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304 some billets of wood on the hearth for keeping it up, Maria and her sister expressed their satisfaction and delight at finding such an improvement in Florentine’s state of mind and spirits; the latter also assured them that she was relieved, beyond measure by the resolution she had taken to share with them that load of mysterious, apprehension to which she had been so long subjected. So, when the servants had retired, and they took their places round the fire, she began as follows:

“You were both well acquainted with my dear sister Seraphina, but yet,—there was not one individual, but myself, who had been in reality admitted to her confidence. Therefore, before I come to the story of which she is the proper heroine, it will be requisite that I should tell you somewhat more than you could have guessed of her true character. Even in her, earliest infancy Seraphina appeared quite different from all other children. She was a year younger than me; yet when we were placed in the nursery with all our playthings around us, and I was quite lost to myself and all the world in the amusement which they afforded, she would sit, even for hours together, with her eyes fixed on