shivered from the Lexley plantations! Not so much as the
merest trifle in which I could demonstrate my good-will. I thought and
thought it over, and there was nothing I could do--nothing I could
offer. When I _did_ hit upon some pretext of kindness, I only did
amiss. The fruit season was not begun--nay, the orchards were only in
blossom--and times were over for forcing-houses at Lexley Park!
Thinking, therefore, that the invalid might be pleased with a basket
of Jersey pears, of which a very fine kind grew in my orchard, I
ventured to send some to her address. But the very next time I
encountered Everard in the village, he cast a look at me as if he
would have killed me for my officiousness, or, perhaps, for taking the
liberty to suppose that Lexley Park was less luxuriously provisioned
than in former years. Nor was it till long afterwards I discovered
that my old housekeeper (who had taken upon herself to carry my humble
offering to the park) had not only seen the poor young lady, but been
foolish enough to talk of Lady Robert in a tone which appears to have
exercised a cruel influence over her gentle heart; so that, when her
husband returned home from rabbit-shooting, an hour afterwards, he
found her recovering from a fainting fit, he visited upon _me_ the
folly of my servant; and such was the cause of his angry looks.

A few days afterwards, however, he had far more to reproach his
conscience withal than poor Barbara. Having no concealments from his
wife, to whom he was in the habit of avowing every emotion of his
heart, he was rash enough to mention of having met the travelling
carriage of Lord and Lady Robert on the London road. They had quitted
the Hall ten days previous to the epoch originally fixed for their
departure.

"Gone--exactly gone!--already at two hundred miles' distance from me!"
cried poor Mary, nothing doubting that her father had, as usual,
accompanied them, and feeling herself now, for the first time, alone
in the dreary seclusion to which she had condemned herself, only that
she might breathe the same atmosphere with those she loved. "Yet they
had certainly decided to remain at the Hall till after Easter! Perhaps
they discovered my being here, and the discovery hastened their
journey. Unhappy creature that I am, to have become thus hateful to
those in whose veins my blood is flowing! Everard, Everard! O, what
have I done that God should thus abandon me?"

The soothing and affectionate remonstra