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    BETRIBUTION. 251

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    ^ "I Have Done A Very Good Morning's Wor...

    prognostics as to what it would be to-morrow , I looked beseechingly at Mildred . Her face of utter despairyet _lialf indignant too ,

    quivered into a look of bitter anguish , , and suddenly rising , she signed me to follow her , and we went in silence , leaving Mr . O'Connor

    still pacing up and down , and still impatiently murmuring to himself . " What is itMildred ? what has happened ? " said I , as reaching

    her own room , Mildred sank down on a chair . She paused to steady her voice , and with the measured , self-controlled hard utterance that

    revealed how much feeling there was to keep in subjection , said" I ana going * away . I am going * to stay with some relations in

    London ; my father thinks it better , and I wish it too . " " What is it , Mildred , " I cried , " something has happened ?

    Stephen ? " " " Yes , Stephen Mahon , " said she" he means it well , I suppose ,

    , but he should have been less blunt in his way of speaking to my father . He owes him some respect , whatever he may think of me . "

    " What has Stephen said ? " asked I . " What has he done ? He is capable of anything ! "

    Mildred folded her hands tightly together , and very slowly , and as if she breathed with-

    difficultysaid—, " Stephen Mahon has told my father that he is afraid his brother is becoming entangled in an engagement with me , —he has shown

    my father the disparity of our positions , — he has suggested that my father would do well to send me away for fear he

    should be supposed to countenance what he called an attempt to inveigle a young man , once his pupil , and therefore much

    under his influence , into an early and low marriage , and and he is so far right that I had better

    go 9 " and Mildred's self-command seemed suddenly to leave her , and she burst into a passion of tears .

    I relieved myself by alternately heaping upon Stephen all the concentrated disgust and anger which his conduct had been storing

    up in my heart for the last few weeks , and speaking hopefully to Mildred as to his utter impotence to separate two people if they

    really cared for one another . But though I tried to credit my own words , my heart sank as I spoke , and I felt far , far more hopeless

    tlian she could , for I knew too well what a stranger's influence could effect , and how surely even plihted affections could be severed by

    the cold reason and the determined g will of another . There was nothing to be donebut to helMildred to pack her

    trunks , and to take a sorrowful farewell , of her p . She was to leave by the coach early next morning , and I had one chance left . As I

    walked home trying to moderate my eager steps , and to quiet my beating heartso that I miht not mar all by an unwise impetuosity

    , g , I settled that I would say nothing to Stephen , but just calmly tell Cliarles th . e outline of what had happened . Flushed and excited ,

    I entered the drawing-room ; Mrs . Mahon was half asleep by the fire , but roused up at ' my entrance to say , " We shall have a quiet

    vol . v . s 2

    Betribution. 251

    _BETRIBUTION _. 251

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1860, page 251, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061860/page/35/