"I perceive well, sister, what you mean. Rather than remain here, and
make an attempt to defy Sir Francis Varney, you would fly from him, and
leave him undisputed master of the field."

"I would--I would."

"Heaven forbid that I or any one should thwart you. You know well,
Flora, how dear you are to me; you know well that your happiness has
ever been to us all a matter which has assumed the most important of
shapes, as regarded our general domestic policy. It is not, therefore,
likely now, dear sister, that we should thwart you in your wish to
remove from here."

"I know, Henry, all you would say," remarked Flora, as a tear started to
her eyes. "I know well all you think, and, in your love for me, I
likewise know well I rely for ever. You are attached to this place, as,
indeed, we all are, by a thousand happy and pleasant associations; but
listen to me further, Henry, I do not wish to wander far."

"Not far, Flora?"

"No. Do I not still cling to a hope that Charles may yet appear? and if
he do so, it will assuredly be in this neighbourhood, which he knows is
native and most dear to us all."

"True."

"Then do I wish to make some sort of parade, in the way of publicity, of
our leaving the Hall."

"Yes, yes."

"And yet not go far. In the neighbouring town, for example, surely we
might find some means of living entirely free from remark or observation
as to who or what we were."

"That, sister, I doubt. If you seek for that species of solitude which
you contemplate, it is only to be found in a desert."

"A desert?"

"Yes; or in a large city."

"Indeed!"

"Ay, Flora; you may well believe me, that it is so. In a small community
you can have no possible chance of evading an amount of scrutiny which
would very soon pierce through any disguise you could by any possibility
assume."

"Then there is no resource. We must go far."

"Nay, I will consider for you, Flora; and although, as a general
principle, what I have said I know to be true, yet some more special
circumstance may arise that may point a course that, while it enables
us, for Charles Holland's sake, to remain in this immediate
neighbourhood, yet will procure to us all the secrecy we may desire."

"Dear--dear brother," said Flora, as she flung herself upon Henry's
neck, "you speak cheeringly to me, and, what is more, you believe in
Charles's faithfulness and truth."

"As Heaven is my judge, I do."

"A thousand, thousand thanks for such an ass