Now, isn't that like one of mamma's speeches? But, for all that, you look more like a delving Adam than a spinning Eve.' This had the effect that Cynthia intended; the daintily clean Molly became conscious of her soiled condition, which she had forgotten while she had been attending to Cynthia, and she hastily withdrew to her own room.When she had gone, Cynthia noiselessly locked the door; and, taking her purse out of her desk, she began to count over her money.She counted it once - she counted it twice, as if desirous of finding out some mistake which should prove it to be more than it was; but the end of it all was a sigh.'What a fool! - what a fool I was!' she said, at length.'But even if Idon't go out as a governess, I shall make it up in time.' Some weeks after the time he had anticipated when he had spoken of his departure to the Gibsons, Roger returned back to the Hall.One morning when he called, Osborne told them that his brother had been at home for two or three days.'And why has he not come here, then?' said Mrs Gibson.'It is not kind of him not to come and see us as soon as he can.Tell him I say so - pray do.' Osborne had gained one or two ideas as to her treatment of Roger the last time he had called.Roger had not complained of it, or even mentioned it, till that very morning; when Osborne was on the point of starting, and had urged Roger to accompany him, the latter had told him something of what Mrs Gibson had said.He spoke rather as if he was more amused than annoyed; but Osborne could read that he was chagrined at those restrictions placed upon calls which were the greatest pleasure of his life.Neither of them let out the suspicion which had entered both their minds - the well-grounded suspicion arising from the fact that Osborne's visits, be they paid early or late, had never yet been met with a repulse.Osborne now reproached himself with having done Mrs Gibson injustice.She was evidently a weak, but probably a disinterested, woman; and it was only a little bit of ill-temper on her part which had caused her to speak to Roger as she had done.'I daresay it was rather impertinent of me to call at such an untimely hour,' said Roger.'Not at all; I call at all hours, and nothing is ever said about it.It was just because she was put out that morning.I'll answer for it she's sorry now, and I'm sure you may go there at any time you like in the future.' Still, Roger did not choose to go again for two or three weeks, and the consequence was that the next time he called the ladies were out.Once again he had the same ill-luck, and then he received a little pretty three-cornered note from Mrs Gibson: - MY DEAR SIR, - How is it that you are become so formal all on a sudden, leaving cards, instead of awaiting our return? Fie for shame! If you had seen the races of disappointment that I did when the horrid little bits of pasteboard were displayed to our view, you would not have borne malice against me so long; for it is really punishing others as well as my naughty self.If you will come to-morrow - as early as you like - and lunch with us, I'll own I was cross, and acknowledge myself a penitent.- Yours ever, HYACINTH C.K.GIBSON.There was no resisting this, even if there had not been strong inclination to back up the pretty words.Roger went, and Mrs Gibson caressed and petted him in her sweetest, silkiest manner.Cynthia looked lovelier than ever to him for the slight restriction that had been laid for a time on their intercourse.She might be gay and sparkling with Osborne; with Roger she was soft and grave.Instinctively she knew her men.She saw that Osborne was only interested in her because of her position in a family with whom he was intimate; that his friendship was without the least touch of sentiment;and that his admiration was only the warm criticism of an artist for unusual beauty.But she felt how different Roger's relation to her was.To him she was the one, alone, peerless.If his love was prohibited, it would be long years before he could sink down into tepid friendship; and to him her personal loveliness was only one of the many charms that made him tremble into passion.Cynthia was not capable of returning such feelings;she had had too little true love in her life, and perhaps too much admiration to do so; but she appreciated this honest ardour, this loyal worship that was new to her experience.Such appreciation, and such respect for his true and affectionate nature, gave a serious tenderness to her manner to Roger, which allured him with a fresh and separate grace.Molly sate by, and wondered how it would all end, or, rather, how soon it would all end, for she thought that no girl could resist such reverent passion; and on Roger's side there could be no doubt - alas! there could be no doubt.An older spectator might have looked far ahead, and thought of the question of pounds, shillings, and pence.Where was the necessary income for a marriage to come from? Roger had his fellowship now, it is true; but the income of that would be lost if he married; he had no profession, and the life interest of the two or three thousand pounds that he inherited from his mother, belonged to his father.This older spectator might have been a little surprised at the empressement of Mrs Gibson's manner to a younger son, always supposing this said spectator to have read to the depths of her worldly heart.Never had she tried to be more agreeable to Osborne;and though her attempt was a great failure when practised upon Roger, and he did not know what to say in reply to the delicate Batteries which he felt to be insincere, he saw that she intended him to consider himself henceforward free of the house; and he was too glad to avail himself of this privilege to examine over-closely into what might be her motives for her change of manner.He shut his eyes, and chose to believe that she was now desirous of making up for her little burst of temper on his previous visit.The result of Osborne's conference with the two doctors had been certain prescriptions which appeared to have done him much good, and which would in all probability have done him yet more, could he have been free of the recollection of the little patient wife in her solitude near Winchester.
He went to her whenever he could; and, thanks to Roger, money was far more plentiful with him now than it had been.But he still shrank, and perhaps even more and more, from telling his father of his marriage.Some bodily instinct made him dread all agitation inexpressibly.If he had not had this money from Roger, he might have been compelled to tell his father all, and to ask for the necessary funds to provide for the wife and the coming child.But with enough in hand, and a secret, though remorseful, conviction that as long as Roger had a penny his brother was sure to have half of it, made him more reluctant than ever to irritate his father by a revelation of his secret.'Not just yet, not just at present,' he kept saying both to Roger and to himself.'By and by, if we have a boy, I will call it Roger' - and then visions of poetical and romantic reconciliations brought about between father and son, through the medium of a child, the offspring of a forbidden marriage, became still more vividly possible to him, and at any rate it was a staving-off of an unpleasant thing.He atoned to himself for taking so much of Roger's fellowship money by reflecting that, if Roger married, he would lose this source of revenue; yet Osborne was throwing no impediment in the way of this event, rather forwarding it by promoting every possible means of his brother's seeing the lady of his love.Osborne ended his reflections by convincing himself of his own generosity.