sper, after a fort-night of it, should
think once more of the young woman in the draper's shop of Testbridge.
One morning, in consequence, she ordered her brougham, and drove to the
town.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE MENIAL.

Things had been going nowise really better with Mary, though there was
now more lull and less storm around her. The position was becoming less
and less endurable to her, and she had as yet no glimmer of a way out
of it. Breath of genial air never blew in the shop, except when this
and that customer entered it. But how dear the dull old chapel had
grown! Not that she heard anything more to her mind, or that she paid
any more attention to what was said; but the memory of her father
filled the place, and when the Bible was read, or some favorite hymn
sung, he seemed to her actually present. And might not love, she
thought, even love to her, be strong enough to bring him from the
gracious freedom of the new life, back to the house of bondage, to
share it for an hour with his daughter?

When Hesper entered, she was disappointed to see Mary so much changed.
But when, at sight of her, the pale face brightened, and a faint, rosy
flush overspread it from brow to chin, Mary was herself again as Hesper
had known her; and the radiance of her own presence, reflected from
Mary, cast a reflex of sunshine into the February of Hesper's heart:
had Mary known how long it was since such a smile had lighted the face
she so much admired, hers would have flushed with a profounder
pleasure. Hesper was human after all, though her humanity was only
molluscous as yet, and it is not in the power of humanity in any stage
of development to hold itself indifferent to the pleasure of being
loved. Also, poor as is the feeling comparatively, it is yet a reflex
of love itself--the shine of the sun in a rain-pool.

She walked up to Mary, holding out her hand.

"O ma'am, I am so glad to see you!" exclaimed Mary, forgetting her
manners in her love.

"I, too, am glad," drawled Hesper, genuinely, though with
condescension. "I hope you are well. I can not say you look so."

"I am pretty well, thank you, ma'am," answered Mary, flushing afresh:
not much anxiety was anywhere expressed about her health now, except by
Beenie, who mourned over the loss of her plumpness, and told her if she
did not eat she would soon follow her poor father.

"Come and have a drive with me," said Hesper, moved by a sudden
impulse: through some hidden