nt out from his
presence with a strange feeling of pride and independence over the
knowledge that she had earned it with her own hands, and henceforth
would be able to provide for her own and her mother's comfort.

But Royal Bryant had been conscience-smitten when he saw her beautiful
face light up with mingled pride and pleasure as he laid that tiny
piece of gold in her palm.

He would gladly have doubled the amount; but five dollars had been the
sum agreed upon for that first week's work, and he feared that he
would wound her pride by offering her a gratuity.

So he had told her that she would be worth more to him the next week,
and that he would continue to increase her wages in proportion as she
acquired speed and proficiency in her work.

Thus she had started forth, that dreary Saturday night, with a
comparatively light heart, to redeem her watch, before going home to
tell her mother her good news.

But, alas! how disastrously the day had closed!

"Come, miss," impatiently remarked the officer, as she sat with bowed
head, her face covered with her hands, "get on your things! I've no
time to be fooling away, and must run you into camp before it gets any
later."

"Oh, what do you mean?" cried Edith, starting wildly to her feet.
"Where are you going to take me?"

"To the station-house, of course, where you'll stay until Monday, when
you'll be taken to court for your examination," was the gruff reply.

"Oh, no! I can never spend two nights in such a place!" moaned the
nearly frantic girl, with a shiver of horror. "I have done no
intentional wrong," she continued, lifting an appealing look to the
man's face. "That money was given to me for some work that I have been
doing this week, and if any one is answerable for it being
counterfeit, it should be the person who paid it to me."

"Who paid you the money?" the officer demanded.

"A lawyer for whom I have been copying--Mr. Royal Bryant; his office
is at No. ---- Broadway."

"Then you'll have to appeal to him. But of course it's too late now to
find him at his office. Where does he live?"

"I do not know," sighed Edith, dejectedly. "I have only been with him
one week, and did not once hear him mention his residence."

"That's a pity, miss," returned the officer, in a gentler tone, for he
began to be moved by her beauty and distress. The condition of the
invalid, who had fallen back weak and faint in her chair when he
entered, also appealed to him.

"Un