he would ever after admit
that she did not know how to write a letter. All the way home she had
conned over her method of action until Mr Brandon, or a letter, should
come from Midbranch.

She had already attacked, together, the unprincipled pair who found
shelter in her house, and she now determined to come upon them
separately, and torment each soul by itself. Annie, of course, would
come in for the lesser share of the punishment, for the fact that
the wretched and depraved Null was no more, had, in a great measure,
mitigated her offence. She was safe, and her aunt intended to hold her
fast, and do with her as she would, when the time and Junius came. But
upon Lawrence she would have no mercy. When she had delivered him into
the hands of Mr Brandon, or those of Roberta's father, or the clutches
of the law, she would have nothing more to do with him, but until that
time she would make him bewail the day when he deceived and imposed
upon her by causing her to believe that he was in love with another
when he was, in reality, trying to get possession of her niece. There
were a great many things which she had not thought to say to him in
the arbor, but she would pour the whole hot mass upon his head that
evening.

Stamping up the stairs, and thumping her umbrella upon every step as
she went, hot vengeance breathing from between her parted lips, and
her eyes flashing with the delight of prospective fury, she entered
her room. The light of the afternoon had but just begun to wane, and
she had not made three steps into the apartment, before her eyes fell
upon a pair of faded, light blue shoes, which stood side by side upon
a table. She stopped suddenly, and stood, pale and rigid. Her grasp
upon her umbrella loosened, and, unnoticed, it fell upon the floor.
Then, her eyes still fixed upon the shoes, she moved slowly sidewise
towards the closet. She tried the door, and found it still locked;
then she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key, looked at it,
and dropped it. With faltering steps she drew near the table, and
stood supporting herself by the back of a chair. Any one else would
have seen upon that table merely a pair of baby's shoes; but she saw
more. She saw the tops of the little socks which she had folded away
for the last time so many years before; she saw the first short dress
her child had ever worn; it was tied up with pink ribbons at the
shoulders, from which hung two white, plump, little arms. There was