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Rh round her elder sisters, inquisitively. And they listened, with the doors open, to the sounds below.

"They've finished dinner . . ."

"Yes, I can hear them in the drawing-room . . ."

Marianne suddenly came running upstairs, appeared in the doorway, looking very white and sweet:

"I couldn't bear it any longer!" she exclaimed. "The dinner's over. I escaped for a moment. Emilie! Sissy!"

"He's here!" said Emilie. "Eduard: he's waiting downstairs. He wants to take me home with him. You must all help me. He struck me!"

"My sissy, my sissy!" cried Marianne, excitedly, wringing her arms and her hands, kissing Emilie. "Is he downstairs? I'll tell Papa. I daren't stay any longer. Oh, those tiresome people down there! It's nearly nine. They'll be gone in an hour. Now I must go."

And she started to hurry away.

"Marianne!" said Henri.

"What is it?"

"I want to speak to you presently."

"Very well, presently."

And she flitted down the stairs.

"How pretty she's growing!" said Henri.

"And I," said Emilie, "so ugly!"

She leant against Louise. They heard a rustle on the stairs. It was Bertha herself: