It was made
for a lady."
And amid her tearful thanks she felt a light kiss on her fingers,
revealing to her that the hermit must possess a beard, a fact, which
in the close-shaven Hanoverian days, conveyed a sense of squalor and
neglect almost amounting to horror.
In her own room she dropped many a tear over the ring, which was of
course the Cupid intaglio, and she spent the night in strange mixed
dreams and yearnings, divided between her father, Betty, and Eugene
on the one hand, and Mr. Belamour and the children on the other.
Home-sick as she sometimes felt, dull as Bowstead was, she should
be sadly grieved to leave those to whom she felt herself almost
necessary, though her choice must needs be for her home.
Early the next day arrived an old roomy berlin loaded heavily with
luggage, and so stuffed with men and maids that four stout horses
had much ado to bring it up to the door. The servants, grumbling
heartily, declared that my Lady was only going to lie here for a
single night, and that Sir Amyas was not with her.
Late in the afternoon, a couple of outriders appeared to say that the
great lady was close at hand, and Aurelia, in her best blue sacque,
and India muslin cap, edged with Flanders lace, had her three little
charges, all in white with red shoes, red sashes, and red ribbons in
their caps, drawn up in the hall to welcome their mother.
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