peace of mind. But it is not so. I have a helpless invalid
dependent on me; and one of the hardest things in my life to bear has
always been the fear that I might lose my health, and be unable to earn
even the poor living we now have. This sum, small as it is, will remove
that fear, will enable me to insure for my mother a reasonable amount of
comfort as long as she lives; and I cannot give it up. I do not suppose,
either, that it would make any difference in your feeling if I gave it up
solely to please you, and not because I thought it wrong to keep it. How
any act which I honestly believe to be right, and which you know I
honestly believe to be right, can put 'an impassable gulf between our
souls for ever,' I do not understand. But, if' it seems so to you, I can
only submit; and I will try to forget that you ever said to me, 'I shall
trust you till I die!' O Mercy, Mercy, ask yourself if you are just!

"STEPHEN."

Mercy grasped eagerly at the intimation in this letter that Stephen might
possibly give the money up because she desired it.

"Oh, if he will only not keep it, I don't care on what grounds he gives it
up!" she exclaimed. "I can bear his thinking it was his, if only the money
goes where it belongs. He will see afterwards that I was right." And she
sat down instantly, and wrote Stephen a long letter, imploring him to do
as he had suggested.

"Darling," she said, "this last letter of yours has given me great
comfort." As Stephen read this sentence, he uttered an ejaculation of
surprise. What possible comfort there could have been in the words he
remembered to have written he failed to see; but it was soon made clear to
him.

"You say," she continued, "that you might possibly give the money up for
sake of my peace of mind, if it were not for the fear that your mother
might suffer. O Stephen, then give it up! give it up! Trust to the
future's being at least as kind as the past. I will not say another word
about the right or wrong of the thing. Think that my feeling is all morbid
and overstrained about it, if you will. I do not care what you think of
me, so that I do not have to think of you as using money which is not your
own. And, darling, do not be anxious about the future: if any thing
happens to you, I will take care of your mother. It is surely my right
next to yours. I only wish you would let me help you in it even now. I am
earning more and more money. I have more than I need. Oh, if you would
only