“The child’s sister, Mary, spoke a little French, so that we could manage to understand each other; and with shawls and pillows, we made a comfortable little bed, in an unoccupied space close to my cabin.  There we nursed the poor little creature, which got well wonderfully soon, and Mary became my firm and faithful friend.  It was she whom you saw a few weeks ago, when she came, hoping to bring me a useful warning.

“We were six weeks at sea; and when we reached Quebec, and had to take the steamboats, a new kind of misery began for me.  I shrank from the sight of our fellow-passengers, for I felt that wherever we went, they looked at me curiously, and sometimes I heard remarks and speculations, which seemed to carry the sense of degradation to my very heart.  But Mary and her little sister had done me good.  I had already lost some of my pride, and began to remember that, however I might repent my marriage, I had entered into it of my own will, and could not now free myself either from its ties or duties.  My husband seemed pleased with my change of manner towards him; he was not unkind, and I hoped that perhaps when we reached his own tribe, and I had a home to care for, my life might not yet be so hopelessly wretched as it appeared at first.

“The last part of our journey was made in waggons.  When we were within a few hours’ distance of Moose Island the others went on, while Bailey, Christian, and I, remained at a small wayside tavern.  It was a wretched place, but they gave me a small room where I could be alone, and try to rest.  The one adjoining it was Bailey’s, and late in the evening I heard him and Christian go into it together.  The partition was so thin that their voices reached me quite distinctly, and I soon found that they were disputing about something.  From the day when, on board ship, Bailey had told me how they had entrapped me simply for the money to which I was entitled, there had never been any allusion made, in my presence, to the profit they expected to make of me.  I could hear now, however, as their voices grew louder, that this was the cause of their dispute.  I caught only broken sentences, and never knew how the quarrel ended, for in the morning Bailey was gone, and I had learned already that it was useless to question Christian.  I had written from Quebec to my father.  The only answer I received was through his solicitor, who formally made over to me all my mother’s fortune; but, of course, this did not happen until some weeks after our arrival at Moose Island.

“We remained three or four days at the tavern, and then removed to the island, where a small log-house had been got ready for me.  It was clean and neat, though not better than the cottages of many farm-labourers in England, and I was so humbled that I never thought of complaining.  It stood on a small marshy promontory at one end of the island, at a considerable distance from the village, and was more accessible by land than by water.