white hand softly. "I want you
to love me, Miss Graystone. I knew at the first glimpse of your face,
that you had suffered, poor child, and I felt for you from that moment;
for who can sympathize with the afflicted so well as one who has drained
to the dregs the bitter cup?"

"Oh, Madame!" said Clemence, impetuously, fascinated, as every one else
had always been by the woman before her, "I shall be forever grateful
for the smallest portion of your regard. You cannot imagine how
completely isolated I have been, during my brief sojourn here."

"I believe that," was the reply; "a girl of your intellect and
refinement can have little in common with, these obtuse village people.
They cannot understand your feelings, and you cannot possibly sympathize
with theirs. Your former life must have been very different from this.
Tell me about it?"

It was a strange interview, but then, Ulrica Hardyng was a strange
woman, and never did anything like anybody else.

"You will come again?" she said, that evening as they parted. "Fate has
been kinder to me than I deserve, and sent me a sweet consoler. You and
I have nothing to do with the idle forms of society. We meet each other,
and that is quite enough."

"I will come again, kind friend," Clemence answered gratefully, "at an
early day; for now that I have once enjoyed the pleasure of your
society, it would be hard to deny myself the privilege in future."

After that they met nearly every day.

Mrs. Wynn had her say about it, too.

"So you've made the acquaintance of that stuck-up widow, have you? I've
a piece of advice for you. You're an unprotected girl, and might easily
get talked about. There's something queer about this Mis' Hardyng. She
don't mingle with the rest of us, and I wouldn't be too thick with her,
if I was in your place. Leastways, I won't let my Rose make any advances
towards an acquaintance. Mind, I don't say anything _against_ her, but I
do as I'd be done by, and give you a friendly warning, such as I'd have
anybody do by a child of mine, if they was around the world. For my
part, I always consider it a safe plan to wait and see what other people
think about them, before I make up to anybody myself. 'Taint expected
that a woman that's got a character to lose should commit herself in the
eyes of the world. Remember, too, that on account of your being in a
public capacity, so to speak, you'd ought to be more particular about
your morals. It's expected that you