"Ned wants to marry Lilias, does he?" Her voice sounded strange and far away, and she noted as much, and pondered on the peculiarity. "They will make a handsome couple. Lilias is so fair. She will look well beside him." "Maud, don't! For pity's sake don't take it like that!" The tears were raining down Nan's cheeks, and she seized her sister's hand in a passionate grasp. "I know all about it. I am almost as wretched as you are. Don't pretend to me. Say what you feel to me, at least, and it will help you to bear it." "But I don't feel anything," said Maud dully. "It seems like a dream. Lilias! He loves Lilias, and not me; he never loved me at all! He has been thinking of Lilias all this time. It's--very--strange! I think what I feel most is shame for my own conceit. I have been deceiving myself all along, and that is a miserable thought! You should not sympathise with me, Nan: you should scold me, and tell me to be ashamed of myself." She spoke in the same dull, strangled note, and Nan continued to cry and clasp her hand in distress. "I could never do that, or be anything but proud of you, darling! It was no conceit at all on your part, for we all thought the same. He always seemed to prefer being with you, and to be so shy and constrained with Lilias. I suppose that was a sign, but we did not recognise it. Even mother was sure it was you: every one was, except Lilias." Maud gave a quick glance upward. "Did Lilias guess? Did she know that this was coming?" "I have not seen her; but from what mother said, I imagine she did." "And she will--she cares for him too?" "Yes!" It was a very low little yes, almost a whisper, but at the sound of it Maud shrank as at a blow, and her face became drawn with pain. For the first time a realisation of what the news meant, broke upon her, and she cried aloud in a voice sharp with misery-- "They will be engaged; they will be married; and I shall have to stay at home and look on! I shall have to take part, and pretend that I don't care. Oh, I can't--I can't do it! If it had been some one at a distance, some one I need never have seen, I could have borne it; but my own sister, living in the same house together all day long--that is too bitter! I'd rather die than face it!" "Then I'll die too!" cried Nan hotly. "Whether Ned cares for you or not, you are all the world to me. You don't know how I love you, Maud! It would have broken my heart if you had married and gone away, and I never want to marry myself, if you and I can live together. No man could make up for you. I hate them all! Wretches! Nothing but misery wherever they come. I'll never fall in love, and you'll get over this in a few months, and we will look forward to having our own little house, and growing old together,--won't we, darling?"