e Hall.

She used often to come to the Hall, and take a peep at her lamb: this
was the name she gave Mr. Bassett long after he had ceased to be a
child.

About four years after the triumphant return to Huntercombe, Lady
Bassett conceived a sudden coldness toward the little boy, though he
was universally admired.

She concealed this sentiment from Sir Charles, but not from the female
servants: and, from one to another, at last it came round to Sir
Charles. He disbelieved it utterly at first; but, the hint having been
given him, he paid attention, and discovered there was, at all events,
some truth in it.

He awaited his opportunity and remonstrated: "My dear Bella, am I
mistaken, or do I really observe a falling off in your tenderness for
your child?"

Lady Bassett looked this way and that, as if she meditated flight, but
at last she resigned herself, and said, "Yes, dear Charles; my heart is
quite cold to him."

"Good Heavens, Bella! But why? Is not this the same little angel that
came to our help in trouble, that comforted me even before his birth,
when my mind was morbid, to say the least?"

"I suppose he is the same," said she, in a tone impossible to convey by
description of mine.

"That is a strange answer."

"If he is, _I_ am changed." And this she said doggedly and unlike
herself.

"What!" said Sir Charles, very gravely, and with a sort of awe: "can a
woman withdraw her affection from her child, her innocent child? If so,
my turn may come next."

"Oh, Charles! Charles!" and the tears began to well.

"Why, who can be secure after this? What is so stable as a mother's
love? If that is not rooted too deep for gusts of caprice to blow it
away, in Heaven's name, what is?"

No answer to that but tears.

Sir Charles looked at her very long, attentively, and seriously, and
said not another syllable.

But his dropping so suddenly a subject of this importance was rather
suspicious, and Lady Bassett was too shrewd not to see that.

They watched each other.

But with this difference: Sir Charles could not conceal his anxiety,
whereas the lady appeared quite tranquil.

One day Sir Charles said, cheerfully, "Who do you think dines here
to-morrow, and stays all night? Dr. Suaby."

"By invitation, dear?" asked Lady Bassett, quietly.

Sir Charles colored a little, and said, quietly, "Yes."

Lady Bassett made no remark, and it was impossible to tell by her face
whether the visit was agreeable or n