CHAPTER X.
"Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourished."-- Titus Andronicus.
As might be expected, the excitement and fatigue of Catherine's journey to N---- had considerably accelerated the progress of disease.

And when she reached home, and looked round the cheerless rooms all solitary, all hushed--Sidney gone, gone from her for ever, she felt, indeed, as if the last reed on which she had leaned was broken, and her business upon earth was done.

Catherine was not condemned to absolute poverty--the poverty which grinds and gnaws, the poverty of rags and famine.

She had still left nearly half of such portion of the little capital, realised by the sale of her trinkets, as had escaped the clutch of the law; and her brother had forced into her hands a note for L20.

with an assurance that the same sum should be paid to her half-yearly.