Yet, sometimes, when he came and
looked them full in the face, they were terrified, and dared not disobey,
for he was stately and stern and strong. Not one of them loved him
heartily, except the eldest sister, who was very beautiful and silent, and
whose eyes shone as if light lay somewhere deep behind them. Even she,
although she loved him, thought him very hard sometimes; for when he had
once said a thing plainly, he could not be persuaded to think it over
again. So even she forgot him sometimes, and went her own ways, and
enjoyed herself without him. Most of them regarded him as a sort of
watchman, whose business it was to keep them in order; and so they were
indignant and disliked him. Yet they all had a secret feeling that they
ought to be subject to him; and after any particular act of disregard,
none of them could think, with any peace, of the old story about the
return of their father to his house. But indeed they never thought much
about it, or about their father at all; for how could those who cared so
little for their brother, whom they saw every day, care for their father
whom they had never seen?--One chief cause of complaint against him was
that he interfered with their favourite studies and pursuits; whereas he
only sought to make them give up trifling with earnest things, and seek
for truth, and not for amusement, from the many wonders around them.
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