have proved it."

"That you have. Well, then, be my true friend now. I am in love--really
in love--this time. You and I only torment each other; let us part
friends. There are plenty of farmers in Essex that would jump at you. As
for me, I'll tell you the truth; I have run through every farthing;
my estate mortgaged beyond its value--two or three writs out against
me--that is why I slipped down here. My only chance is to marry Money.
Her father knows I have land, and he knows nothing about the mortgages;
she is his only daughter. Don't stand in my way, that is a good girl; be
my friend, as you always were. Hang it all, Phoebe, can't you say a word
to a fellow that is driven into a corner, instead of glaring at me like
that? There! I know it is ungrateful; but what can a fellow do? I must
live like a gentleman or else take a dose of prussic acid; you don't
want to drive me to that. Why, you proposed to part, last time,
yourself."

She gave him one majestic, indescribable look, that made even his
callous heart quiver, and turned away.

Then the scamp admired her for despising him, and could not bear to lose
her. He followed her, and put forth all those powers of persuading and
soothing, which had so often proved irresistible. But this time it was
in vain. The insult was too savage, and his egotism too brutal, for
honeyed phrases to blind her.

After enduring it a long time with a silent shudder, she turned and
shook him fiercely off her like some poisonous reptile.

"Do you want me to kill you? I'd liever kill myself for loving such a
thing as THOU. Go thy ways, man, and let me go mine." In her passion she
dropped her cultivation for once, and went back to the THOU and THEE of
her grandam.

He colored up and looked spiteful enough; but he soon recovered his
cynical egotism, and went off whistling an operatic passage.

She crept to her lodgings, and buried her face in her pillow, and rocked
herself to and fro for hours in the bitterest agony the heart can feel,
groaning over her great affection wasted, flung into the dirt.

While she was thus, she heard a little commotion. She came to the window
and saw Falcon, exquisitely dressed, drive off in his dogcart, attended
by the acclamations of eight boys. She saw at a glance he was gone
courting; her knees gave way under her, and, such is the power of the
mind, this stalwart girl lay weak as water on the sofa, and had not the
power to go home, though just then she had