u." Then she
showed him the ring. "Did he give you that?" She nodded her head in
assent. "I did not think he would ever have parted with that."

"It was your mother's."

"She wore it always. I almost think that I never saw her hand without
it. He would not have given you that unless he had meant to be very
good to you."

"He was very good to me. Silverbridge, I have a great deal to do, to
learn to be your wife."

"I'll teach you."

"Yes; you'll teach me. But will you teach me right? There is
something almost awful in your father's serious dignity and solemn
appreciation of the responsibilities of his position. Will you ever
come to that?"

"I shall never be a great man as he is."

"It seems to me that life to him is a load;--which he does not object
to carry, but which he knows must be carried with a great struggle."

"I suppose it ought to be so with everyone."

"Yes," she said, "but the higher you put your foot on the ladder the
more constant should be your thought that your stepping requires
care. I fear that I am climbing too high."

"You can't come down now, my young woman."

"I have to go on now,--and do it as best I can. I will try to do my
best. I will try to do my best. I told him so, and now I tell you so.
I will try to do my best."

"Perhaps after all I am only a 'pert poppet'," she said half an hour
afterwards, for Silverbridge had told her of that terrible mistake
made by poor Dolly Longstaff.

"Brute!" he exclaimed.

"Not at all. And when we are settled down in the real Darby-and-Joan
way I shall hope to see Mr. Longstaff very often. I daresay he won't
call me a pert poppet, and I shall not remind him of the word. But
I shall always think of it; and remembering the way in which my
character struck an educated Englishman,--who was not altogether
ill-disposed towards me,--I may hope to improve myself."

CHAPTER LXXIII

"I Have Never Loved You"

Silverbridge had now been in town three or four weeks, and Lady Mabel
Grex had also been in London all that time, and yet he had not seen
her. She had told him that she loved him and had asked him plainly to
make her his wife. He had told her that he could not do so,--that he
was altogether resolved to make another woman his wife. Then she had
rebuked him, and had demanded from him how he had dared to treat her
as he had done. His conscience was clear. He had his own code of
morals as to such matters, and had, as he regarded it, kept wi