her tears, and almost overcome with pain, nestled her head in
the woman's bosom, and Maltravers walked by her side, while his docile
and well-trained horse followed at a distance, every now and then
putting its fore-legs on the bank and cropping away a mouthful of leaves
from the hedge-row.

"Oh, Margaret!" said the little sufferer, "I cannot bear it--indeed I
cannot."

And Maltravers observed that Margaret had permitted the lame foot to
hang down unsupported, so that the pain must indeed have been scarcely
bearable. He could restrain himself no longer.

"You are not strong enough to carry her," said he, sharply, to the
servant; and the next moment the child was in his arms. Oh, with what
anxious tenderness he bore her! and he was so happy when she turned her
face to him and smiled, and told him she now scarcely felt the pain.
If it were possible to be in love with a child of eleven years old,
Maltravers was almost in love. His pulses trembled as he felt her pure
breath on his cheek, and her rich beautiful hair was waved by the breeze
across his lips. He hushed his voice to a whisper as he poured forth all
the soothing and comforting expressions which give a natural eloquence
to persons fond of children--and Ernest Maltravers was the idol of
children;--he understood and sympathised with them; he had a great
deal of the child himself, beneath the rough and cold husk of his proud
reserve. At length they came to a lodge, and Margaret eagerly inquiring
"whether master and missus were at home," seemed delighted to hear they
were not. Ernest, however, insisted on bearing his charge across the
lawn to the house, which, like most suburban villas, was but a stone's
throw from the lodge; and, receiving the most positive promise that
surgical advice should be immediately sent for, he was forced to content
himself with laying the sufferer on a sofa in the drawing-room; and she
thanked him so prettily, and assured him she was so much easier, that
he would have given the world to kiss her. The child had completed her
conquest over him by being above the child's ordinary littleness of
making the worst of things, in order to obtain the consequence and
dignity of being pitied;--she was evidently unselfish and considerate
for others. He did kiss her, but it was the hand that he kissed, and no
cavalier ever kissed his lady's hand with more respect; and then, for
the first time, the child blushed--then, for the first time, she felt
as i