the luggage." Then the daughter
entered the house, and met the old woman curtseying to her. She at
once felt that she had been removed from contact with Daniel Thwaite,
and was sure that her mother knew her story. "That is your room,"
said her mother. "You had better get your things off. Are you tired?"

"Oh! so tired!" and Lady Anna burst into tears.

"What will you have?"

"Oh, nothing! I think I will go to bed, mamma. Why are you unkind to
me? Do tell me. Anything is better than that you should be unkind."

"Anna,--have not you been unkind to me?"

"Never, mamma;--never. I have never meant to be unkind. I love you
better than all the world. I have never been unkind. But, you;--Oh,
mamma, if you look at me like that, I shall die."

"Is it true that you have promised that you would be the wife of Mr.
Daniel Thwaite?"

"Mamma!"

"Is it true? I will be open with you. Mr. Goffe tells me that you
have refused Lord Lovel, telling him that you must do so because you
were engaged to Mr. Daniel Thwaite. Is that true?"

"Yes, mamma;--it is true."

"And you have given your word to that man?"

"I have, mamma."

"And yet you told me that there was no one else when I spoke to you
of Lord Lovel? You lied to me?" The girl sat confounded, astounded,
without power of utterance. She had travelled from York to London,
inside one of those awful vehicles of which we used to be so proud
when we talked of our stage coaches. She was thoroughly weary and
worn out. She had not breakfasted that morning, and was sick and
ill at ease, not only in heart, but in body also. Of course it was
so. Her mother knew that it was so. But this was no time for fond
compassion. It would be better, far better that she should die
than that she should not be compelled to abandon this grovelling
abasement. "Then you lied to me?" repeated the Countess still
standing over her.

"Oh, mamma, you mean to kill me."

"I would sooner die here, at your feet, this moment, and know that
you must follow me within an hour, than see you married to such a one
as that. You shall never marry him. Though I went into court myself
and swore that I was that lord's mistress,--that I knew it when I
went to him,--that you were born a brat beyond the law, that I had
lived a life of perjury, I would prevent such greater disgrace as
this. It shall never be. I will take you away where he shall never
hear of you. As to the money, it shall go to the winds, so that he
shall