“I thought that was for clergymen,” said Rosamond, hitting the right nail on the head in her ignorance, as so often happened.
“She sees no difference,” said Cecil. “Shall I drive you down?” she added graciously, according to the fashion of uniting with one sister-in-law against the other; and Rosamond not only accepted, but asked to be taken on to Willansborough, to buy a birthday present for her brother Terry, get stamps for an Indian letter, and perform a dozen more commissions that seemed to arise in her mind with the opportunity. Her two brothers were to spend the Christmas holidays with her, and she was in high spirits, and so communicative about them that she hardly observed how little interest Cecil took in Terry’s achievements.
“Who is that,” she presently asked, “with those red-haired children? It looked like Miss Vivian’s figure.”
“I believe it was. Julius and I often see her walking about the lanes; but she passes like—like a fire-flaught, whatever that is—just bows, and hardly ever speaks.”
“She is a strange girl,” said Cecil. “Lady Tyrrell says she cannot draw her into any of her interests, but she will go her own way.”
“Like poor Anne?”
“No, not out of mere moping and want of intellect, like Anne. But Lady Tyrrell says she feels for her; she was brought a great deal too forward, and was made quite mistress of the house at Rockpier, being her father’s darling and all, and now it is trying to her, though it is quite wholesome, to be in her proper place. It is a pity she is so bitter over it, and flies off her own way.”
“That boy!” said Rosamond; “I hope she does something for his good.”
“She teaches him, I believe; but there’s another instance of her strange ways. She was absolutely vexed when Lady Tyrrell took him into the house, though he was her protégé, only because it was not done in her way. It is a great trial to Camilla.”
“I could fancy a reason for that,” said Rosamond. “Julius does not like the tone of the household at all.” But she added hastily, “Who could those children be? They did not look quite like poor children.”