t to have been. Down here it
seems your friends are the people whom you live near, not the ones you
like. It seems a curious arrangement. And as the Pratts are James's and
Minna's greatest friends, I did not wish to offend them. And then, of
course, I did offend them mortally at last by losing my temper when they
came up to my room to what they called 'rout me out,' though I had told
them I was busy in the mornings. I was in a very difficult place, and
when they came in I did not know who they were, because only the people
in the book were real just then. And then when I recognized them, and
the scene in my mind which I had been waiting for for weeks was
shattered like a pane of glass, I became quite giddy and spoke wildly.
And then--I was so ashamed afterwards--I burst into tears of rage and
despair."

Even the remembrance was too much. Hester wiped away two large tears
onto a dear little handkerchief just large enough to receive them, and
went on with a quaver in her voice.

"I was so shocked at myself that I found it quite easy to tell them next
day that I was sorry I had lost my temper; but they have not been the
same since. Not that I wanted them to be the same. I would rather they
were different. But I was anxious to keep on cordial terms with Minna's
friends. She quarrels with them herself, but that is different. I
suppose it is inevitable if you are on terms of great intimacy with
people you don't really care for."

"At any rate, _they_ have not interrupted you again?"

"N--no. But still, I was often interrupted. Minna has too much to do,
and she is not strong just now, and she often sends up one of the
children, and I was so nearly fierce with one of them--poor little
things!--that I felt the risk was becoming too great, so I have left off
writing between breakfast and luncheon, and I get up directly it is
light instead. It is light very early now. Only the worst part of it is
that I am so tired for the rest of the day that I can hardly drag myself
about."

Rachel said nothing. She seldom commented on the confidences that were
made to her. She saw that Hester, always delicate, was making an
enormous effort under conditions which would be certain to entail
disastrous effects on her health. The book was sapping her strength like
a vampire, and the Gresleys were evidently exhausting it still further
by unconsciously strewing her path with difficulties. Rachel did not
know them, but she supposed they belonged