ook her head.

"Of _course not_! ... Very little really. It was in the car. The man
ran us into the ditch. I was frightened, and... and then, of course--he
comforted me! We got home so quickly that there was not much time.--He
is coming to-morrow morning."

Mary nodded, a light of comprehension brightening her eyes.

"You are quite sure he meant it? You are always so sure that you are
right, and that everything ought to go as you wish. Don't be too sure
of him, Teresa! Even if you are properly engaged, don't be too sure.
He has only met you now and again for an hour at a time, and seen that
you were young and pretty, and good at games. Now he will see you
often. He may be disappointed and change his mind!"

"Am I so much worse than I appear?"

"I didn't mean worse."

"Then what _did_ you mean? Not better, evidently. What do you expect
him to find out when he knows me better?"

"Nothing. There's nothing to find."

Teresa rose with an elaborate flutter of garments, and stood tall and
straight by the bedside.

"I'd better go. It is evidently not the slightest use talking to you
to-night. I think you have been very unsisterly and disagreeable. I
wish I had never come in. I was so happy, and you have done nothing but
throw cold water. Are you jealous, Mary, that you are so unkind?"

Mary gave her back look for look. A dull flush showed itself on her
cheek-bones.

"Would it be such a wonderful thing if I were? I _am_ jealous; of
course I am jealous. I have every reason to be jealous. You get
everything, Teresa; and I get nothing. It has always been like that,
and it always will be. You are strong, and I am weak; you are pretty,
and I am plain; you are popular, and I am dull. You are masterful, and
get your own way, and I am cowardly, and am beaten; but because one is
dull, and cowardly, and plain, it doesn't follow that one can't feel--it
doesn't follow that one can't _ache_! I have ached for this all my
life, and it has come to you. No one ever cared for me, but I should
have made a good wife. I should have loved him more than you will ever
love. You have wasted so much love on yourself, but I had it all to
give. I loved a man once, as you love Captain Peignton, but he never
thought of me. He married a girl with a pretty face, and lived close to
us for nearly two years. Mother used to invite them here, and send me
with messages to the house. I could not look out of the window wit