Mary," he added, as soon as he was gone, "come away, or you'll be saying something before that boy you'll be sorry for.

You're hysterical; that's what is the matter with you.

I am afraid we have frightened you by our talk about bushrangers." "Yes, that is it! that is it!" she said; and then, suddenly, "Oh! my dear old friend, you will not desert me ?" "Never, Mary; but why ask such a question now ?" "Ask Lee," she said, and the next moment Mrs.Barker, the housekeeper, came bustling in with smelling salts, and so on, to minister to a mind diseased.

And Mary was taken off to bed.
"What on earth can be the matter with her, cousin Tom ?" said Charles when she was gone.
"She is out of sorts, and got hysterical; that's what it is," said Tom.
"What odd things she said!" "Women do when they are hysterical.

It's nothing more than that." But Mrs.Barker came in with a different opinion.