woman who has
laden you with the burden of her sorrow, and darkened your life for a
moment with the shadow of her shame.

"Pray don't think there is any painful sacrifice involved in this. The
quieting of my own mind is involved in it--and that is all.

"What has life left for _me?_ Nothing but the barren necessity of
living. When I think of the future now, my mind passes over the years
that may be left to me in this world. Sometimes I dare to hope that the
Divine Mercy of Christ--which once pleaded on earth for a woman like
me--may plead, when death has taken me, for my spirit in Heaven.
Sometimes I dare to hope that I may see my mother, and Blanche's mother,
in the better world. Their hearts were bound together as the hearts of
sisters while they were here; and they left to their children the legacy
of their love. Oh, help me to say, if we meet again, that not in vain
I promised to be a sister to Blanche! The debt I owe to her is the
hereditary debt of my mother's gratitude. And what am I now? An obstacle
in the way of the happiness of her life. Sacrifice me to that happiness,
for God's sake! It is the one thing I have left to live for. Again
and again I say it--I care nothing for myself. I have no right to be
considered; I have no wish to be considered. Tell the whole truth about
me, and call me to bear witness to it as publicly as you please!

"I have waited a little, once more, trying to think, before I close my
letter, what there may be still left to write.

"I can not think of any thing left but the duty of informing you how you
may find me if you wish to write--or if it is thought necessary that we
should meet again.

"One word before I tell you this.

"It is impossible for me to guess what you will do, or what you will be
advised to do by others, when you get my letter. I don't even know that
you may not already have heard of what your position is from Geoffrey
Delamayn himself. In this event, or in the event of your thinking it
desirable to take Blanche into your confidence, I venture to suggest
that you should appoint some person whom you can trust to see me on
your behalf--or, if you can not do this that you should see me in the
presence of a third person. The man who has not hesitated to betray us
both, will not hesitate to misrepresent us in the vilest way, if he can
do it in the future. For your own sake, let us be careful to give lying
tongues no opportunity of assailing your place in Blanche's es