The String of Pearls (1850), p. 147

"'The little minx will be very troublesome.'
"'Do you think so?'
"'Yes, decidedly.'
"'Then we must adopt some more active measures, or we shall have to do what we do not wish. I am amused at her asking to be sent to school! Was ever there heard of such wickedness? Well, I could not have believed such ingratitude could have existed in human nature.'
"'Go out of the room, you hussy,' said my mother; go out of the room, and don't let me hear a word from you more.'
"'I left the room terrified at the storm I had raised up against me. I knew not that I had done wrong, and went up crying to my attic alone, and found the old servant, who asked what was the matter. I told her all I had said, and what had been the result, and how I had been abused.'
"'Why, you should let things take their own course, my dear.'
"'Yes, but I can learn nothing.'
"'Never mind; you will have plenty of money when you grow older, and that will cure many defects; people who have money never want for friends.'
"'But I have them not, and yet I have money.'
"'Most certainly—most certainly, but you have it not in your power, and you are not old enough to make use of it, if you had it.'
"'Who has it?' I inquired.
"'Your father and mother.'
"'No more was said at that time, and the old woman left me to myself, and I recollect 1 long and deeply pondered over this matter, and yet could see no way out of it, and resolved that I would take things as easily as I could; but I feared that I was not likely to have a very quiet life; indeed, active cruelty was exercised against me. They would lock me up in a room a whole day at a time, so that I was debarred the use of my limbs. I was even kept without food, and on every occasion I was knocked about, from one to the other, without remorse𔃐every
one took a delight in tormenting me, and in showing me how much they dared do. Of course servants and all would not treat me with neglect and harshness if they did not see it was agreeable to my parents. This was shocking cruelty; but yet I found that this was not all. Many were the little contrivances
made and invented to cause me to fall down stairs—to slip—to trip, or do anything that might have ended in some fatal accident, which would have left them at liberty to enjoy my legacy, and no blame would be attached to them for the
accident, and I should most likely get blamed for what was done, and from which I had been the sufferer—indeed, I should have been deemed to have suffered justly. On one occasion, after I had been in bed some time, I found it was very damp, and upon examination I found the bed itself had been made quite wet, with the sheets put over it to hide it. This I did not discover until it was
too late, for 1 caught a violent cold, and it took me some weeks to get over it, and yet I escaped eventually, though after some months' illness. I recovered, and it evidently made them angry because I did live. They must have believed me to be very obstinate; they thought me obdurate in the extreme—they called me all the names they could imagine, and treated me with every indignity they could heap upon me. Well, time ran on, and in my twelfth year I obtained the notice of one or two of our friends, who made some inquiries about me. I always remarked that my parents disliked any one to speak to, or take any notice of
me. They did not permit me to say much—they did not like my speaking; and on one occasion, when I made some remark respecting school, she replied—
"'Her health is so bad that I have not yet sent her, but shall do so by and by, when she grows stronger.'
"'There was a look bent upon me that told me at once what I must expect, it I persisted in my half-formed resolve of contradicting all that had been said. When the visitor went I was well aware of what kind of a life I should have