losed
against her. Not so the heart of her mother; but that mother pleaded
with her husband in vain for a reconciliation, for permission even to
have a single meeting with her erring child. And so the poor mother's
mind came under partial eclipse, and herself had been some years away
from home under private superintendence, when the accident above
recorded occurred to her husband and his sister.

CHAPTER THREE.

A TALK AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.

The morning after the accident, Miss Huntingdon, who was now keeping her
brother's house, and had been returning with him the night before after
a visit to a friend, appeared as usual at the breakfast-table, rather to
Mr Huntingdon's surprise.

"My dear Kate," he said, "I hardly expected to see you at breakfast,
after your fright, and shaking, and bruising. Most ladies would have
spent the morning in bed; but I am delighted to see you, and take it for
granted that you are not seriously the worse for the mishap."

"Thank you, dear Walter," was her reply; "I cannot say that I feel very
brilliant this morning, but I thought it would be kinder in me to show
myself, and so relieve you from all anxiety, as I have been mercifully
preserved from anything worse than a severe shaking, the effects of
which will wear off in a day or two, I have no doubt."

"Well, Kate, I must say it's just like yourself, never thinking of your
own feelings when you can save other people's. Why, you are almost as
brave as our hero Walter, who risked his own neck to get us out of our
trouble last night.--Ah! here he comes, and Amos after him. Well,
that's perhaps as it should be--honour to whom honour is due."

A cloud rested on Miss Huntingdon's face as she heard these last words,
and it was deepened as she observed a smile of evident exultation on the
countenance of her younger nephew, as he glanced at the flushed face of
his elder brother. But now all seated themselves at the table, and the
previous evening's disaster was the all-absorbing topic of conversation.

"Well," said the squire, "things might have been worse, no doubt, though
it may be some time before the horses will get over their fright, and
the carriage must go to the coachmaker's at once.--By-the-by, Harry,"
speaking to the butler, who was waiting at table, "just tell James, when
you have cleared away breakfast, to see to that fence at once. It must
be made a good substantial job of, or we shall have broken bones, and
broken