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132 her loss, and she hastened on to ascertain its extent. Inquiries were superfluous; the empty tick was lying where Sukey had left it, and the feathers which had swelled it almost to bursting, were not. Mrs. Wilson darted forwards towards Bet, on whom she would have wreaked her hasty vengeance, but Bet, aware of her intention, sprang through the window, quick as thought, and so rapid, and as it were, spiritual, was her flight, that a minute had scarcely passed, when the shrill tones of her voice were heard rising in the distance, and they were just able to distinguish the familiar words of her favourite methodist hymn—

Mrs. Wilson turned to Jane, and with that disposition which such persons have when any evil befals them, to lay the blame on somebody, she would have vented her spite on her, but it was too evident that the only part Jane had had in the misfortune was an ineffectual effort to avert it, and the good lady was deprived of even that alleviation of her calamity. This scene, notwithstanding the pecuniary loss sustained by Mrs. Wilson, occasioned Jane a good deal of diversion. Still it was not at all calculated to inspire her with confidence in the guide, whose wild and fantastic humours she knew it to be impossible for any one to control. Her resolution was a little shaken; but, after all, she thought, "It is possible I may