ty,
perseverance, and capacity. The result of all this was that he returned
to Cambridge with a feeling that his sister ought to be allowed to make
the man's acquaintance. He and his brother had agreed that something
should be done to liberate their sister from her present condition. Love
on the part of a mother may be as injurious as cruelty, if the mother be
both tyrannical and superstitious. While Hester had been a child, no
interference had been possible or perhaps expedient,--but the time had
now come when something ought to be done. Such having been the decision
in Harley Street, where the William Boltons lived, Robert Bolton went
back home with the intention of carrying it out.

This could only be done through the old man, and even with him not
without great care. He was devotedly attached to his young wife;--but
was very averse to having it thought that he was ruled by her. Indeed,
in all matters affecting his establishment, his means, and his business,
he would hardly admit of interference from her at all. His worldly
matters he kept between himself and his sons. But in regard to his soul
he could not restrain her, and sometimes would hardly oppose her. The
prolonged evening prayers, the sermons twice a-week, the two long church
services on Sundays,--indulgence as to the third being allowed to him
only on the score of his age,--he endured at her command. And in regard
to Hester, he had hitherto been ruled by his wife, thinking it proper
that a daughter should be left in the hands of her mother. But now, when
he was told that if he did not interfere, his girl would be constrained
by the harsh bonds of an unnatural life, stern as he was himself and
inclined to be gloomy, little as he was disposed to admit ideas of
recreation and delight, he did acknowledge that something should be done
to relieve her. 'But when I die she must be left in her mother's hands,'
said the old banker.

'It is to be hoped that she may be in other hands before that,' replied
his son. 'I do not mean to say anything against my step-mother;--but for
a young woman it is generally best that she should be married. And in
Hester's peculiar position, she ought to have the chance of choosing for
herself.'

In this way something almost like a conspiracy was made on behalf of
Caldigate. And yet the old man did not as yet abandon his prejudices
against the miner. A man who had at so early an age done so much to ruin
himself, and had then sprung so