g it was for me.'

'Ah! you don't regret now all that you must have always been giving up
for her,' returned Alice.

'No, indeed. Only that I did not give up more.'

'That is always the way.'

'It is indeed. One little knows the whips that a little self-will
prepares.'

Nuttie thought he said it for her admonition, and observed, 'But she
was good,' only, however, in a mumble, that the other two thought it
inexpedient to notice, though it made both hearts ache for her, even
Alice's--with an additional pang of self-reproach that she herself was
not good enough to help her daughter better.

Neither of them guessed at the effect that a glimpse of the lovely
young seeming widow had had on the already grave self-restrained young
man in the home lately made lonely, how she had been his secret object
for years, and how, when her history was revealed to him, he had still
hoped on for a certainty which had come at last as so fatal a shock and
overthrow to all his dreams.

A life of self-restraint and self-conquest had rendered it safe for him
to thoroughly enjoy the brief intercourse, which had come about by the
accident of his having come to dine at the Hotel de Louvre, to meet a
friend who had failed him.

These were two completely happy hours to all the three, and when they
said 'good-night' there was a sense of soothing and invigoration on
Alice's mind; and on Nuttie's that patience and dutifulness were the
best modes of doing justice to her Micklethwayte training, although he
had scarcely said a word of direct rebuke or counsel.

While Mr. Dutton sped home to tell Miss Headworth that Mrs. Egremont
looked lovelier than ever, and was--yes she was--more of an angel, that
her husband had been very pleasant, much better than he expected, and,
indeed, might come to anything good under such influence; and as to
little Nuttie--she was developing fast, and had a brave constant heart,
altogether at Micklethwayte. But that servant who was acting as
courier was an insolent scoundrel, who was evidently cheating them to
the last degree.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A FRIEND IN NEED.

'True courage often is in frightened eyes.'--
Thoughts and Verses.

All the preliminaries of the sojourn at Nice had been settled in
correspondence, and the Egremont family had nothing to do, after
arriving at the station, but to drive up to Villa Eugenie, whose
flower-wreathed balconies were like a vision o