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"I breathe again," says Dora Talbot affectedly

"I shall traverse every inch of that old tower--haunted room and all--before I am a week older," declares Florence defiantly After which she sain, and follows the maid up the broad staircase to her room

By the end of the week many other visitors have been ive sobaronet as Mrs Talbot and her cousin

Miss Delhter and heiress of an Indian nabob, had taken London by storm this past season; and not only the modern Babylon, but the heart of Adrian Dynecourt as well She had coland on the death of her father about two years ago; and, having no nearer relatives alive, had been kindly received by her cousin, the Hon Mrs Talbot, as then living with her husband in a pretty house in Mayfair

Six e Talbot had succumbed to a virulent fever; and his , upon whom a handsome jointure had been settled, when the funeral and the necessary laorries had co cousin that she intended to travel for a year upon the Continent, and that she would be glad, that is--with an elaborate sigh--she would be a degree less hted Florence She earied with attendance on the sick, having done e, while his wife lamented and slept; and, besides, she was still sore at heart for the loss of her father The year abroad had passed swiftly; the end of it brought the ht be decently terminated, Mrs Talbot had discarded her somber robes, and had put herself into the hands of the most fashionable dress- for the first tih her father had been alst the Hills; and, with her cousin, as now indeed her only friend, if slightly uncongenial, decided to return to London forthwith

It was early in May, and, with a sensation of extreirl looked forward to a few st the best of those whoard as "society"

Dora Talbot herself was not by any e to introduce into society a girl, well-born and possessed of an almost fabulous fortune Stray crumbs must surely fall to her share in a connection of this kind, and such cruather with a thankful heart