th, she answered them, not indeed petulantly, as of old, but with a
strange, absent manner, as if it were duty alone that made her speak.
Only when Honor spoke of her again seeing the physician whom she had
consulted, she at first sharply refused, then, as if recollecting
herself, meekly said: 'As you think fit, but I had rather it was not the
same.'

'I thought he was your own preference,' said Honor, 'otherwise I should
have preferred Dr. F.'

'Very well, let it be,' said Lucy, hastily.

The good-nights, the kisses past, and Honor went away, with a heavy load
of thwarted hopes and baffled yearning at her heart--yearnings which
could be stilled only in one way.

A knock. She started up, and called 'Come in,' and a small, white,
ghostly figure glided in, the hands tightly clasped together.

'Lucy, dear child, you are ill!'

'I don't know what is the matter with me,' said a husky, stifled voice;
'I meant it--I wanted it. I longed after it when it was out of reach,
but now--'

'What, my dear?' asked Honor, appalled at the effort with which she
spoke.

'Your pardon!' and with a pressure of hands and contraction of the brow
as of physical agony, she exclaimed, 'Honor, Honor, forgive me!'

Honor held out her arms, she flung herself prone into them, and wept.
Tears were with her an affection as violent as rare, and her sobs were
fearful, heaving her little fragile frame as though they would rend it,
and issuing in short cries and gasps of anguish. Honor held her in her
arms all the time, much alarmed, but soothing and caressing, and in the
midst, Lucilla had not lost all self-control, and though unable to
prevent the paroxysm, restrained it as much as possible, and never
attempted to speak; but when her friend laid her down, her whole person
still quivering with the long swell of the last uncontrollable sobbing,
she looked up with the sweetest smile ever seen by Honor, who could not
help thinking that such a sight might have met the eyes of the mother who
found the devil gone out and her daughter laid on the bed.

The peace was such that neither could bear to speak for many seconds. At
last Lucy said, 'Dear Honor.'

'My dearest'

'Lie down by me; please put your arms round me. There! Oh! it is so
comfortable. Why did I never find it out before? I wish I could be a
little child, and begin again from the time my father made me over to
you.'

'Lucy, we all would begin again if we could. I have come to t