ndeed! well, I am very glad to welcome you, Miss Brown. They tell
me you have a fine voice. I should like to hear it some day, when you
are not tired."

"If my voice will give you pleasure, lady, I shall, for the first time
in my life, be grateful for it," said Caroline, so impressed by this
sweet old lady's kindness, that she longed to throw both arms about her.

"What, what? I did not hear distinctly. Oh, it is the voice they tell me
of, which thrills the heart with its sweetness; was not that what you
said of it, Clara? No wonder people like it. I do."

The old lady still held Caroline's hand--her delicate fingers clung to
it, with the loving tenacity of a child. She looked up to the beautiful
face with eager, wistful curiosity; but the light always came dimly into
that chamber, and its rich draperies of lace and brocade threw their
shadows over Caroline; besides, those old eyes were dim with age, or she
might have been troubled that such dangerous beauty should come into her
house in the form of a dependant. As it was, she allowed the two girls
to depart, without dreaming that a more beautiful woman than her
grandchild had almost been put upon a level with her.

Two or three days after this, Lord and Lady Hope arrived at the castle,
and the old countess, for the first time, saw the woman who wore the
coronet which had once belonged to her child. It was beautiful to see
that proud lady--for now you could decide that she had been very
proud--preparing herself to receive this woman, whom she had hated and
wronged so grievously. She stood up in her tower-room when Rachael
entered it, her black satin dress trailing far out upon the floor, the
yellow old lace fastened over her bosom with a cluster of diamonds, and
a handkerchief of delicate lace in her hand.

There was a little more motion of the head than usual, and that was all
the evidence she gave of extraordinary emotion.

Lady Hope came to the door, leaning on the arm of her husband; but, on
the threshold, she abandoned his support, and came forward by his side,
apparently calm and self-possessed; but a proud fire shone in those
black eyes, which would not be quenched.

"I have sent for you, Lady Hope, because I thought that the most open
and honorable way of acknowledging the wrong I have done you, and of
asking your forgiveness."

The old countess folded her arms over her bosom, and bent, in her proud
humility, before that beautiful woman whom she could ne