Oh! she was grateful to him for those encouraging words. But all this grandeur! She could have met Flora readily, if she were as she had until now known her, but to come before her—so hapless a wretch as she deemed herself to be—in the midst of all this luxury and wealth, was only a new trial. She said not a word, but she feared her reception; to be pitied and to be patronised now would be to slay her.
The man ushered them into a small but elegantly furnished apartment: a lamp burned brightly upon the table. Near to it stood Flora Wilton, dressed as Hal had never seen her before. Her attire was such as a princess might have worn—and with pride, for it was costly in its value, and in its taste unimpeachable.
As the light fell full upon her face and form, Hal turned faint. Flora smiled sweetly, and said in a tone musical, half joyous, yet half reproachful—
“I am so glad to see you, Hal!—Mr. Vivian—I—I thought you would have come before; I quite ex——”
She paused, for she suddenly perceived Lotte, who had tremblingly shrunk behind Hal, wishing from the depths of her aching heart she had never, never been induced to come here.
Hal followed the direction of her eyes, and he said, hastily—
“I am grateful, Miss Wilton, for your kind reception, but to-night, at least, I do not claim it for myself. I have one poor sorrowful heart here with me for whom I entreat your warm interest; she needs it. To ensure your sympathy, I may only suggest that Lotte Clinton”——
Not a word more.
Flora was at the side of Lotte in an instant, with her arm round her waist. The bright rays of the lamp fell upon the thin, white, wasted features of the poor, half-fainting creature. Flora had last seen her a roundfaced, pretty, lively, laughing girl. What a dreadful change did she now behold!
She burst into tears.