When he had concluded this soliloquy, Ellen Connor, without whose society Helen could now scarcely live, and who, on this account, had not been discharged after her elopement, she, we say, entered the room, her eye resolute with determination, and sparkling with a feeling which evinced an indignant sense of his cruelty in enforcing this odious match. The old man looked at her with surprise, for, it was the first time she had ever ventured to obtrude her conversation upon him,or to speak, unless when spoken to. “Well, madam,” said he, “what do you want? Have you any message from your mistress? if not, what brings you here?” “I have no message from my mistress,” she replied in a loud, if not in a vehement, voice; “I don't think my mistress is capable of sending a message; but I came to tell you that the God of heaven will soon send you a message, and a black one too, if you allow this cursed marriage to go on.” “Get out, you jade--leave the room; how is it your affair?” “Because I have what you want--a heart of pity and affection in my breast. Do you want to drive your daughter mad, or to take her life?” “Begone, you impudent hussy; why do you dare to come here on such an occasion, only to annoy me?” “I will not begone,” she replied, with a glowing cheek, “unless I am put out by force--until I point out the consequences of your selfish tyranny and weakness. I don't come to annoy you, but I come to warn you, and to tell you, that I know your daughter better than you do yourself. This marriage must not go on; or, if it does, send without delay to a lunatic asylum for a keeper for that only daughter. I know her well, and I tell you that that's what it'll come to.” The squire had never been in the habit of being thus addressed by any of his servants; and the consequence was that the thing was new to him; so much so that he felt not only annoyed, but so much astounded, that he absolutely lost, for a brief period, the use of his speech. He looked at her with astonishment--then about the room--then up at the ceiling, and at length spoke: “What the deuce does all this mean? What are you driving at? Prevent the marriage, you say?”