air laid its hold on me--I lost all hope
in the mercy of God. More than once I walked to one or other of the
bridges, and looked over the parapet at the river, and said to myself
'Other women have done it: why shouldn't I?'

"You saved me at that time, Mr. Gray--as you have saved me since. I was
one of your congregation when you preached in the chapel of the Refuge
You reconciled others besides me to our hard pilgrimage. In their name
and in mine, sir, I thank you.

"I forget how long it was after the bright day when you comforted and
sustained us that the war broke out between France and Germany. But I
can never forget the evening when the matron sent for me into her own
room and said, 'My dear, your life here is a wasted life. If you have
courage enough left to try it, I can give you another chance.'

"I passed through a month of probation in a London hospital. A week
after that I wore the red cross of the Geneva Convention--I was
appointed nurse in a French ambulance. When you first saw me, Mr.
Holmcroft, I still had my nurse's dress on, hidden from you and from
everybody under a gray cloak.

"You know what the next event was; you know how I entered this house.

"I have not tried to make the worst of my trials and troubles in telling
you what my life has been. I have honestly described it for what it was
when I met with Miss Roseberry--a life without hope. May you never know
the temptation that tried me when the shell struck its victim in the
French cottage! There she lay--dead! _Her_ name was untainted. _Her_
future promised me the reward which had been denied to the honest
efforts of a penitent woman. My lost place in the world was offered back
to me on the one condition that I stooped to win it by a fraud. I had
no prospect to look forward to; I had no friend near to advise me and to
save me; the fairest years of my womanhood had been wasted in the
vain struggle to recover my good name. Such was my position when the
possibility of personating Miss Roseberry first forced itself on my
mind. Impulsively, recklessly--wickedly, if you like--I seized the
opportunity, and let you pass me through the German lines under Miss
Roseberry's name. Arrived in England, having had time to reflect, I made
my first and last effort to draw back before it was too late. I went to
the Refuge, and stopped on the opposite side of the street, looking at
it. The old hopeless life of irretrievable disgrace confronted me as I
fixed my ey