"And we are to smooth over everything," said Bessie, shutting her book and jumping up. "I don't care to smooth it now that Anthony has been so stupid. That horrid Miss Lovell! Don't you know how she walks, holding her hand out stiffly--so. You needn't look shocked, Winnie dear, for she does, and I know she is horrid." "Don't say anything more about it, please," Winifred pleaded, with a look of pain. "I am going to order the carriage at four o'clock." "I hate them all, and I hate going," said Bessie rebelliously. "Well?" as her sister made no answer to this downright statement. "Well?" "Don't you mean to scold, or at least talk me into my proper behaviour?" "You must learn to find what you call your proper behaviour for yourself," said Winifred, trying to smile brightly, as she looked into the girl's dancing eyes. But her own suddenly filled with tears, and just as quickly Bessie's arms were round her. "Something is the matter, I know, and you may as well tell me, Winnie, or I shall be obliged to find it out. Something is making you unhappy. Is it about Anthony?" The hot colour flashed into Winifred's cheeks, but she was too honest to give an evasive answer, and said, holding Bessie's clasping hands, and pausing for a moment between her sentences,-- "I think it is, dear. Anthony has suffered cruelly from this wicked report. And it is so miserable between us all, when--we used to be so happy--" She stopped. She had been speaking in a low, almost humble voice, as if her heart felt a pang of shame in its sorrow. "Anthony doesn't care for her," said Bessie, shaking her head with a little experienced air. "He can't, because she isn't really nice. I believe he has been stupid enough to do it because he was cross." Was it true?--this dread, that even Bessie could put into words? And if it was--O poor, poor Anthony! The girls drove into Underham that afternoon, when the extreme heat of the day was supposed to be over. But there still remained a dry parching oppression in the air, the long weedy grasses hung listlessly one above the other, without a breeze to shake the dust from the motionless leaves, the pretty green hedges were all whitened and dead looking. Without any thought of avoiding it, it almost seemed to Winifred, as she drove along, as if the pain of the visit would be unendurable. But there was no such relief as hearing that Mrs Bennett and Miss Lovell were not at home, and the sisters were ushered into the comfortable drawing-room where Ada sat with a somewhat too apparent consciousness of being prepared to receive visitors, and quite disposed to make a little show off of the dignity she considered appropriate to the occasion. "It was very kind of you to come in this heat. My aunt wished me to drive with her, but I really thought it too oppressive. Don't you find it very trying?" "I do not think we thought about it," said Winifred, truly.