Mary Marston

er bold. Mary saw the trouble in her eyes, and without a moment's hesitation drew her inside the counter, and thence into the house, where she led th

for it was a room not unused to having its door shut. It was small, and plainly but daintily furnished, with no foolish excess of the small refinements on which girls so oft

ter," said Mary, placing her friend in a chintz-co

nto tears, an

" insisted Mary. "If you don't mak

ould no

to talk it over. You sit here and amuse yourself as well as you can till the shop is shut,

!" sobbed Letty; "my aunt

t to keep you without sending

t me stop," p

to Beenie to send by special messenger to Thornwick; after which, she told her, she must take up a nice tea to Miss Lovel in her bedroom. Mary then resumed

d, destroyed the hope of a pleasant evening; for he brought a note from Mrs. Wardour, absolutely refusi

unt's note was addressed to her and not to Mary, to whom it did not even allude. Mary only smiled inwardly at this, but Le

irst what is troubling

f her way than when she entered the house. Why should she care, she said to herself-bu

Sunday," said Mary; "and then w

laid hold of the higher nature that belongs to us by birthright, than this, that even a just anger tends to make us unjust and unkind: Letty was angry with every person and t

constraint, and a wide-reaching, undefined feeling of homelessness, all wrought together to make her mind a chaos out of which misshapen things might rise, instead of an ordered world in which gracious and reasonable shapes appear. For as the place such will be the thoughts that spring there; when all in us is peace divine, then, and not till

ol, to wet her thoroughly before she could reach any shelter, the nearest being a solitary, decrepit old hawthorn-tree, about half-way across the common. She bent her head to the blast, and walked on. She had no desire for shelter. She would like to get wet to the skin, take a violent cold, go into a consumption, and die in a fortnight. The wind whistled about her bonnet

afternoon," said the voice, "that I sh

ran through all the shapes of alarm, of surprise

pleased this time. Here was Tom getting as wet as a spaniel for her sake, and counting it a happiness! Oh, to have a friend like that-all to herself! She would not reject such a friend for all the aunts in creation. Besides, it was her aunt's own fault; if she had l

e of the right she had given him. "How lucky it was I chose the right place to wat

or me long?" asked Letty

wait a long year for such another chance as this." And he pressed

r," said Letty, fast

ord against the weather of this night, and he will have me to reckon with. It's the sweetest wea

his time, but unwilling to revert to Mr. H

See if I don't

asked Letty, looking archly r

the lovely critic, fair

ite as little for it all as Tom did, for her heart, growing warm with the comfort of the friendly presence, felt like a banished soul that has found a world; and a joy as of endless deliverance pervaded her being. And neither to her nor to Tom must we deny our sympathy in the pleasure which, walking over a bog, they drew from the flowers that mantled awful deeps; they will not sink until

d hut; door and window were gone, but the roof remained: just as they

ment," said Tom, "and get o

g, but Tom felt s

night," he said. "We must

inking into a cheerless night of rain, encouraged by the very dreariness and obscurity of the place, she told Tom the trouble of mind their interview at th

e saw him, liberty had withdrawn a pace. There was no room for confession now. If a sec

old are you, Lett

past," she

they are not your father and mother. What right have they to kno

ything, you know-food,

rned Tom. "And what

thi

are you abo

m a brief ske

our clothes? Does it want your private affairs to make up the difference? Or have you to

Letty, as if she did not

t you like with,

ught for

n last Christmas," she answered. "

into a m

on the farm gets wages, and you get none: yet you think yourself bound to tell them

resented the claim her conscience made for them upon her confidence. She did not reflect that such claim had never been made by them

g to the sound of your own chains. Of course, you are not to do anything w

king advantage of her simplicity. But in very truth he was giving her just the instruction that goes to make a slave-the slave in heart, who serves without devotion, and serves unworthily. Yet in this, and much more such poverty-stricken, swine-husk argument, Letty seemed to hear a gospel o

watch you, like so many cats after one poor little white mousey, and on the least suspicion, one way

d up at him

asked. "If my aunt were to turn me out of t

e was herself and Tom-by no m

s will. "In the mean time we must keep quiet, you know. I don't want a row-we have plenty of row as it is. You may be sure I shall tell no one how I spent the happiest hour of my life. H

of her situation, yet set trembling with pleasur

me anywhere; I know your sweet innocence would make you fancy it wrong, and then you would be unhappy. But that is no reason why I should not fall in with you when I have the chance. It is very hard t

d?" responded

floor of the hut. Godfrey stopped at the doorless entrance, and stood on the threshold, bending his head to clear the lintel as he looked in. Letty's heart seemed to vanish from her body. A strange feeling shook her, as if some mysterious transformation were about t

sal to grant Letty's request, and had set out in the hope of meeting and

he gazed, it grew to Letty's face. The strange,

at he might not see Tom at all; but she could not utter a word, and stood returning Godfrey's gaze lik

tain voice-for, if it was indeed she, why did she not s

, then first finding a little vo

eing me, Letty?" he returned. "Am I

of his tone, "and blocked up the door with your shoulders, so that not a ray

lie inside her. She felt all a lie now: there was the good that Tom had brought her! But

let me walk with you, Cousin

g from her lips. It was such a relief to be assured Godfrey had not seen Tom, that she felt as if she could forego the sight of Tom for evermore. Her better feelings rushed b

home together. It is no use waiting for the rain to stop, and about as little to put

's, while Tom was only too glad to be left alone on the floor of the dismal hut, whence he did not venture to rise for some time, lest any the most

trudged it cheerfully, brooding with delight on Letty's beauty, and her lovely confid

frey patronized her-"what a doleful walk home she

somebody to be kind to her-as kind as she should like; somebody, though she did not say this even to herself, to pet her a little, and humor her, and not require too much of her. Physically, Letty was not in the least lazy, but she did not enjoy being forced to think much. She could think, and to no very poor purpose either, but as yet she had no hunger for the possible results of thought, and how then could she care to think? Seated on the edge of her bed, weary and wet and self-accused, she recalled, and pondered, and, after her faculty, compared the two scarce comparable me

n reality her self-dissatisfaction. She was like a poor Hebrew set to make brick without straw, but the Egyptian that had brought her into bondage was the feebleness of her own will. Now and then would come a break-a glow of beauty, a gleam of truth; for a moment she would forget herself; for a moment a shining pool would flash on the clouded sea of her life; presently her heart would send up a fresh mist, the light would fade and vanish, and the sea lie dusky and sad. Not seldom reproaching herself with having given Tom cause to think unjustly of her guardians, she would try harder than ever to please her aunt; and the small pers

eager to please Godfrey, and the conviction began to grow that she was indulging the impudent presumption of being in love with her peerless cousin. Then maternal indignation misled her into the folly of dropping hints tha

he might not be fancying him displeased with her; for he knew well that, becoming more and more aware of what he counted his danger, he had kept of late stricter guard than ever over his behavior; but,

ng it with Letty's, altogether overvalued his worth. Stranger than any bedfellow misery ever acquainted a man withal, are the heart-fellows he carries about with him. Noble as in many ways Wardour was, and kind as, to Letty, he thought he always was, he was not generous toward her; he was not Prince Arthur, "the Knight of Magnificence." Something may perhaps be allowed on the score of the early experience because of which he had resolved-pridefully, it is true-never again to come under the power of a woman; it was unworthy of any man, he said, to place his peace in a hand which could thenceforth wring his whole being with agony. But, had he now brought himself as severely to task as he ought, he would have d

ened to her wall one afternoon when she was out of the way, and filled them with the books. He never doubted that, the moment she saw them, she would rush to find him; and, when he had done, retreated, therefore, to his study, there to sit in readiness to receive her and her gratitude with gentle kindness; when he would express the hope that she would make rea

shake of her pretty head, as if she would toss aside her hair, or the tears out of her eyes, "I don't know-I seem to have no right to th

s the hussy actually beginning to gain her point, and steal from her the heart of her son? Was it in the girl's blood to wrong her? The father of her had wronged her: she would take care his daughter should not! She had ta

e out of the house, and away from Thornwick. It was torture to her to think how she had deceived Cousin Godfrey at the hut; and throughout the night, across the darkness, she felt, though she could not see, the books gazing at her, li

church. Letty felt that Tom was there, too,

k, as he haunted the roads about Thornwick, now from the window of the little public-house where the

see her if she were in the Thornwick pew. How i

rl, they will kill her! She is a pearl in the oyster-maw

as sure to side with that conscience, and help it to trouble her. It was sympathy Letty longed for, not strength, and therefore she was afraid of Mary. She came to see her, as she had promised, the Sunday after that disastrous visit; but the weather was still uncertain and gusty, and she found both her and Godfrey in the parlor; nor did Letty give her a chance of speaking to her alone. The poor girl had now far more on her mind that needed help than then when she went in search of it, but