He'd be ashamed of me, and never see me again!' The note, so prettily requesting another from him, had, as we have seen, power enough in its pages to bring one.

He declared it to be such a pleasure to hear from her that she must write every week.

The same process of manufacture was accordingly repeated by Anna and her mistress, and continued for several weeks in succession; each letter being penned and suggested by Edith, the girl standing by; the answer read and commented on by Edith, Anna standing by and listening again.
Late on a winter evening, after the dispatch of the sixth letter, Mrs.
Harnham was sitting alone by the remains of her fire.

Her husband had retired to bed, and she had fallen into that fixity of musing which takes no count of hour or temperature.

The state of mind had been brought about in Edith by a strange thing which she had done that day.