"Oh, he have no time to teach me. Besides, I don't want him to know,
either. But I won't be his wife to shame him." (Another sigh.)

"Mary," said Lady Bassett, in the innocence of her heart, "you shall
not be mortified, and you shall not lose a good marriage. I will try
and teach you myself."

Mary was profuse in thanks. Lady Bassett received them rather coldly.
She gave her a few minutes' instruction in her dressing-room every day;
and Mary, who could not have done anything intellectual for half an
hour at a stretch, gave her whole mind for those few minutes. She was
quick, and learned very fast. In two months she could read a great deal
more than she could understand, and could write slowly but very
clearly.

Now by this time Lady Bassett had become so interested in her pupil
that she made her read letters and newspapers to her at those parts of
the toilet when her services were not required.

Mary Wells, though a great chatterbox, was the closest girl in England.
Limpet never stuck to a rock as she could stick to a lie. She never
said one word to Bassett about Lady Bassett's lessons. She kept strict
silence till she could write a letter, and then she sent him a line to
say she had learned to write for love of him, and she hoped he would
keep his promise.

Bassett's vanity was flattered by this. But, on reflection, he
suspected it was a falsehood. He asked her suddenly, at their next
meeting, who had written that note for her.

"You shall see me write the fellow to it when you like," was the reply.

Bassett resolved to submit the matter to that test some day. At
present, however, he took her word for it, and asked her who had taught
her.

"I had to teach myself. Nobody cares enough for me to teach me. Well,
I'll forgive you if you will write me a nice letter for mine."

"What! when we can meet here and say everything?"

"No matter; I have written to you, and you might write to me. They all
get letters, except me; and the jades hold 'em up to me: they see I
never get one. When you are out, post me a letter now and then. It will
only cost you a penny. I'm sure I don't ask you for much."

Bassett humored her in this, and in one of his letters called her his
wife that was to be.

This pleased her so much that the next time they met she hung round his
neck with a good deal of feminine grace.

Richard Bassett was a man who now lived in the future. Everybody in the
county believed he had written that anon