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'Yes, exactly' 'Do you know enough of Miss Aldclyffe's ive me an idea of how she means to treat h I know very little of her mind as a rule, in this ht share to the extent of a sixth or an eighth perhaps, in consideration of her getting new lamps for old, but I should hardly think rove went along the road with a bowed head and heavy footsteps towards his niece's cottage, in which, rather against the wish of Edward, they had teht of this knowledge soon h indoors with Edward or Adelaide nearly the whole of the afternoon, nothing more than monosyllabic replies could be drawn fro fixedly at the wall or floor, quite unconscious of another's presence At supper he ate just as usual, but quite mechanically, and with the sa he was in no better spirits Afternoon caed to draw from him an account of the conversation with the steward
'Nonsense; he knows nothing about it,' said Edward vehemently
'I'll see Miss Aldclyffe myself Now promise me, father, that you'll not believe till I come back, and tell you to believe it, that Miss Aldclyffe will do any such unjust thing' Edward started at once for Knapwater House He strode rapidly along the high-road, till he reached a wicket where a footpath allowed of a short cut to the mansion Here he leant down upon the bars for a fewhis speech, and surveying the scene before his without being conscious of theh they appear in the eye afterwards as vivid impressions
It was a yellow, lustrous, late autu and evening seeether without the intervention of a noon The clear yellow sunlight had tempted forth Miss Aldclyffe herself, as at this sae As Springrove lingered he heard behind the plantation a wo amid the prickly husks and leaves which had fallen into the path frohs of the chestnut trees In another reeting respectfully, and was about to request a few minutes' conversation with her, when she directly addressed him on the subject of the fire 'It is a sad misfortune for your father' she said, 'and I hear that he has lately let his insurances expire?' 'He has, eneral terin of the fire, the disasterthe whole row of houses, or else of beco a debtor to the estate, to the extent of so of it,' she went on, and then repeated in substance the words put into her mouth by the steward