"Now, then, this here is something like a gownd," said Mrs. Anglesea, admiringly. "And, oh, sakes! don't it smell sweet! Hoome! Ah-h-h!" she exclaimed, pressing the garment up to her face and strongly inhaling its fragrance. "Good-night," said the hostess, turning away. "Good-night! Hoome--ah-h-h! how sweet it is!" "And what a thorough animal you are!" thought the lady, as she left the happy creature delighting herself in the fragrance of lavender and amber. One more visit Mrs. Force made before she sought her own pillow. She went into Odalite's room, and found her sleeping quietly, with little Elva, in a warm wrapper, lying in an easy chair by her side. "Why, my little darling, why are you not in bed?" inquired the lady. "Oh, mamma, because I thought I would sit here with Odalite until you should come, to see if she should want anything." "It was a kind thought, my tender, little love; but now you may go to bed. Kiss me. God bless you, little tender heart!" And so, with love and kisses and blessings, Elfrida Force dismissed her gentlest child to rest. Then she bent over Odalite, and saw that she was sleeping well and breathing easily. She took her hand, and found that her skin was cool and moist, and her pulse was regular. She kissed the sleeper on the brow, and then knelt and prayed for pardon of that long-past folly, as she prayed daily and nightly; she prayed for protection for those she loved from the machinations of the evil and the designing, and for guidance and help in her perplexities and sorrows. When she finished, she arose and left the chamber. CHAPTER XXVI THE DAY AFTER THE WEDDING Mrs. Anglesea was up with the sun the next morning. She replenished the smoldering fire from wood that she found in a box at the bottom of the closet. Then she threw open the front and side windows of her corner room, and looked out on the bright, crisp, winter morning. The ground and the bare trees were glistening with white frost, and beyond and below stretched the blue waters of the bay, intensely blue now under the clear, winter sky. "It's a pretty place, but, whewew! how cold!" she said, with a shudder, as she pulled down the sash of the last window and turned to the fire. She could hardly persuade herself to leave it, but, fearing she might be late for breakfast, she at length arose, and made her toilet, hastily and carelessly, with a few splashes of water on her face and neck and a hasty drying, interrupted in the middle to press the lavender-scented white damask to her face to inhale its fragrance. Then she ran a comb through the thick locks of her curly hair, which she finally bunched up into a big mass at the back of her head. At last she put on her clothes, and left her room, noisily banging the door in closing it. There was no one in the upper hall. All the chamber doors leading from it were shut.