It was the Carters themselves who had suggested this, and the girls went away, feeling thoroughly brokenhearted. They were really so shocked, so distressed, that they did not know themselves; but as day after day went by, and as Mrs Aldworth by slow degrees got better, and yet better, so much better that the doctor only came to see her once a day, then every second day, then twice a week, and then finally said to Marcia, "You can summon me when you want me--" so did the remorse and the agony of that terrible night pass from the minds of the young Aldworths. They could not help having a good time at the Carters'. The Carters were the essence of good nature. They had been dreadfully sorry for them during their time of anguish; they had done their utmost for the girls, and now they were willing to keep them as their guests. On a certain day, a month after Mrs Aldworth's serious illness, when she had come back again to that standpoint from which she had so nearly slipped away into the ocean of Eternity, Marcia made up her mind that it was time to put the repentance of her three young sisters to the test. They must return home and renew their duties to their mother. Marcia had given up all idea now of returning to Frankfort. She had written once or twice to Angela, and Angela had replied. She had also written to Mrs Silchester. "There is little hope of my being able to return this summer. My stepmother has been most alarmingly ill," she wrote. Angela had come to see her, but Marcia could not give her much of her time. Angela had kissed her, and had looked into her eyes, and Marcia had said: "I think I understand a little better your remarks about the path of duty, and the grandeur of duty, and I am quite content, and I do not repent at all." Angela thought a good deal of her friend, and wondered what she could do for her. But she scarcely approved of Marcia's still firmly adhered-to resolution, that the young Aldworths were to resume the care of their mother. "It will be so trying to you, and do you dare for a single moment to risk leaving her with them?" "Yes; the doctor has great hopes of her. He says that the new treatment has produced an almost radical change in the condition of her heart, and that with care she will do well, and may even become fairly strong once more. But all this is a question of time, and the girls have been quite long enough away from home, and I am going to fetch them to-morrow." On a certain day, therefore, when Nurse Davenant had done everything to make the invalid thoroughly comfortable, Marcia put on her hat and walked along the shady road towards the St Justs' old house.