the
preceding night, and the brilliant sun of the early morning had not yet
gained sufficient strength to melt it away. There was a softening touch
therefore about the familiar scene, and Seymour, who had never viewed it
in the glory of its summer, thought he had never known it to look so
beautiful. Heartily greeted as he passed on by the various servants of
the family, with whom he was a great favorite, he finally drew rein and
dismounted before the great flight of steps which led up to the terrace
upon which the house stood. His arrival had not been unnoticed, and
Madam Talbot was standing in the doorway to greet him. He noticed that
she looked paler and thinner and older, but she held herself as erect and
carried herself as proudly as she had always done. Grief and
disappointment and broken hope might change and destroy the natural
tissues and fibres of her being, but they could not alter her iron will.
Tossing the bridle to one of the attendant servants, Seymour, hat in
hand, walked slowly up the steps and across the grass plat, and stepped
upon the porch. She watched him in silence, with a frightful sinking of
the heart; the gravity of his demeanor and the pallor of his face, in
which she seemed to detect a shade of pity which her pride resented,
apprised her that whatever news he had brought would be ill for her to
hear, but her rigid face and composed manner gave no indication of the
deadly conflict within. Seymour bowed low to her, and she returned his
salute with a sweeping courtesy, old-fashioned and graceful.

"Lieutenant Seymour is very welcome to Fairview Hall, though I trust it
be not the compelling necessity of a wound which makes him seek our
hospitality again," she said, faintly smiling.

"Oh, madam," said Seymour, softly, yet in utter desperation as to how to
begin, "unfortunately it is not to be cured of wounds, but to inflict
them that this time I am come. I--I am sorry--that I have to tell you
that--I--" he continued with great hesitation.

"You are a bearer of ill tidings, I perceive," she continued gravely.
"Speak your message, sir. Whatever it may be, I trust the God I serve to
give me strength to bear it. Is it--is it--Hilary?" she went on, with
just a suggestion of a break in her even, carefully modulated tones.

"Yes, dear madam. He--he--"

"Stop! I had almost forgotten my duty. Tell me first of the armies of
my king. The king first of all with our house, you know."

Poor S