"You poor, pale child!" Miss Danton said; "you look like some stray
spirit wandering ghostily around this place. What is the matter now,
that you look so wretchedly forlorn?"

Agnes looked up in the beautiful, pitying face, with her heart in her
eyes.

"Nothing," she said, tremulously, "but the old trouble, that never
leaves me. I think sometimes I am the most unhappy creature in the whole
wide world."

"Every heart knoweth its own bitterness," Miss Danton said, steadily.
"Trouble seems to be the lot of all. But yours--you have never told me
what it is, and I think I would like to know."

They were walking together round the frozen pond, and the face of the
seamstress was turned away from the dying light. Kate could not see it,
but she could hear the agitation in her voice when she spoke.

"I am almost afraid to tell you. I am afraid, for oh, Miss Danton! I
have deceived you."

"Deceived me, Agnes?"

"Yes; I came here in a false character. Oh, don't be angry, please; but
I am not Miss Darling--I am a married woman."

"Married! You?"

She looked down in speechless astonishment at the tiny figure and
childlike face of the little creature beside her.

"You married!" she repeated. "You small, childish-looking thing! And
where in the wide world is your husband?"

Agnes Darling covered her face with her hands, and broke out into a
hysterical passion of tears.

"Don't cry, you poor little unfortunate. Tell me if this faithless
husband is the friend I once heard you say you were in search of?"

"Yes, yes," Agnes answered, through her sobs. "Oh, Miss Danton! Please,
please, don't be angry with me, for, indeed, I am very miserable."

"Angry with you, my poor child," Kate said, tenderly; "no, indeed! But
tell me all about it. How did this cruel husband come to desert you? Did
he not love you?"

"Oh, yes, yes, yes."

"And you--did you love him?"

"With my whole heart."

The memory of her own dead love stung Kate to the very soul.

"Oh!" she said, bitterly, "it is only a very old story, after all. We
are all alike; we give up our whole heart for a man's smile, and,
verily, we get our reward. This husband of yours took a fancy, I
suppose, to some new and fresher face, and threw you over for her sake?"

Agnes Darling looked up with wide black eyes.

"Oh, no, no! He loved me faithfully. He never was false, as you think.
It was not that; he thought I was false, and base, and wicked. Oh!" she
cried, coverin