ilvie, partly because
she had a sore feeling in her heart with regard to her husband's
departure, although she would not acknowledge it, was inclined to be
snappish. She pulled the little girl up several times, and at last
Sibyl subsided in her seat, and looked out straight before her. It was
then that Lady Helen once more put her arm round her waist.

"Presently," said Lady Helen, "when the guests are all engaged, you
and I will slip out by ourselves, and I will show you one of the most
beautiful views in all England. We climb a winding path, and we
suddenly come out quite above all the trees, and we look around us;
and when we get there, you'll be able to see the blue sea in the
distance, and the ships, one of which is going to take your----"

But just then Mrs. Ogilvie gave Helen Douglas so severe a push with
her foot, that she stopped, and got very red.

"What ship do you mean?" said Sibyl, surprised at the sudden break in
the conversation, and now intensely interested, "the ship that is
going to take my--my what?"

"Did you never hear the old saying, that you must wait until your ship
comes home?" interrupted Mr. Rochester, smiling at the child, and
looking at Lady Helen, who had not got over her start and confusion.

"But this ship was going out," said Sibyl. "Never mind, I 'spect it's
a secret; there's lots of 'em floating round to-day. I've got some
'portant ones of my own. Never mind, Lady Helen, don't blush no more."
She patted Lady Helen in a patronizing way on her hand, and the whole
party laughed; the tension was, for the time, removed.

CHAPTER VIII

Ogilvie made a will leaving the ten thousand pounds which Lord
Grayleigh had given him absolutely to Sibyl for her sole use and
benefit. He also made all other preparations for his absence from
home, and started for Queensland on Saturday. He wrote to his wife on
the night before he left England, repeating his injunction that on no
account was Sibyl to be yet told of his departure.

"When she absolutely must learn it, break it to her in the tenderest
way possible," he said; "but as Grayleigh has kindly invited you both
to stay on at Grayleigh Manor for another week, you may as well do so,
and while there I want the child to be happy. The country air and the
companionship of other children are doing her a great deal of good. I
never saw her look better than I did the other day. I should also be
extremely glad, Mildred, if on your return to town