"Yes, my dear, you shall be saved," I said,--I hope, God said through me. "Mr Crossland, will you have the goodness to leave my sister to me?" If looks had power to kill, I think I should never have spoken again in this world. Mr Crossland turned on his heel, and walked out of the room without another word. The moment he was gone, I made a rush at the door, drew out the key (which was on the outside), locked it, and put the key on the table. Then I went back to Hatty. "My poor darling, what have they done to you?" Somehow, I felt as if I were older than she that day. But she could not tell me at first. "O Cary, Cary!" seemed to be all that she could say. I rang the bell, and when somebody tried the door, I asked the unknown helper to send Miss Amelia Bracewell. "I beg your pardon, Madam, I dare not," answered a girl's voice. "Nobody is allowed to enter this chamber but my mistress and Fa--and my master." It seemed as if an angel must be helping me, and whispering what to do. Perhaps it was so. "Will you be so good as to take a message to the black servant who came with me?" I said. "Certainly, Madam." "Then please to tell him that I wish to speak with him at the door of this room." "Madam, forgive me, but I dare not bring any one here." I tore a blank leaf out of a book on the table. I had a pencil in my pocket. "Give him this, then; and let no one take it from you. You shall have a guinea to do it." "Gemini!" I heard the girl whisper to herself in amazement. I wrote hastily:--"Beg my Uncle Charles to come this moment, and bring Dobson. Tell him, if he ever loved either me or Miss Hester, he will do this. It is a matter of life and death." "Promise me," I said, unlocking the door to give it to her, "that this piece of paper shall be in my black servant's hands directly, and that no one else shall see it." I spoke to a young girl, apparently one of the lower servants of the house. Her round eyes opened wide. "Please do it, Betty!" sobbed poor Hatty. "Do it, for pity's sake!" "I'll do it for yours, Miss Hester," said the girl, and her kindly, honest-looking face reassured me. She hid the paper in her bosom, and ran down. I locked the door again, and went back to Hatty. "O Cary, dear, God sent you!" she sobbed. "I thought I must give in." "What are they trying to make you do, Hatty?" To my amazement, she replied,--"To be a nun." "To be what?" I shrieked. "Are these people Papists, then?" "Not to acknowledge it. I had not an idea when we came--nor the Bracewells, I am sure." "And did they want all three of you to be nuns?" "No--only me, I believe. I heard Father Godfrey saying to the Mother that neither Charlotte nor Amelia would answer the purpose: but what the purpose was, I don't know." "Who are you talking about? Who is Father Godfrey?--Mr Crossland?" "Yes. He is a Jesuit priest." "You mean his mother, then, by `_the_ Mother'?" "Oh, she is not his mother. I don't think they are related."