And, just when her heart began to cry out for something more than this, she made a discovery which sent her to her knees in utter joy and thankfulness to Heaven. No more _ennui_, no more repining now; even in the house the gravity of her little face gave place to an expression full of hope and sweetness, while, once escaped from silent submission and Lady Braithwaite, her eyes would dance and her lips break into soft song, till William declared he did not know what had come over her, and confessed one day, with a lump in his throat when she stopped to rest on a felled tree, that he believed she was going to die and go to heaven. “And--and you seem to be glad; and--and it is beastly of you when you know how fond I----” Here the lad gave way; and she laughed at him and made him sit by her, and told him he was talking nonsense. “If I look ‘so sweet’ as you say, that marvelous effect is due, not to my being dying of consumption, but to the Garstone air, which is making another woman of me.” “Then why do you always want to stop and rest? You never used to.” “Because--because the cold weather is coming on, and that always tries me.” “But it oughtn’t to; it ought to brace you up.” “Here come the Mainwarings! Let us get through the hedge,” interrupted Annie. And an undignified exit put a stop to the conversation. Annie told her secret to no one living. That very day, when these two returned home just in time for dinner, they found that an unexpected guest had arrived. It was Colonel Richardson. Beckham was not in a hunting-country, but a journey of an hour and a half by train took the Braithwaites within an easy distance of the meets of a very good pack of fox-hounds; and it was at a hunt-breakfast that day that the three eldest Braithwaites had met him. Harry, delighted to see his idol again, had introduced him to his brothers, and Sir George had invited him to return with them to the Grange, to break the journey to Scotland, where the colonel was due. He scarcely recognized Annie, she was so much changed for the better. Lilian received him with an indifference which, to Annie’s observant eyes, seemed rather overdone.