e might be
reminded of her shelter.

Twenty minutes or so, and the violence of the storm abated. The
lightning grew less frequent, the thunder distant and more distant. At
length the sound wholly ceased, and the lightning subsided into that
harmless sheet lightning which is so beautiful to look at in the far-off
horizon.

"It is over," he whispered.

She lifted her head from its resting place. Her blue eye was bright with
excitement, her delicate cheek was crimson, her golden hair fell in a
dishevelled mass around. Her gala robes had been removed, with the
diamond coronet, and the storm had surprised her writing a note in her
dressing-gown. In spite of the sudden terror which overtook her, she did
not forget to put the letter--so far as had been written of it--safely
away. It was not expedient that her husband's eyes should fall upon it.
Sibylla had many answers to write now to importunate creditors.

"Are you sure, Lionel?"

"Quite sure. Come and see how clear it is. You are not alarmed at the
sheet lightning."

He put his arm round her, and led her to the window. As he said, the sky
was clear again. Nearly all traces of the storm had passed away; there
had been no rain with it; and, but for the remembrance of its sound in
their ears, they might have believed that it had not taken place. The
broad lands of Verner's Pride lay spreading out before them, the lawns
and the terrace underneath; the sheet-lightning illumined the heavens
incessantly, rendering objects nearly as clear as in the day.

Lionel held her to his side, his arm round her. She trembled
still--trembled excessively; her bosom heaved and fell beneath his hand.

"When I die, it will be in a thunder-storm," she whispered.

"You foolish girl!" he said, his tone half a joking one, wholly tender.
"What can have given you this excessive fear of thunder, Sibylla?"

"I was always frightened at a thunder-storm. Deborah says mamma was. But
I was not so _very_ frightened until a storm I witnessed in Australia.
It killed a man!" she added, shivering and nestling nearer to Lionel.

"Ah!"

"It was only a few days before Frederick left me, when he and Captain
Cannonby went away together," she continued. "We had hired a carriage,
and had gone out of the town ever so far. There was something to be seen
there; I forget what now; races perhaps. I know a good many people went;
and an awful thunder-storm came on. Some ran under the trees for
shelter; some would