"Mrs. Bennet thought the change down-stairs might do me good," she returned, in a weak, hollow voice that scarcely seemed to belong to her; "and I--I wanted to see you, and thank you for what you have done." "And my arrangements have satisfied you?" "Perfectly and entirely." "That is well," smiling at her; "then I have not worked in vain. And you"--hesitating a little, "you will be guided by my advice about the day after to-morrow." "Oh no, I cannot," clasping her hands with a little sob. "Dr. Bennet says it will not really hurt me, if I have set my heart on going, and I am stronger--much stronger now." "But you will faint--something will surely happen to you; you are unfit to move," he remonstrated. "No, I will be very good, if you will only take me," she implored. "If you refuse, I shall lose heart altogether, and then indeed I shall be worse; please give way to me in this;" and he reluctantly consented. But he need not have feared for her. Queenie went through the painful ordeal with a calmness that surprised him. True she trembled a good deal, and the brown eyes looked cloudy with unshed tears, and once she quitted his arm, and knelt down and kissed the sods that covered her darling; but there was no undue manifestation of grief, and he left her quiet and outwardly calm when he walked back to his hotel. But the next evening he found her looking worn and ill; she was sitting by the window with a little old Bible of Emmie's in her lap. She laid it aside as she greeted him. "Do you know that I must be going back to Hepshaw, and that you and I must have some conversation together?" he said in a meaning voice, as he took the chair beside her. She changed color at that, and then he saw her nervously pulling off the seal ring from her finger. "I must not forget that this is your property," she said, not looking at him, but straight out of the window; and he saw that her face and even her throat were suffused with crimson. "I know how kindly you meant it, and I ought to have given it back before." "It is certainly a shabby old ring, but you might have kept it until I had replaced it by another," taking possession of the hand and the ring too. "But--but it all meant nothing," she stammered. "It was good of you to quiet my darling, and give in to her fancy, but of course I understood that it all meant nothing." "Did it mean nothing when I took you in my arms and kissed you the other night?" "Oh, Mr. Clayton, how can you?" turning away and covering her face with her hand; he had still possession of the other. "Did it mean nothing that I told Emmie that I loved you dearly, and would care for you, God helping me, all my life? did you say a dissenting word then?" "No; I was too stunned, too overwhelmed. I could say or do nothing at all."