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    to haunt her . She repented ; if that may be termed repentance which writhes under the dread of the penalty incurred , not from remorse for the error committed . She had retaliated injury for injury , it is true ; but so far had this been from bringing her satisfaction , that new misery was its fruitful consequences . The selfrespect , which had once told her that she did not deserve to meet

    the usage dealt to her , departed ; and she bowed with a more acquiescent submission to insult in proportion as she felt selfdebased . She grew suspicious and apprehensive , and repose of mind departed altogether . Detection came at last . It was a relief when it came . The anticipated evil is ever worse than the real one . In the latter case with present ruin comes the effort for present remedy : but the suspended calamity stimulates the imagination with horrors , which , Hke all phantoms , evade the power of reason .

    Dorcas was at first threatened with prosecution ; but this threat , from some cause or others was not carried into effect : she was dismissed , with what was deemed a li ghter punishment , privation of character . Thus far there is nothing uncommon in the story of Dorcas ; such events are of every-day occurrence , passing unknown or

    unnoted . How many may trace their introduction to misery from the conduct of some hard , exacting , unsympathizing task-mistress —from insulting , unfeeling , uninstructed children—the rank germs of the moral upas whence they spring . These , by planting unnecessary thorns in the path of servitude , have continually driven victims to the wilderness ; where the wolves wait to devour , and where the devoured are the denounced , not the devourers .

    Dorcas , dismissed from her master ' s house , stood in the streets of London , with little money—no credit—no friends , encompassed by its terrors and its temptations . To go home would be to burthen those already bowed down ; probably to meet r the unkindest cut of all / to behold the eye which had once beamed

    upon her with love clouded by contempt . Her thoughts were of the darkest character : despair appeared waiting to give her to destruction ; or rather to that active despair that makes us ' qtn on because we have sinned . ' She paced to and fro between

    Blackfti&rs-bridge ( which spans the sleeping place of many p . suicide ) and that street of which the very stones are eloquent ^ ^ f human degradation , horror , and injury . She was very vouiur ; and how vital are all the feelings of the young ! Her early impressiofts had been good , and tneir gracious spell was upoiji her

    heart . But Hope , the seraph-spirit , had folded her wings , $ nd slept so profoundly that she seemed dead . Death , so unwelcome when he comes uncalled , is invoked as a friend b y the frieq 4 leW as a refuge by the desolate . ' What have I to live for V ' gr ^^ M thfc uTltoved , unhomed , unpitiedl Dorcas , as dhe again tuwied With strengthening purpose fo the bridged She reached ft- ^ -s ne paused

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    Sketches of Domestic Life . 401

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1835, page 401, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2646/page/37/