inquiry
was, "Please, are my eyes very red for going home?"

"Somewhat mottled--something of the York and Lancaster rose. Shall I
leave you under Tibbie's care till the maiden blush complexion returns,
and come back and fetch you when you have had a grand exhibition of my
Indian curiosities?"

"Have you Indian curiosities! I thought they were only for ladies?"

"Perhaps they are. Is Tibbie guard enough? You know there's an Irish
sergeant in the house taller than I am, if you want a garrison?"

"Oh, I am not afraid, only these eyes."

"I will tell her you have been frightened, and she shall take no
notice."

Tibbie was an admirer of Rose and gladly made her welcome, while the
Colonel repaired to Ermine, and greatly startled her by the disclosure
of the miseries that had been inflicted on the sensitive child.

It had indeed been known that there had been tyranny in the nursery,
and to this cause the aunts imputed the startled wistful expression in
Rose's eyes; but they had never questioned her, thinking that silence
would best wear out the recollection. The only wonder was that her
senses had not been permanently injured by that night of terror, which
accounted for her unconquerable dread of sleeping in the dark; and a
still more inexplicable horror of the Zoological Gardens, together
with many a nervous misery that Ermine had found it vain to combat.
The Colonel asked if the nurse's cruelty had been the cause of her
dismissal?

"No, it was not discovered till after her departure. Her fate has always
been a great grief to us, though we little thought her capable of using
Rose in this way. She was one of the Hathertons. You must remember the
name, and the pretty picturesque hovel on the Heath."

"The squatters that were such a grievance to my uncle. Always suspected
of poaching, and never caught."

"Exactly. Most of the girls turned out ill, but this one, the youngest,
was remarkably intelligent and attractive at school. I remember making
an excuse for calling her into the garden for you to see and confess
that English beauty exceeded Scottish, and you called her a gipsy and
said we had no right to her."

"So it was those big black eyes that had that fiendish malice in them!"

"Ah! if she fell into Maddox's hands, I wonder the less. She showed an
amount of feeling about my illness that won Ailie's heart, and we had
her for a little handmaid to help my nurse. Then, when we broke up from
home, we still kept he