to
come," said Margaret gently.

"Dear child. And you have lost your roses. English country air will soon
bring them back."

"I never had much color, mama," said Margaret gravely. It was almost as
though she were not quite well pleased by the remark.

She moved away from the door, and Lady Caroline's eyes followed her with
a solicitude which had more anxiety and less pride than they used to
show. For Margaret had altered during the last few months. She had grown
more slender, more pale than ever, and a certain languor was perceptible
in her movements and the expression of her beautiful eyes. She was not
less fair, perhaps, than she had been before; and the ethereal character
of her beauty had only been increased by time. Lady Caroline had been
seriously distressed lately by the comments made by her acquaintances
upon Margaret's appearance. "Very delicate, surely," said one. "Do you
think that your daughter is consumptive?" said another. "She would be so
very pretty if she looked stronger," remarked a third. Now these were
not precisely the remarks that Lady Caroline liked her friends to make.

She could not quite understand her daughter. Margaret had of late become
more and more reticent. She was always gentle, always caressing, but she
was not expansive. Something was amiss with her spirits or her health:
nobody could exactly say what it was. Even her father discovered at last
that she did not seem well; but, although he grumbled and fidgeted about
it, he did not know how to suggest a remedy. Lady Caroline hoped that
the return to England would prove efficacious in restoring the girl's
health and spirits, and she was encouraged by hearing Margaret express
her pleasure in her English home. But she felt uneasily that she was not
quite sure as to what was wrong.

"People are beginning to call very quickly," she said, looking at some
cards that lay in a little silver tray. "The Bevans have been here,
Margaret."

"Have they? When we were out yesterday, I suppose?"

"Yes. And the Accringtons, and--oh, ah, yes--two or three other
people."

"Who, mamma?" said Margaret, her attention immediately attracted by her
mother's hesitation. She turned away from the door and entered the
morning-room as she spoke.

"Oh, only Lady Ashley, dear," said Lady Caroline smoothly. She had quite
recovered her self-possession by this time.

"And Sir Philip Ashley," said Margaret, with equal calmness, as she
glanced at the cards in th