we took it into our heads that we were broken-hearted lovers--the
rest followed. And how, my dearest boy, as I look upon you, can I feign
repentance?

"My husband, who never saw Higgs, and knew nothing about him except the
too little that I told him, pressed his suit, and about a month after
Higgs had gone, having recovered my passing infatuation for him, I took
kindly to the Mayor and accepted him, without telling him what I ought to
have told him--but the words stuck in my throat. I had not been engaged
to him many days before I found that there was something which I should
not be able to hide much longer.

"You know, my dear, that my mother had been long dead, and I never had a
sister or any near kinswoman. At my wits' end who I should consult,
instinct drew me to Mrs. Humdrum, then a woman of about five-and-forty.
She was a grand lady, while I was about the rank of one of my own
housemaids. I had no claim on her; I went to her as a lost dog looks
into the faces of people on a road, and singles out the one who will most
surely help him. I had had a good look at her once as she was putting on
her gloves, and I liked the way she did it. I marvel at my own boldness.
At any rate, I asked to see her, and told her my story exactly as I have
now told it to you.

"'You have no mother?' she said, when she had heard all.

"'No.'

"'Then, my dear, I will mother you myself. Higgs is out of the question,
so Strong must marry you at once. We will tell him everything, and I, on
your behalf, will insist upon it that the engagement is at an end. I
hear good reports of him, and if we are fair towards him he will be
generous towards us. Besides, I believe he is so much in love with you
that he would sell his soul to get you. Send him to me. I can deal with
him better than you can.'"

"And what," said George, "did my father, as I shall always call him, say
to all this?

"Truth bred chivalry in him at once. 'I will marry her,' he said, with
hardly a moment's hesitation, 'but it will be better that I should not be
put on any lower footing than Higgs was. I ought not to be denied
anything that has been allowed to him. If I am trusted, I can trust
myself to trust and think no evil either of Higgs or her. They were
pestered beyond endurance, as I have been ere now. If I am held at arm's
length till I am fast bound, I shall marry Yram just the same, but I
doubt whether she and I shall ever be quite happy.'

"'Come t