w."

A third says: "It was right for you, for the health of your soul, and
the deliverance of your whole self from an intolerable bondage, to break
the ignorantly-taken vow, and take refuge in flight. No soul can be
bound irrevocably to another for its own hurt and ruin."

I listened then, as I should listen now, to the third voice. The chance
came to me just before I was one-and-twenty. They were bent upon
extorting from me that portion of my father's property which would come
to me, and be solely in my own power, when I came of age. It had been
settled upon me in such a way, that if I were married my husband could
not touch it without my consent.

I must make this quite clear. One-third, of my fortune was so settled
that I myself could not take any portion of it save the interest; but
the other two-thirds were absolutely mine, whether I was married or
single. By locking up one-third, my father had sought to provide against
the possibility of my ever being reduced to poverty. The rest was my
own, to keep if I pleased; to give up to my husband if I pleased.

At first they tried what fair words and flattery would do with me. Then
they changed their tactics. They brought me over to London, where not a
creature knew me. They made me a prisoner in dull, dreary rooms, where I
had no employment and no resources. That is, the woman did it. My
husband, after settling us in a house in London, disappeared, and I saw
no more of him. I know now he wished to keep himself irresponsible for
my imprisonment. She would have been the scape-goat, had any legal
difficulties arisen. He was anxious to retain all his rights over me.

I can see how subtle he was. Though my life was a daily torture, there
was positively nothing I could put into words against him--nothing that
would have authorized me to seek a legal separation. I did not know any
thing of the laws, how should I? except the fact which he dinned into my
ears that he could compel me to live with him. But I know now that the
best friends in the world could not have saved me from him in any other
way than the one I took. He kept within the letter of the law. He
forfeited no atom of his claim upon me.

Then God took me by the hand, and led me into a peaceful and untroubled
refuge, until I had gathered strength again.

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

ON THE WING AGAIN.

How should I see that Dr. Martin Dobree was falling in love with me? I
was blind to it; strangely blind those