s
not that; it is because I am so little worthy of this. It is a sin to
deceive you. I am not good like you. You do not know me!"

"You do not know yourself if you say so!" cried Mabel; and to her hearer
the words seemed to come from heaven. "I read faces," said Mabel. "I
read yours at sight, and you are what I set you down; and nobody must
breathe a word against you, not even yourself. Do you think I am blind?
You are beautiful, you are good, you are my sister, and I love you!"

"Heaven forgive me!" thought the other. "How can I resign this angel's
good opinion? Surely Heaven sends this blessed dew to my parched heart!"
And now she burned to make good her promise and earn this virtuous
wife's love. She folded her once more in her arms, and then, taking her
by the hand, led her tenderly into Triplet's inner room. She made her
lie down on the bed, and placed pillows high for her like a mother, and
leaned over her as she lay, and pressed her lips gently to her forehead.
Her fertile brain had already digested a plan, but she had resolved that
this pure and candid soul should take no lessons of deceit. "Lie there,"
said she, "till I open the door: then join us. Do you know what I am
going to do? I am not going to restore you your husband's heart, but
to show you it never really left you. You read faces; well, I read
circumstances. Matters are not as you thought," said she, with all a
woman's tact. "I cannot explain, but you will see." She then gave Mrs.
Triplet peremptory orders not to let her charge rise from the bed until
the preconcerted signal.

Mrs. Vane was, in fact, so exhausted by all she had gone through
that she was in no condition to resist. She cast a look of childlike
confidence upon her rival, and then closed her eyes, and tried not to
tremble all over and listen like a frightened hare.

*****

It is one great characteristic of genius to do great things with little
things. Paxton could see that so small a matter as a greenhouse could be
dilated into a crystal palace, and with two common materials--glass
and iron--he raised the palace of the genii; the brightest idea and the
noblest ornament added to Europe in this century--the koh-i-noor of the
west. Livy's definition of Archimedes goes on the same ground.

*****

Peg Woffington was a genius in her way. On entering Triplet's studio her
eye fell upon three trifles--Mrs. Vane's hood and mantle, the back of
an old letter, and Mr. Triplet. (It will be seen