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 GODFREY HELSTONE 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/godfreyhelstonen01crai
 
 GODFREY HELSTONE 
 
 % iofati 
 
 GEORGIANA M. CRAIK 
 
 AUTHOR OF "two WOMEN," ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON 
 
 Ipublisbcrs in ©rbiuarg to '^zx ||tajestg i\t ^luen 
 1884 
 
 {.Rights of Translation reserved^
 
 CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTBES.
 
 /V]4^«g 
 
 t GODFREY HELSTONE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 |. There is a grace about some women that 
 "^ gives harmony to their slightest movements, 
 ^ and sweetness to their most trivial acts, so 
 
 %£ that if they but speak to you, you are con- 
 
 scious of a charm in the accent and cadence 
 
 ^-) of their words, if they only so much as 
 
 ^ cross a floor your eye follows them with the 
 
 '" same sort of pleasure with which your ear 
 
 ^"->listens to music ; but Margaret Egerton was 
 
 ^ not one of these happily gifted people. 
 
 v3 She was young, yet she had not much of 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 ^5^
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 the bloom of youth ; her features were 
 delicate, and yet, except at rare moments, 
 few people called her pretty ; she was 
 straightly made, with a figure that was 
 light and slim, yet in its action there was 
 always a certain stiffness, and the awkward- 
 ness that came from self-consciousness and 
 self-depreciation. She was a woman to 
 whom a little admiration from the people 
 whom she loved would have given warmth 
 and life ; but she did not arouse admiration 
 easily, and perhaps the person in the world 
 who cared for her most, was the one who 
 was most keenly alive to her deficiencies 
 and to her inability to charm. 
 
 She was standing at a table in her cousin 
 Godfrey Helstone's drawing-room arranging 
 some flowers in a bowl, and, to tell the 
 truth, arranging them ill enough, for she 
 had not the knack of doing that sort of
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 thing gracefully. She had been trying to 
 do it just now with much labour, but 
 Godfrey, glancing up once or twice from his 
 book, had experienced a mixture of amaze- 
 ment and irritation at her want of success. 
 He had seen other women set a cluster of 
 flowers with a few careless touches, so that 
 when he looked at them he felt in a moment 
 that the thing could not be better done ; 
 but poor Margaret had been toiling over 
 her work for ten minutes, and the result 
 at last was only a tasteless mass of close- 
 packed roses. 
 
 " Don't you think you might put some 
 more greenery there ? " he said to her 
 suddenly. 
 
 The girl glanced up when her cousin 
 
 spoke. Perhaps — for, as I have said, she 
 
 was self-conscious — she had already had a 
 
 suspicion that Godfrey, although he seemed 
 3
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 to be reading, was sufficiently aware of her 
 occujDation to be capable of criticizing it, 
 and the suspicion had possibly helped to 
 make her ungraceful fingers even less deft 
 than usual at their work. At any rate, 
 as she looked up now there was some- 
 thing deprecating in her expression. 
 
 " Some more greenery ? " she echoed 
 hesitatingly. '' Well, I can try ; only I am 
 afraid it might make them look untidy." 
 
 " I wouldn't mind about that,"^ he 
 answered. 
 
 " I am afraid I am not clever at arranging 
 flowers," she said gently. 
 
 And then he held his peace. That fact 
 was so self-evident that, not being a man 
 who paid compliments, he probably felt 
 silence to be his best response. 
 
 She went on labouring with her heavy 
 
 hand, and he read, and spoke no more. She 
 4
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 placed her bowl presently iii the ceutre of 
 the table, and went back from it a little to 
 survey the effect. The effect was not good, 
 as even she was aware ; but she could do 
 her work no better, so she gave a little sigh, 
 and gathered up the flowers and leaves that 
 she had not used, and went away. And 
 then when she was gone, her cousin for a 
 moment put down his book and looked at 
 the bouquet steadily, and said to himself 
 half-aloud, " How odd 1 " 
 
 They were very good friends, these two, 
 thouo;h Maro^aret had no more charm for 
 Godfrey than if she had been a boy instead 
 of a girl of twenty. Two years ago, when 
 her father died, it was he who had first 
 proposed to his mother that she should 
 come and live with them. '' It would be 
 terribly dreary for her to be alone in that 
 big place," he had said. For Margaret was
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 the only child of Mrs. Helstone's brother, 
 who had been a rich man, and his wealth 
 had all gone to her, with the great house in 
 which she had grown up, and which, indeed, 
 as Godfrey said, would have been a dull 
 place for her to have continued to live in 
 alone. Ivor Hall, they called it. It stood 
 within a mile of Godfrey's own more modest 
 house — the Dene. It was a ponderous, 
 many-roomed building, with a certain grim 
 picturesqueness about it ; it was associated 
 to Margaret with all her memories of the 
 mother who had died when she was a little 
 child, and by whose side she had walked 
 about its formal gardens, and of the silent 
 father who had made her his companion 
 during ten years of a quiet life ; yet after 
 she was left alone, when Godfrey said to 
 her, '' Come and make your home with us," 
 she had come willingly. She would have
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 done most things that Godfrey asked her 
 to do. When he said, *' Come to us," he 
 brought the colour to her cheek, and one of 
 those rare looks into her face that gave her 
 for a moment a touch of beauty. 
 
 Perhaps he did not know what power he 
 had to bring w^armth and animation to her. 
 He did not care enough about the matter, 
 I am afraid, to know. She w^as nothing to 
 him but his cousin Margaret — hardly even 
 a favourite cousin — only a good, unselfish, 
 kind-hearted girl whom he had known all 
 his life, and for whom he had a loyal feeling 
 of placid friendship. That she liked him 
 more than he liked her he could scarcely 
 fail to be aware, but how much more she 
 liked him he probably did not ask himself ; 
 the question was one that scarcely interested 
 him enough to arouse speculation concerning 
 it in his mind.
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 "Margaret will be a bait to fortune- 
 hunters now," he had said one day to his 
 mother soon after the girl came to stay with 
 them. " I hope she won't be tempted to 
 make some foolish marriao-e." 
 
 He made this remark lightly, as if her 
 marriage were a matter with which he could 
 have no personal concern, and Mrs. Helstone 
 hesitated before she spoke the reply that 
 rose to her lips. But though she hesitated 
 she ended by speaking it. 
 
 " Why don't you try to put such a thing 
 out of her power ? " she said. 
 
 " Who ?— I ? " Godfrey ejaculated hastily, 
 and for a moment the colour came into 
 his face ; but after this one moment he 
 recovered himself, and laughed an unem- 
 barrassed laugh. " I shall never do that," 
 he said. " I want neither Margaret's money 
 nor herself."
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " You might do worse than want her," 
 Mrs. Helstone answered. 
 
 " I suppose so," he replied carelessly. 
 " Nevertheless — " and then he turned away. 
 He was rather annoyed at what his mother 
 had said. He was proud enough to have 
 no wish to take a rich woman for his wife, 
 and indifferent enough to Margaret to feel 
 no temptation to woo her. " She is one 
 of the last girls in the world one would 
 fall in love with," he said, perhaps a little 
 contemptuously, to himself. 
 
 But yet the young man was always very 
 kind to his cousin, in a quiet, undemonstra- 
 tive way. When he was at home they often 
 talked and walked and rode together ; they 
 never flirted, partly because flirting was not 
 an amusement he was much addicted to 
 with anybody, partly because she, on her 
 side, could not have succeeded in lending
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 herself with any grace or felicity to that 
 
 exercise ; but they were intimate after a 
 
 fashion, and if you had asked him how he 
 
 liked her he would have spoken of her good 
 
 qualities warmly and cordially. *' She has 
 
 everything to make her attractive — except 
 
 attractiveness," he once said laughingly to 
 
 his mother, and though Mrs. Helstone 
 
 would fain have denied the assertion, yet 
 
 she could not. For I have said before that 
 
 the person who loved her best was the one 
 
 who was perhaps most keenly alive to her 
 
 deficiencies, and that person to whom she 
 
 was most dear, and who would gladly have 
 
 had her for her daughter in truth, as she 
 
 was already a daughter in affection, was 
 
 Mrs. Helstone. 
 
 The two women spent a very quiet life 
 
 together. Mrs. Helstone was a widow, and 
 
 Godfrey was her only son. He was twenty- 
 10
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 four, and had just taken his degree at 
 Oxford, and come into the enjoyment of the 
 estate which his father's death had left to 
 him three years before. It was not a Large 
 estate, but it was large enough to make 
 him independent. He was something of a 
 student, too, and had a good library, in 
 which he cared to spend a considerable por- 
 tion of his time. For his age, he was rather 
 a grave man, though social in a fair degree, 
 and fond of travel, and sport, and active life. 
 He was a good son, too, and a good friend, 
 in the opinion, at any rate, of the two 
 women who, in their several relations to 
 him, thought they knew him best. 
 
 Like other fond and foolish women these 
 two were in the habit, during Godfrey's long 
 absences from home, of spending much time 
 in talking together over his manifold vir- 
 tues. To Mrs. Helstone the occupation was 
 11
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 naturally an attractive one ; and if when her 
 niece came to live with her she yielded to 
 the temptation of trying to infuse some of 
 her own enthusiasm into the heart of the 
 younger woman, the fault was at least com- 
 prehensible. In truth, too, Godfrey had 
 some qualities that made him not ill-fitted 
 to occupy the place in her affection to which 
 her aunt encouraged Margaret to elevate 
 him, for he was handsome and brave, and 
 kind and courteous ; he could be tender 
 where tenderness was called for, and hot 
 when auger was needed. The girl admired, 
 and loved, and a little feared him. To talk 
 of him to his mother became before long 
 the greatest pleasure that she had : to do 
 him some little service made her happy ; to 
 hear others praise him brought the colour to 
 her face : to feel that she was so little to 
 
 him made her heart ache in secret. For 
 12
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 though they were much together, and though 
 
 he was always good to her, that she was 
 
 little to him was a hard fact that she knew 
 
 well, and that she acc^epted meekly, but 
 
 that she never forgot. 
 
 Both Margaret and Mrs. Helstone had 
 
 been making much of Godfrey of late, for 
 
 he had come from Oxford with some honours 
 
 on his head, and of course they had killed 
 
 the fatted calf for his delectation, and offered 
 
 incense to him. His mother had rather a 
 
 happy way of offering incense, so as to make 
 
 the act pleasaut and acceptable. It is an 
 
 act that is not always done gracefully, but 
 
 she was a graceful woman, and knew how 
 
 to perform it so that it should please him. 
 
 When she administered her delicate praise 
 
 to him he mio^ht lauoh at it, and in words 
 
 reject it, but in his heart — as w^as natural 
 
 enough — he liked it. 
 
 13
 
 GODFKEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 They had been very happy together fur a 
 week, but on this day, when Margaret had 
 made her ponderous bouquet, Godfrey was 
 on the eve of taking his departure from 
 them again for a little while. 
 
 " You must want a holiday now, my 
 dear," his mother had said to him when she 
 saw him first. " You look well, certainly — 
 not as if you had been over- worked at all — 
 but still you must really be in need of a 
 thorough rest." 
 
 " I am not so sure about being in need 
 of one," Godfrey replied ; '' but I think of 
 taking one. I have promised Dallas to go 
 for a month's fishing with him on the 
 Trent." 
 
 And accordingly he was on the eve now 
 of starting on this expedition. He was 
 rather an ardent fisher — his intended com- 
 panion was a man whom he liked — the 
 14
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 weather was all that weather at the end of 
 Jime ought to be. 
 
 Mrs. Helstone and Margaret were to 
 spend the summer, as they did usually, at 
 the Dene, for to Mrs. Helstone there was no 
 pleasanter place than her own house, with 
 its beautiful gardens, whose perfect keeping 
 she made the one great luxury that she per- 
 mitted herself; and where her aunt was, 
 there Margaret was content to be. These 
 too, you see, were only a pair of quiet, 
 country ladies. The elder had moved in the 
 world once, but that was long ago, and she 
 had lost her taste now for the amusements 
 she might have cared for in her youth; 
 while as for Margaret, she had never known 
 them. It was a dull life, perhaps, that 
 they led, but they were tolerably uncon- 
 scious of its dulness. They had their 
 
 little round of duties, of pleasures, of 
 15
 
 G CD F K E Y H E LSTON E. 
 
 sociabilities — their mild interests, their placid 
 occupations. 
 
 They sat on this last evening that God- 
 frey was to spend with them, sewing in the 
 long June daylight. They had always some 
 dainty work — embroidery that, like Pene- 
 lope's web, seemed never-ending — to employ 
 their fingers on. For nearly all his life 
 Godfrey had seen the same sort of thing in 
 his mother's hands. They sat near one of 
 the windows to catch the latest light, and 
 Godfrey, ensconced comfortably in an arm- 
 chair opposite, alternately read and talked 
 to them, claiming their silence or their 
 attention, as it pleased him. 
 
 It was a long-shaped room, with a line 
 
 of windows opening on the garden, — a 
 
 pretty room, as Godfrey liked to know. 
 
 For Godfrey was fond of his house too. 
 
 He cared for its air of refinement, its 
 16
 
 Godfrey Helstone. ' 
 
 sobriety, its unostentatious comfort ; he 
 appreciated all that it owed to his mother's 
 taste. He liked the placid life, too, that 
 Mrs. Helstone and Margaret led in it, 
 feeling that such a life satisfied his sense 
 of the fitness of things, for he was a 
 Conservative of rather a stiff type, and 
 had no new-fashioned ideas about women 
 or women's w^ork, nor any desire to see 
 them taking a prominent place in the 
 world, either in the van or the rear of 
 the battle : he preferred vastly to see them 
 sitting, as he saw his mother and Mar- 
 garet sitting now, sewing those pieces 
 of embroidery whose use he had never 
 learnt, whose completion seemed never 
 reached. 
 
 They worked while the light served 
 them, and then • in the twilight Mrs. 
 
 Helstone said, " Give us a little music 
 VOL. I. 17 2 
 
 • 7
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Margaret/' and Margaret went to the piano, 
 
 and played a piece or two, and sang a 
 
 song. The pieces were what are called 
 
 drawing-room pieces, the song too was a 
 
 drawing-room song. Her execution of 
 
 them was very correct. Godfrey listened 
 
 to it with half an ear. He said "Thank 
 
 you ! " very cordially when the girl rose 
 
 from her seat ; but I do not think the 
 
 performance had charmed him. Perhaps 
 
 by this time he knew all Margaret's songs 
 
 by heart, and had forgotten that to be 
 
 charmed with them was a thing that 
 
 could be expected of him. He said 
 
 "Thank you," and then added something 
 
 else pleasantly as she came back to the 
 
 place that she had left. 
 
 " I heard one of Wilson's sisters singing 
 
 something the other night that I thought 
 
 would suit your voice," he said. " I must 
 18
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 find out the name of it. Her voice is not 
 so good as yours, only she has — practised 
 more, perhaps." 
 
 "Margaret does not practise nearly as 
 much as she should ; I am always telling 
 her so," Mrs. Helstone said. " Perhaps 
 she needs some new music to give her 
 more interest. I am very forgetful, or I 
 would make her get some." 
 
 " Oh, it is not that, I have music 
 enough," Margaret answered quickly. 
 
 And then Godfrey made a remark about 
 
 something else — changing the subject, 
 
 perhaps purposely. He was a kindly 
 
 man, and he liked Margaret, but in his 
 
 heart he knew that he found her dulL He 
 
 knew that she w'ould never sing or play so 
 
 as to give pleasure to any intelligent human 
 
 creature. He fell^ that her talk wanted 
 
 life and light, and that in her composition 
 19
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 some element that is of the essence of sweet 
 womanhood had been left out. 
 
 But yet, if she ever wearied or irritated 
 him he was quick to reproach himself for 
 his weariness, and to call to mind all her 
 virtues — her unselfishness, and loyalty, and 
 truth, and goodness. *' She is better — 
 really a better and higher creature — than 
 nine-tenths of the girls one knows," he 
 would tell himself, trying (though some- 
 times trying in vain) to warm his appre- 
 ciation of her into enthusiasm. Once to 
 her face he said impulsively, '' I think, 
 Margaret, you are the best woman in the 
 world ! " an unwise speech to make perhaps, 
 for though probably he himself forgot the 
 warm expression afterwards, you may 
 imagine whether or not she forgot it. 
 
 He was kind and pleasant to her to- 
 night when the singing was over. It was 
 20
 
 GODFKEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 a starlight night, aucl he invited her 
 presently to go out into the garden with 
 him and look at the stars. She knew a 
 good deal about the stars — possibly rather 
 more than he did. Perhaps as they stood 
 together, gazing upwards, she even wearied 
 him a little by the amount of knowledge 
 she displayed. It was to enjoy an aesthetic 
 not a scientific pleasure that he had called 
 her out into the soft June night, and, to 
 tell the truth, after ten minutes he yawned. 
 He found bv the end of that time that he 
 had had enough of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 They walked two or three times up and 
 down the gravel walk beneath the drawing- 
 room windows. The lights from the room 
 made a subdued illumination on their path. 
 Mrs. Helstone, sitting alone within, heard 
 their advancing and retreating steps and 
 
 voices, and the sounds w^ere pleasant to 
 21
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 her, and set her dreaming her favourite 
 
 dream, the one that she dreamt daily. 
 
 " Surely it is only a question of time ; they 
 
 are so much together," she thought, " and 
 
 he likes her, and values her. Some men 
 
 are caught merely by a pretty face, but 
 
 Godfrey is not one of these. He wants 
 
 sterling qualities — real worth, — a woman 
 
 he can respect and trust, as well as love. 
 
 And he does respect and trust Margaret ; I 
 
 am sure of that. If only he might love her 
 
 too ! But, living with her in the house, seeing 
 
 her always, getting to know her thoroughly 
 
 — surely, in time, the love will come ! " 
 
 So she sat thinking to herself; but, all 
 
 too soon to content her, the footsteps 
 
 presently paused at the open window, and 
 
 she gave a little sigh as, after their twenty 
 
 minutes' absence, her son and Margaret 
 
 came back into the room. 
 22
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Mr. Helstone and his friend were to 
 meet at the inn of Brentwood, a village on 
 the Trent, but when Godfrey reached this 
 place upon the following day, he found not 
 Mr. Dallas, but a letter from him, post- 
 poning his arrival until the next after- 
 noon. The delay did not matter to Godfrey. 
 " I'll try and get a basket of fish before 
 he comes," he only thought. So he went to 
 bed that night after having taken a survey 
 of the river, and the next morning prepared 
 to begin his sport. 
 
 It was a grey morning, warm but sun- 
 less, with a rather too active soft south wind. 
 23
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Godfrey chose his position, and arranged his 
 
 line. The place was pretty — green and 
 
 solitary ; an English, home-like scene, such 
 
 as was pleasant in the young man's eyes. 
 
 The river made a bend near where he stood ; 
 
 on the opposite bank there was a belt of 
 
 trees that, if he had been a painter, he 
 
 thought he should like to sketch ; stretching 
 
 far away on either side were wide green 
 
 meadows, dotted with wandering sheep. 
 
 It was all so quiet that for a long time he 
 
 heard no sound except the singing of the 
 
 birds, and sometimes the low of cattle far 
 
 aNvay. There was a little splash in the 
 
 river now and then as some water- duck 
 
 descended on it ; but except for such 
 
 occasional sounds the silence was unbroken 
 
 for so long, that Godfrey at last, to relieve 
 
 it, said aloud to himself, " Upon my word, 
 
 this is a quiet place ! " 
 24
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Just at that moment, however, the wind 
 caught his line and discomposed him. He 
 had drawn it out of the water to throw 
 it afresh, and in the act of re- arranging 
 it a sudden gust came and whirled it 
 round the rod. As he shook it free, the 
 same unfortunate breeze attacked his hat. 
 He clapped his hand to his head, but the 
 action came too late. The liat was light, 
 and before Godfrey could prevent it, the 
 covering that had so lately adorned him 
 was first uplifted in the air, and then tossed 
 into the river out of reach. 
 
 He threw out his line and tried to catch 
 it, but that effort failed, and it went float- 
 ing buoyantly down the stream. " I sup- 
 pose I must get my things off and go after 
 it," he thought next to himself; so he laid 
 down his rod, and was in the act of throw- 
 ing off his coat, when, giving a glance round 
 25
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 to assure himself that his solitude was still 
 unbroken, he perceived to his discomfiture, 
 advancing directly towards him across the 
 nearest field, a pair of figures — a man 
 and woman — whose presence brought his 
 intended proceedings to an inevitable stop. 
 
 " Provoking ! " thought Godfrey ; but in 
 the face of such an arrival he was clearly 
 helpless, so feeling a little foolish, he took 
 up his rod again, and rather uncomfortably 
 aw^are of his uncovered head, and of the 
 object that still, prominently conspicuous, 
 was sailing over the surface of the water, 
 he began with as much appearance of ease 
 as he could assume to busy himself with 
 the re- adjustment of his line. 
 
 He was not, however, left to this un- 
 disturbed occupation long. 
 
 " Hey day, young man, you want tliat 
 
 hat of yours back again, don't you '? " cried 
 ' 26
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 a voice behind him, in such mellow tones, 
 that, though the speaker was at some 
 distance still, Godfrey heard the address 
 distinctly. He turned as it was uttered, 
 and gave a laugh. 
 
 " Oh yes, I want it back. I shall get it 
 presently," he said. 
 
 " Well, I should say you had better get 
 it now," returned the other in the same 
 full voice. " Whew ! Wasp ! Come — 
 Wasp ! where are you ? Come away, lad ! " 
 
 And then Godfrey became aware of the 
 presence of a third invader of his solitude, 
 in the person of a vivacious terrier, who 
 suddenly, in reply to his master's call, 
 precipitated himself with violence on the 
 scene. 
 
 The strangers in a few minutes more 
 had come near enough for Mr. Helstone to 
 
 perceive that they were a hale tall man, 
 
 27
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 evidently a clergy man by liis dress, and 
 
 a giii who was tall too, and had clear-cut 
 
 features, and frank, direct eyes, which she 
 
 turned on Godfrey's face so fully, that his 
 
 inability to raise his hat to her disturbed 
 
 him. He bowed, however, as being all 
 
 he could do, and she smiled in answer, 
 
 slightly but pleasantly. 
 
 '' Wasp will bring back your hat for you," 
 
 she said next moment. " He is a clever 
 
 dog, and he swims beautifully. Shall I 
 
 send him in ? " And without waiting for 
 
 Godfrey's answer — " Fetch, Wasp ! " she 
 
 cried ; and throwinc: a stone into the river 
 
 to start him in the right direction, she 
 
 stood watching wdiile the fussy little animal 
 
 in a prodigious hurry took the water, and 
 
 swam out till he had seized on Godfrey's 
 
 hat, and got it between his teeth. 
 
 " What a spirited little fellow ! " said Mr. 
 28
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Helstone. " T am sure I am very much 
 
 obliged to him, — and to you." 
 
 "Yes, — Wasp is useful," replied the 
 
 clergyman. " His legs save mine more 
 
 runs than you would guess. Got it, lad ? 
 
 That's right — that's right ! Bring it here." 
 
 And as Wasp rushed up with his prize he 
 
 took it from him, motioning Godfrey back, 
 
 and shook the water off it. " There's your 
 
 property, sir," he said, handing the hat back 
 
 to its owner when this was done, with a 
 
 laugh ; " but I am afraid you will find it 
 
 too wet yet for a good while to put back 
 
 on your head. It's not a bad kind of hat," 
 
 he continued contemplatively, plunging his 
 
 hands into his pockets, and planting himself 
 
 in front of Godfrey with his legs well apart, 
 
 and his eyes fixed on the object under 
 
 discussion. " Not a bad kind of hat, as 
 
 straw hats go ; but straw is too light ; that 
 29
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 is where it fails : it hasn't got body enough : 
 it doesn't stick. Now a felt hat does 
 stick. Look at mine. There's hardly a 
 sou'wester blowing that would get this 
 off my head." 
 
 " No, I suppose not," replied Godfrey 
 with a smile. 
 
 He had done as he was directed, and had 
 raised his eyes to his companion's wide- 
 awake, and then, after mastering the general 
 appearance of that covering, had withdrawn 
 them to the face below it — a handsome, 
 kindly, hearty face, with a look of both 
 sense and humour in it. Godfrey liked 
 its aspect as he glanced at it : as far as he 
 had yet seen it he liked the girl's face too. 
 He was not sure that it was pretty, but 
 it had an expression of keenness that 
 pleased him — a certain firmness in its well- 
 cut features, and frankness in its bright 
 30
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 eyes, that made him desire to look at it 
 again. 
 
 She had had her back to him for a 
 minute, having been forced to attend to 
 Wasp, who, in his delight at his successful 
 achievement, had been besetting her with 
 entreaties to make a second trial of his 
 powers ; but she looked round again at 
 Godfrey's response, and answered his smile 
 with a sudden quiet laugh. 
 
 '* We have winds here in winter that 
 would blow off almost anything," she said. 
 "It is often very stormy. The wind comes 
 sweeping so over these fields." 
 
 "What pretty fields they are!" replied 
 Godfrey. 
 
 "Ah yes," said the clergyman, "it's a 
 
 nice country — a very nice country — a 
 
 kind you don't get out of England, I'm 
 
 told. If you are a stranger here you 
 31
 
 Godfrey Helstoxe. 
 
 will find some tliins^s worth looking 
 at. 
 
 " Well, I am a stranger," answered 
 Godfrey. 
 
 "So I thought, sir; so 1 siipj^osed. If 
 you had been in the neighbourhood before 
 I presumed I should have remembered you. 
 We country clergymen have a keen eye for 
 a new-comer, you know." And with that, 
 and with a twinkle in his eye, he laughed. 
 
 Godfrey returned the laugh. He rather 
 
 liked this man, with his cheer}^ face and 
 
 mellow voice. " A friend of mine told me 
 
 that the fishing here was good," he said. 
 
 " I have not been very fortunate so far," — 
 
 and he glanced at his fishing-basket, which, 
 
 to tell the truth, was still empty enough, — 
 
 ''but I only arrived last night, so I suppose 
 
 I ought hardly as yet to complain." 
 
 " You won't complain if you take my 
 32 .
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 advice and shift your ground a little," 
 replied the other. '' I've fished in this 
 river for these five-and-twenty years, so 
 I don't exactly speak without experience. 
 There's a pool, now, some six or seven 
 minutes' walk along here to your left ; I've 
 caught more fish in that pool than in any 
 bit of water I ever whipped." 
 
 " I should like to find it out," said 
 Godfrey quickly. 
 
 " Put up your thiogs then, sir, and 
 
 come along with us," cried the clergyman 
 
 instantly. " We can walk that way as well 
 
 as another. That's so ; isn't it, Joanne ? 
 
 Tut, tut ! there's no obligation in the matter. 
 
 Why, man, I'm a brother of the craft ! " 
 
 And, silencing Godfrey, who was attempting 
 
 to remonstrate, with a wave of the hand, he 
 
 himself seized hold of the fishing-basket, and 
 
 began to march forward with long strides. 
 VOL. I. 33 3 .
 
 GODFTJEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 "I am afraid I am disturbing your 
 walk/' Godfrey said to the girl, wlio lingered 
 a moment behind as he hastily gathered up 
 his gear. " Were you not going in another 
 direction ? " 
 
 " If we were, it is of no consequence," she 
 answered. " My father would far rather 
 show you this pool than go anywhere 
 else. And he would not only like to show 
 it to you, but to stay and fish with you 
 too," she added with a smile. 
 
 " I wish he zvould do that," exclaimed 
 Godfrey heartily. 
 
 "What— stay and fish too?" cried the 
 
 parson, throwing his head back over his 
 
 shoulder (he had shatp ears apparently), 
 
 and laughing one of his full laughs. 
 
 "Well, it's true. I shouldn't mind if I 
 
 did. But I have got a sick woman instead 
 
 to go and see presently — unluckily. I'll 
 34
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 come and join you another day though, if 
 you like. I've got nothing to do to-morrow 
 — have I, Joanne ? " 
 
 " Nothing that we know of yet," replied 
 the girl composedly ; *' except/' she added, 
 " that Mrs. Oakes may want you again." 
 
 " Oh, I'll manage her," cried the clergy- 
 man. *' 111 go to her either early or late. 
 Yes, I could come and join you to-morrow, 
 sir." 
 
 " I should like it greatly," replied God- 
 frey, much amused. 
 
 " I'll be with you then by ten o'clock. 
 
 That won't be too early for you, I am sure ? 
 
 Ah," as Godfrey made the answer that 
 
 was expected, " I thought not. No hour 
 
 is too early for a good angler. And now 
 
 tell me your name, for if we are to have 
 
 a day's sport together we must know what 
 
 to call each other. Mine is Beresford. You 
 35
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 will see it printed large euougii, if you like, 
 OD the notice board at the church-door. 
 It lias been up there longer than you have 
 been in the world, young man. And this 
 is my daughter — one of my daughters, I 
 should say, for there are a good many more 
 of them at home." 
 
 Godfrey had taken his card-case from 
 his pocket, and Mr. Beresford took the 
 card he offered him, and, putting up his 
 gold eye-glass, read the name and address 
 aloud. 
 
 " ' Godfrey Helstone, The Dene, Lip- 
 worth.' Godfrey Helstone," he repeated 
 deliberately ; " that's the way to put it, is 
 it?— dropping the 'Mr.'? Well, it is an 
 affectation of simplicity. At least, I sus- 
 pect, a man would have been called affected 
 who had done it in my young days. But 
 
 I find no fault with the fashion, for my 
 36
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 part. Helstone ! I've known some Hel- 
 stones in my time." 
 
 " And I have known Beresfords," replied 
 Godfrey. " It is a fine old name." 
 
 " Ay, ay, the name's not amiss," replied 
 the other vrith a touch of complacency. 
 " We like to think we have some good 
 blood in our veins ; though, indeed, for the 
 matter of that," he added carelessly, " there 
 have been all kinds amongst us, and, to 
 tell the truth, I suppose that Smith or 
 Jones has as good a chance of turning out 
 a hero as the best Howard or Percy of 
 them all." 
 
 " Xevertheless we would prefer to be 
 the Howard or the Percy," said Godfrey. 
 And then Mr. Beresford laughed. 
 
 " True, one would," he said. " It's a 
 
 weakness of human nature ; and amongst 
 
 the many prides of this world I don't know 
 37
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 that pride of family takes rank as a very 
 deadly one. The devil makes his own 
 use of it, no doubt ; but it's not one of 
 his trump cards. However, that subject 
 will keep till another time. Look here 
 now, this is what I want to show you. 
 You see that reach ? That's the place, sir. 
 Take your position near that thorn tree, 
 and I think I may promise you that your 
 basket will be heavier in an hour or two 
 than it is now." 
 
 "It may well be that," said Godfrey 
 with a laugh. "I am greatly obliged 
 to you." 
 
 " No, no," returned Mr. Beresford, " you 
 have nothing to be obliged for yet. Prove 
 my guidance to be good before you thank 
 me for it. I am pleased for my part 
 to have met you, Mr. Helstone. I hope 
 
 that to-morrow we shall become better 
 
 38
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 acquainted. Twelve o'clock, isn't it, Joanne ? 
 Ah, then, I must be off. By the way, 
 you are staying at Mrs. Turnbull's, are 
 you ? '* 
 
 " At the inn ? — yes," said Godfrey. 
 
 " Ah, very good, respectable people, and 
 a nice clean, decent house. I am thinking 
 though " — and then Mr. Beresford paused 
 for a moment, and gave Godfrey a rapid 
 glance — " I was going to say," he repeated, 
 after this prudent survey, "if you have 
 nothing better to do in the evening — you 
 know a clergyman's door is always open, 
 and you will be very welcome if you care 
 to come up and spend an hour with us 
 I can't venture to promise you much enter- 
 tainment, but — you will find a stirring 
 house at any rate." 
 
 " I should like to come greatly," replied 
 
 Godfrey with heartiness. 
 39
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Well, do so," returned Mr. Beresford. 
 " Come when you have had your dinner. I 
 supj)ose you dine late, — and we dine early, 
 but come when it suits you. You will find 
 us at tea at six o'clock, and, if nothing 
 else, you will fiud also an awful number 
 of boys and girls round the table. So 
 good-bye till evening, Mr. Helstone, — and 
 take better care of your hat," he added, 
 with a parting laugh. 
 
 " I shall follow your advice, and adopt 
 a felt one," answered Godfrey, returning 
 his laugh, and, in salutation to Miss Beres- 
 ford, holding the still wet hat above his 
 head. 
 
 He resumed his fishing when his visitors 
 
 had left him, amused and rather pleased at 
 
 the accident of their meeting. In a country 
 
 place, he thought to himself, one is the 
 
 better for finding interests outside oneself — 
 40
 
 Godfrey Helstoke. 
 
 for seeing new people and new ways of 
 life. Godfrey found fresh occupation for 
 his thoughts in this little incident that had 
 disturbed the solitude of his morning. " A 
 fine -looking fellow/' he said to himself, 
 " and rather a character too, I suppose. He 
 seems to have his quiver full of — blessings, 
 by the way he talks of them. I wonder if 
 this girl is the eldest of the family ! A 
 wonderfully nice face she has. If I go up 
 to-night I'll try and have a talk with her." 
 " 1/ I go up," Godfrey said, but in 
 fact he had not the least doubt that he 
 intended to go. AYhat better thing could 
 he do ? He had no other acquaintances in 
 the place, and by evening he should pro- 
 bably be tired of his own company. " Why 
 should not I dine early too, and go to their 
 family tea ? " he found himself deliberating 
 
 before many minutes had passed. 
 41
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 By two o'cLjck lie had caught a handful 
 of trout, and was thinkinc: of turninc: his 
 steps back to the village. " I will get them 
 to grill me one when I go in, and they 
 can give me my chop," he had decided by 
 this time, "and then I shall be independ- 
 ent, and can go to the Vicarage or not, 
 as I like." 
 
 So he went to the inn, and ordered this 
 meal. 
 
 "You've had some luck, sir," said Mr. 
 Turnbull to him. 
 
 " Yes ; I have had a little luck, — thanks 
 to your clergyman, I believe," replied 
 Godfrey. 
 
 " Ah, has the Vicar been with you ? 
 He's a rare one at handling a rod ! " ex- 
 claimed Mr. Turnbull with gusto. 
 
 " So I should suppose," said Godfrey. 
 
 " And a very fine gentleman altogether. 
 42
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 And witli a fine family," returned Mr. 
 Turnbull. 
 
 " Oh, yes, tell me about his family," said 
 Godfrey. " Has he got a wife ? " 
 
 " A wife 1 Oh, bless you, yes, sir ! " 
 exclaimed Mr. Turnbull. " Why, Mrs. 
 Beresford — she's more in the parish than 
 the Vicar is himself. There's Mrs. Beres- 
 ford, and Miss Beresford, and Miss Edith " 
 — beginning to count on his fingers, — " and 
 
 Miss Joanne, and Miss Violet, and Miss — " 
 
 " Why, they are not all daughters, are 
 
 they ? " interrupted Godfrey, amused at 
 
 this catalogue of feminine names. 
 
 "All daughters'? Oh no, sir — oh dear, 
 
 no," cried Mr. Turnbull ; " there are six 
 
 young ladies and five young gentlemen." 
 
 " God bless me ! " exclaimed Godfrey ; 
 
 Mr. Beresford might well say it was a 
 
 stirring house ! " 
 
 43
 
 GODFRF.Y HeLSTONE. 
 
 " Yes, sir, they make a good bit of life 
 in tlie place," Mr. TurnbuU assented. 
 *' There's some of them in the vilWe most 
 
 o 
 
 hours of the day ; and they're a sight in 
 church on Sunday .-2." 
 
 " So I should think indeed ! " replied 
 Godfrey. 
 
 He went to his dinner after this, and 
 as he ate it he began to doubt if he could 
 have the courage to present himself at 
 the Vicaraore at six o'clock. He felt that 
 it would be like going to face a school. 
 "If I went later I might only have to 
 meet them in detachments," he thought. 
 And yet he felt anxious too to see how 
 sucli a family looked en masse. He won- 
 dered what kind of food was provided for 
 it. He found himself speculating as to 
 whether, if he went, he sliould find Joanne 
 
 cutting bread and butter ; and, amused at 
 44
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 this thought, he began to picture the girl 
 with her bright face engaged at that world - 
 famed occupation till he laughed at the 
 comparison that inevitably rose in his mind. 
 
 " I think she is a daintier creature 
 than any German damsel is likely to have 
 been," he said to himself, " daintier, and 
 made of finer stuff; at least that is the 
 impression she has made on me. Though, 
 to be sure, when one thinks of the troop 
 of rough boys and girls with whom she 
 must spend her days, perhaps the chances 
 rather are that the daintiness and fineness 
 are qualities of my own imagination. I 
 shall be disenchanted, I daresay, if I go up 
 and see her to-night." 
 
 And yet Godfrey had nothing better to 
 
 do, and he was rather curious about the 
 
 girl ; and so, as the church clock told the 
 
 hour of six, he found himself making his 
 45
 
 GODFKEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 way, according to directions he had re- 
 ceived, along a pretty country road, which 
 brought him presently to a garden -gate that 
 stood wide open, with a winding path upon 
 the other side that led him finally to Mr. 
 Beresford's door. 
 
 -*iQ?/,
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The day had brightened, and the Vicar s 
 gjarden was all ablaze with sunshine and 
 flowers. It was an old-fashioned garden, 
 and the house was old-fashioned too, and 
 not picturesque, but yet a good house, 
 substantial and four-square, of fine old 
 red brick, w^eather-stained now, and nearly 
 overgrown with ivy. It was set dow^n on 
 a large close-cut lawn, the green environ- 
 ment giving a pleasant, home-like look to 
 it, while w^alks, shaded by nmny trees, 
 stretched out to right and left. 
 
 '' Has the first bell rang ? " a boy's brisk 
 
 voice shouted from the garden just after 
 
 47
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 six o'clock had struck, and a o^irl's from an 
 open window answered back — " Yes ! " 
 
 " Yes, it has rung, and the other will 
 ring in a minute. You will hardly have time 
 to wash your hands," added the girl, putting 
 out her head, and nodding it energetically. 
 
 "Oh, all right — then I won't wash 
 them," replied the boy, instantly sacrificing 
 his natural longing for cleanliness to a 
 feeling of duty. " Is everybody else in ? " 
 
 " How can I tell ? " replied the girl. " I 
 have not been looking after them. There 
 it is now ! " And, as a sonorous bell rang 
 suddenly out, her head disappeared, and 
 the boy too, plunging his hands into his 
 pockets, bolted in at the open door. 
 
 The bell clanged loudly, and before it 
 ceased there came a rush of youthful feet 
 along the floor, all approaching the same 
 
 point from different quarters, and a sound 
 
 48
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 of youthful voices, all directed towards a 
 common centre, and into a room in which 
 a long table was spread with cups and 
 saucers, and bread and butter, the Vicar's 
 sons and daughters presently came troop- 
 ing — a throng of lively youngsters, looking, 
 in truth, as Godfrey had pictured them, 
 like a school let loose, except that boys 
 and girls were mixed together. 
 
 The mother of this motley group was 
 already standing in front of her own chair, 
 a tall woman with a quick eye, and a 
 manner that was more curt and decided 
 than her husband's ; the manner of one 
 accustomed to rule, and whose hands were 
 too full to leave her much time for the 
 amenities of life. 
 
 "Take your places quietly, children," she 
 
 said. " Felix, don't push your brother. 
 
 Maude, move your elbows off the table. 
 VOL. I. 49 4
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Victor, don't talk till your sister has said 
 grace. Now — father." 
 
 This was to the Vicar, who, last of the 
 small crowd, was entering the room with 
 a leisurely step. His wife waited till he 
 had taken possession of his seat, and then 
 turned to a small person who was ensconced 
 in a high chair on her left hand. 
 
 " Say grace, Femie," she bade her, and 
 a tiny piping voice uttered a minute 
 thanksgiving. And then in a moment 
 more the silence had ceased, and the room 
 had become like a little Babel. 
 
 This lasted for five minutes ; but at the 
 
 five minutes' end the door opened, and 
 
 another sudden unexpected hush fell on 
 
 the assembly, while more than a dozen pair 
 
 of eyes fixed themselves at the same 
 
 moment on Godfrey Helstone as he stood 
 
 with his figure framed in the doorway ; he 
 50
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 o-azinof too, for here was the whole scene 
 
 before him exactly as he had pictured it — 
 
 the long table, the crowd of youngsters, 
 
 the piles of bread and butter ; with only 
 
 this diflference — that the expected bread 
 
 and butter cutter was indistinguishable at 
 
 a first glance from the rest. After a few 
 
 moments he saw where Joanne was sitting, 
 
 but he found that no mighty loaf was 
 
 near her. 
 
 The Vicar rose from his seat, and greeted 
 
 his guest heartily. 
 
 " Ah, so you have come ! That's right ! " 
 
 he said. ''I am very glad to see you. 
 
 Here's my wife. Mrs. Beresford, this is 
 
 Mr. Helstone. Give him a seat beside you. 
 
 Come, clear off, my boy, and let Mr. Helstone 
 
 sit down. They are like a swarm of bees, 
 
 you see, sir. Little and big, we have got 
 
 them of all kinds. Well, and did you keep 
 51
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 long at your fishing ? And what kind of 
 sport did you have ? " 
 
 Godfrey gave his report. For a few 
 minutes he and the Vicar kept up a con- 
 versation together from their opposite ends 
 of the long table — a conversation made 
 possible by the silence that for a brief space 
 reigned on either side ; and then, as the 
 buzz of general talk began again, he turned 
 to Mrs. Beresford, and to a girl who, seated 
 just opposite him, had caught his eye almost 
 as soon as he had entered the room. 
 
 She was not Joanne, but some one with 
 
 far greater pretensions to beauty than Joanne 
 
 possessed — a fair girl, with dark blue eyes 
 
 and golden hair. Godfrey ran his eye 
 
 along all the other faces that lined the 
 
 table, and said to himself emphatically that 
 
 no other was like this one. Was she a 
 
 daughter? he wondered, so much prettier 
 52
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 as she was than all the rest — even unlike 
 them too, for none of the others had her 
 fairness and brio^htness of colourinof. 
 
 He said something after a little to Mrs. 
 Beresford to draw the information from her 
 that he wanted. 
 
 " I met one of your daughters with Mr. 
 Beresford this morning. I am not sure 
 whether it was your eldest daughter — ? " 
 
 " Oh no — you met Joanne," she answered. 
 '' This is my eldest — Lilian," and she mo- 
 tioned to the fair- haired girl, who smiled 
 a little and looked conscious, Godfrey 
 thought. 
 
 This appearance of consciousness amused 
 him. " She is the village beauty, I sup- 
 pose," he said to himself. He addressed 
 some remark to her the next moment, and 
 she answered it with a blush. " She is very 
 
 provincial," he thought ; but yet he followed 
 53
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 up his first remark with a second and a 
 third. 
 
 They rose from table presently, and the 
 children began to stream out of the room. 
 " What a pretty place you have here ! " 
 Godfrey had already said to Mrs. Beresford, 
 and so, when they were on their feet, she 
 asked him if he would care to go into the 
 garden. 
 
 '^ The young people are always out of 
 doors in this summer weather," she said. 
 '* If you will go out with them they will 
 like it very much — and, Lilian, you might 
 see if Mr. Helstone would have some 
 strawberries." 
 
 So, in two minutes more, Mr. Helstone 
 
 was walking towards the strawberry-beds, 
 
 and Lilian was by his side. Half-a-dozen 
 
 at least of the others accompanied them 
 
 also, but as it was into Lilian's charge that 
 54
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Godfrey had been delivered, he thought 
 that he was justified in claiming her atten- 
 tion for himself, and he accordingly walked 
 beside her, and as he walked he talked to 
 her. 
 
 He rather liked his position, and yet, to 
 tell the truth, by the time he had reached 
 the strawberry-beds he had begun to have 
 an impression that Miss Lilian's mental gifts 
 were not great. " If she has the beauty, 
 I suspect that some of the others have the 
 brains," he thought. "That bright-eyed 
 creature that I saw this morning, for 
 instance, has more wit, I should think, in 
 her little fing;er than this one has in her 
 whole body." 
 
 And yet he could not help feeling that 
 
 Lilian was amazingly pretty, and that he 
 
 liked his walk beside her, though she did 
 
 not say a syllable to him that was worth 
 55
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 listening to, nor express an opinion that it 
 
 gave him any interest to hear. 
 
 " Do you think it such a pretty country'? " 
 
 she said. " Oh well, I suppose it is ; only 
 
 I have lived here so long that I hardly 
 
 know. I think it is nice in fine weather ; 
 
 but every place is nice then — isn't it ? I 
 
 like London very much — don't you ? I 
 
 have an aunt in London, and I was staying 
 
 with her this spring, and we went about 
 
 a great deal. I was very sorry to come 
 
 home— I mean for some things; not for 
 
 all, of course — because — oh, it would be 
 
 dreadful if one didn't like home best ! but 
 
 there is so much going on in London, and 
 
 you meet such nice people. Don't you 
 
 think you meet very nice people ? " And 
 
 so she ran on. It certainly was not talk 
 
 that claimed one's attention very closely. 
 
 The very artlessness of it, however, from 
 56
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 such pretty lips rather entertained Godfrey. 
 He asked her questions, and paid her beauty 
 the compliment of listening to her simple 
 answers. It was a very mild amusement, 
 but in the pleasant summer evening it 
 entertained him pretty well. When they 
 reached, the strawberry-beds he began to 
 gather some of the fruit for her ; he did. not 
 at first, though she was near him, gather 
 any for Joanne. 
 
 They ate and talked and amused them- 
 selves. Some of the others joined them 
 presently. Joanne joined them with Femie 
 in her arms. Femie was a pretty, curly - 
 headed child, and the two made a picture 
 that it was pleasant to look at. Godfrey 
 at least thought so. 
 
 " You have got a sister who is very good 
 
 to you, it seems to me," he said to the 
 
 little one, patting her rosy cheek. 
 57
 
 Godfrey Helstonk. 
 
 " She has got a sister who is a dragon 
 over her," Joanne answered with a laugh. 
 She gave Femie a sudden kiss, and set her 
 down. " She gets too heavy to be carried," 
 she said. " When the summer began I 
 used to be able to carry her pick-a-back all 
 round the garden, but — like everybody and 
 everything — she changes so fast." 
 
 " I wonder if / could carry her pick-a- 
 back V said Godfrey. 
 
 '' Oh, Mr. Helstone ! " exclaimed Lilian, 
 in polite remonstrance ; but Joanne said at 
 once — " I am sure you could, if you wouldn't 
 mind. Femie, wouldn't you like it ? Come, 
 you are going to have suck a ride ! " And 
 without any hesitation she began to assist 
 the little damsel to mount on Godfrey's 
 shoulders, and in another moment, with her 
 two small arms about his neck, and her 
 
 two tiny feet held in his hands, Mr. Helstone 
 
 58
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 was proceeding at a brisk pace down one of 
 the garden-walks. 
 
 Tlie little maid was shy, and, though 
 Godfrey spoke to her, she hardly answered 
 him ; but Joanne had come with them, and 
 she on her part was ready enough to talk. 
 
 " How nice it is to be strong ! I like 
 strong people," she said with warmth, 
 almost as soon as they had started. " Now, 
 I suppose you could carry a couple of 
 Femies (if there were two of them), and 
 hardly feel that you were doing anything ? " 
 
 '*I think I might manage to carry two 
 Femies," he answered with a laugh ; '' but as 
 for not feeling that I was doing anything — 
 that is another matter. She is a tolerably 
 substantial little person." 
 
 " Yes — is she not fat ? She is like a 
 dumpling. When she tires you, you know. 
 
 you must put her down. 
 59
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 "Oh, 110 fear that she will tire me. Shall 
 I give her a gallop ? " And Godfrey took 
 to his heels, with Joanne following fleetly 
 after him. 
 
 The fat child laughed at this, and Joanne 
 laughed too. They ran for two or three 
 minutes, then they stopped to take breath. 
 
 '' Oh, Femie," cried Joanne, *' you don't 
 have such a ride as this every day." 
 
 She looked pleasantly up at Godfrey. 
 There was something wonderfully frank and 
 friendly in the girl's face ; she had the 
 charm of perfect simplicity and freedom 
 from self-consciousness. " Are you going 
 to stay here long ? Are you going to be 
 here all the summer ? " she asked him 
 abruptly. 
 
 The inquiry amused him. Stay a whole 
 
 summer in this remote little place ! 
 
 " Oh no ; I have only come for a month," 
 60
 
 GODFKEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 he said. " I have a friend who is going to 
 join me to-morrow. We only mean to take 
 a few weeks' fishing. Perhaps not even so 
 much as that. It will depend upon how we 
 like it." 
 
 " Oh, I should think you would like it," 
 said the girl quietly. "Is your friend a 
 young man — like yourself ? " 
 
 " He is a young man. But I don't know 
 that he is very like myself." 
 
 " I meant was he like in age. You know 
 I meant that/' said Joanne severely. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," answered Godfrey, 
 laughing. " Yes, he is very like me in age. 
 He is about three months my junior." 
 
 " And are you great friends ? " asked 
 Joanne. 
 
 Godfrey paused for a moment. He was 
 
 not quite sure how to answer this question 
 
 truthfully. 
 
 61
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Well, we are intimate," he said after 
 that brief silence. " We have been together 
 a great deal at Oxford." 
 
 " Oh, you have been to college, then ? " 
 said Joanne. This seemed to give him an 
 interest in her eyes. " And — are you going 
 back again ? " 
 
 "No, — unfortunately," he replied. 
 
 She looked at him with a little concern. 
 His answer evidently brought another 
 question to her lips, but evidently, too, 
 she hesitated to ask it. He saw her diffi- 
 culty, however, and relieved her from it 
 with a laugh. 
 
 ''I have not been plucked," he said. *' I 
 have taken my degree." 
 
 " Oh yes ! I suppose so," she answered 
 
 hastily. She blushed a little, as if she was 
 
 vexed that her face had betrayed her — as 
 
 if she felt that she owed the young man 
 62
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 some apology. " It must be delightful to 
 do well at college/' she said with a little 
 sigh. ^' Has your friend taken his degree 
 too ? " 
 
 " Yes.' 
 
 " And was it — a good degree ? " 
 
 " Yes, very good ; very good indeed." 
 
 " A first-class ? " 
 
 ''Yes." 
 
 "Were there many first-class men this 
 year ? " 
 
 What she wanted to find out was so 
 evident that he could hardly keep his 
 countenance. He gave her curiosity, how- 
 ever, no assistance. 
 
 " Yes," he merely said, "a good many — 
 about as many as usual, I suppose." 
 
 " Were you very nervous ? " She asked 
 this abruptly. 
 
 '' Moderately," he said. 
 
 63
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Perhaps — you felt pretty sure that you 
 were going to do well ? " 
 
 " Not at all ; I felt quite the other 
 way." 
 
 ''Then you must have been very 
 pleased ? " 
 
 " At finding that they let me pass ? Oh 
 yes, I was pleased, of course. Most people, 
 you see, have somebody to be interested in 
 them, and if they had not passed me my 
 mother would have been disappointed, — 
 naturally. Well, little maid," and he turned 
 his head round to Femie, "shall we have 
 another run ? " And suiting the action to 
 the word, off he set again, and gave the 
 child a second gallop, that brought the 
 colour both to her face and his own. 
 
 He ran, and Joanne ran too. The girl 
 
 was as light and swift of foot as a 
 
 young roe. 
 
 64
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Now put her down," she said, when at 
 last they stopped. " This is enough for 
 once. She is such an extortionate little 
 monkey that she would keep you in her 
 service all the evening if you let her ; but I 
 would rather you did not carry her any 
 more now. That's right ! — and thank you 
 very much. You are not tired, I hope ? " 
 asked the girl in her direct way. 
 
 He laughed. He had deposited Femie on 
 the ground. He was a little hot, but as for 
 feelinor fatiQ;ue from such a small exertion 
 as this — ! " Why, if I had run a mile 
 you need hardly ask me such a question," 
 he said. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," she answered 
 
 quickly. " But people are so different, 
 
 you see ; one never knows. Are you fond 
 
 of doing active things ? I suppose you 
 
 are ? " 
 
 VOL. I. 65 5
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Yes ; I am rather accustomed to doing 
 active things," he said. 
 
 " Rowing, and running, and skating, and 
 hunting ? Do you do all those ? " 
 
 " Yes — more or less." 
 
 " And you have got a mother ? " 
 
 *' Yes — if there is any connection." 
 
 " I didn't mean to suggest that there was 
 any connection ; but you have a mother ? " 
 
 " Oh yes." 
 
 " And a father ? " 
 
 " No ; my father is dead." 
 
 "Oh, what a pity!" sympathetically. 
 " Was it long ago ? " 
 
 " Three years ago. He died just before 
 I came of age.'" 
 
 " That was sad for you. I am sorry," 
 said Joanne gently. " And how many more 
 are there of you ? " 
 
 "No more at all."
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 " You have no brothers nor sisters ? " 
 " Not one.". 
 
 "Oh dear! And I have te7i!'' Joanne 
 ejaculated — this almost below her breath. 
 " How fond your mother must be of you ! " 
 " Do you think that is a natural con- 
 sequence '? " 
 
 She glanced at him for a moment, and 
 then she gave a little laugh. 
 
 " Well, I suppose I did think it was," 
 she said. " But I may be wrong,— of 
 course." 
 
 " My mother has a sort of adopted 
 daughter. Perhaps that fact may make 
 her less entirely absorbed in me than you 
 seem to think probable." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Joanne, and her face showed 
 interest. 
 
 " Yes — a niece, who has lived with her 
 
 for the last two years." 
 67
 
 Godfrey IIp:lstone. 
 
 " That must be a pleasure to her." 
 
 "It is a great pleasure. She is a very 
 good girl." 
 
 " And she is your cousin ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And young ? " 
 
 ''Yes; one-and-tvventy." 
 
 " Of course that must make a sfreat 
 difference." 
 
 " It must make me of a good deal less 
 importance, you mean, than you first 
 thought I was ? " 
 
 " No ; I mean it must make your home 
 much more lively." 
 
 " I suppose it does." But Godfrey's tone 
 
 was not quite the tone of a man who 
 
 was very ardently convinced of this ; and 
 
 Joanne glanced at him, evidently with 
 
 other questions on her lips which, if she had 
 
 been bolder, she would have liked to ask. 
 68
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 She did not ask them, however, and after 
 a moment or two her attention w^as turned 
 to something else. 
 
 The sun w^as getting low", and throw- 
 ing slanting shadows on the grass, and 
 amidst the sunshine and the shadow a 
 handful of the Vicar's sons and daughters 
 wxre playing croquet (for this was before 
 the days of tennis). 
 
 " And you ought to be playing too," cried 
 Joanne suddenly, as they came in their 
 stroll within sight of the lawn, and within 
 sound of the mallets. "Look, you can 
 take Victor's place. I will tell him." And 
 she would have gone forward to effect this 
 substitution if Godfrey had not stopped her. 
 
 " No, pray let Victor alone," he said. " I 
 
 would rather look on if you would let me. 
 
 And which of these lads is Victor, by the 
 
 way ? for, you see, except your eldest sister 
 69
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 and yourself, I don't so far know one of 
 you from another." 
 
 " No, you must be very much puzzled by 
 us all as yet," answered Joanne laughing. 
 '^ We are a dreadful family for a stranger to 
 be thrown into the midst of. And I don't 
 know that it is much use at present to tell 
 you which of us is which, for you will be 
 sure to forget again immediately. How- 
 ever, if you like, I can tell you our names 
 at least. Look — Victor is that fair boy, 
 and the other with darker hair is FeUx. 
 Lilian, as you say, you know ; then there, 
 in the green dress, is my second sister, 
 Edith ; I come after her ; then there are 
 these two boys, Victor and Felix ; and 
 then — " She looked to right and left of 
 her, but after this inspection shook her head. 
 Maude and Violet should be somewhere, but 
 
 I don't see tliem — they are two dear little 
 70
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 souls ; and I don't see Tom either. There 
 are two more of them, though — those little 
 ones sitting on the grass — they are Harry 
 and Dick. And then there is little Femie. 
 And — that's all," she said. 
 
 It might well be all, Godfrey thought to 
 himself. The sight of such a family was a 
 thing to make a man feel grave. 
 
 " And is this holiday time ? or are you 
 always like this — all of you together here, 
 I mean ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes," she said, " this is our natural con- 
 dition. You see — " and then she hesitated, 
 but only for a moment, — "it would cost 
 a great deal to send so many children to 
 school, so papa teaches the bigger boys, and 
 Edith and 1 teach the rest. We have quite 
 a little school-room full, and I think it is 
 rather nice w^ork. Lilian doesn't like it, so we 
 
 don't make her help. Besides, it is pleasant, 
 71
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 of course, for inaiiiiiia to liave one dauohter 
 free. It is holiday time just now ; you 
 were right in guessing that. We broke up 
 school at the end of last week, and we are 
 to be allowed to play now for a month." 
 
 " You must be rather glad when you are 
 allowed to play, I should think," Godfrey 
 said, and then the girl laughed. 
 
 '' Oh, I like it in the summer," she said. 
 " I think everybody likes to be idle then. 
 My father and I are so much out of doors 
 together when we have no teaching to do, 
 and I get long days of sketching sometimes. 
 Yes ; it is a very nice time. I hope the 
 weather w^ill be fine this year." 
 
 " I hope it will," Godfrey said. 
 
 He was watching Lilian at her game, and 
 thinking how well she played it. She was 
 a pretty figure in her light summer dress, 
 
 with her graceful movements, and her 
 
 72
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 gold-crowned head. She eclipsed Joanne, he 
 thought, as a full moon might eclipse a star. 
 But yet Godfrey was content enough to be 
 standing by Joanne's side. Her talk amused 
 him more than Lilian's. The best part of 
 Lilian was her face. 
 
 '' What — do you not play croquet too, 
 Mr. Helstone ? " cried the Vicar's sonorous 
 voice, as his stalwart figure came presently 
 across the lawn. " I thought all the young 
 men played croquet now." 
 
 " Oh yes, I play," answered Godfrey, 
 " when an additional hand is needed. But 
 you are happily so well supplied here — " 
 
 "Ah, yes; w^e have hands enough, and 
 feet enough — and tongues enough, too," 
 replied Mr. Beresford. "These youngsters 
 are bothering me for another croquet-ground. 
 They say one isn't enough — and, to tell the 
 truth, it's seldom I find that one of anything 
 
 73
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 is enough here. Mrs. Beresford finds some 
 difficulty in making one house do — and / 
 find considerable difficulty, I can tell you," 
 — with a cheery laugh — '* in managing with 
 one income. I think, for my own part, that 
 there ought to be a State provision for — for 
 this sort of thing." 
 
 " It would be a very wise and reasonable 
 arrangement," said Godfrey. 
 
 "Well— I think so. And I would be 
 strictly moderate : I would simply ask for a 
 hundred pounds a-head. That would keep 
 us going easily. However, if we might be 
 better ofi", we might, thank God, be worse 
 — and if the birds are too many for the nest, 
 still the nest, I think, is a cosy enough one." 
 And the Vicar turned and surveyed his sub- 
 stantial house with a look that confessed not 
 only to satisfaction but even to pride in it. 
 
 " Yes ; the nest is a delightful one," replied 
 
 74
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Godfrey, cordially. " I don't know where 
 one would go to find a pleasanter spot alto- 
 gether. Or a prettier scene than this," he 
 added, turning to the croquet-ground again, 
 where the young ones were still at play, 
 with Lilian's golden head still catching the 
 sunbeams. 
 
 " AYell, for all the trouble they give us 
 they would need to please our eyes — and 
 our hearts — sometimes," answ^ered the Vicar, 
 with a half-laugh ; and then he moved aw^ay. 
 " Come with me, and I'll take you to see 
 one of our best views," he said. "It is not 
 to be called a fine country about here, you 
 know, but it gets to have a charm to those 
 who become familiar with it. And there's 
 a bit over here that I'm uncommonly fond 
 of. Come away, Joanne. Joanne and I 
 take our walk this way most summer even- 
 ings. It's only a step to the view I am 
 
 75
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 going to show you; but you will say it's 
 worth looking at, I hope." 
 
 " I think almost any view would be worth 
 looking at on such a perfect evening," 
 Godfrey answered. 
 
 "Do you see the pines there, across the 
 sunset ? That's fine, isn't it % " said the 
 Vicar, after a few moments. 
 
 They had left the garden behind them, 
 and were crossing a meadow that rose up- 
 wards to a little hill, crowned with a belt of 
 trees. They mounted this small eminence 
 in a few moments, and there an extensive 
 view stretched itself out before them of 
 wood and pasture land, broken into pic- 
 turesque heights and glades, all lying golden 
 in the evening sun. 
 
 It was a lovely scene, Godfrey thought 
 and said. The day was nearly ending, and 
 flecked clouds in the west were getting 
 
 76
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 touched with crimson, and the dark stems 
 of the pine trees stood out clear-cut against 
 the background of an amber sky. 
 
 " Do you ever come here to paint ? " 
 Godfrey asked Joanne, but the girl shook 
 her head. 
 
 "It is too wide a view for me," she said. 
 " I only sketch in the woods. I know so 
 little about painting, really." 
 
 " Yes ; she knows very little about it," 
 Mr. Beresford answered ; " but she has a 
 true sort of feeling for it, it seems to me. 
 It is a kind of thing that is in my family. 
 I had a terrible itching myself when I was 
 a lad to be an artist. I took my paint-box 
 and my easel on my back once, and spent 
 a summer's holiday down in Sussex paint- 
 ing the commons and the downs there ; and, 
 upon my word, I had a hard matter after- 
 wards to get over it. I had already made 
 77
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 up my mind to be a parson, and in the 
 end a parson, you see, I became ; but it was 
 touch and go with me for the matter of a 
 twelvemonth or more. Yes ; Joanne is like 
 her father : she would give her ears to be an 
 artist, too." 
 
 '* I should like to have some proper teach- 
 ing — some teachino^ that was reallv orood," 
 said the girl, quietly. ''It is not that I 
 might be an artist — I could never hope to 
 be that — but I would rather know how to 
 paint a little than be able to do anything 
 else." 
 
 ',' We go about together looking for 
 
 effects," said the Vicar with a laugh. '* That 
 
 is the little entertainment we two keep 
 
 for ourselves. Those other boys and girls 
 
 of mine have — the whole ten of them — 
 
 no more love of art than they have — 
 
 happily — of artifice, so Joanne and I go our 
 78
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 own way, — and keep our own counsel, for 
 the most part. For you see, Mr. Helstone," 
 said the Vicar with a twinkle in his eye, 
 '' the clergyman of a parish is supposed 
 by the bulk of his parishioners to have no 
 other interest except the cure of souls, 
 and should he by chance feel some other, 
 he had better keep a quiet tongue about 
 it, lest the weaker brethren should take 
 offence." 
 
 " But how do you reconcile this pre- 
 cept with your practice of the noble art 
 that — I hope we are to enjoy together 
 to-morrow % " Godfrey asked a little 
 maliciously. 
 
 "What — with fishing?" exclaimed Mr. 
 Beresford, in no Avay taken aback by the 
 question. " My dear sir, fishing is per- 
 mitted to the whole body of the clergy! 
 
 You could scarcely mention a more clerical 
 79
 
 Godfrey IIelstone. 
 
 pursuit. Why, the apostles were fisher- 
 men." 
 
 " Oh, if you come to that, one of the 
 apostles was a painter," said Godfrey. 
 
 " So he was, and, to tell the truth, 1 
 have sometimes thought of taking my stand 
 upon that fact ; only it is not worth while. 
 Always, if you can, sir, avoid shocking 
 worthy souls. As for the question of 
 fishing, however," added the Vicar with 
 vehemence, " that's another matter alto- 
 gether. Fishing is an occupation that in 
 the highest degree promotes meditation." 
 
 " So does smoking," said Godfrey. 
 
 " Well, sir, and I have known some 
 
 very excellent clergymen who smoke. I 
 
 don't advise the practice ; I don't perhaps 
 
 care to see a man of my cloth adopt it ; but 
 
 yet I can well imagine that a pipe may 
 
 help one not a little on occasion to solve 
 80
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 a knotty point of theology. At any rate 
 / can truly say that I have thought out 
 some of my best sermons with my fishing- 
 rod in my hand." 
 
 '' And / can say as truly that I hope 
 you will long continue to do so," replied 
 Godfrey cordially. 
 
 " I always thank God for these long 
 summer days," said the Vicar, as they 
 presently turned and descended the little 
 hill again ; " I think they are one of His 
 best boons to us. I like to utter a prayer 
 at sunrise, if I am awake to see it, and 
 I seldom miss a thanksgiving when the 
 sun goes down. Ah, it would be a glorious 
 world, if it weren't for the hand the devil 
 has in it." 
 
 *' It is a glorious world, it seems to me, 
 
 even taken along with that drawback," 
 
 answered Godfrey ; and then the Vicar 
 VOL. I. 81 6
 
 Godfrey Helstoxe. 
 
 laughed, though along with his laughter 
 he shook his head. 
 
 ** You haven't got my five-and-fifty years 
 upon your shoulders yet," he said. " Your 
 eyes will have more sights to see, Mr. 
 Helstone, and your heart more burdens to 
 bear before you're my age. However, 
 I've had a happy life," he added, " thank 
 God for it," and he lifted his hat for a 
 moment from his head, though whether 
 only to shift its position, or as an act 
 of reverence, Godfrey did not feel that 
 he knew enough of the man to say. 
 
 The croquet players had ended their 
 game when the Vicar and his companion 
 returned from their stroll, and as they 
 regained the garden Godfrey looked at his 
 watch, and thought that it behoved him 
 to make some overture towards departure. 
 
 But Mr. Beresford's cordial — " Tut, tut, sir, 
 
 82
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 it's early yet. You must take a morsel 
 of supper with us presently," induced him 
 willingly enough to delay his going. In- 
 deed, to tell the truth, he had every desire 
 to stay, for he liked his quarters ; the 
 family amused, and even already in one or 
 two of its members interested, him ; and 
 he had not forgotten that Lilian was worth 
 looking at. 
 
 That pretty damsel was coming towards 
 him now, she and two sisters with her ; 
 on her right hand the one whom they 
 called Edith, on her left a bright, round- 
 faced little maiden of more tender years, 
 with sweet dark eyes that Godfrey thought 
 were like Joanne's. 
 
 Mr. Helstone went forward to meet the 
 group. 
 
 "I hope you have won your game?" ho 
 
 said to Lilian. 
 
 83
 
 Godfrey ITelstone. 
 
 But before she could answer — " Then 
 you hope / have lost ? " the other sister 
 struck in mischievously — "That is not 
 civil, Mr. Helstone." 
 
 ''I am afraid it is not ; but one of you 
 must have lost, you see/' replied Godfrey, 
 not at all taken aback ; " and as Miss 
 Beresford is my earliest acquaintance " — 
 
 ^'Well, I did win, I am glad to say," 
 exclaimed Lilian complacently; and then 
 Edith laughed. 
 
 " She always wins," she said ; " it's no 
 use trying to beat her, for she plays ever 
 so much better than all the rest of us. I 
 wonder if you could beat her ? " and she 
 looked speculatively at Godfrey. '' I wish 
 you would try." 
 
 " I should like to try — or, at least, I 
 
 should like to have a game with you some 
 
 evening — very much indeed," Godfrey 
 84
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 replied ; " only i am not sure but that you 
 are not all better players than I am." 
 
 " Oh, you won't find that," Edith an- 
 swered carelessly ; and Lilian made a more 
 polite speech, at which, however, Godfrey 
 smiled to himself, for he saw that the 
 beauty was quite aware of her proficiency, 
 and her self-satisfaction rather piqued him 
 to try his strength at some future time 
 against her. 
 
 They began to walk round the garden 
 in the twilight. Somebody called the 
 little dark-eyed person off to bed, and 
 Godfrey took her place by Lilian's side, 
 and she and he and Edith strolled and 
 talked for half-an-hour. Their talk was 
 very simple, as the young man perfectly 
 well knew ; indeed he knew it so well 
 that he yawned once as he was listen- 
 ing to Lilian, and yet his consciousness 
 85
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 of the girl's beauty made him like her 
 company well enough. Edith was a 
 brio^hter o;irl than her eldest sister. What- 
 ever vsparkle was contributed to the con- 
 versation by either of them was given to 
 it by her. 
 
 They walked and talked till the supper- 
 bell called them into the house, to a homely, 
 old-fashioned meal. " Such a meal as you 
 are not much accustomed to, I imagine, 
 Mr. Helstone," the Vicar said as he took 
 his seat ; " but you are wise enough, I 
 hope, to do at Kome as the Eomans do." 
 And indeed Godfrey found his appetite 
 by no means wanting. 
 
 " I think the Romans' ways are very 
 pleasant ones," he said, with a cordiality 
 that was quite unfeigned. 
 
 They ate their suj)per, and then the 
 
 clock struck ten, and, afraid of staying 
 86
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 any longer, lest lie should infringe upon 
 the household's probable primitive hour of 
 retirement, Godfrey rose at the sound of 
 it, and took his leave. 
 
 " I have had a most pleasant evening," 
 he said to Mrs. Beresford, as he shook 
 hands with her. " I should have spent 
 a very different one if I had been alone 
 at my inn." 
 
 '' Oh dear, yes ; I have no opinion of 
 young men spending their evenings at inns," 
 replied the lady quickly ; and then, with 
 a gravity that evidently implied a doubt 
 lest the temptations of his position at Mrs. 
 Turnbull's might prove too much for him, 
 she proceeded to assure Mr. Helstone that 
 she should be happy to see him at her 
 house again. " Evidently looking upon me 
 as a brand to be snatched at any cost 
 
 from the burning," as Godfrey said to his 
 
 87
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 friend with a laugh next day. At the 
 moment, however, he gave no sign of 
 amusement, but only endeavoured to ex- 
 press his thanks. He had no disinclina- 
 tion to be invited to repeat his visit. " I 
 shall be only too pleased to come again,'* 
 he said. 
 
 The Vicar walked down to the gate 
 with him. 
 
 " I think the weather looks well for our 
 fishing to-morrow," he said cheerily. " I 
 shall be with you by ten o'clock, so be 
 on your mettle, and don't let an old man 
 get the advantage of you." 
 
 " No fear of that," replied Godfrey, laugh- 
 ing ; " you will find me at my post." 
 
 He shook Mr. Beresford's hand warmly. 
 
 There was a breadth and heartiness about 
 
 the man that had taken his fancy. He 
 
 was not an ideal parish priest perhaps, but 
 88
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 he was full of human sympathy and vigour, 
 and Godfrey, as he walked home to his inn, 
 found himself looking forward to the next 
 day's companionship with a very unequivocal 
 sense of pleasure. 
 
 89
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The day broke clear and fair, and Godfrey- 
 walked down to the river rather before his 
 appointed time, and had taken his position 
 and baited his line before Mr. Beresford 
 joined him. The church clock, however, 
 had only just struck ten when the Vicar 
 made his appearance, rod in liand, and 
 basket slung on his shoulder, and with his 
 face as cheerful as the summer morning. 
 
 " True to your tryst, sir ! " he cried in 
 
 his mellow voice as he came near. " That's 
 
 right, Mr. Helstone. Punctuality is a virtue 
 
 I have a great regard for. When T can 
 
 trust a man to do a thing at the time he 
 90
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 says he'll do it, I always feel disposed to 
 
 think that he is worth trusting in other 
 
 ways as well. Come now, let ns see what 
 
 sport we are going to have." And with all 
 
 the ardour of five-and-twenty, the Yicar, 
 
 disencumbering himself of his gear, began 
 
 at once to buckle to his work. 
 
 They spent some hours together, and 
 
 at the end of them Godfrey thought and 
 
 said, that he had had a pleasant morn- 
 
 ing[. Not indeed that his fishinsr had been 
 
 remarkably successful, for the fish had 
 
 proved shy, and had hardly risen so readily 
 
 as the Vicar's sanguine hopes had led him 
 
 to expect that they would ; but the day 
 
 was lovely, the scene had a peaceful beauty 
 
 about it that he found delightful, and his 
 
 companion's frank and genial talk had 
 
 entertained him admirably. 
 
 Mr. Beresford, indeed, was a man who, 
 91
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 as lie imt it himself, had no unnatural 
 
 aversion to the sound of his own voice. 
 
 " Our tono'ues are sfiven us for our service. 
 
 as it seems to me," he said to Godfrey, 
 
 " and, for my own part, I confess I rarely 
 
 come within hail of a fellow-creature but 
 
 I like to speak to him, and if he gives me 
 
 back my speech honestly, I feel a strong 
 
 temptation to speak again. Here in these 
 
 quiet parts we all run some risk of rusting, 
 
 you see. Our world is too little a one to 
 
 give us material enough to whet our wits 
 
 upon. I always feel to a stranger as if he 
 
 were a bit of fresh food, and I go at him 
 
 with an appetite." 
 
 And, indeed, Godfrey thought, the Vicar 
 
 justified his assertion, but, though he 
 
 laughed as he thought this, he at the same 
 
 time liked the man for his frank confession. 
 
 *' I think vou have the best of it on the 
 92
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 whole in these quiet places/' he said. 
 "Where human beings are more plentiful 
 we not unfrequently find them bores." 
 
 " Ay, ay," returned the Vicar, " in the 
 big world no doubt you get hard to please. 
 And you young fellows — you young men 
 fresh from college especially — you turn up 
 your noses at your kind, as it appears to me, 
 a vast deal more than is wise. I don't mean 
 this as a personal charge, Mr. Helstone ; 
 but you are one of a class ; and, of a large 
 portion of that class, I say, that a more con- 
 ceited lot of young puppies I don't think 
 exists anywhere on the face of the earth." 
 
 '* I am sure, long before I am your age, 
 I shall quite agree with you," said Godfrey 
 laughing. 
 
 " No doubt you will ! No doubt of it at 
 all," exclaimed the Vicar. " A large per- 
 centage even of the puppies themselves will 
 93
 
 Godfrey IIelstone. 
 
 agree to it iu ten years' time. By the way, 
 what sort of a person is that young friend of 
 yours who is coming ? He doesn't belong 
 to the fraternity, I hope — does he ? " 
 
 " What — of puppies ? " asked Godfrey. 
 " Well, perhaps I am hardly the best person 
 to answer that question, — either as to him 
 or myself; but, speaking from my own 
 point of view, on the whole, I should say — 
 no. I rather hope that you will like him 
 — that is, if you will be good enough to 
 let him become acquainted with you." 
 
 " And if he will be good enough to accept 
 
 the acquaintance, perhaps you should add," 
 
 said the Vicar ; " for after what I have been 
 
 confessing, you may very well think that 
 
 there won't be much reluctance upon my 
 
 side. / shall be ready enough to have a 
 
 try at him. He has been a college chum of 
 
 yours, I suppose % " 
 
 94
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 "Yes/' answered Godfrey, "we ha\e 
 been intimate for two or three years." 
 
 " It's not, however, a sort of Py lades and 
 Orestes' friendship ? " 
 
 " Oh dear no ! " exclaimed Godfrey. 
 " We have been thrown a good deal to- 
 gether, and we are both fond of fishing, and 
 have a few other tastes in common ; but 
 that is alL" 
 
 " You think him a good fellow, though ? " 
 
 " Oh yes. I am sure he is a good 
 fellow," replied Godfrey cordially. 
 
 The Vicar was putting up his things 
 preparatory to departure, for this bit of 
 talk had taken place at the end of their 
 morning. It was half-past twelve o'clock, 
 and at half-past twelve, he had told God- 
 frey, he must betake himself home. " For 
 my clerical fetters are not very heavy on 
 me, but yet it behoves me not to forget
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 altogether that I have to wear them," he 
 said with a Laugh. 
 
 Before, however, they had parted com- 
 pany, Godfrey, turning his head, said 
 quickly, " There is Wasp ! " and the next 
 moment that irrepressible terrier came 
 bounding across the meadow, aiming, as for 
 dear life, at the Vicar's legs. 
 
 " If AVasp is here his mistress can't be 
 far off," said Mr. Beresford ; and in fact in 
 another moment or two they saw Joanne's 
 figure in the distance, approaching them 
 rapidly with brisk, elastic steps. " Ah, she 
 is come with some message for me ! " ex- 
 claimed the Vicar rather mournfully, and 
 his surmise proved correct, for as soon as 
 she came within speaking distance she 
 addressed him. 
 
 ** I hoped I should find you still here," 
 
 she said. (She merely bowed to Godfrey, 
 96
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 with a brief " Good morning.") *' I am so 
 sorry to hurry you away, but I thought I 
 had better come, for poor Mrs. Oakes has 
 sent a message for you. She is suddenly 
 worse, her daughter says. I am afraid they 
 think she is dying." 
 
 "Oh, poor soul! Then I'll be oflf to 
 her at once," cried the Vicar. "I'll just go 
 straight there. Can you carry my things 
 home, Joanne ? " 
 
 " I will carry them," cried Godfrey 
 interposing. 
 
 " There is no need," said Joanne. 
 
 " No, there is no need," echoed the Vicar, 
 " but I'll leave you to settle the matter 
 between you. I'm sorry I must go. We 
 have had a very pleasant morning, Mr. 
 Helstone." 
 
 '' We have indeed," replied Godfrey 
 
 heartily. 
 
 VOL. I. 97 7
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 And then when they had shaken hands, 
 and Mr. Beresford had turned his back, 
 Godfrey began to gather up their gear. 
 
 " You need not do that," said Joanne 
 abruptly. 
 
 "Why need I not do it?" he inquired. 
 "Yoa can't imagine, I am sure, that I will 
 let you take up those things yourself ? " 
 
 " No, I don't suppose you will ; I see you 
 won't," she said ; *' but if you will carry 
 them with you to the inn when you go back 
 I will send for them from there." 
 
 " And why in the world should I do 
 that ? " he asked. 
 
 " Because if you come with me now you 
 will break your morning," she said. 
 
 " I like to break my morning," he 
 answered. 
 
 And then she merely shook her head, and 
 
 with a laugh he shouldered his load. 
 98
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 They walked a little way in silence, but 
 before the end of a minute she made an 
 abrupt remark. 
 
 " This is the misfortune of being a 
 woman ! '^ she said. 
 
 ''So it is," he answered. And then, after 
 a moment, " Do you consider it a misfor- 
 tune to be a woman ? " he inquired rather 
 mischievously. 
 
 " I do when I can t get my own way," 
 she said instantly. 
 
 " And is that a thing that happens 
 often ? " 
 
 " I don't know that it happens often, but 
 it is happening just now," she replied with 
 vivacity. And then she half-laughed and 
 blushed a little. " You see I am so accus- 
 tomed to be independent," she said with a 
 certain explanatory apology in her tone. 
 
 " Ah yes, but you should guard yourself 
 99
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 against a love of independence," he an- 
 swered gravely. *' All these pleasant little 
 vices have such a way of growing on one. 
 Self-dependence soon leads, you know, to 
 self-indulgence, and then, when you are 
 once a slave to that, there's nothing you 
 mayn't do." 
 
 She broke all at once into a clear fresh 
 laugh that sounded so pleasant that he 
 laughed too for sympathy. 
 
 "You took me in for a moment. I 
 thought you were in earnest," she said. 
 
 '' But I a?)i in earnest," he answered. " I 
 think it is a great mistake in a lady to try 
 to be independent. The less independent 
 she is the better." 
 
 " And the more dependent, I suppose, 
 
 she is on — you, the better too ? " Miss 
 
 Beresford suggested a little scornfully. 
 
 " Yes ; that is exactly what I mean. 
 100
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Women ought to be dependent on men. 
 When they are left to themselves of course 
 they must serve themselves, but when they 
 have a man beside them they must make 
 him serve them." 
 
 " I think," said Joanne, " they would 
 sometimes find it very difficult to do 
 that." 
 
 They were w^alking across the meadow 
 with the sunshine in their eyes, and with 
 the fields with their ripening crops lying 
 stretched out on either side. This walk was 
 a portion of the morning s entertainment on 
 which Godfrey had not calculated, but he 
 enjoyed it none the less for that. He was 
 a man quite capable of making the most of 
 such things ; not one who was likely to let 
 even minute pleasures slip past him unap- 
 preciated, for want of quickness to recognize 
 
 their power to give enjoyment. It pleased 
 101
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 him very consciously at this moment to be 
 treading the grass at Joanne Beresford's 
 side ; the girl was a kind of girl he liked to 
 talk to, honest, and quick-witted, and frank ; 
 and as for her looks — hers was one of those 
 faces that charm without regular beauty ; 
 whose brightness and mobility give them all 
 the fascination that they need. 
 
 Perhaps they both enjoyed their walk. 
 Godfrey at any rate did, and thought it a 
 pity that it should be so short a one. They 
 walked and talked for ten minutes, and 
 then the house was close at hand ; the gate 
 was at hand too that led from the fields into 
 a side- walk of the garden. 
 
 Mr. Helstone lifted the latch and they 
 
 passed through. There was a sound in the 
 
 air of boys at play, but their voices came 
 
 from some unseen region : the large grass 
 
 plot before the house lay deserted in the 
 102
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 sunshine, the jalousies were down before 
 the windows. 
 
 " You will come in — will you not ? " 
 Joanne said ; but Godfrey answered " No." 
 He could not, it seemed to him, intrude 
 himself into a house in which he was 
 almost a stranger at half-past twelve in 
 the day. 
 
 " No, I won't come in just now," he said ; 
 " but Mr. Beresford has been good enough 
 to ask me to bring up my friend Dallas 
 some evening — " 
 
 " Oh yes, we shall be glad to see Mr. 
 Dallas," replied Joanne. 
 
 " So, if you please, I will just in the 
 mean time take this basket round to the 
 kitchen — " suggested Godfrey. 
 
 But Joanne laid her hand upon it with a 
 
 laugh. 
 
 "If you please — you will do nothing of 
 103
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 the kind," she answered. "The sight of 
 you would quite give the cook a turn. / 
 am going to take it now — and thank you 
 very much." 
 
 " Ah, you thank me with your lips, 
 but in your heart, I believe, you owe me 
 a grudge yet," Godfrey said, shaking his 
 head. 
 
 It had been a pleasant quarter of an hour, 
 he thought, as he went his way homewards 
 after this. He had a sense that the 
 whole morning had been well spent. " I 
 like these Beresfords ; and I like the father 
 and this daughter especially," he told him- 
 self " I wonder what Dallas will think of 
 them ! " And then he began to plan how 
 he would take Mr. Dallas up upon the 
 following evening, if his friend had no other 
 scheme of his own. "That will not be 
 
 too soon to go," he thought, '' and I imagine 
 104
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 they are pretty well ahvays at home in the 
 evening. At any rate, if we time our 
 arrival so as to catch them as they rise 
 from tea — " 
 
 He had seen them at tea once, and he 
 told himself that it would be unnecessary 
 to present himself a second "time a.t that 
 ceremonial. " We can dine pretty early, 
 and come up about seven o'clock,^' he 
 thought. " Dallas won't mind the supper, 
 I think. Indeed, that is rather a nice 
 little affair, with the girls all present at 
 it, and most of the others comfortably 
 tucked up." 
 
 He did not feel inclined to go back to 
 
 his fishing after the interruption it had 
 
 met with, so he dropped the proceeds of 
 
 his morning's labours at the inn, and went 
 
 for a walk. It was a country that made no 
 
 extravagant demands upon his admiration, 
 105
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 but it was pretty and pi(!turesque in a 
 
 quiet way that Godfrey liked. He had 
 
 travelled of late years a good deal, and 
 
 had begun to show a little tendency to fall 
 
 into the affectation of saying that he had 
 
 left off caring for what is called fine scenery. 
 
 He professed to be rather sick of mountains, 
 
 and on the whole to prefer plains. The 
 
 state of mind into which he had fallen 
 
 on this subject w^as one perhaps brought 
 
 on by too close intercourse with members 
 
 of the Alpine Club. At any rate the 
 
 condition of his taste served Godfrey to 
 
 some purpose at the present moment, for 
 
 the country round Brentwood boasted of 
 
 few features that could charm an eye 
 
 seeking for what was large or grand. It 
 
 was a homely country, very green and 
 
 pastoral, rich with its waving crops, bright 
 
 with its June roses in the hedgerows, 
 106
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 beautiful with a wealth of trees, and with 
 
 a few soft hills, and with the ever fresh 
 
 sweetness of the river ; but, beyond these, 
 
 possessing few attractions, except, on a 
 
 day like this, the splendour of the summer 
 
 sun, that would have thrown a glory over 
 
 even many a less lovely scene. 
 
 Godfrey had his ramble and enjoyed it. 
 
 There had been little in his lot as yet to 
 
 interfere with his enjoyment of anything. 
 
 He walked beneath the trees, thinking 
 
 pleasantly of many things ; of his life, 
 
 past and future ; of home and his mother 
 
 and Margaret ; of the place in which he 
 
 w^as now, and his surroundings in it. " I 
 
 wouldn't marry that girl, Lilian," he found 
 
 himself suddenly saying, " in spite of her 
 
 pretty face, — I wouldn't marry her or one 
 
 of her kind, I think, for ten thousand a 
 
 year ! I would a w^orld rather have the 
 107
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 other one. Not that she either is the sort 
 of girl one would fall in love with. At 
 least I think not — and certainly, at any 
 rate, her family is not the sort one would 
 ever have a mind to marry into. Ten 
 brothers and sisters ! Good heavens, one's 
 house would never be free from them ! " 
 And he both laughed and shuddered at the 
 picture that his fancy drew of what his life 
 would be attended by such troops of his 
 wife's relations — boys wanting to be helped 
 to start in life — girls perhaps getting into 
 trouble over their love affairs. " Some- 
 thing would be for ever happening to one 
 or another of them," he thought, " and she 
 would, be perpetually flying off right and 
 left to help them. I shouldn't like it. I 
 should prefer to have a wife whose family 
 affections had not so terribly wide a field 
 
 for development." 
 
 108
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 And so, as lie walked home, Godfrey 
 came to a clear decision in his own mind 
 that he would not let himself be taken 
 captive by the bright eyes of Joanne 
 Beresford 
 
 109
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 '' I AM afraid it will be rather a bore, you 
 know/' said Jack Dallas. 
 
 " Oh, I don't think you will find it a 
 bore," replied Godfrey. " One can't live in 
 a place and know nobody." 
 
 *' No, one doesn't want to know nobody ; 
 but there is a great difference," said Mr. 
 Dallas gravely, " between knowing nobody, 
 and knowing such a troop as this." 
 
 And then Godfrey laughed. " You will 
 soon pick out one or two from the troop," 
 he said. 
 
 Jack Dallas was an active, well-made 
 
 man, though neither so tall nor so good- 
 110
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 looking as Godfrey ; with a pleasant voice, 
 
 and an easy, frank, genial manner that made 
 
 him rather a favourite generally. He had 
 
 on the whole more popular qualities than 
 
 his friend, and possessed a power of making 
 
 himself at home with his company that 
 
 had often served him in good stead. He 
 
 treated the world pleasantly, as a man 
 
 does who feels he has his welcome place 
 
 in it, and his world, liking his confidence, 
 
 for the most part treated him pleasantly 
 
 in return. 
 
 " Well, I suppose I shall have to go and 
 
 see them," he said. " I would rather, for 
 
 my own part, lie under a tree to-night and 
 
 smoke my pipe, but they evidently want to 
 
 be civil, and you are in for it already, so 
 
 I'll bow to destiny and go and change 
 
 my coat." 
 
 And he changed his coat accordingly, 
 111
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 and in ten minutes the two young men 
 had started on their walk. 
 
 They had been fishing all the morning, 
 with a good deal of mutual content. 
 
 '' I should not wonder but that the 
 Vicar would come and look after us," 
 Godfrey said once ; but Mr. Beresford 
 did not come, and they had had their 
 bit of the river to themselves, undis- 
 turbed. 
 
 " You will admire Miss Lilian," Godfrey 
 said now, as they walked together up the 
 road. 
 
 " I dare say I shall," replied Mr. Dallas 
 placidly. 
 
 '^ She rather reminds me," said Godfrey, 
 " of that pretty cousin of the Fergusons'. 
 You know the girl." 
 
 " Know her ! Why, I'm head over ears 
 in love with her I " exclaimed Mr. Dallas. 
 
 112
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 *' If she is like Aggy Ferguson she may well 
 be a beauty.'' 
 
 " Well, she is a beauty," said Godfrey. 
 *' She is an uncommonly pretty girl. I 
 don't know that she has much brains." 
 
 " Oh, brains be hanged ! " exclaimed Mr. 
 Dallas. " The less she has of thevi the 
 better. I'm sick of clever girls." 
 
 '' So am I — of some of them," replied 
 Godfrey more cautiously. 
 
 " Here we are," he said in five minutes 
 more, and he opened the garden-gate, and 
 they walked uj) the little avenue. As they 
 approached the house, they saw through 
 the trees the movement of women's dresses, 
 and heard the mingled sound of many 
 voices. 
 
 " They are at home at any rate," said 
 
 Mr. Dallas drily. " It is a delightful thing 
 
 to have one's family so constituted that the 
 VOL. I. 113 8
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 very air is filled with it. and you are 
 conscious of its presence from afar. I 
 don't know that such an experience ever 
 suo^gested itself to me before. If the eleven 
 were one's own property, now, one might 
 imagine the thrill of fine emotion — " 
 
 " Shut up ! " exclaimed Godfrey quickly. 
 " There is the Vicar." 
 
 And as he spoke they came suddenly 
 in sight of Mr. Beresford approaching them 
 from the lawn, accompanied by two small 
 maidens, the little damsels Maude and 
 Violet, w^ho held a hand of him on either 
 side, and made his tall figure look the taller 
 by comparison. 
 
 " I am glad you have found your way 
 back again, Mr. Helstone. We were just 
 talking of you," he said, speaking aloud in 
 his full voice while he was still a dozen 
 
 paces oif. " And you have brought your 
 114
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 friend along with you, which makes you 
 doubly welcome. Good evening to you both. 
 How goes the fishing, sir ? I'd like to 
 have taken a look at you this morning, but 
 it would have been against my conscience. 
 I never fish on Fridays. Not for the reason 
 you are thinking, sir," and the Vicar turned 
 his quick eye suddenly on Mr. Dallas, " but 
 because of my sermon. I make a rule to 
 write my sermon on Friday always." 
 
 " And a very excellent ride it is, I have 
 no doubt," replied Mr. Dallas, — " except for 
 its result in keeping you from another 
 occupation that seems rather peculiarly 
 suited to the day — I mean, from a religious 
 point of view." 
 
 " Ah, you're a w^ag, sir, are you "? " said 
 
 the Vicar. And then he looked the young 
 
 man over with a smile about the corners 
 
 of his handsome mouth. " You see a 
 115
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 connection between fishing and fasting, do 
 you ? Unfortunately though, I dont fast." 
 
 *' But perhaps that is an omission that 
 may be mended ? " suggested Mr. Dallas 
 pleasantly. 
 
 ** When it is, then 111 write my sermons 
 on Thursdays," replied Mr. Beresford with a 
 laugh. 
 
 They went forward to the lawn, and then 
 there were other greetings to be made. 
 Mrs. Beresford, seated on a garden-bench, 
 and knitting stockings, gave her hand to 
 the young men and briefly bade them 
 welcome ; pretty Lilian, in a white gown, 
 also offered her hand to Godfrey, and smiled 
 upon his friend, and Edith came up with 
 a frank smile and an immediate address. 
 
 "Now, you will play to-night, won't 
 
 you ? " she said to Mr. Helstone. " I want 
 
 you to help me to beat Lilian, you know. 
 116
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Will you be on my side ? — and Lilian and 
 Mr. Dallas can go together." 
 
 "Ah, we shall never have a chance 
 against those two," replied Godfrey. 
 
 But nevertheless he submitted to his 
 fate, and they were soon busy with their 
 crame. To tell the truth, he would rather 
 have played it with Joanne than Edith, 
 but Joanne, as it happened, was as yet not 
 to be seen. 
 
 " Is your other sister not at home to- 
 night ? " he asked of Edith after some little 
 time had passed ; but Edith was engrossed 
 with what she was about, and did not 
 answer his question. 
 
 " Well, I must do my best to beat Miss 
 Lilian," said Godfrey to himself. 
 
 But, though he did his best, Lilian and 
 
 her partner were both excellent players, 
 
 and he did not beat her. 
 117
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 '' Oh dear, it was all m}^ fault," exclaimed 
 Edith presently, when they were defeated, 
 and though Godfrey replied civilly, " Not 
 at all," yet he knew, at the same time, 
 that she said the truth. The girl had no 
 method in her play ; she was not a partner 
 to do credit to anybody. " I'd wager 
 Joanne would have done better," Godfrey 
 thoug^ht. 
 
 But what had become of Joanne ? Mr. 
 Dallas was evidently getting on admir- 
 ably with Miss Beresford. Her face was 
 wreathed in smiles ; her eyes as they talked 
 together were alternately drooped and lifted 
 to his face ; he was flirting with her in the 
 easiest and pleasantest way, and, after his 
 usual fashion, enjoying himself — Godfrey 
 rather enviously thought. For somehow, 
 though Edith was bright and conversable 
 
 enough, Godfrey considered that his own 
 118
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 position, with no one but her for his 
 companion, might very undoubtedly be 
 improved. 
 
 "What a fellow he is for getting on 
 with women ! " the young man ejaculated 
 to himself. *' And he never seems to take 
 any trouble about it either. He has only 
 to come amongst them, and they cluster 
 about him like bees round a ripe peach. 
 He will have them all in a circle presently," 
 said Godfrey with rather a sensation of 
 diso^ust, as at this moment even Edith 
 turned her back upon him, and went to 
 join her elder sister, leaving him to amuse 
 himself without her as he chose. 
 
 He looked about him. The Vicar had 
 gone indoors ; Mrs. Reresford was still knit- 
 ting steadily ; on one corner of the lawn 
 three of the boys were playing leap-frog. 
 
 Godfrey turned away, and began to stroll 
 119
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 along one of the walks ; and then suddenly 
 his eye fell on some one coming up the 
 little avenue, and, with a feeling of un- 
 questionable pleasure, he perceived that it 
 was Joanne. Quickening his steps he went 
 straight to meet her. It seemed to him 
 instinctively as though she were the special 
 morsel of the household pertaining to him- 
 self. He greeted her almost with warmth. 
 
 " I couldn't think where you were," he 
 exclaimed. 
 
 " Why, was it so unlikely that I should be 
 out ? " she answered with a look of amuse- 
 ment. " Oh, I am often out. I have been 
 down just now with my cousins." 
 
 " With your cousins ? " echoed Godfrey. 
 ('' By Jove, are there still more of them ! " 
 was the involuntary thought that flashed 
 across him.) " Have you cousins here, — in 
 
 the village ? " 
 
 120
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 " Oh yes, six of them/' replied Joanne, 
 lauo-hinor. 
 
 '' God bless me ! " said Godfrey. " And 
 are they Beresfords too ? " 
 
 " Yes, they are all Beresfords. They are 
 the children of papa's brother," said Joanne. 
 " He died a few years ago, and then Mrs. 
 Beresford came here that she might be 
 near us." 
 
 " That was natural, certainly," said 
 Godfrey. " But it rather amuses one to 
 find so many of you all together. I 
 suppose now you are sometimes — the whole 
 seventeen of you — here on the lawn 
 together ? " 
 
 " Well, sometimes," replied Joanne, *' but 
 
 it doesn't happen very often. Two of my 
 
 cousins are not living here. They only 
 
 come down in holiday time. They live 
 
 in London." 
 
 121
 
 Godfrey Helstoxe. 
 
 " What, are they at school ? " asked 
 Godfrey. 
 
 ''No, no," said Joanne, ''they are growa 
 up. One is twenty-six ; he is an archi- 
 tect ; and the other is going to be a 
 doctor." 
 
 " Oh, indeed," said Godfrey. He thought 
 itwasJList as well that they lived in London. 
 
 "The other four are girls," said Joanne. 
 " They are very nice. I should like you to 
 see them." 
 
 " I have no doubt I should like it too," 
 replied Mr. Helstone. 
 
 " One of them is very pretty," said 
 Joanne. " Some people say, almost as 
 pretty as Lilian. But I hardly think that, 
 for my own part." 
 
 " You admire your sister very much 
 
 then ? " inquired Godfrey, with rather an 
 
 impulse of curiosity. 
 
 122
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 *' Admire Lilian ? " exclaimed Joanne. 
 She lifted up her bright eyes with a sur- 
 prised look to her companion. " I think 
 everybody admires her/' she said. And 
 then her expression asked so clearly, " Do 
 not you ^ " that Godfrey answered the 
 unspoken question with a langh. 
 
 " Oh, / do, of course," he said. " I think 
 she is beautifuL" 
 
 " She is engaged to be married," said 
 Joanne quietly. 
 
 " Oh — indeed ! " exclaimed Godfrey. He 
 hardly knew w^hy, but this information took 
 him entirely by surprise, 
 
 " It is no secret," said Joanne, " or else 
 
 of course I should not tell you. She has 
 
 been engaged since Christmas. I think it 
 
 is always better that people should know 
 
 these things." 
 
 '' No doubt," answered Godfrey. " Some- 
 123
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 how it had never occurred to me that there 
 was anything of that sort, though I am 
 sure I mii^ht well have 2:uessed it — for, so 
 handsome as she is — " 
 
 " Yes, I think you might have suspected 
 it," Joanne answered frankly. And then 
 she said suddenly, " He is a Mr. Francis. 
 She met him last year in London. He fell 
 in love with her there ; and then he came 
 in the winter and asked her. He is rather 
 nice, I think. They are to be married 
 early in the winter." 
 
 " And will they live in London ? '* 
 Godfrey asked. " Has Mr. Francis any 
 profession ? " 
 
 " Well, he has gone to the bar, but his 
 
 father is just dead, and I believe he will 
 
 not need to work now. Papa thinks it 
 
 rather a pity," Joanne added after a 
 
 moment's silence. '' He always thinks it 
 124
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 is a misfortune for a young man at the 
 beginning to have enough to liye upon." 
 
 *' And he is, I have no doubt, quite 
 right/' replied Godfrey, with much gravity. 
 
 They had been walking slowly forward, 
 and they joined the others after this. 
 The Vicar's portly figure was now added 
 to the group upon the lawn, and he and 
 Mr. Dallas were fencing; at one another 
 with good-humoured banter, Mr. Beres- 
 ford standing with his legs planted wide 
 apart, and his arms folded behind his 
 back. 
 
 " Yes, I tell you, you take a vast deal 
 
 too much upon yourselves, you youngsters," 
 
 he was saying in his sonorous voice as the 
 
 other two drew near. " You think you are 
 
 here to do all the work of the world. My 
 
 dear sir, before your hands leave their mark 
 
 on the plough your heads will need to get 
 125
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 sometliingr more into them than the learn in 2: 
 of the schools." 
 
 *' We shall have to gain wisdom by 
 experience, you mean ? Oh yes," said Mr. 
 Dallas carelessly, " that used to be the 
 theory, but it's all exploded now." 
 
 " Ah ! that's exploded, is it ? Then how 
 do you mean to get your wisdom *? " asked 
 the Vicar. 
 
 " I believe," said Mr. Dallas, " in these 
 days wisdom is a thing that springs out of 
 a young man full grown, like Minerva from 
 the brain of Jupiter." 
 
 " And when does this take place ? — at 
 one-and-twenty ? " inquired the Vicar. 
 
 " Well, as to that, there is a slight 
 
 diversity of opinion. For my own part," 
 
 said Mr. Dallas, modestly, " I should rather 
 
 assign four or five-and-twenty as the most 
 
 likely age." 
 
 126
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 *' Exactly : so I should suppose," said 
 the Yicar drily. " About your own time 
 of life, in fact ? '' 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Mr. Dallas pleasantly, 
 " that it happens to be mine is the merest 
 accident. It does not do, you see, to make 
 these questions personal." 
 
 " Very true," replied the Vicar, " or else 
 I might say that to me now there seems a 
 ripe mellowness in the wisdom of three or 
 four-and-fifty — " 
 
 " In exceptional cases, no doubt," returned 
 Mr. Dallas with a bow. " But, as a general 
 rule, at three or four-and-fifty, if you will 
 allow me to say so, Mr. Beresford, a man is 
 beginning to be formalized — he has got into 
 a groove — he has adopted prejudices — his 
 weaknesses have become confirmed." 
 
 *' Ah, there you have me, I am afraid ! " 
 
 said the Yicar. 
 
 127
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 He had been fronting his opponent 
 hitherto with merely a look of good-natured 
 amusement in his face, but something in 
 Mr. Dallas's last retort gave him a sudden 
 twino-e, and made the handsome mobile 
 lips quiver for a moment. In the next he 
 turned away with a laugh. 
 
 "Come, sir," he said to Godfrey, "take 
 your friend off. He is telling home truths 
 to an old man." 
 
 " I beg to say," replied Mr. Dallas court- 
 eously, " that I was quite unconscious 
 there was any old man here." 
 
 They began to saunter round the garden 
 
 after this, in one general group at first ; but 
 
 the group split presently, and Godfrey for 
 
 a little while found himself by Lilian's side, 
 
 while Joanne and her father and Jack Dallas 
 
 walked on in front. 
 
 " And so the girl is engaged ! " Godfrey 
 128
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 ejaculated to himself, and he glanced at 
 her hand. Yes ; there was the orthodox 
 engagement ring upon her finger. " I 
 wonder which she cares for most — the 
 man or the diamonds ? " he thouo^ht. Some- 
 how he could not believe that the man 
 counted with her for very much. 
 
 ^' This time last year you were in London, 
 were you not ? Did you like it ? " he 
 abruptly asked. 
 
 " Oh, immensely ! " replied Lilian with 
 ardour. " Oh dear, yes, it was delightful." 
 
 " You went about a great deal, I 
 suppose ? " 
 
 " I think we went everywhere," she 
 exclaimed. " To parties, and theatres, and 
 operas, and concerts, and exhibitions ; I 
 never enjoyed anything so much in my life." 
 
 " You have some cousins in London, I 
 
 think ? " Godfrey remarked. 
 VOL. I. 129
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Oh yes ; we have some cousins." Lilian's 
 tone became suddenly indifferent. " But I 
 didn't see much of them." 
 
 " They were busy men, I suppose ? " said 
 Godfrey. " They wouldn't have time to go 
 with you to exhibitions and concerts ? " 
 
 " Oh, of course not. I never thought of 
 depending on them^' replied Lilian with 
 some emphasis. " I think on the whole 
 cousins are rather embarrassing," she added 
 after a moment. " I mean, you are sup- 
 posed always to be intimate with them, and 
 sometimes, you know, it — isn't convenient." 
 
 *' So I can imagine," said Godfrey laugh- 
 ing. " But 1 am sorry for the young Mr. 
 Beresfords." 
 
 ■" Oh, there isn't much need for that," 
 
 replied Lilian carelessly, *^ — for, you know, 
 
 it isn't me," 
 
 " It isn't you ? " repeated Godfrey, with 
 130
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 a little hesitation. He did not understand 
 her speech. 
 
 '' No," exclaimed Lilian frankly, " it's 
 Joanne." 
 
 And then, when the young man made 
 no answer, for, to tell the truth, he felt 
 curiously taken aback by this information, 
 and was even conscious that it had brought 
 the colour into his face — 
 
 " I always think it's a pity between 
 cousins — don't you ? " she said. 
 
 **Your sister was telling me about her 
 cousins in London a little while ago," said 
 Godfrey, after his two or three moments of 
 silence ; " but I had no idea from how she 
 spoke that there was any — that she and 
 either of them were thinking — " 
 
 " Oh, I don't mean that she is thinking 
 
 of it," interrupted Lilian eagerly. " Oh 
 
 no, I am thankful to say she isn't. At 
 131
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 least, she can't help ifdnking about it, you 
 know, because he bothers her so ; but I 
 don't believe she will ever have him. Papa 
 wouldn't let her, for one thing, if he could 
 help it." 
 
 "A persistent lover may achieve a good 
 deal, however, in spite of difficulties," 
 replied Godfrey. 
 
 " Yes, he may. Oh dear yes, of course 
 I know that," said Lilian. '' But 1 don't 
 much think that Hugh will achieve any- 
 thing. Poor Hugh ! I am afraid," said the 
 girl suddenly, with rather late repentance, 
 *' that I oughtn't to have told you about 
 him ; but, you see, I suspected you were 
 thinking it was me, — and that was such 
 a complete mistake." 
 
 " No ; I didn't think it was you," said 
 
 Godfrey. " I suppose in that direction I 
 
 had had my suspicions lulled. I don't 
 132
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 know," he added with a little hesitation, 
 " whether you will allow me to con- 
 gratulate you ? " 
 
 Lilian blushed very becomingly, and 
 looked very conscious, but her expression 
 denoted also perfect willingness to be 
 congratulated. 
 
 ** Oh, I am sure — oh yes, of course — you 
 see everybody knows ; and people are all so 
 kind," she murmured rather incoherently. 
 J " I hope you will be very happy," he 
 said, cordially. *' Mr. Francis, I think, lives 
 in London ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he lives in London at present ; 
 
 but I am not sure yet — in fact, we are just 
 
 making up our minds — -there are so many 
 
 things to be considered. I wonder now 
 
 what you would say ? " exclaimed the girl 
 
 abruptly; and then in the frankest way 
 
 she proceeded to lay their various schemes 
 133
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 before him, while Godfrey, with not a little 
 amusement, listened, till at last both her 
 talk and their slow stroll round the garden 
 were brought to an end together by the 
 other walkers meeting them, and arresting 
 their steps. 
 
 " Well, young people, what do you say to 
 coming in ? " asked the Vicar. " I think, 
 for my own part, the evening is getting 
 somewhat damp." 
 
 They found the lamps alight in the 
 drawing-room, and Mrs. Beresford sitting 
 by one of them with her work. 
 
 " Ah, I thought it was time you came 
 indoors," she said. " You are all so fond of 
 catching rheumatism." 
 
 " So they are," replied the Vicar. *' But 
 
 you and I know that, and the wise young 
 
 folk don't ; and there's no way of teaching 
 
 them that I can see ; for you can't put 
 134
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 more iuto a tilled dish, and tliey all (as they 
 have just been telling me) think they are as 
 full of wisdom already as an egg is full of 
 meat. Come and give us a tune, Edith. I 
 don't know whether you young men are 
 musical. Perhaps one or other of you can 
 trill out a ditty for us ? " 
 
 '* Dallas can," said Godfrey. "He does 
 all these things." 
 
 **But I hope Miss Beresford will sing 
 something first," said Jack. 
 
 '* If you mean me, I only play," explained 
 Edith, from the music-stool. " It is Joanne 
 who sings, /can't sing a bit." 
 
 But she began to play some quaint old 
 
 airs, and she played them rather prettily, 
 
 with a light touch, and a good deal of 
 
 expression. Mr. Dallas went to the piano 
 
 and stood beside her. 
 
 " I think these are charming," he told her. 
 135
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 "Yes; they are nice old things. Papa 
 digs them up for us," she said. " He is very 
 fond of tliem. He used to sing himself, 
 once ; but he makes Joanne do it instead 
 of him now. I think it is a pity he won't 
 sino- still, for he has such a fine voice." 
 
 " Ah yes, I used to sing ; but I found it 
 was one of the things in me that tried the 
 weaker brethren's faith," struck in the Vicar, 
 overhearing what his daughter said. *' They 
 thought a parson should only sing psalms. 
 So now I only do sing psalms. You will 
 hear me at church on Sunday — if you come 
 — piping like a bullfinch." 
 
 " I wish you would pipe for us now, 
 in anticijDation of Sunday ? " suggested Mr. 
 Dallas ; but the Vicar shook his head and 
 laughed. 
 
 " No, no," he said ; " I've given all 
 
 that up. My mantle has fallen upon 
 136
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Joanne. Go and sinor soniethinor to us, 
 my lass." 
 
 And then Joanne took her sister's seat, 
 and struck a chord or two, and sang. 
 
 It was one of the freshest young voices, 
 Godfrey thought, that he had ever heard — 
 sweet and flexible and musical as a bird's. 
 She sang a wild, pathetic Swedish song, 
 with a spontaneity and naturalness, and a 
 curious grace, that took the young man 
 fairly by surprise. 
 
 He went up to her side when she had 
 ended, and told her it was beautiful. 
 
 *' A Swedish song, is it ? " he said. '* Do 
 other people never sing Swedish songs ? 
 This seems to me perfectly delightful." 
 
 *'So it is," echoed Jack. *' But then — 
 if Miss Beresford will allow me to say so — I 
 think the main part of the charm of it 
 depends upon the singer." 
 
 137
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Thank yuu,' tsaicl Joaime, with a siuile. 
 *' But indeed," slie added quickly, "it is so 
 easy to sing simple songs like these." 
 
 " I can believe that ?/ou find it easy," 
 exclaimed Godfrey; ''for, upon my word, 
 you seem to me to sing them as if singing 
 were your natural language." 
 
 Mr. Helstone did not often pay compli- 
 ments ; but perhaps from that very cause 
 when he did utter one it told with more 
 effect ; and this exclamation, which was 
 indeed delivered very fervently, brought a 
 little warmth of colour to Joanne's face. 
 But whether she was pleased by his admira- 
 tion, or whether she thought the expression 
 of it uncalled for, she left him to decide for 
 himself, for she made no reply. 
 
 " Do sing again," Mr. Dallas asked ; and 
 
 then she sang again — a little rippling 
 
 melody, with a refrain at the end of each 
 138
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 verse that was like a cry of joy; and 
 Godfrey, listening, thought all at once of 
 Margaret Egerton's singing in the drawing- 
 room at the Dene, and felt as if the force of 
 contrast could not go much farther. 
 
 " Why, she sings as not one woman does 
 in five hundred," said Mr. Dallas, enthusias- 
 tically, an hour afterwards, as the two friends 
 were walking home. " I don't mean that 
 there is anything remarkable in her execu- 
 tion, of course. I suppose she never had a 
 regular lesson in her life ; but, by Jove, the 
 spirit and fire that she puts into it all, and 
 the pathos too, are astonishing. T declare 
 when she sang the refrain of that second 
 song I could hardly stand still on my feet." 
 
 " Yes ; it was wonderful," said Godfrey. 
 
 ** I should like to hear the old parson at 
 
 it too," exclaimed Jack. " With that grand 
 
 face and that grand voice of his he would 
 139
 
 Godfrey IIelstone. 
 
 make your heart-strings thrill, I fancy. 
 An odd family altogether — very odd ; but 
 they're interesting — no doubt of that. And, 
 upon my word, the eldest girl is a beauty 1 " 
 
 " She is engaged to be married," said 
 Godfrey. 
 
 '* Is she \ I'm not surprised," said his 
 friend. " And it's all the better for us, for 
 she will be the pleasanter to flirt with. I 
 always like to flirt with engaged girls. It 
 makes you comfortable, for you know they 
 have no sinister designs upon you." 
 
 " Only there is the objection that it may 
 be a little dangerous at times," said Godfrey 
 — " unless you flirt strictly in moderation." 
 
 " Oh, but I always flirt in moderation," 
 answered Mr. Dallas lightly. 
 
 He be^an to whistle a snatch or two of 
 
 one of the songs that Joanne bad sung as 
 
 they walked along the silent road under the 
 140
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 stars. Godfrey was thinking of Joanne 
 too. 
 
 " She has got most of the brains of the 
 lot, I should say," Mr. Dallas remarked 
 abruptly just before they reached their inn. 
 
 *' She ? Who ? " inquired Godfrey, for 
 they had been silent for the last few 
 minutes ; and then Jack laughed. 
 
 **Why, you don't think that I mean 
 Miss Lilian, do you ? " he said. 
 
 141
 
 CHA.PTER VI. 
 
 Intimacies spring up quickly in conn try- 
 places ; and, with a rapidity that rather 
 amused them, the two young men found 
 themselves in a few days becoming won- 
 derfully intimate with the Vicar's family. 
 Jack Dallas, as I have already said, was a 
 man wlio quickly made himself at home 
 wherever he went ; he was so pleasant and 
 unobtrusive and ready in his easy way to 
 fall in with other people's occupations and 
 accommodate himself to other people's ways, 
 that those who were brought much in con- 
 tact with him rarely failed to find them- 
 selves treating him as a friend before they 
 142
 
 GODFRF.Y HeLSTONE. 
 
 would well have ceased to regard another 
 man as a stranger; and, though Godfrey 
 was less pliant than his companion and 
 more reserved, yet perhaps the ready wel- 
 come that was so frequently accorded to 
 the one for his frank manner was almost as 
 often given to the other for his handsome 
 looks. 
 
 " We can never start fair, for when we 
 enter a room together all the women's eyes 
 light upon you like flies upon a honey-pot," 
 Mr. Dallas said one day to his friend, " and 
 it sets a man at a terrible disadvantage. 
 If it were not that I've got a little more 
 brass than you, and am rather more supple 
 in the backbone, I'd be tempted to propose 
 that we should part company." 
 
 " I don't know what you mean by 
 
 women's eyes lighting on me. I'm hanged 
 
 if I want their eyes to light on me," 
 143
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Gudfiey lupliud, nitlier liotly, to this isjjeccii. 
 " You have the best of it, I think, — as you 
 know well enougrh." 
 
 o 
 
 '' Well, I'm not quarrelling with my bread 
 and butter," replied Mr. Dallas placidly. 
 *Eacli man has his own mfts." 
 
 o 
 
 " And you have a tolerably keen recog- 
 nition of the value of yours, so if I were 
 you I'd shut up," returned Godfrey curtly ; 
 upon which the other laughed. Perhaps, 
 as Mr. Helstone had said, he was very 
 comfortably aware that for the most part 
 the playing of second fiddle was not very 
 likely to be his role in life. 
 
 And, in fact, at this special time it was 
 Mr. Dallas, and not Godfrey, who was fast 
 becoming the most popular of the two 
 young men at the vicarage. He made him- 
 self so pleasant to the whole family that 
 
 they could not but like him in return. He 
 144
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 fitted himself to Mr. Beresford's humour, 
 and gave him back banter for banter, and 
 jest for jest ; he flirted in the airiest way 
 with Lilian, and played with the boys, and 
 petted the little girls, and talked nonsense 
 or sense, as they pleased, to Edith and 
 Joanne, and sat by Mrs. Beresford's side, 
 with an almost filial air of. devotion, thread- 
 ing her needle for her when she worked, 
 and winding the skeins of wool for her 
 knitting, till even that usually severe woman 
 owned her heart touched. 
 
 *' He is certainly a remarkably pleasant 
 young man," she allowed to the Vicar 
 before she had known him for a week, and 
 the Vicar gave a hearty assent. 
 
 " He's a fine fellow — a very fine fellow. 
 
 I don't know when I've liked a lad so 
 
 much," he said. 
 
 Both the young men had had a specially 
 VOL. I. 145 10
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 pleasant day on the first Sunday that they 
 spent at Brentwood. 
 
 *' Will you come up and dine with us ? " 
 the Vicar had asked them the day before. 
 " We dine early, you know ; you will have 
 to eat your mutton at one o'clock ; l)ut if 
 you think you can do that we shall be 
 delighted to see you/' 
 
 "I can eat mutton at any hour," Mr. 
 Dallas replied pleasantly to this address. 
 " I never find that it comes amiss." 
 
 So it was understood that the invitation 
 w^as accepted, and at eleven o'clock the 
 next morning the friends betook themselves 
 to church, intending to join the Vicar's 
 family there, and remain for the rest of the 
 day with them. 
 
 The church w\as a picturesque old 
 
 building, grey, and a little grim, with a 
 
 tall line of elms on one side, bounding its 
 146
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 churchyard. Within were a few curious 
 monuments, and an old oak roof, and 
 certain other vestiges of antiquity, of all of 
 which the Vicar, they soon perceived, was 
 very proud, and for which he claimed their 
 notice and commendation when the service 
 was at an end ; but, to tell the truth, both 
 Jack and Godfrey thought that the edifice 
 wore, on the whole, a somewhat bare and 
 dreary appearance. 
 
 " Do you know, if I were you, I think I 
 would dress it up a little ? " Jack ventured 
 to say to Edith. "It's very — interesting 
 as it is, of course, but it must look pretty 
 gloomy, I should fancy, on a winter's day." 
 
 '' Yes," answered Edith laughing, '' on a 
 grey, shivering winter morning, when there 
 is hardly light enough for you to read 
 your prayer-book by — ah, you would call it 
 gloomy indeed if you saw it then ! But 
 
 147
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 it's four hundred years old, you know, and 
 whenever w^e remember that blessed fact 
 we are always expected to be proud and 
 thankful." 
 
 The Vicar had preached a sturdy sermon 
 to them, on the practical text : *' Gather up 
 the fragments." '' An admirable sermon," 
 as Mr. Dallas boldly told him afterwards, 
 " and specially applicable to Helstone and 
 me." 
 
 " And therefore, perhaps, you think I 
 preached it at you ? " retorted Mr. Beresford, 
 with a twinkle in his eye. " Bat I did not, 
 sir ; though, if you find the cap fit, so much 
 the better." 
 
 " There is no doubt the cap fits," re- 
 plied Jack. " With every sentence you 
 uttered Helstone and I blushed more 
 and more, until we couldn't look at one 
 
 another." 
 
 148
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Speak for yourself, sir ! I have a 
 notion that you had a good deal more cause 
 to blush than Mr. Helstone," returned the 
 Vicar laughing. 
 
 It had been a very simply conducted 
 service, for Mr. Beresford was not the sort 
 of man to trouble himself about innova- 
 tions, aud what had been done in his church 
 a o'eneration ao^o seemed to him fittinof 
 enough to be done still. He had read the 
 prayers, as he himself might have said, 
 " decently and in order," and an old- 
 fashioned clerk had led the responses and 
 given out the psalms. But when the 
 singiog began, the Vicar's fine sonorous 
 voice had made itself felt with eflfect. He 
 had sung and Joanne sang, and Godfrey, 
 sitting in one of the Vicarage pews, had 
 thought such music was well worth listen- 
 
 inoj to. The blendino: of the two voices 
 149
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 had given liim an almost curious sense of 
 pleasure. 
 
 They walked across the churchyard to the 
 Vicarage in a straggling party. Some of 
 the children had gone on before, and Mr. 
 Beresford followed iti the rear. 
 
 " I've got to give them another sermon, 
 you know, at three o'clock," he told 
 Godfrey ; " but I don't ask you to come 
 to it," he added with a laugh, " for you 
 will do pretty well if you digest the one 
 you have heard already." 
 
 "Are you afraid of too much strong 
 
 meat not being good for babes ? " Godfrey 
 
 answered, laughing too ; and then he did 
 
 not say whether he would return to church 
 
 or not, but when after dinner he found 
 
 that Edith and Joanne were both going 
 
 back he was content enough to accompany 
 
 them. 
 
 150
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Mr. Dallas, however, for himself, decided 
 differently. 
 
 " I am rather disposed to take a walk 
 and meditate," he said. " You see, I am 
 always an advocate for moderation in all 
 things ; and one sermon, as Mr. Beresford 
 so justly remarked, well digested — " 
 
 "Is better than a stalled ox," interrupted 
 Edith, " and dyspepsia therewith." 
 
 And then they parted ; but when the 
 church-goers came back they did not find 
 Mr. Dallas meditatinor. 
 
 o 
 
 Instead of that he had got a group of the 
 
 youngest children round him on the lawn, 
 
 and was engaged with them there in most 
 
 un-Sabbatical romps. Mrs. Beresford heard 
 
 their shrill shouts of delio;hted lauo^hter 
 
 before she had more than half- crossed the 
 
 churchyard, and there was haste in that 
 
 excellent woman's step and reproof in her 
 151
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 eye as she unfastened the gate, and, in 
 advance of all the rest, came suddenly on 
 the culprits. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Dallas ! " she exclaimed 
 in a voice that ought to have awed the 
 irreverent young man, and brought him at 
 once to a sense of his fault ; *' do you re- 
 member — surely you cannot — that this is 
 Sunday, and that the congregation is 
 coming out of church ? " 
 
 '^ But we haven't been to church,'' 
 answered Jack airily, and he paused and 
 looked at her with the most innocent face. 
 " What ought we to do — in the circum- 
 stances ? '* he said. 
 
 " Not certainly what you are doing,'' 
 
 replied Mrs. Beresford severely. And then 
 
 she went forward, and took one of her sons 
 
 by the shoulder : '' Harry, do you know 
 
 your collect ? " she said. 
 152
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Yes, — III bear testimony to that," cried 
 Jack interposing, '* for I've heard him say 
 it, and barring a word or two, which are 
 immaterial — " 
 
 " Mr. Dallas, allow me 1 " said Mrs. 
 Beresford with decision. " Harry, you will 
 go indoors instantly, and wash your hands 
 and brush your hair, and read over your 
 collect again until I call you. Violet, and 
 Maude, and Tom, you will all at once go 
 indoors. Mr. Dallas — " and then, as the 
 children filed off, she turned again to the 
 young man — " I am surprised at you ! If 
 you had given the matter a moment's 
 thought, you would have perceived that 
 such riotous playing as this that you have 
 been encouraging is most unbecoming on a 
 Sunday afternoon, in a clergyman's garden." 
 
 " Dear me, I suppose it is," exclaimed 
 
 Jack penitently. "I did encourage it — 
 153
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 there's not a doubt of that, but I forgot all 
 about the congregation. If there is any- 
 thin 2: I can do — even to standiuo- in a white 
 sheet and making a public confession — " 
 
 There was a little ripple of laughter ; 
 some of the elder girls had come up, and 
 it was impossible to be serious any longer. 
 But Mrs. Beresford, though she could not 
 retain her severe attitude, still shook her 
 head with a final effort at rebuke. 
 
 " I sh ill be afraid, you see, to leave you 
 with these children again on any other 
 Sunday," she said. 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Beresford," cried Jack, 
 
 *' you may trust me for the future as though 
 
 I were an archbishop." And he looked so 
 
 pleasantly confident, and so certain of being 
 
 taken at his word, that even Mrs. Beresford 
 
 thought it best to say no more. 
 
 " I think you are very absurd," she only 
 154
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 answered ; and then she laughed too, and 
 the young sinner knew that he had made 
 his peace. 
 
 They had a delightful evening after this. 
 The Vicar came amongst them in half an 
 hour, looking like a man who had thrown 
 a weio-ht ofi* his back. 
 
 " No, Tm not fond of preaching sermons," 
 he confessed to them, in answer to some- 
 thing that Jack said. " To tell the truth, I 
 always feel a certain sense of shame in the 
 business. I sometimes think if we could 
 take it in rotation — I and my flock — and 
 preach in turns to one another, it might 
 make a better thing of it ; for, you see, 
 we don't live up to our sermons — that's 
 the worst," he exclaimed Avith a sudden 
 change in his voice as of some note gone 
 out of tune. " We get up into our pulpits 
 
 and w^e preach to men what most of us 
 155
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 imperfectly practise ; and eitber we deceive 
 
 the people who are simple, and make them 
 
 believe what fine fellows we are, or we give 
 
 a handle to the people who are shrewd, to 
 
 say what humbugs we are ; and, either 
 
 way, it's bad enough — both for our own 
 
 soul's welfare or God's glory. There are 
 
 plenty of men amongst us, I know, who 
 
 are not as we are — as we are, I mean, who 
 
 are the Laodiceans," said Mr. Beresford, 
 
 flinsino: the term at himself with a sudden 
 
 fine scorn, " but I am not talking of them ; 
 
 they are our martyrs and heroes : I am 
 
 speaking of the common herd of us — the 
 
 men no better than their fellows, who have 
 
 gone into the Church simply because the 
 
 Church has offered them a living, and not 
 
 because the love of God was burninor in 
 
 tlieir hearts, and driving them into the 
 
 streets, and alleys, and dark places, to 
 156
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 speak out the truth that was in them. 
 There are plenty such — plenty: I wish I 
 were one of them/' the Vicar ended, 
 suddenly and sharply. 
 
 It was not a speech that either Godfrey 
 or Jack could answer, and they held their 
 toDgues when Mr. Beresford had made it, 
 though they spoke of it to one another 
 afterwards. 
 
 " A grand old Pagan sort of fellow I " 
 Jack said. " I should have liked to clap 
 him on the back, and cry, * Cheer up, old 
 boy ! ' only I didn't quite know how he 
 would have taken it." 
 
 And Godfrey said more gravely — "What 
 
 a pity he didn't choose another walk for 
 
 himself, for evidently he was never meant 
 
 for the one he has got into. He would 
 
 have made a fine soldier, if he had taken 
 
 to that line of life, and have got his 
 157
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 conscience satisfied so, which it will never 
 be now, I am afraid." 
 
 " Oh well, I don't know that. 1 doubt if, 
 on the whole, his conscience troubles him 
 much," answered Jack with a laugh. 
 
 And perhaps Mr. Dallas was right, for 
 in spite of the clear-sightedness that made 
 the Vicar so well aware of his spiritual 
 shortcomings he seemed in truth a happy 
 man. He was probably of too genial and 
 easy a temperament to disquiet himself 
 about any evil that it was beyond his power 
 to remedy, and perhaps he had faced the 
 fact so lonof a^o that he was something: 
 of a failure, that it had lost a good deal for 
 him of its natural sting. 
 
 At any rate, on this Sunday he got rid 
 
 of his momentary depression with great 
 
 celerity. The fit was hardly on him for 
 
 five minutes, and long before the young 
 158
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 men had forgotten liis speech the Vicar 
 
 was himself again, with a hearty word for 
 
 every one, and a hearty laugh for every 
 
 joke. Only Godfrey noticed, and wondered 
 
 whether it happened by chance or not, that, 
 
 as they all afterwards strolled together up 
 
 and down the lawn, Joanne walked beside 
 
 her father, and kept her hand for a long 
 
 time within his arm. 
 
 There was no evening service — (" Why, 
 
 you don't think I preach to them tliree 
 
 times, do you ? " Mr. Beresford answered 
 
 in an amazed tone to a question on the 
 
 subject that Jack put) — so, when tea had 
 
 been taken, they were all free to do as they 
 
 liked, and half-a-dozen of them, the Vicar, 
 
 with his three eldest daughters, and Godfrey 
 
 and Jack, all strolled together into the 
 
 Vicar's hay- field, and sat down there on 
 
 the heaps of hay, and talked till the sun 
 159
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 went down. It was a field that sloped 
 
 down to the river; they could see the 
 
 sparkling w^ater, and the meadows beyond, 
 
 golden in the evening sunshine, and the 
 
 pine trees with their purple stems. 
 
 The Vicar was full of geniality, and of 
 
 pleasant talk about a hundred things. 
 
 Jack happened to ask him some question 
 
 about his early days, and as he answered 
 
 it his answer awakened other memories, 
 
 and he lay back on the new-made hay, 
 
 with his arms folded beneath his head, 
 
 and his eyes shaded by his wide-awake, 
 
 telling them one story after another of his 
 
 college days. The man was so social and 
 
 human and hearty that his stories kept 
 
 them listenins; and interested for a lono^ 
 
 time. The voices of the others came in 
 
 often with laughter, and with an occasional 
 
 remark, but it w^as the Vicar almost 
 160
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 exclusively who talked, filling the air round 
 him with his mellow tones. 
 
 After more than an hour Lilian was 
 the first to rise, and then when Lilian 
 rose Jack too got on his feet. She thouofht 
 it was a pity not to have a walk, she said. 
 So they all roused themselves, and went 
 down to the river, and walked along its banks. 
 
 Joanne called Godfrey's attention pre- 
 sently to a certain group of poplars, and 
 said she had been trying to make a sketch 
 of them, "just of those three trees, and 
 a bit of the water, and the marsh mallows 
 on the bank," she said. " I thought it 
 might turn out prettily, — but it is so hard 
 to do even a little thing well." 
 
 "It is hard to do anything well," an- 
 swered Godfrey profoundly. " But I should 
 like to see your sketches some day. It 
 
 strikes me — only I am no judge, I know — 
 VOL. I. 161 11
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 that this is a very paintable sort of place, — 
 that is, in the modern sense, of course. 
 It's odd, is it not, that paintableness 
 seems to be considered quite another thing 
 now from what it was even fifty years ago ? 
 Peoj)le would not have thought much of 
 this sort of scene for a picture then." ■ 
 
 ** No ; they would hardly have given 
 a glance at it, I suppose," she said. 
 " Changes like that are so strange," she 
 added rather sadly after a moment. " They 
 make one feel sometimes as if there were no 
 way of getting at the truth of things — T 
 mean, almost as if there luere no real truth 
 or beauty, but only fashion." 
 
 '' "Well, as for that, art is only in the 
 
 condition of everything else. We have no 
 
 fixed standing ground anywhere," said 
 
 Godfrey. 
 
 *'No," answered Joanne gravely, and 
 162
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 then she turned away, and Mr. Helstone, 
 who was fond of a discussion, and would 
 have liked well enough to have engaged in 
 this one, had to shut his mouth. 
 
 '*You were afraid that I was going to 
 shock you with some tremendous sceptical 
 utterances that first Sunday night," he told 
 her once afterwards, laughing, when they 
 had become more intimate. *' I saw you 
 shudder, and put on a rigid face, as you 
 might have done if you had seen the devil 
 at your elbow. But I was a very harmless 
 devil in reality. You might have let me 
 go on in perfect safety." 
 
 " I was not afraid of letting you go on. 
 
 It was only — " said Joanne hesitating a 
 
 moment, " that there were too many of us 
 
 there. If only you and I and my father 
 
 had been together I would not have thought 
 
 of stopping you." 
 
 163
 
 GODFEEY IIeLSTONE. 
 
 At the time, however, she did not know 
 him well enough to tell him this, and so 
 she turned away and addressed herself to 
 some one else, and a minute afterwards 
 Lilian said something to him, and he 
 walked on by her side. 
 
 Lilian was not a young lady who 
 troubled herself much about abstract 
 truths, or indeed about difficult questions 
 of any kind. She began to talk to Godfrey 
 very artlessly, after her usual fashion, and 
 he put Joanne out of his mind, and 
 answered her in her own strain. She was 
 one of those girls who are so pretty that 
 whether they are wise or foolish no man 
 can regard them quite with indifference. 
 
 " We must go in to prayers," said the 
 Yicar, when the clock had struck nine. 
 " We say our prayers early, young gentle- 
 men, on a Sunday evening." 
 164
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 So they all went in, and sat in the draw- 
 ing-room and listened while the Vicar, amidst 
 his assembled family, read his brief even- 
 ing service. It was a ceremony of which 
 neither Godfrey nor Jack had seen any- 
 thing hitherto. 
 
 '' Do you think it takes place on ordinary 
 nights at all ? " Mr. Dallas speculated 
 afterwards with his friend as thev walked 
 home ; but Godfrey only shook his 
 head. 
 
 " He fired it off at us," said Jack, " with 
 very little loss of time. I looked at the 
 clock over the mantel-piece, and it was all 
 at an end in seven minutes. What an age 
 of progress it is ! " 
 
 "And with what feelings the ghosts of 
 
 our ancestors must look at us ! " said 
 
 Godfrey. 
 
 There was supper after prayers, and the 
 165
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Vicar as he sat over his glass of grog was at 
 his best and heartiest. 
 
 " I must have another morning with you, 
 boys," he told his guests before they parted. 
 " I have got work to do to-morrow, and a 
 day of parish visiting on Tuesday : but 
 on Wednesday, if that should chance to 
 suit you — V 
 
 *'We will make an engagement of it at 
 once," said Jack. 
 
 " Come, then, and we'll have a grand 
 day!'' cried Mr. Beresford. ^* We'll catch 
 our fish, and you shall come back with 
 me and eat them." 
 
 " I am afraid that will be rather too hard 
 
 on Mrs. Beresford ? " suggested Godfrey, 
 
 hesitating a little ; but Jack only looked at 
 
 his hostess with one of his brightest looks 
 
 of confidence, and — 
 
 " Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Beresford are one," 
 166
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 he said in a tone that sent a ]augh round 
 the table, and brought a smile even to the 
 lady's lips. 
 
 " I am not so sure of that sometimes, 
 Mr. Dallas," she said. *'But at least, 
 as far as this point is concerned — " And 
 then she seconded the invitation very 
 cordially. 
 
 " She's not a bad old girl when you 
 know how to get round her," Mr. Dallas 
 remarked irreverently to his friend after- 
 wards. " The shell is a little hard to crack, 
 but there is a kernel inside for them who 
 can crack it dexterously. For my part I 
 like her." 
 
 "And you believe that she likes you," 
 answered Godfrey. 
 
 ^' Well, I believe that a man is the better 
 
 for carrying these sort of faiths about with 
 
 him," replied Mr. Dallas frankly. '' Why 
 167
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 shouldn't she like me ? I take a good deal 
 of trouble to make her." 
 
 " Oh, you deserve your success, I don't 
 dispute," said Godfrey. "You have always 
 been all thino^s to all men." 
 
 " I don't know about all meyil' replied 
 Jack, a little dubiously ; " but all things to 
 all ivomen, to the best of my powers, I do 
 think I may say I try to be." 
 
 *' And in the end you are a great hum- 
 bug," said Godfrey. 
 
 ** Well — and in one sort or another— are 
 we not all humbugs ? " returned Jack in his 
 pleasantest way. 
 
 It was ten o'clock when they walked 
 home, and as they went they agreed that 
 the day had been a very pleasant one. 
 
 " Upon my word I begin to think," said 
 
 Mr. Dallas, "that we have fallen on our 
 
 feet. It's odd that what one would have 
 168
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 fled from if anybody had told one of it 
 beforehand — this prodigious family, I mean 
 — should really turn out to be one of the 
 greatest attractions of the place. I hardly 
 know which of the girls I shall fall in love 
 with yet." 
 
 " Is it necessary," inquired Godfrey, " to 
 fall in love with any of them ? " 
 
 " Oh, that is of course a matter of 
 opinion," answered Jack lightly. " For my 
 own part I am inclined to do it. But 
 then of course I shall do it with discre- 
 tion. So far, I should say, I am rather 
 disposed to make up to Joanne." 
 
 " Indeed ? " said Godfrey, a little curtly. 
 
 " Yes. There's a bright espiegle look 
 
 about her," Mr. Dallas went on, " that I 
 
 like amazingly. She is shy too, and a 
 
 certain sort of shyness always gives charm 
 
 to a girl. She doesn't bestow her smiles 
 169
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 ou you with the radiant readiness of Miss 
 Lilian ; nor, like Miss Edith, cap your 
 smart sayings with would-be smart sayings 
 of her own. That Miss Edith is a little 
 too frank and unimpressionable for me. 
 She talks to you as if she thought you 
 were a boy, or another woman. I'm not 
 taken by that sort of thing." 
 
 "Well, she doesn't intend you to be 
 taken by it, I should say," replied Godfrey ; 
 " I think she is very unaffected and nice — 
 in her way." 
 
 "Oh, I have no doubt she is. I only say 
 
 it is not a way that appeals to me much. 
 
 I like both the other girls better. And, I'll 
 
 tell you what, — I like that little person 
 
 Violet. I believe when she is grown up 
 
 she will beat Lilian. I could almost have 
 
 it in my heart to ask her to wait for the 
 
 next eight or ten years for me ; only, if I 
 ^ 170
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 did, the chances are that I should never 
 come back again, and so the proceeding 
 might have consequences that would pos- 
 sibly be a little annoying to her. No," 
 said Jack thoughtfully, " on the whole I 
 think I had better keep to Joanne." 
 
 " That is, if she will allow you, — perhaps 
 a more modest man would add," said 
 Godfrey with a little irritation. 
 
 " Oh, I never pretend to be modest," 
 answered Mr. Dallas, with perfect frankness. 
 
 171
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Mr. Helstoxe and Mr. Dallas were 
 walk in Of down the villa s^e street one after- 
 noon soon after this, when they came on 
 Joanne and Lilian standins^ talkin^: to some 
 other girls. The young men would have 
 passed by with a bow, but Joanne put out her 
 hand, and then, when they had exchanged 
 greetings, introduced her companions. 
 
 They were the other Beresfords, — two of 
 the cousins of whom she had already 
 spoken to Godfrey. They all stood to- 
 gether for five minutes ; then Godfrey and 
 Jack left them aofain, and went their own 
 
 way. 
 
 172
 
 GODFKEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 " Are there many more of them, do you 
 think ? " said Mr. Dallas in a subdued 
 voice, as soon as they were out of hearing. 
 " I never knew such a family in my life ! 
 A pair of not ill-looking girls, too, these 
 new ones." 
 
 '* Oh, they seem to be all rather nice- 
 looking, more or less, — the whole clan of 
 them," replied Godfrey. *' One of these 
 other Beresfords is counted very handsome, 
 Miss Joanne told me once." 
 
 " What, another one besides those behind 
 us ? Oh, by Jupiter, what a tribe ! " cried 
 Jack with a face of dismay. 
 
 But the next day Godfrey laughed to 
 
 himself, for, chancing to be standing at one 
 
 of the windows of the inn, he saw his friend 
 
 coming down the street in company with 
 
 evidently the whole four Miss Beresfords of 
 
 the village, talking to them, and sauntering 
 173
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 on beside them, apparently on the pleasant- 
 est terms with the entire quartette. He 
 came in presently, very ready himself to 
 laugh at his proceedings. 
 
 " There's nothing like taking matters into 
 one's own hands," he exclaimed. " I met 
 those two girls that we saw yesterday, and 
 I could tell by their faces that they wanted 
 to be spoken to, so I spoke to them (poor 
 souls, they blushed as I stopped them ; 
 they don't see a young man every day), and 
 then their sisters came up, with curiosity in 
 their blue eyes, and of course I got myself 
 introduced to them too ; and then, as they 
 didn't seem to know how to move on, I 
 turned and moved on with them, and I've 
 been escorting them home to their garden- 
 gate. Upon my word, it's great fun ! " 
 cried Jack, with a face full of amusement. 
 
 *' All the four dear souls are talking of me 
 174
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 together, I have no doubt, at this very 
 nooment." 
 
 " They live with a widowed mother," said 
 Godfrey. " I dare say she was looking at 
 you in horror over the window-blind, and 
 she is probably lecturing her' daughters on 
 their conduct now. If you go on like this, 
 Jack, you will get us a bad character in the 
 place. 
 
 ''Oh, these four little girls won't give 
 me a bad character," exclaimed Jack with 
 happy confidence. " Very nice girls, I call 
 them all, and one of them, as you were 
 saying yesterday, uncommonly pretty. 
 Hardly up to Miss Lilian, j^erhaps, but very 
 good-looking undoubtedly. I think we 
 ought to have them up at the Vicarage." 
 
 " Do you propose to invite them there ? " 
 inquired Godfrey. 
 
 " Well, I said something to them about 
 
 175
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 it," replied Jack, " and my remarks were 
 received with the utmost graciousness. I 
 suggested that they should come up and 
 phiy croquet with us. Oh, I'll manage it 
 easily ! They have a croquet-lawn of their 
 own too,, they told me, so I am rather 
 disposed to call on their mother and have 
 a look at it." 
 
 " I have no doubt you will call on their 
 mother before many days are past," Godfrey 
 answered laus^hino;. 
 
 And he proved perfectly right, for the 
 next day it ha[)pened that the Vicar 
 introduced both the young men to his 
 sister-in-law, and Mr. Dallas at once seized 
 the opportunity to make himself so agree- 
 able to Mrs. Arthur Beresford that that 
 lady, before they parted, expressed her 
 hope that she should have the pleasure of 
 
 seeing him and his friend at her own house. 
 176
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Unfortunately," she said, " my sons 
 are neither of them here at this moment ; 
 though I am expecting one of them very 
 soon. But if 3^ou could find any amuse- 
 ment in coming to an entirely feminine 
 household — " 
 
 "Oh, if we were to come, you see, we 
 should supply the element that was want- 
 ing," exclaimed Jack in the readiest way. 
 " I am sure we shall be very pleased indeed." 
 
 And then he hauled Godfrey up, and 
 Godfrey also received his invitation, and 
 had to make his civil speech. 
 
 " She is not so simple a woman as Mrs. 
 
 Vicar," said Jack after this, when he and 
 
 Godfrey had gone their own road. *' I 
 
 should say she was a woman with a good 
 
 eye for business, and a keen sense of her 
 
 maternal duties. I don't think I'm a great 
 
 catch myself (though, of course, about that, 
 VOL. I. 177 12
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 opinions may differ), but as for you, with 
 your good-looking face, and your broad 
 acres — " 
 
 " I think I can take care of my acres," 
 interrupted Godfrey curtly. Upon which 
 Jack laughed, and began to talk of some- 
 thing else. 
 
 They went very shortly and made their 
 call. They found Mrs. Arthur in a small 
 but very daintily-adorned house — a low- 
 roofed cottage, all roses and jasmine on the 
 outside, and filled within with such a crowd 
 of pretty things, that Jack declared after- 
 wards when he was once seated he was 
 afraid to move hand or foot, lest annihilation 
 of some fragile ornament should follow. 
 
 Mrs. Beresford and two of her daughters 
 
 received them. They were the two youngest 
 
 daughters, and Godfrey, at any rate, who 
 
 had not quite his friend's gift for drawing 
 178
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 out young ladies, found them shy. Mrs. 
 Beresford herself, however, was by no means 
 shy,''and she took Godfrey in hand presently, 
 and was very gracious to him. 
 
 "I am so sorry my other girls are out," 
 she told him. " They have gone to pay a 
 necessary visit — a visit of condolence" — 
 and then she gave a little sigh. " Such a 
 sad case ! A poor young mother, only 
 twenty-three, who has lost her only child. 
 My Clara is very fond of her. I think you 
 have not seen my two eldest daughters yet, 
 Mr. Helstone ? No ?— so I thought. But 
 you will give me the opportunity of intro- 
 ducing you to them, I hope. Will you and 
 your friend come and take a cup of after- 
 noon tea with us to-morrow ? And then, if 
 the day should be fine, and you were dis- 
 posed for a game of croquet afterwards — " 
 
 Of course Godfrey said that he and Mr. 
 179
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Dallas would like very much to come. He 
 did not feel very eager to prosecute this 
 new acquaintanceship ; but since they had 
 made their call, they could hardly refuse the 
 consequent invitation. 
 
 ** You have been seeing a good deal of the 
 family at the Vicarage ? Yes ; and they 
 are all so nice, are they not 1 " said Mrs. 
 Arthur. " The Vicar is quite a character ; 
 and has he not got a fine family ? Really it is 
 surprising — so many of them, and all likely 
 to turn out well. I am sure I need not tt41 
 you that I am very proud of my nephews 
 and nieces. Don't you admire Lilian, ]\Ir. 
 Helstone ? Is she not a beautiful girl ? " 
 
 " Yes, she is very handsome," said God- 
 frey. " The handsomest, of course, by far, 
 of them all." 
 
 " So I thijik. Only — poor dear Lilian ! — 
 
 her face is her fortune, 1 always say — for she 
 180
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 is not clever. No ; I must allow she is not 
 clever. Nature seems very just sometimes 
 in her division of gifts, does she not ? Here 
 is my eldest niece, you see, has got the 
 beauty, and her sisters have the brains/' ' 
 
 " Oh, well, I don't know about that," said 
 Godfrey rather quickly. " I should say 
 that they had all their share of good looks. 
 I think Miss Joanne is very pretty indeed." 
 
 "Do you really?" asked Mrs. Arthur, and 
 raised her eyebrows a little. " Well, I don't 
 agree with you. She is admired by some 
 people, I know, but — I don't care for that 
 style of face. Now Edith, I think, is pretty." 
 
 " Miss Edith is very nice," said Godfrey. 
 
 But he smiled as he spoke. '*' Mrs. Arthur 
 
 has evidently no love for Joanne. The 
 
 maternal heart does not forgive her, I 
 
 suppose, for not returning the devotion of 
 
 her cub of a son," he thought to himself. 
 181
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 They sat for half-an-hour, and then made 
 their adieux. There was no chance, it 
 seemed, of the other girls coming in. 
 
 " But we shall see you to-morrow ? " said 
 Mrs. Beresford, giving them her hand, with 
 one of her most friendly smiles. 
 
 And then the young men repeated their 
 promise that they should be seen to-morrow, 
 and took their leave. 
 
 They did go back on the following day, 
 
 and spent a lively enough afternoon. They 
 
 found a number of other people there ; their 
 
 hostess and her daughters appeared in the 
 
 daintiest of summer dresses to receive them ; 
 
 it waB a complete " at home," though on a 
 
 small scale. Evidently Mrs. Arthur's taste 
 
 was of a dififerent kind from that which 
 
 reigned at the Vicarage, and she cared to 
 
 exercise her hospitality in a different way. 
 
 Early in the day, before they had bent 
 182
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 their steps towards Rose Cottage, Godfrey 
 had come across Joanne in the village, and 
 had walked with her down the street. 
 
 " We are going to afternoon tea to-day 
 with your aunt," he had told her ; but when 
 he announced this fact, she replied that she 
 was already quite aware of it. 
 
 ** Have you not learnt yet that everybody 
 know^s everything about their neighbours 
 in Brentwood ? " she asked him. " My aunt 
 sent a messenger up to the Vicarage last 
 night to spread the news." 
 
 '' Dear me, what made her do that ? " said 
 Godfrey quickly. 
 
 But Joanne did not choose to enlighten 
 
 him, and went away laughing, and he only 
 
 got an answer to his question when, a few 
 
 hours later, he found Lilian and Joanne 
 
 herself amongst Mrs. Arthur's guests. 
 
 " I think it was very bad of you not to 
 183
 
 Godfrey Hflstone. 
 
 tell me that you were coming/' he said to 
 her then. 
 
 " Why was it bad ? You looked so scared 
 when I told you the first part of my aunt's 
 message that I thought I would spare you 
 the rest," Joanne answered, with a gleam in 
 her bright eyes. 
 
 How well she looked among the other 
 
 girls ! Godfrey thought ; better than any of 
 
 them, to his mind — with more real charm, 
 
 that is to say. He had engaged himself to 
 
 play a game of croquet before he saw her, 
 
 and he had to go and fulfil his engagement, 
 
 but as he played he knew that he would 
 
 a great deal rather be talking to her. The 
 
 Arthur Beresfords and their friends did not 
 
 interest him, but the indifference he felt 
 
 towards them only gave warmth to his 
 
 feeling for Joanne, and added keenness to 
 
 his admiration of her. 
 184
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 He went in search of her as soon as his 
 game was finished. She was not in the 
 garden then, but he found her indoors, talk- 
 ing in the drawing-room to a lady, who, 
 however, to Godfrey's satisfaction, rose as 
 he entered the room, leaving the seat she 
 had occupied vacant — a tempting seat, of 
 which he soon took possession, with unmis- 
 takable pleasure. 
 
 "I was wondering what had become of 
 you," he said. " We have finished our 
 game, and now I feel that I have done my 
 duty." 
 
 " And so you have come here to seek an 
 ignoble repose ? " she said. 
 
 " I have come to seek a pleasant repose," 
 
 he answered. " It does not seem ignoble 
 
 to me in the very least." And he leaned 
 
 back in his easy chair, feeling that his 
 
 position was highly satisfactory. 
 185
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Joanne rather disturbed his placidity, 
 however, by her next words. 
 
 " If your game is over, mine, I imagine, 
 must be coming on," she said. 
 
 " Oh, you are not going to play, are 
 you ? " he exclaimed, starting quickly for- 
 ward ao^ain. *' I never thouo^ht of that ! 
 But I don't believe they are going to do 
 anything just now — I don't indeed ; so 
 please sit still till they come for you. 
 Surely you needn't be in any hurry ? " 
 
 " I don't want to keep them waiting," 
 she answered, " otherwise I am in no hurry 
 at all." 
 
 " Then, depend upon it, when they 
 are ready they will come. People al- 
 ways take care of themselves," said God- 
 frey severely. " I feel as if we had been 
 seeing so little of you — of any of you — 
 
 lately." 
 
 186
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " That is not our fault, I think/' said 
 Joanne. 
 
 " No ; it is only the fault of circum- 
 stances. We should have come up to-night 
 if it had not been for this affair." 
 
 " Then I think you had better come up 
 to-morrow night," she said. 
 
 "May we? We shall be delighted. I 
 have just been playing with your pretty 
 cousin." 
 
 " So I saw," said Joanne. 
 
 ''And she is very pretty, certainly." 
 
 ''I am glad you think so. She is a 
 pleasant girl too." 
 
 " I suppose she is. They seem all 
 pleasant. Your aunt is very — ahem ! — very 
 kind." 
 
 '* My aunt is a clever woman — cleverer 
 
 than any of her daughters." Joanne made 
 
 this reply very quietly. 
 187
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Or — than her sons 1 " asked Godfrey. 
 
 He gave his companion a rapid glance 
 as he made this inquiry. He was rather 
 curious to see if it brought any look of 
 consciousness to her face, and (not with 
 too much satisfaction) it seemed to him 
 that it did bring; a look of consciousness. 
 
 " No ; not cleverer than her sons," she 
 answered, after a moment's hesitation. " I 
 think you would call both her sons clever 
 — in their different ways." 
 
 '' She seems to be expecting one of them 
 here before long," said Godfrey rather stiffly. 
 
 " Yes," replied Joanne. And then there 
 was no doubt that the colour came a little 
 into her cheek. " She is expecting Hugh." 
 
 " Is he the eldest ? " 
 
 *' Yes." 
 
 " The one who is an architect ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 188
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 ** He would need to have some brains if 
 he hopes to get on in his profession," said 
 Godfrey rather curtly. 
 
 " Well, 1 told you he had brains," replied 
 Joanne, with a little asperity. 
 
 " And what brings him here at this 
 precise moment ? " 
 
 " T suppose his holidays bring him here," 
 she said. " He is able to take them at his 
 own time, and he likes the summer weather 
 and the long days, I imagine — not un- 
 naturally." 
 
 " As we all do, you mean ? " said Godfrey. 
 " Yes ; I suppose we all like to get the best 
 things we can for ourselves. We are always 
 in this world treading on one another's toes, 
 and jostling one another's elbows." 
 
 " I don't think that is true always," said 
 
 Joanne quietly. 
 
 There was a minute's silence after this. 
 189
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Mr. Helstone felt that the surface of his 
 
 temper had unreasonably got a little ruffled. 
 
 Joanne was looking as if her thoughts had 
 
 gone to a distance from him. He glanced 
 
 at her, rather dissatisfied, and then, all at 
 
 once, with a sudden but rather hesitating 
 
 look of inquiry, she raised her eyes to his. 
 
 " I wonder, as we are speaking of Hugh, 
 
 if you would let me ask you something ? " 
 
 she said a little shyly. " I only learnt from 
 
 Clara just now that Hugh is coming here so 
 
 soon. If he comes, as they think he will, 
 
 next week, of course you will see him, and 
 
 — you would please me very much," said 
 
 the girl rather earnestly, " if you would 
 
 show a little kindness to him. AVould you ? 
 
 He does not make friends easily — you will 
 
 understand why after you have seen him 
 
 once ; and I think if you and Mr. Dallas — " 
 
 " Oh certainly ; I shall be very happy," 
 190
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 said Godfrey ; but he felt that, almost 
 against his will, he made his response stiffly, 
 and in a tone of extreme ungraciousness, 
 and he was uncomfortably aware in another 
 moment that Joanne was conscious of this 
 too, for her eyes met his again, with a 
 sudden change in their expression, and the 
 next words she spoke proved that she 
 had distinctly comprehended how she had 
 made a request which he had no mind to 
 grant. 
 
 " Very likely it will not be necessary. I 
 did not mean to trouble you," she said 
 quickly and rather proudly. 
 
 " It will be no trouble. Of course, any- 
 thing I can do — " began Godfrey again, 
 feeling ashamed of himself, and trying to 
 speak with more warmth. 
 
 But to this second s^jeech Joanne made 
 
 no reply, and there was a sudden awkward 
 191
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 silence, which he was racking his brain 
 to think how best to break, when some one 
 came into the room to tell her how the 
 croquet players were calling for her, upon 
 which she at once rose from her seat and 
 crossed the room, without addressing another 
 word to Godfrey, who followed behind her 
 more vexed with himself than he could well 
 have told. 
 
 " Hang the fellow ! " he ejaculated in- 
 wardly, indignantly feeling as if what had 
 happened had been all Hugh Beresford's 
 fault. And yet the annoying part of the 
 matter was that he could neither throw the 
 blame of it on him, nor explain to Joanne 
 what had made him meet her request with 
 so much unijraciousness. 
 
 He felt absurdly disturbed and vexed as 
 he followed her out into the garden. A 
 man like Jack Dallas, if he had committed 
 
 192
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 the same sort of blunder that Godfrey had 
 
 done, would have laughed it off, and set 
 
 the matter right again in a minute ; but 
 
 Godfrey was not like Jack ; he had none of 
 
 his friend's pleasant self-assurance or ready 
 
 mental agility, and the thing he had done 
 
 annoyed him very much. He could not 
 
 think of another word to say to Joanne ; 
 
 and, as for her, she troubled herself to take 
 
 no further notice of him whatever ; and 
 
 then in little more than a few seconds his 
 
 opportunity was lost, for other people were 
 
 speaking to her, and other people also had 
 
 addressed him — the pretty Clara and her 
 
 mother both coming up to him together, 
 
 and claiming his attention for themselves. 
 
 He was not with Joanne again after this. 
 
 For half an hour he saw her playing on the 
 
 lawn ; then, at a moment when his back 
 
 was turned, she and Lilian must have taken 
 VOL. I. 193 13
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 their departure. A little later on lie set 
 himself to seek for her, though with only a 
 very vague conception of what he should 
 attempt to say to her should they meet ; 
 but he found soon that they were both 
 gone. 
 
 *'What — did you not say good-bye to 
 them ? " Jack asked him in his light way. 
 " Ob, I did. I walked with them to the 
 gate. They want us to go up to-morrow." 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Godfrey shortly. 
 
 The two young men got back to their 
 
 inn at eight o'clock. The afternoon's 
 
 entertainment had amused Mr. Dallas, 
 
 but Godfrey was rather savage, and could 
 
 not be got to say much about it. He 
 
 listened to his friend's talk very unsympa- 
 
 thetically ; he was not in a mood to feel 
 
 any interest in the Arthur Beresfords. 
 
 He found himself instead thinking per- 
 194
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 sistently of Joaone, and planning how he 
 
 could efface the bad impression he had 
 
 made upon her. He began, before long, to 
 
 get impatient for the next day to come. 
 
 Possibly, he thought, when he went up the 
 
 next evening he should find that she had 
 
 already forgotten his offence, and should 
 
 that be so it might be best to leave well 
 
 alone, and hold his peace ; but if — as he 
 
 strongly suspected would be the case — she 
 
 should not have forgotten it, theu he must 
 
 be prepared with something to say to her, 
 
 he told himself; and accordingly he set 
 
 about his preparation, and pursued it with 
 
 a devotion that seemed worthy of a more 
 
 important cause. 
 
 He was very eager next morning for the 
 
 hours to pass, and for the time to arrive 
 
 when they might present themselves at the 
 
 Vicarage. As the day went on and the 
 105
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 evening drew near his spirits rose. Last 
 night he had been intensely annoyed with 
 himself at what he had done ; but now, to 
 a large extent, his annoyance had given 
 way to a far more agreeable feeling of 
 expectation. He had had a misunderstand- 
 ino^ with Joanne, and now his business was 
 to clear this misunderstanding up ; and as 
 he opened the gate of the Vicarage garden 
 he was conscious that he was looking for- 
 ward to his approaching work with very 
 definitely pleasant anticipation. 
 
 It is one thing, however, to make one's 
 plans, and often quite another to carry 
 them out ; and somehow Godfrey did not 
 find it an easy business this evening to get 
 Joanne to himself. She greeted him indeed 
 on his arrival, but she greeted him very 
 briefly ; "and after that, try as he would, he 
 
 could not gain a minute's talk alone with 
 196
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 her until the evening was nearly coming 
 to an end. " She is avoiding me intention- 
 ally," he said to himself, and the thought 
 that she was doing this roused him and 
 made him impatient ; but it also unques- 
 tionably flattered him a little too. If she 
 had shown unconsciousness of any cause 
 of coolness between them it would not have 
 flattered him half so much. 
 
 At last, however, when the sun had set, 
 made bold, perhaps, by the fading light, he 
 arrested her determinedly, and made her 
 give her ear to him. She was walking on 
 the lawn with some of the others, and he 
 came to her side, and said something to her 
 that only she could hear. 
 
 " I have been wanting all the evening to 
 
 speak to you," he said. " Do stay with me 
 
 for a minute. There — just let them pass 
 
 on." He paused for a few moments till 
 197
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 their companions had got to a convenient 
 distance, then — " You must know how angry 
 I have been with myself for having vexed 
 you yesterday," he exclaimed with warmth. 
 
 She had stood still, but her face, it 
 seemed to him, had not its usual look as 
 she answered quietly — 
 
 " T am sorry you thought that I was 
 vexed." 
 
 '' I made you misunderstand me," he 
 exclaimed quickly. 
 
 She gave a little cough. " I don't think 
 I misunderstood you," she replied. And 
 then suddenly she raised her straight- 
 forward eyes to his face. '' I asked you 
 to do something that it was a mistake to 
 have asked; and you let me feel that it 
 was a mistake : that was all," she said. 
 
 " But it was no mistake," he answered 
 
 eagerly. *' How could you have thought it 
 198'
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 one for a moment ? As for hesitating to do 
 such a trifle — why, I only wish there was 
 anything in the world I could do — to make 
 you believe — " 
 
 " It was no matter," she interrupted him 
 quickly. And then she hesitated. " You 
 make far too much of a little thino^." 
 
 " But you have been vexed with me all 
 this evening, you know," he said. 
 
 This accusation took her aback, and she 
 blushed. 
 
 " I am sorry if I have seemed vexed," 
 she answered gently. " I ought not to 
 have minded. It was only — " And then 
 she stopped. 
 
 ^' It was only — what ? " 
 
 " I mean I was annoyed, of course," she 
 
 said with a little reluctance, ''at having 
 
 said something which your manner, when I 
 
 said it, seemed to me to show that you 
 199
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 thouejht I ouo^lit to have left alone. 
 Naturally one does not like to make 
 mistakes of that kind." 
 
 *' But I tell you again, you made no 
 mistake. I wish I could explain it to 
 you," said Godfrey earnestly. 
 
 '' Then— why don't you ? " 
 
 And, as she asked this, Joanne looked 
 so straight in his face that Mr. Helstone 
 was afraid he blushed. 
 
 But yet, if the question embarrassed him, 
 
 on the whole he was pretty well content. 
 
 He had got what he had been aiming at : 
 
 he had secured Joanne's companionship; 
 
 and though she might put inquiries to him 
 
 that were difficult to be answered, still there 
 
 was a certain pleasure in being confronted 
 
 by these inquiries, and in finding himself 
 
 driven either to face or to evade them. 
 
 *' Then why don't you explain it ? " she 
 200
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 asked quickly, and lie experienced this 
 unpleasant sensation of blushing, and then 
 he almost lauo;hed. 
 
 " Are there not hosts of things that won't 
 bear explanation ? " he said. " The smallest 
 things sometimes would need the most 
 words to make them clear — far more words 
 than they were worth — and this was a thing 
 of that kind. It w\as nothing — absolutely 
 nothing ; and yet, without an absurd 
 amount of explanation, I couldn't make 
 you understand it." 
 
 " And that is all you mean to tell me ? " 
 she said. 
 
 " Yes," he answered ; *' that is all I mean 
 to tell you." 
 
 And then there was a little pause. 
 
 " I think we had better go in," she sud- 
 denly said. 
 
 " Oh, dear me, no ! '*' he exclaimed ; 
 
 201
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " don't let us do that. Why, I haven't 
 spoken ten words to you yet. And — and 
 YOU haven't told me that you believe what 
 I have been saying ? I mean, that you will 
 take my word for it, and believe that you 
 misunderstood me ? " 
 
 " Of course, if you say that I misunder- 
 stood you, I — believe it," she said. 
 
 *'And we are not going to be worse 
 friends than we were before ? " 
 
 " I hope not," she answered. " I should 
 be sorry if such a little thing were to make 
 any difference," she added next moment. 
 
 " Were you very angry with me ? " he 
 asked, curiously pleased that she did not at 
 once let the subject drop. 
 
 " I was angriest with myself," she said. 
 
 " Yes ; but if you took my answer to 
 
 imply a rebuke you must haYe hated me. 
 
 A rebuke ! What could you have thought 
 202
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 of me ! Do you know," he said, " I felt so 
 overwhelmed when you got up in that silent 
 way and went out of the room, that you 
 could hardly have upset me more if you had 
 boxed my ears." 
 
 " But it was quite natural in me to go 
 away," she said. 
 
 " Yes ; I am afraid I had made it natural. 
 That was the pleasant reflection that you 
 left me when you went, and that stayed 
 with me all night, and has been haunting 
 me all day ; and that, if you had had your 
 own way just now. Miss Joanne, I should 
 have taken back again with me to my pillow 
 presently." 
 
 " Well, but you will not need to do that 
 now, you see," she said, and laughed, though 
 rather quickly and shyly. 
 
 Next moment she repeated — "I think we 
 
 had better come in," and he did not this 
 203
 
 Godfrey IIelstone. 
 
 second time venture to object. Tliey had a 
 little way, however, to go before they could 
 reach the house, and he made the most of 
 this by walking at a most leisurely and 
 dilatory pace. 
 
 "My aunt's little party went off very 
 well — don't you think it did ? " Joanne 
 asked. " They like these afternoon parties 
 at Kose Cottage ; they often give them. 
 This one was given, you know, entirely in 
 your honour." 
 
 " 1 feel very much flattered," said God- 
 frey. 
 
 " In yours and Mr. Dallas's together, I 
 mean," Joanne explained. " They all like 
 Mr. Dallas." 
 
 '' Oh, Jack makes himself popular every- 
 where," said Godfrey. 
 
 " I su]3pose he does. I wonder if it is a 
 
 good thing ? " said Joanne abruptly. 
 
 204
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " To make oneself popular ? It is a reiy 
 pleasant thing, at any rate." 
 
 "Yes, it is very pleasant." But Joanne 
 spoke a little dubiously. *' And I like Mr. 
 Dallas too," she added quickly. " Nobody 
 could help liking him, I think. I only 
 wonder sometimes whether one would ever 
 get to care ver?/ much for anybody who is 
 so exactly the same, as he is, to all people." 
 
 " Well, but you needn't try to care for 
 him so very much, need you ? " asked 
 Godfrey, not at all seeing the necessity 
 for any proceeding of this kind. '* Most 
 of us are content with likino;, and being; 
 liked, a little." 
 
 " But most of us also want a few people 
 to like us more than a little, I suppose," 
 Joanne answered; *' and what I was won- 
 dering was whether anybody would ever 
 
 like Mr. Dallas so." 
 
 205
 
 Godfrey Helstoxk 
 
 " He has got a mother aud a sister," said 
 Godfrey. " His sister is younger than he is 
 — a nice bright kind of gir] ; Lut, it is true, 
 I never heard him speak very much about 
 her ; and as for his friends — well, I don't 
 know that he has any friends with whom 
 he is more intimate than he is with me. 
 He makes his way capitally everywhere; 
 that is about it, I fancy." 
 
 " And so, in other words," said Joanne, 
 " you mean that you agree with me ? " 
 
 "Well, I don't know," said Godfrey; 
 " but, on the whole — why, yes, I suppose 
 I do." 
 
 "There is the supper bell," said Joanne 
 next moment ; but Godfrey merely answered, 
 " Oh, but they will ring another ; " and 
 instead of hastening his steps, on the 
 contrary stood still, and, leisurely turning 
 round, began to survey the heavens. 
 
 206
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " What a delightful evening it is ! Do 
 you know much about the stars ? " he 
 said. 
 
 " No — nothing," replied Joanne with 
 decision. 
 
 " There is Jupiter/' he said. 
 
 " So I see," she replied ; " but he will 
 be much better worth looking at by the 
 time you go home." 
 
 " Perhaps not ; the clouds may have 
 risen by that time," answered Godfrey. 
 " Just wait one moment. I think it is 
 delightful to watch them coming out in the 
 twilight. Let me see — is that Sirius ? " 
 
 " I really don't know," said Joanne. 
 
 " I think it must be. And you see the 
 old Bear, of course 1 " 
 
 " Oh yes — I see the Bear," said Joanne. 
 
 '' And — the Pole star now. Let us look 
 
 out for it." 
 
 207
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 But just as Godfrey had thrown his head 
 back, and begun to gaze up to the zenith, 
 the second bell rang, and with a laugh 
 Joanne left him, and went in at the open 
 door. 
 
 *' I don't know if you can get Mr. 
 Helstone to think of supper ; he is star- 
 struck in the garden," she said to her 
 father, meeting him as she entered the hall ; 
 and then the Vicar went forward to find 
 his guest. 
 
 " Come along — come along, Mr. Hel- 
 stone ! The stars will wait for you, sir, 
 but supper waits for no man," he cried, 
 and he laid hold of Godfrey, w^ho, to tell 
 the truth, was showing no further eagerness 
 to pursue his astronomical researches, and 
 grasping him by the shoulder brought him 
 straightway indoors. 
 
 It had been a pleasant half-hour, and 
 
 208
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Godfrey was quite aware that he had found 
 it so as he entered the house ; and, 
 moreover, the evening after this remained 
 pleasant to him to the end, for he managed 
 to get himself a seat at the supper-table 
 by Joanne's side, and Joanne's manner to 
 him while the meal lasted had never been 
 franker or more friendly. Indeed he almost 
 told himself that it had never before been 
 equally friendly ; and, for his own part, he 
 distinctly felt that their little quarrel and 
 reconciliation had placed him in a closer 
 relation to her, and given birth to 
 an intimacy that they had not hitherto 
 reached. 
 
 In idle times the smallest trifles often 
 suffice to interest us. It was a compara- 
 tively unimportant matter yet to Godfrey 
 that Joanne Beresford should smile upon 
 
 him, but still as he sat beside her to-night 
 VOL. I. 209 14
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 he was quite aware that he sought for her 
 smiles, and he knew presently that he went 
 home satisfied because she had given them 
 to him. 
 
 *'It seems to me," said Jack, as they 
 walked back to their inn, '' that you're 
 getting uncommonly sweet on Miss Joanne ;" 
 and then at this charge Godfrey laughed — 
 not like a man who disliked the accusation. 
 
 *' I am not as sweet upon her as you 
 are ujDon — pretty well every woman you 
 meet," he retorted, however. 
 
 *' Oh, come ! " cried Jack, with alarmed 
 modesty. " That's too much ! Every 
 woman I meet I Upon my word, I should 
 have my hands fulL" 
 
 "Well, they are full, I should say," 
 
 replied Godfrey. " I am sure amongst 
 
 all these girls here you are having an active 
 
 time of it." 
 
 210
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 *' It is certainly an amazingly nice 
 place for girls," Jack assented with appreci- 
 ation. " Quite wonderful, considering that 
 they are all of one clan. I'm beginning to 
 like that little girl Edith better, by the 
 way." 
 
 '' Oh, Edith is very well," said Godfrey. 
 
 " Yes — she is rather a bright little person. 
 You see, you engrossed Miss Joanne so to- 
 night that I w^as obliged to take up with 
 her sister." 
 
 " / engrossed her ! " exclaimed Godfrey. 
 " That is a pretty charge, when I never 
 even spoke to her till nine o'clock ! " 
 
 " Well, if you didn't speak to her, no one 
 else did. / couldn't get her attention at 
 all, I know," said Jack lightly. " I thought 
 something was the matter with her, she was 
 so quiet." 
 
 And then, though Godfrey made no 
 211
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 answer, he felt something suddenly go 
 through him him that was singularly like a 
 little thrill of triumph. 
 
 " She was content enough to talk to me^^ 
 he thouirht. 
 
 
 212
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " Look here, Helstone ! Who's that ? " 
 said Mr. Dallas one morning, and Godfrey 
 joined his friend at the inn window, and 
 looked with him into the village street, 
 where there were several people passing, 
 and amongst them, Mrs, Arthur Beresford, 
 with a yoang man at her side. 
 
 Godfrey gave a glance at him, and felt 
 an impulse of dislike. 
 
 " I suppose it is her son," he said shortly. 
 " You heard he was coming, didn't you ? 
 He's a poor-looking fellow." 
 
 '•' Poor-looking ! " echoed Jack. " Poor 
 is no word for him. I don't believe it's 
 
 possible that can be young Beresford." 
 
 213
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 But before the day had ended, Mr. 
 Dallas found that it was young Beresford, 
 for he and Godfrey met him with some of 
 the Beresford girls in the afternoon, and 
 they introduced him to them as their 
 brother, who had just come down from 
 London. 
 
 He was an undersized, ill-made, sickly- 
 looking young man. The girls, who were 
 blooming and full of spirits, stood talking 
 to Jack and Godfrey, and their brother 
 in silence traced patterns with his walking- 
 stick upon the ground. Jack good-naturedly 
 addressed a sentence or two to him, but he 
 made only the briefest responses. He had 
 a cadaverous face, only redeemed from ex- 
 treme plainness by a pair of dark and rather 
 noticeable eyes, which, however, as if he 
 were ashamed of them, he kept resolutely 
 
 drooped. 
 
 214
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " A very odd sort of person. Is he half- 
 witted, do you think ? " Jack asked, when 
 he and Godfrey had passed on ; but Godfrey 
 shook his head. 
 
 '' They say he is very clever," he answered. 
 " One wouldn't think it, certainly. He has 
 a terribly hang-dog look." 
 
 " It's odd how one in a family sometimes 
 will be like that ! " said Jack reflectively. 
 " The sisters here are such good-looking 
 girls, and the mother must have had no 
 small pretensions in her day. It must be 
 something of a humiliation to a woman of 
 her kind, I should think, to have such an 
 ugly duckling as this amongst her brood." 
 
 " A^d he has had the presumj)tion to 
 
 make love to Joanne ! " thought Godfrey 
 
 indignantly to himself. But he did not 
 
 utter this remark aloud. 
 
 Godfrey had really tried since that little 
 "215
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 episode of his with Joanne to feel charitably 
 towards Hugh Beresford, and to prepare 
 himself to make his acquaintance with at 
 least a moderate amount of friendliness ; but 
 the sight of the young man had precipitately 
 quenched their kindly feeling, and involun- 
 tarily inspired him in its stead with one 
 that was little short of aversion. For that 
 any one so mean in look, so infelicitous in 
 manner, so w^anting in, at any rate, all out- 
 ward manliness, should have had the pre- 
 sumption to raise his eyes to Joanne Beres- 
 ford, appeared to him to argue a nature so 
 embued with conceit, that any alliance with 
 it, or even any tolerance of it, would be 
 impossible. 
 
 " We shall find him, I dare say, as vain 
 as a peacock," he said aloud. " It's odd, but 
 these half-developed people generally are. 
 
 I suppose nature gives them self-satisfaction 
 216
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 from a sort of freak of kindliness. It must 
 make them much more agreeable to them- 
 selves, no doubt, — though certainly it makes 
 them a vast deal more offensive to their 
 fellows." 
 
 Godfrey was starting with Mr. Dallas 
 for an afternoon's fishing with the Vicar, 
 who had promised to meet them at his 
 favourite point of the river. There was 
 no pleasanter man to fish with than Mr. 
 Beresford, and the two friends had soon 
 come to be of this miud, and to welcome 
 him cordially whenever they could get him 
 to join them. He came striding towards 
 them over the grass to-day before they 
 had been five minutes at their trysting- 
 place, with Wasp at his heels, and his 
 fishing-tackle on his shoulder, and his 
 frank, handsome face as full of sunshine 
 as a summer day. 
 
 217
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 *' Got ahead of me ! Got ahead of me, 
 
 lads ! " he called out briskly as he came 
 
 near. "Ah, I thought I should have had 
 
 you this time ; and so I should, only an old 
 
 soul stopped me at the gate. An awful old 
 
 tramp, I'm afraid ; but she got a shilling 
 
 out of me, — though I made her listen to a 
 
 sermon for it," said the Vicar, shaking his 
 
 head over his own weakness. " Well, well ; 
 
 it's hard to know what to do with them ! 
 
 You two are young: men beg^inninor life, and 
 
 if you will take my advice, you will never 
 
 give to tramps. / made a resolution once 
 
 that I wouldn't, many years ago : I and 
 
 my wife made it together — and it has been 
 
 a considerable satisfaction to me ever since 
 
 that my wife at any rate has held to it." 
 
 And then the Vicar gave a half laugh, and 
 
 a half-sigh, and, disencumbering himself of 
 
 his traps, began to give himself to his work. 
 218
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Jack said to him presently, " We have 
 just seen your nephew. We met him with 
 his sisters, as we came along." 
 
 " What— Hugh ? " asked the Vicar. " He 
 has arrived then — has he ? — poor lad ! " 
 
 " They said he came yesterday," said 
 Godfrey. " He doesn't look very strong, 
 I am afraid." 
 
 " Strong ! " echoed Mr. Beresford with 
 emphasis. " He's as weak as a cat. Never 
 knew such a fellow ! But he's a clever 
 little chap for all that," he added. " You 
 wouldn't think it, to look at him, but he 
 has got a head of his own, and an un- 
 common deal of information in it too, as 
 well as of mother wit. Oh no, Hugh is not 
 a lad to be disposed of with a flick of 
 your thumb." 
 
 " We must get acquainted with him," 
 
 said Jack courteously. " He didn't say 
 219
 
 G0DFRF.Y HeLSTONE. 
 
 much just now, but we must have him 
 some day by himself." 
 
 " Oh, you will get on with him," said 
 the Vicar. "You will like him. Of course, 
 it is a terrible pity that he doesn't look 
 more like a man — that will always tell 
 against him, for people can't free their 
 minds from prejudice in such matters ; but 
 he has so much talent — real, good, solid 
 stuff — that I have a strono^ feeling^ he'll 
 make his way in the end. I think he 
 will — I hope he will," said the Vicar 
 cheerily. 
 
 **Make his way, and — win his cousin, I 
 wonder ? " thought Godfrey to himself, and 
 all at once he flung out his line with a 
 vehemence that made Mr. Beresford look 
 round surprised. 
 
 '' Hallo ! " he said. 
 
 But Godfrey recovered himself in a 
 220
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 moment, and gave a laugh. " I was only 
 beating the water," he explained. 
 
 The young men went up to the Vicarage 
 that evening, and they found Hugh Beres- 
 ford there when they arrived. He had 
 come up with a couple of his sisters, and 
 the girls were playing croquet, but Hugh 
 was standing on one of the gravel-walks 
 with his uncle, a small insignificant figure 
 that contrasted rather pitifully with the 
 Vicar's grand proportions, his breadth of 
 shoulder and length of limb. 
 
 He seemed to be talking with some 
 animation before Godfrey and Jack came, 
 but as soon as they approached he shrank 
 into his shell ; and presently, withdrawing 
 himself from them, Godfrey had the doubt- 
 ful satisfaction of seeing him join his cousin 
 Joanne, and carry her away with him to a 
 
 more distant part of the garden. They 
 221
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 disappeared down one of the side-walks, and, 
 to tell the truth, the sight made Godfrey 
 grow hot. 
 
 He went to Lilian, who had just finished 
 one game of croquet, and offered himself as 
 her partner for the next, and they played 
 for half an hour. By the end of that 
 time Joanne and her companion had 
 returned from their stroll, and Jack had 
 joined them ; and Godfrey, feeling that 
 it behoved him to get on better terms 
 with the man, sooner or later, if he meant 
 to stand well with Joanne Beresford, joined 
 them too. 
 
 Joanne and Jack were talking together 
 
 as he came up, and, as she glanced towards 
 
 Godfrey at his approach, she gave him a 
 
 sudden smile that he was conscious did a 
 
 good deal to smooth his rather ruffled 
 
 mood. With almost a good grace a moment 
 222
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 or two after his arrival be made some sliorht 
 
 o 
 
 remark to Hugh. 
 
 " You must find this a pleasant change 
 from London ? " he said to him. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," answered Hugh, 
 shifting his weight uneasily from one leg to 
 the other ; and Joanne laughed and shook 
 her head. 
 
 " No, no ; he never finds any place a 
 pleasant change from London," she struck 
 in. " He would live in London, if he could, 
 from the 1st of January to the 31st of 
 December." 
 
 '' Dear me ! " said Godfrey. He gave a 
 
 quick glance at this passionate lover of 
 
 urban life. " Well, no doubt it is a place 
 
 that gets a great hold on one," he said; " but 
 
 I doubt if I should ever become attached to 
 
 it to that extent. I suppose you have lived 
 
 in London a long time ? " 
 223
 
 Godfrey IIelstone. 
 
 " Oh yes, pretty long. At least — oh no, 
 not very long. About four years/' answered 
 Hugh confusedly, with his eyes on the 
 ground. 
 
 " That is a good while," said Godfrey. 
 
 But Hugh at this only wheeled round, 
 and without making any reply began to 
 survey the prospect, as if to put a stop to 
 further questioning. 
 
 " A charming manner ! " thought Godfrey 
 to himself. " Surely it is not possible that 
 she can care for him." And he looked at 
 Joanne again, and unexpectedly met her 
 eyes fixed upon his own, with something in 
 their expression that, whether rightly or 
 not, he read to be of the nature of an 
 appeal. 
 
 It was a quick look, quickly withdrawn ; 
 
 but it made Godfrey do what — had she not 
 
 given it to him — he would not have done : 
 224
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 it made him, after only a moment's hesita- 
 tion, address himself to Hu2fh agfain. 
 
 " I have a friend in London in your pro- 
 fession. I wonder if you know him — Mr. 
 Coulsen ? " he said. 
 
 Hugh withdrew his eyes from the land- 
 scape, and for the first time a smile that 
 was both a quick and a pleasant one came 
 to his sallow face. 
 
 " I know Mr. Coulsen very well indeed. 
 He has been very kind to me," he said. 
 
 " Tell me something about him," replied 
 
 Godfrey. " I have heard nothing of him for 
 
 a long time." And he set himself at Hugh's 
 
 side, and carried the young man off with 
 
 him, leaving Joanne behind talking to Jack. 
 
 It was rather an act of heroism, he thought ; 
 
 " but if she asks me to do anything for her 
 
 again, by Jove, she shan't have an excuse a 
 
 second time for thinking I am unwilling to 
 VOL. I. 225 15
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 do it," he said to himself; and so, in a 
 fervent spirit of self-sacrifice, he marched 
 Hugh Beresford up and down the garden 
 walks, — and met with the reward that 
 perhaps his devotion merited. 
 
 For when he had fairly launched his com- 
 panion on a subject that interested him he 
 found that in truth Hugh was not hard to 
 converse with. He had a good deal to say 
 about Mr. Coulsen, and after his first awk- 
 wardness and hesitation had been overcome 
 he said it easily enough. Then Godfrey 
 asked him about his own work, and they 
 talked for a time of that, and finally fell 
 upon other subjects of more general interest ; 
 and Godfrey was fain to confess that, mean 
 and insignificant as was his outward man, 
 his companion soon showed that he had 
 stuff in him of perhaps more than an ordin- 
 ary kind. For nearly an hour they strolled 
 22G
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 about the garden, while gradually Hugh 
 emerp-ed more and more from his shell, till 
 Godfrey found at last that it no longer 
 needed any effort on his part to draw him 
 out. 
 
 Yet it seemed as if he had the power of 
 conversing only w^ith a single person, for 
 wdien at last they rejoined some of the 
 others on the lawn he relapsed again almost 
 instantly into shy and self-conscious silence. 
 They all talked round him, but he took no 
 part in their talk ; his lips had closed as the 
 first sound of their voices fell on his ear, and, 
 as far as Godfrey was aware, they opened 
 no more. 
 
 It was a fine evening, and they lingered 
 in the garden for a long time. Once, before 
 they went indoors, Joanne took an oppor- 
 tunity to say suddenly, half- aside, to 
 Godfrey — 
 
 227
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 ** I think you have been very kind to- 
 night." 
 
 " Why ? Do you mean merely because I 
 have talked to your cousin ? " he replied 
 after a moment's hesitation (for he might 
 have pretended that he did not understand 
 her, but somehow with Joanne such pre- 
 tences seemed always out of place). '* I 
 have found him very interesting," he said. 
 
 " Yes, he is interesting when you get to 
 know him. When you once get him to 
 talk it is all right," she returned ; " but 
 you understand now what — what I meant 
 the other day, — and I should like to say 
 that I am very grateful to you," said 
 Joanne hesitating, and wdth a little shyness 
 in her voice. 
 
 " I wish you had a greater thing to be 
 
 grateful to me for," he replied. " Or 
 
 rather," he added quickly, " I wish I could 
 228
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 show my gratitude by doing something 
 greater for you. I wonder if there is any- 
 thins: I shall ever be able to do ? " And 
 then he looked in her face, and something 
 that he thouo-ht he saw there encourao^ed 
 him to add, '' I would give more than a 
 little if there might be." 
 
 " You will do a great deal for me," she 
 answered quickly, ^'if you will continue to 
 be kind to Hugh." 
 
 This was not exactly the response that 
 Godfrey had desired, and he winced a little 
 as Joanne made it. However, after his 
 eager profession, he could not perceive that 
 he had any way of escape, so — 
 
 " I shall always be glad to have a talk 
 
 with your cousin," he said, " but as for 
 
 being kind, I am afraid the kindness of 
 
 talking to him is a very small one." 
 
 " Oh, but indeed it is not," she answered 
 229
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 earnestly. " You see now what he is ; you see 
 the injustice he does himself. You could 
 not do a kinder thino^ than let him be with 
 you sometimes. If you really would care 
 at all to do anything to give me pleasure," 
 Joanne said, rather timidly, " you could not 
 please me more, nor make me more grateful, 
 than by doing that." 
 
 " Then you may be very certain that 
 I will do it," Godfrey said. 
 
 But he had not liked this last speech 
 of Joanne's at all ; he had liked it so little 
 that he could not restrain himself from 
 adding, after a moment's silence — 
 
 " Hugh Beresford is very fortunate to 
 have such a warm friend in you." 
 
 " Hugh and I have been friends all our 
 
 lives," she answered quickly, " and when I 
 
 see him neglected it gives me pain." 
 
 " But he would never be neglected if he 
 230
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 could only — well, if he could but throw 
 himself a little more into things," said 
 Godfrey, rather doubtful how to choose 
 his words. 
 
 "Yes; but you see thiit is exactly what 
 he seems to have no power to do." 
 
 " Well, it is unfortunate, certainly," re- 
 plied Godfrey. '' It will be a great draw- 
 back to him, I am afraid, as far as ordinary 
 intercourse with the world goes. Not per- 
 haps, however, that that matters much," he 
 added, " for he seems to me such a clever 
 fellow, that in his profession I should think 
 he woidd be sure to get on." 
 
 "I am so glad to hear you say that," 
 exclaimed Joanne warmly. 
 
 And then Godfrey winced again. It 
 
 was, as he knew, no concern of his, and 
 
 yet it disturbed him to perceive these signs 
 
 of excessive interest. The man was very 
 231
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 well in his way, but considered in the 
 character of Joanne's lover, to tell the 
 truth, Godfrey found that he could not 
 think of him with equanimity. He felt 
 angry with Joanne b'^cause she seemed so 
 fond of him. That she should regard him 
 with pity, and a certain amount of kind- 
 ness, and even, as far as his talents were 
 concerned, of admiration, he would have 
 found natural and pardonable, but to feel 
 affection for him ! The evidences that she 
 gave of doing that were what discomposed 
 Godfrey, and acted on the moment as a 
 spur to incite him half-unconsciously to 
 put himself in the lists against Mr. Hugh, 
 and try his strength with him. 
 
 He had got Joanne to himself, and he 
 managed to keep her as his companion 
 for half-an-hour. He got her to accom- 
 pany him to the gate that opened into the 
 232
 
 G0DFRF.Y HeLSTONE. 
 
 meadow, and having brought her to this 
 point, there he detained her. There was a 
 pretty sky to look at as an excuse for 
 making this gate their resting-phice — an 
 amber sky, with the delicate outline of 
 the distant trees against it. 
 
 He thought that they had talked enough 
 about Hugh Beresford, so, as they stood 
 together in this quiet place, he turned 
 their discourse to other things, and by 
 degrees to those two topics specially that 
 are always of supreme interest to every 
 vouno^ man and woman who have begun 
 to think with anything like sentiment of 
 one another — to himself and her. 
 
 " I shall always think of these weeks 
 
 as amongst the happiest I ever spent in 
 
 my life," he began to say, as soon as they 
 
 had slightly discussed the chief features 
 
 of the scene before them ; and then, having 
 2.33
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 made this hopeful beoiniiing, he propped 
 his back ag^aiiist the o-ate, settin2[ himself 
 SO that he couhl see her face, and prepared 
 himself to get all the enjoyment that was 
 practicable out of his position. 
 
 She said, after a moment's silence : 
 " I think we shall all remember these 
 weeks with pleasure. We liave so few 
 visitors usually, you know. Indeed " — and 
 then she hesitated slightly — " I don't 
 know that anything quite like your coming 
 has ever happened before, and so it has 
 had a pleasant flavour of novelty." 
 
 " Well, novelty no doubt has its attrac- 
 tions," replied Godfrey, not quite content 
 with this remark ; "but I am afraid, as far 
 as we are concerned — Jack and I — or at 
 least I speak for myself — I should like 
 better to think that we affected you now 
 with a sense of familiarity."
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Oh, yes, 71010 — that is another thing ; 
 of course the novelty has pretty well worn 
 off," replied Joanne. " I was only speaking 
 of the charm you had at first." 
 
 ''And which has quite departed, I 
 suppose ? " he said. 
 
 " I am afraid it has," she replied demurely. 
 
 " Are 3^ou a very fickle person, Miss 
 Joanne ? " he asked after a moment with 
 a laugh. 
 
 "Yes, very," she answered. "Women 
 always are, you know." 
 
 " Women being all, of course, made after 
 one pattern % " 
 
 " The poets say so," said Joanne. 
 
 " And you, of course, believe them im- 
 plicitly ? " asked Godfrey. And then he 
 laughed again and looked at her. " I don't 
 believe you are fickle," he said. " Fickle 
 
 women ought to be fair, with blue eyes. 
 235
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Tliat i8 the ortliodux type. ' Fair and 
 false/ " 
 
 '' I had Gfolden hair once," said Joanne — 
 " when I was a child." 
 
 " Oh, but that doesn't count," he ex- 
 claimed. '' Gohlen hair, had you ? I 
 should like to have seen you then. Miss 
 Joanne, if the question is not very rude, 
 may I ask (I have often wondered) how 
 old you are ? " 
 
 "I am nearly twenty ; at least I shall be 
 twenty in October," she said. 
 
 " Then you are more than four years 
 younger than I am. I was twenty -four last 
 month." 
 
 " That is a grave age," she said. 
 
 " Very. When you reach it you will 
 
 feel yourself extremely old. But you 
 
 won't reach it yet for a long while. I 
 
 wonder what will have happened to 
 236
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 you by the time you are four-and- 
 twenty ! " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Perhaps very little," she said. 
 
 '•' Yes ; perhaps very little, but more likely 
 a good deal." 
 
 " Not many things happen here, you 
 know. It will be different for you. In 
 four years' time you will be — changed, I 
 should think." 
 
 " For the better, do you mean, or for the 
 w^orse i 
 
 "Well — for both, I dare say." There 
 was a little mischief in her tone as she said 
 this. " In some ways you may be better 
 — perhaps." 
 
 " And in others you suspect there will 
 be a sad backsliding ? I think at these 
 four years' end, if you talk in this way, I 
 shall have to come back and show myself." 
 
 237
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 ** We should be very glad," she said. 
 " If I don't it won't be my will that is 
 wanting. I should be sorry — I should be 
 terribly sorry — to think when I go away 
 presently, that I should never see this place 
 — and all of you — again." 
 
 " England is not very large," she said, 
 after a moment's silence. " I don't suppose, 
 if you care to come back, that you will find 
 it difficult." 
 
 And then there wa^ a sudden pause while 
 he questioned with himself whether he 
 might venture to say anything more ; but 
 before he had made up his mind she had 
 begun to speak of something else. 
 
 "When you go away from here what 
 do you do next ? " she asked. " Are you 
 going home 1 " 
 
 ''I think so," he said. "I imagine I 
 
 shall be at home during the autumn." 
 238
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " With your mother ? " 
 
 " Yes ; with my mother." 
 
 " Aiicl your cousin ? '^ 
 
 " I suppose so." 
 
 " They will be very glad to get you 
 back." 
 
 *' Do you think they will ? " he asked, 
 laughing. " Well, for anything you know, 
 I may be a very ill-conditioned fellow to 
 live with." 
 
 " Yes ; you may be " (she gave her assent 
 to this proposition quite readily), "but 
 mothers like their sons even when the 
 sous don't deserve much liking ; and so it 
 seems to me that jjrobably your mother 
 will be glad to have you in any case. 
 Are you a great deal with her when you 
 are at home ? " 
 
 "We are not bad friends," he said. 
 
 " And — your cousin ? " 
 239
 
 Godfrey IIelstone. 
 
 " Am I much with my cousin, do you 
 mean ? Oh, well, we walk together, and 
 ride to^jjether, and — she sino^s to me." 
 
 " Does she sing well ? " — after a moment's 
 meditation. 
 
 *'Not particularly." Godfrey gave this 
 information with rather an odd lauo-h. 
 
 o 
 
 '' Why do you answer in that way ? " 
 Joanne asked instantly. 
 
 " What do you mean by ' that way ? ' " 
 he retorted. " I say she does not sing par- 
 ticularly well. Many people don't, you 
 know." 
 
 " But you said that she didn't, so oddly." 
 
 " Oh, I was merely thinking of some- 
 thing. I believe my cousin has not much 
 talent for music. She plays a little, but 
 you wouldn't care about her performance 
 much. When I go home I am afraid it 
 
 will seem strange to me — after yours." 
 240
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Mine is not very good. It only might 
 be good — perhaps — if I were taught." 
 Joanne said this with a little diffidence. 
 
 '' I don't know what it might be if you 
 were taught, but, as it is now, I would 
 rather hear it than any singing in the 
 world." 
 
 " Oh, but you ought not to say that." 
 
 " Why ought I not to say it, if it 
 is true ? " 
 
 " Because you make me ashamed — when 
 you speak in such an exaggerated way." 
 
 " You may think I exaggerate, but it 
 
 is the literal truth. I don't expect ever 
 
 to care for any other singing as I do for 
 
 yours. I don't know how other people 
 
 would rate it — I say nothing about that; 
 
 but I know that nobody else I ever heard 
 
 sing has moved me as you do." 
 
 "If you really mean that, then I am 
 VOL.1. 241 16
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 glad," she said. But her tone sounded 
 as if she was too shy of his praise to be 
 made very glad yet by it. 
 
 " I am sure you believe that I mean 
 it." 
 
 And then there was a moment's silence, 
 which she broke abruptly. 
 
 " I should like to know something more 
 about your cousin. Tell me something 
 else about her," she said. 
 
 « Well— what shall I tell you ? " 
 
 " Is she quite young ? " 
 
 " She is twenty-two." 
 
 " And does she live with you — always ? " 
 
 *' She has lived with us for the last two 
 years. I don't know what she may do 
 always." 
 
 " Is she — dependent on you ? May I 
 ask that ? Is she poor, I mean ? " 
 
 " Oh no, she is rich. She is richer than 
 
 242
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 any of us. She has a large house, and a 
 large income/' 
 
 Joanne looked for a moment at him, and 
 then sent her gaze across the meadow. 
 There was another little pause. 
 
 " Well ? " he inquired presently. " I 
 thought you were going to ask me something 
 else." 
 
 " Oh — yes," she said. But she rather 
 hesitated. " Do you think I am very 
 curious ? " she said suddenly. 
 
 " Not at all," he replied. " I like your 
 questions." 
 
 " Then you mean I may ask some more ? '' 
 
 " Certainly you may." 
 
 '' Is your cousin very nice ? " 
 
 " She is very good. She is very good 
 indeed. My mother is awfully fond of 
 her." 
 
 " And — are you fond of her ? " 
 
 243
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 *' I like her very much. She is — well, 
 she is certainly almost the best girl I 
 know." 
 
 " The best V — a little hesitatingly. 
 " The — the most loveable, do you mean ? " 
 
 '* No ; I mean the one with the fewest 
 faults. The most loveable people have 
 often plenty of faults." 
 
 *' But your cousin has not ? " 
 
 " No ; my cousin has not. She never 
 does wrong — nor says what she oughtn't 
 to say — nor feels what she oughtn't to 
 feel. She is as good as gold." 
 
 " That must be very — nice for you," 
 said Joanne. 
 
 " Yes, it is very nice — very nice indeed," 
 replied Godfrey. 
 
 And then there was again a little silence, 
 
 till, after a minute had passed : " Well ? " 
 
 he said once more, hoping to incite her to 
 244
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 renew her questions, but this time she only 
 laughed and shook her head. 
 
 " I think just now I have nothing else 
 to ask," she said. " I am afraid I have 
 asked too many things already." 
 
 '*The daughters of Eve are always 
 curious, you know,'' he told her boldly. 
 
 " And what," she inquired daintily, " of 
 the sons of Adam ? " 
 
 " I can only speak for one son of Adam,' 
 he said, " aud he, I know — " 
 
 But at this point their talk was suddenly 
 interrupted, for some one called " Joanne ! '* 
 and the next moment there were steps on 
 the gravel-walk behind them, and Joanne 
 turned from the gate against which she had 
 been leaning while they talked. 
 
 And then they went indoors, and 
 Godfrey was very well content. His half- 
 hour, he felt, had been well spent; it 
 245
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 had given him present entertainment, 
 and it had unquestionably advanced his 
 intimacy with Joanne. " If I can get her 
 to like me, why should I not try to do 
 it ? " he was conscious that he had begun 
 to ask himself. 
 
 They rejoined the others, and then they 
 all soon went to supper. The Vicarage 
 suppers were simple repasts, but there was 
 always a spirit of open hospitality in the 
 house that gave a pleasant flavour to its 
 meals, however plain they were. The 
 mere sight of Mr. Beresford's genial face 
 at the bottom of his table did more to 
 give zest to the viands than an appetizing 
 sauce. 
 
 They had a pleasant supper to-night, and 
 
 a merry one, even though some amongst 
 
 the guests were silent. " I will get her 
 
 to sit next to me again," Godfrey thought 
 246
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 to himself as they entered the dining-room 
 all together ; but, though he did his best 
 to accomplish this, he all but failed in his 
 endeavour, and would have failed altogether 
 if chance had not come to his aid. For 
 Joanne, when she took her seat, let her 
 cousin Hugh take the chair next to her, and 
 indeed (if Godfrey's eyes did not deceive 
 him) even mutely invited him to do so, and 
 Godfrey, who was hovering at her elbow, 
 would have had to content himself with a 
 place on the opposite side of the table, if 
 Mrs. Beresford, seeing him unprovided for, 
 had not promptly ejected one of her own 
 brood from the seat he coveted on Joanne's 
 right hand. 
 
 "Victor, do you not see that Mr. Hel- 
 stone has no chair ? Get up, and go over 
 there," she said in her usual tone of 
 
 command. 
 
 247
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Oh — I supposed he was going there," 
 replied Victor. 
 
 "Your business is to observe, and not 
 to suppose," replied his mother curtly. 
 
 And then the boy rose up, and Godfrey 
 took his place. But he did not take it 
 with unmixed satisfaction, for Joanne had 
 called Hugh to her side, but she had not 
 called him, he could not but reflect. 
 
 However, he had sufficient good sense 
 not to punish himself by converting this 
 fact into a grievance, but, having got the 
 position that he desired (though not per- 
 haps by the means most flattering to his 
 self-love), he proceeded without loss of 
 time to appropriate as much of Joanne's 
 attention as he could ; and — in spite of a 
 few obstacles that she put in his way at 
 the beginning — he succeeded in this object 
 
 sufficiently to content himself fairly well, 
 
 248
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 for Joanne's companion on her other hand 
 was shy enough to be easily silenced by 
 a more resolute talker, and Godfrey showed 
 himself tolerably resolved to talk. 
 
 He talked, and, to his satisfaction, he 
 made Joanne listen to him. At first she 
 tried to occupy herself more with her 
 cousin 'than she did with him, but Hugh's 
 hopeless diffidence, coupled with Godfrey's 
 determination not to be suppressed, soon 
 made this efibrt fail. She might, and did, 
 turn often away from him, but as often as 
 she turned he made her turn again, and 
 her face, as she showed it to him at these 
 recalls, did — not express dissatisfaction ; or 
 at least, so he told himself, not without a 
 conscious sense of triumph. 
 
 The Vicar had got Miss Clara Beresford 
 
 on his left hand, and was jesting with her, 
 
 and bantering her, in a kindly avuncular 
 249
 
 Godfrey Helstoxe. 
 
 fashion, to which Godfrey tliought, as he 
 occasionally caught fragments of their con- 
 versation, that she did not respond with 
 much wit. She was a lively and very 
 pretty girl — prettier than Joanne, he said 
 to himself once, glancing at the two 
 faces in succession, — and yet how much 
 more charm than her cousin Joanne 
 had! 
 
 " You won't sing me a song — you won't 
 tell me a secret ; what is there you will do 
 for me ? " asked the Vicar jovially, leaning 
 back in his chair, and surveying his niece 
 with a twinkle in his eye ; and then Miss 
 Clara gave a pout. 
 
 " Why need I do anything ? " she said 
 half ao:meved. 
 
 '' Because 3^ou ought to make yourself 
 
 agreeable," responded Mr. Beresford with 
 
 decision. " Isn't that the duty of every 
 250
 
 Godfrey Hel stone. 
 
 woman ? It isn't enough to sit still and 
 look pretty." 
 
 " Oh, uncle ! " cried Miss Clara blushing. 
 
 "Of course you may be thankful that 
 you can sit still and look pretty. I'm. 
 saying nothing against that, — but I want 
 you to entertain me as well. I want you 
 to tell me something that is interesting." 
 
 " Oh, uncle ! " ejaculated Miss Clara 
 helplessly again. 
 
 " Well, do you never tell people things 
 that are interesting? Supposing now that 
 I were five-and-twenty, and had chestnut 
 hair, and a straight nose, and a flower in 
 my button-hole — " 
 
 "" Oh, I think you are too bad ! " cried 
 the girl blushing very red. 
 
 " My dear, if I were all that, you would 
 
 find so much to say to me ; yoa would do 
 
 a hundred things to please me ; and now 
 251
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 you won't sing me an old song ! I shall 
 have to get one of my own girls to do it. 
 Come, Joanne," he cried suddenly, "give 
 us a song, and set a good example." 
 
 And then Joanne looked up, with some- 
 thing of reluctance in her face, but, after 
 a moment's hesitation, did what her father 
 bade her. 
 
 It was the second time that Godfrey 
 had heard her sing as they sat at supper. 
 "I do it often when we are alone," she had 
 told him on that other occasion. " Papa 
 likes it. I have done it ever since I was 
 a child. '^ But she evidently did not care 
 to do it before strangers. 
 
 She began to sing, however, and after 
 
 a few moments forgot herself, and sang 
 
 the song that she had chosen with a fresh 
 
 purity and sweetness that filled Godfrey — 
 
 and perhaps others beside him — with delight. 
 252
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Her father sat listening to her with a smile 
 upon his face. When the first song was 
 ended he made her sing another. 
 
 " Give us something wdth a chorus, my 
 dear," he said, " and we'll all join in/' 
 
 So she sanof another sons^ that had a 
 chorus, and, softly beating time with his 
 hand upon the table, the Vicar raised his 
 fine tenor voice and chimed in with a will. 
 
 "You see, this is a luxury I allow 
 myself now and then," he explained to 
 his guests at the end, with one of the 
 gleams of fun that came so often over 
 his face. " On the whole, I don't think 
 an occasional chorus can put the Church 
 in much danger. It's a compromise, one 
 might say, between total abstinence and 
 an entire song." 
 
 "Then — if it would not be too much 
 
 to ask — would you not give us another 
 253
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 compromise ? " asked Jack in his ready 
 way. 
 
 They laughed at his request, and Mr. 
 Beresford began to shake his head ; but 
 Joanne said quickly, "Oh yes, he will 
 give you another ; he will give you one 
 that he loves." And, looking at him with 
 a little mischief in her eyes, she sud- 
 denly broke into the grand old Jacobite 
 song : 
 
 " Cam ye by Athole braes, lad wi' the pliilabeg." 
 
 It was a thing to remember, Godfrey 
 
 thoug^ht. The air and the words seemed 
 
 to stir the Yicar almost as a horse is 
 
 stirred by the sound of a trumpet. His 
 
 eyes brightened, and his face flushed, 
 
 and his voice rang out in the rapturous 
 
 chorus till it filled and echoed throuorh 
 
 the room : 
 
 254
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " Charlie, Charlie, wha wadna follow thee ? 
 
 Lang hast thou loved and trusted us fairly ! 
 Charlie, Charlie, Avha wadna follow thee? 
 
 King o' the Hieland hearts, bonnie Prince Charlie ! " 
 
 When tlie last notes had been sung, 
 Jack and Godfrey with one impulse gave 
 a cheer that was joyfully taken up by 
 the boys, and with rather a shamefaced 
 look the Vicar began to laugh. 
 
 *' I haven't sung that for years," he 
 
 said, almost apologetically. '^ It's not the 
 
 sort of thing, I'm afraid, for me now — 
 
 though it fires one's old heart still " — 
 
 and then he rutbed his hands. " When 
 
 I was a young man I had a good deal to 
 
 do once with some Scotch lads, who had 
 
 all these Jacobite songs at their fingers' 
 
 ends, and many a wild hour's shouting 
 
 we've had over them. There wasn't 
 
 one that I didn't know in those days. 
 255
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 But I never sing them now — I've for- 
 gotten all about them ! " cried the Yicar, 
 and rose up hastily from his scat, as if 
 he feared an appeal for more of them, 
 and doubted his strength to resist it. 
 *'Come away, come away," he said. ''If 
 they have caught the sound of me in 
 the kitclien they'll be thinking the old 
 parson has gone mad." 
 
 He preceded them all out of the room. 
 It was past ten, and without sitting down 
 again Godfrey and Jack took their leave. 
 
 " I suppose we are all going one way ? " 
 
 Mr. Helstone said to Hugh, but Hugh 
 
 replied in his nervous way that he did not 
 
 know — he hardly thought his sister was 
 
 ready, and so, as he did not seem to desire 
 
 their company, the young men prepared to 
 
 start alone. 
 
 It was a clear, brilliant night. " A 
 256
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 glorious night ; do come and look at it," 
 Godfrey said to Joanne. And so a little 
 group of them all issued from the house 
 together, and talked for ten minutes under 
 the stars. The Vicar was one of them, 
 and, firmly planted, with his feet well 
 apart, with his hands in his pockets, and 
 his face upturned, he stood and discoursed 
 about the heavens and the myriads of 
 worlds at which they gazed. 
 
 *' And here are we like a grain of sand 
 in the midst of it all," he ended ; " like 
 a child's toy for size ; and yet — " 
 
 He paused for a moment or two, and 
 then as they walked down to the gate 
 together — 
 
 " ^ Our little systems have their day,' " 
 
 he suddenly began to repeat in his musical, 
 
 rich voice : 
 
 VOL. I. 257 17
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 " * Our little systems have their day, 
 
 They have their day, and cease to he, 
 They are but broken lights of Thee, 
 And Thou, Lord, art more than they.' 
 
 Amen ! " he said abruptly, and held out 
 his hand, and the young men, not unmoved, 
 took it in turn, and made their adieu^ 
 almost in silence. 
 
 258
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 « 
 
 " Hugh Beresfoed is on my conscience," 
 Jack said abruptly to his friend, a day or 
 two after this. ^' I believe there is some- 
 thing in him, and I feel as if I ought to 
 like him for those good people's sakes, but 
 yet — I'm blessed if I do like him. Why 
 on earth does the fellow have such a hang- 
 dog look ? I asked Joanne that last night, 
 and she flamed up like a turkey-cock." 
 
 " It served you right for putting such 
 
 a question to her," retorted Godfrey. " I've 
 
 no doubt she flamed up. They are cousins 
 
 and intimate friends, and all that sort of 
 
 thing. You might have known better 
 259
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 than to speak of liim in such a way as 
 that." 
 
 *' I hope she isn't weak enough to be 
 thinking of throwing herself away upon 
 him," said Jack. " I have my suspicions 
 — but I should be sorry if they were 
 true." 
 
 " I don't believe she has a dream of 
 anything of the kind," replied Godfrey 
 curtly ; but, though he said this, Mr. 
 Dallas's remark had given him a little 
 twinge. 
 
 The young men had just met Hugh 
 
 Beresford, and these remarks were the 
 
 consequence of their brief encounter with 
 
 him. They had come across him and his 
 
 mother as they were returning from a 
 
 walk, and for five minutes they had talked 
 
 to Mrs. Beresford, while he stood by in 
 
 silence, occupied in his usual way in tracing 
 260
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 figures on the ground with his walking- 
 stick ; and then they had passed on, and 
 Jack had broken out in the words that 
 I have written above. 
 
 It stirred Godfrey not a little to hear 
 Joanne Beresford's name coupled with her 
 cousin's, and yet he did not in reality 
 believe that there was anything between 
 them. " If there were, I should call her — 
 what I don't believe she is," he told himself 
 hotly, venturing to speak in a way in which 
 he would not have spoken a week ago ; 
 for this last week had very unmistakably 
 increased the intimacy that existed between 
 himself and Joanne, and he said to himself 
 plainly that if she had any thought of 
 marrying her cousin she had no right to 
 be on such terms as she was with him. 
 For it had come to this, and Godfrey was 
 
 well aware of it : he was quite aware that 
 261
 
 Godfrey Helstone 
 
 he was becomiiig more attracted every day 
 by Joanne Beresford, while she on her part 
 treated him so as to mve him some rio-ht to 
 say, as he did, that she must be a coquette 
 if she showed so fair a face to him while she 
 meant to marry Hugh Beresford. 
 
 '' I believe, if I ever came to think ill 
 of you, I should think ill henceforward of 
 every woman living," he told her one day, 
 in a tone that brought the colour to her 
 cheek. 
 
 She blushed, but she laughed, too, at his 
 speech. 
 
 " I hope you may never think very ill of 
 
 me," she answered him ; " but if I ever 
 
 gave you cause to do it, you would only 
 
 make things ten times worse — a hundred 
 
 times worse — by thinking ill of other 
 
 women too." 
 
 " Of course I should ; but that ought 
 262
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 only to make you feel the more deeply how 
 much depends — for me — upon your good- 
 ness/' he returned. 
 
 And then she made no answer, and he 
 looked at her face that she had half turned 
 away, and wondered if he had touched 
 her. 
 
 It is rather a dangerous amusement when 
 a man begins to watch a w^oman's face, and 
 try to read her feelings by it Godfrey 
 Helstone, so far in his life, had not done 
 much of such work; but of late he had 
 begun to find himself amazingly tempted to 
 do it when he was with Joanne. Hers was 
 a kind of beauty that depended so much on 
 expression : almost the whole charm of her 
 face lay in its mobility and brightness, and 
 in the quickness with which it reflected and 
 betrayed emotion of any sort, whether of 
 pleasure, or pain, or tenderness, or anger 
 
 2G3
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 or whatever might be the f(ieliiig of the 
 moment. A thousand other women were 
 more beautiful, but Godfrey had by this 
 time almost come to think that no regularly 
 lovely face that he had ever seen possessed 
 the fascination that he found in this piquante 
 face of Joanne's. 
 
 It was one afternoon when by chance he 
 was alone with her, that he had made this 
 speech about his belief in her goodness. 
 He and Jack, that afternoon, had gone out 
 fishing together ; but his luck had been 
 bad, and, getting tired presently of his 
 sport, he had left Mr. Dallas at the river, 
 and had gone away for a ramble by him- 
 self, — a ramble, however, that terminated 
 quickly ; for, as he w^as tramping through 
 a wood, five minutes after he had parted 
 from Jack, he suddenly saw a glimmer of 
 
 colour through the trees that first arrested 
 264
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 his steps, and then quickened them to 
 double speed, — for the ruddy colour that 
 he saw was like the crimson of a shawl 
 that Joanne often wore, and when he had 
 joyfully made his way to this spot of 
 brightness, he found that he had also made 
 his way to her side. 
 
 She was sitting sketching, and she looked 
 up at his approach pleasantly enough to 
 give him reason to think that she was not 
 sorry to see him. 
 
 ''Jack and I were fishing down there. 
 How little I knew that you were so near 
 us ! " he exclaimed, as soon as he had got 
 within speaking distance. 
 
 *' Yes ; I knew you were there, for I saw 
 you. Look — you can see Mr. Dallas now," 
 she replied. 
 
 But Godfrey only gave a careless glance 
 in the direction of his friend; he had got 
 
 265
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 somcthiiio: nearer to him that he found more 
 iutL'restiao[ to c^aze at than Mr. Dalhis. 
 
 " If you were to shout I think he would 
 hear you/' said Joanne. 
 
 " But I don't want to shout," replied 
 Godfrey. (He laughed to himself Shout 
 to Jack ! It was about the last thing he 
 desired to do.) "He is quite happy," he 
 said. ''He wouldn't thank us for disturb- 
 ing him." 
 
 "And were you not happy, that you 
 came away ? " she asked. 
 
 " I came away because my good angel 
 prompted me," said Godfrey. " I perceive 
 that now, though at the time I didn't 
 know it." 
 
 "It must have been one of the angels 
 
 that guard over fish," she said — " if fish 
 
 have guardian angels, poor things. They 
 
 must have been feeling very doubtful about 
 266
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 it, since you and Mr. Dallas have been 
 here." 
 
 " Ob, Jack and I are very harmless 
 people," he exclaimed. *'Tbey must fear 
 your father a vast deal more than they 
 fear us. May I see what you are doing ? '* 
 And then he looked over her shoulder, 
 and she grave a little sio^h. 
 
 " I am not doing much. I never do 
 much. I wish you knew enough about 
 painting to tell me some things." 
 
 " I wish I did," he answered fervently. 
 ''But this seems very good to me. It is 
 slight, of course, but it is very suggestive." 
 
 " You are very good to say so," she 
 replied dubiously, 
 
 " I am not good in the least, I really 
 
 think in its way it is capital. Now a little 
 
 sketch like this," exclaimed Godfrey, with 
 
 an air of decision, '' is a thing that would 
 2G7
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 give uie far more pleasure than I should get 
 out of many a finished picture." 
 
 *' Yes ; but then, if that is so," replied 
 Joanne cautiously, " I am afraid it only 
 proves that your taste is in fault, not that 
 my poor little drawing is worth anything. 
 Still, you know, I am grateful to you," said 
 the girl quickly ; " and if you find anything 
 to like in wdiat I do, I am glad too." 
 
 'Til tell you what I like in your draw- 
 ings," replied Godfrey frankly. '' I dare say 
 they have faults enough — of course that 
 must be so ; but the feeling in any of them 
 that I have seen seems to me always true. 
 They are poetical, and as I said just now, 
 they are suggestive. I like this one amaz- 
 ingly. That bit of distance especially is 
 delightful. Now, pray go on with it. You 
 don't mind my being here ? I won't watch 
 
 you, if that would put you out. Look, I 
 268
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 wil] just lie on the grass, where I shan't be 
 in your way a bit." And, suiting the action 
 to the word, Mr. Helstone deposited himself 
 at her feet, and dexterously arranged his 
 position so that it allowed him to have an 
 excellent view of her face, if not of her 
 drawing block. 
 
 She said nothing ; perhaps she had no 
 desire to send him away. She took up her 
 brush again, and tried to continue her work ; 
 and then they began to talk, and they talked 
 for a long time, and it was presently, in the 
 course of their conversation, that he made 
 tliat remark about thinking ill of all other 
 women if he should ever come to think ill 
 of her. 
 
 He was leaning on his elbow and looking 
 
 into her face as he said this to her. I do 
 
 not think that her painting had progressed 
 
 much during the hour that they had been 
 269
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 together ; she was probably not artist enough 
 to be able at the same time to talk and 
 work ; her brush was in her hand, but she 
 sat looking: at her sketch almost without 
 touching it. 
 
 He had made that speech, telling her that 
 if he lost faith in other women the blame of 
 his disbelief would lie upon her shoulders ; 
 and then he looked at her, to try if he could 
 read by any sign in her face that his words 
 had touched her ; and it seemed to him — 
 not without satisfaction — that she did give 
 some such sign, for there was a little quiver 
 about her lips as she tried to smile. 
 
 " You should not liiy burdens upon people 
 unless you know that they are willing to 
 bear them," she answered, after a moment's 
 silence. 
 
 " But T don't consider that it is I who am 
 
 laying this burden on you. It is not I, but 
 
 270
 
 Godfrey IIelstone. 
 
 circumstances," lie declared. " I have come 
 to know an d to believe in you, — and after 
 that I can't help the rest. You see, Miss 
 Joanne, women can't shake off their respons- 
 ibilities, and one bad w^oman has a quite 
 immeasurable power of doing evil, and one 
 noble woman an equally immeasurable 
 power of doing good." 
 
 " Yes ; but that is equally true of men,'' 
 she answered. " I would not say — as you 
 do about me — that if any one man I trusted 
 turned out ill, I should doubt all other men ^ 
 I don't think I would say that if the one 
 who failed me were my own father, (if it 
 were possible to conceive of such a thing !) 
 but I thiijk — " and then it seemed to him 
 that for a moment her voice trembled, a 
 little — " I think all our lives must be influ- 
 enced by the good men we know — in every 
 
 direction — more than we can ever tell ; by 
 271
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 the good meu, and I suppose by the bad 
 men too, — when we are unhappy enough to 
 be brouoht near to those that arc bad." 
 
 " Ah, but it is not the same sort of thing, 
 quite," persisted Godfrey. *' You see, to 
 start with, you don't need to be influenced 
 so much. The best of you are so nearly 
 everything you ought to be that, upon my 
 word, I don't know how any man could 
 make you better ; but I doubt if there is a 
 man livinor who might not be made better 
 by a w^oman, — and who also could not be 
 made worse by one too. In fact, it seems 
 to me, Miss Joanne, that, like Balaam, you 
 have had the power of blessing or cursing 
 given into your hands ; and so, as I said, 
 there is a tremendous responsibility resting 
 on you." 
 
 She put a few touches to her drawing, 
 
 and then she said abruptly and rather 
 
 272
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 nervously, " I hope you never knew a 
 woman who was really bad ? '* 
 
 *' T am thankful to say I never did," he 
 replied frankly ; *' never, at least, to my 
 knowledge. No ; I have known many 
 ordinary women who have never affected 
 me for good or evil ; and a few whom — I 
 would rather pass on the other side of the 
 way; and far more than a few whom I 
 never remember without pleasure ; and one 
 or two — two or three, I think," he said 
 deliberately, after a moment's pause, "for 
 whom I gratefully thank God." 
 
 There was a little silence, and then Joanne 
 asked : 
 
 " And is one of those your mother ? " 
 
 " Yes ; assuredly one of those is my 
 
 mother," he answered. " No better mother 
 
 than mine need a man desire to have. I 
 
 wish you knew her." 
 
 VOL. I. 273 18
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " I am afraid I am not likely to do that," 
 Joanne said. " But I should like it, of 
 course," she added courteously. "When 
 one is much with people I think one is 
 always interested in their belongings." 
 
 " It is strange to think that you know so 
 little of my belongings when I know so much 
 of yours," he said. " When I am away I 
 shall be able to picture so well how your life 
 goes on here ; but if you are ever good 
 enough to give a thought to me I shall be 
 only to you like an isolated figure without 
 background or surroundings." 
 
 " Oh no — that is not so," she answered 
 quickly. " You know you have told me a 
 good deal about yourself." 
 
 " Have I ? " he replied dubiously. '* Not 
 much, I think." 
 
 '* But indeed you have — about yourself, 
 
 and your cousin, and the kind of country 
 274
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 you live in, and your house. I have a very 
 distinct impression of your house, with its 
 terrace outside the drawing-room windows ; 
 and that library — where you say you will 
 work." 
 
 '* Where I say I will work ! " he echoed. 
 '* Apparently then, Miss Joanne, you don't 
 much believe that I intend to do it ? " 
 
 '' Oh yes ; I dare say you will do it," she 
 said with a laugh. '* At any rate, no doubt 
 you will sit there and read ; and sometimes, 
 I suppose, your mother will come and have 
 pleasant talks with you ? and sometimes 
 — your cousin, perhaps ? " 
 
 " Yes ; very probably," said Godfrey. 
 " Margaret will come, I dare say, and get 
 me to help her with her Latin." 
 
 " Does she learn Latin ? " asked Joanne 
 quickly. 
 
 '*Well, yes — she has taken to it lately. 
 
 275
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 She wanted an occupation, and she is not 
 artistic nor musical." 
 
 " And you will give her lessons 
 there ? " 
 
 '* Oh no ; not regular lessons. But she 
 will most likely come to me when she finds 
 herself in a difficulty." 
 
 "That will be a great help to her," said 
 Joanne demurely. 
 
 There was another little silence, and the 
 girl, for a minute, resumed her work. 
 Then Godfrey, lying on the grass, ejacu- 
 lated : " I think this wood, on such a day 
 as this, is like a bit of Paradise ! Just 
 look up to the sky above those trees. 
 Look at the leaves against the blue. Is 
 not that divine ? Ah, but you can't see it 
 as I do — you haven't got your face the 
 right way." 
 
 " No ; but I have often seen it. I know 
 276
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 iiow it looks," slie said. " I am glad you 
 are getting foud of our woods." 
 
 "I am o-ettiuo; so fond of them that I 
 think they will haunt me when I go 
 away," he answered with a half-laugh. " I 
 shall dream of these days. I shall dream 
 of this afternoon, and of you sitting here 
 with your scarlet shawl — " 
 
 " Crimson ! " she said. 
 
 " Well, crimson — if that is the proper 
 word. I am so glad you had it on to-day, 
 or I might have passed and never seen 
 you. The pleasantest things in life, it 
 seems to me, come oftenest when one 
 expects them least." 
 
 " Will you please look at your watch, and 
 tell me what time it is ? " she said abruptly. 
 
 " My watch has been gaining of late," he 
 answered with a laugh. " I don't know 
 
 what time it is — I don't indeed." 
 
 277
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " But you would know if you looked,'' 
 she said gravely. '' I want you to look." 
 
 And then, unwillingly, he took his watch 
 out. 
 
 " It is quite early," he said. *' It is only 
 a little past five." 
 
 " It is time for me to go," she replied. 
 
 But yet she did not go for a few 
 minutes more. He began to criticize her 
 drawing again, and detained her in that 
 way first ; and then he had so many things 
 to say about the colour of the trees, and 
 the harmonies of tone that he professed to 
 perceive in the scene before them, that 
 another quarter of an hour passed, and 
 found them at the end of it still together. 
 But at last she would stay no longer, 
 so he took her drawing materials out 
 of her hands, and carried them home 
 
 for her. 
 
 278
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Almost at the gate of the Vicarage Mr. 
 Beresford overtook them, and called out a 
 greeting to Godfrey. 
 
 '' Come in, come in, young man," he said. 
 ^' The other one will soon guess where you 
 are, and follow suit. What do you say ? 
 Return in an hour ? No, why should you 
 return in an hour when you're here already ? 
 You have had your dinner, haven't you ? " I 
 
 "Oh yes," said Godfrey, ''I have had 
 my dinner." For, in consideration of the 
 suppers at which they so often assisted at 
 the Vicarage, Mr. Dallas and he during the 
 last eight or ten days had taken to the 
 practice of dining early. 
 
 " Then in with you," exclaimed Mr. 
 Beresford ; and they all went to the house 
 together. 
 
 Godfrey had tea with them, and then 
 
 Jack came ; and later in the evening Hugh 
 
 279
 
 GODFEEY HeLSTONE. 
 
 came too, and towards sunset tlie boys 
 began to try their skill at leaping and jump- 
 ing, and presently Jack and Godfrey joined 
 them, and for the better part of an hour 
 occupied themselves in leaping and jumping 
 too, while the rest looked on. Godfrey and 
 Jack were both good at this sort of sport. 
 Jack's was the better figure of the two, but 
 Godfrey was the taller and stronger man. 
 
 " He beats me at most things," Mr. 
 Dallas said to the Vicar, "but I can out- 
 run him. That is the one thing I can do.'* 
 And, indeed, he ran a race with his friend 
 presently, and easily came out the victor. 
 But Godfrey had the best of it in almost 
 everything else. 
 
 " Come along, lad, and take your turn 
 with them ! " the Vicar called to Hugh 
 when all the others — boys and young men 
 alike — were vicing with one another ; but
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 Huo-h at this address shrank nervously 
 back. 
 
 " No, no, I can't do any of these things," 
 he said, retreating hastily. 
 
 " Then make a beginning, man ; the 
 sooner you make it the better," cried his 
 uncle, and would have pulled him forward 
 if Hugh had permitted it. But, flushing to 
 the eyes, he made his escape, and the Vicar 
 burst into a laugh that was very audibly 
 touched with scorn. 
 
 *' Tut, tut, you're no better than a girl ! " 
 he said impatiently, and turned on his 
 heel, leaving the blood in more faces than 
 poor Hugh's. 
 
 Godfrey came to Joanne when their games 
 
 were over — to receive his meed of praise 
 
 perhaps, though he might hardly have 
 
 acknowledged to himself that he had this 
 
 object. 
 
 281
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 " It has been very civil of you to look 
 on at us all this time," he said cheerily 
 to her. 
 
 '' It has been very entertaining to look on 
 at you," she answered. " You have been 
 doing very pretty things." 
 
 " They might have been pretty if they 
 had been better done ; but one so soon 
 gets out of practice," he said. And then 
 he added civilly, " I wish we could have 
 got your cousin to join us." 
 
 At this Joanne gave a half-annoyed sigh. 
 
 " I wish you could," she said. ^' But it 
 is no use ; he is too self-conscious. He 
 will take part in nothing. He has no 
 nerve, and no self-confidence." 
 
 She had never spoken to Godfrey before 
 in such a tone of vexation, and it seemed 
 to escape her now almost before she w^as 
 
 aware. 
 
 282
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 '' Oh, he will be difierent in time. We 
 all change so fast/' Godfrey said consolingly. 
 
 " He will never be like other people/^ 
 she replied. " I thought that when he 
 came home just now it would be so 
 pleasant for him to have you and Mr. 
 Dallas here, — but he takes no advantas^e 
 of anything. He makes me so sorry," said 
 the girl quickly, and turned away with 
 more emotion in her voice than Godfrey 
 quite liked to hear. 
 
 " I wish the fellow were back in Lon- 
 don ! " he thought with sudden impatience 
 to himself. 
 
 There had been clouds gathering for an 
 hour or two, and they broke at sunset, and 
 everybody was driven indoors. In the 
 twilight presently Joanne went to the 
 piano and sang. Some of the young ones 
 
 by that time had gone to bed, a few of 
 
 283
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 the others head dispersed, and Godfrey took 
 possession of an arm-chair near her, and 
 listened in luxurious ease. After a little 
 while a pleasant fancy took possession of 
 him that she was sinmno; for him alone. 
 The room grew dark, and the other occu- 
 pants of it were gathered at its farther end, 
 and only he sat near to her, and between 
 her songs it was to him only that she 
 spoke. 
 
 There was a little general talk when 
 the music ended, and then they went to 
 supper, and after supper home. The rain 
 had ceased by this time, and a full-faced 
 moon, with a halo round her, was shining 
 fitfully through breaks in the clouds. 
 
 The Vicar shook his head as he stood 
 with his guests under the porch. 
 
 '* We are Q:oinof to have a chano^e in our 
 
 fine weather, 1 fear," he said. " I'm mis- 
 284
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 taken if we shall not awake to a wet 
 morning to-morrow. But the rain is 
 w^anted for the crops." 
 
 " And our holidays have almost come to 
 an end ! " Joanne suddenly said. 
 
 Godfrey was standing near her. 
 
 " Have they ? " he asked quickly, in a 
 tone of regret. "Are all our holidays 
 ending ? I have been putting off the 
 thought of it ; but I have been here four 
 weeks to-day." 
 
 They left her presently, standing in the 
 little semicircle of light that streamed 
 from the open door, and the Vicar walked 
 down with them to the garden gate. 
 Godfrey looked back once, and saw her 
 still there. She had scarcely spoken again 
 after she had said that her holidays were 
 almost ended. Something in these words 
 
 and in the tone in which she had uttered 
 
 285
 
 Godfrey Helstone. 
 
 them came bcack to him when he had 
 turned away, bringing a vague regret that 
 he had not made some better answer to 
 them, — that, though he w^as so conscious 
 of all the happiness he had enjoyed during 
 these weeks that were gone, he had said 
 nothing to tell her so. " But it does not 
 matter ; I will tell her to-morrow," he said 
 to himself. And then he put the thought 
 of her aside, and gave his attention to the 
 Vicar, who was holdingr forth about the 
 coming rain, as he strode along the garden 
 path, crunching the wet gravel beneath 
 his feet. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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