You will think that I am wandering away from my Lady Ludlow.

Not at all.

The Lady who had owned the lace, Ursula Hanbury, was a common ancestress of both my mother and my Lady Ludlow.

And so it fell out, that when my poor father died, and my mother was sorely pressed to know what to do with her nine children, and looked far and wide for signs of willingness to help, Lady Ludlow sent her a letter, proffering aid and assistance.

I see that letter now: a large sheet of thick yellow paper, with a straight broad margin left on the left-hand side of the delicate Italian writing,--writing which contained far more in the same space of paper than all the sloping, or masculine hand-writings of the present day.