“I won’t pretend we were glad to hear of it; but everything else was swallowed up in papa’s death. I don’t think mamma has quite forgiven either of you yet; but she will come round in time. And, you see, as I told her, if Harry hadn’t married you, George would have done so.” Annie started, and the color rushed to her face. “Oh, you need not look surprised! I am sure of it. He was much more in love with you than Harry was; and, to tell you the truth, when you had left Garstone, and nobody could tell what had become of you, I thought George was more likely than Harry to know where you were.” She rattled on without taking much notice of Annie’s continued agitation. After a minute’s pause for breath, she added: “And I did credit to your being a good little thing and a clever little thing, for George has far fewer scruples and far less sense of honor than even Harry, I can tell you. Harry is not a bad fellow at heart, though he is such a lout; there is no other word for him. Will you forgive my frankness? I am a pretty good judge of my brothers, and my knowledge may be useful to you.” She rose from the sofa and took Annie’s trembling hand. “I have frightened you, worried you. You won’t let me come again. But you will, won’t you?” she added, in a coaxing tone--“for I am so dull. May I come on Thursday, the day after to-morrow, and we will go to the Academy together? It will soon close now, so it will be full of country bumpkins; but I will brave them, if you will. Mamma and Aunt Constantia find it too tiring for them. May I come?” She asked quite restlessly and anxiously; and Annie, surprised, begged her to come, and promised to be ready at whatever time she pleased. When Harry returned home, and his wife told him of his sister’s visit, he was even more surprised than she had been. “Well, she is a queer girl; but I think this beats any freak she has had yet,” he said. “You should just have heard her go on at me--and at you--at Garstone, when she first heard about it--just after our father’s death too. I told her if she didn’t hold her tongue, I would turn her out of the room.” And presently he broke out again, “I wonder what she is up to now?” Without suspecting any deep-laid plot under Lilian’s friendliness, as her husband seemed to do, Annie was more surprised than ever when Thursday came and Miss Braithwaite drove up in a hansom very punctually, to see how excited she seemed to be over such a simple diversion as a visit to the Academy with her sister-in-law. She was looking radiantly lovely. The mourning, which did not at all set off Annie’s brunette beauty, was the most perfect setting possible for Lilian’s bright, fair complexion and chestnut-brown hair. She was in good spirits too, and so anxious to start that she gave Annie doubtful help in dressing with her own hands. Then they got into the hansom which was waiting outside, and were at Burlington House in five minutes.