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lady patroness'
"'Please, don't joke,' he retorted, almost angrily.
"'Oh! now I can afford to do so, but once—do you know that I was even jealous of my mother?'
"Teleny at that moment dropped the mirror he was holding, which, as it fell, was shivered to pieces.
"For a moment we both looked aghast. Was it not a dreadful omen?
"Just then the clock on the mantelpiece struck the hour. Teleny shrugged his shoulders.
"'Come,' said he, 'there is no time to lose.'
"He snatched up his portmanteau, and we hurried downstairs.
"I accompanied him to the terminus, and before leaving him when he alighted from the carriage, my arms were clasped round him, and our lips met in a last and lingering kiss. They clung fondly to one another, not with the fever of lust, but with a love all fraught with tenderness, and with a sorrow that gripped the muscles of the heart.
