d whom
she cordially hated. If she had known it then, she might, perhaps, have
found a substitute for her cousin among her own equals and countrymen,
but her entire unconsciousness, which they could not suspect, so
deceived every possible lover as to make them believe her utterly out of
their reach.

The only real enjoyment which brightened these dull years, came to Mary
when she visited an old school-friend. There were two or three with whom
she had kept up affectionate intercourse; and one, especially, whose
house was her refuge whenever she could get permission to spend a week
away from home. This girl had married at the very time of Mary's leaving
school--she lived much in the world, and would have carried Mary into
the whirl of dissipation if Mr. Wynter had allowed it. But he had
restricted his daughter's visits to those times of the year when Helen
Churchill and her husband were in the country, fatigued and glad of a
few weeks of quiet; there Mary went to them, and found their quiet
livelier than the liveliest of her home-life.

But in the spring of her twenty-first year, leave, often refused, was
granted, and she joined the Churchills in London. The first week passed
in a delightful confusion--whether her new dresses, or her unaccustomed
liberty, or the opera, or the park, or the companionship of Helen, or
the absence of George, were the most delightful, she would have been
puzzled to say. The next week her head steadied a little--everything was
delightful, but it was London, and not fairyland; it could not be denied
that the rooms were hot, and that one came down rather tired in the
morning. Mrs. Churchill, however, had a remedy for that. She had a
pretty pair of ponies which carried her well out of London almost every
morning, into fresh air and green lanes, and she took Mary with her.
After breakfast they used to start, and make their expedition long or
short, according to the day's engagements.

One morning they had completely escaped from town, and were driving
along a pleasant road, shady and quiet, where, in those days, no
suburban villas had sprung up, but where a park paling was overhung by
trees on one side, and on the other, fields stretched away upon a gentle
slope. They had lately met but few people, and Helen, never a very
careful driver, had been letting her ponies do pretty much what they
liked. At last the lively little animals, perhaps out of pure
wilfulness, chose to take fright at something