"Oh! So she was your housekeeper!" said Mr. Fabian, taking out his tablets and making a note of the words. "You will please remember these words, Calista. They may be important." "Of my late companion and friend, as I supposed her," continued Miss Priscilla, without noticing the interruption. "She has been going about to Methodist meetings and other places unfit for any decent young person. I shall permit this no longer; but as to any ill-treatment, I hope my character and that of my family are a guarantee against anything of that kind. I will not detain you any longer. Good-morning!" Mr. Fabian bowed, and whispered to Calista to keep up good courage. Miss Priscilla accompanied him to the door with the greatest politeness. Calista, meantime, fled to her own room and fastened the door as well as she could. She had hardly done so when she heard it locked on the outside. Then she heard her aunt's voice ordering David to get up the chaise and be ready to drive her to Graywich. "I shall not be at home till to-morrow," she said to Chloe, in unusually gracious accents; "so, if you choose, Chloe, you can go to town and stay with your sister. Indeed, I prefer that you should do so. I shall feel safer if the house is locked up." "But where is Miss Calista? She can't stay here alone," objected Chloe. "And what about the cows?" "Miss Calista has gone to town with Mr. Fabian. Did you not see her in the carriage? As to the cows, Davis will see to them." "Oh!" said Chloe. "Then I guess I'll go over to Sally's. Jubalina is out, helping at Mrs. Whitecar's. And I'll take my new frock along and get Drusella to cut it for me. Hadn't I better take the key to the kitchen door, so's I can come and have things ready for you?" "No, I prefer to carry all the keys myself. Go and get ready, for I am in a hurry." No more was said, and Calista began to reflect on her position with some consternation. She did not at all relish the idea of being left locked up in the great empty house without food all night, and besides she had no notion of the lengths to which her aunt might go in her madness, for as such Calista regarded her conduct. She might, however, only mean to break her niece's spirit by hunger and solitude, and thus gain her ends. "But she will find herself mistaken," thought Calista, proudly; "she does not know with whom she has to do." The two servants slept in a room opening from the outer kitchen, and Miss Priscilla watched Chloe so carefully as to prevent her going up stairs at all. Calista in her prison heard all the doors locked one after another, and the chaise roll away. She tried the door, but it was fast; her room being in the highest part of the house, she could not think for a moment of throwing herself out of the window. She tried the door with all her strength, but it would not yield to her efforts. She was sitting down to rest and compose her thoughts, when she heard a welcome voice under the window call softly— "Honey, are you there?"