"So I perceive," he said. "You told me something, but I had not realised——"
"You see, Alan—" cried Augustina, watching her brother's face,—"it was with the greatest difficulty that her mother got Stephen to consent even to her being baptized. He opposed it for a long time."
Father Bowles murmured something under his breath.
Helbeck paused for a moment, then said:
"What was her mother like?"
"Everyone at Cambridge used to say she was 'a sweet woman'—but—but Stephen,—well, you know, Alan, Stephen always had his way! I always wonder she managed to persuade him about the baptism."
She coloured still more deeply as she spoke, and her nervous infirmity became more pronounced. Alas! it was not only with the first wife that Stephen had had his way! Her own marriage had begun to seem to her a mere sinful connection. Poor soul—poor Augustina!
Her brother must have divined something of what was passing in her mind, for he looked down upon her with a peculiar gentleness.
"People are perhaps more ready to talk of that responsibility than to take it," he said kindly. "But, Augustina,—" his voice changed,—"how pretty she is!—You hardly prepared me——"
Father Bowles modestly cast down his eyes. These were not questions that concerned him. But Helbeck went on, speaking with decision, and looking at his sister: