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"It would interest me so much to knohy your hands used to be so red,"

I asked after a little pause "They are getting so much whiter now"

"I had work to do, dishes to wash, our old nurse was too ill, as well as

my mother, and my little brother then--" there was a break in her soft

voice "I do not like red hands any more than you do They distressed

my father always I will try to take care of the post had come in, and been put by Burton discreetly on a

side table He naturally thought such ht I caught sight of the little pile and asked

Alathea to bring the on top and one ie de Clerté! Alathea saw that they were both in fe The rest were bills and business

"Do you permit me to open them?" I asked punctiliously

"Of course," and she reddened "Are you not master here? How absurd to

ask me!"

"It is not; you are Lady Thorht to courtesy"

She shrugged her shoulders

"Why did you put--'To Alathea from her husband' on the bracelets? You

are 'Sir Nicholas' and not my husband"