“It is precisely on that account I have sent for you, Captain Martin,” said her Ladyship, as she assigned to him a seat with a motion of her hand. “It is because a great deal has gone wrong here--and were it not for my vigilance, much more still likely to follow it--I have sent for you, sir, that you should hear from this young lady's lips a denial which, I own, has not satisfied _me_; nor shall it, till it be made in your presence and meet with your corroboration. Your looks, Miss Henderson,” said she, addressing her, “would imply that all the suffering of the present moment falls to _your_ share; but I would beg you to bear in mind what a person in _my_ sphere must endure at the bare possibility of the event which now demands investigation.” “Good heavens! will not you tell me what it is?” exclaimed Martin, in the last extremity of impatience. “I have sent for you, sir,” resumed she, “that you should hear Miss Henderson declare that no attentions on your part--no assiduities, I should perhaps call them--have ever been addressed to her; that, in fact”--here her Ladyship became embarrassed in her explanation,--“that, in fact, those counsels--those very admirable aids to your conduct which she on so many occasions has vouchsafed to afford you--have had no object--no ulterior object, I should perhaps call it--and that your--your intercourse has ever been such as beseems the heir of Cro' Martin, and the daughter of the steward on that property!” “By Jove, I can make nothing of all this!” cried the Captain, whose bewildered looks fully corroborated the assertion. “Lady Dorothea, sir, requires you to assure her that I have never made love to you,” said Kate Henderson, with a look of scorn that her Ladyship did not dare to reply to. “_I_,” added she, “have already given my pledge on this subject. I trust that your testimony will not gainsay me.” “Confound me if I can fathom it at all!” said he, more distracted than ever. “If you are alluding to the offer I made you--” “The offer you made,” cried Lady Dorothea. “When?--how?--in what wise?” “No, no, I will speak out,” said he, addressing Kate. “I am certain _you_ never divulged it; but I cannot accept that all the honorable dealing should be on one side only. Yes, my Lady, however you learned it, I cannot guess, but it is perfectly true; I asked Miss Henderson to be my wife, and she refused me.” A low, faint sigh broke from Lady Dorothea, and she fell back into her chair. “She would have it,--it's not my fault,--you are witness it's not,” muttered he to Kate. But she motioned him in silence to the door, and then opening the window, that the fresh air might enter, stood silently beside the chair. A slight shivering shook her; and Lady Dorothea--her cheeks almost lividly pale--raised her eyes and fixed them on Kate Henderson. “You have had your triumph!” said she, in a low but firm voice.