But the truer a heart, the harder it is to
console with the false. By and by, however, sleep, the truest of
things, did for her what even the blandishments of her husband
could not.
When she woke in the morning, he was gone: he had thought of an
emendation in a poem that had been set up the day before, and
made haste to the office, lest it should be printed without the
precious betterment.
Mary came before noon, and found sadness where she had left joy.
When she had heard as much as Letty thought proper to tell her,
she was filled with indignation, and her first thought was to
compass the tyrant's own exclusion from the paradise whose gates
he closed against his wife. But second thoughts are sometimes
best, and she saw the next moment not only that punishment did
not belong to her, but that the weight of such would fall on
Letty. The sole thing she could think of to comfort her was, to
ask her to spend the same evening with her in her room. The
proposal brightened Letty up at once: some time or other in the
course of the evening she would, she fancied, see, or at least
catch a glimpse of Tom in his glory!
The evening came, and with beating heart Letty went up the back
stairs to Mary's room. She was dressing her mistress, but did not
keep her waiting long. She had provided tea beforehand, and, when
Mrs. Redmain had gone down, the two friends had a pleasant while
together.
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