as a governess or companion. He is disgusted and
angered at the intrusion, and proposes to send her a five-pound note, or
perhaps ten pounds, and so end the matter. But Jane, whom he asks to
write the letter for him, is touched with pity for the poor girl's
forlornness and suffering, and writes an invitation to her to come to
Chesterford and visit her for a week. She brings a Greek horse within
the walls of her little Troy. She and Gifford expect to see a poor,
meek, limp, shabbily dressed slip of a girl; but Miss Matty Fergusson
enters the cottage a tall and magnificently beautiful young woman; her
grandeur both of toilet and person quite dwarfing the poor little
cottage and its poor little mistress. The end is now visible. Matty
Fergusson is the adventuress daughter of an adventuress mother. Nothing
was true in her letter except the story of her poverty; and she has
played this game with the direct purpose of catching the master of
Yatton. She succeeds; and when Jane speaks to him about its being time
for his overwhelming young friend to depart, he becomes rude and makes a
brutal speech, which undeceives Jane, and kills her love for him. Mohun,
however, does not give himself up to the Fergusson without an attempt at
freedom, and an endeavor to resume his relations with Jane, whom he now
appreciates at her full worth. He confesses and deplores his fault and
begs forgiveness, and offers to break with Miss Fergusson at any cost,
if Jane will give him back her love. But she, although she forgives,
will not receive him again on the old footing, and he drives off with
his handsome adventuress wife, and Jane loves and is married to Mr.
Follett. The story is told with great and yet with very simple skill,
and the characters of the few personages are revealed rather than
portrayed. And by the way, we remark upon Mrs. Edwards's ability to
interest her readers and work out a story with few materials. She rarely
depends for her effects upon more than four or five personages. She is
equally reserved in her manner. She does not paint black and white, but
with human tints only in light and shadow. In this book Mohun's
selfishness is shown with a very delicate hand, and although we are left
in no doubt as to his real character, he is dealt with in such an
impartial and artistic spirit, that some similarly selfish men will
apologize for him and some others will, it may be hoped, read
themselves in him and struggle against the worse part