y on her too. Jane has just heard it from one of the
Huntercombe servants."

"What does she mean with her 'its'? Why, surely--Read it, you."

They looked at each other in doubt and amazement for some time. Then
Richard Bassett rushed upstairs, and had a few hasty words with his
wife.

She told him her news in plainer English, and renewed her mild
entreaties. He turned his back on her in the middle. He went out into
the nursery, and looked at his child. The little fellow, a beautiful
boy, slept the placid sleep of infancy. He leaned over him and kissed
him, and went down to the dining-room.

His feet came tramp, tramp, very slowly, and when he opened the door
Mr. Wheeler was startled at the change in his appearance. He was pale,
and his countenance fallen.

"Why, what is the matter?" said Wheeler.

"She has done us. Ah, I was wiser than you; I feared her. It is the
same thing over again; a woman against two children. This shows how
strong she is; you can't realize what she has done--even when you see
it. An heir was wanted to those estates. Love cried out for one. Hate
cried out for one. Nature denied one. She has cut the Gordian knot; cut
it as boldly as the lowest woman in Huntercombe would have cut it under
such a terrible temptation."

"Oh, for shame!"

"Think, and use your eyes."

"My eyes have seen the lady; I think I see her now, kneeling like an
angel over her husband, and pitying him for having knocked me down. I
say her only lover is her husband."

"Oh, that was a long time ago. Time brings changes. You can't take the
eyes out of my head."

"Suppose it should be only a false alarm?"

"Is that likely? However, I will learn. Whether it is or not, that
child shall never rob mine of Bassett and Huntercombe. Anything is fair
against such a woman."

CHAPTER XXVI.

THAT very night, after Wheeler had gone home, Richard Bassett wrote a
cajoling letter to Mary Wells, asking her to meet him at the old place.

When the girl got this letter she felt a little faint for a moment; but
she knew the man, his treachery, and his hard egotism and selfishness
so well, that she tossed the letter aside, and resolved to take no
notice. Her trust was all in her mistress, for whom, indeed, she had
more real affection than for any living creature; as for Richard
Bassett she absolutely detested him.

As the day wore on she took another view of matters: her deceiver was
the enemy of her mistress; she might do