a coward and listened to her: so you see I was to blame too.

'I have not answered your question yet, but I think I will do so by
signing myself,

'Yours, always and for ever,

'Gladys.'

'Will he understand that, Ursula?'

'Surely, dear; the end is plain enough: you belong to Max now.'

'I like to know that,' she returned simply. 'Oh, the rest of feeling that
he will take care of me now! it is too good to talk about. But I hope I
am sufficiently thankful.' And Gladys's lovely eyes were full of solemn
feeling as she spoke.

I thought she wanted to be quiet,--it was difficult for her to realise
her happiness at once,--so I told her that I had some letters to write,
and carried my desk into the next room, but she followed me after a time,
and we had a long talk about Max.

When Mr. Hamilton came up in the evening he noticed the improvement in
Gladys's appearance.

'You are better to-night, my dear.'

'Oh yes, so much better,' looking up in his face with a smile. 'Giles, do
you think it would hurt me to have a drive to-morrow? I am so tired of
these two rooms. A drive alone with Ursula would be delicious. We could
go down the Redstone lanes towards Pemberley: one always has a whiff of
sea-air there over the downs.'

Gladys's request surprised me quite as much as it did Mr. Hamilton. She
had proposed it in all innocence; no idea of encountering Max entered her
head for a moment; Gladys's simplicity would be incapable of laying plans
of this sort. Her new-born happiness made her anxious to lay aside her
invalid habits; she wanted to be strong, to resume daily life, to breathe
the fresh outer air.

As for Mr. Hamilton, he did not try to conceal his pleasure.

'I see we shall soon lose our patient, nurse,' he said, with one of his
old droll looks. 'She is anxious to make herself independent of us.--Oh,
you shall go, by all means. I will go round to the stable and tell
Atkinson myself. It is an excellent idea, Gladys.'

'I am so glad you do not object. I am so much stronger this evening,
and I have wanted to go out for days; but, Giles,'--touching his arm
gently,--'you will make Etta understand that I want to go alone with
Ursula.'

'Certainly, my dear.' He would not cross her whim; she might have her way
if she liked; but the slight frown on his face showed that he was not
pleased at this allusion to Miss Darrell. He thought Gladys was almost
morbidly prejudiced against her cousin; but he prudently refraine