And why were they all so grave in his presence? That Alwyn should be reserved was right enough, but the others? He had heard them laughing and at case together. He saw Edgar turn naturally to Alwyn to do him some trifling service, and for the first time it struck Mr Cunningham that something more might be made out of his relations to Edgar and Geraldine than was the case at present. Surely they were unusually stiff, and not shy, but distant with him. He did not wish for any approach from Alwyn; but it was none the less true that these feelings had come to him on Alwyn's return, because Alwyn was the only one of his three children that he had ever greatly loved. CHAPTER NINETEEN. AFTER EIGHT YEARS. Life was certainly a much more peaceable thing in the Whittaker household while Florence was undergoing the process of being "stroked down" by Mrs Warren at Ashcroft, Ethel and Sybil were much less perverse and saucy without her, and went their several ways like rational girls, Ethel looking forward to a clerkship in the post-office, and Sybil to an apprenticeship to a good dressmaker in Rapley. They contrived to walk about without staring or being stared at, and as they behaved with ordinary common sense, the respectability of their superior home showed, and they were thought well of by their various teachers, and began to take the lead at their Sunday school in better things than mischief. Miss Mordaunt found her Bible class comparatively harmless, and could not honestly feel that she regretted Florence Whittaker; while, at home, Mattie enjoyed unwonted peace and quiet. She knew that she had not managed Florrie very well, but the relief of feeling no longer responsible for her was great. After a longish interval, Florence had replied to the letter in which she had urged her to keep in mind the lesson of Harry's misconduct. The girl could write rather a good letter, and her descriptions of her life at Ashcroft were amusing. "I should like it very well if there was anything but trees and live stock about," she said, "but I get on right enough. Aunt Charlotte ain't made up her mind that I'm going to `harry her up,' as Aunt Stroud calls it. As for Harry, I remember him well enough, and there's others that haven't forgotten him neither, and maybe I'm taking example more than you think." Mattie could make nothing of this sentence, but it recalled Harry to her mind; and one evening, when George had come back from his work, she began to talk about him. "It seems a bit heartless of us, George," she said, "to think so little about him. He might be in trouble and poverty, and we so comfortable." "I expect we should have heard of him if he had been," said George. "Of course, if he turned up, I should do the right thing by him--after proper inquiries. But I don't suppose we should be much the better for him." "I wonder if father ever frets after him," said Mattie.