A Mental Struggle. 9
chat even for him no deeper depths were known; so San^lie
he now is, and will probably remain to the end of many
chapters.
He is nineteen, as handsome as an Apollo, without even
a tinge of that unpleasant colour in his dark, clean-cut
head that ought to belong to his unpleasant name. A
merry, reckless lad, an acknowdedged darling with all
women, old and young, and, if the truth be confessed, per¬
haps a little—just a little—beyond control. Here and
there are brilliant spots upon his college life that do not
altogether redound to his credit. Eaint rumours of his
doings reach The Chevies every now and then ; and on such
occasions, when it dawns upon her that her pretty Sandie
is not altogether such an one as her heart desireth, his
mother looks grave, and sighs a little, and posts to him long
letters of tenderest admonition, that are seldom read by the
graceless recipient, or else considerably skipped. But these
letters are the whole of his scoldings. When the boy comes
homo to them for his vacations, the brightness of his smile,
his open certainty that a warm welcome lies before him,
puts an indefinite stop to all proceedings against him, and
gives him the character of being lather a martyr than a
culprit.
Patricia and he, though dissimilar in character, closely
resemible each other in feature. Both are dark, whilst the
rest of the family are distinctly Saxon in face and form.
Patricia has dark eyes of a soft hazel, and nut-brown hair
to match. She is quite as tall as Imogen, and though by
no means so beautiful, is still sufiicieirtly pretty to create a
sensation in any ball-room. She is gay, sweet, insouciante,
full of sympathy for rich and poor, and her father's dar¬
ling ; but, for all that, she is not so much the " hearth-
angel " as the calmer Imogen. To the latter come all the
boys, as to their mother, with the numerous griefs and
agonies that accompany a school-life; Tom regards her
with open adiniration; Sandie, the degenerate, believes
most firmly in her wisdom; to the younger boys she is a
Minerva in petticoats; her father and mother have few
secrets from her, and even Constance (who is eminently
self-sufficient and given to assert herself at times with
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