breath-bereaving coiffures stared superciliously right through her. She
felt most uncomfortable in such strange company.

She turned from the gallery and entered the living room. Everything
about it was of the solid Tudor days and bespoke, even as the
portraits, a period when the family must have been of some considerable
importance. She wandered about the room touching some things
timidly--others boldly. For example--on the piano she found a perfectly
carved bronze statuette of Cupid. She gave a little elfish cry of
delight, took the statuette in her arms and kissed it.

"Cupid! me darlin'. Faith, it's you that causes all the mischief in the
wurrld, ye divil ye!" she cried.

All her depression vanished. She was like a child again. She sat down
at the piano and played the simple refrain and sang in her little
girlish tremulous voice, one of her father's favourite songs, her eyes
on Cupid:

"Oh! the days are gone when Beauty bright
My heart's charm wove!
When my dream of life, from morn till night,
Was love, still love!
New hope may bloom,
And days may come,
Of milder, calmer beam,
But there's nothing half so sweet in life
As Love's young dream!
No, there's nothing half so sweet in life
As Love's young dream."

As she let the last bars die away and gave Cupid a little caress, and
was about to commence the neat verse a vivid flash of lightning played
around the room, followed almost immediately by a crash of thunder.

Peg cowered down into a deep chair.

All the laughter died from her face and the joy in her heart. She made
the sign of the cross, knelt down and prayed to Our Lady of Sorrows.

By this time the sky was completely leaden in hue and rain was pouring
down.

Again the darkening room was lit up by a vivid forked flash and the
crash of the thunder came instantly. The storm was immediately
overhead. Peg closed her eyes, as she did when a child, while her lips
moved in prayer.

Into the room through the window came a young man, his coat-collar
turned up, rain pouring from his hat; inside his coat was a
terrified-looking dog. The man came well into the room, turning down
the collar of his coat; and shaking the moisture from his clothes, when
he suddenly saw the kneeling figure of Peg. He looked down at her in
surprise. She was intent on her prayers.

"Hello!" cried the young man. "Frightened, eh?"

Peg loo