rage, and tremble, and be softened, and rage again, until the day came

and the labours of the day must be renewed.

Suddenly she heard feet on the stairs - his feet, and soon after the

sound of a window-sash flung open. She sat up with her heart beating.

He had gone to his room alone, and he had not gone to bed. She might

again have one of her night cracks; and at the entrancing prospect, a

change came over her mind; with the approach of this hope of pleasure,

all the baser metal became immediately obliterated from her thoughts.

She rose, all woman, and all the best of woman, tender, pitiful, hating

the wrong, loyal to her own sex - and all the weakest of that dear

miscellany, nourishing, cherishing next her soft heart, voicelessly

flattering, hopes that she would have died sooner than have

acknowledged. She tore off her nightcap, and her hair fell about her

shoulders in profusion. Undying coquetry awoke. By the faint light of

her nocturnal rush, she stood before the looking-glass, carried her

shapely arms above her head, and gathered up the treasures of her

tresses. She was never backward to admire herself; that kind of modesty

was a stranger to her nature; and she paused, struck with a pleased

wonder at the sight. "Ye daft auld wife!" she said, answering a thought

that was not; and she blushed with the innocent consciousness of a

child. Hastily she did up the massive and shining coils, hastily donned

a wrapper, and with the rushlight in her hand, stole into the hall.

Below stairs she heard the clock ticking the deliberate seconds, and

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