All this Robert Bolton learned in the City, and he learned also that the man as to whom he was making inquiry was held in high esteem for honesty, perseverance, and capacity.

The result of all this was that he returned to Cambridge with a feeling that his sister ought to be allowed to make the man's acquaintance.

He and his brother had agreed that something should be done to liberate their sister from her present condition.

Love on the part of a mother may be as injurious as cruelty, if the mother be both tyrannical and superstitious.

While Hester had been a child, no interference had been possible or perhaps expedient,--but the time had now come when something ought to be done.