r on his
departure out to the road. But the impression made on Henry's feelings
by the devoted woman and her child was momentary. His heart had grown
hard, and his acts were guided by no fixed principle. Henry and
Gertrude had been married nearly two years before Isabella knew
anything of the event, and it was merely by accident that she became
acquainted with the facts.

One beautiful afternoon, when Isabella and Clotelle were picking wild
strawberries some two miles from their home, and near the road-side,
they observed a one-horse chaise driving past. The mother turned her
face from the carriage not wishing to be seen by strangers, little
dreaming that the chaise contained Henry and his wife. The child,
however, watched the chaise, and startled her mother by screaming out
at the top of her voice, "Papa! papa!" and clapped her little hands for
joy. The mother turned in haste to look at the strangers, and her eyes
encountered those of Henry's pale and dejected countenance. Gertrude's
eyes were on the child. The swiftness with which Henry drove by could
not hide from his wife the striking resemblance of the child to
himself. The young wife had heard the child exclaim "Papa! papa!" and
she immediately saw by the quivering of his lips and the agitation
depicted in his countenance, that all was not right.

"Who is that woman? and why did that child call you papa?" she
inquired, with a trembling voice.

Henry was silent; he knew not what to say, and without another word
passing between them, they drove home.

On reaching her room, Gertrude buried her face in her handkerchief and
wept. She loved Henry, and when she had heard from the lips of her
companions how their husbands had proved false, she felt that he was an
exception, and fervently thanked God that she had been so blessed.

When Gertrude retired to her bed that night, the sad scene of the day
followed her. The beauty of Isabella, with her flowing curls, and the
look of the child, so much resembling the man whom she so dearly loved,
could not be forgotten; and little Clotelle's exclamation of "Papa!
Papa" rang in her ears during the whole night.

The return of Henry at twelve o'clock did not increase her happiness.
Feeling his guilt, he had absented himself from the house since his
return from the ride.

CHAPTER XI

TO-DAY A MISTRESS, TO-MORROW A SLAVE

The night was dark, the rain, descended in torrents from the black and
overhanging clouds, and the