his opponent or whether it was part of a plan that would

'Only three weeks, for her absence only showed how little she could be spared; but she left an influence on that room of mine that it has never lost.'

'How solitary it must have been when you were recovering.'

'I had her letters. I will show you some of them some day. She used to write almost daily.'

'And it was when you were getting better that you took the great journey in the East?'

'Yes; Percy had just left Cambridge, and was ready to take the care of me on his hands. Those two years went pleasantly by, and what a happy visit it was at Elsdale afterwards! You can't think how this talking over our travels has brought it back. As long as Mrs. Percival lived we did pretty well. She made Helen take care of herself, and I could go and stay there; but after her death the poor old man grew more childish and exacting. I once tried staying at the curate's, but it did not answer. He could not bear to have her out of his sight, and had taken an unhappy aversion to me, fancying me some old admirer of his own daughter, and always warning her against me.'

'How distressing! How wretched! It would have killed me long before! How did she bear it? I know it was patiently, but I cannot understand it!'

'Her letters will best show you. It was the perfect trust that it was good for us; but what she underwent in those last three years we never knew. Her brother was at Constantinople. I could not go to Elsdale, and there was no one to interfere. We could not guess from her cheerful letters how she was wearing herself out, bearing his caprices, giving up sleep and exercise. I knew how it would be the first moment I met her, when I went to Elsdale to the funeral; but it was supposed to be only over-fatigue, and her aunt, Lady Fotheringham, took her home to recover. She grew worse, and went to London for advice. There I met her, and--and there she herself told me she had disease of the heart, and could not live a year.'

'She held up to me that cross--that first gift--she bade me think of the subjection of wills and affections it betokened. Little had we once thought of that meaning!'