Chapter 6: VI

VI Ermine’s Resolution “For as his hand the weather steers, So thrive I best ’twixt joys and tears, And all the year have some green ears.” H. Vaughan Alison had not been wrong in her presentiment that the second interview would be more trying than the first. The exceeding brightness and animation of Ermine’s countenance, her speaking eyes, unchanged complexion, and lively manner—above all, the restoration of her real substantial self—had so sufficed and engrosse…