sport of a woman like that; one who would not care what misery she caused, if it gave her one moment's importance, or one moment's amusement. Use your own judgment with reference to what she is!"
"I own," replied Constance, "that I certainly neither like nor respect her."
"Why then allow her to influence you?" asked her companion.
"I was wrong, very wrong," returned the other; "but she seemed kind to me, and—and I sometimes feel so lonely. I am not strong enough to go out much, and the days are very long here: in the country I had my birds and my flowers, and there were many who loved me. They were not, it is true, companions, but I returned home happier after visiting our cottages, where so many faces grew brighter to welcome mine; but in this vast place every thing is so strange and so cold, and I pass very many long and lonely hours, and pass them, perhaps, in nursing foolish fancies."
