Poor self-reliant Queenie felt her bravery oozing out. Suddenly a pang of self-pity crossed her as she pictured the future. Would it always be work and drudgery for herself and Emmie? must she for ever go through life with this weak burthen round her neck, toiling, toiling, with the child's feeble hand in hers? "Friends will not be wanting to us; heaven helps those who help themselves," she cried with a clasp of her hands and another involuntary sigh. "I am not afraid--not often, I mean. I prayed for work; and now work has come, and I do not mean to shrink from it. I hope you and your sisters will not be ashamed of knowing me when I am only a village school-mistress. Are you sure you will not mind--for your sisters, I mean? turning on him a little anxiously. "Do you think such a question deserves an answer?" somewhat reproachfully. "You do not know us yet, Miss Marriott. We shall honor you more in your poverty and independence than if you came amongst us rolling in riches. Rich people are my abhorrence, women especially. Agar's prayer--'Give me neither poverty nor wealth'--always pleased me. I am an odd fellow, and have my hobbies and facts like other men--this is one of them." "It is a very comfortable one, as far as I am concerned. Then you will promise to help me with your influence with Mr. Logan and Captain Fawcett?" "I suppose I must, if you will let me have my grumble out first. Recollect, I enter my remonstrance; I do not approve of your scheme in the least." "You have made me understand that most fully." "I denounce it as moral suicide." "I call that exaggeration." "You are burying yourself alive under a mistaken notion of self-sacrifice; and mark my words, I am no true prophet if you do not live to repent it." "On the contrary, I intend to be very happy. Cathy is going to help me with my garden, and we mean to read German together." "I hope you will allow your friends to subscribe for your funeral if the crust should prove not quite so sufficing as you imagine?" "You need not fear anything so tragic; Emmie and I mean to flourish on our crusts as much as Daniel and the three children did on their pulse and water," returned Queenie gaily, whose spirits had risen now her formidable task was achieved. "I shall speak to them both to-morrow, and get it off my mind," she had said to Cathy the previous night, when they had discussed the grand question in all its bearings, under cover of the summer darkness, and with the scent of Langley's roses steeping the air. "There is no time to be lost; Mr. Logan is writing to Carlisle for a mistress, and I must speak to him at once." Queenie's buoyancy had returned, but Garth remained silent. He had done his duty, and uttered his protest against this monstrous scheme, which, nevertheless, he was bound to further by all means in his power.