ards badly, then," replied her father in a surly
tone. "At one time he were much fonder o' thee than thou deservedst."

"That's as people think," said Mary pertly, for she remembered that the
very morning before, when on her way to her dressmaking work, she had
met Mr. Harry Carson, who had sighed, and sworn and protested all manner
of tender vows. Mr. Harry Carson was the son and the idol of old Mr.
Carson, the wealthy mill-owner. Jem Wilson, her old playmate, and the
son of her father's, closest friend, although he had earned a position
of trust at the foundry where he worked, was but a mechanic after all!
Mary was ambitious; she knew that she had beauty; she believed that when
young Mr. Carson declared he meant to marry her he spoke the truth.

It so happened that Jem, after much anxious thought, had determined that
day to "put his fortune to the touch." Just after John Barton had gone
out, Jem appeared at the door, looking more awkward and abashed than he
had ever done before.

He thought he had better begin at once.

"Mary, it's no new story I'm going to speak about. Since we were boy and
girl I ha' loved you above father and mother and all. And now, Mary, I'm
foreman at the works, and I've a home to offer you, and a heart as true
as ever man had to love you and cherish you. Darling, say that you'll be
mine."

Mary could not speak at once.

"Mary, they say, silence gives consent," he whispered.

"No, not with me! I can never be your wife."

"Oh, Mary, think awhile!" he urged.

"Jem, it cannot be," she said calmly, although she trembled from head to
foot. "Once for all, I will never marry you."

"And this is the end!" he cried passionately. "Mary, you'll hear, maybe,
of me as a drunkard, and maybe as a thief, and maybe as a murderer.
Remember! it's your cruelty that will have made me what I feel I shall
become."

He rushed out of the house.

When he had gone, Mary lay half across the dresser, her head hidden in
her hands, and her body shaken with violent sobs. For these few minutes
had unveiled her heart to her; it had convinced her that she loved Jem
above all persons or things. What were the wealth and prosperity that
Mr. Harry Carson might bring to her now that she had suddenly discovered
the passionate secret of her soul?

Her first duty, she saw, was to reject the advances of her rich lover.
She avoided him as far as possible, and slighted him when he forced his
presence upon her. And how was sh