Distressed by the look of anguish on his pale face, Edna took his hand between both hers, and stroking it caressingly, said: 

“My dear sir, if it is your duty, God will strengthen and sustain you.  Cheer up; I can’t bear to see you looking so troubled.  A cloud on your face, my dear Mr. Hammond, is to me like an eclipse of the sun.  Pray do not keep me in shadow.”

“If I could know that no mischief would result from Agnes’s presence, I would not regard it so earnestly.  I do not wish to be uncharitable or suspicious; but I fear that her motives are not such as I could—­”

“May I intrude, Uncle Allan?”

The stranger’s voice was very sweet and winning, and as she entered the room Edna could scarcely repress an exclamation of admiration; for the world sees but rarely such perfect beauty as was the portion of Agnes Powell.

She was one of those few women who seem the pets of time, whose form and features catch some new grace and charm from every passing year; and but for the tall, lovely girl who clung to her hand and called her “mother,” a stranger would have believed her only twenty-six or eight.

Fair, rosy, with a complexion fresh as a child’s, and a face faultless in contour, as that of a Greek goddess, it was impossible to resist the fascination which she exerted over all who looked upon her.  Her waving yellow hair flashed in the morning sunshine, and as she raised one hand to shade her large, clear, blue eyes, her open sleeve fell back, disclosing an arm dazzlingly white and exquisitely moulded.  As Mr. Hammond introduced his pupil to his guests, Mrs. Powell smiled pleasantly, and pressed the offered hand; but the eyes, blue and cold as the stalactites of Capri, scanned the orphan’s countenance, and when Edna had seen fully into their depths, she could not avoid recalling Heine’s poem of Loreley.

“My daughter Gertrude promises herself much pleasure in your society, Miss Earl; for uncle’s praises prepare her to expect a most charming companion.  She is about your age, but I fear you will find great disparity in her attainments, as she has not been so fortunate as to receive her education from Uncle Allan.  You are, I believe, an adopted daughter of Mrs. Murray?”

“No, madam; only a resident in her house until my education is pronounced sufficiently advanced to justify my teaching.”

“I have a friend, Miss Harding, who has recently removed to Le Bocage, and intends making it her home.  How is she?”

“Quite well, I believe.”

Mr. Hammond left the study for a moment, and Mrs. Powell added: 

“Her friends at the North tell me that she is to marry her cousin, Mr. Murray, very soon.”

“I had not heard the report.”

“Then you think there are no grounds for the rumor?”

“Indeed, madam, I know nothing whatever concerning the matter.”

“Estelle is handsome and brilliant.”