It will all come back to you--and it was not I that took it away.

But--whatever you tell me--whatever you ask, I will do.' With a catching breath Eleanor turned and threw her arm round the girl's neck.
'Stay,' she breathed--'stay for a few days.

Let there be no shock--nothing to challenge him.

Then slip away--don't let him know where--and there is one woman in the world who will hold you in her inmost heart, who will pray for you with her secretest, sacredest prayers, as long as you live!' The two fell into each other's embrace.

Lucy, with the maternal tenderness that should have been Eleanor's, pressed her lips on the hot brow that lay upon her breast, murmuring words of promise, of consolation, of self-reproach, feeling her whole being passing out to Eleanor's in a great tide of passionate will and pity..