ld family portraits! You were so proud of them. Doesn't it
break your heart to lose them all?"

"No," he said quietly, "I cannot think of such things to-day. I am too
filled with thankfulness that out of all that big household not a life
has been lost, and that my three darlings are with me still. Those
things you speak of are precious in their way, but I have no room for
regret for them in my heart when a still greater treasure is in danger,
Vere--"

"Oh, father, tell me about Vere! Tell me the truth. I am not a child,
and I ought to know. How has she hurt herself?"

"Truthfully, dear, no one knows. She cannot move, and there is
evidently some serious injury, but what it is cannot be decided until
after an examination. They fear some spinal trouble."

Spinal! I had a horrid vision of plaster jackets and invalid couches,
and those long flat, dreadful-looking chairs which you meet being
wheeled about at Bournemouth. It seemed impossible to connect such
things with Vere!

"It can't be so bad! It can't be really serious," I cried vehemently.
"It was all over in such a second, and we were there at once; everything
was done for her! Vere is easily upset, and she feels stiff and
strained. I do myself, but she will be better soon, father--they must
make her better! She could not bear to be ill."

He sighed so heavily, poor father, and leant his head against the wall
as if he were worn out, body and mind.

"Poor Vere, poor darling! I often wondered how her discipline would
come. Pray God it may not be this way; but if it does come thus we must
help her through it as bravely as may be. It will be hard for us as
well as for her; terribly hard for your mother especially. We shall
look to you, Babs, to cheer us up; you are young and lighthearted, and
if our fears come true you will have a great work before you."

But I didn't feel that I could promise at all. After he had gone I lay
thinking it all over and feeling perfectly wretched at the idea of being
cheerful under such circumstances. I can be as lively as a grig, (what
is a grig, by the way?) when things go smoothly, and other people are
cheerful, too, but to keep lively when they are in the depths of woe,
and you have to keep things going all by yourself and there is no
excitement or variety, is a very different thing. I am quelled at once
by sighs, and tears, and solemn faces. It's my nature, I can't help it.
I'm so sensitive. Miss Bruce once