Meantime, may I ask the name of the lady I have been so fortunate as to serve!" "Undoubtedly, sir--my name is Leoline." "Leoline is only half a name." "Then I am so unfortunate an only to possess half a name, for I never had any other." Ormiston opened his eyes very wide indeed.
"No other! you must have had a father some time in your life; most people have," said the young gentleman, reflectively.
She shook her head a little sadly.
"I never had, that I know of, either father or mother, or any one but Prudence.

And by the way," she said, half starting up, "the first thing to be done is, to see about this same Prudence.

She must be somewhere in the house." "Prudence is nowhere in the house," said Ormiston, quietly; "and will not be, she says, far a month to come.

She is afraid of the plague." "Is she ?" said Leoline, fixing her eyes on him with a powerful glance.
"How do you know that ?" "I heard her say so not half an hour ago, to a lady a few doors distant.
Perhaps you know her--La Masque." "That singular being! I don't know her; but I have seen her often.

Why was Prudence talking of me to her, I wonder ?" "That I do not know; but talking of you the was, and she said she was coming back here no more.