"Oh you,"--smoothing the fair hair caressingly--"you are a darling, and you love every one, but Miss Campion--well, she is quite different. One would never expect a clever woman of the world who has friends and acquaintances in all quarters of the globe to be guilty of this sort of sentimentality; but all the same," with a little laugh, "she seemed to be delighted to see me, and of course the American scheme was revived." "Oh, Crystal," with a very long face, "I thought you had given up that idea." "Not at all; but I wanted to hear more about it, and I could not quite make up my mind." "You talk as though you were thinking seriously of it. Mrs. Norton would never consent to part with you." "Mrs. Norton would do exactly what her sister wished her to do, my dear. Aunt Addie's will rules Upton House. I begin to understand things better now. We used to wonder how Mrs. Norton could afford all those pretty gowns and bonnets, and why the curate's wife was so much better dressed than the vicar's wife, and how they could afford to go out of town and have all those nice things for the children, but of course it is all Aunt Addie's doing." "Miss Campion is rich then." "Yes; Mrs. Norton told me all about it when we were in the gardens. She says some old uncle left her all his money. She does so much good with it; and she is especially kind to Mrs. Norton, who is her favorite sister. She has promised to send the boys to school when they are old enough, and she pays my salary, and, in fact, the whole household are much benefited by Aunt Addie. So Mrs. Norton told me rather sorrowfully that if I made up my mind to go to America with her sister they would not say a word to prevent it." "But you will not go, dear," coaxingly. "Miss Campion has friends in New York," returned Crystal, evasively; "but she does not mean to stay there long. She wants to see Niagara and Colorado, and I forget the route she has planned; but a companion she must have, and she offers such handsome terms, and after all she will not, be away more than five or six months, and as she says the change will do me good; the only thing is she will start early next week and, as I tell her, I have nothing ready, but she only laughed and said we should have plenty of time to market in New York; and that she loved shopping." "Crystal, I do believe that you have made up your mind to leave us." Crystal hesitated a moment, and her dark eyes grew a little misty. "And if it be my duty, Fern, will you say a word to keep me, my darling?" as Fern looked sorrowfully in her face. "I am not leaving you for good and all; I will never do that until--" but here she paused, and then hurried on. "The fact is, Fern, your mother can no longer protect me; your brother's unmanly persecution is driving me away. No, I will say nothing bitter of him to-night; after all he is your brother; but it will be better for him if I leave here--a brief absence may help to cure him."