ever thought of death in connection with him. He had
seemed as sound as steel. She had never heard him speak of the least
symptom of illness, and now the paper in her hand informed her that
he was dead.

How thankful she was that she had not spoken to him angrily in their
last talk! How she wished that she had said just one kind word to him
at parting! True, he had given her no opportunity; but if she had
known--

Suddenly she burst into violent weeping, and in this condition they
found her, with the telegram on the floor at her feet.

"Who would have thought my lady would have taken it so hard?" said
Mrs. Parlett, when the exciting news was heard down-stairs. "They was
that 'aughty to one another before people! But it's them as feels the
most, sometimes."

This remark was addressed to Nora, in the hope of eliciting a
response, but Nora excelled in the art of holding her tongue.

It was she alone who was admitted to her mistress's apartments, where
Bettina remained, in deep agitation, while the preparations for the
arrival of Lord Hurdly's body were being made. After her profound
emotion of pity for him, her next thought had been of Horace. He was
the heir and nearest of kin. It flashed upon her, with the suddenness
of surprise, that he was Lord Hurdly now.

How strange, how absolutely bewildering, this new state of things
seemed! Her mind seemed unable to grasp the strangeness of these new
conditions.

Bettina saw no one but the rector of the parish. All that had to be
done was so plain and simple, and there were so many capable hands to
do it, that there was little need to consult with her. She begged the
rector to act in her stead in giving all necessary directions. It was
with a deep sense of relief that she reflected on the impossibility
of Horace's arrival in time for the funeral. Perhaps she could get
away somewhere before he came.

Those days when her husband's body lay in the apartment near her, and
the relations and friends assembled to do it an honor which in his
lifetime they were scarcely suffered to express, marked the period of
the real awakening of Bettina's soul. The sense of freedom which her
position now secured to her, the power to do and be what she chose,
was like wings to her spirit, and for the first time in her
experience the woman and the hour were met.

When she had been free before to make her own life, her vision had
been so limited, her aspiration so low, her interest in the
h