e love that had been so deep and
fiery, turned to hate: but wrong does not uproot a passion like mine. He
had sold me into a double bondage--his child was the slave of another
man; yet every wish of my soul struggled to his feet again--in that I
_was_ a slave.

"Yes, bend your eyes upon me, and curve your lips with that unspoken
taunt; at least, I was not the slave of a boy! Sit still, sit still, I
say! it is no use flinging your tiger glances at me; I have no time for
quarreling. While I was his slave, General Harrington's liberality had
no bounds, and, dreading the time when it might cease, I hoarded a large
sum of money, more than enough to buy myself a dozen times over. I was
about to enter into a bargain with my new master for myself and child,
when he died, setting us free by his will.

"I waited, worked, saved, adding gold to gold, till years came between
me and the man who had owned and sold me; dulling the influence of that
woman, and turning my passion into a power.

"At first, I intended to introduce you into this house, and marry you to
James Harrington--thus ensuring a high position to my child, depriving
Mabel of a protector, and sweeping away General Harrington's sources of
wealth at the same time. Then, while stripped of the luxuries he loves
so well, my hoarded gold would have paved my way back to his favor; but
you, ever perverse, ever disobedient, became infatuated with this boy,
Mabel Harrington's son, and thus defeated a plan that this brain had
been weaving for years. You had stolen the book, that was something; but
your perverse fancy rendered new complications necessary, and, to keep
you quiet, I was compelled to cumber myself with that poor girl, to lie,
and almost betray myself.

"Be quiet, and listen. The book was incomplete, but I had studied Mabel
Harrington's writing well in my youth; she had left blank pages here and
there in her journal; _I_ filled them up; he read them; all would have
gone well--she would have been degraded, turned out of doors, but for
the mad generosity of James Harrington. I listened, and saw that all was
lost; that the journal would be given up to him, and the falsehood of
those pages made known. I tore them out, and with them other pages that
have since served a good purpose. Listen, still, for I have no time.
To-day, James Harrington came to the house in my absence, and had a
conversation with Lina; what it was, I do not know, but it may put us in
this woman's