you read there."

"I promise that," said the elder lady, and instantly bent her black brows
upon the writing. And, as she did so, Helen observed her countenance
rise, as a face is very apt to do when its owner enters on congenial
work.

"You would have made a great mistake to keep this from _me,"_ said she,
gravely. Then she pondered profoundly; then she turned to her son and
said, "Why, Edward, this is the very young lady who was wrecked in the
Pacific Ocean, and cast on a desolate island. We have all read about you
in the papers, miss; and I felt for you, for one, but, of course, not as
I do now I have seen you. You must let me go into this with you."

"Ah, if you would!" said Helen. "Oh, madam, I have gone through tortures
already for want of somebody of my own sex to keep me in countenance! Oh,
if you could have seen how I have been received, with what cold looks,
and sometimes with impertinent stares, before I could even penetrate into
the region of those cold looks and petty formalities! Any miserable straw
was excuse enough to stop me on my errand of justice and mercy and
gratitude."

"Gratitude?"

"Oh, yes, madam. The papers have only told you that I was shipwrecked and
cast away. They don't tell you that Robert Penfold warned me the ship was
to be destroyed, and I disbelieved and affronted him in return, and he
never reproached me, not even by a look. And we were in a boat with the
sailors all starved--not hungry; starved--and mad with thirst, and yet in
his own agony he hid something for me to eat. All his thought, all his
fear, was for me. Such things are not done in those great extremities of
the poor, vulgar, suffering body, except by angels in whom the soul rises
above the flesh. And he is such an angel. I have had a knife lifted over
me to kill me, madam--yes; and again it was he who saved me. I owe my
life to him on the island over and over again; and in return I have
promised to give him back his honor, that he values far more than life,
as all such noble spirits do. Ah, my poor martyr, how feebly I plead your
cause! Oh, help me! pray, pray, help me! All is so dark, and I so weak,
so weak." Again the loving eyes streamed; and this time not an eye was
dry in the little shop.

The expert flung down his tracing with something between a groan and a
curse. "Who can do that drudgery," he cried, "while the poor young
lady-- Mother, you take it in hand; find me some material, though it is no
bigger than