"Hush! my Laura," she would say, gently; "gentlemen are not at home in a sick-room.

Dear papa is all that is kind, but sitting long in one room is like imprisonment to him; I love him far too much to wish him to do it." Then I would take the opportunity of repeating some kind word that I had heard my father say of her.

But do as we would, the shadow fell deeper and darker every day.
The sense of degradation fell upon me with intolerable weight.

That our household was a mark for slander--a subject of discussion, a blot on the neighborhood, I understood quite well; that my father was blamed and my mother pitied I knew also, and that Miss Reinhart was detested seemed equally clear.

She was very particular about going to church, and every Sunday morning, whether Sir Roland went or not, she drove over to the church and took me with her.