Chapter 33: The Bearer of the Tidings

⁠​​​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​‌​​​‌​‌⁠It was very late the next morning when Lady Audley emerged from her dressing-room, exquisitely dressed in a morning costume of delicate muslin, delicate laces, and embroideries; but with a very pale face, and with half-circles of purple shadow under her eyes. She accounted for this pale face and these hollow eyes by declaring that she had sat up reading until a very late hour on the previous night