covered her face with both her hands. But
Clement told his story calmly through to the end, sliding gently over its
later incidents, for Myrtle's heart was throbbing violently, and her
breath a little catching and sighing, as when she had first lived with
the new life his breath had given her.

"Why did you ask me for myself, when you could have claimed me?" she
said.

"I wanted a free gift, Myrtle," Clement answered, "and I have it."

They sat in silence, lost in the sense of that new life which had
suddenly risen on their souls.

The door-bell rang sharply. Kitty Fagan answered its summons, and
presently entered the parlor and announced that Mr. Bradshaw was in the
library, and wished to see the ladies.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

MURRAY BRADSHAW PLAYS HIS LAST CARD.

"How can I see that man this evening, Mr. Lindsay?"

"May I not be Clement, dearest? I would not see him at all, Myrtle. I
don't believe you will find much pleasure in listening to his fine
speeches."

"I cannot endure it.--Kitty, tell him I am engaged, and cannot see him
this evening. No, no! don't say engaged, say very much occupied."

Kitty departed, communing with herself in this wise:--"Ockipied, is it?
An' that's what ye cahl it when ye 're kapin' company with one young
gintleman an' don't want another young gintleman to come in an' help the
two of ye? Ye won't get y'r pigs to market to-day, Mr. Bridshaw, no, nor
to-morrow, nayther, Mr. Bridshaw. It's Mrs. Lindsay that Miss Myrtle is
goin' to be,--an' a big cake there'll be at the weddin' frosted all
over,--won't ye be plased with a slice o' that, Mr. Bridshaw?"

With these reflections in her mind, Mistress Kitty delivered her message,
not without a gleam of malicious intelligence in her look that stung Mr.
Bradshaw sharply. He had noticed a hat in the entry, and a little stick
by it which he remembered well as one he had seen carried by Clement
Lindsay. But he was used to concealing his emotions, and he greeted the
two older ladies who presently came into the library so pleasantly, that
no one who had not studied his face long and carefully would have
suspected the bitterness of heart that lay hidden far down beneath his
deceptive smile. He told Miss Silence, with much apparent interest, the
story of his journey. He gave her an account of the progress of the case
in which the estate of which she inherited the principal portion was
interested. He did not tell her that a final de