"Ah, Bella," said he, "you have your bonnet on; let us have a
walk in the garden."
Lady Bassett opened her eyes and consented eagerly, though she was very
tired.
They walked together; and Sir Charles, being a man that never broke his
word, put no direct question to Lady Bassett, but spoke cheerfully of
the future, and told her she was his hope and his all; she would baffle
his enemy, and cheer his desolate hearth.
She blushed, and looked confused and distressed; then he smiled, and
talked of indifferent matters, until a pain in his head stopped him;
then he became confused, and, putting his hand piteously to his head,
proposed to retire at once to his own room.
Lady Bassett brought him in, and he reposed in silence on the sofa.
The next day, and, indeed, many days afterward, presented similar
features.
Mary Wells talked to her master of the bright days to come, of the joy
that would fill the house if all went well, and of the defeat in store
for Richard Bassett. She spoke of this man with strange virulence; said
"she would think no more of sticking a knife into him than of eating
her dinner;" and in saying this she showed the white of her eye in a
manner truly savage and vindictive.
To hurt the same person is a surer bond than to love the same person;
and this sentiment of Mary Wells, coupled with her uniform kindness to
himself, gave her great influence with Sir Charles in his present
weakened condition.
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