her, with tender choice of words, how necessary it was
that he should remain on the spot, in Mr. Osbaldistone's service, in
order to frustrate, by any small influence he might have, every project
of alteration in the garden that contained the dreadful secret. He
persisted in this view, though Ellinor repeated, with pertinacious
anxiety, the care which Mr. Johnson had taken, in drawing up the lease,
to provide against any change or alteration being made in the present
disposition of the house or grounds.

People in general were rather astonished at the eagerness Miss Wilkins
showed to sell all the Ford Bank furniture. Even Miss Monro was a little
scandalized at this want of sentiment, although she said nothing about
it; indeed justified the step, by telling every one how wisely Ellinor
was acting, as the large, handsome, tables and chairs would be very much
out of place and keeping with the small, oddly-shaped rooms of their
future home in East Chester Close. None knew how strong was the instinct
of self-preservation, it may almost be called, which impelled Ellinor to
shake off, at any cost of present pain, the incubus of a terrible
remembrance. She wanted to go into an unhaunted dwelling in a free,
unknown country--she felt as if it was her only chance of sanity.
Sometimes she thought her senses would not hold together till the time
when all these arrangements were ended. But she did not speak to any one
about her feelings, poor child; to whom could she speak on the subject
but to Dixon? Nor did she define them to herself. All she knew was,
that she was as nearly going mad as possible; and if she did, she feared
that she might betray her father's guilt. All this time she never cried,
or varied from her dull, passive demeanour. And they were blessed tears
of relief that she shed when Miss Monro, herself weeping bitterly, told
her to put her head out of the post-chaise window, for at the next
turning of the road they would catch the last glimpse of Hamley church
spire.

Late one October evening, Ellinor had her first sight of East Chester
Close, where she was to pass the remainder of her life. Miss Monro had
been backwards and forwards between Hamley and East Chester more than
once, while Ellinor remained at the parsonage; so she had not only the
pride of proprietorship in the whole of the beautiful city, but something
of the desire of hospitably welcoming Ellinor to their joint future home.

"Look! the fly m