During her convalescence she was entrusted chiefly to the care of a young girl, who was regarded as too stupid to be of any available service to the inmates in any project they might devise to effect their deliverance, being one of those sensitive spirits that could expand only in a congenial atmosphere, and was employed to go of errands, m which capacity she was always so trusty that no very strict watch was kept of her whereabouts so that quite an unlimited freedom was hers. Between her and Mrs. Carleton a reciprocal feeling of attachment sprung up, and many a tedious hour was whiled away in an interchange of affection's offices which were as highly appreciated by one as the other. In this way the days dragged their weary length along, and month after month passed by with no more hope for the future, during which Mrs. Carleton, struggling with her fate as bravely as possible, tried to be calm and quietly await the ordering of events if not so fortunate as to devise any method of escape.
But oh! what a wretched existence was she dragging out! With what yearning tenderness did her mother's soul long to embrace her darlings, who might, perhaps, even now be languishing on beds of pain, moaning for her tender care. But for him who had been the guilty cause of all this woe, she felt only loathing and disgust.
How to escape from her living tomb was her first thought; where to go, and how to get possession of her children was the next; one as hopelessly impossible as the other. In the phrenzy of despair she sometimes gave way to freaks of passion that might
