Let them, as becomes their birth, gain their bread in situations.

If they show themselves disposed to accept their proper position I will assist them to start virtuously in life by a present of one hundred pounds each.

This sum I authorize you to pay them, on their personal application, with the necessary acknowledgment of receipt; and on the express understanding that the transaction, so completed, is to be the beginning and the end of my connection with them.

The arrangements under which they quit the house I leave to your discretion; and I have only to add that my decision on this matter, as on all other matters, is positive and final." Line by line--without once looking up from the pages before her -- Magdalen read those atrocious sentences through, from beginning to end.

The other persons assembled in the room, all eagerly looking at her together, saw the dress rising and falling faster and faster over her bosom--saw the hand in which she lightly held the manuscript at the outset close unconsciously on the paper and crush it, as she advanced nearer and nearer to the end--but detected no other outward signs of what was passing within her.