d once uplifted her was still left within
her soul. To have eyes from which shone forth the pure, unsullied spirit
of womanhood, discover her secret, and look upon her in her shame; to
behold in a rival, whom unseen she hated, womanhood enthroned in
excellence; to see its image in herself fallen and defaced, sunken in
degradation; to know that a few kind and well-bestowed caresses had won
her child's love from her, that on that strange maternal bosom the
little head rested more tranquilly and peacefully than on her own; to
owe her a double grudge as discoverer and supplanter--this aroused the
smouldering and now perverted pride yet alive within her bosom, and
fanned it to a flame. She clinched her hands convulsively, her teeth
shut together with a dull, grating sound, the unsteady form swayed to
and fro, like a lithe tree shaken in the wind of a coming tempest, and
the bloated face, dark with wrath, was terrible to look upon. It was a
fearful thing to be alone with that half-drunken creature, and see wave
after wave of passion rolling over her tempest-tossed soul, lashing it
into fury. Maggie felt it to be so _now_. As a trusty confidant and able
protector, one who, by some strange means, had gained an ascendency over
her mistress that no other possessed, and wisely exercised this
controlling power, she had been with these poor children through many
similar scenes, sheltering them under the broad wing of her protection,
but she had never beheld the gathering of so dark a storm, never felt
the vague, shuddering dread, the chill apprehension which seized on her
now. One glance at that terrible being showed her power lost, her
protection insufficient, impotent. To stay with them and endeavor to
breast the coming storm would be madness--to try to get the children
from the room now would be both impolitic and dangerous; at the least
demonstration of the kind that storm would be sure to burst upon them in
all its resistless fury, and before its raging power she felt her
strength would be utter weakness. She must fly for aid. Perhaps even now
some invisible being, conscious of their danger, might be impelling
their father to the rescue.

'Harry,' said Maggie, turning very pale, as she glanced at the dreadful
figure rocking to and fro in fearful communing with itself, and bending
down to whisper a parting injunction as she tied on her bonnet, 'don't
speak to her, don't look toward her. Don't cross her in any way. She's
the devi