ver
the house; and then he took a glass of something, and sat and talked a
bit, and went away, without having said a word about his daughter. But
before he went he made me promise that I'd go and see him at the King's
Arms that night.

"Well, you see, Nell, as he seemed to have taken a fancy to me, as you
may say, and had told me he could put me up to making more of my money,
and had altogether been uncommonly pleasant, I didn't care to say no, and
I went. I was rather taken aback at the King's Arms when they showed me
to a private room, because I'd met Mr. Nowell before in the Commercial;
however, there he was, sitting in front of a blazing fire, and with a
couple of decanters of wine upon the table.

"He was very civil, couldn't have been more friendly, and we talked and
talked; he was always harping on his daughter; till at last he came out
with what he wanted. Would I give her house-room for a bit, just to keep
her out of the way of her husband and such-like designing people,
supposing she should turn obstinate and refuse to go abroad with him?
'You've a rare old roomy place,' he said. 'I saw some rooms upstairs at
the end of a long passage which don't seem to have been used for years.
You might keep my lady in one of those; and that fine husband of hers
would be as puzzled where to find her as if she was in the centre of
Africa. It would be a very easy thing to do,' he said; 'and it would be
only friendly in you to do it.'"

"O, Stephen!" cried his wife reproachfully, "how could you ever consent
to such a wicked thing?"

"I don't know about the wickedness of it," Mr. Whitelaw responded, with
rather a sullen air; "a daughter is bound to obey her father, isn't she?
and if she don't, I should think he had the power to do what he liked
with her. That's how I should look at it, if I was a father. It's all
very well to talk, you see, Nell, but you don't know the arguments such a
man as that can bring to bear. I didn't want to do it; I was against it
from the first. It was a dangerous business, and might bring me into
trouble. But that man bore down upon me to that extent that he made me
promise anything; and when I went home that night, it was with the
understanding that I was to fit up a room--there was a double door to be
put up to shut out sound, and a deal more--ready for Mrs. Holbrook, in
case her father wanted to get her out of the way for a bit."

"He promised to pay you, of course?" Ellen said, not quite abl