what they may really be--and I will pay
the other half. Isn't it cruel of my aunt not to let my old nurse live
in the same house with me?"

At that moment, a message arrived from one of the persons of whom she
was speaking. Mrs. Gallilee wished to see Miss Carmina immediately.

"My dear," said Miss Minerva, when the servant had withdrawn, "why do
you tremble so?"

"There's something in me, Frances, that shudders at my aunt, ever
since--"

She stopped.

Miss Minerva understood that sudden pause--the undesigned allusion
to Carmina's guiltless knowledge of her feeling towards Ovid. By
unexpressed consent, on either side, they still preserved their former
relations as if Mrs. Gallilee had not spoken. Miss Minerva looked at
Carmina sadly and kindly. "Good-bye for the present!" she said--and went
upstairs again to the schoolroom.

In the hall, Carmina found the servant waiting for her. He opened the
library door. The learned lady was at her studies.

"I have been speaking to Mr. Null about you," said Mrs. Gallilee.

On the previous evening, Carmina had kept her room. She had breakfasted
in bed--and she now saw her aunt for the first time, since Mrs. Gallilee
had left the house on her visit to Benjulia. The girl was instantly
conscious of a change--to be felt rather than to be realised--a subtle
change in her aunt's way of looking at her and speaking to her. Her
heart beat fast. She took the nearest chair in silence.

"The doctor," Mrs. Gallilee proceeded, "thinks it of importance to your
health to be as much as possible in the air. He wishes you to drive
out every day, while the fine weather lasts. I have ordered the open
carriage to be ready, after luncheon. Other engagements will prevent me
from accompanying you. You will be under the care of my maid, and you
will be out for two hours. Mr. Null hopes you will gain strength. Is
there anything you want?"

"Nothing--thank you."

"Perhaps you wish for a new dress?"

"Oh, no!"

"You have no complaint to make of the servants?"

"The servants are always kind to me."

"I needn't detain you any longer--I have a person coming to speak to
me."

Carmina had entered the room in doubt and fear. She left it with
strangely-mingled feelings of perplexity and relief. Her sense of a
mysterious change in her aunt had strengthened with every word that Mrs.
Gallilee had said to her. She had heard of reformatory institutions, and
of discreet persons called matrons who manag