you in her room, in her dressing-room. She will be down
stairs, you know." From which last words the tidings were conveyed to
Lady Mason that she was not to see Mrs. Orme again.

And then she went, and as she slowly made her way across the hall
she felt that all of evil, all of punishment that she had ever
anticipated, had now fallen upon her. There are periods in the lives
of some of us--I trust but of few--when, with the silent inner voice
of suffering, we call on the mountains to fall and crush us, and
on the earth to gape open and take us in. When, with an agony of
intensity, we wish that our mothers had been barren. In those moments
the poorest and most desolate are objects to us of envy, for their
sufferings can be as nothing to our own. Lady Mason, as she crept
silently across the hall, saw a servant girl pass down towards the
entrance to the kitchen, and would have given all, all that she had
in the world, to have changed places with that girl. But no change
was possible for her. Neither would the mountains crush her, nor
would the earth take her in. There was her burden, and she must bear
it to the end. There was the bed which she had made for herself, and
she must lie upon it. No escape was possible to her. She had herself
mixed the cup, and she must now drink of it to the dregs.

Slowly and very silently she made her way up to her own room, and
having closed the door behind her sat herself down upon the bed. It
was as yet early in the morning, and the servant had not been in the
chamber. There was no fire there although it was still mid-winter.
Of such details as these Sir Peregrine had remembered nothing when
he recommended her to go to her own room. Nor did she think of them
at first as she placed herself on the bed-side. But soon the bitter
air pierced her through and through, and she shivered with the cold
as she sat there. After a while she got herself a shawl, wrapped it
close around her, and then sat down again. She bethought herself that
she might have to remain in this way for hours, so she rose again
and locked the door. It would add greatly to her immediate misery
if the servants were to come while she was there, and see her in
her wretchedness. Presently the girls did come, and being unable to
obtain entrance were told by Lady Mason that she wanted the chamber
for the present. Whereupon they offered to light the fire, but she
declared that she was not cold. Her teeth were shaking in her head,
bu