. Arnott stopped short in her interrogation.

"Yes," said Flora, answering the pause.

"But I thought young Ogilvie a most unexceptionable person."

"So he is," said Flora. "I was much annoyed at the time, but she was
resolute."

"In rejecting him?"

"In running away as soon as she found what was likely to happen;" and
Flora, in a few words, told what had passed at Oxford.

"Then it was entirely out of devotion to your father?"

"Entirely," said Flora. "No one could look at her without seeing that
she liked him. I had left her to be the only effective one at home, and
she sacrificed herself."

"I am glad that I have seen her," said Mrs. Arnott. "I should never have
understood her by description. I always said that I must come home to
set my correspondence going rightly."

"Aunt Flora," said her niece, "do you remember my dear mother's
unfinished letter to you?"

"To be sure I do, my dear."

"Nothing ever was more true," said Flora. "I read it over some little
time ago, when I set my papers in order, and understood it then. I never
did before. I used to think it very good for the others."

"It is what one generally does with good advice."

"Do you recollect the comparison between Norman, Ethel, and me? It is
so curious. Norman, who was ambitious and loved praise, but now dreads
nothing so much; Ethel, who never cared for anything of the kind, but
went straight on her own brave way; and oh! Aunt Flora--me--"

"Indeed, my dear, I should have thought you had her most full
approbation."

"Ah! don't you see the tone, as if she were not fully satisfied, as if
she only could not see surface faults in me," said Flora; "and how she
said she dreaded my love of praise, and of being liked. I wonder how
it would have been if she had lived. I have looked back so often in the
past year, and I think the hollowness began from that time. It might
have been there before, but I am not so sure. You see, at that dreadful
time, after the accident, I was the eldest who was able to be efficient,
and much more useful than poor Ethel. I think the credit I gained made
me think myself perfection, and I never did anything afterwards but seek
my own honour."

Mrs. Arnott began better to understand Flora's continued depression, but
she thought her self-reproach exaggerated, and said something at once
soothing and calculated to encourage her to undraw the curtain of
reserve.

"You do not know," continued Flora, "how greedy I was of