digious fire. Angelo seemed then to
address her very humbly. But she remained rigid. At last Angelo retired
and left her so; but he was no sooner out of sight than she dropped
into a garden seat, and, taking out her handkerchief, cried a long
time.

"Why doesn't the fool come back?" said Bassett, from his tower of
observation.

He related this incident to Wheeler, and it impressed that worthy more
than all he had ever said before on the same subject. But in a day or
two Wheeler, who was a great gossip, and picked up every thing, came
and told Bassett that the parson was looking out for a curate, and
going to leave his living for a time, on the ground of health. "That is
rather against your theory, Mr. Bassett," said he.

"Not a bit," said Bassett. "On the contrary, that is just what these
artful women do who sacrifice virtue but cling all the more to
reputation. I read French novels, my boy."

"Find 'em instructive?"

"Very. They cut deeper into human nature than our writers dare. Her
turning away her lover _now_ is just the act of what the French call a
masterly woman--_maitresse femme._ She has got rid of him to close the
mouth of scandal; that is her game."

"Well," said Wheeler, "you certainly are very ingenious, and so
fortified in your opinions that with you facts are no longer stubborn
things; you can twist them all your way. If he had stayed and buzzed
about her, while her husband was incarcerated, you would have found her
guilty: he goes to Rome and leaves her, and therefore you find her
guilty. You would have made a fine hanging judge in the good old
sanguinary times."

"I use my eyes, my memory, and my reason. She is a monster of vice and
deceit. Anything is fair against such a woman."

"I am sorry to hear you say that," said Wheeler, becoming grave rather
suddenly. "A woman is a woman, and I tell you plainly I have gone
pretty well to the end of my tether with you."

"Abandon me, then," said Bassett, doggedly; "I can go alone."

Wheeler was touched by this, and said, "No, no; I am not the man to
desert a friend; but pray do nothing rash--do nothing without
consulting me."

Bassett made no reply.

About a week after this, as Lady Bassett was walking sadly in her own
garden, a great Newfoundland dog ran up to her without any warning, and
put his paws almost on her shoulder.

She screamed violently, and more than once.

One or two windows flew open, and among the women who put their heads
ou