trast is he to an English gentleman! His proximity and
acquaintance--rich as he may be--disfigure you. Study contrast!'

Evan had to remind her that she had not answered him: whereat she
exclaimed: 'One would really think you had never been abroad. Have you
not evaded me, rather?'

The Countess commenced fanning her languid brows, and then pursued:
'Now, my dear brother, I may conclude that you will acquiesce in my
moderate wishes. You remain. My venerable friend cannot last three days.
She is on the brink of a better world! I will confide to you that it is
of the utmost importance we should be here, on the spot, until the sad
termination! That is what I summoned you for. You are now at liberty.
Ta-ta, as soon as you please.'

She had baffled his little cross-examination with regard to Raikes,
but on the other point he was firm. She would listen to nothing: she
affected that her mandate had gone forth, and must be obeyed; tapped
with her foot, fanned deliberately, and was a consummate queen, till he
turned the handle of the door, when her complexion deadened, she started
up, trembling, and tripping towards him, caught him by the arm, and
said: 'Stop! After all that I have sacrificed for you! As well try
to raise the dead as a Dawley from the dust he grovels in! Why did I
consent to visit this place? It was for you. I came, I heard that you
had disgraced yourself in drunkenness at Fallow field, and I toiled to
eclipse that, and I did. Young Jocelyn thought you were what you are I
could spit the word at you! and I dazzled him to give you time to win
this minx, who will spin you like a top if you get her. That Mr. Forth
knew it as well, and that vile young Laxley. They are gone! Why are they
gone? Because they thwarted me--they crossed your interests--I said they
should go. George Uplift is going to-day. The house is left to us; and I
believe firmly that Mrs. Bonner's will contains a memento of the effect
of our frequent religious conversations. So you would leave now? I
suspect nobody, but we are all human, and Wills would not have
been tampered with for the first time. Besides, and the Countess's
imagination warmed till she addressed her brother as a confederate, 'we
shall then see to whom Beckley Court is bequeathed. Either way it may be
yours. Yours! and you suffer their plots to drive you forth. Do you not
perceive that Mama was brought here to-day on purpose to shame us and
cast us out? We are surrounded by conspir