Of course, we were compelled to tell Katie
all; and never did a more woful change pass
over any young creature. She had come home
to us a rosy, merry, sunny girl, such as it delighted
my eyes to see, after bearing the burden
of Rebecca’s carefuIness and anxiety; but, in
that single day Katie grew blenched and
sorrow-worn, as if the iron entered into her soul.
No delay or dallying she allowed herself, but
wrote at once to Harry Thompson, bidding him
to find out the treachery practised upon her
father, or to see her face no more; and then she
closed her lips in utter silence about him, and
going about the house the two or three days she
was with us with downcast head and sunless
face, it almost broke my heart to watch her.

There was nothing that I could not do for my
children. It is no light thing for a woman of
forty to think of marriage; but I sat down and
mused upon all the troubles of my old master's
family, and upon Joshua Lamb's house, and
carpet, and furniture, until I reached out the
writing-desk my children had given me, and
wrote a note on a sheet of gilt-edged paper,
inviting Joshua to come to supper that evening.
I never saw a man relish anything more than
he did the brace of partridges which I set
before him, well cooked by myself, for he had
miserable sort of cookery at home, in spite of
his drawing-room; and when he was satisfied
he leaned back in the arm-chair, and regarded
me with a very earnest and grave countenance.

"Mary," said he, with a deep sigh, " how
long are you going to make me uncomfortable?"

"Why, Mr. Lamb," I answered, innocently,
"I'm sure I'm making you as comfortable as I
can."

"Nay, Mary," he said, "you understand me
well enough. Will you become my wife?"

He had never spoken so plain before; and
though that was just what I was wanting to
bring him to, there went a dither all through me
as he spoke the words.

"Joshua," I said, after a while, " I'll make
a bargain with you, and a promise. If you'll
find out this roguery of Mr. Corbett's about old
Mr. Ambery's thousand pounds, so as he shall
not lose it, I'll be married to you as soon as
ever you choose to ask me afterwards."

It is a dreadful thing to be under a solemn
promise of marriage. I cried myself to sleep
like a girl of eighteen that night; and after
that I could hardly bear to see Joshua go past
my shop-window, with a knowing smirk upon
his cunning lawyer's face. Mr. Craig, also,
used to go down the street as regularly as the
day came, to pay a visit to poor old Mr.
Ambery; but Rebecca avoided meeting him,
and he never sought an opportunity to speak
to her. I suppose he thought it was no time to
talk of love just then.

If Harry Thompson and Joshua Lamb made
any efforts to discover the roguery of Mr. Corbeit,
they both failed. Only, they said, only six
years' instead of thirty years’ interest could be
claimed. This was some comfort.

Till the very last day I expected that the deed
might be found, or Mr. Corbett’s heart be
changed; but nothing happened. I do not
know whether the old villain could have got
the money with all his craftiness; but Mr.
Ambery would not go to law about it, while
he had no deed to show, and all those suspicions
were raised against his integrity. Rebecca
wrote to Mr. Corbett, requesting him to come
and receive the money in her father's presence;
Mr. Craig and the long-headed deacon were
asked to be present likewise; and Rebecca
insisted upon me staying with her in the old
minister's sick-room.

Mr. Corbett entered the chamber with the
air of an apostle, ready to give every one of us
his blessing. The long-headed deacon shook
hands with him heartily; and I suppose Mr.
Craig felt it to be his duty to submit to take
his offered hand. But when he turned to old
Mr. Ambery, who lay propped up on pillows,
his thin, trembling fingers grasping a roll of
bank-notes which fluttered in his hold, the tears
ran down his white and furrowed cheeks.
Rebecca stepped forward, and placed herself
between him and the smiling villain.

"Be quick," she said, with a flash of the
lightning in her eyes; " finish your iniquitous
work, and go your way. But take you this
word from me, The Lord God of recompenses,
He will requite."

He shrank back, and muttered some words we
could not catch; and Rebecca, taking the bank-
notes from her father's feeble hand, counted them
out one by one before him, the look of scorn
gathering more and more upon her face, like
the thick thunder-cloud. When that was ended,
and the deed of release given in due form, she
crossed the room without another word, and,
throwing wide the door, beckoned to them to
depart at once, and in silence. Even Mr. Craig
withdrew, after casting one beseeching look at
the white-faced, haughty woman, who closed
the door with a snap, as if it would never
be opened to any one of them again. I also
went home, and wrote a letter upon black-
edged paper to Joshua Lamb, bidding him
never to think of such a thing as crossing my
door-step any more.

Whatever the church thought concerning the
matter, it did not withhold the pension of forty
pounds a year to its old minister. Rebecca set
herself, with more courage and less anxious care
than of old, to make the diminished income
suffice for herself and her bedridden father. She
sent Nellie out into a situation like Katie's; and
then began a long, dreary, lonely, laborious life,
with only herself and the poor old master in the
house. Mr. Craig continued constant in his
visits, and at times won a little softening regard
from Rebecca, which kept him on the verge of
hope, just balanced between that and
despair. But we found out long afterwards that
Katie could not help relenting towards Harry
Thompson; and they were carrying on a
correspondence of heart-breaking letters about their
circumstances, which comforted and cheered