My poor, dear girl! My lost darling, so unexpectedly found." And they walked away together down the gallery talking till their voices and their steps died away.

The thick yellow daylight was almost extinct in the gallery by this time, and it was nearly dark behind the screen.
It was night at four o'clock in those days, and it was not till the dressing-bell for dinner rang at near seven that I went, feeling my way along the gallery, back to my own chamber.

I do not know what I had been doing in the meantime.

A chorus of soft voices warbled in conversation on the stairs as a band of graceful ladies tripped up to their several apartments.

Miss Leonard came to me in my rich, hot, heavy room and helped me to dress.