"That is not home where, day by day,
I wear the busy hours away."
In a short time, Marian had settled into her place at Oak Worthy, lost some part of her
shyness towards the inhabitants, and arrived at the terms which seemed likely to continue
between her and her cousins.
There was much that was very excellent about Caroline Lyddell; she had warm feeling,
an amiable and obliging disposition, and great sweetness of temper; and when first
Marian arrived she intended to do all in her power to make her at home, and be like a
sister to her. But she did not understand reserve; and before Marian had got over her first
shyness and awkwardness, Caroline felt herself repulsed, and ceased to make
demonstrations of affection which met with no better response. Marian made none on her
side; and so the two cousins remained very obliging and courteous to each other, but
nothing more.
Clara had begun by making herself Marian's inseparable companion in rather a teasing
manner, caressing her continually, and always wanting to do whatever she was doing; but
as novelty was the great charm in Clara's eyes, and as she met with no very warm return
to her endearments, all this soon wore off; and though she always came to Marian
whenever she had any bit of news to tell,--though she often confided to her little
complaints of the boys or Miss Morley,--this was no great compliment, for she would
have done the same to anything that had ears. Her talk was no longer, as it had been at
first, exclusively for Marian; and this wag rather a relief, for it was not at all like the talk
Marian was used to with Agnes or with Edmund.
Young and unformed as Marian was, it would be hard to believe how much, without
knowing it, she missed the intercourse with superior minds, to which she had been
accustomed. It was just as her eye was dissatisfied with the round green chalk hills,
instead of the rocks and streams of her own dear home; or as she felt weary of the
straight, formal walks she now took, instead of her dear old rambles,
"Over bank and over brae,
Where the copsewood is the greenest,
Where the fountain glistens sheenest,
Where the lady-fern grows strongest,
Where the morning dew lies longest."
Edmund's high spirits, Agnes' playful glee,--how delightful they were! and though
Marian often laughed now, it was not as she had laughed at home. Then, too, she grew
shy of making remarks, or asking questions, when Clara had nothing to say but "How
odd!" or Miss Morley would give some matter-of-fact answer, generally either quite
beside the point, or else what Marian know before. Caroline understood what she meant,
