d in bed. Toward ten o'clock, as she
was slowly dressing with the maid's assistance, word came that her
mother desired her presence in the administrative bedroom below.

"Very well, Annie," said the girl, listlessly. "I'll be down in a few
minutes."

The message came as something of a surprise, though a disciplinary
intent was easily surmised behind it. In the interview the other night,
mamma had formally washed her hands of Cally and all her flare-ups, more
than intimating that henceforward they would live as comparative
strangers. Since then there had come nothing from the staunch little
general, who also had remained in her tent, not ill, but permanently
aloof and unreconciled. Very different, as it chanced, was the note
struck by papa, who had come twice a day, and sometimes thrice, to the
sick-room, ostentatiously cheery in his manner, but obviously depressed
underneath by the dreary atmosphere enveloping the house. Never, it
seemed, had papa been tenderer or more affectionate than in these
bedside visits: so that Cally, with her sense of a guilty secret, could
hardly bear to look at his kind, worried face.

And she had opened her eyes on the day of wellness with the knowledge
that she must put her hand to this cloud now, though she brought down
the skies with it. Nothing, it was clear, could be worse than this.
To-night, after dinner, she must follow her father into the study, say
what she must say. Her mind had returned and clung to the solid
arguments of Hen and others. She knew that the memory of the
bunching-room had got upon her nerves; entwined and darkened itself with
other painful things; assumed fantastic and horrid shapes. Perhaps the
dreaded interview would not be so very bad, after all. Surely her father
could not wear that kind look for nothing....

Dressed, Carlisle stood at her window a moment, greeting somewhat sadly
the brilliant day. Her desire was to stop the footless workings of her
mind; to go out and do something. But all that she could think of to do
was to return to Baird & Himmel's emporium and complete that shopping
for the Thompson kinsfolk which had been so suddenly interrupted last
week. And, that occupation exhausted, she would go on to Mattie Allen's,
and probably stay there for luncheon. Tame achievements, but better than
staying longer in this room.

Here on the broad window ledge, behind the concealing curtain, there
stood a bowl of flowers. They were violets, dry and discolo