the time, so often deferred, at which mr. guyon was to pay his first visit to his daughter in her country-house had at length arrived; and the old gentleman made his appearance at middlemeads with all the advantages of a very juvenile toilet and a new stock of those adjuncts to his personal beauty which he was in the habit of carrying about with him. it was not without reluctance that mr. guyon bade adieu to london, which he was accustomed to speak of as "the little village," and its delights; but he felt it absolutely necessary to make himself personally acquainted with that country-house which he had so often depicted to his boon companions in the most glowing terms, and with those country families whom, to the same confidants, he had represented as revelling in the elegant and unostentatious hospitality of the british merchant. he had been a little chaffed by these friends about the calm manner in which his daughter had borne his long-continued separation from her. some of them compared him to king lear, some to captain costigan; and mr. guyon, who knew very little about either of the historical personages between whom and himself a comparison was instituted, thought it was "dam' low," and that the sooner all chance of a repetition of such joking was put a stop to the better.

so the old gentleman came down to middlemeads, and took up his quarters in one of the best spare-rooms, and strove to make himself agreeable to other people and to enjoy himself simultaneously. this was not very difficult, for he had a grand capacity for living; and his small-talk and geniality, and stories of grand people, made quite an impression amongst the neighbouring families, who thought mrs. streightley rather conceited, and mr. streightley very dull. mr. guyon in a very short time had made himself thoroughly at home, and had taken upon himself--not without katharine's tacit consent; indeed the whole affair rather amused her than otherwise--the direction of affairs at middlemeads, and the regulation of the manner in which the day should be spent. he it was who organised the tableaux to which the whole county was invited, which were such a grand success, and which were commemorated in the morning post. he it was who arranged for the first meet of the season of the stag-hounds on the middlemeads lawn, and for the hunt-breakfast at his son-in-law's expense. robert streightley was unfortunately compelled to be away in london on business on that interesting occasion; but in his absence mr. guyon took the chair, in which he comported himself with the greatest dignity and hospitality; and when the deer was uncarted, waved his hat to the ladies, and rode away after it on one of his son-in-law's horses, to his own intense satisfaction.

robert streightley was very frequently compelled to be away in london on business just at that time; and when he was at home, he seemed to have left his mind behind him among the ledgers and the invoices and the share-lists, and to have left his spirits--god knows where! he was thoroughly preoccupied and gloomy, never speaking except when spoken to, and then replying with an obvious effort at the collection of his wandering thoughts. mr. guyon noticed this immediately after his arrival, and tried to rally his son-in-law, commencing with much pleasant badinage about the accumulation of wealth by the sale of oneself to the evil one; an oft-used joke, which he had never known to miss fire hitherto, but which on this occasion was received with perfect silence. over the quiet dinner, which, as it once or twice happened, mr. guyon ate with katharine and her husband, or in the midst of a large party, it was all the same,--robert never entered into any thing that was going on, but always remained in the same gloomy, silent, preoccupied state.

mr. guyon could never, even in his most amiable moods, have been called a patient man, long-suffering was not one of his virtues; and under his son-in-law's long face and absent manner he suffered acutely. his little mots passed unsmiled at, his anecdotes of the aristocracy evidently had not been listened to; he felt that he was throwing the pearls of his west-end refinement before city swine; and he was highly indignant. but not with streightley--or at least he dared not openly declare his indignation to his son-in-law--it was on katharine that he turned the heavy-guns of his wrath, and rebuked his daughter with an acrimony which might have had serious effect on a less self-possessed young lady.

"i come here," said mr. guyon one morning in the library, where he had gone to write a letter, and where he found katharine similarly employed,--"i come here to your house, and i find your husband an altered man. he has lost that cheerfulness, that energy, that buoyancy which distinguished him, and, in fact, he's become a doosid unpleasant dreary bird. how's this? cheerful before marriage, and miserable after; looks as if marriage was the cause, doesn't it, kate? and to think that my daughter has not--not striven to--to what d'ye call--bless the lot of the man who--doubles his joys and halves his sorrows, and all that kind of thing? am i to think that you--but no, that could not be! i must remember----"

"you must remember, papa, if you please," said kate, looking him full in the face, and speaking in a low stern voice,--"you must remember the manner in which and the conditions under which i married my husband! and, remembering them, you must be good enough never to dare--it is a strong word to use to one's father, but i repeat it--never to dare to address me in this way again. i know my duty to my husband, and--according to my lights, and under the peculiar circumstances of our union--i do it!"

it was not to be supposed that katharine, however devoid of that instinctive perception of love which will make the dullest of women quick to see when trouble is hanging over one dear to her, was either blind or indifferent to the depression of robert's spirits and the change in his appearance. towards her, individually, he was always the same,--studious and eager to forward her wishes, and bounding his to making her happy; but he was preoccupied and gloomy. he was beginning to look old, too; the vigorous upright look which had been the first thing in his appearance to strike an observer, was less conspicuous than it had been, and his step was slower and heavier. his wife was not blind to the alteration, and she put it all down to the account of "business." in this general conclusion she was quite right; but katharine had not the remotest glimmering of a suspicion that misfortune and loss were constituents of this "business." she believed her husband to be a very rich man, whose ambition it was to become very much richer, and whose life was devoted to the realisation of that ambition. she had never ceased to regard him as the "city man" of their first acquaintance; and though her ideas respecting the transactions carried on by city men had undergone considerable alteration since that time, she was as far as ever from a real comprehension of the risks and the anxieties which her husband's life included. the making of money in larger or smaller sums katharine understood to be his calling; and so far as the variation was between larger and smaller, she comprehended anxiety being involved; but as to serious loss, as to ruin, she had not the faintest notion of such a possibility. of mr. guyon's transactions with her husband mrs. streightley was also profoundly ignorant. robert had taken care she should be so, for his sake as well as for her own. he knew katharine's delicacy of feeling and her pride perfectly, and he also appreciated her acuteness and keenness as they deserved. from hurt and indignant mortification at discovering that her father had taken such means to "exploiter" her marriage, to questioning why a clever and shrewd man of business, such as katharine well knew robert to be, should admit such unscrupulous demands on her father's part, would be an easy and natural transition; and robert shrunk with terror from the idea that any such clue should ever find its way to his wife's hands. no symptom of such danger had shown itself; the feelings with which katharine regarded her father had ceased to be of a kind to prompt her to much personal interest in his affairs, and by nature she was not inquisitive. that mr. guyon's pursuits were frivolous in the extreme; that he presented that most contemptible of spectacles--an old man aping the dissolute manners of an objectionable order of youth, katharine was becoming more and more painfully aware; but she looked no deeper into his life than the surface, from which she turned away with a feeling which, had she investigated it, she must have acknowledged to be contempt.

the nobility of katharine's nature asserted itself in the manner in which she regarded the marriage of gordon frere and hester gould. that the intelligence should not cost her a pang of exceeding keenness was impossible; but she did battle with herself against the temptations to bitterness and enmity against hester which beset her, and she came nobly out of the strife. little did she dream how closely her demeanour was scrutinised; little did she imagine that the bright dark eyes of the obsequious mr. daniel thacker, perhaps the humblest of mrs. streightley's servants and the most respectful of her admirers, were steadily directed to her face for many days during his stay at middlemeads, with the purpose of reading what might appear on that fair dial indicative of storm and turmoil in her heart. she had no suspicion that she was watched; but, as she also had nothing whatever to hide, there was no danger in her unconsciousness. the brief sharp pain she endured had come and passed when she was alone. she remembered how she had envied hester gould her wealth, only because it left her free to marry as she liked: she remembered her own bitter saying, "she may buy instead of being bought," and she thought it had been strangely realised. but she would not be unjust either to hester gould or to her own false lover. she would acknowledge that hester had many attractions other than her wealth; she would acknowledge her fair share of beauty, her talents, her good manners, the numerous charms which might easily secure a genuine attachment. she was ready to believe that gordon frere might really love hester; and the more ready, as she had reason to know the shallowness and fickleness of his nature. "i daresay he cares for her as much as he cared for me," katharine thought; "and in this case he can afford to indulge his fancy,--in mine he could not. she is fortunate that he can love her and marry her, otherwise she too would find that he would love her and leave her, as he left me, to the ridicule of her friends, and a broken heart, were she fool enough to break her heart for him. and he--he has only done exactly what i did, even supposing he does not love her. he has only married for money. with this difference, to be sure,--that i would have shared poverty with him, and he would not face it for me: with this other difference too, that i was in earnest, and he was only amusing himself. our positions are pretty much the same in the end; we are both rich, we are parted from each other, and satisfied to be so, and another has the first claim on each. i have no right to despise him for the marriage he has made, nor dares he to despise me."

so katharine wrote to ellen streightley, and expressed interest in the marriage, and hope of its happiness, which were perfectly sincere, and were most welcome to the recipient of her letter. she treated the subject with polite indifference in her reply to lady henmarsh. she understood cousin hetty tolerably well, and disdained the spitefulness which she perceived too thoroughly to stoop to retaliation. it was a fortunate circumstance for robert that his sister had remained with her mother at the brixton villa after miss gould's marriage, and thus no occasion arose for the lengthened and frequent discussion of the event. had ellen been at middlemeads, she would have talked about the wedding to an embarrassing extent. as it was, his reluctance to mention gordon frere's name--a reluctance which katharine did not suspect--was seconded by her own, which robert's state of mind prevented him from surmising; and after a mere formal comment, whose insufficiency, considering the intimacy subsisting between the streightleys and miss gould, did not fail to strike mr. thacker, the subject was dropped. he tried to talk about the wedding, at which he had been present, and at which his sisters had officiated as bridesmaids; but he had not courage to persevere in the face of robert's silence and the well-bred coldness of katharine's manner, which plainly implied that the matter was one wholly devoid of interest to her; but, of course, if mr. thacker chose to pursue that topic of conversation, she was bound to listen and to reply.

life at middlemeads proceeded much as usual, except that the amusements of autumn were substituted for those of spring. there was no other change in the aspect of affairs at the stately and luxurious country-house, over which katharine presided with grace and dignity which seemed to grow more and more remarkable. her beauty was at its zenith now; and no doubt the subsidence of all angry and impetuous feeling, the "settling down" which had taken place within the past year, had told upon her physically as well as morally. she had not, indeed, acted upon mrs. stanbourne's advice in its spirit. she had not faced the fact that the greatest of all her obligations towards her husband was the obligation to love him. she had not tried to realise that; and in so far the change in her was maimed and incomplete. but she had kept the letter of her promise to her friend, and ruled her life with more consideration for her husband than in the earlier days of their marriage. had there been no obstacle, as unfortunately there was, in the secret bound in robert's conscience, to a perfect understanding between the husband and wife, it might have come about at this period, when gordon frere's marriage had completed the severance of the past from katharine's present life.

mrs. stanbourne was at middlemeads shortly after the marriage of gordon and hester, and had been even more anxious than before to find katharine on good terms with robert. she was about to leave england for an indefinite time; and she would fain have gone away leaving her young kinswoman more intent on happiness, and less intent on pleasure, than she had found her on her first visit to middlemeads. observation had but increased her respect and regard for robert streightley; and she now noticed his depressed and careworn manner with sincere regret. she was at a loss to what origin to ascribe it; for things were far better, in a domestic point of view, than they had been in the spring. had mrs. stanbourne met mr. guyon at middlemeads, she might have discerned at least a portion of the truth, bringing, as she would have done, clearer notions of "business" than those of katharine to aid her observations; but that gentleman avoided her with a persistent caution, for which, while far from divining its motives, she was unfeignedly grateful. mrs. stanbourne could not have thoroughly understood mr. guyon, had she had ever so favourable an opportunity of detecting him; but she despised him intuitively, and had often taken herself to task for the unreasoning dislike with which he inspired her.

"my dear kate, what quantities of money you spend on furniture!" said mrs. stanbourne to katharine, a day or two before she left middlemeads. she had entered the morning-room, and found mrs. streightley looking over an upholsterer's pattern-book; while a "young man" stood by, awaiting her decision and her orders. she had given them, and the young man had taken his departure, charged by katharine to have certain articles ready for her inspection by a certain day of the ensuing week.

"do i?" asked katharine absently. "well, perhaps i do; but i did not choose the things here myself, you know; and then, i like change."

"may i ask what you are changing now, kate?"

"o dear, yes, of course. it's my dressing-room furniture. i hate that walnut-wood, it looks so brittle; and i was quite delighted with lady kilmantan's rooms; so i am going to have just the same. they will be charming, with a conservatory and an aviary thrown out on the western side--just the aspect, you know."

"but your present conservatory is a splendid one, kate, to say nothing of your acre of glass at the gardens."

"but i don't care for that great show thing; i want one of my own, that no one can go into except i specially invite them, and where i can choose the flowers myself, and put common flowers in if i please, and not be dictated to by the gardeners. see, here are the plans; charming, are they not? here's to be a delicious little fountain, and the floor is to be white marble."

"very pretty, kate; but also very expensive. don't think me intrusive, dear, or impertinent, if i say again i think you spend a very great deal of money. mr. streightley is very rich, i believe; do you know how rich?"

"n-not exactly," said kate hesitatingly. "i know nothing about his income, except that he tells me to do just as i like. people talk of him to me as a 'city magnate,' and as if there were no end to his money."

"have you any idea how much you spend yourself, kate, in a year?"

"no, i have not. every thing of this kind"--and she waved her hand, to indicate the room in which they were sitting, with its luxurious appointments--"mr. streightley arranges for. i have nothing to do with money except for my private expenses, dress, and that; and i have not had any bills yet."

"i fancy they will surprise you when they arrive, kate. but if mr. streightley has said nothing, i am perhaps taking fright unnecessarily." and then mrs. stanbourne rather abruptly turned the conversation to her approaching departure from england. she was to winter at rome with her daughter and her son-in-law; and she and katharine indulged in talking about a proposed plan for the streightleys joining the party there. it did very well to talk about, if nothing more came of it; and the vague prospect softened the pain with which katharine bade her friend adieu a few days later.

the alterations at middlemeads went on briskly, and, like all alterations, exhibited a tendency to extend their scope and increase their variety. the dull wintry weather had come now, and the comfort of the luxurious house was somewhat interfered with by the presence of workmen and the disarrangement of some of the rooms. under a momentary impression created by what mrs. stanbourne had said, katharine had spoken to her husband about the cost of her intended improvements, which had now extended far beyond the narrow sphere of her own apartments. it was the first time the subject of money had been mooted between them; and katharine's manner was slightly constrained, her pride slightly touched. she shrank from the least possibility of a rebuke, from the shade of an imputation that she had interpreted the carte-blanche which her husband had given her too liberally. a different and more painful kind of embarrassment possessed robert; and his over-eagerness to hide it from his wife, his stern resolution to carry out to the letter the tacit contract between them, induced him to reassure her with so much vehemence, that katharine never gave the subject another thought, but plunged into her plans with fresh vigour and heedless extravagance.

mrs. streightley found the distance from london inconvenient, when each day required her to pronounce a judgment upon some new pattern in furniture or hangings, or to decide for or against some piece of virtù or ornament of a rare and costly description. the season was dull down in buckinghamshire; and though london was in a certain sense, the fashionable one, dull also, it would at least offer that dear delight to all who lead such lives as hers--a change. so she assented very gladly to a proposition which robert made to her at the beginning of november, that they should remove to the house in portland place for a month. the reason he assigned for this arrangement, on his own part, was the plea of "business," which katharine never inquired into; and in a few days, with the ease and celerity with which rich people make even the most out-of-the-way arrangements, katharine found herself settled in her town-house, if not with all the luxury and completeness of "the season," in very perfect comfort. she had not thought it necessary to apprise mr. guyon of her intention of coming up to town; nor did she let him know immediately that she had done so. on the second afternoon after her arrival in london she called at his house, but without any expectation of finding him at home. she was, however, shown into the dingy dining-room--more dingy than ever; and there her father joined her after a few minutes. he expressed all the fit and appropriate sentiments on beholding her, with his usual fluency; but he did not express surprise quite successfully. this did not strike katharine at the time; but as she drove back to portland place, having invited her father to dinner on the following day, she thought of it, and felt sure that he had not been surprised,--in fact, that he knew she was in town.

"how very odd!" she thought; "has robert been to see him? and if he has, why should papa not have mentioned it, and said at once he had been expecting to see me?"

"i called on papa this afternoon," she said to her husband that day at dinner, at which meal she could not help observing robert's unusual gloom and thoughtfulness. "he is coming to dine with us to-morrow. have you seen him yet?"

"yes," said robert; "he came to the office yesterday."

some feeling like anger, but which she could not precisely define, caused katharine to turn red and hot for a moment. her husband said no more, and seemed lost in thought. had their mistress chanced to look towards them, she would have seen a very expressive glance exchanged between the servants in attendance. the "situation" was not quite a mystery for the servants' hall, and the opinion there for some time had been that "the old 'un was a-comin' of it a deal too strong, and he'd find streightley wouldn't stand it much longer."

katharine felt uncomfortable, she did not know why; and she watched her father on the following day with a degree of attention she had seldom bestowed upon him of late. his manner was as jaunty, his conversation was as fluent, his juvenility was as marked, as well-preserved, as ever. he was delightfully facetious; and when he told katharine that he had all sorts of messages in charge for her from cousin hetty, and that--gad! he had nearly forgotten the chief news of all--sentence of death against sir timothy; couldn't live a month, the doctors said; and as they had the power of proving the soundness of their own judgment, of course he wouldn't live a month,--he made the little joke quite fascinating. still there was something about him, and about robert, who was a poor dissembler, which katharine did not like, did not understand, and which made her uncomfortable. there was a fourth person present; a circumstance which each felt to be a relief. this was ellen streightley. katharine had gone that afternoon to the brixton villa, and had paid robert's mother a visit, during which she had been as charming and agreeable as she could be when she chose. she had brought ellen home with her; and an instinct now made her doubly glad she had done so. robert had thanked her warmly and gratefully for her prompt attention to his mother and to ellen, and had looked as happy as ever for a little. somehow katharine liked his thanks, liked his kind words; and when she wondered what was amiss, found herself hoping it was nothing involving any distress of mind to robert.

mr. guyon went away early, having told his daughter he should come to breakfast on the morrow. "but i daresay i shall not see you, my dear," he added; "for robert and i have business to talk over, and we mean to shut you out,--don't we, robert?" and the affectionate father-in-law nodded in his most airy and jovial way to mr. streightley. but robert only bowed. he was immovably grave, and katharine almost made up her mind that she would ask him what was the cause of his restraint and gloom. she never did ask the question, however; for the following day found her full of all the delightful occupations which she had planned for herself in town--found her bent on enjoying all that london had to offer during its partial eclipse, and also found her father and robert apparently on as good terms as ever. robert had noticed his wife's transient uneasiness, and, determined to adhere to his fatal resolution of concealment, he had applied himself to the task of hiding the truth, this time with success.