'Lizzie, Lizzie,' said Miss Potterson. 'Leave him. You needn't break
with him altogether, but leave him. Do well away from him; not because
of what I have told you to-night--we'll pass no judgment upon that,
and we'll hope it may not be--but because of what I have urged on you
before. No matter whether it's owing to your good looks or not, I like
you and I want to serve you. Lizzie, come under my direction. Don't
fling yourself away, my girl, but be persuaded into being respectable
and happy.'

In the sound good feeling and good sense of her entreaty, Miss Abbey
had softened into a soothing tone, and had even drawn her arm round the
girl's waist. But, she only replied, 'Thank you, thank you! I can't. I
won't. I must not think of it. The harder father is borne upon, the more
he needs me to lean on.'

And then Miss Abbey, who, like all hard people when they do soften,
felt that there was considerable compensation owing to her, underwent
reaction and became frigid.

'I have done what I can,' she said, 'and you must go your way. You make
your bed, and you must lie on it. But tell your father one thing: he
must not come here any more.

'Oh, Miss, will you forbid him the house where I know he's safe?'

'The Fellowships,' returned Miss Abbey, 'has itself to look to, as well
as others. It has been hard work to establish order here, and make the
Fellowships what it is, and it is daily and nightly hard work to keep it
so. The Fellowships must not have a taint upon it that may give it a bad