d seemed to be thinking deeply.

'My dearest child,' she said at last, 'you are very young, and I have a
great dread of forgetting how young you are. I have too, as you know, a
very great respect for parental authority. I would never take upon
myself to interfere in any real way with your life, unless I had your
father and mother's approval. But this I may say, so far as I can
possibly influence them and the whole circumstances, you may rely upon
it that this nightmare of Barmettle shall never be anything but a
nightmare. Though at the same time I am most strongly of opinion that
your father must _not_ return to India.'

'Oh, thank you, dear Lady Myrtle, thank you a thousand times for what
you say,' said Jacinth.

'It is your father's health I am thinking of too,' said the old lady.
'Your aunt feels sure that it is time for him to come home for good. He
has been out there so long, and he is not a young man. He is a good deal
older than your mother.'

'Yes,' Jacinth replied. 'He is fifteen years older; and mamma has always
been wonderfully strong. But even for her it would be much nicer to
come home now. Seventeen years is a long time, and only one year and one
six-months at home! Oh, I do feel so much happier since you have spoken
so to me--even though it makes me rather frightened about papa. It would
be terrible for his health to fail.'

'We must make him take it in time,' said Lady Myrtle cheerfully. 'I
don't think there is any cause for immediate anxiety. Yes--nothing is
sadder than when the head of a house breaks down prematurely.'

Her words, following upon her own, struck Jacinth curiously. What was it
they made her think of? What family had she been hearing of whose father
was in bad health? Ah--yes, it was these Harpers! How tiresome it was
that they seemed always to be 'turning up,' as Jacinth expressed it to
herself! There were scores and scores of other families in as bad
trouble as they; the world was full of such cases.

'If Frances had been here,' thought Jacinth, 'she would have been
certain to begin about them and their father--only annoying Lady Myrtle
and doing no good. Not but that I'm very sorry for them. I hope their
father is better, I'm sure.'

Alas! these two or three months had not passed so quickly or so brightly
in the--no, I must not say in the Harpers' pleasant though plain old
house at Southcliff, for Hedge End was let, and the three girls were
living in Mrs Newing's tiny rooms in