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Thus she bent forward gazing, until he turned and the oaks hid him
from her sight; and even then the spell was not dissolved, and she
still regarded the place where he had passed, until a sound behind
her made her start violently. It was a peal of laughter, high and
rich, and when she so started and turned to see whom it might be,
she beheld her sister Clorinda, who was standing just within the
threshold, as if movement had been arrested by what had met her eye
as she came in. Poor Anne put her hand to her side again.
"Oh sister!" she gasped; "oh sister!" but could say no more.
She saw that she had thought falsely, and that Clorinda had not been
out at all, for she was in home attire; and even in the midst of her
trepidation there sprang into Anne's mind the awful thought that
through some servant's blunder the comely young visitor had been
sent away. For herself, she expected but to be driven forth with
wrathful, disdainful words for her presumption. For what else could
she hope from this splendid creature, who, while of her own flesh
and blood, had never seemed to regard her as being more than a poor
superfluous underling? But strangely enough, there was no anger in
Clorinda's eyes; she but laughed, as though what she had seen had
made her merry.
"You here, Anne," she said, "and looking with light-mindedness after
gallant gentlemen! Mistress Margery should see to this and watch
more closely, or we shall have unseemly stories told. YOU, sister,
with your modest face and bashfulness! I had not thought it of
you."
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