ed
him, regarded the furious woman with some surprise, and selected a good
strong oath to fling at her, as it were, and check her onset.

But, when roused, we have seen how courageous Maria could be. Afraid
as she was ordinarily of her brother, she was not in a mood to be
frightened now by any language of abuse or sarcasm at his command.

"So, my lord!" she called out, "you sit down with him in private to
cards, and pigeon him! You get the poor boy's last shilling, and you
won't give him a guinea out of his own winnings now he is penniless!"

"So that infernal chaplain has been telling tales!" says my lord.

"Dismiss him: do! Pay him his wages, and let him go,--he will be glad
enough!" cries Maria.

"I keep him to marry one of my sisters, in case he is wanted," says
Castlewood, glaring at her.

"What can the women be in a family where there are such men?" says the
lady.

"Effectivement!" says my lord, with a shrug of his shoulder.

"What can we be, when our fathers and brothers are what they are? We are
bad enough, but what are you? I say, you neither have courage--no, nor
honour, nor common feeling. As your equals won't play with you, my
Lord Castlewood, you must take this poor lad out of Virginia, your own
kinsman, and pigeon him! Oh, it's a shame--a shame!"

"We are all playing our own game, I suppose. Haven't you played and won
one, Maria? Is it you that are squeamish of a sudden about the poor
lad from Virginia? Has Mr. Harry cried off, or has your ladyship got
a better offer?" cried my Lord. "If you won't have him, one of the
Warrington girls will, I promise you; and the old Methodist woman in
Hill Street will give him the choice of either. Are you a fool, Maria
Esmond? A greater fool, I mean, than in common?"

"I should be a fool if I thought that either of my brothers could act
like an honest man, Eugene!" said Maria. "I am a fool to expect that you
will be other than you are; that if you find any relative in distress
you will help him; that if you can meet with a victim you won't fleece
him."

"Fleece him! Psha! What folly are you talking! Have you not seen, from
the course which the lad has been running for months past, how he would
end? If I had not won his money, some other would? I never grudged thee
thy little plans regarding him. Why shouldst thou fly in a passion,
because I have just put out my hand to take what he was offering to all
the world? I reason with you, I don't know why, Maria. Yo