dubious whether she did, or did not recognise,
in her still beautiful though wasted and emaciated features, a
countenance which she had known well under far different circumstances.

The stranger seemed to understand the cause of hesitation, for she said
in that heart-thrilling voice which was peculiarly her own--

"Time and misfortune have changed me much, Margaret--that every
mirror tells me--yet methinks, Margaret Stanley might still have known
Charlotte de la Tremouille."

The Lady Peveril was little in the custom of giving way to sudden
emotion, but in the present case she threw herself on her knees in
a rapture of mingled joy and grief, and, half embracing those of the
stranger, exclaimed, in broken language--

"My kind, my noble benefactress--the princely Countess of Derby--the
royal queen in Man--could I doubt your voice, your features, for a
moment--Oh, forgive, forgive me!"

The Countess raised the suppliant kinswoman of her husband's house, with
all the grace of one accustomed from early birth to receive homage and
to grant protection. She kissed the Lady Peveril's forehead, and passed
her hand in a caressing manner over her face as she said--

"You too are changed, my fair cousin, but it is a change becomes you,
from a pretty and timid maiden to a sage and comely matron. But my own
memory, which I once held a good one, has failed me strangely, if this
gentleman be Sir Geoffrey Peveril."

"A kind and good neighbour only, madam," said Lady Peveril; "Sir
Geoffrey is at Court."

"I understood so much," said the Countess of Derby, "when I arrived here
last night."

"How, madam!" said Lady Peveril--"Did you arrive at Martindale
Castle--at the house of Margaret Stanley, where you have such right to
command, and did not announce your presence to her?"

"Oh, I know you are a dutiful subject, Margaret," answered the Countess,
"though it be in these days a rare character--but it was our pleasure,"
she added, with a smile, "to travel incognito--and finding you engaged
in general hospitality, we desired not to disturb you with our royal
presence."

"But how and where were you lodged, madam?" said Lady Peveril; "or why
should you have kept secret a visit which would, if made, have augmented
tenfold the happiness of every true heart that rejoiced here yesterday?"

"My lodging was well cared for by Ellesmere--your Ellesmere now, as she
was formerly mine--she has acted as quartermaster ere now, you know, and
o