“May I show my present,” Kitty asked, “when I go to mamma in the morning?”

The present hidden under the paper wrapper was a sixpenny picture-book.  Kitty’s grandmother disapproved of spending money lavishly on birthday gifts to children.  “Show it, of course; and take the greatest care of it,” Mrs. Presty answered gravely.  “But tell me one thing, my dear, wouldn’t you like to see all your presents early in the morning, like mine?”

Still smarting under the recollection of her interview with her son-in-law, Mrs. Presty had certain ends to gain in putting this idea into the child’s head.  It was her special object to raise domestic obstacles to a private interview between the husband and wife during the earlier hours of the day.  If the gifts, usually presented after the nursery dinner, were produced on this occasion after breakfast, there would be a period of delay before any confidential conversation could take place between Mr. and Mrs. Linley.  In this interval Mrs. Presty saw her opportunity of setting Linley’s authority at defiance, by rousing the first jealous suspicion in the mind of his wife.

Innocent little Kitty became her grandmother’s accomplice on the spot.  “I shall ask mamma to let me have my presents at breakfast-time,” she announced.

“And kind mamma will say Yes,” Mrs. Presty chimed in.  “We will breakfast early, my precious child.  Good-night.”

Kitty was half asleep when her governess entered the room afterward, much later than usual.  “I thought you had forgotten me,” she said, yawning and stretching out her plump little arms.

Sydney’s heart ached when she thought of the separation that was to come with the next day; her despair forced its way to expression in words.

“I wish I could forget you,” she answered, in reckless wretchedness.

The child was still too drowsy to hear plainly.  “What did you say?” she asked.  Sydney gently lifted her in the bed, and kissed her again and again.  Kitty’s sleepy eyes opened in surprise.  “How cold your hands are!” she said; “and how often you kiss me.  What is it you have come to say to me—­good-night or good-by?”

Sydney laid her down again on the pillow, gave her a last kiss, and ran out of the room.

In the corridor she heard Linley’s voice on the lower floor.  He was asking one of the servants if Miss Westerfield was in the house or in the garden.  Her first impulse was to advance to the stairs and to answer his question.  In a moment more the remembrance of Mrs. Linley checked her.  She went back to her bed-chamber.  The presents that she had received, since her arrival at Mount Morven, were all laid out so that they could be easily seen by any person entering the room, after she had left the house.  On the sofa lay the pretty new dress which she had worn at the evening party.  Other little gifts were arranged on either side of it.  The bracelet, resting on the pedestal of a statue close by, kept a morsel of paper in its place—­on which she had written a few penitent words of farewell addressed to Mrs. Linley.  On the toilet-table three photographic portraits showed themselves among the brushes and combs.  She sat down, and looked first at the likenesses of Mrs. Linley and Kitty.