more of her child
than of herself. She would have consented to carry on the battle in
poverty to the last gasp of her own breath, could she thereby have
insured success for her surviving daughter. But she was not a woman
likely to be dismayed at the idea of giving her girl in marriage
to an absolute stranger, when that stranger was such a one as the
young Earl Lovel. She herself had been a countess, but a wretched,
unacknowledged, poverty-stricken countess, for the last half of her
eventful life. This marriage would make her daughter a countess,
prosperous, accepted by all, and very wealthy. What better end could
there be to her long struggles? Of course she would assent.

"I don't know why they should have troubled themselves to send for
me," said the tailor.

"Because you are the best friend that I have in the world. Whom else
could I have trusted as I do you? Has the Earl agreed to it?"

"They didn't tell me that, my lady."

"They would hardly have sent, unless he had agreed. Don't you think
so, Mr. Thwaite?"

"I don't know much about such things, my lady."

"You have told--Daniel?"

"No, my lady."

"Oh, Mr. Thwaite, do not talk to me in that way. It sounds as though
you were deserting me."

"There'll be no reason for not deserting now. You'll have friends by
the score more fit to see you through this than old Thomas Thwaite.
And, to own the truth, now that the matter is coming to an end, I am
getting weary of it. I'm not so young as I was, and I'd be better
left at home to my business."

"I hope that you may disregard your business now without imprudence,
Mr. Thwaite."

"No, my lady;--a man should always stick to his business. I hope that
Daniel will do so better than his father before him,--so that his son
may never have to go out to be servant to another man."

"You are speaking daggers to me."

"I have not meant it then. I am rough by nature, I know, and perhaps
a little low just at present. There is something sad in the parting
of old friends."

"Old friends needn't be parted, Mr. Thwaite."

"When your ladyship was good enough to point out to me my boy's
improper manner of speech to Lady Anna, I knew how it must be. You
were quite right, my lady. There can be no becoming friendship
between the future Lady Lovel and a journeyman tailor. I was wrong
from the beginning."

"Oh, Mr. Thwaite! without such wrong where should we have been?"

"There can be no holding ground of friendship between