ly asked, when
she was getting better, and trying to reason herself out of her fancy
for Colonel Vaughan.

'Perhaps, ma'am, trouble has made me calm, and I pray to be made
patient; but I have a rebellious heart,' was the reply.

'Have you? I am very glad to hear it. Then there is hope for me. Now I
am going to get up.'

Freda had made some good resolutions during the intervals of her pain,
the principal of which were, entirely to forget Colonel Vaughan, or to
feel only intense contempt for him; to be more gentle with her father,
and more considerate of his nerves and peculiarities; more patient with
the servants, school children, and poor people generally; to do more
good, and to be more useful to others; but she had not made these
resolutions in Gladys' spirit. They were not made with prayer for help,
but in her own strength.

In the same way, she threw off the remains of her headache, and went
downstairs again with a prouder step and a prouder heart than when she
went up last.

In the library she found her father writing a letter and looking quite
animated. He was so sprucely dressed that she asked him if he were going
out.

'Not at present,' he said. 'I am so glad you are come down again. There
is so much to tell you; I have scarcely been able to keep myself from
letting you hear the news. Do you know it is all settled, and Gwynne
Vaughan is actually engaged to Miss Nugent! Isn't he a lucky fellow?'

Freda felt suddenly very sick; she sat down in an arm-chair near her
father, but did not speak. He looked at her, and said,--

'My dear, you are very pale still. Coming downstairs has been too much,
and dressing, and--and--all that sort of thing. Let me ring for Gladys.'

'No, I shall be better directly. Only the exertion--yes, you were
telling me--'

Strange that Mr Gwynne never supposed that Freda could be in love with
any one. She had refused so many, and was so different from other girls,
that the thought never entered his mind, and he had left her alone with
Colonel Vaughan, and would have done so with Cupid himself, quite
thoughtless of results. Moreover, his own natural inactivity and love of
ease, led him to allow her to take her own course, as long as she left
him alone to take his.

'Yes; I was saying that it is now quite settled. I believe he proposed
the very ball-night to Miss Nugent, at least, and the next day went in
form, and after certain preliminaries, was duly accepted by all parties.
Of