Chapter 12 - Page 2

her out of the way. I partially succeeded, and she would have been
kept safely shut up for a few days, and then sent to a distant part
of the country, to be properly taken care of. That is the whole of my
offence, and I am very sorry that my plan failed. Nothing more than
that was intended; and if you have imagined anything more you have
done me an injustice. I am bad enough, I suppose, but not so bad as
that; and I hate and always have hated that girl, who has been my
greatest enemy, though perhaps unintentionally. That is all I have to
say, except that I shall never forget how different it once was--how
kind you could be, and how happy you often made me before that
miserable creature came between us.

Good-bye for ever,

JACK.

Miss Starbrow laughed bitterly. "There, Fan, read it," she said. "It is
all about you, and you deserve a reward for burning your fingers. Coward
and villain! why has he added this infamous lie to his other crimes? It
has only made me hate and despise him more than ever. If he had had the
courage to confess everything, and even to boast of it, I should not have
thought so meanly of him."

The wound was bleeding afresh. Her face had grown pale, and under her
black scowling brows her eyes shone as if with the reflected firelight.
But it was only the old implacable anger flashing out again.

Fan, after reading the letter for herself, and dropping it with trembling
fingers on to the fire, turned to her mistress. Her face had also grown
very pale, and her eyes expressed a new and great trouble.

"Why do you look at me like that?" exclaimed Miss Starbrow, seizing her
by the arm. "Speak!"

Fan sank down on to her knees, and began stammeringly, "Oh, I can't bear
to think--to think--"

"To think what?--Speak, I tell you!"

"_Did_ I come between you?--oh, Mary, are you sorry--"

"Hush!" and Miss Starbrow pushed her angrily from her. "Sorry! Never dare
to say such a thing again! Oh, I don't know which is most hateful to me,
his villainy or your whining imbecility. Leave me--go to your room, and
never come to me unless I call you."

Fan went away, sad at heart, and cried by herself, fearing now that the
sweet lost love would never again return to brighten her life. But after
this passionate outburst Miss Starbrow was not less kind and gentle than
before. Once at least every day she would call Fan to her room and speak
a few words to her, and then send her away. The few words would even be
cheerfully spoken, but with a fictitious kind of cheerfulness; under it
all there was ever a troubled melancholy look; the clouds which had
returned after the rain