Letty felt that the taking of that money would be the opening of a gulf to divide her and Tom for ever.
The moment Godfrey was out of the room she cast herself on the floor, and sobbed as if her heart must break.

But her sobs were tearless.

And, oh, agony of agonies! unsought came the conviction, and she could not send it away--to this had sunk her lofty idea of her Tom!--that he would have had her take the money! More than once or twice, in the ill-humors that followed a forced hilarity, he had forgotten his claims to being a gentleman so far as--not exactly to reproach her with having brought him to poverty--but to remind her that, if she was poor, she was no poorer than she had been when dependent on the charity of a distant relation! The baby began to cry.

She rose and took him from the sofa where Godfrey had laid him when he was getting out the pocket-book, held him fast to her bosom, as if by laying their two aching lives together they might both be healed, and, rocking him to and fro, said to herself, for the first time, that her trouble was greater than she could bear.

"O baby! baby! baby!" she cried, and her tears streamed on the little wan face.