will tell her the rules I have observed with little Alice, and----"

"God forbid my girl should ever come to Moultrassie," said Major
Bridgenorth hastily; "it has been the grave of her race. The air of
the low grounds suited them not--or there is perhaps a fate connected
with the mansion. I will seek for her some other place of abode."

"That you shall not, under your favour be it spoken, Major
Bridgenorth," answered the lady. "If you do so, we must suppose that
you are undervaluing my qualities as a nurse. If she goes not to her
father's house, she shall not quit mine. I will keep the little lady
as a pledge of her safety and my own skill; and since you are afraid
of the damp of the low grounds, I hope you will come here frequently
to visit her."

This was a proposal which went to the heart of Major Bridgenorth. It
was precisely the point which he would have given worlds to arrive at,
but which he saw no chance of attaining.

It is too well known, that those whose families are long pursued by
such a fatal disease as existed in his, become, it may be said,
superstitious respecting its fatal effects, and ascribe to place,
circumstance, and individual care, much more perhaps than these can in
any case contribute to avert the fatality of constitutional distemper.
Lady Peveril was aware that this was peculiarly the impression of her
neighbour; that the depression of his spirits, the excess of his care,
the feverishness of his apprehensions, the restraint and gloom of the
solitude in which he dwelt, were really calculated to produce the evil
which most of all he dreaded. She pitied him, she felt for him, she
was grateful for former protection received at his hands--she had