lying quite
promiscuous, like waste paper, on the floor of her room; for I
believe she rushed out like mad after you left."

"That, as you say, alters the case. This letter, then, is principally
a sort of delicate hint that some provision ought to have been made,
which is true enough, only it has been attended to already; what
became of the money?"

"Law, ma'am! do you ask? Of course, as soon as I saw it, I picked it
up and took it to Mrs Morgan, in trust for the young person."

"Oh, that's right. What friends has she? Did you ever hear from
Mason?--perhaps they ought to know where she is."

"Mrs Mason did tell me, ma'am, she was an orphan; with a guardian who
was no-ways akin, and who washed his hands of her when she ran off;
but Mrs Mason was sadly put out, and went into hysterics, for fear
you would think she had not seen after her enough, and that she might
lose your custom; she said it was no fault of hers, for the girl was
always a forward creature, boasting of her beauty, and saying how
pretty she was, and striving to get where her good looks could be
seen and admired,--one night in particular, ma'am, at a county ball;
and how Mrs Mason had found out she used to meet Mr Bellingham at an
old woman's house, who was a regular old witch, ma'am, and lives in
the lowest part of the town, where all the bad characters haunt."

"There! that's enough," said Mrs Bellingham, sharply, for the maid's
chattering had outrun her tact; and in her anxiety to vindicate the
character of her friend Mrs Mason by blackening that of Ruth, she had
forgotten that she a little implicated her mistress's son, whom his
proud mother did not like to imagine as ever passing through a low
and degraded part of the town.

"If she has no friends, and is the creature you describe (which is
confirmed by my own observation), the best place for her is, as I
said before, the Penitentiary. Her fifty pounds will keep her for
a week or so, if she is really unable to travel, and pay for her
journey; and if on her return to Fordham she will let me know, I will
undertake to obtain her admission immediately."

"I'm sure it's well for her she has to do with a lady who will take
any interest in her, after what has happened."

Mrs Bellingham called for her writing-desk, and wrote a few hasty
lines to be sent back by the post-boy, who was on the point of
starting:

Mrs Bellingham presents her compliments to her unknown
correspondent, Mr Benson,