“You owe me no thanks,” said Magdalen. “I tell you again, we are only helping each other. I have very little money, but it is enough for your purpose, and I give it you freely. I have led a wretched life; I have made others wretched about me. I can’t even make you happy, except by tempting you to a new deceit. There! there! it’s not your fault. Worse women than you are will help me, if you refuse. Decide as you like, but don’t be afraid of taking the money. If I succeed, I shall not want it. If I fail—”
She stopped, rose abruptly from her chair, and hid her face from Louisa by walking away to the fire-place.
“If I fail,” she resumed, warming her foot carelessly at the fender, “all the money in the world will be of no use to me. Never mind why—never mind Me—think of yourself. I won’t take advantage of the confession you have made to me; I won’t influence you against your will. Do as you yourself think best. But remember one thing—my mind is made up; nothing you can say or do will change it.”
Her sudden removal from the table, the altered tones of her voice as she spoke the last words, appeared to renew Louisa’s hesitation. She clasped her hands together in her lap, and wrung them hard. “This has come on me very suddenly, ma’am,” said the girl. “I am sorely tempted to say Yes; and yet I am almost afraid—”
“Take the night to consider it,” interposed Magdalen, keeping her face persistently turned toward the fire; “and tell me what you have decided to do, when you come into my room to-morrow morning. I shall want no help to-night—I can undress myself. You are not so strong as I am; you are tired, I dare say. Don’t sit up on my account. Good-night, Louisa, and pleasant dreams!”
Her voice sank lower and lower as she spoke those kind words. She sighed heavily, and, leaning her arm on the mantel-piece, laid her head on it with a reckless weariness miserable to see. Louisa had not left the room, as she supposed—Louisa came softly to her side, and kissed her hand. Magdalen started; but she made no attempt, this time, to draw her hand away. The sense of her own horrible isolation subdued her, at the touch of the servant’s lips. Her proud heart melted; her eyes filled with burning tears. “Don’t distress me!” she said, faintly. “The time for kindness has gone by; it only overpowers me now. Good-night!”
When the morning came, the affirmative answer which Magdalen had anticipated was the answer given.
On that day the landlady received her week’s notice to quit, and Louisa’s needle flew fast through the stitches of the parlor-maid’s dress.