hen the scowl came back upon his face;--or not a scowl, but a
look rather of cold displeasure. "If I understand you rightly, the
gentleman never addressed you as a lover."

"Never!"

"I see it all, Mary. Mrs Baggett has been violent and selfish, and
has made you think thoughts which should not have been put in your
head to disturb you. You have dreamed a dream in your early life,--as
girls do dream, I suppose,--and it has now to be forgotten. Is it not
so?"

"I suppose it was a dream."

"He has passed away, and he has left you to become the happiness of
my life. Send Mrs Baggett to me, and I will speak to her." Then he
came up to her,--for they had been standing about a yard apart,--and
pressed his lips to hers. How was it possible that she should prevent
him?

She turned round, and slowly left the room, feeling, as she did
so, that she was again engaged to him for ever and ever. She hated
herself because she had been so fickle. But how could she have done
otherwise? She asked herself, as she went back to her room, at what
period during the interview, which was now over, she could have
declared to him the real state of her mind. He had, as it were, taken
complete possession of her, by right of the deed of gift which she
had made of herself that morning. She had endeavoured to resume the
gift, but had altogether failed. She declared to herself that she
was weak, impotent, purposeless; but she admitted, on the other hand,
that he had displayed more of power than she had ever guessed at
his possessing. A woman always loves this display of power in a man,
and she felt that she could have loved him had it not been for John
Gordon.

But there was one comfort for her. None knew of her weakness. Her
mind had vacillated like a shuttlecock, but no one had seen the
vacillation. She was in his hands, and she must simply do as he bade
her. Then she went down to Mrs Baggett's room, and told the old
lady to go up-stairs at her master's behest. "I'm a-going," said Mrs
Baggett. "I'm a-going. I hope he'll find every one else as good at
doing what he tells 'em. But I ain't a-going to be a-doing for him or
for any one much longer."

CHAPTER VI.

JOHN GORDON.

Mrs Baggett walked into her master's room, loudly knocking at the
door, and waiting for a loud answer. He was pacing up and down the
library, thinking of the injustice of her interference, and she was
full of the injury to which she had been subjected by circumst