Page 126 (1/2)

But Hilda nervously lass

should be no longer Visible She noatched a speck of sunshine that

cah a shuttered , and crept froht finger, and then letting them

all vanish successively In like ht

in its natural cheerfulness, went fro that it could dwell upon for coetic, active spirit knohat it is to be despondent It

was the unreality of the world that made her so Her dearest friend,

whose heart seemed the most solid and richest of Hilda's possessions,

had no existence for her any more; and in that dreary void, out of which

Miriarity of life,

thewith her

It was long past noon, when a step came up the staircase It had passed

beyond the liions

of the palace, and was hts which led only to

Hilda's precincts Faint as the tread was, she heard and recognized it

It startled her into sudden life Her first i to

the door of the studio, and fasten it with lock and bolt But a second

thought made her feel that this would be an unworthy cowardice, on her