*  hanglity,'  and  the  governesses  called  her  *  cold.'  Her
mother  never  professed  to  understand  her,  and  often
expressed  it  as  her  opinion  that  she  would  grow  np  a
very  disagreeable  woman.  But  her  father,  though  he
could  not  get  her  to  chatter  to  him  as  Cecily  did,  did
not  discover  all  this  in  her,  or  think  of  her  otherwise
than  as  rather  a  character.  He  was  proud  of  her
beauty,  pleased  that  he  could  discover  in  her  face  a
strong  likeness  to  his  sister.  Also  she  was  his  first
daughter,  the  three  eldest  being  boys.  With  Cecily,
his  younger  girl,  he  was  certainly  more  at  his  ease,  but
he  had  not  the  same  pride  in  her.  She  was  a  winning
little  thing,  very  shy  and  timid ;  but  when  alone  with
him,  away  from  her  mother's  dreaded  eye,  and  relieved
from  the  fear  of  his  joking  her  in  company,  she  would
chatter  to  him  as  freely  as  possible.  He  teased  her  a
great  deal ;  he  couldn't  help  it.  She  was  just  the  sort
of  child  to  be  teased,  because  she  was  always  so  affected
by  it.  Her  tears  came  so  readily  that  her  mother  called
her  a  cry-baby.  This  was  a  very  sore  point  vnth  poor
Httle  Cecily.  Her  father  sometimes  converted  her  name
into  '  Silly-ly,'  or  *  Silly-Billy,'  and  the  fear  that  he
would  do  so  at  luncheon  before  visitors  kept  the  child  in
a  constant  state  of  anxiety  during  that  meal.
