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 “It was only a passing weakness, but I shall be glad if I may go to my room.”

And with a flicker of the old impudence she mimicked General Sadgrove:

“Even the worst of ’em is capable of feeling shaken on hearing sentence of death pronounced,” adding, with a swift change of manner, “and that is what I have heard in this room to-night.”

But in the morning, when, with the Frenchwoman Rosa, she took her departure by a train leaving so early that none of the house-party were visible, it was observed by the servants that Mrs. Talmage Eglinton was in the highest spirits, and, if possible, more stylishly appareled than usual. And Mr. Manson, the butler, looking regretfully after the station brougham as it drove away, murmured benedictions, having palmed the largest tip that had come his way in a quarter of a century.

“A thorough lady,” he sighed, as he closed the hall door and went in to preside at the breakfast sideboard. “Pity she was called away unexpected.”