"I did my best, but I could not sleep: every time little Mowbray mentioned the beast, I thought of Mr. Redmain; and it made me too miserable to sleep."
"Poor Hesper!—Well! let us hope that, like the beast in the fairy-tale, he will turn out a man after all."
"My heart will break," cried Hesper, throwing herself into a chair. "Pity me, Sepia; you love me a little."
A slight shadow darkened yet more Sepia's shadowy brow.
"Hesper," she said, gravely, "you never told me there was anything of that sort! Who is it?"
"Mr. Redmain, of course!—I don't know what you mean, Sepia."
"You said your heart was breaking: who is it for?" asked Sepia, almost imperiously, and raising her voice a little.
"Sepia!" cried Hesper, in bewilderment.
"Why should your heart be breaking, except you loved somebody?"
"Because I hate him ," answered Hesper.