but made me several pretty presents.
These were treasures to me, and I must say I gloated over them, and often, when alone, I have spent hours in admiring them; trifling as they were, they made me happier. I knew now one person who cared for me, and a delightful feeling it was too. I shall never know it again - it is quite impossible.
Here among the dark walls and unwholesome cells we have no cheering ray of life or hope - all is dreary and cold; a long and horrible imprisonment takes place, to which there is no end save with life, and in which there is not one mitigating circumstance - all is bad and dark. God help me!
* * * * *
However, my dream of happiness was soon disturbed. By some means my parents had got an idea of this, and the young man was dismissed the house, and forbidden to come to it again. This he determined to do, and more than once we met, and then in secret I told him all my woes.
When he had heard all I had said, he expressed the deepest commiseration, and declared I had been most unjustly and harshly treated, and thought that there was not a harder or harsher treatment than that which I had received.
He then advised me to leave home.
'Leave home,' I said; 'where shall I fly? I have no friend.'
'Come to me, I will protect you, I will stand between you and all the world; they shall not stir hand or foot to your injury.'
'But I cannot, dare not do that; if they found me out, they would force me back with all the ignominy and shame that could be felt from having done a bad act; not any pity would they show me.'
'Nor need you; you would be my wife, I mean to make you my wife.'
'You?'
'Yes! I dreamed not of anything else. You shall be my wife; we will hide ourselves, and remain unknown to all until the time shall have arrived when you are of age - when you can claim all your property, and run no risk of being poisoned or killed by any other means.'
'This is a matter,' said I, 'that ought to be considered well before adopting anything as violent or so sudden.'
'It is; and it is not one that I think will injure by being reflected upon by those who are the principal actors; for my own part my mind is made up, and I am ready to perform my share of the engagement.'
I resolved to consider the matter well in my own mind, and felt every inclination to do what he proposed, because it took me away from home, and because it would give me one of my own.
My parents had become utterly estranged from me; they did not ~ct as parents, they did not act as friends, they had steeled my heart against them; they never could have borne any love to me, I am sure of it, who could have committed such great crimes against me.
As the hour drew near, that in which I was likely to become an object of still greater hatred and dislike to them, I thought I was often the subject of their private thoughts, and often when I entered the room my mother, and father, and the rest, would suddenly leave off speaking, and look at me, as if to ascertain if I had ever heard them say anything. On one occasion I remember very well I heard them conversing in a low tone. The door happened to have opened of itself, the hasp not having been allowed to enter the mortice; I heard my name mentioned: I paused and listened.
'We must soon get rid of her,' said my mother.
'Undoubtedly,' he replied; 'if we do not, we shall have her about our ears: she'll get married, or some infernal thing, and then we shall have to refund.'
'We could prevent that.'
'Not if her husband was to insist upon it, we could not; but the only plan I can now form is what I told you of already.'
'Putting her in a madhouse?'
'Yes: there, you see, she will be secured, and cannot get away. Besides, those who go there die in a natural way before many years.'
'But she can speak.'
'So she may; but who attends to the ravings of a mad woman? No, no; depend upon it that is the best plan: send her to a lunatic asylum - a private madhouse. I can obtain all that is requisite in a day or two.'
'Then we will consider that settled.'
'Certainly.'
'In a few days, then?'
'Before next Sunday; because we can enjoy ourselves on that day without any restraint, or without any uncomfortable feelings of uncertainty about us.'
* * * * *
I waited to hear no more: I had heard enough to tell me what I had to expect. I went back to my own room, and having put on my bonnet and shawl I went out to see the individual to whom I have alluded, and saw him.
I then informed him of all that had taken place, and heard him exclaim against them in terms of rising indignation.
'Come to me,' he said; 'come to me at once.'
'Not at once.
'Don't stop a day.'
'Hush!' said I; 'there's no danger: I will come the day after tomorrow; and then I will bid adieu to all these unhappy moments, to all these persecutions; and in three years' time I shall be able to demand my fortune, which will be yours.
* * * * *
We were to meet the next day but one, early in the morning - there were not, in fact, to be more than thirty hours elapse before I was to leave home - if home I could call it - however there was no time to be lost. I made up a small bundle and had all in readiness, before I went to bed, and placed in security, intending to rise early and let myself out and leave the house.
That, however, was never to happen. While I slept, at a late hour of the night, I was awakened by two men standing by my bedside, who desired me to get up and follow them. I refused, and they pulled me rudely out of bed.
I called out for aid, and exclaimed against the barbarity of their proceedings.
'It is useless to listen to her,' said my father, 'you know what a mad woman will say!'
'Ay, we do,' replied the men, 'they are the cunningest devils we ever heard. We have seen enough of them to know that.'
To make the matter plain, I was seized, gagged, and thrust into a coach, and brought here, where I have remained ever since.
XXXI. The Rapid Journey of Tobias to London
There was something extremely touching in the tone, and apparently in the manner, in which the poor persecuted one detailed the story of her wrongs, and she had the tribute of a willing tear from Tobias.
'After the generous confidence you have had in me,' he said, 'I ought to tell you something of myself.'
'Do so,' she replied, 'we are companions in misfortune.'
Tobias
