for the safety of his family as your husband."

"I never doubted it, sir," replied Mrs. Bloundel.

"I must apprise you, then, that he has conceived a plan by which he
trusts to secure you and his children and household from any future
attack," returned Hodges.

"I care not what it is, so it does not separate me from him," replied
Mrs. Bloundel.

"It does not," replied the grocer. "It will knit us more closely
together than we have yet been. I mean to shut up my house, having
previously stored it with provisions for a twelvemonth, and shall suffer
no member of my family to stir forth as long as the plague endures."

"I am ready to remain within doors, if it continues twenty years,"
replied his wife. "But how long do you think it _will_ last, doctor?"

"Till next December, I have no doubt," returned Hodges.

"So long?" exclaimed Amabel.

"Ay, so long," repeated the doctor. "It has scarcely begun now. Your
father is right to adopt these precautions. It is the only way to insure
the safety of his family."

"But----" cried Amabel.

"I am resolved," interrupted Bloundel, peremptorily. "Who ever leaves
the house--if but for a moment--never returns."

"And when do you close it, father?" asked Amabel.

"A week hence," replied the grocer; "as soon as I have laid in a
sufficient stock of provisions."

"And am I not to leave the house for a year?" cried Amabel, with a
dissatisfied look.

"Why should you wish to leave it?" asked her father, curiously.

"Ay, why?" repeated Leonard, in a low tone. "I shall be here."

Amabel seemed confused, and looked from her father to Leonard. The
former, however, did not notice her embarrassment, but observed to
Hodges--"I shall begin to victual the house to-morrow."

"Amabel," whispered Leonard, "you told me if I claimed your hand in a
month, you would yield it to me. I require the fulfilment of your
promise."

"Give me till to-morrow," she replied, distractedly.

"She has seen Rochester," muttered the apprentice, turning away.

II.

IN WHAT MANNER THE GROCER VICTUALLED HIS HOUSE.

Leonard Holt was wrong in his suspicions. Amabel had neither seen nor
heard from Rochester. But, if the truth must be told, he was never out
of her mind, and she found, to her cost, that the heart will not be
controlled. Convinced of her noble lover's perfidy, and aware she was
acting wrongfully in cherishing a passion for him, after the exposure of
his base designs towards herself, no rea