and spent the next quarter of an hour in
recalling, with all the reality of self-reproach, the circumstances of
her recklessness, vanity and self-will on that day. She knelt and poured
out her confession, her prayer for forgiveness, and grace to avoid the
very germs of these sins for the future, before Him Who seeth in secret:
and a calm energetic spirit of hope, in the midst of true repentance,
began to dawn on her.

It was good for her, but was it not selfish in Henrietta thus to leave
her alone to bear her burthen? Yes, selfish it was; for Henrietta had
heard the last report of Frederick since their return, and knew that
her presence in his room was quite useless; and it was only for the
gratification of her own feelings that she hurried thither without even
stopping to recollect that her cousin might also be unhappy, and be
comforted by talking to her.

Her thought was only the repining one: "the thorns go deep!" Poor child,
had they yet gone deep enough? The patient may cry out, but the skilful
surgeon will nevertheless probe on, till he has reached the hidden
source of the malady.

CHAPTER XV.

On a soft hazy day in the beginning of February, the Knight Sutton
carriage was on the road to Allonfield, and in it sat the Busy Bee and
her father, both of them speaking far less than was their wont when
alone together.

Mr. Geoffrey Langford took off his hat, so as to let the moist spring
breeze play round his temples and in the thin locks where the silvery
threads had lately grown more perceptible, and gazed upon the dewy
grass, the tiny woodbine leaf, the silver "pussycats" on the withy, and
the tasselled catkin of the hazel, with the eyes of a man to whom such
sights were a refreshment--a sort of holiday--after the many springs
spent in close courts of law and London smoke; and now after his long
attendance in a warm dark sick-room. His daughter sat by him, thinking
deeply, and her heart full of a longing earnestness which seemed as if
it would not let her speak. She was going to meet her mother, whom she
had not seen for so long a time; but it was only to be for one evening!
Her father, finding that his presence was absolutely required in London,
and no longer actually indispensable at Knight Sutton, had resolved on
changing places with his wife, and she was to go with him and take her
mother's place in attending on Lady Susan St. Leger. They were now going
to fetch Mrs. Geoffrey Langford home from th