at was that? The clock below was striking the
half-hour, and precisely at nine the breakfast gong would sound--what
had she been thinking of?

"I hope, Leonore, you will be more punctual in future," said General
Boldero, as his youngest daughter took her seat at the table, and having
thus delivered himself, he did not again address her throughout the
remainder of the meal.

It might have been that he was taken up with his letters, of which he
always made the most--handling the envelope even of an advertisement as
though it were of importance--but Leo, sitting silent beside him, wished
her place were a little farther off. She was conscious of a chill, and
she had forgotten what a chill was like.

Her sisters talked among themselves, obviously indifferent to anything
but their own concerns; and since it was apparent that the present
social atmosphere was its normal one, she tried to think it had no
reference to herself, and not to draw comparisons between it and that
she had been of late accustomed to.

She and Godfrey had always enjoyed their breakfast-hour. It had often
had to be hurried through, and the good things set before them
unceremoniously bolted--but cheerfulness and good-humour made even that
drawback endurable,--and after seeing her husband drive away from the
door, Leo would return to fill her cup afresh, with a smile on her lips.
She peeped round the table now, to see if there were a smile anywhere.

Sue looked worried and prim--the worst Sue. Miss Boldero never gave way
to temper, indeed she had a creditably equable temper--but when things
were not well with her she stiffened; she remained upon an altitude; she
addressed her sisters by their full Christian names. Leo, who had been
"Leo" on the previous evening, was now "Leonore".

"The girls" also had merely nodded as the small creature, looking almost
irritatingly young and childish in her widow's garb, took her seat among
them. Neither Maud nor Sybil looked young for their years, and perhaps
unconsciously resented Leo's doing so, as accentuating a gap already
wide enough.

Further, Leo looked her best in the clear morning light, while her
sisters' complexions suffered. They would not have slept as profoundly
as she, nor risen with such a spring of elasticity in their veins. They
would not have the appetite for breakfast that made everything taste
good. They were inclined to be "Chippy" with each other.

For Leo a new-born day was a day full of p