ut I have told your mother,
and now tell you, that I will not control your inclinations, and will
only attempt to direct you so far as I think likely to be conducive to
your happiness. On another point, I must assume a very different tone.
You can no longer plead ignorance of the designs of the depraved person
who besets you. You may not be able to forget him--but you can avoid
him. If you see him alone again--if but for a moment--I cast you off for
ever. Yes, for ever," he repeated, with stern emphasis.

"I will never voluntarily see him again," replied Amabel, tremblingly.

"You have heard my determination," rejoined her father. "Do you still
adhere to your resolution of remaining with me, Leonard?" he added,
turning to the apprentice. "If what has just passed makes any alteration
in your wishes, state so, frankly."

"I will stay," replied Leonard.

"There will be one advantage, which I did not foresee, in closing my
house," remarked the grocer aside to the apprentice. "It will
effectually keep away this libertine earl."

"Perhaps so," replied the other. "But I have more faith in my own
vigilance than in bolts and bars."

Bloundel and Leonard then returned to the shop, where the former
immediately began to make preparations for storing his house; and in the
prosecution of his scheme he was greatly aided by the apprentice.

The grocer's dwelling, as has been stated, was large and commodious. It
was three stories high; and beneath the ground-floor there were kitchens
and extensive cellars. Many of the rooms were spacious, and had
curiously carved fireplaces, walls pannelled with fine brown oak, large
presses, and cupboards.

In the yard, at the back of the house, there was a pump, from which
excellent water was obtained. There were likewise three large cisterns,
supplied from the New River. Not satisfied with this, and anxious to
obtain water in which no infected body could have lain, or clothes have
been washed, Bloundel had a large tank placed within the cellar, and
connecting it by pipes with the pump, he contrived an ingenious machine,
by which he could work the latter from within the house--thus making
sure of a constant supply of water direct from the spring.

He next addressed himself to the front of the house, where he fixed a
pulley, with a rope and hook attached to it, to the beam above one of
the smaller bay windows on the second story. By this means, he could let
down a basket or any other article