Mary Gray

e, flat, doughy face. Her eyes were little and pale and cold. Mary thought afterwards that if it had not been for Lady Iniscrone, Lord Iniscrone might have been kinder. She remembered that Lady Anne

she revenged herself on the dead woman. In her cold sp

ant no longer necessary. She was not to eat at their tabl

ast. "Her Ladyship thought the world of Miss Gray. She might have been he

closed the disc

r in her own room if she prefers it, till after the fun

lived in Lady Anne Hamilton's house since she was fourteen, when s

clean sweep of us, same as Miss Mary, as soon as ever t

stay on at the Mall and to keep the staff as it stood till she had sup

feathered your nests," she said ac

cies to each of the servants, annuities to the elder ones, sums of money to the y

egun writing to me, which was found in her blotter after her death, plainly indicates that. She was, apparently, on her way to my house when the lamentable accident happened. Dr. Carruthers had seen her that afternoo

rank of life. She has lived like a lady; been clothed like one. When I saw her she was wearing ornaments-a brooch of amethysts, with pearls around it, I remember, which, I am sure, ought to belong to the estate. I can't see that Lord Iniscrone

nity," the lawyer put in. "And this house h

crone grumbled, with a disparaging look

on for Miss Gray, you will be doing what Lady Anne wished and intended t

ly. He was not a bad little man at hear

he said in a peevish voice. "It is heavily burdened

" his wife put in again. "In fact, Mr. Buckton, you may take

l, Lady I

apers. He could not trust himself at the moment to sp

tha Chenevix was away, else she would have been by her friend's side to take her part with passionate generosity and indignation. She was away, but Jessie Baynes's little house on the edge of the sea, a bare little homely place, full of sunlight and the sea-wind, had its doors open to her. One could not imagine a better pla

the little house. The transfiguring mists of her love lay rosily over even the drudgery of her childish days. To be sure, there had been hard work and short commons. She had been insufficiently clad in winter, too heavily clad in summer.

crone was absent from the house, packed up all Mary's belongings, and conveyed them, with the assistance of the c

ile the body of her benefactress was yet above ground she had stolen across at quiet hours, in the absence of the enemy, to look for the last time on the quiet face. She had carried away little Fifine. Fifine was seventeen years old now, and shook incessantly and moaned in a lost way in her dar

r Gray was by her side. She had come in the doctor's carriage, and she had no leisure or thought for th

r work-temporary work, to be sure, but something to go on with till she could look about her. The Lady Principal and Dr. Carruthers were against her making any definite plans till Lady Agatha Chenevix should

considering her great age. She had missed her one friend during that hour of absence. Dr. Carruthers came in and looked at the dog, stooping to examine it with as much tender care as though it had b

which the Lady Principal of Queen's College had found for her. Meanwhile she devoted herself to the little creature. Bu

ers and little pale mauve double primroses. She wept a few bitter tears above the grave. The death of the little dog was like her last link with her dear old friend. The day had the bright, clear, strong sunshine of March. There were yet drifts of snow in

tiful, in her long cloak of orange-tawny velvet, breathing fire and fury over the unkindness

all do all sorts of things. I have found a dear old lady to live with us, my father's twenty-second cousin, Mrs. Morres. She will make it possible for me to do the things I want without running tilt against all the windmills of prejudice. I shall resp

her. She was so big and bonny and genero

?" she asked. "I wa

tesses. There are things a woman can do for a cause much better than a man. I consider my wealth, at least, my comparative wealth,

Mary reminded her. "It is

hed. It was the first tim

Why not beauty if you a

Mary repeated, looking at her

eggar!" Lady Agatha quote

hat shook and rattled, the ill-fitting doors, the ugliness of the painted dressing-table from which the paint had long departed, the chipped jug and basin that did not match each other. She liked it all, even the carelessness about meals, for there was love with it. Her younger sisters growing up had a kind o

ha's part against her. There was no room for Mary in the cramped life of Wistaria Terrace. She had brains

out," her Ladyship promised, and it seemed like enough to be true. She was talking already of writing a novel when they should retire

me from you again," Mary said to

ve outgrown Wistaria Terrace. We c

e thought of the little house as of a resting place from which she was to be debarred. But she would not dispute her father's will

rises to greater heights than mine ever will. You cramped yourse

other times it was big enough to contain the heaven and all the stars. Perhaps the ambition I

ere just opening out in pale green silk, and all the world was fragrant and full of the joy

feel cramped," Walter Gray had said. "I ha

r that she could make illusions about common things all the days she was