Here there was plenty without profusion, comfort without pretension; a happy family circle, rich in individuality, characteristic, strong in will, with a fount of pure native humor evidently engrained in the blood; and yet there were fewer jars and less dissensions than ordinarily occur in domestic life.
Ted was evidently the malcontent of the household; but even his grumbling, incessant as it was, had no root of bitterness in it. He was only a lazy, sweet-tempered fellow, who had not yet fitted himself to his niche in life, and who was young enough to quarrel with the monotony of his existence. "Look here! I can't stand this much longer; I shall have to cut it, after all, and take to office work in Carlisle," he would say, when he had secured the two girls as listeners, and had extended himself after his usual fashion on the long, narrow couch, with his arms under his head, and his light hair standing on end. "Do you think a fellow of any spirit can endure life in a hole like this?"
"Oh, Ted, do be quiet; we are so tired of this sort of talk," remonstrated his sister.
"I am not talking to you; I am talking to Miss Marriott. She is a girl of sense, and knows what a fellow means when he says he is hipped, and all that. Do you think a place like Hepshaw is meant for anything but a refuge for old maids?"
"Oh, Teddie, you rude boy!"
"Don't interfere, Catherine; I am speaking to your betters."
"Your brother seems perfectly content with his surroundings; I should advise you to follow his example," returned Queenie demurely, trying hard not to laugh, and not unmindful of the boyish kicks that were being administered to the end of the sofa.
"Garth! Oh, he is different; he is a confirmed old bachelor, a sort of philosopher on a small scale. I don't believe Garth would trouble himself if he never saw a fresh face from one year's end to another. A man with a hobby is always to be envied," sighed the poor victim of circumstance.
"Get a hobby, then," snapped Cathy.
"Oh, it is all very easy to talk."