rt; and I resolved,
from that day, to escape from Rugge's stage; and I consented till the
means of escape, and some less dependent mode of livelihood, were found,
to live on thy earnings, child; for if I were discovered by other old
friends, and they spoke out, my disgrace would reflect on you; and
better to accept support, from you than that! Alas! appearances were so
strong against me, I never deemed they could be cleared away, even from
the sight of my nearest friends. But Providence, you know, has been so
kind to us hitherto; and so Providence will be kind to us again, Sophy.
And now, the very man I thought most hard to me--this very Guy Darrell,
under whose roof we are--has been the man to make those whose opinion
I most value know that I am not dishonest; and Providence has raised a
witness on my behalf in that very Mr. Hartopp, who judged me (and any
one else might have done the same) too bad to be fit company for you!
And that is why I am congratulated; and, oh, Sophy, though I have borne
it as Heaven does enable us to bear what of ourselves we could not, and
though one learns to shrug a patient shoulder under the obloquy which
may be heaped on us by that crowd of mere strangers to us and to each
other, which is called 'the WORLD,' yet to slink out of sight from a
friend, as one more to be shunned than a foe--to take like a coward the
lashings of Scorn--to wince, one raw sore, from the kindness of Pity--to
feel that in life the sole end of each shift and contrivance is to slip
the view--hallo, into a grave without epitaph, by paths as stealthy and
sly as the poor hunted fox, when his last chance--and sole one--is, by
winding and doubling, to run under the earth; to know that it would be
an ungrateful imposture to take chair at the board--at the hearth, of
the man who, unknowing your secret, says, 'Friend, be social'; accepting
not a crust that one does not pay for, lest one feel a swindler to the
kind fellow-creature whose equal we must not be!--all this--all this,
Sophy, did at times chafe and gall more than I ought to have let it do,
considering that there was ONE who saw it all, and would--Don't cry,
Sophy; it is all over now."

"Not cry! Oh, it does me so much good."

"All over now! I am under this roof--without shame or scruple; and if
Guy Darrell, knowing all my past, has proved my innocence in the eyes
of those whom alone I cared for, I feel as if I had the right to stand
before any crowd of men erect an