oking on; my father's
wealth, my seat in Parliament,--everything that fortune has done for
me,--I would give them all up, sooner than lose her." Now at any rate
he was a man. She was sure of that now. This was more, very much
more, not only than she had expected from him, but more than she had
thought it possible that his character should have produced.

His strength reduced her to weakness. "And I am nothing," she said.

"Yes, indeed; you are Lady Mabel Grex,--whom all women envy, and whom
all men honour."

"The poorest wretch this day under the sun."

"Do not say that. You should take shame to say that."

"I do take shame;--and I do say it. Sir, do you not feel what you owe
me? Do you not know that you have made me the wretch I am? How did
you dare to talk to me as you did talk when you were in London? You
tell me that I am Lady Mabel Grex;--and yet you come to me with a lie
on your lips,--with such a lie as that! You must have taken me for
some nursemaid on whom you had condescended to cast your eye! It
cannot be that even you should have dared to treat Lady Mabel Grex
after such a fashion as that! And now you have cast your eye on this
other girl. You can never marry her!"

"I shall endeavour to do so."

"You can never marry her," she said, stamping her foot. She had now
lost all the caution which she had taught herself for the prosecution
of her scheme,--all the care with which she had burdened herself. Now
she was natural enough. "No,--you can never marry her. You could not
show yourself after it in your clubs, or in Parliament, or in the
world. Come home, do you say? No, I will not go to your home. It is
not my home. Cold;--of course I am cold;--cold through to the heart."

"I cannot leave you alone here," he said, for she had now turned from
him, and was walking with hurried steps and short turns on the edge
of the bank, which at this place was almost a precipice.

"You have left me,--utterly in the cold--more desolate than I am here
even though I should spend the night among the trees. But I will go
back, and will tell your father everything. If my father were other
than he is,--if my brother were better to me, you would not have done
this."

"If you had a legion of brothers it would have been the same," he
said, turning sharp upon her.

They walked on together, but without a word till the house was in
sight. Then she looked round at him, and stopped him on the path as
she caught his eye. "Silverb