imprisonment and amidst the silence she habitually preserved, passed
through the caverns of that breast, one can no more conjecture than one
can count the blasts that sweep and rage through the hollows of
impenetrable rock, or the elements that conflict in the bosom of the
volcano, everlastingly at work. She had read and replaced the letters,
and leaning her cheek on her hand, was gazing vacantly on the wall, when
Varney intruded on that dismal solitude.

He closed the door after him with more than usual care; and drawing a
seat close to Lucretia, said, "Belle-mere, the time has arrived for you
to act; my part is wellnigh closed."

"Ay," said Lucretia, wearily, "what is the news you bring?"

"First," replied Varney, and as he spoke, he shut the window, as if his
whisper could possibly be heard without,--"first, all this business
connected with Helen is at length arranged. You know when, agreeably to
your permission, I first suggested to her, as it were casually, that you
were so reduced in fortune that I trembled to regard your future; that
you had years ago sacrificed nearly half your pecuniary resources to
maintain her parents,--she of herself reminded me that she was entitled,
when of age, to a sum far exceeding all her wants, and--"

"That I might be a pensioner on the child of William Mainwaring and Susan
Mivers," interrupted Lucretia. "I know that, and thank her not. Pass
on."

"And you know, too, that in the course of my conversation with the girl I
let out also incidentally that, even so, you were dependent on the
chances of her life; that if she died (and youth itself is mortal) before