"Well, I'm not; so now go, there's a good girl; and wait a bit till I've settled something about you." "Settled something about me, dear! Why, as soon as poor dear master's dead you'll be master then, and can do as you like. You won't be the first gentleman who has married a servant." "Oh no, of course not," he replied, with a bitter sarcasm in his tone. "And you will make me happy then, won't you, dear? For I am so miserable when I see you courting Miss Janet, I could find it in my heart to go some night to the Serpentine and end it all." "Will you hold your tongue?" he cried, with a shiver. "Do you think I haven't enough to worry me as it is? Now, my good girl, is this a time for you to come bothering me?" "I'm not a good girl," she replied with spirit; "and it's cruel of you, in your man's selfishness, to talk of my bothering you. No, no, no, I won't be angry with you," she cried, hurriedly changing her tone. "And now, dear, that you can do as you like, you will not think of Miss Janet any more." "Wait," he said sullenly; "and now go. Do you think I want the servants to be tattling about your being shut up here?" "Let them tattle," cried the girl proudly. "Let them, if they dare. They shall soon find that I'm their mistress. Tattle, indeed!" "You heard what I said. Now, then, go away from here at once. There's a ten-pound note. Don't bother about your pay, but get away from here, for your dignity's sake. Your box can be fetched at any time. Go down home." "Go down home!" said the girl in a low voice, full of suppressed anger; "home, eh? so as to be out of your way now? No," she cried, flashing out into a fit of passion; "it's to get rid of me. I'm in your way now that you are going to be master, and you don't mean to marry me, as you've promised a hundred times. I know: it's Miss Janet." "Lyddy, don't be a fool," cried Jessop, in a tone full of suppressed passion. "Now, go, there's a good girl. It's all for the best. Hush! you will be heard." "Then every one shall hear me," she cried, tearing up the note he had placed in her hand and flinging it in his face. "No; I won't be a fool any longer. You're as good as master now; you've promised to marry me, and I will not be packed off in disgrace. You're master here, Jessop, and I'm mistress; and come what may, I will not stir." She flung her arms round him as she spoke, and in his rage he raised his doubled fist to strike her down, but it fell to his side. "Mr Jessop Reed is not master here," said a stern voice at the door, "and you are not the mistress." Jessop flung the girl from him, so that she staggered, and would have fallen heavily, had not Clive, who had opened the door softly to come and sit with his brother, caught her in his arms. "Jessop," he said coldly, "have you not done enough to insult our father without this miserable disgraceful episode, now while he is lying upstairs almost at his last."