—————— CHAPTER VIII. CONCLUSION. "DON'T you think you could manage the walk, dear, to-day?" said Mabel coaxingly one Sunday morning after breakfast. Isabel looked dubious. "Couldn't we sit here and read?" she said. "It isn't like going to church," said Mabel discontentedly. She and Isabel had been pretty regular in their attendance lately, for Mr. Randolph, finding his younger daughter wished to go, had ordered that the carriage should always be in readiness to take her. Sometimes he had gone with her himself, and sometimes her mother and Julia had joined them. Altogether it had been a very happy summer to Isabel and her father. She suffered from languor and weakness during the hottest part of the weather. But since the summer had begun to wane, and the days to grow cooler, she had felt better. And so Mabel felt sure she could walk to church if she tried, and she pressed it upon her as a positive duty. They could not have the carriage to-day, for Mrs. Randolph wished to go and see a friend at a distance who was ill. And Mr. Randolph was away upon business, so that Isabel could not have that excuse for staying at home, thought Mabel. She had discovered that if Isabel did not go to church on Sunday, she generally contrived to go and see Mrs. Barker during the following week, and she was still a little jealous of the old lady's influence over her cousin, and had never quite forgiven her for sundry home truths that had been spoken to herself. As one of the people whom she—Mabel—was supposed to be able to teach, it was not pleasant to go and see her, as Isabel did, in the character of a scholar. And so now she pressed Isabel to go to church with the greater pertinacity on this account. "Very well, dear, I'll go," said Isabel at last. But even as she spoke, she heaved something like a sigh of weariness at the prospect of such a long walk. "That's right, make haste and get your things on," said Mabel briskly. "It will be a lovely walk across the fields such a fine morning." Mabel enjoyed the walk immensely, but before they reached the church, she could not but notice how tired Isabel seemed. "I am afraid I have walked too fast for you, dear," she said. "We will go more slowly." "I am tired," admitted Isabel. "I hope it won't rain before we get home," she added in a little alarm. "Look at those clouds over there." Mabel did look, and tried to laugh off her cousin's fears. But after they got into church, instead of attending to the service, her eyes and thoughts wandered to the opposite window, where she could see that the clouds were slowly gathering in blackness all round. Poor Isabel was spared this anxiety, for she was too weary to think of anything, and sat leaning back in the corner with her eyes closed, looking utterly worn out. But presently there was a sound that roused even her dormant faculties, for the rain-drops were pattering on the windows, and she looked at Mabel in dismay.