"Don't even speak of it!" said Stella. "I really know no life that I
should not prefer to the life that my mother is enjoying at this moment.
What should I have done, Adelaide, if you had not offered me a happy
refuge in your house? _My_ 'earthly Paradise' is here, where I am
allowed to dream away my time over my drawings and my books, and to
resign myself to poor health and low spirits, without being dragged
into society, and (worse still) threatened with that 'medical advice'
in which, when she isn't threatened with it herself, my poor dear mother
believes so implicitly. I wish you would hire me as your 'companion,'
and let me stay here for the rest of my life."

Lady Loring's bright face became grave while Stella was speaking.

"My dear," she said kindly, "I know well how you love retirement, and
how differently you think and feel from other young women of your age.
And I am far from forgetting what sad circumstances have encouraged the
natural bent of your disposition. But, since you have been staying with
me this time, I see something in you which my intimate knowledge of your
character fails to explain. We have been friends since we were together
at school--and, in those old days, we never had any secrets from each
other. You are feeling some anxiety, or brooding over some sorrow, of
which I know nothing. I don't ask for your confidence; I only tell you
what I have noticed--and I say with all my heart, Stella, I am sorry for
you."

She rose, and, with intuitive delicacy, changed the subject. "I am going
out earlier than usual this morning," she resumed. "Is there anything
I can do for you?" She laid her hand tenderly on Stella's shoulder,
waiting for the reply. Stella lifted the hand and kissed it with