time she and the girls were to
dine. From the gathering at meal-times she must not shrink. She must
show no sign of weakness. But, oh! the relief, after that walk, to
sit in her own room, locked up, so that neither Mary nor Elizabeth
could come by surprise, and to let her weary frame (weary with being
so long braced up to rigidity and stiff quiet) fall into a chair
anyhow--all helpless, nerveless, motionless, as if the very bones had
melted out of her!

The peaceful rest which her mind took was in thinking of Leonard.
She dared not look before or behind, but she could see him well
at present. She brooded over the thought of him, till she dreaded
his father more and more. By the light of her child's purity and
innocence, she saw evil clearly, and yet more clearly. She thought
that, if Leonard ever came to know the nature of his birth, she
had nothing for it but to die out of his sight. He could never
know--human heart could never know, her ignorant innocence, and all
the small circumstances which had impelled her onwards. But God knew.
And if Leonard heard of his mother's error, why, nothing remained
but death; for she felt, then, as if she had it in her power to die
innocently out of such future agony; but that escape is not so easy.
Suddenly a fresh thought came, and she prayed that, through whatever
suffering, she might be purified. Whatever trials, woes, measureless
pangs, God might see fit to chastise her with, she would not shrink,
if only at last she might come into His presence in Heaven. Alas!
the shrinking from suffering we cannot help. That part of her prayer
was vain. And as for the rest, was not the sure justice of His law
finding her out even now? His laws once broken, His justice and the
very nature of those laws bring the immutable retribution; but if we
turn penitently to Him, He enables us to bear our punishment with a
meek and docile heart, "for His mercy endureth for ever."

Mr Bradshaw had felt himself rather wanting in proper attention
to his guest, inasmuch as he had been unable, all in a minute, to
comprehend Mr Donne's rapid change of purpose; and, before it had
entered into his mind that, notwithstanding the distance of the
church, Mr Donne was going thither, that gentleman was out of the
sight, and far out of the reach, of his burly host. But though the
latter had so far neglected the duties of hospitality as to allow
his visitor to sit in the Eagle's Crag pew with no other guard of
honour