I ought to have beaten his meek-faced mother out of doors; I ought to have trained his bold-eyed girl to work my will with him.

She should have been my accomplice, and not hers; but, now, what boots it that old age has spared me?
Yonder is the only woman!"-- she looked toward the picture--"who has found a way to win mankind, save as their toy.

My reign has been longer than that of most; but it is over." She rose, and, holding up the lamp, surveyed herself, with a mocking face, in the round glass.

"And this was once Jane Hardcastle, was it?
_This_ was her face, and _this_ her figure! No drunkard, staggering home through such a night as this, could take me for her now! She had wits too; and better for me had I lost them with all the rest; then I should not have the sense to be so bitter! What a future she must once have had before her, if she had but known what men were made of! It is only when too late that such women discover what they have missed.

This mad Carew was tinder to a flash of these bright eyes; and the fool Yorke, except in his wild creeds, as pliant as a hazel twig.