.
Boddy's violin.

'I shall always keep it,' she said. 'I have had offers to buy it, but I
shall have to be badly in want before it goes.'

She had redeemed it from the pawnbroker's, and no one had opposed her
claim to possess it. The expenses of the old man's burial had been
defrayed by a subscription Ackroyd got up among those who remembered
Mr. Boddy with kindness.

Thyrza touched the strings, and shrank back frightened at the sound.
The ghost of dead music, it evoked the ghost of her dead self.

They fell into solemn talk. Thyrza had resolved that she would not tell
her sister the truth of everything for a long time; some day she would
do so, when the new life had become old habit. But, as they sat by the
fire and spoke in low voices, she was impelled to make all known. Why
should there any longer be a secret between Lyddy and herself? It would
be yet another help to her if she told Lyddy; she felt at length that
she must.

So the story was whispered. Lydia could only hold her sister in her
arms, and shed tears of love and pity.

'We will never speak of it again, dearest,' Thyrza said; 'never, as
long as we live!'

'No, never as long as we live!'

'It's all very long ago, already,' Thyrza added. 'I don't suffer now,
dear one. I have borne so much, that I think I can't feel pain any
more. With you, here in our home, I am happy, and, wherever I am, I
don't think I shall ever be _un_happy. I have written to Mrs. Ormonde,
and she will let him know. He will think I came back because I had long
forgotten him, and was sorry that I ever left Gilbert. You see, that's
what I wish him to believe. Now there'll be nothing to prevent him from
marrying who he likes. No one can say that he has done harm which can
never be undone, can they? I shall rest now, and life will seem easy.
So little will be asked of me; I shall do my best so willingly.'

In the morning Thyrza said:

'I have a fancy, Lyddy. I want you to do my hair for me again.'

'Like you wear it now?'

'No, I mean in the old way. Will it make me look a child again? Never
mind, that is what I should like. I'll have it so when I go downstairs
to tea.'

And whilst Lydia was busy with the golden tresses, Thyrza laughed
suddenly. She had only just thought again of the ducks in the park. She
told all about them, and they laughed together.

'I wonder whether Mrs. Jarmey knows I'm here,' Thyrza said. 'You think
not? Won't someone be coming to see you? Won't Ma