red another insult for me."

This suspicion took so powerfully hold of her, that when dinner was
over, instead of returning to her rooms, she followed her father and his
new "friends" into the sitting-room. Count Ville-Handry spoke of Mrs.
Brian and M. Elgin always as "the family."

They did not long remain alone. The count and his young wife had
probably let it be known that they would be at home that evening; and
soon a number of visitors came in, some of them old friends of the
family, but the great majority intimates from Circus Street. Henrietta
was too busy watching her stepmother to notice how eagerly she herself
was examined, what glances they cast at her, and how careful the married
ladies, as well as the young girls, were to leave her alone. It required
a brutal scene to open her mind to the truth, and to bring her thoughts
back to the horrible reality of her situation. That scene came but too
soon.

As the visitors increased, the conversation had ceased to be general,
and groups had formed; so that two ladies came to sit down close by
Henrietta. They were apparently friends of the young countess, for she
did not know them, and one of them had a strong foreign accent. They
were talking. Instinctively Henrietta listened.

"Why did you not bring your daughter?" asked one of them.

"How could I?" replied the other. "I would not bring her here for the
world. Don't you know what kind of a woman the count's daughter is? It
is incredible, and almost too scandalous. On the day of her father's
marriage she ran away with somebody, by the aid of a servant, who has
since been dismissed; and they had to get the police to help them bring
her back. If it had not been for our dear Sarah, who is goodness itself,
they would have sent her to a house of correction."

A stifled cry interrupted them. They looked round. Henrietta had
suddenly been taken ill, and had fallen to the ground. Instantly, and
with one impulse, everybody was up. But the honorable M. Elgin had been
ahead of them all, and had rushed up with such surprising promptness at
the very moment when the accident happened, that it almost looked as if
he had had a presentiment, and was watching for the precise time when
his assistance would be needed.

Raising Henrietta with a powerful arm, he laid her on a sofa, not
forgetting to slip a cushion under her head. Immediately the countess
and the other ladies crowded around the fainting girl, rubbing the palms
of h