Next day came Lady Cicely to see her.  Lady Cicely was very uneasy in her mind, and wanted to know whether Rosa was reconciled to the separation.

Rosa received her with a forced politeness and an icy coldness that petrified her.  She could not stay long in face of such a reception.  At parting, she said, sadly, “You look on me as an enemy.”

“What else can you expect, when you part my husband and me?” said Rosa, with quiet sternness.

“I meant well,” said Lady Cicely sorrowfully; “but I wish I had never interfered.”

“So do I,” and she began to cry.

Lady Cicely made no answer.  She went quietly away, hanging her head sadly.

Rosa was unjust, but she was not rude nor vulgar; and Lady Cicely’s temper was so well governed that it never blinded her heart.  She withdrew, but without the least idea of quarrelling with her afflicted friend, or abandoning her.  She went quietly home, and wrote to Lady ——­, to say that she should be glad to receive Dr. Staines’s advance as soon as convenient, since Mrs. Staines would have to make fresh arrangements, and the money might be useful.

The money was forthcoming directly.  Lady Cicely brought it to Dear Street, and handed it to Dr. Staines.  His eyes sparkled at the sight of it.

“Give my love to Rosa,” said she softly, and cut her visit very short.

Staines took the money to Rosa, and said, “See what our best friend has brought us.  You shall have four hundred, and I hope, after the bitter lessons you have had, you will be able to do with that for some months.  The two hundred I shall keep as a reserve fund for you to draw on.”

“No, no!” said Rosa.  “I shall go and live with my father, and never spend a penny.  O Christie, if you knew how I hate myself for the folly that is parting us!  Oh, why don’t they teach girls sense and money, instead of music and the globes?”

But Christopher opened a banking account for her, and gave her a check-book, and entreated her to pay everything by check, and run no bills whatever; and she promised.  He also advertised the Bijou, and put a bill in the window:  “The lease of this house, and the furniture, to be sold.”

Rosa cried bitterly at sight of it, thinking how high in hope they were, when they had their first dinner there, and also when she went to her first sale to buy the furniture cheap.

And now everything moved with terrible rapidity.  The Amphitrite was to sail from Plymouth in five days; and, meantime, there was so much to be done, that the days seemed to gallop away.

Dr. Staines forgot nothing.  He made his will in duplicate, leaving all to his wife; he left one copy at Doctors’ Commons and another with his lawyer; inventoried all his furniture and effects in duplicate, too; wrote to Uncle Philip, and then called on him to seek a reconciliation.  Unfortunately, Dr. Philip was in Scotland.  At last this sad pair went down to Plymouth together, there to meet Lord Tadcaster and go on board H.M.S.  Amphitrite, lying out at anchor, under orders for the Australian Station.