La historia continuada por la señora Catherick

absolutely certain I had betrayed the whole Secret. In short, he would hear of nothing but shutting her up. > > Under these circumstances, I did my duty as a mother. “No pauper asylum,” I said, “I won’t have her put in a pauper asylum. A private establishment, if you please. I have my feelings as a mother, and my character to preserve in the town, and I will submit to nothing but a private establishment, of the sort which my genteel neighbours would choose for afflicted relatives of their own.” Those were my words. It is gratifying to me to reflect that I did my duty. Though never overfond of my late daughter, I had a proper pride about her. No pauper stain⁠—thanks to my firmness and resolution⁠—ever rested on my child. > > Having carried my point (which I did the more easily, in consequence of the facilities offered by private asylums), I could not refuse to admit that there were certain advantages gained by shutting her up. In the first place, she was taken excellent care of⁠—being treated (as I took care to mention in the town) on the footing of a lady. In the second place, she was kept away from Welmingham, where she might have set people suspecting and inquiring, by repeating my own incautious words. > > The only drawback of putting her under restraint was a very slight one. We merely turned her empty boast about knowing the Secret into a fixed delusion. Having first spoken in sheer crazy spitefulness against the man who had offended her, she was cunning enough to see that she had seriously frightened him, and sharp enough afterwards to discover that