"There is a sameness about the idea," said Regina, superbly. "I have always flattered myself, Mrs. Marston, that I am one of the few women who can bear to mix her colors. You remember the old story of the young man who asked Sir Joshua Reynolds what he mixed his colors with, and his reply--'Brains, sir, brains.'" CHAPTER III YE DENE There is something very alluring in the idea of kicking down conventions, yet if this be carried too far, it is possible that all the feminine virtues will follow suit. A woman bereft of all the feminine virtues is as pitiable a sight as a head which has been shorn of its locks. A couple of years went by, and again the circumstances of the Alfred Whittakers were improved. For the old lady whose husband had courted her for seven long years was taken ill and quite suddenly died. Her death affected and upset Regina very much. It happened that she had not been over to her old home for several days, though Regina, although she was such a good wife, had continued to be also an extremely good daughter, and usually contrived to visit the old people at least twice a week. Just at this time, however, some trifling indisposition of little Julia's had kept her from paying her usual visit to her parents. "Here is a letter from my father," she said one morning at breakfast to Alfred. "He seems to think mother is not very well." "Oh, poor dear, poor dear. You had better go across and see her." "Yes. I should have gone yesterday but for the child not being quite well," Regina responded. "Anyway, she's all right to-day--well enough for you to leave her with nurse. You had better go across and spend the day, and I'll come round that way and fetch you home in the evening." To this arrangement Regina agreed, and she went over to her father's house as soon as she had concluded arrangements for the children's meals. She did not, however, return to Fairview--as their house was called--that evening with Alfred. No, she remained under the paternal roof for a few days, and then, when she at length returned to her home and her children, she was accompanied by the old man, who was as a ship without a rudder when he found himself bereft of the wife for whom he had served, even as Jacob served seven years for Rachel. It was the beginning of the end for old Mr. Brown. He declined absolutely to go back to the house where he had lived so long and so happily, and took up his permanent abode at Fairview. Very soon the better part of the furniture, and certain priceless possessions with which there was no thought of parting, were transferred from the one house to the other, the old domicile was done up and eventually let, and then, as so often happens with old people who have been uprooted from their regular life, Mr. Brown sank into extreme illness.