least keep your mother and myself? As to our position, that we cannot
help; and I don't mind that you are unable to own me.'

'I wish I could own you--all of you.'

'Well, you chose your course, my dear; and you must abide by it. Having
put your hand to the plough, it will be foolish to turn back.'

'It would, I suppose. Yet I wish I could get a living by some simple
humble occupation, and drop the name of Petherwin, and be Berta Chickerel
again, and live in a green cottage as we used to do when I was small. I
am miserable to a pitiable degree sometimes, and sink into regrets that I
ever fell into such a groove as this. I don't like covert deeds, such as
coming here to-night, and many are necessary with me from time to time.
There is something without which splendid energies are a drug; and that
is a cold heart. There is another thing necessary to energy, too--the
power of distinguishing your visions from your reasonable forecasts when
looking into the future, so as to allow your energy to lay hold of the
forecasts only. I begin to have a fear that mother is right when she
implies that I undertook to carry out visions and all. But ten of us are
so many to cope with. If God Almighty had only killed off three-quarters
of us when we were little, a body might have done something for the rest;
but as we are it is hopeless!'

'There is no use in your going into high doctrine like that,' said
Chickerel. 'As I said before, you chose your course. You have begun to
fly high, and you had better keep there.'

'And to do that there is only one way--that is, to do it surely, so that
I have some groundwork to enable me to keep up to the mark in my