‘I’m not a young woman.  Now, I’ll tell you what I want you to do.’

‘I’ll not do anything.’

‘Just pack up your things, and start with me to Gloucester tomorrow.’

‘I won’t!’

’Then you’ll be carried, my dear.  I’ll write to your aunt, to say that you’re coming; and we’ll be as jolly as possible when we get you home.’

’I won’t go to Gloucester, Uncle Jonas.  I won’t go away from Exeter.  I won’t let it be done.  She shall never, never, never be that man’s wife!’

Nevertheless, on the day but one after this, Camilla French did go to Gloucester.  Before she went, however, things had to be done in that house which almost made Mrs French repent that she had sent for so stern an assistant.  Camilla was at last told, in so many words, that the things which she had prepared for her own wedding must be given up for the wedding of her sister; and it seemed that this item in the list of her sorrows troubled her almost more than any other.  She swore that whither she went there should go the dresses, and the handkerchiefs, and the hats, the bonnets, and the boots.  ‘Let her have them,’ Bella had pleaded.  But Mr Crump was inexorable.  He had looked into his sister’s affairs, and found that she was already in debt.  To his practical mind, it was an absurdity that the unmarried sister should keep things that were wholly unnecessary, and that the sister that was to be married should be without things that were needed.  There was a big trunk, of which Camilla had the key, but which, unfortunately for her, had been deposited in her mother’s room.  Upon this she sat, and swore that nothing should move her but a promise that her plunder should remain untouched.  But there came this advantage from the terrible question of the wedding raiments, that in her energy to keep possession of them, she gradually abandoned her opposition to her sister’s marriage.  She had been driven from one point to another till she was compelled at last to stand solely upon her possessions.  ‘Perhaps we had better let her keep them,’ said Mrs French.  ’Trash and nonsense!’ said Mr Crump.  ’If she wants a new frock, let her have it; as for the sheets and tablecloths, you’d better keep them yourself.  But Bella must have the rest.’

It was found on the eve of the day on which she was told that she was to depart that she had in truth armed herself with a dagger or clasp knife.  She actually displayed it when her uncle told her to come away from the chest on which she was sitting.  She declared that she would defend herself there to the last gasp of her life; but of course the knife fell from her hand the first moment that she was touched.  ’I did think once that she was going to make a poke at me,’ Mr Crump said afterwards; ’but she had screamed herself so weak that she couldn’t do it.’

When the morning came, she was taken to the fly and driven to the station without any further serious outbreak.  She had even condescended to select certain articles, leaving the rest of the hymeneal wealth behind her.  Bella, early on that morning of departure, with great humility, implored her sister to forgive her; but no entreaties could induce Camilla to address one gracious word to the proposed bride.  ‘You’ve been cheating me all along!’ she said; and that was the last word she spoke to poor Bella.