be accepted as a proof of the magnitude of that happiness of which they
might not exhibit a feature. The effort to repress it must have cost
them horrible pain. Adela, the youngest of the three, transferred her
inward joy to the cottage children, whose staring faces from garden porch
and gate flashed by the carriage windows. "How delighted they look!" she
exclaimed more than once, and informed her sisters that a country life
was surely the next thing to Paradise. "Those children do look so
happy!" Thus did the weak one cunningly relieve herself. Arabella
occupied her mind by giving Emilia leading hints for conduct in the great
house. "On the whole, though there is no harm in your praising
particular dishes, as you do at home, it is better in society to say
nothing on those subjects until your opinion is asked: and when you
speak, it should be as one who passes the subject by. Appreciate
flavours, but no dwelling on them! The degrees of an expression of
approbation, naturally enough, vary with age. Did my instinct prompt me
to the discussion of these themes, I should be allowed greater licence
than you." And here Arabella was unable to resist a little bit of the
indulgence Adela had taken: "You are sure to pass a most agreeable
evening, and one that you will remember."

North Pole sat high above such petty consolation; seldom speaking, save
just to show that her ideas ranged at liberty, and could be spontaneously
sympathetic on selected topics.

Their ceremonious entrance to the state-room of Richford accomplished,
the ladies received the greeting of the affable hostess; quietly
perturbed, but not enough so to disorder their artistic contemplation of
her open actions, choice of phrase, and by-play. Without communication
or pre-arrangement, each knew that the other would not let slip the
opportunity, and, after the first five minutes of languid general