. Maria had begun to cry.
She was trembling from head to foot with fear and confusion.
Wollaston looked sulky and angry.

"Is that true--did you induce this girl to come to New York to be
married?" he inquired, and his own boyish voice took on severe tones.
He was very strong in moral reform.

"No, I did not," replied Wollaston.

"He did," said Gladys. "She'll get talked about if she ain't, too,
and the last train has went, and we've got to stay in New York all
night."

"Where do you come from?" inquired the young clergyman, and his tone
was more severe still.

"From Edgham, New Jersey," replied Gladys.

"Who are you?" inquired the clergyman.

"I ain't no account," replied Gladys. "All our folks git talked
about, but she's different."

"I suppose you are her maid," said the clergyman, noting with quick
eye the difference in the costumes of the two girls.

"Call it anything you wanter," said Gladys, indifferently. "I ain't
goin' to have her talked about, nohow."

"Come, Maria," said Wollaston, but Maria did not respond even to his
strong, nervous pull on her arm. She sobbed convulsively.

"No, that girl does not go one step, young man," said the clergyman.
He advanced closely, and laid a hand on Maria's other arm. Although
small in body and mind, he evidently had muscle. "Come right in the
house," said he, and Maria felt his hand on her arm like steel. She
yielded, and began following him, Wollaston in vain trying to hold
her back.

Gladys went behind Wollaston and pushed vigorously. "You git right in
there, the way he says, Wollaston Lee," said she. "You had ought to
be ashamed of yourself."

Before the boy well knew what he was doing he found himself in a
small reception-room lined with soberly bound books. All that was
clear in his mind was that he could not hinder Maria from entering,
and that she must not go into the house alone with Gladys and this
strange man.

A man had been standing in the doorway of the house, waiting the
entrance of the clergyman. He was evidently a servant, and his master
beckoned him.

"Call Mrs. Jerrolds, Williams," he said.

"What is your name?" he asked Maria, who was sobbing more wildly than
ever.

"Her name is Maria Edgham," replied Gladys, "and his is Wollaston
Lee. They both live in Edgham."

"How old are you?" the clergyman asked of Wollaston; but Gladys cut
in again.

"He's nineteen, and she's goin' on," she replied, shamelessly.

"We are neither of us,