"Thank you," she said in a low voice, "I will come with you and stay

with you until--until--I can find something to do, something at which I

can earn my own living. Surely there must be something I can do?" She

turned to Mr. Wordley with a little anxious, eager gesture. "I am

strong--very strong; I have managed Herondale--I can ride, and--and

understand a farm. I am never tired. Surely there is something I can

do!"

Her voice broke, she began to tremble, and the tears started to her

eyes again.

"Yes, yes; no doubt, no doubt, my child!" said Mr. Wordley, whose own

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eyes were moist. "We will think about all that later on. You must go

now and rest; you are tired."

He drew her arm within his, and patting her hand tenderly and

encouragingly, led her out of the room; and stood in the hall watching

her as she slowly went up the great stairs; such a girlish, mournful

figure in her plain black dress.

Ida lay awake that night listening to the wind and the rain. She was

familiar enough with the dale storms, but never had their wild music

wailed so mournful an accompaniment to her own thoughts. Compared with

her other losses, that of her home, dearly as she loved it, weighed but

little; it was but, an added pang to the anguish of her bereavement;

and behind that, the principal cause of her grief, loomed the desertion

of her lover. She tried not to think of Stafford; for every thought

bestowed on him seemed to rob her dead father and to be disloyal to his

memory; but, alas! the human heart is despotic; and as she lay awake

and listened to the wailing of the wind and the rain as it drove

against the window, Stafford's voice penetrated that of the storm; and,

scarcely consciously, her lips were forming some of the passionate

words of endearment which he had whispered to her by the stream and on

the hill-side. Though she knew every word by heart of the letter he had

written her, she did not yet understand or comprehend why he had broken

his solemn engagement to her. She understood that something had risen

between them, something had happened which had separated them, but she

could form no idea as to what it was. He had spoken of "unworthiness,"

of something which he had discovered that had rendered him unfit to be

her husband; but she could not guess what it was; but confused and

bewildered as she was, there was at present, at any rate, no resentment

in her heart.




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