her husband did not intend to favour them with his company, the poor woman
took up the thread of her story at the place at which she had left it when
they were interrupted the day before.

'I was telling you, dear, about my life in that quiet country manor-house.
I think I can remember nothing worth mentioning, until an event happened
which altered the whole course of our lives.

'Lucy and I had been out riding in the park on the beautiful new horses
which our father had given us a few months before, and we had had a very
pleasant afternoon. I can see Lucy now in her riding-habit--her fair hair
hanging down her back, and her cheeks glowing with the air and exercise.
She was very pretty, was my sister Lucy. People said I was handsomer than
she was, and had a better figure and brighter eyes; but Lucy was a
sweet-looking little thing, and no one could look at her without loving
her.

'We got down from our horses, leaving them with the groom who had been
riding out with us, and ran into the house. But we were met by one of the
servants, with a face white with alarm, who begged us to go quietly
upstairs, as our father was very ill, and the doctor said he was to be
perfectly quiet. We asked her what was the matter with him, and she told us
that as he had been riding home from the railway station, his horse, which
was a young one he had just bought, had thrown him, and that he had been
brought home insensilble. More than this she could not tell us, but our
mother came into our bedroom, and told us, with more feeling than I had
ever seen in her face before, that our father could not live through the
night.

'I shall never forget that night. It was the first time that I had been