''Tis quite disgusting if he kisses me,' said Dolly; 'but you see he is
poor, and all the Mohuns are stuck up, except father, and they wanted
mother to despise him, and not help him. And you see, she stuck to
him. I don't like him much; but you see nobody ever was like her! Oh,
Maude, if she wasn't dead!'

And poor Dolores cried as she had not done even at the time of the
accident, or in the terrible week that followed, or at the desolate
home coming.




CHAPTER II

THE MERRIFIELDS.



The cool twilight of a long sunny summer's day was freshening the
pleasant garden of a country house, and three people were walking
slowly along a garden path enjoying the contrast with the heat, glare,
and noise of the day. The central one was a tall, slender lady, with a
light shawl hung round her shoulders. On one side was a youth who had
begun to overtop her, on the other a girl of shorter and sturdier
mould, who only reached up to her shoulder.

'So she is coming!' the girl said.