meeting with herself? She waited at home, privately
ashamed of her own undignified conduct, for the next two days. On the
third day the fashionable intelligence of the newspapers announced the
departure of Lord and Lady Montbarry for Paris, on their way to Italy.

Mrs. Ferrari, calling the same evening, informed Agnes that her husband
had left her with all reasonable expression of conjugal kindness; his
temper being improved by the prospect of going abroad. But one other
servant accompanied the travellers--Lady Montbarry's maid, rather a
silent, unsociable woman, so far as Emily had heard. Her ladyship's
brother, Baron Rivar, was already on the Continent. It had been
arranged that he was to meet his sister and her husband at Rome.

One by one the dull weeks succeeded each other in the life of Agnes.
She faced her position with admirable courage, seeing her friends,
keeping herself occupied in her leisure hours with reading and drawing,
leaving no means untried of diverting her mind from the melancholy
remembrance of the past. But she had loved too faithfully, she had
been wounded too deeply, to feel in any adequate degree the influence
of the moral remedies which she employed. Persons who met with her in
the ordinary relations of life, deceived by her outward serenity of
manner, agreed that 'Miss Lockwood seemed to be getting over her
disappointment.' But an old friend and school companion who happened to
see her during a brief visit to London, was inexpressibly distressed by
the change that she detected in Agnes. This lady was Mrs. Westwick,
the wife of that brother of Lord Montbarry who came next to him in age,
and who was described in the 'Peerage' as presumptive heir to the
title. He was then away, looking after his interests in some mining
property which he possessed in America. Mrs. Westwick insisted on
taking Agnes back with her to her home in Ireland. 'Come and keep me
company while my husband is away. My three little girls will make you
their playfellow, and the only stranger you will meet is the governess,
whom I answer for your liking beforehand. Pack up your things, and I
will call for you to-morrow on my way to the train.' In those hearty
terms the invitation was given. Agnes thankfully accepted it. For
three happy months she lived under the roof of her friend. The girls
hung round her in tears at her departure; the youngest of them wanted
to go back with Agnes to London. Half in jest, half in earnest, she