"It would cause me no surprise; I am prepared for anything."
"How if she is my dearest sister, for whom I sent, that she might welcome you and bring the greetings of my parents to their new daughter?"
"Is it, indeed, so?"
And Helen's eyes dimmed as the thought of parents, home and love filled her heart with tenderest gratitude, for she had long been an orphan.
"Leibchen, it is true; to-morrow you shall see how dear you already are to them, for I write often and they wait eagerly to receive you."
Helen felt herself going very fast, and made an effort to harden her heart, lest too easy victory should reward this audacious lover.
"I may not go; I also have friends, and in England we are not won in this wild way. I will yet prove you false; it will console me for being so duped if I can call you traitor. You said Casimer had fought in Poland."
"Crudest of women, he did, but under his own name, Sidney Power."
"Then, he was not the brave Stanislas?—and there is no charming
Casimer?"
"Yes, there are both,—his and my friends, in Paris; true Poles, and when we go there you shall see them."