58 TURNS OF FORTUNE.

idea of elevating her he loved. Mabel saw this,
and she wept during the sleepless night, that he
should believe her so unworthy and so ungrate-
ful.

There was much to think of and to do; the
witnesses were to be found, and lawyers con-
sulted, and proceedings taken, and much of the
turmoil and bitterness of the law to be endured,
which it pains every honest heart to think upon;
and Mr. Cramp was seized with a sudden fit of
virtuous indignation against’ Mr. Alfred Bond,
after Sarah Bonds new ‘man of business’’ had
succeeded in producing the only one of the wit-
nesses in existence, who, he also discovered,
had been purposely kept out of the way, ona
former occasion, by some one or other. The
delays were vexatious, and the quirks and turns,
and foldings, and doubles innumerable; but
they came to an end at last, and Mr. Alfred
Bond was obliged in his turn to vacate the old
mansion, in which he had revelled—a miser in
selfish pleasures.

I have dwelt longer than was perhaps neces-
sary on the minuti@ of this relation, the princi-
pal events of which are so strongly impressed
upontmy memory. But the more I have thought
over the story, the more I have beenstruck with
the phases and impulses of Sarah Bond’s un-
obtrusive, but deep feeling mind ; her self-sacri-
ficing spirit, her devotion to her father’s will,
her dread, when first in possession of the pro-