oul hath been a

and look on g

ide P

the Girls' Friendly Society, and which comprised about a dozen young women, who attended

Captain Henderson, the managing partner in the extensive marble works of Mr. White, who lived at Rocca Marina, in the Riviera. Mrs. Henderson had resided in Mr. Flight's

hoops, mustering chairs by the verandah, and adorning tables with flowers. Agatha's assistance was heartily given, as making it her own concern, and, for that reason above all others, it was a happy day, though a very tiring one, to Magdalen, in

some flashes of lightning made the two sisters wish to see the other pair at home, esp

t by some of the friends at Rock Quay, and it was near midnight, when just as they had gone to their rooms, a carriage was heard ascending the hill, and they had reached the door before Paulina sprang out with the cry, "Is s

otographs of the party, and that

oquet, and then I missed her. I tried to find her when the lightning began,

rs'?" asked Magdalen, catching alarm from each deni

storm," said Agatha, "and n

have gone to each ho

u say you sa

aid Paula; "Sister Mena, when she w

ght, "though no doubt it will be exp

mpossible! He must have taken her int

"Miss Mohun told me that she thought she had seen a boat, Captain Henderson's, she believed, in the cave with some one rockin

ut into the boathouse out

out of reach round the point,

torm," cried Paula, bursting into fresh weeping; and Magdal

id he, in much agitation. "I thought Mr. Delrio an excellent young man; and

e breath. "We have known his father all o

tha. "His mother used to come to Mrs. Best and praise him, ti

h deceived in him,"

y her off to his mother at Filsted? She had given some such hint to Mr. Flight on the way; but he had not seemed to hear or attend, and he was now promising to let the

nder to let Agatha carry her off to bed, and then she confessed, what really gave a certain hope, that the pair had been in the habit of murmuring against "sister" so much that, co

e could be brought against sister to induce any man in his senses to take such a step. But then Paula had inferred that he was a lover, and Agatha did not know of what lovers might be capable, and she could not but blame herself for not having given more importance to the semi-confidences of her sisters on the first day of her arrival. It was all

ortcoming in not having won the affection or confidence that would have made all open betwe

ou might not think him enough-enough-of

ue to an old friend," said Magdalen "but, oh, I ought

nsciousness on poor dear Vera's part that she

le that where there is life there is hope, Paula clung to the notion that Vera's having fled to Filsted; while the two elder sisters, perhaps because they bett

ely when they had sent Thekla to feed her pets, when Mr. Flight came up on

n. Both these two were inclined to the elopement idea, partly because it was the least shocking, and partly because they had looked at Vera's grievances through her own spectacles, and partly from their unlimited notions of young men's wickedness. Their vicar was not of the same opinion, knowing Hubert better, and besides having found his work, his orders to his subordinates, and the belongings at the lodgings in a state that showed that whatever he had done had been unpremeditated. Sending off notes to stop the garden party was a sort of occupation, broken by many signs, much listening, and much sorrowful discussion, not quite vain, since it made Paulina more one with Magdalen than ever before. Poor old Mr. Delrio arrived in the afternoon, a thin, grey-haired and bearded old man, who could only make it too certain that Paula's theory of the innocent flight to Filsted was impossible. Moreover, he was as certain as a father could be, intimate with, and therefore confident of, his eldest son, that though Hubert might indulge in a little

Paula, in youthful hard-hearted wilfulness, declared that it was impossibl

his confidence in them destroyed, so that they had begun to consider of throwing up their work in his parish. "A

rdly experience enough to know that it might be

ught,-I th

nkind and uns

ever could

it seemed so to my young sisters. I can quite

is so go

at I was the only authority the poor girls have to look to; and t

be," said Mena, greatly soothed

akes, and I do believe that you will be wiser for all this sorrow, and better able to rise

derly hopeful. If Miss Prescott could forgive,