and deserted, if possible, than
Blue Cliff Hall itself.

"Then where can you go, my poor girl?" compassionately questioned the
old minister.

"I have thought of that. Sudden as this emergency is, I am not quite
unprepared for it. This crisis that I feared _might_ come _has_ come,
that is all. Only it has come in a far different manner from what I
feared. But the result must be the same. I must leave the house
immediately. And you must help to smooth my way toward leaving it."

"But whither will you go, poor shorn lamb?"

"I have planned out all that, in view of this very contingency. I will
go to Charlottesville, where I have a lady friend who keeps a
boarding-house for the University students. I can stay with her, and
make myself useful in return for board and lodging, until I get
something to do for a living. That is all settled. I asked you for this
interview only to satisfy myself that no hint of my identity had been
dropped, and no suspicion of it excited, during my swoon; and, further,
to beg you to keep my miserable secret hereafter, as you have hitherto."

"I have satisfied you, I hope, upon all those subjects."

"Yes; and I thank you."

"But still I can not abandon the hope that you will yet heed good
counsel and make yourself known to your best friends," pleaded the old
man.

But Mary Grey shook her head.

Dr. Jones coaxed, argued, lectured, all in vain.

At length, worn out by his importunities, Mary Grey, to gain her own
ends, artfully replied:

"Well, dear, good, wise friend, if ever I _do_ gain courage to make
myself known to my family, I must do it from some little distance, and
by letter, so as to give them time to get over the shock of the
revelation, before I could dare to face them. Think of it yourself. How
could we bear to look each other in the eyes while telling and hearing
such a story?"

"I believe you are right _so_ far. Yes, in _that_ view of the case it
is, perhaps, better that you should go away and then write," admitted
Dr. Jones.

"And you will aid me in my efforts to get away at once and without
opposition? Tell them that it is better for my health and spirits that I
should go away for a while, and go immediately--as it really is, you
know. Will you do this?"

"Yes, I will do it, in the hope that your nervous system may be
strengthened, and you may find courage to do the duty that lies before
you," said the doctor, as he pressed her hand and left the room.

Dr. Jones