and sound of which would almost have annihilated her had there been a decent feeling in her bosom, she would simply shrug her shoulders and walk away.  ‘Camilla,’ she had once said, ‘you will drive that man mad before you have done.’  ’What is it to you how I drive him?’ Camilla had answered in her fury.  Then Arabella had again shrugged her shoulders and walked away.  Between Camilla and her mother, too, there had come to be an almost internecine quarrel on a collateral point.  Camilla was still carrying on a vast arrangement which she called the preparation of her trousseau, but which both Mrs French and Bella regarded as a spoliation of the domestic nest, for the proud purposes of one of the younger birds.  And this had grown so fearfully that in two different places Mrs French had found herself compelled to request that no further articles might be supplied to Miss Camilla.  The bride elect had rebelled, alleging that as no fortune was to be provided for her, she had a right to take with her such things as she could carry away in her trunks and boxes.  Money could be had at the bank, she said; and, after all, what were fifty pounds more or less on such an occasion as this?  And then she went into a calculation to prove that her mother and sister would be made so much richer by her absence, and that she was doing so much for them by her marriage, that nothing could be more mean in them than that they should hesitate to supply her with such things as she desired to make her entrance into Mr Gibson’s house respectable.  But Mrs French was obdurate, and Mr Gibson was desired to speak to her.  Mr Gibson, in fear and trembling, told her that she ought to repress her spirit of extravagance, and Camilla at once foresaw that he would avail himself of this plea against her should he find it possible at any time to avail himself of any plea.  She became ferocious, and, turning upon him, told him to mind his own business.  Was it not all for him that she was doing it?  ‘She was not,’ she said, ’disposed to submit to any control in such matters from him till he had assumed his legal right to it by standing with her before the altar.’  It came, however, to be known all over Exeter that Miss Camilla’s expenditure had been checked, and that, in spite of the joys naturally incidental to a wedding, things were not going well with the ladies at Heavitree.

At last the blow came.  Camilla was aware that on a certain morning her mother had been to Mr Gibson’s house, and had held a long conference with him.  She could learn nothing of what took place there, for at that moment she had taken upon herself to place herself on non-speaking terms with her mother in consequence of those disgraceful orders which had been given to the tradesmen.  But Bella had not been at Mr Gibson’s house at the time, and Camilla, though she presumed that her own conduct had been discussed in a manner very injurious to herself, did not believe that any step was being then arranged which would be positively antagonistic to her own views.  The day fixed was now so very near that there could, she felt, be no escape for the victim.  But she was wrong.