to thank you for the
great kindness that prompted your effort to help me; and yet, I have no
hope of expressing adequately the comfort I derived from this
manifestation of your confidence. The knowledge that you offered
security for me, above all, that you were willing to take me--an
outcast, almost a convicted criminal--into the holy shelter of your own
home, oh! you can never realize, unless you stood in my place, how it
soothes my heart, how it will always make a bright spot in the
blackness of my situation. The full sympathy of a noble woman is the
best tonic for a feeble sufferer, who knows the world has turned its
back upon her. If I were unworthy, your goodness would be the keenest
lash that could scourge me; but forlorn though I seem, your friendship
brings me measureless balm, and while I could never have accepted your
generous offer, I thank you sincerely."

"Why were you so unwilling that I should try to release you?"

"I have not a dollar to pay my expenses anywhere, and I appreciated too
fully all that was involved in your hospitable offer, to take me under
your roof, to be willing to avail myself of it. Here I am provided for,
by those who believe me guilty; and here I have the kind sympathy of
Mr. and Mrs. Singleton, who were my first friends when the storm broke
over my doomed head. To go out of prison into the world now, would be
torturing, because I am proud and sensitive; and these dark walls
screen me from the curious observation from which I shrink, as from
being flayed. To the desolate and homeless, change of place brings no
relief; and since there is no escape for me, I prefer to wait here for
the end, which, after all, cannot be very distant."

"Do you refer to the trial next month?"

"No, to that which yawns behind the trial; a shallow gash out there
under the pines, where the sound of the penitentiary bell tolls
requiems for the souls of its mangled victims."

"Hush! hush! You wrong yourself by imagining the possibility of such
horrible results. Gloomy surroundings, coupled with your great
bereavement, render you morbidly despondent; and it was the hope of
cheering you, that made me so anxious to get you away. If I could only
take you home, even for one week!"

"The wish has cheered me inexpressibly. How good, how noble, how tender
you are! Miss Gordon, because I am so grateful, let me now say one
thing. You cannot help me in future, and it would grieve me to think
that I fell, as an unl