trebly hard to have crowds and multitudes of people turning up

after him (I could have forgiven him), to take Ladybird’s affections

away from me.”

Mr. Lorry knew Miss Pross to be very jealous, but he also knew

her by this time to be, beneath the surface of her eccentricity, one

of those unselfish creaturesfound only among womenwho will,

for pure love and admiration, bind themselves willing slaves, to

youth when they have lost it, to beauty that they never had, to

accomplishments that they were never fortunate enough to gain,

to bright hopes that never shone upon their own sombre lives. He

knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better

than the faithful service of the heart; so rendered and so free from

any mercenary taint, he had such an exalted respect for it, that in

the retributive arrangements made by his own mindwe all make

such arrangements, more or lesshe stationed Miss Pross much

nearer to the lower Angels than many ladies immeasurably better

got up both by Nature and Art, who had balances at Tellson’s.

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“There never was, nor will be, but one man worthy of

Ladybird,” said Miss Pross; “and that was my brother Solomon, if

he hadn’t made a mistake in life.”

Here again: Mr. Lorry’s inquiries into Miss Pross’s personal

history had established the fact that her brot