and she could neither pity nor excuse.
She would not give the unhappy girl a word of comfort. Indeed, she
sternly refused to see her. "No," said she: "Mrs. Coventry is unhappy;
so this is no time to show her how thoroughly Henry Little's mother
despises her."

These bitter words never reached poor Grace, but the bare fact of
Mrs. Little not coming down-stairs by one o'clock, nor sending a civil
message, spoke volumes, and Grace was sighing over it when her father's
letter came. She went home directly, and so heartbroken, that Jael Dence
pitied her deeply, and went with her, intending to stay a day or two
only.

But every day something or other occurred, which combined with Grace's
prayers to keep her at Woodbine Villa.

Mr. Coventry remained quiet for some days, by which means he pacified
Grace's terrors.

On the fourth day Mr. Beresford called at Woodbine Villa, and Grace
received him, he being the curate of the parish.

He spoke to her in a sympathetic tone, which let her know at once he
was partly in the secret. He said he had just visited a very guilty,
but penitent man; that we all need forgiveness, and that a woman, once
married, has no chance of happiness but with her husband.

Grace maintained a dead silence, only her eye began to glitter.

Mr. Beresford, who had learned to watch the countenance of all those
he spoke to changed his tone immediately, from a spiritual to a secular
adviser.

"If I were you," said he, in rather an offhand way, "I would either
forgive this man the sin into which his love has betrayed him, or I
would try to get a divorce. This would cost money: but, if you don't
mind expense, I think I could suggest a way--"

Grace interrupted him. "From whom did you learn my misery, and his
villainy? I let you in, because I thought you came from God; but you
come from a villain. Go back, sir, and say that an angel, sent by him,
becomes a devil in my eyes." And she rang the bell with a look that
spoke volumes.

Mr. Beresford bowed, smiled bitterly, and went back to Coventry, with
whom he had a curious interview, that ended in Coventry lending him two
hundred pounds on his personal security. To dispose of Mr. Beresford
for the present I will add that, soon after this, his zeal for the
poor subjected him to an affront. He was a man of soup-kitchens and
subscriptions. One of the old fogies, who disliked him, wrote letters to
The Liberal, and demanded an account of his receipts and expenditur