obliged to use her handkerchief frequently, as if she was suddenly
developing a cold in her head.

"I must take care," she said once, quite prosaically, but with more
pathos in her voice than she was aware of, "or I shall make my nose
quite red."

[Illustration: The Marquis of Walderhurst]

Though Batch was able to supply fish, he was unfortunately not able to
send it to Mallowe. His cart had gone out on a round just before Miss
Fox-Seton's arrival, and there was no knowing when it would return.

"Then I must carry the fish myself," said Emily. "You can put it in a
neat basket."

"I'm very sorry, miss; I am, indeed, miss," said Batch, looking hot and
pained.

"It will not be heavy," returned Emily; "and her ladyship must be sure
of it for the dinner-party."

So she turned back to recross the moor with a basket of fish on her arm.
And she was so pathetically unhappy that she felt that so long as she
lived the odour of fresh fish would make her feel sorrowful. She had
heard of people who were made sorrowful by the odour of a flower or the
sound of a melody but in her case it would be the smell of fresh fish
that would make her sad. If she had been a person with a sense of
humour, she might have seen that this was thing to laugh at a little.
But she was not a humorous woman, and just now----