the wall, saying, "You can
wait there till I see to your bed. And you'll be wanting supper too!"
she added in a tone of infinite disgust.

"O never mind supper, if I can only go to bed," sighed Aurelia, sinking
on the couch as the old woman hobbled off. Lassitude and exhaustion had
brought her to a state like annihilation--unable to think or guess, hope
or fear, with shoes hurting her footsore feet, a stiff dress cramping
her too much for sleep, and her weary aching eyes gathering a few
impressions in a passive way. On the walls hung dimly seen portraits
strangely familiar to her. The man in a green dressing gown with
floating hair had a face she knew; so had the lady in the yellow ruff.
And was that not the old crest, the Delavie butterfly, with the motto,
_Ma Vie et ma Mie_, carved on the mantelpiece? Thus she knew that
she must be in Delavie House, and felt somewhat less desolate as she
recognised several portraits as duplicates of those at the Great House
at Carminster, and thought they looked at her in pity with their eyes
like her father's. The youngest son in the great family group was, as
she knew, an Amyas, and he put her in mind of her own. Oh, was he her
own, when she could not tell whether those great soft, dark-grey eyes
that looked so kindly on her had descended to the young baronet? She
hoped not, for Harriet and she had often agreed that they presaged the
fate of that gallant youth, who had been killed by Sir Bevil Grenville's
side. He must have looked just as Sir Amyas did, lying senseless after
the hurt she had caused.

No more definite nor useful thought passed through the brain of the
overwearied maiden as she rest on the couch, how long she knew not; but
it was growing dark by the time Madge returned with a guttering candle,
a cracked plate and wedge of greasy-looking pie, a piece of dry bread,
a pewter cup of small beer, and an impaired repulsive steel knife with
a rounded end, and fork with broken prong. The fact of this being steel
was not distressing to one who had never seen a silver fork, but the
condition of both made her shudder, and added to the sick sense of
exhaustion that destroyed her appetite. She took a little of the bread,
and, being parched with thirst, drank some of the beer before Madge came
back again. "Oh ho, you're nice I see, my fine Dame Really!"

"Thank you, indeed I can't eat, I am so much tired," said Aurelia
apologetically.

"You'll have to put up with what serves you