CHAPTER XXVI.
GIVE ME SIX MONTHS.
There was a great deal of trouble and some very genuine sorrow in the attorney's house at Dillsborough during the first week in December.

Mr.Masters had declared to his wife that Mary should go to Cheltenham and a letter was written to Lady Ushant accepting the invitation.

The L20 too was forthcoming and the dress and the boots and the hat were bought.

But while this was going on Mrs.Masters took care that there should be no comfort whatever around them and made every meal a separate curse to the unfortunate lawyer.

She told him ten times a day that she had been a mother to his daughter, but declared that such a position was no longer possible to her as the girl had been taken altogether out of her hands.