nd I think her face cleared a little when she
saw me standing there,'you have not hurt yourself then? But what in the
world were you doing to make such a terrific clatter? I never knew her
do such a thing before,' she went on.

'Did Agnes hear it?' said Cousin Cosmo, sharply.

'I'm afraid it did startle her,' grandmamma replied, 'but fortunately
she thought it was something in the basement. I must go back to her at
once,' and without another word to me she turned upstairs again.

I can't tell what I felt like; even now I hate to remember it. My own
grandmamma to speak to me in that voice and not to care whether I was
hurt or not! I think some servant was called to wipe up the ink, and I
made my way, stiff and bruised and giddy, to the dining-room--I had not
even the refuge of my own room to cry in at peace--while Cousin Cosmo
and the doctors went back to the library. And not long after, I heard
the front door close and a carriage drive away.

I thought my cup was full, but it was not, as you shall hear. I didn't
try to do any lessons. My head was aching and I didn't feel as if it
mattered what I did or didn't do.

'If only my room was ready,' I thought, half stupidly, 'I wouldn't mind
so much.'

I think I must have cried a good deal almost without knowing it, for
after a while, when the footman came into the room, I started up with a
conscious feeling of not wanting to be seen, and turned towards the
window, where I stood pretending to look out. Not that there was
anything to be seen; the fog was getting so thick that I could scarcely
distinguish the railings a few feet off.

The footman left the room again, but I felt sure he was coming back, so
I crept behind the shelter of the heavy curtains and curled myself up on
the floor, drawing them round me. And then, how soon I can't tell, I
fell asleep. It has always been my way to do so when I've been very
unhappy, and the unhappier I am the more heavily I sleep, though not in
a nice refreshing way.

I awoke with a start, not knowing where I was. I could not have been
asleep more than an hour, but to me it seemed like a whole night, and as
I was beginning to collect my thoughts I heard voices talking in the
room behind me. It must have been these voices which had awakened me.

The first I heard was Mr. Vandeleur's.

'I am very sorry about it,' he was saying, 'but I see no help for it. I
would not for worlds distress you if I could avoid doing so, for all my
old