‘We hope,’ said Emily, ’that you and Mr. Weston will dine here on Tuesday.  The Carringtons are coming, and a few others.’

‘Thank you,’ said Alethea; ’I daresay papa will be very glad to come.’

‘Have you ever seen Rotherwood?’ said Lilias.

‘Never,’ was the reply.

‘Do not expect much,’ said Lily, laughing, though she knew not why; ’he is a very little fellow; no one would suppose him to be twenty, he has such a boyish look.  Then he never sits down—­’

‘Literally?’ said Emily.

‘Literally,’ persisted Lily; ‘such a quick person you never did see.’

‘Is he at Oxford?’

’Oh yes! it was all papa’s doing that he was sent to Eton.  Papa is his guardian.  Aunt Rotherwood never would have parted with him.’

‘He is the only son,’ interposed Emily.

’Uncle Rotherwood put him quite in papa’s power; Aunt Rotherwood wanted to keep him at home with a tutor, and what she would have made of him I cannot think,’ said Lily; and regardless of Emily’s warning frowns, and Alethea’s attempt to change the subject, she went on:  ’When he was quite a child he used to seem a realisation of all the naughty Dicks and Toms in story-books.  Miss Middleton had a perfect horror of his coming here, for he would mind no one, and played tricks and drew Claude into mischief; but he is quite altered since papa had the management of him—­Oh! such talks as papa has had with Aunt Rotherwood—­do you know, papa says no one knows what it is to lose a father but those who have the care of his children, and Aunt Rotherwood is so provoking.’

Here Alethea determined to put an end to this oration, and to Emily’s great relief, she cut short the detail of Lady Rotherwood’s offences by saying, ’Do you think Faith Longley likely to suit us, if we took her to help the housemaid?’

‘Are you thinking of taking her?’ cried Lily.  ’Yes, for steady, stupid household work, Faith would do very well; she is just the stuff to make a servant of—­“for dulness ever must be regular”—­I mean for those who like mere steadiness better than anything more lovable.’

As Alethea said, laughing, ’I must confess my respect for that quality,’ Mr. Devereux and Claude entered the room.

‘Oh, Robert!’ cried Lily, ’Mrs. Weston is going to take Faith Longley to help the housemaid.’

‘You are travelling too fast, Lily,’ said Alethea, ’she is only going to think about it.’

‘I should be very glad,’ said Mr. Devereux, ’that Faith should have a good place; the Longleys are very respectable people, and they behaved particularly well in refusing to let this girl go and live with some dissenters at Stoney Bridge.’

‘I like what I have seen of the girl very much,’ said Miss Weston.

‘In spite of her sad want of feeling,’ said Robert, smiling, as he looked at Lily.

‘Oh! she is a good work-a-day sort of person,’ said Lily, ’like all other poor people, hard and passive.  Now, do not set up your eyebrows, Claude, I am quite serious, there is no warmth about any except—­’