eming as if he would wear
down all opposition by persistence. I was quite firm; but the effect of
all this argument was very wearisome, and I began to feel really ill.

"I think I must have been on the point of fainting, when the door was
opened suddenly, and Mr. Whitelaw came in. In the next moment, while the
room was spinning round before my eyes, and that dreadful giddiness that
comes before a dead faint was growing worse, my father snatched me up in
his arms, and threw a handkerchief over my face. I had just sense enough
to know that there was chloroform upon it, and that was all. When I
opened my eyes again, I was lying on a narrow bed, in a dimly-lighted
room, with a small fire burning in a rusty grate in one corner, and some
tea-things, with a plate of cold meat, on a table near it. There was a
scrap of paper on this table, with a few lines scrawled upon it in
pencil, in my father's hand: 'You have had your choice, either to share a
prosperous life with me, or to be shut up like a mad woman. You had
better make yourself as comfortable as you can, since you have no hope of
escape till it suits my purpose to have you set free. Good care will be
taken of you. You must have been a fool to suppose that I would submit to
the injustice of J.N.'s will.'

"For a long time I sat like some stupid bewildered creature, going over
these words again and again, as if I had no power to understand them. It
was very long before I could believe that my father meant to shut me up
in that room for an indefinite time--for the rest of my life, perhaps.
But, little by little, I came to believe this, and to feel nothing but a
blank despair. O, Nelly, I dare not dwell upon that time! I suffered too
much. God has been very merciful to me in sparing me my mind; for there
were times when I believe I was quite mad. I could pray sometimes, but
not always. I have spent whole days in prayer, almost as if I fancied
that I could weary out my God with supplications."

"And Stephen; did you see him?"

"Yes, now and then--once in several days, in a week perhaps. He used to
come, like the master of a madhouse visiting his patients, to see that I
was comfortable, he said. At first I used to appeal to him to set me
free--kneeling at his feet, promising any sacrifice of my fortune for him
or for my father, if they would release me. But it was no use. He was as
hard as a rock; and at last I felt that it was useless, and used to see
him come and go with