er eyes were heavy and there
were dark red spots in her cheeks.

"Is that you, Lady O'Gara?" she asked in a low voice, "I've been
asleep, and I've only just wakened up. You are very good to come to
see me, but now you need not trouble about me any more. I am going
away from here. I do not think she will come back. She must have got
a long way on her road in these endless seven days of time. I should
have followed her at first and not wasted time waiting for her here."

"But, my poor child, where would you have gone?" Lady O'Gara asked,
sitting down beside the bed and capturing one of the restless hands.

"I think that old woman, Lizzie Brennan, knows something about where
she is. She was here yesterday, and she looked in at me and seemed
frightened. 'God help you, child,' she said. 'Don't you be wearin'
your heart out. She'll come back fast enough as soon as she knows you
want her. You see, mavourneen, it's a long time since she was anything
but a trouble to people.' I thought she was only talking in her mad
way. But since I've wakened up I've been thinking that maybe she knows
something."

"Oh, I wouldn't build on it, child. Lizzie often talks nonsense,
though she's not as mad as people think."

"I was just going to get up when I heard your foot on the stairs. I
feel stronger this morning, and I want to get out-of-doors. The house
is stifling me. I have been listening so hard for the sound of her
foot or her voice that when I try to listen I can't hear for the
thumping of my heart in my ears. I want to be with her. I too am only
a trouble to people. She and I will not be a trouble to each other."

Lady O'Gara had a thought.

"If you will get up and dress and eat your breakfast to my satisfaction
I shall go with you to Lizzie Brennan's lodge. It is only about half a
mile down the road. You have been too much in the house."

She went away downstairs, leaving Stella to get up and dress. There
was a dainty little breakfast ready for her when she came down, but she
did it little justice. Lady O'Gara had to be content with her trying
to eat. She seemed tired even after the slight exertion of dressing,
but she was very eager to go to Lizzie Brennan.

"If only I knew I should find my mother I should not be so troublesome
to you kind people," she said with a quivering smile, which Lady O'Gara
found terribly pathetic.

She said to herself that Grace Comerford must have lacked a good deal
in he