r will you have something more substantial?"

"Tea, if you please," said Hester. Her tongue was parched: and when
Margaret followed her up-stairs, she found her drinking water, as if she
had been three days deep in the Great Desert.

"Can you tell me now," asked Margaret, "what Mrs Rowland has been
saying to you?"

"No, not at present: better wait. Margaret! what do you think now?"

"I think that all looks brighter than it did this morning; but what a
wretched day it has been!"

"You found it so, did you? Oh, Margaret, I have longed every hour to
lie down to sleep in that wood, and never wake again!"

"I do not wonder: but you will soon feel better. The sleep from which
you will wake to-morrow morning will do nearly as well. We must sleep
to-night, and hope for good news in the morning."

"No good news will ever come to me again," sighed Hester. "No, no; I do
not quite mean that. You need not look at me so. It is ungrateful to
say such a thing at this moment. Come: I am ready to go down to tea.
It is really getting dark. I thought this day never would come to an
end."

The evening was wearisome enough. Mrs Grey asked how Mrs Rowland had
behaved, and Sophia was beginning to tell, when her father checked her,
reminding her that she had been enjoying Mrs Rowland's hospitality.
This was all he said, but it was enough to bring on one of Sophia's
interminable fits of crying. The children were cross with fatigue: Mrs
Grey thought her husband hard upon Sophia; and, to complete the
absurdity of the scene, Hester's and Margaret's tears proved
uncontrollable. The sight of Sophia's set them flowing; and though they
laughed at themselves for the folly of weeping from mere sympathy, this
did not mend the matter. Mrs Grey seemed on the verge of tears
herself, when she observed that she had expected a cheerful evening
after a lonely and anxious day. A deep sob from the three answered to
this observation, and they all rose to go to their apartments. Hester
was struck by the peculiar tender pressure of the hand given her by Mr
Grey, as she offered him her mute good-night. It caused her a fresh
burst of grief when she reached her own room.

Margaret was determined not to go to rest without knowing what it was
that Mrs Rowland had said to her sister. She pressed for it now,
hoping that it would rouse Hester from more painful thoughts.

"Though I have been enjoying that woman's hospitality, as Mr Grey
says," de