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316 possessed, felt her sympathy heightened by surprise, as she bent over and soothed her companion's burst of passionate weeping. Perhaps it excited even a tenderer pity; for those in the habit of giving way to their own feelings look upon self-possession rather as the sign of indifference than of control. Her appearance was soon accounted for. The moment that she heard from St. Aubyn the occasion that required his office, she resolved on accompanying him. She felt, with the quick sympathy one woman has to the feelings of another, that her presence would give Francesca both support and confidence, for she was sincerely attached to her. Besides, there is a strong current of romance in every feminine nature, that delights in the hazardous and the mysterious, especially in love affairs. Lucy, too, had a sufficiently tender recollection of Francis Evelyn to take an interest in his brother, who was also quite handsome enough to inspire that interest for himself. She was aware of the risk her husband ran in performing the ceremony—many a clergyman had been suspended for a lighter matter; but a woman, and a young woman especially, always takes the generous side of a question.

There was no time, however, to be lost; and Evelyn led his bride to the railing before the altar,