"Well, are the separated fates getting any nearer?" inquired the young mistress with affected solicitude.
"Oh, miss, they are coming together gradually, but very slowly, miss."
"Get the thing nearer to the candle, then."
Poor Hephzibah obeyed; she little suspected the heartless trick played at her expense.
"Oh, miss," she delightedly exclaimed, "they'll join in another instant."
Bang went the fragile bulb, as it splintered into a thousand atoms, and the mercury shot in sparkling globules over the table.
Lucy's ringing laugh resounded through the room.
But the matter was no joke to Hephzibah, her pale lips became colourless; she pressed her hand to her heart with a gesture full of anguish, recovered herself with difficulty, gave forth a few short sharp sobs, cast an almost menacing look upon her younger mistress, then turned and rushed from the room.
"How could you have the heart to tease her so?" said Georgie with honest indignation. "I'm ashamed of you, Lucy; you've no right to trifle with her feelings."
"Trifle with her fiddlesticks," laughed the girl.