drawing-room dressed for dinner. Then,
the simplicity of their white untrimmed
muslins particularly pleased me. Judging
them from it, I held them to be quiet, simple
girls: though I have no doubt now, they
were perfectly aware that their pliant
figures, cream-tinted faces, and dark coiled
hair, were so shown off to advantage.

The girls took to me directly, and so far
as I could see, to no one else. Originally,
I suppose, they were attracted to me by
pity, seeing me an invalid, middle aged,
and plain. But afterwards I fancy they
liked dropping down on the floor, and telling
me all that went on in that large house.

They had just returned from Paris, I
found; indeed, they seemed to travel
continually.

The fact was, they were so quick in
foreseeing the effect of their words and actions,
that though by no means naturally sociable,
they had made a large quantity, not
perhaps of true steady-going friends, but
desirable acquaintances— I use the word
from their point of view— who took them
to Paris, gave them a London season, or,
as in this instance, brought them to spend
the autumn in their country house. They
much preferred, I fancy, being together,
but for all that, they not unfrequently
separated, one going east, while the other
went west. Besides their two faces, there
was one other face at our pleasant dining-
table in which I took an interest. It
belonged to a Captain Frogmore: a large,
healthy-looking man, with a loud voice, who
was home on sick leave, he told us, and who
roared when we doubted the sickness. He
admired the simple muslin dresses to the full
as much as I did, and, in his heavy way,
danced a devoted attendance on them. The
girls were so alike both in appearance and
character, that I scarcely wondered he
should distribute his attentions equally,
even to the extent of seeming indifferent as
to which he should ultimately make Mrs.
Frogmore.

I was not uneasy about it, for Eunice
and Belle were not responsive, taking his
admiration simply, as a matter of course,
very much as if they were princesses of the
blood, clearly showing, however, that they
liked it, and would have been displeased
had it been withdrawn.

But it was not possible that for very long
Captain Frogmore should go on showing no
preference; the girls themselves helped him
to a decision. His attentions increasing,
they began to bore Belle, while Eunice still
took them in good part. This being the
case, Captain Frogmore's attentions rapidly
ran in one direction, so that while Eunice
had less and less time to set aside from
flirtation, Belle's whole day was now at her
own disposal, and so I saw more of her.

I think of the two I liked Eunice the
better, not from any special good point in her,
but negatively, because she was perhaps just
a shade less morbid, non-practical,
self-concentrated than her sister; but despite
myself there was every little while some look
in Belle's eyes that banished the headstrong,
self-opiniated girl, and conjured up before
me the nursery picture they were so fond
of describing. I saw as in some old dream
the dead mother alive, the children around
her, and this girl Belle, innocently happy,
with an untrodden life stretching before
her; and the rush of love to my heart, arose
from sheer pity. Knowing her, how could
I even hope that her life would be smooth?

For, so far as I understood it, their story
ran thus. Their father, never a very virtuous
character, was now rapidly drinking himself
into his grave, and the girls, at his death,
would have nothing— from him, that is. An
old maiden aunt had bequeathed a small
fortune to Eunice as her god-daughter,
completely passing over poor Belle. Eunice
would have liked nothing better than to
share it; but no talking, no arguments,
could bring this to pass; Belle always
returned the same answer. She would accept
her life from no one, not even her sister.
When, therefore, their present income should
cease, Eunice might do what she would with
her money; Belle was going out as a governess.
I believed her implicitly. To be
obstinate came as naturally to Belle as
yielding might come to another. The idea
haunted me. That original little governess!
I saw her in the school-room teaching
commonplace children the exact things she had
liked, bewildered at dulness, getting morbid
and distressed. I saw her in the drawing-
room pale and unhappy, not courting, but
repelling attention with proud eyes and an
unconciliating voice; defiance even in the
erectness of her attitude. I confessed to
myself sadly that I could not see the end.
Marriage would have solved the difficulty,
but after a certain time every one she
knew bored Belle, and, under these
circumstances, marriage might have been
dangerous. Just now, however, the days
were passing pleasantly, and on the unquiet
sea of their troubled lives the girls were
resting on their oars, when there came a
change that broke it all up. Shall I ever
forget that evening?

The gentlemen were out on the verandah,
away down the garden, or on the far-off