never touch it. Do you think that it is you that he cares for?
He has heard of all this wealth,--and you are but the bait upon his
hook to catch it."

"You do not know him, mamma."

"Will you tell me of him, that I do not know him; impudent slut!
Did I not know him before you were born? Have I not known him all
through? Will you give me your word of honour that you will never see
him again?" Lady Anna tried to think, but her mind would not act for
her. Everything was turning round, and she became giddy and threw
herself on the bed. "Answer me, Anna. Will you give me your word of
honour that you will never see him again?"

She might still have said yes. She felt that enough of speech was
left to her for so small an effort,--and she knew that if she did so
the agony of the moment would pass away from her. With that one word
spoken her mother would be kind to her, and would wait upon her;
would bring her tea, and would sit by her bedside, and caress her.
But she too was a Lovel, and she was, moreover, the daughter of her
who once had been Josephine Murray.

"I cannot say that, mamma," she said, "because I have promised."

Her mother dashed from the room, and she was left alone upon the bed.

CHAPTER XXI.

DANIEL AND THE LAWYER.

It has been said that the Countess, when she sent her daughter down
to Yoxham, laid her plans with the conviction that the associations
to which the girl would be subjected among the Lovels would fill her
heart and mind with a new-born craving for the kind of life which she
would find in the rector's family;--and she had been right. Daniel
Thwaite also had known that it would be so. He had been quite alive
to the fact that he and his conversation would be abased, and that
his power, both of pleasing and of governing, would be lessened,
by this new contact. But, had he been able to hinder her going, he
would not have done so. None of those who were now interested in
his conduct knew aught of the character of this man. Sir William
Patterson had given him credit for some honesty, but even he had
not perceived,--had had no opportunity of perceiving,--the staunch
uprightness which was as it were a backbone to the man in all his
doings. He was ambitious, discontented, sullen, and tyrannical. He
hated the domination of others, but was prone to domineer himself. He
suspected evil of all above him in rank, and the millennium to which
he looked forward was to be produced by the gradual exti