you naturally dwell more on their concerns
than mine." And he rose and walked about in
a pet; like a cross schoolboy.

"It seems that your concerns have become
strangely identical with theirs," said his mother.
"Sit down, till I tell you a dream that I have
had about you, and about them, a dream that
has returned to me night after night, till I can
think of nothing else."

Pierce made an impatient gesture, as if he
would say that he was not in a humour for
listening to the recital of dreams. But Lady
Humphrey went on without heeding him.

"In this dream," she said, "I saw Sir
Archie Munro discovered to be a rebel and a
traitor, and banished from his country. And I
saw his forfeited lands, his castle of Glenluce,
and all his various possessions of many kinds
bestowed by the king upon Pierce Humphrey."

"After the approved, but irregular fashion of
dreams," said Pierce.

"Nay," said Lady Humphrey, "but such a
proceeding would not be in the least irregular.
For I thought," she said, laying her hand on
her son's arm, and looking narrowly in his face,
"I thought that the gift was made to Pierce
Humphrey as a reward for loyal vigilance in a
time of danger and treachery."

Honest Pierce returned her strange look with
eyes full of uneasy wonder. "Mother," he
said, putting her hand from him. "I do not
understand your conversation to-day. You cannot
wish that such a dream might come true. Your
words would bear a construction which I will
not dare to put upon them."

A look of contempt passed over Lady
Humphrey's face. "You are a fool, Pierce," she
said. "If you were a thousand times my son,
you are a fool."

"et me be a fool then," said Pierce. " And
you mother? it is because you are my mother
that I will not consent to understand you. I
will try to forget what you have said, and we
will talk of something else."

He walked once up and down the room,
while his mother sat silent, with her face turned
away from him, frowning out upon the glory of
the sunset, burnished water gleaming through
the hazy trees; flower-beds flaming out of the
gilded turf, like spots of coloured fire. Lady
Humphrey saw nothing of the scene. Her
eyes took in neither colour nor light, but fixed
themselves on a little black cloud in the
distance, steadfastly, greedily, as upon something
that she desired to possess.

The young person is here from the
dressmaker's, my lady," said a servant at the door.

"Take her to my dressing-room," said Lady
Humphrey, "and tell her to wait till I am at
leisure."

"The young person from the dressmaker's!"
said Pierce when the servant had gone. "So
this is to be the end of poor little Hester."

"How do you know that this is poor little
Hester?" said Lady Humphrey.

"I met her coming out, that is all," he
answered. "She would hardly shake hands
with me, poor girl, she was so proud, and so
humble. And she has the beauty and the bearing
of a princess. 'Tis a sin not to let her be
a lady."

"I have no objection to let her be a lady,"
said Lady Humphrey. "I only profess that I
am not able to make her one. She must earn
her own bread."

"'Twould be no great bounty to give bread
to such a creature out of kindness," said
Pierce.

"I gave it her when I could," said Lady
Humphrey. "Now I can do no more than find
my own. I have done well in giving her the
means of supporting herself, and I desire that
you will not interfere."

"Something must be done to place her among
people in her own class of life," said Pierce,
hotly. "You must think of it, mother, or you
and I shall quarrel."

"It seems there are a great many points at
issue between us," said Lady Humphrey,
growing colder as he grew warm. "We must
leave it to time to decide upon our differences."

"If you will do nothing, then, I shall see
about it myself," said Pierce, angrily, taking up
his hat. "I must ask you for Hester Cashel's
address."

"Which I decidedly refuse to give you,"
said Lady Humphrey.

"In that case I must find it for myself,"
said Pierce. And then he wished his mother a
good evening, and was gone.

After he had gone Lady Humphrey's eyes
went back to her little black cloud, which had
spread and increased as the sunset faded.
Lady Humphrey's eyes now carried and added
to it that last little fume of her son about
Hester. So in that moment Hester's future
was overcast with and wrapped up in the shadow
of that cloud which was one day to burst on
Lady Humphrey's enemies.

"But I will win fortune for you yet, you
wrong-headed simpleton!" she said, addressing
her absent son, "and I will lay it at your feet
when you are least expecting it. And you
shall walk over those who scorned your mother
before you were born." And then Lady
Humphrey remembered who was waiting up-stairs:
and she thought about her plum-coloured satin.

"Well, Hester!" said Lady Humphrey, and
gave the girl the tips of her fingers to touch.
And this was all her greeting after the lapse of
three years.

"I hope you have made the most of your
time at Mrs. Gossamer's," she went on, while
Hester was busy producing her scissors and her
pins, and choking down a lump in her throat.
The girl did not know what it was she had
hoped for, hardly knew that she had hoped for
anything at all; only now she felt the aching
at heart of a disappointment.

"I expect you will take pains with this dress,"
said Lady Humphrey. "It costs more money
than I can afford to pay for it. I think it was
not very considerate of Mrs. Gossamer to trust
the fitting on to an apprentice."