d with it. What
puzzled her most was Bessy's own silence--yet that too, in a sense, was
reassuring, for Bessy thought of others chiefly when it was painful to
think of herself, and her not writing implied that she had felt no
present need of her friend's sympathy.

Justine did not expect to find Amherst at Lynbrook. She had felt
convinced, when they parted, that he would persist in his plan of going
south; and the fact that the Telfer girls were again in possession made
it seem probable that he had already left. Under the circumstances,
Justine thought the separation advisable; but she was eager to be
assured that it had been effected amicably, and without open affront to
Bessy's pride.

She arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and when she entered the house the
sound of voices from the drawing-room, and the prevailing sense of
bustle and movement amid which her own coming was evidently an
unconsidered detail, showed that the normal life of Lynbrook had resumed
its course. The Telfers, as usual, had brought a lively throng in their
train; and amid the bursts of merriment about the drawing-room tea-table
she caught Westy Gaines's impressive accents, and the screaming laughter
of Blanche Carbury....

So Blanche Carbury was back at Lynbrook! The discovery gave Justine
fresh cause for conjecture. Whatever reciprocal concessions might have
resulted from Amherst's return to his wife, it seemed hardly probable
that they included a renewal of relations with Mrs. Carbury. Had his
mission failed then--had he and Bessy parted in anger, and was Mrs.
Carbury's presence at Lynbrook Bessy's retort to his assertion of
independence?

In the school-room, where Justine was received with the eager outpouring
of Cicely's minutest experiences, she dared not put the question that
would have solved these doubts; and she left to dress for dinner without
knowing whether Amherst had returned to Lynbrook. Yet in her heart she
never questioned that he had done so; all her fears revolved about what
had since taken place.

She saw Bessy first in the drawing-room, surrounded by her guests; and
their brief embrace told her nothing, except that she had never beheld
her friend more brilliant, more triumphantly in possession of recovered
spirits and health.

That Amherst was absent was now made evident by Bessy's requesting Westy
Gaines to lead the way to the dining-room with Mrs. Ansell, who was one
of the reassembled visitors; and the only one, as J