hat_ scared me.'

'Scared Winifred!' I said. 'Fancy anything scaring Winnie, who
threatens to hit people when they offend her.'

'Ah! but I am scared,' said she, 'at things from the other world, and
especially at a curse.'

'Why, what do you know about curses, Winifred?'

'Oh, a good deal. I have never forgotten that shriek of a cursed
spirit which I heard at the Swallow Falls. And only a short time ago
Sinfi Lovell nearly frightened me to death by a story of a whole
Gypsy tribe having withered, one after the other--grandfathers,
fathers, and children--through a dead man's curse. But what is the
matter with you, Henry? You surely have turned very pale!'

'Well, Winnie,' said I, 'I _am_ a little, just a little faint. After
the funeral I could take no dinner. But it will he over in a minute.
Let us go back a few yards and sit down upon the dry sand, and have
a little more chat.'

We went and sat down, and my heart slowly resumed its function.

'Let me see, Winnie, what were we talking about? About rubies and
diamonds, I think, were we not? You said that when your father bade
you come out for a walk to-night, he had just been talking about
rubies and diamonds. What was he saying about them, Winnie? But come
and lay your head here while you tell me; lay it on my breast,
Winnie, as you used to do in Graylingham Wood, and on these same
sands.'

Evidently the earnestness of my manner and the suppressed passion in
my voice drove out of her mind all her wise saws about the perils of
wealth and all her wise determinations about the postponed betrothal,
for she came and sat by my side and laid her head upon my breast.

'Yes. like _that_,' I said; 'and now tell me what your father was
saying about precious stones; for I, too, take an interest in jewels,
and have a great knowledge of them.'

'My father,' said Winifred, 'is going to have some diamonds and
rubies given to him to-night by a friend of his, a sailor, who has
come from India, and I am to go to London to-morrow to sell some of
them; for you know, dear, we are very poor. That is why I am
determined to go back to Shire-Carnarvon and see if I can get a
situation as governess. Miss Dalrymple's recommendation will be of
great aid. Poverty afflicts father more than it afflicts most people,
and the rubies and diamonds and things will be of no use to us, you
know.'

I could make her no answer.

'It seems a very strange kind of present from my father's friend,'
she