hows that you really exercise a correct judgment,--a very
wise discretion in your case,--and for a man in _your_ situation--your
_painful_ situation--you see things in their true light."

"Yes, my Lord." And this time the eyes rolled with a most peculiar
expression.

"If you should relapse, however,--if, say, former symptoms were to
threaten again,--remember that I am on the committee, or a governor, or
something or other, of one of these institutions, and I might be of
use to you. Remember that, Driscoll." And with a wave of his hand his
Lordship dismissed Terry, who, after a series of respectful obeisances,
gained the door and disappeared.

CHAPTER VI. SYBELLA KELLETT.

When change of fortune had reduced the Kelletts so low that Sybella was
driven to become a daily governess, her hard fate had exacted from her
about the very heaviest of all sacrifices. It was not, indeed, the life
of unceasing toil,--dreary and monotonous as such toil is,--it was not
the humility of a station for which the world affords not one solitary
protection,--these were not what she dreaded; as little was it the
jarring sense of dependence daily and hourly imposed. No, she had
courage and a high determination to confront each and all of these. The
great source of her suffering was in the loss of that calm and unbroken
quiet to which the retired habits of a remote country-house had so long
accustomed her. With scarcely anything which could be called a society
near them, so reduced in means as to be unable to receive visitors at
home, Kellett's Court had been for many years a lonely house. The days
succeeded each other with such similarity that time was unfelt, seasons
came and went, and years rolled on unconsciously. No sights nor sounds
of the great world without invaded these retired precincts. Of the
mighty events which convulsed the politics of states,--of the great
issues that engaged men's minds throughout Europe,--they heard
absolutely nothing. The passing story of some little incident of cottier
life represented to them all that they had of news; and thus time glided
noiselessly along, till they came to feel a sense of happiness in that
same unbroken round of life.

They who have experienced the measured tread of a conventual
existence--where the same incidents daily recur at the same periods,
where no events from without obtrude, where the passions and the
ambitions and cares of mankind have so little of reality to the mind