to torment me. One afternoon, having been
thinking over these things, I ordered my
horse to be saddled and determined to go
instantly to Augusta, and get an answer from
her own lips that night. I rode fast along
the solitary highway. It began to get dusk
before I arrived. I would not look to right
or left, nor forward; lest I should see again
that terrible woman, whom I had seen once
before, on that same highway, standing at
the cross road, and pointing to the way I was
to take. I pulled my hat low over my eyes,
and pushed on, through a wood, and along a
by-way into the town. Cobb's house stood
up from the road, with a wall in front, and a
row of trees and plots of grass, enclosed with
low white posts and chains. I tied my horse
from the road-way below to one of these
posts, and dismounted.

There was a narrow passage, between two
walls and paved with bricks, running up by
the side and leading to the back of the house.
I determined to go through this passage,
expecting to find Augusta in the back room
looking on to the garden, where at this hour
she sometimes sat, alone, at work. As I was
about to mount the steps, I looked up and
saw a man standing in the entrance. It was
quite light enough for me to distinguish his
features. It was like my brother Lionel. I
turned quickly and untied my horse, and
without looking behind me, mounted, and rode
back at a swift pace the way I had come.

I could not rest that night. I knew that if
this way of life continued, I must soon go
mad, and so fall helplessly into the power of
my enemies. I was tempted to fly at once,
and thus put myself beyond their reach: but
I knew that my terrible companions would
be with me still. I thought of making another
attempt to see Augusta on the following day:
but I felt convinced that the figure I had
seen would be always there, to stop me
at the entrance to the passage. A conviction
grew upon me that it would be useless to renew
my visits to Augusta, until I had fulfilled
the promise made to my uncle on his deathbed.
I strove to quiet my fancies with the
arguments which I had used before. I called
to mind the treatment I had received from
every member of my family: how they had
conspired against me; set spies to watch me,
and sent pretended clients to betray me. I
pleaded with myself that I never intended to
break my promise till it became necessary in
self-defence; I set them in my place, and
imagined how they would have acted towards
me. But the vulgar superstition of the
sacredness of a promise made to a dying man
grew strong in my mind. I taxed myself
with intending to defraud my brother, and
all that I had suffered appeared to me but the
consequence of this. A chance of escape from
these terrors seemed to offer itself, and I
caught at it eagerly. What was a sum of
money compared with the persecution I
endured? I cursed my folly in not having
seen this before; and, like a madman as 1
was, I determined to humble myself to my
brother Lionel. I meant at first to put off
my design till the morrow; but I could no
longer rest in the house. So weak and timid
had my strange disorder made me, that I did
not dare go up the stairs to my bed, until I
had relieved my mind of the load that op-
pressed it. There was a sum in notes in my
cash-box, which I should have paid into my
banker's on the following day. I took out
this sum, and put it in my pocket-book, and
bidding my housekeeper sit up for me till my
return, I started for my father's house.

I had not seen my father or sisters for a
long time, and I did not wish to meet any of
them that night. My anger was none the
less against them, because of my errand; I had
not yet become so abject, as to sue for a
reconciliation with them. My object was to
rid myself of my charge as quietly as possible,
and depart. It was getting late, and I knew
that they would have retired to bed. I
opened the gate and went round to the back
of the house. There was a light at the
window of what was once my bedroom, and
I knew that it must be my brother there; so
I raised myself a little upon the framework
of the vine against the house, and tapped at
the window. It was not till Lionel answered
me, and I begged him to come down and open
the door, that I remembered that it was
exactly in the same way that he had come to
me when he borrowed the five pounds seven
years before.

A lamp was on the table in his bedroom,
and a book open. He had not been troubling
his head with the thought of me, or of what
I suffered, driven to desperation by their
persecution: that was certain. He placed a
chair for me, but I would not sit.

"My business is very short here," said I.
"I know there is war between me and all
who live in this house. I do not come to ask
for peace."

"Quite a mistake, John," said my brother.
"We all wish you well."

"I want nobody's good wishes," said I. '' I
only ask to be let alone."

"Very good," replied my brother, in his
exasperating, flippant way. "You shall be
let alone."

"And now, Lionel," said I, " let me
explain what I do come about; " and so I
related to him how my uncle had desired
that he should have this money, and how I
had kept it for him, expecting that he would
come to me, and how, as he did not trouble
himself to come, I finally resolved to bring it
to him, and rid myself of a troublesome
duty.

"You did not speak of this when you saw
me in the waiting-room at Dr. Chandler's,"
said my brother.

"I was not sure that it was you," I replied;
"the room was dark." I paused, thinking he
would allude to the night before; but he said