message, and bring me his answer!"

Awed by her manner, the jailer hastened his steps to obey her command.

The door of a gloomy cell on the second floor of the huge building
opened with a harsh, grating sound, and the man stepped in and secured
the door behind him. The prisoner, who was sitting beside a table, with
pen and paper before him, turned round and fixed his eyes upon the
intruder. "What do you want?" asked he. "When you use double bolts and
bars to secure me, is it necessary to come every hour to see if I have
not escaped?"

"I have not come to satisfy myself of your safety," returned the jailer,
scowling on the speaker. "There's a woman at the outer door who wants to
know if you will grant her a brief interview."

The prisoner started abruptly at these words. "What is her name?"
demanded he, quickly.

"I do not know," answered the man. "She did not tell me; but she seemed
mighty impatient for an answer to her request."

The prisoner bowed his head and sat in silence several moments. At
length he said, "Bring her in! I have a curiosity to know what woman
would penetrate these walls to seek an interview with me."

The jailer disappeared. In a few moments footsteps were heard along the
dark passage, a female form was ushered into the cheerless apartment,
and the lock turned harshly upon her. Then a white hand was laid lightly
on the bright curling locks of the bowed head, and a low voice whispered
in the ear of the incarcerated man, "It is a pitiful heart that forgets
a friend in adversity."

"Louise!" said the prisoner, shrinking away with evident pain from her
touch. "Why are you here?"

"To cheer you,--to comfort you," said she, earnestly regarding his pale,
handsome features.

But he turned away from her gaze, shaking his head mournfully. "This is
the deepest humiliation I have yet endured," he said, while a creeping
shudder convulsed his frame. "To feel those clear eyes fastened upon me,
piercing through and through my soul, and reading all the guilt and
crime that's written there. O, Louise! was it not enough to drive me, by
your unrelenting scorn and bitterness, to commit the act which has
brought me here, without seeking to torment your victim by penetrating
his dungeon to mock at the misfortune your own cruelty occasioned?"

He raised his pale, distressed face imploringly to hers as he ceased to
speak; but she started back from her position at his side, and with an
angry accent said, "I d