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"An earthquake!" Lilias's voice was tragic. "Just a slight shock. We often have them." "O-o-h! Will the walls tumble down?" "Certainly not it only makes the china rattle." By this time Cousin Clare, also unaccustomed to earthquakes and almost as alarmed as Lilias, came into the room.
The dainty grey, with its edging of white, came from Lilias's bosom friend, a certain Ella Duckworth, whose sayings and doings were so constantly quoted in the schoolroom that her very name had become the signal for groans of disapproval; the fat white packet bore the magic name of the Bon Marche, Paris, and contained patterns of material for the frock in which Lilias intended to array herself at the garden parties of the coming season; and the narrow envelope, with its bold, even writing, was a familiar object in the Rendell household, whose authorship required no explanation.
Lilias chose a middle course, and, extracting half a crown from her purse, handed it over with melancholy resignation. "I shall be pleased to give you a small donation, but I would rather my name did not appear in your list. Put it down as from a friend." "Or a Giver a Cheerful Giver!" cried Miss Thacker, with an accent on the adjective which brought the blood into Lilias's cheeks.
He looked, indeed, so worn and aged, that his friends were shocked to see him, and tears of commiseration rose in Lilias's pretty eyes. The consciousness that Ned looked to her for consolation roused a natural womanly tenderness in her heart, and nothing could have been sweeter than her behaviour on the day of his arrival.
But Ned sank down in a chair and covered his face with his hands. "But it is true!" he moaned. "It is true, and I can't deny it! Oh, how blind I have been how blind and foolish! I have ruined my own life as well as hers." It was all over. Ned had gone away, and the diamond ring no longer shone on Lilias's left hand.
If it is God's will, we will not be parted, my beloved child." And so it was settled, and Lilias's heart was set at rest about the matter; and in the morning her face told the tidings to Archie before her lips could speak the words. Mrs Blair's cottage lay at the distance of several miles from the kirk of Dunmoor, which she had all her life attended.
The irritation had faded from Mrs Rendell's face, and given place to an expression of anxious tenderness; for Lilias's indifference to Ned's letter was but another strengthening of the growing conviction that the girl's feeling for her lover fell short of what it should rightly be.
I don't know what arrangements will be made for you, but Mr. Bowden is one of your guardians, and he is such a kind friend that I am sure he can be thoroughly trusted to take good care of your affairs. Try to look on the bright side of things. Matters might be so much worse." In Lilias's opinion, at any rate, matters were quite bad enough.
But, alas! disappointment awaited them; for, strange to relate, the invalid found Lilias's fragile charms less attractive to his eye than the healthful vivacity of her sisters; while condolence was so distasteful to his ears, that he fairly scowled down Elsie's plaintive assurances of sympathy.
"`A new heart will I give you, and a right spirit will I put within you. Lilias, my dear, he's a changed man." A bright colour flashed into Lilias's face, and tears started in her eyes. "I am sure of it! We may be poor and sick and sorrowful again, but the worst of my aunt's troubles can never come back to her more."
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