to the hall. But here memory, ghastly accusing
memory, stepped in, and catching the wretched woman in its grasp, shook
her, body and soul, till her shrieks reverberated through that desolate
house. But Paula with gentle persistence urged her on, and smiling upon
her like an angel of peace and mercy, led her up step after step of that
dreadful staircase, till at last she saw her safely in the room of her
early girlhood.

The sight of it seemed at first to horrify but afterwards to soothe the
forlorn being thus brought face to face with her own past. She moved
over to the fire and held out her two cramped hands to the blaze, as if
she saw an altar of mercy in its welcoming glow. From these she passed
tottering and weak to the embroidery-frame, which she looked at for a
moment with something almost like a smile; but she hurried by the
mirror, and scarcely glanced at a portrait of herself which hung on the
wall over her head. To sink on the bed seemed to be her object, and
thither Paula accompanied her. But when she came to where it stood, and
saw the clothes turned down and the pillows heaped at the head, and the
little Bible lying open for her in the midst, she gave a great and
mighty sob, and flinging herself down upon her knees, wept with a
breaking up of her whole nature, in which her sins, red though they were
as crimson, seemed to feel the touch of the Divine love, and vanish away
in the oblivion He prepares for all His penitent ones.

When everything was prepared and Jacqueline was laid quiet in bed, Paula
stole out and down the stairs and wended her way to Mrs. Hamlin's
cottage. She found her sitting up, but far from well, and very feeble.
At the first sight of Paula's face, she started erect and seem to forget
her weakness in a moment.

"What is it?" she asked; "you look as though you had been gazing on the
faces of angels. Has--has my hope come true at last? Has Jacqueline
returned? Oh, has my poor, lost, erring child come back?"

Paula drew near and gently steadied Mrs. Hamlin's swaying form. "Yes,"
she smiled; and with the calmness of one who has entered the gates of
peace, whispered in low and reverent tones: "She lies in the bed that
you spread for her, with the Bible held close to her breast."

* * * * *

There are moments when the world about us seems to pause; when the
hopes, fears and experiences of all humanity appear to sway away and
leave us standing alone in the pr