even recalling to Anne's
mind that she ought to write to her pupils and to the leader of the
choir, telling them that she expected to be absent from the city for
several days. "It would be best to resign all the places at once," he
said. "After this is over, they can easily come back to you if they wish
to do so."

"It may make a difference, then, in my position?" said Anne.

"It will make the difference that you will no longer be an unknown
personage," he answered, briefly.

His dispatch had produced a profound sensation of wonder in the mind of
Miss Teller, and excitement in the minds of Miss Teller's lawyers.
Helen's aunt, so far, had not been able to form a conjecture as to the
identity of the mysterious young girl who had visited her niece, and
borne part in that remarkable conversation; Bagshot's description
brought no image before her mind. The acquaintance with Anne Douglas,
the school-girl at Madame Moreau's was such a short, unimportant, and
now distant episode in the brilliant, crowded life of her niece that
she had forgotten it, or at least never thought of it in this
connection. She had never heard Helen call Anne "Crystal." Her
imagination was fixed upon a girl of the lower class, beautiful, and
perhaps in her way even respectable--"one of those fancies which," she
acknowledged, "gentlemen sometimes have," the tears gathering in her
pale eyes as she spoke, so repugnant was the idea to her, although she
tried to accept it for Heathcote's sake. But how could Helen have known
a girl of this sort? Was this, too, one of those concealed trials which
wives of "men of the world" were obliged to endure?

Neither did Isabel or Rachel think of Anne. To them she had been but a
school-girl, and they had not seen her or heard of her since that summer
at Caryl's; she had passed out of their remembrance as entirely as out
of their vision. Their idea of Helen's unknown visitor was similar to
that which occupied the mind of Miss Teller. And in their hearts they
had speculated upon the possibility of using money with such a person,
inducing her to come forward, name herself, and deny Bagshot's testimony
point-blank, or at least the dangerous portions of it. It could not
matter much to a girl of that sort what she had to say, provided she
were well paid for it.

Miss Teller and the lawyers were waiting to receive Anne, when, late in
the evening, she arrived, accompanied by Mr. Dexter. The lawyers had to
give way first