chine; and there was nothing to be seen from
the boarded window; and the smouldering peats in the fireplace looked as
if they were asleep, Lady Carse could not always keep awake, and, once
asleep, she did not wake for many hours.

When, at length, she started up and looked around her, she was alone,
and the room was lighted only by a flickering blaze from the fireplace.
This dancing light fell on a little low round table, on which was a
plate with some slices of mutton-ham, some oatcake, three or four eggs,
and a pitcher. She was ravenously hungry, and she was alone. She
thought she would take something--so little as to save her pride, and
not to show that she had yielded. But, once yielding, this was
impossible. She ate, and ate, till all was gone--even the eggs; and it
would have been the same if they had been raw. The pitcher contained
ale, and she emptied it. When she had done, she could have died with
shame. She was just thinking of setting her dress on fire, when she
heard the woman's step on the stair. She threw herself on the bed, and
pretended to be asleep. Presently she was so, and she had another long
nap. When she woke the table had nothing on it but the woman's
knitting; the woman was putting peats on the fire, and she made no
remark, then or afterwards, on the disappearance of the food. From that
day forward food was laid out while the lady slept; and when she awoke,
she found herself alone to eat it. It was served without knife or fork,
with only bone spoons. It would have been intolerable shame to her if
she had known that she was watched, through a little hole in the door,
as a precaution against any attempt on her life.

But her intentions of this kind too gave way. She was well aware that
though not free to go where she liked she could, any day, find herself
in the open air with liberty to converse, except on certain subjects;
and that she might presently be in some abode--she did not know what--
where she could have full personal liberty, and her present confinement
being her own choice made it much less dignified, and this caused her to
waver about throwing off life and captivity together. The moment never
came when she was disposed to try.

At the end of a week she felt great curiosity to know whether Mr
Forster was at the tower all this time waiting her pleasure. She would
not enquire lest she should be suspected of the truth--that she was
beginning to wish to see him. She tried