"I should wonder if she did," observed Mr Rowland from the other side of the newspaper he was reading. "If Dr and Mrs Levitt were to come in the next time you cry, Matilda, you would not want to stay in the parlour, evidently, I should think. For my part, I never show my face when I am crying." "You cry, papa!" cried little Anna. "Do you ever cry?" "Have you never found me behind the deals, or among the sacks in the granary, with my finger in my eye?" "No, papa. Do show us how you look when you cry." Mr Rowland's face, all dolefulness, emerged from behind the newspaper, and the children shouted. "But," said Matilda, observing that her mother's brow began to lower, "I think it is very odd that Mrs Hope did not stay at home if she wanted to cry. It is so very odd to go crying about the streets!" "I dare say Deerbrook is very much obliged to her," said papa. "It will be something to talk about for a week." "But what could she be crying for, papa?" "Suppose you ask her, my dear? Had you not better put on your bonnet, and go directly to Mr Hope's, and ask, with our compliments, what Mrs Hope was crying for at four o'clock yesterday afternoon? Of course she can tell better than anybody else." "Nonsense, Mr Rowland," observed his lady. "Go, children, it is very near school-time." "No, mamma; not by--" "Go, I insist upon it, Matilda. I will have you do as you are bid. Go, George: go, Anna.--Now, my love, did I not tell you so, long ago? Do not you remember my observing to you, how coldly Mr Hope took our congratulations on his engagement in the summer? I was sure there was something wrong. They are not happy, depend upon it." "What a charming discovery that would be!" "You are very provoking, Mr Rowland! I do believe you try to imitate Mr Grey's dry way of talking to his wife." "I thought I had heard you admire that way, my dear." "For her, yes: it does very well for a woman like her: but I beg you will not try it upon me, Mr Rowland." "Well, then, Mrs Rowland, I am going to be as serious as ever I was in my life, when I warn you how you breathe such a suspicion as that the Hopes are not happy. Remember you have no evidence whatever about the matter. When you offered Mr Hope your congratulations, he was feeble from illness, and probably too much exhausted at the moment to show any feeling, one way or another. And as for this crying fit of Mrs Hope's, no one is better able than you, my dear, to tell how many causes there may be for ladies' tears besides being unhappily married." "Pray, Mr Rowland, make yourself easy, I beg. Whom do you suppose I should mention such a thing to?" "You have already mentioned it to yourself and me, my dear, which is just two persons too many. Not a word more on the subject, if you please."