As she spoke, her frail frame quivered with indignation, and Griselda, with tears in her eyes, hastened to support her.

"You will repent this, Miss Ashley," said the man of law, rubbing his hands, while his nose glowed like a furnace; "you will repent this indecent language, when the consequences I have warned you of fall on you, and, whatever may become of you now, will be in no respect chargeable on me. I have done my duty. My breast is clean; I can serve you no more, except by my prayers, and you shall still have those.'

"This room is mine, Sir; leave it!" she cried in a tone of command.

"You will repent this conduct, I know— I hope your repentance will not come too late. 'Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.""

The humble Griselda lost all patience on perceiving the increasing agitation of her sister. The fury with which love arms the most timid to resist outrage inspired her. She caught the attorney by the arm, and dragged him to the door.

"Would you kill my sister?" she cried with vehemence. "Can you not see how ill she is? Have you no feeling for her dis

tress? Go, and never insult her by your presence again!"

She thrust him from the door before he had recovered from his amazement; and then, as if he were a thief or a murderer, she drew the inside bolts, and, in a kind of frenzy, heaped every moveable article in the room against the door, to make it secure.

Strong convulsions seized on the frame of the sick girl as her excitement passed away. Her sister, though accustomed to these paroxysms, always regarded them with dread, and would have screamed for assistance had not Millicent by her gestures forbade her. As they subsided, Millicent motioned for the Bible; Griselda took it, and read the Psalm pointed out by the trembling finger of her sister.

"The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

66

Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart; thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.

"To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress."

CHAPTER VII.

Peace settles where the intellect is weak,
And love is dutiful in thought and deed.
WORDSWORTH.

For the next day or two, the distress of Griselda was extreme. She refused to leave her sister alone even for a minute, lest she should be snatched away by ruffians in her absence. Every ring of the bell terrified her, and every step on the stairs made her run to the door to see that the fastenings were secure; for she was firmly persuaded that the law never permitted a door to be forced. Millicent was less alarmed, but she was pained by her sister's anxiety, and considered how she could best relieve it.

"What is the matter with you, child?" she said as Griselda, while preparing breakfast, impatiently stamped her foot on the floor.

"You will only laugh when I tell you,

Milly; my foot keeps tingling so, that I'am sure I am going to tread fresh ground." "That is very likely," said Millicent after a moment's pause; 66 for I

should remove from here."

propose that we

Griselda looked at her sister with astonish

ment.

"Remove from here! Oh, dearest Milly, I wish we could! If we could but manage to move secretly to some place where no one could find us, then I should indeed be happy."

"And why may we not? We have no farther business with that knavish attorney; and as for your work, you can take an omnibus to the warehouse, for I think of going four or five miles away. I daresay that we shall get a lodging cheaper, and what we save that way will nearly pay for your going to the city as often as is required."

Griselda clapped her hands with joy.

"Four or five miles!-why that will be quite in the country, and you will have better air, and see trees and gardens, and I shall be able to keep some flowers alive in your window. But oh, Milly!" and she hesitated a moment, as tears came into her eyes, “it will never do to move you. You

could not bear it.

I would sooner a thousand times stay here than run the risk of your injuring yourself."

"I do not think a little motion would hurt me," returned the sick girl," and I feel that any change would do me good now. I do not think I could stay here longer. I am weary of the place. It will be the death of me, if I do not move from it. The heat is too oppressive. Leave it I must and will, and the sooner now the better."

"How can you move, dearest Milly? You know what an effort it is for you to sit upright. And to think of going so far, too! No, let us give up all idea of it. What would become of me if the removal were to injure you?"

Griselda always spoke of herself as dependent on her sister, and protected by her cares, and made it appear that her devotion was partly due to a feeling of self-interest.

"I have considered every thing," Millicent replied. "You must get a roomy cab. I can lie in it on these pillows-they are our own. The man of the house is a porter; he can carry me down stairs. You must go this very morning to the southern part of London, Camberwell, and Dulwich, and that

VOL. II.

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