ere is no peril she need fear;
for only her warm, pleading heart, can ever silence the iron clang of
conscience and the silvery accents of reason. Worshipping some clay
god, my loving, yearning heart, might possibly have led me astray; but
now, pride and ambition stand as sentinels over its corpse, and a
heartless woman, desirous only of amassing a fortune and making
herself a celebrity in musical circles, is as safe from harm as the
bones of her grandmother, twenty years buried."

The agony that convulsed the orphan's features, and shivered the
smoothness of her usually sweet voice, touched the old lady's
sympathy, and she wept silently; straining her imagination for some
argument that would make an impression on the adamantine will with
which she found her own in conflict.

"My child, tell me how long you have had this trouble. When did you
first feel an interest in Ulpian?"

Unhesitatingly Salome related all that had occurred in her intercourse
with Dr. Grey, and her companion was surprised at the frankness and
mercilessness with which she analyzed her own feelings at each stage
of the acquaintance that proved so disastrous to her peace of mind;
and not only held her weakness up for scorn, but exonerated Dr. Grey
from all censure.

The minuteness of the confession was exceedingly painful; and, at its
conclusion, she pressed her palms to her cheeks, and moaned,--

"There, Miss Jane, I have not winced; I have kept back nothing. I have
been as patient and inexorable in laying open my nature, in treating
you to a _post-mortem_ examination of my heart, as a dentist in
scraping and chiselling a sensitive tooth, or a surgeon in cutting out
a cancer that baffled cauterization. Now you know all that I can tell
you, and I here lay the past in a sepulchre, and roll the stone upon
it, and henceforth I trust you will respect the dead; at least, let
silence rest upon its ashes. _Hic jacet cor cordium._"

Salome extricated herself from the arms of her best friend, and
smoothed the hair that constant strokes had somewhat disordered.

"Salome, I can not live much longer."

"I know that, dear Miss Jane, and it pains me even to think of leaving
the only person who ever really loved me."

"For my sake, dear child, bear the trial of remaining here a little
longer; at least, until I die. Do not desert me in my last hours. I do
not want the hands of strangers about me, when I am cold and stiff."

Salome rose and walked several