that with all my reverence for my grandfather I had still had a terrible
sense of responsibility mingled with my love for him; and not even yet
can I go out a few hours for a drive or a ride without my feeling every
now and then, through all my pleasure with papa, a sudden pang of dread.
After such times I run to his room: it is easy enough to believe then
that he no longer has any need of me."

"You were all alone at first, Helen, until my mother came to you? Two
weeks alone! It seems dreadful."

"Georgy Lenox was here, you know."

"Georgy Lenox here?" I echoed in surprise. "I never heard anything so
strange. How did it happen?"

Helen looked at me in her turn in astonishment. "Why was it strange?"
she asked, as if regarding the matter in a new light. "She was one of
the family: she came to grandpapa's funeral. Cousin Charles Raymond
himself invited all the Lenoxes, for Mr. Lenox's mother was a
Raymond--was grandpa's own sister, I believe. Why was it strange?"

"Natural for her to come perhaps, but I should not have expected her to
remain. You asked her, no doubt?"

"No-o-o," returned Helen doubtfully. "I don't know how it was. The house
was filled with people for a week: then they went away and Georgy
stayed. She said it was horrid for me to have no lady near me in my
trouble. Cousin Charles was here all the time until your mother came,
but his wife was ill in New York."

"And when my mother arrived Georgy left you?"

"No, indeed: she is still here. You see," said Helen with a little of
her old imperious way when she took control of things, "Georgy was
greatly disappointed at the terms of the will. She had been led to
expect that she would be quite an heiress when grandpa died. I don't
know who taught her to believe in so strange an idea, for, to tell the
truth, grandpapa did not fancy Georgy. Poor girl! everything has gone
wrong with her. She was to have been married to Mr. Holt, you know, but
it is all quite broken off; and she was very unhappy about that. She
hates being in Belfield, because she sees him all the time, and is
reminded of what she is trying to forget. So I asked her to stay here
for a little while. You are not angry to find her here, Floyd?"

I laughed with an indefinable feeling of embarrassment. "I shall be most
happy to see Miss Lenox," I rejoined; "and if I were not, it would be
great impertinence in me to question for a moment the doings of the lady
of the house."

"I am not the lady