iend who
had been consigned to his care by a dying mother; he feared to renew
the intercourse, until her character was developed; while poor Mabel
had little thought how closely she was watched along the humble and
thorny paths she had to traverse.

Sarah Bond's spirit was so chastened, that she regretted nothing save
the shadow cast upon her father's grave; and now that was removed,
she was indeed happy. She assured the rector how useful adversity had
been to them--how healthful it had rendered Mabel's mind--and how much
better, if they recovered what had been lost, they should know how to
employ their means of usefulness. Mr. Lycight's congratulations were
not so hearty as Mr. Goulding's; he felt that _now_ he was the curate
and Mabel the heiress; and he heard the kind good night which Mabel
spoke with a tingling ear. _He_, was proud in his own way; and pride,
as well as his affection, had been gratified by the idea of elevating
her he loved. Mabel saw this, and she wept during the sleepless night,
that he should believe her so unworthy and so ungrateful.

There was much to think of and to do; the witnesses were to be found,
and lawyers consulted, and proceedings taken, and much of the turmoil
and bitterness of the law to be endured, which it pains every honest
heart to think upon; and Mr. Cramp was seized with a sudden fit of
virtuous indignation against Mr. Alfred Bond, after Sarah Bond's
new "man of business" had succeeded in producing the only one of the
witnesses in existence, who, he also discovered, had been purposely
kept out of the way, on a former occasion, by some one or other. The
delays were vexatious, and the quirks and turns, and foldings, and
doubles innumerable; but they came to an end at last, and Mr. Alfred
Bond was obliged in his turn to vacate the old mansion, in which he
had revelled--a miser in selfish pleasures.

I have dwelt longer than was perhaps necessary on the _minutiae_ of
this relation, the principal events of which are so strongly impressed
upon my memory. But the more I have thought over the story, the more
I have been struck with the phases and impulses of Sarah Bond's
unobtrusive, but deep feeling mind; her self-sacrificing spirit, her
devotion to her father's will, her dread, when first in possession of
the property, that any _one_ act of liberality on her part might be
considered a reproach to his memory; her habits struggling with her
feelings, leading me to the conclusion tha