mayn't I build sand mounds, too?"

"We'll see when the time comes."

"Well, let me go with Billy and fetch the cheese."

"No, you can't go now, dear, there are too many people about; this is
not like London."

Cissy had the long sad face of cripples, but beautiful shining curls
hung thickly, hiding the crookedness of the shoulders. She was nine
years old, and was just beginning to awake to a sense of the
importance of her affliction.

After lunch she was sent downstairs to the office-boy. Willy sat
rubbing his hands slowly and methodically. After some hesitation he
introduced the subject they had come to speak on. "Mr. Escott will
tell you, Mary, how important it is that our marriage should be kept
secret; he will tell you how the slightest suspicion of it would ruin
my prospects." He then spoke of his position in the county, and the
necessity of sustaining it. Frank thought this rather bad taste; but
he assured Mrs. Brookes, with much Celtic gesticulation, that her
marriage must be kept a secret till her father-in-law's death. The
young men and Mrs. Brookes remained talking till the rays trailed
among the green grass of the graves, and the blue roofs that descended
into the valley, and clung about the sides of the opposite hill. It
had been arranged that Willy and Mrs. Brookes should go to London to-
morrow to be married. Frank was convinced that she would not break her
promise, and he hoped they would be very happy. She had only raised
one objection. She had said: "What is the use of my being married if I