rful manner all endeared
her to those whom she tended with such unremitting care.

Thus she passed the long summer days in the stifling slums of London.

So devoted was she, and so hard did she work, that at last a serious
illness was threatened, in consequence of which she was sent by the
Mother Superior to the West of England branch of the Order, who had a
small convent at Babbacombe, near Torquay, and in the latter town, in
better air, she continued her labours.

Not far from the convent, on the road leading to Newton Abbot, was the
ivy-covered lodge and great, handsome gates of ornamental iron leading
to Bracondale Park, the seat of the Right Honourable the Earl of
Bracondale, K.G.

The park, a spacious domain with great oaks and elms, was situated high
up, overlooking the English Channel, and away in the distance the long,
rather low-built mansion with a square, castellated turret at the
western end. The fine domain of the Bracondales, one of the most ancient
families in England, extended over many thousands of fertile acres in
Devon, besides which the Earl possessed a deer forest near Grantown, in
the Highlands; a pretty winter villa at Beaulieu, close to Nice; the
old-fashioned town house in Belgrave Square, and a pretty seaside villa
in the new and fashionable little resort, Saint-Addresse, near Havre.

But, as His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
the Earl of Bracondale had but little time in which to enjoy his
beautiful residences. True, he spent a few weeks on the Riviera in
winter, shot once or twice over the Bracondale coverts in the season,
and spent an annual fortnight up at the shooting lodge in Scotland; but
he was usually to be found either at Downing Street or down at
Bracondale immersed and absorbed by the affairs of State.

His one hobby was motoring, and he frequently drove his own car--a big
six-cylinder open one. Years ago, on the introduction of the motor-car,
he had been a young man, and had quickly become an enthusiast. He had
motored ever since the early days, and was still an expert driver. Once
he had held a world's distance record, and nowadays, even with the heavy
responsibilities upon him, he was never so happy as in overcoat and cap
at the steering-wheel. And in this recreation he found a very beneficial
change after so many hours of studying complicated reports and worrying
despatches from the Embassies abroad.

One summer's night he had been addressing