I ought to have taken Mr.Carrington's advice sooner." "Oh, Maude!" exclaimed Sybil, with a sudden explosion of energy; "I wish you had taken him!" This remark roused Mrs.Lee to new interest: "Why, Sybil," said she, "surely you are not in earnest ?" "Indeed, I am," replied Sybil, very decidedly.

"I know you think I am in love with Mr.Carrington myself, but I'm not.

I would a great deal rather have him for a brother-in-law, and he is so much the nicest man you know, and you could help his sisters." Mrs.Lee hesitated a moment, for she was not quite certain whether it was wise to probe a healing wound, but she was anxious to clear this last weight from her mind, and she dashed recklessly forward: "Are you sure you are telling the truth, Sybil?
Why, then, did you say that you cared for him?
and why have you been so miserable ever since he went away ?" "Why?
I should think it was plain enough why! Because I thought, as every one else did, that you were going to marry Mr.Ratcliffe; and because if you married Mr.Ratcliffe, I must go and live alone; and because you treated me like a child, and never took me into your confidence at all; and because Mr.Carrington was the only person I had to advise me, and after he went away, I was left all alone to fight Mr.
Ratcliffe and you both together, without a human soul to help me in case I made a mistake.

You would have been a great deal more miserable than I if you had been in my place." Madeleine looked at her for a moment in doubt.

Would this last?
did Sybil herself know the depth of her own wound?
But what could Mrs.Lee do now?
Perhaps Sybil did deceive herself a little.