"I have no fear: the twigs that will entangle her precious guardians in
the labyrinths of a false clue are already set and limed. Before
to-morrow night they will have discovered, by means of their own
wonderfully-penetrative sagacity, that Clara has been spirited over to
France; and before three months are past, the same surprising
intelligence will rejoice in the discovery that she expired in a _maison
de santé_--fine comfortable repose, in which fool's paradise I hope to
have the honor of awakening them about next June twelvemonth, and not as
at present advised before!"

Everything fortunately turned out as Mr. Ferret anticipated; and when a
few months had glided by, Clara Brandon was a memory only, save of course
to the few entrusted with the secret.

The whirligig of time continued as ever to speed on its course, and bring
round in due season its destined revenges. The health, mental and bodily,
of Miss Brandon rapidly improved under the kind and judicious treatment
of Mr. and Mrs. Derwent; and long before the attainment of her majority,
were pronounced by competent authority to be thoroughly re-established.
The day following that which completed her twentyfirst year, Mr. Ferret,
armed with the necessary authority, had the pleasure of announcing to the
relict of Major Brandon (he had been dead some months), and to her brutal
son, that they must forthwith depart from the home in which they, to the
very moment of his announcement, thought themselves secure; and surrender
every shilling of the property they had so long dreamt was their own.
They were prostrated by the intelligence, and proved as mean and servile
in the hour of adversity, as they had been insolent and cruel in the day
of fancied success and prosperity. The pension of three hundred pounds a
year for both their lives, proffered by Miss Brandon, was eagerly