What would have
been her feelings if she could have known that the child for whose
rescue she had sacrificed herself would one day be free, honored,
and loved in another land?
CHAPTER XVII
CLOTELLE.
THE curtain rises seven years after the death of Isabella. During
that interval, Henry, finding that nothing could induce his
mother-in-law to relinquish her hold on poor little Clotelle, and
not liking to contend with one on whom a future fortune depended,
gradually lost all interest in the child, and left her to her
fate.
Although Mrs. Miller treated Clotelle with a degree of harshness
scarcely equalled, when applied to one so tender in years, still
the child grew every day more beautiful, and her hair, though kept
closely cut, seemed to have improved in its soft, silk-like
appearance. Now twelve years of age, and more than usually
well-developed, her harsh old mistress began to view her with a
jealous eye.
Henry and Gertrude had just returned from Washington, where the
husband had been on his duties as a member of Congress, and where
he had remained during the preceding three years without returning
home. It was on a beautiful evening, just at twilight, while
seated at his parlor window, that Henry saw a young woman pass by
and go into the kitchen. Not aware of ever having seen the person
before, he made an errand into the cook's department to see who the
girl was. He, however, met her in the hall, as she was about going
out.
"Whom did you wish to see?" he inquired.
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