d not like it; and if he only knew
it, he would not wish to marry me; and I cannot make him believe it."

"You have tried, have you?"

"Yes, I have tried. It was only honest."

"Well I did not think you were such a fool, Eleanor! and I am sure he
did not. Believe you, you little fool? he knows better. He knows that
he will not have had you a week at the Priory before you will be too
happy to live what life he pleases. He is just the man to bring you
into order. I only wish the wedding-day was to-morrow."

Eleanor drew herself up, and her face changed from soft and sorrowful
to stubborn. She kept silence.

"In this present matter of jewels," said Mrs. Powle returning to the
charge, "I suppose I am to tell him that a plain set of jet is as much
as you can fancy; or that, as it would be rather uncommon to be married
in black, you will take bugles. What he will say I am sure I don't
know."

"You had better not try, mamma," said Eleanor. "If the words you last
said are true, and I should be unable to follow my conscience at
Rythdale Priory, then I shall never go there; and in that case the
jewels will not be wanted, except for somebody else whose taste neither
bugles nor jet would suit."

"Now you have got one of your obstinate fits on," said Mrs. Powle, "and
I will go. I shall be a better friend to you than to tell Mr. Carlisle
a word of all this, which I know will be vanished in another month or
two; and if you value your good fortune, Eleanor, I recommend you to
keep a wise tongue between your teeth in talking to him. I know one
thing--I wish Dr. Cairnes, or the Government, or the Church, or whoever
has it in hand, would keep all dissenting fools from coming to Wiglands
to preach their pestiferous notions here! and that your father would
not bring them to his house! That is what I wish. Will you be
reasonable, and give me an answer about the jewels, Eleanor?"

"I cannot think about jewels, mamma."

Mrs. Powle departed. Eleanor sat with her head bowed in her hands; her
mind in dim confusion, through which loomed the one thought, that she
must break this marriage. Her mother's words had roused the evil as
well as the good of Eleanor's nature; and along with bitter
self-reproaches and longings for good, she already by foretaste champed
the bit of an authority that she did not love. So, while her mind was
in a sea of turmoil, there came suddenly, like a sun-blink upon the
confusion, a soft question from her little