d him, but as
to which he had been so sure that it was not so! She saw it all in
his eyes, reading much more there than he could read in hers. She was
degraded in his estimation, and felt that evil worse almost than the
loss of his love. For the last three weeks she had been a real Lovel
among the Lovels. That was all over now. Let this lawsuit go as it
might, let them give to her all the money, and make the title which
she hated ever so sure, she never again could be the equal friend
of her gentle relative, Earl Lovel. Minnie would never again spring
into her arms, swearing that she would do as she pleased with her
own cousin. She might be Lady Anna, but never Anna again to the two
ladies at the rectory. The perfume of his rank had been just scented,
to be dashed away from her for ever. "It is a secret at present,"
she said, "or I should have told you sooner. If it is right that you
should repeat it, of course you must."

"Oh, Anna!"

"It is true."

"Oh, Anna, for your sake as well as mine this makes me wretched
indeed!"

"As for the money, Lord Lovel, if it be mine to give, you shall have
it."

"You think then it is that which I have wanted?"

"It is that which the family wants, and I can understand that it
should be wanted. As for myself,--for mamma and me,--you can hardly
understand how it has been with us when we were young. You despise
Mr. Thwaite,--because he is a tailor."

"I am sure he is not fit to be the husband of Lady Anna Lovel."

"When Lady Anna Lovel had no other friend in the world, he sheltered
her and gave her a house to live in, and spent his earnings in her
defence, and would not yield when all those who might have been
her friends strove to wrong her. Where would mamma have been,--and
I,--had there been no Mr. Thwaite to comfort us? He was our only
friend,--he and his father. They were all we had. In my childhood I
had never a kind word from another child,--but only from him. Would
it have been right that he should have asked for anything, and that
I should have refused it?"

"He should not have asked for this," said Lord Lovel hoarsely.

"Why not he, as well as you? He is as much a man. If I could believe
in your love after two days, Lord Lovel, could I not trust his after
twenty years of friendship?"

"You knew that he was beneath you."

"He was not beneath me. He was above me. We were poor,--while he
and his father had money, which we took. He could give, while we
received. He