"A barrister!" cried Mary, and she started back and her cheek blanched. Yes! she knew him now. And was this poor wretch so changed, so degraded, indeed the bright, young man who had first befriended her? "Oh, Susan, I know who it is now. Poor fellow! poor fellow! I have not seen him for years--Then he was so different, so noble. Oh! what could have caused this? He was my first friend in the world, when I had no others and was sorely in need of one! Oh! what can I do? what can I do?" and she wrung her hands with anguish. "Oh, Susan! if I had but known of this." Susan interrupted her. "If you had but known you might have prevented this. Yes! I dare say." "What did the doctor say, Susan? Will he recover?" "The doctor says the case is a bad one; but then the man is young, so there is hope of recovery, unless--unless something happens to complicate the mischief." So strange was the tone in which the woman uttered these last words, that Mary turned round and looked at her, and felt a great terror creep over her when she perceived the glitter in her eye and the sinister smile about her mouth. Even a coward will become recklessly brave when possessed by some strong passion. Susan was at heart a coward, yet she now did what she well knew was an extremely imprudent thing. She could not control herself; her malice overcame her fear of consequences. She so hated Mary, the girl who she believed had robbed her of two lovers, that she could not resist the dear temptation of torturing her, of watching her agony as she played with her feelings like a cat with a mouse, though she was aware how perilous the amusement was. So she went on with a voice that could scarcely conceal her delightful sense of triumphant cruelty. "Now, Mary, listen carefully to what I am saying--I know who this old lover of yours is. We of the Inner Six know everything. Nothing can escape our vigilance--no treason especially"--and she looked earnestly into the other eyes. "This Mr. Thomas Hudson--you see I know him--has just come into a considerable fortune--poor fool, if he had but known it! His uncle died two days ago. It's a pity you did not know that, is it not, Mary?" "I don't know what you mean," exclaimed the girl, "and I don't understand how you can speak in so heartless a manner. Has this man ever done you any injury?" "That is not the question, my dear Mary," said the woman in bland tones. "Now follow me carefully and don't interrupt. This Mr. Hudson, you see, is now entitled to a large landed estate. Now Mr. Hudson may marry, may have children, may leave tyrants after him to hold the people's land. We should have to remove those children, should we not, Mary?"