mortal yearni

her object. L

ctioned, chiefl

be annulled-he

f a dream, op

dswo

om London swept majestically

friends. There was nobody to meet Virginia Mynors, but evidently she did not expect it. She stood among the throng, in her simplest linen suit, and searched with her eyes for the outside porter. It was some time before she could se

evening. The country town was bathed in dust; the roads, though it was almost seven o'clock, seemed shadeless. After a while the girl stoppe

nd-most kind-to the last. They had insisted upon keeping her one day longer, that Mr. Bent might take them to Hendon to see some flying. Bu

I think she has had bad ne

iny villas, these words were haunting her. She had supposed their ruin already accomplished. What could have happened afresh? What had mamma been doing? Incurring debts which she c

ibrary subscription, and so on. Graver expenditure than this she had not anticipated; but she was blaming herself for having yielded to the imploring desire of Mims that she should go to London, and her mother's eager advocacy of the

ltered it surprisingly. Seen thus, it was obvious that she was not merely slender, but sadly thin:

urnum Villa

garden approach, pushed open the narrow door,

enamelled it). The floor was stained (Virginia had stained it), and on the ground there lay a very valuable old Persian corridor-rug,

ipation. Light-footed she ran up the tiny staircase, and, pushing open the door of the back room on t

"Pansy, my Pansy blossom!" and the two sisters

u are better! It has done you good, hasn't it, d

course I always have plenty to eat! The point is, how have

marked the child. "I told her to give mamma's stockings to me-you know her darning was abominable. Mamma would never have worn them afterwards if she had done them. She grumbles enough as it is at havi

a deck-chair and seating herself with her

in. She went this afternoon to call upon Major and M

Virgie in vexation, and checked herself. "I o

eplied Pansy. "She went this morning and bought herself a

lied Virgie with a little groan. "Oh dear, I do wish she woul

anything, don't you, dear?" remarked Pans

air, with bronze lights in it, clustered charmingly about her small face, and her eyes were as

ty, but had taken no notice of the caution. She wished to set out on a certain date, and said she had no time to make other arrangements. The woman went out for what is now known as a "joy-ride" with the chauffeur and other chosen companions. She took with her Pansy, who was the b

. Mynors' own lingering illness. He had forgiven his wife many a flirtation,

the time of her father's boyhood, and who had begged his mistress not to leave this nurse in charge of the children, sat hour after hour with Virginia on his lap, until, at

l the dawn began to break. Then she heard wheels-wheels and voices on the gravel of the drive; and, slipping

all shrouded in white linen. Then came a doctor, stern and tight-lipped, with the moaning baby in his arms. Virginia could still recall the carbolic

ol at which she met Miriam Rosenberg-she was grave and silent with a gravity unbefitting her years, her fine health, her promising future. After that s

n hers in the twenty years of her short life. The future looked sadder than usual, and her custom

grave, Virg

m suffering from that horrible feeling w

ten to come back from all that fun and luxury and money to sta

ringing up and going to the window. "Oh, Pansy, the delphiniums! How this

child in eager delight. "And look at the roses t

ved chin resting on her hands, while her Greuze eyes rested on the row of little garden plots, on the farther row that

"did Gerald send me

nt away without a word! She had not expected to miss him so much. Yet, with the lack of perception

d to rush off to Liverpool for his father, and thus had naturally not had time for any special message or present. "But I have got som

ransparent skin. "Oh, Virgie, Virg

"I will just go and get on some old things, and w

have made him twelfth man? He's awfully bucked," said Pan

splendid! He's ver

nnounced Pansy, with satisfaction. "I'm making him a tie i

irginia's ear. "There's mamma," sh

nd entering the tiny drawing-room on the right of the

same long lovely eyes, deep-lashed, the same poise of the head and wavy golden-brown hair. A close observer alone would mark differences. The elder woman's eyes were blue, like forget-me-nots-the hard bl

oking better for your change! I'm glad I persuaded you to go, though we get on pretty badly without you." Passing keen eyes over her dau

relics of their vanished past which Mrs. Mynors had thought herself unable to do without. Silver, miniatures, cushions, foot-stools, a soft couch, an empire wr

replied Virginia, with a sigh, casting her housewifely eye upon the tarnished s

me?" asked Mrs. Mynors presently, i

nswered wonderingly. "Nothing very special. I told you most of it in my le

cence the while. Mrs. Mynors was uneasy. Her reading between the lines in Virginia's innocent letters had certainly led her to conclude that Gerald Rosenberg meant to marry the girl. Had she herself made a fatal mistake in sendi

ed to her mother the sum for the interest on the mortgage. There

had gone, vanished; that they would never revisit

lame, she yet was conscious of discomfort as

carry her hat, gloves and sunshade to the room above, she settled herself luxuriously by the open win

almost inconceivable beauty, with jointed limbs, and a body that could be washed in real water. Mims had added a chest of drawers, and various articles

blazer. His team had beaten the other after a hard fight, during which, of course

but he had marked what he wanted in a catalogue, and his sister had obediently bought as directed. Contri

gs, besides the winter coat, had been purchased that morning at Baxter's sale. Who could have sent money to her mother? She could think of nobody; for the men frien

usekeeper then felt at liberty to go and survey her kitchen premises, and to heave deep sighs at the sight of s