ey had
been cradled for many years in the lap--if not of luxury, of fair
middle-class prosperity. It was a few tolerably rough jolts which had
shaken them from their cradle. Still the trouble was more in
apprehension than in reality. As yet it had not caused the sufferers to
change any one of the domestic habits which had grown second nature to
them. It had not induced them to darken the sunny sky over their young
daughters' heads with a shadow of the clouds which were already looming
black on the parents' horizon. It may be said at once, that Dr. and Mrs.
Millar, though they were reckoned clever, sensible people enough by
their contemporaries, had softer hearts than they had hard heads. They
had not been used to painful self-denial and stern discipline, either
where they themselves or their children were concerned.

The couple were sitting now together in the dining-room with its solidly
handsome furniture, Russian leather and walnut wood, bits of family
plate on the sideboard, bronze chimney-piece ornaments, and good
engravings on the walls. Husband and wife had spent the last part of the
evening there, for four-and-twenty years, every night they were in
Redcross, when the Doctor was not kept out late, or when the couple were
not abroad in company, or seeing company at home. Dr. Millar, in his
slightly old-fashioned professional black coat and white tie, was
leaning back in his easy-chair sipping his sherry, and occasionally
drumming lightly on the table near him with these fine long sensitive
fingers which were a born doctor's fingers.

Mrs. Millar wore a demi-toilet in the shape of an expensive cashmere and
silk gown--not an evening dress, but an approach to it, as became the
wife of one of the leading professional men in Redcross, connected with
the county to boot. Her lace cap was a costly trifle of its kind, but
it had an awkward habit--the odder in a woman who was neat to formality
in the other details of her dress--of slipping to one side, or tilting
forwards or backwards on the brown hair, still abundant and just
streaked with gray; so that one or other of her daughters was constantly
calling Mrs. Millar's cap to order and setting it right. She was sitting
in an arm-chair, opposite her husband. Mechanically she put one daintily
slippered, very neat foot, considering the weight it helped to carry,
beyond her skirts, and stretched it towards the fire. There was still a
good fire blazing in the steel grate, thou