udies and the
little gate that led down to the town. A tame jackdaw was hopping among
the stones, and a couple of fan-tail pigeons were strutting near him.
The mellow brightness of the October sunshine seemed to flood the whole
court. Oh, how peaceful it looked, how calm and still! and then Audrey
suddenly put down her face on her hands and cried like a baby. 'Oh, if
it were only not my fault!' she sobbed; 'but I cannot, cannot bear it,'
and for a time she could do nothing but weep.

CHAPTER XXIII

'DADDY, I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU'

'To his eye
There was but one beloved face on earth,
And _that_ was shining on him.'

CHAPMAN.

Audrey never knew how long she sat there, shedding those healing tears,
every one of which seemed to relieve her overcharged heart; it was a
luxury to sit there in that cool shadowed stillness. Presently she would
rouse herself and go back to her world again; presently, but not just
now! By and by she would think it all out, she would question her own
heart more closely. Hitherto she had feared any such scrutiny--now it
would be selfish, cowardly, to avoid it any longer; but at the present
minute she was only conscious that she and everyone else were miserable.

At this moment she heard footsteps crossing the courtyard. Then, to her
dismay, they entered the lobby. She had only just time to drag down a
book from the shelves and open it haphazard; it was a volume on natural
history. Anyone would have thought her absorbed, she pored so
attentively over that plate of gaudy butterflies, never raising her head
to look at the new-comer, who stood a few yards off regarding her with
unqualified astonishment. Cyril Blake--for it was he, and no other, who
had entered the library--would willingly have withdrawn without
attracting her notice; but one of the boys in the sanatorium wanted a
certain fascinating book of adventures, and he had promised to fetch it.
He knew the volume was in this very recess, and he saw with some
annoyance that it would be necessary to disturb her.

'Miss Ross,' he said, in that quiet, guarded tone in which he always
addressed her now, 'may I trouble you to move just for one moment? I am
so sorry to disturb you, but Willie Taylor--' and then he stopped as
though he were suddenly petrified.

Audrey had risen quickly, but as she moved aside he had a full view of
her face--the flushed cheeks and