onny wee thing which had been so blithe and greeted her so
confidently only the evening before, lay there, fastened into a sort
of frame in a position which alone must have been agonising. But that
was not all.

Beth had heard of these horrors before, but little suspected that they
were carried on under that very roof. She had turned sick at the
sight, a low cry escaped her, and her great compassionate heart
swelled with rage; but she acted without hesitation.

Snatching up her candle, she went to the shelves where the bottles
were, looked along the row of red labels, found what she wanted, went
back to the table, and poured some drops down the poor little tortured
creature's throat.

In a moment its sufferings ceased.

Then Beth covered the table with the calico sheet mechanically, put
the bottle back in its place, turned out the gas, and left the room,
locking the door after her. Her eyes were haggard and her teeth were
clenched, but she felt the stronger for a brave determination, and
more herself than she had done for many months.

Maclure only came in to bathe and breakfast next morning, and she
scarcely exchanged a word with him before he went out again; but in
the afternoon he came into the drawing-room, where she was writing a
letter, and began to talk as if he meant to be sociable. He had his
usual air of having lavished much attention on his personal
adornment--too much for manliness; and, in spite of the night work,
his hair shone as glossy black, his complexion was as bright and
clear, and his general appearance as fresh and healthy, as care of
himself and complete indifference to other people, except in so far as
his own well-being might be affected by them, could make it. Beth
watched him surveying himself in the glass from different points of
view with a complacent smile, and felt that his physical advantages,
and the superabundant vitality which made the business of living such
an easy enjoyable farce to him, made his inhuman callousness all the
more repulsive.

"I should go out if I were you," he said, peering close into the glass
at the corner of his eye, where he fancied he had detected the faint
criss-cross of coming crows' feet "I'd never stay mugging up in the
house, withering. Look at me! I go out in all weathers, and I'll
undertake to say I'm a pretty good specimen both of health and
spirits."

It was so unusual for Dan to recommend Beth to do anything for her own
good that she began to