ally
bought provisions I chanced to meet a woman who had crossed the
continent in my company; and she turned her back upon me without
speaking. She was an ignorant, bigoted sort of woman, of an uncertain
temper, and at another time I might not have cared for the slight; but
coming at a time when I was in a state of nervous alarm, it cut me to
the quick. With great difficulty I restrained my tears, and left the
store. While hurrying home with a basket on my arm, almost choked with
grief, I passed a kind old gentleman who had always before had a
pleasant word for me, and an inquiry about my child. He, too, passed me
with only the slightest sign of recognition. I thought my heart would
burst in my breast, so terrible was the sense of outrage and shame--"

"Which was, after all, probably imaginary," I interrupted. "The insult
of the ignorant, ill-tempered woman was purely an accidental display of
those qualities, and the slight recognition of your old friend the
consequence of the other, for your face certainly expressed the state of
your feelings, and your friend was surprised into silence by seeing you
in such distress."

"That, very likely, is the true explanation. But it did not so impress
me then. You cannot, in the state of mind I was in, go after people, and
ask them to tell you whether or not they really mean to insult you,
because you are only too certain that they do. I was sick with pain and
mortification. How I got through my day's work I do not remember; but
you can understand that my demoralization was complete by this time, and
that when Mr. Seabrook returned I was like wax in his hands. All that I
stipulated for was a little more time; he had my permission to announce
our engagement.

"My boarders and every one who spoke to me about it congratulated me.
When I look back upon it now, it seems strange that no one ever
suggested to me the importance of knowing the antecedents of the man I
was going to marry; but they did not. It seemed to be tacitly understood
that antecedents were not to be dragged to light in this new world, and
that "by-gones should be by-gones." As to myself, it never occurred to
my inexperience to suspect that a man might be dishonorable, even
criminal, though he had the outside bearing of a gentleman."

"Did he propose to relieve you of the necessity of keeping boarders?"

"No. The business was a good one; and, as I have said, I was a success
in this line. My constitution was good; m