She turned suddenly sick and faint.
She put out her hand blindly.

Gifford took it, and made her sit down on a stone bench.
"I'm sorry," he said feelingly, "very, very sorry to have had to tell you this dreadful thing, Blanche." "Never mind," she muttered.

"Go on, Mark, if there's anything else to say--go on." As he remained silent for a moment, she asked, in a dull, tired tone: "But if this awful thing is true, how was it found out, after so many years ?" "It's a peculiar story," he answered reluctantly.

"The late--I might say the last--Mrs.Varick, whose name, as you of course know, was Millicent Fauncey, had first as governess, and then as companion, an elderly woman called by the extraordinary name of Pigchalke.

This Julia Pigchalke seemed to have hated Varick from the first.