Number Three, Winifred Place by Agnes Giberne

"I SUPPOSE I must not venture to say what I feel," Miss Mordaunt remarked, as a preliminary to the giving forth of her opinion. "But I certainly do think it has been a most extraordinary proceeding. To spend months in London,-not only in England, but actually in London itself, not half-an-hour's drive distant from us,-and never to let your own sisters know that you were on this side of the globe! It is most extraordinary! Not only that, but to have property left you, to take a new name, to retire from the army, to change your whole manner of life,-and still to leave us in ignorance! I do think we have reason to be pained, and I confess I am pained, more than you can imagine. Our dear William would never have treated us so. I should not have expected any great show of confidence from you, but this is going far indeed. I do think you have not acted rightly towards us, not even with due respect,-I am not speaking of affection."

Colonel Mordaunt-Smyth paced to and fro impatiently during his sister's harangue. It was not the first he had had to endure, and he was beginning to feel irritated. Rhona had been all the evening absent from him, in her mother's room. He had of course yielded to the general wish that Rhona should at once take up her abode in the house, though himself bent upon sleeping at the hotel, despite all opposition. But after weeks of close companionship, he felt at a loss without the child's loving little face and voice; and his three sisters could by no means supply her place.