which Mary,
for as unfit as she felt, hesitated to leave him, "--being in business,
you've got a lawyer, I suppose?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Then you go to him to-night the first thing, and tell him to come to
me to-morrow, about noon. Tell him I am ill, and in bed, and
particularly want to see him; and he mustn't let anything they say keep
him from me, not even if they tell him I am dead."

"I will," said Mary, and, stroking the thin hand that lay outside the
counterpane, turned and left him.

"Don't tell any one you are gone," he called after her, with a voice
far from feeble. "I don't want any of their damned company."

CHAPTER LIII.

A FRIEND IN NEED.

Mary left the house, and saw no one on her way. But it was better, she
said to herself, that he should lie there untended, than be waited on
by unloving hands.

The night was very dark. There was no moon, and the stars were hidden
by thick clouds. She must walk all the way to Testbridge. She felt
weak, but the fresh air was reviving. She did not know the way so
familiarly as that between Thornwick and the town, but she would enter
the latter before arriving at the common.

She had not gone far when the moon rose, and from behind the clouds
diminished the darkness a little. The first part of her journey lay
along a narrow lane, with a small ditch, a rising bank, and a hedge on
each side. About the middle of the lane was a farmyard, and a little
way farther a cottage. Soon after passing the gate of the farmyard, she
thought she heard steps behind her, seemingly soft and swift, and
naturally felt a little apprehension; but her thoughts flew to the one
hiding-place for thoughts and hearts and lives, and she felt no terror.
At the same time something moved her to quicken her pace. As she drew
near the common, she heard the steps more plainly, still soft and
swift, and almost wished she had sought refuge in the cottage she had
just passed--only it bore no very good character in the neighborhood.
When she reached the spot where the paths united, feeling a little at
home, she stopped to listen. Behind her were the footsteps plain
enough! The same moment the clouds thinned about the moon, and a pale
light came filtering through upon the common in front of her. She cast
one look over her shoulder, saw something turn a corner in the lane,
and sped on again. She would have run, but there was no place of refuge
now nearer than the corner of the turnpike-road,