Do, sir, be so good as to release me from" As she spoke, she raised her veil, and showed what no woman wishes to hide, least of all when seeking the good-will of one of the opposite sex.

She had a handsome facestrikingly so.

She was a brilliant brunette, dark-skinned; but her complexion was of a clear, pale olive, and as soft, as lustrous as pure ivory.

She had rich red lips, the only colour in her face, and these, habitually slightly apart, showed pearly-white glistening teeth.

"She has not yet recovered.

Thus muttering to herself, she shambled across the room to a corner, where she stowed the money safely away.

Thus muttering to herself, she shambled across the room to a corner, where she stowed the money safely away.

Then she came back, showed the bit of lace, and pressed it into the Countess's hands.

I was told to look for it, to search for it on you;" and with a quick gesture she lifted the edge of the Countess's skirt, dropping it next moment with a low, chuckling laugh.

What had she done?

She must write to Fanny.'

'She is engaged, Robert.'

But, nevertheless the story had interested her so that she had been enticed into taking some part in the conversation.

'The poor young lady can't help it if her feet are big,' said Hester, who was quite alive to the grace of a well-made pair of boots, although she had been taught to eschew braided hair and pearls and gold.

Mrs. Babington, however, pushed her remonstrances so far that she boldly declared that the man was engaged to her daughter, and wrote to him more than once declaring that it was so.

She wrote, indeed, very often, sometimes abusing him for his perfidy, and then, again, imploring him to return to them, and not to defile the true old English blood of the Caldigates with the suds of a washerwoman and the swept-up refuse of a porter's shovel.

She became quite eloquent in her denunciation, but always saying that if he would only come back to Babington all would be forgiven him.

So it has been done,' said Mrs. Bolton, sitting in a comfortless little chair, which she was accustomed to use when secluded, with her Bible, from all the household.

She spoke in a voice that might have been fit had a son of hers been just executed on the gallows.

That would have been Hester's reply could she have spoken her mind; but she could not speak it, and therefore she stood silent.

That would have been Hester's reply could she have spoken her mind; but she could not speak it, and therefore she stood silent.

'What is it?' asked the wife, as soon as she saw the long official envelope.

'It has to do with that wretched man in prison,' she said.

The eloquence here was no doubt better than the argument, as Caldigate must have felt when he remembered how fond he had once been of that 'bedangled woman.' Hester, who, though she knew the whole story, did not at this moment join two and two together, thought that Mr. Holt put the case uncommonly well.

She followed him without a word; but her pale face, her fixed look, and all her movements, testified her unutterable astonishment.