"Is it defending her?" cried the other, "to break her heart?"
"There is no question of breaking hearts," said Margaret, hurriedly controlling herself, and taking up the letter; "but, Jean, for God's sake, not a word, for here is Lilias at the door."
Neither of them remembered, in the excitement of the moment, that the sight of them standing up to receive her, with the traces of their struggle in their looks, must have shown Lilias, had there been no other indication, that something extraordinary had happened. But that mattered little, as the reader knows. Lilias came in smiling, her eyes dazzled with the lights, her fair locks jewelled with the dews. She kept Lewis behind her with her hand.
"I have brought somebody to see you, Margaret and Jean," she said.
Margaret let the letter fall from her hand. It was the final throwing down of her arms before triumphant Love and Fate.
THE END.
PRINTED BY KELLY'S DIRECTORIES LIMITED, LONDON AND KINGSTON-ON-THAMES.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Missing punctuation has been added, as have occasional missing spaces. Hyphenation is inconsistent throughout and has not been harmonised. Errors in punctuation and misspellings have been corrected. These include examples such as semetimes, solenm, consience, coolnesss, grimcracks, drown for down, and one instance of the name Jean appearing as Joan.