hat it separated me from Gladys.

Lady Betty had gone away the very next day to pay a two months' visit to
an old school-fellow in Cornwall: so Gladys would be utterly alone. Uncle
Max was still in Norwich, detained by most vexatious lawyer's business:
so that I had not even the solace of his companionship. If it had not
been for Mr. Tudor, I should have been quite desolate. But I was always
meeting him in the village, and his cheery greeting was a cordial to me.
He always walked back with me, talking in his eager, boyish way. And I
had sometimes quite a trouble to get rid of him. He would stand for a
quarter of an hour at a time leaning over the gate and chatting with me.
By a sort of tacit consent, he never offered to come in, neither did I
invite him. We were both too much afraid of Miss Darrell's comments.

In all those ten days I only saw Mr. Hamilton once, for on Sunday his
seat in church had been vacant.

I was dressing little Jessie's burns one morning, and talking to her
cheerfully all the time, for she was a nervous little creature, when I
heard his footstep outside. And the next instant he was standing beside
us.

His curt 'Good-morning; how is the patient, nurse?' braced my faltering
nerves in a moment, and enabled me to answer him without embarrassment.
He had his grave professional air, and looked hard and impenetrable. I
had reason afterwards to think that this sternness of manner was assumed
for my benefit, for once, when I was preparing some lint for him, I
looked up inadvertently and saw that he was watching me with an
expression that was at once sad and wistful.

He turned away at once, when he saw I noticed him, and I left the room as
quickly as I could, for I felt the tears rising to my eyes. I had to sit
down a moment in the porch to recover myself. That look, so sad and
yearning, had quite upset me. If I had not known before, past all doubt,
that Mr. Hamilton loved me, I must have known it then.

We met more frequently after this. Janet Coombe was dangerously ill, and
Mr. Hamilton saw her two or three times a day. And, of course, I was
often there when he came.

He dropped his sternness of manner after a time, but he was never
otherwise than grave with me. The long, unrestrained talks, the friendly
looks, the keen interest shown in my daily pursuits, were now things of
the past. A few professional inquiries, directions about the treatment,
now and then a brief order to me, too peremptory to