ly forlorn face to her sister.

"I can't go anywhere!" she said. "I am in prison. I can't go to Lilac
Lane any more. I cannot do anything any more. And they want me so!"

Down went Matilda's head. Maria stood, perhaps a little conscience
struck.

"_Who_ wants you so much?"

"The poor people there. Mrs. Eldridge and Mrs. Rogers. They want me so
much."

"What for, Tilly?" said Maria, a little more gently than her wont.

"Oh, for a great many things," said Matilda, brushing away a tear or
two; "and now I can go no more--I cannot do anything--Oh dear!"

The little girl broke down.

"She's the most hateful, spiteful, masterful woman, that ever was!"
Maria exclaimed; "too mean to live, and too cunning to breathe. She's
an old witch!"

"Oh don't, Maria!"

"I will," said Maria. "I will talk. It is the only comfort I have. What
is she up to now?"

"Just that," said Matilda. "She found I had been to Lilac Lane, and she
said I must not go again without her knowing; and she will never let me
go. I needn't ask her. She doesn't like me to go there. And I wanted to
do so much! If she could only have waited--only have waited----"

"What made you let her know you had been there?"

"She found out. I couldn't help it. Now she will not let me go ever
again. Never, never!"

"What did you want to do in Lilac Lane, Tilly?"

"Oh, things. I wanted to do a great deal. Things.--They'll never be
done!" cried Matilda, in bitter distress. "I cannot do them now. I
cannot do anything."

"She is as mean as she can live!" said Maria again. "But Tilly, I don't
believe Lilac Lane is a good place for you, neither. What did you want
to do there? what _could_ you do?"

"Things," said Matilda, indefinitely.

"You are not old enough to go poking about Lilac Lane by yourself."

"I can't go any way," said Matilda.

She cried a long while to wash down this disappointment, and the
effects of it did not go off in the tears. The child became very silent
and sober. Her duties she did, as she had done them, about the house
and in Mrs. Candy's room; but the bright face and the glad ways were
gone. In the secret of her private hours Matilda had struggles to go
through that left her with the marks of care upon her all the rest of
the time.

The next Sunday she was made to go to church with her aunt. She went to
her own Sunday-school in the afternoon; but she was not allowed to get
off early enough for the reading and talk with Mary and Ailie.