ings that was not in its
degree a pleasure to her young senses, that did not help her to live her
life. This afternoon as she opened the door and looked in, the pretty
colours and forms in the tiny room were as water to the thirsty. Her
mother had sent her some flowers the day before. There they were on the
tables, great bunches of honey-suckles, of blue-bells, and Banksia
roses. And over the mantelpiece was a photograph of the place where such
flowers as Mellor possessed mostly grew--the unkempt lawn, the old
fountain and grey walls of the Cedar Garden.

The green blind over the one window which looked into the court, had
been drawn down against the glare of the sun, as though by a careful
hand. Beside a light wooden rocking chair, which was Marcella's
favourite seat, a tray of tea things had been put out. Marcella drew a
long breath of comfort as she put down her bag.

"Now, _can_ I wait for my tea till I have washed and dressed?"

She argued with herself an instant as though she had been a greedy
child, then, going swiftly into the back kitchen, she opened the door
between her rooms and the Hurds.

"Minta!"

A voice responded.

"Minta, make me some tea and boil an egg! there's a good soul! I will be
back directly."

And in ten minutes or so she came back again into the sitting-room,
daintily fresh and clean but very pale. She had taken off her nurse's
dress and apron, and had put on something loose and white that hung
about her in cool folds.

But Minta Hurd, who had just brought in the tea, looked at her
disapprovingly.

"Whatever are you so late for?" she asked a little peevishly. "You'll
get ill if you go missing your dinner."

"I couldn't help it, Minta, it was such a bad case."

Mrs. Hurd poured out the tea in silence, unappeased. Her mind was
constantly full of protest against this nursing. Why should Miss Boyce
do such "funny things"--why should she live as she did, at all?

Their relation to each other was a curious one. Marcella, knowing that
the life of Hurd's widow at Mellor was gall and bitterness, had sent for
her at the moment that she herself was leaving the hospital, offering
her a weekly sum in return for a little cooking and house service. Minta
already possessed a weekly pension, coming from a giver unknown to her.
It was regularly handed to her by Mr. Harden, and she could only imagine
that one of the "gentlemen" who had belonged to the Hurd Reprieve
Committee, and had worked so ha