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1 AUGUST THE NINTH ONE TO TWO O'CLOCK AM

Cytherea entered her bedroo herself on the bed, bewildered by a whirl of thought Only one subject was clear in her mind, and it was that, in spite of family discoveries, that day was to be the first and last of her experience as a lady's-maid

Starvation itself should not co post for another instant 'Ah,' she thought, with a sigh, at thebetter than I' She ju ready for her departure in the rieved and wondered what practical matter on earth she could turn her hand to next All these preparations co away to the contelass for an instant at the reflection of her own nificent resources in face and bosom, and to mark their attractiveness unadorned, was perhaps but the natural action of a young woh the harassing experience of decorating an older beauty of Miss Aldclyffe's te reflections on the hidden troubles which ed the past years of the solitary lady, to keep her, though so rich and courted, in a looirl ain, as she had e confluence of circuht herself into contact with the one woman in the world whose history was so roan to wish she were not obliged to go away and leave the lonely being to loneliness still

In bed and in the dark, Miss Aldclyffe haunted her , she called up staring visions of the possible past of this queenly lady, her one years she saw, behind all, the young girl's flirtation, little or much, with the cousin, that seemed to have been nipped in the bud, or to have ters between Miss Aldclyffe and the other woman at the little inn at Hammersmith and other places: the commonplace name she adopted: her swoon at soe the elder female had of her partner in mystery Then, more than a year afterwards, the acquaintanceship of her own father with this his first love; the awakening of the passion, his acts of devotion, the unreasoning heat of his rapture, her tacit acceptance of it, and yet her uneasiness under the delight Then his declaration ae produced in her id determination: and the total concealment of her reason by herself and her parents, whatever it was Then the lady's course dropped into darkness, and nothing more was visible till she was discovered here at Knapwater, nearly fifty years old, still unhty