yes it s nothing new to me i used to be always alone many hours together in the day and in the night when poor father was alive you have a brother i have been told i have a brother but he is not friendly with me he is a very good boy though and has raised himself by his industry i don t complain of him r as she said it with her eyes upon the fire glow there was an escape of distress into her face seized the moment to touch her hand i wish you would tell me whether you have any friend of your own sex and age i have lived that lonely kind of life that i never had one was the answer tt nor i neither said u not that my life has been lonely for i could have sometimes wished it instead of having ma going on like the tragic muse with a face ache in majestic corners and being � though of course i am very fond of them both i wish you could make a friend of me do you think you could i have no more of what they call character my dear wan a bird but i know i am the playful affectionate nature giddy for want of th weight of some purpose and capricious because it was always fluttering among little things was yet a one to it was so new so pretty at once so womanly and so childish that it won her completely and when said again do you think you could with her eyebrows raised her head on one side and an odd doubt about it in her own bosom showed beyond all question that she thought she could tell me my dear said what is the matter and why yon live like this presently began by way of you must have many vol il g our mutual lovers � when checked her with a little scream of astonishment my dear i haven t one � well perhaps one said a i am sure i don t know i had one but what he may think about it at the present time can t say perhaps i have half a one of course i don t count that idiot george however never mind me i want to hear about yon m there is a certain man said a passionate and angry man who says he loves me and who i most believe does love me he is the friend of my brother i shrank from him within myself when my brother first brought him to me bat the last time i saw him he terrified me more than i can say there she stopped did yon come here to escape from him i came here immediately after he so alarmed me are yon afraid of him here i am not timid generally bat i am always afraid of him am afraid to see a newspaper or to hear a word spoken of what is done in london lest he should have done some violence then yon are not afraid of trim for yourself dear said after pondering on the words i should be even that if i met him about here i look round for him always as i pass to and fro at night are you afraid of anything he may do to himself in london my dear no he might be fierce enough even to do some violence to himself bnt i don t think of that then it would almost seem dear said m as if there must be somebody else t put her hands before her face for a moment before replying the words are always in my ears and the blow he struck upon a stone wall as he said them is always before my eyes i have tried hard to think it not worth remembering but i cannot make so little of it his hand was down with blood as he said to me then i hope that i may never kill him v startled made and clasped a of her arms round s waist and then asked quietly in a soft voice as they both looked at the fire � ill him is this man so jealous then t of a gentleman said u � i hardly know how to tell you � of a gentleman far above me and my way of life who broke father s death to me and has shown an interest in me since does he love you shook her head does he admire you ceased to shake her head and pressed her hand upon her living is it through his influence that you came here t o no and of all the world i wouldn t have know that i am here or get the least clue where to find me i d dear i why asked in amazement at this but then quickly added reading s face no don t say why that was a foolish question of mine i see i see there was silence between them with a drooping head glanced down at the glow in the fire where her first fancies had been nursed and her first escape made from the grim life out of which she had plucked her brother her reward ton know all now she said raising her eyes to s there is nothing left out this is my reason for living secret here with the aid of a good old man who is my true friend for a short part of my life at home with father i knew of things � don t ask me what � that i set my face against and tried to better i don t think i could have done more then without letting my hold on father go but they sometimes lie heavy on my by doing all for the best i hope i may wear them 