over leaf to be quite sure of the last words; and then went
on reading with an appearance of the deepest interest and study.

'My dear Martha,' said the locksmith, 'how can you say such things,
when you know you don't mean them? If you were dying! Why, if there was
anything serious the matter with you, Martha, shouldn't I be in constant
attendance upon you?'

'Yes!' cried Mrs Varden, bursting into tears, 'yes, you would. I don't
doubt it, Varden. Certainly you would. That's as much as to tell me that
you would be hovering round me like a vulture, waiting till the breath
was out of my body, that you might go and marry somebody else.'

Miggs groaned in sympathy--a little short groan, checked in its birth,
and changed into a cough. It seemed to say, 'I can't help it. It's wrung
from me by the dreadful brutality of that monster master.'

'But you'll break my heart one of these days,' added Mrs Varden, with
more resignation, 'and then we shall both be happy. My only desire is
to see Dolly comfortably settled, and when she is, you may settle ME as
soon as you like.'

'Ah!' cried Miggs--and coughed again.

Poor Gabriel twisted his wig about in silence for a long time, and then
said mildly, 'Has Dolly gone to bed?'

'Your master speaks to you,' said Mrs Varden, looking sternly over her
shoulder at Miss Miggs in waiting.

'No, my dear, I spoke to you,' suggested the locksmith.

'Did you hear me, Miggs?' cried the obdurate lady, stamping her foot
upon the ground. 'YOU are beginning to despise me now, are you? But this
is example!'

At this cruel rebuke, Miggs, whose tears were always ready, for large
or small parties, on the shortest notice and the most reasonable terms,
fell a crying violently; holding both her hands tight upon her heart
meanwhile, as if nothing less would prevent its splitting into small
fragments. Mrs Varden, who likewise possessed that faculty in high
perfection, wept too, against Miggs; and with such effect that Miggs
gave in after a time, and, except for an occasional sob, which seemed to
threaten some remote intention of breaking out again, left her mistress
in possession of the field. Her superiority being thoroughly asserted,
that lady soon desisted likewise, and fell into a quiet melancholy.

The relief was so great, and the fatiguing occurrences of last night so
completely overpowered the locksmith, that he nodded in his chair, and
would doubtless have slept there all night, but for the vo