and that is a great desideratum to a poor
schoolmistress," she said, smiling with an almost childlike candor.

"I am glad to see you smile again; and now, shall we go to business?"
said Ishmael.

"Oh, yes, thank you."

"I must ask you to be perfectly candid with me; it is necessary."

"Oh, yes, I know it is, and I will be so; for I can trust you, now."

"Tell me, then, as clearly, as fully, and as calmly as you can, the
circumstances of your case."

"I will try to do so," said the woman.

It is useless to repeat her story here. It was only the same old
story--of the young girl of fortune marrying a spendthrift, who
dissipated her property, estranged her friends, alienated her
affections, and then left her penniless, to struggle alone with all
the ills of poverty to bring up her three little girls. By her own
unaided efforts she had fed, clothed, and educated her three children
for the last nine years. And now he had come back and wanted her to
live with him again. But she had not only ceased to love him, but
began to dread him, lest he should get into debt and make way with the
little personal property she had gathered by years of labor,
frugality, self-denial.

"He says that he is wealthy, how is that?" questioned Ishmael.

A spasm of pain passed over her sensitive face.

"I did not like to tell you, although I promised to be candid with
you; but ah! I cannot benefit by his wealth; I could not
conscientiously appropriate one dollar; and even if I could do so, I
could not trust in its continuance; the money is ill-gotten and
evanescent; it is the money of a gambler, who is a prince one hour and
a pauper the next."

Then seeing Ishmael shrink back in painful surprise, she added:

"To do him justice, Mr. Worth, that is his only vice; it has ruined my
little family; it has brought us to the very verge of beggary; it must
not be permitted to do so again; I must defend my little home and
little girls, against the spoiler."

"Certainly," said Ishmael, whose time was growing short; "give me pen
and ink; I will take down minutes of the statement, and then read it
to you, to see if it is correct."

She placed stationery before him on one of the school-desks, and he
sat down and went to work.

"You have witnesses to support your statement?" he inquired.

"Oh, yes! scores of them, if wanted."

"Give me the names of the most important and the facts they can swear
to."

Mrs. Walsh complied, and he took them