into your confidence until we meet again. Only let me
hear how I can relieve your most pressing anxieties. What are your
plans? Can I do anything to help them before you go to rest to-night?"

She thanked me warmly, and hesitated, looking up the street and down the
street in evident embarrassment what to say next.

"Do you propose staying in Edinburgh?" I asked.

"Oh no! I don't wish to remain in Scotland. I want to go much further
away. I think I should do better in London; at some respectable
milliner's, if I could be properly recommended. I am quick at my needle,
and I understand cutting out. Or I could keep accounts, if--if anybody
would trust me."

She stopped, and looked at me doubtingly, as if she felt far from sure,
poor soul, of winning my confidence to begin with. I acted on that hint,
with the headlong impetuosity of a man who was in love.

"I can give you exactly the recommendation you want," I said, "whenever
you like. Now, if you would prefer it."

Her charming features brightened with pleasure. "Oh, you are indeed a
friend to me!" she said, impulsively. Her face clouded again--she saw
my proposal in a new light. "Have I any right," she asked, sadly, "to
accept what you offer me?"

"Let me give you the letter," I answered, "and you can decide for
yourself whether you will use it or not."

I put her arm again in mine, and entered the inn.

She shrunk back in alarm. What would the landlady think if she saw her
lodger enter the house at night in company with a stranger, and that
stranger a gentleman? The landlady appeared as she made the objection.
Reckless what I said or what I did, I introduced myself as her relative,
and asked to be shown into a quiet room in which I could write a letter.
After one sharp glance at me, the landlady appeared to be satisfied that
she was dealing with a gentleman. She led the way into a sort of parlor
behind the "bar," placed writing materials on the table, looked at
my companion as only one woman can look at another under certain
circumstances, and left us by ourselves.

It was the first time I had ever been in a room with her alone.
The embarrassing sense of her position had heightened her color and
brightened her eyes. She stood, leaning one hand on the table, confused
and irresolute, her firm and supple figure falling into an attitude
of unsought grace which it was literally a luxury to look at. I said
nothing; my eyes confessed my admiration; the writing mater