to
consummate any more of your designs, you are safe from any
exposure--I promise you so much, on the honor of a true woman. If you
are not gone before to-morrow morning, without any further attempt at
entangling Mary Crawford, I promise you, in the name of God who sees
us both at this moment, that I will not only expose you before John
Crawford and his family, but that I will do what I can to bring you
to justice. Mary Crawford knows all your falsehood and crime, but
she, like myself, will keep silence when you are gone.

JOSEPHINE HARRIS.

Mary Crawford had been sitting still in her chair, leaning her head upon
her hand and not even looking up, while Josephine's pen was rapidly
running over the paper. (The phrase is a proper one--Joseph's pen _ran_,
always, when she attempted to write, and as a consequence her
chirography was not the easiest in the world to be deciphered. No fear,
however, but that what she wrote in this instance could be read!) When
she had concluded and was rising from the desk, Mary first looked up,
and there was such an expression of abject and almost hopeless
helplessness upon her face, that had Josephine not pitied her before,
she must now have done so. That look said so plainly: "_Can_ you indeed
help me? Is it possible that I can ever be lifted out of this pit of
despair?"--that the city girl accepted it instead of words, and answered
it.

"Yes, you need not look so doleful, my dear girl! I think you will find
that this little epistle will do more than an ordinary volume could do.
See--I have sealed it, as is best. I have said, within, that you knew
nothing whatever of the contents, and at the same time I have said that
you knew all his baseness and treachery."

"Oh, have you?" said the suffering girl. "How can I ever meet him, after
that--when he knows that I have heard him spoken of in so terrible a
manner?"

"You can even do that, a little better than you could lay your hand in
his and promise to be his wife, I should think!" said the other, and
there was even some sternness in her tone.

"Oh yes, yes, anything rather than become his beyond hope!" cried Mary,
and there was such a shudder running over her frame for the instant,
that her guide and mentor fully understood what must be the depth of the
fear with which she had become inspired. "You have been so good to
me--so kind and generous, that I can never thank you for what you have
done. Command me,