though she would say, "Choose your path now,
and accept me as friend or foe." All the winning softness of her manner,
all those engaging coquetries of look and gesture, of which none was
more mistress, were gone, and another and a very different nature had
replaced them.

This, then, was one of those women all tenderness and softness and
fascination, but who behind this mask have the fierce nature of the
tigress. Could she be the same I had seen so submissive under all the
insolence of her brutal husband, bearing his scoffs and his sarcasms
without a word of reply? Was it that these cruelties had at last evoked
this stern spirit, and that another temperament had been generated out
of a nature broken down and demoralised by ill treatment?

"Shall I tell you what I think you ought to do?" asked she, calmly. I
nodded assent. "Sit down there, then," continued she, "and write these
few lines to your father, and let him have them before he returns here."

"First of all, I cannot write just now; I have had a slight accident to
my right arm."

"I know," said she, smiling dubiously. "You hurt it in the
riding-school; but it's a mere nothing, is it not?"

I made a gesture of assent, not altogether pleased the while at the
little sympathy she vouchsafed me, and the insignificance she ascribed
to my wound.

"Shall I write for you, then? you can sign it afterwards.''

"Let me first know what you would have me say."

"Dear father--You always addressed him that way?"

"Yes."

"Dear father,--I have been here some days, awaiting Count Hunyadi's
return to transact some matters of business with him, and have by a mere
accident learned that you are amongst his guests. As I do not know how,
to what extent, or in what capacity it may be your pleasure to recognize
me, or whether it might not chime better with your convenience to ignore
me altogether, I write now to submit myself entirely to your will and
guidance, being in this, as in all things, your dutiful and obedient
son."

The words came from her pen as rapidly as her fingers could move across
the paper; and as she finished, she pushed it towards me, saying,--

"There--put 'Digby Norcott' there, and it is all done!"

"This is a matter to think over," said I, gravely. "I may be
compromising other interests than my own by signing this."

"Those Jews of yours have imbued you well with their cautious spirit, I
see," said she, scoffingly.

"They have taught me no lessons