Joyfully Edna ran upstairs for her wrappings, bade adieu to her hostess, who complimented her on the sensation her beauty had created; and felt relieved and comparatively happy when the carriage-door closed and she found herself alone with her benefactress.

“Well, Edna, notwithstanding your repugnance to going, you acquitted yourself admirably, and seemed to have a delightful time.”

“I thank you, ma’am, for doing all in your power to make the evening agreeable to me.  I think your kind desire to see me enjoy the party made me happier than everything else.”

Gratefully she drew Mrs. Murray’s hand to her lips, and the latter little dreamed that at that instant tears were rolling over the flushed face, while the words of the conversation which she had overheard rang mockingly in her ears: 

“Mrs. Murray and even Mr. Hammond are scheming to make a match between her and Gordon Leigh.  Studying Hebrew indeed!  A likely story!  She had better go back to her wash-tub and spinning-wheel!  Much Hebrew she will learn!  Her eyes are set on Gordon’s fortune, and Mrs. Murray is silly enough to think he will step into the trap.  She will have to bait it with something better than Hebrew and black eyes, or she will miss her game.  Gordon will make a fool of her, I dare say, for, like all other young men, he can be flattered into paying her some little attention at first.  I am surprised at Mrs. Inge to countenance the girl at all.”

Such was the orphan’s initiation into the charmed circle of fashionable society; such her welcome to le beau monde.

As she laid her head on her pillow, she could not avoid exclaiming: 

“Heaven save me from such aristocrats! and commit me rather to the horny but outstretched hands, the brawny arms, the untutored minds, the simple but kindly-throbbing hearts of proletaire!”

CHAPTER X.

When Mr. Hammond mentioned Edna’s determination to discontinue Hebrew, Mr. Leigh expressed no surprise, asked no explanation, but the minister noticed that he bit his lip, and beat a hurried tattoo with the heel of his boot on the stony hearth; and as he studiously avoided all allusion to her, he felt assured that the conversation which she had overheard must have reached the ears of her partner also, and supplied him with a satisfactory solution of her change of purpose.  For several weeks Edna saw nothing of her quondam schoolmate; and fixing her thoughts more firmly than ever on her studies, the painful recollection of the birthday fete was lowly fading from her mind, when one morning, as she was returning from the parsonage, Mr. Leigh joined her, and asked permission to attend her home.  The sound of his voice, the touch of his hand, brought back all the embarrassment and constraint, and called up the flush of confusion so often attributed to other sources than that from which it really springs.