gitated Katherine more than Mrs. Liddell knew. Her worn
look, her cough, her unwonted depression, thrilled her daughter's warm
heart with a passion of tender longing to be with her, to help her, to
give her the rest she so sorely needed; and in the solitude of her large
dreary room she sobbed herself to sleep, her lips still quivering with
the loving epithets she had murmured to herself.

CHAPTER VIII.

"THE LONG TASK IS DONE."

The facility with which human nature assimilates new conditions is among
its most remarkable attributes. A week had scarcely elapsed since John
Liddell's sudden indisposition and subsidence into an invalid condition,
yet it seemed to Katherine that he had been breakfasting in bed for
ages, and might continue to do so for another cycle without change. Her
inexperience took no warning from the rapidly developing signs of
decadence and failing force which Mr. Newton perceived; and, on the
whole, she found her task of housekeeper and caretaker less ungrateful
since weakness had subdued her uncle, and the friendly lawyer had been
appointed paymaster.

The days sped with the swiftness monotony lends to time. Mrs. Liddell
always visited her daughter once a week. Occasionally Katherine got
leave of absence, and spent an hour or two at home, where she enjoyed a
game of play with her little nephews. Otherwise home was less homelike
than formerly. Ada was sulky and dissatisfied; she dared not intrude on
Mr. Liddell in his present condition; and she was dreadfully annoyed at
not being able to give Colonel Ormonde any encouraging news on this
head. Her influence on the family circle, therefore, was not cheerful.
Besides this, though Mrs. Liddell kept a brave front, and did not again
allow herself the luxury of confidence in her daughter, there were
unmistakable signs of care and trouble in her face, her voice. She was
unfailing in her kind forbearance to the woman her son had loved, and
whatever good existed in Mrs. Fred's rubbishy little heart responded to
the genial, broad humanity of her mother-in-law. But Katherine
perceived, or thought she perceived, that Mrs. Liddell was wearing
herself down in the effort to make her inmates comfortable, and so to
beat out her scanty store of sovereigns as to make them stretch to the
margin of her necessities. It was a very shadowy and narrow pass through
which her road of life led Katherine at this period, nor was there much
prospect beyond. Moreover, as h