to efface from her features all evidence of the shock she had sustained,
descended to dinner, looking rather more stately than usual.

It annoyed her to observe that her step-mother glanced deprecatingly at
her, and was inclined to be extra affectionate. This would never do. Like
most young girls, she was generally rather silent when not interested in
the discussions of her elders. But now she never let conversation drop.
The incidents of the croquet-party furnished a safe topic. Colonel
Rolleston thought the gentle dissipation had made his daughter quite
lively. Afterwards she took refuge at the piano, which was imprudent, for
music only too surely touches the chord of feeling, and every piece was
associated with Bertie. Cecil shut the instrument, and effected a
strategical retreat to her bed-room, where, in the luxury of solitude,
she might worry and torment herself to her heart's content. His absence
was trial enough, but the sting lay in the way it was done, which was
such a proof of indifference, that shame urged her to crush out all
thoughts of him, and suffer anything rather than let him see the
impression his careless affection had made on her.

And so Cecil passed through her first "baptism of fire" alone and
unsuspected; but time had softened much of her resentment ere they met
again.




CHAPTER III.

GENTLE ANNIE.