r was too strong,
and she could not restrain herself.

"Why should their hearts be cold? Oh, mamma, that is a terrible thing
to say. Why should their hearts be cold?"

"I hope it may not be so."

"Of course you do; of course we all hope it. He was not cold-hearted,
at any rate. A man is not cold-hearted, because he does not know
himself. Mamma, I want you to wish for their happiness."

Mrs Dale was silent for a minute or two before she answered this, but
then she did answer it. "I think I do," said she. "I think I do wish
for it."

"I am very sure that I do," said Lily.

At this time Lily had her breakfast upstairs, but went down into the
drawing-room in the course of the morning.

"You must be very careful in wrapping yourself as you go downstairs,"
said Bell, who stood by the tray on which she had brought up the
toast and tea. "The cold is what you would call awful."

"I should call it jolly," said Lily, "if I could get up and go out.
Do you remember lecturing me about talking slang the day that he
first came?"

"Did I, my pet?"

"Don't you remember, when I called him a swell? Ah, dear! so he was.
That was the mistake, and it was all my own fault, as I had seen it
from the first."

Bell for a moment turned her face away, and beat with her foot
against the ground. Her anger was more difficult of restraint than
was even her mother's,--and now, not restraining it, but wishing to
hide it, she gave it vent in this way.

"I understand, Bell. I know what your foot means when it goes in that
way; and you shan't do it. Come here, Bell, and let me teach you
Christianity. I'm a fine sort of teacher, am I not? And I did not
quite mean that."

"I wish I could learn it from some one," said Bell. "There are
circumstances in which what we call Christianity seems to me to be
hardly possible."

"When your foot goes in that way it is a very unchristian foot, and
you ought to keep it still. It means anger against him, because he
discovered before it was too late that he would not be happy,--that
is, that he and I would not be happy together if we were married."

"Don't scrutinise my foot too closely, Lily."

"But your foot must bear scrutiny, and your eyes, and your voice. He
was very foolish to fall in love with me. And so was I very foolish
to let him love me, at a moment's notice,--without a thought as it
were. I was so proud of having him, that I gave myself up to him all
at once, without giving him a chance of