“No, Miss Parsons had done that already.  They are making the Church so beautiful, and it did not seem possible to spare them, though I hope Armine may get home in time to get his work done for Bobus.”

“Is not he worked rather hard between the two?  He does not seem to thrive on it.”

“Jock, I can say it to you.  I don’t know what to do.  The poor boy’s heart is in these Church matters, and he is so bitterly grieved at the failure of all his plans that I cannot bear to check him in doing all he can.  It is just what I ought to have been doing all these years; I only saw my duties as they were being taken away from me, and so I deserve the way Miss Parsons treats me.”

“What way?”

“You need not bristle up.  She is very civil; but when I hint that Armine has study and health to consider, I see that in her eyes I am the worldly obstructive mother who serves as a trial to the hero.”

“If she makes Armine think so-—”

“Armie is too loyal for that.  Yet it may be only too true, and only my worldliness that wishes for a little discretion.  Still, I don’t think a sensible woman, if she were ever so good and devoted, would encourage his fretting over the disappointment, or lead him to waste his time when so much depends on his diligence.  I am sure the focus of her mind must be distorted, and she is twisting his the same way.”

“And her brother follows suit?”

“I think they go in parallel grooves, and he lets her alone.  It is very unlucky, for they are a constant irritation to Bobus, and he fancies them average specimens of good people.  He sneers, and I can’t say but that much of what he says is true, but there is the envenomed drop in it which makes his good sense shocking to Armine, and I fear Babie relishes it more than is good for her.  So they make one another worse, and so they will as long as we are here.  It was a great mistake to stay on, and your uncle must feel it so.”

“Could you not go to Dieppe, or some cheap place?”

“I don’t feel justified in any more expense.  Here the house costs nothing, and our personal expenditure does not go beyond our proper means; but to pay for lodging elsewhere would soon bring me in excess of it, at least as long as Allen keeps up the yacht.  Then poor Janet must have something, and I don’t know what bills may be in store for me, and there’s your outfit, and Bobus’s.”

“Never mind mine.”

“My dear, that’s fine talking, but you can’t go like Sir Charles Napier, with one shirt and a bit of soap.”

“No, but I shall get something for the exchange.  Besides, my kit was costly even for the Guards, and will amply cover all that.”

“And you have sold your horses?”

“And have been living on them ever since!  Come, won’t that encourage you to make a little jaunt, just to break the spell?”

“I wish it could, my dear, but it does not seem possible while those bills are such a dreadful uncertainty.  I never know what Allen may have been ordering.”