ould be as easily governed as a child. At last, however,
after a long and apparently refreshing sleep, he awoke suddenly to a
full consciousness that it was indeed his daughter who was watching so
patiently by his side.

The presence of his long absent child had a soothing effect upon Mr.
Linwood, and he now recovered rapidly from the sad and almost hopeless
condition in which she had found him. When able to converse, without
danger of a relapse, he told Clotelle of his fruitless efforts to
obtain a clew to her whereabouts after old Mrs. Miller had sold her to
the slave-trader. In answer to his daughter's inquiries about his
family affairs up to the time that he left America, he said,--

"I blamed my wife for your being sold and sent away, for I thought she
and her mother were acting in collusion; But I afterwards found that I
had blamed her wrongfully. Poor woman! she knew that I loved your
mother, and feeling herself forsaken, she grew melancholy and died in a
decline three years ago."

Here both father and daughter wept at the thought of other days. When
they had recovered their composure, Mr. Linwood went on again:

"Old Mrs. Miller," said he, "after the death of Gertrude, aware that
she had contributed much toward her unhappiness, took to the free use
of intoxicating drinks, and became the most brutal creature that ever
lived. She whipped her slaves without the slightest provocation, and
seemed to take delight in inventing new tortures with which to punish
them. One night last winter, after having flogged one of her slaves
nearly to death, she returned to her room, and by some means the
bedding took fire, and the house was in flames before any one was
awakened. There was no one in the building at the time but the old
woman and the slaves, and although the latter might have saved their
mistress, they made no attempt to do so. Thus, after a frightful career
of many years, this hard-hearted woman died a most miserable death,
unlamented by a single person."

Clotelle wiped the tears from her eyes, as her father finished this
story, for, although Mrs. Miller had been her greatest enemy, she
regretted to learn that her end had been such a sad one.

"My peace of mind destroyed," resumed the father, "and broke down in
health, my physician advised me to travel, with the hope o recruiting
myself, and I sailed from New York two months ago."

Being brought up in America, and having all the prejudice against color
which