if you knew whom
you were kissing, you would spurn me with your foot.

"As soon as you began to urge me to name a day for our marriage I knew
that the end was near. You wondered why I cried so whenever you spoke of
it. You know now. To-day Miss Ludington told me that she intended to
adopt me and leave me her fortune, so that I need feel under no necessity
to marry you if I did not wish to. Think of that, Paul! Can you conceive
of any one so low, so base, as to be capable of taking advantage of such
a heart? As she was talking to me, I made up my mind that I must go
to-night.

"This evening, when I was helping her to bed (I have been so glad to do
all I could for her; it took away a little of my shame to see how happy I
made her) she seemed so troubled because I could not keep my tears from
falling. When you read her this she will think her sympathy wasted. And
yet she will not think hard of me. She could not think hard of any one,
and I am sure I love her dearly, and always shall.

"Oh, Paul, my darling, do not despise me utterly! My love was pure; it
was as pure as any one's could be, though I have been so bad. I think my
heart was breaking when you found me crying on the piazza to-night. It
was not only that I must leave you, and never look on your face again,
but that I must give over my memory to your scorn and loathing. When you
took me in your arms and comforted me, my resolution all gave way, and I
felt that I would not, could not, go. I think I was on the point of
throwing myself at your feet and confessing all, and begging to be taken
as the lowest servant in the house, so that I might be near you.

"And then it was that you began to explain to me that, although I might
not be aware of it, the reason that I would not be your wife was that,
having come from heaven, my nature was purer than that of earthly women,
and shrank from marriage as a sacrilege.

"Think of your saying that to me!

"When I comprehended you, and saw that you actually believed what you
said, I realized the folly of imagining that you could ever pardon me for
what I had done, or that the gulf between what I was and what you thought
me to be could ever be bridged. So it was that you yourself gave me back
the resolution and the strength to leave you, which went from me when I
was in your arms. I was overcome with such shame and self-contempt that I
could not even kiss you as I left you for ever.

"I have told you my whole story, Paul, th