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.
It was nearly a week after the poor girl had been so severely whipped
and for no cause whatever, that her father learned on the circumstance
through one of the servants. With a degree of boldness unusual for him,
he immediately went to his mother-in-law and demanded his child.
But it was too late,--she was gone.
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