Build it up with stone so strong, _Dance over my lady lea_; And then it will last for ages long _With a gay lady_.’ “Her voice, set low for the sick-room, repeats the familiar lines. She dare not cease, for immediately the eyes are wide upon her, and she hears, ‘Sing, sing.’ And so she sings on till the little form shifts less restlessly, and the breathing grows longer and more profound. “The fire dies down and the clock ticks on in a comfortable monotony. Then she rises, and, writing on a piece of paper, she slips it under the door. And after a while there is a quiet footstep in the passage, and she knows the child’s father is reading the message, ‘_Miss Diana sleeps_.’ * * * * * “Again the past is built before her. She sees the large house lighted for a ball. There are garlands over the doors, holly and ivy deck the pictures, and everywhere the soft candlelight is shed on the dark and polished floors. Music streams through the brightly-lit rooms, and a brilliant company pass to and fro in silks and jewels. “Mrs. Gladwell stands in the gallery, looking down on the gay scene. She sees a laughing company, a knot of some seven or eight, pass into the hall. The men wear their hair long and are dressed in colours, and in their midst moves Diana Sackville. She wears her hair over cushions, and pearls are threaded through the soft mass. She paces through the gavotte with head held high, poised like a flower, with laughing lips and gleeful eyes, her step light as thistledown; and though the violins are sounding their slender music, through it all the onlooker hears another melody-- “‘Silver and gold will be stolen away _Dance over my lady lea_; Silver and gold will be stolen away _With a gay lady_.’” * * * * * Miss Hippesley’s voice ceased, and Clare sat thinking. Still was she seeing in imagination that bright throng. “But Diana shall speak for herself; this is a letter written by her to her father.” And Miss Hippesley opened as she spoke a broad paper. Though the ink was brown, you might readily see the tails of the _g_’s and _d_’s were all turned cheerfully, with a kink in them. “‘MY DEAR FATHER,--I have spent a week with a friend of yours at Edmomsbury, and been very much entertained there. Lord and Lady Buckingham have been obliging enough to give a ball on purpose for me at St. Woolstans, where I danced in great spirits, being now mighty well and able to enjoy, as usual, all amusements. “‘We had a good deal of company at Edmomsbury, and dear whist finished every evening. I had the long-wished-for happiness of driving a little cabriolet myself every morning, and am grown an excellent coachman.