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had been lowered, and as he felt the soft, tight clasp of his
mother's hand in his, Arthur felt he would be a loving boy to her.
CHAPTER II.
GOING TO INDIA.
The home seemed very sad and silent indeed without the little child
who had been laid in the low green-covered grave, and a sadness
seemed to have fallen upon it. At first Arthur went about the house
silently and slowly, and it was some time before his boyish spirits came
back to him; but he was only a boy after all, and a very young boy, and
by and by, when the green leaves came budding on the trees and the
spring voice was waking in the valleys and the fields, when the young
lambs answered with their bleating and the young birds sung a chorus
of bursting joy, Arthur's face brightened, and his step was bounding
again. And his mother was glad to see him with the weary cloud gone,
only her heart ached with a deep throb as she thought of the new care
that was hanging over him, and of which he knew nothing as yet.

One day, when Arthur was passing the door of his mother's
morning-room, he heard his father's voice within, saying, "I think you
had better tell him, Louisa." The door was partly open, and if he
listened he would easily be able to hear what they were saying. The
temptation was very strong, and Arthur yielded to it. It was very wrong,
and he knew it.
"Oh, no!" he heard his mother say, "I could not tell him; I don't think I
could. It almost breaks my heart to think of it myself."
"Louisa," said his father--and Arthur thought his voice sounded rather
sad--"you know it is your own choice, and even now you can change if
you like."
"Oh, no, no, dear Ronald!" said his mother--and he could hear that her
voice was quivering and trembling--"you know very well I could not.
Forgive me, I ought to be very thankful I have you still; and so I am.
But tell him yourself, Ronald; you know I am so foolish."
"Very well," said Mr. Vivyan, rising and stirring the fire with great
energy, as if he were then acting what he had made up his mind to do.
And then Arthur stole away, feeling very strange with various mingled
feelings. Something seemed to say that the conversation concerned him,
but what it was all about he could not imagine. Something terrible
seemed to be going to happen; something that his mother could not
make up her mind to tell. And then he remembered how very wrong it
had been for him to listen to this conversation. He had always been
taught never to do such a thing, and the consciousness of his fault
weighed heavily on his mind. He wished very much that he had not
waited at the door, when he had seen it stand so temptingly open.
Indeed, so much did he think about what he had done, that the strange
things he had heard hardly troubled him.
But by and by, when he was walking through the lanes, where the
primroses were dotting the hedgerows with green and yellow tufts, he
began to think again of what he had heard, and his step was slow and
steady as he thought. He was not the same Arthur who generally

bounded along, startling the little lambs who were feeding on the other
side of the hedge; and Hector seemed puzzled by the unusual quiet as
he ran on first, inviting his master to follow. Altogether it was a very
grave and thoughtful walk, and when Arthur came in, the quiet look
was on his face still, and a very troubled expression could be seen
there.
"Arthur dear, is anything the matter?" asked his mother in the evening,
as he sat on his low stool before the fire doing nothing, and thinking
again of what he had heard and what he had done.
Arthur started, and blushed a very deep red.
"Why should you think there was anything the matter, mother?"
"Because I see there is," she said quietly.
He did not answer, and Mr. Vivyan looked out keenly at him, from
behind the book he was reading. But still Arthur had nothing to say,
and the troubled look came deeper on his face. He came nearer to his
mother's chair, and presently when he found himself there he laid his
head on her lap.
"What is it, my darling?" she asked, laying her hand on his brown hair.
Then the tears came into his eyes, and it was not directly that he was
able to say, "Mother, I know it was very wrong of me; but I heard what
you and