abeth laughed; she could not help it, although her laugh brought an
additional pucker to the forehead of one of her hearers, who could not
detect the tremulousness that lurked behind the clear, ringing tones.

"It is well for you to laugh," he said, gloomily, "and, of course, you
have the right, but----"

"How interesting it will be," Mrs. Heron's, pensive voice was understood
to murmur, when Percival's gruff speech had come to a sudden conclusion,
"to notice the use dear Lizzie makes of her wealth! I wonder what her
income will be, and whether the Luttrells' kept up a large
establishment."

"Oh," said Elizabeth, suddenly loosening herself from Kitty's arms and
standing erect before them with a face that paled and eyes that deepened
with emotion, "does it not occur to you through what trouble and misery
this 'good fortune,' as you call it, has come to me? Does it not seem
wrong to you to plan what pleasure I can get out of it, when you think
of that poor mother sitting at home and mourning over her two sons--two
young, strong men--dead in the very prime of life? And Miss Vivian, too,
with her spoiled life and her shattered hopes--she once expected to be
the mistress of the very house that they now call mine! I hate the
thought of it. Please never speak to me as if it were a matter for
congratulation. I should be heartily glad--heartily thankful--if Brian
Luttrell were alive again!"

She sat down, and put her elbows on the table and her hands over her
face. The others looked at her in amaze. Percival turned to the fire and
stared into it very hard. Mrs. Heron, who was rather afraid of what she
called "Elizabeth's high-flown moods," murmured a suggestion to Kitty
that she ought to go to the children, and glided languidly away,
beckoning her step-daughter to follow her.

Percival did not speak until Elizabeth raised her face, and then he was
uncomfortably conscious that she had been crying--at least, that her
long eyelashes were wet, and that in other circumstances he might have
felt a desire to kiss the tears away. But this desire, if he had it,
must now be carefully controlled. He did not look at her, therefore,
when he spoke.

"Your feeling is somewhat over-strained, Elizabeth. We are all sorry for
the Luttrells' trouble; but it is absurd to say that we must not be glad
of your good fortune."

Elizabeth rose up with her eyes ablaze and her cheeks on fire.

"You know that you are not glad!" she said, almost pass