"No, Mr. Lyons," said Grace, laughing, while tears stood in her eyes; "you are a dear, kind-hearted boy; do you suppose I would consent to anything of the kind? Put all nonsense out of your head and try to see if there is anything in the world we can do. You are more able, you are stronger than I am; think!" Paul Lyons thought, but he could see no way of helping Margaret unless she would help herself. They neither of them knew what had only lately happened at the Limes. When Margaret, her heart full of gratitude about her writing, a glow of deep and checquered feeling making her steps lighter, as she went homewards, had been kept at the door waiting a weary while. When at length the servant came Mr. Drayton was with him, and he had been so excited and so violent that the man could hardly control him. "I am sure, ma'am, he is mad," he said to the terrified girl, "and I will see and get the doctor to-morrow; I cannot well leave him just now." "Oh, pray, do not leave him!" said Margaret, terrified; "but to-morrow, yes, something must be done to-morrow." She had made up her mind, as she stood trembling before him, that she would go, and she would take her child; surely, if he was mad--and she knew he must be mad--no one would take her child from her. Next day, so soon as baby was awake, she roused the nurse. She had great difficulty in telling her what she meant to do; she meant to go now at once, while, as she thought, her husband slept, and the nurse might follow later. "He will not wish to detain you," she said, "once we are safe away." "But who will pay my wages?" asked the nurse, who did not at all see why she should risk her earnings or be left in the house with a madman when her charge and her mistress were gone. "Of course that will be all right," said Margaret, with dignity. "Are you sure, ma'am? because they say here you had no money, that your sister is living in a very poor way, and that you married master for his money." Margaret's face was one flame. "You are quite forgetting yourself," she said, and then the sting of these words made her turn away. Here was a truth--she had acknowledged to herself--put in the coarsest possible way to her! Had she a right to resent it? She dressed her baby and herself, put up a few necessaries, and then knelt down and asked for help and guidance. It could not be wrong to go, for she was sure that her husband was mad; she must go and she must take her baby, who was hers; she was sure if she stayed that her husband would do her an injury; she had long had a vague fear, but last night had made her tremble; supposing he broke out in this way when the man was not by his side! She was trembling now as she went downstairs.