'I have been, though,' said Cecil rather awkwardly, breaking through his shyness now that truth seemed to require it.
'Well, Sunday is a good day for turning over a new leaf,' said Mr. Yorke, with a smile in his eyes that seemed to make no doubt at all of Cecil's willingness to do it.
'It seemed so hard at first,' he answered, feeling as if he must excuse himself a little.
'Yes, it is a struggle sometimes to accept one's position; but when once one has, all the bitterness goes, and one finds oneself not half so miserable as one expected.'
How true this was, Cecil soon began to find out from his own experience. It was a struggle to take his place beside the schoolboys, instead of with the choir, at the catechizing;
it cost him something to open his
lips when first his father seemed to address a question to him, but after the first effort it was not half so hard as he had thought it would be. He answered thoughtfully and well, and, without putting himself unduly forward, showed that he was paying attention, and was really anxious to understand and to learn.
Jessie ran up to him in the churchyard after service.
'Oh, Cecil, I am so glad you came! I thought you would have gone to Bar-end with Mr. Yorke. Are you coming home now?'
'No, I am going back to his place; he said I might amuse myself with his books till he came in. I haven't had dinner yet,' and Cecil felt a momentary importance in saying it.
'How hungry you must be!' rejoined Jessie innocently. 'Are you going, Cecil? I shall wait for father.'
'Here he is!' said Frances, who was waiting also.