though mother's pet, must have the best of everything to show off her
good looks, and no matter what fell to my share. I was so homely and
unattractive it did not make any difference what I wore. But the tables
are turned now, eh, Jane! The old folks didn't know, when they thought
they'd made you for this world and the next, by putting you ahead of me,
and sounding your praises in the ear of that white-faced artist, that
he'd die and leave their darling with nothing but a lot of unsalable,
miserable pictures and a child to support! They didn't live to see it,
to be sure, but _I_ did, and, Jane, (coming closer and lowering her
voice to a tone of deep, intense passion,) I glory in my revenge. I'm
the rich Mrs. Crane, to-day, and you are old and poor, and faded, and I
don't mind telling you, now that this is an hour that I've longed to
see. You have always been preferred before me, and as I've had to take
up with the refuse, it was no more than natural, I suppose, (with a
sneering laugh,) that I should wait, and long, and hunger, for the love
that you took only as your right. So I waited, and to-day I triumph in
the thought that Deane Phelps' petted wife is a dependent upon _my_
bounty, a menial in the house where _I_ reign supreme, and which knows
no law but _my_ will. I have forgotten how to love, but each day (and I
have conned the lesson well) I learn better how to _hate_."

There was a rustling of stiff silk, a door slammed angrily, and the
slender figure left alone with her trouble, bowed itself like a reed
before the storm, and that wail of heart-broken humanity that has
resounded through long ages, and is yet only a faint echo of that night
so long ago, rose to the pallid lips, "my punishment is greater than I
can bear," nevertheless, "not as I will, but as Thou wilt."