lace? why did you bring me
here?"

At this cry Miss Valery, roused from her momentary fit of abstraction,
took hold of Agatha's hand. The girl was trembling violently.

"My dear, I did not expect this, or you should not have come here. This
is Weymouth. Now do you remember?"

"How should I? Was I ever here before?" She peered from under her hand at
the sparkling sea. "No, it is not like that sea; it is too bright. Yet I
hear the same roll against the same wall. It is very foolish, but I wish
we could get away."

"Presently," said Anne's soothing voice. "We must drive along this
shore, and then we will get out at an inn I know, and rest."

Her manner, her expression, as she fixed her eyes full upon her, struck
Agatha with an indescribable feeling. She looked eagerly at Miss Valery,
trying to read in that worn face some likeness to the one which had
impressed her childish memory with almost angelic beauty.

"Tell me--you say you have been often here--did you ever one stormy day
follow a ship that was outward bound? You were in a little boat, and the
ship was standing out to sea, round that point--and"--

She stopped, for Anne's face was livid to the very lips. Agatha forgot
her own question and its purport.

"Stop the carriage. Let me hold you. Dear--dear Miss Valery, you are
worn out--you are fainting."

"No--I never faint--I am only tired. Don't speak to me for a minute or
two, and I shall be well."

With a long sigh she forcibly brought life back to her cheeks--a feeble
life at best. Agatha, watching her, was smitten by a dread which
now entered her mind for the first time, driving thence all personal
feelings, and making her gaze with sorrowful anxiety on the friend
beside her who had been all day so cheerful and kind. And she thought
with a remorse amounting to positive horror, that she herself during
that day had more than once spoken sharply even to Anne Valery.

A great awe came upon her, reflecting how often we unconsciously walk
hand-in-hand, and talk of our own petty earthly trials, with those whose
souls' wings are already growing, already stirring with the air that
comes to bear them to the unseen land.

It was a relief indescribable, when leisurely strolling along the
pavement, she saw among many strange faces one that seemed familiar. The
hands knotted loosely at his back, the light hair straggling out from
under the hat, that was pushed far up from the forehead--no, she could
not be mistaken