And then the poor creature looked at him with eyes which were pitiful in the eagerness of their appeal. She was a mercenary, wretched woman, ready to barter her beauty for comfort and wealth, and a fine house and a good position; and yet there was still in Mrs. Henry Rich the same redeeming possibility that there had been in Millicent Tracy. If he would have taken her out of that slough of despond, she would have been good, have made him a true wife, have grown a gentle lady, so far as it was in her. To the bottom of her soul Millicent felt this,--just as many a poor criminal feels that in other circumstances he would have been a model of all virtue. And for her the matter was not one without hope;--marriage to a woman may always be a new life,--and the seven years had not dimmed her eyes, nor taken the roses from her cheeks. And by those roses and bright eyes and lovely looks are not a woman’s fate determined continually? Again, it was her last hope. For though admiration was always sweet, yet to be troubled with a boy like this young Guardsman, was irksome to Millicent in her maturity. And to go through a round of such boys,--flattering, wooing them, being wooed,--good heavens! was this all that fortune had in store for a woman? Therefore she made one more effort before she yielded to fate. ‘You were more interested, Mr. Renton,’ she said, with soft reproach, ‘when we talked together last,--oh, so much more interested! If I did not know you so well, I could scarcely think it was the same.’ ‘That is true,’ said Ben; ‘but you taught me some things, Mrs. Rich, and I profited by the lesson. I doubt whether but for your assistance I could ever have been the man I am.’ ‘Ah! then I have at least something to do with you?’ said Millicent. ‘Come and tell me, will you? It is not like London, where one was always being interrupted. In the country there is so much time for talk.’ ‘But I have no time,’ said Ben. ‘After to-morrow I shall probably go away again; and when I tell you I have profited by your instructions, I think that is all I have to say.’ ‘You are angry with me because of,--because of,--poor Henry,’ said Millicent, with tears coming to her eyes. ‘But ah, Mr. Renton!--ah, Ben, if you only knew!’