Very fortunately, however, attached to Mrs. Pott’s person was a bodyguard of one, a young lady whose ostensible employment was to preside over her toilet, but who rendered herself useful in a variety of ways, and in none more so than in the particular department of constantly aiding and abetting her mistress in every wish and inclination opposed to the desires of the unhappy Pott. The screams reached this young lady’s ears in due course, and brought her into the room with a speed which threatened to derange, materially, the very exquisite arrangement of her cap and ringlets.

“Oh, my dear, dear mistress!” exclaimed the bodyguard, kneeling frantically by the side of the prostrate Mrs. Pott. “Oh, my dear mistress, what is the matter?”

“Your master⁠—your brutal master,” murmured the patient.

Pott was evidently giving way.