be angry, but I
could conceal it till my uncle came down; and then I would tell him all
the whole truth, and if he absolved me, heaven would.

"I begged the house-maid to come up stairs with me (servants always feel
for the distresses of poverty, and so would the rich if they knew what
it was). She assisted me to tie up the mattrass; I discovering, at the
same time, that one blanket would serve me till winter, could I persuade
my sister, who slept with me, to keep my secret. She entering in the
midst of the package, I gave her some new feathers, to silence her.
We got the mattrass down the back stairs, unperceived, and I helped to
carry it, taking with me all the money I had, and what I could borrow
from my sister.

"When I got to the cottage, Peggy declared that she would not take what
I had brought secretly; but, when, with all the eager eloquence inspired
by a decided purpose, I grasped her hand with weeping eyes, assuring her
that my uncle would screen me from blame, when he was once more in the
country, describing, at the same time, what she would suffer in parting
with her children, after keeping them so long from being thrown on the
parish, she reluctantly consented.

"My project of usefulness ended not here; I determined to speak to
the attorney; he frequently paid me compliments. His character did not
intimidate me; but, imagining that Peggy must be mistaken, and that
no man could turn a deaf ear to such a tale of complicated distress, I
determined to walk to the town with Mary the next morning, and request
him to wait for the rent, and keep my secret, till my uncle's return.

"My repose was sweet; and, waking with the first dawn of day, I bounded
to Mary's cottage. What charms do not a light heart spread over nature!
Every bird that twittered in a bush, every flower that enlivened the
hedge, seemed placed there to awaken me to rapture--yes; to rapture.
The present moment was full fraught with happiness; and on futurity
I bestowed not a thought, excepting to anticipate my success with the
attorney.

"This man of the world, with rosy face and simpering features, received
me politely, nay kindly; listened with complacency to my remonstrances,
though he scarcely heeded Mary's tears. I did not then suspect, that my
eloquence was in my complexion, the blush of seventeen, or that, in
a world where humanity to women is the characteristic of advancing
civilization, the beauty of a young girl was so much more inte