Added to this were other difficulties which Elizabeth felt
keenly; but the fear was stronger than them all. The longer she studied
the matter the more she saw that the only thing for her to do was the
one thing that she shrank from most. All the freedom left her was to
find out the best way of doing it.
When the dimness of starlight began to grow into the dawn, she arose.
But she delayed at her toilet, standing so long in thought with her
brush in her hand, and her dark hair sweeping over her shoulders, that
it was six o'clock before she crossed the hall and knocked at her
father's door.
There was no answer. She knocked again, with the same result, and then
opening the door, found the room empty. Mr. Royal had gone down stairs.
But it was too early for Mrs. Eveleigh, and Elizabeth might still have
her talk with him without interruption. With a mixture of relief and
dread she went down the broad, low stairs and crossed the hall into the
library.
It had always been her favorite room. She had spent so many happy hours
here with the books, that the room with its handsome old furniture and
sunny windows was full of the memories and day dreams that her reading
had conjured up.
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