The Heart

She fairly wrung her hands in her helpless wrath, and the gems

glittered anew. "But, but," she stammered out, "know you the full

result of this, Harry Wingfield? She, my sister Mary, thinks that

I--I--sent to England for the goods for her; she knows that

I have some acquaintance with what she hath done, and she--she

is blessing me for it, and I cannot deny what she thinks.

I--I--cannot tell her what you, you have done, lest, lest--"

To my great astonishment she stopped short with such a flame of

blushes as I had never seen on her face before, and I was at

a loss to know what she might mean, but supposed that she

considered that the shame of Mistress Mary's wearing finery which

had been paid for out of a convict's purse would be more than she

could put upon her, and yet that she dared not inform her, lest she

refuse to wear the sky-blue robe to the governor's ball, and so

anger Madam Cavendish.

"Madam," I said, "your sister is but blessing you for what you would

have done, and wherefore need you fret?"

"God knows I would," she broke out, passionately. "Every jewel I

possess, the very gown from my back, would I have sold to save her

this, had I but known. Why did she not tell me, why did not she tell

me? Oh, Harry, I pray you to take these jewels."

"I cannot take them, madam," I said. Yet such was her distress I was

sorry for her, though I believed it to be rooted and grounded in

falsity, and that she had no need to regard with such disapprobation

her sister's being indebted to an English gentleman who gave her in

all honour the best he had. Yet could I not yield and take those

jewels, for more reasons than one; not only should I have lost the

dear delight of having served Mary Cavendish, but I had a memory of

wrong which would not suffer me to touch those rings, nor to allow

that innocent maid to be benefited by them, since I cannot say what

dark suspicions seized me when I looked at them.

"My God!" she said, "was ever such a web of falsehood as this? Here

must I hear my sister's blessings upon me for what I have done, and

I knowing all the time that 'twas you, and yet she must not know."

Then again that flame of red overspread her face and neck to the

meet of her muslin kerchief, and I knew not why.