Both the women darted simultaneously toward him.  “Oh! he’s fainting!” cried Grace.  “Wine! wine!  Fly.”  Jael ran out to fetch some, in spite of a despairing gesture, by which the young man tried to convey to her it was no use.

“Wine can do me no good, nor death no harm.  Why did I ever enter this house?”

“Oh, Mr. Little, don’t look so; don’t talk so,” said Grace, turning pale, in her turn.  “Are you ill?  What is the matter?”

“Oh, nothing.  What should ail me?  I’m only a workman.  What business have I with a heart?  I loved you dearly.  I was working for you, fighting for you, thinking for you, living for you.  And you love that Coventry, and never showed it.”

Jael came in with a glass of wine for him, but he waved her off with all the grandeur of despair.

“You tell me this to my face!” said Grace, haughtily; but her bosom panted.

“Yes; I tell you so to your face.  I love you, with all my soul.”

“How dare you?  What have I ever done, to justify—­Oh, if you weren’t so pale, I’d give you a lesson.  What could possess you?  It’s not my fault, thank heaven.  You have insulted me, sir.  No; why should I?  You must be unhappy enough.  There, I’ll say but one word, and that, of course, is ‘good morning.’”

And she marched out of the room, trembling secretly in every limb.

Henry sat down, and hid his face, and all his frame shook.

Then Jael was all pity.  She threw herself on her knees, and kissed his trembling hands with canine fidelity, and wept on his shoulder.

He took her hand, and tried hard to thank her, but the words were choked.

Grace Carden opened the door, and put her head cautiously in, for she wanted to say a word to Jael without attracting Henry’s attention.  But, when she saw Jael and Henry in so loving an attitude, she started, and then turned as red as fire; and presently burst out laughing.

Jael and Henry separated directly.

Grace laughed again, an unpleasant laugh.  “I beg pardon, good people.  I only wanted Mr. Little’s address.  I thought you could get it for me, Jael.  And now I’m sure you can.  Ha! ha! ha!”

And she was heard laughing after the door closed.

Now there was a world of contempt and insolence in this laugh.  It conveyed, as plainly as words, “I was going to be so absurd as to believe in your love, and pity it, at all events, though I can’t approve it:  but now you have just set my mind at ease.  Ha! ha! ha!”

“Let me go,” cried Henry, wildly.

“Nay, tell me your address.”

“What for?  To tell that cruel—­laughing—­”

“Nay then, for myself.”

“That’s a different thing.  I respect you.  But her, I mean to hate, as much as I loved her.”

He gave Jael his address, and then got out of the house as fast as he could.

That evening Grace Carden surprised her father, by coming into his study.  “Papa,” said she, “I am come to ask a favor.  You must not refuse me.  But I don’t know that you ever did.  Dearest, I want L50.”