eriously, and raising her voice a little.

"Sepia!" cried Hesper, in bewilderment.

"Why should your heart be breaking, except you loved somebody?"

"Because I hate _him_," answered Hesper.

"Pooh! is that all?" returned Miss Yolland. "If there were anybody you
wanted--then I grant!"

"Sepia!" said Hesper, almost entreatingly, "I can not bear to be teased
to-day. Do be open with me. You always puzzle me so! I don't understand
you a bit better than the first day you came to us. I have got used to
you--that is all. Tell me--are you my friend, or are you in league with
mamma? I have my doubts. I can't help it, Sepia."

She looked in her face pitifully. Miss Yolland looked at her calmly, as
if waiting for her to finish.

"I thought you would--not help me," Hesper went on, "--that no one can
except God--he could strike me dead; but I did think you would feel for
me a little. I hate Mr. Redmain, and I loathe myself. If _you_ laugh at
me, I shall take poison."

"I wouldn't do that," returned Miss Yolland, quite gravely, and as if
she had already contemplated the alternative; "--that is, not so long
as there was a turn of the game left."

"The game!" echoed Hesper. "--Playing for love with the devil!--I wish
the game were yours, as you call it!"

"Mine I'd make it, if I had it to play," returned Sepia. "I wish I were
the other player instead of you, but the man hates me. Some men
do.--Come," she went on, "I will be open with you, Hesper; you don't
hang for thoughts in England. I will tell you what I would do with a
man I hated--that is, if I was compelled to marry him; it would hardly
be fair otherwise, and I have a weakness for fair play.--I would give
him absolute fair play."

The last three words she spoke with a strange expression of mingled
scorn and jest, then paused, and seemed to have said all she meant to
say.

"Go on," sighed Hesper; "you amuse me." Her tone expressed anything but
amusement. "What would a woman of your experience do in my place?"

Sepia fixed a momentary look on Hesper; the words seemed to have stung
her. She knew well enough that, if Lady Malice came to know anything of
her real history, she would have bare time to pack up her small
belongings. She wanted Hesper married, that she might go with her into
the world again; at the same time, she feared her marriage with Mr.
Redmain would hardly favor her wishes. But she could not with prudence
do anything expressly to prevent it; while she