To their house, about three months after her husband's death, came
Adela. The intermediate time she had passed with Stella. All were
very glad to have her at Belwick--Letty in particular, who, though a
matron with two bouncing boys, still sat at Adela's feet and deemed
her the model of womanhood. Adela was not so sad as they had feared
to find her. She kept a great deal to her own room, but was always
engaged in study, and seemed to find peace in that way. She was
silent in her habits, scarcely ever joining in general conversation;
but when Letty could steal an hour from household duties and go to
Adela's room she was always sure of hearing wise and tender words in
which her heart delighted. Her pride in Adela was boundless. On the
day when the latter first attired herself in modified mourning,
Letty, walking with her in the garden, could not refrain from saying
how Adela's dress became her.
'You are more beautiful every day, dear,' she added, in spite of a
tremor which almost checked her in uttering a compliment which her
sister might think too frivolous.
But Adela blushed, one would have thought it was with pleasure.
Sadness, however, followed, and Letty wondered whether the beautiful
face was destined to wear its pallor always.
On this same spring morning, when Hubert Eldon was taking leave of
Wanley, Mrs.
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