"And so she were. If ever a woman were pushed out of life--pushed on to the edge of the world and then right over it--it was the Professor's wife, Alice Grant. Ah! she was too gentle, too sweet; he wanted a different sort." When Hannah said these words, in a flash I seemed to see Grace Donnithorne in a new position--Grace Donnithorne with her laughing eyes, her firm mouth, her composed and dignified manner. It would be very difficult, I felt certain, to push Grace Donnithorne over the edge of the world. I rose. "Hannah, if you don't mind, I'll tell the boys. But please understand that I am very unhappy. I don't love my mother one bit the less; I am about as unhappy as girl can be. I have been cruelly deceived. I went to see Miss Donnithorne, and she was kind to me, and I thought her kindness meant something." "I didn't," said Hannah. "I felt all along that she was a snake in the grass." "She was kind, even though she meant to marry father; and perhaps another girl would have guessed." "Sakes! why should you guess? You ain't that sort; you're an innocent child, and don't know the wicked ways of wicked, knowing, designing females. Why ever should you guess?" "Well, I didn't; but, now I look back, I see--" "Oh, we all see when the light comes," said Hannah; "there's nought in that." "But, Hannah, she is not bad. She is good, and if she chose to marry father--" "My word, we'll have no more of that!" said Hannah. "I'm sorry I gave you that drop of soup. The boys will have to eat the mutton boiled up with water from the pump." "Oh Hannah, will you never understand?" "I don't understand you, Miss Dumps; but then I never did." "Well, I am going to tell the boys, and I'm as unhappy as I can be; but I don't see the use of fighting. I'll try to do what's right. I'll try to. I don't love her. I might have loved her if she had just remained my friend." "Friend, indeed! What should make her take up with you--a plain girl like you, with no sort of attraction that any living being ever yet discovered? What should make her pet you, and fondle you, and dress you up if she hadn't had in her mind the getting of a husband? There I now you know. That's the long and short of it. She used you for her own purposes, and I say she is a low-down sort of hussy, and she won't get me a-humouring of her!" "Very well, Hannah. I don't love her. I would have loved her had she not been father's wife." "There's no use talking about what you would do had certain things not happened; it's what you will do now that certain things have happened. That's what you've got to face, Dumps." "Am I to sit up in my room all day and never speak to father and--and his wife?" "Oh, I know you!" said Hannah. "You'll come down after a day or two and make yourself quite agreeable, and it'll be `mother' you'll be calling her before the week's out I know you--she'll come round the likes of you pretty fine!"