her creditors.

Unrestrained by principle, honor, or the laws of hospitality, the wish
became but the precursor to the actual carrying-out of the evil
thought. Thanks to my heedlessness, and the careless way in which I had
guarded the earrings, she obtained them with little trouble; and after
an amount of duplicity and deceit, terrible and shameful to contemplate
in a woman so young, had contrived to carry out her purpose, to have
the stones changed, and then to convey the earrings back to my
possession, without drawing suspicion upon herself.

Nor, was this the worst; for when, by a most unfortunate series of
events, suspicion was forcibly directed toward Jim, she failed to
exonerate him by acknowledging her own guilt; and but for the merest
accident, which brought about the proverbial "Murder will out" and
fixed the crime without a shadow of doubt upon her, would have suffered
the innocent boy to bear all the penalties and disgrace which by right
belonged to her.

So it will be seen that the summer, spite of its many pleasures and
much happiness, had not been without a large share of care and
perplexity.

That all this was over, and that our fears for Jim's moral and physical
well-being had come to an end, we were most thankful; and the most of
us still clung lovingly to the grand old ocean, and our summer-home on
its shore.

But autumn gales would, ere many weeks, be sweeping over this exposed
coast; and already the summer-guests were flitting from the large
hotels, although the cottagers would probably hold their ground for
some little time longer. But what would it matter to us if we should be
left the very last of the summer-residents upon the Point, so long as
dear aunt and uncle Rutherford were to be with us? They were a host in
themselves, especially the latter, who always seemed to pervade the
whole house with his jovial, hearty presence, and who was the first of
favorites with all the young people of the family.

There would be much for them to hear, too: all the sad story related
above in brief, to be told, with all its minor particulars; for it had
been kept from them hitherto, as I had been very sensitive on the
subject, my own carelessness having been partially in fault, and I had
preferred that they should hear nothing of it until their return. Aunt
Emily would not have been severe with me, I knew; but I had wished that
the face and the voice, which she always associated with her own lost
Amy, sh