will be happy. I wish her every joy; give her my kindest love; but tell her I cannot be at her marriage. Oh, I should so like to see her; not there, you know, but here, in my own room, where I still have liberty to speak.'
'But why should you decide now? She is not to be married yet, you know.'
'Now, or this day twelvemonth, can make no difference. I will not go into that house again, unless—but never mind; I will not go into it at all; never, never again. If I could forgive her for myself, I could not forgive her for my uncle. But tell me, Patience, might not Beatrice now come here? It is so dreadful to see her every Sunday in church and never to speak to her, never to kiss her. She seems to look away from me as though she too had chosen to quarrel with me.'
Miss Oriel promised to do her best. She could not imagine, she said, that such a visit could be objected to on such an occasion. She would not advise Beatrice to come without telling her mother; but she could not think that Lady Arabella would be so cruel as to make any objection, knowing, as she could not but know, that her daughter, when married, would be at liberty to choose her own friends.
'Good-bye, Mary,' said Patience. 'I wish I knew how to say more to comfort you.'
'Oh, comfort! I don't want comfort. I want to be let alone.'
'That's just it: you are so ferocious in your scorn, so unbending, so determined to take all the punishment that comes in your way.'
'What I do take, I'll take without complaint,' said Mary; and then they kissed each other and parted.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
A MORNING VISIT.
It must be remembered that Mary, among her miseries, had to suffer this; that since Frank's departure, now nearly twelve months ago, she had not heard a word about him; or rather, she had only heard that he was very much in love with some lady in London. This news reached her in a manner so circuitous, and from such a doubtful source; it seemed to her to savour so strongly of Lady Arabella's precautions, that she attributed it at once to malice, and blew it to the winds. It might not improbably be the case that Frank was untrue to her; but she would
