Magdalen could not hear the answer, it was so low; but she saw a cloud on Mrs. Seymour’s brow and divined that something was wrong. “Show Miss Lennox to her room, the one next to my niece’s,” the lady said, and Magdalen followed the girl to a large upper room the windows of which looked out upon the river and the country beyond. It was very pleasant there, and Magdalen threw off her hat and shawl and was just seating herself by the window for a better view of the charming prospect, when there came a gentle knock at her door, and a sweet musical voice said softly, “Please, may I come in?” CHAPTER XXXV. ALICE AND MAGDALEN. Magdalen gave one anxious glance at herself in the mirror as she sprang up, and then hastened to unbolt the door and admit Alice Grey. She knew it was Alice, though she had never imagined her one half so beautiful as she seemed now in her white dress, with her chestnut hair falling in soft curls about her face and neck, and her great dreamy blue eyes, which had something so pitiful and pleading in their expression. She was very slight and not as tall as Magdalen, who felt herself a great deal larger and older than the little, pale-faced girl, whose white cheeks had in them just the faintest coloring of pink as she held out her hand and said, “You are Miss Lennox, I know. Auntie wanted me to wait till she could introduce me, or till you came down to dinner, but I was anxious to see somebody young and new, and fresh. I go out so little that I get tired of the faces seen every day.” “Perhaps you will get tired of mine,” Magdalen suggested, laughingly. “Perhaps I may, but it will be a long time first,” Alice replied, leading Magdalen to the window where she could see her more distinctly. There was an expression of surprise or wonder, or both, in her face now, as she said, “Where have I met you before, Miss Lennox?” “I do not think we have ever met before; at least not to my knowledge,” Magdalen replied, while Alice continued: “I must have seen you or somebody like you. I can’t be mistaken in those eyes. Why, they are like—” Alice stopped suddenly, and the color all faded from her cheeks and lips, while Magdalen looked curiously at her. “You’ve never been abroad?” Alice asked, after a moment, during which she had studied Magdalen closely. “Never,” was the reply, and Alice continued: “And I have been away seven years, and so it cannot be; but you do not seem a stranger, and I am so glad. I opposed your coming at first,—that is, I was opposed to having any one come just to entertain me, and when auntie wrote from New York that she had engaged a Miss Lennox, I saw you directly, some tall, lank, ugly woman, who wore glasses and would bore me terribly.” “Do I come up to your ideal,” Magdalen asked, her heart warming more and more toward the young girl, who replied: