my senses; and convince even you, sooner than you are aware of, that my
intellects have never been disturbed, though the exertion of them may
have been suspended by some infernal drug."

Doubt gathered still thicker on the brow of her guard, as she attempted
to convict her of mistake.

"Have patience!" exclaimed Maria, with a solemnity that inspired awe.
"My God! how have I been schooled into the practice!" A suffocation of
voice betrayed the agonizing emotions she was labouring to keep down;
and conquering a qualm of disgust, she calmly endeavoured to eat enough
to prove her docility, perpetually turning to the suspicious female,
whose observation she courted, while she was making the bed and
adjusting the room.

"Come to me often," said Maria, with a tone of persuasion, in
consequence of a vague plan that she had hastily adopted, when, after
surveying this woman's form and features, she felt convinced that she
had an understanding above the common standard, "and believe me mad,
till you are obliged to acknowledge the contrary." The woman was no
fool, that is, she was superior to her class; nor had misery quite
petrified the life's-blood of humanity, to which reflections on our own
misfortunes only give a more orderly course. The manner, rather than the
expostulations, of Maria made a slight suspicion dart into her mind with
corresponding sympathy, which various other avocations, and the habit
of banishing compunction, prevented her, for the present, from examining
more minutely.

But when she was told that no person, excepting the physician appointed
by her family, was to be permitted to see the lady at the end of the