"Yours truly,
"Basil Beaumont."
This brutal letter fell like a lump of ice on the heart of the unhappy Patience as she saw the net gradually closing round her. She knew only too well that Beaumont would do what he said unless some arrangement could be made--and then, as Nestley said he loved Una, he would doubtless want to marry her as well as gain an income, and their son would be left miserable. No, she would not have it, this devil would not be permitted to sin any more and ruin lives with impunity as he had hitherto done. She made up her mind to see him before his interview with Reginald, and make one last appeal to his feelings as a father; if he refused to grant her prayers and keep the boy ignorant of his real birth she would reveal all herself and bear the shame sooner than he should tempt Reginald to a sin. When all was told she would implore Una to still marry her son, and then depart to bury herself in solitude, and expiate her sins by years of repentance.
Events were still in the future, and she knew not how they would turn out, but of one thing she was determined, that Beaumont should not blight and ruin her son's life as he had blighted and ruined her own.
[CHAPTER XXXVII.]
A RUINED LIFE.
"Is this the end of all the years
That thou hast lived, my friend?
Of merry smiles and bitter tears,
Is this the end?