"I don't say that I'm saying this for your sake, young man," said Ann Packet in quite a maternal manner, "for you're no great catch to anybody, and will be a sight of trouble. But I do think that Mattie took a fancy to you ever so long ago, and that it didn't die away like other people's because you came to grief. And if my opinion has discumfrumpled you more than I expected, why, you asked for it, and I haven't many words to pick and choose from, when I've made up my mind to speak. And I'm not sorry now that I've spoke it any-ways." "I fear Mattie would not thank you, Ann." "Mattie never knowed what was good for herself so well as for t'other people--I looks after her good like her mother--I don't know that any one else would. And though I'm your servant, I'm her friend--and so I asks you, if you've any intentions, to speak out like a gentleman!" Still suffering from nervous excitement, Ann Packet closed the door, and ran down-stairs to indulge in an hysterical kind of croaking, with her head in the dresser-drawer. It had been a great effort, but Ann had succeeded in it. Her young master knew the whole truth now, and there was no excuse for him. He must give up Mattie or marry her, she thought--either way her girl would not be "worrited" out of her life any longer! Meanwhile the young master left his supper untouched, and dwelt upon the revelation. Something new to think of!--something to stir afresh the sluggish current of his life. Was it true?--was it likely?--was it to be helped, if true or likely? Could it be possible that it lay in his power to promote the happiness of any living being still? Could he make happy, above all, the girl whom he had known so long, and who had served him so faithfully? He did not think of himself, or ask if it were possible to love her; possibly for the first time in his life, he was wholly unselfish, and thought only of a return for all the sacrifices _she_ had made. He could remember now that hers had been a life of abnegation--that she had risked her good name once for Harriet Wesden--once, and in the latter days, for himself. All this simply Mattie's gratitude for the kindness extended in the old days--nothing more. It was not likely that that ignorant woman below could know all that had been unfathomable to brighter, keener intellects. But if true, what better act on his part than to gladden her heart, and add to the content of his own? He began a new existence with his loss of sight--the old world vanished away completely, and left him but one friend from it--let him not lose that one by his perversity or pride. Still, let him do nothing hastily and shame both him and her. He would wait! CHAPTER VI. MR. GRAY'S SCHEME.