Her first
astonished questions having been met with silence by the honest but
hard-grained woman who kept the laundry, Ida had not condescended to
any further appeal. The fact was that the laundress had received a
visit from a certain Mrs. Sprowl, who, under pretence of making
inquiries for the protection of a young female friend, revealed the
damaging points of Ida's story, and gained the end plotted with
Harriet Casti.
Several circumstances united to make this event disastrous to Ida.
Her wages were very little more than she needed for her week to week
existence, yet she had managed to save a shilling or two now and
then. The greater part of these small savings she had just laid out
in some new clothing, the reason for the expense being not so much
necessity, as a desire to be rather better dressed when she
accompanied Waymark on those little country excursions which had
reestablished themselves of late. By no means the smallest part of
Ida's heroism was that involved in this matter of external
appearance. A beautiful woman can never be indifferent to the way in
which her beauty is arrayed. That Waymark was not indifferent to
such things she knew well, and often she suffered from the thought
that one strong means of attraction was lost to her.
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