"Unless I can marry the Professor at once, I don't know what will
happen to me," she mused gloomily. "I have managed very well so
far, but things are coming to a crisis. These devils," she
alluded to her creditors, "will not keep off much longer, and
then the crash will come. I shall have to leave Gartley as poor
as when I came, and there will be nothing left but the old
nightmare life of despair and horror. I am getting older every
day, and this is my last chance of getting married. I must force
the Professor to have a speedy marriage. I must! I must!" and
she began to pace the tiny room in a frenzy of terror and
well-founded alarm.
As she was trying to calm herself and succeeding very badly, Jane
entered the room with a card. It proved to be that of Sir Frank
Random.
"It is rather a late hour for a visit," said Mrs. Jasher to the
servant. "However, I feel so bored, that perhaps he will cheer
me up. Ask him to come in."
When Jane left, she stood still for a moment or so, trying to
think why the young man had called at so untoward an hour. But
when his footsteps were heard approaching the door, she swept the
books and the bills and the letters into the desk and locked it
quickly.
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