imself upon another, near her.

CHAPTER XXII

"I am very much obliged to you for coming," Newman said. "I hope it won't
get you into trouble."

"I don't think I shall be missed. My lady, in these days, is not fond of
having me about her." This was said with a certain fluttered eagerness
which increased Newman's sense of having inspired the old woman with
confidence.

"From the first, you know," he answered, "you took an interest in my
prospects. You were on my side. That gratified me, I assure you. And now
that you know what they have done to me, I am sure you are with me all
the more."

"They have not done well--I must say it," said Mrs. Bread. "But you
mustn't blame the poor countess; they pressed her hard."

"I would give a million of dollars to know what they did to her!" cried
Newman.

Mrs. Bread sat with a dull, oblique gaze fixed upon the lights of the
chateau. "They worked on her feelings; they knew that was the way.
She is a delicate creature. They made her feel wicked. She is only too
good."

"Ah, they made her feel wicked," said Newman, slowly; and then he
repeated it. "They made her feel wicked,--they made her feel wicked."
The words seemed to him for the moment a vivid description of infernal
ingenuity.

"It was because she was so good that she gave up--poor sweet lady!"
added Mrs. Bread.

"But she was better to them than to me," said Newman.

"She was afraid," said Mrs. Bread, very confidently; "she has always
been afraid, or at least for a long time. That was the real trouble,
sir. She was like a fair peach, I may say, with just one little speck.
She had one little sad spot. You pushed her into the sunshine, sir, and
it almost disappeared. Then they pulled her back into the shade and in
a moment it began to spread. Before we knew it she was gone. She was a
delicate creature."

This singular attestation of Madame de Cintre's delicacy, for all its
singularity, set Newman's wound aching afresh. "I see," he presently
said; "she knew something bad about her mother."

"No, sir, she knew nothing," said Mrs. Bread, holding her head very
stiff and keeping her eyes fixed upon the glimmering windows of the
chateau.

"She guessed something, then, or suspected it."

"She was afraid to know," said Mrs. Bread.

"But YOU know, at any rate," said Newman.

She slowly turned her vague eyes upon Newman, squeezing her hands
together in her lap. "You are not quite faithful, sir. I thought it was