ng weeks went by, but no answer came; and again she wrote him.

One day, not long after sending this last letter, as she was crossing
the Common to her attic in Charles street, she met him. He was alone,
and saw her, but attempted to pass her without recognition. She stood
squarely in his way, and told him she _would_ be heard. He admitted
having received her letters, but said he could do nothing for her; that
the brat was not _his_; that she must not attempt to fasten on _him_ the
fruit of her debaucheries; that no one would believe her if she did; and
he added, as he turned away, that he was a married man, and a Christian,
and could not be seen talking with a lewd woman like her.

She was stunned. She sank down on one of the benches on the Common, and
tried to weep; but the tears would not come. For the first time since he
so deeply, basely wronged her, she felt a bitter feeling rising in her
heart. She rose, and turned her steps up Beacon Hill toward Mr.
Russell's, fully determined to tell Kate all. She was admitted, and
shown to Miss Russell's room. She told her that she had met her seducer,
and how he had cast her off.

'Who is he?' asked Kate. 'Tell me, and father shall publish him from one
end of the universe to the other! He does not deserve to live.'

His name trembled on her tongue. A moment more, and John Hallet would
have been a ruined man, branded with a mark that would have followed him
through the world. But she paused; the vision of his happy wife, of the
innocent child just born to him, rose before her, and the words melted
away from her lips unspoken.

Kate spoke kindly and encouragingly to her, but she heeded her not. One
only thought had taken possession of her: how could she throw off the
mighty load that was pressing on her soul?

After a time, she rose and left the house. As she walked down Beacon
street, the sun was just sinking in the West, and its red glow mounted
midway up the heavens. As she looked at it, the sky seemed one great
molten sea, with its hot, lurid waves surging all around her. She
thought it came nearer; that it set on fire the green Common and the
great houses, and shot fierce, hot flames through her brain and into her
very soul. For a moment, she was paralyzed and sank to the ground; then
springing to her feet, she flew to her child. She bounded down the long
hill, and up the steep stairways, and burst into the room of the good
woman who was tending him, shouting:

'Fir