raised her eyes, and clasped her hands, and looked as beautiful and true, I thought, as any Spirit.

The Doctor looked on her, henceforth, as steadfastly as she on him.

‘Mama is blameless,’ she went on, ‘of having ever urged you for herself, and she is blameless in intention every way, I am sure, — but when I saw how many importunate claims were pressed upon you in my name; how you were traded on in my name; how generous you were, and how Mr. Wickfield, who had your welfare very much at heart, resented it; the first sense of my exposure to the mean suspicion that my tenderness was bought — and sold to you, of all men on earth — fell upon me like unmerited disgrace, in which I forced you to participate.

I cannot tell you what it was —