For Ascott’s creditor had been already paid:  Miss Balquidder never let grass grow under her feet.  When Hilary returned to her sisters that day there was no longer any fear of public exposure; she had the receipted bill in her hand, and she was Miss Balquidder’s debtor to the extent of eighty pounds.

But it was no debt of disgrace or humiliation, nor did she feel it as such.  She had learned the lesson which the large hearted rich can always teach the poor, that, while there is sometimes, to some people, no more galling chain, there is to others—­and these are the highest natures, too—­no more firm and sacred bond than gratitude.  But still the debt was there; and Hilary would never feel quite easy till it was paid—­in money, at least.  The generosity she never wished to repay.  She would rather feel it wrapping her round, like an arm that was heavy only through its exceeding tenderness, to the end of her days.

Nevertheless she had arranged that there was to be a regular monthly deduction from her salary; and how, by retrenchment, to make this monthly payment as large as she could, was a question which had occupied herself and Johanna for a good while after they had retired to rest.  For there was no time to be lost.  Mrs. Jones must be given notice to; and there was another notice to be given, if the Richmond plan were carried out; another sad retrenchment, foreboding which, when Elizabeth brought up supper, Miss Hilary could hardly look the girl in the face, and, when she bade her good night, had felt almost like a secret conspirator.

For she knew that, if the money to clear this debt was to be saved, they must part with Elizabeth.

No doubt the personal sacrifice would be considerable, for Hilary would have to do the work of their two rooms with her own hands, and give up a hundred little comforts in which Elizabeth, now become a most clever and efficient servant, had made herself necessary to them both.  But the two ladies did not think of that at the moment; they only thought of the pain of parting with her.  They thought of it sorely, even though she was but a servant, and there was a family parting close at hand.  Alas! people must take what they earn.  It was a melancholy fact that, of the two impending losses, the person they should miss most would be, not their sister, but Elizabeth.

Both regrets combined made them sit at the breakfast table—­the last meal they should ever take together as a family—­sad and sorry, speaking about little else than the subject which presented itself as easiest and uppermost, namely, clothes.

Finally, they stood all completely arrayed, even to bonnets; Hilary looking wonderfully bewitching in hers, which was the very pattern of one that may still be seen in a youthful portrait of our gracious Queen—­a large round brim, with a wreath of roses inside; while Miss Leaf’s was somewhat like it, only with little bunches of white ribbon:  “for,” she said, “my time of roses has gone by.”  But her sweet faded face had a peace that was not in the other two—­not even in Hilary’s.