r had taken a 'bus instead of a hansom, or even
had chosen to walk. A dull doubt had been creeping over her, which now
was no longer obscure, but plainly enough revealed; her father had lost
money. How, and where?

Impossible to answer this question. But at the same time there floated
before Dolly's mind two vague images; Epsom and betting,--and a green
whist table at Mr. St. Leger's, with eager busy players seated round
it. True, the Derby came but once a year; and true, she had always
heard that whist was a very gentlemanly game and much money never lost
at it. She repeated those facts to herself, over and over. Yet the
images remained; they came before her again and again; her father
betting eagerly in the crowd of betters on the race course, and the
same beloved figure handling the cards opposite to his friend the
banker, at the hospitable mansion of the latter. Who should be her
guaranty, that a taste once formed, though so respectably, might not be
indulged in other ways and companies not so irreproachable? The more
Dolly allowed herself to think of it, the more the pain at her heart
bit her. And another fear came to help the former, its fit and
appropriate congener. With the image of Mr. St. Leger and his cards,
rose up also the memory of Mr. St. Leger's decanters; and Dolly lowered
her head once in a convulsion of fear. She found she could not bear the
course of her thought; it must be interrupted; and she sprang up and
hurried on up the bank under the great trees, telling herself that it
was impossible; that anything so terrible could not happen to her; it
was not to be even so much as thought of. She cast it away from her,
and resolved that it could not be. As to the rest, she thought, poverty
is not disgrace; she would not break her heart about _that_ till she
knew there was more reason.

So with flying foot she hastened forward, willing to put a forcible
stop to thought by her quick motion and the new succession of objects
before her eyes. Yet they were not very new for a while. The ground
became level and the going grew easier; otherwise it was the same
lovely park ground, the same wilderness of noble trees, a renewal of
the same woodland views. Lovely green alleys or glades opened to right
and left, bidding her to enter them; then as she went on the trees
stood thicker again. The sun getting more low sent his beams more
slant, gilding the sides of the great trunks, tipping the ends of
branches with leafy