s my throne still in
the back of the laurels, and I popped in on old Madge, and oh! she was so
surprised! And then I came on Mr. Prendergast, and he walked all the way
back with me, till he saw Ratia coming, and then he would not go on any
farther.'

'Well, my dear, I can't blame you this time. I am hoping myself to go to
Wrapworth with you and Owen.'

'Ratia is going to take me out riding and in the boat,' said Lucy,
without a direct answer.

'You like your cousins better than you expected?'

'Rashe is famous,' was the answer, 'and so is Uncle Kit.'

'My dear, you noticed the mark on his hand,' said Honora; 'you do not
know the cause?'

'No! Was it a shark or a mad dog?' eagerly asked the child, slightly
alarmed by her manner.

'Neither. But do not you remember his carrying you into Woolstone-lane?
I always believed you did not know what your little teeth were doing.'

It was not received as Honora expected. Probably the scenes of the
girl's infancy had brought back associations more strongly than she was
prepared for--she turned white, gasped, and vindictively said, 'I'm glad
of it.'

Honora, shocked, had not discovered a reply, when Lucilla, somewhat
confused at the sound of her own words, said, 'I know--not quite that--he
meant the best--but, Cousin Honor, it was cruel, it was wicked, to part
my father and me! Father--oh, the river is going on still, but not my
father!'

The excitable girl burst into a flood of passionate tears, as though the
death of her father were more present to her than ever before; and she
had never truly missed him till she was brought in contact with her old
home. The fatigue and change, the talking evening and restless night,
had produced their effect; her very thoughtlessness and ordinary
_insouciance_ rendered the rush more overwhelming when it did come, and
the weeping was almost hysterical.

It was not a propitious circumstance that Caroline knocked at the door
with some message as to the afternoon's arrangements. Honor answered at
haphazard, standing so as to intercept the view, but aware that the
long-drawn sobs would be set down to the account of her own tyranny, and
nevertheless resolving the more on enforcing the quiescence, the need of
which was so evident; but the creature was volatile as well as sensitive,
and by the time the door was shut, stood with heaving breast and undried
tears, eagerly demanding whether her cousins wanted her.

'Not at all,' said H