“I think, my dear, that coming off as you did by yourself, was very positive indeed--and the first step in the universal turning upside-down which has ensued.” “I hope you are not sorry I came?” “No, Constance; I am very glad to have you;” and this was quite true, although he had said to Frances something that sounded very different. Both things were true--both that he wished she had never left her mother; that he wished she might return to her mother, and leave Frances with him as of old; and that he was very glad to have her here. “If I were to go back, would not everything settle down just as it was before?” Then he thought of what Frances, taught by the keenness of a personal experience, had said to him a few hours ago. “No,” he said; “nothing can ever be as it was before. We never can go back to what has been, whether the event that has changed it has been happy or sad.” “Oh, surely sometimes,” said Constance. “That is a dreadful way to talk of anything so trifling as my visit. It could not make any real difference, because all the facts are just the same as they were before.” To this he made no reply. She had no way, thanks to Frances, of finding out how different the position was. And she went on, after a pause--“Have you settled how she is to go?” “I have not even thought of that.” “But, papa, you must think of it. She cannot go unless you manage it for her. Markham heard of those people coming, and that made it quite easy for me. If Markham were here----” “Heaven forbid!” “I have always heard you were prejudiced about Markham. I don’t think he is very safe myself. I have warned Frances, whatever she does, not to let herself get into his hands.” “Frances in Markham’s hands! That is a thing I could not permit for a moment. Your mother may have a right to Frances’ society, but none to throw her into the companionship of----” “Her brother, papa.” “Her brother! Her step-brother, if you please--which I think scarcely a relationship at all.” Waring’s prejudices, when they were roused, were strong. His daughter looked up in amazement at his sudden passion, the frown on his face, and the fire in his eye. “You forget that I have been brought up with Markham,” she said. “He is _my_ brother; and he is a very good brother. There is nothing he will not do for me. I only warned Frances because--because she is different; because----” “Because--she is a girl who ought not to breathe the same air with a young reprobate--a young----” “Papa! you are mistaken. I don’t know what Markham may have been; but he is not a reprobate. It was because Frances does not understand chaff, you know. She would think he was in earnest, and he is never in earnest. She would take him seriously, and nobody takes him seriously. But if you think he is bad, there is nobody who thinks that. He is not bad; he only has ways of thinking----” “Which I hope my daughters will never share,” said Waring, with a little formality.