"I should send the practice to York for one evening," cried Alfred, who chanced to overhear the words. "No doubt you would," laughed Frank. "Well, Frank, I'm sure you seem to put that precious practice before everything else. One would think it was an idol, with a golden body and diamond wings." "And so I ought to put it before everything else, Master Alfred. A steward must do his duty." Daisy went in unnoticed. She felt tired, wanted to be at home herself, and began arranging her bonnet before the glass at the window of the crowded back-room. Two beds were in the chamber, besides other furniture. In one of them slept Mrs. Raynor and Kate, in the smaller one, Edina. What a change it all was for them! Suddenly, while Daisy's attention was still given to her bonnet, certain words, spoken by Edina, broke upon her ear. She and Frank had sat down on the bench under the window, and were talking of Trennach. Mrs. Raynor and the children were at the end of the garden, bending their heads together over the untidy path, as if trying to determine what sort of coarse gravel it might be composed of. "Do you ever hear anything of Mrs. Bell, Frank?" "I saw her to-day," was Frank's unexpected answer. "Saw her yesterday as well." "Where did you see her? Is she in London?" quickly repeated Edina. "They have come to live in London. She and Rosaline." "What has made them do that?" continued Edina quite sharply, as if she did not altogether approve of the information. Daisy's fingers, tying her bonnet-strings, could not have dropped more suddenly, had they been seized with paralysis. "I'm sure I don't know. They have come into money, through the death of some relative at Falmouth, and thought, I believe, that they would like to live in London. Poor Mrs. Bell is worse than she used to be: the complaint, feared for her, is making progress--and must do so until the end. I am attending her." "They live near you, then?" "Close by." A short silence ensued. Edina was probably busy with her thoughts. She spoke again. "Is Rosaline as pretty as ever?" "Not quite so pretty, perhaps: more beautiful." "Ah, well--I would not go there too much, Frank; illness, or no illness," cried Edina. She spoke in a dreamy tone, as if her reflections were back in the past. In her heart she believed he must have cared more or less for Rosaline. Frank laughed slightly in answer: a laugh that was somewhat constrained. His thoughts also had gone back; back to that fatal night at Trennach. A sudden shout in Alfred's voice from the group in the garden. "Here it is! here it is, mamma!" Mrs. Raynor's thin gold ring had slipped off her slender finger, and they had been searching for it in the twilight.