Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/272

266 "Why, to own the truth, I shall be thankful for any assistance," and as she went to sit down, she placed her candle on the table, so that the light fell full on Fanny's face: the stranger started from her seat. "No, impossible, yes it is Fanny, Fanny Beaumont, oh, I know it is herself," and, forgetting wreath and every thing else, she flung her arms round her neck, and almost sobbed out incoherent expressions of joy and surprise.

Fanny was too amazed for words, and her companion was the first to recover herself. "Do you not recollect me," asked she half crying, half laughing, "Emmeline Elphinstone?"

"Emmeline, my little Emmeline," exclaimed Fanny: she could not, in the tall, graceful, and very handsome girl who stood before her, find a single trace of the little girl whom she had once petted.

"Why I am taller than you now," said the other, enjoying her surprise. "Oh, how I have tried to find you out, since I came from France, but I never could discover any thing about you: