usly, and he pressed the hand that grasped his
own, "I thank you. I am not fit at this moment to decide what to do;
to-morrow you shall know. And the man died poor,--not in want, not in
want?"

"Comfort yourself, worthy sir; he had at the last all that sickness
and death require, except one assurance, which I ventured to whisper
to him,--I trust not too rashly,--that his daughter would not be left
unprotected. And I pray you to reflect, my dear sir, that--"

Sir Miles did not wait for the conclusion of the sentence; he rose
abruptly, and left the room. Mr. Fielden (so the good priest was named)
felt confident of the success of his mission; but to win it the more
support, he sought Lucretia. She was then seventeen: it is an age when
the heart is peculiarly open to the household ties,--to the memory of
a mother, to the sweet name of sister. He sought this girl, he told his
tale, and pleaded the sister's cause. Lucretia heard in silence: neither
eye nor lip betrayed emotion; but her colour went and came. This was the
only sign that she was moved: moved, but how? Fielden's experience in
the human heart could not guess. When he had done, she went quietly to
her desk (it was in her own room that the conference took place), she
unlocked it with a deliberate hand, she took from it a pocketbook and a
case of jewels which Sir Miles had given her on her last birthday. "Let
my sister have these; while I live she shall not want!"

"My dear young lady, it is not these things that she asks from you,--it
is your affection, your sisterly heart, your intercession with her
natural protector; these, in her name, I ask for,--'non gemmis, neque
purpura venale, nec auro!'"

Lucretia then, still without apparent emotion, raised to the good man's
face deep, penetrating, but unrevealing eyes, and said slowly,--

"Is my sister like my mother, who, they say, was handsome?"

Much startled by this question, Fielden answered: "I never saw your
mother, my dear; but your sister gives promise of more than common
comeliness."

Lucretia's brows grew slightly compressed. "And her education has been,
of course, neglected?"

"Certainly, in some points,--mathematics, for instance, and theology;
but she knows what ladies generally know,--French and Italian, and such
like. Dr. Mivers was not unlearned in the polite letters. Oh, trust me,
my dear young lady, she will not disgrace your family; she will justify
your uncle's favour. Plead for her!" And the