ly, "I will write to him and tell him. Suppose I write
now--don't you think I had better do it now, and then he will get the
letter in the morning, and he will be sure to come before dinner,--he
will be sure to come, won't he?"

"He always did," said Aimee.

"Always," said Dolly. "Indeed, I never had to write to him before to
bring him. He always came without being written to. There never was any
one like him for being tender and penitent. You always said so, Aimee.
And just think how often I have tried his patience! I sometimes wish I
could help doing things,--flirting, you know, and making a joke of it.
He never flirted in his life, poor darling, and what right had I to
do it? When he comes to-morrow I will tell him how sorry I am for
everything, and I will promise to be better. I have not been half so
good as he has. I wish I had. I should not have hurt him so often if I
had."

"You have been a little thoughtless sometimes," said Aimee. "Perhaps it
_would_ have been better if you could have helped it."

"A little thoughtless," said Dolly, restlessly. "I have been wickedly
thoughtless sometimes. And I have made so many resolutions and broken
them all. And I ought to have been doubly thoughtful, because he had
so much to bear. If he had been prosperous and happy it would not have
mattered half so much. But it was all my vanity. You don't know how vain
I am, Aimee. I quite hate myself when I think of it. It is the
wanting people to admire me,--everybody, men and women, and even
children,--particularly among Lady Augusta's set, where there is a sort
of fun in it. And then I flirt before I know; and then, of course, Grif
cannot help seeing it. I wonder that he has borne with me so long."

She was quite feverish in her anxiety to condemn herself and exculpate
her lover. She did not droop her face against the pillow, but roused
herself, turning toward Aimee, and talking fast and eagerly. A bright
spot of color came out on either cheek, though for the rest she was pale
enough. But to Aimee's far-seeing eyes there was something so forced and
unnaturally strung in her sudden change of mood that she felt a touch of
dread Suppose something should crush her newly formed hopes,--something
terrible and unforeseen! She felt a chill strike her to the heart at the
mere thought of such a possibility. She knew Dolly better than the rest
of them did,--knew her highly strung temperament, and feared it, too.
She might be spirited and