and forces him with authority so resistless to its acquirement. It is by your instructions alone that man or woman can ever find a safe track through life’s wilds: without it, how they stumble, how they stray! On what forbidden grounds do they intrude, down what dread declivities are they hurled!
Caroline, having been convoyed home by Robert, had no wish to pass what remained of the evening with her uncle: the room in which he sat was very sacred ground to her; she seldom intruded on it, and to-night she kept aloof till the bell rung for prayers. Part of the evening church service was the form of worship observed in Mr. Helstone’s household: he read it in his usual nasal voice, clear, loud, and monotonous. The rite over, his niece, according to her wont, stepped up to him.
“Good-night, uncle.”
“Hey! You’ve been gadding abroad all day—visiting, dining out, and what not!”
“Only at the cottage.”
“And have you learnt your lessons?”
“Yes.”
“And made a shirt?”
“Only part of one.”
“Well, that will do: stick to the needle—learn shirt-making and gown-making, and pie-crust-making, and you’ll be a clever woman some day. Go to bed now: I’m busy with a pamphlet here.”
Presently the niece was enclosed in her small bedroom; the door bolted, her white dressing-gown
