'They told me so.'
'I was struck down.'
'Struck, Miss Mary? Who could strike you? And what did you do to deserve such a severe chastisement? Who did it?'
'I spoke to my mother about the wet sheets.'
'Ah! what a mercy you were not killed! If you had slept in them, your life would not have been worth a farthing. You would have caught cold, and you would have died of inflammation, I am sure of it. If anybody wants to commit murder without being found out, they have only to put them into damp sheets.'
'So I thought, and I took them out.'
'You did quite right - quite right.'
'What have you heard about them?' said I.
'Oh! I only went into the room in which you sleep, and I at once found how damp they were, and how dangerous it was; and I was going to tell your mamma, when I met her, and she told me to hold my tongue, but to go down and take you away, as you had fallen down in a fit, and she could not bear to see you lying there.'
'And she didn't do anything for me?'
'Oh, no, not as I know of, because you were lying on the floor bleeding. I picked you up, and brought you here.'
'And she has not enquired after me since?'
'Not once.'
'And don't know whether I am yet sensible or not?'
'She does not know that yet.'
'Well,' I replied, 'I think they don't care much for me, I think not at all, but the time may come when they will act differently.'
'No, Miss, they think, or affect to think, that you have injured them; but that cannot be, because you could not be cunning enough to dispose your aunt to leave you all, and so deprive them of what they think they are entitled to.'
'I never could have believed half so much.'
'Such, however, is the case.'
'What can I do?'
'Nothing, my dear, but lie still till you get better, and don't say any more; but sleep, if you can sleep, will do you more good than anything else now for an hour or so, so lie down and sleep.'
* * * * *
The old woman left the room, and I endeavoured to compose myself to sleep; but could not do so for some time, my mind being too actively engaged in considering what I had better do, and I determined upon a course of conduct by which I thought I should escape much of my present persecution.
It was some days, however, before I could put it in practice, and one day I found my father and mother together, and said, 'Mother, why do you not send me to school?'
'You - send you to school! did you mean you, Miss?'
'Yes, I meant myself, because other people go to school to learn something, but I have not been sent at all.'
'Are you not contented?'
'I am not,' I answered, 'because other people learn something; but at the same time, I should be more out of your way, since I am more trouble to you, as you complain of me; it would not cost more than living at home.'
'What is the matter with the child?' asked my father.
'I cannot tell,' said my mother.
'The better way will be to take care of her, and confine her to some part of the house, if she does not behave better.'
'The little minx will be very troublesome.'
'Do you think so?'
'Yes, decidedly.'
'Then we must adopt some more active measures, or we shall have to do what we do not wish. I am amused at her asking to be sent to school! Was ever there heard such wickedness? Well, I could not have believed such ingratitude could have existed in human nature.'
'Get out of the room, you hussy,' said my mother; 'go out of the room, and don't let me hear a word from you more.
I left the room terrified at the storm I had raised up against me. I knew not that I had done wrong, and went up crying to my attic
alone, and found the old servant, who asked what was the matter. I told her all I had said, and what had been the result, and how I had been abused.
'Why, you should let things take their own course, my dear.'
'Yes, but I can learn nothing.'
'Never mind; you will have plenty of money when you grow older, and that will cure many defects; people who have money never want for friends.'
'But I have them not, and yet I have money.'
'Most certainly - most certainly, but you have it not in your power, and you are not old enough to make use of it, if you had it.'
'Who has it?' I enquired.
'Your father and mother.'
No more was said at that time, and the old woman left me to myself, and I recollect I long and deeply pondered over this matter, and yet I could see no way out of it, and resolved that I would take things as easily as I could; but I feared that I was not likely to have a very quiet life; indeed, active cruelty was exercised against me.
They would lock me up in a room a whole day at a time, so that I was debarred the use of my limbs. I was even kept without food, and on every occasion I was knocked about, from one to the other, without remorse - everyone took a delight in tormenting me, and in showing me how much they dared to do.
Of course servants and all would not treat me with neglect and harshness if they did not see it was agreeable to my parents.
This was shocking cruelty; but yet I found that this was not all. Many were the little contrivances made and invented to cause me to fall down stairs - to slip - to trip, to do anything that might have ended in some fatal accident, which would have left them at liberty to enjoy my legacy, and no blame would be attached to them for the accident, and I should most likely get blamed for what was done, and from which I had been the sufferer - indeed, I should have been deemed to have suffered justly.
On one occasion, after I had been in bed some time, I found it was very damp, and upon examination I found the bed itself had been made quite wet, with the sheet put over it to hide it.
This I did not discover until it was too late, for I caught a violent cold, and it took me some weeks to get over it, and yet I escaped eventually, though after some months' illness. I recovered, and it evidently made them angry because I did live.
They must have believed me to be very obstinate; they thought me obdurate in the extreme - they called me all the names they could imagine, and treated me with every indignity they could heap upon me.
Well, time ran on, and in my twelfth year I obtained the notice of one or two of our friends, who made some enquiries about me.
I always remarked that my parents disliked anyone to speak to, or take any notice of me. They did not permit me to say much - they did not like my speaking; and on one occasion, when I made some remark respecting school, she replied, 'Her health is so bad that I have not yet sent her, but shall do so by and by, when she grows stronger.
There was a look bent upon me that told me at once what I must expect if I persisted in my half-formed resolve of contradicting all that had been said.
When the visitor went I was well aware of what kind of a life I should have had, if I did not absolutely receive some serious injury. I was terrified, and held my tongue.
Soon after that I was seized with violent pains and vomiting. I was very ill, and the servant being at home only, a doctor was sent for, who at once said I had been poisoned, and ordered me to be taken care of.
I know how it was done; I had taken some cake given me - it was left out for me; and that was the only thing I had eaten, and it astonished me, for I had not