Aurelia wished she had known this before going up stairs, and, worn out as she was, the sense implanted by her mother that it was wicked to go to sleep dirty, actually made her drag herself down to a grim little scullery, where she was permitted to borrow a wooden bowl, since she was too nice forsooth to wash down stairs.  She carried it up with a considerable trouble more than half full, and a bit of yellow soap and clean towel were likewise vouchsafed to her.  The wash—­perhaps because of the infinite trouble it cost her—­did her great good,—­it gave her energy to recollect her prayers and bring good angels about her.  If this had been her first plunge from home, when Jumbo’s violin had so scared her, such a place as this would have almost killed her; but the peace that had come to her in Sedhurst Church lingered still round her, and as she climbed up into the lofty bed the verse sang in her ears “Love is strong as death.”  Whether Love Divine or human she did not ask herself, but with the sense of soothing upon her, she slept—­and slept as a seventeen-years’-old frame will sleep after having been thirty-six hours awake and afoot.

When she awoke it was with the sense of some one being in the room.  “O gemini!” she heard, and starting up, only just avoiding the knob, she saw Mrs. Loveday’s well-preserved brunette face gazing at her.

“Your servant, ma’am,” she said.  “You’ll excuse me if I speak with you here, for I must be back by the time my Lady’s bell rings.”

“Is it very late?” said Aurelia, taking from under her pillow her watch, which had stopped long ago.

“Nigh upon ten o’clock,” said Loveday.  “I must not stay, but it is my Lady’s wish that you should have all that is comformable, and you’ll let me know how Madge behaves herself.”

“Is there any news from Bowstead?” was all Aurelia could at first demand.

“Not yet; but bless you, my dear young lady, you had best put all that matter out of your head for ever and a day.  I know what these young gentlemen are.  They are not to be hearkened to one moment, not the best of them.  Let them be ever so much in earnest at the time, their parents and guardians have the mastery of them sooner or later, and the farther it has gone, the worse it is.  I saw you lying asleep here looking so innocent that it went to my heart, and I heard you mutter in your sleep ‘Love is strong as death,’ but that’s only a bit of some play-book, and don’t you trust to it, for I never saw love that was stronger than a spider’s web.”

“Oh, hush, Mrs. Loveday.  It is in the Bible!”

“You don’t say so, ma’am,” the woman said awestruck.

“I would show it you, only all my things are away.  God is love, you know,” said Aurelia, sitting up with clasped hands, “and He gives it, so it must be strong.”

“Well, all the love I’ve ever seen was more the devil’s,” said Loveday truly enough; “and you’ll find it so if you mean to trust to these fine young beaux and what they say.”