oked up to heaven. She probably had never seen
such a thing done before. Lady Mabel's eyes were filled with tears,
and though in all this there was much to cause her anguish, still in
her heart of hearts she admired the brave girl who could thus show
her truth to her lover.

"Now go," said Mary, through her sobs.

"My own one," ejaculated Tregear.

"Yes, yes, yes; always your own. Go,--go; go." She was weeping and
sobbing as she said this, and hiding her face with her handkerchief.
He stood for a moment irresolute, and then left the room without a
word of adieu to any one.

"You have behaved very badly," said the brother.

"She has behaved like an angel," said Mabel, throwing her arms round
Mary as she spoke, "like an angel. If there had been a girl whom you
loved and who loved you, would you not have wished it? Would you
not have worshipped her for showing that she was not ashamed of her
love?"

"I am not a bit ashamed," said Mary.

"And I say that you have no cause. No one knows him as I do. How good
he is, and how worthy!" Immediately after that Silverbridge took his
sister away, and Lady Mabel, escaping from Miss Cass, was alone. "She
loves him almost as I have loved him," she said to herself. "I wonder
whether he can love her as he did me?"

CHAPTER XXX

What Came of the Meeting

Not a word was said in the cab as Lord Silverbridge took his sister
to Carlton Terrace, and he was leaving her without any reference to
the scene which had taken place, when an idea struck him that this
would be cruel. "Mary," he said, "I was very sorry for all that."

"It was not my doing."

"I suppose it was nobody's doing. But I am very sorry that it
occurred. I think that you should have controlled yourself."

"No!" she almost shouted.

"I think so."

"No;--if you mean by controlling myself, holding my tongue. He is the
man I love,--whom I have promised to marry."

"But, Mary,--do ladies generally embrace their lovers in public?"

"No;--nor should I. I never did such a thing in my life before. But
as he was there I had to show that I was not ashamed of him! Do you
think I should have done it if you all had not been there?" Then
again she burst into tears.

He did not quite know what to make of it. Mabel Grex had declared
that she had behaved like an angel. But yet, as he thought of what
he had seen, he shuddered with vexation. "I was thinking of the
governor," he said.

"He shall be told everything."