o-night."

If her dress was no longer threadbare, it was still of the neatest
black, and if she had taken to wearing every day the moss-agate brooch
which had formerly been reserved for Sundays, she was still the very
same old sweet-tempered, spontaneous, Miss Joliffe as in time past.
Westray looked at her with something like affection.

"Sit down," he said, offering her a chair; "did you say you had brought
the picture with you?" and he scanned her as if he expected to see it
produced from her pocket.

"Yes," she said; "my maid is bringing it upstairs"--and there was just a
suspicion of hesitation on the word "maid," that showed that she was
still unaccustomed to the luxury of being waited on.

It was with great difficulty that she had been persuaded to accept such
an allowance at Anastasia's hands, as would enable her to live on at
Bellevue Lodge and keep a single servant; and if it brought her infinite
relief to find that Lord Blandamer had paid all Martin's bills within a
week of his engagement, such generosity filled her at the same time with
a multitude of scruples. Lord Blandamer had wished her to live with
them at Fording, but he was far too considerate and appreciative of the
situation to insist on this proposal when he saw that such a change
would be uncongenial to her. So she remained at Cullerne, and spent her
time in receiving with dignity visits from the innumerable friends that
she found she now possessed, and in the fullest enjoyment of church
services, meetings, parish work, and other privileges.

"It is very good of you, Miss Joliffe," Westray said; "it is very kind
of you to think of the picture. But," he went on, with a too vivid
recollection of the painting, "I know how much you have always prized
it, and I could not bear to take it away from Bellevue Lodge. You see,
Mr Sharnall, who was part owner with me, is dead; I am only making you
a present of half of it, so you must accept that from me as a little
token of gratitude for all the kindness you have shown me. You _have_
been very kind to me, you know," he said with a sigh, which was meant to
recall Miss Joliffe's friendliness, and his own grief, in the affair of
the proposal.

Miss Joliffe was quick to take the cue, and her voice was full of
sympathy. "Dear Mr Westray, you know how glad I should have been if
all could have happened as you wished. Yet we should try to recognise
the ordering of Providence in these things, and bear sorr