ding, pathetic voice was still in the
air.

Ormsby remained for a few minutes leaning against a desk, with his face
buried in his arms, and I heard him struggling with his sobs. At last he
rose, and left the room without a word.

But I stayed there where I had last seen Marjory, till the fire died
down, and the hour was late, for I was glad to be alone with the new and
solemn joy that had come to me. For she had not forgotten me where she
was; I had been allowed to see her once more, and it might even be that
I should see her again. And I resolved then that when she came she
should find me more worthy of her.

* * * * *

From that night my character seemed to enter upon a new phase, and when
I returned to school it was to begin my second term under better
auspices.

My cousins had welcomed me cordially among them, and as I mastered the
lesson of give and take, of respecting one's self in respecting others,
which I needed to learn, my early difficulties vanished with the
weakness that had produced them.

By Ormsby I was never again molested; in word and deed, he was true to
the promise exacted from him during that last strange scene. At first,
he avoided me as being too painfully connected with the past; but by
degrees, as he recognised that his secret was safe in my keeping, we
grew to understand one another better, although it would be too much to
say that we ever became intimate.

After he went to Sandhurst I lost sight of him, and only a few months
since the news of his death in the Soudan, where he fell gallantly, made
me sorrowfully aware that we should never meet again.

I had a lingering fancy that Marjory might appear to me once more, but I
have long since given up all hope of that in this life, and for what may
come after I am content to wait.

But the charge my child-friend had undertaken was completed on the night
she was allowed to return to earth and determine the crisis of two
lives; there is nothing now to call the bright and gracious little
spirit back, for her influence will remain always.

_Spottiswoode & Co. Printers, New-street Square, London_.

* * * * *

WORKS BY F. ANSTEY.

* * * * *

SECOND EDITION. Crown 8vo. 6_s._

THE TALKING HORSE;

AND OTHER TALES.

+From THE DAILY CHRONICLE.+--'Full of quaintnesses, fun about dogs and
boys, and with now and then a graver touch.... Stori