If she had acted on her own judgment,
Cecil would never have returned to Eton, but his uncle disapproved of
his removal, especially with the disgrace of the champagne supper
unretrieved; and his penitent letter had moved her greatly. Trusting
much to her elder son and to Dr. Medlicott, she had permitted the
party to continue together, feeling that it might be life or death to
that other fatherless boy in whom Duke was so much interested; and
now she was going out to judge for herself, and Sir James had
undertaken to escort her, that they might together come to a decision
whether the two friends were likely to be doing one another good or
harm.
Mrs. Evelyn had lived chiefly in the country since her husband's
death, and knew nothing of Mrs. Joseph Brownlow. So she looked with
anxiety for indications of the tone of the family who had captivated
not only Cecil, but Fordham, and seemed in a fair way of doing the
same by Sydney. The two hats, brown and black, were almost locked
together all the voyage, and indeed the feather of one once became
entangled with the crape of the other, so that they had to be
extricated from above. There was perhaps a little maternal anxiety
at this absorption; but as Sydney was sure to pour out everything at
night, her mother could let things take their course, and watch her
delight in expanding, after being long shut up in a melancholy house
without young companions.
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