Drake; if
that is your game we will fight it out--before the public if you like."
And, having delivered this with a tone of harsh and loud defiance, he
left her--left her forever. She sat down upon the cold ground and
rocked herself. Despair was cold at her heart.
She sat in that forlorn state for more than an hour. Then she got up
and went to her mistress's room and sat by the fire, for her limbs were
cold as well as her heart.
She sat there, gazing at the fire and sighing heavily, till Lady
Bassett came up to bed. She then went through her work like an
automaton, and every now and then a deep sigh came from her breast.
Lady Bassett heard her sigh, and looked at her. Her face was altered; a
sort of sullen misery was written on it. Lady Bassett was quick at
reading faces, and this look alarmed her. "Mary," said she, kindly, "is
there anything the matter?"
No reply.
"Are you unwell?"
"No."
"Are you in trouble?"
"Ay!" with a burst of tears.
Lady Bassett let her cry, thinking it would relieve her, and then spoke
to her again with the languid pensiveness of a woman who has also her
trouble. "You have been very attentive to Sir Charles, and a kind good
servant to me, Mary."
"You are mocking me, my lady," said Mary, bitterly. "You wouldn't have
turned me off for a word if I had been a good servant.
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