*nE BELONGS TO , THE TAME-CAT SPECIES. ": ;Lif e went on smoothly enough at the - Abbey House after this evening. Violet tried to / make herself happy among the surroundings of her child hood, petted the horses, drove her basket-carriage with the favourite old pony, went among the villagers, rode. her thoroughbred .bay for long wild explorations of the Forest and neigh bouring country, looked with longing. eyes, sometimes, at the merry groups riding to the meet, and went her lonely .way with a heavy heart. No more hunting for her. She could not hunt ; alone, and she declined all friendly ' offers of escort. It would have seemed. a treason against her beloved dead to ride across country by anyone else's side. Everyone had called at the Abbey House and welcomed Mrs Tempest and her daughter back to Hampshire. They had been asked to five o'clock tea at Ellangowan Park, to see the marvellous orchid. They had been invited to half a-dozen dinner-parties Violet tried to persuade her mother that it was much too soon after her father's death to think of visiting. * My dear Violet,' cried the widow,. Rafter going to that ball at Brighton, we could not possibly decline invita tions here. It would be an. insult to our friends. If we had not gone to the ball—' ; *We ought not to have gone,'. ex claimed Vixen. j 'My love, you should have said so at the time.' ' Mamma, you know I was strongly against it.' Mrs. Tempest shrugged her shoulders as who should say : ' This is too much !' ' I know your dress cost a small fortune, and that you danced every waltz, Violet,' she answered, ' that is about all I know.' 4 Very well, mamma, let us accept all the invitations. Let us be merry as grigs. Perhaps it will make papa more comfortable in Paradise to know how happy we are without him. He won't be troubled by any uneasy thoughts about our grief, at all events,' added Vixen with a stiffled sob. ' How irreverently you talk. Mr. Scobel would be dreadfully shocked to hear you,' said Mrs. Tempest. The invitations were all accepted, and Mrs Tempest for the rest of the winter was in a flutter about her dresses. 