"What is the matter, Annabel?"
"Nothing," she faintly answered, though her tears were even then falling. But I knew that some great trouble must be upon her.
"Is Mrs. Brightman vexed with you for having come up last night with that deed?"
"No; oh no! I told mamma about it this morning, and she said I had done quite right to take it up, but that I ought to have gone in the carriage."
"What, then, is causing you this grief?"
"You cannot expect me to be in very good spirits as yet," she replied: which was a decided evasion. "There are times—when I feel—the loss——"
She fairly broke down, and, sinking into a chair, cried bitterly and without concealment. I waited until she had become calmer.
"Annabel, my dear, sorrow for your loss is not all that disturbs your peace to-night. What else is there?"
"It is true that I have had something to vex me," she admitted after a pause. "But I cannot tell you about it."
"It is a momentary trouble, I hope; one that will pass away——"