called every day to inquire about her. She made this cold--which was
really a very slight affair--an excuse for a week's solitude, and at
the end of that time reappeared among us with no trace of her secret
sorrow. It was only I, who was always with her, and knew her to the
core of her heart, who could have told how hard a blow that
disappointment had been, and how much it cost her to bear it so
quietly.


CHAPTER X.


CHANGES AT THORNLEIGH.


The autumn and the early winter passed monotonously enough. There
was a good deal of company at Thornleigh Manor at first, for Mrs.
Darrell hated solitude; but after a little time she grew tired of
the people her husband knew, and the dinners and garden parties
became less frequent. I had found out, very soon after her return,
that she was not happy--that this easy prosperous life was in some
manner a burden to her. It was only in her husband's presence that
she made any pretence of being pleased or interested in things. With
him she was always the same--always deferential, affectionate, and
attentive; while he, on his side, was the devoted slave of her every
whim and wish.

She was not unkind to Milly, but those two seemed instinctively to
avoid each other.