’But everybody declares that it was always visible, and that no one could look at her without seeing that she was crooked.’

‘Apres le coup,’ said Mr. Kendal.  ’I grant you that a person of more experience might perhaps have detected what was amiss sooner than you did, but you have only to regret the ignorance you shared with us all; and you did your utmost according to your judgment.’

‘And a cruel utmost it was,’ said Albinia; ’it is frightful to think what I inflicted, and she endured in silence, because I had not treated her so that she could bear to speak to me.’

‘That is over now,’ said Mr. Kendal, ’you have conquered her at last.  Pride could not hold out against such sweetness.’

‘It is her generosity,’ said Albinia; ’I always knew she was the best of them all, if one could but get at her.’

’What have you done to her?  I never heard her say half so much as she voluntarily said to me just now.’

’Poor dear!  I believe the key of her heart was lost when Edmund died, and so all within was starved,’ said Albinia.  ‘Yes,’ as his eyes were suddenly raised and fixed on her, ’I got to that at last.  No one has ever understood her, since she lost her brother.’

’She has a certain likeness to him.  I knew she was his favourite sister; but such a child as she was—­’

‘Children have deeper souls than you give them credit for,’ said Albinia.  ’Yes, Edmund, you and Sophy are very much alike!  You had your study, and poor Sophy enclosed herself in a perpetual cocoon of study atmosphere, and so you never found each other out till to-day.’

Perhaps it was the influence of the frantic fit that caused her to make so direct a thrust; but Mr. Kendal was not offended.  There was a good deal in the mere absence from habitual scenes and associations; he always left a great deal of reserve behind him at Bayford.

‘You may be right, Albinia,’ he said; ’I sometimes think that amongst us you are like the old poet’s “star confined into a tomb."’

Such a compliment was a pretty reward for her temerity.

Returning to business, she found that her journey was treated as more judicious than she deserved.  The consequences had justified her decision.  Mr. Kendal knew it was the right thing to be done, and was glad to have been spared the dreadful task of making up his mind to it.  He sat down of his own accord to write a note to Winifred, beginning, ‘Albinia was right, as she always is,’ and though his wife interlined, ’Albinia had no right to be right, for she was inconsiderate, as she always is,’ she looked so brilliantly pretty and bright, and was so full of sunny liveliness, that she occasioned one of the very few disputes between her good aunts.  Miss Ferrars declared that poor Albinia was quite revived by the return to her old home, and absence of care, while Mrs. Annesley insisted on giving the credit to Mr. Kendal.  They were perfectly agreed in unwillingness to part with their guests; and as the doctor wished to see more of his patient, the visit was prolonged, to the enjoyment of all parties.