name engraved on the metal:

"You know now I must think you pure and worthy. I have given you the
strongest possible proof; for only the good could be allowed to touch
what my dead boy's lips have consecrated. Now come out with me, and get
some pure fresh air."

Beryl shrank back.

"These close walls seem a friendly shelter from the horrible faces that
cluster outside. You can form no idea how I dread contact with the vile
creatures, whose crimes have brought them here for expiation. The
thought of breathing the same atmosphere pollutes me. I think the
loathsomeness of perdition must consist in association with the
depraved and wicked. Not the undying flames would affright me, but the
doom of eternal companionship with outcast criminals. No! No! I would
sooner freeze here, than wander in the sunshine with those hideous
wretches I saw the day I was thrust among them."

"Trust me, and I will expose you to nothing unpleasant. Take your hat
and shawl; I shall not bring you back here. There is time enough for
cells when you have been convicted and sentenced; and please God, you
shall never stay in this one again. Come."

"Stay, madam. What is your purpose? I have been so hunted down, I am
growing suspicious of the appearance of kindness. What are you going to
do?"

Mrs. Singleton took her hand and pressed it gently.

"I am going to trust, and help, and love you, if you will let me; and
for the present, I intend to keep you in a room adjoining mine, where
you will have no fear of wicked neighbors."

"That will be merciful indeed. May God bless you for the thought."

Down iron staircases, and through dim corridors bordered with dark
cells, gloomy as the lairs of wild beasts whom the besotted inmates
resembled, the two women walked; and once, when a clank of chains and a
hoarse human cry broke the dismal silence, Beryl clutched her
companion's arm, and her teeth chattered with horror.

"Yes, it is awful! That poor woman is the saddest case we have. She
waylaid and stabbed her husband to death, and poisoned his mother. We
think she is really insane, and as she is dangerous at times, it is
necessary to keep her chained, until arrangements can be made to remove
her to the insane asylum."

"I don't wonder she is mad! People cannot dwell here and retain their
reason; and madness is a mercy that blesses them with forgetfulness."

Beryl shivered, and her eyes glittered with an unnatural and ominous
brilliance.

The wa