'We were ill-assorted. You shall be a lady.' 'Do not, for ever, dear mother, turn back like a wheel to the same point. I have no wish to be a lady. I was happy as a poor girl, picking up pebbles and grinding them. Mother, my heart is full of Jack. I cannot endure that this wrong should have been done him.' 'What!' asked Mrs. Marley, looking up with a dark shadow in her eyes, 'you will tell him all?' 'No――that, never.' 'A girl in love is a fool; she blabs everything.' 'I can be silent. I shall not utter a word. What would it profit me to say to him, Jack, you might be rich, but are poor, because we have got your money. I am dressed out with coin that should be yours. I am pushed with your money into a position in life above that to which I was born. What would he think of me and of you if I were to say this? I cannot possibly tell him my shame and yours. For your sake I will not. No――never!' Jane, with curling lip, said, 'What would folk exclaim suppose I were to do as you desire?' 'It does not concern us what they would exclaim. Do what is right. Then only is the barrier down between Jack and me.' Mrs. Marley ground her heel among the rolled stones. Presently she looked up, and said roughly, 'Come along.' 'Mother, what will you do?' 'I will not. You shall be a lady. It is my fixed purpose. I am not such a fool as to cast away what I hold. Would you――if you found a rare chalcedony, throw it into the sea?' 'If it belonged to another, I would put it into his hand. Mother, why is it that dear Mrs. Jose has been so good to us? Why has she stood up so stoutly for you against the whole neighbourhood, but because in her honest heart she thought you could not have done such a thing.' 'Need she know it now? Will you set her against me?' 'I shall not breathe a word of it to her.' 'That fellow Jack――he shall not have you.' 'Mother, I am sure if Jack knew how he had been defrauded by us, he could not love me. He does love me, because he cannot believe this to be possible.' 'And yet you would tell him!' 'No, you and you alone must tell him the truth. Let him have what is his own, and I am content to lose him.' 'Come on, enough of this.' 'You will not, mother?' 'No.' Winefred heaved a despairing sigh. She knew the resolute character of her mother. Suddenly she flung her arms about her, kissed her passionately, and said, 'O mother, if you love me, if you love me at all, do it.' 'No, because I love you; you shall be a lady. No, I will not.' CHAPTER XLIV THE GATE OF THORNS Jack had worked diligently in the office all day. He had been late in arriving, but he apologised, told the truth about his adventure, and promised to work overtime so as to make up for his default. His heart was light. Whilst engaged over his books the figures danced before his eyes, and the lines in the ledger became music staves from which his heart read a joyous melody.