“I will hide nothing from you, mother,” replied Amabel.  “In spite of his perfidy, in spite of my conviction of his unworthiness, I still love the Earl of Rochester.  Nor can I compel myself to feel any regard, stronger than that of friendship, for Leonard Holt.”

“You distress me, sadly, child,” cried Mrs. Bloundel.  “What will become of you!  I wish my husband would shut up his house.  That might put an end to the difficulty.  I am not half so much afraid of the plague as I am of the Earl of Rochester.  But compose yourself, as your father desired, that when he sends for us we may be ready to meet him with cheerfulness.”

Mr. Bloundel, however, did not send for them.  He remained in the shop all day, except at meal-times, when he said little, and appeared to be labouring under a great weight of anxiety.  As Amabel took leave of him for the night, he dismissed her with coldness; and though he bestowed his customary blessing upon her, the look that accompanied it was not such as it used to be.

On the following day things continued in the same state.  The grocer was cold and inscrutable, and his wife, fearing he was meditating some severe course against Amabel, and aware of his inflexible nature, if a resolution was once formed, shook off her habitual awe, and thus addressed him: 

“I fear you have not forgiven our daughter.  Be not too hasty in your judgment.  However culpable she may appear, she has been as much deceived as yourself.”

“It may be so,” replied Bloundel.  “Still she has acted with such indiscretion that I can never place confidence in her again, and without confidence affection is as nought.  Can I say to him who may seek her in marriage, and whom I may approve as a husband,—­’Take her! she has never deceived me, and will never deceive you?’ No.  She has deceived me, and will, therefore, deceive others.  I do not know the precise truth of the story of her abduction (if such it was) by Leonard Holt, neither do I wish to know it, because I might be compelled to act with greater severity than I desire towards her.  But I know enough to satisfy me she has been excessively imprudent, and has placed herself voluntarily in situations of the utmost jeopardy.”

“Not voluntarily,” returned Mrs. Bloundel.  “She has been lured into difficulties by others.”

“No more!” interrupted the grocer, sternly.  “If you wish to serve her, keep guard upon your tongue.  If you have any preparations to make, they must not be delayed.  I shall shut up my house to-morrow.”

“Whether Leonard returns or not?” asked Mrs. Bloundel.

“I shall wait for no one,” returned her husband, peremptorily.

They then separated, and Mrs. Bloundel hastened to her daughter to acquaint her with the result of the interview.