was her duty to tell her husband her suspicions, and that there ought to be some interference, in fact, some investigation of her mother's affairs, since Helen had repeatedly complained of duns, more especially the butcher, "whom her mamma peremptorily refused to pay, though she had plenty of money;" but, whilst these thoughts were passing her mind, one single glance at the subject of them put all to flight. Either pity and habitual respect for one so fragile, so reduced, operated on the tenderness of her nature; or the fear of her mother's flashing eye, and the tongue that could speak daggers, deterred her.
Lady Anne early in life studied how best despotic power could be exercised on a small scale; like Henry VII.,*<ref>* See Bacon's Life of that monarch.>/ref> she preferred the homage exacted by respect and fear, to that which is offered by love, and she had firmly abided by her choice, being neither drawn aside by a husband whom any other woman would have found irresistibly seducing, nor by five sweet children, all calculated to win a mother's heart to weakness, and all imbued remarkably with domestic attachments. Some weeks ago she began to entertain doubts as to the excellence of her system, though she never divulged them, but at this time she was fully confirmed in
