unwilling to work. Now, certainly, he
was incapacitated, and she spoke as if he had been an invalid for years.
Thus Caspar Brooke understood her, and his next words were uttered in a
gentler tone.

"I am very sorry that you should have been brought into these straits,
Mrs. Trent. Will you give me your address, and let me think over the
matter? Mrs. Romaine or Mr. Oliver Trent----"

"I'd rather not have anything to do with them," said Mrs. Trent,
quietly, but with an involuntary lifting of her head. "Mrs. Romaine
knows I am his wife, but she won't speak to me or see me." Caspar moved
uneasily in his chair. This account of Rosalind's behavior did not
coincide with his own idea of her softness and gentleness. "And Oliver
Trent is the man who has brought more misery on me than any other man in
the world."

"But if I promise--as I will do--not to give your address to Mrs.
Romaine or Mr. Trent, will you not let me know where you live?" said
Caspar, with the gentle intonation that had often won him his way in
spite of greater obstacles than poor Mary Trent's obstinate will.

She gave him her address, after a little hesitation. It was in a
Whitechapel slum. Then, seeing in his face that he would have liked to
ask more questions, she went on hurriedly--

"But I have not come here to take up your time. I only wanted to explain
to you why I left your house on Saturday--which I'm very sorry to have
been obliged to do. And one other thing--but I'll tell you that
afterwards."

"Well? Why did you go on Saturday, Mrs. Trent?" said Mr. Brooke, more
curious than he would have liked to allow. But she did not reply as
directly to his question as he wanted her to do.

"I was only a poor girl when Francis married me," she said, "but I loved
him as true as any one could have loved, and I would have worked my
fingers to the bone for him. And he was good to me, in his way. He got
to depend upon me and trust to me; and I used to feel--especially when
he'd had a little more than he ought to have--as if he was more of a
child to me than a husband. It was to provide for him that I came here.
And then--one day when I'd been here a little while--I went to his
lodgings to give him some money I'd been saving up for him--and I found
him gone--gone--without a word--without a message--disappeared, so to
speak, and me left behind to be miserable."

Caspar ejaculated "Scoundrel!" behind his hand, but Mrs. Trent heard and
caught up the word.

"N