Elizabeth was a very remorseless person; she was more—­she was a woman actuated by passion and by greed:  the two strongest motives known to the human heart.  But with her recklessness she united a considerable degree of intelligence, or rather of intellect.  Had she been a savage she might have removed her sister from her path by a more expeditious way; being what she was, she merely strove to effect the same end by a method not punishable by law, in short, by murdering her reputation.  Would she be responsible if her sister went wrong, and was thus utterly discredited in the eyes of this man who wished to marry her, and whom Elizabeth wished to marry?  Of course not; that was Beatrice’s affair.  But she could give her every chance of falling into temptation, and this it was her fixed design to do.

Circumstances soon gave her an opportunity.  The need of money became very pressing at the Vicarage.  They had literally no longer the wherewithal to live.  The tithe payers absolutely refused to fulfil their obligations.  As it happened, Jones, the man who had murdered the auctioneer, was never brought to trial.  He died shortly after his arrest in a fit of delirium tremens and nervous prostration brought on by the sudden cessation of a supply of stimulants, and an example was lost, that, had he been duly hanged, might have been made of the results of defying the law.  Mr. Granger was now too poor to institute any further proceedings, which, in the state of public feeling in Wales, might or might not succeed; he could only submit, and submission meant beggary.  Indeed he was already a beggar.  In this state of affairs he took counsel with Elizabeth, pointing out that they must either get money or starve.  Now the only possible way to get money was by borrowing it, and Mr. Granger’s suggestion was that he should apply to Owen Davies, who had plenty.  Indeed he would have done so long ago, but that the squire had the reputation of being an exceedingly close-fisted man.

But this proposition did not at all suit Elizabeth’s book.  Her great object had been to conceal Mr. Davies’s desires as regards Beatrice from her father, and her daily dread was that he might become acquainted with them from some outside source.  She knew very well that if her father went up to the Castle to borrow money it would be lent, or rather given, freely enough; but she also knew that the lender would almost certainly take the opportunity, the very favourable opportunity, to unfold his wishes as regards the borrower’s daughter.  The one thing would naturally lead to the other—­the promise of her father’s support of Owen’s suit would be the consideration for the money received.  How gladly that support would be given was also obvious to her, and with her father pushing Beatrice on the one side and Owen Davies pushing her on the other, how could Elizabeth be sure that she would not yield?  Beatrice would be the very person to be carried away by an idea of duty.  Their father would tell her that he had got the money on this undertaking, and it was quite possible that her pride might bring her to fulfil a bond thus given, however distasteful the deed might be to her personally.  No, her father must at all hazards be prevented from seeking assistance from Owen Davies.  And yet the money must be had from somewhere, or they would be ruined.