Page:The Semi-detached House.djvu/175

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THE SEMI-DETACHED HOUSE.
167

business, as a part of the property; and as you are always telling me what a great heiress I am, I may as well have all the proper distinctions of the position. You look tired, Aunt, won't you have some tea?"

"No, I thank you, I have got a headache; I will go and lie down, for we have company at dinner, and I must rest." She almost tottered as she left the room. Rachel, too, could hardly stand. "Poor thing," she said to herself, "she knows it all—all what? Oh! these horrible suspicions! why were they ever put into my head? and why have they become almost certainties? Is money worth all the misery, the struggles it brings? Those Pauls, and Strahans, and Redpaths, have more to answer for than the pecuniary ruin they have wrought. They have ruined all confidence, all trust; they have made dishonesty the rule, and not the exception. Why did my Aunt ever marry that cold sanctimonious man? His mere look always gave me a chill. Well, I must try to think I have done right; Mr. Bolland was my father's friend, and his warn-