like Hagar, into the wilderness of life. I have money enough to save me
from immediate want. Heaven will guard the future.'

"'And where will you go?' asked Peggy, passing the back of her hand over
her eyes.

"'Alas, I know not. I have no one to counsel me, no one to whom I can
turn for assistance or go for shelter. Even my Heavenly Father hideth
his face from me.'

"'Oh, Mrs. St. James!'

"'Call me not by that accursed name. Call me Rosalie. It was a dying
mother's gift, and they cannot rob me of that.'

"'Miss Rosalie, I will never quit you. There is nobody in the world I
love half as well, and if you will let me stay with you, I will wait on
you, and take care of the baby all the days of my life.'

"Then she told me how she came from New England to live with a brother,
who had since died of consumption, and how she was going back, because
she did not like to live in a great city, when the doctor got her to
come to nurse me in sickness, and how she had learned to love me so well
she could not bear the thoughts of going away from me. She told me, too,
how quiet and happy people could live in that part of the country; how
they could get along upon almost nothing at all, and be just as private
as they pleased, and nobody would pester them or make them afraid.

"She knew exactly how she came to the city, and we could go the same
way, only we would wind about a little and not go to the place where she
used to live, so that folks need ask no questions or know any thing
about us.

"With a childlike dependence, as implicit as your own, and as
instinctive, I threw myself on Peggy's strong heart and great common
sense. With equal judgment and energy, she arranged every thing for our
departure. She had the resolution and fortitude of a man, with the
tenderness and fidelity of a woman. I submitted myself entirely to her
guidance, saying, 'It was well.' But when I was alone, I clasped you in
agony to my bosom, and prostrating myself before the footstool of
Jehovah, I prayed for a bolt to strike us, mother and child together,
that we might be spared the bitter cup of humiliation and woe. One
moment I dared to think of mingling our life blood together in the grave
of the suicide; the next, with streaming eyes, I implored forgiveness
for the impious thought.

"It is needless to dwell minutely on the circumstances of our departure.
We left that beautiful mansion, once the abode of love and happiness,
now a dungeon house o