Laura Stanbridge and Alf passed through the den, and walked on till they came within sight of the cab, which was waiting for them. They entered the vehicle in question, and were driven rapidly home.
Soon after this the first streaks of dawn and yellow glimmers of light appeared above the housetops.
And the creatures of vice were creeping back to their homes with pale and haggard countenance; and the creatures of labour were rising while it was yet dark, and the great city was waking once more to its toils and its sorrows, its pleasures and its sins.
CHAPTER LII.
THE EARL AND HIS GRAND-DAUGHTER.
We have now to return to other characters in our story.
Aveline Gatcliffe made a protracted stay at Broxbridge Hall. Like a giddy moth she fluttered around the candles of the rich and great, and in her new sphere of action felt something like pride and satisfaction.
She was made much of not only by the old nobleman, but by his visitors—by the vicar, the lawyer, and a host of other people—so that she was fain to stop very much longer than she had at first contemplated.
Lord Ethalwood talked to her of the great world—of its brilliant pleasures and its honours. He told her how such beauty as hers would command universal homage; that in London, even amidst the noblest of ladies, she would be a queen.
He tempted her with the most costly jewels, with the most magnificent dresses and lavished luxury upon her.