man life, even when blessed with health
and youth, that this rejection of all love in one so bowed and crippled,
struck her imagination as something sublime in its dreary grandeur and
stoic pride of independence. She regarded it as of old a tender
and pious nun would have regarded the asceticism of some sanctified
recluse,--as Theresa (had she lived in the same age) might have regarded
Saint Simeon Stylites existing aloft from human sympathy on the roofless
summit of his column of stone; and with this feeling she sought to
inspire Percival. He had the heart to enter into her compassion, but not
the imagination to sympathize with her reverence. Even the repugnant
awe that he had first conceived for Madame Dalibard, so bold was he
by temperament, he had long since cast off; he recognized only the
moroseness and petulance of an habitual invalid, and shook playfully
his glossy curls when Helen, with her sweet seriousness, insisted on his
recognizing more.

To this house few, indeed, were the visitors admitted. The Miverses,
whom the benevolent officiousness of Mr. Fielden had originally sent
thither to see their young kinswoman, now and then came to press Helen
to join some party to the theatre or Vauxhall, or a picnic in Richmond
Park; but when they found their overtures, which had at first been
politely accepted by Madame Dalibard, were rejected, they gradually
ceased their visits, wounded and indignant.

Certain it was that Lucretia had at one time eagerly caught at their
well-meant civilities to Helen,--now she as abruptly declined them. Why?
It would be hard to plumb into all the black secrets of that heart. It
would have been but natural to her, who shrank from dooming Helen to no
worse calamity than a virgin's grave, to have designed to throw her into
such uncongenial guidance, amidst all the manifold temptations of the
corrupt city,--to have suffered her to be seen and to be ensnared by
those gallants ever on the watch for defenceless beauty; and to contrast
with their elegance of mien and fatal flatteries the grossness of the
companions selected for her, and the unloving discomfort of the home
into which she had been thrown. But now that St. John had appeared,
that Helen's heart and fancy were steeled alike against more dangerous
temptation, the object to be obtained from the pressing courtesy of Mrs.
Mivers existed no more. The vengeance flowed into other channels.

The only other visitors at the house were John