breathed Lady Isabel.

"Oh, I loved mamma--I loved mamma!" uttered Lucy, clasping her hands.
"But its all over. Wilson said we must not love her any longer, and Aunt
Cornelia said it. Wilson said, if she loved us she would not have gone
away from us."

"Wilson said so?" resentfully spoke Lady Isabel.

"She said she need not let that man kidnap her. I am afraid he beat her,
for she died. I lie in my bed at night, and wonder whether he did beat
her, and what made her die. It was after she died that our new mamma
came home. Papa said that she was to be our mamma in place of Lady
Isabel and we were to love her dearly."

"_Do_ you love her?" almost passionately asked Lady Isabel.

Lucy shook her head.

"Not as I loved mamma."

Joyce entered to show the way to the schoolroom, and they followed her
upstairs. As Lady Isabel stood at the window, she saw Mr. Carlyle depart
on foot on his way to the office. Barbara was with him, hanging fondly
on his arm, about to accompany him to the park gates. So had _she_
fondly hung, so had _she_ accompanied him, in the days gone forever.

Barbara came into the schoolroom in the course of the morning, and
entered upon the subject of their studies, the different allotted hours,
some to play, some to work. She spoke in a courteous but decided
tone, showing that she was the unmistakable mistress of the house and
children, and meant to be. Never had Lady Isabel felt her position so
keenly--never did it so gall and fret her spirit; but she bowed to meek
obedience. A hundred times that day did she yearn to hold the children
to her heart, and a hundred times she had to repress the longing.

In a soft, damask dress, not unlike the color of the walls from which
the room took its name, a cap of Honiton lace shading her delicate
features, sat Mrs. Hare. The justice was in London with Squire Pinner,
and Barbara had gone to the Grove and brought her mamma away in triumph.
It was evening now, and Mrs. Hare was paying a visit to the gray parlor.
Miss Carlyle had been dining there, and Lady Isabel, under plea of a
violent headache, had begged to decline the invitation to take tea
in the drawing-room, for she feared the sharp eyes of Miss Carlyle.
Barbara, upon leaving the dessert-table, went to the nursery, as usual,
to her baby, and Mrs. Hare took the opportunity to go and sit a few
minutes with the governess--she feared the governess must be very
lonely. Miss Carlyle, scorning usage and ceremony,