the world in which--_bon
gre mal gre_--I find myself. Let me go. Rousseau was a sage. '_Le
monde est le livre des femmes_.'"

He shook his head, and said, sorrowfully,--

"No, your instincts are unreliable; and if you roam away from Jane
and from me, you will sip more poison than honey. Be wise, and remain
where Providence has placed you. I will bring Jessie here, and you
shall teach her what you choose, and Stanley can command all the
educational advantages he will improve. After a while, you shall, if
you prefer it, have a pleasant home of your own, and dwell there with
the two little ones. Such has long been my scheme and purpose; but,
during my sister's life, she will never consent to give you up; and
you owe it to her not to desert her in the closing years, when she
most urgently requires the solace of your love and society."

Salome covered her face with her hands, and something like a heavy dry
sob shook her frame; but the spring of bitterness seemed exhaustless,
and her voice was indescribably scornful in its defiant ring.

"You are very charitable, Dr. Grey, and I thank you for all your
embryonic benevolent plans for me and my pauper relatives; but I have
drawn a very different map for my future years. You seem to regard
this house as a second '_La Tour sans venin_,' which, like its
prototype near Grenoble, possesses an atmosphere fatal to all
poisonous, noxious things; but surely you forget that it has long
sheltered me."

"No, it has never arrogated the prerogative of '_La Tour sans venin_,'
but of one thing, my poor wilful child, you shall never have reason to
be skeptical,--that dear Jane and I will indefatigably strive to serve
you as faithfully and successfully, as did in ancient days, the Psylli
whom Plutarch immortalized."

While he spoke Dr. Grey had been turning over the leaves of the old
family Bible, which happened to lie within his reach; and now, without
premonition, he read aloud the fifty-fifth Psalm.

She listened, not willingly, but _ex necessitate rei_, and rebelliously;
and, when he finished the Psalm, and knelt, with his face on his arms,
which were crossed upon the back of a chair, she stood haughtily erect
and motionless beside him.

His prayer was brief and fervent, that God would aid her in her
efforts to curb her passionate temper, and to walk in accordance with
the teachings of Jesus; and that he would especially overrule all
things, and guide her decision in the important s