wondering, as I parted
from Max, what could have made Mr. Hamilton so strangely silent.

It was still early in the afternoon when I found myself free to go and
see Phoebe; she had been on my mind all day, and had kept me awake for
a long time; those miserable eyes haunted me. I longed so to comfort her.
Miss Locke opened the door; I thought she seemed pleased to see me, but
she eyed my basket of flowers dubiously.

'Phoebe is looking for you, Miss Garston, though she says nothing about
it; it is not her way; but I see her eyes turning to the door every now
and then, and she made Kitty open the curtains. If I may make so bold,
those flowers are not for Phoebe, surely?'

'Yes, indeed they are, Miss Locke. Dr. Hamilton wishes her to have
something pleasant to look at.' But Miss Locke only shook her head.

'The neighbours have sent in flowers often and often, and she has made me
carry them out of the room; the vicar used to send them too, but he knows
now that it is no manner of use: she always says they do not put flowers
in tombs, only outside them: she will have it she is living in a tomb.'

'We must get this idea out of her head,' I returned cheerfully, for I was
obstinately bent on having my own way about the flowers.

Kitty was sewing on a little stool by the window; the curtains were
undrawn, so that the room was tolerably light, and might have been
cheerful, only an ugly wire blind shut out all view of the little garden.

I could not help marvelling at the strange perversity that could wilfully
exclude every possible alleviation; there must be some sad warp or twist
of the mental nature that could be so prolific of unwholesome fancies. As
I turned to the bed I thought Phoebe looked even more ghastly in the
daylight than she had done last evening; her skin was yellow and
shrivelled, like the skin of an old woman; her eyes looked deep-set and
gloomy, but their expression struck me as more human; her thin lips even
wore the semblance of a smile.

When I had greeted her, and had drawn from her rather reluctantly that
she had had some hours' sleep the previous night, I spoke to Kitty. The
little creature looked so subdued and moped in the miserable atmosphere
that I was full of pity for her, so I showed her a new skipping rope that
I had bought on my way, and bade her ask her aunt Susan's permission to
go out and play.

The child's dull eyes brightened in a moment. 'May I go out, Aunt
Phoebe?' she asked breathl