By the time that Margaret returned with Monna Paula, the Lady Hermione
was rising from the table at which she had been engaged in writing
something on a small slip of paper, which she gave to her attendant.
"Monna Paula," she said, "carry this paper to Roberts the cash-keeper;
let them give you the money mentioned in the note, and bring it hither
presently."
Monna Paula left the room, and her mistress proceeded.
"I do not know," she said, "Margaret, if I have done, and am doing,
well in this affair. My life has been one of strange seclusion, and I
am totally unacquainted with the practical ways of this world--an
ignorance which I know cannot be remedied by mere reading.--I fear I
am doing wrong to you, and perhaps to the laws of the country which
affords me refuge, by thus indu
