It followed that the promises for which she longed and to which she was stretching out her hands, were out of reach. Clean out of reach. Rotha's heart was the scene of a struggle that took away all possibility of comfort or even of hope. She had no right to hope. "If thy hand offend thee, cut it off"--but Rotha was not so minded. The prospect was dark and miserable. How could she go on living in her aunt's house? and how could she live anywhere else? and how could she bear her loneliness? and how could she get to the favour of that one great Friend, whose smile is only upon them that are at least trying to do his commandments? It was dark in Rotha's soul, and stormy. It continued so for days. In the house she was let alone, but so thoroughly that it amounted to domestic exile or outlawry. She was let alone. Not forbidden to take her place at the family table, or to eat her portion of the bread and the soup; but for all social or kindly relations, left to starve. Mr. Busby's mouth had been shut somehow; he was practically again a man of papers; and the other two hardly looked at Rotha or spoke to her. Antoinette and she sometimes went to school together and sometimes separate; it was rather more lonely when they went together. In school they hardly saw each other. So days went by. CHAPTER XV. MRS. MOWBRAY. "How is that Carpenter girl doing?" Mrs. Mowbray inquired one day of Miss Blodgett, as they met in one of the passages. "I have been wanting to speak to you about her, madame. She knows all I can teach her in that class." "Does she! Her aunt told me she had had no advantages. Does she study?" "I fancy she has no need to study much where she is. She has been further." "How does she behave?" "Perfectly well. She does not look to me happy." "Not happy! Is her cousin kind to her? She is cousin to that pretty Busby, you know." "I think she hardly speaks to her. Not here, I mean." Mrs. Mowbray passed on. But that very afternoon, when school was breaking up, Miss Blodgett asked Rotha to wait a few minutes. The girls were all gone in a trice; Miss Blodgett herself followed; and Rotha was left alone. She waited a little while. Then the door opened and the figure which had such a fascination for her appeared. The face looked gentler and kinder than she had seen it before; this was not school time. Mrs. Mowbray came in and sat down by Rotha, after giving her her hand. "Are you quite well, my dear?" was her instant question after the greeting. "You are hoarse." Rotha said she had caught a little cold. "How did you do that?" "I think it was sitting in a cold room." "Were you obliged to sit in a cold room?" Rotha hesitated. "It was pleasanter there," she said with some embarrassment. "You never should sit in a cold room. What did you want to be in a cold room for?" Rotha hesitated again. "I wanted to be alone." "Studying?" "Not my lessons,"--said Rotha doubtfully.