Out of her sphere - University Library

CLARE IS EQUAL TO THE OCCASION. 187
of reliance on herself. She knew that she
could meet poverty with a spirit that would
disarm it of half its terrors, and as to the
little shifts and pinches that a narrow in-
come involved, they would only be things-
to be laughed at even while enduring them,
for it was not to be thought that Temple
Masters' wife would have to endure them
very long.
But if, just now, she kept silence about
her own especial happiness, she had plenty
to tell Milly of Temple's belief that it was
not Mrs. Thornton who had been discovered
in the Fort. Then there was the whole
long story relating to Clare, which Milly
heard with more sorrow than anger.
" He
might have told me—he should have told
me from the first," was all she said, and
Beatey heard her with a little surprise.
" She takes it a great deal better than I
should have done," was her thought, " but
I suppose she's made up her mind all along