The result of this interview was that, a month or two later, a new
moneylending firm sprang up in a narrow street in the city, under the
title of Harker's Ltd., and none of the numerous clients who patronised
it ever recognised that the manager, Mr. Harker, was speaking the
literal truth when he repeatedly asserted his own impotence in the
business. Every one believed the story to be a fictitious one, invented
to assist him in his extortions.

Time passed on, and Lucy's pretty face and modest ways, perhaps her very
sadness, which clung to her in never-ending remorse, caught the heart of
a simple-minded man, one John Ashford. He was a flourishing grocer in a
village on the banks of the Thames, and was then staying in London on a
visit. After a hard struggle with herself the poor girl returned his
love, and ventured to become his wife.

Wilfer, from inquiries made by Mr. Harker, was supposed to be dead.
None, she thought, knew her secret except her father, for Lucy believed
that Vermont had employed Mr. Harker out of friendship and sympathy, and
did not know until long after her marriage that she, and therefore her
husband, were in his power. So she ventured to grasp the happiness held
out to her, thus strengthening the chain which bound her father and
herself in slavery to Jasper Vermont's will. For if they feared
disclosure before, how much more did they dread it now, when Lucy was
married to a man who prided himself upon his good name and untarnished
respectability!