"Miss Gertrude," was the reply.
"What did you want to see her for?" he again asked.
"My mistress told me to give her and Master Henry her compliments,
and ask them to come over and spend the evening."
"Who is your mistress?" he eagerly inquired.
"Mrs. Miller, sir," responded the girl.
"And what's your name?" asked Henry, with a trembling voice.
"Clotelle, sir," was the reply.
The astonished father stood completely amazed, looking at the now
womanly form of her who, in his happier days, he had taken on his
knee with so much fondness and alacrity. It was then that he saw
his own and Isabella's features combined in the beautiful face
that he was then beholding. It was then that he was carried back
to the days when with a woman's devotion, poor Isabella hung about
his neck and told him how lonely were the hours in his absence. He
could stand it no longer. Tears rushed to his eyes, and turning
upon his heel, he went back to his own room. It was then that
Isabella was revenged; and she no doubt looked smilingly down from
her home in the spirit-land on the scene below.
On Gertrude's return from her shopping tour, she found Henry in a
melancholy mood, and soon learned its cause. As Gertrude had borne
him no children, it was but natural, that he should now feel his
love centering in Clotelle, and he now intimated to his wife his
determination to remove his daughter from the hands of his
mother-in-law.
When this news reached Mrs. Miller, through her daughter, she
became furious with rage, and calling Clotelle into her room,
stripped her shoulders bare and flogged her in the presence of
Gertrude.
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