"He is very good!" said Mr. Cheriton, with a look on his face and a tone of bitterness in his voice, which I never witnessed or heard before. "If I will give up preaching to the poor and seeking the lost, that is to say, if I will give up the work I am doing for the Lord, he will possibly overlook what I am said to have done for the devil. As to Lady Throckmorton, as I have never affronted her, I owe her no apology. What say you, Amabel? Shall I give up my preaching to the colliers and ballast men, for your sake?" "Never!" said Amabel firmly. "I would rather never see you more in this world, than that you should swerve one hair's breadth from your duty for my sake." "Besides, it would be only a chance!" said I. "Do you not see, that Sir Julius says he may have other and higher views for his daughter?" "Let us say no more at present, my children!" said Mrs. Deborah. "But take time to think. Mr. Cheriton, you are much in need of refreshment. Lucy, will you order something? Amabel, my love, you had better retire to your room and compose your spirits. We will talk of this matter again." But a sad interval was to pass before the matter was again discussed. We had not yet separated, when Jenny came in all haste to say, that Mrs. Chloe had fallen into a fainting-fit, and her woman could not bring her to, with all she could do. "It was just that grinning fool Richard!" said Jenny in great wrath. "He must come in with a basket of sticks, for Mrs. Chloe wanted a bright fire, and what must he do, but congratulate her on the happy news as he called it, and when Mrs. Chloe asked what it meant, he said master was married to Lady Throckmorton, and poor Mrs. Chloe, she just gave one mournful cry and sunk back like one dead." All these particulars were given to us, for Mrs. Deborah had hurried to her sister. Poor Mrs. Chloe came out of her fainting-fit, only to have a dreadful bleeding from her lungs. An express was sent in all haste for the doctor, and another for Mrs. Philippa—Mrs. Brown, I should say. The doctor did not arrive till night, and then gave no hopes. Mrs. Chloe survived about a week, and then passed quietly away, in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope. I suppose she could not have lived long at any rate; but there is no doubt that the news of her brother's marriage to a woman whom she disliked, and with the best of reasons, hastened her end. She gave Mrs. Deborah written directions as to the disposition of her affairs, and said that she had made her will, which was in the hands of Mr. Thirlwall, the family lawyer and man of business at Newcastle. I had supposed as much, knowing that he had paid her several visits during the winter. An express had been sent to Sir Julius, as soon as Mrs. Chloe's case had been pronounced hopeless, and he arrived in time for the funeral without his wife, who he said was unfit for such a hasty journey.