s
capable of playing a cold-hearted, cruel game for her own ends. Be
persuaded to consult Mr. Redmain before you commit yourself. Ask him if
Miss Yolland is fit to be the wife of an honest man."

There was nothing in Godfrey's countenance but growing rage. Turning to
the door, Mary would have gone without another word.

"Stay!" cried Godfrey, in a voice of suppressed fury. "Do not dare to
go until I have told you that you are a vile slanderer. I knew
something of what I had to expect, but you should never have entered
this room had I known how far your effrontery could carry you. Listen
to me: if anything more than the character of your statement had been
necessary to satisfy me of the falsehood of every word of it, you have
given it me in your reference to Mr. Redmain--a man whose life has
rendered him unfit for the acquaintance, not to say the confidence of
any decent woman. This is a plot--for what final object, God
knows--between you and him! I should be doing my duty were I to expose
you both to the public scorn you deserve."

"Now I am clear!" said Mary to herself, but aloud, and stood erect,
with glowing face and eyes of indignation: "Then why not do your duty,
Mr. Wardour? I should be glad of anything that would open your eyes.
But Miss Yolland will never give Mr. Redmain such an opportunity. Nor
does he desire it, for he might have had it long ago, by the criminal
prosecution of a friend of hers. For my part, I should be sorry to see
her brought to public shame."

"Leave the house!" said Godfrey through his teeth, and almost under his
breath.

"I am sorry it is so hard to distinguish between truth and falsehood,"
said Mary, as she went to the door.

She walked out, got into the fly, and drove home; went into the shop,
and served the rest of the morning; but in the afternoon was obliged to
lie down, and did not appear again for three days.

The reception she had met with did not much surprise her: plainly Sepia
had been before her. She had pretended to make Godfrey her confidant,
had invented, dressed, and poured out injuries to him, and so blocked
up the way to all testimony unfavorable to her. Was there ever man in
more pitiable position?

It added to Godfrey's rage that he had not a doubt Mary knew what had
passed between Letty and him. That, he reasoned, was at the root of it
all: she wanted to bring them together yet: it would be a fine thing
for her to have her bosom-friend mistress of Thornwick!