The Real Charlotte. 383 



the furrowed paths of implacability in his adversary's face, 

 as plainly as it showed her his defeat and desperation. 



" You've got no more money to lend, d'ye say ! " he re- 

 peated, with a laugh that showed he had courage enough 

 left to lose his temper; " I suppose you've got all the money 

 you got eighteen months ago from the old lady lent out ? 

 'Pon my word, considering you got Francie's share of it 

 for yourself, I think it would have been civiller to have given 

 her husband the first refusal of a loan ! I daresay I'd have 

 given you as good interest as your friends in Ferry Lane ! " 



Charlotte's eyes suddenly lost their exaggerated indiffer- 

 ence. 



** And if she ever had the smallest claim to what ye call a 

 share ! " she vociferated, " haven't you had it twenty times 

 over ? Was there ever a time that ye came cringing and 

 crawling to me for money that I refused it to ye ? And 

 how do you thank me ? By embezzling the money I paid 

 for the land, and then coming to try and get it out of me 

 over again, because Sir Christopher Dysart is taught sense 

 to look into his own affairs, and see how his agent is cheat- 

 ing him ! " 



Some quality of triumph in her tone, some light of previ- 

 ous knowledge in her eye, struck Lambert. 



" Was it you told him ? " he said hoarsely, " was it you 

 spoke to Dysart ? " 



Even now and then in the conduct of her affairs, Miss 

 Mullen permitted the gratification of her temper to take the 

 place of the slower pleasure of secrecy. 



" Yes, I told him," she answered, without hesitation. 



" You went to Dysart, and set him on to ruin me ! " said 

 Lambert, in a voice that had nearly as much horror as rage 

 in it. 



** And may I ask you what you've ever done for me," 

 she said, gripping her hammer with a strong, trembling 

 hand, " that I was to keep your tricks from being found out 

 for you ? What reason was there in God's earth that I 

 wasn't to do my plain duty by those that are older friends 

 than you ? *' 



" What reason ! " Lambert almost choked from the in- 

 tolerable audacity and heartlessness of the question. " Are 

 you in your right mind to ask me that ? You, that's been 

 like a — a near relation to me all these years, or pretending 



