g woman be. How do, Betty? Why,
wherever's Joel? He's no call to let the likes o' you carry things o'
thisn's."

What had the Colonel done with his Scots accent? I did not hear a trace
of it.

"Oh, Will Clowes, is that you?" said I, giving a little toss of my head,
which I thought would be in character. "Well, I don't know whether I
shall let you carry it."

The next minute I felt how wrong I was to say so.

"Yes, you will," said Colonel Keith, and took the basket out of my
hands. I should never have known him, dressed in corduroy, and with a
rake over his shoulder. He shouted something, and the great prison door
opened slowly, and a warder put his head out.

"Who goes there?"

"Washing for Cartwright's ward."

"Ay, all right. Come within. Cartwright!" shouted the porter.

We went in, and stood waiting a moment just inside the door, till a
warder appeared, who desired Colonel Keith to "bring that 'ere basket
up, now."

"You can wait a bit, Betty," said the Colonel, turning to me. "Don't be
afraid, my girl. Nobody 'll touch you, and Will 'll soon be back."

They say it is unlucky to watch people out of sight. I hope it is not
true. True or untrue, I watched him. Yes, Will Clowes might be back
soon; but would Duncan Keith ever return any more?

And then a feeling came, as if a tide of fear swept over me,--Was it
right of Flora to ask him to make that promise? I have wondered vaguely
many a time: but in that minute, with all my senses sharpened, I seemed
to see what a blunder it was. Is it ever right to ask people for such
unconditional pledges to a distinct course of action, when we cannot
know what is going to happen? To what agony--nay, even to what
wrong-doing--may we pledge them without knowing it! It seems to me that
influence is a very awful thing, for it reaches so much farther than you
can see. May it not be said sometimes of us all, "They know not what
they do"? And then to think that when we come out of that Valley of the
Shadow into the clear light of the Judgment Bar, all our unknown sins
may burst upon us like a great army, more than we can count or imagine--
it is terrible!

O my God, save me from unknown sins! O Christ, be my Help and Advocate
when I come to know them!

How I lived through the next quarter of an hour I can never say to
anybody. I sat upon a settle near the door of the prison, praying--how
earnestly!--for both of those in danger, but more especially for