e circumstances which have
led to this arrangement between us. Let it be signed and
witnessed in the same manner. Execute a deed, by which, in the
event of your dying before this marriage takes place, Alice
will be entitled to whatever you possess, and in which you
will give me full sanction to reveal all the particulars of
this transaction to your family, and call upon them to make up
to me for the sum which I shall now place at your disposal.
Give me your promise that Alice shall never, as long as she
lives, be made acquainted with the circumstances which have
led to this compact, and neither before or after her marriage
have any reason to suppose that such an arrangement was
entered upon. Do this, Mr. Henry, and by to-morrow morning
L10,000, paid into your hands, will enable you to discharge
your debts, and to reassume your position in the world.'

"I need not tell you, Ellen, how much my pride, how much my
feelings, revolted against the sale of myself which this
bargain involved, and, above all, how hateful it was to me to
place myself in the power of this woman and of her brother;
but situated as I was, there was no choice between death or
disgrace on the one hand, and a blind acceptance of her
conditions on the other.

"'I strongly remonstrated, however, against the second of her
stipulations, which seemed to have no other object but that of
keeping me continually in her power; but she was determined to
carry this point; and at last I consented to give up to her
the letter I had already written to my father, which, together
with the other papers, to be drawn up the next day, made out a
case against me, such as would enable her at any moment to
expose me to the world, and blast my reputation. These papers
are no doubt to this day in her possession. I have never
offended or displeased her without her recalling this fact to
my recollection. _Now_ it signifies comparatively little to me
whether she has destroyed them or not. I told her she was in
honour bound to do so on the day I married Alice; but whether
she has or not, I have not been able clearly to ascertain.
_Now_, she cannot use them against me without doing an injury
to her; and on this subject I have ceased to trouble myself.
Well, she left me that evening, having, a second time, saved
my life; and grateful I should have been to her, had it not
been for the spirit of distrust, and hard bargaining, which
she had evinced throughout, and which modified my