THE PANELLED HOUSE.

201

who was at home for the holidays, to walk into
| Erconbury that morning, and leave them there.
| He look at her inquiringly.

“What's up ?” he said.

Winny and Aunt Hermy, who were likewise in
the room, were startled by his tone; and Winny
came up to her sister.

“Tim not engaged to Edward any longer : I have
written to break it off,” she said steadily, though
grasping at a chair for support.

“My dear!” said Aunt Hermy, with at least
twenty notes of concern and surprise in her voice.
Winny only put her arm round Nest’s waist, and
kissed her. She knew now as well as if Flora had
told her how the state of the case stood.

“ Why ?” said Evan, with a whistle.

“TI can’t tell you. Reasons that are satisfactory
to both of us,” she said with some difficulty ; “don’t
ask me any more just now, please.”

Nest did not emerge again from her.own room
during the whole of the day. She felt as if she
had finished a hard task, and was content to rest
and not to think. Winny waited upon her, silently
and lovingly. Only once she said, “I know what
it is, Nest. It is Flora.”

Nest looked up, and said, “‘ Mind that no one else
suspects it then, Winny. I have given my word.”

J will never say a word about it,” said Winny.
“ But as for her, I have a great mind never to speak
to her again.”

“Yes, you must,” said Nest wearily; “I promised
her that no one should know. We must go on just
the same with her as we did before, or else it will
leak out.”

“Why should you care so much whether it does
or not? I’m sure she never showed any conside-
ration for you, or any sense of right, honour, or
justice,” said Winny wrathfully. ‘ She is just like
the snake in the fable, and I should like above
all things to see her turned into one, and I would
stamp upon her with all my might,” and Winny
suited the action to the word so dramatically that
it made Nest smile a little.

“Flush, Win; it is not only for Flora, it is partly
for Colonel Armyn’s sake too. He would be so
awfully distressed if he knew what Flora has been
doing. Help me to hush it up; don’t make it
harder for me, there’s a dear.”

Whereupon Winny promised, and then hurried
out of the room into her own, where she relieved
her feelings by crying and by hurling a variety of
epithets at Flora, none of which were of a mild
character.

The aunts were seriously disturbed. Aunt Immy,
indeed, took the matter philosophically, and said
that they had better quarrel before marriage than
after. But what most distressed Aunt Hermy was
the disagreeableness of making people talk, as they

were sure to do, at such a mysterious rupture of am
engagement.

“My dear,” she said to Winny, “I quite believe
that Nest hos been right in doing as she has done ;
don’t rufile up your feathers so angrily, my little
brown wren. But you don’t know how ill-natured
people will gossip, if a story is once set going ; we
really must try to persuade Nest to give us some
reason for breaking off the match. It will be so
bad for her. Have you any idea what the reab
reason is ? Nothing about a

“TI know,” said Winny simply, “but Nest made
me promise not to tell. I made a guess, and she
admitted it ; but she begged me to help her keep.
it secret.”

“Of course,” said Aunt Hermy, “we know the
| fault must lie with Edward, and not with poor
Nest.”

“Of course,” said Winny very decidedly, “I
always knew he was nothing like good enough for
her, and she knows it too now. There, Aunt
Hermy, I can’t say any thing more ; don’t ask me,.
please.”

That evening a letter and packet arrived from
Edward. The packet contained the few little
things that Nest had given him ; the letter con-
sisted of these words :-—

“‘T have treated you very ill, and do not deserve
your generous forbearance. My aunt’s haste in
London was partly to blame, but I do not excuse
myself. You could not have acted otherwise than
you have done in breaking off our engagement. T
can only say that I am sincerely grieved for the
pain I have brought upon you, and remain yours.
sincerely, “ EDWARD ANDERSON.”

The glamour which had been over Nest’s eyes
had been rudely dispelled, and the hollowness of
the ring of this note struck to her heart. Had
Edward never loved her, then? Had it been all a
mistake ? Or rather, as poor Nest, in her morbid
self-abasement put it, had she really shown herself’
a person impossible to love ? She felt crushed to
the earth at this new experience of human life, and
it seemed to her, now that her faith in her fellow-
creatures was thus roughly shaken, that life would
only be a barren waste, worth nothing. It would
have been comparatively easy to bear, had circum-
stances come between her and Edward, so that she
might have kept her respect for him, even if she
had had to give up his love; but this seemed to
embitter the whole world to her. She thought of
that little poem of Clough’s, and for the first time
its thought seemed to be part of herself; not a
mere picture of the imagination, as it had always
been to her before.

My wind is turn’d to bitter north,
That was so sweet a south before ;

My sky, that shone so sunny bright,
With foggy gloom is clouded o’er.

eee ee