"It is indeed a most beautiful home, and I am sure Felicia has everything to make her happy." "And she is happy, Mrs.Herbert; I don't think I ever saw anybody so perfectly happy as Felicia is now.

I'm afraid I could never be quite as satisfied with any impossible ideal of a husband as she is with Alan; I should want to quarrel with him just for the fun of the thing, and to find out his faults for the pleasure of correcting them.

A man as faultless as Alan--I mean as faultless as Felicia considers Alan--would bore me; but he suits her down to the ground." But even then Mrs.Herbert did not smile; instead of that her light blue eyes filled with tears.

"Oh! my dear," she said, with a sob in her voice, "Felicia is ashamed of me." For all her high spirits, Elisabeth generally recognised tragedy when she met it face to face; and she knew that she was meeting it now.

So she spoke very gently-- "My dear Mrs.Herbert, whatever do you mean?
I am sure you are not very strong, and so your nerves are out of joint, and make you imagine things." "No, my love; it is no imagination on my part.