but his own, and
he left the house tingling with an indignation and mortification and
bitter fondness which could not be expressed in words. What he was
about to do was for her sake, and he thought to himself, with a
forlorn pride, that she would never know it, and it did not matter. He
could not tell that Lucy was glancing out furtively over the blind,
ashamed of herself in her wounded heart for doing so, and wondering
whether even now he was occupied with that unworthy love which had
made an everlasting separation between them. If it had been any one
worthy, it would have been different, poor Lucy thought, as she
pressed back the tears into her eyes, and looked out wistfully at him
over the blind. She above-stairs in the sick-room, and he in the fresh
garden hastening out to his work, were both thinking in their hearts
how perverse life was, and how hard it was not to be happy--as indeed
they well might in a general way; though perhaps one glance of the
Curate's eyes upward, one meeting of looks, might have resulted quite
reasonably in a more felicitous train of thinking, at least for that
day.

CHAPTER XXIV.

When Mr Wentworth arrived in the little vestry at St Roque's to robe
himself for the approaching service, it was after a long and tough
contest with Mr Wodehouse's partner, which had to a great extent
exhausted his energies. Mr Wodehouse was the leading attorney in
Carlingford, the chief family solicitor in the county, a man looked upon
with favourable eyes even by the great people as being himself a cadet
of a county family. His partner, Mr Waters, was altogether a different
description of man. He was much more clever, and a good deal more like a
gentleman, but he had not a connection in the world, and had fought his
way up to prosperity through many a narrow, and perhaps, if people spoke
true, many a dirty avenue to fortune. He was very glad of the chance
which brought his partner's reputation and credit thus under his power,
and he was by no means disposed to deal gently with the prodigal son.
That is to say, he was quite disinclined to let the family out of his
clutches easily, or to consent to be silent and "frustrate the ends of
justice" for anything else than an important equivalent. Mr Wentworth
had much ado to restrain his temper while the wily attorney talked about
his conscience; for the Curate was clear-sighted enough to perceive at
the first glance that Mr Waters had no real intention of p