SOPHY OF KRAVONIA
the procession, Sophy still in her arms. At the end of the avenue she spoke to the boy and girl:
"Go home, Basil; tell your father, and ask him to come to the Hall. Good-night, Julia. Tell your mother—and don't cry any more. The poor man is with God, and I sha'n't let this mite come to harm."
She was a childless woman, with a motherly heart, and as she spoke she kissed Sophy's wounded forehead. Then she went into the Hall grounds, and the boy and girl were left together in the road. Basil shook his fist at the avenue of elms—his favorite playground.
"Hang those beastly trees!" he cried. "I'd cut them all down if I was Mr. Brownlow."
"I must go and tell mother," said Julia. "And you'd better go, too."
"Yes," he assented, but lingered for a moment, still looking at the trees as though reluctantly fascinated by them.
"Mother always said something would happen to that little girl," said Julia, with a grave and important look in her eyes.
"Why?" the boy asked, brusquely.
"Because of that mark—that mark she's got on her cheek."
"What rot!" he said, but he looked at his companion uneasily. The event of the evening had stirred the superstitious fears seldom hard to stir in children.
"People don't have those marks for nothing—so mother says." Other people, no wiser, said the same thing later.
"Rot!" Basil muttered again. "Oh, well, I must go."
She glanced at him timidly. "Just come as far as our door with me. I'm afraid."
8
