Charley went to the door, and stood at the head of the steps. Along the lane came Oliver Luxmore with his children, Hillary junior and Kate bringing up the rear. ’Now then, you kids, big and little!’ shouted Charles, ’see what I have got. A handful of halfpence. Scramble for them. Who gets most buys most sweeties.’ Then he threw the coppers down among the children. The little ones held up their hands, jumped, tumbled over each other, quarrelled, tore and dirtied their Sunday clothes, whilst Charles stood above laughing and applauding. Oliver Luxmore said nothing. ’Come in, come in at once!’ cried Honor, rushing to the door with angry face. ’Charles, is this the way you keep your promises?’ ’I must give the children something, and amuse myself as well,’ said the soldier. Honor looked down the road and saw Kate with young Hillary Nanspian. They were laughing together. ’There now,’ said Kate, as she reached the foot of the steps, ’Honor, see the young fellow who boasts he will make you fall down and worship his waistcoat.’ ’It was a joke,’ said Larry, turning red. He poked his hat up from his right, then from his left ear, he was overcome with shame. Honor’s colour slightly changed at the words of her sister, but she rapidly recovered herself. ’So,’ continued the mischievous Kate, ’you have come round all this way to blaze your new waistcoat in the eyes of Honor, because she could not come to church to worship it?’ Young Nanspian looked up furtively at Honor, ashamed to say a word in self-exculpation. ’Talk of girls giving themselves airs over their fine clothes!’ said Kate, ’men are as proud as peacocks when they put on spring plumage.’ ’It serves you right, Mr. Larry,’ said Honor, ’that Kate torments you. Vanity must be humbled.’ ’I spoke in jest,’ explained Hillary. ’All the parish knows that when I joke I do not mean what I say. When a word comes to my lips, out it flies, good or bad. All the world knows that.’ ’All the world knows that,’ she repeated. ’It is bad to wear no drag on the tongue, but let it run down hill to a smash. Instead of boasting of this you should be ashamed of it.’ ’I am not boasting,’ he said, with a little irritation. ’Then I misunderstood you. When a man has a fault, let him master it, and not excuse himself with the miserable reason, that his fault is known to all the world.’ ’Come, Honor, do not be cross with me,’ he said, running up the steps, and holding out his hand. ’I am not cross with you,’ she answered, but she did not give him her hand. ’How can I know that, if you will not shake hands?’ ’Because all the world knows I tell no lies,’ she answered coldly, and turned away. *CHAPTER X.* *ON THE STEPS.*