or a holier and happier
world. She bade me tell you, that in spite of her wrongs she had never
ceased to love you. In obedience to her dying will, I have shown you a
daughter's duty so far as to meet you here, and learn what I can do for
one placed in the awful circumstances in which you declare yourself to
be. Speak quickly and briefly, for on every passing moment the whole
happiness of my life hangs trembling."

"Only let me see your face for the few moments we are together, that I
may carry its remembrance to my grave,--that face so like your
mother's."

"What can I do?" I exclaimed, removing the veil as I spoke,--for there
was no one near; and I could not refuse a petition so earnest. "Oh, tell
me quickly what I can do. What dreadful doom is impending over you?"

"You are beautiful, my child,--very, very beautiful," said he; while his
dark, sunken eyes seemed to burn me with the intensity of their gaze.

"Talk not to me of beauty, at a moment like this!" I exclaimed, stamping
my foot in the agony of my impatience. "I cannot, will not stay, unless
to aid you. Your presence is awful! for it reminds me of my mother's
wrongs,--my own clouded birth."

"I deserve this, and far more," he cried, in tones of the most object
humility. "Oh, my child, I am brought very low;--I am a lost and ruined
man. Maddened by your mother's desertion, I became reckless,--desperate.
I fled from the home another had usurped. I became the prey of villains,
who robbed me of my fortune at the gaming table. Another, and another
step;--lower and lower still I sunk. I cannot tell you the story of my
ruin. Enough, I am lost! The sword of the violated law gleams over my
head. Every moment it may fall. I dare not remain another day in this
city. I dare not stay in my native land. If I do, yonder dismal Tombs
will be my life-long abode."

"Fly, then,--fly this moment," I cried. "What madness! to linger in the
midst of danger and disgrace!"

"Alas! my daughter, I am penniless. I had laid aside a large sum,
sufficient for the emergency; but a wretch robbed me of all, only two
nights since. Humiliating as it is, I must turn beggar to my child. Your
husband is a Dives; I, the Lazarus, who am perishing at his gate."

"Ask him. He is noble and generous. He will fill your purse with gold,
and aid you to escape. Go to him at once. You know not his princely
heart."

"Never! On you alone I depend. I will not ask a favor of man, to save my
soul from pe