unfolded the manuscript, and, without further apology, read the
following story in the French language:

Towards the latter part of the last century Steepside became the
property of a certain Sir Julian Lorrington. His family consisted
only of his wife, Lady Sarah, and their daughter Julia, a girl
remarkable alike for her beauty and her expectations.

For a long time Sir Julian had retained in his establishment an
old French maitre d'hotel and his wife, who both died in the baronet's
service, leaving one child, Virginie, whom Lady Sarah, out of regard
for the fidelity of her parents, engaged to educate and protect.

In due time this orphan, brought up in the household of Sir Julian,
became the chosen companion of his heiress; and when the family
took up their residence at Steepside, Virginie Giraud, who had been
associated in Julia's studies and recreations from early childhood,
was installed there as maid and confidant to the hope of the house.

Not long after the settlement at Steepside, Sir Julian, in the
summary fashion of those days with regard to matrimonial affairs,
announced his intention of bestowing his daughter upon a certain
Welsh squire of old ancestry and broad acres. Sir Julian was a
practical man, thoroughly incapable of regarding wedlock in any
other light than as a mere union of wealth and property, the owners
of which joined hands and lived together. This was the way in
which he had married, and it was the way in which he intended his
daughter to marry; love and passion were meaningless, if not vulgar
words in his ears, and he conceived it impossible they should be
otherwise to his only child. As for Lady Sarah, she was an