It became easy after this for Althea to carry into effect all her beneficent wishes.

The friends who had taken Miss Buchanan to the Riviera had gone on to London, leaving her alone in Paris for a week's shopping, and there was no one else to look after her.

She brought her fruit and flowers and sat with her in all her spare moments.

The feeling of anxiety that had oppressed her on the evening of gloom when she had first seen her was transformed into a soft and delightful perturbation.
As the unknown lady in black Miss Buchanan had indeed charmed as well as oppressed her, and the charm grew while the oppression, though it still hovered, was felt more as a sense of alluring mystery.

She had never in her life met any one in the least like Miss Buchanan.