as, that this unworthy girl had been actually
on the point of marriage with an honorable man when Death stepped in and
put an end to a foolish engagement.

So, after a painful pause, he said, slowly:

"My child, I have heard that you were about to be married to Charles
Cavendish, when his sudden death arrested the nuptials. Is that true?"

"It is true," she answered, in a tone of humility and sorrow.

"But how could you venture to dream of marrying him?"

"Ah, me; I knew I was unworthy of him! But he fell in love with me. I
could not help that. Now, could I? _Now, could I?_" she repeated,
earnestly and pathetically, looking at him.

"N-n-no. Perhaps you could not," he admitted.

"And oh, he courted me so hard!--so hard! And I could not prevent him!"

"Could you not have avoided him? Could you not have left the house?"

"Ah, no; I had no place to go to! I had lost my situation in the
school."

"Still you should never have engaged yourself to marry Charles
Cavendish, for you must have been aware that if he had known your true
story he would never have thought of taking you as his wife."

"Oh, I know it! And I knew it then. And I was unhappy enough about it.
But oh, what could I do? I could not prevent his loving me, do what I
would. I could not go away from the house, because I had no place on
earth to go to. And least of all would I go to him and tell him the
terrible story of my life. I would rather have died than have told that!
I should have died of humiliation in the telling--I couldn't tell him!
Now could I? _Could I?_"

"I suppose you had not the courage to do so."

"No, indeed I had not! Yet very often I told him, in a general way, that
I was most unworthy of him. But he never would believe that."

"No; I suppose he believed you to be everything that is pure, good and
heavenly. What a terrible reproach his exalted opinion of you must have
been!"

"Oh, it was--it was!" she answered, hypocritically. "It was such a
severe reproach that, having in a moment of weakness yielded to his
earnest prayer and consented to become his wife, I soon cast about for
some excuse for breaking the engagement; for I felt if it were a great
wrong to make such an engagement it would be a still greater wrong to
keep it. Don't you agree with me?"

"Yes, most certainly."

"Well, while I was seeking some excuse to break off the marriage Death
stepped in and put an end to it. Perhaps then I ought to have left the
house, b