"That pole!" said Sydney. "Why, that pole is put up on purpose to show that you must not go there. Don't you see how the ice is broken all round it? Oh, I know how it is that you are so stupid and cowardly to-day. You've lived in Birmingham all your winters, and you've never been used to walk on the ice." "I am glad you have found that out at last. Now, look--I am really going. What a horrid sensation!" she cried, as she cautiously put down one foot before the other on the transparent floor. She did better when she reached the middle of the river, where the ice had been ground by the skates. "Now, you would get on beautifully," said Sydney, "if you would not look at your feet. Why can't you look at the people, and the trees opposite?" "Suppose I should step into a hole." "There are no holes. Trust me for the holes. What do you flinch so for? The ice always cracks so, in one part or another. I thought you had been shot." "So did I," said she, laughing. "But, Sydney, we are a long way from both banks." "To be sure: that is what we came for." Margaret looked somewhat timidly about her. An indistinct idea flitted through her mind--how glad she should be to be accidentally, innocently drowned; and scarcely recognising it, she proceeded. "You get on well," shouted Mr Hope, as he flew past, on his return up the river. "There, now," said Sydney, presently; "it is a very little way to the bank. I will just take a trip up and down, and come for you again, to go back; and then we will try whether we can't get cousin Hester over, when she sees you have been safe there and back." This was a sight which Hester was not destined to behold. Margaret had an ignorant partiality for the ice which was the least grey; and, when left to herself, she made for a part which looked less like glass. Nobody particularly heeded her. She slipped, and recovered herself: she slipped again, and fell, hearing the ice crack under her. Every time she attempted to rise, she found the place too slippery to keep her feet; next, there was a hole under her; she felt the cold water--she was sinking through; she caught at the surrounding edges--they broke away. There was a cry from the bank, just as the death-cold waters seemed to close all round her, and she felt the ice like a heavy weight above her. One thought of joy--"It will soon be all over now"--was the only experience she was conscious of.