les and exercises became too monotonous. She went up to
Hillside and played with Leonard in the nursery, and though Geraldine's
sharp eyes discovered that something was amiss, and that Audrey was not
in her usual spirits, she had the tact and wisdom not to press for an
immediate confidence; and Audrey was very grateful for this forbearance.
Audrey's sturdy nature could brook no self-indulgence, and though the
March winds were cold, and the Brail lanes deep in miry clay, she
persisted in paying her accustomed weekly visit to Thomas O'Brien.

Mollie had a cold, and so had established a claim to remain by the
fireside; but Audrey would listen to no weak persuasion to ensconce
herself comfortably in the opposite easy-chair. On the contrary, she put
on her thickest boots, and, tucking up her skirts, braved wind and mud,
and even a cold mizzle of rain, on her way back, and had her reward, for
the walk freshened her, and in cheering her old friend she felt her own
spirits revive.

She was in a happier mood as she let herself in, and shook out her wet
cloak. She was in far too disreputable a state to present herself in the
drawing-room; besides, she was late, and she must get ready for dinner.
She ran upstairs lightly, but at the top of the staircase she suddenly
stopped as though she had been turned to stone. And yet there was
nothing very astonishing in the fact that a small brown dog, with very
short legs, should be pattering in a cheerful manner down the corridor,
or that he should utter a whine of friendly and delighted recognition
when he saw Audrey; and if she stared at him as though he were some
ghostly apparition, that was not Booty's fault. But the next moment she
had caught him up, and had darted with him into her own room.

'Oh, Booty, Booty!' she gasped, as the little animal licked her pale
face in a most feeling manner; 'to think he has come, Booty!' And if the
application of a warm tongue could have given comfort and assurance,
Audrey could have had plenty of both.

For a little while she could do nothing but sit there hugging the dog,
and making little plaintive speeches to him, until she heard Mollie's
step at the door, and then she put him down hastily.

'Oh, Audrey dear!' exclaimed Mollie, breathless with excitement. 'Have
you really got back at last? They are all asking for you. Dinner is
nearly ready, and you have not begun to dress yet. And who do you think
is in the drawing-room?'

For Booty, who al