floor, and again seated himself,
saying as he did so--

"If that's the stuff she's made of, she's worth looking after."

From this period, Mr. Martin called to see Mrs. Turner more
frequently, and as Mary, who had promptly entered upon the duties of
a dress-maker's apprentice, came home every evening, he had as many
opportunities of being with her and conversing with her as he
desired. Amiable accomplished, and intelligent, she failed not to
make, unconsciously to herself, a decided impression upon the young
man's heart. Nor could she conceal from herself that she was
happier in his company than she was at any other time.

Week after week, and month after month, passed quickly away, and
Mary was rapidly acquiring a skill in the art she was learning,
rarely obtained by any. After the end of four months, she could turn
off a dress equal to any one in the work-room. But this constant
application was making sad inroads upon her health. For two years
she had been engaged in active and laborious duties, even beyond her
strength. The change from this condition to the perfectly sedentary,
was more than her constitution could bear up under, especially as
she was compelled to bend over her needle regularly, from ten to
twelve hours each day. As the time for the expiration of her term of
service approached, she felt her strength to be fast failing her.
Her cheek had become paler and thinner, her step more languid, and
her appetite was almost entirely gone.

These indications of failing health were not unobserved by Mr.
Martin. But, not having made up his mind, definitely, that she was
precisely the woman he wanted for a wife, he could not interfere to
prevent her continuance at the business which was too evidently
destroying her health. But every time he saw her his interest in her
became tenderer. "If no one steps forward and saves her," he would
sometimes say to himself, as he gazed with saddened feelings upon
her colorless cheek, "she will fall a victim in the very bloom of
womanhood."

And Mary herself saw the sad prospect before her. She told no one of
the pain in her side, nor of the sickening sensation of weakness and
weariness that daily oppressed her. But she toiled on and on, hoping
to feel better soon. At last her probation ended. But the determined
and ambitious spirit that had kept her up, now gave way.

Martin knew the day when her apprenticeship expired, and without
asking why, followed the impulse that prom