He was in an unpleasant mood; but she contrived to conciliate rather than irritate him, avoided all discordant subjects, and the next morning introduced to her friends an apparently affable host.
But this serenity was disturbed long before the Sabbath drew to a close. As he walked up the aisle, before morning service, with Emily, according to custom, leaning upon his arm, his brow darkened at seeing Isabel complacently seated in that corner of the old fashioned pew which had for years been sacred to his blind daughter. Mrs. Graham winked at her niece, but Isabel was mentally rather obtuse, and was subjected to the mortification of having Mr. Graham remove her from the seat, in which he placed Emily, while the displaced occupant, who had been so mean for the last three Sundays to deprive Miss Graham of this old-established right, was compelled to sit in the only vacant place, beside Mr. Graham, with her back to the pulpit. And very angry was she at observing the smiles visible upon many countenances in the neighboring pews.
Mr. Graham had not been at home a week before he understood the state of feeling in the mind of his wife and Isabel, and the manner in which it was likely to act upon the happiness of the household. He saw that Emily was superior to complaint; she had never in her life complained; he observed, too, Gertrude's devotion to his much-loved child, and it stamped her in his mind as one who had a claim to his regard which should never be disputed. It is not, then, to be wondered at, that when Mrs. Graham made her intended insinuations against his youthful _protégée_, Mr. Graham treated them with contempt.
He had known Gertrude from a child. She was high-spirited--he had sometimes thought her wilful--but _never_ mean or false. It was no use to tell him all that nonsense;--he was glad that it was all off between Kitty and Bruce; for Ben was an idle fellow, and would never make a good husband; and, as to Kitty, he thought her much improved of late, and if it were owing to Gertrude's influence, the more they saw of each other the better.
Mrs. Graham was in despair. "It is all settled," said she to Isabel. "It is no use to contest the point; Mr. Graham is firm as a rock, and as sure as _we_ go to Europe, Emily and Gertrude will go _too_."