"'For less than money,' she responded, 'they have done more.'
"'We should not agree,' I said; 'I would be peevish and he would despise me.'
"'Your companion must be a woman, my son.'
"A succession of short chills passed through every nerve, and a moment's faintness possessed me.
"'It must not be,' I pleaded; 'a restless, chatting, plotting woman would be worse than all.'
"My mother marked my rising agitation and glided away.
"'Whatever can relieve you, dear Luke,' she said, 'your father shall obtain.'
"I now fancied that they believed me mad, and that a keeper was to be introduced to me, under the guise of a companion. I formed many mental portraits of this fierce person, and they kept me awake through the long watches. I even meditated escape, and unclosed my casement with that design, but the sunlight, the bird songs, and the zephyrs rushed into my window and staggered me like so many sentinels. One day I slept fitfully, and dreamed that I was poor and orphaned, with the alternatives of death or work before me. I had wandered to a village and thrown myself beneath some elms, with a horrible despair sealing my eyelids. Suddenly the grass was stirred by some human footfalls, and two soft voices were speaking close beside me.
"'It is strange,' said the first voice; 'he is pale and delicate, but with no evidences of heavier afflictions.'
"'You do not know him,' murmured the other; 'wait and see!'