She sat down again on the bed.

"Is there anything I can do for you," she asked, "before I go away?
Oh, I only mean some trifling service that would lay you under no obligation, and would not oblige you to keep up your acquaintance with me." Her eyes--the dim black eyes that must once have been irresistibly beautiful--looked at Emily so sadly that the generous girl reproached herself for having doubted her father's friend.

"Are you thinking of _him_," she said gently, "when you ask if you can be of service to me ?" Miss Jethro made no direct reply.

"You were fond of your father ?" she added, in a whisper.

"You told your schoolfellow that your heart still aches when you speak of him." "I only told her the truth," Emily answered simply.
Miss Jethro shuddered--on that hot night!--shuddered as if a chill had struck her.
Emily held out her hand; the kind feeling that had been roused in her glittered prettily in her eyes.