resent
circumstances we are unable to carry delight with us anywhere."

"You hardly understand what our life has been," said Priscilla; "but
the truth is that we had no right to receive you in such a house as
this. It has not been our way of living, and it cannot continue to be
so. It is not wonderful that people should talk of us. Had it been
called your house, it might have been better."

"And what will you do now?" asked Nora.

"Get out of this place as soon as we can. It is often hard to go
back to the right path; but it may always be done,--or at least
attempted."

"It seems to me that I take misery with me wherever I go," said Mrs.
Trevelyan.

"My dear, it has not been your fault," said Mrs. Stanbury.

"I do not like to blame my brother," said Priscilla, "because he has
done his best to be good to us all;--and the punishment will fall
heaviest upon him, because he must pay for it."

"He should not be allowed to pay a shilling," said Mrs. Trevelyan.

Then the morning came, and at seven o'clock the two sisters, with the
nurse and child, started for Lessboro' Station in Mrs. Crocket's open
carriage, the luggage having been sent on in a cart. There were many
tears shed, and any one looking at the party would have thought that
very dear friends were being torn asunder.

"Mother," said Priscilla, as soon as the parlour door was shut, and
the two were alone together, "we must take care that we never are
brought again into such a mistake as that. They who protect the
injured should be strong themselves."

CHAPTER XXX.

DOROTHY MAKES UP HER MIND.

It was true that most ill-natured things had been said at Lessboro'
and at Nuncombe Putney about Mrs. Stanbury and the visitors at the
Clock House, and that these ill-natured things had spread themselves
to Exeter. Mrs. Ellison of Lessboro', who was not the most
good-natured woman in the world, had told Mrs. Merton of Nuncombe
that she had been told that the Colonel's visit to the lady had been
made by express arrangement between the Colonel and Mrs. Stanbury.
Mrs. Merton, who was very good-natured, but not the wisest woman
in the world, had declared that any such conduct on the part of
Mrs. Stanbury was quite impossible. "What does it matter which it
is,--Priscilla or her mother?" Mrs. Ellison had said. "These are the
facts. Mrs. Trevelyan has been sent there to be out of the way of
this Colonel; and the Colonel immediately comes down and sees her at
the