"Dear, dearest woman, don't go on in that way now. Do speak out to me, and speak without jesting."
"Whose was the other judgment to whom he trusts so implicitly? Tell me that."
"Mine—mine, of course. No one else can have spoken to him about it. Of course I talked to him."
"And what did you tell him?"
"I told him—"
"Well, out with it. Let me have the real facts. Mind, I tell you fairly that you had no right to tell him any thing. What passed between us passed in confidence. But let us hear what you did say."
"I told him that you would have him if he offered." And Mrs. Gresham, as she spoke, looked into her friend's face doubtingly, not knowing whether in very truth Miss Dunstable were pleased with her or displeased. If she were displeased, then how had her uncle been deceived!
"You told him that as a fact?"
"I told him that I thought so."
"Then I suppose I am bound to have him," said Miss Dunstable, dropping the letter on to the floor in mock despair.
"My dear, dear, dearest woman!" said Mrs. Gresham, bursting into tears, and throwing herself on to her friend's neck.
"Mind you are a dutiful niece," said Miss Dunstable. "And now let me go and finish dressing."
In the course of the afternoon, an answer was sent back to Greshamsbury in these words:
"Dear Dr. Thorne,—I do and will trust you in every thing; and it shall be as you would have it. Mary writes to you; but do not believe a word she says. I never will again, for she has behaved so bad in this matter.Yours affectionately and very truly,
"Martha Dunstable."
"And so I am going to marry the richest woman in England," said Dr. Thorne to himself, as he sat down that day to his mutton-chop.
