dered thoughts. And she made another effort to rise, but was still
detained by Burton.

"Stay! stay!" said he. "Hear all that I wish to utter. I am rich"--

But, ere he could speak another word, Miriam sprang from the sofa, and,
bounding from the room, flew rather than walked up the stairs. The
instant she entered her own room she closed and locked the door, and
then, falling upon the bed, gave vent to a flood of tears. A long time
passed before her spirit regained its former composure; and then, when
her thought turned towards Mr. Burton, she experienced an inward
shudder.

Of what had occurred, she breathed not a syllable to Edith when she
joined her in the chamber to retire for the night.

"How my heart aches for mother!" sighed Edith, as she came in. "I have
been trying to encourage her; but words are of no avail. 'Where is all
to end?' she asks; and I cannot answer the question. Oh dear! What is
to become of us? At the rate we are going on now, every thing must soon
be lost. To think of what we have sacrificed and are still sacrificing,
yet all to no purpose. Every comfort is gone. Strangers, who have no
sympathy with us, have come into our house; and mother is compelled to
bear all manner of indignities from people who are in every way her
inferiors. Yet, for all, we are losing instead of gaining. Ah me! No
wonder she is heart-sick and utterly discouraged. How could it be
otherwise?"

Miriam heard and felt every word; but she made no answer. Thought,
however, was busy, and remained busy long after sleep had brought back
to the troubled heart of Edith its even pulsations.

"I am rich." These words of Mr. Burton were constantly recurring to her
mind. It was in vain that she turned from the idea presented with them:
it grew more and more distinct each moment. Yes, there was a way of
relief opened for her mother, of safety for the family, and Miriam saw
it plainly, yet shuddered as she looked, and closed her eyes, like one
about to leap from a fearful height.

Hour after hour Miriam lay awake, pondering the new aspect which things
had assumed, and gazing down the fearful abyss into which, in a spirit
of self-devotion, she was seeking to find the courage to leap.

"I am rich." Ever and anon these words sounded in her ears. As the wife
of Burton, she could at once lift her mother out of her present unhappy
situation. Thus, before the hour of midnight came and went, she
thought. He had offered her his hand. She