At that moment there was a knock at the door, and a small figure appeared in a scarlet robe, bare feet, and dishevelled hair. ‘Mysie, dear child! What’s the matter? who is ill?’ ‘Oh, please come, mamma, Dolly is choking and crying in such a dreadful way, and I can’t stop her.’ ‘I give up, Lily. This is mother-work,’ said Miss Mohun. Hurrying upstairs, Lady Merrifield found very distressing sounds issuing from Dolores’s room; sobs, not loud, but almost strangled into a perfect agony of choking down by the resolute instinct, for it was scarcely will. ‘My dear, my dear, don’t stop it!’ she exclaimed, lifting up the girl in her arms. ‘Let it out; cry freely; never mind. She will be better soon, Mysie dear. Only get me a glass of water, and find a fresh handkerchief. There, there, that’s right!’ as Dolores let herself lean on the kind breast, and conscious that the utmost effects of the disturbance had come, allowed her long-drawn sobs to come freely, and moaned as they shook her whole frame, though without screaming. Her aunt propped her up on her own bosom, parted back her hair, kissed her, and saying she was getting better, sent Mysie back to her bed. The first words that were gasped out between the rending sobs were, ‘Oh! is my--he--to be tried?’ ‘Most likely not, my dear. He has had full time to get away, and I hope it is so.’ ‘But wasn’t he there? Haven’t they got him? Weren’t they asking me about him, and saying I must be tried for stealing father’s cheque?’ ‘You were dreaming, my poor child. They have not taken him, and I am quite sure you will not be tried anyway.’ ‘They said--Aunt Jane and Uncle Reginald and all, and ‘that dreadful man that came--’ ‘Perhaps they said you might have to be examined, but only if he is apprehended, and I fully expect that he is out of reach, so that you need not frighten yourself about that, my dear.’ ‘Oh, don’t go!’ cried Dolores, as her aunt stirred. ‘No, I’m not going. I was only reaching some water for you. Let me sponge your face.’ To this Dolores submitted gratefully, and then sighed, as if under heavy oppression, ‘And did he really do it?’ ‘I am afraid he must have done so.’ ‘I never thought it. Mother always helped him.’ ‘Yes, my dear, that made it very hard for you to know what was right to do, and this is a most terrible shock for you,’ said her aunt, feeling unable to utter another reproach just then to one who had been so loaded with blame, and she was touched the more when Dolores moaned, ‘Mother would have cared so much.’ She answered with a kiss, was glad to find her hand still held, and forgot that it was past eleven o’clock. ‘Please, will it quite ruin father?’ asked Dolores, who had not outgrown childish confusion about large sums of money. ‘Not exactly, my dear. It was more than he had in the bank, and Uncle Regie thinks the bankers will undertake part of the loss if he will let them. It is more inconvenient than ruinous.’