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172 tell her story to her, when a recollection of the lady whom she had seen at Mrs. Ardley's, the Mrs. Hyde who "talked so like mother," darted into her mind. The reminiscence seemed like a revelation from Heaven. "She had such feelings for servants," thought Lucy; "she will hear me, and give me good advice at any rate." Her decision made, she proceeded to the preparations for her departure. And first, undaunted by fear of Adéle, she asked to speak alone with Mrs. Hartell. To this Adéle objected, and that lady bade her say whatever she had to say without any fuss. She then, in spite of Adéle's interruptions and protestations, told the story of the laudanum calmly and exactly. There are few who give all the weight that should be allowed to general character against unfavourable appearances in a single case, especially if they have appealed to their own senses. Certainly Mrs. Hartell was not one of the exceptions. She had seen "with her own eyes" the cape taken from Lucy's trunk. She had witnessed Lucy's reluctance to have her trunk examined, and her confusion afterward; and she readily acquiesced in Adéle's suggestion, that the story of the laudanum was an after thought, "trumped up" to save herself, and to take revenge on Adéle for the part, innocent and unpremeditated! which she had in exposing Lucy's guilt. Lucy remembered the drops on her nightgown, and referring to them as a corroboration of her testimony, she produced it, but the stain was effaced! After a little hesitation, after again and again kissing Eugene, who clung to her as if he understood all that was going on, she told the story of his shrieks, and showed