nd that the homelessness grew unbearable; for, whereas she had
always declared for honest independence and poverty, the next thing I
heard of her was, that she had accepted this miserable money-making old
wretch!'

'Perhaps she liked him.'

'No, indeed! She despises him, and does not hide it! She is true! that
is the best of her. I cannot help caring for Georgina. Poor thing, I
hate to see it! Her spirits as high as ever, and with as little ballast;
and yet she looks so fagged. She was brought up to dissipation--and does
not know where else to turn. She has not a creature to say a word the
right way!'

'Not her sister?' said Violet. 'She seemed serious and good.'

'No one can tell what is the truth in Jane,' said Theodora; 'and her
sister, who knows her best, is the last person to be influenced by her.
Some one to whom she could look up is the only chance. Oh, how I wish
she had a child! Anything to love would make her think. But there was
something in the appearance of that room I cannot get over.'

'The confusion of arriving--'

'No, nothing ever could have made it so with you! I don't know what it
was, but--Well, I do think nothing else prevented me from telling them
about Percy. I meant it when I said I would stay after you; and they
talked about his book, and asked if I saw much of him, and I faced it
out, so that they never suspected it, and now I think it was cowardly.
I know! I will go at once, and write Georgina a note, and tell her the
truth.'

She went, and after a little interval, Violet began to dress for a party
at the house of a literary friend of Lady Martindale's, where they were
to meet an Eastern grandee then visiting London. As she finished, she
bethought herself that Theodora had never before had to perform a
grand toilette without a lady's maid; and going to her room, found
her, indeed, with her magnificent black tresses still spread over her
shoulders, flushed, humiliated, almost angry at her own failures in
disposing of them.

'Don't I look like an insane gipsy?' said she, looking up, and tossing
back the locks that hung over her face.

'Can I do anything to help you?'

'Thank you; sit down, and I'll put all this black stuff out of the way,'
said Theodora, grasping her hair with the action of the Tragic Muse.
'I'll put it up in every-day fashion. I wish you would tell me what you
do to yours to get it into those pretty plaits.'

'I could show you in a minute; but as it is rather lat