of uncongenial companionship--these were the hardest test, the most
cruel tax upon endurance.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, the same uneventful,
monotonous existence--and suppose for one moment that Jack married
Mollie Burrell, and Bridgie returned to her Irish home! Sylvia shivered
and shut her eyes as at an unbearable prospect, and Mrs Nisbet's voice
said softly in her ear--

"`I do not ask to see the distant scene. One step enough for me!' Take
each day as it comes, dear, and try to live it bravely without thinking
of to-morrow. We will travel with you as far as Paris, and have a few
days together before you go on to London. I wish you would have stayed
with us longer, but perhaps it will be better for us all to be apart for
a time, and meet again later on. We shall be in London in autumn, and
one of my first visits will be to you. Your father has been like a
brother to my husband for years past, and we shall always feel a very
close interest in your welfare.

"By the way, dear, how are you off for money? Would it be a convenience
if I lent you some to pay for mourning and the return journey? You came
away expecting to be responsible for a few days only, and, as you know,
when a man dies it is not possible to touch his money until certain
legal formalities have been observed. We should be only too delighted
to act as your bankers until matters are settled."

"Thank you very much, but I think I shall have enough. I drew out what
money was in the bank before leaving home, and I would rather not get
into debt until I know exactly how I am placed. There may be very
little left. Father always spoke as if he were poor."

"He told you nothing about his affairs, then? You know nothing about
them?"

Mrs Nisbet looked at her curiously as she spoke, and Sylvia's heart
gave a throb of fear. She knew something; there was evidently some
secret with which she herself was unacquainted, and in her present
depressed condition of mind and body it was only natural that she should
leap to the conclusion that the news must be bad, and, ostrich-like,
tried to hide her head in the sand.

"He told me there had been some changes lately, which I should not
understand. His lawyers will write to me some time, I suppose, but I
don't want to think about money yet. I have sufficient for the next few
months, for I shall go nowhere, and need no more clothes."

"Yes, yes, dear! It's all right. You wi