Who could imagine a contrast more complete than the contrast between her early life and her mother's?
Who could see any thing but a death-bed delusion in the terrible question which had tortured the mother's last moments: "Will she end like Me ?" But two events of importance occurred in the quiet family circle during the lapse of years which is now under review.

In eighteen hundred and fifty-eight the household was enlivened by the arrival of Sir Thomas Lundie.

In eighteen hundred and sixty-five the household was broken up by the return of Sir Thomas to India, accompanied by his wife.
Lady Lundie's health had b een failing for some time previously.

The medical men, consulted on the case, agreed that a sea-voyage was the one change needful to restore their patient's wasted strength--exactly at the time, as it happened, when Sir Thomas was due again in India.

For his wife's sake, he agreed to defer his return, by taking the sea-voyage with her.