Part 32 (1/2)

”La, my lady, I wouldn't for the world. Sir Charles is a perfect gentleman. Why, he gave me a sovereign only the other day for nursing of him; but he didn't ought to blame you for no fault of yourn, and to make you cry. It tears me inside out to see you cry; you that is so good to rich and poor. I wouldn't vex myself so for that: dear heart, 'twas always so; G.o.d sends meat to one house, and mouths to another.”

”I could be patient if poor Sir Charles was not so unhappy,” sighed Lady Ba.s.sett; ”but if ever you are a wife, Mary, you will know how wretched it makes us to see a beloved husband unhappy.”

”Then I'd make him happy,” said Mary.

”Ah, if I only could!”

”Oh, I could tell you a way; for I have known it done; and now he is as happy as a prince. You see, my lady, some men are like children; to make them happy you must give them their own way; and so, if I was in your place, I wouldn't make two bites of a cherry, for sometimes I think he will fret himself out of the world for want on't.”

”Heaven forbid!”

”It is my belief you would not be long behind him.”

”No, Mary. Why should I?”

”Then--whisper, my lady!”

And, although Lady Ba.s.sett drew slightly back at this freedom, Mary Wells poured into her ear a proposal that made her stare and s.h.i.+ver.

As for the girl's own face, it was as unmoved as if it had been bronze.

Lady Ba.s.sett drew back, and eyed her askant with amazement and terror.

”What is this you have dared to say?”

”Why, it is done every day.”

”By people of your cla.s.s, perhaps. No; I don't believe it. Mary, I have been mistaken in you. I am afraid you are a vicious girl. Leave me, please. I can't bear the sight of you.”

Mary went away, very red, and the tear in her eye.

In the evening Lady Ba.s.sett gave Mary Wells a month's warning, and Mary accepted it doggedly, and thought herself very cruelly used.

After this mistress and maid did not exchange an unnecessary word for many days.

This notice to leave was very bitter to Mary Wells, for she was in the very act of making a conquest. Young Drake, a very small farmer and tenant of Sir Charles, had fallen in love with her, and she liked him and had resolved he should marry her, with which view she was playing the tender but coy maiden very prettily. But Drake, though young and very much in love, was advised by his mother, and evidently resolved to go the old-fas.h.i.+oned way--keep company a year, and know the girl before offering the ring.

Just before her month was out a more serious trouble threatened Mary Wells.

Her low, artful amour with Richard Ba.s.sett had led to its natural results. By degrees she had gone further than she intended, and now the fatal consequences looked her in the face.

She found herself in an odious position; for her growing regard for young Drake, though not a violent attachment, was enough to set her more and more against Richard Ba.s.sett, and she was preparing an entire separation from the latter when the fatal truth dawned on her.

Then there was a temporary revulsion of feeling; she told her condition to Ba.s.sett, and implored him, with many tears, to aid her to disappear for a time and hide her misfortune, especially from her sister.

Mr. Ba.s.sett heard her, and then gave her an answer that made her blood run cold. ”Why do you come to me?” said he. ”Why don't you go to the right man--young Drake?”

He then told her he had had her watched, and she must not think to make a fool of him. She was as intimate with the young farmer as with him, and was in his company every day.

Mary Wells admitted that Drake was courting her, but said he was a civil, respectful young man, who desired to make her his wife. ”You have lost me that,” said she, bursting into tears; ”and so, for G.o.d's sake, show yourself a man for once, and see me through my trouble.”

The egotist disbelieved, or affected not to believe her, and said, ”When there are two it is always the gentleman you girls deceive. But you can't make a fool of me, Mrs. Drake. Marry the farmer, and I'll give you a wedding present; that is all I can do for any other man's sweetheart. I have got my own family to provide for, and it is all I can contrive to make both ends meet.”