Had Ithuriel touched with his spear the beautiful young woman, thus for a
moment, as it seemed, lost in a trance of gratitude and love, would that
angelic form have stood the test unscathed? A spectator, marking the
scene, might have observed a strange gleam in her eyes--a strange
expression in her face--an influence for a moment not angelic, like a
shadow of some passing spirit, cross her visibly, as she leaned over the
gentle lady's neck, and murmured, "Dear madame, how happy--how very happy
you make me." Such a spectator, as he looked at that gentle lady, might
have seen, for one dreamy moment, a lithe and painted serpent, coiled
round and round, and hissing in her ear.

A few minutes more, and mademoiselle was in the solitude of her own
apartment. She shut and bolted the door, and taking from her desk the
letter which she had that morning received, threw herself into an
armchair, and studied the document profoundly. Her actual revision and
scrutiny of the letter itself was interrupted by long intervals of
profound abstraction; and, after a full hour thus spent, she locked it
carefully up again, and with a clear brow, and a gay smile, rejoined her
pretty pupil for a walk.

We must now pass over an interval of a few days, and come at once to the
arrival of Sir Wynston Berkley, which duly occurred upon the evening of
the day appointed. The baronet descended from his chaise but a short
time before the hour at which the little party, which formed the family
at Gray Forest were wont to assemble for the social meal of supper. A few
minutes devoted to the mysteries of the toilet, with the aid of an
accomplished valet, enabled him to appear, as he conceived, without
disadvantage at this domestic reunion.