CHAPTER VIII. "A sigh, a tear deny, Should I my passion speak! But when I silent die, Let gentle sorrow break That duty should control. (Echo) Ah no!" WE have spoken of the observations made on Miss Aylmer's acts and deeds by the neighbourhood of Haveringham; but we have not said how much Mrs. Strickland felt her loss. And though she had been partly broken into it by the changes that had taken place, yet on questioning her feelings she found she had been only waiting for the time to come back when they should be again together; and though, even to her, many parts of her friends' conduct had been equivocal and obscure, she had too much pressing on her own mind to follow up the chain of thought,-thought so broken by real anxiety and care, that it was perhaps the least strange thing that others should seem incomprehensible. Summer was now wearing away, and her little party again collected round the cheerful fire; and as they drew closer in, they wished for the nice warm snug room of the little cottage. "And that was the chair, mamma, in which Miss Aylmer always used to sit." They all looked at the chair, and there was a sweet silence all around. Then one said with a thrill of delight— "How handsome she was !" "Oh, yes!" "Such pretty ways!" "Oh, yes, so pretty!" "And how Georgy used to love her!" "Oh, yes; Georgy did love her so much !" "And whom did she love ?" Mrs. Strickland had said it thoughtlessly; the children were all prepared to say, "Me, me! you, you!" and Georgy did just lisp out "Every person !" when they heard a suppressed and stifled sob from the shaded corner where Mr. Bracken was sitting; and before they could well make out what it was, he had pushed his books aside and had left the apartment. It was not the first time that Mrs. Strickland had suspected that there was a tender feeling existing between her inmate, John Bracken and Miss Aylmer. She had nothing, it is true, to rest the impression on; and she was too refined in feeling to make a direct inquiry; but the impression had settled on her mind; and in the disappointment she had felt for her favourite's prospects, she had failed to take any interest in the subject of Miss Aylmer's attachment to her guardian; and it was on hearing of it that she was disposed to look back and see where she could have mystified herself. She could not say. And yet the impression still was, that there was love between them. She had hoped he had secured beauty, genius, accomplishments, and a great fortune. And then she laughed; for what, in the name of every-day sense, could John Bracken have done with them! She then tried to see what his ideas were on the subject. His face, always so pale, could not become much paler; but she saw his lip quiver, and his dark eyes darted out their radiant beam, as fixing them steadily on her, he said, "Talk not to me of one, my kind friend, that I dare not even trust myself to think of. VOL. III. H The children even with their baby croakings of regret, are killing me by inches;" he laughed bitterly; "killing what there is little left of to kill." And he drew up his sleeve as he spoke. In a moment it was replaced; but not before Mrs. Strickland had perceived a bracelet on his attenuated wrist that Miss Aylmer had taken off her own arm, and given many months back to Lizzy. No one seemed to have missed it; but there it was, and there it remained; for not one word was ever said about it, until the placing on his well-pinked shroud for he was then a man of fortunediscovered it. It was distressing to watch him after it was known that Miss Aylmer was really gone. Some days he was all bristles like a hedgehog ; then like a pining child, silence and sorrow overwhelming him. And yet whilst his troubled spirit seemed bearing so much, there was a heaven within, scrupulously guarded, known |