; the little girls were often frightened and made unhappy; Phyllis would scream and roar, and Ada would come sobbing to Emily, to be comforted after some rudeness of Reginald’s.  It was not very often that quarrels went so far, but many a time in thought, word, and deed was the rule of love transgressed, and more than once did Emily feel ready to give up all her dignity, to have Eleanor’s hand over the boys once more.  Claude, finding that he could do much to prevent mischief, took care not to leave the two boys long together with the elder girls.  They were far more inoffensive when separate, as Maurice never practised his tormenting tricks when no one was present to laugh with him, and Reginald was very kind to Phyllis and Ada, although somewhat rude.

It was a day or two after they returned that Phyllis was leaning on the window-sill in the drawing-room, watching a passing shower, and admiring the soft bright tints of a rainbow upon the dark gray mass of cloud.  ‘I do set my bow in the cloud,’ repeated she to herself over and over again, until Adeline entering the room, she eagerly exclaimed, ’Oh Ada, come and look at this beautiful rainbow, green, and pink, and purple.  A double one, with so many stripes, Ada.  See, there is a little bit more green.’