Sunshine from dawn till eve over the teeming earth: sunshine in the hearts of village maidens, thinking of plighted troths; sunshine in the stolid faces of farming lads, tramping beside their sleek horses; sunshine among the cronies, seated outside the alehouse, in the warm summer air, but, in the heart of Alizon Errington--ah, there was no sunshine there! She was walking slowly up and down the terrace of the Hall, dividing her attention between her own sad thoughts, and the gambols of Sammy, who was rolling amid his toys on an outspread bearskin. Straight and slender as an arrow, in her clinging white dress, with a red cluster of summer roses at her throat, but in her face a stern look, which melted into an adoring smile when she looked upon the child. Since her husband's departure, Lady Errington had not been happy. Perhaps she had been too hasty in judging him, perhaps she might have won him back from his evil ways by kindly words, but there, it was no use regretting the past, he was an exile on the Continent, and she was alone in her beautiful home. Not quite alone, however, for the child was there; her darling child, who was the joy of her life, the light of her eyes, and the comfort of her heart! Still, she missed her husband, in spite of her self-congratulations that she had acted as she had done; she missed his kindly ways, his affectionate smile, his thousand little acts of tenderness, which had passed unnoticed when done, but now seemed to start out of the past like a reproach for her severity. Had she been too severe after all? He had sinned, it was true! She felt sure that his character, like that of all men, resembled that of her father, and yet--he had indignantly denied his fault; he had pleaded for one kind look, one parting word, and she had refused his prayer. If his heart was evil, would it not have been better for her to have striven to draw it closer to her by that one strand of affection than sever the strand altogether, and let it sink back into the gulf of iniquity from which it strove to emerge. Alizon Errington was a good woman, who tried to do her best according to her lights, to whom the very thought of vice was utterly abhorrent, yet sometimes, as at this moment, unpleasant accusations of Pharisaism and self-righteousness were in her mind.