e learned before
morning.

Each sister believed that the other slept; but neither could be sure.
It was an utterly wretched night to both, and the first which they had
ever passed in misery, without speaking to each other. Margaret's
suffering was all from apprehension. Hester was little alarmed in
comparison; but she this night underwent the discovery which her sister
had made some little time ago. She discovered that nothing could happen
to her so dreadful as any evil befalling Mr Hope. She discovered that
he was more to her than the sister whom she could have declared, but a
few hours before, to be the dearest on earth to her. She discovered
that she was for ever humbled in her own eyes; that her self-respect had
received an incurable wound: for Mr Hope had never given her reason to
regard him as more than a friend. During the weary hours of this night,
she revolved every conversation, every act of intercourse, which she
could recall; and from all that she could remember, the same impression
resulted--that Mr Hope was a friend, a kind and sympathising friend--
interested in her views and opinions, in her tastes and feelings;--that
he was this kind friend, and nothing more. He had in no case
distinguished her from her sister. She had even thought, at times, that
Margaret had been the more important of the two to him. That might be
from her own jealous temper, which, she knew, was apt to make her fancy
every one preferred to herself: but she _had_ thought that he liked
Margaret best, as she was sure Mr Enderby did. Whichever way she
looked at the case, it was all wretchedness. She had lost her
self-sufficiency and self-respect, and she was miserable.

The first rays of morning have a wonderful power of putting to flight
the terrors of the darkness, whether their causes lie without us or
within. When the first beam of the midsummer sunshine darted into the
chamber, through the leafy limes which shaded one side of the apartment,
Hester's mood transiently changed. There was a brief reaction in her
spirits. She thought she had been making herself miserable far too
readily. The mystery of the preceding evening might turn out a trifle:
she had been thinking too seriously about her own fancies. If she had
really been discovering a great and sad secret about herself, no one
else knew it, nor need ever know it. She could command herself; and, in
the strength of pride and duty, she would do so. All was not los