"Ah! then now I can understand what has changed her so much," said cousin Sarah, quietly.
With a startled expression Mr. Armstrong turned and looked at the speaker.
"What!" he exclaimed, but, before she could reply, Mrs. Armstrong, Mary, and Jack joined them. Cousin Sarah noticed at a glance that Mary had recovered her colour, but there was a quivering of the lip very painful to see.
On reaching home Mary hastily escaped to her room. She stood for a moment, with her hands clasped and her eyes uplifted, asking for help and strength; realising Montgomery's description of prayer:—
"The upward glancing of the eye,
When none but God is near."
"I must expect it," she said to herself; "I ought to have been prepared. How can I be so selfish—so dog in the manger like; I cannot be his wife myself, and ought I to object to his choosing any one else? But ah! it is very painful to think of," and then as she sunk into a chair the restrained tears burst forth unchecked.
In a few minutes she remembered the visitors; the tears had relieved her, and hastily preparing for an early dinner she bathed her eyes, controlled her feelings, and joined the rest in the drawing-room. So like herself did she seem that no stranger would have discovered the traces of tears, but the keen anxious eyes of the mother and cousin Sarah were not to be deceived. Mrs. Armstrong, however, knew too well what had happened to distress her patient and much loved daughter, and for her sake made no remark on her looks.