rm. A kind of dull passiveness came over me, which they
mistook for resignation. They thought I was beginning to forget, but
there are some sorrows which never really die, however deeply we may
seek to bury them, and every now and then my grief would awaken with
renewed force. The summer term dragged on towards its close. How I
dreaded the breaking-up party, with all its festivities! I wished I
could go away before it, though I did not like to ask to do so. The
examinations were over, and I stood high in my class, but my success
gave me no pleasure. What was the use of doing well, I thought bitterly,
when my father was not there to rejoice over it! I felt so unutterably
solitary and alone in the world, and even Cathy's love and the many
thoughtful kindnesses of my friends could not make up to me for that
greatest of all losses.

The day of the party at last arrived. How different from anything I had
planned! I set out my white dress and black sash with a sigh. Cathy, who
was watching me with anxious eyes, tried to talk about home, for I was
returning to Marshlands with her for part of the holidays, and Janet,
too, did her best to give the conversation a hopeful turn.

"This visitor's arriving early," said Millicent, who was leaning out of
my window, looking down the drive, as a cab drew up at the front-door.
"It's a gentleman," she announced, standing back a little behind the
curtain, so as not to be seen, "I don't know who he is. One of Mrs.
Marshall's friends, I suppose. Do you want to peep, Phil?"

I felt no interest in the guests of the evening, however, and I had not
even the curiosity to look out. We heard a slight bustle of arrival
downstairs, and I did not give the matter another thought. But a short
time afterwards Lucy came running into our bedroom with a look of
peculiar excitement on her face.

"You're wanted, Philippa, in the drawing-room," she said. Then, putting
her hand over her mouth, as though to stop herself from saying more, she
darted suddenly away. It was so unusual, and so utterly unlike Lucy's
ordinary behaviour, that I was completely puzzled. I went down to the
drawing-room with a beating heart. It somehow made me think of that
other time when I had been summoned there. Mrs. Marshall was standing
near the window with a newspaper in her hand. She looked strangely
moved.

"Philippa," she said slowly, "the newspapers are not always correct,
after all. We should be very careful before we believ