g my own folk.' That was her word."

"Poor thing! poor thing! Why--"

He stopped short, for that moment he remembered Raby had said old Dence
was dead, and Patty gone to Australia. If so, here was another blow in
store for poor Jael, and she weakened by a long illness.

He instantly resolved to drive after her, and see whether she was really
in a fit state to encounter so many terrible shocks. If not, he should
take her back to the infirmary, or into his own house; for he had a
great respect for her, and indeed for all her family.

He drove fast, but he could see nothing of her on the road. So then he
went on to Cairnhope.

He stopped at the farm-house. It was sadly deteriorated in appearance.
Inside he found only an old carter and his daughter. The place was in
their charge.

The old man told him apathetically Jael had come home two hours ago and
asked for her father and Patty, and they had told her the old farmer was
dead and buried, and Patty gone to foreign parts.

"What, you blurted it out like that! You couldn't put yourself in
that poor creature's place, and think what a blow it would be? How, in
Heaven's name, did she take it?"

"Well, sir, she stared a bit, and looked stupid-like; and then she sat
down. She sat crowded all together like in yon corner best part of an
hour, and then she got up and said she must go and see his grave."

"You hadn't the sense to make her eat, of course?"

"My girl here set meat afore her, but she couldn't taste it."

Dr. Amboyne drove to Raby Hall and told Raby. Raby said he would have
Jael up to the hall. It would be a better place for her now than the
farm. He ordered a room to be got ready for her, and a large fire
lighted, and at the same time ordered the best bedroom for Dr. Amboyne.
"You must dine and sleep here," said he, "and talk of old times."

Dr. Amboyne thanked him--it was dusk by this time--and was soon seated
at that hospitable table, with a huge wood fire blazing genially.

Meantime Jael Dence sat crouched upon her father's grave, stupefied with
grief. When she had crouched there a long time she got up, and muttered,
"Dead and gone! dead and gone!"

Then she crept up to the old church, and sat down in the porch, benumbed
with grief, and still a little confused in her poor head.

She sat there for nearly two hours, and then she got up, and muttered,
"Dead and gone--he is dead and gone!" and wandered on the hill desolate.

Her feet wandered, her brain