e had nothing to look for
but absolute poverty, for he knew no way to earn money; he was
therefore unprepared to defy him immediately--whatever he might do by
and by. He said to himself sometimes that he was as willing as any man
to work for his wife if only he knew how; but when he said so, had he
always a clear vision of Eppy as the wife in prospect? Alas, it would
take years to make him able to earn even a woman's wages! It would be a
fine thing for a lord to labour like a common man for the support of a
child of the people for whom he had sacrificed everything; but where
was the possibility? When thoughts like these grew too many for him,
Forgue wished he had never seen the girl. His heart would immediately
reproach him; immediately he would comfort his conscience with the
reflection that to wish he had never seen her was a very different
thing from wishing to act as if he had. He loafed about in her
neighbourhood as much as he dared, haunted the house itself in the
twilight, and at night even ventured sometimes to creep up the stair,
but for some time he never even saw her: for days Eppy never went out
of doors except into the garden.

Though she had not spoken of it, Arctura had had more than a suspicion
that something was going on between her cousin and the pretty maid; for
the little window of her sitting room partially overlooked a certain
retired spot favoured of the lovers; and after Eppy left the house,
Davie, though he did not associate the facts, noted that she was more
cheerful than before. But there was no enlargement of intercourse
between her and Forgue. They knew it was the wish of the head of the
house that they should marry, but the earl had been wise enough to say
nothing openly to either of them: he believed the thing would have a
better chance on its own merits; and as yet they had shown no sign of
drawing to each other. It might, perhaps, have been otherwise on his
part had not the young lord been taken with the pretty housemaid,
though at first he had thought of nothing more than a little passing
flirtation, reckoning his advantage with her by the height on which he
stood in his own regard; but it was from no jealousy that Arctura was
relieved by the departure of Eppy. She had never seen anything
attractive in her cousin, and her religious impressions would have been
enough to protect her from any drawing to him: had they not poisoned in
her even the virtue of common house-friendliness toward a