'Angry?' repeated Ellis, sobbing from the suddenness of a delight which broke into a sorrow nearly hopeless; 'O Lady Aurora! if you could know how I prize your regard! your goodness!--what a balm it is to every evil I now experience, your gentle and generous heart would be recompensed for all the concern I occasion it, by the pleasure of doing so much good!' 'You can still, then, love me, my Miss Ellis?' 'Ah, Lady Aurora! if I dared say how much!--but, alas, in my helpless situation, the horror of being suspected of flattery--' 'What you will not say, then,' cried Lady Aurora, smiling, 'will you prove?' 'Will I?--Alas, that I could!' 'Will you let me take a liberty with you, and promise not to be offended?' She put a letter into her hand, which Ellis fondly kissed, and lodged near her heart. The words 'Where is Lady Aurora?' now sounded from the staircase. 'I must stay,' she said, 'no longer! Adieu, dear Miss Ellis! Think of me sometimes--for I shall think of you unceasingly!' 'Ah, Lady Aurora!' cried Ellis, clinging to her, 'shall I see you, then, no more? And is this a last leave-taking?' 'O, far from it, far, far, I hope!' said Lady Aurora: 'if I thought that we should meet no more, it would be impossible for me to tell you how unhappy this moment would make me!' 'Where is Lady Aurora?' would again have hurried her away; but Ellis, still holding by her, cried, 'One moment! one moment!--I have not, then, lost your good opinion? Oh! if that wavers, my firmness wavers too! and I must unfold--at all risks--my unhappy situation!' 'Not for the world! not for the world!' cried Lady Aurora, earnestly: 'I could not bear to seem to have any doubt to remove, when I have none, none, of your perfect innocence, goodness, excellence!' Overpowered with grateful joy, 'Angelic Lady Aurora!' was all that Ellis could utter, while tears rolled fast down her cheeks; and she tenderly, yet fervently, kissed the hand of the resisting Lady Aurora, who, extremely affected, leant upon her bosom, till she was startled by again hearing her name from without. 'Go, then, amiable Lady Aurora!' Ellis cried; 'I will no longer detain you! Go!--happy in the happiness that your sweetness, your humanity, your kindness bestow! I will dwell continually, upon their recollection; I will say to myself, Lady Aurora believes me innocent, though she sees me forlorn; she will not think me unworthy, though she knows me to be unprotected; she will not conclude me to be an adventurer, though I dare not tell her even my name!' 'Do not talk thus, my dear, dear Miss Ellis! Oh! if I were my own mistress--with what delight I should supplicate you to live with me entirely! to let us share between us all that we possess; to read together, study our musick together, and never, never to part!'