length the light was seen approaching where Lady Hester stood.

"I think I heard an English voice," said one whose accents proclaimed
her to be a woman.

"Oh yes!" cried Lady Hester, passionately, "I am English. We have lost
our way. Our courier went back to the inn for a lantern, and has never
returned, and we are almost dead with cold and terror. Can you guide us
to the Hotel de Russie?"

"The house I live in is only a few yards off. It is better you should
take shelter there for the present."

"Take care, miladi!" whispered Celestine, eagerly. "This may be a plot
to rob and murder us."

"Have no fears on that score, mademoiselle," said the unknown, laughing,
and speaking in French; "we are not very rich, but as surely we are
perfectly safe company."

Few as these words were, there was in their utterance that indescribable
tone of good breeding and ease which at once reassured Lady Hester, who
now replied to her unseen acquaintance with the observance due to an
equal, and willingly accepted the arm she offered for guidance and
support.

"At the end of this little street, scarcely two minutes' walking, and
you will be there," said the unknown.

Lady Hester scarcely heard the remark, as she ran on with voluble levity
on the dangers they had run, the terrific storm, the desertion of
the courier, her own fortitude, her maid's cowardice, what must have
happened if they had not been discovered, till at last she bethought her
of asking by what singular accident the other should have been abroad in
such a terrible night.

"A neighbor and a friend of ours is very ill, madam, and I have been to
the doctor's to fetch some medicine for him."

"And I, too, was bent upon a charitable errand," said Lady Hester, quite
pleased with the opportunity of parading her own merits, "to visit a
poor creature who was accidentally wounded this morning."

"It is Hans Roeckle, our poor neighbor, you mean," cried the other,
eagerly; "and here we are at his house." And so saying, she pushed open
a door, to which a bell, attached on the inside, gave speedy warning of
their approach.

"Dearest Kate!" cried a voice from within, "how uneasy I have been at
your absence!" And the same moment a young girl appeared with a light,
which, as she shaded it with her hand, left her unaware of the presence
of strangers.

"Think rather of this lady, and what she must have suffered," said Kate,
as, drawing courteously back, she presented her siste