But when a sensitive girl is motherless, cut off from friends and pleasures, presented with the alternative of solitude or marriage with some detested man, or locked up to forget a dream which was half realised and very sweet, then the case is different.

If she breaks her bonds, and flies to the only loving heart she knows, forgive her, and pray Heaven to have mercy on her, for she takes a fearful leap into the dark.
Hedwig felt the keys, and took them from her dress, and pressed them to her cheek, and her mind was made up.

She glanced at the small gilt clock, and saw that the hands pointed to seven.

Five hours were before her in which to make her preparations, such as they could be.
In accordance with her father's orders, given when he left her, Temistocle served her dinner in her sitting-room; and the uncertainty of the night's enterprise demanded that she should eat something, lest her strength should fail at the critical moment.

Temistocle volunteered the information that her father had gone to the baron's apartment, and had not been seen since.