"I would never break a seal," she said, "but surely, as her
protector and almost mother, I may read what this minister has written
to my niece."
She read what he had written, while a scowl of disapprobation marred
the smoothness of her brow.
"It is as I feared. Once let her see this, and Thornton Hastings may
woo in vain. But it shall not be. It is my duty as the sister of her
dead father, to interfere and not let her throw herself away."
Perhaps Mrs. Meredith really felt that she was doing her duty. At all
events, she did not give herself much time to reason upon the matter,
for, startled by a slight movement in the room directly opposite, the
door of which was ajar, she thrust the letter into her pocket and
turned to see--Valencia, standing with her back to her, and arranging
her hair in a mirror which hung upon the wall.
"She could not have seen me; and, even if she did, she would not
suspect the truth," was the guilty woman's thought, as, with the
stolen missive in her pocket, she went down to the parlor and tried,
by petting Anna more than her wont, to still the voice of conscience
which clamored loudly of the wrong, and urged a restoration of the
letter to the place whence it was taken.
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