rgotten,"--admirably feigned,--she hastily
removed the shawl from Madeline's shoulders, and the lace cape from
her own; and she put the lace cape on Madeline, and covered it with
the shawl. This time Madeline shrank, and would have forbidden the
charitable surprise; but Miss Wimple moved as though to open the door,
and said,--

"Madeline, in mind, and heart, and soul, do you feel ready?"

"Yes!"

"Then go!--Believe in God and yourself, and do the best you can."

And Madeline said,--

"And you, also, must believe in me, and pray for me; be patient with
me, and wait. If the time should ever come when I can comfort you,
with God's help I will hasten to you, wherever you may be."

And they kissed each other, and both said, "God bless you!"

So Madeline departed quickly, and presently was lost in the shadows
beyond the shop-lamps.

[Next morning, when Sally Wimple went to take down the bars, her
neighbors were astonished; for it was already reported and believed
that she had been seen going from the Athenaeum to the ten o'clock
train the night before.]

Then Miss Wimple closed the door and went back to her room, where she
sat down on the bed and had a good cry, which was a great comfort.
When, after that, she arose, and, standing before the glass to
undress herself, perceived the blood-stains and the rents, she
straightway went and brought her work-basket, and, seating herself
under the dim lamp, without fear or hesitation cut down the dress,
_low-neck_--There!--Then she lay down in the bed and slept sweetly,
with a smile on her face.

Ah! cunning, artless Sally Wimple! No wonder the dashing directness
of your character had ever by your neighbors been mistaken for
simplicity. The thing which was easiest for you to do was ever the
hardest thing for you to bear. In the morning, this new Godiva of
Hendrik--not less to be honored than she of Coventry, in all she
underwent and overcame--descended to her shop, "clothed on with
chastity"; and then her dreadful trial began. I claim for her even
more merit than the pure heart of the world has accorded to her
namesake who:

"took the tax away,
And built herself an everlasting name,"

by as much as her task was harder, herself more helpless, and her
reward less. Like her of Coventry,

"left alone, the passions of her mind,
As winds from all the compass shift and blow,
Made war upon each other for an hour,
Till Pity won."

She said to t