"Good-night, then; and don't be jealous."
"Never! I trust you. I shall triumph."
CHAPTER XVIII.
IN THE TRAITOR'S TOILS.
Her heart is sick with thinking
Of the misery she must find.
Her mind is almost sinking—
That once so buoyant mind—
She cannot look before her,
On the evil-haunted way.
Redeem her! oh! restore her!
Thou Lord of night and day!
—Monckton Milnes.
Overwhelmed with, horror, terror, and indignation, Claudia just tottered from the room in time to escape discovery.
On reaching the hall she saw the door leading into her own suite of apartments wide open and all the rooms lighted up and old Katie moving about, unpacking trunks and hanging up dresses. Katie, it seemed, with something like canine instinct as to locality, had experienced no difficulty in finding her mistress' rooms.
As soon as Lady Vincent entered her dressing room the old woman drew the resting chair and footstool up to the fire, and when Claudia had dropped into the seat she leaned over the back of the chair, and forgetting ceremony, spoke to her nursling as she had spoken to her in the days of that nursling's infancy.
"Miss Claudia, honey, I wants to talk to you downright ser'us, I do."
"Talk on, Katie," sighed Claudia.