brings with it an exceeding great
reward. At the end of ten minutes Evie raised her head from its resting
place and said, in her old, bright voice:

"Shall we ask Rhoda to tea? It is such a lovely fire, and you brought
in such a bountiful supply of cakes and good things that it seems greedy
to keep them all to myself. Ask Rhoda to come in and help to make a
cosy little party."

Then, as Mrs Chester stooped to kiss her cheek, she whispered hastily,
"Tell her not to mention the past--never to mention it again! We will
turn over a new leaf to-day and think only of the future."

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

GOOD-BYE TO HURST MANOR.

The morning of the day dawned on which the invalids were to travel to
Erley Chase, and Rhoda lay awake upon her bed, listening to the echo of
the girls' voices as they sang the morning hymn in the hall below. Her
heart was softened with a feeling at once of thankfulness and dread--
thankfulness that Evie's life had been spared, and her friendship
renewed, and dread because, she dimly realised, this was the last of the
dear school days as they had been. Even if she returned after the
holidays, which seemed doubtful, it would be a changed house indeed,
with the older girls scattered all over the country, and Evie no longer
at hand to soothe and lighten every trouble. Her thoughts went back to
her first coming to Hurst Manor eighteen months before, and dwelt sadly
on her own ambitious hopes. It had all seemed so easy, so certain; she
had planned her career with such happy assurance, with never a thought
but that success and distinction lay waiting for her grasp; and it had
all ended in this--that she was returning home, enfeebled in health,
foiled in ambition, with the bitter weight on her conscience that her
self-will had inflicted a life-long injury on the kindest of friends.

"I have failed!" sighed Rhoda humbly to herself. "But why? I never
meant to do wrong. I intended only to work hard and get on. Surely,
surely, there was nothing wicked in that? It can't be possible to be
too industrious, and yet Evie evidently thought something was wrong, and
the Vicar... What can it have been? I wish, I wish I knew! I'm tired
of going my own way, for it leads to nothing but misery and
disappointment. I should like to find out the secret of being happy and
contented like other people." Her eyes filled with tears, those blue
eyes which had been so full of confidence, and she clasped he