t, Mrs
Phoebe. The letter shall go, my dear. Make your mind easy."

Yet Betty did not see all there was to be seen.

"Why, Phoebe!" exclaimed Rhoda, when she got back to the bedroom, "where
have you been?"

"Downstairs."

"What had you to go down for? You forgot something, I suppose. But
what is the matter with your eyes?"

"They burn a little to-night, dear," said Phoebe, quietly.

The days went on, and there was no reply to Phoebe's audacious note, and
there was a reply to Mrs Latrobe's situation-hunting. She announced to
Rhoda on the ninth morning at breakfast that she had heard of an
excellent place for her. Lady Kitty Mainwaring the mother of Molly
Delawarr's future husband, was on the look-out for a "woman." She had
three daughters, the eldest of whom was the Kitty who had been at
Delawarr Court. Rhoda would have to wait on these young ladies, as well
as their mother. It was a most eligible situation. Mrs Latrobe, on
Rhoda's behalf, had accepted it at once.

Rhoda sat playing with her tea-spoon, and making careful efforts to
balance it on the edge of her cup.

"Do they know who wants it?" she asked, in a husky voice.

"Of course, my dear! You did not look I should make any secret of it,
sure?"

Rhoda's colour grew deeper. It was evident that she was engaged in a
most severe struggle with herself. She looked up at last.

"Very good, Aunt Anne. I will go to Lady Kitty," she said.

"My dear, I accepted the place. Of course you will go," returned Mrs
Latrobe, in a voice of some astonishment.

Rhoda got out of the room at the earliest opportunity, and Phoebe
followed her as soon as she could. But she found her kneeling by her
bed, and stole away again. Was chastening working the peaceable fruit
of righteousness in Rhoda Peveril?

Phoebe wandered out into the park, and bent her steps towards the ruins
of the old church. She sat down at the foot of Saint Ursula's image,
and tried to disentangle her bewildered thoughts. Had she made a
mistake in sending that letter, and did the Lord intend Rhoda to go to
Lady Kitty Mainwaring? Phoebe had been trying to lift her cousin out of
trouble. Was it God's plan to plunge Rhoda more deeply into it, in
order that she might learn her lesson the more thoroughly, and be the
more truly happy afterwards? If so, Phoebe had made a stupid blunder.
When would she learn that God did not need her bungling help? Yet, poor
Rhoda! How miserable she was lik