Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/295

Rh They could do nothing with their landed property, and their live-stock had been taken from them. Mrs. St. Clair had tried all kinds of expedients to earn a subsistence; and at length found her way to London, in a helpless and destitute condition. If Julius had not recognised her, she said, she and Helen must have perished in the street, and she thanked God over and over again for having brought her among friends, and preserved her and her darling from serious personal injury.

'But although she tried to keep in good spirits, and make herself as useful as she could to my mother and the two girls, she had received her death-blow. The overwhelming sorrows and anxieties of years of the worst kinds of turbulence and brutality were too much for a poor, weak woman, whose heart admitted of no alloy of coarseness or hardness, and in spite of all that my mother and Agnes, and her own Helen could do, assisted by two of the best physicians of the day, she died after some months of severe suffering.

'Helen was now alone in the world; and the death of her mother nearly broke her heart. She had relations somewhere in the north of England, and wrote to them, but received no answer. She now seemed to feel that she had trespassed long enough on our hospitality, and wished accordingly to take a situation in another house, if it were only that of a menial servant ; but my mother insisted on her remaining with us as a friend and companion for Agnes, and she consented with, I believe, secret joy, but apparent reluctance.

'When a young girl of tender and delicate sensibilities, who could not but be aware that she was in possession of great personal charms, finds herself in the position in which Helen was placed, it is no wonder that she displays doubt and hesitation before accepting it. There were four young