Then, if in the morning she received a
letter from her Beloved, she would follow its instructions implicitly.
Always having at hand her certain mode of disappearance, she could slip
away, and if it seemed necessary, just leave them to think what they
pleased. Priscilla would be warned to allay at once the anxiety of her
aunts, and for the Andertons she was far too desperate to care what they
might feel.
"Thank you; it is very good of you," she said as graciously as she
could. "My old nurse has told me of your kind invitation, and is already
beginning the preparations. I trust you left Mr. Anderton and my
stepbrother and sisters well?"
"Hoity-toity!" thought Louisa Anderton. "Of the same sort as the old
spinsters. This won't please James, I fear!" But aloud she answered that
the family were all well, and that James Albert, who was thirteen now,
would soon be going to Eton.
Over Halcyone, in spite of her numbness and the tension she was feeling,
though controlled by her firm will, there came the memory of the red,
crying baby, for whose life her own sweet mother had paid so dear a
price.
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