I.[WEDDING GARMENTS]
II.[LADY VALERIA FIGHTS HER OWN BATTLE]
III.[AN ELOPEMENT ON NEW LINES]
IV.[IN THE LAND OF BOHEMIA]
V.[REAPING THE WHIRLWIND]
VI.[HOW SUCH THINGS END]
VII.[ONE WHO MUST REMEMBER]
VIII.[THE LAST LINK]
IX.[WAITING FOR HIS DOOM]
X.["ALIKE IS HELL, OR PARADISE, OR HEAVEN"]
XI.["SWEET IS DEATH FOR EVERMORE"]
XII.["WHO KNOWS NOT CIRCE?"]
XIII.["HOW LIKE A WINTER HATH THY ABSENCE BEEN"]

WYLLARD'S WEIRD

CHAPTER I.

WEDDING GARMENTS.

Hilda's presence at Penmorval was full of comfort and solace for Dora Wyllard. She had known Hilda all her life, had seen her grow from childhood to womanhood, had loved her with a sisterly love, trusting her as she trusted no one else. Hilda had been only a child at the time of Dora's engagement to Edward Heathcote; yet, even at eleven years of age, Hilda's tender heart had been full of sympathy for her brother when that engagement was broken off, and when Dora became the wife of another man. She had been angry, with vehement, childish anger. That Dora should like any man better than him who, in the fond eyes of the younger sister, seemed the prince and pattern of fine gentlemen, was an unpardonable offence.

Hilda at eleven was precocious in her knowledge of books, and very self-opinionated in her judgment of people. She told her brother she would never speak to Dora again, that she would run a mile to avoid even seeing her: and then, a few months after Dora's marriage, finding that her brother had forgiven that great wrong with all his heart, Hilda melted one day suddenly, at meeting Mrs. Wyllard on the moor, and fell into her old friend's arms.

"I have tried to hate you for being so wicked to my brother," she sobbed, as Dora bent over her and kissed her.

"Your brother forgave me ever so long ago, Hilda," said Dora. "Why should you be less generous than he?"