became older. The two girls, who were together on every
available opportunity, presented a singular contrast, the one
with her clear, olive skin and almost Italian appearance, and
the other of the proverbial red and white of our rural
districts. It must be stated that the payments made to Mr. R.
for the maintenance of Helen were known in the village for their
excessive liberality, and the impression was general that she
would one day inherit a large sum of money from her relative.
The parents of Rachel were therefore not averse from their
daughter's friendship with the girl, and even encouraged the
intimacy, though they now bitterly regret having done so.
Helen still retained her extraordinary fondness for the forest,
and on several occasions Rachel accompanied her, the two
friends setting out early in the morning, and remaining in the
wood until dusk. Once or twice after these excursions Mrs. M.
thought her daughter's manner rather peculiar; she seemed
languid and dreamy, and as it has been expressed, "different
from herself," but these peculiarities seem to have been
thought too trifling for remark. One evening, however, after
Rachel had come home, her mother heard a noise which sounded
like suppressed weeping in the girl's room, and on going in
found her lying, half undressed, upon the bed, evidently in the
greatest distress. As soon as she saw her mother, she
exclaimed, "Ah, mother, mother, why did you let me go to the
forest with Helen?" Mrs. M. was astonished at so strange a
question, and proceeded to make inquiries. Rachel told her a
wild story. She said--

Clarke closed the book with a snap, and turned his
chair towards the fire. When his friend sat one evening in