When I came
to my senses, I was sitting in a drugstore; and three or four
persons were busy around me. I had no fracture, but only some
severe contusions, and a deep cut on the head.

"The physician who had attended me requested me to try and walk; but
I could not even stand on my feet. Then he asked me where I lived,
that I might be taken there; and I was compelled to own that I was a
poor servant out of place, without a home or a friend to care for me.

"'In that case,' said the doctor to the druggist, 'we must send her
to the hospital.'

"And they sent for a cab.

"In the mean time, quite a crowd had gathered outside, and the
conduct of the person who was in the carriage that had run over me
was being indignantly criticised. It was a woman; and I had caught
a glimpse of her at the very moment I was falling under the horses'
feet. She had not even condescended to get out of her carriage;
but, calling a policeman, she had given him her name and address,
adding, loud enough to be heard by the crowd, 'I am in too great a
hurry to stop. My coachman is an awkward fellow, whom I shall
dismiss as soon as I get home. I am ready to pay any thing that
may be asked.'

"She had also sent one of her cards for me. A policeman handed it
to me; and I read the name, Baronne de Thaller.

"'That's lucky for you,' said the doctor. 'That lady is the wife of
a very rich banker; and she will be able to help you when you get
well.'

"The cab had now come. I was carried into it; and, an hour later,
I was admitted at the hospital, and laid on a clean, comfortable bed.

"But my trunk!--my trunk, which contained all my things, all I had
in the world, and, worse still, all the money I had left. I asked
for it, my heart filled with anxiety. No one had either seen or
heard of it. Had the porter missed me in the crowd? or had he
basely availed himself of the accident to rob me? This was hard to
decide.

"The good sisters promised that they would have it looked after,
and that the police would certainly be able to find that man whom
I had engaged near the intelligence-office. But all these
assurances failed to console me. This blow was the finishing one.
I was taken with fever; and for more than two weeks my life was
despaired of. I was saved at last: but my convalescence was long
and tedious; and for over two months I lingered with alternations
of better and of worse.

"Yet such had been my misery for the past two yea