Witch Hazel; or, The Secret of the Locket — page 394: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

to separate you, and yet my heart yearns for my own.” ‘‘I know it must,” said Mrs. Earlescourt, sadly. “I can realize that now, as I never expected to, in find- jing ny own darling; but Marie, herself, shall decide the question,” she concluded, with a fond smile upon the happy group at the other end of the room. But Marie shrank from deciding the matter, cling- Ing with a loving, pleading grasp to her mother when it was proposed to her. She wunted to do what was right, she said, but her heart turned toward the home that had always been hers in preference to going among comparative Strangers. eo Earlseourt, however, settled it when he ar- rived. “Of course they could not give up Marie after all these years,’ he said. “She should be free to go back aud forth and spend as wuch time as she chose with Mrs. Stewart, but her home must still be with them. Mrs. Stewart already had two daughters, and it would only make things even if they kept Marie.” The Earlesconrts remained the guests of the duch- ess for several days, while Hazel and Marie were in- vited to speud a portion of the time with Mrs, Stewart. When Helena was informed of the discovery re- garding Marie, she received the newsin an almost apathetic manner, betraying no affection for her, no joy that the lost one had been restore: to them. Toward Hazel she manifested an almost open hos- tility, and would join in none of the pleasures which Mrs. Biareys planned for the entertainment of the young people, : She ronmental: at home by herself, shit Gurnee