PHCEBE ELLIOT. 391 



ness of person, which suited ill with the preten- 

 sions of a lover. Such was the being who had 

 entered the lists as a candidate for Phoebe's hand. 

 She had repeatedly declined his attentions, but a 

 circumstance now came to her knowledge, which, 

 in an evil hour, sealed her fate. 



Previous to his second marriage, and when suf- 

 fering under the pressure of extreme distress, El- 

 liot had become the debtor of this man, and the 

 crafty suitor knew but too well how to turn this 

 circumstance to his advantage. He threatened 

 Elliot with arrest. The old man had a dread of a 

 prison, and a still greater dread of leaving his be- 

 loved daughter under the thraldom of his terma- 

 gant wife. Phoebe saw her father's extreme misery, 

 and was soon acquainted with the cause of it. 

 Her part was immediately taken. She had, per- 

 haps, indulged the expectation that something, 

 she knew not what, some lucky chance, might in- 

 tervene to avert the event she so much dreaded, 

 but still she determined, at whatever risk, to sacri- 

 fice her own happiness to save her father. 



With this resolution, she contrived to have an 

 interview with Holmes, the builder, and was soon 

 convinced that there was no alternative but of 

 either becoming his wife, or seeing her father the 

 inmate of a prison. Poor, luckless girl ! With a 

 face pale with despair and wretchedness, she pro- 



