for breakfast in that house, we should have been
the offenders. But she ultimately went downstairs on my shoulder, and,
as Kenmure and Laura were already out rowing, the baby put me in her
own place, sat in her mother's chair, and ruled me with a rod of iron.
How wonderful was the instinct by which this little creature, who so
seldom heard one word of parental severity or parental fondness, knew
so thoroughly the language of both! Had I been the most depraved of
children, or the most angelic, I could not have been more sternly
excluded from the sugar-bowl, or more overwhelmed with compensating
kisses.

Later on that day, while little Marian was taking the very profoundest
nap that ever a baby was blessed with, (she had a pretty way of
dropping asleep in unexpected corners of the house, like a kitten,) I
somehow strayed into a confidential talk with Janet about her mistress.
I was rather troubled to find that all her loyalty was for Laura, with
nothing left for Kenmure, whom, indeed, she seemed to regard as a sort
of objectionable altar, on which her darlings were being sacrificed.
When she came to particulars, certain stray fears of my own were
confirmed. It seemed that Laura's constitution was not fit, Janet
averred, to bear these irregular hours, early and late; and she
plaintively dwelt on the untasted oatmeal in the morning, the
insufficient luncheon, the precarious dinner, the excessive walking and
boating, the evening damps. There was coming to be a look about Laura
such as her mother had, who died at thirty. As for Marian,--but here
the complaint suddenly stopped; it would have required far stronger
provocation to extract from the faithful soul one word that might seem
to reflect on Marian's mother.

Another year, and her forebodings had come true. It is needless to
dwell on the interval. Since then I have sometimes felt a regret almost
insatiable in the thought that I should have been absent while all that
gracious loveliness was fading and dissolving like a cloud; and yet at
other times it has appeared a relief to think that Laura would ever
remain to me in the fulness of her beauty, not a tint faded, not a
lineament changed. With all my efforts, I arrived only in time to
accompany Kenmure home at night, after the funeral service. We paused
at the door of the empty house,--how empty! I hesitated, but Kenmure
motioned to me to follow him in.

We passed through the hall and went up stairs. Janet met us at the