earest, funniest face! Father used to
call her the ugliest child in Galway. He was so proud of her, bless
him!"

Bridgie sighed pensively, and Sylvia stared at her with curious eyes.
So far she had made the acquaintance of but one member of the
O'Shaughnessy family, but it seemed as though they took the various
trials and vicissitudes of life in a very different spirit from the
people with whom she herself had associated. Instead of moaning over
the inevitable, they discerned the humour of the situation, and in happy
fashion turned the trial into a joke.

"I wonder," sighed Sylvia to herself, "I wonder where the joke comes in
in losing your hair. I suppose she would say it was so cool to be
bald!" Not even to herself would she put into words the deeper,
crueller dread which lay hauntingly in the background of her mind!

CHAPTER FOUR.

DREAD.

The foot refused to heal, and one morning a well-known surgeon followed
Dr Horton into the sick-room. The very sound of his name was as a
death-knell to the girl in the bed, but she controlled herself by a
mighty effort, and strained every nerve to watch the faces of her
attendants during the examination which followed. She knew that they
would keep up appearances in her presence, and so long as possible hide
the worst from her knowledge; but if she appeared unsuspicious they
would perhaps be less careful, and a stray word, an interchange of
glances, might show the direction of their thoughts. She lay perfectly
still, not even flinching with pain when the diseased bone was touched,
for the tension of mind was so great as to eclipse bodily suffering; but
the cool, business-like manner of the great surgeon gave no hint of his
decision, while Dr Horton was as cheerful, Whitey as serenely composed,
as on ordinary occasions.

The cage was replaced over the foot, the bedclothes put in order, a few
pleasant commonplaces exchanged, and the trio adjourned for
consultation. Trained to their work of self-repression, not one of them
had given the slightest hint of what was feared, but their precautions
were undone by the thoughtless haste of the watcher outside.

Miss Munns was hovering about the landing awaiting the verdict, and
trembling at the thought of the news which she might have to send to her
brother, when the door opened and the surgeon came towards her. Dr
Horton and the nurse followed, and before the door was closed behind
them an eager whisper burst from her