e got my own feelings, and he shall never
marry Bella. It's what they have been intending all through, and it
shan't be done!"

"It will be done."

"Uncle Jonas, I'll stab her to the heart, and him too, before I'll
see it done! Though I were to be killed the next day, I would. Could
you bear it?"

"I'm not a young woman. Now, I'll tell you what I want you to do."

"I'll not do anything."

"Just pack up your things, and start with me to Gloucester
to-morrow."

"I--won't!"

"Then you'll be carried, my dear. I'll write to your aunt, to say
that you're coming; and we'll be as jolly as possible when we get you
home."

"I won't go to Gloucester, Uncle Jonas. I won't go away from Exeter.
I won't let it be done. She shall never, never, never be that man's
wife!"

Nevertheless, on the day but one after this, Camilla French did go to
Gloucester. Before she went, however, things had to be done in that
house which almost made Mrs. French repent that she had sent for so
stern an assistant. Camilla was at last told, in so many words, that
the things which she had prepared for her own wedding must be given
up for the wedding of her sister; and it seemed that this item in
the list of her sorrows troubled her almost more than any other. She
swore that whither she went there should go the dresses, and the
handkerchiefs, and the hats, the bonnets, and the boots. "Let her
have them," Bella had pleaded. But Mr. Crump was inexorable. He had
looked into his sister's affairs, and found that she was already in
debt. To his practical mind, it was an absurdity that the unmarried
sister should keep things that were wholly unnecessary, and that the
sister that was to be married should be without things that were
needed. There was a big trunk, of which Camilla had the key, but
which, unfortunately for her, had been deposited in her mother's
room. Upon this she sat, and swore that nothing should move her but a
promise that her plunder should remain untouched. But there came this
advantage from the terrible question of the wedding raiments,--that
in her energy to keep possession of them, she gradually abandoned her
opposition to her sister's marriage. She had been driven from one
point to another till she was compelled at last to stand solely upon
her possessions. "Perhaps we had better let her keep them," said Mrs.
French. "Trash and nonsense!" said Mr. Crump. "If she wants a new
frock, let her have it; as for the sheets and tablecloths