ou into
my confidence. If you have nothing to tell me--if you choose to keep
your secret--I don't blame you; I only say, Let us part. I won't ask how
you have deceived me. I will only remember that you have been an honest
and faithful and competent servant while I have employed you; and I will
say as much in your favor to any new mistress you like to send to me."

She waited for the reply. For a moment, and only for a moment, Louisa
hesitated. The girl's nature was weak, but not depraved. She was
honestly attached to her mistress; and she spoke with a courage which
Magdalen had not expected from her.

"If you send me away, ma'am," she said, "I won't take my character from
you till I have told you the truth; I won't return your kindness by
deceiving you a second time. Did my master ever tell you how he engaged
me?"

"No. I never asked him, and he never told me."

"He engaged me, ma'am, with a written character--"

"Yes?"

"The character was a false one."

Magdalen drew back in amazement. The confession she heard was not the
confession she had anticipated.

"Did your mistress refuse to give you a character?" she asked. "Why?"

Louisa dropped on her knees and hid her face in her mistress's lap.
"Don't ask me!" she said. "I'm a miserable, degraded creature; I'm
not fit to be in the same room with you!" Magdalen bent over her, and
whispered a question in her ear. Louisa whispered back the one sad word
of reply.

"Has he deserted you?" asked Magdalen, after waiting a moment, and
thinking first.

"No."

"Do you love him?"

"Dearly."

The remembrance of her own loveless marriage stung Magdalen to the
quick.

"For God's sake, don't kneel to _me!_" she cried, passionately. "If
there is a degraded woman in this room, I am the woman--not you!"

She raised the girl by main force from her knees, and put her back in
the chair. They both waited a little in silence. Keeping her hand
on Louisa's shoulder, Magdalen seated herself again, and looked with
unutterable bitterness of sorrow into the dying fire. "Oh," she thought,
"what happy women there are in the world! Wives who love their husbands!
Mothers who are not ashamed to own their children! Are you quieter?" she
asked, gently addressing Louisa once more. "Can you answer me, if I ask
you something else? Where is the child?"

"The child is out at nurse."

"Does the father help to support it?"

"He does all he can, ma'am."

"What is he? Is he in service? Is