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2 weeping, entered immediately; and Marie, drawing one fauteuil into the large old window, motioned to her companion to take another already there. After amusing herself for a brief time with picking to pieces some mignonette which filled a box on the window-sill, Marie threw the flowers from her, and exclaimed,—"And here we are seated together, as we used to talk away half the night in Italy. Good Heavens! how we are altered!"

"I am sure I am altered," replied Francesca.

"Not so much for the worse as myself," continued the other; "and yet, perhaps, I am not changed, as I said—I was always vain and selfish. I have only lately had good opportunities of displaying my amiable qualities. Still, I have had my moments of compunction, though I own the fits have at every recurrence briefer duration and longer intervals. I daresay I shall soon not feel them at all, and shall therefore make the most of them when they arrive, as I have done to night. How unkind I have been to you, Francesca!—how I have envied and hated you!"

"Ah, Marie! I cannot understand your hate—what cause have I ever given? and envy—what could you find to envy in the lot of one who, save for yourselves, were a friendless orphan?"