And when he came in and poured out his narrative, he was, for the
first time in his life, even petulant that his mother was too much
preoccupied to confirm his promises, and angry when Allen laughed at
his vehemence, and said he should beware of model parishes.
By dinner-time the next day Janet had actually arrived. She looked
thin and sharp, her keen black eyes roamed about uneasily, and some
indescribable change had passed over her. Her brothers told her
study had not agreed with her, and she did not, as of old, answer
tartly, but gave a stiff, mechanical smile, and all the evening
talked in a woman-of-the-world manner, cleverly, agreeably, not
putting out her prickles, but like a stranger, and as if on her
guard.
Of course there was no speaking to her till bedtime, and Caroline at
first felt as if she ought to let one night pass in peace under the
home roof; but she soon felt that to sleep would be impossible to
herself, and she thought it would be equally so to her daughter
without coming to an understanding. She yearned for some interchange
of tenderness from that first-born child from whom she had been so
long separated, and watched and listened for a step approaching her
door; till at last, when the maid was gone and no one came, she
yielded to her impulse; and in her white dressing-gown, with softly-
slippered feet, she glided along the passage with a strange mixed
feeling of maternal gladness that Janet was at home again, and of
painful impatience to have the interview over.
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