ing personally offensive to him.

"What time do we go, George?"

"Sir Roger said seven, sir, but that will be eight or half-past. He's to
drive over to the wood, and the horses are to meet him there."

"All right. I'll take a short sleep and be sharp to time."

As he left the room, I tore open my letter, to add a few words. I
thought I'd say something that, if mischance befell me, might be a
comfort to my dear mother to read over and dwell on, but for the life of
me I did not know how to do it, without exciting alarm or awakening her
to the dread of some impending calamity. Were I to say, I 'm off for a
ride with papa, it meant nothing; and if I said, I 'm going to show
him how I can manage a very hot horse, it might keep her in an agony of
suspense till I wrote again.

So I merely added, "I intend to write to you very soon again, and hope
I may do so within the week." These few commonplace words had a great
meaning to my mind, however little they might convey to her I wrote
them to; and as I read them over, I stored them with details supplied by
imagination,--details so full of incident and catastrophe that they made
a perfect story. After this I lay down and slept heavily.

CHAPTER VIII. A DARK-ROOM PICTURE.

Mr next letter to my mother was very short, and ran thus:--

"Dearest Mamma,--Don't be shocked at my bad writing, for I had a fall on
Tuesday last, and hurt my arm a little; nothing broken, but bruised
and sore to move, so that I lie on my bed and read novels. Madame never
leaves me, but sits here to put ice on my shoulder and play chess with
me. She reads out Balzac for me, and I don't know when I had such a
jolly life. It was a rather big hurdle, and the mare took it sideways,
and caught her hind leg,--at least they say so,--but we came down
together, and she rolled over me. Papa cried out well done, for I did
not lose my saddle, and he has given me a gold watch and a seal with the
Norcott crest. Every one is so kind; and Captain Hotham comes up after
dinner and tells me all the talk of the table, and we smoke and have our
coffee very nicely.

"Papa comes every night before supper, and is very good to me. He says
that Blossom is now my own, but I must teach her to come cooler to her
fences. I can't write more, for my pain comes back when I stir my arm.
You shall hear of me constantly, if I cannot write myself.

"Oh, dearest mamma, when papa is kind there is no one like him,--so
gentle, so thoug