evening that he had been there, but to his great regret he would not be
able to come out the next day. Regimental duty would take him up nearly
all the day, and then he was invited to a party at the Deanery, "which
the mother would never have forgiven me for refusing," he said; just
as if the mother's desires had the very same power over him as over her
daughters. "I came to make a desperate request, Miss Williams," he said.
"Would it be any way possible for you to be so kind as to go up and see
Rachel? She comes downstairs now, and there are no steps if you go in by
the glass doors. Do you think you could manage it?"

"She wishes it!" said Ermine.

"Very much. There are thorns in her mind that no one knows how to deal
with so well as you do, and she told me yesterday how she longed to get
to you."

"It is very good in her. I have sometimes feared she might think we had
dealt unfairly by her if she did not know how very late in the business
we suspected that our impostors were the same," said Ermine.

"It is not her way to blame any one but herself," said Alick, "and, in
fact, our showing her the woodcut deception was a preparation for the
rest of it. But I have said very little to her about all that matter.
She required to be led away rather than back to it. Brooding over it is
fatal work, and yet her spirits are too much weakened and shattered to
bear over-amusement. That is the reason that I thought you would be so
very welcome to-morrow. She has seen no one yet but Lady Temple, and
shrinks from the very idea."

"I do not see why I should not manage it very well," said Ermine,
cheerfully, "if Miss Curtis will let me know in time whether she is
equal to seeing me. You know I can walk into the house now."

Alick thanked her earnestly. His listless manner was greatly enlivened
by his anxiety, and Colonel Keith was obliged to own that marriage would
be a good thing for him; but such a marriage! If from sheer indolence
he should leave the government to his wife, then--Colin could only shrug
his shoulders in dismay.

Nevertheless, when Ermine's wheeled chair came to the door the next
afternoon, he came with it, and walked by her side up the hill, talking
of what had been absolutely the last call she had made--a visit when
they had both been riding with the young Beauchamps.

"Suppose any one had told me then I should make my next visit with
you to take care of me, how pleased I should have been," said Ermine,
lau