nd. She had almost begun to think that it must be so,--that her
strength would not suffice for her to hold to her purpose. But how
sweet would be her triumph if she could turn to him and tell him that
now the hour had come in which she would be proud to become his wife!
"I love you well enough to rejoice in giving you something, but too
well to have been a burden on you when I could give you nothing."
That would be sweet to her! Then there should be kisses! As for
Cousin Henry, there was not even pity in her heart towards him. It
would be time to pity him when he should have been made to give up
the fruits of his wickedness and to confess his faults.

Mrs Brodrick was not made to understand the newspapers, nor did she
care much about the work which they had taken in hand. If Isabel
could be made to accept that smaller legacy, so that Mr Owen might
marry her out of hand and take her away, that would be enough to
satisfy Mrs Brodrick. If Isabel were settled somewhere with Mr Owen,
their joint means being sufficient to make it certain that no calls
would be made on the paternal resources, that would satisfy Mrs
Brodrick's craving in regard to the Welsh property. She was not sure
that she was anxious to see the half-sister of her own children
altogether removed from their sphere and exalted so high. And then
this smaller stroke of good fortune might be so much more easily made
certain! A single word from Isabel herself, a word which any girl
less endowed with wicked obstinacy would have spoken at once, would
make that sure and immediate. Whereas this great inheritance which
was to depend upon some almost impossible confession of the man who
enjoyed it, seemed to her to be as distant as ever.

"Bother the newspapers," she said to her eldest daughter; "why
doesn't she write and sign the receipt, and take her income like any
one else? She was getting new boots at Jackson's yesterday, and where
is the money to come from? If any of you want new boots, papa is sure
to tell me of it!"

Her spirit was embittered too by the severity of certain words which
her husband had spoken to her. Isabel had appealed to her father when
her step-mother had reproached her with being a burden in the house.

"Papa," she had said, "let me leave the house and earn something. I
can at any rate earn my bread."

Then Mr Brodrick had been very angry. He too had wished to accelerate
the marriage between his daughter and her lover, thinking that she