t."

He was cold and inflexible to her prayers. Then she tried threats. He
laughed at them. Said he, "The time is gone by for that: if you wanted
to sue me for breach of promise, you should have done it at once; not
waited eighteen months and taken another sweetheart first. Come, come;
you played your little game. You made me come here week after week and
bleed a sovereign. A woman that loved a man would never have been so
hard on him as you were on me. I grinned and bore it; but when you ask
me to own another man's child, a man of your own sort that you are in
love with--you hate me--that is a little too much: no, Mrs. Drake; if
that is your game we will fight it out--before the public if you like."
And, having delivered this with a tone of harsh and loud defiance, he
left her--left her forever. She sat down upon the cold ground and
rocked herself. Despair was cold at her heart.

She sat in that forlorn state for more than an hour. Then she got up
and went to her mistress's room and sat by the fire, for her limbs were
cold as well as her heart.

She sat there, gazing at the fire and sighing heavily, till Lady
Bassett came up to bed. She then went through her work like an
automaton, and every now and then a deep sigh came from her breast.

Lady Bassett heard her sigh, and looked at her. Her face was altered; a
sort of sullen misery was written on it. Lady Bassett was quick at
reading faces, and this look alarmed her. "Mary," said she, kindly, "is
there anything the matter?"

No reply.

"Are you unwell?"

"No."

"Are you in trouble?"

"Ay!" with a burst of tears.

Lady Bassett let her cry, thinking it would relieve her, and then spoke
to her again with the languid pensiveness of a woman who has also her
trouble. "You have been very attentive to Sir Charles, and a kind good
servant to me, Mary."

"You are mocking me, my lady," said Mary, bitterly. "You wouldn't have
turned me off for a word if I had been a good servant."

Lady Bassett colored high, and was silenced for a moment. At last she
said, "I feel it must seem harsh to you. You don't know how wicked it
was to tempt me. But it is not as if you had _done_ anything wrong. I
do not feel bound to mention mere words: I shall give you an excellent
character, Mary--indeed I _have._ I think I have got a good place for
you. I shall know to-morrow, and when it is settled we will look over
my wardrobe together."

This proposal implied a boxful of presents, an