dreaming that the pain and distress were, not for what she had said, but for what she was saying-Norah, we say, the implacable Norah, was appeased. Never was there a more generous girl, and she couldn't bear to see the misery of mortification in the face of a woman, whom two minutes ago she thought she could have spurned, though she had knelt for pardon.

'Pray do not say anything more. I am afraid I too have been unjust-have done you some wrong in my thoughts.'

One needs to be magnanimous to forgive another for forgiveness of this generous kind; and Miss Summers, not being magnanimous, hated Norah all the more for it-hated her, and despised her all the more for it too. For she felt that the girl could not have so easily and freely forgiven her, if she had not been. only too eager for any excuse to stay and accept her brother.

Then you will forgive me; and, perhaps,

you will spare me the mortification of having to ask Mr. Wyndham's forgiveness by not mentioning the matter to him?'

'But your brother

'He has not yet gone. May I tell him that he need not now go?'

"Thank you, if you will.'

With this excuse for hurrying from the room, Miss Summers escaped, with her heart athirst for revenge upon Norah for the double mortification of having to sue for forgiveness so humbly, and having to accept it so unreservedly.

CHAPTER XXII.

POLICE PROTECTION.

What mighty ills have not been done by Woman?
Who was❜t betrayed the Capitol? A woman!
Who lost Mark Antony the world? A woman!
Who was the cause of a long ten years' war,
And laid at last old Troy in ashes? Woman!
Destructive, plotting, and deceitful Woman !—OTWAY.

NORAH'S interpretation of the apology was, of
course,
that Miss Summers had been convinced
by her brother of the unworthiness and base-
lessness of her suspicions. An apology so in-
duced implied generosity in the penitent-a
generosity which, measured by the humiliation
it had evidently involved, seemed really great
to Norah. Therefore she did what she could
to overcome her natural repugnance to Miss
Summers and be civil to her to courteousness
a complaisance which Miss Summers was at no
loss to interpret. Plainly the girl meant to win

her over to neutrality, if not to an alliance with her in her fight for Reid's fortune. As it was not in the bond exacted from her by her brother that she should be neutral, she affected cordiality with Norah as an excuse for never letting her out of her sight till lunch.

At lunch, Carrie, in order to shock Norah's feelings if they were sincere, or to mock them if they were affected, gave a spirited description of the coursing, during which, she said, one hare died of sheer and mere terror, and the other must have died a hundred deaths before it was finally torn to fluff by the dogs. The recital was brutal, and took away what appetite Norah had; but a girl, when she affects to be unwomanly, always overdoes it to disgust.

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Her brother, disgusted doubly by the recital itself and by its effects upon Norah, observed sarcastically:

'You seem to have enjoyed yourself, Carrie?'

'I did,' she answered emphatically.

'But for true sport of that kind commend me to Broughton's.'

To where?'

'Broughton, the butcher's; he kills on Thursdays. He'd allow you into the slaughterhouse any Thursday, and you'd be sure to enjoy it.'

Then Carrie turned upon him: 'Oh, you've been sitting at Miss Wyndham's feet all the morning and got converted,' she sneered.

'Reid and her locked me out of the library,' piped Effie shrilly. Having the family's sense of self-importance, she screamed the announcement.

'Hush!' cried Ann, with the vicious intention of suggesting by the expression of her face and voice that there was in this announcement more than met the ear.

'They did,' repeated Effie doggedly, and