sh, in mad rage, over land
and sea, burying great ships in a vast tumult of frenzied waves, or
crushing to the earth forests, buildings, everything that may lie in
their awful paths; but no description could be written which could
give an adequate idea of the storm which now burst upon Lawrence and
Annie. The old lady had seen these two standing together in the yard,
conversing most earnestly. She had then seen Annie read a letter
that Lawrence gave her; and then she had perceived the two, in close
converse, enter the arbor, and sit down together without the slightest
regard for the rights of Mr Null.

Mrs Keswick looked upon all this as somewhat more out-of-the-way than
the usual proceedings of these young people, and there came into her
mind a curiosity to know what they were saying to each other. So she
immediately repaired to the large garden, and quietly made her way to
the back of the arbor, in which advantageous position she heard the
whole of Lawrence's story of his love-affair with Miss March; Annie's
remarks upon the same, and the facts of this young lady's proposed
confession in regard to her marriage with Mr Null, and her engagement
to Mr Croft.

Then she burst in upon them; the tornado and the cyclone raged; the
thunder rolled and crashed; and the white lightning of her wrath
flashed upon the two, as if it would scathe and annihilate them, as
they stood before her. Neither of them had ever known or imagined
anything like this. It had been long since Mrs Keswick had had an
opportunity of exercising that power of vituperative torment, which
had driven a husband to the refuge of a reverted pistol; which had
banished, for life, relatives and friends; and which, in the shape of
a promissory curse, had held apart those who would have been husband
and wife; and now, like the long stored up venom of a serpent, it
burst out with the direful force given by concentration and retention.

At the first outburst, Annie had turned pale and shrunk back, but now
she clung to the side of Lawrence, who, although his face was somewhat
blanched and his form trembled a little with excitement, still stood
up bravely, and endeavored, but ineffectually, to force upon the old
lady's attention a denial of her bitter accusations. With face almost
as purple as the bonnet she wore, or the umbrella she shook in
the air, the old lady first addressed her niece. With scorn and
condemnation she spoke of the deceit which the young girl had