nor struggles?'

'I should think not,' smiled Phoebe.

'She stood like a statue, when she understood him; and when he would
audaciously have shaken hands with her, she made a distant courtesy,
quite dignified. I took her to the waiting-room, and put back her veil.
She was crimson, and nearly choking, but she repelled me, and never gave
way. I asked if she would sleep at an inn and go home to-morrow; she
said "No." I told her I could not take her to my place because of the
curates. "I'll go to a sisterhood," she said; and when I told her she
was in no mood to be received there, she answered, "I don't care." Then
I proposed taking her to Augusta, but that was worse; and at last I got
her to come home in the dark, on my promise that she should see no one
till she chose. Not a word has she since uttered.'

'Could he really have meant it all in play?' said Phoebe; 'yet there was
his letter.'

'I see it all,' said Mervyn. 'I was an ass to suppose such needy rogues
could come near girls of fortune without running up the scent. As I told
Phoebe, I know they had some monstrous ideas of the amount, which I never
thought it worth my while to contradict. I imagine old Jack only
intended a promising little flirtation, capable of being brought to bear
if occasion served, but otherwise to be cast aside as child's play.
Nobody could suspect such an inflammable nature with that baby face; but
it seems she was ready to eat her fingers with dulness in the
school-room, and had prodigious notions of the rights of woman; so she
took all he said most seriously, and met him more than half-way. Then he
goes to London, gets better information, looks at the will in Doctors'
Commons, maybe, finds it a slowish speculation, and wants to let her down
easy; whereof she has no notion, writes two letters to his one, as we
know, gets desperate, and makes this excursion.'

Robert thoughtfully said 'Yes;' and Phoebe, though she did not like to
betray it, mentally owned that the intercepted letter confirmed Mervyn's
opinion, being evidently meant to pacify what was inconveniently ardent
and impassioned, without making tangible promises or professions.

The silence was broken by Mervyn. 'There! I shall go to bed. Phoebe,
when you see that poor child, tell her not to be afraid of me, for the
scrape was of my making, so don't be sharp with her.'

'I hope not,' said Robert gravely; 'I am beginning to learn that severity
is injustice, not ju