After having been more than a mother to your dear brother's child; after having been an elder sister to Blanche; after having toiled--I say _toiled,_ Sir Patrick!--to cultivate her intelligence (with the sweet lines of the poet ever present to my memory: 'Delightful task to rear the tender mind, and teach the young idea how to shoot!'); after having done all I have done--a place in the carriage only yesterday, and a visit to the most interesting relic of feudal times in Perthshire--after having sacrificed all I have sacrificed, to be told that I have behaved in such a manner to Blanche as to frighten her when I ask her to confide in me, is a little too cruel.

I have a sensitive--an unduly sensitive nature, dear Sir Patrick.

Forgive me for wincing when I am wounded.
Forgive me for feeling it when the wound is dealt me by a person whom I revere." Her ladyship put her handkerchief to her eyes.

Any other man would have taken off the blister.

Sir Patrick pressed it harder than ever.
"You quite mistake me," he replied.