ce would have seemed heaven to her,
if she could have been allowed sometimes to see those she loved and
longed for. Now that I must give up my hope--which was perhaps a rather
foolish one--and now that I cannot remain at Stornham, she would have
no defence at all if she were left alone. Her condition would be more
hopeless than before, because Nigel would never forget that we had tried
to rescue her and had failed. If I were a man, or if I were very much
older, I need not be actually driven away, but as it is I think that you
must come and take the matter into your own hands."

She had remained in her sister's room until long after midnight, and by
the time the American letter was completed and sealed, a pale touch of
dawning light was showing itself. She rose, and going to the window drew
the blind up and looked out. The looking out made her open the window,
and when she had done so she stood feeling the almost unearthly
freshness of the morning about her. The mystery of the first faint light
was almost unearthly, too. Trees and shrubs were beginning to take form
and outline themselves against the still pallor of the dawn. Before long
the waking of the birds would begin--a brief chirping note here and
there breaking the silence and warning the world with faint insistence
that it had begun to live again and must bestir itself. She had got out
of her bed sometimes on a summer morning to watch the beauty of it, to
see the flowers gradually reveal their colour to the eye, to hear the
warmly nesting things begin their joyous day. There were fewer bird
sounds now, and the garden beds were autumnal. But how beautiful it all
was! How wonderful life in such a place might be if flowers and birds
and sweep of sward, and mass of stately, broad-branched trees, were
parts of the home one loved and which surely would in its own way love
one in return. But soon all this phase of life would be over. Rosalie,
once safe at home, would look back, remembering the place with a
shudder. As Ughtred grew older the passing of years would dim miserable
child memories, and when his inheritance fell to him he might return to
see it with happier eyes. She began to picture to herself Rosy's voyage
in the ship which would carry her across the Atlantic to her mother
and the scenes connected in her mind only with a girl's happiness.
Whatsoever happened before it took place, the voyage would be made in
the end. And Rosalie would be like a creature in a d