evident
admiration of Miss Morton's bright cheeks and eyes, and so often resorted
to Westhaven, and dropped in at what she had named Northmoor cottage,
that there was fair reason for supposing that this might result in more
than an ordinary flirtation.

However, at the regatta, when she had looked for distinguished attention
on his part, she felt herself absolutely neglected, and the very next day
the _Morna_ sailed away, without a farewell.

Ida at first could hardly believe it. When she did, the conviction came
upon her that his son's attachment had been reported to Sir Thomas, and
that the young man had been summoned away against his will. It would
have been different, no doubt, had Herbert still been heir-presumptive.

'That horrid little Mite!' said she.

Whether her heart or her ambition had been most affected might be
doubtful. At any rate, the disappointment added to the oppression of a
heavy cold on the chest, which she had caught at the regatta, and which
became severe enough to call for the doctor.

Thus the mother and daughter did not go to Northmoor. At a ball given on
board a steam yacht just before Christmas Ida caught a violent cold on
the chest, the word congestion was uttered, and an opinion was pronounced
that as she had always weak lungs, a spring abroad would be advisable.

Mrs. Morton wrote a letter with traces of tears upon it, appealing to her
brother-in-law to assist her as the only hope of saving her dearest
child, and the quarries had done so well during the last year that he was
able to respond with a largesse sufficient for her needs, though not for
her expectations.

Mrs. Morton would have liked to have taken Constance as interpreter, and
general aid and assistant; but Constance was hard at work, aspiring to a
scholarship, at a ladies' college, and it was plain that her sister was
not so desirous of her company as to make her mother overrule her wishes
as a duty.

In fact, Ida had found a fellow-traveller who would suit her much better
than Constance. Living for the last year in lodgings near at hand was a
Miss Gattoni, daughter of an Italian courier and French lady's maid. As
half boarder at a third-rate English school, she had acquired education
enough to be first a nursery-governess, and later a companion; and in her
last situation, when she had gone abroad several times with a rheumatic
old lady, she had recommended herself enough to receive a legacy which
rendered her t