ne, my dear?"

"I was so sorry to hear it."

"Yes, of course. That was quite proper. When anybody dies we ought to
be sorry for them. I'm sure I did all I could to make things
comfortable for him. Didn't I, Susanna?"

"You were quite anxious about him, mamma."

"So I was,--quite anxious. I have no doubt his mother neglected him. I
always thought that. But now there will be another, won't there?" This
was a question which the mother expectant could not answer, and in
order to get over the difficulty Susanna suggested that Mary should be
allowed to go down to lunch.

"Certainly, my dear. In her condition she ought not to be kept waiting
a minute. And mind, Susanna, she has bottled porter. I spoke about it
before. She should have a pint at lunch and a pint at dinner."

"I can't drink porter," said Mary, in despair.

"My dear, you ought to; you ought indeed; you must. I remember as well
as if it were yesterday Sir Henry telling me it was the only sure
thing. That was before Popenjoy was born,--I mean Brotherton. I do so
hope it will be a Popenjoy, my dear." This was the last word said to
her as Mary was escaping from the room.

She was not expected to make cloaks and skirts, but she was obliged to
fight against a worse servitude even than that. She almost longed for
the cloaks and skirts when day after day she was entreated to take her
place in the easy chair by the couch of the Marchioness. There was a
cruelty in refusing, but in yielding there was a crushing misery. The
Marchioness evidently thought that the future stability of the family
depended on Mary's quiescence and capability for drinking beer. Very
many lies were necessarily told her by all the family. She was made to
believe that Mary never got up before eleven; and the doctor who came
to see herself and to whose special care Mary was of course
recommended, was induced to say that it was essential that Lady George
should be in the open air three hours every day. "You know I'm not the
least ill, mother," Mary said to her one day. Since these new hopes and
the necessity for such hopes had come up the Marchioness had requested
that she might be called mother by her daughter-in-law.

"No, my dear, not ill; but I remember as though it were yesterday what
Sir Henry said to me when Popenjoy was going to be born. Of course he
was Popenjoy when he was born. I don't think they've any physicians
like Sir Henry now. I do hope it'll be a Popenjoy."

"But that can'