'
"'Abolish the House of Martha?' she cried, with her great eyes blazing
at me.
"'Yes,' I said, 'abolish it, destroy it, annihilate it, declare it null,
void, dead and gone, utterly extinguished, and out of existence. You can
do this, and you ought to do this. It is your only way out of the
dreadful situation in which you have got yourself and Sylvia. Let the
other sisters go to some other institutions, or wherever they like. You
and Sylvia will be free, that is the great point. Now do not hesitate.
Stop supplies, dissolve the organization, break up the House of Martha,
and do it instantly.'
"She made one step towards me and seized me by the wrist. 'Janet,' she
said, 'I will do it.' And she did it that day. At present there is no
House of Martha."
I sat and gazed at Miss Laniston without comprehending what I had heard.
"No House of Martha!" I ejaculated.
"That is precisely the state of the case," she answered; "the
establishment was dissolved at noon yesterday. As I had had all the
trouble of bringing this thing about, I considered that I had a right to
tell you of it myself. I thought it would interest me to see how you
took it."
I rose to my feet; I stepped towards her.
"No House of Martha," I gasped,--"and Sylvia?"
"Sylvia will go home to her mother, so she told me yesterday.
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