"I will not hear you. You have no right so to speak to me. Aunt! aunt!"--and the tears gushed forth in all their bitter anguish--"let me find a home with you!" Mildred turned and clasped fondly the appealing form as it approached her. Travice, hurt and resentful, quitted the room. The death came, and then the funeral. A day or two afterwards, Mrs. Arkell condescended to pay a stately visit of ceremony to Mildred, who received her in the formerly almost-unused drawing-room. Lucy did not appear. Miss Arkell, her heart softened by grief, by much trial, was more cordial than perhaps she had ever been to Mrs. Arkell, before her marriage or after it. "What a fine young man Travice is!" she observed, in a pause of their conversation. "The finest in Westerbury," said Mrs. Arkell, with all the partiality of a mother. "I expect he will be thinking of getting married shortly." "Of getting married! Travice! To whom? To Lucy?" The question had broken from her in her surprise, in association with an idea that had for long and long floated through her brain--that Travice and Lucy were attached to each other. Mildred knew not whence it had its origin, unless it was in the frequent mention of Travice in Lucy's letters. Mrs. Arkell heard, and tossed her head indignantly. "I beg your pardon, Miss Arkell--to _Lucy_, did you say? Travice would scarcely think of wedding a portionless bride, under present circumstances. You must have heard of the rich Fauntleroy girls? It is one of them." Mildred--calm, composed, quiet Mildred--could very nearly have boxed her own ears. Never, perhaps, had she been more vexed with herself--never said an inadvertent thing that she so much wished recalled. How entirely Lucy was despised, Mrs. Arkell's manner and words proclaimed; and the fact carried its sting to Mildred's heart. "I had no reason to put the question," she said, only caring how she could mend the matter; "I dare say Lucy would not thank me for the idea. Indeed, I should fancy her hopes may lie in quite a different direction. Young Palmer, the lawyer, the son of her father's old friend, has been here several times this past week, inquiring after our health. His motives may be more interested ones." This was a little romance of Mildred's, called forth by the annoyance and vexation of the moment. It is true that Tom Palmer frequently did call; he and Lucy had been brought up more like brother and sister than anything else; but Miss Arkell had certainly no foundation for the supposition she had expressed. And Mrs. Arkell knew she could have none; but she chose to believe it. "It would be a very good match for Lucy," she replied. "Tom Palmer has a fine practice for so young a man; there are whispers, too, that he will be made town-clerk whenever the vacancy occurs." Home went Mrs. Arkell; and the first of the family she happened to come across was Travice.