e knew what good reason he had for his fears.

On Cedric's last day in Cheyne Walk, Mrs. Herrick proposed that he
should drive with her and Anna to Pall Mall to see some pictures that
were being exhibited. She would leave them at the gallery for an hour,
and call for them when she had done her shopping. Malcolm had promised
to be there at the same time, and they would all go back together to
Queen's Gate for the remainder of the day. It so happened that Mrs.
Richardson had planned one of her favourite shopping expeditions for
the same day, and in the course of the afternoon the hansom she had
chartered drew up at a shop exactly opposite the gallery, where at that
very moment Anna, Cedric, and Malcolm were coming down the staircase to
join Mrs. Herrick, who was waiting for them in her carriage.

Leah, who had not recovered her normal strength since her attack of
influenza, was excessively tried by all the noise and bustle of the
West End, and begged to remain in the hansom while Mrs. Richardson
finished her purchases. When Mrs. Richardson came out of the shop a
quarter of an hour later, the handsome carriage with its pair of bay
horses had driven off, and Leah was leaning back in the hansom looking
white as death, with a pained, startled expression in her beautiful
eyes.

Mrs. Richardson told the man to drive to the station. Then she took the
girl's hand kindly. "What is it, my dear?" she said in a motherly
voice. "Are you ill, or has something frightened you?" but it was long
before Leah could gasp out her explanation.

"She had seen him, and he looked quite bright and happy, and he was
talking to a fair haired-girl with a sweet face, and Mr. Herrick was
with them;" but poor Leah could say no more, for the jealous pain
seemed to choke her. That was the way he had smiled at her, and now she
was forgotten, and this other girl had taken her place!

Mrs. Richardson, with all her eccentricities, had a warm, true heart,
and she was very patient and tender with the poor girl.

But late that night, as she sat in her dressing-room, there was a timid
knock at her door, and Leah entered in her white wrapper, with all her
glorious dark hair streaming over her shoulders; but her eyes were
swollen with weeping.

"I felt I must come and speak to you or I could not sleep!" she
exclaimed in her deep voice; and kneeling down by her friend--"Oh, I
have been so wicked! but I will try to be good now."

"Tell me all about it, dearie