d her, high-spirited, resolute
woman as she was.

"I understand," she said, with a stiff, cold tone. Jaquetta heard the
echo of it, and wondered.

"But," he added, "when they understand all, and when my father is equal
to it, you shall be sent for."

When he went back to the library he found my poor father unconscious.
It was really only fainting then, and he came round without anyone
being called, and he shrank from seeing anyone but Torwood, explaining
to him most earnestly how, though he was too ill himself to go to the
place, his brother-officer, General Poyntz, had done so for him, and
had been persuaded that the whole settlement and all the inhabitants
had been swept off. It was such a shock to him that it nearly killed
him. Poor father! it was grievous to hear him wish it had quite done
so!

We only knew that the woman had upset my father very much, and that
Torwood could not leave him. Word was sent us to sit down to dinner
without them, and Torwood sent for some gravy soup and some wine for
him. He went on talking--sometimes about us, but more often about poor
Faith, who seemed to have come back on him in all the beauty and charm
of his first love. He seemed to be talking himself feverish, and after
a time Torwood thought that silence would be better for him; so he got
him to go to bed, and sent good old Blake, the butler, who had been his
servant in the army, to sit in the dressing-room. Blake, it turned out,
had known all about the old story, so he was a safe person. Not that
safety mattered much. "Lady Hester Lea"--she called herself so now,
as, indeed, she had every right--was making it known at Shinglebay.

So Torwood came out. I was very anxious, of course, and had been
hovering about on the nursery stairs, where I had gone to see whether
baby was quietly asleep, and I overtook him as he was going down-stairs.

"How is papa?" I asked.

I shall never forget the white look of the face he raised up to mine as
he said, "Poor father! Ursula, I can only call the news terrible. Will
you try to stand up against it bravely?"

And then he held out his arms and gathered me into them, and I believe
I said, "I can bear anything when you do that!"

I thought it could only be something about Bertram, who had rather a
way of getting into scrapes, and I said his name; but just as Fulk was
setting me at ease on that score, Jaquetta, who was on the watch, too,
opened the door of the green drawing-room,