"Thought is free, as sages tells us--
Free to rove, and free to soar;
But affection lives in bondage,
That enthrals her more and more."
JEAN INGELOW.


An old friend lived in the neighbourhood who remembered Fanny's
father, and was very anxious to see her again, though not able to
leave the house. So the first day that it was fine enough for Mrs.
Curtis to venture out, she undertook to convey Fanny to call upon
her, and was off with a wonderfully moderate allowance of children,
only the two youngest boys outside with their maid. This drive
brought more to light about Fanny's past way of life and feelings
than had ever yet appeared. Rachel had never elicited nearly so much
as seemed to have come forth spontaneously to the aunt, who had never
in old times been Fanny's confidante.

Fanny's life had been almost a prolonged childhood. From the moment
of her marriage with the kind old General, he and her mother had
conspired to make much of her; all the more that she was almost
constantly disabled by her state of health, and was kept additionally
languid and helpless by the effects of climate. Her mother had
managed her household, and she had absolutely had no care, no duty at
all but to be affectionate and grateful, and to be pretty and
gracious at the dinner parties. Even in her mother's short and
sudden illness, the one thought of both the patient and the General