382 The Real Charlotte, 



shoulder. Miss Mullen got up abruptly, and Lambert*s 

 hand fell. 



" All that's ever been between us is certainly a very 

 weighty argument, Roddy," she said with a smile that 

 deepened the ugly lines about her mouth, and gave Lambert 

 a chilly qualm. *' There's a matter of three hundred pounds 

 between us, if that's what you mean." 



" I know, Charlotte," he said hastily. " No one remem- 

 bers that better than I do. But this is a different kind of 

 thing altogether. I'd give you a bill of sale on everything 

 at Rosemount — and there are the horses out here too. Of 

 course, I suppose I might be able to raise the money at the 

 bank or somewhere, but it's a very different thing to deal 

 with a friend, and a friend who can hold her tongue too. 

 You never failed me yet, Charlotte, old girl, and I don't 

 believe you'll do it now ! " 



His handsome, dark eyes were bent upon her face with 

 all the pathos he was master of, and he was glad to feel 

 tears rising in them. 



" Well, I'm afraid that's just what I'll have to do," she 

 said, flinging away the nail that she had tried to straighten, 

 and fumbling in her pocket for another ; " I may be able to 

 hold my tongue, but I don't hold with throwing good money 

 after bad." 



Lambert stood quite still, staring at her. trying to believe 

 that this was the Charlotte who had trembled when he 

 kissed her, whose love for him had made her his useful and 

 faithful thrall. 



" Do you mean to say that you'll see me ruined and dis- 

 graced sooner than put out your hand to help me?" he 

 said passionately. 



" I thought you said you could get the money somewhere 

 else," she replied, with undisturbed coolness, " and you 

 might know that coming to me for money is like going to 

 the goat's house for wool. I've got nothing more to lend, 

 and no one ought to know that better than your- 

 self!" 



Charlotte was standing, yellow-faced and insolent, opposite 

 to Lambert, with her hands in the pockets of her apron ; in 

 every way a contrast to him, with his flushed forehead and 

 suffused eyes. The dull, white light that struck up into the 

 xoof from the whitewashed kitchen wall, showed Lambert 



