" The footman put up the steps, the
carriage drove on with the children and the governess, the crowd
dispersed, and Magdalen was alone again.
"So be it!" she thought, bitterly. "I should only have distressed her.
We should only have had the misery of parting to suffer again."
She mechanically retraced her steps; she returned, as in a dream, to the
open space of the Park. Arming itself treacherously with the strength of
her love for her sister, with the vehemence of the indignation that she
felt for her sister's sake, the terrible temptation of her life fastened
its hold on her more firmly than ever. Through all the paint and
disfigurement of the disguise, the fierce despair of that strong and
passionate nature lowered, haggard and horrible. Norah made an object
of public curiosity and amusement; Norah reprimanded in the open street;
Norah, the hired victim of an old woman's insolence and a child's
ill-temper, and the same man to thank for it who had sent Frank to
China!--and that man's son to thank after him! The thought of her
sister, which had turned her from the scene of her meditated deception,
which had made the consciousness of her own disguise hateful to her, was
now the thought which sanctioned that means, or any means, to compass
her end; the thought which set wings to her feet, and hurried her back
nearer and nearer to the fatal house.
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