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If your father were in danger it would be a different matter. As it is, it is your duty to stay quietly here, and show by your patience how truly you love him." Nora sat silent. Mrs. Hartrick's words were absolute. The good lady felt that she was strictly following the path of duty.

Hartrick presided. There was jam on the table, and two or three kinds of cake, and, of course, plenty of bread and butter. As Molly had predicted, however, the news of her expression "Go to Jericho!" had already reached Mrs. Hartrick's ears, and the fiat had gone forth that she was only to eat bread and butter.

Hartrick was silent for a moment; then he said gravely: "I have heard bad news from that child." "From Nora?" "Yes, from Nora." "But Terence has never given us bad news." "Terence is not a patch upon Nora, my dear Grace." "There I cannot agree with you. I infinitely prefer Terence to Nora," was Mrs. Hartrick's calm reply. "But I thought you admired the child."

Some of Nora's words must have sunk into Mrs. Hartrick's heart, for, rather to Molly's own astonishment, she was allowed to dress nicely for dinner, and to come down. Her somewhat heavy, dark face did not look to the best advantage. She wore a dress which did not suit her; her hair was awkwardly arranged; there was a scowl on her brow.

"Is the brougham outside, Dennis?" was Mr. Hartrick's response. "Yes, sir; it has been waiting for half an hour; the train is a bit late, as usual, sir." "You need not tell me that this train is ever in time," said Mr. Hartrick. "Well, girls, come along; I told Dennis to meet us, and here we are."

"I only pray God she has," was Mr. Hartrick's reply. "If things are even half as bad as she represents them, it is high time that I should pay my sister a visit." "Why? What does she say?" "She has given me a picture of the state of affairs at that house which wrings my heart, Grace. To think that my beautiful sister Ellen should be subjected to such discomforts, to such miseries, is intolerable.

Nora gravely took the little bits of colored silk, and, under her aunt's supervision, began to arrange them in patterns. She was not a neat worker, and the task was by no means to her taste. "What time ought I to write in order to catch the post?" she said, breaking the stillness, and raising her lovely eyes to Mrs. Hartrick's face.

"Then you will not take me tomorrow?" "Not unless your father is worse. Come, I must help you to get your things off." Nora felt herself powerless in Mrs. Hartrick's hands. The good lady quickly began to divest her of her clothes, soon her night-dress was popped on, and she was lying down in bed. "What is that black bag doing here?" said Mrs. Hartrick, glancing at the bag as she spoke.

Presently she heard the creak of Linda's bed as she got into it. This was followed by silence. Nora breathed a sigh of relief, but still the dangers were not past. Her little black bag lay quite ready on the chair, and she herself sat on the edge of her bed. Mrs. Hartrick's steps were heard coming up the stairs, and the next moment the door of Nora's room was opened and the good lady looked in.

They had almost quarreled at that brief period of madness in Ellen Hartrick's life, when she had fallen in love with handsome Squire O'Shanaghgan; but that quarrel had long been made up. Mrs. O'Shanaghgan had married the owner of O'Shanaghgan Castle, and had rued her brief madness ever since. But her pride had prevented her complaining to her brother George.