'I cannot bend her; I cannot turn her, in the least.' 'She will not stay ?' 'Not of her own accord.' 'You have told her ?' 'Oh no; not till to-morrow.' 'She ought to stay, certainly,' said the father.

There had been very little intercourse between the mother and daughter during the afternoon, and while the three were sitting together, nothing was said about the morrow.

The evening would have seemed to be very sad and very silent, had they not all three been used to so many silent evenings in that room.

Hester, during her wedding tour and the few weeks of her happiness at Folking, before the trouble had come, had felt a new life and almost an ecstasy of joy in the thorough liveliness of her husband.
But the days of her old home were not so long ago that its old manners should seem strange to her.

She therefore sat out the hours patiently, stitching some baby's ornament, till her mother told her that the time for prayer had come.