wanderings. 'Well, we were sitting together,--for Etta was
nice to me just then, and I did not avoid her company as I do now,--when
she startled me by bursting into tears and reproaching me for not having
told her about Mr. Cunliffe's offer, and leaving her to hear it from
Giles; and then she said how disappointed they all were at my refusal,
and was I really sure that I could not marry him?

'I was not so much on my guard then as I am now, and, though I blamed
Etta for much of the home unhappiness, I did not know all that I have
learned since. You have no idea, either, how fascinating and persuasive
she can be: her influence over Giles proves that. Well, little by little
she drew from me that I was not so indifferent to Mr. Cunliffe as she
supposed, and that in a few months' time he would speak to me again.

'She seemed very kind about it, and said over and over again how glad she
was to hear this; and when I begged her not to hint at my changed
feelings to Giles, she agreed at once, and I will do her the justice to
own that she has kept her word in this. Giles has not an idea of the
truth.'

'Nevertheless, I wish you had kept your own counsel, Gladys.'

'You could not wish it more than I do; but indeed I said very little. I
think my manner told her more than my words, for I cannot remember really
saying anything tangible. I knew she plied me with questions, and when I
did not answer them she laughed and said that she knew.

'I have paid dearly for my want of caution, for I have been in bondage
ever since. My tacit admission that I cared for Mr. Cunliffe has given
Etta a cruel hold over me; my thoughts do not seem my own. She knows how
to wound me: one word from her makes me shrink into myself. Sometimes I
think she takes a pleasure in my secret misery,--that she was only acting
a part when she pretended to sympathise with me. Oh, what a weak fool I
have been, Ursula, to put myself in the power of such a woman!'

'Poor Gladys!' I said, kissing her; and she dashed away her indignant
tear, and hurried on.

'Oh, let me finish all the miserable story. There is not much to say, but
that little is humiliating. It was soon after this that I noticed a
change in Mr. Cunliffe's manner. Scarcely perceptible at first, it became
daily more marked. He came less often, and when he came he scarcely spoke
to me. It was then that Etta began to torment me, and, under the garb of
kindness, to say things that I could not bear. She as