stem of composition excluded capitals and stops; and
reduced all the words in the English language, by a simple process of
abridgment, to words of one syllable.

_"dear ov you come back car is ill she wants you be quick be quick don't
say I writ this miss min is gone I hate books I like you zo."_

With the pen still in her hand, the wary writer looked round at her
father. She had her directed envelope (sadly crumpled) in her pocket;
but she was afraid to take it out. "Maria," she thought, "would know
what to do in my place. Horrid Maria!"

Fortune, using the affairs of the household as an instrument, befriended
Zo. In a minute more her opportunity arrived. The parlour-maid
unexpectedly returned. She addressed Mr. Gallilee with the air
of mystery in which English servants, in possession of a message,
especially delight. "If you please, sir, Joseph wishes to speak to you."

"Where is he?"

"Outside, sir."

"Tell him to come in."

Thanks to the etiquette of the servants' hall--which did not permit
Joseph to present himself, voluntarily, in the regions above
the drawing-room, without being first represented by an
ambassadress--attention was now diverted from the children. Zo folded
her letter, enclosed it in the envelope, and hid it in her pocket.

Joseph appeared. "I beg your pardon, sir, I don't quite know whether I
ought to disturb my mistress. Mr. Le Frank has called, and asked if he
can see her."

Mr. Gallilee consulted the parlour-maid. "Was your mistress asleep when
I sent you to her?"

"No, sir. She told me to bring her a cup of tea."

On those rare former occasions, when Mrs. Gallilee had been ill, her
attentive husband never left it to the servants to consult her wishes.
That time had gone by for ever.

"Tell your mistress, Joseph, that Mr. Le Frank is here."

CHAPTER XLVII.

The slander on which Mrs. Gallilee had reckoned, as a means of
separating Ovid and Carmina, was now a slander refuted by unanswerable
proof. And the man whose exertions had achieved this result, was her
own lawyer--the agent whom she had designed to employ, in asserting that
claim of the guardian over the ward which Teresa had defied.

As a necessary consequence, the relations between Mr. Mool and herself
were already at an end.

There she lay helpless--her authority set at naught; her person outraged
by a brutal attack--there she lay, urged to action by every reason that
a resolute woman could have for assertin