yl felt herself swept out of the room.
She stood for a moment in the passage. There was a long glass at the
further end, and it reflected a pink-robed little figure. The cheeks
had lost their usual tender bloom, and the eyes had a bewildered
expression. Sibyl rubbed her hands across them.

"I don't understand," she said to herself. "Perhaps I wasn't quite
pretty enough, perhaps that was the reason, but I don't know. I think
I'll go to my new nursery and sit down and think of father. Oh, I wish
mother hadn't--of course it's all right, and I am a silly girl, and I
get worser, not better, every day, and mother knows what is best for
me; but she might have let me 'splain things. I wish I hadn't a pain
here." Sibyl touched her breast with a pathetic gesture.

"It's 'cos of father I feel so bad, it's 'cos they told lies of
father." She turned very slowly with the most mournful droop of her
head in the direction of the apartment set aside for nurse and
herself. She had thought much of this visit, and now this very first
afternoon a blow had come. Her mother had told her to do a hard thing.
She, Sibyl, was to be polite to Lord Grayleigh; she was to be polite
to that dreadful, smiling man, with the fair hair and the keen eyes,
who had spoken against her father. It was unfair, it was dreadful, to
expect this of her.

"And mother would not even let me 'splain," thought the child.

"Hullo!" cried a gay voice; "hullo! and what's the matter with little
Miss Beauty?" And Sibyl raised her eyes, with a start, to encounter
the keen, frank, admiring gaze of Gus.

"Oh, I say!" he exclaimed, "aren't we fine! I say! you'll knock Freda
and Mabel into next week, if you go on at this rate. But, come to the
schoolroom; we want a game, and you can join."

"I can't, Gus," replied Sibyl.

"Why, what's the matter?"

"I don't feel like playing games."

"You are quite white about the gills. I say! has anybody hurt you?"

"No, not exactly, Gus; but I want to be alone. I'll come by-and-by."

"Somebody wasn't square with her," thought Gus, as Sibyl turned away.
"Queer little girl! But I like her all the same."

CHAPTER V.

Sibyl's conduct was exemplary at dessert. She was quiet, she was
modest, she was extremely polite. When spoken to she answered in the
most correct manner. When guests smiled at her, she gave them a set
smile in return. She accepted just that portion of the dessert which
her mother most wished her to eat, eschewi