ad blow for us all," Mrs. Hannay wrote, "but, as you know, he
has never been strong; still, we had no idea that anything serious ailed
him until we heard a fortnight since he was suffering from a violent
cough and had lost strength rapidly. A week later we heard that the
doctors were of opinion it was a case of sudden consumption, and that
the end was rapidly approaching. I went up to town to see him, and found
him even worse than I expected, and was in no way surprised when this
morning I received a letter saying that he had gone. Great as is the
blow, one cannot but feel that, terribly afflicted as he was, his death
is, as far as he is concerned, a happy release. I trust you will now
abandon your wild scheme of teaching and come home."

But home was less home than ever to Isobel now, and she remained another
six months at school, when she received an important letter from her
uncle.

"My Dear Isobel: When you first wrote to me and told me that what you
were most looking forward to was to make a home for your brother, I own
that it was a blow to me, for I had long had plans of my own about you;
however, I thought your desire to help your brother was so natural, and
would give you such happiness in carrying it into effect, that I at once
fell in with it and put aside my own plan. But the case is altered now,
and I can see no reason why I cannot have my own way. When I was in
England I made up my mind that unless I married, which was a most
improbable contingency, I would, when you were old enough, have you
out to keep house for me. I foresaw, even then, that your brother might
prove an obstacle to this plan. Even in the short time I was with you
it was easy enough to see that the charge of him would fall on your
shoulders, and that it would be a labor of love to you.

"If he lived, then, I felt you would not leave him, and that you would
be right in not doing so, but even then it seemed likely to me that
he would not grow up to manhood. From time to time I have been in
correspondence with the clergyman he was with, and learned that the
doctor who attended them thought but poorly of him. I had him taken
to two first class physicians in London; they pronounced him to be
constitutionally weak, and said that beyond strengthening medicines and
that sort of thing they could do nothing for him.

"Therefore, dear, it was no surprise to me when I received first your
mother's letter with the news, and then your own written a f