w it, and sighed a little. She knew this girl's secret, knew it
only too well. Many an hour of anxiety and worry it had caused her.

"Helen is our aunt by marriage," she said.

"Oh!" Ellice said, "I thought--"

John laughed. He had a jolly laugh, a great hearty laugh that did one
good to hear.

"What did you think she was, gipsy girl?" he asked, for "gipsy" was his
pet name for the little dark beauty.

"Did you think she was some young and lovely damsel who was eager to
meet me again?"

"I should hate her if she was!" the girl said, whereat John laughed
again.

"Write to Helen, Con," he said as he rose from the table, "and say we'll
come over to-morrow." He paused, frowning, at thought. "I'll manage it
somehow. I'll drive you over in the trap. It would be useful to have a
car; I don't know why I put off getting one."

Constance did, and she smiled. "Wait till next year, dear."

He nodded. "Yes, next year we'll get one. Meanwhile write to Helen, and
tell her we'll be over to-morrow afternoon."

"And I?" Ellice asked.

John looked at her. "Why--no, child, you'll stop at home and look after
the house, eh?" He nodded to them and went out.

"Is she there--alone?" Ellice asked.

"Who, dear?"

"This Helen, your aunt. Is it usual to call your aunt just plain Helen?"

"No, I suppose it isn't, and she is not there alone, as you ask. She is
living with a girl who has just come into a great deal of money--Miss
Joan Meredyth."

"What is she like?" the girl asked quickly.

Constance smiled.

"I don't know, dear. You see, I have never seen her."

"Then I hope," Ellice said between her clenched teeth, "I hope she is
ugly, ugly as sin!"

"I think," said Constance gently, "that you are very silly and foolish!"

Yet when the morrow came it was Ellice and not Constance who sat beside
John in the trap, and was driven by him the six odd miles to Starden.
For Constance had one of "her headaches." It was no imaginary ailment,
but a headache that prostrated her and filled her with pain, that made
every sound an agony. She lay in her room, the blinds drawn, and all the
household hushed.

"I'll write that we'll go to-morrow, dear," John said.

"No, go to-day. I should be glad, Johnny. Go to-day and take Ellice, I
am so much better alone; and by the time you come home perhaps I shall
have been able to sleep it off."

So Johnny Everard drove Ellice over to Starden that afternoon.

Helen Everard received them in the