orced to make myself known to my husband;
whether fate would not drive me back to him. No; that should never be. I
would face and endure any hardship rather than return to my former life.
A hundred times better this squalid, wretched, foreign school, than the
degradation of heart and soul I had suffered with him.

I could do no more for Minima than for myself, for I dared not even
write to Mrs. Wilkinson, who was either an accomplice or a dupe of
these Perriers. My letter might fall into the hands of Richard Foster,
or the woman living with him, and so they would track me out, and I
should have no means of escape. I dared not run that risk. The only
thing I could do for her was to stay with her, and as far as possible
shield her from the privations and distress that threatened us both. I
was safe here; no one was likely to come across me, in this remote
place, who could by any chance know me. I had at least a roof over my
head; I had food to eat. Elsewhere I was not sure of either. There
seemed to be no other choice given me than to remain in the trap.

"We must make the best of it, Minima," I whispered to the child, through
the hum of lessons. Her shrewd little face brightened with a smile that
smoothed all the wrinkles out of it.

"That's what father said!" she cried; "he said, 'Courage, Minima. God
will take care of my little daughter.' God has sent you to take care of
me. Suppose I'd come all the way alone, and found it such a horrid
place!"

CHAPTER THE NINTH.

A FRENCH AVOCAT.

December came in with intense severity. Icicles a yard long hung to the
eaves, and the snow lay unmelted for days together on the roofs. More
often than not we were without wood for our fire, and when we had it, it
was green and unseasoned, and only smouldered away with a smoke that
stung and irritated our eyes. Our insufficient and unwholesome food
supplied us with no inward warmth. Coal in that remote district cost too
much for any but the wealthiest people, Now and then I caught a glimpse
of a blazing fire in the houses I had to pass, to get to our chamber
over Monsieur Perrier's workshop; and in an evening the dainty, savory
smell of dinner, cooking in the kitchen adjoining, sometimes filled the
frosty air. Both sight and scent were tantalizing, and my dreams at
night were generally of pleasant food and warm firesides.

At times the pangs of hunger grew too strong for us both, and forced me
to spend a little of the money