I saw it in his face when he first came in." It was useless arguing the matter; Mrs.Tadman was evidently not to be shaken; so Ellen said no more; and they sat on in silence, each occupied with her own thoughts.
Ellen's were not about Stephen Whitelaw's financial condition, but they were very sad ones.

She had received a letter from Frank Randall since her marriage; a most bitter letter, upbraiding her for her falsehood and desertion, and accusing her of being actuated by mercenary motives in her marriage with Stephen Whitelaw.
"How often have I heard you express your detestation of that fellow!" the young man wrote indignantly.

"How often have I heard you declare that no earthly persuasion should ever induce you to marry him! And yet before my back has been turned six months, I hear that you are his wife.

Without a word of warning, without a line of explanation to soften the blow--if anything could soften it--the news comes to me, from a stranger who knew nothing of my love for you.

It is very hard, Ellen; all the harder because I had so fully trusted in your fidelity." "I will own that the prospect I had to offer you was a poor one; involving long delay before I could give you such a home as I wanted to give you; but O, Nelly, Nelly, I felt so sure that you would be true to me! And if you found yourself in any difficulty, worried beyond your power of resistance by your father--though I did not think you were the kind of girl to yield weakly to persuasion--a line from you would have brought me to your side, ready to defend you from any persecution, and only too proud to claim you for my wife, and carry you away from your father's unkindness." The letter went on for some time in the same upbraiding strain.