"
"Oh, I am so glad," cried Aurelia. "I never saw a face--a woman's I
mean--that I like as well as my dear sister's!"
She was sorry when they were interrupted by a call from Mr. Wayland,
who had reported himself at the Secretary of War, but could do no more
that day, and had come to inquire for her. He and Mr. Belamour drew
apart into a window, and conversed in a low voice, and then they came
to her, and Mr. Wayland desired to know from where she found the recipe
for the cosmetic which had nearly cost her so dearly.
"It was in a shelf in the wainscoting, in a sort of little study at
that house," said Aurelia.
"Among other papers?"
"Quantities of other papers."
"Of what kind?"
"Letters, and bills, and wills, and parchments! Oh, so dusty! Some
were on paper tumbling to pieces, and some on tiny slips of parchment."
"And you read them all?"
"I had to read them to see what they were, as well as I could make
out, and sorted them and tied them up in bundles."
"Can you tell me whether they were Delavie wills?"
"I should think they were. I know that the oldest of all were Latin,
and I could make nothing out in them but something about _Manoriem_
and Carminster, and what looked like the names of some of the fields
at home."
"Do you think you could show me those slips?"
"I do not suppose any one has touched them.
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