could--poor Barbara's heart was ruthlessly torn open and revealed unto
her consciousness. She felt that the others must read the tale in her
confused face.

Confused? No, Barbara, it was pale and still, as if a mortal wound had
been given.

Her head reeled, the world grew dark, and it was silence until she heard
Bettina saying frantically:--

"Bab, dear! are you faint? Oh! what is it?"

With an almost superhuman effort Barbara drew herself up and smiled
bravely, with white lips:--

"It is nothing--only a moment's dizziness. It is all over now."

This was what Mr. Sumner saw when he sprang up in alarm, and then in a
moment said: "Everything seems all right now."

But poor Barbara thought nothing could ever be right again. And when
their carriage drew up in the spacious courtyard of their hotel at
Sorrento, and Mr. Sumner, with an unusually bright and eager face, stood
waiting to help her alight, it was a frozen little hand that was put
into his, and he could not win a single glance from the eyes he loved
to watch, and from which he was impatient to learn if it were indeed
well with the owner.

To this day Barbara shudders at the thought or mention of the next four
or five days. And they were such rare days for enjoyment, could she have