"Nevertheless, it is true! He proposed to marry me; but I refused his offer with scorn." "Why did you do that?" Miss Linisfarne raised her veil, and showed a face inflamed with anger. Having once committed herself, she did not measure her words, and raged on without considering the harm she was doing. The belief Meg had in Dan enraged her, and she was determined to blacken his character in the girl's eyes, so that any tenderness Meg might have towards him should be crushed in its infancy. "Why did I do that?" she cried, with rapid speech. "Because his offer was an insult. He said that he loved you; in every action he has shown that he loved you. Fool that you are, do you think a man would stay in this place for weeks and weeks had he not been influenced by your presence? He was in love with me also--the base, dishonourable villain!" "If so, why did he ask you to be his wife?" said Meg, calmly, though her heart was beating wildly. "Because he is a base and dishonourable man. He loved you for your looks, child, but he wished to marry me for my money." "No, no!" "I tell you it is true," resumed Miss Linisfarne, vehemently. "Why should I, who have been a mother to you, tell a falsehood? This man has insulted us both. Now that I have repelled him he will come to you with loving words, and you--what will you say?" "If he has done what you say, I shall treat him with scorn." "Do you not believe me?" "No, Miss Linisfarne, I do not," replied Meg, facing round with great indignation. "I do not believe your story. If Dan proposed to you he does not love me. If he loves me as you say, he did not propose to you. I shall know the truth from his own lips." "Will you ask him?" demanded Miss Linisfarne, rather alarmed at the turn affairs had taken. "Of course I shall ask him. And, what is more, I shall believe his answer." "You love him, girl--you love him!" "I do. Until you spoke I only felt like a sister to him, but now you have put his conduct in a new light, and I feel what I never felt before. I do love him, and on his answer shall depend the happiness or the misery of my life." Thus Miss Linisfarne, by her jealousy, had brought about the very catastrophe she desired to avoid. She recognized that her wiles were worse than useless before the honest character of the girl, and silently admitted that she was again beaten. She had failed with Dan, now she failed with Meg. Only retreat remained. "You fool!" she said cruelly. "Ask him, and believe his lies. Your misery dates from that moment." She swept from the room with a haughty carriage, and left Meg bewildered and afraid. CHAPTER XXVI. CUPID IN ARCADY.