alone brought nine-tenths of them to my door, and felt that I was the object of their criticism from the moment they passed its threshold till they went away again. That I was Mrs. Sandyshaft's niece; that my father was descended from the Marlborough family; that my sister Hilda was married to the Count de Chaumont; that I had been educated in Germany; and that we had been married and living abroad for more than a whole year, were facts that seemed to have propagated themselves in the air, and spread, heaven only knew how! in all directions. Everybody seemed to know everything about me; and one of the county papers even went so far as to hint at a romantic attachment of long standing;" though that could have been nothing but conjecture. In the midst of all this visiting, I confess that I did not regret the absence of Lady Flora Bayham, now married, and living in a distant county. That childish wound of jealousy had left its scar, and though long since healed over, was not forgotten.

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In the meantime my husband lavished gifts upon me; and, sober and simple as were my tastes, insisted, though with a more substantial result than did Petruchio, on providing me-

"With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings,

With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things."

I had cashmeres brought by himself from the East, that a queen might envy; furs fit for a Russian princess; gold and silver filigrees from Genoa ; coral ornaments from Naples; mosaics from Rome and Florence; silks and velvets so rich that I felt afraid to wear them, and which a stately London court-dressmaker came all the way to Broomhill to fit and adapt to my little person. Then I had a riding horse; and a new habit; and a dainty little whip set with turquoises. And, above all, there came one day for my approval the most exquisite lounge-chaise that Messrs. Turrill and Co. ever turned out from their workshops-a graceful shell-shaped thing, so light that it seemed to be hung upon nothing—and a pair of the shaggiest, tiniest, friskiest Shetland ponies that ever scampered in harness! This last gift delighted me more than all the rest, and went far to reconcile me to the stern duty of returning my neighbours' visits.

In spite, however, of all this luxury, and all these indulgences, my happiest hours were those which I spent in my painting-room, or alone with Hugh after dinner in our favourite turret-chamber. The painting-room had been a spare bed-room in the wing traditionally appropriated to visitors, and I chose it for my studio for two reasons; one of which was that it commanded a fine view and an excellent north light, and the other that it was

only separated by a landing from that very turret chamber, the threshold of which no strange foot ever profaned. I had but little time; for the days grew short, and my interruptions were frequent; but it was very pleasant only to have a picture on the easel and a task in hand; and I contrived almost daily to secure the first two hours after breakfast.

My aunt, meanwhile, recovered rapidly; and, save such inevitable alteration as seven years must work, looked much the same as ever. Her step perhaps was a shade less firm, her carriage a trifle less erect, her voice a little less resonant, than when I first came to live with her at Stoneycroft Hall; but her eye was as vigilant, and her tongue as caustic, as of old. As for her temper, it had become far more sour and overbearing than I had ever known it before. While she was yet very ill I began to suspect this; and as she got well, I saw it more and more plainly.

"I know I am cross, Bab," she used to say. "I know I am cross, and very disagreeable; but I can't help it. It's my infirmity. If you had never left me, I shouldn't have been half so bad. I had got used to you; and the loss of you soured me-I know it did; and now it's too late to be helped. I have lived too much alone these last years. It isn't in human nature to live alone, and improve. You

I did take her as I found her, and I made the best of her; but, for all that, things would not go quite easily and cordially between us. Her temper was an infirmity; and I made every allowance for it. The loss of me had soured her-I did not doubt it for an instant. But that was not all. The fact was that she could never forgive me for marrying Hugh, nor Hugh for asking me. It had frustrated all her favourite plans; and time, instead of reconciling her to the disappointment, seemed only to aggravate her sense of the injury and injustice which she conceived had been dealt out to herself. Thus it came to pass that she was always saying some bitter thing which I could not hear without remonstrance, and which she was angry with me for feeling. To my husband she was so rude, that, with all his forbearance, he found it difficult to steer clear of open disagreement with her; and so stayed away more and more, till at last his visits might almost be said to have entirely ceased.

These things were to me, of necessity, the sources of profound and frequent trouble. The two whom I loved best in all the world were gradually growing to dislike each other more and more; and nothing that I could do would avert the cata

strophe. The breach widened daily before my eyes. I tried to patch it over continually; but in vain. In the attempt to justify Hugh to my aunt, or excuse my aunt to Hugh, I soon found that I did more harm than good; and so gave it up after awhile, and sadly suffered matters to take their

course.

The month of October, and the greater part of November, passed by thus, in receiving and paying visits, driving, riding, wearing fine clothes, and staving off that quarrel between my aunt and Hugh which seemed to be inevitable at some time or other. Active and restless by nature, my husband had been more than ever unsettled since our return to Broomhill, and now lived almost entirely in the open air. When not riding or driving with me, he was out shooting in his preserves. He rode to every meet, however distant; although in Rome he had never expressed a wish to follow the subscription pack. It appeared, indeed, as if he had lost his taste for all the quiet pleasures of indoor life; as if he could never be happy unless out and stirring; as if, alas! he took so little pleasure in his ancestral home that it was a relief to him to get beyond its precincts.

There were times when I looked back with loving regret to our delicious life in Italy-when, but for the confident hope that better times must