He had not waited long ere the signal was given for an audience. Still
blindfolded, he was led by a circuitous route into a little wainscotted
chamber lighted by a single bay-window. Here the bandage was taken from
his eyes, and when the dimness had a little subsided, he beheld that
heroic lady for the first time whom he had often compared, in no very
moderate terms, to Jezebel, and many other names equally appropriate. A
very different person she appeared from what his heated and morbid fancy
had suggested. Indeed, if she had been the personification of all evil,
with a demon's foot and a fiend's visage, he had been less surprised
than to find her with the outward form and attributes of humanity.
She was sitting with the children, before a narrow table covered with
papers. She wore a black habit, with a white kerchief on her head, and a
long Flanders veil of rich open work. This she threw back, and Gideon
beheld a countenance not at all either commanding or heroic, but one to
which smiles and good-nature would have been most congenial, though a
shade of anxiety was now thrown over the natural expression of her
features.
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