Wood had no need to bid the poor wretch guard it very carefully: it never from that day forth left her; it was her title of nobility,--her pass to rank, wealth, happiness.
She began to look down on her neighbours; her manner to her husband grew more than ordinarily scornful; the poor vain wretch longed to tell her secret, and to take her place openly in the world.

She a Countess, and Tom a Count's son! She felt that she should royally become the title! About this time--and Hayes was very much frightened at the prevalence of the rumour--it suddenly began to be about in his quarter that he was going to quit the country.

The story was in everybody's mouth; people used to sneer when he turned pale, and wept, and passionately denied it.
It was said, too, that Mrs.Hayes was not his wife, but his mistress--everybody had this story--his mistress, whom he treated most cruelly, and was about to desert.

The tale of the blow which had felled her to the ground was known in all quarters.

When he declared that the woman tried to stab him, nobody believed him: the women said he would have been served right if she had done so.