o addition to the expense.

"Oh! my father," cried I, "why is this?--what have I done?--am not I
your daughter--your eldest daughter?"

"I will speak to your mother," replied he.

And he did venture to do so; but by so doing, he raised up such a
tempest, that he was glad to drop the subject, and apologise for an act
of justice. Poor man! he could do no more than pity me.

I well remember my feelings at that time. I felt that I could love my
mother, love her dearly, if she would have allowed me so to do. I had
tried to obtain her good-will, but I received nothing in return but
blows, and at last I became so alarmed when in her presence that I
almost lost my reason. My ears were boxed till I could not recollect
where I was, and I became stupefied with fear. All I thought of, all my
anxiety, at last, was to get out of the room where my mother was. My
terror was so great that her voice made me tremble, and at the sight of
her I caught my breath and gasped from alarm. My brother Auguste was
very nearly as much an object of dislike to my mother as I was, chiefly
because he had been brought up by my grandmother, and moreover because
he would take my part.

The great favourite of my mother was my second brother Nicolas; he was a
wonderful musician, could play upon any instrument and the most
difficult music at sight. This talent endeared him to my mother, who
was herself a first-rate musician. He was permitted to order me about
just as he pleased, and if I did not please him, to beat me without
mercy, and very often my mother would fly at me and assist him. But
Auguste took my part, and Nicolas received very severe chastisement from
him, but this did not help me; on the contrary, if Auguste interfered in
my behalf, my mother would pounce upon me, and I may say that I was
stunned with her blows. Auguste appealed to his father, but he dared
not interfere. He was coward enough to sit by and see his daughter
treated in this way without remonstrance; and, in a short time, I was
fast approaching to what my mother declared me to be--a perfect idiot.

I trust that my own sex will not think me a renegade when I say, that,
if ever there was a proof that woman was intended by the Creator to be
subject to man, it is, that once place power in the hands of woman, and
there is not one out of a hundred who will not abuse it. We hear much
of the rights of woman, and their wrongs; but this is certain, that in a
family, as in a