. Russell looked grieved, but in the same mild tone as before, he
said:

'I am sorry, Edmund, very sorry, to hear thee say that. Thee can go if
thee likes; but it grieves me to hear thee quibble so. Thee will not
prosper, my son, if thee follows this course in life.' And the moisture
came into the old man's eyes as he spoke. It filled mine, and rolled in
large drops down my cheeks, as I replied:

'Forgive me, sir, for speaking so. I do not want to do wrong, but I
_can't_ stay with John Hallet.'

'Why can't thee stay with John?'

'He don't like me, sir. We are not friends.'

'Why are you not friends?'

'Because I know him, sir.'

'What do you know of him?' asked Mr. Rollins, in the same harsh, abrupt
tone. I had never liked Mr. Rollins, and his words just then stung me to
the quick, I forgot myself, for I replied:

'I know him to be a lying, deceitful, hypocritical scoundrel, sir.'

Some two years before, Hallet had joined the church in which Mr. Rollins
was a deacon, and was universally regarded as a pious, devout young man.
The opinion I expressed was, therefore, rank heterodoxy. To my surprise,
Mr. Rollins turned to Mr. Russell and said:

'I believe the boy is right, Ephraim; John professes too much to be
entirely sincere; I've told you so before.'

'I can't think so, Thomas; but it's too late to alter things now. We
shall see. Time will prove him.'

I soon left, but not till they had shaken me warmly by the hand, wished
me well, and tendered me their aid whenever I required it. In
after-years they kept their word.

Yes, I did know John Hallet. The old gentleman never knew him, but time
proved him, and those whom that good old man loved with all the love of
his large, noble heart, suffered because he did not know him as I did.

After I had given her some of the cordial, and she had rested awhile,
the sick girl resumed her story.

In about a month Hallet came. He pictured to her his new position; the
wealth and standing it would give him, and he told her that he was
preparing a little home for her, and would soon return and take her with
him forever.

[When he said that, he had been for over a year affianced to another--a
rich man's only child--a woman older than he, whose shriveled, jaundiced
face, weak, scrawny body, and puny, sickly soul, would have been
repulsive even to him, had not money been his god.]

The simple, trusting girl believed him. He importuned her--she loved
him--and she fell!